The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 05 of 12)Frazer, James George
Religion
The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 05 of 12)
Frazer, James George
Magic; Mythology; Religion; Superstition
(M98) From the village of Boghaz-Keui a steep and rugged path leads up
hill to a sanctuary, distant about a mile and a half to the east. Here
among the grey limestone cliffs there is a spacious natural chamber or
hall of roughly oblong shape, roofed only by the sky, and enclosed on
three sides by high rocks. One of the short sides is open, and through it
you look out on the broken slopes beyond and the more distant mountains,
which make a graceful picture set in a massy frame. The length of the
chamber is about a hundred feet; its breadth varies from twenty-five to
fifty feet. A nearly level sward forms the floor. On the right-hand side,
as you face inward, a narrow opening in the rock leads into another but
much smaller chamber, or rather corridor, which would seem to have been
the inner sanctuary or Holy of Holies. It is a romantic spot, where the
deep shadows of the rocks are relieved by the bright foliage of
walnut-trees and by the sight of the sky and clouds overhead. On the
rock-walls of both chamber are carved the famous bas-reliefs. In the outer
sanctuary these reliefs represent two great processions which defile along
the two long sides of the chamber and meet face to face on the short wall
at the inner end. The figures on the left-hand wall are for the most part
men clad in the characteristic Hittite costume, which consists of a high
pointed cap, shoes with turned-up toes, and a tunic drawn in at the waist
and falling short of the knees.(408) The figures on the right-hand wall
are women wearing tall, square, flat-topped bonnets with ribbed sides;
their long dresses fall in perpendicular folds to their feet, which are
shod in shoes like those of the men. On the short wall, where the
processions meet, the greater size of the central figures, as well as
their postures and attributes, mark them out as divine. At the head of the
male procession marches or is carried a bearded deity clad in the ordinary
Hittite costume of tall pointed cap, short tunic, and turned-up shoes; but
his feet rest on the bowed heads of two men, in his right hand he holds on
his shoulder a mace or truncheon topped with a knob, while his extended
left hand grasps a symbol, which apparently consists of a trident
surmounted by an oval with a cross-bar. Behind him follows a similar,
though somewhat smaller, figure of a man, or perhaps rather of a god,
carrying a mace or truncheon over his shoulder in his right hand, while
with his left he holds aloft a long sword with a flat hilt; his feet rest
not on two men but on two flat-topped pinnacles, which perhaps represent
mountains. At the head of the female procession and facing the great god
who is borne on the two men, stands a goddess on a lioness or panther. Her
costume does not differ from that of the women: her hair hangs down in a
long plait behind: in her extended right hand she holds out an emblem to
touch that of the god. The shape and meaning of her emblem are obscure. It
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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