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
(M106) Unfortunately we know next to nothing of the kings and priests of
Tarsus. In Greek times we hear of an Epicurean philosopher of the city,
Lysias by name, who was elected by his fellow-citizens to the office of
Crown-wearer, that is, to the priesthood of Hercules. Once raised to that
dignity, he would not lay it down again, but played the part of tyrant,
wearing a white robe edged with purple, a costly cloak, white shoes, and a
golden wreath of laurel. He truckled to the mob by distributing among them
the property of the wealthy, while he put to death such as refused to open
their money-bags to him.(432) Though we cannot distinguish in this account
between the legal and the illegal exercise of authority, yet we may safely
infer that the priesthood of Hercules, that is of Sandan, at Tarsus
continued down to late times to be an office of great dignity and power,
not unworthy to be held in earlier times by the kings themselves. Scanty
as is our information as to the kings of Cilicia, we hear of two whose
names appear to indicate that they stood in some special relation to the
divine Sandan. One of them was Sandu’arri, lord of Kundi and Sizu, which
have been identified with Anchiale and Sis in Cilicia.(433) The other was
Sanda-sarme, who gave his daughter in marriage to Ashurbanipal, king of
Assyria.(434) It would be in accordance with analogy if the kings of
Tarsus formerly held the priesthood of Sandan and claimed to represent him
in their own person.
(M107) We know that the whole of Western or Mountainous Cilicia was ruled
by kings who combined the regal office with the priesthood of Zeus, or
rather of a native deity whom, like the Baal of Tarsus, the Greeks
assimilated to their own Zeus. These priestly potentates had their seat at
Olba, and most of them bore the name either of Teucer or of Ajax,(435) but
we may suspect that these appellations are merely Greek distortions of
native Cilician names. Teucer (_Teukros_) may be a corruption of Tark,
Trok, Tarku, or Troko, all of which occur in the names of Cilician priests
and kings. At all events, it is worthy of notice that one, if not two, of
these priestly Teucers had a father called Tarkuaris,(436) and that in a
long list of priests who served Zeus at the Corycian cave, not many miles
from Olba, the names Tarkuaris, Tarkumbios, Tarkimos, Trokoarbasis, and
Trokombigremis, besides many other obviously native names, occur side by
side with Teucer and other purely Greek appellations.(437) In like manner
the Teucrids, who traced their descent from Zeus and reigned at Salamis in
Cyprus,(438) may well have been a native dynasty, who concocted a Greek
pedigree for themselves in the days when Greek civilization was
fashionable. The legend which attributed the foundation of the Cyprian
Salamis to Teucer, son of Telamon, appears to be late and unknown to
Homer.(439) Moreover, a cruel form of human sacrifice which was practised
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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