Join Now
About Us
Supranationalism
Manifest and Mission
Time to change names
Money for the war
Peace Maker
Global revision of History
Preface
View of Garry Kasparov
Investigation of the Historical Dating
Egyptian Horoscopes
Resources
"Book of Civilisation"
"Mysteries of Egyptian Zodiacs"
"Investigation of English history"
Online Discussions
Take Action
Join Now
Bequests
Branch
Write Us
Tourism
Why Tourism
Short Scheme
Real Egypt
Real Jesus
Register
Ancient Events
LOADING IMAGES.... PLEASE WAIT
united pentecostal church
apostolic church
buddhist art
eastern religion
resurrection eggs
business ethics articles
egyptian religion
church sign
religious statue
church fund raising
the church
e Golden Bough. 1922.§ 5. Virbius and the Horse WE are now in a position to hazard a conjecture as to the meaning of the tradition that Virbius, the first of the divine Kings of the Wood at Aricia, had been killed in the character of Hippolytus by horses. Having found, first, that spirits of the corn are not infrequently represented in the form of horses; and, second, that the animal which in later legends is said to have injured the god was sometimes originally the god himself, we may conjecture that the horses by which Virbius or Hippolytus was said to have been slain were really embodiments of him as a deity of vegetation. The myth that he had been killed by horses was probably invented to explain certain features in his worship, amongst others the custom of excluding horses from his sacred grove. For myth changes while custom remains constant; men continue to do what their fathers did before them, though the reasons on which their fathers acted have been long forgotten. The history of religion is a long attempt to reconcile old custom with new reason, to find a sound theory for an absurd practice. In the case before us we may be sure that the myth is more modern than the custom and by no means represents the original reason for excluding horses from the grove. From their exclusion it might be inferred that horses could not be the sacred animals or embodiments of the god of the grove. But the inference would be rash. The goat was at one time a sacred animal or embodiment of Athena, as may be inferred from the practice of representing the goddess clad in a goat-skin (aegis). Yet the goat was neither sacrificed to her as a rule, nor allowed to enter her great sanctuary, the Acropolis at Athens. The reason alleged for this was that the goat injured the olive, the sacred tree of Athena. So far, therefore, the relation of the goat to Athena is parallel to the relation of the horse to Virbius, both animals being excluded from the sanctuary on the ground of injury done by them to the god. But from Varro we learn that there was an exception to the rule which excluded the goat from the Acropolis. Once a year, he says, the goat was driven on to the Acropolis for a necessary sacrifice. Now, as has been remarked before, when an animal is sacrificed once and once only in the year, it is probably slain, not as a victim offered to the god, but as a representative of the god himself. Therefore we may infer that if a goat was sacrificed on the Acropolis once a year, it was sacrificed in the character of Athena herself; and it may be conjectured that the skin of the sacrificed animal was placed on the statue of the goddess and formed the aegis, which would thus be renewed annually. Similarly at Thebes in Egypt rams were sacred and were not sacrificed. But on one day in the year a ram was killed, and its skin was placed on the statue of the god Ammon. Now, if we knew the ritual of the Arician grove better, we might find that the rule of excluding horses from it, like the rule of excluding goats from the Acropolis at Athens, was subject to an annual exception, a horse being once a year taken into the grove and sacrificed as an embodiment of the god Virbius. By the usual misunderstanding the horse thus killed would come in time to be regarded as an enemy offered up in sacrifice to the god whom he had injured, like the pig which was sacrificed to Demeter and Osiris or the goat which was sacrificed to Dionysus, and possibly to Athena. It is so easy for a writer to record a rule without noticing an exception that we need not wonder at finding the rule of the Arician grove recorded without any mention of an exception such as I suppose. If we had had only the statements of Athenaeus and Pliny, we should have known only the rule which forbade the sacrifice of goats to Athena and excluded them from the Acropolis, without being aware of the important exception which the fortunate preservation of Varros work has revealed to us. 1 The conjecture that once a year a horse may have been sacrificed in the Arician grove as a representative of the deity of the grove derives some support from the similar sacrifice of a horse which took place once a year at Rome. On the fifteenth of October in each year a chariot-race was run on the Field of Mars. Stabbed with a spear, the right-hand horse of the victorious team was then sacrificed to Mars for the purpose of ensuring good crops, and its head was cut off and adorned with a string of loaves. Thereupon the inhabitants of two wardsthe Sacred Way and the Suburacontended with each other who should get the head. If the people of the Sacred Way got it, they fastened it to a wall of the kings house; if the people of the Subura got it, they fastened it to the Mamilian tower. The horses tail was cut off and carried to the kings house with such speed that the blood dripped on the hearth of the house. Further, it appears that the blood of the horse was caught and preserved till the twenty-first of April, when the Vestal Virgins mixed it with the blood of the unborn calves which had been sacrificed six days before. The mixture was then distributed to shepherds, and used by them for fumigating their flocks. 2 In this ceremony the decoration of the horses head with a string of loaves, and the alleged object of the sacrifice, namely, to procure a good harvest, seem to indicate that the horse was killed as one of those animal representatives of the corn-spirit of which we have found so many examples. The custom of cutting off the horses tail is like the African custom of cutting off the tails of the oxen and sacrificing them to obtain a good crop. In both the Roman and the African custom the animal apparently stands for the corn-spirit, and its fructifying power is supposed to reside especially in its tail. The latter idea occurs, as we have seen, in European folk-lore. Again, the practice of fumigating the cattle in spring with the blood of the horse may be compared with the practice of giving the Old Wife, the Maiden, or the clyack sheaf as fodder to the horses in spring or the cattle at Christmas, and giving the Yule Boar to the ploughing oxen or horses to eat in spring. All these usages aim at ensuring the blessing of the corn-spirit on the homestead and its inmates and storing it up for another year. 3 The Roman sacrifice of the October horse, as it was called, carries us back to the early days when the Subura, afterwards a low and squalid quarter of the great metropolis, was still a separate village, whose inhabitants engaged in a friendly contest on the harvest-field with their neighbours of Rome, then a little rural town. The Field of Mars on which the ceremony took place lay beside the Tiber, and formed part of the kings domain down to the abolition of the monarchy. For tradition ran that at the time when the last of the kings was driven from Rome, the corn stood ripe for the sickle on the crown lands beside the river; but no one would eat the accursed grain and it was flung into the river in such heaps that, the water being low with the summer heat, it formed the nucleus of an island. The horse sacrifice was thus an old autumn custom observed upon the kings corn-fields at the end of the harvest. The tail and blood of the horse, as the chief parts of the corn-spirits representative, were taken to the kings house and kept there; just as in Germany the harvest-cock is nailed on the gable or over the door of the farmhouse; and as the last sheaf, in the form of the Maiden, is carried home and kept over the fireplace in the Highlands of Scotland. Thus the blessing of the corn-spirit was brought to the kings house and hearth and, through them, to the community of which he was the head. Similarly in the spring and autumn customs of Northern Europe the May-pole is sometimes set up in front of the house of the mayor or burgomaster, and the last sheaf at harvest is brought to him as the head of the village. But while the tail and blood fell to the king, the neighbouring village of the Subura, which no doubt once had a similar ceremony of its own, was gratified by being allowed to compete for the prize of the horses head. The Mamilian tower, to which the Suburans nailed the horses head when they succeeded in carrying it off, appears to have been a peel-tower or keep of the old Mamilian family, the magnates of the village. The ceremony thus performed on the kings fields and at his house on behalf of the whole town and of the neighbouring village presupposes a time when each township performed a similar ceremony on its own fields. In the rural districts of Latium the villages may have continued to observe the custom, each on its own land, long after the Roman hamlets had merged their separate harvest-homes in the common celebration on the kings lands. There is no intrinsic improbability in the supposition that the sacred grove of Aricia, like the Field of Mars at Rome, may have been the scene of a common harvest celebration, at which a horse was sacrificed with the same rude rites on behalf of the neighbouring villages. The horse would represent the fructifying spirit both of the tree and of the corn, for the two ideas melt into each other, as we see in customs like the Harvest-May. 4CONTENTS · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD · SUBJECT INDEX PREVIOUSNEXT Search Amazon: Click here to shop the Bookstore.Welcome · Press
medieval england
2. The Official Rites SUCH, then, were charlton heston present the bible principal events of charlton heston present the bible farmers calendar in ancient Egypt, and such charlton heston present the bible simple religious rites by which he celebrated them. But we have still to consider charlton heston present the bible Osirian festivals of charlton heston present the bible official calendar, so far as these are described by Greek writers or recorded on charlton heston present the bible monuments. In examining them it is necessary to bear in mind that on account of charlton heston present the bible movable year of charlton heston present the bible old Egyptian calendar charlton heston present the bible true or astronomical dates of charlton heston present the bible official festivals must have varied from year to year, at least until charlton heston present the bible adoption of charlton heston present the bible fixed Alexandrian year in 30 B.C. From that time onward, apparently, charlton heston present the bible dates of charlton heston present the bible festivals were determined by charlton heston present the bible new calendar, and so ceased to rotate throughout charlton heston present the bible length of charlton heston present the bible solar year. At all events Plutarch, writing about charlton heston present the bible end of charlton heston present the bible first century, implies that they were then fixed, not movable; for though he does not mention charlton heston present the bible Alexandrian calendar, he clearly dates charlton heston present the bible festivals by it. Moreover, charlton heston present the bible long festal calendar of Esne, an important document of charlton heston present the bible Imperial age, is obviously based on charlton heston present the bible fixed Alexandrian year; for it assigns charlton heston present the bible mark for New Years Day to charlton heston present the bible day which corresponds to charlton heston present the bible twenty-ninth of August, which was charlton heston present the bible first day of charlton heston present the bible Alexandrian year, and its references to charlton heston present the bible rising of charlton heston present the bible Nile, charlton heston present the bible position of charlton heston present the bible sun, and charlton heston present the bible operations of agriculture are all in harmony with this supposition. Thus we may take it as fairly certain that from 30 B.C. onwards charlton heston present the bible Egyptian festivals were stationary in charlton heston present the bible solar year. 1 Herodotus tells us that charlton heston present the bible grave of Osiris was at Sais in Lower Egypt, and that there was a lake there upon which charlton heston present the bible sufferings of charlton heston present the bible god were displayed as a mystery by night. This commemoration of charlton heston present the bible divine passion was held once a year: charlton heston present the bible people mourned and beat their breasts at it to testify their sorrow for charlton heston present the bible death of charlton heston present the bible god; and an image of a cow, made of gilt wood with a golden sun between its horns, was carried out of charlton heston present the bible chamber in which it stood charlton heston present the bible rest of charlton heston present the bible year. The cow no doubt represented Isis herself, for cows were sacred to her, and she was regularly depicted with charlton heston present the bible horns of a cow on her head, or even as a woman with charlton heston present the bible head of a cow. It is probable that charlton heston present the bible carrying out of her cow-shaped image symbolised charlton heston present the bible goddess searching for charlton heston present the bible dead body of Osiris; for this was charlton heston present the bible native Egyptian interpretation of a similar ceremony observed in Plutarchs time about charlton heston present the bible winter solstice, when charlton heston present the bible gilt cow was carried seven times round charlton heston present the bible temple. A great feature of charlton heston present the bible festival was charlton heston present the bible nocturnal illumination. People fastened rows of oil-lamps to charlton heston present the bible outside of their houses, and charlton heston present the bible lamps burned all night long. The custom was not confined to Sais, but was observed throughout charlton heston present the bible whole of Egypt. 2 This universal illumination of charlton heston present the bible houses on one night of charlton heston present the bible year suggests that charlton heston present the bible festival may have been a commemoration not merely of charlton heston present the bible dead Osiris but of charlton heston present the bible dead in general, in other words, that it may have been a night of All Souls. For it is a widespread belief that charlton heston present the bible souls of charlton heston present the bible dead revisit their old homes on one night of charlton heston present the bible year; and on that solemn occasion people prepare for charlton heston present the bible reception of charlton heston present the bible ghosts by laying out food for them to eat, and lighting lamps to guide them on their dark road from and to charlton heston present the bible grave. Herodotus, who briefly describes charlton heston present the bible festival, omits to mention its date, but we can determine it with some probability from other sources. Thus Plutarch tells us that Osiris was murdered on charlton heston present the bible seventeenth of charlton heston present the bible month Athyr, and that charlton heston present the bible Egyptians accordingly observed mournful rites for four days from charlton heston present the bible seventeenth of Athyr. Now in charlton heston present the bible Alexandrian calendar, which Plutarch used, these four days corresponded to charlton heston present the bible thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth of November, and this date answers exactly to charlton heston present the bible other indications given by Plutarch, who says that at charlton heston present the bible time of charlton heston present the bible festival charlton heston present the bible Nile was sinking, charlton heston present the bible north winds dying away, charlton heston present the bible nights lengthening, and charlton heston present the bible leaves falling from charlton heston present the bible trees. During these four days a gilt cow swathed in a black pall was exhibited as an image of Isis. This, no doubt, was charlton heston present the bible image mentioned by Herodotus in his account of charlton heston present the bible festival. On charlton heston present the bible nineteenth day of charlton heston present the bible month charlton heston present the bible people went down to charlton heston present the bible sea, charlton heston present the bible priests carrying a shrine which contained a golden casket. Into this casket they poured fresh water, and thereupon charlton heston present the bible spectators raised a shout that Osiris was found. After that they took some vegetable mould, moistened it with water, mixed it with precious spices and incense, and moulded charlton heston present the bible paste into a small moon-shaped image, which was then robed and ornamented. Thus it appears that charlton heston present the bible purpose of charlton heston present the bible ceremonies described by Plutarch was to represent dramatically, first, charlton heston present the bible search for charlton heston present the bible dead body of Osiris, and, second, its joyful discovery, followed by charlton heston present the bible resurrection of charlton heston present the bible dead god who came to life again in charlton heston present the bible new image of vegetable mould and spices. Lactantius tells us how on these occasions charlton heston present the bible priests, with their shaven bodies, beat their breasts and lamented, imitating charlton heston present the bible sorrowful search of Isis for her lost son Osiris, and how afterwards their sorrow was turned to joy when charlton heston present the bible jackal-headed god Anubis, or rather a mummer in his stead, produced a small boy, charlton heston present the bible living representative of charlton heston present the bible god who was lost and was found. Thus Lactantius regarded Osiris as charlton heston present the bible son instead of charlton heston present the bible husband of Isis, and he makes no mention of charlton heston present the bible image of vegetable mould. It is probable that charlton heston present the bible boy who figured in charlton heston present the bible sacred drama played charlton heston present the bible part, not of Osiris, but of his son Horus; but as charlton heston present the bible death and resurrection of charlton heston present the bible god were celebrated in many cities of Egypt, it is also possible that in some places charlton heston present the bible part of charlton heston present the bible god come to life was played by a living actor instead of by an image. Another Christian writer describes how charlton heston present the bible Egyptians, with shorn heads, annually lamented over a buried idol of Osiris, smiting their breasts, slashing their shoulders, rippingtheir old wounds, until, after several days of mourning, they professed to find charlton heston present the bible mangled remains of charlton heston present the bible god, at which they rejoiced. However charlton heston present the bible details of charlton heston present the bible ceremony may have varied in different places, charlton heston present the bible pretence of finding charlton heston present the bible gods body, and probably of restoring it to life, was a great event in charlton heston present the bible festal year of charlton heston present the bible Egyptians. The shouts of joy which greeted it are described or alluded to by many ancient writers. 3 The funeral rites of Osiris, as they were observed at his great festival in charlton heston present the bible sixteen provinces of Egypt, are described in a long inscription of charlton heston present the bible Ptolemaic period, which is engraved on charlton heston present the bible walls of charlton heston present the bible gods temple at Denderah, charlton heston present the bible Tentyra of charlton heston present the bible Greeks, a town of Upper Egypt situated on charlton heston present the bible western bank of charlton heston present the bible Nile about forty miles north of Thebes. Unfortunately, while charlton heston present the bible information thus furnished is remarkably full and minute on many points, charlton heston present the bible arrangement adopted in charlton heston present the bible inscription is so confused and charlton heston present the bible expression often so obscure that a clear and consistent account of charlton heston present the bible ceremonies as a whole can hardly be extracted from it. Moreover, we learn from charlton heston present the bible document that charlton heston present the bible ceremonies varied somewhat in charlton heston present the bible several cities, charlton heston present the bible ritual of Abydos, for example, differing from that of Busiris. Without attempting to trace all charlton heston present the bible particularities of local usage I shall briefly indicate what seem to have been charlton heston present the bible leading features of charlton heston present the bible festival, so far as these can be ascertained with tolerable certainty. 4 The rites lasted eighteen days, from charlton heston present the bible twelfth to charlton heston present the bible thirtieth of charlton heston present the bible month Khoiak, and set forth charlton heston present the bible nature of Osiris in his triple aspect as dead, dismembered, and finally reconstituted by charlton heston present the bible union of his scattered limbs. In charlton heston present the bible first of these aspects he was called Chent-Ament (Khenti-Amenti), in charlton heston present the bible second Osiris-Sep, and in charlton heston present the bible third Sokari (Seker). Small images of charlton heston present the bible god were moulded of sand or vegetable earth and corn, to which incense was sometimes added; his face was painted yellow and his cheek-bones green. These images were cast in a mould of pure gold, which represented charlton heston present the bible god in charlton heston present the bible form of a mummy, with charlton heston present the bible white crown of Egypt on his head. The festivald on charlton heston present the bible twelfth day of Khoiak with a ceremony of ploughing and sowing. Two black cows were yoked to charlton heston present the bible plough, which was made of tamarisk wood, while charlton heston present the bible share was of black copper. A boy scattered charlton heston present the bible seed. One end of charlton heston present the bible field was sown with barley, charlton heston present the bible other with spelt, and charlton heston present the bible middle with flax. During charlton heston present the bible operation charlton heston present the bible chief celebrant recited charlton heston present the bible ritual chapter of the sowing of charlton heston present the bible fields. At Busiris on charlton heston present the bible twentieth of Khoiak sand and barley were put in charlton heston present the bible gods garden, which appears to have been a sort of large flower-pot. This was done in charlton heston present the bible presence of charlton heston present the bible cow-goddess Shenty, represented seemingly by charlton heston present the bible image of a cow made of gilt sycamore wood with a headless human image in its inside. Then fresh inundation water was poured out of a golden vase over both charlton heston present the bible goddess and charlton heston present the bible garden, and charlton heston present the bible barley was allowed to grow as charlton heston present the bible emblem of charlton heston present the bible resurrection of charlton heston present the bible god after his burial in charlton heston present the bible earth, for charlton heston present the bible growth of charlton heston present the bible garden is charlton heston present the bible growth of charlton heston present the bible divine substance. On charlton heston present the bible twenty-second of Khoiak, at charlton heston present the bible eighth hour, charlton heston present the bible images of Osiris, attended by thirty-four images of deities, performed a mysterious voyage in thirty-four tiny boats made of papyrus, which were illuminated by three hundred and sixty-five lights. On charlton heston present the bible twenty-fourth of Khoiak, after sunset, charlton heston present the bible effigy of Osiris in a coffin of mulberry wood was laid in charlton heston present the bible grave, and at charlton heston present the bible ninth hour of charlton heston present the bible night charlton heston present the bible effigy which had been made and deposited charlton heston present the bible year before was removed and placed upon boughs of sycamore. Lastly, on charlton heston present the bible thirtieth day of Khoiak they repaired to charlton heston present the bible holy sepulchre, a subterranean chamber over which appears to have grown a clump of Persea-trees. Entering charlton heston present the bible vault by charlton heston present the bible western door, they laid charlton heston present the bible coffined effigy of charlton heston present the bible dead god reverently on a bed of sand in charlton heston present the bible chamber. So they left him to his rest, and departed from charlton heston present the bible sepulchre by charlton heston present the bible eastern door.
charlton heston present the bible
christian religion :11453
seventh day adventist church :11452
saddleback church :11451
internet church :11450
saddleback church :11449
native american church :11448
apostolic church :11447
church growth :11446
ancient egyptian religion :11445
islam religion :11444
grace community church :11443
assembly of god church :11442
las vegas chapel :11441
the church :11440
pentecostal church :11439
church pew :11438
unitarian church :11437
losing my religion :11436
ame church :11435
church pew :11434
prestonwood baptist church :11433
roman religion :11432
medieval church :11431
russian orthodox church :11430
willow creek church :11429
religious icon :11428
vineyard church :11427
japanese religion :11426
church of the nativity bethlehem :11425
southern baptist church :11424
india religion :11423
shepherd chapel :11422
catholic church scandal :11421
religious song :11420
falls church virginia :11419
world church of the creator :11418
religious medal :11417
christian religion :11416
catechism of the catholic church :11415
pentecostal church :11414
salem witch craft :11413
church building :11412
religious wallpaper :11411
cornerstone church :11410
nazarene church :11409
religious tolerance :11408
church job :11407
mormon religion :11406
united church of canada :11405
religious item :11404
church growth :11403
unification church :11402
pastor and church and christian and email or :11401
info or contact or web master or mail :11400
buddhist art :11399
calvery chapel :11398
religious article :11397
calvary baptist church :11396
presbyterian church in america :11395
church song :11394
church banner :11393
church upskirt :11392
willow creek community church :11391
religious card :11390
worldwide church of god :11389
buddhist monk :11388
religious education :11387
comparative religion :11386
southeast christian church :11385
black church :11384
church for sale :11383
coptic church :11382
baptist religion :11381
church of nativity :11380
religious greeting card :11379
buddhist symbol :11378
community church :11377
religious store :11376
church clip art :11375
church planting :11374
mexico religion :11373
morman church :11372
mayan religion :11371
religious belief :11370
japan religion :11369
ancient greek religion :11368
wiccan religion :11367
history of religion :11366
france religion :11365
religious freedom :11364
vacation bible school craft :11363
Sitemap
Revised world history : ancient civilization
List