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941). The Golden Bough. 1922.§ 2. Demeter, the Pig and the Horse PASSING next to the corn-goddess Demeter, and remembering that in European folk-lore the pig is a common embodiment of the corn-spirit, we may now ask whether the pig, which was so closely associated with Demeter, may not have been originally the goddess herself in animal form. The pig was sacred to her; in art she was portrayed carrying or accompanied by a pig; and the pig was regularly sacrificed in her mysteries, the reason assigned being that the pig injures the corn and is therefore an enemy of the goddess. But after an animal has been conceived as a god, or a god as an animal, it sometimes happens, as we have seen, that the god sloughs off his animal form and becomes purely anthropomorphic; and that then the animal, which at first had been slain in the character of the god, comes to be viewed as a victim offered to the god on the ground of its hostility to the deity; in short, the god is sacrificed to himself on the ground that he is his own enemy. This happened to Dionysus, and it may have happened to Demeter also. And in fact the rites of one of her festivals, the Thesmophoria, bear out the view that originally the pig was an embodiment of the corn-goddess herself, either Demeter or her daughter and double Persephone. The Attic Thesmophoria was an autumn festival, celebrated by women alone in October, and appears to have represented with mourning rites the descent of Persephone (or Demeter) into the lower world, and with joy her return from the dead. Hence the name Descent or Ascent variously applied to the first, and the name Kalligeneia (fair-born) applied to the third day of the festival. Now it was customary at the Thesmophoria to throw pigs, cakes of dough, and branches of pine-trees into the chasms of Demeter and Persephone, which appear to have been sacred caverns or vaults. In these caverns or vaults there were said to be serpents, which guarded the caverns and consumed most of the flesh of the pigs and dough-cakes which were thrown in. Afterwardsapparently at the next annual festivalthe decayed remains of the pigs, the cakes, and the pine-branches were fetched by women called drawers, who, after observing rules of ceremonial purity for three days, descended into the caverns, and, frightening away the serpents by clapping their hands, brought up the remains and placed them on the altar. Whoever got a piece of the decayed flesh and cakes, and sowed it with the seed-corn in his field, was believed to be sure of a good crop. 1 To explain the rude and ancient ritual of the Thesmophoria the following legend was told. At the moment when Pluto carried off Persephone, a swineherd called Eubuleus chanced to be herding his swine on the spot, and his herd was engulfed in the chasm down which Pluto vanished with Persephone. Accordingly at the Thesmophoria pigs were annually thrown into caverns to commemorate the disappearance of the swine of Eubuleus. It follows from this that the casting of the pigs into the vaults at the Thesmophoria formed part of the dramatic representation of Persephones descent into the lower world; and as no image of Persephone appears to have been thrown in, we may infer that the descent of the pigs was not so much an accompaniment of her descent as the descent itself, in short, that the pigs were Persephone. Afterwards when Persephone or Demeter (for the two are equivalent) took on human form, a reason had to be found for the custom of throwing pigs into caverns at her festival; and this was done by saying that when Pluto carried off Persephone there happened to be some swine browsing near, which were swallowed up along with her. The story is obviously a forced and awkward attempt to bridge over the gulf between the old conception of the corn-spirit as a pig and the new conception of her as an anthropomorphic goddess. A trace of the older conception survived in the legend that when the sad mother was searching for traces of the vanished Persephone, the footprints of the lost one were obliterated by the footprints of a pig; originally, we may conjecture, the footprints of the pig were the footprints of Persephone and of Demeter herself. A consciousness of the intimate connexion of the pig with the corn lurks in the legend that the swineherd Eubuleus was a brother of Triptolemus, to whom Demeter first imparted the secret of the corn. Indeed, according to one version of the story, Eubuleus himself received, jointly with his brother Triptolemus, the gift of the corn from Demeter as a reward for revealing to her the fate of Persephone. Further, it is to be noted that at the Thesmophoria the women appear to have eaten swines flesh. The meal, if I am right, must have been a solemn sacrament or communion, the worshippers partaking of the body of the god. 2 As thus explained, the Thesmophoria has its analogies in the folk-customs of Northern Europe which have been already described. Just as at the Thesmophoriaan autumn festival in honour of the corn-goddessswines flesh was partly eaten, partly kept in caverns till the following year, when it was taken up to be sown with the seed-corn in the fields for the purpose of securing a good crop; so in the neighbourhood of Grenoble the goat killed on the harvest-field is partly eaten at the harvest-supper, partly pickled and kept till the next harvest; so at Pouilly the ox killed on the harvest-field is partly eaten by the harvesters, partly pickled and kept till the first day of sowing in spring, probably to be then mixed with the seed, or eaten by the ploughmen, or both; so at Udvarhely the feathers of the cock which is killed in the last sheaf at harvest are kept till spring, and then sown with the seed on the field; so in Hesse and Meiningen the flesh of pigs is eaten on Ash Wednesday or Candlemas, and the bones are kept till sowing-time, when they are put into the field sown or mixed with the seed in the bag; so, lastly, the corn from the last sheaf is kept till Christmas, made into the Yule Boar, and afterwards broken and mixed with the seed-corn at sowing in spring. Thus, to put it generally, the corn-spirit is killed in animal form in autumn; part of his flesh is eaten as a sacrament by his worshippers; and part of it is kept till next sowing-time or harvest as a pledge and security for the continuance or renewal of the corn-spirits energies. 3 If persons of fastidious taste should object that the Greeks never could have conceived Demeter and Persephone to be embodied in the form of pigs, it may be answered that in the cave of Phigalia in Arcadia the Black Demeter was portrayed with the head and mane of a horse on the body of a woman. Between the portraits of a goddess as a pig, and the portrait of her as a woman with a horses head, there is little to choose in respect of barbarism. The legend told of the Phigalian Demeter indicates that the horse was one of the animal forms assumed in ancient Greece, as in modern Europe, by the cornspirit. It was said that in her search for her daughter, Demeter assumed the form of a mare to escape the addresses of Poseidon, and that, offended at his importunity, she withdrew in dudgeon to a cave not far from Phigalia in the highlands of Western Arcadia. There, robed in black, she tarried so long that the fruits of the earth were perishing, and mankind would have died of famine if Pan had not soothed the angry goddess and persuaded her to quit the cave. In memory of this event, the Phigalians set up an image of the Black Demeter in the cave; it represented a woman dressed in a long robe, with the head and mane of a horse. The Black Demeter, in whose absence the fruits of the earth perish, is plainly a mythical expression for the bare wintry earth stripped of its summer mantle of green. 4CONTENTS · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD · SUBJECT INDEX PREVIOUSNEXT Search Amazon: Click here to shop the Bookstore.Welcome · Press
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1941). The Golden Bough. 1922.XLIX. Ancient Deities of Vegetation as Animals§ 1. Dionysus, jerusalem post magazine Goat and jerusalem post magazine Bull HOWEVER we may explain it, jerusalem post magazine fact remains that in peasant folk-lore jerusalem post magazine corn-spirit is very commonly conceived and represented in animal form. May not this fact explain jerusalem post magazine relation in which certain animals stood to jerusalem post magazine ancient deities of vegetation, Dionysus, Demeter, Adonis, Attis, and Osiris? 1 To begin with Dionysus. We have seen that he was represented sometimes as a goat and sometimes as a bull. As a goat he can hardly be separated from jerusalem post magazine minor divinities, jerusalem post magazine Pans, Satyrs, and Silenuses, all of whom are closely associated with him and are represented more or less completely in jerusalem post magazine form of goats. Thus, Pan was regularly portrayed in sculpture and painting with jerusalem post magazine face and legs of a goat. The Satyrs were depicted with pointed goat-ears, and sometimes with sprouting horns and short tails. They were sometimes spoken of simply as goats; and in jerusalem post magazine drama their parts were played by men dressed in goatskins. Silenus is represented in art clad in a goatskin. Further, jerusalem post magazine Fauns, jerusalem post magazine Italian counterpart of jerusalem post magazine Greek Pans and Satyrs, are described as being half goats, with goat-feet and goat-horns. Again, all these minor goat-formed divinities partake more or less clearly of jerusalem post magazine character of woodland deities. Thus, Pan was called by jerusalem post magazine Arcadians jerusalem post magazine Lord of jerusalem post magazine Wood. The Silenuses kept company with jerusalem post magazine tree-nymphs. The Fauns are expressly designated as woodland deities; and their character as such is still further brought out by their association, or even identification, with Silvanus and jerusalem post magazine Silvanuses, who, as their name of itself indicates, are spirits of jerusalem post magazine woods. Lastly, jerusalem post magazine association of jerusalem post magazine Satyrs with jerusalem post magazine Silenuses, Fauns, and Silvanuses, proves that jerusalem post magazine Satyrs also were woodland deities. These goat-formed spirits of jerusalem post magazine woods have their counterparts in jerusalem post magazine folk-lore of Northern Europe. Thus, jerusalem post magazine Russian wood-spirits, called Ljeschie (from ljes, wood), are believed to appear partly in human shape, but with jerusalem post magazine horns, ears, and legs of goats. The Ljeschi can alter his stature at pleasure; when he walks in jerusalem post magazine wood he is as tall as jerusalem post magazine trees; when he walks in jerusalem post magazine meadows he is no higher than jerusalem post magazine grass. Some of jerusalem post magazine Ljeschie are spirits of jerusalem post magazine corn as well as of jerusalem post magazine wood; before harvest they are as tall as jerusalem post magazine corn-stalks, but after it they shrink to jerusalem post magazine height of jerusalem post magazine stubble. This brings outwhat we have remarked beforethe close connexion between tree-spirits and corn-spirits, and shows how easily jerusalem post magazine former may melt into jerusalem post magazine latter. Similarly jerusalem post magazine Fauns, though wood-spirits, were believed to foster jerusalem post magazine growth of jerusalem post magazine crops. We have already seen how often jerusalem post magazine corn-spirit is represented in folk-custom as a goat. On jerusalem post magazine whole, then, as Mannhardt argues, jerusalem post magazine Pans, Satyrs, and Fauns perhaps belong to a widely diffused class of wood-spirits conceived in goat-form. The fondness of goats for straying in woods and nibbling jerusalem post magazine bark of trees, to which indeed they are most destructive, is an obvious and perhaps sufficient reason why wood-spirits should so often be supposed to take jerusalem post magazine form of goats. The inconsistency of a god of vegetation subsisting upon jerusalem post magazine vegetation which he personifies is not one to strike jerusalem post magazine primitive mind. Such inconsistencies arise when jerusalem post magazine deity, ceasing to be immanent in jerusalem post magazine vegetation, comes to be regarded as its owner or lord; for jerusalem post magazine idea of owning jerusalem post magazine vegetation naturally leads to that of subsisting on it. Sometimes jerusalem post magazine corn-spirit, originally conceived as immanent in jerusalem post magazine corn, afterwards comes to be regarded as its owner, who lives on it and is reduced to poverty and want by being deprived of it. Hence he is often known as the Poor Man or the Poor Woman. Occasionally jerusalem post magazine last sheaf is left standing on jerusalem post magazine field for the Poor Old Woman or for the Old Rye-woman. 2 Thus jerusalem post magazine representation of wood-spirits in jerusalem post magazine form of goats appears to be both widespread and, to jerusalem post magazine primitive mind, natural. Therefore when we find, as we have done, that Dionysusa tree-godis sometimes represented in goat-form, we can hardly avoid concluding that this representation is simply a part of his proper character as a tree-god and is not to be explained by jerusalem post magazine fusion of two distinct and independent worships, in one of which he originally appeared as a tree-god and in jerusalem post magazine other as a goat. 3 Dionysus was also figured, as we have seen, in jerusalem post magazine shape of a bull. After what has gone before we are naturally led to expect that his bull form must have been only another expression for his character as a deity of vegetation, especially as jerusalem post magazine bull is a common embodiment of jerusalem post magazine corn-spirit in Northern Europe; and jerusalem post magazine close association of Dionysus with Demeter and Persephone in jerusalem post magazine mysteries of Eleusis shows that he had at least strong agricultural affinities. 4 The probability of this view will be somewhat increased if it can be shown that in other rites than those of Dionysus jerusalem post magazine ancients slew an OX as a representative of jerusalem post magazine spirit of vegetation. This they appear to have done in jerusalem post magazine Athenian sacrifice known as the murder of jerusalem post magazine OX (bouphonia). It took place about jerusalem post magazine end of June or beginning of July, that is, about jerusalem post magazine time when jerusalem post magazine threshing is nearly over in Attica. According to tradition jerusalem post magazine sacrifice was instituted to procure a cessation of drought and dearth which had afflicted jerusalem post magazine land. The ritual was as follows. Barley mixed with wheat, or cakes made of them, were laid upon jerusalem post magazine bronze altar of Zeus Polieus on jerusalem post magazine Acropolis. Oxen were driven round jerusalem post magazine altar, and jerusalem post magazine OX which went up to jerusalem post magazine altar and ate jerusalem post magazine offering on it was sacrificed. The axe and knife with which jerusalem post magazine beast was slain had been previously wetted with water brought by maidens called water-carriers. The weapons were then sharpened and handed to jerusalem post magazine butchers, one of whom felled jerusalem post magazine OX with jerusalem post magazine axe and another cut its throat with jerusalem post magazine knife. As soon as he had felled jerusalem post magazine OX, jerusalem post magazine former threw jerusalem post magazine axe from him and fled; and jerusalem post magazine man who cut jerusalem post magazine beasts throat apparently imitated his example. Meantime jerusalem post magazine OX was skinned and all present partook of its flesh. Then jerusalem post magazine hide was stuffed with straw and sewed up; next jerusalem post magazine stuffed animal was set on its feet and yoked to a plough as if it were ploughing. A trial then took place in an ancient law-court presided over by jerusalem post magazine King (as he was called) to determine who had murdered jerusalem post magazine OX. The maidens who had brought jerusalem post magazine water accused jerusalem post magazine men who had sharpened jerusalem post magazine axe and knife; jerusalem post magazine men who had sharpened jerusalem post magazine axe and knife blamed jerusalem post magazine men who had handed these implements to jerusalem post magazine butchers; jerusalem post magazine men who had handed jerusalem post magazine implements to jerusalem post magazine butchers blamed jerusalem post magazine butchers; and jerusalem post magazine butchers laid jerusalem post magazine blame on jerusalem post magazine axe and knife, which were accordingly found guilty, condemned, and cast into jerusalem post magazine sea. 5 The name of this sacrifice, the murder of jerusalem post magazine OX,the pains taken by each person who had a hand in jerusalem post magazine slaughter to lay jerusalem post magazine blame on some one else, together with jerusalem post magazine formal trial and punishment of jerusalem post magazine axe or knife or both, prove that jerusalem post magazine OX was here regarded not merely as a victim offered to a god, but as itself a sacred creature, jerusalem post magazine slaughter of which was sacrilege or murder. This is borne out by a statement of Varro that to kill an OX was formerly a capital crime in Attica. The mode of selecting jerusalem post magazine victim suggests that jerusalem post magazine OX which tasted jerusalem post magazine corn was viewed as jerusalem post magazine corn-deity taking possession of his own. This interpretation is supported by jerusalem post magazine following custom. In Beauce, in jerusalem post magazine district of Orleans, on jerusalem post magazine twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth of April they make a straw man called the great mondard. For they say that jerusalem post magazine old mondard is now dead and it is necessary to make a new one. The straw man is carried in solemn procession up and down jerusalem post magazine village and at last is placed upon jerusalem post magazine oldest apple-tree. There he remains till jerusalem post magazine apples are gathered, when he is taken down and thrown into jerusalem post magazine water, or he is burned and his ashes cast into water. But jerusalem post magazine person who plucks jerusalem post magazine first fruit from jerusalem post magazine tree succeeds to jerusalem post magazine title of the great mondard. Here jerusalem post magazine straw figure, called the great mondard and placed on jerusalem post magazine oldest apple-tree in spring, represents jerusalem post magazine spirit of jerusalem post magazine tree, who, dead in winter, revives when jerusalem post magazine apple-blossoms appear on jerusalem post magazine boughs. Thus jerusalem post magazine person who plucks jerusalem post magazine first fruit from jerusalem post magazine tree and thereby receives jerusalem post magazine name of the great mondard must be regarded as a representative of jerusalem post magazine tree-spirit. Primitive peoples are usually reluctant to taste jerusalem post magazine annual first-fruits of any crop, until some ceremony has been performed which makes it safe and pious for them to do so. The reason of this reluctance appears to be a belief that jerusalem post magazine first-fruits either belong to or actually contain a divinity. Therefore when a man or animal is seen boldly to appropriate jerusalem post magazine sacred first-fruits, he or it is naturally regarded as jerusalem post magazine divinity himself in human or animal form taking possession of his own. The time of jerusalem post magazine Athenian sacrifice, which fell about jerusalem post magazine close of jerusalem post magazine threshing, suggests that jerusalem post magazine wheat and barley laid upon jerusalem post magazine altar were a harvest offering; and jerusalem post magazine sacramental character of jerusalem post magazine subsequent repastall partaking of jerusalem post magazine flesh of jerusalem post magazine divine animalwould make it parallel to jerusalem post magazine harvest-suppers of modern Europe, in which, as we have seen, jerusalem post magazine flesh of jerusalem post magazine animal which stands for jerusalem post magazine corn-spirit is eaten by jerusalem post magazine harvesters. Again, jerusalem post magazine tradition that jerusalem post magazine sacrifice was instituted in order to put an end to drought and famine is in favour of taking it as a harvest festival. The resurrection of jerusalem post magazine corn-spirit, enacted by setting up jerusalem post magazine stuffed OX and yoking it to jerusalem post magazine plough, may be compared with jerusalem post magazine resurrection of jerusalem post magazine tree-spirit in jerusalem post magazine person of his representative, jerusalem post magazine Wild Man. 6 The OX appears as a representative of jerusalem post magazine corn-spirit in other parts of jerusalem post magazine world. At Great Bassam, in Guinea, two oxen are slain annually to procure a good harvest. If jerusalem post magazine sacrifice is to be effectual, it is necessary tha
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