Modern Mythology Part 15

Anthropologists are here (unless I am mistaken) contrasted with 'cla.s.sical scholars who draw their information, first of all, from Greek sources.' I need not a.s.sure anyone who has looked into my imperfect works that I also drew my information about Artemis 'first of all from Greek sources,' in the original. Many of these sources, to the best of my knowledge, are not translated: one, Homer, I have translated myself, with Professor Butcher and Messrs. Leaf and Myers, my old friends.

The idea and representation of Artemis as [Greek] (many-breasted), 'we are told, was borrowed from the East, a large term.' I say 'she is even blended in ritual with a monstrous many-breasted divinity of Oriental religion.' {139b} Is this 'large term' too vague? Then consider the Artemis of Ephesus and 'the alabaster statuette of the G.o.ddess' in Roscher's Lexikon, p. 558. Compare, for an Occidental parallel, the many- breasted G.o.ddess of the maguey plant, in Mexico. {140} Our author writes, 'we are told that Artemis's most ancient history is to be studied in Arkadia.' My words are, 'The Attic and Arcadian legends of Artemis are confessedly _among the oldest_.' Why should 'Attic' and the qualifying phrase be omitted?

Otfried Muller

Mr. Max Muller goes on--citing, as I also do, Otfried Muller:--'Otfried Muller in 1825 treated the same myth without availing himself of the light now to be derived from the Cahrocs and the Kamilarois. He quoted Pausanias as stating that the tumulus of Kallisto was near the sanctuary of Artemis Kalliste, and he simply took Kallisto for an epithet of Artemis, which, as in many other cases, had been taken for a separate personality.' Otfried also pointed out, as we both say, that at Brauron, in Attica, Artemis was served by young maidens called [Greek] (bears); and he concluded, 'This cannot possibly be a freak of chance, but the metamorphosis [of Kallisto] has its foundation in the fact that the animal [the bear] was sacred to the G.o.ddess.'

Thus it is acknowledged that Artemis, under her name of Callisto, was changed into a she-bear, and had issue, Arkas--whence the Arcadians. Mr.

Max Muller proceeds (ii. 734)--'He [Otfried] did not go so far as some modern mythologists who want us to believe that originally the animal, the she-bear, was the G.o.ddess, and that a later wors.h.i.+p had replaced the ancient wors.h.i.+p of the animal pur et simple.'

Did I, then, tell anybody that 'originally the she-bear was the G.o.ddess'?

No, I gave my reader, not a dogma, but the choice between two alternative hypotheses. I said, 'It will become probable that the she-bear actually _was_ the G.o.ddess at an extremely remote period, or at all events that the G.o.ddess succeeded to, and threw her protection over, an ancient wors.h.i.+p of the animal' (ii. 212, 213).

Mr. Max Muller's error, it will be observed, consists in writing 'and'

where I wrote 'or.' To make such rather essential mistakes is human; to give references is convenient, and not unscholarly.

In fact, this is Mr. Max Muller's own opinion, for he next reports his anonymous author (myself) as saying ('we are now told'), 'though without any reference to Pausanias or any other Greek writers, that the young maidens, the [Greek], when dancing around Artemis, were clad in bearskins, and that this is a pretty frequent custom in the dances of totemic races. In support of this, however, we are not referred to really totemic races . . . but to the Hirpi of Italy, and to the [Greek]

in Egypt.' Of course I never said that the [Greek] danced around Artemis! I did say, after observing that they were described as 'playing the bear,' 'they even in archaic ages wore bear-skins,' for which I cited Claus {141a} and referred to Suchier, {141b} including the reference in brackets [ ] to indicate that I borrowed it from a book which I was unable to procure. {142a} I then gave references for the cla.s.sical use of a saffron vest by the [Greek].

Beast Dances

For the use of beast-skins in such dances among totemists I cite Bancroft (iii. 168) and (M. R. R. ii. 107) Robinson {142b} (same authority). I may now also refer to Robertson Smith: {142c} 'the meaning of such a disguise [a fish-skin, among the a.s.syrians] _is well known from many savage rituals_; it means that the wors.h.i.+pper presents himself as a fish,' as a bear, or what not. {142d} Doubtless I might have referred more copiously to savage rituals, but really I thought that savage dances in beast-skins were familiar from Catlin's engravings of Mandan and Nootka wolf or buffalo dances. I add that the Brauronian rites 'point to a time when the G.o.ddess was herself a bear,' having suggested an alternative theory, and added confirmation. {142e} But I here confess that while beast-dances and wearing of skins of sacred beasts are common, to prove these sacred beasts to be totems is another matter. It is so far inferred rather than demonstrated. Next I said that the evolution of the bear into the cla.s.sical Artemis 'almost escapes our inquiry. We find nothing more akin to it than the relation borne by the Samoan G.o.ds to the various totems in which they are supposed to be manifest.' This Mr. Max Muller quotes (of course, without reference or marks of quotation) and adds, 'pace Dr. Codrington.' Have I incurred Dr. Codrington's feud? He doubts or denies totems in Melanesia. Is Samoa in Melanesia, par exemple? {143a} Our author (i. 206) says that 'Dr. Codrington will have no totems in his islands.' But Samoa is not one of the doctor's fortunate isles. For Samoa I refer, not to Dr. Codrington, but to Mr.

Turner. {143b} In Samoa the 'clans' revere each its own sacred animals, 'but combine with it the belief that the spiritual deity reveals itself in each separate animal.' {143c} I expressly contrast the Samoan creed with 'pure totemism.' {143d}

So much for our author's success in stating and criticising my ideas. If he pleases, I will not speak of Samoan totems, but of Samoan sacred animals. It is better and more exact.

The View of Cla.s.sical Scholars

They (ii. 735) begin by pointing out Artemis's connection with Apollo and the moon. So do I! 'If Apollo soon disengages himself from the sun . .

. Artemis retains as few traces of any connection with the moon.' {143e} 'If Apollo was of solar origin,' asks the author (ii. 735), 'what could his sister Artemis have been, from the very beginning, if not some G.o.ddess connected with the moon?' Very likely; quis negavit? Then our author, like myself (loc. cit.), dilates on Artemis as 'sister of Apollo.' 'Her chapels,' I say, 'are in the wild wood; she is the abbess of the forest nymphs,' 'chaste and fair, the maiden of the precise life.'

How odd! The cla.s.sical scholar and I both say the same things; and I add a sonnet to Artemis in this aspect, rendered by me from the Hippolytus of Euripides. Could a cla.s.sical scholar do more? Our author then says that the Greek sportsman 'surprised the beasts in their lairs' by night. Not very sportsmanlike! I don't find it in Homer or in Xenophon. Oh for exact references! The moon, the nocturnal sportswoman, is Artemis: here we have also the authority of Theodore de Banville (Diane court dans la noire foret). And the nocturnal hunt is Dian's; so she is protectress of the chase. Exactly what I said! {144a}

All this being granted by me beforehand (though possibly that might not be guessed from my critic), our author will explain Artemis's human sacrifice of a girl in a fawn-skin--bloodshed, bear and all--with no aid from Kamilarois, Cahrocs, and Samoans.

Mr. Max Muller's Explanation

Greek races traced to Zeus--usually disguised, for amorous purposes, as a brute. The Arcadians had an eponymous heroic ancestor, 'Areas;' they also wors.h.i.+pped Artemis. Artemis, as a virgin, could not become a mother of Areas by Zeus, or by anybody. Callisto was also Artemis. Callisto was the mother of Areas. But, to save the character of Artemis, Callisto was now represented as one of her nymphs. Then, Areas reminding the Arcadians of [Greek] (a bear), while they knew the Bear constellation, 'what was more natural than that Callisto should be changed into an arktos, a she-bear . . . placed by Zeus, her lover, in the sky' as the Bear?

Nothing could be more natural to a savage; they all do it. {144b} But that an Aryan, a Greek, should talk such nonsense as to say that he was the descendant of a bear who was changed into a star, and all merely because 'Areas reminded the Arcadians of arktos,' seems to me an extreme test of belief, and a very unlikely thing to occur.

Wider Application of the Theory

Let us apply the explanation more widely. Say that a hundred animal names are represented in the known totem-kindreds of the world. Then had each such kin originally an eponymous hero whose name, like that of Areas in Arcady, accidentally 'reminded' his successors of a beast, so that a hundred beasts came to be claimed as ancestors? Perhaps this was what occurred; the explanation, at all events, fits the wolf of the Delawares and the other ninety-nine as well as it fits the Arcades. By a curious coincidence all the names of eponymous heroes chanced to remind people of beasts. But _whence come the names of eponymous heroes_? From their tribes, of course--Ion from Ionians, Dorus from Dorians, and so on.

Therefore (in the hundred cases) the names of the _tribes_ derive from names of animals. Indeed, the names of totem-kins _are_ the names of animals--wolves, bears, cranes. Mr. Max Muller remarks that the name 'Arcades' _may_ come from [Greek], a bear (i. 738); so the Arcadians (Proselenoi, the oldest of races, 'men before the moon') may be--Bears.

So, of course (in this case), they would necessarily be Bears _before_ they invented Areas, an eponymous hero whose name is derived from the pre- existing tribal name. His name, then, could not, before they invented it, remind them of a bear. It was from their name [Greek] (Bears) that they developed _his_ name Areas, as in all such cases of eponymous heroes. I slightly incline to hold that this is exactly what occurred. A bear-kin claimed descent from a bear, and later, developing an eponymous hero, Areas, regarded him as son of a bear. Philologically 'it is possible;' I say no more.

The Bear Dance

'The dances of the maidens called [Greek], would receive an easy interpretation. They were Arkades, and why not [Greek] (bears)?' And if [Greek], why not clad in bear-skins, and all the rest? (ii. 738). This is our author's explanation; it is also my own conjecture. The Arcadians were bears, knew it, and possibly danced a bear dance, as Mandans or Nootkas dance a buffalo dance or a wolf dance. But all such dances are not totemistic. They have often other aims. One only names such dances totemistic when performed by people who call themselves by the name of the animal represented, and claim descent from him. Our author says genially, 'if anybody prefers to say that the arctos was something like a totem of the Arcadians . . . why not?' But, if the arctos was a totem, that fact explains the Callisto story and Attic bear dance, while the philological theory--Mr. Max Muller's theory--does not explain it. What is oddest of all, Mr. Max Muller, as we have seen, says that the bear- dancing girls were 'Arkades.' Now we hear of no bear dances in Arcadia.

The dancers were Athenian girls. This, indeed, is the point. We have a bear Callisto (Artemis) in Arcady, where a folk etymology might explain it by stretching a point. But no etymology will explain bear dances to Artemis in Attica. So we find bears doubly connected with Artemis. The Athenians were not Arcadians.

As to the meaning and derivation of Artemis, or Artamis, our author knows nothing (ii. 741). I say, 'even [Greek] ([Greek], bear) has occurred to inventive men.' Possibly I invented it myself, though not addicted to etymological conjecture.

THE FIRE-WALK

The Method of Psychical Research

As a rule, mythology asks for no aid from Psychical Research. But there are problems in religious rite and custom where the services of the Cendrillon of the sciences, the despised youngest sister, may be of use.

As an example I take the famous mysterious old Fire-rite of the Hirpi, or wolf-kin, of Mount Soracte. I shall first, following Mannhardt, and making use of my own trifling researches in ancient literature, describe the rite itself.

Mount Soracte

Everyone has heard of Mount Soracte, white with s.h.i.+ning snow, the peak whose distant cold gave zest to the blazing logs on the hearth of Horace.

Within sight of his windows was practised, by men calling themselves 'wolves' (Hirpi), a rite of extreme antiquity and enigmatic character. On a peak of Soracte, now Monte di Silvestre, stood the ancient temple of Sora.n.u.s, a Sabine sun-G.o.d. {148a} Virgil {148b} identifies Sora.n.u.s with Apollo. At the foot of the cliff was the precinct of Feronia, a Sabine G.o.ddess. Mr. Max Muller says that Feronia corresponds to the Vedic Bhuranyu, a name of Agni, the Vedic fire-G.o.d (ii. 800). Mannhardt prefers, of course, a derivation from _far_ (grain), as in confarreatio, the ancient Roman bride-cake form of marriage. Feronia Mater=Sanskrit bharsani mata, Getreide Mutter. {149a} It is a pity that philologists so rarely agree in their etymologies. In Greek the G.o.ddess is called Anthephorus, Philostepha.n.u.s, and even Persephone--probably the Persephone of flowers and garlands. {149b}

Hirpi Sorani

Once a year a fete of Sora.n.u.s and Feronia was held, in the precinct of the G.o.ddess at Soracte. The ministrants were members of certain local families called Hirpi (wolves). Pliny says, {149c} 'A few families, styled Hirpi, at a yearly sacrifice, walk over a burnt pile of wood, yet are not scorched. On this account they have a perpetual exemption, by decree of the Senate, from military and all other services.' Virgil makes Aruns say, {149d} 'Highest of G.o.ds, Apollo, guardian of Soracte, thou of whom we are the foremost wors.h.i.+ppers, thou for whom the burning pile of pinewood is fed, while we, strong in faith, walk through the midst of the fire, and press our footsteps in the glowing ma.s.s. . . .'

Strabo gives the same facts. Servius, the old commentator on Virgil, confuses the Hirpi, not unnaturally, with the Sabine 'clan,' the Hirpini.