The Ancient History of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians Part 3

PHRYGIA MAJOR. _Synnada_, _Apamia_.

IV. SYRIA, now named _Suria_, called under the Roman emperors the _East_, the chief provinces of which are,

1. PALESTINE, by which name is sometimes understood all Judea. Its cities are, _Jerusalem_, _Samaria_, and _Caesarea Palestina_. The river _Jordan_ waters it. The name of Palestine is also given to the land of Canaan, which extended along the Mediterranean; the chief cities of which were, _Gaza_, _Ascalon_, _Azotus_, _Accaron_, and _Gath_.

2. PHNICIA, whose cities are, _Ptolemais_, _Tyre_, _Sidon_, and _Berytus_. Its mountains, _Liba.n.u.s_ and _Antiliba.n.u.s_.

3. SYRIA, properly so called, or ANTIOCHENA; the cities whereof are, _Antiochia_, _Apamia_, _Laodicea_, and _Seleucia_.

4. COMAGENA. The city of _Samosata_.

5. CLESYRIA. The cities are, _Zeugma_, _Thapsacus_, _Palmyra_, and _Damascus_.

V. ARABIA PETRaeA. Its cities are, _Petra_, and _Bostra_. Mount _Casius_.

DESERTA. FELIX.

Of Religion.

It is observable, that in all ages and in every country, the several nations of the world, however various and opposite in their characters, inclinations and manners, have always united in one essential point; the inherent opinion of an adoration due to a Supreme Being, and of external forms calculated to evince such a belief. Into whatever country we cast our eyes, we find priests, altars, sacrifices, festivals, religious ceremonies, temples, or places consecrated to religious wors.h.i.+p. Among every people we discover a reverence and awe of the Divinity; an homage and honour paid to him; and an open profession of an entire dependence upon him in all their undertakings, in all their necessities, in all their adversities and dangers. Incapable of themselves to penetrate into futurity and to ensure success, we find them careful to consult the Divinity by oracles, and by other methods of a like nature; and to merit his protection by prayers, vows, and offerings. It is by the same supreme authority they believe the most solemn treaties are rendered inviolable.

It is that which gives sanction to their oaths; and to it by imprecations is referred the punishment of such crimes and enormities as escape the knowledge and power of men. On all their private concerns, voyages, journeys, marriages, diseases, the Divinity is still invoked. With him their every repast begins and ends. No war is declared, no battle fought, no enterprise formed, without his aid being first implored; to which the glory of the success is constantly ascribed by public acts of thanksgiving, and by the oblation of the most precious of the spoils, which they never fail to set apart as appertaining by right to the Divinity.

No variety of opinion is discernible in regard to the foundation of this belief. If some few persons, depraved by false philosophy, presume from time to time to rise up against this doctrine, they are immediately disclaimed by the public voice. They continue singular and alone, without making parties, or forming sects: the whole weight of the public authority falls upon them; a price is set upon their heads; whilst they are universally regarded as execrable persons, the bane of civil society, with whom it is criminal to have any kind of commerce.

So general, so uniform, so perpetual a consent of all the nations of the universe, which neither the prejudice of the pa.s.sions, the false reasoning of some philosophers, nor the authority and example of certain princes, have ever been able to weaken or vary, can proceed only from a first principle, which forms a part of the nature of man; from an inward sentiment implanted in his heart by the Author of his being; and from an original tradition as ancient as the world itself.

Such were the source and origin of the religion of the ancients; truly worthy of man, had he been capable of persisting in the purity and simplicity of these first principles: but the errors of the mind, and the vices of the heart, those sad effects of the corruption of human nature, have strangely disfigured their original beauty. There are still some faint rays, some brilliant sparks of light, which a general depravity has not been able to extinguish utterly; but they are incapable of dispelling the profound darkness of the gloom which prevails almost universally, and presents nothing to view but absurdities, follies, extravagancies, licentiousness, and disorder; in a word, a hideous chaos of frantic excesses and enormous vices.

Can any thing be more admirable than these principles laid down by Cicero?(52) That we ought above all things to be convinced that there is a Supreme Being, who presides over all the events of the world, and disposes every thing as sovereign lord and arbiter: that it is to him mankind are indebted for all the good they enjoy: that he penetrates into, and is conscious of, whatever pa.s.ses in the most secret recesses of our hearts: that he treats the just and the impious according to their respective merits: that the true means of acquiring his favour, and of being pleasing in his sight, is not by employing of riches and magnificence in the wors.h.i.+p that is paid to him, but by presenting him with a heart pure and blameless, and by adoring him with an unfeigned and profound veneration.

Sentiments so sublime and religious were the result of the reflections of some few who employed themselves in the study of the heart of man, and had recourse to the first principles of his inst.i.tution, of which they still retained some valuable relics. But the whole system of their religion, the tendency of their public feasts and ceremonies, the essence of the Pagan theology, of which the poets were the only teachers and professors, the very example of the G.o.ds, whose violent pa.s.sions, scandalous adventures, and abominable crimes, were celebrated in their hymns or odes, and proposed in some measure to the imitation, as well as adoration, of the people; these were certainly very unfit means to enlighten the minds of men, and to form them to virtue and morality.

It is remarkable, that in the greatest solemnities of the Pagan religion, and in their most sacred and venerable mysteries, far from perceiving any thing which can recommend virtue, piety, or the practice of the most essential duties of ordinary life, we find the authority of laws, the imperious power of custom, the presence of magistrates, the a.s.sembly of all orders of the state, the example of fathers and mothers, all conspire to train up a whole nation from their infancy in an impure and sacrilegious wors.h.i.+p, under the name, and in a manner under the sanction, of religion itself; as we shall soon see in the sequel.

After these general reflections upon Paganism, it is time to proceed to a particular account of the religion of the Greeks. I shall reduce this subject, though infinite in itself, to four articles, which are, 1. The feasts. 2. The oracles, auguries, and divinations. 3. The games and combats. 4. The public shows and representations of the theatre. In each of these articles, I shall treat only of what appears most worthy of the reader's curiosity, and has most relation to this history. I omit saying any thing of sacrifices, having given a sufficient idea of them elsewhere.(53)

Of the Feasts.

An infinite number of feasts were celebrated in the several cities of Greece, and especially at Athens, of which I shall describe only three of the most famous, the Panathenea, the feasts of Bacchus, and those of Eleusis.

The Panathenea.

This feast was celebrated at Athens in honour of Minerva, the tutelary G.o.ddess of that city, to which she gave her name,(54) as well as to the feast of which we are speaking. Its inst.i.tution was ancient, and it was called at first the Athenea; but after Theseus had united the several towns of Attica into one city, it took the name of Panathenea. These feasts were of two kinds, the great and the less, which were solemnized with almost the same ceremonies; the less annually, and the great upon the expiration of every fourth year.

In these feasts were exhibited racing, the gymnastic combats, and the contentions for the prizes of music and poetry. Ten commissaries, elected from the ten tribes, presided on this occasion, to regulate the forms, and distribute the rewards to the victors. This festival continued several days.

In the morning of the first day a race was run on foot, in which each of the runners carried a lighted torch in his hand, which they exchanged continually with each other without interrupting their race. They started from the Ceramicus, one of the suburbs of Athens, and crossed the whole city. The first that came to the goal, without having put out his torch, carried the prize. In the afternoon they ran the same course on horseback.

The gymnastic or athletic combats followed the races. The place for that exercise was upon the banks of the Ilissus, a small river, which runs through Athens, and empties itself into the sea at the Piraeus.

Pericles first inst.i.tuted the prize of music. In this dispute were sung the praises of Harmodius and Aristogiton who, at the expense of their lives, delivered Athens from the tyranny of the Pisistratidae; to which was afterwards added the eulogium of Thrasybulus, who expelled the thirty tyrants. The prize was warmly disputed, not only amongst the musicians, but still more so amongst the poets; and it was highly glorious to be declared victor in this contest. aeschylus is reported to have died with grief upon seeing the prize adjudged to Sophocles, who was much younger than himself.

These exercises were followed by a general procession, wherein was carried, with great pomp and ceremony, a sail, embroidered with gold, on which were curiously delineated the warlike actions of Pallas against the t.i.tans and Giants. This sail was affixed to a vessel which bore the name of the G.o.ddess. The vessel, equipped with sails, and with a thousand oars, was conducted from the Ceramicus to the temple of Eleusis, not by horses or beasts of draught, but by machines concealed in the bottom of it, which put the oars in motion, and made the vessel glide along.

The march was solemn and majestic. At the head of it were old men, who carried olive-branches in their hands, ?a???f????, and these were chosen for the symmetry of their shape, and the vigour of their complexion.

Athenian matrons, of great age, also accompanied them in the same equipage.

The grown and robust men formed the second cla.s.s. They were armed at all points, and had bucklers and lances. After them came the strangers that inhabited Athens, carrying mattocks, instruments proper for tillage. Next followed the Athenian women of the same age, attended by the foreigners of their own s.e.x, carrying vessels in their hands for the drawing of water.

The third cla.s.s was composed of the young persons of both s.e.xes, selected from the best families in the city. The young men wore vests, with crowns upon their heads, and sang a peculiar hymn in honour of the G.o.ddess. The maids carried baskets, ?a??f????, in which were placed the sacred utensils proper to the ceremony, covered with veils to keep them from the sight of the spectators. The person, to whose care those sacred things were intrusted, was bound to observe a strict continence for several days before he touched them, or distributed them to the Athenian virgins;(55) or rather, as Demosthenes says, his whole life and conduct ought to have been a perfect model of virtue and purity. It was a high honour for a young woman to be chosen for so n.o.ble and august an office, and an insupportable affront to be deemed unworthy of it. We shall see that Hipparchus offered this indignity to the sister of Harmodius, which extremely incensed the conspirators against the Pisistratidae. These Athenian virgins were followed by the foreign young women, who carried umbrellas and seats for them.

The children of both s.e.xes closed the pomp of the procession.

In this august ceremony, the ?a??d?? were appointed to sing certain verses of Homer; a manifest proof of the estimation in which the works of that poet were held, even with regard to religion. Hipparchus, son of Pisistratus, first introduced that custom.

I have observed elsewhere,(56) that in the gymnastic games of this feast a herald proclaimed, that the people of Athens had conferred a crown of gold upon the celebrated physician Hippocrates, in grat.i.tude for the signal services which he had rendered the state during the pestilence.

In this festival the people of Athens put themselves, and the whole republic, under the protection of Minerva, the tutelary G.o.ddess of their city, and implored of her all kind of prosperity. From the time of the battle of Marathon, in these public acts of wors.h.i.+p, express mention was made of the Plataeans, and they were joined in all things with the people of Athens.

Feasts of Bacchus.

The wors.h.i.+p of Bacchus had been brought out of Egypt to Athens, where several feasts had been established in honour of that G.o.d; two particularly more remarkable than all the rest, called the great and the less feasts of Bacchus. The latter were a kind of preparation for the former, and were celebrated in the open field about autumn. They were named Lenea, from a Greek word(57) that signifies a wine-press. The great feasts were commonly called Dionysia, from one of the names of that G.o.d,(58) and were solemnized in the spring within the city.

In each of these feasts the public were entertained with games, shows, and dramatic representations, which were attended with a vast concourse of people, and exceeding magnificence, as will be seen hereafter: at the same time the poets disputed the prize of poetry, submitting to the judgment of arbitrators, expressly chosen for that purpose, their pieces, whether tragic or comic, which were then represented before the people.

These feasts continued many days. Those who were initiated, mimicked whatever the poets had thought fit to feign of the G.o.d Bacchus. They covered themselves with the skins of wild beasts, carried a thyrsus in their hands, a kind of pike with ivy-leaves twisted round it; had drums, horns, pipes, and other instruments calculated to make a great noise; and wore upon their heads wreaths of ivy and vine-branches, and of other trees sacred to Bacchus. Some represented Silenus, some Pan, others the Satyrs, all drest in suitable masquerade. Many of them were mounted on a.s.ses; others dragged goats(59) along for sacrifices. Men and women, ridiculously dressed in this manner, appeared night and day in public; and imitating drunkenness, and dancing with the most indecent gestures, ran in throngs about the mountains and forests, screaming and howling furiously; the women especially seemed more outrageous than the men; and, quite out of their senses, in their furious(60) transports invoked the G.o.d, whose feast they celebrated, with loud cries; e??? ????e, or ? ?a??e, or ??a??e, or ?? ????e.

This troop of Baccha.n.a.lians was followed by the virgins of the n.o.blest families in the city, who were called ?a??f????, from carrying baskets on their heads, covered with vine leaves and ivy.

To these ceremonies others were added, obscene to the last excess, and worthy of the G.o.d who chose to be honoured in such a manner. The spectators gave into the prevailing humour, and were seized with the same frantic spirit. Nothing was seen but dancing, drunkenness, debauchery, and all that the most abandoned licentiousness can conceive of gross and abominable. And this an entire people, reputed the wisest of all Greece, not only suffered, but admired and practised. I say an entire people; for Plato, speaking of the Baccha.n.a.lia, says in direct terms, that he had seen the whole city of Athens drunk at once.(61)

Livy informs us,(62) that this licentiousness of the Baccha.n.a.lia having secretly crept into Rome, the most horrid disorders were committed there under cover of the night, and the inviolable secresy which all persons, who were initiated into these impure and abominable mysteries, were obliged, under the most horrid imprecations, to observe. The senate, being apprized of the affair, put a stop to those sacrilegious feasts by the most severe penalties; and first banished the practisers of them from Rome, and afterwards from Italy. These examples inform us, how far a mistaken sense of religion, that covers the greatest crimes with the sacred name of the Divinity, is capable of misleading the mind of man.(63)

The Feast of Eleusis.

There is nothing in all Pagan antiquity more celebrated than the feast of Ceres Eleusina. The ceremonies of this festival were called, by way of eminence, "the mysteries," from being, according to Pausanias, as much above all others, as the G.o.ds are above men. Their origin and inst.i.tution are attributed to Ceres herself, who, in the reign of Erechtheus, coming to Eleusis, a small town of Attica, in search of her daughter Proserpine, whom Pluto had carried away, and finding the country afflicted with a famine, invented corn as a remedy for that evil, with which she rewarded the inhabitants. She not only taught them the use of corn, but instructed them in the principles of probity, charity, civility, and humanity;(64) from whence her mysteries were called Tes?f???a, and _Initia_. To these first happy lessons fabulous antiquity ascribed the courtesy, politeness, and urbanity, so remarkable amongst the Athenians.