Fishes, Flowers, and Fire as Elements and Deities in the Phallic Faiths and Worship Part 7

It is remarkable that in all sacrifices, even in those offered to Zeus or to Athene, it was always to the fire that the first invocation was made.

At Olympia a.s.sembled Greece offered her first sacrifice to the hearth-fire, and the second to Zeus. Similarly at Rome, the first to be adored was always Vesta, who was nothing else but the fire. And so we read in the hymns of the Veda: "Before all G.o.ds, Agni must be invoked. We will p.r.o.nounce thy holy name before that of all the other immortals. O Agni, whatever be the G.o.d we honour by our sacrifice, to thee is the holocaust offered." It was not that Jupiter and Brahma had not acquired a much greater importance in the minds of men, but it was remembered that the fire was much older than the G.o.ds.

When the populations of Greece and Italy had learnt to represent their G.o.ds as persons, and had given each a proper name and a human shape, the old wors.h.i.+p of the fire was similarly modified. The sacred fire was called Vesta. The common noun was made a proper name, and a legend by degrees attached to it. They even went so far as to represent the fire in statues under the features of a woman, the gender of the noun having determined the s.e.x of the deity.

Vesta, in mythology, was one of the princ.i.p.al deities of the Pagans. Those who have diligently investigated the religion of the Pythagorean philosophers pretend that by Vesta they meant the universe, to which they ascribed a soul, and which they wors.h.i.+pped as the sole divinity sometime under the name of t? pa?, the whole, and sometimes under the appellation of ????, unity. However, fabulous history records two G.o.ddesses under the name of Vesta; one the mother of Saturn, and wife of Clum, and the other the daughter of Saturn, by his wife Rhea. The first was Terra, or the Earth, called also Cybele, and derived her name Vesta, according to some, from clothing, because the earth is clothed, _vest.i.tur_, with plants and fruits, or, according to Ovid, from the stability of the earth because _stat vi terra sua_, or it supports itself.

Hence the first oblations in all sacrifices were offered to her, because whatsoever is sacrificed springs from the earth; and the Greeks both began and concluded their sacrifices with Vesta, because they esteemed her the mother of all G.o.ds.

The second was Fire, and Vesta whose power was exercised about altars and houses, derives her name, according to Cicero, from fire or hearth.

Accordingly the poets frequently use Vesta for fire or flame; as they do Jupiter for air, Ceres for corn, &c. An image of Vesta, to which they sacrificed every day, was placed before the doors of the houses at Rome; and the places where these statues were erected were called _vestibula_, from Vesta. This G.o.ddess was a virgin, and so great an admirer of virginity, that when Jupiter her brother gave her leave to ask what she would, she besought that she might always be a virgin, and have the first oblations in all sacrifices.

This G.o.ddess is called by Horace _aeterna Vesta_, and it was in honour of her that Numa erected a temple at Rome, and dedicated virgins to keep a perpetual fire upon her altars. One way of representing this G.o.ddess, it is said, was in the habit of a matron, holding in her right hand a flambeau or lamp, and sometimes a Palladium or small Victory.

The wors.h.i.+p of Vesta and of fire was brought from Phrygia into Italy by aeneas and the other Trojans who resorted thither. To this purpose Virgil observes that aeneas, before he left the palace of his father, had taken away the fire from the sacred hearth. The name Vesta was synonymous with the Chaldean and Persian Avesta and hence Zoroaster gave to his book on the wors.h.i.+p of fire, the name of Avesta or Abesta, _i.e._, the custody of fire.

The Vestals were the virgins in Ancient Rome, consecrated to the service of the G.o.ddess Vesta, whose wors.h.i.+p, we have said, was brought into Italy by aeneas, and one of their special duties was the watching of the sacred fire, the going out of which was visited upon them with such severe whipping. This fire, which they had to watch so jealously and carefully, was neither on an altar nor on a hearth, but in little earthen vessels with two handles, called _capeduncula_. It was held a pledge of the empire of the world. If it went out, it was judged a very unlucky prognostic, and was to be expiated with infinite ceremonies. Among the Romans, Festus tells us, it was only to be rekindled by rubbing a kind of wood proper for the purpose. But among the Greeks, Plutarch, in his life of Numa, observes, it was to be rekindled by exposing some inflammable matter in the centre of a concave vessel held to the sun. It is to be noted, the Romans were not the only people who kept the perpetual fire of Vesta, in imitation of the celestial fires; but the Greeks were possessed with the same superst.i.tion; particularly the Delphians, Athenians, Tenedians, Argives, Rhodians, Cyzicenians, Milesians, Ephesians, &c.

Magi, or Magians, was the t.i.tle which the ancient Persians gave to their wise men and philosophers. Whatever may be the origin of the word, and upon this great diversity of opinion seems to have prevailed, it corresponds with the s?f?? among the Greeks; sapientes among the Latins; Druids among the Gauls; Gynosophists among the Indians; and prophets, priests among the Egyptians.

Plato, Apuleius, Laertius, and others agree that the philosophy of the Magi related princ.i.p.ally to the wors.h.i.+p of the G.o.ds; they were the persons who were to offer prayers, supplications and sacrifices, as if the G.o.ds would be heard by them alone.

They teach their doctrine concerning the nature and origin of the G.o.ds, says Laertius, whom they think to be fire, earth, and water; they reject the use of pictures and images, and reprobate the opinion that the G.o.ds are male and female; they discourse to the people concerning justice; they think it impious to consume dead bodies with fire; they all practise divination and prophecy, pretending that the G.o.ds appear to them; they forbid the use of ornaments in dress; they clothe themselves in a white robe; they make use of the ground as their bed, of herbs, cheese and bread for food, and of a reed for their staff. Strabo also relates, that there were in Cappadocia a great number of Magi, who were called "Pyrethi," or wors.h.i.+ppers of fire, and many temples of the Persian G.o.ds, in the midst of which were altars attended by priests, who daily renewed the sacred fire, accompanying the ceremony with music.

The chief doctrine of the Magi was, that there were two principles, one of which was the cause of all good, and the other the cause of all evil. The former was represented by light, and the latter by darkness, as their truest symbols; and of the composition of these two they supposed that all things in the world were made. The good G.o.d they always wors.h.i.+pped before fire, as being the cause of light, and especially before the sun, as being in their opinion the most perfect fire, and causing the most perfect light; and for this reason they had in all their temples fire constantly burning on altars erected in them for that purpose. Before these sacred fires, they performed all their public acts of devotion, as they likewise practised their private devotions before their private fires in their own houses. Such were the tenets of this sect when Smerdis, who was the princ.i.p.al leader of it, having usurped the crown after the death of Cambyses, was slain by seven princes of Persia; and many of the Magians, who adhered to him, shared likewise the same fate. In consequence of this event, those who adopted the sentiments of this sect were called, by way of derision, Magians, from _mige-gush_, which signified, in the language of the country then in use, one that had his ears cropped. The whole sect of the Magians would soon have sunk into utter extinction if it had not, in a few years after this period, been revived and reformed by Zoroaster.

This celebrated philosopher, called by the Persians Zerdusht or Zaratusht, began about the thirty-sixth year of the reign of Darius to restore and reform the Magian system of religion. He was not only excellently skilled in all the learning of the East that prevailed in his time, but likewise thoroughly versed in the Jewish religion, and in all the sacred writings of the Old Testament that were then extant, whence some have inferred that he was a native Jew both by birth and profession; and that he had been servant to one of the prophets, probably Ezekiel or Daniel. He made his first appearance in Media, in the city of Xiz, afterwards called Aderbijan, as some say; or according to others, in Ecbatana, afterwards Tauris. Instead of admitting the existence of two first causes with the Magians, he introduced a principle superior to them both--one supreme G.o.d, who created both these, and out of these two produced, according to his sovereign pleasure, everything else.

Zoroaster caused fire temples to be erected wherever he came: for having feigned that he was taken up into heaven, and there instructed in the doctrines he taught by G.o.d himself, out of the midst of a great and most bright flame of fire, he taught his followers that fire was the truest shekinah of the divine presence; that the sun being the most perfect fire, G.o.d had there the throne of his glory, and the residence of his divine presence in a peculiar manner; and next to this in our elementary fire; and, therefore, he ordered them to direct all their wors.h.i.+p to G.o.d, first towards the sun, which they called Mithra, and next towards their sacred fires; and when they came before these fires to wors.h.i.+p, they always approached them on the west side, that having their faces towards them, and also towards the rising sun at the same time, they might direct their wors.h.i.+p towards both. And in this posture they always performed every act of their wors.h.i.+p. Zoroaster also pretended that he brought some of the heavenly fire with him on his return and placed it on the altar of the first fire temple, which he erected at Xiz, in Media, whence it was propagated to all the rest; and on this account their priests carefully watched it and never suffered it to be extinguished.

Zoroaster, having a.s.sumed the character of a divine prophet and reformer of religion, retired into a cave, devoting himself to prayer and meditation, where he composed the book called the Zend, in which his pretended revelations were contained. From Media he removed into Bactria; and he went also into India among the Brachmans, and having acquired all their knowledge in mathematics, philosophy and astronomy, returned and communicated the knowledge to his Magians; and thus they became famous for their skill in these sciences; so that a learned man and a Magian were equivalent terms. The vulgar conceived of them as persons actuated and inspired by supernatural powers; and hence those who pretended to wicked and diabolical acts, a.s.sumed the name of Magians; and the term Magician acquired its evil meaning. However, this distinguished knowledge was confined to those who were by way of eminence, the Magi, or the priests; who, like those of the Jews, being of the same tribe, appropriated their learning to their own families. These priests were distributed into three orders, viz.: the inferior priests, who conducted the ordinary ceremonies of religion; the superintendents who governed them and presided over the sacred fire; and the archimagus, or high-priest, who possessed supreme authority over the whole order; and their churches or temples were also of three sorts, parochial or oratories, in which the people performed their devotions, and where the sacred fire was kept only in lamps; fire-temples, in which fire was kept continually burning on a sacred altar, where the higher order of the Magi directed the public devotions, and the people a.s.sembled to perform magical incantations, hear interpretations of dreams, and practise other superst.i.tions; and lastly, the fire-temple in which the archimagus resided, which was visited by the people at certain seasons with peculiar solemnity, and to which it was deemed an indispensable duty for every one to repair at least once in his life. Zoroaster at length carried his religious system to the royal court at Susa, and made Darius a proselyte, together with most of the great men of the kingdom.

THE END.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Moule's Heraldry.

[2] Maitland's Church in the Catacombs.

[3] Forlong.

[4] Moule's Heraldry.

[5] Northern Tour.

[6] Gorham, Hist. S. Neots.

[7] Rivers of Life.

[8] Ancient Faiths, vol. i.

[9] Rivers of Life.

[10] Riv. Life, Forlong.

[11] Nineveh, &c.

[12] Selden's Syrian Deities.

[13] Forlong.

[14] Rivers of Life.

[15] Leslie's Early Races of Scotland.

[16] Rivers of Life.

[17] Forlong, Riv. Life.

[18] Rivers of Life.

[19] See Pop. Science Rev., vol. x.

[20] Hindu Pantheon.

[21] See Asiat. Res., vol. iii.

[22] For a somewhat longer account of this and other Myths, see Rev. W.

Gill's Book.

[23] Chardin's Voyages, vol. ii.

[24] Thalia, 16, Rawlinson.

[25] Pennant, vol. I., p. 111.

[26] Pennant, vol. III.

[27] Selden's Syrian Deities. Hauser's Translation.

[28] Jeremiah x.x.xii. 35.

[29] See Bresciani and Forrester's Sardinia.

[30] Selden's Syrian Deities, Hausser's Translation.