I know well the whole course of the proceedings in these ceremonies, but they shall not pass my lips. The daughters of Danaus brought these rites from Egypt, and taught them to the Pelasgic women of the Peloponnese. Afterwards when the inhabitants of the peninsula were driven from their homes by the Dorians, the rites perished. Only in Arcadia, where the natives remained, and were not compelled to migrate, their observance continued." It is just possible, but very highly improbable, that the Dionysiak ritual of lake Alkyone was copied in late historic times from the Kamic ceremonial at Sa: we have, however, no reason to suppose that this was the case, and Pausanias would doubtless have mentioned such a remarkable adoption; but, on the contrary, the whole context implies that the connection between the god, the lake, and the locality generally, had existed from ancient times. The Peloponnesos, according to Herodotos, was impregnated before the Dorik invasion with Kamic and Phoenician rites, and the former ritual after this event perished, except in Arkadia. But this statement must evidently be accepted with some modification, for even admitting the historical character of the invasion, it could in the nature of things have only produced a partial, not an absolute, alteration in religious observances. This particular district of the Peloponnesos, it is to be observed, was peculiarly connected with Danaos, and not far distant was a spot called the Landing-place, which was traditionally the exact locality where Danaos landed with his children.2 Now we have seen that there are no sufficient reasons for believing that Hellas received the Dionysiak ritual from Kam in very early times, but there is no real difficulty in the matter, for, ás Mr. Gladstone observes, 'There is every reason to 1 Herod. ii. 170-1. 3 Sup. V. v. 4. 2 Paus. ii. 38. suppose that Danaos was a Phoenician. That in the later tradition he stands for an Egyptian is not to be wondered at, when we consider how the two countries melted into one another, in the view of the early Greeks, like a concave line of bays upon a coast trending towards a distant horizon; and while Phoenician vessels were the channel of communication, Phoenicia itself was, before the time of the Troïca, deeply charged with Egyptian elements. M. Renan has found a district in the neighbourhood of Tripoli called Danniè or Dyanniyeh. Again, Pausanias tells us that there stood at the reputed landing-place of Danaos, on the Argive coast, a temple of Poseidon Genesios, an association which at once assigns to that personage a Phoenician origin.'1 This exact accordance between the ritual of Argolis and Kam, the circular lakes, the annual nightly celebration in honour of the suffering god, its occult nature, and the pious reticence of Herodotos and Pausanias, necessitates the identity of the two worships. Either the one was a copy of the other, or both came from a common source; but it would be ridiculous to suppose that Sa copied Alkyone, and there is not the least reason to imagine that Alkyone copied Sa. This very ritual, Herodotos tells us, was introduced by the daughters of Danaos centuries before his time; and was celebrated, says Pausanias, near the exact spot where Danaos was said to have landed, and lastly Danaos himself proves to be a Phoenician. Whether there ever really was any particular Phoenician immigrant of the name is utterly unimportant; the historical fact which the legend implies is the truly important matter, and here as everywhere we find fresh proof of the Oriental character and of the identity of the various phases of this suffering and mysterious divinity. The nature of his sufferings has already been partly illustrated, and this 1 Juventus Mundi, 136. portion of the myth will be again referred to.1 At Larymna in Boiotia was a temple of the god near a somewhat similar lake.2 3 At Hermione in Eastern Argolis was a shrine of Dionysos Melanaigis. To this divinity musical contests are yearly celebrated, and swimming and sailing matches with prizes are established. And there is a temple of Artemis surnamed Iphigenaia, and a bronze Poseidon having one foot upon a dolphin.' There was a tale connected with the Attik Festival of the Apatourea, so called from apate, deceit,' that King Melanthos, who succeeded Thymoites the last of the line of Theseus, when about to engage in single combat with Xanthos, king of Boiotia, pretended to see behind the latter a man clad in a black goat-skin, melanaigis, and when Xanthos turned round to look, treacherously slew him. The epithet is also used by Ploutarchos when describing dark red wine, and is thus doubly connected with the god as relating both to the wine and the wine-skin, and the Bakchik goat. But from the somewhat singular circumstance that aquatic contests took place in honour of Dionysos, we may also understand the term in the Aischylian sense as meaning Wrapped-in-dark-storms. Dionysos seldom appears as a distinctly marine divinity, except when regarded as a stranger who has come to Hellas over the sea, but perhaps we have here a representation of the sun above the sea shrouded or surrounded with shaggy storm clouds, a lurid Melikarthos,5 to whom the sailor sacrifices with trembling heart. The sportive aquatic contests of Hermione, changed in nature and associations, may embody the last recollections of the great western explorations of 1 Inf. IX. vi. 2 Paus. IX. 23. 3 Ibid. ii. 35. Cf. Hept. epi The. 699; 'Melanai gis Erinys,' the Vedic Saranyu; Paus. the Phoenician Sun-god and his followers; and it will be noticed that when the Herakles of Hellas was identified with the Herakles of Tzur, the son of Alkmene was made to travel over the regions of Phoenician exploration,2 and so naturally came to be considered by the later Pagans as a solar divinity whose Twelve Labours indicated his passage through the zodiacal signs. Hard by the shrine of Dionysos Melanaigis, stands the temple of his grim consort Artemis Taurike, and also a third Oriental divinity Poseidon, connected like Melikertes with the dolphin. According to one legend, among other opponents of the Dionysiak cult in Argolis was the great Argeian hero Perseus. This may at first sight seem singular, inasmuch as he was the son of Danae, but similarly Pentheus was the grandson of Kadmos, and as will readily be acknowledged, it is very rarely that all the members of a large family agree in their religious opinions. If Perseus be a phase of the Aryan Sun-god,3 the myth still more clearly resolves itself into a contest between the supporters of rival divinities. The Bakchik host arrived in Argos, 'from the islands of the Aigaion,' and this invasion is distinct from that in the time of Melampous before noticed, and which occurred about a generation earlier according to mythic chronology. A battle ensued, in which Dionysos was defeated, and many of the Bakchai, including Ariadne, were slain. But this victory was, like the ill-omened success of Lykourgos, ultimately followed by the complete triumph of the Dionysiak cult. Near Argos was the shrine of Dionysos of Krete,' the country of the Minotauros. They say that after he had warred with Perseus, and had laid aside his hostility, he was greatly honoured by the Argeians, and 3 Perseus, the Sun' (Schol. in Lykophron). Near that this selected glebe was assigned to him. And it was afterwards named the glebe of Kresios [the Kretan], because he here buried Ariadne when she died. the shrine of Dionysos is that of Aphrodite Ouranie.' 1 Dionysos is here again in close proximity to the Great Goddess, Mother of the East, of whom Artemis Orthia, who also had a temple in the neighbourhood,2 is only a special phase. Another peculiar Argeian Festival in honour of the god was called Turbe, Disorder; and its character was similar to those Attik celebrations which have been referred to. In Lakonike nothing is known of any sumptuous or regular ceremonies in honour of Bacchus,' but his worship, though in a minor degree, prevailed throughout the country, and he had in the mythical period driven the women frantic for resisting his cult. Thus everywhere in Hellas we meet with records of a similar struggle on the introduction of the Dionysiak ritual, always or almost always resulting in its ultimate triumph. On Mount Larision, near Gythion, in early spring, a festival was celebrated to Dionysos, doubtless as Antheus the Blooming, the returning beauty and budding vigour of the world. There was a tradition that the celebration was instituted in consequence of a ripe grape having been found on the mountain. At Sparta was a shrine of Dionysos Kolonatas; his priestesses the Dionysiades had a special ritual, and virgins ran a race in his honour.8 No special Bakchic festival obtained in Messenia, but various Dionysiak associations are connected with the country. Thus at Korone was a temple and statue of the 1 Paus. ii. 23; sup. V. vi. 2 Paus. ii. 24. 3 Vide inf. IX. iii. Table of Horned Divinities of the Phoenician Pantheon. 4 Paus. ii. 24; Müller, Doric Race, i. 418. 5 Müller, Doric Race, i. 418. 6 Ælianus, Poikile Historia, iii. 42; Schol. in Aristoph, Orn. 963; Eire. 1071. 7 Paus. iii. 22. 8 Ibid. iii. 13; Hesych. in voc. Dionysiades. |