Ως μὴ βασκανθῶ δ, τεὶς εἰς ἐμὸν ἔπυσα κόλπον Hence it was usual to reprove arrogant Perfons, when they affum'd more than their Due, bidding them is noλs Tluew, Spit into their Bofoms, an Example whereof we find in Lucian (a.) Another Method of averting Fafcinations from Infants was this: They ty'd a Thread of divers Colours about the Neck of the Infant, then fpit upon the Ground, and taking up the Spittle mix'd with Dirt upon their Finger, put it upon the Infant's Forehead and Lips. lufion to this Custom in Perfius (b): F There is an Al Ecce avia, aut metuens Divûm matertera, cunis Expiat, urentes oculos inhibere perita. CHA P. XIX. Of the Grecian Festivals in General. ESTIVALS were inftituted upon four Accounts; First, in Honour of the Gods, to whom, befides the Worship every Day paid them, fome more folemn Times were fet apart. Efpecially, if they had conferred any fignal Favour upon the Publick, or upon Private Perfons, had affifted them in defending their Country, had given them Victory over their Enemies, had delivered them out of any apparent Danger, or bleffed them with Succefs in any Undertaking, it was thought but reasonable to fet apart fome Time for offering Sacrifices, and Praises to them, as grateful Acknowledgments for the Benefits receiv'd at their Hands. Secondly, In order to procure fome fpecial Favour of the Gods; for (as you may learn from the following Chapters) several of the Feftivals were inftituted with a Defign to render the Gods propitious, and willing to grant fome particular Bleffings, as Health, Children, and fuch like. And in Times of Famine, Peftilence, or other publick Calamities, the Oracles ufually advised their Confultants to institute folemn Festivals, as the best Method to appease the angry Gods, and obtain of them Deliverance from the Evils they laboured under. Thirdly, in Memory of deceased Friends, of thofe that had done any remarkable Service for their Country, or died valiantly in the Defence of it. This was no fmall Encouragement of generous and noble Difpofitions to enter upon honourable Designs, when they faw that the brave Actions of the Virtuous did not perish with them, but their Memories were ever held facred by fucceeding Generations. Fourthly, Festivals were inftituted, as Times of Eafe, and Reft to (a) noiw Euxaïs. (b) Sat. II. verf. 31. Ubi conf. Interpretes. Labourers; that amidst all their Toil and Sorrow, and as it were a Recompenfe thereof, fome Days of Refreshment might be allowed them. For fome one or more of thefe Ends, moft Feftivals feem to have been first instituted. (a) Ariftotle reports, that amongst the Antients they had few or no Festivals, befides thofe after Harvest or Vintage; for then they ufed to meet, and make merry with the Fruits they had gathered, Eating and Drinking plentifully; which they efteem'd a Sort of offering their Firft-fruits to the Gods, whom they thought honour'd by fo doing; and therefore Feafts were called Ooivas, q. Déova, oni dià tòs θεὸς οἶν παι δεῖν ὑπελάμβανον, i. e. becaufe they thought they were obliged, in Duty to the Gods, to be drunk. And Seleucus, in the fame Author, tells us, That the Words Suria and μen were derived from the fame Original, Τόν τε οἶνον ἐπὶ πλεῖον, καὶ τί ἄλλῳ ἡδυπάθειαν θεῶν ἕνεκα προσφέρεται, διὸ καὶ θοίνας, κι θαλίας, και μέθας ωνομαθῆναι i. e. Banquets were called Doiva, daxíal, and písal, from Oss, or God, because it was ufual at thofe Times to confume great Quantities of Wine, and other Provifions in Honour of the Gods. In latter Ages, when the Gods were increas'd almost to the Number of Men, and the old frugal Way of living was laid afide, the Number of Festivals were enlarged, and the Manner of them quite altered : For whereas formerly the Solemnities confifted in little or nothing, besides offering a Sacrifice to the Gods, and after that making merry themfelves; now a great many Games, Proceffions, and innumerable Ceremonies, in Imitation of the fabulous Actions of the Gods, were introduced and practised, to the vast Charge of the Publick. The Athenians, as they exceeded all other People in the Number of their Gods, fo they out did them in the Number of their Festivals ; which, as (b) Xenephon reports, were twice as many as any other City obferved: Nor did the Number and Frequency of them abate any thing of the Solemnity, Splendour, and Charges at their Obferva tion. The Shops, and Courts of Judicature were fhut up, on most of thofe Days; the Labourers refted from their Works, the Tradesmen from their Employments, the Mourners intermitted their Sorrows; and nothing but Eafe and Pleasure, Mirth and Jollity were to be found among them. Indeed κοινὸν τότο και Ελλήνων και τω βαρβάρων ἐπι, this was common both to Greeks and Barbarians, as we are informed by Strabo, to celebrate their religious Solemnities with Mirth and Remiffion of their Labours. Most of them were celebrated at the publick Charge; and left their Treafury fhould be exhaufted by fo frequent Evacutions, feveral Means were contrived to fupply and replenish them. For Inftance, after Thrafybulus had depofed the Tyrants, their Eftates were confiscated for this Ufe, as Harpocration obferves out of Philocor us: And when the State was reduc'd to its old Democracy, if any of the Citizens, thro' too much Wealth, became formidable to the poorer Sort, and Objects of their Envy, it was cuftomary to compel them to contribute towards the defraying of the Expences at publick Festivals; and so by (a) Ethic. ad Nicomach. lib. VIII, c. IX. (b) De Repub. Athenienf. conferring upon them a great (tho chargeable and dear-bought) Honour, at once sweeten, the Impofition, (if not alfo oblige thofe on whom it was impos'd) and rid themselves of thofe Fears and Jealoufies, which the immoderate Opulency of private Perfons might reafonably give to a popular State. Thus much of Festivals in general: As to the Particulars, I have omitted very little that is material in the Tracts of Meurfius, and Caftellanus, upon this Subject; and fame things not taken Notice of by either of them, and perhaps not unworthy your Obfervation, I have added. Yet do I not pretend, that this is a compleat, or entire Collection of the Grecian Festivals; for that would be endless, (seeing almost every Man of Repute, and that had done any notable Service for the Publick, had his Anniversary Day) and impoffible, fince hundreds of them (especially thofe that were obferv'd by the lefs confiderable Cities) are not fo much as mentioned in any Author at this Day extant; or but barely mentioned, without any Account of the Perfons, to whom they belong'd, or the Ceremonies used at their Celebration: However, as much as is neceffary to the understanding of the antient Greek Writers, the following Chapters will furnish. M CHA P. XX. ΑΓΗ ΤΟΡΕΙΟΝ and ΑΓΗΤΟ ΡΙΑ Entioned by Hefychius, without any Notice of the Deity, in whofe Honour they were obferved. It is not improbable, they might belong to Apollo, and be (at least the latter of them) the fame with the Lacedamonian Kagveia. This Conjecture is grounded upon the Words of Hefychius; who tells us, that Ayn's was the Name of the Perfon confecrated to the God at the Kapveia and that the Feftival it felf was term'd Aynroeta, which Name feems to have been deriv'd from aw, that Festival being obferv'd in Imitation of sewn ywyn, or the Military Way of Living, as Athenaus (a), and Euftathius (b) have obferved. It is not unlikely, the former might belong to Venus, whofe Priest (as Grammarians inform us) was call'd Aynwp, in Cyprus. ΑΓΡΑΝΙΑ, Was celebrated at Argos (c), in Memory of one of Pratus's Daugh ters; being, in all Probability, the fame with ΑΓΡΙΑ ΝΙΑ, Which (as the fame Author tells us) was obferv'd at Argos, in Memory of a deceas'd Perfon. It was also celebrated at Thebes with fofolemn Sports. (a) Lib. IV. (b) Iliad, . (c) Hefychius. Α Γ Ρ Α Υ ΑΓΡΑΥΛΙΑ. At Athens, in Honour of Agraulus, or Aglaurus, the Daughter of Cecrops, and the Nymph Aglauris, and the Priestess of Minerva, to whom he gave the Sirname of Aglaurus, and was worshipp'd in a Temple dedicated to her. The Cyprians alfo (as Porphyry (a) reports) honour'd her by the Celebration of an Annual Festival in the Month 4phrodifius, at which they offer'd human Victims; and this Custom is faid to have continu'd till the Time of Diomedes. ΑΓΡΙΩ ΝΙΑ. In Honour of Bacchus, firnam'd Afet, for his Cruelty, as (b) Plutarch is of Opinion; or because he convers'd with, and was attend ed by Lions, Tygers, and other Savage Animals, which procur'd him the other Name of unsus, which properly denotes an Eater of raw Flesh. This Solemnity was obferv'd in the Night, after this Manner: The Women (c) being affembled, made a strict Search after Bacchus, as if he had fled from them; but after fome time, finding their Labour to be in vain. faid, that he had retir'd to the Muses, and conceal'd himfelf among them. This being done, and the Ceremony ended, they regal'd them elves with an Entertainment; after which, the Time was pafs'd away in propofing Riddles and cramp Queftions. Large Quantities of Ivy were ufed at this Time (d), because that Plant was accounted facred to Bacchus; and so great Exceffes were fometimes committed, that once the Daughters of Minya, in a furious Extafy of Devotion, flaughter'd Hippafus, the Son of Leucippe, and ferv'd him up to the Table: In Memory of which Murder, their whole Family was ever after excluded from this Feftival, upon Pain of Death; which, as (e) Plutarch reports, was inflicted upon one of them, that had furreptitiously convey'd herfelf in amongst the reft of the Worfhippers, by Zoilus, a Charonean Priest. ΑΓΡΟΤΕΡΑΣ ΘΥΣΙΑ, (f) An Anniversary Sacrifice of five hundred Goats, offer'd at 4thens to Minerva, firnam'd Ayereg, from Agra, in Attica. The Occasion of it was this: When Darius the Emperor of Perfia, made an Invafion upon Attica, Callimachus, who was at that Time in the Office of a Polemarch, made a folemn Vow to Minerva, that if the would grant them Victory over their Enemies, they would facrifice to her as many He-goats, as fhould equal the Number of the Slain on their Enemies Side Minerva granted his Requeft, but the Number of the Perfians that fell in the Battel being fo great, that all the He-goats they could procure, did not come near it; inftead of them, they of fer'd all the She-goats they could find; and these alfo falling infinitely fhort of the Number, they made a Decree, that five Hundred Goats fhould be offer'd every Year, till it should be compleated. (a) De Abftinentia, lib. II. (b) Antonio. (c) Plutarch Sympof. lib. VIII. Quaft. I. (d) Idem Quæft. Roman, (e) Quæft. Grac. (f) Xenoph. Exped. Cyri. ΑΓΡΥ ΑΓΡΥΠΝΙΣ, A Nocturnal Festival, (a) celebrated in Honour of Bacchus, at Arbela, a Place in Sicily; and fo call'd because the Worshippers did a'ygúæve, or watch all Night. ΑΔΩΝΙΑ, ΑΔΩΝΕΙΑ, Was celebrated in most of the Cities of Greece, in Honour of Venus, and in Memory of her belov'd Adonis. The Solemnity continued two Days; upon the firft of which, certain Images, or Pictures of Adónis and Venus were brought forth, with all the Pomp and Ceremonies - practis'd at Funerals: the Women tore their Hair, beat their Breasts, and counterfeited all other Poftures, and Actions ufual in lamenting the Dead. This Lamentation was term'd adaviaoμò's (b), or àdavía, whence αδωνία άγειν is interpreted by Suidas, Αδωνιν κλαίειν,to weep for Adonis. The Songs on this Occasion were call'd duvida (c). There were alfo carry'd along with them, Shells fill'd with Earth, in which grew feveral forts of Herbs, especially Lettices; in memory that Adonis was laid out by Venus upon a Bed of Lettices. These were called Khan, Gardens; whence Adavid xm, are proverbially apply'd to things unfruitful, or fading; because those Herbs were only fown fo long before the Festival, asto fprout forth, and be green at that Time, and then were prefently caft out into the Water. The Flutes us'd upon this Day, were call'd Fyfeía, from Típus, which was the Phanician Name of Adonis. Hence to play on this Inftrument was term'd my Seav, or my scgivew. the Mufick, Seaous and the Songs lead. The Sacrifice was term'd Kadede, becaufe (I fuppofe) the Days of Mourning us'd to be call'd by that Name. The following Day was spent in all poffible Expreffions of Mirth and Joy; in Memory, that, by the Favour of Proferpina, Venus obtain'd, that Adonis should return to Life, and dwell with her one Half of every Year. All this vain Pomp, and ferious Folly, ferv'd only to expofe the Heathenish Superftition, and gave Birth to the Proverb, Ouder isev, by which feems to be meant Things that bear a Show of fomething Great, or Sacred, but are in Reality nothing but forry and ridiculous Trifles. ΑΘΗΝΑΙΑ, Two Festivals obferv'd at Athens, in Honour of Minerva ; one of them was call'd Παναθήναια, the other Χαλκεία, and both fall be treated of in their proper Places. ΑΙΑΚΕΙΑ, Sports at gina, in Honour of Eacus, who had a Temple in that Inland; wherein, after the End of the Solemnity, the Victors us'd to prefent a Garland of Flowers (d). (a) Hefchius. (b) Etymologici Auctor. (c) Proclus in Chreftomathia. (d) Pindarus, ejufque Scholiaftes Nemeon, Od. VI. |