English
When Romulus, so says the tradition, had slain Acron king of Cenina in single combat, he hung the “Spolia Opima” on an ancient oak on the Capitoline Hill, which the shepherds before that time had considered as sacred, and there marked out the boundaries of the Temple of Jupiter, which was the first and became afterwards the most sacred of Roman temples.* On the other hand, almost the only tradition that seems to- give a local and indigenous form to Serpent Worship is that connected with Lanuvium, a. place sixteen miles south of Rome. Here we learn from lian there existed-a large and dark grove, and near it a temple of the Argive Juno. In this place was a vast and deep coxe, the abode of a great serpent. To this grove the virgins of Latium were taken annually to ascertain: their chastity, which was indicated by the dragon.t If the serpent accepted the offering, not only was their purity considered as established, but al good and fertile sedison was sure to result from the success of the ordeal.t A similar vacle scems to have existed in Epirus, where a circular grove once stood surrounded by 6 : : : rs * Livy, 1. 10. > lian, Var. Hist. IX. 16. { Propertius, Eleg. VHI. 4. 799.) c 18 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. a wall in which the sacred serpeftits were kept, descended it is said from the great Python ie Delphi, and here dedicated 40 Apollo. On the great festival of the year a virgin ipriestess entered the grove naked, holding in her hand the sacred food. If they took it readily, a fruitful harvest and a plentiful year, were sure to follow. If they refused, it was considered as the gloomiest of auguries.* The one difference. between the two uracles being that in the Eastern oracle the serpents were not called upon to decide as — io the chastity of the priestess, but merely to prophesy as to the prospects of the year. Exeept in the instance of Lanuvium the traces of this primitive religion became infinitely more scarce in Italy than they were found to be in Greece, but whether this arises from their non-existence, or merely because they were not recorded, is by no means clear. As mentioned on a previous page,t the actual worship of the serpent. was introduced from Epidaurus to Rome 462 a.v.c., but the fact of such an embassy heing sent on this occasion indicates a degree of faith on the part of the people, which could only have arisen from previous familiarity. In the Augustan age, enlightenment was too far advanced for such a primitive form of faith to have any real hold on the public mind. Indeed, when such a treatise as that of Cicero De Natura Deorum became popular many much more advanced beliefs than that in serpents were trembling in the balance, but the poets still delighted in referring to those forms which time and mystery had long rendered venerable. Ovid’s Meta- morphoses are full of passages referring to the important part which the Serpent | performed in all the traditions of Classic Mythology. , * Every one is familiar with the circumstances of the tw6 snakes seit by Minerva to destroy Laocoon{ for his attempt to undeceive the fated Trojans. Their task accomplished, they sought refuge behind the shield of Pallas in her temple in the town. Still more characteristic was the appearance of a serpent from the tomb, when Aineas was sacrificing to the manes of his father Anchises,§ and his hesitation as to whether the unexpected apparition should be considered as the genius toci, or an attendant on his deceased parent. * Ta the other poets there are numerous allusions to Serpents: ‘and Serpent Worship, which in themselves, taken separately, would not be of much importance, and which consequently it would be tedious to quote, though taken altogether, - with the other information we possess, they do indicate a prevalence of reverence “for the serpent in nee greater than might be expected from so enlightened and so. freethinking a community. There is one passage, however, in Perseus || which it is impossible to pass over. It is that in‘ which the satirist orders.“ two serpents to be painted “on the wall to indicate that the place is sacred.” The form of this painting we learn from several examples at Pompeii and Herculaneum, .where two of somewhat conventional form, and in very conventional attitudes, approach an altar or some object which their presence seems intended to sanctify. There is every reason to suppose that such representations were much more common ‘than the few remains we possess might at first sight lead | us to suppose, and that the. serpents were 2 also * Félian, de Animal, XI. 2, - || Pinge duos angues : + Vide ante, p. 14. ~ Pueri, sacer est locus.—Sat. I. 112. { Virgil, 2neid, IT. 200 and 227. q Antichit. d’Ercolano, IV., p. 65. pl xii; § Ibid., V. 84, et seq. Mazois, IT. pl. 24, &e. 2b INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. Pergamos, Thyatira, Smyrna, Ephesus, Sardes, Laodicea, Adramyttium, Tralles,* Apamea, and Nysa. As will be observed, this list comprises all the Seven Churches of Asia, with the exception of Philadelphia, and it is by no means clear that it, too, may not be eventually included. Is this coincidence accidental ? If not absolutely, it certainly is nearly correct to assert, that no people adopted Buddhism. except those among whom Serpent Worship can certainly be traced as pre-existing, and it appears probable that the worshippers of the serpent should in like manner be more open to the influence of Christianity than the refined and sceptical Greek or Roman.. This is not the place to attempt the investigation of such a subject, even if the materials existed for the purpose, but I may state, that my impression is, that thése coins and other evidence} do prove the existence of a form of Serpent Worship in the cities of Asia-Minor till after the Christian era. And, if I am not mistaken, the presence of such a form of faith may have influenced the early spread of Christianity in these cities to'an extent not hitherto suspected. GERMANY. We look in vain through the classical authors for any trace of Serpent Worship among the Germans, nor indeed ought we to expect to find any,among a people so essentially Aryan as they are, and always were; while, on the other hand, we have not in Germany, as we find in Greece, any traces of that underlying race of less intg}lectual Tu‘anians who seem everywhere to have been the aa worshippers all the world over. By whatever name they may have been known, these Ophite races seem, in Europe at least, never to have penetrated far inland from the shore of the sea. The deeply- indented coasts of Greece thus presented a singularly favourable locality for their settlement. Theyeswarmed up the rivers of France, and the shores of such an inland sea as the Baltic was also well suited to their habits. They were adepts at draining lakes or embanking the estuaries of the rivers on which they settled. Fish seems to have been their principal food, and fishing consequently their chief occupation. What domestic animals they possessed they pastured on the alluvial plains which were kept clear of forests.and fertilized by. the floods. Such a people were, however, utterly incompetent to deal with the forests that covered the soil of Germany, and incapable of that steady organization of labour without which success in agriculture is impossible; especially under so rigorous a climate, and conditions so unfavourable as those which the surface of Germany must have presented to the earliest settlers there. If, however, we find no traces of Serpent Worship among the purely Teutonic races, the evidences of Tree Worship are numerous and complete. Tacitus, in his Germania, alludes to it frequently. In one place he distinctly states that the Germans have no images, and decline to enclose their gods within walls, but consecrate groves and woods, within which they call on the name of God.t They called together the people of their own race in woods sanctified by the auguries of their forefathers or pristine awe,§ * Those of Tralles have also the Indian humped bull on the obverse (pl. 1, figs. 18 and 20), though what this may mean it is impossible at present to say. { Herodotus, I. 78. t Tacitus, Germ. 9, . § Prisca formidine, Loc. cit. 89. GERMANY.—SARMATIA, se 21 and sacred groves and trees are mentioned by flame both by him and Czsar.* The most frequent mention, however, of the saered groves and. trees of the Germans is to be found in the earlier’ Christian writers, who, when narrating the events that accompanied the conversion’ of the nation to Christianity, relate how these were cut down and destroyed, in order that the old superstitions might be eradicated. These have been collected and arranged by Grimm + with his usual industry and intelligence, sothat it is hardly necessary here to go over the same ground again. The conclusion he arrives at (p. 60) is that “individual gods might have dwelt on hill-tops, or in ** caves, or rivers, but the festal universal religion of the people had its abode in * woods, and nowhere has another temple yet been found.” The first care of the Christian missionaries, wherever they went, was to cut down. the groves of the Pagans, and to desecrate their ancient places of worship, or to speak more correctly, to consecrate them by the erection ofa chapel or church within their sacred precincts. They soon discovered that by the first course they only excited the wrath and enmity of the natives, by the latter they conciliated them, and drew them insensibly towards the purer faith ; but they fail to tell us how long these quasi converts persisted in venerating in their hearts the god-like grove rather than the miserable stone and mortar house in which the priests told them their new god alone consented to dwell.