{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/wikisource_The_Golden_Bough_Adonis_in_Cyprus/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/wikisource_The_Golden_Bough_Adonis_in_Cyprus","id":"wikisource_The_Golden_Bough_Adonis_in_Cyprus","license":"Public Domain / CC-BY-SA (see source)","rights_basis":"wikisource_site_inclusion_policy","source":"wikisource","source_url":"https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Golden_Bough/Adonis_in_Cyprus","summary":null,"tags":["Headers_applying_DefaultSort_key","Subpages"],"text":"CHAPTER XXXI\n\nADONIS IN CYPRUS\n\n{{sc|The island of Cyprus lies but one day's sail from the coast of\nSyria. Indeed, on fine summer evenings its mountains may be descried\nlooming low and dark against the red fires of sunset. With its rich\nmines of copper and its forests of firs and stately cedars, the\nisland naturally attracted a commercial and maritime people like the\nPhoenicians; while the abundance of its corn, its wine, and its oil\nmust have rendered it in their eyes a Land of Promise by comparison\nwith the niggardly nature of their own rugged coast, hemmed in\nbetween the mountains and the sea. Accordingly they settled in\nCyprus at a very early date and remained there long after the Greeks\nhad also established themselves on its shores; for we know from\ninscriptions and coins that Phoenician kings reigned at Citium, the\nChittim of the Hebrews, down to the time of Alexander the Great.\nNaturally the Semitic colonists brought their gods with them from\nthe mother-land. They worshipped Baal of the Lebanon, who may well\nhave been Adonis, and at Amathus on the south coast they instituted\nthe rites of Adonis and Aphrodite, or rather Astarte. Here, as at\nByblus, these rites resembled the Egyptian worship of Osiris so closely that some people even identified the Adonis of Amathus with Osiris.\n\nBut the great seat of the worship of Aphrodite and Adonis in Cyprus was Paphos on the south-western side of the island. Among the petty\nkingdoms into which Cyprus was divided from the earliest times until\nthe end of the fourth century before our era Paphos must have ranked\nwith the best. It is a land of hills and billowy ridges, diversified\nby fields and vineyards and intersected by rivers, which in the\ncourse of ages have carved for themselves beds of such tremendous\ndepth that travelling in the interior is difficult and tedious. The\nlofty range of Mount Olympus (the modern Troodos), capped with snow\nthe greater part of the year, screens Paphos from the northerly and\neasterly winds and cuts it off from the rest of the island. On the\nslopes of the range the last pine-woods of Cyprus linger, sheltering\nhere and there monasteries in scenery not unworthy of the Apennines.\nThe old city of Paphos occupied the summit of a hill about a mile\nfrom the sea; the newer city sprang up at the harbour some ten miles\noff. The sanctuary of Aphrodite at Old Paphos (the modern Kuklia)\nwas one of the most celebrated shrines in the ancient world.\nAccording to Herodotus, it was founded by Phoenician colonists from\nAscalon; but it is possible that a native goddess of fertility was\nworshipped on the spot before the arrival of the Phoenicians, and\nthat the newcomers identified her with their own Baalath or Astarte,\nwhom she may have closely resembled. If two deities were thus fused\nin one, we may suppose that they were both varieties of that great\ngoddess of motherhood and fertility whose worship appears to have\nbeen spread all over Western Asia from a very early time. The\nsupposition is confirmed as well by the archaic shape of her image\nas by the licentious character of her rites; for both that shape and\nthose rites were shared by her with other Asiatic deities. Her image\nwas simply a white cone or pyramid. In like manner, a cone was the\nemblem of Astarte at Byblus, of the native goddess whom the Greeks\ncalled Artemis at Perga in Pamphylia, and of the sun-god\nHeliogabalus at Emesa in Syria. Conical stones, which apparently\nserved as idols, have also been found at Golgi in Cyprus, and in the\nPhoenician temples of Malta; and cones of sandstone came to light at\nthe shrine of the \"Mistress of Torquoise\" among the barren hills and\nfrowning precipices of Sinai.\n\nIn Cyprus it appears that before marriage all women were formerly\nobliged by custom to prostitute themselves to strangers at the\nsanctuary of the goddess, whether she went by the name of Aphrodite,\nAstarte, or what not. Similar customs prevailed in many parts of\nWestern Asia. Whatever its motive, the practice was clearly\nregarded, not as an orgy of lust, but as a solemn religious duty\nperformed in the service of that great Mother Goddess of Western\nAsia whose name varied, while her type remained constant, from place\nto place. Thus at Babylon every woman, whether rich or poor, had\nonce in her life to submit to the embraces of a stranger at the\ntemple of Mylitta, that is, of Ishtar or Astarte, and to dedicate to\nthe goddess the wages earned by this sanctified harlotry. The sacred\nprecinct was crowded with women waiting to observe the custom. Some\nof them had to wait there for years. At Heliopolis or Baalbec in\nSyria, famous for the imposing grandeur of its ruined temples, the\ncustom of the country required that every maiden should prostitute\nherself to a stranger at the temple of Astarte, and matrons as well\nas maids testified their devotion to the goddess in the same manner.\nThe emperor Constantine abolished the custom, destroyed the temple,\nand built a church in its stead. In Phoenician temples women\nprostituted themselves for hire in the service of religion,\nbelieving that by this conduct they propitiated the goddess and won\nher favour. \"It was a law of the Amorites, that she who was about to\nmarry should sit in fornication seven days by the gate.\" At Byblus\nthe people shaved their heads in the annual mourning for Adonis.\nWomen who refused to sacrifice their hair had to give themselves up\nto strangers on a certain day of the festival, and the money which\nthey thus earned was devoted to the goddess. A Greek inscription\nfound at Tralles in Lydia proves that the practice of religious\nprostitution survived in that country as late as the second century\nof our era. It records of a certain woman, Aurelia Aemilia by name,\nnot only that she herself served the god in the capacity of a harlot\nat his express command, but that her mother and other female\nancestors had done the same before her; and the publicity of the\nrecord, engraved on a marble column which supported a votive\noffering, shows that no stain attached to such a life and such a\nparentage. In Armenia the noblest families dedicated their daughters\nto the service of the goddess Anaitis in her temple of Acilisena,\nwhere the damsels acted as prostitutes for a long time before they\nwere given in marriage. Nobody scrupled to take one of these girls\nto wife when her period of service was over. Again, the goddess Ma\nwas served by a multitude of sacred harlots at Comana in Pontus, and\ncrowds of men and women flocked to her sanctuary from the\nneighbouring cities and country to attend the biennial festivals or\nto pay their vows to the goddess.\n\nIf we survey the whole of the evidence on this subject, some of\nwhich has still to be laid before the reader, we may conclude that a\ngreat Mother Goddess, the personification of all the reproductive\nenergies of nature, was worshipped under different names but with a\nsubstantial similarity of myth and ritual by many peoples of Western\nAsia; that associated with her was a lover, or rather series of\nlovers, divine yet mortal, with whom she mated year by year, their\ncommerce being deemed essential to the propagation of animals and\nplants, each in their several kind; and further, that the fabulous\nunion of the divine pair was simulated and, as it were, multiplied\non earth by the real, though temporary, union of the human sexes at\nthe sanctuary of the goddess for the sake of thereby ensuring the\nfruitfulness of the ground and the increase of man and beast.\n\nAt Paphos the custom of religious prostitution is said to have been\ninstituted by King Cinyras, and to have been practised by his\ndaughters, the sisters of Adonis, who, having incurred the wrath of\nAphrodite, mated with strangers and ended their days in Egypt. In\nthis form of the tradition the wrath of Aphrodite is probably a\nfeature added by a later authority, who could only regard conduct which shocked his own moral sense as a punishment inflicted by the\ngoddess instead of as a sacrifice regularly enjoined by her on all\nher devotees. At all events the story indicates that the princesses\nof Paphos had to conform to the custom as well as women of humble\nbirth.\n\nAmong the stories which were told of Cinyras, the ancestor of the\npriestly kings of Paphos and the father of Adonis, there are some\nthat deserve our attention. In the first place, he is said to have\nbegotten his son Adonis in incestuous intercourse with his daughter\nMyrrha at a festival of the corn-goddess, at which women robed in\nwhite were wont to offer corn-wreaths as first-fruits of the harvest\nand to observe strict chastity for nine days. Similar cases of\nincest with a daughter are reported of many ancient kings. It seems\nunlikely that such reports are without foundation, and perhaps\nequally improbable that they refer to mere fortuitous outbursts of\nunnatural lust. We may suspect that they are based on a practice\nactually observed for a definite reason in certain special\ncircumstances. Now in countries where the royal blood was traced\nthrough women only, and where consequently the king held office\nmerely in virtue of his marriage with an hereditary princess, who\nwas the real sovereign, it appears to have often happened that a\nprince married his own sister, the princess royal, in order to\nobtain with her hand the crown which otherwise would have gone to\nanother man, perhaps to a stranger. May not the same rule of descent\nhave furnished a motive for incest with a daughter? For it seems a\nnatural corollary from such a rule that the king was bound to vacate\nthe throne on the death of his wife, the queen, since he occupied it\nonly by virtue of his marriage with her. When that marriage\nterminated, his right to the throne terminated with it and passed at\nonce to his daughter's husband. Hence if the king desired to reign\nafter his wife's death, the only way in which he could legitimately\ncontinue to do so was by marrying his daughter, and thus prolonging\nthrough her the title which had formerly been his through her\nmother.\n\nCinyras is said to have been famed for his exquisite beauty and to\nhave been wooed by Aphrodite herself. Thus it would appear, as\nscholars have already observed, that Cinyras was in a sense a\nduplicate of his handsome son Adonis, to whom the inflammable\ngoddess also lost her heart. Further, these stories of the love of\nAphrodite for two members of the royal house of Paphos can hardly be\ndissociated from the corresponding legend told of Pygmalion, a\nPhoenician king of Cyprus, who is said to have fallen in love with\nan image of Aphrodite and taken it to his bed. When we consider that\nPygmalion was the father-in-law of Cinyras, that the son of Cinyras\nwas Adonis, and that all three, in successive generations, are said\nto have been concerned in a love-intrigue with Aphrodite, we can\nhardly help concluding that the early Phoenician kings of Paphos, or\ntheir sons, regularly claimed to be not merely the priests of the\ngoddess but also her lovers, in other words, that in their official\ncapacity they personated Adonis. At all events Adonis is said to\nhave reigned in Cyprus, and it appears to be certain that the title of Adonis was regularly borne by the sons of all the Phoenician\nkings of the island. It is true that the title strictly signified no\nmore than \"lord\"; yet the legends which connect these Cyprian\nprinces with the goddess of love make it probable that they claimed\nthe divine nature as well as the human dignity of Adonis. The story\nof Pygmalion points to a ceremony of a sacred marriage in which the\nking wedded the image of Aphrodite, or rather of Astarte. If that\nwas so, the tale was in a sense true, not of a single man only, but\nof a whole series of men, and it would be all the more likely to be\ntold of Pygmalion, if that was a common name of Semitic kings in\ngeneral, and of Cyprian kings in particular. Pygmalion, at all\nevents, is known as the name of the king of Tyre from whom his\nsister Dido fled; and a king of Citium and Idalium in Cyprus, who\nreigned in the time of Alexander the Great, was also called\nPygmalion, or rather Pumiyathon, the Phoenician name which the\nGreeks corrupted into Pygmalion. Further, it deserves to be noted\nthat the names Pygmalion and Astarte occur together in a Punic\ninscription on a gold medallion which was found in a grave at\nCarthage; the characters of the inscription are of the earliest\ntype. As the custom of religious prostitution at Paphos is said to\nhave been founded by king Cinyras and observed by his daughters, we\nmay surmise that the kings of Paphos played the part of the divine\nbridegroom in a less innocent rite than the form of marriage with a\nstatue; in fact, that at certain festivals each of them had to mate\nwith one or more of the sacred harlots of the temple, who played\nAstarte to his Adonis. If that was so, there is more truth than has\ncommonly been supposed in the reproach cast by the Christian fathers\nthat the Aphrodite worshipped by Cinyras was a common whore. The\nfruit of their union would rank as sons and daughters of the deity,\nand would in time become the parents of gods and goddesses, like\ntheir fathers and mothers before them. In this manner Paphos, and\nperhaps all sanctuaries of the great Asiatic goddess where sacred\nprostitution was practised, might be well stocked with human\ndeities, the offspring of the divine king by his wives, concubines,\nand temple harlots. Any one of these might probably succeed his\nfather on the throne or be sacrificed in his stead whenever stress\nof war or other grave junctures called, as they sometimes did, for\nthe death of a royal victim. Such a tax, levied occasionally on the\nking's numerous progeny for the good of the country, would neither\nextinguish the divine stock nor break the father's heart, who\ndivided his paternal affection among so many. At all events, if, as\nthere seems reason to believe, Semitic kings were often regarded at\nthe same time as hereditary deities, it is easy to understand the\nfrequency of Semitic personal names which imply that the bearers of\nthem were the sons or daughters, the brothers or sisters, the\nfathers or mothers of a god, and we need not resort to the shifts\nemployed by some scholars to evade the plain sense of the words.\nThis interpretation is confirmed by a parallel Egyptian usage; for\nin Egypt, where the kings were worshipped as divine, the queen was called \"the wife of the god\" or \"the mother of the god,\" and the title \"father of the god\" was borne not only by the king's real\nfather but also by his father-in-law. Similarly, perhaps, among the\nSemites any man who sent his daughter to swell the royal harem may\nhave been allowed to call himself \"the father of the god.\"\n\nIf we may judge by his name, the Semitic king who bore the name of\nCinyras was, like King David, a harper; for the name of Cinyras is\nclearly connected with the Greek cinyra, \"a lyre,\" which in its\nturn comes from the Semitic kinnor, \"a lyre,\" the very word\napplied to the instrument on which David played before Saul. We\nshall probably not err in assuming that at Paphos as at Jerusalem\nthe music of the lyre or harp was not a mere pastime designed to\nwhile away an idle hour, but formed part of the service of religion,\nthe moving influence of its melodies being perhaps set down, like\nthe effect of wine, to the direct inspiration of a deity. Certainly\nat Jerusalem the regular clergy of the temple prophesied to the\nmusic of harps, of psalteries, and of cymbals; and it appears that\nthe irregular clergy also, as we may call the prophets, depended on\nsome such stimulus for inducing the ecstatic state which they took\nfor immediate converse with the divinity. Thus we read of a band of\nprophets coming down from a high place with a psaltery, a timbrel, a\npipe, and a harp before them, and prophesying as they went. Again,\nwhen the united forces of Judah and Ephraim were traversing the\nwilderness of Moab in pursuit of the enemy, they could find no water\nfor three days, and were like to die of thirst, they and the beasts\nof burden. In this emergency the prophet Elisha, who was with the\narmy, called for a minstrel and bade him play. Under the influence\nof the music he ordered the soldiers to dig trenches in the sandy\nbed of the waterless waddy through which lay the line of march. They\ndid so, and next morning the trenches were full of the water that\nhad drained down into them underground from the desolate, forbidding\nmountains on either hand. The prophet's success in striking water in\nthe wilderness resembles the reported success of modern dowsers,\nthough his mode of procedure was different. Incidentally he rendered\nanother service to his countrymen. For the skulking Moabites from\ntheir lairs among the rocks saw the red sun of the desert reflected\nin the water, and taking it for the blood, or perhaps rather for an\nomen of the blood, of their enemies, they plucked up heart to attack\nthe camp and were defeated with great slaughter.\n\nAgain, just as the cloud of melancholy which from time to time\ndarkened the moody mind of Saul was viewed as an evil spirit from\nthe Lord vexing him, so on the other hand the solemn strains of the\nharp, which soothed and composed his troubled thoughts, may well\nhave seemed to the hag-ridden king the very voice of God or of his\ngood angel whispering peace. Even in our own day a great religious\nwriter, himself deeply sensitive to the witchery of music, has said\nthat musical notes, with all their power to fire the blood and melt\nthe heart, cannot be mere empty sounds and nothing more; no, they\nhave escaped from some higher sphere, they are outpourings of eternal eternal harmony, the voice of angels, the Magnificat of saints. It\nis thus that the rude imaginings of primitive man are transfigured\nand his feeble lispings echoed with a rolling reverberation in the\nmusical prose of Newman. Indeed the influence of music on the\ndevelopment of religion is a subject which would repay a sympathetic\nstudy. For we cannot doubt that this, the most intimate and\naffecting of all the arts, has done much to create as well as to\nexpress the religious emotions, thus modifying more or less deeply\nthe fabric of belief to which at first sight it seems only to\nminister. The musician has done his part as well as the prophet and\nthe thinker in the making of religion. Every faith has its\nappropriate music, and the difference between the creeds might\nalmost be expressed in musical notation. The interval, for example,\nwhich divides the wild revels of Cybele from the stately ritual of\nthe Catholic Church is measured by the gulf which severs the\ndissonant clash of cymbals and tambourines from the grave harmonies\nof Palestrina and Handel. A different spirit breathes in the\ndifference of the music.","title":"The Golden Bough/Adonis in Cyprus","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":3312}