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Notes on Beliefs and Myths

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

A. D. Nock
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Extract

My remarks about the Mithraeum at Capua in J.H.S. 1925, p. 100, require correction in view of Professor Minto's excellent publication of his discovery in Notizie degli scavi, 1924, p. 353 ff. It is not true that ‘the initiate … appears to be represented as a child, not as a man.’ In the stucco decorations of the podia the initiate is in fact represented as smaller than the mystagogue and the officiating priest (see figures 10–15 in Minto's article). It is possible that the officiants were supposed to act the parts of divine personages and were therefore represented as larger than human in accordance with a common artistic convention. In any case there is in the stuccos no additional evidence for Mithraic belief in the rebirth of the initiate as a child.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 46 , Issue 1 , 1926 , pp. 47 - 53
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1926

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References

1 Described by Strong, E. and Jolliffe, N., J.H.S. xliv. 65 ff.Google Scholar

2 Notizie degli scavi, 1919, p. 36; J.H.S. xliv. 67. Bendinelli, , Bullet. comm. arch. commun. i. (1922), 115Google Scholar, thinks that a statue stood here.

3 Cf. Kern, O., Orphica, p. 298.Google Scholar

4 Cf. on this conjecture Eitrem, , Opferritus und Voropfer, p. 54Google Scholar, and Cook, A. B., Zeus, ii. 1203.Google Scholar

5 For thronosis as a preliminary rite cf. Aristoph. Nub. 254, where Socrates, in what Dieterich regards with reason as a parody of Orphic ritual, makes Strepsiades sit on a For thronosis as a culminating point cf. Farnell, L. R., Cults, iii. 301Google Scholar, and Graillot's, H. imaginative reconstruction in Le culte de Cybèle, p. 184Google Scholar, also Cook's, A. B. interpretation of a relief dedicated to sanctus Bronton (Zeus, ii. 838 f., fig. 795).Google Scholar

6 B.S.A. xviii. 49; cf. Picard, Ch., Éphèse et Claros, p. 306.Google Scholar

7 Cf. Eisler, R., Weltenmantel und Himmelszelt, p. 762Google Scholar; Chapot, V., Dar.-Sagl. v. 280Google Scholar; Herter, H., Rh. Mus. lxxiv. 164 ff.Google Scholar Sometimes a cult statue was set ori the throne: on it stood always Apollo of Amyclae (Pausan. iii. 19. 1) and Hermes of Aenus (to judge from the coins, Die antiken Münzen Nord-Griechenlands, II. i. 1, 185 f., Taf. v. 4). A hierophant's throne at Eleusis is mentioned by Eunap. Vita Maximi, p. 52, ed. Boissonade, (1822).Google Scholar

8 Notizie, 1918, p. 41, fig. 9; J.H.S. 1924, p. 77, fig. 5 (reproduced on p. 49).

9 Cf. Ap. Rhod. iii. 802; Orphic, Argonautica, p. 956Google Scholar, and Sophocles, Ῥιζοτόμοι fr. 534Google Scholar, Pearson (= 491, Nauck2)

10 Cf. Roscher, ii. 80.

11 Mélanges arch. hist. xxxix. 186.

12 Still appearing in Crete on coins of Hadrian; cf. Svoronos, , Numismatique de la Crète, i. 353Google Scholar, No. 121 f., pl. 35, 36 f.; was the small bronze horned altar (7 inches high) figured by A. B. Cook (Zeus, ii. plate xi., facing p. 193) made for use in magic?

13 As P. Lond. 46. 208, Wessely (= 203 Kenyon), P. Par. 1859, 2186, P. Leid. W i. 11. Note that in the first passage you are directed to make first an offering of myrrh and other aromata on a τράπεζα, then here the ἐπίθυμα on the τράπεζα is distinguished from the ἄλλη θυσία on wood (possibly on a βωμός, but it is not mentioned).

14 Cf. J. Eg. Arch. xi. 154 f.

15 As xiv. 15.

16 Cf. Eitrem, , Papyri Osloenses, i. 93, 114 f.Google Scholar, and for abundant illustrations of ‘insulation,’ Frazer, J. G., Golden Bough 3, x. 2 ff., iii. 110, 180, 241, xi. 51Google Scholar (the metaphor is his). For this conception of magical force as something which can escape, cf. Hippiatrica, p. 128, Miller, (Notices et extraits, XXI. ii.)Google Scholar: (leg. )

17 Cf. Heckenbach, J., R.G.V.V. ix. 3, 44 ff.Google Scholar, and Marett, R. R., The Threshold of Religion 3, 73 ff.Google Scholar

18 Cf. Hermann, G., Orphica, 811 ff.Google Scholar, and Christ-Schmid, , Gesch. griech. Litt. ii 6. 983.Google Scholar

19 This is perhaps suggested by Hecate's epithet κλειδοῦχος, on which cf. n. 26 infra.

20 Cf. Stat. Theb. iv. 456 (necromancy).

21 For cf. P. Par. 2641, (to Selene, often identified with Hecate), 3146 (small shrine made thereof, as in P. Parthey, i. 22); for κέδρος cf. P. Leid. V. iv. 26 (its oil prescribed for use); for ῥάμνος ib. xii. 27 (as substitute for bone of ibis), P. Mimaut, 205 W., and as used in amu lets Hopfner, , Griechisch-Ägyptischer Offenbarungszauber, i. 132Google Scholar, § 521; I cannot illustrate.

22 At least for χάλκανθος cf. P. Leid. V. xii. 16, and for Cyranides, i. ψ 2, p. 45, Mely-Ruelle (it is defined as still, that phrase is common-place in Cyran.).

23 Cf. P. Par. 1418, E. is invoked after Hermes, etc. in P. Lond. 46. 191 W.; in P. Par. 2339 read (not as Wessely, ).

24 Cf. P. Par. 2119 (heads of cow, maiden, dog) and Wünsch, , Arch. Jahrb. Erg. H. vi.Google Scholar; for her dogs, Hopfner, i. 112, § 460; for her sword (980), Wünsch, 25.

25 Cf. Eitrem, , Papyri Osloenses, i. 65 ff.Google Scholar

26 ib. 111. Hecate was worshipped as which presumably means ‘having the keys of the under-world,’ and has the key as an attribute; her key was carried in procession at Lagina (Nilsson, , Griechische Feste, 400 f.Google Scholar).

27 Miss J. R. Bacon has kindly drawn my attention to the fact that Plut. De Herodoti malignitate, xxvi. p. 862 A, seems to equate Agrotera, worshipped at Agrae, with Hecate, unless Wyttenbach is correct in supposing that the context requires

28 Cf. Heckenbach, J., Pauly-Wissowa, vii. 2781Google Scholar; on the sacrifice of dogs Gruppe has an instructive note, Griech. Mythologie, 8048.

29 Cf. Nilsson, 399, Heckenbaeh l.c., Dieterich, , De hymnis Orphicis, 44 f.Google Scholar

30 As, for instance, with the rite which Lucian, , Necyomantia, 9Google Scholar, describes by way of parody.

31 Cf. Preller-Robert, , Griech. Mythologie 4, i. 3122.Google Scholar It is tempting to suppose that this cult was closely related to the neigh bouring cult of Bendis, cf. Cook, A. B., Zeus, ii. 115.Google Scholar

32 A detail which may be remarked in passing is that as a parallel to the we know that cakes were offered to Artemis at Munyehia (Pollux, vi. 75) as to Hecate elsewhere (as at Delos, Athenaeus. xiv. p. 645 B).

33 Line 469 f.,

34 For their use in a purificatory rite cf. Suppl. Epigr. gr. ii. 710, 12 f. (put on by all the other priestesses at Pednelissus at the purification of the new Galato, that is, priestess of Apollo). She enters on office after a τελετή, cf. 1. 10, like other priests discussed, Cl. Q. 1926.

35 Compare a passage which illustrates this, though it proves nothing, H. Orph. i. 9 (to Hecate), There was at Aegina some sort of traditio sacra, according to Orig. Contra Celsum, vi. 22.

36 Analecta Bollandiana, xxviii. (1909), 121; Byzantinische Zeitschrift, xvii. (1908), 609 ff.

37 Pithocus, , Codex canonum ecclesiae Romanae (Paris, 1687), p. 85Google Scholar, and Mansi, , Concilia (ed. 1731), iii. 570 A.Google Scholar

38 As does also the tradition, confirmed by a text quoted by Maas l.c., that he was consecrated bishop by Epiphanios, Metropolitan of Cyprus, from 367 to 403.