DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52552#0055
ORIGIN AND AGE
39
Laconia under the name of the “fallen Zeus” a stone axe. Of
Caligula it is simply said that he “ hurled stones ” at the sky in
a thunderstorm.
It is, however, quite natural that the belief that lightning
resulted from the descent of a stone from the sky should have
been associated mainly with stone antiquities; everything,
indeed, points to the probability of this form of the belief also
dating back to the stone age. If it be objected that the people
of the stone age cannot have worshipped stone axes which
exactly resembled those made by themselves, it may be replied
that everything suggests that a fetish-worship of weapons and
implements, of which the axe ranked among the first, was
practised in the stone age. The relics of this cult are most
numerous in Babylonia and neighbouring countries, where
various monuments dating back to the earliest historical times
depict the spear, the club, and so on, often placed on an altar, as
objects of worship [ii8cj. The cult lasted with remarkable
tenacity until the Assyrian period and later when the weapons
worshipped were conceived of as the representatives or symbols
of personal gods, a fresh development of the original idea. In
ancient Greece, too, we find survivals in the local customs of
several districts of similar fetish-worship, which bear the stamp
of great antiquity. Amongst peoples that had remained in a
low stage of civilization it could be found alive and active far
down in historical times. Herodotus says of the Scythians
(IV. 62) that they built primitive sanctuaries, huge altars of
faggots and earth. On the top of them stood an ancient iron
sword—“this is the cult-image of the war-god”—to which they
sacrificed sheep and horses every year; they also sacrificed
prisoners of war, whose blood they poured over the sacred
sword. The Alani of South Russia worshipped a naked sword
as a god as late as the fourth century A.D., and from what we
are told we have no reason to suppose but that it was the
actual sword, such as they themselves ordinarily used, to which
worship was paid (Ammianus Marcellinus, XXXI. 2, 23).
In western Europe we find much evidence of a similar cult
which in part dates back to the stone age; for instance, in
representations on the megalithic tombs and other monuments
39
Laconia under the name of the “fallen Zeus” a stone axe. Of
Caligula it is simply said that he “ hurled stones ” at the sky in
a thunderstorm.
It is, however, quite natural that the belief that lightning
resulted from the descent of a stone from the sky should have
been associated mainly with stone antiquities; everything,
indeed, points to the probability of this form of the belief also
dating back to the stone age. If it be objected that the people
of the stone age cannot have worshipped stone axes which
exactly resembled those made by themselves, it may be replied
that everything suggests that a fetish-worship of weapons and
implements, of which the axe ranked among the first, was
practised in the stone age. The relics of this cult are most
numerous in Babylonia and neighbouring countries, where
various monuments dating back to the earliest historical times
depict the spear, the club, and so on, often placed on an altar, as
objects of worship [ii8cj. The cult lasted with remarkable
tenacity until the Assyrian period and later when the weapons
worshipped were conceived of as the representatives or symbols
of personal gods, a fresh development of the original idea. In
ancient Greece, too, we find survivals in the local customs of
several districts of similar fetish-worship, which bear the stamp
of great antiquity. Amongst peoples that had remained in a
low stage of civilization it could be found alive and active far
down in historical times. Herodotus says of the Scythians
(IV. 62) that they built primitive sanctuaries, huge altars of
faggots and earth. On the top of them stood an ancient iron
sword—“this is the cult-image of the war-god”—to which they
sacrificed sheep and horses every year; they also sacrificed
prisoners of war, whose blood they poured over the sacred
sword. The Alani of South Russia worshipped a naked sword
as a god as late as the fourth century A.D., and from what we
are told we have no reason to suppose but that it was the
actual sword, such as they themselves ordinarily used, to which
worship was paid (Ammianus Marcellinus, XXXI. 2, 23).
In western Europe we find much evidence of a similar cult
which in part dates back to the stone age; for instance, in
representations on the megalithic tombs and other monuments