Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 1): Zeus god of the bright sky (Cambridge, 1914)

The Midsummer Wheel 287

the world." As it is said in John vi, He is a burning light, shining before the
Lord, who hath prepared a way for the Lord in the wilderness. In some places
a wheel is rolled, to signify that just as the sun comes to the highest parts of its
circle and can get no higher but then descends in the circle, so too the glory of
John, who was thought to be the Christ, descends, according to the witness that
he himself bore when he said " He must increase, but I must decrease." And
some say that this was said because the days then begin to decrease and at the
nativity of Christ to increase. But as to their decreasing before the feast of
Saint John and increasing before the birthday of Our Lord, this we must under-
stand of their nativity in the mother, that is to say, of the time when each was
conceived; because John was conceived when the days were decreasing, as in
September, Christ when they were increasing, as in April. Or take it of the
death of each; for the body of Christ was uplifted on the cross, whereas the
body of John was cut short by being beheaded.'

From this singular medley of superstition and piety, which agrees
with the accounts given by other mediaeval Latinists and can be
traced back to the twelfth century1, one fact stands out clearly.
The Midsummer wheel represented the sun. Dr Frazer, after
recording in detail a large number of examples, concludes as
follows2: 'The best general explanation of these European fire-
festivals seems to be the one given by Mannhardt, namely, that
they are sun-charms or magical ceremonies intended to ensure a
proper supply of sunshine for men, animals, and plants....This
view of the festivals is supported by various arguments drawn
partly from the rites themselves, partly from the influence which
they are believed to exert upon the weather and on vegetation.
For example, the custom of rolling a burning wheel down a hill-
side, which is often observed at these times, seems a very natural
imitation of the sun's course in the sky, and the imitation is
especially appropriate on Midsummer Day when the sun's annual
declension begins. Not less graphic is the mimicry of his apparent
revolution by swinging a burning tar-barrel round a pole. The
custom of throwing blazing discs, shaped like suns, into the air
is probably also a piece of imitative magic. In these, as in so
many cases, the magic force is supposed to take effect through
mimicry or sympathy; by imitating the desired result you actually

1 John Beleth, a Parisian divine, who wrote his Summa de divinis officiis about
1162 a.d., appears to have been the immediate source of G. Durandus ; for the extract,
which J. Grimm Teutonic Alythology trans. J. S. Stallybrass ii. 620 f. gives from Beleth
Summa Dillingen 1572 cap. 137 fol. 256, agrees substantially, in part even verbally, with
the corresponding sections of Durandus Rationale, which was written in 1286 a.d. Very
similar again is cod. Harleian. 2345 art. 100 cited by J. Brand Popular Antiquities rev.
Sir H. Ellis London 1849 *• 29& n- 1 anc^ more fully by J. M. Kemble The Saxons in
England'2 London 1876 i. 361 f. See further E. Kuhn Die Herabkunft des Feuers und
des Gottertranks Gutersloh 1886 p. 47 ff., W. Mannhardt Wald- und Feldkulte2 Berlin
1904 i. 509, Frazer Golden Bough2 iii. 267.

2 Frazer Golden Bough2 iii. 300f.