Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 2,1): Zeus god of the dark sky (thunder and lightning): Text and notes (Cambridge, 1925)

Attis in relation to Christianity 303

(£) Attis in relation to Christianity.

The cult of Attis had points of contact with Christianity itself.
A Father manifesting himself anew in the person of his Son, a Son
bearing the name of his Father,—such beliefs naturally predisposed
men to faith in that Son whom the Father sent to be 'the effulgence
of his glory, and the very image of his substance1.' Outward cere-
monies and inward doctrines alike lent themselves to this end. The
rites of Attis, apart from certain crudities, might almost have passed
for Christian usage—witness the body of the divine Son affixed to
the pine-tree2, the lamentation over his prostrate form, the sudden

1 Hebrews i. 3.

2 At the festival of the vernal equinox (March 22) known as arbor intrat (H. Hepding
Attis seine Mythen und sein Kult Gieszen 1903 p. 149 ff., Frazer Golden Bough '': Adonis
Attis Osiris3 i. 267 f.). Firmicus Maternus (c. 347 A.u.), who alone mentions the effigy
fastened to the tree, already cites parallels (Firm. Mat. 27. 1 f. in sacris Frygiis, quae
matris deum dicunt, per annos singulos arbor pinea caeditur et in media arbore simulacrum
iuvenis subligatur. in Isiacis sacris de pinea arbore caeditur truncus, huius trunci media
pars subtiliter excavatur : illic (so F. Oehler for illis cod. P.) de segminibus (so Wovverius
for seminibus cod. P.) factum idolum Osiridis sepelitur (cp. Plout. de Is. et Os. 8, 16, 18,
21, 42). in Proserpinae sacris caesa arbor in effigiem virginis formamque componitur et cum
intra civitatem fuerit inlata, quadraginta noctibus plangitur, quadragesima vero nocte
comburitur). The same method of comparative study has been followed with conspicuous
success by W. Mannhardt Wald- und Feldculte2 Berlin 1904 i. 572 f., 1905 ii. 291 ft", and
by Frazer Golden Bough": The Magic Art ii. 59 ft"., id.3 : The Dying God p. 251 ft". The
former regards the tree with its effigy of Attis as a ' Verkdrperung des vom Tode erwachten
Wachstumsgeistes' [op. citr ii. 295). The latter says : ' The bringing in of the pine-tree
from the woods, decked with violets and woollen bands, is like bringing in the May-tree
or Summer-tree in modern folk-custom ; and the effigy which was attached to the pine-
tree was only a duplicate representative of the tree-spirit Attis' {op. cit?': Adonis Attis
Osiris3 i. 277).

I confess, I do not agree with these conclusions. So far as I can judge the evidence
available, at least in the classical area, the tree-spirit was essentially female, being but a
vegetable form of the earth-mother (supra i. 1 n. 3, 339, 396 f., 525 f., 779 f.). Her
consort was male, being originally an embodiment or representative of the sky-father.
The May-queen in popular custom stands for the fertilised vegetation-power, the May-king
for her fertilising partner : their union ensures the fertility of the whole neighbourhood.
On this showing (to get back to Attis) the man in the tree was not conceived as ' a dupli-
cate representative of the tree-spirit,' but as in some sense (husband ? victim ? both ?)
devoted to the tree—the male to the female—for the purpose of promoting fertility. Attis,
like Pentheus (on whom see an illuminating article by my friend the Rev. A. G. Bather
'The problem of the Bacchae* in the Journ. Hell. Stud. 1894 xiv. 244—263, Farnell
Cults of Gk. States v. 167 f., Frazer Golden Bough* : Adonis Attis Osiris3 ii. 98, ib.'6 ;
Spirits of Corn and Wild i. 24 f., supra i. 679), whose name—Prof. H. M. Chadwick
suggests to me—may hang together with that of the Thracian Bendis (cp. the Thracian
Penthesileia, if not also the Lesbian Penthilos, etc.), was a divine king (Ioul. or. 5. 168 c
toO fiacriXews"Arridos, 169 c 6 fia<ri\evs"ATTcs, /user. Gr. Sic. It. no. 9131 3 f. Ostia ["Arrei'] |
MijvoTvlpdvvip'], Corp. inscr. lat. vi nos. 499, 3 f. Attidi | Menotyranno invicto, 500, 2 f.
Attidi Meno|tyranno, 501, 2 f. Attidi sancto | Menotyranno, 508. 1 f. [Atjjti Menotyranno,
511, 1 Attidi Menoturano, ro Attidis Minoturani, 512, 1 [Attidi Menotyranno]) and, as
Sir James Frazer has shown (Golden Bough7,: Adonis Attis Osiris3 i. 285 ft.), presupposes
a line of priestly kings once sacrificed at periodic intervals for the good of the community.