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)

306 Attis in relation to Christianity

blaze of light, the words of comfort whispered by the priest:

Courage, ye mystics of the god now saved ;
Salvation shall be ours from all our woes1 !

No less suggestive was the teaching connected with the taurobolium
and criobolium2. In all the Zeus-cults of the Mediterranean world
the bull and the ram play their part as centres of procreative power3.
And by this dread baptism in their blood and reception of their
vital forces4 the worshipper (I quote a Roman altar of the fourth
century) was 'reborn to life eternal5.' The devotee of Attis belonged

on the part of the victim.' But, if those Eddie stanzas represent a genuine Norse belief,
the sacrifice of Odhin to Odhin on the gallows tree might well be taken as the nearest
pagan parallel to the crucifixion of Christ.

1 Firm. Mat. 22. 1 nocte quadam simulacrum in lectica supinum ponitur et per
numeros digestis fletibus plangitur : deinde cum se ficta lamentatione satiaverint, lumen
infertur : tunc a sacerdote omnium qui flebant fauces unguentur, quibus perunctis sacerdos
hoc lento murmure susurrat : Oappeire /uihttcu tov deov aeacocrfxei'ov \ earai yap T)fuv 4k
ttovwv awTTjpia. That the allusion is to the rites of Attis appears from Firm. Mat. 3. 1 ft.,
cp. Damaskios v. Lsid. ap. Phot. bibl. p. 345 a 5 ff. Bekker rore rrj 'lepavoXei iyKadev-
drjeras e86/<ovv 'ovap 6"Atttjs yeveadai, ko.1 /jlol eTrireXelcrdai irapa rrjs fj.rjTpbs tCiv Qtthv tt}v t&v
IXapLwv Ka\ov/j.ev<x)i> eopTrjv oirep idrjXov TTjV e£ adov yeyovvtav ti/jlQv uwrripLav.

2 Supra i. 717 n. 2, H. Graillot Le culte de Cybele Mire des dieux a Rome et dans Pem-
pire romain Paris 1912 p. 153 ff., Frazer Go/den Bough*: Adonis Attis Osiris3 i. 2746°.

3 Supra i. 428 ff., 633 ff., 716 ff., 779.

4 Wissowa Kel. Kult. Rom.2 p. 325 : ' eine besondere, nicht vollig aufgeklarte Rolle
spielen beim Opfer die Hoden (vires) des Stieres' citing Corp. inscr. Lat. xiii no. 510,
3 ff. = Dessau Inscr. Lat. sel. no. 4127, 3 ff. (Lactora in Aquitania) vires esce|pit Eutyche|tis,
xiii no. 1751, ioff. = Dessau no. 4.131, 10 ff. (Lugdunum) vires excepit et a Vaticano
transjtulit, ara et bucranium | suo inpendio consacravit, xiii no. 522, 3 ff. (Lactora) vires
tauri, I quo propri(e) | per tauropo lium pub(lice) fac|tum fecerat, | consacravit, xiii no.
525, 3 ff. =Dessau no. 4129, 3 ft". (Lactora) vires tauri, | quo proprie I per tauropo|lium
pub(lice) fact(um) | fecerat, consacravit, xii no. 1567, 20 f. = Dessau no. 4140, 20 f. (Dea
Augusta Vocontiorum) loco vires con ditae. H. Graillot op. cit. p. 155 n. 6 adds Ephevi.
epigr. 1899 viii. 118 no. 455 (Liternum) sacerdos | [MJatris deum [ [?At]hamas condidit
(sc. vires) and Corp. inscr. Lat. v no. 6961 f. = Dessau no. 4158 f. (Taurini) viribus | Aeterni I
taurobolio | Sempronia | Eutocia and viri[b]us | Aeterni | taurobolio | P. Ulattius |
Priscus. So Corp. inscr. Lat. xiii no. 573 = Dessau no. 4157 (altar at Burdigala with ram's
head on one side, hdrpe and Phrygian cap on other side) natalici virib(us) | Valer(ia)
Iullina I et Iul(ia) Sancta. Elsewhere the Vires are personified and associated with a
variety of water-divinities, viz. Neptunus (Corp. inscr. Lat. v no. 4285 = Dessau no. 3291),
Lymphae (Corp. inscr. Lat. v no. 5648 = Dessau no. 3871), Nymphae (Corp. inscr. Lat. xi
no. 1162 = Dessau no. 3870), Fons and (Aqua) Ventina (Corp. inscr. Lat. ix no. 3351
= Dessau no. 5781), Deus Magnus Pantheus (Corp. inscr. Lat. v no. 5798 = Dessau
no. 3997), or worshipped on their own account (Corp. inscr. Lat. v nos. 1964, 8247,
8248). Their cult apparently implies the belief that running wrater is the seminal fluid of
a deity. See further H. Hepding Attis seine Mythen und sein Kidt Gieszen 1903 p. 191 f.
and snpra i. 882 Index ii s.v. 'Testicles.'

5 Corp. inscr. Lat. vi no. 5io = Orelli Inscr. Lat. sel. no. 2352 = Wilmanns Ex. inscr.
Lat. no. 110 = Dessau Inscr. Lat. sel. no. 4152 a marble altar decorated with reliefs (on
right side, a pine-tree, from which hang flutes and Phrygian cap, with a rain ; on left side,
a pine-tree, from which hang timbrel and pipe, with a bull; on back, torches, patera, and
vessels) and inscribed : Dis j magnis ] Matri deum et Attidi Se|xtilius Agesilaus Aedesius |