DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14699#0088
1046
Appendix R
But more explicit and detailed is a passage in the Tliebaid of Statius1. The
poet is describing how the wives and children of the Argive warriors implored
Hera to protect their absent ones in the perilous expedition against Thebes :
The day of prayer was done, but all night long
They kept their vigil round the altars' flame.
Ay, and they brought a robe by way of gift,
Whose wondrous woof no barren hand had woven
Nor such as lacked a husband—this they brought
In a basket as a veil acceptable
To their chaste goddess. Rich the purple shone
With broidered work and threads of glittering gold—
On it the bride of the great Thunderer
Within her bridal bower: nought she knows
Of wedlock and is fearful to lay by
Her sisterhood; with down-dropped eye she kisses
The lips of youthful Zeus, a simple maid
As yet untroubled by his stolen loves.
With this same veil the Argolic matrons clothed
The ivory goddess, and with tears and prayers
Besought her:—'Look now on the sinful towers
Of Kadmos' daughter, who seduced thy lord,
Queen of the starry sky. Oh, bring to nought
The foemen's rebel hill, and on their Thebes
Fling—for thou canst—another thunderbolt.'
We are surely justified in maintaining that this veil, woven for Hera by fruitful
wives and embroidered to represent her wedlock with Zeus, implies the existence
of an actual marriage-rite.
One other indication of such a rite is forthcoming, and that from a late
and unexpected source. Cyprian, bishop of Antioch, a propos of the numerous
pagan ceremonies through which he passed in his youth2, says: 'I went and at
Argos, in Hera's rite, was there initiated into the purposes of union—the union,
I mean, of lower with upper and of upper with lower air, and likewise of earth
with water and of water with lower air3.' It can hardly be doubted that this,
as L. Preller4 long since conjectured, refers to the old hierbs gdmos of Zeus and
Hera, still kept up in the third century A.D., though then encumbered with a
symbolic and {Wiwz'-philosophical significance5.
1 Stat. Theb. to. 54 ff.
'J Cp. supra i. 110 f., iii. 775.
3 Confessio S. Cypriani (in Acta Sanctorum edd. Bolland. Septembris vii. 222 ff.) 1
rfkdop Kal €v "Apyec, cv rrj tt)s ' Upas reXer^, cixvr)6rjv e/cet @ov\as evbrrjros, dtpos 7rp6s aldtpa
Kal aldcpos irpbs depa, dtia be Kal yr)s irpbs vbuip Kal ubaros irpbs atpa. Hence Eudok. de s.
Cyprian. 2. 52 ff. Iv6ev h iirirbfioTov BaXcpbv yevb/xtiv Kara "Apyos' | y\v bi Ti.duvia.bos
(ports \evxetp-ovos 'HoDs. | fiuo-Tr/s b' au ycvbur/v, Kal airbffi r)tpos d/x/xa (so A. Ludwich
for dfMpw cod. L) I !]be ttoXvtttvxoi-o irbXov teat etbov d-rj/xa, | avyyeviyv b' vbaruv Kal
etirpbpfioLo dpotjpijs j 77S' avris bpotrepwv va/xaTCjv eis ijtpa biav.
4 L. Preller in Philologus 1846 i. 35 r. Cp. Nilsson Gr. Feste p. 44 n. 4.
6 For Zeus as aidr/p and Hera as drip see supra i. 31. Such teaching as that to which
Cyprian listened would easily be grafted upon the Heraclitean doctrine of flux or a Stoic
adaptation of the same (supra i. 28 ff.).
Appendix R
But more explicit and detailed is a passage in the Tliebaid of Statius1. The
poet is describing how the wives and children of the Argive warriors implored
Hera to protect their absent ones in the perilous expedition against Thebes :
The day of prayer was done, but all night long
They kept their vigil round the altars' flame.
Ay, and they brought a robe by way of gift,
Whose wondrous woof no barren hand had woven
Nor such as lacked a husband—this they brought
In a basket as a veil acceptable
To their chaste goddess. Rich the purple shone
With broidered work and threads of glittering gold—
On it the bride of the great Thunderer
Within her bridal bower: nought she knows
Of wedlock and is fearful to lay by
Her sisterhood; with down-dropped eye she kisses
The lips of youthful Zeus, a simple maid
As yet untroubled by his stolen loves.
With this same veil the Argolic matrons clothed
The ivory goddess, and with tears and prayers
Besought her:—'Look now on the sinful towers
Of Kadmos' daughter, who seduced thy lord,
Queen of the starry sky. Oh, bring to nought
The foemen's rebel hill, and on their Thebes
Fling—for thou canst—another thunderbolt.'
We are surely justified in maintaining that this veil, woven for Hera by fruitful
wives and embroidered to represent her wedlock with Zeus, implies the existence
of an actual marriage-rite.
One other indication of such a rite is forthcoming, and that from a late
and unexpected source. Cyprian, bishop of Antioch, a propos of the numerous
pagan ceremonies through which he passed in his youth2, says: 'I went and at
Argos, in Hera's rite, was there initiated into the purposes of union—the union,
I mean, of lower with upper and of upper with lower air, and likewise of earth
with water and of water with lower air3.' It can hardly be doubted that this,
as L. Preller4 long since conjectured, refers to the old hierbs gdmos of Zeus and
Hera, still kept up in the third century A.D., though then encumbered with a
symbolic and {Wiwz'-philosophical significance5.
1 Stat. Theb. to. 54 ff.
'J Cp. supra i. 110 f., iii. 775.
3 Confessio S. Cypriani (in Acta Sanctorum edd. Bolland. Septembris vii. 222 ff.) 1
rfkdop Kal €v "Apyec, cv rrj tt)s ' Upas reXer^, cixvr)6rjv e/cet @ov\as evbrrjros, dtpos 7rp6s aldtpa
Kal aldcpos irpbs depa, dtia be Kal yr)s irpbs vbuip Kal ubaros irpbs atpa. Hence Eudok. de s.
Cyprian. 2. 52 ff. Iv6ev h iirirbfioTov BaXcpbv yevb/xtiv Kara "Apyos' | y\v bi Ti.duvia.bos
(ports \evxetp-ovos 'HoDs. | fiuo-Tr/s b' au ycvbur/v, Kal airbffi r)tpos d/x/xa (so A. Ludwich
for dfMpw cod. L) I !]be ttoXvtttvxoi-o irbXov teat etbov d-rj/xa, | avyyeviyv b' vbaruv Kal
etirpbpfioLo dpotjpijs j 77S' avris bpotrepwv va/xaTCjv eis ijtpa biav.
4 L. Preller in Philologus 1846 i. 35 r. Cp. Nilsson Gr. Feste p. 44 n. 4.
6 For Zeus as aidr/p and Hera as drip see supra i. 31. Such teaching as that to which
Cyprian listened would easily be grafted upon the Heraclitean doctrine of flux or a Stoic
adaptation of the same (supra i. 28 ff.).