DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7416#0066
56
country.' The more prompt sensibility of the female sex was
more susceptible of enthusiastic emotions, and consequently better
adapted to the prophetic office, which was to express inspiration
rather than convey meaning.
74. Considering the general state of reserve and restraint in
■which the Grecian women lived, it is astonishing to what an excess
of extravagance their religious enthusiasm was carried on certain
occasions; particularly in celebrating the orgies of Bacchus. The
gravest matrons and proudest princesses suddenly laid aside their
decency and their dignity, and ran screaming among the woods and
mountains, fantastically dressed or half-naked, with their hair
dishevelled and interwoven with ivy or vine, and sometimes with
living serpents.1 In this manner they frequently worked themselves
up to such a pilch of savage ferocity, as not only to feed upon raw
flesh,3 but even to tear living animals to pieces with their teeth,
and eat them warm and palpitating.4
75. The enthusiasm of the Greeks was, however, generally of
the gay and festive kind ; which almost all their religious rites
tended to promote.5 Music and wine always accompanied devo-
tion, as tending to exhilarate men's minds, and assimilate them
with the Deity ; to imitate whom, was to feast and rejoice; to cul-
tivate the elegant and useful arts; and thereby to give and receive
happiness.6 Such were most of the religions of antiquity, which
1 Lib. ii. 54. &c. His story of the pigeons probably arose from the mystic
dove on the head of Dione, the goddess of Dodona.
1 Plutarch, in Alexandr.
3 Apoilon, Rhod. lib. i. 036., and Schol.
* Jul. Firmic. c. 14. Clement. Alex. Cohort, p. 11. Arnob. lib. v.
5 Aofteis tois aouri Saicpvois,
Kb; Tijtiouirtt 0eour, Kpa.Ti\a^a>
ExOpav ; ovtoi crovaxats,
, AAA' evxais, Seovs (re/3ifow\
'E£eis evfiepiav, a iron, Eui'ip. Electra. 193.
6 Strabo. lib. x. p. 476.
country.' The more prompt sensibility of the female sex was
more susceptible of enthusiastic emotions, and consequently better
adapted to the prophetic office, which was to express inspiration
rather than convey meaning.
74. Considering the general state of reserve and restraint in
■which the Grecian women lived, it is astonishing to what an excess
of extravagance their religious enthusiasm was carried on certain
occasions; particularly in celebrating the orgies of Bacchus. The
gravest matrons and proudest princesses suddenly laid aside their
decency and their dignity, and ran screaming among the woods and
mountains, fantastically dressed or half-naked, with their hair
dishevelled and interwoven with ivy or vine, and sometimes with
living serpents.1 In this manner they frequently worked themselves
up to such a pilch of savage ferocity, as not only to feed upon raw
flesh,3 but even to tear living animals to pieces with their teeth,
and eat them warm and palpitating.4
75. The enthusiasm of the Greeks was, however, generally of
the gay and festive kind ; which almost all their religious rites
tended to promote.5 Music and wine always accompanied devo-
tion, as tending to exhilarate men's minds, and assimilate them
with the Deity ; to imitate whom, was to feast and rejoice; to cul-
tivate the elegant and useful arts; and thereby to give and receive
happiness.6 Such were most of the religions of antiquity, which
1 Lib. ii. 54. &c. His story of the pigeons probably arose from the mystic
dove on the head of Dione, the goddess of Dodona.
1 Plutarch, in Alexandr.
3 Apoilon, Rhod. lib. i. 036., and Schol.
* Jul. Firmic. c. 14. Clement. Alex. Cohort, p. 11. Arnob. lib. v.
5 Aofteis tois aouri Saicpvois,
Kb; Tijtiouirtt 0eour, Kpa.Ti\a^a>
ExOpav ; ovtoi crovaxats,
, AAA' evxais, Seovs (re/3ifow\
'E£eis evfiepiav, a iron, Eui'ip. Electra. 193.
6 Strabo. lib. x. p. 476.