DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7416#0136
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sidered as the symbol: for the staff or spear, signifying power in
general,' was employed by the Greeks and Romans to represent
Juno1 and Mars ;3 and received divine honors all over the North,
as well as the battle-axe and sword ; by the latter of which the
God of War, the supreme deity of those fierce nations, was signified :+
whence, to swear by the shoulder of the horse and the edge of the
sword, was the most solemn and inviolable of oaths;5 and deciding
civil dissensions or personal disputes by duel, was considered as
appealing directly and immediately to the Deity. The ordeal, or
trial by fire and water, which seems once to have prevailed in Greece
and Italy,6 as well as Germany and the North, is derived from the
same source; it being only an appeal to the essence, instead of the
symbol, of the Divine nature. The custom of swearing by the im-
plements of war as divine emblems, appears likewise to have pre-
vailed among the Greeks ;«• whence iEschylus introduces the heroes
of the Thebaid taking their military oath of fidelity to each other
upon the point of a spear or sword.7
161. The clog represented Mercury as the keeper of the boun-
dary between life and death, or the guardian of the passage from the
upper to the lower hemisphere ; to signify the former of which, the
1 Hence the expression?, evBwew Sopi, to govern, and venire sub hasta, to be
sold as a slave.
~ 'Hpas Se Upov to Sopv vevo[ii(rTcu, Kai rcav ayaXixarcav avrrjs ffrijpi^rat ra irXeiara,
Kai Kvpms t) fJeos eiruvoixaoTai' to yap dopv Kovpiv aca\ow oi 7raAaiot. Plutarch. Qua?st.
Kom. p. 149.
3 Ev Se PTy'f Sopu KaOiSpvfxet/av Apect TTpoaayopeveiv. Plutarch, in Romulo.
* Ab origine rerum pro diis immortalibus veteres hastas coluere: ad cujus
religionis memoriam adhuc deorimi simularhris hasta? adduntur. Justin.
Hist. lib. xliii. c. 3. See also Herodot. lib. iv. c. 62.: Ammian. Marcellin.
lib. xvii. c. 12.andlib.xxxi.: Lucian. Scyth.p.864.: Prisci frag, in execrp.
Legat.
5 Mallet Introd. a l'Hist. de Danemarc, c. ix.
6 H,u6i/ 5' Itoi^oi Kai /tvfipovs atpeiv xepo"'
Sophocl. Antig. 170.
Summe Detim, sancti custos Soractis Apollo,
Quern primi colimus, cui pineus ardor acervo
Pascitur; et medium freli pietate per ignem
- Cultores multa prcmimus vestigia pruna. iEn. xi. 785.
sidered as the symbol: for the staff or spear, signifying power in
general,' was employed by the Greeks and Romans to represent
Juno1 and Mars ;3 and received divine honors all over the North,
as well as the battle-axe and sword ; by the latter of which the
God of War, the supreme deity of those fierce nations, was signified :+
whence, to swear by the shoulder of the horse and the edge of the
sword, was the most solemn and inviolable of oaths;5 and deciding
civil dissensions or personal disputes by duel, was considered as
appealing directly and immediately to the Deity. The ordeal, or
trial by fire and water, which seems once to have prevailed in Greece
and Italy,6 as well as Germany and the North, is derived from the
same source; it being only an appeal to the essence, instead of the
symbol, of the Divine nature. The custom of swearing by the im-
plements of war as divine emblems, appears likewise to have pre-
vailed among the Greeks ;«• whence iEschylus introduces the heroes
of the Thebaid taking their military oath of fidelity to each other
upon the point of a spear or sword.7
161. The clog represented Mercury as the keeper of the boun-
dary between life and death, or the guardian of the passage from the
upper to the lower hemisphere ; to signify the former of which, the
1 Hence the expression?, evBwew Sopi, to govern, and venire sub hasta, to be
sold as a slave.
~ 'Hpas Se Upov to Sopv vevo[ii(rTcu, Kai rcav ayaXixarcav avrrjs ffrijpi^rat ra irXeiara,
Kai Kvpms t) fJeos eiruvoixaoTai' to yap dopv Kovpiv aca\ow oi 7raAaiot. Plutarch. Qua?st.
Kom. p. 149.
3 Ev Se PTy'f Sopu KaOiSpvfxet/av Apect TTpoaayopeveiv. Plutarch, in Romulo.
* Ab origine rerum pro diis immortalibus veteres hastas coluere: ad cujus
religionis memoriam adhuc deorimi simularhris hasta? adduntur. Justin.
Hist. lib. xliii. c. 3. See also Herodot. lib. iv. c. 62.: Ammian. Marcellin.
lib. xvii. c. 12.andlib.xxxi.: Lucian. Scyth.p.864.: Prisci frag, in execrp.
Legat.
5 Mallet Introd. a l'Hist. de Danemarc, c. ix.
6 H,u6i/ 5' Itoi^oi Kai /tvfipovs atpeiv xepo"'
Sophocl. Antig. 170.
Summe Detim, sancti custos Soractis Apollo,
Quern primi colimus, cui pineus ardor acervo
Pascitur; et medium freli pietate per ignem
- Cultores multa prcmimus vestigia pruna. iEn. xi. 785.