DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7416#0143
133
particularly one lately in the Farnese palace at Rome. The Ca-
nobus of the ^Egyptians appears to have been a personification of
the same attribute as the Bacchus AIKNiTHS of the Greeks :
for he was represented by the filtering-vase, which is still employed
to purify and render potable the waters of the Nile; and these
waters, as before observed, were called the defluxion of Obiris,
of whom the soul was supposed to be an emanation. The means,
therefore, by which they were purified from all grosser matter,
might properly be employed as the symbol of that power, which
separated the ajfherial from the terrestrial soul, aud purified it
from all the pollutions and incumbrances of corporeal substance.
The absurd tale of Canobus being the deified Pilate of Menelaus
is an invention of the later Greeks, unworthy of any serious
notice.
l66. The rite of Baptism in fire and water, so generally prac-
tised among almost all nations of antiquity, seems to have been a
mystic representation of this purification and regeneration of the
soul after death. It was performed "by jumping three times through,
the flame of a sacred fire, and being sprinkled with water from a
branch of laurel;' or else by being bedewed with the vapor from
a sacred brand, taken flaming from the altar and dipped in water.1
The exile at his return, and the bride at her marriage, went through
ceremonies of this kind to signify their purification and regeneration
for a new life ;3 and they appear to have been commonly practised
as modes of expiation or extenuation for private or secret offences.*
1 Cenis ego transilui positas ter in ordine flamma?,
Virgaque roratas laurea misit aquas. Ovid. Fast. lib. iv. ver. 727.
1 EffTi S< *S»/> «s 4 airefairrov Sa\oy <k tov Pupu>v \ap.$m>ovrcs, «f>' oJ TTjV
SuiTiov erertKovp km Tovrip irepipmvovrfs tovs mpovras iryvtfov. Atliaen. lib. ix. p.
■409.
3 Ovid. ibid. v. 792. et Ciiippin. Not. in eimd. To imp Koflaipti km to i!up
ayvifci, Sci Sf km KaSapav km ayvriv Siap.evav tt)v ya.fnjfciao.v. Plutarch. Qiiarst.
Rom. i.
BouAojUfrrj 5f avrov aOavurov iroiiiffM, rai vvktb.? fry tuj KaTtTtOtt to Qpttpos, km
■nfptypei tos SvtjTas crap/tar avrov. Apollodor. Biblioth. lib. i, c. v. s. '2.
4 Ovid. ib. lib. v.C79.
particularly one lately in the Farnese palace at Rome. The Ca-
nobus of the ^Egyptians appears to have been a personification of
the same attribute as the Bacchus AIKNiTHS of the Greeks :
for he was represented by the filtering-vase, which is still employed
to purify and render potable the waters of the Nile; and these
waters, as before observed, were called the defluxion of Obiris,
of whom the soul was supposed to be an emanation. The means,
therefore, by which they were purified from all grosser matter,
might properly be employed as the symbol of that power, which
separated the ajfherial from the terrestrial soul, aud purified it
from all the pollutions and incumbrances of corporeal substance.
The absurd tale of Canobus being the deified Pilate of Menelaus
is an invention of the later Greeks, unworthy of any serious
notice.
l66. The rite of Baptism in fire and water, so generally prac-
tised among almost all nations of antiquity, seems to have been a
mystic representation of this purification and regeneration of the
soul after death. It was performed "by jumping three times through,
the flame of a sacred fire, and being sprinkled with water from a
branch of laurel;' or else by being bedewed with the vapor from
a sacred brand, taken flaming from the altar and dipped in water.1
The exile at his return, and the bride at her marriage, went through
ceremonies of this kind to signify their purification and regeneration
for a new life ;3 and they appear to have been commonly practised
as modes of expiation or extenuation for private or secret offences.*
1 Cenis ego transilui positas ter in ordine flamma?,
Virgaque roratas laurea misit aquas. Ovid. Fast. lib. iv. ver. 727.
1 EffTi S< *S»/> «s 4 airefairrov Sa\oy <k tov Pupu>v \ap.$m>ovrcs, «f>' oJ TTjV
SuiTiov erertKovp km Tovrip irepipmvovrfs tovs mpovras iryvtfov. Atliaen. lib. ix. p.
■409.
3 Ovid. ibid. v. 792. et Ciiippin. Not. in eimd. To imp Koflaipti km to i!up
ayvifci, Sci Sf km KaSapav km ayvriv Siap.evav tt)v ya.fnjfciao.v. Plutarch. Qiiarst.
Rom. i.
BouAojUfrrj 5f avrov aOavurov iroiiiffM, rai vvktb.? fry tuj KaTtTtOtt to Qpttpos, km
■nfptypei tos SvtjTas crap/tar avrov. Apollodor. Biblioth. lib. i, c. v. s. '2.
4 Ovid. ib. lib. v.C79.