DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.13851#0254
OF THE RELIGION OF GREECE.
the scholiast upon Sophocles reports ; which was done by the innocent
without any sense of pain. Thus, one in Sophocles (1) tells Creon, that
all the guards were ready to take upon oath, that they neither buried Poly-
nices themselves, nor knew who had done it;
To chits S^aLvctt (/.mi tm trvvuS'iviti
To 7r^u,yu.ct /SuAturnvTi jumt' it£y*<r/A.iva..
The mass of burning iron in our hands
We all were prompt to take, to pass through fire,
To call the gods to witness with firm oath
We did it not, we knew not who design'd,
Or who perform'd the deed. fottek.
A custom not much differing from these, was practised in this island by
our Saxon ancestors upon the same account, and was therefore called the
Jire-ordeal, for ordeal in Saxon s'igi iiies purgation. The manner of un-
dergoing this test was thus : the person accused passed blindfold, with
bare feet, over certain ploughshares made red-hot, and placed at an equal
distance from one another ; this ordalium Edward the Confessor forced
his mother Emma to undergo, to vindicate her honour from the scandal
of incontinency with Alwyn bishop of Winchester ; and by this trial she.
gave a sufficient demonstration of her innocence ; for having passed over
the iron before she was aware of it, she cried out, when shall I come to
my purgation ? And Kunigund, the wife of the emperor Henry the se-
cond, upon the like imputation, held a red-rot iron in her hand and re-
ceived no harm thereby.
I shall desire the reader's leave to mention but one sort more of these
purgation-oaths, which is described by Achilles i atius in his eighth
book of the Loves of Chtophon and Leucippe. It is this : when a wo-
man was accused of incontinency, she was to clear herself from this
charge by oath, which was written in a tablet, and hung about her neck,
then she went into the water up to the mid-leg, where, if she was inno-
cent, all things remained the same manner as they were before ; but it
guilty, the very water, saith he, swelled as it were with rage, mounted up
as high as her neck, and covered the tablet ; lest so horrid and detestable
a sight, as a false oath, should be exposed to the view of the sun and
the world. Some other sorts of oaths there were, of which a larger ac-
count might be given, had 1 not already trespassed too far upon the rea-
der's patience ; I shall therefore, only add something concerning their re-
ligious observance of oaths, and so conclude this chapter.
What a religious regard they had for oaths doth appear from this, that
sy'oiPxo£, or one thai keeps his oaths, is commonly used for sud^^s, a pious
person, as in Hesiod,
Ou<S~t TIC tU'jgKH ^sg'c \<THi'xai. BTS S'tx.a.i%,
Nor just, nor pious souls shall favour have.
Aristophanes (2) also has taken it in the same sense,
it Tt %4 tgilC £U0g«S TgOTJK'
If you're with justice pleas'd,
On the contrary, when they would express a wicked forlorn wretch, they
(!) Antigone, v. 270.
(2) PJute.
the scholiast upon Sophocles reports ; which was done by the innocent
without any sense of pain. Thus, one in Sophocles (1) tells Creon, that
all the guards were ready to take upon oath, that they neither buried Poly-
nices themselves, nor knew who had done it;
To chits S^aLvctt (/.mi tm trvvuS'iviti
To 7r^u,yu.ct /SuAturnvTi jumt' it£y*<r/A.iva..
The mass of burning iron in our hands
We all were prompt to take, to pass through fire,
To call the gods to witness with firm oath
We did it not, we knew not who design'd,
Or who perform'd the deed. fottek.
A custom not much differing from these, was practised in this island by
our Saxon ancestors upon the same account, and was therefore called the
Jire-ordeal, for ordeal in Saxon s'igi iiies purgation. The manner of un-
dergoing this test was thus : the person accused passed blindfold, with
bare feet, over certain ploughshares made red-hot, and placed at an equal
distance from one another ; this ordalium Edward the Confessor forced
his mother Emma to undergo, to vindicate her honour from the scandal
of incontinency with Alwyn bishop of Winchester ; and by this trial she.
gave a sufficient demonstration of her innocence ; for having passed over
the iron before she was aware of it, she cried out, when shall I come to
my purgation ? And Kunigund, the wife of the emperor Henry the se-
cond, upon the like imputation, held a red-rot iron in her hand and re-
ceived no harm thereby.
I shall desire the reader's leave to mention but one sort more of these
purgation-oaths, which is described by Achilles i atius in his eighth
book of the Loves of Chtophon and Leucippe. It is this : when a wo-
man was accused of incontinency, she was to clear herself from this
charge by oath, which was written in a tablet, and hung about her neck,
then she went into the water up to the mid-leg, where, if she was inno-
cent, all things remained the same manner as they were before ; but it
guilty, the very water, saith he, swelled as it were with rage, mounted up
as high as her neck, and covered the tablet ; lest so horrid and detestable
a sight, as a false oath, should be exposed to the view of the sun and
the world. Some other sorts of oaths there were, of which a larger ac-
count might be given, had 1 not already trespassed too far upon the rea-
der's patience ; I shall therefore, only add something concerning their re-
ligious observance of oaths, and so conclude this chapter.
What a religious regard they had for oaths doth appear from this, that
sy'oiPxo£, or one thai keeps his oaths, is commonly used for sud^^s, a pious
person, as in Hesiod,
Ou<S~t TIC tU'jgKH ^sg'c \<THi'xai. BTS S'tx.a.i%,
Nor just, nor pious souls shall favour have.
Aristophanes (2) also has taken it in the same sense,
it Tt %4 tgilC £U0g«S TgOTJK'
If you're with justice pleas'd,
On the contrary, when they would express a wicked forlorn wretch, they
(!) Antigone, v. 270.
(2) PJute.