DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.13851#0813
ADDENDA.
%uis audiebat, stalim occurrens, Deus te adjuvet, acclainabat." Aug. Ven. p. 57. Thi?.
however, does not go far enough back, for the custom was evidently borrowed by the
Romans from the Greeks. Aristotle assigns a reason for the veneration with which
sneezing was regarded among the Greeks "» Sioti (k tou Bucrcirou irm m.uac thc niya.-
K>t;,o8lV 0 \0-yl3-fjlOC ss-t/, ylViTM,H OTI m fXVl HXXO. ctTTO VOtTCUVTOlV ylHTM, tcuto (f1 ou."
With regard to the belief that sneezing was a forerunner or accompaniment of disease,
it may not be amiss to remark that iu the first stage of the Plague of London in 1666,
the person attacked by the tnalady was usually seized with violent and successive
sneezing. Such was the case at Athens as we are told by Thucydides, " km tcl svtoc,
n t« <pxf>vy% km n yxm<r<rit wQvs al/u.cLTnxS'n fiv, km ttvcj/uh o.to7Tov km fucrosfK »p<sr iTrini e£
a-wraov iTTttpfjiot km 0p<ry%et t7reyiyvtTo." Thucyd. 11. 49. vid. Stursii Lex. Xenophont.
v. a-Tstgyya-flai. Class. Journ. Vol. 9, p. 256. id- Vol. 10, p. 53.
Page 313. " reTgo/aavTE/*." Pausanias, Lacon. 23, makes mention of a small lake
near Epidaurus-Limera in Laconia, into which the neighbouring inhabitants were ac-
customed on the festival of Ino to cast barley-cakes, for the purpose of divination. If
the cake sank to the bottom and remained there, the omen was favourable, otherwise
not. The same writer alludes also in the same passage to a mode of divination by the
craters of mount iEtna; they cast into them articles of gold and silver work, and also
victims, and if the internal fires swallowed these up, the omen was favourable ; if
they were cast forth agnin, it was unlucky. See farther on this subject, Plin.
XXXVII. 11. Strabo uses the term vtyo/jtotvri;, XVI.
Page 318. " So called w^i to <p*iTi kmvuv" &c. This derivation may answer well
enough for the common meaning of the term ^mtkmvoi, not, however, for its other sig-
nifications, viz. I calumniate, I deceive, &c. It is better, therefore, to derive the term
from &x<rxce, dico. Thus Hesych. /Sstjcw, Xiynv, Kautox'-yuv ; and hence, /2*<tk/*xoc
z/o-sTit, a chattering pye. Hence too in Hesych. fi%9-k*vot, crujto?*vT»c, and (Zktkmvu,
xwu, {Ai[a.<prrai. From all which it follows that the primitive meaning of /Sao-navof is
a babbler, a tale-teller, an evil speaker, a slanderer : ou ■J.tuS'ei tovruv y' ci/tTsv, Kxiirif
o-qofp*. fixo-uavo; ova-*. Aristoph. Plut. 571.
Page 324. " The following day wa3 spent in all possible expressions of mirth and
joy." Vidr ±Mcian. de Dea Syria. St. Cyril, St. Jerom, and other fathers are
of opinion, that Ezekiel alludes to this festival. VIII. 14. Vid. Deylingii Diss, de
fletu super Thammuz ; Bannier, Hist, du Culie <f Adonis. Mem. de V Acad, des Belle
Lett. T. IV. p. 136.
Page 345. "About a year afterwards, having sacrificed a sow to Ceres, they were ad-
mitted to the greater mysteries," &c. " Warburton," observes the Abbe Barthele-
me, "has pretended that the secret of these mysteries was nothing else than the doc-
trine of the unity of God. In support of this opinion he brings forward a fragment of
poetry cited by many of the Christian fathers, and known by the name of the Palino-
dia of Orpheus. This fragment begins with a form of words, accustomed to be em-
ployed in the mysteries.—Be far away ye uninitiated. In this it is declared that there
is but one God, that he exists by himself, that he is the source of all being, that he
is invisible to every eye, though nothing is concealed from his. If it could be proved
that the Hierophant announced this doctrine to the initiated, there would remain no
more doubt on the subject of the mysteries : many difficulties, however, arise in re-
lation to this point. It is of little importance whether these verses be those of Or-
pheus or of some other poet; the question is whether they were anterior to the esta-
blishment of Christianity, and whether they were pronounced on initiation- 1. Eu-
sebius has cited them after a Jew named Aristobulus, who lived in the time of Ptole-
my Philadelphus, i e. about 200 B. C. The reading which he gives is different, how-
ever, from that found in the works of St. Justin. Critics have at this late day, nearly
all considered the Palinodia of Orpheus to be spurious, or at least to be interpolated
by Aristobulus or some other Jew. Removing, however, the idea of an interpolation,
and regarding the verses as genuine, what ensues I Evidently that the author of these
verses, in speaking of the Supreme Being, has expressed himself in nearly the same
terms with the more ancient writers. It is above all deserving of remark that the
principal articles of the doctrine announced by the palinodia, are to be found in the.
hymn of Cleanthes, a contemporary of Aristobulus, and in the poem of Aratus, who
lived about the same time, and whose testimony St. Paul has quoted. 2d. Was the
palinodia chanted during the initiation ? Tatian and Athenag;oras, seem in fact to asso-
ciate it with the mysteries; and yet it was only recited in order to oppose the absurdi-
ties of Polytheism. How could these two authors, and the fathers of the church,if they
•wished to prove that the doctrine of the unity of God had always been recognized by
the ancient nations, have neglected to tell us that such a profession of .faith was made'
99
%uis audiebat, stalim occurrens, Deus te adjuvet, acclainabat." Aug. Ven. p. 57. Thi?.
however, does not go far enough back, for the custom was evidently borrowed by the
Romans from the Greeks. Aristotle assigns a reason for the veneration with which
sneezing was regarded among the Greeks "» Sioti (k tou Bucrcirou irm m.uac thc niya.-
K>t;,o8lV 0 \0-yl3-fjlOC ss-t/, ylViTM,H OTI m fXVl HXXO. ctTTO VOtTCUVTOlV ylHTM, tcuto (f1 ou."
With regard to the belief that sneezing was a forerunner or accompaniment of disease,
it may not be amiss to remark that iu the first stage of the Plague of London in 1666,
the person attacked by the tnalady was usually seized with violent and successive
sneezing. Such was the case at Athens as we are told by Thucydides, " km tcl svtoc,
n t« <pxf>vy% km n yxm<r<rit wQvs al/u.cLTnxS'n fiv, km ttvcj/uh o.to7Tov km fucrosfK »p<sr iTrini e£
a-wraov iTTttpfjiot km 0p<ry%et t7reyiyvtTo." Thucyd. 11. 49. vid. Stursii Lex. Xenophont.
v. a-Tstgyya-flai. Class. Journ. Vol. 9, p. 256. id- Vol. 10, p. 53.
Page 313. " reTgo/aavTE/*." Pausanias, Lacon. 23, makes mention of a small lake
near Epidaurus-Limera in Laconia, into which the neighbouring inhabitants were ac-
customed on the festival of Ino to cast barley-cakes, for the purpose of divination. If
the cake sank to the bottom and remained there, the omen was favourable, otherwise
not. The same writer alludes also in the same passage to a mode of divination by the
craters of mount iEtna; they cast into them articles of gold and silver work, and also
victims, and if the internal fires swallowed these up, the omen was favourable ; if
they were cast forth agnin, it was unlucky. See farther on this subject, Plin.
XXXVII. 11. Strabo uses the term vtyo/jtotvri;, XVI.
Page 318. " So called w^i to <p*iTi kmvuv" &c. This derivation may answer well
enough for the common meaning of the term ^mtkmvoi, not, however, for its other sig-
nifications, viz. I calumniate, I deceive, &c. It is better, therefore, to derive the term
from &x<rxce, dico. Thus Hesych. /Sstjcw, Xiynv, Kautox'-yuv ; and hence, /2*<tk/*xoc
z/o-sTit, a chattering pye. Hence too in Hesych. fi%9-k*vot, crujto?*vT»c, and (Zktkmvu,
xwu, {Ai[a.<prrai. From all which it follows that the primitive meaning of /Sao-navof is
a babbler, a tale-teller, an evil speaker, a slanderer : ou ■J.tuS'ei tovruv y' ci/tTsv, Kxiirif
o-qofp*. fixo-uavo; ova-*. Aristoph. Plut. 571.
Page 324. " The following day wa3 spent in all possible expressions of mirth and
joy." Vidr ±Mcian. de Dea Syria. St. Cyril, St. Jerom, and other fathers are
of opinion, that Ezekiel alludes to this festival. VIII. 14. Vid. Deylingii Diss, de
fletu super Thammuz ; Bannier, Hist, du Culie <f Adonis. Mem. de V Acad, des Belle
Lett. T. IV. p. 136.
Page 345. "About a year afterwards, having sacrificed a sow to Ceres, they were ad-
mitted to the greater mysteries," &c. " Warburton," observes the Abbe Barthele-
me, "has pretended that the secret of these mysteries was nothing else than the doc-
trine of the unity of God. In support of this opinion he brings forward a fragment of
poetry cited by many of the Christian fathers, and known by the name of the Palino-
dia of Orpheus. This fragment begins with a form of words, accustomed to be em-
ployed in the mysteries.—Be far away ye uninitiated. In this it is declared that there
is but one God, that he exists by himself, that he is the source of all being, that he
is invisible to every eye, though nothing is concealed from his. If it could be proved
that the Hierophant announced this doctrine to the initiated, there would remain no
more doubt on the subject of the mysteries : many difficulties, however, arise in re-
lation to this point. It is of little importance whether these verses be those of Or-
pheus or of some other poet; the question is whether they were anterior to the esta-
blishment of Christianity, and whether they were pronounced on initiation- 1. Eu-
sebius has cited them after a Jew named Aristobulus, who lived in the time of Ptole-
my Philadelphus, i e. about 200 B. C. The reading which he gives is different, how-
ever, from that found in the works of St. Justin. Critics have at this late day, nearly
all considered the Palinodia of Orpheus to be spurious, or at least to be interpolated
by Aristobulus or some other Jew. Removing, however, the idea of an interpolation,
and regarding the verses as genuine, what ensues I Evidently that the author of these
verses, in speaking of the Supreme Being, has expressed himself in nearly the same
terms with the more ancient writers. It is above all deserving of remark that the
principal articles of the doctrine announced by the palinodia, are to be found in the.
hymn of Cleanthes, a contemporary of Aristobulus, and in the poem of Aratus, who
lived about the same time, and whose testimony St. Paul has quoted. 2d. Was the
palinodia chanted during the initiation ? Tatian and Athenag;oras, seem in fact to asso-
ciate it with the mysteries; and yet it was only recited in order to oppose the absurdi-
ties of Polytheism. How could these two authors, and the fathers of the church,if they
•wished to prove that the doctrine of the unity of God had always been recognized by
the ancient nations, have neglected to tell us that such a profession of .faith was made'
99