Virgil, Aen. vi. 136 sqq.; Servius, ad l.; Strabo, v. 3, 12; Pausanias, ii. 27; Solinus, ii. 11; Suetonius, Caligula, 35. For the title “King of the Wood,” see Suetonius, l.c.; and compare Statius, Sylv. iii. 1, 55 sq.—
“Jamque dies aderat,
profugis cum regibus aptum
Fumat Aricinum Triviae
nemus;”
Ovid, Fasti, iii. 271, “Regna tenent fortesque manu, pedibusque fugaces;” id. Ars am. i. 259 sq.—
“Ecce suburbanae templum
nemorale Dianae,
Partaque per gladios regna
nocente manu.”
Statius, Sylv. iii. 1, 52 sqq. From Martial, xii. 67, it has been inferred that the Arician festival fell on the 13th of August. The inference, however, does not seem conclusive. Statius's expression is:—
“Tempus erat, caeli cum
ardentissimus axis
Incumbit terris, ictusque
Hyperione multo
Acer anhelantes incendit Sirius
agros.”
Valerius Flaccus, Argonaut, i. 378 sq.:—
“Tectus et Eurytion servato
colla capillo,
Quem pater Aonias reducem
tondebit ad aras.”
On the Hilaria see Macrobius, Saturn. i. 21, 10; Julian, Orat. v. 168 D, 169 D; Damascius, Vita Isidori, in Photius, p. 345 A 5 sqq. ed. Bekker. On the resurrection, see Firmicus Maternus, 3, reginae suae amorem [Phryges] cum luctibus annuis consecrarunt, et ut satis iratae mulieri facerent aut ut paenitenti solacium quaererent, quem paulo ante sepelierant revixisse jactarunt.... Mortem ipsius [i.e. of Attis] dicunt, quod semina collecta conduntur, vitam rursus quod jacta semina annuis vicibus † reconduntur [renascuntur, C. Halm]. Again cp. id. 22, Idolum sepelis. Idolum plangis, idolum de sepultura proferis, et miser cum haec feceris gaudes; and Damascius, l.c. τὴν τῶν ἱλαρίων καλουμένην ἐορτήν; ὅπερ ἑδήλου τὴν ἑξ ἄδου γεγονυῖαν ἡμῶν σωτερίαν. This last passage, compared with the formula in Firmicus Maternus, c. 22
θαρρεῖτε
μύσται τοῦ θεοῦ σεσωμένου;
ἔσται γὰρ ἠμῖν ἐκ πόνων σωτηρία,
makes it probable that the ceremony described by Firmicus, c. 22, is the resurrection of Attis.
There are far more plausible grounds for identifying Osiris with the moon than with the sun—1. He was said to have lived or reigned twenty-eight years; Plutarch, Isis et Osiris, cc. 13, 42. This might be taken as a mythical expression for a lunar month. 2. His body was rent into fourteen pieces (ib. cc. 18, 42). This might be interpreted of the moon on the wane, losing a piece of itself on each of the fourteen days which make up the second half of a lunation. It is expressly mentioned that Typhon found the body of Osiris at the full moon (ib. 8); thus the dismemberment of the god would begin with the waning of the moon. 3. In a hymn supposed to be addressed by Isis to Osiris, it is said that Thoth
“Placeth thy soul in the bark Ma-at,
In that name which is thine, of God
Moon.”
And again,
“Thou who comest to us as a child each
month,
We do not cease to contemplate thee,
Thine emanation heightens the brilliancy
Of the stars of Orion in the firmament,” etc.
Records of the Past, i. 121 sq.; Brugsch, Religion und Mythologie der alten Aegypter, p. 629 sq. Here then Osiris is identified with the moon in set terms. If in the same hymn he is said to “illuminate us like Ra” (the sun), this, as we have already seen, is no reason for identifying him with the sun, but quite the contrary. 4. At the new moon of the month Phanemoth, being the beginning of spring, the Egyptians celebrated what they called “the entry of Osiris into the moon.” Plutarch, Is. et Os. 43. 5. The bull Apis, which was regarded as an image of the soul of Osiris (Is. et Os. cc. 20, 29), was born of a cow which was believed to have been impregnated by the moon (ib. 43). 6. Once a year, at the full moon, pigs were sacrificed simultaneously to the moon and Osiris. Herodotus, ii. 47; Plutarch, Is. et Os. 8. The relation of the pig to Osiris will be examined later on.
Without attempting to explain in detail why a god of vegetation, as I take Osiris to have been, should have been brought into such close connection with the moon, I may refer to the intimate relation which is vulgarly believed to subsist between the growth of vegetation and the phases of the moon. See e.g. Pliny, Nat. Hist. ii. 221, xvi. 190, xvii. 108, 215, xviii. 200, 228, 308, 314; Plutarch, Quaest. Conviv. iii. 10, 3; Aulus Gellius, xx. 8, 7; Macrobius, Saturn. vii. 16, 29 sq. Many examples are furnished by the ancient writers on agriculture, e.g. Cato, 37, 4; Varro, i. 37; Geoponica, i. 6.
Ib. p. 48. To prevent a rationalistic explanation of this custom, which, like most rationalistic explanations of folk-custom, would be wrong, it may be pointed out that a little of the crop is sometimes left on the field for the spirit under other names than “the Poor Old Woman.” Thus in a village of the Tilsit district, the last sheaf was left standing on the field “for the Old Rye-woman.” M. F. p. 337. In Neftenbach (Canton of Zürich) the first three ears of corn reaped are thrown away on the field “to satisfy the Corn-mother and to make the next year's crop abundant.” Ib. In Thüringen when the after-grass (Grummet) is being got in, a little heap is left lying on the field; it belongs to “the Little Wood-woman” in return for the blessing she has bestowed. Witzschel, Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Thüringen, p. 224. At Kupferberg, Bavaria, some corn is left standing on the field when the rest has been cut. Of this corn left standing, they say that “it belongs to the Old Woman,” to whom it is dedicated in the following words—
“We give it to the Old Woman;
She shall keep it.
Next year may she be to us
As kind as this time she has been.”
M. F. p. 337 sq. These last expressions are quite conclusive. See also Mannhardt, Korndämonen, p. 7 sq. In Russia a patch of unreaped corn is left in the field and the ears are knotted together; this is called “the plaiting of the beard of Volos.” “The unreaped patch is looked upon as tabooed; and it is believed that if any one meddles with it he will shrivel up, and become twisted like the interwoven ears.” Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, p. 251. In the North-east of Scotland a few stalks were sometimes left unreaped for the benefit of “the aul' man.” W. Gregor, Folk-lore of the North-East of Scotland, p. 182. Here “the aul' man” is probably the equivalent of the Old Man (der Alte) of Germany.