primitive and original. Similarly, we may regard |
the horror against a homicide partaking of the common cup as a thoroughly primitive idea; he must be purified before taking part in that sacred ceremony of civilized man, the drinking of the common cup. But the application of this to the rite of ‘the Cans’ is late, and probably founded on a misconception. In the marriage of the risen god and the queen, as an annual rite to ensure wealth and increase to the land (which at that season, 12th February, was being prepared for the coming year’s crop and harvest), the common cup was partaken of only by the bridal pair [see § VIII (1)]; and the people in general rejoice separately as individual spectators of the holy rite.
The distinction between the unity and close re- lationship implied by the ritualistic drinking from the common cup and the separateness implied by drinking from separate cups 18 a noteworthy feature ; and explicit emphasis was probably placed on it in the ceremony ; but the details are unknown. Similarly, in the Christian Sacrament the Saviour laid emphasis on the breaking and distribution from one loaf, in contrast to the use in ordinary Oriental meals of a loaf for each guest (see 1 Co 10%). See further, § VIII (1) and (6).
The most important fact for us in purification is that it implies some germs of a conception of
* Herod. i. 31.
sin which has to be atoned for before the wor- shipper may approach the Divine power. Break- ing an oath and refusal to restore money entrusted to one’s care entail impurity; and the Divine anger punishes any one who approaches the sane- tuary without expiating such a crime. It is, however, true that impurity equally results from offence against purely ceremonial rules, and that the conception of sin and expiation which is re- vealed in the evidence on this subject is of a very humble kind ; but there was at least a germ cap- able of higher development, though there is little or no sign that any development ever tools place, except perhaps to some small extent through the contact with and resistance to Christianity.
Guilt and impurity entailed punishment. The punishment seems to have been inflicted in some cases independently of any disrespect to the Deity due to entering the holy place in a state of impurity. The sin results directly, and without the sinner entering the sanctuary, in punishment at the hand of the god or goddess, who therefore must some- times have been conceived as on the watch to punish sin. Here again there is the germ of higher moral conceptions. *
But the utilitarian element which is so clear in many features of the primitive Anatolian religion can be distinctly traced also in the rules of puri- fication. The Goddess-Mother was the teacher and guide of her people from their birth till she received them back to her in death. The ablutions which she required from them were an excellent sanitary precaution ; and if the whole system of purificatory rules were known to us, this side would probably be much more obvious and incontestable.
(7) Confession. —A remarkable and important fact in connexion with impurity and sin was that the process of expiation seems to have involved (whether obligatorily or voluntarily, we cannot be sure; but probably obligatorily) a public con- fession. Sense of guilt was brought home to the individual by some punishment, generally disease (fever, in which the unseen Divine fire consumes the strength and the life, was recognized as the most characteristic expression of Divine wrath). Thereupon the sinner confessed, acknowledged the power, and appeased the anger of the god or goddess, and was cured and forgiven. Finally, as a warning to others, the confession, the punish- ment, and the absolution were engraved often on a stele and deposited in the sanctuary.t See also below, C, § III (4).
(8) Approaching the Deity.— Apart from pre- scribed ritual, the worshipper came voluntarily to the god or goddess for three purposes: (a) to pray for good for himself or his family; this was called evx# in Greek, and the prayer was necessarily accompanied by giving, or by a pro- mise to give, something in return to the Deity, if the desire was granted: thus ex (in Latin, votum) involved both prayer and_ sacrifice or vow: it was a sort of bargain with the Divine power; (b) to imprecate evil on one’s enemies (dpa, kardpa, érapd): this was really a variety of the former, for dpd strictly means ‘prayer’; but in the development of Greek religion it was commonly and almost invariably addressed to the powers of the old régime, who had become mysterious, occult, and uncanny, and passed more and more into the sphere of magic. ‘The vow in this case fell into disuse, for the occult powers were not gratified by public gifts, but by the mere recognition of their
* See papers on ‘ The Early Church and the Pagan Ritual’ in the Eapository Times, 1898-99 (vol. x.), especially p. 108 f.
+ This is shown most clearly in the curses engraved on leaden tablets, in which the wrath of the Deity is invoked against any enemy or false friend; it is usually the Divine fire which is
invoked to destroy the fever-struck wretch. ¢ On this subject see op. cit. in footnote * above.