• ERE i. 462, ii. 285 ; Jevons, Comparative. Religion, pp. 125, 129, The Idea of God in Early Religions, 1910, p. 85 : J. H. Moulton, Early Religions Poetry of Persia, 1911, pp. 32, 65.
t Jevona, Comparative Religion, pp. 91, 92, 117 ; ERE i. 382, ii. 35 : see also the classification of Rose quoted in PEFSt xlvi. (1914J 20«.
} Jevons, Comparative Religion, p. 129.
§ lb. pp. 126-128. II [b.
H ERE ii. 38, 39.
•♦ Ih. ii. 60 ; Jevons, The Idea of God in Early Religiom, p. 26f.
tt W. O. Aston, Shinto, 1907, p. 8.
tt /«•■ p. 10 ; 2 K 1726-29.
{} Jevons, The Idea of God in Early Religiom, p. 28.
ill Jevons, Comparative Religion, pp. 12.'>-129.
1111 S. R. Driver, ' Recent Theories on the Origin and Nature of the Tetraprrammaton,' Studia Biblica, 1S85, p. 1 flf. ; T. G. Pinches, PSBA xiv. [1892] 13, 'The Religious Ideas of the Baltylonians,' Transactions of the Victorian Institute, xxviii. [1896] 11 ; Thomas Tyler, 'The Origin ot the TetraKrammaton," JQR xiii. [1901] 681 B.
tended towards monotheism, Zeus (Ac 14"- ") being reco"nized only as the king of a countles.s crowd of deities. Among them there stood out local deities who had got distinct names, as Artemis of Ephesns(iy2*), Mars (17'"), and Hermes, the messenger and speaker for the god8(14'2), or tlie Dioscuri, the twin gods Caator and Pollux (2S").
5. Name and personality. — At a very early period men came to feel that there was a material and mysterious but essential connexion between the person or thing and its name. To them names were not, as with us, mere meaningless designations, symbols without significance wliich could be changed without affecting the thing or person ; nomina were nuininn, not even essential attributes, but possessed of a certain independent existence, yet part and parcel of the personality, and tlierefore supremely im])ortant as alieiting and ail'ected by a person's good or evil fortune.* The name was a kind of ' alter ego,' a vital por- tion of the man himself, and to be taken care of accordingly. t
Such a helief is found among the Amerind tribes, the Australians, the proto - Ar.vans, and almost all other races.! The ancient Britons held tliat the soul and the name were the 6ame.§ Among the Annamese when a child continues ill, the parents sell it to someone wlio gives it a new name and it is tlien, being a completely different person, re-sold to its parents. 11 A young Caffre thief can be reformed by shouting his name into a kettle of boiling medicated water, clapping on the lid, and allowing the name (i.e. him) to steep there for several days. 1] The Mesopotamians so identified the name and the person that the name was the personality.** In their religion, as in the Manda?an, Persian, and other cults, the name of the deity is itself a part of the divine essence.
' The Aryan-speaking peoples *' believed at one time not only that the name was a part of the man, but that it was that part of him wliich is termed the soul, the breath of life." ' tt Among the Egyptians the name was *an imperishable component of the Ego, on a footing of equality with soul, form, heart, etc.,* for they held ' that an inward and indissoluble comiexion sub- sists between an object and its name.' Jt Hence it was neces- sary that the name should he kept fresh, for so close was the connexion that the continued existence of the name was essen- tial to the immortality of the person. §§ A man i>rayed for his name to be mentioned, or libations poured out in his name, and monuments were raised with the name on them so that it might live. The Pharaoh sacrificed captives to perpetuate his name, and all vassals took the oath by the royal nanie. In the Papyri, especially in indictments, there occurs the phrase ei-Tcufi? eis TO ToO ^(MTtAe'ws ovoiJ.a, a memori.al to the king's majesty, the name of the king being the essence of what he is as ruler. Inscriptions mention the fact of purcha-sing tU to Toi> 6foi) ovojxa., the nominal purchaser purchasing for the gori. || |i Sometimes the name became almost a separate personality. ' In the Tabulae IguviniB, . . . the god Grabovius is implored to be propitious to the "Arx Fisia" and to "the name of the Arx Fisia,"as if the name of the city was a living and independent entity.' Ht
This practical identification of the person and the name gave rise to a number of practices. The name was honoured equally with the person.
The Eg.\T>tian kings made offerings to the names of their pre- decessors ; honour was paid to the name of Pharaoh, while the
* Farnell, The Ewlution of Religion, p. 32 ; E. Clodd, Tom Tit Tot, 1898, p. 63.
t H. J. D. Astley, in Transactions of the Third International Congress for the History of lieli'non, i, 200; Farnell, The Evolution of Religion, p. 184 ; HDB v. 640 ; A. 0. Iladdon, Magic and Fetishism, 1906, p. 22. The close connexion be- tween a name and the thing is echoed in the words of Milton where Adam says of the naming of the animals :
* I named them as they passed, and understood Their nature ' (Paradise Lost, viii. 353).