Firepan (nnn-a, machtah', from nm, to take vp coals of fire, etc. ; Sept. Trcpeioi'.Vulg. ir/nium rerepta- culuni), one of the vessels of the Temple service (Exod. xxvii, 3; xxxviii, 3; 2 Kings xxv, 1.5; Jer. Hi, 10); elsewhere rendered " snuff- dish" (Exod. xxv, 38; xxxvii,23; Numl).iv,0; Sept. tTrapixTriip, tTranvcTTpic, iTrdSf/in, Vulg. emunctoriutn) and "censer" (Lev, x, 1 ; xvi, 12 ; Numb, xvi, G sq. ; 2 Chron. iv, 22 ; Sept. ^vfiuiriinioi', Vulg. thurihahnn). These appear, how- ever, not to liavc been two or three forms of utensils, but essentially the same kind of article, probably i. q.
a metallic cinder-basin, of different sizes, for at least two uses: one, like a chafing-dish, to carrj' live coals for the purpose of burning incense ; another, like a snufter-dish, used in trimming the lamps, in order to (carrj' the snuffers and) convey away the snuff. See Cexseu.
Fire-vrorship. For an account of the fire-wor- shippers of modern times, the reader is referred to the article Parsees. We attempt here only a brief sketch of the origin and extent of pyrolatry among ancient nations. Under varj'ing conceptions, as the symbol of purity, or of the divine presence and power, or as one of the constituent elements, or as tj'pifying the destructive principle in nature, fire was early and among many nations an object of religious worship. If we attach any credit to the statements of the repu- ted Sanchoniatlion, Usous, whose name reminds us of the Biblical Uz, tlie son of Aram, was the first to in- troduce the worship of fire. The violence of the winds at Tyre, by rubbing the brandies of trees together, caused this element to manifest its presence, and Usous thereupon erected rude altars to fire and wind, and made libations thereon of the blood of animals captured in tlio chase.
The prevalence of pyrolatrj"- among the Canaanites is frequently referred to in the &*fcripturcs, and the people of God arc solemnly and repeatedly warned against forsaking his worship to join in the abomina- tions which belonged to the worship of Molech, the fire-god of these people (Lev. xviii, 21 ; xx, 2-5 ; Deut, xii, 31; 1 Kings xi, 7; 2 Kings xvi, 8; xxiii, 10, 13; 2 Chron. xxviii, 3 : Psa. cvi, 37, 38 ; Jer. vii, 31 ; xix, 5, G; XXX, 35; Ezek. xvi, 20, 21; xxiii, 37); yet, de- spite the denunciations of divine wrath and punish- ment, the Israelites sometimes apostatized to this wor- ship, and caused their seed to pass through or be burnt in the fire to Molech. Solomon and Ahaz were nota- ble instances of such apostas}', and from the terms employed to descriloe the conduct of the Littjr, "and burnt his children in the fire after the abominations of the heathen whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel" (2 Chron. xxviii, 3), we learn that the worship of Molech in the time of Ahaz was the same as in that of the old Canaanites. For the cere-> monies of tliis worship, see Molech.
"Adrammelech, the fire-god of Sepharvaim ; Che- mosh, the fire-god of ]\Ioab ; Urotal, Dusares, Sair, and Thyandrites, of the Edomitcs and neighboring Arab tribes, and the Greek Dionj'sus, were worshipped un- der the sjMubol of a rising flame of fire, which was im- itated in the stone pillars erected in their honor" (Mo- vers, Pkmizier, i, c. 9). Among the ancient Persians and Medes fire-worship was practised in very early times b}' their religious teacliers, the iMagi, though py- rea or fire-temples probablj' date no further back than Zoroaster. Herodotus states (iii, IG) that the Persians regarded fire as a god, and sacrificed to it, as also to the heavenly bodies, and the other terrestrial elements (i, 131), using the tops of mountains or hills, for they had no temples or altars for the worship of their dei- ties. Strabo, in agreement with Herodotus, states (§ 732) that they worshipped on high places, had no im- ages or altars, and called the heavens Zeus ; tliat the}' made sacrifices, especially (cuKpepih'Tioif) to fire and water, placing dry wood without the bark, and putting fat upon it, then kindling the fire from beneath, not blowing it with the breath, but fanning it, for the}' esteemed it worthy of death to defile this sacred ele- ment by blowing the breath or placing a corpse or ex- crement upon it. In speaking of Cappadocia (§ 733), he, moreover, tells us that there were many magi there, called lire-worshippers (TrrpatOoi'), and also py- rjBthea or fire-temples, in which tlie sacred fire was kept perpetually burning by the Magi. Fire-templea also were found in Persia and other places. The chief men of Persia were wont to feed the sacred fires with precious oils and rich aromatics, stj-led by them fire-
FIRKIN
568
FIRMAMENT
banquets (epulm ignis). For the ceremonies of wor- ship in counection with these lire-temiiles, see Magi and Parsees.
Fire-worship was practised also among the Cartha- ginians, Scytliians, tlie ancient Germans, and the an- cient inhaliitants of the British Isles, and we rtnd traces of it also in tlic Mexican and Peruvian worship (Pres- cott, Mexico, i, 60, G4 ; Peru, i, 101). Diodorus Sicu- lus states (xx, 14) that the Carthaginians, when hard pressed by Agathocles, attriluiting their reverses to the anger of their ancestral divinities, whose worship they had neglected, sacrificed 200 of the noblest chil- dreii (io which number 300 were added by voluntary offerings) to Chronos or Saturn, whose brazen statue was so constructed that a child placed in its arms rolled into a pit of fire. This deitj' was therefore evidently the same as the INIolech of their lyrian ancestors. The Hindoos worshipped Agni, the god of fire, and in their mythology fire was the symbol of Siva, the de- stroyer, a conception of this element seemingly in ac- cord with that of the ancient Egyptians (Herod, iii, 16).