Chapter 34 Lytyrsis: Putting the living to death as corn-spirits

The religious ceremonies of the savages just described furnish examples analogous to the European harvest customs.For example, the proliferative properties of the corn-spirit are manifested not only in the custom of the primitive man to stir the grain seeds with the blood and ashes of human animals, but also in the custom of the European peasants to mix the grains from the last sheaf of ears with the new spring grain.Again, it is the same view that man is the corn, and the custom of the savages selects the human animal whose age and stature correspond to the age and height (whether actual or expected) of the corn; It is the custom of the Scots and Styrians that when the corn-spirit is a maiden, the last corn is reaped by the young maiden, and when the corn-spirit is the corn-mother, by the old woman; in Lorraine , when the old wives are killed, that is to say, when the last corn is threshed, old women are warned to beware; the Tyroleans hope that the last threshing is tall, so that the next year's corn will grow too. very high.Look a little further; in the custom of the savages, killing the representative of the corn-spirit with a hoe or shovel, or crushing him with two stones, there is a similar expression in the custom of the European peasants, who do so by pretending to be A sickle or flail kills corn-spirits.Also, the Konte custom of pouring water on the flesh of the buried human animal is consistent with the European custom of splashing water on the corn-spirit's personal representative or throwing him into a stream.The customs of the Konde people and European farmers are rain witchcraft.

Now back to the story of Lytyrsis.It turns out that in barbaric societies the killing of the living is usually done to promote the growth of crops.It is not improbable, therefore, to suppose that in Phrygia and in Europe killing was once done for similar purposes; and that the Phrygian legends and the harvest customs of Europe are very closely related to each other, pointing to such a conclusion. , then we have to accept this conclusion at least temporarily.Moreover, the story of Lytyrsis and the harvest customs of Europe show that the sacrificed human animal is a representative of the corn-spirit, which is just in line with the view of some savage peoples who seem to think that the slain Human sacrifice can make crops flourish.Taken together, we may roughly suppose that in Phrygia, as in Europe, representatives of the corn-spirit were annually killed in the harvested fields.We have also shown that there is reason to believe that European representatives of the same annual corn-killer are likewise.The evidence for these two very closely related customs is entirely independent of each other.Their simultaneous existence seems to provide new inferences that are beneficial to both.

How to choose the representative of the corn-spirit? An answer has already been proposed to this question.Both the Lytyrsis story and European folklore show that the passing stranger was the corn-spirit who had escaped from the cut or thrashed corn, and was caught and killed as such.But what the evidence suggests is not the only answer.According to the legend of Phrygia, the victims of Lytyrsis were not just passers-by. They lost in the harvest competition and were then wrapped in corn handles and beheaded.This shows that the representative of the corn-spirit could be chosen by a contest in the field at harvest, in which the loser had to accept the fatal honor.European harvest customs also confirm this assumption.We have seen that in Europe there were sometimes contests among the reapers who did not want to be last, and that the loser, that is, the last corn, was often ill-treated.It is true that we have not found the practice of pretending to kill it; but on the other hand, we know that whoever makes the last stroke in threshing, that is, loses the threshing contest, pretends to kill him.Since, then, the man who gave the last blow was pretended to be the representative of the corn-spirit, and since he who cut and bound the last sheaf was as representative of the corn-spirit as he who tied the last sheaf, since in these days In this kind of labor, the reapers are afraid of falling behind in everything, so we can infer that the last sheaf and the last bundle are the same as the last sheaf. They are usually pretended to be killed, but in ancient times they were actually killed. killed.This conjecture has been confirmed by the popular superstition that he who cuts the last corn dies immediately.Sometimes it is believed that the person who cuts the last sheaf in the field will die within the next year.The person who reaps, binds, and threats the last corn may be regarded as a representative of the corn-spirit for this reason: it is believed that the corn-spirit hides in the corn as much as possible, People face to face and back.When the last crop is cut, the last sheaf is threshed, and the last grain is threshed, he has nowhere to hide, and has to find another place to shelter himself besides the stalks, which were before that his body or his clothes.He (the corn-spirit) has just been driven out of the corn, and there is a person standing nearest to him. At this time, besides naturally turning to this person, can the cornered corn-spirit have any other refuge? And this person must He is the last to reap, bind, and thresh.So catch him or her as the corn-spirit itself.

From this it appears that the man who is killed in the harvest-field as a representative of the corn-spirit is either a stranger passing by, or the reaper who is the last to reap, bind, and thresh.But both ancient legend and modern folklore suggest a third possibility.Lytyrsis not only executed strangers; he himself was killed, apparently in the same manner as he killed others, namely, by wrapping them in sheaves, beheading them, and throwing them into the river; the story also shows that this happened in Tirsis's own land.Likewise, in modern harvest customs, it seems that the owner (farmer or squire) himself is as often feigned as the stranger.We also remember that in the legend, Tirsis was the son of a king in Phrygia, and there is another saying that he was the king himself.When we connect this with the legend of his execution apparently as a representative of the corn-spirit, we are compelled to conjecture that there is another indication of the annual custom of killing a god-king or priest-king.We know that these god-kings or priest-kings ruled darkly in many parts of Western Asia (especially in Phrygia).We talked about it, and it seems that this custom has been modified in some areas, and the son of the king can die in place of the father.The story of Lytyrsis is a vestige of a modified custom, or at least one of a kind.Now, let's look at the relationship between Lytyrses of Phrygia and Atis of Phrygia.We may recall that at Percinus - the seat of the priest-king - the high priest seems to have been killed annually in the capacity of Attis, the plant god, also described by ancient authors as "a severed Ears of grain".So that Attis, the embodiment of the corn-spirit, is annually substituted by his representatives, we may regard him at last as the same thing as Lytyrses, which is but a crude form of primitive religion, A. Tees is the formal religion developed from it.This may be true, but on the other hand, European folklore reminds us that in the same people two different plant gods may be represented by their respective personal identity was killed.We have said that in Europe it generally seems to kill one as a dryad in the spring, and another as a corn-spirit in the autumn.The same may be true of Phrygia.Attis was chiefly a tree-god, and his association with the corn was but an enlargement of the dryad's power, as expressed in the customs of the May harvest.And the representatives of Attis seem to have been killed in the spring; and those of Lytyrses in the summer or autumn, according to the time of the Phrygian harvest.Generally speaking, we have no valid reason to regard Lytyrses as the archetype of Attis. The two can be regarded as parallel products of the same religious concept, and the relationship between them is like the old harvester in Europe and the spring savage and the leaf man. And so on.Both are plant spirits or plant gods, and the personal representatives of both are killed every year.But the worship of Attis, raised to the dignity of a formal religion, spread to Italy; while the rites of Lytyrses never seem to have extended beyond the confines of their native Phrygia, and have always remained crudely ceremonial. , held by farmers in the fields where the crops are being harvested.At most a few villages united together like the Konde, and for their common welfare a human animal (chosen from the family of the priest-king or weak-king) was killed as a representative of the corn-spirit, This kind of human sacrifice can represent the legendary Lytyrsis as the prince or king of Phrygia.If several villages did not unite in this way, each village or farm could find its own representative of the Ceres, by capturing and killing a passer-by, or by killing the reaper who was the last to cut, bind, or beat.The hunting of human heads as a means of promoting the growth of crops may have been a common phenomenon among the barbaric aborigines of ancient Europe and West Asia, just as it is still or as lately popular among the primitive agricultural tribes of Assam, Burma, the Philippine Islands, and the Indies. Same.Needless to say that Phrygia is also like Europe. The ancient and barbaric custom of killing people on crop fields or threshing grounds has indeed been improved as early as the 5th and 4th centuries BC. Consider this practice only as a rude jest, which prevailing farm custom permits them to play upon strangers passing by, their companions, and even their masters.

I have devoted more space to the song of Lytyrsis, since it has many possible contrasts with the customs of Europe and of barbarians.Other harvest songs in West Asia and Egypt have been drawn to attention, and a brief introduction will suffice.The parallels between Poms of Bithynia and Lityrses of Phrygia help to justify the interpretation of Lityrses just proposed.The Reapers lament the death or disappearance of Pommus every year in dirge, who, like Lytyrsis, was a prince, or at least the son of a well-known rich family.The reapers whom he supervised were working on his own land, and he went to fetch water for them and disappeared; nymph, he went there to fetch water.Judging by the story of Lythys and the circumstantial evidence of European folk customs, this disappearance of Pommes may be a relic of the custom of binding farmers with corn handles and throwing them into the water.The mournful tunes sung by the reapers may be dirges for the death of the corn-spirit, either slain in the mown valley, or on the body of a human representative; their call to him may be their beseeching him for the coming year. Resurrection Prayer.

The Phoenician song of Linus was sung at the harvest of the grapes, as we know from Homer, at least in the west of Asia Minor; People and grape diggers treat passers-by in much the same way as Tyrsis the Reaper treats passers-by.There is a legend that Sirius of Lydia [an ancient kingdom in western Asia Minor] forced passers-by to dig a vineyard for him, and finally Hercules came, killed him, and dug up his grapes by the roots.The legend seems to be so in the main, much like that of Lytyrses; but neither ancient writers nor modern folk-custom have filled us with details of the legend.On a closer look, however, the Phoenician Reapers probably also sang the Song of Rinus, since Herodotus compared it to the Song of Maniros.We have said that the Song of Maniroth is the eulogy sung by the Egyptian reapers over the harvested corn.Moreover, there is a view that Linus is Adonis, and Adonis refers to Ceres to some extent.In this way, the lament of Linus sung at the harvest may be said to be the lament of Adonis; both are dirges sung by the reapers to the dead corn spirits.But Adonis, like Attis, developed into a majestic figure of myth, enshrined and mourned in splendid cities far beyond the confines of his Phoenician homeland, while Rinus always seemed to be no more than a A simple ditty, sung by harvesters and grape harvesters by the grain heaps and in the vineyards.The closeness of Lytyrses to European folk and barbarian customs suggests that the corn-spirit (dead Adonis) slain in Phoenicia may have formerly been represented by a human sacrifice; Confirmation of the legend.Haran's story says: Tammuz (Adonis) was slain by his cruel master, and his bones were crushed and scattered in the wind.We have seen that in Mexico the animal is crushed at harvest with two large stones; in Africa and India the ashes and remains of the animal are scattered in the fields.The legend of Haran may simply be a mythological representation of the grinding of grain and the sowing of seed.It also seems worth mentioning that the sixteenth day of the month of Raus was the Babylonian festival of Sakaia, and every year on this festival a false king was killed, possibly representing Tammuz.The historian Berosus, who recorded the name of the festival and its date, probably used the Macedonian calendar, since he dedicated his historical work to Antiochus.涠涠灰 said that Mu retreated, filtered the flat, slammed the tritium, said that it was Nai Lun still swayed, and the bridle choked and thinned. Na gangue Han'an Zhi hammer n Tu Shao ape flash ⒘ pardon?

There is also abundant evidence that the corn-spirit slain in Egypt—the dead Osiris—was represented as a human sacrifice, whom the reapers slew in the cornfield and sang dirges over his death.The Greeks called this song Maniros due to a literal misunderstanding.A trace of human sacrifice seems to have survived in the legend of Busiris, which mentions that the Egyptians sacrificed human animals in the worship of Osiris.It is said that Busiris was a king of Egypt who killed all strangers and sacrificed them at the altar of Zeus.The origin of this custom may be traced to a famine that lasted nine years in the land of Egypt.A Cypriot soothsayer told Busiris that if one sacrificed to Zeus every year, the famine would stop.So Busiris ordained this sacrifice.But when Hercules came to Egypt and was dragged to the altar to sacrifice, he broke the rope and killed Busiris and his son.This legend tells that Egypt has to sacrifice human animals every year to prevent crop failure. This also shows a belief that if a sacrifice is not made once, it will cause a poor harvest, and the purpose of the sacrifice is to prevent such a poor harvest.So, like we talked about, the Pawnees believed that if there was no human sacrifice once, the crops would fail.The name of Busiris is actually the name of a city, namely: "Pi-asa", which means "House of Osiris", so called because of the tomb of Osiris in the city .Indeed, some high modern authorities regard Busiris as the original home of Osiris, and from here the worship of Osiris spread to other parts of Egypt.Legend has it that a human sacrifice, a man with red hair, spread his ashes with a dustpan, on his grave.There are inscriptions to support this legend of sacrificing human animals on the tomb of Osiris.

Based on the preceding discussion, Busiris of Egypt offers a coherent and highly probable account.Every year at the harvest a stranger represented Osiris the corn-spirit, whose red hair suited him to represent the ripe corn.The man was slain in the corn-field as a representative of the corn-spirit, and all the reapers mourned him, and they prayed that the corn-spirit would be resurrected and returned with new vitality in the coming year (Maa-ne-rha, Maniros).Finally, a certain part of this human animal was burned, and the ashes were thrown in the field with a dustpan, so that the land could be multiplied.In this case, the algae represented the god Ceres, chosen on the basis of his resemblance to the corn, consistent with the Mexican and African customs already described.Likewise, at the Midsummer rites in Mexico, the woman who dies as the Mama of the Grain has her face painted red or yellow to symbolize the color of the corn, and she wears a crown of cardboard with feathers floating from it , which imitates corn stubble.On the other hand, during the festival of the Goddess of White Corn, Mexicans sacrifice lepers.The Romans sacrificed red-haired idols in the spring to avoid the so-called adverse effects of Sirius, and believed that after the idols were sacrificed, the grain would grow red and ripe.The savages of Haran sacrificed puppets to the sun, moon, and planets, chosen on the basis of their alleged resemblance to the celestial body they were to sacrifice; In the temple with red walls and red curtains, a person with red hair and red cheeks is dedicated to "Red Mars".These examples, and others like them, were to make the sacrificial animal resemble the god or natural phenomenon it represented, ultimately on the principle of homeopathic or mimetic magic, the idea of ​​using a similar intended effect. The sacrifice can quickly achieve the set goal.

The story that the fragments of Osiris' body were scattered and that Isis buried them in situ may well be the vestige of a custom which, like that of the Konte The body is divided into pieces and buried in fields, often miles apart. Thus (if I speak correctly), the Egyptian reaper's wail provided the key to the myth of Osiris, which could be heard yearly through the fields until Roman times, announcing that the corn-spirit (Osiris) the death of the brutish primitive form).We have said that similar cries were heard in all the harvest-fields of West Asia.The ancients called this kind of crying a song; but judging from the analysis of the two names Linus and Maniros, most of those songs are only a few words, and they can be heard from a long distance when they are chanted in a singing tune.The simultaneous loud and drawn-out cry of many powerful voices must have had such a startling effect that it was impossible for the casual traveler to fail to heed the singing.This sound is repeated over and over again, perhaps quite easily discernible even at a distance; but to a Greek traveling in Asia or in Egypt, foreign words generally have no meaning, and he may be quite natural. They are all regarded as the harvester calling someone's name (such as: Maniros, Linus, Lithyrs, Poms, etc.).If his journey took him through more than one country, such as Bithynia and Phrygia, or Phoenicia and Egypt, while the corn harvest was in progress, he would have had the opportunity to combine the various harvest seasons of different peoples. Compare the shouts.We can therefore well understand why the Greeks often noted and compared these harvest cries.If they were official songs, it would be impossible to hear them at such a distance, and it would be impossible for them to attract the attention of so many travelers; .

In the above-mentioned customs, it is believed that a handful of ears of corn (usually the last handful of grain in the field) is the corn-spirit's neck, and that cutting the corn-spirit will also cut off the corn-spirit's head.Likewise, in Shropshire, when all the corn has been harvested, the last handful of corn is left in the middle of the field, which used to be commonly called the "neck" or "the gander's neck."People weave it together, and the reapers stand ten or twenty paces away, slashing at it with their scythes.Whoever cuts it off is said to have cut off the gander's neck.The neck is taken to the owner's wife, who keeps it in her house for good luck until the next year's harvest.Near Trives [a city in Germany] the man who reaped the last corn in the field "cut off the goat's neck".In the village of Forsland on the Girlock (Dunbardenshire), the last handful of corn in the field is sometimes called a 'head'.In the village of Aurich in Ostfriesi [a province in the north of the Netherlands], the person who reaps the last handful of corn "cuts off the hare's tail."The French reapers sometimes exclaimed, "We've caught the cat by the tail," as they reaped the last corn in the field. ) area, the last sheaf of millet represents the fox.Beside the sheaf of grain, leave ten or twenty ears of grain uncut as tails, and each reaper steps back a few steps and throws his sickle at him.Whoever cuts it off is "cutting off the fox's tail", and everyone shouts "You are tall, you are tall" to celebrate him.These examples leave us no doubt that the Devon and Cornwall word "neck" meant the last sheaf.The corn-spirit is thought to have human or animal form, and the last corn in the field is a part of his body—be it his neck, his head, or his tail.In the end, Devon doused the man with the "neck" back with water.This custom is also a rain spell, like many of the rain spells we have already spoken of.There was a similar custom in the religious rites of Osiris, that of pouring water on the statue of Osiris or on the person who represented him.