Forlong - Rivers of Life

Fire Worship.
very ancient. Professor Schmitz 1 tells us that of the “various etymologies of the word
which have been proposed, none seems so plausible as that which connects it with the
Sabine word QUIRIS or Curis, whence the surname Juno Curitis among the Sabines.”
So that here is another instance of men holding sacred offices being called after the
Phallic god and his symbol, for “Romulus was the QUIRINUS,” so called from the Quiris
or Sabine Javelin, the very Phallic head of which is seen, as commonly represented in
religious insignia, at page 185. The Sabines and their city were called after their
Cult, Cures, and “when Romans bsgan to coalesce,” they too were called from their
faith Quirites, for Mars the great father of Romulus, was their Quiris to whom they
cried: “O Pater, O Genitor, O Sanguen Dis oriendum,” and depicted with glittering
armour and javelin in hand, a correctly figured Solar god. Romulus was held by
many to have ascended alive into heaven from the Via Albina. “in a golden radience,”
(some such solar figure as the Jews associated with the ascension of their seer
Elijah), and on this occasion all good and unsceptical Romans believed that a voice
was heard in the heavens directing them to “set up altars and worship Mars under the
name of Quirinius,” 2 at least so said a wise and religious senator, Juninus Proculus,
who considered it a sacred duty to propagate pious myths; hence, the unwholesome
crop which is everywhere presented to the historian.
The Quirinal hill had, however, even an older name than Mount Cures, and one, I
suspect, connected with Agni, viz., Agonius, through that suitahly named Goddess of
Activity, Agen-ora, to whom the Romans built the temple of Remurius on Mount
Aventine, a hill apparently more particularly devoted to the Yonite form of the faith,
as we notice on it principally temples to the female Energies, as to Diana, the Bona
Dea Juno, and Luna, though “Hercules the Victorious” was of course permitted beside
such Queens. Remus (from which Remurius) was the Abel of this faith, and his
murder by a brother probably marks the ascendancy of the Palatine or Lingamite sect
over the Capitoline or Aventine Arkites. Rome refused to admit Aventines as
citizens till eight hundred years after Romulus, and it was this patriarch who founded
the Curia Calabra, that spot to which the Curia called 3 the people together to offer
sacrifice, and to declare the Calendar, although I suspect that the root of this
word is rather to be sought for in Kali or Kala, that is Siva, whom the Quiris
or Spear represented. Calo, wood, as shown in Littleton’s Latin Dictionary, is from
the Greek Kalon, and connected with Kalo-phoros or Xulo-phoros, a servant who stands
with a baton, club, or rod of office, which the Curio here did. Just as the commander
of a force “strikes down” (Calāre in Italian means this) his standard in the centre of
the ground where he halts or encamps, so he who leads Quirites, strikes his Quiris
into the ground as his symbol, and as we see generals or leaders still set up their standards
when they encamp. This worship, says Danet, came from Phenicia, Egypt, Phrygia,
and Samothracia, to CRETE, where it appears we first hear of Curetes. The Court of the
1 2
Smith’s G. and R. Ants. Danet, Dict. of G. and R. Ants.
3
Said to be from the Latin Calare to call together.—Danet and others.
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