Forlong - Rivers of Life

Sun Worship.
moment on the exhibition of the same faith at Hera on the Euphrates; for no
history of solar worship would be complete which omitted to notice the Dea Syria,
or rather Soorya. Thanks to Lucian of the second century A.C., we do know a little
regarding the temple rites of this consort of Sol. “The original tempIe,” he says “was
founded by Bacchus, becaue the dresses. paintings, Indian stones and ivory, &c., show
that the founder came from Ethiopia;” by which we are not to understand the Upper
Nile, but the land whence sprung those wondrous builders—the Kyklopian and Phenician
races. Lucian says that in his day the original temple had gone to ruins, and that the
one he describes waa erected by Stratonike, an Asyrian queen, whose step-son became
enamoured of her, and that “rather than lose his child, the father gave up his wife and
abdicated, retiriug to Babylon.” Perhaps this tale is based on some solar myth.
“The temple is on a hill in the centre .of the city, surrounded by two walls,
one old and one new, and faces. the East, like all in Ionia. The porch or vesti-
bule faces the north, is two hundred yards in circumference, and within it are the
two phalli, each one hundred and fifty yards high.” The writer probably meant
cubits, of one and a quarter feet or so, which would still make the phalli lofty enough
—one hundred and eighty-seven feet high; the area or vestibule in which they stood
was of course an uncovered space, such as we still very commonly find in South
Indian temples before the inmost sanctuary. Lucian says that “the riches of
this temple were enormous,” and that though he travelled about seeing many, yet
“there were none of equal importance to it. Within it are very ancient works, costly
ornaments, miraculous structures. . . . and deities who gave a clear sign of themselves;
also images which sweat, move, and deliver oracles, as if alive.” He here saw
Dorketo—the half-fish and half-woman deity of Phenica—represented as a perfect
woman; fish ware sacred, to her, and therefore none of the pious would eat fish.
So the dove is sacred to Semiramis, “and avoided as an esculent.” 1 Syria or Soorya
is “the same as Rhea, for lions support her, and she carrieth a tabor and a tower on
her head, and her temple is served by Galli” (eunuchs), so called when serving god-
desses, and clothed like females. On the two great phalli Lucian read this inscription:
“These Phalli, I, Bacchu, dedicated to my step-mother Juno.” The Greeks
had here also erected many phalli in honour of Bacchus in the shape of little men
made of wood, with very large viriIities (bene nasati) to which were attached strings
to shake or cause. them to vibrate. Such a figure wrought in brass was seen by Lucian
on the right hand of the temple. Inside there was a female figure dressed in male attire.
The basement of this temple was four yards high, and mounted by steps. “On
entering, it is found that the doors are golden; in the interior there is a blaze of gold
ornarments, and the whole roof is golden. The temple is filled with delicious
perfume, which is so heavy as to cling to one;s garments some time after
leaving the precincts. There is an inner raised temple within, which is, entered
1 Anc. Faiths, II. 785. I am indebted to Dr. Inman for some of this, of which I only give the
substance, not an accurate translation from Lucian. [Probably it has been Bowdlerised. — T.S.]
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