Forlong - Rivers of Life

Sun Worship.
tiara. Besides these was “a great crowd of menial assistants of the sanctuary, including
musicians with flutes and pipes, Galli or Sodomites, and fanatic or enthusiastic women.”
“The sacrifice is performed twice a-day, whereto all the attendants come. To Jupiter
they sacrifice in silence; but when they make their offerings to Juno, they accompany
them with music from flutes and cymbals, but no :reason is given, probably becauae
‘woman is the music of the spheres.’ The sacrifices consist of bulls, oxen, cows, and
sheep, but never doves, which are too holy to touch.” In the sacred lake near the
temple are innurnerable sacred fish, and on its shores many great ceremonies take place,
and at those of the Vernal Equinox, some mutilate themselves.
There was one sacrifice from which the Jews probably borrowed theirs concerning
Azazel. “The victims, whilst alive, are crowned with garlands, and driven out of
the temple porch, and over a precipice, and so killed. Some of them sacrifice their
children in the same manner. Having first put them into sacks at home, their parents
take their children by the hand, beating them all the way, and calling them ‘beasts,’
and the poor victims having reached the temple, they are driven over the rocks to
certain death. All the people have a custom of cutting their hands or their neck, so
that all are marked with scars. The young men, too, allow their hair to grow until
they arrive at puberty, when they cut it off in the temple, and leave it there in a vessel
of gold or silver,” which Lucian himself had done. This corresponds to the removal
of the Bulla by Greeks and Latins, and its dedication to the Lares; the Galli and
wild women correspond to the Kedeshoth, and Kedeshim, or male and female votaries
of the Jewish and similar temples then existing all over western Asia and the greater
part of India still
“Twice during every year,” says Lucian, “does a man ascend to the top of one
of the great Phalli, and there remain in prayer for seven days. The vulgar think
that he thus converses nearer to the gods, and there can better pray for the prosperity
of Syria; so they bring to the foot of the Pillar on which he is, offerings of gold, silver,
and brass; and as the watchers at foot proclaim these, with the name of the supplicant,
the man on the summit makes a prayer on behalf of him, and clanks a bell which
gives forth a great and harsh sound.” The ascent of the pillar is, of course, a difficult
matter; Lucian describes it as done by chains and pegs by means of which also
this “man of prayer” is fed. He was supposed never to sleep, but might sit in a
sort of nest, framed by himself.
This great temple, of course, gave forth oracles; but, writes Lucian, not by
means of priests and interpreters as in Egypt, Lybia, and Asia (minor), for this Asyrian
Apollo moved himself alone, and gave his own oracles, that is. walked about alone.
“Whenever he wishes to speak,” says Lucian, “he begins by moving about on his throne,
and the priests then lift him up. If they fail to do so, he begins to sweat, and agitates
himself more and more. When they take him up, he makes them move about according
to his will, till the high priest meets him and propounds the questions to be solved.
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