the victims with garlands, and then driving them out of the court of the temple, one side of which was an abrupt steep, where, falling down, they miserably perished. Infants, shocking to relate, were often offered, being tied up in sacks, and thrown over the precipice, in the same manner as was done from some of the rocks and high places called Acheron, before mentioned. Adjacent to the temple was a sacred lake two hundred fathoms in depth, as the priests reported; and in the midst of it was an altar of stone, which, when looked at suddenly, seemed to swim like a floating island, as most, in fact, actually supposed it did; for the pillar, or whatever else supported it, was not easily to be discerned.* This floating altar or island, was always crowned, and smoking with incense; for every day many people swam to it, and there performed their devotions. It is unnecessary, after what has been advanced, to run a formal parallel between this extraordinary temple, and the many others which have been mentioned. The usual features of paradisaical * The existence of the pillar underneath is the supposition of Lucian himself, who was sufficiently acute in penetrating into the arts of the pagan hierophants, Εμοι δε δοκεει στυλος εφεςεως μεγας, ανεχειν τον βωμον. Lucian de Dea Syr. p. 908. memorial, with an admixture also of diluvian traditions, are plainly discoverable to every attentive reader. There was a celebrated oracle in the temple, where responses were given by the Syrian Apollo. 66 Another instance of the Gentile rite of "clothing in skins," we have in the Bacchanalia, when the frantic votaries of Dionusus appeared every where like persons distracted, "clad in "the skins of fawns." These were followed by noble virgins, bearing golden baskets filled with fruit, in which consisted the "most mysterious "part of the solemnity." In the baskets were serpents, which, sometimes crawling out, struck the beholders with astonishment; while in the mean time the whole multitude joined in reiterated exclamations of "Eva! Eva!" A learned living author has well shewn, how the whole of this remarkable festival appears to have been a scenical representation of the fall of our first parents. * The custom at Hierapolis of immolating infants, has been alluded to, and we may now take some notice of the extent to which this horrid rite prevailed in other places. There is an affecting passage in the Eneid which seems * Faber. Hor. Mos. vol. i. p. 96. to mention the practice; when Virgil conducts his hero over the sacred rivers, into the Hades of the heathen, which has been shewn to have been composed of paradisaical memorials: Continuo auditæ voces, vagitus et ingens The rite seems to have arisen from an idea the ancients had of the superior purity of an infant, which rendered it in their eyes a fitter subject than any other to be offered up by way of atonement. The origin of this idea must have been in the diabolical corruption of those traditions which pointed to the one great victim, who, in the fulness of time, would offer up himself as a propitiation for sin, being indeed the "Child born, and the Son given," who should avert the righteous anger of an offended God. It is scarce credible, however, how common the custom was; and it wonderfully evinces the general view entertained of the necessity of some sacrifice, which should take away sin. Silius Italicus, speaking of the Carthaginians, * Eneid vi. 426: mentions it as existing amongst them, from the earliest antiquity :— Mos erat in populis quos condidit advena Dido The reason assigned, is strikingly expressed. It was to "seek for pardon from the gods by "the shedding of blood;" and they unhappily conceived that the purest and most acceptable they could offer, was that of the objects nearest and dearest to them. The Carthaginians were a colony from Tyre, and probably from thence it was that they brought so barbarous a custom. The nations of Canaan were guilty of it in a peculiar degree, and seem, from the sacred writings, to have enticed the people of God into an imitation of the bloody rite. "They "did not destroy the nations concerning whom "the Lord commanded them; but were min 66 gled among the heathen, and learned their "works; yea, they sacrificed their sons and "their daughters unto devils, and shed inno"cent blood, even the blood of their sons and "their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto "the idols of Canaan; and the land was Sil. Ital. iv. 766. polluted with blood."* The most terrible instance recorded of this custom among the Carthaginians, was when their army had been defeated by Agathocles, and they immediately supposed that the calamity had befallen them through the anger of Cronus, to appease whose wrath, no less than two hundred children of the prime nobility were sacrificed in public as an atonement for the people.t The Phoenicians, also, besides their more ordinary and common immolations to Moloch, who was the same as Saturn or Cronus, had certain seasons in every year, when children were chosen out of the most noble and reputable families, for the tremendous purpose above described. Justin the historian describes this unnatural custom in a manner truly touching; and so many authors, both ancient and modern, have mentioned it, as well as human sacrifices in general, that it appears hardly necessary to bring forward more instances here than those which have been so often adduced.§ Two, however, * Psalm cvi. 34. + Diodor. Sic. xx. 756. Philo. apud Euseb. Prep. Evang. iv. 16. § Justin. lib. xviii. 6—226. The reader will find, if he is desirous of pursuing the subject further, an immense mass of valuable matter collected by Bryant, vol. vi. pp. 295–321. |