Note 643 — TEMPLE RITES

It is said of Orpheus by Horace, Cædibus, et victu fœdo deterruit: by which one should be led to think, that the putting a stop to this unnatural gratification was owing to him. Others think, that he only discountenanced the eating of raw flesh, which before had been usual. But this could not be true of Orpheus: for it was a circumstance, which made one part of his institutes. If there were ever such a man, as Orpheus, he enjoined the very thing, which he is supposed to have prohibited. For both in the [643]orgies of Bacchus and in the rites of Ceres, as well as of other Deities, one part of the mysteries consisted in a ceremony styled ωμοφαγια; at which time they eat the flesh quite crude with the blood. In Crete at the [644]Dionusiaca they used to tear the flesh with their teeth from the animal, when alive. This they did in commemoration of Dionusus. [645]Festos funeris dies statuunt, et annuum sacrum trietericâ consecratione componunt, omnia per ordinem facientes, quæ puer moriens aut fecit, aut passus est. Vivum laniant dentibus Taurum, crudeles epulas annuis commemorationibus excitantes. Apollonius Rhodius speaking of persons like to Bacchanalians, represents them [646]Θυασιν ωμοβοροις ικελαι, as savage as the Thyades, who delighted in bloody banquets. Upon this the Scholiast observes, that the Mænadas, and Bacchæ, used to devour the raw limbs of animals, which they had cut or torn asunder. [647]Πολλακις τῃ μανιᾳ κατασχισθεντα, και ωμοσπαρακτα, εσθιουσιν. In the island of Chios it was a religious custom to tear a man limb from limb by way of sacrifice to Dionusus. The same obtained in Tenedos. It is Porphyry, who gives the account. He was a staunch Pagan, and his evidence on that account is of consequence. He quotes for the rites of Tenedos Euelpis the Carystian. [648]Εθυοντο δε και εν Χιω τῳ Ωμαδιῳ Διονυσῳ ανθρωπον διεσπωντες· και εν Τενεδῳ, φησιν Ευελπις ὁ Καρυστιος. From all which we may learn one sad truth, that there is scarce any thing so impious and unnatural, as not at times to have prevailed.