Note 257.1 — Chapter III · NOTES

Vide Cults, iii. pp. 300-301. Dr. Frazer’s theory is that the act of castration was performed in order to maintain the fruitfulness of the earth (op. cit., pp. 224-237). But this is against the countless examples which he himself has adduced of the character and function of the priest or priest-king as one whose virile strength maintains the strength of the earth; the sexual act performed in the field by the owner increases the fruitfulness of the field (Frazer, GB2, ii. p. 205). Why should the priest make himself impotent so as to improve the crops? The only grounds of his belief appear to be that the priest’s testicles were committed to the earth or to an underground shrine of Kybele (Arnob. Adv. Gent., v. 14, and Schol. Nikand. Alexipharm., 7; vide Cults, 3; Kybele Ref. 54a); but such consecration of them to Kybele would be natural on any hypothesis, and Arnobius’ words do not prove that they were buried in the bare earth.