Note 272 — II. THE COLOSSIAN HERESY.

I can only regard it as an accidental coincidence that the epulones of the Ephesian Artemis were called Essenes, Pausan. viii. 13. 1 τοὺς τῇ Ἀρτέμιδι ἱστιάτορας τῇ Ἐφεσίᾳ γινομένους, καλουμένους δὲ ὑπὸ τῶν πολιτῶν Ἐσσῆνας: see Guhl Ephesiaca 106 sq. The Etymol. Magn. has Ἐσσήν: ὁ βασιλεὺς κατὰ Ἐφεσίους, and adds several absurd derivations of the word. In the sense of ‘a king’ it is used by Callimachus Hymn. Jov. 66 οὔ σε θεῶν ἐσσῆνα πάλιν θέσαν. It is probably not a Greek word, as other terms connected with the worship of the Ephesian Artemis (e.g. μεγάβυζος, a Persian word) point to an oriental or at least a non-Greek origin; and some have derived it from the Aramaic הסין chasin ‘strong’ or ‘powerful.’ But there is no sufficient ground for connecting it directly with the name of the sect Ἐσσηνοί or Ἐσσαῖοι, as some writers are disposed to do (e.g. Spanheim on Callim. l.c., Creuzer Symbolik IV. pp. 347, 349); though this view is favoured by the fact that certain ascetic practices were enjoined on these pagan ‘Essenes.’