CHAPTER IV

[1] Cf.  Frazer, Adonis, Attis, Osiris, p. 5. [2] In this connection not only the epoch-making works of Mannhardt and Frazer, which are more specifically devoted to an examination of Folk-belief and practice should be studied, but also works such as The Mediaeval Stage, E. K. Chambers; Themis, J. E. Harrison; The Origin of Attic Comedy, F. Cornford; and Sir Gilbert Murray’s essay on the evolution of the Greek Drama, published in Miss Harrison’s Themis.  The cumulative evidence is most striking. [3] A full study of this evolutionary process will be found in Miss Harrison’s Themis, A Study of Greek Social Origins, referred to above. [4] Baudissin, in his exhaustive study of these cults, Adonis und Esmun, comes to the conclusion that Tammuz and Adonis are different gods, owing their origin to a common parent deity.  Where the original conception arose is doubtful; whether in Babylon, in Canaan, or in a land where the common ancestors of Phoenicians and Babylonian Semites formed an original unit. [5] Cf.  Tammuz and Ishtar, S. Langdon, p. 5. [6] It may be well to note here the the ‘Life’ deity has no proper name; he is only known by an appellative; Damu-zi, Damu, ‘faithful son,’ or ‘son and consort,’ is only a general epithet, which designates the dying god in a theological aspect, just as the name Adoni, ‘my lord,’ certainly replaced a more specific name for the god of Byblos.  Esmun of Sidon, another type of Adonis, is a title only, and means simply, ‘the name.’  Cf.  Langdon, op. cit. p. 7.  Cf. this with previous passages on the evolution of the Greek idea from a nameless entity to a definite god.  Mr Langdon’s remarks on the evolution of the Tammuz cult should be carefully studied in view of the theory maintained by Sir W. Ridgeway—­that the Vegetation deities were all of them originally men. [7] From a liturgy employed at Nippur in the period of the Isin dynasty.  Langdon, op. cit. p. 11.  Also, Sumerian and Babylonian Psalms, p. 338. [8] Cf.  Langdon, Tammuz and Ishtar, p. 23. [9] What we have been able to ascertain of the Sumerian-Babylonian religion points to it rather as a religion of mourning and supplication, than of joy and thanksgiving.  The people seem to have been in perpetual dread of their gods, who require to be appeased by continual acts of humiliation.  Thus the 9th, 15th, 19th, 28th, and 29th of the month were all days of sack-cloth and ashes, days of wailing; the 19th especially was ‘the day of the wrath of Gulu.’ [10] Cf.  Langdon, op. cit. p. 24. [11] Cf.  Langdon, op. cit. p. 26. [12] The most complete enquiry into the nature of the god is to be found in Baudissin, Adonis und Esmun.  For the details of the cult cf.  Farnell, Cults of the Greek States, Vol.  II.; Vellay, Adonis (Annales du Musée Guimet).  For the Folk-lore evidence cf.  Mannhardt, Wald un Feld-Kulte; Frazer, The Golden Bough, and Adonis, Attis and Osiris.  These remarks apply also to the