Far Eastern and Classical Antiquity 35 



The Torches of the Bacchae 



Mention has already been made of Euripides' (480-406 b. c.) 

 tragedy Bacchae, in which the Bacchantes " carried fire on their 

 hair without being hurt. They also drew milk from the Tiber." ^'^ 

 The festivals called Bacchanalia were also held at night every three 

 years in Rome in honor of Bacchus, god of wine, whose Greek 

 counterpart was Dionysus. There is a passage in Livy (Titus Livius, 

 59 B. c.-A. D. 17) dealing with the History of the Romans (Book 

 XXXIX, Chap. 13) which describes the Bacchanalia held in 186 

 B. c. as follows: ^^ " Matrons in the dress of Bacchantes, with di- 

 shevelled hair and carrying blazing torches, would run down to the 

 Tiber, and plunging their torches in the water (because they con- 

 tained live sulphur mixed with calcium) would bring them out 

 burning." 



These torches have usually been explained as made of quicklime, 

 sulphur, and a volatile petroleum ^- or of sulphur and gypsum which 

 allegedly would not be extinguished by water, but J. P. Jorrissen 

 (1948) has suggested that the Romans may have prepared a calcium 

 sulphide phosphor by heating natural sulphur with chalk, lime or 

 oyster shells (vivum sulphur cum cake) as was done by John Canton 

 in 1768. Since impure calcium sulfides are very bright phosphors, 

 they could easily explain the behavior of the torches of Livy and 

 the " fire on their hair " in Euripides' Bacchae. Like other phosphors 

 the calcium sulfide phosphor will phosphoresce under water, and 

 might disintegrate into fine particles responsible for the " milk " 

 mentioned in the quotation of Euripides. Unfortunately the evi- 

 dence to settle this question is lacking.^^ 



Electroluminescence in Ancient Times 



The daily life of the Greeks and especially that of the Romans 

 was guided and their future determined by signs or portents, many 

 of which were instances of electroluminescence. One of these came 

 to be known as ignis lambens, a silent electric discharge observed 



»" Euripides. Verses 80 ff., 142 ff., 707 ff. and 757 ff. See also Nonius Marcellus, Com- 

 pendiosa doctrina, who quotes from Homina aiinalium, liber IV, " ex Tiberi lacte 

 haurire." 



•^ From the E. T. Sage translation in the Loeb Library of Classics, 9: 255, 1936. 



**See E. O. von Lippmann, Entstehung und Aiisbreitung der Alchemie, 479, Berlin 

 1919. 



•^ It has been claimed by Eusebe Salverte (translated in 1846 as The philosophy of 

 magic, prodigies and apparent miracles, by A. T. Thomson) that the ancients possessed 

 phosphorus because of the many stories of spontaneous ignitions. See this book for 

 examples. 



