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HISTORICAL AND LITERARY MEMORANDA. 



priests, attended by a pontiff in his leopard-skin dress. In this ceremony, as in 

 some of the tales related of Osiris, we may trace those analogies which led the 

 Greeks to suggest the resemblance between that deity and their Bacchus ; as the 

 tambourine, the ivy-bound flower or thyrsus, and the leopard-skin, which last 

 recalls the leopards that drew his car." * 



It has perplexed the critics to account for the constant association of the ivy 

 with the rites of Bacchus, and the only clue to an explanation that could be found 

 was its reputed power to modify the intoxicating effect of wine a power which it 

 appears to possess in no greater degree than any other plant that might be selected ; 

 for to steep a mass of herbage in wine must at once dilute it by the admixture of 

 crude vegetable juices, and promote the evaporation from it of alcohol. But, if we 

 adopt Plutarch's view, Bacchus comes to us provided with the vestments of an 

 elder god, and, as the father planted the vine and secured the praises of men, the 

 son will promote the drinking of the li blood of the grape," and obtain the praises 

 of men less worthily. Pliny insists that the first garlands were used by Bacchus, 

 and were composed of ivy ; 2 " and in later ages they commonly made use of ivy 

 and amethystus as preservatives against drunkenness." 3 We have but to read the 

 Greek dramatists to make abundant acquaintance with the Bacchanalian orgies and 

 the relation of our plant to them. In the " Bacchas " of Euripedes the chorus 

 thus invokes the god 



" In all thy golden-glowing bloom 



Come from Olympus, Bacchus, come, 

 Thy thyrsus shake, and check his savage rage ! 4 

 Where, Bacchus, dost thou now delight 



To lead thy hallowed band ? 

 On Nysa's savage-nursing height 

 Shakest thou thine ivy wand ?" 5 



Virgil takes his J^neis to the court of King Latinus. The wandering prince 

 is promised the king's only daughter Lavina, and a terrible stir follows in opposition 

 to the match, the leader in it being the queen-mother Amata. Finding the king 

 immovable, 



1 Wilkinson's " Ancient Egyptians," I. 284. 



2 Lib. xvi. c. 1. 



3 Potter's " Grecian Antiquities." 



4 This refers to Pentheus of the " dragon brood," who was torn in pieces by his mother and 

 sisters for despising the rites of Bacchus. 



5 Potter's " Euripedes," Y. 598604. 



