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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph by Ellsworth Huntington 



SYRIAN WOMEN GRINDING WHEAT 



The natives of the plains and hills in the vicinity of Antioch still pursue their daily tasks 

 of the household in the same primitive ways which they practiced in the time of Christ. 



meaning, the chanting of the service, and 

 the religion? procession, wreathed and 

 garlanded with leaves and flowers, had all 

 been brought to the highest state of per- 

 fection. 



ROMAN SOLDIERS CORRUPTED IN THE 

 GROVES OF DAPHNE 



But there was more than the stately 

 temple service that enticed worshippers 

 to Daphne. There were the celebrations 

 of the feasts, especially the great feast 

 of the return of the year, when nature 

 everywhere was bursting into life — the 

 Feast of Fertility, poetic in conception, 

 but when left free from the law of moral 

 obligation degenerating into an immoral 

 revel and debauch. 



The very nature of Daphne, the very 

 suggestion of the air. the very murmur 

 of the brooks, all invited one to cast 

 chastity to the winds and. under the name 

 of religious worship, to indulge every 

 passion. It was a true following of the 

 tradition of Apollo and Daphne. 



In the time of the Antonines there 

 were many complaints that Roman sol- 

 diers and officers were being weakened 

 by the pleasures of Daphne, and that 

 Roman customs were first corrupted 

 "when the Syrian Orontes emptied its 

 filth into the Roman Tiber.'" 



But the very extreme of wickedness at 

 Antioch seems to have reacted for its 

 reformation. Christianity spread rapidly 

 in the city, and when the "apostate" 

 emperor, Julian, came to sacrifice at 

 Daphne and to try to revive the ancient 

 rites, instead of the grand procession and 

 the abundance of victims for the altar, a 

 single priest came, bringing a goose for 

 the offering. 



A CITY OF DESTRUCTIVE EARTHQUAKES 



Typhon. the terrible mythological dragon 

 who was so fiercely at war with the god 

 Zeus, is reported to have been buried in 

 the mountains around Antioch after hav- 

 ing been struck down by a thunderbolt. 

 The old name of the river Orontes is 



