THE REV. W. ST. CLAIK TlSDAhL, D.D., ON MITHKAISM. 251 



corresponding local Nature-goddess Ma (Cybele, Magna Mater, 

 Mater Deum), and should carry the abominations of that 

 worship into the lioman world. In the West, some hold that 

 men only were allowed to worship Mithra, their women* 

 devoting themselves to Cybele.f Others say that there were 

 female Mithraists called " Hyaenas/'J not a very attractive 

 name. In Phrygia, Mithra seems to have been in large measure 

 identified with Attis, also a Sungod ; hence the violet and the 

 pine-tree,§ both sacred to Attis, were in Western Mithraism 

 consecrated to Mithra. Agdistis, another Phrygian deity and 



* So Cumont, Mysteries of Mithra^ p. 173, etc. 



t " The most ancient Mitliraeum known to us was contio-uous to the 

 fu]~\)wov of Ostia, and we have every reason to believe that the worship 

 of the Iranian god and that of the Phrygian goddess were conducted in 

 intimate communion with each other throughout the entire extent of the 

 Empire " (Cumont, Mysteries of Mithra, p. 179). He adds : " Further, since 

 men only were permitted to take part in the secret ceremonies of the 

 Persian liturgy, other Mysteries to which women were admitted must 

 have formed some species of alliance with the former to make them 

 complete. The Great Mother succeeded thus to the place of Anahita ; 

 she had her Matres or ' Mothers,' as Mithra had his ' Fathers.' " 



X Or " Lionesses," according to another reading, Porphvry, De 

 Ahstinentia, Lib. iv, cap. 16, quoted below, p. 262, note t. 



§ Ovid {Metam. x, 104) says that Attis was transformed into a Pine- 

 tree, because of his self-mutilation under such a tree (Servius on 

 jEn. ix, 114). The violet was also sacred to Attis, since garlands of 

 violets were bound on the pine when solemnly brought (Arnobius v, 16 

 and 39) into Magna Mater's temple. It was also sacred to Mithra 

 Bundakishnih, xxvii, 24). Julius Firmicus Maternus (a late writer not by 

 any means reliable) says that, in the Phrygian rites of the Mater Delim, 

 " per annos singulos arbor pinea caeditur, et in media arbore simulacrum 

 iuvenis subligatur" {De Errore Prof. RelL, cap. 28), cf Pliny {Hist. 

 Nat. xvii, 10). It is usual to consider that in these and the Mithraic 

 rites the pine-tree signified immortality, but this seems more than 

 ■doubtful. It more probably denoted the vigour of youth, manly vigour, 

 reproductive energy. Perhaps this explains why it was sacred not only 

 to Cybele (Macrobius, Saturnalia, vi, 9 : Verg. A^n. x, 23U) and to Diana 

 (Hor. Od. iii, 22, 1 : Propert. ii, 15, 17) but also to Faunus (Ovid, Her. v, 

 137) and to Pan (Propert. i, 18, 29). The words pinea and Tr/xt;? (Skt. 

 pitu-ddru and pUa-dru) are from the root 7:)^ which in the Eig-Veda 

 means " to render fruitful," " to increase." In the Avesta the root has the 

 same meaning. The pine was not well suited to express the idea of a 

 victory over death, because, rightly or wrongly, it was held in ancient 

 times that, if cut down, it never springs up again. Hence Crresus of 

 Lydia (not very far from Phrygia) threatened 7ri7vo<? rpoirov eKTfu'ylreiv 

 the people of Lampsacus, i.e., to destroy them utterly, as is explained in 

 Herodotus vi, 37. From this came the proverb current in Greece later 



