530 Religious Wor hip of the Athenians according to Ariftophanes. (Sup, 
After this they paffed the night in the 
temple, each apart on his mat, and wrap- 
ped up in his own coverlit. When all 
the patients and their companions were 
on the point of taking cepofe, the prieft en- 
tered put out the light,and gathered upthe 
offerings, and-whatever had not been 
burnt. After that Efculapius either per- 
formed his duty or not. 
Befides the feftivals of the gods, fome 
alfo were eftablifhed in honour of the 
memory of men. Mention is made of a 
feaft of Thefeus, in which largeffes were 
made to the pégple, confifting of broth, 
peas-foup, . and fuch-like hberalities, 
which-were more confiderable for their 
univerfaliry than for the intrinfic worth 
of individual donations. ; 
Venus had a large fhare of the honaurs 
with which every year the death of “Ado- 
mis w2s folemnized.. The women fet 
up on all fides the cry of We moura for 
Adonis! and if we take Ariftophanes’s 
svord for it, many a hufband was cornuted 
in the {cafon of thofe fad lamentations. 
Among the Poems of Theocritus, we 
find three pieces written in celebration of 
this feftival. The firfi (attriouted alfo to 
Bicn) 1s the 23d Idyll, in which is an ex- 
quifitely fimple, pathetic fonnet on the 
death of Adonis, beginning with thefe 
words: J. mourn for. ddonis; the lovely 
Adonis -is no more! The lovely Adonis is 
perifoed ! and the Loves, together with us, 
gourn for bis lofs. "The fecondis the 29th 
¥dyll againf{ the bloody murderer of 
: Adonis ;- but the moft confiderable is the 
.asth Idyll, in the dramatic ftyle, in 
which Theoeritus defcribes a feftival of 
Adonis, as celebrated by queen Arfinoe, 
daughter of Berenice. This was a mag- 
nificent {pe€tacle, reforted to by a multi- 
tude of people from all parts. The young 
lover of Venus was reprefented 1n tapef- 
try of exquifite workmanfhip. The moft 
accomplithed female fingers. celebrated 
Adenis, with all the charms of an en- 
chanting melody. His fatue was intro- 
duced, accompanied by little gardens in- 
clofed within filver bafkets, and by many 
coftly vafes-full of {pices, perfumes, com- 
fits, 8c. the whole under a, canopy of 
the fofteft verdure, adorned with the 
_figures of birds, reptiles, cupids, and 
enriched with ebony, ivory, and gold. 
Adonis was reprefented as abopt nineteen 
years.of age, and a-bed,in.the, arms of 
Venus, &c. This was the reprefenta- 
tion.of.the fir& day's fpeétacle, Adonts 
being fuppoied yetalive., The next day, 
being fuppofed, dead, he was carried \by 
the women to’ the fea-fhore, where his 
Ls 
- 
wounds were wafhed in the briny waves. 
Then the women, with dithevelled locks, 
their robes loofe, and bofoms bared, broke 
out into ftrains of the moft forrowful 
wailings, &c. 
_ After this digreffion, the author makes 
fome general detached obfervations on the 
gods, religious worfhip, &c. 
In the aét of thanking and paying ho- 
mage to the gods, they began by kiffing 
the earth. - Latona is fometimes: diftin- 
guifhed by the epithet ef po/den-eyed, as 
Minerva is by that of bive-eved. Every 
where in Athens were to be feen images 
of the gods painted on planks of wood. 
Thus, Jupiter was reprefented with an 
eagle, Minerva with an owl, Apollo with 
2 hawk, and Efculapius with a ferpent. 
In imitation of this mode, the Roman 
catholics reprefent St. Roch with his dog, 
St. Eufiace with his flag, St. Anthony © 
with a boar, St. Martin with a horfe, 
St. Jerom with alion, and St. Guingalve 
with a goofe, &c. What is commonly 
called a glory, and by antiquarians a mm- 
bus, viz. a certain circle, placed on the 
head of ftatues. and confidered by the 
moderns as an appendage of canonization 
or majefty, was called by the ancients a 
menifcus, ox little moon, their intention,. 
however, in placing the menzfeus on the 
head of their divinities, was not to de- 
note the beatitude of the perfon repre- 
fented, but only to prevent the ftatue 
from being defiled by the ordure of the 
birds. . . 
At Athens it would have been con- 
fidered as a horrible profanation to have 
called an altar of the gods a Tomb; Chrif- 
tians, however, are lefs ferupulous in 
this refpeét, ereéting their altars, and 
performing their moft religious rites over 
tormbs. . 
Whatever refpeé was paid at Athens 
to the ttatues of the gods, it fometimes 
happened, that young libertines would 
in the night, by potent ftrokes of the 
hammer, put the fame affront on them, 
as Jupiter is faid to have put on his 
father Saturn. 
The ftatues of the gods were made 
with their arms extended, as if to re- 
ceive prefents from men: at leaft Arif- 
tophanes affects fo to underftand this mat-. 
ter; we learn, however, from an an- 
cient apologift of the Chriftian church, 
that this pofture was intended to receive 
the homage of men, who, for, that pur- 
pote, tauched the hand of the ftatue, 
and that, from a Jong repetition of this 
praétice, the hands of the -ftatues, in 
time, became worn. 
In 
