Page:History of Greece Vol V.djvu/234

 210 HISTORY OF GREECE. administration of consecrated property and with the enjoyment of a large portion of its fruits. I'lrjta Ko/xii^(jv — bpyiuv iravToiuv avv&ivTjg, etc. : compare Plutarch, Alkibiad. 22-34. The sacred objects exhibited formed an essential part of the ceremony, together with the chest in which such of them as were movable were brought out — reAer^f kjKVfiova fivarida /cdCTr;?v (Nonnus, ix, 127). JEs- chines, in assisting the religious lustrations performed by his mother, was hearer of the chest — KiaT6(popog Kal 7uKv6(popog (Demosthen. de Corona, c. 79, p. 313). Clemens Alexaodrius (Cohort, ad Gent. p. 14) describes the objects which were contained in these mystic chests of the Eleusinian mys- teries, — cakes of particular shape, pomegranates, salt, ferules, ivy, etc. The communicant was permitted, as a part of the ceremony, to take these out of the chest and put them into a basket, afterwards putting them hack again: "Jejunavi et ebibi cyceonem: ex cist^ sumpsi et in calathum misi: accepi rursus, in cistulam transtuli," (Amobius ad Gent, v, 175, ed. Elmenherst,) while the uninitiated were excluded from seeing it, and forbid- den from looking at it ■' even from the house-top." Tdv KaTia&ov KariovTa ;;a//ai ■Saaettj&e fSe^aXoL Miyd* and Tcj reyeog. (Kallimachus, Hymn, in Cercrem, 4.) Lobeck', in his learned and excellent treatise, Aglaophamus (i, p. 51 ), says : " Sacrorum nomine tam Gr^ci, quam Eomani, prsecipue signa et imagines Deorum, omnemque sacram supellectilem dignari solent. Quag res animum illuc potius inclinat, ut putem Hierophantas ejusmodi iepa in conspectum hominum protulisse, sive deorum simulacra, sive vasa sacra et instrumenta aliave priscffi religionis monumenta ; qualia in sacrario Eleusinio asservata fuisse, etsi nullo testimonio affirmare possumus, tamen probabilitatis spe- ciem habet testimonio similem. Namque non solum in templis fere omnibus cimelia venerandae antiquitatis condita erant, sed in mysteriis ipsis talium rerum mentio occurrit, quas initiati summa cum veneratione aspicerent, non initiatis ne aspicere quidem liceret Ex his testimoniis efBcitur (p. 61) sacra quae Hierophanta ostendit, ilia ipsa fuisse ayia (paa/nara sive simulacra Deorum, eorumqua aspectum qui praebeant detiai tu iepa vel Trapex^iv vel (paiveiv dici, et ab hoc quasi primario Hierophantoe actu turn Eleusinioinim sacerdotum principem nomen accepisse, tum totum negotium esse nun- cupatum." Compare also K. F. Herrmann,. Gottesdienstliche Alterthiimer der Grie chen, part ii, ch. ii, sect. 32. A passage in Cicero de Haruspicum Responsis (c. 11), which is tran- scribed almost entirely by Amobius adv. Gentes, iv, p. 148, demonstrates the minute precision required at Korae in the performance of the festival of the Megalesia : the smallest omission or alteration was supposed to render the festival unsatisfactory to the gods. The memorable history of the Holy Tunic at Treves, in 1845. shows