Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/34

 16 abhorrence by Pindar i, is perhaps as mythical as that of Busiris^. The fact that this bull was afterwards recognized at Carthage clearly proves its Semitic origin and religious use^. The rescue of Athens from the worshippers of Moloch in Crete is described mythi- cally as the slaying by Theseus of an ox-headed Minotaur, to whom the Athenians were obliged to send every nine years a tribute of seven youths and seven maidens, the sacred number of the Semitic Saturn^. Hercules similarly liberates the Italians from their thraldom to the semi-taurine^ Cacus, who murdered men in a cave or grotto corresponding to the Cretan labyrinth^. The man of brass called Talos, who haunted both Crete and Sardinia, and filew strangers in his red-hot embraces, is another form of the image of Moloch^. Nor was the female goddess without her share in these homicidal rites. The Europa or broad-faced moon, who is borne on the back of a bull to the Minotaur's island Crete, is the same deity as the "Apre/^t? TavpoTroXr] of the coasts of the Euxine^ to whom strangers were sacrificed. The interrupted sacrifice of Iphigenia points to the prevalence of such a rite in her worship. And the name ^OpOaxrla, or ^OpOla, which was given to this god- dess in Lemnos and elsewhere, undoubtedly referred to the loud wailings of her victims, for which the floggings of the Spartan youth were a sort of compromise^. 1 Pyth. I. 95 ; tov hk raipcji x'^^'^^V Kavr^pa vrfKia vbov ix^po- ^oXaptv /care'xei iravTa ^dris, where he is contrasted with the ^iXb<f)pwv dperd of Croesus. 2 The tradition that Phalaris feasted on children (Aristot. Eth. Nic. VII. 5, § 2) clearly identifies him with Moloch. It is not improbable that even the name ^dXapis may be connected with the Bacchic attributes ^aX^s and ^dWos (i. e. with the Semitic nbS) and PIT'S)), and that he is merely himself a representative of the AiSwaos Tavpo- K^pcvs. If so, it will be a curious reflection that historical criticism arose in a contro- versy respecting the authenticity of some highly rhetorical epistles in Attic Greek attributed to this imaginary personage ! 2 See Cicero, in Verrem, iv. 33. ■* That the Minotaur was an object of worship is clear from the representation on a vase, which exhibits the monster as about to sacrifice the seven Athenian maidens on an altar (Bottiger, Ideen zur Kunsimyth. Taf. v.). The names of Pasiphae, the mother, and Ariadne- Aridela (Apid^Xav, t7]v 'Apid5v7)v Kprp-es, Hesych.), the sister of the Minotaur, point to his true character as a form of the Sun-god. ^ Virgil {^n. viii. 192) merely calls him Semihomo, but we may supply the other half by a reference to Ovid's description of the Minotaur as Semibovemque virum semi- virumque hovem (2 Ar. Am. v. 23). ^ When he is called the son of Vulcan, and is said to breathe forth fire, the refer- ence is no doubt to the brazen statue of Moloch. 7 ApoUod. I. 9, § 26. s Kenrick, On Herodotus, ii. 44. ^ Creuzer, Symbol, ii. 528.