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thirds of it might have been occupied in the mode in curious hunting-piece, in which Semiramis on horsewhich the large cities of Asia are built; that is, in the back was throwing her javelin at a leopard, and her style of some of those of India at the present day, hav- husband Ninus piercing a lion. In this last palace ing gardens, reservoirs of water, and large open places were the hanging gardens, so celebrated among the within them. Moreover, the houses of the common Greeks. They contained a square of 400 feet on people consist of one floor only; so that, of course, every side, and were carried up in the manner of sevfewer people can be accommodated in the same com- eral large terraces, one above another, till the height pass of ground in an Indian than in a European city. equalled that of the walls of the city. The ascent was This accounts at once for the erroneous dimensions from terrace to terrace by stairs ten feet wide. The of some of the Asiatic cities; and perhaps we cannot whole pile was sustained by vast arches raised upon allow much less than double the space to accommo- other arches, one above another, and strengthened by date the same number of Asiatics that Europeans a wall, surrounding it on every side, of twenty-two would require. That the area enclosed by the walls feet in thickness. On the top of the arches were first of Babylon was only partly built on, is proved by the laid large flat stones, sixteen feet long and four broad; words of Quintus Curtius (5, 4), who says, that "the over these was a layer of reeds, mixed with a great buildings in Babylon are not contiguous to the walls, quantity of bitumen, upon which were two rows of but some considerable space was left all around." bricks closely cemented together. The whole was Diodorus, morcover, describes a vast space taken up covered with thick sheets of lead, upon which lay the by the palaces and public buildings. The enclosure mould of the garden. And all this floorage was conof one of the palaces was a square of 15 stadia, or trived to keep the moisture of the mould from running near a mile and a half; the other of five stadia: here away through the arches. The earth laid thereon was are more than 2 square miles occupied by the palaces so deep that large trees might take root in it; and with alone. Besides these, there were the temple and such the terraces were covered, as well as with all tower of Belus, of vast extent; the hanging gardens, other plants and flowers that were proper to adorn a &c. From all this, and much more that might be ad-pleasure-garden. In the upper terrace there was an duced, we may collect most clearly, that much vacant engine, or kind of pump, by which water was drawn space remained within the walls of Babylon: and this up out of the river, and from thence the whole garden would seem to do away, in some degree, the great dif- was watered. In the spaces between the several ficulty respecting the magnitude of the city itself. arches upon which this whole structure rested, were Nor is it stated as the effect of the subsequent decline large and magnificent apartments, that were very light, of Babylon, but as the actual state of it, when Alex- and had the advantage of a beautiful prospect. Amyitis, ander first entered the place for Curtins leaves us the wife of Nebuchadnezzar, having been bred in Meto understand, that the system of cultivating a large dia (for she was the daughter of Astyages, the king of proportion of the enclosed space originated with the that country), desired to have something in imitation foundation itself; and the history of its two sieges, by of her native hills and forests; and the monarch, in Cyrus and Darius Hystaspis, seems to show it. (Ren- order to gratify her, is said to have raised this prodinell's Geography of Herodotus, vol. 1, p. 447.)--The gious structure.-Babylon was probably in the zenith walls of Babylon were built of brick baked in the sun, of its glory and dominion just before the death of Nebcemented with bitumen instead of mortar, and were uchadnezzar. The spoils of Nineveh, Jerusalem, and encompassed by a broad and deep ditch, lined with Egypt had enriched it; its armies had swept like a the same materials, as were also the banks of the river torrent over the finest countries of the East, and had in its course through the city, the inhabitants descend- at this time no longer an enemy to contend with; the ing to the water by steps through the smaller brass arts and sciences, driven from Phoenicia and Egypt, gates already mentioned. Over the river was a bridge, were centred here; and hither the philosophers of the connecting the two halves of the city, which stood, West came to imbibe instruction. The fall of Babylon, the one on its eastern, the other on its western bank; before the victorious arms of Cyrus, occurred B.C. the river running nearly north and south. The bridge 538. The height and strength of the walls had long was five furlongs in length, and thirty feet in breadth, baffled every effort of the invader. Having underand had a palace at each end, with, it is said, a sub- stood at length, that on a certain day, then near apterranean passage beneath the river from one to the proaching, a great annual festival was to be kept at other, the work of Semiramis. Within the city was Babylon, when it was customary for the Babylonians to the temple of Belus, or Jupiter, which Herodotus de- spend the night in revelling and drunkenness, he scribes as a square of two stadia: in the midst of this thought this a fit opportunity for executing a scheme arose the celebrated tower, to which both the same which he had planned. This was no other than to writer and Strabo give an elevation of one stadium, surprise the city by turning the course of the river; a and the same measure at its base. The whole was di- mode of capture of which the Babylonians, who lookvided into eight separate towers, one above another, ed upon the river as one of their greatest protections, of decreasing dimensions to the summit; where stood had not the smallest apprehension. Accordingly, on a chapel, containing a couch, table, and other things, the night of the feast, he sent a party of his men to of gold. Here the principal devotions were perform- the head of the canal, which led to the great lake made ed and over this, on the highest platform of all, was by Nebuchadnezzar to receive the waters of the Euthe observatory, by the help of which the Babylonians phrates while he was facing the banks of the river with are said to have attained to great skill in astronomy. walls of brick and bitumen. This party had directions, A winding staircase on the outside formed the ascent as soon as it was dark, to commence breaking down to this stupendous edifice. The two palaces, at the the great bank or dam which kept the waters of the two ends of the bridge, have already been alluded to. river in their place, and separated them from the canal The old palace, which stood on the east side of the above mentioned: while Cyrus, in the mean time, diriver, was 30 furlongs (or three miles and three quar-viding the rest of his army, stationed one part at the ters) in compass. The new palace, which stood on the west side of the river, opposite to the other, was 60 furlongs (or seven miles and a half) in compass. It was surrounded with three walls, one within another, with considerable spaces betwen them. These walls, as also those of the other palace, were embellished with an infinite variety of sculptures, representing all kinds of animals to the life. Among the rest was a

place where the river entered the city, and the other where it came out, with orders to enter the channel of the river as soon as they should find it fordable. This happened by midnight; for, by cutting down the bank leading to the great lake, and making besides openings into the trenches, which, in the course of the two years' siege, had been dug round the city, the river was 80 drained of its water that it became nearly dry. When

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the army of Cyrus entered the channel from their re- his rivals to pay much attention to Babylon; which, spective stations on each side of the city, they rushed still labouring under accumulated evils, continued to onward towards the centre of the place; and finding the decline. But what completed its downfall was the gates leading towards the river left open, in the drunk-building of Seleucia by Seleucus, about 40 miles disenness and negligence of the night, they entered them, tant, on a spot more favourable for commercial interand met by concert at the palace before any alarm had course; the restoration of Babylon to its ancient natbeen given here the guards, partaking, no doubt, in ural advantages appearing perhaps hopeless. This, the negligence and disorder of the night, were surpri- together with the removal of the court, soon exsed and killed. While all this was going on without, hausted Babylon of the little that remained of its a remarkable scene of widely different character was ancient trade and population. It never after revitransacting within. Daniel was deciphering the wri- ved, but continued, through each succeeding age, to ting on the wall; and, soon after, the soldiers of Cy-make farther advances in its progress of depopulation rus, having killed the guard, and meeting with no re- and decay, until nothing but the ruins of this once sistance, advanced towards the banqueting-hall, where famous city were to be found. It will be interesting they encountered Belshazzar, the ill-fated monarch, to trace the successive accounts of those who have and slew him, with his armed followers.-Babylon had made mention of Babylon during this latter period : suffered much when carried by the troops of Cyrus; that is, from the building of Seleucia to its entire debut other sufferings were to come. Cyrus having es- struction. The first of these is Diodorus Siculus, tablished his court at Susa, Babylon, formerly the seat who wrote about 45 years before the Christian era. of empire, was thus reduced to the rank of a provin- He relates, that Babylon having fallen into the hands cial city; and the inhabitants, who, grown wealthy of the Parthians, the temples were burned; much of and proud during their empire over the East, could ill the remaining part of the city demolished; and many brook this change of fortune, resolved to make an ef- of the inhabitants sold into slavery. This was about fort towards regaining their former power and gran- 130 B.C.: and, in his own time, 85 years after, he deur. Accordingly, in the fifth year of Darius Hys- says, that the public buildings were destroyed or falltaspis, and twelve years after the death of Cyrus, hav-en to decay; that a very small part of the city was ing for several years covertly laid in great stores of inhabited; and that the greater part of the space withprovisions, and every necessary, they openly revolted; in the walls was tilled. Strabo, who wrote about 70 which, as they might have expected, soon brought years after Diodorus, says, that the city was nearupon them the armies of Darius. The city a second ly deserted; and that the same might be applied to it time was taken by stratagem (vid. Zopyrus), and Da- which was said of Megalopolis in Arcadia, that the rius, when he again became possessed of it, gave it great city was becoming a great desert. Quintus up to the plunder of his soldiers. He impaled 3000 Curtius, the next in order, and who wrote about 60 of those who were supposed to have been most active A.D., is cited by Dr. Wells to show that Babylon in the revolt; took away the gates, and pulled down" was lessened a fourth part in his time;" who imthe walls to the height of fifty cubits. During the re-mediately after says, that it was reduced to desolation mainder of the reign of Darius, Babylon continued in in the time of Pliny. Now, besides that this account much the same state in which it was left after the of Quintus Curtius is perfectly inconsistent with presiege. But in the succeeding reign another blow was ceding ones, the city must have undergone a prodistruck towards her downfall. Xerxes, in his return gious decline, and that without any assignable cause, from his Grecian expedition, partly to indemnify him- in the short space of 20 years, which was about the self for his losses, and partly out of zeal for the Ma- time that intervened between Curtius and Pliny. The gian religion, which held every kind of image-worship truth is, that Dr. Wells has mistaken the period rein abhorrence, destroyed the temples and plundered ferred to by Quintus Curtius, which was that of the them of their vast wealth, which appears to have been arrival of Alexander at Babylon, whose history he hitherto spared, and which must have been indeed pro- was writing, for that in which the historian himself digious; that in the temple of Belus alone amounting, lived. Pliny, who lived, as we have seen, about 20 according to Diodorus, to above 6000 talents of gold, years after Quintus Curtius, and 70 after Christ, deor about 21 millions sterling. From this period, Bab-clares, that Babylon was at that time "decayed, unylon, despoiled of her wealth, her strength, and her peopled, and lying waste." From this time may be various resources, was in no condition for any more said to have commenced the ruin of the ruins; which revolts; and it is reasonable to suppose, that, with has been so complete, that they are with difficulty the decay of her power and local advantages, the pop- traced: and, indeed, their exact position has become a ulation also must decline. We hear, in fact, no more matter of learned dispute. Pausanias, about the midof Babylon until the coming of Alexander, 150 years dle of the second century, says, that of Babylon, the after; when the terror of his name, or the weakness greatest city the sun ever saw, there was remaining of the place, was such, that it made not the slightest but the walls. And Lucian, about the end of the pretensions to resistance. Alexander, after a short same century, says, that in a little time it would be visit to Babylon, proceeded on his expedition to In- sought for, and not be found, like Nineveh. Jerome, dia; and, at his return from thence, finding Babylon in the fourth century, gives the account of a monk, at more suitable in its situation and resources for the that time living in Jerusalem, who had been at Babycapital of his empire than any other place in the East, lon, and who says that the space occupied by the city he resolved to fix his residence there, and to restore was converted into a chase for wild beasts, for the it to its former strength and magnificence. For this kings of Persia to hunt in; the walls having been repurpose, having examined the breach which Cyrus paired for that purpose. Among more recent travelhad made in the river, and the possibility of bringing lers, the best accounts of the ruins of Babylon are it back to its former channel through the city, he om- given by Kinneir, Rich, Porter, and Buckingham. ployed 10,000 men in the work, and, at the same The ancient city is supposed to have been situated in time, an equal number in rebuilding the temple of Be- what is now the Turkish pachalic of Bagdad, near the lus. An entire stop, however, was put to these great village of Hill or Hella, on the Euphrates. Ruins of undertakings by the death of Alexander, who here various kinds are found for many miles around this terminated together his mighty projects and his life. place. Of these, one of the most interesting is that After the death of Alexander, Babylon and the East which is thought to be the remains of the tower of fell to the lot of Seleucus, one of the generals who Belus. Mr. Rich, after refuting the opinion of Rendivided his empire among them. Seleucus, for sev-nell, who places it on the eastern side of the river, eral years, was too much engaged in contention with gives the following account of this stupendous ruin,

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or, as it is called by the natives, Birs Nemroud | Egypt, north of Memphis, supposed to have been found("The hill of Nimrod"). If any building," says he, ed by the Persians during the reign of Cambyses. 66 may be supposed to have left any considerable traces, A quarter, retaining the name of Baboul or Babilon, it is certainly the pyramid or tower of Belus; which, in the town of Old Cairo, marks its position. (Ptol., by its form, dimensions, and the solidity of its con- 4, 5.-Strab., 555.-Joseph., Ant. Jud., 2, 5.) struction, was well calculated to resist the ravages of BABYLONIA, a large province of Upper Asia, of time; and, if human force had not been employed, which Babylon was the capital. It was bounded on would in all probability have remained to the present the north by Mesopotamia and Assyria; on the west day in nearly as perfect a state as the pyramids of by Arabia Deserta; on the south by the Sinus PersiEgypt Even under the dilapidations which we know cus; and on the east by the Tigris. According to it to have undergone at a very early period, we might Ptolemy (5, 20), it comprised Chaldea, Amordacia, reasonably look for traces of it after every other ves- and, at the most flourishing period, a part of Mesopotige of Babylon had vanished from the face of the tamia and Assyria. The modern name is Irak Araearth. The whole height of the Birs Nemroud above bi, or Babeli. Babylonia is a dry steppe or tablethe plain, to the summit of the brick wall on its top, land, but enjoys a delightful climate. It was and still is 235 feet. The brick wall itself, which stands on is one of the most fruitful lands in the world. Hethe edge of the summit, and was undoubtedly the face rodotus (1, 193) gives the following account of its ferof another stage, is 37 feet high. In the side of the tility. "All the country about Babylon is, like Egypt, pile, a little below the summit, is very clearly to be divided by frequent canals; of which the largest is seen part of another brick wall, precisely resembling navigable, and, beginning at the Euphrates, has a the fragment which crowns the summit, but which southeastern direction, and falls into the river Tigris, still encases and supports its part of the mound. on which the city of Nineveh formerly stood. No This is clearly indicative of another stage, of greater part of the known world produces so good wheat; but extent. The masonry is infinitely superior to anything the vine, the olive, and the fig-tree, they do not even of the kind I have ever seen; and, leaving out of the attempt to cultivate. Yet, in recompense, it abounds question any conjecture relative to the original desti- so much in corn, as to yield at all times two hundred nation of this ruin, the first impression made by the fold, and even three hundred fold when it is most fruitsight of it is, that it was a solid pile, composed in the ful. Wheat and barley carry a blade full four digits in interior of unburned brick, and perhaps earth or rub- breadth; and though I well know to what a surprising bish; that it was constructed in preceding stages, height millet and sesame grow in those parts, I shall and faced with fine burned bricks, having inscriptions be silent in that particular; because I am well assured on them, laid in a very thin layer of lime cement; that what has already been related concerning other and that it was reduced by violence to its present ru- fruits, is far more credible to those who have never inous condition. The upper stories have been forcibly been at Babylon. They use no other oil than such as broken down, and fire has been employed as an in- is drawn from sesame. The palm-tree grows over all strument of destruction, though it is not easy to say the plain; and the greater part bears fruit, with which precisely how or why. The facing of fine bricks has they make bread, wine, and honey." The products partly been removed, and partly covered by the falling are nearly the same now as they were in ancient times. down of the mass which it supported and kept to- The southwestern part of Babylonia was called Chalgether. The Birs Nemroud is in all likelihood at dea. In the more extensive sense of the word, Babpresent pretty nearly in the state in which Alex-ylonia was the most important satrapy of the Persian ander saw it; if we give any credit to the report that 10,000 men could only remove the rubbish, preparatory to repairing it, in two months. If indeed it required one half of that number to disencumber it, the state of dilapidation must have been complete. The immense masses of vitrified brick which are seen on the top of the mount, appear to have marked its summit since the time of its destruction. The rubbish about its base was probably in much greater quantities, the weather having dissipated much of it in the course of so many revolving ages; and possibly portions of the exterior facing of fine brick may have disappeared at different periods." (Second Memoir on the Ruins of Babylon, p. 165, seqq., Lond., 1839.) The account of Sir Robert Ker Porter is also exceedingly interesting.-As regards the opinion generally entertained, that all traces of the walls of Babylon had disappeared, it may be remarked, that Buckingham considers the hill or mound of Al Hheimar to be a portion of the ancient wall. This mound is about ten miles east of Hillah. It appears to consist of a solid mass of brickwork, and is of an oval form, its length being from north to south. It is from 80 to 100 feet thick at the bottom, and from 70 to 80 high. On the summit is a mass of solid wall, about 30 feet in length by 12 to 15 in thickness, BACCHIUS and BITHUS, two celebrated gladiators of bearing marks of being broken and 'incomplete on equal age and strength, who, after conquering many every side. The bricks obtained from the ruins of competitors, engaged with each other and died of muBabylon are celebrated among antiquaries for the in- tual wounds; whence the proverb to express equality, scriptions stamped upon them. These inscriptions Bithus contra Bacchium. (Horat., Serm., 1, 7, 20 are in the cuneiform or Babylonian character: some-Porphyrion, Schol. ad Horat., I. c.) four, and even seven lines. Grotefend, Burnouf, and BACCHUS, son of Jupiter and Semele daughter of Lassen have done much towards deciphering these. Cadmus Jupiter, enamoured of the beauty of Semele, (Heeren, Ideen, vol. 2, pt. 2, p. 325, seqq.-Mans-visited her in secret. Juno's jealousy took the alarm, ford's Script. Gazetteer, p. 58, seqq.)-II. A city of] and, under the form of an old woman, she came to

empire, and comprised both Assyria and Mesopotamia. (Plin., 5, 12.—İd., 6, 26.—Id., 18, 45.—Strab., 358, &c.)

BABYRSA, a fortified castle near Artaxata, where were kept the treasures of Tigranes and Artabanus. (Strab., 364.) (Vid. Bac

BACCHE, the priestesses of Bacchus.

chantes.)

BACCHANALIA, festivals in honour of Bacchus at Rome, the same as the Dionysia of the Greeks. (Vid. Dionysia.)

BACCHANTES. The worship of Bacchus prevailed in almost all parts of Greece. Men and women joined in his festivals dressed in Asiatic robes and bonnets; their heads, wreathed with vine and ivy leaves, with fawnskins (vebpider) flung over their shoulders, and thyrsi, or blunt spears twined with vine-leaves, in their hands, they ran through the country, shouting Io Bacche! Euoi! Iacche ! &c., swinging their thyrsi, beating on drums, and sounding various instruments. Indecent emblems were carried in procession, and the ceremonies often assumed a most immoral character and tendency. The women, who bore a chief part in these frantic revels, were called Baccha, Manades, Thyiades, Euades, &c. (Keightley's Mythology, p. 216.)

Semele, and, by exciting doubts of the real character | prevalent. Thus, Diodorus gives us, probably from of her lover, induced her, when next he came, to ex- the cyclograph Dionysius, the following narrative. act a promise that he would visit her as he was wont Ammon, a monarch of Libya, was married to Rhea, a to visit Juno. An unwary promise was thus drawn daughter of Manus; but meeting, near the Ceraunian from the god before he knew what he was required to mountains, a beautiful maiden named Amalthea, he perform; and he therefore entered the bower of Sem- became enamoured of her. He made her mistress of ele, with the lightning and thunder flaming, flashing, the adjacent fruitful country, which, from its resemand roaring around him. Overcome with terror, bling a bull's horn in form, was named the Western Semele, who was now six months gone with child, horn, and then Amalthea's horn, which last name was expired in the flames, and Jupiter, taking the babe, afterward given to places similar to it in fertility. thus prematurely born, sewed it up in his thigh. In Amalthea here bore him a son, whom, fearing the jealdue time it came forth, and Jupiter, then naming it ousy of Rhea, he conveyed to a town named Nysa, Bacchus (in Greek Dionysus), gave it to Mercury to situated not far from the Horn, in an island formed by convey to Ino, the sister of Semele, with directions the river Triton. He committed the care of him to to rear it. Juno, whose revenge was not yet satiated, Nysa, one of the daughters of Aristaus, while Minerva caused Athamas, the husband of Ino, to go mad; and was appointed to keep guard against the assaults of Jupiter, to save Bacchus from the machinations of his Rhea. This delicious isle, which was precipitous on spouse, changed him into a kid, under which form all sides, with a single entrance, through a narrow glen Mercury conveyed him to the Nymphs of Nysa, by thickly shaded with trees, is described in a similar whom he was reared. When he grew up, he discov- manner with Panchaia and other happy retreats of the ered the culture of the vine, and the mode of extract- same nature. It had verdant meads, abundant springs, ing its precious liquor; but Juno struck him with mad- trees of every kind, flowers of all hues, and evermore ness, and he roamed through great part of Asia. In resounded with the melody of birds. (Compare MilPhrygia Rhea cured him, and taught him her religious ton, P. L., 4, 275, seqq.) After he grew up, Bacrites, which he now resolved to introduce into Greece. chus became a mighty conqueror, according to this While passing through Thrace, he was so furiously legend, and a benefactor of mankind, by whom he was attacked by Lycurgus, a prince of that country, that he finally deified.-Though the adventures of Bacchus was obliged to take refuge with Thetis, in the sea. were occasionally the theme of poets, especially of the But he inflicted on the monarch severe retaliation. dramatists, they do not appear to have been narrated in (Vid. Lycurgus.) When Bacchus reached Thebes, continuity, like those of Hercules, until after the de the women readily received the new rites, and ran cline of Grecian poetry. It was in the fifth century wildly through the woods of Citharon. Pentheus, the of the Christian era that Nonnus, a native of Panoporuler of Thebes, however, set himself against them; lis, in Egypt, made the history of Bacchus the subject and Bacchus caused him to be torn to pieces by his of a poem, containing forty-eight books, the wildest mother and his aunts. He next proceeded to Attica, and strangest that can well be conceived, more rewhere he taught Icarius the culture of the vine. (Vid.sembling the Ramayuna of India than anything to be Icarius, Erigone.) At Argos the rites of Bacchus were received, as at Thebes, by the women, and opposed by Perseus, son of Jupiter and Danae. Jove, however, reduced his two sons to amity, and Bacchus thence passed over to Naxos, where he met Ariadne. On his way to this island he fell into the hands of Tyrrhenian pirates, who bound him with cords, intending to sell him as a slave. But the cords fell from his limbs, vines with clustering grapes spread over the sail, and ivy, laden with berries, ran up the masts and sides of the vessel. The god, thereupon assuming the form of a lion, seized the captain of the ship, and the terrified crew, to escape him, leaped into the sea and became dolphins. The pilot alone, who had taken the part of Bacchus, remained on board; the god then declared to him who he was, and took him under his protection. The expedition of Bacchus into the East is also celebrated. In the Baccha of Euripides the god describes himself as having gone through Lydia, Phrygia, Persia, Bactria, Media, Arabia, and the coast of Asia, inhabited by mingled Greeks and barbarians, throughout all which he had established his dances and religious rites. India, in particular, was the scene of his conquests. He marched at the head of an army composed of both men and women, all inspired with divine fury, and armed with thyrsi, clashing cymbals, and other musical instruments, and uttering the wildest cries. His conquests were easy and without bloodshed; the nations readily submitted, and the god taught them the use of the vine, the cultivation of the earth, and the art of making honey. Bacchus was also fabled to have assisted the gods in their wars against the giants, having assumed on that occasion the form of a lion. He afterward descended to Erebus, whence he brought his mother, whom he now named Thyone, and ascended with her to the abode of the gods. (Apollod., 3, 5, 3.-Diod. Sic., 3, 62.Id., 4, 25.-Horat., Od., 2, 19, 29.)-Like every other portion of the Grecian mythology, the history of the vine-god was pragmatised when infidelity became

found in ancient or modern occidental literature. It
forms a vast repertory of Bacchic fable. (Vid. Non-
nus.)-Bacchus was represented in a variety of modes
and characters by the ancient artists. The Theban
Bacchus appears with the delicate lineaments of a
maiden rather than those of a young man; his whole
air and gait are effeminate; his long, flowing hair is,
like that of Apollo, collected behind his head, wreath-
ed with ivy or a fillet; he is either naked or wrapped
in a large cloak, and the nebris, or fawn's skin, is some-
times flung over his shoulders; he carries a thyrsus,
and a panther generally lies at his feet. In some
monuments Bacchus appears bearded, in others horned
(the Bacchus-Sebazius), whence in the mysteries he
was identified with Osiris, and regarded as the Sun.
For another legend relative to the horns with which he
is depicted, consult the article Ammon
He is some-
times alone, at other times in company with Ariadne
or the youth Ampelus. His triumph over the Indians
is represented in great pomp. The captives are chain-
ed, and placed on wagons or elephants, and among
them is carried a large crater full of wine. The god
himself is in a chariot drawn by elephants or panthers,
leaning on Ampelus, preceded by Pan, and followed
by Silenus, the satyrs, and Manades, on foot or on
horseback, who make the air resound with their cries
and the clash of their instruments. The Indian Bac-
chus is always bearded.-It is with reason that Sopho-
cles styles Bacchus many named (rokvívvμoç, Antig.,
1115), for in the Orphic hymns alone we meet with
upward of forty of his appellations. The etymology
of the most common one, Bacchus, has been variously
given; it appears, however, to be only another form
for lacchus. (Vid. Iacchus.) Some make it the same
with Bagis, one of the names of the Hindu deity
Schiva. (Keightley's Mythology, p. 212, seqq.)—
Modern writers are much divided in opinion respect-
ing the origin of the worship of Bacchus, and many
arguments have been urged in support of its having
come from a Grecian source. A dispassionate view

BACCHUS.

|

that, after the lapse of ten centuries, the phrensy of the
ancient orgies had affected their senses and troubled
In the age of Homer these mournful
their reason.
recitals were either unknown or treated with disdain;
for he speaks only once of Bacchus, on occasion of the
victory which he gained over Lycurgus (Il., 6, 130.-
Compare Od., 24, 74), and the scholiasts express their
surprise, that the poet, after having thus placed Bac-
chus among the divinities of Olympus, makes him take
no part in the subjects that divide them. The Grecian
spirit, therefore, renounced, at an early period, every
attempt to modify this so heterogeneous a conception.
(Constant, de la Religion, vol. 2, p. 419, seqq.)

of the subject, however, will lead, we think, to the con- ing back into Egypt, under the reign of Psammetichus, viction that the religious system of this deity is of In- along with Milesian colonies, and enriched with imdian origin. In order, however, to reach the soil of mense developments, what the Egyptian colonies had Greece, it had to traverse other countries, Upper Asia, once carried into Greece; identifying itself with the Phoenicia, Egypt, and Thrace; and, in its march, its Orphic doctrine; but remaining always an object of fabulous legends became enlarged and variously mod- suspicion and aversion, and contemned by the wise in ified. It is impossible to deny the identity of Bac- the days of Xenophanes and Heraclitus, as it had been chus with Osiris. The birth of Bacchus, drawn living a long time before proscribed by kings and rejected by from the womb of Semele, after she had perished be- communities. The fables of which Bacchus is made neath the fires of Jove, and his strange translation to the hero, the rites which these fables elucidated, rites the thigh of the monarch of Olympus, bear the impress bearing at one time the impress of profound sadness, of Oriental imagery. When he escapes from his at another of frantic joy, and by turns bloody and licenmother's womb, an ivy-branch springs forth from a tious, mournful and frantic, never became part of the column to cover him with its shade (Eurip., Phan., Grecian system of religion. Wherever they announ658, segg.), and the ivy was in Egypt the plant of ced themselves, they excited only horror and dread. Osiris. (Plut., de Is. et Os., p. 365.-Op., ed. Reiske, The sufferings and the destruction of various dynasties vol. 7, p. 442) In like manner, the coffin of the attach themselves to their frightful and sudden apEgyptian deity is shaded by the plant erica, which pearance. Agave rends in pieces her son Pentheus. springs suddenly from the ground and envelops it. Ino precipitates herself into the sea, with Melicerta in The daughters of Minyas, becoming furi(Plut., ibid.) Bacchus and Osiris both float upon the her arms. waters in a chest or ark. They have both for their ous, commit horrible murder, and undergo a hideous symbols the head of a bull; and hence Bacchus is metamorphosis. The language of the poets who relate styled Bougenes by Plutarch.-It is equally impossible to us these fearful traditions, is sombre and mysterious not to recognise in Bacchus the Schiva of India, as in its character, and bears evident marks of a sacerdowell as the Lingam his symbol. (Compare Rhode, tal origin. The philosophic Euripides, as well as Ovid, Religiöse Bildung, &c., der Hindus, vol. 2, p. 232.) who expresses himself with so much lightness in refIf we wish to call etymology to our aid, we shall be erence to other legends, appear, in describing the death struck with the remembrance which Dionysus (Ató- of Pentheus, to partake of the sanguinary joy, the vvoor), the Greek name of Bacchus, bears to Dionichi ferocious irony, and the fanaticism of the Bacchantes. (Deva-Nicha), a surname of Schiva. (Langlès, Re- One would feel tempted to say, that the sacerdotal cherches Asiatiques, vol. 1, p. 278.—Creuzer's Sym-spirit had triumphed over these incredulous poets, and bolik, par Guigniaut, vol. 1, p. 148, in notis.) An analogy may also be traced between the Greek term unpós, "thigh," and the Indian Merou, the mountain of the gods. One of the symbols of Bacchus is an equilateral triangle; this is also one of Schiva's. The two systems of worship have the same obscenities, and the same emblems of the generative power. (Asiatic Researches, vol. 8, p. 50.) Schiva is represented, in the Hindu mythology, as assuming the form of a lion during the great battle of the gods. He seizes the inonster that attacks him, and assails him with his teeth and fangs, while Dourga pierces him with his lance. The same exploit is attributed, in the Grecian mythology, to Bacchus, under the same form, against the giant Rhaetus. (Hor., Carm., 2, 19, 23.) The manner in which the worship of Bacchus came into Greece, probably by means of several successive migrations, through regions widely remote, will ever remain an enigma of difficult solution. The Greeks, indeed, made Thebes the birthplace of this deity; but this proves nothing for the fact of his Grecian origin. Thebes, in Boeotia, was the centre of the CadmeanAsiatic mythology: a god, whose worship came to the rest of the Greeks out of Thebes, was for them a deity born in Thebes; and hence arose the legend of the Theban origin of Bacchus. (Buttmann's Mythologus, vol. 1, p. 5.) So, when the Greek mythology makes Bacchus to have gone on an expedition to Asia, and to have conquered India, it merely reverses the order of events, and describes, as the victorious progress of a Grecian deity, what was in reality the course which the religion of an Oriental deity took, from the East to the West. (Kanne, Mythologie der Griechen, 31.) In the Anti-Symbolik of Voss (p. 65, seqq.), we have an excellent history of the introduction of the worship of Bacchus into Greece, and its progress insisted of dactylic series and trochaic dipodias, as we that country, from the 20th to the 60th Olympiad. We find this worship making its first appearance in the mysteries of Samothrace; furnishing to the Ionian school Phoenician elements; enriching itself with ideas of Asiatic origin by means of the extension of commerce; mingling with the elements of Grecian philosophy in their very cradle; presenting Lydian and Phrygian additions as a primitive basis; giving an occult meaning to the public games at Olympia; carry

BACCHYLIDES, a lyric poet of Ceos, nephew to Simonides. He flourished about 450 B.C. and was regarded as one of the most celebrated poets of his day. That his poetry was Bacchylides shared with Pindar the favour of King Hiero at the court of Syracuse. but an imitation of one branch of that of Simonides, cultivated with great delicacy and finish, is proved by the opinion of ancient critics; among whom Dionysius adduces perfect correctness and uniform elegance as the characteristics of Bacchylides. His genius and art. were chiefly devoted to the pleasures of private life, love, and wine; and, when compared with those of Simonides, appear marked by greater sensual grace and less moral elevation. Among the kinds of choral songs which he employed, besides those of which he had examples in Simonides and Pindar, we find erotic The elaborate and brilliant execution which ones. is peculiar to the school of Simonides, appears also in the productions of Bacchylides, especially in the beautiful fragment in praise of peace. The structure of Bacchylides' verses is generally very simple; nine tenths of his odes, to judge from the fragments, consee in those odes of Pindar, which were written in the Doric mode. We find in his poems trochaic verses of great elegance; as, for example, a fragment, preserved by Athenæus, of a religious poem, in which the Dioscuri are invited to a feast. (Athen., 11, p. 500, b.) Bacchylides wrote in the Doric dialect. Many fragments of his pieces occur in Plutarch, Dionysius The fragments of Bacof Halicarnassus, Athenæus, Clemens of Alexandrea, and particularly in Stobæus.

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