NOTE R, p. 274. Attes, the Sinner.
We have seen that the name Pan signifies "to turn
aside," and have concluded that as it is a synonym for
Hata, "to sin," the proper generic meaning of
which is "to turn aside from he straight line,"
that name was the name of or first parent, Adam. One of the names
of Eve, as the primeval goddess, worshipped in ancient Babylon,
while it gives confirmation to this conclusion, elucidates also
another classical myth in a somewhat unexpected way. The name of
that primeval goddess, as given by Berosus, is Thalatth, which,
as we have seen, signifies "the rib." Adam's
name, as her husband, would be "Baal-Thalatth,"
"Husband of the rib;" for Baal signifies Lord in
the sense frequently of "Husband." But "Baal-Thalatth,"
according to a peculiar Hebrew idiom already noticed (p. 38,
Note), signifies also "He that halted or went
sideways." * This is the remote origin of Vulcan's
lameness; for Vulcan, as the "Father of the gods,"
* needed to be identified with Adam, as well as the other "fathers
of the gods," to whom we have already traced him. Now
Adam, in consequence of his sin and departure from the straight
line of duty, was, all his life after, in a double sense "Baal-Thalatth,"
not only the "Husband of the rib," but "The
man that halted or walked sideways." In memory of this
turning aside, no doubt it was that the priests of Baal (1 Kings
xviii. 26) "limped at the altar," when
supplicating their god to hear them (for that is the exact
meaning in the original of the word rendered "leaped"--see
KITTO'S Bib. Cyclop, vol. i. p. 261), and that the Druidic
priests went sideways in performing some of their sacred rites,
as appears from the following passage of Davies:--"The
dance is performed with solemn festivity about the lakes, round
which the sanctuary the priests move sideways, whilst the
sanctuary is earnestly invoking the gliding king, before whom the
fair one retreats upon the veil that covers the huge stones"
(Druids, p. 171). This Davies regards as connected with the
story of Jupiter, the father of the gods, violating his own
daughter in the form of a serpent (p. 561). Now, let the reader
look at what is on the breast of the Ephesian Diana, as the
Mother of the gods (ante, p. 29), and he will see a reference to
her share in the same act of going aside; for there is the crab,
and how does a crab go but sideways? This, then, shows the
meaning of another of the signs of the Zodiac. Cancer
commemorates the fatal turning aside of our first parent from the
paths of righteousness, when the covenant of Eden was broken.
The Pagans knew that this turning aside or going sideways,
implied death--the death of the soul--("In the day thou
eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die"); and,
therefore, while at the spring festival of Cybele and Attes,
there were great lamentations for the death of Attes, so on the
Hilaria or rejoicing festival of the 25th of March--that is,
Lady-day, the last day of the festival--the mourning was turned
into joy, "on occasion of the dead god being restored to
life again" (DUPUIS, Origine de tous les Cultes, tom.
iv. pt. 1, p. 253, Paris, L'an iii de la Republique ). If
Attes was he that by "his turning aside"
brought sin and death into the world, what could the life be to
which he was so speedily restored, but just that new and divine
life which enters every soul when it is "born
again," and so "passes from death unto
life." When the promise was given that the seed of the
woman should bruise the serpent's head, and Adam grasped it by
faith, that, there can be no doubt, was evidence that the divine
life was restored, and that he was born again. And thus do the
very Mysteries of Attes, which were guarded with special
jealousy, and the secret meaning of which Pausanias declares that
he found it impossible, notwithstanding all his efforts, to
discover (Lib. vii., Achaica, cap. 17), bear their distinct
testimony, when once the meaning of the name of Attes is
deciphered, to the knowledge which Paganism itself had of the
real nature of the Fall, and of the essential character of that
death, which was threatened in the primeval covenant.
This new birth of Attes laid the foundation for his being
represented as a little child, and so being identified with
Adonis, who, though he died a full-grown man, was represented in
that very way. In the Eleusinian Mysteries, that commemorated the
rape of Proserpine, that is, the seduction of Eve, the lamented
god, or Bacchus, was represented as a babe, at the breast of the
great Mother, who by Sophocles is called Deo (Antigone, v. 1121,
Oxon. 1808). As Deo or Demete, applied to the Great Mother, is
evidently just another form of Idaia Mater, "The Mother
of Knowledge" (the verb "to know" being
either Daa or Idaa), this little child, in one of his aspects,
was no doubt the same as Attes, and thus also Deoius, as his name
is given (ante, p. 20). The Hilaria, or rejoicing festival of the
25th of March, or Lady-day, owed its gladness to the Annunciation
of a birth yet to come, even the birth of the woman's seed; but,
at the same time, the joy of that festival was enhanced by the
immediate new birth that very day of Attes, "The
sinner," or Adam, who, in consequence of his breach of
the covenant, had become dead in "trespasses and