associate the different sexes, through the creation of mutual love, and having propagated an eternal offspring in the human race, art now worshipped in the sea-girt shrine of Paphos; or whether thou art the sister of Phoebus, who, by relieving the pangs of women in travail by soothing remedies, hast brought into the world multitudes so innumerable, and art now venerated in the far-famed shrines of Ephesus; or whether thou art Proserpine, terrific with midnight howlings . . . by whatever name, by whatever ceremonies, and under whatever form it is lawful to invoke thee; do thou graciously, &c.” The goddess replies: “Behold me . . . I, who am Nature, the parent of all things, the mistress of all the elements, the primordial offspring of time, the supreme among divinities, the queen of departed spirits, the first of the celestials, and the uniform manifestation of the gods and goddesses; who govern by my nod the luminous heights of heaven, the salubrious breezes of the ocean, and the anguished silent realms of the shades below; whose one sole divinity the whole orb of the earth venerates under a manifold form, with different rites, and under a variety of appellations. Hence the Phrygians, that primeval race, call me Pessinuntica, the Mother of the Gods; the Aborigines of Attica, Cecropian Minerva; the Cyprians, in their sea-girt isle, Paphian Venus; the arrow-bearing Cretans, Diana Dictynna; the three-tongued Sicilians, Stygian Proserpine; and the Eleusinians, the ancient goddess Ceres. Some call me Juno, others Bellona, others Hecate, others Rhamnusia. But those who are illumined by the earliest rays of that divinity, the Sun, when he rises, the Aethopians, the Arii, and the Egyptians, so skilled in ancient learning, worshipping me with ceremonies quite appropriate, call me by my true name, Queen Isis. Behold, then, &c.” (Trans. Bonn's Lib.).
Naturally, the influence of Greek philosophy was very pronounced in the growth of syncretism. Plutarch and Maximus of Tyre affirmed that the gods of the different nations were only different aspects of the same deity, a supreme intelligence and providence which ruled the world. The Neoplatonists, however, were the first school to formulate the underlying philosophy of syncretism: “There is only one real God, the divine, and the subordinate deities are nothing else than abstractions personified, or celestial bodies with spirits; the traditional gods are only demons, that is, being intermediate between God and man . . . All, like every other created being, are emanations from the absolute God” (Jean Réville, La Religion à Rome sous les Sévères). Care must be taken, however, not to place too much emphasis upon syncretism as a conscious system. The movement which it represented was not new in the 2nd century A.D. The identification of Latin with Etruscan gods in the earliest days of Rome, and then of Greek with Italian, and finally of Oriental with the Graeco-Roman, were all alike syncretistic movements, though not all conscious and reasoned. The ideal of the common people, who were unreflecting, as well as of philosophers who reflected, was “to grasp the religious verity, one and constant, under the multiplex forms with which legend and tradition had enveloped it” (Réville). The advent of Greek philosophy only hastened the movement by conscious and systematic effort.
Syncretic, being a movement toward monotheism, was the converse of the tendency, so prominent in the early history of Rome, to increase the number of deities by worshipping the same god under special aspects according to special activities. In the hands of the Neoplatonists it was instrumental in retarding somewhat the fall of paganism for the time, but in the end contributed to the success of Christianity by familiarizing men with the belief in one supreme deity. The triumph of Christianity itself represented a result of syncretism, the Church being a blending of the beliefs and practices of both the new and old religions.
See Jean Réville, op. cit., especially pages 104–127, 159–174, 284–295. For other examples of syncretism, cf. that of Buddhism Zoroastrianism in the state religion of the Indo-Scythian kingdom of Kanishka (see Persia: Ancient History, vii.; The Parthian Empire, § 2) ; see articles on almost all the religions of the East, e.g. Mithras; Zoroaster. (G. Sn.)
SYNDERESIS, a term in scholastic philosophy applied to the inborn moral consciousness which distinguishes between good and evil. The word is really synteresis (Gr. συντήρησις, from συντηρεῖν, to look after, take care of), but synderesis is the commoner form. Diogenes Laërtius in his account of the Stoics (vii.85, τήν δὲ πρώτην ὁρµήν y 4ao-c TO TO TripeEv EaITO) uses the phrase TnpEiv EavrO to describe the instinct for self-preservation, the inward harmony of Chrysippus, the recognition of which is συνείδσις. The term synderesis, however, is not found till Jerome, who in dealing with Ezek. i. 4 -15, says the fourth of the "living creatures" of the vision is what the Greeks call συντήρησις, i.e. scintilla conscientiae the "spark of conscience." Here apparently synderesis and conscience (συνείδσις) are equivalent. By the schoolmen, however, the terms were differentiated, conscience being the practical envisaging of good and evil actions; synderesis being, so to speak, the tendency toward good in thought and action. The exact relation between the two was, however, a matter of controversy, Aquinas and Duns Scotus holding that both are practical reason, while Bonaventura narrows synderesis to the volitional tendency to good actions.
SYNDIC (Late Lat. xyndicus, Gr. σίνδικος, one who helps in a
court of justice, an; advocate, representative, σιν, with, and διεη,
justice), a term applied in certain countries to an officer of government with varying powers, and secondly to a representative or
delegate of a university, institution or other corporation, entrusted
with special functions or powers. The meaning which underlies both applications is that of representative or delegate. Du Cange (Gloss. s.v. Syndicus), after defining the Word as defensor, patronus, advocatus, proceeds “Syndici maxime appellantur Actores universitatum, collegiorum, societatum et aliorum corporum, per quos, tanquam in republica quod communiter agi fierive oportet, agitur et fit,” and gives several examples from the 13th century of the use of the term. The most familiar use of “syndic” in the first sense is that of the Italian sindico, who is the head of the administration of a commune, answering to a “mayor”; he is a government official but is elected by the communal council from their own members by secret ballot.
Nearly all the companies, gilds, and the university of Paris had representative bodies the members of which were termed syndici. Similarly in England, the senate of the university of Cambridge, which is the legislative body, delegates certain functions to special committees of its members, appointed from time to time by Grace, i.e. a proposal offered to the senate and confirmed by it; these committees are termed “syndicates” and are permanent or occasional, and the members are styled “the syndics” of the particular committee or of the institution which they administer; thus there are the syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum, of the University Press, of the Observatory, of local examinations and lectures, of the Antiquarian Committee, &c.
SYNDICATE, a term originally meaning a body of syndics. In this sense it is still sometimes used, as at the university of Cambridge, for the body of members or committee responsible for the management of the University Press. In commerce, a syndicate is a body of person who combine to carry through some financial transaction, or who undertake a common adventure. Syndicates are very often formed to acquire or take over some undertaking, hold it for a short time, and then resell it to a company. The profits are then distributed and the syndicate dissolves. Sometimes syndicates are formed under agreements
which constitute them mere partnerships, the members being therefore individually responsible, but they are now more generally incorporated under the Companies Acts.
The more usual cases in which syndicates are commonly formed will be found in F. B. Palmer's Company Precedents, 10th ed., vol. i. pp. 129 seq.
SYNECHISM (from Gr. συνεχής, continuous, from σύν, ἔχειν, to hold together), a philosophical term proposed by C. S. Peirce (Monist, ii. 534) to express the general theory that the essential feature in philosophic speculation is continuity. It is specially directed to the question of hypothesis, and holds that a hypothesis is justifiable only on the ground that it provides an explanation.
