sinus, abstained from eating swine.[1] After his death Attis is said to have been changed into a pine-tree.[2] The ceremonies observed at his festival are not very fully known, but their general order appears to have been as follows.[3] At the spring equinox (22d March) a pine-tree was cut in the woods and brought into the sanctuary of Cybele, where it was treated as a divinity. It was adorned with woollen bands and wreaths of violets, for violets were said to have sprung from the blood of Attis, as anemones from the blood of Adonis; and the effigy of a young man was attached to the middle of the tree.[4] On the second day (23d March) the chief ceremony seems to have been a blowing of trumpets.[5] The third day (24th March) was known as the Day of Blood: the high priest drew blood from his arms and presented it as an offering.[6] It was perhaps on this day or night that the mourning for Attis took place over an effigy, which was afterwards solemnly buried.[7] The fourth day (25th March) was the Festival of Joy (Hilaria), at which the resurrection of Attis was probably celebrated—at least the celebration of his resurrection seems to have followed closely upon
- ↑ Pausanias, vii. 17; Julian, Orat. v. 177 B.
- ↑ Ovid, Metam. x. 103 sqq.
- ↑ On the festival see especially Marquardt, Römische Staatsverwaltung, iii.2 370 sqq.; Daremberg et Saglio, Dictionnaire des Antiquités grecques et romaines, i. p. 1685 sq. (article “Cybèle”); W. Mannhardt, Antike Wald-und Feldkulte, p. 291 sqq.; id., Baumkultus, p. 572 sqq.
- ↑ Julian, Orat. v. 168 C; Joannes Lydus, De mensibus, iv. 41; Arnobius, Advers. nationes, v. cc. 7, 16 sq.; Firmicus Maternus, De errore profan. relig. 27.
- ↑ Julian, l.c. and 169 C.
- ↑ Trebellius Pollio, Claudius, 4; Tertullian, Apologet. 25. For other references, see Marquardt, l.c.
- ↑ Diodorus, iii. 59 ; Firmicus Maternus, De err. profan. relig. 3; Arnobius, Advers. nat. v. 16; Schol. on Nicander, Alex. 8; Servius on Virgil, Aen. ix. 116; Arrian, Tactica, 33. The ceremony described in Firmicus Maternus, c. 22 (nocte quadam simulacrum in lectica supinum ponitur et per numeros digestis fletibus plangitur. . . . Idolum scpelis. Idolum plangis, etc.), may very well be the mourning and funeral rites of Attis, to which he had more briefly referred in C. 3.
