In Phoenicia and Western Asia a plaintive song, like that chanted by the Egyptian corn-reapers, was sung at the vintage and probably (to judge by analogy) also at harvest. This Phoenician song was called by the Greeks Linus or Ailinus and explained, like Maneros, as a lament for the death of a youth named Linus.[1] According to one story Linus was brought up by a shepherd, but torn to pieces by his dogs.[2] But, like Maneros, the name Linus or Ailinus appears to have originated in a verbal misunderstanding, and to be nothing more than the cry ai lanu, that is “woe to us,” which the Phoenicians probably uttered in mourning for Adonis;[3] at least Sappho seems to have regarded Adonis and Linus as equivalent.[4]
In Bithynia a like mournful ditty, called Bormus or Borimus, was chanted by Mariandynian reapers. Bormus was said to have been a handsome youth, the son of King Upias or of a wealthy and distinguished man. One summer day, watching the reapers at work in his fields, he went to fetch them a drink of water and was never heard of more. So the reapers sought for him, calling him in plaintive strains, which they continued to use ever afterwards.[5]
In Phrygia the corresponding song, sung by harvesters both at reaping and at threshing, was called Lityerses. According to one story, Lityerses was a bastard son of Midas, King of Phrygia. He used to reap the corn, and had an enormous appetite. When a stranger happened to enter the corn-field or to pass
- ↑ Homer, Il. xviii. 570; Herodotus, ii. 79; Pausanias, ix. 29; Conon, Narrat. 19. For the form Ailinus see Suidas, s.v.; Euripides, Orestes, 1395; Sophocles, Ajax, 627. Cp. Moschus, Idyl. iii. 1; Callimachus Hymn to Apollo, 20.
- ↑ Conon, l.c.
- ↑ W. Mannhardt, A. W. F. p. 281.
- ↑ Pausanias, l.c.
- ↑ Pollux, iv. 54; Athenaeus, 619 F, 620 A; Hesychius, svv. Βῶρμον and Μαριανδυὸς θρῆνος.
