SUMMARY AND CONSIDERATIONS
The sacred dance among the Israelites was performed in honour of Jahwe, their national God; and it is evident that the processional form of dance was a normal mode in the ritual of worship. Although the evidence as to the existence of this rite among the Syrians and Arabs is scanty, yet its prevalence is sufficiently attested by the mention on an inscription of Baal-Marqôd, “the lord of dancing”; this name may well point to the belief among the Phoenicians that its divine bearer was the originator of the sacred dance; so that in performing it his worshippers did it in imitation of him, and therefore in his honour. Dances performed by the Bedouin Arabs of the Syrian Desert in honour of exalted personages may quite reasonably be regarded as an adaptation of the earlier religious rite of dancing in honour of a god or spirit.
Religious processions which were common in the worship of Assyrians and Babylonians must be regarded as a form of sacred dance in the extended use of the term. In connexion with the well-known joyful character of the religious festivals among the Semites it is worth remembering that the Assyrian word rakâdu means both “to rejoice” and “to dance”; where there was rejoicing, whether of a secular or religious kind, there was dancing; from which we may assume that at Assyrian religious festivals the sacred dance had its place. Direct evidence of the processional dance among the Assyrians is offered by an inscription found in the palace of Asshurbanipal. Some inscriptions found in Cyprus may possibly reflect Babylonian and Assyrian usage, but the dance represented on these is of a less formal character than the processional dance.
Two inscriptions, one from Boghazkeui, the other from Cyprus, bear unmistakable evidence of the religious processional dance among the Hittites.
Dancing in honour of Egyptian divinities is well attested on inscriptions; there is justification for the contention that the Egyptians believed that their gods and goddesses danced, and that therefore their worshippers performed the sacred dance in imitation of them. Ḥatḥor, Bastet, Bēs, and Isis are Egyptian divinities in connexion with whom dancing is mentioned. A special ritual dance was performed by Egyptian kings in honour of the god when making their offerings.
Of particular interest is the sacred dance among the Greeks. They, too, believed that gods and goddesses first danced; it was in honour of them, and in imitation of what they did, that their worshippers danced. Apollo, Ares, Pan, Zeus, Hera, the Dioscuri, Athena, and, above all, Dionysos and Artemis are the deities especially mentioned in this connexion. The evidence, which is abundant, is obtained from representations on pottery and inscriptions, as well as from literary sources. Among the Greeks the type of dances here considered was performed primarily in honour of gods and goddesses; but there is reason to believe that some dances had originally other purposes. “Ariadne’s Dance” is probably the most striking example; for there are distinct indications of its having been at one time an imitation of the sun’s course in the sky, and of having, by means of imitative magic, the purpose of assisting the sun in running its course.
The Romans were primarily indebted to the Greeks for their sacred dances, though oriental influences were also pronounced.
The sacred dance was an important element in Vedic and Brahman worship; it was, likewise, performed primarily in honour of divinities.
Probably the most instructive area in which to study the sacred dance and its objects is that of the uncultured races, for among them it is seen in its native simplicity, unaffected, for the most part, by the exigencies of a more advanced civilization. The dance in honour of the sun, performed, for example, by the Dakotahs in a practically nude state points to the belief of the sun being a person with whom it was possible to have a more or less direct contact; the sensation upon the naked body of the warmth of its rays would denote this contact. The long-continued dance in its honour offers an example of touching, if naïve, devotion, emphasized by the accompanying fast. The belief that by means of dancing in honour of the gods they can be prevailed upon to answer prayers—as exemplified by Central American Indians—reveals a mentality so deeply ingrained in human nature that the underlying idea can be paralleled by the religious exercises of people among the most civilized nations at the present day. That is an interesting phenomenon about which much could be said, but which would involve our straying far away from the immediate subject in hand. These same Central American Indians say that the animals taught them to dance; this belief is undoubtedly the explanation of the form of many dances in vogue among savages; just as more civilized peoples, such, for example, as the Greeks, imitated what they believed to be the dances of their gods and goddesses, so these savages imitated what they saw to be the movements of animals[130]. There, however, the parallel ceases, for the savages believed they were descended from these animals; it was, thus, their ancestors whom they honoured by their imitative dances. Could the beliefs of these Mexican Indians have developed spontaneously, untouched by extraneous influences—a thing which is, of course, out of the question now—it is quite possible that from these animals “high gods” would have been evolved. Perhaps an illustration of this evolutionary process is to be seen in one of the forms of the Greek worship of Artemis, viz. in that of the Brauronian ceremonies. The high probability that in the dance performed during these ceremonies it was at one time customary for the dancers to wear bear-skins points to the connexion of Artemis with the bear. The meaning of this ritual is clear if we suppose that some remote ancestors of the Greeks danced in honour of the bear in the belief that they were descended from bears. The dance in bear-skins would thus be a personating of the goddess, that is to say, a means of union with her[131].
Another line in the process of religious evolution is seen in the widespread worship of the Pleiades. Australian aborigines dance in their honour for the purpose of inducing them to give rain, without, apparently, forming any ideas as to the nature of the Pleiades; but the Blackfeet Indians of North America imitate in dance seven young men, identified with the Pleiades, who appear to be the guardians of the crops.
In the few examples of worship among different African aborigines given above we have seen that dancing was in honour of their gods and an essential part of their worship, and we may well believe that the reason of this was the belief that the worshippers were imitating their gods in doing so. While the purpose is always honorific, we may be sure that they also had practical ends in view, viz. either the obtaining of food, or effecting union with the god. So that it is true to say that the sacred dance was the means of satisfying two essential needs of man: natural and spiritual sustenance.
In asking, finally, what is the bearing of this short investigation upon the religion of the Israelites we note first of all that the Israelites were at one with practically all the nations of antiquity, as well as with the uncivilized peoples, in performing the sacred dance in their worship. The primary object was, among the Israelites, as among the others, to honour their God. Why this rite should have been thought of as pleasing to the deity we have already considered. It is, however, improbable that the question troubled the Israelites; it was sufficient that it had been handed down from time immemorial as an essential constituent in the ritual of worship.
Further, we have seen that there was a very widespread belief that the sacred dance originated with the gods, or, in the case of savages, with animals regarded as ancestors. While there is no hint in the Old Testament of any similar belief among the Israelites, we may well ask, in view of what has just been said about the ubiquity of the sacred dance itself, whether such a belief, or the echo of it, may not actually have existed among them. It can scarcely be without significance that we get definite traces of it in the later Jewish literature which preserves in such numberless instances ancient traditions. It is said, for example, in the Midrash Shir ha-Shirim to vii. 1 that God Himself will lead the dance of the righteous in the world to come. In an exegetical exercise of a typically Rabbinical type on Ps. xlviii. 13, 14 (14, 15 in Hebr.) we are told that the words: “Mark well her bulwarks,” should be rendered: “Direct your heart to the dance”; for instead of lĕḥēlah one must read lĕḥūlah (“to the dance”). It is said, further, that, in that day the righteous shall point with their fingers and say, “This is our God, who will lead us,” i.e. in the dance. Then it is said that the last word of the psalm ʿal-muth (“unto death”) should be read ʿalamôth (“maidens”), i.e. God will lead the dance of the righteous in the world to come just as the maidens lead the dance in this world! We are not concerned with the exegesis, but only with the idea put forth. It is quite conceivable that some old-world tradition lies behind it. In any case, it suggests a parallel to the belief of many other peoples. It shows also that we may at times be justified in seeking for side-lights upon the religion of Israel from quarters which may not appear promising; we fully realize the pitfalls into which we may stumble in such cases, and the consequent need of caution; but one must be venturesome on occasion.
We drew attention just now to the belief of the Central American Indians that their gods could be prevailed upon to answer prayer by means of the sacred dance; the “limping” dance of the prophets of Baal had a similar purpose, though in this case there is a toning down inasmuch as there is an appeal to the pity of the god. Not very far removed from this is the idea of putting compulsion upon the god; an idea familiar to uncivilized man[132]; and it is quite possible that in some cases the sacred dance was believed to have the effect of coercing the god to do what was required of him. The underlying idea is similar to that expressed in Gen. xxviii. 20-22:
And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then shall Jahwe be my God....