[222] von Haxthausen, Transcaucasia, p. 414.
There are thus obvious reasons for the connection between filial submissiveness and religious beliefs; but the chief cause of this connection seems to be the extreme importance frequently attached to the curses and blessings of parents. Among the Nandi in Central Africa, “if a son refuses to obey his father in any serious matter, the father solemnly strikes the son with his fur mantle. This is equivalent to a most serious curse, and is supposed to be fatal to the son unless he obtains forgiveness, which he can only do by sacrificing a goat before his father.”[223] Among the Mpongwe “there is nothing which a young person so much deprecates as the curse of an aged person, and especially that of a revered father.”[224] The Barea and Kunáma are convinced that any undertaking which has not the blessing of the old people will fail, that every curse uttered by them must be destructive.[225] Among the Bogos nobody takes an employment or gives it up, nobody engages in a business or contracts a marriage, before he has received the blessing of his father or his master.[226] Among the Herero, “when a chief feels his dissolution approaching, he calls his sons to the bedside, and gives them his benediction.”[227] The Moors have a proverb that “if the saints curse you the parents will cure you, but if the parents curse you the saints will not cure you.” The ancient Hebrews believed that parents, and especially a father, could by their blessings or curses determine the fate of their children;[228] indeed, we have reason to assume that the reward which in the fifth commandment is held out to respectful children was originally a result of parental blessings. We still meet with the original idea in Ecclesiasticus, where it is said: “Honour thy father and mother both in word and deed, that a blessing may come upon thee from them. For the blessing of the father establisheth the houses of children; but the curse of the mother rooteth out foundations.”[229] The same notion that the parents’ blessings beget prosperity, and that their curses bring ruin, prevailed in ancient Greece. Plato says in his ‘Laws’:—“Neither God, nor a man who has understanding, will ever advise any one to neglect his parents…. If a man has a father or mother, or their fathers or mothers treasured up in his house stricken in years, let him consider that no statue can be more potent to grant his requests than they are, who are sitting at his hearth, if only he knows how to show true service to them…. Oedipus, as tradition says, when dishonoured by his sons, invoked on them curses which every one declares to have been heard and ratified by the gods, and Amyntor in his wrath invoked curses on his son Phoenix, and Theseus upon Hippolytus, and innumerable others have also called down wrath upon their children, whence it is clear that the gods listen to the imprecations of parents; for the curses of parents are, as they ought to be, mighty against their children as no others are. And shall we suppose that the prayers of a father or mother who is specially dishonoured by his or her children, are heard by the gods in accordance with nature; and that if a parent is honoured by them, and in the gladness of his heart earnestly entreats the gods in his prayers to do them good, he is not equally heard, and that they do not minister to his request?… Therefore, if a man makes a right use of his father and grandfather and other aged relations, he will have images which above all others will win him the favour of the gods.”[230] Originally the efficacy of parents’ curses and blessings were ascribed to a magic power immanent in the spoken word itself, and their Erinyes, who were no less terrible than the Erinyes of neglected guests,[231] were only personifications of their curses.[232] But in this, as in other similar cases already noticed, the fulfilment of the curse or the blessing came afterwards to be looked upon as an act of divine justice. According to Plato, “Nemesis, the messenger of justice,” watches over unbecoming words uttered to a parent;[233] and Hesiod says that if anybody reproaches an aged father or mother “Zeus himself is wroth, and at last, in requital for wrong deeds, lays on him a bitter penalty.”[234] It also seems to be beyond all doubt that the divi parentum of the Romans, like their dii hospitales, were nothing but personified curses. For it is said, “If a son beat his parent and he cry out, the son shall be devoted to the parental gods for destruction.”[235] In aristocratic families in Russia children used to stand in mortal fear of their fathers’ curses;[236] and the country people still believe that a marriage without the parents’ approval will call down the wrath of Heaven on the heads of the young couple.[237] Some of the Southern Slavs maintain that if a son does not fulfil the last will of his father, the soul of the father will curse him from the grave.[238] The Servians say, “Without reverence for old men, there is no salvation.”[239]
[223] Johnston, Uganda Protectorate, ii. 879.
[224] Wilson, Western Africa, p. 393.
[225] Munzinger, Ostafrikanische Studien, p. 475.
[226] Idem, Sitten der Bogos, p. 90 sq.
[227] Andersson, Lake Ngami, p. 228.
[228] Genesis, ix. 25 sqq.; xxvii. 4, 19, 23, 25, 27 sqq.; xlviii. 9, 14 sqq.; xlix. 4, 7 sqq. Judges, xvii. 2. Cf. Cheyne, ‘Blessings and Cursings,’ in Encyclopædia Biblica, i. 592; Nowack, ‘Blessing and Cursing,’ in Jewish Encyclopedia, iii. 244.
[229] Ecclesiasticus, iii. 8 sq. Cf. ibid. iii. 16.
[230] Plato, Leges, xi. 930 sq. Cf. ibid. iv. 717.