“Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, possessed the power of curing individuals attacked by enlarged spleen by simply pressing his right foot upon that viscera.”—(“The Physicians of the Middle Ages,” T. C. Minor, M.D., Cincinnati, Ohio, 1889, p. 5. A translation of “Le Moyen Age Médical,” of Dr. Edmond Dupouy.)
X.
THE BACCHIC ORGIES OF THE GREEKS.
The Bacchic orgies of the Greeks, while not strictly assimilated to the ur-orgies, can scarcely be overlooked in this connection.
Montfaucon describes the Omophagi of the Greeks: “Les Omophagies étoient une fête des Grecs qui passoient la fureur Bacchique; ils s’entortilloient, dit Arnobe, de serpens et mangeoient des entrailles de Cabri crues, dont ils avaient la bouche toute ensanglantée; cela est exprimée par le nom Omophage. Nous avons vu quelquefois des hommes tous entortillez de serpens et particulièrement dans Mithras.”—(Montfaucon, “L’Antiquité expliquée,” tome 2, book 4, p. 22.)
The references to serpent-worship are curious, in view of the fact that such ophic rites still are celebrated among the Mokis, the next-door neighbors of the Zuñis, and once existed among the Zuñis themselves. The allusion to Mithras would seem to imply that these orgies must have been known to the Persians as well as the Greeks.
Bryant, speaking of the Greek orgies, uses this language: “Both in the orgies of Bacchus and in the rites of Ceres, as well as of other deities, one part of the mysteries consisted in a ceremony (omophagia), at which time they ate the flesh quite crude with the blood. In Crete, at the Dionisiaca, they used to tear the flesh with their teeth from the animal when alive.”—(Bryant, “Mythology,” London, 1775, vol. ii. p. 12.)
And again, on p. 13: “The Mænules and Bacchæ used to devour the raw limbs of animals which they had cut or torn asunder.... In the island of Chios it was a religious custom to tear a man limb from limb, by way of sacrifice to Dionysius. From all which we may learn one sad truth, that there is scarce anything so impious and unnatural as not, at times, to have prevailed.”—(Idem.)
Faber tells us that: “The Cretans had an annual festival ... in their frenzy they tore a living bull with their teeth, and brandished serpents in their hands.”—(Faber, “Pagan Idolatry,” London, 1816, vol ii. p. 265.)