Leo I and sun-worshippers at Christmas

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I see that the stale old anti-Christian legends are going around again this Christmas.  I’ve just seen one misrepresentation and had to look it up.

In fact, it is recorded that Pope Leo the Great, in the fifth century, had to tell Church members to stop worshiping the Sun.

Note the lack of verbatim citation and the lack of reference.  Such omissions should always make us suspicious.  So what does Leo say?  It’s in his Sermon 27, the 7th sermon on the feast of the nativity.  The NPNF translation is here:

IV. The Foolish Practice of Some Who Turn to the Sun and Bow to It is Reprehensible.

From such a system of teaching proceeds also the ungodly practice of certain foolish folk who worship the sun as it rises at the beginning of daylight from elevated positions: even some Christians think it is so proper to do this that, before entering the blessed Apostle Peter’s basilica, which is dedicated to the One Living and true God, when they have mounted the steps which lead to the raised platform, they turn round and bow themselves towards the rising sun and with bent neck do homage to its brilliant orb. We are full of grief and vexation that this should happen, which is partly due to the fault of ignorance and partly to the spirit of heathenism: because although some of them do perhaps worship the Creator of that fair light rather than the Light itself, which is His creature, yet we must abstain even flora the appearance of this observance: for if one who has abandoned the worship of gods, finds it in our own worship, will he not hark back again to this fragment of his old superstition, as if it were allowable, when he sees it to be common both to Christians and to infidels?

So … in this case the quotation is fair.  

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The anniversary of the death of C.S.Lewis

Posted on by Roger Pearse

… was yesterday, 22nd November 1963.  Few people so unrecognised by the establishment have had so wide an influence, on me as on many.  He provided a framework for Christians to think about what they believed.

Much as I like his theology, I do wish he’d written more fantasy.  I loved Out of the Silent Planet, and Voyage to Venus, and of course the Narnia stories.  That Hideous Strength has been described as “a Charles Williams novel written by C.S.Lewis” and correctly in my opinion. 

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Linking Egyptian and Babylonian chronology

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Jona Lendering points to a discovery of a Babylonian royal seal impression in a tomb in Sinai belonging to one of the Hyksos kings.  If true, this would provide a direct link between the two chronologies.  Read it – this is important.

For myself, I didn’t know that the tombs of the Hyksos monarchs were known!

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Origen update

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I commissioned a translation of Origen’s fourteen homilies on Ezekiel earlier this year.  Today I had what must be very nearly the final versions of homilies 11-14, including translations of relevant Greek fragments from the catenas.  This means that the job is nearly done.  It also means, less pleasantly, that I need to start thinking about how to market these, in order to recover at least some of the money, so that I can then put them online.

The sermons are lost in the original Greek; what we are translating into English for the first time is St. Jerome’s Latin translation of them.  We’re using the GCS critical text.  In the Patrologia Graeca is a pre-critical version.  But also present is an excerpt from Origen’s Commentary on Ezechiel — also mostly lost — which is about a page in length.  We’ll do that as well.

In Migne there is also a collection of Selecta in Ezechielem.  These are fragments of Origen’s original Greek text, found mixed with excerpts from other authors in the medieval Greek commentaries or catenae.  The labelling of which father contributed which excerpt can be pretty erratic in the catenas, so not all his material labelled “Origen” is probably authentic.  Migne prints what there is, tho.

Translation of the Selecta has begun, and the fragments on chapters 1-3 of Ezekiel have been completed.  Interestingly the catena fragments are much more readable than Origen at full length.  Probably the brevity of the chunks has something to do with this, but I think people will find them interesting.  Here’s one on chapter 1, verse 3.  Origen writes:

“in the land of the Chaldaeans.”  “Chaldaean” is translated as “all work.” And these [i.e., Chaldaeans] are astrologers, who talk about fate, and are completely tied to perceptible things, and work hard among them, making them into gods.  The “land of the Chaldaeans” is the worst position and attitude.  Indeed, the Chaldaeans represent a symbol of those who are arrogant in impiety.

I smiled when I read this, since later Syriac fathers would identify with the Chaldaeans.  I think we may be sure that they never saw this comment when doing so!

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New blog from Charles Sullivan

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Charles Sullivan, who is working on a history of Speaking in Tongues, writes to say that he has started a new blog:

http://charlesasullivan.wordpress.com/

The only thing I have in html right now is the “Translation Tips on the Greek Church Fathers” but more will come. 

Blogging every day takes time.  But if you don’t, then your readers drift away.

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An interesting online colour image of Mithras killing the bull

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I was experimenting with the new Microsoft Bing image search, which gave me quite different results to Google image search.  One of these caught my eye, on a Dutch forum, here.  A better version of the image, this time with real data attached, here.  It looks as if both have been scanned from a book, the first not very well.   According to the second link, this is a relief from Sterzing in Austria, CIMRM 1400.  It says that the colours are modern restoration, based on coloured frescos from Italy. 

Sterzing Mithras Tauroctony
CIMRM 1400 Sterzing Mithras Tauroctony, modern colouring

The image is useful because it is a splendidly clear representation of the cult relief of Mithras, found in every Mithraeum.  These depictions of Mithras killing the bull — the tauroctony — vary in the details.  If you do a Google search on Mithras, you will find many images of the tauroctony, varying in what is included. 

This one contains almost a full set of all the features.

Mithras kneels on the bull and pulls back its head while looking to his right toward the view.  On either side stand the demi-god torchbearers, Cautes with torch held up, Cautopates with it down. 

Below the bull the snake and the dog reach for the blood of the bull.  There is a scorpion seizing the bull’s genitals.

The events take place in a cave; hence the roof above Mithras.  At the top left appears Sol with his flaming crown.  At the top right is Luna, with her horned moon. 

Note the raven next to Sol, and the single extra-long ray of light reaching down from Sol into the cavern and onto Mithras.

At the top there are other animals, and a tabula ansata, or ‘box with a triangle at each end’ which probably had an inscription, now lost. A larger one, again with a lost inscription, is at the bottom.

On either side are panels, showing other elements from the cult myth.  These are of great interest, since we have no literary description of them.

The left-hand column shows (from the top) Jupiter battling the giants; Mithras born from the rock; Mithras doing something unrecognisable; Mithras (or possibly Atlas) kneeling, and probably the bull.

The right-hand column shows at the bottom Mithras dragging the bull.  Above it is Mithras plus two other figures.  Then Mithras, with Sol kneeling before him; then Mithras and Sol shake hands; Mithras gets into the quadriga of the sun.  At the top the feast of Sol and Mithras which in other reliefs involves consuming parts of the bull.

Details of the relief may be found here: M.J. Vermaseren, Corpus inscriptionum et monumentorum religionis Mithriacae II (1960) 148ff. No. 1400 Abb. 360; R. Merkelbach, Mithras (1984) 368f. Abb. 132.- R. Vollkommer, s.v. Mithras, LIMC VI (1992) Nr. 156 Abb.

It is interesting that initiation into the rites of Mithras did feature a hand shake, as shown here.  Firmicus Maternus comments that they were “initiates of the theft of the bull, united by the handshake of the illustrious father (Pater).” (FM 5.2)

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Last ancient reference to the temple of Sol

Posted on by Roger Pearse

An article at Lacus Curtius on the temple of Sol Invictus in Rome contains the following interesting statement:

The last reference to it in antiquity is in the sixth century (Anon. de Antiq. Cpl. IV.66, ed. Banduri) when eight of the porphyry columns were sent to Constantinople for the church of S. Sophia…

These abbreviated references in older literature can be a bit of a pain.  Who can guess precisely what “de Antiq. Cpl.” is?

Some Google searching reveals that it is Imperium Orientale sive Antiquitates Constantinopolitanae, edited by Anselmo Banduri and published in Paris in 1711.  A copy is being sold at auction somewhere for doubtless significant money. A google book search reveals evidence of the book’s existence, but sadly no copies.  I would have liked to see what the text actually said.

But a further search for a title of “imperium orientale” did bring up some interesting things:

So not entirely wasted effort; but I would like to see all the data on the Temple of Sol Invictus tabulated, pictures of whatever remained at the renaissance — so much was destroyed during this period! — all on one web page.

It is remarkable how little Google images gives us, if you search for pictures online of classical topics.  The same few scanty images of Mithras represent the vast body of sculpture; likewise with Sol.  Someone ought to go down to a museum with a camera and just mass upload images!  (Although I notice that if you add them to Picasa, Google images does not pick them up!)

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The rule of experts

Posted on by Roger Pearse

We are often advised to follow some policy or other on the grounds that all the experts agree in recommending it.  Such reliance on “wise men” rather than democracy reminded me of a saying, I think by C. S. Lewis, which from memory runs as follows:

Who are these “wise men”?  Either they are those whom the foolish think wise — a doubtful recommendation — or else those even more foolish souls who think themselves wise.

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Update on Abu’l Barakat

Posted on by Roger Pearse

There is a 13th century list of works that exist in Arabic Christian literature by a certain Abu’l Barakat.  It was published long ago by Riedel, with a German translation, but has never found an English translator.

Such a list is a “road-map” of the unexplored land, a guide to the wayfarer as to what might exist.  It includes works translated into Arabic, such a material by the Cappadocian fathers, plus original compositions.  The translations may be interesting — because material does exist in Arabic now lost in Greek and Syriac.  The original compositions should help us to get an idea of what there is in the language.

I commissioned a translation of this back in the summer, which I intend to give away online.  It’s been delayed because the same translator was working for me on the Syriac fragments of Eusebius.  But today I heard back.

Riedel is about 25 pages, so the idea is that we’ll do it in 5-page chunks.  That’s less intimidating for him, and easier on my pocket!

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Troubles at Documenta Catholica Omnia

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Paul Chandler writes to query what is happening with the Documenta Catholica Omnia site.

Roger, do you know the story of Documenta Catholica Omnia and what’s going on there? Their project seems hugely ambitious but strangely unusable. They had the Patrologia Latina up in beautifully OCRed, proof-read, re-typeset versions, keyed in the margin to the Migne columns (so useful!). It must have been an enormous amount of work. But the PL was distributed over 12,000 separate files, and basically could not be searched. Now they have taken down this “beta version” and are replacing it with PDF page scans, which are available elsewhere (Google Books, Gallica), and which seems a totally backward step.

There is much else there, but in barely usable forms, unless you just want to download a treatise or two. Migne’s projects were remarkable, but he published some of the worst-printed books of the 19th century, on the worst paper. PDFs of tatty library copies of Migne volumes are not the advance we need for the 21st century!

Paul is not wrong.  Take a look at the Augustine materials.  Files marked MLT are from Migne; and these are clearly bitmaps.

I also looked at Cyril of Alexandria.  The MGR material I suspect is supposed to be Migne (Greek).  But opening a few of the files reveals a copyright notice at the top, giving the TLG as the origin and that these are now appearing there by permission.

I don’t know who runs the DCO site.  Doing a Whois search tells me only that it is an Italian site.  But I would guess that all the material was in fact taken without permission from the Proquest digitised version of the Patrologia Latina.  This used to be available in CDROM form, and was widely pirated in Eastern Europe years ago.  After all, with a price of $23,000, what else could people do?  It looks to me as if the copyright people have attacked the site.  Probably the whole thing is the work of a few people, and, although the original texts cannot possibly be in copyright, those people couldn’t afford the lawyers to uphold it. 

It looks as if they did a deal with the TLG people for the raw Greek texts, which I always suspected were not from Migne but from the TLG.  It may be relevant that the TLG director has an Italian name.  But all credit to the TLG, who I believe have made the right decision here.  Professional scholars will increasingly want more than bare Greek text, and I believe the TLG is moving to supply that, parsed and morphologised and cross-referenced.  But ordinary people will still find value in the simple text. 

Paul has a further question, which is very interesting:

Also I heard today that some group in the U.S. has begun a project to scan, OCR and make searchable the PL (and PG?) and make it available at a small fraction of the ProQuest price. Apparently the first CD is being offered a pre-publication subscription price. This would be a wonderful boon to scholars without access to such expensive resources. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to track down any details. Have you heard of this?

Is this perhaps the Logos effort, that I vaguely recall hearing about?  Here?

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