cult and that of his consort. 1 To Asia also Prof. Calder looks for a new and engaging interpretation of the name and functions of Dionysos, 2 which has still to make its way but cannot be dismissed off-hand. As might be expected, after the startling discoveries of Forrer,3 Anatolian monuments are being examined, both by those who can read them and by those who must content themselves with the published translations, for light on the early culture-history of Greece. Thus, G. Poisson is inclined to see Hittite affinities in Kadmos and the Spartoi, whose name he refuses to connect with oneipew. A Hittite monument also furnishes P. Couissin 5 with an example of that rather rare thing, the actual cult of a sword. O. Kern also finds an Oriental example,—a plaque, bought at Smyrna and now preserved at Halle, representing what used to be called the Persian Artemis,— of much the same type of mother-goddess as the object of Hesiod's celebrated hymn of praise, Theog., 411-452.6 While dealing with the East, I may mention that the much-talked-of "Antioch chalice" has been given yet another dating, namely the twentieth century A.D.' But accusations of forgery are to the fore at present, and their objects, apart of course from the Glozel finds, include

1 J. Hatzfeld, Inscriptions de Panamara, B.C.H., 1927, p. 57 sqq.; P. Roussel, Les mystères de Panamara, ibid., 123 sqq.

2 Diounsis, guardian of the dithrera, and Dionysos Dithyrambos, in C.R., 1927, p. 161 sqq.

3 Literature, criticism of Forrer's interpretations, and a translation of one text are given by E. H. Sturtevant in Amer. Journ. of Semit. Lang., 1928, p. 217 sqq.

4 Rev. Arch., 1928, p. 278 sqq.

5 Le dieu-épée d'Iasili-Kaïa et le culte de l'épée dans l'antiquité, Rev. Arch., 1928, p. 107 sqq. The crux of the whole matter is whether the monument he describes really represents a sword or not.

A.M., 1925 (pub. 1927), p. 157 sqq.; the first foot-note of this article contains a good and timely protest against the loose employment of " Orphic" and other words which should have a definite and technical meaning.

? See Rev. Arch., 1928, p. 349.

1

the "Fitzwilliam goddess," the "Ring of Nestor" and a number of other interesting monuments, all of considerable importance for our subject if they are genuine. 1 Still keeping to the Orient, it is to be noted that a classic not professedly dealing with Greek or Roman religion, but much studied in the past by investigators of both, has been re-issued; I refer to S. A. Cook's new edition of Robertson Smith's Religion of the Semites. East and West meet in a very interesting study by F. Cumont of the legend of SS. Rufina and Justa, as given in a rare sixteenth-century breviary; he finds traces of the cult of Salambo, and also of the ritual of Adonis, in the Spain of Roman imperial times. 3

Concerning Egypt there is not much to say. Publications up to the end of 1927 have been carefully listed by A. D. Nock, to whose periodical reviews of this part of the subject I would refer those who wish for fuller details. He mentions several things of interest, but nothing of first-rate importance. I have nothing to add save a few trifles, such as the contribution of G. de Manteuffel to the textual criticism of the prose hymn to Isis, Oxyr. Pap., XI. 1380.

Greece and the islands of the Aegean have furnished a certain amount of new material, and there has been some rehandling of the old. Thus, a recent collection of inscriptions, A. Maiuri's Nuova silloge epigrafica di Rodie Cos (1925), has furnished A. Wilhelm with a starting-point for some good corrections and comments,-several of the texts he studies are of religious interest, and one is a lex sacra,-while K. Scott goes to the same work for the one really solid proof he can find that Augustus was ever,

1 See, for instances, Rev. Arch., passim, J.H.S., 1927, p. 298 sqq.; C.R., 1928, p. 61.

2 Reviewed in J.Th.S., 1928, p. 407.

3 Syria, 1927, p. 330 sqq.

In Journ. Eg. Arch., 1928, p. 134 sqq.

Rev. Phil., 1928, p. 161 sqq.

outside of the poetical suggestion of Horace, regarded as in any sense an incarnation of Mercury. Some curious material has been found in Cyprus, including one of the finest curses on tomb-robbers I have ever seen, which, by an irony of fortune, was brought to light by peasants violating the grave containing it. 2 Delos is the subject of a good study by F. Pfister, Ein Kultbrauch auf Delos nach Kallimachos, who after briefly discussing the striking of the altar (Kall., Hymn. IV., 321) brings forward very pertinent illustrations of customs similar to biting the sacred olive (ibid., 322). Thasos and its cults are studied at considerable length by H. Seyrig, 4 who draws attention, among other things, to the distinction between the worship of Apollo Pythios and Apollo Nymphagetes on that island, also to certain reasons for supposing that a cult of the divine Herakles, whether originally Melqart or not, and the hero Herakles existed side by side. It further appears that in Thasos, Dionysos and the Thracian horseman-god were identified. S. Luria's comments on the record of the Momo at Miletos appear to me rather hazardous, as he postulates a very great antiquity for this association and parallels it with savage institutions. Coming to the Greek mainland, we have an important study by L. Deubner of the Anthesteria, mostly from monumental evidence. Interesting points are his contention that the rôle of Dionysos in the marriage with the Basilinna was taken by the king-archon himself; his connexion of the ship-carriage with the actual historical arrival of Dionysos

5

1 Wilhelm, in A.M., 1926 (really 1927), p. 1 sqq.; Scott, Mercur Augustus und Horaz C.I., 2, in Hermes, 1928, p. 15 sqq.; a critical examination of the orthodox proofs shows a mass of misinterpretations; the idea was never embodied in Western cult at all.

2 H. Seyrig in B.C.H., 1927, p. 138 sqq.

3 Rhein. Mus., 1928, p. 185 sqq.

4 Quatre cultes de Thasos, B.C.H., 1927, p. 178 sqq. 5 Philologus, lxxxiii. (1927-28), p. 113 sqq.

• Röm. Mitt., xlii., p. 172 sqq.

(ie., of his cult) from Asia Minor by sea, 1 and the important part which, according to him, was played in the festival by children. A. Philadelphos treats of the sanctuary of Artemis Kalliste in the Kerameikos, 2 and L. Weber 3 conveniently puts together the material bearing on the cults of that quarter in general. Examination of some old note-books of Sir William Gell has brought to light records of one or two inscriptions which seem new, one plainly intended for some purpose of magic, and found by Sir William at Argos. Sparta has yielded an archaic dedication to Athena, but little or nothing else of importance for cult. 4

5

A good deal of work has been done on Greek custom and belief in general. Thus, O. Kern has published a lecture delivered by him on Griechische Kultlegenden, which makes some interesting suggestions on the lines of his general theory of Olympian religion. In particular, he puts forward a new explanation of the Theokritean Av. P. Capelle has written at some length on Elysium und Inseln der Seligen. 6 A. H. Krappe very pertinently, in discussing the golden ram which Thyestes stole from Atreus, points out that, apart from other and less exact parallels elsewhere, the Persian tale of Artachšir i Pâpakân tells of a ram which was the embodiment of regal power." In studying a lex sacra found at Kyrene, Kurt Latte has some interesting remarks on the use of red beasts in kathartic rites. 8 For Hellenistic times, K. Scott has

1

Incidentally he points out that carrus naualis has nothing to do with carnival, which comes from carne levare, as was proved by Merlo, Wörter u. Sachen, iii., p. 92 sqq.

1 B.C.H., 1927, p. 155 sqq. P. Roussel follows (p. 164 sqq.) with a not very happy attempt to explain a bas-relief found in her precinct. 'A.M., 1925 (1927), p. 139 sqq.

4 B.S.A., xxvii. (nominally 1926), pp. 67, 251–2.

5 Arch. f. Relig., 1928, p. I sqq.

Ibid., p. 17 sqq., continued from vol. xxv., p. 245 sqq.

7 Rhein. Mus., 1928, p. 182 sqq.

Arch. f. Relig., 1928, p. 41 sqq.

1

studied the deification of Demetrios Poliorketes, 1 and for a later date still, E. Gjerstad has written on the survival of ancient Greek custom in mediaeval and modern times, with a sanity and a feeling for evidence which does not always characterise writers on that very thorny subject.2 On the border-line, if there is one, which separates religion from sociology, I have re-considered the supposed evidence for Greek mother-right, and have again reached a conclusion wholly negative, even for prehistoric times and for the much-discussed Lokrians. 3

In Italy there has been, as usual, a great deal of archaeological exploration, but so far no find of much importance for ancient religion. Several inscriptions refer to cult, as for instance the interesting dedication to Fortuna from Isola Farnese and a battered offering, made ex uiso, to Iuppiter Optimus Maximus, found at Ostia. 5 But some good work has been done on material already familiar. Thus, F. Bortzler, re-opening the question of Venus Calua, emphasises the point that no one in antiquity says there was a bald statue of Venus, but rather that there was a Venus erected by a bald woman, or women. Th. Birt, in an acute analysis of the phrase macte esto, comes to the conclusion that macte is an adverb, Vergil's macte noua uirtute, puer being a perfectly normal use of a participle and throwing no light on the traditional phrase. E. Stolte examines C.I.E. 8079, which he makes out to be a magical formula, at least in part, and incidentally has some interesting remarks on the cult of Ceres. Tenney Frank discusses the Bacchanalian conspiracy of 186 B.C., and E. Stemplinger has a slight

7

6

9

1 A.J.P., 1928, p. 137 sqq.

2 Arch. f. Relig., 1928, p. 152 sqq. Another survival, this time in art, is traced by W. Déonna in Rev. Arch., 1928, p. 18 sqq.

3 Folk-Lore, xxxvii., p. 213 sqq.

4 Not. Scavi., 1927, p. 371.

• Rhein. Mus., 1928, p. 188 sqq. 8 Glotta, 1928, p. 106 sqq.

5 Ibid., p. 397.

" Ibid., p. 199 sqq.

• C.Q., 1927, p 128 sqq.