TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

10G
GODS.
terms whose meaning varies, passing from that of temple to that of
image, just as we saw the meaning of grove mixed up with that of
numen. If, as is possible, that word alah originally meant rock or
stone (p. 67), it might easily, like haruc and wilt, melt into the
sense of altar and statue, of ara, fanum, idolum. In this way the
OIIG. about, abcuti (Abgott, false god) does signify both fana and
is at
idola or statuae, Diut. 1, 497 b 513 a 515 a 533 b , just as our gotze
once the false god and his image and his temple (see above, p. 15.
Gramm. 3, 694). Idolum must have had a similar ambiguity,
where it is not expressly distinguished from delubrum, fanum and
templum. In general phrases sucli as idola colere, idola adorare,
idola destruere, we cannot be sure that images are meant, for just
as often and with the same meaning we have adorare fana, des
truere fana. Look at the following phrases taken from OHG.
glosses : abcuti wihero stetio, fana excelsorum, Diut. 1, 515 a . eibcut
in lieilagem stetim, fana in excelsis, Diut. 1, 213 a . steininu zeihan
inti abcuti, titulos et statuas, Diut. 1, 49 7 b . altara inti manalikun
inti haruga, aras et statuas et lucos, Diut. 1, 513 b . afgoda began-
gana, Lacombl. arch. 1,
11. Saxo Gram, often uses simulacra for
idols, pp. 249, 320-1-5-7, The statement in Aribonis vita S.
Emmerammi (Acta sanct. Sept. 6, 483) : tradidera te genti
Saxonum, quae tot idolorum cultor existit is undeniable evidence
that the heathen Saxons in the 8th century served many false gods
(Aribo, bishop of Freisingen in the years 764-783). The vita
Lebuini, written by Hucbald between 918-976, says of the ancient
Saxons (Pertz 2, 361-2): Inservire idolorum cultibus . . .
numinibus suis vota solvens ac sacrificia . . . simulacra quae
deos esse putatis, quosque venerando colitis. Here, no doubt,
statues must be meant (see Suppl.).
In a few instances we find the nobler designation deus still
employed, as it had been by Tacitus : Cumque idem rex (Eadwine
in 625) gratias ageret diis suis pro nata sibi filia, Beda 2, 9.
The following passages testify to visible representations of gods ;
they do not condescend to describe them, and we are content to
pick up hints by the way.
The very earliest evidence takes us already into the latter half
of the 4th century, but it is one of the most remarkable. Sozomen,
Hist. eccl. 6, 37, mentions the manifold dangers that beset Ulphilas
the barbarians were yet heathens
among
the heathen Goths :
While