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THE RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT 13
to the human race. He was a god of moisture and vegetation.
The corn that sustains life, and the wine and beer that gladden
the heart, were his gifts. These things sprang from the
bosom of mother earth, through his mysterious influence, for
the earth and he were lovers.
Further the Thracians and Phrygians at the winter solstice,
held wild orgies (Bacchanalia), when naked women, wrought
into frenzy by music and dance, and driven by priests, wan
dered in bands through fields and forests, shouting the name
of the deity or a part of it (like Saboi), and by every bar
barous means endeavouring to awaken the dead god into repro
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ductive activity. He was imagined as passing rapidly through
the stages of childhood, adolescence and youth. And as he was
held to be incarnate in a bull, a buck, a man, or even in an in
fant, the festival reached its climax in the devouring of warm
and bloody flesh just torn from a live bull, goat, or a priest.
Sabazios under the name of Zagreus was thus being cut to
pieces and consumed by his devotees. In this sacramental
meal, the god no doubt became incarnate in his votaries and
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blessed the land with fertility.
We have no clear traces of such repulsive rites in what
has been handed down to us from the old religion of the Ar
menians in spite of their proverbial piety. Whatever they
have preserved seems to belong to another stratum of the
faith. 8
Phrygo-Thracian
A careful examination of this ancient material shows among
the earliest Armenians a religious and mythological develop
ment parallel to that observed among other Indo-European
peoples, especially the Satem branch of the race.
Their language contains an important fund of Indo-
European religious words such as Tiu (Dyaus = Zeus =
Tiwaz),
etc.),
"
"
day-light," and Di-kh (pi. of Di, i.e. Deiva = Deus,
the gods."
When the ancient Armenians shouted,
" Ti
(or Tir), forward," they must have meant this ancient Dyaus