Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

Attis in relation to Christianity 303
(^) Attis in relation to Christianity.
The cult of Attis had points of contact with Christianity itself.
A Father manifesting himself anew in the person of his Son, a Son
bearing the name of his Father,—such beliefs naturally predisposed
men to faith in that Son whom the Father sent to be 'the effulgence
of his glory, and the very image of his substance^' Outward ceremonies
and inward doctrines alike lent themselves to this end. The
rites of Attis, apart from certain crudities, might almost have passed
for Christian usage—witness the body of the divine Son affixed to
the pine-tree-, the lamentation over his prostrate form, the sudden
1 Hebrews 1.3.
- At the festival of the vernal equinox (March 22) known as arbor inirat (H. Hepding
Attis sdne Mythen u>id seiii Knit Gieszen 1903 p. 149 ff., Frazer Golden Botiglr^: Adonis
Attis Osiris'' i. 267 f.). Firmicus Maternus {c. 347 a.d. ), who alone mentions the effigy
fastened to the tree, already cites parallels (Firm. Mat. 27. i f. in sacris Frygiis, quae
matris deum dicunt, per annos singulos arbor pineacaeditur et in media arbore simulacrum
iuvenis subligatar. in Isiacis sacris de pinea arbore caeditur truncus, huius trunci media
pars subtiliter excavatur : illic (so F. Oehler for illis cod. P.) de segminibus (so Wowerius
for seniinibn.t cod. P.) factum idolum Osiridis sepelitur (cp. Plout. de Is. et Os. 8, 16, 18,
21, 42). in Proserpinae sacris caesa arbor in effigiem virginis formamque componitur et cum
intra civitatem fuerit inlata, quadraginta noctibus plangitur, quadragesima vero nocte
comburitur). The same method of comparative study has been followed with conspicuous
success by W. Mannhardt IVald- iind Feldculte- Berlin 1904 i. 572 f. , 1905 ii. 291 ff. and
by Frazer Golden Bough^ : The Magic Art ii. 59 ff. , ib.'^ : The Dying God p. 251 ff. The
former regards the tree with its effigy of Attis as a ' Verkorperung des vom Tode erwachten
Wachstumsgeistes ' {op. at." ii. 295). The latter says :
' The bringing in of the pine-tree
from the woods, decked with violets and woollen bands, is like bringing in the May-tree
and the effigy which was attached to the pine-
or Summer-tree in modern folk-custom ;
tree was only a duplicate representative of the tree-spirit Attis' (