Our ancestors, Scots, Piets, &amp

466 Pages·2009·6.96 MB·English

ancestor:
Our
Cymry
Scots Rets and
OyR.CMacla^anMD
Cornell Httiowaitg Eihrarg
3tJrara, Nrm fork
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Our ancestors. Scots, Plets, & Cym
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http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029889528
OUR ANCESTORS
cymry
scots, picts, &>
and what their tradit-
ROBERT
By
ions tell us.
CRAIG MACLAGAN,M.D
TNFOULIS
&
London Edinburgh
1913
Zo
3>
}\£%V)(ol
July 1913
Printedby Morrison & Gibe Limited,Edinburgh
1
CONTENTS
Introduction page ix
I. Moon Reverence at the Present Day . . 3
II. A Female Phcebus 1
III. Night Worship and Female Dancing . . 19
IV. Scots not only Irish 35
V. Characteristics of the Moon in Folk-
Story 45
.
VI. The Moon Personified 65
— ...
VII. The Moon Personified {continued) 89
VIII. Scots and Cimmerians. Northern Dark-
ness and Moon Worship 115
IX. Artemis and Apollo 135
X. The Raven and the Dove 149
XI. Mifv, Ishtar, Beltis, Semiramis . . . . 161
XII. Monadic Rites 171
XIII. The Moon as Spindle 179
XIV. The Moon as Eye 185
XV. Baltic Origins 195
XVI. The Shamrock 209
XVII. The Wheel, Mog Ruith 221
XVIII. Brigantes and Cumbri 227
v

INTRODUCTION
ACCORDING TO THEIR EARLIEST RECORDS,
the Picts of the British Islesclaim aThracian origin.
Herodotus tells that the nobles of theAgathyrsi tat-
tooed themselves, and the claim of the Picts to be
Agathyrsi isonrecord, and showstheiracquaintance
withThraciantradition. Orpheus,thebardwhomade
treestodancetohismusic,was aThracian, andearly
Irishstorysaysthat the children of Nemed (nemet, a
"grove")werealmosttheearliestinvadersofIreland.
A
dancinggrove can only applyto thoseworshippers
who frequented such localities.
The Cotytto of Milton's Comus was a Thracian di-
vinitycelebratedwithriotousproceedingsinfestivals
called Cotyttia. Cotus was the name of a series of
Thracian kings extending from a period 382 years
B.C. to the time ofHadrian a.d. 76. Strabo (63 B.C.)
mentionsthe Thracianmysteries ofCotyttoand Ben-
dis (Artemis), and at the same time speaks of Cotys
as alocaldeitywhose worship was accompaniedwith
noise. Suidas (10th century a.d.) tells that Cotus
was a Corinthian divinity, and quotes Synesius, who
speaksofthe"troupe"(diKaurou)ofCotusasunchaste.
We conclude with certainty that Cotus (masculine)
and Cotytto (feminine) are expressions for the male
and female ofan androgynous divinity butthe Cot-
;
yttiaappliedtothemashermaphrodite.
Eupolis, an Athenian comedian who ceased exhi-
biting 412 B.C., wrote a comedy called the Baptce,
Cotytto being the goddess which these Dippers or
Dyers, whichever way we translate the name, held
IX
—
OUR ANCESTORS
in honour. Juvenal (a.d. 60-140) says of them
" Such orgies did theycelebrate withthe secrettorch
The Baptaewho wore outthe Cecropian Cotytto."
Ascholiast onJuvenalexplainsthattheDipperswere
lost to decency and as described by Eupolis repre-
sentedAthenians who danced in imitation ofwomen
and fatigued a female harp-player. This commen-
tator evidently considered harp-playing natural to
Cotytto, and in fact uses the name Cotytto as that
of the harp-player. Lucian (a.d. 120-200) talks of
the reader of the Baptce blushing, and Hesychius
(abouta.d. 400)tellsusthat Eupolis, firedwithanger
againsttheCorinthians,exhibitedonthestageCotytto,
a " deity of a vulgar sort " (cpoprixog, " coarse," of an
uneducated kind, barbarous therefore). The Baptae
were describedasmolles,andcurlingthe hairwassac-
rificingtoCotytto. The male Baptaeweresaidtoimi-
tate the dancing of women Horace expressly says
;
the Cotyttiawerefemale orgies. Thefactis, weknow
very little at first handofCotytto,but all subsequent
evidence goes to prove a belief in the licence of her
mysteriesaspartakenofbothbymenandwomen.
That the word Baptae signifies " dyers" is certain.
Fritzsche, a German critic, held that they got their
title (Zdirrai possibly because they dyed their gar-
mentsinthe orchestra Meineke says a certain meas-
;
ure ofsupportisgiventothisextraordinaryidea,asin
a play of Eupolis " dyeing the beauteous things held
holytothegoddess" ismentioned. Thattheyshould
have been called Dippers on account of some ritual
x