ANTH 208 Chapter Notes - Chapter Various: Vestal Virgin, Horae, Marie-Louise Damien
Chapter One: Part One (The King of the Wood, Diana and Virbius)
● In this story which takes place in Italy a priest takes the position by slaying the previous
one, the priest of Diana of the Wood in a place called Aricia now town of Nemi at time of
writing
○ Priest also called king, the only ones who could try to kill the previous one were
escaping slaves who broke a branch (the golden bough) off a sacred tree, which
represented the branch Aeneas took before going to the realms of the dead.
○ One story says this worship and custom here originated with Orestes.
○ Diana of Nemi conceived of as a huntress, would have had a sacred fire giving
her the title of Vesta and thus having Vestal Virgins to tend to it like in Rome
○ Two other gods also found here, Egeria the nymph of clear water and Virbius
who was also known as the greek hero Hippolytus, a son of Theseus also
associated with the hunt and Diana and hidden there by her under the name
Virbius as the first priest-king of the wood.
● These stories provide worshippers with a standard of worship to compare themselves to,
likely actually founded by a Latin dictator sometime before 495 BCE.
Chapter One: Part Two (The King of the Wood, Artemis and Hippolytus)
● Hippolytus was worshipped also near Troezen, a nearly completely enclosed bay near
the sacred island of Poseidon who mythology dictates was his grandfather.
● Considered a figure to Artemis similar to how Adonis was to Venus/Aphrodite. One of
many mortal lovers in the mythology Greek and Roman.
● Also at Troezen were Damia and Auxesia were worshipped who are closely associated
with the fertility of the earth.
○ Priests held office for life
○ Considers such stories to more philosophically linked to the question of the
relationship between man and nature.
Chapter One: Part Three (The King of the Woods, Recapitulation)
● Supposes that the priest-king of the wood would have followed in the footsteps of Virbius
his mythic originator and worshipped the tree that was meant to represent Diana and
even considered it his wife (guessing in the spiritual sense here)
● Diana associated with woodlands, wild creatures, domestic cattle, fruits of the earth, and
fertility in the sense of childbirth.
○ Wants to know why and how this custom of killing successors came about and if
it’s seen elsewhere
Chapter Two (Priestly Kings)
● Talks about kings being closely associated with or as priests being common all over
Greece and Rome, both in duties and title.
○ Also many places in Asia Minor where there were Priest-Kings, people who held
spiritual and secular authority at the same time. In places all over the world the
king was also the high priest.
○ Some priest-kings also considered gods, to be pleaded to for things like good
weather, crops, general prosperity, etc.
○ Says sympathetic magic is another way to reach this status of god/priest/king,
reaching that position through prowess with magic making them in some cases
magicians also.
Chapter Three: Part One (Sympathetic Magic, The Principles of Magic)
● Divides magic into the Law of Similarity and the Law of Contact/Contagion
○ First that an effect resembles its cause and second that two objects will continue
to affect each other even from a distance once they’ve come into contact.
○ Things based on Law of Similarity Homeopathic or Imitative Magic, things based
on Law of Contact Contagious Magic.
● States magic can be viewed as Theoretical, a means through which to see and
understand the world, and Practical, a means through which to act on the world.
○ Thinks homeopathic magic may and can be practiced by itself but that contagious
magic often involves an element of homeopathic magic.
■ Can consider both branches under the name Sympathetic Magic due to
what he calls the Law of Sympathy which is implicit in both these
practices of magic
Chapter Three: Part Two (Sympathetic Magic, Homeopathic or Imitative Magic)
● Gives a cross-cultural example of affecting a living person or being through affecting,
usually harming, an image of that same person/being, though in some cultures this is
used to help facilitate conception and childbirth
○ Also rituals which substitute the act of childbirth through the imitation of it, often
used to adopt a child or even adult, or in cases where someone has been
declared in Ancient Greece, restore them to life in the eyes of the rest of the
world.
● Also used in some cultures as a means of healing or as a curative method using various
methods to substitute for the patient or the sickness or both allowing for the treatment to
be done to the patient without actually coming into direct contact with them. Could be on
the doctor or some other representation of the patient
● Can be used not in regards to people but also in the storing, acquiring, etc of food such
as multiplying images of the food to be acquired, or keeping them to attract said food,
etc.
○ Also applies to things people don’t do in order to prevent game from getting away
or not showing up, this example of a negative precept can be referred to as a
taboo just as the other previously mentioned positive precepts can be referred to
as charms
● Negative precepts include not eating certain foods, or carrying out certain actions in
specific contexts, and other things along these lines
● There is certainty in the capacity for one thing to affect another, calls it faith in the
principle of telepathy, something done in one place exerts a clear influence on another.
Like killing a male animal in a household leading to the death of that household’s male
head of house while away in Madagascar.
○ See things like this most commonly associated with war and hunting
Document Summary
Chapter one: part one (the king of the wood, diana and virbius) In this story which takes place in italy a priest takes the position by slaying the previous one, the priest of diana of the wood in a place called aricia now town of nemi at time of writing. One story says this worship and custom here originated with orestes. Diana of nemi conceived of as a huntress, would have had a sacred fire giving her the title of vesta and thus having vestal virgins to tend to it like in rome. Virbius as the first priest-king of the wood. These stories provide worshippers with a standard of worship to compare themselves to, likely actually founded by a latin dictator sometime before 495 bce. Chapter one: part two (the king of the wood, artemis and hippolytus) Hippolytus was worshipped also near troezen, a nearly completely enclosed bay near the sacred island of poseidon who mythology dictates was his grandfather.
