Lityerses

Turning now to the relation of the Phrygian Lityerses to the Phrygian Attis, it may be remembered that at Pessinus—the seat of a priestly kingship—the high-priest appears to have been annually slain in the character of Attis, a god of vegetation, and that Attis was described by an ancient authority as “a reaped ear of corn.

Chapter 47. Lityerses. § 4. The Corn-spirit slain in his Human Representatives 1922

Bormus, whose death or rather disappearance was annually mourned by the reapers in a plaintive song, was, like Lityerses, a king’s son or at least the son of a wealthy and distinguished man.

Chapter 47. Lityerses. § 4. The Corn-spirit slain in his Human Representatives 1922

This seems to be the outline of a legend like that of Lityerses; but neither ancient writers nor modern folk-custom enable us to fill in the details.

Chapter 47. Lityerses. § 4. The Corn-spirit slain in his Human Representatives 1922

We now come to the cases in which the corn-spirit is represented either by a stranger passing the harvest-field (as in the Lityerses tale), or by a visitor entering it for the first time.

Chapter 47. Lityerses. § 2. Killing the Corn-spirit 1922

Passing to the second point of comparison between the Lityerses story and European harvest customs, we have now to see that in the latter the corn-spirit is often believed to be killed at reaping or threshing.

Chapter 47. Lityerses. § 2. Killing the Corn-spirit 1922

Of the custom thus modified the story of Lityerses would be, in one version at least, a reminiscence.

Chapter 47. Lityerses. § 4. The Corn-spirit slain in his Human Representatives 1922

Lityerses not only put strangers to death; he was himself slain, and apparently in the same way as he had slain others, namely, by being wrapt in a corn-sheaf, beheaded, and cast into the river; and it is implied that this happened to Lityerses on his own land.

Chapter 47. Lityerses. § 4. The Corn-spirit slain in his Human Representatives 1922

IN PHRYGIA the corresponding song, sung by harvesters both at reaping and at threshing, was called Lityerses.

Chapter 47. Lityerses. § 2. Killing the Corn-spirit 1922

I have dwelt on the Lityerses song at length because it affords so many points of comparison with European and savage folk-custom.

Chapter 47. Lityerses. § 4. The Corn-spirit slain in his Human Representatives 1922

But whereas the Attis worship became elevated into the dignity of a state religion and spread to Italy, the rites of Lityerses seem never to have passed the limits of their native Phrygia, and always retained their character of rustic ceremonies performed by peasants on the harvest-field.

Chapter 47. Lityerses. § 4. The Corn-spirit slain in his Human Representatives 1922