Non stetit his Aegyptiorum vanitas,
cum eas res quoque, quae sine pudore & verecundia recenseri vix possunt,
Numinus loco habuerint, vt restatur Lactantius his verbis: Num peius
nos destruimus Religiones, quam Natio Aegyptiorum? qui turpissimas bestiarum
ac pecudum figuras colunt? quaedam etiam pudenda dictu, tanquam Deos adorant.
Testatur idem Minutiius Felix in Otauio his verbis: Aegyptii cum
plerisque vobiscum, non magis Ifidem, quam coeparum acrimonias metuunt:
nec Serapidem magis, quam strepitus per pudenda corporis expressos extimescunt.
Astipulatur huic Origenes: Taceo nunc, inquit, eos Aegyptios,
qui venerantur ventris crepitus, ad quorum imitationem, si quis philosophatur,
seruando ritus patrios, ridiculus philosophus erit, faciens quae philosophum
non decent. Meminit quoque ridiculae huius latriae S. Hieronymus his
verbis: Vt taceam de formidoloso & horribili coepe, & crepitu
ventris inflati, quae Pelusiaca religio est. Cuius quidem olidae religionis
aliam casaum non reperio, nisi vanam superstitionem et obseruantiam Aegyptiis
quasi innatam. Dum enim panico quodam Deorum metu perculsi, nihil non in
humanis actionibus omniosum putarent; mirum non est, eo dementiae eos deuenisse,
vt indecoris huiusmodi strepitubus nonnihil diuinum inesse existimarint.
Accedebat frequens daemonum illusio, qui oraculis, simulachrisque se insinuantes,
consulentibus responsa non ex ore sed ex ventre promebant; de quo Isias
c. 29 conqueri videtur, dum dicit: Et Aegyptii sciscitabuntur Idola,
& apud Magos, Pythones, & Gnostas. Vbi loco (Pythones, &
Gnoastas) habetur [...Hebrew...] Oboth vaidgonim; Oboth autem idem significat
ac vtres, ita Iob 32. Ecce venter meus est, sicut vinum non apertum,
sicuti oboth, id est, vtres noui, ita rumpetur. Ex quo nonnulli non
leui coniectura arbitrantur, Pythones ab vtribus dictos, quod qui tali
spiritu affalti essent, ore clauso ex ventre perinde acsi ex vtre seu lagenula
responsa sua depromerent: non incongrue; inde enim a Graecis engastrimuthoi
quasi deceres ventriloquos, appellati sunt. Est enim fallacissimo rum immundorumq;
spirituu propriu, humano generi impurissimis actionibus illudere, id est
e pudendis corporis partibus responsa dare. Quod superstitiosae & imperitae
genti, dum nescio quid sacrum videbatur: mirum non est, & crepitus
inter diuini cultus ritus ab Aegyptiis summa quadam animi stoliditate repositos
fuisse. Sed praestat has sordes alto supprimere silentio, quam foetore
eoru abominando teneris mentibus mauseam concitando, officere. Qui plura
de his & similibus, potissimum tamen de cura maxima, quam in bestiis
alendis seruabant, desideret, consulat Diodorum, & Plutarchum, qui
fuse eas, eorumque alendorum, colendorum, sepeliendorumque rationem describunt.
Athanasius Kircher, Oedipus Aegyptiacus: Hoc est vniversalis hieroglyphicae veterum doctrina temporum iniuria abolitae instauratio, 4 Vols (Rome: Vitalis Mascardi, 1652), Vol 1., pp. 243-4 De OB & Iideonim Moses Leuit. 20. capite agit, vbi sacra Scriptura omnem animam declinantem ad magos & Ariolos extirpandam erit. Pro vocibus Magos & Ariolos Hebraei legunt [...] Oboth vaiideonium. OB plerique vertuunt Pythonem seu Magum; verum ex RR. Moses Mikorti, Rambam, Paulo Riccio, colligo, OB nihil aliud fuisse, quam Spiritum seu Daemonem, qui ab immundis, & quae honeste nominari non possunt, partibus nonnumquam a capite seu axillis, siue Harioli, aut mortui submissa voce, & quae ex Telluris cauitatibus videretur egredi, nec audiri, sed a consulente duntaxat mente concipi posset, responsa dabat; ita Ralbag in 28 l. 1 Sam. Dicunt Rabbini felicis memoriae, quod Ob seu Python res fuit, ascendere faciens mortuum; ille absq eo quod audiret verbum, videbat simulachrum mortui; interrogans autem Pythonem, non videbat imaginem seu vmbram mortui, audiebat tamen verba, quae de interrogatione sua mente conceperat. Ita Sauli, Samuelis defuncti species repraesentabatur a foemina, cuius ex obscoenis Ob loquebatur. Foeminam siue Pythonissam, seu vt Septuaginta Interpretes vertunt, [...?] engastrimythoi, illam Scriptura noncupat [...Hebrew...], id est, Mulierem habentem Ob. OB igitur hic ipse spiritus ventriloquus; Pythonissa autem ipsa, siue Ariolus, id est, Baal seu Baalath OB hoc nomine nuncupatur. Et dum initiabantur, tenebat manibus [...Hebrew...] Virgam myrtheam, & suffumigabantur, teste Rambam cit. loco; rituum autem huiusmodi locum fuisse mortui sepulchrum, tradit R. Abraham Ben Dauid. Prodiit propudiosa & ridicula Pythonis ventriloqui spiritus religio non aliunde nisi ex Aegypto, quibus spurcus daemon saepe per humani corporis pudenda potissimum per posteriora strepitu emisso responsa dabat, quem ventris sonitum ideo diuinis honoribus ab iis cultum esse in Syntagmate 2. capite de superstitionibus Aegyptiorum tradidimus, & D. Hieronymus in c. 56 Isaiae commentans tradit, aliique quos dicto Syntagmate citauimus. Vt enim spurcissimus hisce oraculis maiorem conciliaret existimationem immundus Diabolus, mentesque superstitiosas facilius implicaret, plerumq; interrogationibus factis, infrallibilem largiebatur effectum, Sed haec de nefandis sacris sufficiant. Athanasius Kircher, Oedipus Aegyptiacus:
Hoc est vniversalis hieroglyphicae veterum doctrina temporum iniuria abolitae
instauratio, 4 Vols (Rome: Vitalis Mascardi, 1652), Vol 1., pp. 381-2.
Ob and Iideonim are treated in Leviticus ch. 20, where the Holy Scripture declares that every one whoring after them that have familiar spirits and wizards will be cast out. For the words them that have familiar spirits and wizards, the Hebrew reads Oboth vaiideonium. Many translate Ob as Python or one possessed of a familiar spirit. The truth, collating the opinions of the Rabbis Moses Mikorti, Rambam and Paul Riccio, is that Ob was nothing other than a spirit or demon which gave responses from the most unclean parts, not honestly to be named, of the body, or sometimes from the head or the armpit, or a wizard who spoke with the voice of one raised from the dead, who could be seen to appear and to be heard only as far as their minds led them so to believe. As the Rabbis of blessed memory say: In the case of an Ob or Python causing the dead to arise, they caused the one hearing the words to see the image of the dead; however, the one who questioned the Python was only able to see the image or shade of the dead one, and to hear their words, hrough what his own imagination made of the consultation. Thus, the ghost of Samuel was shown to Saul by the woman who spoke by means of this obscene Ob. The Scripture calls this woman or Pythoness, or, as she is named in the Septuagint, engastrimyth, a baalat-obh, which means, a woman having an Ob. OB therefore means this ventriloquial spirit. This Pythoness, or witch, that is, Baal, or Baalath, is also named by this term OB. Admitting them to the ritual, she held in her hand a myrtle branch, with the fumes of which she suffused them, as Rambam affirms in the text cited above; Rab. Abraham ben David submits that by this means the place of the ritual was made a sepulchre of the dead. This shameful and ridiculous worship of the ventriloquial spirit of the Python came forth from nowhere but Egypt, among whom the foul demon often gave reply in noise emitted from the shameful, especially the posterior parts of the body, which belly-noise was revered with divine honour by the Egyptians, as we find in Numbers 2, the chapter dealing with the superstition of the Egyptians, and St. Jerome in his commentary on ch. 56 of Isaiah, and other whom we have cited on the said text of Numbers. As this foul and filthiest devil acquired the greatest repute of any of these oracles, it was easy, for the most part, to entangle superstitious minds; once the oracle was consulted, the result was infallible. But enough of these wicked practices. |
Compiled by Steven Connor
as part of The
Dumbstruck Archive, a continuing, online supplement to Dumbstruck:
A Cultural History of Ventriloquism (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2000).