onor of the nymph Cotys, they addressed her as
the goddess of wantonness with many mysterious rites and ceremonies. At
Corinth, these rites and ceremonies, being perhaps thought inconsistent
with the character of modest women, this festival was only celebrated by
harlots. Athenaeus mentions a festival, at which the women laid hold on
all the old bachelors they could find, and dragged them round an altar;
beating them all the time with their fists, as punishment for their
neglect of the sex. We shall only mention two more; at one of which,
after the assembly had met in the temple of Ceres, the women shut out
all the men and dogs, themselves and the bitches remaining in the temple
all night; in the morning, the men were let in, and the time was spent
in laughing together at the frolic. At the other, in honor of Bacchus,
they counterfeited phrenzy and madness; and to make this madness appear
the more real, they used to eat the raw and bloody entrails of goats
newly slaughtered. And, indeed, the whole of the festivals of Bacchus, a
deity much worshipped in Greece, were celebrated with rites either
ridiculous, obscene, or madly extravagant. There were others, however,
in honor of the other gods and goddesses, which were more decent, and
had more the appearance of religious solemnity, though even in these,
the women dressed out in all their finery; and, adorned with flowers and
garlands, either formed splendid processions, or assisted in performing
ceremonies, the general tendency of which was to amuse rather than
instruct.

THE DEATHS OF LUCRETIA AND VIRGINIA.

The force of prejudice appears in nothing more strongly than in the
encomiums which have been lavished upon Lucretia for laying violent
hands upon herself, and Virginius for killing his own daughter. These
actions seem to derive all their glory from the revolutions to which
they gave rise, as the former occasioned the abolition of monarchy
amongst the Romans, and the latter put an end to the arbitrary power of
the decemviri. But if we lay aside our prepossessions for antiquity, and
examine these actions without prejudice, we cannot but acknowledge,
that they are rather the effects of human weakness and obstinacy than of
resolution and magnanimity. Lucretia, for fear of worldly censure, chose
rather to submit to the lewd desires of Tarquin, than have it thought
that she had been stabbed in the embraces of a slave; which sufficiently
proves that all her boasted virtu