Chapter 15. The Worship of the Oak.
THE WORSHIP of the oak tree or of the oak god appears to have been
shared by all the branches of the Aryan stock in Europe. Both Greeks and
Italians associated the tree with their highest god, Zeus or Jupiter, the
divinity of the sky, the rain, and the thunder. Perhaps the oldest and
certainly one of the most famous sanctuaries in Greece was that of Dodona,
where Zeus was revered in the oracular oak. The thunder-storms which
are said to rage at Dodona more frequently than anywhere else in Europe,
would render the spot a fitting home for the god whose voice was heard
alike in the rustling of the oak leaves and in the crash of thunder. Perhaps
the bronze gongs which kept up a humming in the wind round the
sanctuary were meant to mimick the thunder that might so often be heard
rolling and rumbling in the coombs of the stern and barren mountains which
shut in the gloomy valley. In Boeotia, as we have seen, the sacred
marriage of Zeus and Hera, the oak god and the oak goddess, appears to
have been celebrated with much pomp by a religious federation of states.
And on Mount Lycaeus in Arcadia the character of Zeus as god both of
the oak and of the rain comes out clearly in the rain charm practised by the
priest of Zeus, who dipped an oak branch in a sacred spring. In his latter
capacity Zeus was the god to whom the Greeks regularly prayed for rain.
Nothing could be more natural; for often, though not always, he had his
seat on the mountains where the clouds gather and the oaks grow. On the
Acropolis at Athens there was an image of Earth praying to Zeus for rain.
And in time of drought the Athenians themselves prayed, "Rain, rain, O
dear Zeus, on the cornland of the Athenians and on the plains." 1
Again, Zeus wielded the thunder and lightning as well as the rain. At
Olympia and elsewhere he was worshipped under the surname of
Thunderbolt; and at Athens there was a sacrificial hearth of Lightning Zeus
on the city wall, where some priestly officials watched for lightning over
Mount Parnes at certain seasons of the year. Further, spots which had
been struck by lightning were regularly fenced in by the Greeks and
consecrated to Zeus the Descender, that is, to the god who came down in
the flash from heaven. Altars were set up within these enclosures and
sacrifices offered on them. Several such places are known from inscriptions
to have existed in Athens. 2
Thus when ancient Greek kings claimed to be descended from Zeus, and
even to bear his name, we may reasonably suppose that they also
attempted to exercise his divine functions by making thunder and rain for
the good of their people or the terror and confusion of their foes. In this
respect the legend of Salmoneus probably reflects the pretensions of a
whole class of petty sovereigns who reigned of old, each over his little
canton, in the oak-clad highlands of Greece. Like their kinsmen the Irish
kings, they were expected to be a source of fertility to the land and of
fecundity to the cattle; and how could they fulfil these expectations better
than by acting the part of their kinsman Zeus, the great god of the oak, the
thunder, and the rain? They personified him, apparently, just as the Italian
kings personified Jupiter. 3
In ancient Italy every oak was sacred to Jupiter, the Italian counterpart of
Zeus; and on the Capitol at Rome the god was worshipped as the deity not
merely of the oak, but of the rain and the thunder. Contrasting the piety of
the good old times with the scepticism of an age when nobody thought that
heaven was heaven, or cared a fig for Jupiter, a Roman writer tells us that
in former days noble matrons used to go with bare feet, streaming hair, and
pure minds, up the long Capitoline slope, praying to Jupiter for rain. And
straightway, he goes on, it rained bucketsful, then or never, and everybody
returned dripping like drowned rats. "But nowadays," says he, "we are no
longer religious, so the fields lie baking." 4
When we pass from Southern to Central Europe we still meet with the
great god of the oak and the thunder among the barbarous Aryans who
dwelt in the vast primaeval forests. Thus among the Celts of Gaul the Druids
esteemed nothing more sacred than the mistletoe and the oak on which it
grew; they chose groves of oaks for the scene of their solemn service, and
they performed none of their rites without oak leaves. "The Celts," says a
Greek writer, "worship Zeus, and the Celtic image of Zeus is a tall oak."
The Celtic conquerors, who settled in Asia in the third century before our
era, appear to have carried the worship of the oak with them to their new
home; for in the heart of Asia Minor the Galatian senate met in a place
which bore the pure Celtic name of Drynemetum, "the sacred oak grove" or
"the temple of the oak." Indeed the very name of Druids is believed by
good authorities to mean no more than "oak men." 5
In the religion of the ancient Germans the veneration for sacred groves
seems to have held the foremost place, and according to Grimm the chief of
their holy trees was the oak. It appears to have been especially dedicated
to the god of thunder, Donar or Thunar, the equivalent of the Norse Thor;
for a sacred oak near Geismar, in Hesse, which Boniface cut down in the
eighth century, went among the heathen by the name of Jupiter's oak
(robur Jovis), which in old German would be Donares eih, "the oak of
Donar." That the Teutonic thunder god Donar, Thunar, Thor was identified
with the Italian thunder god Jupiter appears from our word Thursday,
Thunar's day, which is merely a rendering of the Latin dies Jovis. Thus
among the ancient Teutons, as among the Greeks and Italians, the god of
the oak was also the god of the thunder. Moreover, he was regarded as the
great fertilising power, who sent rain and caused the earth to bear fruit; for
Adam of Bremen tells us that "Thor presides in the air; he it is who rules
thunder and lightning, wind and rains, fine weather and crops." In these
respects, therefore, the Teutonic thunder god again resembled his southern
counterparts Zeus and Jupiter. 6
Amongst the Slavs also the oak appears to have been the sacred tree of
the thunder god Perun, the counterpart of Zeus and Jupiter. It is said that at
Novgorod there used to stand an image of Perun in the likeness of a man
with a thunder-stone in his hand. A fire of oak wood burned day and night
in his honour; and if ever it went out the attendants paid for their negligence
with their lives. Perun seems, like Zeus and Jupiter, to have been the chief
god of his people; for Procopius tells us that the Slavs "believe that one
god, the maker of lightning, is alone lord of all things, and they sacrifice to
him oxen and every victim." 7
The chief deity of the Lithuanians was Perkunas or Perkuns, the god of
thunder and lightning, whose resemblance to Zeus and Jupiter has often
been pointed out. Oaks were sacred to him, and when they were cut down
by the Christian missionaries, the people loudly complained that their
sylvan deities were destroyed. Perpetual fires, kindled with the wood of
certain oak-trees, were kept up in honour of Perkunas; if such a fire went
out, it was lighted again by friction of the sacred wood. Men sacrificed to
oak-trees for good crops, while women did the same to lime-trees; from
which we may infer that they regarded oaks as male and lime-trees as
female. And in time of drought, when they wanted rain, they used to
sacrifice a black heifer, a black he-goat, and a black cock to the thunder
god in the depths of the woods. On such occasions the people assembled
in great numbers from the country round about, ate and drank, and called
upon Perkunas. They carried a bowl of beer thrice round the fire, then
poured the liquor on the flames, while they prayed to the god to send
showers. Thus the chief Lithuanian deity presents a close resemblance to
Zeus and Jupiter, since he was the god of the oak, the thunder, and the
rain. 8
From the foregoing survey it appears that a god of the oak, the thunder,
and the rain was worshipped of old by all the main branches of the Aryan
stock in Europe, and was indeed the chief deity of their pantheon. 9