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GILES (GIL, GILLES), ST

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 18 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GILES (GIL, GILLES), ST , the name given to an See also:abbot whose festival is celebrated on the 1st of See also:September. According to the See also:legend, he was an Athenian (Aiyi&or, Aegidius) of royal descent. After the See also:death of his parents he distributed his possessions among the poor, took See also:ship, and landed at See also:Marseilles. Thence he went to See also:Arles, where he remained for two years with St Caesarius. He then retired into a neighbouring See also:desert, where he lived upon herbs and upon the See also:milk of a See also:hind which came to him at stated See also:hours. He was discovered there one See also:day by Flavius, the See also:king of the Goths, who built a monastery on the See also:place, of which he was the first abbot. Scholars are very much divided as to the date of his See also:life, some holding that he lived in the 6th See also:century, others in the 7th or 8th. It may be regarded as certain that St Giles was buried in the hermitage which he had founded in a spot which was afterwards the See also:town of St-Gilles (See also:diocese of See also:Nimes, See also:department of See also:Gard). His reputation for sanctity attracted many pilgrims. Important gifts were made to the See also:church which contained his See also:body, and a monastery See also:grew up hard by. It is probable that the Visigothic princes who were in See also:possession of the See also:country protected and enriched this monastery, and that it was destroyed by the See also:Saracens at the See also:time of their invasion in 721. But there are no See also:authentic data before the 9th century concerning his See also:history.

In 8o8 See also:

Charlemagne took the See also:abbey of St-Gilles under his See also:protection, and it is mentioned among the monasteries from which only prayers for the See also:prince and the See also:state were due. In the 12th century the pilgrimages to St-Gilles are cited as among the most celebrated of the time. The cult of the See also:saint, who came to be regarded as the See also:special See also:patron of lepers, beggars and cripples, spread very extensively over See also:Europe, especially in See also:England, See also:Scotland, See also:France, See also:Belgium and See also:Germany. The church of St Giles, Cripplegate, See also:London, was built about 1090, while the See also:hospital for lepers at St Giles-in-the-See also:Fields (near New See also:Oxford See also:Street) was founded by See also:Queen See also:Matilda in 1117. In England alone there are about r 5o churches dedicated to this saint. In See also:Edinburgh the church of St Giles could boast the possession of an See also:arm-See also:bone of its patron. Representations of St Giles are very frequently met with in See also:early See also:French and See also:German See also:art, but are much less See also:common in See also:Italy and See also:Spain. See Acta Sanctorum (September), i. 284-299; Devic and Vaissete, Histoire generale de See also:Languedoc, pp. 514-522 (See also:Toulouse, 1876) ; E. Rembry, Saint Gilles, sa See also:vie, ses reliques, son See also:tulle en Belgique et dans le See also:nord de la France (See also:Bruges, 1881); F. See also:Arnold-See also:Forster, Studies in Church Dedications, or England's Patron See also:Saints, ii.

46-51, iii. 15, .363-365 (1899) ; A. See also:

Jameson, Sacred and Legendary Art, 768-770 (1896) ; A. See also:Bell, Lives and Legends of the See also:English Bishops and See also:Kings, See also:Medieval Monks, and other later Saints, pp. 61, 70, 74-78, 84, 197 (1904). (H. DE.)6 See also:Roman See also:miles See also:north of Antipatris (See also:Ras el `See also:Ain). This is apparently the See also:modern Kalkilia, but about 4 M. north of Antipatris is a large See also:village called Jiljulieh, which is more probably the biblical town. 3. The third See also:Gilgal (2 Kings iv. 38) was in the mountains (compare r Sam. vii. 16, 2 Kings ii.

1-3) near See also:

Bethel. See also:Jerome mentions this place also (Onomasticon, s.v. " Galgala "). It appears to be the See also:present village of Jiljilia, about 7 English miles north of Beitin (Bethel). It may have absorbed the old See also:shrine of See also:Shiloh and been the See also:sanctuary famous in the days of See also:Amos and See also:Hosea. 4. Dent. xi. 3o seems to imply a Gilgal near See also:Gerizim, and there is still a place called Juleijil on the See also:plain of Makhna, 21 m. S. E. of See also:Shechem. This may have been Amos's Gilgal and was almost certainly that of 1 Macc. ix. 2.

5. The Gilgal described in Josh. xv. 7 is the same as the Beth-Gilgal of Neh. xii. 29; its site is not known. (R. A. S. M.) GILGAMESH, EPIC OF, the See also:

title given to one of the most important See also:literary products of Babylonia, from the name of the See also:chief personage in the See also:series of tales of which it is composed. Though the Gilgamesh Epic is known to us chiefly from the fragments found in the royal collection of tablets made by See also:Assur-bani-See also:pal, the king of See also:Assyria (668-626 B.c.) for his See also:palace at See also:Nineveh, See also:internal See also:evidence points to the high antiquity of at least some portions of it, and the See also:discovery of a fragment of the epic in the older See also:form of the Babylonian script, which can be dated as 2000 B.C., confirms this view. Equally certain is a second observation of a See also:general See also:character that the epic originating as the greater portion of the literature in Assur-bani-pal's collection in Babylonia is a composite product, that is to say, it consists of a number of See also:independent stories or myths originating at different times, and See also:united to form a continuous narrative with Gilgamesh as the central figure. This view naturally raises the question whether the independent stories were all told of Gilgamesh or, as almost always happens in the See also:case of See also:ancient tales, were transferred to Gilgamesh as a favourite popular See also:hero. Internal evidence again comes to our aid to lend its See also:weight to the latter theory.

While the existence of such a personage as Gilgamesh may be admitted, he belongs to an See also:

age that could only have preserved a dim recollection of his achievements and adventures through oral traditions. The name' is not Babylonian, and what evidence as to his origin there is points to his having come from See also:Elam, to the See also:east of Babylonia. He may have belonged to the See also:people known as the See also:Kassites who at the beginning of the 18th century B.C. entered Babylonia from Elam, and obtained See also:control of the See also:Euphrates valley. Why and how he came to be a popular hero in Babylonia cannot with our present material be deter-See also:mined, but the epic indicates that he came as a conqueror and established himself at See also:Erech. In so far we have embodied in the first See also:part of the epic dim recollections of actual events, but we soon leave the solid ground of fact and find ourselves soaring to the heights of genuine myth. Gilgamesh becomes a See also:god, and in certain portions of the epic clearly plays the part of the See also:sun-god of the See also:spring-time, taking the place apparently of Tammuz or See also:Adonis, the youthful sun-god, though the See also:story shows traits that differentiate it from the See also:ordinary Tammuz myths. A See also:separate stratum in the Gilgamesh epic is formed by the story of See also:Eabani—introduced as the friend of Gilgamesh, who joins him in his adventures. There can be no doubt that Eabani, who symbolizes primeval See also:man, was a figure originally entirely independent of Gilgamesh, but his story was incorporated into the epic by that natural See also:process to be observed in the. See also:national epics of other peoples, which tends to connect the favourite hero with all kinds of tales that for one See also:reason or the other become em-bedded in the popular mind. Another stratum is represented by the story of a favourite of the gods known as Ut-Napishtim, who is saved from a destructive See also:storm and See also:flood that destroys ' The name of the hero, written always ideographically, was for a See also:long time provisionally read Izdubar; but a tablet discovered by T. G. Pinches gave the See also:equivalent Gilgamesh (see Jastrow, See also:Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 468).

End of Article: GILES (GIL, GILLES), ST

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