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LUSTRATION

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 132 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LUSTRATION , a See also:

term that includes all the methods of See also:purification and expiation among the Greeks and See also:Romans. Amongthe Greeks there are two ideas clearly distinguishable—that human nature must purify itself (teapcns) from See also:guilt before it is See also:fit to enter into communion with See also:God or even to See also:associate with men, and that guilt must be expiated voluntarily (lkaoµor) by certain processes which God has revealed, in See also:order to avoid the See also:punishment that must otherwise overtake it. It is not possible to make such a distinction among the Latin terms lustratio, piacula, piamenta, caerimoniae, and even among the Greeks it is not consistently observed. Guilt and impurity arose in various ways; among the Greeks, besides the See also:general See also:idea that See also:man is always in need of purification, the See also:species of guilt most insisted on by See also:religion are incurred by See also:murder, by touching a dead See also:body, by sexual intercourse, and by seeing a See also:prodigy or sign of the divine will. The last three See also:spring from the idea that man had been without preparation and improperly brought into communication with God, and was therefore guilty. The first, which involves a really moral idea of guilt, is far more important than the others in Hellenic religion. Among the Romans we hear more of the last species of impurity; in general the idea takes the See also:form that after some See also:great disaster the See also:people become convinced that guilt has been incurred and must be expiated. The methods of purification consist in ceremonies performed with See also:water, See also:fire, See also:air or See also:earth, or with a See also:branch of a sacred See also:tree, especially of the See also:laurel, and also in See also:sacrifice and other ceremonial. Before entering a See also:temple the worshipper dipped his See also:hand in the See also:vase of See also:holy water (repi//avriiplov, aqua lustratis) which stood at the See also:door; before a sacrifice bathing was See also:common; See also:salt-water was more efficacious than fresh, and the celebrants of the Eleusinian mysteries bathed in the See also:sea (hXa5e, /.u' rrai); the water was more efficacious if a firebrand from the See also:altar were plunged in it. The See also:torch, fire and See also:sulphur (re) BeYov) were also powerful purifying agents. Purification by air was most frequent in the Dionysiac mysteries; puppets suspended and swinging in the air (See also:oscilla) formed one way of using the lustrative See also:power of the air. Rubbing with See also:sand and salt was another method.

The sacrifice chiefly used for purification by the Greeks was a See also:

pig; among the Romans it was always, except in the See also:Lupercalia, a pig, a See also:sheep and a See also:bull (suovetaurilia). In See also:Athens a purificatory sacrifice and See also:prayer was held before every See also:meeting of the See also:ecclesia; the Maimacteria,l in See also:honour of See also:Zeus Maimactes (the god of wrath), was an See also:annual festival of purification, and at the See also:Thargelia two men (or a woman and a man) were sacrificed on the seashore, their bodies burned and the ashes thrown into the sea, to avert the wrath of See also:Apollo. On extraordinary occasions lustrations were performed for a whole See also:city. So Athens was purified by See also:Epimenides after the Cylonian See also:massacre, and See also:Delos in the Peloponnesian See also:War (426 B.C.) to stop the See also:plague and appease the wrath of Apollo. In See also:Rome, besides such annual ceremonies as the See also:Ambarvalia, Lupercalia, Cerialia, Paganalia, &c., there was a lustration of the See also:fleet before it sailed, and of the See also:army before it marched. See also:Part of the ceremonial always consisted in leading or carrying the victims See also:round the impure persons or things. After any disaster the lustratio classium or exercitus was often again performed, so as to make certain that the gods got all their due. The Amburbium, a See also:solemn procession of the people round the boundaries of Rome, was a similar ceremonial performed for the whole city on occasions of great danger or calamity; the Ambilustrium (so called from the sacrificial victims being carried round the people assembled on the Campus See also:Martius) was the purificatory ceremony which took See also:place after the See also:regular quinquennial See also:census (lustrum) of the See also:Roman people. See C. F. See also:Hermann, Griechische Altertumer, H.; G. F.

See also:

Schomann, ib. H.; P. Stengel, See also:Die griechischen Kultusaltertumer (1898) ; See also:Marquardt, Romische Staatsverwaltung, iii. p. 200 (1885); P. E. von See also:Lasaulx, Die Siihnopfer der Griechen and Romer (1841); J. See also:Donaldson, " On the Expiatory and Substitutionary Sacrifices of the Greeks," in Transactions of the Royal Society of See also:Edinburgh, See also:xxvii., 1876; and the articles by A. Bouche-Leclercq 1n Daremberg and Saglio, Dictionnaire See also:des antiquites, and by W. Warde See also:Fowler in See also:Smith's See also:Dictionary of See also:Greek and Roman Antiquities (3rd ed., 1891). 1 Maimacteria does not actually occur in See also:ancient authorities as the name of a festival. ' See Latin See also:translation by J. G. L.

Kosegarten, Alii Ispahenensis See also:

Liber . Arabice editur adjectaque translalione adnotationibusque illustralus (Greifswald, 1840). 2 See See also:Hyksos and Israelite Cities, by W. M. See also:Flinders See also:Petrie and J. Garrow See also:Duncan, 1206 (See also:double See also:volume), Brit. Sch. of See also:Arch. 2 J. de See also:Morgan, Delegation en Perse (See also:Paris, 19o0), vol. i. pl. viii. Nos. 8, 7 and 9. ' See ' The Treasures of the See also:Oxus," See also:catalogue of the See also:Franks See also:Bequest to the See also:British Museum by See also:Ormonde M. See also:Dalton (See also:London, 1905), pl. See also:xxvi.

No. 190; see also J. R. Aspelin, " See also:

Les antiquites du See also:nord," No. 608; also for further references, Kathleen Schlesinger, " Precursors of the See also:Violin See also:Family," pt. ii. of The See also:Instruments of the See also:Orchestra, pp. 407-408, and appendix B, pp. 492-493; and See also:Gazette archeologique (Paris, 1886), vol. xi. pl. x. and p. 70.the paintings of the Buddhist See also:cave-temples of See also:Ajanta.5 Several representations of the See also:barbiton are extant from the classical Roman See also:period. The See also:modern See also:Egyptian 'ad is the See also:direct descendant of the Arabic See also:lute, and, according to See also:Lane, is strung with seven pairs of See also:catgut strings played by a plectrum. A specimen in the See also:Victoria and See also:Albert Museum, given by the See also:khedive, has four pairs only, which appears to have been the old stringing of the See also:instrument. When frets (See also:cross-lines dividing the See also:neck or See also:finger-See also:board to show the fingering) are employed they are of catgut disposed according to the Arabic See also:scale of seventeen intervals in the See also:octave, consisting of twelve limmas, an See also:interval rather less than our equal semitone, and five commas, which are very small but quite recognizable See also:differences of See also:pitch. The lute family is separated from the guitars, also of Eastern origin, by the formation of the See also:sound body, which is in all lutes See also:pear-shaped, without the sides or ribs necessary to the structure of the See also:flat-backed See also:guitar and cither.

Observing this distinction, we include with the lute the little Neapolitan See also:

mandoline of 2 ft. See also:long and the large double-necked Roman chitarrone, not infrequently 6 ft. long. Mandolines are partly strung with See also:wire, and are played with a plectrum, indispensable for See also:metal or See also:short strings. Perhaps the earliest lutes were so played, but the large lutes and theorbos strung with catgut have been invariably touched by the fingers only, the length permitting this more sympathetic means of producing the See also:tone. See also:Praetorius,6 See also:writing when the lute was in universal favour, mentions seven varieties distinguished by See also:size and tuning. The smallest would be larger than a mandoline, and the See also:melody See also:string, the " chanterelle," often a single" string, See also:lower in pitch. Praetorius calls this an octave lute, with the chanterelle C or D. The two discant lutes have respectively B and A, the See also:alto G, the See also:tenor E, the See also:bass D, and the great octave bass G, an octave below the alto lute which may be taken as the See also:model lute cultivated by the amateurs of the See also:time. The bass lutes were theorbos, that is, double-necked lutes, as described below. The See also:accord- ance of an alto lute was :- -rd' founded upon that of the See also:original eight-stringed See also:European lute, to which the highest and lowest notes had, in course of time, been added. A later addition was the" also on the finger- board, and bass strings, double or single, known as diapasons, which, descending to the deep C of the See also:violoncello, were not stopped with the fingers. The diapasons were tuned as the See also:key of the piece of See also:music required. Fig.

2 represents an See also:

Italian instrument made by one of the most celebrated lute makers, Venere of See also:Padua, in 1600; it is 3 ft. 6 in. high, and has six pairs of unisons and eight single See also:diapason s. The finger-board, divided into approximately equal See also:half tones by the frets, as a See also:rule eight in number, was often further divided on the higher notes, for ten, eleven, or, as in the woodcut, even twelve, semitones. The See also:head, bearing the tuning pegs, was placed at an obtuse or a right See also:angle to the neck, to increase the bearing of the strings upon the See also:nut, and be convenient for sudden requirements of tuning during performance, the trouble of keeping a lute in tune being proverbial. The lute was in general use during the 16th and 17th centuries. In the 18th it declined; still J. S. See also:Bach wrote a " partita " for it. The latest date we have met with of an en-graved publication for the lute is 176o. The large double-necked lute, with two sets of tuning pegs, the lower for the finger-board, the higher for the diapason strings, was known as the See also:theorbo; also, and especially in See also:England, as the arch- lute; and, in a See also:special form, the neck being then very long, as the chitarrone. Theorbo and chitarrone appear together at the See also:close of the 16th See also:century, and their introduction was synchronous with the rise of accompanied monody in music, that is, of the See also:oratorio and the See also:opera. See also:Peri, See also:Caccini and See also:Monteverde used theorbos to b By See also:John Griffiths (London, 1896), vol. ii. pl.

105, cave I. to, e. Syntagm. Music. pt. ii., " Organographie " (Wolfenbiittel, 1618), pp. 3o and 58-61.

End of Article: LUSTRATION

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