se with fables, it is said that
Adonis was slain by a boar. Now Adonis is supposed to be the same with
Bacchus; and there are a great many rites in both their sacrifices which
confirm this opinion. Others will have Adonis to be Bacchus's paramour;
and Phanocles an amorous love-poet writes thus,

Bacchus on hills the fair Adonis saw,
And ravished him, and reaped a wondrous joy.

QUESTION VI. WHAT GOD IS WORSHIPPED BY THE JEWS.

SYMMACHUS, LAMPRIAS, MOERAGENES.

Here Symmachus, greatly wondering at what was spoken, says: What,
Lamprias, will you permit our tutelar god, called Evius, the inciter of
women, famous for the honors he has conferred upon him by madmen, to
be inscribed and enrolled in the mysteries of the Jews? Or is there
any solid reason that can be given to prove Adonis to be the same with
Bacchus? Here Moeragenes interposing, said: Do not be so fierce upon
him, for I who am an Athenian answer you, and tell you, in short, that
these two are the very same. And no man is able or fit to bring the
chief confirmation of this truth, but those amongst us who are initiated
and skilled in the triennial [Greek omitted] or chief mysteries of the
god. But what no religion forbids to speak of among friends, especially
over wine, the gift of Bacchus, I am ready at the command of these
gentlemen to disclose.

When all the company requested and earnestly begged it of him; first
of all (says he), the time and manner of the greatest and most holy
solemnity of the Jews is exactly agreeable to the holy rites of Bacchus;
for that which they call the Fast they celebrate in the midst of the
vintage, furnishing their tables with all sorts of fruits while they sit
under tabernacles made of vines and ivy; and the day which immediately
goes before this they call the day of Tabernacles. Within a few days
after they celebrate another feast, not darkly but openly, dedicated
to Bacchus, for they have a feast amongst them called Kradephoria, from
carrying palm-trees, and Thyrsophoria, when they enter into the temple
carrying thyrsi. What they do within I know not; but it is very probable
that they perform the rites of Bacchus. First they have little trumpets,
such as the Grecians used to have at their Bacchanalia to call upon
their gods withal. Others go before them playing upon harps, which they
call Levites, whether so named from Lusius or Evius,--either word agrees
with Bacchus. And I suppose that their Sabbaths have