Tractates on the Gospel of John (continued)
158 ST. AUGUSTINE the feast of the blood of some woman or other?^^ And how ungrateful are they? A golden earring was snatched, they say, from the ear of the woman, and blood ran; and the gold was placed on a balance or on a scale, and the blood far outweighed it. If the woman's blood had weight to outbalance gold, what weight has the blood of the Lamb to outbalance the world, through whom it was made?
18. This goddess, in whose honor a feast was being celebrated on this Sunday in commemoration of a miracle which occurred when her statue was violated, is still unidentified, as is the Pilleatus mentioned a few lines later. Some have thought that Cybele and Atthis are referred to here and that the festivitas sanguinis was the dies sanguinis of the Roman festival in honor of Cybele, March 24.
La Bonnardiere, 46—50, argues for this identification. She maintains that the feast of Cybele had evolved and, hence, the differences between the traditional celebration and that described here can be accounted for. She also cites
Augustine's description of his own youthful participation in ceremonies in honor of Cybele in De Civitate Dei 2.4 as supporting the identification; but Augustine there talks of a bathing of the goddess befor e an assembly of both sexes whereas this festival has to do with the shedding of blood and is for women only. Also her references to Firmicus Maternus and Ambrosiaster who contrast the dies sanguinis with the shedding of the blood of the Lamb are wholly inadequate to support the identification of this feast with that of Cybele.
Berrouard, Homelies I— XVI, 883—884, points out that only blood is common to both feasts and even in this regard there is an essential difference; the blood here, from the ear, is concerned with redemption whereas the blood of the castrati and in the self-mutilation of Atthis concerned expiation. He furthermore points out that this is a one day feast and the festival of Cybele lasted from March 15 to 27.
M. Le Landais, "Une fete paienne a Hippone," in Deux annees de predication de saint Augustin, 67-72, suggests the Carthaginian goddess Caelestis without identifying Pilleatus, although he admits he has no evidence and that this is merely an hypothesis. Many writers identify Pilleatus with Atthis because Atthis wore the Phrygian style hat called the pilleus; this identification, as Berrouard, 884-885, points out, is also questionable. Other uses of the pilleus are found in Roman antiquity; hence Comeau, 14-16, and H. Leclercq "Pileatus," DACL 14.1.1062, identify Pilleatus with Pollux or Castor. Again such a conclusion is based on most insecure grounds.
P. Courcelle, "La litterature latine d'epoque patristique," Actes du premiere congres de Federation Internationale des Associations d'Etudes Classiques (Paris, 1951) 300, note 2, after calling this passage "une veritable enigme," gives a good summary of the problem; he does not, however, mention the view of Comeau that the festivitas sanguinis was a magic ritual from the ancient African people among whom the taboo of blood was widespread. We still have "une veritable enigme."