Teocalli

“ The Totonacs, finding their deities incapable of preventing or even punishing this profanation of their shrines, conceived a mean opinion of their power, compared with that of the mysterious and formidable strangers. The floor and walls of the teocalli were then cleansed, by command of Cortés, from their foul impurities; a fresh coating of stucco was laid on them by the Indian masons; and an altar was raised, surmounted by a lofty cross, and hung with garlands of roses. ”

“ I called attention to the “full human face probably representing the Sun” between the Oratories of the Teocalli of Huitzilopochtli. The map is, I believe, in error in placing the Teocalli on the west side of the Temple Enclosure, but that the full human face is intended to represent the sun is confirmed by the following passage from Motolinia [8] :—
“Tlacaxipenalistli.—This festival takes place when the sun stood in the middle of Huichilobos, which was at the Equinox, and because it was a little out of the straight [9] Montezuma wished to pull it down and set it right.” ”

“ E. Seler in his pamphlet entitled ‘Die Ausgrabungen am Orte des Haupttempels in Mexico’ (1904) .
We know from Cortés’s own account, confirmed by Gomara, that the Great Teocalli was so close to the quarters of the Spaniards that the Mexicans were able to discharge missiles from the Teocalli into the Spanish quarters, and according to Sahagun’s account the Mexicans hauled two stout beams to the top of the Teocalli in order to hurl them against the Palace of Axayacatl so as to force an entrance. ”

“ But the day before the great festival, they placed him and his four wives on board a royal canoe and carried them to the other side of the lake. In the evening the four goddesses quitted their unhappy god, and his eight guardians conducted him to a lonely teocalli, a league distant, where he was flung upon the stone of sacrifices and his heart torn from his bosom. He must disappear and die with the god whom he represented, who must now make way for Uitzilopochtli. This latter deity likewise had his human counterpart, who had to lead a war-dance in his name before being sacrificed. ”

“ As the structure rose it contracted towards the centre and at the height of a fathom and a half or two fathoms there were some ledges going inwards, for they did not build it in a straight line, and the thick foundation was always worked towards the centre so as to give it strength and as the wall rose it got narrower; so that when it got to the top of the Teocalli it had narrowed and contracted itself seven or eight fathoms on each side, both by the ledges and the wall leaving the foundation [mound] on the top thirty-four or thirty-five fathoms. ”

“ The custom of confining captives or slaves in wooden cages for the purpose of being prepared for sacrifice, was supposed to have been established by the Aztecs about a century after they had settled in Mexico.
There is reason to believe that in consequence of their being surrounded by enemies and engaged in constant wars, they considered it necessary to propitiate the war god in the most terrific manner. Thus when the great Teocalli, erected for the worship of Huitzil-pochli, was completed, many thousands of victims were sacrificed as propitiatory offerings. ”

“ Theocritus was, of course, the source of that pastoral convention which has produced so much that is artificial in art and literature amid much of supreme beauty. We think at once of Vergil, Spenser, Sidney, Milton, Watteau, and the Dresden shepherdess. Theocritus is the literary father of all these. In his famous Fifteenth Idyll, which describes with exquisite humour the conversation of a pair of Sicilian dames going to see a festival of Adonis at Alexandria, we have the beginnings of another literary form—the mime. ”

“ Accordingly he said to Theoclia, Where is my Thecla?
2:6 Theoclia replied, Thamyris, I have something very strange to tell you; for Thecla, for the space of three days, will not move from the window not so much as to eat or drink, but is so intent on hearing the artful and delusive discourses of a certain foreigner, that I perfectly admire, Thamyris, that a young woman of her known modesty, will suffer herself to be so prevailed upon.
2:7 For that man has disturbed the whole city of Iconium, and even your Thecla, among others. All the women and young men flock to him to receive his doctrine ”

“ The pontiff at Mictlan, in Salvador, who stood on nearly the same level as the king, bore the title of Teoti, 'divine' [XI-74] and was distinguished by a long blue robe, a diadem, and a baton like an episcopal cross; on solemn occasions he substituted a mitre of beautiful feathers for the diadem. Next to him came an ecclesiastical council composed of the Tehuamatlini, chief of the astrologers and learned priests, who acted as lieutenant of the high priest, and superintended the writings and divinations, and four other priests, teopixqui, who dressed in different colors. ”

“ A few years before the Persian invasion, in 538, there lived, in the town of Adana in Cilicia, a priest named Theophilus, treasurer and archdeacon. He lived in strict observance of all his religious duties, was famous for his liberality to the poor, his sympathy with the afflicted, his eloquence in the pulpit, his private devotion, and severe asceticism. On the decease of the bishop, by popular acclamation he was summoned to the episcopal oversight of the diocese, but his deep humility urged him to refuse the office, even when it was pressed upon him by the metropolitan. ”

“ Or, passing out of all houses made with hands and consecrated with holy oil, do you lift up your eyes to the skies where the sun and the moon and the stars dwell alone? ‘What a folly!’ exclaims Theophilus, in the golden dialogue, ‘for no way is the true way to God but by the way of our own heart. God is nowhere else to be found. And the heart itself cannot find Him but by its own love of Him, faith in Him, dependence upon Him, resignation to Him, and expectation of all from Him.’ ‘You have quite carried your point with me,’ answered Theogenes after he had heard all that Theophilus had to say. ”

“ O Jesus, son of the living God, who wast my helper before the governor, my helper in the fire, and my helper among the beasts; thou alone art God forever and ever. Amen.
10:8 Thecla now (on her return) found Thamyris dead, but her mother living. So calling her mother, she said to her: Theoclia, my mother, is it possible for you to be brought to a belief, that there is but one Lord God, who dwells in the heavens? If yo desire great riches, God will give them to you by me ”

“ The cult of Venus was especially [78] practised at Teotitlan and Tehuacan, where the priests had the reputation of being great calendrical experts. A human sacrifice was performed at the first rising of the star, and offerings of blood and incense were made daily until it commenced to decline. A tradition existed also that the planet was supposed to “shoot” certain classes of individuals in certain signs, and it is interesting to note that in manuscripts the deity in whom it is personified, Tlauizcalpantecutli, is constantly shown hurling darts at other gods and certain animals. ”

“ Poets and philosophers moved freely from one to the other, and found a like atmosphere in both; and in one of Theocritus’ idyls, two Sicilian gentlemen, crossed in love, agree to sail for Alexandria, and volunteer into the army of the great and good king Ptolemy, of whom a sketch is given worth reading; as a man noble, generous, and stately, “knowing well who loves him, and still better who loves him not.” He has another encomium on Ptolemy, more laboured, though not less interesting: but the real value of Theocritus lies in his power of landscape-painting. ”

“ Just at the nick of time the right sort of fellow pops up nobody knows whence, a lanista with hair like curling helichryse, as Theocritus has it, and a small army of gladiators, whom, out of devotion to the Emperor, he offers to exhibit for nothing. Who so pleased as Theocles now? He takes the chair as archon with Leaena by his side, and off goes every soul in the place, except Pannychis, who cannot bear the sight of blood, and Porphyry, who is an outrageous humanitarian, and us poor devils left in charge of this old dreamer. ”

“ Theodoret, bishop of Cyrus, the famous ecclesiastical historian, was anathematized by the haughty patriarch, Dioscorus, in his cathedral at Alexandria; and Theodoret wrote to Flavian of Constantinople, complaining of the outrage. Domnus of Antioch took part with Theodoret, and sent envoys to Constantinople in his favour, whom Theodoret charged with letters, in which he protested his orthodoxy, declaring that he believed in one Christ, truly God, and truly man. "I give Him one worship," he wrote, "yet I know that the Godhead and the flesh are distinct, for the union is without confusion." ”

“ They are not very pastoral-sounding titles; yet the more knowledge the better, even for the shepherd; and the shepherd-poet turns it all to account, just as chemistry itself improves the field and the flowers. One of the friends whom Theocritus himself has immortalised, was a physician. We have it on the authority of a gentleman who knew the Abbate Meli, that he was as good a man as he was a charming poet. He seemed to live only (he says) to do good and to give pleasure: and he was as much beloved by the poor, as his company was in request among the prosperous. ”

“ Theophilus is driven from his position by slanders: this preys on his mind. By some means he is reinstated. The revulsion of feeling upsets his reason, he undertakes a prodigious fast, goes crazy, tells a long rambling story about a compact with the devil, and dies three days after in brain-fever. His narrative is the only extraordinary item in the tale. If we remember that this was told after a forty-days’ fast, and immediately before a mortal fever, the only thing to be wondered at in the legend is that any sane persons believed his ravings to have in them a foundation of truth. ”

“ The twenty-ninth is amorous; and there remain an imperfect and a spurious piece, and a set of twenty-three epigrams. On a general view, Theocritus's surviving poems turn out to be (1) rural idyls, the patterns of Virgil's eclogues, and of all later pastoral poetry; (2) minute epics, or cabinet pictures from mythology; (3) sketches of contemporary life in verse; (4) courtly compositions; and (5) expressions of personal kindliness and attachment. The first category and the third are those on which the fame of Theocritus depends. ”

“ Breathing from his heart this curse against the policy of the Corinthians above referred to, and conveniently named after the usurper who founded the system, Theognis soon retired to Thebes, as a state which, from its open sympathy with the politics of the banished Megarians, would be likeliest to offer them an asylum, and to connive at their projects for recovering their native city by force or subtlety. The first glimpse we have of him at Thebes is characteristic of the man in more ways than one. ”

“ A good many manuscripts add that Theoeleia was not converted, but the Coptic does not support them: it ends the episode as above.
A long appendix is given by other Greek copies, telling how in Thecla’s old age (she was ninety) she was living on Mount Calamon or Calameon, and some evil-disposed young men went up to ill-treat her: and she prayed, and the rock opened and she entered it, and it closed after her. Some add that she went underground to Rome: this, to account for the presence of her body there. ”

“ Yet, in spite of these many exhibitions of inward piety, Theodora was strongly suspected by the orthodox of heresy. She professed openly the monophysite doctrine,--the belief in the one nature in the person of Jesus Christ. She also endeavored to bring Justinian to her view, and, with an eye to the interest of the state, she entered upon a course of policy which reconciled the schismatics--but disgusted the orthodox Catholics, who were in unison with Rome. The people of Syria and Egypt were almost universally Monophysites and Separatists. ”

“ That the adolescent Church should thus have been enabled to triumph over all her enemies may seem to many a better proof of her divine guidance than the miraculous powers once attributed to her. We may not all of us be able to believe that a rainstorm put out the fire on which Thekla was to be burned alive, or that the crocodiles in the tank in the arena into which she was cast were struck by lightning and floated to the surface dead. ”

“ Theophilus, a few days after his coronation, having called the whole court and clergy together, declared to them, that his faith upon the disputable point concerning our Saviour’s incarnation was different from that of his brother Yasous, or that of his nephew Tecla Haimanout, but in every respect conformable to that of the monks of Gojam, followers of Abba Eustathius, and that of the Iteghè, Malacotawit, Dermin, and Paulus. A violent clamour was instantly raised against the king by the priests of Debra Libanos, as having forsaken the religious principles of his predecessors. ”

“ And when the time of the death of Saint Theocleia drew nigh, the angel of the Lord appeared unto her, and comforted her and promised her many things. Then the governor commanded the soldiers to cut off her head with the sword, and they cut off her head with the sword and she received the crown of martyrdom in the kingdom of the heavens. And certain believing men came and gave silver to the soldiers, and they took her holy body, and swathed it for burial in costly cloths and laid it in a coffin until the end of the days of the persecution. Salutation to Theocleia. ”