Dogs tied to candles... what is the origin of this?
Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2022 7:47 pm
There is a connection between Tertullian's "Ad nationes" and Minucius Felix's "Octavius", in which one seems to have been influenced by the other, though which one was written first is disputed. Tertullian wrote around 200 CE, and Felix somewhere from 160 CE to 250 CE.
Both sources refer to claims by pagans that Christians used dogs in their shameless rites. The accusation is that dogs are tied to candles and are provoked to run off and thereby extinguishing the source of light, at which point an incestuous orgy begins.
Tertullian, Ad nationes:
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/t ... ian06.html
Minucius Felix, Octavius:
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/t ... avius.html
Can anyone shed any light (no pun intended!) on this practice? I can see how the accusation of "Christians eat flesh and drink blood in their rites" might develop, but not the accusation of dogs being used to extinguish candles to start orgies. Any thoughts?
Both sources refer to claims by pagans that Christians used dogs in their shameless rites. The accusation is that dogs are tied to candles and are provoked to run off and thereby extinguishing the source of light, at which point an incestuous orgy begins.
Tertullian, Ad nationes:
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/t ... ian06.html
What am I saying? Since your researches for rooting out our society must needs be made on a wide scale, you ought to extend your inquiry against our friends and companions. Let our infanticides and the dressers (of our horrible repasts) be brought out,--ay, and the very dogs which minister to our (incestuous) nuptials; then the business (of our trial) would be without a fault.
For no doubt, when any desire initiation in the mysteries, their custom is first to go to the master or father of the sacred rites. Then he will say (to the applicant), You must bring an infant, as a guarantee for our rites, to be sacrificed, as well as some bread to be broken and dipped in his blood; you also want candles, and dogs tied together to upset them, and bits of meat to rouse the dogs. Moreover, a mother too, or a sister, is necessary for you. What, however, is to be said if you have neither? I suppose in that case you could not be a genuine Christian...
I am now come to the hour for extinguishing the lamps, and for using the dogs, and practising the deeds of darkness...
For no doubt, when any desire initiation in the mysteries, their custom is first to go to the master or father of the sacred rites. Then he will say (to the applicant), You must bring an infant, as a guarantee for our rites, to be sacrificed, as well as some bread to be broken and dipped in his blood; you also want candles, and dogs tied together to upset them, and bits of meat to rouse the dogs. Moreover, a mother too, or a sister, is necessary for you. What, however, is to be said if you have neither? I suppose in that case you could not be a genuine Christian...
I am now come to the hour for extinguishing the lamps, and for using the dogs, and practising the deeds of darkness...
Minucius Felix, Octavius:
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/t ... avius.html
On a solemn day they assemble at the feast, with all their children, sisters, mothers, people of every sex and of every age. There, after much feasting, when the fellowship has grown warm, and the fervour of incestuous lust has grown hot with drunkenness, a dog that has been tied to the chandelier is provoked, by throwing a small piece of offal beyond the length of a line by which he is bound, to rush and spring; and thus the conscious light being overturned and extinguished in the shameless darkness, the connections of abominable lust involve them in the uncertainty of fate...
Can anyone shed any light (no pun intended!) on this practice? I can see how the accusation of "Christians eat flesh and drink blood in their rites" might develop, but not the accusation of dogs being used to extinguish candles to start orgies. Any thoughts?