Vasilopita

Taylor & Francis, Ltd. and Folklore Enterprises, Ltd. are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access toFolklore.

http://www.jstor.org

The Basil-Cake of the Greek New Year Author(s): Margaret M. Hasluck Source: Folklore, Vol. 38, No. 2 (Jun. 30, 1927), pp. 143-177Published by: on behalf of Taylor & Francis, Ltd. Folklore Enterprises, Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1256522Accessed: 26-12-2015 18:45 UTC

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/ info/about/policies/terms.jsp

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

This content downloaded from 192.30.202.8 on Sat, 26 Dec 2015 18:45:45 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org

http://www.jstor.org/publisher/taylorfrancis

http://www.jstor.org/publisher/fel

http://www.jstor.org/stable/1256522

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp



THE BASIL-CAKE OF THE GREEK NEW YEAR. BY MARGARET M. HASLUCK.

(Read at Meeting, i8th May, 1927.)

As unfailingly as turkey and plum pudding are eaten in England at Christmas, a certain cake is eaten at the New Year over practically the whole Greek area. Round, flat, and thin, savoury oftener than sweet, it is a glorified edition of the pasties which form the staple food of many poor Greeks. The reason for its figuring on New Year menus is commonly said to be the commemoration of St. Basil, the fourth-century bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia who is celebrated by the Greek church on the first of January.1 Accordingly its usual name, basilopitta

(3ao-Xdn-rr'-ra), is

interpreted as meaning cake of Basil. Close consideration of its ritual, however, suggests that its association with the saint cannot be upheld, and that the popular interpretation of its name rests on a false etymology. Close scrutiny of our records of the saint confirms this suggestion, and examination of certain customs in other lands enables us to proffer an alternative explanation of the cake. As a first step towards this conclusion let us examine the ritual in detail.

The Ceremony. From first to last the cake is treated very seriously.

In remote, old-fashioned places like Kastoria in South-West Macedonia it is baked by the house-mistress herself,2 who wears all her jewellery and best clothes for the occasion.

1 Menaea, Jan. Ist. 2 M. M. Hasluck, from personal observation. 143



144 The Basil-Cake

When ready, the cake is cut up in the presence of the whole

family. The cutter is always the most important person present, the (male) head of the household,3 the eldest male

present,4 or, failing them, the house-mistress.5 Before it is cut up, the house-mistress at Serres in East Macedonia

fumigates the room with incense,6 and in the Ionian Islands the head of the family reads a troparion in honour of the birth of Christ and then through a hole in the middle of the cake he pours a mixture of crumbs of the cake, wine, and holy oil crosswise over the fire.' Immediately before

inserting the knife, the divider invariably makes the sign of the cross with the knife across the cake.8 In the island of Andros the cutting takes place under a napkin to prevent any one from seeing what happens.9

The cutting follows a traditional course. A round is first cut out in the centre, and from the edges of this round lines are drawn like the spokes of a wheel to the circum- ference. When the whole cake has been thus separated into segments, the portions are allotted. The round from the centre, considered the most important, is generally set aside for St. Basil. Since the ceremony is in his honour, this provision is only fitting. But sometimes, by an

apparent anomaly, the centre piece is reserved for the house or for the Virgin Mary.xo In such a case St. Basil has to content himself with the first of the side pieces. But there

again he may be ignored in favour of Christ or some saint other than himself who happens to be a favourite with the

S B. Schmidt, Volksleben der Neugriechen, pp. 62-4; Georgeakis and Pineau, Folk-Lore de Lesbos, p. 297.

' M. M. H. 5M. M. H. 6G. F. Abbott, Macedonian Folklore, p. 77.

SB. Schmidt, loc. cit., for Zante, Cephalonia, and Ithaca; M. M. H. for Zante; E. A. Tsitselis in 'ETria, tom. xxvii., Athens (1889), pp. 420-1, followed by M. Hamilton, Greek Saints, p. 186, for Cephalonia.

8M. M. H. 9 M. M. H.

o10Abbott, loc. cit., for East Macedonia, and M. M. H. for West Macedonia.



of the Greek New Year. 145

family."1 He may even be ignored altogether.12 That is to say, at the ceremony said to commemorate him he may play only a secondary part, or even no part at all.

The saints having received their dues, pieces are generally set aside in agricultural households for the cattle, sheep, goats, and even the inanimate property of the family.13 Then the remaining pieces are distributed, as in other households, among the members of the family, whether present or not at the New Year gathering. This distribu. tion may be mechanical, that is, according to age 14 and sex,15 the old taking precedence over the young and the male over the female. In this method there is little interest except for fanatical feminists or would-be humourists. On the other hand, the distribution may be haphazard. Thus, in the Ionian Islands 16 and at Kastoria and Kozani in South-West Macedonia 17 the divider cuts up the entire cake and then revolves the tray on which it lies. When the tray comes to rest after making three revolutions, the divider sets aside the first pieces as stated above, and then each person present takes the portion nearest him. In this method there is a mild, but distinct, suggestion of a roulette board.

The suggestion is appropriate, for all the mystification which surrounds the cake is to heighten the excitement of finding a coin which it contains. This coin brings good luck.18 Thus, if the finder is the head of the house, he will prosper in all his undertakings during the coming year. If unmarried, he or she will be married or at least betrothed before the year is out.19 If a child, he or she will have a

11 Abbott, loc. cit., and M. M. H. 12 In Lesbos (Georgeakis and Pineau, loc. cit.), and in West Macedonia

(M. M. H.). 13 Abbott, op. cit., pp. 77-8, for Serres, and M. M. H. for S.W. Mace-

donia in general. 14 Abbott, op. cit., p. 78. 15 M. M. H. 16 Schmidt, op. cit., p. 64. 17 M. M. H. 18 Al observers. 19 Tsitselis, loc. cit., p. 421.

K



146 The Basil-Cake

happy year. If one of the saints other than Basil, the

family as a whole will enjoy prosperity. If St. Basil

himself, the general prosperity will reach the highest possible pitch.20

The coin is generally any small silver coin that is in

ordinary currency. Thus, in Greece it is now a whole or a half drachma.21 In the Ionian Islands it was a shilling during the British occupation.22 In Macedonia it was a

piastre in Turkish times.23 Occasionally a more important coin is used, such as the gold piece which has always been

preferred in the Ionian Islands 24 and in the Pindus villages.2, But these usages are exceptional. In normal practice the nature of the hidden coin is without intrinsic significance, for it is merely an instrument by which the luck of the coming year may be divined. Even in the exceptional uses of gold coins the main idea is to increase, or at least to

prevent the diminution of, the luck of the ceremony. The metal gold, probably because of its glitter,26 is prophylactic against evil in much the same way that silver is. Moreover, the gold coin commonly used in the Pindus villages is a. constantinato. Any coin from the Byzantine solidus downwards is so called if it bears on the obverse two figures. holding a cross. These figures are usually an emperor and a saint, but they are popularly interpreted as SS. Con- stantine and Helen and give the coin a prophylactic value.27 The coin used in the Ionian Islands is not defined by Schmidt, our authority for its use, but it, too, may be a constantinato.

Once the coin has been found in the basilopitta, the saints' pieces of cake, whether they contained the coin or

20 Details by M. M. H. 21 Tsitselis, loc. cit., p. 420, and M. M. H. 22 Tsitselis, loc. cit. 23 M. M. H. 24 Schmidt, op. cit., p. 62. 25 M. M. H. s2 M. M. H., " The Evil Eye," Journ. of Royal Anthrop. Inst., liii..

(1923), p. 163-

27 F. W. Hasluck, " Constantinata," Ridgeway Essays, pp. 635-8.




not, and the coin itself have to be disposed of. The children, who are seldom lacking in a Greek household, attend to the former, eating them up after their own portions. The coin meets various fates. It may be worn by the finder as a charm, or it may be hung up beside the house-eikons for the general good. In Trebizond a girl finder puts it under her pillow, and hopes it will show her her future husband in a dream.28 In agricultural villages it is carefully preserved until seedtime. Then it is sewn on the first sack of seed-corn which is carried out to the fields. It protects the growing crops against the evil eye, and it ensures a bountiful harvest. Very rarely a finder is sceptical enough to spend the coin like any other and to throw its luck away.29

Other things of some interest for us are put into the Basil-cake in agricultural villages. Such are a vine twig, a bit of straw, a leaf of dwarf oak, a circlet of osier, a cross of green twigs, a ring, and a purse. The vine twig is emblematic of the family vineyard. The straw and the leaf represent the cattle and the goats, because these animals live on such food. The circlet of osiers standS for the sheep, because sheep-folds are fenced with osiers. The cross of green twigs is for the house, the ring is for marriage, and the purse for general prosperity. All these additional ingredients are swept up and burned as soon as they are found. They seem to be put into the cake for a twofold purpose. There is a desire to see which member of the family will draw the various objects, for this will show in what branch of work each will prosper during the year to come. There is also a feeling that association with the lucky coin in the cake will bring luck by sympathetic magic to whatever the subsidiary ingredients represent in actuality." Their insertion in the cake is therefore due

28 M. M. H. Cf. Abbott, op. cit., pp. 79-80, for Serres, and Tsitselis, loc. cit., for Cephalonia.

29 M. M. H. 30 M. M. H. Abbott (op. cit., p. 77) mentions the cross of green twigs.



148 The Basil-Cake

to a confusion of thought in the minds of the peasants. For us it emphasizes the popular belief in the lucky character of the cake.

The strength of this belief is further brought out by a

strange survival from Christianity which is found among certain Mohammedans. Some twelve thousand in number and popularly nicknamed Vallahades, they lived in South- West Macedonia till they were transported in 1924 to Asia Minor in exchange for Greek refugees from that country. Their near ancestors were Christian Greeks, and they themselves are so incompletely turkised that, although fervent devotees of Islam, they have retained numerous Christian customs.31 For one thing their language is Greek, Turkish being known only to the men who have served in the Turkish army. For another thing they still eat a lucky cake at their New Year, inserting a coin, cutting pieces for the house and cattle as well as the members of the family, and putting the coin afterwards among the seed-corn. They no longer leave a piece for St. Basil, nor do they give his name to the cake. Instead, they call it " cabbage cake," " greens cake," " leek cake," and the like according to the vegetable which flavours it. Never- theless it is obviously the basilopitta. That after their conversion to Islam they should retain a custom popularly so identified with Christianity as the eating of this cake is in itself remarkable. It is still more remarkable that, keeping their New Year like many Moslems on Ist March, they have cared enough about the basilopitta and its luck- bringing powers to carry it forward with their New Year-to that day.32 The reason is, of course, that magic practices designed to secure agricultural prosperity are among the last to be discarded after a change in religion or an advance in civilization.33

31 M. M. H. " Christian Survivals among certain Moslem Subjects of Greece " in the Contemporary Review, Feb. 1924, pp. 225-32.

32 M. M. H, 38 Cf. F. W. Hasluck, Letters on Religion and Folklore, p. 57.




The Date.

From the foregoing details it is clear that St. Basil is not all important for the ceremony which purports to be held in his honour, and that divination of the new year's luck bulks more largely in the people's minds than his cult. We are therefore led to ask why he appears at all on the scene. The conventional explanation is that he died on the first of January, the date of his festival in the Greek church, and that the cake is eaten in memory of him. But did he really die on that day ? None of our authorities is con-

vincing on the point. The earlier Latin martyrologists such as Hieronymian and Bede do not mention the saint's feast at all.34 Usuard is the first to do so. Commenting on Ist January, he writes, "in Caesarea Cappadociae depositio sancti Basilii episcopi, cuius celebritas XVIII Kal. Jul. potissimum recolitur." 35 If depositio be taken to mean " death " as it is usually taken,"3 Usuard here follows the Greek church in ascribing St. Basil's death to Ist January and the Latin church in assigning his festival to 14th June, the alleged date of his elevation to the episco. pate.37 But Usuard is separated from St. Basil by a gap of five hundred years, for he died about 875 A.D.38 and St. Basil about 379 A.D.39 In these five hundred years of difficult communications and painful diffusion of learning there was ample time for knowledge to pass through a dozen intermediaries and to become confused and distorted in the passing." Usuard's information about St. Basil's

3, Catholic Encyclopaedia, vol. ii. (1907), p. 332, s.v. Basil the Great : cf. the extract from A cta Sanctorum, s.d. June i4th, in Migne, Patrologiae Graecae, vol. xxix., p. cclxxxvi.

** Ed. Soller, p. I. 36 Cf. F. Loofs, Eustathius von Sebaste und die Chronologie der Basilius-

Briefe, p. 49, n. 3 ad fin. 7 Catholic Encyclopaedia, loc. cit. 38 Ibid. 39 Ibid,

40 Some useful remarks on mediaeval scholarship may be found in F. W. Hasluck's Letters on Religion and Folklore, pp. 178-9.



150 The Basil-Cake

death may have come, and perhaps did come, from Greek

sources, but we cannot tell how near he was to those sources or how near they were to St. Basil. For that reason we cannot unreservedly accept his unsupported assertion as St. Basil's death-certificate. For it means no more than that about 875 A.D. men already believed that St. Basil died on Ist January.

The same conclusion holds good for an early author on the Greek side who places St. Basil's death on Ist January. This is the Amphilochios who wrote a well- known Life of St. Basil.41 He is no longer identified with the bishop of that name who held the see of Iconium and was the friend and older contemporary of the saint.42 He lived and wrote early enough, however, for his book to have been translated into Latin by a certain subdiaconus called Ursus, who flourished 858-67 A.D.43 That a serious

gap in time severed him, as it did Usuard, from the subject of his memoir, appears probable from his statement that Basil " fell asleep on Ist January in the fifth year of Valens and Valentinianus." 44 Rauschen discusses this passage 45 in an interesting fashion. He accepts the first words as

proof that St. Basil died on Ist January, but goes on to demonstrate that the pseudo-Amphilochios, as he is called, has made a mistake in coupling Valens and Valentinianus and should mention only Valentinianus. Rauschen offers no explanation of this error, but we may reasonably suspect that it occurred because the pseudo-Amphilochios was too remote in time, and perhaps place, from St. Basil's death to have a sound knowledge of the details of the history of

41 In Migne, op. cit., vol. xxix., pp. ccxcii., et seq. 42 Combefisius in Migne, loc. cit., p. ccxciv. n. I ; Baronius, ibid.,

pp. ccxcii.-iii.; all modern authorities. 43 Migne, loc. cit., p. ccxciii.

44 Migne, loc. cit., p. cccxvi. (" requievit autem.. . prima Januarii anni quinti Valentis et Valentiniani ").

45 Jahrbicher der christlichen Kirche unter dem Kaiser Theodosius dem Grossen, (Freiburg i. B., I897), p. 476.




St. Basil's date. Whether this explanation is correct or not, his mistake vitiates his evidence for St. Basil's death on I st January. If he was uncritical or ignorant enough to couple the two emperors wrongly, he may well have cited a popular tradition about St. Basil's death as a historical fact. Like Usuard's on the Latin side, his words essentially prove only that by 858-67 A.D. some Greeks believed that St. Basil died on Ist January.

Some modern writers,46 however, contend that Gregory of Nyssa, Basil's brother, confirms Usuard and the pseudo- Amphilochios. At the beginning of his panegyric on his brother 47 he gives a list of the festivals which succeeded Christmas Day in his time, In the order given they are SS. Stephen, Peter, James, John, and Basil. He does not specify the intervals between the festivals, but guided by the modern Greek calendar and by such early statements as those of the pseudo-Amphilochios,48 we may admit that Gregory knew Ist January, approximately at least, as St. Basil's day. But he is speaking of St. Basil's celebration, not of his death. " God," he says, " ordained the order of these yearly festivals of ours. . . . The order of religious gatherings for us is that taught by the great Paul, who had knowledge from above of such things. He says that first should be set the apostles and prophets, and after them the pastors and teachers.49 Accordingly the order of religious gatherings throughout the year follows this apostolic sequence .... After [Christmas] the spiritual dance was opened by apostles and prophets .... These are Stephen, Peter, James, John, and Paul. Then after them, in his due order, the pastor and teacher initiates our present

46 E.g. M. Rade, Damasus (Freiburg i. B., 1882), p. 114, n. I : F. Loofs, loc. cit.; J. Schiifer, Basilius des Grossen Beziehungen zum Abendlande, (Miinster i. W., 1909), p. 30o.

71 In Laudem Fratris Basilii, in Migne, Patrologiae Graecae, vol. xlvi., pp. 788-9.

48 Below, p. 153. 49 Cf. I Coy., cap. 12, v. 28.



152 The Basil-Cake

gathering. Who is this? ... I mean Basil, the man of noble life and. speech." 5o

In these words Gregory indicates definitely enough that the date of St. Basil's festival had been appointed by the Church in accordance with rules supposed to have been laid down by the Apostle Paul. He gives no hint that the

day of Basil's death had been taken into account, but rather the contrary. For, if his words are taken to prove 51 that St. Basil died about Ist January, the date of his festival, they must be taken to prove also that SS. Stephen, Peter, James, and John all died in Christmas week. From this palpably absurd position there is. only one logical way of

escape, namely to acknowledge that Gregory thought of Ist January (approximately) as St. Basil's festival, but not as the day of his death.

Gregory, indeed, does not seem to have had St. Basil's death at all in his mind when he was speaking. After the words translated above he heaps turgid praises on his brother for his virtues and his services to the Church in her struggle against paganism,52 but he never refers to his death.53 The event was no doubt familiar to his hearers,

60 Gregory's words are :-KaXi#v irdOlKEv b ee6b rrv vrdt v ratf iryalo-r

ratraac• i7y/p oprats... 'H UT rdtts

7Lt l O'i Tare rwJ 7 ruevEartnK wv Trav,7ytrpev,

fr Kal 6 t

dyat HaiXoo .Mi5aaev,

&vwOe rv TwvrotoTrwv riv yWOrLtv XWv. 7rlo'l y&p dKEZVOS, 'v & rpworotst Iv ro;tf duro'r6XovS rCe KalZ 0o ~rpor7 Tas 7-raXOla, uper'

cKEIVOUTvs 70r5 t 7r01Opva Kal 5LaoKdXOUv. ZUviUatveL rol70v r- dT^oorOrOK Ta6rIT

AKoXovOl iq T rdtL rt rwov ro vtLavrov ravyypewov .... Mer' ari7iv [s.c. Christmap Day]

'rpdirov ip•Av ? rbaroXol Te KCat irpo7,Tra Trps

trvevU•arTLK•• XopoTOraiaL

KaT7rpcavro .... Elal U oroL. Zrl-avot, IIlrpor, 'IdKWjOS, 'Iwdvv1l, IIaOXoT. Etra

Ilerd. rou'rovO, avXda aro rid v o r lov, d,?dpxe r7l rrapo6dacrs •il•'v lrav17y6.

pews 6 rol./hv

Kal 5l6d0OKaXo. Ti o0roo; .. ... Torov Vyw. .. . T rb tl7Xbv ly Te Kal X6y( B'aaiXerov.

51 See above, p. 15o, and n. 50. 62 Migne, loc. cit., p. 796. 53 Gregory mentions St. Basil's death in his de Vita S. Macrinae (in

Migne, op. cit., vol. xlvi., p. 973 D). There he says he attended a synod at Antioch rather more than nine months after St. Basil's death. Unfortunately he gives no clue to the date of either synod or death. As Schafer points out, (loc.. cit.), Rauschen only argues in a circle when he draws inferences, (loc. cit.), from these words of Gregory's.




but nevertheless a reference to it would have been both appropriate and effective if its anniversary had coincided with St. Basil's festival, the occasion of the panegyric. Failing such a reference, and given Gregory's categorical statement about the apostolic origin of St. Basil's festival, we are entitled to infer that he did not recognize St. Basil's festival as the date of his death.54

The same conclusion only may be drawn fairly from the words of the pseudo-Amphilochios in his Oratio de Circum- cisione.55 They run,-" Let us honour to-day [sc. Ist January, the Festival of the Circumcision] the memory of our divine Father with hymns and in divinely inspired words of praise let us extol the virtues of the Master with

fitting plaudits." 56 As in the case of Gregory, here is no mention of St. Basil's death but only of his commemoration.

Our review of all the early literary evidence available thus ends in a verdict that St. Basil's death on Ist January is " not proven," and that his association with that date was probably arbitrary.

The Folktale. Let us now take up the second point in the conventional

explanation of St. Basil's association with the basilopitta.57 Let us ask why he should be commemorated at all with a cake. No reason can be given off-hand. His life is amply, if not always correctly, documented,58 but no document mentions the basilopitta. Oral tradition is not much more help-

5" Usener put forward this view long ago, (Religionsgeschichtliche Untersuchungen, Bonn, 1889, vol. i., n. 27), but Loofs, Rauschen, and Schdifer, (locc. citt.), remained unconvinced.

55 The oration is not considered to be by Amphilochios of Iconium, (Maranus in Migne, op. cit., vol. xxix., p. clxi.).

56Combefisius in Migne, op. cit., vol. xxix., p. ccxciv, n. I, (" nos interim divini Patris memoriam hodie honoremus canticis, divinitusque inspiratis laudibus magistri virtutes condigno prosequamur plausu ").

67 See above, p. 149 58 Menaea, Jan. ISt.



154 The Basil-Cake

ful. The most pertinacious inquiries from Greek peasants elicit only the foolish answer, " it is our custom " (6-701T

O- JEXoIe) 5 (sc. to eat the cake). Such poverty of invention is noteworthy, for popular legend is usually only too ready to explain a saint's attributes, material and otherwise, by some real or alleged incident in his life, and from popular circulation the explanation normally finds its way into

hagiologies. For instance, St. Blasios is credited with power to cure sore throats because his own throat was cut by a persecutor.60 St. John is believed able to quench fever because his head, after it was cut off, shook and trembled like a fever-stricken patient.61 But of St. Basil and his cake we can find no explanatory legend,-until we go to Constantinople.

There Mr. Ph. Koukoules collected from schoolboys a folktale 62 which appears to contain the information we seek. It may be summarised as follows :-

" At the time when St.. Basil was bishop of Caesarea, a particularly avaricious and oppressive governor ruled over that province. On one occasion this governor intimated a desire to visit the town of Caesarea. At the news a great trembling fell on the people, but St. Basil bade them collect all their valuables and go out and present them to the governor when he arrived. They obeyed the saint, and the governor, melted by the apparent warmth and splendour of his welcome, refused to accept any of the presents and went on his way. As soon as he was gone, St. Basil found himself in a difficulty about returning the presents to their rightful owners. He therefore devised the stratagem of having a number of cakes made in which the various articles were concealed. The cakes were distributed the following Sunday, and by a miracle each man received the cake which contained his property. In commemoration of

5 M. M. H. 60 Menaea, Feb. IIth. 61 Id., May 2oth. 62 Published by Koukoules in the periodical 2~evoi5dviq, vol. iv.,

pp. 155 et seq., and republished by Mr. M. D. Volonakis in his 'Iropla r70 'EoprawoD T77 IIp3r- 7ro "ETovu, (Athens, 1917), pp. 26-7. I am indebted to Mr. Volonakis for both these references.




St. Basil's device Christians insert a coin in the cake which they eat on St. Basil's day."

At first sight this tale appears to explain the basilopitta most satisfactorily. Why, then, is it not more widely known ? Why is it not in popular currency in Greece as distinct from Constantinople? The answer to such questions may be deduced from a story told in the Life of St. Basil by the pseudo-Amphilochios. In brief summary the relevant passage is as follows :

"Once upon a time the Emperor Julian passed through Caesarea on his way to the Persian wars. Meeting St. Basil, he informed him that he meant on his return to raze the town to the ground because of its attacks on paganism. During his absence at the wars, St. Basil, hoping that rich gifts might turn him from his cruel purpose, collected money and other valuables from the citizens to give him on his return. But Julian died before he could come back to carry out his threat. Then St. Basil, who had carefully labelled each article as received with its owner's name, wished to give the citizens back their property. But in gratitude for their deliverance they refused to take it back and bestowed it on the church." 63

It is clear at once that a connection exists between the folktale from Constantinople and the story from the Life of St. Basil. The nature of the connection is made clear both by chronology and style. The folktale must be new. Otherwise it would have been found outside Constantinople. The story is of uncertain age. It does not occur in the version which Ursus (858-67 A.D.) 64 made of the pseudo- Amphilochian Life, the omission being excusable enough since the alleged meeting between Julian and St. Basil can hardly have taken place.65 The editions of the Life, however, which give the story, are several centuries old.66

63 Migne, Patrologiae Graecae, vol. xxix., pp. cccii-iv. : W. R. Halliday in (Liverpool) Annals of Archaeology, vol. vii., pp. 91-3.

64 Cf. above, p. 150. 65 Migne, loc. cit., p. ccciii. n. 40; Halliday, loc. cit., p. 97. 66 Migne, loc. cit., pp. cccii-iii.



156 The Basil-Cake

Such chronological considerations bring us to the conclusion that the story, being comparatively old, is the parent of the folktale, which is recent.

This putative relationship accords with the way in which the theme is handled in the two versions. In the Life, St. Basil is business-like and Julian's name is recorded. In the folktale, St. Basil has to call a miracle to his aid and Julian has sunk to a nameless " governor." Such a difference in crispness is thoroughly characteristic of the literary as opposed to the popular rendering of a subject,67 and confirms our conclusion that the folktale is a literary bastard. Its consequent elimination leaves us without any literary .or genuinely popular explanation of St. Basil's association with the lucky basilopitta, as our analysis of early written evidence destroyed the usual explanation of his association with Ist January, the date of the basilopitta.

St. Basil in Cappadocia. A small discrepancy between the story in the pseudo-

Amphilochian Life of St. Basil and the folktale from Constantinople carries our inquiry into Cappadocia, St. Basil's native country. It will have been noticed that the basilopitta is mentioned in the folktale but not in the Life. The explanation of this discrepancy appears after some consideration of a folktale collected by Nicolaides 68 from a native of Inje Su in Cappadocia. This tale relates the whole story of Julian's alleged meeting with St. Basil but follows the pseudo-Amphilochian Life 9 of the saint so closely that it need not be summarised here. It has been discussed recently by Professor Halliday,70 who comes to the conclusion that, in spite of its close resemblance to the pseudo-Amphilochian account, it represents a genuine

67 See F. W. Hasluck, Letters on Religion and Folklore, p. 215. "I E. H. Carnoy and J. Nicolaides, Traditions de I'Asie Mineure,

pp. 187-90. "I See above, p. 155. 70 Loc. cit., pp. 94-5 ; cf. p.

lo6.




folk-tradition. Aware of the danger in Greek-speaking areas that a local schoolmaster may have put the results of his reading into oral circulation, he remarks, wrongly, I think, that the poorly educated schoolmasters of Inje Su are not likely to have had access to the pseudo-Amphilochian Life. Whether his remark is right or wrong, however, does not matter, for some apparently trivial details which he has overlooked exclude the schoolmasters from the discussion. In the first place the man from whose lips Nicolaides transcribed the folktale is described as " born at Inje Su," 71 but nothing is said of where he told his story. He seems, however, to have done so at Constantinople. He told it on the I7th September, 1886,72 and a native of Tokat who was an " employee of a business establishment at Constantinople," 73 told Nicolaides a tale of Tokat 74 on the 14th September, 1886. But if Nicolaides had been in Tokat or even Constantinople on the 14th September, geographical difficulties and the defective means of transport available in Asia Minor in 1886 would have prevented him from reaching Inje Su by the I7th September. Tokat is far to the north-east of Angora and more than three days' journey from Constantinople. Inje Su is six hours south- west of Caesarea and again more than three days' journey from Constantinople. The only way in which Nicolaides could have transcribed stories from natives of two such distant places was by interviewing their narrators in

Constantinople. Further proof that the narrator of the Inje Su folktale

was acquainted with Constantinople appears from another detail overlooked by Professor Halliday. He is described as an " avocat." 75 As such, he must have studied in Constantinople, since the business of " avocats " at Inje Su or any other place under the Turkish flag was largely concerned with Turkish law, and diplomas in Turkish law

71 Carnoy and Nicolaides, op. cit., p. 190. 72 Ibid., p. 190. 13 Ibid., p. 197. 74 Ibid., pp. 196-7. 76 Ibid., p. 190.



158 The Basil-Cake

were to be won only in Constantinople. It follows that, though " born at Inje Su," he had not always lived in that intellectually narrow sphere, but had enjoyed the wider opportunities afforded by the Turkish capital.

These opportunities must have enabled him to learn the

pseudo-Amphilochian story of Julian's encounter with St. Basil. Constantinople has always contained clergy who delighted to burrow into Lives of the Saints. Since Greek patriotism is apt to be narrow, they tended to con- centrate on saints from their own districts. Thus, a priest of Cappadocian origin tended to take a particular interest in St. Basil. Since Greek patriotism is real and the Greeks are clannish, such a priest would naturally retail anecdotes from the saint's life to his compatriots in the Cappadocian colony of Constantinople. Of this.

colony the " avocat " of our folktale must have been a member in his student days at least. And there, in the way described, he may well have heard or even read for himself the pseudo-Amphilochian story. Levides and Rizos, Cappadocians both, expressly avow their knowledge of this story.76

Moreover, the folktale follows the pseudo-Amphilochian story with great fidelity, though the story 1 is remarkably long and detailed. In a genuine folk-tradition omissions. of pseudo-Amphilochian incidents and interpolations of others would have been far more numerous than they are in this folktale. From the date when it was recorded, the history of its narrator, and its own style, we conclude, therefore, that it is of literary, and recent literary, origin. Thus we have two folktales, one collected by Koukoules and the other by Nicolaides, which descend from the pseudo-Amphilochian Life of St. Basil.

76 M. Levides, Al iv MovoXiOotL Moval ri~ Ka rra0oKiLa, (Constantinople,. 1899), pp. 54-5; N. S. Rizos, Ka7rra3oKLKdi, (Constantinople, 1856), p. 138.

? The anecdote summarised above (p. 155) is only a fragment of the whole story.




Now the tale collected by Koukoules mentions the

basilopitta, whereas the other tale does not do so. The reason may be that the Inje Su tale follows the parent story more closely. Or, more probably, the reason may lie in the interests of the narrators of the tales. The Greeks from whom Koukoules collected his version were pre- sumably interested in the basilopitta and correspondingly ready in true folklore fashion to believe, or to invent, a

plausible aetiological legend which explained its peculiarity. On the other hand, the " avocat" of Inje Su was not interested in the basilopitta. For in Cappadocia, St. Basil's own country, his cake is unknown.

My authority for making such a statement is the present bishop of Kastoria. A native of Silleh in Cappadocia, he states that at the New Year Cappadocians eat, not the basilopitta, but " forty sweets," 78 commemorating, not St. Basil, but the Circumcision of Christ. The principle involved, he pointed out, reappears in the feasting by which a mortal's circumcision is accompanied. The mystic importance in the Near East of the number " forty " is a commonplace. 9,

It is not only with regard to the basilopitta, however, that the Cappadocians are unorthodox in their treatment of St. Basil. As is well known, Greeks usually observe Ist January as his festival and sing carols 80 in his honour. In Cappadocia priests chant his office on Ist January, but the people postpone his festival till Easter Saturday and Pentecost.81 On those days the whole population of Caesarea, for instance, goes out to Mount St. Basil, the Ali

78 apadvra •ylXKioLaTra.

9 F. W. Hasluck, Christianity and Islam, pp. 391-402. 80 They have been collected and exhaustively discussed by Professor

Halliday in the Annual of the British School at Athens, vol. xx. (1913-4), pp. 32-58.

81 Carnoy and Nicolaides, op. cit., p. 191; Levides (a native of Caesarea), op. cit., p. 56.



16o The Basil-Cake

Dagh s82 of the Turks. There they honour the saint by indulg- ing in the favourite Greek pastime of roasting and eating lambs in the open air. To this mountain, says Levides,s3 quoting the pseudo-Amphilochios, St. Basil retired to entreat God to soften Julian's heart and avert his threat to Caesarea.

As for Cappadocian carols in honour of the saint, Professor R. M. Dawkins mentions 84 one recorded by Pachtikos at Pharasa.85 But in the heading Pachtikos describes this hymn as "sung at Pharasa near Caesarea at religious festivals " s6 and omits all mention of St. Basil. Conform- ably with this omission, it is the Virgin, and not St. Basil, who is invoked in the chorus 87 which follows each distich. The words " St. Basil " do appear in the text, but they refer, not to the saint himself, but to the mountain called by his name.88 A fair paraphrase of each distich where the words occur would be, " Quick ! let us go to St. Basil's and hang the meat on a spit," 89 the allusion being to the usual Cappadocian method of celebrating the saint. For these reasons this hymn is not to be regarded as a carol.

What purports to be another Cappadocian carol in honour of St. Basil was collected at Misti by N. Basilopoulos.90 In

82 Texier, A sie Mineure, vol. ii., p. 61 ; Carnoy and Nicolaides, loc. cit.; Levides, loc. cit.

88 Loc. cit.; cf. Rizos, op. cit., p. 138. 84 Modern Greek in Asia Minor, p. 32. Professor Halliday (loc. cit.,

p. 43, n. 2) accepts this hymn as a carol, but remarks with reason that it "does not fall under any of the types discussed " in his paper.

85 26o AqA '3 0'EXXvLKd& ALo-ara, pp. 17-9.

8s6AterAral dv apdaoLs rTs Kauapel KaT• A TOa SOp-70KEUTLK&d 7raV-7y6pfLS.

87 Bd', HavacytLi /ov, eOTrbKOV.

K6pLa 'XeXE/ov, KUpLa 'Xi-oov. 88s 'EtvTavTE vY iJrai/iL 's 7~6 'A'Y"- BalX77

v& "yKpe/L•d•w/.e •&

Kp77dTa ' ~ TO" i4L.

19 Pachtikos explains i4i& as meaning " tree." Hence perhaps it may mean a wooden spit. Meat is not " hung " in the Near East.

9o0 bpAipyt, December, 19o8, p. 8; republished in Aaoypacia, vol. i., p. 143. In his Neugriechisches aus Kleinasien, p. 15, n. 8, Paul Lagarde prints Paul Karolides' version of the same carol.




discussing its contents Professor Halliday states 91 that its text differs somewhat from the usual dialect of Misti, and he accepts Professor Dawkins's suggestion that this difference may be due to antiquity. That is to say, the carol is so old that the villagers have half forgotten the

meaning of the words and mangle them accordingly. As

regards this suggestion, I have no first-hand knowledge of the dialect of Misti, but, assuming that it differs as Professor Halliday says from the text of the carol, I would suggest another explanation as possible. With its music and its rhythm a carol is portable, and for generations Cappa- docians have spent some years of their youth in richer parts of the Greek world and have then returned to their native villages." The carol in question belongs to the " Husbandmen " type 93 which occurs in Crete, Kythera, and the southern Peloponnese.94 The language there is as different from the dialect of Misti 95 as the language of Berlin is from the patois of German Switzerland, and the carol, if learned from such a source by a Cappadocian emigrant, would have to be virtually translated to be intelligible in Misti. But even the most skilful translation would probably contain words and grammatical forms unknown in Cappadocia. As the carol passed from mouth to mouth, these strange words and forms would be mis- understood and mangled or obscured, till some such result as the existent text 96 was obtained.

Scepticism about the Cappadocian pedigree of this carol is warranted, not only by speculations about its language,

91 Loc. cit., p. 43. 92 See e.g. F. W. Hasluck, Letters on Religion and Folklore, pp. I3-4* 9- Halliday, loc. cit., p. 43. 9" Ibid., pp. 42-51.

9' For examples see Dawkins, op. cit., pp. 384-9. 96 With reference to the difficult words mentioned by Professor

Halliday, loc. cit., p. 43, n. 3, it is possible that K6TKLVaC (" sieves ") are round, sieve-shaped cakes and that Xdpora is the adjective from Xapo and to be translated "goodies "; cf. the expression " Turkish delight" for loukoum.

L



162 The Basil-Cake

but also by some precise information. In conversation with me the bishop of Kastoria denied categorically that his

countrymen sing such carols. His words are confirmed to some extent by Dr. F. C. Conybeare and by Mrs. Wingate of the American Mission to Talas. They informed Professor

Halliday 97 that Cappadocian Armenians do not sing carols to St. Basil, though they hold him for a great saint. But, if their Greek neighbours sang carols, could the Armenians fail to follow suit ? Since the Armenians do not sing them, the bishop of Kastoria's testimony against the existence of Cappadocian Greek carols to St. Basil becomes convinc-

ing, and is contradicted only by the carol of uncertain pedigree from Misti.

Our examination of St. Basil's standing in his native country, Cappadocia, thus shows that, so far as the basilo-

pitta, carols, and festival are concerned, St. Basil is not commemorated there as elsewhere in the Greek world. Since Cappadocian traditions can hardly fail to be nearer to the facts, this result suggests that the methods of commemorating the saint in the outside Greek world have little or no historical basis. In that world, too, it will be remembered, divination of the year's luck rather than commemoration of the saint seemed the main purpose of the basilopitta. No genuinely popular tradition exists there to connect the saint with the cake. His festival seemed to have been ordained for Ist January, the day consecrated to the basilopitta, for extraneous reasons. We are therefore bound to wonder whether he has any real connection with the cake.

St. Basil in other Orthodox Churches. Our wonder increases when we consider the practice of

the daughter churches of the Greek rite. They all celebrate St. Basil on Ist January, and eat a New Year cake which contains a lucky coin, but they do not associate the saint

97 Loc. cit., p. 33-




with their cakes. Thus, Baron Michael Ungern-Sternberg, a Kuban Cossack who was formerly a colonel in the Old Russian Imperial Guard,98 informed me that in his own province and in those of Kharkov and Poltava in Little Russia a pirog (pastry) is baked on New Year's Eve and contains a lucky coin. The pirog is cut into pieces at dawn on New Year's Day, and divided among members of the family. He who finds the coin is given presents by the others, for it is thought that he is lucky and will bring luck to the others. But St. Basil is not associated with the ceremony. Similarly, the Roumanians, as Mr. L. C. Wharton has kindly informed me, eat a special cake on New Year's Eve and draw lots to determine the relative degree of prosperity which each person may expect during the year, but they make no reference to St. Basil. The Serbs, again, according to notes kindly sent me by Madame Yovanovitch, bake a cake called chesnitza.99 It contains a lucky coin, but is eaten on Christmas Day and is not associated with St. Basil. Albanians also, whether Christian or Moham- medan, eat a cake with a lucky coin at the New Year, but they call it simply pitta (cake, pastry) and do not refer it to the saint.100

Bulgarian practice varies. Within the kingdom, as Mrs. Edmund Garrett learned, a cake containing a lucky coin is eaten at either Christmas or the New Year. On the whole, Christmas is the date preferred. The cake is called pogatcha (flat cake) or Novogodichna banitza (New Year's cake), and no allusion is made to St. Basil. Bulgars from East Macedonia have told me that they eat two cakes, one on Christmas Eve and the other at the New Year. Both contain lucky coins. The Christmas cake is called para bogatcha 101 (coin cake), and the other Svity Vasileva

98 I found him in the spring of 1922 peddling books in the streets of Athens for a living.

99 Christmas cake, from the root chest (part). 100 M. M. H. 101 In the languages of the Near East the letters p and b are frequently

interchanged.



164 The Basil-Cake

bogatcha (St. Basil's cake, basilopitta). Bearing in mind Mrs. Garrett's information from the kingdom of Bulgaria, one may perhaps infer that the para bogatcha is the real cake of Macedonian Bulgars, and that their basilopitta has been borrowed from their Greek neighbours. My infor- mants were patriarchists, i.e. adherents of the Greek Patriarch rather than the Bulgarian Exarch, and as such would be particularly sympathetic towards Greek customs.

But, even if we accept the basilopitta .of Macedonian Bulgars as a genuinely Bulgarian, and not a borrowed, institution, we find the evidence overwhelming that by the daughter churches of the Greek rite St. Basil is not associated with the New Year cake. Stated otherwise, over a large area bordering on Greece eating a lucky New Year cake similar to the basilopitta is an established custom which seems entirely independent of saints. Such a conclusion increases the probability that St. Basil has been connected with the basilopitta of Greece for artificial reasons.

Even in Greece saint and cake are not inseparable. In the Ionian Islands the cake is called, not basilopitta, but

KoUXo0pa 7-rj yovIia (corner ring-cake) orxpta-r'7r-r-ra (Christ- cake), and it is eaten, not on New Year's Day, but on Christmas Eve.102 No reference whatsoever is made to St. Basil during the ceremony of partaking.

In view, then, of all these difficulties, is not the Basil of the basilopitta different from the saint of Caesarea ? And if he is different, who and what is he ?

A Parallel. A hint of the answer to these questions is given by the

word basilopitta. On the analogy of such words as basilo- paidi, basilopoulo, and basilopoula, which occur frequently

102 B. Schmidt, op. cit., p. 62 : E. A. Tsitselis, loc. cit., pp. 420-I, followed by M. Hamilton, Greek Saints, p. I86. In Athens and generally in Old Greece, as Mr. D. P. Petrocochino informs me, a Christmas cake called XpLarr6b~wuo is eaten, but it does not contain a coin.




in Greek folktales with the respective meanings of " child of the king " (or " kings "), " son of the king " (or " kings "), " daughter of the king " (or " kings "), basilopitta may be translated " cake of the king " (or " kings ") as correctly as " cake of Basil." Now in Larousse we read that on the

jour des rois " on tire un roi au moyen d'une five cach6e dans un gateau." 103 This cake " se tire en famille; il est coup6 en autant de parts qu'il y a de convi6s ; dans certains pays, on r6serve une part qu'on appelle la part de Dieu, ou de la Vierge, ou du pauvre, et qu'on donne a un mendiant.

. . Celui qui a la fbve devient roi." 104

The gdteau des rois is, of course, the Twelfth Night cake of England, but the French cake is better adapted than the English for comparison with the basilopitta. The English ceremon 105 is practically extinct, and it never offered the useful interpretation of the " king " which we shall find attached to the French ceremony.106 Moreover, it varied considerably from place to place. Hence constant digres- sions and explanations would be necessary if it were used to illustrate the basilopitta. On the other hand, comparison of the French cake with the Greek is straightforward. It is still baked over large areas of France,107 and its name is a literal equivalent of basilopitta in the new sense postulated for that word. The ceremony does not diverge noticeably anywhere from the type cited in Larousse. For these reasons references will generally be made in the following pages to the gdlteau des rois rather than the Twelfth Night cake.

From the description in Larousse it is clear at once that a ceremonial as well as a linguistic resemblance exists

103 Nouveau Larousse Illustrg, s.v. lpiphanie.

104 Ibid., s.v. G&teau. 105 See Frazer, The Scapegoat, (1913), p. 313, and the numerous

references given in the footnotes. Several of Herrick's lyrics give good accounts of Twelfth Night merrymakings.

106 See below, pp. 172-3. 107 Frazer, loc. cit.



166 The Basil-Cake

between the gdteau des rois and the basilopitta. Other resemblances, too, exist. Thus, even in the West a coin rather than a bean has been used as the medium of divination.108 Again, luck, concerning crops in particular, appeared the most important characteristic of the basilo-

pitta.109 Now in many places in France " people drew omens from the cake as to the good or ill that would befall them throughout the year." 110 " In Lorraine the height of the hemp crop in the coming year was prognosticated from the height of the King." 11 " In Devonshire, cakes were eaten and cider was drunk on Twelfth Day (the jour des rois) ; parts of the cakes were presented to the apple and pear trees, and a libation of cider was poured over them. This was to secure a good crop." 112 Thus, parallels exist between not only the names and rituals but also the purposes of the cakes of East and West.

Such affinities between the gdteau des rois and the basilopitta suggest that a king, a basileus, and not St. Basil, gave his name to the basilopitta. This suggestion is

supported by evidence from Western Macedonia. That

region is so undeveloped that ideas persist there after having partially or completely vanished from more accessible and civilized regions of Greece.113 So we find that all memory of a king of the basilopitta has apparently faded from southern Greece but not from Western Macedonia. At Bogatsko the finder of the coin " gains the kingdom "

(KepV6eL ro/3 8a1Xemo).114 At Dramishta a piece of the

cake is set aside for " the greatest person " (6~ eyaXe-'repov), 10s Frazer, loc. cit., and W. Sandys, Christmastide, (1852), p. 165. 109 Above, p. 147. 110 Frazer, op. cit., p. 316. 111 Ibid., p. 315. 112 J. A. MacCulloch, in Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion etc., vol.

iii. (I9io), p. 61, quoting Chambers, Book of Days, vol. i., pp. 62-3, and Brand, Popular Antiquities, vol. ii., p. 58.

11 Cf. my article on " The Significance of Greek Personal Names " in Folk-Lore, vol. xxxiv. (1923), pp. 249-51.

x14 The Greek is in the dialect of Bogatsko.




who is said to be " the king " ( 3 PaonXta'). At Lopes, Pechan, and Hotur the first piece is set aside frankly " for the king." This was still true a generation ago of the more

developed Konstantziko. At Izvoro near Konitza in Epirus the first piece is reserved for the house, and the second for

" the king because he is a great person " (&da' 03 elvaL

eAyaXo ). The Vlachs of Pindus, too, keep the first

piece " for the king." 115 That is to say, the Greek and

Vlach villagers of remote Macedonia take thought, like the

villagers of France, for a " king " when they divide the

basilopitta. 116 In the centuries without printing-presses and steam

communications it was a far cry from Macedonia to France, and perhaps from the Greek to the Roman church. A

bridge can be detected, however, in Bosnia. There the Roman Catholics 1 make a special cake at Christmas, which is divided and distributed by the father of the family. He who finds the lucky coin hidden in the cake is proclaimed the " King of Christmas." Afterwards the father proposes a toast somewhat as follows,-" Your good health ! To all of you round this table ! To the King ! " 118

Thus the custom of selecting a King of the New Year revels seems to have extended right across Europe from Greece to France and England. The cakes of Albania, Bulgaria, and Serbia are referable perhaps to the same custom, but the evidence available at this stage is not conclusive.

115 Details collected by M. M. H.

116 Mr. Petrocochino informs me that Greeks of Smyrna and Con- stantinople adorn their New Year cakes with a double-headed eagle, the badge of Greek royalty. Their motive is probably not archaeo- logical or based on a belief that the basil of the cake was a " king." It is more probably patriotic, as is that of Greeks who adorn their walls and windows with the royal badge.

117 I have no information on the customs of Bosnians of the Orthodox church.

118 A. Bordeaux, La Bosnie Populaire, p. 70.



168 The Basil-Cake

An Identification.

Who, then, is this "king" of the basilopitta? The Macedonians themselves pretend to answer the question nowadays. So long as they remained under Turkish rule, their ideas of a king's personality were vague. They thought of him as though he were a figure in folklore, a remote power who made war and possessed untold wealth. But the issue of the Balkan wars brought a live king to rule over them, and crystallized their vague ideas. Conse-

quently, some villagers, such as those of Vurvutsko, now

say that the " king " of the basilopitta is the King of the Hellenes.119 In other places such as Hotur and Merasan the older people are chidden by the younger for admitting that a piece of cake was left for the " king " in their young days. For then, the younger peasants argue, the king of Macedonia was the Turkish sultan, and Christian Greeks could not possibly have remembered their Mohammedan

tyrant when dividing the basilopitta.120 But such new-made folklore is worth recording only for

the information of future investigators. Putting it aside, we find that knowledge of the gdteau des rois enables us to make at least a shrewd guess at the real identity of the

".king " of the basilopitta. For the jour des rois concludes the merrymakings which characterize the twelve days from Christmas to Epiphany. Of these merrymakings Sir J. G. Frazer makes a searching analysis, and then writes that " on the whole it seems difficult to suppose that the curious superstitions and quaint ceremonies, the outbursts of profanity and the inversions of ranks, which characterise the popular celebration of the twelve days from Christmas to Epiphany, have any connection with the episodes of Christian history believed to be commemorated by these two festivals." 121 " We may safely dismiss the theory of their Christian origin and recognize, with many good

119 M. M. H. 120 M. M. H 121 Frazer, The Scapegoat, pp. 388-9.




authorities, in the Twelve Days the relics of a purely pagan festival." 122

This festival Sir James and other authorities agree in identifying with the Roman Saturnalia.123 One feature of the Saturnalia was that men drew for a king with a bean, and held high revelry under his leadership for the duration of the festivities.124 In imperial Rome Nero himself once exercised the mock royalty.125 From these kings, authorities agree, descend the rois of Twelfth Night in France.126

This pedigree of the rois is apparently open to attack, however, from the same chronological arguments which were used above 127 to depreciate Usuard and the pseudo- Amphilochios as witnesses for the precise date of St. Basil's death. The rois do not seem to be recorded in Western Europe before 1282,128 and thus a long gap separates them from the latest mention of the " kings " of the Saturnalia. But the rois stand or fall with Christmas festivities in general. The identification of these festivities with the Saturnalia rests on a variety of similarities in detail, as Sir James Frazer explains,129 and does not depend on one small point like the date of St. Basil's death. A theory about an isolated event is easily stamped by authority on the popular imagination, but a custom involving many

22a Ibid., p. 327. a23 See e.g. Frazer, Early History of the Kingship, (1905), pp. 266 et seq.,.

and The Scapegoat, p. 312 ; Nouveau Larousse Illustrd, s.v. 1piphanie; O. v. Reinsberg-Diiringsfeld, Traditions de la Belgique, (Brussels, 1870), vol. i., p. 20; E. Pasquier, Recherches de la France, (Paris, 1665), vol. iv., ix. 343-4-

124 Cf. Arrian, Epicteti Dissertationes, vol. i., xxv., 7-9. 125 Tacitus, Ann. xiii. 15 (" festis Saturno diebus inter alia aequalium

ludicra regnum lusu sortientium evenerat ea sors Neroni "). 126 See e.g. Frazer, The Scapegoat, p. 312 ; Nouveau Larousse Illustrd,

s.v. Ppiphanie. 127 See above, pp. 149-53. 128 From Belgium: see the Chronicon Majus Aegidii Li Miusis

A bbatis Sancti Martini Tornacensis, in Recueil des Chroniques de Flandre, (Brussels), vol. ii., p. 170.

129 The Scapegoat, pp. 327, 338-9.



170 The Basil-Cake

details is not readily put into popular practice, particularly among uneducated women. The arguments used against Usuard and the pseudo-Amphilochios are not valid against the identification of Christmas with the Saturnalia or against the corollary of this identification, the descent of the rois from the pagan " kings." It is something, too, that the early reference to the rois claims them as an ancient

institution.la0 The identification of the rois of France with those of the

Saturnalia brings us back to Greece. For the Saturnalia spread from Rome to all parts of the Roman empire, as Libanios informs us.131 In Greece the festival was identified " by the unanimous voice of antiquity " with the festival of Kronos,132 the ancient god whose right to the title of " king " was pre-eminent.133 To Pindar he was " ruler." 134

To Julian he was " King Kronos " as distinguished from " Father Zeus." 135 At Athens his consort Rhea was " Queen."136 His priests at Olympia were called " kings." 137

Each year he resumed his ancient royalty throughout 130 The passage runs :-" anno MCCLXXXII. Secundum consuetudinem

ab antiquo approbatum, cives (Tornacenses) et filii civium divitum unam rotundam tabulam concardarunt et regem elegerunt."

la31 'Ev 'EKpdteL KaXavcw&v, ed. Reiske, vol. iv., p. 1053 (Mlav 8 ol3a KOLPvv, 7rdrvrwv Toro oL PiOY brb r rv 'PwOalawv

,ipXv) and EiL r&7 KaXdivar, ed.

Reiske, vol. i., p. 257 (raL6rlv r-pv EopThiv .. .. TcraI67V dp' &rdv, aov 7

'Pwoealiv a'pXh 7TrTava). Libanios was Julian's teacher and roughly contemporary with St. Basil.

132 Frazer, The Scapegoat, p. 351.

3zs The references are collected in Roscher's Lexikon, s.v. Kronos, column 1458.

134 r6pavvos (01. ii. 124). 135 Convivalia, 317 D.

136

BaoiXl• (Roscher, Lexikon, column 1518).

137 BaciXaL (Pausanias, vi., 20, I, and the inscription published by Roehl, Inscrr. Gr. Ant. (Berlin, 1882), No. 112, p. 39). See also Frazer, The Scapegoat, p. 352, and n. i, and The Golden Bough (900oo), vol. iii., p. 148, and L. R. Farnell, Cults of the Greek States, vol. i., p. 27. Farnell considers (op. cit., vol. i., p. 30) that the cult of Kronos was much wider than our scanty records indicate.




Greece for a period of seven days.138 In the reign of Maximian and Diocletian, less than a hundred years before St. Basil's time,139 Roman soldiers stationed on the Danube kept the " festival of Kronos " by drawing lots for a king. When he had been selected, they clothed him " in royal attire " to represent Kronos-Saturn, feasted and honoured him as a king for thirty days, and then forced him to commit suicide.14' From such evidence we conclude that the Saturnalia and its " kings " were familiar to the ancestors of the Greeks who eat the basilopitta to-day.

Summing up, therefore, we note that St. Basil's connection with the basilopitta does not bear analysis, that the resemblances between the basilopitta and the gdteau des rois are too numerous to b'e merely fortuitous, that the gdteau des rois is a characteristic feature of the popular celebration of the Twelve Days, that the Twelve Days are identified by modern scholars with the Saturnalia, and that the Saturnalia were anciently equated to the Kronia. Consequently, with some confidence we identify the Basil of the basilopitta with the basileus, the " king " of the Saturnalia. To go even farther and identify him with King Kronos himself is tempting, but our knowledge of that shadow-king is too slight for us to venture so far.

Even against the identification with the " king " of the Saturnalia something may be said. It is unfortunate, for instance, that no early record either of the basileus or of the basilopitta exists, though the widespread observance of the ceremony of eating the basilopitta indicates its ancient origin. Our records, however, are painfully meagre, and an argument a silentio may be upset at any moment by

138 Lucian, Saturnalia, 2 and 4. Cf. Frazer, Adonis, Attis, Osiris, App. 401.

139 He died about 379 A.D. ; see below, p. 176, n. 167. 140 Cumont, " Actes de S. Dasius " in A nalecta Bollandiana, vol. xvi.

(1897), pp. 5-16. Cf. Parmentier and Cumont, " Le Roi des Satur- nales " in Revue de Philologie, vol. xxi. (1897), pp. 143-53.



172 The Basil-Cake

some fresh discovery. In spite, therefore, of this weakness in the chain of evidence we may adhere to our belief that the Basil of the basilopitta is the " king " of the Saturnalia.

A Rider on the Intrusion of St. Basil. With this belief in our minds let us examine once more

St. Basil's association with Ist January. To do so let us turn again to the jour des rois with its fuller documentation.

In France these rois are popularly said to have been three

kings named Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar. In some districts, such as Franche-Comte and the Vosges Moun- tains, they are brought to life again every Twelfth Day by mummers, who dress in royal costume and go from house to house, singing songs and collecting contributions from the inmates. Each mummer carries a long wand topped by a. star. This mumming seems to exist no longer in Italy, but it is recorded from Milan in 1336 A.D. Then it was characterized by great pomp, a golden star being carried before the mummers.'41 In modern Roumania carol-singers, some of whom masquerade as kings, carry star-shaped lanterns to light them on their way as they sing " Songs of the Star " and colinde 142 at the New Year.143

In France the Three Kings are now popularly identified with the Wise Men of the East, the " Mages," and the mummers' star is held to represent that which led them to Bethlehem that they might worship the Infant Christ. In Roumania the carol-singers claim to act the story of His birth. In their procession Herod, the Three Kings, an angel, a shepherd, and the prophet Hosea all figure.144

There is, however, no Biblical warrant " for regarding these wise men as kings or for fixing their number at three." 145 To the best of my knowledge the Roumanian

141 Frazer, The Scapegoat, pp. 329-31. 142 "Songs at the Calends." 143 M. M. H., orally from Mr. B. Stoica of His Roumanian Majesty's

diplomatic service. Cf. also W. R. Halliday, in Annual of the British School at Athens, vol. xx. (1913-4), P. 33.

144 From Mr. Stoica. 145 Frazer, op. cit., p. 330.




practice has not been discussed, but, so far as France is

concerned, authorities have concluded that the Christian

colouring of the legend of the Three Kings is only a veneer, and that essentially they are pagan royalties 146 whom the Church has adopted and camouflaged for Christian use. In the early centuries of our era, it will be remembered, the Fathers advocated the unsparing suppression of heathen

practices and the ruthless destruction of heathen altars, shrines, and temples.147 Sometimes they were more statesmanlike and tried to make the transition from

paganism to Christianity as little abrupt as possible. In his advice to Mellitus, one of the missionaries who assisted St. Augustine to convert the English at the close of the sixth century, St. Gregory well voiced this wiser policy of the Church. In so many words he declared it inexpedient to suppress heathen sacrifices and festivals completely. They should be permitted on condition of their being held in honour of the true God.148 Agreeably with this policy the ecclesiastical authorities " in abolishing the ancient rites appointed ceremonies of somewhat similar character on the same days, or nearly so, thus filling up the spiritual void by a new creation which the worshipper might accept as an adequate substitute for what he had lost." 149 In this way in France and Italy the Saturnalia became Christmas- tide, the Lupercalia became the Christian Purification, and the Ambarvalia became the Rogations instituted with that intent by St. Mamert.150

Of all the heathen festivals none roused the wrath of the 146 Frazer, op. cit., p. 329 ; cf. pp. 312, 327, 338, and Early History

of the Kingship, (1905), pp. 266 et seq.; Nouveau Larousse Illustri, sx.v. rpiphanie.

147 F. Allard, L'Art Paien, p. 262, n. I, quoting a law of 435 A.D.

(codex Theodosius, XVI., x., 25). 148 Gregory, Ep. xi., 76. For the policy of destruction see his Ep.

xi., 66. 149 Frazer, The Scapegoat, p. 328. 150 A. A. Beugnot, Destruction du Paganisme, vol. ii., p. 265 n.



174 The Basil-Cake

early Fathers more than the calends. In pursuance of the Church's first policy Chrysostom,151 Asterios of Amasia,152 Augustine,153 Maximus of Turin,154 and other divines fulminated in East and West against the festival. Council after Council issued edicts against it. The Synod held at Auxerre in 585 A.D., for instance, forbade the faithful to

disguise themselves as stags and other unseemly things at New Year mummings.155 At the same time the Church

adopted the festival so far as it could, substituting Christmas for the opening festivities, and the Three Kings in the West for those pagans who were their ancestors in the opinion of our best authorities.156

In Greece, however, the pagan " kings " of the Saturnalia 157 could not be readily christianized in this way. For the word Mdyoi, the Greek equivalent of the word Magi, the title of the Three Kings from the East, means more particularly " magicians." Hence it is taboo to the Greek church, which has always set its face strongly against witchcraft. Even to-day priests will not confess old women till assured by the women that they have done no magic.15' They threaten wizards and witches with excommunication in this world and with hanging in the next.159 The unfortunate Magi themselves, with their suspect name, have fallen into such utter oblivion in modern Greece that not a single peasant can tell their story.16? In France this verbal

151 In Migne, Patrologiae Graecae, vol. xlix., 953. 152 Ibid., vol. xl., 216. 153 Ibid. vol. xxxix., 2001.

154 Ibid., vol. lvii., 253. 155 Beugnot, op. cit., vol. ii., p. 326.

156 Above, p. 173.

157 See above, pp. 166-7. 158 M. M. H. 159 M. M. H.

160 M. M. H. Greek peasants do not read their Bibles. In modern Italy at least the Roman church has preferred to set wizards to catch wizards. In parts of Tuscany certain old Roman coins were thought amulets against witchcraft. To combat this belief Italian priests put into circulation within living memory medals which show the Three Kings worshipping the Infant Christ. The Kings are named and are entreated to pray for the people. The circulation of the medals by




difficulty did not arise, for the French words Mages and

magiciens are restricted to the respective senses of " Magi " and " magicians," 161 and one term cannot be used for the other.162 Thus the rois of the French Saturnalia became the Three Kings or " Mages " without impediment.

The early Greek fathers, however, did not require the services of the Magi, for philology suggested an even more

plausible disguise for the " kings " of the pagan festival they abhorred. St. Basil's name, Bac-XAeog in Greek, means " kingly," and Greeks are fond of plays on words.163 In much the same way as Jason's temple to Cybele-Rhea, the Mother of the Gods, was claimed by Christians as a church of Mary, the Mother of God,164 so the " king " of the New Year revels, selected perhaps by a basilopitta,165 may have been identified with Basil, the " kingly " saint.

priests caused some scandal among true believers, who regarded the proceedings as an unholy compromise of saints and the devil, but the medals are still accepted by the ignorant as powerful amulets "perche le tre rege sulla faccia erano stessi grande streghone " (" because the three kings on the obverse were themselves great magicians "). For this most interesting reference, which is to be found in C. G. Leland, Etruscan Roman Remains in Popular Tradition, pp. 298-300, I am indebted to Mr. A. R. Wright.

161 See any ordinary French dictionary. 162 It is at least interesting that the story of the Magi is known in

both Roumania and Serbia, though not in Greece, the home of their mother-church. The reason for its survival is probably linguistic. In Roumanian the word wizard is vrajitor, whereas the Magi are called Magi. In Serbian veshtitza means a witch, and the Magi are called Tri Jerarka (" three hierarchs "). I owe the Serbian information to Miss Anna Christitch, and the Roumanian to Messrs. Stoica and Marcu Beza.

163 Cf. F. W. Hasluck, Christianity and Islam, pp. 696-7; M. M. Hasluck, in Contemporary Review, Feb. 1924, p. 225.

164 F. W. Hasluck, op. cit., p. 60, n. 2.

165 If this were true, a basilopitta must have existed in Cappadocia in St. Basil's time. There is no evidence for or against its existence. If it did exist, it has been forgotten, or the bishop of Kastoria misled me (above, p. 159) about the modern Cappadocian practice. In the latter case some of my paragraphs on Cappadocia would be irrelevant, but the validity of my main thesis that the Basil of the modern basilopitta is the " king " of the Saturnalia would remain unimpaired.



176 The Basil-Cake

Such an identification would have been easy at that time and would have suited the policy of the saint's contem- poraries remarkably well. The transition from paganism to Christianity had not been fully accomplished in Asia Minor, and church practices were still fluid. The details of Christmas itself, the destined supplanter of the first festivities of the Saturnalia, had not been settled. In the oration which St. Basil pronounced on Christmas Day, he hesitated about its name and suggested " Theophany " as suitable.166 In the midst of these difficulties he died, for his death took place about 379 A.D.,167 and Chrysostom, speaking in 388 A.D., stated that only some ten years had passed since Christmas had been instituted.168 St. Basil's

struggles against paganism during his lifetime 169 rendered it peculiarly appropriate that the Fathers should add him to the battery of " apostles and prophets " 170 with which they assailed the hated Saturnalia. The pun on his name must have simplified the choice of date. The brief interval between that date and the days consecrated to the memory of certain " apostles and prophets " gave his festival the appearance of apostolic sanction, as though St. Paul had ordained the chronological sequence of the festivals rather than the order of dignity of saints.171 What, then, could have been more natural, or indeed inevitable, in the circumstances of the time than that the basileus, the " king " of the widespread pagan Saturnalia,172 whether selected or not by a basilopitta, should become Basil, the " kingly " saint of the Christian church ?

16 In Migne, op. cit., vol. xxxi., 1473 A (6voOa dyeOla ri? oprg 7•^v' Oeoqdvwa ioprd'owev r 7 ow7r7pta roV

K6oaov,, rv yev9OXtov ilgpav ri~

av popwr67"r"os).

167 See e.g. Catholic Encyclopcedia, vol. ii. (1907), p. 332. 168 See K. Holl, Amphilochius von Ikonium, (Tiibingen and Leipzig,

1904), p. 109. 169 Cf. St. Gregory, in Migne, Patrologiae Graecae, vol. xlvi., p. 789. 170 Cf. above, p. 151.

171.St..Gregory, loc. cit., p. 788 (above, p. 151 and n. 50).

172 Cf. above, p. 169.




Whatever the motives of appointing the first of January as St. Basil's Day, the laity at first kept stubbornly to its old festival. Gregory, for instance, found it necessary to rebuke his flock for preferring the heathen festivities of the New Year to mass 173 on what seems to have been St. Basil's day.174 But gradually both East and West the Church has had her way on the whole. Modern French peasants avow that the rois they commemorate are the Three Wise Men.175 Modern Greek peasants associate Ist January and their basilopitta with St. Basil. Yet vestiges of pagan rites may still be discerned both East and West. When their elected " king " drinks, French peasants cry,-" The King drinks ! " and not " The Mage drinks !" 176 Macedonians, most primitive of all Greeks, still steal a piece of St. Basil's cake for his pagan prede- cessor.177 And at the " calends " 178 Macedonian " kings "

(3ao-aXea'der) still go from house to house, singing carols and collecting pence, in the town of Serbia ahd the villages of Mavrokhor (near Grevena) and Velvendo (near Serbia).179 So persistent in spite of bell, book, and candle are the minutiae of folklore practices.

MARGARET M. HASLUCK.

173 In Migne, op. cit., vol. xlvi., p. 578. 174 See Usener, Religionsgeschichtliche Untersuchungen, pp. 246 et seq. 175 Above, p. 172.

176 Voltaire made this observation (Questions sur l'Encyclopedie par des Amateurs (Paris, 1770-I), vol. v., p. 225, s.v. rpiphanie).

177 Above, pp. 166-7. 178 KOXLaVPT, KdXa7Ta in Macedonian Greek. 179 M. M. H.

M



Date post:	14-Feb-2016
Category:	Documents
Upload:	candirue
View:	1,043 times
Download:	0 times

Vasilopita

Documents