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The place therinne the temple sytt isa hille; and * it liggeth wel in the myddes of the cytee, and two walles enviroune it. Oon of tho walles is auncien, but the tother is not mocheles elder than oure tyme. The entree of the holy place maketh out toward the Septemtryon, wel a 100 fadmes of largenesse; and in that entree stont tho yerdes that Bachus leet set, on heighte a 300 fadmes.Some reduce these 300-fathom emblems to 30 by conjecture, but it is in unimportant details like this that Lucian ves rein to his inclination to parody. Mandeville gives the Howe of Babel the modest height of 64 furlongs—eight miles. A man goth up the oon of thise yerdes twyes in the yeer and woneth at the cop of the yerde for the space of 7 dayes. And the cause of his goynge up, as men seyn, is this. Lewed folk trowen that he speketh with the goddes on highe and axeth bones for alle Surrye, and the goddeg heren his preyeres fro there nyghe.This is evidently the true reason, and not either of the two that follow. That the gods can hear better from near at hand is good Semitic psychology; but the use of a pillar instead of a mountain-top, or a ziggurat, or the roof of a house, appears otherwise unevidenced in early Syria. “It was perhaps the memory of this strange rite (not however peculiar to Syria, but known also in India) which led Simeon the Stylite to ascend his column four centuries later ata site not very far west of the old temple of the Dea Syria” (C. R. Conder, Palestine, p. 206). But othere wenen that this also is don be cause of Deucalioun, in tokene and mynde of that tribulacioun, whan men wenten into montaynes and into the gret highe trees for fere of the flode. Now to me, that is not to beleven. I suppose wel that thei don this for worschipe of Bachus, and I conclude it thus. Yerdes that thei maken for worschipe of Bachus, on tho yerdes thei setten alle weyes wodene men; but I schalle not seye whi.Compare Herodotus 2, 48, and the iepds Adyos. The explanation that Lucian has in mind is probably the ee story (Clement of Alexandria, Protrept. 2, p. 30 P.). Therfore me thenketh, in goynge up, that oon countrefeteth that other woden man.
