Idol Processions
Some Pagan Gods requiring this ritual are: Apollo, Zeus, Jupiter, Juno, Minerva, to name but a few.
Biblical requirements for this act of worship in regards to the GOD, Jesus Christ, or Mary and the saints: NONE
Homer writes - "the procession of Hecuba and the ladies of Troy to the shrine of Minerva, in the Acropolis of that city." It was a time of terror and dismay in Troy, when Diomede, with resistless might, was driving everything before him, and the overthrow of the proud city seemed at hand. To avert the apparently inevitable doom, the Trojan Queen was divinely directed to lead the assembled train Of Troy's chief matrons to Minerva's fane."
And she did so :
" Herself .... the long procession leads ; The train majestically slow proceeds. Soon as to Ilion's topmost tower they come, And awful reach the high Palladian dome, Antenor's consort, fair Theano, waits As Pallas' priestess, and unbars the gates. "With hands uplifted and imploring eyes, They fill the dome with supplicating cries." - Iliad, Book vi. Pope's Translation, vol. ii. pp. 455-468, free download on GOOGLE BOOKS here I am using an English translation by Pope & Wakefield instead.
to enlarge click once then click again
Some folks may balk at using a poet as a historian but you must understand Homer was putting their history, whether mythological or political, to prose. So he was creating poetry out of events that had occurred within their culture, their religion, and their past.
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Hislop states: "Jupiter and Juno's statues (for Diodorus mentions the shrine of Juno as well as of Jupiter) were regularly carried each year to Ethiopia, after a certain period of sojourn there, were returned to Egypt again." allegedly from Diodorus, book 1 sect. 97
But I find that the gods mentioned are not Jupiter and Juno, rather: "each year among the Egyptians the shrine of Zeus is carried across the river into Libya and then brought back some days later, as if the god were arriving from Ethiopia; and as for the dalliance of these deities, in their festal gatherings the priests carry the shrines of both to an elevation that has been strewn with flowers of every description." DIODORUS,, lib. i. sect. 97, p. 62.
But the gods really don't care what you call them, as long as you call them "n_n"
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Eustathius says regarding this festivity, " according to some, the Ethiopians used to fetch the images of Zeus, and other gods from the great temple of Zeus at Thebes. With these images they went about at a certain period in Libya, and celebrated a splendid festival for twelve gods." Eustathius on Homer's Iliad, lib. i. 11. 423-425, quoted in Smith's (larger) Classical Dictionary, sub voce " Ethiopia."
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As the festival was referred to as an Ethiopian festival, it was Ethiopians that carried away the idols and returned them, this would illustrate that the idols may have been Ethiopian; as Egypt was under the dominion of Nimrod, in addition to the Oushites/Ethiopians, during a brief respite for idolatry in Egypt,... See ante, pp. 63-65.
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Eustathius says, " according to some, the Ethiopians used to fetch the images of Zeus, and other gods from the great temple of Zeus at Thebes. With these images they went about at a certain period in Libya, and celebrated a splendid festival for twelve gods." Eustathius on Homer's Iliad, lib. i. 11. 423-425, quoted in Smith's (larger) Classical Dictionary, sub voce " Ethiopia."
For a time in Mexico the images of the gods were brought forth out of the country in a mourning procession, to indicate their departure, only to be returned to the land with an outpouring of celebration. Humboldt, vol. i. pp. 381, 382.
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Potter also does mention a " Delphian festival in memory of a journey of Apollo." Potter, vol. i. p. 360.
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"...and then under the head of the festival called Apollonia, we thus read : " To Apollo, at Ægialea on this account : Apollo having obtained a victory over Python, went to Ægialea, accompanied with his sister Diana ; but, being frightened from thence, fled into Crete. After this, the Ægialeans were infected with an epidemical distemper ; and, being advised by the prophets to appease the two offended deities, sent seven boys and as many virgins to entreat them to return. [Here is the typical germ of ''The Sevenfold Litany" of Pope Gregory.] Apollo and Diana accepted their piety, .... and it became a custom, to appoint chosen boys and virgins, to make a solemn procession, in show, as if they designed to bring back Apollo and Diana, which continued till Pausanias's time." Ibid. p. 334. , See ante, pp. 63-65., Humboldt, vol. i. pp. 381, 382.,
"They lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in the balance, and hire a goldsmith ; and he maketh it a god : they fall down,yea, they worship. They bear him upon the shoulder, they carry him, and set him in his place, and he standeth ; from his place he shall not remove." Isaiah 46:6 In the remains of Nineveh's sculptures the parading of idols, carried upon the shoulders of men, are also seen,..." * LAYARD'S Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 451,
Layard's Nineveh and it's remains vol II free ebook here
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Gregory the Great, who on a large scale, introduced these religious processions into the Roman Church allegedly.
In 590, when Rome was suffering from a pestilence, Gregory compelled the people to come together publicly and petition God, requiring that they should meet at dawn in seven groups, according to their ages, gender, and social standing, and walk in seven processions, reciting litanies or supplications, till they all came to gather at one place. The origin of Litania Septemplex, or " The Sevenfold Litany.? Have yet to discover the proof of this statement.
They paraded according to Gregory's instructions, singing and chanting the words, "Lord, have mercy upon us," carrying along with them, as Baronius relates, by Gregory's express command, an image of the Virgin." BARONIUS, Annales, 590, tom. viii. pp. 6, 7. [book is in Latin Sorry ;) ]
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The two processions mentioned in the Bible are:
As told in Joshua chapter 6, the seven days' encompassing of Jericho, and the procession at the bringing up of the ark of God from Kirjath-jearim to the city of David.
In the first case, though attended with the symbols of Divine worship, were a miraculous mode of conducting war.
In the other, there was simply the removing of the ark, the symbol of Jehovah's presence, from the place where, for a long period, it had been allowed to lie in obscurity, to the place which the Lord Himself had chosen for its abode ; and on such an occasion it was entirely fitting and proper that the transference should be made
with all religious solemnity.
