wife.^65 Here the ritual swinging performed by mortal girls is put in direct
contact with the cosmic swinging of the Sun.
Hopping, jumping, and dancing are also characteristic of the spring and
midsummer festivals.^66 It is not so clear that these are meant as an imitation
of something the Sun does. Yet there was a belief that the Sun does dance
at certain times or on certain days. Lucian (De saltatione 17) says that the
Indians greeted the Sun at daybreak with a silent dance in imitation of the
god’s dancing. In Germany and England the Sun was supposed to dance
and leap on Easter morning, and people would go out early to observe the
phenomenon. In the Baltic and Slavonic countries it was associated rather
with Midsummer Day.^67
Ring-dances, where the executants form a circle that rotates as they dance
and sing, have a potential reference to the sun’s movement, and it may be
significant that in parts of Latvia such dances by women and girls, accom-
panied by cries of ro ̄to ̄! (‘turn, circle’), were customary at the beginning of
spring. An association of ring-dances with the sun is also suggested by designs
on Minoan seals.^68 We think further of the ‘circular dances’ (κ3κλιοι χορο)
that provided the Athenians with a traditional show at the spring Dionysia.
Bonfires are a typical feature of all the season-marking festivals: the begin-
ning of summer, midsummer, the beginning of winter, and midwinter.^69
Their analogy with the fire of the sun has often been noted. It becomes more
pointed with the (mainly midsummer) custom, observed across Europe from
Russia to Wales, of rolling a burning wheel or barrel down a hill, sometimes
all the way to a river or lake in which it is extinguished. Records of the practice
go back to the fourth century.^70
Buns or cakes used in ritual may also symbolize the sun. In the Indian
Va ̄japeya sacrifice the animal victim was tied to a post, on top of which a
wheel-shaped cake of grain was placed. Steps were set against the post, and
the royal sacrificer climbed up, saying to his wife, ‘Come, wife, let us go up to
(^65) von Schroeder (1914–16), ii. 44, 129–50, 343–6, cf. 434 (a Greek version of the Grosdanka
story); Frazer (1911–36), iv. 277–85.
(^66) von Schroeder (1914–16), ii. 114–29.
(^67) Grimm (1883–8), 291, cf. 741; von Schroeder (1914–16), ii. 37, 43 f., 48 f., 104, cf. 109 f.;
de Vries (1956), i. 358.
(^68) von Schroeder (1914–16), ii. 124–8; Goodison (as n. 27), 138–40.
(^69) Grimm (1883–8), 612–28, 1466–8; von Schroeder (1914–16), ii. 201, 204 f., 211, 220–2,
225–40; Frazer (1911–36), x. 106–269; de Vries (1956), i. 461–3; Unbegaun (1948), 431 f., 440;
Gimbutas (1971), 162; Vánˇa (1992), 118, 241–4.
(^70) Acta S. Vincenti 1 in Zwicker (1934–6), 302 f. (Aquitania), cf. M. Green (1991), 59, 108;
Grimm (1883–8), 619 f., 623, 627 f., 1467; Mannhardt (1905), i. 455, 463, 500 f., 507–11, 518–21,
537; von Schroeder (1914–16), ii. 155–9, 229 f., 234; Frazer (1911–36), x. 116–19, 141, 143,
161–4, 166, 173 f., 201, 334, 337 f.; Gelling–Davidson (1969), 143–5; Vánˇa (1992), 62.
214 5. Sun and Daughter