Athens became a shining light to the world only, we are told, when the twelve tribes of Attica, led by Theseus, brought each its brand to the altar of Athene Polias. All Greece confederated, making Delphi its central hearth; and the islands congregated around Delos, whence the new fire was fetched every year.
Periodic Fires.—Because the sun loses its force after noon, and after midsummer daily shortens the length of its circuit, the ancients inferred, and primitive populations still believe, that, as time goes on, the energies of fire must necessarily decline. Therefore men set about renewing the fires in the temples and on the hearth on the longest day of summer or at the beginning of the agricultural year. The ceremony was attended with much rejoicing, banqueting and many religious rites. Houses were thoroughly cleansed; people bathed, and underwent lustrations and purifications; new clothes were put on; quarrels were made up; debts were paid by the debtor or remitted by the creditor; criminals were released by the civil authorities in imitation of the heavenly judges, who were believed to grant on the same day a general remission of sins. All things were made new; each man turned over a new page in the book of his existence. Some nations, like the Etruscans in the Old World and the Peruvians and Mexicans in the New, carried these ideas to a high degree of development, and celebrated with magnificent ceremonies the renewal of the saecula, or astronomic periods, which might be shorter or longer than a century. Some details of the festival among the Aztecs have been preserved. On the last night of every period (52 years) every fire was extinguished, and men proceeded in solemn procession to some sacred spot, where, with awe and trembling, the priests strove to kindle a new fire by friction. It was as if they had a vague idea that the cosmos, with its sun, moon and stars, had been wound up like a clock for a definite period of time. And had they failed to raise the vital spark, they would have believed that it was because the great fire was being extinguished at the central hearth of the world. The Stoics and many other ancient philosophers thought that the world was doomed to final extinction by fire. The Scandinavian bards sung the end of the world, how at last the wolf Fenrir would get loose, how the cruel fire of Loki would destroy itself by destroying everything. The Essenes enlarged upon this doctrine, which is also found in the Sibylline books and appears in the Apocrypha (2 Esdras xvi. 15).
See Dupuis, Origine de tous les cultes (1794); Burnouf, Science des religions; Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, cap. xx. (1835); Adalbert Kuhn, Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des Göttertranks (1859); Steinthal, Über die ursprüngliche Form der Sage von Prometheus (1861); Albert Reville, “Le Mythe de Prométhée,” in Revue des deux mondes (August 1862); Michel Bréal, Hercule et Cacus (1863); Tylor, Researches into the Early History of Mankind, ch. ix. (1865); Bachofen, Die Sage von Tanaquil (1870); Lord Avebury, Prehistoric Times (6th ed., 1900); Haug, Religion of the Parsis (1878). (E. Re.)
FIRE AND FIRE EXTINCTION. Fire is considered in this article, primarily, from the point of view of the protection against fire that can be accorded by preventive measures and by the organization of fire extinguishing establishments.
History is full of accounts of devastation caused by fires in towns and cities of nearly every country in the civilized world. The following is a list of notable fires of early days:—
Great Britain and Ireland
| 798. | London, nearly destroyed. |
| 982. | London,„ greater part of the city burned. |
| 1086. | London,„ all houses and churches from the east to the west gate burned. |
| 1212. | London,„ greater part of the city burned. |
| 1666. | London,„ “The Great Fire,” September 2–6. |
| It began in a wooden house in Pudding Lane, and burned for three days, consuming the buildings on 436 acres, 400 streets, lanes, &c., 13,200 houses, with St Paul’s church, 86 parish churches, 6 chapels, the guild-hall, the royal exchange, the custom-house, many hospitals and libraries, 52 companies' halls, and a vast number of other stately edifices, together with three of the city gates, four stone bridges, and the prisons of Newgate, the Fleet, and the Poultry and Wood Street Compters. The fire swept from the Tower to Temple church, and from the N.E. gate to Holborn bridge. Six persons were killed. The total loss of property was estimated at the time to be £10,730,500. | |
| 1794. | London, 630 houses destroyed at Wapping. Loss above £1,000,000. |
| 1834. | London,„ Houses of Parliament burned. |
| 1861. | London,„Tooley Street wharves, &c., burned. Loss estimated at £2,000,000. |
| 1873. | London,„ Alexandra palace destroyed. |
| 1137. | York, totally destroyed. |
| 1184. | Glastonbury, town and abbey burned. |
| 1292. | Carlisle, destroyed. |
| 1507. | Norwich, nearly destroyed; 718 houses burned. |
| 1544. | Leith, burned. |
| 1598. | Tiverton, 400 houses and a large number of horses burned; 33 persons killed. Loss, £150,000. |
| 1612. | Tiverton,„ 600 houses burned. Loss over £200,000. |
| 1731. | Tiverton,„ 300 houses burned. |
| 1700. | Edinburgh, “the Great Fire.” |
| 1612. | Cork, greater part burned, and again in 1622. |
| 1613. | Dorchester, nearly destroyed. Loss, £200,000. |
| 1614. | Stratford-on-Avon, burned. |
| 1644. | Beaminster, burned. Again in 1684 and 1781. |
| 1675. | Northampton, almost totally destroyed. |
| 1683. | Newmarket, large part of the town burned. |
| 1694. | Warwick, more than half burned; rebuilt by national contribution. |
| 1707. | Lisburn, burned. |
| 1727. | Gravesend, destroyed. |
| 1738. | Wellingborough, 800 houses burned. |
| 1743. | Crediton, 450 houses destroyed. |
| 1760. | Portsmouth, dockyard burned. Loss, £400,000. |
| 1770. | Portsmouth, dockyard burned.„ Loss, £100,000. |
| 1802. | Liverpool, destructive fire. Loss, £1,000,000. |
| 1827. | Sheerness, 50 houses and much property destroyed. |
| 1854. | Gateshead, 50 persons killed. Loss, £1,000,000. |
| 1875. | Glasgow. Great fire. Loss, £300,000 |
France
| 59. | Lyons, burned to ashes. Nero offers to rebuild it. |
| 1118. | Nantes, greater part of the city destroyed. |
| 1137. | Dijon, burned. |
| 1524. | Troyes, nearly destroyed. |
| 1720. | Rennes, on lire from December 22 to 29. 850 houses burned. |
| 1734. | Brest. Fire and explosion in dockyard. Loss, £1,000,000. |
| 1862. | Marseilles, destructive fire. |
| 1871. | Paris. Communist devastations. Property destroyed, £32,000,000. |
Central and Southern Europe
| 64. Rome burned during 8 days. 10 of the 14 wards of the city were destroyed. | |
| 1106. Venice, greater part of the city was burned. | |
| 1577. Venice,„ fire at the arsenal, greater part of the city ruined by an explosion. | |
| 1299. Weimar, destructive fire; also in 1424 and 1618. | |
| 1379. Memel was in large part destroyed, and again in 1457, 1540, 1678, 1854. | |
| 1405. Bern was destroyed. | |
| 1420. Leipzig lost 400 houses. | |
| 1457. Dort, cathedral and large part of the town burned. | |
| 1491. Dresden was destroyed. | |
| 1521. Oviedo, large part of the city destroyed. | |
| 1543. Komorn was burned. | |
| 1634. Fürth was burned by Austrian Croats. | |
| 1680. Fürth was again destroyed. | |
| 1686. Landau was almost destroyed. | |
| 1758. Pirna was burned by Prussians. 260 houses destroyed. | |
| 1762. Munich lost 200 houses. | |
| 1764. Königsberg, public buildings, &c., burned. Loss, £600,000. | |
| 1769. Königsberg,„ almost destroyed. | |
| 1784. Rokitzan (Bohemia) was totally destroyed. Loss, £300,000. | |
| 1801. Brody, 1500 houses destroyed. | |
| 1859. Brody,„ 1000 houses destroyed. | |
| 1803. Posen, large part of older portion of city burned. | |
| 1811. Forest fires in Tyrol destroyed 64 villages and hamlets. | |
| 1818. Salzburg was partly destroyed. | |
| 1842. Hamburg. A fire raged for 100 hours, May 5–7. | |
| During the fire the city was in a state of anarchy. 4219 buildings, including 2000 dwellings, were destroyed. One-fifth of the population was made homeless, and 100 persons lost their lives. The total loss amounted to, £7,000,000. After the fire, contributions from all Germany came in to help to rebuild the city. | |
| 1861. Glarus (Switzerland), 500 houses burned. | |
Northern Europe
| 1530. | Aalborg, almost entirely destroyed. |
| 1541. | Aarhuus, almost entirely destroyed, and again in 1556. |
| 1624. | Opslo, nearly destroyed. Christiania was built on the site. |
| 1702. | Bergen, greater part of the town destroyed. |
| 1728. | Copenhagen, nearly destroyed. 1650 houses burned, 77 streets. |
| 1794. | Copenhagen,„ royal palace with contents burned. |
| 1795. | Copenhagen,„ 50 streets, 1563 houses burned. |
