children.[1] We may add that the fixing of St. Nicolas' Day on the 6th of December had a great influence in confirming this idea; December being, as pointed out by Prof. Vesselovsky, the special month of children's feasts.[2]
The representation of this miracle in an image or picture may, if we strain our imagination to the utmost, make us think of the Waterman with the souls of the drowned. But the resemblance is purely accidental. Moreover, this miracle is quite lost in the mass of the saint's other miracles, and has never, so far as I know, been chosen as the subject of a separate representation, but only has its place among a number of miniature pictures in a series forming one "ikon".
So far the resemblance between the names of Nikuz and St. Nicolas, and the marine activity of the saint, remain unexplained. To explain both we must make a detailed inquiry into the life and Lycian cult of St. Nicolas. There we may perhaps trace the relation between the Christian cult and some ancient Greek cult it has replaced. In the life of St. Nicolas we find two suggestions of ancient mythology. First, the festivals of the Rosalia {dies Rosarum) are mentioned: "When came the time of the Rosalia (τῶν Ῥοσσαλων) St. Nicolas went to the metropolis";[3] he therefore himself took part in the performance of a heathen rite. We must not be surprised to find a mention of the Rosalia in Lycia. The Rosalia were a Thracian spring-festival, imported thither, it is said, from Phrygia.'[4]
Secondly, we hear of the strife between our saint and Artemis. It is written in the Vita that St. Nicolas de-
- ↑ See Hampson, l. c, and Eug. Schnell, Sanct Nicolaus der heilige Bischof und Kinderfreund, seine Fest tend seine Gaben. Brünn, 1885.
- ↑ "Opyty po istorii, razvitiia khristianskoi legendy," Jurnal Ministerstva Narodnago Prosvieshchenia, vol. 184, pp. 272-288.
- ↑ Trudy Kiefskoi Dukhovnoi Akademii, 1873, xii.
- ↑ Tomaschek, Rosalia und Brumalia, in the Sitzungsberichte der K. Wiener Akademie, Band 60, S. 352, etc.
