_THE TRADITION OF NOAH AND THE DELUGE._
I now come to a different set of illustrations still more germane to my
subject.
Calmet says:--"Plusieurs scavans out remarqué que les pagans ont
confondu Saturne, Deucalion, Ogyges, le Dieu Coelus ou Ouranus,
Janus, Prothée, Prométhée, Virtumnus, Bacchus, Osiris, Vadimon,
Nisuthrus avec Noë."
I must add that this enumeration by no means exhausts the list.
It is not my purpose, however, to pursue the subject in all its
ramifications. I shall limit myself to the examination of one or two of
these counterparts of Noah.
* * * * *
I. And in the first place, "Him of mazy counsel, Saturn," the
expression of Hesiod ([Greek: t' Iapeton te ide Kronon agkylomêtên]),
Hesiod. Theog. v. 19, which so well befits the intermediary between God
and the survivors of the Deluge. "Under Saturn," as Plutarch tells us,
"was the golden age." Calmet says (Dict. "Saturne"), "Quant aux traits
de ressemblance qui se trouvent entre Noë et Saturne, ils ne peuvent
être plus sensibles.[167] Il (Saturne) est représenté avec une faulx
comme inventeur de l'agriculture[168]: Noë est nommé 'vir agricola'
(Gen. ix. 20) et il est dit qu'il commença à cultiver la terre. Les
_Saturnales_, qu'on célébrait dans le vin et dans la licence et _où
les serviteurs s'égaloient à leurs maitres_--marquent l'ivresse de
Noë et sa malédiction qui assujettit Chanaan à ses frères tout égal
qu'il leur étoit par sa naissance." [I have _little doubt that this
Bacchanalian recollection originated the tradition of the equality of
conditions_ in the _golden_ age, contrary to the facts of Scripture and
history.] "On disoit que Noë avait dévoré tous ses enfans à l'exception
de Jupiter, de Neptune, et de Pluton. Noë vit périr dans les eaux du
déluge tous les hommes de son temps dont plusieurs étoient ses parents
et plus jeunes que lui. Dans la stile de l'écriture on dit souvent que
l'on fait ce qu'on n'empêche pas, ou même ce que l'on prédit." Further
resemblances are traced in Calmet.
[167] Bochart also says (Geog. Sacra, lib. i.) "Noam esse Saturnum
tam multa docent, ut vix sit dubitandi locus."
[168] "Cum falce, messis insigne."--_Macrobius, "Saturn."_
Now, I find in Sanchoniathon,[169] _i.e._ in the most ancient
Phoenician historian, a tradition running exactly parallel with this
Greek tradition as interpreted by Calmet:--"Ces genies, ces sages, ces
dieux, nous expliquent les autres dieux qui, d'après Berose, forment
l'homme du sang de Bélus, et tous les dieux que Sanchoniaton nous
représente saisis d'épouvante _à la vue de Saturne, faisant périr par
le déluge son fils Sadid_."--(Le Peuple Primitif; Rougemont, i. 303,
quoted by Gainet, iii. 561, with reference to the worship of spirits.)
I adduce it in evidence of the connection in tradition between Saturn
and the Deluge, and in corroboration of Calmet's interpretation, which
clears the Greek myth of what is grotesque and repulsive in it.
[169] Sanchoniathon, _vide supra_ M'Lennan (ch. vii.)
If I have sufficiently identified Saturn with Noah and the period of
the Deluge, the lines of Virgil (Æneid, 8th Book, 315), besides bearing
testimony in the same direction, appear to me to acquire a new meaning
and significance:--
"Primus ab ætherio venit _Saturnus_ Olympo,
Arma Jovis fugiens, _et regnis exul ademptis_,
Is genus indocile, ac dispersum montibus altis
Composuit; _legesque dedit_; Latiumque vocari
Maluit."...
"_Aurea_, quæ perhibent, _illo sub rege_ fuerunt
_Sæcula_; sed placidâ populos in pace regebat,
Deterior donec paulatim ac discolor ætas
Et belli rabies et amor successit habendi."[170]
[170] Bryant (Mythology, ii. 261) says:--"He is by Lucian made to
say of himself [Greek: oudeis hyp' emou doulos ên]. The Latins
in great measure confine his history to their own country,
where, like Janus, he is represented as refining and modelling
mankind, and giving them laws. At other times he is introduced
as prior to law; which are seeming contrarieties very easy to
be reconciled." There were traditions also of Saturn in Crete
and Sparta.--_Bryant_, iii. 414.
Allowing for the confusion incidental to the deification of Noah in the
person of Saturn, which necessitates his descent from heaven, the rest
of the verses seem merely to describe what is recorded in tradition,
if not implied in the scriptural narrative, that Noah, a voyager and
exile, his possessions having been lost in the Flood, flying the
wrath--not indeed as directed against himself, but the consequences of
the wrath of the Almighty[171]--persuaded the survivors of the Flood
to abandon the mountains, to which they clung in fear of a second
Deluge, and brought them into the plains, incited and encouraged by his
example,--he who, if he be the same (_vide supra_, 208, 209) with
Nin and Nebo, we have seen called "the sustainer," "the supporter,"
"he who strengthens the hearts of his followers," who taught them the
cultivation of the soil, and of whom it is now said more distinctly
than we have seen it heretofore stated, _legesque dedit_.[172]
[171] _Vide supra_, p. 211.
[172] An indirect argument in proof of the identity of Saturn
and Noah might be adduced if I had space to incorporate
Boulanger's evidence of the ceremonies among the ancients'
commemoration of the Deluge, ("Vestiges d'usages
hydrophoriques dans plusieurs fêtes anciennes et modernes").
This being assumed, is it not of some significance that when
the Roman pontiffs proceeded to the banks of the Tiber to
perform their annual (commemorative) ceremonial, that they
should make their expiatory sacrifices to Saturn? The points
that Bryant takes (ii. 262) are very striking:--"He was looked
upon as the _author_ of time, 'Ipse qui _auctor_ temporum'
(Macrob. i. 214). [His medals had on the reverse the figure
of _a ship_.] They represented him as of an uncommon age,
with hair white as snow; they had a notion that he _would
return to second childhood_. 'Ipsius autem canities primosis
nivibus candicabat; _licet etiam ille puer posse fieri
crederetur_.'--Martianus Capella. Martial's address to him,
though short, has in it something remarkable, for he speaks of
him as a native _of the former world_--
'Antiqui rex magne poli, _mundique prioris_,
Sub quo prima quies, nec labor ullus erat.'--l. 12, E. 63.
I have mentioned that he was supposed, [Greek: katapinein],
to have _swallowed up his children_; he was also said to have
_ruined all things_; which, however, _were restored with a
vast increase_."--Orphic Hymn, 12, v. 3. Compare Calmet,
_supra_, pp. 211 and 212.
Martianus Capella and Varro de Ling. Lat. lib. i. 18, call him
_Sator_, a sower, "Saturnus Sator." Now it is curious that
the ancient Germans had a god "of the name of _Sator_." He
is described by Verstegan as "standing _upon a fish_, with a
wheel in one hand, and in the other a _vessel of water_ filled
with fruits and flowers."
_N.B._--I was surprised to find in Carver's "Travels in
North America" (p. 282) the phrase among the North American
Indians, of things being done at the instigation "of the Grand
_Sautor_."
There is no doubt much that is monstrous and grotesque in the classical
conception of Saturn, but I must again suggest that as all traditions
met in Noah, and were tradited through him, we must not be surprised
to find all antediluvian traditions confused in Noah. Thus even the
tradition of Lamech, which we have seen (_vide supra_, 178) variously
distorted in the legends of Perseus and OEdipus, are again repeated
in the legends of Saturn.
There are, no doubt, also divers astral complications arising out of
Saturn's place in the planetary system. When, however, we are told
that Saturn was son of Coelus and Tellus or Coelus and Vesta,[173]
the same as Terra (Montfauçon), it seems to occur to us, as a thing
"qui saute aux yeux," that this was only a mode of expressing a truth,
applicable to all men in general, and Saturn as a primal progenitor in
particular, and having reference to the composite nature of man; in
other words, that this was simply the tradition which Noah would have
handed down that he was created,[174] as were all other men, out of the
earth, yet with something ethereal in his composition which came direct
from the Deity. What the astral explanation may be I am at a loss to
imagine. It cannot by any possibility be supposed to have reference to
their relative positions in the heavens.
[173] "Saturn is by Plato supposed to have been the son of
_Oceanus_."--Bryant, ii. 261.
[174] _Vide_ Autochthones, ch. vii.
I shall return to Saturn, under the representation of Oceanus, when I
come to speak of Janus.
II. _Bacchus._--The _Saturnalia_ may be taken as the connecting link
between _Saturn_ and _Bacchus_, and I think that it is sufficiently
remarkable that there should be this link of connection.
But as the legends of Saturn are not all derived from Noah, so neither
do all the traditions concerning Bacchus appertain to Saturn. I shall
simply separate and note such as appear to me to be in common, _e.g._
"that Bacchus found out the making of wine, the art of planting trees,
and many things else commodious for mankind." ["And Noah, a husbandman,
began to till the ground, and planted a vineyard, and drinking the
wine was made drunk," Gen. ix. 20.][175] It is said there were several
Bacchuses. This may be only a reduplication, such as we have seen in
the case of Oannes, Nin, and Nebo, or as in the multiplications of
Jupiter. "Joves omnes reges vocarunt antiqui."[176]
[175] "The Scriptures tell us that Noah cultivated the vine; and
all profane historians agree in placing Bacchus in the first
ages of the world" (in proof of early cultivation of the
vine).--Goguet, "Origin of Laws," i. 116. Compare _supra_,
p. 213, "Saturnus _Sator_." Bryant says, "The history of
Dionusus is closely connected with that of Bacchus, though
they are two distinct persons." He supposes Dionusus to be
Noah, and Bacchus Ham. But he may very well have embodied the
traditions of both. Pausanius (lib. iii. 272) says Dionusus
was exposed _in an ark_ and wonderfully _preserved_. He
was also said to have been twice born, and to have had two
fathers and two mothers, in allusion to the two periods of his
existence separated by the Deluge.
Dionusus (Orphic Hymn, 44, 1) is addressed as [Greek: elthe,
makar Dionyse, pyrispore tauroumetôpe].
[176] The phrase "Father Bacchus," current among the ancients
(_vide_ Hor. Odes. i. xviii.) has always struck me as
singular. It is perfectly congruous with the tradition of
Noah; but who will tell us its appropriate solar or astral
application?
On this subject Montfauçon says (i. 155)[177] apropos of a point to
which I shall again refer, viz. that Bacchus was _Tauri_cornis.
"Diodorus Siculus says that the horns are only ascribed to the
second Bacchus, the son of Jupiter and Proserpine; but these
distinctions of various Bacchus were minded only in the more
ancient times, hardly known in their worship.... This will also
hold good of most of the other gods who were multiplied in the same
manner."
[177] Montfauçon, from whom I have quoted, was simply an
antiquarian--a very erudite and laborious antiquarian, but one
whose sole concern was to discriminate facts without reference
to their bearings, and who would have had, I have little
doubt, a supreme contempt for the speculations in which I have
indulged. He says in his preface--"I have a due regard for
those great men who have excelled in this sort of learning,
but must own at the same time I have no taste for it.... _It
signifies very little to us to know_ whether they who tell us
Vulcan was the same with Tubalcain, or they who say he was the
same with Moses, make the best guess in the matter." Though
the general opinion may not incline any more now than then
to the biblical interpretation, yet I think a great change
has taken place in public opinion as to the importance of the
inquiry.
Triptolemus was also said to have been "the inventor of
the plough and of agriculture, and of civilisation, which
is the result of it," and to have instituted the Elusinian
mysteries. Like Bacchus he is also said to have "ridden all
over the earth, making men acquainted with the blessings of
agriculture."--_Smith. Myth. Dict.; vide_ also _infra_, p.
224: "Deucalion."
Vicomte d'Anselme (Gainet, i. 224), asks with reference to his Greek
name of Dionysius, "Pourquoi les Grecs donnaient-ils le nom de Dionysos
ou de divin Noush (dios nous ou Noë) à l'inventeur du vin?"--_Vide
supra_, ch. ix.; vide also Gainet, i. 225.
Bacchus is by some called "_Tauri_cornis" (compare _supra_, p. 203,
Nin) "or Bucornis, and moreover he is frequently so represented,"
(_i.e._ not only with the horn in hand, a "_bull's_ horn," as he is
sometimes, which might be a drinking horn or cornucopia, in its way
emblematical of the vir agricola"), "but also with horns on the head.
Horace calls him "Bicorniger," Orpheus, [Greek: Boukerôs]; Nicander,
[Greek: Taurokerôs]."--_Montfauçon_, i. 147, 155; comp. p. 204, note to
"Nin."
One Bacchus, Cicero tells us, "was King of Asia and author of the
_Laws_ called Subazian."--_Montfauçon_, i. 144. It is, moreover, said
that Bacchus travelled through all nations as far as India,[178] doing
good in all places, and teaching many things profitable to the life of
man. His conquests are said to have been easy and without bloodshed.
But it is also noted that amidst his benevolence to mankind, he was
relentless in punishing all want of respect for his divinity, and
indeed the _conduct_ and punishment of Chanaan may be said to be
narrated in the history of Pentheus.--_Vide_ _Montf._ i. 161.[179]
[178] Dionusus like Bacchus came to India from _the
west_.--_Philostratus_, lib. ii. 64; _Byrant_, ii. 78. The
Indian Bacchus "appears in the character of a wise and
distinguished oriental monarch; his features an expression of
sublime tranquillity and mildness."--_Smith, Myth. Dic._
[179] This appears to me still more apparent in the 26th Idyll of
Theocritus, where, when the Bacchanals were at their revels,
"Perched on the sheer cliff Pentheus would espy
All....
(For profaning thus "these mysteries weird that must not be
profaned by vulgar eyes," Pentheus is torn to pieces by the
Bacchanals)....
"Warned by this tale, let no man dare defy
Great Bacchus; lest a death more awful should he die.
And when he counts _nine_ years or scarcely _ten_
Rush to his ruin. May I pass my days
_Uprightly_, and be loved by _upright_ men.
And take this motto, all who covet praise
('Twas ægis-bearing Jove that spoke it first),
The godly seed fares well, _the wicked is accurst_."
--_Caverley's Theocritus_, xxvi.
This seems to bear out what is perhaps only vaguely implied in
the sacred text that the curse was on Chanaan--the boy and his
posterity--and not on the whole race of Cham.--_Vide ante_:
also compare the "Bacchæ" of Euripides, in the following
passage from Grote's "Plato" (iii. 333):--"So in the 'Bacchæ'
of Euripides, the two old men, Kadmus and Teiresias, after
vainly attempting to inculcate upon Pentheus the belief in
and the worship of Dionysus, at last appeal to his prudence
and admonish him of the danger of unbelief;" which, if it be
tradition, would look as if Chanaan's offence was only the
final and overt expression of previous unbelief.
III. _Janus._--Janus represented the most ancient tradition of Noah in
Italy; subsequent migrations brought in the legend of Saturn, and thus
we find them variously confounded--Saturn sometimes figuring as his
guest, sometimes as his son, sometimes as his colleague on the throne.
Like Saturn he appears as double-headed or bifrons, he is said to have
introduced civilisation among the wild tribes of Italy, and under him,
as under Saturn, there appears to have been a golden age.
I have made reference to _Saturn_ as Oceanus (_vide Montfauçon_, i.
5), and as Oceanus his representations are very remarkable. In one
he appears as an old man sitting on the waves of the sea, with a _sea
monster_ on one side of him, and his spear or rod in his hand. In
another as sitting on the waves of the sea with ships about him; he is
"holding an urn and pours out water, the symbol of _the sea, and also
of rivers and fountains_."
_But Janus is also_ represented in his medals "with a prow of a ship on
the reverse," and he is said to have first invented crowns, _ships_,
and _boats_, and to have coined the first money.
"According to the accounts of mythologists," says Macrobius, "_all
families in the time of Janus_ were full of religion and _holiness_."
"Xenon says he was the first that built temples and instituted sacred
rites," and was therefore always mentioned at the beginning of
sacrifices.
With reference to his description as "bifrons," Macrobius says (some
say) he was so called "because he knew the past and future things....
Some pretend to prove that Janus is the Sun, and that he is represented
with two faces, because he is master of the two _doors_[180] of heaven,
and opens the day at his rising and shuts it at his setting."
[180] _Vide_ Dr Smith's "Myth. Dict." art. Janus:--"Whereas the
worship of _Janus_ was introduced at Rome by Romulus, that of
_Sol_ was instituted by _Titus Tatius_."
A good secondary explanation is,[181] that "as Janus always began the
year" (whence January) "the two heads do look on and import the old
and new year;" but then occurs the question--and this is why I submit
that it is only a secondary explanation--how came Janus to commence the
year?
[181] If Janus is allowed to have been identified with Saturn
(_supra_) we may see through the analogy of Saturn how these
secondary functions came to be attributed to him--Saturn was
also Chronos [that Chronos = Noah, _vide_ _Palmer's Egypt.
Chron._, i. p. 60]; "but," as Dr Smith says, "there is no
resemblance between the deities, except that both were
regarded as the most ancient deities in their respective
countries." As Chronos simply personifies antiquity itself,
this only means that Saturn was the most ancient deity. When
subsequently he became merged in "Chronos," his ancient sickle
became converted into a scythe. Dr Smith ("Dict. Myth.")
says, "He held in his hand a crooked pruning knife, and his
feet were surrounded with a _woollen_ riband;" and Goguet
("Origin of Laws," i. 94) says, "All old traditions speak of
the _sickle_ of Saturn, who is said to have taught the people
of his time to cultivate the earth."--_Plut._ i. p. 2, 275;
_Macrob. Sat._, lib. i. 217.
Goguet ("Origin of Laws," i. 283) says, "Several critics are
of opinion that the Janus of the ancients is the same with
Javan the son of Japhet, Gen. x. 3."
It may afford a clue if I advert to the circumstance that
whilst in the Phoenician alphabet (_vide Bunsen's Egypt_.
iv. 290, 293, 297), Dagon, Dagan = Corn (the Fish-man,
_vide supra_, p. 200), stands for the letter D. "The
door" is its hieroglyphic equivalent. Thus we get in strange
juxtaposition what we may call symbols, connecting Janus with
the Fish-god and with the god of agriculture.--_Vide supra_,
p. 200, and _infra_.
In the nomenclature of the calendar connected with any system of hero
worship, worship of ancestors, or even spirit worship, who more fitly
chosen to commence the year than Janus, supposing him to be Noah?
There are, however, two what we may call primary explanations, and
we must take our choice. The epithet is either applied to him, as
exactly according with the reminiscence of Noah, who was pre-eminently
acquainted with the past and the future; or we can take the astral
explanation that Janus was called Bifrons,[182] because he opened the
sun at his rising and shut it at his setting. As a symbol of Noah
this double head appears to me very simple and natural, Noah forming
the connecting link between the antediluvian and modern worlds; but as
applied to the Sun or to Janus as in relation to the Sun, even allowing
for personification, this twofold head of man strikes me as incongruous
in the extreme. Besides, if it be allowed that it might apply to Saturn
and Janus through the connecting idea of Chronos, how does it apply to
_Bacchus_? Let us press this argument further. Here is a symbol common
to Bacchus, Saturn, and Janus, and combining harmoniously in each
instance with the representation of Noah. Can this symbol, common to
these three, combine even congruously with any solar or astral legend?
I have somewhere seen it noted as suspicious and as tending to confirm
the solar theory that these mythological personages all "journey from
_east_ to west, and meet their fate in the evening." But is this so?
Have we not just seen that Bacchus, according to mythology, travelled
from the _west_ into India?
[182] Bryant ("Mythology," ii. 254) says, "Many persons of great
learning have not scrupled to determine that Noah and Janus
were the same. By Plutarch he is called [Greek: Iannos], and
represented as an ancient prince who reigned in the infancy of
the world.... He was represented with two faces, with which he
looked both forwards and backwards; and from hence he had the
name of Janus Bifrons. One of these faces was that of an aged
man; but in the other was often to be seen the countenance
of a young and beautiful personage. About him ... many
emblems.... There was particularly a _staff in one hand_, with
which he pointed to a rock, from whence issued a profusion of
water. In the other hand he held a key.... He had generally
near him _some resemblance of a ship_.... Plutarch does not
accede to the common notion" (that it was the ship that
brought Saturn to Italy), "but still _makes it a question why_
the coins of this personage bore on one side the resemblance
of Janus Bifrons, and on the other the representation of
either the hind part or the fore part _of a ship_.... He
is said to have first composed a chaplet, and to him they
attributed the _invention of a ship_. Upon the Sicilian coins
(at the temple) of Eryx _his_ figure often occurs with a
twofold countenance, and on the reverse _is a dove_ encircled
with a crown, which seems _to be of olive_. He is represented
as a _just man_ and _a prophet_ (comp. pp. 207-208), and had
the remarkable characteristics of being in a manner the author
of time and the god of the year."
But not only were Saturn, Janus, and Bacchus represented as "bifrons,"
but so also was Cecrops. Cecrops will present a difficulty the more
in the way of any solar theory; but Cecrops,[183] like all founders
or supposed founders of states, has something in common with Noah.
Like Saturn and Janus in Italy, Cecrops was said to have brought the
population of Attica into cities, to have given them laws, taught
them the worship of the idols, _planted the olive_, and finally, was
represented as half man, half serpent.[184]
[183] "Megasthenes stated that the first king (of India) was
Dionysus. He found a rude population in a savage state,
clothed in skins, unacquainted with agriculture, and without
fixed habitations. The length of his reign is not given. The
introduction of civilization and agriculture is a natural
allusion to the immigration of the Aryans into a country
inhabited by Turanian races.... Fifteen generations after
Dionysus, Hercules reigned.... Now all this is obviously pure
Indian tradition. Dionysus is the elder Manu, the divine
primeval man, son of the Sun (Vivasvat). He holds the same
position in the primeval history of India as does Jima or
Gemshid, another name of the primeval man in the Iranian
world.... The first era, then, is represented by Megasthenes
as having fourteen generations of human kings, with a god as
the founder and a god as the destroyer of the dynasty, in
all fifteen or sixteen generations."--_Bunsen's Egypt_, iii.
528. Compare those fifteen generations with Palmer. Compare
the confusion of Dionysus and Hercules with Deucalion and
Prometheus, &c., p. 232. Pelasgus among the Arcadians passed
for the first man and the first legislator (Boulanger, i.
133). Of Cadmus, too, it is said--"Greece is indebted to him
for alphabetical writing, the art of _cultivating the vine_,
and the forging and working of _metals_."--_Goguet_, ii. 41.
[184] _Vide supra_, Oannes, ch. ix.; _vide_ Smith, "Myth. Dict."
To return to Janus. Before concluding I must note that Janus is called
Eanus by Cicero, which may perhaps have analogy with "Hea and Hoa" (ch.
ix.), and with Eannes and "Oannes," although Cicero derives it from
"eundo."
Janus was also called "consivius a conserendo," because he presided
over generation, a title singularly appropriate to Noah as the second
founder of the race, and through whom the injunction was given
"to increase and multiply."[185] He is moreover called "Quirinus
or Martialis," "because he presided over war," which is precisely
the aspect under which it is the original and main purpose of this
dissertation to consider Noah; and here I think I am entitled to urge,
that if I have succeeded on other grounds in showing that Nin, Hoa,
Janus, &c., represented Noah, then that these epithets, "Quirinus,"
"Martialis," "King of Battle," &c., can only be applied to him whose
conquests were bloodless in the sense of controlling and regulating
war.[186] In connection with this title of "Martialis," as applied to
Janus--and, by the by, all the traditions concerning him are altogether
peaceful and bloodless--it will be remembered that his temple was open
in war and shut in peace, and closed for the third and last time at the
moment of the birth of our Lord.
[185] "All nations have given the honour of the discovery of
agriculture to their _first_ sovereigns. The Egyptians said
that Osiris (_vide supra_, p. 204) made men desist from
eating each other, by teaching them to cultivate the earth.
The Chinese annals relate that Gin-Hoang, one of the first
kings of that country, invented agriculture, and by that
means collected men into society, who before had wandered in
the fields and woods like brute beasts." (Goguet, "Origin of
Laws.") I need not remind the reader that Goguet's learned
work is not written from our point of view. Compare _infra_,
p. 240.
[186] _Vide_, chap. xiii. Golden age, Mexican tradition.
His name was also invoked first in religious ceremonies, "because, as
presiding over armies," &c., through him only could prayers reach the
immortal gods. Is not this a reminiscence of the communications of the
Almighty to man through Noah?
IV. _Ogyges and Deucalion._--I might pass over these traditions of
Noah, since, having reference only to the fact of the Deluge and the
personality of Noah, they will not furnish matter for the special
purpose of this inquiry; but on these grounds the investigation may be
justified, and moreover seems necessary, for the completion of this
chapter, and to indicate the independent source and derivation of the
classical tradition.
It appears to me manifest that the deluges of Ogyges and Deucalion
were neither locally historical nor partial deluges, but merely the
reminiscences of the universal Deluge. Of the universal Deluge, whether
we call it the Mosaic Deluge or not, there is evidence and tradition in
all parts of the world; though in every instance it is localised in its
details and its history of the survivors.[187]
[187] Although the greater number of these traditions have been
localised, yet in almost every case we shall find embodied
in them some one incident or other of the universal Deluge,
as recorded by Moses. Kalisch ("Hist. and Crit. Commentary
on the Old Testament") says:--"It is unnecessary to observe
that there is scarcely a single feature in the biblical
account which is not discovered in one or several of the
heathen traditions; and the coincidences are not limited to
desultory details, they extend to the whole outlines, and the
very tenor and spirit of the narrative; ... and it is certain
that none of these accounts are derived from the pages of
the Bible--they are independent of each other.... There must
indisputably have been a common basis, a universal source, and
this source is the general tradition of primitive generations."
It is not, I think, generally known how widespread these
traditions are. L'Abbé Gainet has collected some thirty-five
("La Bible sans la Bible"); but Mr Catlin (_vide infra_, p.
245) says he found the tradition of a deluge among one
hundred and twenty tribes which he visited in North, South,
and Central America. This accords with Humboldt's testimony
(Kalisch, i. 204), who "found the tradition of a general
deluge vividly entertained among the wild tribes peopling the
regions of Orinoco." To these I must add the evidence of the
indirect testimony of the commemorative ceremonies which I
have collected in another chapter (_vide_ p. 242). It has
been said that the Chinese tradition is too obscure to be
adduced, but we shall see (p. 65) whether, when in contact
with other traditions, it cannot be made to give light; and
I shall refer my readers to the pages of Mr Palmer (_supra_,
p. 71) for evidence of the tradition in Egypt, where it
had heretofore been believed that no such evidence was to be
found. In India (_vide_ ch. ix.) the tradition is embodied
in the history of Manu and the fish; and Bunsen ("Egypt," iii.
470) admits "that there is evidence in the Vedas, however
slight, that the flood does form a part of the reminiscences
of Iran." _Vide_ also p. 68, evidence of the tradition in
Cashmere. I wish also to direct attention here to two recent
and important testimonies to the existence of the tradition
in India and the Himalayan range. At pp. 151 and 450 of
Hunter's "Bengal," it will be seen that the Santals have a
distinct tradition of the Creation, flood, intoxication of
Noah, and the dispersion; and of the Vedic evidence, which
Bunsen (_supra_, 223) calls slight, Mr Hunter says:--"On the
other hand, the Sanscrit story of the Deluge, like that in the
Pentateuch, makes no mystery of the matter. A ship is built,
seeds are taken on board, the ship is pulled about for some
time by a fish, and at last gets on shore upon a peak of the
Himalayas." Dr Hooker ("Himalayan Journal," ii. 3) says:--"The
Lepchas have a curious legend of a man and woman having saved
themselves on the _summit_ of Tendong (a very fine mountain,
8613 feet) during a flood which _once deluged Sikhim_," which
he authenticates on the spot. Here, as in many of Mr Catlin's
instances of local tradition, I may observe that the event
as recorded proves the universality of the Deluge for the
rest of the world, or at least all the world below the level
of Tendong. In speaking, however, of the universal Deluge
(universal as far as the human race are concerned), I do
not enter into the geological argument, or exclude the view
(permissible I believe, _vide_ Reusch, p. 368, and note to
Rev. H. J. Coleridge's fourth sermon on "The Latter Days")
that it was not geographically universal. I merely adhere to
the testimony of tradition, and from this point of view it
would suffice (_vide_ Reusch) that it was universal so far as
the horizon of the survivors extended.
Since, however, there is nothing to be said against the possibility of
subsequent partial inundations, there will, I suppose, always be found
persons ready to maintain that the deluges of Ogyges and Deucalion were
partial and historical; although I submit that the arguments which
were formerly used to prove the priority of Ogyges to Deucalion, and
the posteriority of both to the general Deluge, turned upon points of
chronology which will hardly be sustained at the present day.
If, however, I can succeed in showing that the deluge of Deucalion is
identical with the deluge of Noah, I shall consider that I shall have
also proved the point for the deluge of Ogyges, which all agree to have
been much older!
The following is Mr Grote's narrative collating the different
traditions respecting the deluge of Deucalion:--
"Deukalion is important in Grecian mythical narration under two
points of view. First, he is the person specially saved at the time
of the general deluge; next, he is the father of Hellên, the great
eponym of the Hellenic race; at least that was the more current
story, though there were other statements which made Hellên the son
of Zeus." [This was merely the incipient process of the apotheosis
of their more immediate founder.] "The enormous iniquity with
which the earth was contaminated, as Apollodorus says, by the then
existing _brazen_ race, or, as others say, by the fifty monstrous
sons of Sykorôn, provoked Zeus to send a general deluge." "The
latter account is given by Dionys. Halic. i. 17; the former seems
to have been given by Hellenikus, who affirmed that the _ark_
after the Deluge stopped upon Mount Othrys, and not upon Mount
Parnassus (_Schol. Pind. ut supra_), the former being suitable
for a settlement in Thessaly." [I have already pointed out how
the general tradition is everywhere localised.] "An _unremitting_
and _terrible rain_ laid the whole of Greece under water except
the highest mountain-tops, where a few stragglers found refuge.
Deukalion was saved in a chest or ark, which he had been forewarned
by his father Prometheus to construct. After he had floated for
nine days on the water, he at length landed on the summit of Mount
Parnassus. Zeus hearing, sent Hermes to him, promising to grant
whatever he asked. He prayed that men and companions might be
sent him in his solitude: accordingly Zeus directed both him and
Pyrrha to cast stones over their heads, those cast by Pyrrha became
women, those by Deukalion men. And thus the 'stony race of men'
(if we may be allowed to translate an etymology which the Greek
language presents exactly, and which has not been disdained by
Hesiod, by Pindar, by Epicharmes, and by Virgil), came to tenant
the soil of Greece. Deukalion on landing from the ark sacrificed a
grateful offering to Zeus Phyxios, or the God of Escape; he also
erected altars in Thessaly to the twelve great gods of Olympus.
The reality of this deluge was firmly believed throughout the
historical ages of Greece (localising it, however, and post-dating
it to 1528 B.C.) Statements founded upon this event were
in circulation throughout Greece even to a very late date. The
Magarians ... and in the magnificent temple of the Olympian Zeus
at Athens, a cavity in the earth was shown, through which it was
affirmed that the water of the Deluge had retired. Even in the time
of Pausanias the priests poured into this cavity holy offerings
of meal and honey. In this, as in other parts of Greece, _the
idea of the Deukalionian deluge was blended with the religious
impressions of the people, and commemorated by their most sacred
ceremonies_."--_Grote's "History of Greece,"_ vol. i. ch. v. 132,
133, "_The Deluge_."[188]
[188] Mr Grote certainly says--"Apollodorus connects this deluge
with the wickedness of the brazen race in Hesiod, according
to the practice general with the logographers of stringing
together a sequence out of legends totally unconnected with
each other." One would have thought in one's simplicity that
if any two legends linked well together, uniting in common
agreement with the scriptural account, it would be the legends
of the Deluge and the brazen age.
Mr Max Müller (comp. "Myth.," "Chips.," ii. 12), incidentally speaking
of the legend of Deucalion, treats it with great contempt. "What is
more ridiculous," he says, "than the mythological account of the
creation of the human race by Deucalion and Pyrrha throwing stones
behind them (a myth which owes its origin to a mere pun on [Greek:
laos] and [Greek: laas])." And ridiculous it certainly is from any
point of view from which Mr Max Müller could regard it, _i.e._ either
as the invention of a mythic period, or as a fugitive allegory arising
out of some astral or solar legend: _per contra_, I shall submit that
there is nothing forced in supposing that this legend arose out of some
one of the processes of corruption to which all tradition is prone, of
the known fact that the human race was re-propagated by Deucalion or
Noah.[189] If I am asked to explain how it came about that there should
have been this identity between the word for a "man" and a "stone,"
I must simply confess my ignorance. Perhaps if Mr Max Müller could
be brought to look at things more from the point of view of biblical
traditions, he might be enabled to see it. All that I can suggest is,
that perhaps it may have a common origin with that Homeric expression
quoted by Mr Max Müller at p. 175 (_vide supra_), "Thou art not
sprung from the olden tree or from the rock." I consider that I shall
definitely establish, however, that it originates in a tradition and
not "a mere pun," and at any rate that it is not local, it is not
Greek. It is no doubt singular that the word for man, [Greek: laos],
populus, should so closely resemble the word for a stone, [Greek:
laas]; but not only is this coincidence found in the Greek, but we
shall see that it is widely spread in all parts of the world. In proof,
I adduce the following extract from Dr Hooker's inaugural lecture at
Norwich in 1868, (since the publication of Mr Max Müller's work):--
"It is a curious fact that the Khasian word for a stone, 'man,' as
commonly occurs in the names of their villages and places as that
of man, maen, and men does in those of Brittany, Wales, Cornwall,
&c.; thus Mansmai signifies in Khasia the Stone of Oath; Manloo,
the Stone of Salt; Manflong, the Grassy Stone; and just as in Wales
Pen mæn maur signifies the Hill of the Big Stone; and in Britanny a
Menhir is a standing stone, and a Dolmen a table stone," &c.[190]
[189] Let the significance of the following coincidence be
considered in connection with the evidence at p. 244,
Boulanger, "Ces fêtes (Atheniasmes, 'Anthisteries') avoient
pour objet une commémoration (of the Deluge) et l'on en
_attribuoit la fondation à Deucalion_; elles étoient _aussi_
consacrées à _Bacchus_, ce qui les a fait nommés les
_anciennes_ ou les _grandes Bacchanales_."--Comp. ch. xi. p.
244, also _supra_, 213.
[190] It is the fashion to deride Bryant's etymology, and no doubt
he did not write in the light of modern science; but I find
("Mythology," iii. 534) that he had already given this
information. "_Main_, from whence _moenia_, signified in the
primitive language a stone, or stones, and also a building."
Here it is seen that the word for stone in these respective places
is the same with our word "man;" it is not specifically said that
the word would carry this sense also in the places indicated, but I
infer it from the analogy which runs through _homo_, _homme_, and
by a connection of ideas through the Greek [Greek: ômos] to the
Sanscrit--thus "âma-ad" ([Greek: ômos-edô]), are names applied "in
the Sanscrit" to "barbarians" who are cannibals. (Max Müller, ii. p.
44.) And I am not sure that Mr Max Müller does not say so directly, in
reference to the word "Brahman," for although the word originally is
said to mean _power_ (i. 363), yet "another word with the accent on
the last syllable, is _Brahmán_, the _man_ who prays."--_Max Müller_,
i. 72.[191]
Also Kenrick ("Essay on Primæval History," p. 59), "Thus the Hindus
attribute the origin of their institutions and race to Manu, whose
name is equivalent to _man_. The Germans made Tuisto (Teutsch) and his
son Mannus to be the origin and founder of their nation." Also Sir
W. Jones' "Asiat. Res." i. 230; Rawlinson's "Bamp. Lect." lect. ii.
67:--"From _Manu_ the earth was re-peopled, and from him _man_kind
received their name _Manudsha_."
Gainet (i. 170) says:--"The stones changed then into men by Deucalion
and Pyrrha, are they not their children according to nature? In Syriac
the word 'Eben' signifies equally a child and a stone. In spite of
these confusions their accounts of the Deluge are striking as well on
account of their resemblance, as on account of their universality, as
the reader will soon be able to convince himself."--_Vide Gainet_, i.
167.[192]
[191] Mr Max Müller, in his "Lectures on the Science of Language,"
first series, says of "Man":--"The Latin word 'homo,' the
French 'l'homme' ... is derived from the same root, which we
have in 'humus,' soil, 'humilis,' humble. Homo, therefore,
would express the idea of being made of the dust of the
earth.... There is a third name for man.... 'Ma,' in the
Sanscrit, means to measure.... 'Man,' a derivative root, means
to think. From this we have the Sanscrit 'Manu,' originally
thinker, then man. In the later Sanscrit we find derivations
such as 'Mânava, Mânasha, Manushya,' all expressing man. In
Gothic we find both '_man_,' and 'Maunisk,' the modern German
'maun,' and 'mensch.' There were many more names for man, as
there were many names for all things in ancient language." As
an instance of the correspondence of Old Egyptian and Welsh,
Bunsen's "Philosophy of Univ. Hist.," i. 169, gives "Egyptian,
'man' = rockstone; Welsh, 'maen;' Irish, 'main' (coll. Latin,
'moenia;' Hebrew, 'e-ben')." And (p. 78) Bunsen says--"The
divine Mannus, the ancestor of the Germans, _is absolutely
identical_ with Manus, who, according to ancient Indian
mythology, is the God who created man anew after the Deluge,
_just as Deucalion did_."
[192] The _Saturday Review_, Nov. 14, 1868 (reviewing "The Indian
Tribes of Guiana," by the Rev. W. Brett), says of the Indian
traditions:--"The 'old people's stories' of the creation and
the deluge are highly characteristic.... Under the rule of
Sigu, son of Maikonaima, the tree of life was planted, in
whose stem were pent up the whole of the waters which were to
be let forth by measure to stock every river and lake with
fish. Twarrika, the mischievous monkey, forced open the magic
cover which kept down the waters, and the next minute was
swept away with _all things living_ by the bursting flood.
_The re-peopling_ of the world, as described by the Tamanacs
of the Orinoco _recalls the legend of Deucalion_. One man and
one woman took refuge on the mountain Tama_nacu_. _They then
threw over their heads_ the fruits of the Mauritia (or Ita)
palm, from the _kernel_ of which sprang men and women who once
more peopled the earth."
But if the whole human race were re-propagated by Deucalion and Pyrrha,
how are we to locate the _anterior_ legend of Ogyges, occurring among
the same people? It is barely possible that the memory of a long
antecedent and partial deluge may have remained in the memories of the
survivors of the subsequent and universal calamity, but the much more
reasonable conjecture seems to be that it was by a different channel
the reminiscence of the same event. It must be remembered that it was
the Ogygian deluge which was said to have been partial and to have
inundated Attica. The deluge of Deucalion by all accounts, except by
Pindar, was considered to have been universal, and corresponds in
its details with Mosaic accounts, _e.g._ it was universal, covering
the tops of the highest mountains; it was caused by the depravity of
mankind; the single pair who were saved, were saved in a ship or an
ark, and floated many days on the waters. In the end, they settled on
the top of a mountain, went to consult the oracle (as Noah is said
to have sacrificed and to have had communications with God), and
re-peopled the earth. The version of Lucian gives particulars which
brings the tradition to almost exact correspondence. Deucalion and his
wife were saved (on account of their rectitude and piety) together with
his sons and their wives. He was accompanied into the ark by the pigs,
horses, lions, and serpents, who came to him in pairs. If the account
of Lucian is somewhat recent, on the other hand it is the account of a
professed scoffer, and moreover, shows what I do not remember to have
seen noted from this point of view that the tradition was common to
Syria as well as Greece.
This brings us to the contrary, but, as it appears to me, much less
formidable objection--bearing in mind that the tradition of the Deluge
is common to Mexico, India, China, the islands of the Pacific, &c.
&c.--viz. that the tradition came to Greece from Asia.
This is Mr Kenrick's objection[193] (_vide_ Preface to Grote's
"History of Greece," 2d ed.) The most direct, and, as it appears to
me, sufficient answer, seems to be that it was necessarily so; since,
_ex hypothesi_, the population itself came to Greece from Asia. Mr
Kenrick says, "It is doubtful whether the tradition of Deucalion's
flood is older than the time when the intercourse with Greece began
to be frequent," _i.e._ about the fifth century B.C. (p.
31.) But as the Septuagint, according to Mr Kenrick himself, could
not have influenced Greece till the third century, this tradition can
only have been the primeval tradition. Mr Kenrick is a fair opponent,
and I must do him the justice to add that he repudiates the Voltairean
suggestion that this tradition originated in a Hebrew invention. If
then the inhabitants of Greece, who came originally from Asia, had not
the tradition, or had it imperfectly, when they arrived, it can only
have been because they had lost it; but as admittedly they recovered
it at a later period, the presumption, even on this showing, is, at
least for those who can realise how difficult it would be to make a
pure fiction, as distinguished from a corrupt tradition, run current,
more especially among different nationalities and during a lengthened
period,--that when circumstances brought them again into contact with
Asia, they added fresh incidents, only because they found the tradition
fresher there than among themselves. _Voila tout!_ for Mr Kenrick's
whole argument depends entirely upon this--that "as we reach the time
when the Greeks enjoyed more extensive and leisurely communication with
Asia, through the conquests of Alexander ... we find new circumstances
introduced into the story which assimilates it more closely to the
Asiatic tradition."
[193] "Essay on Primæval History."
It has been allowed (_vide supra_) that the tradition of Deucalion
is as old as the fifth century B.C., and, not to speak of the deluge
of Ogyges, connected with what was earliest in Grecian history,
the following passage from Kenrick seems to me in evidence of long
antecedent traditions among the Greeks themselves, which they must have
brought with them originally from Asia.[194]
[194] "According to the calculations of Varro, the deluge of Ogyges
occurred 400 years before Inachus, _i.e._ 1600 years before
the first Olympiad, which would bring it to 2376 years before
the Christian era; now, according to the Hebrew text, the
Deluge of Noah took place 2349 B.C., which makes only
a difference of 27 years. It is true that many other authors
have reconciled these epochs." Hesiod and Homer are silent
on the subject of both Deucalion and Ogyges.... "It results
from these considerations that the traditions of the ancient
nations of the world confirm the narrative of Genesis, _not
only_ as to the existence, but even as to the _epoch_, of this
catastrophe as fixed by Moses. Mersius (_apud_ Gronovium,
iv. 1023) cites more than twenty ancient authors who speak
of Ogyges as appertaining in their eyes to what was _most
primitive_ in Greece. He is son of Neptune. He is the first
founder of the kingdom of Thebes. Servius represents him _as
coming immediately after Saturn and the golden age_ [which
directly connects Noah with Saturn, and the golden age with
Noah]. Hesychius says of Ogyges that he represented all that
was most ancient in Greece. That, indeed, passed into a
proverb; they said, 'old as Ogyges,' as if they said, 'old as
Adam'" (Gainet, i. 229).
Mr Kenrick says (p. 31):--
"The account of Deucalion, given by Apollodorus (i. 7, 2), bears
evident marks of being compounded of two fables originally
distinct, in one of which, and probably the older, the descent
of the Hellenes was traced through Deucalion to Prometheus and
Pandora, without mention of a deluge. In the other, the destruction
of the brazen race by a flood, the re-peopling the earth by the
casting of stones, is related in the common way. That these two
narratives cannot originally have belonged to the same myths is
evident from their incongruity; for as mankind were created by
Prometheus, the father of Deucalion, there was no time for them
to have passed through those stages of degeneracy by which they
reached the depravity of the brazen age."
Here are evidently two early traditions, ostensibly Greek, distinct,
it is true, yet perfectly compatible. The one the tradition of Grecian
descent through Noah to Adam and Eve, the other the tradition of
the Deluge. But after what we have already seen (_vide supra_, pp.
157, 158) of reduplications and inversions, can a serious argument
be based upon the expression that Deucalion (Noah) was the son of
Prometheus (Adam)?[195] Is it not a most natural and inevitable
_façon-de-parler_ to connect the descendant directly and immediately
with his remote ancestor, _e.g._ "Fils de St Louis--fils de Louis
Capet--montez au ciel!"
[195] In the same way we find "Mentuhotep," or "Sesortasen I."
named, "when all other ancestors are omitted, as the sole
connecting link between Amosis (xviii. dynasty) and Menes."
_Vide_ Palmer's "Egyptian Chronicles," i. 385.
So, too, are Fohi (whom I believe to be Adam) and Shin-nong
(Noah) connected and linked together in Chinese chronology.
"I. Fohi the great Brilliant (Tai-hao), cultivation of
_astronomy_ and religion as well as _writing_. He reigned
110 years. Then came fifteen reigns. II. Shin-nong (divine
_husbandman_). Institution of _agriculture_ [compare _ante_,
ch. x.] The knowledge of simples applied as the art of
medicine."--Bunsen's "Egypt," iii. 383, chap. on Chinese
Chronology. _Vide ante_, 61; chap. on Tradition, p. 129;
Prometheus.
I do not of course attempt, within this narrow compass, to grasp Mr
Kenrick's entire view. I am merely dealing with the special argument;
but it is curious to note how the line of reasoning adopted by Mr
Kenrick, whilst it sustains the Greek traditions, as traditions (though
not Greek), unconsciously neutralises the arguments which would dispose
of the testimonies derived from them, by saying that they were not
traditions of a general, but of a local and a partial deluge.
These latter arguments appear to have had weight with one against whom
I hardly venture to run counter, Frederick Schlegel ("Phil. of Hist."
p. 79)--"The irruption of the Black Sea into the Thracian Bosphorus is
regarded by very competent judges in such matters as an event perfectly
historical, or at least, from its proximity to the historical times, as
not comparatively of so primitive a date." Compare with passage from
Mr Kenrick.[196] Schlegel adds:--"All these great physical changes
are not necessarily and exclusively to be ascribed to the last general
Deluge. The presumed irruption of the Mediterranean into the ocean, as
well as many other mere partial revolutions in the earth and sea, may
have occurred much later, and quite apart from this great event" (p.
79). But it may also have occurred much _earlier_, as is clear from
the following passage from Schlegel, to which I wish to direct the
attention of geologists, and in which Schlegel speaks according to the
original insight of his own mind, and not in deference to the opinions
of others:--
"These words ('the earth was without form and void, and darkness
was upon the face of the deep; but the Spirit of God moved upon
the face of the waters,' Gen. x.), which announce the presage of a
new morn of Creation, not only represent a darker and wilder state
of the globe, but very clearly show the element of water to be
still in predominant force. Even the division of the elements, of
the waters above the firmament, and of the waters below it, on the
second day of creation, the permanent limitation of the sea for the
formation and visible appearance of the dry land, necessarily imply
a mighty revolution in the earth, and afford additional proof that
the Mosaic history speaks not only of one but of many catastrophes
of nature, _a circumstance that has not been near enough attended
to in the geological interpretation and illustration of the
Bible_."--_Schlegel_, p. 82.
[196] Kenrick (p. 37) says:--"The fact of traces of the action of
water at a higher level in ancient times on these shores
is unquestionable; under the name of _raised beaches_
such phenomena are familiar to geologists on many coasts;
but that the tradition (in Samothrace) was produced by
_speculation_ on its _cause_, not by an obscure recollection
of its _occurrence_, is also clear; for it has been shown by
physical proofs that a discharge of the waters of the Euxine
(Black Sea) would not cause such a deluge as _the tradition
supposed_" (Cuvier, Disc. sur les Revolutions du Globe, ed.
1826).
If these speculations were made at the commencement of
Grecian history, and the speculations had reference to
evidence of diluvian disruption along the highway by which
they passed into Greece, should we not expect that theories
of the violent rather than the gentler and gradual action of
water would dominate in their geological tradition? Colonel
George Greenwood, in "Rain and Rivers," p. 2, says on the
contrary--("with reference to the theory that valleys are
formed by 'rain and rivers'")--"There is, perhaps, no creed
of man which, like this, can be traced up to the most remote
antiquity, and traced down from the most remote antiquity to
the present day. Lyell has himself quoted Pythagoras for it,
through the medium of Ovid:--
'Eluvie mons est deductus in æquor
Quodquo fuit campus _vallem decursus aquarum_
Fecit.'
But Pythagoras only enunciates the doctrine of Eastern
antiquity; that is, of the Egyptians, the Chaldæans, and
the Hindoos. But since Pythagoras introduced this doctrine
in the West, if it has ever slumbered, it has perpetually
_re_-originated. Lyell shows that among the Greeks it was
taught by Aristotle; among the Romans by Strabo; among the
Saracens by Avicenna; in Italy by Moro, Geneselli, and
Targioni; and in England by Ray, Hutton, and Playfair."--_Rain
and Rivers_, by Col. George Greenwood. Longmans, 1866. 2d edit.
The point that is material to this discussion is to decide whether or
not those disruptions in Thrace are historical and subsequent to the
Deluge. Now, here Mr Kenrick's main theory, that "speculation is the
source of tradition," comes in with fatal effect to dispose of the
arguments I am combating, and yet in no way at this point militates
against the view I am urging, that these supposed inundations were
localisations of the tradition of the general Deluge which the Pelasgi
brought with them from Asia.
Mr Kenrick says (p. 36):--
"It was a [Greek: logos], a popular legend, among the Greeks,
that Thessaly had once been a lake, and that Neptune had opened a
passage for the waters through the vale of Tempe (Herod. 7, 129).
The occupation of the banks of the rivers of this district by the
Pelasgi tribes, which must have been _subsequent_ to the opening
of the gorge, is the _earliest_ fact in Greek history, and the
'logos' itself no doubt originated in a very simple speculation.
The sight of a narrow gorge, the sole outlet of the waters of a
whole district, naturally suggests the idea of its having once been
closed, and, as the necessary consequence, the inundation of the
whole region which it now serves to drain."
Now, if this reasoning is just, it seems to establish two things pretty
conclusively: First, That the current legend among the Greeks was _not_
the tradition of a local deluge; but, if not a reminiscence, was at any
rate the observation of the evidences of a deluge previous to their
arrival. Moreover, the deluge of their tradition exceeding the actual
facts is in evidence of their recollection of an event adequate to such
effects. Second, That the tradition, if it arose out of a speculation,
must have arisen out of a speculation made in the earliest commencement
of Greek history.
It is difficult to reconcile the latter conclusion with Mr Kenrick's
view that the tradition was imported from Asia in the fifth century
B.C.
It is impossible to reconcile the former with the acceptation of a
local and historical inundation in the time of the Ogyges and Deucalion
of popular history.
This digression on the legend of Deucalion has led me away from what is
properly the subject-matter of this inquiry; and I therefore propose
now to summarise the results of the last two chapters. To pursue the
tradition of Noah in all its ramifications would extend the inquiry
beyond the scope which is necessary for the purposes of my argument.
It will have been seen, I think, that my object has not been merely
antiquarian research. I have sought to bring into prominence the
reminiscences of Noah, which recall him at any rate as the depository
of the traditions, if not the expositor of the science of mankind, as
the channel, if not the fountain-head, of law, which thus became the
law of nations--as the intermediary through whom the communications of
the Most High passed to mankind, and under whose authority mankind held
together during some three hundred years.[197]
[197] Gen. vi. 18; viii. 15; vi. 13; ix. 8; viii. 20; ix. 20; and
Ecclesiasticus xliv. 1, 3, 4, 19, "The covenants of the world
were made with Him."
Let me collect more directly and more fully the epithets in this sense
which are dispersed in the above traditions.
We have seen that Calmet properly identifies Saturn with Noah; that
according to Virgil and Plutarch "under Saturn was the golden age;"
Saturn of whom Hesiod says:--"Him of mazy counsel, Saturn;" that in
the tradition, as we see it in Virgil, he is described as bringing his
scattered people into social life, and the noticeable phrase is used
_legesque dedit_;[198] that in Bacchus, directly connected with Saturn
through the _Saturnalia_, we also see much in his characteristics in
common with Saturn, all which equally identifies him with Noah; and
Bacchus, as we are told by Cicero, was the author of the "laws called
Subazian."[199] In Janus, too, we find great resemblances to Saturn,
and in the very respects which would identify him with Noah. Under
Janus as under Saturn was the golden age, and it is added that in the
time of Janus, "all families were full of religion and holiness," and
although his rule is described as singularly peaceful, he is called
Quirinus and Martialis, as presiding over war. The closing and opening
of his temple, too, had a conspicuous and direct connection with peace
and war.
[198] I feel justified in bringing in attestation also the following
verses of the "Oracula Sybillina," for, as I have already
said, even if they be forgeries of the second century A.D.,
they at any rate represent the tradition at that date (i. v.
270):--
"Noë fidelis amans æqui servata periclis
Egredere audenter, simul et cum conjuge nati
Tresque nurus: et vos terræ loca vasta replete,
Crescite multiplice numero, _sacrataque jura
Tradite_ natorum natis....
Hinc nova progenies hinc _ætas aurea_ prima
Exorta est hominum....
... ast illo se tempore regia primum
Imperia ostendent terris quum _foedere facto_
Tres justi reges, divisis partibus æquis,
_Sceptra_ diu populis imponent _sanctaque tradent
Jura_ viris."...
Compare also the following verses (Orac. Sybil, i. 145) with
the Vedic tradition (_infra_, p. 238) of the promise made
to Satiavrata, and the Babylonian tradition respecting Hoa
(_infra_):
"... Collige, Noë, tuas vires ...
... Si scieris me
Divinæ te nulla rei secreta latebunt."
[199] I only instance this as evidence that laws of some sort were
attributed to Bacchus, whom the traditions also speak of as
King of Asia: to judge of these laws by what we know of the
Subazian mysteries, would be as if we were to form our opinion
of the Mandan ceremonies (_vide infra_, ch. xi.) by the last
day's orgies only. In this matter we may say with Cicero, _De
Legibus_, ii. 17--"Omnia tum perditorum civium scelere ...
religionum jura polluta sunt."
If we turn back to the mythological prototypes in Assyria we find him
as Hoa in connection with "the mystic animal, half-man half-fish, which
came up from the Persian Gulf to teach astronomy and letters to the
first settlers on the Euphrates and Tigris," himself "known to the
first settlers;" he is called "the intelligent guide, or, according
to another interpretation, the intelligent fish," "the teacher of
mankind," "the lord of understanding;" "one of his emblems is the
wedge or arrow-head, the essential emblem of cuneiform writing, which
seems to be assigned to him as the inventor, or at least the patron of
the Chaldæan alphabet." In the Vedic tradition as Satiavrata (_vide_
Rawlinson's "Bampton Lect.," lect. ii. 67), having been saved "from
the destroying waves" in "a large vessel" sent from heaven for his
use--which he entered accompanied "by pairs of all brute animals"--he
is thus addressed, "Then shalt thou know my true greatness, rightly
named the Supreme Godhead; by my favour all thy questions _shall be
answered_ and thy mind abundantly instructed;" and it is added that
"after the deluge had abated," Satiavrata was "instructed in all
_human_ and _divine_ knowledge." In fine, if we recognise him as Hoa,
we shall find his benefactions to mankind thus summed up in Berosus.
(_Vide_ the original in Rawlinson's "Ancient Monarchies," i. 154.)[200]
[200] Layard ("Nineveh and Babylon," p. 343) says, "We can scarcely
hesitate to identify this mythic form (at Kosyundik) with the
Oannes or sacred man-fish, who, according to the traditions
preserved by Berosus, issued from the _Erethræan_ sea,
instructed the _Chaldæans_ in all wisdom, in the sciences
and the fine arts, and was _afterwards_ worshipped as a
god in the temples of Babylonia.... Five such monsters
rose from the Persian Gulf at fabulous intervals of time
(Cory's "Fragments," p. 30). It has been conjectured that
this myth denotes the conquest of Chaldæa at some remote and
pre-historic period by a comparatively civilised nation coming
in ships to the mouth of the Euphrates.... The _Dagon_ of the
Philistines and of the inhabitants of the Phoenician coast
was worshipped, according to the united opinion of the Hebrew
commentators on the Bible, under _the same form_." The five
apparitions at long intervals may have been the confusion of
the previous revelations to the patriarchs with those made to
Noah--or they may be reduplications (_vide supra_, p. 157).
"He is said to have transmitted to mankind the knowledge of grammar
and mathematics, and of all the arts, of the polity of cities, the
construction and dedication of temples, _the introduction of laws_
([Greek: kai nomôn eisêgêseis]); to have taught them geometry, and
to have shown them _by example_ the modes of _sowing the seed_
and gathering the _fruits of the earth_," [the "vir agricola" of
Genesis], and along with them to have tradited all the secrets
which tend to humanise life. And no one else at that time was found
more super-eminent than he."--_Vide_ Rawlinson, i. 155.
We have seen that he was known to "the first settlers on the Euphrates
and Tigris." The Abbé de Tressan says, Berosus begins his history with
these words:--"_In the first year_ appeared this extraordinary man"
(Oannes). Now, with "the early settlers" on the Euphrates and Tigris
the commencement of all things would have been naturally dated from the
Deluge.
It appears to me worth while, in conclusion, to place more succinctly
before the reader the _identical_ terms in which the ancients (various
authors) spoke of the first founders of states or their earliest
progenitor--compelling the conclusion that allusion was made to one and
the same individual and epoch.
Bryant ("Myth." ii. 253) says that Noah was represented as Thoth,
Hermes, Menes, Osiris, Zeuth, Atlas, Phoroneus, and Prometheus, &c. &c.
"There are none wherein his history is delineated more plainly, than in
those of Saturn and Janus." These I will now omit, as we have just seen
them to be identical--and so too Bacchus, who equally with them plants
the vine, teaches them to sow, and gives them laws.
_Phoroneus_, "an ancient poet quoted by Clemens Alex. (i. 380)
calls him the first of mortals, [Greek: phyroneus patêr thnêtôn
anthrôpôn]." The first deluge took place under Phoroneus: "He
was also the first who _built_ an altar. He first collected men
together and formed them into petty communities."--Pausanias, lib.
2, 145. He first gave laws and distributed justice.--Syncellus,
67, 125. They ascribed to him the distribution of mankind, "idem
nationes distribuit" (Hyginus' Fab. 143), "which is a circumstance
very remarkable."
_Poseidon's_ epithets connected with the ark are very striking
(Bryant, ii. 269, _Deucalion, vide ante_, p. 232); but he is also
said (Apollon. Rhod. lib. 3, v. 1085) to have been "the first man
through whom religious rites were renewed, cities built, and civil
polity established in the world."
_Cecrops_ (_vide ante_, p. 220), the identical terms are used.
_Myrmidon_, "a person of great justice." "He is said to have
collected people together, humanised mankind, enacted laws, and
first established civil polity."--Scholia in Pindar, Ode 3, v. 21.
_Cadmus, vide ante_, p. 221.
_Pelasgus_ also is described as equally a benefactor to mankind,
and instructed them in many arts.--Pausanias, 8, 599. He is said to
have built the first temple to the deity "ædem Jovi Olympis primum
fecit Pelasgus."--Hyginus' Fab. 225, 346. Bryant says, "I have
taken notice that as Noah was said to have been [Greek: hanthrôpos
gês]," a man of the earth--this characteristic is observable in
every history of the primitive persons; and they are represented
as '[Greek: nomioi],' '[Greek: agrioi]', and '[Greek: gêgeneis].'
Pelasgus accordingly had this title (Æschy. "Supplicants," v. 250),
and it is particularly mentioned of him that he _was the first_
husbandman. Pelasgus first found out all that is necessary for the
cultivation of the ground."--Schol. in Eurip. "Orestes," v. 930.
_Osiris._--The account of Osiris in Diodorus Siculus is exactly
similar. He travels into all countries like Bacchus. He builds
cities; and although represented as at the head of an army, is
described with the muses and sciences in his retinue. In every
region he instructed the people in planting, sowing, and other
useful acts.--Tibullus, i. E. 8, v. 29. He particularly introduced
the vine, and when that was not adapted to the soil, the use of
ferment and wine of barley. He first built temples, and was a
lawgiver and king (Diod. Sic.).--Bryant, ii. 60.
_Chin-nong_ (_vide_ also Bunsen, _supra_, p. 63) "was a
husbandman, and taught the Chinese agriculture, &c., discovered the
virtues of many plants. He was represented with the _head of an
ox_, and sometimes only with two horns."--Comp. Bryant, iii. 584.
_Manco Capac._--Peru, _vide infra_, ch. xiii.; very curious.
Strabo, 3, 204, says of the Turditani in Spain (Iberia), "They are
well acquainted with grammar, and have many written records of high
antiquity. They have also large collections of poetry (comp. ch.
vii.), and _even their laws_ are described in verse, which they
say is of six thousand years standing."
_Deucalion_, according to Lucian, was saved from the Deluge on
account of his wisdom and piety--"[Greek: eubouliês te kai euebiês
heineka]." [[Greek: euboulia]--literally, "good counsel."]
_Mercury_ gave Egypt its laws--"Atque Egyptiis leges et literas
tradidisse."--Cicero, "De Natura Deorum," iii. 22.
_Apollo._--Cicero says the fourth Apollo gave laws to the
_Arcadians_ (comp. _infra_, p. 331): "Quem Arcades [Greek:
Nomion] appellant, quod ab eo se leges ferunt accepisse," id. iii.
23; _vide_ also Plato, "Leges," i. 1.