throws much light upon ancient history and religion, its importance
may be considerable, especially as it lies at the root of that sexuality
which has been the most prolific parent of both good and evil in
human life. The sexual relation has existed from the very birth of
animated nature; and it is remarkable that a man of learning and
piety in Germany has made the strange if not absurd statement that
in the beginning "Adam was externally sexless." [116] Another
idea, more excusable, but equally preposterous, is, that grammatical
gender has been the cause of the male and female personation of
deities, when really it has been the result. The cause, no doubt, was
inherent in man's constitution; and was the inevitable effect of
thought and expression. The same necessity of natural language
which led the Hebrew prophets to speak of their land as married, of
their nation as a wife in prosperity and a widow in calamity, of their
Maker as their husband, who rejoices over them as the bridegroom
rejoiceth over the bride: [117] this same necessity, becoming a habit
like that of our own country folks in Hampshire, of whom Cobbett
speaks, who call almost everything _he_ or _she_; led the sensuous
and imaginative ancients, as it leads simple and poetical peoples
still, to call the moon a man and to worship him as a god. Objects of
fear and reverence would be usually masculines; and objects of love
and desire feminines. We may thus find light thrown upon the
honours paid to such goddesses as Astarte and Aphrodite: which
will also help us to understand the deification by a celibate
priesthood of the Virgin Mary. We may, moreover, account partly
for the fact that to the sailor his ship is always she; to the swain the
flowers which resemble his idol, as the lily and the rose, are always
feminine, and used as female names; while to the patriot the mother
country is nearly always of the tender sex. [118] Prof. Max Mueller
thinks that the distinction between males and females began, "not
with the introduction of masculine nouns, but with the introduction
of feminines, _i.e._ with the setting apart of certain derivative
suffixes for females. By this all other words became masculine."
[119] Thus the sexual emotions of men created that grammatical
gender which has contributed so powerfully to our later mythology,
and has therefore been mistaken for the author of our male and
female personations. What beside sexuality suggested the thought of
the Chevalier Marini? "He introduces the god _Pan_, who boasts
that the spots which are seen in the moon are impressions of the
kisses he gave it." [120] That grammar is very much younger than
sexual relations is proven by the curious fact mentioned by Max
Mueller that _pater_ is not a masculine, nor _mater_ a feminine.
Gender, we must not forget, is from _genus_, a kind or class; and
that the classification in various languages has been arranged on no
fixed plan. We in our modern English, with much still to do, have
improved in this respect, since, in Anglo-Saxon, _wif_ = wife, was
neuter, and _wif-mann_ = woman, was masculine. In German still
_die frau_, the woman, is feminine; but _das weib_, the wife, is
neuter. [121] Dr. Farrar finds the root of gender in the imagination:
which we admit if associated with sex. Otherwise, we cannot
understand how an _unfelt_ distinction of this sort could be
mentally _seen_. But Dr. Farrar means more than imagination, for
he says, "from this source is derived the whole system of genders
for inanimate things, which was perhaps inevitable at that early
childish stage of the human intelligence, when the actively working
soul attributed to everything around it some portion of its own life.
Hence, well-nigh everything is spoken of as masculine or feminine."
[122] We are surprised that Dr. Farrar seems to think German an
exception, in making a masculine noun of the moon. He has failed
to apply to this point his usual learned and laborious investigation.
[123]
Diogenes Laertius describes the theology of the Jews as an offshoot
from that of the Chaldees, and says that the former affirm of the
latter "that they condemn images, and especially those persons who
say that the gods are male and female." [124] Which condemnation
implies the prevalence of this sexual distinction between their
deities.
In concluding this chapter we think that it will be granted that
gender in the personification of inanimate objects was the result of
sex in the animate subject: that primitive men saw the moon as a
most conspicuous object, whose spots at periods had the semblance
of a man's face, whose waxing and waning increased their wonder:
whose coming and going amid the still and solemn night added to
the mystery: until from being viewed as a man, it was feared,
especially when apparently angry in a mist or an eclipse, and so
reverenced and worshipped as the heaven-man, the monthly god.
III. THE MOON A WORLD-WIDE DEITY.
Anthropomorphism, or the representation of outward objects in the
_form_ of _man_, wrought largely, as we have seen, in the
manufacture of the man in the moon; it entered no less into the
composition of the moon-god. The twenty-first verse of the fiftieth
Psalm contains its recognition and rebuke. "Thou thoughtest that I
was altogether as thyself"; or, still more literally, "Thou hast thought
that being, I shall be like thee." As Dr. Delitzsch says, "Because
man in God's likeness has a bodily form, some have presumed to
infer backwards therefrom that God also has a bodily form like to
man, which is related by way of prototype to the human form."
[125] As well might we say that because a watchmaker constructs a
chronometer with a movement somewhat like that of his own heart,
therefore he is mechanical, metallic, and round. Against this
anthropomorphic materialism science lifts up its voice; for what
modern philosopher, worthy of the name, fails to distinguish
between phenomenon and fact, inert matter and active force? Says a
recent writer, "We infer that as our own master of the mint is neither
a sovereign nor a half-sovereign, so the force which coins and
recoins this ulh, or matter, must be altogether in the god-part and
none of it in the metal or paste in which it works." [126] With the
progress of man's intelligence we shall observe improvement in this
anthropomorphism, but it will still survive. As Mr. Baring-Gould
tells us: "The savage invests God with bodily attributes; in a more
civilized state man withdraws the bodily attributes, but imposes the
limitations of his own mental nature; and in his philosophic
elevation he recognises in God intelligence only, though still with
anthropomorphic conditions." [127]
Xenophanes said that if horses, oxen, and lions could paint, they
would make gods like themselves. And Ralph Waldo Emerson says:
"The gods of fable are the shining moments of great men. We run
all our vessels into one mould. Our colossal theologies of Judaism,
Christism, Buddhism, Mahometism, are the necessary and structural
action of the human mind. The student of history is like a man going
into a warehouse to buy clothes or carpets. He fancies he has a new
article. If he go to the factory, he shall find that his new stuff still
repeats the scrolls and rosettes which are found on the interior walls
of the pyramids of Thebes. Our theism is the purification of the
human mind. Man can paint, or make, or think nothing but man. He
believes that the great material elements had their origin from his
thought. And our philosophy finds one essence collected or
distributed." [128] And a devout author, whose orthodoxy
--whatever that may mean--is unquestioned, acknowledges that man
adored the unknown power in the sun, and "in the moon, which
bathes the night with its serene splendours. Under this latter form,
completed by a very simple anthropomorphism which applies to the
gods the law of the sexes, the religions of nature weighed during
long ages upon Western Asia." [129] A volume might be written
upon this subject; but we have other work in hand.
It seems to be generally admitted that no form of idolatry is older
than the worship of the moon. Lord Kames says, "It is probable that
the sun and moon were early held to be deities, and that they were
the first visible objects of worship." [130] Dr. Inman says, "That the
sun and moon were at a very early period worshipped, none who has
studied antiquity can deny." [131] And Goldziher maintains that
"the lunar worship is older than the solar." [132] Maimonides, "the
light of Israel," says that the Zabaists not only worshipped the moon
themselves, but they also asserted that Adam led mankind to that
species of worship. No doubt luniolatry is as old as the human race.
In some parts the moon is still the superior god. Mr. Tylor writes:
"Moon worship, naturally ranking below sun worship in importance,
ranges through nearly the same district of culture. There are
remarkable cases in which the moon is recognised as a great deity
by tribes who take less account, or none at all, of the sun. An old
account of the Caribs describes them as esteeming the moon more
than the sun, and at new moon coming out of their houses crying,
Behold the moon!" [133] This deity, then, is ancient and modern:
also a chief of the gods: let us now show that he is a god whose
empire is the world.
We begin in Asia, and with the Assyrian monuments, which display
many religious types and emblems. "Representations of the
heavenly bodies, as sacred symbols, are of constant occurrence in
the most ancient sculptures. In the bas-reliefs we find figures of the
sun, moon, and stars, suspended round the neck of the king when
engaged in the performance of religious ceremonies." [134] In
Chaldaea "the moon was named Sin and Hur. Hurki, Hur, and Ur
was the chief place of his worship, for the satellite was then
considered as being masculine. The name for the moon in Armenian
was _Khaldi_, which has been considered by some to be the origin
of the word Chaldee, as signifying moon worshippers." [135] With
this Chaldaean deity may be connected "the Akkadian moon god,
who corresponds with the Semitic Sin," and who "is Aku, 'the
seated-father,' as chief supporter of kosmic order, styled 'the maker
of brightness,' En-zuna, 'the lord of growth,' and Idu, 'the measuring
lord,' the Aides of Hesychios." [136]
"With respect to the name of Chaldaean, perhaps the most probable
account of the origin of the word is, that it designates properly the
inhabitants of the ancient capital, Ur or Hur,--_Kkaldi_ being in the
Burbur dialect the exact equivalent of _Hur_, which was the proper
name of the moon god, and Chaldaeans being thus either 'moon
worshippers,' or simply, inhabitants of the town dedicated to, and
called after, the moon." [137] Again: "The first god of the second
triad is Sin or Hurki, the moon deity. It is in condescension to Greek
notions that Berosus inverts the true Chaldaean order, and places the
sun before the moon in his enumeration of the heavenly bodies.
Chaldaean mythology gives a very decided preference to the lesser
luminary, perhaps because the nights are more pleasant than the
clays in hot countries. With respect to the names of the god, we may
observe that Sin, the Assyrian or Semitic term, is a word of quite
uncertain etymology, which, however, is found applied to the moon
in many Semitic languages." [138] "_Sin_ is used for the moon in
Mendaean and Syriac at the present day. It is the name given to the
moon god in St. James of Seruj's list of the idols of Harran; and it
was the term used for Monday by the Sabaeans as late as the ninth
century." [139] Another author writes: "The Babylonian and
Assyrian moon god is Sin, whose name probably appears in Sinai.
The expression, 'from the origin of the god Sin,' was used by the
Assyrians to mark remote antiquity; because, as chaos preceded
order, so night preceded day, and the enthronement of the moon as
the night-king marks the commencement of the annals of kosmic
order." [140]
When we search the Hebrew Scriptures, we find too many allusions
to the Queen of Heaven, to Astarte and the groves, for us to doubt
that the Israelites adored
"--mooned Ashtaroth,
Heaven's queen and mother both." (Milton's _Odes_.)
Dr. Goldziher is an incontestable authority, and thus writes: "Queen
or Princess of Heaven is a very frequent name for the moon." [141]
Again, "Even in the latest times the Hebrews called the moon the
'Queen of Heaven' (Jer. vii. 18), and paid her Divine honours in this
character at the time of the captivity." [142] And, to complete this
author's witness, he again says: "What was the antiquity of this lunar
worship among the Hebrews, is testified (as has long been known)
by the part played by Mount Sinai in the history of Hebrew religion.
For this geographical name is doubtless related to _Sin_, one of the
Semitic names of the moon. The mountain must in ancient times
have been consecrated to the moon. The beginning of the Hebrew
religion, which was connected with the phenomena of the night-sky,
germinated first during the residence in Egypt on the foundation of
an ancient myth. The recollection of this occasioned them to call the
part of Egypt which they had long inhabited, eres Sinim, 'moonland'
(Isa. xlix. 12)." [143] It is but just that we should hear the other side,
when there is a difference of opinion. The above mentioned 'Queen
of Heaven' is beyond question the Ashtoreth or Astarte (identical
with our _star_), which was the principal goddess of the
Phoenicians; and we believe she was originally the goddess of the
moon. This is doubted by a modern writer, who says, "Baal is
constantly coupled with Astarte; and the more philosophical opinion
is that this national god and goddess were the lord and lady of
Phoenicia, rather than the sun and moon: for to a people full of
political life the sun and moon would have been themselves
representatives, while a Divine king and queen were the realities.
And if so, the habitual inclination of the Israelites, an essentially
political people, for this worship becomes the more easily
understood." [144] Professor F. D. Maurice, in his _Moral and
Metaphysical Philosophy_, also takes this view. The question here
is not whether the Jews worshipped Astarte, but whether Astarte
was the moon. This we cannot hesitate to answer in the affirmative.
Kenrick writes: "Ashtoreth or Astarte appears physically to
represent the moon. She was the chief local deity of Sidon; but her
worship must have been extensively diffused, not only in Palestine,
but in the countries east of the Jordan, as we find Ashtaroth-Karnaim
(Ashtaroth of two horns) mentioned in the book of Genesis
(xiv. 5). This goddess, like other lunar deities, appears to have been
symbolized by a heifer, or a figure with a heifer's head, whose horns
resembled the crescent moon. The children of Israel renounced her
worship at the persuasion of Samuel; and we do not read again of
her idolatry till the reign of Solomon (1 Kings xi. 5), after which it
appears never to have been permanently banished, though put down
for a time by Josiah (2 Kings xxiii. 13). She is the Queen of Heaven,
to whom, according to the reproaches of Jeremiah (vii. 18, xliv. 25),
the women of Israel poured out their drink-offerings, and burnt
incense, and offered cakes, regarding her as the author of their
national prosperity. This epithet accords well with the supposition
that she represented the moon, as some ancient authors inform us."
[145] Dr. Gotch, an eminent Hebrew scholar, says that there is no
doubt that the moon is the symbol of productive power and must be
identified with Astarte. "That this goddess was so typified can
scarcely be doubted. The ancient name of the city, Ashtaroth-Karnaim,
already referred to, seems to indicate a horned Astarte, that
is an image with a crescent moon on her head like the Egyptian
Athor. At any rate, it is certain that she was by some ancient writers
identified with the moon, as Lucian and Herodian. On these grounds
Movers, Winer, Keil, and others maintain that originally Ashtoreth
was the moon goddess." [146] Clearly, then, the Hebrews
worshipped the moon. But, even apart from Astarte, this worship
may be proven on other evidence. Dr. Jamieson says that the word
_mena_ (moon: Anglo-Saxon, _mona_) "approaches most nearly to
a word used by the prophet Isaiah, which has been understood by
the most learned interpreters as denoting the moon. 'Ye are they that
prepare a table for _Gad_, and that furnish the offering unto
_Meni_.' (Isa. lxv. 11). As _Gad_ is understood of the _sun_, we
learn from Diodor Sicul that _Meni_ is to be viewed as a
designation of the _moon_." [147] This is Bishop Lowth's view.
"The disquisitions and conjectures of the learned concerning Gad
and Meni are infinite and uncertain: perhaps the most probable may
be, that Gad means good fortune, and Meni the moon." [148] One
point is worthy of notice. In our English version _Meni_ is rendered
"number"; and we know very well that by the courses of the moon
ancient months and years were numbered. In Isaiah iii. 18 we find
the daughters of Zion ornamented with feet-rings, and networks, and
_crescents_: or, as our translation reads, "round tires like the moon."
And, once more, in Ezekiel xlvi., we read that the gate of the inner
court of the sanctuary that "looketh toward the east, shall be opened
on the day of the new moon"; and the meat offering on "the day of
the new moon shall be a young bullock without blemish, and six
lambs, and a ram." If there was no sacred significance in the
observance of these lunar changes, why did the writer of the New
Testament Epistle to the Colossians say, "Let no man judge you in
respect of the new moon"? A competent scholar, in recognising this
consociation of Hebrew religion with the moon's phases, rightly
ascribes to it an earlier origin. Says Ewald: "To connect the annual
festivals with the full moon, and to commence them in the evening,
as though greeting her with a glad shout, was certainly a primitive
custom, both among other races and in the circle of nations from
which in the earliest times Israel sprang." [149] And the Bishop of
Derry remarks: "To a religious Hebrew it was rather the moon than
the sun which marked the seasons, as the calendar of the Church
was regulated by it." [150] We have sought to place this Hebrew
luniolatry beyond dispute, because so many Christians have
supposed that "the chosen people" lived in unclouded light, and "the
uncovenanted heathen" in outer and utter darkness.
Passing on we find that "in Pontus and Phrygia were temples to
_Meen_, and Homer says _Meen_ presides over the months, whilst
in the Sanskrit _Mina_, we see her connected with the Fish and
Virgin. It is not improbable that the great Akaimenian race, as
worshipping and upholding sun and moon faiths, were called after
_Meni_, the moon." [151] Among the Arabians the moon was the
great divinity, as may be learned from Pocock's _Specimen
Historiae Arabum_; Prideaux's _Connection_; Gibbon's _Decline
and Fall of the Roman Empire_; and Sale's _Preliminary Discourse_
to his translation of the _Koran_. Tiele says: "The ancient religion
of the Arabs rises little higher than animistic polydaemonism. The
names Itah and Shamsh, the sun god, occur among all the Semitic
peoples; Allat, or Alilat, and Al-Uzza, as well as the triad of moon
goddesses to which these last belong, are common to several, and
the deities which bear them are reckoned among the chief." [152]
The Saracens called the moon _Cabar_, the great; and its crescent is
the religious symbol of the Turks to this day. Tradition says that
"Philip, the father of Alexander, meeting with great difficulties in
the siege of Byzantium, set the workmen to undermine the walls,
but a crescent moon discovered the design, which miscarried;
consequently the Byzantines erected a statue to Diana, and the
crescent became the symbol of the state." Dr. Brewer, who cites this
story, adds: "Another legend is that Othman, the sultan, saw in a
vision a crescent moon, which kept increasing till its horns extended
from east to west, and he adopted the crescent of his dream for his
standard, adding the motto, _Donec repleat orbem_." [153] Schlegel
mentions the story that Mahomet "wished to pass with his disciples
as a person transfigured in a supernatural light, and that the
credulity of his followers saw the moon, or the moon's light,
descend upon him, pierce his garments, and replenish him. That
veneration for the moon which still forms a national or rather
religious characteristic of the Mahometans, may perhaps have its
foundation in the elder superstition, or pagan idolatry of the Arabs."
[154] No doubt this last sentence contains the true elucidation of the
crescent. For astrolatry lives in the east still. The _Koran_ may
expressly forbid the practice, saying: "Bend not in adoration to the
sun or moon"; [155] yet, "monotheist as he is, the Moslem still claps
his hands at sight of the new moon, and says a prayer." [156]
We come next to the Persians, whom Herodotus accuses of adoring
the sun and moon. But, as Gibbon says, "the Persians of every age
have denied the charge, and explained the equivocal conduct, which
might appear to give colour to it." [157] It will certainly require
considerable explanation to free from lunar idolatry the following
passage, which we find in the _Zend Avesta_: "We sacrifice unto
the new moon, the holy and master of holiness: we sacrifice unto the
full moon, the holy and master of holiness." [158] Unquestionably
the Persian recognised the Lord of Light _in_ the ordinances of
heaven; and therefore his was superior to many forms of blind
idol-worship. So far we may accept Hegel's interpretation of the _Zend_
doctrine. "Light is the _body of Ormuzd_; thence the worship of
fire, because Ormuzd is present in all light; but he is not the sun or
moon itself In these the Persians venerate only the light, which is
Ormuzd." [159] In fact, we owe to the Persians a valuable testimony
to the God in whom is no darkness at all. "The prayer of Ajax was
for light"; and we too little feel the Fire which burns and shines
beyond the stars.
In Central India the sun and moon are worshipped by many tribes,
as the Khonds, Korkus, Tunguses, and Buraets. The Korkus adore
the powers of nature, as the gods of the tiger, bison, the hill, the
cholera, etc., "but these are all secondary to the sun and the moon,
which among this branch of the Kolarian stock, as among the Kols
in the far east, are the principal objects of adoration." [160a]
"Although the Tongusy in general worship the sun and moon, there
are many exceptions to this observation. I have found intelligent
people among them, who believed that there was a being superior to
both sun and moon; and who created them and all the world."
[160b] This last sentence we read with gratitude, but not with
surprise. There is some good in all, if there seem to be all good in
some.
"The aboriginal tribes in the Dekkan of India also acknowledge the
presence of the sun and moon by an act of reverence." [161]
The inhabitants of the island of Celebes, in the East Indian
Archipelago, "formerly acknowledged no gods but the sun and the
moon, which were held to be eternal. Ambition for superiority made
them fall out." [162] According to Milton, ambition created
unpleasantness in the Hebrew heaven.
In Northern Asia the moon had adoring admirers among the
Samoyedes, the Morduans, the Tschuwasches, and other tribes. This
is stated by Sir John Lubbock. [163] Lord Kames says: "The people
of Borneo worship the sun and moon as real divinities. The
Samoides worship both, bowing to them morning and evening in the
Persian manner." [164] The _Samoides_ are the "salmon-eaters" of
Asia.