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ASTRONOMICAL MYTHS.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: THE CLIFFS OF FLAMANVILLE.]
ASTRONOMICAL MYTHS,
BASED ON
FLAMMARION'S
"HISTORY OF THE HEAVENS."
BY
JOHN F. BLAKE.
[Illustration]
London:
MACMILLAN AND CO.
1877.
LONDON:
R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS,
BREAD STREET HILL,
QUEEN VICTORIA STREET.
[Illustration]
PREFACE.
The Book which is here presented to the public is founded upon a French
work by M. Flammarion which has enjoyed considerable popularity. It
contained a number of interesting accounts of the various ideas,
sometimes mythical, sometimes intended to be serious, that had been
entertained concerning the heavenly bodies and our own earth; with a
popular history of the earliest commencement of astronomy among several
ancient peoples. It was originally written in the form of conversations
between the members of an imaginary party at the seaside. It was
thought that this style would hardly be so much appreciated by English
as by French readers, and therefore in presenting the materials of the
French author in an English dress the conversational form has been
abandoned. Several facts of extreme interest in relation to the early
astronomical myths and the development of the science among the ancients
having been brought to light, especially by the researches of Mr.
Haliburton, a considerable amount of new matter, including the whole
chapter on the Pleiades, has been introduced, which makes the present
issue not exactly a translation, but rather a book founded on the French
author's work. It is hoped that it may be found of interest to those who
care to know about the early days of the oldest of our sciences, which
is now attracting general attention again by the magnitude of its recent
advances. Astronomy also, in early days, as will be seen by a perusal of
this book, was so mixed up with all the affairs of life, and contributed
so much even to religion, that a history of its beginnings is found to
reveal the origin of several of our ideas and habits, now apparently
quite unconnected with the science. There is matter of interest here,
therefore, for those who wish to know only the history of the general
ideas of mankind.
[Illustration: THE ANNUAL REVOLUTION OF THE EARTH ROUND THE SUN, WITH
THE SIGNS OF THE ZODIAC AND THE CONSTELLATIONS.]
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
THE CLIFFS OF FLAMANVILLE _Frontispiece._
THE ANNUAL REVOLUTION OF THE EARTH ROUND THE SUN, WITH
THE SIGNS OF THE ZODIAC AND THE CONSTELLATIONS Page ix
THE EARTH'S YEAR, AND THE MONTHS " xiv
AN ASTRONOMER AT WORK To face page 1
THE NORTHERN CONSTELLATIONS " 49
THE CONSTELLATIONS FROM THE SEA-SHORE " 65
THE ZODIAC OF DENDERAH " 102
I. BABYLONIAN ASTRONOMERS 19
II. DRUIDICAL WORSHIP 37
III. CHALDEAN ASTRONOMERS 87
IV. THE ZODIAC AND THE DEAD IN EGYPT 108
V. THE LEGENDS OF THE DRUIDS 123
VI. THE NEMAEAN LION 146
VII. HEAVENS OF THE FATHERS 191
VIII. DEATH OF COPERNICUS 208
IX. THE SOLAR SYSTEM 225
X. THE DISCOVERY OF THE TELESCOPE 227
XI. THE FOUNDATION OF THE PARIS OBSERVATORY 229
XII. THE LEGEND OF OWEN 315
XIII. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AND THE ECLIPSE OF THE MOON 336
XIV. PRODIGIES IN THE MIDDLE AGES 358
XV. AN ASTROLOGER AT WORK 385
XVI. THE END OF THE WORLD 429
1. THE EARLIEST (ARYAN) REPRESENTATION OF THE EARTH 12
2. ANCIENT GAULISH MEDALS, BEARING ASTRONOMICAL SIGNS 42
3. ANCIENT CELESTIAL SPHERE 58
4. POSITIONS OF THE GREAT BEAR ON SEPTEMBER 4 62
5. CONSTELLATION OF THE BEAR 63
6. CONSTELLATION OF ORION 73
7. CHART OF CONSTELLATIONS IN SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES 78
8. FLAMSTEED'S CHART 79
9. ARABIAN SPHERE OF THE ELEVENTH CENTURY 84
10. ANCIENT CHINESE PIECES OF MONEY, BEARING REPRESENTATIONS OF
THE ZODIAC 93
11. THE ZODIAC 96
12. DIAGRAM ILLUSTRATING THE POSITION OF CERTAIN STARS, B.C. 1200 98
13. CURIOUS FIFTEENTH CENTURY FIGURE, REPRESENTING ELEVEN
DIFFERENT HEAVENS 150
14. PTOLEMY'S ASTRONOMICAL SYSTEM 181
15. THE EPICYCLES OF PTOLEMY 184
16. HEAVENS OF THE MIDDLE AGES 188
17. EMBLEMATIC DRAWING FROM ANCIENT ASTRONOMICAL WORK 193
18. EGYPTIAN SYSTEM 194
19. CAPELLA'S SYSTEM 195
20. THE COPERNICAN SYSTEM 205
21. TYCHO BRAHE'S SYSTEM 212
22. DESCARTES' THEORY OF VORTICES 216
23. VORTICES OF THE STARS 218
24. VARIATION OF DESCARTES' THEORY 219
25. THE EARTH FLOATING 237
26. THE EARTH WITH ROOTS 237
27. THE EARTH OF THE VEDIC PRIESTS 238
28. HINDOO EARTH 239
29. THE EARTH OF ANAXIMANDER 240
30. PLATO'S CUBICAL EARTH 241
31. EGYPTIAN REPRESENTATION OF THE EARTH 243
32. HOMERIC COSMOGRAPHY 247
33. THE EARTH OF THE LATER GREEKS 256
34. POMPONIUS MELA'S COSMOGRAPHY 257
35. THE EARTH'S SHADOW 262
36. DITTO 263
37. DITTO 264
38. DITTO 264
39. THE COSMOGRAPHY OF COSMAS 268
40. THE SQUARE EARTH 269
41. EXPLANATION OF SUNRISE 271
42. THE EARTH AS AN EGG 273
43. THE EARTH AS A FLOATING EGG 274
44. EIGHTH-CENTURY MAP OF THE WORLD 276
45. TENTH-CENTURY MAPS 277
46. THE MAP OF ANDREA BIANCO 283
47. FROM THE MAP IN HEREFORD CATHEDRAL 285
48. DITTO 286
49. COSMOGRAPHY OF ST. DENIS 291
50. THE MAP OF MARCO POLO 293
51. MAP ON A MEDAL OF CHARLES V 294
52. DANTE'S INFERNAL REGIONS 311
53. PARADISE OF FRA MAURO 322
54. THE PARADISE OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY 324
55. REPRESENTATION OF A COMET, SIXTEENTH CENTURY 349
56. AN EGG MARKED WITH A COMET 352
57. THE ROMAN CALENDAR 403
58. DIAGRAM ILLUSTRATING THE ORDER OF THE DAYS OF THE WEEK 413
[Illustration: THE EARTH'S YEAR, AND THE MONTHS.]
CONTENTS.
PAGE
CHAPTER I.
THE FIRST BEGINNINGS OF ASTRONOMY 1
CHAPTER II.
ASTRONOMY OF THE CELTS 29
CHAPTER III.
ORIGIN OF THE CONSTELLATIONS 49
CHAPTER IV.
THE ZODIAC 89
CHAPTER V.
THE PLEIADES 111
CHAPTER VI.
THE NATURE AND STRUCTURE OF THE HEAVENS ACCORDING TO THE ANCIENTS 138
CHAPTER VII.
THE CELESTIAL HARMONY 161
CHAPTER VIII.
ASTRONOMICAL SYSTEMS 179
CHAPTER IX.
THE TERRESTRIAL WORLD OF THE ANCIENTS.--COSMOGRAPHY AND GEOGRAPHY 231
CHAPTER X.
COSMOGRAPHY AND GEOGRAPHY OF THE CHURCH 258
CHAPTER XI.
LEGENDARY WORLDS OF THE MIDDLE AGES 300
CHAPTER XII.
ECLIPSES AND COMETS 330
CHAPTER XIII.
THE GREATNESS AND THE FALL OF ASTROLOGY 360
CHAPTER XIV.
TIME AND THE CALENDAR 387
CHAPTER XV.
THE END OF THE WORLD 418
[Illustration: AN ASTRONOMER AT WORK.]
[Illustration]
HISTORY OF THE HEAVENS.
CHAPTER I.
THE FIRST BEGINNINGS OF ASTRONOMY.
Astronomy is an ancient science; and though of late it has made a fresh
start in new regions, and we are opening on the era of fresh and
unlooked-for discoveries which will soon reveal our present ignorance,
our advance upon primitive ideas has been so great that it is difficult
for us to realize what they were without an attentive and not
uninstructive study of them. No other science, not even geology, can
compare with astronomy for the complete revolution which it has effected
in popular notions, or for the change it has brought about in men's
estimate of their place in creation. It is probable that there will
always be men who believe that the whole universe was made for their
benefit; but, however this may be, we have already learned from
astronomy that our habitation is not that central spot men once deemed
it, but only an ordinary planet circulating round an ordinary star, just
as we are likely also to learn from biology, that we occupy the
position, as animals, of an ordinary family in an ordinary class.
That we may more perfectly realize this strange revolution of ideas, we
must throw ourselves as far as possible into the feeling and spirit of
our ancestors, when, without the knowledge we now possess, they
contemplated, as they could not fail to do, the marvellous and
awe-inspiring phenomena of the heavens by night. To them, for many an
age, the sun and moon and stars, with all the planets, seemed absolutely
to rise, to shine, and to set; the constellations to burst out by night
in the east, and travel slowly and in silence to the west; the ocean
waves to rise and fall and beat against the rock-bound shore as if
endowed with life; and even in the infancy of the intellect they must
have longed to pierce the secrets of this mysterious heavenly vault, and
to know the nature of the starry firmament as it seemed to them, and
the condition of the earth which appeared in the centre of these
universal movements. The simplest hypothesis was for them the truth, and
they believed that the sky was in reality a lofty and extended canopy
bestudded with stars, and the earth a vast plain, the solid basis of the
universe, on which dwelt man, sole creature that lifted his eyes and
thoughts above. Two distinct regions thus appeared to compose the whole
system--the upper one, or the air, in which were the moving stars, the
lights of heaven, and the firmament over all; and the lower one, or
earth and sea, adorned on the surface with the products of life, and
below with the minerals, metals, and stones. For a long time the various
theories of the universe, grotesque and changing as they might be, were
but modifications of this one central idea, the earth below, the heavens
above, and on this was based every religious system that was
promulgated--the very phrases founded upon it remaining to this day for
a testimony to the intimate relation thus manifested between the infant
ideas in astronomy and theology. No wonder that early revolutions in the
conceptions in one science were thought to militate against the other.
It is only when the thoughts on both are enlarged that it is seen that
their connection is not necessary, but accidental, or, at least,
inevitable only in the infancy of both.
It is scarcely possible to estimate fully the enormous change from
these ideas representing the appearances to those which now represent
the reality; or to picture to ourselves the total revolution in men's
minds before they could transform the picture of a vast terrestrial
surface, to which the sun and all the heavenly bodies were but
accessories for various purposes, to one in which the earth is but a
planet like Mars, moving in appearance among the stars, as it does, and
rotating with a rapidity that brings a whole hemisphere of the heavens
into view through the course of a single day and night. At first sight,
what a loss of dignity! but, on closer thought, what a gain of grandeur!
No longer some little neighbouring lights shine down upon us from a
solid vault; but we find ourselves launched into the sea of infinity;
with power to gaze into its almost immeasurable depths.
To appreciate rightly our position, we have to plant ourselves, in
imagination, in some spot removed from the surface of the earth, where
we may be uninfluenced by her motion, and picture to ourselves what we
should see. Were we placed in some spot far enough removed from the
earth, we should find ourselves in eternal day; the sun would ever
shine, for no great globe would interpose itself between it and our
eyes; there would be no night there. Were we in the neighbourhood of the
earth's orbit, and within it, most wonderful phenomena would present
themselves. At one time the earth would appear but an ordinary planet,
smaller than Venus, but, as time wore on, unmeasured by recurring days
or changing seasons, it would gradually be seen to increase in size--now
appearing like the moon at the full, and shining like her with a silver
light. As it came nearer, and its magnitude increased, the features of
the surface would be distinguished; the brighter sea and the darker
shining continents, with the brilliant ice-caps at the poles; but,
unlike what we see in the moon, these features would appear to move,
and, one after another, every part of the earth would be visible. The
actual time required for all to pass before us would be what we here
call a day and night. And still, as it rotates, the earth passes nearer
to us, assumes its largest apparent size, and so gradually decreasing
again, becomes once more, after the interval we here call a year, an
ordinary-looking star-like planet. To us, in these days, this
description is easy of imagination; we find no difficulty in picturing
it to ourselves; but, if we will think for a moment what such an idea
would have been to the earliest observers of astronomy, we shall better
appreciate the vast change that has taken place--how we are removed from
them, as we may say, _toto coelo_.
But not only as to the importance of the earth in the universe, but on
other matters connected with astronomy, we perceive the immensity of the
change in our ideas--in that of distance, for instance. This celestial
vault of the ancients was near enough for things to pass from it to us;
it was in close connection with the earth, supported by it, and
therefore of less diameter; but now, when our distance from the sun is
expressed by numbers that we may write, indeed, but must totally fail to
adequately appreciate, and the distance from the _next_ nearest star is
such, that with the velocity of light--a velocity we are accustomed to
regard as instantaneous--we should only reach it after a three years'
journey, we are reminded of the pathetic lines of Thomas Hood:
"I remember, I remember, the fir trees straight and high,
And how I thought their slender tops were close against the sky;
It was a childish fantasy, but now 'tis little joy,
To know I'm further off from heaven than when I was a boy."
The astronomer's answer to the last line would be that as far as the
material heaven goes, we are just as much in it as the stars or as any
other member of the universe; we cannot, therefore, be far off or near
to it.
It is probable that we are even yet but little awake to true cosmical
ideas in other respects;--as to velocity, for instance. We know indeed,
of light and electricity and the motions of the earth, but revelations
are now being made to us of motions of material substances in the sun
with such velocities that in comparison with them any motions on the
earth appear infinitesimally small. Our progress to our present notions,
and appreciations of the truth of nature in the heavens, will thus
occupy much of our thoughts; but we must also recount the history of the
acquirement of those facts which have ultimately become the basis for
our changes of idea.
Our rustic forefathers, whatever their nation, were not so enamoured of
the "wonders of science"--that their astronomy was greatly a collection
of theories, though theories, and wild ones, they had; it was a more
practical matter, and was believed too by them to be more practical than
we now find reason to believe to be the case. They noticed the various
seasons, and they marked the changes in the appearances of the heavens
that accompanied them; they connected the two together, and conceived
the latter to be the cause of the former, and so, with other apparently
uncertain events. The celestial phenomena thus acquired a fictitious
importance which rendered their study of primary necessity, but gave no
occasion for a theory.
That we may better appreciate the earliest observations on astronomy, it
may be well to mention briefly what are the varying phenomena which may
most easily be noticed. If we except the phases of the moon, which
almost without observation would force their recognition on people who
had no other than lunar light by night, and which must therefore, from
the earliest periods of human history have divided time into lunar
months; there are three different sets of phenomena which depend on the
arrangement of our planetary system, and which were early observed.
The first of these depends upon the earth's rotation on its axis, the
result of which is that the stars appear to revolve with a uniform
motion from east to west; the velocity increasing with the distance from
the pole star, which remains nearly fixed. This circumstance is almost
as easy of observation as the phases of the moon, and was used from the
earliest ages to mark the passage of time during the night. The next
arises from the motion of the earth in her orbit about the sun, by which
it happens that the earth is in a different position with respect to the
sun every night, and, therefore, a different set of stars are seen in
his neighbourhood; these are setting with him, and therefore also a
different set are just rising at sunset every evening. These changes,
which would go through the cycle in a year, are, of course, less
obvious, but of great importance as marking the approach of the various
seasons during ages in which the hour of the sun's rising could not be
noted by a clock. The last depends on the proper motions of the moon and
planets about the earth and sun respectively, by reason of which those
heavenly bodies occupy varying positions among the stars. Only a careful
and continuous scrutiny of the heavens would detect these changes,
except, perhaps, in the case of the moon, and but little of importance
really depends on them; nevertheless, they were very early the subject
of observation, as imagination lent them a false value, and in some
cases because their connection with eclipses was perceived. The
practical cultivation of astronomy amongst the earliest people had
always reference to one or other of these three sets of appearances, and
the various terms and signs that were invented were intended for the
clearer exposition of the results of their observations on these points.
In looking therefore into extreme antiquity we shall find in many
instances our only guide to what their knowledge was is the way in which
they expressed these results.
We do not find, and perhaps we should scarcely expect to find, any one
man or even one nation who laid the foundation of astronomy--for it was
an equal necessity for all, and was probably antecedent to the practice
of remembering men by their names. We cannot, either, conjecture the
antiquity of ideas and observations met with among races who are
themselves the only record of their past; and if we are to find any
origins of the science, it is only amongst those nations which have been
cultivators of arts by which their ancient doings are recorded.
Amongst the earliest cultivators of astronomy we may refer to the
Primitive Greeks, the Chinese, the Egyptians, the Babylonians, and the
Aryans, and also to certain traditions met with amongst many savage as
well as less barbarous races, the very universality of which proclaims
as loudly as possible their extreme antiquity.
Each of the four above-mentioned races have names with which are
associated the beginnings of astronomy--Uranus and Atlas amongst the
Greeks; Folic amongst the Chinese; Thaut or Mercury in Egypt; Zoroaster
and Bel in Persia and Babylonia. Names such as these, if those of
individuals, are not necessarily those of the earliest astronomers--but
only the earliest that have come down to us. Indeed it is very far from
certain whether these ancient celebrities have any real historical
existence. The acts and labours of the earliest investigators are so
wrapped in obscurity, there is such a mixture of fable with tradition,
that we can have no reliance that any of them, or that others mentioned
in ancient mythology, are not far more emblematical than personal. Some,
such as Uranus, are certainly symbolical; but the very existence of the
name handed down to us, if it prove nothing else, proves that the
science was early cultivated amongst those who have preserved or
invented them.
If we attempt to name in years the date of the commencement--not of
astronomy itself--for that probably in some form was coeval with the
race of man itself, but of recorded observations, we are met with a new
difficulty arising from the various ways in which they reckoned time.
This was in every case by the occurrence of the phases of one or other
of the above-mentioned phenomena; sometimes however they selected the
apparent rotation of the sun in twenty-four hours, sometimes that of the
moon in a month, sometimes the interval from one solstice to the next,
and yet they apparently gave to each and all of these the same
title--such as _annus_--obviously representing a cycle only, but
without reference to its length. By these different methods of
counting, hopeless confusion has often been introduced into chronology;
and the moderns have in many instances unjustly accused the ancients of
vanity and falsehood. Bailly attempted to reconcile all these various
methods and consequent dates with each other, and to prove that
practical astronomy commenced "about 1,500 years before the Deluge, or
that it is about 7,000 years old;" but we shall see reason in the sequel
for suspecting any such attempt, and shall endeavour to arrive at more
reliable dates from independent evidence.
Perhaps the remotest antiquity to which we can possibly mount is that of
the Aryans, amongst whom the hymns of the _Rig Veda_ were composed. The
short history of Hebrew and Greco-Roman civilization seems to be lost in
comparison with this the earliest work of human imagination. When
seeking for words to express their thoughts, these primitive men by the
banks of the Oxus personified the phenomena of the heavens and earth,
the storm, the wind, the rain, the stars and meteors. Here, of course,
it is not practical but theoretical astronomy we find. We trace the
first figuring of that primitive idea alluded to before--the heaven
above, the earth below. Here, as we see, is the earth represented as an
indefinite plane surface and passive being forming the foundation of
the world; and above it the sky, a luminous and variable vault beneath
which shines out the fertile and life-giving light. Thus to the earth
they gave the name P'RTHOVI, "the wide expanse;" the blue and
star-bespangled heavens they called VARUNA, "the vault;" and beneath it
in the region of the clouds they enthroned the light DYAUS, _i.e._ "the
luminous air."
[Illustration: FIG. 1.]
From hence, it would appear, or on this model, the early ideas of all
peoples have been formed. Among the Greeks the name for heaven expresses
the same idea of a hollow vault ([Greek: koilos], hollow, concave) and
the earth is called [Greek: ge], or mother. Among the Latins the name
_coelum_ has the same signification, while the earth _terra_ comes
from the participle _tersa_ (the dry element) in contradistinction to
_mare_ the wet.
In this original Aryan notion, however, as represented by the figure, we
have more than this, the origin of the names _Jupiter_ and _Deus_ comes
out. For it is easy to trace the connection between _Dyaus_ (the
luminiferous air) and the Greek word _Zeus_ from whence _Dios_, [Greek:
_theos_], _Deus_, and the French word _Dieu_, and then by adding _pater_
or father we get _Deuspater_, _Zeuspater_, Jupiter.
These etymologies are not however matters beyond dispute, and there are
at least two other modes of deriving the same words. Thus we are told
the earliest name for the Deity was Jehovah, the word _Jehov_ meaning
father of life; and that the Greeks translated this into _Dis_ or
_Zeus_, a word having, according to this theory, the same sense, being
derived from [Greek: zao] to live. Of course there can be no question of
the later word _Deus_ being the direct translation of _Dios_.
A third theory is that there exists in one of the dialects which formed
the basis of the old languages of Asia, a word _Yahouh_, a participle of
the verb _nih_, to exist, to be; which therefore signifies the
self-existent, the principle of life, the origin of all motion, and this
is supposed to be the allusion of Diodorus, who explaining the theology
of the Greeks, says that the Egyptians according to Manetho, priest of
Memphis, in giving names to the five elements have called the spirit or
ether Youpiter in the _proper sense_ of the word, for the spirit is the
source of life, the author of the vital principle in animals, and is
hence regarded as the father or generator of all beings. The people of
the Homeric ages thought the lightning-bearing Jupiter was the
commencement, origin, end, and middle of all things, a single and
universal power, governing the heavens, the earth, fire, water, day and
night, and all things. Porphyry says that when the philosophers
discoursed on the nature and parts of the Deity, they could not imagine
any single figure that should represent all his attributes, though they
presented him under the appearance of a man, who was _seated_ to
represent his immovable essence; uncovered in his upper part, because
the upper parts of the universe or region of the stars manifest most of
his nature; but clothed below the loins, because he is more hidden in
terrestrial things; and holding a sceptre in his left hand, because his
heart is the ruler of all things. There are, besides, the etymologies
which assert that Jupiter is derived from _juvare_ to help, meaning the
assisting father; or again that he is _Dies pater_--the god of the
day--in which case no doubt the sun would be alluded to.
It appears then that the ancient Aryan scheme, though _possibly_
supplying us with the origin of one of the widest spread of our words,
is not universally allowed to do so. This origin, however, appears to
derive support from the apparent occurrence of the original of another
well-known ancient classical word in the same scheme, that is Varuna,
obviously the same word as [Greek: Ouranos], and Uranus, signifying the
heavens. Less clearly too perhaps we may trace other such words to the
same source. Thus the Sun, which according to these primitive
conceptions is the husband of the Earth, which it nourishes and makes
fruitful, was called _Savitr_ and _Surya_, from which the passage to the
Gothic _Sauil_ is within the limits of known etymological changes, and
so comes the Lithuanian _Saull_, the Cymric _Haul_, the Greek _Heilos_,
the Latin _Sol_, and the English _Solar_. So from their _Nakt_, the
destructive, we get _Nux_, _Nacht_, _Night_. From _Glu_, the Shining,
whence the participle _Glucina_, and so to _Lucina_, _Luena_, _Luna_,
_Lune_.
Turning from the ancient Aryans, whose astronomy we know only from poems
and fables, and so learn but little of their actual advance in the
science of observation, we come to the Babylonians, concerning whose
astronomical acquirements we have lately been put in possession of
valuable evidence by the tablets obtained by Mr. Smith from Kouyunjik,
an account the contents of which has been given by Mr. Sayce (_Nature_,
vol. xii. p. 489). As the knowledge thus obtained is more certain, being
derived from their actual records, than any that we previously
possessed, it will be well to give as full an account of it as we are
able.
The originators of Babylonian astronomy were not the Chaldaeans, but
another race from the mountains of Elam, who are generally called
Acadians. Of the astronomy of this race we have no complete records, but
can only judge of their progress by the words and names left by them to
the science, as afterwards cultivated by the Semitic Babylonians. These
last were a subsequent race, who entering the country from the East,
conquered the original inhabitants about 2000 B.C., and borrowed their
civilization, and with it their language in the arts and sciences. But
even this latter race is one of considerable antiquity, and when we see,
as we shortly shall, the great advances they had made in observations of
the sun and moon, and consider the probable slowness of development in
those early ages, we have some idea of the remoteness of the date at
which astronomical science was there commenced. Our chief source of
information is an extremely ancient work called The _Observations of
Bell_, supposed to have been written before 1700 B.C., which was
compiled for a certain King Saigou, of Agave in Babylonia. This work is
in seventy books or parts, and is composed of numerous small earthen
tablets having impressed upon them the cuneiform character in which
they printed, and which we are now able to read. We generally date the
art of printing from Caxton, in 1474, because it took the place of
manuscript that had been previously in use in the West; but that method
of writing, if in some respects an improvement on previous methods of
recording ideas as more easily executed, was in others a retrogression
as being less durable: while the manuscripts have perished the
impressions on stone have remained to this day, and will no doubt last
longer than even our printed books. These little tablets represented so
many leaves, and in large libraries, such as that from which those known
have been derived, they were numbered as our own are now, so that any
particular one could be asked for by those who might wish to consult it.
The great difficulty of interpreting these records, which are written in
two different dialects, and deal often with very technical matters, may
well be imagined. These difficulties however have been overcome, and a
good approach to the knowledge of their contents has been made. The
Chaldaeans, as is well known, were much given to astronomy and many of
their writings deal with this subject; but they did practical work as
well, and did not indulge so much in theory as the Aryans. We shall have
future occasion in this book to refer to their observations on various
points, as they did not by any means confine themselves to the simplest
matters; much, in fact, of that with which modern astronomy deals, the
dates and duration of eclipses of the sun and moon, the accurate
measurement of time, the existence of cycles in lunar and solar
phenomena, was studied and recorded by them. We can make some approach
to the probable dates of the invention of some part of their system, by
means of the signs of the Zodiac, which were invented by them and which
we will discuss more at length hereafter. We need only say at present
that what is now the sign of spring, was not reckoned so with them, and
that we can calculate how long ago it is that the sign they reckoned the
spring sign was so.
Semiramis also raised in the centre of Babylon a temple consecrated to
Jupiter, whom the Babylonians called Bel. It was of an extraordinary
height and served for an observatory. The whole edifice was constructed
with great art in asphalte and brick. On its summit were placed the
statues of Jupiter, Juno, and Rhea, covered with gold.
The Egyptians have always been named as the earliest cultivators of
astronomy by the Grecian writers, by whom the science has been handed
down to us, and the Chaldaeans have even been said to have borrowed from
them. The testimony of such writers however is not to be received
implicitly, but to be weighed with the knowledge we may now obtain, as
we have noticed above with respect to the Babylonians, from the actual
records they have left us, whether by actual records, or by words and
customs remaining to the present day.
[Illustration: PLATE I.--BABYLONIAN ASTRONOMERS.]
Herodotus declares that the Egyptians had made observations for 11,340
years and had seen the course of the sun change four times, and the
ecliptic placed perpendicular to the equator. This is the style of
statement on which opinions of the antiquity of Egyptian astronomy have
been founded, and it is obviously unworthy of credit.
Diodorus says that there is no country in which the positions and
motions of the stars have been so accurately observed as in Egypt
(_i.e._ to his knowledge). They have preserved, he says, for a great
number of years registers in which their observations are recorded.
Expositions are found in these registers of the motions of the planets,
their revolutions and their stations, and, moreover, the relation which
each bears to the birthdays of animals, and its good or evil influence.
They often predicted the future with success. The earthquakes,
inundations, the appearance of comets, and many other phenomena which it
is impossible for the vulgar to know beforehand, were foreseen by them
by means of the observations they had made over a long series of years.
On the occasion of the French expedition to Egypt, a long passage was
discovered leading from Karnak to Lucksor. This passage was adorned on
each side of the way with a range of 1600 sphinxes with the body of a
lion and the head of a ram. Now in Egyptian architecture, the ornaments
are never the result of caprice or chance; on the contrary, all is done
with intention, and what often appears at first sight strange, appears,
after having been carefully examined and studied, to present allegories
full of sense and reason, founded on a profound knowledge of natural
phenomena, that the ornaments are intended to record. These sphinxes and
rams of the passage were probably the emblems of the different signs of
the Zodiac along the route of the sun. The date of the avenue is not
known; but it would doubtless lead us to a high antiquity for the
Egyptian observations.
The like may be said of the great pyramid, which according to Piazzi
Smyth was built about 2170 B.C. Certainly there are no carvings about it
exhibiting any astronomical designs; but the exact way in which it is
executed would seem to indicate that the builders had a very clear
conception of the importance of the meridian line. It should, however,
be stated that Piazzi Smyth does not consider it to have been built by
the Egyptians for themselves; but under the command of some older race.
There seem, however, to be indications in various festivals and
observances, which are met with widely over the earth's surface, as will
be indicated more in detail in the chapter on the Pleiades, that some
astronomical observations, though of the rudest, were made by races
anterior even to those whose history we partially possess; and that not
merely because of its naturalness, but because of positive evidence, we
must trace back astronomy to a source from whence Egyptians, Indians,
and perhaps Babylonians themselves derived it.
The Chinese astronomy is totally removed from these and stands on its
own basis. With them it was a matter concerning the government, and
stringent laws were enforced on the state astronomers. The advance,
however, that they made would appear to be small; but if we are to
believe their writers, they made observations nearly three thousand
years before our era.
Under the reign of Hoangti, Yuchi recorded that there was a large star
near the poles of the heavens. By a method which we shall enlarge upon
further on, it can be astronomically ascertained that about the epoch
this observation was said to be made there was a star ([Greek: a]
Draconis) so near the pole as to appear immovable, which is so far a
confirmation of his statement. In 2169 the first of a series of eclipses
was recorded by them; but the value of their astronomy seems to be
doubtful when we learn that calculation proves that not one of them
previous to the age of Ptolemy can be identified with the dates given.
Amongst all nations except the Chinese, where it was political, and the
Greeks, where it was purely speculative, astronomy has been intimately
mixed with religious ideas, and we consequently find it to have taken
considerable hold on the mind.
Just as we have seen among the Indians that the basis of their
astronomical ideas was the two-fold division into heaven and earth, so
among other nations this duality has formed the basis of their
religion. Two aspects of things have been noticed by men in the
constitution of things--that which remains always, and that which is
merely transitory, causes and effects. The heaven and the earth have
presented the image of this to their minds--one being the eternal
existence, the other the passing form. In heaven nothing seems to be
born, increase, decrease, or die above the sphere of the moon. That
alone showed the traces of alteration in its phases; while on the other
hand there was an image of perpetuity in its proper substance, in its
motion, and the invariable succession of the same phases.
From another point of view, the heavens were regarded as the father, and
the earth as the mother of all things. For the principle of fertility in
the rains, the dew and the warmth, came from above; while the earth
brought forth abundantly of the products of nature. Such is the idea of
Plutarch, of Hesiod, and of Virgil. From hence have arisen the fictions
which have formed the basis of theogony. Uranus is said to have espoused
Ghe, or the heavens took the earth to wife, and from their marriage was
born the god of time or Saturn.
Another partly religious, and partly astronomical antagonism has been
drawn between light and darkness, associated respectively with good and
evil. In the days when artificial lights, beyond those of the flickering
fire, were unknown, and with the setting of the sun all the world was
enveloped in darkness and seemed for a time to be without life, or at
least cut off entirely from man, it would seem that the sun and its
light was the entire origin of life. Hence it naturally became the
earliest divinity whose brilliant light leaping out of the bosom of
chaos, had brought with it man and all the universe, as we see it
represented in the theologies of Orpheus and of Moses; whence the god
Bel of the Chaldeans, the Oromaza of the Persians, whom they invoke as
the source of all that is good in nature, while they place the origin of
all evil in darkness and its god Ahrinam. We find the glories of the sun
celebrated by all the poets, and painted and represented by numerous
emblems and different names by the artists and sculptors who have
adorned the temples raised to nature or the great first cause.
Among the Jews there are traditions of a very high antiquity for their
astronomy. Josephus assures us that it was cultivated before the Mosaic
Deluge. According to him it is to the public spirit and the labour of
the antediluvians that we owe the science of astrology: "and since they
had learnt from Adam that the world should perish by water and by fire,
the fear that their science should be lost, made them erect two columns,
one of brick the other of stone, on which they engraved the knowledge
they had acquired, so that if a deluge should wash away the column of
brick, the stone one might remain to preserve for posterity the memory
of what they had written. The prescience was rewarded, and the column of
stone is still to be seen in Syria." Whatever we may think of this
statement it would certainly be interesting if we could find in Syria or
anywhere else a monument that recorded the ancient astronomical
observations of the Jews. Ricard and others believe that they were very
far advanced in the science, and that we owe a great part of our present
astronomy to them; but such a conjecture must remain without proof
unless we could prove them anterior to the other nations, whom, we have
seen, cultivated astronomy in very remote times.
One observation seems peculiar to them, if indeed it be a veritable
observation. Josephus says, "God prolonged the life of the patriarchs
that preceded the deluge, both on account of their virtues, and to give
them the opportunity of perfecting the sciences of geometry and
astronomy which they had discovered; which they could not have done if
they had not lived for 600 years, because it is only after the lapse of
600 years that the _great year_ is accomplished."
Now what is this great year or cycle of 600 years? M. Cassini, the
director of the Observatory of Paris, has discussed it astronomically.
He considers it as a testimony of the high antiquity of their astronomy.
"This period," he says, "is one of the most remarkable that have been
discovered; for, if we take the lunar month to be 29 days 12h. 44m. 3s.
we find that 219,146-1/2 days make 7,421 lunar months, and that this
number of days gives 600 solar years of 365 days 5h. 51m. 36s. If this
year was in use before the deluge, it appears very probable it must be
acknowledged that the patriarchs were already acquainted to a
considerable degree of accuracy with the motions of the stars, for this
lunar month agrees to a second almost with that which has been
determined by modern astronomers."
A very similar argument has been used by Prof. Piazzi Smyth to prove
that the Great Pyramids were built by the descendants of Abraham near
the time of Noah; namely, that measures of two different elements in the
measurement of time or space when multiplied or divided produce a number
which may be found to represent some proportion of the edifice, and
hence to assume that the two numbers were known to the builders.
We need scarcely point out that numbers have always been capable of
great manipulation, and the mere fact of one number being so much
greater than another, is no proof that _both_ were known, unless we knew
that _one_ of them was known independently, or that they are intimately
connected.
In the case of Josephus' number the cycle during which the lunar months
and solar years are commensurable has been long discussed and if the
number had been 19 instead of 600, we should have had little doubt of
its reference; yet 600 is a very simple number and might refer to many
other cycles than the complicated one pointed out by M. Cassini. A
similar case may be quoted with regard to the Indians, which, according
to our temperament, may be either considered a proof that these
reasonings are correct, or that they are easy to make. They say that
there are two stars diametrically opposite which pass through the zodiac
in 144 years; nothing can be made of this period, nor yet of another
equally problematical one of 180 years; but if we multiply the two
together we obtain 25,920, which is very nearly the length of the cycle
for the precession of the equinoxes.
In this review of the ancient ideas of different peoples, we have
followed the most probable order in considering that the observation of
nature came first, and the different parts of it were afterwards
individualized and named. It is proper to add that according to some
ancient authors--such as Diodorus Siculus--the process was considered to
have been the other way. That Uranus was an actual individual, that
Atlas and Saturn were his sons or descendants or followers, and that
because Atlas was a great astronomer he was said to support the heavens,
and that his seven daughters were real, and being very spiritual they
were regarded as goddesses after death and placed in heaven under the
name of the Pleiades.
However, the universality of the ideas seems to forbid this
interpretation, which is also in itself much less natural.
These various opinions lead us to remark, in conclusion, that the
fables of ancient mythological astronomy must be interpreted by means of
various keys. Allegory is the first--the allegory employed by
philosophers and poets who have spoken in figurative language. Their
words taken in the letter are quite unnatural, but many of the fables
are simply the description or explanation of physical facts.
Hieroglyphics are another key. Having become obscure by the lapse of
time they sometimes, however, present ideas different from those which
they originally expressed. It is pretty certain that hieroglyphics have
been the source of the men with dogs' heads, or feet of goats, &c.
Fables also arise from the adoption of strange words whose sound is
something like another word in the borrowing language connected with
other ideas, and the connection between the two has to be made by
fable.