GREECE, PALESTINE AND BABYLON: AN ESTIMATE OF CULTURAL INFLUENCE
During the Persian and Hellenistic periods Babylon exerted an influence
upon contemporary races of which we may trace some survivals in the
civilization of the modern world. She was the mother of astronomy,
and the twelve divisions on the dial of our clocks and watches were
ultimately derived, through Greek channels, from her ancient system of
time-division. It was under the Neo-Babylonian kings that the Hebrew
race first came into close contact with her culture, and there can be
no doubt that the Jews, in the time of their captivity, renewed their
interest in her mythology when they found it presented some parallels
to their own. But in the course of this history it has been shown that,
during far earlier periods, the civilization of Babylon had penetrated
throughout a great part of Western Asia. It is admitted that, as a
result of her westward expansion at the time of the First Dynasty,
her culture had spread during subsequent periods to the Mediterranean
coast-lands, and had moulded to some extent the development of those
peoples with whom it came in contact. And since the religious element
dominated her own activities in a greater measure than was the case
with most other races of antiquity, it has been urged that many
features in Hebrew religion and in Greek mythology can only be rightly
explained by Babylonian beliefs in which they had their origin. It is
the purpose of this chapter to examine a theory of Babylon's external
influence, which has been propagated by a school of writers and has
determined the direction of much recent research.
It is scarcely necessary to insist on the manner in which material
drawn from Babylonian and Assyrian sources has helped to elucidate
points in the political and religious history of Israel. Scarcely
less striking, though not so numerous, are the echoes from Babylonian
legends which have long been recognized as existing in Greek mythology.
The best known example of direct borrowing is undoubtedly the myth of
Adonis and Aphrodite, the main features of which correspond closely
to the Babylonian legend of Tammuz and Ishtar. In this case not only
the myth, but the accompanying festival and rites were also borrowed,
passing to Greece by way of Byblos on the Syrian coast and Paphos in
Cyprus, both centres of Astarte worship.[1] Another Greek legend,
obviously of Babylonian origin, is that of Actseon, who is clearly to
be identified with the shepherd, loved by Ishtar and changed by her
into a leopard, so that he was hunted and killed by his own hounds.[2]
Some parallels have also long been pointed out between the national
heroes Heracles and Gilgamesh. It is true that most races of antiquity
possess stories of national heroes of superhuman strength and power,
but there are certain features in the traditions concerning Heracles
which may have some ultimate connexion with the Gilgamesh cycle of
legends.[3] Less convincing is the analogy which has been suggested
between Icarus and Etana, the Babylonian hero or demi-god, who
succeeded in flying to the highest heaven only to fall headlong to the
earth. For in Etana's case there is no question of human flight: he
was carried to heaven by his friend the Eagle, to whose wings he clung
while they mounted to heaven's gates. But the examples already referred
to may suffice to illustrate the way in which it has long been agreed
that Babylonian mythology may have left its impress on that of Greece.
But the views now held by a considerable body of scholars suggest a
much broader extension of Babylonian influence than is implied by a
series of isolated and fortuitous connexions; and, as the character of
this influence is _ex hypothesi_ astronomical, any attempt to define
its limits with precision is a matter of some difficulty. For it will
be obvious that, if we may assume an astronomical basis or background
to any two mythologies, we at once detect a great number of common
features the existence of which we should not otherwise have suspected.
And the reason is not far to seek; for the astronomical phenomena with
which we go to work are necessarily restricted in number, and they
have to do duty many times over as a background in each system.[4] In
spite of this disadvantage, which is inherent in their theory, Winckler
and his school have rendered good service in working out the general
relationship which was believed by the Babylonians to exist between
the heavenly bodies and the earth.[5] He has shown sound reasons for
assuming that, according to the tenets of Babylonian astrology, events
and institutions on earth were in a certain sense copies of heavenly
prototypes.
It is well known that the Babylonians, like the Hebrews, conceived the
universe as consisting of three parts: the heaven above, the earth
beneath, and the waters under the earth. The Babylonians gradually
elaborated this conception of the universe, and traced in the heavens
a parallel to the threefold division of earth, separating the universe
into a heavenly and an earthly world. The earthly universe consisted as
before of three divisions, that is to say the heaven (limited to the
air or atmosphere above the earth), the earth itself, and the waters
beneath it. Those corresponded in the heavenly world to the Northern
heaven, the Zodiac, and the Southern heaven or heavenly ocean. By the
later Babylonian period the greater gods had long become identified
with the planets, and the lesser gods with the fixed stars, each deity
having his special house or star in heaven in addition to his temple
on earth. This idea appears to have been carried still further by
the later Greek astrologers, by whom lands and cities in addition to
temples were thought to have their cosmic counterparts.[6] But even for
the Babylonians the moving stars were not merely symbols serving as
interpreters to men of the divine will; their movements were the actual
cause of events on earth. To use an apposite simile of Winckler, heaven
was believed to be related to earth much as a moving object seen in a
mirror was related to its reflection.[7]
[Illustration: LIMESTONE STATUE OF THE GOD NABÛ AT NIMRÛD.]
In order to illustrate the way in which these astral ideas are said
to have supplied material to Greek mythology, a test instance may
be selected, the suggested explanation of which involves one of the
essential features of Winckler's astral system as he eventually
elaborated it.[8] We will take the story of the Golden Lamb of
Atreus and Thyestes, which is introduced by Euripides into one of the
choruses in his _Electra_[9] According to the story, which is referred
to, but not explicitly told, by Euripides, the Lamb with the Golden
Fleece was brought by Pan to Atreus, and was regarded by the Argives
as a sign that he was the true king. But his brother Thyestes, with
the help of Atreus' wife, stole it and claimed to be king; so strife
ensued, good was turned to evil, and the stars were shaken in their
courses. It is curious that the theft of the Lamb should have such a
special effect upon the heavens and the weather, for this is definitely
stated in the second strophe and antistrophe of the chorus.[10] Though
details are obscure, it is clear that we here have a legend with
strongly marked astrological elements. The theft of the Lamb changes
the sun's course, and from other lines in the chorus we gather that the
alteration led to the present climatic conditions of the world, the
rain-clouds flying northward and leaving "the seats of Amnion"--that
is, the Libyan desert--parched and dewless.
In its original form the legend may well have been a story of the First
Sin, after which the world was changed to its present state, both moral
and atmospheric.[11] There is definite evidence that the Golden Lamb
was identified with the constellation Aries; and since Babylon was
admittedly the home of astrology, it is not an improbable suggestion,
in spite of the reference to Ammon, that we should regard it as one
of the lost legends of Babylon. According to Winckler's theory of the
Babylonian religion, we should go further, and trace the origin of the
legend to a convulsion in Babylonian thought which took place in the
ninth and eighth centuries B.C. At this period, it is asserted, the sun
at the vernal equinox was moving from the constellation Taurus into
Aries, The bull, according to the theory, was identified with Marduk,
the god of Babylon,[12] and all the time he was yielding his place
to the Ram, Babylon was declining before the power of Assyria. The
disorganization of the calendar and the seasons, due to the imperfect
method of time-reckoning in vogue, was associated with this event,
giving an impetus to a fresh birth of legends, one of which has found
its way in a Greek dress into this chorus of Euripides. Or, as it
has been put rather differently, the story is a piece of Babylonian
astronomy misunderstood.
The theory underlying this interpretation of the legend is based on
the axiom that the Babylonian religion was essentially a star-worship,
and that behind every department of the national literature, secular
as well as religious, lay the same astral conception of the universe.
Before treating the theory in greater detail, it may be well to
ascertain how far the history of the country substantiates this view.
In the earliest period of which we have recovered material remains
there can be no doubt that image-worship formed a characteristic
feature of the Babylonian religious system, though we have no means of
tracing its gradual evolution out of the fetish and stock-and-stone
worship which necessarily preceded it.[13] The extraneous civilization,
which the Sumerians introduced, most probably included cult-images
of their gods, and these may well have been already anthropomorphic.
Fashioned in the god's form, the image was believed to enshrine his
presence, and for the Babylonians of all periods it never lost this
animistic character.
[Illustration: FIG. 66. FIG. 67. FIG. 68.
THE WEATHER-GOD AND TWO GODDESSES FROM AN ASSYRIAN BAS-RELIEF.
The goddesses wear the homed headdresses of Babylonian deities, and, as
they are represented being carried by soldiers, they had probably been
taken from a captured Babylonian town.
(After Layard.)]
A tribal or city-god, in his earliest stage of development, was
doubtless wholly identified with his cult-image. No more than one
image of each was worshipped, and the idea of a god's existence apart
from this visible form must have been of gradual growth.[14] The
misfortunes of the material image, especially if unaccompanied by
national disaster, would have fostered a belief in the god's existence
apart from his visible body of wood or stone. And such a belief
eventually developed into the Babylonian conception of a heavenly
division of the universe, in which the great gods had their dwelling,
making their presence manifest to men in the stars and planets that
moved across the sky. But this development marked a great advance upon
pure image-worship, and undoubtedly followed the growth of a pantheon
out of a collection of separate and detached city-gods. We have no
means of dating the association of some of the greater gods with
natural forces. It would seem that, in the earlier Sumerian period,
religious centres in the country were already associated with lunar
and solar cults and with other divisions of nature-worship. But it is
quite certain that, during all subsequent stages of Babylonian history,
the divine image never degenerated into a mere symbol of divinity.
Without consciously postulating a theory in explanation of his belief,
the Babylonian found no difficulty in reconciling a localization of the
divine person with his presence at other cult centres and ultimately
with a separate life in the heavenly sphere.
[Illustration: FIG. 69. FIGURE OF DEITY IN SHRINE.
(After Layard.)]
That this was actually the case is proved by a number of historical
examples. With the rise of Babylon we may note the important part which
the actual image of Marduk played in each coronation ceremony and in
the renewal of the king's oath at every subsequent Feast of the New
Year; the hands of no other image than that in E-sagila would serve
for the king to grasp. In Hammurabi's reign we see the Babylonian's
conception of his visible gods reflected in his treatment of foreign
images.[15] The international exchange of deities in the fourteenth
and thirteenth centuries has already been referred to,[16] and the
recovery of captured images was always recorded with enthusiasm.[17]
For the images themselves constituted a nation's chief weapon of
offence, and there was always the chance that, if properly treated by
their captors, they might transfer their influence to the other side.
This close connexion between the god and his image survived into the
Neo-Babylonian period, and Nabonidus' offence in the eyes of the
priesthood was simply that he ignored the feeling. Historical evidence
thus suggests that the astral aspect of divinity in Babylonia was not
an original feature of its religious system, and that it was never
adopted to the exclusion of more primitive ideas.
[Illustration: DIVINE EMBLEMS ON A CHARTER OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR I. Brit.
Mus., No. 90838.]
A similar result follows if we examine the relation of a Babylonian
deity to his sculptured emblem, by means of which his authority or
presence could in certain circumstances be secured or indicated. The
origin of such emblems was not astrological, nor is it to be sought
in liver-augury: they were not derived from fancied resemblances to
animals or objects, presented either by constellations in heaven, or by
markings on the liver of a victim. It is clear that they arose in the
first instance from the characters or attributes assumed by the gods
in the mythology; their transference to constellations was a secondary
process, and their detection in liver-markings resulted, not in their
own origin but in that of the omen.[18] In the earliest period the
emblem of a city-god might symbolize his city's power,[19] and those
of other deities expressed some quality in the character of their
possessor, or were drawn from a weapon, object or animal with which
they were associated in tradition.[20]
Another class of images were the animal forms, also drawn largely from
the mythology, which adorned the earlier temples and were reproduced
in enamelled brickwork on secular buildings by the Neo-Babylonian
kings. Most of these, in the later as in the earlier periods, were
placed near temple-entrances, and where stone was so plentiful that
it could be used in bulk in the structure of buildings, the doorways
themselves were carved in the same way. That animal forms were
employed to symbolize sound is suggested by the representation of a
great harp or lyre on a Sumerian-bas-relief, in which the figure of a
bull surmounting the sound-case is evidently intended to suggest the
peculiarly deep and vibrant tones of the instrument.[21] Moreover, on
cylinder-seals engraved with the figure of the Sun-god emerging from
the Eastern Gate of heaven, two lions are often set immediately above
the opening doors, and in one specimen the gate-pivots rest upon a
second pair arranged symmetrically below them.[22]
[Illustration: FIG. 70.
SUMERIAN HARP.
(After _Déc. en Chald.,_ pl. 23.)]
The symbolism of these and similar monsters may well have been
suggested by the grinding of the heavy doors in their stone sockets and
the shrieking of thair bolts.[23] The noises suggested the cries of
animals, which, in accordance with the tenets of primitive animism,
were thought to inhabit the doors and gateways and to guard them. We
may probably trace to this ancestry the colossal lions and winged
bulls which flanked the doorways of Assyrian and Persian palaces, and,
like the enamelled monsters of Babylon and Persepolis, continued to
be reproduced as divine guardians of a building after their primitive
associations had been forgotten or modified.[24]
[Illustration: FIG. 71.
THE GUARDIAN LIONS OF THE EASTERN GATE OF HEAVEN.
(After Heuzey.)]
Archæological evidence thus supports the view, already deduced from
historical considerations, that astrology did not dominate the
religious activities of Babylon. And an examination of the literature
points to the same conclusion. Magic and divination bulk largely in
the texts recovered, and in their case there is nothing to suggest
an underlying astrological element.[25] We are the less inclined,
therefore, to accept the axiom that an astral conception of the
universe permeated and coloured Babylonian thought to such an extent,
that not only myths and legends, but even historical events, were
recorded in terms which reflect the movements of the sun, moon and
planets and the other phenomena of the heavens. If we once grant this
assumption, it might perhaps have followed, as the astral mythologists
claim, that the beliefs of the Babylonian star-worshippers became the
prevailing doctrine of the ancient East and left their traces broadcast
upon the records of antiquity. But the original assumption appears
to be unsound, and the theory can only find support by treating late
evidence as applicable to all stages of Babylonian history.
[Illustration: FIG. 72.
WINGED MONSTER ON ENAMELLED FRIEZE AT PERSEPOLIS.
(After Dieulafoy.)]
The roots of the theory are placed in a purely imaginary age, where
evidence for or against it is lacking. Thus the oldest monuments
which have been recovered upon Babylonian sites are not considered
relics of the early stages of Babylonian culture.[26] It is asserted
that in the periods behind them there existed an elaborate and
highly developed civilization, lying back in the darkness beyond the
earliest extant records. In the total absence of material evidence,
it is no difficult task to paint this age in colours which are shared
by no other early or primitive race in the world's history. It is
assumed that war and violence had no existence in Babylonia in this
prehistoric time. Intellect dominated and controlled the passions of
the primeval but highly gifted people, and in particular one form of
intellectual conception based on a scientific knowledge of astronomy.
It is postulated that a purely astronomical theory of the universe
lay at the root of their civilization, and governed their whole
thought and conduct. This was no teaching of a learned priesthood,
but was a universally held belief which permeated every branch of
the national and individual life. The theory in its perfect and
uncorrupted state had perished with the other relics of its inventors.
But it was inherited by the Semitic immigrants into Babylonia, and,
though employed by them in an altered and corrupted form, has, it is
said, left its traces in the later records. In this way the astral
mythologist would explain the fragmentary character of his data, from
which he claims to reconstruct the original beliefs in their entirety.
One such belief has been preserved by Seneca,[27] who, giving Berossus
as his authority, refers to a Chaldean theory of a great year, a long
cosmical period having, like the year, a summer and a winter. The
summer is marked by a great conflagration produced by the conjunction
of all the planets in Cancer, and the winter is characterized by a
universal deluge caused by a similar conjunction of all the planets
in Capricorn. The idea is evidently based on the conception that, as
the succession of day and night corresponds to the changes of the
seasons, so the year itself must correspond to greater cycles of time.
Though Berossus is our earliest authority, the doctrine is regarded
as a primitive Babylonian one. It is further argued that, even in the
earliest period, the inhabitants of Babylonia conceived the history of
the world to have been evolved in a series of successive ages, bearing
the same relation to these aeons of the world-cycle as the year bore to
them.
The theory of Ages of the World is familiar enough from the classical
conception, first met with in Hesiod's "Works and Days,"[28] which
profoundly influenced later Greek speculation. There is nothing
particularly astral about Hesiod's conception of four ages,
distinguished by the principal metals and showing progressive
deterioration. But it is claimed that Hesiod's theory, and all parallel
conceptions of World-Ages, are derived from a Babylonian prototype,
Hesiod's Golden Age reflecting the general condition of prehistoric
Babylonia. Assuming a close correspondence between the zodiac and the
earth in early Babylonian thought, it is argued that the inhabitants of
the country from the earliest periods divided the world's history into
ages of about two thousand years each, according to the particular sign
of the zodiac in which the sun stood each year at the vernal equinox,
when the New Year's Festival was celebrated.[29] Although these ages
are never named nor mentioned in the inscriptions, they are referred to
by the astral mythologists as the Ages of the Twins, the Bull, and the
Ram,[30] from the zodiacal constellations of Gemini, Taurus, and Aries.
This is a vital point of the theory and it postulates on the part of
the early Babylonians a highly accurate knowledge of astronomy: it
assumes a knowledge of the procession of the equinoxes, which could
only be based on a very rigid system of astronomical observation and
record.[31] But the ancient Babylonians are supposed to have been quite
familiar with these facts, and to have traced a close connexion between
them and the world's history. Certain myths are supposed to have
characterized each of these world ages, not only affecting religious
beliefs, but so obsessing Babylonian thought that they influenced
historical writings. As the sun at the vernal equinox gradually
progressed through the ecliptic constellations, so, according to the
theory, the history of the world was believed to be evolved in harmony
with its course, and the pre-ordained fate of the universe was slowly
unrolled.
[Illustration: TWO VIEWS OF A CLAY MODEL OF A SHEEP'S LIVER, ANNOTATED
FOR PURPOSES OF DIVINATION. Brit. Mus., No. 90668.]
Up to this point the astral theory is very complete and, granting
its original hypotheses, it goes smoothly enough. But as soon as its
authors try to fit the existing legends to their theory, difficulties
begin. In Babylonian mythology we find no pair of heroes who present
any resemblance to the Dioscuri. But lunar cults were prominent in the
earliest Babylonian epoch, and, in default of any closer parallel,
the two phases of the waxing and the waning moon have been treated as
characterizing the myths and legends of the Age of the Twins. Borrowing
a term from music, they are described as the characteristic _motif_
of the age. The second Age, that of the Bull, begins roughly with the
rise of Babylon to power. There is very slender evidence for connecting
Marduk, the god of Babylon, with the zodiacal constellation of the
Bull, but the connexion is confidently assumed.[32] The Third Age, that
of the Ram, presents even more difficulties than its two predecessors,
for no amount of ingenuity can discover material for a Ram _motif_ at
Babylon. But Jupiter Amnion was represented with the head of a ram,
and he is assumed to have been identical in his nature with Marduk.
Thus the new reckoning is supposed to have passed over to Egypt,
while Babylon remained unaffected.[33] The explanation put forward is
that the Ram Age began at a time when the power of Babylon was on the
decline; but why the Babylonians should therefore have ignored the
true position of the sun at the vernal equinox is not quite obvious.
The foreign influence of Babylon's conception of the universe is said
to have left its strongest imprint on Hebrew historical writing.
It is claimed that the Biblical narratives relating to the earlier
history of the Hebrews have in particular been influenced by the
Babylonian myths of the universe, and that a great number of passages
have in consequence an astral significance. This side of the subject
has been worked out in detail by Dr. Alfred Jeremias,[34] and a few
examples will suffice to illustrate the system of interpretation which
is suggested. We will take one of the Babylonian legends which is
said to be most frequently encountered in the Hebrew narratives, the
Descent of the goddess Ishtar into the Underworld in search of her
youthful husband Tammuz, which in its Babylonian form is unquestionably
a nature-myth. There can be little doubt that in the myth Tammuz
represents the vegetation of spring; this, after being parched up by
the summer-heat, is absent from the earth during the winter months,
until restored by the goddess of fertility. There is also no doubt
that the cult of Tammuz eventually spread into Palestine, for Ezekiel
in a vision saw women at the north gate of the temple at Jerusalem
weeping for Tammuz.[35] We have already noted its arrival in Greece
in the story of Adonis and Aphrodite.[36] In its Greek form the
contest between Aphrodite and Persephone for the possession of Adonis
reproduces the struggle between Ishtar and Ereshkigal in the Abode of
the Dead; and the annual disappearance and reappearance of Tammuz
gives rise in the Greek version to the decision of Zeus that Adonis
should spend one part of the year above ground with Aphrodite and the
other part underground with Persephone.[37] Such are the main facts,
which are not disputed, concerning this particular Babylonian myth. We
may now note the manner in which it is said that _motifs_ from it are
interwoven in the Old Testament with traditions concerning the early
history of the Hebrews.
It is well known that in early Christian writings, such as the Syriac
"Hymn of the Soul," a Gnostic composition of the second or third
century A.D.,[38] the land of Egypt is sometimes referred to in a
metaphorical or allegorical sense. It is suggested that the story
of Abraham's journey with his wife Sarah into Egypt[39] may have
been written, by a parallel system of allegory, in terms reflecting
a descent into the underworld and a rescue from it. It is true that
in the story Pharaoh's house is plagued, probably with sterility, a
feature that recalls the cessation of fertility on earth while the
goddess of love remains in the underworld. But the same _motif is_
traced in the rescue of Lot from Sodom: here Sodom is the underworld.
The pit into which Joseph is thrown by his brethren and the prison
into which Potiphar casts him also represent the underworld: and
his two fellow-prisoners, the chief baker and the chief butler, are
two minor deities in Marduk's household.[40] The cave at Makkedah,
in which the five kings of the Amorites hid themselves after their
defeat by Joshua,[41] is said to have the same _motif_ underlying it.
In short, any cave, or prison, or state of misery mentioned in the
Hebrew narratives may, according to astral interpretation, be taken as
representing the underworld.[42]
The one other _motif_ we will take from the Babylonian mythology is
the Dragon-combat, since this illustrates the principal pattern, or
system, on which the astral mythologist arranges his material. In the
Babylonian story of the Creation it will be recalled how Tiamat, the
dragon of chaos, revolted with Apsû, the god of the abyss, against
the new and ordered ways of the gods; how Marduk, the champion of the
gods, defeated her, and, cutting her body in half, used one half of
her as a firmament for the heaven, and then proceeded to carry out
his other works of creation.[43] The probability has long been noted
that the Dragon-combat may have suggested certain metaphorical phrases
or descriptions in Hebrew poetical and prophetic literature.[44] But
the astral mythologist uses it as the dominant _motif_ of his Age of
Taurus; and, since this age began, according to his theory, before the
period of Abraham, the Marduk myths are traced more frequently than
any others in the Old Testament. The astral god plays the part of a
deliverer in the mythology: hence any Biblical hero who is recorded to
have rescued any one, or to have delivered his family or people, forms
a convenient peg on which to hang a _motif_ So too the birth of the
founder of a dynasty, or of the inaugurator of a new age, is said to
reflect the solar _motif_ of the birth of the spring sun.[45]
In this process of detecting hidden _motifs,_ numbers play an important
part. To take one example, they are said to indicate that David's
fight with Goliath reflects the myth of the Year-Cycle. The forty days
during which Goliath, who is identified with the Dragon Tiamat,[46]
drew near to the Israelites morning and evening are symbolical of
winter. In the Hebrew text his height is given as six cubits and a
span;[47] the figure is emended to read five cubits and a span, since
otherwise the number would not correspond to the five and a quarter
epagomenal days.[48] With the best will in the world to be convinced
one cannot help feeling that, even assuming the soundness of the
theory, its authors have let it run away with them. It cannot of
course be denied that astrological conceptions may colour some of the
stories in the Old Testament. The three hundred foxes, with firebrands
tied to their brushes, with which Samson destroyed the standing corn
of the Philistines, find a striking parallel in the ceremonial which
took place annually in the circus at Rome during the Cerealia,[49] and
may well be regarded as folk-mythology of astrological origin.[50]
Elijah's chariot of fire may have been suggested by some astronomical
phenomenon, perhaps a comet; it was probably the product of the same
association of ideas as Medea's dragon-chariot, the gift of Helios. But
this scarcely prepares us to accept such an allegorizing of details as
is proposed in other passages.
Precisely the same principles of interpretation have been applied to
the heroes of Greek legend. Professor Jensen of Marburg, in his work
on the Babylonian epic of Gilgamesh, has attempted to trace almost
every figure, not only in the Old Testament, but also in classical
mythology, to a Babylonian source.[51] But his rather monotonous method
of perceiving on all sides reflexions of his own hero Gilgamesh has
already been criticized sufficiently, and we will take some examples
from a more recent work by Dr. Carl Fries,[52] who has made other
contributions of a less speculative character upon Greek and Oriental
connexions. Elaborating a published suggestion of Professor Jensen, Dr.
Fries has enthusiastically applied the astral method of interpretation
to the Odyssey. Such an episode as the voyage of Odysseus to Hades, in
order to consult the Theban prophet Teiresias, undoubtedly presents a
close parallel to the journey of Gilgamesh to Xisuthros in Babylonian
legend; and, though similar traditions are not uncommon in the epics
of other races, the Greek form of the story may perhaps retain an echo
from Babylon. But a far closer relationship than that is suggested.
The section of the Odyssey which is said to have been principally
exposed to Babylonian influence is the sojourn of Odysseus in Scheria,
the whole episode of his entertainment by the Phæacians being said
to reflect the Babylonian Feast of the New Year. From the moment of
his awakening on the island we begin to perceive astral _motifs._ In
Nausicaa's choral game of ball with her maidens, the ball symbolizes
the sun or moon which revolves from one side of heaven to the other;
when it falls into the river it is the setting sun or moon. Odysseus,
awakened by the maiden's shrill cry, comes forth from the darkness of
the wood: he is the rising sun. The Way into the city which Nausicaa
describes to Odysseus corresponds to the sacred Procession Street in
Babylon, along which Marduk was carried from his temple through the
city at the Feast of the New Year. The cult-image on its journey must
be protected from the gaze of unconsecrated eyes; so Athene sheds a
mist about Odysseus lest any of the Phæacians should accost him by the
way. Other astral elements are suggested without a specially Babylonian
colouring.[53]
We are not here concerned with Dr. Fries' theory on the origin of
Greek tragedy, but we may note in passing that Odysseus, in relating
his adventures, is the priestsinger at the festival of the Light-god.
In other parts of the Odyssey Dr. Fries does not attempt to trace
many astral _motifs,_ though he certainly remarks that the adventures
of Odysseus are merely survivals of astral myths, and, in spite of
a hundred transformations, ultimately relate only to the journey of
the Light-god over the heavenly ocean.[54] The closing scenes of
the Odyssey also receive a thoroughly astrological interpretation,
and moon- and _sun-motifs_ appear promiscuously. From the speech of
Antinous at the trial of the bow we know that the slaying of the wooers
took place at the Feast of the New Moon, for after Eurymachus and the
other wooers had failed to bend it, he makes the least an excuse for
his proposal to postpone the trial till the morrow. This fact leads
to the suggestion that in Odysseus returning at the Feast of the New
Moon we are to recognize the Moon-god himself, who triumphs over the
darkness with his bow or crescent. On the other hand, the twelve axes,
through which the arrow flies, suggest, presumably by their number, the
sun. Penelope wooed by the suitors is the moon whom the stars surround,
and her weaving and unravelling of the web is a moon-_motif._ Then
Odysseus as the sun draws near, and all the stars are eclipsed at his
appearance.
In such hands the astral theory carries its own antidote, for one
cannot but be struck with the ease with which it may be applied.
There is generally no need to prove a mythological setting to the
narrative; all that is necessary is to assume an astral meaning beneath
the text.[55] In fact, one way of demonstrating its unsoundness has
been to apply its methods to the records of the life of a historical
personage.[56] But this argument amounts at best to a _reductio ad
absurdum,_ and the most damaging criticism has been directed from the
purely astronomical side.
It is well known that the different ecliptic constellations which
make up the signs of the zodiac do not each occupy thirty degrees of
the ecliptic, but that some are longer and some shorter than others.
Also, the constellations of the Babylonian astronomers during the late
period did not completely coincide with ours. For instance, the most
eastern star of our constellation Virgo was counted by the Babylonians
of the Arsacid era as belonging to the next ecliptic constellation,
Leo, since it was known as "the hind-foot of the lion."[57] But,
fortunately for our purpose, not much doubt can exist as to the eastern
limit of the Twins and the western limit of the Ram, which mark the
beginning and end of the three World Ages of the astral mythologists.
For the two bright stars, Castor and Pollux, from which the Twins
receive their name were undoubtedly reckoned in that constellation by
the Neo-Babylonians. And the easternmost star of our constellation of
the Fishes (a _piscium_) was probably well beyond the Babylonian
constellation of the Ham.
[Illustration: A NEO-BABYLONIAN TREATISE ON ASTRONOMY. Brit. Mus., No
86378.]
Working on this assumption, and assuming thirty degrees to each of
the three intervening constellations, Dr. Kugler has calculated the
years in which the sun entered these signs of the zodiac at the vernal
equinox, the points, that is to say, at which the astral World-Ages
would have begun and ended. His figures entirely dispose of Winckler's
claim to an astronomical basis for his astral system. The Age of the
Twins, instead of ending, according to the theory, at about 2800 B.C.,
really ended in the year 4383 b.c. Thus the Age of the Bull began over
fifteen hundred years before the birth of Sargon I., who is supposed
to have inaugurated its beginning; and it ended in 2232 b.c.--that is,
considerably before the birth of Hammurabi, under whom we are told the
Bull Age _motifs_ were principally developed. Moreover, from the time
of the First Dynasty onwards down to the year 81 B.C.--that is to say,
during the whole course of her history--Babylon was really living in
the Age of the Ham, not in that of the Bull. Thus all the _motifs_
and myths, which have been so ingeniously connected with the Bull
sign of the zodiac, ought really to have been connected with the Ram.
But even the astral mythologists admit that there is not a trace of a
Ram-_motif_ in the Babylonian mythology. Granting all the assumptions
made by Winckler and his school with regard to the astronomical
knowledge of the early Babylonians, the theory evolved from them is
found to be baseless. Winckler's astronomy was at fault, and his three
astrological World-Ages do not really correspond to his periods of
history.[58]
Babylon was, indeed, the mother of astronomy no less than of astrology,
and classical antiquity was indebted to her in no small measure: but,
strictly speaking, her scientific observations do not date from a
very early period. It is true we have evidence that, as early as the
close of the third millennium, the astronomers recorded observations
of the planet Venus,[59] and there is also a fragment of an early
text which shows that they attempted to measure approximately the
positions of the fixed stars. But their art of measuring remained for
a long time primitive, and it was only the later Babylonians, of the
period from the sixth to the first century B.C., who were enabled to
fix with sufficient accuracy the movements of the planets, especially
those of the moon, and by this means to found a reliable system of
time-measurement. The mere fact that the astrological texts, even in
the late Assyrian period, treat eclipses as possible on any day of
the month, and use the term for any kind of obscuration of the sun
and moon, is sufficient evidence that they had not at that time noted
their regular occurrence and still had comparatively crude notions of
astronomy.[60]
The earliest scientific document in the strict sense of the word dates
from the second half of the sixth century, when we find for the first
time that the relative positions of the sun and moon were calculated in
advance, as well as the conjunction of the moon with the planets and of
the planets with each other, their position being noted in the signs
of the zodiac. But the tablets afford no evidence that the Babylonian
astronomers possessed any knowledge of the precession of the equinoxes
before the close of the second century B.C., and the traditional
ascription of the discovery to Hipparchus of Nicæa, working between
the years 161 and 126 B.C. on the observations of his Babylonian
predecessors, may be accepted as accurate.[61]
There are, in short, no grounds for the theory that the Babylonians
divided the history of the world into astral ages, nor that their
myths and legends had any peculiar connexion with successive signs
of the zodiac. That astrology formed an important section of the
Babylonian religious system from an early period there can be no
doubt; but at that time the stars and planets did not exercise any
preponderating influence on religious belief, and many features of the
system, for which an astral origin has been confidently assumed, must
be traced to a simpler and more primitive association of ideas.[62]
But the necessary modification of the astral theory still leaves open
the possibility that Hebrew literature may have acquired a strong
astrological tinge in the Exilic and post-Exilic periods. Were Jewish
traditions affected in Babylon, for example, in some such way as the
Mithraie legends from Persia? Since the astral theory has no claim to
dictate the answer for us, the question must be decided by the ordinary
rules of historical and literary evidence.
If we are to assume that Babylonian astrology exerted so marked an
influence on the Jews of the Exile, we should at least expect to find
some traces of it in practical matters and in terminology. And in this
connexion there are certain facts which have never been fairly met by
the astral mycologists.[63] It is true that the returning exiles under
Zerubbabel had adopted the Babylonian names of the months for civil
use; but the idea of hours--that is to say, the division of the day
into equal parts--does not seem to have occurred to the Jews till long
after the Exile, and even then there is no trace of the Babylonian
double hour.[64] The other fact is still more significant. With the
exception of a single reference to the planet Saturn by the prophet
Amos,[65] none of the Hebrew names for the stars and constellations,
which occur in the Old Testament, correspond to those we know were in
use in Babylon. Such a tact is surely decisive against any wholesale
adoption of astral mythology from Babylon on the part of the writers or
redactors of the Old Testament, whether in pre-Exilic or in post-Exilic
times. But it is quite compatible with the view that some of the
imagery, and even certain lines of thought, occurring in the poetical
and prophetic books of the Hebrews, betray a Babylonian colouring and
may find their explanation in the cuneiform literature. There can be no
doubt that the Babylonian texts have afforded invaluable assistance in
the effort to trace the working of the oriental mind in antiquity.
With regard to the suggested influence of Babylon on Greek religious
thought, it is essential to realize that the temperaments of the
Babylonian and the Hellene were totally distinct, the fanatic and
self-abasing spirit of the East contrasting vividly with the coolness,
civic sobriety, and self-confidence of the West. This has been pointed
out by Dr. Farnell,[66] who lays special emphasis on the total absence
of any trace in Mesopotamian cults of those religious mysteries,
which, as he has shown elsewhere, formed so essential a feature in
Hellenic and Ægean society.[67] Another fact in which he would see
significance is that the use of incense, universal from immemorial
times in Babylonia, was not introduced into Greece before the eighth
century B.C. This little product, it will be readily admitted, was
much easier to import than Babylonian theology. Few will disagree with
him in regarding the suggestion, that for long centuries the Hittite
empire was a barrier between Mesopotamia and the coast-lands of Asia
Minor,[68] as a sufficient reason for this check in the direct spread
of Babylonian influence westward. But no political barrier is effective
against the tales that are remembered by travelling merchants and are
retold around the camp-fires of the caravan. That Babylon should have
contributed in some degree to the rich store of legends current in
various forms throughout the region of the eastern Mediterranean is
what one would expect.
The cultural influence of Babylonia had from the earliest period
penetrated eastward, and the civilization of Elam, her nearest
neighbour, had been to a great extent moulded by that of Sumer. But
even at that time the trade-routes had been open to the west, and
before the rise of Babylon both soldier and merchant had passed from
the lower Euphrates into Syria. With the expansion of the Western
Semites the two regions were drawn into more intimate relationship, and
the political control of the middle Euphrates, first established in
the age of Hammurabi, was followed by an increased commercial traffic,
which continued with few interruptions into the Neo-Babylonian and
later periods. Babylon's foreign policy was always dominated by the
necessity of keeping her connexion open with the west: and it was
mainly due to her commercial enterprise, and not to any territorial
ambitions, that her culture reached the farther limits of Palestine and
has left some traces in Greek mythology.
[Footnote 1: The cult of Adonis travelled to Greece not later than the seventh
century, B.C., and there is evidence that his rites were subsequently celebrated
both in Argosand in Attica; see Frazer, "Adonis, Attis, Osiris," I., pp. 13 if.,
226 f. For the Sumerian origin of the legend, see Zimmern, "Sumerisch-babylonische
Tamûzlieder" (1907), and Langdon, "Tammuz and Ishtar"
(1913).]
[Footnote 2: Though Actseon was changed into a stag by Artemis, the main features
of the Babylonian myth, _viz._ the angry goddess, the changing of the hero
into a beast, and his death due to his own hounds, persist in the various
versions of the Greek story.]
[Footnote 3: Apart from other detailed resemblances, the labours and sufferings to
which Heracles is exposed through Hera's hatred, a feature common to all
forms of the Greek legend, find a close parallel in the persecution and trial
of Gilgamesh by Ishtar. For the most recent discussion of the possible
influence of the Gilgamesh legends on Hebrew traditions, see the additional
note on "The mythical element in the Story of Samson," in Prof. Burney's
forthcoming volume on "Judges," in the "Oxford Church Biblical
Commentary."]
[Footnote 4: It is precisely this laxity of application, and the consequent temptation
to abuse it, that have led many of their critics to deny all value to the
researches of the late Hugo Winckler and his followers.]
[Footnote 5: For the chief literature in which their astral theory is expounded, see
below, p. 292, n. 3.]
[Footnote 6: On this subject, cf. Cumont, "La plus ancienne géographie astrologique"
in "Klio," IX. (1909), Hft. 3, pp. 263 ff.]
[Footnote 7: A striking instance of the way in which this astral conception of the
universe, as current at any rate among the later school of Babylonian
astrologers, has left its imprint on Hebrew literature may be seen in
Is. xxvii., I, an esehatological prophecy of post-exilie date, where the imagery
is clearly drawn from Babylonian sources. The "winding" or "crooked
serpent" of the passage is the constellation Draco, which winds about the
North Pole; Serpens, a little to the north of the ecliptic, is "the fugitive
serpent"; while Hydra, the water-snake, dwelling in the southern heaven
or heavenly ocean, is "the dragon that is in the sea." The passage was first
explained in this way by Burney, "Journ. Theol. Stud.," XI. (1910),
pp. 443 ff.]
[Footnote 8: Stucken's "Astralmythen" (1896-1907) appears to have strongly
influenced Winckler, whose theory attracted general attention on its exposition
in the "Preussische Jahrbücher" in 1901 (Bd. 104, pp. 224 ff.) and in
"Himmels- und Weltenbild der Babylonier als Grundlage der Weltanschauung
und Mythologie aller Vôlker," in "Der alte Orient," III., 2-3. He elaborated
special points in his "Altorientalische Forschungen" (1902-1905); see also
Winckler and Jeremias, "Im Kampfe um den alten Orient," Leipzig, 1907-8.
For a defence of the astronomical assumptions of the theory, see especially
Jeremias, "Das Alter der babylonischen Astronomie" _(op. cit.,_ Hft. 3,1908);
and cf. Weidner, "Orient. Lit.-Zeit.," 1911, Col. 345 ff., and 1913, Nos. I
and 2 (Sonderabdruck, 16 pp.); see further, pp. 304, 308.]
[Footnote 9: Winckler's explanation of the passage is cited by Prof. Gilbert Murray in
his "Electra of Euripides," p. 91 f., and by Prof. Burrows in his "Discoveries
in Crete," p. 133.]
[Footnote 10: LI. 726 ff.]
[Footnote 11: Cf. Murray, _op. cit.,_ p. 91.]
[Footnote 12: The hull was actually associated with Adad, the Weather-god, and
naturally symbolized the God of Thunder.]
[Footnote 13: Cf. Taylor, "Primitive Culture," II., pp. 143 ff.]
[Footnote 14: It is possible to conjecture circumstances which would have tended to
encourage speculation in that direction. The capture and deportation of
a god, if followed by the substitution of another figure in its place and the
subsequent recovery of the original, would have led to the incorporation of
two figures within one shrine. And a king's ambition to rebuild or beautify
a temple might have been extended to the image itself, if the latter had
suffered damage or decay.]
[Footnote 15: It was not merely as booty, but in order to gain their favour, that Sin-idinnam
and his army carried oft certain Elamite goddesses to their own land,
conveying them carefully as in their shrines; and on the restoration of the
images to Elam the goddesses themselves returned thither (cf. "Letters of
Hammurabi," III., pp. 6 ff.). It was in the same spirit that Nebuchadnezzar I.
gave sanctuary to the refugee priests from Elam, and introduced their god
Rîa into Babylon (see above, p. 253 f.).]
[Footnote 16: See above, pp. 221 f., 240.]
[Footnote 17: Agum-kakrime's recovery of the images of Marduk and Sarpanitum is
an instance in point (see above, pp. 210, 218). But perhaps the most striking
example is Ashur bani-pal's recovery of Nana's image from Susa, which had
been carried off from Erech sixteen hundred and thirty-five years before (see
above, p. 113). He probably found her installed in her Susian shrine, perhaps
within the temple of Shushinak, the national god.]
[Footnote 18: The Spear-head of Marduk was a fit emblem for the slayer of
Tiajmat, the demon of chaos, and the Stilus, or Wedge, of Nabû suits the
god of writing and architecture. The emblems of some of the great nature-go,'
ds were naturally astrological, such as the Lightning-fork of Adad. and the
lunar and solar disks for the Moon-god and Sun-god; but this character was
not shared by the majority of the emblems.]
[Footnote 19: The emblem of Ningirsu of Lagash, for example, was a lion-headed
eagle grasping lions; cf. "Sinner and Akkad," p. 100.]
[Footnote 20: Some divine emblems were purely animal, such as the Dog of Gula, the
Walking Bird of Bau, and the Scorpion of Ishkhara. It may be added that
in these cases there is nothing to indicate a totemistic origin, and the
analogy of the Goat-fish of Enki or Ea, the god of the Deep, suggests that
they are not to be traced beyond the mythological stage.]
[Footnote 21: See Fig. 70; and cp. Heuzey, "Musique chaldéenne" in the "Rev.
d'Assyr.," IX., No. iii. (1912), pp. 85 ff. M. Heuzey supports his suggestion
by quoting a description of a similar instrument of music from a contemporary
text: "The 'portico' of the lyre was like a bellowing bull."]
[Footnote 22: See p. 299, Fig. 71, and cp. Plate XVI. (No. 89110), opposite p. 192.]
[Footnote 23: Heuzey (_loc. cit._) cites the following description of the doors set up by
Gudea in the temple of Ningirsu: "The doors of cedar-wood, installed in the
gateway, were like the God of Thunder thundering in the heavens; the holt
of the temple of E-ninnû was like a savage dog; the pivots were like a lion;
... on the ..., placed above the doors, he (Gudea) caused a young lion
and a young panther to dwell" (cf. Thureau-Dangin, "Sum. und Akkad.
Königsinschriften," p. 118 f., Col. 20, 11. 20 ff.).]
[Footnote 24: Cf. "Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch.," XXXIV. (1912), pp. 270 ff.]
[Footnote 25: Our knowledge of Babylonian literature has been derived in great
measure from Assyrian sources, and, as the civilization of both countries was
intimately connected, the two branches of the subject will be treated together
at the close of the third volume of this history. It will then also be possible
to speak more confidently on the relative part played by Sumerian and
Semite in the development of Babylonian law, after the publication of the
recently discovered Sumerian code (see above, p. 153, n. 2). Incidentally the
document will throw light on the extent to which primitive Semitic custom,
shared possibly by the Hebrews, may have moulded some of the provisions of
Hammurabi's Code.]
[Footnote 26: The rude inscriptions from such a mound as Fâra (cf. "Sumer and Akkad,"
pp. 24 ff.), the site of the city of Shuruppak which is mentioned in the Deluge-story,
are not regarded as archaic. The shell seals, copper weapons, and
rough stone necklaces from the graves beneath the city are treated with scant
attention. All are assigned to a comparatively late stage of development.]
[Footnote 27: "Quiest. Natur.," 111., 29, ed. Haase, p. 235.]
[Footnote 28: LI. 108 ff.]
[Footnote 29: This was the most important festival in the Babylonian calendar; see above, pp. 190, 296.]
[Footnote 30: See above, p. 293 f.]
[Footnote 31: The position of the sun at the vernal equinox varies, of course, only
very slightly from year to year. Its displacement amounts to only a day in
about seventy-two years; and, if we assign thirty degrees to each of the
twelve ecliptic constellations, it takes 2151 years to pass, in this way, through
a single figure of the zodiac.]
[Footnote 32: The fact that the bull was employed to decorate Ishtar Gate at
Babylon affords no grounds for connecting the bull with the city-god. The
bull is always associated with the God of Thunder (see above, p. 294, n. 1).
whereas Marduk was essentially a solar deity. This latter fact is made use of
by the mycologists, who argue that an Age of the Sun would naturally follow
an Age of the Moon, and that solar myths'are to be looked for as characteristic
of this second period.]
[Footnote 33: The admission that the Marduk-myths were unaffected by the Ram is
difficult to reconcile with the importance attached by the astral mythologist
to the advent of a new Age.]
[Footnote 34: See his "Das alte Testament im Lichte des alten Orients" (1st ed.,
Leipzig, 1904), and more especially the revised and enlarged English
edition published in 1911 in the "Theological Translation Library." In his
introduction to this edition of the work Canon Johns, while stating that it is
not the province of the writer of an introduction to combat any of the opinions
of the author, admits that he differs from Dr. Jeremias' opinions on many
points. A reviewer of the volumes in the "Church Quarterly Review,"
Vol. LXXIV., No. 147 (April, 1912), pp. 166 ff., comments on "the apologetic
impulse which is as marked in Dr. Jeremias as its form is peculiar."
Readers who might be inclined to see in the work grounds for condemning
the results obtained by the literary criticism of the Old Testament are warned
by Canon Johns in his introduction that they "would be ill-advised to lean
too heavily on this staff of Babylonia."]
[Footnote 35: Ezek. viii., 14.]
[Footnote 36: See above, p. 290.]
[Footnote 37: On the close correspondence of the Greek form of the legend with its
Babylonian original, see Frazer, "Adonis Attis Osiris," I., pp. 6 ff.]
[Footnote 38: Ed. Bevan in "Texts and Studies," V., 3.]
[Footnote 39: Gen. xii.]
[Footnote 40: Cf. Jeremias, "Old Testament," I., p. (60, II., p. 65). These wore the
gods Minâ-ikul-bêli, "What-will-my-lord-eat?", and Minâ-ishti-bêli, "What-will-my-lord-drink?"
(cf. King, "Cun. Texts," XXIV., 1908, p. 5); but
there is nothing to connect the Hebrew story with them.]
[Footnote 41: Josh, x., 10, 16.]
[Footnote 42: In support of such astral _motifs_ evidence of direct worship of Ishtar is
traced in unexpected quarters. Thus the men of Gilead are explained to
have chosen the word _shibboleth,_ "ear of grain," as a password for the
Ephraemites, not because it was a common word containing the required
sibilant, but in honour of the goddess Ishtar, the heavenly Virgin with the
ears of corn. And, though the veil was part of the ordinary attire of Hebrew
women, a natural act such as that told of Rebecca, who is said to have veiled
herself at the approach of Isaac, is held to reflect the Ishtar cult.]
[Footnote 43: Cf. "Seven Tablets of Creation," I., pp. 32 ff.]
[Footnote 44: See especially Gunkell, "Schopfung und Chaos in Urzeit und Endzeit,"
pp. 16 ff.]
[Footnote 45: Moses, for instance, is peculiarly a deliverer and the inaugurator of
a new age in Israel's history; the traditions about him thus bristle with
astral _motifs._ When he is persecuted by Pharaoh in Egypt, Pharaoh is the
Dragon; when he is rescued as a babe from the Nile, Pharaoh's daughter is
Ishtar, Queen of heaven, and we have a Tammuz-Ishtar _motif._ When he
leads Israel out of Egypt, we have the _motif_ of victory over the Dragon. The
crossing of the Red Sea is the cleaving of the Dragon in half, and so too is
Joshua's passage of the Jordan. In short, Joshua in his character of deliverer
rivals Moses in the number of _motifs_ which are said to cluster round him.]
[Footnote 46: Jeremias (_op. cit.,_ II., p. 182) connects the name Goliath with Assyr.
_galittu,_ which he renders "sea," hence the dragon Tiamat; but _galittu,_ though
applied to the sea, is merely the feminine of the adj. galtu, "terrible."]
[Footnote 47: I. Samuel, xvii., 4; Josephus and some MSS. of the Septuagint read
four cubits and a span.]
[Footnote 48: As in so much of their speculation, the members of the astral school
have here mixed valuable suggestions with pure theorizing. Certain numbers
were specially sacred among the Babylonians and were employed as divine
names. Sin, the Moon-god, for example, was the god "Thirty," from the
conventional length of the lunar month; and the gods "Four" and "Seven"
may have represented different aspects of the Moon-god, the former the four
phases of the moon, the latter the seven-day week as a lunar quarter. If the
idea travelled westward, we obtain a satisfactory explanation of such Palestinian
names as Kiriath-arba and Be'er-sheba'. For this subject, see especially
Prof. Burney's forthcoming work on "Judges" (see above, p. 290 n. 3),
p. 43 f. Discussions are there given of other points illustrated by the Babylonian
texts, of which special mention may be made of the exhaustive notes
on Yahwe (pp. 243 ff.) and the Ashera (pp. 196 ff.), and the valuable section>
on early Hebrew poetry.]
[Footnote 49: Ovid, _Fasti,_ IV., 679 ff.; and cf. Frazer, "Spirits of the Corn," I., p. 297 f.]
[Footnote 50: See Burney, _op. cit.,_ additional note on "The mythical element in the
story of Samson."]
[Footnote 51: See "Das Gilgamesch-Epos in der Weltliteratur" (Strassburg, 1906).]
[Footnote 52: "Studien zur Odyssée" in the "Mitteilungen der Vorderasiatischen
Gesellschaft," 1910, Hefte 2-4; 1911, Heft 4.]
[Footnote 53: The fifty-two noble youths, for example, whom Alcinous entrusts with
the task of preparing the ship and escorting Odysseus homewards may correspond
to the fifty-two weeks of the year, sun-heroes who accompany the sun
on his voyage through the year. In the challenge of Euryalus to Odysseus
and the latter's triumph in the discus-throwing, we are to see a glimmer of
the old light-myth. The dance of Halius and Laodamas, with the purple ball
which Polybus made for them, again symbolizes the battle of light, the colour
of the ball being specially significant. Indeed, there are few limits to be
placed to this system of astrological interpretation, since, according to
Dr. Fries, even lawn-tennis goes back to the same idea: he remarks that
"ailes Ballspiel ja bis herab zum Lawn-Tennis auf denselben Gedanken [der
Lichtkampf] zurückgeht" ("Studien zur Odyssée," i., p. 324).]
[Footnote 54: One point, at which the colouring is said to be peculiarly Babylonian, is
the prophecy that death shall come to Odysseus from the sea; for this is
traced
to the Babylonian legend of Oannes, the benefactor of mankind, who
ever returns to the sea from which he rose, but here, too, Odysseus is the
god of heaven who sinks at the approach of night.]
[Footnote 55: With regard to its application to the Hebrew narratives, the "Church
Quarterly" reviewer of Dr. Jeremias' work (see above, p. 304, n. I) points
out the resemblance between this procedure and Philo's method of interpretation.]
[Footnote 56: In 1870 the same plan was adopted to discredit Professor Max Müller's
theory of the Solar Myth. The demonstration, though humorous (since its
subject was the professor himself), constituted a legitimate form of criticism,
and it has been borrowed by Dr. Kugler, the Dutch astronomer, and applied
to the astral theory. For the astral theory is in essence the old Solar Myth
revived and grafted on to a Babylonian stem. In his book "Im Bannkreis
Babels" (1910), Dr. Kugler selects at random the historical figure of Louis IX.
of France, and has no difficulty in demonstrating by astral methods that the
extant records of his life and reign are full of solar and astral _motifs._]
[Footnote 57: Cf. Kugler, _op. cit._]
[Footnote 58: His interpretation of Euripides' story of the Golden Lamb must share
the fate of the main structure of his theory, but the legend itself may well
have been of Babylonian origin (see above, p. 293).]
[Footnote 59: See above, pp. 106 ff.]
[Footnote 60: For an exhaustive discussion or the astrological material contained in
the omen-literature, see Jastrow, "Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens," II.,
pp. 138 ff. (1909-12). A Neo-Babylonian astronomical treatise, recently
acquired by the British Museum (see Plate XXXII., opposite p. 310), containing
classified and descriptive lists of the principal stars and constellations,
with their heliacal risings and settings, culminations in the south, etc., does
not surest a profound knowledge of astronomy on the part of its compiler
(cf. King, "Cun. Texts," XXXIII., 1912, pp. 30 ff., and "Proc. Soc. Bibl.
Arch.," XXXV., 1913, pp. 41 ff.).]
[Footnote 61: See "Sternkunde und Sterndienst," II., pp. 30 ff.; cf. also Cumont,
"Babylon und der griechische Astrologie," in the "Neue Jahrbücher für das
klassische Altertum," Bd. 27 (1911), pp. Off., and the earlier of his "American
Lectures on the History of Religions," published under the title "Astrology
and Religion among the Greeks and Romans" (1912).]
[Footnote 62: See above, p. 208 f.]
[Footnote 63: They are emphasized by Schiarparelli, in his "Astronomy in the Old
Testament" (Engl. transl.), pp. 39 ff., 99 ff., 104 f.]
[Footnote 64: During their pastoral and agricultural life in Palestine the Hebrews
found it quite sufficient to refer to time by describing the period of the day:
see further, Schiarparelli, _op. cit._, p. 96.]
[Footnote 65: Amos, v., 20.]
[Footnote 66: Cf. "Greece and Babylon" (published as the Wilde Lectures, 1911).]
[Footnote 67: See his "Cults of the Creek States," Oxford, 1896-1909.]
[Footnote 68: Cf. Hogarth, "Ionia and the East," pp. 27 ff., 64 ff.]
APPENDICES
I.--A COMPARATIVE LIST OF THE DYNASTIES OF
NÎSIN, LARSA AND BABYLON.
II.--A DYNASTIC LIST OF THE KINGS OF BABYLON.
I. A COMPARATIVE LIST OF THE DYNASTIES OF NÎSIN, LARSA, AND BABYLON.
I. A COMPARATIVE LIST OF THE DYNASTIES OF NÎSIN, LARSA, AND BABYLON (continued).
II. A DYNASTIC LIST OF THE KINGS OF BABYLON.
II. A DYNASTIC LIST OF THE KINOS OF BABYLON (continued).
THE END