a custom among the Arabians until recent times that the warriors of a
tribe were led in battle by a girl riding at their head with breast
exposed, inspiring them in their attack to the display of irresistible
courage; and if it was a common practice in prehistoric times, we may
assume that this function of womanhood established the character of
Istar as the goddess of war, later on differentiated as the Greek Pallas
Athene and the Roman Bellona.
[Illustration: VENUS VICTRIX.[*] After Hirt, _Bilderbuch_, Plate VII,
11.]
[*] Engraving on a gem representing the statue of Venus Erycina
on the Capitoline. This interpretation does not exclude other
possibilities. Certainly the attitude of little Eros is artistic and
pleasing.]
We may be sure that the character of Aphrodite as Venus Victrix is by no
means a late Roman invention of the days of Cæsar but dates back to the
most ancient days of Babylonian tradition. She was from the start of
history the great _Magna Mater_, the All-Mother and Queen to whom the
people appealed in all their needs, especially in war. In Greece she is
frequently addressed as νικηφόρος, bringer of victory.
A penitential psalm on the destruction of the ancient city of Erech has
been preserved in a fragment which in Theodore G. Pinches’s translation
reads thus:[13]
“How long, my Lady, shall the strong enemy hold thy sanctuary?
There is want in Erech, thy principal city;
Blood is flowing like water in E-ulbar, the house of thine oracle;
He, the enemy, has kindled and poured out fire like
hailstones on all thy lands.
My Lady, sorely am I fettered by misfortune;
My Lady, thou hast surrounded me, and brought me to grief.
The mighty enemy has smitten me down like a single reed.
Not wise myself, I cannot take counsel;[14]
I mourn day and night like the fields.
I, thy servant, pray to thee.”
As Venus Victrix, the warlike goddess akin to the Greek Pallas Athene,
Istar, appears to Asurbanipal in a vision, recorded in a cuneiform
inscription of the annals of this powerful Assyrian king, and refers to
the invasion of Tiumman, King of Elam. The passage reads in H. Fox
Talbot’s translation thus:[15]
“In the month Ab, the month of the heliacal rising of Sagittarius, in
the festival of the great Queen [Istar] daughter of Bel, I [Asurbanipal,
King of Assyria,] was staying at Arbela, the city most beloved by her,
to be present at her high worship.
“There they brought me news of the invasion of the Elamite, who was
coming against the will of the gods. Thus:
“‘Tiumman has said solemnly, and Istar has repeated to us the tenor of
his words: thus: “I will not pour out another libation until I have gone
and fought with him.”’
“Concerning this threat which Tiumman had spoken, I prayed to the great
Istar. I approached to her presence, I bowed down at her feet, I
besought her divinity to come and save me. Thus:
“‘O goddess of Arbela, I am Asurbanipal, King of Assyria, the creature
of thy hands, [chosen by thee and] thy father [Asur] to restore the
temples of Assyria, and to complete the holy cities of Akkad. I have
gone to honor thee, and I have gone to worship thee. But he Tiumman,
King of Elam, never worships the gods....
[Here some words are lost.]
“‘O thou Queen of queens, Goddess of war, Lady of battles, Queen of the
gods, who in the presence of Asur thy father speakest always in my
favor, causing the hearts of Asur and Marduk to love me.... Lo! now,
Tiumman, King of Elam, who has sinned against Asur thy father, and has
scorned the divinity of Marduk thy brother, while I Asurbanipal have
been rejoicing their hearts. He has collected his soldiers, amassed his
army, and has drawn his sword to invade Assyria. O thou archer of the
gods, come like a [thunderstorm] ... in the midst of the battle, destroy
him, and crush him with a fiery bolt from heaven!’
“Istar heard my prayer. ‘Fear not!’ she replied, and caused my heart to
rejoice. ‘According to thy prayer thine eyes shall see the judgment. For
I will have mercy on thee!’
* * * * *
“In the night-time of that night in which I had prayed to her, a certain
seer lay down and had a dream. In the midst of the night Istar appeared
to him, and he related the vision to me, thus:
“‘Istar who dwells in Arbela, came unto me begirt right and left with
flames, holding her bow in her hand, and riding in her open chariot as
if going to the battle. And thou didst stand before her. She addressed
thee as a mother would her child. She smiled upon thee, she Istar, the
highest of the gods, and gave thee a command. Thus: “take [this bow],”
she said, “go with it to battle! Wherever thy camp shall stand I will
come.”
“‘Then thou didst say to her, thus: “O Queen of the goddesses, wherever
thou goest let me go with thee!” Then she made answer to thee, thus: “I
will protect thee! and I will march with thee at the time of the feast
of Nebo. Meanwhile eat food, drink wine, make music, and glorify my
divinity, until I shall come and this vision shall be fulfilled.”
“‘Thy heart’s desire shall be accomplished. Thy face shall not grow pale
with fear: thy feet shall not be arrested: thou shalt not even scratch
thy skin in the battle. In her benevolence she defends thee, and she is
wroth with all thy foes. Before her a fire is blown fiercely, to destroy
thy enemies.’”
Mr. Talbot makes the following editorial comment on the historical event
connected with Asurbanipal’s narrative:
“The promises which the goddess Istar made to the king in this vision of
the month Ab were fulfilled. In the following month (Elul) Asurbanipal
took the field against Tiumman, and his army speedily achieved a
brilliant victory. Tiumman was slain, and his head was sent to Nineveh.
There is a bas-relief in the British Museum representing a man driving
a rapid car, and holding in his hand the head of a warrior, with this
inscription, _Kakkadu Tiumman_, ‘The head of Tiumman.’”
THE DESCENT INTO HADES.
As the goddess of love Venus is the restorer of life, and as such she
descends into the underworld and brings the dead back to life. Lewis
Richard Farnell in his _Cults of the Greek States_[16] reproduces a
remarkable votive tablet which shows Hermes the soul-dispatcher
(_psychopompos_) confronting a woman holding in her outstretched hand a
pomegranate blossom (the symbol of both the chthonian Aphrodite and
Persephone) and Eros, the god of love, on her arm. The obvious meaning
of the tablet indicates that it is love which redeems from death. This
conception of the great goddess found a fit expression in the myth of
Demeter’s daughter Persephone (called in Latin “Proserpina”) who, after
being snatched away by Pluto, the ruler of Hades, is allowed to return
to earth. So life on earth with its bloom of vegetation dies off each
winter but returns annually in the spring.
This idea became a symbol of human immortality in the Eleusinian
mysteries, presumably derived from older sources which go back to
religious cults in Babylonia and Asia Minor, and the Christian doctrine
is apparently derived from the same tradition. Paul says (1 Cor. xv.
36-38):
[Illustration: EROS IN THE UNDERWORLD.
Votive terra-cotta tablet.]
“Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die. And
that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but
bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain. But God
giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own
body.”
Jesus echoes the same argument and uses the same simile of the grain of
wheat in John xii. 24:
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the
ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much
fruit.”
The most important document still at our command relating to the
chthonian Venus is a fragmentary poem called “Istar’s Descent to Hell.”
The main subject is introduced in order to justify the possibility of
conjuring the dead from Sheol. Dr. Jeremias[17] explains the situation
as follows:
“A man grieves over the death of his sister. He consults a magus as to
how to release the spirit of the deceased from the prison of Hades. The
priest tells him the story of Istar’s descent to Sheol for the sake of
proving that the gates of Sheol are not unconquerable, and advises him
to address Istar, the conqueror of Hades, and Tammuz her consort, with
prayer and sacrifice, in order to gain their assistance. He is requested
to comply with funeral ceremonies at the coffin of the dead and to begin
his mourning with the assistance of the Uhats, the companions of Istar.
The spirit of the dead, hearing the lamentations of her brother,
requests him to rescue her from the horrors of Sheol through mourners’
music and sacrifices in the days of Tammuz, which is the time when the
people sing and weep, as told by Ezekiel viii. 14, and mourn for their
dead under the shape of Tammuz. The concluding lines of the poem, which
are summed up in these words, form the core of the whole, while the
legend of Istar’s descent to Sheol is only an introduction to it, and
constitutes a part of the conjuration of the dead. From other documents
of Babylonian literature we learn that on the names of Istar and Tammuz,
the hero and heroine of the legends of the descent to Sheol, depend the
hopes of a rescue from Sheol.” (_Loc cit._, pp. 7-8.)
It appears that people celebrated with special preference the days of
the god Tammuz, who represented the disappearance of vegetation and its
resurrection to life. The legend of Istar’s descent[18] to Sheol reads
in the translation based on Dr. Jeremias’s version as follows:
(OBVERSE OF THE TABLET.)
“To the land of no return, to the land [which thou knowest (?)],[19]
Istar, the daughter of the moon-god, meditated [to go].
The daughter of the moon-god meditated to go
To the house of darkness, to the seat of Irkalla,
To the house whose visitor never returns, 5.
On the path the descent of which never leads back,
To the house whose occupants are removed from the light,
To the place where dust is food, and dirt is meat,
Where they (the occupants) see no light, where they dwell in darkness,
Where they are clothed like birds, dressed with wings,[20]. 10.
Where upon gate and bolt dust is spread.
“When Istar had reached the gate of the land of no return,
She spake to the keeper of the gate:
‘Keeper of the waters, open thy gate,
Open thy gate,--I wish to enter! 15.
If thou openest not, if I cannot enter,
I shall demolish the gate, I shall break the bolt,
I shall smash the threshold, I shall break the doors;
I shall lead out the dead, shall make them eat and live,
And unto the crowds of the living the dead shall I join.’ 20.
“The keeper opened his mouth and spake
In reply to the sublime Istar:
‘Stay, my lady, do not upset [the door]!
I will announce thy name to Queen Allatu.’
“The keeper entered and spake to Queen Allatu: 25.
‘The water has been crossed by thy sister Istar....”
[The goddess Allatu is greatly agitated about Istar’s appearance in
Sheol. The poem continues:]
“When Goddess Allatu [heard] this....
Like unto a tree cut down....
Like unto reeds mowed down [she drooped and spake]: 30.
‘What has driven her heart, what....
These waters have I [made encompass Sheol] ...
Like the inundation of the deluge, like the swelling (?)
waters of a great flood,
I will weep over the men who left their wives.
I will weep over the wives who were taken from their consorts, 35.
Over the little children I will weep, who prematurely
[were taken away].[21]
Go, keeper, open the gate,
And strip her according to the primordial decree.’
The keeper went, he opened the door to her:
‘Enter, my lady, let the underworld [Kûtu] rejoice; 40.
Let the palace of the land of no return rejoice at thy arrival!’
“Through the first door he bade her enter and, stripping her,
Took off from her head the golden crown.
‘Why, O keeper, takest thou from my head the golden crown?’
‘Step in, my lady, for such are the commands of the
mistress of the earth.’[22]
Through the second door he bade her enter and, stripping her, 45.
Took off the ornaments from her ears.
‘Why, O keeper, takest thou the ornaments from my ears?’
‘Step in, my lady, for such are the commands of the
mistress of the earth.’
Through the third door he bade her enter and, stripping her,
Took off the chains from her neck.
‘Why, O keeper, takest thou the chains from my neck?’
‘Step in, my lady, for such are the commands of the
mistress of the earth.’ 50.
Through the fourth door he bade her enter and, stripping her,
Took off the ornaments from her breast.
‘Why, O keeper, takest thou the ornaments from my breast?’
‘Step in, my lady, for such are the commands of the
mistress of the earth.’
Through the fifth door he bade her enter and, stripping her,
Took off the gem-covered belt from her hips.
‘Why, O keeper, takest thou the gem-covered belt from my hips?’ 55.
‘Step in, my lady, for such are the commands of the
mistress of the earth.’
Through the sixth door he bade her enter and, stripping her,
Took off the bracelets from her hands and feet.
‘Why, O keeper, takest thou the bracelets from my hands and feet?’
‘Step in, my lady, for such are the commands of the
mistress of the earth.’
Through the seventh door he bade her enter and, stripping her, 60.
Took off the robe from her body.
“Why, O keeper, takest thou the robe from my body?’
‘Step in, my lady, for such are the commands of the
mistress of the earth.’
Now, when Istar was descended to the land of no return--
Allatu beheld her, and vehemently upbraided her;
Istar, forgetful, assaulted her.... 65.
Then Allatu opened her mouth and spake.
Addressing Namtar, her servant, giving him
this command:
‘Go, Namtar, open (?) my....
Let her out ... the goddess Istar,
With a disease on her eyes [punish her], 70.
With a disease on her hips [punish her],
With a disease on her feet [punish her],
With a disease on her heart [punish her],
With a disease on her head [punish her],
Upon her whole person [inflict diseases].’ 75.
When Istar, the lady, [was thus afflicted],
The bull no longer covered the cow, the he-ass the she-ass,
The lord no longer sought the maiden of the street.
The lord fell asleep in giving command,
The maid-servant fell asleep....” 80.
REVERSE OF THE TABLET.
“Pap-sukal, the servant of the great gods, scratched his
face before Samas,
Clothed in mourning and filled with....
Samas went: he went to Sin, his father [and wept];
Before Ea, the king, he shed tears;
‘Istar has descended into the land and has not returned. 5.
Since Istar descended into the land of no return,
The bull no longer covers the cow,
The jack-ass no longer covers the she-ass,
A man no longer seeks the maiden of the street,
The lord falls asleep in giving command,
The maid-servant falls asleep.... 10.
Then Ea in the wisdom of his heart created a male being,
He created Uddusunâmir,[23] the servant of the gods:
‘Go forth, Uddusunâmir! to the door of the land of no
return turn thy face,
The seven doors of the land of no return shall open before thee,
Let Allatu see thee, let her rejoice at thy arrival. 15.
When her heart has become calm, and her soul is comforted,
Conjure her in the name of the great gods,[24]
Lift up thy head over the source of waters (?), make up
thy mind (and speak):
‘Not, O my lady, shall the spring be debarred from me;
from its waters I will drink.’
When Allatu heard this, 20.
She smote her loins and bit her finger[25] (and spake):
‘Thou hast made a demand which cannot be fulfilled--
Hence, Uddusunâmir, I will confine thee in the great prison,
The slime of the city shall be thy food,
The gutters of the street shall be thy drink, 25.
The shadow of the wall shall be thy habitation.
The thresholds, thy dwelling-place,
Prison and confinement shall break thy strength.
[Allatu curses Uddusunâmir, but the conjuration which he uttered is
too powerful, and she must obey. Thus the power of the realm of
death is broken and Istar is free.]
Allatu opened her mouth and spake,
To give command to Namtar, her servant: 30.
‘Go, Namtar, demolish the eternal palace,
Demolish the pillars, make the thresholds quake;
Lead out the Anunnaki, put them upon the golden throne,[26]
Sprinkle upon Goddess Istar the water of life;
Take her away from me!’ 35.
Namtar went and demolished the eternal palace,
He demolished the pillars and made the thresholds (?) quake,
He led out the Anunnaki and placed them upon the golden throne,
“He sprinkled upon Goddess Istar the waters of life and led her away:
Through the first door he led her and replaced the
robe upon her body; 40.
Through the second door he led her and replaced the
bracelets upon her hands and feet;
Through the third door he led her and replaced the
gem-covered belt upon her hips;
Through the fourth door he led her and replaced the ornament
upon her breast;
Through the fifth door he led her and replaced the chains
upon her neck;
Through the sixth door he led her and replaced the ornaments
in her ears;
Through the seventh door he led her and replaced upon her
head the golden crown.” 45.
[The conjurer here addresses the brother and promises the release of his
dead sister from the power of Allatu. The poem continues:]
“‘When she (Allatu) does not afford release, turn to her
(to Istar) [thy face].
To Tammuz, the consort of her youth,
Pour pure water and costly balm ... [invite a priest].
Cover him with the sacrificial robe, a crystal flute may he [blow].
Let the Uhats weep with grievous [lamentations]. 50.
Let the goddess Belili break the precious utensil[27] ...
With diamonds shall be filled thy....”
[Now the spell takes effect. The spirit of the departed sister
rises from Sheol:]
“Thus she heard the lamentations of her brother, the goddess
Belili broke the precious utensil,
With diamonds were filled the ... [and the departed spirit said:]
‘My only brother, let me not perish, 55.
In the days of Tammuz play the crystal flute,
Play the instrument....
In those days play to me, the male mourners and the female mourners
Let them play upon instruments....
Let them breathe incense....” 60.
THE MAGNA DEA OF THE NATIONS.
Though we may fairly well assume that in prehistoric ages all nations
revered a _Magna Mater_, historical development points to the Orient as
the place whence the cult of Aphrodite was imported into Greece; there
it found the soil prepared by the common belief in a mother goddess, a
world-creatrix, a lady divine and supreme. The Greek Aphrodite was the
same as the Astarte of the Tyrians, the “great goddess” of the Syrians
and the Istar of the Babylonians.
It is quite certain that the cult of this goddess-mother played a more
important part in the world of primitive mankind than the cult of a God
the Father, the male deity of a later age. The goddess of love and life
under whatever name she may have been known, as Our Lady, the Queen of
Heaven, the Mistress of the World, the holy mother _genetrix_ of all
living creatures, the _Dea optima maxima_ or Most High Goddess, was
practically the same all over the world. We may not be mistaken if we
attribute the height of her worship to the age of matriarchy. In
prehistoric times the _Magna Dea_ was looked up to with awe and
reverence, possibly even with a devotion more ardent than in a later
period. The Ancient of Days or Jupiter, i. e., Diespiter, the father of
time and light, was symbolized by the all-embracing sky and also by the
sun. The Greeks called him Zeus, a name pronounced _dzeus_, connected
with the Latin _deus_ and _dies_, and Sanskrit _deva_, the creator and
ruler of the world. The _Magna Dea_ was the all-mother, and it is but to
be expected that when the social conditions of matriarchy changed into
the age of the patriarchs the reverence for an all-mother was superseded
by the worship of an all-father.
[Illustration: CARRYING IN PROCESSION THE SYMBOL OF ISTAR]
The _Magna Dea_ was all in all to mankind. Her emblem as the goddess of
vegetation and of the sustenance of life was the apple or pomegranate.
As the goddess of the human soul she is represented as a bird like the
Egyptian representation of the soul, a human-headed hawk; or as a dove,
the symbol which later on represents the gnostic Sophia, the mother of
the child-god, and in Christian dogmatology, the Holy Ghost.
Originally the deity was triune in India, in Egypt, and in other
countries. In India we become acquainted with Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva,
the Creator, the Revealer (or Avatar), and the Transformer (i. e., the
one who destroys and renews). In Babylon the universe is divided into
the three kingdoms of Heaven, Water and Earth under the three rulers,
Anu, Ea and Marduk; and in Egypt men worshiped God the father or Osiris,
God the mother or Isis, and God the child or Horus. Similar trinities
are met with in other religions, and the Christian Trinity, although not
taught by Jesus, is one of the oldest doctrines of the Christian church.
Here indeed the Egyptian conception of God as father, mother and child
makes its first appearance in the apocryphal writings, for there are
passages in heretical gospels where Jesus speaks of the Holy Ghost as
his mother. This idea might have been accepted as an orthodox thought if
the age had not been strongly ascetic and dualistic, but on that account
the feminine character of the Holy Ghost became offensive to the fathers
of the church. In Hebrew the Holy Ghost as _Ruah_ was still conceived
as a brooding pigeon, but among the Gentile Christians the conception of
the third person of the Trinity was translated by the neuter noun πνεῡμα
and in Latin by the masculine _spiritus_. Nevertheless the old symbol of
the brooding pigeon was retained and a feminine designation such as
Sophia, the consort of God, was occasionally tolerated in the Greek
church and among the Gnostics.
[Illustration: ISIS AND HORUS.
From Lenormant.]
[Illustration: EGYPTIAN REPRESENTATION OF THE DEAD MAN AND HIS SOUL.]
Wings have always been the symbol of thought,
[Illustration: ASTARTE AND THE DOVE.]
and serve as a simile to represent the soul not only in Egyptian
mythology but also in Babylon and on the Greek islands. A human-headed
bird attributed to a primitive period of Babylonian civilization has
[Illustration: THE HUMAN-HEADED BIRD.
A figure unearthed among the ruins of Babylon. From Lenormant.]
been interpreted as the soul of Semiramis, and may represent either a
dead person or the goddess of the dead, and the same idea is expressed
in a little figurine of the Greek islands which shows us a
[Illustration: AMULET[28] OF THE MYCENAEAN PERIOD.]
[Illustration: ISIS AND THE FISH.]
female deity with a dove on her head. We can scarcely be mistaken if we
interpret this little figurine as an amulet denoting the goddess whose
emblem is the dove. Whether the figure represent the goddess herself
with her emblematic bird or whether it be the portrait of a dead person
protected by the dove, is of secondary importance. The main truth on
which we insist here is that the dove is the emblem of the great goddess
to whom people look for salvation in the dark beyond. Thus flocks of
pigeons enjoyed great liberties in Hierapolis, the holy city of
Syria,--probably in the same way that the pigeons in St. Mark’s place
are befriended in Venice both by the inhabitants and by foreign
visitors.
Another emblem of the goddess of womanhood is the fish, as is fully
described in Lucian’s most interesting treatise “On the Syrian Goddess.”
In Egypt Isis has been represented with a fish surmounting her head as
an emblematic ornament.
In some parts of Greece the hare or rabbit has also been sacred to
Aphrodite, unquestionably on account of the fertility of that animal.
Even to-day in Christian times the Easter hare and the egg are the
symbols of spring, and the Easter festival cannot be celebrated without
them.
[Illustration: APHRODITE WITH RABBIT.]
A remarkable monument has been discovered in Boghaz-Köi in Cappadocia.
It represents a procession of gods standing on their symbolic animals,
and what interests us mainly is that it portrays the meeting of a god
and a goddess, he standing on human beings, she on an animal which is
apparently a lioness. Among her followers is a man on a leopard and two
figures standing on a double-headed eagle. The idea of this symbol was
carried to Europe by crusaders and became the emblem
[Illustration: RELIEF FROM BOGHAZ-KOEI.]