Part 25 (2/2)
When ”the ecliptic was marked off into the twelve regions” and the signs of the Zodiac were designated, ”the year of three hundred sixty-five and one-fourth days was known”, says Goodspeed, ”though the common year was reckoned according to twelve months of thirty days each[351], and equated with the solar year by intercalating a month at the proper times.... The month was divided into weeks of seven days.... The clepsydra and the sundial were Babylonian inventions for measuring time.”[352]
The sundial of Ahaz was probably of Babylonian design. When the shadow went ”ten degrees backward” (_2 Kings_, xx, II) amba.s.sadors were sent from Babylon ”to enquire of the wonder that was done in the land” (_2 Chron._ x.x.xii, 31). It was believed that the king's illness was connected with the incident. According to astronomical calculation there was a partial eclipse of the sun which was visible at Jerusalem on 11th January, 689 B.C, about 11.30 a.m. When the upper part of the solar disc was obscured, the shadow on the dial was strangely affected.
The Babylonian astrologers in their official doc.u.ments were more concerned regarding international omens than those which affected individuals. They made observations not only of the stars, but also the moon, which, as has been shown, was one of their planets, and took note of the clouds and the wind likewise.
As portions of the heavens were a.s.signed to various countries, so was the moon divided into four quarters for the same purpose--the upper part for the north, Gutium, the lower for the south, Akkad or Babylonia, the eastern part for Elam, and the western for Amurru. The crescent was also divided in like manner; looking southward the astrologers a.s.signed the right horn to the west and the left to the east. In addition, certain days and certain months were connected with the different regions. Lunar astrology was therefore of complicated character. When the moon was dim at the particular phase which was connected with Amurru, it was believed that the fortunes of that region were in decline, and if it happened to s.h.i.+ne brightly in the Babylonian phase the time was considered auspicious to wage war in the west. Great importance was attached to eclipses, which were fortunately recorded, with the result that the ancient astronomers were ultimately enabled to forecast them.
The destinies of the various states in the four quarters were similarly influenced by the planets. When Venus, for instance, rose brightly in the field of Anu, it was a ”prosperor” for Elam; if it were dim it foretold misfortune. Much importance was also attached to the positions occupied by the constellations when the planets were propitious or otherwise; no king would venture forth on an expedition under a ”yoke of inauspicious stars”.
Biblical references to the stars make mention of well-known Babylonian constellations:
Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth (? the Zodiac) in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons? Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth? _Job_, x.x.xviii, 31-33. Which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south. _Job_, ix, 9. Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night.
_Amos_, v, 8.
The so-called science of astrology, which had origin in ancient Babylonia and spread eastward and west, is not yet extinct, and has its believers even in our own country at the present day, although they are not nearly so numerous as when Shakespeare made Malvolio read:
In my stars I am above thee; but be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em. Thy Fates open their hands....[353]
or when Byron wrote:
Ye stars! which are the poetry of heaven!
If in your bright leaves we would read the fate Of men and empires--'t is to be forgiven That in our aspirations to be great, Our destinies o'erleap their mortal state And claim a kindred with you....[354]
Our grave astronomers are no longer astrologers, but they still call certain constellations by the names given them in Babylonia. Every time we look at our watches we are reminded of the ancient mathematicians who counted on their fingers and multiplied 10 by 6, to give us minutes and seconds, and divided the day and the night into twelve hours by multiplying six by the two leaden feet of Time. The past lives in the present.
CHAPTER XIV.
ASHUR THE NATIONAL G.o.d OF a.s.sYRIA
Derivation of Ashur--Ashur as Anshar and Anu--Animal forms of Sky G.o.d--Anshar as Star G.o.d on the Celestial Mount--Isaiah's Parable--Symbols of World G.o.d and World Hill--Dance of the Constellations and Dance of Satyrs--Goat G.o.ds and Bull G.o.ds--Symbols of G.o.ds as ”High Heads”--The Winged Disc--Human Figure as Soul of the Sun--Ashur as Hercules and Gilgamesh--G.o.ds differentiated by Cults--Fertility G.o.ds as War G.o.ds--Ashur's Tree and Animal forms--Ashur as Nisroch--Lightning Symbol in Disc--Ezekiel's Reference to Life Wheel--Indian Wheel and Discus--Wheels of Shamash and Ahura-Mazda--Hitt.i.te Winged Disc--Solar Wheel causes Seasonal Changes--Bonfires to stimulate Solar Deity--Burning of G.o.ds and Kings--Magical Ring and other Symbols of Scotland--Ashur's Wheel of Life and Eagle Wings--King and Ashur--Ashur a.s.sociated with Lunar, Fire, and Star G.o.ds--The Osirian Clue--Hitt.i.te and Persian Influences.
The rise of a.s.syria brings into prominence the national G.o.d Ashur, who had been the city G.o.d of a.s.shur, the ancient capital. When first met with, he is found to be a complex and mystical deity, and the problem of his origin is consequently rendered exceedingly difficult.
Philologists are not agreed as to the derivation of his name, and present as varied views as they do when dealing with the name of Osiris. Some give Ashur a geographical significance, urging that its original form was Aushar, ”water field”; others prefer the renderings ”Holy”, ”the Beneficent One”, or ”the Merciful One”; while not a few regard Ashur as simply a dialectic form of the name of Anshar, the G.o.d who, in the a.s.syrian version, or copy, of the Babylonian Creation myth, is chief of the ”host of heaven”, and the father of Anu, Ea, and Enlil.
If Ashur is to be regarded as an abstract solar deity, who was developed from a descriptive place name, it follows that he had a history, like Anu or Ea, rooted in Naturalism or Animism. We cannot a.s.sume that his strictly local character was produced by modes of thought which did not obtain elsewhere. The colonists who settled at a.s.shur no doubt imported beliefs from some cultural area; they must have either given recognition to a G.o.d, or group of G.o.ds, or regarded the trees, hills, rivers, sun, moon, and stars, and the animals as manifestations of the ”self power” of the Universe, before they undertook the work of draining and cultivating the ”water field” and erecting permanent homes. Those who settled at Nineveh, for instance, believed that they were protected by the G.o.ddess Nina, the patron deity of the Sumerian city of Nina. As this G.o.ddess was also wors.h.i.+pped at Lagash, and was one of the many forms of the Great Mother, it would appear that in ancient times deities had a tribal rather than a geographical significance.
If the view is accepted that Ashur is Anshar, it can be urged that he was imported from Sumeria. ”Out of that land (s.h.i.+nar)”, according to the Biblical reference, ”went forth a.s.shur, and builded Nineveh.”[355]
a.s.shur, or Ashur (identical, Delitzsch and Jastrow believe, with As.h.i.+r),[356] may have been an eponymous hero--a deified king like Etana, or Gilgamesh, who was regarded as an incarnation of an ancient G.o.d. As Anshar was an astral or early form of Anu, the Sumerian city of origin may have been Erech, where the wors.h.i.+p of the mother G.o.ddess was also given prominence.
Damascius rendered Anshar's name as ”a.s.soros”, a fact usually cited to establish Ashur's connection with that deity. This writer stated that the Babylonians pa.s.sed over ”Sige,[357] the mother, that has begotten heaven and earth”, and made two--Apason (Apsu), the husband, and Tauthe (Tiawath or Tiamat), whose son was Moymis (Mummu). From these another progeny came forth--Lache and Lachos (Lachmu and Lachamu).
These were followed by the progeny Kissare and a.s.soros (Kishar and Anshar), ”from which were produced Anos (Anu), Illillos (Enlil) and Aos (Ea). And of Aos and Dauke (Dawkina or Damkina) was born Belos (Bel Merodach), whom they say is the Demiurge”[358] (the world artisan who carried out the decrees of a higher being).
Lachmu and Lachamu, like the second pair of the ancient group of Egyptian deities, probably symbolized darkness as a reproducing and sustaining power. Anshar was apparently an impersonation of the night sky, as his son Anu was of the day sky. It may have been believed that the soul of Anshar was in the moon as Nannar (Sin), or in a star, or that the moon and the stars were manifestations of him, and that the soul of Anu was in the sun or the firmament, or that the sun, firmament, and the wind were forms of this ”self power”.
If Ashur combined the attributes of Anshar and Anu, his early mystical character may be accounted for. Like the Indian Brahma, he may have been in his highest form an impersonation, or symbol, of the ”self power” or ”world soul” of developed Naturalism--the ”creator”, ”preserver”, and ”destroyer” in one, a G.o.d of water, earth, air, and sky, of sun, moon, and stars, fire and lightning, a G.o.d of the grove, whose essence was in the fig, or the fir cone, as it was in all animals. The Egyptian G.o.d Amon of Thebes, who was a.s.sociated with water, earth, air, sky, sun and moon, had a ram form, and was ”the hidden one”, was developed from one of the elder eight G.o.ds; in the Pyramid Texts he and his consort are the fourth pair. When Amon was fused with the specialized sun G.o.d Ra, he was placed at the head of the Ennead as the Creator. ”We have traces”, says Jastrow, ”of an a.s.syrian myth of Creation in which the sphere of creator is given to Ashur.”[359]
Before a single act of creation was conceived of, however, the early peoples recognized the eternity of matter, which was permeated by the ”self power” of which the elder deities were vague phases. These were too vague, indeed, to be wors.h.i.+pped individually. The forms of the ”self power” which were propitiated were trees, rivers, hills, or animals. As indicated in the previous chapter, a tribe wors.h.i.+pped an animal or natural object which dominated its environment. The animal might be the source of the food supply, or might have to be propitiated to ensure the food supply. Consequently they identified the self power of the Universe with the particular animal with which they were most concerned. One section identified the spirit of the heavens with the bull and another with the goat. In India Dyaus was a bull, and his spouse, the earth mother, Prithivi, was a cow. The Egyptian sky G.o.ddess Hathor was a cow, and other G.o.ddesses were identified with the hippopotamus, the serpent, the cat, or the vulture. Ra, the sun G.o.d, was identified in turn with the cat, the a.s.s, the bull, the ram, and the crocodile, the various animal forms of the local deities he had absorbed. The eagle in Babylonia and India, and the vulture, falcon, and mysterious Phoenix in Egypt, were identified with the sun, fire, wind, and lightning. The animals a.s.sociated with the G.o.d Ashur were the bull, the eagle, and the lion.
He either absorbed the attributes of other G.o.ds, or symbolized the ”Self Power” of which the animals were manifestations.
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