THE NATURAL GENESIS
NOTES TO SECTION 12
[1] [Potter, Archælogia Græca: or, The Antiquities of Greece, vol. 1, 383. 'They were observ'd at Athens with greater Splendor, and more ceremonious Superstition, than in any other Part of Greece; for the Years were number'd by them, the chief Archon had a Part in the ManageInent of them, and the Priests that officiated therein, were honour'd with the first Seats at publick Shews. But at first they were without Splendor and Ornaments, being Days set apart for publick Mirth, and observ'd only with these Ceremonies: First a Vessel of Wine, adorned with a Vine-branch, was brought forth, after that follow'd a Goat, then was carry'd a Basket of Figs, and, after all, the Phalli.']
[2] [Hahn, Tsuni-Goam, p. 43. '"At the return of the
Pleiades," says Schmidt, "these natives celebrate an anniversary; as soon as
these stars appear above the eastern horizon mothers will lift their little ones
on their arms, and running up to elevated spots, will show to them those
friendly stars, and teach them to stretch their little hands towards them. The
people of a kraal will assemble to dance and sing according to the old custom of
their ancestors.
The chorus always sings: 'O Tiqua! our Father above our heads, give
rain to us, that the fruits (bulbs, etc.), uientjes, may ripen, and that we may
have plenty of food, send us a good year.'" Baseler Magazin, 1831, p. 12.']
[4] [Hahn, Tsuni-Goam, p. 13. 'Hence it is that |gõa, to count, is also used in the meaning, to honour, to respect; and |goab means not only the number, but also the honour, the respect, the regard. "!Gõahe tamata hā," will a Khoikhoi indignantly say, "I am not counted," that is, "I am not looked at," if he thinks that he is unfairly treated.']
[5] [Davis, Dictionary of the Kaffir Language, p. 113. 'Um Lisa, n. z. One who gives pleasure and delight by his cheerfulness and vigour of character to others. Applied exclusively to young men or lads in their prime; a fine young man of a cheerful disposition.']
[6] [Sepher Gigulim, c. i. f. 40.]
[8] [Num. 25:3-5. 'And Israel joined himself unto Baalpeor: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel.
And the LORD said unto Moses, Take all the heads of the people, and hang them up
before the LORD against the sun, that the fierce anger of the LORD may be turned
away from Israel.
And Moses said unto the judges of Israel, Slay ye every one his men that were
joined unto Baalpeor.'
Ps.
106:28. 'They joined themselves also unto Baalpeor, and ate the sacrifices of
the dead.']
[9] [Herodotus, Histories, bk. 2.5. 'This at once proves they intercalated the quarter day, making their year to consist of 365¼ days, without which the seasons could not return to the same periods. The fact of Herodotus not understanding their method of intercalation does not argue that the Egyptians were ignorant of it.' Notes by Rawlinson, vol. 2, p. 283.]
[10] [Reade, Savage Africa, pp.
207-8. 'He told me that he was taken into a fetich-house, stripped, severely
flogged, and plastered with goat-dung; this ceremony, like those of masonry,
being conducted to the sound of music. Afterward there came from behind a kind
of screen or shrine uncouth and terrible sounds such as he had never heard
before. These, he was told, emanated from a spirit called Thuk. He,
afterward brought to me the instrument with which the fetich-man makes this
noise. It is a kind of whistle made of hollowed mangrove wood, about two inches
in length, and covered at one end with a scrap of bat's wing. For a period of
five days after initiation the novice wears an apron of dry palm-leaves, which I
have frequently seen.
The initiation of the girls is performed by elderly females who call themselves
ngembi. They go into the forest, clear a place, sweep the ground
carefully, come back to the town, and build a sacred hut which no male may
enter. They return to the clearing in the forest, taking with them the igonji
or novice. It is necessary that she should have never been to that place before,
and that she fast during the whole of the ceremony, which lasts three days. All
this time a fire is kept burning in the wood. From morning to night, and from
night to morning, a ngembi sits beside it and feeds it, singing with a
cracked voice. The fire will never die out! The third night is passed in the
sacred hut; the igonji is rubbed with black, red, and white paints, and,
as the men beat drums outside, she cries Okanda, yo! yo! yo! which reminds one
of the Evohe! of the ancient Bacchantes. The ceremonies which are performed in
the hut and in the wood are kept secret from the men, and I can say but little
of them. Mongilomba had evidently been playing the spy, but was very reserved
upon the subject. Should it be known, he said, that he had told me what he had,
the women would drag him into a fetich-house, and would flog him, perhaps, till
he was dead. It is pretty certain, however, that these rites, like those of the
Bona Dea, are essentially of a Phallic nature; for Mongilomba once confessed
that, having peeped through the chinks of the hut, he saw a ceremony like that
which is described in Petronius Arbiter.
I do not think that Mongilomba's fear of the ngembi was affected. They
are really a powerful body, and are held in great respect, perhaps in a little
terror, by the men. They pretend to find out the secrets of their enemies, and
to detect thieves; and I am inclined to believe that the origin of this
institution was to protect wives from being harshly treated by their husbands.']
[11] [Life in the Southern Isles?]
[12] [Les Plaideurs, comedie, act 1, sc. 1. 'Faith, he that trusts to Futurity is an ass for his Pains, and he that laughs on Friday shall weep on Sunday. Last Year a Judge sent for me from Amiens, to make me his Porter: The Normans thought they had a Fool in Me to deal with but, as the Saying in People learn to howl among Wolves.']
[13] [Hazlewood, Feejeean and English Dictionary, p. 96. 'Neu, an interj. used only by women.']
[14] [Vendidad, 16:5. 'Let this place be strewed with dry dust.' Bleeck's tr.]
[15] [Shayast La-Shayast, ch. 3:10.]
[18] [Dugmore, in Maclean's A Compendium of Kafir Laws and Customs, Brownlee's notes, p. 125.]
[19] [Philebus. Unable to trace.]
[20] [Wilkinson, Handbook for Travellers in Egypt, p. 142. Wrong p. no. Unable to trace.]
[21] [Prescott, History of the Conquest of Mexico, vol. 1, pp.
126-7. 'I shall conclude the account of Mexican science with that of a
remarkable festival, celebrated by the natives at the termination of the great
cycle of fifty-two years. We have seen, in the preceding chapter, their
tradition of the destruction of the world at four successive epochs. They looked
forward confidently to another such catastrophe, to take place, like the
preceding, at the close of a cycle, when the sun was to be effaced from the
heavens, the human race from the earth, and when the darkness of chaos was to
settle on the habitable globe. The cycle would end in the latter part of
December, and as the dreary season of the winter solstice approached, and the
diminished light of day gave melancholy presage of its speedy extinction, their
apprehensions increased; and on the arrival of the five "unlucky" days which
closed the year they abandoned themselves to despair. They broke in pieces the
little images of their household gods, in whom they no longer trusted. The holy
fires were suffered to go out in the temples, and none were lighted in their own
dwellings. Their furniture and domestic utensils were destroyed; their garments
torn in pieces; and every thing was thrown into disorder, for the coming of the
evil genii who were to descend on the desolate earth.
On the evening of the last day, a procession of priests, assuming the dress and
ornaments of their gods, moved from the capital towards a lofty mountain, about
two leagues distant. They carried with them a noble victim, the flower of their
captives, and an apparatus for kindling the new fire, the success of which was
an augury of the renewal of the cycle. On reaching the summit of the mountain,
the procession paused till midnight; when, as the constellation of the Pleiades
approached the zenith, the new fire was kindled by the friction of the sticks
placed on the wounded breast of the victim.' Or vol. 1, pp. 128-9, New York, 1871
ed.]
[22] [Burgess, Surya-Siddhanta, p. 5, ch. 1:10-12. 'Time
is the destroyer of worlds; another Time has for its nature to bring to pass.
This latter, according as it is gross or minute, is called by two names, real (murta)
and unreal (amurta).
That which begins with respirations (prana) is called real; that which
begins with atoms (truti) is called unreal. Six respirations make a
vindai, sixty of these a nadi.
And sixty nadis make a sidereal day and night ...'
See also NG 1:185.]
[23] [Hieroglyphica, bk. 1:14. 'To denote the moon,
or the habitable world, or letters, or a priest, or
anger, or swimming, they pourtray a CYNOCEPHALUS. And they symbolise
the moon by it, because the animal has a kind of sympathy with it at its
conjunction with the god. For at the exact instant of the conjunction of the
moon with the sun, when the moon becomes unillumined, then the male Cynocephalus
neither sees, nor eats, but is bowed down to the earth with grief, as if
lamenting the ravishment of the moon: and the female also, in addition to its
being unable to see, and being afflicted in the same manner as the male, ex genitalibus sanguinem emittit: hence even to this day cynocephali are brought up
in the temples, in order that from them may be ascertained the exact instant of
the conjunction of the sun and moon. And they symbolise by it the habitable
world, because they hold that there are seventy-two primitive countries of
the world; and because these animals, when brought up in the temples, and
attended with care, do not die like other creatures at once in the same day, but
a portion of them dying daily is buried by the priests, while the rest of the
body remains in its natural state, and so on till seventy-two days are
completed, by which time it is all dead. They also symbolise letters by
it, because there is an Egyptian race of cynocephali that is acquainted with
letters; wherefore, when a cynocephalus is first brought into a temple, the
priest places before him a tablet, and a reed, and ink, to ascertain whether it
be of the tribe that is acquainted with letters, and whether it writes. The
animal is moreover consecrated to Hermes [Thoth], the patron of all letters. And
they denote by it a priest, because by nature the cynocephalus does not
eat fish, nor even any food that is fishy, like the priests. And it is born
circumcised, which circumcision the priests also adopt. And they denote by it
anger, because this animal is both exceedingly passionate and choleric
beyond others:—and swimming, because other animals by swimming appear dirty, but
this alone swims to whatever spot it intends to reach, and is in no respect
affected with dirt.'
See also BB 1:431 for other refs.]
[24] [Ibid., bk. 1:16. 'Again, to signify the two Equinoxes they depict a sitting CYNOCEPHALUS, for at the two equinoxes of the year it makes water twelve times in the day, once in each hour, and it does the same also during the two nights; wherefore not without reason do the Egyptians sculpture a sitting Cynocephalus on their Hydrologia (or waterclocks); and they cause the water to run from its member, because, as I said before, the animal thus indicates the twelve hours of the equinox. And lest the contrivance, by which the water is discharged into the Horologium, should be too wide, or on the other hand too narrow, (for against both these caution must be taken, for the one that is too wide, by discharging the water quickly, does not accurately fulfil the measurement of the hour, neither the one that is too narrow, since it lets forth the water little by little, and too slowly,) they perforate an aperture to the extremity of the member, and according to its thickness insert in it an iron tube adapted to the circumstances required. And this they are pleased to do, not without sufficient reason, more than in other cases. They also use this symbol, because it is the only animal that at the equinoxes utters its cries twelve times in the day, once in each hour.']
[25] [In CR?]
[26] [Burgess, Surya-Siddhanta, ch. 13:16, 21. 'By the
application of water is made ascertainment of the revolution of time.
By water-instruments, the vessel (kapala), etc., by the peacock, man,
monkey, and by stringed sand receptacles, one may determine time accurately.']
[27] [Ibid., bk. 13:23. 'A copper vessel, with a hole in the bottom, set in a basin of pure water, sinks sixty times in a day and night, and is an accurate hemispherical instrument.']
[28] [Didron, Christian Iconography, fig. 99.]
[29] [Burgess, Surya-Siddhanta, ch. 1:10-12. See note 22 above.]
[30] [Source.]
[31] [Sayce, 'Assyrian Calendar,' RP,
1, 164-5.
Smith, History of Assurbanipal, pp.
365,
366,
367.]
[32] [Stanley, 'Pythagoras,' in The History of Philosophy, pt. 9, (1687 ed.), p. 557, ch. 10. 'The Pythagoreans held the number Six to be perfect ... the Creation of the World according to the Prophet. The names of the hexad are these ...']
[33] [Proclus, Commentary on the Timaeus, bk. 3. 'So that circulation through the alliance of numbers, shows that it is suspended from intellect and wisdom. But rectilinear motion, demonstrates through the hexad its alliance to the psychical peculiarity. For the number six is allied to the soul, and this will be manifest as we proceed.' Taylor's tr. See The Thomas Taylor Series, vol. 15, p. 504.]
[34] [Of Isis and Osiris, ch. 10.]
[35] [Sale, The Koran, ch. 19, note g. 'For Gabriel blew into the bosom of her shift, which he opened with his fingers, and his breath reaching her womb, caused the conception. The age of the Virgin Mary at the time of her conception was thirteen, or, as others say, ten; and she went six, seven, eight, or nine months with him, according to different traditions; though some say the child was conceived at its full growth of nine months, and that she was delivered of him within an hour after.']
[36] [Bancroft,
The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America,
vol. 3, p. 272. 'Spanish Explanation of the Codices or Mexican Paintings'. 'Quetzalcoatl
was he who they say created the world, and they bestowed on him the appellation
of lord of the wind, because they said that Tonacatecotli, when it appeared good
to him, breathed and begat Quetzalcoatl. They erected round temples to him,
without any corners. They said that it was he (who was also the lord of the
thirteen signs which are here represented) who formed the first man who alone
had a human body like that of men, the other gods were of an incorporeal
nature."
"They declare that their supreme deity, or more properly speaking, demon
Tonacatecotle, whom we have just mentioned, who by another name was called
Citinatonali, .... begot Quetzalcoatl, not by connection with a woman, but by
his breath alone, as we have observed above, when he sent his ambassador, as
they say, to the virgin of Tulla. They believed him to be the god of the air,
and he was the first to whom they built temples and churches, which they formed
perfectly round, without any angles. (Explication del Codex
Telleriano-Remensis, parte ii., lam. ii., in Kingsborough, Mex. Antiq.,
vol. v., pp. 135-6.)']
[37] [Shea and Troyer,
The Dabistan, or School of Manners, vol. 2, p. 250. 'This
goddess, that is the spiritual principle, exists on all living thing beings in
six circles, which they call shat chakras, as the fibres in the stalk of
a water-lily, in which they are six divisions.'
This text then goes on to describe and name the six chakras. Anyone
familiar with Eastern spiritualism or Tantra will know that these six chakras
are the energy-vortices existing and coincidental with certain plexuses along
the spine, and the goddess referred to is the Fire-snake, or Kundalini, called
Shakti in man, whose invocation, like a coiled serpent, causes her to unfurl and
rise from the base of the spine and ascend to the crown chakra, causing
illumination. As Maya, she is the projector of the outer world, and the
withdrawal of this projection causes the objective world to dissolve, or, as it
is known in terms of cosmology, Pralaya.
Read any text on Kundalini-Tantra for a full understanding of this important
aspect of Yoga. It is doubtful whether Massey was fully cognisant of the full
symbolism of this goddess as few texts on tantra and yoga were available to
Westerners.]
[39] [Kidd, China, or Illustrations of the Symbols, etc., p. 292. 'Before concluding this subject, it may be proper to remark, that the two words ... and ... constitute the designations of all the amulets, spells, and charms recognized in the work from which the preceding translations have been made. The ... refer to such as are written in a particular form or order, which, when they are designed to ward off calamities, must be worn on the person, or pasted on the posts of the doors; but in order to cure existing evils they must be burned, and the ashes dissolved in water, or drunk. The Chinese account of them is, that they were originally made of bamboo, and afterwards of slips of wood from the peach tree, but that at present they consist of written characters, on the nature and order of which human happiness or misery depends. ... which originally means to curse, or imprecate vengeance on others, also signifies blessing, and in this sense is recited at the time the .... to which it appertains, is prepared, as a form of prayer. Meditation, invocation, recitatives, and the application of fire or water, seem to be the instrumental causes by which the ceremony is rendered efficient. The .... and the .... are exemplified in the following specimens ... with this charm (or ...) ... this prayer ... or ... must be repeated. " Heaven's one produced .... water. Earth's six perfects it. The one (unity of ... essence) and six (four cardinal points and the zenith ... and ... nadir) having become united, are based on the five elements (water, fire, wood, metal, earth). I now eject impurity from my mouth, and immediately the dust flies. I serve the Supreme Ruler, to whose imperial majesty I humbly submit my statements. I, moreover, presume to supplicate the immortal genii of the Pung-lae mountain."']
[40] [Conciliator, sive de convenientia locorum s. scripturæ,
etc., p. 222. 'The Hebrews consider that souls were created in
the six days of the beginning, and not together with bodies; and they draw three comparisons of its
state:
1st. Prior to coming into the world, they compare it to a king seated on.
2nd. When inspired into the body, they compare it to a king placed in
confinement.
3rd. When released by death, and it returns to its former region, they compare
it to a king returning to his kingdom, after being released from prison.
Plato, therefore, called the body a prison; and said, that when death came, man
was then released from confinement.' Eng. tr. by Lindo, vol. 1, p. 23.]
[41] [Shayast La-Shayast, ch. 2:97.]
[42] [Vendidad, ch. 7:36. 'If they are woven, they shall wash them six times with cow's urine, rub them six times with earth, wash them six times with water, air them six months at the window of the dwelling.' Bleeck's tr.]
[43] [The Metrical
Chronicle of Robert of
Gloucester, vol. 1, p. 46, line 630; 'Astrild ire bedsoster. hire
louerdes concubine.'
Bedsoster is given in the glossary as
bedsister, sharer of her husband's bed (ibid., vol. 2, p. 892.). W. A. Wright's ed. of 1887.]
[44] [Horrack, 'Lamentations of Isis and Nephthys,' RP, 2, 117. See p. 122.]
[45] [Ibid., RP, 2, 117. See p. 123.]
[46] [Ibid., RP, 2, 117. See pp. 122-3.]
[47] [Brugsch, History of Egypt, vol. 1, p. 11. 'On the other hand, the monuments make us acquainted with a number of other names, which served to designate this same land of Egypt in a special manner. Among the oldest is unquestionably the name Tamera, which seems to have meant the country of the inundation, and was applied more particularly to Lower Egypt. Other inscriptions belonging to the later age designated Egypt by appellations conceived for the most part in a poetical spirit. Among the most frequent expressions of this class are the following: The land of the sycomore, the land of the olive, the land of the Holy Eye, the land of the sixth day of the moon (intercalary day). The explanation of these and other designations can only be sought in those writings of the ancient Egyptians which relate to the doctrine of divine things and to the legends of the gods and divine beings, for it is a well-known fact that the Egyptians, precisely in the same manner as the Hebrews, believed that they found in the name of a person or place reference to certain events or to remarkable circumstances, whence the mere similarity of sound often gave occasion for incredibly bold identifications.']
[48] [Rit. ch. 136, title. 'Another chapter, made on the sixth Day of the Month, the Day of being conducted in the Boat of the Sun.' Birch's tr. Cf. Renouf's tr.]
[49] [Horrack, 'Lamentations of Isis and Nephthys,' RP, 2, 117. See p. 121.]
[50] [Peterman?]
[51] ['The Lunar Year of the Hindus,' ARSB, 3, 284.]
[52] [Moures, Old Egyptian Calendar of Astronomical Observations, p. 25.]
[53] [Ibid., Bashans 30, or June 6, 1878.]
[54] [Irenaeus, Against Heresies, bk. 1, ch. 2. 4. 'When she (the Tetrad) had spoken these things, Aletheia looked at him, opened her mouth, and uttered a word. That word was a name, and the name was this one which we do know and speak of, viz. Christ Jesus. When she had uttered this name, she at once relapsed into silence. And as Marcus waited in the expectation that she would say something more, the Tetrad again came forward and said, "Thou hast reckoned as contemptible that word which thou hast heard from the mouth of Aletheia. This which thou knowest and seemest to possess, is not an ancient name. For thou possessest the sound of it merely, whilst thou art ignorant of its power. For Jesus (Ιησυς) is a name arithmetically symbolical, consisting of six letters, and is known by all those that belong to the called. But that which is among the Æons of the Pleroma consists of many parts, and is of another form and shape, and is known by those [angels] who are joined in affinity with Him, and whose figures (mightinesses) are always present with Him.' ANCL, 5, 59.]
[55] [Didron, Christian Iconography, fig. 125.]
[56] [Mariette, Denderah. Description Générale du Grand Temple de Cette Ville, vol. 2, pl. 45.]
[57] [Sayce, 'Babylonian Saints Calendar,' RP, 7, 157. See p. 164.]
[58] [On the Creation of the World,
par. 30. 'But after the whole world had been completed according to the perfect
nature of the number six, the Father hallowed the day following, the seventh,
praising it, and calling it holy. For that day is the festival, not of one city
or one country, but of all the earth; a day which alone it is right to call the
day of festival for all people, and the birthday of the world. And I know not if
any one would be able to celebrate the nature of the number seven in adequate
terms, since it is superior to every form of expression. But it does not follow
that because it is more admirable than anything that can be said of it, that on
that account one ought to keep silence; but rather we ought to try, even if one
cannot say everything which is proper, or even that which is most proper, at all
events to utter such things as may be attainable by our capacities.
The number seven is spoken of in two ways; the one within the number ten which
is measured by repeating the unit alone seven times, and which consists of seven
units; the other is the number outside ten, the beginning of which is altogether
the unit increasing according to a twofold or threefold, or any other proportion
whatever; as are the numbers sixty-four, and seven hundred and twenty-nine; the
one number of which is increased by doubling on from the limit, and the other by
trebling. And it is not well to examine either species superficially, but the
second has a most manifest pre-eminence. For in every case the number which is
combined from the unit in double or treble ratio, or any other ratio,
whatsoever, is the seventh number, a cube and a square, embracing both species,
both that of the incorporeal and that of the corporeal essence. That of the
incorporeal essence according to the superficies which quadrangular figures
present, and that of the corporeal essence according to the other figure which
cubes make; and the clearest proof of this is afforded by the numbers already
spoken of. In the seventh number increasing immediately from the unit in a
twofold ratio, namely, the number sixty-four, is a square formed by the
multiplication of eight by eight, and it is also a cube, by the multiplication
of four and four, four times. And again, the seventh number from the unit being
increased in a threefold ratio, that is to say, the number seven hundred and
twenty-nine, is a square, the number seven and twenty being multiplied by
itself; and it is also a cube, by nine being multiplied by itself nine times.
And in every case a man making his beginning from the unit, and proceeding on to
the seventh number, and increasing in the same ratio till he comes to the number
seven, will at all times find the number, when increased, both a cube and a
square. At all events, he who begins with the number sixty-four, and combines
them in a doubling ratio, will make the seventh number four thousand and
ninety-six, which is both a square and a cube, having sixty-four as its square
root, and sixteen as its cube root.' Works, vol. 1, p. 26, Yonge's tr.]
[59] [Allegories of the Sacred Laws, par. 6. '"Accordingly, on the seventh day, God caused to rest from all his works which he had made." Now, the meaning of this sentence is something of this kind. God ceases from forming the races of mortal creatures when he begins to create the divine races, which are akin to the nature of the number seven. And the reference which is here contained to their moral character is of the following nature. When that reason which is holy in accordance with the number seven has entered into the soul the number six is then arrested, and all the mortal things which this number appears to make.' Works, vol. 1, p. 56, Yonge's tr.]
[60] [Rabbi Chijah, Israelite Indeed, vol. 1, p. 223.]
[61] [Mishna, Sanhedrin, f. 65, c. 2.]
[62] [Hebrew Prayers for Pentecost, etc., p. 81.]
[63] [Ex. 16:15. 'And when the
children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist
not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the LORD hath
given you to eat.'
Ex. 16:26-27. 'Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which
is the sabbath, in it there shall be none.
And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day
for to gather, and they found none.']
[64] [Josh. 5:12. 'And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land; neither had the children of Israel manna any more; but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.']
[65] [Ps. 78:25. 'Man did eat angels' food: he sent them meat to the full.']
[66] ['Another of these legendary statements is worthy of notice, because it is at variance with the chronology now commonly received. Thaet wees Frigedceg thaet hi tha blcede thigdon, Adam and Eua, and hi eft swulton on Frigedceg; and tha eft after thon thcet hi butu wceron on helle, Adam and Eua, for thces gyltes mycelnesse, lifthuseid wintra, and trva hund wintra, cer thon heom God gemildsian wolde, and heom thces wrceces unbindan. (Brit. Mus. MSS. Cotton, Tiberius. A. 3. f. 41.) It was Friday that they ate the fruit, Adam and Eva, and they afterwards died on Friday; and after that they both were in hell, Adam and Eva, for the guilt's greatness, five thousand winters, and two hundred winters, ere that God would have mercy on them, and release them from his vengeance.' Cited by Soames, Anglo-Saxon Church, p. 252.]
[67] [Buxtorf,
Synagoga Ivdaica, pp. 301-2.
Levi, A Succinct Account
of the Rites and Ceremonies of the Jews, pp. 8-9.]
[68] [Talbot, 'Creation Tablets,' RP, 9, 115. See p. 117.]
[69] [History of Rome, bk. 37. 'Now as for him, who he is and why he has been so honoured, and how they got their superstitious awe of him, accounts have been given by many, and moreover these matters have naught to do with this history. The custom, however, of referring the days to the seven stars called planets was instituted by the Egyptians, but is now found among all mankind, though its adoption has been comparatively recent; at any rate the ancient Greeks never understood it, so far as I am aware. But since it is now quite the fashion with mankind generally and even with the Romans themselves, and is to them already in a way an ancestral tradition, I wish to write briefly of it, telling how and in what way it has been so arranged. I have heard two explanations, which are not difficult of comprehension, it is true, though they involve certain theories. For if you apply the so-called "principle of the tetrachord" (which is believed to constitute the basis of music) to these stars, by which the whole universe of heaven is divided into regular intervals, in the order in which each of them revolves, and beginning at the outer orbit assigned to Saturn, then omitting the next two name the lord of the fourth, and after this passing over two others reach the seventh, and you then go back and repeat the process with the orbits and their presiding divinities in this same manner, assigning them to the several days, you will find all the days to be in a kind of musical connection with the arrangement of the heavens. This is one of the explanations given; the other is as follows. If you begin at the first hour to count the hours of the day and of the night, assigning the first to Saturn, the next to Jupiter, the third to Mars, the fourth to the Sun, the fifth to Venus, the sixth to Mercury, and the seventh to the Moon, according to the order of the cycles which the Egyptians observe, and if you repeat the process, covering thus the whole twenty-four hours, you will find that the first hour of the following day comes to the Sun. And if you carry on the operation throughout the next twenty-four hours in the same manner as with the others, you will dedicate the first hour of the third day to the Moon, and if you proceed similarly through the rest, each day will receive its appropriate god. This, then, is the tradition.' Cary's tr.]
[70] [Stanley,
'Pythagoras,' in The History of Philosophy, pt. 9,
(1687 ed.), p. 557, ch. 1. 'Some things likewise he spoke in a
mystical way symbolically, most of which are collected by Aristotle; as when he
calleth the Sea, a tear of Saturn; the two Bears, the hands of Rhea;
the Pleides, the lutes of the Muses; the Planets, the dogs of
Prosperine; the eyes, the gates of the Sun.'
See also BB 2:148,
NG 1:356.]
[71] [Source.]
[72] [Moures, Old Egyptian Calendar of Astronomical Observations, pp. 19-20.]
[73] [Thorpe, Northern Mythology, vol. 3, p. 99. 'According to another German tradition, no flax should remain on the distaff during the twelve days of Christmas, lest Frau Holla should come. This is akin to the Danish superstition, that, from Yule-day to New year's day, no thing that runs round may be put in motion, consequently neither reel nor spindle.']
[74] [2 Esd. 7:30-1. 'At the end of that time, my son the Messiah shall die, and so shall all mankind who draw breath. Then the world shall return to its original silence for seven days as at the beginning of creation, and no one shall be left alive. After seven days the age which is not yet awake shall be roused and the age which is corruptible shall die.' NEB version.]
[75] [Fornander, An Account of the Polynesian Race, vol. 1, p. 121. 'In six days the creation was done. The seventh day, the day called Ku, became the first Kapu-day La-Kapu. The first and the last of these seven days in every month have been kept Kapu ever since by all generations of Hawaiians. The seven days of creation and rest (Kapu) may be a dim recollection of the Hebrew-Chaldean version of the creation; but the application of the first day as a Kapu-day to Kane is evidently a priestly commentary, and of later origin. Practically the Hawaiians, and none of the other Polynesians, so far as I know, never had a week of seven days.']
[76] [Sayce, 'Assyrian Calendar,' RP, 1, 164-5.]
[77] [Sproat, Scenes and Studies of Savage Life, pp. 93-4. 'The condition of the Aht women is not one of unseemly inferiority; the men have their due share of the labours necessary for subsistence. The women do all the work of the camps, prepare fur-skins, collect roots and berries, take charge of the fish on the canoes reaching the shore, manage the cooking, and prepare food for winter. They also make mats, straw-hats and capes, wreaths and ornamental niceties of grass or cedar-fibre. I have met women in the woods in autumn, at four o clock in the morning, staggering under a great burden of cedar-bark. They are seldom invited to feasts, and do not share in public ceremonies, except as assistants. On reaching puberty, young women, on a given occasion, are placed in the sort of gallery already described as in every house, and are there surrounded completely with mats, so that neither the sun nor any fire can be seen. In this cage they remain for several days. Water is given to them, but no food. The longer a girl remains in this retirement the greater honour is it to the parents; but she is disgraced for life if it is known that she has seen fire or the sun during this initiatory ordeal.']
[78] [Lewin, The Hill Tracts of Chittagong and the Dwellers Therein, p. 51.]
[79] [Allegories of the Sacred
Laws, par. 7. '"And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it." God
blesses the manners which are formed in accordance with the seventh and divine
light, as being truly light, and immediately declares them holy. For that which
is blessed, and that which is holy, are closely connected with one another. On
this account he says, concerning him who has vowed a great vow, that "If a
sudden change comes over him, and pollutes his mind, he shall no longer be
holy."
But the previous days were not taken into the calculation, as was natural. For
those manners which are not holy are not counted, so that which is blessed is
alone holy. Correctly therefore, did Moses say that "God blessed the seventh day
and hallowed it," because on it he "caused to rest from all his works which he
had begun to make." And this is the reason why he who lives and conducts himself
in accordance with the seventh and perfect light is blessed and holy, since it
is in accordance with his nature, that the creation of mortal beings was
terminated. For the case is thus: when the light of virtue, which is brilliant
and really divine, rises up, then the generation of the contrary nature is
checked. And we have shown that God never desists from creating something, but
that when he appears to do so he is only beginning the creation of something
else; as being not only, the Creator, but also the Father of everything which
exists.' Works, vol. 1, p. 56, Yonge's tr.]
[80] [Ibid. As above note.]
[81] [Ibid. As note 79 above.]
[82] [Mishna, treatise 'Sabbath.' ch. 2.]
[83] [Josephus, Against Apion, bk. 2.2. 'As for the number of those that were expelled out of Egypt, he hath contrived to have the very same number with Lysimachus, and says they were a hundred and ten thousand. He then assigns a certain wonderful and plausible occasion for the name of Sabbath; for he says that "when the Jews had travelled a six days' journey, they had buboes in their groins; and that on this account it was that they rested on the seventh day, as having got safely to that country which is now called Judea; that then they preserved the language of the Egyptians, and called that day the Sabbath, for that malady of buboes on their groin was named Sabbatosis by the Egyptians." And would not a man now laugh at this fellow's trifling, or rather hate his impudence in writing thus?' Whiston's tr.]
[84] [Kidd, China, or Illustrations of the Symbols, etc., p. 271. 'The Royal Mother of the West bestowed the immortal peach in the palace of Seuen-Ho; according to the legendary tale that the emperor (Woo-te) built an elevated terrace of mud to penetrate heaven, on which the royal mother, who had eaten of the fruit of the tree, descended, during seven days and seven nights, to discuss with him the principles of reason. A round basket for containing grain used in sacrifice is susceptible of a moral interpretation; since to say to a person,—"there is a part of the basket hot polished," expresses delicately some defect in his conduct. The superstitious notions, that good or bad fortune was attached to several of the vessels, might arise from their consecration to religious uses, whilst their being deposited in the temple of ancestors, a receptacle not only for the relics of antiquity, but for the solemn symbols of ancestral worship, would also tend to superinduce upon some a sacred character of which they were originally destitute.']
[85] [Lajard, Recherches su le Culte Public et les Mystères de Mithras en Orient et en Occident, pl. 16, fig. 4.]
[86] [2 Kin. 23:7. 'And he
brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the LORD,
where the women wove hangings for the grove.'
Ez. 16:18. 'And tookest thy broidered garments, and coveredst them: and
thou hast set mine oil and mine incense before them.']
[87] [Lajard, Recherches su le Culte Public et les Mystères de Mithras en Orient et en Occident, pl. 27, fig. 7.]
[88] [Inman, Ancient Faiths Embodied in Ancient Names, vol. 2, p. 650, figs. 64-66.]
[89] [Ralston,
Russian Folktales, pp. 67-70. 'Once upon a time there was an
old couple, and they had three sons. Two of these had their wits about them, but
the third was a simpleton, Ivan by name, surnamed Popyalof.
For twelve whole years Ivan lay among the ashes from the stove; but then he
arose, and shook himself, so that six poods of ashes fell off from him.
Now in the land in which Ivan lived there was never any day, but always
night. That was a Snake's doing. Well, Ivan undertook to kill that Snake, so he
said to his father, 'Father, make me a mace five poods in weight.' And when he
had got the mace, he went out into the fields, and flung it straight up in the
air, and then he went home. The next day he went out into the fields to the spot
from which he had flung the mace on high, and stood there with his head thrown
back. So when the mace fell down again it hit him on the forehead. And the mace
broke in two.
Ivan went home and said to his father, 'Father, make me another mace, a ten pood
one.' And when he had got it he went out into the fields, and flung it aloft.
And the mace went flying through the air for three days and three nights. On the
fourth day Ivan went out to the same spot, and when the mace came tumbling down,
he put his knee in the way, and the mace broke over it into three pieces.
Ivan went home and told his father to make him a third mace, one of fifteen
poods weight. And when he had got it, he went out into the fields and flung it
aloft. And the mace was up in the air six days. On the seventh Ivan went to the
same spot as before. Down fell the mace, and when it struck Ivan's forehead, the
forehead bowed under it. Thereupon he said, 'This mace will do for the Snake!'
So when he had got everything ready, he went forth with his brothers to fight
the Snake. He rode and rode, and presently there stood before him a hut on
fowl's legs, and in that hut lived the Snake. There all the party came to a
standstill. Then Ivan hung up his gloves, and said to his brothers, 'Should
blood drop from my gloves, make haste to help me.' When he had said this he went
into the hut and sat down under the boarding.
Presently there rode up a Snake with three heads. His steed stumbled, his
hound howled, his falcon clamoured. Then cried the Snake:
'Wherefore hast thou stumbled, O Steed! hast thou howled, O Hound! hast thou
clamoured, O Falcon?'
'How can I but stumble,' replied the Steed, 'when under the boarding sits Ivan
Popyalof?'
Then said the Snake, 'Come forth, Ivanushka! Let us try our strength together.'
Ivan came forth, and they began to fight. And Ivan killed the Snake, and then
sat down again beneath the boarding.
Presently there came another Snake, a six-headed one, and him too Ivan killed.
And then there came a third, which had twelve heads. Well, Ivan began to fight
with him, and lopped off nine of his heads. The Snake had no strength left in
him. Just then a raven came flying by, and it croaked:
'Krof? Krof!'
Then the Snake cried to the Raven, 'Fly, and tell my wife to come and devour
Ivan Popyalof.'
But Ivan cried: 'Fly, and tell my brothers to come, and then we will kill this
Snake, and give his flesh to thee.'
And the Raven gave ear to what Ivan said, and flew to his brothers and began to
croak above their heads. The brothers awoke, and when they heard the cry of the
Raven, they hastened to their brother's aid. And they killed the Snake, and
then, having taken his heads, they went into his hut and destroyed them. And
immediately there was bright light throughout the whole land.
After killing the Snake, Ivan Popyalof and his brothers set off on their way
home. But he had forgotten to take away his gloves, so he went back to fetch
them, telling his brothers to wait for him meanwhile. Now when he had reached
the hut and was going to take away his gloves, he heard the voices of the
Snake's wife and daughters, who were talking with each other. So he
turned himself into a cat, and began to mew outside the door. They let him in,
and he listened to everything they said. Then he got his gloves and hastened
away.
As soon as he came to where his brothers were, he mounted his horse, and they
all started afresh. They rode and rode; presently they saw before them a green
meadow, and on that meadow lay silken cushions. Then the elder brothers said,
'Let's turn out our horses to graze here, while we rest ourselves a little.'
But Ivan said, 'Wait a minute, brothers!' and he seized his mace, and struck the
cushions with it. And out of those cushions there streamed blood.
So they all went on further. They rode and rode; presently there stood before
them an apple-tree, and upon it were gold and silver apples. Then the elder
brothers said, 'Let's eat an apple apiece.' But Ivan said, 'Wait a minute,
brothers; I'll try them first,' and he took his mace, and struck the apple-tree
with it. And out of the tree streamed blood.
So they went on further. They rode and rode, and by and by they saw a spring in
front of them. And the elder brothers cried, 'Let's have a drink of water.' But
Ivan Popyalof cried: 'Stop, brothers!' and he raised his mace and struck the
spring, and its waters became blood.
For the meadow, the silken cushions, the apple-tree, and the spring, were all of
them daughters of the Snake.
After killing the Snake's daughters, Ivan and his brothers went on homewards.
Presently came the Snake's Wife flying after them, and she opened her jaws from
the sky to the earth, and tried to swallow up Ivan. But Ivan and his brothers
threw three poods of salt into her mouth. She swallowed the salt, thinking it
was Ivan Popyalof, but afterwards when she had tasted the salt, and found out it
was not Ivan she flew after him again.
Then he perceived that danger was at hand, and so he let his horse go free, and
hid himself behind twelve doors in the forge of Kuzma and De'mian. The Snake's
Wife came flying up, and said to Kuzma and Demian, 'Give me up Ivan Popyalof.'
But they replied:
'Send your tongue through the twelve doors and take him.' So the Snake's Wife
began licking the doors. But meanwhile they all heated iron pincers, and as soon
as she had sent her tongue through into the smithy, they caught tight hold of
her by the tongue, and began thumping her with hammers. And when the Snake's
Wife was dead they consumed her with fire, and scattered her ashes to the winds.
And then they went home, and there they lived and enjoyed themselves, feasting
and revelling, and drinking mead and wine.']
[90] [Pliny, Natural History, bk. 34:8.]
[91] [Matt. 12:8. 'For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.']
[92] [Wilson, Works, vol. 3, p. 70. 'Another legend of Daridra, or Poverty, left by Uddalaka, a Muni, to whom she had been espoused under an Aswattha tree, explains why that tree is to be touched only on a Sunday, for on every other day Poverty or Misfortune abides in it: on Sunday it is the residence of Lakshmi. This concludes the Kartika Mahatmya with chapter one hundred and sixty-one.']
[93] [Sidonius Apollinaris, 1. 2.]
[94] [Lev. 23:32. 'It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath.']
[95] [On the Creation of World, pars.
30. See note 58 above.
Ibid., par. 31. 'And we must also pass on to the other species of the
number seven, which is contained m the number ten, and which displays an
admirable nature, and one not inferior to the previously mentioned species. The
number seven consists of one, and two and four, numbers which have two most
harmonious ratios, the twofold and the fourfold ratio; the former of which
affects the diapason harmony, while the fourfold ratio causes that of the double
diapason. It also comprehends other divisions, existing in some kind of
yoke-like combination. For it is divided first of all into the number one, and
the number six; then into the two and the five; and last of all, into the three
and the four. And the proportion of these numbers is a most musical one; for the
number six bears to the number one a sixfold ratio, and the sixfold ratio causes
the greatest possible difference between existing tones; the distance namely, by
which the sharpest tone is separated from the flattest, as we shall show when we
pass on from numbers to the discussion of harmony. Again, the ratio of four to
two displays the greatest power in harmony, almost equal to that of the
diapason, as is most evidently shown in the rules of that art. And the ratio of
four to three effects the first harmony, that in the thirds, which is the diatessaron.' Works, vol. 1, p. 28.
Yonge's tr.]
[96] [Monumental Christianity, fig. 192.]
[97] [Ibid., p. 419. 'But this is all Pagan, some one says, and is only an idle fancy, originating in Egypt, and handed down through modifications of the Greek and Roman literature and art. So it is; but early Christianity adopted it and spiritualized it ; for we find it on her monuments. Look at this Christian representation of it, found on the bottom of a tazza or drinking cup, used in the Agapae and the Eucharistic celebrations of the Divine Love to the soul of man.']
[98] [A New System, or, An
Analysis of Ancient Mythology. vol. 2, p.
385. 'The Egyptians thought this a very proper picture of the soul of man, and
of the immortality, to which it aspired. But they made it more particularly an
emblem of Osiris; who having been confined in an ark or coffin,, and in a
state of death, at last quitted his prison, and enjoyed a renewal of life. This
circumstance of the second birth is continually described under the character of
Psyche. And as the whole was owing to divine love, of which Eros was an emblem,
we find this person often introduced as a concomitant of Psyche. They are
generally described as accidentally meeting, and enjoying a pleasing interview
which is attended with embraces and salutes, and every mark of reconciliation,
and favour.
From this union of divine love, and the foul, the ancients dated the institution
of marriage. And as the renewal of mankind commenced from their issuing to light
from the Ark, and from the gracious promise of increase made by the Deity upon
that occasion; they thought proper to assign to Ionah, or Juno, that emblem of
Divine Providence, the office of presiding at this ceremony.' From Monumental
Christianity, p. 418.]
[99] [Yalkut Chodash, f. 115, c. 2; f. 20, c. 4.]
[100] [Ibid., f. 154, c. 1; f. 165, c. 3.]
[101] [Venus, p. 53. By Layard? Source.]
[102] [FR, Sept., 1881.]
[103] [CN, p. 188. 'A man must never "go a courting" on a Friday. If an unlucky fellow is caught with his lady-love on that day, he is followed home by a band of musicians playing on pokers, tongs, pan-lids, &c., unless he can rid himself of his tormentors by giving them money to drink with.' By J. Eastwood, from NQ, 3, 510.]
[104] [Morrison, A Dictionary of the Chinese Language, vol. 1, pt. 1, p. 579. 'There is in China, a popular idea of a successive creation in days, or periods, which they express thus, the creation of heaven and earth, on the first day fowls were produced; on the second, dogs; on the third, swine; on the fourth, sheep; on the fifth, cows; on the sixth, horses; on the seventh, man; and on the eighth, grain; hence people now consider the seventh day of the first month of the year man's day. And on that day; as well as the following, no Chinese will sweep the house; being desirous to avoid the allusion of sweeping man and his food to destruction.']
[105] [Mishna, treatise 'Kilaim,' ch. 2.]
[106] [Ibid., treatise 'Sabbath,' ch. 10.]
[107] [Ez. 46:4-6. 'And the
burnt offering that the prince shall offer unto the LORD in the sabbath day
shall be six lambs without blemish, and a ram without blemish.
And the meat offering shall be an ephah for a ram, and the meat offering for the
lambs as he shall be able to give, and an hin of oil to an ephah.
And in the day of the new moon it shall be a young bullock without blemish, and
six lambs, and a ram: they shall be without blemish.']
[108] [Num. 15:38-39. 'Speak
unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the
borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon
the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue:
And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember
all the commandments of the LORD, and do them; and that ye seek not after your
own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring.']
[109] [Pirke Avoth.]
[110] [Buxtorf,
Synagoga Ivdaica, ch. 9,
pp. 161-2.
Bartolocci,
Bibliotheca Magna
Rabbinica de scriptoribus, vol. 1, p. 577.]
[111] [Of Isis and Osiris, ch. 76.]
[112] [Ex. 8:19. 'Then the magicians said unto Pharaoh, This is the finger of God: and Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had said.']
[113] [Luke 11:20. 'But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you.']
[114] [Chaldean Magic, pp.
25-6. 'The only faint ray upon this subject comes from the following fact, that
speculations upon the value of numbers held a very important place in the
Chaldaic ideas of religious philosophy. In consequence of these speculations,
each god was designated by a whole number of the series between one and sixty,
corresponding to his rank in the celestial hierarchy ... Now it seems that in
connection with this scale of fractional numbers applied to the demons,
corresponding in the same way to their reciprocal ranks.
The Utuq, the Gigim, and the Maskim, were all three
designated in writing by a complex group of ideographic signs, in which only the
first element effects a distinction, the others remaining the same; this
variable element is always one of those signs which serve to note one of the
most important divisions of unity in the sexagesimal system of numerations of
fractions, one of the essential bases of Chaldean arithmetic. For the Utuq
it is 1/2 or 30/60, for the Gigim 2/3 or 40/60, and lastly, for the
Maskim 5/6 or 50/60.' And on p. 40, quoting from a magical text: '...
barrier immoveable, which is opposed to malevolence! Whether it be a wicked
Utuq, a wicked Alal, a wicked Gigim, a wicked god, a wicked
Maskim.']
[115] [Of Isis and Osiris, ch. 30.]
[116] [Shayast La-Shayast, ch. 2:118.]
[117] [Hieroglyphica, bk. 1. 7. 'When they would symbolise the Mundane God, or fate, or the number 5, they depict a STAR. And they use it to denote God, because the providence of God maintains the order by which the motion of the stars and the whole universe is subjected to his government, for it appears to them that without a god nothing whatsoever could endure. And they symbolise by it fate, because even this is regulated by the dispositions of the stars:—and also the number 5, because, though there are multitudes of stars in the heavens, five of them only by their motion perfect the natural order of the world.']
[119] [Ath., Sept., 1882.]
[120] [Hieroglyphica, bk. 1:10.
'To denote an only begotten, or generation, or a father, or the world, or
a man, they delineate a SCARABÆUS. And they symbolise by this an only
begotten, because the scarabæus is a creature self-produced, being
unconceived by a female; for the propagation of it is unique after this
manner:—when the male is desirous of procreating, he takes dung of an ox, and
shapes it into a spherical form like the world; he then rolls it from the hinder
parts from east to west, looking himself towards the east, that he may impart to
it the figure of the world, (for that is borne from east to west, while the
course of the stars is from west to east): then, having dug a hole, the
scarabæus deposits this ball in the earth for the space of twenty-eight days,
(for in so many days the moon passes through the twelve signs of the zodiac). By
thus remaining under the moon, the race of scarabæi is endued with life; and
upon the nine and twentieth day after having opened the ball, it casts it into
water, for it is aware that upon that day the conjunction of the moon and sun
takes place, as well as the generation of the world. From the ball thus opened
in the water, the animals, that is the scarabæi, issue forth. The scarabæus also
symbolizes generation, for the reason before mentioned—and a father,
because the scarabæus is engendered by a father only—and the world,
because in its generation it is fashioned in the form of the world—and a man,
because there is no female race among them. Moreover there are three species of
scarabæi, the first like a cat, and irradiated, which species they have
consecrated to the sun from this similarity: for they say that the male cat
changes the shape of the pupils of his eyes according to the course of the sun:
for in the morning at the rising of the god, they are dilated, and in the middle
of the day become round, and about sunset appear less brilliant: whence, also,
the statue of the god in the city of the sun is of the form of a cat. Every
scarabæus also has thirty toes, corresponding with the thirty days duration of
the month, during which the rising sun [moon?] performs his course. The second
species is the two horned and bull formed, which is consecrated to the moon;
whence the children of the Egyptians say, that the bull in the heavens is the
exaltation of this goddess. The third species is the one horned and Ibis
formed, which they regard as consecrated to Hermes [Thoth], in like manner as
the bird Ibis.'
Also Brugsch,
History of Egypt Under the Pharaohs, vol. 2, p. 155. 'The
days are set forth in this order, according to the Egyptian assumption that the
29th day is that on which the conjunction of the sun and moon takes place, and
on which the world was created. So far as the several feast-days have been
preserved, they give us a further insight into the festivals celebrated at
Thebes in the 13th century B.C.']
[121] [Sayce, 'Babylonian Saints Calendar,' RP, 7, 157. See p. 167.]
[122] [Hieroglyphica, bk. 1:66. 'To represent a month, they depict as before explained the figure of the MOON when it has attained the age of eight and twenty days of equal lengths, each day containing twenty-four hours, for during these it is apparent, and in the remaining two it is in a state of evanescence.']
[123] [Cowan,
Curious Facts in the History of Insects, p.
31. 'The second of the three species of beetles, described by Horapollo,
has, according to this writer, two horns, and the character of a bull; and it
was consecrated to the moon; whence the Egyptians say, that the bull in the
heavens is the elevation of this Goddess. This statement of beetle "with two
horns" (the Copris Isidis) consecrated to the moon, Wilkinson says is not
confirmed by the sculptures where it is never introduced.
It is said the Egyptians believed that the pellet of the Scarabaeus remained in
the ground for a period of twenty-eight days. May not this have some connection
with their choosing the insect as a symbol of the moon which divides the year
into months of twenty-eight days each; or, of the month itself (of which we
shall notice it was also a symbol) for the same reason? I have seen, too, a
Scarabaeus engraved upon a seal, the joints of whose tarsi numbered but
twenty-eight.']
[124] [Rit. chs. 17, 18, 20. Cf. Renouf's tr.]
[125] [Of Isis and Osiris, ch. 20.]
[126] [Solinus, Polyhistora,
bk. 34.
Augustine,
City of God, 15:2. 'Of the, opinion of those who do not believe that in
these primitive times man
lived so long as is stated.
For they are by no means to be listened to who suppose
that in those times years were differently reckoned, and were
so short that one of our years may be supposed to be equal
to ten of theirs. So that they say, when we read or hear that
some man lived 900 years, we should understand ninety,
ten of those years making but one of ours, and ten of ours
equalling 100 of theirs. Consequently, as they suppose,
Adam was twenty-three years of age when he begat Seth, and
Seth himself was twenty years and six months old when his
son Enos was born, though the Scripture calls these months
205 years. For, on the hypothesis of those whose opinion we
are explaining, it was customary to divide one such year as
we have into ten parts, and to call each part a year. And
each of these parts was composed of six days squared; because
God finished His works in six days, that He might rest the
seventh. Of this I disputed according to my ability in the
eleventh book. Now six squared, or six times six, gives
thirty-six days; and this multiplied by ten amounts to 360
days, or twelve lunar months. As for the five remaining days
which are needed to complete the solar year, and for the
fourth part of a day, which requires that into every fourth or
leap-year a day be added, the ancients added such days as the Romans used to cal "intercalary," in order to complete the
number of the years. So that Enos, Seth's son, was nineteen
years old when his son Cainan was born, though Scripture
calls these years 190. And so through all the generations in
which the ages of the antediluvians are given, we find in our
versions that almost no one begat a son at the age of 100 or under, or even at the age of 120 or thereabouts; but the
youngest fathers are recorded to have been 160 years old and
upwards. And the reason of this, they say, is that no one
can beget children when he is ten years old, the age spoken
of by those men as 100, but that sixteen is the age of puberty,
and competent now to propagate offspring; and this is the a^e
called by them 160. And that it may not be thought in
credible that in these days the year was differently computed
from our own, they adduce what is recorded by several writers
of history, that the Egyptians had a year of four months, the
Acarnanians of six, and the Lavinians of thirteen months.
The younger Pliny, after mentioning that some writers re
ported that one man had lived 152 years, another ten more,
others 200, others 300, that some had even reached 500 and
600, and a few 800 years of age, gave it as his opinion that
all this must be ascribed to mistaken computation. For some,
he says, make summer and winter each a year; others make
each season a year, like the Arcadians, whose years, he says,
were of three months. He added, too, that the Egyptians, of
whose little years of four months we have spoken already,
sometimes terminated their year at the wane of each moon;
so that with them there are produced lifetimes of 1000
years.
By these plausible arguments certain persons, with no desire to weaken the credit of this sacred history, but rather to
facilitate belief in it by removing the difficulty of such in
credible longevity, have been themselves persuaded, and think
they act wisely in persuading others, that in these days the
year was so brief that ten of their years equal but one of ours,
while ten of ours equal 100 of theirs. But there is the
plainest evidence to show that this is quite false. Before
producing this evidence, however, it seems right to mention
a conjecture which is yet more plausible. From the Hebrew
manuscripts we could at once refute this confident statement;
for in them Adam is found to have lived not 230 but 130
years before he begat his third son. If, then, this mean
thirteen years by our ordinary computation, then he must
have begotten his first son when he was only twelve or thereabouts. Who can at this age beget children according to the
ordinary and familiar course of nature? But not to mention
him, since it is possible he may have been able to beget his
like as soon as he was created, for it is not credible that he was
created so little as our infants are, not to mention him, his
son was not 205 years old when he begat Enos, as our versions have it, but 105, and consequently, according to this
idea, was not eleven years old. But what shall I say of his
son Cainan, who, though by our version 170 years old, was by
the Hebrew text seventy when he beget Mahalaleel? If
seventy years in those times meant only seven of our years
what man of seven years old begets children?' Works, vol. 2, pp. 68-70.]
[127] [Schoolcraft,
Archives of Aboriginal Knowledge,
vol. 2, p. 177. '"How many moons or months compose the Indian year,
&c.?"
The Dacotas count time by seasons spring, summer, autumn, and winter, which is
counted one year. Twenty-eight days or nights are counted one moon. They can
tell, pretty well, about what time the new moon will appear.']
[128] [Sproat, Scenes and Studies of Savage Life, p. 123. 'The natives divide the year into thirteen months, or rather moons, and begin with the one that pretty well answers to our November. At the same time, as their names are applied to each actual new moon as it appears, they are not, by half a month and more (sometimes), identical with our calendar months.']
[129] [Gill, Myths and Songs from the South Pacific, p. 317. 'The knowledge of the calendar belonged to the kings, as they alone fixed the feasts in honour of the gods, and all public spectacles. For others to dare to keep the calendar was a sin against the gods, to be punished with hydrocele.']
[130] [Prescott, History of the Conquest of Mexico, ch. 4, bk. I. p. 38. 'This second calendar rouses a holy indignation in the early Spanish missionaries, and Father Sahagun loudly condemns it, as "most unhallowed, since it is founded neither on natural reason, nor on the influence of the planets, nor on the true course of the year; but is plainly the work of necromancy, and the fruit of a compact with the Devil!"—Historia de Nueva-España, lib. 4, intro.' Quoted in vol. 1, p. 122, New York, 1871, ed.]
[131] [Bancroft, The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America, vol. 2, p. 516. 'The Mexican calendar contains the following divisions of time: The 'age' consisting of two periods of fifty-two cycles each, was called huehuetilitzli; the 'cycle' consists of four periods of thirteen years each, was named xiuhmolpilli, xiuhmolpia, or xiuhtlalpilli, meaning the 'binding up of the years.' Each period of thirteen years ... was known as a tlalpilli or 'knot,' and, as stated above, each single year was named xihuitl, or 'new grass.' See illustration (from p. 518).]
[132] [In the above?]
[133] [Kidd, China, or Illustrations of the Symbols, etc., p. 101. 'The first (heaven's) dynasty embraced a period of eighteen thousand years, during which thirteen brothers reigned, who were wholly abstracted, inactive, and engaged in constant self-renovation. Certain astronomical characters, denominated 'celestial stems,' and now used in chronological computation, were, it is said, invented at this sera to determine the length of the year.']
[134] ['On the Vedas or Sacred Writings of the Hindus,' ARSB, 8, 470.]
[135] [Book of Enoch, ch. 81.]
[136] ['Mr Biot's error lies in his misapprehension, in two important respects, of the character of the Hindu asterisms; in the first place he treats them as if they were, like the sieu, single stars, the intervals between whose circles of declination constituted the accepted divisions of the zodiac; and in the second place, he assumes them to have been established for the purpose of marking the moon's daily progress from point to point along the ecliptic.' From Burgess, Surya-Siddhanta, p. 238.]
[137] [Die Natali Liber,
ch. 20. 'Sed ut hos annos omittam caligine iam profundae vetustatis
obductos, in his quoque, qui sunt recentioris memoriae et ad cursum lunae vel
solis instituti, quanta sit varietas, facile est cognoscere, si quis vel in
unius Italiae gentibus, ne dicam peregrinis, velit inquirere. Nam ut alium
Ferentini alium Lavinii itemque Albani vel Romani habuerunt annum, ita et aliae
gentes. Omnibus tamen fuit propositum suos civiles annos varie intercalandis
mensibus ad unum illum verum naturalemque corrigere. De quibus omnibus
disserere quoniam longum est, ad Romanorum annum transibimus.
Annum vertentem Romae Licinius quidem Macer et postea Fenestella statim ab
initio duodecim mensum fuisse scripserunt; sed magis Junio Gracchano et Fulvio
et Varroni sed et Suetonio aliisque credendum, qui decem mensum putarunt fuisse,
ut tunc Albanis erat, unde orti Romani. Hic decem menses dies CCCIIII hoc modo
habebant: Martius XXXI, Aprilis XXX, Maius XXXI, Junius XXX, Quintilis XXXI,
Sextilis et September tricenos, October XXXI, November et December XXX; quorum
quattuor maiores pleni, ceteri sex cavi vocabantur. Postea sive a Numa, ut ait
Fulvius, sive, ut Junius, a Tarquinio XII facti sunt menses et dies CCCLV,
quamvis luna XII suis mensibus CCCLIIII dies videbatur explere. Sed ut dies unus
abundaret, aut per inprudentiam accidit, aut, quod magis credo, ea superstitione,
qua inpar numerus plenus et magis faustus habebatur. Certe ad annum priorem
unus et quinquaginta dies accesserunt; qui quia menses duo non explerent, sex
illis cavis mensibus dies sunt singuli detracti et ad eos additi, factique
dies LVII, et ex his duo menses: Januarius undetriginta dierum, Februarius
duodetriginta. Adque ita omnes menses pleni et inpari dierum numero esse
coeperunt, excepto Februario, qui solus cavus et ob hoc ceteris infaustior est
habitus. Denique cum intercalarium mensem viginti duum vel viginti trium dierum
alternis annis addi placuisset, ut civilis annus ad naturalem exaequaretur, in
mense potissimum Februario inter Terminalia et Regifugium intercalatum est,
idque diu factum, prius quam sentiretur annos civiles aliquanto naturalibus esse
maiores. Quod delictum ut corrigeretur, pontificibus datum negotium eorumque
arbitrio intercalandi ratio permissa. Sed horum plerique ob odium vel gratiam,
quo quis magistratu citius abiret diutiusve fungeretur aut publici redemtor ex
anni magnitudine in lucro damnove esset, plus minusve ex libidine intercalando
rem sibi ad corrigendum mandatam ultro quod depravarunt, adeo aberratum est, ut
C. Caesar pontifex maximus suo III et M. Aemilii Lepidi consulatu, quo retro
delictum corrigeret, duos menses intercalarios dierum LXVII in mensem Novembrem
et Decembrem interponeret, cum iam mense Februario dies III et XX intercalasset,
faceretque eum annum dierum CCCCXLV, simul providens in futurum, ne iterum
erraretur: nam intercalario mense sublato annum civilem ad solis cursum formavit.
Itaque diebus CCCLV addidit decem, quos per septem menses, qui dies
undetricenos habebant, ita discriberet, ut Januario et Sextili et Decembri bini
accederent, ceteris singuli; eosque dies extremis partibus mensium adposuit, ne
scilicet religiones sui cuiusque mensis a loco summoverentur. Quapropter nunc
cum in septem mensibus dies singuli et triceni sint, quattuor tamen illi ita
primitus instituti eo dinoscuntur, quod nonas habent septimanas, ceteri tres
omnes alii reliqui quintanas. Praeterea pro quadrante diei, qui annum verum
suppleturus videbatur, instituit, ut peracto quadrienni circuitu dies unus, ubi
mensis quondam solebat, post Terminalia intercalaretur, quod nunc bis sextum
vocatur. Ex hoc anno ita a Julio Caesare ordinato ceteri ad nostram memoriam
Juliani appellantur, eique consurgunt ex quarto Caesaris consulatu. Qui etiam si
optimo modulo, non soli tamen ad annum naturae aptati sunt: nam et priores anni, etiam si qui decemmenstres fuerunt, nec Romae modo vel per Italiam, sed
et aput gentes omnes, quantum poterat, idem fuerunt correcti. Itaque cum de aliquo annorum numero hic dicetur, non alios par erit, quam naturales, accipere.']
[138] [Hieroglyphica, bk. 1:14. See note 23 above.]
[139] [Sur les fonctions du cerveau et sur celles de chacune de ses parties, vol. 4, p. 355.]
[140] [Mishna, treatise 'Youma Yom Hakipourim.']
[141] [Ralston, Russian Folktales, p. 66, note. 'In one story (Khudyakof, No. 117) there are snakes with twenty-eight and twenty-nine heads, but this is unusual.']
[142] [Sharpe, Alabaster Sarcophagus of Oimenepthah, pl. 7.]
[143] [CN, p. 240. 'In East Norfolk some old women are still found who believe that if a less number of primrosen than thirteen be brought into a house on the first occasion of bringing any in, so many eggs only will each hen or goose hatch thirteen season. When recently admitted into deacon orders, my gravity was sorely tried by being called on to settle a quarrel between two old women, arising from one of them having given one primrose to her neighbour's child, for the purpose of making her hens hatch but one chicken out of each set of eggs. And it was seriously maintained that the charm had been successful.' From NQ, 7, 201.]
[144] [A Discourse on the Worship of Priapus, and its Connection with the Mystic Theology of the Ancients. (A New Edition): To Which is Added an Essay on the Worship of the Generative Powers During the Middle Ages of Western Europe, p. 29, pl. 9, fig. 2.]
[145] ['Waldron, in his Description of the Isle of Man, Works, 1731, p. 104, speaking of a crypt, or souterrain chapel, near Peel Castle, says: "Within it are thirteen pillars, on which the whole chapel is supported. They have a superstition that whatsoever stranger goes to see this cavern out of curiosity, and omits to count the pillars, shall do something to occasion being confined there."' From Brand, Observations on Popular Antiquities, vol. 3, p. 265.]
[146] [Brand, Observations on Popular Antiquities, vol. 2, p. 55. 'Cock-Crowing.' 'The day, civil and political, has been divided into thirteen parts. 1. After midnight. 2. Cock-crow. 3. The space between the first cock-crow and break of day. 4. The dawn of the morning. 5. Morning. 6. Noon. 7. Afternoon. 8. Sunset. 9. Twilight. 10. Evening. 11. Candle-time. 12. Bed-time. 13. The dead of the night. The Church of Rome made four nocturnal vigils: the conticinium, gallicinium or cock-crow, intempestum, and antelucinum. Durand. de Nocturnis. There is a curious discourse on the ancient divisions of the night and the day in Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, i. 223 et seq.']
[147] [Tod, Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, vol. 2, p. 80. 'There is an anecdote regarding the fountain of this classic field of strife, the Troad of Rajasthan, which well exemplifies the superstitious belief of the warhke Rajput. The emperor Bahadur Shah was desirous to visit this scene of the exploits of the heroes of antiquity, stimulated, no doubt, by his Rajputni queen, or his mother, also of this race. He was seated under a tree which shaded the sacred fount, named after the great leader of the Kauravas, his queen by his side, surrounded by kanats to hide them from profane eyes, when a vulture perched upon the tree with a bone in its beak, which falling in the fountain, the bird set up a scream of laughter. The king looked up in astonishment, which was greatly increased when the vulture addressed him in human accents, saying "that in a former birth she was a Jogini, and was in the field of slaughter of the Great War, whence she flew away with the dissevered arm of one of its mighty warriors, with which she alighted on that very tree, that the arm was encumbered with a ponderous golden bracelet, in which, as an amulet, were set thirteen brilliant symbols of Siva, and that after devouring the flesh, she dropped the bracelet, which fell into the fountain, and it was this awakened coincidence which had caused the scream of laughter." We must suppose that this, the palace of the field of slaughter, spoke Sanskrit or its dialect, interpreted by his Rajput queen. Instantly the pioneers were commanded to clear the fountain, and behold the relic of the Mahabharata, with the symbolic emblems of the god all-perfect! and so large were they, that the emperor remarked they would answer excellently well for "slaves of the carpet."' Or vol. 2, p. 1016, 1920 ed.]
[148] [Knight, A Discourse on the Worship of Priapus, and its Connection with the Mystic Theology of the Ancients. (A New Edition): To Which is Added an Essay on the Worship of the Generative Powers During the Middle Ages of Western Europe, pl. 10, 5.]
[150] [Of Isis and Osiris, ch 12. 'The story is thus told after the most concise manner, the most useless and unnecessary parts being cut off. They tell us how that once on a time, Rhea having accompanied with Saturn by stealth, the Sun found them out, and pronounced a solemn curse against her, containing that she should not be delivered in any month or year; but that Hermes, afterwards making his court to the goddess, obtained her favour, in requital of which he went and played at dice with the Moon, and won of her the seventieth part from each day, and out of all these made five new days, which he added to the three hundred and sixty other days of the year; and these the Egyptians therefore to this day call the Epagomenae (or the superadded days), and they observe them as the birthdays of their Gods.']
[151] [As above note. See ch. 12.]
[152] [Chorus of Clouds. 'As we were preparing to come here, we were hailed by the Moon and were charged to wish joy and happiness both to the Athenians and to their allies; further, she said that she was enraged and that you treated her very shamefully, her, who does not pay you in words alone, but who renders you all real benefits. Firstly, thanks to her, you save at least a drachma each month for lights, for each, as he is leaving home at night, says, "Slave, buy no torches, for the moonlight is beautiful," not to name a thousand other benefits. Nevertheless you do not reckon the days correctly and your calendar is naught but confusion. Consequently the gods load her with threats each time they get home and are disappointed of their meal, because the festival has not been kept in the regular order of time. When you should be sacrificing, you are putting to the torture or administering justice. And often, we others, the gods, are fasting in token of mourning for the death of Memnon or Sarpedon, while you are devoting yourselves to joyous libations. It is for this, that last year, when the lot would have invested Hyperbolus with the duty of Amphictyon, we took his crown from him, to teach him that time must be divided according to the phases of the moon.' Tr. unknown.]
[153] [Einleitung zur Chronologie der Ægypter, pp. 91-2.]
[154] [Rit. ch. 80. 'I have made
the Eye of Horus when it was not coming on the festival of the 15th day. I am
the Woman, an orb of light in the darkness. I have brought my orb to darkness;
it is changed into light.
I have united Sut in the upper houses, through the old man with him. I am the
Woman, the orb in the darkness. I have brought my orb to the darkness; it is
changed into light.' Birch's tr. Cf.
Renouf's tr.]
[155] [Lepsius, Aelteste Texte des Todenbuchs, p. 112.]
[156] [Brown,
The Unicorn: A Mythological Investigation, p.
20. 'The well-known bas-relief at Persepolis called 'lion devouring a
Bull,' is in reality 'lion attacking a Unicorn.' The latter animal, semi-rampant
and regardant, and with only one large horn, is seized behind by the lion. On
this group Professor Rawlinson remarks;
"This is a representation of a lion seizing and devouring a bull; the latter
animal is evidently powerless to offer any resistance to the fierce beast which
has sprung upon him from behind, In his agony the bull rears up his fore-parts,
and turns his head feebly towards his assailant This favourite group, which the
Persian sculptors repeated without the slightest change from generation to
generation.' The design was favourite because highly archaic and symbolical. No
man has ever seen a lion attack a unicorn, but the contest between sun and moon,
between day and night, was watched from the first with the closest interest."']
[157] [Rit. ch. 42. Cf. Renouf's tr.]
[158] [Hieroglyphica, bk. 1:39. 'And again when they would denote a sacred scribe, or a prophet, or an embalmer, or the spleen, or smelling, or laughter, or sneezing, [or government, or a judge,] they depict a DOG. And by this they denote a sacred scribe, because it is necessary for one who is desirous of becoming a perfect sacred scribe to be extremely careful, and to bark perpetually, and to be fierce, fawning upon no one, like dogs. And they symbolise by it a prophet, because the dog gazes intently upon the images of the gods more than all other animals, as does a prophet. And an embalmer of the sacred animals, because he also surveys the naked and dissected forms which are preserved by him. And the spleen, because this animal alone of all other creatures has this organ very light: and whether death or madness seizes him it arises from his spleen. And those who attend this animal in his exequies, when about themselves to die, generally become splenetic; for smelling the exhalations from the dog, when dissecting him, they are affected by them. And it denotes smelling, and laughter, and sneezing, because the thoroughly splenetic are neither able to smell, nor laugh, nor sneeze.']
[159] [Gen. 4:26. 'And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the LORD.']
[160] [Bartolocci, Bibliotheca Magna Rabbinica de scriptoribus, vol. 1, pp. 229-67.]
[161] [Moures, Old Egyptian Calendar of Astronomical Observations, pp. 58-9.]
[162] [Mommsen, The History of Rome, vol. 1, pp. 219-21. 'And, as the Roman calendar was independent as respected the names of the months which were probably transferred from the old national ones, it was also independent as regarded their duration: instead of the four years of the Greek cycle, each composed of six months of 80 and six of 29 days and an intercalary month inserted every year alternately of 29 and 30 days, the Roman calendar substituted four each containing four months—the first, third, fifth, and eighth—of days and seven of 29 days, with a February during three years and of 21 in the fourth, and an intercalary month of 27 days inserted every second (3554-383+355+382=1475 days). In like manner this calendar deviated from the original distribution of the month into four weeks, sometimes of 7, sometimes of 8 days; instead of this it permanently fixed the first quarter in the months of 31 days on the seventh, in those of 29 on the fifth day, and the full moon in the former on the fifteenth, in the latter on the thirteenth day; so that the second and fourth weeks in the month consisted of 8 days, the third ordinarily of 9 (only in the case of the February of 28 days it consisted of 8, and in the intercalary month of 27 days, of 7), the first of 6 where the month consisted of 31, and in other cases of 4 days. As the course of the three last weeks of the month was thus essentially similar, it was henceforth necessary only to proclaim the length of the first week in each month. Thence the first day of the first week received the name of "proclamation-day" (kalendae). The first days of the second and fourth weeks, which were uniformly of 8 days, were (in conformity with the Roman custom of reckon inclusively of the extremes) designated as "nine-days" (nonce, noundinoe), while the first days of the third week retained the old name of idus (perhaps "dividing-day"). The chief motive lying at the bottom of this strange remodelling of the calendar seems to have been a belief in the salutary virtue of odd numbers; and while in general it is based on the oldest form of the Greek year, its variations from that form distinctly exhibit the influence of the doctrines of Pythagoras, which were then paramount in Lower Italy, and which especially turned upon a mystic view of numbers. But the consequence was that this Roman calendar, clearly as it bears traces of the desire that it should harmonize with the course both of sun and moon, did in reality by no means correspond with the lunar periods, as its Greek model did at least on the whole, while, like the oldest Greek cycle, it could only follow the solar seasons by means of frequent arbitrary excisions, and did in all probability follow them but very imperfectly, for it is scarcely likely that the calendar would be handled with greater skill than was manifested in its original arrangement. The retention moreover of the reckoning by months or (which is the same thing) by years of ten months, implies a tacit, but not to be misunderstood, confession of the irregularity and untrustworthiness of the oldest Roman solar year. This Roman calendar may be looked upon, at least in its essential features, as that generally current among the Latins. Prom the general liability to change as to the time of beginning the year and the names of the months, smaller variations in the successional numbers and designations are quite compatible with the hypothesis of a common basis; and with such a calendar-system, which practically was quite irrespective of the lunar course, the Latins might easily come to have months of arbitrary lengths whose limits were possibly marked by annual festivals—as in the case of the Alban months, which varied between 16 and 36 days.']
[163] [Posterity of Cain, par. 50.
'But when Moses says here that Seth sprung up as another or different seed, he
does not say from which it was different; was it different from Abel who was
treacherously slain, or from Cain who slew him? But may we not say perhaps that
the original seed from which each of these sprung was different? That from which
Cain sprung, inasmuch as it was hostile; for a thirst for virtue is the most
hostile thing possible to that deserter, wickedness; that from which Abel
sprang, as friendly and kindred; for that which is beginning to exist is a
different thing from, but not a contrary thing to, that which is perfected; and
so that which pertains to creation is different from that which pertains to the
uncreate.
On this account Abel, after having quitted the mortal body, departed to the
better nature, and took up his abode with that. But Seth, as being the seed of
human virtue, will never quit the face of mankind. But first of all he will
receive his growth up to the number ten, that perfect number, according to which
the just Noah exists; and then he will receive a second and a better growth from
his son Shem, ending in a second ten, from which the faithful Abraham is named.
And he will also have a third growth, and one more perfect than the number ten,
extending from him to Moses, that man who is wise in all things, for he is the
seventh from Abraham, not revolving, like an initiated worshipper, in the circle
which is exterior to holy things, but like a hierophant, making his abode in the
inmost shrines.' Works, vol. 1, p. 326, Yonge's tr.]
[165] ['SIR THOMAS BROWNE
tells us, "that fluctus decumanus, or the tenth wave, is greater or more
dangerous than any other, some no doubt will be offended if we deny; and hereby
we shall seem to contradict antiquity: for, answerable unto the literal and
common acceptation, the same is averred by many writers, and plainly described
by Ovid:
'Qui venit hie fiuctus, fluctus supereminet omnes
Posterior nono est, undecimoque prior.'
Which, notwithstanding, is evidently false; nor can it be made out by
observation either upon the shore or the ocean, as we have with diligence
explored in both. And surely in vain we expect a regularity in the waves of the
sea, or in the particular motions thereof, as we may in its general
reciprocations, whose causes are constant and effects therefore correspondent.
Whereas its fluctuations are but motions subservient, which winds, storms,
shores, shelves, and every interjacency irregulates. Of affinity hereto is that
conceit of ovum decumanum, so called because the tenth egg is bigger than any
other, according to the reason alledged by Festus, 'decumana ova dicuntur,
quiaovum decimum majus nascitur.' For the honour we bear unto the clergy, we
cannot but wish this true; but herein will be found no more verity than the
other." He adds, "the conceit is numeral."' From Brand,
Observations on Popular Antiquities,
vol. 3, p. 373.]
[166] [Mishna, treatise 'Kilaim,' ch. 2.]
[167] [Brand,
Observations on Popular Antiquities, vol. 1, p. 470. 'Yule
log.' 'The following is from Christmas, a Poem, by Romaine Joseph
Thorn, 1795:
"Thy welcome Eve, lov'd Christmas, now arrived,
The parish bells their tunefull peals resound,
And mirth and gladness every breast pervade.
The pondrous ashen faggot, from the yard,
The jolly farmer to his crowded hall
Conveys, with speed; where, on the rising flame
(Already fed with store of massy brands)
It blazes soon; nine bandages it bears,
And as they each disjoin (so custom wills),
A mighty jug of sparkling cyder's brought,
With brandy mixt, to elevate the guests."']
[168] [Rawlinson, Histories of Herodotus, notes to bk. 2:13. 'This would make the date of Mæris about 1355 B.C.; but it neither agrees with the age of Amun-m-he III of the Labyrinth, nor of Thothmes III. The Mæris, however, from whom these dates are calculated, appears to have been Menophres, whose era was so remarkable, and was fixed as the Sothic period, B.C. 1322, which happened about 900 years before Herodotus' visit, only falling short of that sum by 33 years. It is reasonable to suppose that by Mæris he would refer to that king who was so remarkable for his attention to the levels of the Nile, shown by his making the lake called after him.']
[169] [Ibid., bk. 2:142. 'Thus far I have spoken on
the authority of the Egyptians and their priests. They declare that from their
first king to this last-mentioned monarch, the priest of Vulcan, was a period of
three hundred and forty-one generations; such, at least, they say, was the
number both of their kings, and of their high-priests, during this interval. Now
three hundred generations of men make ten thousand years, three generations
filling up the century; and the remaining forty-one generations make thirteen
hundred and forty years. Thus the whole number of years is eleven thousand,
three hundred and forty; in which entire space, they said, no god had ever
appeared in a human form; nothing of this kind had happened either under the
former or under the later Egyptian kings. The sun, however, had within this
period of time, on four several occasions, moved from his wonted course, twice
rising where he now sets, and twice setting where he now rises. Egypt was in no
degree affected by these changes; the productions of the land, and of the river,
remained the same; nor was there anything unusual either in the diseases or the
deaths.' Tr., Rawlinson.
'So far in the story the Egyptians and the priests were they who made the
report, declaring that from the first king down to this priest of Hephaistos who
reigned last, there had been three hundred and forty-one generations of men, and
that in them there had been the same number of chief-priests and of kings: but
three hundred generations of men are equal to ten thousand years, for a hundred
years is three generations of men; and in the one-and-forty generations which
remain, those I mean which were added to the three hundred, there are one
thousand three hundred and forty years. Thus in the period of eleven thousand
three hundred and forty years they said that there had arisen no god in human
form; nor even before that time or afterwards among the remaining kings who
arose in Egypt, did they report that anything of that kind had come to pass. In
this time they said that the sun had moved four times from his accustomed place
of rising, and where he now sets he had thence twice had his rising, and in the
place from whence he now rises he had twice had his setting; and in the meantime
nothing in Egypt had been changed from its usual state, neither that which comes
from the earth nor that which comes to them from the river nor that which
concerns diseases or deaths.' Tr., Macauley.]
[170] [Simplicius.]
[171] [Eudoxus.]
[172] [Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, intro, 2. 'From his age to that of Alexander, king of the Macedonians were forty-eight thousand eight hundred and sixty-three years, and during this time there were three hundred and seventy-three eclipses of the sun, and eight hundred and thirty-two eclipses of the moon.' Yonge's tr., p. 5.]
[173] [The Historical Library, p. 83,
bk. 1:81. 'And
as for arithmetic, as it is useful upon other occasions, so it is very helpful
to the study of geometry, and no small advantage to the students of astrology;
for the Egyptians, (as well as some others), are diligent observers of the
course and motions of the stars; and preserve remarks of every one of them for
an incredible number of years, being used to this study, and to endeavour to out
vie one another therein, from the most ancient times. They have with great cost
and care, observed the motions of the planets; their periodical motions, and
their stated stops; and the influences of everyone of them, in the nativity of
living creatures, and what good or ill they foreshow; and very often they so
clearly discover what is to come in the course of men's lives as if they pointed
at the thing with the point of a needle.' See full text
here.
]
[174] [Cited in Lewis, A Historical Survey of the Astronomy of the Ancients, p. 264.]
[175] [Source.]
[176] [Eisenmendger, Entdecktes Judenthum, vol. 1, p. 51.]
[177] [Histories, bk. 2:145. 'The Greeks regard Hercules,
Bacchus, and Pan as the youngest of the gods. With the Egyptians, contrariwise,
Pan is exceedingly ancient, and belongs to those whom they call "the eight
gods," who existed before the rest. Hercules is one of the gods of the second
order, who are known as "the twelve;" and Bacchus belongs to the gods of the
third order, whom the twelve produced. I have already mentioned how many years
intervened according to the Egyptians between the birth of Hercules and the
reign of Amasis. From Pan to this period they count a still longer time; and
even from Bacchus, who is the youngest of the three, they reckon fifteen
thousand years to the reign of that king. In these matters they say they cannot
be mistaken, as they have always kept count of the years, and noted them in
their registers. But from the present day to the time of Bacchus, the reputed
son of Semelé, daughter of Cadmus, is a period of not more than sixteen hundred
years; to that of Hercules, son of Alcmêna, is about nine hundred; while to the
time of Pan, son of Penelopé (Pan, according to the Greeks, was her child by
Mercury), is a shorter space than to the Trojan war, eight hundred years or
thereabouts.' Tr., Rawlinson.
'Among the Hellenes Heracles and Dionysos and Pan are accounted the
latest-born of the gods; but with the Egyptians Pan is a very ancient god, and
he is one of those which are called the eight gods, while Heracles is of the
second rank, who are called the twelve gods, and Dionysos is of the third rank,
namely of those who were born of the twelve gods. Now as to Heracles I have
shown already how many years old he is according to the Egyptians themselves,
reckoning down to the reign of Amasis, and Pan is said to have existed for yet
more years than these, and Dionysos for the smallest number of years as compared
with the others; and even for this last they reckon down to the reign of Amasis
fifteen thousand years. This the Egyptians say that they know for a certainty,
since they always kept a reckoning and wrote down the years as they came. Now
the Dionysos who is said to have been born of Semele the daughter of Cadmos, was
born about sixteen hundred years before my time, and Heracles who was the son of
Alcmene, about nine hundred years, and that Pan who was born of Penelope, for of
her and of Hermes Pan is said by the Hellenes to have been born, came into being
later than the wars of Troy, about eight hundred years before my time.'
Tr., Macauley.]
[179] ['Life of Sulla,' in Lives, vol. 3, p. 240. 'The consulship was now but of small consideration with him, in comparison with what he had in view. His heart was fixed upon obtaining the management of the Mithridatic war. In this respect he had a rival in Marius, who was goaded by an unseasonable ambition and madness for fame, passions which never wax old. Though now unwieldy in his person, and obliged on account of his age to give up his share in commands near home, he coveted the direction of foreign wars and expeditions. This man watching his opportunity in Rome, when Sylla was gone to the camp to settle some unfinished concerns, framed that fatal sedition, which hurt her more essentially than all the wars she had ever encountered. Heaven sent prodigies to prefigure it. Fire blazed out of it's own accord from the ensign-staves, and was with difficulty extinguished. Three ravens brought their young into the city, and devoured them there, and then carried their remains back to their nests. Some rats having gnawed the consecrated gold in a certain temple, the sacristans caught one of them in a trap, where she bore five young ones, and eat three of them. And (what was most remarkable) one day when the sky was serene and clear, there was heard in it the sound of a trumpet, so shrill and mournful, that it frightened and astonished the whole city. The Tuscan sages said, it portended a new race of men and a renovation of the world. For they observed, that there were eight several kinds of men, all differing in life and manners; that heaven had allotted to each it's time, which was limited by the circuit of the great year and that, when one race came to a period and another was rising, it was announced by some wonderful sign from either earth or heaven. So that it was evident at one view to those who attended to these things and were versed in them, that a different sort of men were come into the world, with other manners and customs, and more or less the care of the gods than those who had preceded them.' Langhorne's tr.]
[180] [I have already discussed the erroneous belief that Hipparchus was the discoverer of precession in my essay.]
[181] [Weil, The Bible, The Koran, and The Talmud: or, Biblical Legends of Mussulmans, p. 7. Massey errs here as this page no. is wrong, and the legend does not begin till p. 19. However, I will give here the Mohammedan legend as it appears in full.]
[182] [Mishna, treatise 'Chagiga,' 2, p.
13.
Bartolocci,
Bibliotheca Magna
Rabbinica de scriptoribus, vol. 1, p. 256.]
[183] [Source.]
[184] [Book of Enoch, ch. 58:1-2.]
[185] [Ibid., ch. 64:1-4; 66:1.]
[186] [Proclus, Commentary on the Timaeus, bk. 1. 'For extending to the Egyptian priests the most ancient transactions of the Greeks, he in a certain respect leads them to the narration of their antiquities, of which the Egyptians participate in a remarkable degree, as they survey without impediment the celestial bodies, through the purity of the air, and preserve ancient memorials, in consequence of not being destroyed either by water or fire. But the Assyrians, says Iamblichus, have not only preserved the memorials of seven and twenty myriads of years, as Hipparchus says they have, but likewise of the apocatastases and periods of the seven rulers of the world.' Taylor's tr., the Thomas Taylor Series, vol. 15, p. 99.]
[187] [Burgess,
Surya-Siddhanta, p.11. 'Manu, a word identical in origin and meaning with
our "man," became to the Hindus the name of a being personified as son of the
Sun (Vivasvani) and progenitor of the human race. In each Patriarchate there
arises a new Manu, who became for his own period the progenitor of mankind (see
Wilson, Vishnu Purana, p. 24.).'
Ibid., p. 11, ch. 1:18. 'One and seventy Ages are styled here a
Patriarchate (manvantara); at its end is said to be a twilight which has
the number of years of a Golden Age, and which is a deluge.']
[189] ['On the Indian and Arabian
Divisions of the Zodiac,' in Miscellaneous Essays, vol. 3, p. 316. 'Muniswara,
in his commentary on the Siromani, cites some of the passages above
noticed, and remarks, that Bhaskara has omitted this topic on account of
contradictory opinions concerning it, and because it is of no great use.
The same author, in his own compilation entitled
Siddhanta-survabhauma, has entered more fully into this subject. He
observes, that the seven Rishis are not, like other stars, attached by spikes to
the solid ring of the ecliptic, bat revolve in small circles round the northern
pole of the ecliptic, moving by their own power in the ethereal sphere above
Saturn, but below the sphere of the stars. He places the Rishis in the same
relative positions, which Sakalya had assigned to them; states in other terms
the same distances from the ecliptic, and the same annual motion; and directs
their place to be computed by deducting 600 from the years of the Kali age,
doubling the remainder and dividing by fifteen: the quotient, in degrees, is
divided by 80, to reduce it into signs.']
[190] [Ibid., vol. 3, p. 316. 'Kamalkara, in the Tattwaviveka, notices the opinion delivered in the Siddhanta-sarvabhauma; but observes, that no such motion of the stars is perceptible. Remarking, however, that the authority of the puranas and Sanhitas, which affirm their revolution, is incontrovertible, he reconciles faith and experience by saying, that the stars themselves are fixed; but the seven Rishis are invisible deities, who perform the stated revolution in the period specified.']
[191] [Ibid., vol. 3, p. 318. 'This pretended revolution of the stars of Ursa Major is connected with two remarkable epochas in Indian chronology; the commencement of the Kali yuga or sinful age, in the reign of Yudhishthira; and its prevalence, on the failure of the succession of Kshatriya princes, and establishment of a different dynasty, 1015 years after the birth of Parikshit, according to the Vishnu-purana; or 1115 years, according to the Bhagavata; but 1498 years, if a correction, which has been proposed by Saridhara-swami and some other commentators, be admitted.']
[192] [Sri Bhagavata, b. 12, c.
2. 'From your birth (Parikshit is addressed by ampuka) to the
inauguration of Nanda, 1115 years will elapse.
'"Of the seven Rishis, two are first perceived, rising in the sky; and the
asterism, which is observed to be at night even with the middle of those two
stars, is that with which the Rishis are united, and they remain so during a
hundred years of men. In your time, and at this moment, they are situated in Magha.
When the splendour of Vishnu, named Krishna, departed for
heaven, then did the Kali age, during which men delight in sin, invade the
world. So long as he continued to touch the earth with his holy feet, so long
the Kali age was unable to subdue the world.
When the seven Rishis were in Magha, the Kali age comprising
1200 [divine] years began; and when, from Magha, they shall reach Parvoshadha,
then will this Kali age attain its growth under Nanda and his successors."' From
ibid., vol. 3, p. 313.]
[193] [Ibid., vol. 3, p. 313. 'The commentator, Bhattotpala, supports the text of his author by quotations from Vriddha Garga and Kasyapa. At the junction of the Kali and Dwapara ages, says Garga, 'the virtuous sages, who delight in protecting the people, stood at the asterism, over which the Pitris preside.' That is at Magha. 'The mighty sages,' says Kasyapa, 'abide during a hundred years in each asterism, attended by the virtuous Arundhati.']
[194] [Wilson, Vishnu Purana, p. 24. See note 187 above.]
[195] [Maspero, 'Stele of King Horsiatef,' RP, 6, 85. See p. 90.]
[196] [Histories, bk. 2.143. 'When Hecatæus the historian was at Thebes, and, discoursing of his genealogy, traced his descent to a god
in the person of his sixteenth ancestor, the priests of Jupiter did to him
exactly as they afterwards did to me, though I made no boast of my family. They
led me into the inner sanctuary, which is a spacious chamber, and showed me a
multitude of colossal statues, in wood, which they counted up, and found to
amount to the exact number they had said; the custom being for every high-priest
during his lifetime to set up his statue in the temple. As they showed me the
figures and reckoned them up, they assured me that each was the son of the one
preceding him; and this they repeated throughout the whole line, beginning with
the representation of the priest last deceased, and continuing till they had
completed the series. When Hecatæus, in giving his genealogy, mentioned a god as
his sixteenth ancestor, the priests opposed their genealogy to his, going
through this list, and refusing to allow that any man was ever born of a god.
Their colossal figures were each, they said a Pirômis, born of a Pirômis, and
the number of them was three hundred and forty-five; through the whole series
Pirômis followed Pirômis, and the line did not run up either to a god or a hero.
The word Pirômis may be rendered "gentleman."' Tr., Rawlinson.
'And formerly when Hecataios the historian was in Thebes, and had traced
his descent and connected his family with a god in the sixteenth generation
before, the priests of Zeus did for him much the same as they did for me (though
I had not traced my descent). They led me into the sanctuary of the temple,
which is of great size, and they counted up the number, showing colossal wooden
statues in number the same as they said; for each chief-priest there sets up in
his lifetime an image of himself: accordingly the priests, counting and showing
me these, declared to me that each one of them was a son succeeding his own
father, and they went up through the series of images from the image of the one
who had died last, until they had declared this of the whole number. And when
Hecataios had traced his descent and connected his family with a god in the
sixteenth generation, they traced a descent in opposition to this, besides their
numbering, not accepting it from him that a man had been born from a god; and
they traced their counter-descent thus, saying that each one of the statues had
been "piromis" son of "piromis", until they had declared this of the whole three
hundred and forty-five statues, each one being surnamed "piromis"; and neither
with a god nor a hero did they connect their descent. Now "piromis" means in the
tongue of Hellas "honourable and good man."' Tr., Macauley.]
[197] [See notes 169, 177 and 196 above.]
[198] [Moor, Hindu Pantheon, pl. 88.]
[200] [Shea & Troyer,
The Dabistan, or School of Manners.
Humboldt,
Vues des Cordillères et monuments des peuples indigènes de l'Amérique.
King, Antiquities of Mexico, vol. 6, p. 172.
Veytia,
Historia Antigua de Méjico, vol. 1, c. 4.
Ternaux-Compans,
Voyages, relations & memoires originaux pour servir à l'histoire de la
decouverte de l'Amerique, vol. 12, p. 2.
Bailly,
Traite de l'astronomie Indienne et Orientale, p. 77.]
[201] [Smith, Assyrian Discoveries, pp. 405-7. 'It appears by this that at the time this tablet was written the spring quarter was counted as extending through the months Adar (the last month of the year), Nisan (the first month), and Iyyar, that is, commencing in February and ending in May. The summer quarter extended through the months Sivan, Tammuz, and Ab, commencing in May and ending in August. The autumn quarter extended through the months Elul, Tisri, and Marchesvan, commencing in August and ending in November. The winter quarter extended through the months Kislev, Tebet, and Sebat, commencing in November and ending in February. To agree with and precisely mark these periods, the heavens were divided into four regions, and the passage of the sun from one of these to another served to mark the change of season. In this tablet I have according to usual custom translated the signs for "'month" and "'day," but I believe in this case the word "day" means a degree of the heavens, and the word "month" a sign of the zodiac, so that instead of "From the 1st day of the month Addar to the 30th day of the month Iyyar," I should propose, "From the 1st degree of the sign Pisces to the 30th degree of the sign Taurus," and so on through the translation. The Assyrian year consisted, like the Jewish, of twelve lunar months, and in order to keep it in proper relation to the solar year, an intercalary month was sometimes added. In order to know when to add the extra month, they watched a star called the "star of stars," which was just in advance of the sun when it crossed the vernal equinox. If the moon was parallel with that on the first day of the month, they made no intercalation; but if it did not reach the star until the third day, it showed that the year (from the fact that twelve lunar months were short of the solar year) began too far in advance of the equinox, and therefore an intercalary month was added to bring it round again. The information with respect to the divisions of the heavens and the names of some of the stars in the different divisions, will enable us in time to give something like precision to our knowledge of the Babylonian astronomy. I have been able already with these aids to fix approximately, and in some cases to identify, about thirty of the principal stars. Four of these are given on the fragment of the astrolabe, the stars Urbat and Addil, which were in the sign Scorpio, and the stars Nibat-anu and Udka-gaba, which were in the sign Sagittarius. The star Nibat-anu has hitherto been erroneously supposed to be a planet. The fact that in this record the four quarters of the heavens do not commence with the new year, suggests the inquiry whether from the precession of the equinoxes the seasons had shifted since the first settlement of Babylonian astronomy. Another curious document of this class is an astrolabe, part of which I discovered in the palace of Sennacherib. In this the heavens and the year are represented by the circular form of the object, and round the circumference it was originally divided into twelve parts corresponding to the twelve signs of the zodiac and the twelve months of the year, the number of degrees in each being marked. Inside these there were twelve other divisions nearer the pole, forming a second and inner circle, and in each of the twenty-four divisions, the principal prominent star is inserted.']
[202] [Egypt's Place in Universal History, vol. 3, p. 57. 'The noteworthy scholiast on the Aratea of Cassar Germanicus (quoting evidently from the Hermetic books) says that the notion of an intercalary day or month was an abomination to the Egyptians (ii. p. 71. ed. Lips.): "The king was conducted by the priest of Isis to the place which is called the most holy (Adytos), and was compelled to swear that he would neither add a month or day which they might be obliged to use as a festival, but that they should adhere to the 365 days, as was the practice of their fathers."']
[203] [As above note.]
[204] [Massey mislaid this ref. Poss. in De Dea Syria, but unable to trace.]
[205] [Eccl'us. 39:1. 'How different it is with the man who devotes himself to studying the law of the Most High, who investigates all the wisdom of the past, and spends his time studying the prophecies.' NEB version.]
[206] [See Philo, and Josephus.
See
also De Quincy's essay on the
Essenes.
See also the Ancient Library of Qumran (the rev'd and extended ed. of
1995) by F. M. Cross who discusses the relevance of the fragments of the texts
found in the Judaean wilderness in 1947, not far from the Dead Sea. These seven
antique rolls of leather, and others that were to be found after subsequent
discoveries, contain very important texts belonging to a non-orthodox tribe.
After examining their contents, the author concludes that they were a sect of
Essenes who broke away from the orthodox doctrines of the Christians and set up
their own circle out in the desert. Through fear of persecution, they hid their
rolls which were not to be discovered for nearly 2000 years. Their contents,
needless to say, corroborate Massey's own conclusions.]
[207] [Wilford, 'An Essay on the Sacred Isles of West, and other Essays Connected with that Work,' ARSB, 10, 27. 'This expectation is frequently mentioned in the Puranas: the earth is often complaining that she is ready to sink back into Patala under the accumulated load of the iniquities of mankind: the Gods also complain of the oppression of the Giants.']
[208] [As above note.]
[209] [Drummond, Œdipus Judaicus, pl. 2.]
[210] [Lundy, Monumental Christianity, fig. 60.]
[211] [Wilson, Vishnu Purana,
p. 493, bk. 1, ch. 1. 'MAITREYA.—You have
related to me a full account of all the different dynasties of kings, and of
their successive transactions. I wish now to hear a more particular description,
holy Rishi, of the portion of Vishnu that came down upon earth, and was born in
the family of Yadu. Tell me also what actions he performed in his descent, as a
part of a part of the supreme, upon the earth.
PARÁŚARA.—I will relate
to you, Maitreya, the account which you have requested; the birth of a part of a
part of Vishńu, and the benefits which his actions conferred upon the world.
Vasudeva formerly married the daughter of Devaka, the
illustrious Devakí, a maiden of celestial beauty. After their nuptials, Kansa,
the increaser of the race of Bhoja, drove their car as their charioteer. As they
were going along, a voice in the sky, sounding aloud and deep as thunder,
addressed Kansa, and said, "Fool that you are, the eighth child of the damsel
whom you are driving in the car shall take away your life!" On hearing this,
Kansa drew his sword, and was about to put Devakí to death; but Vasudeva
interposed, saying, "Kill not Devakí, great warrior; spare her life, and I will
deliver to you every child that she may bring forth." Appeased by which promise,
and relying on the character of Vasudeva, Kansa desisted from the attempt.
At that time, Earth, overburdened by her load, repaired to
mount Meru to an assembly of the gods, and addressing the divinities, with
Brahmá at their head, related in piteous accents all her distress. "Agni," said
Earth, "is the progenitor of gold; Súrya, of rays of light: the parent and guide
of me and of all spheres is the supreme Náráyańa, who is Brahmá, the lord of
the lord of patriarchs; the eldest of the eldest born; one with minutes and
hours; one with time; having form, though indiscrete. This assemblage of
yourselves, O gods, is but a part of him. The sun, the winds, the saints, the
Rudras, the Vasus, the Aswins, fire, the patriarch creators of the universe, of
whom Atri is the first, all are but forms of the mighty and inscrutable Vishńu.
The Yakshas, Rákshasas, Daityas, spirits of evil, serpents, and children of Danu,
the singers and nymphs of heaven, are forms of the great spirit, Vishńu. The
heavens painted with planets, constellations, and stars; fire, water, wind, and
myself, and every perceptible thing; the whole universe itself—consists
of Vishńu. The multifarious forms of that manifold being encounter and succeed
one another, night and day, like the waves of the sea. At this present season
many demons, of whom Kálanemi is the chief, have overrun, and continually
harrass, the region of mortals. The great Asura Kálanemi, that was killed by the
powerful Vishńu, has revived in Kansa, the son of Ugrasena, and many other
mighty demons, more than I can enumerate, as Arisht́a, Dhenuka, Keśin, Pralamba,
Naraka, Sunda, and the fierce Báńa, the son of Bali, are born in the palaces of
kings. Countless hosts of proud and powerful spirits, chiefs of the demon race,
assuming celestial forms, now walk the earth; and, unable to support myself
beneath the incumbent load, I come to you for succour. Illustrious deities, do
you so act that I may be relieved from my burden, lest helpless I sink into the
nethermost abyss."
When the gods had heard these complaints of Earth, Brahmá at
their request explained to them how her burden might be lightened. "Celestials,"
said Brahmá, "all that Earth has said is undoubtedly true. I, Mahádeva, and you
all, are but Náráyańa; but the impersonations of his power are for ever
mutually fluctuating, and excess or diminution is indicated by the predominance
of the strong, and the depression of the weak. Come therefore, let us repair to
the northern coast of the milky sea, and having glorified Hari, report to him
what we have heard. He, who is the spirit of all, and of whom the universe
consists, constantly, for the sake of Earth, descends in a small portion of his
essence to establish righteousness below." Accordingly Brahmá, attended by the
gods, went to the milky sea, and there, with minds intent upon him, praised him
whose emblem is Garud́a.
"O thou," said Brahmá, "who art distinct from holy writ 8;
whose double nature is twofold wisdom, superior and inferior, and who art the
essential end of both; who, alike devoid and possessed of form, art the twofold
Brahma; smallest of the least, and largest of the large; all, and knowing all
things; that spirit which is language; that spirit which is supreme; that which
is Brahma, and of which Brahma is composed! Thou art the Rich, the Yajush, the
Sáman, and the Atharvan Vedas. Thou art accentuation, ritual, signification,
metre, and astronomy; history, tradition, grammar, theology, logic, and law:
thou who art inscrutable. Thou art the doctrine that investigates the
distinctions between soul, and life, and body, and matter endowed with
qualities; and that doctrine is nothing else but thy nature inherent in and
presiding over it. Thou art imperceptible, indescribable, inconceivable; without
name, or colour, or hands, or feet; pure, eternal, and infinite. Thou hearest
without ears, and seest without eyes. Thou art one and multiform. Thou movest
without feet; thou seizest without hands. Thou knowest all, but art not by all
to be known. He who beholds thee as the most subtile of atoms, not substantially
existent, puts an end to ignorance; and final emancipation is the reward of that
wise man whose understanding cherishes nothing other than thee in the form of
supreme delight. Thou art the common centre of all 15, the protector of the
world; and all beings exist in thee: all that has been, or will be, thou art.
Thou art the atom of atoms; thou art spirit; thou only art distinct from
primeval nature. Thou, as the lord of fire in four manifestations, givest light
and fertility to Earth. Thou art the eye of all, and wearer of many shapes, and
unobstructedly traversest the three regions of the universe. As fire, though
one, is variously kindled, and, though unchangeable in its essence, is modified
in many ways, so thou, lord, who art one omnipresent form, takest upon thee all
modifications that exist. Thou art one supreme; thou art that supreme and
eternal state which the wise behold with the eye of knowledge. There is nothing
else but thou, O lord; nothing else has been or will be. Thou art both discrete
and indiscrete, universal and individual, omniscient, all-seeing, omnipotent,
possessed of all wisdom and strength and power. Thou art liable neither to
diminution nor increase; thou art independent and without beginning; thou art
the subjugator of all. Thou art unaffected by weariness, sloth, fear, anger, or
desire. Thou art free from soil, supreme, merciful, uniform, undecaying, lord
over all, the stay of all, the fountain of light, imperishable. To thee,
uninvested by material envelopes, unexposed to sensible imaginings, aggregate of
elemental substance, spirit supreme, be adoration. Thou assumest a shape, O
pervader of the universe, not as the consequence of virtue or vice, nor from any
mixture of the two, but for the sole object of maintaining piety in the world."
The unborn, universal Hari, having heard with his mental ear these eulogiums,
was pleased, and thus spake to Brahmá: "Tell me, Brahmá, what you and the gods
desire: speak boldly, certain of success." Brahmá, beholding the divine,
universal form of Hari, quickly prostrated himself, and again renewed his
praises. "Glory to thee, the thousand-formed, the thousand-armed, the many-visaged,
many-footed; to thee, the illimitable author of creation, preservation, and
destruction; most subtile of the subtile, most vast of the great: to thee, who
art nature, intellect, and consciousness; and who art other spirit even than the
spiritual root of those principles. Do thou shew favour upon us. Behold, lord,
this earth, oppressed by mighty Asuras, and shaken to her mountain basements,
comes to thee, who art her invincible defender, to be relieved from her burden.
Behold me, Indra, the Aswins, Varuńa, and Yama, the Rudras, the Vasus, the
suns, the winds, fire, and all other celestials, prepared to execute whatever
thou shalt will that we shall do. Do thou, in whom there is no imperfection, O
sovereign of the deities, give thy orders to thy servants: lo, we are ready."
When Brahmá had ended, the supreme lord plucked off two
hairs, one white and one black, and said to the gods, "These my hairs shall
descend upon earth, and shall relieve her of the burden of her distress.
Let all the gods also, in their own portions, go down to
earth, and wage war with the haughty Asuras, who are there incorporate, and who
shall every one of them be destroyed. Doubt not of this: they shall perish
before the withering glance of mine eyes. This my (black) hair shall be
impersonated in the eighth conception of the wife of Vasudeva, Devakí, who is
like a goddess; and shall slay Kansa, who is the demon Kálanemi." Thus having
spoken, Hari disappeared; and the gods bowing to him, though invisible, returned
to the summit of mount Meru, from whence they descended upon earth.
The Muni Nárada informed Kansa that the supporter of the
earth, Vishńu, would be the eighth child of Devakí; and his wrath being excited
by this report, he placed both Vasudeva and Devakí in confinement. Agreeably to
his promise, the former delivered to Kansa each infant as soon as it was born.
It is said that these, to the number of six, were the children of the demon
Hirańyakaśipu, who were introduced into the womb of Devakí, at the command of
Vishńu, during the hours of Devakí's repose, by the goddess Yoganidrá, the
great illusory energy of Vishńu, by whom, as utter ignorance, the whole world
is beguiled. To her Vishńu said, "Go, Nidrá, to the nether regions, and by my
command conduct successively six of their princes to be conceived of Devakí.
When these shall have been put to death by Kansa, the seventh conception shall
be formed of a portion of Śesha, who is a part of me; and this you shall
transfer, before the time of birth, to Rohińí, another wife of Vasudeva, who
resides at Gokula. The report shall run, that Devakí miscarries, through the
anxiety of imprisonment, and dread of the Rájá of the Bhojas. From being
extracted from his mother's womb, the child shall be known by the name of
Sankarshańa, and he shall be valiant and strong, and like the peak of the white
mountain in bulk and complexion. I will myself become incarnate in the eighth
conception of Devakí; and you shall immediately take a similar character as the
embryo offspring of Yaśodá. In the night of the eighth lunation of the dark half
of the month Nabhas, in the season of the rains, I shall be born. You shall
receive birth on the ninth. Impelled and aided by my power, Vasudeva shall bear
me to the bed of Yaśodá, and you to that of Devakí. Kansa shall take you, and
hold you up to dash you against a stone; but you shall escape from his grasp
into the sky, where the hundred-eyed Indra shall meet and do homage to you,
through reverence for me, and shall bow before you, and acknowledge you as his
sister. Having slain Sumbha, Nisumbha, and numerous other demons, you shall
sanctify the earth in many places. Thou art wealth, progeny, fame, patience,
heaven and earth, fortitude, modesty, nutrition, dawn, and every other female
(form or property). They who address thee morning and afternoon with reverence
and praise, and call thee Áryá, Durgá, Vedagarbhá, Ambiká, Bhadrá, Bhadrakálí,
Kshemí, or Kshemankarí, shall receive from my bounty whatever they desire.
Propitiated with offerings of wine and flesh and various viands, thou shalt
bestow upon mankind all their prayers. Through my favour all men shall ever have
faith in thee. Assured of this, go, goddess, and execute my commands."']
[212] [Source.]
[213] [Bancroft, The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America, vol. 3, pp. 172, 393. 'The most solemn and important of all the Mexican festivals was that called Toxilmolpilia, or Xiuhmolpilli, the binding up of the years. Every fifty-two years was called a sheaf of years; and it was held for certain that at the end of some sheaf of fifty-two years the motion of the heavenly bodies should cease and the world itself come to an end. As the possible day of destruction drew near, all the people cast their household gods of wood and stone into the water, as also the stones used on the hearth for cooking and bruising pepper. They washed thoroughly their houses, and last of all, put out all fires. For the lighting of the new fire there was a place set apart, the summit of a mountain called Vixachtlan, or Huixachtla, on the boundary line between the cities of Itztapalapa and Colhuacan, about six miles from the city of Mexico. In the production of this new fire none but priests had any part, and the task fell specially upon those of the ward Copolco. On the last day of the fifty-two years, after the sun had set, all the priests clothed themselves with the dress and insignia of their gods, so as to them selves appear like very gods, and set out in procession for the mountain, walking very slowly, with much gravity and silence, as befitted the occasion and the garb they wore; "walking," as they phrased it, "like gods."']
[214] [Schoolcraft, Archives of Aboriginal Knowledge, vol. 4, p. 240. 'The opinion prevails among this tribe, that the Indians will be destroyed at the expiration of thirteen generations from the creation, or at the expiration of three generations after the present. They are now making extra feasts to propitiate the Great Spirit, and supplicate him to extend their time.']
[215] [Dialogue with Trypho,
ch. 32. 'Trypho objecting that Christ is described as glorious by Daniel, Justin
distinguishes the advents.
And when I had ceased, Trypho said, "These and such like scriptures, sir, compel
us to wait for Him who, as Son of man, receives from the Ancient of days the
everlasting kingdom. But this so-called Christ of yours was dishonourable and
inglorious, so much so that the last curse contained in the law of God fell on
him, for he was crucified."
Then I replied to him, "If, sirs, it were not said by the scriptures which I
have already quoted, that His form was inglorious, and His generation not
declared, and that for His death the rich would suffer death, and with His
stripes we should be healed, and that He would be led away like a sheep; and if
I had not explained that there would be two advents of His,—one in which He was
pierced by you; a second, when you shall know Him whom you have pierced, and
your tribes shall mourn, each tribe by itself, the women apart, and the men
apart,—then I must have been speaking dubious and obscure things. But now, by
means of the contents of those Scriptures esteemed holy and prophetic amongst
you, I attempt to prove all [that I have adduced], in the hope that some one of
you may be found to be of that remnant which has been left by the grace of the
Lord of Sabaoth for the eternal salvation. In order, therefore, that the matter
inquired into may be plainer to you, I will mention to you other words also
spoken by the blessed David, from which you will perceive that the Lord is
called the Christ by the Holy Spirit of prophecy; and that the Lord, the Father
of ail, has brought Him again from the earth, setting Him at His own right hand,
until He makes His enemies His footstool; which indeed happens from the time
that our Lord Jesus Christ ascended to heaven, after He rose again from the
dead, the times now running on to their consummation; and he whom Daniel
foretells would have dominion for a time, and times, and an half, is even
already at the door, about to speak blasphemous and daring things against the
Most High. But you, being ignorant of how long he will have dominion, hold
another opinion. For you interpret the 'time' as being a hundred years. But if
this is so, the man of sin must, at the shortest, reign three hundred and fifty
years, in order that we may compute that which is said by the holy Daniel—'and
times'—to be two times only. All this I have said to you in digression, in order
that you at length may be persuaded of what has been declared against you by
God, that you are foolish sons; and of this, 'Therefore, behold, I will proceed
to take away this people, and shall take them away; and I will strip the wise of
their wisdom, and will hide the understanding of their prudent men;' and may
cease to deceive yourselves and those who hear you, and may learn of us, who
have been taught wisdom by the grace of Christ. The words, then, which were
spoken by David, are these 'The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou at my right
hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool. The Lord shall send the rod of
Thy strength out of Sion: rule Thou also in the midst of Thine enemies. With
Thee shall be, in the day, the chief of Thy power, in the beauties of Thy
saints. From the womb, before the morning star, have I begotten Thee. The Lord
hath sworn, and will not repent: Thou art a priest for ever after the order of
Melchizedek. The Lord is at Thy right hand: He has crushed kings in the day of
His wrath: He shall judge among the heathen. He shall fill [with] the dead
bodies. He shall drink of the brook in the way; therefore shall He lift up the
head.' ANCL, 2, 126.]
[216] [Against Heresies/Panarion, bk. 30:3.]
[217] [Bibliotheca, cod. 177.
'Read a book whose subscription reads, "Theodore of Antioch, Against those who
say that men sin by nature and not by intention." His polemic against those is
developed in 5 books. He wrote this work against westerners touched by this ill;
it is among them, he says, that the promoter of this heresy appeared: he left
these and came to establish himself in eastern regions and there composed some
books on the new heresy which he had imagined, and sent them to the inhabitants
of his country of origin. By these writings, he attracted many people of those
regions to adopt his views to the point where entire churches were filled with
his error.
I cannot say with certainty whether the name of Aram which he gives to their
chief is a name or nickname. This person, the author says, fashioned a fifth
gospel which he feigns that he found in the libraries of Eusebius of Palestine.
He rejected the translation of the New and the Old Testament published by the
united Seventy and also those of Symmachus, Aquila, and others, and boasted that
he had composed a new one of his own without, like the others, having studied
and practised Hebrew since infancy and without having mastered the spirit of the
Holy Scripture. Instead he put himself under the tuition of some low-class Jews
and there acquired the audacity to make his own version.
The principles of their heresy are, in summary, the following. Men sin, they
say, by nature and not by intention; and 'by nature' they do not mean that
nature which was in Adam when first created (because this, they say, was good
because made by a good God), but that nature which was his later after the fall
because of his ill conduct and sin. He received a sinful nature in exchange for
the good and a mortal nature in exchange for an immortal; it is in this manner
and by nature that men became sinners after having been good by nature. It is in
their nature and not by a voluntary choice that they acquired sin.
The second point is connected to the preceding propositions. They say that
infants, even newly born, are not free from sin because, since the disobedience
of Adam, nature is fixed into sin and that this sinful nature, as was said,
extends to all his descendants. They quote, he says, the verse, "I was born in
sin" and others similar: the holy baptism itself; the communion with the
incorruptible body for the remission of sins and the fact that these apply to
infants as a confirmation of their own opinion. They claim also that no man is
just, and this is thus obviously a corollary of their initial position, "because
nothing of flesh can be justified before you," he says, and he cites other texts
of the same kind.
The fourth point (O blasphemous and impious mouth) is that Christ himself, our
God, because he put on a nature soiled by sin, was not himself free from sin.
However, in other places in their impious writings, as the author says, it can
be seen that they apply the Incarnation to Christ not in truth and in nature,
but only in appearance.
The fifth point is that marriage, they say, or the desire of carnal union and
the ejection of seed and all that is of that domain and by which our species
perpetuates itself and increases itself are works of the evil nature into which
Adam fell through sin to receive all the weight of the evils because of his
sinful nature. Such are thus the positions of the heretics.
As for our Theodore, he repulses them with reason and sometimes it is in the
best manner and with vigour that he blames the absurd and blasphemous character
of their opinions; and, in returning to the words of Scripture that the others
interpret against their correct meaning, he demonstrates their ignorance
perfectly. On the other hand, this is not always the case, but he seems to us,
in many places, entangled in the Nestorian heresy and echoes that of Origen, at
least in that which concerns the end of punishment.
Further, he says that Adam was mortal from the beginning and that it was only in
appearance, to make us hate sin, that God seemed to impose death on us as a
punishment for sin; this assertion does not seem to me to proceed from just
reasoning, but on the contrary it leaves much to explain if someone chooses to
ask, even if, as the author wants to say, a opinion like his is strongly opposed
to heresy. Because an idea is not good just because it fights a bad idea—in
fact bad ideas combat each other—but that
which conforms to valid reasoning and is supported by the testimony of the holy
Scriptures is admissible, even if no heresy dares to oppose it.
There is a further point which in my judgement has no place among the dogmas of
the truth, which is affirmed with excessive insistence and which is not
recognised by the divine church: that there are two remissions of sin, one for
what one has done and the other, what to call it I do not know, a remission
which is the very fact of existing without sin or of sinning no more (in fact we
need several explanatory terms in order to express this new kind of remission of
sins). He calls what is properly called the absence of sin, the total remission
and a more appropriate sense of the term and the complete destruction of error.
What then is this remission of sins? Where is it granted? When does it begin? It
began to manifest, he says, with the incarnation of Christ our Lord and was
given by way of a down-payment; and it is given in a perfect manner and based on
our works even in that restoration which follows the resurrection and to obtain
which we are baptised just like our children.
But what has been said so far is deserving enough of respect and close to nature
to make us turn everything avidly towards our end. Tell us again, what is done
and what is to do? In fact we will lend you an attentive ear. What is this
famous total remission of sin? He says that we will sin no more after the
resurrection. But what hopes you have dashed! Because, leaving to one side this
investigation into the manner in which the remission of sin must be stated, I
will explain myself briefly.
And what? It is for this, in your eyes, that the Christ became incarnate, and
was crucified,—that you would sin no more
when you were resurrected from among the dead? So those who sinned before Christ
walked on earth sin among the dead? And, if we are not baptized, we will commit
still more sins among the dead, according to you, us and the tiny infants? And
all the infidels, in the future life, they will be able to commit thefts,
adulteries, impieties, robberies, and to satisfy all their wicked passions?
Because you will not find for them any chastisements just or heavy enough for
faults committed in that life!
These then are the reasons why in my opinion it is proven that his idea of the
remission of sins cannot be approved. Perhaps he himself did not arrive at this
view on his own, but to resolve the difficulties raised by those who wonder why
children participate in incorruptible mysteries and why it is thought that they
merit baptism if this is not because they themselves are charged with sins,
since this sin is bound up in their nature, because the sacraments are
administered for the remission of sins. But it will be necessary to resolve this
difficulty, which offers numerous elements of solution, in another way, and,
after having examined the astonishing corollaries of his conception of the
remission of sins, not to strain so hard for an answer.
This Theodore is the author who also write polemically with success in
twenty-eight books against Eunomius to defend the teaching of St. Basil, or
rather, the truth; in fact the vocabulary, the arrangement of words, the spirit
of the dogmas, the richness of the refutation and all the rest offers nothing
wrong. He is lacking in clarity, although he uses a vocabulary which contains
nothing unusual, but most of the time he employs long periods and repeated
digressions during which the sense of his arguments is much delayed. He employs
oblique cases and participles in abundance; he often repeats the same facts in
no particular order; his repetitions (in which there is a total lack of method)
are longer than the matter of his book itself. Some defects of this kind produce
a great obscurity in his writings. However he seems to have worked seriously at
our holy scripture, although he deviates frequently from the truth.' R. Henry's
tr.]
[218] ['Idra Rabba,' 3:41. Zohar.]
[219] [Knorr von Rosenroth,
Kabbala Denudata, vol. 2, p. 230.
Book of Babylonian Companions, p. 35.
Zohar Ex. p. 11.
Midrash Hashirim.
Rabbi Akaba.
Midrash Koheleth, vol. 2, p. 45.]
[220] [Kabbala Denudata, vol. 2, pp. 303-5.]
[221] [Acts 1:3-11. 'To whom
also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being
seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of
God:
And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not
depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he,
ye have heard of me.
For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost
not many days hence.
When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt
thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?
And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which
the Father hath put in his own power.
But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye
shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria,
and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a
cloud received him out of their sight.
And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men
stood by them in white apparel;
Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this
same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner
as ye have seen him go into heaven.']
[222] [Book of Enoch, ch. 84:32-9.]
[223] [Gill,
Myths and Songs from the South Pacific, pp. 128-9. 'The
formation of Mangaia is remarkably hilly. In the middle of the island is a hill,
half a mile long and 250 feet wide, named Rangimotia, or
Centre-of-the-heavens, from which the lesser hills branch out on every side.
This central hill was considered very sacred in the olden time, for there the
kings of past generations adjusted the sacred girdle on warriors bound on secret
murdering expeditions in the name of Rongo. The condition of wearing this girdle
was, "succeed or die." About a century ago a rash chief, named Uarau, resolved
to celebrate his accession to supreme temporal power by holding a grand feast on
this sacred spot The leading men of the day were sure that such an act of daring
impiety would draw down the anger of the gods, and therefore deprived Uarau of
his chieftainship. The reason alleged for the sacredness of the hill is this:
A god, Te-manaya-roa, or The-long-lived, lies buried, face downwards, at
Rangimotia, His proportions are wonderful: the length of the level hill half a
mile being the measurement of his back! His head is at Butoa, towards the
sun-rising. The marked depression between, is the neck of The-long-lived.
His right arm is the line of hills stretching away to the S.E., a distance of
two miles, and touching the mission premises at Tamarua. His left arm is
represented by a hill-range, of equal length, on the opposite side of the
island. The right leg of The-long-lived is the line of somewhat irregular
hills extending about three miles on the S.W. of the island. The left leg is a
chain of equal length on the N.W.
These "arms" and "legs" serve one important purpose to mark off the different
districts into which the island is naturally divided.']
[224] [A New Account of the East Indies, vol. 2, p. 57.]
[225] [Herbert, Nimrod, vol. 1, p. 259.]
[227] [Book of Enoch, ch. 89:46-48.]
[228] [Sale, The Koran, intro., p. 57. 'The appearance of the beast, which shall rise out of the earth, in the temple of Mecca, or on Mount Safâ, or in the territory of Tâyef, or some other place. This beast they say is to be sixty cubits high: though others, not satisfied with so small a size, will have her reach to the clouds and to heaven when her head only is out; and that she will appear for three days, but show only a third part of her body. They describe this monster, as to her form, to be a compound of various species, having the head of a bull, the eyes of a hog, the ears of an elephant, the horns of a stag, the neck of an ostrich, the breast of a lion, the colour of a tiger, the back of a cat, the tail of a ram, the legs of a camel, and the voice of an ass. Some say this beast is to appear three times in several places, and that she will bring with her the rod of Moses and the seal of Solomon; and being so swift that none can overtake or escape her, will with the first strike all the believers on the face and mark them with the word Mûmen, i.e., believer; and with the latter will mark the unbelievers, on the face likewise, with the word Câfer, i.e., infidel, that every person may be known for what he really is. They add that the same beast is to demonstrate the vanity of all religions except Islâm, and to speak Arabic. All this stuff seems to be the result of a confused idea of the beast in the Revelations.']
[229] [Shepherd of Hermas, vision 2:4.]
[231] [Rev. 17:1-8. 'And
there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with
me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will show unto thee the judgment of the great
whore that sitteth upon many waters:
With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants
of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit
upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads
and ten horns.
And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and
precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations
and filthiness of her fornication:
And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER
OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of
the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.
And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the
mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven
heads and ten horns.
The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the
bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall
wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of
the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.']
[232] [Rev. 12:1-2. 'And
there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the
moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:
And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be
delivered.']
[233] [2 Esd. 2:17-23. 'Have no fear, mother of many sons; I have chosen you, says the Lord. I will send my servants Isaiah and Jeremiah to help you. As they prophesied, I have set you apart to be my people. I have made ready for you twelve trees laden with different kinds of fruit, twelve fountains flowing with milk and honey, and seven great mountains covered with roses and lilies. There will I fill your sons with joy. Champion the widow, defend the cause of the fatherless, give to the poor, protect the orphan, clothe the naked. Care for the weak and the helpless, and do not mock at the cripple; watch over the disabled, and bring the blind to the vision of my brightness. Keep safe within your walls both old, and young.' NEB version.]
[234] [Rev. 22:2. 'In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.']
[235] [1 Pet. 1:23. 'Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.']
[236] [Eph. 1:5. 'Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.']
[237] [Rev. 13:8. 'And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.']
[238] [Rev. 21:22. 'And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.']
[239] [Rev. 17:11. 'And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.']
[240] [Talbot, 'Bel and the Dragon,' RP, 9, 135. See p. 136.]
[241] [Pliny, Natural History, 10:2.]
[242] [History of Astronomy. Poss. in Burgess.]
[243] [JS, 1840 and 1845.]
[244] [Myths and Marvels of Astronomy, p. 344. 'But there is another constellation which shows in a more marked way than either the Centaur or the Altar that the date when the constellations were invented must have been near that which I have named. Both Ara and Centaurus look now in suitable latitudes (about twenty degrees north) as they looked in higher latitudes (about forty degrees north) 4000 years ago. For, the reeling motion of our earth has changed the place of the celestial pole in such a way as only to depress these constellations southwards without much changing their position; they are nearly upright when due south now as they were 4000 years ago, only lower down. But the great ship Argo has suffered a much more serious displacement. One cannot now see this ship like a ship at any time or from any place on the earth's surface. If we travel south till the whole constellation comes into visibility above the southern horizon at the proper season (January and February for the midnight hours) the keel of the ship is aslant, the stern being high above the waist (the fore part is wanting). If we travel still further south, we can indeed reach places where the course of the ship is so widened, and the changes of position so increased, that she appears along part of her journey on an even keel, but then she is high above the horizon. Now 4000 years ago she stood on the horizon itself at her southern culmination, with level keel and upright mast.']
[246] [Myths and Marvels of Astronomy,
p. 347. 'We may feel tolerably sure that the period when the old southern
constellations were formed must have been between 2400 and 2000 years before the
present era, a period, by the way, including the date usually assigned to the
deluge, which, however, must really occupy our attention no further. In fact,
let us leave the watery constellations lying below the equator of those remote
times and seek at once the highest heavens above them.
Here, at the northern pole of these days, we find the great Dragon, which in any
astrological temple of the time must have formed the highest or crowning
constellation, surrounding the very key-stone of the dome. He has fallen away
from that proud position since. In fact, even 4000 years ago he only held to the
pole, so to speak, by his tail, and we have to travel back 2000 years or so to
find the pole situate in a portion of the length of the Dragon which can be
regarded as central. One might almost, if fancifully disposed, recognise the
gradual displacement of the Dragon from his old place of honour, in certain
traditions of the downfall of the great Dragon whose tail drew the third part
of the stars of heaven.']
[247] [Burgess, Surya-Siddhanta. See note below.]
[248] [Ibid., p. 19. 'The instant at which the Age is made to commence is midnight on the meridian of Ujjayini at the end of the 588,465th and beginning of the 588,466th day (civil reckoning) of the Julian Period, or between the 17th and 18th February 1612 JP, or 3102 BC.' See table.]
[249] [Ibid., p. 230. 'At the time of Al-Biruni's visit to India, the Hindus seem to have been already unable to point out distinctly and with confidence the situation in the heavens of that most important point from which they held that the motions of the planets commenced at the creation, and at which, at successive intervals, their universal conjunction would again take place; for he is obliged to mark the asterism as not certainly identifiable.']
[250] [Ibid., p. 19. 'Instead
of deducing the rate of motion of each planet from at least two recorded
observations of its place, and establishing a genuine epoch, with the
ascertained position of each at that time, they start with the assumption that,
at the beginning of the present order of things, all the planets, with their
apsides and nodes, commenced their movement together at that point in the
heavens (near ξ Piscium), fixed upon as the initial
point of the sidereal sphere, and that they return at certain fixed intervals,
to a universal conjunction at the same point.'
Ibid., p. 212. 'Considered as a group of two stars, Acvini is composed of
β and γ Arietis; as a group of three, it
comprises also α in the same constellation.'
Ibid., p. 230. 'The star intended is, as we have already often had
occasion to notice, the faint star ξ Piscium, of
about the fifth magnitude, situated in the band which connects the two Fishes.
It is ended very near to the ecliptic, having only 18' of south latitude. It
coincided in longitude with the vernal equinox in the year 572 of our era.']
[251] [Hyde, Historia religionis veterum Persarum, p. 385.]
[252] [Sinai and Palestine, pp. 151-2. 'Wherever a sacred association had to be fixed, a cave was immediately selected or found as its home. First in antiquity is the grotto of Bethlehem, already in the second century regarded by popular belief as the scene of the Nativity. Next comes the grotto on Mount Olivet, selected as the scene of our Lord's last conversations before the Ascension. These two caves, as Eusebius emphatically asserts, were the first seats of the worship established by the Empress Helena, to which was shortly afterwards added a third—the sacred cave of the sepulchre. To these were rapidly added the cave of the Invention of the Cross, the cave of the Annunciation at Nazareth, the cave of the Agony at Gethsemane, the cave of the Baptist in the "wilderness of St. John," the cave of the shepherds of Bethlehem. And then again, partly perhaps the cause, partly the effect of this consecration of grottoes, began the caves of hermits. There was the cave of St. Pelagia on Mount Olivet, the cave of St. Jerome, St. Paula, and St. Eustochium at Bethlehem, the cave of St. Saba in the ravines of the Kedron, the remarkable cells hewn or found in the precipices of the Quarantania or Mount of the Temptation above Jericho. In some few instances this selection of grottoes would coincide with the events thus intended to be perpetuated, as for example the hiding-places of the prophets on Carmel, and the sepulchres of the patriarchs and of our Lord. But in most instances the choice is made without the sanction, in some instances, in defiance, of the sacred narrative. No one would infer from the mention of the "inn" or "house" of the Nativity, or of the entrance of the Angel of the Annunciation to Mary, that those events took place in caves. The very fact that, in the celebrated legend, it is a house, and not a grotto, which is transplanted to Loretto, is an indication of what would be the natural belief. All our common feelings are repugnant to the transference of the scenes of the Agony and Ascension from the free and open sides of the mountain to the narrow seclusion of subterraneous excavations.']
[253] [Origin
of all Religious Worship, p. 253.
See also NG 1:453.]
[254] [Source.]
[255] [Knowledge, 10/3/1882.]
[256] [Phenomena, 436. 'The constellation of Centaur [Centaurus] thou wilt find beneath two others. For part in human form lies beneath Scorpio, but the rest, a horse’s trunk and tail, are beneath the Claws. He ever seems to stretch his right hand towards the round Altar, but though his hand is drawn and firmly grasped another sign–the Beast [Fera], for so men of old have named it.' Mair's tr.]
[257] [Rev. 16:19. 'And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.']
[258] ['Homilie II, De Cruce et Latron,' in Opera Omnia, vol. 2, p. 417.]
[259] [Rit. ch. 125. 'Come, come in peace, say those who see them, because the Osiris has heard the great words said by the Ass and the Cat in the house of Pet, whose mouth is twisted when he looks, because his face is behind him.' Birch's tr.]
[260] [Plutarch, Of Isis and Osiris, ch. 7.]
[261] [I can find no work of Augustine mentioning the Ophites.]
[262] [As above for Tertullian.]
[264] [Rit. ch. 81. 'I am the pure Lily coming forth from the luminous one. I guard the nostril of the Sun, and the nose of Athor. I give messages. Horus follows them. I am the pure Lily which comes out of the fields of the Sun.' Birch's tr. Cf. Renouf's tr.]
[265] [Horæ Ægypticæ,
pp. 43-4. 'I have shown in the preceding remarks, that an asterism or
constellation partly or wholly corresponding to Cygnus, and, perhaps, also to
Aquila, is represented in the sculptures of the ceiling of the Rameseum of El-Kurneh
by the Phoenix, called in hieroglyphic "the Phoenix of Osiris," Bennu Osir.
There can be no doubt that the Bennu is the Phoenix. The figure of a bird with
human hands, which some have supposed to represent the Phoenix, is known from
its name, Rekheet, properly to signify "a pure soul." This, indeed, is shown
also to emblematize some period or cycle, by a passage in the hieroglyphic
inscriptions of the Sarcophagus of Queen Ankh-nes, in the British Museum, which
speaks of "the period of pure souls." It, however, evidently does not refer to
the true Phoenix Cycle, but to the cycle of the separate state of the soul,
which I have already shown to have been probably a longer period than what I
shall prove the Phoenix Cycle to be. The Phoenix is historical; but the other
period, merely mythical, and not commencing from any one fixed date, but from
the time of each person's death, according to the mythology of the ancient
Egyptians. Still, as the period of the separate state of the soul was
emblematized by a bird, generally represented with a partly human form, but
sometimes by a simple bird, it is very easy to see that it may have been
confounded, in late times, with the Phoenix Cycle.
I have shown what the Phoenix was in the astronomy of the ancient Egyptians.
Ancient writers tell us of the appearance of the Phoenix at various times: this
must have been the appearance of the constellation, or of its most remarkable
star; and, as the rising of Sothis about one hour before sunrise is what is
meant, in hieroglyphics, by the expression, "the appearance" or "manifestation"
of that star, the appearance of the Phoenix was evidently the rising of that
constellation, that is, of its principal, or of its last, star, at the same time
before sunrise. But the commencement of the first Sothic Cycle was marked by the
rising of Sothis about one hour before sunrise on the first day of the Vague
Year; and, consequently, we might conclude that the Phoenix Cycle commenced when
some particular star of that ancient Egyptian constellation rose at the same
time on the first day of the Vague Year. I shall be able to show, in a
subsequent place, that a subdivision of a cycle exactly similar to the Phoenix
had been previously instituted; and a commencement of a cycle beginning with one
of those subdivisions was called the appearance of the Phoenix, from the
circumstance that "the manifestation" of a principal star of that constellation
at that time fell in the first month of the Vague Year, and was celebrated,
according to Egyptian usage, on the first day of that month. Now, since the
commencement of each Phoenix Cycle was marked by the occurrence or celebration
of the phenomenon just mentioned on a particular day of the Vague Year, it is
obvious that the Phoenix Cycle was composed of about 1460 Julian, or 1461 Vague
Years, like the Sothic, being as correct a cycle of that nature as the Egyptians
could form from observation; and from these considerations, we see that the
representations of the ceiling of the Rameseum fix the commencement of a Phoenix
Cycle to some one of the years B.C. 2042 to 1923 inclusive, and give an idea of
its length.']
[266] [Solini Polyhistor, C. Salmasii Plinianæ exercitationes in C. Julii Solini Polyhistora, c. 36.]
[267] [Pliny, Natural History, 10:2.]
[268] [Tacitus, Dialogus de Oratoribus et Causis Corruptae Eloquentiae, 16.]
[269] [Solini Polyhistor, C. Salmasii Plinianæ exercitationes in C. Julii Solini Polyhistora.]
[270] [Source.]
[271] ['He maintains that all
terrestrial things will be consumed when the planets, which are now traversing
their different course, shall all coincide in the sign of Cancer, and be so
placed, that a straight line could pass through all their orbs. But the Flood
will take place (he says) when the same conjunction of the planets shall take
place in the constellation of Capricorn. The summer is in the former
constellation, the winter in the latter.' Natural Questions, 3, 29. From Cory's
Ancient Fragments, p. 70.
See also NG 2:193,
258.]
[272] [Source.]
[273] [West, Minokhird,
62:37-9. 'The nest of the griffon bird is on the tree opposed to harm, the
many-seeded. Whenever he rises aloft a thousand twigs will shoot out from that
tree, and when he alights he breaks off the thousand twigs and bites the seed
from them.' SBE, 24, 112.
See also NG 1:43.]
[274] [Book of Enoch, ch. 31:4.]
[275] [Source.]
[276] [Dionysiaca, 26:183. 'There on the honeydropping branches is that sweet bird the horion, singing like the inspired swan. He does not strike up in tune with the west wind whirring in the air with musical wings; but he sings a lay with understanding beak, like a man twangling the strings for a wedding hymn to wait upon a bride.' Rouse's tr.]
[277] [Brett,
The Indian Tribes of Guiana, p.
401. 'On my inquiring where Arawaniti was now, and whether he had not ''long ago
died like other men?" the old man said that, according to their belief, "he went
up, and did not die."
I then asked if he knew where those events were Orowama,
according to some; others say that those names belong respectively to two
individuals, the elder of many brothers, who all became great sorcerers.']
[278] [Horapollo, Hieroglyphica, bk. 2:20. 'A RIVER HORSE when delineated, denotes an hour.']
[279] [Lectures on the Science of Language, vol. 2, p. 398. 'Thus the name of the Arctic regions rests on a misunderstanding of a name framed thousands of years ago in Central Asia; and the surprise with which many a thoughtful observer has looked at these seven bright stars, wondering why they were ever called the Bear, is removed by a reference to the early annals of human speech.']
[280] [Ibid., vol. 2, p. 399. 'The only doubtful point in the history of the myth of the Great Bear is the uncertainty which attaches to the exact etymological meaning of riksha, bear. We do not see why of all other animals the bear should have been called the bright animal. It is true that the reason of many a name is beyond our reach, and that we must frequently rest satisfied with the fact that such a name is derived from such a root, and therefore had originally such a meaning. The bear was the king of beasts with many northern nations, who did not know the lion; and it would be difficult to say why the ancient Germans called him Goldfusz, golden-footed. But even if the derivation of riksha from ark had to be given up, the later chapters in the history of the word would still remain the same. We should have riksha, star, derived from ark, to shine, mixed up with riksha, bear, derived from some other root, such as, for instance, ars or ris, to hurt; but the reason why certain stars were afterwards conceived as bears would not be affected by this.']
[281] [Naville, 'The Litany of Ra,' RP, 8, 103. See p. 111, line 67.]
[282] [On the Nature of the Gods, bk. 2, p. 107. 'But they who diligently perused and, as we may say, read or practised over again all the duties relating to the worship of the gods were called religiosi, religious, from relegendo, reading over again, or practising; as elegantes, elegant, ex elegendo, from choosing, or making a good choice; diligenies, diligent, ex diligendo, from attending on what we love; intelligentes, intelligent, from understanding; for the signification is derived in the same manner. Thus are the words superstitious and religious I understood; the one being a term of reproach the other of commendation. I think I have now sufficiently demonstrated that there are gods and what they are.' Francklin's tr.]
[283] [Source.]
[284] [The Divine Institutes, bk. 4, 28. 'We are bound and tied to God by this chain of piety; from which religion itself received its name, not, as Cicero explained it, from carefully gathering, for in his second book respecting the nature of the gods he thus speaks: "For not only philosophers, but our ancestors also, separated superstition from religion. For they who spent whole days in prayers and sacrifices, that their children might survive them, were called superstitious. But they who handled again, and as it were carefully gathered all things which related to the worship of the gods, were called religious from carefully gathering, as some were called elegant from choosing out, and diligent from carefully selecting, and intelligent from understanding. For in all these words there is the same meaning of gathering which there is in the word religious: thus it has come to pass, that in the names superstitious and religious, the one relates to a fault, the other belongs to praise." ANCL, 21, 282.]
[285] [Grãmatici Commentarius in Eneida Virgilii Incipit.]
[287] [Ibid. West's footnote to the above verse.]
[288] [Siebold, Nippon, Archiv zur Beschreibung von Japan und Dessen Neben- und Schutländern, pt. 5, p. 9. 'In the ancient Kami-religion of Japan, the supreme Sun-god ranks high above the Moon-god, who was worshipped under the form of a fox.' From Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. 2, p. 301.]
[289] [Of Isis and Osiris, ch. 31.]
[290] [Sharpe, Egyptian Inscriptions from the British Museum and other Sources, 73.7.]
[292] [Ibid. West's footnote to the above verse.]
[294] [Ibid., 19:1-11, and West's note.]
[295] [Drummond, Œdipus Judaicus, pl. 16.]
[297] [Khordah-Avesta, Tishtar-Yasht, 24:36. 'The Star Tistrya, the shining, majestic, we praise, who brings hither the circling years of men, reckoned (?) after the will of Ahura, and brilliant, supporting themselves on the mountains, and the strong far-stepping (beasts); and seeks to watch, who comes to the fruitful regions as well as to the unfruitful (saying), "When will the Arian regions be fruitful." Bleeck's tr.]
[298] [Ibid., 24:13-18. 'The
first ten nights, holy Zarathustra, Tistrya, the shining, majestic, unites
himself with a body, going forth in the bright space, with the body of a youth
of fifteen years, a shining one, with bright eyes, large, arrived at his
strength, powerful, nimble.
Of the age in which man first comes to years, of the age in which a man first
comes to strength, of the age in which a man first has ripe maturity.
He calls together hither an assembly, he asks here: "Who will now offer to me
here with offerings of Haoma and flesh, to whom shall I give manly blessings,
manly adherents, and for his own soul purifying? Now am I to be praised, now am
I to be worshipped by the corporeal world for the best purity."
The second ten nights, holy Zarathustra, Tistrya, the shining, majestic, unites
himself with a body, proceeding along the clear space, with the body of a bull
with golden hoofs.
He calls hither an assembly together, he asks here: "Who will now offer to me
with offerings of Haoma and flesh, to whom shall I give riches in cows, a herd
of cows, and for his own soul purification? Now am I to be praised, now am I to
be adored by the corporeal world on account of the best purity."
The third ten nights, holy Zarathustra, Tistrya, the shining, majestic, unites
himself with a body, proceeding along the clear space, with the body of a horse,
a shining, beautiful one, with yellow ears, with a golden housing.' Bleeck's
tr.]
[300] [Ormazd et Ahriman, pp. 148-51.
'"Quand il plonge le cou dans la mer Youru-Kasha, qu'il y cache ses
oreilles, il la met toute en mouvement et la fait bouillonner jusqu'à
ses côtes. Quand il urine dans la mer,
toutes les eaux qui coulent sur les sept Karshvar de la terre en sont purifiées.
Si l'àne à
trois pieds n'avait été
créé dans les eaux, toute l'eau de la mer
aurait été
perdue par le poison qu'Ahriman y aurait mis pour détruire
les créatures d'Ormazd. Tistrya, avec l'Ized
Borg, amène de la mer les eaux au secours de
l'âne à
trois pieds." Le fait que cet àne
merveilleux réside dans la mer Vouru-Kasha,
c'est-à-dire dans la mer atmosphérique;
les six yeux perçants et la com d'or dont il
frappe les bàtes malfaisantes de cette mer,
identiques aux mille yeux d'Agni et à la
corne d'or du cheval védique, son action
commune avec Tistrya, c'est-à-dire avec le
dieu de l'orage, avec I'Ized Borg, c'est-à-dire
avec le Fils des Eaux ou l'éclair, prouvent
qu'il appartient à cette grande ménagerie
mythique, où le dieu fulgurant de la nuée
vient emprunter tour à tour ses déguisements.
Les flots de liquide qu'il lâche sur les
sept Karshvar de la terre purifient la mer du poison qu'Ahriman y dépose:
lisons: "du poison que le serpent y dépose"
et tout devient clair: le démon,
à titre de serpent, a empoisonné
les eaux: la pluie d'orage qui tue le serpent détruit
le poison qui se dissout dans les eaux. Voilà
pourquoi l'urine de l'àne
à trois pieds a ce merveilleux effet de
purifier les eaux.
§ 125. L'on comprend à présent
pourquoi l'urine de taureau purifie le corps frappé
par le démon. Il a donc existé
des mythes où le taureau et la vache sont
les animaux de la nuée, et par suite c'est
dans des mythes de cet ordre que nous devons chercher l'explication des récits
du Bundehesh sur la mort du Taureau premier-né.
Voici d'ailleurs une formule du Vendidàd qui
a consacré un dair souvenir des rapports de
cet être:
"Hommage à toi,
ô Taureau sacré!
Hommage à toi qui accrois!
à toi qui fais grandir!
à toi qui donnes sa part de biens au juste
excellent et au juste encore à naître!
Toi que fait périr la Djahi,
l'Ashemaogha impie et l'homme méchant et
ennemi. Venez, ô nuées,
venez avec vos eaux qui vont en avant, qui tombent, qui posent sur le sol,
portant les pluies par milliers, par dizaines de mille."
Le Taureau est donc, comme la montagne, une des formes du nuage: le Taureau
Evakdât est l'animal de la nuée,
ayant pris une valeur cosmologique et devenu le premier des animaux vivants,
comme le Hara est la montagne de la nuée
ayant pris une valeur cosmologique et devenue la premier des montagnes. Des lors,
toute l'histoire cosmologique du Taureau se résout
immédiatement en formules mythiques.
Quand il meurt, de son corps sortent les plantes, de son sperme sont créés
les animaux. Le sperme du Taureau est la le jour ne fat venui. (Le grand
Parangon des Nouyelles Nouvelles, éd.
Mabille, p. 38). Souvent l'induction crée
non plus des étres mais des rapports
nouveaux; voir plus bas, §126. méme chose
que l'urine du Taureau ou de l'Ane à trois
pieds, la méme chose que le lait de la vache
céleste, c'est le liquide fécondant
que la nuée répand
sur terre: conception de méme ordre que
celle qui, dans la mythologie gréco-latine,
amène le mariage du ciel et de la terre. Et
les Védas nous donnent directement le point
de départ du développement
iranien dans leurs peintures de Paranya, le dieu de la pluie d'orage: en
mugissant, taureau aux flots rapides, il jette sa semence dans les plantes qu'il
féconde, les vents soufent, les
éclairs volent, les plantes se dressent, le
ciel se gonfle, un flot de vie naît au sein
de l'univers entier quand Parganya répand sa
semence dans la terre. Maruts, donnez-nous la pluie du ciel, donnez
à pleine ondée
les flots du liquide du cheval mâle!
Parganya, mugis, tonne et féconde, plane sur
ton char aqueux."
De là, dans le mazdéisme,
l'origine de la vie sur la terre ramenée au
taureau céleste. De son corps naissent les
plantes: les Védas nous en ont dit la cause.
Quant aux animaux, ce n'est que par extension qu'ils sortent tous de lui, et il
est probable qu'on ne lui reconnaissait primitivement d'autres descendants que
les taureaux terrestres. Entre lui et les animaux on
établit comme intermédiaire
un couple, mâle et femelle, soit par
condescendance pour les lois ordinaires de la génération,
soit plutôt sous l'action des mythes sur
l'union du mâle et de la femelle dans la nuée
d'orage. Arrêtons-nous un instant sur ces
mythes.
§ 126. Dans toute une série de mythes, le
dieu qui reprend la lumiére ou les eaux est
un amant qui reprend son amante, enlevée par
le démon, devenue dasapatni. Dans ces
mythes le naturalisme ne fournit que deux traits: l'enlèvement
des captives et leur délivrance; l'idée
de l'amour est postérieure et induite: elle
est si peu essentielle, que l'objet disputé
peut rester lumière et eaux sans se
personnifier, ou devenir un trésor comme
celui des Nibelungen; mais une fois entrée,
l'idée de ces amours et des unions qui en
doivent étre la suite, subsiste, se développe
par elle seule et l'orage devient l'union de l'amant et de l'amante, du mâle
et de la femelle; la réalité
de ces amours était d'ailleurs directement
attestée par le feu naissant des nuées,
par la naissance d'Agni, le Fils des Eaux; d'autre part, les mythes anciens qui
faisaient de la pluie la semence du ciel ou de l'animal céleste,
concouraient à transporter dans les régions
d'en haut et dans le trouble de l'orage toutes les scénes
de l'amour humain. Les Eaux avaient donc un mâle:
de l'à toutes ces amours védiques
d'Indra, d'Ãgni, de tous les héros orageux,
de tous "ces taureaux qui se précipitent en mugissant sur leurs femelles."']
[301] [Brown, The Unicorn,
pp. 62-8. 'The next phase of the Unicorn is, I think, a novel one, and
will solve a previously-felt difficulty. In the Pahlavi work, the Bundahish or
Bundahis is a circumstantial account of a wonderful animal called 'the
Three-legged Ass,' which, according to M. Darmesteter, is a personification of
cloud, storm, etc.; but whilst this hypothesis can never be demonstrated, I
think on a review of the evidence the contrary will clearly appear. The writer
states;
'Regarding the three-legged ass they say, that it stands amid the wide-formed
ocean, and its feet are three, eyes six, mouths nine, ears two and HORN
ONE, body white, food spiritual, and it is righteous.'
This puzzle to commentators now at once becomes luminous. The triform,
triquetric Moon stands amid the wide Oversea of heaven, the 'mare magnum sine
fine,' and 'its feet are three.' To what other personage or phenomenon would
this apply? To attempt to explain every detail in the late and elaborated, and
possibly in part purely arbitrary, account would be very unsafe. Suffice it if
the main outline comes out quite clearly. The Ass, a wise and sagacious animal,
especially in Eastern idea, has six eyes or two for each of the three phases;
the Horse-Serpent-Dog-Moon has six eyes. There is some doubt about the word
translated mouths; it may mean 'testes,' and, if so, would connect the moon as
usual with fertility and increase. The two ears may be the two ends of the horn,
which is that of the lunar Unicorn. Its body is of course white Leukothes. From
the archaic time of the Babylonian Moon-god Sin it is righteous, nay, the leader
of righteousness and of kosmic order; and as a righteous and heavenly being its
food, if it have any, must be 'spiritual.'
The description continues;
'And two of its six eyes are in the position of eyes,' i.e., in the full face or
Serpent-moon; 'two on the top of the head ' on the Dog-moon, the Half- or
New-moon; and two in the position of the hump, i.e., in the Unicorn-horse,
the Crescent or Gibbous-moon. 'With the sharpness of these six eyes it overcomes and destroys;' i.e., the dread lunar face and lunar eye which, as
we have seen, drives away evil and scares wicked souls. The eye is the chief
power of the Ass, as it is of the Gorgo. The whole extraordinary description is,
on analysis, most palpably lunar.
'Of the nine mouths three are in the head, three in the hump, and three in the
inner part of the flanks.' The mouths are distributed amongst the phases in the
same manner as the eyes. The hump, so far as any actual animal supplies the
imagery, will be that of the Indian ox. The increased number may express
intensity, and the mouths be more or less Gorgonian.
'The one horn is as it were of gold and hollow. With that horn it will vanquish
and dissipate all the vile corruption due to the efforts of noxious creatures.'
This is the pure bright unicorn's horn that drives away darkness and evil,
cleanses streams and pools, and by which 'venym is defended,'
'When it stales in the ocean all the sea-water will become purified. ... If,
three-legged ass! you were not created for the water, all the water in the sea
would have perished.' The sea-and-water-ruling moon. 'Tistar seizes the water
more completely from the ocean with the assistance of the three-legged ass.'
In Bundahis, vii. 2, we read;
'Every single month is the owner of one constellation; the month Tir is the
fourth month of the year. Cancer the fourth constellation from Aries, so it is
the owner of Cancer, into which Tistar sprang, and displayed the characteristics
of a producer of rain.' Tistar, Tistrya or Tishtrya, is Sirius, who, as the
stellar protagonist, co-operates with the Moon in ruling water and regulating
that humidity which is necessary to vitality.
'Tistar was converted into three forms, the form of a man and the form of a
horse and the form of a bull; thirty days and nights he was distinguished in
brilliance; and in each form he produced rain ten days and nights; as the
astrologers say that every constellation has three forms.'
In this very interesting passage we see the Triform Moon reduplicated in a
triform Sirius, himself in his glorious light a second moon. His special period
of brilliance is that of the lunar course, and like the Moon, he takes the forms
of horse and bull.
When we get as late as the formulated systems of 'the astrologers,' each
zodiacal constellation has three forms as divided into three decans, and it
appears that the extra-zodiacal constellations were also regarded in some way as
triform. These are the elaborations of previous simpler observation, and
probably originally based upon lunar triformity. Thus Tistar the shining,
majestic, the first ten nights unites himself with a body, with the body of a
youth of fifteen years, a shining one, with bright eyes. The second ten nights,
Tistar unites himself with a body, proceeding along the clear apace, with the
body of a bull with golden hoofs. The third ten nights Tlstar unites himself
with a body, with the body of a horse, a shining, beautiful one, with yellow
ears, with a golden housing.' These phases, however, do not really apply to
Sirius but to Lunus, and hence their origin.
The three-legged lunar ass is found on coins and elsewhere under the familiar
form of the Triquetra, the origin of which appears thus; Figs. 1 &. 2.
It is familiar on coins of Sicily as the national monetary type, a connexion
however which is probably merely based upon the shape of the island,
Trinacria or, as the Roman poets sometimes actually call it, Triquetra. But in
the case of the Isle of Man no such reason can be admitted as explanatory.'
Planche remarks; 'The arms of Man are legs, or in less equivocal language, the
ancient kingdom of Man was, and the island itself is still, represented in
heraldry by three legs in armour, conjoined at the thighs. Our example of this
heraldic curiosity is particularly interesting, because the armour in which
the legs are encased is the banded mail of the thirteenth century, and therefore
presents us with the earliest appearance of the armorial coat of that Island and
Sovereignty, after it had ceased to be Norwegian, a.d. 1264. The origin of the
hearing has yet to he discovered.' Behold it.
On coins of the ancient Greek city of Metabon (Metapontion-Metapontum) on the
Tarentine Gulf, the three crescent legs appear in a variant phase thus; The dots
show that the three crescents are really identical with the central dot or
full-moon. A favourite type on coins of Metabon is the Ear-of-corn which is
always, and doubtless justly, connected with local fertility and the Fig. 8,
cult of Damater-Ceres; but at the same time the resemblance between the Ear and
the Sacred Tree of the Euphrates Valley is very striking.
Another coin of Metabon shows a bull's head, a type which may be lunar.
A triquetric ornament appears also at Troy and Mykenae.
'Astarte appears at times on coins as cow-headed or bull-headed, in accordance
with the statement that she placed the head of a bull on her own head in token
of sovareignty ' (Sanch. i. 7). Pausanias (VI. xxiv. 6) mentions a statue of the
Moon which had horns on its head, and Taurokers is an Orphik epithet of Seland.
So Porphyry states that the priestesses of Demeter 'called the moon, who
presides over generation, a bull' and adds, 'and Taurus is the exaltation of the
Moon' (in Nymph Cv. antron, viii.). According to Olympiodoros (MS,
Comment. on the Gorgias), ' the ancient theologists' said that 'the Moon is
drawn by two bulls; by two, on account of her increase and diminution; by bulls,
because as these till the ground [Not much tillage is done by bulls], so the
Moon governs all those parts which surround the earth.']
[302] [The Pursuivant of Arms, pp. 143-4. From Brown, The Unicorn. See above note.]
[303] [Taliesin, Marwnad Aeddon o Von, (The Elegy of Aeddon of Mon), in Skene, Four Ancient Books of Wales, vol. 1, p. 79. 'Manannan mac Lir, i.e. a celebrated merchant was he between Erin, and Alban, and Manann, and a Druid was he also, and he was the best navigator that was frequenting Erin, and it was he used to know through science, by observing the sky, the period that the calm or the storm should continue, and of him the one ...']
[304] [Commentary on the Gallic Wars, bk. 6:17. 'They worship as their divinity, Mercury in particular, and have many images of him, and regard him as the inventor of all arts, they consider him the guide of their journeys and marches, and believe him to have great influence over the acquisition of gain and mercantile transactions. Next to him they worship Apollo, and Mars, and Jupiter, and Minerva; respecting these deities they have for the most part the same belief as other nations: that Apollo averts diseases, that Minerva imparts the invention of manufactures, that Jupiter possesses the sovereignty of the heavenly powers; that Mars presides over wars. To him, when they have determined to engage in battle, they commonly vow those things which they shall take in war. When they have conquered, they sacrifice whatever captured animals may have survived the conflict, and collect the other things into one place. In many states you may see piles of these things heaped up in their consecrated spots; nor does it often happen that any one, disregarding the sanctity of the case, dares either to secrete in his house things captured, or take away those deposited; and the most severe punishment, with torture, has been established for such a deed.' McDevitte's and Bohn's tr.]
[305] [Cormac, Glossary, p.
114. 'Manannan mac lir, a celebrated merchant who was in the Isle of
Mann. He was the best pilot that was in the west of Europe. He used to know by
studying the heavens (a) [i.e, using the sky], the period which would be the
fine weather and the bad weather, and when each of these two times would change.
Inde Scoti et Brittones cum deum vocaverunt maris, et inde filium maris esse
dixeruni (b) i.e. mac lir son of sea.' Et de nomine Manannan the Isle of
Manndictus est (c).
He was son of Allot, one of the Tuatha De Danann chieftains. He was otherwise
called Orbsen, whence Loch Orbsen now Lough Corrib. He is still vividly
remembered in the mountainous district of Deny and Donegal, and is said to hare
an enchanted castle in Lough Foyle. According to the traditions in the Isle of
Man and the Eastern counties of Leinster this first man of Man rolled on three
legs like a wheel through the mist, and hence the three-legged figure on the
Manx halfpenny, and the motto fuocunquejeceyne stabit. O'D. I know nothing of
this tradition, but if it be authentic, we may possibly trace a connection
between this three-legged Manannan mac Lir (= the Welsh Manawydan ah Llvr), the
TARVOS TRIGAIANUS of the Notre Dame Inscription and the Vedic Vishnu with the
three strides, i.e. the rising, the culmination and the setting of the sun. See
Siegfried, Beitr. zur vergl. epr. i. 473.—Ed.'
O'Donovan's edition, ed. by Stokes.
Guest, Mabinogion, pp. 411-12. 'The Prince who figures as the hero
of the present Mabinogi, is the subject of the Triads, in one of which his
singular adventures are thus alluded to:
"Three Makers of Golden Shoes, of the Isle of Britain: Caawallawn the son of
Beli, when he went as far as Gascon, to obtain Flnr, the daughter of Uygnach
Oorr, who bad been carried thither to Caesar the Emperor, by one called Mwrchan
the Thief, king nf that country and friend of Julius Caesar, and Caswallawn
brought her bank to the Isle of Britain; Manawjddan the son of Llyr Llediaith,
when he was as far m Dyved laying restrictions; Llew Llaw Gyfftn, when he was
along with Gwidion, the son of Don, seeking a name and arms from Arianrod, his
mother."—Triad 134.
In the other, he is represented as one of the humble princes of the Island,
because, having cultivated minstrelsy after the captivity of his brother Bran,
he would not afterwards resume his rank, although he might have done so.—Tr.
38.
Mui-Bwyddan is mentioned in the Dialogue between Arthur, Ka, and Olewlwjd; and
his name occurs in connexion with that of Pryderi in the Poem on the Song of Llyr,
"Eerdd meib Llyr," of Taliesin.
The other principal personages whose names appear in this Mabinogi, are
here passed over in silence, having been already made the subjects of various
preceding notes.
It may be useful to remind the reader that Lloegyr is the Welsh, name for the
eastern and greater part of the island; and corresponds in modem usage with the
word England.—See p. 210.']
[306] [Mycenæ: A Narrative of Researches and Discoveries at Mycenæ and Tiryns, p. 257, fig. 376.]
[307] [Wade, TES, 7.]
[308] [Sayce, 'The Astronomy and Astrology of the Babylonians, with Translations of the Tablets relating to these Subjects,' TSBA, 3, 147. 'These are but few, the chief being those about the Moon, which have been quoted from him by Vitruvius (IX, 2) and others. That body was described as a sphere, half of which is igneous, the light not being derived from the Sun; its movements were said to be threefold, though irregular, one in longitude, one in latitude, and one in an orbit; and its phases to be produced by the alternate conversion of the luminous and the opaque sides to the Earth, these conversions always coinciding with the Moon's conjunction with the Sun; and a lunar eclipse happening when the dark part is turned towards the Earth.']
[309] [Storia della Arte Cristiana nei Primi Otto Secoli della Chisea, vol. 2, tav. 82.]
[310] [Apology, ch. 16. 'But recently in this city, what is really a new representation of our god has been made public, since a certain criminal, hired to trick the wild beasts, exhibited a picture with an inscription to the following effect: 'The Christian God, the Offspring of an Ass.' He had asses' ears, one foot hoofed, was dressed in the toga and carried a book. We laughed both at the name and the figure. But they were bound to worship at once a two-formed divinity, because they have welcomed, as gods, creatures with heads both of dog and of lion, with the horns of a goat and a ram, others with goats' bodies from the loins downwards, and like serpents from the legs, and with wings on the foot or the back. I have stated these methods more fully, to avoid passing over, as it were purposely, any rumour without rebutting it. All these false opinions we have now cleared away and proceed to turn to the proof of our religion.' Mayor's tr.]
[311] [Rit. ch. 17. 'The Gods, Guardians, Judges, are the Apes, Isis and Nephthys. Things of a nature hateful to the Gods are trick and craft. The Clean Crosser over the place of birth is Anup [Anubis]. He is behind the bier which holds the bowels of Osiris.' Birch's tr. Cf. Renouf's tr.]
[312] [Bosio, Roma Sotteranea, p. 257.]
[313] [Rit. ch. 80. 'I am the Tongue or the writer. I have taken the Perceptions in the land, where I found them. I have deprived the darkness of its power. I am the Woman, the orb [hour] of darkness. I have brought my orb to the darkness; it is changed to light.' Birch's tr. Cf. Renouf's tr.]
[314] [Hieroglyphica, bk. 1.
14. 'To denote the moon, or the habitable world, or
letters, or a priest, or anger, or swimming, they
pourtray a CYNOCEPHALUS. And they symbolise the moon by it, because the
animal has a kind of sympathy with it at its conjunction with the god. For at
the exact instant of the conjunction of the moon with the sun, when the moon
becomes unillumined, then the male Cynocephalus neither sees, nor eats, but is
bowed down to the earth with grief, as if lamenting the ravishment of the moon:
and the female also, in addition to its being unable to see, and being afflicted
in the same manner as the male, ex genitalibus sanguinem emittit: hence even to
this day cynocephali are brought up in the temples, in order that from them may
be ascertained the exact instant of the conjunction of the sun and moon. And
they symbolise by it the habitable world, because they hold that there
are seventy-two primitive countries of the world; and because these animals,
when brought up in the temples, and attended with care, do not die like other
creatures at once in the same day, but a portion of them dying daily is buried
by the priests, while the rest of the body remains in its natural state, and so
on till seventy-two days are completed, by which time it is all dead. They also
symbolise letters by it, because there is an Egyptian race of cynocephali
that is acquainted with letters; wherefore, when a cynocephalus is first brought
into a temple, the priest places before him a tablet, and a reed, and ink, to
ascertain whether it be of the tribe that is acquainted with letters, and
whether it writes. The animal is moreover consecrated to Hermes [Thoth], the
patron of all letters. And they denote by it a priest, because by nature
the cynocephalus does not eat fish, nor even any food that is fishy, like the
priests. And it is born circumcised, which circumcision the priests also adopt.
And they denote by it anger, because this animal is both exceedingly
passionate and choleric beyond others:—and swimming, because other animals by
swimming appear dirty, but this alone swims to whatever spot it intends to
reach, and is in no respect affected with dirt.'
See also BB 1:431 for
another ref. to this chapter.]
[315] [Bancroft,
The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America, vol. 3,
pp. 251-73.
'Quetzalcoatl is further reported by Mendieta to have assisted in drawing up and
arranging the Mexican Calendar, a sacred book of thirteen tables, in which the
religious rites and ceremonies proper to each day were set forth, in connection
with the appropriate signs. It is said that the gods, having created mankind,
bethought themselves that it would be well if the people they had made had some
writings by which they might direct themselves. Now there were, in a certain
cave at Cuernavaca, two personages of the number of the gods, and they were man
and wife, he Oxomoco, and she Cipactonal; and they were consulting together. It
appeared good to the old woman that her descendant Quetzalcoatl should be
consulted. The Cholulan god thought the thing of the calendar to be good and
reasonable; so the three set to work. To the old woman was respect fully
allotted the privilege of choosing and writing the first sign; she painted a
kind of water-serpent called cipactli, and called the sign Ce Cipactli,
that is, a serpent. Oxomoco in his turn wrote two canes and then Quetzalcoatl
wrote three houses; and so they went on till the whole thirteen signs of each
table were written out in their order.
Let us now take up again the narrative of Sahagun, at the point where
Quetzalcoatl, after drinking the potion prepared by Tezcatlipoca, prepares to
set off upon his journey. Quetzalcoatl, very heavy in heart for all the
misfortunes that this rival god was bringing upon the Toltecs, burned his
beautiful houses of silver and of shell, and ordered other precious things to be
buried in the mountains and ravines. He turned the cocoa-nut trees into a kind
of trees that are called mizquitl; he commanded all the birds of rich
plumage, the quetzal tototl, and the xiuhtotl, and the
tlauquechol, to fly away and go into Andhuac, a hundred leagues distant.
Then he himself set out upon his road from Tulla; he travelled on till he came
to a place called Quauhtitlan, where was a great tree, high and very thick. Here
the exile rested, and he asked his servants for a mirror, and looked at his own
face. What thoughts soever were working in his heart, he only said, I am already
old. Then he named that place
Vevequauhtitlan, and he took up stones and stoned the great tree; and all the
stones he threw sank into it, and were for a long time to be seen sticking
there, from the ground even up to the topmost branches.
Continuing his journey, having flute-players playing before him, he came to a
place on the road where he was weary, and sat down on a stone to rest. And
looking toward Tulla, he wept bitterly. His tears marked and ate into the stone
on which he sat, and the print of his hands, and of his back parts, was also
found therein when he resumed his journey. He called that place Temacpalco.
After that he reached a very great and wide river, and he commanded a stone
bridge to be thrown across it; on that bridge he crossed the river, and he named
the place Tepanoaya. Going on upon his way, Quetzalcoatl came to another place,
where certain sorcerers met and tried to stop him, saying, Whither goest thou?
why dost thou leave thy city? to whose care wilt thou commend it? who will do
penance? Quetzalcoatl replied to the said sorcerers, Ye can in no wise hinder my
going, for I must go. They asked him further, Whither goest thou? He said, To
Tlapalla, They continued, But to what end goest thou? He said, I am called, and
the sun calls me. So the sorcerers said, Go, then, but leave behind all the
mechanical arts, the melting of silver, the working of precious stones and of
masonry, the painting, feather-working, and other crafts. And of all these the
sorcerers despoiled Quetzalcoatl. As for him, he cast into a fountain all the
rich jewels that he had with him; and that fountain was called Cohcaapa, and it
is so named to this day.
Quetzalcoatl continued his journey; and there came another sorcerer to meet him,
saying, Whither goest thou? Quetzalcoatl said, To Tlapalla. The wizard said,
Very well; but drink this wine that I have. The traveller answered, No: I cannot
drink it; I cannot so much as taste it. Thou must drink, said the grim magician,
were it but a drop; for to none of the living can I give it; it intoxicates all,
so drink. Then Quetzalcoatl took the wine and drank it through a cane. Drinking,
he made himself drunk; he slept upon the road; he began to snore; and when he
awoke, he looked on one side and on the other, and tore his hair with his hands.
And that place was called Cochtoca.
Quetzalcoatl going on upon his way and passing between the sierra of the volcano
and the snowy sierra, all his servants, being hump-backed and dwarfs, died of
cold in the pass between the said mountains. And Quetzalcoatl bewailed their
death bitterly, and sang with weeping and sighing. Then he saw the other snowy
sierra, which is called Poyauhtecatl and is near Tecamachalco; and so he passed
by all the cities and places, leaving many signs, it is said, in all the
mountains and roads. It is said further that he had a way of crossing the
sierras whereby he amused and rested himself at the same time: when he came to
the top of a mountain he used to sit down, and so seated, let himself slide down
the mountain-side to the bottom. In one place he built a court for ball-play,
all of squared stone, and here he used to play the game called tlachtli.
Through the midst of this court he drew a line called the telcotl; and
where that line was made the mountain is now opened with a deep gash. In another
place he cast a dart at a great tree called a pochutl, piercing it
through with the dart in such wise that the tree looked like a cross; for the
dart he threw was itself a tree of the same kind. Some say that Quetzalcoatl
built certain subterranean houses, called micllancalco; and further, that
he set up and balanced a great stone, so that one could move it with one s
little finger, yet a multitude could not displace it. Many other notable things
remain that Quetzalcoatl did among many peoples; he it was that named all the
places and woods and mountains. Travelling ever onward, he came at last to the
sea-shore, and there commanded a raft to be made of the snakes called
coatlapechtli. Having seated himself on this raft as in a canoe, he put out
to sea, and no man knows how he got to Tlapallan.
Torquemada gives a long and valuable account of Quetzalcoatl, gathered from many
sources, which can not be overlooked. It runs much as follows: The name
Quetzalcoatl means Snake-plumage, or Snake that has plumage and the kind of
snake referred to in this name is found in the province of Xicalanco, which is
on the frontier of the kingdom of Yucatan as one goes thence to Tabasco. This
god Quetzalcoatl was very celebrated among the people of the city of Cholula,
and held in that place for the greatest of all.
He was, according to credible histories, high-priest in the city of Tulla. From
that place he went to Cholula, and not, as Bishop Bartolome de las Casas says in
his Apologia, to Yucatan; though he went to Yucatan afterward, as we
shall see. It is said of Quetzalcoatl that he was a white man, large-bodied,
broad-browed, great-eyed, with long black hair, and a beard heavy and rounded.
He was a great artificer, and very ingenious. He taught many mechanical arts,
especially the art of working the precious stones called chalchiuites,
which are a kind of green stone highly valued, and the art of casting silver and
gold. The people, seeing him so inventive, held him in great estimation, and
reverenced him as king in that city; and so it came about that though in
temporal things the ruler of Tulla was a lord named Huemac, yet in all spiritual
and ecclesiastical matters Quetzalcoatl was supreme, and as it were chief
pontiff.
It is feigned by those that seek to make much of their god that he had certain
palaces made of green stone like emeralds, others made of silver, others of
shells, red and white, others of all kinds of wood, others of turquoise, and
others of precious feathers. He is said to have been very rich, and in need of
nothing. His vassals were very obedient to him, and very light of foot; they
were called tlanquacemilhuique. When they wished to publish any command
of Quetzalcoatl, they sent a crier up upon a high mountain called Tzatzitepec,
where with a loud voice he proclaimed the order; and the voice of this crier was
heard for a hundred leagues distance, and farther, even to the coasts of the sea: all this is affirmed for true. The fruits of the earth and the trees
flourished there in an extraordinary degree, and sweet-singing birds were
abundant. The great pontiff inaugurated a system of penance, pricking his legs,
and drawing blood, and staining therewith maguey thorns. He washed also at
midnight in a fountain called Xiuhpacoya. From all this, it is said, the
idolatrous priests of
Mexico adopted their similar custom.
While Quetzalcoatl was enjoying this good fortune with pomp and majesty, we are
told that a great magician called Titlacahua (Tezcatlipoca), another of the
gods, arrived at Tulla. He took the form of an old man, and went in to see
Quetzalcoatl, saying to him, My lord, inasmuch as I know thine intent, and how
much thou desirest to set out for certain distant lands; also, because I know
from thy servants that thou art unwell, I have brought thee a certain beverage,
by drinking which thou shalt attain thine end. Thou shalt so make thy way to the
country thou desirest, having perfect health to make the journey; neither shalt
thou remember at all the fatigues and toils of life, nor how thou art mortal.
Seeing all his projects thus discovered by the pretended old man, Quetzalcoatl
questioned him, Where have I to go? Tezcatlipoca answered, That it was already
determined with the supreme gods that he had to go to Tlapalla, and that the
thing was inevitable, because there was another old man waiting for him at his
destination. As Quetzalcoatl heard this, he said that it was true, and that he
desired it much; and he took the vessel and drank the liquor it contained.
Quetzalcoatl was thus easily persuaded to what Tezcatlipoca desired, because he
wished to make himself immortal and to enjoy perpetual life. Having swallowed
the draught, he became beside himself, and out of his mind, weeping sadly and
bitterly. He determined to go to Tlapalla. He destroyed or buried all his plate
and other property, and set out. First he arrived at the place Quauhtitlan,
where the great tree was, and where he, borrowing a mirror from his servants,
found himself "already old." The name of this place was changed by him to
Huehuequauhtitlan, that is to say, "near the old tree, or the tree of the old
man;" and the trunk of the tree was filled with stones that he cast at it. After
that he journeyed on, his people playing flutes and other instruments, till he
came to a mountain near the city of Tlalnepantla, two leagues from the city of
Mexico, where he sat down on a stone and put his hands on it, leaving marks
embedded therein that may be seen to this day. The truth of this thing is
strongly corroborated by the inhabitants of that district; I myself have
questioned them upon the subject, and it has been certified to me. Further more,
we have it written down accurately by many worthy authors; and the name of the
locality is now Temacpalco, that is to say, in the palm of the hand. Journeying
on to the coast and to the kingdom of Tlapalla, Quetzalcoatl was met by the
three sorcerers, Tezcatlipoca and other two with him, who had already brought so
much destruction upon Tulla. These tried to stop or hinder him in his journey,
questioning him, Whither goest thou? He answered, To Tlapalla. To whom, they
inquired, hast thou given the charge of thy kingdom of Tulla, and who will do
penance there? But he said that that was no longer any affair of his, and that
he must pursue his road. And being further questioned as to the object of his
journey, he said that he was called by the lord of the land to which he was
going, who was the sun. The three wizards, seeing then the determination of
Quetzalcoatl, made no further attempt to dissuade him from his purpose, but
contented themselves with taking from him all his instruments and his mechanical
arts, so that though he departed, those things should not be wanting to the
state. It was here that Quetzalcoatl threw into a fountain all the rich jewels
that he carried with him; for which thing the fountain was called from that time
Cozcaapan, that is to say, the water of the strings or chains of jewels/ The
same place is now called Coaapan, that is to say, in the snake- water, and very
properly, because the word Quetzalcoatl means feathered snake. In this
way he journeyed on, suffering various molestations from those sorcerers, his
enemies, till he arrived at Cholula, where he was received (as we in another
part say), and afterward adored as god. Having lived twenty years in that city,
he was expelled by Tezcatlipoca. He set out for the kingdom of Tlapalla,
accompanied by four virtuous disciples of noble birth, and in Goatzacoalco, a
province distant from Cholula toward the sea a hundred and fifty leagues, he
embarked for his destination. Parting with his disciples, he told them that
there should surely come to them in after times, by way of the sea where the sun
rises, certain white men with white beards like him, and that these would be his
brothers and would rule that land.
After that the four disciples returned to Cholula, and told all that their
master and god had prophesied when departing. Then the Cholulans divided their
province into four principalities, and gave the government to those four, and
some four of their descendants always ruled in like manner over these
tetrarchies till the Spaniard came; being, however, subordinate to a central
power.
This Quetzalcoatl was god of the air, and as such had his temple, of a round
shape and very magnificent. He was made god of the air for the mildness and
gentleness of all his ways, not liking the sharp and harsh measures to which the
other gods were so strongly inclined. It is to be said further that his life on
earth was marked by intensely religious characteristics; not only was he devoted
to the careful observance of all the old customary forms of worship, but he
himself ordained and appointed many new rites, ceremonies, and festivals for the
adoration of the gods; and it is held for certain that he made the calendar. He
had priests who were called quequetzalcohua, that is to say, priests of
the order of Quetzalcoatl. The memory of him was engraved deeply upon the minds
of the people, and it is said that when barren women prayed and made sacrifices
to him, children were given them. He was, as we have said, god of the winds, and
the power of causing them to blow was attributed to him as well as the power of
calming or causing their fury to cease. It was said further that he swept the
road, so that the gods called Tlaloques could rain; this the people imagined
because ordinarily a month or more before the rains began there blew strong
winds throughout all New Spain. Quetzalcoatl is described as having worn during
life, for the sake of modesty, garments that reached down to the feet, with a
blanket over all, sown with red crosses. The Cholulans preserved certain green
stones that had belonged to him, regarding them with great veneration and
esteeming them as relics. Upon one of these was carved a monkey's head, very
natural. In the city of Cholula, there was to be found dedicated to him a great
and magnificent temple, with many steps, but each step so narrow that there was
not room for a foot on it. His image had a very ugly face, with a large and
heavily bearded head. It was not set on its feet, but lying down, and covered
with blankets. This, it is said, was done as a memorial that he would one day
return to reign. For
reverence of his great majesty, his image was kept covered, and to signify his
absence it was kept lying down, as one that sleeps, as one that lies down to
sleep. In awaking from that sleep, he was to rise up and reign. The people also
of Yucatan reverenced this god Quetzalcoatl, calling him Kukulcan, and saying
that he came to them from the west, that is, from New Spain, for Yucatan is
eastward therefrom. From him it is said the kings of Yucatan are descended, who
call themselves Cocomes, that is to say, judges or hearers.
Clavigero's account is characteristically clear and comprehensible. It may be
summed up as follows: Among the Mexicans and other nations of Anahuac,
Quetzalcoatl was accounted god of the air. He is said to have been some time
high-priest of Tulla. He is described as having been white a large,
broad-browed, great-eyed man, with long black hair and thick beard. His life was
rigidly temperate and exemplary, and his industry was directed by the
profoundest wisdom. He amassed great treasure, and his was the invention of
gem-cutting and of metal-casting. All things prospered in his time. One ear of
corn was a man's load; and the gourds, or pump kins, of the day were as tall as
one's body. No one dyed cotton then, for it grew of all colors; and all other
things in like manner were perfect and abundant. The very birds in the trees
sang such songs as have never since been heard, and. flashed such marvellous
beauties in the sun as no plumage of later times could rival. Quetzalcoatl had
his laws proclaimed from the top of the hill Tzatzitepec (mountain of outcry),
near Tulla, by a crier whose voice was audible for three hundred miles.
All this, however, was put an end to, as far as Tulla was concerned, by
Tezcatlipoca, who, moved perhaps by jealousy, determined to remove Quetzalcoatl.
So the god appeared to the great teacher in the guise of an old man, telling him
it was the will of the gods that he betake himself to Tlapalla, and
administering at the same time a potion, the effect of which was to cause an
intense longing for the said journey. Quetzalcoatl set out, and having performed
many marvels on the way, arrived in Cholula. Here the inhabitants would not
suffer him to go farther, but persuaded him to accept the government of their
city; and he remained with them, teaching many
useful arts, customs, and ceremonies, and preaching against war and all other
forms of cruelty. According to some, he at this time arranged the divisions of
the seasons and the calendar.
Having lived twenty years in Cholula, lie left, still impelled by the subtle
draught, to seek this imaginary city of Tlapalla. He was no more seen of men,
some said one thing and some another; but, however he might have disappeared, he
was apotheosized by the Toltecs of Cholula, who raised him a great mound and
built a sanctuary upon it. A similar structure was erected to his honor at Tulla.
From Cholula his worship as god of the air spread over all the country; in
Yucatan the nobles claimed descent from him.
The ideas of Brasseur with regard to Quetzalcoatl have their roots in and must
be traced back to the very first appearing of the Mexican religion, or of the
religion or religions by which it was preceded; so that to arrive at those ideas
I must give a summary of the abbe's whole theory of the origin of that creed. He
believes that in the seething and thundering of volcanoes a conception of
divinity and of supernatural powers first sprang up in the mind of the ancestors
of the Mexicans. The volcanoes were afterwards identified with the stars, and
the most terrific of all, Nanahuatl, or Nanahuatzin, received the honors of
apotheosis in the sun. Issued from the earth of the Crescent (Brasseur's sunken
island or continent in the Atlantic), personified in the antique Quetzalcoatl,
prototype of priests and of sacerdotal continence, he is thus his son and
identifies himself with him; he (the divinity, Tylor's Great Somebody ) is the
model of sages under the name of Hueman, and the prototype of kings under that
of Topiltzin. Strange thing to find united in one being personalities so
diverse! King, philosopher, priest par excellence, whose virtues serve as a rule
to all the priests of the pagan antiquity, and side by side with all that,
incontinence and passion deified in this invalid, whose name even, the
syphilitic, is the expression of the abuse he has made of the sex, appear to
have sprung up, or rather two manners of judging the same events. There was
first a struggle, and then a separation; under the banner-names of Quetzalcoatl
and Tezcatlipoca the rival schools fought for the most part of course there were
divers minor factions; but the foregoing were the principal and most important.
There is every reason to believe that the religion that took Quetzalcoatl for
symbol was but a reformation upon another more ancient, that had the moon for
its object. It is the moon, male and female, Luna, Lunus, personified in the
earth of the Crescent, ingulfed in the abyss, that I believe (it is always the
abbé that speaks) I see at the commencement of the amalgam of rites and symbols
of every kind, religion of enjoyments and material pleasures, born of the
promiscuity of the men and women, taken refuge in the lesser Antilles after the
cataclysm.
The religion that had taken the moon for point of departure, and in which women
seem to have played the principal role, as priestesses, attacked formally, by
this very fact, a more antique religion, a pre-diluvian religion that appears to
have been Sabaism, entirely exempt from idolatry, and in which the sun received
the chief homage. In the new religion, on the contrary, it was not the moon as a
star, which was the real object of worship, it was the moon-land (lune-terre),
it was the region of the Crescent, shrouded under the waves, whose death was
wept and whose resurrection was afterward celebrated in the appearance of the
isles refuge of the shipwrecked of the grand catastrophe of the Lesser Antilles;
to the number of seven principal islands, sung, in all American legends, as the
Seven Grottos, cradle of nations.
This is the myth of Quetzalcoatl, who dies or disappears, and whose personality
is represented at the outset in the isles, then successively, in all the countries
whither the civilization was carried of which he was the flag. So far as I can
judge at present, the priest who placed himself under the aegis of this grand
name labored solely to reform what there was of odious and barbarous in the cult
of which the women had the chief direction, and under whose regime human blood
flowed in waves. After the triumph of Quetzalcoatl, the men who bore his name
took the direction of religion and society, which then made considerable
progress in their hands.
But if we are to believe the same traditions, their A preponderance had not a
very long duration. The most restless and the most audacious among the partisans
of the ancient order of things raised the flag of revolt: they became the chiefs
of a warlike faction, rival of the sacerdotal a conquering faction, source of
veritable royal dynasties and of the religion of the sun living and victorious,
in opposition to the god entombed in the abyss. Quetzalcoatl, vanquished by
Tezcatlipoca, then retired before a too powerful enemy, and the Toltecs were
dispersed among all nations. Those of them that remained coalesced with the
victors, and from the accord of the aforementioned three cults, there sprang
that monstrous amalgam of so many different ideas and symbols, such as is found
to-day in what remains to us of the Mexican religion, For me (and it is always
the abbe that speaks), I believe I perceive the origin of the struggle, not
alone in the diversity of races, but principally in the existence of two
currents of contrary ideas, having had the same point of departure in the events
of the great cataclysm of the Crescent Land, above referred to. Different
manners of looking at these events, and of commemorating them, seem to me to
have marked from the beginning the starting-point of two religions that lived,
perhaps, side by side for centuries without the explosion of their
disagreements, other wise than by insignificant agitations. Before these two
could take, with regard to each other, the proportions of a schism or a heresy,
it was necessary that all the materials of which these religions are constituted
had had time to elaborate themselves, and that the hieroglyphics which
represented their origin had become sufficiently obscure for the priesthood to
keep the vulgar from understanding them. For if schism has brought on the
struggle between, and afterward the violent separation of families, this
separation cannot have taken place till after the entire creation of myths, the
entire construction of these divine genealogies, of these poetic traditions,
that are found scattered among all the peoples of the earth, but of which the
complete whole does not exist, save in the history and religion of Mexico.
Two orders of gods the one order fallen from heaven into the abyss, becoming
there the judges of the dead, and being personified in one of their number, who
came to life again, symbolizing thus life and death; the other order surviving
the cataclysm and symbolizing thus an imperishable life; such, at its origin, is
the double character of the myth of Quetzalcoatl. But in reality, this god he
is the earth, he is the region swallowed up by the waters, he is the vanquished
stifled under the weight of his adversary, under the force of the victorious
wave; which adversary, which power in opposition to the first, joining itself to
the fire on the blazing pile of Nanahuatl, is Tezcatlipoca, is Hercules,
conqueror of enemies, is the foci whose struggle is eternal as that of the ocean
eating the shore, is he in whom the light becomes afterward personified, and who
becomes thus the battle-flag of the opponents of Quetzalcoatl. To the dead god a
victim is necessary, one that like him descends into the abyss. This victim was
a young girl, chosen among those that were consecrated at the foot of the
pyramid, and drowned a custom long found as well in Egypt as at Chichen-Itza,
and in many other countries of the world. But to the god come to life again, to
the god in whom fire was personified, and immortal life, to Quetzalcoatl when he
became Huitzilopochtli, victims were sacrificed by tearing out the heart, symbol
of the jet of flame issuing from the volcano, to offer it to the conquering sun,
symbol of Tezcatlipoca, who first demanded holocausts of human blood. Mr Tylor
declares Quetzalcoatl to have been the Sun. "We may even find him identified
with the Sun by name, and his history is perhaps a more compact and perfect
series of solar myths that hangs to the name of any single personage in our own
Aryan mythology. His mother, the Dawn or the Night, gives birth to him, and
dies. His father, Camaxtli, is the sun, and was worshipped with solar rites in
Mexico, but he is the old Sun of yesterday. The clouds personified in the mythic
race of the Mixcohuas, or Cloud-Snakes (the Nibelungs of the western
hemisphere), bear down the old Sun and choke him, and bury him in their
mountain. But the young Quetzalcoatl, the Sun of to-day, rushes up into the
midst of them from below, and some he slays at the first onset, and some he
leaves, rift with red wounds to die. We have the Sun boat of Helios, of the
Egyptian Ha, of the Polynesian Maui. Quetzalcoatl, his bright career drawing
toward its close, is chased into far lands by his kinsman, Tezcatlipoca, the
young Sun of to-morrow. He, too, is well known as a sun-god in the Mexican
theology. Wonderfully fitting with all this, one incident after another in the
life of Quetzalcoatl falls into its place. The guardians of the sacred fire tend
him, his funeral pile is on the top of Orizaba, he is the helper of travellers,
the maker of the calendar, the source of astrology, the beginner of his tory,
the bringer of wealth and happiness. He is the patron of the craftsmen, whom he
lights to his labor; as it is written in an ancient Sanskrit hymn, He steps
forth, the splendor of the sky, the wide-seeing, the far-aiming, the shining
wanderer; surely enlivened by the sun, do men go to their tasks and do their
work. Even his people, the Toltecs, catch from him solar qualities. Will it be
even possible to grant to this famous race, in whose story the legend of
Quetzalcoatl is the leading incident, anything more than a mythic existence?"
Dr Brinton is of opinion that "there were in truth many Quetzalcoatls, for his
high-priest always bore his name, but he himself is a pure creation of the
fancy, and all his alleged history is nothing but a myth. His emblematic name,
the Bird-Serpent, and his rebus and cross at Palenque, I have already explained.
Others of his titles were, Ehecatl, the air; Yolcuat, the rattlesnake; Tohil,
the nimbler; Huemac, the strong hand; Xanihehecatl, lord of the four winds. The
same dualism reappears in him that has been noted in his analogues elsewhere. He
is both lord of the eastern light and the wind.
"As the former, he was born of a virgin in the land of Tula, or Tlapallan, in
the distant Orient, and was high-priest of that happy realm. The morning star
was his symbol, and the temple of Cholula was dedicated to him expressly as the
author of light. As by days we measure time, he was the alleged inventor of the
calendar. Like all the dawn-heroes, he too was represented as of white
complexion, clothed in long white robes, and, as most of the Aztec gods, with a
full and flowing beard. When his earthly work was done, he too returned to the
east, assigning as a reason that the sun, the ruler of Tlapallan, demanded his
presence. But the real motive was that he had been overcome by Tezcatlipoca,
otherwise called Yoallichecatl, the wind or spirit of night, who had descended
from heaven by a spider s web, and presented his rival with a draught pretended
to confer immortality, but in fact, producing uncontrollable longing for home.
For the wind and the light both depart when the gloaming draws near, or when the
clouds spread their dark and shadowy webs along the mountains, and pour the
vivifying rain upon the fields.
"In his other character, he was begot of the breath of Tonacateotl, god of our
flesh or subsistence, or (according to Gomara) was the son of Iztac Mixcoatl,
the white cloud-serpent, the spirit of the tornado. Messenger of Tlaloc, god of
rain, he was figuratively said to sweep the road for him, since in that country
violent winds are the precursors of the wet seasons. Wherever he went, all
manner of singing birds bore him company, emblems of the whistling breezes. When
he finally disappeared in the far east, he sent back four trusty youths who had
ever shared his fortunes, in comparably swift and light of foot with directions
to divide the earth between them and rule it till he should return and resume
his power. When he would promulgate his decrees, his herald proclaimed them from
Tzatzitepec, the hill of shouting, with such a mighty voice that it could be
heard a hundred leagues around. The arrows which he shot transfixed great trees,
the stones he threw levelled forests, and when he laid his hands on the rocks
the mark was indelible. Yet, as thus emblematic of the thunder-storm, he
possessed in full measure its better attributes. By shaking his sandals he gave
fire to men; and peace, plenty, and riches blessed his subjects. Tradition says
he built many temples to Mictlantecutli, the Aztec Pluto, and at the creation of
the sun that he slew all the other gods, for the advancing dawn disperses the
spectral shapes of night, and yet all its vivifying power does but result in
increasing the number doomed to fall before the remorseless stroke of death.
"His symbols were the bird, the serpent, the cross, and the flint, representing
the clouds, the lightning, the four winds, and the thunderbolt. Perhaps, as
Huemac, the Strong Hand, he was god of the earth quakes. The Zapotecs worshipped
such a deity under the image of this number carved from a precious stone,
calling to mind the Kab ul, the Working Hand, adored by the Mayas, and said to
be one of the images of Zammi, their hero-god. The human hand, that divine tool,
as it has been called, might well be regarded by the reflective mind as the
teacher of the arts and the amulet whose magic power has won for man what
vantage he has gained in his long combat with nature and his fellows."
Mr Helps sees in Quetzalcoatl the closest analogies with certain other great
civilizers and teachers that made their appearance in various parts of the
American continent: "One peculiar circumstance, as Humboldt remarks, is very
much to be noted in the ancient records and traditions of the Indian nations. In
no less than three remarkable instances has superior civilization been
attributed to the sudden presence among them of persons differing from
themselves in appearance and descent.
Bohica, a white man with a beard, appeared to the Mozca Indians in the plains of
Bogota, taught them how to build and to sow, formed them into communities, gave
an outlet to the waters of the great lake, and having settled the government,
civil and ecclesiastical, retired into a monastic state of penitence for two
thousand years.
In like manner, Manco Capac, accompanied by his sister, Mama Oello, descended
amongst the Peruvians, gave them a code of admirable laws, reduced them into
communities, and then ascended to his father, the Sun.
Amongst the Mexicans there suddenly appeared Quetzalcoatl (green-feathered
snake), a white and bearded man, of broad brow, dressed in a strange dress; a
legislator, who recommended severe penances, lacerating his own body with the
prickles of the agave and the thorns of the cactus, but who dissuaded his
followers from human sacrifice. While he remained in Anahuac, it was a Saturnian
reign; but this great legislator, after moving on to the plains of Cholula, and
governing the Cholulans with wisdom, passed away to a distant country, and was
never heard of more. It is said briefly of him that he ordained sacrifices of
flowers and fruits, and stopped his ears when he was spoken to of war.
The Abbé Domenech considers the tradition of the lives of Quetzalcoatl and
Tezcatlipoca to be a bit of simple and slightly veiled history, and also that
there were several Quetzalcoatls. Let it be remembered in reading the abbe s
version of this matter that the names of places, peoples, and the dates he gives
are in great part mythical and conjectural. "After the enfranchise ment of the
Olmecs, a man named Quetzalcoatl arrived in the country, whom Garcia, Torquemada,
Sahagun, and other Spanish writers took to be Saint Thomas. It was also at that
time that the third age ended, and that the fourth began, called Sun of the
fire, because it was supposed that it was in this last stage that the world
would be destroyed by fire. It is in this fourth period that the Mexican
historian places the Toltecs arrival in New Spain, that is to say, about the
third century before the Christian era. According to the Quiches traditions, the
primitive portion of the Nahoas, or ancestors of the Toltecs, were in a distant
East, beyond immense seas and lands. Amongst the families and tribes that bore
with least patience this long repose and immobility, those of Canub and of
Tlocab may be cited, for they were the first who determined to leave their
country. The Nahoas sailed in seven barks or ships, which Sahagun calls
Chicomoztoc, or the seven grottos. It is a fact worthy of note that in all ages
the number seven was a sacred number among the American people, from one pole to
the other. It was at Panuco, near Tampico, that those strangers disembarked;
they established themselves at Paxil, with the Yotanites consent, and their
state took the name of Huchuc-Tlopallan. It is not stated whence they came, but
merely that they came out of the regions where the sun rises. The supreme
command was in the hand of a chieftain whom history calls Quetzalcohuatl, that
is to say, Lord par excellence. To his care was confided the holy envelope,
which concealed the divinity from the human gaze, and he alone received from it
the necessary instructions to guide his people s march. These kinds of
divinities, thus enveloped, passed for being sure talismans, and were looked
upon with the greatest respect and veneration. They consisted generally of a bit
of wood, in which was inserted a little idol of green stone; this was covered
with the skin of a serpent or of a tiger, after which it was rolled in numerous
little bands of stuff, wherein it would remain wrapped for centuries together.
Such is, perhaps, the origin of the medicine-bags made use of, even in the
present day, by the Indians of the Great Desert, and of which we shall speak in
the second volume of this work."
Of apparently another Quetzalcoatl he writes: "The Toltecs became highly
flourishing under the reign of Ceocatl Quetzalcohuatl, a Culhuacan prince, who
preached a new religion, sanctioning auricular confession and the celibacy of
the priests. He proscribed all kinds of warfare and human sacrifices.
Tezcatlipoca put himself at the head of the dissatisfied party, and besieged
Tollan, the residence of Ceocatl Quetzalcohuatl; but the latter refused to
defend him self, in order to avoid the effusion of blood, which was prohibited
by the laws of the religion he himself had established, and retired to Cholula,
that had been constructed by his followers. From thence he went to Yucatan.
Tezcatlipoca, his fortunate rival, after a long reign became in his turn the
victim of the popular discontent, and fell in a battle that was given him by
Ceocatl Quetzalcohuatl's relatives. Those two kings are elevated to the rank of
gods, and their worship was a perpetual subject of discord and civil war in all
Anahuac until the arrival of the Spaniards in the New World."
The interpreters of the different codices, or Mexican paintings represented in
Kingsborough s great work, give, as is their wont in all matters, a confused,
imperfect, and often erroneous account of Quetzalcoatl. "Quetzalcoatl is he who
was born of the virgin called Chalchihuitztli, which means the precious stone of
penance or of sacrifice. He was saved in the deluge, and was born in
Zivenaritzcatl, where he resides. His fast was a kind of preparation for the
arrival of the end of the world, which they said would happen on the day of Four
Earthquakes, so that they were thus in daily expectation of that event.
Quetzalcoatl was he who they say created the world, and they bestowed on him the
appellation of lord of the wind, because they said that Tonacatecotli, when it
appeared good to him, breathed and begat Quetzalcoatl. They erected round
temples to him, without any corners. They said that it was he (who was also the
lord of the thirteen signs which are here represented) who formed the first
number alone, had a human body like that of men, the other gods were of an
incorporeal nature."
"They declare that their supreme deity, or more properly speaking, demon
Tonacatecotle, whom we have just mentioned, who by another name was called
Citinatonali, .... begot Quetzalcoatl, not by connection with a woman, but by
his breath alone, as we have observed above, when he sent his ambassador, as
they say, to the virgin of Tulla. They believed him to be the god of the air,
and he was the first to whom they built temples and churches, which they formed
perfectly round, without any angles. They say it was he who effected the
reformation of the world by penance, as we have already said; since, according
to their account, his father had created the world, and men had given themselves
up to vice, on which account it had been so frequently destroyed. Citinatonali
sent this his son into the world to reform it. We certainly must deplore the
blindness of these miserable people, on whom Saint Paul says the wrath of God
has to be revealed, inasmuch as his eternal truth was so long kept back by the
injustice of attributing to this demon that which belonged to Him; for He being
the sole creator of the universe, and He who made the division of the waters,
which these poor people just now attributed to the Devil, when it appeared good
to Him, despatched the heavenly ambassador to announce to the virgin that she
should be the mother of his eternal word; who, when He found the world corrupt,
reformed it by doing penance and by dying upon the cross for our sins; and not
the wretched Quetzalcoatl, to whom these miserable people attributed this work.
They assigned to him the dominion over the other thirteen signs, which are here
represented, in the same manner as they had assigned the preceding thirteen to
his father. They celebrated a great festival on the arrival of his sign, as we
shall see in the sign of Four Earthquakes, which is the fourth in order here,
because they feared that the world would be destroyed in that sign, as he had
foretold to them when he disappeared in the Red Sea; which event occurred on the
same sign. As they considered him their advocate, they celebrated a solemn
festival, and fasted during four signs."']
[316] [The Sibylline Oracles. 'The Sibyl having named
Kronus, Titan, and Iapetus (Japheth) as the three sons of the patriarch (Noah),
who governed the world in the tenth generation, after the Flood, and mentioned
the division of the world into three parts.' In
Cory's Ancient Fragments, p. 76. See also Charlesworth, Old Testament Pseudepigragha,
vol. 1, pp.
336-53.
Clement Alexander, Stromata, bk.
1. 'And Serapion, in his epic verses, says that the Sibyl, even when dead,
ceased not from divination. And he writes that, what proceeded from her into the
air after her death, was what gave oracular utterances in voices and omens; and
on her body being changed into earth, and the grass as natural growing out of
it, whatever beasts happening to be in that place fed on it exhibited to men an
accurate knowledge of futurity by their entrails. He thinks also, that the face
seen in the moon is her soul. So much for the Sibyl.']
[317] [Jam. 1:18. 'Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.']
[318] [Burton. Unable to trace.]
[319] [Birch, Gallery of Antiquities, p. 12. 'Fig. 6 is of green porcelain, having probably formed part of a network of a mummy, or necklace; she is standing, and wears a claft formed of pendent uraei. On the back is a perfect line of hieroglyphics: the "Speech of Maut, the great mother."']
[320] [Rit. ch. 68. 'The Osiris is born like a word. He lives, then it is off the bread of Seb, what is abominable that he does not eat.' Birch's tr. Cf. Renouf's tr.]
[321] [Stele, c. 14, Louvre.]
[322] [Commentaries on the Timaeus, bk. 2. 'The Gods therefore, the angel or messenger of Jupiter [i.e. Hermes], who has the relation of logos to the intellect of his father, announces the will of Jupiter to secondary natures. But in essences, soul which, is the Aeons unfolds the united cause of wholes which is in them, she rejoicing from them her hypostasis.' Taylor's tr., vol. 1, p. 207.]
[323] [John 1:1. 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.']
[324] [Jowett, The Epistles of St. Paul to the Thessalonians, Galatians, Romans, vol. 1, p. 414. 'The great difference is, that the idea in the one case proceeds from a real person, whom "our eyes have seen, and our hands have handled, the Word of Life;" in the other case, the idea of the logos just ends with a person, or rather leaves us in doubt at last whether it is not a quality only or mode of operation in the Divine Being. It begins with being unintelligible. It is not the "open," but the "closed, secret " of Divine Providence.' Or vol. 1, p. 510, 1859 ed.]
[325] [Against Celsus, bk. 3. Poss. ch. 41. 'But since he has charged us, I know not how often already, "with regarding this Jesus, who was but a mortal body, as a God, and with supposing that we act piously in so doing," it is superfluous to say any more in answer to this, as a great deal has been said in the preceding pages. And yet let those who make this charge understand that He whom we regard and believe to have been from the beginning God, and the Son of God, is the very Logos, and the very Wisdom, and the very Truth; and with respect to His mortal body, and the human soul which it contained, we assert that not by their communion merely with Him, but by their unity and intermixture, they received the highest powers, and after participating in His divinity, were changed into God. And if any one should feel a difficulty at our saying this regarding His body, let him attend to what is said by the Greeks regarding matter, which, properly speaking, being without qualities, receives such as the Creator desires to invest it with, and which frequently divests itself of those which it formerly possessed, and assumes others of a different and higher kind. And if these opinions be correct, what is there wonderful in this, that the mortal quality of the body of Jesus, if the providence of God has so willed it, should have been changed into one that was ethereal and divine?' ANCL, 23, 122. ]
[326] [Divine Pymander, bk. 2:46.]
[327] [Cf. Sellon,
Annotations,
with Irenaeus, Against Heresies, bk. 1, c. 13:1-2. 'But there is another
among these heretics, Marcus by name, who boasts of himself as having improved
upon his master. He is a perfect adept in magical impostures, and by this means
drawing away a great number of men, and not a few women, he has induced them to
join themselves to him, as to one who is possessed of the greatest knowledge and
perfection, and who has received the highest power from the invisible and
ineffable regions above. Thus it appears as if he really were the precursor of
Antichrist. For, joining the buffooneries of Anaxilaus to the craftiness of the
magi, as they are called, he is regarded by his senseless and crack-brained
followers as working miracles by these means.
Pretending to consecrate cups mixed with wine, and and Spiritus; and Pater,
Arche, Monogenes, Christus, Anthropos, Ecclesia, were all of them terms of a
double denomination. protracting to great length the word of invocation, he
contrives to give them a purple and reddish colour, so that Charis, who is one
of those that are superior to all things, should be thought to drop her own
blood into that cup through means of his invocation, and that thus those who are
present should be led to rejoice to taste of that cup, in order that, by so
doing, the Charis, who is set forth by this magician, may also flow into them.
Again, handing mixed cups to the women, he bids them consecrate these in his
presence. Then this has been done, he himself produces another cup of much
larger size than that which the deluded woman has consecrated, and pouring from
the smaller one consecrated by the woman into that which has been brought
forward by himself, he at the same time pronounces these words: "May that Charis
who is before all things, and who transcends all knowledge and speech, fill
thine inner man, and multiply in thee her own knowledge, by sowing the grain of
mustard seed in thee as in good soil." Repeating certain other like words, and
thus goading on the wretched woman [to madness], he then appears a worker of
wonders when the large cup is seen to have been filled out of the small one, so
as even to overflow by what has been obtained from it. By accomplishing several
other similar things, he has completely deceived many, and drawn them away after
him.']
[328] [Clementine Homilies,
3,
ch. 15. 'Christ's Prophecies.
"But our Master did not prophesy after this fashion; but, as I have already
said, being a prophet by an inborn and ever-flowing Spirit, and knowing all
things at all times. He confidently set forth, plainly as I said before,
sufferings, places, appointed times, manners, limits. Accordingly, therefore,
prophesying concerning the temple. He said; 'See ye these buildings? Verily I
say to you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another which shall not
be taken away; and this generation shall not pass until the destruction begin.
For they shall come, and shall sit here, and shall besiege it, and shall slay
your children here." And in like manner He spoke in plain words the things that
were straightway to happen, which we can now see with our eyes, in order that
the accomplishment might be among those to whom the word was spoken. For the
Prophet of truth utters the word of proof in order to the faith of His hearers.'
ANCL, 17, 63.]
[329] [Ibid., chs. 22-28.
'Chap. xxii.—Male and female.
"But a companion was created along with him, a female nature, much differing
from him, as quality from substance, as the moon from the sun, as fire from
light. She, as a female ruling the present world as her like, was entrusted to
be the first prophetess, announcing prophecy with all amongst those born of
woman. But the other, as the son of man, being a male, prophesies better things
to the world to come as a male.
Chap. xxiii.—Two kinds of prophecy.
"Let us then understand that there are two kinds of prophecy: the one male; and
let It be defined that the first, being the male, has been ranked after the
other In the order of advent; but the second, being female, has been appointed
to come first in the advent of the pairs. This second, therefore, being amongst
those born of woman, as the female superintendent of this present world, wishes
to be thought masculine. Wherefore, stealing the seeds of the male, and sowing
them with her own seeds of the flesh, she brings forth the fruits—that is,
words—as wholly her own. And she promises that she will give the present earthly
riches as a dowry, wishing to change the slow for the swift, the small for the
greater.
Chap. xxiv.—The prophetess a misleader.
"However, she, not only presuming to say and to hear that there are many gods,
but also believing herself to be one, and in hope of being that which she had
not a nature to be, and throwing away what she had, and as a female being in her
courses at the offering of sacrifices, is stained with blood; and then she
pollutes those who touch her. But when she conceives and brings forth temporary
kings, she stirs up wars, shedding much blood; and those who desire to learn
truth from her, by telling them all things contrary, and presenting many and
various services, she keeps them always seeking and finding nothing, even until
death. For from the beginning a cause of death lies upon blind men; for she,
prophesying deceit, and ambiguities, and obliquities, deceives those who believe
her.
Chap. xxv.—Cain's name and nature.
"Hence the ambiguous name which she gave to her firstborn son, calling him Cain,
which has a capability of interpretation in two ways; for it is interpreted both
possession and envy, as signifying that in the future he was to envy either a
woman, or possessions, or the love of the parents towards her. But if it be none
of these, then it will befall him to be called the possession. For she possessed
him first, which also was advantageous to him. For he was a murderer and a liar,
and with his sins was not willing to be at peace with respect to the government.
Moreover, those who came forth by succession from him were the first adulterers.
And there were psalteries, and harps, and forgers of instruments of war.
Wherefore also the prophecy of his descendants being full of adulterers and of
psalteries, secretly by means f pleasures excites to wars.
Chap. xxvi.—Abel's name and nature.
"But he who amongst the sons of men had prophecy innate to his soul as belonging
to it, expressly, as being a male, indicating the hopes of the world to come,
called his own son Abel, which without any ambiguity is translated grief. For he
assigns to his sons to grieve over their deceived brethren. He does not deceive
them when he promises them comfort in the world to come. When he says that we
must pray to one only God, he neither himself speaks of gods, nor does he
believe another who speaks of them. He keeps the good which he has, and
increases more and more. He hates sacrifices, bloodshed, and libations; he loves
the chaste, the pure, the holy. He quenches the fire of altars, represses wars,
teaches pious preachers wisdom, purges sins, sanctions marriage, approves
temperance, leads all to chastity, makes men liberal, prescribes justice, seals
those of them who are perfect, publishes the word of peace, prophesies
explicitly, speaks decidedly, frequently makes mention of the eternal fire of
punishment, constantly announces the kingdom of God, indicates heavenly riches,
promises unfading glory, shows the remission of sins by works.
Chap, xxvii.—The prophet and the prophetess.
"And what need is there to say more? The male is wholly truth, the female wholly
falsehood. But he who is born of the male and the female, in some things speaks
truth, in some falsehood. For the female, surrounding the white seed of the male
with her own blood, as with red fire, sustains her own weakness with the
extraneous supports of bones, and, pleased with the temporary flower of flesh,
and spoiling the strength of the judgment by short pleasures, leads the greater
part into fornication, and thus deprives them of the coming excellent
Bridegroom. For every person is a bride, whenever, being sown with the true
Prophet's whole word of truth, he is enlightened in his understanding.
Chap. xxviii.—Spiritual adultery.
"Wherefore, it is fitting to hear the one only Prophet of the truth, knowing
that the word that is sown by another bearing the charge of fornication, is, as
it were, cast out by the Bridegroom from His kingdom. But to those who know the
mystery, death is also produced by spiritual adultery. For whenever the soul is
sown by others, then it is forsaken by the Spirit, as guilty of fornication or
adultery; and so the living body, the life-giving Spirit being withdrawn, is
dissolved into dust, and the rightful punishment of sin is suffered at the time
of the judgment by the soul, after the dissolution of the body; even as, among
men, she who is caught in adultery is first cast out from the house, and then
afterwards is condemned to punishment.'' ANCL, 17, 62-9.]
[330] [Ibid., ch. 22. As above note.]
[331] [Source.]
[332] [Of Isis and Osiris, ch. 65.]
[333] [Shayast La-Shayast, 4:10.]
[334] [De Rossi, La Roma Sotterranea Christiana Descitta ed Illustrata, vol. 3, tav. 10.]
[335] [Source.]
[336] [See Pierret, Vocabulaire Hieroglyphique, for texts.]
[337] [Hahn, Tsuni-Goam, p.
60.
'‡Gorob khemi go |usense.
Thou who hast painted thy body red, like ‡Goro!
Som-|auba ‡naba tamase!
Thou who dost not drop the "menses."']
[338] [Ibid., p. 91. 'It was a custom that their wives spread on the head of this deity a red kind of earth, buchu, or other sweet-smelling herbs, this being not one of their offerings only, but one of many.']
[339] [Exhortation to the Heathen, 10:86. For with a celerity unsurpassable, and a benevolence to which we have ready access, the divine power, casting its radiance on the earth, hath filled the universe with the seed of salvation. For it was not without divine care that so great a work was accomplished in so brief a space by the Lord, who, though despised as to appearance, was in reality adored, the expiator of sin, the Saviour, the clement, the Divine Word, He that is truly most manifest Deity, He that is made equal to the Lord of the universe; because He was His Son, and the Word was in God, not disbelieved in by all when He was first preached, nor altogether unknown when, assuming the character of man, and fashioning Himself in flesh, He enacted the drama of human salvation: for Pie was a true champion and a fellow-champion with the creature.' ANCL, 4, 98.]
[340] [Source.]
[341] [Schoolcraft, Archives of
Aboriginal Knowledge, vol. 2,
p. 196. '"Can the Deity be offended? Is a man under high obligations, by
the fact of
his creation, to worship the Great Spirit?"
The Deity, they say, is always offended with them. They do not know by what
means they were created; and when any calamity befalls them, they do not
understand why. They worship, it is true, but what? they hardly know themselves.
Large stones are painted and worshipped; these stones they call their
grandfathers. For the expiation of sins or crimes, a sacrifice is made of some
kind of an animal. Some times, the skin of an animal dressed, sometimes, rare
pieces of white cotton and new blankets, are made use of for sacrifices, all of
which are suspended in the air.'
Ibid., vol. 3, p. 229.]
[342] ['"In a great channel, worked by the rain, we found a big granite block, about six feet in diameter and as round as a ball, which rested on a basis of a softer material. This stone the Basuto worship as their God. They dance round it on one leg, and at the same time spit at it. The place's name is Cha Ratau, close to Sekukuni's stronghold."—Wangemann, Ein Reisejahr in Süd-Afrika, Berlin, 1868, p. 500.' From Hahn, Tsuni-Goam, p. 91.]
[343] [Ps. 118:22. 'The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.']
[344] [De Verbo Mirifico.]
[345] [Augustine, Johan, bk. 1, dis. 7.]
[346] [Rev. 2:17. 'He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.']
[347] [Deut. 32:18. 'Of the
Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed
thee.'
Num.
20:8. 'Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy
brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth
his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou
shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink.'
2 Sam. 22:2. 'And he said, The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my
deliverer.'
Ps. 18:2. 'And he said, The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my
deliverer.'
Ps. 42:9. 'I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? why
go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?']
[348] [Is. 8:14. 'And he
shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence
to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of
Jerusalem.'
Rom. 9:32. 'Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it
were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone.']
[349] [Dialogue with Trypho, p. 181, v. 86. 'The same Jacob boasts that he passed over the river with his staff. He said that he saw a ladder, and the Scripture declares that God rested on it; and we have proved from the Scriptures that this was not the Father. And when he poured oil on the stone in the same place, he received a testimony from the God who was seen of him, that he had anointed the pillar to the God who was seen of him: and that Christ is symbolically called a stone in many passages of Scripture I have also shown; and also that every chrism, whether of oil or balsam, or of any other unguent which is compounded of ointment, was (typical) of Him.']
[351] [Cory, Ancient Fragments, p. 13. ''Moreover, the god Ouranos
devised Baetulia, contriving stones that moved as having life.'
Editor's note: 'Baetulia.
Instead of λίθους εμψύχους i.e., animated stones, as Philo has
rendered it, we may, I think, with Orelli, believe that Sanchoniathon had
written AVANIM NESHAPHIM, anointed stones, from the root SHOOPH.'
See also
The Phenix, p. 192.]
[352] [Cf. Augustine, City of
God,
16:38 (Works, vol. 2, p. 156). 'Jacob was sent by his parents to
Mesopotamia that he might take a wife there. These were his father s words on
sending him: "Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of the Canaanites.
Arise, fly to Mesopotamia, to the house of Bethuel, thy mother's father, and
take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother's brother. And
my God bless thee, and increase thee, and multiply thee; and thou shalt be an
assembly of peoples; and give to thee the blessing of Abraham thy father, and to
thy seed after thee; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou dwellest,
which God gave unto Abraham." Now we understand here that the seed of Jacob is
separated from Isaac's other seed which came through Esau. For when it is said,
"In Isaac shall thy seed be called," by this seed is meant solely the city of
God; so that from it is separated Abraham's other seed, which was in the son of
the bond woman, and which was to be in the sons of Keturah. But until now it had
been uncertain regarding Isaac's twin-sons whether that blessing belonged to
both or only to one of them; and if to one, which of them it was. This is now
declared when Jacob is prophetically blessed by his father, and it is said to
him,
"And thou shalt be an assembly of peoples, and God give to thee the blessing of
Abraham thy father."
When Jacob was going to Mesopotamia, he received in a dream an oracle, of which
it is thus written: "And Jacob went out from the well of the oath, and went to
Haran. And he came to a place, and slept there, for the sun was set; and he took
of the stones of the place, and put them at his head, and slept in that place,
and dreamed. And behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached
to heaven; and the angels of God ascended and descended by it. And the Lord
stood above it, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father, and the God of
Isaac; fear not; the land whereon thou sleepest, to thee will I give it, and to
thy seed; and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth; and it shall be
spread abroad to the sea, and to Africa, and to the north, and to the east: and
all the tribes of the earth shall be blessed in thee and in thy seed. And,
behold, I am with thee, to keep thee in all thy way wherever thou goest, and I
will bring thee back into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have
done all which I have spoken to thee of. And Jacob awoke out of his sleep, and
said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. And he was afraid,
and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God,
and this is the gate of heaven. And Jacob arose, and took the stone that he had
put under his head there, and set it up for a memorial, and poured oil upon the
top of it. And Jacob called the name of that place the house of God." This is
prophetic. For Jacob did not pour oil on the stone in an idolatrous way, as if
making it a god; neither did he adore that stone, or sacrifice to it. But since
the name of Christ comes from the chrism or anointing, something pertaining to
the great mystery was certainly represented in this. And the Saviour Himself is
understood to bring this latter to remembrance in the gospel, when He says of Nathanael, "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!" because Israel who
saw this vision is no other than Jacob. And in the same place He says, "Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God
ascending and descending upon the Son of man."
Jacob went on to Mesopotamia to take a wife from thence. And the divine
Scripture points out how, without unlawfully desiring any of them, he came to
have four women, of whom he begat twelve sons and one daughter; for he had come
to take only one. But when one was falsely given him in place of the other, he
did not send her away after un wittingly using her in the night, lest he should
seem to have put her to shame; but as at that time, in order to multiply
posterity, no law forbade a plurality of wives, he took her also to whom alone
he had promised marriage. As she was barren, she gave her handmaid to her
husband that she might have children by her; and her elder sister did the same
thing in imitation of her, although she had borne, because she desired to
multiply progeny. We do not read that Jacob sought any but one, or that he used
many, except for the purpose of be getting offspring, saving conjugal rights;
and he would not have done this, had not his wives, who had legitimate power
over their own husband's body, urged him to do it. So he begat twelve sons and
one daughter by four women. Then he entered into Egypt by his son Joseph, who
was sold by his brethren for envy, and carried there, and who was there
exalted.'
Arnobius, Adversus Gentes, bk. 1, 39: 'But lately, O
blindness, I worshipped images produced from the furnace, gods made on anvils
and by hammers, the bones of elephants, paintings, wreaths on aged trees; when
ever I espied an anointed stone and one bedaubed with olive oil, as if some
power resided in it I worshipped it, I addressed myself to it and begged
blessings from a senseless stock. And these very gods of whose existence I had
convinced my self, I treated with gross insults, when I believed them to be
wood, stone, and bones, or imagined that they dwelt in the substance of such
objects. Now, having been led into the paths of truth by so great a teacher, I
know what all these things are, I entertain honourable thoughts concerning those
which are worthy, I offer no insult to any divine name; and what is due to each,
whether inferior or superior, I assign with clearly-defined gradations, and on
distinct authority. Is Christ, then, not to be regarded by us as God? and is he,
who in other respects may be deemed the very greatest, not to be honoured with
divine worship, from whom we have already received while alive so great gifts,
and from whom, when the day comes, we expect greater ones?' Trs., Campbell and
Bryce.
Clement Alexander, Stromata, bk. 7, 1:39; on
anointed stone. Massey errs her. This chapter contains only 18 verses.]
[353] [See note below.]
[354] [Pseudo-Clement, Recognitions, bk. 1:45. 'Then Peter began to instruct me in this manner: "When God had made the world, as Lord of the universe, He appointed chiefs over the several creatures, over the trees even, and the mountains, and the fountains, and the rivers, and all things which He had made, as we have told you; for it were too long to mention them one by one. He set, therefore, an angel as chief over the angels, a spirit over the spirits, a star over the stars, a demon over the demons, a bird over the birds, a beast over the beasts, a serpent over the serpents, a fish over the fishes, a man over men, who is Christ Jesus. But He is called Christ by a certain excellent rite of religion; for as there are certain names common to kings, as Arsaces among the Persians, Caesar among the Romans, Pharaoh among the Egyptians, so among the Jews a king is called Christ, And the reason of this appellation is this: Although indeed He was the Son of God, and the beginning of all things, He became man; Him first God anointed with oil which was taken from the wood of the tree of life: from that anointing; therefore He is called Christ. Thence, moreover, He Himself also, according to the appointment of His Father, anoints with similar oil every one of the pious when they come to His kingdom, for their refreshment after their labours, as having got over the difficulties of the way; so that their light may shine, and being filled with the Holy Spirit, they may be endowed with immortality. But it occurs to me that I have sufficiently explained to you the whole nature of that branch from which that ointment is taken.' ANCL, 3, 173.]
[355] [2 Esd. 2:12. ''These are the words of the Lord to Ezra: Tell my people that I will give to them the kingdom of Jerusalem which once I offered to Israel. I will withdraw the splendour of my presence from Israel, and the home that was to be theirs for ever I will give to my own people. The tree of life shall spread its fragrance over them; they shall not toil or grow weary.' NEB version.]
[356] [Origen, Against Celsus, bk. 6, ch. 27. 'After the matter of the Diagram, he brings forward certain monstrous statements, in the form of question and answer, regarding what is called by ecclesiastical writers the "seal," statements which did not arise from imperfect information; such as that "he who impresses the seal is called father, and he who is sealed is called young man and son;" and who answers, "I have been anointed with white ointment from the tree of life,"—things which we never heard to have occurred even among the heretics. In the next place, he determines even the number mentioned by those who deliver over the seal, as that "of seven angels, who attach themselves to both sides of the soul of the dying body; the one party being named angels of light, the others 'archontics;'" and he asserts that the "ruler of those named 'archontics' is termed the 'accursed' God." Then, laying hold of the expression, he assails, not without reason, those who venture to use such language; and on that account we entertain a similar feeling of indignation with those who censure such individuals, if indeed there exist any who call the God of the Jews—who sends rain and thunder, and who is the Creator of this world, and the God of Moses, and of the cosmogony which he records—an "accursed" divinity. Celsus, however, appears to have had in view, in employing these expressions, not a rational object, but one of a most irrational kind, arising out of his hatred towards us, which is so unlike a philosopher. For his aim was, that those who are unacquainted with our customs should, on perusing his treatise, at once assail us as if we called the noble Creator of this world an "accursed divinity." He appears to me, indeed, to have acted like those Jews who, when Christianity began to be first preached, scattered abroad false reports of the gospel, such as that "Christians offered up an infant in sacrifice, and partook of its flesh;" and again, "that the professors of Christianity, wishing to do the 'works of darkness,' used to extinguish the lights [in their meetings], and each one to have sexual intercourse with any woman whom he chanced to meet." These calumnies have long exercised, although unreasonably, an influence over the minds of very many, leading those who are aliens to the gospel to believe that Christians are men of such a character; and even at the present day they mislead some, and prevent them from entering even into the simple intercourse of conversation with those who are Christians.' ANCL, 23, 365.]
[357] [Adversus Hereries, bk. 1, ch. 46.]
[358] [Zohar, vol. 1, 168A.]
[359] [The Instructor, bk. 2, ch. 2.
'"Use a little wine," says the apostle to Timothy, who drank water, "for thy
stomach's sake;" most properly applying its aid as a strengthening tonic
suitable to a sickly body enfeebled with watery humours; and specifying "a
little," lest the remedy should, on account of its quantity, unobserved, create
the necessity of other treatment.
The natural, temperate, and necessary beverage, therefore, for the thirsty is
water. This was the simple drink of sobriety, which, flowing from the smitten
rock, was supplied by the Lord to the ancient Hebrews. It was most requisite
that in their wanderings they should be temperate.
Afterwards the sacred vine produced the prophetic cluster. This was a sign to
them, when trained from wandering to their rest; representing the great cluster
the Word, bruised for us. For the blood of the grape—that is, the Word—desired
to be mixed with water, as His blood is mingled with salvation.
And the blood of the Lord is twofold. For there is the blood of His flesh, by
which we are redeemed from corruption; and the spiritual, that by which we are
anointed. And to drink the blood of Jesus, is to become partaker of the Lord's
immortality; the Spirit being the energetic principle of the Word, as blood is
of flesh.']
[360] [Is. 47:2. 'Take the millstones, and grind meal: uncover thy locks, make bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers.']
[361] [Against Heresies, bk. 2, ch. 19:7. 'Still more manifestly is that talk of theirs concerning their seed proved to be false, and that in a way which must be evident to every one, by the fact that they declare those souls which have received seed from the Mother to be superior to all others; wherefore also they have been honoured by the Demiurge, and constituted princes, and kings, and priests. For if this were true, the high priest Caiaphas, and Annas, and the rest of the chief priests, and doctors of the law, and rulers of the people, would have been the first to believe in the Lord, agreeing as they did with respect to that relationship; and even before them should have been Herod the king. But since neither he, nor the chief priests, nor the rulers, nor the eminent of the people, turned to Him [in faith], but, on the contrary, those who sat begging by the highway, the deaf, and the blind, while He was rejected and despised by others, according to what Paul declares, "For ye see your calling, brethren, that there are not many wise men among you, not many noble, not many mighty; but those things of the world which were despised hath God chosen." Such souls, therefore, were not superior to others on account of the seed deposited in them, nor on this account were they honoured by the Demiurge.' ANCL, 5, 188.]
[362] [Acts 7:53. 'Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.']
[363] [Philosophumena, p.
175, 24. See Refutation of all Heresies below.
Bunsen,
Christianity and Mankind, Their Beginnings and Prospects, vol. 1, p. 352.
'For the account of our author, though confused,—the quotations from the "Great
Announcement" being here interrupted by the traditional story of Simon and
Helen, and the scandals connected with it,—clearly proves that those words
referred to Jesus, and not to Simon. For, after the exposition of the immoral
principles of the Simonians, the extracts begin (p. 175. 24.) with sentences
evidently relating to the life of Jesus. Having redeemed Helen, he thus
vouchsafed salvation to mankind through his own intelligence (or by means of the
knowledge he gave them of themselves). For the "angels having administered the
world badly, in consequence of their love of power, Jesus came (Simon said) for
the work of restoration, having been transformed, and made like to the
principalities and powers, and to the angels. He thus appeared as a man, not
being such, and seemed to suffer in Judea, although he did not really suffer,
but was manifested to the Jews as the Son, in Samaria as the Father, among the
other nations as the Holy Spirit. He allows men to call him by whichever name
they please."'
Refutation of all Heresies, bk. 6. ch. 14. '"For inasmuch as the angels, by
reason of their lust for pre-eminence, improperly managed the world, [Jesus
Christ] being transformed, and being assimilated to the rulers and powers and
angels, came for the restoration [of things]. And so [it was that Jesus]
appeared as man, when in reality he was not a man. And [so it was] that likewise
he suffered (though not actually undergoing suffering, but appearing to the Jews
to do so) in Judaea as 'Son,' and in Samaria as 'Father,' and among the rest
of the Gentiles as 'Holy Spirit.'" ANCL, 6, 212.]
[364] [Col. 2:18-19. 'Let no
man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of
angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by
his fleshly mind,
And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having
nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.']
[365] [1 Cor. 6:3. 'Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?']
[366] [1 Cor. 1:6-7. 'Even as
the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you:
So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ.']
[367] [Col. 2:2. 'That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ.']
[368] [1 Cor. 1:24. 'But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.']
[369] [1 Cor. 1:30. 'But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.']
[370] [2 Cor. 5:16. 'Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.']
[371] [Luke 11:49. 'Therefore
also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of
them they shall slay and persecute.'
Matt.
23:3. 'All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but
do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.']
[372] [Prov. 9:5. 'Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled.']
[373] [Didron, Iconographie Chrétienne, p. 184, fig. 50.]
[374] [Irenaeus, Against Heresies, bk. 1, ch. 2:1. 'They proceed to tell us that the Propator of their scheme was known only to Monogenes, who sprang from him; in other words, only to Nous, while to all the others he was invisible and incomprehensible. And, according to them, Nous alone took pleasure in contemplating the Father, and exulted in considering his immeasurable greatness; while he also meditated how he might communicate to the rest of the Æons the greatness of the Father, revealing to them how vast and mighty he was, and how he was without beginning,—beyond comprehension, and altogether incapable of being seen. But, in accordance with the will of the Father, Sige restrained him, because it was his design to lead them all to an acquaintance with the aforesaid Propator, and to create within them a desire of investigating his nature. In like manner, the rest of the Æons also, in a kind of quiet way, had a wish to behold the Author of their being, and to contemplate that First Cause which had no beginning.' ANCL, 5, 7.]
[375] [Ibid., bk. 1, ch. 30:5. 'They have also given names to [the several persons] in their system of falsehood, such as the following: he who was the first descendant of the mother is called Ialdabaoth; he, again, descended from him, is named Iao; he, from this one, is called Sabaoth; the fourth is named Adoneus; the fifth, Eloeus; the sixth, Oreus; and the seventh and last of all, Astanphseus. Moreover, they represent these heavens, potentates, powers, angels, and creators, as sitting in their proper order in heaven, according to their generation, and as invisibly ruling over things celestial and terrestrial. The first of them, namely Ialdabaoth, holds his mother in contempt, inasmuch as he produced sons and grandsons without the permission of any one, yea, even angels, archangels, powders, potentates, and dominions. After these things had been done, his sons turned to strive and quarrel with him about the supreme power,—conduct which deeply grieved Ialdabaoth, and drove him to despair. In these circumstances, he cast his eyes upon the subjacent dregs of matter, and fixed his desire upon it, to which they declare his son owes his origin. This son is Nous himself, twisted into the form of a serpent;" and hence were derived the spirit, the soul, and all mundane things: from this too were generated all oblivion, wickedness, emulation, envy, and death. They declare that the father imparted still greater crookedness to this serpent-like and contorted Nous of theirs, when he was with their father in heaven and Paradise.' ANCL, 5, 106.]
[376] [Plutarch, Of Isis and Osiris, ch. 54.]
[376a] [Divine Pymander, bk. 2:13.]
[377] [John 1:3. 'All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.']
[378] [Divine Pymander, bk. 2:12-15.]
[379] [John 1:9. 'That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.']
[380] [Divine Pymander, bk. 2:84.]
[382] [On the Creation of the
World, par. 4. 'We must mention as much as we can of the matters contained
in his account, since to enumerate them all is impossible; for he embraces that
beautiful world which is perceptible only by the intellect, as the account of
the first day will show: for God, as apprehending beforehand, as a God must do,
that there could not exist a good imitation without a good model, and that of
the things perceptible to the external senses nothing could be faultless which
was not fashioned with reference to some archetypal idea conceived by the
intellect, when he had determined to create this visible world, previously
formed that one which is perceptible only by the intellect, in order that so
using an incorporeal model formed as far as possible on the image of God,, he
might then make this corporeal world, a younger likeness of the elder creation,
which should embrace as many different genera perceptible to the external
senses, as the other world contains of those which are visible only to the
intellect.
But that world which consists of ideas, it were impious in any degree to attempt
to describe or even to imagine: but how it was created, we shall know if we take
for our guide a certain image of the things which exist among us.
When any city is founded through the exceeding ambition of some king or leader
who lays claim to absolute authority, and is at the same time a man of brilliant
imagination, eager to display his good fortune, then it happens at times that
some man coming up who, from his education, is skilful in architecture, and he,
seeing the advantageous character and beauty of the situation, first of all
sketches out in his own mind nearly all the parts of the city which is about to
be completed the temples, the gymnasia, the prytanea, the markets, the harbour,
the docks, the streets, the arrangement of the walls, the situations of the
dwelling houses, and of the public and other buildings. Then, having received in
his own mind, as on a waxen tablet, the form of each building, he carries in his
heart the image of a city, perceptible as yet only by the intellect, the images
of which he stirs up in memory which is innate in him, and, still further,
engraving them in his mind like a good workman, keeping his eyes fixed on his
model, he begins to raise the city of stones and wood, making the corporeal
substances to resemble each of the incorporeal ideas. Now we must form a
somewhat similar opinion of God, who, having determined to found a mighty state,
first of all conceived its form in his mind, according to which form he made a
world perceptible only by the intellect, and then completed one visible to the
external senses, using the first one as a model.' Works, vol. 1, p.
5. Yonge's tr.]
[383] [On Dreams. Unable to trace.]
[384] [Col. 1:15. 'Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.']
[385] [Who is the Heir of Divine Things. Unable to trace.]
[386] [Col. 1:16. 'For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him.']
[387] [On Providence. Incorrect. But see On the Sacrifices of Abel and Cain, ch. 17, '... for their case is not like that of men who pour water into a vessel, they are not in a moment able to fill their minds with the lessons which have been brought before them. But when the fountain of wisdom, that is to say, God, gives knowledge of the sciences to the race of mankind, he gives it to them without any limitation of time. But they, as being disciples of the only wise Being, and being competent by nature, quickly accomplish the discovery of the things which they seek to understand.' Works, vol. 1, p. 221, Yonge's tr.]
[388] [1 Cor. 1:22. 'For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom.']
[389] [On the Confusion of Language. See Questions and Solutions, ch. 58. 'Some persons say that by this expression, "As the green herb I have given you all things," the eating of flesh was permitted. But I say that even though God had intended to give that permission, still that before all things he must have intended to establish by law the necessary use of herbs, that is to say of vegetables.' Works, vol. 3, p. 388, Yonge's tr.]
[390] [Col. 1:16. 'For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him.']
[391] [On Providence. Unable to trace.]
[392] [Heb. 1:4. 'Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.']
[393] [Allegories of the Sacred Law. Unable to trace.]
[394] [Heb. 2:8. 'Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him.' (The writer is aware that some critics do not consider this to be one of Paul's epistles.)]
[395] [Who is the Heir of Divine Things. Unable to trace.]
[396] [1 Tim. 2:5. 'For there
is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.'
Heb.
8:6. 'But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is
the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.']
[397] [Assembly of the Learned. Unable to trace.]
[398] [Rom. 8:21. 'Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.']
[399] [Unable to trace.]
[400] [John 1:1. 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.']
[401] [Who is the Heir of Divine Things. Unable to trace.]
[402] [John 5:37. 'And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.']
[403] [Fragments, in Works, vol. 4, p. 210. 'Why, then, does he use the expression, "In the image of God I made man," as if he were speaking of that of some other God, and not of having made him in the likeness of himself? This expression is used with great beauty and wisdom. For it was impossible that anything mortal should be made in the likeness of the most high God the Father of the universe; but it could only be made in the likeness of the second God, who is the Word of the other; for it was fitting that the rational type in the soul of man should receive the impression of the Word of God, since the God below the Word is superior to all and every rational nature; and it is not lawful for any created thing to be made like the God who is above reason, and who is endowed with a most excellent and special form appropriated to himself alone.' Yonge's tr.]
[404] [John 1:1. 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.']
[405] [On Dreams. Unable to trace.]
[406] [John 1:4-9. 'In him
was life; and the life was the light of men.
And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through
him might believe.
He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.
That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.']
[407] [Fragment. Unable to trace.]
[408] [John 6:32-35. 'Then
Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that
bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto
the world.
Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.
And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall
never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.']
[409] [On Husbandry. Unable to trace.]
[410] [John 10:14. 'I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.']
[411] [Unable to trace.]
[412] [Irenaeus, Against Heresies, bk.1. ch. 7:2. 'There are also some who maintain that he also produced Christ as his own proper son, but of an animal nature, and that mention was made of him by the prophets. This Christ passed through Mary just as water flows through a tube; and there descended upon him in the form of a dove at the time of his baptism, that Saviour who belonged to the Pleroma, and was formed by the combined efforts of all its inhabitants. In him there existed also that spiritual seed which proceeded from Achamoth. They hold, accordingly, that our Lord, while preserving the type of the first-begotten and primary tetrad, was compounded of these four substances,—of that which is spiritual, in so far as He was from Achamoth; of that which is animal, as being from the Demiurge by a special dispensation, inasmuch as He was formed [corporeally] with unspeakable skill; and of the Saviour, as respects that dove which descended upon Him. He also continued free from all suffering, since indeed it was not possible that He should suffer who was at once incomprehensible and invisible. And for this reason the Spirit of Christ, who had been placed within Him, was taken away when He was brought before Pilate. They maintain, further, that not even the seed which He had received from the mother [Achamoth] was subject to suffering; for it, too, was impassible, as being spiritual, and invisible even to the Demiurge himself. It follows, then, according to them, that the animal Christ, and that which had been formed mysteriously by a special dispensation, underwent suffering, that the mother might exhibit through him a type of the Christ above, namely, of him who extended himself through Stauros, and imparted to Achamoth shape, so far as substance was concerned. For they declare that all these transactions were counterparts of what took place above.' ANCL, 5.]
[413] [Ibid., bk. 3, ch. 11:3. 'But, according to these men, neither was the Word made flesh, nor Christ, nor the Saviour (Soter), who was produced from [the joint contributions of] all [the Æons]. For they will have it, that the Word and Christ never came into this world; that the Saviour, too, never became incarnate, nor suffered, but that He descended like a dove upon the dispensational Jesus; and that, as soon as He had declared the unknown Father, He did again ascend into the Pleroma. Some, however, make the assertion, that this dispensational Jesus did become incarnate, and suffered, whom they represent as having passed through Mary just as water through a tube; but others allege him to be the Son of the Demiurge, upon whom the dispensational Jesus descended; while others, again, say that Jesus was born from Joseph and Mary, and that the Christ from above descended upon him, being without flesh, and impassible. But according to the opinion of no one of the heretics was the Word of God made flesh. For if any one carefully examines the systems of them all, he will find that the Word of God is brought in by all of them as not having become incarnate (sine came) and impassible, as is also the Christ from above. Others consider Him to have been manifested as a transfigured man; but they maintain Him to have been neither born nor to have become incarnate; whilst others [hold] that He did not assume a human form at all, but that, as a dove. He did descend upon that Jesus who was born from Mary. Therefore the Lord's disciple, pointing them all out as false witnesses, says, "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us."' ANCL, 5, 289.]
[414] [Ibid., bk. 1, ch. 2:6. 'But the Holy Spirit taught them to give thanks on being all rendered equal among themselves, and led them to a state of true repose. Thus, then, they tell us that the Æons were constituted equal to each other in form and sentiment, so that all became as Nous, and Logos, and Anthropos, and Christus. The female Æons, too, became all as Aletheia, and Zoe, and Spiritus, and Ecclesia. Everything, then, being thus established, and brought into a state of perfect rest, they next tell us that these beings sang praises with great joy to the Propator, who himself shared in the abounding exaltation. Then, out of gratitude for the great benefit which had been conferred on them, the whole Pleroma of the Æons, with one design and desire, and with the concurrence of Christ and the Holy Spirit, their Father also setting the seal of his approval on their conduct, brought together whatever each one had in himself of the greatest beauty and preciousness; and uniting all these contributions so as skilfully to blend the whole, they produced, to the honour and glory of Bythus, a being of most perfect beauty, the very star of the Pleroma, and the perfect fruit [of it], namely Jesus. Him they also speak of under the name of Saviour, and Christ, and patronymically, Logos, and Everything, because He was formed from the contributions of all. And then we are told that, by way of honour, angels of the same nature as Himself were simultaneously produced, to act as His body-guard.' ANCL, 5, 11.]
[415] [Ibid., bk. 1, ch. 12:3. 'Those of them, however, who are deemed more skilful than the persons who have just been mentioned, say that the first Ogdoad was not produced gradually, so that one Æon was sent forth by another, but that all the Æons were brought into existence at once by Propator and his Ennoea. He (Colorbasus) affirms this as confidently as if he had assisted at their birth. Accordingly, he and his followers maintain that Anthropos and Ecclesia were not produced, as others hold, from Logos and Zoe; but, on the contrary, Logos and Zoe from Anthropos and Ecclesia. But they express this in another form, as follows: When the Propator conceived the thought of producing something, he received the name of Father. But because what he did produce was true, it was named Aletheia. Again, when he wished to reveal himself, this was termed Anthropos. Finally, when he produced those whom he had previously thought of, these were named Ecclesia. Anthropos, by speaking, formed Logos: this is the first-born son. But Zoe followed upon Logos; and thus the first Ogdoad was completed.' ANCL, 5, 50.]
[416] [Ibid., bk. 1, ch. 2:6. See note 414 above.]
[417] [Eph. 1:9-12. 'Having
made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which
he hath purposed in himself:
That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one
all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in
him:
In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to
the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.']
[418] [Irenaeus, Against Heresies, bk. 1. ch. 9:2. 'The fallacy, then, of this exposition is manifest. For when John, proclaiming one God, the Almighty, and one Jesus Christ, the Only-begotten, by whom all things were made, declares that this was the Son of God, this the Only-begotten, this the Former of all things, this the true Light who enlighteneth every man, this the Creator of the world, this He that came to His own, this He that became flesh and dwelt among us,—these men, by a plausible kind of exposition, perverting these statements, maintain that there was another Monogenes, according to production, whom they also style Arche. They also maintain that there was another Saviour, and another Logos, the son of Monogenes, and another Christ produced for the re-establishment of the Pleroma. Thus it is that, wresting from the truth every one of the expressions which have been cited, and taking a bad advantage of the names, they have transferred them to their own system; so that, according to them, in all these terms John makes no mention of the Lord Jesus Christ. For if he has named the Father, and Charis, and Monogenes, and Aletheia, and Logos, and Zoe, and Anthropos, and Ecclesia, according to their hypothesis, he has, by thus speaking, referred to the primary Ogdoad, in which there was as yet no Jesus, and no Christ, the teacher of John. But that the apostle did not speak concerning their conjunctions, but concerning our Lord Jesus Christ, whom he also acknowledges as the Word of God, he himself has made evident. For, summing up his statements respecting the Word previously mentioned by him, he further declares, "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." But, according to their hypothesis, the Word did not become flesh at all, inasmuch as He never went outside of the Pleroma, but that Saviour [became flesh] who was formed by a special dispensation [out of all the Æons], and was of later date than the Word.' ANCL, 5, 38.]
[419] [John 3:13. 'And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.']
[420] [Irenaeus, Against Heresies, bk. 1, c. 2:5. 'After tins substance had been placed outside of the Pleroma of the Æons, and its mother restored to her proper conjunction, they tell us that Monogenes, acting in accordance with the prudent forethought of the Father, gave origin to another conjugal pair, namely Christ and the Holy Spirit (lest any of the Æons should fall into a calamity similar to that of Sophia), for the purpose of fortifying and strengthening the Pleroma, and who at the same time completed the number of the Æons. Christ then instructed them as to the nature of their conjunction, and taught them that those who possessed a comprehension of the Unbegotten were sufficient for themselves. He also announced among them what related to the knowledge of the Father,—namely, that he cannot be understood or comprehended, nor so much as seen or heard, except in so far as he is known by Monogenes only. And the reason why the rest of the Æons possess perpetual existence is found in that part of the Father's nature which is incomprehensible; but the reason of their origin and formation was situated in that which may be comprehended regarding him, that is, in the Son." Christ, then, who had just been produced, effected these things among them.' ANCL, 5, 10.]
[421] [Ibid., as above, footnote 2. 'This is an exceedingly obscure and difficult passage. Harvey's rendering is: "For, say they, Christ taught them the nature of their copulae, (namely,) that being cognisant of thir (limited) perception of the Unbegotten, they needed no higher knowledge, and that He enounced," etc. The words seem scarcely capable of yielding this sense: we have followed the interpretation of Billius.']
[422] [John 1:18. 'No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.']
[423] [Matt. 11:27. 'All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.']
[424] [John 3:35. 'The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand.']
[425] [John 5:19-38. 'Then
answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can
do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever
he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.
For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that himself doeth:
and he will show him greater works than these, that ye may marvel.
For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son
quickeneth whom he will.
For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son:
That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that
honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him
that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but
is passed from death unto life.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead
shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.
For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life
in himself;
And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of
man.
Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the
graves shall hear his voice,
And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life;
and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.
I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just;
because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.
If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.
There is another that beareth witness of me; and I know that the witness which
he witnesseth of me is true.
Ye sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the truth.
But I receive not testimony from man: but these things I say, that ye might be
saved.
He was a burning and a shining light: and ye were willing for a season to
rejoice in his light.
But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father
hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the
Father hath sent me.
And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have
neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.
And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe
not.']
[426] [Mic. 5:2. 'But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.']
[427] [An Epitome of the History of Ceylon Compiled from the Native Annals and the First Twenty Chapters of the Mahawanso, p. lvi. 'He who had come in the same manner as the other Buddhas.' From Bunsen, Angel-Messiah, p. 380.]
[428] [Bunsen, Angel-Messiah, p. 380. 'For these reasons Prof. Beal (in a letter) translates Tathagata by 'the coming one.'']
[429] [Rev. 3:14. 'And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.']
[430] [Source.]
[431] [On the Confusion of Languages, v. 28. 'Accordingly, it is natural for those who have this disposition of soul to look upon nothing as beautiful except what is good, which is the citadel erected by those who are experienced in this kind of warfare as a defence against the end of pleasure, and as a means of defeating and destroying it. And even if there be not as yet any one who is worthy to be called a son of God, nevertheless let him labour earnestly to be adorned according to his first-born word, the eldest of his angels, as the great archangel of many names ; for he is called, the authority, and the name of God, and the Word, and man according to God's image, and he who sees Israel.' Yonge's tr., Works, vol. 2, p. 31.]
[432] [Apology, 1, ch. 6. 'Hence are we called atheists. And we confess that we are atheists, so far as gods of this sort are concerned, but not with respect to the most true God, the Father of righteousness and temperance and the other virtues, who is free from all impurity. But both Him, and the Son who came forth from Him and taught us these things, and the host of the other good angels who follow and are made like to Him, and the prophetic Spirit, we worship and adore, knowing them in reason and truth, and declaring without grudging to every one who wishes to learn, as we have been taught.' ANCL, 2, 11.]
[433] [Epistle to Diognetus, 11:4. 'This Word, Who was from the beginning, Who appeared as new and yet was proved to be old, and is engendered always young in the hearts of saints.' Lightfoot's tr.]
[434] [Biot, JA, 4th series, 2, 351.]
[435] ['The Chinese ju lai (Tathagata) is explained by Medhurst in his Chinese Dict. as the 'coming Buddha.' From Bunsen, Angel-Messiah, p. 380, as note 428 above.]
[436] [Plutarch, Of Isis and Osiris, ch. 19.]
[437] [Davis, Dictionary of the Kaffir Language, p. 220. 'To dance the dance performed by circumcised lads while undergoing the rite of circumcision. These Ukutshila dances are of a very lewd and licentious character, in which the females of the village where they we performed take a prominent part, by making obscene gesticulations. To throw the head about, as a high spirited horse, or a haughty person, in TSHINOA, An ornament made from the tufty end of the jackal's tail, usually worn by men on the head, and sometimes on the shin of the leg, in dancing or in hunting. It is of a tassel-like appearance, and in an accommodated sense may be used to denote, "a tassel."']
[438] [Jam. 5:7-8. 'Be
patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman
waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it,
until he receive the early and latter rain.
Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth
nigh.']
[439] [2 Pet. 1:16-20. 'For
we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the
power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a
voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased.
And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the
holy mount.
We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take
heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the
day star arise in your hearts:
Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private
interpretation.']
[440] [2 Pet. 3:5-7. 'For
this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of
old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in
store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly
men.'
Natural Questions, 3, 29.
'He
maintains that all terrestrial things will be consumed when the planets, which
are now traversing their different course, shall all coincide in the sign of
Cancer, and be so placed, that a straight line could pass through all their
orbs. But the Flood will take place (he says) when the same conjunction of the
planets shall take place in the constellation of Capricorn. The summer is in the
former constellation, the winter in the latter.' From
Cory's Ancient Fragments, p. 70.
See also NG 2:258,
340.]
[441] [Luke 21:25-32. 'And
there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the
earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;
Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are
coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.
And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great
glory.
And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your
heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.
And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all the trees;
When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now
nigh at hand.
So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom
of God is nigh at hand.
Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be
fulfilled.']
[442] [Mat. 24:36-39. 'But of
that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father
only.
But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking,
marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the
coming of the Son of man be.']
[443] [2 Pet. 3:10. 'But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.']
[444] [Needless to say, no messiah was forthcoming in the year 1910, although there were probably a few candidates, who, under closer scrutiny, would never have met the criteria. Nor did the age of Aquarius begin then. There is still a dispute as to the exact date, with conflicting views all round, some believing we are already in Aquarius, others that is won't dawn till 2012, or thereabouts.]