O R I E N T A L S T U D I E S

BY

LEWI S DAYTON BURDICK

Auth or f Ma ic and H an r étc o g usb d y , .

O ' FO R D , N . Y . TH E I RVI N G C O MPANY

1905 C OP Y RI G H T 1 , 905 ,

B Y

LEWI S DAY T O N B U RDI C K

P R E S S op T a n HER AL D C OMP ANY or B m c murr ox For a e m th ha all en m as r g s , y s ve be dee ed t u e ;

E t a Par t t r t gyp i n , si, c ou n less o he s oo ,

t —We B elieved successive cree ds tha died . love

a n f h h th r l r A e a e e e o d o new . pl si g ls ood , w ’ Me h n S Zimme ma The lz a z a l o n n Mirz a ' o . r n C f , .

I n reverent han ds we hold

Ea h m a e fr he Pa nd fa n tr c ess g om t st , a i would y Through myriad fragments dimly t o descry

h r th A T e living glo ies of e g e of Gold .

l a n to a rw a e tla ti Mon t/z Wi li m Cra r n L t n in Th A n c ly .

C ONTENTS

C H AP TE R

I A NTI QU I TY OF OU R ET H I C AL I DEALS

I I S O ME V ARI A NT S OF TH E TALE OF TH E K I NG S 45

I I I NOT ES ON FAI TH s AND FO L K- LO RE OF TH E

MOO N

EP I C S B E FO RE TH E I LI AD

A NT I Q U I T Y O F O U R

E T H I C A L I D E A L S

ANTIQ U ITY OF OU R ETH ICAL I DEALS

sel TH E assertion has been Often made , and do c as m denied , that the ethi al code known the

Mosaic Law forms the groundwork of the civil and moral laws of all enlightened nations . It

will not be denied that this is in a sense true , yet it is quite certain that the enunciation of this statement has Often led to conclusions unwar f ranted by a survey o historical facts . According to Biblical history and cyo/n on tra dition , it was in the third month afte the depar ture of the Israelites from Egypt that Jahveh , descending upon Mount Sinai amidst thunder

and lightning , fire , and smoke , covenanted with

Moses and established these laws , While the Hebrews with fear and trembling stood around the base of the mountain which they were for

o bidden t touch . 4 ANTIQUITY OF OUR ETHICAL IDEALS

An d Moses turned , and went down from the m mount , and the two tables Of the testi ony were in his hand ; the tables were written on both their

Sides ; on the on e Side and on the other they were written .

o And the tables were the work fGod , and the

of writing was the writing God , graven upon the tables .

Preliminary to further discussion of the sub f j ect o this article , it may be stated briefly that the world has no knowledge at the present time either of the Exodus or its leader outside of the

of records and traditions the Hebrews . When

Moses lived is on e of the unsolved problems of m history . We have grown fa iliar in recent years

with the annals , literature , and social life of times and people of which the world once knew but little ; we have revised our knowledge of ancient nations by a comparative study of the traditions and records of their contem p oraries ; we know their greatness and their weakness ; we have followed the march of their commerce and their conquests ; we have searched ANTIQUITY OF OUR ETHICAL IDEALS 5

their temples and rifled their. tombs : but what light has been thrown upon the story famil iar from childhood— that Of the cruel bond age and the perils of the Exodus ' No Egyptian

o c has monument , tomb , r ins ription yet revealed aught of its marvelous hero . I t is not known

or when the departure from Egypt took place , in

no of whose reign it occurred , and trace the Hebrews in Egypt has yet been found in Egyptian

story .

1 was Until February , 89 6 , there no evi

of dence , other than that found in the traditions

the Hebrews , that the Egyptians had any knowl f edge o such a people . But in that year Pro fessor Petrie discovered at Thebes a black Sye

of Meren tah nite tablet in the funeral temple p ,

n c the so and suc essor of Rameses the Great . This stele commemorated a victo ry of that monarch over the allied forces against him in the fifth year of his reign ; and the Israelites are named — — among the nations eight in all , with whom

he contended . This battle was fought in Syria , in the vicinity of Galilee . The message Of the 6 ANTIQUITY OF OU R ETHICAL IDEALS . tablet in substance is that the Israelites were de

of feated and lost their supplies . The reign

c m Merenp tah was quite om only accepted , before

a this stele was found , s the period of the dep arture of the Hebrews from Egypt ; but this record shows that in the fifth year of his reign this people were a full - fl edged nation fighting with the allies in Palestine ; SO that instead ofthrowing

light upon the hegira from Egypt , it has made the

f m . study o the question even ore complicated If ,

however , we assume as a hypothesis that the ca reer of Moses as a leader began early in the reign

of this Pharaoh , it would date about the begin ning of the thirteenth century before the Christian era . I t was long held to be true that the sacred

Story of the origin of these divine laws was writ

in m ten the lifeti e of Moses , and by his own in sp ired hand . Modern critical scholarship has ca or f rried the authorship , editorship , o the books of c m the Pentateu h forward so e eight centuries , to a period subs equent to the Babylonian cap tivit y ; when , by the hand of some later author ANTIQUITY OF OUR ETHICAL IDEALS 7

or editor , they are believed to have received their

final shaping as they are known to us . Whether the earlier or Some later leader of the Israelites m i ’ formulated the , it s not the writer s purpose to discuss ; but to show that the ethical precepts of

so— re later times , as well as all called divinely m vealed oral laws , have not been peculiar to any

period or nation , but that their growth and de velopmen t have been coextensive with the evolu

tion of nations , and that they may be traced in all

the civilizations ofthe past . It is now known that a high degree of civiliza tion existed in Mesopotamia and along the Nile some thousands of years before the alleged time

of Moses , and even before the rise of the Hebrew

nation . An examination of the religious cere monies and teachings of the Egyptians reveals the fact that they had formulated their moral pre cep ts in language closely akin to that of the

Hebrew decalogue .

The most valuable of all the works of the re

s mote pa t , for the light which it throws upon their

religious conceptions and ideals , is that which was 8 ANTIQUITY OF OU R ETHICAL IDEALS called the Per- em -b ru by the people of ancient

c Egypt , and whi h is better known to us as the

Book of the Dead . It was the book of the going m forth fro the darkness into light , and it is a

or series of books chapters containing prayers ,

x c m e or is s , and litanies for the guidance of the

Spirit or ghost of the departed in its long journey through the nether world . It was written at dif

feren t periods , and some parts of it are known

- to be very ancient . The Sixty fourth chapter states that it was found in the reign Of King

Men kaura c D . , whi h is placed by r Petrie at

— m of C . 3 845 3 784 B . So e these chapters m were to be me orized by the living , and

whispered in the ears of the dead , or to be written and pl aced in his burial case or tomb . This would enable the deceased to repulse the attacks of the demons and monsters which peopled the regions through which the spirit must pass on its N way to the tribunal of the gods . O two copies h of the Book of the Dead , as it as come down to

are a us , like . The longest is known as the Turin

d on e Papyrus , an it contains hundred and sixty ANTIQUITY’ OF OUR ETHICAL IDEALS 9 s five chapters . It is probable that a thou and papyri containing a more or less complete copy

f n ow o this work have been discovered , and are preserved in various museums Previous to the ,

1 - in eighteenth dynasty ( 5 87 1 562 B . C . ' it was m scribed usually upon cofiins and walls of to bs ,

on or or but afterwards , written papyrus linen

was or be leather , it placed in the burial case , side it .

Copies of the seventeenth chapter have been

found , which date from the eleventh dynasty

- ( 30 0 5 2 7 78 B . In this chapter it is said that those hated by the gods are they whose evil doings are reckoned and that “ evil is returned

to the guilty , and good is done to the one bearing ” it in himself . The next chapter says that he lives beloved by the gods and Shall live forever upon whose forehead father Tmu sets his fine ” of - crown truth Speaking . The idea of a tri bunal in heaven before which men must appear for trial for evil done on earth is found in Egyptian inscriptions which were made thirty

fi e v hundred years B . C . ; and even five cen I O ANTIQUITY OF OUR ETHICAL IDEALS turies earlier than that the Egyptians had for mulate d a moral code in conformity to which a man must live in order to Obtain an eternal

hereafter . The spirit of the deceased was sup posed to be taken into the bark of the sun god about the period of the winter solstice and borne along the sacred Nile towards the

a Of Judgment H ll the gods , the Hall of Truths , — where Osiris sat with his forty two assist

Of m on ants , each whom passed judg ent some special Sin if the deceased during his lifetime had

c committed it . The chapter which des ribes the ceremonies of this Hall of Osiris is numbered on e hundred and twenty-five ; it is the most in

r in on - - te est g and famous e in the Per em hru. One of the Oldest copies of it is that in the B ritish

c O Museum , whi h is known as the papyrus f the

c N n i s ribe ebse . It comes from ancient Mem

an o phis , d is assigned to the beginning fthe eight een th 1 dynasty , around 5 87 B . C . This chapter appears to have been the most popular one for use in the tombs and on the monuments at this

. F period rom it may be learned that , centuries

1 2 ANTIQUITY OF OUR ETHICAL IDEALS

2 8 . I have never cursed the king ; I have not

” blasphemed a god , declared the Egyptian before

the j udge . I have not worked the spell 'witch ” craft] which causes pining away , was the cry of the suppliant in the Hall of the Two T r uths ; and this was the command to the Hebrew

o Thou shalt n t suffer a witch to live .

of The lake fire was located behind the judges ,

of m upon the plates the papyrus , and each co er

- of it was guarded by a dog headed ape . Inas much as evil was believed by the Egyptians to

originate and dwell in the heart , the veracity of him who afiirmed his innocence before the august tribunal was tested by the ceremonial weighing

of his heart in the balance . The image ofTruth

was placed in the opposite scale of the balance .

Horus watched from one side , Anubis from the e oth r , Thoth recorded the result, and Osiris

passed sentence . I f the weighing of the heart confirmed the declarations of the soul of the de ceased , then the various parts which in Egyptian

m o philosophy ade up the c mposite man , and had been separated by death , were united again for an ANTIQUITY OF OUR ETHICAL IDEALS I 3

oe him eternity of j oy ; if the test failed , w unto , for the pu rifying fires awaited him , Or it might be the second death and annihilation .

An early papyrus Copy of the Per -em -b ru is in scribed in honor of a steward of the herds of

who Amen , and his wife who loves him , the lady ” makes all his delight . A stele found in the fi tomb of Paheri , a public of cer and scribe in the latter part of the seventeenth dynasty , mentions

the Judgment Hall of Osiris , and is inscribed

I did not receive bribes ; I did not speak to de ceive another ; I did not alter a message while

delivering I t . I f we accept with some reserva fi tion the af rmations in these inscriptions , it does not make less prominent the fact that they are really the actual Statements of their ethical stand

: of ards . M r . Myers says The victory good

over evil , of right over wrong , whether in speech or is c — of action , the substan e of nine tenths the Egyptian texts which have come down to us from

of the earliest times , outside those devoted to his i ” 1 tor cal statements .

1 “ ” O l B in the r l I aac M er 2 . dest ooks Wo d, s y , 3 I 4. ANTIQUITY OF OUR ETHICAL IDEALS

An inscription on the stele of I ritson of the

- to eleventh dynasty ( 2 832 2 786 B . C . ' refers the ” in ' on e c weigh g d for the re koning Of accounts , “ m and the forms of issuing forth and co ing in , which clearly indicate a knowledge at that early date of the ceremonies I n the Judgment H all . It also asserts that he knows the mystery of the divine word 'the Per- em -b ru] and the ordinances of the religious feasts and their rites , and has never

” I ri so strayed from them . t n and Hapu , his wife ,

c are portrayed twi e on this tablet . They are Sit

on on ting together e sofa , the lady with her arm

lovingly around the neck of her husband . Hapu S is poken of as his pious wife who loves him .

l of The ste e Prince Antep , of the same period , says : He did not make any distinction between

a stranger and those known to him . He was the

father of the weak , the support of him who had no

mother . Feared by the evildoer , he protected the poor. He was the deliverer Of him whom a more

powerful one deprived of his property . He was

of husband the widow , the refuge of the or

’ phan f ANTIQUITY OF OUR ETHICAL IDEALS 1 5

- In the next dynasty ( 2 778 2565 B . C . ' Seren f n I . o put , an Offi cer of King U sertese , speaks his dear daughters and his wife as the beloved of

ofAkhmin n ow the seat ofhis heart . The stele ,

at Ghizeh , belonging to the same period , says he has done what was agreeable to men and the gods ; he has given bread to the hung ry and clothes to those who were naked . Another stele at Ghizeh

“ of the same date says : I have given bread to

the hungry , clothing to those who were naked , and

” conducted myself in the way of devotion A tablet of an overseer under King Ai ( 1 3 44- 1 3 3 3

o B . says : I have given bread t the hungry ;

I have satisfied the indigent ; my mouth hath

” not spoken insolently against my superiors . One .

was se d which t up long before , in the fourth y

- of rch nasty ( 3845 3 784 B . C . ' says U uu: He has practiced righteousness ; hehas been ben evo lent to men ; he never did evil to anyone ; he never

caused death to anyone .

El- on m An inscription at Kab , the to b of Baba , says : I loved my father ; I honored my m mother ; y brothers and my Sisters loved me . I 6 ANTIQUITY OF OU R ETHICAL IDEALS

of The date of it is about 1 5 87 B . C . It says

to c Bab a , that he distributed corn the ity each

m out of year of the fa ine , that he went the door of his house with a benevolent heart and stood there with a refreshing hand . The number of m m children , great and s all , for who he provided

beds and refreshments is enumerated , and the

substance consumed is itemized . It was many centuries afterward that Another One wrote :

Now abideth faith , hope , charity , these three ;

of but the greatest these is charity .

of It was reverently written his wife , in the

of tomb the courtly Ti , more than five thousand h “ years ago , that s e was sweet as a palm tree in ” her love . One ofthe precepts in a book of later

: - times , says Ill use not thy wife ; she has

” r transg essed , let her depart with her property .

of An epitaph the Hyksos period , supposed to be “ - 20 1 . 9 8 5 87 B C . , says ; I loved my father ; I honored my mother ; my brothers and my s isters ” loved me .

In an inscription fifteen centuries earlier the subj ect of it implores his descendants to bear ANTIQUITY OF OUR ETHICAL IDEALS I 7 witness that he had lived in peace and

wrought righteousness , loving his father , loving m his other , giving way to his companions ; the j oy of of his brothers , the beloved his servants ; no accuser of slanderers ; a teller of the truth which

” c is lear to God . With reference to the expres

sion , loving his father , reverencing his mother , i ” and being beloved by h s brethren , M r . Simcox says that it represented when first adopted the maturest conviction of Egyptian philosophers as to the sentiments necessary for the felicitous ” working of the family relationships ; and it is m the opinion of the sa e author that the wife , at

c the beginning and the lose of Egyptian history ,

occupied a position of substantial equality in re f lation to her husband , or which it would be as hard to find a parallel in modern as in ancient

” 2 history .

The treaty of Rameses I I with the Khita said

o H i in relation t the fugitive : s house , his wife , his children Shall not be destroyed ; his mother

n o shall ot be slain . In the maxims f the scribe

2 “ ” Pr m i e C a E . . S mc x . 1 et se . i it v iviliz tions, J i o , i 99 q I 8 ANTIQUITY OF OU R ETHICAL IDEALS

Ani the husband is admonished as to his conduct towards his wife : Open thy arms for her , call

” her to thy arms , Show her thy love . The papy rus of Ani was found in the tomb of a Christian m c of onk , and it bears eviden e having been writ i ten n the sixth or seventh century B . C . ; but this

s papyrus wa only a copy , and the original goes

back ten centuries farther . It was first translated f in It is a book of counsel , and treats O

c c j usti e , propriety , onduct , and life . One of the

a Of : I on e s yings the scribe is f seeks thy views ,

o . turn t the divine books For then , as now , the sacred writings voiced the wisdom that mortals

c con eded to the superior powers . If one has m lost a good Opportunity , says another maxi ,

“ ” s he should make ha te to seize another . We cull a few more from the same source

If th r tr a th h r ou es in y tongu e t ou a t good .

Fatten not thyse lf in the house in which they d r ink beer .

c n in a i Dis ip li e house is ts life .

Do n ot remain se ated when another is standing if h e is olde r th an thou .

20 ANTIQUITY OF OUR ETHICAL IDEALS old patriarch of the Egyptians said : If thou

n hot act hast to do with a disputant whe he is , as one who cannot be moved . Thou 'then] hast him the advantage over , if only in keeping silent when he is using evil speech or as another has rendered it

K ee c o in in th e n d p ool , y u will w e ,

C n r a c e er r t o t di t d , just gov n you ongue .

m - o r e The sa e moralist , Ptah h tep , said if a son j ects all counsel and his mouth moves in wicked

c c spee h , strike him onsequently on the mouth . And this sentiment as preserved in the wisdom

“ ’ of the Hebrews reads : A fool s lips enter into m ” contention , and his outh calleth for strokes .

Ani said : Keep an affectionate remembrance of e m thy father and mother , who repos in the to b , to the end that thy son may act in the same way towards thee ; but Absalom long afte rwards m ’ reared up for hi self a pillar in the king s dale ,

F on m or , he said , I have no s to keep y name in ” m m c re e bran e .

One of the proverbs of the Hebrews reads ANTIQUITY OF OUR ETHICAL IDEALS 2 1

He that hateth covetousness shall prolong his f days but , as one o the sayings of Ani appears “ n ot in English garb , it is w ritten : Fill thy ” d heart with the property of another . Ani a monished men to be on guard against the snares of wives who write letters to them in the ab sence Of their husbands ; and the saying of the preacher long afterwards has been translated I find more bitter than death the woman whose

I heart S snares and nets , and her hands as bands ;

whoso pleaseth God Shall escape from her , but

” the Sinner shall be taken by her . If thou shalt not bear false witness was engraved on the tables f o stone , it had first been inscribed on the papy

“ : on od rus of Ani When e is falsely accused , G m m co es later and akes the truth known , and ” of death removes the liar . The third section the code of laws established by King Hammurabi

( 2250 B . C . ' makes death the penalty for giving false testimony in a case where life is depending upon it . I t is now a little more than half a century Since

as the papyrus known the Prisse , from the n ame Of 2 2 ANTIQUITY OF OUR ETHICAL IDEALS

to its owner , was first published , and given the

c Bibliotheque Of Paris . It ontained the little — book of Ptah hotep and a few pages written by

n r Kaquem a. Both were w itten in poetical form ,

' and were treatises on morality . The date of the — C . Prisse papyrus is placed around 2 778 25 65 B . , but it is expres sly stated in it that it is a copy c f

of an older writing . The author the first few

Ka uemn a com pages was q , and he says that it was

in en ef c posed the reign of S eru, a name whi h sig ” n ifie m D s he who akes good . r . Petrie places

of - the period this reign at 3998 39 69 B . C .

-hote of Ptah p , the writer Of the remaining pages

the papyrus , lived in the time of King Assa , some four centuries later . Both the authors were ffi prominent public o cials . The latter work was

c written , when the author was advan ed in years ,

of c son ' n as a manual instru tion for his , a d others

in the future . Distinguished scholars have Often expressed their admiration for the high character

c of Of the tea hings these ancient writings . Their

avowed Obj ect was to promote righteousness .

- Self restraint , propriety , chastity , integrity , and ANTIQUITY OF OU R ETHICAL IDEALS 2 3 benevolence are put forward as essentials to pros i p er ty and happiness . M r . Myer says that they

of testify to the existence Of a code noble , ex

alted , and refined ethics and M . Chabas , that

“ not any of the Christian virtues are forgotten

- h im in them . Ptah otep especially strives to press upon his son that by Obedien ce to moral precepts his body will be in health and he will

of have years life without failure , and to this he attributes his own long life of on e hundred and

.H e of ten years . declares that the children those who seize the property of others become obj ects ” of . curses , scorn , and hatred Even that which

is according to law , if unjust , should be unveiled

r and exposed , He sounds a wa ning against the repetition of the extravagant language which another uses : Do not listen to it ; it is a thing ” which has escaped from a heated soul . Words

which multiply flatteries , raise pride , and produce vanity must not prevail ; do perfect things which

or posterity will remember , , as it has been ren

4 dered by M r . Rawnsley

4 “ ” N for th N le H . D . R l e e a e . ot s i , wns y, 30 3 ANTIQUITY OF OUR ETHICAL IDEALS

DO h a an d w t is good just,

Per fec c m ete t, o p l ;

D th at he th ar t eeds w n ou t dus , ” Still sh all b e sweet.

The sentiment is echoed by sages and philoso

‘ h r a a r p e s down long the ges . The g eatest of the

Hebrew prophets said nearly three millenniums afterwards : Cease to do evil ; learn to do ” TWO well . centuries l ater Gautama summed up the religion of the Buddhas :

To cease from s in

T et r e o g vi tu ,

” To cleanse the heart ;

S and ix hundred years before Gautama spoke , a

Chinese poet wrote :

“ I hea e r a m t ' v n] ound bout us oves,

I ect all e nsp ing w do,

An d d aily dis approves

h a n ot n W t is just a d true.

It was more than five thousand years after the verses Of Ptah -hotep had been written that James

Shirley , an English poet , wrote in a funeral song ANTIQUITY OF OUR ETHICAL IDEALS 2 5

O n ly th e actions of th e just

” Sme l et and m in th e . l swe , blosso dust

of On a stele Beka , a steward Of the granary in fi m the nineteenth dynasty , it was af r ed that his hope of future living was based on the truthful

Of ness his life . The Song of the Harper of

“ the same period , said : Give bread to him m whose field is barren , thy na e will be glorious in posterity evermore ; good for thee will have been an honest life when thou shalt start for the

’ on c vy land e goeth to return not then e . It as written in the tomb of Ameny at Beni Hasan

o Not a daughter fa poor man did I wrong , not a widow did I oppress there was not a

hungry man in my time . “ Honor thy father and thy mother that thy

days may be long in the land , reads the Hebrew decalogue ; and Ptah - hotep said

The son h th acce , w o do pt

The r c of h father r inst u tion is , will g ow old ,

” L n in h a h a on th t e a a . o g l nd is d ys, t ccount

It was said in an inscription on a libation vase 26 ANTIQUITY OF OU R ETHICAL IDEALS

in the museum of the Louvre that a son faithful

to the memory Of his father Shall not be repulsed

by Osiris on the d ay of the great festival Of the

gods ; and it was taught in the Book of the Dead “ that if it could be said of one that he is a son ” who loves his father , this would be a passport for his soul on the day of his entrance into the

Amenti .

“ Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven

m c m i age , om anded Jahveh through the Hebrew

- the m law giver , but before Exodus , in his hy n to

En n an a the Nile , wrote

N on mar e r lle ot bl is he sc o d ,

H im our e e can eh l y s not b o d ,

Y e a h e l n n , is dw l i g is u known,

Ne er et in a te Shr n v y p in d i e,

H a e we f n h r v ou d is fo m divine .

The Israelites reckoned time by moons and

nights , and divided the week into seven days ,

the seventh day being a holy day , and begin ning at sunset of the Sixth and ending at sun f O . I set the seventh t is now known , from an

2 8 ANTIQUITY OF OU R ETHICAL IDEALS

n o afte rwards introduced into Egypt , but t till

fifteen hundred and fifty years after the cow of the hymn to Amen - Ra which is now extant had

been made . The Romans copied them from the

Egyptians in the fourth century . Each hour of the seven days among the Chaldeans had been

on f sacred to some e o the seven planets . This is learned from a tablet of the time Of the reign of

I . nse Sargon , about 3 80 0 B . C . The hours co crated to each planet were arranged in the order

’ of the magnitude of the planet s orbit , and the day itself was named from the planet to which the

first hour was sacred .

There are some traces in the Chaldean creation legends Ofthe seventh day as a holy day on which business was suspended . Though it is quite ” “ t possible , Mr . A . B . Ellis says , hat the Israelites may have invented a seven - day week and a weekly

of Sabbath spontaneously , yet the evidence the books of the Old Testament goes to Show that they borrowed both these institutions from the

” - Babylonian Assyrians during the Captivity. I t is now quite generally accepted as a fact that they ANTIQUITY OF OUR ETHICAL IDEALS 29

is came from this source to the Israelites , but it not at all clear at what period of their national existence the Observance of the weekly Sabbath

was established . The Hebrew sacred books i record two traditions of its origin . It s written in Exodus that Jahveh blessed the Sabbath and

hallowed it , because of the Six days of creation and the Seventh. day of rest which followed ; while in Deuteronomy the reason given for ap pointing the seventh day as a Sabbath was tOmake it a memorial Of the fact that his mighty hand and outstretched arm ” had brought them safely o ut from the land of Egypt . I f Abraham was a worshiper in the temple Of the moon god Sin at

Ur before he left Chaldea , as he may have been , then he was undoubtedly familiar with their k weekly Sabbath , and may have carried a nowl edge ofit to the Hebrews ; yet little or no mention of it is made in the earlier written ethical and his oric t al books . Its observance was apparently neg lected by Joshua at the siege of Jericho , by

of m David in his pursuit the A alekites , and by

’ Solomon in his fourteen days feast at the dedi 30 ANTIQUITY OF OUR ETHICAL IDEALS

cation of the temple , though in the books written or perfected after the Captivity its rigid enforce ment is insisted upon to such an extent that they submit to be massacred rather than to risk dis obedience to a law which forbid them from going out from their own domiciles on the seventh day .

The discovery by George Smith in 1 869 of what is known as a Babylonian Saints ’ Calendar has thrown light on the origin of the weekly Sab

is bath . Its age not definitely known , but it is known to have been in existence prior to the A seventeenth century B . C . , and from its c cadian forms and expressions it is believed to b e

long to very early times . I n this calendar the

- firs seventh , fourteenth , nineteenth , twenty t , and twenty-eighth days of the months are set

d as l . O d own ho y days n these ays , it is said , the

on king puts not his white robe , nor rides in his chariot ; he takes no medicine for the sickness Of the body ; no laws are made ; the garments of the body are changed not ; the flesh of birds and the cooking Of fruit are forbidden ; but the king sacrifices in the high places to the gods which he ANTIQUITY OF OUR ETHICAL IDEALS 3 1

of worships . That this worship the moon god

led to the d i v i si on Ofthe moon month into weekly

period s corresponding to what is n ow commonly

of called changes in the moon , and was the origin

the seventh day Sabbath with the Babylonians ,

and its descent from them t o the Hebrews is

s hardly to be longer que tioned .

It is interesting to note that in this ancient

calendar of the Assyrians may be found the nu

c cleus of all the laws , w ritten and unwritten , ivil

m m of and oral , as well as the source of any the

c of traditions , ustoms , and beliefs later ages and

m m o odern ti es , in relation to the observance f the

Sabbath .

The law ofthe Israelites said later : Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon

” the Sabbath day . The Jews still later obj ected

c to the healing of the si k by Jesus upon that day .

The Assyrian prohibition of medicine on Sunday

survived in the belief , in the Middle Ages , that

medical treatment must not be administered in

of m certain phases the oon . In the construction of laws which have been made in recent years in 3 2 ANTIQUITY OF OUR ETHICAL IDEALS

New York the legality ofthe sale of food on Sun day was made contingent upon its being cooked or

uncooked . Legal processes are not served on Sun

a the c on d y, and legality of papers exe uted that d ay is questioned ; barber shops and bathing es

i h n c s tabl s me ts are losed , and many statute still

’ regulate the running of the king s chariot on the

S abbath as in the time when the Babylonian

’ Saints Calendar was made .

Professor Morris Jastrow thinks the incanta tion texts may be regarded as the Oldest fixed

of - ritual the Babylonian Assyrian religion , and he

finds indications in the language which warrant

t o us in not passing below w thousand years B . C . as the period when many of them received their m ” m present for . While so e Of the beliefs as sociated with them are of the most primitive c c e c hara ter , y t the ethi al ideas introduced into them give a glimpse of the moral standards of the

people at the time . In the ceremonies of the exorcists to remove the ban from him who was

c s a cursed , the pos ible sins and transgressions for which he may be suffering the penalties are enu ANTIQUITY OF OUR ETHICAL IDEALS 3 3

of merated interrogatively , and they remind us the negative declarations in the Hall of Osiris

H as he desp ise d father or mother '

H as h e given too littl e '

H as h e withheld too much '

H as h e use d fa lse weights '

H as h e fixe d a false bound ary '

’ H a h m O i n e s e possessed hi self f h s eighbor s hous ,

’ H as he a r ache his e h r e pp o d n ig bo s wif ,

H as he she d the blood of his neighbor '

Was he fr a in ea nk sp king,

B a e in hear ut f ls t,

Was es h h m h it y wit is out ,

But no in his he art ' 5

The laSt lines recall the sentiment which

Homer put into the mouth of Achilles at least a thousand years later : Hateful to me as the gates ofhell is he that hideth one thing in his heart and uttereth another . A few centuries later Theog nis advised his friend Cyrnus that he was better as

foe a than a comrade , who , with on e tongue , m ” had yet his ind at variance .

“ 5 Rel B a l n A r i M rr igion of by oni a a d ssy a, o is 'as

tr 2 1 . ow, 57 , 2 9 34. ANTIQUITY OF OUR ETHICAL IDEALS

The Assyrians believed that parents after their death looked out for and protected their living children if generous offerings were made at their

or tombs , they p ersecuted those who neglected

c their filial duties . Su h ideas may have been primarily associated with belief in ancestral dei

of m ties . One the above quoted questions fro the m c m agical texts reveals the fa t that , in the inds o f al f the people o the v ley of the Euphrates , as

along the Nile and in Judea , parental devotion

c an d c was of great importan e , ontributed to the

s enj oyment of life , pro p erity , and longevity.

A tablet from the library of Ashurbanipal con tains an Old Accadian law forbidding a man to m deny his father and other . Another says that a son who denies his father and mother shall have

c off in his hair ut , and be imprisoned . The

of m ho scription Ham urabi , w reigned about 2 2 50

set o B . C . , says that he up the statue f his father

at the four quarters of the heaven , and that , when he had built his great canal and set up the tower

Sin m b allit of u , he named it in honor Of his

of father . A statue Gudea , which was set up in

36 ANTIQUITY OF OU R ETHICAL IDEALS

“ I n the hymns as the lord of the gods and

“ w as maker of existences . Ptah the father

” of the gods at Memphis ; Kn oph was the soul of the universe in Nubia ; Osiris at first reigned

n at Abydos only , Thoth at Hermopolis , and Tur “ ” at Heliopolis . Ea was lord of the wave and

“ king of the deep in Eridhuofancient Chaldea .

- i ur - Mul lil was the god of N pp , and Bel Marduk chiefest of gods at great Babylon . Nebo reigned B i hi m in ors pp a, and Assur gave s na e to his king dom and its capital city .

of Unity of belief has been the ideal the ages .

It is still the goal of many minds . How Often in the past men have believed themselves called from on high to kill or persecute those who served other gods '

It is doubtful if , even at the beginning of

the twentieth century , any Of the civilized coun tries Of the world are entirely reconciled to the

of idea religious liberty. It is accepted with a reservation , and that reservation too often means a proviso that some particular features of their d l d personal cree shal be ma e compulsory. True , ANTIQUITY OF OUR ETHICAL IDEALS 3 7 public sentiment no longer openly approves the use of physical force to prevent nonconformity ,

m c but favoritis , ostracism , and boy ott are as avail

in able now as ever history . Neither must we forget that some of the Oldest records of the past furnish evidence of enlightened religious liberty that compares n ot unfavorably with the better m senti ents of modern times .

One of the Old Babylonian tablets which Pro fessor Jastrow says may have belonged to the crea

tion series exalts Marduk , who showed mercy

towards the captured gods , and spared the lives

o of the associates f the monster Tiamat . The

stele of Beka in the nineteenth dynasty declared , I have not done harm to men who have honored ” their gods . If we are shocked that the cul tured King Ashurbanipal , who gathered and pre served all the known literature of the world in

m o his ti e , recorded in his wn annals boastingly that he pulled out the tongues and flayed off

S of n on comformists the kin in Arbela , we may not cease to remember also that it was Charles

of the Fifth , defender the faith , master of Ger 3 8 ANTIQUITY OF OU R ETHICAL IDEALS

F Fl man , Spanish , Italian , rench , and emish , who

c introduced the Inquisition , and under whose edi ts the people Of the Netherlands were hanged ,

ma burned , and buried alive for heresy ; nor y we forget that in the century later it was the same New Englanders who founded universities that

of ox- tied to the tails their carts , cropped the ears

of, and hanged dissenters . One hears echoed in the voices of the present the cry that the hOp e of humanity lies in the ex

m of tension and develop ent altruistic ideals . We may discern something of this spirit in the glean

ings from the past . Only the merest fragments of the literature Of the Carthaginians were saved when the Romans destroyed their libraries ; but on e of their sayings whi ch has been preserved de

fines an up right man as one of whom people said th at he did everything that a just man ought to do . An inscrip tion of Gudea describes him as a

man righteous who loves his town , fulfilling

” c m i what is be o ing for h m to do . The stele of

-auab Neb , now in the Louvre , whose date has

“ not been fixed , says , I have been loved by my ANTIQUITY OF OU R ETHICAL IDEALS 39

Z fellow countrymen . It is told Of oroaster

( and we may remember that he was a youth in the reign of Ashurbanipal ', that , inquiring once in open assembly what was most favorable for the

“ soul , he was told , To nourish the poor , give

fodder to cattle , bring firewood to the fire , pour ” - m hom juice into water , and worship any demons .

He rej ected the last , and accepted the others as

of . being worthy a righteous man Confucius , l Z born a few years ater than oroaster , lays down ,

as the first principles , faithfulness and sincerity ; and he exhorted his followers not to do to others as they would not wish others to do to them “ s . S elves The firm , the enduring , the imple , and ” the modest , says he , are near to virtue and

man of of the , who in V iew gain thinks right eousn ess ; who in the view of danger is prepared to give up life ; and who does not forget an Old

m c agree ent , however far ba k it extends ; such a ” man ma c l m n y be re koned a comp ete a . Buddha ,

born half a century before Confucius , held that the only ideal of life worth striving after was that f o a perfect life here an d now. He said the ideal 40 ANTIQUITY OF OUR ETHICAL IDEALS teacher should keep nothing secret and hold

nothing back .

“ ” c Yew , said the master , Confu ius , shall I ' teach you wh at knowledge is When you know

ou a thing , to hold that you know it ; and when y

do n ot know a thing , to allow that you do not

” know it ; this is knowledge . Buddha taught that it was impossible to incite men to a hopeful struggle after the perfect life here so long as they

“ were still hampered and all their virtue tar n ished by a foolish c raving for an eternal life “ c hereafter . Su h questions as , What shall I be doing during the ages of the future ' ” he said

were worse than unp rofitable , and refused to dis m m cuss the . He said the desire to discuss the

was a weakness , and the answers given were

of usually delusions . One the hymns to him says :

P r t n th en d e secu io s wi out ,

man r Revilin gs and y p isons,

at an d m r er D e h u d ,

These h a st thou suffere d with love an d p atience

T r h a ma i ' o secu e t e h pp iness of nk nd] ,

r Fo r giving thine executione s . ANTIQUITY OF OUR ETHICAL IDEALS 4 1

Confucius told his disciples that the design of

‘ all the three hun d red pieces in the sacred Shi King might be embraced in on e sentence : Have no

depraved thoughts .

“ To m be pure , te perate , and persevering in ” good deeds ; these are excellencies , said the

Buddha . Six centuries later in another land a

“ Voice was heard saying : Blessed are the pure

” in heart , for they shall see God .

In contrasting the ethical conceptions of Older c o r can im ivilizations with u own , one but be pressed with the justness of the summary conclu

sion of the Old Greek philosopher , Aristotle , who ,

w m a d living mid ay between the n us , seemed to

' as he s divine the future , well as t pa t , when he

m n said : In all times e have praised honesty , m b en eficence m oral purity , ; in all ti es they have

protested against murder , adultery , perjury , and

NO n all kinds of vice . o e will dare maintain that it is better to do inj ustice than to bear it Bu t , after all , what intangible entities are m ' hu an ideals Change the perspective , the goal

“ forbidden becomes the righteous end , and thou 42 ANTIQUITY OF OUR ETHICAL IDEALS

- c c shalt not is transformed into a self ons ious ,

“ ” his im strenuous , aggressive thou shalt . In mortal epic Homer has pi ctured the divided gods arrayed against each other and actively as sisting

c c O the ontending for es at the siege of Troy . S

m m on m Christian ar ies eet battlefields , while fro

c s the friends Of each ountles petitions , fervent

m a s o as the prayer of Ra eses at K de h , go up t o G d

s Of for the de truction the enemy . With absorb ing interest and incredulous wonder we read the story of the childlike simplicity of the c rude b e

c lief Of the ancient Greeks , la king the insight to perceive that our own conceptions are merely the

reflection of theirs .

SOME V ARIANTS OF TH E TALE OF TH E KI NGS

I T I S well known that there is much similarity between many of the semi - historical incidents and legendary tales of heroes and leaders of peoples who have been widely separated geographically H and in period of time . ow can this fact be most satisfactorily explained ' This question has been the subj ect of much earnest and prolonged discussion by those interested in the scientific

of study the story of the past . Sometimes these kindred tales are easily traced ; roving adventurers may have carried them ; community Of origin may explain them ; they may have been the outcome of

or c commercial relations warlike en ounters . The spontaneous generation of Similar ideas and im pressions under like conditions among different races and nations at parallel levels of culture and development has been assumed by distinguished

45 46 VARIANTS OF TH E TALE OF TH E KINGS investigators ; and this theory seems to have been accepted as a working hypothesis by many lead ing scholars . It is the aim of this paper to indicate some points of contact and res emblance in the stories f of a few O the interesting personalities , whether

r - ho m real o semi mythical , w have been pro inent

f r in the literary annals o historic , o the traditions f o prehistoric, times . One of the sweetest and most pathetic tales

o in all ancient history is that f the infant Moses .

‘ o It is familiar in every household . According t the Biblical record the babe was concealed until it was three months Old ; its mother then placed

o it in an ark f bulrushes , which was daubed with

slime and pitch , and placed among the flags by

’ of the river s brink ; there , when the daughter

Pharaoh came dow n to the river to bathe , the w child as found , and given over to one of the

Hebrew women to care for . Legend says that the mother went away weep

- —o ing and wailing , while Miriam , the five year ld

of sister the babe , followed the little ark as it VARIANTS OF TH E TALE OF TH E KINGS 47

floated on the wash ofthe river in and out among

the reeds .

The pedestal of the statue Of King Sargon I . of Babylon contains a sketch of his early life . Assyriologists have been able to fix with more certainty the period Of his reign than they have many other events of like importance in antiquity .

As m I t is placed at 3 80 0 B . C . George S ith

a interpreted the inscription on the pedest l , the child was born in a grove ; its mother put it in a cradle of wicker and launched it on the river . “ Fox Talbot has rendered it : In a secret place

She brought me forth ; she placed me in an ark of bulrushes ; with bitumen my door she closed

he c up ; s threw me into the river , whi h did not enter the ark to me ; to the dwelling of Akki , the

- w water carrier , it brought me ; Akki , the ater c of m arrier , in his goodness heart lifted me up fro

- the river ; Akki , the water carrier , brought me up

” 1 as his own son .

Professor Tylor says ofthis inscription : The text no doubt reproduces the ancient legend r e

1 “ ” r of P ol. Rec th a . . o ds e st, v v P 3 48 VARIANTS OF TH E TALE OF TH E KINGS

specting the birth and parentage of Sargon , but

s the story of the p redestined king , who is expo ed in his youth and brought up in Obscurity by

oo humble foster parents , has been told in t many times and places for it to be easy to accept even ” c the earliest version of it as histori al . Professor

Steinthal says : The birth of a hero of a legend is always the last circumstance to he invented him concerning , when his life and character are already well settled ; j ust as an author writes his

” c m preface only after o pletion Of his book .

ha William Morris , the English poet , s written beautifully the tale of The Man Born to be

’ 3 King , in which it was foretold to a great king ,

h r l a n or a for W o ul ed wide nds l cke d gold , that he who should reign after him would be low

born and poor . Long afterwards when the wise ’ m seer s essage had been forgotten , and the king

’ chanced to pass the night in a woodm an s hut in

s on Was the fore t while a hunting expedition , it again Impressed upon him in a dream that the VARIANTS OF TH E TALE OF THE K I N GS 49 babe born to his peasant host that night would be

his successor on the throne . Taking his faithful squire into his confidence and Obtaining possession

of the motherless babe , they bore it away in a

b o r ar Rough x fou squ e,

M a de of old wood an d lined with h ay.

As they crossed the bridge that spanned the river on their homeward j ourney the child was tossed into the stream :

Adown this w ater sh all h e flo at

th th r h b ox for a r k an d a Wi is oug bo t,

Th en ' if mi n e Old lin e he muSt Sp ill

There let God s ave him if H e will .

Fourteen years passed and the child was then discovered to have been found and reared by the

’ ’ miller s wife . The king s squire is then sent to him assassinate . He is left in the swamp to die F from his wound , rescued by ather Adrian , and m m educated at the Abbey . One ore atte pt is

c made upon his life by the king , whi h is foiled m by his own daughter , who arries and makes a 50 VARIANTS OF THE TALE OF THE KINGS

an king of the young m , and he lives to reign in an era of such good and precious years that

Scarce a man would stop to ga ze

At gold crowns hung above the w ays .

I . King Gudea reigned long after Sargon , and under him art reached its highest development in him Babylonia . Many statues of were found at

c on e Of m c Tello , and an ins ription upon the re alls

- c c the story of the water arrier , Akki , who res ued

“ Sargon from the river . It reads : Mother I had not ; my mother was the water deep . A m father I had not ; y father was the water deep .

There are incidents in the traditional s tory of m m Ro ulus , reputed founder Of Ro e , not unlike

of m those told Sargon and Moses . A ulius , king of c f Alba Longa , was des ended from Iulus , son O E Trojan neas . He had usurped the throne from m his brother , Nu itor , murdered his son and made

’ a vestal virgin of his daughter lest his brother s hi heirs should contest s right to the throne . The

daughter , violated by Mars , gave birth to the R m R twins o ulus and emus , who , by order of the

5 2 VARIANTS OF THE TALE OF THE KINGS

the Gorgon which having secured , Perseus takes revenge upon the king by turning him into stone and setting upon the throne the faithful brother ,

Dikt s y , who had rescued himself and his mother m m from the sea, and re ained loyal to the after

o old m wards . Perseus then returned t his ho e in

Argos , where a quoit which he threw fell acci

f Akr isios dentally upon the foot o his grandsire , ,

c c causing his death , and the prophe y of the ora le was fulfilled . The cradle and the river are wanting in the traditions of the Troj an Paris and the Persian

Cyrus , but there are incidents in the biographical tales of each of them which bear a strong re

m of se blance to those other heroes already given .

Paris was carried up to Mount Ida and aban m do ed to his fate . Five days afterwards the shep herd Agelaus found the babe alive and reared

o n R him as his w child . As omulus was nourished

- on O by the she wolf the banks of the Tiber , S

w as - Paris fed by a she bear on the mountain .

Like Paris , Cyrus was forsaken on the moun

tain , and rescued by the shepherd of the king , who VARIANTS OF TH E TALE OF THE KINGS 5 3 adopted him as his own child and secretly reared him . Before the birth of Cyrus it was foretold that he would overthrow the Median kingdom of

A s his grandfather , styage , and conquer Asia ; it was to ward Off this calamity that the child was abandoned to his fate . SO Hecuba , the wife of ha m Priam , king of Troy , d drea ed before the birth of Paris of bringing forth a firebrand which f caused the destruction o the city ; and , to prevent

o m the fulfillment f this o inous dream , it was de c reed by the king that the child at its birth Should

be destroyed .

A tale ofthe Midrash tells that before the birth of m Moses Pharaoh drea ed that , as he sat upon

old man his throne , an appeared before him hold ing a balance ; in on e side of it he put all the

of princes and elders and nobles his kingdom , and all the inhabitants ofEgypt ; in the other Side

c Of the balan e he put a young babe , which out

weighed them all . This was interpreted by

Balaam to mean that a child would be born to the Hebrews that threatened great danger to all

Egypt ; and on his advice the king issued a decree 54 VARIANTS OF THE TALE OF THE KINGS that all their newborn children should be thrown into the river .

The mothers of Cyrus , Sargon , Romulus , and

of Perseus were the daughters kings . The fathers of Sargon and Romulus w ere unknown ; the

n o m father of Cyrus was t Of the royal fa ily , and

o Moses was the s n of an unknown Levite .

It is told in the legends of Moses that on ac count of his exceeding beauty of person everyone m who saw him was filled with ad iration , and

’ ” on c ried out , This is the king s s , and that with

Chaplets of diamonds surrounding his brows , and

arrayed in purple , he passed through the streets ,

c f consorting only with prin es . SO it was said o

Cyrus that his royal descent was revealed by his

personal beauty and bravery . The comeliness of

Romulus was marked , and the fascinating beauty

of Paris was the ruin of Helen . Young Romulus led the shepherds against wild beasts and robbers . The youthful Moses Slew an Egyptian and hid him in the sand for smiting a

Hebrew . Sargon became the leader of the rustic foresters , and when Cyrus was a mere lad the VARIANTS OF TH E TALE OF TH E KINGS 5 5

Shepherd boys chos e him for their king . Young

Paris led the herdsmen on the mountain , and was surnamed Alexander on account of his bravery . Paris learned that the blood of kings ran in his veins ; returned to participate in the fight at

Troy ; and his rape Of the wife of Menelaus caused the destruction of his people . Romulus dethroned the usurper, restored his grandfather

of to the government Alba Longa , founded the

c c e great ity whi h bears his nam , and kidnaped the d aughters of his neighbors for wives for his fol

lowers . Sargon , the great King , the King of

Agani , as his inscriptions say , founded cities , and

c peopled them with the races whi h he conquered .

Moses returned to his own people and became

their leader and hero . He conquered the Midian

of ites , and slew their king ; male and female e them were slain , all sav their virgin daughters , f who were appropriated by command of their chie , as spoils for the victors . The mother of Romulus became the wife of a

- od of on e river g , and Paris married the daughter .

The omens of the flight of birds dictated the 5 6 VARIANTS OF TH E TALE OF TH E KINGS

R m m founding of ome . The o ens of the oon directed Sargon in the subjugation of B abylonia

and the founding of Agani . Moses was led by

the p illar of cloud by day , and the pillar of fire by night .

o n Romulus slew King Acron with his w hands , and dedicated his arms and armor to Jupiter ; the god Mars was his reputed father . Sargon

- styled himself the servant of Bel Merodach , and his annals speak of him as the vicar of

’ I Of the gods Babylon . He built the temple

k r of E u at Nippur for the service Of Bel , and

of in r i Sargon , the son Bel , is part of the sc p tion of the diorite door-socket resurrected from m its ruins . Moses beca e the divinely chosen leader of the I s raelites through whom the com

of ma mands Jehovah were de known , and he builded and consec rated to him the tabernacle

in the wilderness . A veil separated the holy of holies from the holy place in the taber nacle as , it had done in the great temple of - c Bel Meroda h in Babylon long before . The

morning and evening sacrifice , the meat and VARIANTS OF TH E TALE OF TH E KINGS 5 7

f f sin Of drink O fering , the freewill o fering , the ferin S f g , and the howbread and the peace O fering

c m c o be a e part of the ritual servi e fthe tabernacle , m as they had been Of the te ple .

On the monumental inscription of Sargon his prosperity and glory are attributed to the favor

I a . of shtar , the Babyloni n Venus The decision of Paris which gave the golden apple to Aphro dite ( Venus ' was the spark that lighted the

of flames Troy . When Paris ch allenged and l fought with Mene aus before its walls , Venus

‘ c surrounded him with a loud , snatched him away , and laid him down in his chamber fresh and

” m of sweet , to save him fro the sword the Spar

. I t n S tan king was Venus who bade fE ea , the

c of m an estor Ro ulus , to save his family from m destruction by fleeing fro Troy . I t was the jealous foes of Venus who pursued and harassed

the fleeing Troj ans , and Rome was permitted , only because s o far away from Troy that endless

billows roll between , and storms unnumbered ” roar.

’ Moses death and burial was in the land of 5 8 VARIANTS OF TH E TALE OF TH E KINGS

man his Moab , and no knoweth the place of

c . sepulcher , says the sa red story of the Hebrews

A story of the Talmud says that G od bent over the face of Moses and kissed him , and the soul leap ed up in joy an d went with the kiss of God to

Paradise , while a dark cloud draped the heavens

and the wind wailed . Moses had ruled the

Israelites forty years . It is also told that when

Romulus had reigned thirty- seven years death came to him in this manner : While reviewing his m people one day on the Ca pus Martius , the sun

c was e lipsed , and the people were dispersed in the

accomp anying storm and darkness . When day light returned it was found that Romulus had b been carried away y Mars in a fiery chariot .

’ S ch ere the a h th a R me rea er r u w p t s t o s g t found t od ,

he in a h r at he on h h W n w i lwind sn c d ig ,

H e h off l m r al t s ook dul o t i y,

” An d th e m n ar h in th 2 lost o c e god .

R D How long , Professor hys avids asks ,

does it take a people , perfectly , sincerely and

2 H race i . od e ra a o , book ii 3 (t nsl tion of Addison'.

V ARIANTS OF THE TALE OF THE KINGS

m t th a Thy d ar ing art shall ani a e e de d,

An d d r aw the thunder on thy guil ty he ad ;

Th h th d ie but r m the ar a e en s alt ou , f o d k bod ” 3 S h r r an d b e ce a . a lt ise victo ious, twi god

R Like Moses , Sargon , omulus , and Perseus ,

Bacchus was picked up in a box that floated on the

water . He was divinely begotten , and nourished in a cave . At birth a blaze Of light shone round his cradle . He was educated by Shepherds and w rought miracles with a rod which , like Aaron ,

he turned into a serpent at his pleasure . He

of H s divided the waters Orontes and yd aspu ,

and passed through them . At his death he was torn into pieces and ascended to heaven while the sun was eclipsed and darkened . A legend of the Mandans which is given by

- - - George Catlin says that O kee hee da , the evil

spirit , the black fellow , came to the Mandan village with Mu-mohk- muck-a- nah from the

sat one- west , and down by a eyed woman who was hoeing corn . When the pretty daughter of

“ 3 am r o e r t Met o ph s s ( t ansl a ion of Addison'. V ARIANTS OF TH E TALE OF TH E KINGS 6 1 the woman came up to them she ate and drank

of with the evil spirit , partaking with him some buffalo meat which he took out of his Side . She then went off to a secret place and bore a won

Mu- - - a— d erful child , whom mohk muck nah was

bent on destroying . After long search he dis covered the place of its hiding and threw it into

as the river, but the child w rescued and lived to perform great miracles in the time of a famine , when from four buffaloes the Mandan village was

filled by him with meat , and all feasted upon it , after which there was found to be as much left as e he e ther was at t b ginning .

From hymns and traditions of the ancient

’ Mexicans it is learned that Chimalipan was the

of f virgin mother Huitzilopochtli , the war god o the Aztecs . She was divinely impregnated by the descending spirit of the All - father in the shape of a bunch of feathers . The child was born on

o the serpent mountain , C atepetl, where he d ripened into age , when he became skille in magic , inspired terror when he shouted , became lord

Of battles , hurled serpents , and Shook the earth . 62 VARIANTS OF TH E TALE OF TH E KINGS

How- tsih was the ancestor of the Chow dy

c in nasty . He is elebrated the old Chinese sacred songs as an agricultural hero , and as the f first who gave thank O ferings for the harvest . Some authorities have made his mother the prin cess consort of the Emperor Kuh ( 2435 -23 5 7

- sih B . but according to others How t belongs to a period about two centuries later . His miraculous conception is aflirmed in an Ode of their classic poetry

’ Our folk s fi r st or igin

I r S d ated f om K ifin g Yun .

( Now Sing we ' how this or igin occu rred

O ce r h as She n wo s ip ing w ,

‘ ’ Pr a P ch l e m ying, ity i dl ss e,

’ Then re a n on G toe - r sh as t r r , t di g od s p int, e w s i e d ;

Th r h h er e r ht h r r is b oug t bl ssing, b oug e est,

C nce t — r o p ion, p iv acy ;

Then came an infant to her breast ; ” a a a - 4 Th t inf nt w s How tsih .

From the unfavorable omens at the child ’ s birth

4 “ Th K e Sh 11 . ar . o l i ing, book p t ii d e 1 (tr ans ation

lli am i of Wi Jenn ngs'. VARIANTS OF TH E TALE OF THE KINGS 63 the mother was convinced that the child ought

he m his not to live , and s sought to co pass death by exposure

“ O c in a ar r a e x n e n ow l n e posed ,

h h an d xe r him T e s eep o n ound closed ,

r r An d she lte ed with the i r loving ca e .

A a n the ma f him her g i , wood n ound w e

I n a wide for est h e w as pl ace d

r i r ar m An d bo e h m f om the d kso e w aste .

n th ice ex e c m re O e cold pos d on e o ,

’ r th th h n o r A bi d bene a e c ild a d e , ” 5 Stretche d its great wings .

It is asserted that the child looked intelligent and m c aj esti when he was able to creep , and that when he was grown enough to feed himself he

began the cultivation of beans and grain .

I t is said that Ahriman and his demons tried i Z in va n to prevent the birth of oroaster , and then fled . All nature rejoiced at the event ; trees and rivers thrilled with gladness ; divine light shone around the house ; loud laughter burst from

c m the babe as he a e into the world , and the throb

5 ’ I id Dr . e e t r a a . b . ( L gg s nsl tion ' 64 VARIANTS OF TH E TALE OF TH E KINGS

m bing of his brain presaged his future wisdo . A splendid ox gifted with speech had foretold his birth three centuries before . Glory descended from the holy on e and abided with the mother to such an extent that she was thought to be b e

c c m witched . The on eption of the other was effected in Spite of the demons by the aid of a

c drink prepared by archangels . Again mira le turned aside the poniard stroke of an assassin when

a the child lay in its cr dle . It was exposed to be

x of trodden to death by o en , and the leader the herd stood over the babe and protected it from the

rest . Wolves refused to do it harm , and the

of f poison sorcerers had no e fect upon it . The

o babe was suckled by a Sheep in a den f wolves . When the lad grew to seven years he was placed — in the care of the wise Agan aces a name which recalls that of Akki the water- carrier who

’ rescued Sargon , and Acca , the wife of the king s R shepherd who saved omulus , and Agelaus , the

shepherd that reared Paris .

Tradition says that the boy Z oroaster put to confusion the wise magicians who contended with VARIANTS OF TH E TALE OF TH E KINGS 65 him ; that he lived on a mountain in a cave which was divinely illuminated ; that as he set out on his ministry with some of his relatives they passed through a sea whose waters were lowered by miracle so as to allow them to cross without m danger. Greek and Ro an tradition teaches m that he was killed by a fla e from heaven , but a later legend says that he was a magician and con

of jured with the stars , and the guardian spirit a certain star which was angry at his control Of it sent a flame from heaven to destroy him .

his Krishna was cradled among shepherds , and

great feats were first made known to them , his companions falling prostrate before him . The

prophets , hearing of his fame and visiting him , examined the stars and pronounced him of

celestial descent . From the Magi he received divine honors and gifts of sandalwood and per

I was fumes . t was said that he born in a cave , or a dungeon , of royal descent , his birth being concealed through fear of the reigning tyrant ,

of hi Kansa , who , at the time s birth , ordered all the male children to be slain . A voice from ' 66 VARIANTS OF TH E TALE OF TH E KINGS heaven whispered to his foster father to fly across

of the river Jumna . Representations the flight and escape are pictured on the walls of Hindu D hi temples . The chaste virgin evaki was s

c so mother , and the light whi h invested her was

on c great that no e ould look upon her. The

his co whole cave was illumined at birth , and w

herds prostrated themselves before him , after

wards choosing him for their king . A serpent

mm re having stung his playfellows , he i ediately

m a m stored the . His foster f ther w as absent fro

’ m of home at the ti e the child s birth , having gone to pay his yearly tax . The teachers of the lad

n were perplexed by his wisdom . The su was

sk darkened , and the y rained fire and ashes at his

c death . He des ended into hell , rose again , and

t ran sfi ured was g before his disciple Arjuna .

The name Of the mother of Buddha is given

in the later texts as Maya , who died when he was ol seven days d , an aunt bringing up the

child . He had no earthly father , though later

documents sp eak of him as a king . He descended

’ of his own accord into his mother s womb from

heaven , and at his birth the trees of their own

68 VARIANTS OF TH E TALE OF TH E KINGS

during the games which Augustus instituted , con

ae s ecrated to the memory of Julius C sar , it was aflirmed that a comet which blazed for seven suc cessive days was the soul Of the great king , now received into heaven . Apocryphal story has located the birth of Jesus in a dark cave supernaturally illuminated like Z that in which oroaster lived , and says that when Mary held the child in her lap the dragons which came up out of the cave adored the child and

m of harmed the not . The babe had the gift

speech in the cradle , and told his parents to fear

be not , as all the wild beasts would grow tame fore him . Lions and leopards going with him showed him the way and bowed their heads in

adoration . The palm tree bent down its branches at his command so that the fruit thereof

might refresh the mother , and it waited his order to rise again . Robbers fled before him ; the lep rous - tainted demoniac was healed by the touch

’ of the babe s swaddling band , and the dragon which had tormented the mother was put to

flight . VARIANTS OF TH E TALE OF TH E KINGS 69

A valuable contribution was made to the study of this interesting subj ect by the discovery of a

1 no papyrus in Upper Egypt in 895 , which is w

in the B ritish Museum . It has been translated

- - . . fi m F . l f by M r L . Grif th Kha uas , e dest son o

Rameses I I . , was high priest of Ptah at Memphis

1 - about 2 50 B . C . He died in the fifty fifth year of of his the long reign father . From the thir teen th year of that reign he was conspicuous in

c of the elebration national festivals . The wife of

- m-uas was Kha also his sister , and was childless . She was directed in a dream to go to the lavatory of h her husband , where s e would find a melon

h c sh m vine , wit whi h e ust prepare a medi cine for him ; after this she would bear him a son who

would work many marvels in Egypt . AS the name by which the son of Mary Should be known was

revealed by an angel to Joseph , it was likewise made known to the high priest of Memphis that the child to be born into his household would be

-O son of O known as Si siris ( siris '. The babe

grew big and strong , and soon began to puzzle the scribes in the House of Life in the temple of ° 70 VARIANTS OF THE TALE OF THE KINGS

Ptah . At twelve he surpassed all in Egypt in

of m reading and interpreting books agic and ,

with his father , he entered the underworld and discoursed of its marvels . He could read and

or interpret letters without breaking the seals , any book in his father ’ s library without seeing

c it . He could cast his magic and cause a thi k darkness for three days throughout all the land

of Egypt , and could turn the waters and the

c O d son of heavens to the olor f bloo . The Kha m- uas w as the champion Of Egypt against the

c of Ethiop ian magi ians , as Moses was the

c Hebrews against the Egyptian magi ians . There

m c are inti ations in the re ord , however , that Si

Osiris was really a r e- incarnation of an Older

man on f wise , Hor , the s o the negress , and that he had been rescued from the reeds of Ra

( the Nile'; and so the tale of the grandson of

Rameses merges with that of the ever- recurring

of r F story the ark and the iver . inally , from the

of - - hand Pharaoh and his father , Kha m uas the son of O S siris passed away as a hade , and no man saw him . N O T E S ON F I TH S F O L K L O R E O F TH E M O O N

NOTES ON FAITH S AN D FOLK L RE O OF TH E M OON .

FROM the earliest ages the moon has been the

Obj ect of serious contemplation by the learned

and the unlearned . Moon worship has been al

most universal with earlier peoples . H as moon worship or sun worship had priority in the his tory Of mankind ' The moon has taken prece den ce in the pantheon of deities at first in some of the c m Older ivilizations , and then in later ti es it

sun has been superseded by the . Both sun and moon have figured in the dawn of philosophy as

living beings , supernatural , yet endowed more or m less with hu an attributes .

m as We co monly speak of the moon feminine , though our word moon probably comes from the

- x mon a c m c l Anglo Sa on , whi h is as uline . In O d

fun al tun l Norse the neuter noun g , or g , means m . c tun a the oon The word omes from g , the

73 A O - OO 74. FAITHS ND F LK LORE OF THE M N

mm : tongue . Gri says The moon and some

s m of the planet , when partially illu inated , do

a c S c present the appear n e of a tongue or a i kle , and very likely some cosmogonic belief w as en

a n m grafted on that . The Norse m i was a ascu lin e name for the moon . The sun and moon are

of spoken as brother and sister in the Edda . The i c mez tl . Mexi an , moon , is a man Moon is femi

in F c nine English , ren h , Latin , Greek , and

m c Italian ; it is as uline in Egyptian , Sanskrit ,

Arabian , and with the Slavs and Lithuanians .

cc a c a A ording to Scot h lexicogr pher , the moon ,

of c as husband the earth , is m as uline ; but as bride of m the sun , is fe inine . Greenlanders speak of

An n in at g , the moon , as pursuing his sister Mal

s n lina , the u .

The moon has been the Object of exaltation by lovers and the inspiration of poets and versi

fiers c m in all li es and ages . Chango was the goddess of the palace of the moon among the m Chinese . So e lines of on e oftheir verse writers m as put in etrical form by Mr . G . C . Stent read as follows :

76 FAITHS AND FOLK-LORE OF TH E MOON

For a ll men

’ Tis the seed of siesta ” 2 T a m m . he utu n . oon Among some tribes of northwestern New

on Guinea, when the men are gone a long j ourney

' the women left at home sing to the moon , begin ning a few days before the new moon and con t inuing about the same length Of time after its appearance . The reason alleged for it is that if they did not do so some sickness or misfortune would befall their husbands .

Some of the endearing terms with which the infatuated Endymion of Keats invokes the moon “ ” C m are winged hieftain , eekest dove of

3 , U ” o heaven , the charm f women , and the gent lier- mightiest of all things twixt nothing and creation .

“ ’ 0 Moon ' the oldest sh ades mon g oldest trees

Feel p a lp itations when thou lookest in ;

0 Moon ' O ld boughs lisp for th a holier d in

Th h h h i r h e w ile t ey feel t ine a y fe llows ip .

Th e e er here th S l r li ou dost bl ss v yw , wi i ve p K issing dead things to life .

2 I bi . d ., p 2 90 . FAITHS AND FOLK-LORE OF THE MOON 77

h a ther in hee M ' th a th Sh m e W t is e t , oon t ou ouldst ov

My he art so potently ' When yet a child

I oft h ave d r ie d my tear s when thou h ast smil ed .

’ Thou seem d st my sister ; h and in h and we went ” r F om ey e to mom across the fi rmament .

Shelley writes Of the moon in The Cloud as

Th a r e ma e th hi e fi re l a e t o b d id n wi w t d n, ” Whom mortals call the moon .

’ In his rendering of Homer s hymn his invocation begins

” H a ee re a M h e-arm D i ' il , Q u n, g t oon, w it ed vinity I

And again he says

B r h a erer a r c e te of hea e ig t w nd , f i oqu t v n,

To whom a lone it h as been given ” o T ch ange and b e ado red forever .

The waning moon is

“ L e a i l a l a n al ik dy ng dy, e n a d p e,

h totter rth r a in a a e W o s fo , w pt g uzy v il ,

Out of her ch am r l th be , ed by e ins ane

An d ee le a eri her a r f b w nd ngs of f ding b ain . 78 FAITHS AND FOLK-LORE OF TH E MOON

The moon in Prometheus Unbound ” is

of the crystal paramour earth ,

Whose weak b r a in is over l a den

” With th e p l e asu re of her love .

c n Ashtoreth , the prin ipal female deity of the a

sh cient Phoenicians , was a moon goddess , and e was invoked as the queen of heaven Milton refers

“ ” of to mooned Ashtoreth , in the Hymn the

” “ ’ ” Nativity , as heaven s queen and mother both .

Hebrew idolaters , defying the prophet , de clared their intention ofdoing as their fathers and princes in their prosperity had done before them ; for Off , said they , Since we left to burn incense

of to the queen heaven , and to pour out drink ff O erings unto her , we have wanted all things , and have been consumed by the sword and by the ” famine .

i cc The moon s invoked in an A adian hymn , w ritten on a tablet now in the British Museum

Father e hten ear h r h , god nlig ing t ' lo d god of t e

m nth th r o , of gods e p ince '

Fa her od e h e n th e e ar h l r U r t , g nlig t ni g t ; o d of , of ” gods the p r ince . FAITHS AND FOLK- LORE OF THE MOON 79

of Sin , the male moon god Babylon , was the first

Of on e of . the second triad , and the great twelve

His principal seat of worship was at Ur . He

was the son of Bel Of Nippur , and the father of m Sha as , the sun god . Isaiah speaks of the land of Sinim , and from the name Sinai , which was

c given to its mountain , it is conj e tured that it must have been at one time sacred to the moon I god and connected with his worship . shtar was called the daughter of the moon god and sister

n o n of the su g d in o e of the hymns to her . Sin , m with his children , Sha as and Ishtar , guarded the‘approach to heaven when it was threatened by

i of the seven ev l spirits . Terra cotta cylinders

on i f N ab dus , which were found in the corners o

m m c the te ple of the oon at Ur , bore an ins ription

“ invoking the god as chief of the gods of heaven

and earth and king of the stars . A tablet of

Nebuchadnezzar says that he built for the moon

od g , the strengthener of his hands , a large house i l of alabaster for a temple in Babylon . T g ath

il r m P ese I . enu erated , among the great gods who

“ o were guardians f his kingdom , Sin , the lord Of 80 FAITHS AND FOLK-LORE OF TH E MOON

Of m empire Shamas , the vanquisher ene ies

” “ c and the dissolver of old ; and Ishtar , the

” queen Of victory .

Ishtar was sometimes represented as the full

c 1 moon . She was also alled the goddess 5 , as the moon was full on the fifteenth or middle of

of the lunar month . Thoth , the chief moon god

c of the Egyptians , was the s ribe the gods . He “ c c wrote sacred books , al ulated the heaven and

” counted the stars . H e bore the disk and the

s of c cre cent the moon . An ins ription to him de c a m n l res , All eyes are open to thee and all e

” s wor hip thee .

C hon su c , another moon god , was the re koner of time ; for the moon w as the gre at measurer of m m m ti e for man in ore pri itive ages . M ax

Miiller has traced European names of the moon

ma m to the root , meaning the easurer . The m m oon deter ined the sacrifices and the seasons .

Season - sacrificer was an ancient name for

priest . The moon divided the year and divided the month . Month is but another form for

moon a moon , and Monday is d y. The Arabs FAITHS AND FOLK-LORE OF TH E MOON 8 1 made twenty-eight lunar divisions of the month ;

- the Chinese twenty four , afterwards twenty

- eight ; and the Hindus twenty seven , then

- sur twenty eight . Sennight and fortnight are

- vivals of time measurement by nights and moons .

The old Roman festival to Venus began at sun se of c t the last day Mar h and lasted three days , and most likely originated as a new moon festi

val . The ides , nones , and kalends are believed

to have marked the new , full , and quarter moons when time was measured by lunar

' months .

Weeks are subdivisions of the time from on e new moon to another into approximately equal di

visions . Our word week is traced to an Anglo

Saxon word signifying increase . Society Island m ers and Maoris have no weeks , but count ti e

by moons . The Japanese and Aztecs divide the

ix of months into s weeks five days . The ancient

Greeks had three weeks of ten days . Some

African tribes have seven weeks of four days .

Other tribes have no division of the month into

f . weeks , but Observe Sabbaths o the new moon A 82 FAITHS AND FOLK- LORE OF TH E MOON sacrifice to their ancestors began the new moon f festival in Vedic India , o ferings being made Of

of round cakes and water. This was also part the full moon service . Sabbaths of the new

moon were holy days among the ancient Israelites , and feasts of the new moon are referred to many m ti es . It was not lawful to sell corn at those . times . Saul missed David at the feast Of the new

moon , and Jonathan gave as an excuse for his

absence , that he had gone to attend a family sacrifice .

of Among the Mayas the first day Pop ,

o r 1 was which corresponded to u July 6 , the

of beginning the new year . It was celebrated with religious ceremonies and with cakes and

ae of balche , the nectar of the gods . The agap

c the early Christian Chur h , which were held in

m con connection with the monthly co munion , sisted of evening Services in which charity was bestowed , and the death of relatives commemo rated .

The mysteries Of the St raddha were said to I have been revealed to the Hindus by Manu . t ,

84 FAITHS AND FOLK- LORE OF THE MOON

' ae honor of the moon The agap , originally

’ of belonging to the festival the Lord s Supper , were occasions for the interchange of gifts and m perpetuating me ories Of the dead , and retained these features after their formal separation from the Communion by the Council which condemned them at Carthage in 39 7 . The clergy were for

bidden to take any part in them , and they were

- banished from the Church . Tea meetings with praise and prayer were substituted for them by m some Protestant sects , and the al ost universally adopted custom of occasional or monthly church suppers has taken the place once occupied by the

a a ze forgotten g p .

It is an Old belief that the moon is the abode of departed souls . Isis expresses the wish that the soul of Osiris may rise to heaven in the disk of the moon . Some of the South American tribes s ay that the moon is the home of chiefs and medi cine men . Dante refers to the moon as the lady

who reigns in the infernal regions . Tupper has voiced the conception Of the moon as the seat of hell FAITHS AND FOLK-LORE OF TH E MOON 85

’ I t c av ern d rea m know thee we ll , 0 Moon, hou l ,

a S a e l th a ash e a h S d t lite, ou gi nt of d t ,

’ B on G fi rmamen t a e h me of cr me lot od s , p l o i ,

’ S arr r -h e of s in here am e c d p ison ous , w d n d souls m Fee hmen . O h th h e d upon p unis t , oug t subli ,

’ Th a am h l ac ee he e l r t id nig t s b k d ds, w n vi p owls

Thr h th r r th at hi S er oug e b o ad wo ld , ou , w c ng inn s

e w ll ,

’ G larest o er all th a e of H e ll . , e w keful ey

i Plutarch held that earth furnished man h s body ,

s n the moon his soul , and the u his mind ; the first

death took place on the earth , the second in the m moon . In the for er the soul is separated from the body hastily and with violence ; in the latter

Persephone gently and Slowly loosens the mind from the soul . The soul upon leaving the body was supposed to wander for a time in the region

he lying between t moon and the earth . The length Of this period depended in some measure upon the character and transgressions Of the in dividual . The goal once reached and a firm

c footing se ured in the moon , the souls were

crowned with wreaths , like victors in the games , 86 FAITHS AND FOLK-LORE OF TH E MOON and they acquired tone and vigor in the high air which surrounded them . In the deep places or ’ I gulfs in the moon was Hecate s dungeon . n this souls suffered punishment for what they

I n flicted had done , or they it upon others for what m . c had been done to the Wayw ard souls , whi h ,

after becoming separated from the mind , become

of destitute reason and subj ect to passion , the

moon absorbs into itself and reduces to order . “ The moon takes and gives , and puts together

” and separates ; the sun impregnates the mind

c with vital for e , and new souls are produced ;

on e while Clotho , of the Fates , moves about the m m oon , uniting and ingling the various parts .

The Mani cheans held that the souls of the

dead were purified in the sun , and carried to the moon by angels ; and that the increase and dim inution Of this freight caused the phases of the

. o moon The moon was the food f the gods , in some Indian beliefs ; when the souls of the dead

c were arried to the moon , it was enlarged ; when these had been eaten by the gods the moon waned again . Many Aryan peoples made the moon the FAITHS AND FOLK-LORE OF THE MOON 8 7

s abode of the fathers . The Chinese ay that some of their ancestors came from the moon . A crescent moon was worn by the Greeks to

protect from the evil eye . Similar ornaments “ were worn by the Hebrews . Isaiah says : In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of

their tinkling ornaments about their feet , and

their cauls , and their round tires like the moon . The Cherokee held their autumn festival after

the first new moon . I t was then that the exor

cists drove away evil . At the new moon of the autumnal equinox the Incas fasted and drove

disease and trouble from the capital .

’ The moon was wife and Sister Of the sun in

Peruvian mythology. She was the mother of the

of n Incas , and had a temple near that the su at m h Cuzco . A pyra id to the moon as been found in the ruins of an ancient city some thirty miles m fro Mexico . The Peruvians thought the moon was sick at the time of an eclipse ; and they made

o great noise to bring her ut of her stupor . The lVI a as she y said had been bitten by a savage ant ,

and they tried to frighten it away from her . 88 FAITHS AND FOLK- LORE OF TH E MOON 1

From South America to Greenland there was a custom Of thrashing the dogs when the moon

she was eclipsed . Some native tribes believed

of or had then fallen into the grasp a giant ,

swal demon , or serpent , which would destroy or w low her if not driven a ay , and Greenlanders carry boxes and kettles to the tops of their houses

n m h and beat o the as hard as possible , during t is

time . I n some Oriental myths monsters with their upper parts like men and their lower parts

sun like serpents lie in wait for the and moon . Others say it is the king of hell that tries to

swallow the moon . The Ossets shoot at the malignant monster flying in the air which they

c say auses the eclipse . The Creek Indians thought it was a big dog that was trying to swal

o l w the moon . The Malays said it was the demon Rahu that occasionally swallowed the

m - lu inaries . The lower part of this four armed

demon ended in a tail . Disguised as a god he stole the nectar which the gods churned from the

. m ocean The oon reported it to Vishnu , who cut off the head and two of the arms of the — FAITHS AND FOLK LORE OF THE MOON 89

monster , but the drink of the gods had made

a mm a head and t il i ort l , and these were trans

a ferred to the stellar sphere , where the he d took vengeance on sun and moon by swallowing them , and the tail gave birth to a progeny of comets and

meteors .

Dogs were sacred to Isis , the moon goddess in

t Egyp , and they were used in the sacrifices made

of to the statues Hecate before the new moon , at

c of the rossing the streets , in ancient Athens . — ZEneas and the priestesses sacrificed to the god

ho dess w was queen Of heaven and hell , and m other of the Furies , before their descent into the

infernal regions . The full moon rising from the sea was probably the origin of the conception of m the Greek Aphrodite , who sprang from the foa of of the sea w ith garlands rose and myrtle , and

m - a chariot drawn by ilk white swans .

’ When Tammuz was slain by the boar s tusk ,

Ishtar , the daughter Of the moon god , turned her m of ind to the land Hades , where the moon

reigned . The inconsolable Venus went thither

after Adonis , and it was permitted her that She 90 FAITHS AND FOLK-LORE OF THE MOON should live the seasons alternately on earth and

in the shades . The story is but that Of the waxing and the waning of the moon . The gall of goat and slips of yew that were

’ put into the witches caldron were sil'vered in

’ ’ 3 the moon s eclipse . Hecate told her companions that a vaporous drop profound hung

th r er O th e m Upon e co n f oon,

c which , if aught before touching the ground and distilled by magic , would raise artificial s ri htes on p g , which would draw Macbeth to his confusion .

The fern known as moonwort was reputed to have magical properties because of the crescent

of form the segments of its frond . Famous as t rologers credited it with the power Of undoing locks and unshoeing horses . Wither says of it :

“ ’ There a her me s a h ir h is b , so y, w ose v tue s suc

I t in the a t re h a h p s u , only wit touc , ” U h e th n - ns o s e ew shod steed .

Turner was confident that moonwort bee the

9 2 FAITH S AND FOLK-LORE OF THE MOON

the new moon . Pausanias said it was the cus tom of the Laced ze mon ians not to begin a cam w p aign till the moon as full . Odysseus himself foretold that he would return and take ven geance on the destroyers of his home as the Old moon waned and the new was born . Mungo Park reported that the Africans thought it was unlucky to begin a j ourney in the m last quarter of the moon . A new oon seen

c n over the right shoulder is lu ky , over the left u

c lu ky . The Greeks thought the full moon most

fo propitious r marriage . There is a Teutonic saying that no bride shall move in when the moon

on sh is the wane , but wealth e will win who

n e comes riding through the rain . Another o

says , Let a wedding be at full moon , or the

marriage is not blest . The following lines were put by Chaucer into the mouth of Troilus when he told al his sorow to the moone

I s a th h r e ek th at m r w ine o n s old e by o ow,

he he ce r e m r ht l a er W n n od y ig dy d e,

Th a ca e b e m rme and m soro t us of y tu nt y w, FAITHS AND FOLK-LORE OF THE MOON

For hi h O r ht L a the clere w c e, b ig ucin ,

or r n th ere F love Of God e f ast about y sph ,

in n r For when thine hornes newe g en sp ing,

o Then Sh a ll sh e come th at may my blisse b ring .

Chinese legend makes the man in the moon the

governor of marriages , who ties men and women together with invisible cords of Silk . Icelandic legend says that dreams come quickly to pass in

ol the new of the moon , but in the d they are more slowly fulfilled .

ho The Syrian Lucian , w wrote his Trips to ” the Moon in the second Christian century , says f o the inhabitants : They all eat the same food , whi ch is frogs roasted on the ashes from a large

c fire ; of these they have plenty , whi h fly about in

the air ; they get together over the coals , snuffup

the scent of them , and this serves them for vic

als tu . Their drink is air squeezed into a cup , ” m which produces a kind of dew . The i babi

tants do not die , but when a man grows Old he m dissolves into s oke , and turns to air . Verily Lucian ’ s imagination seems to have had a pre

monition of the process Of liquifying air . It O - E H OO 94. FAITHS AND F LK LOR OF T E M N seems not far fetched that frogs should fly in the air of the moon when we remember that tradi tion has persistently made the moon the ruler of the waters and the goddess of moisture .

of Soma , the moon , was the reservoir the drink f o . D of the gods , in the mythology India uring the light half of the moon the gods are drinking

the nectar. When the gods drink thee , O god ,

a . says the hymn , thou incre sest again Soma , the warrior equipped to fight the darkness Of

c night , des ends into the soma plant , giving up his own body to be broken for the good of gods and men who take the Sacred drink .

A tradition of the Australians says that the Creator tied the land to a corner of the moon

with twisted walrus hide , but , becoming angry m with mankind , he cut the m, and all were drowned except a couple who were out fishing on the waters ; and these repeopled the world , tying the land again to the moon .

There is an Irish saying that the sun is a coward , who flees at the approach of darkness ,

but the moon , bolder , stays with us during the

96 FAITHS AND FOLK- LORE OF TH E MOON

m ting Open its lip . A young wo an with a rabbit at her feet is on e Of the emblems of the moon with the Chinese .

An old Norse legend says that a boy and a girl ,

c c H iuki and Bil , were on e arrying water in a

pail suspended on a pole , and they were stolen m by Mani , the oon , and carried up to heaven .

Swedish p easants still see in the moon spots this boy and girl with their bucket and pole ; and the story of the stolen children still survives in every

m O household in the nursery rhy e fJack and Gill .

The breaking of the c rown of Jack and the mis fortunes of Gill are but the vanishing spots of

the waning moon .

Q uince instructs the players in Pyramus and

Thisbe that one must come on the stage with a bunch Of thorns and a lantern to represent the m m i oon . There is a Tal udic tradit on that

Jacob is in the moon ; one from the French says

Judas was transported to the moon ; again the man in the moon is Isaac with wood for sacrifice on Mount Moriah ; another says that it is Cain f with an O fering of thorns . The last tradition FAITHS AND FOLK-LORE OF TH E MOON 9 7 is alluded to by Dante in both the I nferno and Paradise

B ut tell me wh at the dusky spots may b e

U th h ch el on ear h pon is body, w i b ow t ” f M ake peop l e tell the f abulous tale of C ain ' 3

m of A docu ent Edward I II . dated in the ninth

century is preserved , to which is attached a seal , the devi ce of whi ch is a man carrying a bundle of fagots on his back with the inscription : I

c ou will tea h y , Walter , why I carry tho rns in f the moon . The explanations are endless o the conception » Of a man in the moon with a bundle m of sticks . He was banished to the oon for gathering fagots on Sunday ; he strewed thorns in the path Of people going to mass ; he stole

or or on cabbages , sheep , willow boughs Sunday ; or m it is a woman that ade butter on that day . When Caliban asks Stephano if he has not O ’ dropped from heaven , he answers : ut 0 the

I . I moon , do assure thee was the man in the

3 “ ’ P ara i e 11 . 1 L ell tr a l ati . d s , 5 ( ongf ow s ns on' 98 FAITHS AND FOLK-LORE OF THE MOON

” “ s moon when time wa . I have seen thee in

” “ her, says Caliban , and I do adore thee ; my ” mistress showed me thee , thy dog and bush .

It is a conception of the Malays that the spots in the moon are an inverted banyan tree , under neath which an aged hunchback is seated plaiting

shlin e Strands of tree bark into a fi . Bacon thought the humours in a man ’ s body increased and decreased as the moon waxed and m waned , an d that the moon grew more oist and full at the full ofthe moon . An Old ballad says of

the reddish appearance of the moon at times , that

the man in it has then been drinking claret , and

of h too much it as made his face red . A quota tion which Plutarch makes from H egesin ax is translated

th fi re she h e a ll r t in th mi Wi s in s ound , bu e dst

’ Mo re blu e th an bl ack appear s a maiden s face

n m A d i e e chee th a h to mee h a e . o st n d ks, t blus t t e g z

There is an allusion to the monthly rebirth of the moon in a hymn ofIsis to Osiris

I OO FAITHS AND FOLK-LORE OF THE MOON a heifer ; and the Egyptian Isis bore on her head

c c horns and a disk , on eptions which doubtless originated in the horned appearance of the young

moon . The moon was an exacting deity evermore to be

c c appeased , and unusual appearan es were are m fully Observed by her worshipers , that they ight be prepared to forestall whatever calamities

threatened them. It is known from the language of the Psalmist that the Hebrews held the night m in some fear lest the moon should smite the .

’ The b elief p ersists in modern times that unusual

c astronomi al events are attended with danger . A proclamation of the Chinese emperor in 1 89 8 on the occasion of an eclipse of the moon admonished his subjects to humble themselves before heaven in order to avert the wrath from

’ ab ovef

Many believe that changes in the moon aggra m vate certain diseases . The Brazilian other

’ shields her child from the moon s rays lest they

r n l make it sick . Sp e g e attributed such beliefs to the primitive medical theory of ancient Egypt FAITHS AND FOLK-LORE OF THE MOON 1 0 1 that disease was the effect ofthe anger of the

in s moon and a punishment for s , a leprosy was

c with the an ient Israelites . Lunacy is named “ from the moon . The fairy queen says in A Midsummer Night ’ s Dream that “ rheumatic diseases do abound because the moon pale in

” her anger washes all the air .

The Egyptian moon god Chonsu expelled evil spirits from the demoniacally possessed in the reign H i m of Rameses ' I I . s i age was sent in the sacred ark from Thebes to Assyria to cure the

B k on daughter of King a ht . A sandstone tablet in the Bibliotheque N ation ale at Paris records that the princess was found to be possessed with f m . o de ons After a sojourn three years , four months and five days in the land of King Bakh

of od out of ton , like a hawk gold , the g came his shrine and flew on high back to the Egyptian realm . Waffles made of flour mixed with the water of Lourdes and shaped in the form Of the

Madonna and child are sold as a specific for de mon iacal as possession ; and if , contended by

o Grant Allen and others , the figures f Isis and 1 0 2 FAITHS AND FOLK-LORE OF THE MOON

Horus in Egyptian museums are prototypes Of the

’ art there Madonna and child in Christian , is a ,

of suggestion , at least , the older medical theory of the Nile in this modern specific of Lourdes .

Alexander Of Tralles , a Greek physician of

for the sixth century , approved of an incantation

of on the gout, consisting certain words written gold leaf in the wane of the moon . A medical

“ work of the fifteenth c entury says : In the furste begynyn ge of the mone I t IS p rofet able to

of yche man to be letten blode : ye ix . the

n e ther n ht n e not mone , y by yg by day , it is

’ goodf

’ “ Bede s Ecclesiastical History , written about D 70 0 A . . , records that a bishop , who had been

Sh asked to bless a sick maiden , inquired when e had been bled , and , being told that it was on “ the fourth day of the moon , said : You did very indiscreetly and unskillfully to bleed her on

of the fourth day the moon , for I remember that m Archbishop Theodore , of blessed me ory , said

that bleeding at that time was very dangerous , when the light of the moon and the tide of the regulating the seasons and in the practice of the healing art '

A th n mm r a er ll i gs by i o t l pow ,

N ea r or far ,

H iddenly

T e ach her e a re o ot link d ,

Th at thou canst not sti r a flower

” h t tr O 5 Wit ou oubling f a star .

“ 5 Fr anc Th m in the M re is o p son ist ss of V ision . P I C S B E F O R E TH E

I L I A D

1 0 8 EPICS BEFORE TH E ILIAD centuries had been the subj ect of much specula tion and some study . They are now known to

f have been used in the Babylonia-Assyrian king

for of doms inscribing tablets iron , stone , bronze ,

as glass , and clay as early 3 80 0 B . C . and down to the l as t quarter of the first Christian century ; but for some Sixteen centuries after they ceased to be used their very existence was well-nigh for gotten . Many had come in contact with these strange characters among the ruins of the an

cient empires , and dreamed not that they had any real significance . An ambassador of Spain be came convinced in 1 6 1 8 that these strange marks

were inscriptions in some lost written language .

O 1 Hyde , an rientalist , in 70 0 declared that they were nothing more or less than idle fancies of

the architect . Witte said that they were the de structive work of generations upon generations of

’ worms . Two centuries after Philip of Spain s ambassador tried unsuccessfully to divine the

of c meaning them , Mi haux , a French botanist , sent to Paris a stone which he had discovered

is nO near the Tigris . It w known to have been EPICS BEFORE TH E ILIAD 1 0 9 prepared to commemorate the gifts of a father to his daughter at her marriage . There were ninety- five lines of cuneiform text in its in scr ip

tions . It was published during the following

year , and attracted the attention Of scholars , but it was yet more than half a century before the i translation of t was perfected . Georg Fried

ro efen c I n c rich G t d , a tea her the public s hool at

GOttin en m g , beca e interested in the decipherment

1 Of cuneiforms in 80 2 , and discoveries he made

led eventually to the key of its interpretation . For twenty years the tablets and fragments of tablets which Layard and Rassam had disinterred on the banks of the Tigris lay in the B ritish

c f Museum , and the world was un onscious o their

great importance . Two years before Botta struck the mound at Khorsabad a boy was born in London who was destined thirty years after ward to make known to the world the inestimable

of l m value these iterary treasures , and to ake for

himself a name and fame as explorer and scholar .

George Smith was appointed assistant in the de p artmen t Of antiquities in the British Museum in EPICS BEFORE TH E ILIAD

on e- 1 867 , and five years later came upon half of

- c of a whitish yellow tablet , ea h face which was

on e of divided into three columns . In them he

“ read : On the Mount Nizir the Ship stood still ; then I took a clove and let her fly ; the dove

flew hither and thither , but finding no resting

place , returned to the ship . Conscious of the

c value of his discovery , he began a systemati search for the continuation of the narrative among the thousands of fragments which had been m gathered in the Museu . With infin ite pains

the broken tablets were pieced together, and he learned that the story of the deluge was only an incident Of a great national poem of the Baby

I as lonians . t w written in twelve books , and consisted of about three thousand lines . M r . Smith gave the name Izdubar provisionally to the hero whose adventures were recorded there

in , and also identified him with the Nimrod of

Genesis . The same year he was commissioned by the London D a ily Teleg raph to lead an ex p edition to the Orient and continue his investiga tions . A second and a third visit followed ;

1 1 2 EPICS BEFORE THE ILIAD

like a true story , grew in length the oftener it was told ; yet both D rs . Jastrow and Erdmans

agree that there are historical elements in it . The former thinks there is no reason to question the existence of an ancient king or hero who bore

1 the name of Gilgamesh . The popularity of the

is d eification in hero attested by his , and by the t roduction of his name in incantations , and by m m special hy ns co posed in his honor. He ap

a c c pears with large lan e on seal ylinders . Credit is due Professor Paul Haupt for a complete pub li ion m of cat of the frag ents the tablets , as well as

of m for the arrangement and interpretation the . The heroic achievements of Gilgamesh are ar ranged in this poem according to the passage of

the sun through the signs of the zodiac . The eleventh of the series is known as the Deluge tab S let , and it corresponds to the ign Aquarius . The mysteries Of the past have not yet been unveiled sufficiently to reveal the author or authors of

“ ” 1 Re of B a a an d A ri M r r s ligion byloni ssy a, o is 'a

” tr 0 Re B a n a an d A r a ow, 47 , 494 ; ligion of bylo i ssy i , ” r m in r r . . . B . D . E P a e 0 . d ns, og ss, vol iii p 4 3 EPICS BEFORE THE ILIAD 1 1 3

these interesting books . Q uite likely they are a

at composite production . The poem may have

i s of or t a n ed its final shape by a proces accretion , the several parts may have been eventually welded into on e serial by some master artist .

There is no definite knowledge of the time of the events which constitute whatever historic basis there is for the adventures ascribed to the hero Of the epic. I t is believed to be true that the real Gil gamesh at some time in the distant past led the people in a successful struggle for freedom against

the Elamites . We do n ot know when it was .

Professor Jastrow places the historical events of

m m . the poe beyond the third millenniu B . C Professor Delitzsch says that a written account

Of the Babylonian deluge existed as early as 20 0 0

c o B . C . M r . Sim ox says that a cylinder f the

middle period Of archaic art , which according to

- was . Hommel 40 0 0 2 80 0 B . C , shows the legend

2 Of Gilgamesh already developed .

“ ” 2 Re B a a n d A r a M rr a s ligion of byloni a ssy i , o is '

“ ” t r B a e an d B le Fr e r ch D e ch ow, 47 3 ; b l ib , i d i litzs , “ ” Pr m t E . e C l a . S m x . i . c l . 2 62 44 ; i i iv ivi iz tions, J i o , vo I I 4. EPICS BEFORE THE ILIAD

S or s a The library of ardanapalus A hurb nipal , the last great king of the Assyrian Empire ( 668

62 6 B . was the medium through which this

epic came down to us from a more distant past . We are told by the king that he founded this

library for the benefit of his subj ects . It is b e lieved that one of the obj ects in V iew was to hold

m Bors i a the youth away fro B abylon or pp , where they were liable to be affected by hostile political influences ; and this danger might be avoided by giving them all the opportunities at home that the

Older libraries could furnish them there . I t is also expressly stated by the king that these tab m lets , including the Gilga esh story , were Copies of m O those in the te ple of Ishtar at Erech . ur

only version of the epic , therefore , is that Of this library .

Much was anticipated at one time from the revelations Of the library of the ancient temple

at Nipp ur , but these hopes have not yet material iz e d . We do know from the military annals of

Ashurbanipal that Erech was sacked by a king of

C . Elam in 2294 B . , and the treasures Of the

1 1 6 EPICS BEFORE TH E ILIAD

Hercules and the biography Of Alexander the

Great . The godlike character of Gilgamesh appears

c in the hymns to his honor , in which he is des ribed as one who judges and gives decisions like a god ,

bow whom kings , chiefs , and princes before ; he

of is overseer of all regions , ruler the world , ” o lord of what is n earth . He is said to be

ho master Of witchcraft , w knows all that sorcer

s ers do, and is able to destroy the mi chief which they have wrought .

The opening lines Of the epic are lost ; but in the beginning of the tale in the fragments pre

Of served the center action is at Erech , or Uruk ,

c now Warka , which was at this period a ity Of

m c great i portan e in southern Babylonia . It was a walled or fortified city; and was the special seat

, of of the worship Ishtar . Rival cities to the

O i ur south f it were Ur and Eridu , and N pp and

m 18 Babylon in the north . At this ti e the City

m n o threatened by a powerful ene y . It is t told

, who this enemy was . It is intimated that the danger which threatens them is on account of EPICS BEFORE THE ILIAD I I 7

some great sin of the people . The gates are closed ; for three years the city has been besieged ; the inhabitants are unable longer to withstand m the foes without . Gilga esh comes into the story in the second tablet . He is not a native of

the city , as is learned from the sixth tablet .

How and when he became its conqueror is un

c of known ; but he is now in ontrol it . The people complain bitterly Of his oppression and h tyranny . He as taken away their sons and

daughters , and torn wives from their husbands .

In their despair they appeal to the goddess Aruru .

It was she who created this strong , irresistible warrior ; she alone is able to create an equal who c n c she a ontend with him . This is invoked to

do , and consents to undertake it , for the other gods have taken cognizance of the sufferings of the people and have united with them in demand

of ing relief Aruru . She then washes her hands ,

of takes a bit clay , throws it upon the ground ,

of and forms , in the likeness a god , the creature

n i Eab a . He had flowing locks , his body was covered with hair , he lived in the fields and mated 1 1 8 EPICS BEFORE TH E ILIAD with the beasts ; he ate herbs with gazelles and drank with the cattle from the trough . Half

on man and halfbeast , he had horns his head , f the bearded face o a man , and the feet and tail

x of an o .

The cunning Gilgamesh , not unaware of the

f f of c interest o the gods in the a fairs Ere h ; at tempts to thwart their plans . He sends the

éi E b n i i hunter S du as a messenger to a a , with n

' struction s to ensnare and capture him ; but mor tal fear seizes Sfidu as he approaches the half

c human monster , and he returns unsu cessful

m hat Go , hunter ine , and take with thee U k , c ries Gilgamesh . The beautiful harlot w as the

AS c handmaiden of Ishtar. she approa hed , the

wild man Of the woods and caves , abandoning

his gazelles and herds , yields to the fascination of m i the immodest and unabashed te pter. For s x days and seven nights she holds him enthralled by

c m O her harms , his co panions f the field forgotten .

Satiated at last , he returns to his former as

sociates , but they no longer recognize him , and run away from him . He seeks again the tempter

1 20 EPICS BEFORE THE ILIAD

Ishtar is es pecially attracted by his engaging per son ality an d heroic achievements . She throws herself at his feet and pleads for his love

“ m G ame h sh e a for I marr Kiss e, ilg s , s id, will y

th ee '

h er I a n d h in on e l ace Let us live toget , t ou , p ;

Thou sh alt b e my husb and an d I will be thy wife .

Th Sh r in a ch a r a a an d ou a lt ide iot of l pis l zuli gold ,

a r an d Whose wheels e golden its pol e re sp lendent.

a ar r Shi n ing b r ace l ets thou sh lt we eve y d ay .

r e r By our house th e ce d ar tr ees in g en vigor sh all g ow .

Kin L r an d P rin ce h a l b ow re hee . gs , o ds, s s l down be fo t

Th e tr ibute of hills an d p l a ins they sh a ll b ring to

th ee as offerin gs ;

Thy fl ocks an d thy her ds shall b ear twins ;

Thy r ace of mul es sh all b e ma gnificent ;

Thy tr iumphs in th e ch ar iot r ace sh all b e p r oc l aimed

h ce a in wit out s g,

An d among th e chiefs thou sh alt never h ave an ” 5 e qu al .

The valiant conqueror spurns the p rofi ered love

. m of the goddess His ears are deaf to her pro ises .

“ ” 5 ec r of th P a i H R e ix. 1 2 l o ds st, 5 (tr ans at on of . F ox Ta lbot'. EPICS BEFORE THE ILIAD 1 2 1

Treacherous is her crown of divinity ; fickle and

has all ali unfaithful , her love been fatal to ke ,

l he t or c or o . u t high low , ri h po r She p led tee h ,

m o sev en at a ti e , of her favorite lion ; she pois ned with d r ugs her faithful warhorse ; she cha nged one of her workmen into a pillar and placed him l m of s . t in the idst the de ert Lady , thou wou ds

” t : love me as thou has t done the O hers , he cries

Tamm th rt of th o th uz, e conso y y u ,

” r r Th ou ca use st to weep eve y yea .

As Circe tr ans formed the sailors of Odyss eus

c e into swine , Ishtar is harged by Gilgam sh with

c of t urning a giant into a dwarf . The tou h her wand made in to a leopard th e king whom She

him in loved , and his dogs tore to pieces , as the disc retion of Act zeon brought upon himself the

of D n e a vengeance ia a, whose b uty he adored .

One can but believe that these tales of the Greeks are in some way allied w ith these incidents in the c or Older epi , that they have some common

a p arent ge .

Not thus shall the sc ornful obj ect of her 1 22 EPICS BEFORE THE ILIAD

affections escape the power of the j ilted goddess .

of She hastens to her father Anu , god heaven , f f and reports to him the a front she has su fered .

c is She implores his assistance , whi h freely given .

The divine bull is created , which is to destroy

Eaban i Gilgamesh . again comes to the assistance

out of his friend , and together they go to fight m with the onster . In the artistic representa

of on E n i tions the event the cylinders , aba grasps the bull by the tail and horns while Gilgamesh strikes a lance through his heart . Fiercer was the w rath and louder the wailing of Ishtar at

m c the death of the onster. She urses Gilgamesh

E n i from the walls of Erech . aba responds with insulting words and flings the carcass at the god

s des . The horns of the sacred Alfi are made an

f o m m o fering at the altar f Sha ash , acco panied

of with gifts precious stones and Oil , an d there is

c c great rejoi ing over the vi tory . Not yet , how

ever , is the angry Ishtar done with them . With the assistance of her mother She brings a loath

E an i some disease upon ab , who lingers a few

c days and dies . His ompanion in arms weeps

1 O E H I 24. EPICS BEF R T E IL AD

c who guards the entrance to the waters , lo ks her gates an d refuses him permission to pass

him . beyond . She tells there is no ferry

th O G ame h tra er e the cea ' H ow c anst ou , ilg s , v s o n

f r th h a cr e the a er of ath An d a te ou st oss d w t s de ,

” wh at wilt thou do '

on e Yet there is possible chance for him .

- c P arn a ish im Ardi Ea , who arried over p t , alone

him as could help ; if he refused there w no hope .

s Having gained his a sistance , together they mount

d a the ship , and for many a y are tossed upon the

dangerous waves . At last he greets Parna

i h i c p s t m face to face , re ounts the tale of his

o of c w es , the story his friend , and the end whi h he fears . He is told in reply how impossible l it is to escape the fate of morta s ; . that no on e can help him ; that the great gods deter mine life and death and no one knows the time

thereof .

After the meeting of Gilgamesh with Par n ap ishtim the latter becomes the central figure in the p oem . In the eleventh tablet is recounted EPICS BEFORE TH E ILIAD 1 2 5

the story Of his es cape from death , which he relates at the request of Gilgamesh

I e thee G ame h th e mar e r will t ll , ilg s , v lous sto y, ” 6 An d the d ecision of the gods I will tell thee .

Then follows the tale of the Chaldean deluge s o marked in its resemblance to the B iblical

No hin rn i h im version of the ac fl ood . P a ap s t ,

like the Hebrew patriarch , by divine favor was

of c warned the approaching atastrophe , and instructed as to the exact dimensions of the ship

he should construct in order to escape . In the Chaldean epic the intent of the gods appears at first to have been to destroy only the wicked

uri k S a . c h pp Of this ity not ing is known . I t

is supposed to have been on the Euphrates . The existence of such a city may probably be accepted

as a fact from the tradition . The gods decided

“ ” 6 ec r the P a I I R V . 1 t s . r l o ds of st, 35 e eq (t ans ation of Geor ge Smith '; Religion of B abyloni a an d As

” r M r a r a r e t se . T S r sy i , o is J st ow, 495 q ; he to y of ” Ch al e a Z . A . R a i 1 . d , goz n, 3 4 et seq ( from the G er man of P aul Haupt'. EPICS BEFORE THE ILIAD

so . O to punish them , corrupt were they ne “ a recalls the Bibli cal pass ge , And God looked

was cor upon the earth , and , behold , it rupt . We are told that all the great gods participated in the council and all approved of the decision ,

or at least consented to it , except the wise and

n l ben efice t Ea , who threatened to proc aim it ” aloud to reed hut and clay structure . He

did actually , for some reason unexplained , give

rn i h im information of the divine plan to P a ap s t .

“ ” of Listen , he said , and attend ' Man Surip

son of Ubaratutu out of pak , , go thy house and build thee a ship then enter the ship

of and bring into it thy store grain , all thy prop er t y, thy family , thy men servants and thy i women servants , and also thy next of k n . The

of of cattle the fields , the wild beasts the fields , I S l hal send to thee myself , that they may be safe ” behind thy door . Ready and willing to obey

P rn h im the voice of the god , a apis t yet fears the

“ speech of people : I f I construct the ship as

bidd est d l thou me , O Lor , the peop e and their

1 28 EPICS BEFORE TH E ILIAD

Then a great black cloud rose from the depths of the heavens and Ramman thundered in the

midst of it . The whirlwinds were let loose ,

a light was turned into d rkness , and confusion o and devastation filled the earth . The very g ds in the heavens were afraid and c rouched by the

railings . Ishtar cried aloud with sorrow , groan “ m m ing like a wo an in throes , and la enting that She had ever given her consent to this devas

t ation . Six d ays and seven nights wind , flood ,

and storm reigned supreme , but at the dawn Of the seventh the violence of the tempest dec reased

P arn a ish im and the rain ceased . p t opened a

o p rthole , the light of day fell upon his face , and he shivered and wept ; for they were floating

upon a terrible sea where land once had been ,

and corpses were drifting about like logs . Going

on aground Mount Nizir , on the seventh day

ou he sent t a dove , which finding n o resting

place returned . Then a swallow went forth ,

and it too returned . And he sent forth a raven ,

s aw and when it that the waters had abated , it came near again , cautiously wading through the EPICS BEFORE TH E ILIAD 1 29

water , but it did not return . The animals went out from the Ship and all the living creat

P rn a ish im ures . a p t , like Noah , builded an altar m upon the summit of the ountain , and sacrificed m to the gods . They s elled the sweet savor and

o c c drew near t the sa rifi e . Ishtar Spread on

high the great bow of her father Anu , and swore

by her necklace never to forget these days . The gods counsel together . Bel is still in anger that his plans have been thwarted and some have m escaped . The kind Ea ad onishes him that it would have been better to have punished only

- evil doers ; to have let pestilence waste the land , or famine smite it ; to have permitted lions a n d tigers to destroy men rather than that such a calamity should have been so ruthlessly dec reed

of m for the destruction all ankind . Evidently the storm had gone beyond the wicked city of

Suri ak for pp , which alone it was at first designed . The angry Bel was brought to a more kindly

c c of feeling by the oun il the gods . He gave his consent that P arn apishtim should become

immortal like them . He took him by the hand 1 30 EPICS BEFORE THE ILIAD

was Con and gave his blessing . Immortality ferred likewise upon his wife ; but their home must be in a distant land by the mouth of the

o me P arn a ishtim rivers . Then they to k , says p ,

“ on fl and placed me in the distance , at the c u

” e ms ence of the Sfr a .

o After finishing the recital f his experiences , the attention of P arn apishtim and his wife is turned to their sick guest . He falls into a m stupor which lasts any days and nights . The wife prepares a charm with some plant through

which he is roused from his insensible condition , but he is not yet healed ; his body is covered with sores ; the magic potion must be followed by an

of immersion in the fountain life . The ferry man is instructed to take him thither that he may bathe in the wholesome waters and become white as snow . Then he will be ready to return to his own country ; but before his departure he is informed of that wonderful plant which wounds like a thistle and restores youth again m to the old . Gilga esh secures the plant , but it

falls again from his grasp , and is snatched away

1 32 EPICS BEFORE TH E ILIAD

Si ara B . C . , and is itself a copy. This pp version Of the Flood varies somewhat from that of the tablets which Ashurbanipal Copied from the

c library at Erech , and it forms the tenth hapter of the story instead of the eleventh . This , too , m is poetical in for , and makes it seem probable that different localities may have each had their own heroic rendering of this episode of the i B abylon can epic .

Another series of tablets which were found in the library of Ashurbanipal constitute what

is known as the Creation Epic . It is also called

c of as i s m the Epi Marduk , t the e is the exalta tion of Marduk to sup remacy in the pantheon of of gods . Marduk is the hero the story. This fact furnishes the clue to what is known of

of m its age . Until the cult Marduk ca e into prominence in Babylonia such an epic could n ot

have been written , though it is not impossible that the same incidents or legends may have been S m incorporated into a i ilar story long before , in which some older Babylonian deity was the central figure . The first mention of Marduk EPICS BEFORE THE ILIAD 1 3 3

m appears in the inscriptions of Ham urabi . After the union of the Babylonian states under his

m . control , Marduk co es quickly into prominence

When the conquests of Hammurabi made Baby

of its l lon the center power and influence , loca deity Shared the fortunes of the conqueror and gradually assumed the place which had been occu

pied by the older Bel Of Nippur . I t may be assumed then that the story of these tablets took their present form in a period not earlier than f m o . the reign Ham urabi , 2 250 B . C The tablets of this series are even more fragmen tary than those of the Gilgamesh epic . It is known

ma to have contained seven tablets , and there y

as have been more . I n Babylonia , among the

c f Hebrews , there were two urrent versions o

of o the Story creation . Parts f both versions

on e of c have been found , but them ontains only forty lines ; fragments of s ix tablets have been

of discovered the other , and there are twenty three known fragments Of it in all ; two other fragments may represent yet another form of the story . 1 I O TH I D 34. EP CS BEF RE E LIA

m The inscriptions are etrical , and there are fifteen lines in the first tablet of the longer

n o as c out series . Creation is t conceived oming

of nothing , for at the beginning , as this unknown

poet has written , the great waters covered all

not things . Heaven and earth had yet been

named , or called into existence . The gods themselves had not yet come forth ; their n ames were not spoken ; their attributes were not

7 ‘ known The waters , personified as Apsu and

o Tiamat , were the male and female principles f the universe . The outcome Of the union of these principles was the creation Of the gods . First c Lakhmu Lakhamu ame and , who were male

of and female , a pair monsters , the first product of chaos and primeval water . Anshar and

Kishar were born next . Many days passed and

Anu , Bel , and Ea , the first Babylonian triad , m . m ca e into being The ferocious other , Tiamat ,

the gods themselves feared . She formed an

Lakhmu Lakham alliance with and u, her horrible progeny , but the universe must be cleared Of all

“ ” 7 ec r th P a H R e ix. 1 l o ds of st, 1 7 ( . Fox Ta bot'.

1 3 6 EPICS BEFORE TH E ILIAD in solemn convocation ; they eat bread and drink wine

Th e sweet win e took aw ay thei r senses .

They became d r u n k an d the i r bodies swe ll ed up .

The elder gods , Bel and Ea , bestow their bless

ing up on the young leader Marduk . They

him c c an pledge assuran e of vi tory , d it is per mi tted him to perform a miracle an d so make m manifes t the p ower in hi . A garment is placed

m c m in the idst of the gods , and at his om and it

as app ears and disapp ears , the rod in the hands of the Hebrew leader w as turned into a serpent

ac and b k to a rod again . Armed and equipped

a w how for b ttle , ith and quiver , storm and

c lightning flash , Marduk mounts his hariot , and his fiery steeds are driven straight to the camp of n the foes . Kingu a d his associates are terri

fied at the majesti c app earance of this brave

a m le der of the gods . Tia at alone is fearless .

M a rduk ch allenges her to a test in single com

. cc c bat She a epts the hallenge , and advances o him t wards , repeating sac red formulas and EPICS BEFORE THE ILIAD 1 3 7

l incantations . The seven winds fo low in the wake of Marduk as he approaches the monster , and when she opens her mouth he forces into her the evil and destructive wind before she can

8 close her lips .

H e e h e ar an d e i her mac seiz d t e sp p lung d it nto sto h,

H e er ce h er e n r a he t re h r h her he ar p i d t ils, o t oug t,

H e seized hold of her an d put an end to h er life

r r H e th ew down her c a cass and stepped upon her .

Her associates attempt to flee , but all are cap tured in the net with which Marduk had pre pared to waylay them . The tablets of fate are

of m torn from the breast Kingu , where Tiéi at

had put them , and henceforth they are worn by

of Marduk , who decrees the fate all the universe . l The carcass of Tiamat is split engthwise , and on e- of half it , like a flattened fish , is used as a

for covering the heavens . It is bolted in its place and a guardian placed over it to make

“ ” 8 B a e an d B le 8 R li i B l i b l ib , 4 ; e g on of aby on a ” an d A r a M rr a r . ssy i , o is J st ow, 42 7 1 3 8 EPICS BEFORE TH E ILIAD

m n secure the waters above the firma e t . The way is now Op en for continuing the work of

of c reation . The reign law and order in the

s universe begins , and to the gods are a signed their

of respective districts . To Ea is given charge

the waters of the seas , to Bel the earth , and to

set Anu the heavens . Stars are up in the heavens

as likenesses of the gods . Laws are established ; the divisions of the year and the seasons are arranged ; the two gates of heaven through which the sun passes morning and evening are set up ; “ i the moon s appointed to rule the night , and

to wander through the night , until the dawn

” 9 of day. Bel and Ea are designed to watch and guard lest the movements of the heavens go

o amiss . The number f days of creation is not

cc specified , as in the Hebrew , yet , a ording to

the rendering of the fifth tablet by Talbot , the

was seventh day appointed as a holy day , and “ c m m to ease fro all business was co manded .

Earlier forms of the legend make less certain

9 “ ” ’ Rec r of th e Pa t ix. 1 1 8 Fo T o ds s , ( x a lbot s trans

a of th fi l tion e fth tab l et'.

EPICS BEFORE TH E ILIAD

SO source , Professor Jastrow says , is evident as to require no further proof ; and though the

Babylonian records are in all probability the older , yet he finds in the Hebrew some elements more primitive . Professor Delitzsch holds that the heroic act Of Marduk was transferred by the Hebrew poets

and prophets directly to Jahveh . He finds evi

1 ° dence of this in such passages as the following :

Thou didst divide the sea by thy st rength ; thou b r akest th e heads of the d r agons in the w aters ; thou b r akest the he ads of levi ath an in pieces . Thou h ast b roken Rah ab 'the d r agon] in p ieces as one th at is sl ain ; thou h ast scattered thine enemies with thy ” stron g arm. “ A a e a a e ut on r h arm ah eh ' w k , w k , p st engt , 0 of J v

a a e as in the a a th e r i old . w k , ncient d ys, e g ne at ons of

Art th n ot it th a he e the r a in h a ou t w d d gon pieces, t t pierce d the monster ' “ By his strength he smote the sea and by his wis

d om he a in h d shed p ieces t e d ragon .

1 “ ” 0 B a el an d B le a m 1 b ib , 49 ; Ps l s lxxiv . 1 3, 4 ;

lxxx x 1 I h i 0 a a . o i . ; s i l 9 ; ' b xxvi . 1 2 . EPICS BEFORE TH E ILIAD 1 4 1

This author finds an echo of the contest between Marduk and Tiamat in the conflict

“ between the Archangel Michael and the Beast

” of the Abyss in the Apocalypse of John , and

in the story of St . George and the dragon , which was brought back by the Crusaders from the

Orient .

A recent article by M r . H . H . Howarth in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Arch

” ze olo gy, which is based on an edition ofthe Cre

r e- ation Tablets edited by Mr . L . W . King , discusses the bearing of the fact that the number of tablets in the Babylonian series is the same m as the nu ber of days of creation Of the Hebrews , and says that it does not in any way make the

former a parallel to the Bible story . It may be

merely accidental that seven is the number of

tablets . He concedes , however , a close con

“ n ection between the two , and says that a con

sid erable part of the former 'the Jewish] was

derived from the latter 'the Babylonian] , I have

’ no doubt whatever . With reference to the

of Of age the story the tablets , he is in accord with 1 42 EPICS BEFORE TH E ILIAD

c Professor Say e , that it is a late composition and in its present form belongs to the period Of

Ashurbanipal .

of If , as more commonly held , the version

’ the epi c from Ashurban ip al s library was a copy made from records in the Older libraries

r o of Babylon o Nippur , there is every reas n to hope that other translations of tablets now

or known , continued exploration , will throw more light on this interesting subj ect . Some six centuries before the reign of King Ashurbanipal there was written in Egypt a heroic poem which is one of the most notable

of m productions antiquity . It is so etimes called

the Egyptian Iliad . Miss Edwards has pro

“ n ounced it the most celebrated masterpiece of

” c Egyptian literature . The papyrus ontaining

of . it bears the name its former owner , M Sal

c lier , who is said to have pur hased it from an

o of Egyptian sailor . It is n w one the treasures

of the British Museum . Champollion men tion ed m 1 it in his letters fro Egypt in 833 . It was a i om te Ro e tr nslated by V c p de ug in 1 856 ,

1 44 EPICS BEFORE TH E ILIAD

name , however , is inseparably connected with the

for of m famous work , and the want other infor a tion regarding its authorship it has been assigned to him . When not more than ten or twelve years of

c age Rameses I I . became asso iated with his father Seti in the government . He had won distin ction in on e campaign before the fight at m Kadesh , and at that ti e appears not to have been

more than seventeen . He is represented in the tableaux of the battle on the monuments as a mere youth with beard j ust beginning to

grow .

The historical fact is that the king was b e t rayed into an ambush by the Strategy of his

. was c foes He de eived by two Syrian spies , who represented that certain of their chiefs wished to m c B lie ake an allian e with the Egyptians . e v

c ing their story , he pushed onward , ac ompanied m only by his personal following , when the ene y m emerged from their a bush , separating him from

m of the ain body his army . Thus isolated , he

fought bravely and desperately , and succeeded EPICS BEFORE THE ILIAD 1 45 in breaking their lines and holding them at bay till at an opportune moment a part of his army

came to his rescue . His foes retreated ; and a general engagement took place the following

d ic day , in which the Egyptians claime the v

tory .

With poetical license Pentaur has rep re sented the Pharaoh as abandoned by oflicers and men r , without princes , generals , captains , o horse

- c men , while twenty five hundred hariots of the enemy encircled him with three men on each

o h chariot . His retreat was cut ff by all the fig t

f Ar s f of ing men o adu , Of Mysia , o Aleppo ,

a of . Cari , Kadesh , and of Lycia Their men and horses were numerous as the grains of sand upon

the seashore , and he was left alone to fight the foe R m . Then said King a eses , What art thou , ' my father Amen ' What father denies his son

of h m Sovereign Lord Egypt , w o akes bow down

the peoples that withstand thee , what are these

Asiatics to thy heart ' Amen brings low them

o m m who know n t God . I a a id multitudes

unknown , nations gathered against me ; I am 1 46 EPICS BEFORE TH E ILIAD

h ' i h alone , n o ot er w t me , my foot and horse have ' 1 1 left me ; I call on thee , my father Amen

He reminds the god that he has never done aught without him ; has never transgressed the de cision s of his mouth ; has made him monuments many an d filled his temples with the spoils Of his victories ; that he has dedicated to him all his

c conquered lands , and enriched his sacrifi es with the fruits of his coa ests ; his foes know not the true god ; it is he who has built tall gates beside the Nile and brought Obelisks from Ele phantin e ; that it has not been told that any other

king at any time has shown a like devotion .

The Pharaoh suddenly becomes conscious of the presence ofthe god ; he knows that his cry has been heard in the temple at Hermonthis ; he hears a voice behind him : “ O R m ' a a eses , I am here It is I , thy f ther '

a My h nd is with thee , and I am more to thee

a of h th n hundreds thousands . I am the L rd of m who ight , loves valor . I know thy dauntless

1 1 “ ” ec r f th e P a t 11 . r n E R o ds o s , 69 ( t a sl ation of . L . Lushington'

1 48 EPICS BEFORE TH E ILIAD

c w would indi cate , for a final treaty of pea e ith the Khita was not effected till sixteen years after

wards . I t was then consummated by the marriage of the Pharaoh with a princess of the Khita .

c This famous treaty was ins ribed , and still

on of . remains , the wall the temple of Karnak Rameses reigned more than sixty years after

the fight at Kadesh , and was then laid away with his fathers among the Theban hills ; but after three thousand years his resurrected body lies in

state in the land which he once ruled .

Many poems of this ancient people are pre served which were written long before this heroic

O - verse . The little book f Ptah hotep was then two thousand years old . The Song of the House

OfKing Antep may have been sung at the funeral

feasts ten centuries before the battle with. the

Khita . The Song of the Harper belonged to the

c or pre eding dynasty , was written still earlier .

of The reign Rameses I I . and the succeeding reign

were prolific in poets , but the author of this epic

can hardly be ranked with the greatest of them. Many beautiful hymns to their gods are pre EPICS BEFORE TH E ILIAD

f c on e served o this period , among whi h is to

- n - s n Amen Ra , and o e to Ra harmachis ( the u at his rising '.

’ The reign of P en t aur s hero is one of the most interesting epochs of ancient history . Explora tions and research in recent years have added greatly to our knowledge of his personality, and numerous representations of him in paintings and statuary have made uS familiar with his features .

His mummied form measures more than Six feet , and from his length of limb and powerful build it is easy to understand how the Oriental imagin ation could conceive ofhim as a very god ofwar .

The greatness of Rameses as a builder has

as overshadowed his fame a warrior , but with this glory also the fame of Pentaur is inseparably c onnected . On the walls of the principal temples are illustrations of the thrilling scenes which have been described by the poet in his story of

the battle with the Khita . Rameses completed

the temple his father began at Abydos , and caused

’ the text of P en taur s poem to be inscribed upon

it . He added to the mighty temple begun a 1 5 0 EPICS BEFORE TH E ILIAD

m thousand years before at Karnak , and the poe was inscribed upon the walls of its great Hall of

Columns which his father built . It is written on

Ramesseum R m the which a eses built at Thebes , m and on that wonder of the world , the te ple which he carved from the living rock at Abu

Simbel . Well may I t be said that the work of no other poet has ever had so costly and enduring

O a setting , or been S lavishly illustrated and m agnificently published .