ESSAY I. ASTARTE. 541 styled "the father of his own father," and consequently "the husband of his mother," since production could only be an effect of the generative principle. Maut was in like manner her own mother, "proceeding from herself," as was said of Neith (Minerva) in her legend at Saïs. These were supposed to be the necessary operations of the divine power after creation had begun; and the abstract ideas, that were embodied and became Gods, were subjected to the same rules as all other beings which proceeded or were endowed with life. Such Deities were not thought to be physical realities, nor could they even always be represented, as in the case of the "mother of herself;" they were principles and abstract notions, and it was a necessary consequence that each (like this of maternity, for instance) should be subject to its own laws; showing that the Egyptian system was not regulated by, or made to accord with, an after-thought, as some have supposed, but devised according to a consistent and set theory. A similar idea is also found in Indian mythology, where 12. Bhavani, the wife of Mahadeva, or Siva, answers to JunoLucina, or Diana-Solvizona of the Romans, as well as to VenusUrania, who presided over gestation; and Lucretius very properly invokes Venus at the beginning of his Hymn on Nature, where he says, lib. i. v. 5: : and v. 22: "Per te quoniam genus omne animantium Concipitur, visitque exortum lumina solis;" "Quæ quoniam rerum naturam sola gubernas." (See Sir W. Jones, vol. i. p. 260.) Again, the original identity of Diana of Ephesus and the most noted of Goddesses, Venus-Urania, is shown by the assertion of Demetrius that "all Asia and the world" worshipped the great Goddess Diana (Acts xix. 29); and Venus being called "Mylitta by the Assyrians,' shows the latter to be really the same as, or a character of, the great Astarte or Ashtoreth of Syria. Lucian thinks Astarte was the Moon, which was one of the characters of this universal Goddess, and his opinion is con firmed by the Assyrian name of the No. 3. Found in Malta. moon being Ishtar. Even the word orp (star) is thought to 542 THE DOVE, THE FISH GOD, AND ATHOR. APP. BOOK III. be related to Astarte. Lucian says she was supposed to be 13. Europa, the sister of Cadmus (de Deâ Syr.); but this is a misconception, except as far as Europe, or the West, was sister to Kadm, or the East. 14. Plutarch (de Isid. s. 15) seems to identify Astarte even with Minerva (see note on ch. 44, B. ii.). The dove was sacred to her, which she carries on her hand; and two are often seen as her emblems; sometimes on her breast, as in a statue at Citta Vecchia, in Malta, and on the Roman coins of Paphos, Askalon, and other places. Even the doves of Dodona appear to be connected with her widely-spread worship (Strabo, vii. p. 227; Herod. ii. 55). Herodotus (i. 105) pronounces the temple of Venus-Urania at Askalon to be the oldest of this Goddess, who, like Aphrodite, was related to the sea, and is represented standing in a boat on the coins of Askalon and Tripolis; and Pausanias pretends that the worship went to Askalon from Assyria (i. 14). The Egyptian Athor (Venus) is also figured on coins of the Empire with doves near her, unless indeed they are intended for hawks (see Zoega). The bull was also said to belong to Astarte, as a type of sovereignty, which accords with her reputed identity with Europa. Lucian thinks Semiramis was the dove, which the Syrians abstained from eating, out of respect to her; as from the fish, which was sacred to the half-fish, half-woman Goddess Derceto, her mother (see note on B. ii. ch. 109); and Diodorus (ii. 4 and 20) says she was called Semiramis, the Syrian name for a dove, from having been fed by doves when abandoned by Derceto. (Cp. Ovid. Met. iv. 45.) Derceto or Dercetus was the 15. same as Atergatis or Atargatis, the A being omitted in the “Greek name Derceto," as Pliny calls it (v. 23); and Derceto is said by Lucian and Diodorus to be a woman in the upper part, who from the thighs downwards terminated in a fish's tail. This cetaceous monster was the "fabulosa Ceto," said by Pliny (v. 14) to be worshipped at Joppa. According to Athenæus (Deipn. viii. p. 84E) Atergatis was suffocated in a lake near Askalon with her son Ichthys, by king Mopsus, and devoured by fish; and he relates another reason for fish of gold and silver being dedicated to the Deity (viii. p. 346D). Jonah signifies a" dove," and the connexion with the "fish" and Joppa is remarkable. Atargatis was the same as Athara (Strabo, vi. p. 540.) She was worshipped at Hierapolis, Bambyce (near Aleppo) or Magog of the Syrians" (Plin. v. 23; Strabo, xvi. p. 515), and was called a Syrian or Assyrian Goddess. It is not impossible ESSAY I. MANY NAMES OF ONE GODDESS. 543 that the name Kunpn was derived from Athara; and the island 16. of Cythera was called after the Venus of the Phoenicians who colonised it. The resemblance of Athar or Athra, "fire" (in the Zend), to the beginning of her name, recalls the Babylonian Adar, "fire," but it is not necessarily connected with Atargatis, nor with Athor, the Venus of Egypt; and Athor claims hers as a native appellation, being Ei-t-hor, "the abode of Horus," which But still Athor may shows her to be closely allied to Isis. have been originally a foreign Deity transferred to Egypt, and the name Athara may easily have been made to accord with an Egyptian one of similar sound; which, being thought to connect her with Isis, obtained for her the emblems of the mother of Horus. Besides the authority of Lucian (de Deâ Syriâ), who shows that the Juno of Hierapolis resembled "Minerva, Venus, the Moon, Rhea, Diana, Nemesis, and the Parcæ," we have evidence from other sources of the various characters of the same Goddess; and an inscription, found at Caervorran (now in the Museum of Newcastle), thus identifies the Syrian Goddess with Cybele, "the mother of the Gods," with "Ceres," and others: "Imminet leoni Virgo cœlesti situ, spicifera, justi inventrix, urbium conditrix, ex quis muneribus nossi contigit Deos. Ergo eadem mater Divum, Pax, Virtus, Ceres, DEA SYRIA, lance vitam et jura pensitans, in cœlo visum Syria sidus edidit, Libyæ colendum; inde cuncti didicimus; ita intellexit numine inductus tuo Marcus Cæcilius Donatianus, militaris tribunus in præfecto, dono Principis." Astarte is identified with Atargatis again, by the mention of the latter with the temple' that was in Carnaim (Ashteroth No. 4. Figure of Astarte, found in Etruria. 1 Called in the Septuagint version the "Atargateion." 17. 18. 544 UNIVERSALITY OF ASTARTE. APP. BOOK III. Kornim) or Carnion, a strong city of Gilead (see 1 Maccab. v. 26, 43; and 2 Mac. xii. 21-26); and with the Syrian Goddess, by Lucian, as well as Xenophon, mentioning the sanctity of fish and pigeons (or doves) among the Syrians. (cp. Xenoph. Anab. i.) Macrobius (Saturn. i. 30) says, "to the great God Adad 'the one' is added the Goddess Atargatis; these being the Sun and Earth; and her statue stands on lions, as the Phrygians represent the Mother-Goddess Earth." (See below, p. 547.) From this Adad or Hadad is derived the Syrian name of Ben-Hadad (1 Kings xv. 18). On the Goddess Earth and the bearded Apollo (Baal, or the Sun) at Hierapolis, see Macrobius (Saturn. i. 19). Both the Syrians and Assyrians "considered the dove a Goddess" (Diodor. ii. 4, 20; Athenag. Legat.); and the fable of the Egg that fell from heaven into the Euphrates, and was hatched by two doves, appears to be a variation of that of Semiramis, and relates also to Astarte. The usual form of Astarte was a Goddess with four wings, having a pointed cap, and holding a dove on her hand (woodcut No. 4). Beneath her feet was the peculiar volute ornament found on Phoenician monuments; which being sculptured on the walls of Crendi, in Malta, argues that those singular Druidicalshaped ruins (the Hagar Keem, "upright stones") are of a people whose religion bore some relationship to that of Phoenicia; though they are not Phoenician, for the Phoenicians would not have made such rude monuments. Diodorus (v. 12) confirms what we know from other sources, that Malta "was colonised by the Phoenicians, on their way to the West, as well as Gaulus (Gozo), which was first frequented by them," and where similar ruins are found, and on a grander scale (called the Torre dei Giganti). Some coins of Malta have a figure of Osiris, with four similar wings, on the reverse. The Great Goddess of the East, Astarte, is found in all the colonies of the Phoni cians; in Cyprus, Sar- among the deities of the (See Herod. i. 106.) It was sometimes turreted (like that of Cybele) ESSAY I. BAAL AND MOLOCH. 545 as on the coins of Sidon, Gaza, Aradus, and others, where she is frequently seen standing on the prow of a boat, being the protectress of mariners, as well as of sea-ports. In Paphos, as in Syria, she was worshipped under the form of a conical stone, instead of a statue, which is figured on the coins of Cyprus (Tacit. His. ii. 3) with the area before the temple mentioned by Pliny. Astarte was even admitted into the Egyptian Pantheon, and she was "Venus the stranger," mentioned by Herodotus at Memphis. (See note on Bk. ii. ch. 112.) The name of Astarte is in Hebrew лny Ashtarth or Astart, or, as we write it, Ashteroth, Ashtaroth, or Astaroth (Gen. xiv. 5; Judg. ii. 13; Deut. i. 4). Ashtarôth (1 Sam. vii. 4) is a plural form, like Baalim; and Baalim and Ashtaroth answered to "gods and goddesses." The Venus of Persia, Anaitis, was worshipped also in Assyria and Armenia (Strabo, xi. p. 352; xii. p. 385; xv. p. 504), as some think as early as the time of Cyrus, but more probably much later. (See above in this note, p. 538.) Macrobius (Saturn. iii. 7) speaks of a bearded Venus in Cyprus, and says she is called by Aristophanes "Aphroditos" (comp. Hesychius and Serv. on Virg. Æn. ii. v. 632), apparently according with the notion of Jupiter being of two sexes, as well as of many characters, and with the Egyptian notion of a self-producing and self-engendering deity. (See Orphic Fragm., and Appendix to Bk. ii. ch. 3, pp. 289-290.) This union of the two sexes is found also in Hindoo mythology, and is similarly emblematic of the generative and productive principles. There were other deities in Syria (Judg. x. 6); as the Great 19. Baal, Belus, the "Lord," "master" (Hercules, or the sun); and Molech, or Moloch (Melek) the "king," the Milcom "of the Ammonites," perhaps "the High King," or "their king." (Amos v. 26; 1 Kings xi. 5, 7.) Some have thought Baal and Bel (Isaiah xlvi. 1) different Gods. Baal and Molech (like Adonai) were really titles of the god (see note on ch. 32, Bk. ii.) which are found united in the name of Malach-Bêlus, mentioned with Agli-bôlus, as a Deity of the country in an inscription at Palmyra; and as the former was the Sun, the latter was the God Moon (Lunus), whose name was derived from agl, "to rotate." (Cp. the Arabic agl, "a wheel.") Melek is from the same root as Amlak, "take hold of," "possess," or "rule," and memlook (p. p.) "ruled," "slave ;" but Amalek (Amlek phy), and Amalekite (Amleki) are not related to Melek, or Moloch, There were also Chemosh (Kemôsh) of the Moabites (1 Kings |