CHAP. 159, 160.

HONOURS GIVEN TO ZOPYRUS.

443

presented him with all the gifts which are held in most esteem among the Persians; he gave him likewise the government of Babylon for his life, free from tribute; and he also granted him many other favours. Megabyzus, who held the command in Egypt against the Athenians and their allies, was a son of this Zopyrus. And Zopyrus, who fled from Persia to Athens,' was a son of this Megabyzus.

Megabazus, the conqueror of Thrace: that Darius being asked of what he would like to have as many as there were grains in the pomegranate which he was eating, replied "Zopyruses" (Apophthegm. p. 173, A.).

7 Ctesias mentioned as the chief of these presents a golden hand-mill (uúλnv Xpuan), weighing six talents, and worth somewhat more than 3000l. This, according to him, was the most honourable gift that a Persian subject could receive (Exc. Pers. § 22).

Cf. Thucyd. i. 109. And Ctesias, Exc. Pers. 32-3. Megabyzus married Amytis, daughter of Xerxes, was one of the six superior generals of the Persian army in the Greek campaign, drove the Athenians out of Egypt, and put down the Egyptian revolt; revolted himself against Artaxerxes for not observing the terms granted to Inarus, was reconciled with him, and died in Persia at an advanced age. This is probably the latest event recorded by Herodotus. It is mentioned by Ctesias almost immediately before the death of Artaxerxes, and so belongs most likely to the year B. c. 426 or 425. There are, however, no means of exactly fixing its date. Zopyrus led the Athenians against Caunus, which he hoped to be able to bring over; but the Caunians resisted, and Zopyrus lost his life in the attempt (Ctesias, Exc. Pers. § 43.)

APPENDIX TO BOOK III.

ESSAY I.

ON THE WORSHIP OF VENUS-URANIA THROUGHOUT THE EAST.-[G. W.] 1. Alilat.-Mylitta or Alitta, from weled, "to bear children." 2. Had different names in different countries. 3. A Nature-Goddess. 4. The Syrian Goddess. 5. The Paphian Venus, or Urania, identified with Astarte and Anaitis. 6. Tanat, or Anata. 7. Diana of Ephesus. 8. The mother and child. 9. Alitta and Elissa. 10. Gods of the Khonds. 11. Maut the mother. 12. Juno-Lucina, Diana, and Astarte. 13. Europa and Cadmus. 14. Semiramis the dove. 15. Derceto or Atargatis. 16. Athara and Athor. 17. Inscription at Caervorran, and names of the Syrian Goddess. 18. Figure of Astarte. 19. Baal, Moloch, and other deities of Syria. 20. Arcles, Melicertes, or Hercules. 21. Rimmon and other Syrian deities-Some introduced into Egypt.

1.

SOME suppose Alilat to mean simply the "Goddesses;" but she is generally thought to be Venus Urania, and the same whose worship Herodotus tells us (i. 131) was borrowed by the Persians from the Assyrians and Arabians. In ch. 131, Book i. Herodotus says, "the Arabians call Venus Alitta, and the Assyrians call Venus Mylitta;" and this he confirms in ch. 199. Like the Alitta of the Arabs, Mylitta corresponded to Lucina, who presided over child-birth. Both these names are Semitic, and are derived from weled, walada, "to bear chil dren." (Mulatto is from the past participle of the same verb.) Indeed, Sargon (according to M. Oppert, on the Khorsabad bulls) says "Nisroch directs the marriages of men, and the Queen of the Gods (Mylitta) presides at their birth: I have inscribed on the great northern gates the names of Nisroch and Mylitta." She was the same Deity worshipped in many countries under various denominations; and nowhere per2. haps do we see more clearly how the same one from some slight variation of attribute or office was made into several different Deities, and how many may be brought back to the original one. In reality she represented the Productive Principle, Nature, or the Earth, as the generative or vivifying principle was typified by the Sun. She was Astarte in Phoenicia and in other countries (Cic. Nat. Deor. 3); who is even said by Sanconiatho to have had a cow's head (like Athor, the Venus of Egypt), whence called Ashteroth-Karnaim or Astaroth-Kornim, i. e. "of the horns" (Gen. xiv. 5). She was the Venus Urania, said by Pausanias (i. 14) to have been chiefly honoured by the Assyrians. She was Anaitis in Persia and Armenia, and even in Assyria, who also answered to Venus; and the Venus of Assyria held a child in her arms

(see Layard's Nineveh and Babylon, p. 477), like Athor and Isis in 3. Egypt. She was Ceres, dnμýτnp or yup, as the Mother Earth, or

ESSAY 1.

IDENTIFICATIONS OF VENUS.

445

prolific Nature (see Macrob. Saturn. i. 26, and Note on B. ii. ch. 9). She was the "Queen of Heaven," the Moon (who in India is also a form of the god of Nature); she was Rhea or Cybele, the Angidistis or Cybele of Phrygia (Strabo, xii. p. 390); she answered to the Greek Eileithyia, who at first were several Goddesses, as well as to Juno, Diana, and Lucina, which three had at different times the same office; she corresponded to Minerva; and in Greece to the original Aphroditê, who became at last the mere personation of beauty and voluptuousness. In Egypt Isis and Athor and also Seben (or Seneb) the Goddess of Eileithyia, answer to her in different capacities; and a Goddess is found there standing on a lion, like "Mother Earth," mentioned by Macrobius (Saturn. i. 26; see At. Eg. pl. lxix.), and again on Assyrian monuments; both which are probably of similar origin.

4.

From the necessity of making a distinction between her characters in the same country, she was called Venus-Urania, who was the great Syrian Goddess. Berosus says Anaitis was first introduced into Persia, into Babylon, Susa, Ecbatana, and Damascus about the time of Artaxerxes II., the son of Darius; but she was doubtless known long before in the latter city. (See notes on B. iii. chs. 131 and 70). The 5. temple of the Paphian Venus or Venus-Urania is represented on the coins of Sardis, identifying Astarte and Anaitis. Strabo mentions Anaitis (xi. p. 352; xv. p. 594) with Omanus, as Persian Deities, as Herodotus does Venus-Urania. In Egypt even Anaitis was worshipped at an early time as Anat or Anta, the Goddess of War, armed with a spear and shield, and raising a pole-axe in the act of striking. (See At. Eg. pl. lxx. pt. i.) She appears to have been a foreign Goddess adopted by the Egyptians. Neith, the Minerva of Egypt, who often carries a bow and arrows, may have been related to Anata. The Phoenician 6. Tanith or Tanat, who answered to Artemis (Diana), as shown by an inscription at Athens, where Abd-Tanat is translated "Artemidorus " in lieu of "slave," or "votary, of Tanat," was the same Goddess; and Plutarch (Vit. Artaxerx.) says "Diana of Ecbatana is there called Anitis." She was called Tanata by Plutarch, who says she was worshipped in the time of Artaxerxes Mnemon; and Berosus, in saying that Artaxerxes Ochus first introduced the worship of 'Appooírns Tavaidos, proves her to be the Goddess Venus. This identification of Anata and Venus is further shown by a papyrus (published by Champollion), where Venus is said to be "Neith in the East country, and Sme in the lotus and waters of the West;" and the Venus of Sparta and Cythera wore the dress and arms of Minerva.

7.

Tanat or Thanith was also the name of a place in Cyprus, where Astarte was worshipped. (See the Duc de Luyne's Kings of Citium; cp. Citium and Chittim, (Kitium and Kitim) the Hebrew name of Cyprus.) Tanath is thought to be Mylitta, which agrees with the office of Diana in early times. Diana of Ephesus had the attributes of prolific Nature, and on some coins she stands between figures of the Sun and Moon. She is also as a huntress with the stag (see below). Lanzi thinks Anata the origin of the Greek Jávaros. In a Persian inscription the name is written Anahid or Anahata, in Babylonian Anak

446

THE CHILD-BEARING GODDESS.

APP. BOOK III.

hitu, in Greek Tavaís; and it is a curious fact that the planet Venus is still called in Persian Anahid, All. The T is only the feminine sign prefixed to Anaïd.

8.

Mylitta was properly "the mother of the child," and not Lucina; but they easily became confounded. And not only do Mylitta and

Alitta signify "the child-bearing" (deity), but the idea of a mothergoddess is found in many mythological systems. In India Devaki nurses her child Crishna, who is an Avatar, or incarnation of Vishnoo; and who, like his mother and some other Deities, has a glory of rays round his head. (See Kreuzer, Rel. de l'Antiq. par Guigniaut, pl. xiii.; and Sir W. Jones, vol. i. p. 266.) The mother and child are also found among the idols of Mexico. Even Juno nursed Hercules (see Winckelmann, Mon. Ined. No. xiv.), and several small statuettes have been discovered at Idalium in Cyprus, where, as at Paphos, Venus was particularly worshipped, which represent a Goddess nursing an infant, bearing a marked resemblance to the Egyptian Isis with Horus. From the same origin was the Greek fable of Venus and Cupid. On the Etruscan mirrors is another figure, having a glory of rays on her head, holding a dead child, said to represent Aurora with Memnon. 9. Alitta occurs in the Carthaginian name Elissa, given to Dido, whose story was perhaps derived from, and connected with, the introduction of the worship of Venus into Italy, where, as in Greece, she rose from the sea; and Astarte, the Phoenician Venus, was one of the Deities of Etruria. Some have thought Elissa to be the name of El ("Hλos), with the feminine termination.

ESSAY I.

DEITIES ABSTRACT NOTIONS.

447

10.

As Mylitta or Alitta was the producing principle, the Deity in that character was, according to human notions, a female. The Earth was chosen to represent that principle; and we even find in the religion of an aboriginal race in India, the Khonds (according to Capt. Charters Macpherson), that their two great Deities were Bella or Boora Pennu, the "Sun or "god of light," and his wife Tari, " the Earth;" the latter opposed to Boora, as evil to good, but still worshipped.

Some shades of difference next led to various subdivisions of this primary Goddess (as in the case of the primary god), and she who presided over childbirth was made distinct from the "mother." But the relationship was still traceable; and the Egyptians ascribed the Vulture, the emblem of maternity, to the two Goddesses Maut (" Mother "), 11. and Seben (Lucina). Buto (Latona) too, being primæval darkness or "night, the genesis of all things," had the attributes of Maut. Again, Maut was without any child, merely the abstract idea of mother; while Isis was represented with the infant Horus, as a direct personification of the maternal office. All was the result of their mode of reasoning; and nothing, as Plutarch says, was set down by chance. Existence implied and required a beginning, and all living beings a birth. Without therefore really believing that one Deity was born of another, they made each part of the general system; and one Goddess was said to be born of herself, as another, Khem, the god of Generation, was 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.

12. A similar idea is also found in Indian mythology, where Bhavani, the wife of Mahadeva, or Siva, answers to Juno-Lucina, or Diana-Solvizona of the Romans, as well as to Venus-Urania, 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 :— "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