536

HONOURS GIVEN TO ZOPYRUS.

BOOK III.

from becoming extinct, he provided wives for them in the room of those whom (as I explained before) they strangled, to save their stores. These he levied from the nations bordering on Babylonia, who were each required to send so large a number to Babylon, that in all there were collected no fewer than fifty thousand. It is from these women that the Babylonians of our times are sprung.

160. As for Zopyrus, he was considered by Darius to have surpassed, in the greatness of his achievements, all other Persians, whether of former or of later times, except only Cyruswith whom no Persian ever yet thought himself worthy to compare. Darius, as the story goes, would often say that "he had rather Zopyrus were unmaimed, than be master of twenty more Babylons." And he honoured Zopyrus greatly; year by year he 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.

8

9

6 Plutarch tells of this Zopyrus the story which Herodotus relates (iv. 143) of 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 (μύλην χρυσῆν), weighing six talents, and worth somewhat more than 30001. This, according to him, was the most honourable gift that & Persian subject could receive (Exc. Pers. § 22).

8 Cf. Thucyd. i. 109; and Ctesias, Exc. Pers. 32, 33. 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 L

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.

SOME suppose Alilat to mean simply the "Goddesses; " but she is 1. 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 children." (Mulatto is from the past participle of the same verb.) Indeed, Sargon (according to M. Oppert, on the Khorsabad bull) 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 perhaps do we see more 2. clearly how the same one from some slight variation of attribute or office was made into several different Deities, and how many may

3.

4.

538

IDENTIFICATIONS OF VENUS.

APP. BOOK III.

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 Sanchoniatho to have had a cow's head (like Athor, the Venus of Egypt), whence called Ashteroth-Karnaim or AsterothKornim, 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 Egypt. She was Ceres, snuhrnp or nuhrnp, as the Mother Earth, or 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 Eileithyiæ, 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.

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. 70 5. and 131.) The 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

ESSAY I.

THE CHILD-BEARING GODDESS.

539 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 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 'Αφροδίτης Ταναΐδος, 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.

6.

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; cf. Citium and Chittim (Kitium and Kitím), 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 7. 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 next page). Lanzi thinks Anata the origin of the Greek @ávatos. In a Persian inscription the name is written Anahid or Anahata, in Babylonian Anakhitu, in Greek Tavaís; and it is a curious fact that the planet Venus is still called in Persian Anahid, J. The T is only the feminine sign prefixed to Anaïd.

Mylitta was properly "the mother of the child," and not Lucina; 8. 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

540

GODS OF THE KHONDS.

APP. BOOK II.

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.

No. 1. From Idalium.

No. 2. Isis and Horus of Egypt.

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 ("HAOS), with the feminine termination.

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 10. 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."