Part 29

54. On the worship of Bel in Syria cf. Comptes Rendus Acad. Inscr., 1907, pp. 447 ff.--Cf. infra, n. 59.

55. On the Heliopolitan triad and the addition of Mercury to the original couple see Perdrizet, Rev. etudes anc., III, 1901, p. 258; Dussaud, Notes, p. 24; Jalabert, Melanges fac. orient. de Bayrouth, I, 1906, pp. 175 ff.--Triad of Hierapolis: Lucian, De dea Syria, c. 33. According to Dussaud, the three divinities came from Babylon together, Notes, p. 115.--The existence of a Phoenician triad (Baal, Astarte, Eshmoun or {251} Melkarth), and of a Palmyrian triad has been conjectured but without sufficient reason (ibid., 170, 172 ff.); the existence of Carthaginian triads is more probable (cf. Polybius, VII, 9, 11, and von Baudissin, Iolaos [Philothesia fuer Paul Kleinert], 1907, pp. 5 ff.)--See in general Usener, Dreiheit (Extr. Rhein. Museum, LVIII), 1903, p. 32. The triads continued in the theology of the "Chaldaic Oracles" (Kroll, De orac. Chald., 13 ff.) and a threefold division of the world and the soul was taught in the "Assyrian mysteries" (Archiv fuer Religionswiss., IX, 1906, p. 331, n. 1).

56. Boll, Sphaera, p. 372.--The introduction of astrology into Egypt seems to date back no further than the time of the Ptolemies.

57. The Seleucides, like the Roman emperors later, believed in Chaldean astrology (Appian., Syr., 28; Diodorus, II, 31, 2; cf. Riess in Pauly-Wissowa, Realenc., s. v. "Astrologie," col. 1814), and the kings of Commagene, as well as of a great number of Syrian cities, had the signs of the zodiac as emblems on their coins. It is even certain that this pseudo-science penetrated into those regions long before the Hellenistic period. Traces of it are found in the Old Testament (Schiaparelli; translation by Luedke, Die Astron. im Alten Testament, 1904, p. 46). It modified the entire Semitic paganism. The only cult which we know in any detail, that of the Sabians, assigned the highest importance to it; but in the myths and doctrines of the others its influence is no less apparent (Pauly-Wissowa, Realencycl., s. v. "Dea Syria," IV, col. 2241, and s. v. "Gad"; cf. Baudissin, Realencycl. fuer prot. Theol., s. v., "Sonne," pp. 510-520). To what extent, for instance, the clergy of Emesa had been subjected to its ascendency is shown by the novel of Heliodorus, written by a priest of that city (Rohde, Griech. Roman^2, p. 464 ), and by the horoscope that put Julia Domna upon the throne (Vita Severi, 3, 8; cf. A. von Domaszewski, Archiv fuer Religionsw., XI, 1908, p. 223). The irresistible influence extended even to the Arabian paganism (Noeldeke in Hastings, Encyclop. of Religion, s. v. "Arabs," I, p. 661; compare, Orac. Sibyll., XIII, 64 ff., on Bostra). The sidereal character which has been attributed to the Syrian gods, was borrowed, but none the less real. From very early times the Semites worshiped the sun, {252} the moon, and the stars (see Deut. iv. 19; Job xxxi. 25), especially the planet Venus, but this cult was of secondary importance only (see W. Robertson Smith, op. cit., p. 135, n. 1), although it grew in proportion as the Babylonian influence became stronger. The polemics of the Fathers of the Syrian Church show how considerable its prestige was in the Christian era (cf. Ephrem, Opera Syriaca, Rome, 1740, II, pp. 447 ff.; the "Assyrian" Tatian, c. 9 ff., etc.).

58. Humann and Puchstein, Reise in Klein-Asien und Nord-Syrien, 1890, pl. XL; Mon. myst. Mithra, I, p. 188, fig. 8; Bouche-Leclercq, Astrol. gr., p. 439.

59. Cf. Wissowa, op. cit., p. 306-7.--On the temple of Bel at Palmyra, cf. Sobernheim, Palmyrenische Inschriften (Mitt. der vorderasiat. Gesellsch., X), 1905, pp. 319 ff.; Lidzbarski, Ephemeris, I, pp. 255 ff., II, p. 280.--Priests of Bel: Clermont-Ganneau, Recueil d'arch. orient., VII, p. 12, 24, 364. Cf. supra, n. 54. The power of Palmyra under Zenobia, who ruled from the Tigris to the Nile, must have had as a corollary the establishment of an official worship that was necessarily syncretic. Hence its special importance for the history of paganism. Although the Babylonian astrology was a powerful factor in this worship, Judaism seems to have had just as great an influence in its formation. There was at Palmyra a large Jewish colony, which the writers of the Talmud considered only tolerably orthodox (Chaps, Gli Ebrei di Palmira [Rivista Israelitica, I], Florence, 1904, pp. 171 ff., 238 f. Cf. "Palmyra" in the Jewish Encycl.; Jewish insc. of Palmyra; Euting, Sitzb. Berl. Acad., 1885, p. 669; Landauer, ibid., 1884, pp. 933 ff.). This colony seems to have made compromises with the idolaters. On the other hand we see Zenobia herself rebuilding a synagogue in Egypt (Revue archeologique, XXX, 1875, p. III; Zeitschrift fuer Numismatik, V, p. 229; Dittenberger, Orientis inscript., 729). This influence of Judaism seems to explain the development at Palmyra of the cult of [Greek: Zeus hupsitos kai epekoos], "he whose name is blessed in eternity." The name of Hypsistos has been applied everywhere to Jehovah and to the pagan Zeus (supra, p. 62, 128) at the same time. The text of Zosimus (I, 61), according to which Aurelian brought from Palmyra to Rome the statues of [Greek: Heliou te kai Belou] (this has been wrongly changed to read [Greek: tou kai Belou]), proves that the {253} astrological religion of the great desert city recognized a supreme god residing in the highest heavens, and a solar god, his visible image and agent, according to the Semitic theology of the last period of paganism (supra, p. 134).

60. I have spoken of this solar eschatology in the memorial cited infra, n. 88.

61. This opinion is that of Posidonius (see Wendland, Philos Schrift ueber die Vorsehung, Berlin, 1892, p. 68, n. 1; 70, n. 2). It is shared by the ancient astrologers.

62. This old pagan and gnostic idea has continued to the present day in Syria among the Nosairis; cf. Dussaud, Histoire et religion des Nosairis, 1900, p. 125.

63. The belief that pious souls are guided to heaven by a psychopompus, is found not only in the mysteries of Mithra (Mon. myst. Mithra, I, p. 310), but also in the Syrian cults where that role was often assigned to the solar god, see Isid. Levy, Cultes syriens dans le Talmud (Revue des etudes juives, XLIII), 1901, p. 5, and Dussaud, Notes, p. 27; cf. the Le Bas-Waddington inscription, 2442:

"[Greek: Basileu despota] (= the sun), [Greek: hilathi kai didou pasin hemin hugien katharan, prexis agathas kai biou telos esthlon]."--

The same idea is found in inscriptions in the Occident; as for instance in the peculiar epitaph of a sailor who died at Marseilles (Kaibel, Inscr. gr., XIV, 2462 = Epigr., 650):

"[Greek: En de tethneioisin homeguri ge pelousin] [Greek: doiai; ton hetere men epichthonie pephoretai,] [Greek: he d' hetere teiressi sun aitherioisi choreuei,] [Greek: es straties eis eimi, lachon theon hegemonea]."

It is the same term that Julian used (Cesars, p. 336 C) in speaking of Mithra, the guide of souls: [Greek: hegemona theon]. Cf. also infra, n. 66 and ch. VIII, n. 24.

64. The Babylonian origin of the doctrine that the souls returned to heaven by crossing the seven planetary spheres, has been maintained by Anz (Zur Frage nach dem Ursprung des Gnostizismus, 1897; cf. Mon. myst. Mithra, I. pp. 38 ff., p. 309; Bousset, Die Himmelsreise der Seele [Archiv fuer Religionsw., IV], 1901, pp. 160 ff.) and "Gnosis" in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopaedie, col. 1520. It has since been denied by Reitzenstein (Poimandres, p. 79; cf. Kroll, Berl. philol. Wochensch., {254} 1906, p. 486). But although it may have been given its precise shape and been transformed by the Greeks and even by the Egyptians, I persist in believing that it is of Chaldean and religious origin. I heartily agree with the conclusions recently formulated by Bousset, (Goettingische gelehrte Anzeigen, 1905, pp. 707 ff.). We can go farther: Whatever roots it may have had in the speculations of ancient Greece (Aristoph., Pax, 832, Plato, Tim., 42B, cf. Haussoullier, Rev. de philol., 1909, pp. 1 ff.), whatever traces of it may be found in other nations (Dieterich, Mithrasliturgie, pp. 182 ff.; Nekyia, p. 24, note; Rohde, Psyche, II, p. 131, n. 3), the idea itself of the soul rising to the divine stars after death certainly developed under the influence of the sidereal worship of the Semites to a point where it dominated all other eschatological theories. The belief in the eternity of souls is the corollary to the belief in the eternity of the celestial gods (p. 129). We cannot give the history of this conception here, and we shall limit ourselves to brief observations. The first account of this system ever given at Rome is found in "Scipio's Dream" (c. 3); it probably dates back to Posidonius of Apamea (cf. Wendland, Die hellenistisch-roemische Kultur, p. 85, 166, n. 3, 168, n. 1), and is completely impregnated with mysticism and astrolatry. The same idea is found a little later in the astrologer Manilius (I, 758; IV, 404, etc.). The shape which it assumed in Josephus (Bell. Judaic., V, 1, 5, Sec. 47) is also much more religious than philosophical and is strikingly similar to a dogma of Islam (happiness in store for those dying in battle; a Syrian [ibid., Sec. 54] risks his life that his soul may go to heaven). This recalls the inscription of Antiochus of Commagene (Michel, Recueil, No. 735, l. 40):

It must be said that this sidereal immortality was not originally common to all men; it was reserved "omnibus qui patriam conservaverint adiuverint, auxerint" (Somn. Scip. c. 3, c. 8; cf. Manil., I, 758; Lucan, Phars., IX, 1 ff.; Wendland, op. cit., p. 85 n. 2), and this also is in conformity with the oldest Oriental traditions. The rites first used to assure immortality to kings and to make them the equals of the gods were extended little by little as a kind of privilege, to the important {255} persons of the state, and only very much later were they applied to all who died.

Regarding the diffusion of this belief from the beginning of the first century of our era, see Diels, Elementum, 1899, p. 73, cf. 78; Badstuebner, Beitraege zur Erklaerung Senecas, Hamburg, pp. 2 ff.--It is expressed in many inscriptions (Friedlaender, Sitteng., III, pp. 749 ff.; Rohde, Psyche, p. 673, cf. 610; epitaph of Vezir-Keupru, Studia Pontica, No. 85; CIL. III (Salone), 6384; supra, n. 63, etc.) It gained access into Judaism and paganism simultaneously (cf. Bousset, Die Religion des Judentums im neutest. Zeitalter, 1903, p. 271, and, for Philo of Alexandria, Zeller, Philos. der Griechen, V, p. 397 and p. 297).--During the third century it was expounded by Cornelius Labeo, the source of Arnobius and Servius (Nieggetiet, De Cornelio Labeone [Diss. Munster], 1908, pp. 77-86). It was generally accepted towards the end of the empire; see infra, n. 25.--I hope soon to have the opportunity of setting forth the development of this sidereal eschatology with greater precision in my lectures on "Astrology and Religion in Antiquity" which will appear in 1912 (chap. VI).

65. According to the doctrine of the Egyptian mysteries the Elysian Fields were in the under-world (Apul., Metam., XI, 6).--According to the astrological theory, the Elysian Fields were in the sphere of the fixed stars (Macrobius, Comm. somn. Scip., I, 11, Sec. 8; cf. infra, chap. VIII, n. 25). Others placed them in the moon (Servius, Ad Aen., VI, 887; cf. Norden, Vergils Buch, VI, p. 23; Rohde, Psyche, pp. 609 ff.). Iamblichus placed them between the moon and the sun (Lydus, De mens., IV, 149, p. 167, 23, Wuensch).

66. The relation between the two ideas is apparent in the alleged account of the Pythagorean doctrine which Diogenes Laertius took from Alexander Polyhistor, and which is in reality an apocryphal composition of the first century of our era. It was said that Hermes guided the pure souls, after their separation from the body, [Greek: eis ton Hupsiston] (Diog. Laert., VIII, Sec. 31; cf. Zeller, Philos. der Griechen, V, p. 106, n. 2).--On the meaning of Hypsistos, cf. supra, p. 128. It appears very plainly in the passage of Isaiah, xiv, 13, as rendered by the Septuagint: {256}

67. Originally he was the thunder-god, in Greek [Greek: Keraunos]. Under this name he appeared for instance on the bas-relief preserved in the museum of Brussels (Dussaud, Notes, p. 105). Later, by a familiar process, the influence of a particular god becomes the attribute of a greater divinity, and we speak of a [Greek: Zeus Keraunios] (cf. Usener, Keraunos, Rhein. Museum, N. F., LX, 1901).--This Zeus Keraunios appears in many inscriptions of Syria (CIG, 4501, 4520; Le Bas-Waddington, 2195, 2557 a, 2631, 2739; cf. Roscher, Lexikon Myth., s. v. "Keraunos").

He is the god to whom Seleucus sacrificed when founding Seleucia (Malalas, p. 199), and a dedication to the same god has been found recently in the temple of the Syrian divinities at Rome (supra, n. 10).--An equivalent of the Zeus Keraunios is the Zeus [Greek: Kataibates]--"he who descends in the lightning"--worshiped at Cyrrhus (Wroth, Greek Coins in the British Museum: "Galatia, Syria," p. 52 and LII; Roscher, Lexikon, s. v.)

68. For instance the double ax was carried by Jupiter Dolichenus (cf. supra, p. 147). On its significance, cf. Usener, loc. cit., p. 20.

69. Cf. Lidzbarski, Balsamem, Ephem. semit. Epigr., I, p. 251.--Ba'al Samain is mentioned as early as the ninth century B. C. in the inscription of Ben Hadad (Pognon, Inscr. semit., 1907, pp. 165 ff.; cf. Dussaud, Rev. archeol., 1908, I, p. 235). In Aramaic papyri preserved at Berlin, the Jews of Elephantine call Jehovah "the god of heaven" in an address to a Persian governor, and the same name was used in the alleged edicts of Cyrus and his successors, which were inserted in the book of Esdras (i. 1; vi. 9, etc.)--If there were the slightest doubt as to the identity of the god of thunder with Baalsamin, it would be dispelled by the inscription of Et-Tayibe, where this Semitic name is translated into Greek as [Greek: Zeus megistos keraunios]; cf. Lidzbarski, Handbuch, p. 477, and Lagrange, op. cit., p. 508.

70. On the worship of Baalsamin, confused with Ahura-Mazda and transformed into Caelus, see Mon. myst. Mithra, p. 87.--The texts attesting the existence of a real cult of {257} heaven among the Semites are very numerous. Besides the ones I have gathered (loc. cit., n. 5); see Conybeare, Philo about the Contemplative Life, p. 33, n. 16; Kayser, Das Buch der Erkenntniss der Wahrheit, 1893, p. 337, and infra, n. 75. Zeus [Greek: Ouranios]: Le Bas-Waddington, 2720 a (Baal of Betocece); Renan, Mission de Phenicie, p. 103.--Cf. Archiv fuer Religionswissenschaft, IX, 1906, p. 333.

71. Coins of Antiochus VIII Grypus (125-96 B. C.); Babelon, Rois de Syrie, d'Armenie, 1890, p. CLIV, pp. 178 ff.

72. All these qualities ascribed to the Baals by astrological paganism ([Greek: hupsistos, pantokrator], etc.), are also the attributes which, according to the doctrine of Alexandrian Judaism, characterized Jehovah (see supra, n. 66). If he was originally a god of thunder, as has been maintained, the evolution of the Jewish theology was parallel to that of the pagan conceptions (see supra, n. 69).

73. On this subject cf. Jupiter summus exsuperantissimus (Archiv f. Religionsw., IX), 1906, pp. 326 ff.

74. Ps.-Iamblichus, De mysteriis, VI, 7 (cf. Porph., Epist. Aneb., c. 29), notes this difference between the two religions.