Part 146 (2/2)
”Although all the Hindu deities partake more or less remotely of the nature and character of Surya, or the SUN, and all more or less directly radiate from, or merge in, him, yet no one is, I think, so intimately identified with him as Vishnu; whether considered in his own person, or _in the character of his most glorious Avatara of_ CRISHNA.”
The ancient religion of EGYPT, like that of Hindostan, was founded on astronomy, and eminently metaphysical in its character. The Egyptian priests were far advanced in the science of astronomy. They made astronomy their peculiar study. They knew the figure of the earth, and how to calculate solar and lunar eclipses. From very ancient time, they had observed the order and movement of the stars, and recorded them with the utmost care. Ramses the Great, generally called Sesostris, is supposed to have reigned one thousand five hundred years before the Christian era, about coeval with Moses, or a century later. In the tomb of this monarch was found a large ma.s.sive circle of wrought gold, divided into three hundred and sixty-five degrees, and each division marked the rising and setting of the stars for each day.[547:1] This fact proves how early they were advanced in astronomy. In their great theories of mutual dependence between all things in the universe was included a belief in some mysterious relation between the Spirits of the Stars and human souls, so that the destiny of mortals was regulated by the motions of the heavenly bodies. This was the origin of the famous system of Astrology. From the conjunction of planets at the hour of birth, they prophesied what would be the temperament of an infant, what life he would live, and what death he would die. Diodorus, who wrote in the century preceding Christ Jesus, says:
”They frequently foretell with the greatest accuracy what is about to happen to mankind; showing the failure or abundance of crops, and the epidemic diseases about to befall men or cattle. Earthquakes, deluges, rising of comets, and all those phenomena, the knowledge of which appears impossible to common comprehensions, they foresee by means of their long continued observation.”
P. Le Page Renouf, who is probably the best authority on the religion of ancient Egypt which can be produced, says, in his Hibbert Lectures:[547:2]
”The Lectures on the Science of Language, delivered nearly twenty years ago by Prof. Max Muller, have, I trust, made us fully understand how, among the _Indo-European_ races, the names of the _Sun_, of _Sunrise_ and _Sunset_, and of other such phenomena, come to be talked of and considered as _personages_, of whom wondrous legends have been told.
_Egyptian_ mythology not merely admits, but imperatively _demands, the same explanation_. And this becomes the more evident when we consider the question how these mythical personages came to be invested with the attributes of divinity by men who, like the Egyptians, had so lively a sense of the divine.”
Kenrick, in his ”History of Egypt,” says:
”We have abundant evidence that the Egyptian theology had its origin in the personification of the powers of nature, under male and female attributes, and that this conception took a sensible form, such as the mental state of the people required, by the identification of these powers with the elements and the heavenly bodies, fire, earth, water, the sun and moon, and the Nile. Such appears _everywhere_ to be the origin of the objective form of polytheism; and it is equally evident among the nations most closely allied to the Egyptians by position and general character--the Phenicians, the Babylonians, and in remote connection, the Indians on the one side and the Greeks on the other.”
The G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses of the ancient PERSIANS were also personifications of the Sun, Moon, Stars, the elements, &c.
_Ormuzd_, ”The King of Light,” was G.o.d of the _Firmament_, and the ”Principle of Goodness” and of Truth. He was called ”The Eternal Source of Suns.h.i.+ne and Light,” ”The Centre of all that exists,” ”The First-born of the Eternal One,” ”The Creator,” ”The Sovereign Intelligence,” ”The All-seeing,” ”The Just Judge.” He was described as ”sitting on the throne of the good and the perfect, in regions of pure light,” crowned with rays, and with a ring on his finger--a circle being an emblem of infinity; sometimes as a venerable, majestic man, seated on a Bull, their emblem of creation.
”_Mithras the Mediator_” was the G.o.d-Sun. Their most splendid ceremonials were in honor of Mithras. They kept his birth-day, with many rejoicings, on the twenty-fifth of December, when the Sun perceptibly begins to return northward, after his long winter journey; and they had another festival in his honor, at the vernal equinox. Perhaps no religious festival was ever more splendid than the ”_Annual Salutation of Mithras_,” during which _forty days_ were set apart for thanksgiving and sacrifice. The procession to salute the G.o.d was formed long before the rising of the Sun. The High Priest was followed by a long train of the Magi, in spotless white robes, chanting hymns, and carrying the sacred fire on silver censers. Then came three hundred and sixty-five youths in scarlet, to represent the days of the year and the color of fire. These were followed by the Chariot of the Sun, empty, decorated with garlands, and drawn by superb _white horses_ harnessed with pure gold. Then came a white horse of magnificent size, his forehead blazing with gems, in honor of Mithras. Close behind him rode the king, in a chariot of ivory inlaid with gold, followed by his royal kindred in embroidered garments, and a long train of n.o.bles riding on camels richly caparisoned. This gorgeous retinue, facing the East, slowly ascended Mount Orontes. Arrived at the summit, the High Priest a.s.sumed his tiara wreathed with myrtle, and hailed the first rays of the rising Sun with incense and prayer. The other Magi gradually joined him in singing hymns to Ormuzd, the source of all blessing, by whom the radiant Mithras had been sent to gladden the earth and preserve the principle of life.
Finally, they all joined in one universal chorus of praise, while king, princes and n.o.bles, prostrated themselves before the orb of day.
The HEBREWS wors.h.i.+ped the Sun, Moon, Stars, and ”all the host of heaven.”[549:1] _El-Shaddai_ was one of the names given to the G.o.d Sun.
Parkhurst, in his ”Hebrew Lexicon,” says, ”_El_ was the very name the heathens gave to their G.o.d _Sol_, their Lord or Ruler of the hosts of heaven.” _El_, which means ”the strong one in heaven”--the Sun, was invoked by the ancestors of all the Semitic nations, before there were Babylonians in Babylon, Phenicians in Sydon and Tyrus, before there were Jews in Mesopotamia or Jerusalem.[549:2]
The Sun was wors.h.i.+ped by the Hebrews under the names of Baal, Moloch, Chemosh, &c.; the Moon was Ashtoreth, the ”Queen of Heaven.”[549:3]
The G.o.ds of the ancient GREEKS and ROMANS were the same as the G.o.ds of the Indian epic poems. We have, for example: Zeupiter (Jupiter), corresponding to Dyaus-pitar (the Heaven-father), Juno, corresponding to Parvati (the Mother G.o.ddess), and Apollo, corresponding to Crishna (the Sun, the Saviour).[549:4] Another name for the Sun among those people was _Bacchus_. An Orphic verse, referring to the Sun, says, ”he is called Dionysos (a name of Bacchus) because he is carried with a circular motion through the immensely extended heavens.”[549:5]
Dr. Prichard, in his ”a.n.a.lysis of Egyptian Mythology,”[549:6] speaking of the ancient Greeks and Romans, says:
”That the wors.h.i.+p of the _powers of nature_, mitigated, indeed, and embellished, const.i.tuted the foundation of the Greek and Roman religion, will not be disputed by any person who surveys the fables of the Olympian G.o.ds with a more penetrating eye than that of a mere antiquarian.”
M. De Coulanges, speaking of them, says:
”The _Sun_, which gives fecundity; the _Earth_, which nourishes; the _Clouds_, by turns beneficent and destructive,--_such were the different powers of which they could make G.o.ds_. But from each one of these elements thousands of G.o.ds were created; because the same physical agent, _viewed under different aspects_, received from men different names. The Sun, for example, was called in one place _Hercules_ (the glorious); in another, _Phbus_ (the s.h.i.+ning); and still again, _Apollo_ (he who drives away night or evil); one called him _Hyperion_ (the elevated being); another, _Alexicacos_ (the beneficent); and in the course of time groups of men, who had given these various names to the brilliant luminary, _no longer saw that they had the same G.o.d_.”[549:7]
Richard Payne Knight says:
”The primitive religion of the _Greeks_, like that of all other nations not enlightened by _Revelation_, appears to have been _elementary_, and to have consisted in an indistinct wors.h.i.+p of the SUN, the MOON, the STARS, the EARTH, and the WATERS, or rather, the spirits supposed to preside over these bodies, and to direct their motions, and regulate their modes of existence. Every river, spring or mountain had its local genius, or peculiar deity; and as men naturally endeavored to obtain the favor of their G.o.ds by such means as they feel best adapted to win their own, the first wors.h.i.+p consisted in offering to them certain portions of whatever they held to be most valuable. At the same time, the regular motions of the heavenly bodies, the stated returns of summer and winter, of day and night, with all the admirable order of the universe, taught them to believe in the existence and agency of such superior powers; the irregular and destructive efforts of nature, such as lightnings and tempests, inundations and earthquakes, persuaded them that these mighty beings had pa.s.sions and affections similar to their own, and only differed in possessing greater strength, power, and intelligence.”[550:1]
When the Grecian astronomers first declared that the Sun was not a person, but a huge hot ball, instantly an outcry arose against them.
They were called ”_blaspheming atheists_,” and from that time to the present, when any new discovery is made which seems to take away from man his G.o.d, the cry of ”_Atheist_” is instantly raised.
If we turn from the ancient Greeks and Romans, and take a look still farther West and North, we shall find that the G.o.ds of all the TEUTONIC nations were the same as we have seen elsewhere. They had Odin or Woden--from whom we have our _Wednesday_--the Al-fader (the Sky), Frigga, the Mother G.o.ddess (the Earth), ”Baldur the Good,” and Thor--from whom we have our Thursday (personifications of the Sun), besides innumerable other _genii_, among them Freyja--from whom we have our Friday--and as she was the ”G.o.ddess of Love,” we eat _fish_ on that day.[550:2]
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