The Student's Mythology Part 21

PART II.

CHAPTER I.

Egyptian Divinities.

OSIRIS--APIS--SERAPIS--ISIS--ANUBIS--HARPOCRATES.

_Ques._ Who was Osiris?

_Ans._ Osiris, Apis and Serapis, are three different names of one and the same G.o.d. Osiris was the son of Jupiter and of Niobe, the daughter of Phoroneus. He conquered Egypt, which he governed so well and wisely as to receive divine honors from his subjects even during his life. He married, as we have already learned, Io, the daughter of Inachus, who was more generally known to the Egyptians by the name of Isis.

Osiris was cruelly murdered by his brother Typhon. Isis, after a long search, found his body, which she laid in a monument in an island near Memphis. Osiris became from that time the tutelar deity of the Egyptians. He was regarded as identical with the sun, while Isis was supposed, like Cybele, to personify the earth.

_Ques._ How was this G.o.ddess represented?

_Ans._ As a woman with the horns of a cow, sometimes, also, as crowned with lotus. Heads of Isis are common among the decorations of Egyptian temples. After the worship of this G.o.ddess was introduced into Rome, her image was adorned with different emblems. The mysterious rites of Isis became a cloak for much secret vice, and were repeatedly forbidden at Rome. Tiberius caused the images of the G.o.ddess to be thrown into the Tiber; her worship was, however, afterwards revived.

The abuses attending it are mentioned with indignation by the poet Juvenal.

_Ques._ Who was Apis?

_Ans._ He was the sacred bull of Memphis. The Egyptians maintained that the soul of Osiris pa.s.sed after death into the body of Apis; and that as often as the sacred animal died, the soul pa.s.sed into the body of its successor.

Sacrifices were offered to this strange divinity; his birth-day was celebrated with great magnificence, and it was believed that during this festival the crocodiles forgot their usual ferocity, and became harmless. A temple, two chapels, and a court for exercise, were a.s.signed to this G.o.d, whose food was always served in vessels of gold.

It may be doubted whether the poor animal was capable of appreciating these extraordinary honors; he was not permitted, however, to enjoy them beyond a stated period. If he attained the age of twenty-five years, he was drowned by the attendant priests in the sacred cistern; his body was then carefully embalmed, and buried in the temple of Serapis.

On the death of Apis, whether it occurred in the course of nature or by violence, the whole country was plunged into mourning, which lasted until his successor was found. The animal into whom the divinity had pa.s.sed, was known by many extraordinary marks; a square white spot on the forehead, the figure of an eagle on the back, a white crescent on the right side, and the mark of a beetle under the tongue. The priests always succeeded in finding an animal with these extraordinary marks, and the happy event was immediately celebrated throughout Egypt.

_Ques._ How did the people obtain replies from the oracle of Apis?

_Ans._ By various signs: the votary having proposed a question, offered food to the sacred animal; if he ate, it was considered a favorable omen. It was also a good augury if he entered, of his own accord, a particular stall. When Germanicus offered food to Apis, the animal refused to eat, and this circ.u.mstance was afterwards considered as ominous of the early fate of the Roman prince.

_Ques._ Who was Harpocrates?

_Ans._ Horus or Harpocrates was the son of Osiris. He was worshipped as the G.o.d of Silence, and is represented as a boy, seated on a lotus-flower, with his finger on his lips.

Besides the G.o.ds we have mentioned, the Egyptians worshipped the dog, the wolf, the crocodile, the ibis, and many other animals. They even attributed divinity to certain plants and roots. Juvenal, in one of his Satires, thus ridicules their superst.i.tion:

Who has not heard where Egypt's realms are nam'd What monster G.o.ds her frantic sons have fram'd?

Here Ibis gorged with well-grown serpents, there The Crocodile commands religious fear: Where Memnon's statue magic strains inspire With vocal sounds that emulate the lyre; And Thebes, such, Fate, are thy disastrous turns, Now prostrate o'er her pompous ruins mourns A monkey-G.o.d, prodigious to be told!

Strikes the beholder's eye with burnish'd gold: To G.o.dship here blue Triton's scaly herd, The river progeny is there preferr'd: Through towns Diana's power neglected lies, Where to her dogs aspiring temples rise!

And should you leeks or onions eat, no time Would expiate the sacrilegious crime.

Religious nations sure, and blest abodes, Where every orchard is o'er-run with G.o.ds.

CHAPTER II.

EASTERN MYTHOLOGY.

Deities of the a.s.syrians.

BAAL, OR BEL--MOLOCH.

_Ques._ Who were these divinities?

_Ans._ The names Baal and Moloch seem to have been, at first, different appellations of the Sun; later they a.s.sumed another signification, and were applied to distinct deities.

_Ques._ Where was the Sun worshipped under the name of Baal or Bel (the Lord)?

_Ans._ In Babylon. The famous tower of Babel or Belus, was there devoted to his worship, although the highest apartment of the edifice served also as an observatory, and was the repository of the most ancient astronomical observations. Some writers have imagined that the Chaldeans and Babylonians worshipped Nimrod under the name of Belus, but it is generally believed that with these nations, and the ancient Canaanites, this was one of the many appellations of the Sun.

_Ques._ What proof have we of the popularity of this G.o.d among the Phnicians and Carthaginians?

_Ans._ In their proper names; as among the former, Eth_baal_, Jerub_baal_; among the latter, Hanni_bal_, Asdru_bal_.

_Ques._ By whom was the worship of Baal introduced among the Israelites?

_Ans._ By King Achab or Ahab. They offered human sacrifices to Baal in groves, or high places, and on the terraces of their houses. Jeremias reproaches the Jews with building "the high places of Baalim, to burn their children with fire for a holocaust to Baalim." This text shows the extent to which the apostate Hebrews carried this abominable worship.

MOLOCH.

_Ques._ Who was Moloch?

_Ans._ He was a divinity of the Ammonites. The Phnicians were also particularly devoted to his worship. Young children and infants were offered as holocausts to this cruel G.o.d. These horrid sacrifices were most frequent in Carthage. When the Sicilian Agathocles threatened that city, we are told that five hundred infants, many the first-born of n.o.ble parents, were consumed in one day on the altar of Moloch.

_Ques._ How was this G.o.d represented?

_Ans._ By a brazen image, which was so contrived that when a child was laid upon its extended arms, they were lowered, and the little victim immediately fell into the fiery furnace placed at the foot of the idol.

_Ques._ Was Moloch worshipped by the Jews?

_Ans._ Yes; it would seem that they were addicted to this idolatry before their departure from Egypt, since Moses in many places forbids the Israelites, under pain of death, to dedicate their children to Moloch, by pa.s.sing them through fire. Solomon built a temple for his worship on the Mount of Olives. Later human sacrifices were offered to him in the valley of Hinnom, called also Tophet, which lay to the east of Jerusalem.

_Ques._ Where does Milton refer to this G.o.d?

_Ans._ a.s.suming that the demons or fallen angels received the worship of men, under the names of different heathen divinities, he thus describes Moloch amid the host of Satan:

"First, Moloch, horrid king, besmear'd with blood Of human sacrifice, and parents' tears; Though, for the noise of drums and timbrels loud, Their children's cries unheard, that pa.s.sed through fire, To his grim idol. Him the Ammonite Worshipp'd in Rabba and her watery plain, In Argob and in Basan, to the stream Of utmost Arnon; nor content with such Audacious neighborhood, the wisest heart Of Solomon he led by fraud to build His temple right against the temple of G.o.d, On that opprobrious hill: and made his grove The pleasant valley of Hinnom, Tophet thence And black Gehenna call'd, the type of h.e.l.l."

_Ques._ Who was Astaroth?