The Two Babylons
Alexander Hislop
Chapter III
Section II
Easter
Then look at Easter. What means the term Easter
itself? It is not a Christian name. It bears its Chaldean origin on its very forehead.
Easter is nothing else than Astarte, one of the titles of Beltis, the queen of heaven,
whose name, as pronounced by the people Nineveh, was evidently identical with that now in
common use in this country. That name, as found by Layard on the Assyrian monuments, is
Ishtar. The worship of Bel and Astarte was very early introduced into Britain, along with
the Druids, "the priests of the groves." Some have imagined that the Druidical
worship was first introduced by the Phoenicians, who, centuries before the Christian era,
traded to the tin-mines of Cornwall. But the unequivocal traces of that worship are found
in regions of the British islands where the Phoenicians never penetrated, and it has
everywhere left indelible marks of the strong hold which it must have had on the early
British mind. From Bel, the 1st of May is still called Beltane in the Almanac; and we have
customs still lingering at this day among us, which prove how exactly the worship of Bel
or Moloch (for both titles belonged to the same god) had been observed even in the
northern parts of this island. "The late Lady Baird, of Fern Tower, in
Perthshire," says a writer in "Notes and Queries," thoroughly versed in
British antiquities, "told me, that every year, at Beltane (or the 1st of May), a
number of men and women assemble at an ancient Druidical circle of stones on her property
near Crieff. They light a fire in the centre, each person puts a bit of oat-cake in a
shepherd's bonnet; they all sit down, and draw blindfold a piece from the bonnet. One
piece has been previously blackened, and whoever gets that piece has to jump through the
fire in the centre of the circle, and pay a forfeit. This is, in fact, a part of the
ancient worship of Baal, and the person on whom the lot fell was previously burnt as a
sacrifice. Now, the passing through the fire represents that, and the payment of the
forfeit redeems the victim." If Baal was thus worshipped in Britain, it will not be
difficult to believe that his consort Astarte was also adored by our ancestors, and that
from Astarte, whose name in Nineveh was Ishtar, the religious solemnities of April, as now
practised, are called by the name of Easter--that month, among our Pagan ancestors, having
been called Easter-monath. The festival, of which we read in Church history, under the
name of Easter, in the third or fourth centuries, was quite a different festival from that
now observed in the Romish Church, and at that time was not known by any such name
as Easter. It was called Pasch, or the Passover, and though not of Apostolic institution,
* was very early observed by many professing Christians, in commemoration of the death and
resurrection of Christ.
* Socrates, the ancient ecclesiastical historian,
after a lengthened account of the different ways in which Easter was observed in different
countries in his time--i.e., the fifth century--sums up in these words: "Thus much
already laid down may seem a sufficient treatise to prove that the celebration of the
feast of Easter began everywhere more of custom than by any commandment either of Christ
or any Apostle." (Hist. Ecclesiast.) Every one knows that the name
"Easter," used in our translation of Acts 12:4, refers not to any Christian
festival, but to the Jewish Passover. This is one of the few places in our version where
the translators show an undue bias.
That festival agreed originally with the time of
the Jewish Passover, when Christ was crucified, a period which, in the days of Tertullian,
at the end of the second century, was believed to have been the 23rd of March. That
festival was not idolatrous, and it was preceded by no Lent. "It ought to be
known," said Cassianus, the monk of Marseilles, writing in the fifth century, and
contrasting the primitive Church with the Church in his day, "that the observance of
the forty days had no existence, so long as the perfection of that primitive Church
remained inviolate." Whence, then, came this observance? The forty days' abstinence
of Lent was directly borrowed from the worshippers of the Babylonian goddess. Such a Lent
of forty days, "in the spring of the year," is still observed by the Yezidis or
Pagan Devil-worshippers of Koordistan, who have inherited it from their early masters, the
Babylonians. Such a Lent of forty days was held in spring by the Pagan Mexicans, for thus
we read in Humboldt, where he gives account of Mexican observances: "Three days after
the vernal equinox...began a solemn fast of forty days in honour of the sun."
Such a Lent of forty days was observed in Egypt, as may be seen on consulting Wilkinson's Egyptians.
This Egyptian Lent of forty days, we are informed by Landseer, in his Sabean Researches,
was held expressly in commemoration of Adonis or Osiris, the great mediatorial god. At the
same time, the rape of Proserpine seems to have been commemorated, and in a similar
manner; for Julius Firmicus informs us that, for "forty nights" the
"wailing for Proserpine" continued; and from Arnobius we learn that the fast
which the Pagans observed, called "Castus" or the "sacred" fast, was,
by the Christians in his time, believed to have been primarily in imitation of the long
fast of Ceres, when for many days she determinedly refused to eat on account of her
"excess of sorrow," that is, on account of the loss of her daughter Proserpine,
when carried away by Pluto, the god of hell. As the stories of Bacchus, or Adonis and
Proserpine, though originally distinct, were made to join on and fit in to one another, so
that Bacchus was called Liber, and his wife Ariadne, Libera (which was one of the names of
Proserpine), it is highly probable that the forty days' fast of Lent was made in later
times to have reference to both. Among the Pagans this Lent seems to have been an
indispensable preliminary to the great annual festival in commemoration of the death and
resurrection of Tammuz, which was celebrated by alternate weeping and rejoicing, and
which, in many countries, was considerably later than the Christian festival, being
observed in Palestine and Assyria in June, therefore called the "month of
Tammuz"; in Egypt, about the middle of May, and in Britain, some time in April. To
conciliate the Pagans to nominal Christianity, Rome, pursuing its usual policy, took
measures to get the Christian and Pagan festivals amalgamated, and, by a complicated but
skilful adjustment of the calendar, it was found no difficult matter, in general, to get
Paganism and Christianity--now far sunk in idolatry--in this as in so many other things,
to shake hands. The instrument in accomplishing this amalgamation was the abbot Dionysius
the Little, to whom also we owe it, as modern chronologers have demonstrated, that the
date of the Christian era, or of the birth of Christ Himself, was moved FOUR YEARS from
the true time. Whether this was done through ignorance or design may be matter of
question; but there seems to be no doubt of the fact, that the birth of the Lord Jesus was
made full four years later than the truth. This change of the calendar in regard to Easter
was attended with momentous consequences. It brought into the Church the grossest
corruption and the rankest superstition in connection with the abstinence of Lent. Let any
one only read the atrocities that were commemorated during the "sacred fast" or
Pagan Lent, as described by Arnobius and Clemens Alexandrinus, and surely he must blush
for the Christianity of those who, with the full knowledge of all these abominations,
"went down to Egypt for help" to stir up the languid devotion of the degenerate
Church, and who could find no more excellent way to "revive" it, than by
borrowing from so polluted a source; the absurdities and abominations connected with which
the early Christian writers had held up to scorn. That Christians should ever think of
introducing the Pagan abstinence of Lent was a sign of evil; it showed how low they had
sunk, and it was also a cause of evil; it inevitably led to deeper degradation.
Originally, even in Rome, Lent, with the preceding revelries of the Carnival, was entirely
unknown; and even when fasting before the Christian Pasch was held to be necessary, it was
by slow steps that, in this respect, it came to conform with the ritual of Paganism. What
may have been the period of fasting in the Roman Church before sitting of the Nicene
Council does not very clearly appear, but for a considerable period after that Council, we
have distinct evidence that it did not exceed three weeks. *
* GIESELER, speaking of the Eastern Church in the
second century, in regard to Paschal observances, says: "In it [the Paschal festival
in commemoration of the death of Christ] they [the Eastern Christians] eat unleavened
bread, probably like the Jews, eight days throughout...There is no trace of a yearly
festival of a resurrection among them, for this was kept every Sunday" (Catholic
Church). In regard to the Western Church, at a somewhat later period--the age of
Constantine--fifteen days seems to have been observed to religious exercises in connection
with the Christian Paschal feast, as appears from the following extracts from Bingham,
kindly furnished to me by a friend, although the period of fasting is not stated.
Bingham (Origin) says: "The solemnities of Pasch [are] the week before and the
week after Easter Sunday--one week of the Cross, the other of the resurrection. The
ancients speak of the Passion and Resurrection Pasch as a fifteen days' solemnity. Fifteen
days was enforced by law by the Empire, and commanded to the universal
Church...Scaliger mentions a law of Constantine, ordering two weeks for Easter, and a
vacation of all legal processes."
The words of Socrates, writing on this very
subject, about AD 450, are these: "Those who inhabit the princely city of Rome fast
together before Easter three weeks, excepting the Saturday and Lord's-day." But at
last, when the worship of Astarte was rising into the ascendant, steps were taken to get
the whole Chaldean Lent of six weeks, or forty days, made imperative on all within the
Roman empire of the West. The way was prepared for this by a Council held at Aurelia in
the time of Hormisdas, Bishop of Rome, about the year 519, which decreed that Lent should
be solemnly kept before Easter. It was with the view, no doubt, of carrying out this
decree that the calendar was, a few days after, readjusted by Dionysius. This decree could
not be carried out all at once. About the end of the sixth century, the first decisive
attempt was made to enforce the observance of the new calendar. It was in Britain that the
first attempt was made in this way; and here the attempt met with vigorous resistance. The
difference, in point of time, betwixt the Christian Pasch, as observed in Britain by the
native Christians, and the Pagan Easter enforced by Rome, at the time of its enforcement,
was a whole month; * and it was only by violence and bloodshed, at last, that the Festival
of the Anglo-Saxon or Chaldean goddess came to supersede that which had been held in
honour of Christ.
* CUMMIANUS, quoted by Archbishop USSHER, Sylloge
Those who have been brought up in the observance of Christmas and Easter, and who yet
abhor from their hearts all Papal and Pagan idolatry alike, may perhaps feel as if there
were something "untoward" in the revelations given above in regard to the origin
of these festivals. But a moment's reflection will suffice entirely to banish such a
feeling. They will see, that if the account I have given be true, it is of no use to
ignore it. A few of the facts stated in these pages are already known to Infidel and
Socinian writers of no mean mark, both in this country and on the Continent, and these are
using them in such a way as to undermine the faith of the young and uninformed in regard
to the very vitals of the Christian faith. Surely, then, it must be of the last
consequence, that the truth should be set forth in its own native light, even though it
may somewhat run counter to preconceived opinions, especially when that truth, justly
considered, tends so much at once to strengthen the rising youth against the seductions of
Popery, and to confirm them in the faith once delivered to the Saints. If a heathen could
say, "Socrates I love, and Plato I love, but I love truth more," surely a truly
Christian mind will not display less magnanimity. Is there not much, even in the aspect of
the times, that ought to prompt the earnest inquiry, if the occasion has not arisen, when
efforts, and strenuous efforts, should be made to purge out of the National Establishment
in the south those observances, and everything else that has flowed in upon it from
Babylon's golden cup? There are men of noble minds in the Church of Cranmer, Latimer, and
Ridley, who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, who have felt the power of His blood,
and known the comfort of His Spirit. Let them, in their closets, and on their knees, ask
the question, at their God and at their own consciences, if they ought not to bestir
themselves in right earnest, and labour with all their might till such a consummation be
effected. Then, indeed, would England's Church be the grand bulwark of the
Reformation--then would her sons speak with her enemies in the gate--then would she appear
in the face of all Christendom, "clear as the sun, fair as the moon, and terrible as
an army with banners." If, however, nothing effectual shall be done to stay the
plague that is spreading in her, the result must be disastrous, not only to herself, but
to the whole empire.
Such is the history of Easter. The popular
observances that still attend the period of its celebration amply confirm the testimony of
history as to its Babylonian character. The hot cross buns of Good Friday, and the dyed
eggs of Pasch or Easter Sunday, figured in the Chaldean rites just as they do now. The
"buns," known too by that identical name, were used in the worship of the queen
of heaven, the goddess Easter, as early as the days of Cecrops, the founder of
Athens--that is, 1500 years before the Christian era. "One species of sacred
bread," says Bryant, "which used to be offered to the gods, was of great
antiquity, and called Boun." Diogenes Laertius, speaking of this offering being made
by Empedocles, describes the chief ingredients of which it was composed, saying, "He
offered one of the sacred cakes called Boun, which was made of fine flour and honey."
The prophet Jeremiah takes notice of this kind of offering when he says, "The
children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to
make cakes to the queen of heaven." *
* Jeremiah 7:18. It is from the very word here
used by the prophet that the word "bun" seems to be derived. The Hebrew word,
with the points, was pronounced Khavan, which in Greek became sometimes Kapan-os (PHOTIUS,
Lexicon Syttoge); and, at other times, Khabon (NEANDER, in KITTO'S Biblical
Cyclopoedia). The first shows how Khvan, pronounced as one syllable, would pass into
the Latin panis, "bread," and the second how, in like manner, Khvon would
become Bon or Bun. It is not to be overlooked that our common English word Loa has passed
through a similar process of formation. In Anglo-Saxon it was Hlaf.
The hot cross buns are not now offered,
but eaten, on the festival of Astarte; but this leaves no doubt as to whence they
have been derived. The origin of the Pasch eggs is just as clear. The ancient Druids bore
an egg, as the sacred emblem of their order. In the Dionysiaca, or mysteries of Bacchus,
as celebrated in Athens, one part of the nocturnal ceremony consisted in the consecration
of an egg. The Hindoo fables celebrate their mundane egg as of a golden colour. The people
of Japan make their sacred egg to have been brazen. In China, at this hour, dyed or
painted eggs are used on sacred festivals, even as in this country. In ancient times eggs
were used in the religious rites of the Egyptians and the Greeks, and were hung up for
mystic purposes in their temples. (Fig. 31).
From Egypt these sacred eggs can be distinctly traced to the banks of the Euphrates. The
classic poets are full of the fable of the mystic egg of the Babylonians; and thus its
tale is told by Hyginus, the Egyptian, the learned keeper of the Palatine library at Rome,
in the time of Augustus, who was skilled in all the wisdom of his native country: "An
egg of wondrous size is said to have fallen from heaven into the river Euphrates. The
fishes rolled it to the bank, where the doves having settled upon it, and hatched it, out
came Venus, who afterwards was called the Syrian Goddess"--that is, Astarte. Hence
the egg became one of the symbols of Astarte or Easter; and accordingly, in Cyprus, one of
the chosen seats of the worship of Venus, or Astarte, the egg of wondrous size was
represented on a grand scale. (see Fig. 32)
The occult meaning of this mystic egg of Astarte,
in one of its aspects (for it had a twofold significance), had reference to the ark during
the time of the flood, in which the whole human race were shut up, as the chick is
enclosed in the egg before it is hatched. If any be inclined to ask, how could it ever
enter the minds of men to employ such an extraordinary symbol for such a purpose, the
answer is, first, The sacred egg of Paganism, as already indicated, is well known as the
"mundane egg," that is, the egg in which the world was shut up. Now the world
has two distinct meanings--it means either the material earth, or the inhabitants
of the earth. The latter meaning of the term is seen in Genesis 11:1, "The whole
earth was of one language and of one speech," where the meaning is that the whole
people of the world were so. If then the world is seen shut up in an egg, and
floating on the waters, it may not be difficult to believe, however the idea of the egg
may have come, that the egg thus floating on the wide universal sea might be Noah's family
that contained the whole world in its bosom. Then the application of the word egg
to the ark comes thus: The Hebrew name for an egg is Baitz, or in the feminine (for there
are both genders), Baitza. This, in Chaldee and Phoenician, becomes Baith or Baitha, which
in these languages is also the usual way in which the name of a house is
pronounced. *
* The common word "Beth,"
"house," in the Bible without the points, is "Baith," as may be seen
in the name of Bethel, as given in Genesis 35:1, of the Greek Septuagint, where it is
"Baith-el."
The egg floating on the waters that
contained the world, was the house floating on the waters of the deluge,
with the elements of the new world in its bosom. The coming of the egg from heaven
evidently refers to the preparation of the ark by express appointment of God; and the same
thing seems clearly implied in the Egyptian story of the mundane egg which was said to
have come out of the mouth of the great god. The doves resting on the egg need no
explanation. This, then, was the meaning of the mystic egg in one aspect. As, however,
everything that was good or beneficial to mankind was represented in the Chaldean
mysteries, as in some way connected with the Babylonian goddess, so the greatest blessing
to the human race, which the ark contained in its bosom, was held to be Astarte, who was
the great civiliser and benefactor of the world. Though the deified queen, whom Astarte
represented, had no actual existence till some centuries after the flood, yet through the
doctrine of metempsychosis, which was firmly established in Babylon, it was easy for her
worshippers to be made to believe that, in a previous incarnation, she had lived in the
Antediluvian world, and passed in safety through the waters of the flood. Now the Romish
Church adopted this mystic egg of Astarte, and consecrated it as a symbol of Christ's
resurrection. A form of prayer was even appointed to be used in connection with it, Pope
Paul V teaching his superstitious votaries thus to pray at Easter: "Bless, O Lord, we
beseech thee, this thy creature of eggs, that it may become a wholesome sustenance
unto thy servants, eating it in remembrance of our Lord Jesus Christ, &c" (Scottish
Guardian, April, 1844). Besides the mystic egg, there was also another emblem of
Easter, the goddess queen of Babylon, and that was the Rimmon or "pomegranate."
With the Rimmon or "pomegranate" in her hand, she is frequently represented in
ancient medals, and the house of Rimmon, in which the King of Damascus, the Master of
Naaman, the Syrian, worshipped, was in all likelihood a temple of Astarte, where that
goddess with the Rimmon was publicly adored. The pomegranate is a fruit that is full of
seeds; and on that account it has been supposed that it was employed as an emblem of that
vessel in which the germs of the new creation were preserved, wherewith the world was to
be sown anew with man and with beast, when the desolation of the deluge had passed away.
But upon more searching inquiry, it turns out that the Rimmon or "pomegranate"
had reference to an entirely different thing. Astarte, or Cybele, was called also Idaia
Mater, and the sacred mount in Phrygia, most famed for the celebration of her mysteries,
was named Mount Ida--that is, in Chaldee, the sacred language of these mysteries, the
Mount of Knowledge. "Idaia Mater," then, signifies "the Mother of Knowledge"--in
other words, our Mother Eve, who first coveted the "knowledge of good and
evil," and actually purchased it at so dire a price to herself and to all her
children. Astarte, as can be abundantly shown, was worshipped not only as an incarnation
of the Spirit of God, but also of the mother of mankind. (see note below) When, therefore, the mother of the gods, and the
mother of knowledge, was represented with the fruit of the pomegranate in her
extended hand (see Fig. 33), inviting
those who ascended the sacred mount to initiation in her mysteries, can there be a doubt
what that fruit was intended to signify? Evidently, it must accord with her assumed
character; it must be the fruit of the "Tree of Knowledge"--the fruit of that
very
"Tree, whose mortal taste.
Brought death into the world, and all our woe."
The knowledge to which the votaries of the Idaean
goddess were admitted, was precisely of the same kind as that which Eve derived from the
eating of the forbidden fruit, the practical knowledge of all that was morally evil and
base. Yet to Astarte, in this character, men were taught to look at their grand
benefactress, as gaining for them knowledge, and blessings connected with that knowledge,
which otherwise they might in vain have sought from Him, who is the Father of lights, from
whom cometh down every good and perfect gift. Popery inspires the same feeling in regard
to the Romish queen of heaven, and leads its devotees to view the sin of Eve in much the
same light as that in which Paganism regarded it. In the Canon of the Mass, the most
solemn service in the Romish Missal, the following expression occurs, where the sin of our
first parent is apostrophised: "Oh blessed fault, which didst procure such a
Redeemer!" The idea contained in these words is purely Pagan. They just amount to
this: "Thanks be to Eve, to whose sin we are indebted for the glorious Saviour."
It is true the idea contained in them is found in the same words in the writings of
Augustine; but it is an idea utterly opposed to the spirit of the Gospel, which only makes
sin the more exceeding sinful, from the consideration that it needed such a ransom to
deliver from its awful curse. Augustine had imbibed many Pagan sentiments, and never got
entirely delivered from them.
As Rome cherishes the same feelings as Paganism
did, so it has adopted also the very same symbols, so far as it has the opportunity. In
this country, and most of the countries of Europe, no pomegranates grow; and yet, even
here, the superstition of the Rimmon must, as far as possible, be kept up. Instead of the
pomegranate, therefore, the orange is employed; and so the Papists of Scotland join
oranges with their eggs at Easter; and so also, when Bishop Gillis of Edinburgh went
through the vain-glorious ceremony of washing the feet of twelve ragged Irishmen a few
years ago at Easter, he concluded by presenting each of them with two eggs and an orange.
Now, this use of the orange as the representative
of the fruit of Eden's "dread probationary tree," be it observed, is no modern
invention; it goes back to the distant times of classic antiquity. The gardens of the
Hesperides in the West, are admitted by all who have studied the subject, just to have
been the counterpart of the paradise of Eden in the East. The description of the sacred
gardens, as situated in the Isles of the Atlantic, over against the coast of Africa, shows
that their legendary site exactly agrees with the Cape Verd or Canary Isles, or some of
that group; and, of course, that the "golden fruit" on the sacred tree, so
jealously guarded, was none other than the orange. Now, let the reader mark well:
According to the classic Pagan story, there was no serpent in that garden of delight in
the "islands of the blest," to TEMPT mankind to violate their duty to their
great benefactor, by eating of the sacred tree which he had reserved as the test of their
allegiance. No; on the contrary, it was the Serpent, the symbol of the Devil, the
Principle of evil, the Enemy of man, that prohibited them from eating the precious
fruit--that strictly watched it--that would not allow it to be touched. Hercules, one form
of the Pagan Messiah--not the primitive, but the Grecian Hercules--pitying man's unhappy
state, slew or subdued the serpent, the envious being that grudged mankind the use of that
which was so necessary to make them at once perfectly happy and wise, and bestowed upon
them what otherwise would have been hopelessly beyond their reach. Here, then, God and the
devil are exactly made to change places. Jehovah, who prohibited man from eating of
the tree of knowledge, is symbolised by the serpent, and held up as an ungenerous and
malignant being, while he who emancipated man from Jehovah's yoke, and gave him of the
fruit of the forbidden tree--in other words, Satan under the name of Hercules--is
celebrated as the good and gracious Deliverer of the human race. What a mystery of
iniquity is here! Now all this is wrapped up in the sacred orange of Easter.
Note
[Back] The Meaning of the Name Astarte
That Semiramis, under the name of Astarte, was
worshipped not only as an incarnation of the Spirit of God, but as the mother of mankind,
we have very clear and satisfactory evidence. There is no doubt that "the Syrian
goddess" was Astarte (LAYARD'S Nineveh and its Remains). Now, the Assyrian
goddess, or Astarte, is identified with Semiramis by Athenagoras (Legatio), and by
Lucian (De Dea Syria). These testimonies in regard to Astarte, or the Syrian
goddess, being, in one aspect, Semiramis, are quite decisive. 1. The name Astarte, as
applied to her, has reference to her as being Rhea or Cybele, the tower-bearing
goddess, the first as Ovid says (Opera), that "made (towers) in cities";
for we find from Layard that in the Syrian temple of Hierapolis, "she [Dea Syria or
Astarte] was represented standing on a lion crowned with towers." Now, no name
could more exactly picture forth the character of Semiramis, as queen of Babylon, than the
name of "Ash-tart," for that just means "The woman that made towers."
It is admitted on all hands that the last syllable "tart" comes from the Hebrew
verb "Tr." It has been always taken for granted, however, that "Tr"
signifies only "to go round." But we have evidence that, in nouns derived
from it, it also signifies "to be round," "to surround," or
"encompass." In the masculine, we find "Tor" used for "a border
or row of jewels round the head" (see PARKHURST and also GESENIUS). And in the
feminine, as given in Hesychius (Lexicon), we find the meaning much more decisively
brought out. Turis is just the Greek form of Turit, the final t, according to the
genius of the Greek language, being converted into s. Ash-turit, then, which is
obviously the same as the Hebrew "Ashtoreth," is just "The woman that made
the encompassing wall." Considering how commonly the glory of that
achievement, as regards Babylon, was given to Semiramis, not only by Ovid, but by Justin,
Dionysius, Afer, and others, both the name and mural crown on the head of that goddess
were surely very appropriate. In confirmation of this interpretation of the meaning of the
name Astarte, I may adduce an epithet applied to the Greek Diana, who at Ephesus bore a
turreted crown on her head, and was identified with Semiramis, which is not a little
striking. It is contained in the following extract from Livy: "When the news of the
battle [near Pydna] reached Amphipolis, the matrons ran together to the temple of Diana,
whom they style Tauropolos, to implore her aid." Tauropolos, from Tor, "a
tower," or "surrounding fortification," and Pol, "to make,"
plainly means the "tower-maker," or "maker of surrounding
fortifications"; and P53 to her as the goddess of fortifications, they would
naturally apply when they dreaded an attack upon their city.
Semiramis, being deified as Astarte, came to be
raised to the highest honours; and her change into a dove, as has been already shown, was
evidently intended, when the distinction of sex had been blasphemously attributed to the
Godhead, to identify her, under the name of the Mother of the gods, with that
Divine Spirit, without whose agency no one can be born a child of God, and whose emblem,
in the symbolical language of Scripture, was the Dove, as that of the Messiah was the
Lamb. Since the Spirit of God is the source of all wisdom, natural as well as spiritual,
arts and inventions and skill of every kind being attributed to Him (Exo 31:3; 35:31), so
the Mother of the gods, in whom that Spirit was feigned to be incarnate, was celebrated as
the originator of some of the useful arts and sciences (DIODORUS SICULUS). Hence, also,
the character attributed to the Grecian Minerva, whose name Athena, as we have seen reason
to conclude, is only a synonym for Beltis, the well known name of the Assyrian goddess.
Athena, the Minerva of Athens, is universally known as the "goddess of wisdom,"
the inventress of arts and sciences. 2. The name Astarte signifies also the "Maker of
investigations"; and in this respect was applicable to Cybele or Semiramis, as
symbolised by the Dove. That this is one of the meanings of the name Astarte may be seen
from comparing it with the cognate names Asterie and Astraea (in Greek Astraia), which are
formed by taking the last member of the compound word in the masculine, instead of the
feminine, Teri, or Tri (the latter being pronounced Trai or Trae), being the same in sense
as Tart. Now, Asterie was the wife of Perseus, the Assyrian (HERODOTUS), and who was the
founder of Mysteries (BRYANT). As Asterie was further represented as the daughter of Bel,
this implies a position similar to that of Semiramis. Astraea, again, was the goddess of
justice, who is identified with the heavenly virgin Themis, the name Themis signifying
"the perfect one," who gave oracles (OVID, Metam.), and who, having lived
on earth before the Flood, forsook it just before that catastrophe came on. Themis and
Astraea are sometimes distinguished and sometimes identified; but both have the same
character as goddesses of justice. The explanation of the discrepancy obviously is,
that the Spirit has sometimes been viewed as incarnate and sometimes not. When incarnate,
Astraea is daughter of Themis. What name could more exactly agree with the character of a
goddess of justice, than Ash-trai-a, "The maker of investigations," and
what name could more appropriately shadow forth one of the characters of that Divine
Spirit, who "searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God"? As
Astraea, or Themis, was "Fatidica Themis," "Themis the prophetic,"
this also was another characteristic of the Spirit; for whence can any true oracle, or
prophetic inspiration, come, but from the inspiring Spirit of God? Then, lastly, what can
more exactly agree with the Divine statement in Genesis in regard to the Spirit of God,
than the statement of Ovid, that Astraea was the last of the celestials who remained on
earth, and that her forsaking it was the signal for the downpouring of the destroying
deluge? The announcement of the coming Flood is in Scripture ushered in with these words
(Gen 6:3): "And the Lord said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that
he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years." All these 120
years, the Spirit was striving; when they came to an end, the Spirit strove no longer,
forsook the earth, and left the world to its fate. But though the Spirit of God forsook
the earth, it did not forsake the family of righteous Noah. It entered with the patriarch
into the ark; and when that patriarch came forth from his long imprisonment, it came forth
along with him. Thus the Pagans had an historical foundation for their myth of the dove
resting on the symbol of the ark in the Babylonian waters, and the Syrian goddess, or
Astarte--the same as Astraea--coming forth from it. Semiramis, then, as Astarte,
worshipped as the dove, was regarded as the incarnation of the Spirit of God. 3. As Baal,
Lord of Heaven, had his visible emblem, the sun, so she, as Beltis, Queen of
Heaven, must have hers also--the moon, which in another sense was Asht-tart-e,
"The maker of revolutions"; for there is no doubt that Tart very commonly
signifies "going round." But, 4th, the whole system must be dovetailed together.
As the mother of the gods was equally the mother of mankind, Semiramis, or
Astarte, must also be identified with Eve; and the name Rhea, which, according to the Paschal
Chronicle was given to her, sufficiently proves her identification with Eve. As
applied to the common mother of the human race, the name Astarte is singularly
appropriate; for, as she was Idaia mater, "The mother of knowledge," the
question is, "How did she come by that knowledge?" To this the answer can only
be: "by the fatal investigations she made." It was a tremendous
experiment she made, when, in opposition to the Divine command, and in spite of the
threatened penalty, she ventured to "search" into that forbidden
knowledge which her Maker in his goodness had kept from her. Thus she took the lead in
that unhappy course of which the Scripture speaks--"God made man upright, but they
have SOUGHT out many inventions" (Eccl7:29). Now Semiramis, deified as the Dove, was
Astarte in the most gracious and benignant form. Lucius Ampelius calls her "the
goddess benignant and merciful to me" (bringing them) "to a good and happy
life." In reference to this benignity of her character, both the titles, Aphrodite
and Mylitta, are evidently attributed to her. The first I have elsewhere explained as
"The wrath-subduer," and the second is in exact accordance with it. Mylitta, or,
as it is in Greek, Mulitta, signifies "The Mediatrix." The Hebrew Melitz, which
in Chaldee becomes Melitt, is evidently used in Job 33:23, in the sense of a Mediator;
"the messenger, the interpreter" (Melitz), who is "gracious" to
a man, and saith, "Deliver from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom,"
being really "The Messenger, the MEDIATOR." Parkhurst takes the word in this
sense, and derives it from "Mltz," "to be sweet." Now, the feminine of
Melitz is Melitza, from which comes Melissa, a "bee" (the sweetener, or
producer of sweetness), and Melissa, a common name of the priestesses of Cybele,
and as we may infer of Cybele, as Astarte, or Queen of Heaven, herself; for, after
Porphyry, has stated that "the ancients called the priestesses of Demeter,
Melissae," he adds, that they also "called the Moon Melissa." We have
evidence, further, that goes far to identify this title as a title of Semiramis. Melissa
or Melitta (APPOLODORUS)--for the name is given in both ways--is said to have been the
mother of Phoroneus, the first that reigned, in whose days the dispersion of
mankind occurred, divisions having come in among them, whereas before, all had been in
harmony and spoke one language (Hyginus). There is no other to whom this can be
applied but Nimrod; and as Nimrod came to be worshipped as Nin, the son of his own wife,
the identification is exact. Melitta, then, the mother of Phoroneus, is the same as
Mylitta, the well known name of the Babylonian Venus; and the name, as being the feminine
of Melitz, the Mediator, consequently signifies the Mediatrix. Another name also
given to the mother of Phoroneus, "the first that reigned," is Archia
(LEMPRIERE; SMITH). Now Archia signifies "Spiritual" (from
"Rkh," Heb. "Spirit," which in Egyptian also is "Rkh"
[BUNSEN]; and in Chaldee, with the prosthetic a prefixed becomes Arkh). * From the
same root also evidently comes the epithet Architis, as applied to the Venus that wept for
Adonis. Venus Architis is the spiritual Venus. **
* The Hebrew Dem, blood, in Chaldee
becomes Adem; and, in like manner, Rkh becomes Arkh.
** From OUVAROFF we learn that the mother of the
third Bacchus was Aura, and Phaethon is said by Orpheus to have been the son of the
"wide extended air" (LACTANTIUS). The connection in the sacred language between
the wind, the air, and the spirit, sufficiently accounts for these statements, and shows
their real meaning.
Thus, then, the mother-wife of the first king
that reigned was known as Archia and Melitta, in other words, as the woman in whom the
"Spirit of God" was incarnate; and thus appeared as the "Dea Benigna,"
"The Mediatrix" for sinful mortals. The first form of Astarte, as Eve,
brought sin into the world; the second form before the Flood, was avenging as the
goddess of justice. This form was "Benignant and Merciful." Thus, also,
Semiramis, or Astarte, as Venus the goddess of love and beauty, became "The HOPE of
the whole world," and men gladly had recourse to the "mediation" of
one so tolerant of sin.
