A careful perusal of the preceding texts conveys an idea of the immense lapse of time it must have required for the state religion of Egypt to have developed itself and crystallized into a complicated ritual, the true significance of which, doubtlessly, gradually receded from view. The nave primitive symbolization of the union of heaven and earth by the actual marriage of king and queen, followed by general marriage festivities, had naturally created, in course of time, a distinct privileged caste rendered "divine" by the circ.u.mstances attending their conception and birth. Once in existence the maintenance and insurance of the divine line of descent would naturally enforce the intermarriage of its members and the sequestration and guarded seclusion of the royal women and the virgin priestesses from whose ranks the destined mothers of the divine children were selected.
A more ancient form of symbolizing the union of heaven and earth seems to have been the cult of Apis, which, according to Maspero, preceded the building of the pyramids and could scarcely have arisen before the adoption of the cow or bull, ua, as the rebus of Polaris, the One=ua. A survival of Apis cult seems to be the allegorical sacred t.i.tle "bull"
(Osiris-Apis) bestowed upon the king, of "cow" upon the queen and "calf"
upon their offspring, the young Horus. In later times the king was ent.i.tled "the ram" and wore his fleece and horns on visiting the queen. As a natural sequence, the fruit of their union was spoken of as "the lamb."
According to Herodotus (II, pp. 27-29, Cary"s translation), "the sacred Apis, or Epaphus is the calf of a cow incapable of conceiving another offspring; and the Egyptians say that lightning descends upon the cow from heaven and that from thence it brings forth Apis." "The Egyptian magistrates said ... the G.o.d [in the form of Apis] manifested himself at distant intervals ... and when this manifestation took place the Egyptians immediately put on their richest apparel and kept festive holiday."
As stated by Mr. Wallis Budge, Apis worship was established at Memphis by Ka-kau, the second king of the second dynasty B.C. 4100. The veneration accorded to the bull, cow and calf, as embodiments of the dual principles of nature, in separate and in single form, seems to have been accorded in other localities to different animal forms and to have been replaced, in later times, by triads, composed of a G.o.d, G.o.ddess and their offspring, each great centre ultimately possessing their particular triad, the living images of which were the high-priest, high-priestess and their "divine"
offspring. It should be noted that a group consisting of 8+1=nine G.o.ds, high priests or prophets, accompanied the triad, the result being twelve "deities" in all, of which one=the child, was an embodiment of two principles and was the ka=the divine twain.
The transition of Apis worship from the animal to the human form was accomplished during the reign of the Ptolemies (B.C. 305-42) when Serapis or Osiris-Apis was introduced into Egypt and represented as a man with the head of a bull, wearing a disk and uraeus. Long before this, however, androsphinxes and other combinations of the human and animal form had existed in Egypt. At Thebes the divine triad was formed by Amen-Ra, Mut-Hathor and Chonsu; at Edfu and Denderah we find Osiris, Isis-Sothis-Hathor and Horus. On the other hand, a curious inscription in the temple at Denderah, translated by Brugsch (II, p. 512), actually describes Amen-Ra as "the great G.o.d in Denderah, who periodically rejuvenates himself and _becomes a beautiful boy, who is the concealed or hidden G.o.d, whose name is hidden_; who is the Horus with colored wings, coming forth in the upper hemisphere of Edfu, the lord of the double heaven."
The inference one might be tempted to make from this and other texts is that, at one period, a human babe, the fruit of a royal or sacerdotal union, was born in the temple on what const.i.tuted New Year"s Day and was secretly worshipped there during the ensuing year, as the living image of Amen-Ra, the hidden G.o.d and "divine twain." I venture to point out that the adoption of the child as the image of the divinity was the logical sequence to the preceding employment of the bull as a rebus for the words ua=one and ka=twain; that the consecration of the human form must, undoubtedly, have given a strong impulse to statuary, and that the sanctification of the child correspondingly exalted motherhood and lent a particular consecration to the marriage of its "divine parents." The following facts, culled at random, afford a limit of the transitions and further developments which took place in Egypt in course of time.
Before proceeding, special mention must be made of one important point which throws a flood of light upon the extent of the development of separate cults of sun and moon and the inst.i.tution of solar and lunar calendars which respectively governed the activities of the male and female populations. As this matter will be fully treated in my calendar monograph I shall merely note here that Brugsch cites texts proving the existence and simultaneous use of the two calendars, and the supreme importance accorded to the new moon of the month Epiphi on whose appearance the "G.o.ddess Isis-Hathor of Denderah embarked on her sacred barge and proceeded up the river, from her city to Edfu (Apollinopolis magna) where she joined his majesty ..., her father, ... the incomparable sun-G.o.d Ra, the first of Apollinopolis, the golden disk, whose children are numerous...." It is further stated that the G.o.d and G.o.ddess became inseparable like sun and moon. Brugsch states that the appearance of the said new moon, which was also a.s.sociated with the heliacal rising of Sirius, would range from Aug. 18 to Sept. 16, Jul. Cal. (see _op. cit._ II, pp. 282-1). The appearance of the G.o.ddess was the signal for the opening of a season of general "feasting and drinking, rejoicing, singing and dancing" throughout the land, to which the name Tekhu is given in some texts. This is translated by Brugsch as "the intoxication of gladness or joy;" it "coincided with the highest level attained by the overflow of the Nile," and its modern survival is the annual "marriage of the Nile" which takes place on the 23d of August.
It is curious to note how the original carrying out of primitive and nave rites by the queen and high-priestess gradually caused her presence to be regarded as essential for the "drawing out of the Nile from its source"
and her person to be surrounded with utmost veneration and sanct.i.ty. As Prof. Flinders Petrie states, speaking of as far back as B.C. 1383-1365: "The marriage to a royal high priestess of Amen was, of course, purely a political necessity to legitimate the king"s position."
"It would seem that Hor-em-heb was not married to Nezem-mut until his accession, when he legalized his position by becoming husband of the high-priestess of Amen, as in the arrangement of the later dynasties. This marriage was an affair of politics solely, considering the age of the parties; h.o.r.emheb was probably between fifty and sixty at the time and if the queen was the same as Nefert.i.ti"s sister Nezem-mut, she must have been about the same age as h.o.r.emheb" (_op. cit._ pp. 183, 250). How long the female Egyptian ruler maintained her sway may, perhaps, best be seen by the following texts describing the political homage paid to the living G.o.ddess of the Egyptians under Ptolemaic and Roman rules.
One inscription clearly shows that, at the time of Ptolemy IX, Euergetes II, the living Isis was acknowledged as the sole ruler of the land of the south by the king and his wife, queen Cleopatra III, who jointly occupied the throne of northern Egypt. Jointly the latter dedicated a beautiful hall to the G.o.ddess Isis, as a place in which to celebrate the Tekhu feast and in which she might linger at this season (Brugsch, _op. cit._ II, p.
284). I have found indications in other works that, in other localities, the G.o.ddess entered a secret chamber in the earth or pyramid or celebrated her sacred mysteries and festival on the sacred boat of the sun, in the sacred sea or lake belonging to the temple. In these cases it is obvious that the dominant idea was the performance of the sacred rites in the sacred centre or middle.
At a later period Cleopatra VII ascended the female throne at the age of seventeen and became high-priestess of Amen, the living image of Isis. It was understood that as soon as her brother Ptolemy XIV, then aged twelve, should come of age, she was to marry him. Partly for political reasons, akin to those which had caused king h.o.r.emheb, on his accession, to marry the high priestess of Amen, Julius Caesar and Mark Antony become in succession the consorts of Cleopatra, after whose death Egypt became a Roman province. But the "land of the south," and traditional, divine, feminine rulership, lingered on. Under the third prefect, aelius Gallus, Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, invades Egypt at the head of her army.
She was defeated, but the position of the high-priestess of Amen, the living Isis, continued to be such as to exact the homage and an act of propitiation from the Roman Emperor.
An inscription, from the time of Augustus, records that a beautiful monument, or "house," had been erected by the "lord of the land, the autocrator, the son of the sun, Caesar," and was presented, at the time of the Isis festival, to its possessor, the great Isis, the mother of the G.o.d, the mistress of the lying-in-house, the splendid and mighty queen of Philae, the benevolent princess of Abaton, the daughter of the sun. She is likewise named "she who is great or whose greatness extends towards the four quarters" and is designated as "the royal wife of the majesty of Osiris and the royal mother of Horus, the victorious bull," _i. e._ the ka. It is stated that "she found the house of birth brilliantly adorned and well arranged in every way" and she installed herself in its interior on a given day, so as to bring forth her son in these surroundings. One of the rewards promised to Caesar for the delicate attention and gift bestowed upon the G.o.ddess is "eternal and permanent occupation of the throne of Horus, the first of the living ones." According to the Esne calendar a "divine birth" actually took place on a given date. Brugsch, referring to Plutarch and calendar texts, shows that the commencement of the Isis festival dated from the time when Isis a.s.sumed a phylactery, or amulet, to indicate that she had conceived.
Another inscription shows that Tiberius Claudius had caused the house to be renovated for "the mighty G.o.ddess Isis, the life giving mistress of Abaton, the good Hathor, the queen of the land of Nubia, the divine mother of the golden (Nub) Horus, the benevolent sister of Osiris, the great protectress who guards his son." As Tiberius Claudius, in this text named himself her loving son, it is obvious that the day had pa.s.sed away when solely her own divine son Horus would be the one legitimate and divine heir to the Egyptian throne. It is interesting to surmise what became of the children whose "divine births" continued to be celebrated as a sacred occurrence to which even a Roman Emperor yielded homage. The natural sequence would have been that, accompanied by a band of devoted followers, the sons of the sun, the young bulls, _i. e._ the ka, or divine twain, and their sisters, would seek distant lands in which jointly to establish new kingdoms on the ancient, familiar plan.
Collectively, the preceding evidence has afforded a realization of some of the curious but natural results of the prolonged cult of the dual principles of nature in Egypt, the most remarkable being, perhaps, the creation of a distinct, "divine" caste of individuals, from the nave adoption of marriage and birth as consecrated religious rites, symbolical of the union of heaven and earth and the production of new life. While at one time, and in certain localities, this mode of symbolism obviously took the upper hand and fostered the growth of the artificial idea of the "divine rights of royalty," there are evidences that, simultaneously, the union of the dual principles of nature was symbolized in one or more different archaic and primitive ways. These appear to have been separately adopted in various centres of thought where the disastrous and debasing consequences of the a.s.sociation of the idea of s.e.x with the cult of heaven and earth, light and darkness, etc., were realized with disapproval.
We thus find that, even at Edfu, the ceremonial rite of lighting new sacred fire by means of a wooden instrument and friction was performed on the great Isis festival which was marked by the "divine birth." According to the calendar of Canopus this fell on the first day of Payni, and a prescribed illumination of the temples and palace was kept up until the 30th or last day of the month. In the most ancient Egyptian calendars the "lighting of light" at the same period is also recorded (Brugsch, _op.
cit._ II, p. 470) and, according to Herodotus, the festival was named "the lighting of lamps" and was observed throughout all Egypt. He adds that "a religious reason is given why this night is illuminated and so honored"
(II, 61 and 62).
The influence of increasing astronomical knowledge likewise shows itself in the joint observation of the movements of sun, moon and stars and the determination of the relative positions of the latter to the sun at the periods of the equinoxes and solstices. Without taking period or sequence into consideration for the present, I merely note that we find evidence that, at one time, images of sun and moon, of the right and left eyes of Ra, or statues of Hathor-Isis and Osiris, replaced their living images in religious ceremonies.
Sometimes the entire ritual seems to have consisted in the union of water, the produce of heaven, with seeds, the produce of earth; the ensuing germination and production of young shoots being deemed sacred and symbolical of the renewal of life. The fact that statuettes of Osiris have actually been found, made of paste containing various seeds, distinctly shows that, like the Babylonian Baal, the Egyptian male divinity was identified with the earth. Another indication of this is furnished by the descriptions of the feast of Pan, which fell at the period of the spring equinox. At this period the crop of dura, which had been sown by the king in the sacred fields at Denderah, at the time of the "Osiris mysteries,"
immediately after the inundation had receded and "the earth was laid bare," became ripe. The ceremony of cutting the first sheaf of dura was performed by the king, with the silex sickle=khepes.
While Osiris was thus directly a.s.sociated with the produce of the earth there are also evidences that, just as Isis became identified with birth and life, her consort became the lord of death and of the underworld.
Mysterious rites and human sacrifices seem to have been inst.i.tuted in his honor. According to obscure myths Osiris himself had been foully murdered, his body cut into fourteen pieces and cast over the length and breadth of the land. His head was supposed to be preserved at Abydos, the chief centre of his worship, and shrines were erected over the other portions of his body. It will be a matter for further research to investigate whether the "mysteries of Osiris" did not include the dramatization of the death of Osiris, in which a human victim personified the G.o.d and was actually killed and dismembered.
It is, perhaps, worth noting here, as an a.n.a.logy, how appropriately the ancient Mexican annual sacrifice of a youth, chosen among the most perfect, might have answered as a rendition of the drama of Osiris. The body of the victim was divided and the pieces distributed to a fixed number of priests and chieftains, who partook of them as sacred food. The head was preserved in the Great Temple itself, on the Tzompantli, and the large number of skulls seen there by the Spaniards const.i.tuted a proof of the great antiquity of the custom. The blood of the victim, poured upon seeds, seems to have been considered essential for bringing about the germination of the sacred shoots and typical of the union of the dual principles of nature and of life springing from death. Idols, formed of seeds moistened with human blood, were distributed to the partic.i.p.ants in the ceremony. According to some authors this sacred paste, and not pieces of human flesh, const.i.tuted the consecrated food, eaten according to the prescribed ritual.
How far a.n.a.logous rites were performed in Egypt remains to be seen; it is, at all events, certain that, by slow degrees, the cult of the dual principles of nature gave rise to the inst.i.tution of strange unnatural rites, the original nave meanings of which became obscured, debased or lost. While various localities of Egypt, notably Thebes and Abydos, appear to have become the birthplace of curious aberrations of the human intellect, there was one ancient and great centre of learning where monotheism and the knowledge of the fundamental scheme appear to have been preserved intact, namely, at Heliopolis, the ancient On or Anu of the North, named the "House of the Sun" by Jeremiah and "the Eye or Fountain of the Sun" by the Arabs. According to Mr. Wallis Budge, "its ruins cover an area three miles square ... the greatest and oldest Egyptian College or University for the education of the priesthood and laity stood here....
During the XXth dynasty the temple of Heliopolis was one of the largest and wealthiest of all Egypt and its staff was numbered by thousands. When Cambyses visited Egypt the glory of Heliopolis was well on the wane and, after the removal of the priesthood and sages of the temple to Alexandria, by Ptolemy II (B.C. 286), its downfall was well a.s.sured. When Strabo visited it (B.C. 24) the greater part of it was in ruins.... Heliopolis had a large population of Jews and it will be remembered that Joseph married the daughter of a priest of On (Annu).... Macrobius says that the Heliopolis of Syria or Baalbek, was founded by a body of priests who left the ancient city of Heliopolis of Egypt" (The Nile, p. 132).
Indirectly we learn the tenor of the doctrines and ideas held by the sages of Heliopolis at one period by the remarkable attempt to reform the religion of Egypt, carried out by their pupil, Amenhotep IV (about B.C.
1450). Evidently realizing, with his masters, the extent to which the ancient fundamental religion had become obscured and debased by the multiplication of images of the deity, and the inst.i.tution of rival cults, which were shrouded in mystery and darkness, the young prince boldly made war against the priesthood of Amen-Ra and the cult of a "hidden G.o.d."
Destroying the monstrous images which had originally been rebus figures only, and represented the supreme deity in partly human and animal form, he inst.i.tuted the disk or circle as the simple and purer form under which the divinity was to be revered.(118) Animated by the clear realization to what an extent the original communal or republican scheme of organization was being departed from by the artificial creation of a "divine" race of kings who claimed to be G.o.ds, he caused himself and his queen to be portrayed as simple mortals, and not as the deities Osiris and Isis.
Choosing the sun as his emblem, this champion of pure light and open truth fought the Egyptian votaries of darkness. He erased the word Amen=hidden, from public monuments, changed his own name from Amenhotep to Chu-en-Aten=the brilliance or glory of the disk and founded a city also named Chu-aten, which was to be the centre of a new and reformed state. It seems evident that this was inst.i.tuted on the familiar archaic plan and that the so-called "heresy of Amenhotep" was but an attempt, backed by the sages and philosophers of Heliopolis, to abolish the artificialities and abuses which had come into existence and destroyed the order of the state and the harmony of the primitive plan. It is well known that gradually Amenhotep"s successors were obliged to yield to the hostility of the priesthood of the "hidden G.o.d" and that these, in turn, erased or defaced all images of the disk or aten within their reach.
Ineffectual though the grand attempt had been to reorganize state and religion and reestablish republican principles, on the original plan, the knowledge of the original scheme seems to have been preserved intact during the following centuries, by the sages and philosophers of Heliopolis, by whom the primitive set of ideas seems to have been gradually developed into an abstract philosophical system. Reminding the reader that Plato spent "thirteen years in Egypt, in gaining an insight into the mysterious doctrines and priest-lore of the sacerdotal caste," I also draw attention to the pa.s.sage in his "Timaeus," in which Critias makes the statement that when Plato"s ideal republic ... was being discoursed upon, he was reminded, to his surprise, of the account of a state given to the Greek sage, Solon, by the priests of Sas, and perceived how, "in most respects, the republic described coincided with Solon"s statements." It is indeed striking how clearly we can recognize, in Plato"s republic, the underlying, primitive, universal scheme in this case, highly developed, elaborated, transfigured and transformed into the philosophical ideal of a great intellect.
Before demonstrating which of the main features of Plato"s cosmogony and ideal republic we have found actually carried out in practice, let us briefly refer to the most ancient descriptions of the primitive government of Greece, preserved in the Timaeus and Critias, where the conversations held, by Solon, with the priests of Sas are recorded. Solon (about 594 B.C.) on his arrival (at Sas) "was very honorably received; and especially, on his inquiring about ancient affairs of those priests who possessed superior knowledge in such matters, he perceived that neither himself nor any one of the Greeks (so to speak) had any antiquarian knowledge at all.... One of their extremely ancient priests said to Solon: "you (Greeks) are all youths in intelligence, for you hold no ancient opinions derived from remote tradition _nor any system of discipline_ that can boast of a h.o.a.ry old age.... In this our country, ... the most ancient things are said to be here preserved ... and all the n.o.ble, great or otherwise distinguished achievements, performed either by ourselves, by you or elsewhere, of which we have heard the report, all these have been engraved in our temples in very remote times and preserved to the present day. The annals of our own city (Sas) have been preserved eight thousand years in our sacred writings ... your state has a priority over ours of a thousand years.... I will briefly describe the law and more ill.u.s.trious actions of those states which have existed nine thousand years ..." "
(Timaeus). It is interesting at this point to recall also the familiar statements made by the priests of Sas to Solon, concerning the immense antiquity of the human race and the "mult.i.tude and variety of destructions which have been and will be undergone by the human race ... after which nations become young again, as at first, knowing nothing of the events of ancient times" (Timaeus, V).
Referring the reader to the original text I merely point out here that the priest of Sas, referring to the sacred writings themselves, a.s.signed to remotest antiquity the principle of distribution and arrangement on which the state had originally been founded and established. In the Critias the description of the Athenian state, which "had been founded nine thousand"
years before, contains the following particulars which will appear familiar to the reader. "To the G.o.ds was once locally allotted the whole earth.... Obtaining a country agreeable to them by just allotment, they chose regions for their habitations.... Different G.o.ds received by lot different regions.... Hephaestus and Athene, a brother and sister, both received one region as their common allotment ... their temple was built on the Acropolis ... whose northern and southern slopes were respectively a.s.sociated with separate winter and summer residences." The population was divided into cla.s.ses and each caste occupied a fixed place of residence.
"The outer parts, down the flanks (of the Acropolis) were inhabited by craftsmen and husbandmen who tilled the neighboring land; the warrior-cla.s.ses lived separately, by themselves, in the more elevated parts around the temple of Athene and Hephaestus, which they had formed, as it were, into the garden of a single dwelling by encircling it with one enclosure" (The Critias, VI). "... On this site was a single fountain which furnished every part with abundant water...." "The "guardians of the state" were the "leaders" of the Greeks and as to their number they paid special attention that they should always have the same number of men and women that might serve in war, the whole being about twenty thousand."
In the description given, in the Critias, of the state of Atlantis, the identical features recur, but are more fully described. In the centre of the island of Atlantis stood a mountain, surrounded by a plain, which was ultimately made square. The mountain was the residence of a pair of mythical lovers, consisting of a G.o.d and of a mortal woman, and became the birthplace of their offspring, "a divine race of kings." "The G.o.d ... with his divine power, agreeably adorned the centre of the island, causing two fountains of water to shoot upwards from beneath the earth, one cold and the other hot, and making every variety of food to spring abundantly from the earth." The central hill, from which thus proceeded all life and festivity, was at first "circularly enclosed, the land and sea being formed into alternate zones, greater and less, two out of land and three out of sea, from the centre of the island all equally distant." The ten kings, born of the "divine union, lived each in his own district and city, and ruled supreme over his people. The government and commonwealth in each case was, by the injunction of the G.o.d, according to the laws which were handed down. The latter were inscribed on a column of orichalc.u.m which was deposited in the centre of the island, in the temple of the G.o.d, where the ten kings originally a.s.sembled every fifth year. A fire burned near the column and a bull was sacrificed at its base, after which a sacred cup was filled with its blood and this was poured into the fire by way of purifying the column" (Critias, VII-XVI).
The above mention of a column is of interest when it is realized that, in historical times, the laws of Solon were actually inscribed on a square wooden pillar which was made to revolve or turn and was placed on the Acropolis. The presence of a revolving pillar on the Acropolis, the sacred centre of the Athenian state, is, moreover, curiously in keeping with the conception of axial energy set forth by Plato and awakens the desire to learn from Greek scholars what relationship, if any, there was between the Sanscrit aksa=axle or axis, the Greek akra (akris=summit, akros=most high, supreme, akrisios=mountain-top G.o.d) and the Egyptian ak=the Centre, and hak=a king; and whether the word polis=city was connected with polos=the pole-star, an axis, pivot or pole, from polein=to turn, and may be interpreted as the equivalent of the Egyptian An and Annu. It would also be important to learn whether the name of the princ.i.p.al ancient G.o.d of Greece, Apollo, who was revered under the form of a column at Delphi, can also be connected with the verb polein or pelein=to turn, as well as the name Polias _i. e._ the G.o.ddess protecting the city, a surname for Minerva (Athene) at Athens, where she was worshipped at one time as the protecting divinity of the Acropolis. The t.i.tle Poliuchus, "protecting the city,"
occurs as a surname of several divinities and particularly of Minerva Chalchioecus, "of the brazen house," at Sparta and Athens. It is instructive likewise to compare the Greek words for axis=axon, and polis=city, with Helice, the name for Ursa Major and for a town in Arcadia, with the Egyptian Annu, An or On, the names of capitals, and the Egyptian word an=that which turns around. It will be for Greek and Egyptian scholars to enlighten us as to whether the Egyptian an and the Greek polis are synonyms; in which connection I draw their attention to the following suggestive pa.s.sage of the Critias (VII).... "Yet before we narrate this we must briefly warn you not to be surprised at hearing h.e.l.lenic names given to barbarians ... and the cause of this you shall now hear. Solon made an investigation into the power of names and found that the early Egyptians, who committed these facts to writing, transferred these names into their own language; and he again, receiving the meaning of each name, introduced it by writing into our language." While, on one hand, it is certain that the Egyptian astronomer-priests a.s.sociated the pole star with the words An, Anu, Anubis, on the other, the following pa.s.sages from Plato"s works clearly demonstrate his views concerning axial rotation.(119) A fresh interest is undoubtedly added to Plato"s philosophy when it is regarded as the possible result of the thirteen years spent by him with the Egyptian priesthood, who may possibly have confided to him the entire sum of their ancient philosophy and acc.u.mulated store of knowledge, and who certainly seem to have imposed upon him the reticence and obscurity noticeable in the Republic, the Critias and the Timaeus.
To those who have followed my investigation of the ancient state organization and cosmical conceptions of the ancient Egyptians, and noted the interpretation given to the pyramid and the fact that Amenophis inst.i.tuted the disk as the image of the Supreme Being, the following detached extracts from Plato"s Timaeus will appear familiar and full of fresh significance. "To discover the Father and Creator of this universe (also called the heaven or the world) or his work is indeed difficult; _and when discovered it is impossible to reveal him to mankind at large_.... The composing (or framing) Artificer const.i.tuted the universe from entire elements of fire, water, air and earth and ... considering that it would thus be a whole animal.... He gave it also a figure becoming and allied to its nature; and to the animal destined to comprehend all others within itself that figure as the most becoming which includes within itself every sort of figure whatever. Hence he fashioned it in the shape of a sphere, perfectly round, having its centre everywhere equally distant from the bounding extremities.... He a.s.signed to it a motion peculiar to itself ... making the world to turn constantly on itself and on same point, he gave it a circular motion ... he a.s.signed to it a motion peculiar to itself, being that of all the seven kinds of motion.... As for the soul, he fixed it in the middle, extended it throughout the whole and likewise surrounded it with its entire surface ... and so, causing a circle to revolve in a circle, he established the world as one substantive, solitary object.... _Let the universe be called heaven or the world or by any other name it usually receives_.... The soul of this universe ... being composed of three parts ... being interwoven throughout from the middle to the very extremities of s.p.a.ce and covering it even all around externally, though at the same time herself revolving within herself, originated the divine commencement of an unceasing and wise life throughout all time.... Time ... was generated with the universe.... Time ... an eternal image _on the principles of numbers_ ... the perfect number of time completes a perfect year ... for this purpose ... were formed _such of the stars as moved circularly through the universe_...."
While a careful study of Plato"s work will further elucidate his views concerning the quadruplicate nature of the universe, of its comprehensive unity, of axial rotation, the generation of time and of the principle of numbers, I point out that the following pa.s.sage conveys the idea of applying the universal plan to the regulation of human thought: "This, however, we may a.s.sert, that G.o.d invented and bestowed sight upon us for the express purpose, that on _surveying the circles of intelligence in the heavens_, we might properly employ those of our minds, which, though disturbed when compared with the others that are uniform, are still allied to their circulation and that, having thus learned and being naturally possessed of a correct reasoning faculty, we might, _by imitating the uniform revolutions of divinity_, set right our own silly wanderings and blunders."
There are two portions of Plato"s cosmology to which I wish particularly to draw attention, because of the striking examples that exist, showing that the views therein expressed and suggestions given, were independently carried into practice in ancient times, in widely separated countries. One is the suggestive attempt to figure the Cosmos by geometrical images, a method which had been carried out by the pyramid-builders and Amenophis III and suggests an explanation for the origin and meaning of the geometrical decoration that prevailed at one period of antiquity. The other is the a.s.sociation of time with the principles of numbers, the most remarkable exemplifications of which are furnished by the Egyptian, Hindu, Chinese, Mexican and Maya cyclical systems, founded upon the a.s.sociations of divisions of time and numerals, and even and uneven numbers with day-names, etc.
Having hastily noted some features of Plato"s Cosmos let us next obtain an insight into the ideas a.s.sociated with Polaris and the Septentriones by the ancient Greeks and their neighbors, before and after Plato"s time. I gratefully acknowledge my indebtedness to Mr. Richard Hinckley Allen"s "Star-names and their meanings" (New York, 1899), for the following valuable information and at the same time express my regret that his useful work was unknown to me when I wrote the preceding portion of my investigation.(120)
"Ursa Minor was not mentioned by Homer or Hesiod for, according to Strabo, it was not admitted among the constellations of the Greeks until about 600 B.C. when Thales, inspired by its use in Phnicia, his probable birthplace, suggested it to the Greek mariners in place of its greater neighbor which till then had been their sailing guide. Thence its t.i.tle Phnice and Ursa Phnicia. But it also shared, with Ursa Major, the t.i.tles Septentrio, Aratos, Amaxa, Aganna and Helice. It also bore the "early and universal t.i.tle" Kynosura or Cynosura, usually translated "the Dog"s Tail," the origin of which is uncertain, Bournouf a.s.serting that "it is in no way a.s.sociated with the Greek word for dog." c.o.x identified the word with Lycosura (meaning tail or trail of light), which recalls the city of that name in Arcadia considered, by Pausanias, the most ancient in the world, having been founded by Lycaon some time before the Deluge of Deucalion."
"Euclid said in his Phainomena: "A star is visible between the Bears, not changing its place, _but always revolving upon itself_" (_cf._ Plato"s Cosmos). Hipparchus, that the pole was "in a vacant spot forming a quadrangle with three other stars," both writers calling this Polos, the Polus of Lucan, Ovid and other cla.s.sical Latins, and Euphratean observers had called their pole-star Pul or Bil. But, although other astronomical writers used these words for some individual star, there is no certainty as to which was intended, for it should be remembered that, during many millenniums, the polar point has gradually been approaching our pole-star which, 2000 years ago, was far removed from it, in Hipparchus" time 12 24" away, according to his own statement, quoted by Marinus of Tyre and cited by Ptolemy. Herac.l.i.tus, the Ionian philosopher of Ephesus of about 500 B.C., a.s.serted that this constellation marked the boundary between the east and the west, which it may be regarded as doing when on the horizon."
This statement is of extreme importance as it proves an orientation of the north by the pole-star and not by the solst.i.tial position of the sun.
"Another name for it, p?e?????, used for it or its quarter of the sky, was from the Greek, as seen in Plutarch"s a? t?? p??????? ?p???afa? the "fields" or "s.p.a.ces" into which the augurs divided the heavens, the templa, or regiones cli of the Latins...."
"In Homer"s Iliad and Odyssey the use of the seven stars of Ursa Major in Greek navigation is clearly shown. The constellation is ent.i.tled the Bear=arctos, described, according to different translators, as "circling on high," "wheeling round," or "revolving around the axle of the sky."(121) Homer used, equally with Arctos, the name Amaxa=the wain or wagon, to designate the seven stars. Aratos called the constellation the "Wain-like Bear;" and, alluding to the t.i.tle Amaxa, a.s.serted that the word was from ama=together, the Amaxai thus circling together around the pole; but no philologist accepts this and it might as well have come from axion=axle, referring to the axis of the heavens. In fact Hewitt goes far back of Aratos in his statement that the Sanscrit G.o.d Akshivan, the Driver of the Axle (aksha), was adopted in Greece as Ixion, whose well-known wheel was merely the circling course of this constellation. Anacreon mentioned it as a Chariot as well as a Bear; and Hesychius had it Aganna, an archaic word from agein, "to carry," singularly like, in orthography at least, the Akkadian t.i.tle for the Wain stars, Aganna or Akanna, the Lord of Heaven; and Aben Ezra called it Ajala, the Hebrew word for "waggon."
The name Helice from ????, the Curved, or Spiral One, apparently first used by Aratos and Apollonius Rhodius, became common as descriptive of its twisting around the pole, ... Sophocles having the same thought in his mention of "the circling paths of the Bear." Some, however, derived the name from the curved or twisted positions of the chief stars.... Helice was also the name of a city in Arcadia, the country so intimately connected with the Bears, whose inhabitants were called the Bear race."
As far back as Hesiod"s time the constellation was a.s.sociated in myth, with the name Kallisto, "the beautiful," which "La Lande referred to the Phnician Kalitsah or Chalitsa, Safety, as its observation helped to a safe voyage. Another version of the Grecian myth a.s.sociated the constellation with Artemis, the Roman Diana [_i. e._ the huntress, _cf._ Ishtar and Isis-Sat.i.t]." The apparent connection of the name Artemis with Themis="law and justice personified," should be noted here.
The preceding statements establish that, in ancient Greece, Polaris was identified with the celestial Polos and was described as a star, not changing its place, but always _revolving on itself_ and it appears superfluous to point out how closely Plato"s Cosmos agrees with the current astronomical theories. The Ursae, on the other hand, were identified with the t.i.tles Helice, referring to axial rotation, and with the names Aganna (Akanna) Arctos and Amaxa, which are identical in sound with the words we have found a.s.sociated with Polaris and the Septentriones in the ancient Egyptian texts.
Deferring the demonstration that a number of the natural objects or animals represented in the Egyptian rebus signs, which were merely employed in hieratic script to express the syllables an, am, ar, ak, etc., are to be found as actual names for Polaris and the Ursae in different western Asiatic and other countries, I shall now briefly show that, in remotest historical times, the Grecian states were established upon the model of an ideal republic such as is outlined in Plato"s works, in accordance with current cosmological conceptions. According to ancient tradition the aborigines of Attica were first civilized under Cecrops who is said to have come hither from Sas, Egypt, about 1500 B.C.
Turning to Iwan Mueller"s monumental "Alterthumswissenschaft" (IV.
Handbuch der Griechische Alterthumer), let us examine the data he presents concerning the beginnings of Athenian culture.
"The historical inhabitants of Attica belonged to the Ionic race and claimed to be autochthonous.... They were grouped into four tribes: the Geleontes, Argadeis, Aigikoreis and Hopletes. The existence of these four tribes is usually connected with a territorial division of Attica into four parts and their names are supposed to have been derived from the location and occupation of each tribe. The Geleontae=the shining ones, are said to have formed the priest or warrior caste and to have lived in Pedion. The Argadaei were the agriculturists and were situated in the plain of Thriasis. The Aigikoraei or goatherds were a.s.signed to Diakria.
Authorities still disagree about the habitation of the Hopletes, "the armed ones." The interpretation of these names is still open to doubt. An ancient tradition attributes to them an Ionic derivation.... On the other hand, it is probable that when they emigrated to Attica the tribe remained separate and became a.s.sociated with their place of residence ... at a later period the phratries were a.s.sociated with localities.... Each of the four castes had its chieftain and an equality of rank seems to have been maintained. In ancient times the citizens were divided into three cla.s.ses: the Eupatridae or n.o.bility; the Geomorae or farmers; and the Demiurgae or artisans, merchants, potters or fishermen,-in fact all who exercised some occupation.
"The political unity of Attica was centred in the plain of Cephisos, which was the kernel of the country. In the lower part of the plain, about a mile from the sea, situated on a plateau, and crowning a high rocky elevation, lay the ancient fortress Cekropia, the residence of Cecrops and Erechtheus, the mythical, earth-born forefathers of the Athenians. At the foot of the fortress, a lower town gradually grew up and spread itself towards the south. This primitive Athens originally formed only the nucleus of a small kingdom situated in the plains and surrounded by enemies.... According to an Attic tradition Cecrops collected the inhabitants of Attica into 12 ... tribes, states or communities.... The names of several of these have been shown to have also been applied to capitals which were independent centres of government. Athens, the centre of the state, developed into a large city in which the n.o.bility of the whole country resided and where many artisans also settled. The majority of the citizens lived, however, in the surrounding country.... The harvest festival, held at ancient Athens, in honor of the G.o.ddess Athene, the patroness of agriculture, was also a general feast for all inhabitants of Attica ..." (pp. 104-108).