CHAPTER XXXVII.

THE EGYPTIAN AND BABYLONIAN ECLIPTIC CONSTELLATIONS.

I have already, in Chapter XXXII., pointed out that at Annu we seemed limited to Set as a stellar divinity; so soon as pyramid times are reached, however, this was changed, and we found the list of the gods increased, and the worship of the sun and of stars in the constellations of the Bull and Scorpion went on, if it was not begun, in Egypt, in pyramid times. These constellations were connected with the equinoxes; and associated with the introduction of these new worships in pyramid times was the worship of the bull Apis.

The first question which now arises is, When were any ecliptic constellations established in Babylonia? and next, Which were they?

Jensen, in his "Kosmologie der Babylonier," tells us that there is some very definite information relating not only to Taurus and Scorpio, but to Capricornus and other winter constellations; and, as in Egypt so in Babylonia, for the first references to the constellations we have to refer to the religion and the mythology.

So far as I have been able to gather, any myth like the Egyptian myth of Horus, involving combats between the sun and circumpolar star gods, is entirely lacking in Babylonia, but a similar myth in relation to some of the ecliptic constellations is among the best known. Jensen shows that the first notions of the Babylonian constellations are to be got by studying the sun-gods, and especially the mythic war between the later sun-god Marduk and the monster Tiāmat.

I have already referred to Marduk; he is the Spring Sun-God, and it has also been stated that the greatest god of ancient Babylonia, Ía of Eridu, was connected with the constellation of Capricornus.

Marduk represented the constellation of the Bull. Here I quote Jensen:--[177]

"It has already been suggested that the Bull is a symbol of the Spring-Sun _Marduk_; that he was originally complete; that he at one time extended as far as the Fish of _Ía_, _i.e._ the western Fish; that the Fish of _Ía_, out of which the sun emerged at the end of the year in ancient times to enter Taurus, is to represent _Ía_, the God of the Ocean, out of which his son _Marduk_, the early sun, rises daily; finally, that a series of constellations west of the Fish(es) is intended to represent symbolically this same ocean. _Marduk_ is on the one hand, as early sun of the day (and the year), the son of _Ía_, the god of the world-water."

As to the sun-god Marduk, then, he represents the sun at the vernal equinox, when the sunrise was heralded by the stars in the Bull.

But what, then, are the fish of _Ía_ and the other constellations referred to? They are all revealed to us by the myth. They are the Southern ecliptic constellations.

_Tiāmat._

Tiāmat, according to Jensen, means initially the Eastern Sea (p. 307). This was expanded to mean the "Weltwasser" (p. 315), which may be taken to mean, I suppose, the origin of the Greek ὠκεανὸς, and possibly the overlying firmament of waters. These firmamental waters contain the southerly ecliptic constellations, the winter and bad-weather signs--the Scorpion, the Goat-fish, and the Fish among them.

It must be pointed out that these southerly constellations were associated with the God of Eridu _in his first stage_.

_The Constellations referred to in the Myth of Marduk and Tiāmat._

We are indebted to the myth, then, for the knowledge that when it was invented, not only the constellations Bull and Scorpion, but also the Goat and Fishes had been established in Babylonia.

This argument is strengthened by the following considerations suggested by Jensen:--

"We look in vain among the retinue of Tiāmat for an animal corresponding to the constellations of the zodiac to the east of the vernal equinox. This cannot be accidental. If, therefore, we contended that the cosmogonic legends of the Babylonians stood in close relationship to the phenomena of sunrise on the one hand and the entrance of the sun into the vernal equinox on the other--that, in fact, the creation legends in general reflect these events--there could not be a more convincing proof of our view than the fact just mentioned. The three monsters of Tiāmat, which _Marduk_ overcomes, are located in the 'water-region' of the heavens, which the Spring-Sun _Marduk_ 'overcomes' before entering the (ancient) Bull. If, as cannot be doubted, the signs of the zodiac are to be regarded as symbols, and especially if a monster like the goat-fish, whose form it is difficult to recognise in the corresponding constellation, can only be regarded as a symbol, then we may assume without hesitation that at the time when the Scorpion, the Goat-Fish, and the Fish were located as signs of the zodiac in the water-region of the sky, they already played their parts as the animals of Tiāmat in the creation legends. Of course they were not taken out of a complete story and placed in the sky, but conceptions of a more general kind gave the first occasion. It does not follow that all the ancient myths now known to us must have been available, but certainly the root-stock of them, perhaps in the form of unsystematic and unconnected single stories and concepts."

There is still further evidence for the constellation of the Scorpion.

"A Scorpion-Man plays also another part in the cosmology of the Babylonians. The Scorpion-Man and his wife guard the gate leading to the Māšu mountain(s), and watch the sun at rising and setting. Their upper part reaches to the sky, and their _irtu_ (breast?) to the lower regions (Epic of Gistubar 60, 9). After Gistubar has traversed the Māšu Mountain, he reaches the sea. This sea lies to the east or south-east. However obscure these conceptions may be, and however they may render a general idea impossible, one thing is clear, that the Scorpion-Men are to be imagined at the boundary between land and sea, upper and lower world, and in such a way that the upper or human portion belongs to the upper region, and the lower, the Scorpion body, to the lower. Hence the Scorpion-Man represents the boundary between light and darkness, between the firm land and the water region of the world. _Marduk_, the god of light, and vanquisher of Tiāmat, _i.e._ the ocean, has for a symbol the Bull = Taurus, into which he entered in spring. This leads almost necessarily to the supposition that both the Bull and the Scorpion were located in the heavens at a time when the sun had its vernal equinox in Taurus and its autumnal equinox in Scorpio, and that in their principal parts or most conspicuous star groups; hence probably in the vicinity of Aldebaran and Antares, or at an epoch when the principal parts of Taurus and Scorpio appeared before the sun at the equinoxes."

If my suggestion be admitted that the Babylonians dealt not with the daily fight but with the yearly fight between light and darkness--that is, the antithesis between day and night was expanded into the antithesis between the summer and the winter halves of the year--then it is clear that at the vernal equinox Scorpio setting in the west would be watching the sunrise; at the autumnal equinox rising in the east, it would be watching the sunset; one part would be visible in the sky, the other would be below the horizon in the celestial waters. If this be so, all obscurity disappears, and we have merely a very beautiful statement of a fact, from which we learn that the time to which the fact applied was about 3000 B.C., if the sun were then near the Pleiades.

Jensen, in the above-quoted passage by implication, and in a subsequent one directly, suggests that not all the zodiacal constellations were established at the same time. The Babylonians apparently began with the easier problem of having six constellations instead of twelve. For instance, we have already found that to complete the present number, between

Scorpio Capricornus Pisces

we must interpolate

Sagittarius Aquarius.

Aries and Libra seem also to be late additions according to Jensen, who writes:--

"We have already above (p. 90) attempted to explain the striking phenomenon that the Bull and Pegasus, both with half-bodies only, ἡμίτομοι, enclose the Ram between them, by the assumption that the latter was interposed later, when the sun at the time of the vernal equinox was in the hind parts of the Bull, so that this point was no longer sufficiently marked in the sky. Another matter susceptible of a like explanation may be noted in the region of the sky opposite to the Ram and the Bull. Although we cannot doubt the existence of an eastern balance, still, as already remarked (p. 68), the Greeks have often called it χηλαὶ 'claws' (of the Scorpion), and according to what has been said above (p. 312), the sign for a constellation in the neighbourhood of our Libra reads in the Arsacid inscription 'claw(s)' of the Scorpion. These facts are very simply explained on the supposition that the Scorpion originally extended into the region of the Balance, and that originally α and β Libræ represented the 'horns' of the Scorpion, but later on, when the autumnal equinox coincided with them, the term Balance was applied to them. Although this was used as an additional name, it was only natural that the old term should still be used as an equivalent. But it also indicates the great age of a portion of the zodiac."

Let us suppose that what happened in the case of Aries and Libra happened with six constellations out of the twelve: _in other words, that the original zodiac consisted only of six constellations_.

Taurus _Gemini_ Crab (or Tortoise) _Lion_ Virgin (or ear of corn) _Libra_ Scorpion _Sagittarius_ Capricornus _Aquarius_ Pisces _Aries_

The left-hand list not only classifies in an unbroken manner the Fish-Man, the Goat-Fish, the Scorpion-Man, and Marduk of the Babylonians, but we pick up all or nearly all of the ecliptic stars or constellations met with in early Egyptian mythology, Apis, The Tortoise,[178] Min, Serk-t, Chnemu, as represented by appropriate symbols.

Further, the remarkable suppression or small representation of the Lion in both the more ancient Babylonian and Egyptian mythology is explained. I have shown before how the Babylonians with an equinoctial year would take slight account of the solstice, while it also follows that the Egyptians, who were wise enough not to use zodiacal stars for their warnings of sunrise, for the reason that stars in the brighter light of dawn near the sun are more difficult to see, might easily neglect the constellation of the Lion, as first Phact and then Sirius, both southern stars, marked for them the advent of the summer solstice; on different grounds, then, the Lion might well have been at first omitted in both countries.

Since there is a doubt as to the existence of the Lion among the first Babylonian constellations, the argument in the following paragraph would appear to refer to observations made at a later time, when totemism was less prevalent:--

"The Lion in the heavens must represent the heat of the summer. He does this most effectually when the summer solstice coincides with the constellation--that is, when its principal stars appear before the sun at the summer solstice. This happened at the time when the vernal equinox lay in Taurus, and when the principal star-group of the Bull appeared before the sun at the time of the vernal equinox. The Water-jug (Amphora), Aquarius, must represent symbolically the watery season of winter. It does this most effectually when the winter solstice coincides with it, or its principal star-group appears before the sun at the winter solstice. This happened about the time when the vernal equinox lay in Taurus, and its principal star-group rose before the sun at the time of the vernal equinox."

Thanks to Jensen's researches, then, we have the important conclusion before us that the Babylonians, as well as the Egyptians, in early times symbolised the following constellations:--

Taurus Bull. Cancer Tortoise. Virgo Ear of corn or other product representing fertility. Scorpio Scorpion. Capricornus Goat-man or goat-fish. Pisces Fish-man.

But what time was this?

We have seen that in Egypt the Bull constellation had been established possibly in the time of Mena, and that certainly both the Bull and the Scorpion had been established in pyramid times.

I have also given evidence to show that the E. and W. pyramid worship was brought from Babylonia. Now, about this date we know that Sargon I. was king of that country, and reigned at Accad or Agade, lat. 33° N., on the right bank of the Euphrates, Sippara being across the river. Here it may be mentioned that the latitudes of Eridu and Babylon are 31° N. and 32½° N. respectively, so that Agade was to the north of both.

Although the worship of Marduk--that is, the vernal equinox Sun-god--in Babylon was much intensified when Khammurabi reigned about 2200 B.C., it is known that it existed long before; how long I cannot find. It is also very remarkable that the deities of Eridu, whenever that city was pre-eminent, were guarded by sacred bulls. We must leave it undetermined, therefore, at what date the Bull sun-god was established; but it seems certain, on the above grounds, that it must have been before pyramid times.

But we are not limited to the above line of evidence. There are astronomical considerations which will help us. For the purpose of noting the validity of the argument based upon them, a slight reference is necessary to the change of the equinoctial point along the ecliptic.

By the processional movement, the position of the sun in the ecliptic at an equinox or solstice sweeps round the ecliptic in about 25,000 years. Now if we suppose twelve ecliptic constellations of equal size--that is, 30° long (30° × 12 = 360°)--the time it would take the sun's place at the vernal equinox to pass through one constellation would be (25000∕12 =) 2083 years. If the constellation of the Bull were twice as long formerly as it is now (when the constellations are twice as numerous), of course this period would be doubled.

So that the statement that the sun at the equinox was in the Bull does not help us very much to an actual date, and the constellation of the Lion could have been established 2000 years after the Bull, and yet have marked the summer solstice.

Further, if all the stars of the Bull (speaking generally) are seen at dawn--that is, before the sun rises--the sun has not yet reached the Bull. We can then, at all events, fix a minimum of time. The sun's longitude at the vernal equinox being always 0, the longitude of the most easterly part of the constellation, assuming this part not to have been changed, will give us the number of years that have elapsed.

I now go on to state Jensen's view as to the date of the introduction of the god Marduk into Babylonian mythology, or, in other words, of the worship of the spring-tide sun.

Jensen remarks:--

"It may safely be assumed that the constellations of the Scorpion and the Bull actually originated at the latest at a time when the autumnal and vernal equinoctial points respectively coincided with their principal stars. But this was the case more than 4900 years ago. But if we assume that Taurus and Scorpio were given their names at a time when their main stars rose before the sun at the time of the vernal and autumnal equinoxes respectively, we should obtain as the date of the establishment of the constellations of Taurus and Scorpio in the skies about the year-5000.[179] According to Dr. Tetens, the sun stood at the tips of the horns of the Bull at the commencement of spring 6000 years ago. At this time, therefore, Taurus had completely risen above the eastern horizon at sunrise.

"Since it is not inconceivable that in the delineation of the first signs of the zodiac a name was attached to a constellation of the ecliptic emerging from behind the sun, and apparently more or less connected, the name being such as to indicate symbolically the beginning of the spring then occurring, the time, about 1400 B.C., might also be that of the introduction of the Bull (and the Scorpion). But it is, of course, not necessary that this should have occurred at one of the three epochs mentioned; this is, indeed, highly improbable, and the process must be regarded as follows: When the idea was conceived of indicating symbolically the beginning of spring in the sky--whether the idea originated in the brains of the masses or in that of a learned scholar, whether it had a mythological or a more scientific basis--a name was given in the first instance to the region in which the sun was at the beginning of spring, or to that west of it, the name denoting symbolically the beginning of spring. This, of course, does not exclude the possibility that more eastward portions of the ecliptic, whose stars were less prominent, were included in this name. From this we may conclude that Taurus did not originate later than-3000, for at that time Aldebaran, its principal star, stood east of the sun at the beginning of spring. Hence it would follow that our creation legends are, at least in part, just as old."[180]

It may, then, be gathered from the above that the constellations of the Bull and the Scorpion were recognised as such at the same early date both in Babylonia and Egypt; and to these we may add the Tortoise (our present Cancer) and some of the southern constellations. Further, that the date of their establishment was certainly not later than, say, 4000 B.C., and probably much earlier.

With regard to the complete ecliptic, the information seems meagre both from Babylonia and from Egypt in early times. I have already referred to the Egyptian decans, that is, the lists of stars rising at intervals of ten days. The lists will be found in Lepsius and in Brugsch's "Astronomische und Astrologische Inschriften," but the stars have not been made out. In later times in Babylonia--say 1000 B.C.--the following list represents the results of Jensen's investigations:--

(1) Perhaps Aries (= "leading sheep").

(2) A "Bull (of the Heavens)" = Aldebaran or (and) = our Taurus.

(3) Gemini.

(4)?

(5) Perhaps Leo.

(6) The constellation of the "Corn in Ears" = the Ear of Corn. [Spica.]

(7) Probably Libra, whose stars are, however, at least in general, called "The Claw(s)" (_i.e._, of the Scorpion).

(8) The Scorpion.

(9) Perhaps Sagittarius.

(10) The "Goat-fish" = Caper.

(11)?

(12) The "Fish" with the "Fish band."

A few hundred years later, we learn from the works of Strassmeyer and Epping, a complete chain of twenty-eight stars along the ecliptic had been established, and most careful observations made of the paths of the moon and planets, and of all attendant phenomena. The ecliptic stars then used in Babylonia were as follows:--[181]

1. η Piscium. 2. β Arietis. 3. α Arietis. 4. η Tauri. 5. α Tauri. 6. β Tauri. 7. ζ Tauri. 8. η Geminorum. 9. μ Geminorum. 10. γ Geminorum. 11. α Geminorum. 12. β Geminorum. 13. δ Cancri. 14. η Leonis. 15. α Leonis. 16. ρ Leonis. 17. β Leonis. 18. β Virginis. 19. γ Virginis. 20. α Virginis. 21. α Libræ. 22. β Libræ 23. δ Scorpionis. 24. α Scorpionis. 25. δ Ophiuchi. 26. α Capricorni. 27. γ Capricorni. 28. η Capricorni.

In Egypt, dating from the twentieth dynasty (1100 B.C.), is a series of star tables which have puzzled Egyptologists from Champollion and Biot downwards. These observations are recorded in several manuscripts found in tombs; they seem to have been given as a sort of charm to the people who were buried, in order to enable them to get through the difficulties of the way in the nether world.

The hieroglyphs state that a particular star of a particular Egyptian constellation is seen at a particular hour of the night. We have twelve lines representing the twelve hours of the night, and it is stated that we have in these vertical lines the equivalent of the lines in our transit instruments, and that the reference "in the middle," "over the right eye," "over the right shoulder," or "over the left ear," as the case may be, is simply a reference to the position of the star.

Were this confirmed, one of the remarkable things about the inquiry would be that the Egyptians did not hesitate in those days to make a constellation cover very nearly 90° of right ascension, showing that they wished to have as few constellations, including as many stars, as possible. But the best authorities all agree that these are tables of stars rising at different hours of the night, and a small constellation near the pole might have taken many hours to rise.

The observations were made on the 1st and 16th of every month. The chief stars seem to be twenty-four in number, and it looked at first as if we had really here a list of priceless value of twenty-four either ecliptic or equatorial stars, similar to the decans to which reference has already been made.

Unfortunately, however, the list has resisted all efforts to completely understand it. Whether it is a list of risings or meridian passages even is still in dispute. Quite recently, indeed, one of the investigators, Herr Gustav Bilfinger,[182] has not hesitated to consider it not a list of observations at all, but a compilation for a special purpose.

"The star-table is intended to carry the principle of time into the rigid world of the grave, and represents over the sepulchral vault 'the eternal horizon,' as the ancient Egyptians so aptly styled the grave, an imitation of the sky, a compensation for the sky of the upper world with its time-measuring motion; yet the idea here is bolder, the execution is more artificial and complicated, since the sculptor endeavoured to combine the daily and the annual motion of the celestial vault in _one_ picture; wanted to transfer into the grave the temporal frames in which all human life is enacted. This endeavour to represent by one configuration both motions and both chronological units explains all the peculiarities and imperfections of our star-table.

"The simplest means of representing both motions was found in the stars, which circle the earth in the course of a day, and indicate the year by the successive appearance of new stars in the morning twilight. If the same stars were to serve both purposes in one representation, it was necessary to take twenty-four stars which rose at intervals of fifteen days, since only such followed each other at an average distance of 15°, and were therefore useful for showing the hours.

"If the calendar-maker really possessed a list of the twenty-four principal (zodiacal) stars, the course of the year was indicated thereby; but since he also wanted to represent the daily motion, he might with some justice have composed each night out of eleven of these stars, since the stars' risings are only visible during the ten middle hours of the night. But ten hours would not have adequately represented the night, since this was thought of as a twelve hours' interval.

"There was a way out of it--viz., to call hora 0 'sunset,' hora 12 'sunrise,' which would have been a simple and correct solution if the division of the night into twelve parts for practical purposes had been aimed at. But this expedient he could not adopt, because he could or would only operate with stars, and the notions of sunrise and sunset found no place in his tables. Thus he was forced to _falsify_ the customary division of the hours, by squeezing the twelve hours of the night into the time during which star risings are visible--viz., the dark night exclusive of twilight. On the other hand, he could not, with his principal stars at intervals of 15°, divide his night, shortened as it was by two hours, into twelve parts, and thus he was obliged to make use of two or three auxiliary stars, as we have proved in detail above, and thus yet more to disfigure the hour-division, since thereby the lengths of the hours were made very variable. These are then two things which we must not regard as peculiarities of ancient Egyptian reckoning, but as a consequence of the leading idea of our table, which did not intend to facilitate the division of the night into twelve parts by star observations, but was calculated, by the connection of thirteen stars with thirteen successive moments, to create the idea of the circling host of stars and thence the course of the night."

I give an abstract of the list of the twenty-four principal stars and the Egyptian constellations in which they occur:--

1. Sahu = Orion. 2. Sothis = Sirius. 3. The two stars. 4. The stars of the water. 5. The lion. 6. The many stars. 7. Mena's herald. 8. Mena. 9. Mena's followers. 10. } 11. } 12. } Hippopotamus. 13. } 14. } 15.} 16.} 17.} Necht. 18.} 19.} 20.} 21. Ari. 22.} 23.} Goose. 24. Sahu = Head of Orion.

It will be seen that even this Egyptian star-list is very indeterminate. It is known that Sahu is the name for the constellation of Orion. The hippopotamus represents Draco, and probably Necht another northern constellation. There are indications, too, that Mena may symbolise Spica, with which star we have seen Min-worship associated. Further than this the authorities do not venture at present to go.