Chapter VII. Hyacinth.

(M225) Another mythical being who has been supposed to belong to the class of gods here discussed is Hyacinth. He too has been interpreted as the vegetation which blooms in spring and withers under the scorching heat of the summer sun.(943) Though he belongs to Greek, not to Oriental mythology, some account of him may not be out of place in the present discussion. According to the legend, Hyacinth was the youngest and handsomest son of the ancient king Amyclas, who had his capital at Amyclae in the beautiful vale of Sparta. One day playing at quoits with Apollo, he was accidentally killed by a blow of the god’s quoit. Bitterly the god lamented the death of his friend. The hyacinth—“that sanguine flower inscribed with woe”—sprang from the blood of the hapless youth, as anemones and roses from the blood of Adonis, and violets from the blood of Attis:(944) like these vernal flowers it heralded the advent of another spring and gladdened the hearts of men with the promise of a joyful resurrection. The flower is usually supposed to be not what we call a hyacinth, but a little purple iris with the letters of lamentation (AI, which in Greek means “alas”) clearly inscribed in black on its petals. In Greece it blooms in spring after the early violets but before the roses.(945) One spring, when the hyacinths were in bloom, it happened that the red-coated Spartan regiments lay encamped under the walls of Corinth. Their commander gave the Amyclean battalion leave to go home and celebrate as usual the festival of Hyacinth in their native town. But the sad flower was to be to these men an omen of death; for they had not gone far before they were enveloped by clouds of light-armed foes and cut to pieces.(946)

(M226) The tomb of Hyacinth was at Amyclae under a massive altar-like pedestal, which supported an archaic bronze image of Apollo. In the left side of the pedestal was a bronze door, and through it offerings were passed to Hyacinth, as to a hero or a dead man, not as to a god, before sacrifices were offered to Apollo at the annual Hyacinthian festival. Bas-reliefs carved on the pedestal represented Hyacinth and his maiden sister Polyboea caught up to heaven by a company of goddesses.(947) The annual festival of the Hyacinthia was held in the month of Hecatombeus, which seems to have corresponded to May.(948) The ceremonies occupied three days. On the first the people mourned for Hyacinth, wearing no wreaths, singing no paeans, eating no bread, and behaving with great gravity. It was on this day probably that the offerings were made at Hyacinth’s tomb. Next day the scene was changed. All was joy and bustle. The capital was emptied of its inhabitants, who poured out in their thousands to witness and share the festivities at Amyclae. Boys in high-girt tunics sang hymns in honour of the god to the accompaniment of flutes and lyres. Others, splendidly attired, paraded on horseback in the theatre: choirs of youths chanted their native ditties: dancers danced: maidens rode in wicker carriages or went in procession to witness the chariot races: sacrifices were offered in profusion: the citizens feasted their friends and even their slaves.(949) This outburst of gaiety may be supposed to have celebrated the resurrection of Hyacinth and perhaps also his ascension to heaven, which, as we have seen, was represented on his tomb. However, it may be that the ascension took place on the third day of the festival; but as to that we know nothing. The sister who went to heaven with him was by some identified with Artemis or Persephone.(950)

(M227) It is highly probable, as Erwin Rohde perceived,(951) that Hyacinth was an old aboriginal deity of the underworld who had been worshipped at Amyclae long before the Dorians invaded and conquered the country. If that was so, the story of his relation to Apollo must have been a comparatively late invention, an attempt of the newcomers to fit the ancient god of the land into their own mythical system, in order that he might extend his protection to them. On this theory it may not be without significance that sacrifices at the festival were offered to Hyacinth, as to a hero, before they were offered to Apollo.(952) Further, on the analogy of similar deities elsewhere, we should expect to find Hyacinth coupled, not with a male friend, but with a female consort. That consort may perhaps be detected in his sister Polyboea, who ascended to heaven with him. The new myth, if new it was, of the love of Apollo for Hyacinth would involve a changed conception of the aboriginal god, which in its turn must have affected that of his spouse. For when Hyacinth came to be thought of as young and unmarried there was no longer room in his story for a wife, and she would have to be disposed of in some other way. What was easier for the myth-maker than to turn her into his unmarried sister? However we may explain it, a change seems certainly to have come over the popular idea of Hyacinth; for whereas on his tomb he was portrayed as a bearded man, later art represented him as the pink of youthful beauty.(953) But it is perhaps needless to suppose that the sisterly relation of Polyboea to him was a late modification of the myth. The stories of Cronus and Rhea, of Zeus and Hera, of Osiris and Isis, remind us that in old days gods, like kings, often married their sisters, and probably for the same reason, namely, to ensure their own title to the throne under a rule of female kinship which treated women and not men as the channel in which the blood royal flowed.(954) It is not impossible that Hyacinth may have been a divine king who actually reigned in his lifetime at Amyclae and was afterwards worshipped at his tomb. The representation of his triumphal ascent to heaven in company with his sister suggests that, like Adonis and Persephone, he may have been supposed to spend one part of the year in the under-world of darkness and death, and another part in the upper-world of light and life. And as the anemones and the sprouting corn marked the return of Adonis and Persephone, so the flowers to which he gave his name may have heralded the ascension of Hyacinth.

End Of Vol. 1.

FOOTNOTES

M1 The changes of the seasons explained by the life and death of gods. M2 Magical ceremonies to revive the failing energies of the gods.

1 As in the present volume I am concerned with the beliefs and practices of Orientals I may quote the following passage from one who has lived long in the East and knows it well: “The Oriental mind is free from the trammels of logic. It is a literal fact that the Oriental mind can accept and believe two opposite things at the same time. We find fully qualified and even learned Indian doctors practising Greek medicine, as well as English medicine, and enforcing sanitary restrictions to which their own houses and families are entirely strangers. We find astronomers who can predict eclipses, and yet who believe that eclipses are caused by a dragon swallowing the sun. We find holy men who are credited with miraculous powers and with close communion with the Deity, who live in drunkenness and immorality, and who are capable of elaborate frauds on others. To the Oriental mind, a thing must be incredible to command a ready belief” (“Riots and Unrest in the Punjab, from a correspondent,” _The Times Weekly Edition_, May 24, 1907, p. 326). Again, speaking of the people of the Lower Congo, an experienced missionary describes their religious ideas as “chaotic in the extreme and impossible to reduce to any systematic order. The same person will tell you at different times that the departed spirit goes to the nether regions, or to a dark forest, or to the moon, or to the sun. There is no coherence in their beliefs, and their ideas about cosmogony and the future are very nebulous. Although they believe in punishment after death their faith is so hazy that it has lost all its deterrent force. If in the following pages a lack of logical unity is observed, it must be put to the debit of the native mind, as that lack of logical unity really represents the mistiness of their views.” See Rev. John H. Weeks, “Notes on some Customs of the Lower Congo People,” _Folk-lore_, xx. (1909) pp. 54 _sq._ Unless we allow for this innate capacity of the human mind to entertain contradictory beliefs at the same time, we shall in vain attempt to understand the history of thought in general and of religion in particular.

M3 The principles of animal and of vegetable life confused in these ceremonies. M4 Prevalence of these rites in Western Asia and Egypt.

2 The equivalence of Tammuz and Adonis has been doubted or denied by some scholars, as by Renan (_Mission de Phénicie_, Paris, 1864, pp. 216, 235) and by Chwolsohn (_Die Ssabier und der Ssabismus_, St. Petersburg, 1856, ii. 510). But the two gods are identified by Origen (_Selecta in Ezechielem_, Migne’s _Patrologia Graeca_, xiii. 797), Jerome (_Epist._ lviii. 3 and _Commentar. in Ezechielem_, viii. 13, 14, Migne’s _Patrologia Latina_, xxii. 581, xxv. 82), Cyril of Alexandria (_In Isaiam_, lib. ii. tomus. iii., and _Comment. on Hosea_, iv. 15, Migne’s _Patrologia Graeca_, lxx. 441, lxxi. 136), Theodoretus (_In Ezechielis cap._ viii., Migne’s _Patrologia Graeca_, lxxxi. 885), the author of the Paschal Chronicle (Migne’s _Patrologia Graeca_, xcii. 329) and Melito (in W. Cureton’s _Spicilegium Syriacum_, London, 1855, p. 44); and accordingly we may fairly conclude that, whatever their remote origin may have been, Tammuz and Adonis were in the later period of antiquity practically equivalent to each other. Compare W. W. Graf Baudissin, _Studien zur semitischen Religionsgeschichte_ (Leipsic, 1876-1878), i. 299; _id._, in _Realencyclopädie für protestantische Theologie und Kirchengeschichte_,3 _s.v._ “Tammuz”; _id._, _Adonis und Esmun_ (Leipsic, 1911), pp. 94 _sqq._; W. Mannhardt, _Antike Wald- und Feldkulte_ (Berlin, 1877), pp. 273 _sqq._; Ch. Vellay, “Le dieu Thammuz,” _Revue de l’Histoire des Religions_, xlix. (1904) pp. 154-162. Baudissin holds that Tammuz and Adonis were two different gods sprung from a common root (_Adonis und Esmun_, p. 368). An Assyrian origin of the cult of Adonis was long ago affirmed by Macrobius (_Sat._ i. 21. 1). On Adonis and his worship in general see also F. C. Movers, _Die Phoenizier_, i. (Bonn, 1841) pp. 191 _sqq._; W. H. Engel, _Kypros_ (Berlin, 1841), ii. 536 _sqq._; Ch. Vellay, _Le culte et les fêtes d’ Adonis-Thammouz dans l’Orient antique_ (Paris, 1904).

M5 Tammuz or Adonis in Babylonia. His worship seems to have originated with the Sumerians.

3 The mourning for Adonis is mentioned by Sappho, who flourished about 600 B.C. See Th. Bergk’s _Poetae Lyrici Graeci_,3 iii. (Leipsic, 1867) p. 897; Pausanias, ix. 29. 8.

4 Ed. Meyer, _Geschichte des Altertums_,2 i. 2 (Berlin, 1909), pp. 394 _sq._; W. W. Graf Baudissin, _Adonis und Esmun_, pp. 65 _sqq._

_ 5 Encyclopaedia Biblica_, ed. T. K. Cheyne and J. S. Black, iii. 3327. In the Old Testament the title _Adoni_, “my lord,” is frequently given to men. See, for example, Genesis xxxiii. 8, 13, 14, 15, xlii. 10, xliii. 20, xliv. 5, 7, 9, 16, 18, 19, 20, 22, 24.

6 C. P. Tiele, _Geschichte der Religion im Altertum_ (Gotha, 1896-1903), i. 134 _sqq._; G. Maspero, _Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de l’Orient Classique, les Origines_ (Paris, 1895), pp. 550 _sq._; L. W. King, _Babylonian Religion and Mythology_ (London, 1899), pp. 1 _sqq._; _id._, _A History of Sumer and Akkad_ (London, 1910), pp. 1 _sqq._, 40 _sqq._; H. Winckler, in E. Schrader’s _Die Keilinschriften und das alte Testament_3 (Berlin, 1902), pp. 10 _sq._, 349; Fr. Hommel, _Grundriss der Geographie und Geschichte des alten Orients_ (Munich, 1904), pp. 18 _sqq._; Ed. Meyer, _Geschichte des Altertums_,2 i. 2 (Berlin, 1909), pp. 401 _sqq._ As to the hypothesis that the Sumerians were immigrants from Central Asia, see L. W. King, _History of Sumer and Akkad_, pp. 351 _sqq._ The gradual desiccation of Central Asia, which is conjectured to have caused the Sumerian migration, has been similarly invoked to explain the downfall of the Roman empire; for by rendering great regions uninhabitable it is supposed to have driven hordes of fierce barbarians to find new homes in Europe. See Professor J. W. Gregory’s lecture “Is the earth drying up?” delivered before the Royal Geographical Society and reported in _The Times_, December 9th, 1913. It is held by Prof. Hommel (_op. cit._ pp. 19 _sqq._) that the Sumerian language belongs to the Ural-altaic family, but the better opinion seems to be that its linguistic affinities are unknown. The view, once ardently advocated, that Sumerian was not a language but merely a cabalistic mode of writing Semitic, is now generally exploded.

7 H. Zimmern, “Der babylonische Gott Tamüz,” _Abhandlungen der philologisch-historischen Klasse der Königl. Sächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften_, xxvii. No. xx. (Leipsic, 1909) pp. 701, 722.

_ 8 Dumu-zi_, or in fuller form _Dumuzi-abzu_. See P. Jensen, _Assyrisch-Babylonische Mythen und Epen_ (Berlin, 1900), p. 560; H. Zimmern, _op. cit._ pp. 703 _sqq._; _id._, in E. Schrader’s _Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament_3 (Berlin, 1902), p. 397; P. Dhorme, _La Religion Assyro-Babylonienne_ (Paris, 1910), p. 105; W. W. Graf Baudissin, _Adonis und Esmun_ (Leipsic, 1911), p. 104.

9 H. Zimmern, “Der babylonische Gott Tamüz,” _Abhandl. d. Kön. Sächs. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften_, xxvii. No. xx. (Leipsic, 1909) p, 723. For the text and translation of the hymns, see H. Zimmern, “Sumerisch-babylonische Tamüzlieder,” _Berichte über die Verhandlungen der Königlich Sächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Philologisch-historische Klasse_, lix. (1907) pp. 201-252. Compare H. Gressmann, _Altorientalische Texte und Bilder_ (Tübingen, 1909), i. 93 _sqq._; W. W. Graf Baudissin, _Adonis und Esmun_ (Leipsic, 1911), pp. 99 _sq._; R. W. Rogers, _Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament_ (Oxford, N.D.), pp. 179-185.

M6 Tammuz the lover of Ishtar. Descent of Ishtar to the nether world to recover Tammuz. M7 Laments for Tammuz.

10 A. Jeremias, _Die babylonisch-assyrischen Vorstellungen vom Leben nach dem Tode_ (Leipsic, 1887), pp. 4 _sqq._; _id._, in W. H. Roscher’s _Lexikon der griech. und röm. Mythologie_, ii. 808, iii. 258 _sqq._; M. Jastrow, _The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_ (Boston, 1898), pp. 565-576, 584, 682 _sq._; W. L. King, _Babylonian Religion and Mythology_, pp. 178-183; P. Jensen, _Assyrisch-babylonische Mythen und Epen_, pp. 81 _sqq._, 95 _sqq._, 169; R. F. Harper, _Assyrian and Babylonian Literature_ (New York, 1901), pp. 316 _sq._, 338, 408 _sqq._; H. Zimmern, in E. Schrader’s _Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament_,3 pp. 397 _sqq._, 561 _sqq._; _id._, “Sumerisch-babylonische Tamūzlieder,” _Berichte über die Verhandlungen der Königlich Sächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Philologisch-historische Klasse_, lix. (1907) pp. 220, 232, 236 _sq._; _id._, “Der babylonische Gott Tamūz,” _Abhandlungen der philologisch-historischen Klasse der Königl. Sächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften_, xxvii. No. xx. (Leipsic, 1909) pp. 725 _sq._, 729-735; H. Gressmann, _Altorientalische Texte und Bilder zum Alten Testamente_ (Tübingen, 1909), i. 65-69; R. W. Rogers, _Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament_ (Oxford, N.D.), pp. 121-131; W. W. Graf Baudissin, _Adonis und Esmun_ (Leipsic, 1911), pp. 99 _sqq._, 353 _sqq._ According to Jerome (on Ezekiel viii. 14) the month of Tammuz was June; but according to modern scholars it corresponded rather to July, or to part of June and part of July. See F. C. Movers, _Die Phoenizier_, i. 210; F. Lenormant, “Il mito di Adone-Tammuz nei documenti cuneiformi,” _Atti del IV. Congresso Internazionale degli Orientalisti_ (Florence, 1880), i. 144 _sq._; W. Mannhardt, _Antike Wald- und Feldkulte, p. 275; Encyclopaedia Biblica_, _s.v._ “Months,” iii. 3194. My friend W. Robertson Smith informed me that owing to the variations of the local Syrian calendars the month of Tammuz fell in different places at different times, from midsummer to autumn, or from June to September. According to Prof. M. Jastrow, the festival of Tammuz was celebrated just before the summer solstice (_The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, pp. 547, 682). He observes that “the calendar of the Jewish Church still marks the 17th day of Tammuz as a fast, and Houtsma has shown that the association of the day with the capture of Jerusalem by the Romans represents merely the attempt to give an ancient festival a worthier interpretation.”

M8 Adonis in Greek mythology merely a reflection of the Oriental Tammuz.

11 Ezekiel viii. 14.

12 Apollodorus, _Bibliotheca_, iii. 14. 4; Bion, _Idyl_, i., J. Tzetzes. _Schol. on Lycophron_, 831; Ovid, _Metam._ x. 503 _sqq._; Aristides, _Apology_, edited by J. Rendel Harris (Cambridge, 1891), pp. 44, 106 _sq._ In Babylonian texts relating to Tammuz no reference has yet been found to death by a boar. See H. Zimmern, “Sumerisch-babylonische Tamūzlieder,” p. 451; _id._, “Der babylonische Gott Tamūz,” p. 731. Baudissin inclines to think that the incident of the boar is a late importation into the myth of Adonis. See his _Adonis und Esmun_, pp. 142 _sqq._ As to the relation of the boar to the kindred gods Adonis, Attis, and Osiris see _Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild_, ii. 22 _sqq._, where I have suggested that the idea of the boar as the foe of the god may be based on the terrible ravages which wild pigs notoriously commit in fields of corn.

13 W. W. Graf Baudissin, _Adonis und Esmun_ (Leipsic, 1911), pp. 152 _sq._, with plate iv. As to the representation of the myth of Adonis on Etruscan mirrors and late works of Roman art, especially sarcophaguses and wall-paintings, see Otto Jahn, _Archäologische Beiträge_ (Berlin, 1847), pp. 45-51.

M9 Worship of Adonis and Astarte at Byblus, the kingdom of Cinyras. The kings of Byblus.

14 The ancients were aware that the Syrian and Cyprian Aphrodite, the mistress of Adonis, was no other than Astarte. See Cicero, _De natura deorum_, iii. 23. 59; Joannes Lydus, _De mensibus_, iv. 44. On Adonis in Phoenicia see W. W. Graf Baudissin, _Adonis und Esmun_ (Leipsic, 1911), pp. 71 _sqq._

15 As to Cinyras, see F. C. Movers, _Die Phoenizier_, i. 238 _sqq._, ii. 2. 226-231; W. H. Engel, _Kypros_ (Berlin, 1841), i. 168-173, ii. 94-136; Stoll, _s.v._ “Kinyras,” in W. H. Roscher’s _Lexikon der griech. und röm. Mythologie_, ii. 1189 _sqq._ Melito calls the father of Adonis by the name of Cuthar, and represents him as king of the Phoenicians with his capital at Gebal (Byblus). See Melito, “Oration to Antoninus Caesar,” in W. Cureton’s _Spicilegium Syriacum_ (London, 1855), p. 44.

16 Philo of Byblus, quoted by Eusebius, _Praeparatio Evangelii_, i. 10; _Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum_, ed. C. Müller, iii. 568; Stephanus Byzantius, _s.v._ Βύβλος. Byblus is a Greek corruption of the Semitic Gebal (גבל), the name which the place still retains. See E. Renan, _Mission de Phénicie_ (Paris, 1864), p. 155.

17 R. Pietschmann, _Geschichte der Phoenizier_ (Berlin, 1889), p. 139. On the coins it is designated “Holy Byblus.”

18 Strabo, xvi. 1. 18, p. 755.

19 Lucian, _De dea Syria_, 6.

20 The sanctuary and image are figured on coins of Byblus. See T. L. Donaldson, _Architectura Numismatica_ (London, 1859), pp. 105 _sq._; E. Renan, _Mission de Phénicie_, p. 177; G. Perrot et Ch. Chipiez, _Histoire de l’Art dans l’Antiquité_, iii. (Paris, 1885) p. 60; R. Pietschmann, _Geschichte der Phoenizier_, p. 202; G. Maspero, _Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de l’Orient Classique_, ii. (Paris, 1897) p. 173. Renan excavated a massive square pedestal built of colossal stones, which he thought may have supported the sacred obelisk (_op. cit._ pp. 174-178).

21 Lucian, _De dea Syria_, 6.

22 Strabo, xvi. 1. 18, p. 755.

23 Lucian, _De dea Syria_, 8; Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ v. 78; E. Renan, _Mission de Phénicie_, pp. 282 _sqq._

24 Eustathius, _Commentary on Dionysius Periegetes_, 912 (_Geographi Graeci Minores_, ed. C. Müller, ii. 376); Melito, in W. Cureton’s _Spicilegium Syriacum_, p. 44.

25 Ezekiel xxvii. 9. As to the name Gebal see above, p. 13, note 1.

26 L. B. Paton, _The Early History of Syria and Palestine_ (London, 1902), pp. 169-171. See below, pp. 75 _sq._

27 L. B. Paton, _op. cit._ p. 235; R. F. Harper, _Assyrian and Babylonian Literature_, p. 57 (the Nimrud inscription of Tiglath-pileser III.).

28 The inscription was discovered by Renan. See Ch. Vellay, _Le culte et les fêtes d’Adonis-Thammouz dans l’Orient antique_ (Paris, 1904), pp. 38 _sq._; G. A. Cooke, _Text-book of North-Semitic Inscriptions_ (Oxford 1903), No. 3, pp. 18 _sq._ In the time of Alexander the Great the king of Byblus was a certain Enylus (Arrian, _Anabasis_, ii. 20), whose name appears on a coin of the city (F. C. Movers, _Die Phoenizier_, ii. 1, p. 103, note 81).

M10 Divinity of Semitic kings.

29 On the divinity of Semitic kings and the kingship of Semitic gods see W. R. Smith, _Religion of the Semites_2 (London, 1894), pp. 44 _sq._, 66 _sqq._

30 H. Radau, _Early Babylonian History_ (New York and London, 1900), pp. 307-317; P. Dhorme, _La Religion Assyro-Babylonienne_ (Paris, 1910), pp. 168 _sqq._

31 The evidence for this is the Moabite stone, but the reading of the inscription is doubtful. See S. R. Driver, in _Encyclopaedia Biblica_, _s.v._ “Mesha,” vol. iii. 3041 _sqq._; _id._, _Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel_, Second Edition (Oxford, 1913), pp. lxxxv., lxxxvi., lxxxviii. _sq._; G. A. Cooke, _Text-book of North-Semitic Inscriptions_, No. 1, pp. 1 _sq._, 6.

32 2 Kings viii. 7, 9, xiii. 24 _sq._; Jeremiah xlix. 27. As to the god Hadad see Macrobius, _Saturn_, i. 23. 17-19 (where, as so often in late writers, the Syrians are called Assyrians); Philo of Byblus, in _Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum_, ed. C. Müller, iii. 569; F. Baethgen, _Beiträge zur semitischen Religionsgeschichte_ (Berlin, 1888), pp. 66-68; G. A. Cooke, _Text-book of North-Semitic Inscriptions_, Nos. 61, 62, pp. 161 _sq._, 164, 173, 175; M. J. Lagrange, _Études sur les Religions Sémitiques_2 (Paris, 1905), pp. 93, 493, 496 _sq._ The prophet Zechariah speaks (xii. 11) of a great mourning of or for Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddon. This has been taken to refer to a lament for Hadad-Rimmon, the Syrian god of rain, storm, and thunder, like the lament for Adonis. See S. R. Driver’s note on the passage (_The Minor Prophets_, pp. 266 _sq._, _Century Bible_); W. W. Graf Baudissin, _Adonis und Esmun_, p. 92.

33 Josephus, _Antiquit. Jud._ ix. 4. 6.

34 Genesis xxxvi. 35 _sq._; 1 Kings xi. 14-22; 1 Chronicles i. 50 _sq._ Of the eight kings of Edom mentioned in Genesis (xxxvi. 31-39) and in 1 Chronicles (i. 43-50) not one was the son of his predecessor. This seems to indicate that in Edom, as elsewhere, the blood royal was traced in the female line, and that the kings were men of other families, or even foreigners, who succeeded to the throne by marrying the hereditary princesses. See _The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, ii. 268 _sqq._ The Israelites were forbidden to have a foreigner for a king (Deuteronomy xvii. 15 with S. R. Driver’s note), which seems to imply that the custom was known among their neighbours. It is significant that some of the names of the kings of Edom seem to be those of divinities, as Prof. A. H. Sayce observed long ago (_Lectures on the Religion of the Ancient Babylonians_, London and Edinburgh, 1887, p. 54).

35 G. A. Cooke, _op. cit._ Nos. 62, 63, pp. 163, 165, 173 _sqq._, 181 _sqq._; M. J. Lagrange, _op. cit._ pp. 496 _sqq._ The god Rekub-el is mentioned along with the gods Hadad, El, Reshef, and Shamash in an inscription of King Bar-rekub’s mortal father, King Panammu (G. A. Cooke, _op. cit._ No. 61, p. 161).

36 Virgil, _Aen._ i. 729 _sq._, with Servius’s note; Silius Italicus, _Punica_, i. 86 _sqq._

37 Ezekiel xxviii. 2, 9.

38 Menander of Ephesus, quoted by Josephus, _Contra Apionem_, i. 18 and 21; _Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum_, ed. C. Müller, iv. 446 _sq._ According to the text of Josephus, as edited by B. Niese, the names of the kings in question were Abibal, Balbazer, Abdastart, Methusastart, son of Leastart, Ithobal, Balezor, Baal, Balator, Merbal. The passage of Menander is quoted also by Eusebius, _Chronic._ i. pp. 118, 120, ed. A. Schoene.

39 G. A. Cooke, _Text-book of North-Semitic Inscriptions_, No. 36, p. 102. As to Melcarth, the Tyrian Hercules, see Ed. Meyer, _s.v._ “Melqart,” in W. H. Roscher’s _Lexikon d. griech. u. röm. Mythologie_, ii. 2650 _sqq._ One of the Tyrian kings seems to have been called Abi-milk (Abi-melech), that is, “father of a king” or “father of Moloch,” that is, of Melcarth. A letter of his to the king of Egypt is preserved in the Tel-el-Amarna correspondence. See R. F. Harper, _Assyrian and Babylonian Literature_, p. 237. As to a title which implies that the bearer of it was the father of a god, see below, pp. 51 _sq._

M11 Divinity of the Phoenician kings of Byblus and the Canaanite kings of Jerusalem. The “sacred men” at Jerusalem.

40 E. Renan, quoted by Ch. Vellay, _Le culte et les fêtes d’Adonis-Thammouz_, p. 39. Mr. Cooke reads ארםלך (Uri-milk) instead of אדםלך (Adon-milk) (G. A. Cooke, _Text-book of North-Semitic Inscriptions_, No. 3, p. 18).

41 Judges i. 4-7; Joshua x. 1 _sqq._

42 Genesis xiv. 18-20, with Prof. S. R. Driver’s commentary; _Encyclopaedia Biblica_, _s.vv._ “Adoni-bezek,” “Adoni-zedek,” “Melchizedek.” It is to be observed that names compounded with Adoni- were occasionally borne by private persons. Such names are Adoni-kam (Ezra ii. 13) and Adoni-ram (1 Kings iv. 6), not to mention Adoni-jah (1 Kings i. 5 _sqq._), who was a prince and aspired to the throne of his father David. These names are commonly interpreted as sentences expressive of the nature of the god whom the bearer of the name worshipped. See Prof. Th. Nöldeke, in _Encyclopaedia Biblica_, _s.v._ “Names,” iii. 3286. It is quite possible that names which once implied divinity were afterwards degraded by application to common men.

43 Ezekiel viii. 14.

44 They were banished from the temple by King Josiah, who came to the throne in 637 B.C. Jerusalem fell just fifty-one years later. See 2 Kings xxiii. 7. As to these “sacred men” (_ḳedēshīm_), see below, pp. 72 _sqq._

45 2 Kings xxiii. 7, where, following the Septuagint, we must apparently read כתנים for the בתים of the Massoretic Text. So R. Kittel and J. Skinner.

46 The _ashērah_ (singular of _ashērīm_) was certainly of wood (Judges