CHAPTER X.

_THE TRADITION OF NOAH AND THE DELUGE._

I now come to a different set of illustrations still more germane to my subject.

Calmet says:--"Plusieurs scavans out remarqué que les pagans ont confondu Saturne, Deucalion, Ogyges, le Dieu Coelus ou Ouranus, Janus, Prothée, Prométhée, Virtumnus, Bacchus, Osiris, Vadimon, Nisuthrus avec Noë."

I must add that this enumeration by no means exhausts the list. It is not my purpose, however, to pursue the subject in all its ramifications. I shall limit myself to the examination of one or two of these counterparts of Noah.

* * * * *

I. And in the first place, "Him of mazy counsel, Saturn," the expression of Hesiod ([Greek: t' Iapeton te ide Kronon agkylomêtên]), Hesiod. Theog. v. 19, which so well befits the intermediary between God and the survivors of the Deluge. "Under Saturn," as Plutarch tells us, "was the golden age." Calmet says (Dict. "Saturne"), "Quant aux traits de ressemblance qui se trouvent entre Noë et Saturne, ils ne peuvent être plus sensibles.[167] Il (Saturne) est représenté avec une faulx comme inventeur de l'agriculture[168]: Noë est nommé 'vir agricola' (Gen. ix. 20) et il est dit qu'il commença à cultiver la terre. Les _Saturnales_, qu'on célébrait dans le vin et dans la licence et _où les serviteurs s'égaloient à leurs maitres_--marquent l'ivresse de Noë et sa malédiction qui assujettit Chanaan à ses frères tout égal qu'il leur étoit par sa naissance." [I have _little doubt that this Bacchanalian recollection originated the tradition of the equality of conditions_ in the _golden_ age, contrary to the facts of Scripture and history.] "On disoit que Noë avait dévoré tous ses enfans à l'exception de Jupiter, de Neptune, et de Pluton. Noë vit périr dans les eaux du déluge tous les hommes de son temps dont plusieurs étoient ses parents et plus jeunes que lui. Dans la stile de l'écriture on dit souvent que l'on fait ce qu'on n'empêche pas, ou même ce que l'on prédit." Further resemblances are traced in Calmet.

[167] Bochart also says (Geog. Sacra, lib. i.) "Noam esse Saturnum tam multa docent, ut vix sit dubitandi locus."

[168] "Cum falce, messis insigne."--_Macrobius, "Saturn."_

Now, I find in Sanchoniathon,[169] _i.e._ in the most ancient Phoenician historian, a tradition running exactly parallel with this Greek tradition as interpreted by Calmet:--"Ces genies, ces sages, ces dieux, nous expliquent les autres dieux qui, d'après Berose, forment l'homme du sang de Bélus, et tous les dieux que Sanchoniaton nous représente saisis d'épouvante _à la vue de Saturne, faisant périr par le déluge son fils Sadid_."--(Le Peuple Primitif; Rougemont, i. 303, quoted by Gainet, iii. 561, with reference to the worship of spirits.) I adduce it in evidence of the connection in tradition between Saturn and the Deluge, and in corroboration of Calmet's interpretation, which clears the Greek myth of what is grotesque and repulsive in it.

[169] Sanchoniathon, _vide supra_ M'Lennan (ch. vii.)

If I have sufficiently identified Saturn with Noah and the period of the Deluge, the lines of Virgil (Æneid, 8th Book, 315), besides bearing testimony in the same direction, appear to me to acquire a new meaning and significance:--

"Primus ab ætherio venit _Saturnus_ Olympo, Arma Jovis fugiens, _et regnis exul ademptis_, Is genus indocile, ac dispersum montibus altis Composuit; _legesque dedit_; Latiumque vocari Maluit."...

"_Aurea_, quæ perhibent, _illo sub rege_ fuerunt _Sæcula_; sed placidâ populos in pace regebat, Deterior donec paulatim ac discolor ætas Et belli rabies et amor successit habendi."[170]

[170] Bryant (Mythology, ii. 261) says:--"He is by Lucian made to say of himself [Greek: oudeis hyp' emou doulos ên]. The Latins in great measure confine his history to their own country, where, like Janus, he is represented as refining and modelling mankind, and giving them laws. At other times he is introduced as prior to law; which are seeming contrarieties very easy to be reconciled." There were traditions also of Saturn in Crete and Sparta.--_Bryant_, iii. 414.

Allowing for the confusion incidental to the deification of Noah in the person of Saturn, which necessitates his descent from heaven, the rest of the verses seem merely to describe what is recorded in tradition, if not implied in the scriptural narrative, that Noah, a voyager and exile, his possessions having been lost in the Flood, flying the wrath--not indeed as directed against himself, but the consequences of the wrath of the Almighty[171]--persuaded the survivors of the Flood to abandon the mountains, to which they clung in fear of a second Deluge, and brought them into the plains, incited and encouraged by his example,--he who, if he be the same (_vide supra_, 208, 209) with Nin and Nebo, we have seen called "the sustainer," "the supporter," "he who strengthens the hearts of his followers," who taught them the cultivation of the soil, and of whom it is now said more distinctly than we have seen it heretofore stated, _legesque dedit_.[172]

[171] _Vide supra_, p. 211.

[172] An indirect argument in proof of the identity of Saturn and Noah might be adduced if I had space to incorporate Boulanger's evidence of the ceremonies among the ancients' commemoration of the Deluge, ("Vestiges d'usages hydrophoriques dans plusieurs fêtes anciennes et modernes"). This being assumed, is it not of some significance that when the Roman pontiffs proceeded to the banks of the Tiber to perform their annual (commemorative) ceremonial, that they should make their expiatory sacrifices to Saturn? The points that Bryant takes (ii. 262) are very striking:--"He was looked upon as the _author_ of time, 'Ipse qui _auctor_ temporum' (Macrob. i. 214). [His medals had on the reverse the figure of _a ship_.] They represented him as of an uncommon age, with hair white as snow; they had a notion that he _would return to second childhood_. 'Ipsius autem canities primosis nivibus candicabat; _licet etiam ille puer posse fieri crederetur_.'--Martianus Capella. Martial's address to him, though short, has in it something remarkable, for he speaks of him as a native _of the former world_--

'Antiqui rex magne poli, _mundique prioris_, Sub quo prima quies, nec labor ullus erat.'--l. 12, E. 63.

I have mentioned that he was supposed, [Greek: katapinein], to have _swallowed up his children_; he was also said to have _ruined all things_; which, however, _were restored with a vast increase_."--Orphic Hymn, 12, v. 3. Compare Calmet, _supra_, pp. 211 and 212.

Martianus Capella and Varro de Ling. Lat. lib. i. 18, call him _Sator_, a sower, "Saturnus Sator." Now it is curious that the ancient Germans had a god "of the name of _Sator_." He is described by Verstegan as "standing _upon a fish_, with a wheel in one hand, and in the other a _vessel of water_ filled with fruits and flowers."

_N.B._--I was surprised to find in Carver's "Travels in North America" (p. 282) the phrase among the North American Indians, of things being done at the instigation "of the Grand _Sautor_."

There is no doubt much that is monstrous and grotesque in the classical conception of Saturn, but I must again suggest that as all traditions met in Noah, and were tradited through him, we must not be surprised to find all antediluvian traditions confused in Noah. Thus even the tradition of Lamech, which we have seen (_vide supra_, 178) variously distorted in the legends of Perseus and OEdipus, are again repeated in the legends of Saturn.

There are, no doubt, also divers astral complications arising out of Saturn's place in the planetary system. When, however, we are told that Saturn was son of Coelus and Tellus or Coelus and Vesta,[173] the same as Terra (Montfauçon), it seems to occur to us, as a thing "qui saute aux yeux," that this was only a mode of expressing a truth, applicable to all men in general, and Saturn as a primal progenitor in particular, and having reference to the composite nature of man; in other words, that this was simply the tradition which Noah would have handed down that he was created,[174] as were all other men, out of the earth, yet with something ethereal in his composition which came direct from the Deity. What the astral explanation may be I am at a loss to imagine. It cannot by any possibility be supposed to have reference to their relative positions in the heavens.

[173] "Saturn is by Plato supposed to have been the son of _Oceanus_."--Bryant, ii. 261.

[174] _Vide_ Autochthones, ch. vii.

I shall return to Saturn, under the representation of Oceanus, when I come to speak of Janus.

II. _Bacchus._--The _Saturnalia_ may be taken as the connecting link between _Saturn_ and _Bacchus_, and I think that it is sufficiently remarkable that there should be this link of connection.

But as the legends of Saturn are not all derived from Noah, so neither do all the traditions concerning Bacchus appertain to Saturn. I shall simply separate and note such as appear to me to be in common, _e.g._ "that Bacchus found out the making of wine, the art of planting trees, and many things else commodious for mankind." ["And Noah, a husbandman, began to till the ground, and planted a vineyard, and drinking the wine was made drunk," Gen. ix. 20.][175] It is said there were several Bacchuses. This may be only a reduplication, such as we have seen in the case of Oannes, Nin, and Nebo, or as in the multiplications of Jupiter. "Joves omnes reges vocarunt antiqui."[176]

[175] "The Scriptures tell us that Noah cultivated the vine; and all profane historians agree in placing Bacchus in the first ages of the world" (in proof of early cultivation of the vine).--Goguet, "Origin of Laws," i. 116. Compare _supra_, p. 213, "Saturnus _Sator_." Bryant says, "The history of Dionusus is closely connected with that of Bacchus, though they are two distinct persons." He supposes Dionusus to be Noah, and Bacchus Ham. But he may very well have embodied the traditions of both. Pausanius (lib. iii. 272) says Dionusus was exposed _in an ark_ and wonderfully _preserved_. He was also said to have been twice born, and to have had two fathers and two mothers, in allusion to the two periods of his existence separated by the Deluge.

Dionusus (Orphic Hymn, 44, 1) is addressed as [Greek: elthe, makar Dionyse, pyrispore tauroumetôpe].

[176] The phrase "Father Bacchus," current among the ancients (_vide_ Hor. Odes. i. xviii.) has always struck me as singular. It is perfectly congruous with the tradition of Noah; but who will tell us its appropriate solar or astral application?

On this subject Montfauçon says (i. 155)[177] apropos of a point to which I shall again refer, viz. that Bacchus was _Tauri_cornis.

"Diodorus Siculus says that the horns are only ascribed to the second Bacchus, the son of Jupiter and Proserpine; but these distinctions of various Bacchus were minded only in the more ancient times, hardly known in their worship.... This will also hold good of most of the other gods who were multiplied in the same manner."

[177] Montfauçon, from whom I have quoted, was simply an antiquarian--a very erudite and laborious antiquarian, but one whose sole concern was to discriminate facts without reference to their bearings, and who would have had, I have little doubt, a supreme contempt for the speculations in which I have indulged. He says in his preface--"I have a due regard for those great men who have excelled in this sort of learning, but must own at the same time I have no taste for it.... _It signifies very little to us to know_ whether they who tell us Vulcan was the same with Tubalcain, or they who say he was the same with Moses, make the best guess in the matter." Though the general opinion may not incline any more now than then to the biblical interpretation, yet I think a great change has taken place in public opinion as to the importance of the inquiry.

Triptolemus was also said to have been "the inventor of the plough and of agriculture, and of civilisation, which is the result of it," and to have instituted the Elusinian mysteries. Like Bacchus he is also said to have "ridden all over the earth, making men acquainted with the blessings of agriculture."--_Smith. Myth. Dict.; vide_ also _infra_, p. 224: "Deucalion."

Vicomte d'Anselme (Gainet, i. 224), asks with reference to his Greek name of Dionysius, "Pourquoi les Grecs donnaient-ils le nom de Dionysos ou de divin Noush (dios nous ou Noë) à l'inventeur du vin?"--_Vide supra_, ch. ix.; vide also Gainet, i. 225.

Bacchus is by some called "_Tauri_cornis" (compare _supra_, p. 203, Nin) "or Bucornis, and moreover he is frequently so represented," (_i.e._ not only with the horn in hand, a "_bull's_ horn," as he is sometimes, which might be a drinking horn or cornucopia, in its way emblematical of the vir agricola"), "but also with horns on the head. Horace calls him "Bicorniger," Orpheus, [Greek: Boukerôs]; Nicander, [Greek: Taurokerôs]."--_Montfauçon_, i. 147, 155; comp. p. 204, note to "Nin."

One Bacchus, Cicero tells us, "was King of Asia and author of the _Laws_ called Subazian."--_Montfauçon_, i. 144. It is, moreover, said that Bacchus travelled through all nations as far as India,[178] doing good in all places, and teaching many things profitable to the life of man. His conquests are said to have been easy and without bloodshed. But it is also noted that amidst his benevolence to mankind, he was relentless in punishing all want of respect for his divinity, and indeed the _conduct_ and punishment of Chanaan may be said to be narrated in the history of Pentheus.--_Vide_ _Montf._ i. 161.[179]

[178] Dionusus like Bacchus came to India from _the west_.--_Philostratus_, lib. ii. 64; _Byrant_, ii. 78. The Indian Bacchus "appears in the character of a wise and distinguished oriental monarch; his features an expression of sublime tranquillity and mildness."--_Smith, Myth. Dic._

[179] This appears to me still more apparent in the 26th Idyll of Theocritus, where, when the Bacchanals were at their revels,

"Perched on the sheer cliff Pentheus would espy All....

(For profaning thus "these mysteries weird that must not be profaned by vulgar eyes," Pentheus is torn to pieces by the Bacchanals)....

"Warned by this tale, let no man dare defy Great Bacchus; lest a death more awful should he die. And when he counts _nine_ years or scarcely _ten_ Rush to his ruin. May I pass my days _Uprightly_, and be loved by _upright_ men. And take this motto, all who covet praise ('Twas ægis-bearing Jove that spoke it first), The godly seed fares well, _the wicked is accurst_." --_Caverley's Theocritus_, xxvi.

This seems to bear out what is perhaps only vaguely implied in the sacred text that the curse was on Chanaan--the boy and his posterity--and not on the whole race of Cham.--_Vide ante_: also compare the "Bacchæ" of Euripides, in the following passage from Grote's "Plato" (iii. 333):--"So in the 'Bacchæ' of Euripides, the two old men, Kadmus and Teiresias, after vainly attempting to inculcate upon Pentheus the belief in and the worship of Dionysus, at last appeal to his prudence and admonish him of the danger of unbelief;" which, if it be tradition, would look as if Chanaan's offence was only the final and overt expression of previous unbelief.

III. _Janus._--Janus represented the most ancient tradition of Noah in Italy; subsequent migrations brought in the legend of Saturn, and thus we find them variously confounded--Saturn sometimes figuring as his guest, sometimes as his son, sometimes as his colleague on the throne. Like Saturn he appears as double-headed or bifrons, he is said to have introduced civilisation among the wild tribes of Italy, and under him, as under Saturn, there appears to have been a golden age.

I have made reference to _Saturn_ as Oceanus (_vide Montfauçon_, i. 5), and as Oceanus his representations are very remarkable. In one he appears as an old man sitting on the waves of the sea, with a _sea monster_ on one side of him, and his spear or rod in his hand. In another as sitting on the waves of the sea with ships about him; he is "holding an urn and pours out water, the symbol of _the sea, and also of rivers and fountains_."

_But Janus is also_ represented in his medals "with a prow of a ship on the reverse," and he is said to have first invented crowns, _ships_, and _boats_, and to have coined the first money.

"According to the accounts of mythologists," says Macrobius, "_all families in the time of Janus_ were full of religion and _holiness_." "Xenon says he was the first that built temples and instituted sacred rites," and was therefore always mentioned at the beginning of sacrifices.

With reference to his description as "bifrons," Macrobius says (some say) he was so called "because he knew the past and future things.... Some pretend to prove that Janus is the Sun, and that he is represented with two faces, because he is master of the two _doors_[180] of heaven, and opens the day at his rising and shuts it at his setting."

[180] _Vide_ Dr Smith's "Myth. Dict." art. Janus:--"Whereas the worship of _Janus_ was introduced at Rome by Romulus, that of _Sol_ was instituted by _Titus Tatius_."

A good secondary explanation is,[181] that "as Janus always began the year" (whence January) "the two heads do look on and import the old and new year;" but then occurs the question--and this is why I submit that it is only a secondary explanation--how came Janus to commence the year?

[181] If Janus is allowed to have been identified with Saturn (_supra_) we may see through the analogy of Saturn how these secondary functions came to be attributed to him--Saturn was also Chronos [that Chronos = Noah, _vide_ _Palmer's Egypt. Chron._, i. p. 60]; "but," as Dr Smith says, "there is no resemblance between the deities, except that both were regarded as the most ancient deities in their respective countries." As Chronos simply personifies antiquity itself, this only means that Saturn was the most ancient deity. When subsequently he became merged in "Chronos," his ancient sickle became converted into a scythe. Dr Smith ("Dict. Myth.") says, "He held in his hand a crooked pruning knife, and his feet were surrounded with a _woollen_ riband;" and Goguet ("Origin of Laws," i. 94) says, "All old traditions speak of the _sickle_ of Saturn, who is said to have taught the people of his time to cultivate the earth."--_Plut._ i. p. 2, 275; _Macrob. Sat._, lib. i. 217.

Goguet ("Origin of Laws," i. 283) says, "Several critics are of opinion that the Janus of the ancients is the same with Javan the son of Japhet, Gen. x. 3."

It may afford a clue if I advert to the circumstance that whilst in the Phoenician alphabet (_vide Bunsen's Egypt_. iv. 290, 293, 297), Dagon, Dagan = Corn (the Fish-man, _vide supra_, p. 200), stands for the letter D. "The door" is its hieroglyphic equivalent. Thus we get in strange juxtaposition what we may call symbols, connecting Janus with the Fish-god and with the god of agriculture.--_Vide supra_, p. 200, and _infra_.

In the nomenclature of the calendar connected with any system of hero worship, worship of ancestors, or even spirit worship, who more fitly chosen to commence the year than Janus, supposing him to be Noah?

There are, however, two what we may call primary explanations, and we must take our choice. The epithet is either applied to him, as exactly according with the reminiscence of Noah, who was pre-eminently acquainted with the past and the future; or we can take the astral explanation that Janus was called Bifrons,[182] because he opened the sun at his rising and shut it at his setting. As a symbol of Noah this double head appears to me very simple and natural, Noah forming the connecting link between the antediluvian and modern worlds; but as applied to the Sun or to Janus as in relation to the Sun, even allowing for personification, this twofold head of man strikes me as incongruous in the extreme. Besides, if it be allowed that it might apply to Saturn and Janus through the connecting idea of Chronos, how does it apply to _Bacchus_? Let us press this argument further. Here is a symbol common to Bacchus, Saturn, and Janus, and combining harmoniously in each instance with the representation of Noah. Can this symbol, common to these three, combine even congruously with any solar or astral legend? I have somewhere seen it noted as suspicious and as tending to confirm the solar theory that these mythological personages all "journey from _east_ to west, and meet their fate in the evening." But is this so? Have we not just seen that Bacchus, according to mythology, travelled from the _west_ into India?

[182] Bryant ("Mythology," ii. 254) says, "Many persons of great learning have not scrupled to determine that Noah and Janus were the same. By Plutarch he is called [Greek: Iannos], and represented as an ancient prince who reigned in the infancy of the world.... He was represented with two faces, with which he looked both forwards and backwards; and from hence he had the name of Janus Bifrons. One of these faces was that of an aged man; but in the other was often to be seen the countenance of a young and beautiful personage. About him ... many emblems.... There was particularly a _staff in one hand_, with which he pointed to a rock, from whence issued a profusion of water. In the other hand he held a key.... He had generally near him _some resemblance of a ship_.... Plutarch does not accede to the common notion" (that it was the ship that brought Saturn to Italy), "but still _makes it a question why_ the coins of this personage bore on one side the resemblance of Janus Bifrons, and on the other the representation of either the hind part or the fore part _of a ship_.... He is said to have first composed a chaplet, and to him they attributed the _invention of a ship_. Upon the Sicilian coins (at the temple) of Eryx _his_ figure often occurs with a twofold countenance, and on the reverse _is a dove_ encircled with a crown, which seems _to be of olive_. He is represented as a _just man_ and _a prophet_ (comp. pp. 207-208), and had the remarkable characteristics of being in a manner the author of time and the god of the year."

But not only were Saturn, Janus, and Bacchus represented as "bifrons," but so also was Cecrops. Cecrops will present a difficulty the more in the way of any solar theory; but Cecrops,[183] like all founders or supposed founders of states, has something in common with Noah. Like Saturn and Janus in Italy, Cecrops was said to have brought the population of Attica into cities, to have given them laws, taught them the worship of the idols, _planted the olive_, and finally, was represented as half man, half serpent.[184]

[183] "Megasthenes stated that the first king (of India) was Dionysus. He found a rude population in a savage state, clothed in skins, unacquainted with agriculture, and without fixed habitations. The length of his reign is not given. The introduction of civilization and agriculture is a natural allusion to the immigration of the Aryans into a country inhabited by Turanian races.... Fifteen generations after Dionysus, Hercules reigned.... Now all this is obviously pure Indian tradition. Dionysus is the elder Manu, the divine primeval man, son of the Sun (Vivasvat). He holds the same position in the primeval history of India as does Jima or Gemshid, another name of the primeval man in the Iranian world.... The first era, then, is represented by Megasthenes as having fourteen generations of human kings, with a god as the founder and a god as the destroyer of the dynasty, in all fifteen or sixteen generations."--_Bunsen's Egypt_, iii. 528. Compare those fifteen generations with Palmer. Compare the confusion of Dionysus and Hercules with Deucalion and Prometheus, &c., p. 232. Pelasgus among the Arcadians passed for the first man and the first legislator (Boulanger, i. 133). Of Cadmus, too, it is said--"Greece is indebted to him for alphabetical writing, the art of _cultivating the vine_, and the forging and working of _metals_."--_Goguet_, ii. 41.

[184] _Vide supra_, Oannes, ch. ix.; _vide_ Smith, "Myth. Dict."

To return to Janus. Before concluding I must note that Janus is called Eanus by Cicero, which may perhaps have analogy with "Hea and Hoa" (ch. ix.), and with Eannes and "Oannes," although Cicero derives it from "eundo."

Janus was also called "consivius a conserendo," because he presided over generation, a title singularly appropriate to Noah as the second founder of the race, and through whom the injunction was given "to increase and multiply."[185] He is moreover called "Quirinus or Martialis," "because he presided over war," which is precisely the aspect under which it is the original and main purpose of this dissertation to consider Noah; and here I think I am entitled to urge, that if I have succeeded on other grounds in showing that Nin, Hoa, Janus, &c., represented Noah, then that these epithets, "Quirinus," "Martialis," "King of Battle," &c., can only be applied to him whose conquests were bloodless in the sense of controlling and regulating war.[186] In connection with this title of "Martialis," as applied to Janus--and, by the by, all the traditions concerning him are altogether peaceful and bloodless--it will be remembered that his temple was open in war and shut in peace, and closed for the third and last time at the moment of the birth of our Lord.

[185] "All nations have given the honour of the discovery of agriculture to their _first_ sovereigns. The Egyptians said that Osiris (_vide supra_, p. 204) made men desist from eating each other, by teaching them to cultivate the earth. The Chinese annals relate that Gin-Hoang, one of the first kings of that country, invented agriculture, and by that means collected men into society, who before had wandered in the fields and woods like brute beasts." (Goguet, "Origin of Laws.") I need not remind the reader that Goguet's learned work is not written from our point of view. Compare _infra_, p. 240.

[186] _Vide_, chap. xiii. Golden age, Mexican tradition.

His name was also invoked first in religious ceremonies, "because, as presiding over armies," &c., through him only could prayers reach the immortal gods. Is not this a reminiscence of the communications of the Almighty to man through Noah?

IV. _Ogyges and Deucalion._--I might pass over these traditions of Noah, since, having reference only to the fact of the Deluge and the personality of Noah, they will not furnish matter for the special purpose of this inquiry; but on these grounds the investigation may be justified, and moreover seems necessary, for the completion of this chapter, and to indicate the independent source and derivation of the classical tradition.

It appears to me manifest that the deluges of Ogyges and Deucalion were neither locally historical nor partial deluges, but merely the reminiscences of the universal Deluge. Of the universal Deluge, whether we call it the Mosaic Deluge or not, there is evidence and tradition in all parts of the world; though in every instance it is localised in its details and its history of the survivors.[187]

[187] Although the greater number of these traditions have been localised, yet in almost every case we shall find embodied in them some one incident or other of the universal Deluge, as recorded by Moses. Kalisch ("Hist. and Crit. Commentary on the Old Testament") says:--"It is unnecessary to observe that there is scarcely a single feature in the biblical account which is not discovered in one or several of the heathen traditions; and the coincidences are not limited to desultory details, they extend to the whole outlines, and the very tenor and spirit of the narrative; ... and it is certain that none of these accounts are derived from the pages of the Bible--they are independent of each other.... There must indisputably have been a common basis, a universal source, and this source is the general tradition of primitive generations."

It is not, I think, generally known how widespread these traditions are. L'Abbé Gainet has collected some thirty-five ("La Bible sans la Bible"); but Mr Catlin (_vide infra_, p. 245) says he found the tradition of a deluge among one hundred and twenty tribes which he visited in North, South, and Central America. This accords with Humboldt's testimony (Kalisch, i. 204), who "found the tradition of a general deluge vividly entertained among the wild tribes peopling the regions of Orinoco." To these I must add the evidence of the indirect testimony of the commemorative ceremonies which I have collected in another chapter (_vide_ p. 242). It has been said that the Chinese tradition is too obscure to be adduced, but we shall see (p. 65) whether, when in contact with other traditions, it cannot be made to give light; and I shall refer my readers to the pages of Mr Palmer (_supra_, p. 71) for evidence of the tradition in Egypt, where it had heretofore been believed that no such evidence was to be found. In India (_vide_ ch. ix.) the tradition is embodied in the history of Manu and the fish; and Bunsen ("Egypt," iii. 470) admits "that there is evidence in the Vedas, however slight, that the flood does form a part of the reminiscences of Iran." _Vide_ also p. 68, evidence of the tradition in Cashmere. I wish also to direct attention here to two recent and important testimonies to the existence of the tradition in India and the Himalayan range. At pp. 151 and 450 of Hunter's "Bengal," it will be seen that the Santals have a distinct tradition of the Creation, flood, intoxication of Noah, and the dispersion; and of the Vedic evidence, which Bunsen (_supra_, 223) calls slight, Mr Hunter says:--"On the other hand, the Sanscrit story of the Deluge, like that in the Pentateuch, makes no mystery of the matter. A ship is built, seeds are taken on board, the ship is pulled about for some time by a fish, and at last gets on shore upon a peak of the Himalayas." Dr Hooker ("Himalayan Journal," ii. 3) says:--"The Lepchas have a curious legend of a man and woman having saved themselves on the _summit_ of Tendong (a very fine mountain, 8613 feet) during a flood which _once deluged Sikhim_," which he authenticates on the spot. Here, as in many of Mr Catlin's instances of local tradition, I may observe that the event as recorded proves the universality of the Deluge for the rest of the world, or at least all the world below the level of Tendong. In speaking, however, of the universal Deluge (universal as far as the human race are concerned), I do not enter into the geological argument, or exclude the view (permissible I believe, _vide_ Reusch, p. 368, and note to Rev. H. J. Coleridge's fourth sermon on "The Latter Days") that it was not geographically universal. I merely adhere to the testimony of tradition, and from this point of view it would suffice (_vide_ Reusch) that it was universal so far as the horizon of the survivors extended.

Since, however, there is nothing to be said against the possibility of subsequent partial inundations, there will, I suppose, always be found persons ready to maintain that the deluges of Ogyges and Deucalion were partial and historical; although I submit that the arguments which were formerly used to prove the priority of Ogyges to Deucalion, and the posteriority of both to the general Deluge, turned upon points of chronology which will hardly be sustained at the present day.

If, however, I can succeed in showing that the deluge of Deucalion is identical with the deluge of Noah, I shall consider that I shall have also proved the point for the deluge of Ogyges, which all agree to have been much older!

The following is Mr Grote's narrative collating the different traditions respecting the deluge of Deucalion:--

"Deukalion is important in Grecian mythical narration under two points of view. First, he is the person specially saved at the time of the general deluge; next, he is the father of Hellên, the great eponym of the Hellenic race; at least that was the more current story, though there were other statements which made Hellên the son of Zeus." [This was merely the incipient process of the apotheosis of their more immediate founder.] "The enormous iniquity with which the earth was contaminated, as Apollodorus says, by the then existing _brazen_ race, or, as others say, by the fifty monstrous sons of Sykorôn, provoked Zeus to send a general deluge." "The latter account is given by Dionys. Halic. i. 17; the former seems to have been given by Hellenikus, who affirmed that the _ark_ after the Deluge stopped upon Mount Othrys, and not upon Mount Parnassus (_Schol. Pind. ut supra_), the former being suitable for a settlement in Thessaly." [I have already pointed out how the general tradition is everywhere localised.] "An _unremitting_ and _terrible rain_ laid the whole of Greece under water except the highest mountain-tops, where a few stragglers found refuge. Deukalion was saved in a chest or ark, which he had been forewarned by his father Prometheus to construct. After he had floated for nine days on the water, he at length landed on the summit of Mount Parnassus. Zeus hearing, sent Hermes to him, promising to grant whatever he asked. He prayed that men and companions might be sent him in his solitude: accordingly Zeus directed both him and Pyrrha to cast stones over their heads, those cast by Pyrrha became women, those by Deukalion men. And thus the 'stony race of men' (if we may be allowed to translate an etymology which the Greek language presents exactly, and which has not been disdained by Hesiod, by Pindar, by Epicharmes, and by Virgil), came to tenant the soil of Greece. Deukalion on landing from the ark sacrificed a grateful offering to Zeus Phyxios, or the God of Escape; he also erected altars in Thessaly to the twelve great gods of Olympus. The reality of this deluge was firmly believed throughout the historical ages of Greece (localising it, however, and post-dating it to 1528 B.C.) Statements founded upon this event were in circulation throughout Greece even to a very late date. The Magarians ... and in the magnificent temple of the Olympian Zeus at Athens, a cavity in the earth was shown, through which it was affirmed that the water of the Deluge had retired. Even in the time of Pausanias the priests poured into this cavity holy offerings of meal and honey. In this, as in other parts of Greece, _the idea of the Deukalionian deluge was blended with the religious impressions of the people, and commemorated by their most sacred ceremonies_."--_Grote's "History of Greece,"_ vol. i. ch. v. 132, 133, "_The Deluge_."[188]

[188] Mr Grote certainly says--"Apollodorus connects this deluge with the wickedness of the brazen race in Hesiod, according to the practice general with the logographers of stringing together a sequence out of legends totally unconnected with each other." One would have thought in one's simplicity that if any two legends linked well together, uniting in common agreement with the scriptural account, it would be the legends of the Deluge and the brazen age.

Mr Max Müller (comp. "Myth.," "Chips.," ii. 12), incidentally speaking of the legend of Deucalion, treats it with great contempt. "What is more ridiculous," he says, "than the mythological account of the creation of the human race by Deucalion and Pyrrha throwing stones behind them (a myth which owes its origin to a mere pun on [Greek: laos] and [Greek: laas])." And ridiculous it certainly is from any point of view from which Mr Max Müller could regard it, _i.e._ either as the invention of a mythic period, or as a fugitive allegory arising out of some astral or solar legend: _per contra_, I shall submit that there is nothing forced in supposing that this legend arose out of some one of the processes of corruption to which all tradition is prone, of the known fact that the human race was re-propagated by Deucalion or Noah.[189] If I am asked to explain how it came about that there should have been this identity between the word for a "man" and a "stone," I must simply confess my ignorance. Perhaps if Mr Max Müller could be brought to look at things more from the point of view of biblical traditions, he might be enabled to see it. All that I can suggest is, that perhaps it may have a common origin with that Homeric expression quoted by Mr Max Müller at p. 175 (_vide supra_), "Thou art not sprung from the olden tree or from the rock." I consider that I shall definitely establish, however, that it originates in a tradition and not "a mere pun," and at any rate that it is not local, it is not Greek. It is no doubt singular that the word for man, [Greek: laos], populus, should so closely resemble the word for a stone, [Greek: laas]; but not only is this coincidence found in the Greek, but we shall see that it is widely spread in all parts of the world. In proof, I adduce the following extract from Dr Hooker's inaugural lecture at Norwich in 1868, (since the publication of Mr Max Müller's work):--

"It is a curious fact that the Khasian word for a stone, 'man,' as commonly occurs in the names of their villages and places as that of man, maen, and men does in those of Brittany, Wales, Cornwall, &c.; thus Mansmai signifies in Khasia the Stone of Oath; Manloo, the Stone of Salt; Manflong, the Grassy Stone; and just as in Wales Pen mæn maur signifies the Hill of the Big Stone; and in Britanny a Menhir is a standing stone, and a Dolmen a table stone," &c.[190]

[189] Let the significance of the following coincidence be considered in connection with the evidence at p. 244, Boulanger, "Ces fêtes (Atheniasmes, 'Anthisteries') avoient pour objet une commémoration (of the Deluge) et l'on en _attribuoit la fondation à Deucalion_; elles étoient _aussi_ consacrées à _Bacchus_, ce qui les a fait nommés les _anciennes_ ou les _grandes Bacchanales_."--Comp. ch. xi. p. 244, also _supra_, 213.

[190] It is the fashion to deride Bryant's etymology, and no doubt he did not write in the light of modern science; but I find ("Mythology," iii. 534) that he had already given this information. "_Main_, from whence _moenia_, signified in the primitive language a stone, or stones, and also a building."

Here it is seen that the word for stone in these respective places is the same with our word "man;" it is not specifically said that the word would carry this sense also in the places indicated, but I infer it from the analogy which runs through _homo_, _homme_, and by a connection of ideas through the Greek [Greek: ômos] to the Sanscrit--thus "âma-ad" ([Greek: ômos-edô]), are names applied "in the Sanscrit" to "barbarians" who are cannibals. (Max Müller, ii. p. 44.) And I am not sure that Mr Max Müller does not say so directly, in reference to the word "Brahman," for although the word originally is said to mean _power_ (i. 363), yet "another word with the accent on the last syllable, is _Brahmán_, the _man_ who prays."--_Max Müller_, i. 72.[191]

Also Kenrick ("Essay on Primæval History," p. 59), "Thus the Hindus attribute the origin of their institutions and race to Manu, whose name is equivalent to _man_. The Germans made Tuisto (Teutsch) and his son Mannus to be the origin and founder of their nation." Also Sir W. Jones' "Asiat. Res." i. 230; Rawlinson's "Bamp. Lect." lect. ii. 67:--"From _Manu_ the earth was re-peopled, and from him _man_kind received their name _Manudsha_."

Gainet (i. 170) says:--"The stones changed then into men by Deucalion and Pyrrha, are they not their children according to nature? In Syriac the word 'Eben' signifies equally a child and a stone. In spite of these confusions their accounts of the Deluge are striking as well on account of their resemblance, as on account of their universality, as the reader will soon be able to convince himself."--_Vide Gainet_, i. 167.[192]

[191] Mr Max Müller, in his "Lectures on the Science of Language," first series, says of "Man":--"The Latin word 'homo,' the French 'l'homme' ... is derived from the same root, which we have in 'humus,' soil, 'humilis,' humble. Homo, therefore, would express the idea of being made of the dust of the earth.... There is a third name for man.... 'Ma,' in the Sanscrit, means to measure.... 'Man,' a derivative root, means to think. From this we have the Sanscrit 'Manu,' originally thinker, then man. In the later Sanscrit we find derivations such as 'Mânava, Mânasha, Manushya,' all expressing man. In Gothic we find both '_man_,' and 'Maunisk,' the modern German 'maun,' and 'mensch.' There were many more names for man, as there were many names for all things in ancient language." As an instance of the correspondence of Old Egyptian and Welsh, Bunsen's "Philosophy of Univ. Hist.," i. 169, gives "Egyptian, 'man' = rockstone; Welsh, 'maen;' Irish, 'main' (coll. Latin, 'moenia;' Hebrew, 'e-ben')." And (p. 78) Bunsen says--"The divine Mannus, the ancestor of the Germans, _is absolutely identical_ with Manus, who, according to ancient Indian mythology, is the God who created man anew after the Deluge, _just as Deucalion did_."

[192] The _Saturday Review_, Nov. 14, 1868 (reviewing "The Indian Tribes of Guiana," by the Rev. W. Brett), says of the Indian traditions:--"The 'old people's stories' of the creation and the deluge are highly characteristic.... Under the rule of Sigu, son of Maikonaima, the tree of life was planted, in whose stem were pent up the whole of the waters which were to be let forth by measure to stock every river and lake with fish. Twarrika, the mischievous monkey, forced open the magic cover which kept down the waters, and the next minute was swept away with _all things living_ by the bursting flood. _The re-peopling_ of the world, as described by the Tamanacs of the Orinoco _recalls the legend of Deucalion_. One man and one woman took refuge on the mountain Tama_nacu_. _They then threw over their heads_ the fruits of the Mauritia (or Ita) palm, from the _kernel_ of which sprang men and women who once more peopled the earth."

But if the whole human race were re-propagated by Deucalion and Pyrrha, how are we to locate the _anterior_ legend of Ogyges, occurring among the same people? It is barely possible that the memory of a long antecedent and partial deluge may have remained in the memories of the survivors of the subsequent and universal calamity, but the much more reasonable conjecture seems to be that it was by a different channel the reminiscence of the same event. It must be remembered that it was the Ogygian deluge which was said to have been partial and to have inundated Attica. The deluge of Deucalion by all accounts, except by Pindar, was considered to have been universal, and corresponds in its details with Mosaic accounts, _e.g._ it was universal, covering the tops of the highest mountains; it was caused by the depravity of mankind; the single pair who were saved, were saved in a ship or an ark, and floated many days on the waters. In the end, they settled on the top of a mountain, went to consult the oracle (as Noah is said to have sacrificed and to have had communications with God), and re-peopled the earth. The version of Lucian gives particulars which brings the tradition to almost exact correspondence. Deucalion and his wife were saved (on account of their rectitude and piety) together with his sons and their wives. He was accompanied into the ark by the pigs, horses, lions, and serpents, who came to him in pairs. If the account of Lucian is somewhat recent, on the other hand it is the account of a professed scoffer, and moreover, shows what I do not remember to have seen noted from this point of view that the tradition was common to Syria as well as Greece.

This brings us to the contrary, but, as it appears to me, much less formidable objection--bearing in mind that the tradition of the Deluge is common to Mexico, India, China, the islands of the Pacific, &c. &c.--viz. that the tradition came to Greece from Asia.

This is Mr Kenrick's objection[193] (_vide_ Preface to Grote's "History of Greece," 2d ed.) The most direct, and, as it appears to me, sufficient answer, seems to be that it was necessarily so; since, _ex hypothesi_, the population itself came to Greece from Asia. Mr Kenrick says, "It is doubtful whether the tradition of Deucalion's flood is older than the time when the intercourse with Greece began to be frequent," _i.e._ about the fifth century B.C. (p. 31.) But as the Septuagint, according to Mr Kenrick himself, could not have influenced Greece till the third century, this tradition can only have been the primeval tradition. Mr Kenrick is a fair opponent, and I must do him the justice to add that he repudiates the Voltairean suggestion that this tradition originated in a Hebrew invention. If then the inhabitants of Greece, who came originally from Asia, had not the tradition, or had it imperfectly, when they arrived, it can only have been because they had lost it; but as admittedly they recovered it at a later period, the presumption, even on this showing, is, at least for those who can realise how difficult it would be to make a pure fiction, as distinguished from a corrupt tradition, run current, more especially among different nationalities and during a lengthened period,--that when circumstances brought them again into contact with Asia, they added fresh incidents, only because they found the tradition fresher there than among themselves. _Voila tout!_ for Mr Kenrick's whole argument depends entirely upon this--that "as we reach the time when the Greeks enjoyed more extensive and leisurely communication with Asia, through the conquests of Alexander ... we find new circumstances introduced into the story which assimilates it more closely to the Asiatic tradition."

[193] "Essay on Primæval History."

It has been allowed (_vide supra_) that the tradition of Deucalion is as old as the fifth century B.C., and, not to speak of the deluge of Ogyges, connected with what was earliest in Grecian history, the following passage from Kenrick seems to me in evidence of long antecedent traditions among the Greeks themselves, which they must have brought with them originally from Asia.[194]

[194] "According to the calculations of Varro, the deluge of Ogyges occurred 400 years before Inachus, _i.e._ 1600 years before the first Olympiad, which would bring it to 2376 years before the Christian era; now, according to the Hebrew text, the Deluge of Noah took place 2349 B.C., which makes only a difference of 27 years. It is true that many other authors have reconciled these epochs." Hesiod and Homer are silent on the subject of both Deucalion and Ogyges.... "It results from these considerations that the traditions of the ancient nations of the world confirm the narrative of Genesis, _not only_ as to the existence, but even as to the _epoch_, of this catastrophe as fixed by Moses. Mersius (_apud_ Gronovium,