Bible Myths and their Parallels in other Religions Part 135

[475:7] Fiske: Myths and Mythmakers, p. 113.

[476:1] Renouf: Hibbert Lectures, p. 111 and 161.

[476:2] Ibid. p. 161 and 179.

[476:3] Ibid. pp. 179.

[476:4] See Tales of Ancient Greece, pp. x.x.xi. and 82.

[476:5] The _Bull_ symbolized the productive force in nature, and hence it was a.s.sociated with the SUN-G.o.ds. This animal was venerated by nearly all the peoples of antiquity. (Wake: Phallism in Anct. Religs., p. 45.)

[476:6] See Aryan Myths, vol. i. p. 229.

[477:1] See Chap. x.x.xII.

[477:2] See Tales of Ancient Greece, p. xviii.

[477:3] "The idea entertained by the ancients that these G.o.d-begotten heroes were engendered without any carnal intercourse, and that they were the sons of Jupiter, is, in plain language, the result of the ethereal spirit, _i. e._, the Holy Spirit, operating on the virgin mother _Earth_." (Knight: Ancient Art and Mythology, p. 156.)

[477:4] c.o.x: Aryan Myths, p. 87.

[477:5] See Williams' Hinduism, p. 24, and Muller's Chips, vol. ii. pp.

277 and 290.

[477:6] See Bulfinch, p. 389.

[477:7] See Renouf's Hibbert Lectures, pp. 110, 111.

[477:8] Manners of the Germans, p. xi.

[478:1] See Knight: Ancient Art and Mythology, pp. 81, 99, and 166.

The Moon was called by the ancients, "The Queen;" "The Highest Princess;" "The Queen of Heaven;" "The Princess and Queen of Heaven;"

&c. She was Istar, Ashera, Diana, Artemis, Isis, Juno, Lucina, Astarte.

(Goldzhier, pp. 158. Knight, pp. 99, 100.)

In the beginning of the eleventh book of Apuleius' Metamorphosis, Isis is represented as addressing him thus: "I am present; I who am _Nature_, the parent of things, queen of all the elements, &c., &c. The primitive Phrygians called me _Pressinuntica, the mother of the G.o.ds_; the native Athenians, Ceropian Minerva; the floating Cyprians, Paphian Venus; the arrow-bearing Cretans, Dictymian Diana; the three-tongued Sicilians, Stygian Proserpine; and the inhabitants of Eleusis, the ancient G.o.ddess Ceres. Some again have invoked me as _Juno_, others as _Beliona_, others as Hecate, and others as Rhamnusia: and those who are enlightened by the emerging rays of the rising _Sun_, the Ethiopians, Ariians and Egyptians, powerful in ancient learning, who reverence my divinity with ceremonies perfectly proper, call me by a true appellation, '_Queen Isis_.'" (Taylor's Mysteries, p. 76.)

[478:2] The "G.o.d the Father" of all nations of antiquity was nothing more than a personification of the _Sky_ or the _Heavens_. "The term _Heaven_ (p.r.o.nounced _Thien_) is used everywhere in the Chinese cla.s.sics for the _Supreme Power_, ruling and governing all the affairs of men with an omnipotent and omniscient righteousness and goodness." (James Legge.)

In one of the Chinese sacred books--the Shu-king--_Heaven_ and _Earth_ are called "Father and Mother of all things." Heaven being the Father, and Earth the Mother. (Taylor: Primitive Culture, pp. 294-296.)

The "G.o.d the Father" of the Indians is _Dyaus_, that is, the _Sky_.

(Williams' Hinduism, p. 24.)

Ormuzd, the G.o.d of the ancient Persians, was a personification of the sky. Herodotus, speaking of the Persians, says: "They are accustomed to ascend the highest part of the mountains, and offer sacrifice to Jupiter (Ormuzd), _and they call the whole circle of the heavens by the name of Jupiter_." (Herodotus, book 1, ch. 131.)

In Greek iconography Zeus is the _Heaven_. As Cicero says: "The refulgent Heaven above is that which all men call, unanimously, Jove."

The Christian G.o.d supreme of the nineteenth century is still _Dyaus_ Pitar, the "Heavenly Father."

[478:3] Williams' Hinduism, p. 24.

[478:4] Muller: Origin of Religions, pp. 261, 290.

[478:5] Renouf: Hibbert Lectures, pp. 110, 111.

[478:6] See Note 2.

[478:7] See c.o.x: Tales of Ancient Greece, pp. x.x.xi. and 82, and Aryan Mythology, vol. i. p. 229.

[479:1] Quoted by Westropp: Phallic Wors.h.i.+p, p. 24.

[479:2] Squire: Serpent Symbol, p. 66. "In Phenician Mythology Ouranos (Heaven) weds Ghe (the Earth) and by her becomes father of Ocea.n.u.s, Hyperon, Iapetus, Cronos, and other G.o.ds." (Phallic Wors.h.i.+p, p. 26.)

[479:3] Squire: Serpent Symbol, p. 64.

[479:4] See Mallet's Northern Antiquities, pp. 80, 93, 94, 406, 510, 511.

[480:1] See Chap. XIV.

[480:2] See Dupuis: Orig. Relig. Belief, p. 234. Higgins' Anacalypsis, vol. ii. pp. 96, 97, and Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 272.

[480:3] Extracts from the Vedas. Muller's Chips, vol. ii. pp. 96 and 187.

[481:1] c.o.x: Aryan Mythology, vol. i. p. 153.

[481:2] Aryan Mythology, vol. ii. p. 133.

[481:3] When Christ Jesus was born, on a sudden there was a great light in the cave, so that their eyes could not bear it. (Protevangelion, Apoc. ch. xiv.)

[481:4] "Perseus, Oidipous, Romulus and Cyrus are doomed to bring ruin on their parents. They are exposed in their infancy on the hill-side, and rescued by a shepherd. _All the solar heroes begin life in this way._ Whether, like Apollo, born of the dark night (Leto), or like Oidipous, of the violet dawn (Iokaste), they are alike destined to bring destruction on their parents, as the Night and the Dawn are both destroyed by the Sun." (Fiske: p. 198.)

[481:5] "The exposure of the child in infancy represents the long rays of the morning sun resting on the hill-side." (Fiske: Myths and Mythmakers, p. 198.)

The Sun-hero Paris is exposed on the slopes of Ida, Oidipous on the slopes of Kithairon, and aesculapius on that of the mountain of Myrtles.

This is the rays of the newly-born sun resting on the mountain-side.

(c.o.x: Aryan Myths, vol. i. pp. 64 and 80.)

In Sanscrit _Ida_ is the Earth, and so we have the mythical phrase, the Sun at its birth is exposed on Ida--the hill-side. The light of the sun must rest on the hill-side long before it reaches the dells beneath.

(See c.o.x: vol. i. p. 221, and Fiske: p. 114.)

[482:1] Even as late as the seventeenth century, a German writer would ill.u.s.trate a thunder-storm destroying a crop of corn, by a picture of a dragon devouring the produce of the field with his flaming tongue and iron teeth. (See Fiske: Myths and Mythmakers, p. 17, and c.o.x: Aryan Mythology, vol. ii.)

[482:2] The history of the Saviour Hercules is so similar to that of the Saviour Christ Jesus, that the learned Dr. Parkhurst was forced to say, "The labors of Hercules seem to have been originally designed as emblematic memorials of what the REAL Son of G.o.d, the Saviour of the world, was to do and suffer for our sakes, _bringing a cure for all our ills_, as the Orphic hymn speaks of Hercules."

[482:3] Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, pp. 158, 166, and 168.

[482:4] In ancient mythology, all heroes of light were opposed by the "Old Serpent," the Devil, symbolized by Serpents, Dragons, Sphinxes and other monsters. The Serpent was, among the ancient Eastern nations, the symbol of _Evil_, of _Winter_, of _Darkness_ and of _Death_. It also symbolized the _dark cloud_, which, by harboring the _rays of the Sun_, preventing its s.h.i.+ning, and therefore, is apparently _attempting to destroy it_. The Serpent is one of the chief mystic personifications of the _Rig-Veda_, under the names of _Ahi_, _Suchna_, and others. They represent the _Cloud_, the enemy of the _Sun_, keeping back the fructifying rays. Indra struggles victoriously against him, and spreads life on the earth, with the s.h.i.+ning warmth of the Father of Life, the Creator, _the Sun_.