The Destinies of the Stars. Svante Arrhenius
summer.) As opposed to this, the moonlit nights would be considered refreshing and salutary. Another explanation is essayed by Bergström, who says that the luminous Moon with its ever-changing shape appealed to the imagination of primitive people in a far higher degree than the fairly constantly brilliant Sun. He is partly correct; the enormous variation in luminosity from full to new Moon enables the observer to notice the difference from night to night. The change by about one hour in each twenty-four hours of the time for the rising and setting of the Moon as compared to the disappearance and reappearance of sunlight, and more important yet the short periods of the Moon phases which leave the observations from each receding phase fresh in memory—both these phenomena contribute toward the high value of the Moon’s synodic revolution as a measure of protracted time duration. The purely practical need dominates, not, probably, any desire to visualize the changes in legends. The Australian negroes use four different names for the Moon according to its four quarters, showing that they, in all probability, believe themselves confronted with four different stellar bodies, just as the Greeks at the time of Homer considered the morning- and the evening-star, i.e. Venus, as two separate planets.
On the other hand, no ground worth mentioning supports the theory that the scorching heat of the Sun diminished the peoples’ inclination for its worship. On the contrary, homage was generally rendered to phenomena one feared. It is further not true that the Babylonians themselves considered the Sun, Shamash, hostile, the Moon, Sin, friendly. The Sun-god, Shamash, by virtue of his light, was believed to give life and health. The scorching quality of the Sun was attributed to another god, Nergal, prince of the underworld, demon of war and slaughter, source of fever, and, pre-eminently, of plague. No reason existed, therefore, why Shamash should take second rank after Sin, who is said “to carry water and fire,” meaning, according to Schrader, that he brought fits of ague and fever. When the Sun after the oppressive day sinks behind the horizon, it is well known that a sharp fall of temperature occurs, particularly in arid zones, but also in humid regions within the tropics where this very phenomenon is utilized for the production of ice. He who exposes himself to the sudden cold of the night falls an easy prey to illness. Particularly is this true under a clear sky—primitive people say “when the Moon shines”—because of the strong radiation. Those who sleep in moonlight are struck by delirium and madness according to primitive thought, an opinion by no means dead among civilized nations—it is common with seafaring men—and is no doubt the origin of the expression: moonstruck (German: mondsuchtig, Ital.: lunatico, French: lunatique, Swedish: månadsrasande, etc.). To this belief has probably contributed the fact that epileptic fits frequently possess a period nearly corresponding to the synodical month, which, as I have shown elsewhere, most likely depends on a periodic change in the atmospheric electricity.
In this connection it might also be stated that the third among the great star-deities, Ishtar, the queen of heaven (Astarte, Venus), was the mild but potent, all-merciful sister in every affliction, who delivered from sorcery and illness and gave pardon for sin and guilt. This radiant goddess, who corresponds to the attractive figure of the Catholics’ Virgin Mary, was, in spite of her solicitude for the afflictions of men, placed third in the illustrious triad, Sin, Shamash, and Ishtar.
The traveller in the desert is certainly often tortured by the severe drought and a consequent insufferable thirst. This, however, was justly ascribed to the scarcity of water and not to the Sun. The Egyptians, therefore, wished that their departed ones on the journey to their new dwelling-places would meet with refreshing springs where they might quench their thirst and northerly winds that might cool the air. It is well known that the Mohammedans have formed similar conceptions of a paradise in life to come.
Entirely new conditions arose when the population grew until agriculture became a necessity for the production of sufficient food. The influence of the Sun now became so dominating that it must be given the first place among the powers that affect the fates of men. The plants have a decided annual period and so have the overflows of the rivers which were of the utmost importance in those countries where the cradle of civilization stood. The rainfalls themselves were of annual recurrence as were also the intervening droughts. In Egypt the great importance of the floods caused the introduction of the solar year at a very early stage and its length was fixed at 12 months of 30 days, or 360 days, so that the beginning of the year occasionally had to be adjusted. This was accomplished by resorting to observations of the rising and setting of the Dog Star or Sirius. Thus we realize how difficult it was to determine the exact length of the solar year from everyday phenomena. The great reformer Amenhotep IV. endeavoured about 1400 B.C. to have the Sun-god recognized as sole master of all the world. He met, however, with such great obstacles on the part of the conservative priesthood, which as they largely were serving different gods would have lost part of their power if the reform had prevailed, that his successor was obliged to yield to the solid opposition.
In Babylon the local god Marduk, once representative of the planet Jupiter, and among the star-gods ranking next to the three Super-gods, became about 2000 B.C. elevated to the highest position among the gods and assumed at the same time the dignity of Sun-god. It may here be mentioned that Marduk also played a great part as healer of illness. The evolution in ancient Rome followed the same course although at a far later time. Emperor Aurelianus (270–275 A.D.) under the influence of oriental Mithras-cult elevated the Sun-god to supreme god of the whole Roman Empire, which then comprised almost the entire known world.
Especially significant is the fact that Venus with the Mexicans played as important a part as did the Moon and the Sun. The luminosity of Venus, unlike that of planets outside of the earth’s orbit, but like that of the Moon, changes from a maximum, intense enough in the tropics to throw a shadow, down to a minimum which approaches complete darkness. Its period is closely 1.6 years. It falls short of this figure by about two hours and the Mexicans therefore introduced a correction similar to the bissextile day in our leap year, of one day in every twelve years, which day, however, had to be deducted instead of added. Observations of the changing luminosity of Venus and of its position relative to the Sun obviously lent themselves admirably to measurements of long periods of time and particularly to determination of the length of the important solar year as five Venus-periods very nearly equal eight solar years. The Mexican priests established the fact that 104 solar years correspond to 65 Venus-periods or 146 “Tonalamatl.”
Star-cult was as strongly developed in Mexico as in Babylon. Its main doctrine is stated by Alfredo Chavero thus: “The Father-Creator was Heaven, Xiuhtecutli, or the Azure-blue master. The mother was Omecihuatl, the Milky Way, or the dual mistress.” It is well known that a large part of the Milky Way, from the “Swan” to the neighbourhood of the Southern Cross, is divided in two parallel branches, which fact probably is responsible for the title, the “Dual Mistress.” “Heaven influenced the Milky Way through fire; from its cosmic matter the stars were set free, the most prominent of which were Tonatiuh, the Sun; Tezcatlipoca, the Moon; and Quetzalcoatl, Venus. These were made the supreme gods. For the purpose of worship, they were symbolized in human shape. Myriads of images, representing these star-gods, were modelled in clay, wood, or stone.”
According to this remarkable picture the Mexicans should have arrived at a far better solution of the world-riddle than even the Babylonians did. While most other peoples assumed heaven and earth as the original principles, they gave the high position of progenitress of all to the Milky Way. From her the innumerable stars, with the Sun in the lead, issued. This agrees to a considerable extent with the present conception which we have arrived at during this very last decade, principally thanks to the work of American astronomers. Their investigations have shown how the stars are segregated from the nebulous primeval matter of the Milky Way; how they add distance between themselves and their matrix with age, while simultaneously they develop an increasing individuality.
We have seen that Venus-Ishtar was honoured with membership in the august triad of star-gods, also among the Babylonians. Their successors, the Assyrians, retained the inherited traditions. Thus their kings in the ninth century before Christ symbolized their divine lineage by wearing a necklace with a moon-crescent in the middle, a cross in a ring, emblem of the Sun, on one side, and on the other a star, emblem of Venus (compare Montelius, Nordisk Tidskrift, 1904, p. 13, fig. 30). The Jewish synagogues are generally decorated with the star-emblem.
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