was the impiety of men. Construct your altars upon those hills, which may serve to remind you of this spot, and there sanctify the name of the Lord." Thus, every high place devoted to religion would become a sign or emblem of Ararat, and a place of God's Name'; and how numerous they were the number of mountains bearing the name of Tor, or Taurus, is no inconsiderable evidence. All, indeed, who retained any reverence for the patriarchal precept would avoid a long residence upon extensive plains, because it would deprive them of their hill altars. When, therefore, the rebels of Shinar, in opposition to the divine will, determined not to be dispersed, their leaders could not devise a more politic plan for keeping them contentedly in the plain, than by building an artificial mountain to be their place of worship, that the name of the Lord might dwell there. It is too common in all ages for men to make a compromise with their duty, and to lay the flattering unction to their souls, that, by obedience to one precept, disobedience to another becomes less intolerable. The Name, therefore, or Shem, which they proposed to make, was that great pyramid of earth and bricks, the remains of which are still visible 2, and which I shall have occasion hereafter to describe. "Faciamus Kircherus, De 1 In a Samaritan Targum the builders of Babel say: in medio ejus adorationis locum et simulacrum." Instit. Hierog. 1. ii. 2 Captain Keppel says, that the ruins of the tower of Babel, at first sight, present the appearance of a hill with a castle on the top. Travels, i. 192. 2 Hence the Phoenician colonists, when they spread themselves westward, gave the name of Sami to several mountains, especially when they were insulated, because they were then more exact types of the diluvian mount. The Thracian Samos1, afterwards called Samothrace, where Ceres was peculiarly honoured, and where the Cabiri were worshipped, whose connection with the deluge has been illustrated by the learning of Faber, was so lofty that Homer places Neptune on its summit to survey the field of battle upon the plains of Troy. It is not without reason that the God of Ocean is seated there. The Ionian Samos was mountainous, and peculiarly sacred to Hera3; but Hara was a title of the Indian Mahadeva, who, like Ammon, bore a crescent on his forehead, and was invoked by people in great distress. A third Samos, or Same, as Homer calls it, supposed to be Cephalonia, contains a lofty mountain, which was called Cercesus, apparently a corruption from Caucasus. In like manner we are assured that the ancient Greeks denominated all high places Samoi. This may be 1 4 Threïciamque Samum, quæ nunc Samothracia fertur. 2 Ὑψοῦ ἐπ' ἀκροτάτης κορυφῆς Σάμου ὑληέσσης Θρηϊκίης. — Π. Υ. 13. 8 Σάμος ἱμερόεσσα Πελασγίδος ἕδρανον Ἥρης. — Dionysius, v. 534. 4 O! worthy man, — O! Hara, Hara, ascend into thy cave, &c. Sanscrit Inscription, by Wilford, As. Res. v. 5 Canter observes, from L. Auratus, that between Corcyra and Ithaca lies Samos, quæ est oua, seu tumulus.-Novar. Lect. lib. v. c. xiv. 6 Bochart cites Strabo, Eustathius, and Constantine Porphyrogenneta, to show that οἱ παλαιοὶ Ἕλληνες σάμον τὸν ὑψηλὸν ἐκαλουν τόπον.. Geog. Sac. 376. 3 the reason why the numeral Sanpi was called Episemon, being a sama upon a samos', and it was probably written thus. It appears, then, that the horns of the crescent are sometimes the horns of the ark, and sometimes the horns of the mountain; and by the help of this observation some difficult knots of ancient mystery may be unravelled. Bryant, for instance, observes, that the sacred bull of Egypt was described with a star between his horns; and, accordingly, a Byzantine coin with the name of Diana has a star within a crescent, thus ; for coins retained much of uncomprehended mythology, cows, and horns, and prows of ships, and and cones, and pillars, and fish, — much grapes, in the same way as many persons use the Freemasons' arms, without the least knowledge of the emblems, or as heralds preserve in armorial shields achievements long since forgotten. Again, a coin of Heraclea represents a bull's head supporting a crescent, in the centre of which a perpendicular line connects two stars. He further contends that the meaning of Zoroaster's name is thus explained, Taurus and Asterius being the same, which, however, is not exactly the case, at least when they are used in combination. Asterius and Zoroaster are indeed to be referred to the same 3 Ludovici Nonnii, Comment. in Hub. Golzii Græciæ Nomismata. 4 See Lycophron, v. 1301. 'period; for Asterius' was an Argonaut, that is, a sailor in the Argha, or ark, and he was the father of Minos2, who has been proved to coincide with Menu and Menes, both diluvian personages. The antiquity of Zoroaster has been disputed, but since history is unable to decide the matter we are driven of necessity back to the age of fable. The author of the Recognitions, that go under the name of Clement, identifies him with Ham, who is therefore reported to have been addicted to astrology. An ancient tradition says, that having studied that science before the flood, and knowing that he should not be allowed to introduce his books into the ark, he engraved his sacrilegious inventions on metals and rocks, which he found again after the flood, and so perpetuated the knowledge of them. 3 With respect to his name, the first part of it is undoubtedly derived from Zorus, which, according to Bochart, is the same as the Phoenician Tsor, corrupted afterwards into Tyrus'; and this is confirmed by Jerome, who says, that, in the Hebrew language, Tyre is called Zor. But what has Tyre to do with Zoroaster? Tyre was so called because it was an insulated rock, and Tsor means a rock; whence also Tor and Taurus have been 5 1 He is called Asterion by Orpheus in Argonauticis, v. 161.; and by Apollonius, l. i. 35. 2 Asterius nomen Patris Minois. 3 Cassianus. Collatio, viii. c. 21. - Hoffmann. 4 Zorus est idem quod Tsor Phonicium Tyri nomen. Geog. Sac. Op. ii. 468. 5 Hieron. de Nom. Heb. Opera, tom. ii. - derived. The latter part of the word is doubtless the Persic Ster', an aboriginal word which has been preserved in the Greek Aster and the English Star; but in Egyptian hieroglyphics a star was used figuratively to signify an attendant or ministering spirit2; therefore, if the same meaning may be inferred in other symbolical language, the sense of Zoroaster was, The Spirit of the Rock; the propriety of which will be more apparent when we come to the consideration of Mithratic caves. The same key will serve to unlock the difficulty of a curious passage in Sanchoniatho, who relates that the Phoenician goddess Astarte found, in her travels round the world, a fallen star, which she consecrated in the sacred isle of Tyre. The sanctity of this island resulted solely from its resemblance to the rock of Ararat, encompassed by the ocean, and the purport of the passage is, that the worshippers of the moon, under the name of Astarte, had introduced into the sacred symbols there the picture of a star. Who, then, was Astarte ? Augustine says she was the same as Juno1; and it 1 "Nos scimus," says Scaliger, "verissimum esse, Ster Persice esse orpoy aut àσrépa, unde Esther dicta fuerit." 2 Dr. Young, Article Egypt, Supplem, to Encyc. Brit. Horus Apollo says, that a star signified sometimes a god, and sometimes a spirit, uxn. 3 Περινοστοῦσα τὴν οἰκουμένην, εὗρεν ἀεροπετῆ ἀστέρα, ὃν καὶ ἀνελομένη ἐν Τύρῳ τῇ ἁγίᾳ νήσῳ ἀφιέρωσε. Euseb. Præ. Ev. l. i. p. 38. The Hindoos have a notion that the stars are individuals, raised to that honour for a time proportioned to the sum of their merits : this being exhausted they descend to earth, often visibly, as in the case of shooting stars.- Wilson's Select Specimens of the Theatre of the Hindoos. 4 Augus. Locutionum, l. vii. c. xvi. |