considered the wisdom of the "First Man," Adam, greater than that of the angels.' In ancient philosophy, the Bull was an emblem of the creative or fertilizing Sun. The union of Heaven and Earth in the fertilizing rains which alternate with the rays of the sun in penetrating the soil and imbuing it with productive power, was treated of as a holy marriage of Saturn with Mother Earth. Anthropomorphism early proceeded, in America and on the other continents, to invest the gods with human forms. The gods of the Indians, Mexicans, Peruvians, Greeks, Assyrians, Hindus and Egyptians, are represented in the human shape. Saturn, Jupiter and Tezcatlipoca are human forms; Saturn is an old man bent with age. When the doctrine was promulgated by the ancients that the gods were originally men whose virtues had raised them to the skies, old Bel-Saturn, the oldest and chief god, the Great Spirit of all antiquity, would naturally be the "First Man," Adam. Adam is the sun-god Saturn, "Zeus-Demarus," whose wife was the Earth, just as Jupiter united with Europa, Ouranos (Heaven) with Ge (Earth). As the Great Spirit of the skies appears as "First Man," so Adam, by the doctrine of Euhemerus, was like Saturn, but a mortal raised to the rank of god. As first god he is euhemerized into "First Man." In this way antiquity disposes of its sun-gods. The Hebrews turned them into Patriarchs. Adam, Abraham, Israel, were names of Saturn. Edom is Adam; and the ancient usage was to name the nation, the land or city after the chief god. The Greeks made these deities founders of tribes. Annos and Belus are mentioned by the emperor Julian together as the oldest sages of the Babylonians." The serpent was the Sun's symbol. Great honors were said to have been paid by the Natchez to the wooden figure 1 J. Müller, 135. • Ibid. 92. 5 3 2 Sanchoniathan, vii. of a rattle-snake.' The Maya god Votan was a serpentdeity, as were the Mexican Quetzalcoatl, the Athenian Apollo, and the Bel-serpent of the Babylonians.❜ Torquemada states that the images of Huitzlipoctli, Quetzalcoatl and Tlaloc were each represented with a golden serpent, bearing different symbolical allusions. At the festival of Huitzlipoctli, a great serpent was borne in procession.* He is in some points hardly to be distinguished from Tezcatlipoca, and their festivals were similar. For him the hearts of prisoners, taken in war, were reserved. This identifies him with the Sun, to whom the heart was held up at the sacrifice." Huitzlipoctli, like the Roman Mars, and the Phoenician Adonis, was probably the spring-sun.' In Mexico, Tezcatlipoca was the Great Serpent. At his feet a serpent was represented in the paintings, and at his festival a wooden collar in the form of a coiled serpent was placed around the neck of the victim." The wood which held fast the head of the blood-offering sacrificed to Huitzlipoctli, had the form of a coiled serpent." The wife of Tezcatlipoca (Saturnus-Jupiter) was Cihuacohuatl, "the Woman-serpent," like Minerva at Athens.1 Athena (Minerva) is goddess of wisdom, because she is serpent-goddess and the Sun is "all-knowing." She is the feminine part of Bel (Bolaten), who, as "Man-woman," se 'Charlevoix, Nouvelle France, vi. 175. 2 J. Müller, 487; Movers passim. Book ii. ch. 8. ; quoted in Serp. Symb. 193. Mexique, 25, par Larenaudiere; Serp. Symb. 56. 5 J. Müller, 605, 478, 505, 610, 614, 616, 620, 623, 624, et passim. Prescott, Mexico, i. 76. * J. Müller, 588, 592, 597, 602, 604, 607, 609, 610, 615, 660; Movers, 21, 28, 30, et passim. 6 Serp. Symbol. 181, 199, 161, 163, 164. Cod. Vat. Lord Kingsborough, vi. 172, 178. 10 Mexique, 29. 11 J. Müller, 485. 12 J. Müller, 484, 494, 612; Bulwer, Athens, iii. ch. 7, p. 94. parates into Bol and Atena, Apollo and Athena.' In Nicaragua a representation of a coiled serpent was called the Sun (Sol). Saturn was the "dragon of life." This is the Great Spirit, as cause of life. Hercules (Chronos) was represented as a serpent with the face of a god, but the head of a lion and an ox. Jupiter in the form of a dragon begets Dionysus Zagreus. The Great Spirit was worshipped by the American Indians in the form of a serpent." The Egyptians and Phoenicians had their serpent-deities. The Gnostics taught that the ruler of the world was a great serpent. Apollo (Abal, Epul) was called Python. The Phoenicians represented the god Noum by a serpent. The serpent was the emblem of the Sun and its fruitful influence. It was the symbol of life, immortality, "the spiritual," and wisdom. In the Mysteries, it was the emblem of Jupiter." Apis-Osiris is generally represented with the globe of the Sun, and the asp." Ptah is represented with the asp, and Horus the same; because they were sun-gods." The symbol of Kneph (Chon-uphis) was a hawk-headed serpent." Ammon was called "the renowned Serpent."" The Orphic god Phanes (Sun) has a serpent on his head." The decrees of Destiny (for the world) which the divining hand of the First-born Phanes has written.15 The following names of the Sun and his serpent-emblem appear to be the same:-Ak the Sun (Ag, Ukko in Scan 1 Demarez (Jupiter Demarous) separates into Adam and Araz (Aras), the Sun and the Earth, Araz, Eraz, "the Earth" 7, Eraze, in Homer, in Chaldee, Aroah, in Samaritan Arah. J Müller, 123, 366; see Stephens' Yucatan, passim. * Deane, 107; quotes Epiphanius, 91. Kenrick, i. 314. J. Müller, 611. 10 Wilkinson, Second Series, ii. 350. "Ibid. i. 256; Champollion, Egypte; Univers pitt. 131a. 12 Beloe's Herod. i. 369, note; Movers, 506. 13 Kenrick, i. 315. 6 3 = dinavia, Gau-as a name of Adonis,' Agu-ieus a name of Apollo, Iauk in Arabia), Echis, "serpent;"" Ako, “viper," in Egyptian; "Og, the serpent-god; " Ap the Sun (Op), Ab the Sun, Af the Sun, in Persian; Ophis (opis), "serpent," in Greek; Hob, Hp and Hof, "serpent," in Egyptian; Ob, "serpent;"" Achad the Sun, Echidna, "serpent;" Cal-us, Col, Acal (a name of Talus, the Sun, in Crete); Achel (Aɣeλɩ, Xeλı, Mod. Greek), " serpent;"* Aban Phanes, Pan (sun-gods, originally), Obion 'Serpent; Ophion="Serpent; " Iah (Ah), the Sun; Iao (As, Asu, Ahû), Iahi and Ahi, serpent-demons in Persia; Dag (Tag, Dagon, Dakan, Dagur, god of day), the Sun; Dahak, the Serpent, or cloud-demon, in Persia; Pharo (Papo= Mithra), the Sun; Varuna, Var; Varitra (compare Veretra-Agna), the cloud-demon; Puthon, Apollo, Pytho the Sun-serpent, pethěn a snake (Hebrew); Abāb (Abobas, the Sun, Adonis), Apop, the serpent, the devil; " Sat, Set, the Sun (Seth, Asad), Set, a serpent (Egyptian); Adad," the Sun, "Adodus," " Dood (in Arabic), a snake; " Asam, Shem the Sun, Semo, Smu (Typhon), "Zom (Hercules) the powerful," Asamm (in Arabic), a serpent, adder; " Ani the Sun, Ayn "serpent," " the Zyrianian Yen; " Akar, Kur "the Sun," Akore "a viper," in Egyptian; " Af, the Sun, afga, afagi,"serpent; "10 Ilahat-sun, Ilahat "a serpent; Adar (Adar-Melech), Ajdar dragon;" Nahash king of the Amorites," "Nahash, "a serpent" in Hebrew; Sarp-edon, 1 Movers, 199. Seyffarth Grammar, App. 18 F. Johnson, Persian and Arabic Dict. Deane, 165. 8 Kuhn iii. 46. 10 Kenrick, i. 353. " Seyffarth Gram. 73; Uhlemann, Egypt. Alterthumskunde, 172. 12 Sanchon. ed. Orelli, 34. 13 F. Johnson, Persian, Arabic and English Dict. 14 Uhlemann, Thoth. 35. 15 F. Johnson, Dict. 16 Ibid. 21 Ibid. 17 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Soc. xv. 127, 94. 20 Ibid. 20 1 a god of the Lycians and Cretans; Seraf, an Assyrian god or angel (Seraphim); Serap-is, a sun-god of the Egyptians; Sarpa, "a serpent" in Sanskrit and in Welsh," "In Serpente Deus; " Apollo Sarpedonius in Cilicia.* 2 Some of the New-England tribes believed the Sun to be God, or at least the body or residence of the Deity." Among the North American tribes, the graphic Ke-Kewin, which depicts the Sun, stands on their pictorial rolls as the symbol of the Great Spirit." The Great Spirit is Creator, as sun-god. Nature and its laws are regarded as one great whole, which, every year, assumes new life through the power of the sun, and all the life-giving influences of Nature, and is preserved and continued by the same agencies by which it was created. Therefore the sungod was regarded as the Creator by the Muyscas, and so many other nations of America and the other continents of the globe. The Great Spirit is a Nature-god, identical with Nature, and subjected to it. He is a personification of the highest powers of Nature; not a being "supreme above Nature." Therefore he is controlled by inevitable fate or destiny. The decrees of destiny cannot be changed. Müller says that this destiny is personified under "the name of the old one (Woman) who never dies," whose son is the Sun, in whom the Lord of Life dwells. This is the conception of the Mandans, Minitarrees, and Hurons, who regarded Destiny as a hostile old woman, a kind of Proserpine or Persephone, a queen of the dead.' In Homer we find Destiny playing the greatest part in the control of human affairs. Hopkins, Hist. Housatonic Indians, p. 11; in Squier, Serp. Symbol, p. 71. Serp. Symbol, 130. J. Müller, 116, 117. J. Müller, 148, 149, 150. |