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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
Amongst the most remarkable instances of the result of careful observation and systematized thought which Western Asia has given to the world at large, are the Signs of the Zodiac, and the ancient extra-zodiacal constellation-figures, northern and southern; and by ‘ancient’ I mean those which have been enshrined for all future time in the Phainomena of Aratos. Of the Twelve Signs I shall only speak incidentally. It is now many years since Ideler and Guigniaut, contrary to the views of Letronne, arrived at the correct conclusion that the Signs of the Zodiac came, with so much else of archaic thought and civilization, from, the Euphrates Valley; and, having firmly established themselves in Hellenic usage, were afterwards carried by Greek conquerors as far as India in the east and Egypt in the south. But, although modern research has supplied an immense amount of material for the purpose, it is remarkable that the classic work of Ideler still gives the best account of the constellation-figures and their various stars. Surely, then, it is time that an effort was made to utilize in a connected form some at least of the results of subsequent investigation; and, although the inquiry, like all such, is progressive, and, like all researches into the ancient and archaic past, is beset with numerous difficulties, yet the principles to be applied and the general outlines of the subject are clear and distinct.
page 205 note 1 Vide, R. B. Jun, The Heavenly Display of Aratos, 1885Google Scholar.
page 206 note 1 Untersuchungen über den Ursprung und die Bedeutung der Sternnamen, 1809.
page 206 note 2 Vide, The Heavenly Display, p. 87 et seqGoogle Scholar.
page 208 note 1 It is satisfactory to find that . MrFarnell, L. R., in his important work The Cults of the Greek States, 1896Google Scholar, is sound on this point. Aphroditê, he declares, “was originally an Oriental [by which he evidently means ‘non-Aryan’] divinity” (ii, 618). The attempt of Professor Hommel to explain the name—Istar—Ashtoret—Athtoret—Aphtoret—Aphrotet—'Aφροδτη—he regards as ‘ingenious,’ “but philological analogies are wanting.”
page 208 note 2 “The worship of Dionysos … had been borrowed by the Greeks from the East” (Sayee, , Rel. Anct. Babylonians, p. 54, n. 2Google Scholar). Semelê=Ph. 'Samlath, the Sumero-Akkadian goddess Samelâ (vide, R. B. Jun, Euphratean Stellar Researches, pt. i, p. 22Google Scholar).
page 208 note 3 Sur la Signification des Types Monétaires des Anciens, 1894.
page 208 note 4 On Bird and Beast in Ancient Symbolism, 1895.
page 208 note 5 , R. B. Jun, Greek Coin-types and the Constellation-figures, in the Academy, 09. 21, 1895Google Scholar.
page 209 note 1 “Le nom d'un dieu Tân se trouve en composition dans celui d'ltanos de Crète, i-Tân, ‘l’île de Tan.' Les plus anciennes monnaies de cette île représentent le dieu Tân comme un personnage à queue de poisson, tenant le trident de Neptune; au revers est représenté le monstre marin tannîn et sa femelle” (Lenormant, , Les Origines, i, 545, n. 2). Πóσις-'′Iτωνος=Ποσειδν, “Lord-of-the-isle-of-Tân.” Itônos, a variant of the name, appears as the husband of Melanippê (“Black-horse ” = the black Dêmêtêr Hippia, vide inf., p. 223) and sire of Boiôtos (Paus., IX, i, 1), i.e. the inhabitants of BoiôtiaGoogle Scholar.
page 209 note 2 Bachofen, Vide, Der Bär in den Religionen des Alterthums; Bérard, p. 130 et seqGoogle Scholar.
page 210 note 1 Vide Bérard, p. 129 et seq., where this point is proved at length.
page 210 note 2 For a detailed account of this, vide, R. B. Jun, The Great Dionysiak Myth, i, 239–41; ii, 134–5Google Scholar.
page 211 note 1 Vide, R. B. Jun, The Celestial Equator of Aratos, p. 2Google Scholar.
page 211 note 2 Vide inf., p. 216.
page 211 note 3 For illustration of the mythic Law of Reduplication, vide R. B., jun., Eridanus, sec. x.
page 211 note 4 Vide, R. B. Jun, The Heavenly Display, p. 8Google Scholar, and authorities cited; SirBurton, R. F., Thousand Nights and a Night, ii, 368Google Scholar.
page 211 note 5 Vide Bérard, pp. 49–93.
page 211 note 6 Vide, R. B. Jun, Euphratean Stellar Researches, pt. iii, p. 9Google Scholar.
page 212 note 1 ProfessorDuncker, , History of Greece, Eng. edit., i, 63Google Scholar.
page 212 note 2 Hehn, , Wanderings of Plants and Animals, Eng. edit., p. 185Google Scholar.
page 213 note 1 2 Kings, xvii, 31. Vide, R. B. Jun, in the Academy, 06 20, 1896Google Scholar.
page 214 note 1 Vide Coin of Kypros, figured in Perrot, , History of Art in Phoenicia, Eng. edit., i, 281Google Scholar.
page 214 note 2 Bérard, p. 253.
page 214 note 3 Vide, R. B. Jun, in the Academy, 11 10, 1894Google Scholar.
page 215 note 1 Lajard, Vide, Culte de Mithra, pl. xli, 3Google Scholar; Cullimore, , Oriental Cylinders, i, 6Google Scholar.
page 215 note 2 Vide Perrot, i. 210.
page 215 note 3 Spon, Vide, Recherches curieuses d'Antiquité, 1683, p. 69Google Scholar.
page 216 note 1 As connected with πρσω.
page 216 note 2 Gruppe, Vide, Der phoinikische Urtext der Kassiepeialegende, 1888Google Scholar.
page 217 note 1 Hellanikos, Vide, Frags., clix, clxGoogle Scholar; Lenormant, , Chaldean Magic, Eng. edit., p. 337 et seqGoogle Scholar.
page 217 note 2 “La traduction exact de υρων Στρατπεδον (Herod., ii, 112) serait Maχaneh Tzor, par analogie avec … Maχuneh-Dan” (Jud., xviii, 12). The name appears in such Greek forms as Mêkônê, Mykônê", Mukonion, Makanîtai, Mykênoi, Migônion, Mêχanê (the Phoenician island of Thêra, also called Phoinikia: vide Bérard, p. 306). A plural city-name, e.g. Mykênai, as Professor Sayce notes, is an indication that the inhabitants were of more than one race.
page 219 note 1 Sayce, , Herod., p. 128Google Scholar.
page 219 note 2 Lenormant, , Les Origines, i, 573–4Google Scholar.
page 220 note 1 As to the Semitic connection of Hekatê, vide Bérard, p. 362. MrFarnell, , Cults of the Greek States, vol. ii, cap. xviGoogle Scholar, Hekate, gives many excellent reasons in support of the view that the goddess is not in origin a Greek divinity, but hardly any evidence in. support of his own theory that she came to Hellas from the North. He does not perceive that many points in her history on which he justly lays stress, mark her Phoenician connection. Amongst these may be mentioned, (1) her participation in the Kabeiric cult of Samothrakê; (2) her connection with horsemen and sailors; and (3) with Boiôtia and Boiôtian poets; (4) her triplicity; (5) her connection with Britomartis (vide inf., p. 225); and (6) her titles, Ἄγγελος, Eὑρππα, Σωτερη, and Kαλλστη (vide sup., p. 210).
page 220 note 2 A doubtful line in the Theogonia describes her as “having a very lovely form” (πολυήρατον εἷδος ἓχουσα,1. 908), but it is noticeable that πολυήρατος was also at times understood as meaning ‘deeply accursed.’ This might, from a Greek standpoint, be supposed to refer to the fall and degraded shape of the goddess.
page 221 note 1 “Θέτις, dana la légende grecque, est l'épouae de Πηλεύς: le πηλς grec serait la traduction exacte du thith sémitique; tous deux désignent la terre humide, la boue, la Terre unie à l'Eau, la Matière primitive” (Bérard, p. 212).
page 221 note 2 Servius, Vide, in Ver., Eclog., x, 18Google Scholar.
page 222 note 1 i.e. the Assyrian, zikarat (W.A.I., III, liii, No. 2, Rev. 1. 31)Google Scholar.
page 222 note 2 The etymology of Κρνος is generally regarded as unknown. In The Great Dionysiak Myth, ii, 127, when considering the god at length, I explained Kronos as = Karnos, Karneios, and connected the word with the As. Karnu, Heb. Kerên, ‘horn’ (cl Ashtereth Karnaim), as also meaning ‘power.’ In Sanchouniathôn, ‘Kronos’ is regarded as a translation of 
(“the Powerful”). The transposing of the Rho was archaic (cf. Paus., III, xiii, 3); thus the Sem. Karkôm=Gk. Κρκος We have only to compare the accounts of Kronos in Sanchouniathôn with those in the Boiôtian Hêsiod to see the hopelessness of attempting to make him a purely Greek divinity. MrFarnell, well says he is “one of the figures of a lost and defeated religion” (Cults of the Greek States, i. 25)Google Scholar.
page 223 note 1 e.g. “Bomiloar pro Sarmihar” (Geseniua, , Script. Ling. Phoen., p. 431)Google Scholar.
page 223 note 2 Vide Bérard, p. 114 et seq.
page 223 note 3 This goddess and her Semitic origin have been so fully treated by Lenormant and M. Bérard that I do not discuss the matter at length. MrFarnell, innocently says, “Arcadia lies remote from Oriental influences” (Cults of the Greek States, ii, 430)Google Scholar. As M. Bérard has shown, in great detail, it was at one time almost a mass of Phoenician ideas and cult.
page 224 note 1 Laiard, Vide, Culte de Mithra, pl. xliv, 3aGoogle Scholar. Another Asiatic instance given by Laiard (pi. xliii, 27) shows a winged Demi-horse, in fact the exact constellation-figure of Aratos.
page 224 note 2 Tablet K, 2100, col. iv, 8.
page 224 note 3 Müller, K. O., Orchomenos und die Minyer, p. 156Google Scholar.
page 225 note 1 Solinus, xi, 8.
page 225 note 2 Cf. Od., xii, 81, where the Cave of Skyllê is to front “towards the west, to Erebos.”
page 225 note 3 Vide R. B., jun., Remarks on the Euphratean Astronomical Names of the Signs of the Zodiac, sec. vii.
page 225 note 4 Really “the Clusterers” (vide , R. B. Jun, The Heavenly Display, p. 9)Google Scholar.
page 225 note 5 “Argo is often drawn as a demi-snip, and this singular circumstance apparently had its origin in the very peculiar shape of the Phoenician wargalley” (, R. B. Jun, “Phoenicia and the Ancient Constellation-figures,” in the Academy, 11 7, 1896)Google Scholar.