No CrossRef data available.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2011
The monster bulls, lions, and other winged figures found at Nineveh,-which have lately been erected in the new Hall of the British Museum, naturally excite the curiosity as well as the admiration of the public—curiosity to learn the meaning of these colossal myths of a nation which flourished some 3000 years ago, at the earliest dawn of art, and before the period of authentic history. It is desireable, therefore, that some attempt should be made to solve the problem.
page 94 note 1 Ezekiel x. 14; 1 Kings vi. 27.
page 94 note 2 The French translation of the Vulgate has, “il mit des cherubins devant le jardin de délices, qui faisaient étinceler une épée de feu, &c.” Josephus, in his History, does not atlude to the cherubim in the garden of Eden.
page 95 note 1 Vide Biblical Encyclopædia. Arts. Cherubim and Ark of the Covenant.
page 97 note 1 “Vêtements” in the French Vulgate.
page 97 note 2 In the Vulgate, “round about it stood the cherubim.” Bib. Ency., Art. Chkrubims.
page 97 note 3 “Chobar,” in French Vulgate supposed to be the Jthaboor, which forms a junction with the Euphrates at Carchemish, about 225 miles N.W. from Babylon. At Arban, on the banks of the Khaboor, Mr. Layard discovered winged bulls and lions (p. 276, Second Expedition.)
page 97 note 4 “ La main du Seigneur agit sur lui.”—Vulg.
page 97 note 5 A similar whirlwind, without the cherubims, is, described in p. 294 of Layard's Second Expedition.
page 97 note 6 “Animaux.”—Vulg.
page 98 note 1 The “Farah-i-Ized” of the Persians.
page 99 note 1 The word is derived by some from “Charab,” “to plough;” by others, from “Karab,” “near,”—signifying those who were near the throne of God. (Hyde). In Psalm xviii, v. 10, cherub signifies “the wind: ”—“He rode upon a cherub, and did fly; yea he did fly upon the wings of the wind.
page 99 note 2 Mitra and Serosh, two of the Izeds or angels of the Persians, were said to have 10,000 eyes.—Dabistan.
page 99 note 3 “Aneient Egyptians,” Bibl. Encye. Article Ark of The Covenant.
page 100 note 1 In the Magian religion, the Farvardigan, or Izeds of the five intercalary days of the year, were female angels who spun celestial robes for the saints in Paradise.
page 100 note 2 Vide illustrations of Botta, Layard, and Sir G. Wilkinson. See also figures resembling our modern angels on the sculptures of Behistun.
page 100 note 3 These are possibly Semitic names of the Amsbashpands or angels, called Bahman and Ardebehisht, two of the seven spirits which stood around the throne of Ormazd.
page 101 note 1 Bib. Ency. Art. Chald. Phil. Rosh Hashoneh, p. 56.
“Les noms des anges et des mois, tels que Gabriel, Michel, Yar, Nisan, &c, vinrent de Babylone avec les Juifs.”—Talmud de Jerusalem.
Beausobre, Hist, du Manicli. torn, ii, p. 264, maintains that the saints of the calendar were imitated from the 365 angels of the Persians. “Yamblique (Iamblichus) dans les Mystères Egyptiens (sec 2. cap. 3) parle des Anges, Archangea et Seraphins comme un vrai Chrétien.” Quoted by Volney, vol. ii., p. 355.
page 101 note 2 It is curious that on one of Mr. E. Thomas's Sassanian Gems, (No. 21, Vol. XIII., p. 419, Journal of Royal Asiatic Society,) la a winged bull with the PeliM legend: “Satan atoore,” or “Assyrian Satan.”
page 101 note 3 Cudworth's Intellectual System, vol. i, p. 354.
page 102 note 1 Gesenius's Hebrew Dictionary—Art. Karab—identifies them with the cherubim.
page 102 note 3 Annales Archéologiques, vol viii. p. 6.
page 103 note 1 Adv. Hæres., iii. 2.
page 103 note 2 Date of Jamshid b.c. 800 according to sir. W. Jones; B.& 3499 according to Firdúsi.
page 103 note 3 Ker Porter, p. 516.
page 104 note 1 Ancient Egyptians, vol. i., p. 416, Second Series.
page 104 note 2 There were three kinds of sphinxes in Egypt: 1. the Andro-sphinx, or manlion; 2. Crio-sphinx, with the head of a ram and body of a lion; 3. the Hierosphinx, with the head of a hawk, and the body of a lion.
page 104 note 3 The head-dresses are different: some have one horn, some two, and some three. Some have round caps, and some square.
page 104 note 4 He says there are traces at Ecbatana, the capital of Media, of the same style of architecture.
page 105 note 1 The Greeks, Aristotle, Eudoxus, Hermippus, Hermodorus, &c,, place Zoroaster about 6000 b.c. Moreri, Bayle, &c., say that he ruled in Bactria in the time of Ninus (2200 B.C), D'Herbelot, in the age of Feridun (1729 b.c.) According to Firdusi, a Zoroaster, the last of his name, lived in the time of Gushtasp, about 500 b.c. according to some, 800 b.c. according to others.
page 105 note 2 In India, however, the year never began with Taurus. The Indians borrowed the symbol, with the rest of the Zodiac, from the West.—Bentley's Hindoo Astronomy.
page 105 note 3 Layard, vol. i., p. 290.
page 105 note 4 Davis's Mythology of the Druids, p. 139.
page 105 note 5 Ibid., p. 219.
page 105 note 6 Bahram was the Ized of victory among the Persians.
page 106 note 1 Vide Richardson's Dictionary.
page 106 note 2 Hence low, Jove, Jupiter?
page 106 note 3 Payne Knight's Inquiry into the Symbolieal language of Art and Mythology, p. 22–3.
page 106 note 4 
Tor: Ezra, vi. 9. 17; Daniel, iv. 25.
page 106 note 5 Landseer appears to have thought that the Eagle occupied the place of Scorpio, or the autumnal equinox, in the earliest zodiacs.
page 106 note 6 Volney says 388 b.c. (tome I, p. 333).
page 107 note 1 Mechanism of the Heavens, p. 396.
page 107 note 2 This would be about 200 years before the Flood according to Usher's calculation, or 2340 b.c.; but 600 years 'after it, according to Hales, Jackson, and the Septuagint. Pliny, Hist. Nat. VII., 57, says that astronomical observations wen) found at Babylon by Alexander, and sent to Aristotle, of a date corresponding to 2200 b.c. Menes, first king of Egypt, reigned 2320 b.c. Ancient Egypt, vol. i., p. 41.
page 107 note 3 M. Jomard, in his Description d'Egypte, tome i., p. 260, says there is a tableau in the Tombs of the Kings at Thebes, with the equinoxes exactly in this position.
page 107 note 4 Ancient Egyptians, vol. ii., Second Series, p. 315.
page 108 note 1 Vide oblong zodiac of Dendera; also, Ancient Egyptians, vol. ii, Second Series, p. 257. The worship of the Scarabæus was therefore the worship of the sun at the summer solstice.
page 109 note 1 Ker Porter, p. 688.
page 109 note 2 The ring or circle in his hand, is the symbol of dominion; and the girdle, the costi or cincture of a priest. Heeren, p. 216.
page 109 note 3 Ancient Egypt, vol. i, p. 398, Second Series.
page 110 note 1 Journal Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. XII., p. 426.
page 110 note 2 In the inscriptions of Behistun, Darius, being a Persian, declares all his eonqnests to have been made with the aid of Ormazd.
page 110 note 3 The Persian names of the planets were:—
The twelve months, and the thirty days of each month, had also their Izeds, or Angels; but their names seem derived ohiefiy from those of the planets, and the four elements. Vide Dabistan.
page 111 note 1 This name is very like “Twashtri,” one of the seven Adityas mentioned in the Rig Veda. Mitra, one of the Persian Izeds, also appears as one of the' Adityas. Bishen, one of the twenty-eight Persian lunar mansion, may be the Bishan or Vishnu of the Hindus; and Oziren, guardian of the third hour after noon, is not unlike Osiris.
page 112 note 1 Niebuhr, in his Lectures, says, that Gushtasp cannot be identified with Darius Hystaspes, so that this date is very uncertain. Heeren thinks the date should be 800 b.c. if not earlier.—Vol. i, p. 241.
page 112 note 2 In the ancient Egyptian planisphere given by Kircher, Typhon, or a man with legs terminating in a fish's tail, and supported by two staves, is represented in place of Scorpio. Sir W. Drummond, in his Œdipus Judaicus, p. 126, says that the Jews substituted the eagle for the scorpion, the latter being a sign accursed.
page 112 note 3 Hyde, p. 261: and Dabistan, vol. i, p. 287.
page 113 note 1 When on Al Sirat'a arch I stood,
Which totters o'er the fiery flood,
With Paradise within my view,
And all its houris beckoning through.”—Byron.
page 114 note 1 In the Egyptian Zodiac, constructed by the second Hermes, the figure of Dagon, half-man and half-fish, is inserted in the place of Pisces. Vide Kircher.
page 114 note 2 Landseer was of opinion that the “asherahs” of the Jews, improperly translated “groves,” were a kind of orrery for determining the position of the planets. Josephus states, that the seven branches of the great candlestick in the Temple, symbolized the seven planets.
page 115 note 1 Sir W. Drummond, quoted by Landseer, p.282.
page 116 note 2 Bunsen, p. 497.
page 116 note 3 Diogenes Laertius (in Proemio) says, that Aristotle declared that Jove was identical with Ormazd, and Pluto with Ahriman. Quoted by Volney, p. 61, vol. v.
page 116 note 4 The Preserver and Destroyer. May not this be another version of Ormazd and Ahriman?
page 116 note 5 Bentley.
page 116 note 6 It is worthy of remark, that the Chaldsean tradition of Berosus limits the deluge to the valley of the Euphrates, which is more in conformity with the conclusions of geologists than the account in Genesis. The Persians have no tradition of any deluge.
page 116 note 7 The Chaldsean name of “Kronos” is not given either by Syncellus or Eusebius, in their respective traditions.
page 117 note 1 M. Burnouf, in his Commentaire sur le Yaçna, p. 71, says, that the true reading of Ormazd is “Ahura-mazda” or “the great Ahura;” and that M.Bopp, has stated that Ahura is a regular transformation of the Sanskrit “Asura.” If so, the god of Nineveh and the god of Persia may be identical, differing only in the pronunciation of the name. It is remarkable, that one of the names of God among the British Druids was “Al Adur,” the glorious.—Davies' Mythology p. 528.