Worlds in Collision
by Immanuel Velikovsky
CHAPTER 9
[ Pallas Athene ]
In every country of the ancient world we can trace· cosmological myths of the birth of the planet Venus. If we look for the god or goddess who represents the planet Venus, we must inquire which among the gods or goddesses did not exist from the beginning, but was born into the family. The mythologies of all peoples concern them• selves with the birth only of Venus, not with that of Jupiter, Mars, or Saturn. Jupiter is described as heir to Saturn, but his birth is not a mythological subject. Horus of the Egyptians and Vishnu, born of Shiva, of the Hindus, were such newborn deities. Horus battled in the sky with the monster-serpent Seth; so did Vishnu. In Greece the goddess who suddenly appeared in the sky was Pallas Athene. She sprang from the head of Zeus-Jupiter. In another legend she was the daughter of a monster, Pallas-Typhon, who attacked her and whom she battled and killed.
The slaying of the monster by a planet-god is the way in which the peoples perceived the convulsion of the pillar of smoke when the earth and the comet Venus disturbed each other in their orbits, and the head of the comet and its tail leaped against each other in violent electrical discharges.
The birth of the planet Athene is sung in the Homeric hymn dedicated to her, "the glorious goddess, virgin, Tritogeneia." When she was born, the vault of the sky-the great Olympus-"began to reel horribly," "earth round about cried fearfully," "the sea was moved and tossed with dark waves, while foam burst forth suddenly," and the sun stopped for "a long while." 1 The Greek text speaks of "purple waves" 2 and of "the sea [that] rises up like a wall," and the sun stopping in its course.3
Aristocles said that Zeus hid the unborn Athene in a cloud and then split it open with lightning,4 which is the mythological way to describe the appearance of a celestial body from the pillar of cloud.
Athene, or Latin Minerva, is called Tritogeneia ( or Tritonia) after the Lake Triton.5 This lake disappeared in a catastrophe in Africa when it broke into the ocean, leaving the desert of Sahara behind it, a catastrophe connected with the birth of Athene.
Diodorus,6 referring to undisclosed older authorities, says that Lake Triton in Africa "disappeared from sight in the course of an earthquake, when those parts of it which lay toward the ocean were torn asunder." This account implies that a great Jake or marsh in Africa, separ!lted from the Atlantic Ocean by a mountainous barrier, disappeared when the barrier was broken or lowered in a catastrophe. Ovid says that Libya became a desert in consequence of Phaethon's conflagration.
In the Iliad it is said that Pallas Athene "darted down to earth a gleaming star" with sparks springing from it; it darted as a star "sent by Jupiter to be a portent for seamen or for a wide host of warriors, a gleaming star." 7 Athene's counterpart in the Assyro-Babylonian pantheon is Astarte (Ishtar) who shatters mountains, "bright torch of heaven" at whose appearance "heaven and earth quake," who causes darkness and appears in a hurricane.8 Like Astarte (Ashteroth-Karnaim), Athene was pictured with horns. "Athena, daughter of Zeus . . . upon her head she set the helmet with two horns," said Homer.9 Pallas Athene is identified with Astarte (Ishtar) or the planet Venus of the Babylonians. 10 Anaitis of the Iranians, too, is identified as Pallas Athene and as the planet Venus. 11
Plutarch identified Minerva of the Romans or Athene of the Greeks with Isis of the Egyptians, and Pliny identified the planet Venus with Isis.12
It is necessary to recall this here because it is generally supposed that the Greeks had no deity of importance who personified the planet Venus 13 and that, on the other hand, they "did not find even a star in which to place" Athene.14 Modem books on the mythology of the Greeks repeat today what Cicero wrote: "Venus, called in Greek Phosphorus and in Latin Lucifer when it preceded the sun, but when it follows it Hesperos." 15 Phosphorus does not play any role on Olympus. But following Cicero in his description of the planets, we read also of "the planet called Saturn's, the Greek name of which is Phaenon," though we know a more common 'name, Cronus, by which the Greeks called the planet Saturn. Cicero gives the Greek names of other planets which are not the common ones. It is therefore entirely wrong to think that Phosphorus and Hesperos are the chief or only names of the planet Venus in Greek. Athene, in whose honor the city of Athens was named, was the planet Venus. Next to Zeus she was the most honored deity of the Greeks. The name Athene in Greek, according to Manetho, "is indication of self-originated movement." He wrote of the name Athene as meaning, "I came from myself." 16 Cicero, speaking of Venus, explained the origin of the name thus: "Venus was so named by our countrymen as the goddess who 'comes' [venire] to all things." 17 The name Vishnu signifies "pervader," from the Sanskrit vish, to "enter" or "pervade."
The birth of Athene was assigned to the middle of the second millennium. Augustine wrote: "Minerva [AtheneJ is reported to have appeared in the times of Ogyges." This statement is found· in The City of God,18 is the book containing the quotation from Varro that the planet Venus changed its course and form in the time of Ogyges. Augustine also synchronized Joshua with the time of Minerva's activities.19
The cover of carbonigenous clouds in which the earth was enveloped by the comet is the "robe ambrosial" wrought by Athene for Hera (Earth) 20 The source of ambrosia was closely connected with Athene.21 The origin of Athene as a comet is implied in her epithet Pallas which, as is commonly known, is synonymous with Typhon: Typhon, as Pliny said, was a comet.
The bull and the cow, the goat and the serpent, were animals dedicated to Athene. "The goat being usually tabooed but chosen as an exceptional victim for her," the animal was annually sacrificed on the Acropolis of Athens.22 With the Israelites the goat was the victim for Azazel, or Lucifer.
In the Babylonian calendar "the nineteenth day of all months is marked 'day of wrath' of goddess Gula (Ishtar). No work was done. Weeping and lamentation filled the land. Any explanation of dies irae of Babylonia must be sought in some myth concerning the nineteenth of -the first month. Why should the nineteenth day after the moon of the spring equinox be a day of wrath? . • • It corresponds to the quinquatrus of the Roman tanner's calendar, the nineteenth of March, five days after the full moon. Ovid says that Minerva was born on that day, she being the Pal- ,, las Athene of the Greeks." 23 The nineteenth of March was Minerva's day.
The first appearance of Athene-Minerva took place on the day the Israelites crossed the Red Sea. The night between the thirteenth and the fourteenth days of the first month after the vernal equinox was the night of the great earthshock; six days later, on the last day of Passover week, according to the Hebrew tradition, the waters were heaped up like mountains. and the fugitives crossed on the dry bed of the sea. !
The birth of Panas Athene or her first visit to earth was the cause of a cosmic disturbance, and the memory of that catastrophe was a day of wrath in all the calendars of ancient Chaldea."
[ Zeus and Athene ]
If there was a problem in this research which caused prolonged deliberation on the part of the author, it was the question: Was it the planet Jupiter or Venus that caused the catastrophe of the time of Exodus? Some ancient mythological sources point to Venus, other sources point to Jupiter. In one group of legends Jupiter (Zeus) is the protagonist of the drama: he leaves his place in the sky, rushes to battle Typhon, and strikes him with thunderbolts. But other legends and historical sources, too, which I have quoted on previous pages indicate that it was the planet Venus, or Pallas Athene of the Greeks. Athene killed her father, Typhon-Pallas, the celestial monster, and the description of this battle is not different from that of the battle in which Zeus killed Typhon.
Under the weight of many arguments, I came to the conclusion-about which J. no longer have any doubt-that it was the planet Venus, at the time still a comet, that caused the catastrophe of the days of Exodus. Then why do a part of the legends tie up this event with Jupiter?
The cause of this duality in the mythological handling of an historical event lies in the fact that the ancients themselves did not know for certain .which of the planets had caused the destruction. Some saw the pillar of cloud Typhon defeated by Jupiter, the ball of fire that emerged from the pillar and battled with it. Others interpreted the globe as a body different from Jupiter.
The Greek authors described the birth of Athene (planet Venus), saying she sprang from the bead of Jupiter. "And mighty Olympus trembled fearfully and the earth around shrieked fearfully, and the sea was stirred, troubled with its purple waves." 24 One or two authors thought that Athene was born of Cronus. But the consensus of ancient authors makes Athene-Venus the offspring of Jupiter: she sprang from his head, and this birth was accompanied by great disturbances in the celestial and terrestrial spheres. The comet rushed toward the earth, and it could not be very well distinguished whether the planet Jupiter or its offspring was approaching. I may divulge here something that belongs to the second book of this work; namely, that at an earlier time, Jupiter had already caused havoc in the planetary family, the earth included and it was therefore only natural to see in the approaching body the planet Jupiter.
I referred in the introductory part of this work to the modern theory which ascribes the birth of the terrestrial planets to the process of expulsion by larger ones. This appears to be true in the case of Venus. The other modem theory, which ascribes the origin of comets of short period to expulsion by large planets, is also correct: Venus was expelled as a comet and then changed to a planet after contact with a number of members of the solar system.
Venus, being an offspring of Jupiter bore all the characteristics known to men from early cataclysmic encounters. When a ball of fire tore the pillar of cloud and pelted the pillar with thunderbolts, the imagination of the people saw in this the planet-god Jupiter-Marduk rushing to save the earth by killing the serpent monster Typhon Tiamat.
It is not strange, therefore, that, in places as remote from Greece as the islands of Polynesia, it is related that "the planet Jupiter suppressed the tail of the great storm." 25 But we are told that in the same places, notably on the Harvey Islands, "Jupiter was often mistaken for the Morning Star." 26 On other islands of Polynesia, "the planets Venus and Jupiter seem to have been confused with each other." Explorers found "that the name Fauma or Paupiti was given to Venus and that the same names were given to Jupiter." 27
Early astronomy shared Ptolemy's opinion that "Venus has the same powers" and. also the nature of Jupiter,28 an opinion reflected also in the astrological belief that "Venus, when she becomes sole ruler of the event, in general brings about results similar to those of Jupiter." 29
In one local cult in Egypt the name of Isis, as I shall show in the n·ext volume, originally belonged to Jupiter, Osiris being Saturn. Io another local cult Amon was the name for Jupiter. Horus originally was also Jupiter.30 But when a new planet was born of ,Jupiter and became supreme in the sky, the onlookers could not readily recognize the exact nature of this change. They gave the name of Isis to the planet Venus, and sometimes the name of Horus. This must have caused confusion. "One is confused by the various relations which exist between · mother and son (Isis and Horus). Now he is her consort, now her brother; now a youth . . . now an infant fed at her breast." 31 "A noteworthy representation shows her [Isis] in association with Horus as the Morning Star, and thus in a strange relation which we cannot yet explain from the texts." 32
Also Ishtar of Assyria-Babylonia was in early times the name of the planet Jupiter; later it was transferred to Venus, Jupiter retaining the name of Marduk.
Baal, still another name for Jupiter, was an earlier name for Saturn, and later on became the name of Venus, sometimes the feminine form Baalath or Belith being used.33 Ishtar, also, was at first a male planet, subsequently becoming a female planet.34
[ Worship of the Morning Star ]
Now that it has been shown it was Venus which, at an interval of fifty-two years, caused two cosmic catastrophes in the fifteenth century before the present era, we understand a1so the different historical connections between Venus and these catastrophes.
In numerous biblical and rabbinic passages it is said that when the Israelites went from Mount Sinai into the desert, they were covered by clouds. These clouds were illuminated by the pillar of fire, so that they gave a pale light.35 With this should be connected a statement of Isaiah: "The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, the light of Noga was upon them.,, 36 Noga is Venus; it is, in fact, the usua1 name of this planet in Hebrew,37 and it is therefore an omission not to translate it so.
Amos says that during the forty years in the wilderness the Israelites did not sacrifice to the Lord, but carried "the star of your god, which you made to yourselves." 38 St. Jerome interprets this "star of your god" as Lucifer.(the Morning Star) 39
What image of, the star was carried in the wilderness? Was it the bull (calf) of Aaron or the brazen serpent of Moses? "And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole." 40 Of this serpent it is said that it was made with the purpose of providing a cure for those bitten by snakes.41 Seven and a half centuries later this brazen serpent of Moses was broken by. King Hezekiah, guided in his monotheistic zeal by the prophet Isaiah, "for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it." 42
The brazen serpent was most probably the image of the pillar of cloud and fire which appeared as a moving serpent to an peoples of the world. St. Jerome apparently had this image in view when he interpreted the star mentioned by Amos as Lucifer. Or was it the "star of David," the six-pointed star?
The Egyptian Venus-Isis, the Babylonian Venus"'.Ishtar, the Greek Venus-Athene were goddesses pictured with serpents, and sometimes represented as dragons. "Ishtar, the fearful dragon," wrote Assurbanipal.43
The Morning Star of the Toltecs, Quetzalcoatl (Quetzalcoatl), also is represented as a great dragon or serpent: "cihuatl" in Nahuatl is "serpent," and the name means "a feathered serpent." 44 The Morning Star of the Indians of the Cliichimcc tribe in Mexico is called "Serpent cloud," 45 a remarkable name because ·of its relation to the pillar of cloud and the clouds that covered· the globe after the contact of the earth with Venus.
When Quetzalcoatl, the lawgiver of the Toltecs, disappeared on the approach of a great catastrophe and the Morning Star that bore the same name rose for the first time in the sky, the Toltecs "regulated the reckoning of the days, the nights, and the hours according to the difference in the time." 46
The people of Ugarit (Ras-Shamra) in Syria addressed Anat, their planet Venus: "You reverse the position of the dawn in the sky." 47 In the Mexican Codex Borgia, the Evening Star is represented with the solar disc on its back.48
In the Babylonian psalms Ishtar says: 49
By causing the heavens to tremble and the earth to quake, By the gleam which lightens in the sky, By the blazing fire which rains upon the hostile land, I am Ishtar. Ishtar am I by the light that arises in heaven, Ishtar the queen of heaven am I by the light that arises in heaven.
I am Ishtar; on high I journey • • • The heavens I cause to quake, the earth I cause to shake, That is my fame. • • •
She that lightens in the horizon of heaven, Whose name is honored in the habitations of men, That is my fame. "Queen of heaven above and beneath" let be spoken, That is my fame. The mountains I overwhelm altogether, That is my fame.
The Morning-Evening Star Ishtar was called also "the· star of lamentation." 50
The Persian Mithra, the same as Tistrya, descended from the heavens and "let a stream of fire flow toward the earth," "signifying that a blazing star, becoming in some way present here below, filled our world with its devouring heat." 51
In Aphaca in Syria fire fell from the sky, and it was asserted that it fell from Venus: "by which one would think of fire that had fallen from the planet Venus;" 52 The place became holy and was visited each year by pilgrims.
The festivals of the planet Venus were held in the spring. Qur ancestors dedicated the month of April to Venus," wrote Macrobius.53
Baal of the Canaanites and of the Northern Kingdom of Israel was worshiped in Dan, the city of the cult of the calf, and throngs visited there during the week of Passover. The cult of Venus spread to Judea also. According to II
Kings (23 : 5), King Josiah in the seventh century "put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah bad ordained to bum incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to aJl the host of heaven." Baal, the sun, the moon, and the planets, is the division used also by Democritus: Venus, the sun, the moon, and the planets.
In Babylonia the planet Venus was distinguished from other planets and worshiped as a member of a trinity: Venus, Moon, and Sun.54 This triad became the Babylonian holy trinity in the fourteenth century before the present era.55
In the Vedas the planet Venus is compared to a bull: "As a bull thou hurlest thy fire upon earth and heaven." 56 The Morning Star of the Phoenicians and Syrians was Ashteroth-Karnaim, Astarte of the Horns. Belith of Sidon was likewise Venus, and jezebel, wife of Ahab, made her the chief deity of the Northern Kingdom.57 The "queen of heaven," referred to repeatedly by Jeremiah, was Venus. The women of Jerusalem made cakes for the queen of heaven and worshiped her from the roofs of their houses.58
On Cyprus it was neither Jupiter nor any other god but "Kypris Queen whom they with holy gifts were wont to appease . . . pouring libations out upon the ground of yellow honey." 59 Such libation, as already mentioned, was made in Athens in commemoration -of the Flood of Deucalion.
Not long ago, in Polynesia, human sacrifices were offered to the Morning Star, Venus.60 To the Arabian Morning Star, queen of the heaven-al-Uzza--boys and girls were sacrificed down to modern times.61 Likewise, human sacrifices were brought to the Morning Star in Mexico; this was described by early Spanish authors,62 and was still practiced by Indians· only a generation ago.63 Quetzalcoatl "was called the god of winds" and of "flames of fire"; 64 the Greek Athene, too, was not only the planet, but also the goddess of storm and fire. The planet Venus was Lux Divina, the Divine Light, in the worship of the Roman imperial colonies.65
In Babylonia, Venus was pictured as a six-pointed star which is also the shape of David's shield--or as a pentagram -a five-pointed star (seal of Solomon)-and sometimes as a cross; as a cross it was pictured in Mexico, too.
The attributes and deeds of the Morning Star were not invented by the peoples of the world: this star shattered mountains, shook the globe with such a violence that it looked as if the heavens were shaking, was a storm, a cloud, a fire, a heavenly dragon, a torch, and a blazing star, and it rained naphtha on the earth.
Assurbanipal speaks of Ishtar-Venus, "who is clothed with fire and bears aloft a crown of awful splendor, [and who] rained fire over Arabia." 66 It has been shown previously that the comet of the days of the Exodus rained naphtha over Arabia.
In the attributes and in the deeds ascribed to the planet Venus-Isis, Ishtar, Athene-we recognize the attributes and deeds of the comet described in the earlier sections of this book.
[ The Sacred Cow ]
The comet Venus, of which it is said that "horns grew out of her head," or Astarte of the horns, Venus cornuta, looked like the head of a horned animal; and since it moved the earth out of its place, like a bull with its horns, the planet Venus was pictured as a bull.
The worship of a bullock was introduced by Aaron at the foot of Mount Sinai. The cult of A pis originated· in Egypt in the days of the Hyksos, after the end of the Middle Kingdom,67 shortly after the Exodus. Apis, or the sacred bull, was very much venerated in Egypt; when a sacred bull died, its body was mummified and placed in a sarcophagus with royal honors, and memorial services were held. "All the coffins and everything excellent and profitable for this august god (the bull Apis)" were prepared by the Pharaoh, 68 when "this god was conducted in peace to the necropolis, to let him assume his place in his temple." 191s
The worship of a cow or bull was widespread in Minoan Crete and in Mycenaean Greece, for golden ~mages of this animal with large horns were found in excavations.
Isis, the planet Venus,69 was represented as a human figure with two horns, like Astarte (Ishtar) of the horns; and sometimes it was fashioned in the likeness of a cow. In time, Ishtar changed from male to female, and in many places worship of the bull changed to worship of the cow. The main reason for this seems to have been the fall of manna which turned the rivers into streams of honey and milk. A homed planet that produced milk most closely resembled a cow. In the Hymns of the Atharva-Veda, in which the ambrosia that falls from the sky is glorified, the god is exalted as the "great cow'' which "drips with streams of milk" and as "a bull" that "hurls thy fire upon earth and heaven." 70 A passage of the Ramayana about the "celestial cow" says: "Honey she gave, and roasted grain . . . and curled milk, and soup in lakes with sugared milk," 71 which is the Hindu version of "rivers of milk and honey."
The "celestial cow" or "the heavenly Surabhi" ("the fragrant") was the daughter of the Creator: she "sprung from his mouth"; at' the same time nectar and "excellent perfume" were spread, according to the Indian epic. 72 This description of the birth of the daughter from the mouth of the Creator is a Hindu parallel of Athene springing from the head of Zeus. Fragrance and nectar are mentioned in connection with the birth of the celestial cow, a combination that can be understood if we recall what we learned in the Sections "Ambrosia" and "Birth of the Planet Venus."
Down to the present day, the Brahmans worship the cow. Cows are regarded as daughters of the "heavenly cow." In India, as in other places, the worship of cows began in some period of recorded history. "We find in early Hindu literature sufficient information to establish the thesis that cows were once victimised at sacrifices and used at times as articles of food" 73 Then came the change. Cows became sacred animals, and ever since the religious law has forbidden the use of their meat for food. The AtharvaVeda repeatedly deprecates cow-killing as "the most heinous of crimes." "All that kill, eat or permit the slaughter of cows rot in hell for as many years as there are hairs on the body of the cow slain." 74 Capital punishment was prescribed for those who either stole, hurt, or killed a cow. "Whoever hurts or causes another to hurt, or steals or causes another to steal, a cow, should be slain." Even cows' urine and dung are sacred to the Brahmans. "All its excreta are hallowed. Not a particle ought to be thrown away as impure. On the contrary, the water it ejects ought to be preserved as the best of holy waters. . . . Any spot which a cow has condescended to honour with the sacred deposit of her excrement is forever afterwards consecrated ground." 75 Sprinkled oil a sinner, it "converts him into a saint."
The bull is sacred to Shiva, "the god of destruction in the Hindu Trinity.'' "The consecration of the bulls and Jetting them loose as privileged beings to roam at their will and draw respect from all people is to be noted with particular interest. . . . The freedom and privileges of the Brahman bull are inviolate." Even when it is destructive, the bull must not be restrained.76
These quotations show the Apis cult preserved until our times. The "celestial cow" that gored the earth with its horns and turned rivers and Jakes into honey and milk is still revered in the common cow and bull by hundreds of millions of the people of India.
[ Baal Zevuv Beelzebub ]
The beautiful Morning Star was related to Ahriman, Seth, Lucifer, name equivalents of Satan. It was also Baal of the Canaanites and of the Northern Kingdom of the Ten Tribes, the god hated by the biblical prophets, also Beelzebub or Baal Zevuv, or Baal.of the fly.
In the Pahlavi text of the Iranian book, the Bundahis, describing the catastrophes caused by celestial bodies, it is written that at the close of one of the world ages "the evil spirit [Ahriman] went toward the luminaries." He stood upon one-third of the inside of the sky, and he sprang, like a snake, out of the sky doY{n to the earth." It was the dRy of the vernal equinox. "He rushed in at noon," and "the sky was shattered and frightened." "Like a fly, he rushed out upon the whole creation, and he injured the world and made it dark at midday as though it were in dark night. And noxious creatures were diffused by him over the earth, biting and venomous, such as the snake, scorpion, frog, and lizard, so that not so much as the point of a needle remained free from noxious creatures." 77
Then the Bundahis proceeds: "The planets, with many demons [comets], dashed against the celestial sphere, and they mixed the constellations; and the whole creation was as disfigured as though fire disfigured every place and smoke arose over it."
A similar plague of vermin is described in the Scriptures, in Exodus, Chapters 8 to 10, and also in Psalm 78 where it is told that there were sent "divers sorts of flies among them [the people of Egypt], which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them." Their labor was given to the caterpillar and the Ioc·ust. "The dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt." 78 "And there came a grievous swarm of flies . . . into all the land of Egypt." 79 The second, third, fourth, and eighth plagues were caused by vermin. The plague of eruv, "swarms of flies" of the King James Version, is translated in the Septuagint, "a stinging fly," and Philo calls it "the dog-fly," a ferocious insect;80 it is also called gnat" by the rabbis. Psalm 105 narrates that darkness was sent upon the country and "locusts came, and caterpillars, and that without number, and did eat up all the herbs." "Their land brought forth frogs in abundance, in the chambers of their kings," and "there came divers. sorts of flies, and lice in all their coasts."
The Amalekites left Arabia because of "ants of the smallest kind" and wandered toward Canaan and Egypt at the same time that the Israelites went from Egypt toward the desert and Canaan.
In the Chinese annals describing the time of Yahou, from which I quoted previously, it is said that when the sun did not set for ten days and the forests of China were destroyed by fire, multitudes of loathsome vermin were bred in the entire land.
During their wanderings in the desert, the Israelites were plagued by serpents.81 A generation later, hornets preceded the Israelites under Joshua, plaguing the land of Canaan and driving entire nations from their domiciles. 82
The inhabitants of the islands in the South Seas relate that when the clouds lay only a few feet from the ground and "the sky was so close to the earth that men could not walk," "myriads of dragonflies with their wings severed the clouds confining the heavens to the earth.'' 83
After the close of the Middle Kingdom, the Egyptian standard bore the emblem of a fly.
When Venus sprang out of Jupiter as a comet and flew very close to the earth, it became entangled in the embrace of the earth. The internal heat developed by the earth and the scorching gases of the comet were in themselves sufficient to make the vermin of the earth propagate at a very feverish rate. Some of the plagues, like the plague of the frogs ("the land brought forth frogs") or of the locusts, must be ascribed to such causes. Anyone who has experienced a khamsin (sirocco), an electrically charged wind blowing from the desert, knows how, during the few days that the wind blows, the ground · around the villages begins to teem with vermin. 84
The question arises here whether or not the comet Venus infested the earth with vermin which it may have carried in its trailing atmosphere in the form of larvae together with stones and gases. It is significant that all around the world peoples have associated the· planet Venus with flies.
In Ekron, in the land of the Philistines, there was erected a magnificent temple to Baal Zevuv, the god of the fly. In the ninth century King Ahaziah of JezreeL, after he was injured in an accident, sent his emissaries to ask advice of this god at Ekron and not of the oracle at Jerusalem. 85 This Baal Zevuv is Beelzebub of the Gospels.86
Ahriman, the god of darkness who battled with Ormuzd, the god of light, is compared in the Bundahis to a fly. Of the flies that filled the earth buried in gloom it is said: "His multitudes of flies scatter themselves over the world that is poisoned through and through." 87
Ares (Mars) in the Iliad calls Athene "dog-fly." "The gods clashed with a mighty din, and the wide earth rang, and round about great heaven pealed as with a trumpet." And Ares spoke to Athene: "Wherefor~ now again, thou dog-fly, art making gods to clash with gods in strife?" 88
The Zend-Avesta, describing the battle of Tistrya, "the leader of the stars against the planets" (Darmesteter), refers to worm-stars that "fly between the earth and heaven!," and that supposedly signify the meteorites.91 Possibly it Is a reference to their infesting property.
This idea of contaminating comets is found in a belief of the Mexicans described by Sahagun: "The Mexicans called the comet citlalin popoca which means a smoking star. . . . These natives called the tail of such a star citlalin tlamina, exhalation of the comet; or, literally, 'the star shoots a dart.' They believed that when such a dart fell on a living organism, a hare, a rabbit, or any other animal, worms suddenly formed in the wound and made the animal unfit to serve as food. It was for this reason that they took great care to cover themselves during the night so as to protect themselves from this inflaming emanation."92
The Mexicans thus thought that larvae from the emanation of the comet fell-on all living things. As l have already mentioned, they called Venus a "smoking star." Sahagun says also that at the rising· of the Morning Star, the Mexicans used to shut the chimneys and other apertures in order to prevent mishap from penetrating into the house together with the light of the star.93
The persistence with which the planet Venus is associated. with a fly in the traditions of the peoples of both hemispheres, also the emblems carried by the Egyptian priests and the temple services conducted in honor of the planet-god "of the fly," create the impression that the flies in the tail of Venus were not merely the earthly brood, swarming in heat like other vermin, but guests from another planet.
The old question, whether there is life on other planets, bas been debated time and again without much progress.94 Atmospheric and thermal conditions are so different on other planets that it seems incredible that the same forms of life exist there as on the earth; on the other hand, it is wrong to conclude that there is no life on them at all.
Modern biologists toy with the idea that microorganisms arrive on the earth from interstellar spaces, carried by the pressure of light. Hence, the idea of the arrival of living organisms from interplanetary spaces is not new. Whether there is truth in this supposition of larval contamination. of the earth is anyone's guess. The ability of many small insects and their larvae to endure great cold and heat and to Jive in an atmosphere devoid of oxygen renders not entirely improbable the hypothesis that Venus (and also Jupiter, from which Venus sprang) may .be populated by vermin.
[ Venµs in the Folklore of the Indians ]
Primitive peoples often are bound by inflexible customs and beliefs that date back hundreds of generations. The traditions of many primitive races speak of a "lower sky" in the past, a "larger sun," a swifter movement of the sun across the firmament, a shorter day that became longer after the sun was arrested on its path.
World conflagration is a frequent motif in folklore. According to the Indians of the Pacific coast of North America the "shooting star" and the "fire drill" set the world aflame. In the burning world one "could see nothing but waves of flames; rocks were burning, the ground was burning, everything was burning. Great rolls and piles of smoke were rising; fire flew up toward the sky in flames, in great sparks and brands .... The great fire was blazing, roaring all over the earth, burning rocks, earth, trees, people, burning everything. . . . Water rushed in . . . it rushed in like a crowd of rivers, covered the earth, and put out the fire as it rolled on toward the south. . . . Water rose mountain high." A celestial monster flew with "a whistle in his mouth; as he moved forward he blew it with all his might, and made a terrible noise. . . . He came flowing and blowing; he looked like an enormous bat with wings spread . . . [his] feathers waved up and down, [and] grew till they could touch the sky on both sides." 95
The shooting star that made the earth into a sea of flames, the terrible noise, the water that rose mountain high, and the appearance of a monster in the sky, like Typhon or a dragon, all these elements were not brought together in this Indian narrative by sheer invention; they belong together.
The Wichita, an Indian tribe of Oklahoma, tell the following story of "The Deluge and the Re-peopling of the Earth": 96 "There came to the people some signs; which showed that there was something in the north that looked like clouds; and the fowl of the air came, and the animals of the plains and woods were seen. All of this indicated that something was to happen. The clouds that were seen in the north were a deluge. The deluge was all over the face of the earth."
The water monsters succumbed. Only four giants remained, but they fell, too, each on bis face. "The one in the south as he was falling said that the direction he fell should be called south." Toe other giant said that "the direction in which he was falling should be called west-Where-the sun-goes." The third fell and named the direction of his fall north; the last called his direction "east-Where-the-sunrises."
Only a few men survived. The wind also survived on the face of the earth; everything else was destroyed. A child was born to a woman (from the wind), a Dream-girl. The girl grew rapidly. A boy child was born to her. "He told his people that be would go in the direction. of the east, and he was to become the Morning Star."
This tale sounds like an incoherent story, but let us note its various elements: "something in the north that looked like clouds" which made people and animals huddle together in apprehension of an approaching catastrophe; wild beasts emerging from the forests and coming to human abodes; an engulfing tide that destroyed everything, even the monster animals; the determination of the new four quarters of the horizon; a generation later the birth of the Morning Star.
This combination of elements cannot be accidental; all these events, and in the same sequence, were found to have occurred in the middle of the second millennium before the present era.
The Indians of the Cherokee tribe on the Gulf Coast tell: "It was too hot. The sun was put 'a band breadth' higher in the air, but it was still too hot. Seven times the sun was lifted higher and higher under the sky arch, until it became cooler," 97
In eastern Africa we can trace the same tradition. ln very old times· the sky was very close to the earth."98
The Kaska tribe in the interior of British Columbia relate: "Once a long time ago the sky was very close to the earth." 99 The sky was pushed up and the weather changed.
The sun, after being stopped on its way across the firmament, "became small, and small it has remained since then." 100
Here is a story, told to Shelton by the Snohomish tribe on Puget Sound, about the origin of the exclamation "Yahu," 101 to which I have already referred briefly. 'A long time ago, when all the animals were still human beings, the sky was very low; It was so low that the people could not stand erect . . . They called a meeting together and discussed bow they could raise the sky. But they were at a loss to know how to do so. No one was strong enough to lift the sky. Finally the idea ·occurred to them that possibly the sky might be moved by the combined efforts of the people, if all of them pushed against it at the same time. But then the question arose of how it would be possible to make all the people exert their efforts at exactly the same moment. For the different peoples would be far away from one another, some would be in this part of the world, others in another part. Vilbat signal could be given that all people would lift at precisely the same time? Finally, the word Yahul' was invented for this purpose. It was decided that all the people should shout 'Yahu!' together, and then exert their whole strength in lifting the sky. In accordance with this, the people equipped themselves with poles, braced them against the ,ky, and then all shouted 'Yahul' in unison. Under their combined efforts the sky rose a little. ·Again the people shouted 'Yahu!' and lifted the heavy weight. They repeated this until the sky was sufficiently high." Shelton says that the word "Yahu" is used today when some heavy object like a large canoe is being lifted.
It is easy to recognize the origin of this legend. Clouds of dust and gases enveloped the earth for a long time; it seemed that the sky had descended low. The earth groaned repeatedly because of the severe twisting and dislocation it had experienced. Only slowly and gradually did the clouds lift themselves from the ground.
The clouds that enveloped the Israelites in .the desert, the trumpet-like sounds that they heard at Mount Sinai, and the gradual lifting of the clouds in the years of the Shadow of Death are the same elements that we find in this Indian legend.
Because the same elements can be recognized ·in very different settings, we can affirm that there was no borrowing from one people by another. A common experience created the stories, so dissimilar at first, and so much alike on second thought.
The story of the end of the world, .as related by the Pawnee Indians, has an important content. It was written down 102 from the mouth of an old Indian:
"We are told by the old people that the Morning Star ruled over all the minor gods in the heavens. . . . The old people told us that the Morning Star said that when the · time came for the world to end, the Moon would tum red . . . that when the Moon should turn red, the people would know that the world was coming to an end. '
'The Morning Star said further that in the beginning of all things they placed the North Star in the north, so that it should not move. . . . The Morning Star also said that in the beginning of all things they gave power to the South Star for it to move up close, once in a while, to look at the North Star to see if it were still standing in the north. If it were still standing there, it was to move back to its place. . . . When the time approached for the world to end, the South Star would come higher .... The North Star would then disappear and move away and the South Star would take possession of the earth and of the people. • • • The old people knew also that when the world was to come to an end, there were to be many signs. Among the stars would be many signs. Meteors would fly through the sky. The Moon would change its color once in a while. The Sun would also show different colors.
"My grandchild, some of the signs have come to pass. The stars have fallen among the people, but the Morning Star is still good to us, for we continue to live . . . The command for the ending of all things will be given by the North Star, and the South Star will carry out the command. . . . When the time comes for the ending of the world, the stars will again fall to the earth."
In this narrative of the Pawnee Indians, elements are brought together which, as we know now, actually belong together. The planet Venus established the present order on the earth and placed the north and south polar stars in their places. The Pawnees believe that the future destruction of the world depends on the planet Venus. When the end of the world will come, the North and South poles will change places. In the past the South Star left its place a few times and came up higher, bringing about a shifting of the poles, but on these occasions the polar stars did not reverse their positions.
The change in the color of the sun and the moon was conditioned by the presence of cometary gases between the earth and these bodies; it is referred to in the Prophets of the Scriptures. Stones falling from the sky belong to the same complex of phenomena.
The Pawnee Indians are not versed in astronomy. For one hundred and twenty generations father bas transmitted to son and grandfather to grandchild the story of the past and the signs of future destruction.
The belief that the world is endangered by the planet Venus plays an important role in the ritual of the Skidi Pawnee Indians of Nebraska.
Next in rank to Tirawa (Jupiter) stands the Morning Star. "Tirawa gave most of his power to the Morning Star." 103 "Through her four assistants, Wind, Cloud, Lightning, and Thunder, she transmitted the mandates of Tirawa to toe people upon earth." Next in rank to the Morning Star "were the gods of four world-quarters, who stood in the northeast, southeast, southwest, and northwest and supported the heavens. Next in rank was the North Star. Below these in tum were the Sun and Moon." "The greater part of the heavenly gods were identified with stars. The sacred bundle of each village was believed to have been given to its ancestors by one of these heavenly beings."
The ceremony of sacrifice to the Morning Star is the main ritual of the Pawnee Indians. It is a "dramatization of the acts performed by the Morning Star." A human offering was sacrificed when Venus "appeared especially bright or in years when there~ was a comet in the sky." The act of appeasing Venus when a comet was seen in the sky takes on clearer meaning in the light of the present research.104
The sacrificial procedure took the following form. A captive girl was turned over by her captor to a man who would howl like a wolf. She was kept by the guardian until the day of the sacrifice. "Her guardian then painted her whole body red and dressed her in a black skirt and robe. His face and hair were painted red, and a fan-shaped headdress of twelve eagle feathers was attached to his hair" "This was the costume in which the Morning Star usually appeared in visions!'
The scaffold was erected between four poles that pointed to the four quarters (northeast, southeast, southwest, northwest). A few words were pronounced about the darkness that threatened to endure forever, and in the name of the Morning Star a command was addressed to the poles to keep upright "so that you will always hold up the heavens." The chief priest then "painted the right half of her body red and the left half black. A headdress of twelve black tipped eagle feathers, arranged like a fan, was fastened on her bead."
"At the moment the Morning Star appeared, two men came forward bearing firebrands." The breast of the girl was cut open and the heart taken out, and "the guardian thrust his hand into the thoracic cavity and painted his face with the blood." The people around shot arrows into the body of the victim. "Boys too young to draw a bow were helped by their fathers or mothers." Four bundles were laid northeast, northwest, southeast, and southwest of the scaffold and were ignited.
"There seem to have been astronomical beliefs connected with the sacrifices." These human sacrifices, as described by Dorsey, were executed by the Indians only a few decades ago. They reca11 the Mexican sacrifices to the Morning Star described by the authors of the sixteenth century.
The meaning of these ceremonies and their relation to the planet Venus, especially in the years of a comet, the references to the cardinal points and to prolonged darkness, the anxiety that the sky should not fall, and even such details as the black and red colors so important in the ceremonies, become understandable now that we know the role Venus played in world upheavals.
next-204s...The Synodical Year of Venus
notes
1 "The 'Homeric Hymns to Athena" (transl. Evelyn-White) in Hesiod"s volume in the Loeb Classical Library.
2 The correct translation requires "purple waves"; see "The Homeric Hymn to Minerva" (transl. A. Buckley) in The Odyssey of Homer witlr 1he HJ·nms (1878).
3 L. R. Farnell,. The Cults of 1he Greek Slates (1896), 1. 281.
4 Ibid.
5 "Minerva ••. is reported to have appeared in virgin age in the times of Ogyges at the lake called Triton, from which she is also styled Tritonia." Augustine, The City of God, Bk. XVIII, Chap. 8.
6 Diodorus of Sicily ill. SS (transl. C. H. Oldfather).
7 Iliad iv. 75 f.
8 "A Prayer ••• to Ishtar" in Seven Tablets of Creation (transl. King); Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States, I, 2S8 ff.
9 Iliad v. 73S.
10 S. Langdon, Tammuz and Ishtar (1914), p. 97.
11 F. Cumont, Les Mysteres de Mithra (3rd- ed., 1913), p. 11 t. u
12 Plutarch, Isis and Osiris, Chap. 62: "They often call Isis by the name of Athena." See G. Rawlinson, The History of Herodotus, II, 542; Pliny, Nat11ral History, ii, 37.
13 The name Venus or Aphrodite belonged to the moon.
14 Augustine, The City of God, Bk, VII, Chap. 16. Farnell, The ,Cults of the Greek States, I, 263, discusses the various hypotheses of the physical nature of Athene and, unable to agree with any, asks: "Is there any proof that Athene, as a goddess of the Hellenic religion, ever was a personification of some part of the physical world?" Cicero De nalllra deorum i. 41, referred to a treatise by the Stoic Diogenes Babylonius, De Minerva, in which its author gave a natural explanation of the birth of Athene. The work is not extant.
15 Cicero De natura deorum ii. 53.
16 "The usage of the Egyptians is also similar: they often call Isis by the name of Athena, which expresses some such meaning as 'I came from myself,' and is indication of self-originated movement." Manetho, citt,d by Plutarch, Isis and Osiris (transl. Waddell), Chap. 62. But cf. Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States, I, 258: "Ibo meaning of the name remains unknown."
17 Cicero De natura deorum ii. 69.
18 The City of God, Bk. XVIII, Chap. 8.
19 Ibid., Bk. XVIII, Chap. 12.
20 lllad xiv. 170 ff. In the Babylonian mythology Marduk cuts Tiamat in two and makes from one part a cover or veil for the sky.
21 T. Bergk, "Die Geburt der Athene" in Fleckeisen Jahrbücher fur classische Philologie (1860), Chap. VI, refers to the relation of Athene to the "Quellen der Ambrosia" ("the sources of ambrosia"). Apollodorus (The Library) says that Athene "slayed Pallas and used his skin," which appears to refer to · the envelope of Venus that previously formed the tail of the comet.
22 Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States, I,.290.
23 Langdon, Babylonian Memologies and the Semitic Calendars (1935). pp. 86-87.
24 ''The Homeric Hymn to Minerva" (transl. Buckley) in The Odyssey of Homer with the Hymns, Cf. the translation on p. 168.
25 Williamson, Religious and Cosmic Beliefs of Central Polynesia, I, 123.
26 Ibid., p. 132. See also W. W. Gill, Myths and Songs from the South Pacific (1876), p. 44, and his Historical Sketches of Savage Life in Polynesia (1880), p. 38.
27 Williamson, I, 122. See also 1. A. Moerenhout, Voyages aux isles du Grand Oclan (1837), II, p. 181.
28 Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos (transl. F. E. Robbins, 1940), I,
29 'Ibid., II, 8.
30 S. A. B. Mercer, Horus, Royal God of Egypt (1942).
31 Langdon, Tammuz and Ishtar, p, 24.
32 W. M. Miller, Egyptian Mythology, p. 56.
33 J. Bidez and F. Cumont, Les Mages hellenists (1938), II, 116.
34 C. Bezold in F. Ball, Stem Glaube und Sterndeutung (1926), p. 9.
35 See the Section, ''The Shadow of Death."
36 Isaiah 9:2.
37 Tractate Shabbat 156a; Midrash Rabbah, Numbers 21, 245a; J. Levy, Worterbuch uber · die Talmud und Midrasch (2nd ed. 1924), s.v. In the Hindu pantheon Naga or snake gods are apparently the comets. Cf. J. Hewitt, "Notes on the Early History of Northern India," Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1827), p. 325.
38 Amos 5:26.
39 Cf. Vulgate (Latin) version of the Prophet Amos and Jerome's Commentary on the Prophets.
40 Numbers 21 :9.
41 Those who were bitten by serpents looked at the brazen serpent for cure. Can a psychosomatic relationship go such a long way? The practices of the snake worshipers lend some credence to the physiological background of Numbers 21 :9. But it is outside the scope of the present research to go into these details. The fact that Moses made an image-in violation of the second commandment of the Decalogue-is not necessarily inconsistent with his being monotheist: there are many churches today where symbolic and even human figures are deified by people who profess to be monotheists. But as time passed, the presence of the serpent of Moses in the Temple of Jerusalem became so objectionable to the spirit of the prophets that in· the days of Isaiah the serpent was broken into pieces. Even though its original purpose may have been curative, it being the image of the angel who was sent in the pillar of fire and cloud to save the people of Israel from slavery, the brazen serpent with the lapse of time became an object of worship.
42 II Kings 18:4. An astrological opinion is found in the rabbinical literature that the brazen serpent was a magic image, which obtained its power from the star under the protection of which Moses made it.
43 Langdon, Tammuz and Ishtar, p. 67.
44 Brasseur, Sources de l'histoire primitive du Mexique, pp. 81, 87. 11
45 Alexander, Lalin American Mythology, p. 87.
46 Brasseur, Histoire des nations civilisées du Mexique, I, 120.
47 Virolleaud, "La d~esse Anat," Mission de Ras Shamra, IV.
48 Seier, Wandmalereien von Milla (1895), p. 45.
49 Langdon, Sumerian and Babylonian Psalms (1909), pp. 188, 194.
50 Langdon, Tamm"z and Ishtar, p. 86.
51 F. Cumont, "La Fin du monde scion Les mages occidentaux," Revue de l'histoire des religions (1931), p. 41.
52 F. K. Movers, Die Phonizier (1841-1856), I, 640. Sources: Sozomen, The Ecclesiastical History ii. S; Zosimus i. 58.
53 Macro Bc, Oe"vres (ed. Panckoucke, 1845), I, 253.
54 Winckler, Die babylonische Geisteskultur (1919), p. 71,
55 C. Bezold in F. Boll, Sternglaube und Sterndeutung (1926), p. 12.
56 Hymns of the Atharva•Jleda (transl. Bloomfield); Hymn ix.
57 I Kings 18; Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, VIII, xili, 1; Philo of Byblos, Fragment 2. 25; D. Chwolson, Die Ssabier und der Ssablsmw (1856), II, 660.
58 Jeremiah 7:18; 44:17-25. Wellhausen, Reste arabischen Heiden• turns, p. 41.
59 The Fragments of Empedocles (transl. W. E. Leonard, 1908), Fragment 128, p. 59.
60 Williamson. Religious and Cosmic Beliefs of Central Polynesia, 11,242.
61 Wellhausen, Reste arabischen Heidentums, pp. 40-44, 115,
62 Manuscript Ramfret,
63 G. A. Dorsey, The Sacrifice to the Morning Star by the Skid/ Pawnee. This ceremony is described later in the present book.
64 De Sahagun, Historia general de las cosas de Nueva Espana, I, Chap. V,
65 Movers, Die PhiJnlzier, II, 6S2.
66 Luckenbill, Records of Assyria, II, Sec, 829.
67 "The Book of Sothis" in Manetho (transl. W. G. Waddell, Loeb Clttssical Library, 1940) says that in the days of the Hyksos king Aseth, "the bull~alf was deified and called Apis."
68 The Apis inscription of Necho-Wahibre in Breasted, Records of Egypt, IV, 976 ff.
69 Pliny, Natural History, ii. 37.
70 'Hymn to the honey-lash in Hymns of the Athatla-Yeda, IX.
71 L. L. Sundara Ram, Cow-protection In l11dia (1927), p. 56.
72 Mahabharata, XIII.
73 Ram, Cow-Protection in India, p. 43.
74 "Visistha Dharmasastra." See Ram, Cow-Protection In India, p. 40.
75 M. Monier-Williams, Brahmanism and Hinduism (1891), pp. 317-319.
76 Ram, Cow"Protection in India, p, 58
77 Brmdahls (in the Pahlavi Texts, transl. West), Chap, III.
78 Exodus 8:17.
79 Exodus 8:24.
80 Philo Vita Mosis i. 23.
81 Numbers 21 :6, 7; Deuteronomy 8:15.
82 Exodus 23 :28; Deuteronomy 7 :20.
83 Williamson, Religious and Cosmic Beliefs of Central Polynesia, I, 45.
84 A change in atmospheric conditions can cause galloping germina- . tion among insects.
85 11 Kings 1 :2 ff.
86 Matthew 10:25; 12:24, 27; Mark 7:22; Luke 11 :15 ff.
87 Bundahis, Chap. III, Sec. 12. Cf. H. S. Nyberg, "Die Religionen des alten Iran," Mitteil. d. Yorderasiat.-iigypt. Ges., Vol. 43 (1938), pp. 28 ff.
88 Iliad m. 38S ff. In Greek mythology, Melis, pregnant with Pallas, took the shape of a fly.
89 See Kunike, "Stern Mythologie," Welt und Mensch, IX-X.
90 A. Werner, African Mythology (1925), p. 135.
91 Zend-Avesta, Pt. II, p. 95.
92 Sahagun, Historia general de las cosas tk la Nuna España, Bk. YIII, Chap. 3.
93 Ibid.
94 See H. Spencer Jones, LJ/e on Other Worlds (1940) and Sir James Jeans, "Is There Life on Other Worlds1" Science, June 12, 1942.
95 Alexander, North A~rlcan Mythology, p. 223.
96 G. A. Dorsey, The Mythology of the Wichita (1904),
97 Alexander, North American Mythology, p, 60.
98 L. Frobenius, Dichten und Denken in Sudan (1925).
99. A. Teit, "Ka:ska Tales," Journal of American Folk•Lore, XXX (1917).
100 Frobenius, Das Zeitalter des Sonnengottes, pp. 205 ff.
101 Shelton, "Mythology of Puget Sound," Journal of American Folk,. Lore, XXXVII (1924).
102 Dorsey, ed., The Pawnee Mythology (1906), Pt. I, p. 35.
103 This and the following quotations are from The Thunder Ceremony of the Pawnee and The Sacrifice to the Morning Star, com- piled by R. Linton from unpublished notes of G. A. Dorsey, Field Museum of Natural History, Department of Anthropology, Chicago (1922).
104 JD See the Section, ''The Fifty-two Year Period."
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