MOLOCH.
Ques. Who was Moloch?
Ans. He was a divinity of the Ammonites. The Phœnicians were also particularly devoted to his worship. Young children and infants were offered as holocausts to this cruel god. These horrid sacrifices were most frequent in Carthage. When the Sicilian Agathocles threatened that city, we are told that five hundred infants, many the first-born of noble parents, were consumed in one day on the altar of Moloch.
Ques. How was this god represented?
Ans. By a brazen image, which was so contrived that when a child was laid upon its extended arms, they were lowered, and the little victim immediately fell into the fiery furnace placed at the foot of the idol.
Ques. Was Moloch worshipped by the Jews?
Ans. Yes; it would seem that they were addicted to this idolatry before their departure from Egypt, since Moses in many places forbids the Israelites, under pain of death, to dedicate their children to Moloch, by passing them through fire. Solomon built a temple for his worship on the Mount of Olives. Later human sacrifices were offered to him in the valley of Hinnom, called also Tophet, which lay to the east of Jerusalem.
Ques. Where does Milton refer to this god?
Ans. Assuming that the demons or fallen angels received the worship of men, under the names of different heathen divinities, he thus describes Moloch amid the host of Satan:
“First, Moloch, horrid king, besmear’d with blood
Of human sacrifice, and parents’ tears;
Though, for the noise of drums and timbrels loud,
Their children’s cries unheard, that passed through fire,
To his grim idol. Him the Ammonite
Worshipp’d in Rabba and her watery plain,
In Argob and in Basan, to the stream
Of utmost Arnon; nor content with such
Audacious neighborhood, the wisest heart
Of Solomon he led by fraud to build
His temple right against the temple of God,
On that opprobrious hill: and made his grove
The pleasant valley of Hinnom, Tophet thence
And black Gehenna call’d, the type of Hell.”
Ans. This goddess, called by the Greeks Astarte, represented the moon, in the same manner as Baal was held to be identical with the sun. The Hebrews always connected the worship of these two divinities. According to Cicero, Astarte was the Syrian Venus, and it is certain that in her worship, and the festivals celebrated in her honor, there is some foundation for this idea. Where human sacrifices were offered to Baal, wheaten cakes, wine and perfumes were laid upon the altar of Astaroth.
Notwithstanding these more innocent offerings, her worship was rendered infamous by the license which prevailed during these festivals, and the open immorality practised by her votaries.