"Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast born unto me; and these hast thou sacrificed unto them [false gods], to be devoured [by flames],—* * *—thou hast slain my children, and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them." [Ezekiel xvi. 20-21.]
Now the Sculpture of the Ruins in Mexican America illustrates this very custom of the Tyrians,—and as it was one of the greatest importance with that nation, so has it received more attention than any other subject.
It can readily be imagined how many stages in the progress of this infanticide would be in the Tyrian nation,—as thus,—the Mother bringing the child;—the reception by the Priests,—the sorrow of the Parent, and other incidents in analogy with the subject. The Sculpture of the ruined Temples at Palenque, presents many of the progressive steps towards a consummation of the sacrifice,—as thus,—Female figures, erect, adorned with jewels and ornaments,—each figure with a child in her arms, not in the attitude of receiving a Mother's nourishment, but held by the Parent in such a manner, as if in sorrowful contemplation of her infant victim:—the costume, also, is essentially important, for the Tyrian Children were selected from families possessing station, wealth, and power. Other female figures are represented seated, and in the most melancholy postures, with downcast heads and looks, as if mourning for that loss, which had made them Motherless! In an inner apartment, believed to be the sanctum of a Temple, is sculptured (in basso) the resemblance of the dread Altar, portraying the entrance of the fiery furnace,—for even the bars and grating are distinctly visible; a large and monstrous Mask, or demoniac face is directly above the fire-grating,—presenting that of the remorseless Deity. On either side of the Altar-furnace and Mask of Saturn, is stationed a young and an elderly Priest of sacrifice, both standing, erect, upon crushed and prostrate human beings: the Priests have their hands and arms elevated, and each holds an infant,—raised up towards the demon-deity, as if in the act of presenting the victims. The ancients (from their Mythology) believed that their God,—Saturn,—devoured its own children,—thence the worship,—and those who sacrificed a child to him, were supposed to be under his peculiar care and guidance:—this Sculptured Mask,—has a hideous face,—distorted eyes, a ravenous and distended mouth,—and its tongue hanging out, as if athirst for infant blood,—thus presenting a perfect portraiture of the child-craving appetite of the Demon. It must be evident that the above analogy is a most powerful one,—nor have the parallels been strained in order to prove their equi-character;—the analogy is so strong,—and apparently so convincing,—that it cannot fail to reach the mind of the reader with a conviction of their identity.
The Sculpture described, having reference to the Tyrian God—Saturn,—is, as we have stated, upon the stuccoed walls of Palenque,—and, we believe, was placed there as a record of a Religious custom, practised anterior to the walls being stuccoed,—for, another piece of Sculpture represents the perfect overthrow of this worship, by a more sublime Religion, which will be shewn in the third Volume. This discovery by us, suggested the apparent truth, that the Temple of Palenque was originally of stone, and dedicated to the Sun (the elliptical stone tablet will prove that), and that its second æra was the stuccoing of the walls,—this fact we think can be established, to have taken place about 350 years after the Temple was first erected. As this subject involves that portion of our History, which embraces the introduction of Christianity into the Western Hemisphere, all argument to prove the second æra in the Temple of Palenque, is reserved for that Volume, devoted to the interesting and important investigation.
The pictorial description given in the engraving, furnished by Baron Humboldt, of the Mexican Calendar found in the plaza of Mexico (buried in the time of Cortez) has a direct bearing upon the Tyro-Mexican Saturn, as represented at Palenque. The centre of the sculptured Calendar-circle recorded by the great Traveller,—is a horrid mask, or face,—nearly a likeness of that at Palenque;—and one remarkable incident of identity is, that each face has the tongue hanging out, and by the muscular action,—in the same blood-devouring manner. Now these Masks of Saturn (as we have named them) were discovered many hundred miles apart, which would seem to indicate that the worship, or adoration of that heathen deity was a general one, and practised by all the Mexican Aborigines. The several Idol-obelisks at Copan, having the Altars in front, were the personation of deities of less denomination than Saturn,—but to whom, without doubt, were sacrificed devoted victims and captives;—the same also upon the pyramidal Altars of Cholula and Quirigua. The Tyrians of Phœnicia had many minor deities claiming human sacrifice.
Another analogy will now be produced equally as powerful—if not more so, than that having reference to the Tyrian Moloch. The Phœnicians had in their several capitals a Temple erected to a tutelary, or National God,—and that became the chief object of worship. The Greeks copied this custom,—but, in the Cecropian decision in the contest between Neptune and Pallas, the Goddess was preferred,—and thus the "rejected" on Mount Ida became the Guardian of the Acropolis. The Daughter of Jupiter, in her character of Minerva, was not only worshipped by Athens, but by all Attica,—and under the name of Intellect, she is now worshipped by every Nation! The Tyrians, from their remote ancestors, the Canaanites, selected Apollo, as their favourite and protective God,—although Jupiter was the Chief of Gods with all the Heathens,—and was worshipped under the name of Baal, or Belus, by the Babylonians and Assyrians,—Ammon by the Egyptians,—Jupiter by the Phœnicians and Greeks,—and as Jove by the Romans.
The Sun,—(i. e. Apollo,)—as the Eye of Heaven,—was worshipped by the Canaanites, Sidonians, Tyrians, and Carthaginians as their protective God,—it never left the great Phœnician family from the time of Canaan the "cursed,"—the grandson of Noah,—to the destruction of Carthage by the Romans,—a period of near two thousand years.
The chief Games,—or public festivals, of the Tyrians were the Heraclian,—i. e. those dedicated to Hercules-Apollo;—the name was compounded by the Tyrians, in order to personify the strength and power of their God of Fire.
Apollo in the mythology of the ancients had many attributes,—but the chief was that of being regarded as the Symbol of the Sun, and as such, was worshipped by the Tyrians, and had been from remote antiquity, and even down to so late a period as the third century of our own æra: for in 218, A. D., a Priest of the Sun, officiating at Emessa, in Phœnicia, though a youth, was elevated to the Imperial dignity at Rome, in the person of Elagabalus,—and who, upon his arrival the following year in his Italian Capital, endeavoured to establish the absolute Worship of the Sun as practised in Phœnicia. In this he succeeded, but in the fourth year of his reign he was assassinated, when the Romans returned to the adoration of their Jupiter.
The Sun was, also, the chief worship at Palmyra, and upon the conquest and captivity of the heroic Zenobia by the Emperor Aurelian, in 272 A. D.,—the conqueror introduced the worship of Apollo at Rome:—but, not as Elagabalus to the exclusion of Jupiter as the chief Deity.