[Illustration: EGYPTIAN SCARAB The beetle, as a symbol of birth and resurrection, and hence of immortality, enjoyed much reverence in ancient Egypt. A scarab, or image of the beetle, was often worn as a charm and was placed in the mummy as an artificial heart.]
ASTROLOGY
Astrology received much attention. It was believed that the five planets, comets, and eclipses of the sun and moon exerted an influence for good or evil on the life of man. Babylonian astrology likewise extended to western lands and became popular among the Greeks and Romans. Some of it survives to the present time. When we name the days Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, we are unconscious astrologers, for in old belief the first day belonged to the planet Saturn, the second to the sun, and the third to the moon. [14] Superstitious people who try to read their fate in the stars are really practicing an art of Babylonian origin.
EGYPTIAN ANIMAL WORSHIP
Less influential in later times was the animal worship of the Egyptians. This, too, formed a heritage from the prehistoric past. Many common animals of Egypt—the cat, hawk, the jackal, the bull, the ram, the crocodile—were highly reverenced. Some received worship because deities were supposed to dwell in them. The larger number, however, were not worshiped for themselves, but as symbols of different gods.
MONOTHEISM IN PERSIA
In the midst of such an assemblage of nature deities, spirits, and sacred animals, it was remarkable that the belief in one god should ever have arisen. The Medes and Persians accepted the teachings of Zoroaster, a great prophet who lived perhaps as early as 1000 B.C. According to Zoroaster, Ahuramazda, the heaven-deity, is the maker and upholder of the universe. He is a god of light and order, of truth and purity. Against him stands Ahriman, the personification of darkness and evil. Ahuramazda in the end will overcome Ahriman and will reign supreme in a righteous world. Zoroastrianism was the only monotheistic religion developed by an Indo- European people. [15]
[Illustration: AMENHOTEP IV A striking likeness of an Egyptian king (reigned about 1375-1358 B.C.) who endeavored to introduce monotheism in Egypt by abolishing the worship of all gods except the sun god. This religious revolution ended in failure for after the king's death the old deities were restored to honor.]
HEBREW MONOTHEISM
The Hebrews, alone among the Semitic peoples of antiquity, were to develop the worship of their god, Jehovah, into a lasting monotheism. This was a long and gradual process Jehovah was at first regarded as the peculiar divinity of the Hebrews. His worshipers did not deny the existence of the gods of other nations. From the eighth century onward this narrow conception of Jehovah was transformed by the labors of the Hebrew prophets. They taught that Jehovah was the creator and ruler of the world and the loving father of all mankind. On Hebrew monotheism two world religions have been founded—Mohammedanism and Christianity.