[823]. Makhtêsh, v. 19.
[824]. I formerly saw in the Jawbone the representative of the Harpe (toothed sickle), with which Herakles cuts off the heads of the Hydra, and which Kronos and Perseus also employ—the latter when he beheads Medusa. I have changed my view in favour of that here propounded, through consideration of the ‘throwing,’ which undoubtedly is significant. But complete certainty is unattainable. What meaning can be attached to the circumstance that the jawbone is called a ‘fresh’ (new) one (v. 15)?
[825]. Judges XVI. 1–3.
[826]. Welcker, Griech. Götterlehre, II. 776; Preller, Griech. Mythol., II. 154, 167; Movers, Phönizier, I. 442.
[827]. Welcker, ibid., II. 761.
[828]. Judges XVI. 4: Nachal Sôrêḳ, i.e. Valley of the Vine.
[829]. I formerly took Delîlâ, i.e. the ‘Worn out,’ to be a personification of Nature, worn out and no longer productive in the winter-season. Then the name Delîlâ might be compared with that of Aphrodite Morpho, supposing Movers (p. 586) to give the right interpretation of the latter, in discovering it to be the Syriac word for Fatigue, Flagging. Then Delîlâ would be the Winter-goddess, and might be a peculiar phase of Derketo, who was worshiped in conjunction with the barren Sea-god Dagon (see Stark, Gaza, p. 285). Pausanias (III, 15. 8) relates that there was at Sparta an old temple with an image of Aphrodite to whom it belonged—i.e. Astarte, Semiramis, etc. This temple (alone of all the temples that Pausanias knew) had an upper story, in which was an image of Aphrodite Morpho. She was represented sitting, veiled, and with her feet bound. Pausanias himself interprets the fetters to indicate women’s attachment to their husbands; but this reading is not binding on us. I regard this Morpho as a picture of Nature fettered and mourning in winter. Similarly, and also at Sparta (ibid. 5) the bound Enyalios signifies the restrained solar heat of Mars. However, this interpretation of Delîlâ as Winter stands in no contradiction to what is said in the text. Moon-goddess, Love-goddess, Chaste goddess, and Winter, are only different aspects of the same mythological figure, to which a name capable of many interpretations is very suitable. Stark (Gaza, p. 292) is right in asserting the hostility of Herakles to the descendants of Poseidon, the gloomy sea-god, who according to Semitic conceptions I believe to have been also the Winter-god (Dagon). But Movers (p. 441) appears to be also right in showing how, besides combating the creatures of Typhon, Melkart-Herakles is also hostile to the evil Moon-goddess. For she is only the female figure corresponding to the male Moloch, Typhon and Mars. In the Greek myth the place of the Semitic Lunar Astarte is occupied by Hera, the adversary of Herakles. She is confounded both with Ashêrâ the goddess of Love, and with Astarte. Thus there was in Sparta an Aphrodite Hera (Paus. III. 13. 6). To her goats were sacrificed at Sparta, and only there, as to the Semitic Birth-goddess; and she was called ‘Goat-eater’ (Ἥρα αἰάγοφάγος, ib. 15. 7; Preller, Griech. Myth., p. 111; but I am of opinion that the goats have not the same meaning in her case as in that of Zeus). In the character of Astarte, as an evil Moon-goddess, a female Moloch or Mars, she appears when she sends the Nemean lion, the Solar heat, into the land, and on other occasions when she is put into connexion with the powers of evil (Preller, p. 109). The conception which unites opposite natural forces in the same divine person, which then appears under a modified form, could not be better expressed in architecture than it is in the above-mentioned temple of Aphrodite. The lower story is a temple of the Armed Aphrodite; the upper a temple of Aphrodite Morpho: thus the whole is a temple of the strict goddess, below of the Summer, above of the Winter. The fact that a deity of the Solar heat and the Fire is regarded as also a deity of the Sea, may be explained not only by the equal barrenness of the Desert—a sea of sand, and the Sea—a desert of water, but perhaps also by the opinion, attributed by Plutarch (de Is. et Os. c. 7) to the Egyptians, that the sea is not an independent element but only a morbid emanation from fire. To Morpho or Winter corresponds Hera, as one at variance with Zeus, or as a widow (Preller, p. 108). Thus then it will be clear that Delîlâ may be both the Birth-goddess (Ashêrâ) and the evil Moon-goddess (Astarte), or more accurately the Winter-goddess (Derketo). If Semiramis exhibits a combination of Ashêrâ with Astarte, then Delîlâ shows a similar combination of Ashêrâ with Derketo, who is only a modification of Astarte.
[830]. The derivation from the root shmn is impossible, that from the root shmm far-fetched. The simple derivation from shemes ‘sun’ appears to be rejected by Bertheau (Buch der Richter, p. 169) only ‘because the long narrative concerning Samson presents no reference to a name of any such signification’ (as ‘the Sunny,’ the Solar hero), and because, as he says, ‘we do not expect to find a name of this kind anywhere in Hebrew antiquity.’ But the matter appears to us now in a very different light, and the connexion with the Sun which Bertheau did not expect to find has now become clear.
[831]. That Dagon really had the form of a fish, which Movers denies, surely appears certain from 1 Sam. V. 4 (see Stark, Gaza, p. 249). And it would be an excess of diplomatic accuracy, such as we are not justified in ascribing to the Hebrew writer, to suppose that his only reason for writing dâgôn was that the Hebrew dâgân ‘corn’ was pronounced Dâgôn in Phenician. Moreover, such a word as ‘Corn’ (dâgân) cannot well be a proper name. The formation of proper names of men and places by the termination ôn is excessively common, and requires no citation of examples.
[832]. Judges XVI, 22.