But the views now held by a considerable body of scholars suggest a much broader extension of Babylonian influence than is implied by a series of isolated and fortuitous connexions; and, as the character of this influence is ex hypothesi astronomical, any attempt to define its limits with precision is a matter of some difficulty. For it will be obvious that, if we may assume an astronomical basis or background to any two mythologies, we at once detect a great number of common features the existence of which we should not otherwise have suspected. And the reason is not far to seek; for the astronomical phenomena with which we go to work are necessarily restricted in number, and they have to do duty many times over as a background in each system.[4] In spite of this disadvantage, which is inherent in their theory, Winckler and his school have rendered good service in working out the general relationship which was believed by the Babylonians to exist between the heavenly bodies and the earth.[5] He has shown sound reasons for assuming that, according to the tenets of Babylonian astrology, events and institutions on earth were in a certain sense copies of heavenly prototypes.
It is well known that the Babylonians, like the Hebrews, conceived the universe as consisting of three parts: the heaven above, the earth beneath, and the waters under the earth. The Babylonians gradually elaborated this conception of the universe, and traced in the heavens a parallel to the threefold division of earth, separating the universe into a heavenly and an earthly world. The earthly universe consisted as before of three divisions, that is to say the heaven (limited to the air or atmosphere above the earth), the earth itself, and the waters beneath it. Those corresponded in the heavenly world to the Northern heaven, the Zodiac, and the Southern heaven or heavenly ocean. By the later Babylonian period the greater gods had long become identified with the planets, and the lesser gods with the fixed stars, each deity having his special house or star in heaven in addition to his temple on earth. This idea appears to have been carried still further by the later Greek astrologers, by whom lands and cities in addition to temples were thought to have their cosmic counterparts.[6] But even for the Babylonians the moving stars were not merely symbols serving as interpreters to men of the divine will; their movements were the actual cause of events on earth. To use an apposite simile of Winckler, heaven was believed to be related to earth much as a moving object seen in a mirror was related to its reflection.[7]
LIMESTONE STATUE OF THE GOD NABÛ AT NIMRÛD.
In order to illustrate the way in which these astral ideas are said to have supplied material to Greek mythology, a test instance may be selected, the suggested explanation of which involves one of the essential features of Winckler's astral system as he eventually elaborated it.[8] We will take the story of the Golden Lamb of Atreus and Thyestes, which is introduced by Euripides into one of the choruses in his Electra[9] According to the story, which is referred to, but not explicitly told, by Euripides, the Lamb with the Golden Fleece was brought by Pan to Atreus, and was regarded by the Argives as a sign that he was the true king. But his brother Thyestes, with the help of Atreus' wife, stole it and claimed to be king; so strife ensued, good was turned to evil, and the stars were shaken in their courses. It is curious that the theft of the Lamb should have such a special effect upon the heavens and the weather, for this is definitely stated in the second strophe and antistrophe of the chorus.[10] Though details are obscure, it is clear that we here have a legend with strongly marked astrological elements. The theft of the Lamb changes the sun's course, and from other lines in the chorus we gather that the alteration led to the present climatic conditions of the world, the rain-clouds flying northward and leaving "the seats of Amnion"—that is, the Libyan desert—parched and dewless.
In its original form the legend may well have been a story of the First Sin, after which the world was changed to its present state, both moral and atmospheric.[11] There is definite evidence that the Golden Lamb was identified with the constellation Aries; and since Babylon was admittedly the home of astrology, it is not an improbable suggestion, in spite of the reference to Ammon, that we should regard it as one of the lost legends of Babylon. According to Winckler's theory of the Babylonian religion, we should go further, and trace the origin of the legend to a convulsion in Babylonian thought which took place in the ninth and eighth centuries b.c. At this period, it is asserted, the sun at the vernal equinox was moving from the constellation Taurus into Aries, The bull, according to the theory, was identified with Marduk, the god of Babylon,[12] and all the time he was yielding his place to the Ram, Babylon was declining before the power of Assyria. The disorganization of the calendar and the seasons, due to the imperfect method of time-reckoning in vogue, was associated with this event, giving an impetus to a fresh birth of legends, one of which has found its way in a Greek dress into this chorus of Euripides. Or, as it has been put rather differently, the story is a piece of Babylonian astronomy misunderstood.
The theory underlying this interpretation of the legend is based on the axiom that the Babylonian religion was essentially a star-worship, and that behind every department of the national literature, secular as well as religious, lay the same astral conception of the universe. Before treating the theory in greater detail, it may be well to ascertain how far the history of the country substantiates this view. In the earliest period of which we have recovered material remains there can be no doubt that image-worship formed a characteristic feature of the Babylonian religious system, though we have no means of tracing its gradual evolution out of the fetish and stock-and-stone worship which necessarily preceded it.[13] The extraneous civilization, which the Sumerians introduced, most probably included cult-images of their gods, and these may well have been already anthropomorphic. Fashioned in the god's form, the image was believed to enshrine his presence, and for the Babylonians of all periods it never lost this animistic character.
