Adored as Maut[444] beside the mystic Nile,
With Amen-Ra in Theban peristyle.”[445]
There is about as much reason to say that Athene was Hygeia, as that Maut was, or Isis, although, as Ebers says, she was the divinity “to be called on to destroy the germs of disease.”[446] Arguments could be advanced in favor of the idea that Hygeia sprang into existence as a personification of the great serpent-accompanied virgin, river-mist, or cloud-goddess, Pallas Athene, in her capacity of health-preserver. The claim in regard to Isis is little or no better; and, in fact, one form of Isis, called Neith, or Neit, the great mother of the sun-god, Ra, and the titular goddess of Sais, has always[447] been believed to correspond closely with Athene. The former was not only usually accompanied by a serpent, like the latter, but was often represented by one; still, the same might be said of, perhaps, all the Egyptian goddesses.
CHAPTER XV.
MEDICAL TALISMANS.
It is well at the start to form a definite conception of what a talisman means. It is a species of charm; it differs from an amulet. Both are of the character of fetiches; that is, objects in nature, or of art, believed to possess magical power. If the object be ascribed consciousness and other mental attributes, it is, properly speaking, an idol. Unlike the amulet, the talisman, to be effective, need not be kept about the person. But the main characteristic feature of the talisman is astronomical, or, rather, astrological; it is accorded virtue principally because made when two planets are in conjunction, or when a star has reached its culminating point. As one would expect, it has been customary to have something about the talisman to indicate that it is such; but many engravings found on them have no astronomical import at all.
The talisman[448] has a long history. To know when it came into use one must go back to the time when the study of the stars and their influence, real or supposed, on mundane affairs began. Although it has been asserted[449] that Adam acquired a knowledge of astrology through inspiration, it is safe to hold that the Accadian[450] star-gazers, inhabitants of the hills of Elam, first gave shape to this, in great part, pseudo-philosophy of nature, which was widely believed in by many peoples, and still has numerous sincere adherents everywhere. Mr. Proctor ventures to declare that “the idea that the stars in their course rule the fate of men and nations”[451] is a predominant one of the race.[452] In Babylonia, Assyria, Phœnicia, Egypt, and elsewhere, it received much attention; indeed, it was part and parcel of the prevailing religions, most of the Oriental systems being largely astronomical in origin. And the Chaldean or, rather, Accadian astrologer’s work is obvious enough to this day;[453] it is seen in the division of time into the week of seven days, with the seventh one of rest, the Sabbath,[454] and the mode of regulation of religious times and seasons,[455] to say nothing of the signs of the zodiac, and so on.
It is stated by Vitruvius[456] that astrology[457] was brought from the East to Greece[458] by the Chaldeans, of whom Berosus, the historian, “the first of them,” settled at Cos and opened a school there. However this may be, it is stated in Ptolemy’s remarkable book[459] that medical astrology originated in Egypt.
Hippocrates, who lived a century or so before Berosus, had certainly a knowledge of astrology. Galen wrote a book on it, and, like Hippocrates, gives special prominence to the influence of the moon, dwelling particularly on its production of critical changes in diseases. Many another physician thought it necessary to master it,[460] including Chaucer’s “Doctor of Physick,” who was “grounded in astronomie.”[461]
From the fact that astrology and religion were closely connected, it almost necessarily followed that medical talismans possessed more or less of a religious significance.