The fundamental realization of the antithesis of light and darkness giving rise to the division of the universe into two distinct parts, the conception of an eternal antagonism between both followed and led to the stage of thought set forth by Mr. Robert Brown who tells us (op. cit.) that “the original twins were the Sun and Moon” and that an archaic cosmogonic legend attached to the third month of Kas (twins) is that of two hostile brethren and the building of the first city. The great twin-brethren who join together to build the city are the Sun and Moon, engaged in preserving cosmic order yet also constantly antagonistic to each other and who constantly chase each other, one being up when the other is down. Mr. Brown also relates the myth of antagonistic satraps Namaros and Parsondas and states that, in the twin stars, Castor and Pollux, named by the Euphrateans the great Twins=Mastab-bagal-gal, the Sun and Moon were re-duplicated. The Euphratean abbreviation is mas=twin or mas-mas, and Pollux is equated with the fourth antediluvian king Ammenon, a name derived from Akkadian: umun=offspring, an=heaven i. e. the Sun, “the son or offspring of heaven.”
“There are reasons for believing, however, that Sarpanitum, the offspring-producing goddess once enjoyed considerable importance of her own; that, prior to the rise of Marduk to his supreme position, a goddess was worshipped in Babylon, one of whose special functions it was to protect the progeny while still in the mother's womb. A late king of Babylon, the great Nebuchadnezzar, appeals to this attribute of the goddess. To her was also attributed the possession of knowledge concealed from men.... A late ruler of Babylon, Shamash-Shumu-kin, calls her ‘the queen of the gods’ and declares himself to have been nominated by her to lord it over men” (Jastrow, op. cit. p. 122).
The following extracts from Assyrian prayers addressed to Ishtar further define her position at one time: “The producer, queen of heaven, the glorious lady. To the one who dwells in E-babbara.... To the queen of the gods to whom has been entrusted the commands of the great gods. To the lady of Nineveh.... To the daughter of Sin, the twin-sister of Shamash, ruling over all kingdoms. Who issues decrees, the goddess of the universe.... Besides thee there is no guiding deity....”
It is remarkable that the sound of the Latin word for ram=aries, so closely resembles the Egyptian symbols for Amen-Ra (see fig. [63], 1-4) and that the am and ar syllables occur in the following names for ram or sheep, applied to the zodiacal constellation:
Al Hamal=the sheep (Arabic).
Bara=the ram (Persian).
Amru=the ram (Syrian).
Varak=the ram (Parsi).
The following detached extracts, partly from Mr. Richard Hinckley Allen's valuable work, should be carefully studied in connection with the above text, as they throw further light upon the ideas associated with the sacred centres of heaven and earth by nations with whom the Greeks were in touch.
“To the whole Arabian nation, heathen or Mahommedan, Polaris was Alfass, the hole in which the earth's axle found its bearing” (p. 451).
The following important material pertains to the chapter on India, of whose insufficiency I am painfully aware. “In earliest Northern India the star nearest the pole was known as Grahadhara, ‘the pivot of the planets,’ representing the great god Dhruva, and Al Biruni said that among the Hindus of his time it was Dhruva himself. It was an object of their worship” (p. 456).
In Bournouf's Bhagavata-pûrana (chap. iv) it is said that “Dhruva, meditating on Brahma, stood on one foot, motionless as a post; while he did so half the world, wounded by his big toe, bent over under his weight like a boat which, bearing a vigorous elephant, leans at each step he takes, from left to right.” O'Neil, citing the same source continues: “In consequence of his austerities Bhagavat said ‘I grant thee virtuous Child, a Spot which has never yet been occupied by any being, a Spot blazing with splendor, of which the ground is firm, where is fixed the circus of the celestial lights, of the planets, constellations and stars; which turn all around like oxen round their stake, and which [the Spot] subsists motionless even after the Dwellers of a Kalpa [342]). According to Professor Sayce it begins: “Thou who as the axis of the heavens dawnest. In the dwellings of the earth her name revolves” (O'Neil, p. 715).
O'Neil further notes that “Dhruva is named the sun of Uttâna-Pâda” and that this name is connected with uttarat=north and also signifies outstretched, supine. He also states that “Uttara and Uttarâ was the dual god of the north, the son and daughter of Virâta, and expresses the opinion that the age of the Dhruva legend is unutterable” (p. 503).