656 JASTROW— HEPATOSCOPY AND ASTROLOGY [December 4, 



astrology may be, it must have involved the dissociation of the 

 gods identified with planets and stars from their original character 

 as solar, agricultural, water or chthonic deities, and it is also reason- 

 able to assume that it is subsequent to the period when, by a process 

 of selection, certain deities, though originally local in character, were 

 differentiated from the many other local gods and became members 

 of a definitely constituted pantheon consisting of a limited number 

 of great gods and of a larger number of minor deities. 



Before passing on to another phase of the subject, it may be 

 proper to point out the more specific factors involved in the identi- 

 fication of the planets with certain gods — all confirmatory of the 

 general thesis that astrology represents a system devised in the 

 schools, and that its very artificial character is indicative of its 

 being a " scientific " and not a " popular " product. Marduk was 

 identified with Jupiter by the natural association which led to assign- 

 ing the head of the pantheon to the most striking of the planets 

 known to the ancients.-^ In the case of Venus it was probably her 

 double character as morning and evening star that suggested the 

 identification with Ishtar, who as the goddess of fertility likewise 

 presents two aspects in the two divisions of the year — the producer 

 of life and vegetation in the spring and summer, and the one who 

 withdraws her favors in the fall and winter.-* The dark-red color 

 of Mars appears to have been the factor which prompted the identi- 

 fication with Nergal, the god of the burning summer solstice, of 

 pestilence and death. Nebo becoming in the pantheon of Ham- 

 murabi the son of Marduk,^^ a natural association of ideas would 

 lead to assigning him to the smallest of the planets. There would 



^ See Kiigler, 0. c, p. 14, note i. 



** This double character of Ishtar underlies the famous myth commonly 

 known as Ishtar's descent into the lower regions. See Jensen, " Keilin- 

 schriftliche Bibliothek," VI., i, pp. 80-91. The destructive character of Ishtar 

 appears also in the myth of the slaying of Tammuz and in the other capacity 

 of Ishtar as a goddess of war. See Jastrow, 0. c, I., pp. 82 seq. 



^ See Jastrow, o. c, I., p. 120. As a concession to the predominance of 

 the Nebo cult in the days of the neo-Babylonian dynasty, we find in the 

 astronomical texts of the latest period (after 400 B. C.) a change in the 

 order of the planets, Nebo-Mercury assuming the third place, i. e., after 

 Marduk and Ishtar, instead of Ninib-Saturn who is assigned to the fourth 

 place. See Kugler, 0. c, p. 13. 



