[haevky] PYTHAGORAS AND HIS PHILOSOPHY 249 



" Tlamat, and of one-half of her skin he made the heavens, then he estab- 

 " lished the earth and the under-world. Next, he made the stars, the abodes of 

 " the Gods, and the signs of the Zodiac, and he marked out the year into 

 " twelve months ^ and set the moon in the sky to fix times and seasons." 

 (The creation of beasts of the field and of creeping things followed.) 



It seems that while several distinct nations occupied, the great 

 valleys of the Mesopotainian rivers, each had its protecting deity, and, 

 naturally, when Hammurabi made Babylon pre-eminent, the Babylonian 

 Maiduk (Merod'aoh) was advanced to the chief position. Undecr 

 Sennacherib he was carried to Assyria, but under Assurbanipal their 

 gods were restored to the Babylonians, to their great delight, 

 Assurbani pal's date is given as 668-626 B.C., a period when mighty 

 movements were in progress, revolutions in Empires and in the realms 

 of thought. It was shortly before the Persians seized the reins of 

 power and imposed upon the ruling classes, at least, their system of 

 philosophy. Herodotus speaks of this, and says : " They have no 

 '■ images of the Gods, no temples or altars. . . . their work is to 

 '' ascend the highest mountains and there to offer sacrifices to Zeus, 

 "which is the name they give to the whole circuit of the firmament. 

 **' . . .• At a later period they began the worship of Urania . . . 

 " whom they call ^litra . . . When all is ready, one of the Magi 

 " comes forward and chants a hymn, which they say recounts the origin 

 " of the Gods." These forms were perhaps those of Anatolian Mazdeism, 

 then prevalent, or they may have bten the ritual enjoined by the first 

 Zarathushtra, and the same hymns as the Gâthas, still chanted by Parsee 

 priests. Herodotus wrote in the fifth century before Christ. In the 

 fourth century the second Zarathushtra, the restorer, (our Zoroaster) 

 is supposed to have further systematized the religious laws and obser- 

 vances, and to have codified them. CJ}he Avesta, written in Zend, 

 is thought to he a trutMul version of this cod:e, though revised under 

 the later period of the Parthians, and says that Ahura IMazda in the be- 

 ginning inhabited the skies, intangible and invisible, except when He 

 revealed Himself to Zoroaster, Then asked this favoured one : " Whiit 

 are the words which thou didst speak, before the Heavens were ? " 

 And Ahura, the spirit of light, repired — " The will of the Lord is the 

 *' rule of righteousness ; Happiness hereafter is his who in this world 

 " serves the Lord ; the Lord makes Kings to reign who succour the 

 *' poor. . , . These words I spake . . . before the Creation of 



* The Assyrian division of time, of the circle into degrees, of weights, 

 measures and money was duodecimal, and made its way through the Pheni- 

 cians into Europe, of which traces still remain — 12 pence to the shilling, 

 12 Inches to the foot, 12 hours from midnight to noon, etc. 



