720 Causes and Course of Organic Evolution 



orb, that was ever moving and still seemed unattached to 

 a source of motive power. 



Amongst the Sumero-Iranians, 5000-4000 B. C, star-towers 

 were in existence, and that knowledge of the heavenly bodies 

 was gathered which caused their descendants to be regarded 

 as "the wise men of the East" for many succeeding centuries. 

 So, in the subsequent religious evolution of Babylonia and 

 later of Assyria, the Irano-Semitic inhabitants of the Euph- 

 rates plains, as well as the Iranian inhabitants of the hills, 

 looked to Ea the all-powerful Sun-deity. Therefore, from 

 about 4000 to 3500 B. C. the worship of Ea as a sun-god, above 

 the other early deities who daily rose out of the waters m re- 

 splendent glory, was continued till about 2200 B. C. in Baby- 

 lonia, when a rededication of gods occurred in which the sun- 

 god now became Marduk, and his worship at Babylon became 

 as resplendent as was that for Re in Egypt. But, when the 

 northern empire of Assyria gained the ascendancy, their Sun- 

 god Assur was often blended with or regarded as the substitute 

 of Marduk. This relation continued without interruption till 

 the Medo-Persian invasion about 530 B. C, but for hundreds 

 of years after that the Sun-god was their leading divinity. 



Similarly in the religious evolution of Egypt the polytheistic 

 stage with its crowded pantheon of plant, animal, spirit, and 

 heaven gods which flourished up to about the period of the 

 IV dynasty or 4000 years B. C. gave place to the heliotheistic 

 deity Re who was in time regarded as the one great god from 

 whom sprang all other gods, and the races of man. The rich 

 temples dedicated to his service, and specially that at Heli- 

 opolis; the power and wisdom of his priests, as well as the uni- 

 versahty and unquestioned superiority of his worship, were 

 continued with little interruption for fully 3000 years, and 

 even later furnished the example for Roman imitation to some 

 extent. 



It is still impossible to tell even approximately when Zeus, 

 the great sun-god of the Greeks, came into prominence. But 

 our knowledge of Aegean and of ancient Hellenic civilization 

 is now sufficient to make it fairly certain that Zeus belonged 



