540 



NATURE 



[January 13, 19 16 



Yet Babylon (Showed herself little better in 

 prosperity than Assyria had been. Nebuchad- 

 nezzar made Babylon splendid, but he also car- 

 ried the Jews away captive like any Sennacherib. 

 Babylon also fell, and a saner conqueror, Cyrus, 

 removed from her finally all temptation to exer- 

 cise power and dominion, while at the same time 

 treating her with humanity. The religion of 

 Zoroaster had brought a better ethos into the 

 Middle East than had ever been known before. 



With the end of the Persian dominion and the 

 coming of Twohamed Alexander, Prof. King's 

 history closes. He adds in conclusion a most in- 

 teresting chapter entitled "Greece, Palestine, and 

 Babylon: an Estimate of Cultural Influence." 

 Readers of Dr. Farnell's most interesting book, 

 "Greece and Babylon," will be glad to read Prof. 

 King's contribution to the discussion of this sub- 

 ject. The priest of Sai's who talked to Herodotus 



Fig. 2.— The Lion of Babylon on the Kasr Mound. From "A History of Babylon 



knew much more than he told Herodotus. But 

 one hopes that Prof. King will pursue this subject 

 further, some time, than he does in this book. 



In this chapter Prof. King soon goes on to a 

 matter that has agitated archaeological circles 

 very considerably during the last decade : the 

 German " Astralmythen " theory and its marvel- 

 lous ramifications and developments. In measured 

 language he points out, following the Dutch 

 scholar, Dr. Kugler, the weakness and uselessness 

 of this latest shower of chips from a German 

 workshop. It is curious to see how magnificent 

 German work can often be, and how extraordin- 

 arily absurd it often is. It is like the national 

 mind : sublime and ridiculous at once ; and when 

 ridiculous, absolutely sublime in its absurdity. 

 No Englishman can ever talk such nonsense as 

 a German can and will, if he tends that way. It 

 was no Englishman who invented the Sun-myth 

 and the Dawn-maidens, but a German of 

 Germans, Max Miiller. It is the British sense of 

 NO. 241 1, VOL. 96] 



humour that saves us from this sort bf thing;. 

 Gladstone accepted Max Miiller, but Gladstotie 

 was a dilettante and had no sense of humoiif, 

 besides. True Britons, sceptics by blood anU 

 users of that irony \yhich is one of our most 

 national characteristics, always derided Max 

 Muller and his Dawn-maidens, and now they must 

 rise again to laugh out of court the new revival 

 of them which Germapy has imagined in the 

 "Astralmythen" theory. For this is nothing but 

 MaxmuUerism all over again, though it rises this 

 time from a Babylonian, not an Indian source. 

 For the Astral-mythologists, not only acknow- 

 ledged myth, but even ordinary tradition, becomes 

 Babylonian and astral in its origin, whether it 

 is a case of the five kings hiding themselves' from 

 Joshua in the cave of Makkedah or the voyage of 

 Odysseus to Scheria. Everything is an astral 

 motif: the phraseology of Wagner is brought in, 

 of course. If five kings hide in 

 a cave : it is the " Descent into 

 the Underworld " motif. If any- 

 body goes into a cave or hides 

 anywhere : it is the same motif. 

 Ishtar -and Tammuz are there. 

 Doubtless then Prince Charlie in 

 the '45 was Tammuz, and Flora 

 Macdonald, was Jshtar. We are 

 , scarcely jesting : Dr. Jeremias, 

 one of the high-priests of this 

 theory, is almost capable of say- 

 ing so,. Taking a realm of his- 

 ,tory doubtless more familiar to 

 Dr. Jeremias, Enzio, too. King 

 Heinz, who was imprisoned at 

 Bologna, is obviously Tammuz, 

 and the noble lady of Bologna 

 who comforted , him in his cap- 

 tivity is no less obviously Ishtar. 

 And his long fair hair ("i capelli 

 biondi alia cintura") that be- 

 trayed him by falling out of 

 the basket in which " Ishtar " 

 was trying to get this medieval 

 German " Tammuz " smuggled out of Bologna ; 

 that would be just a sunbeam, no doubt. Dr. 

 Kugler has shown the absurdity of the theory by 

 demonstrating that the, life of Louis XI. of France, 

 for instance, can be made out to be full of solar 

 and astral motifs. 



Then there is the " Bel and the Dragon " motif. 

 If we apply it to the myths of Canossa and Jena,, 

 two myths highly interesting to Germans, we 

 should have little difficulty in showing that Pope 

 Gregory and Napoleon were simply forms of Bel,, 

 and that the Dragon was in the first case the 

 Hohenstaufen, in the second the Hohenzollern. 

 And that were Majestdtsbeleidigung and enough 

 to hang us all, every mother's son: for there is 

 no more fearful wild-fowl than your Hohen- 

 zollern living ! 



Prof. King quietly and temperately points out 

 the absurdities of the astral enthusiasts, with, we 

 think, a quiet smile of amusement at their ex- 

 travagance, especially when he has the malicious 



