September 7, 1S93] 



NA TURE 



439 



still unread, we had to depend for the earliest traces of 

 astronomical observation upon the literatures of Greece 

 and Syria, and according to these sources the asterisms 

 first specialised and named were as follows :— 



The Great Bear 



Orion 



Pleiades, Hiiades ... 



Sirius, the Great Dog 



Aldebaran, the Bull... 



Arcturus 



The Litlle Bear 

 The Dragon ... 



Job (xxxviii. 31), Homer. 

 Job (ix. g), Homer, Hesiod. 

 Job (xxxviii. 31), Homer, 



Hesiod. 

 Hesiod (viii.), the name ; Homer 



called it the Star of Autumn. 

 Homer, Hesiod. 

 Job, Homer, Hesiod. 

 Thales, Eudoxus, Aratus, 

 Eudoxus, Aratus. 



It follows from the investigation into the orientation of 

 Egyptian temples that the stars a Ursce Majoris, Capella, 

 Antares, Phact, and « Ceatauri were carefully observed, 

 some of them as early as 5000 li.c , the others between 

 4000 and 5000 B.C. Further, that the constellations of 

 the Thigh (Ursa Major), the Hippopotamus (Draco), 

 the Bull, and the Scorpion had been established in 

 Pyramid times. 



It becomes important therefore, if we recognise this 

 as the dawn of astronomy in Egypt, to see if any informa- 

 tion is extant, giving us information concerning Baby- 

 Ionia, so that we may be able to compare the observations 

 made in the two regions, not only with a view of tracing 

 the relative times at which they were made, but to 

 gather from these any conclusions that may be suggested 

 in the course of the inquiry. 



The inquiry must be limited to certain detailed points ; 

 we know quite well already, as I stated in the intro- 

 duction, that the omen tablets of Sargon I., who reigned 

 in Babylon 3700 B.C., prove unquestionably that 

 astronomy had been cultivated for thousands of years 

 before that date.^ But to institute a comparison we must 

 leave the general and come to the particular. I will 

 begin with the northern constellations, as it follows from 

 my researches that very early at Denderah and Thebes, 

 and in all probability at On, temples were erected for 

 their worship — the worship of Anubis or Set, as I have 

 shown, that is a Ursee Majoris and y Draconis. 



According to Maspero, Set formed one of the divine 

 dynasties at On, and the northern stars seem to have been 

 worshipped there. I suppose there is now no question 

 among Egyptologists that the gods Set, Sit, Typhon, Bes, 

 Sutekh, are identical. It is also equally well known that 

 Sutekh was a god of the Canaanites^ that the hippo- 

 potamus, the emblem of Set and Typhon, was the 

 hieroglyph of the Babylonian god Baal,' and Bes is 

 identified with Set in the book of the dead.* 



It is also stated by M ispero that at Memphis^ [time 

 not given] there were temples dedicated to Soutekh and 

 Baal. In the article on the circumpolar stars I have 

 suggested that they were taken as typifying the powers 

 of darkness and of the lower world, and I believe it is \ 

 conceded by Egyptologists that Anubis in Jackal form ' 

 preceded Osiris in this capacity. 



In the exact centre of the circular zodiac of Denderah 

 we find the jackal located at the pole of the equator ; it 

 obviously represents the present Litlle Bear. 



Do we get the jackal constellation in Babylon astro- 

 nomy ? Of this there is no question, and in early times. 



J Besides the book on omens we havi ''The Obicrvatloasof BjI," or 

 I' niuniinuion of Bel" (vlul-lil). seventy-two bojks dealing with' con- 

 junctions of Sun .lud Moan, phases of Ve:m*, anj appearan;e of cjm-ts 

 " Hibbc.-t Lectures," (Saycc, 1887, 29). 



2 Maspero, '• H Btoire Aricicnne," p. 165. 



' P.erret, " I,e Panlhijn Egyptien," p. 4. 



^ Iiiem^ p. 48. 



- Maspero, p. 357. 



NO. 1245, VOL. 48I 



Jensen refers^ to the various readings ''jackal" and 

 " leopard," and states that it is only doubtful whether 

 by this figure the god Anu or the pole of the ecliptic 

 Anu is meant. Either will certainly serve our present 

 purpose. 



I know not whether the similarity in the words Anu 

 and Anubis results merely from a coinLidence, but it is 

 quite certain that the seven stars in Ursa Minor make a 

 very good jackal with pendant tail, as generally repre- 

 sented by the Egyptians, and that they form the nearest 

 compact constellation to the pole of the ecliptic. 



It seems extremely probable, therefore, that the 

 worship of the circumpolar stars went on in Baby- 

 lonia as well as in Egypt in the earliest times we can 

 get at. 



A very wonderful thing also is that, apparently in very 

 early times, the Babylonians had made out the pole of 

 the equator as contradistinguished from the pole of the 

 ecliptic. This they called Bil. With this Jen.-en finds 

 no star associated,- but 6000 B.C. this pole would be 

 not far removed from those stars in the present constel- 

 lation Draco, out of which I have suggested the old 

 Egyptian asterism of the hippopotamus was formed. 



Now I gather from Prof. Sayce-* that Anu and Bll 

 ranked as two members of a triad from the commence- 

 ment of the Semitic period, the third member being 

 probably a southern star symbolised as we shall see in 

 the sequel. 



The whole triad was stellar and two-thirds circum- 

 polar ; it was only in later ages that we get a triad con- 

 sisting of sun, moon, and Venus,^ Venus being replaced 

 at B.ibylon by Sirius." 



To these two northern divinities temples were built, 

 both were worshipped in one temple at Babylon," which 

 must therefore have been oriented due north, and the 

 pole of the equator, the altitude of which (equal to the 

 latitude of the pLrce) was probably in some way indi- 

 cated. Here there was no rising and setting observa- 

 tions, for Eridu the most southern of the old Babylonian 

 cities had about the same latitude as Bubastis, in Egypt. 

 The pole of the ecliptic (Anu) would revolve round the 

 pole of the equator (Bll) always above the horizon. 



So that since 

 and 



Sutech = Anu 

 Baal = Bil, 



the temple at Memphis to those divinities reported by 

 Maspero (see ante) must have been oriented in the same 

 way as the one at Babylon ; and if the above evidence be 

 considered strong enough to enable us to associate the 

 Babylonian Bil with the Egyptian Taurt,.we have not 

 only Ursa Minor but Draco represented in the mythology 

 both of Egypt and early Babylonia. 



I gather from Prof. Sayce's " Hibbert Lectures"" that 

 there is a distinct evidence of a change of thought with 

 regard to Anu. Observations of stars near the pole of 

 the ecliptic appear to have been utilised before they were 

 taken as representing either the superior or inferior 

 powers — before in fact the Anubis or Set stage qua 

 Egypt was reached. After this had been accomplished 

 there was still another advance in which Anu assigns 

 places to sun, moon, and evening star, and sjmbolises 

 the forces of nature. 



It seems probable that the same rectangular arrange- 

 ment of temples which held in Egypt, held also in 

 Babylonia,' and this perhaps may be the reason why Bil 

 seems so often to refer to the sun, whereas it was the 

 name given to the combined worship. Sometimes, on 

 the other hand, the worship of the stars is distinctly 



1 Kosmologie der Baljylonier, p 147 on the word Anu. 

 ^ P M7. '' Sayce, p. 193. ■' Sayce, p. 193, 



5 Jensen, p. 149. _ " Sayce, p. 439. " P. 190. 



8 In the ceremonials in the temples also the statues of the gods in boats 

 or arks were ca r.ed in pr I. cession. Sayce, p 2B0. 



