NOVEMBEE, 1902.] 



KNOWLEDGE. 



263 



etttrs. 



[The Editors do not bold themselves responsible for the opinions 

 or statements of corresiwndcnt*.] 



PERRINE'S COMET. 



TO THE EDITORS OF KNOWLEDGE. 



Sirs, — The enclosed photograph of Porriue's comet was 

 obtained with a 4^-inch double combination Voigtliinder 

 of 1.5 inches focus, ou ind October, at 9h. .50ni. (mean) 

 S. T., the exposure being for 30 minutes. 



Cadett lightning plate with pyro motol developer was 

 used, and the camera was attached to a G|-inch equatorial 

 retiector, clock-driven. 



Owing to the faintness of the nucleus, illumination of 



the field was iiupos.sililc, so that thi' comet could not be 

 followed, but the driving had to l)t' done upon 8 Cephei, 

 which was then a little it. p. the comet. 



On the negative there are symptoms of a divided or 

 fan-like tail, a feature which would be obscured to a great 

 extent \)j the actual motion of the comet. 



Owing to clouds, no opportunity has occurred of 

 obtaining a further record. 



Liverpool, October 7tli. R. C. Johnson. 



THE VISIBILITY OF THE CRESCENT OF 

 VENUS. 



TO THE EDITORS OF KNOWLEDGE. 



SiES, — It is possible to present important evidence as 

 to the visibility of Venus as a crescent many thousands 

 of years Ixjfore the invention of the telescope, from an 

 archseological point of view, and that of such convincing 

 character as to determine the question as to the early 

 members of the human race, at any rate. 



The planet Venus was the symbol, and associated star 

 of, the great Babylonian, Pha?nician, and Syrian goddess, 

 Islitar = Ashtoreth = Astarte ; and one of the commonest 

 attributes of this deity was a horned head-dress, and 



indeed she was known, as we find in the Old Testament 

 and Phcenician and Carthaginian inscriptions, as 

 " Astoreth-Karnaim," i.e., "of the (2) horns," and had 

 one or more tenmles of that name, probably placed upon a 

 double-peaked mountain resembling the curve of a pair 

 of horns. 



Because of these attributes, and led astray by the 

 statements of two late classical authors, Lucian and 

 Herodian, many writers have termed her a lunar deity, but 

 this is incorrect. She was undoubtedly considered by the 

 G reeks as the counterpart of, or identical with Venus = 

 Aphrodite. At the shrine of Aphrodite, at Afca, she was 

 worshipped as a star. But we have much more decisive 

 proof of Ashtoreth = Astarte being Venus, in that she was 

 nothing else than the Aramaic, Phamician, and Syrian 

 form of Ishtar, the celebrated goddess of Babylon and 

 Assyria.* 



Ishtar undoubtedly was Venus, certainly not the moon, 

 because at Babylon the Moon God was masculine ; and 

 the connection between the cult of Ishtar =:: Aphrodite = 

 Venus as a voluptuous deity is well known. 



There is in fact no straining of any of the evidence 

 in stating that everything proves the horned Astarte = 

 Ishtar = Astoreth-Karnaim to be the goddess personified 

 by the planet Venus.f 



What has to be accounted for is the universal acceptance 

 of a crescent, or horns, for her most well-comprehended 

 symbol. This, I think, can only have arisen from the 

 crescent shape of Venus having been observed, and so 

 properly associated with the deity. So much, indeed, did 

 her symbol coincide with that of lunar deities, that when 

 the true origin of the connection was forgotten, it caused 

 the slight confusion we have mentioned in two of the later 

 extant classics between Astarte and the Moon Goddess. 

 In the clear air of Mesopotamia, no doubt it was possible 

 to detect the phases of Venus, and so Ishtar — Venus = 

 Astoreth-Karnaim is like many another early human 

 concept, a reasonable expression of primitive symbolism. + 



Joseph Offoed. 



[I do not feel myself able to agree with Mr. Offord that 

 the evidence which he presents as to the Babylonians 

 having been aware of the phases of Venus is sufficiently 

 convincing. It seems to me at least a plausible 

 suggestion that the Babylonians saw some analogy 

 between Venus and the Moon, and ascribed symbolically 

 some of the Moon's attributes to her. It is not im- 

 possible even that they may have argued out the Coper- 

 nican idea of the solar system, and consecjuently have 

 deduced that Venus ought to show phases. 



But if the Babylonians really observed the phases of 

 Venus, and it can be shown that they did, I think we 

 cannot escape the conclusion that they must have had 

 telescopes. I believe the recognition of her crescent with 

 the naked eye is entirely impossible. — E. Walter 

 Maunder.] 



* The two divergent ideas associated with Astarte-Aphroditc, of 

 gentleness and feminity with fierceness and heat, probably are con- 

 nected with Venus as the morning star, goddess of the dew and of 

 moisture iiud fertility, and as evening star, when the heat accumu- 

 lated during the day and proceeding from the level rays of the setting 

 sun is still so cijipressive. 



+ A Babylonian cylinder, edited by Pere Seheil, shows Islitar as a 

 cow, and recently some votive offerings of cows heads of an African 

 type have been discovered in the Balearic Isles, no doubt from a 

 Phoenician Ashtoreth shrine. 



J In ancient Arabia Venus was a male god, no doubt connected 

 with the Assyrian Sin, but strange to say the Arabs, or " Mineans," 

 called him Athtar, apparently to secure the favours of both principals 

 of the deity as worshipped by tlieir kinsmen, by giving him the sex 

 of the one form and the title of the other. 



