18

Chapter XVIII

  1. See F. Boll, Aus der Offenbarung Johannes (1914), pp. 32, 72 (the first accepted authority has been Herakleides of Pontos); W. Gundel, RE s.v. Galaxias; A. Bouché-Leclerq, L’Astrologie Grecque (1899), pp. 22f.; F. Cumont, After Life in Roman Paganism (1959), pp. 94. 104. 152f.

  2. Commentary on the Dream of Scipio 1.12.1-8.

  3. W. W. Gill, Myths and Songs from the South Pacific (1876), pp. 1566ff., 185ff.

  4. E. Best, The Astronomical Knowledge of the Maori (1955), p. 45.

  5. Since so many earlier and recent “reporters at large” fail to inform us of traditions concerning reincarnation, we may mention that according to the Marquesans “all the souls of the dead, after having lived in one or the other place (i.e., Paradise or Hades) for a very long time, returned to animate other bodies” (R. W. Williamson, Religious and Cosmic Beliefs of Central Polynesia [1924], vol. 1, p. 208), which recalls the wording of the case as we know it from book X of Plato’s Republic.

  6. H. B. Alexander, Latin American Mythology (1916), p. 185.

  7. S. Hagar, “Cherokee Star-Lore,” in Festschrift Boas (1906), p. 363; H. B. Alexander, North American Mythology , p. 117.

  8. This is no slip of the tongue; the zodiacal Sagittarius of Mesopotamian boundary stones had, indeed, the tail of a Scorpion: but we just must not be drowned in the abyss of details of comparative constellation lore, and least of all in those connected with Sagittarius, two-faced as he is, half royal, half dog.

  9. See, for example, A. A. Barb, “St. Zacharias the Prophet and Martyr,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 11 (1948), pp. 54f., and “Der Heilige und die Schlangen,” MAGW 82 (1953), p. 20.

  10. Cf. Al-Biruni, dealing with the Indian ages of the world, and quoting the above passages from Aratus with a scholion (Alberuni’s India, trans. E. C. Sachau [1964], vol. 1, pp. 383-85).

  11. J. Mooney, Myths of the Cherokee, 19th ARBAE 1897-98 (1900), p.443.

  12. E. Pechuel-Loesche, Volkskunde van Loango (1907), p. 135.

  13. S. Lagercrantz, “The Milky Way in Africa,” Ethnos (1952), p. 68.

  14. See W. Gundel, RE s.v. Galaxias.

  15. O. Zerries, “Sternbilder als Ausdruck jägerischer Geiteshaltung in Südamerika,” Paideuma 5 (1951), pp.220f.

  16. E. Seler, Gesammelte Abhandlungen (1961), vol. 4, p. 56.

  17. Bdh. V B 22, B. T. Anklesaria, Zand-Akasih. Iranian or Greater Bundahishn (1956), pp. 69, 71.

  18. U. Holmberg, Die religiösen Vorstellungen der altaischen Völker (1938), pp. 201f.

  19. Going further south, he would have found there again the lining up of Ursa and Orion and the violent tearing up of celestial figures. Says W. E. Roth (“An Inquiry into the Animism and Folk-lore of the Guiana Indians,” 30th ARBAE 1908-09 [1915], p. 262; cf. Zerries, pp. 220f.) of the Indians of Guiana: “All the legends relating to the constellations Taurus and Orion have something in common in the detail of an amputated arm or leg.” And that goes for parts of Indonesia too. But then, Ursa Major is the thigh of a Bull, and the zodiacal Taurus is so badly amputated, there is barely a half of him left. More peculiar still, in later Egyptian times it occurs, if rarely, that Ursa is made a ram’s thigh (see G. A. Wainwright, “A Pair of Constellations,” in Studies Presented to F. L. Griffith [1932], p. 373); and on the round zodiac of Dendera (Roman period) we find a ram sitting on that celestial leg representing Ursa, and it even looks back, as befits the traditional zodiacal Aries. We must leave it at that.

  20. The notion of the Milky Way as “Brunelstraat” seems to be present in ancient India: the Atharva Veda 18.2.31 mentions a certain path or road called rikshaka. Riksha is the bear in both senses, i.e., the animal and Ursa Major (see H. Grassmann, Wörterbuch zum Rig-Veda [1915] s.v. Riksha). Whitney (in his translation of AV, p.840) suggested rikshaka as a road “infested by bears (?).” A. Weber, however, proposed to identify rikshaka with the Milky Way (“Miszellen aus dem indogermanischen Familienleben,” in Festgruss Roth [1893], p. 131). Since the whole hymn AV 18.2 contains “Funeral Verses,” and deals with the voyage of the soul, that context too would be fitting. (That the souls have to first cross a river “rich with horses” is another matter.)

  21. The shortest abbreviation: the Inca called Gemini “creation time” (Hagar, in 14th International Amerikanisten-Kongress [1904], p. 599f.). But the very same notion is alluded to, when Castor and Pollux (alpha beta Geminorum) are made responsible for the first fire sticks, by the Aztecs (Sahagún) and, strange to say, by the Tasmanians. (See below, chapter XXIII, “Gilgamesh and Prometheus.”)

  22. See J. A. Eisenmenger, Entdecktes Judenthem (1711), vol. 1, p. 165; vol. 2, pp. 417ff.

  23. “Es ton ēera,” see F. K. Movers, Die Phönizier (1967), vol. 1, p. 205.

  24. J. Grimm, TM, pp. 1587f.

  25. Mooney, pp. 253, 443. It is difficult here to recognize Isis scattering ears of wheat in her flight from Typhon, [26 See R. H. Allen, Star Names (1963), p. 481; W. T. Olcott, Star Lore of All Ages (1911), p. 393.