tary point of view, Saturn, the highest of the planets, in a kosmogonical one, only the manifesting God, like the Phoenician and Greek Hercules. But his brother UsÔus must have been in Phoenician Usov, i. e. Esau, (the rough, hairy [Sê'hir,' as 'Hesav is called]), with a dialectical difference of pronunciation. Add to this what we know from Philo's unimpeachable testimony, that the above Hercules was called by the Phoenicians Israel, i.e. God's soldier, or the struggler with God; and we shall deduce from it important and interesting results. In the first place, the whole idea of Hercules as Saturn, the Lord, becomes clearer; but, in the next place, it cannot fail to strike us that in the Bible the two brothers, Jacob and Edom (the red), the patriarchs of the Jews and Edomites, are also called Israel and Esau. But then how does this tally with the account of their history, as given by Philo, and which has only been alluded to above?

III.

SEMEMRUMOS (THE HIGHEST CELESTIAL) AND USÔUS (ESAV, THE HAIRY). THE MYTH OF KRONOS-EL.

APPARENTLY, nothing more absurd and inconsequent than this was ever found in any fable. Yet these are Philo's own words, not an epitome. But suppose such a parody should really have sprung up out of a kosmogonical tradition, without absolute invention. We must examine a little more closely into the matter in order to get a clue to the facts, and for this purpose shall give a synopsis of the myth of Saturn, as far as the question before us is affected by it.

We entirely differ from Movers, who unhesitatingly identifies the Bel of the Babylonians and the El of the Phoenicians. There are no grounds for supposing that this Babylonian name was used by the Phoenicians for Saturn. But they had a corresponding God, and it is

necessary to compare the parallel traditions in order to get a clearer idea of what were the general notions of Western Asia in the earliest times.

I. The most prominent name here is SET or SETH. It must be the oldest authentic name of this God, and according to Rawlinson is found in the cuneiform inscriptions. Its meaning is clear from what we know of Set from other sources. No further proof is required that Set-Typhon, in the Osiris cycle, corresponds to Saturn. Sôthis, the star afterwards sacred to Isis, Sirius or the dog-star, bears the same name. Lastly, it will be sufficient here to intimate what will be proved elsewhere, that we find this primitive name of God indicated in the list of patriarchs, where Set is the father of Enosh, i. e. the Man (synonymous with Adam). But we see at once that the planetary system, old as it is, as developed at Babylon, has no points of contact with the religious views of the Phoenicians and other Semites, still less with those of the Egyptians. Set is common to all, but his supposed identity with Saturn is not so old as his identity with the Sun-God, as Sirius (Sôthis), because the sun has the greatest power when it is in Sirius. It would, moreover, be advisable, in reference to the name of Set, to bear in mind that the word set, means, in Hebrew as well as Egyptian, pillar, and in a general sense, the erect, elevated, high.

II. KIYUN OF KEVAN is the God whom, according to what we read in the prophet Amos (v. 26.), the Israelites worshipped instead of Jehovah during the forty years in the wilderness. The remarkable words are as follows:

"But ye have borne the tabernacle (hut) of your king (Moloch, Melekh) and the pillar (Kiyun, the erection) of your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves."27

27 Movers (p. 292.) throws out the conjecture that kiyun, in the sense of "pillar," is the origin of the Greek word kúr, which has the same meaning; like sikkut, tent, shrine, ankós, in the sense of

Understand Kiyun as we may, whether as equivalent to tabernacle and star, in the sense of kun, to erect, or as a proper name corresponding to the Chaldee form of Saturn, Keïvan, which means also the righteous, it is quite certain, from the testimony of Amos, that the Israelites worshipped the God of the Pillar28, who was identified with Saturn, the highest of the planets. The Arabs, and even the Persians, have the same name; the ordinary word for planet in Arabic is sikkel, but Kiyun is as much Semitic as Keïvan and Set, and not Zend. As late as the time of Ephræm, the fourth century, Kevan who devoured children had worshippers in Syria.

III. Derived from the same root, and perhaps the same word, is Kon, which Movers was the first to prove to be a Phoenician designation of Saturn, in the sense of the regulator, establisher, institutor of the law of the universe. It seems also to be contained in several of the names of Babylonian kings that have come down to us, though Rawlinson does not give it among those which he has read with certainty.

IV. In the book of Enoch YEHUN is the highest of the fallen angels. Yakin, the name of one of the two detached pillars (Yakin and Boaz) which Solomon caused to be erected by the Phoenician workmen of Hiram in the porch of the temple at Jerusalem (1 Kings vii. 21. ; conf. 2 Chron. iii. 17.), may perhaps come from the same root. It is explained by Movers as "the firm," "upright;" Boaz, as "the moving," "advancing." At all events, it is very remarkable that the great Zeus-Bel

chapel. Certainly both these words are quite isolated in Greek, and have no etymology in that language. Here also the Sanskrit, which has been so cruelly misused by Bohlen, will not help us.

28 On the word Kiyun, compare Movers, p. 289. seqq. The LXX. used another text of this passage or altered it. They read Raiphan and Rompha, as an Egyptian God; but there is no more authority for such a name than there is for the reading.

was, according to Diodorus, represented at Babylon as standing and advancing.29

V. The Phoenician Pillars of Hercules are called HAMUNIM; with which we may compare the Hebrew amon, pillar, and the Ammunea of Sankhuniathon, pillars with antique sacred writings in the temples of the Phoenician deities. Here we must suppose a pointed and detached column, with a capital on the top.30 Movers has shown the probability of the former representing Usov-Mars, the latter Kon-Hypsuranios. They probably figured in the legends about the celestial Pillars of Atlas in the far west, and those of Hercules near Cadiz.

It cannot clearly be made out what account Philo received about the pillars, which (according to his misapprehensions) were dedicated, not to Usov, but by Usov to his brother Hypsuranios; it is certain, however, that the pillars under which Hypsuranios-Hercules (Israel) and Usov-Ares were honoured were called after their names.

Other traits are clearer, in spite of the travesty. The imputation that they made their mothers lead a scandalous life is merely a parody upon the Mylitta festivals, which were connected with the worship of Baal or Moloch, and at which the women, as slaves of the Goddess, were obliged to purchase exemption from being sacrificed, by prostitution. Almost all the prophets down to Jeremiah complain that this service was carried on in the high places by the Jews. The foundation of Tyre, and the discovery of the art of navigation, are expressly attributed by the classics to "Hercules," who was worshipped on the island of Tyre in the two pillars.31

The story about fire, lastly, is a misapprehension of

29 Movers, p. 289. Diod. ii. 19.

31 Nonnus Dionys. xl. 443., in Movers, p. 394.

30 Movers, p. 294.

the annual vernal festival, the fire or torch festival, described by Lucian and others as instituted by the Tyrians in honour of the greatest Gods.32 Lucian says:

"The Tyrians on this occasion perform the following sacrifices: they hew down great trees and erect them in the porches of the temples. They then drive in goats, sheep, and other sacrificial animals, which they hang upon these trees, and with them birds, clothes, and statues of gold and silver. After these preparations they carry the images of the Gods round the trees, the pile is set on fire, and then all vanishes in smoke. At this festival a great number of persons assemble from Syria and all the neighbouring countries."

Putting all this together, we are justified in coming to the conclusion that the old primeval God was viewed by the Phoenicians in two opposite characters, (Saminrum) as the preserver, and (Usov) as the destroyer, like Hercules and Ares. The destroyer is the vanquished banished brother, probably therefore the elder. This contrast pervades the whole Phoenician mythology. Eusebius 33 mentions Usôus together with Melikarthos (Melkarth) the patron of Carthage, as instances of the deification of men deserving of little respect. Melikarthos is unquestionably the Melikertes of the Greeks, who is mixed up with the oldest legends, the son of Athamas and Ino, the paternal brother of Helle and Phryxus. But the origin of the myth is ideal and not historical. Sankhuniathon afterwards expressly calls Melikarthos Hercules.

The Phoenician Hercules himself wrestled with Typhon (the Sun at the meridian) in the sand, as JacobIsrael did with Elohim in the dust. Hercules, like Jacob, was wounded in the encounter in the thigh: and, like the son of Isaac, received the name of

32 Lucianus, Dea Syra, § 49. 33 De Laud. Constant. c. 13.

Movers, loc. cit.

Movers (p. 395.) has corrected the common reading Οὔσωρος, and Μελκάνθαρον instead of Μελίκαρθον.