The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 09 of 12)

833

J. Buxtorf, op. cit. p. 559; Schickard, quoted by Lagarde, “Purim,” Abhandlungen der kön. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, xxxiv. (1887) pp. 54 sq. Compare J. Chr. G. Bodenschatz, Kirchliche Verfassung der heutigen Juden (Erlangen, 1748), ii. 256. For the rule forbidding men and women to exchange garments, see Deuteronomy xxii. 5.

834

J. J. Schudt, Jüdische Merkwürdigkeiten (Frankfort and Leipsic, 1714), ii. Theil, pp. 309, 314, 316, iv. Theiles die ii. Continuation, p. 347; I. Abrahams, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages (London, 1896), pp. 261 sqq. I have to thank my learned friend Dr. S. Schechter for bringing both these works to my notice.

835

P. Jensen, “Elamitische Eigennamen,” Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, vi. (1892) pp. 47-70; compare ib. pp. 209-212. All Jensen's etymologies are accepted by W. Nowack (Lehrbuch der hebräischen Archäologie, Freiburg i. Baden and Leipsic, 1894, ii. 199 sq.); H. Gunkel (Schöpfung und Chaos, Göttingen, 1895, pp. 310 sq.); D. G. Wildeboer (in his commentary on Esther, pp. 173 sqq., forming part of K. Marti's Kurzer Hand-Commentar zum alten Testament, Freiburg i. B. 1898); Th. Nöldeke (s. v. “Esther,” Encyclopaedia Biblica, vol. ii. coll. 1404 sq.); and H. Zimmern (in E. Schrader's Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament,

Berlin, 1902, pp. 485, 516 sq.). On the other hand, Br. Meissner (Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft, I. (1896) p. 301) and M. Jastrow (The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 686, note 2) suspend their judgment as to the identification of Haman and Vashti with Elamite deities, though they apparently regard the identification of Mordecai and Esther with Marduk and Ishtar as quite certain. The doubt which these scholars felt as to the derivation of one at least of these names (Vashti) is now known to be well founded. See below, p. , note 3.

It deserves to be noted that on the twenty-seventh day of the month Tammuz the heathen of Harran used to sacrifice nine male lambs to Haman, “the supreme God, the father of the gods,” and they ate and drank on that day. Chwolsohn suggests a comparison of the festival with the Athenian Cronia. See D. Chwolsohn, Die Ssabier und der Ssabismus (St. Petersburg, 1856), ii. 27 sq., 211 sqq.

836

Th. Nöldeke, s. v. “Esther,” in Encyclopaedia Biblica, vol. ii. (London, 1901) coll. 1405. But in a letter, written to me (20th May 1901) since the publication of the last edition of this book, Professor Nöldeke expresses a doubt whether he has not followed Jensen's mythological identifications in the book of Esther too far.

837

“The change of m to w or v (the Hebrew ו = waw) is frequent and certain” (the Rev. C. H. W. Johns in a letter to me, May 19th, 1913). The change is vouched for also by my friend Professor A. A. Bevan, who cites as an instance the name of the Babylonian king Amel-Marduk, which in Hebrew is changed into Evil-Merodach (2 Kings xxv. 27; Jeremiah lii. 31). See E. Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament

(Berlin, 1902), p. 396.

838

The name of the Elamite goddess is read as Parti by the Rev. Father Scheil. See E. Cosquin, Le Prologue-cadre des Mille et Une Nuits, les Légendes Perses, et le Livre d'Esther (Paris, 1909), p. 68 (extract from the Revue Biblique Internationale, Janvier et Avril, 1909, published by the Dominicans of Jerusalem). The Master of St. Catharine's College, Cambridge (the Rev. C. H. W. Johns), has kindly examined the facsimile of the inscriptions for me. He informs me that Father Scheil's reading is correct and that the reading Mashti is quite wrong. He further tells me that Jensen was misled by an incorrect edition of the inscriptions to which alone he had access. The signs for par (or bar) and mash in the inscriptions resemble each other and therefore might easily be confused by a copyist. All Jensen's etymologies, except that of Mordecai, are adversely criticized by M. Emile Cosquin in the work to which I have referred (pp. 67 sqq.). He prefers with Oppert to derive all the names except Mordecai (the identity of which with Marduk he does not dispute) from the old Persian. However, these derivations from the Persian are rejected by Professor Th. Nöldeke, whose opinion on such a point is entitled to carry great weight. See Encyclopaedia Biblica, ii. (London, 1901) col. 1402, s. v. “Esther.”

839

F. C. Movers, Die Phoenizier, i. (Bonn, 1841) pp. 490 sq.; 2 Samuel xvi. 21 sq., compare xii. 8. It was a well-attested custom of the Assyrian kings, when they had conquered a city, to take into their harem the daughters of the vanquished princes and rulers. See C. F. Lehmann (-Haupt), Šamaššumutkîn König von Babylonien (Leipsic, 1892), p. 31. The Persian and Scythian kings seem also to have married the wives of their predecessors. See Herodotus, iii. 68 and 88, iv. 78; K. Neumann, Die Hellenen im Skythenlande, i. (Berlin, 1855) p. 301. Such a custom points to an old system of mother-kin under which the royal dignity was transmitted through women. See The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings, ii. 268 sqq.

840

Ed. Meyer, s. v. “Anaitis,” in W. H. Roscher's Lexikon der griech. und röm. Mythologie, i. (Leipsic, 1884-1890) coll. 352 sq. At the temple of Anaitis in Acilisena, a city of Armenia, the daughters of the noblest families regularly prostituted themselves for a long time before marriage (Strabo, xi. 14. 16, p. 532). Agathias identified Anaitis with Aphrodite (Hist. ii. 24), and when the Greeks spoke of the Oriental Aphrodite, they meant Astarte or one of her equivalents. Jensen proposes to identify Anaitis with an Elamite goddess Nahuntí, whom he takes to have been equivalent to Ishtar or Astarte, especially in her quality of the Evening Star. See his article, “Elamitische Eigennamen,” Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, vi. (1892) pp. 64-67, 70.

841

Diodorus Siculus, ii. 20; Aelian, Var. Hist. vii. 1.

842

W. Robertson Smith, “Ctesias and the Semiramis Legend,” English Historical Review, ii. (1887) pp. 303-317. Amongst other evidence, Smith refers to Diodorus Siculus, from whose account (ii. 4) of the birth of Semiramis he infers that she “is the daughter of Derceto, the fish goddess of Ascalon, and is herself the Astarte whose sacred doves were honoured at Ascalon and throughout Syria.” It seems probable that the legendary Semiramis is to be identified with Shammuramat, the “palace wife” of Samsi-Adad, king of Assyria, and mother of King Adad-Nirari; she lived towards the end of the ninth century b. c., and is known to us from Assyrian inscriptions. See C. F. Lehmann-Haupt, Die historische Semiramis und ihre Zeit (Tübingen, 1910), pp. 1 sqq.; id., s. v. “Semiramis,” in W. H. Roscher's Lexicon der griech. und röm. Mythologie, iv. coll. 678 sqq.

843

Strabo, xii. 3. 37, p. 559, compare xi. 8. 4, p. 512. Zela is the modern Zileh, a town of about 20,000 inhabitants clustered at the foot of the so-called mound of Semiramis, which is an inconsiderable protuberance of natural rock crowned by the walls of an old citadel. The place is singularly destitute of ancient remains, but every year in the first fortnight of December a fair is held in the town, to which merchants come not only from the whole of Asia Minor, but also from the Caucasus, Armenia, and Persia. This fair may very well be a direct descendant of a great festival held in honour of Anaitis or Astarte. See G. Perrot et Ch. Chipiez, Histoire de l'Art dans l'Antiquité, iv. (Paris, 1887) p. 649; F. Cumont et E. Cumont, Voyage d'Exploration archéologique dans le Pont et la Petite Arménie (Brussels, 1906), pp. 188 sqq.

844

Berosus, cited by Clement of Alexandria, Protrept. v. 65, p. 57 ed. Potter (where for Ταναΐδος we should read Ἀναΐτιδος, as is done by C. Müller, Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum, ii. 509).

845

Strabo, xi. 8. 4, p. 512, xii. 3. 37, p. 559. The nature of the ἱερόδουλοι at Zela is indicated by Strabo in a passage (xii. 3. 36) where he describes a similar state of things at Comana, a city not far from Zela. His words are πλῆθος γυναικῶν τῶν ἐργαζομένων ἀπὸ τοῦ σώματος, ὦν αἰ πλείους εἰσὶν ἰεραί.

846

Herodotus, i. 184; Strabo, xvi. i. 2, p. 737; Diodorus Siculus, ii. 14.

847

Ctesias, cited by John of Antioch, in C. Müller's Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum, iv. 539.

848

Diodorus Siculus, ii. 13. Note that the first husband of Semiramis is said to have hanged himself (Diodorus Siculus, ii. 6).

849

A. Jeremias, Izdubar-Nimrod, (Leipsic, 1891), pp. 23 sqq.; M. Jastrow, The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria (Boston, U.S.A., 1898), p. 482; L. W. King, Babylonian Religion and Mythology (London, 1899), pp. 159 sqq.; P. Jensen, Assyrisch-Babylonische Mythen und Epen (Berlin, 1900), pp. 169, 171; R. F. Harper, Assyrian and Babylonian Literature (New York, 1901), pp. 338 sq.; Das Gilgamesch-Epos, neu übersetzt von Arthur Ungnad und gemeinverständlich erklärt von Hugo Gressmann (Göttingen, 1911), pp. 31 sq. The true name of the Babylonian hero, which used to be read as Izdubar, has been found to be Gilgamesh. See M. Jastrow, op. cit. pp. 468 sq.; H. Zimmern, in E. Schrader's Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament

(Berlin, 1902), p. 566 note 4; A. Ungnad, Das Gilgamesch-Epos, pp. 76 sq. Aelian mentions (De natura animalium, xii. 21) a Babylonian king, Gilgamus, whose name is doubtless identical with that of the hero.

850

A. Jeremias, op. cit. pp. 59 sq.; M. Jastrow, op. cit. pp. 475 sq., 484 sq.; Herodotus, i. 199. The name which Herodotus gives to the goddess is Mylitta, but this is only a corruption of one of her Semitic titles, whether Baalath (Hebrew בעלת) “mistress,” or perhaps rather Mullittu, from Mu'allidtu (Hebrew מילדת), “she who helps to the birth.” See E. Meyer, s. v. “Astarte,” in W. H. Roscher's Lexicon der griech. und röm. Mythologie, i. 648; H. Zimmern, in E. Schrader's Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament

(Berlin, 1902), p. 423 note 7. The female “votaries of Marduk” are repeatedly mentioned in the code of Hammurabi. See C. H. W. Johns, Babylonian and Assyrian Laws, Contracts, and Letters (Edinburgh, 1904), pp. 54, 55, 59, 60, 61; Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Second Edition, p. 63.

851

Along with Anaitis at Zela there were worshipped two deities named Omanos and Anadates; Strabo says that they were Persian divinities, and certainly their ritual as described by him was purely Persian. See Strabo, xi. 8. 4, p. 512, xv. 3. 15, p. 733; Franz Cumont, Les Religions orientales dans le Paganisme romain

(Paris, 1909), pp. 214 sq. It has been proposed to identify their names, first, with those of the two Persian archangels (Amshaspands), Vohumano or Vohu Manah (“Good Thought”) and Ameretât (“Immortality”), and, second, with those of Haman and his father Hammedatha in the book of Esther (iii. 1). In order to support the identification of Anadates with Ameretât and Hammedatha it has been further proposed to alter Anadates into Amadates or Amardates in the text of Strabo, which would assimilate the name to Amurdâd, a late form of Ameretât. See P. Jensen, Hittiter und Armenier (Strasburg, 1898), p. 181; Franz Cumont, Textes et Monuments figurés relatifs aux Mystères de Mithra, i. (Brussels, 1899) pp. 130, 131; H. Winckler, Altorientalische Forschungen, Dritte Reihe, i. (Leipsic, 1901) p. 4; H. Zimmern, in E. Schrader's Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament

(Berlin, 1902), p. 516 note 3; P. Haupt, Purim (Leipsic, 1906), p. 26; L. B. Paton, Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Esther (Edinburgh, 1908), pp. 88, 92. As to the Persian archangels (Amshaspands) see C. P. Tiele, Geschichte der Religion im Altertum (Gotha, 1896-1903), ii. 200 sqq.; L. H. Gray, “The Double Nature of the Iranian Archangels,” Archiv für Religionswissenschaft, vii. (1904) pp. 345 sqq.; J. H. Moulton, Early Religious Poetry of Persia (Cambridge, 1911), pp. 58 sqq. But apart from the philological difficulty created by the forcible alteration of Strabo's text in order to bring it into conformity with the theory, it is difficult to see how the highly abstract conceptions of the archangels “Good Thought” and “Immortality” could have passed into the highly concrete and by no means angelic figures of Haman and Hammedatha. This latter difficulty has been pointed out to me in a letter (8th June, 1901) by my friend the Rev. Professor J. H. Moulton, who further informs me that in Persian religion Vohu Manah is never linked with Ameretât, whereas Ameretât is constantly linked with another archangel Haurvatât (“Health”). Professor Theodor Nöldeke in a letter to me (20th May, 1901) also expresses himself sceptical as to the proposed identifications; he tells me that the name of a Persian god cannot end in data, just as the name of a Greek god cannot end in – δωρος or – δοτος. On the whole it seems better to leave Omanos and Anadates out of the present discussion.

852

Franz Boas, “The Social Organization and the Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl Indians,” Report of the United States National Museum for 1895 (Washington, 1897), p. 396.

853

Franz Boas, op. cit. pp. 420 sq. The description applies specially to the masked dances of the Kwakiutl tribe, but probably it holds good for the similar dances of the other Indian tribes on the same coast. Thus among the Bella Coola Indians “the masks used in the dances represent mythical personages, and the dances are pantomimic representations of myths. Among others, the thunder bird and his servant … appear in the dances” (F. Boas, op. cit. p. 651).

854