Beacon Lights of History, Volume 01 | Page 9

the
Assyrians and Babylonians who were objects of worship, and were
supposed to have great influence on human affairs. These deities were
the planets under different names. The early study of astronomy among
the dwellers on the plains of Babylon and in Mesopotamia gave an
astral feature to their religion which was not prominent in Egypt. These
astral deities were Nin, or Bar (the Saturn of the Romans); and
Merodach (Jupiter), the august god, "the eldest son of Heaven," the
Lord of battles. This was the favorite god of Nebuchadnezzar, and
epithets of the highest honor were conferred upon him, as "King of
heaven and earth," the "Lord of all beings," etc. Nergal (Mars) was a
war god, his name signifying "the great Hero," "the King of battles."
He goes before kings in their military expeditions, and lends them
assistance in the chase. His emblem is the human-headed winged lion
seen at the entrance of royal palaces. Ista (Venus) was the goddess of
beauty, presiding over the loves of both men and animals, and was
worshipped with unchaste rites. Nebo (Mercury) had the charge over
learning and culture,--the god of wisdom, who "teaches and instructs."

There were other deities in the Assyrian and Babylonian pantheon
whom I need not name, since they played a comparatively unimportant
part in human affairs, like the inferior deities of the Romans, presiding
over dreams, over feasts, over marriage, and the like.
The Phoenicians, like the Assyrians, had their goddesses. Astoreth, or
Astarte, represented the great female productive principle, as Baal did
the male. It was originally a name for the energy of God, on a par with
Baal. In one of her aspects she represented the moon; but more
commonly she was the representative of the female principle in Nature,
and was connected more or less with voluptuous rites,--the equivalent
of Aphrodite, or Venus. Tanith also was a noted female deity, and was
worshipped at Carthage and Cyprus by the Phoenician settlers. The
name is associated, according to Gesenius, with the Egyptian goddess
Nut, and with the Grecian Artemis the huntress.
An important thing to be observed of these various deities is that they
do not uniformly represent the same power. Thus Baal, the Phoenician
sun-god, was made by the Greeks and Romans equivalent to Zeus, or
Jupiter, the god of thunder and storms. Apollo, the sun-god of the
Greeks, was not so powerful as Zeus, the god of the atmosphere; while
in Assyria and Phoenicia the sun-god was the greater deity. In
Babylonia, Shamas was a sun-god as well as Bel; and Bel again was the
god of the heavens, like Zeus.
While Zeus was the supreme deity in the Greek mythology, rather than
Apollo the sun, it seems that on the whole the sun was the prominent
and the most commonly worshipped deity of all the Oriental nations, as
being the most powerful force in Nature. Behind the sun, however,
there was supposed to be an indefinite creative power, whose form was
not represented, worshipped in no particular temple by the esoteric few
who were his votaries, and called the "Father of all the gods," "the
Ancient of days," reigning supreme over them all. This indefinite
conception of the Jehovah of the Hebrews seems to me the last
flickering light of the primitive revelation, shining in the souls of the
most enlightened of the Pagan worshippers, including perhaps the
greatest of the monarchs, who were priests as well as kings.

The most distinguishing feature in the worship of all the gods of
antiquity, whether among Egyptians, or Assyrians, or Babylonians, or
Phoenicians, or Greeks, or Romans, is that of oblations and sacrifices.
It was even a peculiarity of the old Jewish religion, as well as that of
China and India. These oblations and sacrifices were sometimes offered
to the deity, whatever his form or name, as an expiation for sin, of
which the soul is conscious in all ages and countries; sometimes to
obtain divine favor, as in military expeditions, or to secure any object
dearest to the heart, such as health, prosperity, or peace; sometimes to
propitiate the deity in order to avert the calamities following his
supposed wrath or vengeance. The oblations were usually in the form
of wine, honey, or the fruits of the earth, which were supposed to be
necessary for the nourishment of the gods, especially in Greece. The
sacrifices were generally of oxen, sheep, and goats, the most valued
and precious of human property in primitive times, for those old
heathen never offered to their deities that which cost them nothing, but
rather that which was dearest to them. Sometimes, especially in
Phoenicia, human beings were offered in sacrifice, the most repulsive
peculiarity of polytheism. But the instincts of humanity generally kept
men from rites so revolting. Christianity,