The Destinies of the Stars — Reading Notes

abi-dynasty (about 2000 B.C.) the Sun, Shamash, was accepted as supreme god, but the Moon remained the regulator of time for religious purposes. For astrological forecasts the priests preferred to use the Moon, and the “signs” in the Moon were the most important. This is true of astrological prophecies also at the time of Tycho Brahe. “Oh, Sin, thou tellest the oracles to the gods who pray them of thee,” reads an incantation. From Babylon, the heart of civilization, Moon-worship spread to Arabs and other Semites, and with the Hebrews, as Bergström remarks, the Moon originally played a far greater part than the Sun, although at the time of Christ the condition was reversed. Nevertheless, the Moon has still retained its position as chronographer in the Church Calendar. In Psalms 104:19 we read: “He appointed the Moon for seasons.”

In general, we have built on the belief that the stellar bodies made an impression on men by virtue of the light they radiate and it has therefore been difficult to explain why the Moon ranked above the Sun. It is frequently said that the Sun (in Babylonia) was considered an enemy of mankind as its heat destroyed the vegetation. (It is true that a period of severe drought occurs there in the height of the summer.) As opposed to this, the moonlit nights would be considered refreshing and salutary. Another explanation is essayed by Bergström, who says that the luminous Moon with its ever-changing shape appealed to the imagination of primitive people in a far higher degree than the fairly constantly brilliant Sun. He is partly correct; the enormous variation in luminosity from full to new Moon enables the observer to notice the difference from night to night. The change by about one hour in each twenty-four hours of the time for the rising and setting of the Moon as compared to the disappearance and reappearance of sunlight, and more important yet the short periods of the Moon phases which leave the observations from each receding phase fresh in memory,--both these phenomena contribute toward the high value of the Moon’s synodic revolution as a measure of protracted time duration. The purely practical need dominates, not, probably, any desire to visualize the changes in legends. The Australian negroes use four different names for the Moon according to its four quarters, showing that they, in all probability, believe themselves confronted with four different stellar bodies, just as the Greeks at the time of Homer considered the morning- and the evening-star, _i. e._ Venus, as two separate planets.

On the other hand, no ground worth mentioning supports the theory that the scorching heat of the Sun diminished the peoples’ inclination for its worship. On the contrary, homage was generally rendered to phenomena one feared. It is further not true that the Babylonians themselves considered the Sun, Shamash, hostile, the Moon, Sin, friendly. The Sun-god, Shamash, by virtue of his light, was believed to give life and health. The scorching quality of the Sun was attributed to another god, Nergal, prince of the underworld, demon of war and slaughter, source of fever, and, pre-eminently, of plague. No reason existed, therefore, why Shamash should take second rank after Sin, who is said “to carry water and fire,” meaning, according to Schrader, that he brought fits of ague and fever. When the Sun after the oppressive day sinks behind the horizon, it is well known that a sharp fall of temperature occurs, particularly in arid zones, but also in humid regions within the tropics where this very phenomenon is utilized for the production of ice. He who exposes himself to the sudden cold of the night falls an easy prey to illness. Particularly is this true under a clear sky--primitive people say “when the Moon shines”--because of the strong radiation. Those who sleep in moonlight are struck by delirium and madness according to primitive thought, an opinion by no means dead among civilized nations--it is common with seafaring men--and is no doubt the origin of the expression: moonstruck (German: _mondsuchtig_, Ital.: _lunatico_, French: _lunatique_, Swedish: _månadsrasande_, etc.). To this belief has probably contributed the fact that epileptic fits frequently possess a period nearly corresponding to the synodical month, which, as I have shown elsewhere, most likely depends on a periodic change in the atmospheric electricity.