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The Two Babylons
Alexander Hislop
Chapter II
Section II
Sub-Section III
The Child in Greece
 Thus much for Egypt. Coming into Greece, not only do we find
evidence there to the same effect, but increase of that evidence. The god
worshipped as a child in the arms of the great Mother in Greece, under the
names of Dionysus, or Bacchus, or Iacchus, is, by ancient inquirers, expressly
identified with the Egyptian Osiris. This is the case with Herodotus, who had
prosecuted his inquiries in Egypt itself, who ever speaks of Osiris as Bacchus.
To the same purpose is the testimony of Diodorus Siculus. "Orpheus," says he,
"introduced from Egypt the greatest part of the mystical ceremonies, the orgies
that celebrate the wanderings of Ceres, and the whole fable of the shades
below. The rites of Osiris and Bacchus are the same; those of Isis and Ceres
exactly resemble each other, except in name." Now, as if to identify Bacchus
with Nimrod, "the Leopard-tamer," leopards were employed to draw his car; he
himself was represented as clothed with a leopard's skin; his priests were
attired in the same manner, or when a leopard's skin was dispensed with, the spotted skin of a fawn was used as a priestly robe in its stead. This
very custom of wearing the spotted fawn-skin seems to have been imported into
Greece originally from Assyria, where a spotted fawn was a sacred emblem, as we
learn from the Nineveh sculptures; for there we find a divinity bearing a
spotted fawn or spotted fallow-deer (see Figure 21), in
his arm, as a symbol of some mysterious import.
The origin of the importance
attached to the spotted fawn and its skin had evidently come thus: When Nimrod,
as "the Leopard-tamer," began to be clothed in the leopard-skin, as the trophy
of his skill, his spotted dress and appearance must have impressed the
imaginations of those who saw him; and he came to be called not only the
"Subduer of the Spotted one" (for such is the precise meaning of
Nimr--the name of the leopard), but to be called "The spotted one" himself. We
have distinct evidence to this effect borne by Damascius, who tells us that the
Babylonians called "the only son" of the great goddess-mother "Momis, or
Moumis." Now, Momis, or Moumis, in Chaldee, like Nimr, signified "The spotted
one." Thus, then, it became easy to represent Nimrod by the symbol of the
"spotted fawn," and especially in Greece, and wherever a pronunciation akin to
that of Greece prevailed. The name of Nimrod, as known to the Greeks, was
Nebrod. * The name of the fawn, as "the spotted one," in Greece was Nebros; **
and thus nothing could be more natural than that Nebros, the "spotted fawn,"
should become a synonym for Nebrod himself. When, therefore, the Bacchus of
Greece was symbolised by the Nebros, or "spotted fawn," as we shall find he was
symbolised, what could be the design but just covertly to identify him with
Nimrod?
* In the
Greek Septuagint, translated in Egypt, the name of Nimrod is "Nebrod."
** Nebros, the name
of the fawn, signifies "the spotted one." Nmr, in Egypt, would
also become Nbr; for Bunsen shows that m and b in that
land were often convertible.
 We have evidence that this god, whose emblem was the Nebros,
was known as having the very lineage of Nimrod. From Anacreon, we find that a
title of Bacchus was Aithiopais--i.e., "the son of Aethiops." But who was
Aethiops? As the Aethiopians were Cushites, so Aethiops was Cush. "Chus," says
Eusebius, "was he from whom came the Aethiopians." The testimony of Josephus is
to the same effect. As the father of the Aethiopians, Cush was Aethiops, by way
of eminence. Therefore Epiphanius, referring to the extraction of Nimrod, thus
speaks: "Nimrod, the son of Cush, the Aethiop." Now, as Bacchus was the son of
Aethiops, or Cush, so to the eye he was represented in that character.
As Nin "the Son," he was portrayed as a youth or child; and that youth or child
was generally depicted with a cup in his hand. That cup, to the
multitude, exhibited him as the god of drunken revelry; and of such revelry in
his orgies, no doubt there was abundance; but yet, after all, the cup was
mainly a hieroglyphic, and that of the name of the god. The name of a
cup, in the sacred language, was khus, and thus the cup in the hand of
the youthful Bacchus, the son of Aethiops, showed that he was the young Chus, or the son of Chus. In the accompanying woodcut (see Figure 22), the cup in the right hand of Bacchus is held
up in so significant a way, as naturally to suggest that it must be a symbol;
and as to the branch in the other hand, we have express testimony that it is a
symbol. But it is worthy of notice that the branch has no leaves to determine
what precise kind of a branch it is. It must, therefore, be a generic emblem
for a branch, or a symbol of a branch in general; and, consequently, it needs
the cup as its complement, to determine specifically what sort of a branch it
is. The two symbols, then, must be read together, and read thus, they are just
equivalent to--the "Branch of Chus"--i.e., "the scion or son of Cush." *
* Everyone
knows that Homer's odzos Areos, or "Branch of Mars," is the same as a
"Son of Mars." The hieroglyphic above was evidently formed on the same
principle. That the cup alone in the hand of the youthful Bacchus
was intended to designate him "as the young Chus," or "the boy Chus," we may
fairly conclude from a statement of Pausanias, in which he represents "the boy Kuathos" as acting the part of a cup-bearer, and presenting a cup to Hercules (PAUSANIAS Corinthiaca) Kuathos is the Greek for
a "cup," and is evidently derived from the Hebrew Khus, "a cup," which, in one
of its Chaldee forms, becomes Khuth or Khuath. Now, it is well known that the
name of Cush is often found in the form of Cuth, and that name, in certain
dialects, would be Cuath. The "boy Kuathos," then, is just the Greek form of
the "boy Cush," or "the young Cush."
There is another hieroglyphic
connected with Bacchus that goes not a little to confirm this--that is, the Ivy
branch. No emblem was more distinctive of the worship of Bacchus than this.
Wherever the rites of Bacchus were performed, wherever his orgies were
celebrated, the Ivy branch was sure to appear. Ivy, in some form or other, was
essential to these celebrations. The votaries carried it in their hands, bound
it around their heads, or had the Ivy leaf even indelibly stamped upon their
persons. What could be the use, what could be the meaning of this? A few words
will suffice to show it. In the first place, then, we have evidence that
Kissos, the Greek name for Ivy, was one of the names of Bacchus; and
further, that though the name of Cush, in its proper form, was known to the
priests in the Mysteries, yet that the established way in which the name of his
descendants, the Cushites, was ordinarily pronounced in Greece, was not after
the Oriental fashion, but as "Kissaioi," or "Kissioi." Thus, Strabo, speaking
of the inhabitants of Susa, who were the people of Chusistan, or the ancient
land of Cush, says: "The Susians are called Kissioi," * --that is beyond all
question, Cushites.
* STRABO. In
Hesychius, the name is Kissaioi. The epithet applied to the land of Cush in
Aeschylus is Kissinos. The above accounts for one of the unexplained titles of
Apollo. "Kisseus Apollon" is plainly "The Cushite Apollo."
Now, if Kissioi be Cushites,
then Kissos is Cush. Then, further, the branch of Ivy that occupied so
conspicuous a place in all Bacchanalian celebrations was an express symbol of
Bacchus himself; for Hesychius assures us that Bacchus, as represented by his
priest, was known in the Mysteries as "The branch." From this, then, it
appears how Kissos, the Greek name of Ivy, became the name of Bacchus. As the
son of Cush, and as identified with him, he was sometimes called by his
father's name--Kissos. His actual relation, however, to his father was
specifically brought out by the Ivy branch, for "the branch of Kissos," which
to the profane vulgar was only "the branch of Ivy," was to the initiated "The
branch of Cush." *
* The chaplet, or head-band of Ivy, had evidently a similar hieroglyphical meaning to the
above, for the Greek "Zeira Kissou" is either a "band or circlet of Ivy," or
"The seed of Cush." The formation of the Greek "Zeira," a zone or enclosing
band, from the Chaldee Zer, to encompass, shows that Zero "the seed,"
which was also pronounced Zeraa, would, in like manner, in some Greek
dialects, become Zeira. Kissos, "Ivy," in Greek, retains the radical idea of
the Chaldee Khesha or Khesa, "to cover or hide," from which there is reason to
believe the name of Cush is derived, for Ivy is characteristically "The coverer
or hider." In connection with this, it may be stated that the second person of
the Phoenician trinity was Chursorus (WILKINSON), which evidently is Chus-zoro,
"The seed of Cush." We have already seen that the Phoenicians derived their
mythology from Assyria.
Now, this god, who was
recognised as "the scion of Cush," was worshipped under a name, which, while
appropriate to him in his vulgar character as the god of the vintage, did also
describe him as the great Fortifier. That name was Bassareus, which, in its
two-fold meaning, signified at once "The houser of grapes, or the vintage
gatherer," and "The Encompasser with a wall," * in this latter sense
identifying the Grecian god with the Egyptian Osiris, "the strong chief of the
buildings," and with the Assyrian "Belus, who encompassed Babylon with a wall."
* Bassareus
is evidently from the Chaldee Batzar, to which both Gesenius and Parkhurst give
the two-fold meaning of "gathering in grapes," and "fortifying." Batzar is
softened into Bazzar in the very same way as Nebuchadnetzar is pronounced
Nebuchadnezzar. In the sense of "rendering a defence inaccessible," Gesenius
adduces Jeremiah 51:53, "Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and
though she should fortify (tabatzar) the height of her strength, yet
from me shall spoilers come unto her, saith the Lord." Here is evident
reference to the two great elements in Babylon's strength, first her tower;
secondly, her massive fortifications, or encompassing walls. In making the
meaning of Batzar to be, "to render inaccessible," Gesenius seems to
have missed the proper generic meaning of the term. Batzar is a compound verb,
from Ba, "in," and Tzar, "to compass," exactly equivalent to our
English word "en-compass."
Thus from Assyria, Egypt, and
Greece, we have cumulative and overwhelming evidence, all conspiring to
demonstrate that the child worshipped in the arms of the goddess-mother in all
these countries in the very character of Ninus or Nin, "The Son," was Nimrod,
the son of Cush. A feature here, or an incident there, may have been borrowed
from some succeeding hero; but it seems impossible to doubt, that of that child
Nimrod was the prototype, the grand original.
The amazing extent of the
worship of this man indicates something very extraordinary in his character;
and there is ample reason to believe, that in his own day he was an object of
high popularity. Though by setting up as king, Nimrod invaded the patriarchal
system, and abridged the liberties of mankind, yet he was held by many to have
conferred benefits upon them, that amply indemnified them for the loss of their
liberties, and covered him with glory and renown. By the time that he appeared,
the wild beasts of the forest multiplying more rapidly than the human race,
must have committed great depredations on the scattered and straggling
populations of the earth, and must have inspired great terror into the minds of
men. The danger arising to the lives of men from such a source as this, when
population is scanty, is implied in the reason given by God Himself for not
driving out the doomed Canaanites before Israel at once, though the measure of
their iniquity was full (Exo 23:29,30):
"I will not drive
them out from before thee in one year, lest the land become desolate, and the
beast of the field multiply against thee. By little and little I will drive
them out from before thee, until thou be increased."
The exploits of Nimrod,
therefore, in hunting down the wild beasts of the field, and ridding the world
of monsters, must have gained for him the character of a pre-eminent benefactor
of his race. By this means, not less than by the bands he trained, was his
power acquired, when he first began to be mighty upon the earth; and in
the same way, no doubt, was that power consolidated. Then, over and above, as
the first great city-builder after the flood, by gathering men together in
masses, and surrounding them with walls, he did still more to enable them to
pass their days in security, free from the alarms to which they had been
exposed in their scattered life, when no one could tell but that at any moment
he might be called to engage in deadly conflict with prowling wild beasts, in
defence of his own life and of those who were dear to him. Within the
battlements of a fortified city no such danger from savage animals was to be
dreaded; and for the security afforded in this way, men no doubt looked upon
themselves as greatly indebted to Nimrod. No wonder, therefore, that the name
of the "mighty hunter," who was at the same time the prototype of "the god of
fortifications," should have become a name of renown. Had Nimrod gained renown
only thus, it had been well. But not content with delivering men from the fear
of wild beasts, he set to work also to emancipate them from that fear of the
Lord which is the beginning of wisdom, and in which alone true happiness can be
found. For this very thing, he seems to have gained, as one of the titles by
which men delighted to honour him, the title of the "Emancipator," or
"Deliverer." The reader may remember a name that has already come under his
notice. That name is the name of Phoroneus.
The era of Phoroneus is
exactly the era of Nimrod. He lived about the time when men had used one
speech, when the confusion of tongues began, and when mankind was scattered
abroad. He is said to have been the first that gathered mankind into
communities, the first of mortals that reigned, and the first that offered
idolatrous sacrifices. This character can agree with none but that of Nimrod.
Now the name given to him in connection with his "gathering men together," and
offering idolatrous sacrifice, is very significant. Phoroneus, in one of its
meanings, and that one of the most natural, signifies the "Apostate." * That
name had very likely been given him by the uninfected portion of the sons of
Noah. But that name had also another meaning, that is, "to set free"; and
therefore his own adherents adopted it, and glorified the great "Apostate" from
the primeval faith, though he was the first that abridged the liberties of
mankind, as the grand "Emancipator!" ** And hence, in one form or other, this
title was handed down to this deified successors as a title of honour. ***
* From
Pharo, also pronounced Pharang, or Pharong, "to cast off, to make naked, to
apostatise, to set free." These meanings are not commonly given in this order, but as the sense of "casting off" explains all the other
meanings, that warrants the conclusion that "to cast off" is the generic sense
of the word. Now "apostacy" is very near akin to this sense, and
therefore is one of the most natural.
** The Sabine
goddess Feronia had evidently a relation to Phoroneus, as the "Emancipator."
She was believed to be the "goddess of liberty," because at Terracina (or
Anuxur) slaves were emancipated in her temple (Servius, in Aeneid), and
because the freedmen of Rome are recorded on one occasion to have collected a
sum of money for the purpose of offering it in her temple. (SMITH'S Classical Dictionary, "Feronia")
*** Thus we read of
"Zeus Aphesio" (PAUSANIAS, Attica), that is "Jupiter Liberator" and of
"Dionysus Eleuthereus" (PAUSANIAS), or "Bacchus the Deliverer." The name of
Theseus seems to have had the same origin, from nthes "to loosen," and
so to set free (the n being omissible). "The temple of Theseus" [at
Athens] says POTTER "...was allowed the privilege of being a Sanctuary for
slaves, and all those of mean condition that fled from the persecution of men
in power, in memory that Theseus, while he lived, was an assister and
protector of the distressed."
All tradition from the
earliest times bears testimony to the apostacy of Nimrod, and to his success in
leading men away from the patriarchal faith, and delivering their minds from
that awe of God and fear of the judgments of heaven that must have rested on
them while yet the memory of the flood was recent. And according to all the
principles of depraved human nature, this too, no doubt, was one grand element
in his fame; for men will readily rally around any one who can give the least
appearance of plausibility to any doctrine which will teach that they can be
assured of happiness and heaven at last, though their hearts and natures are
unchanged, and though they live without God in the world.
How great was the boon
conferred by Nimrod on the human race, in the estimation of ungodly men, by
emancipating them from the impressions of true religion, and putting the
authority of heaven to a distance from them, we find most vividly described in
a Polynesian tradition, that carries its own evidence with it. John Williams,
the well known missionary, tells us that, according to one of the ancient
traditions of the islanders of the South Seas, "the heavens were originally so
close to the earth that men could not walk, but were compelled to crawl" under
them. "This was found a very serious evil; but at length an individual
conceived the sublime idea of elevating the heavens to a more convenient
height. For this purpose he put forth his utmost energy, and by the first
effort raised them to the top of a tender plant called teve, about four
feet high. There he deposited them until he was refreshed, when, by a second
effort, he lifted them to the height of a tree called Kauariki, which is as
large as the sycamore. By the third attempt he carried them to the summits of
the mountains; and after a long interval of repose, and by a most prodigious
effort, he elevated them to their present situation." For this, as a mighty
benefactor of mankind, "this individual was deified; and up to the moment that
Christianity was embraced, the deluded inhabitants worshipped him as the
'Elevator of the heavens.'" Now, what could more graphically describe the
position of mankind soon after the flood, and the proceedings of Nimrod as
Phoroneus, "The Emancipator," * than this Polynesian fable?
* The
bearing of this name, Phoroneus, "The Emancipator," will be seen in Chapter
III, Section I, "Christmas," where it is shown that slaves had a temporary emancipation at his birthday.
While the awful catastrophe by
which God had showed His avenging justice on the sinners of the old world was
yet fresh in the minds of men, and so long as Noah, and the upright among his
descendants, sought with all earnestness to impress upon all under their
control the lessons which that solemn event was so well fitted to teach,
"heaven," that is, God, must have seemed very near to earth. To maintain the
union between heaven and earth, and to keep it as close as possible, must have
been the grand aim of all who loved God and the best interests of the human
race. But this implied the restraining and discountenancing of all vice and all
those "pleasures of sin," after which the natural mind, unrenewed and
unsanctified, continually pants. This must have been secretly felt by every
unholy mind as a state of insufferable bondage. "The carnal mind is enmity
against God," is "not subject to His law," neither indeed is
"able to be" so. It says to the Almighty, "Depart from us, for we desire
not the knowledge of Thy ways."
So long as the influence of
the great father of the new world was in the ascendant, while his maxims were
regarded, and a holy atmosphere surrounded the world, no wonder that those who
were alienated from God and godliness, felt heaven and its influence and
authority to be intolerably near, and that in such circumstances they "could
not walk," but only "crawl,"--that is, that they had no freedom to "walk after
the sight of their own eyes and the imaginations of their own hearts." From
this bondage Nimrod emancipated them. By the apostacy he introduced, by the
free life he developed among those who rallied around him, and by separating
them from the holy influences that had previously less or more controlled them,
he helped them to put God and the strict spirituality of His law at a distance,
and thus he became the "Elevator of the heavens," making men feel and act as if
heaven were afar off from earth, and as if either the God of heaven "could not
see through the dark cloud," or did not regard with displeasure the breakers of
His laws. Then all such would feel that they could breathe freely, and that now
they could walk at liberty. For this, such men could not but regard Nimrod as a
high benefactor.
Now, who could have imagined
that a tradition from Tahiti would have illuminated the story of Atlas? But
yet, when Atlas, bearing the heavens on his shoulders, is brought into
juxtaposition with the deified hero of the South Seas, who blessed the world by
heaving up the superincumbent heavens that pressed so heavily upon it, who does
not see that the one story bears a relation to the other? *
* In the
Polynesian story the heavens and earth are said to have been "bound together
with cords," and the "severing" of these cords is said to have been
effected by myriads of "dragon-flies," which, with their "wings," bore an
important share in the great work. (WILLIAMS) Is there not here a reference to
Nimrod's `63 "mighties" or "winged ones"? The deified "mighty ones" were often
represented as winged serpents. See WILKINSON, vol. iv. p. 232, where the god
Agathodaemon is represented as a "winged asp." Among a rude people the memory
of such a representation might very naturally be kept up in connection with the
"dragon-fly"; and as all the mighty or winged ones of Nimrod's age, the real golden age of paganism, when "dead, became daemons" (HESIOD, Works and Days), they would of course all alike be symbolised in the
same way. If any be stumbled at the thought of such a connection between the
mythology of Tahiti and of Babel, let it not be overlooked that the name of the
Tahitian god of war was Oro (WILLIAMS), while "Horus (or Orus)," as Wilkinson
calls the son of Osiris, in Egypt, which unquestionably borrowed its system
from Babylon, appeared in that very character. (WILKINSON) Then what could the
severing of the "cords" that bound heaven and earth together be, but just the
breaking of the bands of the covenant by which God bound the earth to Himself,
when on smelling a sweet savour in Noah's sacrifice, He renewed His covenant
with him as head of the human race. This covenant did not merely respect the
promise to the earth securing it against another universal deluge, but
contained in its bosom a promise of all spiritual blessings to those who adhere
to it. The smelling of the sweet savour in Noah's sacrifice had respect to his faith in Christ. When, therefore, in consequence of smelling that sweet
savour, "God blessed Noah and his sons" (Gen 9:1), that had reference not
merely to temporal but to spiritual and eternal blessings. Every one,
therefore, of the sons of Noah, who had Noah's faith, and who walked as Noah
walked, was divinely assured of an interest in "the everlasting covenant,
ordered in all things and sure." Blessed were those bands by which God bound
the believing children of men to Himself--by which heaven and earth were so
closely joined together.
Those, on the other
hand, who joined in the apostacy of Nimrod broke the covenant, and in casting
off the authority of God, did in effect say, "Let us break His bands asunder,
and cast His cords from us." To this very act of severing the covenant
connection between earth and heaven there is very distinct allusion, though
veiled, in the Babylonian history of Berosus. There Belus, that is Nimrod,
after having dispelled the primeval darkness, is said to have separated heaven and earth from one another, and to have orderly arranged the world.
(BEROSUS, in BUNSEN) These words were intended to represent Belus as the
"Former of the world." But then it is a new world that he forms;
for there are creatures in existence before his Demiurgic power is exerted. The
new world that Belus or Nimrod formed, was just the new order of things which he introduced when, setting at nought all Divine appointments, he
rebelled against Heaven. The rebellion of the Giants is represented as
peculiarly a rebellion against Heaven. To this ancient quarrel between
the Babylonian potentates and Heaven, there is plainly an allusion in
the words of Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar, when announcing that sovereign's
humiliation and subsequent restoration, he says (Dan 4:26), "Thy kingdom shall
be sure unto thee, when thou hast known that the HEAVENS do rule."
Thus, then, it appears that
Atlas, with the heavens resting on his broad shoulders, refers to no mere
distinction in astronomical knowledge, however great, as some have supposed,
but to a quite different thing, even to that great apostacy in which the Giants
rebelled against Heaven, and in which apostacy Nimrod, "the mighty one,"
* as the acknowledged ringleader, occupied a pre-eminent place. **
* In the Greek
Septuagint, translated in Egypt, the term "mighty" as applied in Genesis 10:8,
to Nimrod, is rendered the ordinary name for a "Giant."
** IVAN and
KALLERY, in their account of Japan, show that a similar story to that of Atlas
was known there, for they say that once a day the Emperor "sits on his throne
upholding the world and the empire." Now something like this came to be added
to the story of Atlas, for PAUSANIAS shows that Atlas also was represented as
upholding both earth and heaven.
According to the system which
Nimrod was the grand instrument in introducing, men were led to believe that a
real spiritual change of heart was unnecessary, and that so far as change was
needful, they could be regenerated by mere external means. Looking at the
subject in the light of the Bacchanalian orgies, which, as the reader has seen,
commemorated the history of Nimrod, it is evident that he led mankind to seek
their chief good in sensual enjoyment, and showed them how they might enjoy the
pleasures of sin, without any fear of the wrath of a holy God. In his various
expeditions he was always accompanied by troops of women; and by music and
song, and games and revelries, and everything that could please the natural
heart, he commended himself to the good graces of mankind.
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