RELIGION OR THE WESTERN ASIATIC NATIONS.
We shall now proceed to a consideration of the spiritual condition of the Eastern nations, or, what in those epochs was the equivalent of that condition, their religions consciousness and development.
The worship of the Sun, which we have already noticed (p. 131) as being the basis of the religious system of the Egyptians, becomes here more manifest. The Assyrians had extended this worship into a ven eration of all the heavenly bodies; among other nations, especially the Syrians, the Moon was included as a deity. The Assyrians represented a number of the principal stars, or more probably constellations, by sym bolic figures of animals, in order to render them more comprehensible by the people; for the same purpose the Syrians used direct images, such as the sun-disc and the crescent. The Persians attached themselves more to the earthly equivalents of the supernal powers, such as fire, but, as among all heathen nations, their conception of these deities, being imme diately connected with the visible influences of the stars, was dual in its character; they were powers of evil or of good according to' their direct effects; their favor was to be gained by offerings; their anger was in like manner to be averted.
It is probable that at some periods of their history all the peoples men tioned offered human sacrifices, and with some the practice prevailed throughout their entire existence. Eventually, the material tendencies of the age demanded palpable objects of worship, and idols were made whose forms varied widely in the different tribes. The temple of Baal built by Nebuchadnezzar contained the golden statue of the god seated on a throne of gold and facing a golden altar. The figure had the head of a bull; at least it was so represented in other regions, as among the Syrians and Phoenicians, with whom its worship, somewhat differently developed, had become prevalent. The peculiar seat of this worship appears to have been Tyre, but we have only scant information on this subject.
In Carthage the worship of Baal appeared at a later period in its most hideous form. The worshippers heated hollow bronze images of the idol,
and cast children into the glowing jaws as a sacrifice, while the priests danced tumultuously about the altar. Women even gave themselves up to public prostitution in honor of this god. True to his original signifi cance as the "sun-god," Baal appeared elsewhere in the form of an archer, as embodying the piercing rays of the southern sun. Particular qualities of this chief god eventually became embodied in other special deities. Thus the Assyrians had a special "sun-god," Shanzash, a "god of fire," Adar, and one of the sea, Dagon (Al. 17, 3).
Besides Baal, special worship was rendered by the Syrians and Phoeni cians to Astarte,' or Ashiordb, the "goddess of the moon" 17, fig. 7), who, being at the same time the "goddess of fortune, of love, and of gen eration," was worshipped with many intemperate indulgences and lustful orgies. Her principal sanctuary was Hierapolis, westward of the Eu phrates; but her worship spread across Cyprus into Carthage, and became identical in Babylon with that of JIlyillia, among the Persians with that of and among the Phrygians perhaps with that of Cybele, who was also believed to be the "mother of all life on earth and in the water." Little is known as to the ritual of her worship.
As "lord of the sun"—that is, as that power which annually brings to man that beneficent heavenly body—we find the Assyrian Hercules, Sardan or Sandon, called Afelkarth by the Tyrians, generally represented as a gigantic figure in royal attire with a lion under his arm. However, the deities were not always represented in human form nor as a combina tion of animal and man. It is known that the emperor Heliogabalus introduced into Rome the Syrian sun-god in the shape of a black stone. Occasionally we find portrayed on coins and sculptures religious cere monies in which the deity is represented as a cone surmounted by sonic emblem, an eagle, a crescent (pl. 19, fig. 4), etc.