Feb.4] SOCIETYOF BIBLICAL ARCH.LOLOGV. [1890.
- «f < Hf- «$» I HF- T < ~f 4#
D.P.Nabiu u D.P. Sar | D.P. Samas u D.P. Ramanu
NeboandThe-King(Merodax).\ The-Sun-god and the- Air-god.
TheStarof the Snake, whichwill be 7 Serpentarii, as we should
expect,is next to the Snake-holder ; and, in the Phainomena, Ophis
and Ophiouchos formbut one constellation, whichis thus described:—
" By his head
" Seekthe Snakcholder's head; and then fromit
Youmaybeholdhis shining formitself;
So bright the gleamingshoulders'neathhis head
Appear. These,evenwhenthe moon is full,
Can be beheld ; the hands are quite unequal,
For feeble glitternickershereand there.
Bothof them graspa Snake, whichroundthe waist
Of the Snake-ho.der twines; but he well-fixed,
Witheachfoot presses on a monster huge,
TheScorpion,o'er eye and breast scalestanding
Upright,the Snake, meanwhile,in both handswrithing:
Lessin the right, mostholdsthe left on high."t
Theregent divinityin Ninkigal, in Semitic Allat (" the Un
wearied,") also called Ninlil (" Queen-of-the-Ghost-World,") and
Ninge (" Queen-of-the-Underworld"), the "Great Region," being
Scheol-Hades. As Mr. Gladstone; has pointed out, Ninkigal
possesses the prominence and dread character of the Homeric
Persephoneia, a phase and aspect which the latter goddess has
borrowedfromher Easternsister.§ We have seen|| that the Akkadian
Okeanosis sometimes compared to a snake ; and the " River of
the Snake " is also called" the River of the Sheepcote of the Ghost-
World," a line of thought which connects the Snake with the
Underworldand its goddess-Mistress. Butthe Snake has so many
aspects in archaic thought, beneficial and honoured, as well as
malignantand dreaded, thatit is not surprising to find variousand
highly different divinitiesconnected with it. Snakes, it may be
observed,are very prominentin Etruscan Underworld-scenes.
- I.e., the head of Engonasin ("the Kneeler"),originallythe Kneeling-
Gisdhubarof the monuments (videSmithand Sayce, ChaldeanAccountof Genesis,
Frontispiece," Izdubar in conflict witha Lion").
- Phainomena, 74-87. J Homeric Synchronism,p. 235.
§ Vide R. B., Jr., The Myth of KirkS,p. 117 ct seq.
|| Vide sup.(Jan.),p. 149, n.
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