The origins of Easter

Then look at Easter. What means the term Easter itself? It is not a Christian name. It bears its

Chaldean origin on its very forehead. Easter is nothing else than Astarte, one of the titles of

Beltis, the queen of heaven, whose name, as pronounced by the people Nineveh, was evidently

identical with that now in common use in this country. That name, as found by Layard on the

Assyrian monuments, is Ishtar. The worship of Bel and Astarte was very early introduced into

Britain, along with the Druids, "the priests of the groves." Some have imagined that the Druidical

worship was first introduced by the Phoenicians, who, centuries before the Christian era, traded

to the tin-mines of Cornwall. But the unequivocal traces of that worship are found in regions of

the British islands where the Phoenicians never penetrated, and it has everywhere left indelible

marks of the strong hold which it must have had on the early British mind. From Bel, the 1st of

May is still called Beltane in the Almanac; and we have customs still lingering at this day among

us, which prove how exactly the worship of Bel or Moloch (for both titles belonged to the same god) had been observed even in the northern parts of this island. "The late Lady Baird, of Fern

Tower, in Perthshire," says a writer in "Notes and Queries," thoroughly versed in British

antiquities, "told me, that every year, at Beltane (or the 1st of May), a number of men and

women assemble at an ancient Druidical circle of stones on her property near Crieff. They light a

fire in the centre, each person puts a bit of oat-cake in a shepherd's bonnet; they all sit down, and

draw blindfold a piece from the bonnet. One piece has been previously blackened, and whoever

gets that piece has to jump through the fire in the centre of the circle, and pay a forfeit. This is, in

fact, a part of the ancient worship of Baal, and the person on whom the lot fell was previously

burnt as a sacrifice. Now, the passing through the fire represents that, and the payment of the

forfeit redeems the victim." If Baal was thus worshipped in Britain, it will not be difficult to

believe that his consort Astarte was also adored by our ancestors, and that from Astarte, whose

name in Nineveh was Ishtar, the religious solemnities of April, as now practised, are called by

the name of Easter--that month, among our Pagan ancestors, having been called Easter-monath.

The festival, of which we read in Church history, under the name of Easter, in the third or fourth

centuries, was quite a different festival from that now observed in the Romish Church, and at

that time was  not known by any such name as Easter. It was called Pasch, or the Passover, and

though not of Apostolic institution, * was very early observed by many professing Christians, in

commemoration of the death and resurrection of Christ.

* Socrates, the ancient ecclesiastical historian, after a lengthened account of the

different ways in which Easter was observed in different countries in his time--

i.e., the fifth century--sums up in these words: "Thus much already laid down may

seem a sufficient treatise to prove that the celebration of the feast of Easter began

everywhere more of custom than by any commandment either of Christ or any

Apostle." (Hist. Ecclesiast.) Every one knows that the name "Easter," used in our

translation of Acts 12:4, refers not to any Christian festival, but to the Jewish

Passover. This is one of the few places in our version where the translators show an undue bias.

That festival agreed originally with the time of the Jewish Passover, when Christ was crucified, a

period which, in the days of Tertullian, at the end of the second century, was believed to have

been the 23rd of March. That festival was not idolatrous, and it was preceded by no Lent. "It

ought to be known," said Cassianus, the monk of Marseilles, writing in the fifth century, and

contrasting the primitive Church with the Church in his day, "that the observance of the forty

days had no existence, so long as the perfection of that primitive Church remained inviolate."

Whence, then, came this observance? The forty days' abstinence of Lent was directly borrowed

from the worshippers of the Babylonian goddess. Such a Lent of forty days, "in the spring of the

year," is still observed by the Yezidis or Pagan Devil-worshippers of Koordistan, who have

inherited it from their early masters, the Babylonians. Such a Lent of forty days was held in

spring by the Pagan Mexicans, for thus we read in Humboldt, where he gives account of

Mexican observances: "Three days after the vernal equinox...began a solemn fast of forty days in

honour of the sun." Such a Lent of forty days was observed in Egypt, as may be seen on

consulting Wilkinson's Egyptians. This Egyptian Lent of forty days, we are informed by

Landseer, in his Sabean Researches, was held expressly in commemoration of Adonis or Osiris,

the great mediatorial god. At the same time, the rape of Proserpine seems to have been

commemorated, and in a similar manner; for Julius Firmicus informs us that, for "forty nights"

the "wailing for Proserpine" continued; and from Arnobius we learn that the fast which the

Pagans observed, called "Castus" or the "sacred" fast, was, by the Christians in his time, believed to have been primarily in imitation of the long fast of Ceres, when for many days she

determinedly refused to eat on account of her "excess of sorrow," that is, on account of the loss

of her daughter Proserpine, when carried away by Pluto, the god of hell. As the stories of

Bacchus, or Adonis and Proserpine, though originally distinct, were made to join on and fit in to

one another, so that Bacchus was called Liber, and his wife Ariadne, Libera (which was one of

the names of Proserpine), it is highly probable that the forty days' fast of Lent was made in later

times to have reference to both. Among the Pagans this Lent seems to have been an

indispensable preliminary to the great annual festival in commemoration of the death and

resurrection of Tammuz, which was celebrated by alternate weeping and rejoicing, and which, in

many countries, was considerably later than the Christian festival, being observed in Palestine

and Assyria in June, therefore called the "month of Tammuz"; in Egypt, about the middle of

May, and in Britain, some time in April. To conciliate the Pagans to nominal Christianity, Rome,

pursuing its usual policy, took measures to get the Christian and Pagan festivals amalgamated,

and, by a complicated but skilful adjustment of the calendar, it was found no difficult matter, in

general, to get Paganism and Christianity--now far sunk in idolatry--in this as in so many other

things, to shake hands. The instrument in accomplishing this amalgamation was the abbot

Dionysius the Little, to whom also we owe it, as modern chronologers have demonstrated, that

the date of the Christian era, or of the birth of Christ Himself, was moved FOUR YEARS from

the true time. Whether this was done through ignorance or design may be matter of question; but

there seems to be no doubt of the fact, that the birth of the Lord Jesus was made full four years

later than the truth. This change of the calendar in regard to Easter was attended with momentous

consequences. It brought into the Church the grossest corruption and the rankest superstition in

connection with the abstinence of Lent. Let any one only read the atrocities that were

commemorated during the "sacred fast" or Pagan Lent, as described by Arnobius and Clemens

Alexandrinus, and surely he must blush for the Christianity of those who, with the full

knowledge of all these abominations, "went down to Egypt for help" to stir up the languid

devotion of the degenerate Church, and who could find no more excellent way to "revive" it,

than by borrowing from so polluted a source; the absurdities and abominations connected with

which the early Christian writers had held up to scorn. That Christians should ever think of

introducing the Pagan abstinence of Lent was a sign of evil; it showed how low they had sunk,

and it was also a cause of evil; it inevitably led to deeper degradation. Originally, even in Rome,

Lent, with the preceding revelries of the Carnival, was entirely unknown; and even when fasting

before the Christian Pasch was held to be necessary, it was by slow steps that, in this respect, it

came to conform with the ritual of Paganism. What may have been the period of fasting in the

Roman Church before sitting of the Nicene Council does not very clearly appear, but for a

considerable period after that Council, we have distinct evidence that it did not exceed three

weeks. *

* GIESELER, speaking of the Eastern Church in the second century, in regard to

Paschal observances, says: "In it [the Paschal festival in commemoration of the

death of Christ] they [the Eastern Christians] eat unleavened bread, probably like

the Jews, eight days throughout...There is no trace of a yearly festival of a

resurrection among them, for this was kept every Sunday" (Catholic Church). In

regard to the Western Church, at a somewhat later period--the age of Constantine-

-fifteen days seems to have been observed to religious exercises in connection

with the Christian Paschal feast, as appears from the following extracts from

Bingham, kindly furnished to me by a friend, although the period of fasting is not stated. Bingham (Origin) says: "The solemnities of Pasch [are] the week before

and the week after Easter Sunday--one week of the Cross, the other of the

resurrection. The ancients speak of the Passion and Resurrection Pasch as a

fifteen days' solemnity. Fifteen days was enforced by law by the Empire, and

commanded to the universal Church...Scaliger mentions a law of Constantine,

ordering two weeks for Easter, and a vacation of all legal processes."

The words of Socrates, writing on this very subject, about AD 450, are these: "Those who inhabit

the princely city of Rome fast together before Easter three weeks, excepting the Saturday and

Lord's-day." But at last, when the worship of Astarte was rising into the ascendant, steps were

taken to get the whole Chaldean Lent of six weeks, or forty days, made imperative on all within

the Roman empire of the West. The way was prepared for this by a Council held at Aurelia in the

time of Hormisdas, Bishop of Rome, about the year 519, which decreed that Lent should be

solemnly kept before Easter. It was with the view, no doubt, of carrying out this decree that the

calendar was, a few days after, readjusted by Dionysius. This decree could not be carried out all

at once. About the end of the sixth century, the first decisive attempt was made to enforce the

observance of the new calendar. It was in Britain that the first attempt was made in this way; and

here the attempt met with vigorous resistance. The difference, in point of time, betwixt the

Christian Pasch, as observed in Britain by the native Christians, and the Pagan Easter enforced

by Rome, at the time of its enforcement, was a whole month; * and it was only by violence and

bloodshed, at last, that the Festival of the Anglo-Saxon or Chaldean goddess came to supersede

that which had been held in honour of Christ.

* CUMMIANUS, quoted by Archbishop USSHER, Sylloge Those who have been

brought up in the observance of Christmas and Easter, and who yet abhor from

their hearts all Papal and Pagan idolatry alike, may perhaps feel as if there were

something "untoward" in the revelations given above in regard to the origin of

these festivals. But a moment's reflection will suffice entirely to banish such a

feeling. They will see, that if the account I have given be true, it is of no use to

ignore it. A few of the facts stated in these pages are already known to Infidel and

Socinian writers of no mean mark, both in this country and on the Continent, and

these are using them in such a way as to undermine the faith of the young and

uninformed in regard to the very vitals of the Christian faith. Surely, then, it must

be of the last consequence, that the truth should be set forth in its own native light,

even though it may somewhat run counter to preconceived opinions, especially

when that truth, justly considered, tends so much at once to strengthen the rising

youth against the seductions of Popery, and to confirm them in the faith once

delivered to the Saints. If a heathen could say, "Socrates I love, and Plato I love,

but I love truth more," surely a truly Christian mind will not display less

magnanimity. Is there not much, even in the aspect of the times, that ought to

prompt the earnest inquiry, if the occasion has not arisen, when efforts, and

strenuous efforts, should be made to purge out of the National Establishment in

the south those observances, and everything else that has flowed in upon it from

Babylon's golden cup? There are men of noble minds in the Church of Cranmer,

Latimer, and Ridley, who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, who have felt

the power of His blood, and known the comfort of His Spirit. Let them, in their

closets, and on their knees, ask the question, at their God and at their own

consciences, if they ought not to bestir themselves in right earnest, and labour with all their might till such a consummation be effected. Then, indeed, would

England's Church be the grand bulwark of the Reformation--then would her sons

speak with her enemies in the gate--then would she appear in the face of all

Christendom, "clear as the sun, fair as the moon, and terrible as an army with

banners." If, however, nothing effectual shall be done to stay the plague that is

spreading in her, the result must be disastrous, not only to herself, but to the

whole empire.

Such is the history of Easter. The popular observances that still attend the period of its

celebration amply confirm the testimony of history as to its Babylonian character. The hot cross

buns of Good Friday, and the dyed eggs of Pasch or Easter Sunday, figured in the Chaldean rites

just as they do now. The "buns," known too by that identical name, were used in the worship of

the queen of heaven, the goddess Easter, as early as the days of Cecrops, the founder of Athens--

that is, 1500 years before the Christian era. "One species of sacred bread," says Bryant, "which

used to be offered to the gods, was of great antiquity, and called Boun." Diogenes Laertius,

speaking of this offering being made by Empedocles, describes the chief ingredients of which it

was composed, saying, "He offered one of the sacred cakes called Boun, which was made of fine

flour and honey." The prophet Jeremiah takes notice of this kind of offering when he says, "The

children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make

cakes to the queen of heaven." *

* Jeremiah 7:18. It is from the very word here used by the prophet that the word

"bun" seems to be derived. The Hebrew word, with the points, was pronounced

Khavan, which in Greek became sometimes Kapan-os (PHOTIUS, Lexicon

Syttoge); and, at other times, Khabon (NEANDER, in KITTO'S Biblical

Cyclopoedia). The first shows how Khvan, pronounced as one syllable, would

pass into the Latin panis, "bread," and the second how, in like manner, Khvon

would become Bon or Bun. It is not to be overlooked that our common English

word Loa has passed through a similar process of formation. In Anglo-Saxon it

was Hlaf.

The hot cross buns are not now offered, but eaten, on the festival of Astarte; but this leaves no

doubt as to whence they have been derived. The origin of the Pasch eggs is just as clear. The

ancient Druids bore an egg, as the sacred emblem of their order. In the Dionysiaca, or mysteries

of Bacchus, as celebrated in Athens, one part of the nocturnal ceremony consisted in the

consecration of an egg. The Hindoo fables celebrate their mundane egg as of a golden colour.

The people of Japan make their sacred egg to have been brazen. In China, at this hour, dyed or

painted eggs are used on sacred festivals, even as in this country. In ancient times eggs were used

in the religious rites of the Egyptians and the Greeks, and were hung up for mystic purposes in

their temples. (Fig. 31). From Egypt these sacred eggs can be distinctly traced to the banks of the

Euphrates. The classic poets are full of the fable of the mystic egg of the Babylonians; and thus

its tale is told by Hyginus, the Egyptian, the learned keeper of the Palatine library at Rome, in the

time of Augustus, who was skilled in all the wisdom of his native country: "An egg of wondrous

size is said to have fallen from heaven into the river Euphrates. The fishes rolled it to the bank,

where the doves having settled upon it, and hatched it, out came Venus, who afterwards was

called the Syrian Goddess"--that is, Astarte. Hence the egg became one of the symbols of Astarte

or Easter; and accordingly, in Cyprus, one of the chosen seats of the worship of Venus, or

Astarte, the egg of wondrous size was represented on a grand scale.

The occult meaning of this mystic egg of Astarte, in one of its aspects (for it had a twofold

significance), had reference to the ark during the time of the flood, in which the whole human

race were shut up, as the chick is enclosed in the egg before it is hatched. If any be inclined to

ask, how could it ever enter the minds of men to employ such an extraordinary symbol for such a

purpose, the answer is, first, The sacred egg of Paganism, as already indicated, is well known as

the "mundane egg," that is, the egg in which the world was shut up. Now the world has two

distinct meanings--it means either the material earth, or the inhabitants of the earth. The latter

meaning of the term is seen in Genesis 11:1, "The whole earth was of one language and of one

speech," where the meaning is that the whole people of the world were so. If then the world is

seen shut up in an egg, and floating on the waters,it may not be difficult to believe, however the idea of the egg may have come, that the egg thus floating on the wide universal sea might be

Noah's family that contained the whole world in its bosom. Then the application of the word egg

to the ark comes thus: The Hebrew name for an egg is Baitz, or in the feminine (for there are

both genders), Baitza. This, in Chaldee and Phoenician, becomes Baith or Baitha, which in these

languages is also the usual way in which the name of a house is pronounced. *

* The common word "Beth," "house," in the Bible without the points, is "Baith,"

as may be seen in the name of Bethel, as given in Genesis 35:1, of the Greek

Septuagint, where it is "Baith-el."

The egg floating on the waters that contained the world, was the house floating on the waters of

the deluge, with the elements of the new world in its bosom. The coming of the egg from heaven

evidently refers to the preparation of the ark by express appointment of God; and the same thing

seems clearly implied in the Egyptian story of the mundane egg which was said to have come out

of the mouth of the great god. The doves resting on the egg need no explanation. This, then, was

the meaning of the mystic egg in one aspect. As, however, everything that was good or beneficial

to mankind was represented in the Chaldean mysteries, as in some way connected with the

Babylonian goddess, so the greatest blessing to the human race, which the ark contained in its bosom, was held to be Astarte, who was the great civiliser and benefactor of the world. Though

the deified queen, whom Astarte represented, had no actual existence till some centuries after the

flood, yet through the doctrine of metempsychosis, which was firmly established in Babylon, it

was easy for her worshippers to be made to believe that, in a previous incarnation, she had lived

in the Antediluvian world, and passed in safety through the waters of the flood. Now the Romish

Church adopted this mystic egg of Astarte, and consecrated it as a symbol of Christ's

resurrection. A form of prayer was even appointed to be used in connection with it, Pope Paul V

teaching his superstitious votaries thus to pray at Easter: "Bless, O Lord, we beseech thee, this

thy creature of eggs, that it may become a wholesome sustenance unto thy servants, eating it in

remembrance of our Lord Jesus Christ, &c" (Scottish Guardian, April, 1844). Besides the mystic

egg, there was also another emblem of Easter, the goddess queen of Babylon, and that was the

Rimmon or "pomegranate." With the Rimmon or "pomegranate" in her hand, she is frequently

represented in ancient medals, and the house of Rimmon, in which the King of Damascus, the

Master of Naaman, the Syrian, worshipped, was in all likelihood a temple of Astarte, where that

goddess with the Rimmon was publicly adored. The pomegranate is a fruit that is full of seeds;

and on that account it has been supposed that it was employed as an emblem of that vessel in

which the germs of the new creation were preserved, wherewith the world was to be sown anew

with man and with beast, when the desolation of the deluge had passed away. But upon more

searching inquiry, it turns out that the Rimmon or "pomegranate" had reference to an entirely

different thing. Astarte, or Cybele, was called also Idaia Mater, and the sacred mount in Phrygia,

most famed for the celebration of her mysteries, was named Mount Ida--that is, in Chaldee, the

sacred language of these mysteries, the Mount of Knowledge. "Idaia Mater," then, signifies "the

Mother of Knowledge"--in other words, our Mother Eve, who first coveted the "knowledge of

good and evil," and actually purchased it at so dire a price to herself and to all her children.

Astarte, as can be abundantly shown, was worshipped not only as an incarnation of the Spirit of

God, but also of the mother of mankind.10 When, therefore, the mother of the gods, and the

10 The Meaning of the Name Astarte

That Semiramis, under the name of Astarte, was worshipped not only as an incarnation of the Spirit of God,but as

the mother of mankind, we have very clear and satisfactory evidence. There is no doubt that "the Syrian goddess"

was Astarte (LAYARD'S Nineveh and its Remains). Now, the Assyrian goddess, or Astarte, is identified with

Semiramis by Athenagoras (Legatio), and by Lucian (De Dea Syria). These testimonies in regard to Astarte, or the

Syrian goddess, being, in one aspect, Semiramis, are quite decisive. 1. The name Astarte, as applied to her, has

reference to her as being Rhea or Cybele, the tower-bearing goddess, the first as Ovid says (Opera), that "made

(towers) in cities"; for we find from Layard that in the Syrian temple of Hierapolis, "she [Dea Syria or Astarte] was

represented standing on a lion crowned with towers." Now, no name could more exactly picture forth the character

of Semiramis, as queen of Babylon, than the name of "Ash-tart," for that just means "The woman that made towers."

It is admitted on all hands that the last syllable "tart" comes from the Hebrew verb "Tr." It has been always taken for

granted, however, that "Tr" signifies only "to go round." But we have evidence that, in nouns derived from it, it also

signifies "to be round," "to surround," or "encompass." In the masculine, we find "Tor" used for "a border or row of

jewels round the head" (see PARKHURST and also GESENIUS). And in the feminine, as given in Hesychius

(Lexicon), we find the meaning much more decisively brought out. Turis is just the Greek form of Turit, the final t,

according to the genius of the Greek language, being converted into s. Ash-turit, then, which is obviously the same

as the Hebrew "Ashtoreth," is just "The woman that made the encompassing wall." Considering how commonly the

glory of that achievement, as regards Babylon, was given to Semiramis, not only by Ovid, but by Justin, Dionysius,

Afer, and others, both the name and mural crown on the head of that goddess were surely very appropriate. In

confirmation of this interpretation of the meaning of the name Astarte, I may adduce an epithet applied to the Greek

Diana, who at Ephesus bore a turreted crown on her head, and was identified with Semiramis, which is not a little

striking. It is contained in the following extract from Livy: "When the news of the battle [near Pydna] reached

Amphipolis, the matrons ran together to the temple of Diana, whom they style Tauropolos, to implore her aid."

Tauropolos, from Tor, "a tower," or "surrounding fortification," and Pol, "to make," plainly means the "towermaker," or "maker of surrounding fortifications"; and P53 to her as the goddess of fortifications, they would

naturally apply when they dreaded an attack upon their city.

Semiramis, being deified as Astarte, came to be raised to the highest honours; and her change into a dove, as has

been already shown, was evidently intended, when the distinction of sex had been blasphemously attributed to the

Godhead, to identify her, under the name of the Mother of the gods, with that Divine Spirit, without whose agency

no one can be born a child of God, and whose emblem, in the symbolical language of Scripture, was the Dove, as

that of the Messiah was the Lamb. Since the Spirit of God is the source of all wisdom, natural as well as spiritual,

arts and inventions and skill of every kind being attributed to Him (Exo 31:3; 35:31), so the Mother of the gods, in

whom that Spirit was feigned to be incarnate, was celebrated as the originator of some of the useful arts and sciences

(DIODORUS SICULUS). Hence, also, the character attributed to the Grecian Minerva, whose name Athena, as we

have seen reason to conclude, is only a synonym for Beltis, the well known name of the Assyrian goddess. Athena,

the Minerva of Athens, is universally known as the "goddess of wisdom," the inventress of arts and sciences. 2. The

name Astarte signifies also the "Maker of investigations"; and in this respect was applicable to Cybele or Semiramis,

as symbolised by the Dove. That this is one of the meanings of the name Astarte may be seen from comparing it

with the cognate names Asterie and Astraea (in Greek Astraia), which are formed by taking the last member of the

compound word in the masculine, instead of the feminine, Teri, or Tri (the latter being pronounced Trai or Trae),

being the same in sense as Tart. Now, Asterie was the wife of Perseus, the Assyrian (HERODOTUS), and who was

the founder of Mysteries (BRYANT). As Asterie was further represented as the daughter of Bel, this implies a

position similar to that of Semiramis. Astraea, again, was the goddess of justice, who is identified with the heavenly

virgin Themis, the name Themis signifying "the perfect one," who gave oracles (OVID, Metam.), and who, having

lived on earth before the Flood, forsook it just before that catastrophe came on. Themis and Astraea are sometimes

distinguished and sometimes identified; but both have the same character as goddesses of justice. The explanation of

the discrepancy obviously is, that the Spirit has sometimes been viewed as incarnate and sometimes not. When

incarnate, Astraea is daughter of Themis. What name could more exactly agree with the character of a goddess of

justice, than Ash-trai-a, "The maker of investigations," and what name could more appropriately shadow forth one

of the characters of that Divine Spirit, who "searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God"? As Astraea, or

Themis, was "Fatidica Themis," "Themis the prophetic," this also was another characteristic of the Spirit; for

whence can any true oracle, or prophetic inspiration, come, but from the inspiring Spirit of God? Then, lastly, what

can more exactly agree with the Divine statement in Genesis in regard to the Spirit of God, than the statement of

Ovid, that Astraea was the last of the celestials who remained on earth, and that her forsaking it was the signal for

the downpouring of the destroying deluge? The announcement of the coming Flood is in Scripture ushered in with

these words (Gen 6:3): "And the Lord said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet

his days shall be an hundred and twenty years." All these 120 years, the Spirit was striving; when they came to an mother of knowledge, was represented with the fruit of the pomegranate in her extended hand

(see Fig. 33), inviting those who ascended the sacred mount to initiation in her mysteries, can

there be a doubt what that fruit was intended to signify? Evidently, it must accord with her

assumed character; it must be the fruit of the "Tree of Knowledge"--the fruit of that very

end, the Spirit strove no longer, forsook the earth, and left the world to its fate. But though the Spirit of God forsook

the earth, it did not forsake the family of righteous Noah. It entered with the patriarch into the ark; and when that

patriarch came forth from his long imprisonment, it came forth along with him. Thus the Pagans had an historical

foundation for their myth of the dove resting on the symbol of the ark in the Babylonian waters, and the Syrian

goddess, or Astarte--the same as Astraea--coming forth from it. Semiramis, then, as Astarte, worshipped as the dove,

was regarded as the incarnation of the Spirit of God. 3. As Baal, Lord of Heaven, had his visible emblem, the sun, so

she, as Beltis, Queen of Heaven, must have hers also--the moon, which in another sense was Asht-tart-e, "The maker

of revolutions"; for there is no doubt that Tart very commonly signifies "going round." But, 4th, the whole system

must be dovetailed together. As the mother of the gods was equally the mother of mankind, Semiramis, or Astarte,

must also be identified with Eve; and the name Rhea, which, according to the Paschal Chronicle was given to her,

sufficiently proves her identification with Eve. As applied to the common mother of the human race, the name

Astarte is singularly appropriate; for, as she was Idaia mater, "The mother of knowledge," the question is, "How did

she come by that knowledge?" To this the answer can only be: "by the fatal investigations she made." It was a

tremendous experiment she made, when, in opposition to the Divine command, and in spite of the threatened

penalty, she ventured to "search" into that forbidden knowledge which her Maker in his goodness had kept from her.

Thus she took the lead in that unhappy course of which the Scripture speaks--"God made man upright, but they have

SOUGHT out many inventions" (Eccl7:29). Now Semiramis, deified as the Dove, was Astarte in the most gracious

and benignant form. Lucius Ampelius calls her "the goddess benignant and merciful to me" (bringing them) "to a

good and happy life." In reference to this benignity of her character, both the titles, Aphrodite and Mylitta, are

evidently attributed to her. The first I have elsewhere explained as "The wrath-subduer," and the second is in exact

accordance with it. Mylitta, or, as it is in Greek, Mulitta, signifies "The Mediatrix." The Hebrew Melitz, which in

Chaldee becomes Melitt, is evidently used in Job 33:23, in the sense of a Mediator; "the messenger, the interpreter"

(Melitz), who is "gracious" to a man, and saith, "Deliver from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom," being

really "The Messenger, the MEDIATOR." Parkhurst takes the word in this sense, and derives it from "Mltz," "to be

sweet." Now, the feminine of Melitz is Melitza, from which comes Melissa, a "bee" (the sweetener, or producer of

sweetness), and Melissa, a common name of the priestesses of Cybele, and as we may infer of Cybele, as Astarte, or

Queen of Heaven, herself; for, after Porphyry, has stated that "the ancients called the priestesses of Demeter,

Melissae," he adds, that they also "called the Moon Melissa." We have evidence, further, that goes far to identify

this title as a title of Semiramis. Melissa or Melitta (APPOLODORUS)--for the name is given in both ways--is said

to have been the mother of Phoroneus, the first that reigned, in whose days the dispersion of mankind occurred,

divisions having come in among them, whereas before, all had been in harmony and spoke one language (Hyginus).

There is no other to whom this can be applied but Nimrod; and as Nimrod came to be worshipped as Nin, the son of

his own wife, the identification is exact. Melitta, then, the mother of Phoroneus, is the same as Mylitta, the well

known name of the Babylonian Venus; and the name, as being the feminine of Melitz, the Mediator, consequently

signifies the Mediatrix. Another name also given to the mother of Phoroneus, "the first that reigned," is Archia

(LEMPRIERE; SMITH). Now Archia signifies "Spiritual" (from "Rkh," Heb. "Spirit," which in Egyptian also is

"Rkh" [BUNSEN]; and in Chaldee, with the prosthetic a prefixed becomes Arkh). * From the same root also

evidently comes the epithet Architis, as applied to the Venus that wept for Adonis. Venus Architis is the spiritual

Venus. **

* The Hebrew Dem, blood, in Chaldee becomes Adem; and, in like manner, Rkh becomes Arkh.

** From OUVAROFF we learn that the mother of the third Bacchus was Aura, and Phaethon is said by Orpheus to have

been the son of the "wide extended air" (LACTANTIUS). The connection in the sacred language between the wind, the air,

and the spirit, sufficiently accounts for these statements, and shows their real meaning.

Thus, then, the mother-wife of the first king that reigned was known as Archia and Melitta, in other words, as the

woman in whom the "Spirit of God" was incarnate; and thus appeared as the "Dea Benigna," "The Mediatrix" for

sinful mortals. The first form of Astarte, as Eve, brought sin into the world; the second form before the Flood, was

avenging as the goddess of justice. This form was "Benignant and Merciful." Thus, also, Semiramis, or Astarte, as

Venus the goddess of love and beauty, became "The HOPE of the whole world," and men gladly had recourse to the

"mediation" of one so tolerant of sin. Bryant gives the title of the above figure as "Juno, Columba, and Rhoia;" but

from Pausanias we learn that the bird on the sceptre of Hera, or Juno, when she

was represented with the pomegranate, was not the Columba or Dove, but the

Cuckoo (PAUSAN., lib. ii. Corinthiaca, cap. 17); from which it appears, that

when Hera or Juno was thus represented, it was not as the incarnation of the

Spirit of God, but as the mother of mankind, that she was represented. But into

the story of the cuckoo I cannot enter here.

The knowledge to which the votaries of the Idaean goddess were admitted, was precisely of the

same kind as that which Eve derived from the eating of the forbidden fruit, the practical

knowledge of all that was morally evil and base. Yet to Astarte, in this character, men were

taught to look at their grand benefactress, as gaining for them knowledge, and blessings

connected with that knowledge, which otherwise they might in vain have sought from Him, who

is the Father of lights, from whom cometh down every good and perfect gift. Popery inspires the

same feeling in regard to the Romish queen of heaven, and leads its devotees to view the sin of

Eve in much the same light as that in which Paganism regarded it. In the Canon of the Mass, the

most solemn service in the Romish Missal, the following expression occurs, where the sin of our

first parent is apostrophised: "Oh blessed fault, which didst procure such a Redeemer!" The idea

contained in these words is purely Pagan. They just amount to this: "Thanks be to Eve, to whose

sin we are indebted for the glorious Saviour." It is true the idea contained in them is found in the

same words in the writings of Augustine; but it is an idea utterly opposed to the spirit of the

Gospel, which only makes sin the more exceeding sinful, from the consideration that it needed such a ransom to deliver from its awful curse. Augustine had imbibed many Pagan sentiments,

and never got entirely delivered from them.

As Rome cherishes the same feelings as Paganism did, so it has adopted also the very same

symbols, so far as it has the opportunity. In this country, and most of the countries of Europe, no

pomegranates grow; and yet, even here, the superstition of the Rimmon must, as far as possible,

be kept up. Instead of the pomegranate, therefore, the orange is employed; and so the Papists of

Scotland join oranges with their eggs at Easter; and so also, when Bishop Gillis of Edinburgh

went through the vain-glorious ceremony of washing the feet of twelve ragged Irishmen a few

years ago at Easter, he concluded by presenting each of them with two eggs and an orange.

Now, this use of the orange as the representative of the fruit of Eden's "dread probationary tree,"

be it observed, is no modern invention; it goes back to the distant times of classic antiquity. The

gardens of the Hesperides in the West, are admitted by all who have studied the subject, just to

have been the counterpart of the paradise of Eden in the East. The description of the sacred

gardens, as situated in the Isles of the Atlantic, over against the coast of Africa, shows that their

legendary site exactly agrees with the Cape Verd or Canary Isles, or some of that group; and, of

course, that the "golden fruit" on the sacred tree, so jealously guarded, was none other than the

orange. Now, let the reader mark well: According to the classic Pagan story, there was no serpent

in that garden of delight in the "islands of the blest," to TEMPT mankind to violate their duty to

their great benefactor, by eating of the sacred tree which he had reserved as the test of their

allegiance. No; on the contrary, it was the Serpent, the symbol of the Devil, the Principle of evil,

the Enemy of man, that prohibited them from eating the precious fruit--that strictly watched it--

that would not allow it to be touched. Hercules, one form of the Pagan Messiah--not the

primitive, but the Grecian Hercules--pitying man's unhappy state, slew or subdued the serpent,

the envious being that grudged mankind the use of that which was so necessary to make them at

once perfectly happy and wise, and bestowed upon them what otherwise would have been

hopelessly beyond their reach. Here, then, God and the devil are exactly made to change places.

Jehovah, who prohibited man from eating of the tree of knowledge, is symbolised by the serpent,

and held up as an ungenerous and malignant being, while he who emancipated man from

Jehovah's yoke, and gave him of the fruit of the forbidden tree--in other words, Satan under the

name of Hercules--is celebrated as the good and gracious Deliverer of the human race. What a

mystery of iniquity is here! Now all this is wrapped up in the sacred orange of Easter.



The Two Babylons

or The Papal Worship Proved to be the Worship of Nimrod

and His Wife

By the Late Rev. Alexander Hislop

First published as a pamphlet in 1853--greatly expanded in 1858