Paradise Lost and Moloch—The God of the Ammonites—The slaughter of Children by Fire, notices in the Scriptures—Fire Ceremonies and Moloch—Sacred Fires of the Phoenicians—The Carthaginians—Custom of the Oziese—Sardinian Customs and Moloch—The Cuthites—Persian Fire Worship—The House-Fires of Greece and Rome—Sacred Books of the East—Laws of Manu—The Rig Veda and Hymns to Agni, the God of Fire—Vesta, worship of—The Magi—Zoroaster.

In Milton’s “Paradise Lost” we read:—

“First, Moloch, horrid king, besmeared with blood
Of human sacrifice, and parents’ tears;
Though for the noise of drums and timbrels loud,
Their children’s cries unheard, that passed through fire,
To his grim idol. Him the Ammonite
Worshipped in Rabba and her watery plain,
In Argob and in Basan, to the stream
Of utmost Arnon: nor content with such
Audacious neighbourhood, the wisest heart
Of Solomon he led by fraud to build
His temple right against the temple of God,
On that opprobrious hill, and made his grove
The pleasant valley of Hinnom, Tophet thence
And black Gehenna called, the type of Hell.”

“Moloch was the god of the Ammonites. In the worship and sacrifices in his honour they burnt their sons and daughters, with the accustomed forms and ceremonies.” In Leviticus xviii. 21 we find a prohibition of passing the children through the fire and in chapter xx. the punishment of death by stoning is awarded to any who gave their seed to Moloch.

“However,” says Selden, “many of the Hebrews write that the children were neither burnt nor slain, but that two funeral pyres were constructed by the priests of Moloch, and that they led the children only between the pyres, as if in this way to purify them. Moses Ben Maimon says that in those days the servitors of the fires made men believe that their sons and daughters would die unless they were thus led, and on this account and the love of their children they hastened to do that which was so easy, and there was no other way of saving the children from the fire. There are some who say that the father in due form delivered the child to the priests to be given back, and that he led it through, carrying it on his shoulders. It is nevertheless true that the children were not only led between the fires, but were also burnt in the sacrifices of the idols. See Psalm cvi. 37 and 38, and read, “Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils, and shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with the blood.”

Philastrius says “that they placed an altar in the valley of the children of Hinnom, and so called after the name of a certain Tophet, and in that place the Jews sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons.” There are other places which sufficiently indicate immolation of children in those regions of Syria where Moloch was adored. Thus, see Wisdom of Solomon, xii. 5, “And also those merciless murders of children and devourers of men’s flesh, the feasts of blood;” and xiv. 23, “For whilst they slew their children in sacrifices”; and Jeremiah vii. 31, says “And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire.” See also nineteenth chapter, verse 5; Ezekiel xvi. 20, 21, and xxiii. 37 and 39. From this affair perhaps arose the delusion of the Greeks and Hebrews that, by another ancient rite, they who took an oath were accustomed to pass through fire, as if by escaping from injury their words would be proved true. The learned Paul Fagius, in speaking of him, says, “The statue of Moloch was such that it had seven hollow chambers. One was open for meal offerings, another for turtle doves, the third for sheep, the fourth for the ram, the fifth for the calf, the sixth for the bull, and a seventh was open for him who wished to offer his child.” The face of the idol was the same as that of the calf, and the hands were evidently disposed and arranged conveniently to receive from the bystanders all that was offered. While the child was burning in the blazing fire, they danced about and beat drums to drown the horrible cries and lamentations. There is a question whether the author of these seven hollow chambers did not learn it from the sacred rites of the Persian Mithra, for he also had seven sacred doors, which referred to the number of the planets, and men, women and children were likewise sacrificed to him.

It was necessary to such as were initiated to this god to pass through eighty kinds of sufferings, that is, through fire and cold and most serious dangers of every kind, before they could be received as epoptas, or regularly initiated. It is proper to add that neither elsewhere than in Moloch will be found Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim. See II. Kings xviii. 31: “And they burnt their children in fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.” His priests, who were also frequently the priests of other gods, were called Cemerin. This word in the Chaldee dialect Comeraja, is everywhere in the Targum substituted for priests of idolatry. In II. Kings xxiii. 10, it reads, “And he (Josiah) defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter pass through the fire to Moloch.” The valley of the children of Hinnom, which in Hebrew is gi ber Hinnom, was a field near the city, and is so called from the groans or lamentations of the children while they were burning. Hinnom is from the Hebrew word nahmen, and means that he groans or gnashed his teeth from intense pain. That place is watered by the streams of Siloe, and in the time of St. Jerome was beautiful, and ornamented with shady groves and delightful gardens. And there he remarks “that it was a custom among other nations to select the head of streams and groves for sacred rites.” But the word Tophet is from the Hebrew Toph, that is, “they ask for a drum,” which was beaten and loudly sounded in the vicinity to prevent the parents hearing the most doleful lamentations and wailings of their children while the sacred rites were performing.

Moloch is also called Baal. See Jeremiah xix. 5., “They have built also the high places of Baal to burn their sons with fire.” He is also called Milcolm in Kings xi. 5., “For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcolm the abominations of the Ammonites.” And Luke, in Acts viii. 43., says, “Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Molech.” The Syrians and Arabians call it Melcom. In many oriental languages Melech, means king, Milcom means their king, and Malcecem, our king, and both words in sacred scripture designate Moloch. To him reference is had in Zephaniah i. 5., “And them that worship and swear by the Lord, and that swear by Melcham,” because Moloch was especially worshipped under the name of king. As thus Baal means Lord, and as Melech or Molech or Moloch means king, they denote this god of the Ammonites; and it is perhaps, he himself who, in the most ancient theology of the Phoenicians, was often called by the singular title of king of gods. He was also called Adodus, and was worshipped by the Syrians not only as Adad-Hadad and Benhadad (and which could readily pass into Adodus), but the very name Adad was propagated continually for ten generations in their royal families. These names, and Bedad, Hedar Mesahab, and Ahab, will be found in Genesis xxxvi. and I Kings xx. Macrobius, speaking of the Syrians and this god Adodus and king of gods, says, “They gave to the god whom they venerate as the highest and the greatest the name Adad, and which means unus or one. Hada or Chada is a god of the female sex, and agrees with Adardaga or Atergatis, and was worshipped in that name in the neighbourhood of Syria. Heseychius says that Hada was the goddess of Juno, and Adad a god and the sun. But Hadad very well denotes the clamour or loud noise of persons exhorting; neither is it altogether unlike the lamentations of children in the sacrifices to Moloch. And ancient writers say that the effigies of both Adad and Moloch were the same, and fashioned for expressing the sun.

Theophylactus says “that the bright shining stone in the image of Phosphorus he understands to be the sun.” All these are very proper for the sun, the king of gods or stars, and which he also thought who made the first mention of the seven hollow chambers in the statue of Moloch. In the same number is ascribed to Mithra, who by the unanimous consent of antiquity, and especially of the ancient inscriptions, is regarded as being the same as the sun, shines with many colours. But Mithri, Mithir or Mether, in Persian, signifies dynasty or lord, and this is also one of the titles of Moloch.

Saturn among the Latins, and Chronos among the Greeks, is oft-times considered to be Moch. Infants or children were victims common to both, and that nefarious sacred rite would seem to have migrated from Syria into Europe and Africa. Pescennius Festus says “that the Carthaginians were accustomed to offer human victims to Saturn, and when they were overcome in battle by Agathocles, king of the Siculi, he (the king) believed that his god was angry with him, and, therefore, that he might diligently make the necessary expiation, he immolated to this god two hundred children of the nobility. Those who had no children were forced to buy them from the poor.”

Tertullian writes:—“That impious custom continued in Africa down to the times of Tiberias.” These sacred rites of the Phoenicians proceeded from those of the Syrians, as the solemn use of fifes and drums among them will prove. For the lamentations of the children or parents among those about to be sacrificed is held to be an atonement. It is almost certain that by the name of Moloch this God was worshipped in like manner among the Carthaginians.

The Carthaginians worshipped Amilear, and that name comes from the same source as Molech. Both words are pure Hebrew or Punic, if you regard their etymology, and they mean king, or perhaps Ameliar may be queen, that is, may mean Basilia, queen of the Atlantians, and which may refer to Celestis, queen of the Carthaginians. For as among them Bel or Uranus is a god, and Coelestis a goddess, so Uranus and Basilia may be a god and goddess among them. And from the same source we must look for the name of Milicus, the father-in-law of Hannibal, and of his daughter Imilcis, which is queen, and of Imilco, a Carthaginian general. Melech means king, and Malcha queen, which they pronounce Molicus and Imilcis. Strabo says “that Hercules, worshipped among the Tyrians, was called Melcartos or Melcarthos. But he was the son of Jove Demaruns, and he is the same as the Phoenician and Carthaginian Hercules, who was appeased by human victims as Moloch was. The first part of his name was evidently derived from Melech of the Hebrews, for almost by the same word Hercules was known among the Amathusians. Amathus was a city of Phoenicia, and an island of the Phoenician sea adjoins Cyprus, and in it there is also a city called Amathus. The latter had sacred rites in common with the former. What the words Artos or Arthos in the name mean is not clear. Traces of it, however, are seen in the Punic names Bomilcar and Hamilcar. In Boeotia, which retains many names which Cadmus brought with him from Phoenicia, there is a river and a city called Haliartus, named after the builder and discoverer. In Scolus there is likewise an image of Megalartus held in great esteem. Some think it is the image of the Megalartian Ceres, and derive it from the Greek word artos, which means bread, because she was the goddess of corn.”

“But whatever the god was, his Phoenician origin is evident, for Cadmus, Ismenus, and Thebes were all Phoenician names, and perhaps the Hebrew word Aritz in artes passed into Melicartes, which some read Melicatus. Aritz means very strong, and thus Melicaritz signifies a strong king or tyrant, and the word could readily pass into Melicartos. Thence perhaps in the Persian language Artaioi is heroes, or those who in the olden periods made themselves particularly illustrious, and the word with this idea is present in the names Artoxerxis and Artabasis. Hence in Persian, Artas meant great or illustrious, and Artana kingdoms, and Herodotus says that Artoxerxis means a great warrior.

“Among the ancient Persians and Syrians in customs and languages many things were common to both. The Persians are accounted among our Syrians now and then by European writers, and Babylon is called a Persian city.

“As to the horrid sacrifice, the slaying of children, its origin does not lie concealed if there is any truth in Phoenician annals. There is a tradition among them that Saturn, one of the most ancient kings of Phoenicia, and whom they called Israel in order that he might deliver his kingdom from the greatest peril of an impending war, to render the gods propitious, immolated an only begotten son of himself and wife Anobreta. He was first ornamented with the royal fillets, and then led to the altar built for that purpose, and a wicked posterity, not understanding the case or the circumstances, continued to follow his example.”[27]

Among the many usages derived by the Sardes from their Phoenician ancestors, one of a singular character is still practised by the Oziese, of which Father Bresciani gives the following account:—“Towards the end of March, or the beginning of April, it is the custom for young men and women to agree together to fill the relation of godfathers and godmothers of St. John, compare e comare—such is the phrase—for the ensuing year. At the end of May the proposed comare, having procured a segment of the bark of a cork tree, fashions it in the shape of a vase, and fills it with rich light mould in which are planted some grains of barley or wheat. The vase being placed in the sunshine, well watered and carefully tended, the seed soon germinates, blades spring up, and, making a rapid growth, in the course of twenty-one days—that is, before the eve of St. John—the vase is filled by a spreading and vigorous plant of young corn. It then receives the name of Hermes, or, more commonly, of Su Nennere, from a Sarde word, which possibly has the same signification as the Phoenician name of garden; similar vases being called, in ancient times, the gardens of Adonis.”

Forester in his “Rambles in Corsica and Sardinia,” quoting the above and remarking upon it says:—“On the eve of St. John, the cereal vase, ornamented with ribbons, is exposed on a balcony, decorated with garlands and flags. Formerly, also a little image in female attire, or phallic emblems moulded in clay, such as were exhibited in the feasts of Hermes, were placed among the blades of corn; but these representations have been so severely denounced by the Church, that they are fallen into disuse. The young men flock in crowds to witness the spectacle and attend the maidens who come out to grace the feast. A great fire is lit on the piazza, round which they leap and gambol, the couple who have agreed to be St. John’s compare completing the ceremony in this manner:—The man is placed on one side of the fire, the woman on the other, each holding opposite ends of a stick extended over the burning embers, which they pass rapidly backwards and forwards. This is repeated three times, so that the hand of each party passes thrice through the flames. The union being thus sealed, the comparatico or spiritual alliance is considered perfect. After that, the music strikes up, and the festival is concluded by dances, prolonged to a late hour of the night.”

“Father Bresciani, La Marmora, and other writers, justly consider the Nennere as one of the many relics of the Phoenician colonisation of Sardinia. Every one knows that the sun and moon, under various names such as Isis and Osiris, Adonis and Astarte, were the principal objects of worship in the east from the earliest times; the sun being considered as the vivifying power of universal nature, the moon represented as a female, deriving her light from the sun, as the passive principle of production. The abstruse doctrines on the origin of things, thus shadowed out by the ancient seers, generated the grossest ideas, expressed in the phallic emblems, the lewdness and obscenities mixed up in the popular worship of the deified principles of all existence. Of the prevalence in Sardinia of the Egypto-Phoenician mythology, in times the most remote, no one who has examined the large collection of relics in the Royal Museum at Cagliari, or who consults the plates attached to La Marmora’s work, can entertain any doubt. But it is surprising to find, among the usages of the Sardes at the present day, a very exact representation of the rites of a primitive religion, introduced into the island nearly thirty-five years ago, though it now partakes more of the character of a popular festival than a religious ceremony.

“One of the principal incidents in the Sarde Nennere consists in the consecration of the spiritual relation between the compare and comare, by their thrice crossing hands over the fire in the ceremonies of St. John’s Day. A still more extraordinary vestige of the idolatrous rite of passing through the fire, is said to be still subsisting among the customs of the people of Logudoro, in the neighbourhood of Ozieri, and in other parts of Sardinia.

“Of the worship of Moloch—par excellence the Syrian and Phoenician god of fire—by the ancient Sardes, there is undoubted proof. We find among the prodigious quantity of such relics, collected from all parts of the island, in the Royal Museum at Cagliari, a statuette of this idol, supposed to have been a household god. Its features are appalling: great goggle eyes leer fiercely from their hollow sockets; the broad nostrils seem ready to sniff the fumes of the horrid sacrifice; a wide gaping mouth grins with rabid fury at the supposed victim; dark plumes spring from the forehead, like horns, and expanded wings from each shoulder and knee. The image brandishes a sword with the left hand, holding in the right a small grate, formed of metal bars. It would appear that, this being heated, the wretched victim was placed on it, and then, scorched so that the fumes of the disgusting incense savoured in the nostrils of the rabid idol, it fell upon a brazier of burning coals beneath, where it was consumed. There is another idol in this collection with the same truculent cast of features, but horned, and clasping a bunch of snakes in the right hand, a trident in the left, with serpents twined round its legs. This image has a large orifice in the belly, and flames are issuing between the ribs, so that it would appear that when the brazen image of the idol was thoroughly heated, the unhappy children intended for sacrifice were thrust into the mouth in the navel, and there grilled—savoury morsels, on which the idol seems, from its features, rabidly gloating, while the priests, we are told, endeavoured to drown the cries of the sufferers by shouts and the noise of drums and timbrels—

‘... horrid king, besmeared with blood
Of human sacrifice, and parents’ tears;
Though, for the noise of drums and timbrels loud,
Their children’s cries unheard, that passed through fire
To his grim idol.’—Par. Lost, i. 392.

“This cruel child-sacrifice was probably the giving of his seed to Moloch, for which any Israelite or stranger that sojourned in Israel guilty of the crime was, according to the Mosaic law, to be stoned to death. We are informed in the Sacred Records that no such denunciations of the idolatries of the surrounding nations, no revelations of the attributes or teachings of the pure worship of Jehovah, restrained the Israelites from the practice of the foul and cruel rites of their heathen neighbours; and we find in the latter days of the Jewish Commonwealth the prophet Jeremiah predicting the desolation of the people for this sin among others, that they had estranged themselves from the worship of Jehovah, and burned incense to strange gods, and filled the holy place with the blood of innocents, and burned their sons and their daughters with fire for burnt-offerings unto Baal.

“There appear to have been two modes in which the ancient idolaters devoted their children to Moloch. In one they were sacrificed and consumed in the manner already described, a burnt offering to the idol for the expiation of the sins of their parents or their people. In the other they were only made to pass through the fire, in honour of the deity, and as a sort of initiation into his mysteries, and consecration to his service.“Thus Ahaz, King of Judah, is said to have made his son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the heathen. And it is reckoned in the catalogue of the sins of Judah, which drew on them the vengeance of God, that they ‘built the high places of Baal, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Moloch.’[28]

“In the case of infants, it is supposed that this initiation, this ‘baptism by fire’ was performed either by placing them on a sort of grate suspended by chains from the vault of the temple, and passed rapidly over the sacred fire, or by the priests taking the infants in their arms and swaying them to and fro over or across the fire, chanting meanwhile certain prayers or incantations. With respect to children of older growth, they were made to leap naked through the fire before the idol, so that their whole bodies might be touched by the sacred flames, and purified, as it were, by contact with the divinity.

“The Sardes, we are informed by Father Bresciani, still preserve a custom representing this initiation by fire, but as in other Phoenician rites and practices, without the slightest idea of their profane origin. In the first days of spring, from one end of the island to the other, the villagers assemble and light great fires in the piazza and at the cross roads. The flames beginning to ascend, the children leap through them at a bound, so rapidly and with such dexterity that when the flames are highest it is seldom that their clothes or a hair of their head are singed. They continue this practice till the fuel is reduced to embers, the musicians meanwhile playing on the lionedda tunes adapted to a Phyrric dance. This, says the learned father, is a representation of the initiation through fire into the mysteries of Moloch.”[29]

“Nergal, which is a Hebrew word, was, perhaps, a perpetual fire most religiously preserved in their Sefta, or sacred places. The Cuthites were so called from Cuthus, which was both the name of a river and region in Persia, and from which they were carried into Samaria in very large numbers. Strabo confirms the existence of the sacred fire in Persia in book fifteen. He says ‘that in the temples of the worshippers of Anaitis and Omanus, or Amanus, Persian gods among the Cappadocians, the care of the perpetual fire was committed to magi, who were called Pyrethri, or fire worshippers.’ He further says, ‘In that country there is a great multitude of them, and likewise many temples of the Persian gods; that they do not slay the victims with a knife, but with a certain kind of club, as pounding them to death with a pestle; that there were also certain chapels in which these fires were kept worthy of being remembered; that the altar was in the centre of the chapel, and upon which there were many cinders, and there the priests watched the inextinguishable fires; that they entered there daily, and sang or chanted for the space of almost an hour, at the same time holding a bundle of rods before the fire; that they were veiled in a woollen tiara, which, fitting well on all sides, covered their lips and jaws. These, which were built in their shrines, and which were called Pyratheia, were the eternal fires of the magi. That which they chanted was the theogony, or primeval history of the gods.’

“The Persians believed that every song was not equally efficacious in sacred rites. The rods seem to have been of tamarisk, and without a magus no kind of sacrifices were performed. In the other sacred rites it was an annual custom for the magi to hold the tamarisk while they chanted the theogony, as it was the habit of the ancient poets while singing to carry laurel in their hands. For this reason some believed that they were called rhapsodists, from the Greek word rhabdos, which means a rod. While chanting they stirred the fires with their rods and increased the flames. That which the ancients write is true regarding the institutions of the Persians, that any one who was about to become a king should be initiated into the magic rites, and that Ninus could not be more a king than a magus from that custom. The Persians received these sacred rites from the most ancient Chaldeans, and the latter called them Nergal, from two Hebrew words, nir and gal, which may mean either the fountain of fire or light, or fire or versatile light, and especially that inextinguishable fire which they watched in their holy places as the symbol of the sun. And although there were many gods in Persia, yet fire was worshipped by them before and above all other gods, and in every sacrifice they especially invoked him as the Romans did Janus. And hence, bound by religion, they did not dare to pollute fire destined for daily uses with any uncleanliness. The Pyratheia, or fires, were called Pyreia by others. Suidas says that Heraclius destroyed the Persian cities and overthrew their Pyreia. But so ancient do the Hebrews make the worship of fire among the Chaldeans, that Ur of the Chaldeans, mentioned in Genesis XI., they took for their fire god. Neither do the writings of the ancients quoted by Maimonides prove anything else than that fire was held in so much honour because it was a symbol of the sun. In regard to this most ancient worship in ChaldÆa he thus discourses in ‘More Nebochim,’ book three, chapter thirty:—‘It is known that Abraham was born among a people who served fire, and who, in their credulity, believed there was no other god except the stars, and I will in this chapter make you acquainted with their books, which are not found with us translated in the Arabic language. In their narrations and ancient contentions you will know their reasons and opinions. Their credulity is proved to you in their worship of the stars which they believed to be gods, and that the sun is the greater among the gods. And they said that the other planets are gods, but that the sun and moon are the greatest of their gods. You will find what they undoubtedly say, that the sun governs the upper and lower world. All this you will find in their books; and they speak of the condition of Abraham, and they declare further that Abraham was born and educated in the land of fire worshippers. He there contradicted their opinions, saying that there was another operator besides the sun. And they offered their reasons opposed to his, and among which they mentioned the operations of the sun, which are manifest and which appear to be seen throughout the universe.’ But Abraham was cast into chains because he refused to adore their sun, and after that he was robbed of his goods, and by the king banished into Canaan. They believed that the sun ruled the world, that there was no god superior to him, and they adored fire. Therefore, what else was fire than the sign or symbol of the sun, and very consonant to his nature? And here, I think, is seen the god of Nahor, son of Terah, referred to in Genesis XXXI., 53:—‘The god of Abraham, the God of Nahor, the god of their father, judge betwixt us.’ Here, likewise, you have the foreign gods, which the ancients served in the time of Abraham, as the Sacred Scriptures testify, in Joshua XXIV., 2:—‘And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in the olden time, even Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor: and they served other gods.’ Certainly before the Babylonian captivity also, and in the kingdom of Judea, those Pyratheia and the worship of fire existed, if Joseph Scaliger conjectures correctly in Catullus, when, in the sacred language, or that of the prophets, he says that the Pyratheia are called Chamanim.

“In II. Chronicles, XXXIV., 4, we find as follows in regard to Josiah, the king:—‘And they broke down the altars of Baalim in his presence, and he broke into pieces the images that were sacred to him.’ The images here in Hebrew are called Chamanim, and the Rabbins understand them to be effigies of the sun. For the sun and heat were called Chamha, thence Chamanim was used for the images, chapels, or Pyrathean consecrated to the sun. In Leviticus XXVI., 30, the words are as follows:—‘I will destroy your high places, and cut down Chamanicem, that is, your images,’ &c. The Hebrews understand that their idols were dedicated in honour of the sun. In that place in Leviticus and elsewhere Chamanim and other sacred rites borrowed from the Persians are reproved, and among these ‘high places,’ called Bamoth in Hebrew. It was a custom of the Persians to perform their sacred rites in the most high and elevated places, and in this way they offered sacrifice to heaven or Jove. Herodotus, in Clio, says ‘it was their custom to ascend the most lofty summits of the mountains, and there immolate their victims to Jove, and calling by the name of Jove every circle of the heavens.’ But it was a custom both of the Europeans and Asiatics to ascend the summits of mountains to worship Jove. Hence he was called Epakrios, or the Lofty.

“That Jupiter, with Herodotus, is Belus and Assyrius, for in that name he was called Jove in the most ancient theology of the Persians, as Berosus, Athenocles, and Simachus write. It is a question for the learned whether in the god Omanus, or Amanus, whom Strabo mentions, reference may be had to Chamanim, or Hamanim. Scaliger thinks in the affirmative, and he thence deduces AchÆmenis and AchÆmeniss, who denote Persian extraction. Amanus was indeed the sun, as Anaitis was the moon, and who were called Diana and Venus. No one, however, is ignorant that the Persians worshipped fire as a symbol of the sun, and that is the reason why Datis, the captain of a ship under Xerxes, left the island of Delos unharmed, inasmuch as it was sacred to the sun, or Apollo. As to the other kind of Chamanim, or effigy reduced to powder by King Josiah, the following will be found in II. Kings, XXIII., 11, ‘And in process of time he removed the horses which the King of Judah had given to the sun, in the entrance of the temple of the Lord, near the tabernacle of Nathan-melech the eunuch, who was a prince in the suburbs, and he burnt the chariots of the sun in fire.’ These also, perhaps, should be called Chamanim, as Cimchi, Solomon Jarchi, and Levi Ben Gershon explain that place concerning the horses and chariot, that, while adoring the rising sun, they led them in solemn pomp from the entrance of the temple to the tabernacle of Nathan-melech. This more probably means the molten images of the horses and chariots consecrated to the sun, for, among the Persians, the horse was sacred to the sun, and accustomed to be sacrificed to it. The same custom was transplanted among the Grecians. In ancient times the chariots were also dedicated to the same, as the swiftest of swift gods. But their place was at the door of the True God. The Jews worshipped the sun towards the east within the vestibule of the door. Thus in Ezekiel VIII., 14, ‘And behold, near the temple of the Lord, between the vestibule and the altar, there were as if twenty-five men, whose backs were towards the temple of the Lord, and their faces towards the east, and they adored the sun in the east.’”[30]

From most of the classic authors, such as Homer, Tibullus, Horace, Ovid, Euripides, Aristophanes, Virgil, &c., we gather that every Greek and Roman house had its altar on which fire was ever burning. At night it was covered up with ashes so as to reserve some of the wood for the morrow and keep it gently and slowly smouldering. Day by day, the first thing in the morning, the master of the house applied himself to the rousing up or rekindling of the fire, in order that it might be ready for the coming ceremonies and worship; in his absence from home this duty devolved upon his wife as his nearest relation. Writers tell us that the fire did not cease to burn until the family had altogether perished, and an extinguished hearth in early days meant the same thing as an extinguished family.

Nor was the keeping up of this fire a mere matter of unmeaning form, a simple custom to which no signification of any particular importance was attached; it was essentially connected with the people’s most ancient and cherished religious beliefs. So serious a matter was it that even the particular kind of wood was specified. Virgil and Plutarch distinctly state that only certain trees ought to be used for such a purpose, and these were kept sacred and forbidden for other uses. The fire, according to Euripides and Ovid, must be kept pure—no polluted object might be cast into it, no offensive action might be performed in its presence.

As we remark in another place, there was one day in the year (March 1st in Rome) when all fires and lights were put out—but immediately renewed with the observation of many rites. The strictest rules had to be attended to on these occasions; it was forbidden to renew the fire from any remaining spark of the old—indeed it was essential to thoroughly extinguish every spark of the previous flame—neither might a spark be struck from flint and steel; only by the sun’s rays or by rubbing two pieces of wood together might the new fire be started into being, for the fire was regarded as the representative of the sun—the greatest of lights and fires, and as such was adored. Well it was not unreasonable or to be wondered at, that men, for want of better knowledge, should render divine honours to that from which they received such benefits; they saw the light and heat of the sun pouring down upon the earth and in conjunction with the rain and dew, softening its crust, swelling and fructifying its seed and bringing forth from it food and nourishment for man and beast. And so they prayed as we read in the Orphic hymns: “Render us always flourishing, always happy, O fire: thou who art eternal, beautiful, ever young; thou who nourishest, thou who art rich, receive favourably these our offerings, and in return give us happiness and sweet health.”The fire seems to have been perpetually invoked; hardly a monument was made, hardly a household or business duty performed or engagement fulfilled, without a prayer to it; if a man left his home for a brief while, he worshipped the fire; when he returned, before he saluted his nearest relatives, the same duty was observed. Æschylus tells of Agamemnon returning from Troy, and instead of going to the temple and returning thanks to Jupiter, offering thanksgiving before the fire in his own house. Euripides, also, represents the dying Alcestis speaking to the fire: “Mistress, I go beneath the earth, and for the last time fall before thee, and address thee. Protect my infant children; give to my boy a tender wife, and to my daughter a noble husband. Let them not die, like their mother, before the time, but may they lead a long and happy life in their fatherland.”

De Coulanges says “the sacred fire was a sort of providence in the family. Sacrifices were offered to it, and not merely was the flame supplied with wood, but upon the altar were poured wine, oil, incense and the fat of victims. The god graciously received these offerings and devoured them. Radiant with satisfaction, he rose above the altar, and lit up the worshipper with his brightness. Then was the moment for the suppliant humbly to invoke him and give heartfelt utterance to his prayer.”

Corresponding with the “grace” of modern times, recited before and after meals, was the tribute of prayer and praise uttered by the ancient before his fire when he was about to partake of food and when he had satisfied his hunger. He went even further than the modern does, for before a particle of food was eaten a due proportion of meat and drink had to be poured out upon the altar and presented to the god. And when the flame rose up, they regarded it as the deity rearing himself in their midst and consuming what had been presented.

If we turn to the Sacred Books of the East we shall find how strong a hold this Fire Worship has upon the Hindoo mind, and the importance attached to a due observance of all points of ritual connected with it. In the “Laws of Manu” we find directions for his guidance extending to the most ordinary domestic necessities and some of which we cannot very well repeat in these pages. Some of his private necessities must not be satisfied in view of the fire but he must retire either into darkness or out of sight of it. “Let him not blow a fire with his mouth—Let him not throw any impure substance into the fire, let him not warm his feet at it—Let him not place fire under a bed or the like; nor step over it, nor place it when he sleeps at the footend of his bed—Let him keep his right arm uncovered in a place where a sacred fire is kept—A Brahmana who is impure must not touch with his hand a cow, a Brahmana, or fire; nor, being in good health, let him look at the luminaries in the sky while he is impure.” Then again, “A Brahmana shall offer of the cooked food destined for the Vaisvadeva in the sacred domestic fire to the following deities: First to Agni, and next to Soma, then to both these gods conjointly, further to all the gods, and then to Dhanvautari, further to Kuhu (the goddess of the new moon day), to Anumati (the goddess of the full moon day), to Pragapati (the lord of creatures), to heaven and earth conjointly, and finally to Agni Svishtakrit (the fire which performs the sacrifice well).” And so on in many other places, in one of which the king is to behave like fire. “Let the king emulate the energetic action of Indra, of the sun, of the wind, of Yama, of Varuna, of the moon, of the fire, and of the earth. If he is ardent in wrath against criminals and endowed with brilliant energy, and destroys wicked vassals, then his character is said to resemble that of fire.”

Turning to the Rig Veda we find “Hymns to Agni (the god of fire) and the Maruts (the storm gods).”

“1. Thou art called forth to this fair sacrifice for a draught of milk; with the Maruts come hither, O Agni!”

“2. No god, indeed, no mortal, is beyond the might of thee, the mighty one; with the Maruts come hither, O Agni!”

“3. Those who know of the great sky, the Visne Devas without guile; with those Maruts come hither, O Agni!”

“4. The wild ones who sing their song, unconquerable by force; with the Maruts come hither, O Agni!”

“5. Those who are brilliant, of awful shape, powerful, and devourers of foes; with the Maruts come hither, O Agni!”

“6. They who in heaven are enthroned as gods, in the light of the firmament; with the Maruts come hither, O Agni!”“7. They who shoot with their darts across the sea with might; with the Maruts come hither, O Agni!”

“9. I pour out to thee for the early draught the sweet juice of Soma; with the Maruts come hither, O Agni!”

Another one says:—“O Agni, thou art the life, thou art the patron of man. In return for our prayers, bestow glory and riches on the father of a family who now addresses thee. Agni, thou art a wise protector and a father; to thee we owe life, we are of thy household.”

De Coulanges says:—“So the hearth-god was, as in Greece, a tutelary deity. Men asked of him abundance, and that the earth might be productive. He was prayed to for health, and that a man might long enjoy the light and arrive at old age like the sun at his setting. Even wisdom is demanded, and pardon for sin. For as in Greece the fire-god was essentially pure, so not only was the Brahmin forbidden to throw anything filthy into his fire, but he might not even warm his feet at it. The guilty man, also, as in Greece, might not approach his own hearth before he was purified from the stain he had contracted.”

Assuredly the Greeks did not borrow this religion from the Hindoos, nor the Hindoos from the Greeks; but Greeks, Italians, and Hindoos, belonged to one and the same race, and their ancestors at a very early period had lived together in Central Asia. There they had learnt this creed, and established their rites. When the tribes gradually moved further away from one another, they transported this religion with them, the one to the banks of the Ganges, and the others to the Mediterranean. Afterwards, some learnt to worship Brahma, others Zeus, and others again Janus; but all had preserved as a legacy the earlier religion which they had practised at the common cradle of the race.

It is remarkable that in all sacrifices, even in those offered to Zeus or to Athene, it was always to the fire that the first invocation was made. At Olympia assembled Greece offered her first sacrifice to the hearth-fire, and the second to Zeus. Similarly at Rome, the first to be adored was always Vesta, who was nothing else but the fire. And so we read in the hymns of the Veda: “Before all gods, Agni must be invoked. We will pronounce thy holy name before that of all the other immortals. O Agni, whatever be the god we honour by our sacrifice, to thee is the holocaust offered.” It was not that Jupiter and Brahma had not acquired a much greater importance in the minds of men, but it was remembered that the fire was much older than the gods.

When the populations of Greece and Italy had learnt to represent their Gods as persons, and had given each a proper name and a human shape, the old worship of the fire was similarly modified. The sacred fire was called Vesta. The common noun was made a proper name, and a legend by degrees attached to it. They even went so far as to represent the fire in statues under the features of a woman, the gender of the noun having determined the sex of the deity.

Vesta, in mythology, was one of the principal deities of the Pagans. Those who have diligently investigated the religion of the Pythagorean philosophers pretend that by Vesta they meant the universe, to which they ascribed a soul, and which they worshipped as the sole divinity sometime under the name of t? pa?, the whole, and sometimes under the appellation of ????, unity. However, fabulous history records two goddesses under the name of Vesta; one the mother of Saturn, and wife of Coelum, and the other the daughter of Saturn, by his wife Rhea. The first was Terra, or the Earth, called also Cybele, and derived her name Vesta, according to some, from clothing, because the earth is clothed, vestitur, with plants and fruits, or, according to Ovid, from the stability of the earth because stat vi terra sua, or it supports itself. Hence the first oblations in all sacrifices were offered to her, because whatsoever is sacrificed springs from the earth; and the Greeks both began and concluded their sacrifices with Vesta, because they esteemed her the mother of all gods.

The second was Fire, and Vesta whose power was exercised about altars and houses, derives her name, according to Cicero, from fire or hearth. Accordingly the poets frequently use Vesta for fire or flame; as they do Jupiter for air, Ceres for corn, &c. An image of Vesta, to which they sacrificed every day, was placed before the doors of the houses at Rome; and the places where these statues were erected were called vestibula, from Vesta. This goddess was a virgin, and so great an admirer of virginity, that when Jupiter her brother gave her leave to ask what she would, she besought that she might always be a virgin, and have the first oblations in all sacrifices.This goddess is called by Horace Æterna Vesta, and it was in honour of her that Numa erected a temple at Rome, and dedicated virgins to keep a perpetual fire upon her altars. One way of representing this goddess, it is said, was in the habit of a matron, holding in her right hand a flambeau or lamp, and sometimes a Palladium or small Victory.

The worship of Vesta and of fire was brought from Phrygia into Italy by Æneas and the other Trojans who resorted thither. To this purpose Virgil observes that Æneas, before he left the palace of his father, had taken away the fire from the sacred hearth. The name Vesta was synonymous with the Chaldean and Persian Avesta and hence Zoroaster gave to his book on the worship of fire, the name of Avesta or Abesta, i.e., the custody of fire.

The Vestals were the virgins in Ancient Rome, consecrated to the service of the goddess Vesta, whose worship, we have said, was brought into Italy by Æneas, and one of their special duties was the watching of the sacred fire, the going out of which was visited upon them with such severe whipping. This fire, which they had to watch so jealously and carefully, was neither on an altar nor on a hearth, but in little earthen vessels with two handles, called capeduncula. It was held a pledge of the empire of the world. If it went out, it was judged a very unlucky prognostic, and was to be expiated with infinite ceremonies. Among the Romans, Festus tells us, it was only to be rekindled by rubbing a kind of wood proper for the purpose. But among the Greeks, Plutarch, in his life of Numa, observes, it was to be rekindled by exposing some inflammable matter in the centre of a concave vessel held to the sun. It is to be noted, the Romans were not the only people who kept the perpetual fire of Vesta, in imitation of the celestial fires; but the Greeks were possessed with the same superstition; particularly the Delphians, Athenians, Tenedians, Argives, Rhodians, Cyzicenians, Milesians, Ephesians, &c.

Magi, or Magians, was the title which the ancient Persians gave to their wise men and philosophers. Whatever may be the origin of the word, and upon this great diversity of opinion seems to have prevailed, it corresponds with the s?f?? among the Greeks; sapientes among the Latins; Druids among the Gauls; Gynosophists among the Indians; and prophets, priests among the Egyptians.Plato, Apuleius, Laertius, and others agree that the philosophy of the Magi related principally to the worship of the gods; they were the persons who were to offer prayers, supplications and sacrifices, as if the gods would be heard by them alone.

They teach their doctrine concerning the nature and origin of the gods, says Laertius, whom they think to be fire, earth, and water; they reject the use of pictures and images, and reprobate the opinion that the gods are male and female; they discourse to the people concerning justice; they think it impious to consume dead bodies with fire; they all practise divination and prophecy, pretending that the gods appear to them; they forbid the use of ornaments in dress; they clothe themselves in a white robe; they make use of the ground as their bed, of herbs, cheese and bread for food, and of a reed for their staff. Strabo also relates, that there were in Cappadocia a great number of Magi, who were called “Pyrethi,” or worshippers of fire, and many temples of the Persian gods, in the midst of which were altars attended by priests, who daily renewed the sacred fire, accompanying the ceremony with music.

The chief doctrine of the Magi was, that there were two principles, one of which was the cause of all good, and the other the cause of all evil. The former was represented by light, and the latter by darkness, as their truest symbols; and of the composition of these two they supposed that all things in the world were made. The good god they always worshipped before fire, as being the cause of light, and especially before the sun, as being in their opinion the most perfect fire, and causing the most perfect light; and for this reason they had in all their temples fire constantly burning on altars erected in them for that purpose. Before these sacred fires, they performed all their public acts of devotion, as they likewise practised their private devotions before their private fires in their own houses. Such were the tenets of this sect when Smerdis, who was the principal leader of it, having usurped the crown after the death of Cambyses, was slain by seven princes of Persia; and many of the Magians, who adhered to him, shared likewise the same fate. In consequence of this event, those who adopted the sentiments of this sect were called, by way of derision, Magians, from mige-gush, which signified, in the language of the country then in use, one that had his ears cropped. The whole sect of the Magians would soon have sunk into utter extinction if it had not, in a few years after this period, been revived and reformed by Zoroaster. This celebrated philosopher, called by the Persians Zerdusht or Zaratusht, began about the thirty-sixth year of the reign of Darius to restore and reform the Magian system of religion. He was not only excellently skilled in all the learning of the East that prevailed in his time, but likewise thoroughly versed in the Jewish religion, and in all the sacred writings of the Old Testament that were then extant, whence some have inferred that he was a native Jew both by birth and profession; and that he had been servant to one of the prophets, probably Ezekiel or Daniel. He made his first appearance in Media, in the city of Xiz, afterwards called Aderbijan, as some say; or according to others, in Ecbatana, afterwards Tauris. Instead of admitting the existence of two first causes with the Magians, he introduced a principle superior to them both—one supreme God, who created both these, and out of these two produced, according to his sovereign pleasure, everything else.

Zoroaster caused fire temples to be erected wherever he came: for having feigned that he was taken up into heaven, and there instructed in the doctrines he taught by God himself, out of the midst of a great and most bright flame of fire, he taught his followers that fire was the truest shekinah of the divine presence; that the sun being the most perfect fire, God had there the throne of his glory, and the residence of his divine presence in a peculiar manner; and next to this in our elementary fire; and, therefore, he ordered them to direct all their worship to God, first towards the sun, which they called Mithra, and next towards their sacred fires; and when they came before these fires to worship, they always approached them on the west side, that having their faces towards them, and also towards the rising sun at the same time, they might direct their worship towards both. And in this posture they always performed every act of their worship. Zoroaster also pretended that he brought some of the heavenly fire with him on his return and placed it on the altar of the first fire temple, which he erected at Xiz, in Media, whence it was propagated to all the rest; and on this account their priests carefully watched it and never suffered it to be extinguished.Zoroaster, having assumed the character of a divine prophet and reformer of religion, retired into a cave, devoting himself to prayer and meditation, where he composed the book called the Zend, in which his pretended revelations were contained. From Media he removed into Bactria; and he went also into India among the Brachmans, and having acquired all their knowledge in mathematics, philosophy and astronomy, returned and communicated the knowledge to his Magians; and thus they became famous for their skill in these sciences; so that a learned man and a Magian were equivalent terms. The vulgar conceived of them as persons actuated and inspired by supernatural powers; and hence those who pretended to wicked and diabolical acts, assumed the name of Magians; and the term Magician acquired its evil meaning. However, this distinguished knowledge was confined to those who were by way of eminence, the Magi, or the priests; who, like those of the Jews, being of the same tribe, appropriated their learning to their own families. These priests were distributed into three orders, viz.: the inferior priests, who conducted the ordinary ceremonies of religion; the superintendents who governed them and presided over the sacred fire; and the archimagus, or high-priest, who possessed supreme authority over the whole order; and their churches or temples were also of three sorts, parochial or oratories, in which the people performed their devotions, and where the sacred fire was kept only in lamps; fire-temples, in which fire was kept continually burning on a sacred altar, where the higher order of the Magi directed the public devotions, and the people assembled to perform magical incantations, hear interpretations of dreams, and practise other superstitions; and lastly, the fire-temple in which the archimagus resided, which was visited by the people at certain seasons with peculiar solemnity, and to which it was deemed an indispensable duty for every one to repair at least once in his life. Zoroaster at length carried his religious system to the royal court at Susa, and made Darius a proselyte, together with most of the great men of the kingdom.

The End.

Footnotes:

[1] Moule’s Heraldry.

[2] Maitland’s Church in the Catacombs.

[3] Forlong.

[4] Moule’s Heraldry.

[5] Northern Tour.

[6] Gorham, Hist. S. Neots.

[7] Rivers of Life.

[8] Ancient Faiths, vol. i.

[9] Rivers of Life.

[10] Riv. Life, Forlong.

[11] Nineveh, &c.

[12] Selden’s Syrian Deities.

[13] Forlong.

[14] Rivers of Life.

[15] Leslie’s Early Races of Scotland.

[16] Rivers of Life.

[17] Forlong, Riv. Life.

[18] Rivers of Life.

[19] See Pop. Science Rev., vol. x.

[20] Hindu Pantheon.

[21] See Asiat. Res., vol. iii.

[22] For a somewhat longer account of this and other Myths, see Rev. W. Gill’s Book.

[23] Chardin’s Voyages, vol. ii.

[24] Thalia, 16, Rawlinson.

[25] Pennant, vol. I., p. 111.

[26] Pennant, vol. III.

[27] Selden’s Syrian Deities. Hauser’s Translation.

[28] Jeremiah xxxii. 35.

[29] See Bresciani and Forrester’s Sardinia.

[30] Selden’s Syrian Deities, Hausser’s Translation.