Astronomy and astrology
Heavenly bodies, in Genesis, are called 'lights' or 'bodies giving light' (""x", pi. ninp ma'dr, mS'Oroth). Dill- mann (Genesis) remarks that in no other work (of creation) is the object of their creation so fully indicated, and asks whether a silent contrast to heathen superstition, which was attaclied to the stars, may not lie therein.
The object of the heavenly oodles is stated to be ' to divide between the day and the night,' and ' for signs, for seasons, and for days and j-ears,' and it is for this purpose that they are lixed (lit. ' given,' ojik [O'l, ' and he [God^ gave them ') in the firmament. The whole account of the creation and placing of the heavenly bodies is, in fact, based on the old geocentric view of the ancient astronomers, which mainly prevailed until the birth of modern astronomy.
The account as given in Gn, however, is correct for the time at which it was written, and suited the needs of the people to whom it was addressed. The heavenly bodies were among the great marvels of the creative power of God, and they are taken purely and simply from the point of view of what tliey are for us, and the ell'ect they have upon our minds, regardless of any preconceived or acquired scientific ideas and theories that we may possess.
Not less than tlie Hebrews did the Babylonians and Assyrians regard the lieavenly bodies as for signs and seasons, days and years ; and tliis view was associated with their usual heathen ideas that the heavenly bodies were divinities. The following translation of the portion of the Bab.
creation story, corresponding with Gn 1, will form a basis of comparison with the two accounts : — He (MerodAoh) formed the stations of the jrreat gods— Stan were their likeness ; he caused the tuinaii t to be iet ; he desi^iinted the year ; he outlined the forms (of the constella- tions?)
; he caus4Mi three stare 1 to t>e asslf^ned to each of the 12 moDthB ; from the day of the yearS he foniied the (l^fures ; be can8o<l the station of Jupiter tl to be founded to make known their limits, Uut an error might not be mode, that none might sin. • lieeides i{,>Tniu (Jth 11" 13" 16", Sir 43'8, 1 Mac llF») and 0afi^)« (Wis 17, 1 Mac 6*), the Apocr. gives ' a.' as tr" of ratpafffM iJth 140, "M (Jth 1611), i,^>,i,,„ (\vis 13'), and x^TatXr.
rrt, 2 Mac 3W), thereby showing more clearly the force of the ling, wortl. t The tumaii were seven in number, and seem to have been OOnstollationH, among them tN-ing Arciteitntt, 1 Or. iMwsibly, constellations. I A|,]»:irenlly = new yearV (l.iy. I( Sti Jensen. The original word U Nibiru, regarded by Fried. DelltzBch in 1886 as beings Ueb. IyI^'? ma'ahhtir, 'place of poning,' %ere — ' codlac.
' He set with him the station of Bel and &i ; he opened then great gates on both sides, the bolt he made strong on the left and ttie right — in its middle-point the zenith. He cause<l Nanuaru (the moon) to shine, (and) he niled the night, be designated him also as the thing of the night, to moke known the time.
Monthly, without failing, he enclosed (him) in a ring, at the begiiming of the month to shine in the evening, the horns proclaiming to make known the division (of time) — on the seventh day with a [half]-ring.* At this point the text is mutilated ; but after the placing of tlie moon, the chief god of the Babylonians is represented as turain;; his attention to llie sun, and 'wlien the sun arrived on the horizon of heaven,' he seems to have addressed and directed him as to his course.
Imperfect as the Bab. text here is, it is nevertheless easy to see that it is the account of a nation who Knew much more of astronomy, on the whole, than the Hebrews. This is, in fact, indicated by the large number of tablets from Babylonia and Assyria referring to astrology that have been found, as well as those referring to astronomy proper, in which the stars and planets are enumerated and classified, and their positions sometimes described.
Catalogues of these works were made, and explanations how to use them were given. References, not only to stars, but also to comets, are found, but they are comparatively rare. The Hebrews, in OT, do not seem to have looked on the stars from an astronomical or astrological point of view, but rather u5 signs placed in the heavens, one of their most important func- tions being to show the power of the Almighty. Thus we are told that He created them (On IW, Job 9», I's 8S etc.)
, counts them, names them (I's 147), and has the whole of them in His power (Job 9-^. To the horrors of His juiigment-day it belongs that the stars lose their brightness (Is Kii", Ezk 32^, Lk 21, Jn 3, Rev Si), fall from heaven like withered leaves (Is 34' — the stars are here called ' all the host of heaven *), — a simile in all proljability derived from the observation of falling or 'shooting' stars. Just as the reference, in Jude v.
i^, to ' wandering stars ' possibly derived its origin from the comets which came to excite the wonder and terror of the world. In the expression 'courses' of the stars (Jg 5^) it is the planets that are referred to. The distance of the stars from the earth seeinn to have struck the nations of the ancient world, hence the n>ention of the stars in Job 221, cf. also Is U'*. The com- parisrm of their brightness is made in 1 Oo 1&41, and their gre,ftt number referred to in He 11^3.
The Stars are, as a rule, indicated by the nsnal word 3;i3 kOkah, Arab, kawkab, Syr. kawkcbd, Eth. kawkab and kokah, Assyr. kakkabu. One of the poetic expressions for 'stars' is ipi ■jj'is 'stars of tlie morning,' an expres.
sion applied apparently to the angels (Job 38') ; and the words ' morning star ' could also be applied to a man who was con- sidered to be great, like the high priest Simon (Sir 50') ; to a thing greatly to be desired, as ' salvation ' (2 P 1'*) and ' heavenly glory ' (Rev 2") ; and, finally, to Christ Himself (Rev '>2'«).
The ilate at which the stars were divided into constellations is very remote, and there is consider- able uncertainty as to the approximate period and the people witli wliom this division had its origin In all probability, however, it is due to the Chal- da'ans, who seem to have had it from the Ak- kadians, most of the names of the signs of the zodiac and constellations being written in the non- Sem. dialect of ancient Babylon.
The Hebrews, in their turn, may have obtained their knowledge of the constellations from the Chaldouins, but we have no real evidence of the fact. The well-known constellation of the Great Bear, dv 'ash (,)ob 9-') or s>;yi 'atjish (fern. Job 3M"),* is said to be connected with na'.ih ' a bier,' the name of that constellation in Arabic.
The ' sons ' of 'Aijith (c-i') arc spoken of in Job 38", and are regariled as the three stars in the tail of the bear, a parallel to the Arab, expression bandt na'sh ' the daughters of the bier,' which means the • For ' the Iwar of the RV Uie AV bos ' Aroturus ' 192 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROLOGY ASTRONOMY AND ASTROLOGY same tiling.
The Arab, legend connected with the constellation of the Great Bear is as follows : — Na'sh having been killed by Gedi (the pole star), the cliildren of Na'sh (the sons in front with the body of their father, the daughter behind with the nurse, who carries a child in her arms) go round nightly seeking the murderer, with the hope of avenging their father's death. Canopus (Arab.
Suhel), how- ever, wishes to go to the help of Gedi, but, having set out too late, finds himself always foiled, not being able to reach his point in time to prevent the approaching catastrophe. Whether some legend similar to this was attached to the constellation by the ancient Hebrews is uncertain, and, whilst admitting a likeness in the Heb. and Arab, names, the diflerences in their forms must, nevertheless, not be forgotten. Fried. Delitzsch points out that the Heb.
b>v elsewhere (Job 4" etc.) means 'a moth,' and that a star bearing that name (sAsu ' moth ') seems to have been kno^vn to the Assyro- Babvlonians ( WAI ii. 49, 64). M. A. Stem (in the Jiia. Zeitschr. 1866) regards this constellation as the Pleiades. Another constellation mentioned is Orion, in Heb. ^•C? (Job 99 38»i, Am 5»), pi. □•'?-Q? (Is 13">).* The word means, literally, ' the fool,' or ' impious one,' corresponding with Arab, jabbar, Syr. gabbard,i Chald.
niphla ' the giant,' the name given to this constellation by the Semites of old because regarded as the figure of a man — probably one of the larger male figures seen on those Bab. boundary-stones which show fagures of the constellations. Gesenius suggests that they (the Hebrews, etc.) seem to have looked on this constellation as the figure of an impious giant bound in the sky, whence Job 38" ' Canst thou loose the bands of Orion ?
' The plural in Is 13"* ' constellations,' means, literally, ' the Orions ' — the giant constellations of the sky, prominent by their brightness. A very ingenious suggestion is that quoted in the Chronicon Pas- chale, Cedrenus, John of Antioch, and others, from Pers. sources, that Chesil or Orion is the impious giant Nimrod chained to the heavens. This, however, is late, and probably has no solid basis as its origin.
The well-known passage in Job (9°) supplies us also with the word for the Pleiades, .i?'3 kimah, Syr. kima, Arab, thurayya, words meaning ' heap,' ' cluster,' ' plenty,' ' multitude,' from the seven larger stars and the smaller ones closely grouped there\vith. The Arabs also call the Pleiades an-najm ' the star,' or ' cluster ' par excellence, said to be so named on account of their monthly conjunction with the moon, by which they served to measure time, and thus rule the calendar.
In Job 38", n?'3 Ti\iyj_p, ' the cluster (AV ' sweet influences') of the Pleiades' is mentioned, corre- sponding with the Arab, 'nkd ath-thurnyya. The Rabbis (see R. David Kimchi in his Lexicon) thought that the ' bands of the Pleiades ' referred to their influence upon vegetation, klmah liaving freat cold, and binding up the fruit, tliough R. Baac described the influence of the Pleiades as being the reverse of this, ripening the fruits. In the Pers. poets (Sadi, Hafiz, etc.)
these stars are regarded as a brilliant rosette with a central star, etc. The popiilar name used by Luther, ' die Glucke,' i.e. ' the clucking hen,' reminds one of the Engli.sh name ' hen and chickens,' and the French poussi- niire, O.F. pulsiniire. The appearance of the constellation of the Pleiades being conventionally that of a large star surrounded by several smaller • The LXX hM "Etti^k In Job 99 ; 'aplm. In Job 383'. The LXX of Amos 68 differs entirely from the received text of the Hi:li.
t Also called in Syr. 'iydtha, a word which ia uid aUo to mean Mdebaran, Capella, and the Pleiades. ones, was likened to a brood-hen with her chickens under her wings, hence this name ; and for this reason the Pleiades were also supposed to be the same as Succoth-benoth, which is rendered by R. David Kimchi ' hen (with) chickens.' This name for the Pleiades, which occurs in the Targ. to Job, is said also to be usual with the Arabs.
vVhether the Hebrews of ancient times had also this idea, is uncertain, and seems to be improbable. It is to be noted that Fried. Delitzsch denies the meaning ' star-cluster ' for this constellation, and connects a^'j kimah with the Assyr. kimtu ' family,' ex- plaining it as the ' family of stars,' — an etymology which does not invalidate, as ■«'ill be seen, the popular legends concerning it.
n-i; an) ' the fleeing serpent,' or ' swift serpent ' (Job 26'*), has been regarded as the sign of the dragon, between the Great and the Little Bear; but this identification is very uncertain. It would seem, however, to be something connected with the sky, as is indicated by the first part of the verse : ' By his spirit are the heavens garnished ' (RV), or, ' beauty ' (m). The sign of the 'Twins (Castor and Pollux, AV; The Twin Brothers, RV ; Gr.
At6iTKovpoi) is men- tioned as the name of a ship in Ac 28".* The word mi;? mazzdrCth (a plural form, Job 38"), is, with common consent, regarded as signi- fying ' the signs ' of the zodiac, which come forth ' in their season,' and, as is implied, could not be led forth by a man. In 2 K 23° occurs the word m^)5 mazzaWth, translated ' planets ' in the AV and RV, with the marginal reading ' twelve signs ' of the zodiac. This word is compared by Jensen and others with the Assyr. manzalti, WAI iii.
59. 35, a comparison which is not without its difficulties, as, if correct, it would imply complete ignorance of the root of the Assyr. word on the part of the Heb. scribes, manzalti being for manzazti,i by a common law of interchange between z and I— ignorance which would not, however, be altogether inexcusable, as the Chaldee form is k;'?J5 mazzd- laya, and, though unprovided with the feminine ending, would present the same root, the individual signs being Sj?, mazzal.
The Chaldee forms them- selves, however, seem rather to increase the diffi- culty of connecting nWp with the Assyr. manzalti. That expression in Job 9' which accompanies the names of the constellations, namely, \J'0 "Tii] hadrg teman, ' the chambers of the south ' (=Arab. akhadlr al-janub or m.ukhddi' nl-j'anub), is one of peculiar interest.
Gesenius would render it ' the most remote southern regions'; but it seems better to regard it as meaning ' the southern con- stellations,' some of which, in all probability, re- presented pictorially ' chambers, from which heathen (divine) creatures looked out, similar to the reliefs representing the constellations on the Bab. boundary-stones.
Should this explanation be correct, ' the chambers of the south ' would be in contradistinction to mazzaroth or mazzaloth ' the constellations ' (of the north), but the un- certainty of the exact signification of the two expressions makes every attempt at explanation unsatisfactory. A point to be noted is tliat an Arab, translation of Job 9' mentions ' the heart of the south,' a name of Suhel or Canopus, the |irinci- pal star in the constellation of the Ship (Delitzsch, Job, 2nd ed. p. 128 n.)
, which marks, by its rising, * The Bab. names of the si^ns of the zodiac were (about B.C. 600) as follows; The Workman = the Ram; Mitlu and the Bull of Heaven = Tawni8 ; Sib-zi-anna, and the Great Twins™ Gemini ; J ;;u/= Cancer ; the Great Dog = Leo; the Ear of Com — Virpo : ZAbanit = Libra ; the Scorpion = Scorpius ; PapiUag^ Arcitenens ; the Fish-goat = Caper ; Gula= Amphora ; the Water- channel and the Tails = Pisces.
Tliere were also many othet constellations, the number of which is uncertait^ t The changes would be manzalti, mamarti, manzalti, man zalti. ASTKUNOMY AND ASTKULUGY ASTKU^UMY AND ASTKOLOGY 193 the season in wliieli the fruit becomes ripe throii;;li the increase of the heat. The ' heart of the south ' would seem to go with and explain the * chambers of the south.' Venus is apparently mentioned (Is 14") under the name ''^•■t h'lcl, 'the shining one,' with the addition T5'"I?
' son of the morning,' i.e. Lucifer, the day-star, a name of Venus as the morning star, to which the king of Babylon is, in this pa.'isaf^e, compared. This Heb. word agrees in meaning with that used for Venus in Arab., namely, zuhnrnh ' splendid (star),' and is from the same root as the A.ssyr. Hclu ' to be bright.' Strange to say, however, no Assyr. name for Venus from this root ha.s been as yet found, the word generally i|Uoted, miiitUUu, being a ghost-word, due to a faulty copy.
As the Assyrians knew, from the earliest times, that Venus aa a morning and as an evening star was the same, it is probable that the Hebrews were aware of the fact also.t In Am S', where it is said, 'Yea, ye have l)ome Siccuth your king, and Chiun your images, the star of 3'our god, which ye made to yourselves ' (UV), there is hardly any doubt that Chiun ([v? k-iyijun) is the Assyr. kdatvanu (or, as read by some, AviiKvjnu), the planet Saturn, which was known to the Hab. and Assyr.
under that name, preserved in Arab, under the form kuiwan, and in tlie Peshitta us kniwdna, and of which the "Ptutpiy of the LXX is supposed to be a corruption. The pointing of the Heb. form is regarded by Schrader as incorrect, und he therefore writes, u[)on the model of the Arab., etc., p,"3 kewan.X Chiun or Kewan does not properly belong to Heb.
astronomy, but it probably •_'ives us the name of the planet Saturn among the Hebrews, who seem to have worshiiijjed him under the form of the star which represented him. Mention of the sun is common, but the passages in which it is referred to are rather general than truly a.stronomical. It is used to indicate the time of the day, aa ' when the sun went down ' (Gn 1.")"), ' till the sun be hot ' (Neh 7') ; comparison, as ' clear as the sun ' (Ca 6'°), etc. etc.
In the account of the Creation it is called the ' greater ' of the ' two great lights ' (Gn 1"), made ' to rule the day,' and set in the firmament of the heaven ' to ;,'ive light u[)on the earth,' and, with the lesser light, 'to divide the liglit from the darkness' (vv."'") The sun would also be included among llie lights in the firmament of the heaven in v.'*, which were ' for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years.'
It will be seen from this that the mtronomical ideas of the Hebrews with regard to the sun were strictly those of an observer on the surface of the earth, and were ba.scd ui>on the strictly practical view of its value in the matters of everyday life — in fact, they were the ideas generally held by the people of that and succeeding ages until the birth of moiiern astronomy. If we liad the Bab.
account of the Creation complete, we >hould in all probaliility find therein views em- bodying those in the lirst chap, of Genesis. What may be rejrarded as a poetical astronomical Wcw of the Kun in his course is that contained in Ps I!)-, where the 'tabernacle of the sun' is men- tioned, and he is compared to 'a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and ' rejoicing as a strong "The Adsyr. word for the planet Venus i» penemlly read I>ilhat, more correctly Deletial (.
^mi>«t), exptaineil ae Nabal kakkabu ' the atAr Nahat,' or '(Hhe who) proclniniH.' t It ia to he noted t)iat the Ileh. word ti^Ut tfl raaac., and in ihis reaemhles HeOHi>horos(Heni»eni*) ; hnl the name in Afwyr., \rah., etc, ia fem. The name biicifcr. applied to .Sntnn, is due I'" Hleron>lnu8 and the Fathera of the Chnn-h, and apparently lu\d ita ohffin in the lejfend of the fall of the iiiiL'elM, introduced into the worita of Bishop Avitna, the poetCffidmon, and Slilton n Par I^tl (cf.
Lk inl«, Rev IZ'"). t Schrader reads in the game powtntfc SaJ;h1ith for SMnitfi, and ■oniparea thit word with the cnneifonn Salt-kllt, one of the lauiet, of the (jod Ninip, worshipper! of old in Uahylonift vol.. I. — I ? man to run his cour.se.' This poetical description of the sun, however, reminds one of those Bab.
cylinder-seals on Avhich the sun-god is represented OS a man, from whom rays of light stream forth so dazzling that the divine attendants who open the doors which enclose him are obliged to look the other way whilst performing this duty.* The going forth of the sun ' from the end of heaven,' and the ' circuit unto the ends of it ' (v."), refer, naturally, to the daily journey of the sun, which, as it would seem from this passage, had been noticed to be a curved course in the heavens.
Ai with the Babylonians and Assyrians, the sun wa.» used to mark the points of the compass, east being I the rising sun,' west ' the setting sun,' etc. The indication of the ditferent parts of the day from the position of the sun was, no doubt, from actual observation, the use of sun-dials (see below) not lieini; by any means common in the ancient East. For further information see SuN.
There is no express mention of eclipses in the Bible, but certain expressions, such as ' I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day' (Am 8"), have been regarded as referring to something of the kind. In the case of the above quotation, the fact that noon is mentioned in connexion with the sun going down might well refer to an eclipse ; but in the ca.se of .Mic .
S«, Zee W, Joel 2">-^' 3", which were formerly taken to refer to eclipses, this can hardly be the reference, as the phenomena accompanying the obscuration of the sun and the moon do not favour that view. So also the passing reference in Jer 15' ' her sun is gone down while it was yet day,' can only mean tliat ' good fortune has ceased for her.'
Reference to an eclipse has been seen also in 2 K 20", Is 38', where the shadow going back ten degrees on the dial of Aliaz is spoken of ; but real observation under natural conditions would be necessary before accepting this as being conclusive or even probable. This supposed eel lose has been identified with an annular eclipse ol the sun in 689 B.C. (Bo?:anquet in the Trans. Soc. Bibl. Archmolugy, vol. iii. p. 31 IF., vol. v. p. 261, etc.)
The same writer also understands Ezk 30" 32''- ' to refer to the total eclipse of the sun in B.C. 556; but there is the same objection to this as to the supposed references in Micah, Zech., and Joel. The Hebrews had more than one word for the moon (see Moon), serving to designate the luminary in a general sense, when full, and when new.
The apparent motions of the moon were well known to the Hebrews, as it was by that heavenly body that their festivals were fixed ; and it has a special importance, because the Heb. year, like that of the Babylonians, was lunar, and was used to fix ' signs and seasons ' more, probably, than any other heavenly body. The moon played a part just as important in Bab.
astronomy, for there was not only a large series of foreca-sts connected with its movements, but it was also used, as with the Hebrews, to determine the beginning of the month, and thus to fix the dates of the various festivals, etc. (FE.STIVAL.S). The Heb. idea of the moon as ' the lesser light to rule the night,' finds its echo in the Bab.
account of the creation of the heavenly bodies (translated at>ove), in which she is described as the ruler of the night, the indicator of the beginning of the month, and apparently (by her changes) the divider of the month into weeks. It is not unlikely that the Hebrews learned these a.stronomical uses of our satellite from the Baby- lonians, probably at some early |ieriod, and also during the Captivity, by which time Bah. • A very poeticAl h.\Tnn to the aun-^od, from Bornippa.
deacrilwa him when (roinf; to real, and speaka of the (rreetinjrn of t)ie holta and the eatisfaotion of the door of heaven on hia arrival at ' he end of hia daily journev. 194 ASTRONOxMY AND ASTKOLOGY ATAEGATIS astronomy liad made ereat progress. Eclipses of the moon seem not to Le referred to in the Bible.
In all probability most of the nations of the ancient East had, like the Babylonians and Assyrians, professional astrologers, by whom the stars were consulted, horoscopes drawn, and lucky days predicted, for such as wished to know what the future had in store for them, so that they might ' know the ordinances of heaven,' and their ' dominion in the earth ' (Job 38^).
The Hebrews, however, seem to have been less of astrologers than the nations around, for the prophet Jeremiah (lO*) exhorts them not to learn tlie way of the nations, and not to be dismayed at the signs of heaven, for the nations were dismayed at them, implying that the Hebrews, at least at that time, did not imitate 'the nations' in the matter of astrology to any great extent, though there was, in truth, a tendency to do so.
The antiquity and reality of the belief in the influences of the stars in the ancient East is well brought home to us in Deborah's triumphal song, where she says ' the stars in their courses fought against Sisera ' ( Jg 5-"), which, though only a poetKal figure, is sutticiently characteristic. Older, however, than the above, are the many tablets of the Babylonians and Assyrians referring to forecasts.
Through a long series of years, prob- ably extending into four millenniums, these nations seem to have carried on observations, which they quoted, with the omens derived from current events, for future reference. Again and again, moreover, we meet with communications which passed between the Assyr. kings and the astrologers, in which the former inquired what the stars Indi- cated with regard to Assyria and the nations around.
Thus we meet with such predictions as, ' If, upon the 16th day (of the month Ah), an eclipse happen, the king of Akkad will die, Nergal (i.e. pestilence) will destroy the land.' ' If, on the 16th day (of the month Elul), an eclipse happen, the king of a foreign land or the king of y atte will come and take the throne. Rain from heaven and flood from the channel will overflow.'
The planets and the sun and moon also furnished omens of a similar nature, for it was supposed that what had happened before would, under similar astral influences, happen again. When, accordingly, the Hebrews came into close contact and relationship with the Assyrians and Babj'lonians, they found them to be nations among whom astrology, far from being forbidden and in disfavour, was a recognised institution, resorted to by all, from the king downwards — a venerable ' science.' The de.'
iire to know the future was, no doubt, as strong in the breasts of the Hebrews as in those of their conquerors, and they must often have resorteil to those ' astrologers,' ' stargazers,' and 'monthly prognosticators ' (Is 47") of whom the prophet speaks so contemptuously. The astrologers are called 0:57 'tzn (^ere), generally rendered ' dividers of the heavens ' ; the stargazers □•5?il3 O'lnri, lit. ' tho.
se who gaze on the stars ' ; the monthly prognosticators d'i"iid °'''7~5'> AVm ' that give knowledge concerning the months ' — probably those who predicted at every new moon wliat was likely to happen during the coming month. In Dn 1" 2^ etc., the KV has riglitly 'encliaiitcrs' for the 'astrologers' (D'pys) of the AV, and the same remark holds good for the Aramaic form pCyX in v." etc.
These biblical expressions for the varionn kinds of astrologers, it must be noted, are, to all appearance, true Hebrew words, not borrowings from the Assyrians and Babj-lonians, showing, in all i>ro- babilily, that celestial forecasts were far from being altogether novelties with the Hebrews. Nevertheless, as has been already rcm.
arkcd, they Beem to have been generally averse to divination of this kind, partly on account of the general pro- hibition against the use of divination and the practice of augury (Dt IS'""", 2 K 21"), partly because such of the people as were rigid monotheists (and among these we must class all UT writers) looked upon the heavenly bodies as the objects of adoration by the heathen nations around, and mentioned them therefore but seldom — partly because they had but little need to speak of them, but also because they wished to avoid reference to those things likely to call up in the mind of the reader heathen practices.
T. G. Pinches. ASTTAGES {'AarviiyTji, so Herodotus, Xenophon; Assyr. Istuvigu) was tlie son of Cyaxares, king of the Medes, and succeeded to the throne on the death of his father, B.C. 584. His wife was the daughter of Alyattes, king of Lydia, his sister was the queen of Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, and Cyrus was his daughter's son by a Persian father. According to Bel and the Dragon (v.'), when A. was gathered to his fathers, ' Cyrus of Persia re- ceived his kingdom.'
Not, however, in the way of ordinary succession. Herodotus (i. 127-130), con- firmed by l\\e Annalistic Tablet of Cyrus (RP 2nd Ser. v. 159) records that when A. marched against the disaffected Persians under Cyrus, his own troops deserted him or would not fight, and he was de- feated and taken prisoner, thus losing his crown in B.C. 549, after a reign of 35 years.
He was the last of the line of Median kin^s (known on the monuments as kings of the Manda), who had reigned 150 years — the list bein^ as follows : — Deioces (Daiukku), B.C. 699-646 ; Phraortes (Fra- vartis), B.C. 646-624; Cyaxares (Kastariti), B.C. 624-584 ; Astyages (Istuvigu), B.C. 584-549. LiTKRATTTRK. —HerorfodM, 1. 123-130 ; RP T. 144 £t. (cf. vol. iii p. xiii ff.) : story of the Nations, Media, cha. viii., be. ; Sayce, HCM p. 499 £f. ; Tiele, Bab.-Aaiyr. GetchichU, pp. 463, 46S. T.
NiCOL. ASUR ("Affoup, AV Assur), 1 Es 5'*.— His sons returned among the temple servants under Zerub- babel. Called Harhur [mny:, 'Apovp), Ezr 2", Neh 7^.