MlilE ::i ■W;' IE!: :'ll llËltf. mm" i. ' i 11; ■fc = , R*. - b'- : TREE AND BIRD AS COSMOLOGICAL SYMBOLS i j IN WESTERN ASIA s; ■■ •: BY A. J. WENSINCK • roSEtiBi-: Küfo. - ::: ?-s::: R .1: VERHANDELINGEN DER KONINKLIJKE AKADEMIE VAN WETENSCHAPPEN TE AMSTERDAM AFDEELING LETTERKUNDE »••• I .1' ■ „ _ _ N, Reeks . ' SS-ilSE Deel XXII Wo i • • ;•;••• ••• m BI.;. , • • i 1 tóffl::;»;::::::!!:::::::-"-SthisSsffiftSwSSS : . . JOHANNES MÜLLER — AMSTERDAM — 1921 i «■ W iÉSi-Hii i SS k;:::2 "»ö:SK; i ifjv:: •- ; ».i ;;;••■ • • ::: *"• ü : 2?r. £* 2^ TREE AND BIRD AS COSMOLOGICAL SYMBOLS IN WESTERN ASIA BY A. J. WENSINCK VERHANDELINGEN DER KONINKLIJKE AKADEMIE VAN WETENSCHAPPEN TE AMSTERDAM AFDEELING LETTERKUNDE JOHANNES MÜLLER — AMSTERDAM — 1921 Printcd by E. J. Bkii.l, Leiden With a register comprising also "The Navel of the Earth" and "The Ocean" TREE AND BIRD AS COSMOLOGICAL SYMBOLS IN WESTERN ASIA PREFACE This third and last paper on the outlines of the cosmology of some peoples of Western Asia, begs to be considered in close connection with its two predecessors. I here is, however, a difference in so far as this time research had to cover a wider field. The seal cylinders offered so manifest illustrations of the texts, that they could not be left alone. I am sorry to say that O. Webers Altorientalische Siegelbilder came only into my hands when nearly one half of this paper had been printed. I have to thank Mr. W. Rollo M. A. for his revision of the English style. Complying with Professor Gressmann's wish I have added a register on the three parts of the work. Leiden, December 1920 CONTENTS Preface Contents References List of illustrations Chapter I. Tree and Sun A. The tree in the ends of the earth B. The tree in the centre C. The tree in heavenly paradise D. The tree in Heil Chapter II. Bird and Sun . . . Register comprising also the "Navel of the Earth" and the "Ocean" Page V VII IX XI I I 25 29 34 36 49 REFERENCES L'Abrégé des merveilles traduit de 1'Arabe par Carra de Vaux (Paris 1898). Abu Zaid, Kitab al-Bad wa 1-Ta rïkh, ed. et trad. par Huart (Publications de 1'école des langues orientales vivantes, série IV, tome XVI—XVIII, XXI). Der Kampf Adams, ed. E. Trumpp (Abh. d. philosophischphilologischen Cl. d. Bayr. Akad., vol. XV). Bereshit Rabba (Amsterdam 1641—42). Bochart, Hierozoicon (Leiden-Utrecht 1692). Bodenschatz, Kirchliche Verfassung (Erlangen 1748). Book of the Bee, ed. Wallis Budge (Anecdota Oxoniensia, Semitic Series, vol. I, part 2). Bottari, Sculture e pitture sagre (Rome 1737—54). Callisthenes (Pseudo-), The History of Alexander the Great being the Syriac version of the —, ed. and transl. by Wallis Budge (Cambridge 1899). Di Cesnola, Cyprus (London 1877). Collection de Clercq, Catalogue méthodique (Paris 1888—1903). Cumont, 1 extes et monuments figurés relatifs aux mystères de Mithra (Bruxelles 1896). Dalman, Petra und seine Felsheiligtümer (Leipzig 1908). Damlrï, Hayat al-Hayawan (Kairo 1274). Fundgruben des Orients, ed. v. Hammer. Gunkel, Schöpfung und Chaos (Göttingen 1895). Heuzey, Les origines orientales de 1'art (Paris 1891—2). Ibn Hisham, ed. Wüstenfeldt (Göttingen 1858—60). Ibn al-Wardï, ed. Tornberg (Upsala 1835—39). Jellinek, Bet ha-Midrasch (Leipzig 1853—73). Jensen, Die Kosmologie der Babylonier (Strassburg 1890). Johannes Damascenus, ed. Migne (Patrologia graeca vol. 94). De Lagarde, Materialien zur Kritik und Geschichte des Pentateuchs (Leipzig 1867). Lajard, Introduction a 1 etude du culte public et des mystères de Mithra en Oriënt et en Occident (Paris 1847). Layard, The Monuments of Ninive (London 1849—53). Life and Exploits of Alexander the Great being a series of Aethiopic Texts, ed. Wallis Budge (London 1896). Masudï, Murüdj al-Dhahab, ed. et trad. Barbier de Meynard et Pavet de Courteille (Paris 1861—77). De Morgan, Mémoires de la délégation en Perse (Paris 1909—12). Mudjïr al-Dïn al-Hanbalï, al-Uns al-djalïl (Kairo 1283). J. L. Palache, Het heiligdom in de voorstelling der semietische volken (Leiden 1920). Place, Ninive et 1'Assyrie (Paris 1867—70). Prinz, Altorientalische Symbolik (Berlin 1915). Roscher, Omphalos (Abh. d. phil.-hist. kl. d. Sachs. Gesellsch. d. Wiss. vol. XXIX). Roscher, Neue Omphalosstudien (ib., vol. XXXI). De Sarzec, Découvertes en Chaldée (Paris 1884—1912). Suyütl, al-La'all (Kairo 1317). Tabarï, Tafslr al-Kor'an (Kairo 1901—03). Tha'labï, Kisas al-Anbiya' (Kairo 1290). Tirmidhl, Sahïh (Kairo 1292). d'Arcy Wentworth Thompson, Glossary of Greek birds (Oxford I895)- Ungnad und Gressmann, Das Gilgamesch-Epos (Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des Alten u. Neuen Testaments, ed. Bousset und Gunkel, vol. XIV). Wayyikra Rabba (Amsterdam 1641—42). Ward, The seal cylinders of Western Asia (Publications of the Carnegie Institution, N° 100). Windischmann, Zoroastrische Studiën (Berlin 1863). Wolff, Muhammedanische Eschatologie (Leipzig 1872). Yalkut Shim'onï (Venice 1556). Zohar (Mantua 1558—60). LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Fig. i, p. 7. Lajard, Introduction pl. XXX n° 7. „ 2, „ 8. Ward, Seal Cylinders p. 328 n° 1052. » 3> » 8. ,, „ „ p. 321 n° io23- „ 4, „ 8. „ „ „ p. 96 n° 270". » 5> » 8- » » » P- 97 n° 273. » 6, » 9* » » » P* 9° n° 2S5* „ 7, „ 9. Lajard, Introduction pl. XVIII n° 2. „ 8, „ 10. Di Cesnola, Cyprus pl. XXXVII n° 10. „ 9, „ 10: Collection de Clercq vol. VII pl. XVII n° 2575 „ 10, „ 11. Lajard, Introduction pl. XIII n° 2. „ 11, „ 12. Sphinx, vol. X p. 104. „ 12, „ 13. Ward, Seal Cylinders p. 26 n° 46. „ 13, „ 13. Roscher, Neue Omphalosstudien Tafel III n° 3. „ 14, „ 14. Dalman, Petra I p. 177. „ 15, „ 14. Place, Ninive pl. 76 g. „ 16, „ 15. Collection de Clercq vol. I pl. XXXI n° 340. » 17, » 15- Ward, Seal Cylinders p. 373. „ 18, „ 15. Prinz, Altorientalische Symbolik, Tafel X n° 9. „ 19, „ 16. Ward, Seal Cylinders p. 224 n° 679. „ 20, „ 16. „ „ „ p. 342 n° 1155. » 21, „ 17. „ „ „ p. 221 n° 670. „ 22, „ 22. Renan, Mission de Phénicie p. 671. „ 23, „ 23. Journal of Hellenic Studies 190 r p. 160. „ 24, „ 24. Collection de Clercq vol. I pl. V n° 46. „ 25, „ 25. „ „ „ vol. I pl. V n° 47. „ 26, „ 25. Heuzey, Les origines orientales de 1'art p. 133. „ 27, „ 41. Bottari, Sculture I, tav. 22. „ 28, „ 42. Renan, Mission de Phénicie, pl. IX. „ 29, „ 43. Collection de Clercq vol. I pl. XXVIII n° 289. » 3°> » 43- .. » vol. I pl. XXVIII n° 292. » 3T> » 43- De Morgan, Délégation en Perse t. XII n° 284. „ 32, „ 43- Di Cesnola, Cyprus pl. XXXIII n° 28. » 33) » 44- Lajard, Introduction pl. XVIII n° 7. » 34> » 44* » » pl- XXXVI n° 11. » 35. » 44- Ward, p. 219 n° 663. „ 36, „ 44. Prinz, Altorientalische Symbolik, Tafel X n° 7. CHAPTER I TREE AND SUN A. THE TREE IN THE ENDS OF THE EARTH Gilgamesh, bevvildered by the deatli of his friend Engidu and fearing the same fate for himself, resolves to visit his ancestor Ut-napishtim who possesses eternal life. It may be considered as certain that he travels to the West and finally reaches the Mashu-mountains, where the sun 'goes out and in', the Western end of the earth. It is not certain which mountains bore the name of Mashu in Babylonian nomenclature. Syriac literature on the travels of Alexander mentions in the corresponding connection Masls and Müsas, the former one of the Armenian mountains, the latter probably situated to the North of Nisibis, the mons Masius of the Romans. If Mashu is to be identified with either of these, ït seems to me more probable to think of the Mesopotamian mountain than of the Armenian one. Anyhow, it is of importance to remark how a mountain, relatively near to the birthplace of the epos, is considered as the border of the earth, a symptom of primitive geography which starts from autopsis beginnings and is nearly confmed within the natural borders of the different countries a). We shall have occasion to observe in the course of the present investigation, how this originally narrow horizon is widened gradually and how the different phases of this progress have been embodied in literature. Mount Mashu is split asunder, it forms a gate (Epos IX 41). That the Western point of the earth is marked by a gate, is a representation which has its parallels in later literature. Zecharja sees in a vision how four chariots,. each drawn by two horses, and representing the four winds, appear between two mountains: 'and the mountains were brazen mountains' 3). 1) Cf. Snouck Hurgronje in Verhand, d. Gesellsch. f. Erdkunde zu Berlin, XIV, p. 138 note. 2) Zecharja 6, I. Verh. Afd. Letterk, 1921 (Wensinck). x There is reason to believe that by these mountains the gate in the East is meant, for the horses 'go forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth' (vs 5). Jahwe is thought to be present especially in the Eastern sky 1). — The gate in the North of the earth is described in the Romance of Alexander and known as the gate in the wall of Goe and O o Magog, the peoples of the North. The two mountains forming the gate are called the Breasts of the North. The chains of mountains are said to surround the earth ~). They are known in Arabic cosmology as the mountain Kaf. Evidently the sun is represented to go the way beyond the mountains — Northside — during the night and to coine within the range through the Eastern gate in the morning. It is not easy to say what is the relation between these mountains and the wall of heaven (shupuk shamë) that is mentioned in the epos (IX 39); perhaps the two are identical3). So there is evidence for the conclusion that the Eastern, Western and Northern ends of the earth are marked by gates. The Westérn one is guarded by two human beings — man and woman — who partly belong to this world, partly to the nether world and are called scorpion-men. 'They guard the sun' (Epos IX 44) and are so terrible that their aspect causes death. Only the sun can pass between them. Gilgamesh passes too. He vanquishes their resistance. Why? Perhaps because 'two thirds of him are divine, one part human' (IX 51). It is however to be noticed that the way of Gilgamesh is the way of the sun (IX 129), he is under the special protection of Shamash 4), his mother is a priestess of Shamash: in short, he is a solar hero. It is worth while to remark this here already; we shall often have to discuss the idea of the victorious sun in the course of this monograph. Then Gilgamesh travels in order to find the place from where he may cross over to Ut-napishtim. Dark is the way through the mountains, but in the end he reaches light. It can scarcely be otherwise than that the poet means to say that Gilgamesh, after a travel through the Northern mountains, in the way of the sun, is reaching the Eastern end of the earth. 1) Ezekiel 43, 1 sq. Kampf Adams p. 25. 2) Syrisches Alexanderlied, lines 267 sqq.; 296. 3) Cf. however Gressmann, Gilgameschepos, p. 160 note 6. 4) Fragment of Meissner, col. 1 (epos, p. 71). Only one point is obscure. He accomplishes his travel, not in twelve hours as is to be expected, but in twelve doublé hours. Alieady this number can only have been chosen in imitation of the number of hours required by the sun to circumambulate the universe. On the other hand, should twenty four hours really be meant, we would have to suppose that Gilgamesh after this interval reached the Western point anew. It is very improbable that the present author of the epos had any intention of saying this; he seems rather to suppose that Gilgamesh ïeaches the Eastern end of the earth. So the twenty four hours remain strange. 1 here, in the Eastern end of the earth, Gilgamesh sees a tree (IX 164 sqq.): Cornelian it bears as its fruit Bunches depend from it, beautiful to the eye; Lapislazuli it bears as its twigs (?) Fruit it bears desirable to sightJ). The rest of the description is very fragmentary. — Then Gilgamesh asks Siduri Sabitu whether it is possible to cross the ocean and to reach Ut-napishtim. Again he receives the answer. Impossible, only Shamash, the hero, can cross. And again, after many difficulties, Gilgamesh reaches his goal. But we have to return to the tree. It has a cosmological significance, for it stands at the Eastern end of the earth and marks the East^ The whole tree consists of precious stones, pink and blue, the colours of the sky and of the sun rising behind the morning clouds. It is placed on the shore of the ocean where the sun begins its course; so it is the tree of light. 1 erhaps the fragmentary description in the epos contained an enumeration of the kinds of its fruits. But whether this was the case or not, the tree is represented as the tree of life on account of its being the tree of light; for in the Oriental conception light and life are ideas which cannot be separated from each other. We cannot make out by means of the description which kinds of — conventionalized — fruits the tree bears. At any rate it is never called in the epos by a generic name. Perhaps it did not possess a distinct character in the epos, because it 1) Professor Thierry was so kind as to explain to me the Assyrian text, as also that on p. 4. had been already styled a tree of mixed character. We shall have to consider this point anew. Assyriac literature *) contains a second description of a mythical tree, that bears a close resemblance to the preceding one. 'In Eridu there grew a dark kishkanu, in a splendid place it grows. Its aspect is splendid lapis lazuli; it is directed towards the ocean. In Eridu is the walking-ground of Ea, full of opulence. His dwelling is in the place of the earth (or: the nether world). His abode is the bed of Ba'u, in a splendid house, like a forest. Its (the tree's) shade is prolonged. Into the*midst (of the walking-ground) no one enters; in the midst of it are Shamash and Tamuz, between the mouth of the two rivers.' — The mutual resemblance between the two descriptions is so strong, that they apparently refer to the same tree: it is a tree of light; it grows on the shore of the ocean; it consists of precious stone. But what is the meaning of the tree's being localized in Eridu? If it is really a tree with cosmologfical significance, Eridu must represent one of the quarters of the earth. Such a notion is not absurd in primitive geographical representations. We have seen that Mashu was once thought by the population of Mesopotamia to be the Western end of the earth. In the same way, perhaps to another people, Eridu may have formed one of the quarters of the earth, especially as it was situated in ancient times on the border of the Persian Gulf. Dhorme ~) has made it probable that kishkanu means 'tree of the gate of heaven', i. e. tree in the East; perhaps Eridu represented the East and so we may state that we have here a second indication of the narrowness of the primitive geographical horizon which scarcely surpassed the natural one. The same remark may perhaps be applied to the conceptions underlying the scenery of the Biblical paradise. It is a matter of controversy in Biblical exegesis whether the East in the narrative of the second chapter of Genesis represents the Eastern part of the earth or simply some region to the East of Palestine. On the one hand the narrative does not speak of the utmost East; but on the other hand later tradition takes the geographical designation in the absolute sense. It 1) Cuneiform Texts, Part XVI, Plate XLVI sq., line 184 sqq. 2) Revue Biblique, Nouvelle série, IV, 272. seems to me that the two notions, which to our conception are different, are identical in the primitive mind that is not aided by maps and globes, but filled with simple notions, which for this reason are very clear. Paradise in the East represents the Eastern quarter of the earth; for the only country which is really known to the narrator, is Palestine, £he centre of the world. The consequence of this is, that the trees mentioned in the Biblical narrative have the same cosmological meaning as those in Babylonian literature. They are the trees in the East and the East represents the utmost East. We should not however overlook the fact that in the narrative no cosmological meaning whatever is attributed to the trees. This is also due to the fact that attention is drawn in the first place to paradise: the accent which in the epos lies on the tree has been placed on the surroundings here; especially the tree of life has become a rudiment. This appears also from the fact that it is not said why this tree is the tree of life; nor is its generic name mentioned. Mention has already been made of the fact that later tradition places paradise and the tree of life in the utmost East. The Book of Henoch knows paradise in the Eastern end of the earth a). The Christian commentary in Arabic on the Pentateuch says that God planted paradise in the East because there is the light of God 2). In other traditions the connection between paradise and ocean is emphasised 3), and many times we find paradise not only connected with the ocean, but also situated on a high mountain or the highest mountain in the East4). These features found in Christian and Muslim literature do not add anything new to the characteristics contained in the description of the epos. There we found already the utmost East, the ocean and the mountains denoting the end of the earth. 1) Ch. 28 sqq. 2 Henoch 31, 2. 2) Ed. de Lagarde, p. 26®: qI *4^ ^ ) iwjLüsji O1 oy^y- cr» I Cf. also Ibn al-Wardï I 1*1. 3) Adambuch, p. 3. Cosmas Indicopleustes, in Patrologia Graeca, ed. Migne, vol. 88, col. 84. 4) Book of the Bee, p. .ZIA 5 Adambuch, p. 21, 25, 29. Johannes Damascenus in Patrologia Graeca, vol. 94, col. 913. Life ... of Alexander, p. 86. The elements just mentioned not only occur in literature, they occupy a prominent place on the monuments also: sun, tree, ocean, gate of heaven and mountains are found in combination there and here, and so we may consider the monuments in this case as illustrations of the texts. If cases like this were more numerous the interpretation of the monuments, especially of the seal cylinders, would not be of so problematic a nature as it actually is. Before discussing the seal cylinders relating to the present subject, it is necessary to make clear what significance these monuments have in general. The main fact seems to me this, that they do not contain subjects produced by the phantasy of the sculptor; there is scarcely an element of personal phantasy in them. The artists who made the numerous cylinders of the kind which will be discussed here, borrowed their data from widely spread cosmological conceptions. In other cases they sculptured scenes of religious life; or they chose the deeds of Gilgamesh and Engidu for their subject. In short, their work is not to be compared to a picture-gallery, but to that of the artist who e. g. paints a series of Passion-scenes for a church. The scenes are given by history and tradition, the persons are for the larger part given and their types are fixed by tradition. Just sq the types of Gilgamesh and Engidu had their fixed forms in Assyrian iconography and the scenes had their fixed forms in literature, tradition and sculpture. All these pictures are conventional. It is precisely this state of things — which made the interpretation of the artist's intention a matter of no difficulty ■— which gave rise to a process which brought about a very different result. Just because the cylinders were composed from elements fixed by tradition, these elements became beings of their own which, even when detached from their surroundings, were recognized and which might be used by themselves or in connection with others which originally had no relation with them. Here is the origin of the use of blazons etc., which are composed from elements which have nothing to do with each other and which are arranged not according to a historical or logical or symbolical principle, but in a way wholly arbitrary, perhaps only influenced by some aesthetic tendency. It can be easily understood that the interpretation of the former class of cylinders does not present particular difficulties if the conception or tradition which lies at their bottom, is known to us; but that an interpretation of the latter class, undertaken in the same way, would be as absurd as it would be to interpret blazons in the way of historical pictures. These principles would give us a clue to the interpretation — or non-interpretation — of the two classes of cylinders, if we always were sure to which of the two classes a given cylinder belongs. Here lies a great difficulty. The cylinders we have to consider in connection with the cosmological ideas and types mentioned above, generally belong to the former class; they speak a clear language, to some extent. We shall only draw attention to those elements which have a direct relation to our subject. The series of cylinders which are reproduced in the following figures represent the life of the new born sun. It rises from the ocean, lifted up by a being which in this work is assisted by a second. The sun has the form of the winged disc (fig. i). The question might Fig. i be put whether this scene is not a picture of the setting sun, for the sun sets in the ocean too. It seems to me more probable however that sunrise is meant, as this is a happy moment, whereas sunset is generally considered as an unlucky time. The question, however, remains unsettled. Figure 2 depicts sunrise. To the winged disc is added the image of the supreme god, Ashshur on the Assyrian, Ahuramazda on the Persian monuments. The sun is just over the tree, which in scientific terminology is usually called the tree of life, a name which is chiefly due to Biblical influence. I -must remark however that the tree in the first place is meant as the tree of light, and this should be its designation. The character of the tree is indicated in a plain way in figure 3, where it is united with the sun above it. In a different series of images the sun, again at the beginning of its course, has not the form of the winged disc, but is represented by Shamash on his throne. Behind him is the tree. That he is at the beginning of his course, appears from the fact that he holds in his hands the instrument which has been explained by H. Prinz1) —• apparently rightly — as the key of heaven (fig. 4). We have discussed above the cosmological idea of the gate of heaven. Fig. 4 Fig. 5 We find it on several seal cylinders, delineated in a way which even has some affinity with modern gateways. Usually the gate is held by a keeper. On figure 5 Shamash, again recognizable by the rays departing from his shoulders, is represented as sitting before the gate, holding in his hand the key of heaven. Behind him is the tree, again characterized by its surroundings as the tree in the East. Figure 6 is a good illustration of the fact that different symbols, all connected with the same cosmological idea, may be combined in one image. The Eastern point of the earth is represented, not only by the gate of heaven with its keepers, and by the tree, but j) Altorientalische Symbolik, p. 82. also by the two mountains which Shamash, at the beginning of his course, is ascending and which remind us of the mountains in the four quarters of the earth (above, p. 2). Finally the gate of heaven is represented in a remarkable way on figure 7. The gate itself is provided with the rays which usually are the characteristic I cannot identify, with the tree behind the person. But there is another feature which strikes the eye. The fiery gate of heaven is placed upon a lying buil. We have observed that the gate of heaven is sometimes realistically represented by the interrupted mountains in the four quarters of the earth. These mountains rest on the earth; so it is probable that the buil on which the gate rests, is a symbol of the earth. This surmise is confirmed by the fact that the buil as a symbol of the earth is well known in Eastern cosmology. The earth is represented by the buil, the ocean by the serpent; their mythical names are Behemot and Leviatan. They are in close connection with each other and hence in the Book of Job they occur together in a description 1). On the Fig. 6 of Shamash ; of course they denote the fiery East at sunrise. The gate is represented by one post only, kept by one guardian. On the other side there is a seated person, whom Fig. 7 1) On the earth as a buil cf. The Navel of the Earth, p. 56 sq.; the Ocean, p. 3 sq. Mithra monuments the cruelly assailed buil represents the earth and in the cosmogony of Parsism the earth is a buil. We find this representation already in the epos of Gilgamesh in the enigmatic episode of the buil defeated by the hero. It is true that it is called the heavenly buil here. But Jensen 2) has made it probable that some very fragmentary lines of the epos (VI, 103—114) when reconstructed, describe how the killing of the buil would cause the death of the vegetation of the earth. If this reconstruction is right, the heavenly buil is at the same time the buil of the earth. Is this so astonishing as it seeins to be? We must remember, that such twofold characters are not rare in cosmology. The gate in the West is the gate of heaven; but it is also the gate of the earth. The ocean is in heaven, round the earth, and in the nether world. But above all — Thaclabïs) says that the buil on which the earth rests, was sent by God from the highest paradise. In general the parts" of the cosmos lying at the ends of the earth belong to heaven as well as to earth and even to the nether world. So we find the symbol of the earth among the cosmological symbols in the East. There also we probably find other symbols of the earth. Di Cesnola in his work on Cyprus has a reproduction of a seal cylinder on which the winged disc appears above a conventionalised tree (fig. 8); the tree rests on the omphalos fianked by two serpents. The work betrays a strong Egyptian infiuence and it may be doubted whether the artist was doing anything else than paint heraldic emblems. But we know that the omphalos is the symbol of the earth and in this sense it is in tune with the representation as a whole. Fig. 9 is cognate to it. Here again the winged disc is above the omphalos fianked by two serpents. Above the omphalos is not the conventionalized tree, but a doublé image of the Egyptian sign of life. That the tree and the sign of life are interchangeable, proves that the meaning of the tree on these seal cvlinders, thoug-h even so conventionalized, was once understood. It is only with hesitation that I reproduce figure 10. The winged disc, Fig. 8 1) Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek VI, 173. 2) p. 4. which has become a divine symbol, is not as usually above the tree, but above a conic 'stone which has some affinity with the omphalos. Whether it was really meant as such I dare not decide. At any rate the omphalos occurs in connection with the tree and the winged disc. Hitherto we have found one tree in the East. Now we shall have to discuss the written and sculptured monuments which Fig. 10 show a different cosmological type. The Biblical narrative concerning paradise is acquainted not only with the tree of life but also with the tree of knowledge. Here we have a doublé cosmological mark in the East, a phenomenon which we already met with in the doublé mountains. In the case of the interrupted mountains, the doublé type is given in the order of things and so may be considered as a purely material phenomenon. The case of the trees is different, at any rate in the Bible where they represent opposite spiritual realities, on the one hand life, on the other hand knowledge involving death. Probably this antithesis embodied in the trees in the East, was also known apart from the Biblical conception. Professor Kristensen has pointed to the Egyptian parallels 1), P. Dhorme to the tree of life and the tree of truth in Sumerian literature3); and Henoch knows a tree of wisdom3). The Zohar mentions a tree of life and a tree of death and the latter is said to be connected with night 4). The character of 1) Een of twee boomen in het paradijsverhaal (Theol. Tijdschrift 1908, p. 215 sqq.). 2) Revue Biblique Nouvelle Série, IV, 271 sqq. 3) ch- 32i 3 sqi- 4) UI fol. H9a, 120b, the two trees is not enigmatic. The antithesis between life and knowledge involving death is parallelled by the ideas of day and night in the Zohar1). We have pointed to the character of the single tree in the East as a tree of light and life at the same time. Here we have its opposite, and this opposite appears to be a tree of night and a tree of death. This means that cosmological facts are not considered in their natural sense alone, they do not stand apart, they are intimately connected with other domains, the domain of human life, and that of religious life: nature and human existence are in the closest contact. This is expressed in a beautiful way in the passage of the Zohar cited above. At the fall of night the tree of life is lifted up from the earth and its place is taken by the tree of death. During this time all mankind tastes death. It is therefore recommended to men to trust their souls to the tree of life at the fall of night2). Is there not in this passage, though relatively modern, a strong consanguinity with the ideas, which are already contained in the old literary and monumental remains of Western Asia? We do not always find, however, the two trees as representations of antithetical ideas, or, at any rate, it does not always appear that they were meant as such. A dim remembrance of the two cosmological trees is apparently to be found in one of the visions of Zecharja. 'Behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof. And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof' 3). This vision has been examined by Gunkel4), who arrivés at the conclusion that the bowl and the seven lamps are a symbolical representation of the sun and the seven planets. Gunkel has not asked what the olive trees, one at every side of the candlestick, may mean as representations of a cosmological idea. We can hardly avoid thinking of the two trees at the end of the earth which are sometimes conceived i) Cf. Kristensen 1. c. p. 226 sqq. 3) Zecharja 4, 2 sq. 2) III, fol. H9a. 4) Schöpfung p. 124 sqq. of as olive trees, and the sun rising betw< figure 11, a striking illustration of Zecha corroboration of the opinion that Zecharja, does not describe a purely fantastic vision, borrowed from a well known representation ration of this opinion lies in the fact that the vision of the four chariots coming between the four gates of heaven is not a purely personal invention either; it also starts from a common cosmological idea. In other cases it is not the rising sun which is represented between the two trees, but the omphalos (fig. 13; cf. 14)- The last examples discussed contain a combination of three cosmological types, grouped together in such a way that one symbol is flanked by two symmetrically identical types. In other cases there are fou the scheme of one central image flanked 1 or nearly symmetrical ones has remained. one of the most popular decorative types ;en them. Look at rja's vision, and a as a matter of fact, but gives an image . Another corrobo- F'g- !3 so it is only natural that their main part belongs to the conventional or heraldic class. One central type flanked by two symmetrical ones is a decorative design in itself, but it has r types, but usually by two symmetrical They have become ; in Western Asia ; to be asked whether this design was also of a purely decorative nature originally. Literature also knows this type and it will be useful to consult it first, because here rather than in plastic art we may expect to find an explanation. The Bible relates that Jahwe is afraid lest man, having eaten of the tree ofknowledge should put forth his hand and eat of the tree of life also and so acquire the second divine attribute, that of eternal life, which, added to the gift of knowledge, would make him godlike. It is for this reason that the way to paradise and especially to the tree of life has to be shut off. Therefore He placed at the East of the garden the cherubim with the reverse flaming sword to keep the way of the tree of life. It must be conceded that here the tree is not between the cherubs. But the close connection between the tree and the cherubs cannot be denied. The connecting bond between them is the cherubim's function of guardianship. The Bible says expressly that the cherubim were placed at the Eastern end of paradise. They belong to the East. We find their counterpart in the West. In the Epos it is the Western gate of heaven which is kept by the scorpion-men who guard the going in and out of the sun and who bring death to every one who attempts to pass. We remember that the cherubim are mixed beings; so are the scorpion-men : the parellelism between the Eastern and the Western end of the earth is very close indeed : at both there are two letiferous beings who act as guardians. Fig. 15 shows two of these mixed beings, lifting up the sun above a central image representing a being which has the form of an omphalos and the conventionalized twigs or fruits of a tree, a new illustration of the identity — to a certain extent — of tree and omphalos, in so far as the former represents the Eastern part of the earth, the latter the earth as a whole. The beings are partly human, partly animal; Fig. 15 perhaps they could be called scorpion-men; but the imao-e does not give sharply defined details. They are connected with the sun which they assist in rising. The beings seem to guard the sun in the first place, not the tree, whereas in the Biblical narrative this order is reversed. We find here anew the ideas of light and of life; the seal-cylinder has the accent on the idea of light, the narrative on the idea of life. But as the two aie really identical, there is no question of an antithesis. Fig. 16 represents the same scene. But here the central symbol is certainly not the omphalos, but the conventionalized tree. This class of images shows many varieties. The sun is Fig. 17 sometimes represented by Shamash; fig. i7 shows Shamash beginning his daily course. The same scene s repres^ted on lig. 18 where the gate of heaven is indicated by two hio-h * ö Fig. 18 posts on each of which a lion is resting. It is clear that the image as a whole represents nearly the same scene as the prece ing ones: the rising sun, flanked by two guardians. The value which the oriënt attached to this scene of the rising sun becomes manifest in the variety of images representing this scene. One thing is to be remarked here. The great changes which take place daily in nature excite in us at most a feeltng of admiration whereas in the eyes of primitive peoples they were looked on as dramas which from day to day gave rise to a curious interest. The acting forces are no dead instruments of nature. They are living persons acting according to their mood. And every sunrise is a triumph of the great victor, who defeats the opposing power of the ocean, and clears his way to heaven. In connection with this conception we have to ask whether the usual image of the sun with its two attendants has always a peaceful character. Very early already, in the monuments of Telloh, the two lions, in the grasp of a third beinp- — the bird — are illustrations of the idea of victory, b , the submitted lions being conceived of as the vanquished enemies or the vanquished parts of the earth a). And even in the middle ages the sun, taking hold of two lions, is an idea of victory. In the Fundgruben des Orients2) there is a reproduction of a page from an illuminated manuscript of Kazwïnï, showing the sun as victor over two lions. We must leave aside the great mass of monuments showing the group of three types, and be content with the few. specimens given above. There is only to be remarked, that the cosmological scene in some cases seems to have been turned into a ritual one, which perhaps could be styled cosmologico-ritual. Figures 19, 20, 21 may be reckoned of West-Asiatic religions. If there exists a very popular worship of the sun, it is only natural that in the ritual of this worship the great events in the life of the sun — sunrise and sunset should be reflected. as a pictorial illustration of the connection between these two domains. This connection is a priori evident to the student Fig. 19 Fig. 20 1) Cf. beneath, p. 47. 2) I, p. 6; cf. explanation, p. 8. The great majority of the examples hitherto discussed deal with the tree in the East, though it is not always clear which region of the earth the tree is connected with. We shall now have to discuss the tree in the other quarters. In the first place the West. Where is the utmost West? We have dealt with this question and seen that in an early historical period to a certain people the Mashu mountains formed the Western border of the earth. In a later period of history the Strait of Gibraltar is the utmost West, as has been shown by examples from literatureJ). That the geographical horizon was extended from Mashu directly to Gibraltar, is scarcely to be expected. Moreover we know that once to the Assyrians the West was represented by Palestine and Syria. At this time the Mediterranean must have been conceived of as the Western border of the earth. This idea we find reflected in a description of Tyre in Nonnus' Dionysiaca3). In Tyre there is in the ocean a doublé rock, called the ambrosiac one. In its centre ([isaófxcpalov) is an olive, which automatically emits fire, setting it in a perpetual blaze s). It can hardly be doubted that here we have the Western partner of the tree described in the epos. Stark4), in a discussion of the significance of the olive, arrivés at the conclusion that it is a symbol of light, a corroboration of the views expounded in this monograph; a corroboration which is the more striking because Stark in his time was not acquainted with the cosmological views of Western Asia. The tree in the West as a tree of light seems to be con- 1) The Ocean, p. 26 sqq. 2) Book XL, vs. 467 sqq. 3) Cf. Roscher, Neue Omphalosstudien, p. 71. 4) Belichte über die Verhandlungen der Sachsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, Vol. VIII. Verh. Afd. Letterk. 1921 (Wensinck), a nected with sunset, as the tree in the East is connected with sunrise. The tree in the West is also a symbol of light. Is it also a symbol of life? It can hardly be denied. The rock, in which it grows, is called ambrosiac. Oil, in the Eastern conception, has special vital powers and the tree of paradise is sometimes conceived of as an olive-tree. But the West is neither the region of light nor that of life. How can these antithetical ideas be united in one medium? There are two possibilities, which do not form an alternative, but can have worked together. In the first place, the fact that cosmological conceptions are liable to be conventionalized, to become heraldic and symmetrical must not be lost be sight of. The attribution of four quarters to the world favoured this tendency: what belongs to one, must also belong to the other. Here is a mental process which has no longer anything to do with primitive cosmology as a synthesis of geographical and religious ideas and based upon direct observation. Should the tree in the West be the outcome of such a mental activity, then it is of a secondary nature in comparison with the tree in the East. In the second place it must be acknowledged that in the Oriental cosmological conception of East and West, apparently apart from the symmetricizing tendency, there appears often a vague uniformity which justifies the question: Did not extreme East and extreme West coincide according to the old oriental conception? We observed this uniformity already in the epos. From the Western point of the earth Gilgamesh undertakes his travel of twelve doublé hours. Then he apparently reaches the Eastern point and there he crosses over to Utnapishtim. Where does the latter dweil? Again: in the utmost point of the earth at the mouth of the streams (XI 204). No one can say whether this is the Eastern or the Western point and no one knows what the mouth of the streams means. Eridu perhaps? (Cf. above p. 4). Probably the expression was still living in the Oriënt at the time of Mohammed who in the eighteenth süra (vs. 59) where he tells the adventures of Alexander and Khadir uses the expression madjma' al-bahrain, the place where the two rivers or seas are united. The different interpretations of this expression are perhaps only due to the Muslims who simply looked where in the world two rivers or seas are united and so guessed that the isthmus of Suez or the Strait of Gibraltar might be meant. And so here is perhaps only a foi tuitous coincidence with two regions which in successive times were conceived of as the Western border of the earth. At any rate this uncertainty of interpretation could also be the inheritance of the predecessors of Muslim interpreters. For it appears also in the different ideas concerning the way of Alexandei. History knows of Alexander's journey to the far East and some redactions of the Romance follow the data of histoiy in this respect. But other redactions represent him as travelling to the far West in order to find the nether world or paradise. The explanation of these apparent contradictions may lie in the fact that extreme East and extreme West no longer belong to this earth in reality. They have given up their relations with this world, belong to the nether world or paradise and have so been bereft of geographical reality. But we have to return to Nonnus' description of the everburning olive at Tyre. We are acquainted with the fact that the extension of the geographical horizon can be followed in the cosmological literature. A striking illustration of this fact is found in a description occurring in Philostratus' Life of Apollonius 1). Here again is an olive, growing near the temple of Herakles at Gades. It is of gold and its fruits of emerald. W hat does this mean ? That the signs characteristic of the extreme West3) have been removed from Tyre to Gades; the Western border of the earth is no longer the Mediterranean, but the Atlantic. It goes without saying that the olive at Gades is nothing but the tree at Tyre. Perhaps the former has preserved one antique feature which fails in Nonnus' description: its golden twigs and emerald fruits. For this reminds us of the tree in the epos which also consists of cornelian and lapis lazuli. And the tree in Eridu is likewise a tree of light and its fruits or twigs are of lapis lazuli. It cannot be denied that the descriptions in classical literature are the continuation of an old Oriental tradition. Can this also be said of the god who at Tyre as well as at Gades is closely connected with the tree, viz. Herakles? If the extreme Western point of the earth with all its connections was transferred from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, it is 0 v 5-^ '4 tvytixtimot; Se ia«/« sf zputrij xvxxsirxi i; to 'Hpxxteiov o&tct pw li( Qxtri kxi tov SaMoC Stxv^eiv
Dn "|VlD D^TI YV
rnnno y^ono mwra
4) fol. 7: Di-inn *72 iJD by "i^no OT
5) Cf. J. L. Palache, Het Heiligdom, p. 139 ff.
that the latter has been taken up into the same cosmological scheme as the former. This appears also from the fact, that the preexistence of the navel of the earth has been transferred to paradise. In the Apocalypse of Ezra x) it is said that paradise was planted by God before even the earth came forward; and paradise appears among the other preexistent entities in the usual enumerations2). That paradise in the centre of the earth was also a well known idea, appears from Origenes' commentary on Genesis 8).
Now this central tree, in the descriptions cittd above, is the tree of life: its food sustains all men and animals. But it is also the tree of light. It not only symbolizes the earth, but also the sun, exactly as appeared to be the case with the tree in the East which belongs sometimes to the earth, sometimes to the sun.
Remarkable in this respect is one of the most celebrated, though obscurest, verses from the Kor'an: God is the light of the heavens and the earth. His light is as a niche, in which is a lamp; the lamp is in a glass; the glass is as a shining star, receiving light from a blessed tree, an olive, neither Eastern nor Western, the oil of which would give light, although no fire touched it4).
It is as if Mohammed — in his usual jumping style — were reproducing a cosmological image which once had made a great impression upon his mind, Whether this was a picture or a seal cylinder or even a literary description we cannot say, but his description recalls the seal cylinders and also passages from Nonnus and Philostratus, such as those cited above. But we have to consider the single features of the tree. It is neither Eastern nor Western; this apparently means that it holds a central place; it is in this sense that the sentence is already interpreted in Arabic literature6). The same feature causes
1) IV Ezra III, 6. 2) cf. The Navel of the Earth, p. 17.
3) ed. Migne, Patrologia Graeca, vol. 12, col. 100: 'ESè/i xeei (partv aiiTOv néirov
etvzi rov xó