/L x UL-c*. -fc , -
THE OCEAN IN THE LITERATURE OF THE WESTERN SEMITES
BY
A. J. WENSINCK
Verhandelingen der Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen te Amsterdam AFDEELING LETTERKUNDE NIEUWE REEKS DEEL XIX. N°. 2
AMSTERDAM
JOHANNES MÜLLER 1918



Printed by E. J. BwiX, Leydkn.



THE OCEAN IN THE LITERATURE OF THE WESTERN SEMITES






PREFACE
It may seem rather arbitrary to write a monograph on the ideas of the Western Semites concerning the Ocean. For it is well known that the ideas of the Israelites for example on this point are closely akin to those of the Babylonians and that the theories found in Muslim authors show a great deal of affinity to those of the Greeks.
I have two arguments which may justify the geographical boundaries of the present study. In the first place it seemed superfluous to add to the materials united in the following pages those data from Greek and Babylonian literature that are known to be within the reach of every scholarly reader. Further these additions might give the impression that Greek and Babylonian cosmography were treated too. This would indeed be beyond my powers.
In the second place I must remark that a treatise on the ideas of the Greeks, the Western Semites and the Babylonians would not form an any less arbitrary selection from the cosmographic ideas of ancient peoples. For such a definition of the subject would have brought us face to face with several questions that are not yet sufficiently elucidated to be solved. I will mention only the following: what is the relation between the Babylonian and the Sumerian ideas on this and on other points? Is there any relation between Babylonia and Egypt concerning cosmographic views? Where did the Greeks get their cosmographic ideas?
My conclusion is that enlarging the subject WestWard and Eastward would hot meet the objections mentioned. So I am conscious of dealing arbitrarily, but at the same time convinced that this arbitrariness could scarcely be avoided.



vi
preface
The best method of research in subjects like the present seems to me that different groops of literature should be taken separately by different inquirers; a comparison of their results may procure us a wide view of the subject which might enable us to tracé the course such ideas have followed in antiquity and the Middle Ages.
A further point is to be observed. When a résumé of the present study was delivered as a lecture to a private circle, Professor Snouck HurGronje warned me,- that the ideas here called the ideas of the Western Semites cannot be appropriated to these peoples with certainty; they possibly belong to others and may have found a fortuitous unity in nearer Asia only. I. willingly acknowledge the justness of this remark. So the collection of materials given in the present study is only to be taken as such; it does not bear a conclusive character. I only hope, that it may be of use to others, Semitic and nonSèmitic scholars, who make investigations in cognate fields.
It is my agréeable duty to express my warmest thanks to Mrs. Kuenen-Wicksteed for her careful revision of the English text of this monograph.
Leiden, 1918.
A. J. Wensinck



CONTENTS
Page
Preface v
Contents vu
References ix
Chapter I. The ocean in the cosmogony i
Chapter II. The ocean in cosmography 15
A. The ocean under the earth 15
B. The ocean above the earth 19
C. The ocean round the earth . 21
Chapter III. The character of the ocean 40
A. The ocean as a negative power 40
B. The ocean as a positive power . . 56






REFERENCES
L'Abrégé des merveilles, trad. par Carra de Vaux (Paris 1898). Abu '1-Fida', ed. Reinaud et de Slane (Paris 1840); trad. par
Reinaud et Guyard (Paris 1848 and 1883). Abü Zaid Ahmed ibn Sahl al-Balkhï, Kitab al-Bad' wa '1-Ta'rïkh,
éd. et trad. par C. Huart in Publications de 1'école des
langues orientales vivantes, série IV, t. XVI—XVIII, XXI
(Paris 1899—IQ°4)Afrahat, ed. et vertit Parisot in Patrologia Syriaca ed. Graffin,
vol. I, II (Paris 1895). Alexanderlied herausg. und übers. von Hunnius in ZDMG,
1906, p. 169 sqq. d'Avezac, Les iles fantastiques de 1'Océan occidental au moyen-
age (Paris 1845). Azrakï, ed. Wüstenfeld in Die Chroniken der Stadt Mekka,
vol. I (Leipzig 1858). Bakri, ed. Wüstenfeld (Göttingen and Paris'1876—77), 2 vols. Bar Hebraeus, Ethicon, ed. Bedjan (Paris 1898). Bereshit Rabba (Amsterdam 1641—42).
Bibliotheca Geographorum Arabicorum, ed. De Goeje (Leiden
1870—1906), 9 vols. (= B.G.). Pseudo-Callisthenes, ed. Car. Muller in Arriani Anabasis et
Indica (Paris 1846). Canaan, Volksmedizin im Lande der Bibel. The Cave of Treasures = Die Schatzhöhle, herausg. und übers.
von Bezold (Leipzig 1883—88), 2 vols. A Syriac Cosmological tract, ed. Furlani, JRA^, 1917, p.
245 sqq.



X
REFERENCES
Dimashkï, ed. Mehren (Petersburg 1866).
Diyarbekrl, Ta'rïkh al-Khamïs (Kairo 1283), 2 vols.
Si Ephraim Syri Opera edd. Benedictus et Assemani (Rome
1732—46), 6 vols. I. Friedlander, Die Chadhirlegende und der Alexanderroman
(Leipzig and Berlin 1913). H. Gunkel, Schöpfung und Chaos (Göttingen 1895). Halabï, Sïra (Kairo 1292), 3 vols.
The History of Alexander the Great, being the Syriac version
of Pseudo-Callisthenes (Cambridge 1889). Ibn al-Athïr, Kamil, ed. Tornberg (Leiden 1867—76). Ibn al-Wardl, Fragmentum libri Margarita mirabilium, ed.
Tornberg .(Upsala 1835—39), 2 vols. Idrïsï, éd. et trad. par Dozy et de Goeje (Leiden 1866). Isaac of Ninive, De perfectione religiosa, ed. Bedjan (Paris 1909). Das Johannesbuch der Mandaer, herausg. und übersetzt von
Lidzbarski (Giessen 1905—15), 2 vols. Kazwlnï (I), 'Adja'ib al-makhlüfcat, ed. Wüstenfeld (Göttingen
1849).
Kazwïnï (II), Athar al-bilad, ed. Wüstenfeld (Göttingen 1848).
Kisa'ï, 'Adja'ib al-malaküt, Leiden Ms., Warner 538.
Kutb al-Dïn, ed. Wüstenfeld in Die Chroniken der Stadt Mekka,
vol. III (Leipzig 1857). De Lagarde, Materialien zur Kritik und Geschichte des Pen-
tateuchs (Leipzig 1867), 2 vols. The Life and Exploits of Alexander the Great beihg a series
of Ethiopic texts, ed. Budge (London 1896), 2 vols. Le Livre des merveilles de 1'Inde, éd. et trad. par v. d. Lith
(Leiden 1883).
Marasid al-ittila', ed. T. G. J. Juynboll, (Leiden 1850—64), 6 vols.
Mas'üdï, Les prairies d'or, éd. et trad. par Barbier de Meynard
et Pavét de Courteille (Paris 1861—77), 9 vols. Midrash Kohelet, ed. of Lemberg (1861), 5 vols.



REFERENCES
XI
Midrash Shoher Tob, ed. of Warsow (1875). Midrash Tanhuma (Stettin 1860).
Mudjïr al-Dln al-Hanball, Kitab al-Uns al-djalïl (Kairo 1283), 2 vols.
Nuwairï, Nihayat al-Arab, Leiden Ms. 2a.
The Odes and Psalms of Solomon, ed. and transl. by Rendel
Harris, 2nd ed. (Cambridge 1911). Tabarï, Annales, cum aliis ed. De Goeje (Leiden 1879—1901). Tabarï, Tafsïr (Kairo 1901—03). Tha'labï, Kisas al-AnbiyS' (Kairo 1290).
Wünsche, Die Sagen vom Lebensbaum und Lebenswasser (Leipzig 1905).
Yaküt, Mu'djam, ed. Wüstenfeld (Leipzig 1866—73), 6 vols.






CHAPTER I
THE OCEAN IN THE COSMOGONY
It is not only remote Semitic antiquity that has produced cosmogonic stories; even in so late a time as the Christian aera we observe how popular phantasy, though checked by sacred books and their official interpreters and guardians, worked upon a subject which of old fascinated human imagination. This phantasy, 4»owever, takes a different direction; monotheism put an end to the strife between different gods and nature became an instrument at the service of the one God. Of course this change did not take place at one period; the Mandaeans for example were at liberty to work out or to gather products of a polytheistic scheme, at a time when Jews and Christians remembered their polytheistic Past only very dimly, if they did at all. It is even true that the biblical story of the creation, as it is written in the book of Genesis, contains only very few features recaljing its mythologie pattern. Later biblical literature on the other hand contains allusions of a much more definite kind. It is Gunkel's merit to have carefully collected and explained in his Schöpfung und Chaos these scattered sayings and to have shown that they are fragments from cósmological tales differing from those which have come down to us.
Comparing the nature of the ocean as it is described in mythological and semi-mythological passages, with its character in those literary products which might be styled monotheistic, a point of difference is to be noted at once: in the former class of passages the ocean bears the character of a being hostile to the creating god; in the latter class it has become the one god's instrument, or his resting-place.
The literature of the Western Semites furnishes us with a great many examples illustrating this statement.'We can only give a few out of many. We will begin with the former class.
Verhand. Kon. Alcad. v. Wetensch. Nieuwe Reeks Dl. XIX N°. 2. t



2
THE OCEAN IN THE COSMOGONY
We have in the first place to call attention to the description given in Psalm 104.
Vs. 5 sqq.: He founded the earth upon its pillars, that it should not totter for ever. The ocean covered it as a garment: the waters stood above the mountains. At thy rebuke they fled; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away (mountains rise and valleys sink) to the place which thou hast founded for them. Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth
This is a sort of story of the creation, dealing with a subject different from that in Genesis 1. The earth, in the beginning, is covered by the waters; the creation of the earth into a cosmos consists really in God's rebuking away the water, the chaotic element. The hostile character of the water, its fiendish nature, is accentuated by the addition: Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over.
Of course this story is not an individual creation of the poet: it need not surprise us to find it, in a more or less full form, in other books too. The author of Proverbs 8, vs. 29 is also acquainted with the old enmity between Jahwe and Tehom: When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment (Htt. mouth): when he appointed the foundations of the earth2).
Heré again Jahwe's commandment was necessary in order to check the conquering power of the ocean; the foundations of the earth, i. e. the mountains, are possibly meant as the means by which the waters are restrained.
Later tradition has not passed these stories in silence; they come to expression chiefly in the Midrashim. The Midrash Bereshit Rabba knows that the mountains are the fortresses which hold back Tehom3). And according to Midrash Tanhuma God has sealed up the ocean with the tora: With the tora he sealed the ocean that it should not inundate the world with it he sealed Tehom that it should not submerge the world*).
j) (so in stead of irpDD) nnD3 vrcbj mnn ijn cb\y taian ^3 tptijd by p» id^ rnypn itp d"nn )by picrn "pjh bip p iidi:p •yrsQ P co "noy d"nn by pan niD3^ inw bi bi now bm unb mo1 nt Dipo bx
2) pa iiDio "ipirü vd ray xb d^i ipn ïeieo
3) ui -p abiyp. nx tysn nby xbw a\nrb d^sdj t>bn omn nn, par. xxxüi.
4) p. 12: Dinnri-nN ann rrt ■ ■ ■ nbwn ns* rpw) w> xbw ou^piK d"1 nnn ra\
rfnyn nx ry«p nbw



THE OCEAN IN THE COSMOGONY
3
Also Syriac literature proves to be acquainted with a picture likè that given in Psalm 104. According to Ephraim and Jacob of Edessa in the beginning the earth was covered by the waters like the embryo by the membranes. God rent this mass of water and by providing the earth with mountains and basins, he made places for it, which restrained it1). Another frequent comparison is that between the earth surrounded by the waters with the yolk of the egg as being surrounded by the glair; this comparison is found in Syriac as well as in Arabic literature.
The enmity between Jahwe and Tehom in Hebrew literature is expressed strikingly in the several representations of Tehom, viz. as Leviathan and as Rahab. Psalm 74, 13 sq.: Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength, thou brokest the heads of the dragons in the waters. Thou brokest the heads of Leviathan in pieces and gavest them to be meat to the people inhabiting the wildernesss). And Psalm 89, 10: Thou rulest the raging of the sea; when the waves thereof arise thou stillest them. Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces as one that is slain; thou hast scattered thine enemies with thy strong arm3).
Here Leviathan is called a dragon; Jesaja 27, 1 it is called a serpent (5STÜ). As Gunkel has treated all these features elaborately in their connection with Babylonian cosmogony and with biblical eschatology, we may refer for further details to his book mentioned above. We have only to remember that all these attributes are representative of Tehom as a power opposed to Jahwe.
Muslim cosmogony, which of course is wholly monotheistic, has yet retained some remarkable characteristics of Leviathan as a representation of the ocean. According to Tha'labï God created a fish (and this is the great sea-fish) named Leviathan, with the kunyït Balahüt and with the surname Bahamüt4). Leviathan and Behemoth are identified here and in other traditions where the latter also denotes the fish on which the buil, which supports the earth, is placed6). Remarkably enough,
1) See the text in the Navel of the Earth, p. 3, notes 2 and 3.
a) u:nn ]mb w nsn nm won by d^n "wjo praw itja rm© nnx
a^xb nyb boxo
3) "\ty jmn am bbra ruai nnx nravn nnx rb) kibo dvi mtoa bw nnx
-j-QilK mis
4) P- 4'- '-dJ-*^ *+*?s i^-sv^i |»*tfi»)t ojü ^ olLsi. In stead of LjOjJ and Oj*y we read of course Laj^J and Oj*{j.
5) Uns Djalïl I, 12; Abü Zaid 11,48; Ibn al-Wardl Ia, 36; Kisa'i, fol. 7 r°.



4
THE OCEAN IN THE COSMOGONY
for the buil is evidently an offspring of the biblical Behemoth. According to other traditions the fish and the buil drink the water -streaming down from the earth1).
Other recollections of the biblical QiJMn as representatives of the ocean also survive in Muslim tradition. They generally are now connected with the expeditions of Alexander the Great concerning which we shall have to speak later on. But it may here already be remarked, that, though history only knows Alexander's conquests in the East, Oriental mythical legend describes Alexander's marches towards the far East, the far West and the far North. Muslim tradition has chiefly worked out the dates connected with the West.
Now in the romance by Pseudo-Callisthenes there is a description of how Alexander, marching to the East, reaches a river which is visited by a monster, which he cunningly kills3). As the reader is aware, a complete Arabic translation of the Romance of Alexander is not known. Still, like pearls loosened from the string, we find several of the most important episodes scattered through Arabic literature. Alexander's slaying of the monster is not simply adopted by Arabic tradition, but is moulded into a different form. In the first place it is ascribed here to Alexander's march to the farthest West. Moreover it has assumed elements foreign to Pseudo-Callisthenes. The monster is called in Arabic, like in Syriac, c£-i-> which is not a genuine Arabic word, but a transcription (perhaps by Aramaic intermediary) of the Hebrew pjD- Further the dragon is localised on one of the islands of the Western part of the ocean. Now these islands have, to a large extent, a mythological meaning; and the Western ocean is, according to the Arabic conception, the ocean par excellence. So the sense of the tradition seems to be here the same as in the case of the Hebrew Leviathan: the Tinnln is a representative of Tehom. When this representative is killed by Alexander, who in Semitic tradition is a faithful king, it is clear that we have here a myth depicting how Alexander slays Tehom, which he has gone out to meet expressly3).
MascQdï*) gives a description of the monster which clearly
1) AbU Zaid 11,49; Ibn al-Wardl Ia, 37.
2) Syriac text, p. 190 sqq. ,
3) The story is to be found in IdrisI, p. 53 scl- and in Ibn al-Wardï, I b, p. 14.
4) I, 267.



THE OCEAN IN THE COSMOGONY
5
shows its affinity with Leviathan: it is taken from the sea by angels-, with its tail it destroys houses, trees and mountains; then it is cast down in the country of Yadjüdj and Madjüdj and killed by hail; its flesh serves as food for these peoples. Here several features of Leviathan are united with reminiscences of the Apocalypse, chapter 12.
So we find literary remains of the old strife between the creating god and the rebellious ocean. The latter has been tamed in the beginning, but it has not been annihilated. It is only in the end of days that this will happen; when the ocean is annihilated, the world will have rest; therefore it is said in the Apocalypse: And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea1).
We have now to turn towards the second class of ideas, that whieh Scarcely contains mythological elements, is purely monotheistic and consequently gives an impression differing widely from that made by the above traditions. We may say that this second series of stories of the creation is introduced in Semitic literature by that of Genesis 1, where God has only to speak and the elements, which no longer bear a rebellious or a personal character, submit to his orders. This range of ideas scarcely leaves any room for the Spirit of God brooding over the waters; it has been replaced by the divine throne.
It is the Kor'an which puts this feature in the front of the story of the creation, thereby revolutionizing the old traditions. Süra 11,9: 'It is he who created the heavens and earth in six days; and, before, his throne was upon the water'*). It is an image of a wonderful, imposing nature Mohammed gives here, though not- so loaded with mysterious gloom as that of Genesis 1, 2. The brooding Spirit of God, which really is not at home in the monotheistic story, has been replaced by the divine throne, the seat of cosmic order, the personification of God's majesty.
It seems probable that Mohammed was not the first to speak of God's throne resting upon the waters before the creation. Geiger3), in discussing Süra 11,9, has already quoted Rashi:
1) 21,1.
3) Was hat Mohammed aus dem Judenthum aufgenommen2, p. 64.



6
THE OCEAN IN THE COSMOGONY
,the throne of the divine majesty stood in the air hovering over the surface of the waters, by order of the Holy one'l). It is probable that this conception is not invented by Rashi, but belongs to the Jewish traditional lore and through this reached Mohammed.
It is further to be remembered that already in the Old Testament Jahwe is represented as dweiling on the flood: The voice of Jahwe is on the water, the majestic god thunders, Jahwe is on the great flood Jahwe dwells over the flood3).
The Muslim conception has passed into the Ethiopië romance of Alexander8).
Muslim descriptions of the creation show that the throne and the water were pre-existent, as were the pen (j*^1) writing down the decrees of the Most High, the sacred house, i. e. the later mosque of Mekka, and the cloud 4). Jewish tradition mentions also Paradise and Heil5).
There is good reason for counting the water as belonging to pre-existent things. In the Biblical story of the creation several important things are passed over in silence: the elements air, water and fire for example; later tradition of course has sought to supply this want. Thus the Cave of Treasures6) which does not contain anything concerning pre-existent things asserts the water to have been created ön the first day.
As to the creation of the water itself, Semitic traditions are not numerous. Proverbs 8, 24 speaks of pre-existent wisdom which was before the Tehomot. Job 38, 8 contains only a slight allusion to the genesis of Tehom: ,He covered the sea with doors, when it burst forth from the womb.' This silence seems to mean that the primaeval water must not be ranged in the same line as created things; it is an entity which, also in monotheistic times, retains something of the divine aspect which, in earlier times, made it be considered as the rival of the gods. It is only Muslim tradition that has broken the silence; Ibn Abbas knows how the water has been created. When God intended to create the water, he created a green hyacinth,
1) n'3 isnp bv vb nro d^dpi vb by rpn\ -man iay taan ndd
2) r-s. 29: mm d"on co by mm d^jnn Tpsn bt* con by ptst byp
nttn b\2üb
3) p. 142: tDjiijaD^.oDjvOivt ;<77^.!O)fl»^<J.rt:?.":^jtt\e\!«n»A0ivt:'77j&:
4) Tabarï T, 29 sqq.; Ibn al-AtbJr I, 12 sqq.; Abrégé des merveilles, p. 6.
5) Cf. The Navel of the Earth, p. 17.
6) p- 3-



THE OCEAN IN THE COSMOGONY
7
fixed its length, breadth and height. Then he regarded it with a "majestic look; then it became a small quantity of water which was in constant motion. This apparent undulation and motion was only a trembling caused by fear of God1).
This is all that I have been able to find concerning the creation of the water.
It is interesting to observe that in the class of ideas we are dealing with, the monotheistic character appears in further details; water is here not the enemy which has to be vanquished before the creation and to be checked afterwards, it is the element which willingly serves God's creative powers. This thought is condensed in the sentence that God has created the universe in or from water. The idea occurs in the Midrash Bereshit Rabba: The works of the creation were watery on the first day; on the second they coagulated3). These words seem to mean that on the first day the creation still retained the character of the watery substance out of which it coagulated on the second day into its present form. The same idea is expressed in the Koran in a more general form. In Süra 21, 31, in a survey of the works of the creation, Allah says: We made every living thing of water3). It is to be remarked that the commentators do not teil much concerning a creation of the universe out of water. But still the words seem to point to a conception like that of the Bereshit Rabba. Moreover, the Muslim story of the creation as we find it in folklore and theology, is founded upon this idea. We will, therefore, inspect the Muslim cosmogony more closely.
Of the old-Semitic conception of the mountains being the foundations of the earth and the part which has come into
1) Nuwairi, p. 61: <J&&. J M U * U*1^ O*1 O* <^L> yjju IfcH £ UXfwj W°fi O* ^9» lJÜ3" *U'
vl^J**^ ^ cr* U & % "U
&\jü «Ut iU«J> u+ L>Ui\! UI. Cf. the tradition in 'Adja'ib al-Malaküt, fol. 3 v°: BjJJI f)& f& Js^sUI jS> «Ut vjü> Lo vjjt 0! u^Us ^
sJt 15*^1 ffr \J>f^ i*3 *Ut *U' and Tabari *» 495 Mas'üdl 1,47.
2) par. IV: ïcnp jïttWin DVD DPWJ'D VH DT6



8
THE OCEAN IN THE COSMOGONY
existence before the rest, we have found very few remains among the Muslims1). The view that mountains' are the coagulated billows of the ocean is frequently met with: God created the mountains from the billows of the water2). But the description of the creation of the earth and its pre-existent nucleus is given in a more elaborate form: In the beginning the Universe consisted of the primaeval water upon which the throne of God rested. Then God sent a soft wind that drifted the water away from a spot that in this way was made dry and where a cupola arose; this was the place of the future sanctuary3).
The soft wind is probably a reminiscence of the Spirit in Genesis i, 2 that was nDmö i. e., according to the Jewish interpretation, hovering over the water; but for the rest this is a story of the creation that does not depend upon a biblical source; perhaps it may be compared with the Babylonian poem relating that the first places created were Eridu and Babyion.
According to a different version of the Muslim story the wind beated the billows so that they began to foam4). Tabarï rektes that red or white foam was on the spot of the
future sanctuary and formed the origin of the earth6). The sanctuary floating on the ocean long before the creation of the earth, is called *U! ^ 4£c6). The. foam sends a vapour upwards and from this vapour heaven is created. It is also told that Allah created a jewel (»yy>) and looked upon it majestically till it melted; from the vapour rising from it, heaven was created, from the rest of the jewel the earth7).
In Semitic literature this pre-existent spot in the midst of the primaeval waters, the origin of the later sanctuary and the centre of the future earth, is called the navel of the earth. It goes without saying, that this spot in the centre of the ocean could be called the navel of the ocean just as well, for navel in expressions of this sort usually means centre; and so the navel of the earth and the navel of the ocean appear to be
1) The Navel of the Earth, p. 4.
2) 'Adja'ib al-Malaküt, fol. l6a; fit! ^y>) ^ jLl ,JU~» M 0t (JLct
3) AzrakI, p. 4; Nuwairi, p. 59, 80; HalabI 1,195.
4) Khamls I, 31; Abrégé des merveilles, p. 7.
5) Tafsïr 1,409.
6) AzrakI, p. 1; Kutb al-Dln, p. 25 sq.
7) Kazwlnl I, 9.



THE OCEAN IN THE COSMOGONY
9
identical. As far as I know, Semitic literature does not contain the latter expression; but it occurs among the Greeks. In the Odyssea I, 52 Ogygia, the island where Odysseus is retained by Calypso, is called:
vv<7<ó èv tx[upipvrri, o$i t' ö/xyaXog èm BtzkaaaYig. According to the Toradja's in the centre of the sea there is a rock, where nine streams come together, in the rock is a cave, the dweiling place of the crab which causes the change of the tides1).
In view of these facts it is to be remarked, that in such conceptions the simple observation of primitive man is to be traced. Every dry spot in the ocean is the centre or the navel of the ocean for the eye of the inhabitants; just as every high mountain is the centre of the earth. With such expressions cosmogonic conceptions are easily to be connected. What we have to observe here is a different thing.
The universe, in the Semitic conception, consists of several parts analogous one to the other. Thus the primaeval domination of the water and the creation of the earth out of it, is also connected with heaven. Tradition, on this point, may have arisen from a poetic utterance in the Old Testament. In Psalm 104, 3 Jahwe is called he 'who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters'a). Jahwe's 'upper rooms' are in heaven; so heaven is called the place of water. This was the common idea of the old Semitic world; it is familiar from the Babylonian poem of the creation and it is to be traced in the biblical story of the creation. We shall have to discuss it later on. Here we will only point to some cosmogonic traditions parallel to those communicated above.
In like manner as the earth was created from a centre in the ocean, so were the heavens. The Bereshit Rabba contains the cosmogony of heaven or the firmament in this form: At the moment when the Holy one said: let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, the drop that was in the centre coagulated and so were made the nether heavens and the upper ones3). In the Midrash Shöher Tob it is said that the heavens were made of water: Rabbi Pinehas said in the name of Rabbi
1) Adriani and Kruyt, De Toradja's III, 441, note 2.
2) vnvty? oto rnpon
3) par. iv: rpyuoan no^ts mbi a^n "pm yp"i W'TÖgïi i0iw njran
awtyn crav wi n^innnn amm



IO
THE OCEAN IN THE COSMOGONY
Levi: Are these heavens of soda or alkaline salt? Do not you know of what they are? The word: who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters, proves that they are of water1).
We find this conception also in Christian and Muslim literature. According to the Cave of Tréasures the firmament was called Rakf becaüse its nature is that of coagulated water2). In the Christian translation and commentation of the Pentateuch the thought is expressed more clearly: When it was the second day, God created a roof of stiffened, coagulated water, in the centre of the ocean8).
This centre of heaven around which the firmament was created, is called the navel of heaven 4).
In the Muslim cosmogonic traditions the nether heaven is usually described as made of billows5). It is also said that it is composed of water and vapour6); or it is called a sustained roof and a restrained billow7). So it is either described as of a watery substance or as coagulated water. We shall have to return to these conceptions in our second chapter. Here another point is to be elucidated. This ocean in heaven bears in its centre the throne of God; for the theory of seven heavens is of later date; originally the universe consisted of three stages; nether world, earth and heaven. In the centre of heaven is the throne of God; in later times it was placed above the seven heavens in the top of the universe. We have already seen that before the creation of the earth, the throne of God rested upon the primaeval water. Then it left this place and was raised to heaven. This must have taken place when God began to create the earth. Tradition, however, is not elaborate on this point. Commenting upon the words of the Kor'an: And his throne was on the water, it asserts that this was the state before the creation; and it assumes that after the creation the throne is in the centre of heaven or in the top of the universe.
1) p- 151 = nna pai rp-ro bv ia }n ira bv fbbn own ^b 'i dko Drtro Tk
p d"ö bw noia *si vnvby n^n mpon nDJUW dddi p non jm1
2) p. 4: Ki^iai iuinèir^ r£izax r<ius\ rc*l>*t crA èurV.i XS^nts
3) ed. de Lagarde 11,8: &\tz> ^ Uü» «UI \J&S> ^Udl j^JI ^ Lis
4) The Navel of the Earth, p. 45 sqq. £|iS -^s 3> '^>^
5) Thaclabï, p. 1; Khamïs I, 31.
6) Thaclabl, p. 11 : qLs^Ji 4* & u/Shj UjOJt tlfwJt «IJl vJÜ3-
7) Nuwairï, p. 9: t_jyfcC« gy*3 J^*^* v_ÜLw £**^l
'nrn-TTTii—HBBHinnnnnBnHw«a^^HnB



THE OCEAN IN THE COSMOGONY
I I
I know only one tradition that describes God's ascending from his first throne on the water to his place in heaven: Kacb al-Ahbar said": In the tora it is said, that God says to the holy rock in Jerusalem: Thou art my lower throne, from thee I have ascended towards heaven; towards thee will be the gathering of mankind and from thee their spread1).
It has to be remembered that the holy rock in Jerusalem is on the. place of Jahwe's first throne on the water and that the royal throne in Jerusalem is still called the throne of Jahwe. But there is another idea which appears in the traditions concerning the two thrones; that of the similarity between the different parts of the universe; what later are heaven and earth, are before the creation two oceans, each with a navel in the centre, a navel which is also the place of the divine throne: From that centre outwards heaven as well as earth have been made.
The throne in heaven, according to the Muslim conception, has always remained a centre and a gathering-place of water. There is a popular tradition concerning the origin of rain saying that the wind and the clouds meet at the end of heaven. Then God drops water from beneath his throne upon the clouds which spread the raina). —
We have seen that the biblical story of the creation omitted to mention several things which the curiosity of later ages inquired about and which were either added or placed before the creation. No mention is made of the elements. Another thine which was omitted, is the clouds. From ancient times
i ■ 1
the clouds and their creation have been treated together with the ocean. It is therefore suitable to say a few words concerning this point.
Job 38, 8—11 speaks of the birth of the sea in poetic expressions; vs 9 runs: when I made the cloud the garment thereof, and dark clouds a swaddlingband for it3). Here again is a fragment of a cosmogonic description, which in the Old Testament remains a fragment, but which in other Semitic cosmogonic systems may have had its place. Yet it is to be observed
1) Nuwairi, p. 90, 15: (j»i>üil jyii *i! öt^yÜt £ ^ j'ö
yivUl liLUj yiJL liLiJ!} ... *UwJt ^yjisJj léLUj ^Si)
2) Tabarï, Tafsir VIII, 138 sq. Cf. XXVIII, 89.
3) n-6nn bsny, vmb py "oiira



I 2
THE OCEAN IN THE COSMOGONY
that the idea is akin to the description of Genesis 1,2: and darkness was upon the surface of Tehom and the Spirit of god broodect upon the surface of the water1). The Spirit of God brooding- or hovering over the ocean, is an image which in Semitic cosmogonies has not been dwelt upon as this might be expected on account of its picturesqueness. We have already seen that in a large stream of traditions the Spirit has given place to the throne. This has, however, not been the only interpretation of the verse. In -some Syriac and Arabic cosmogonic pictures it has become the nucleus of a series of representations closely connected with other Old Testament features. Here the two parts of the verse have been interpreted as two. parallel utterances: the darkness on the surface of Tehom is the same as the Spirit of God hovering over the water.
Ephraim Syrus (or Jacob of Edessa) considers the darkness on the waters thus: The darkness of which he [viz. Moses] says, that it was above Tehom, is the thick and compact vapour which had risen from Tehom and had been formed in the likeness of a dark and gloomy cloud2). This means that Ephraim, or his source, interpreting the story of the creation, connects it with Job 38. Further this cloud seems to be conceived as the origin of clouds in the sky; according to Ephraim the clouds were created at the same time as Tehoms). According to Tabarï *) the seventh or utmost sea which encircles the earth is covered with a cloud, a reminiscence of the cosmogony and its general interpretation, as the seventh sea is considered as the real ocean.
These traditions do not connect this cloud or the clouds with a divine power dwelling in them. Jacob of Edessa however says: the Spirit [of God, in Gen. 1,2] was like a cloud6). Here the two halves of the verse have become parallel.
Now the idea of God, or the Spirit of God, dwelling in a cloud, is a representation that belóngs to the fundamental thought of the Old Testament. Jahwe as the guide of the Israe-
1) D^n "oo by norriD aTibx nni mnn vb by "|wn
2) Opp. I, 117 A: KdiCUa&A r£snCkmb\ J90
j*\cn rdïa^ oen Kl5ooooè> jsa.i pd\crA.i Kdta:usua (read i<itcuav) rCèO^cvsai^o K&i&cut» dtooa.ia «toen sia&.o «toen
3) Opp. I, 7D: résoocD&t pojk. K*Ï1\. .Vc\cn **Ha ~&co
4) I, 69,9.
5) |>LjtK ci*i'^ q', Pentateuch, ed. Lagarde II 6, 19.



THE OCEAN IN THE COSMOGONY
13
lites in the Red Sea and the desert, shows himself or covers himself in a cloud; when Jahwe descends on Sinai the mountain is covered by a cloud; when Jahwe comes to meet Moses in the tabernacle,' the tent is seen under a cloud: the cloud is the representative of the godhead. Jahwe in heaven sits on his throne, but in the old poetry of the Old Testament, like Ps. 18, Jahwe in heaven is also conceived as riding on the clouds. So — as pointed out by Gunkel — Jahwe's throne in heaven goes back to the idea of the clouds considered as the dwelling place of the deity.
If we bear this in mind, the different interpretations of Genesis 1, 2 will no longer seem incoherent utterances: the throne of God on the waters and the cloud in which the Spirit of God dwells, will appear to be only different expressions for the idea that in the beginning the deity itself or the rüh, i. e. divine vital power, was brooding over the waters. Even Muslim tradition seems to have kept a vague reminiscence of this idea. When Mohammed was asked where God dwelt before the creation of heaven and earth, he answered: in a cloud, above which was the air and beneath which was the air1).
At the close of our inquiry into the place of the ocean in the West-Semitic cosmogonic traditions, it is necessary to turn our attention to a cognate subject: the deluge. The relation between the cosmogony and the deluge is of so close a nature that one can almost be considered as a repetition of the other. This is not only true for the Semitic world. Professor Chantepie de la Saussaye has pointed out the same feature in several American religions2) and every- one knows that Deucalion and Pyrrha are tfee Greek Adam and Eve. This parallelism is especially to be applied to the function of water before the creation of the world and during the flood; in other words: the water of the deluge is the return of the primaeval ocean3). This is said expressly in the Old Testament: In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great ocean broken up and the windows of heaven
1) Tabarï, Tafslr XII, 4: *^ ^5 £!>* *V ^ f^ 5
2) Studiën, V, 52.
3) Cf. W. B. Kristensen, De plaats van het zondvloedverhaal in het Gilgamei-epos (Versl. en Meded. Kon. Akad. van Wetensch., 5e Reeks, Deel II), p. 7.



THE OCEAN IN THE COSMOGONY
were opened1). In the Cave of Treasures the wild character of Tehom is depicted: when the door of the ark had been shut, the floods of heaven were opened and the Tehom's of the earth burst forth and the ocean, the sea that surrounds the whole domain, was poured out. And when the floods of heaven were opened and the Tehom's of the earth burst forth, the storehouses of the winds were .opened and the storms burst forth and the ocean roared and was poured out2). The element which was tamed at the creation has become wild again with the beginning of the deluge. After the deluge it is pushed back, as after the creation, and Jahwe promises not to destroy the earth by the flood anymore.
There is another picture of the deluge which makes its parallelism with the cosmogony complete: the sanctuary is freed from the floods. This is true for the land of Israël, for the Gerizim and for Mekka8), according to the Jews, the Samaritans and the Muslims respectively. The representation of the sanctuary as emerging from the flood, at its centre, we have already met in the stories of the creation*). So cosmogony and deluge prove to be parallel in many points: they are originally stories of how the rule of the ocean was broken by God the creator. We have already seen that in the biblical story of the creator in Genesis i there are scarcely any remains of the ocean as a demoniac power. So it is in the biblical story of the flood; but it may be asked whether the parallelism between the two did not originally also encompass the function of Tehom as the enemy of the gods.
1) Gen. vi, ii : xcnnb qv "iïsw njnira iwn enra ra ^nb raw niKD w rara
rnrisj dik n™ hn Dïnn nw» bq ïypa: ntn dyo
2) p. 94: rZlsa-X.* rïli-AO-l rC&o, -1 o.i cn_^.iit .T_Mr<2h rC.i ^ -nn om rtóo» ooaixaorV OJk.ièic^rC' r£s>.it<x r&aamb\a CU>èvaèSr<'
-ncaJC\
.s °>t. a QoOiuaoK'
3) Cf. the Navel of the Earth, p. 15.
4) Above, p. 10 sq.



CHAPTER II
THE OCEAN IN COSMOGRAPHY
In the cosmogonic stories we have observed the ocean being changed from an ungodly power into an instrument in the hand of God. In this chapter we shall have to consider it chiefly in relation to actual life.
We have to ask the question: Where is this ocean localized and what is the place it occupies in the cosmographic ideas of the Western Semites? The answer falls into several statements; we will begin with relating what is known concerning the ocean
A. Under the Earth.
The idea already occurs in the Old Testament. In the old poem in Gen. 49 to the tribe of Joseph are promised the blessings" of heaven above and those of Tehom lying beneath1). It should be remarked that 'lying' is a rendering of the verb VU!, which is said of animals lying down; perhaps there is here a reminiscence of Tehom represented as an animal. This subterranean Tehom is also mentioned in Psalm 136, 6 where it is said that Jahwe has extended the earth above the waters2).
Further, in the story of the deluge, this subterranean ocean is a powerful element. In the biblical story of the flood this is clear, though it is not said plainly. The flood is caused by the opening of the windows in heaven and of the fountains of the great Tehom3). It might be doubtful what the fountains of the Tehom are, if it were not that tradition had preserved
O Gen. 49.25: nnn nam oinn ro"d byo dtow rrp"o
2) d^on by pan ypnb
3) Gen. 7, 11.



i6
THE OCEAN IN COSMOGRAPHY
very distinct ideas concerning the flood and subterranean Tehom. According to these, nether Tehom is always ready to rise again and to be poured out over the earth. The Eben Shetïya, the «ysuo, in Jerusalem serves to check it1). So here, in Jerusalem, is a connection with Tehom. When David dug channels on the place of the sacred mountain, the flood rose and threatened to submerge the earth3); these channels go down to Tehoms)and the staircase which connects two of the courts in the Temple is called 'the steps of Tehom'4).
Likewise the ydaiia in the temple of Hierapolis was the channel through which the departing waters of the deluge flowed back to their place, viz. subterranean Tehom. And twice every year water is taken from the ocean and poured out in the temple where it is gathered in the yó.ap.a.*). . Syriac cosmography speaks more explicitly of this subterranean ocean: Under the earth is the terrible sea of many waters and under the water is fire6). And in the Cave of Treasures a quasi-learned description is given of the relation between the earth and Tehom: God made in the earth beneath, passages and veins and channels for the passage [of water?] and the winds which ascend from within the earth through these veins and passages, hot and cold winds for the service of the earth. Now the earth in its inferior part is made like a sponge, because it was placed upon the water7).
Here it is said that the earth drinks the subterranean waters. In other descriptions it is expressly said that the fountains are the places where these waters are given over to the earth. Ephraim Syrus, commenting upon the blessings of heaven and
1) Targ. Jer. Ex. 28,30: N1"l'!"Ptt> ]d i"DT KDinf) QTS Huky DJTI POT rVriW p«
2) sukka 53a: KDfy TEKsvcb njoi Nöinn xsp prw m rraw rwa prm *i icn
3) sukka 49»: nmn iy pmvi p^mü rrm "idïn w "qt
4) Cf. the titles of Psalms CXX—CXXXIV in the Targum: ]Vlpl0ft b>V IDWIin tWW NDinm- Cf. the Navel of the Earth, p. 27.
5) Lucian, De dea Syria.
6) Journal of the Royal Asïatic Society, 1917, p. 253: r&sa* Kl^.'lK' »S0
K'ioi «ijLsj èvucVAo KVéji^o Kllêaa r^Auj.i oen èuK*
7) Cave of Treasures, p. 6: oi_m
o^ f.-zn tw.i rtfbcviAo rc'èiïivraA ceÜ^roïo rdi.Ti.0 K&'is^sa «&V*H-no redeaLsa*» rc&ïisrao r('\ .ï-X. ^ 1 \cno ^ocarj Kl^-ir^ K&asa.-i v^rV Au»èvA p£^.ir<' ,en rdiwire'.i «'èvxJsax.AiA
è>ocn r^jsixoo rd*S> A^..n \\m rV.iin^ «Ljóa.t rei\oAx»rc'.i



THE OCEAN IN COSMOGRAPHY
17
of Tehom which are promised to the tribe of Joseph in Genesis 49, 25, says: The blessing of the sky is that of rain and dew; the blessing of Tehom is that of rivers and springs which provide Jhe earth with water in Josèph's inheritance1). So the earth has a constant connection with subterranean Tehom through springs and rivers-, up to the present day the inhabitants of Palestine believe that these waters come from the nether world and are the dwelling places of supernatural beings2). *
We 'now turn to Arabic literature, where subterranean Tehom does not occupy a large place. Still we find utterances which are connected with those mentioned above. Some of them take the form of learned theories, but others clearly show their dependency upon popular tradition.
Thus we find in Mas udï the conception of sources and rivers as springing from the subterranean Tehom: People differ concerning the origin of rivers and sources. Some of them think that the extraction of all of them is one, viz. the great sea, that this sea has sweet water and so is different from the ocean8).
In quasi-learned tradition subterranean Tehom is considered in connection with the form of the earth. The earth conceived as a mountain by old popular tradition has been replaced by the earth as a sphere. This sphere is floating on the ocean, so that only its superior half is above the water. The earth immerged in the ocean is also compared with a cauldron of which the convex side is turned upwards4). While the old comparison with an egg is still found also6).
Thus it appears that the idea of there being a sea of sweet water under our earth, the ancient Tehom, which is the source of springs and rivers, is commort to the Western Semites. Perhaps people have asked where these waters came from. Job
D Opp. I, inE: rdsaocoèu ne&re^so ,eo r^ewci K'èva.ito
2) Canaan, Volksmedizin im Lande der Bibel, p. 9-
3) 1,203:^1 X-ajUb £ LTUt
u^L&l ^>Jé wJs* 4& 0& & *^ ^ ^ °]
4) Kazwïnl I, l43: o* J**$ V° CT V*f &>P* ^ O1 M
5) Kazwïnl I, 144. wwwVerhand. Kon. Akad. v. Wetensch. Nieuwe Reeks Dl. XIX N°. a. 2



f3
the ocean in cosmögraphy
38, 16 mentions the fountains of the sea1) in parallelism with the bottom of Tehom and also Proverbs 8, 28 speaks of the fountains of Tehom2) as being fixed by God. But, as far as I know, this point is not treated elaborately.
Later tradition, moreover, has not been silent on the subject. According to Midrash Tanhuma the world rests on the wind3). We find this conception also in Muslim tradition, but in a rather complicated form. Nuwairï has it in the lengthieth form: It is said that the earth rests on water, the water on a rock, the rock on the back of a buil, the buil on a p&f, the f***' on the back of a fish, the fish on water, the water on the- wind, the wind on the veil of darkness, the darkness on humid earth, and with the humid earth the knowledge of the creatures reaches its end4).
Such enumerations are found in many Arabic works, not always in the same sequence6). What interests us is that in all these enumerations the fish and the buil are mentioned.
Usually for the fish the Arabic term cy> is used, but Tabarï I, 48 has instead of this word the foreign origin of the
tradition is being still recognizable in its Arabic form, as qj-> is not the usual word for a fish in Arabic, but in Aramaic. Thus we find here again reminiscences of the usual representation of Tehom: Leviathan. I have already quoted Thalabl's tradition according to which God created the nün, whose name is Leviathan, whose kunya is Balahut, whose lakab Behemoth6). We know Behemoth in the Old Testament only from the last chapters of the Book of Job, where it is thought to represent the hippopotamos. Gunkel in his Schöpfung und Chaos has conjectured that it is a mythic animal. His surmise, as it seems to me, is proved to be true by the traditions quoted abovè. Behemoth, a word of which the formation is not obvious (if it is rightly punctuated in the Masoretic Bible) points in the first
2) Dinn nw.
3) p- 17: rrnn by b"n -idij? ubwn no by ob^pub cwna btm
5) Tabarï, Anaales I, 48 sq.; Tafslr I, 149; XXIX, 8sq.; Ibn al-Athïr, Kaöiil, I, IS; T_haclabï, p. 4; Uns djalïl I, 11,212.
6) p. 4.



the ocean in c0smography
19
place to riEPD which means cattle and of which, in Palestine, the buil is the chief representaht. We find the buil in a series of traditions as one of the bearers of the earth or of the world. In Thalabï it is said that its horns appear above the horizon1). In other traditions the earth is placed upon the Leviathan: Leviathan and the buil Behemoth are so closely connected that Tha'labï can maintain that ebb and flood are caused by the büll's respiration3). Probably these Muslim traditions go back to Jewish lore, showing that the latter probably knew of Behemoth as the buil which bears the earth. We saw that Leviathan is the representation of Tehom; in the same way Behemoth seems to be the representation of the earth. The earth is also in other religions represented as a buil3).
In the second place, in Semitic cosmography the Ocean is placed
B. Above the earth.
This idea is already familiar to us after our research concerning the cosmogony of the heavens, especially in connection with the divine throne in heaven which, like that existing before the creation, is placed upon the waters in heaven.
There is, however, still something to be said on this subject. In Jewish tradition the waters in heaven are expressly called upper Tehom4). And from this Tehom the earth gets its sustenance: The ocean is above the whole earth and the whole earth drinks its waters5). This tradition is in a more complete form in the Midrash Kohelet: 'The brooks go towards
the sea'. Wherefrom does the earth drink? it drinks from
the waters of the ocean, as Scripture says: And there went up a mist from the earth and watered. Rabbi Josua says: It drinks from the upper waters, as Scripture says : and drinketh water ' from the rain of heaven; and the clouds grow strong from the earth unto heaven and receive the water as it were from the mouth of a waterskin, as scripture says: they^ pour down rain
1) P/4: u^1 er jfi o>h
3) Cf4W. B. Kristensen in Verslagen en Meded. Kon. Akad. v. Wetensch. (IV<= reeks, iel XII, p. 83). ,
4) Midrasi Tanhuma, p. 229 speaks of ]WrUVI OliT) and jVtyn DÏDn
5) Ber. Rabba, par. V: <bV D^ffl tol )b)3 ubW toD TtQ} CKS^» VO* TTI ttHl



20
the ocean in cosmography
according to the vapour therof; which the clouds do drop and distil upon man abundantly; no drop touches the other1).
This upper Tehom appears to be the basin in which the rain is gathered before it is poured into the clouds which spread it over the earth. This theory seems to have been familiar in the Semitic East 5 in a modified form it is also given by Tabarï: God sends the wind which brings the clouds from between heaven and earth, from the border of the sky and
the earth where both meet then the clouds spread over
the sky as they like; then He opens the gates of heaven and pours water on the clouds and later on they give rain2).
In the Kor an there are several passages which seem to suppose a heavenly ocean. Süra 55, 19 sq.: He [Allah] has set free the two oceans so that they meet; between them is an isthmus which they do not transgresss). In Süra 25, 55 it is said that one of these seas is sweet, the other salt4) ; and Süra 27, 62 also speaks of two seas which are separated one from another. And Tabarï says: There is a sea in heaven and there is a sea on the earth6). Muslim cosmography is bound up with the views of the Koran ; so it recognizes seven earths and seven heavens. Even here the old congruity between the parts of the universe is carried on: between every two earths there is a sea6).
It is well known that in the Babylonian cosmogony one half of Tiamat is placed in heaven and that the biblical cosmogony has a reminiscence of this mythological idea in the verse which
O foi. 7r° 17 sqq.: mp *n h"i nnw pan proi DYi bn adm nbran bi
pNn P rftjp -inï 3ydt nrw wpm ">dd tdih -itj^k 1
wd nrwn cwm -idd^ avoi nrtw hyi wwbyn wdd td» jwtp *m
mfr wd pp 3W1TOD p* pSpDI WDVb 1J7 piCT p Dwn
nmam^nyjia novs rraao-rrm pEm
2) vhi, i38: ^jo yuüiii ^ vi^uJL £ij> d^y. «W 0t
y^fl gjj ^ sLü^ ^ tU>Jl j DlxüjdLi.
3) o1**^ * p& W±i o1^^ gl*
4) tuX% oU «_jj\é 105»
5) xxvii, p. 37: u^Kl j, ^ i ^ Jls
6) Tabarï, Annales i, 38: yyto^t J^- yvjj



the ocean in cosmography
21
relates that God made a separation between the waters above the firmament and those beneath it.
We have already noted the close similarity between Semitic (and other) cosmogonies and the story of the deluge. The deluge really is the vanquished, but not destroyed, Tehom which reappears. In the biblical story the waters are poured out by the fountains of the great Tehom and by the windows of heaven. Now we have seen that Tehom is thought to be under the earth as well as jn heaven, so it becomes probable that, when in the story of the deluge these two sorts of water are mentioned, they are simply meant as the outbursts of lower and upper Tehom. _ .= *
In the third place we have to consider the ocean as lying
C. Round the Earth.
We do not find this idea everywhere in Semitic literatures with the same clearness. It is probable, however, that nearly all Semitic peoples were acquainted with it. The primitive eye starts from what it observes: the seashore presents the unlimited sight of the ocean; this means that the ends of the earth are surrounded by the ocean.
In Hebrew there is a term which probably indicates this idea: the term pIK "ODN 'the ends of the earth'. It has already been observed by others that the Hebrew DDN is to be compared with the Babylonian apsu, ocean. This comparison which considers DQN as a loanword from the Babylonian, is made more convincing by the fact that the Semitic languages do not know a root all occurring forms seen to be derived from the
noun DDN-
If this derivation of DDi* is right, its original meaning ocean would have been replaced by that of end (of the earth) because these ideas were nearly identical for the Hebrew mind. A tracé of the original meaning of the word is still to be detected in Hebrew poetry, which, by its parallelism, is often valuable for the study of the exact significance of words. In Zecharjah, 9, 10 the reign of the eschatological king is described thus: and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth1). The dominion of
1) pN "OOK IV TÜD1 D1 1JJ D'ö 1^001



22
THE OCEAN IN COSMOGRAPHY
the Messiah will be over the whole of the earth; this Israelitic idea is expressed here in the words: from sea to sea, which means that the earth is compassed by seas. This expression is not peculiar to Zecharjah; it also occurs in Psalm 72:8: He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, -and from the river unto the ends of the earth. So we observe that in a common Hebrew expression the words from the river to the ends of the earth are used in parallelism with 'from sea to sea'; the ends of the earth and the ocean are synonyms; this may serve as an explanation of how apsu-ocean has become DBN, end.
We are also able to tracé this idea of the earth as being encompassed at least by two seas, in the eschatological parts of the Old Testament further on. In Joel 2, 20 Jahwe is said to banish the one from the North, in the last days, into a thirsty and barren land, his face towards the East sea, his hinder part towards the Western sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up1). This refers to the archfiend who is destroyed; sometimes he is called Leviathan, as in popular traditions, here he bears the epithet of the one from the North, in later times he is the pseudo-Messiah. Now this archfiend is the counterpart of the eschatological king, who is also represented by different types: sometimes he is Jahwe himself, sometimes the Messiah ben David, sometimes the Messiah ben Joseph. As the Messiah will rule from sea to sea, so his counterpart will be slain and stretched down from sea to sea. This passage in Joel defines these seas as the Eastern one and the Western one. These seas must represent the ends of the earth, viz. the ocean. So Gressmann was right when he denied the idendity of the Eastern sea with the Dead sea»); it is the great Ocean concerning the EasJ of which the Israelites must have possessed vague ideas, but which formed a part of their cosmography.
In order to test this statement we have further to inquire into Hebrew cosmography. Till now we have found that 'from sea to sea', or 'from the stream unto the ends of the earth' means that the ends of the earth are the place where the
1) ïjcnpn dyi to tób na nDD&n rro p» to vnmm co-byo prr» 'vmn nai
vuns tyni ma nin prwi dyi to ibdi
2) Eschatologie, p. 187; cf. p. 93 where the apocalyptic character of Joel is maintained



THE OCEAN IN COSMOGRAPHY
23
ocean begins. Now, what was the form of the earth according to the Israelites? It is only some references in the Old Testament which can be used as evidence. Jesajah 40, 22 mentions the circle of the earth1); Job 22, 14 the circle of heaven2), Proverbs 8, 27 and Job 26, 10 the circle on the surface of Tehom3). The congruity of the parts of the universe is again proved by these expressions. It is however not clear whether heaven and earth are considered as layers, or as mountains, hemispheres or the like. At any rate: the earth is round; its 'ends' are enclosed by the sea-, in other words: the earth is encircled by the ocean, Tehom.
This result is not surprising; it is a well known type of Semitic cosmography. We find it also in later literature: the ocean surrounds the whole world as the abacus surrounds a large pillar. And the world in placed in its circular form on the fins of Leviathan4).
Syriac cosmography has shared the opinion that the earth is surrounded by the ocean. There are, however, some remarkable details in the different descriptions.
It is well known that the romance of Alexander has been translated at a rather early date into Syriac and that Syriac literature possesses two other descriptions of Alexander's life and exploits, viz. the poem by Jacob of Sarug, and the 'Legend of Alexander'. These two descriptions contain a great many features which do not go back to pseudo-Callisthenes, but are the remains of mythical and legendary tales that were current in the Semitic East. According to the poem ascribed to Jacob of Sarug Alexander aims at reaching the ends of the earth and the oceans and above all, the land of darkness6) in which the fountain of life is found6); but this country is behind terrible seas that surround the world7); the utmost of these seas
1) p«n m ^&
2) DW JYl
3) ninn vb by m
4) Jellinek, Bet ha-Midrasch 1,63: lïDy b& HDD \VO Db)yn to, C\ü D3D TTUM D*l
\mb iTBiD by vp\o obyyn tol bra
5) vs. 39 sq.: i_»èv>0 AaO Kl£c\.OOC\ rdSCoA rVvwrC* JlA&Kb
6) vs. 166: rtlïui r^liV. cao èur^s rem^JMz.
7) vs. 51 sq.: r<laaLA rc!l*»»a rctsaen»



24
THE OCEAN IN COSMOGRAPHY
is the stinking ocean, full of terror1). — According to the Legend of Alexander the earth is surrounded by eleven bright seas; then there is a dry circle of 10 miles breadth; behind it is the stinking ocean3).
This complicated cosmographic theory does not occur elsewhere in Syriac literature, as far as I am aware; Hunnius has already pointed out that it goes back to Babylonian mythoi°gy8)- In otner litterary works of the Syrians the world is simply surrounded by the ocean4).
In Arabic literature the idea of several seas surrounding the earth is not unknown. There however, the number is not eleven, but seven. This number is, wrongly, based upon a verse of the Koran. Süra 31, 26: If all the trees on the earth were pens and the sea were provided with ink by seven seas behind it, the words of God would not be exhausted5). The text does not say: by the seven seas, but: by seven seas. They are as hypothetic as the rest of the conditions. And some of the Muslim geographers have discriminately said this6). Others do not discuss the verse of the Kor an, but speak of the ocean only. So we need not pay too much attention to the seven seas. They chiefly appear in traditions on the authority of Kacb al-Ahbar and Wahb b. Munabbïh7). Sometimes they are represented as concentric; a complete description is given in the 'Adja'ib alMalaküt8). Behind the mountain Kaf is a sea, called Pontos; behind it is a sea called the dark one; behind it is an other sea called the deaf one ; behind it is an other sea called the
1) vs. 58: rVïixa rC-^cu redaa.1 re*ia> r<acu
2) ed. Budge, p. 256.
3) C. Hunnius, Das Syrische Alexanderlied, p. 18, note.
4) Ja*^ Lagarde II, 10. And: cni&A is-*»* oen rdSCU. COO_Ui_sOrC*
rdik.TrC', Cosmological Tract, p. 25.
5) oJ*J U jg\ X*^ «Jou ^ ^uJt5 Hf& ^ £ Lo 0I J
«UI oULT
6) MukaddasI, p. 16.
7) Kazwïnl I, 104; Tabarï, Annales I, 69; Uns I, 11.
8) fol. 6b, 7a: ÏSlj3 o,s [read u^kü] {J>Jsu!r! iujj ^JE ,J A.s ^
^LJI *J y>l ^ ^ ^| ^( ^ ^ ^} ^ ^ <L_fw, ^



THE OCEAN IN COSMOGRAPHY
25
immoveable one; behind it is an other sea, called the weeping one; this is the last of the seven seas.
Traditions like this have not much to do with mythologie folklore or Arabic science: they are the product of second-hand imagination. It is only Pontos and the dark ocean that regularly appear in Arabic cosmography.
As has been said the Arabs generally speak of one ocean only. And like other Semitic and non-Semitic peoples they represent it as going round the earth: The whole of the earth is round and the ocean surrounds it like a collar1). Other authors compare the circle of the ocean around the earth with a wreath2), a ring3), or with the halo around the moon4). The commonest image of the ocean however, is that of a serpent6). Arabic tradition here continues Jewish mythology, which has lost its vigour and survives chiefly in comparisons. Still, we have found also Arabic traditions concerning Leviathan. Now Leviathan, like the ocean, has finally become a humble servant of the Semitic god. According to Kisa'ï around the earth there is a serpent surrounding the whole of this [viz. the earth with all what is round about it] and praising God till the day of resurrection6). — The image is already in PseudoCallisthenes. Alexander flying through the air on the back of the eagles, sees a field surrounded by a serpent; this is explained as the world surrounded by the ocean7).
According to Arabic geographers this ocean is the only real sea on the earth; it is the basin that provides all other seas with water, their f^s. as they say8). They know, however, that the Caspian sea has no connection with the ocean; and concerning the Pontos the same view is sometimes expressed9).
1) BG I, 8: (jj^UI^ t$J Jkïs? JaxjsUI SjxX^ l^ï <joJi\s
2) Jd^tj AbO Zaid IV, 54.
3) MukaddasI, p. 16: H3 Sulc «3 u<» 2üiL>tf A*SL y<AX»*o jlaj Li'
4) Yaküt I, 504: ^*i»Jlj XtL^t 'ziekst Lft«a«J> L*x>JL Ja$3?
5) Cf. The Navel of the Earth, p. 64.
6) 'Adja'ib, fol. 15b: koLSil. rf. At ALsü «Ut *"k>5
7) Pseudo-Callisthenes, Chapter 41: <5 ii '6<p't $ ixKcurrx *i xutctowa-x rijv yïv. See also Reitzenstein, Poimandres, p. 31-
8) B. G. VIII, 68.
9) Nuwairi, p. 61 maintains that there are three seas: the ocean, the Caspian sea (jjü and the jjiJaJuU ^S, which scarcely can be other than u». b»J. •



26
THE OCEAN IN COSMOGRAPHY
The idea of the ocean as the mother of all other seas is of importancè for the cosmography of the Arabs, for, as they say themselves, all seas are really only gulfs of the ocean1), and the maps of the world as they are found in Kazwïnï2), Ibn al-Wardïs), and Abu '1-Fida'*), give a good impression of this conception. No doubt the idea is not especially Arabic but like many other notions concerning the ocean, it is the common property of the Western Semites. It may be imagined, that it has been of the highest importancè for those Semitic peoples who had a sea-cost and a frequent intercourse with the sea. For the Israelites the Meditérranean must have represented Tehom with all its beneficial and pernicious properties. — The Arabs, as having a geographical literature, have left very full dates concerning their conception of the ocean. They generally call it by the Greek term u^Lï,^ or Ja*sdl ysaJI 'the surrouncing ocean', which latter name is already a description. They furher make a distinction between the Western and the Eastern sea, viz. the Meditérranean and the 'Chinese sea', but they know that both are only vast gulfs of the ocean6). The Eastern sea is sometimes called the pitch sea6).
Some authors apply the term ocean u^Wb' especially to the Western sea7); this is possibly due to the Greek origin of the term.
The fact, that the Meditérranean is considered as the ocean or a gulf of it, appears also from their common name: the Green sea8).
Finally we have to point to a cosmographic peculiarity in connection with the oceans that, as in many other cases, will prove to be mingled with ancient religion. I refer to a series of traditions all of which speak of an image, a town, a tower, a castle or a mountain in the far West or the far East. The similarity here with the columns of Hercules denoting the
1) B. G. I, 6; 68; II, n.
2) I, 105.
3) I a, p. 6.
4) Reinaud, traduction I, p. LXXII.
5) Marfcid I, 129: J,yfcJ! 0t^SuJi W J^aXj ^ ^ % Ja^S?
Dimashki, p. 17; Abu '1-fidS', p. 21.
7) Dimashkï, p. 127; Abu '1-fida', p. 12.
8) ^a=>"ÜI ySvJt, B.G. VI, 92, note a; p. 230, 264; VII, 85; VIII, 68; Jaküt I, 504.



THE OCEAN JN COSMOGRAPHY
27
entrance to the ocean and also to the Meditérranean will strike every reader. Arabic literature is acquainted indeed with this name and the traditions connected with it. It is however to be remarked that, as far as I know, the columns of Hercules never denote the mountains. of Abyle and Calpe, which, according to Greek tradition, were rent asunder by the demi-god.
What Arabic tradition tells concerning Hercules, may follow here. According to Masudl on the territory which separates the Meditérranean from the Ocean there is a tower (>^) of brass and stones, built by the giant and king Heracles. In this tower is an inscription and images which beckon with their hands [as if they would say]: there is no way behind me, nor a trodden path for any one who will enter this sea from the
Meditérranean for this is the sea of darkness, the Green
sea, the surrounding one. Others say, however, that the tower is not on the isthmus but on some of the islands in the surrounding ocean1).
A tradition to this effect is indeed to be found in Arabic literature in this form, that Hercules had built brazen images on some of the islands in the ocean3).
With reference to Masudl's tradition, it should be remarked, that here the distinct reminiscence of Greek mythology has been augmented with the feature, that the tower or the images have been erected to indicate the utmost limit of the human and animal territory: here is the entrance to the ocean and the ocean is shut off for man. Further the name of Heracles does not occur in the traditions on this subject we shall have to review.. ~
According to Idrïsï») in the Western ocean, on the isles of Masfahan and <jy*J, there is a red image, denoting that there is no way behind. Sometimes the sea in the neighbourhood of these islands is called the sea of the brazen images*).
,) Mas'udl I, 257: f>- O*** ^ ^ ^
k£tits a^y^a m ^ 'j* lAf1 PU «a-S
JiB 0t M -t**0* J*^ oUy! ^ ^
2) B. G. VIII, 69.
3) P- 28
4) Mas'üdl I, 184.



28
THE OCEAN IN COSMOGRAPHY
In other traditions the name of Heracles has been replaced by that of persons more familiar to the Arabs. Ibn al- Wardï mentions three statues, a green, a red and a white one, which warn the sailors not to proceed farther; they have been erected by the Yemenite king Abraha 'of the tower' (J i , Jt 3J)i). According to Tabarï the Tubba Yasir Anam undertakes an expedition to the far West. He reaches the sand-river, and sends a troop farther Westward; they do not return however. Then he erects a brazen statue at the side of the wadï, with the inscription: This statue is that of Ancam the Himyarite; there is no way beyond it; let nobody undertake'it, for hè would perish3).
These traditions, which connect South-Arabian princes with the entrance to the ocean, are also brought into relation with Alexander; Alexander in Muslim tradition has taken the place of Herakles, he has separated Europe from Africa by digging the strait of Gibraltar3). He is the hero who has visited the far West and he .is entitled to mark the entrance to the ocean by a distinctive sign. Thus, according to the Ethiopian edition of the Romance of Alexander, he has built a tower in the ocean and placed upon it his own statue with a key in its hand and with an inscription saying that he has shut off the sea4).
It should further be remarked that in the last two traditions brazen images are spoken of. There is a series of reports which refer to brazen images. According to Idrisï on each of the two Islands of the Happy there is an image of stones, a hundred cubits in hight, upon each image is a brazen statue6).
There is a different series of traditions which do not speak of a brazen statue in the far West, but of a brazen town. Masudï has a remarkable report on it: Between the nearer Sus and the farther' Sus lies a distance of twenty days travel filled with cultivated places which reach to the sand river and the black castle. Then there follow deserts of sand in which is found the town known as the brazen town and the lead cupola's; it was reached by Müsa b. Nusair in the caliphate of cAbd' al-Malik b. Marwan6).
1) I, b, 2, 13.
2) Tabarï, Annales I, 684.
3) Idrisï, p. 166; Dimashki, p. 136.
4) p. 128.
5) P- 2.
6) I 369: ^ yf> ^ j^aftf yj^JJ ^ ^



THE OCEAN IN COSMOGRAPHY
20
This brazen town occurs also in the Romance of Alexander and the king is called its founder1). This is again a sign of the connection between the traditions concerning the brazen image and those concerning the brazen town.
The brazen town and Müsa b. Nusair's report are treated at length in Arabic literature. Ibn al-Faklh2) reproduces Müsa's letter to "the caliph. He describee how he reached with his troops a town in Spain, of which the shining pinnacles had appeared to them already at a five days' distance. When they saw the town before them, it inspired them with a mighty horror. When inspected closely it appeared to be a town without gates. So with the aid of ladders a man climbed the wall but when he was at the top he burst out laughing, descended into the town and, when called by Müsa, no sound of him was heard; he never appeared again. So three men disappeared •, then Müsa inspected the walls again and found an inscription in verses asserting that man never will reach inmortality. If any one, it would have been Solomon who has built this city with the aid of the djinn's. Then Müsa met with a man of the djinn's who told him that a man used to visit the place and to perform the salat on the edge of the pond there; and that he took this man for al-Khadir. Then Müsa ordered divers to dive into the pond; they found in it apart from many brazen objects, brazen men who at once flew away saying: I never return. These are, according to Zuhrï, the djinn's which Solomon has emprisoned there.
In the Arabian-Nights we have a story of the brazen town that also tells Müsa's adventure, partly in accordance with Ibn al-Falah, but to a long extent independently from him. • Here the brazen town is entered by Müsa and his companious who find it to be the city of the dead: the men are in the markets, the merchants in their shops, but all are dead, among their innumerable treasures. When Talib ibn Sahl tries to take with him some of the treasures he is killed in a myste-
(iU3 Jma>J «3 OjJiï foiiÏÏj J-OjJI i_5°!^ o' ^
L*o J$ u^LojJI i_jLS_5 u*LsAJ! 'i*~iO<f. i-jj^uJI *-UXtl Ifcö JvJ! J-o^Jt jjUf.
1) Jaküt IV, 455. But Solomon is also called the founder; cf. Friedlander, Die Chadhirlegende und der Alexanderroman, p. 185.
2) B. G. V, 88 sqq.



30
THE OCEAN rN COSMOGRAPHY
rious way. Then Müsa and his troops travel along the coast till they reach a high mountain where a people dwells which claims to be the posterity of Cham the son of Noah. They teil Müsa a story concerning al-Khadir who preached to them the Muhammedan confession, of which they have accepted the belief in God. — Then follows the story of the divers1).
These traditions, which are connected with legends about Alexander2), speak of a brazen image and a brazen town as the signs of the limit of the West. The town is provided with cupola's and shining pinnacles; it is a place full of all sorts of precious things, but it is a place of death. We have here a mythic town as the sign of the end of the world and of the entrance to the ocean. We possess different traditions on the same subject. In some reports this town is identified with Cadix; e. g. in a tradition communicated by Dimashkï: The island of Cadix is a town provided with walls, surrounded by the ocean. Cadix is the name of an image which is said to be a talisman which stops or prevents the ships from passing out of the Britannic sea into the Meditérranean. It was of guilded copper in order to prevent its becoming rusted by the salt water of the sea; it is placed upon circular rocks. . . The hand of this image points in the direction of the ocean3). — Here image and town have been united, a proof of the fact that both have the same meaning.
It is to be observed, that both town and statue are already combined in the Syriac version of the Romance of Alexander; where all this is in the utmost East. Alexander reaches a mountain of sapphire near a river Barsatis. Here a divine voice warns him not to proceed. He builds a town near the mountain and upon the mountain he places a brazen statue4). — Here we have three signs of the end of the earth: a mountain,
1) S72nd Night.
2) The story with the people near the mountain is in the Arabic Romance of Alexander, cf. Friedlander, Chadhir-legende, p. 140 sq.
3) P- 243: p-*»' (J"JÖ5 JojcsUI ƒSuJi Lgj . U «-o ëjy^o X-UXo (j*ols »jJ.j>5
-kcS\it ysuil Xpa. £| SyJi* jU*aJf L\J> Ouj .... a^vA* jy&*>. Idrïsï, p. 2 also says that one of the images is at Cadix.
4) P- 193 sq-



THE OCEAN IN COSMOGRAPHY
31
an image and a town; we shall discuss the mountain later on. But we have first to arrange a series of traditions which speak of a town, or, as is usually the case, of two towns, one in the utmost West, the other in the utmost East.
In the Arabic stories of Alexander it is said that the king xeaches in the utmost East a town Djabalfca; there he takes provisions for his journey into the land of darkness. So the town is the sign of the end of -the earth1). That the parallelism between this town and the brazen town, which I have indicated, is not arbitrary, may be seen from the fact that in the Arabian Nights the episode with the wild people near the mountain is told in connection with the brazen town, here in connection with Djabalka.
It is further to be observed that according to a different Arabic version of the story of Alexander, the king reaches in the utmost West 'in the place where the sun sets' the town of Djabarsa*). — It is easily seen that of these names one is only a differentiation of the other; their character is so uniform that the Oriental sources confuse the names: sometimes one is in the West, sometimes it is in the East. They are considered as the dwelling places of the remains of vanished peoples; sometimes it is the 'children of Moses' who have taken refuge there in the time of Saul or Nebukadnezar. They are innumerable and no Jew can safely visit them; for if a Jew comes to them they presume him to do so on account of his deviating from the Jewish tradition; then they kill him3).
It is however also said that in one town the remnants of cAd, in the others the descendants of Thamüd. dweil *).
Tabarï describes the towns as follows: Eithèr of them has ten thousand gates, between every two gates is the distance of a parasang, every gate is attended by ten thousand angels which are replaced every day by ten thousand others without ever !returning. Mohammed said: If the inhabitants of these towns were not so numerous and clamorous, mankind would hear the falling of the sun when it sets; four peoples dweil behind these towns: Nasik and Munsïk, Hawll and Kawïl; before them are the dwelling- places of Gog and Magog. In the night of ascen-
1) Friedlandér, Chadhirlegende, p. 140.
2) Friedlandér, o. c., p. 138.
3) Yaküt, Mu'djam II, 2.
4) Tabarï I, 67; Yaküt II, 2.



32
THE OCEAN IN COSMOGRAPHY
sion Gabriel conducted me towards these peoples. When I invited Gog and Magog to [serve] Allah they declined; so they are in Heil with the rebellious sons of Adam and Iblïs. Then Gabriel took me towards the two towns; they responded to my exhortation to [serve] Allah. So they are our brothers; whosoever of them does well, will be with those of you who do well; and whosoever of them does evil, will be with those of you who do evil. Then Gabriel took me towards the four peoples; when I invited them to [serve] Allah, they declined, and declared me to be a liar and were incredulous. So they are with Gog and Magog in Heil1).
It is clear that Gog and Magog are not in their right place here; Oriental tradition, from Ezechiel down to the Romance of Alexander, speaks of them as the people inhabiting the utmost North. We have here to do with traditions which know of other peoples, indicating the place of the utmost West and the utmost East. Not only the North, but also the East and the West are characterised by barbarous peoples. In our tradition Gog and Magog are not adduced as an analogy, as it could be expected, but they are even removed from their fixed place.
That the towns indicate the utmost West and the utmost East is said expressly2); in our tradition the Western town indicates the place where the sun sets. Dimashki places Djabarka on the Island of the Happy and calls it the golden castle8); which recalls the black castle near the sand-river.
Lastly I have to mention a tradition relating that Adam received a mirror in order to be able to observe the things on the earth: then Satan went and built upon the mirror in the East the town of Djabart *).
The names of the towns are handed down in many forms: According to Bekri6) the right pronunciation of the one is Djabalak. But Djabalku, Djabalka and Djabarka occur also. The namé of the other town is pronounced Djabarsa, Djabarsu, Djabart, Djabalas.
Now Arabic tradition itself indicates the foreign origin of the
1) Tabarï I, 67; KisS'ï, 'Adja'ib, fol. I5bsq.
2) e. g. Yaküt II, 2: dJ*U LT^?"
3) p. 132: i-*AXJ' yni jS>i kyb» L$jj &XeL«il
4) Tabarï, Annales III, 165.
5) *i 231-



THE OCEAN IN COSMOGRAPHV
33
reports concerning these towns; for several authors add the Syriac and the Hebrew forms of the names. According to Thalabï the Hebrew forms are: and o^l—y.^1); the
Syriac forms are also found in Tabarï; they are: t&ifj), u*4»r*) and L**a>jJ, L^a^j, Lc«<^>jj, Lw-^y. Traditions concerning the towns in Hebrew literature are not known to me; in Syriac literature one of the towns occurs. Cod. Sachau of the Syriac Manuscripts in the Royal Library, Berlin, n° 221 fol. • I4ia sqq. contains a Christian amulet which is ascribed to Cyprian, the magician from Antioch, whose conversion and. adventures with Justa are spread through Eastern and Western literature. In this magical prayer the power of the seventy six angels is implored, who descended upon Agrïfö[s]. This may be cómpared with the numbers of angels which daily descend towards one of the towns according to Tabarï and Kisa'ï's tradition.
But this is all I have been able to find in Aramaic literature. According to the Arabic version of the prayer of Cyprian sixty six angels have descended towards the town of u*^'3)' Before discussing the origin of the traditions we have found in Semitic literature, it is necessary to summarize their principal contents and their characteristic features. They are these: In the utmost West as well as in the utmost East there are natural or artificial signs which denote the impossibility of proceeding farther; they mark the utmost limit of the earth and the beginning of the ocean, the place where the sun sets. They consist of a mountain, town, castle, tower or image. In them are gathered innumerable riches and jewels; they are of copper, lead or gold. They are the dwelling-place of populations of which the great mass no longer exists on the earth; so they do not know of God's revelation unto Muhammed, but they are willing to acknowledge God's unity. They are places of death and desolation. They are inhabited by angels.
Many of these features are also found in a work which was widely spread through Oriental literature, the Book of Henoch. In chapters 17 sqq. is described how Henoch is brought to the fire of the West, which receives every setting of the sun. Here he sees the great river and the great darkness, the mountains, the mouth of the ocean, the place where no flesh walks. Here
I) p. 18. 2) Bibliothèque Nationale, Cod. Arabe 309, fol. 104 sqq.
Verhand. Kon. Akad. v. Wetensch. Nieuwe Reekt Dl. XIX N°. a.
3



34
THE OCEAN IN COSMOGRAPHY
is the end of the earth. When he inquires regarding this region, the angel answers: This place is the end of heaven and earth; this has become a prison for the stars and the host of heaven.
In chapter 22 Sheol is described: And thence I went to another place and he showed me in the West [another] great and high mountain. There Henoch sees hollow places and Raphael says to him: These hollow places have been created for this very purpose, that the spirits of the souls of the dead should assemble therein, yes that all the souls of the children of men should assemble there1).
Here we find: the end of the earth, where there is no region beyond, the place where the sun sets, the high mountains, the abode of the angels and of the souls of men who await here the day of Judgment.
It is hardly necessary to say that Arabic literature in its descriptions goes back to the book of Henoch. It is also certain that Henoch's vision is a vision of Sheol; this means, that the entrance of the ocean, the utmost West, is really no longer a part of the earth, but of the nether world. That the peoples of the old world are gathered here is a thought akin to the Catholic idea, that in the entrance to heil the heroes of the Old Testament are awaiting the resurrection. According to a well known tradition Christ descends into Sheol and preaches the Gospel to its inhabitants. It may easily be seen that Mohammed's preaching Islam to the people of the two towns in the night of his ascension, is only a Muslim variant of the Christian theme.
But we may go further. The oldest idea is that of a mountain or mountains marking the West. This idea is not limited to the West and the East. It holds also true for the North and the South. Ephraim Syrus in his commentary on the book of Genesis quotes Jacob of Edessa: The people which inhabits the North, before the mountains which are called the Breasts of the North, descend in cold winter days unto the bank of that river which they call the river of fire. As to the two mountains which are called the Breasts of the North, their stones are of crystal. Beyond them is no dwelling-place for men; for beyond the river is nothing but the ocean, the great sea that surrounds the whole earth ...*).
1) According to the translation and emendation by Charles.
2) Ephraim, Opp. I, 121: reisi^ ^23 ^»12a^..l ^Aco. rdxiïla ArC*



THE OCEAN IN COSMOGRAPHY
35
We find here several of the characteristics inherent to the signs of the West: the mountains, the river of fire, the end of the inhabitable world, the ocean. The population is not called by any name in the report of Jacob of Edessa. But in other traditions1) they are always called Gog and Magog. And in the Romance of Alexander the two mountains are the extremities of the gate built by Alexander against Gog and Magog. If we further consider the fact that the South is characterized also by a mountain, called the Mountain of the Moon *), we may state that in Semitic cosmography each of the four winds is characterized by one or more mountains which are found on the utmost border of the earth, in or near the ocean. These mountains are further described as strewn with jewels. We cannot but think here of an other mountain, which is described as lying at the utmost end of the earth, in one of its quarters and which is also strewn with jewels: the mountain of paradise.
But ancient Semitic cosmography mentions the other characteristic mountains also: I may refer to Jeremias, Handbuch der altorientalischen Geisteskultur8) and recall the fact, that the columns found in some Semitic temples had a function parallel to that Of the mountains characterizing the quarters of the world.
Finally, all this having been settled, we have to ask whether the names of the towns are purely fantastic or not. We have found that the consonants of the Syriac form of one of them, according to Arabic authors, are b-r-g-s, and that in a Syriac manuscript [co]a*.iV!* occurs. The only difference, apart from the sequence, is that between the b and the This points to an original Greek form that had a rt. So we get 7i%e>s, a tower or a castle. Now it is clear why some traditions speak of a tower or a castle. Further it is to be remembered that
riViu re-icaeu ^Aeoa rd=>i-\^ r^va ^-.ïflAoa.i r*'-\c\ <Aco ^Ico ^èvwJ rCicoi cnA ^VM oeo rVienl i^A rfoWl
A\ts9 rdriorA rfiso^sa éVvA ^oeniso cO^lo ^ne* ooc\AVooifl:i T-U»* oeo rdai rdsu coCU*aorC nednf AvA oen rCicol AeaA.1
rd^-irC cnLaA
1) Thaclabï, p. 320; Aethiopic Romance of Alexander, p. 281.
2) Cf. e.g. DimashVl, Index s. v. _j*aJI \>-f> and the map in Ibn al-WardL
3) P- 56.



36
THE OCEAN IN COSMOGRAPHY
itvpyoq in the Kor'an (^v) often has an astronomical meaning (r5i I6; 25,62; 85, 1); it is usually explairied as zodiacal signs, but the context only suggests the meaning of constellation. In this connection I may draw attention to a note in Friedlander's book on Khadir and Alexander where, from 'Omara's history of Alexander, a report is mentioned, according to which Alexander and his men, while in the far West near Djabarsa, fasten their horses in the mountain of the earth and hang their weapons in the Plejads; then the weapons turn round and after a year they are at the same place again. So there seems to have been a connection between the town in the West and one or other of the constellations; this connection is probably also denoted by the name of which the consonants b-r-g-s form the constant part.
Summarizing the results of this chaptèr, we find that according to Semitic cosmography, the three parts of the universe: heaven, earth and nether world, each have their ocean.
Still, it would be wrong, I think,. to say that the Semitic peoples, or some of them, have known three oceans. The 'word Tehom, which the Northern Semites use, is not a nomen appellativum but a proper noun. This in itself points to the unity of the ocean. They speak of the nether Tehom and pf the upper Tehom; but it is apparently one, with three divisions. Ecclesiastes seems to express the unity in what he says on the circular motion of the water: All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again1). The unity of Tehom is probably still to be traced in their representations of the form of the universe. The firmament is the layer or the cover above which upper Tehom is placed. It has been a question interesting the old world, to know in which way this firmament is connected with the ends of the earth. For here, apparently, earthly and heavenly Tehom, nay even also nether Tehom flow together2). We may even surmise that here the fountains of Tehom are to be sought. I may quote 'Omara's report from Friedlandér3): Alexander verlasst Gabarsa und gelangt an die Stelle, wo die Sonne untergeht. Dort erblickt er einen ungèheuren Berg von blendendem Grün, der sich als volkommen
1) Ecclesiastes 1,7. Professor Eerdmans. reminded me of this passage.
2) Cf. Jensen, Kosmologie der Babylonier, plate III. 3) p. 139.



THE OCEAN IN COSMOGRAPHY
37
unzüganglich erweisf und an 'dessen FUsse das Meer hineinströmt und verschwindet. Dahinter befinden sich 360 Quellen von ungeheurem Umfang, deren Wasser von schwarzer Farbe ist und wie in einem Topfe brodelt. Die Sonne fallt tagtaglich in eine dieser Quellen hinein und verursacht hierbei ein ungeheures Gerausch, das Tier, Mensch und Genius in Schrecken versetzt.
This is clear: the sun, according to the common conception, sets in the ocean; these fountains are consequently the fountains of the ocean itself and here seems to be the place where the three parts pf it meet. That cOmara's representation is not .purely fantastic, but in concordance with Oriental conception, may again be proved by a quotation from the book of Henoch. The patriarch is brought to the West: I saw the mountains of the darkness of winter and the place whence all the waters of the deep flow. I saw the mouths of all the rivers of the earth and the mouth of the deep1).
Now if the ocean is one in the Semitic conception, how then is it explained that its water is partly sweet, partly brackish? This question has been asked by the Semites themselves. We have seen that they consider nether Tehom to be sweet: for it is the basin from which the water of rivers and springs flows3); the ocean is brackish, whereas the water of upper Tehom is again sweet. Before reproducing their explanation of this phenomenon, we may state, that the Kor'an is not convinced of the unity of the oceans: 'It is He who has let loose the two seas; this fresh and sweet, and that salt and bitter: and has placed between them a bar and a boundary which cannot be passed'8). The commentators say: By the fresh and sweet he denotes the waters of rivers and of rain, by the salt and bitter the waters of the sea4).
But the bar between them points to a cosmographic con•ception which is no longer known to us; perhaps the isthmus in the Syriac Legend of Alexander and the Babylonian shupuk shamë may be compared.
1) Chapter 17, in Charles' translation.
2) above, p. 17. o- . .
3) Süra 25,55: °^ ^ ^ Ü^r^' ÖT^ ^
lyS^j L>^ Lglo Jjt>j- Cf. 27,62; 35,13; 55,
4) Tabarï, Tafsïr XXV,55: rfs-UL,j jU*»^ J^-H*' v{-** «fe^



38
THE OCEAN IN COSMOGRAPHY
Ephraim Syrus gives a rather extensive exposition of the nature of Tehom. The waters — he says — the earth drank on the first day, were not brackish, though they covered the earth like Tehom; for there were not yet seas, for in the seas the waters were salted, that before their being gathered, were not brackish. Thus when they were sent in order to water the earth, on the whole earth they were sweet. And when they were gathered on the third day in their seas, they became brackish, lest they should become stinking because of their being gathered, and in order that they should be able to receive the rivers that flow into them, without increasing, for the quantity of the rivers which flow into it, corresponds with its increase. Now the rivers flow into the sea, lest the heat of the sun should dry it up. And they are swallowed by its salt nature, lest it should increase, mount and submerge the earth; so the rivers are reduced, as it were, to nothing, because the salt nature of the sea swallows them. — Even though it shquld be that with the creation of the waters, also seas were created (though hidden in the waters), and though the seas were bitter, yet the waters above them were not bitter, just as during the deluge the seas exïsted (though hidden), but were not able to change into their own bitter nature the sweet waters of the deluge that were above them. For if they had been bitter, how then could the olives or any herbs have been preserved in them?*) etc.
i) Opp. I, io: c\-A rd=Q.TO KÜsacua rd^irc* &l_»è\x.fV.l —T
^ OoqjcKjK' rdik.ïrc' .ïSkre' Ai*. nlsaocoèi w^K' •ixi^^rc' : ooco reVxA=o cvwAso v^acn ^ocalöasoia .• r&zoü ooco Ai^.vt- re*A «ArV . ooco T-i—^ xik . ooco ^'i'ttil'a rdA ^ajr_i^A\_i.i ^o.to.i ^a_ico . r***•***? . ooco résajiflas ooco ^i,i»i\x. rïl^.irS' co\a rcAsas K&icxiuA mjOk\sai r<A.i cujAsq ^ocoïsasaA rc^èvAcHs aju^&irc* sa kAo
iuj . erA ^»&v»j.i rcdiaicnl.i KlY*a n£sa».i oen cmflsia&t cnaaïa
rct^nai rcA.io rc'éWieru caA ^_>cVu*J rdüajLi ensacu» cnxail i«\ oeo v^*rC* cocVicujjJCT ^ocolA r<lvia rclN.ircA ca*&*u jiAUO cn-A rdsn_»i oeo coè>o.4*.At?3.-i ."u= reéWicn_i ^«•v°tco )q.vjso ttAA.i ,i ■ ^ ^ocoèuin [read rCOorU . rCeWlcrïA ^OcrA rdaAa
^oocq.i Ar*" relïjsoa ooco rtlSQJacu a—*iacnrC* rdiLsn
kA AAi r<uuSQ »»T>12Q Klï/i!yjj>'



THE OCEAN IN COSMOGRAPHY
39
Ephraim therefore holds the opinion that the water of Tehom is sweet; that the water of the creation and the water of the deluge were sweet; and that only a small part of the water of Tehom, viz. that of the seas, has become brackish; how, he does not say. And Halabï says that the water the throne of God rested upon before the creation was sweet x); this means that the water of the creation is considered by him as being sweet water.
Muslim tradition has tried to explain the brackish nature of the ocean-, according to Ibn al-Wardï some say its water becomes bitter and salt by its long stagnation and the burning of the sun; but others think that in the ocean itself fhere are 'veins' which change the sweet nature of the water3). But in the Ethiopië romance of Alexander it is said that the brackish and the sweet water of the ocean are one, because both come forth from the mountain that surrounds the earth3).
Popular science has, however, also possessed opposite views. It has also started from the fact that Tehom, as it manifests itself in the seas, contains brackish water. So upper Tehom is also brackish (here the unity of Tehom is again proved); how can rain be sweet? This is the subject of a discussion between Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Joshua. Rabbi Eliezer states that the earth drinks from the water of the ocean. Rabbi Joshua asks: From the water of the ocean? Is not this water brackish? The other replies: It is made sweet by the clouds4).
red
cH_*rc* rtH-^cO^ rcts&jLflas rdlLsaA K'i—ïisa ^jacaltfA v^easaA Aao rtèüt Orf* OTJSQ VV re'Anc' ^ocalJSJ A^A OOCO [read è\_>K' .l]
1) I, 195. ^ocnca ooco kAVgl&ca rdlijrf' ^Vv CV*ai
2) ia, p. 32: JLb UkS «jl (»*s p—^ y5^' *^ '&>jk* <3> LtóJ.' t>«iA>|s
u [read t-óuis-lj] («aXXs-Ij LstLo \y> .Uö <J}\f>% ,j*m-£JI niJsti^
q5j>S pjtiy üUJJ Jalü Cr» er* v-*^
3) p. 144: h««:TIl1!:^:^C!ffl<^JB:T^yD:HjB©}tÖi?i^D^-C:a'yD^-CL:
4) Midrasi Kohelet, fol. 7 r°: IQ^ fiybü 'l JWBT "tl "Wbik "l ÏW& pVlDl
b noa jn ynbü vm xb Dupia "od jiiot h ^ -m •••• nrnty Dirpia ^od
d^jd in ppnoriD



CHAPTER III
THE CHARACTER OF THE OCEAN
In the chapter on Semitic cosmogonic systems we have touched upon the character of Tehom as having two aspects. On the one hand it appears as the chief enemy of the god of the creation; on the other, as an instrument in the hands of almighty God. We shall be able to tracé this distinction throughout the entire conception of the ocean in the literature of the Western Semites: on the one hand it is an ungodly, negative, chaotic power; here it is considered as the realm of death and here it is really the nether world. On the other hand it is a productive, positive, cosmic power; and here it is considered as the place of paradise where the fountain of life springs. I shall try to prove this in the present chapter.
A. the ocean as a negative power
The ocean is often described as the place of darkness. This is not an unimportant feature, it is a charactertistic one. Darkness, the land of darkness, the realm of darkness are in Semitic literature designations of the nether world, or in later times, of heil. The Old Testament contains many examples. The poet of Psalm 88 says in his plaints: Thou hast placed me in the pit of the nether world, in the darkness, in the abysses1). Here we have three synonyms: the nether world, the darkness and the rfrïfD, the abysses, a designation of Tehom. — The author of Psalm 49 says that the soul of the rich man after his death is joined with the generation of his fathers, who in eternity will not see light*). So Job speaks of his going, without return, to the land of darkness and shadow of death8).
1) vs. 7: róüD3 d^ttroa rmnnn tod vm
2) vs. 20: na INT N^ riSi IJ? ÏTÏON Tl "W tOTi
3) io, 21: rrrósn urn pN ^n rWN ió) -\bx mtsa



THE CHARACTER OF THE OCEAN
41
It will not be necessary to give more examples from the Old Testament. In the New Testament the place of darkness and grinding of teeth is a well known designation of heil.
The place of darkness is not only under the earth, but it already begins at the ends of the earth. We have seen that according to the Western Semites the earth is encircled by the ocean, which begins at the ends of the earth. Sometimes the earth is represented as being surrounded by a wall of mountains, the Djebel Kaf in Arabic literature j the ocean then surrounds these mountains. Even this place is the - beginning of darkness. In the Talmud is said: Tohu is the green cord that surrounds the whole earth and from which darkness springsl). The green cord can scarcely be anything else than 'the ocean. And in Tamid is said: Rabbi Elijahu taught: Gehenna is above the firmament; but some say it is behind the mountains of darkness8). This means: Gehenna is sought at any rate in Tehom; for Tehom is above the firmament and round 'the circle of mountains that surround the earth and here are called the mountains of darkness. Of a similar nature is a talmudic tradition to this effect: Rabbi Jeremija, the son of R. Elazar, said: Gehenna has three gates: one in the desert, one in the sea, one in Jerusalem8). In mediaeval literature saint Brandan is represented as reaching a mountain of flames situated in the ocean: this mountain is heil4).
In this connection we have to consider anew some versions of the Romance of Alexander. In the Syriac version, which does not contain the journey towards the fountain of life, Alexander's aim is, apart from conquering the world, to reconnoitre the earth and what is in it. This aim is only a slight modification of the aim of the historical Alexander. But popular imagination has not stopped here. Alexander will not only reconnoitre the earth, he will also enter Paradise; in the Syriac legend of Alexander he reaches a place in the North of the earth from where he observes paradise, enveloped by the ocean and dark clouds. And the mediaeval Latin version of the Romance of Alexander bears the title of Iter ad Paradisum.
1) Hagiga 12a: njt uödw )bo ubwn b? dn TP0^ pty V inr>
2) 32b= -|tsn m "nnvb o'hdin w) )pp*i p nbvob aim vrb» 1 »on
3) cErubia 19*: -inNI "OlZn im D3iTJ^> W DTiriB iïWbïï "ïtj^n rPDT 'T "IDtfl
4) d'Avezac, p. 7.



42
THE CHARACTER OF THE OCEAN
A third aim of Alexander is to reach the land of darkness. We have seen that this only means the nether world. So Alexander, in popular literature, seeks to examine the three parts of the universe: the earth, paradise (or heaven) and the land of darkness or the nether world.
It is in the poem ascribed t$ Jacob of Sarug that Alexander seeks to penetrate into the land of darkness. The king is represented as delivering a speech in which he expounds his plan: I desire greatly to go out and see the countries and the far lands, in order to see what is in them; and I will go and see the seas and the ends [of the earth] and all quarters; but, above all, I desire to enter and see the land of darkness1). This desire of the king is met by his generals with the objection, that the terrible seas surrounding the world will not allow him to cross and see the land of darkness').
When Alexander discusses his plan with the old men, he is again dissuaded from penetrating into the land of darkness; for every one who hears of it, flees without entering it; some have ventured to > enter in their presumption, but they never have been heard of up to this time, they have not returned nor have they left it3). This description is typical for the nether world which in Babylonian literature is called irsit la tar, the land without return. And in several European languages analogous expressions are used for the designation of death and the nether world.
In the poem ascribed to Jacob of Sarug the land of darkness is localized beyond the ocean; in other versions this is not the case. In the version C of Pseudo-Callisthenes, Alexander's journey along the ocean is described as a journey through the land of darkness, as may appear from this description: Starting from there, Alexander marched through the desert towards the
1) Ed. Hunnius, lines 37—40: rtdlOÏcWrU K'l—uK' jacxArf* >.lèv^i >^£0 rdsuoia tViurt' jacv^Kö ^cos èurc* ^cvsa.i rcèmMtT rc$u».'ireA Are* ré&cixw èual re*v**rc*o Acv^re*.! A& jso i»&uo r<dui& Aa^a rd&öfloa
2) Lines 51 sq.: rcAl*».! retSOSoj* ^"""«» red
KL^Öxm AuaA rC'vucW in^cta rdscA^A a^vao
3) Lines 140—142: crlA Ad**j
O Va Kb cA\r<to ^^acoèhcuoi^a ctA oA^.q uïli^ ^*^» ooco cuïisarc*
Ojb&io cux& rcAo ^9QCkA rdsosf*.



THE CHARACTER OF THE OCEAN
43
ocean, while he no longer did see anything, neither birds nor animals, except heaven and earth; but they no longer saw the sun, only the black air1).
Arabic literature has many data concerning the identification of the ocean with the place of darkness. Many traditions speak of a 'dark ocean'. We have already seen that the Talmud speaks of the green circle from which darkness springs. This points to a cosmographic representation identical with that of some Arabic reports. Ibn al-Wardï has this passage on the dark ocean: As regards the seas, the largest of them on the surface of the earth is the surrounding one, which ehcircles it on all sides; it has no terminus nor strand, except on the side of the earth; its shore on the open side is the dark ocean, which encircles the surrounding one as the latter surrounds the earth. Its darkness is caused by its great distance from the place of sunrise and sunset*).
This dark sea, therefore, which surrounds the ocean really does not belong to the earth; for the sun does not reach it: it is a part of the nether world. Idrisï's description is also worth mêntioning: As to the dark ocean, nobody knows what is behind it and no human being possesses any trustworthy report of it, because of, the difficulty of sailing over it, the darkness of its light, the towering of its waves, its multitude of riches, the tyranny of its animals, and the vehemence of its winds 8).
Other Arabic traditions identify the surrounding ocean and the dark one*); also special parts of the surrounding ocean are identified with the dark ocean5).
In the dark ocean are situated islands that are bereft of light6).
i) II, Ch. 38: ixëtSiv olv ivttfJcfiw 6 'AKi^avSpaf 'Ipifpev uhua-sv «*} 'zó.Xxvsm h^ksti [j.y$ëv épaiv n^re 7r£t£tvov p$Tt Stjp/'ov tl {ivj tov olip&vov uzi t$v y%v t tov ês ifAwv piltUTt iBsapovv aAKa i-ictvpov iitu.
'J 2) Ia, 8: ^yt Laj <J5}i*ü Ja*^ (joftt *J>j J^c j-^>. phdi ^LsuJ! Lo|j
njuih3 ijoyAf L,>jgdt JLaaIL Vi j-^i (JLktl
3) p. 165: }jj (JMt \ó>& s__AJL===- L t\s»t jjjrj "Üj jJLÈiit ysui\ j . . . isy^j X>lyv«t jjblxjj f^^S *jy*^ Xjj**3J yï> **** v-A*}
4) B.G. VIII, 26.
5) Dimashkï, p. 127; Ibn al-WardJ Ib, 11.
6) Idrisï, p. 55.



44
the character of the ocean
Considering this it is only natural to find that Tehom in Semitic literature is described as the realm of death. This is so in the literature of the Old Testament, where Sheol and Tehom are used as parallel terms. A good example of this parallelism is furnished by the story of Jona. The prophet on his flight reaches Joppe and here starts his journey on the Meditérranean. Now we have seen that the Meditérranean is considered as a bay of Tehom. Those who find in Jona the features of a solar hero, may adduce in support of their theory that Jona, like the sun daily, descends into Tehom. Further his being swallowed by the fish is a real 'descensus ad inferos'. This appears from the poem that is put into his mouth. .'Out of the belly of Sheol cried I and thou heardest my voice. For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst ot
the seas The waters compassed me about ..... I went
down to the bottoms of the mountains; the bars of the earth were about me for ever: yet thou hast brought up my life from the pit'1). Sheol, Tehom and the pit are nearly synonymous here.
The poet of Psalm 40 rejoices at his being saved by God from death and destruction: I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me and heard my cry. He brought me up out of the pit of roaring water, out of miry clay and set my feet upon a rock2). Here apparently the images of the grave and the flood as designations of death have bee*n united. In a more distinct way the term Tehom is used as a designation of death and the grave in Ps. 71, 20: Thou shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth*). 'Depths' is a translation of mOim.
So Tehom has become a type of spiritual distress and destruction. I will only recall Ps. 42, the psalm of mental distress and longing. The poet exclaims, expressing his miserable.stat;e: Tehom calleth unto Tehom at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me4).
1) Jona 2,3 sqq.: .... QiQi 3^3 rbyXÖ .W^RTtt b)p {TVDE? WW bWV |»2D
"hjo ttr&ti pan Tm» om ^xpb vno^ mnn wsi iy d^d "oïbbn
"n nrwb bya\ dflyb
3) vs 2: by op1! jrn tsnao tod vby^ w yam bx tri rm nip
■^n ybü
3) vbyv, awn p^n niDinnoi ^nn y\vn
4) vs 8: ray by yby\ y^avQ bo -pius b)pb Niip oinn ba omn



THE CHARACTER OF THE OCEAN
45
Syriac literature considers the ocean in the same light, perhaps under the influence of biblical literature. Bar Hebraeus, in his Ethikon, describes the journey of the soul on the ocean of life. If the winds are contrary, it will be tossed about between towering floods and troubled waves, and be immersed and precipitated into un-salted oceans and the utmost depth of Sheol1). The Odes of Solomon also contain a passage concerning Tehom, that, though far from clear, yet should be mentioned in this connection: The Dove fluttered over Christ, because He is her head; and she sang over Him and her voice was heard: and the inhabitants were afraid and the sojourners were moved i the birds dropped their wings, and all creeping things died in their holes: and the abysses (rdsoëcoch) were opened which had been hidden; and they cried to the Lord like women in travail; and no food was given them because it did not belong to them; and the abysses were destroyed by the distinction of the Lord. And they perished by that thought, those that existed from ancient times; for they were corrupt from the beginning: and the end of their- corruption was .life2). Usually this passage is taken as a description of Christ's descens'hs ad inferos. Then Tehom would be here, as is often the case, a designation. of the nether world.
In many cases where the ocean is a symbol óf death, the thought of death by drowning lies near. This is however not to be used as an argument against our present view of Tehom. For an element that kills every one who is immersed in it, is in itself, according to the ancient view, an element of death and destruction. This character is usually expressed by the Semites in a way that can leave no room for mistake. The Legend of Alexander furnishes a good example again. Alexander is admonished not to approach 'the ocean, for it is deadly. Having become cautious, yet wishing to cross it, in order to reach the ends of the earth, he has recourse to a subterfuge. In his army are several men who have deservéd death; he orders them to embark and to try to cross the water; but this proves to be of a deadly nature; the men die as soon as they are in contact with it3).
1) p. 209: rcllxuOO&vJSa " \» rtlV.\-\o r</,'\ïr>\ nrAcLwJSO iua Kl^n^cAJsq rCcH_.Av_ijCA Ac\-i.-X-o rdi_jjA=zicA_so rdi pcLsqÖcoc^sO
2) Ode 24, 1—6. 3) ed. Budge, p. 259. rdl^s.. cW-2B o



46
THE CHARACTER OF THE OCEAN
Semitic literature is full of features like this. In a description of Tehom in a cosmological treatise is said: The ocean is the sea that surrounds the whole earth; and in this ocean there is no single of those reptiles who inhabit the water. Nay, even no bird is able to fly over it1). Arabic authors agree as to the impossibility of man's sailing over the ocean: ships are of no valuea), so that no human being is acquainted with it8); it has no shore*). The tower of stones and copper, built by Heracles at the entrance of the ocean bears images that seem to say: beyond me there is no way; nor is there a passage, says Mas'üdï, for any of those who enter this sea coming from the Meditérranean; for it is a sea that cannot be sailed, that is without habitable places, without rational animals that inhabit it; its extension cannot be conceived nor its end be reached, nor its terminus be known; this is the sea of darkness, the Green sea, or the surrounding one6).
Such descriptions, all showing that the ocean is considered as the region where no life is possible, could be multiplied. I will, however, for the sake of brevity, leave Arabic literature and only give some examples from the Ethiopian romance of Alexander. Alexander marches and reaches the sea that is behind heaven and earth, that cannot be sailed by ships, where no birds can fly, that is without any use8).
Further: Behind these is the large sea that cannot be sailed by ships because of its large waves; for the winds leave their store-houses and blow over it, so that its waves reach heaven and descend unto Sheol. No bird is able to fly in its neigh-
1) p. 251: rillen 0000 ril^-irC* ch \ \ \ i.T-*».1 oen rt£so-» cocvixnonf*
cos COOXmOre*
00199 ,\*A MÏ&illl —*rr ****. The passage is also to be found in Ephraim, Opp. I, 122 A.
2) B. G. VII, 85: ya-Jt *-ó i^jF ï J&s
3) ib. VI, 231: *)b> J*ju\ ij, vA=»t (A*J "Üj JUS LS/F O***^'
4) Kazwïnl I, 104: *Jl:>Lw <_jj«j yij. Also Dimashkï, p. 127; Ibn al-Wardl, Ib, i.
5) Mascüdi I, 257: ^5 t^jS vju^k L-g—i<_XjL ïyf-i*-i J-o'ujJIj XiLx^Jt L^Ac
xïjLc viLuXï ^ij ».!Jvü<-. JsLs?. "jfj *a£mu uüJblJ yiytP' ^9 ^9
JaAiSiSj yas-^lj üUiM «LjajL* jJLju \
6) p. 161: a)Xi^^I:^^d:fl^^1::^fth!n8■^ft;^n:aACiH^yDJt'i<;irt'7yƒt:^D7,,



THE CHARACTER OF THE OCEAN
47
bourhood. The water of this sea resembles pus, and it is very foetid, because this is the water in which God has destroyed the people that perished in the deluge. And their flesh and the flesh of the animals, the birds and the beasts is in its deep. And on the shores of that sea are innumerable trees without leaves because of its very foetid. odour; and know that all men die who approach it and perish on account of its foetid odour1).
So the ocean is the sea of death. This feature calls to mind the name of the Dead sea, a recollection perhaps also evoked by the foregoing description. It has been observed by Budge, that the ocean is described in the passages from the Romance of Alexander exactly like the Dead sea. The classical authors already describe it as an element where life is impossible. Raumer2) cites this extract from Hieronymus ad Ezechiel 47: Mare mortuum, in quo nihil poterat esse vitale. — Re vera, juxta literam huc usque nihil quod spiret et possit incedere prae amaritudine nimia in hoe mari reperiri potest, nee cochleolae quidem parvique vermiculi et anguillae et caetera animantium sive serpentium genera. Denique si Jordanes auctus imbribus pisces illue influens rapuerit, statim moriuntur et pinguibus aquis supernatant.
Similar descriptions occur in Arabic literature. According to Mascüdï the Dead sea does not receive that which is thrown into it, nor is it inhabited by living beings, be it fish or other creatures3). Abu '1-Fida' adds that there are no birds4). '
There is another point of resemblance between the ocean and the Dead sea that I have not yet mentioned. In Arabic the Dead sea often bears the name of the stinking oneB). This
1) p. 124: a))\r>£;*li; aJ-X-f-ffD-t j OThC: l&fi. 1 HauÊiirt-: Hrh'tC: : (l^il : JiT'MÏHf: "Vhtth:: Jifon»; }4./Jt: j&aJR-ft. K^HV-ttWov 1 <D?,fta>-4. j ffa? •
a>?9C? : "70(14 : Xflh : rV»7?;a>f.a>cA : Mlh\Hih :;a»<UMi&: J»<P: h<n>:£ÜCGt ■idY :: fO^S 1 rt^Xt: a*C 1 J2.a»tl&. : :afttX\at-M?:T#:: Xfl<n>:a^WVl:
XiM : aJftfcT»?; ©tó^t: o-flT: "yfli^:: aHD-ft-f ■. Si^l 1 &k£ I <\fhC 1 hWP9° 1 HU AP : >.&<p* : (Vhèiflo* : ;<fe{t-A : Xy-ufl t ; :: «tó^C: <»hf>: ^aom-if •
2) PalastiDa3, p. 55, note 128.
3) I, fc>kfW ^y, l$as ^yCl" "Jij (JyiJl J>Afij' y (jjJ! XJLaJlLI HjA^Uit
v. * f. 3j
4) ed. Reinaud and de Slane, p. 39: liLfwJt "ij jj-i t ^jfp> LgJ "^j
5) XJUCJi! t^ÜUl)



48
THE CHARACTER OF THE OCEAN
is also a common epithet of the ocean. We have already found in the Aethiopic Romance of Alexander the opinion that all men who approach the ocean must die because of its foetid odour. This feature occurs also in the Syriac redaction. Whert Alexander discusses his plan to penetrate into the land of darkness with his ofhcers, they call it impossible, saying that the earth is surrounded by dreadful seas and that behind them lies the stinking sea, that indeed is full of terror. And when men do not decide to give up their life, they do not approach the stinking sea that is frightful1). — Then, when Alexander reaches the ends of the earth, he and his troops cross the seas at once and reach the stinking one; (but then) he is frightened by its vapour and flees from its odour3). In other passages of Syriac literature the 'stinking' sea is menttoned. In the eighteenth Ode of Solomon a description of error and ignorance, the opposite of gnosis, is given: And ignorance appeared like chaff and like the foetid odour of the seas). And Isaac of Ninive uses the term the stinking ocean as a common epithet of Tehom4).
It is clear that the foetid odour of the ocean is closely connected with its negative nature. This is only natural, especially for the Semites who attach a value to odours which can hardly be overrated. A foetid odour means for them in the first place a reminiscence of death, that is characterised by its rendering foetid all it touches. Further the root that in Hebrew
still means to stink, has become in Aramaic and Arabic the usual expression for evil; whereas its opposite, that means to be good, in Arabic has the derivation v^>, meaning perfume.
The fact that the ocean is considered as the stinking element by the Semites or a part of them, is possibly to be connected with the real or popular etymology of the word Tehom.
1) Ed. Hunnius, lines 57 sqq.: rCl*3ttJsq» ^Aco ^-"33 >V» col »ÏV-\^ rdArCto rc'ïvTf.a èVi_»nc' rdi_n\ rdLsQ.i rïiios re!2a_» Kilïu.t
kÜ_so.i póiuo rdsoA cod f-Ar* pc-^ «^ocojl**» As,, rVeWso rdxire*
2) Lines 103 sqq.: èurclYAo CTUJU»Ck rf*^\*JO KÜSCao* èviS
crux»! £33 ja v»_c\ cocnA po Ajwi . . . rCiioo rdscus gd.i^-oA
3) 18,14: rïiscu.i coeW.»va> vyrcto nfèv^.s> pdA rficv^ èuvMoSreb
4) P- 3'7- ^



THE CHARACTER OF THE OCEAN
49
The relation between the forms ti'amat, UTWi and '^if cannot easily be given. The Arabic use of *">Lgi' seems to prove, that here the word is not borrowed from the North or the NorthEast. For here it does not possess the slightest meaning which eould connect it with the mythic value it has in the North. It simply means a certain part of the Arabic coast along the Red sea, apparently the old popular geographical name.
The forms of the word may be either derived from a root mn, meaning to be in motion, or from a root DDri- A derivation from U)tl would give a reasonable sense; but Semitic literature that has so much to say concerning the ocean, never lays stress upon its continual being in movement. In Arabic a root p 'to stink' occurs. Hoffmannl) and Jensen2) are more or less convinced of the denominative character of this verb. So the real etymology of DinD is obscure; but a connection, be it of a primary or of a secondary nature, with the root ^> exists at any rate. —
After so much evidence concerning the close connection between the idea of death and the character of the ocean, it will be clear why the town in the utmost West, characterizing the entrance of Tehom, is a town of death: it partakes of the character of the ocean itself. And like the nether world it is also a place of treasures.
Tehom as a negative power is in the third place to be considered as a typical representation of chaos. The subject has already been mentioned in our first chapter. But we have to inquire into it more thoroughly. What we found in regard of the place of Tehom in the cosmogonic systems of the Semites may be summarized in the sentence, that originally the ocean represents the wild, ungodly element that has to be tamed before the creation can take place; while later views represent Tehom as the element that serves the creator only as an /instrument. We shall have to develop these diverging views in this chapter.
In the biblical story of the creation a special term is used that may be considered as an expression for chaos: "|i"Dl IHD. When earth and heaven have been created but not yet made
1) Zeitschr. f. d. alttestamentl. Wissenschaft III, 118.
2) Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek VI, i,5S9sq.
Verhand. Kon. Akad. v. Wetensch. Nieuwe Reelcs Dl. XIX N°. 2. 4



5©
THE CHARACTER OF THE OCEAN
into a cosmos, it is said: the earth was "|i"Dl 1HD and the spirit of God hovered over the surface of the waters. And in several features of Semitic cosmogonic systems it appears that the characteristic of chaos is the reign of the water. I will only recall the conception, discussed above, that represents the earth, before the cosmos, as being enveloped by the waters, while God's creative action in the first place consists in His removing the waters and preparing thereby the. way for cosmos. Etymologically speaking neither of the terms ÏHH has any connection with the primeval waters. occurs only a few times in the Old Testament, but it was also known-to the Phoenicians (we have it only in the transcription |3aau); and in later times, in the literature of gnosticism, the mn^Nn^ is mentioned, apparently a person belonging to a cosmogonic system; the. name means offspring of chaos; but no connection with the ocean appears. Neither has inn in the Old Testament further anything tb do with the ocean. But we have cited lines from the Talmud running thus: ïi"in is the green cord that surrounds the whole earth and from which darkness springs1). Here chaos and ocean are synonyms.
This reign of chaos which in the cosmogonic stories is identical with the reign of the ocean, has not only its place in the cosmogony, but, according to the Old Testament, it occurs several times in history in a series of events always following the same order. A period of chaos is succeded by the creative act of God; then a covenant is made with man and a new time begins, a time of new relations between man and nature, a golden age in a land of paradise.
It is evident that this series of events as it is described in the story of the creation and of paradise, has its counterpart in the story of the deluge. The cosmos is destroyed by the ocean; the reign of chaos'is the reign of Tehom. When the waters have disappeared God makes a new covenant with Noah, the new representative of mankind; man, till now only the master of the vegetable world, becomes lord of the animals too; the new order of things,- the regular succession of the different seasons, will not be disturbed; the new mankind plants a new tree, the vine.
Apart from the cosmogony and the story of the deluge this
0 p. 4T-



THE CHARACTER OF THE OCEAN
51
scheme is well known from those descriptions that are to be considered as analogous to cosmogonic stories: the descriptions of the coming chaos, that will be a destruction of this world*), then the reign of the Messiah or of God, the gathering öf the remainder of mankind in Jerusalem or in the kingdom of heaven etc. This eschatological scheme is found throughout the Old and New Testaments.
It should be observed, however, that the creation, the deluge and the last day are not the only epochs in history that are described according to this scheme. It is especially the author, commonly known as Deuterojesaja, who sees history and also his own time in this way. This means: according to Deuterojesaja the exile is the time of chaos. This thought is only to be understood, if we think of the Israelitic idea, that the history of the world is really only a history of Israël, as the nucleus of mankind; this nucleus of mankind, according to the ancient conception, has its fixed place in the centre of the earth and this place has been cleansed for it by its God, who Himself has His dwelling-place amidst His people. All this may be called the rational idea underlying the history of the world in the Israelitic conception. And now the exile has destroyed this harmonious order of things: there is scarcely a people of Israël any more; it no longer dwells in the centre of the earth, on the place destined for it by its god; and this god himself has been driven away from his dwelling-place, the temple of Jerusalem. This is really chaos. Now the Oriental theory says that chaos is to be followed by cosmos and a golden age. Deuterojesaja's central idea is this: chaos is passing away, for the Messiah Cyrus is coming, he will reestablish order. The people of Israël has to leave Babel and to return to Juda, where the golden age shall reign: For the Lord shall comfort Sion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody 2)i The evils of mankind will be taken away: And I will bring the blind by a way they knew not 5 I will lead them in paths that they have not known:
1) See e. g. Jesaja 24 sqq.
2) jes. si, 3: ps nnmyi pja.rrDTD atn irronn bi on: ps nvp om ^
rra Vipi min ra «jtc rmow rarp



52
the character of the ocean
I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These are the things I will do unto them and not
forsake them Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye
may see1). — The dwelling in their own country is described as the gathering to a feast in Jerusalem, and then the new covenant is made: Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters and he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live-, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David2). I will not multiply quotations, as these are sufficiënt to demonstrate the eschatological idea and the ordered scheme underlying the prophecy of Deuterojesaja. But the further question arises of how the idea of chaos is expressed in this scheme ? The answer is simple enough: chaos generally is described with the characteristics of the desert; and cosmos begins when Yahwe removes these characteristics. So Yahwe's reign is a reign óver the desert: A voice cries: Prepare ye the way of the Lord in the wilderness, make straight in the desert a high way for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the lord has spoken it3).
And further: Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. Thé beasts of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the ostriches: because I give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen4).
O jes. 42, 16,18: dupn asm» iyr mb nïD^nja yyr> xb ttd dtj? vubm d'Tinnn • • ■ • dtist^ *ói oirr-wy onann nbx -tnrnb a^wpyo) Ttó amob ipna
niNT> 'yaun d^niyrn tyov
2) Jes. 55,1.3: "Qbï teNi ruw fob f]D3 b pa wüb 13b «os bj ti do^dh Tini ïyoff b» ub) dd:tn ïan abrn p tod mba\ npa ata rav
avmin Tn "non ob)y nna aob rvraw
3) Jes. 40, 3 sqq.: NV| bï tTbüb T\bDD rOTJD W Tn1 TVT 130 TJTDD NTp blp
int rnrn tdd nbrn nypib d,ddtt "\ytnob. apyn t.t itean nyaji in bj\ uw
tdt mm is X3 nir -wa ba
4) jes. 43,19 sq.= th tdtdd Dw p|n nunn abn nosn nny nann rwy mn X&vna nnru er» tjtsd inn: u iw m»i ovn rrwn nmnDDn mm: juynrro
nro idv mpwrb



THE CHARACTER OF THE OCEAN
55
Still more clear is, if possible: I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine tree and the box tree together: that they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy one of Israël hath created it1).
So it appears that the desert in the poetic language of Deuterojesaja has the same place as chaos in the historical Oriental scheme. This is not a fortuitous coincidence. We saw above, that inn is the technical term for chaos and the ocean as chaos, inn is also a designation of the desert and of the desert as chaos. Ps. 107,40: He poureth contempt upon princes, and causeth them to wander in the wilderness, where there is no waya). And Job 6, 18: The paths of their way are turned aside, they go into the desert and perish8).
Here there proves to be a connection between the ocean and the desert, both being considered as the domain of chaos. Another token of a connection between the ocean and the desert in a tradition has already been mentioned: Gehenna has three gates: one in the desert, one in the sea, one in Jerusalem4).
But we must return to Deuterojesaja who has more to say concerning the historical scheme which he, and probably others also, applies to the Israelitic Past. He is conscious of the analogy between the exile and three other epochs: the cosmogony, the deluge and the exodus.
Like the deluge in the days of Noah so the exile has been an act of wrath on the part of Jahwe; and just as after the deluge He swore that the waters should not return over the earth, so He swears now that He will not be wrath with Israël: For a little space I have forsaken thee; but with great mercies will.I gather thee. In wrath I hid my face from thee
O jes. 41,18 sqq. ojió ~o~\o d^k nu^d mypa mnai dttü by nnsN wra na-iya u<m pv yp. mm nssw n« -diös \m om ^yob n* p«ï om
nrp Tflwyn imn
2) -]-n $b ïnra oym d^tj by ra iqv
3) naa1) mna rby nam mrrw ms^
4) P- 4i-



!4
the character of the ocean
for a moment; but with everlasting kindnèss will I have mercy on thee, saith Yahwe the Redeemer. For this is as the days of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wrath with thee, nor rebuke thee1).
A doublé comparison of the exile with the cosmogony and Israel's passing through the Red sea occurs in the following passage: Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of Yahwe; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon? Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great Tehom; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over? Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Sion etc.2).
A comparison with the crossing of the Red sea occurs a second time: Thus saith the Lord, which maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters; which bringeth forth the chariot and horse, the army and the power; they shall lie together, they shall not rise: they are extinct, they are quenched as tow. Remember ye not the former things; neither consider the things of old etc.8).
The point in question is clear: In olden times Yahwe has broken the power of chaos represented by the ocean: before the creation he has crushed the head of Rahab, the serpent of the ocean; he has pushed back the waters of chaos after the deluge; he has prohibited Tehom, represented by the Red sea, to swallow his redeemed; now the power of the exile, represented as the desert, will be broken and as the cosmogony and the deluge were followed by a golden age, and the crossing of the Red sea by the entrance into the promised land flowing with milk and honey, so the exiled will return unto Sion.
We must leave Denterojesaja and his historical views here,
0 Jes. 54,7-9: vo rnnDn nsp nstso TsnpN abu dwoi ttotjj pp yra -Qyo ot3 im b nw ra mu tnm t>jo ton Tram nb)y Tonm -po yn -p -wol yby n^po Yiyntw p pan by ra m
2) jes. 51,9—12: $bn axbyy nnn oip mu my rm> yn. ?y ivub my my nawn ren omn m di nmnon ion na *ón pn rbbmo. jm nnsnon *n nN
nrö ps int ptw mtv "noi abm -ayb tti d-> ipoyo
3) jes. 43,16-18: am wsion nTra avy ama] ipn au pun ntt ton ra nracnpi nw«i Tpjn ^n ua nncso uyi iep bn uw itp non br\ didi
ïaann ^n



THE CHARACTER OF THE OCEAN
55
stating ariew that the crossing of the Red sea is 'considered as ' the crossing of Tehom. The crossing of the Red sea is also considered by early Christian writers in a peculiar light. We have seen that Tehom is nearly synonymous with the nether world-, Afrahat draws a parallel between the Red sea and Sheol: For them (the Israelites) Moses clove asunder the sea and caused them to cross it, and our Saviour clove asunder Sheol1).
The crossing of the Red sea is also a symbol of baptism: Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea ; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea2).
So baptism may be styled as a passing through the Red sea or a passing through Tehom. In the 2 2d Ode of Solomon there is a glorification of 'Him that overthrew by my hands the dragon with seven heads'3), a comparison therefore of the poet with God's slaying the Leviathan in the creation. Rendel Harris gives the following note to the passage: 'Bernard thinks the dragon is to be explained by Patristic gnosis of the defeat of the devil in the waters of Baptism, as in Cyril Cat. III, 11 and the Baptismal rituals. I add to Dr. Bernard's references one from a MS. of Moses Bar Kepha on Baptism, in may own collection: 'our Lord was baptized that he might trample on the head of the spiritual dragon that lurked in the water etc.' — It is clèar that the baptismal water was a symbol of Tehom and conceived as being inhabited by monsters that were considered as its representatives. The ungodly character of Tehom appears thus once more in a striking way.
Now it is not astonishing to find that, like the passing through Tehom in the Red sea, so Noah's passing through Tehom is considered as a symbol of baptism. This is so in the New Testament: .... which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is eight souls were saved by water. The like figure whereunto
1) I, 524: ^oo%ao mj\-ir^ vuk.rcb rdjsx» r£x.cusa .^ocn-l
Acux\ co^&
2) 1 Corinthians 10, I sq.
3) ,coox»ï n 1 rïiiuiAu >^*rd=i ^*xfl9.l oeo



56
THE CHARACTER OF THE OCEAN
even baptism doth also now save us etc. *). And irv the pictures of the catacombs Noah in his ark is a common symbol of baptism.
Finally, as Tehom is synonymous with death, so baptism is compared with death: know ye not, that'so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even" so we should also walk in newness of life2).
B. THE OCEAN AS A POSITrVE POWER
Finally we have to consider the positive side of the ocean and here again we may start from the cosmogonic stories. Here then the ocean is no longer the element that has to be tamed, but the substance out of which all things were created. I need only recall here the evidence we have discussed above3), culminating in the sentence from the Kor'an: we made every living thing of water. Further I would recall the story, how the preëxistent sanctuary is created, beginning from a spot of in the primaeval water. We have seen that the biblical story of the creation gives a twofold image of the ocean before the creation: darkness lies over the surface of Tehom; and: the spirit of God is brooding over it. This is all; indeed a torso if compared with other cosmogonic stories, for the aim or the result of the spirit's brooding is not explained. Later literature, however, has filled in this gap. Jacob of Edessa, in his conmentary on this verse, compares the brooding of the spirit over the waters with the brooding of a hen4). And the Cave of Treasures has this explanatiön: On that Sunday the Holy Ghost, one of the persons of the Trinity, brooded on the waters. And by this brooding on the surface of the waters they were blessed so as to become able to bring forth. And all the natural germs in the waters became hot and fervent, and all the leaven of creation became united with them6).
1) i Peter 3, 20.
2) Romans 6, 3 sq. I am indebted for these New Testament references to the kindness óf Professor Windisch.
3) P- 7-
4) In Ephraim's Opera 1,-117 sq. * :'"V* -
5) Cave of Treasures, p. 3: .vm nCwCvi rdaia -Ut- enssO



THE CHARACTER OF THE OCEAN
57
I may also cite a quotation from Jacob of Edessa in de Lagarde's Arabic Pentateuch: Mar Jacob of Edessa says that the spirit was like a cloud from which life and rain and humidity descends1). In other words: the spirit fertilires the waters and these conceive the germs of the created things. Further it is to be remembered that the Phoenician cosmogony *) tells how from the conjunction of the primaeval Spirit with Chaos Move originated that contained the germs of things. The Syriac writers cited above seem to have been acquainted with this conception.
The primaeval waters therefore are in these cosmogonic traditions an element of life. We may leave these traditions now and notice that it is not only in the cosmogony that the ocean is considered from this point of view. It is also the place where that gift most highly prized by ancient humanity originated : the gift of everlasting life. In other words: the ocean is the place where the fountain of life originates.
This conception is not astonishing. We have found above that Tehom is synonymous with the nether world; we have also found that according to the Semites all rivers originate in the nether world. Now the fountain of life has no peculiar mode of existence: it is to be expected that it also originates in the nether world. — It is to be remarked, before we inquire into the subject, that the fountain of life sometimes occurs in connection with the tree of life, and so belongs to paradise; in the second place it may have its origin in the sanctuary as it is described in Ezechiel 47, 1 sqq.; sometimes however it occurs apart from paradise.
Now paradise in the Semitic conception, already to be traced in the Old Testament, is placed usually in the utmost East, sometimes in the utmost West and sometimes in the utmost North. This means that Paradise is localised on the same spot as the characteristic points we have found above: the towns, the tower, the castle, the mountains etc.3). Paradise conse-
.ji&rc* ,\s.n rda_4jc\i s*sa . rdïLso Av. k&HcwiiAiui kI'jjq 1 n ^jsb
rVoScuoini rc*v»»a*> Aa ^oais :u**cWrC*a rc'liw.i
1) II, 6,18: jJv&i ljlAJ! (.LiK ki>ó^ -jjJf 0\ (^jl^jJI VJ5^ iSy* $
2) Eusebius, Evang. praeparatio I, 10. 3) p. 26 sqq.



58
THE CHARACTER OF THE OCEAN
quently, like them, belongs to Tehom, and so does the fountain of life.
But this conclusion must be tested by the evidence of the texts themselves; so we will examine what they say concerning the fountain of life.
In the first place we have a series of traditions connecting the fountain of life with Tehom itself. The oldest is perhaps a description in the Book of Henoch, that I quote in its entirety*) in order to show the meaning as clearly as possible; it occurs in the 17th chapter. Henoch is travelling through the earth and the nether world. 'And they took and brought me to a place in which those who were there were like flaming fire, and, when they wished, they appeared as men. And they brought me to the place of darkness, and to a mountain the point of whose summit reached to heaven. And I saw the places of the luminaries and the treasuries of the stars and of the thunder, and in the uttermost depths, where were a fiery bow and arrows and their quiver, and a fiery sword and all the lighthings. And they took me to the living waters, and to the fire of the West, which receives every setting of the sun. And I came to a river of fire in which the fire flows like water and discharges itself into the great sea towards the West. I saw the great rivers and came to the great river and to the great darkness, and went to the place where no flesh walks. I saw the mountains of the darkness of winter and the place whence all the waters of the deep flow. I saw the mouths of all the rivers of the earth and the mouth of the deep'.
The utmost West, in this description, is the place
i° where the rivers of the earth flow into the ocean.
2° of the ocean itself.
3° of darkness, i. e. the nether world.
4° where the waters of life spring.
In other words: the waters of life originate in Tehom, in the land of darkness, in the nether world, in the far West.
The Romance of Alexander in its various versions contains many details concerning the fountain of life. According to verr sion C of the Greek text, it is found in the land of darkness: xcci owtwg d<xpxp[xs»oi ó$ov axcnstVYiv ini aypivovq <k*ansvit d$ov tiV«
l) cf. above p. 33 sqq.



THE CHARACTER OF THE OCEAN
59
vjv <Jè 6 avp exstvog evufrris xcd nccvv ykvxxrttxzos1). — The Syriac poem of Alexander, ascribed to Jacob of Sarug, mentions Alexander's reaching the mountain of Masis and his march Northward. Then threehundred old men come to him, with whom he discusses his project to penetrate into the land of darkness. They ask him why he wishes to visit this horrible country of death. Alexander answers: I have heard that in it is the fountain of life and I am very desirous to see whether this is true. The old man answered: there are many fountains in that country and nobody knows which of them is the fountain of the water of life3).
These quotations from the Romance of Alexander may suffice. I will only point to Friedlandér's analysis, which shows that the Talmud and some Arabic sources also localise the fountain of life in the land of darkness3). Friedlandér also mentions the poem in Yaküt, in which the brazen town (the entrance of Tehom, as we have seen above) is the place of the fountain of life. Ibn al-Wardï has a tradition to this effect: In the darkness4) is the fountain of life, in the Southwestern part of it5).
The fountain of life is sometimes8) considered as the origin of the four rivers of paradise. These rivers have their origin apparently in various quarters of the world. But this is only a false appearance. According to a widely spread opinion they are conducted under the ground towards various spots where they break through the surface of the earth, but their origin is one. Ibn al-Wardï relates that Sailiün and Djaihün, the Nile and the Euphrates, i. e. the four rivers of paradise, come fourth from a cupola of emerald and are poured out into the dark ocean and are sweeter than honey7). — But, apart from these traditions: the fountain of life, like all other fountains on the earth, is a gift from the nether world. The fountain of life and
1) Pseudo-Callisthenes, Chapter 39.
2) Lines 166—169: rf.x.u.i ti^iV cna èv-jrCi AuhSOX. r£&\sa i-SOrc*
3) Die Chadhirlegende und der Alexanderroman, p. 327 § 5.
4) i. e. the land of darkness or the" dark ocean.
5) Ia. P- 9"- "rf^J
6) Friedlandér, p. 327.
7) II, 117.



6o
THE CHARACTER OF THE OCEAN
the rivers of paradise Or the sanctuary, as an image of paradise, are the origin of all sweet water on the earth. So all the water of the rivers partakes of the character of the fountain of life, though in a minor degree. This may be seen from the term living water, so common in Semitic literature1). From Genesis 26, 19 it appears that living water is the water springing from a fountain. But the later practice shows that rain is also considered as living water2). This means that living water is either the water springing from nether Tehom or that from upper Tehom. So Tehom again appears to be considered as the element of life. And water from Tehom is used for ablutions.
Now it may be considered as certain that the aim of ablutions is to drive away demons2), or in other terms diseases, and sins. Both disease and sin are forms of death. If they are driven away by water from Tehom, this is because Tehom is here considered as the element of life.
This is also true for Babylonia. Exorcisms in Babylonia are practised by means of water from Eridu3), and Eridu is the residence of Ea, the god of Tehom. It is in accordance with this, and a new proof of the parallelism between Tehom and the nether world, that Ishtar, in order to acquire the water of life, has to descend into the nether world, for there is the fountain of- life.
It is further to be observed, that water, of course 'living' water, is often mentioned as the element by which the dead will be quickened. In Muslim tradition it is told, that under the throne of God, i. e. in upper Tehom, there is a sea of green water, with which Allah will quicken the dead4). And in Jewish literature the connection between water and the resurrection of the dead is often mentioned6).
Tehom as the element of life appears also in some features of the tree of life which in Babylonia sometimes was represented as a palm growing in Eridu6); here the connection between Tehom and the tree of life is evident; in the poem
1) Cf. e.g. Johannesbuch der Mandaer II, 5,6, 178; Leviticus 14,5 sq., 50—S2;Jeremia 2, 13 ; Zacharjah 14, 8 and cf. Ezech. 47,1—12; Odes of Solomon 28, 13.
2) cf. Der Islam IV, p. 219 sqq.
3) Weber, Damonenbeschwörung, p. 21; Wünsche, Lebensbaum und Lebenswasser p. 72.
4) Abü Zaid, II, 10.
5) Bereshit Rabba, par. 13. Cf. Goldziher in Archiv f. Religionswissenschaft XIII, p. 40.
6) Wünsche, p. 2.



THE CHARACTER OF THE OCEAN
6l
cited by Wünsche the tree is said to overshadow Tehom and Eridu is expressly called the residence of Ea. Now the tree of life and the world-tree cannot always be distinguished in Semitic literature ; the famous sidrat al-muntaha is the tree of paradise and often it is described as the tree that encompasses the world. This impression may also be gathered from Wünsche's descriptions. This statement will be of value for the understanding of a passage in Ezechiel describing the tree of the world. The description is found in chapter 31, where the king of Assyria is depicted in the image of this tree: 'Behold, Assur was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches and with a shadowing shroud, arid of an high stature; and his top was among the thick boughs. The waters made it great, Tehom set it up on high with her rivers running about its plants, and sent out her little rivers unto 'all the trees of the field. Therefore its height was exalted above all the trees of the field, and its boughs were multiplied, and its branches became long because of the multitude of waters, when it shot forth. All the fowls of heaven made their nests in its boughs, and under its branches did all the beasts of the field bring fourth their young, and under its shadow dwelt all great nations. Thus was it fair in its greatness, in the length of its branches: for its root was by the great waters. The cedars in the garden of God could not hide it: the fir trees were not like its boughs, and the chestnut trees were not like its branches; nor any tree in the garden of God was like unto it in its beauty. I have made it fair by the multitude of its branches; so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of
God envied it Thus saith the Lord Yahwe: In the
day when it went down to Sheol I caused a mourning: I covered Tehom for it, and I restrained the floods thereof, and the great waters were staged' etc. — This is clear: the tree of the world which at the same time is the tree of life is planted in Tehom and when it is destroyed, Tehom mourns for it. Tehom is the element of life.
Tehom is also the element of fertility, as all sweet water springs from it and water is synonymous with fertility among the Semites Sometimes the fertilising power of Tehom is represented in a remarkable way: the water of upper Tehom
1) Cf. the Navel of the Earth, p. 7.



62
THE CHARACTER OF THE OCEAN
is represented as the masculine, that of nether Tehom as the feminine element; fertility springs from the meeting of the two. This idea is expressed in a passage in the Bereshit rabba: rabbi L,evi said: the upper waters are masculine, the nether waters are feminine. The former say to the latter: receive us-, you are the creatures of the Holy One (blessed may He be), we are His messengers. Then they receive them immediately. This is what scripture says: The earth shall open*), viz. like a woman that opens herself for a man z).
Here the upper and the nether waters are mentioned expressly ; very common, also among other peoples, is the idea of a marriage between heaven and earth, rain being the fertilising element. In the Talmud e. g. rain is called the husband of the earth 3). But this is not the place to give more examples of this latter idea, as a connection with Tehom is not evident. I will only point to the fact that the former conception, that of fertility being caused by the meeting of the upper and the nether waters, was also known to the Arabs; this appears from the expression <jr^' 'the two fertile elements have
met' i. e. the upper and the nether water, whose meeting causes fertility 4).
Finally we have to consider Tehom in its connection with paradise and the islands of the Blessed. Again the Romance of Alexander has many examples of this idea. It may be observed here that the terms islands of the Blessed and country of the Blessed are used promiscuously, just like land of darkness,_ nether world and Tehom. In the version C of the Greek Pseudo-Callisthenes it is said: xca èik xpiü-j rjpspav xDSsv dg xcmovq GTtov 6. Tfikioq 0'jy. sXa[insv • ixzi ouv eoriv ïj xaXotifJiivvj jxaxapwv x&pa6). Here the land of the Blessed is situated in the land of darkness ; in the Syriac legend of Alexander, translated by Budge, it is expressly said that paradise is surrounded by the stinking ocean and enveloped by dark clouds6). Here, in Christian
1) Jesaja 45, 8.
2) Par. 13: bob ba dhdin jni nnpi □"oinnnm dhdi □■oi^n amn fb 'i im nnon Tn'n \rm ptapo dhtd rrrbw uni 'n'd'p'n bv vnna on** wik ibp
-oib nnniD it rap» pa
3) Taw 6b: NjDin rpjo *ot3p rnvT 'i latn
4) I have borrowed this example from Rhodokanakis in Wörtef und Sachen V, 199.
5) Pseudo-Callisthenes, Chap. 39.
6) Budge, p. 152.



THE CHARACTER OF THE OCEAN
63
Syriac literature, the island" of the Blessed is situated in the sea of darkness; this proves on the one hand what I just said: the several terms are used promiscuously, on the other hand that a literary direct connection between the Greek Romance of Alexander and the Syriac Legend does not exist. More^ over, Syriac literature contains other evidence concerning the situation of paradise in Tehom. Above I have quoted l) from a cosmological treatise a description of the ocean which surrounds the world like a wall, containing no living creatures. It continues: And beyond it lies the paradise of God; and as soon as the souls of man leave their bodies they are conducted by angels towards the abodes surrounding paradise. These abodes are destined for the souls of the saints. As to those who have done evil, their souls are not deemed worthy to enter that country of life z).
And from the mystic Isaac of Ninive I quote: Just as it is impossible to cross the ocean without a boat or a ship, so nobody can reach love without fear. We cross that stinking sea, that is situated between us and spiritual paradise, in the boat of repentance, that has fear as a rudder. If the rudder of fear does not regulate this ship of repentance, in which we cross the ocean of this world unto God, we shall be drowned in the stinking ocean s).
In Arabic - literature paradise is not placed in the ocean, but, in accordance with Greek traditions, the islands of the Blessed are to be found there. Their names and number are given variously. They are situated in the Western part of the
1) p. 46.
2) p. 251: rc$uL&lCk rVco-lrc'.i rdoa_.ii_^ >coacH_»r^ caisa AcaAo
^T>XuM KllÖorC* ^OJciA ^ acnj-i^^ »sn ^nSM.i rC&Mfia rdxlïis*
rdxV.io.i rVèui&A «_a_icn . rdAnëAao ^*caA ^AsCV» reifia».ii&l ocn_\ Jp^ «1 ^oonèxT'M ^»ao\x-sa KiA rucv^. 03*1 va ^Acn
. rdsCUa oSclA rC&Aul *_SB as,\n i*as.. f-*rf r<l\ reil&co rtf.^.Artffa rVicuaïas Kll^..T»c*iao Kifia*.ii&la A caxs ^aifls.i r&\ao K2sa* oeo
crA
r<A
r<*ia> rCsitsa 1* ■> KtrArS" èVtcA Kil co pclnl^-i



64
the character of the ocean
surrounding ocean *), or over against Abessynia 2), which means nearly the same, for the Western coast of Africa is also called Abessynia. They are called obJIÜ ƒ!ƒ>, oLxlJS the islands of eternal abode, and are sometimes distinguished from another group sAcUJI yfj> or obl**J! or SlXax^JI ƒ'ƒ>, the islands of happiness, that are situated between them and the coast8). Their number is usually given as six 4), but it is not always the same. I may quote a description of these islands from Nuwairi5) j parallel texts are in Kazwïnl8) and Dimashkï7):
Abü 'Obaid al-Bakrï, in his book entitled the book of the ways and the kingdoms, says: over against Tandja are situated the islands called by the Greeks Fortunatas i. e. the happy ones. They are called thus because their trees and shrubs produce all sorts of delicious fruits without having been planted or cultivated, and their ground bears corn instead of grass and differents sorts of aromatic plants 8) instead of thorns. They are separated one from the other, though at short distances. It is said that once it happened that the wind drove a ship ashore on one of these islands. When the sailors went ashore they found different sorts of fruit-trees and spice-trees and various precious stones. They took of them what they could and returned to Spain. When the king asked them where they had got this, they told their story. Then he provided ships and let them sail, but they did not reach an island for they perished because of the high billows and the vehement wind so that none -of them returned 9).
i) B. G. VIII, 68. 2) B. G. VI, 231.
3) Abu 'l-fida', p. 187.
4) Mascüdl I, 179. 5) p. 62. 6) n> '9- 7) P- 135.
8) According to Dimashkï who reads ^ytp^ijt) instead of Nuwairi's <j&£j 'gardens.
Xs>^li 'iij yè ^ JuxkJI nfljSÜ v_sLx*a( LgJL5^ L^toLij (Cod. 273: Lgi'tjXw)
'i-ijZ* ^5 ü^wJt msüyl vjU-notj v_*«*xJI ^LCo g^j-H Lg^l ^
ttX-p ^ vi' LjXaJls l&JLc viv^*ac v-a/SjI! (jaiu jüüj Xj^Lsa*
Ijsiu (Os Ifly^, ^ly, j^vs (jyLj «j^Mi Lx$> (-jjl ^ ,^xLi ^ÜUj



THE CHARACTER OF THE OCEAN
65
The islands of the Blessed, like Paradise, appear to be situated in the terrible ocean and no man can reach them.. They are exempt from the curse that has been laid upon the earth after Adam's sin; they produce, without being cultivated, corn and fruits instead of thorns and thistles. Again Tehom proves to be an element terrible and deadly, but at the same time bestowing life and the highest happiness.
These islands, like paradise, were the goal of Alexander's journey *) and these islands too bear the statues indicating that there is no passage beyond them8). We have seen that these statues are interchanged with the mountain, the tower, the town, the castle, all of them partaking of the character of Tehom, and sometimes being described with the features of the nether world. Here it is not the nether world, but the islands of the Blessed that indicate Tehom, again a token of its doublé character.
This doublé character of the ocean may be considered indubitable. Tehom is the element of death as well as of life, it is the seat of heil and of paradise.
We have stated the intimate connection existing in the Semitic mind between the ocean and the nether world. This nether world bears also a doublé character. It is a designation of death, the grave and heil; it is the place abhorred by the ancient Israelites more than any other place-, the Psalms are still full of the terrors with which the nether world threatens man before he has conceived the idea of resurrection and life after death. But at the same time this earth is the place he comes from and the substance out of which he was made. He is made of like the earth; he has been formed in
the nether parts of it8). He knows that the beginning of his life is due to it, for at his death he 'returns' *) to it: earth and the nether world are his mother and his grave. Man comes from the earth and returns unto it; the way of mankind is a circular movement, a perpetually revolvihg chain ever turning round.
So the ocean and the earth or the nether world prove to possess the same doublé character. Still, it remains possible,
1) Idrisï, p. 28.
2) Kazwïnl II, 19.
3) Psalm 139,15.
4) Ps. 9, 18; 146, 4.



66
THE CHARACTER OF THE OCEAN
that these opposite features are due to a different origin. In the Preface I have spoken of the impossïbility of tracing the ways along" which many characteristic features of the ocean have feached the Western Semites. So we have to reckon with a solution of this question in such a way, that the union of these opposite features would be of a secundary nature only. Still, this must remain a question beforehand.
If, on the other hand, the Semites themselves have conceived such opposite views, we may ask whether a people, that conceived such ideas, was not acquainted with the Egyptian concatenation of life and deatha); here death is not only a hegative thing, but at the same time the origin of life. But it must be acknowledged, that such a conception, if known to the Semites, does not seem to have been clearly conscious to them; for, apart from the idea of resurrection, which really belongs to a different series of ideas, it is nqt mentioned in their literature.
i) Cf. W. B. Kristensen in Verslagen en Mededeelingen der Kon. Akademie V, 2, p. 68 sqq.