Elijah, the hairy man' who ascends to heaven on ‘a chariot of fire and horses of fire,'' indeed this as well as other mythical features has been better preserved in the case of this favourite hero of Israelitish prophecy than in that of the former purely mythical personage.

Wachsmuth expressed a conjecture that the old Greek god Helios, who drives round the vault of heaven on a fiery chariot, has a share in the phenomenon, so frequent in modern Greece, that the prophet Ilias (Elias or Elijah) is especially venerated on mountain-tops. The temples and altars of Helios in ancient times were similarly situated on high hills; and the casual similarity of sound between Ilios and Ilias, together with the identity of the myths concerning each, in this case caused the old heathen worship to be preserved and transferred to the name of the Biblical prophet. But this certainly cannot have taken place, as Otto Keller lately flippantly declared in a lecture on the Discovery of Troy by Henry Schliemann,' 'from a sort of childish attention to the wants of great Prophet, inasmuch as the people wished to make the fiery journey as easy as possible for him, and therefore made him mount the chariot at the nearest point to heaven.3

Enoch (Chanôkh) is introduced in another version of the genealogy (Gen. V. 18), as son not of Cain but of Jered, who is separated by five generations from Seth, Adam's third son. But this genealogy has but little importance for mythological investigation; indeed its two chief original creations (Seth and Enos), do not belong to mythology at all. The feeling of a later time rebelled against deriving all mankind from the hated fratricide who bore the curse of God, and thus gave rise to the two interpolated patriarchs and the Seth-genealogy, which runs parallel with that of Cain: moreover, in proof of the

1 2 Kings, I. 8, II. 11. Compare the fiery, flame-red chariot of Ushas (Rigveda, VI. 64. 7).

2 Das alte Griechenland im neuen, p. 23.

3 Supplement to the Augsburg Allgem. Zeitung, 1874, No. 344. p. 5377

ELIJAH; ENOCH; LEMECH.

129

honourable origin of mankind, the son of Seth was made the author of the worship of Jahveh, which is said to have begun in his time. The Seth-genealogy, which answered better to the feeling and the ethical need of mankind, then utterly expelled the Cain-genealogy. The author of the Book of Chronicles, who knows only Adam, Seth, Enos, &c. as first-fathers, seems either not to have known or intentionally to have ignored the other genealogy, and keeps strictly to that in Gen. V. It is remarkable that even in the Seth-genealogy among the ancestors of Enoch a Cainan ( Kênân) is named-a word which will be recognised by everyone who knows the laws of the Semitic formation of words as a so-called nunnated form of the word 1 Kayin, so that the two are really perfectly identical.'

Let us continue the consideration of Cain's descendants. One prominent figure is Lemech. An obscure song, which he declaims before his two wives, has given the interpreters much trouble with regard both to its language and to its subject; and legend has made free with this song, as it has with anything problematical. For us here this only is important, that the song contains a self-accusation on the part of Lemech before his wives, of having killed his own child. As Jephthah killed his daughter, so the myth spoke of Lemech as a similar solar hero who killed his child. The Sun today kills her child, the Night, whom she bore yesterday evening. Among the children of Lemech we actually find Jabal (Yâbhâl), of whom we have already spoken at length as denoting the Rainy Sky. No doubt the ancient myth spoke of Jabal as the son who was murdered by his solar father Lemech. Accordingly, the genealogy does not continue the line of Jabal. Next to him his brother Jubal (Yûbhâl), inventor

1 Compare Renan, Hist. génér. des Langues sémitiques, p. 28.

2 Called in the English Bible Lamech, which is derived from the pausal form Lâměkh through the LXX. Aάuex, as is the case with many names, a.g. Abel, Japheth, Jared, though not all; cf. on the other side Jether, Zerah, Peleg. The ordinary form, such as Lěměch, ought to be preferred.—Tr.

K

of musical instruments, the Hebrew Apollo, is mentioned. It is to solar gods such as Apollo, and heroes, that the invention of music, a product of the settled mode of civilised life, was everywhere attributed. But his name seems to have been chosen only on account of its assonance to Jabal (a favourite practice with the Semites), and not to belong to the ancient myth, but to owe its origin to the later legend of civilisation.

That the brothers Tubal-cain and Jabal are only a repetition of Cain and Abel I think I have already made evident. It must here be added that the mother of Tubal-cain, the solar man, is named Zillah (Şillâ), she who covers, overshadows'—the Night, mother of the Sun or of the Day. The Seth-genealogy concludes with one who is called son of Lemech-Noah (Nôach), the founder of improved agriculture, who gave men rest from their work and the toil of their hands proceeding from the earth which Jahveh cursed' (V. 29). What else can this mean, but that Noah invented agricultural implements? The Seth-genealogy accordingly disputes the invention of these by Cain or Tubal-cain, and gives to the etymology of the name Nôach, which really does denote 'rest,' an application which makes it as impossible for it to belong to the ancient myth as for the names Shêth and Enôsh. Noah is a regular hero of the legend of civilisation; and the larger part of what the myth tells of him is a product of the victory of Solarism, i.e. of agricultural life. He is the first vine-grower, and a new ancestor of the human race, since all mankind is derived from his three sons. The regular operation of the laws of nature (Gen. VIII. 22), and social order and legality, are also brought into connexion with him. The protection and forbearance, secured to the beasts by the Nomad, ceases; the Agriculturist subdues the beasts. But, on the other hand, with him begins the protection and security of human life (Gen. IX. 2-5). Yet side by side with this legend of civilisation we have in connexion with Noah a true old solar myth, which well deserves attention.

NOAH; THE SUN RESTING.

131

After the introduction of vine-cultivation Noah once makes overfree use of his discovery and gets drunk; and in that condition' uncovers himself'takes off his clothes (Gen. IX. 21). Only this last feature has any mythological interest; for the previous one, which was attached to this germ, belongs to another and later stage of formation of legends, since nothing could be told of intoxication till the free use of wine was known and practised. The word Nôach denotes him who rests.' While the Sun of Day is called 'he who goes, runs, wanders,' the Evening Sun, preparing to set, is 'he who rests.' 'Noah uncovers himself:' after setting, the Sun is shrouded in a covering which darkens his light, but in the morning he throws off the clothes and becomes visible, spreading light and brightness abroad. In a hymn to Ushas, the Dawn, the ancient Indian poet says that she uncovers her bosom ' (Rigveda, VI. 64. 2, 10). If the intoxication is also to be accounted for, then this prominent circumstance must describe the reeling motion with which the Sun, exhausted by his long course, staggers towards his repose. The Agadic tradition has preserved another element of the Noah-myth. The wicked black son Ham (Châm), emasculates his father (Sanhedrîn, 70 a). The emasculation of the Sun, when the Sun is male, is an expression of Aryan mythology denoting the weakening of his rays before and at sunset.1 The black son, the Night, overcomes and emasculates his father, takes all power from his rays and drives him to ruin.

§ 9. Thus we find Cain's posterity to be repetitions of their ancestor, mere solar figures of the old myth, brought by an unmythological age into a genealogical connexion with the wandering and fratricidal solar hero. It is the genealogy of the solar figures to which the data of the legend of civilisation are attached; for the agriculturist always puts civilisation into conjunction with

1 Schwartz, Ursprung der Mythologie, pp 138-150.

the sun. But besides this solar pedigree, we possess also a nomadic one, starting from the myth of the dark Nightsky-the genealogy of Abram (Gen. XI. 10 sq.), which begins with his ancestor Shem. But the name Shêm has the same signification as Abhrâm itself, according to the lexicon. As Abhrâm is the High Father,' so also the name Shêm denotes the 'High;' and from this name the Semitic appellation of heaven, Hebrew shâmayim, Arabic samâ, is derived. Like Abram, Abel, Jabal, Jacob, Lot &c., Shem too possesses tents. Elôhîm opens out (room) for Jepheth; he (Jepheth) dwells in the tents of Shem' (Gen. XI. 27), is said in the extant fragment of an ancient hymn. Jepheth (Yepheth) signifies the 'Beautiful, Brilliant,' if it is connected with yâpheh; or who spreads himself out,' if the root pâthâh is its origin; or who opens,' if with Gesenius and some later writers we lay stress on the connexion of the sounds of pâthâh with pâthach; but in any case it is a solar name. As the sun of the daytime is observed wandering from place to place, it is not an unnatural idea that the sun takes up his abode in the tents of high heaven. For the sun he made

a tent in them (the heavens).'

It cannot be denied that in Abraham's genealogy, as given in the Book of Genesis, there occur some ethnographical appellations which have no mythological meaning (e.g. Arpachshad). Still, the majority of names are of a mythical character. Unfortunately, they must remain mere names to us, as no material myth connected with these names is extant. Although they seem to invite etymological attempts, as e.g. the names Shelach and 'Êbher, yet I shall resist the temptation, as it is not my business here to indulge in vague speculations. But I may be allowed to remark that there is one sentence in this

See the whole of Chapter VI.

2 See note 2, p. 129.

* Ps. XIX. 5 [4]. We have already remarked (p. 111) that the tents which originally belonged to the sky at night are frequently transferred to the sky of daytime; see also Is. XL. 22. And Noah uncovers himself, bethôkh oholô in the middle of his tent' (Gen. IX. 21).