Mythology among the Hebrews and Its Historical Development

497. There still remain some names whose etymological explanation is difficult, as Reʾûbhên and Shimʿôn. Yissâsekhâr (Issachar) translated literally might be ‘the Day-labourer,’ certainly a fitting designation for the Sun, expressing how he does his day’s work, like a day-labourer. Yet I cannot look upon that as a mythical description, because it would be an unpardonable anachronism to suppose that that primeval age when myths were created would speak of day-labourers, especially after the fashion in which the idea is expressed by the word Yissâ-sekhâr, ‘he takes up his wages.’

498. Which according to al-Damîrî, Ḥayât al-ḥaywân, Bûlâḳ 1274, II. 219, is used only of the rising sun; we can say ṭalaʿat al-ġazâlâ ‘the gazelle rises,’ but not ġarabat ‘he sets.’ Abû Saʿîd al-Rustamî the poet (in Behâ al-Dîn al-ʿÂmilî, Keshkûl, p. 164. 13) carries out the mythological figure still further, using the verb naṭaḥa ‘to butt,’ said of horned beasts. Describing a fine building, he says tanâṭaḥa ḳarna-sh-shamsi min sharafâtihi, that ‘as to splendour it butts in rivalry with the sun’—as if the palace and the sun were knocking their horns together.

499. Babyl. Tract. Yômâ, fol. 29. a: ‘As the hind’s horns branch out to every side, so also the light of dawn spreads out to all sides.’

500. Journal asiatique, 1861, II. 437.

501. Caussin de Perceval, Essai sur l’histoire des Arabes avant l’Islamisme, I. 260.

502. Given in the Appendix to this work.

503. Lenormant, La Magie chez les Chaldéens, Paris 1874, p. 140. In the decadence of magic, however, the horns, which are connected with magic, are used even outside the cycle of solar gods; e.g. ‘On voit Bin la tête surmontée de la tiare royale armée de cornes de taureau, les épaules munies de quatre grandes ailes, etc.,’ ibid. p. 50. Here the horns are for butting, not to symbolise rays. However, in this particular case of Bin the mythical meaning is not very clear. As he is sometimes called ‘the southern sun over ʿElâm,’ ibid. p. 121, the horns in the passage quoted may have something to do with his solar character.

504. Deorum Concilium, 10.

505. See Herodotus, II. 42, IV. 181.

506. We will not claim any importance for the fact that in Sanchuniathon’s account of the sacrifice of Isaac the name Jeûd is given instead of Isaac; consequently if Jeûd be identical with the Hebrew Jehûdâ, the fact that Jeûd is here equivalent to Isaac would prove the solar character of Jehûdâ.

507. Angelo de Gubernatis, in his Zoological Mythology, is peculiarly indefinite on the mythological significance of this animal; compare Pleyte, La Religion des Pré-Israelites, Leyden 1865, p. 151, where much useful information will be found on the worship of the Ass.

508. See Gesenius, Thesaurus, pp. 494 and 1163.

509. On the Arabic proper name Ḥimâr, Yâḳût, II. 362, may be consulted; cf. Ibn Dureyd, Kitâb al-ishtiḳâḳ, p. 4. The Arabic proper name Misḥal is also connected with the Ass; it alludes to the screeching of the wild-ass; see Tebrîzî’s Scholia to the Ḥamâsâ, p. 200 penult. Compare al-Meydânî, II. 98: akfar min Ḥimâr.

510. Ḳazwînî, ed. Wüstenfeld, I. 77, II. 166. I must also just refer to the story of Muṭʿim, as told in Yâḳût, IV. 565, and mention that Muṭʿim ‘he who gives food’ is likewise the name of an ancient Arabian idol. Even Krehl, in his work on the Preislamite Religion of the Arabs, p. 61, attempted to explain mythologically the story of Isâf and Nâʾilâ, interpreting the latter name as ‘she who kisses.’

511. Pharez and Zarah in the English Bible, derived through the LXX. from the pausal forms Pâreṣ and Zârach.—Tr.

512. And English Daybreak.—Tr.

513. From Hajnal ‘dawn,’ and hasadás, abstract substantive from root hasad ‘to split, tear open.’—Tr.

514. Abû Nuwâs says of the dawn, maftûḳ-ul-adîmi, Yâḳut, III. 697. 22.

515. This hymn is applied to Dan, to whom it is quite unsuitable, as Dan has a solar character. We are tempted to conjecture that it originally referred to a non-solar figure, perhaps actually to Levi, whose name is synonymous with nâchâsh ‘serpent.’ This is the more probable, because no separate section of Jacob’s Blessing is devoted to this son, and in the only words relating to him he is coupled with Simeon.

516. See Zeitsch. für Völkerpsychologie &c., 1871, VII. 307.

517. The first chapter of the Vendidâd translated and explained, in Bunsen’s Egypt’s Place &c. III. 494 et seq.

518. As raoidhitem may also signify ‘running’ (root rudh = to flow and to run), a ‘running snake,’ literally the same as nâchâsh bârîach, might be meant.

519. Möller, Kosmogonie, p. 193.

520. Max Müller, Chips &c., II. 164; Fiske, Myths &c., p. 113. On the blinding, see p. 109 et seq.

521. See al-Damîrî, Ḥayât al-heyvân, I. 70.

522. See Excursus L.

523. Connected with ġashiya ‘to veil.’

524. See Gesenius, Thesaurus, p. 749.

525. Max Müller, Chips &c., II. 68.

526. Arsala achâhu Sheybûb taḥt al-leyl, ʿAntar, VI. 102. 9.

527. Ḥamâsâ, p. 566. v. 2.

528. Libâsan, compare Sûr. VII. v. 52; XIII. v. 3; yuġshî-l-leyla-n-nahâra.

529. In Yâḳût, I. 24. 2.

530. Ḥarîrî, p. 162, 2nd ed.; compare the Commentary, in which particular stress is laid on the act of covering up: liʾannahu yuġaṭṭî mâ fîhî. Compare al-Meydânî, II. 112. 23: al-leyl yuwârî ḥaḍanan.

531. Eur. Ion, v. 1150; it is also called ποικίλον ἔνδυμα ἔχουσα, and in Aeschylus, Prom. v. 24 ποικίλειμων νύξ, from the gay robe of stars.

532. Compare King Richard II., III. 2. ‘The cloak of night being pluck'd from off their backs.’

533. Kitâb al-aġânî, III. 28. 24.

534. I quote also a passage from the Uigur language: ‘The creation tore its black shirt,’ i.e. the day has dawned: Vámbéry, Kudatku Bilik, p. 218; compare p. 70, ‘I have put off the cloak of darkness;’ p. 219, ‘The daughter of the west spreads out her carpet.’

535. Max Müller, Chips, &c., II. 83. Schwartz, Ursprung d. Mythologie, p. 245.

536. al-Beyḍâwî’s Commentary on the Ḳorân, I. 19. 21 et seq. Abû-l-Baḳâ, Kulliât, p. 305.