Forlong - Rivers of Life

Sun Worship.
were indestrnctible, while all the multitudes born suring the journey, we are left to
suppose, went naked; so that no wonder the arrival on the borders of Syria of naked
and therefore wild looking savages created, as alleged, great consternation.
At the end of November we enter the winter festivals, with which I opened this
section. Let us now turn our attention to the names and titles of the Sun. I will
assume the reader is aware, that with ancient peoples there was no hard and fast rule as
to the pronunciation of words; aspirating, doubling, or changing letters, and giving only
one round to one symbol. Among many races, also, no letters existed. Most people,
we find, freely change l into r: b into v: and in certain cases m into n. In Indian
idioms, he often becomes hetch or etch; and is sometimes emphasized by w, and pronounced
wahe. With Chinese, b, d, r, s, x, and z, may take the place of p, t, l, s, or ss.
They call Crux, Culuso; Baptizo, Papetizo; Cardinalis, Kzaulsinalis; Spiritus, Supelitisu;
and Adam, Vatam. 1
The names of the sun are too numerous to be mentioned; and still more so those
of light and heat, in close connection with him; but the following we should bear in
mind:—The Kaldi Ur is represented in Arabic by Naero, fire; and Nouro, light;
the Hebrew, lwylo, Elion, or “exalted one,” by the Arabian Elon. The Hebrew Methra,
is the Persian Mithras; and the Arabic Mater or “giver of rain,” that is Zeu-Pater
Pluvius, and Fulgens. The Ba-al-Shamaim or Samen, is the Aurota-alt of Arabia, the
Oramazdes of the ancient Persians, and the Shamsh of the present. The Greeks called
him 'Elathra phlogonwn (Elatera Pelogonon), or “Scatterer of the clouds, giants, or earthborn
ones,” a term which Kallimakus applies to Jove in one of his beautiful hymns:—
“The god whose powers dispersed, whose arms subdued,
The daring Titans, earth’s rebelliouis brood.”
Plato constantly calls the Sun, Zeu-pater, or “Pather of all Life;” and with Homer, he
is Fate, “the Cause of Causes,” the One Eternal, “the Why and the Wherefore,” Present,
Past, and To Be. Virgil links earth and all ferillity with him. 2 That he was anciently
a very Phallic Lord we see in him receiving the name of Ba-al-Phegor, Belzemen, &c.;
for Belus and Saturn preceded the classic Jupiter, 3 just as a Phallic Brhama preceded
the present Hindoo one. Nin, Ninus, and Nim-rad “the mighty hunter,” son of Ninus,
who was the son of Belus, long preceded Jove; and men were taught to see in these
their Creators and Redeemers, and in their Sanctuaries to seek refuge and salvation
long ere Jupiter had an Egis that he could throw over his children. To the shrine
of Belus the persecuted and distressed could flee, ages before Jews wrote about “cities
of refuge,” and later faiths of altars and naves. The Sun was the Fire-tower long
ere Jupiter was called Tar-peus, Tar-pi-eus, or Jupiter Lapis, Tonans, or Fulgens. Horns
1 Brand’s Pop. Ants., Bohn’s ed., i. p. 7.
2 See Tooke’s Pantheon, p. 29. Virgil speaks of
him as creating thus with earth, or Terra:—
. . . “Almighty Jove descends and pours
Into his buxom bride his fruitful showers,
And mixing his large limbs with hers, he feeds
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Her births with kindly juices, and fosters, teeming
seeds.”
3 Tooke’s Pan., pp. 4-19. Ba-al is in Keltic
Be-al, where Be is “life,” and Al, the Stone-God,
or Maha Deva, and this without any aid from the
Greek etymology.