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PLANETARY MYTH AND TOMORROW'S SCIENCE

Ev cochrane

I have been asked to discuss the methodology and logic behind ongoing attempts 
to decipher the ancient traditions surrounding the planets (by Mark Isaak and 
others).  In lieu of a more definitive statement on the matter, perhaps the 
following will suffice to get the ball rolling.  My research, like that of 
Talbott and Cardona, relies first and foremost upon the comparative method.  
While every ancient tradition warrants attention, it is our policy to 
concentrate primarily upon those traditions which are found around the world, 
preferably in the Old World as well as the New.  Take the anomalous beard or 
dragon-like form ascribed to the planet Venus.  This report might easily be 
dismissed as imaginary or metaphorical were it not so widespread as to be
universal.  Ditto for literally hundreds of other motives associated with
Venus, Mars and the other planets, many of which are impossible to reconcile
with the current appearance and/or behavior of those planets.

An archetypal motive like that of the Venus-beard or MarsÕ association with 
pestilence (see the following short summary), far from being an isolated or 
rare phenomenon, is actually distinguished by its pervasive influence upon 
ancient thought.  These planets were, after all, the ancientÕs gods, and as 
such, they were watched and described very carefully.  Obsessively in fact.  
Thus, the association of Mars and pestilence is not only prominent in ancient 
astronomical and astrological reports (from China to Babylon), but in ancient 
myth, ancient religion, ancient art and sacred iconography, and ancient 
language.  Nor were such traditions of interest only to the ÒprimitiveÓ 
ancients.  Archetypal motives surrounding Venus, Mars and Saturn pervaded the 
medieval alchemical texts, for example, the latter of which had a profound 
influence upon such folks as Kepler and Newton, and through them, upon the 
very foundations of modern astronomy.  Folks such as Kepler and his 
contemporaries took the ancient reports surrounding the respective planets 
very seriously, unlike their modern counterparts.  It was the great 
achievement of Velikovsky that he rediscovered and sought to revive the
ancient wisdom.

As Talbott and I have shown at great length, the evidence from ancient 
language is especially compelling, for it is simply impossible to reconcile 
the ancient language surrounding the Sun, ÒMoonÓ, and planets with the current 
arrangement of the solar system.  Of the literally hundreds of examples we 
have provided, ancient descriptions of the ÒSunÕsÓ daily cycle are especially 
conclusive.  In every ancient advanced culture without exception, the Sun is 
described as rising and setting upon the very same mountain, a patent 
absurdity and astronomical impossibility.  Upon analysis, the basis of this 
universal tradition can be reconstructed in great detail, and the resulting 
reconstruction portends nothing less than a revolution in the way we view the
recent history of the solar system.

Much of my own research has been in the field of comparative mythology.  Here 
I have pursued an interdisciplinary approach, subject to confirmation or 
rejection on several levels.  The first step involves the detailed analysis of 
ancient traditions surrounding the greatest heroes/gods of ancient myth.  For 
example, various articles of mine have discussed the traditions surrounding 
Heracles, Gilgamesh, Indra, Erra, Tezcatlipoca, Thor, Cuchulainn, Apollo, and 
Horus.  Such figures share literally hundreds of motives in common, many of 
which are wholly bizarre and have consistently befuddled the greatest scholars 
of ancient myth.  It is possible to show that each of these figures conforms 
to a common pattern, one which we have labeled the warrior-hero.

Step two involves the analysis of the obvious celestial context of these 
heroes and their manifold adventures.  For example, it is possible to show 
that each of these figures offers a striking parallel to the Babylonian god 
Nergal, identified with the planet Mars in the most ancient times.  The 
conclusion is drawn that each of these figures was originally identified with 
the planet Mars, that indeed the peculiar traditions involving them originated 
in direct response to the ancient appearance and/or behavior of the red
planet.

Step three involves the reconstruction of the ancient appearance and/or 
behavior of the planet Mars.  While steps one and two are well-documented, 
step three is still ongoing and subject to nearly daily revision despite more 
than a decade of careful research.  Quite frankly, thereÕs a lot of ground to 
be covered, nothing less than the intellectual heritage of mankind the world 
over going back to prehistorical times.  It is at this point that we come into 
direct conflict with currently prevailing astronomical views, needless to say.  
Some scholars, such as de Santillana and von Dechend in the classic HamletÕs 
Mill, sought to account for the myths of these figures by reference to the 
usual movements of the planets.  Talbott and I, in contrast, have been forced 
to the conclusion that Mars only recently moved upon a different orbit and 
participated in great cataclysms in the sky for the simple reason that the 
ancient records (astronomical, artistic, linguistic, and mythological) 
describe Mars in such close proximity to Saturn and Venus as to preclude any 
other explanation.  Or so it seems to us.  To paraphrase Dennis Miller: Of 
Course it is possible that we are wrong.

I'll interrupt the narrative at this point and close with the following 
introduction to a recent article of mine on Mars and Pestilence, inasmuch as
it touches upon the methodological issues involved in our researches.

The recent emergence of archaeoastronomy as a science has produced a wealth of 
information about the various celestial bodies.  To date, however, the 
collection of information has proceeded at a faster pace than has analysis.  
This is nowhere more apparent than in comparative analyses of ancient 
traditions surrounding the planets.  One wants to know, for example, what to 
make of the fact that the ancient Mesoamerican skywatchersÑlike their 
Babylonian counterpartsÑrepresented the planet Venus as a great warrior or as 
a fire-breathing dragon.   Or why the Babylonians together with several other 
advanced cultures described the planet Saturn as a ÒSun.Ó   Such puzzles of 
planetary lore, difficult to understand according to the central tenets of 
modern astronomy, could be multiplied by the hundreds.  From a methodological 
standpoint, it is possible to investigate archaeoastronomy from several 
different vantage points.  The most obvious, of course, is to collect and 
analyze the ancientsÕ observations and traditions with regard to the various 
celestial bodies.  This task was begun in the last century and is now well 
under way.

In addition to the information to be gained by simply compiling the ancient 
traditions surrounding the respective planets, a second approach would be to 
investigate the traditions surrounding ancient gods identified with the 
various celestial bodies in the hope that some astronomical information may 
have been preserved in the literature surrounding these figures.  That the 
gods were identified with the planets early on is well-known, of course, being 
a fundamental principle of Babylonian religion.  The decisive question is how 
far back can this conception be traced?  The Babylonian practice, in turn, is 
known to have had a significant influence upon the religion of the ancient 
Greeks.  Given PlatoÕs identification of  Aphrodite with the planet Venus, for 
example, one might compare the Greek traditions surrounding that goddess with 
Babylonian and/or Mesoamerican traditions associated with the planet Venus.  
Surprising correspondences crop up even under the most cursory investigation 
of this sort.  Thus Aphrodite was represented as ÒbeardedÓ, as was the planet 
Venus in early Babylonian omen-literature.   Inasmuch as Aphrodite symbolized 
the very epitome of beauty and womanhood for the ancient Greeks it is 
difficult to explain her anomalous beard apart from the attested 
identification with the ÒbeardedÓ planet.  AphroditeÕs ÒbeardÓ, apparently, 
represents a vestige of archaeoastronomical tradition and raises a host of 
intriguing questions, not the least of which is what other motives associated
with the great Venusian goddesses have reference to the appearance and/or
behavior of the Cytherean planet?

A third strategy, hitherto overlooked, would be to compare ancient reports 
surrounding the various planets with traditions involving heroes or heroines 
identified with the respective planets.  Ancient beliefs surrounding the 
planet Mars, for example, might be compared with traditions surrounding 
Heracles, the identification of the Greek strongman with the red planet being 
widespread in Hellenistic times.   Here, too, it would appear that students of 
archaeoastronomy have overlooked a valuable source of information.  Indeed, it 
was the vast nexus of characteristics shared in common between the planet Mars 
and Heracles which led me to postulate that the ultimate key to the myriad of 
mythological traditions surrounding the Greek strongman was the primeval 
appearance and unusual behavior of the red planet.  In this article we propose 
to expand the horizons of archaeoastronomy by exploring ancient beliefs 
associated with planets, gods, and heroes.  The widespread association of the 
planet Mars with pestilence will serve as our point of reference.

Mars and Pestilence

Throughout the ancient world, for no reason apparent to modern astronomers, 
the red planet was consistently associated with death, pestilence, and the 
onset of disease.  In Babylonian astronomical texts, for example, the epithet 
mustabarru mutanu was applied to the planet Mars, translated by Kugler as Òhe 
who is swollen with death (pestilence).Ó

Similar ideas are discernible in the New World.  The Zinacantecan Indians, for 
example, heirs to the ancient beliefs of the Maya, continue to believe that 
the red planet is chiefly responsible for diseases of the eyes.   This 
tradition prompted a leading scholar to identify the Aztec god XipeÑknown also 
as the red TezcatlipocaÑwith the planet Mars, the former god being credited in 
the Florentine Codex with having Òvisited the people with blisters, festering, 
pimples, eye pains, watering of the eyesÉwithering of the eyes, cataracts, 
glazing of the eyes.Ó   That HuntÕs surmise is well-founded is further 
supported by the circumstance that Tezcatlipoca is elsewhere linked with the 
onset of pestilence.

Returning to the Old World, it is well-documented that several ancient gods 
expressly identified with the planet Mars were intimately associated with 
pestilence.  The Babylonian Nergal is a case in point.  Jastrow summarizes the 
ancient conception of Nergal as follows: The various names assigned to him, 
almost without exception, emphasize the forbidding phase of his nature, and 
the myths associated with him deal with destruction, pestilence, and 
death...In Babylonian astrology, he is identified with the planet Mars, and 
the omen-literature shows that Mars in ancient days, as still at the present 
time, was regarded as the planet unlucky above all others.

A similar figure is the West Semitic deity Reseph, whose cult enjoyed a wide 
range of influence from Mari, to Cyprus, to Egypt.  Reseph is best known, 
perhaps, from his cameo appearance in the Old Testament.  Thus in Habbukah 3 
it is said of Yahweh: ÒBefore Him Pestilence marched, and Plague went forth at 
this feet.Ó  The name translated as Pestilence here is that of the god Reseph.  
ResephÕs identification with Nergal is widely attested in the ancient sources 
and appears perfectly logical given their common attributes.

That Reseph likewise bore a planetary identification has only recently been 
confirmed.  Thus, in an astrological text from Ras Shamra allegedly concerned 
with an ancient eclipse of the sun, Reseph is invoked as a satellite 
(gate-keeper) of the ancient sun-god.   Here Dahood observed: ÒThe 
astralization of Resep may be much earlier than we suspect, and it is only a 
lack of documentation which prevents us from understanding the full and early 
Canaanite conception of Resep.Ó   More recently, Sawyer and Stephenson have 
provided impressive arguments identifying Reseph with the planet Mars.  In 
ancient Greece it was the war-god AresÑalso identified with the planet 
MarsÑwho was feared and hated as the bringer of pestilence and plague.  
Aeschylus, among others, refers to this aspect of the godÕs cult in the 
following prayer:

No devastating curse of fell disease this city seize; No clamor of the State 
rouse to war Ares, the lord of wail.  Swarm far aloof from ArgosÕ citizens all 
plague and pestilence, and may the Archer-god our children spare!  In the wake 
of such testimony, modern scholars have concluded that AresÕ association with
pestilence belongs to the most archaic stage of the godÕs cult.

Alongside such well-known gods of pestilence as Nergal, Reseph, and Ares one 
should also place the Greek Apollo.   ApolloÕs association with disease is 
well-known, being prominent already in the Iliad.  One of the HomerÕs favorite 
epithets of ApolloÑHekatebolosÑÒthe far-shooterÓ, is said to refer to the 
godÕs propensity for causing plague with his ÒarrowsÓ.   The following passage 
from the Iliad is representative of the archaic Apollo, being in fact the 
first Apollonian epiphany in Greek literature:

Down he strode, wroth at heart, bearing on his shoulders his bow and covered 
quiver.  The arrows rattled on the shoulders of the angry god as he moved; and 
his coming was like the night.  Then he sat down apart from the ships and let 
fly a shaft; terrible was the twang of his silver bow.  The mules he assailed 
first and the swift dogs, but thereafter on the men themselves he let fly his 
stinging arrows, and smote; and ever did the pyres of the dead burn thick.  
The fact that the ancient Greeks identified Apollo with Reseph confirms the 
fundamental affinity of the two gods and supports the inclusion of Apollo 
within this circle of gods.   ApolloÕs identification with Reseph, taken in 
conjunction with the numerous characteristics shared in common between Apollo 
and the Latin god Mars, confirms the likelihood of a planetary dimension to
the cult of the Greek god.

Mars too, apparently, was a god much involved with the phenomena of pestilence 
and death.  The epithet Isminthians, for example, signifies a god who sends, 
but also averts, plagues of mice, smintheus being an ancient Cretan word 
meaning ÒmouseÓ.  Significantly, Mars shares this epithet with Apollo.  A link 
between the planet-god Mars and the phenomena of pestilence and/or death is 
also suggested by evidence from ancient language.  The most probable etymology 
of Mars refers it to the root m(a)r, an early name of the Latin god being 
Marmar, a duplication of the root in question.   Here it is significant to 
note that the root mar appears at the base of words meaning ÒdeathÓ and 
ÒpestilenceÓ throughout the Indo-European world.  In Latin, for example, there 
is an apparent relationship between Mars and mors, Òdeath.Ó   Notice also the 
Latin word morbus: ÒdiseaseÓ, Òsickness.Ó   From the same root comes the 
English murrain, Òplague or pestilence;Ó Lithuanian maras and Old Slavic morz, 
both signifying Òpestilence.Ó   In Sanskrit the root mar, Òto dieÓ, appears as 
the base in maraka, a word signifying pestilence, plague, and murrain.  
Indeed, the word mar becomes personified in Sanskrit mythology as Mar, a god
of death, plague and pestilence.

It is probable that the same root occurs within Semitic languages as well.   
The Egyptian word mer, for example, connotes Òto be sickÓ and forms the root 
of mer-t, Òsickness, fatal illnessÓ.   The Akkadian word marasu signifies 
Òdisease,Ó Òsickness.Ó   According to Astour, this latter word became
personified as Maras, the god who brings disease and plague.  Footnotes
(somehow the numbers disappeared, sorry computer gliche)

E. Cochrane & D. Talbott, ÒWhen Venus was a Comet,Ó Kronos XII:1 (Winter
1987), pp. 5-12.
M. Jastrow, ÒSun and Saturn,Ó Revue dÕAssyriologie et dÕArcheologie Orientale
7 (1909), pp. 163-178.  See also the extensive discussion in D. Cardona,
ÒIntimations of an Alien Sky,Ó AEON 2:5 (1991), pp. 10-17.
F. Cumont, Astrology and Religion Among the Greeks and Romans (New York,
1960), pp. 22-41.
F. Kugler, Sternkunde und Sterndienst in Babel (Munster, 1935), pp. 303.
Mesoamerican skywatchers likewise appear to have described Venus as a ÒbeardedÓ
planet.  See J. Thompson, Maya Hieroglyphic Writing (Norman, 1970), p. 218.
H. Seyrig, ÒAntiquities Syriennes,Ó Syria 64 (1944-45), p. 62.  See also B.
L. van der Waerden, The Birth of Astronomy (New York, 1974), p. 190.
E. Cochrane, ÒHeracles and the Planet Mars,Ó AEON I:4 (1988), pp. 89-106;
Idem, ÒThe Death of Heracles,Ó AEON II:5 (1991), pp. 55-73.
F. Kugler, Sternkunde und Sterndienst in Babel (Munster, 1935), p. 304.
Jeremias translates as Òhe who is saturated with deathÓ.  See A. Jeremias,
ÒSterne,Ó RML (Leipzig, 1884-1937), p. 1481.
E. Hunt, The Transformation of the Hummingbird (Ithaca, 1977), pp. 144-145.
Ibid., p. 144.
B. Brundage, The Fifth Sun (Norman, 1983), pp. 101, 277.  Indeed the entire
mythology of Tezcatlipoca is consistent with his identification with the planet
Mars as I hope to show in a future essay.
M. Jastrow, Religious Belief in Babylonia and Assyria (New York, 1911), p.
108.
E. Weiher, Der babylonische Gott Nergal (Berlin, 1971), p. 91.  See also W.
Fulco, The Canaanite God Resep (New Haven, 1976), p. 34; M. Dahood, ÒAncient
Semitic Deities in Syria and Palestine,Ó in S. Moscati, ed., Le Antiche Divinita
Semitiche (Rome, 1958), p. 86.  
Gordon, No. 143.   This report is doubly important to us inasmuch as it
appears to identify the planet Mars as the door-keeper or porter of heaven, a
function elsewhere ascribed to Heracles, Apollo and Mars-gods throughout the
ancient world.  See E. Cochrane, ÒApollo and the Planet Mars,Ó AEON I:1 (1988),
p. 60.  
Dahood, op. cit., p. 87. 
J. Sawyer & F. Stephenson, ÒLiterary and Astronomical Evidence for a Total
Eclipse of the Sun Observed in Ancient Ugarit on 3 May 1375 B.C.,Ó BSOAS 33
(1970), p. 471.
Suppliants 678-685.
A. Furtwangler, ÒAres,Ó RLM (Hildesheim, 1965), Vol. 1, pp. 486-487.
E. Cochrane, ÒApollo and the Planet Mars,Ó AEON I:1 (1988), pp. 52-62.  For a
similar conclusion see M. Schretter, Alter Orient und Hellas (Innsbruck, 1974). 

W. Burkert, Greek Religion (Cambridge, 1985), p. 145.
Iliad I:44ff.
W. Fulco, op. cit., p. 38.  See also W. Albright, Yahweh and the Gods of
Canaan (Garden City, 1968), p. 139.
The fundamental affinity of Apollo and Mars was first emphasized by W.
Roscher, Studien zur Vergleichenden Mythologie der Griechen und Romer: Apollon
und Mars (Leipzig, 1873).  Further support for this proposition has since been
supplied by H. S. Versnal, ÒApollo and Mars One Hundred Years after Roscher,Ó
Visible Religion 4 (1986), pp. 132-72; and E. Cochrane, ÒApollo and the Planet
Mars,Ó AEON I:1 (1988), pp. 52-62.   
H. Wagenvoort, Studies in Roman Literature, Culture and Religion (New York,
1978), p. 219.   
R.F. Willetts, Cretan Cults and Festivals (New York, 1962), p. 269.
W. Roscher, ÒMars,Ó Ausfuhrliches Lexikon der griechischen und romischen
Mythologie (Hildesheim, 1965), pp. 2435-2438.  Significantly, similar names
appear amongst the earliest pantheons of Egypt and Mesopotamia.
Ibid., pp. 2437-2438.
Ibid., p. 351.
J. Pokorny, Indogermanisches etymologisches Worterbuch (Bern, 1959), p. 735.
M. William, Sanskrit Dictionary (Oxford, 1872), p. 748.
Ibid., p. 772.
A. Bomhard, Toward Proto-Nostratic (Philadelphia, 1984), p. 273.
E. Budge, An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary (New York, 1978), p. 314. 
F. Delitsche, Assyrische Handworterbuch (Leipzig, 1896), p. 426.
M. Astour, Hellenosemitica (Leiden, 1967), pp. 273-4.  

As always, complementary copies of articles mentioned in this post may be
obtained by request via e-mail to Ev Cochrane.

ADDENDUM:

On May 30th, with reference to my citing the Exaltation to Inanna, where the
planet-goddess Inanna/Venus is described as causing great destruction while
taking the form of a dragon and raining "fire" from heaven, Mark Isaak poses
the following question: "Have you observed that, in the context of the hymns
you quote, 'rain of fire' almost certainly refers to lightning?"

Although I wouldn't necessarily accept this translation, would you care to
explain how the planet Venus might be described as exuding "lightning" across
the Sumerian skies?

The word in question is ush, translated variously as "fire", "venom", or
"poison" by authorities on these Sumerian texts.  In "Venus in Ancient Myth
and Language," Aeon 1988, I discussed this theme at some length.  There, upon
calling attention to parallels in other lands, especially the acknowledged
relationship between the Latin words Venus and venenum (poison), I offered the
following summary:

"Similar anomalies will be found in other languages as well.  The Norse eitr,
for example - signifying 'venom' or 'poison' - is cognate with eit, 'fire'
(See J. Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, 1976, p. 689).  The range of meanings
associated with the Sumerian ush and Norse eit, together with the philological
relation between Venus and venenum, are perfectly understandable if the
objective reference of the celestial dragon [Inanna/Venus] was a comet-like
Venus, its fiery exhalations interpreted by some ancient mythographers as the
venom of a dragon, by others as the poison of a witch."

It will be remembered, of course, that Venus was termed the "Witch-star" by
more than one ancient culture (For Babylonian traditions, see P. Gossman,
Planetarium Babylonicum, 1950, p. 62).  Ditto for Venus=Dragon