mirrored file at http://SaturnianCosmology.Org/ For complete access to all the files of this collection see http://SaturnianCosmology.org/search.php ========================================================== ON MARS AND PESTILENCE Ev Cochrane 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 skywatchers like their Babylonian counterparts represented the planet Venus as a great warrior or as a fire-breathing dragon.61 Or why the Babylonians together with several other advanced cultures described the planet Saturn as a ÒSun. 62 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 ancients' 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.63 Given Plato's 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 "bearded", as was the planet Venus in early Babylonian omen-literature.64 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 "bearded" planet. Aphrodite's "beard", 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.65 Here, too, it would appear 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.66 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 "he who is swollen with death (pestilence)."67 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.68 This tradition prompted a leading scholar to identify the Aztec god Xipe known also as the red Tezcatlipoca with the planet Mars, the former god being credited in the Florentine Codex with having "visited the people with blisters, festering, pimples, eye pains, watering of the eyes withering of the eyes, cataracts, glazing of the eyes."69 That Hunt's surmise is well-founded is further supported by the circumstance that Tezcatlipoca is elsewhere linked with the onset of pestilence.70 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.71 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: "Before Him Pestilence marched, and Plague went forth at this feet." The name translated as Pestilence here is that of the god Reseph. Reseph's identification with Nergal is widely attested in the ancient sources and appears perfectly logical given their common attributes.72 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.73 Here Dahood observed: "The 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."74 More recently, Sawyer and Stephenson have provided impressive arguments identifying Reseph with the planet Mars.75 In ancient Greece it was the war-god Ares, also identified with the planet Mars, who was feared and hated as the bringer of pestilence and plague. Aeschylus, among others, refers to this aspect of the god's 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 Argos' citizens all plague and pestilence, and may the Archer-god our children spare!76 In the wake of such testimony, modern scholars have concluded that Ares' association with pestilence belongs to the most archaic stage of the god's cult.77 Alongside such well-known gods of pestilence as Nergal, Reseph, and Ares one should also place the Greek Apollo.78 Apollo's association with disease is well-known, being prominent already in the Iliad. One of the Homer's favorite epithets of Apollo 'Hekatebolos, the far-shooter", is said to refer to the god's propensity for causing plague with his "arrows".79 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.80 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.81 Apollo's 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.82 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 "mouse".83 Significantly, Mars shares this epithet with Apollo.84 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.85 Here it is significant to note that the root mar appears at the base of words meaning "death" and "pestilence" throughout the Indo-European world. In Latin, for example, there is an apparent relationship between Mars and mors, Òdeath. 86 Notice also the Latin word morbus: "disease", Òsickness. 87 From the same root comes the English murrain, "plague or pestilence;" Lithuanian maras and Old Slavic morz, both signifying "pestilence."88 In Sanskrit the root mar, "to die", appears as the base in maraka, a word signifying pestilence, plague, and murrain.89 Indeed, the word mar becomes personified in Sanskrit mythology as Mar, a god of death, plague and pestilence.90 It is probable that the same root occurs within Semitic languages as well.91 The Egyptian word mer, for example, connotes Òto be sick and forms the root of mer-t, "sickness, fatal illness".92 The Akkadian word marasu signifies "disease, sickness."93 According to Astour, this latter word became personified as Maras, the god who brings disease and plague.94 The Pestilence-Bearing Hero A persistent theme throughout this series of essays identifies various great heroes of ancient myth with the planet Mars. Having documented that the planet Mars was associated with the phenomena of pestilence throughout the ancient world, it remains to be shown that the same was true of the so-called "Martian" heroes. A widespread motive finds some misdeed of a hero resulting in pestilence overtaking the land. In Greek myth, for example, Lykurgos' treacherous murder of his son is said to have produced a plague (or famine) over the whole of Thrace.95 The Edonian strongman is best known, perhaps, from his prominent role in Homer's account of Dionysus "death", but Lykurgos was also a favorite subject in Greek tragedy, a lost tetralogy of Aeschylus being devoted to his career. Modern scholars, significantly, have recognized in Lykurgos an avatar of the god Ares.96 The classic example of the pestilence-bearing hero is the Greek hero Oedipus. As Frazer observed in his commentary upon Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, the pestilence which ravaged Thebes was thought to be directly attributable to the sins of Oedipus: According to Sophocles the land of Thebes suffered from blight, from pestilence, and from the sterility both of women and cattle under the reign of Oedipus and the Delphic oracle declared that the only way to restore the prosperity of the country was to banish the sinner from it, as if his mere presence withered plants, animals and women.97 Vital to the proper interpretation of Oedipus Rex, as I have argued elsewhere, are the various parallels which Sophocles draws between Oedipus and Ares. In the prologue, for example, Sophocles alludes to the source of the Theban pestilence, which he describes as a fever-demon: "A fever-demon wastes the town and decimates with fire, stalking hated through the emptied house where Cadmus lived."98 Later in the third strophe Sophocles further identifies the agent behind the pestilence: "Muffle the wildfire Ares, warring with copper- hot fever."99 In my opinion there is a strong likelihood that ancient traditions are here being revealed, hitherto overlooked by the hundreds of commentators upon Sophocles' magnificent drama. On the one hand Oedipus is deemed responsible for the pestilence. Yet Ares too is identified as the agent behind the very same pestilence. Is this not a clear hint that, on this point at least, Oedipus has assumed the characteristics of Ares?100 The warrior-hero's intimate association with the phenomena of pestilence and disease is reflected also by the numerous myths in which a Martian hero is afflicted with some crippling disease, typically as a result of some crime or moral offense. Heracles, to cite a famous example, becomes afflicted with a hideous disease as a result of his treacherous murder of Iphitus.101 It was this crime, it will be remembered, which formed the backdrop of Sophocles' Trachinaia, during which Heracles is repeatedly described as Òdiseased. According to Sophocles, Heracles was ravaged by a Òplague of fire as a result of his wearing the poison-laced garment given him by Deianeira: "Alas, a plague is upon him more piteous than any suffering that foemen ever brought upon that glorious hero."102 Heracles' plight has countless parallels from throughout the ancient world. Gilgamesh, for example, is stricken with a leprosy-like disease upon offending the gods: And see! The King [Gilgamesh] leans fainting 'gainst the mast, With glaring eyeballs, clenched hands, "aghast! Behold! that pallid face and scaly hands! A leper white, accurst of gods, he stands!"103 A famous episode in the career of the Irish hero Finn finds him afflicted with a mysterious disease rendering him mangy and bald: "A plague (imbuile) came upon him then, so that he was made mangy, and he was called Bald Demne (Demne Mael) because of it."104 Another variation upon this theme of the pestilence-bearing hero finds him being identified as a boil or abscess. The classic example of this motive, once again, is offered by Oedipus. As a result of his various crimes the Theban King had come to be viewed as a source of pollution to Thebes. A logical consequence of this belief held that the city would only be purified and return to normal upon the removal of Oedipus. Thus Kreon announces that the oracle at Delphi proclaimed that the only hope for the city is to "sever from the body politic a monstrous growth that battens there."105 That the monstrous growth is Oedipus himself is confirmed in a subsequent passage where the seer Tiresias rebukes the belligerent king as follows: "The rotting canker in the state is you."106 The comparison of Oedipus to a rotting canker, strange as it might appear at first sight, would appear to conform to a universal pattern associated with the warrior-hero. Heroes from around the world are inexplicably identified with cankers or ulcers (or, alternatively, said to have grotesque running sores on their bodies). A classic example of this motive is presented by the incandescent warrior-hero of Ossetic myth, Batraz, who is said to have been born from an abscess on the back of his father Xaemyts.107 And as we have documented elsewhere, Batraz, like Oedipus, would appear to be an heir to the mythology of Ares: "This hero of the Nart legends, if one may rely on certain strong indications, has taken upon himself and thereby conserved a part of the mythology of the Scythian Ares, the latter, in the last analysis, an heir of the Indo-Iranian Indra."108 A close parallel to Batraz can be found in the New World, where the Klamath hero Aishish is described as an ulcer enclosed within the creator's body.109 In full accordance with the thesis of the polar configuration, upon his birth Aishish/Mars is said to have assumed a position Òsouth of the Creator.110 These ideas are particularly prominent in the cult of the Egyptian god Bes, known to bear a close affinity to both Heracles and Gilgamesh. The god's name, for example, means "to flame up, to be hot."111 A related word bes connotes a disease distinguished by "boils or sores, or swellings;"112 while besit signifies a "swelling in the body, boil, pustule, abscess."113 From Hero to Outcast It is well-known that the central figures of the plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripedes were great heroes from ancient Greek tradition who, for one reason or another, suffered a tragic reversal of fortune. The fate of Oedipus is well-known. The greatest of Theban heroes, upon it being found out that he had unknowingly murdered his father the King of Thebes and wed his mother, ends his life as a blind, accursed outcast. Near the end of Oedipus Rex, after it has become apparent that Oedipus is the cause of the plague which has ravaged his beloved Thebes, the beleaguered hero begs: "Drive me quickly from this place, the most ruined, most cursed, most god-hated man who ever lived."114 The inglorious end of Oedipus, in our opinion, can serve as a prototype for most of the great warrior-heroes. In Greek myth alone Jason, Theseus, Lykurgos, and Bellerophontes suffer similar fates: The once glorified savior of the people becomes the hated outcast. The causes of the hero's downfall vary, but common themes include: (1) the rape or abduction of a great queen (or goddess); (2) the murder of a great king (or god); (3) a series of crimes stemming from a bout of madness or drunkenness; (4) an assault upon heaven. In the case of Theseus, for example, it was his complicity in the death of Hippolytus which precipitated his downfall: "Accused of his murder, [Theseus] was found guilty, ostracized, and banished to Scyros, where he ended his life in shame and grief."115 At the end of his renowned career, the leader of the Argonauts met with a similar fate: "Jason, having forfeited the favor of the gods wandered homeless from city to city, hated of men."116 Bellerophontes' end came when, at the very pinnacle of his career, he attempted to scale the heights of Olympus upon the fabulous horse Pegasus. Outraged at the hero's insolence, Zeus is said to have arranged for a gadfly to sting the flying horse, sending the intruder falling to earth, whereupon: "Bellerophontes, who had fallen into a thorn-bush, wandered about the earth, lame, blind, lonely and accursed, always avoiding the paths of men, until death overtook him."117 Another infamous sinner was the Edonian strongman Lykurgos, mentioned earlier. Lykurgos drew the wrath of the gods for his assault upon Dionysus and the maenads. This episode was related by Homer in the Iliad. But if you are some one of the immortals come down from the bright sky, know that I will not fight against any god of the heaven, since even the son of Dryas, Lykurgos the powerful, did not live long; he who tried to fight with the gods of the bright sky, who once drove the fosterers of rapturous Dionysus headlong down the sacred Nyseian hill, and all of them shed and scattered their wands on the ground, stricken with an ox-goad by murderous Lykurgos, while Dionysus in terror dived into the salt turf, and Thetis took him to her bosom, frightened, with the strong shivers upon him at the man's blustering. But the gods who live at their ease were angered with Lykurgos, and the son of Kronos struck him to blindness, nor did he live long afterwards, since he was hated by all the immortals.118 Heracles himself is known to have incurred the wrath of the gods on more than one occasion for his numerous crimes. Euripedes devoted an entire play, Heracles Mad, to this theme: There the hero is smitten with a disabling madness through the evil machinations of Hera, his erstwhile mother and unrelenting enemy. While in the throes of this all-encompassing madness Heracles slays his wife Megara and three infants. Only divine intervention prevented the hero from slaughtering his own father: Then in wild career he starts to slay his aged sire; but lo! there came a phantom, so it seemed to us onlookers, of Pallas, with plumed helm, brandishing a spear; and she hurled a rock against the breast of Heracles, which stayed him from his frenzied thirst for blood and plunged him into sleep; to the ground he fell, smiting his back against a column that had fallen on the floor in twain when the roof fell in. Thereon we rallied from our flight, and with the old man's aid bound him fast with knotted cords to the pillar, that on his awakening he might do no further evil. So there he sleeps, poor wretch! a sleep that is not blest, having murdered wife and children; nay, for my part I know not any many more miserable than he.119 Even from this brief survey of the great Greek heroes there emerges a discernible pattern. After an offense of some sort the once beloved hero finds himself hated by men and gods alike. Martian Metamorphoses Georges Dumezil, the leading practitioner of comparative mythology in recent years, devoted several books to the mythology of the warrior, which he interpreted in terms of the warrior-class in early Indo-European culture.120 The sins of the warrior formed a prominent theme in Dumezil's analysis. In his discussion of the sins of Indra, the Vedic war-god and patron of earthly warriors, Dumezil noted that the nature of the god's sin was often such that it produced either a visible stain upon the god himself or, alternatively, resulted in a drastic diminution in his powers.121 Indra's murder of Visvarupa, for example, resulted in the circumstance that "the majesty of Indra, overpowered by this brahmanicide, underwent a considerable diminution. On another occasion Indra's assault of Ahalya (the wife of Buddha), resulted in the god's body being marred by a thousand eyes.122 As we have already discovered from our survey of Greek mythology, disfigurement is a prominent motive in the careers of numerous heroes. Oedipus, Bellerophontes, and Lykurgos, it will be recalled, were blinded as a consequence of their sins. Bellerophontes was lamed. And Lykurgos and Heracles were stricken with madness, which itself produced a frightful metamorphosis in appearance. The most dramatic metamorphosis, however, is that which befell Heracles at the end of his career. Recall here that prior to submitting to his fiery fate upon Mt. Oeta, the hero suffered horribly from a mysterious wasting disease brought on by the garment provided to him by Deianeira. In The Trachiniae, Heracles himself is made to announce: "Glued to my sides, it [the garment] hath eaten my flesh to the inmost parts already it hath drained my fresh life- blood, and my whole body is wasted."123 As the hero prepares to go to his death he laments his fallen state: "Look, all of you, on this miserable body; see how wretched, how piteous is my plight!"124 What is the basis for the bizarre metamorphosis which befalls Heracles? Recalling our thesis that the mythology of the Greek strongman commemorates memorable episodes in the ancient appearance and behavior of the planet Mars the answer is not far to seek. Indeed, it is our opinion that there was an objective reference for the various afflictions which visited the respective warrior-heroes; namely, a distortion or degeneration in the appearance of the planet Mars. Evidence in support of this thesis can be found in the Babylonian myth of Nergal and Ereshkigal. There the Babylonian war-god expressly identified with the planet Mars is said to have become withered or otherwise misshapen upon climbing the heavenly stairway to the kingdom of the gods.125 A glance at the terms employed by the ancient poet to describe the contortions undergone by Nergal reveals an image not unlike that of Heracles whilst in the throes of his Oetean agony: qu-bu-hu, "to become stunted, shrink, shrivel up;" su-un- dur, "to roll or twist one's eyes;" pu-us-sul, Òbent, crooked."126 Once again we find a Martian god associated with a disturbance of the eyes. Indeed the reference to Nergal's "rolling" eyes finds an exact parallel in Sophocles' account of Heracles' metamorphosis: No one dared to come before the man. For the pain dragged him to earth, or made him leap into the air, with yells and shrieks, till the cliffs rang around, steep headlands of Locris, and Euboean capes. But when he was spent with oft throwing himself on the ground in his anguish, and oft making loud lament then, from out of the shrouding altar-smoke, he lifted up his wildly- rolling eyes 127 That there was an archetypal basis for Sophocles' ocular imagery is supported by the fact that the very same image recurs in Euripedes' Heracles Mad. The great poet's description of the hero's madness is worth quoting: And as their father lingered, his children looked at him; and lo! he was changed; his eyes were rolling; he was distraught; his eyeballs were bloodshot and starting from their sockets, and foam was oozing down his bearded cheek; A twofold feeling filled his servant's breasts, half amusement, and half fear; and one looking to his neighbor said, ÒIs our master making sport for us, or is he mad? 128 Parallels to the metamorphoses of Heracles and Nergal can be found throughout the ancient world. A case in point is the transformation which overcame Shu towards the end of his career. According to a late text known as the Phakussa inscription, Shu became enfeebled of body and his eyes became diseased.129 Certainly it is significant to find the same emphasis upon a weakening of the body and a disturbance of the eyes, not unlike the metamorphoses undergone by Nergal and Heracles. And as would prove to be the case with Nergal, Greek emigrants to Egypt identified their favorite hero with Shu.130 An intriguing example of physical metamorphosis comes to us from the Gesta Danorum. There the hero Thorkill, an avatar of the war-god Thor (who likewise was identified with the Greek Heracles), suffers a mysterious affliction whereby a withering or emaciation affected the features of his face and body, rendering the Norse strongman unrecognizable.131 Thorkill's degeneration resembles the metamorphosis of Nergal upon his ascent to the assembly of the gods, whereupon the Akkadian war-god became withered and deformed. If indeed the hero's metamorphosis was celestial in nature and hence visible to all, one would not be surprised to see it reflected in the language associated with the planet-god. Note the apparent relationship between Mars and the Latin word marceo, signifying Òto wither, shrink, shrivel, droop. 132 This latter word, significantly, was that used by Saxo to describe the malady which struck Thorkill, during which the Norse strongman became unrecognizable due to his becoming withered and emaciated. There is a perfectly logical explanation for the relationship between the words Mars and marceo: Once upon a time the planet Mars war-god and great hero alike suffered a metamorphosis in appearance during which it appeared to shrink and wither.133 The Hero's Unrecognizability Saxo's emphasis upon the fact that Thorkill became unrecognizable represents an archaic element of the myth of the warrior-hero's metamorphosis. The same motive is also found in the Akkadian hymn of Nergal, cited earlier, where, upon his ascent to the assembly of the gods and suffering a transformation in appearance, the war-god is said to have become unrecognizable to his fellow gods.134 Indra, too, in the wake of his treacherous murder of Visvarupa, is said to have become unrecognizable.135 The same motive is discernible in Euripedes' Heracles Mad: There Theseus is unable to recognize the Greek strongman in the wake of his fit of madness.136 The Celtic hero Cuchulainn, finally, is rendered "unrecognizable" by his "furor", during which his body swelled enormously and took on a gargantuan, brilliant red form and shook violently.137 This is a common motive in many folktales as well, the hero suffering one affliction or another to the point where he becomes transformed in appearance, typically in striking contrast to his previous beauty. The diminutive dragon- slayer Finn, for example, was on one occasion robbed of his youthful appearance, thereby becoming unrecognizable to his friends.138 The motive of the miraculously transformed and hence unrecognizable hero forms a prominent feature in some of the most famous passages in world literature. A classic example occurs in the Odyssey. There, it will be remembered, Athena magically transforms Odysseus so that the wandering hero might return incognito to his native Ithaca. Homer places the following words in the goddess' mouth: I will disguise you so that no one will be able to know you. I will shrivel up the sound flesh of that muscular body, I will sweep off the brown crop from your head, I will wrinkle up those beautiful eyes, I will give you rags to wear which any one would be sick to see on a human being, and you shall seem like a shabby vagabond to the proud gallants, and even your own wife and son. 139 No sooner was this said than it came to pass: Athena passed her rod over Odysseus. She withered the sound flesh of his muscular body, she swept the flaxen crop from his head, she made the skin of every limb like the skin of the old man, she wrinkled up his beautiful eyes, she changed his clothes into a shirt and a lot of filthy old rags begrimed with foul-smelling smoke; upon this she threw a big hartskin with the hair worn off, and she gave him a stick and a coarse bag full of holes with a twisted cord to carry it. Once again we notice the explicit reference to the withering of the hitherto beautifully formed hero, although the occasion of the metamorphosis has been transformed under the genius of Homer.140 Eventually, of course, as in many myths of the hero's metamorphosis, Odysseus is rejuvenated.141 Then Athena stroked him with her golden rod. She clothed him in spotless raiment, and made him the picture of youth and strength; once more he was dark and tanned, his cheeks filled out, a dark beard covered his chin. Odysseus' son, witnessing the transformation, could hardly believe his eyes: You look different now, stranger, from what you were before; your clothes are changed, your color is not the same. Surely you are one of the gods who rule the broad heavens. Telemachos was correct. His father was one of the gods in broad heaven the planet Mars.142 Scapegoat of the Gods Our discussion thus far has shown that as a consequence of his sins the hero was afflicted with a visible stain or impoverishment of form. This stain, in numerous versions of the myth, requires certain purificatory rites to be performed in order for the pollution to be absolved. Consider the example offered by Apollo, who is said to have become impure in the wake of his slaying of Python, whereupon the god embarked upon a period of wandering seeking purification. It was in distant Tempe that Apollo eventually received the necessary purification, and only then was he allowed to return to Delphi. Apollo's peregrinations were commemorated in the Stepterion. Of this ritual Plutarch remarked: "The wanderings and the servitude of the boy and the purifications at Tempe raise a suspicion of some great pollution and deed of daring."143 In this scenario of a god afflicted with some great stigma and banished to a distant land for purification we recognize a mythical variation upon the widespread custom of the expulsion of the scapegoat. The scapegoat, it will be remembered, was beset with the collective sins of the community "conceived of as a visible stain or miasma" and banished ignominiously from the land.144 In ancient Greece, the name for the scapegoat was pharmakos, and in times of crisis, such as plague or famine, a pharmakos would be chosen, generally from amongst the degenerate or downtrodden (i.e., the person was either a slave, criminal, or grotesquely misshapen) and, upon being subjected to various forms of abuse, including whipping, beating, cursing, and stoning, was driven beyond the borders of the city. According to Hipponax, the pharmakos was occasionally sacrificed through immolation, whereupon his ashes were thrown into the sea.145 It was the unanimous testimony of the ancients themselves that these bizarre rites served the express purpose of ridding the land of some great miasma, thereby purifying the city.146 Helladius, for example, observed of the rite: "This purification was of the nature of an apotropaic ceremony to avert diseases."147 Tzetzes offered a similar opinion: The pharmakos was a purification of this sort of old. If a calamity overtook the city by the wrath of God, whether it were famine or pestilence or any other mischief, they led forth as though to sacrifice the most unsightly of them all as a purification and a remedy to the suffering city.148 It is significant that rites involving the expulsion of the pharmakos were expressly associated with the cult of Apollo, himself originally a god of pestilence: A perfect instance of this function can be discerned in the Thargelia-rites, a truly Apollonian festival. In many Ionian cities the impurity, the miasma, was driven out in the representation of a pharmakos, a selected person, mostly belonging to the marginal layers of society, who was led through the city collecting the negative taints from the community and carrying off the miasma in his person.149 As more than one scholar has noted, the peculiar rite of the pharmakos has a close parallel in ancient Rome. There the patron god of the ritual is the Latin god of war, Mars: Every year on the fourteenth of March a man clad in skins was led in procession through the streets of Rome, beaten with long white rods, and driven out of the city. He was called Mamurius Veturius, that is, "the old Mars," and as the ceremony took place on the day preceding the first full moon of the old Roman year (which began on the first of March), the skin-clad man must have represented the Mars of the old year, who was driven out at the beginning of the new one.150 As was the case with the Greek pharmakos, the "Old Mars" represented such a blight upon society that it was deemed "necessary to drive him beyond the boundaries, that he may carry his sorrowful burden away to other lands. And, in fact, Mamurius Veturius appears to have been driven away to the land of the Oscans, the enemies of Rome."151 Recalling the stigma attached to Apollo on account of his slaying of Python, and inasmuch as the Latin Mars and Apollo are known to share numerous other characteristics in common, the possibility must be considered that the pharmakos originally represented Apollo himself, and that the bizarre rites of the Thargelia and Stepterion were Greek versions of the rite of "Old Mars". But if, as we have argued in this series of essays, Apollo and Mars originally signified the planet Mars, how does this finding contribute to our discussion of the metamorphoses of the Martian heroes? Simply put: There is a common pattern discernable in the expulsion of the scapegoat and the myth of the banishment of the warrior-hero in lieu of some great crime, one having celestial precedents. Certainly it is significant to find that each of the peculiar elements of the scapegoat rites might be paralleled in the biography of the Martian heroes. Consider, for example, the report that the "Old Mars" was clad in skins prior to his being expelled from Rome. Found in scapegoat rituals as distant as Tibet,152 this would appear to be a fundamental element of scapegoat-rites. Significantly, it is also a recurring motive in myths of the great heroes, who frequently don the skins of one animal or another. The most archaic representations of Heracles, for example, depict him with the pelt of a lion slung across his head, it's tail extending down his back.153 The greatest hero of the ancient Near East, Gilgamesh, was likewise depicted wearing the skin of a lion, prompting numerous scholars to identify him as the prototype for Heracles.154 The Egyptian god Bes was also pictured wrapped in a lion skin, it's tail hanging down his back.155 Finn's propensity for dressing in the pelts of wild animals earned the diminutive dragon-slayer the epithet "Lad of the skins".156 This motive was especially prominent in the career of Odysseus, who donned skins on more than one occasion to transform his appearance. In one famous episode Odysseus adopted the disguise of a beggar in order to enter Troy undetected. Early on in the Odyssey Helen relates the following story: I am not going to tell you everything, all the long tale, all the labors of Odysseus, that indomitable man; but one daring deed which he did in the land of Troy where you Achaians had so many hardships. He had allowed himself to be cruelly scored with lashes; and with a ragged old wrap over his shoulders, like a menial, he entered the streets of the enemy town; he pretended to be a beggar, when he was anything but that in the Achaian fleet. In this disguise he entered the city of Troy, and they were all taken in; I was the only one who knew him in that shape, and I questioned him, but he was clever enough to evade me He killed many a Trojan with his own spear before he got back again, and he brought away many secrets. There was loud lamentation among the women of Troy, but my own heart was glad.157 Note that here Odysseus practically assumes the appearance of a scapegoat: he is dressed in skins, whipped severely, and sent to a foreign land. Indeed it is probable that Homer is here relating sacred traditions associated with Odysseus, the original significance of which had long since been lost (the hero's name, "the hated one", likewise seems more befitting a scapegoat than a glorious hero158). Certainly it is difficult to understand why a severe whipping would better enable the hero to go unnoticed in Troy.159 Consider also the motive of cursing, common in ancient scapegoat rites. As we have documented elsewhere, Heracles was cursed on more than one occasion in Greek myth (in the aftermath of his murder of Theiodamas, and upon the slaughter of Syleus, for example).160 Upon the island of Rhodes, moreover, the cursing of Heracles formed a central feature of the hero's rites.161 Similar traditions are preserved of Gilgamesh, who was cursed by Ishtar as a result of his killing of the bull of heaven.162 And as we have seen, Gilgamesh, like Oedipus, Bellerophontes and many another hero, ends his life Ò accurst of gods. The misshapen form traditionally associated with the scapegoat also finds a parallel in the mythology surrounding the warrior-hero. Consider the following description of Thersites, next to Oedipus, perhaps the most important scapegoat figure in Greek literature: This was the ugliest man who came beneath Ilion. He was bandy-legged and went lame of one foot, with shoulders stooped and drawn together over his chest, and above this his skull went up to a point with the wool grown sparsely upon it.163 Thersites' bandy legs mirror those of Bes in Egyptian iconography.164 His pointed skull, meanwhile, recalls the fact that the heads of Thor and Cuchulainn were distinguished by projections of one form or another.165 His lameness recalls that of Samson, Lykurgos, and Bellerophontes, each of whom was similarly deformed.166 The Greek hero Oedipus, about whom all sorts of scapegoat traditions have become attached, bears a name which perhaps alludes to his lameness, "swollen foot."167 Given the characteristics shared by Thersites and various Martian heroes it is significant to note that he was identified by the ancient Greeks with Ares.168 The testimony of Hipponax that the pharmakos was occasionally burnt to death, similarly, would also appear to have analogues in the scapegoat rites of other lands as well as in the mythology of the great heroes. The human counterparts of Set were disposed of in this manner, for example.169 In ancient Mexico, for example, it was customary in times of crisis, such as an eclipse of the sun, to sacrifice hunchbacks and other grotesquely deformed victims.170 This scapegoat-like rite appears to find its aetiology in the myth surrounding the god Nanahuatl, who offered himself as a martyr in order to resuscitate the missing sun: It is said that in the absence of the sun all mankind lingered in darkness. Nothing but a human sacrifice could hasten his arrival. Then Metztli led forth one Nanahuatl, the leprous, and building a pyre, the victim threw himself in its midst. Straight-away Metztli followed his example, and as she disappeared in the bright flames the sun rose over the horizon.171 Nanahuatl, whose name signifies "pustule or ulcer," was the patron god of people afflicted with diseases of the skin.172 Of this god Brundage remarks: "He was distinguished by his poverty and his hideous deformitiesÑhis whole body was covered with running sores."173 Nanahuatl's pathetic appearance mirrors that accorded scapegoats from the Old World. His role in the reappearance of the sun from the chaos of darkness, meanwhile, is reminiscent of Indra's deliverance of the sun from the darkness occasioned by the revolt of Vritra. Indeed, as we will see, the deliverance of the ancient sun-god from its prison of darkness is one of the archetypal motives associated with the warrior-hero. It is the tragic immolation of Heracles upon Mt. Oeta, however, which offers the most compelling parallel to the plight of Nanahuatl. Heracles' reason for submitting to his fiery fate, as we have noted, was that the hero suffered horribly from a mysterious wasting disease, during which his body corroded away as if rotten. It is because he too is said to have suffered from a hideous skin-disease that Heracles became the patron-god of people similarly afflicted.174 Alexikakos: Averter of Evil The Greek term for a scapegoat, pharmakos, is cognate with pharmakon, "a healing drug, or poison", from whence derives our word pharmacy. Although scholars have recognized that there must be a relationship between the two words, the nature of the association between a scapegoat and "healing" has hitherto remained obscure. As we have documented elsewhere, paradox is inherent in the biography of the warrior hero. Thus it is that the very same gods credited with causing pestilence are elsewhere invoked as agents of deliverance from pestilence. In early Greek cult, for example, it is Apollo who performed this function: "In the belief of the Homeric age, and probably long before, it was Apollo who sent pestilence and who removed it, and to whom thanksgiving for deliverance from the scourge was sung."175 It was for this reason that Apollo was invoked under the name Alexikakos, "averter of evil."176 In ancient Italy it was Mars who was summoned to ward off pestilence. The archaic hymn of the Arval Brethren reads: "Let not plague and destruction attack the many, O Mars."177 The epithet averruncus "averter of evil traits" celebrates this aspect of the Latin god's cult.178 The Akkadian god Nergal was likewise invoked to rid the land of pestilence.179 So too was the Canaanite Reseph.180 The same motive is also prominent in the cult of the warrior-hero. Thus, if one set of myths makes the warrior-hero the source of plague overtaking the land, others credit him with delivering the land from plague. A common motive in the career of Heracles, for example, finds the hero being credited with draining off some type of noxious debris which polluted or otherwise afflicted the sacred land of the sun. Heracles' diversion of the river Alpheus, whereby he succeeded in cleaning the dung-filled stables of Augeias "the filth of which had produced a pestilence across the whole of the Peloponnesian Peninsula" is a case in point.181 Heracles' role in the riddance of the Stymphalian birds offers another example of this motive. Here, it will be remembered, the swarm of gigantic birds was so immense that it effectively blocked out the light of the sun, the excrement of the birds producing a great plague.182 It was thus not without cause that Heracles shared with Apollo the epithet Al exikakos.183 The Warrior-hero as Healer The image of the warrior-hero as a ridder of pestilence, by a natural train of logic, produces the conception of the warrior hero as a great healer, even though this violent and frequently ruffianesque figure would appear to be ill- suited for this particular role. Heracles, again, offers the most familiar example of this motive, being invoked as a healer of disease, his influence supposedly exerting a beneficial effect upon the health of crops as well.184 Similar traditions are preserved about other warrior-heroes. Of Thraetona, the Iranian Heracles, it was said that he "taught men the medicine for the body which permits men to diagnose the plague and drive off disease."185 Jason, the leader of the Argonauts, bears a name which means "healer," which he received after delivering Orchomenus from the ravages of a plague.186 Finn, the victim of a great plague in his name of Demne, is elsewhere recalled as a leech, or healer.187 What is true for the Martian heroes also holds true for the Martian gods. Under the name of Paieon, Apollo was invoked as the physician and healer of the gods.188 This strange conception of a god of pestilence as healer was especially prominent in the ancient Near East. In Akkadian cult, for example, Nergal was invoked as the ultimate source of health and well-being.189 Reseph performed a similar function in Egyptian and Canaanite religion, as Shulman's identification with the healing-god demonstrates.190 Particularly noteworthy is the Amorite god Maras, cited earlier. Of this god Astour has written: "Maras is the name of a god who inflicts diseases, but who, accordingly, also has the power of curing them."191 The fact that similar traditions surround gods identified with the planet Mars upon islands as distant apart as Polynesia and Britain attests to the archetypal nature of the association of the planet Mars with healing. The Maori war-god Maru, for example, doubles as a great healer, specifically invoked at the time of pestilence.192 In ancient Britain, Celtic gods identified with the Latin Mars and/or Greek Apollo were consistently associated with the arts of healing.193 Here one scholar observed: "In Gaul, and to an extent in Britain, the Roman war-god Mars became transformed to become a peaceful healer."194 As we have seen here, however, it would be quite wrong to speak of a transformation of the Roman god; rather the healing functions of the war-god are archetypal in nature and belong amongst the most archaic elements of his cult. A particularly intriguing motive attested throughout ancient Gaul and Britain finds the war-god in intimate association with sacred springs said to confer deliverance from all manner of diseases and afflictions, but especially from diseases of the eyes: The non-military role of deities known as "Mars" in the Romano-Celtic world may be observed in many regions of Gaul and Britain. As a healer, "Mars" is a fighter against disease. An interesting feature of Mars as a healer is his particular patronage of people with eye afflictions. He appears thus at Vichy, as Mullo at Allonnes and at Mavilly. Far away, at Lydney (Gloucestershire), the local hero, Nodens, was equated with Mars and, again, cured eye disease.195 Strikingly similar beliefs were associated with the sacred springs consecrated to the Greek Heracles, the patron-god of hot springs, and himself prone to disturbances of the eyes.196 Are we not here reminded once again of the belief of the Zinacantecan Indians, mentioned at this outset of this essay, which holds that the planet Mars was intimately associated with diseases of the eyes? Archegetes If the myth of the scapegoat constitutes what one might call the negative interpretation of the expulsion of Mars, a more positive interpretation saw the Martian hero as searching out and ultimately preparing the way for a new homeland. Hence the widespread theme of the Martian hero as patron of emigrants and colonizer. Heracles, for example, was regarded as the mythical founder of numerous ancient cities, particularly in Attica, the Greek strongman receiving the epithet archegetes as a result.197 Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec Mars, was credited with having guided the Aztecs to their ancestral homeland.198 The same motive is also common to the cult of Indra, who appears as the leader of the Aryan migration in Indian tradition.199 This motive, like that of the scapegoat, is especially prominent in the myths and rituals associated with the Greek Apollo and Latin Mars, both of whom bore the epithet Archegetes.200 As Apollo Agyieus, the Greek god was renowned as the leader of Greek migrations.201 Cities consecrated to the Athenian god were common throughout much of Asia Minor, many of them allegedly founded by emigrants led by the god himself in the form of one of his sacred animals, such as a raven or dolphin.202 Other cities were said to have been founded by migrations of bands of youths specifically consecrated to Apollo, expelled during times of crisis, such as plague.203 This latter practice offers a striking parallel to the ancient custom known as ver sacrum, in which a youth or band of youths consecrated to Mars was expelled from the city upon the appearance of a plague or some other calamity, the ostensible purpose being to found a new dwelling-site.204 Various ancient cities named after the god, including Mamertium and Marruvium, were said to have been founded in this manner.205 Often the god himself was said to have led the migration in the form of a sacred animal, typically a wolf or woodpecker. Cities allegedly founded in this manner include those associated with the Hirpani and Picantes.206 The intimate association of Mars with wolves and lupine imagery is well-known. 207 The same imagery pervades the cult of Apollo, who was known by the epithet of Lykeios, "the wolf-god."208 Given the central thesis of this essay- that Apollo and Mars are to be identified with the planet Mars- it is significant to note that ancient skywatchers in Babylon and Greece identified the red planet as the "wolf-star."209 In summary, the fundamental identity of the ver sacrum and scapegoat rituals is obvious. Both were associated with the cult of Mars; and both were enacted with the express purpose of resolving a situation of crisis, frequently a great plague, which, if the truth be known, was due to the same planet-god. Only upon the expulsion of the Martian figure from the afflicted area is the crisis alleviated. Conclusion In this essay we have documented the presence of a vast nexus of traditions associating the planet Mars with pestilence. According to the conventional view, the connection between Mars and pestilence originated with ancient Babylonian speculations regarding the respective planets and is wholly subjective in nature, stemming from the arbitrary identification of the red planet with Nergal (i.e., the planet Jupiter might just as easily have been assigned Nergal and thus come to be associated with pestilence). Such an explanation ignores the important fact that Mars is associated with a wide range of motives in addition to pestilenceÑwar, the color red, fire, wolves, rebellion, destruction, love, springs, mountains, swords, eclipses, etc.Ñnot all of which are present in the cult of Nergal. The consistent association of various gods identified with the planet Mars (Nergal, Reseph, Erra, Ares, Mars, etc.) with pestilence and other "Martian" motives likewise speaks against the conventional view as these cults are certainly much older than Babylonian astronomical speculation. If the cult of Nergal is the ultimate source for the constellation of traditions surrounding the red planet, how do we explain their appearance in the cults of Reseph, Erra, Ares and Mars? The same conclusion holds true with regard to the mythology surrounding the warrior-heroes: Such traditions are of untold antiquity and cannot be reduced to Babylonian astronomical speculation. Here it is not a question of simply accounting for an isolated instance whereby some hero (such as Heracles) is identified with the planet Mars and associated with pestilence; rather what needs to be explained is the intimate association of warrior-heroes throughout the ancient world with a complex set of beliefs involving the phenomena of pestilence: the affliction of the hero with a plague-like disease, the hero's appearance as a scapegoat, the hero's assimilation to an ulcer, the hero's reputation as a great healer (especially from the ravages of plague), the hero's propensity for using pestilence-bearing (or poisonous) arrows, the hero's tendency to cause pestilence, etc. Viewed from the standpoint of comparative mythology, the association of the warrior-hero with pestilence can be shown to be archetypal in nature and universal in scope. If the conventional position is ultimately indefensible, how then did it arise? The answer, it would appear, is very simple: It is difficult to imagine how the planet Mars, today an inconspicuous dot of light recognizable only to a select few, could come to be associated with the phenomena of pestilence. Consequently it was concluded that such conceptions must trace to some other source besides the planet, such as the cult of Nergal. By pursuing a comparative approach to the traditions surrounding the planet Mars we would draw a different conclusion. As stated earlier, it is our opinion that the constellation of traditions associating the planet Mars with pestilence has its origin in objective phenomena involving the red planet, albeit in circumstances difficult to imagine under the current arrangement of the solar system. Of the spectacular nature of these circumstances we have written elsewhere.210 And, although it must be said that here we enter largely uncharted waters and much remains unclear, it is also true that real progress has been made towards elucidating the extraordinary events behind the mythology surrounding Mars. What follows may best be considered a brief summary of the events as they relate to Mars and its association with pestilence. A wealth of evidence suggests that Mars at one time participated in a unique polar configuration, during which the red planet appeared as a small orb set against the backdrop of the larger planet Venus, these two bodies together forming the Cyclopean "eye" of the ancient sun-god (Saturn). Mars' intimate association with pestilence, it seems clear, traces to the spectacular events associated with the "birth" of the Martian hero, during which Mars appeared to spring from Venus, thereby entering upon a singular burst of activity.211 By all accounts the "birth" of Mars was an occasion of great tumult in heaven, involving a profound disturbance of the polar configuration as a whole. Among the most memorable occurrences associated with this event was the release of a vast cloud of meteoritic debris, this debris, in turn, producing a temporary "eclipse" of the ancient sun-god. Thus it is that Mars came to be associated with eclipses throughout the ancient world.212 Associated as it was with the birth of the ulcer-like Martian hero, the chaotic debris obscuring the ancient sun-god was viewed by some as a great pestilence befouling the celestial kingdom. To this day many aboriginal peoples see a link between eclipses and pestilence.213 And as Mars was associated with eclipses of the "Sun", so too did it become associated with pestilence, plague, and disease. But if the "birth" and/or youthful indiscretions of the Martian hero resulted in an eclipse-like pestilence overtaking the kingdom of the ancient sun-god, the expulsion of Mars formed a prominent episode in the sequence of events culminating in the restoration of the kingdom of the gods. As Mars moved away from Venus, much of the celestial debris appears to have followed it, pelting and enveloping the red planet as a shower of meteoritic material. After an indeterminate period of time, Mars settled into a stable position along the axis, closer to the Earth than before, the debris following suit, with the result that the Sun once again came into view. It was Mars' role in the scouring or channeling off of this debris, thereby releasing the sun-god from its prison of darkness, which gave rise to the conception of the warrior-hero as leech, healer, irrigator or drainer of marshes.214 And thus it was that the very agent deemed responsible for the pestilence-like eclipse obscuring the s un the Martian heroÑcame to be credited with delivering the heavenly kingdom of noxious pests and murrain.215 Inasmuch as the planet Mars was deemed to have played a prominent role in the spectacular cataclysm which overturned the heavenly kingdom, its removal to a region outside the sacred domainÑtogether with the subsequent reappearance of the sun (i.e., Saturn)Ñgave rise to the interpretation that the expulsion or banishment of Mars had been necessary for the deliverance of the sun and the restoration of world order. The ritual expulsion of the scapegoat, according to this reconstruction, is phenomenologically identical to the banishment of the warrior-hero and commemorates the spectacular events associated with the expulsion and wandering of the planet Mars. The trials and tribulations which greeted the human victim of these rites, similarly, were designed with the express purpose of imitating the celestial ordeals endured by the red planet during this period of instability: whipping, cursing (originally, it appears, with "words of fire", pelting with stones, outfitting with skins, im molation, etc. The Latin rites surrounding Mars must remain inexplicable apart from the thesis outlined in this essay: Why would the Romans present their favorite god in such an ignominious light? Mars' archetypal role as emigration-hero traces to the same series of events: It was the removal of Mars from the heavenly kingdom beset by pestilence that ushered in a period of transition characterized by instability and wandering, ultimately preparing the way for the reconstruction of a new kingdom upon another site and with different parameters (Mars as archegetes and engineer of the sacred domain). A new age dawned with the reappearance of Saturn, the planet-god now being associated with a series of bands and set atop a fiery pillar of light (this pillar, it would appear, developed as a result of the fiery debris having become spread out between the planets participating in the polar configuration, particularly Mars and Earth). Commonly envisaged as a giant mountain, tree, or spring, the World Pillar was specifically associated with the planet Mars, which now seemed to uphold Saturn's kingdom.216 It was Mars' intimate association with this celestial spring which accounts for the fact that so many Martian heroes were regarded as patrons of hot- springs (Heracles, Apollo, Mars, etc.).217 And it was the peculiar behavior of Mars within this fiery spring inspired a wealth of mythical interpretations having to do with healing and rejuvenation. For example, if the Martian hero had been rendered "impure" or otherwise polluted as a result of his nefarious behavior, with the development of the spring the hero was thought to have been purified or otherwise revived. Relevant also are the widespread traditions which make the strength of the warrior-hero ebb and flow in sympathy with a sacred spring. Thus the strength of Heracles was restored by the hot springs at Thermopylae when he was exhausted by the labors.218 More familiar, perhaps, is the Biblical tradition in which the exhausted Samson was revived by the spring at Lehi: "And God split open the hollow place that is at Lehi, and there came water from it; and when he [Samson] drank, his spirit returned, and he revived."219 The aetiology of Mars' intimate association with diseases of the eye and the healing thereof is less obvious but is most likely to be found in these events as well. Here it is necessary to remember that the planet Venus was identified as the eye of the ancient sun-god throughout the ancient world.220 The birth of Mars from the "eye-womb" of Venus necessarily resulted in a disturbance of the eye as a whole, thereby inspiring a host of mythical interpretations. One of the most common interpretations, as we have elsewhere intimated, envisaged the warrior-hero being "blinded" upon its expulsion to the periphery of the celestial kingdom (Mars caecus).221 As we have shown, however, the planet Mars was wont to make occasional forays up and down the polar axis, re-entering the eye-womb, as it were.222 It is in this fashion, perhaps, that we are to understand the numerous myths which speak of the warrior-hero's sight being restored: He had quite literally regained his eye. 223 NOTE: After the Footnote Section there is a contact list for ----- further information on current Velikovskian research. 61 E. Cochrane & D. Talbott, "When Venus was a Comet," Kronos XII:1 (Winter 1987), pp. 5-12. 62 M. Jastrow, "Sun and Saturn," Revue d'Assyriologie et d'Archeologie Orientale 7 (1909), pp. 163-178. See also the extensive discussion in D. Cardona, "Intimations of an Alien Sky," AEON 2:5 (1991), pp. 10-17. 63 F. Cumont, Astrology and Religion Among the Greeks and Romans (New York, 1960), pp. 22-41. 64 F. Kugler, Sternkunde und Sterndienst in Babel (Munster, 1935), pp. 303. Mesoamerican skywatchers likewise appear to have described Venus as a " bearded" planet. See J. Thompson, Maya Hieroglyphic Writing (Norman, 1970), p. 218. 65 H. Seyrig, "Antiquities Syriennes," Syria 64 (1944-45), p. 62. See also B. L. van der Waerden, The Birth of Astronomy (New York, 1974), p. 190. 66 E. Cochrane, "Heracles and the Planet Mars," AEON I:4 (1988), pp. 89-106; Idem, "The Death of Heracles," AEON II:5 (1991), pp. 55-73. 67 F. Kugler, Sternkunde und Sterndienst in Babel (Munster, 1935), p. 304. Jeremias translates as "he who is saturated with death". See A. Jeremias, " Sterne," RML (Leipzig, 1884-1937), p. 1481. 68 E. Hunt, The Transformation of the Hummingbird (Ithaca, 1977), pp. 144- 145. 69 Ibid., p. 144. 70 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. 71 M. Jastrow, Religious Belief in Babylonia and Assyria (New York, 1911), p. 108. 72 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, "Ancient Semitic Deities in Syria and Palestine," in S. Moscati, ed., Le Antiche Divinita Semitiche (Rome, 1958), p. 86. 73 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, "Apollo and the Planet Mars," AEON I:1 (1988), p. 60. 74 Dahood, op. cit., p. 87. 75 J. Sawyer & F. Stephenson, "Literary and Astronomical Evidence for a Total Eclipse of the Sun Observed in Ancient Ugarit on 3 May 1375 B.C.," BSOAS 33 (1970), p. 471. 76 Suppliants 678-685. 77 A. Furtwangler, "Ares," RLM (Hildesheim, 1965), Vol. 1, pp. 486-487. 78 E. Cochrane, "Apollo and the Planet Mars," AEON I:1 (1988), pp. 52-62. For a similar conclusion see M. Schretter, Alter Orient und Hellas (Innsbruck, 1974). 79 W. Burkert, Greek Religion (Cambridge, 1985), p. 145. 80 Iliad I:44ff. 81 W. Fulco, op. cit., p. 38. See also W. Albright, Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan (Garden City, 1968), p. 139. 82 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, "Apollo and Mars One Hundred Years after Roscher," Visible Religion 4 (1986), pp. 132-72; and E. Cochrane, "Apollo and the Planet Mars," AEON I:1 (1988), pp. 52-62. 83 H. Wagenvoort, Studies in Roman Literature, Culture and Religion (New York, 1978), p. 219. 84 R.F. Willetts, Cretan Cults and Festivals (New York, 1962), p. 269. 85 W. Roscher, "Mars," Ausfuhrliches Lexikon der griechischen und romischen Mythologie (Hildesheim, 1965), pp. 2435-2438. Significantly, similar names appear amongst the earliest pantheons of Egypt and Mesopotamia. 86 Ibid., pp. 2437-2438. 87 Ibid., p. 351. 88 J. Pokorny, Indogermanisches etymologisches Worterbuch (Bern, 1959), p. 735. 89M. William, Sanskrit Dictionary (Oxford, 1872), p. 748. 90 Ibid., p. 772. 91 A. Bomhard, Toward Proto-Nostratic (Philadelphia, 1984), p. 273. 92E. Budge, An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary (New York, 1978), p. 314. 93 F. Delitsche, Assyrische Handworterbuch (Leipzig, 1896), p. 426. 94 M. Astour, Hellenosemitica (Leiden, 1967), pp. 273-4. 95 R. Graves, The Greek Myths Vol. 1 (New York, 1982), p. 105. 96 O. Gruppe, Griechische Mythologie (New York, 1975), pp. 1379-1380. 97 quoted in M. O'Brien, Twentieth Century Interpretations of Oedipus Rex (Englewood Cliffs, 1968), p. 101. 98 P. Roche, The Oedipus Plays of Sophocles (New York, 1958), p. 24. 99 Ibid., p. 30. 100 For an extensive discussion of this question see E. Cochrane, "Velikovsky and Oedipus," AEON I:6 (1988), pp. 14-38. 101 The word used of Heracles' disease, nousos, is also a generic term for " plague". 102 The Complete Greek Drama, "The Trachiniae," ed. by W. Oates & E. O'Neill (New York, 1938), p. 487. 103 L. Hamilton, "Ishtar and Izdubar," in Babylonian and Assyrian Literature (New York, 1901), pp. 145. 104 Joseph Nagy, The Wisdom of the Outlaw: The Boyhood Deeds of Finn in Gaelic Narrative Tradition (Berkeley, 1985), p. 152. 105 Roche, op. cit., p. 26. 106 Ibid., p. 36. 107 G. Dumezil, Legendes sur Les Nartes (Paris, 1930), p. 53. 108 G. Dumezil, The Destiny of the Warrior, op. cit., p. 137. 109 C. Strauss, The Naked Man (New York, 1981), pp. 30. 110 Ibid., p. 68. 111 E. Budge, An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary (New York, 1978), p. 221. 112 Ibid., p. 222. 113 Ibid., p. 222. Significantly, the name Oedipus likewise contains the root oidi, signifying a "swelling". As we have shown elsewhere, the planet Mars is fundamentally associated with swellings and inflammations of all sorts. It swells in size as it approaches the Earth; it swells in furor; it swells as a tumorous growth; it becomes inflamed in passion; and inflammatory in a rebellious sense. See the discussion in E. Cochrane, "Indra," AEON II:4 (1991), pp. 65-69. 114 Oedipus the King (Amherst, 1982), translated by R. Bagg, p. 61. 115 R. Graves, op. cit., p. 358. 116 R. Graves, op. cit., Vol. 2, p. 257. 117 R. Graves, op. cit., p. 254. 118 Iliad 6:130-140. 119 Euripedes, Heracles Mad 1003-1015. 120 G. Dumezil, The Destiny of the Warrior (Chicago, 1970); Idem, The Sins of the Warrior (Berkeley, 1983). 121 G. Dumezil, The Destiny of the Warrior (Chicago, 1970), pp. 72-77. 122 This episode finds an intriguing parallel in the cult of Bes, who likewise was represented with eyes all over his body. See A. Palmer, The Samson Saga (New York, 1977), p. 230. 123 Euripedes, The Trachiniae, 1051-1057. 124 Ibid., 1076-1080. 125 E. Weiher, op. cit., p. 52. See also the discussion in J. V. Wilson, The Rebel Lands (London, 1979) p. 98. For a translation of the text see O. Gurney, "The Sultantepe Tablets," Anatolian Studies 10 (1960), pp. 125, 130. 126 E. Weiher, op. cit., p. 52. 127 Sophocles, Trachiniae 786ff. 128 Euripedes, Heracles Mad 920ff. 129 B. Watterson, The Gods of Ancient Egypt (London, 1984), p. 52. 130 R. Roeder, "Schow," in RML, op. cit., p. 566. In certain kinglists Shu was also identified with Ares. Ibid., p. 569. Both identifications are valid, Heracles and Ares both tracing to the planet Mars. 131 Saxo Grammaticus, The Danish History (Wiesbaden, 1967), p. 355. See also V. Rydberg, Teutonic Mythology (New York, 1907), p. 715. 132 D. Simpson, Casell's New Latin Dictionary (New York, 1960), p. 362. This word is certainly related to the Greek maraino, "waste away, decay". H. Liddell & R. Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon (Oxford, 1951), p. 885. Note also the same root in Latin marcor, "rottenness, decay." 133 In Irish tradition Cuchulainn is addressed as Sergaithe: "withered, or shriveled". See W. Stokes, "The Training of Cuchulainn," Revue Celtique 29 (1908), pp. 133, 152. 134 E. Weiher, op. cit., p. 52. 135 A. Hiltebeitel, The Ritual of Battle (London, 1976), p. 234. 136 J. Gregory, "Euripedes' Heracles," YCS 25 (1977), p. 270. 137 E. Hull, The Cuchullin Saga in Irish Literature (London, 1898), p. 162. For an analysis of Cuchulainn's furor see the discussion in E. Cochrane, " Indra," AEON II:4 (1991), pp. 67-71. 138 J. Nagy, op. cit., p. 160. 139 Odyssey 13:382-439. 140 Note that here Odysseus is rendered bald by the magic of Athena, not unlike the Irish Finn. The widespread motif of the bald Martian hero will occupy us in a future essay. 141 Odyssey 16:172ff. Mars is fundamentally the rejuvenated god. This motive, as we have documented, is prominent in the cults of Mars, Heracles, Bes, Melqart, and Jason. See E. Cochrane, "The Death of Heracles," AEON II:5 (1991), pp. 66-72. 142 That Odysseus is to be identified with the planet Mars will be the subject of a future essay. 143 Quoted in J. Harrison, Epilegomena to the Study of Greek Religion & Themis (New York, 1962), p. 426. 144 The classic example of this ancient rite, of course, is that described in Leviticus 16:21ff. 145For a survey see J. Bremmer, "Scapegoat Rituals in Ancient Greece," HSCP 87 (1983), p. 300. 146 Ibid., pp. 299-320. See also the discussion in J. Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion (New York, 1975), pp. 95-119. 147 J. Harrison, op. cit., p. 99. 148 Tzetzes, Thousand Histories 23, 726-756 149 H. S. Versnal, op. cit., p. 138. 150 J. Frazer, The Scapegoat (London, 1913), p. 229. 151 Ibid., p. 231. 152 J. Bremmer, op. cit., p. 317. 153 For numerous examples of this motive see F. Brommer, Heracles: The Twelve Labors of the Hero in Ancient Art and Literature (New Rochelle, 1986). The motive of a hero dressed in the pelt of a fantastic beast is universal in extent, being found in the La Venta culture of the New World as well. See W. Krickeberg, "Mesoamerica," in Pre-Columbian American Religions (New York, 1969), p. 12. Here it is significant to note that Heracles is elsewhere said to have been driven from the palace of Eurytus, not unlike a scapegoat. There the King of the land is made to address the Greek hero: "ÔYou are Eurystheus' slave and, like a slave, deserve only blows from a free man.' So saying, he drove Heracles out of the Palace." R. Graves, op. cit., p. 159. 154 B. Brundage, "Heracles the Levantine," JNES 17:4 (1958), pp. 209ff. 155 V. Wilson, "The Iconography of Bes with Particular Reference to the Cypriot Evidence," Levant 7 (1975), p. 78. 156 J. Nagy, op. cit., p. 199. 157 Odyssey, IV:240ff. Translated by W. Rouse (New York, 1964), p. 49. 158 K. Kerenyi, The Heroes of the Greeks (New York, 1959), p. 322. 159 Whipping to the point of death plays a prominent motive in the careers of numerous warrior-heroes. For a close parallel involving Cuchulainn, see D. Nutt, Cuchulainn, The Irish Achilles (London, 1900), p. 25. 160 J. Fontenrose, Python (Berkeley, 1959), p. 196. 161 O. Gruppe, op. cit., p. 963. See also B. Brundage, "Heracles the Levantine," JNES 17:4 (1958), p. 229. 162 T. Jacobsen, The Treasures of Darkness (New Haven, 1976), pp. 95-96. That the heavenly bull was actually the Sumerian god An in bovine guise has been recognized by Jacobsen, among others. 163 Iliad 2: 217-219. Numerous scholars have identified Thersites with the pharmakos. See G. Murray, The Rise of the Greek Epic (Oxford, 1907), p. 214. 164 V. Wilson, op. cit., pp. 77-83. 165 The Lappish idol of Thor featured a piece of flint protruding from the god's head. See G. Dumezil, Gods of the Northmen (Berkeley, 1973), p. 161. For similar traditions surrounding Cuchulainn see E. Hull, The Cuchullin Saga in Irish Literature (London, 1898), pp. 174-175. 166 L. Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, Vol. III (Philadelphia, 1954), p. 204. There Ginzberg relates that Samson was "called Mizrak, Ôcreeping,' for he was lame of both feet, and hence could only creep and crawl." Certainly this is a strange description of the greatest hero of Hebrew lore. 167 E. Cochrane, "Velikovsky and Oedipus," AEON I:6 (1988), pp. 37-38. 168 Pausanias 3:19:7. See also the discussion in G. Murray, The Rise of the Greek Epic (Oxford, 1907), p. 214. 169 Plutarch, de Is. et Os. LXXIII Significantly, red-headed victims were chosen for these rites in commemoration of Set's red body and hair. That Set is to be identified with the planet Mars we have argued elsewhere. See E. Cochrane, Psychology, Psychologists, and Evolution (Ames, 1981), pp. 319ff. 170 C. Burland, The Gods of Mexico (New York, 1967), p. 120. 171 D. Brinton, The Myths of the New World (New York, 1968), p. 158. 172 B. Brundage, op. cit., p. 44. See also B. Brundage, The Phoenix of the Western World (Norman, 1982), p. 224. 173 B. Brundage, The Fifth Sun (Norman, 1983), p. 41. 174 O. Gruppe, "Herakles," RE Supplement III (Stuttgart, 1918), pp. 1014-1015. 175 L. Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States Vol. II (New Rochelle, 1977), p. 233. 176 Ibid., p. 175. See also the discussion in O. Gruppe, Griechische Mythologie und Religionsgeschichte Vol. 2 (New York, 1975), pp. 1237-1239. 177 H. Rose, Some Problems of Classical Religion (Oslo, 1958), pp. 10. 178 Roscher, Apollon und Mars, op. cit., pp. 51-64. 179 E. Weiher, op. cit., p. 22. See also J. Curtis, "An Investigation of the Mount of Olives in the Judeo-Christian Tradition," HUCA 28 (1957), p. 151; and H. Seyrig, op. cit., p. 72. 180 W. Fulco, The Canaanite God Resep (New Haven, 1976), pp. 12, 24. 181 Pausanias V:1:7 182 R. Graves, op. cit., Vol. 2, p. 119. These birds, significantly, are said to be sacred to Ares. Heracles' reputation as a warder off of the Keres, bird-like ghouls, would appear to trace to the same scenario. 183 L. Farnell, Greek Hero Cults and Ideas of Immortality (Oxford, 1921), p. 150. 184 L. Farnell, op. cit., pp. 102, 133. See also Gruppe, op. cit., pp. 1013- 1014. Heracles is elsewhere credited with the discovery of the all-healing plant known as heracleon, distinguished by its red flower. See R. Graves, op. cit., p. 155. 185 G. Dumezil, The Destiny of the Warrior (Chicago, 1970), p. 27. 186 R. Graves, op. cit., p. 221. 187 J. Nagy, op. cit., p. 34. 188 K. Kerenyi, The Gods of the Greeks (London, 1982), p. 143. 189 E. Weiher, op. cit., p. 22. 190 W. Fulco, op. cit., pp. 12, 24. 191 Astour, op. cit., pp. 273-274. 192 For the identification of Maru with the planet Mars see E. Best, Maori Religion and Mythology (New York, 1977), p. 125. 193 M. Green, The Gods of the Celts (Gloucester, 1986), pp. 101, 118, 158-162. 194 Ibid., p. 158. 195 M. Green, Symbol and Image in Celtic Religious Art (London, 1992), pp. 114-115. 196 O. Gruppe, op. cit., pp. 1011-1013. 197 L. Farnell, op. cit., p. 170. 198 H.B. Alexander, Latin-American Mythology (New York, 1964), p. 114. 199 A. Macdonell, Vedic Mythology (New York, 1974), p. 64. See also H. Oldenberg, The Religion of the Veda (Delhi, 1988), p. 87. 200 W. Roscher, op. cit., pp. 2425-2427. 201 L. Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States, op. cit., p. 202. 202 The foundation legends of Kyrene and Krisa are cases in point. See the discussion in W. Roscher, "Mars," Ausfuhrliches Lexikon der griechischen und romischen Mythologie (Hildesheim, 1965), p. 2408. 203 The epithet Dekatephoros, particularly applied to Apollo, signified his association with the consecration of such bands of youths. See H. W. Parke, " Consecration to Apollo," Hermathena 72 (1948), p. 85. 204 The first scholar to call attention to the numerous parallels between the Apollonian and Martian rites was W. Roscher, in Apollon und Mars (Leipzig, 1873), pp. 82-87. See also the comments of Parke, op. cit., p. 87. 205 W. Roscher, "Mars," Ausfuhrliches Lexikon der griechischen und romischen Mythologie (Hildesheim, 1965), pp. 2412, 2426. 206 Roscher, "Mars," op. cit., p. 2394. 207 W. Roscher, op. cit., p. 2430. See also the discussion in E. Cochrane, " The Origins of the Latin God Mars," SISR XV (1993), p. 30. 208 For an extended discussion of this motive see D. Gershenson, Apollo the Wolf-god (McLean, Vir., 1991), pp. 1-23. 209 P. Gossman, Planetarium Babylonicum (Rome, 1950), p. 65. W. Roscher, " Planeten," RML (Leipzig, 1884-1937), p. 2533-2534. See also the discussion by I. Velikovsky, Worlds in Collision (New York, 1973), pp. 268-269. 210 E. Cochrane, "Indra," AEON II:4 (1991), pp. 64-76. 211 See here the discussion in D. Talbott, "Mother Goddess and Warrior-Hero," AEON I:5 (1988), pp. 47-54; E. Cochrane, "Indra," AEON II:4 (1991), pp. 64-76. 212 In Babylonian tradition, for example, "Mars [was] the star of the Darkness/Eclipse." See P. Gossman, Planetarium Babylonicum (Rome, 1950), p. 132. See also the discussion in E. Cochrane, "Heracles and the Planet Mars," AEON I:4 (1988), pp. 90-94. 213 C. Levi-Strauss, The Raw and the Cooked (Chicago, 1969), p. 297, documents the following belief among aboriginal peoples in South America: "The Ge, along with many other peoples, believe there is a link between eclipses and epidemicsÉWhen the sun is covered, one may expect smallpox." 214 See the discussion in D. Talbott, "Servant of the Sun God," AEON II:1 (1989), p. 43. 215 As we will document in future essays, other factors contributed to Mars being viewed as a great healer, not the least of which was its role in restoring the sun-god's eye and limbs. 216 E. Cochrane, "The Spring of Ares," Kronos XI:3 (Summer 1986), pp. 15-21. 217 E. Cochrane, "Apollo and the Planet Mars," AEON I:1 (1988), pp. 60-61. 218 K. Kerenyi, The Heroes of the Greeks (New York, 1959), p. 197. 219 Judges 15:19 220 E. Cochrane & D. Talbott, "When Venus was a Comet," Kronos XII:1 (1987), pp. 13-16. 221 E. Cochrane, "Velikovsky and Oedipus," AEON I:6 (1988), p. 30. 222 See the discussion in E. Cochrane, "The Death of Heracles," AEON II:5 (1991), pp. 66-68. 223 As noted earlier, a future essay will outline the events behind the widespread myth of the warrior-hero's rescue and replacement of the "eye" of the ancient sun-god. Needless to say, this episode could have contributed to Mars' reputation as a healer of eyes.