XI
To sum up the results of our investigations in a series of propositions:
1. The Babylonian-Assyrian birth-omens which can be traced back to at least 2000 B. C. rest on the impression made by the mystery of a new life emerging from another.
2. A leading factor in the interpretation of the omens was the recognized resemblance—often striking—between the features of an infant and that of some animal, or of an animal to some other.
3. As Babylonian-Assyrian hepatoscopy led to the study of the anatomy of the liver, and Babylonian-Assyrian astrology to the study of the phenomena in the heavens, so the resemblance between man and animals became the basis for the study of Human Physiognomy, which when it came to the Greeks and Romans was made a means of determining the character of the individual, just as Babylonian-Assyrian astrology when transferred to Greece and Rome was applied to the individual as a means of casting his horoscope, i. e., for determining the general course of his life.
4. This same factor of the resemblance between men and animals in conjunction with the ignorance as to the processes of nature led to the belief in all kinds of hybrid creatures, composed of human and animal organs or features.
5. This belief underlies the fabulous creatures of Greek and Roman mythology, and also helps to explain the representation of gods as partly animalic in Egypt, in India and in China.
6. The recognition of a resemblance between man and animals is universal, and besides leading in connection with birth-omens to the belief in the actual existence of beings composed of partly human and partly animal organs or parts of the body, developed quite independently of such associations also in three other directions, leading on the one hand to the belief in the descent of a clan or group from some animal, and on the other to the belief in a transformation of a human being into an animal and vice versa, and thirdly to the Beast Fables of India in which beasts that talk like human beings are introduced.
7. The theory set forth in Berosus of a time when mixed creatures of all kinds existed reflects the fanciful combinations found in the collections of the bârû-priests.
8. The Roman view of a monster as a ‘sign’ (monstrum), sent as an indication of some event of a disastrous character, is directly traceable to the Babylonian-Assyrian point of view of malformations of all kinds and deviations from the normal as birth-omens.
9. From Rome this view passed over to mediaeval Europe, where under Christian influence the monster became a ‘sign’ sent by an angered deity as a warning and as a punishment for sins.
10. The pristine ignorance of the course of nature, leading to the assumption that conception could take place without sexual intercourse, had its natural outcome in the belief that women giving birth to monstrosities had intercourse—wilful or unknown to them—with demons as emissaries of the devil, or with the devil himself. This attitude served to maintain the belief in monsters down to the threshhold of modern science.
11. The Roman law of burning the monstrous birth or of throwing it into the sea was maintained for a long time and led also to the punishment of the woman who through supposed intercourse with a demon had given birth to a monster.
12. The view taken of monsters as a sign sent by an angered Deity had much to do with preventing the rise of a scientific theory to account for actual malformations of all kinds.
13. The rise of Teratology as a branch of medical science in the 19th century represents the closing chapter in the history of monsters, which is thus to be traced back to Babylonian-Assyrian birth-omens—one of the three chief branches of Babylonian-Assyrian divination that all made their way with the spread of the influence of Euphratean culture throughout Asia Minor and westwards to Greece and Rome, and that may also have passed to the distant East.
[Addendum, to page 43, Note 2.]
Porta, who in his Della Fisonomia dell’ Huomo (Venice edition, 1648, chapters XIII and XIV, or Latin edition De Humana Physiognomia, Frankfurt 1618, chapter IX) ascribes to Plato the opinion that a man who resembles an animal is likely to have the traits of that animal, appears to base this view on such a passage as Phaedo § 31, referred to in the note, and which is given as the reference in the German translation of Porta’s work. The passage, however, hardly admits of this interpretation, though it would appear from Porta, who evidently does not stand alone in his opinion, that from Plato’s view that according to the life led by a man his soul will be transferred into an animal having the traits manifested by the individual, the corollary was drawn that a man who resembles an animal has a soul which shows the traits of the animal which he resembles.
Footnotes
1 Embodied in detail in the author’s Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens II 203-969 to be referred to hereafter as Jastrow Religion. See also various special articles by the writer such as “Signs and Names for the Liver in Babylonian” (Zeitschr. f. Assyr. XX 105-129). “The Liver in Antiquity and the Beginnings of Anatomy” (Trans. of the College of Physicians of Phila. XXIX 117-138). “The Liver in Babylonian Divination” (Proc. of the Numismatic and Antiquarian Soc. of Phila. XXV 23-30). “The Liver as the Seat of the Soul” (Studies in the History of Religions presented to C. H. Toy 143-169). “Sign and Name for Planet in Babylonian” (Proc. Amer. Philos. Society XLVII 141-156). “Hepatoscopy and Astrology in Babylonia and Assyria” (ib. XLVII 646-676). “Sun and Saturn” (Revue d’Assyriologie VII No. 2), and the general survey in the author’s Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria (N. Y. 1911), Chapter III and IV.
2 The field of divination was gradually extended so that practically every unusual occurrence or every occurrence that even aroused attention was regarded as an omen. Among these miscellaneous classes of omens we may distinguish as distinct subdivisions (a) dreams, (b) phenomena connected with rivers and canals, (c) movements of animals—chiefly serpents, dogs, sheep and certain birds like ravens and falcons; also mice and rats, and various insects as roaches and locusts, (d) phenomena in houses and temples, including probably (as in Leviticus, Chap. 14) suspicious looking marks or spots, (e) peculiarities and diseases of any portion of the human frame. No doubt the list can be still further extended.
3 See Hepatoscopy and Astrology in Babylonia and Assyria (Proc. Amer. Philos. Society XLVII 646 sq.)
4 The Greek and Roman method of sending out birds and noting their flight is another example of voluntary divination, and so is the ancient Arabic method of selecting arrows, writing certain words on them, throwing them before the image or symbol of a deity and as they fell, reading the oracle sent by the deity.
5 See the details in the writer’s ‘The Liver as the Seat of the Soul’. (Toy Anniversary volume 143-168.)
6 See Jastrow, Religion II 120 sq. and “The Liver as the Seat of the Soul” (Toy Anniversary volume) 158-165.
7 See Cumont, Fatalisme Astrale et Religions Antiques (Revue d’Histoire et de Littérature Religieuse 1912); also the same author’s Astrology and Religion among the Greeks and Romans (N. Y. 1912).
8 Bezold and Boll, Reflexe astrologischer Keilinschriften bei griechischen Schriftstellern (Heidelberg Akad. d. Wiss. 1911); see also Cumont, Babylon und die griechische Astronomie (Neue Jahrbücher f. das klass. Altertum XXVIII Abt. I. 1-10).
9 See Jastrow, Religion II 745 sq. and Boll, Der ostasiatische Tierzyklus im Hellenismus (Leiden 1912). I hope to treat this phase of the subject more fully in a special article. See for the present the summary of my paper on this subject in the Actes du IVère Congrès International d’Histoire des Religions (Leiden 1913) 106-111 and Records of the Past (Washington) Vol. XII (1913) 12-16.
10 See Hartland, Primitive Paternity—especially the summary in Chap. VII, and also Frazer, Totemism and Exogamy I 93 seq.; 191 seq. etc.
11 See Ploß-Bartels, Das Weib (2d ed.) Chap. XXXII; Das Kind Chap. III, VIII, IX and Van Gennep, Rites de Passage Chap. V.
12 Part XXVII and Part XXVIII Pl. 1-42 of Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets etc. in the British Museum, are taken up with texts of this character.
13 Parts XX, XXX and XXXI and Pl. 1-42 of Part XXVIII represent the bulk of this section of the Library so far as recovered by Layard, Rassam and George Smith. Previous to the British Museum publication, Alfred Boissier had published three volumes of divination texts of all kinds under the title of Documents Assyriens relatifs aux Présages (Paris 1894-99) and in his Choix de Textes relatifs a la Divination Assyro-Babylonienne (Paris 1905-06).
14 The chief publications of astrological texts is by Ch. Virolleaud under the title L’Astrologie Chaldéenne (Paris 1903-13), consisting up to the present of four parts and two supplements containing texts, and four parts with two supplements containing the transliteration of these texts. Besides this publication, M. Virolleaud has published numerous fragments of texts in the periodical Babyloniaca, founded and edited by him. Cun. Texts, Part XXX Pl. 43-50 also contains astrological texts; Part XXXIII Pl. 1-12 are aids to astrology.
15 Chiefly by Boissier in the two works mentioned in note 2 on p. 6.
16 Copious specimens of liver divinations texts in German translation with comments will be found in the author’s Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens II 227-412; of Astrological Texts ib II 458-740; Oil and Water, Divination ib II 749-775; of Animal omens ib II 775-826; of Birth omens ib II 837-941 and a summary view of the miscellaneous omens ib II 946-969.
17 The same is the case with the collections of liver signs and to a large extent also in the case of the astrological collections.
18 Cun. Texts XXVII Pl. 24 Cases of more than three births at one time are extremely rare. A case of quintuplets in Groningen in the year 1897 is vouched for by Prof. Döderlein of Munich and one was reported in the newspapers recently as occurring in the United States. A case of sextuplets is noted by Vasalli in the Boll. Med. della Svizzera Italiana, 1894, Nos. 3 and 4. This seems to be the highest mark, though Pliny, Hist. Nat. VII 3, on the authority of Trogus records that a woman in Egypt gave birth to seven infants at one time; Lycosthenes, Prodigiorum ac. Ostentorum Chronicon (Basel 1557) p. 284 reports the same number born in the days of Algemundus, King of the Lombards.
19 Cun. Texts XXVII Pl. 3.
20 E. g. Cun. Texts XXVII Pl. 45 (K. 12050); XXVIII Pl. 42, 20.
21 In the same way we have hundreds of official reports of occurences and observed phenomena in the heavens with the interpretations taken from the astrological texts; and we also have a large number of official reports of the same character dealing with the results of the inspection of the liver of a sacrificial animal, killed and inspected at a given time for the purpose of obtaining an answer to a question put. These reports are made in all cases to the rulers, which thus stamps them as official. See copious examples in Jastrow, Religion, II 227-271; 275-319 (Liver texts); 458-542; 578-584; 613-616; 639-652; 656-673; 688-692 (Astrological Texts).
22 Cun. Texts XXVII Pl. 28.
23 The first omen is taken from Cun. Texts XXVII Pl. 26, 11; the second from ib. line 10.
24 The omens were always supposed to bear on events of a public import; hence the reports may always be assumed to be addressed to the reigning king, even when this is not expressly stated.
25 Cun. Texts XXVII Pl. 45.
26 From other sources (cf. Jastrow, Religion II 467, 3) we know that Nergal-eṭir flourished during the reign of Esarhaddon, King of Assyria (705-668 B. C.).
27 Cun. Texts XXXVII Pl. 30.
28 The text from which this omen is quoted is found. Cun. Texts XXVII Pl. 48, 2-4.
29 See examples in Jastrow, Religion II 227-244 (Sargon and Naram-Sin omens); 333 and 392 (murder of a ruler Urumu); 555, (invasion of Babylonia by Hittites); see also 226, 3; 843, 7 and articles by the writer in Zeitschr. f. Assyr. XXI 277-282 and Revue Sémitique XVII 87-96.
30 Cun. Texts XXVII Pl. 6; also Boissier, Documents Assyriens 185 (the first publication of this text, the importance of which was recognized by Boissier) and Thompson, Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers of Nineveh and Babylon (London 1900) Nr. 276.
31 I. e. A child of the harem—not the legitimate heir.
32 Les plus anciennes Dynasties connues de Sumer-Accad. Comptes Rendus de l’Acad. des Inscript. et Belles-Lettres 1911, 606-621.
33 The position occupied by the sheep in divination leads in astrology to the use of the Sumerian term Lu-Bat, i. e., ‘dead sheep’ as the designation of the planets, the association of ideas being ‘dead sheep’ == têrtu ‘omen’ and then == planet, because the planets were regarded as omens. In the larger sense, the moon and sun were included among the planets. See Jastrow, Religion II p. 448 sq. and the article “Sign and Name for Planets in Babylonian” quoted in note 1 on p. 1.
34 See Jastrow Religion II 845, 1 and 847, 68.
35 Cun. Texts XXVII Pl. 25-26 completed by the duplicate Pl. 27-28.
36 Shown by the continuation of the text. Cun. Texts XXVII Pl. 26.
37 I. e. twisted up in a heap.
38 An interpretation evidently based on the fact of a destructive storm that swept over the land after the birth of a monstrosity as described in the omen.
39 Three interpretations, gathered from various documents and here united.
40 Not infrequently a birth-omen is interpreted as applying to the owner of the mother lamb or to the household in which the lamb was born,—but generally as an alternative to an official interpretation bearing on public affairs. See e. g. below pp. 15 and 16.
41 See below p. 16.
42 I. e., lying at the mouth.
43 I. e., presumably the plantation and house of the owner of the mother lamb.
44 The opposite to this is ‘throne will support throne’, i. e., there will be mutual support.
45 I. e., the stall of the owner of the mother lamb.
46 I. e., the property of the owner of the mother lamb will be confiscated.
47 I. e., the second issues from the belly of the other, or appears to do so.
48 Whatever occurred to the king or to a member of his household was an omen for the general welfare under the ancient view of the king as the representative of the deity on earth.
49 A partial exception, however occurs in the case of three and of ten lambs being produced at one birth. See below p. 18.
50 I. e., of course, the head resembles that of a bull. See below p. 23 sq. and 27 sq.
51 I. e., with a normal head.
52 A variant reads, “the city will acquire sovereignty”.
53 Cun. Texts XXVII Pl. 37-38 of which again Pl. 36 is an extract.
54 The term used throughout is isbu for which see above p. 13.
55 The unusual number of alternative interpretations—though all unfavorable—points to the compilation of the text from various sources in which the sign was again entered with a different interpretation in each. These varying interpretations are here united; and no doubt the priests felt that there was safety in numbers. One of the seven prognosticated events was quite certain to happen—at some time. The chief point was that the sign was unfavorable.
56 I. e., the stall of the owner of the mother lamb.
57 As above, an unofficial and an official interpretation.
58 I. e., displaced.
59 I. e., of Babylonia or Assyria.
60 I. e., a demoniac being or a monstrosity of some kind.
61 I. e., of the owner of the mother lamb.
62 I. e., the rudiments of what seems to be a second ear.
63 Similarly, a second ear appearing below or above (?) the other one, is a favorable sign; on the right side, therefore, favorable to you, on the left favorable to the enemy, and, therefore, unfavorable to your side.
64 There is inserted at this point an omen for the case that “a foetus has eight (?) feet and two tails with unfavorable interpretations, approach of an usurper, no unity in the land, the land will destroy its inhabitants.”
65 I. e., not one within the other—in all, therefore, three ears.
66 Literally “full”.
67 The ‘wide-eared man’ (rapaš uzni) is the wise man. Ashurbanapal in the subscript to the tablets of his library thanks the gods for having ‘opened his ears wide’, i. e. given him understanding etc.
68 See the partial list of such texts, Jastrow, Religion II 851 note 1.
69 Cun. Texts XXVII Pl. 21-22, with a duplicate Pl. 19 (K. 4132).
70 For marratum “the rain-bow” see Jastrow, Religion II 739 note 7 and 875, note 3. The “rain-bow” bird must have been one distinguished by its manifold coloring. A lion-lamb with the head of a ‘rainbow bird’ was, therefore, a young lamb with a large lion-like head, but showing various hues and shades.
71 The god of pestilence.
72 An animal not yet identified.
73 Low prices indicate hard times and are an unfavorable sign; high prices are favorable. The gods in ancient Babylonia and Assyria appear to have been on the side of the “Trusts”.
74 It is assumed that the abnormal birth is still-born, but in this particular case the eyes are open.
75 Such a monstrosity is known as Acephaly in modern nomenclature. See Kitt, Lehrbuch der pathologischen Anatomie der Haustiere (4 ed.) I, 72, for illustrations of an Acephalus bipes.
76 Known in modern nomenclature as Brachyprosopy. See Kitt, ib. I 87 sq.
77 Presumably the mistress of the household in which the monstrosity was born.
78 Perokormy—See the illustration in Kitt, ib. I 75 sq.
79 Cross-breeding, in fact, is a comparatively rare phenomenon in the animal world, limited to the horse and ass, horse and zebra, dog and wolf, dog and fox, or jackal, lion and tiger, ox and buffalo or yak, hare and rabbit, camel and dromedary, goat and mountain stag, and possibly lambs and goats. See Ellenberger-Scheunert, Lehrbuch der vergleichenden Physiologie der Haussäugetiere (Berlin 1910) 703.
80 See the enumeration in Jastrow, Religion II 873 note 2, e. g., ‘eyes like those of a dog’ in the case of a newly-born lamb (Cun. Texts XVII Pl. 23, 14), ‘foot like that of a lion’ (Cun. Texts XXVII Pl. 45, 34), ‘head like that of a dog’ (Cun. Texts, XXVIII Pl. 36, 15); in the case of a double foetus ‘both like a lion’ or ‘like a dog’ (Cun. Texts XXVII Pl. 48, 11-12) etc.
81 Cun. Texts XXVII Pl. 22, obv. 13-25.
82 Ideographic designation ‘water dog’.
83 The chief god of Nippur and the older head of the pantheon.
84 I. e., an alternative interpretation.
85 An unidentified animal.
86 I. e., an alternative interpretation of a less official character.
87 See Jastrow, Religion II 879 note 9.
88 Founder of the Isin dynasty (c. 2175 B. C.)—another illustration of an historical omen.
89 Cun. Texts XXVII Pl. 4, 15-39, completed by the duplicates Pl. 3, 22-27 and Pl. 1, 1-2 and Pl. 6. The complete translation of the tablet with its various duplicates will be found in Jastrow, Religion II 900-916.
90 An alternative ‘unofficial’ interpretation as in the instances noted above pp. 15-16, 20 etc.
91 Two interpretations, both unofficial—a rather unusual case.
92 The rest of the line is broken off.
93 The line is defective, but the omen was without doubt unfavorable.
94 As in the case of the famous Siamese twins.
95 Interpretation broken off, but it was no doubt the reverse of what was entered in the preceding omen, i. e., unfavorable for the enemy and therefore, favorable to your side.
96 The end of the line can be restored by comparison with the preceding omen.
97 Restoration certain.
98 I. e., the capital.
99 Interpretation no doubt unfavorable.
100 Restored by comparison with the second omen—above p. 29.
101 Rest of the line broken off, but the interpretation was no doubt unfavorable.
102 The end of the line supplied by Cun. Texts XXVII Pl. 24, 16.
103 Cun. Texts XXVII Pl. 241, 16 (K. 3881) to the close of the tablet.
104 Above p. 19 seq.
105 Cun. Texts XXVII Pl. 16, together with Pl. 17, 18—an extract from the fuller tablet.
106 I. e., of the child; and so of course in every case.
107 Compare the omen in the case of the young of an animal, above p. 19.
108 I. e., the father of the child.
109 The ‘left’ side being unfavorable to the enemy is favorable to you. We may, however, expect to find in a variant text ‘A weakling will be born in the enemy’s house’.
110 See preceding note.
111 I. e., misplaced.
112 I. e., protect it.
113 Agnathy in modern nomenclature. See Birnbaum, Klinik der Mißbildungen 73.
114 I. e., the upper lip falls over the lower one.
115 I. e., the father of the child.
116 I. e., the city in which the child was born.
117 Of the same house.
118 Presumably to the household in which the child was born.
119 I. e., the mother.
120 Variant ‘the offspring’, i. e., the newly born infant.
121 I. e., there will be a political upheaval.
122 This malformation of a child with a closed anus is frequently referred to in Roman omens, e. g., Julius Obsequens, de prodigiis (ed. Roßbach), §§ 26 and 40. See below p. 52.
123 I. e., only the rudiments of a foot are to be seen.
124 I. e., they are directly attached to the body without thighs.
125 I. e., bent and deformed so that one cannot stand on it.
126 Twisted legs as in the illustration in Jastrow’s Bildermappe zur Rel. Babyl. und Assyr. No. 35.
127 As, e. g., Guinard, Précis de Teratologie or Birnbaum, Klinik der Mißbildungen.
128 Cun. Texts XXVIII Pl. 34, with duplicate K 630 (Virolleaud, Fragments des Textes Divinatoires 9).
129 I. e., a shapeless abortion suggesting pudenda.
130 I. e., a miscarriage, shaped like a head.
131 I. e., a shapeless mass.
132 I. e., an embryo.
133 I. e., a shapeless mass.
134 I. e., the father. Note the five alternative interpretations pointing again to the union of various collections of omens.
135 The god of pestilence.
136 I. e., the father of the child.
137 In which the birth took place.
138 Aprosopy. See above p. 25.
139 In which the birth took place.
140 The expression used is tigri ili ‘a divine tigru’—which I take to be the Babylonian term for dwarf. See Jastrow, Religion II 913 note 7.
141 Elsewhere we find the anomaly of a child born with a beard or with hair on the chin referred to. See Jastrow, Religion II 929.
142 The talking infant (see also Jastrow, Religion II 929 note 6) occurs frequently as a prodigy in Roman literature. See Lycosthenes, Prodigiorum ac Ostentorum Chronicon 113. 228 etc.
143 See further Jastrow, Religion II 928—infants born with one tooth, with two teeth or a number of teeth. The omen is also found in Roman literature, Livy, Historia XLI, 21; Pliny, Hist. Nat. VII, 15. King Richard the Third is among the historical personages said to have been born with teeth and which was regarded as an evil omen. (See Henry V, 3d Part. Act V, 6. 53 and 75.)
144 Nergal, the god of pestilence, is meant. The text adds as a note ‘Such a being is called a divine tigru’. See note 1 above.
145 Cun. Texts XXVI Pl. 4 with various duplicates and ‘extract’ tablets. See Jastrow, Religion II 907, note 1.
146 An unidentified animal.
147 In another list of birth-omens a woman giving birth to a serpent is interpreted that ‘the king will increase in power’ (Cun. Texts XXVIII Pl. 43, 9).
148 Alluttu—described elsewhere (Cun. Texts XXVIII Pl. 46, 9), as a fish with a thick head—probably, therefore, a dolphin.
149 Such a malformation with the feet united and ending in the rudiments of toes that resemble fish’s tail is still called a ‘Sirenformation’ in modern nomenclature. See Guinard, Précis de Teratologie 366 with illustrations fig. 178 and 179. See also Lycosthenes l. c. 142 and 316, also Hirst and Piersol, Human Monstrosities 88 and Pl. VII (sireno-melus).
150 The interpretation is broken off.
151 Cun. Texts XXVIII Pl. 3, 10; where this comparison is introduced with the interpretation that ‘the king will be without a rival’.
152 L’astrologie Grecque IX.
153 See numerous examples in Cun. Texts XXIII.
154 See the writer’s paper on ‘The Liver and the Beginnings of Anatomy’ quoted on p. 1 note 1.
155 On the basis of such passages as Phaedo, § 31. See, however, the postcript on p. 80.
156 See Scriptores Physiognomici Graeci et Latini (ed. Richard Foerster, Leipzig 1903, 2 vols.) containing the treatises of Pseudo-Aristotle, Polemon, Adamantius and others. See Chapter I of Polemon (ed. Foerster I 108) and Chapter II (170-198); Chapter II, 2 of Adamantius (349 sq.) for a long enumeration of the resemblances between man and animals and the conclusions to be drawn therefrom.
157 ‘Physiognomika’ included in Foerster’s edition I 5-91. See Foerster’s Prolegomena to his edition XIX, 2.
158 I quote from the Latin ed. of 1593 (Hanovia).
159 He also has a series of chapters on the voice, which are much more reasonable in character because of the omission of any comparisons with animals; and passes on to the hands, the breast, the belly and the thighs and feet, and the general shape of the body.
160 Physiognomische Fragmente (Leipzig 1775-1778).
161 Von der Physiognomik (Leipzig 1772), 2. Stück p. 45.
162 Fritz Neubert, Die volkstümlichen Anschauungen über Physiognomik in Frankreich bis zum Ausgang des Mittelalters (Munich Dissertation 1910) 118.
163 See Jastrow Religion, II 704 sq.
164 I quote Rossbach’s edition in the Teubner Series.
165 In the Babylonian-Assyrian birth-omens, such cases, expressed by the phrase ‘middle portion open’, are very frequent, e. g., Cun. Text XXVII Pl. 44 (K 3166); 47, 14-15; 44 etc.
166 See above p. 39 and below p. 57.
167 Above p. 40.
168 In the same paragraph he records the birth of a serpent by a woman as in Julius Obsequens § 57.
169 Book I, 6.
170 E. g., cave tibi, Roma (I, 6, 5) at the time of the Second Punic War.
171 I, 6, 5. Further examples of all kinds of omens are found in Chap. 8 of the first book of the Memorabilia.
172 Life of Julius Caesar § 61.
173 De Divinatione I 41-42.
174 Arnobius, Adversum Nationes VII 26 calls Etruria the genetrix et mater superstitionis.
175 See above p. 4.
176 De Divinatione I 53.
177 Cun. Texts XXIII Pl. 14, 4.
178 De Divinatione I 53. Cicero does not specifically state that the interpretation is due to Etruscan haruspices, but Thulin, Etruskische Disziplin III 116, properly concludes that Cicero who is discussing Etruscan augury in the paragraph has Etruscan augurs in mind.
179 See above p. 14 note 2. Among the Romans these two classes were known as ostenta publica and ostenta privata (Thulin, Etruskische Disziplin III 86 and 116, 1).
180 The phrase bartu or bartu ina mâti ‘revolt’ or ‘revolt in the country’ occurs hundreds of times in the divination texts.
181 See p. 29 and 31.
182 See p. 31.
183 See above p. 29 sq. Cicero also furnishes us (de Divinatione I 36) with a most striking parallel between a Babylonian-Assyrian animal omen and an Etruscan interpretation of the same omen. He tells us that the nurse of the young Roscius observed how a serpent came and wound itself around the sleeping child. On inquiry, the Haruspices declared that the occurrence was an omen indicating that the child would become famous and distinguished above his fellows. In the same way we find in the Babylonian-Assyrian texts that ‘if a serpent is found lying on a little child, the child whether male or female, will acquire renown and riches’. See Jastrow, Religion II 782 and 942, 3.
184 Saturnalia III 7, 2 also quoted by Servius, though in a slightly modified form. See Thulin, Etruskische Disziplin III 76 and 102.
185 The chief colors in Babylonia-Assyrian omen texts are white, black, yellow and dark red. See e. g., Cun. Texts XXVIII Pl. 32 (K. 3838 etc.), 4-9.
186 Cun. Texts XXVIII Pl. 19 (K. 13443), 5.
187 ḫud libbi, literally ‘joy of heart’.
188 Cicero, De Divinatione I 41, who correctly explains the application of monstrum to a malformation. For the etymology of prodigium, see Walde, Lateinisch-Etymologisches Wörterbuch s. v.
189 De Generatione Animalium IV, 54. See above p. 44.
190 He gives as illustrations a child born with the head of a ram or of an ox; a calf born with a child’s head, or a lamb with the head of an ox. See further ib IV, 65 seq.
191 De Generatione IV, 63. See above p. 44. He argues against the possibility of such hybrid creatures (IV, 55), on the ground of the varying length of pregnancy in the case of women, ewes, bitches, and cows.
192 I, 6, de Prodigiis quae evenere Externis § 1. See also Herodotus, VII 57 who represents the source of Valerius Maximus.
193 Book I, 8 de Miraculis quae contigere Externis § 12.
194 VII, 57.
195 Varia Historia I 29. Aelian says that the story was told by ‘the children in Cos’—evidently a rationalistic supplement to the tale, dating from a time when it was no longer considered possible to take such stories seriously. The story had become, as we would say, ‘an old wives’ tale’.
196 See above p. 24 sq. and Jastrow, Religion II 875 sq.
197 Herodotus I § 84.
198 Herodotus I § 85; Cicero, De Divinatione I 53. The latter preserves the tradition in its correct form Croesi filium cum infans esset locutum. The omen consists in the fact that the infant speaks as in the cases reported by Julius Obsequens (see above 52). In Herodotus the story is perverted through the rationalistic touch that the son of Croesus was dumb for many years (cf. also §§ 34 and 39) but suddenly acquired the power of speech. The story loses its point by this modification. The correct form of the story is also given by Lycosthenes, Prodigiorum ac Ostentorum Chronicon 65. The ‘speaking’ infant of which Wuelker, Prodigienwesen bei den Römern 20 gives six instances, was always regarded as an ill omen, prognosticating some national misfortune.
199 See above p. 39.
200 See the writer’s article ‘The Liver as the Seat of the Soul’ in ‘Studies in the History of Religions in honor of C. H. Toy’ 164 and Jastrow, Religion II 742. Several of the models are now in the Berlin Museum, and will, it is hoped, soon be published.
201 See Herbig’s article on the ‘Etruscan Religion’ in Hastings’ Dictionary of Religion and Ethics. The possibility, indeed, that the Etruscans belong to one of the Hittite groups is to be seriously considered, though naturally the problem cannot be approached until further advances in the decipherment of the Hittite inscriptions shall have been made, following along the line of R. C. Thompson’s recent attempt “A New Development of the Hittite Hieroglyphics” (Oxford 1913), which unquestionably marks considerable progress.
202 See further Jastrow, Religion II 320, 3.
203 See above 26.
204 Aristotle, de Generatione IV, 54 refers to a physiognomist who traced back all such ‘malformations’ (as Aristotle calls them) to two or three animals, and whose views he says met with much favor, the assumption being that such hybrid beings were produced by the union between a woman and an animal, or by crossing of animals. As a matter of fact intercourse between a human being and an animal never produces results, and the crossing of animals only in restricted cases, which do not enter into consideration in the birth-omens. See above p. 26 note 1.
205 Cun. Texts XXVII Pl. 29.
206 Cun. Texts XXVII Pl. 48.
207 The name given to these demons. See Jastrow, Bildermappe zur Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens Nr. 62.
208 See above p. 29 seq.
209 In the Chronicle of Eusebius (ed. Schoene I 14, 18). See also Zimmern, Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament II 488 seq.
210 See Ungnad’s translation in Gressmann’s Altorientalische Texte und Bilder I 8.
211 E. g., horses with the heads of dogs (Cun. Texts XXVI Pl. 48, 9); an isbu (young of animal) with human head (Cun. Texts XXVII Pl. 29, 26 and 31, 8); infants with two faces, four hands and four feet (Cun. Texts XXVII Pl. 8, 10, 21-22 (K. 7093)); human face and body of a šedu, i. e., a body of a lion or bull with wings (Cun. Texts XXVII Pl. 10, 23 == Pl. 8, 6 == Pl. 15,17); infant with male and female organs (Cun. Texts XXVIII Pl. 5, 11); with the face of an ass (Cun. Texts XXVII Pl. 15, 12); isbu—probably lamb—with feet of a lion (Cun. Texts XXVII Pl. 45, 34); horse with two tails and mane of lion (Cun. Texts XXVII Pl. 49, 3 (K. 4031)); horse with human head (Cun. Texts XXVIII Pl. 31, 7); animals with two to seven heads (Cun. Texts XXVIII Pl. 33 (K. 6288 rev.)); isbu (here probably a lamb) with the feet of a lion, head of dog in front, six feet and bristles of a swine (Cun. Texts XXVIII Pl. 38, 13); with the feet of a lion, head of a dog and tail of a swine (ib. 1. 15); with two heads, two tails and feet like those of a dog (ib. 1. 17); two heads, two feet, hair of a dog (ib. 1. 19), etc.
212 Tablet IX.
213 See Jastrow, Bildermappe zur Geschichte Babyloniens und Assyriens Nos. 149, 150, 184 usw.
214 See Zimmern, Keilinschriften und das A. T. II 503 sq.
215 Jastrow ib. No. 120; other fanciful forms, Nos. 193-199.
216 See Jastrow, Bildermappe (Gießen 1912), Nos. 36-47 (on Boundary Stones), 52-53 (dragons), 55-60 (winged human figures and winged human figure with eagle face), 61 (bull with human head), 62 (winged bull with human face), 63-64 (winged horses, winged bulls, winged sphinxes, winged human figures).
217 See Luschan, Ausgrabungen in Sendschirli IV 330 sq. and 338 sq. and Pl. LV-LVI.
218 Jastrow, Bildermappe No. 32 winged hippocentaur with two heads (man and lion) with scorpion tail and horse’s tail and scorpions attached to the forelegs; No. 33, upright hippocentaur, head, arms and upper part of the body that of a man, lower part of the body that of a horse with two feet. Similar figures appear on seal cylinders, e. g. Ward, Seal Cylinders of Western Asia, 382, and Clay, Dated Cassite Archives, 15 and Pl. XV, No. 6. See Baur, Centaurs in Ancient Art pp. 1-4. A vast amount of material bearing on the representation of all kinds of monstrous beings in Babylonian, Assyrian and Hittite art will be found in Ward’s valuable work just quoted, particularly in chapters LI to LV and LXVII to LXIX, but also chapters VII-XI; XV (Bird-man!) XVIII, XXXVI and XXXVIII.
219 See e. g. Hirst and Piersol, Human Monstrosities 116 Pl. XXII.
220 See above p. 40 note 4.
221 This birth-omen ‘if a woman gives birth to a head’ actually occurs in the Babylonian-Assyrian collections, e. g., Cun. Texts XXVIII Pl. 34, 24 (K. 8274). See above p. 37.
222 See Jastrow, Religion II 943, 1. The vulture eats the liver because it is the seat of life. The renewal of the liver is the renewal of life. Prometheus thus suffers perpetual death and is yet condemned to eternal renewal of life. This view of the liver is incidentally a proof of the high antiquity of the myth.
223 See Jastrow, Religion II 320 seq.
224 Vol. 38 (190), 209-311.
225 Schwalbe, Mißgeburten und Mißbildungen bei Menschen und Tieren I 39 also favors this view.
226 See p. 4 and Jastrow, Religion II 740 seq.
227 See Jastrow, Religion II 937, 2. In Se-ma Tsien’s Memoires Historiques tr. by Chavannes I 13, there is a reference to a monster which had the body of a man and the head of an ox, and which was born to a woman through a dragon.
228 See Spiegelberg, Geschichte der ägyptischen Kunst 17; Maspero Art in Egypt 40.
229 The Evolution of the Aryan 101.
230 Pointed out by Hommel, Grundriß der Geographie und Geschichte des alten Orients I 113-129 who, however, includes much in his discussion that is doubtful, and draws conclusions that are entirely too far reaching.
231 See Maspero, Art in Egypt 80.
232 Geschichte der ägyptischen Kunst 35—perhaps to Amenemhat III of the 12th dynasty.
233 Hist. Nat. VII 3.
234 See also Phlegon, Mirabilia (ed. Keller) IV-X including (VI) the case of a woman turning into a man in the days of Emperor Claudius at Antiochia.
235 See Joseph Jacobs, Introduction to his edition of the Fables of Bidpai (London 1888) XXXIX-LI.
236 See the references in Ernest Martin, Histoire des Monstres depuis l’antiquité jusqu’à nos jours (Paris 1880) 7 seq. Martin’s book is a mine of valuable information on this subject.
237 Banquet of the Seven Sages § 3. The story is placed in the days of Periander and Thales, and relates the remarkable birth of a centaur in the herd of Periander. Thales is asked to examine the strange creature, and after doing so asks the diviner Diocles, whether he does not intend to make some expiation in order to avert the anger of the gods. The diviner answers ‘Why not?’, and assures Thales that the birth of the monster is an omen of discord and sedition. Thales smiled and looking at the young shepherd of Periander in charge of the herd advised Periander to keep a look-out on his young men, or to provide wives for them. The intimation reflects little credit on Thales’ knowledge of the processes of nature.
238 See for actually occurring human monstrosities, Hirst and Peirsol, Human Monstrosities; Kitt, Pathologische Anatomie der Haustiere (4th ed.) I Chap. III and Guinard’s Précis de Teratologie (Paris 1893), e. g. in the last named work, a lamb without ears (168), an infant with a caudal appendix (82), club-foot (131—still called pied d’equin), six toes (128), a pig with five divisions of the hoof, a lamb with four divisions, a dog with six etc. (129).
239 Hist. Nat. VII § 3.
240 Also such omens as the speaking infant (113. 118), while still in the womb (175), the talking ox (65. 113. 118. 125. 129. 140. 146. 153. 159. 166. etc.), by the side of the two-headed swine (129), three-footed mule or horse (150. 157. 166), a five-footed horse or mule (131. 136. 171. 176), two-headed calf (180. 181. 308), lamb with swine’s head (135. 136), swine with human head (124. 136. 138), with human hands and feet (165), two-headed lamb (138. 139. 197. 198), boy with elephant’s head (125), infant without eyes or nose (141), without arms or feet (142), two-headed boy (155. 177. 315. 317), with four hands and four legs (163. 165. 172. 317), with three legs (168 and 169), with three legs and three hands (199), with four legs (175), androgynous infants (125. 135. 170. 175. 181. 187. 196. 198), twins united at the back etc., (198. 284), a child with beard and four eyes (272), a woman giving birth to an elephant (201), to a serpent (209-210), a woman giving birth to seven children in days of Algemundus, first king of Lombards (284), a boy without eyes, no arms and a fish tail instead of feet (316) etc.
241 Conrad Gessner, Allgemeines Thierbuch (Deutsch von Conrad Foerer, Frankfurt 1669) 19.
242 p. 582. The chronicle is brought down in fact to the year 1557.
243 p. 32-68.
244 Christliche Mystik III 440 seq.
245 Le Diable (Paris 1864).
246 In the doctrine of the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary, this factor is involved.
247 See above 44.
248 P. 98. Chapter XII, of Martin’s work, (‘Les Monstres Celebres’), furnishes many supplements to Lycosthenes work, including some interesting examples of Hermaphrodites.
249 Martin p. 100.
250 The mummy was found in the cemetery reserved for the sacred animals, from which Martin concludes that the Egyptians shared the general belief in monsters as due to the combination of the human with the animal. It would be interesting in view of the present stage of Egyptological research to determine the exact character of the mummy which was thus destined to play so important a part in the history of modern medicine. See Martin, ib Introduction p. V.
251 See Guinard, Précis de Teratologie (Paris 1854) in which a full account of the theory of St. Hilaire and of those who followed in his footsteps is given.
252 P. T. Barnum, the famous American showman, in his Memoirs tells in a most frank manner of the manufacture of his monsters—living and dead.
253 Hist. Nat. VII 3.
254 Amsterdamer Weekblad voor Nederland, May 28, 1911. The illustration attached to the description reveals the bogus character of the ‘monster’.