n the points of light which
illuminate the nightly sky, the outline of a great number of various
figures--men, animals, monsters, real and imaginary objects, a lance, a
bow, a fish, a scorpion, ears of wheat, a bull, and a lion. The majority
of these were spread out above their heads on the surface of the
celestial vault; but twelve of these figures, distinguishable by their
brilliancy, were arranged along the celestial horizon in the pathway of
the sun, and watched over his daily course along the walls of the world.
These divided this part of the sky into as many domains or "houses," in
which they exercised absolute authority, and across which the god could
not go without having previously obtained their consent, or having
brought them into subjection beforehand. This arrangement is a
reminiscence of the wars by which Bel-Merodach, the divine bull, the
god of Babylon, had succeeded in bringing order out of chaos: he had not
only killed Tiamat, but he had overthrown and subjugated the monsters
which led the armies of darkness. He meets afresh, every year and every
day, on the confines of heaven and earth, the scorpion-men of his ancient
enemy, the fish with heads of men or goats, and many more. The twelve
constellations were combined into a zodiac, whose twelve signs,
transmitted to the Greeks and modified by them, may still be read on
our astronomical charts. The constellations, immovable, or actuated by a
slow motion, in longitude only, contain the problems of the future,
but they are not sufficient of themselves alone to furnish man with the
solution of these problems. The heavenly bodies capable of explaining
them, the real interpreters of destiny, were at first the two divinities
who rule the empires of night and day--the moon and the sun; afterwards
there took part in this work of explanation the five planets which we
call Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Mars, and Mercury, or rather the five gods
who actuate them, and who have controlled their course from the moment
of creation--Merodach, Ishtar, Ninib, Nergal, and Nebo. The planets
seemed to traverse the heavens in every direction, to cross their own
and each other's paths, and to approach the fixed stars or recede from
them; and the species of rhythmical dance in which they are carried
unceasingly across the celestial spaces revealed to men, if they
examined it attentively, the irresistible march of their own destinies,
as surely as if they had made themselves master of t