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Ulul (Elul), remaining absent from the sky for eleven days, and was seen on the 7th of intercalary Ulul in the east.
The year thereafter Venus disappeared in the east on the 9th of Nisan, remaining absent for 5
months and 16 days, and was seen on the 25th of Ulul in the west.
In the fifth year of the observations, Venus disappeared in the west on the 5th of Ayar (Ijar), remaining absent from the sky for seven days, and reappeared in the east on the 12th of Ayar; the same year it disappeared on the 20th of Tebit in the east, remaining absent from the sky one month, and on the 21st day of Sabat (Shevat) it appeared in the west, and so on.
How explain these observations of the ancient astronomers, modern astronomers and historians have asked. Were they written in a conditional form ("If Venus disappeared on the 11th of Sivan
. . .") ? No, they were expressed categorically.
The observations were "inaccurately" registered, decided some authors. However, inaccuracy may account for a few days' difference but not for a difference of months.
"The invisibility of Venus at superior conjunction is given as 5 months 16 days instead of the correct difference of 2 months 6 days," noted the translators of the text, wonderingly.4
"The period between the heliacal setting of Venus and its rise is 72 days. But in the Babylonian-Assyrian astrological texts, the period varies from one month to five months—too long and too short: the observations were defective," wrote another scholar.5
"The impossible interval shows that the data are not trustworthy." "Obviously, the days of the month have been mixed up. As the impossible intervals show, the months are also wrong," wrote still another author.8
It is difficult to imagine how such obvious errors could have been committed. The dates are written in a contemporary document; they are not a poetical composition but a dry record, and each item in the
4 Langdon-Fotheringham, The Venus Tablets, p. 106.
robin-bobin
5 M. Jastrow, Religious Relief in Rabylonia and Assyria, p. 220.
6 A. Ungnad, "Die Venustafeln und das neunte Jahr Samsuilunas," Mitteilungen der altorientalischen Gesellschaft (1940), p. 12.
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record is stated in dates as well as in the number of days between the dates.
Similar difficulties are encountered by the scholars who try to understand the Hindu tables of the movements of the planets. The only explanation proposed is: "All the manuscripts are completely corrupted. . . . The details referring to Venus . . . are very difficult to unriddle."7 "No attention at all was paid to the actual movements in the sky." 8
The Babylonians did not note these irregular movements merely as matters of factual interest; they were dismayed by them. In their prayers they expressed this dismay.
O Ishtar, queen of all peoples . . .
Thou art the light of heaven and earth. . . .
At the thought of thy name the heaven and the earth quake . . .
And the spirits of the earth falter.
Mankind payeth homage unto thy mighty name,
for thou art great, and thou art exalted.
All mankind, the whole human race,
boweth down before thy power. . . .
How long wilt thou tarry, O lady of heaven and earth . . . ?
How long wilt thou tarry, O lady of all fights and of the battle?
O thou glorious one, that ... art raised on high, that art
firmly established, O valiant Ishtar, great in thy might! Bright torch of heaven and earth, light of all dwellings, Terrible in the fight, one who cannot be opposed, strong in the battle! O whirlwind, that roarest against the foe and cuttest off the
mighty! O furious Ishtar, summoner of armies! 9
As long as Venus returned at regular intervals, fear of the planet was kept in bounds; when the star passed without causing harm, as it had already done for a few centuries, the peoples were calmed
7Thibaut, "Astronomie, Astroloeie und Mathematik," Vol. 3, Pt. 9 (1899) of Grundriss der indo-arisch. Philol. und Altertumskunde, p. 27.
«Ibid., p. 15.
' A "Prayer of the Raising of the Hand" to Ishtar (transl. L. W. King) in The Seven Tablets of Creation.
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and felt themselves out of danger for another period. But when Venus, for some reason, began to move irregularly, fear grew intense. The priests of Iran prayed: 10
We sacrifice to Tistrya, the bright and glorious star, for whom long flocks and herds and men, looking forward for him and deceived in their hope: When shall we see him rise up, the bright and glorious star Tistrya?
The Zend-Avesta answered for the star:
If men would worship me with a sacrifice in which I were invoked by my own name . . . then I should come to the faithful at the appointed time.
The priests responded:
The next ten nights, O Spitama Zarathustra!
the bright and glorious Tistrya mingles his shape with light,
moving in the shape of a golden-horned bull.
They glorified the star that made "all the shores of the ocean boiling over, all the middle of it boiling over." They heaped up sacrifices to the star, imploring it not to change its course.
We sacrifice unto Tistrya, the bright and glorious star
who from the shining east moves along his long winding course,
robin-bobin
along the path made by the gods. . . .
We sacrifice unto Tistrya the bright and glorious star,
whose rising is watched by the chiefs of deep understanding.
The star of Venus did not appear in the prescribed seasons. In the Book of Job the Lord asks him: "Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season . . . ? Knowest thou the changes of heaven?" n
10 Zend-Avesta (transl. Darmesteter), Pt. II, pp. 94 ff. The belief sometimes expressed, that Tistrya is Sirius, is an obvious error: Sirius does not travel in a winding course. The star in the shape of a golden-horned bull was Venus. Also, inaccurate movements of Sirius could not occur without similar irregularity on the part of all the stars.
11 Job 38 : 32-33. The King James translation has, "Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven?"
The Septuagint has "the changes of heaven."
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There exists an extensive exegetic literature on this Mazzaroth,12 from which it can be concluded only that "the meaning of Mazzaroth is uncertain."13 But the Vulgate (Latin) translation of the Bible has Lucifer for Mazzaroth. The (Greek) translation of the Seventy (Septuagint) reads: "Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season and guide the Evening Star by his long hair?" These words of the Septuagint seem very strange. I have already mentioned that the Greek word komet means "the long-haired one," or a star with hair, a comet. In Latin, coma is "hair."
Mazzaroth means a comet, wrote an exegete, and therefore, he argued, it cannot mean Venus.14
But in any case it is said that the Evening Star has hair. Actually, Mazzaroth means Venus and a hairy star.
Venus ceased to appear in its seasons. What had happened?
Venus Becomes trie Morning Star
Since the latter part of the eighth century before the present era, Venus has followed an orbit between Mercury and earth, which it has maintained ever since. It became the Morning and Evening Star. Seen from the earth, it is never removed more than 48 degrees (when at its eastern and western elongation) or three hours and a few minutes east or west of the sun. The dreaded comet became a tame planet. It has the most nearly circular orbit among the planets.
The end of the terror which Venus kept alive for eight centuries after the days of the Exodus was the inspiration for Isaiah when he said: 1
"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God."