Abstract
A SHORT while ago we gave an account of the origin of the zodiacal signs so far as recent Assyrian researches enable us to determine it. Mr. Robert Brown has now publibhed a little book on almost the same subject, the object of which is to trace the mythological concep ions to which the names given to the signs by the Accadians were due. He comes to the conclusion that the year was regarded by them as an extended nycthemeron, half the signs being diurnal or relating to the deities of day, and the other half being nocturnal, concerned with myths of the night. Early man thus recognised that there was one and the same law of “Kosmic Order” pervading all conceptions of time. In the course of his investigation Mr. Brown draws upon Egyptian and Iranian sources, but his chief materials are necessarily derived from the monuments of ancient Babylonia. Unfortunately the progressive nature of Assyrian study often renders what was written on the subject a few years ago more or less obsolete, and hence it happens that some of the statements on which he relies have been corrected or modified by subsequent research. Thus the name of the second zodiacal sign, as has already been mentioned in NATURE, meant “the directing Bull” in Accadian rather than “the propitious Bull,” as Mr. Brown gives it. It is true that the word had both significations, but the signification of “propitious” was a later and derivative one. The name of the seventh sign again was “illustrious mound,” not “illustrious altar,” and seems to have referred to the story of the Tower of Babel, whose building was placed at the autumnal equinox, while the builder himself was called “the king of the illustrious mound.” Such corrections, however, seldom, if ever, touch Mr. Brown's arguments or diminish the value of his interesting book. We can thoroughly recommend it to those who care to study a curious chapter in primitive astronomy.
The Law of Kosmic Order: An Investigation of the Physical Aspect of Time.
By Robt. Brown jun. (London: Longmans, Green, and Co.).
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[Book Reviews]. Nature 26, 79 (1882). https://doi.org/10.1038/026079a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/026079a0