Chapter IV: Act IV: , 4, 121-122) (3)

The thesis that the fabulous figures of Greek mythology were suggested by malformations was set forth some twelve years ago by Prof. Friedrich Schatz in a monograph on '_Die griechischen Götter und die menschlichen Mißgeburten_' (Wiesbaden 1901), in which he endeavored to show that the conceptions of such beings as the Cyclops, Harpies, Centaurs and Sirens were merely the fanciful elaborations of the impression made by actually occurring abnormal phenomena in the case of infants. The cyclops (9 seq. with illustrations) was suggested by the child born with one eye[219], the siren (11 seq. with illustration) by the abnormal but actually occurring phenomenon of a child born with the feet united[220]. A double headed god like Janus (12 seq.) was suggested by the monstrosity of a child with two heads and even such a tale as that of the head of the Gorgon, Schaatz believes is based (24 seq. with illustrations) or, at all events, suggested by the fact that a woman gave birth to an undeveloped embryo which suggests a human head[221]. The three heads of Cerberus, Diana of the many breasts and even harpies are similarly explained as suggested by malformations or by excess parts or organs. Having reached my conclusions long before I learned of Dr. Schaatz's monograph, I was naturally glad to find that the idea had occurred to some one who had approached the subject from an entirely different point of view and without reference to birth-omens. I would not go so far as Dr. Schaatz in the attempt to trace back =all= the fabulous creatures of mythology, to certain specific malformations. Indeed some of his combinations are almost as fanciful as the creatures themselves, e. g., his endeavor to explain the Prometheus myth as suggested by 'extopy of the liver' (36), whereas the tale clearly rests upon the old theory of the liver as the seat of the life[222], but the main thought that the idea of monstrous beings was suggested by actual malformations =plus= the factor of unbridled fancy is, I venture to think, correct. We must, of course, add to human malformations the many abnormal phenomena occurring in the young of animals in which the determining factor is again the =significance= attached to all kinds of malformation among human beings and animals as birth-omens. This factor must be taken as our point of departure; it furnishes a reason not merely for the rise of the belief in all kinds of fabulous creatures but also for the elaboration and the persistency of the belief and for its embodiment in the religious thought of peoples. It is because the malformation is an omen that it leads to further beliefs and fancies. The direct association of the belief in fabulous creatures with birth-omens in Babylonia and Assyria lends a presumption in favor of the same association among the Greeks. If, therefore, we can trace the attachment to birth-omens among Greeks and Romans to the Euphrates Valley, we will have found a reasonable explanation for the part played by monsters and fabulous beings in the mythology and the religion of the Greeks and Romans. Further than this, it is not necessary to go. It is not essential to the establishment of the thesis to trace =all= the fabulous beings of classical mythology to actual malformations. The factor of fancy would lead to the extension of the sphere far beyond the original boundaries; nor is it necessary to find parallels to all the creatures of Greek and Roman mythology in Babylonian and Assyrian literature or art in order to justify the dependence of the former upon Babylonian-Assyrian birth-omens. No doubt the Greeks, more particularly, developed the conception in their own way, adding other features to it, just as they modified Babylonian-Assyrian astrology in adapting it to their environment and their way of thinking, and just as the Etruscans and Romans modified the Babylonian-Assyrian hepatoscopy[223]. All that is claimed here is that the =conception= of monstrous and fabulous beings is a direct outcome of the importance attached to Birth-omens; and since the Babylonians and Assyrians are the only people who developed an elaborate system of divination in which the interpretation of birth-omens constituted an important division, and which spread with the extension of Euphratean culture to Asia Minor and thence to Greece and Rome, I claim that the ultimate source of the belief itself is to be sought in the Euphrates Valley.

Can we trace the conception likewise to the distant East? Dr. Bab in an interesting essay on '_Geschlechtsleben, Geburt und Mißgeburten_' in the _Zeitschr. für Ethnologie_[224] adopts the thesis of Dr. Schaatz and applies it to account for the frequent representation of gods in India with excess organs or an excess number of parts of the body--gods and goddesses with many heads, with three or four eyes, various breasts and more the like. The same would of course apply to representations of Chinese gods and demons. Bab's paper is elaborately illustrated and the juxtaposition of actual malformations with the representation of gods and demons in India and China leaves no doubt of at least a partial dependence of these artistic fancies upon actual occurrences in nature[225]. Again, however, a warning is in order not to carry the thesis too far; nor is it possible to furnish definite proofs for the spread of Babylonian-Assyrian systems of divination to the distant East, though we now have some evidence pointing to a spread in this direction of Babylonian-Assyrian astrology[226] and perhaps also of Babylonian-Assyrian hepatoscopy[227]. In a general way, we are also justified in seeking for an early connection--commercial, artistic and social--between the Euphrates Valley and distant India and China, but for the present we must rest content with the assertion of the possibility that Babylonian-Assyrian birth-omens, and with this system of divination also the conception of and belief in hybrid monsters and fabulous creatures spread eastwards as well as westwards.

How stands the case with Egypt, where we find sphinxes that represent a combination of man and animal and where we encounter numerous gods composed of human bodies with the heads of animals? The question of foreign influences in the earlier art of Egypt is one that has as yet scarcely been touched, and we are equally at sea as to the possibility of very early connections between the Euphratean culture and that which arose in the valley of the Nile. The fact that the oldest pyramid--that of King Zoser at Sakkarah--is formed of a succession of terraces[228] like the =zikkurats= or stage-towers of Babylonia and moreover is of brick was regarded by Ihering[229] as an evidence of an influence exerted by Babylonia upon Egypt. An isolated phenomenon is too slender a thread on which to hang a weighty theory, and the step pyramid of Zoser can be explained as a transition from a form of the =mastaba= to the genuine pyramid, without recourse to foreign models. All attempts to find a connection between the Egyptian hieroglyphics and the oldest hieroglyphics forms from which the Babylonian cuneiform script developed have likewise ended in negative results and the same is to be said of endeavors to find any direct connection between Babylonian and Egyptian beliefs and rites and myths and despite certain rather striking points of resemblance[230]. And yet it is difficult to suppress the impression one receives that much in Egyptian art and in the Egyptian religion suggests early outside influences. With Babylonia and Egypt in more or less close touch as far back at least as 1700 B. C., and with Asiatic entanglements reverting to a still earlier period, the possibility of some connection between the Egyptian forms of the sphinx--the crouching lion with the human head, the falcon-headed and ram-headed sphinxes--and the combinations of the human face with bulls and lions in Babylonian art to which the Assyrians added the wings, cannot be summarily set aside. The question as to the age of the sphinx at Gizeh--the oldest of all--is still in abeyance. Maspero ascribes it to the early Memphite art[231], Spiegelberg to the middle kingdom[232], while others bring it down to the 18th dynasty. If we accept Spiegelberg's date we will be close to the period when by general consent the Mediterranean culture--including therefore Syria, Palestine and Western Asia in general--exercised a decided influence on Egypt. It is during the time of the new kingdom that the sphinxes become frequent, as it is at this period that the tendency to represent the gods as a combination of the human and animal form becomes prominent and reaches its highest form of expression.

Now, to be sure, we have not as yet come across any traces of Babylonian-Assyrian divination in any of its forms in Egypt, but that may be due to the rationalistic character of the Egyptian religion in the 'official' form revealed by the monuments and the literature which, while full of rites and ceremonials connected so largely with the cult of the dead, is yet relatively free of magic or divination. It is possible, however, that in the unofficial popular customs divination may have played a greater part than we suspect. Be this as it may, the conception of monstrous beings may have found its way into Egypt even without the transfer of the practice of interpreting birth-omens. The thesis of outside influences to account for the Egyptian sphinxes and for the combination of the human and animal form as a means of representing gods and goddesses, is on the whole more plausible than to assume that Babylonians and Egyptians should have independently hit upon the idea of carving sphinxes to protect the entrances to temples and palaces. Naturally, we must again be on our guard not to carry the theory too far. The form given to the images of the gods by the Egyptians suggests the almost perfect blending of the human and animal, and as such is a distinct expression of the genius of Egyptian art. All that is claimed here is that the =thought= of reproducing hybrid and fabulous beings in art did not arise in Egypt without some outside influences. Resemblances between the human form and the features of animals may have suggested themselves to all peoples without any influence exerted by one on the other, but in order to take the further step, leading to the belief in the =actual= existence of beings in which the human and the animal are combined, the resemblances must have been fraught with some practical significance. This condition, I hold, is fulfilled if the resemblances--as well as all kinds of other abnormalities--are looked upon as =signs= sent for a specific purpose i. e. to point to some unusual happening that may be confidently expected. The monster in short presupposes what the word implies, that it is a 'sign'--an omen of some kind.

A warning may also not be out of place against connecting the belief in monsters and fabulous creatures with the mental processes that give rise to totemistic beliefs. In so far as totemism implies the descent of a clan or group from some animal, it rests in part upon the supposed resemblance between man and animals. Without this feature the thought of a descent of human beings from some animal would hardly have occurred to people, but this is only one factor involved. Ignorance as to processes of nature in bringing about a new life is an equally important factor; and there are others. But totemism does not involve the combination of the human and the animal form in one being. That combination belongs to an entirely different process of thought, though it also has as its starting-point the recognition of a resemblance between man and animals. The conception of hybrid beings is allied to that of human creatures or of animals who through defects or through an excess number of organs or of parts of the body represent striking deviations from the normal. Both classes fall within the category of monsters, i. e., they are signs sent for a specific purpose. Descent from an animal totem, however, where the belief exists, is not looked upon as abnormal, but on the contrary as the rule.

Still a third direction taken by the impression made upon man through the recognition of a resemblance between him and certain species of the animal world is represented by the belief--so widespread--of the possibility of the change of the human form into the animal. References to such phenomena are not infrequent in Latin Literatures. Pliny[233] refers to several instances of women being transformed into men. Livy[234] also speaks of this phenomenon as a matter of common belief; and it is merely another phase of this same belief that we encounter in the famous Metamorphoses of Ovid where the gods take on the form of animals, Io being changed to a cow and back again to human form, Jupiter to a bull, Cadmus to a dragon, Medea to a fish, and so on through quite a long list. Circe by virtue of her powers can change men to swine, just as she transforms her rivals into trees. Apuleius' famous tale of the Golden Ass where the hero is changed into a talking ass rests upon the same deep-rooted belief, which appears again in a modified form in the Jatakas or Birth-stories of India where Buddha takes on the form of all kinds of animals and which lead to the beast fables of Bidpai where animals are introduced at every turn who talk and act as men[235]. Even such a tale as that of Balaam's talking ass would not have arisen without the antecedent belief in the possibility of a transformation of man to animals and the reverse. In fact the talking animal in all fairy tales rests in the last instance on a metamorphosis. But this metamorphosis has nothing to do with hybrid creatures or monsters. The universal spread of totemistic beliefs preclude =a priori= a single centre as a starting-point for such beliefs; and the same in all probabilities holds good for the belief that men may be changed into animals and the reverse. In both, however, the factor of the resemblance between man and animals is undoubtedly involved. All that is claimed by my thesis is that the development of this recognition of a resemblance between man and animal in the direction which led to the belief in fabulous creatures and monsters, that is to say combinations of man and animal in one being, side by side with abnormalities through defective organs or parts of the body, or through an excess in the number of the organs or parts of the body is associated, wherever it is found, with birth-omens; that is, with the observation of striking or peculiar phenomena observed at the time of birth in the case of infants or the young of animals and regarded as omens. =Monstra=, =prodigia=, =ostenta= and =portenta= to use the terms employed by Latin writers. All these terms convey the idea that such phenomena are signs sent by the gods as a means of indicating what the gods have in mind, or, to put it more generally, what the future has in store. This chain of ideas and conceptions and beliefs is restricted to culture circles which have been subject to common influences.

X

The history of monsters forms an interesting division in the annals of mankind, and I should like in conclusion to call attention to the persistency of this belief down to the threshhold almost of our own days. Among the Romans up to the latest period the old law of either burning the monsters or of throwing them into the sea was generally carried out[236]. This was done on the supposition that the monster was an ill omen foreboding evil and which was sent as a punishment. Plutarch tells a story[237] which despite the skeptical attitude assumed by the narrator, shows that the same point of view prevailed among the Greeks. From the Greeks and Romans the belief in all kinds of monsters and the view that they were signs of divine anger was handed down to Christian Europe. Precisely as among the Babylonians and Assyrians, no distinction was drawn between monstrosities that actually occurred--such as infants, or the young of animals with two heads, or with only one eye, or with no nose, or an otherwise defective face, or with an excess number of hands or feet in the case of children, or an excess number of feet in the case of animals and the like[238]--and such as are purely imaginary, or in which the imagination plays at least a leading factor.

A learned Jesuit, Conrad Lycosthenes, published an elaborate work in 1557 under the title =Prodigiorum ac Ostentorum Chronicon= (Basel) in which he put together all miracles, miraculous happenings and strange phenomena from the creation of the world down to his days. This is only one of a number of compilations of this character, the significant feature of which is the jumbling together into one class, of miracles, of unusual phenomena in the heavens and on earth, of the birth of malformations--human or animal--including monstrosities and fanciful hybrid creatures,--all being viewed as signs sent by a divine power. Lycosthenes includes in his compilation the accounts of ancient writers and later travellers of peoples of remarkable formation such as the Scipodes and Monomeri (10) of whom Pliny[239] reports that they have only one foot, of people who have the heads of dogs (11), of others living in Western Ethiopia (8) who have four eyes, of the Ipopodes in Asia (8) who have the feet of horses, and of the Scythians (ib.) who have only one eye, or of people have no heads, of others with eyes, nose and mouth on the breast (9), or who have six arms, (14) or who are provided with hoofs and horns, or of women (13) who lay their young in the form of eggs.

Lycosthenes' work is elaborately illustrated and so he portrays for us these strange beings, as well as men with the heads of dogs (11), hippocentaurs (12), men with six arms (14), baldheaded women with beards, and people in the region of the North Sea who have ears that cover the whole body (13), mermaids, tritons, satyrs, fauns (10, 28, 218, 311, 317) and harpies (31). The whole army of fabulous beings of mythology and folk-lore is brought before us[240], including the remarkable creature whom Gessner in his great work on Animals[241] describes as 'a virgin with human face, arms and hands, body of a dog, wings of a bird, claws of a lion and the tail of a dragon'. Naive credulity =alone= would be insufficient to account for such fancies, but if we start from the deep impression made by malformations of all kinds from the point of view of birth-omen divination, the exaggeration of such malformations through the play of the imagination would follow from the inherent fondness of human nature for the marvellous. A large part of Lycosthenes' work is taken up with the malformations and monstrosities mentioned in classical writers--Pliny, Livy, Cicero, Valerius Maximus, Julius Obsequens, Aelian, etc. which he has collected with great patience. Passing beyond classical days, he is at equal pains to put together all records of unusual phenomena, adding generally the attendant circumstances or the events that followed, which the sign was regarded as portending. All kinds of monstrosities are described, together with the date and the place of their appearance. A lamb with a swine's head (136), born in Macedonia presaged the war with Phillip which soon thereafter broke out. A double-headed ox born in the year 573 B. C. (309) presaged the defeat of the Persians. A child without arms (316) and the tail of a fish instead of legs, born in Thrace in 601 A. D., was ordered to be killed. In 854 A. D. a boy attached to a dog was born (352, see the illustration). This happened in the days of Lotharius Caesar, duke of Saxony, who soon thereafter died. In 858 A. D. (353) a monstrosity of mixed shape was born and all kinds of misfortunes followed. Twins united at the loins born in England in 1112 are brought into connection with a victory of King Boleslaus of Poland and the death of Waldrich, duke of Saxony. He carries his chronicle beyond 1543[242] in which year a human monstrosity was born at Cracow, with flames starting out of the eyes, mouth and nose, with horns on its head, with the tail of a dog, with faces of apes on its breast and legs, with the eyes of a cat and with claws. It lived for four hours, cried 'Vigilate, Dominus Deus vester adventat' and expired. The point of view throughout is the time-honored one that the monstrosity is a =monstrum=--a sign sent by an angered deity, just as on the other hand as a trace of the pristine ignorance of the processes of nature, the belief continued to prevail that such monstrosities were due to the intercourse of women with demons--either wilfully accomplished by the woman, or without her knowledge. Martin in his _Histoire des Monstres_ devotes an entire chapter[243] to illustrations of this belief, which is advocated as late as the year 1836 by Goerres[244], the Professor of Philosophy at the Munich University, and even as late as the year 1864 by Delaporte in a book on the devil[245]. Such a belief which involves the possibility of pregnancy without the ordinary sexual intercourse and which has left its traces far and wide[246] in the religious history of mankind must have acted as a powerful agent in maintaining also the belief in all kinds of monstrosities that could never have occurred. The demons naturally could do anything, and thus a very simple theory was evolved to account for such monstrosities and which supplemented the older one[247] that accounted for the simpler hybrid beings as due to the intercourse of a human being with an animal. The cooperation of the demons, moreover, was a natural correlative to the belief that deviations from the normal course of things were omens. Even Christian theology found no difficulty in assuming that God permitted a demon to exercise his power over those who had through sin forfeited the Divine protection, with the result that in many cases the unfortunate mother was brought before a tribunal and not infrequently suffered death for the sin of intercourse with some demon. Martin's work, above referred to, also furnishes abundant evidence of the persistency both of the belief in monsters and of their being regarded as omens even in the scientific world down to a very late date. He tells the story[248] of the birth of twins, united at the breast, in the year 1569. The royal physician Jacques Roy was commissioned to make an autopsy and to report on the result. He closes his report with a poem, glorifying the Catholic Church and vigorously denouncing the Protestant movement. More than this, he concludes from the fact that one of the twins received the baptismal rite before dying, while the other died without baptism that the Catholic church would survive the Hugenot heresy. In 1605 twins united at the umbilicum were born in Paris, and despite the fact that the Faculty of Medicine of Paris presented a scientific report, accounting for the monstrosity through the fact that 'the semen was too plentiful for one body and two small for two', a chronicler in embodying the report of the physicians in his account presents his view that the monstrosity was a symbol of the wickedness of Papism and of Mohammedanism. Between 1539 and 1605 we have the Edict of Nantes which in rendering civil liberty to the Hugenots brought about a reversion of feeling in their favor. The tables are therefore turned, and the monstrosity is now a sign sent against the Catholic Church. The chronicler breaks out in rhyme as follows[249]:

"Je tiens que ces deux fronts, cette face jumelle,
Sont deux religions, dont l'une est qui s'appelle
Papisme, et son autheur est l'antechrist romain,
De l'autre est Mahumet avec son Alcorain".

The persistency of the belief in monsters even in scientific or quasi-scientific circles and of regarding monsters as omens no doubt had much to do with the fact that a really scientific theory to account for such malformations as actually do occur was not put forth until the year 1826 when Etienne Geoffroy St. Hilaire in reporting to the French Academy of Medicine on a mummy found at Hermopolis[250] and which appeared to have been that of a human monstrosity, enunciated the view which led to the science of Teratology, as a branch of modern medicine[251].

But despite the results of scientific investigation which so strikingly justify Aristotle's protest against regarding abnormal phenomena in the young of animals and of infants as =contra naturam=, the strong desire for the marvellous still helps to maintain at least the belief in monsters, even if the corollary that the monster is a birth-omen has disappeared.

The believers of the Middle Ages have been succeeded by the deceivers of the 19th and 20th centuries--the naive Lycosthenes by the shrewder Barnums[252] who in order to supply the demand created by the love of the marvellous have manufactured their monsters. To be sure even this is not quite new under the sun, for Pliny[253] tells us that he saw a hippocentaur which was brought to Rome from Thessalonica at the order of the Emperor Claudius and which, as it subsequently turned out, was the embalmed body of a horse to which a human foetus had been skillfully attached. The latest companion piece to this neat bit of trickery is to be found in a description of a fish with the head of a man that was exhibited in the Crimea in 1911--fished up in the Pacific Ocean[254]!

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.

Index

(Assyrian words italicized)

Acephaly 25

Actiolinus, likened to a hunting dog 47

Adamantius 44

Aelian 57. 75

Agnathy 34

Alexander the Great, likened to a lion 47

Algemundus, King of Lombards 8. 74

=alluttu= (dolphin) 40

Androgynous formations 11. 51. 56

Animals 8. 12. 26. 40 seq. 51 seq.
-- with two to seven heads 62

Anus, closed 35. 51 seq.

Ape, human nose compared with ape's 46

Aprosopy 38

Apuleius 71

Aristotle 44. 56. 59. 77

Arms, one arm short 34

Arnobius 53

Ashurbanapal (Assyrian ruler) 6. 23

Ashurbanapal's Library 6

Ass, born by woman 40
-- Golden Ass 71
-- human face compared with 46 seq.
-- talking 71

Astrology 1
-- underlying theory 3
-- among Greeks and Romans 3. 50. 53. 79
-- among Etruscans 3
-- among Hittites 3
-- in Europe 4

Astrology in China 4
-- official reports 9
-- leads to astronomy 43
-- horoscope 79

Azag-Bau (female ruler) 11 seq.

Bab, E. 66

Babylonia and Egypt 68

Balaam's ass 71

Baldness, a sign of lasciviousness 47

Baptism 5

Barnum, P. T. 78

=bârû= (diviner) 3. 7. 9 seq. 12. 18 seq. 37. 54. 59 seq. 64. 79

Baur, Paul V. 64

Beard, child born with 39

Belly, open 52

Berosus 57. 62

Bezold, Carl 4

Bird, sending out birds 2
-- born by woman 41
-- child with mouth of 61

Birnbaum, R. 34. 37

Birth customs 5

Birth-omens 2
-- basis of 4
-- mystery of birth 4
-- texts 6 seq.
-- official reports 9
-- basis of interpretation 11 seq. 14 seq. 16 seq. 19. 20. 22 seq.
-- combination of texts 19
-- animal 9-28
-- human 28-41
-- lead to study of human physiognomy 43 seq.
-- as warnings 44
-- among Romans 52 seq.
-- give rise to belief in hybrid and fabulous beings 62
-- in India 67
-- in China 67
-- in Egypt 67
-- in Europe 72

Blood, in rivers 51 seq.
-- , rain of blood 51

Boghaz-Keui 58

Boissier, Alfred 11

Boleslaus, King of Poland 75

Boll, Franz 4

Bouché-Leclercq, A. 41

Boy see Child

Brachyprosopy 25

Buddha 71

Bull, with human head 61
-- Jupiter changed to bull 71

Cadmus, changed into a dragon 71

Caesar, Julius, his horse had human feet 52

Calf, two-headed 74

Cat, human face compared with cat's 46

Cerberus 61. 65

Chavannes, Eduard 67

Chicken, as offspring of mule 56

Child, with mouth of bird 33
-- without mouth 33
-- androgynous 51. 62. 74
-- with one hand 51
-- with three feet 51
-- with three feet and one hand 51
-- with closed anus 51 seq.
-- with open belly 52
-- with four feet, four eyes, four ears, and double genital members 51
-- with two faces, four hands and four feet 62
-- with face of an ass 62
-- with caudal appendix 73
-- with club-foot 73
-- with six toes 73
-- with elephant's head 74
-- with three legs 74
-- with three legs and three hands 71
-- with four legs 74
-- with four hands and four legs 74
-- with beard and four eyes 74
-- two-headed 74
-- without eyes or nose 74
-- without arms or feet 74
-- without eyes, no arms, and fish's tail instead of feet 74
-- speaking 52. 74
-- speaking in womb 74

China 67
-- astrology in China 4

Cicero 53 seq. 57. 74

Claudius (Roman Emperor) 71

Clay, A. T. 64

Club-foot 73

Cos 57

Cow 12. 71

Cracow, monster of 75

Cripple 38

Croesus (King of Lydia) 57 seq.

Cross-breeding 44. 59

Cumont, Franz 4

Cyclops 64

Dante, dog forehead 46

Deaf-mute 38

Death (see also Funeral rites) 5

Delaporte, Albert 76

Demon 20. 42. 75

Diana of many breasts 65

Divination, methods 1 seq.
-- basis of interpretation 11

Diviner see =bârû=

Döderlein, Albert 8

Dog 12. 40. 59. 61
-- Plato compared to a 44. 47
-- born by a woman 40. 59
-- with four bodies and fish tails 61
-- with six divisions of foot 73

Dragon 63

Dwarf 39

Eagle 61
-- human nose compared with beak of 46 seq.

Ear, deformities and omens 19 seq. 32 seq.

Egypt 67 seq. 77

Elephant, born by woman 74
-- child with head of 52

Ellenberger-Scheunert 26

Engidu 63

Enlil (deity) 27

Esarhaddon (Assyrian ruler) 10

Ethiopia 73

Etruscans 3. 52 seq. 54 seq. 58

Eusebius 61

Ewe see Sheep

Excess number of limbs and organs 8. 10. 20 seq. 36 seq. 51

Fabulous beings 61 seq. 66 seq.

Fauns 61

Features see Physiognomy.

Feet, six toes on each foot 35
-- six toes on right foot 35
-- like those of a turtle 36
-- attached to belly 36
-- only one foot, which is attached to belly 36
-- child with three feet 36
-- child with four feet 36
-- horse with human feet 52

Festivals at transition periods 5 seq.

Fingers, one missing 34
-- six on right hand 34

Fish, born by woman 40
-- dogs with fish tails 61
-- men and other creatures with fish tails 61
-- Medea changed to a fish 71

Foetus, double 9. 13 seq. 15 seq.

Fox, born by woman 59

Foerster, Richard 44

Frazer, J. G. 5

Funeral rites 5

=ganni= 28

Genital members, intact 36. 52
-- missing 35

Gessner, Conrad 74

Gilgamesh 63

Gizeh 68

Goat 12
-- men with legs and horns of 61
-- goat-fish 61

Goerres, Johann Joseph von 75

Gorgon 65

Greek and Roman mythology 64 seq. 66

Greeks and Romans 58

Guinard, L. 37. 40. 73. 77

Hand, child with one hand 51

Hare, born by mare 56

Hartland, S. G. 5

Haruspices see Etruscans

Hepatoscopy (see also Liver) 1. 50. 66. 78

Herbig, G. 58

Hermopolis, mummy 77

Herodotus 56

Hippocentaurs 61. 63 seq.

Hirst and Piersol 64. 75

Hittites 3. 58
-- omens 10

Horse, in birth-omens 12
-- with human feet 52
-- mare giving birth to a hare 56
-- hippocentaurs 61
-- men with horses' feet 61
-- three-footed 74
-- five footed 74
-- with two tails and mane of lion 62
-- with human head 62
-- with dog's head 62

Hybrid formations 60 seq. 67 seq.

Ihering, Rudolph von 68

India 67

Infant see Child

Io, changed into a cow 71

Ipopodes, have horses' feet 73

=isbu= (foetus) 13. 19. 60. 62

Ishbi-urra (Babylonian ruler), omen 28

Jacobs, Joseph 71

Janus 65

Jastrow, Morris, jr. 1. 2. 3. 4. 7. 10. 13. 23. 26. 28. 29. 36. 39. 43.
49. 57. 58. 60. 63. 65. 66. 67

Jatakas 71

Jaw, missing 34

Julius Obsequens 35. 50 seq. 57. 74

=khupipi= 24

Kitt, Theodor 25. 75

=lamassu= (winged lion or bull) 62

Lamb see Sheep

Lavater, J. C. 47. 48. 50

Leg, missing 36

Lion, lamb like unto 23 seq. 53. 57. 59
-- born by woman 40. 53 seq. 57. 59
-- Alexander's head compared to lion's 47
-- =sedu, lamassu= with head of 61

Lips, missing 34
-- upper lip projecting 34

Liver 1
-- as seat of soul 2
-- signs on 2
-- parts of 2
-- divination texts 6
-- official reports 9
-- divination 1. 44
-- clay models 58

Livy 39. 71. 74. 75

Lotharius Caesar, Duke of Saxony 75

Lu-Bat (planet) 13

Luschan, Felix von 63

Lycosthenes, Conrad 8. 39. 57. 75 seq. 78.

Macedonia, monster of 75

Macrobius 55

Malformations 8. 19. 29 seq. 32 seq. 36 seq. 56

Marduk Epic 61

=marratum= (rainbow) 23

Marriage customs 5

Martin, Ernest 72. 75 seq. 77

Maspero, Gaston 68

Medea, changed into a fish 71

Medicine, early 42

Meles (King of Sardis) 57

Mermaids 61

Metamorphosis, of men into animals, of women into men 71

Milk, in lakes 51

Monomeri, have only one foot 73

Monstrosities 8. 10. 20. 29 seq. 33 seq. 44. 51 seq. 54 seq. 60 seq.
72 seq.

Monstrum 55. 60. 79

Mouth, child with mouth of bird 33
-- child without mouth 33
-- malformation of mouth 56

Mule, giving birth to chicken 56
-- three-footed, five-footed 74

Multiple births 8. 17 seq. 51 seq. 59

Naram-Sin (Babylonian ruler), omens 10

Nergal (god of pestilence) 39 seq.

Nergal-etir (diviner) 10

Neubert, Fritz 49

Nikippos 57

Nostrils, missing 34

Official and unofficial interpretations 16 seq. 19. 34 seq. 54

Owl, Vitellius likened to 47

Ox, born by woman 40
-- human face compared with 46 seq.
-- talking 52. 74

Palestine 69

Pathology, human and animal 7 seq.

Periander 72

Perokomy 25

Phillip of Macedonia 75

Phlegon 71

Physiognomy, study of 8. 23 seq. 43 seq. 70
-- among Greeks 43 seq. 49
-- Porta's work 45 seq.
-- Lavater's work 45. 47 seq.
-- decline of study 48 seq.
-- as indication of character 45 seq.
-- in Europe 45 seq. 49

Pied d'equin (club-foot) 73

Piersol see Hirst

Pig, in birth-omens 12
-- with five divisions of hoof 73

Plato, views on resemblances between men and animals 43 seq. 80
-- compared with dog 46 seq.

Pliny 8. 39. 52. 71. 74. 75. 78

Ploss-Bartels 5

Plutarch 72

Polemon 44

Porta, G. B. 45 seq. 80

Portents 51

Prodigium 55 seq.

Prometheus myth 65

Pseudo-Aristotle 44

Pyramids 68

Puberty 5

Rain of stones, oil, blood 51

Raven, noses compared with beak of 46

Resemblances, between animals 23 seq. 44 seq. 62
-- between infants and animals 40. 44 seq. 62. 78
-- protest against 47 seq. 77 seq.

Richard III, born with teeth 39

Roscius 55

Rossbach, Otto 35. 51

Roy, Jacques 76

=sâ= (animal) 40

St. Hilaire Etienne Geoffrey 77

Sakkarah 68

Sargon (Babylonian ruler), omens 10

Satyrs 61

Schaatz, Friedrich 64 seq.

Scheil, Vincent 12

Schwalbe, Ernst 67

Scipodes, have only one foot 73

Scythians, have only one eye 73

=sedu= (winged lion or bull) 62

Se-ma Tsien 67

Sergius Galba (Roman Emperor), likened to an eagle 47

Serpent, born by woman 40. 52

Shakespeare's Henry V 39

Sheep, animal of sacrifice 2
-- prominence in hepatoscopy 12
-- omens 13 seq. 19 seq. 23 seq.
-- resemblance to lion 23 seq.
-- resemblance to infant 40
-- color of 55
-- with feet of a lion 62
-- with feet of lion, head of dog in front, six feet long and bristles
of a swine 62
-- with feet of lion, head of dog, tail of swine 62
-- with two heads, two tails and dog's feet 62
-- with two heads, two feet, dog's hair 62
-- with four division of hoof 73
-- without ears 73
-- two-headed 74
-- with swine's head 74

Siren 64

Siren formation 40

Socrates, compared with stag 47

Sow 10

Sphinxes 60. 68

Spiegelberg, Wilhelm 68 seq.

Stag, human nose compared with stag's 46 seq.

Still-birth 38

Subartu (older name of Assyria) 27

Suetonius 52

Sun at night 51

Swine, born by woman 40
-- human nose compared with swine's 46
-- men changed to 71
-- two-headed 74
-- with human head 74
-- with human hands and feet 74

Syria 69

Tacitus 55

Talking infant 39. 52. 57 seq.

Teeth, child born with 39

Teratology 77

=tertu= (omen) 13

Testicles, missing 35

Thales 72

Thigh, missing 35

Thompson, R. C. 11

Thrace, monster of 75

Thulin, Carl 54 seq.

=tigri ili= (dwarf) 39

Toes, six on foot 35

Torches in heaven 51

Totemism 70. 79

Transition periods 5

Tritons 61

Turtle, child with turtle's hands and feet 35 seq.

Twins 28 seq.
-- united at the back 74
-- " " " breast 76
-- " " " umbilicum 76

Ungnad, Arthur 61

Urumus (Babylonian ruler), omen 10

Valerius Maximus 52. 56. 75

Van Gennep, Arnold 5

Virolleaud, Charles 37

Vitellius (Roman Emperor), likened to owl 47

Walde, Alois 55

Waldrich, Duke of Saxony 75

Ward, W. H. 64

Winged human figures 61. 63

Woman, giving birth to elephant, to serpent, to seven children 74

Wuelker, Richard 57

Xerxes 56

Zimmern, Heinrich 61. 63

Zoser (Egyptian ruler) 68

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),