her personal history one might almost say that it is a blank.

Numerous representations of Hygeia were to be found in Greece, and later in Rome. One was usually placed by the side of each of Æsculapius.

The worship of Hygeia began soon after that of Esculapius and became wide-spread and popular. The Romans were quite as devoted in their attentions to her as the Greeks.

In

I have said sufficient already to indicate that there was no divinity precisely similar to Hygeia in Egypt, or any eastern country. Some of the great goddesses were believed to exercise functions akin to hers.1 deed, many of the prominent divinities, from the spouse of Hea down, had accorded to them more or less control over affairs of health and life. Dr. Meigs conveys a wrong impression when he says:

"Hygeia, daughter of Asclepios,

Descended from Apollo Delios,

Adored as Maut2 beside the mystic Nile,

With Amen-Ra in Theban peristyle." 3

There is about as much reason to say that Athene was Hygeia, as that Maut was, or Isis, although, as Ebers says, she was the divinity "to be called on to destroy the germs of disease."4 Arguments could be advanced in favor of the idea that Hygeia sprang into existence as a personification of the great serpentaccompanied virgin, river-mist, or cloud-goddess, Pallas Athene, in her capacity of health-preserver. The claim in regard to Isis is little or no better; and, in fact, one

1 For Cooper's view of her origin, see quotation, p. 93.

2 Maut, Mat, or Mut, is to Amen-Ra what Artemis was to Zeus, and Juno to Jupiter. She might be viewed as a form of the more familiar Isis, and from close relationship is often confounded with Neith.

From address referred to on page 125. 4 Princess, vol. ii, p. 296.

form of Isis, called Neith, or Neit, the great mother of the sun-god, Ra, and the titular goddess of Sais, has always been believed to correspond closely with Athene. The former was not only usually accompanied by a serpent, like the latter, but was often represented by one; still, the same might be said of, perhaps, all the Egyptian goddesses.

1 See Plato's Timæus.

CHAPTER XV.

MEDICAL TALISMANS.

It is well at the start to form a definite conception of what a talisman means. It is a species of charm; it differs from an amulet. Both are of the character of

fetiches; that is, objects in nature, or of art, believed to possess magical power. If the object be ascribed consciousness and other mental attributes, it is, properly speaking, an idol. Unlike the amulet, the talisman, to be effective, need not be kept about the person. But the main characteristic feature of the talisman is astronomical, or, rather, astrological; it is accorded virtue principally because made when two planets are in conjunction, or when a star has reached its culminating point. As one would expect, it has been customary to have something about the talisman to indicate that it is such; but many engravings found on them have no astronomical import at all.

The talisman1 has a long history. To know when it came into use one must go back to the time when the study of the stars and their influence, real or supposed, on mundane affairs began. Although it has been asserted that Adam acquired a knowledge of astrology through inspiration, it is safe to hold that the Accadian3 star-gazers, inhabitants of the hills of Elam, first gave shape to this, in great part, pseudo-philosophy of nature,

The famous one brought from the East to Scotland and called the "Lee-Penny "has an interesting history. Sir Walter Scott speaks at length of it in his work, "The Talisman." Says the great novelist: "Its virtues are still applied to for stopping blood and in cases of canine mad(p. 287). 2 By Josephus.

ness

3 The name signifies highland.

6*

(129)

which was widely believed in by many peoples, and still has numerous sincere adherents everywhere. Mr. Proctor ventures to declare that "the idea that the stars in their course rule the fate of men and nations " is a predominant one of the race.2 In Babylonia, Assyria, Phoenicia, Egypt, and elsewhere, it received much attention; indeed, it was part and parcel of the prevailing religions, most of the Oriental systems being largely astronomical in origin. And the Chaldean or, rather, Accadian astrologer's work is obvious enough to this day;3 it is seen in the division of time into the week of seven days, with the seventh one of rest, the Sabbath,* and the mode of regulation of religious times and seasons, to say nothing of the signs of the zodiac, and

so on.

It is stated by Vitruvius that astrology

The Great Pyramid, p. 159.

7 was

2 It stands out prominent in the first chapter of Genesis. The whole host of heaven was created for earthly purposes.

The reader of the Book of Daniel learns much of the repute of the Chaldeans as astrologers. The Romans were in the habit of calling all astrologers Chaldeans. That people, I may say, never gave the class legal countenance.

4 In an old Accadian tablet bearing on the observance of the Sabbath by the king, it is said, among other things: "Medicine for his sickness of body he may not apply." See Smith's Chaldean Account of Genesis, p. 89.

According to the Bible narrative, which Lenormant says is "a tradition whose origin is lost in the night of the remotest ages and which all the great nations of Western Asia possessed in common, with some variations" (Beginnings of History, p. xv), the luminaries were placed in the heavens "to divide the day from the night and to be signs for the time of festivals, the days and the years" (Gen., i, 14). This is from the Elohist version, which, with the Jebovist, may be found in Lenormant's work. The ordinary version was drawn from the two.

Architecture, p. 219, 2d ed. By Joseph Swift. London, 1860.

It is well to state that the astrologer was the forerunner of the astronomer. In his interesting book on The Astronomy of the Ancients, Sir J. Cornwall Lewes says: "The word ȧorpoλoyoç signifies an astronomer in the Greek writers. The word astrologus has the same sense in the earlier Latin writers. In later times the distinction which now obtains between the words astrology and astronomy was introduced” (p. 292).

1

brought from the East to Greece by the Chaldeans, of whom Berosus, the historian, "the first of them," settled at Cos and opened a school there. However this may be, it is stated in Ptolemy's remarkable book2 that medical astrology originated in Egypt.

Hippocrates, who lived a century or so before Berosus, had certainly a knowledge of astrology. Galen wrote a book on it, and, like Hippocrates, gives special prominence to the influence of the moon, dwelling particularly on its production of critical changes in diseases. Many another physician thought it necessary to master it, including Chaucer's "Doctor of Physick," who was "grounded in astronomie.”4

3

From the fact that astrology and religion were closely connected, it almost necessarily followed that medical talismans possessed more or less of a religious signifi

cance.

Among the talismanic gems pictured in De Wilde's book is one which has on one side the Greek letters IAN, signifying the Creator of the world, or Jehovah; and on the other a representation of an extremely erotic and rather misshapen lion rampant. This, worn in a ring, was said to prevent renal and other diseases. De Wilde observes, in accordance with a belief of ancient date, that in this figure one has health symbolized. Says he: "Leo erectus verum signum sanitatis protendit."

What has just been said leads me to remark that the phallus, which was a common form of the genius loci, or

'The Greeks generally gave Atlas the credit of introducing it. See Cory's Ancient Fragments, p. 82. Hodges' edition.

2 Tetrabiblos, i, 2.

In "A Plea for Urania," issued in 1854, it is said that "less than two hundred years ago an individual who entered upon the profession of doctor of medicine, either in England or any of the European countries, was obliged to pass an astrological examination" (p. 246).

Canterbury Tales.

'Gemmæ Selectae. Amsterdam, 1703.