Full text of "Adam's rib"

UNIVERSITY
OF FLORIDA
LIBRARIES

ADAMS RIB

This edition of Adam's Rib was designed by Arnold Fawcus
with wood engravings by James Metcalf.

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2011 with funding from

LYRASIS Members and Sloan Foundation

http://www.archive.org/details/adamsribOOgrav

ADAM'S RIB

and other anomalous elements in
the Hebrew Creation Myth

a new view by

ROBERT GRAVES

with wood engravings by James MetcalJ

NEW YORK . THOMAS YOSELOFF

First American Edition 1958

Published by Thomas Yoseloff

Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number: 58-8030

Printed in U.S.A.

CONTENTS

The Argument page i

The Genesis Version 2 i

The Hebron Icons 37

ARGUMENT

Since 1876, when two versions of an ancient Creation Epic were
discovered in the ruins of the Assyrian King Assurbanipal's library,
all serious Biblical students, except confirmed fundamentalists, have
come to realize that the first four chapters of the Book of Genesis are
not of unique authority, because paralleled in these and other Oriental
works dating from a far earlier period than that of Moses, the reputed
author. It is now also widely accepted that Genesis, as we have it,
was reduced to writing as late as the fifth century B.C., and is unlikely
to have been current beforehand in oral form. Yet scholars remain
puzzled by certain non- Oriental features in the narrative, which are
structurally unparalleled elsewhere, though perverse resemblances
to Occidental myth occur in them. Moreover, the narrative contains
not only obvious gaps, such as the reason for Jehovah's preferring
Abel's blood sacrifice to Cain's sober sacrifice, and the origin of the
population collected by Cain for his city, but also strange anomalies,
such as the creation of pasture before the creation of the stars, and
the birth from a man's rib of Eve, the Mother of Mankind; all of
which suggest that the author of these chapters was faced with the
difficult task of welding together various unrelated traditions into
a new official cosmogony.

The genesis of Genesis is explicable only if we assume that the author
used much the same process of 'iconotropy ' — namely, the misreading
of ancient icons and sacred emblems to suit a new religious dispensa-
tion — as the Greeks used when they substantiated the patriarchal
Zeus cult at the expense of the hitherto sovereign Moon-goddess. 1 He
was a priest living at Jerusalem shortly after the return of the Jews
from Exile in Babylonia, and seems to have anecdotalized a set of
ancient icons saved at Nebuchadnezzar's spoliation of the Temple ;
combining his ingenious narrative with Israelite and Babylonian
legends, so as to compose a monotheistic Creation story suitable for
his regenerate people. These icons, apparently originating in the

1 For instance, they read a familiar icon, which happens to have survived on a glass plaque, of
the Cretan Goddess dominating the Minos Bull by riding on its back, as though Zeus, in bull-
disguise, were carrying off the maiden Europa to ravish her at his leisure.

near-by Mycenaeo-Edomite city of Hebron, have been here recon-
structed in the period style and presented twice: first as illustra-
tions to Genesis i-iv and then hypothetically, in a different order,
as the pictorial myths of origin current at Hebron before the Caleb-
ite capture of the city recorded in the Book of Joshua. This is to suggest
that the creation of pasture precedes the creation of stars because the
icons from which they have been deduced, whether mistakenly or
knowingly, represented the Creatrix giving the power over vegetable
growth to the Titan, or planetary deity, of Tuesday and over the
celestial bodies to the Titan of Wednesday. And that Jehovah forming
Eve from Adam's rib in fact represented the murder of a sleeping
hero by his rival for Eve's favours, the insertion of a curved knife into
his flank beine misread as the extraction of a rib.

POPULAR MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT THE
AGE OF THE GENESIS CREATION STORY

The Pharisee sages who lived at the beginning of the Christian epoch,
and whose task was to transcribe, preserve and elucidate the Hebrew
Scriptures, seem to have shown little respect for Genesis, even though
it introduced the Pentateuchal canon, and abstained from any com-
mentary. Yet the 'Tanaitic ' commentaries on Exodus, Leviticus, Num-
bers and Deuteronomy are profuse. It is usually explained that Genesis,
being unconcerned with Israelite laws and customs, did not appear
to be a proper field for legal exegesis; but this is patently untrue.
The fact seems to have been that the sages regarded the book as,
to some extent, artificial and apocryphal; hence Genesis Kabbah, the
official commentary, was not undertaken until the fourth century nor
completed until the sixth. Yet when the legends of the Creation, the
Terrestrial Paradise, the murder of Abel and the doings of Lamech's
family were translated at the Reformation into sonorous vernacular
prose, they had long become so basic a part of Western literature as
to be generally considered the most ancient and authoritative sacred
writings in existence. This view, on which imposing systems of
ethics and metaphysics have been built, and which has encouraged
modern psychologists to make the Fall support their fanciful theories
about the emotional life of primitive man, was strengthened by the
apparent absence, in other Oriental literatures, of parallels to the
first four chapters of Genesis.

ORIENTAL PARALLELS

i. THE SHORTER ENUMA ELISH

The position has, however, changed since 1876, with the discovery
of an Accadian Creation Epic, the Enuma Elish, in the library of the
Assyrian King Assurbanipal ; this dates from the seventh century
B.C., and survives almost complete on a sequence of seven cuneiform
tablets, each containing one hundred and fifty lines. Its existence
had already been suspected from Berossus's account of Babylonian

mythology, quoted at second-hand by the fourth-century historian,
Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea. An earlier, simpler, version of the
Enuma Elish, written both in Babylonian and Sumerian, was found
on the same site. It ran as follows:

The holy house, the house of the gods, in a holy place had not yet been made ;

No reed had sprung up, no tree had been created;

No brick had been laid, no building had been erected;

No house had been constructed, no city had been built ;

No city had been made, no creature had been brought into being;

Nippur had not been made, Ekur had not been built ;

Erech had not been made, Eana had not been built;

The Deep had not been made, Eridu had not been built;

Of the holy house, the house of the gods, the habitation had not been made ;

All lands were sea.

Then there was a movement in the midst of the sea ;

At that time Eridu was made, and Esagil was built,

Esagil, where in the midst of the deep the god Lugal-du-azaga dwells,

The city Babylon was built, and Esagil was finished.

The gods, the spirits of the earth, Marduk made at the same time,

The holy city, the dwelling of their heart's desire, they proclaimed supreme.

Marduk laid a reed on the face of the waters,

He formed dust and poured it out beside the reed ;

That he might cause the gods to dwell in the dwelling of their hearts' desire,

He formed mankind.

With him the goddess Arum created the seed of mankind.

The beasts of the field and living things in the field he formed.

The Tigris and Euphrates he created and established them in their place ;

Their names he proclaimed in goodly manner.

The grass, the rush of the marsh, the reed and the forest he created,

The green herb of the field he created,

The lands, the marshes and the swamps;

The wild cow and her young, the wild calf, the ewe and her young, the lamb of

the fold.
Orchards and forests ;
The he-goat and the mountain goat . . .

The Lord Marduk built a dam beside the sea.

Reeds he formed, trees he created ;

Bricks he laid, buildings he erected;

Houses he made, cities he built;

Cities he made, creatures he brought into being.

Nippur he made, Ekur he built;

Erech he made, Eana he built.

2. THE LONGER ENUMA ELISH

The longer Enuma Elish begins with an account of how the male and
female principles, Apsu and Tiamat, mingled together chaotically.
A son, Mummi, the spirit of confusion, was born to them. Afterwards
there appeared Anshar and Kishar, a shadowy pair of elder divinities
(recalling Cronus and Rhea in Greek mythology), whose sons, the
male trinity Anu, Bel and Ea, first brought a settled order into exist-
ence. Apsu, Tiamat and Mummi then plotted the overthrow of
this trinity, and created a horde of dragons and monsters to attack
them. Anu tried to appease Tiamat, but in vain, and dismay seized
the younger gods; Anshar therefore appointed Marduk, the young
city-god of Babylon, to command the forces of order. Marduk,
crowned and acclaimed as king, challenged Tiamat, put her horde to
flight, caught her in a net, pierced her heart, crushed her skull, and
destroyed her. He then divided Tiamat's body with a sword, 'as a
man slits a flat-fish', converting one-half into a firmament to prevent
the upper waters from flooding the earth, and the other into a rocky
fundament upon which earth and sea should rest. He next created
the sun, moon and constellations, appointing gods to attend them;
next, trees and vegetation ; next, animals (but the fifth and sixth tablets
are fragmentary) ; lastly, he created man, unassisted in this version
by the Love-goddess Aruru, using his own blood mixed with clay. The
same story appears in the Berossian summary, though there Bel,
not Marduk, is the hero. In the corresponding Greek myth, probably
of Hittite provenience, Mother Earth created the giant Typhon, at
whose advent the gods all fled to Egypt ; until Zeus had the courage
to kill Typhon and his monstrous sister Delphyne with a thunderbolt.

3. THE GILGAMESH EPIC

Assurbanipal's library also contained the Gilgamesh Epic in twelve frag-
mentary tablets, supplemented by a Sumerian version. Both this and
the Enuma Elish seem to have been first composed towards the end
of the third millennium B.C. The Gilgamesh Epic tells how the Goddess
Aruru, or Ishtar, created from clay a noble savage named Eabani,
or Enkidu, whom she destined to free the city of Uruk from Gilga-
mesh, its king. Of Eabani it is recorded:

With the gazelles he ate grass,

With the wild-cattle slaked his thirst,

With the water-creatures sported . . .

but was seduced by a prostitute in the Goddess's service; and after
he had enjoyed her love for six days and nights, all the wild things
shrank from him. Eabani was thus forced to leave his sylvan retreat
and settle in Uruk where, however, he and Gilgamesh became fast
friends; and performed heroic feats together, killing a Sky-bull.
Thereupon the Goddess cursed Eabani and he died, to Gilgamesh 's
great grief.

Gilgamesh undertook another series of adventures, and found a
plant which conferred perpetual youth on man ; but it was snatched
from him by a serpent. After wide travels in search of healing and
immortality, he reached a remote island, the home of one Parna-
pishtim, or Ut-Napishtim. Parnapishtim claimed to have escaped
from the Deluge in an ark loaded with living creatures ; and to have
been subsequently blessed by the god Bel, who assured him:

Parnapishtim was once a man,

But now he and his wife shall be gods like us,

He shall dwell apart at the confluence of rivers.

There are obvious reminiscences of this epic story in Genesis, where
Adam's expulsion from the terrestrial paradise, at the confluence of
rivers, is due to the seductions of Eve ; and where a serpent intro-
duces death into the world. Moreover, Adam is described as an
ancestor of Noah, who built an ark against the Deluge.

4. THE BEROSSIAN DELUGE

In the Berossian summary of the Deluge legend, Gilgamesh is called
Xisuthrus ; the ark is twice the size of a modern transatlantic liner,
in contrast to Parnapishtim 's one-hundred-and-fifty-foot vessel ; and
whereas Parnapishtim had sent out in turn a swallow, dove and
raven, of which only the first two returned, Xisuthrus's birds all
came back when first sent out, and on the next occasion all stayed
away. Xisuthrus's ark rested on an Armenian mountain, like Noah's.

S. THE STORY OF ADAPA

Another early source of the Genesis narrative is the Story of Adapa,
found in the fifteenth-century collection of tablets at Tell-el-Amarna,
Pharaoh Akhenaton's capital. Adapa, son of the Babylonian god Ea,
lived beside the Persian Gulf. One day, while catching fish for his

father, he was attacked by a storm-bird from the south, and broke its
wings. The South Wind then ceased, and Anu summoned Adapa
to explain his action ; Ea warned him :

'When you come before Anu, his servants will offer you the food of death and the
drink of death. Refuse these! They will also offer you a garment, and anointing oil.
Accept these ! '

Adapa appeased Anu's anger. But the gods feared that, once having
viewed the divine secrets of Heaven, he would betray them and
therefore invited him to become an immortal. Ea, for some unex-
plained reason, advised Adapa to decline the food of life then offered
him ; and, much to Anu's sorrow, he obeyed. This recalls Jehovah's
saying (Genesis iii . 22):

'Behold, the man is become as one of us to know good and evil ; and now, lest he put
forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever.'

COMPOSITE AUTHORSHIP OF THE CREATION

STORY

The first four chapters of Genesis must consequently be regarded as a
synthetic document, and its missing elements looked for in some
other quarter not yet identified; moreover, it has been recognized
for some years that these chapters are of composite authorship.
Textual researches show that the Creation legend in Genesis i. 1 to ii.3
was written by a post-Exilic priest who lived at Jerusalem not later
than the end of the fifth century B.C., and who called God 'El'; he
was familiar with the legends of the Terrestrial Paradise, the Fall,
the murder of Abel, and the Family of Lamech (Genesis ii. 4— iv. 24),
which had been recorded, perhaps shortly before the Exile, by a
Judaean prophet who called God 'Jehovah'. This Judaean prophetic
narration has been modified by the priestly editor; thus, he locates
Eden in Lower Mesopotamia (Genesis ii. 8—1^), a region which
meant nothing to the pre-Exilic Jews, rather than at Hebron, the
traditional birthplace and shrine of their reputed ancestor Adam.
The priestly hand appears even more clearly in the legend of Noah
(Genesis vi— ix), where two separate accounts of the Deluge have been
combined into one by the interleaving of verses ; for passages from
the Judaean prophetic narrative are omitted whenever exact duplica-
tion of events would have been wearisome.

THE RECASTING OF CANAANITE MYTHS

It must be borne in mind, while reading the Old Testament, that
when the Jews decided to disown the religion which their Cassite
ancestors had embraced on first entering Palestine and to adopt a
male monotheism, they were obliged to recast all the popular myths
concerned with the cult of the immortal, variously-named Canaanite
Love-goddess — Bau, Hepa, Belili, Beltis, Ishtar, Isis, Anatha, Neith,
Aphrodite, etc. — and her yearly-dying, yearly-resurrected consort;
which was no light task. These patriarchal ancestors, who adopted
the Semitic language while settled at Harran on the Upper Euphrates,
had agreed to worship the Goddess when they came south with the
Hyksos hordes early in the second millennium B.C.; and this new
religious dispensation is commemorated by Abraham's marriage to
Sarah, who appears as a goddess in early texts. All the principal Jewish
festivals — Passover, Weeks, Tabernacles and the mid- winter Feast
of Dedication — as well as the furniture of the Temple, were relics
of her cult, which involved the Canaanite king's sacred marriage to
her high priestess, the Queen. The king's term of office had at first,
it seems, been limited to the agricultural or horticultural year. Only
when he ceased to be a mere ritual leader and took command of her
armies, did his reign become lengthened to a 'Great Year' of one
hundred lunar months. But the King, representing the demi-god
Ningirsu, or Enlil, or Tammuz, or Adonis, or Dionysus, did not hold
equal dignity with the Queen, who spoke for the immortal Goddess.

MODIFICATIONS OF CREATION MYTHS

In all myths of origin substantiating the earliest of these social stages,
the unqualified matriarchate, it is a goddess emerging from Chaos
who performs the act of creation. This view seems to have been
excised after line eleven of the shorter Enuma Elish so as not to detract
from Marduk's authority. A later stage — the partial delegation of
divine sovereignty by a matriarch to her warrior-consort, while
marriage remains exogamic and inheritance matrilinear — has been
mythically presented in the opening lines of the longer Enuma Elish.
There the Universe is said to have come into being through an equal
union of Apsu and Tiamat, who 'mixed their sweet and bitter

waters' ; and the historian Damascius, summarizing a primitive ver-
sion of this myth, places Tiamat's name before Apsu's, and accords
similar precedence to the females of each divine pair he mentions.
The Egyptian parallel is the union of the Sky-goddess Nut with the
Earth-god Geb; the Greek, that of the Sky-god Uranus 's impregna-
tion of the Earth-goddess Gaia. A more familiar social stage is
reached when the consort announces himself king in his own right,
prolongs his reign to a lifetime, abolishes exogamy, and reduces the
Queen's power to a cypher. The Enuma Elish describes this patri-
archal revolution as the battle of the young gods against the old,
ending in the triumph of the new world order initiated by Marduk ;
or, according to Berossus's earlier version, by Bel. Bel was one of
the invading male triad of Aryan gods from the North-east who, in
the third millennium B.C., forcibly married Belili, Ana-Nin and
Dam-Kina, the Sumerian Goddess-triad. Much the same revolution
took place about i^oo B.C. in Bronze Age Ireland, where Brian,
Iucharba and Iuchar married the Goddess- triad Eire, Fodhla and
Banbha; and in Greece, where Zeus, Poseidon and Hades violently
forced themselves on Hera, Demeter and Persephone. The originals
of these male triads are likely to have been Indra, Mitra and Varuna
of the Sanscrit epics. Bel took Belili's name; as Anu took Ana-
Nin 's ; Ea, the third of the triad, is probably called after an earlier
form of Dam-Kina's. Since to adopt a Goddess-wife's title was also
to claim her prerogatives, Belili must have been the original creatrix.

RELIGIOUS REVOLUTION AT JERUSALEM

The Phoenicians made El, the Semitic Thunder-god, head of their
Pantheon. At Jerusalem he became identified with Jehovah whom
Isaiah, the prophet of monotheism, represented as having destroyed
the Dragon Rahab (Isaiah li. 9), another name for Tiamat, and having
thereby, like Marduk, made himself the supreme God. This was an
important religious change ; because, as Plutarch points out in the
Convivial Questions, Jehovah had once been a Dionysus, which meant
that his representative died yearly — probably, indeed, twice-yearly,
since there were two Tammuzes, the Tammuz of the corn and the
Tammuz of the vine, ruling the winter and summer months respec-
tively, whom the Jebusites worshipped at the Passover new-bread

festival and the Tabernacles new- wine festival. The relations of these
demi-gods are clarified by the fourteenth-century B.C. Ugarit tablets
from Ras Shamra to the north of Palestine, recording the myth of
Aliyan son of Bel and Mot son of El, neither of whom might be on earth
at the same time as the other. When Aliyan died (apparently killed
by Mot) his sister Anatha restored El's failing youth with the blood
of massacred children and thereby persuaded him to grant Bel the
favour of rebuilding his own temple (apparently destroyed by Mot)
and to raise Aliyan from the dead. After the temple's consecration
Aliyan, and Bel also, had to descend into the bosom of the earth ; and
El took part in the funeral ceremonies — a mourning feast perpetu-
ated, it seems, by the Jews in the Feast of Atonement. Mot reigned
again, evidently as Anatha's consort, but after a few months the earth
suffered from a prolonged drought; and Anatha, having once more
reanimated Aliyan, hacked Mot into pieces, ground them in a mill
and threw the refuse on the fields for the birds to eat. Children were
still sacrificed in the Valley of Hinnon, close to Jerusalem, under the
early Jewish monarchy.

Jehovah was the immortal part of these rival twins as, according
to Plutarch, Delphic Apollo was of Dionysus. In Solomon's time, he
had shared Mount Zion on more or less equal terms with two aspects
of the same Goddess — Ashima of the Doves, the Creatrix, and Anatha
of the Lions, goddess of Love and Battle. The trinity of one God and
two Goddesses, which recalls the Capitoline Trinity at Rome —
Juppiter, Juno and Minerva — was not officially dissolved at Jerusalem
until just before the Exile, nor in the Jewish temple at Elephantine
in Upper Egypt until about the year 400 B.C. Jehovah then disowned
or divorced the Goddesses, and as Lord of the Universe adopted their
highest dignities and prerogatives; though his title 'Adonai' still
bore witness to his former death as Adonis, or Tammuz, the God-
dess's consort.

This monotheistic revolution did not please everyone. According
to Jeremiah, a cry went up at a time of national emergency: 'Let us
again worship the Queen of Heaven, as our fathers did! ' But Jehovah
had now, like the Heliopolitan Zeus, assumed all the planetary powers
of the Babylonian sacred week, thereby becoming the sevenfold god
of Sabaoth, whose symbol was the Menorah, or seven-branched
candlestick. The planetary deities — namely, Shamash for the first

day, Sin for the second, Nergal for the third, Nabu for the fourth,
Bel, or Marduk, for the fifth, Beltis for the sixth and Ninib for the
seventh — were originally allotted their powers by the Goddess her-
self. According to Philo Byblius, the Phoenicians worshipped seven
deities, whom he names: El or Cronus; Bethel; Dagon or Siton;
Chusor; Astarte or Aphrodite; Rhea; and Baaltis or Dione. El was
their leader, and the system had clearly been borrowed from Baby-
lonia. In Hesiod's Theogony, the planetary deities are described as
Titans, who fought on the side of the old gods against the young, and
were defeated — thereafter the Greeks ceased to observe weeks or
worship the planets, as their Cretan teachers had done.

WESTERN ELEMENTS IN THE GENESIS CREATION

STORY

Biblical scholars have hitherto paid little attention to the numerous
close, though fragmentary, resemblances between the Genesis Creation
story and the primitive myths of Europe ; it has been axiomatic
that the Jews were a wholly Semitic people. This is erroneous: like
the Philistines, they were Semitic only in language. The culture
which awaited Joshua's forces when they broke into Canaan from the
Southern Desert in the thirteenth century B.C., was largely Creto-
Aegean. Not being numerous enough to hold the entire country,
they allied themselves with, among others, Girgashites from the
Troad, and the Mycenaean Gibeonites — 'Gibeon' stood, I think, for
astu achaivon, 'the City of the Achaeans ' — whom Joshua confirmed in
their guardianship of sacred groves and wells. Presently, they fell
under the rule of the Philistines, who were of Cretan stock, and
David, leader of a national revolt, engaged true Cretans to serve
in his bodyguard. It is not surprising, therefore, that many of the
anecdotal elements in these chapters of Genesis suggest Western myth-
ology — the first man and woman, the wise serpent, the dangerous
gift of a fruit (traditionally an apple) by the Mother of All Living,
the paradisal garden, the rivalry between the two brothers, the divine
institution of agriculture, and the beginnings of music and smithcraft.
Indeed, the Judaean prophet seems to have worked from a Western
original ; using the Babylonian myths merely as a background for his
moral plot.

1 1

Yet his treatment of Western myth is remarkably perverse. In
most other versions, the first man and woman — as distinguished from
the divine Titans and a sub-human species which perished in the
Great Flood — are not modelled from clay by a god, or demi-god,
but magically created by the Great Goddess. As the counterparts of
Noah (or Xisuthrus, or Parnapishtim) and his wife, they ride out the
Deluge in an ark, and become the first drinkers of wine or mead.
Paradise is not their original home, but an island, planted with apple
trees, to which every autumn the Goddess bears the soul of her slain
consort; swastikas, or fire- wheels, guard the gates to prevent ingress
or egress. The apple is not the fruit of divine knowledge — usually
contained in a sacred nut, or in a fish that has fed on sacred nuts — but
the lover's passport to Paradise. When cut transversely, it displays
the five-pointed star which recalls the stations of his journey through
life: Birth, Initiation, Consummation, Repose and Death. He there-
upon makes ready to sail off in his coffin-boat to the island on which
the apple has been plucked. This death-island is a commonplace of
Greek myth and, according to Josephus, was also the otherworld of
the Jewish Essenes. A much-quoted Babylonian inscription places
it in the Delta of the Euphrates, like the Garden of Eden, and under
the sovereignty of the Goddess Baou, or Bahu, the 'Great Mother',
or 'Exalted'.

Again, Western mythologists make the cause of the twins' quarrel
not the Father-god's rejection of a sacrifice, but a bitter dispute for
the love of the Goddess. Neither does the rivalry end in the betrayal
and death of the twin whom the Goddess first favours : he is reborn
as her son — like the Child Horus of Egypt, son of Isis and Osiris —
and avenges his own death on the rival. Again, the serpent is not a
spirit of evil: but the beneficent giver of oracles, living in a garden
tended by a priestess and consulted by barren women. He provides
them with children: family ghosts waiting to be reborn. Finally, the
Goddess, not the Father-god, bestows agriculture on mankind, and
as a blessing, not as a curse. She is also the patroness of smithcraft,
music and poetry. These novel divergencies from a mythic convention
reinforce the suspicion that the first four chapters of Genesis are an
extremely late literary product.

INCONSISTENCIES OF THE NARRATIVE

The inconsistencies of the Genesis narrative are further proofs of its
artificiality. Genuine myth, though it may demand a suspension of
belief in normal experience, is consistent and self-explanatory.
Genesis iv. g does not explain God's preference for Abel's blood
sacrifice, as opposed to Cain's 'sober' sacrifice — the Jews themselves
offered both kinds — and Abel had apparently disregarded God's
order to eat bread by the sweat of his brow, whereas Cain had obeyed
it. Nor does the author tell how Cain found a wife, having no kins-
women; or how he collected the population of the city he built
(Genesis iv. 16—17) — Deucalion and Pyrrha, in the corresponding
Greek myth, threw stones over their shoulders, which miraculously
became men and women. Jewish oral tradition makes Michael create
man from the dust of Hebron at Jehovah's orders ; but Michael is a
late concept, and his name may stand for Michal, a title of the God-
dess borne by David's wife Michal, whom he married, or remarried,
at Hebron. The story of Eve's creation from Adam's rib is equalled
in perversity only by the post-Homeric Greek legends of Athene's
birth from the head of Zeus, and Dionysus's birth from his thigh;
according to all primitive myth the female, not the male, gives life,
even if she is no more than a primordial Scandinavian cow licking
stones into human shape. Yet the anecdotal details of Adam's family
history are circumstantial enough and, when carefully examined,
reveal traces of the myth which it superseded.

THE DOVE, THE SERPENT, AND THE COSMIC EGG

The Genesis Creation legend reads awkwardly. In all versions of the
Enuma Elish, the order of created things is a natural one: firmament,
heavenly bodies, earth, plants, animals, man. But in Genesis, God
creates pasture before he creates sun and moon, which equally
affronts the poetic and the scientific mind. The earlier legend
survived fragmentarily in Greece, Phoenicia and Babylonia itself.
According to a Phoenician version, quoted by Philo of Byblos, the
prime Chaos was acted upon by a wind which became enamoured
of its own elements. A less philosophic version, quoted by another
Byblian cosmogonist, gives the name of Baou to the female principle

impregnated by this wind; Baou being the Goddess Bahu, 'Exalted
Mother', who owned the Paradise of the Euphrates Delta and ruled
the queendom of Lagash. What is more, her name is found concealed
in Genesis i. 2: tohu-wa-bohu, 'wasteness and emptiness' — a caco-
phemism used by the editor to avoid the idolatrous name Baou. But
the brooding of the Spirit of God on the waste of waters suggests a
bird, and the hu syllable of Bahu had a dove for its ideogram.

The result of Bahu's impregnation by the wind was a world- egg,
like that of Egyptian mythology; and, according to Damascius, the
Phoenicians credited a male god named Chusor, 'The Opener', with
its hatching. l Winds in primitive Greek art are represented as snake-
tailed ; and the Greek Orphic tradition was that the Creatrix — Apol-
lonius Rhodius calls her Eurynome, 'Wide Rule' — cohabited with
the Serpent Ophion, and ruled before the days of Cronus and Rhea.
It must have been she who laid the 'wind-begotten ' cosmic egg
alluded to by Aristophanes, out of which everything proceeded.
Hyginus, in his Poetic Astronomy, quotes a muddled account of the
same story: an egg dropped from the moon into the Euphrates, was
towed ashore by fishes, and hatched by doves ; out of it sprang the
Goddess. The North Wind, according to the Enuma Elish, carried
away Tiamat's blood and Classical zoologists still thought him capable
of fertilizing mares and vultures ; it seems that the Pelasgians, or the
pre-Hellenic inhabitants of Greece, claimed to be born from his
teeth, and celebrated their common festival, the Peloria, in his
honour. He was worshipped at Athens as Boreas, 'our kinsman '.

The tradition that the world had been generated by a serpent was
current among the Jewish Ophites of the first century a.d., though
the Jerusalem Supreme Sanhedrin condemned this creation as a false,
material one, and distinguished it from the wholly spiritual creation
ordained by Jehovah. Yet the Brazen Serpent which dominated the
Sanctuary at Jerusalem until King Hezekiah the reformer destroyed
it, suggests that Jehovah had at one time been identified with the
Serpent — as Zeus was in Orphic art — and the custom which con-
tinued until the Romans destroyed the Temple, of turning the sacri-
ficial victim's head to the north, suggests that the Serpent had been

1 Later, according to Philo Byblius, this name was explained as meaning that he had helped
to build Bel's temple and was consequently given the privilege of opening the temple skylight
which regulated the fall of rain.

the North Wind. In the original myth, then, the Great Mother rose
from Chaos ; the wind of her advent became a serpent and impreg-
nated her ; she thereupon took the shape of a dove, and laid the world-
egg — which the serpent coiled about and hatched. It was as a dove
that the King of Babylon, Marduk's representative, symbolically cut
Tiamat in two with his sword at the New Year rites.

THE ICONOTROPIC METHOD OF NARRATIVE

Many Old Testament narratives, though credited with great age,
have a modern look; apparently because the Jews had inherited a
number of sacred tablets, illustrative treaties and religious ritual,
which they deliberately misread. Thus, as I have shown elsewhere, 1
the anachronistic account of Pharaoh's chariot wheels in Exodus, if
restored to pictorial form, presupposes a tablet given by the
'Achaeans ' of Gibeon to Joshua, with the history of their Pelopian
descent. The story of Lot and his incestuous daughters at Zoar seems
to have been deduced from an Egyptian icon which showed dead
Osiris bewailed by Isis and Nephthys in a grape-arbour; and that of
Isaac, Jacob, Esau and Rebeccah, from a Philistine icon which showed
the ritual slaying and eating of the demi-god Zagreus, incarnate as
a male kid. I conclude that much the same iconotropic technique
has been used by the author of the opening chapters of Genesis, and
that these are based on early pictorial tablets given to, or taken by,
Joshua's invading Israelites when they seized Hebron. Thus Jehovah
removing a rib from Adam's side and transforming it into Eve seems
to have been deduced from a picture of Agenor's driving a curved
knife under Belus's fifth rib, with the connivance of the Goddess.
This mythic novelty is substantiated, rather than suggested, by a pun
on tsela, the Hebrew word for 'rib ' ; since Eve was said to have been
designed as Adam's helpmeet, yet proved to be a tsela, 'stumbling',
or 'misfortune'. 2 Though the names of the original characters in the
myth can still be recognized, and the tradition that Cain killed Abel,
and that Seth took Abel's place, is retained, the picture sequence has
been largely misinterpreted to suit the monotheistic doctrines of
later Judaism ; it has also been embellished with reminiscences of the

1 Occupation: Writer, London and New York, 1950

2 The word occurs in Psalms xxxv. ic: 'When I stumble, they rejoice' and xxxviii. 17:
'For I am ready to stumble.' and Jeremiah xx. 10: 'All my familiars watched for my stumbling'
and Job xviii. 12: 'And calamity shall be ready for his stumbling.'

Marduk myth, which the Israelites adopted either during the Baby-
lonian Exile, or about a thousand years before, during their stay in
Harran.

THE CHARACTERS IN THE STORY

For a start, the characters in the Genesis story must be identified.
El, like Juppiter, or Janus, or Bel, or Marduk, was the patron of
shepherds, and bringer of thunder-showers. The people of Palestine
associated him with the terebinth, sacred to the Cretan Dove-goddess
of Cyprus, and his title Ia-Hu ('Jehovah'), meaning 'Exalted Dove',
seems to have been borrowed from Iahu, or Bahu, the Dove-
goddess. But he eventually came to be identified with a number of
local deities, including a moon-god, a sun-god, a smith-god, a war-
god, a wine-god, a corn-god and a pomegranate-god.

In Hebrew, Adam, or Edom, means 'red ' ; Cain means 'acquired ' ;
Abel, according to the Massoretes, means 'vanity'; Enoch means
'dedication'; Lamech has no meaning; Adah means 'light'; Zillah
means 'shadow'; Jabal means 'shepherd'; Jubal means 'ram's
horn'; Tubal means 'smith'; Naamah means 'pleasant'. Yet there
is no reason to suppose that the original names in the legend were
Hebrew ones. 'Tubal ' stands for the Tibareni, a famous iron-working
tribe of the Southern Black Sea. 'Eve ', in Hebrew, is Hawwah, mean-
ing 'mother of every kindred ' , or tribal ancestress ; though the word
seems to have been borrowed from the Hittite Goddess Hepa, Hipta
or Hepatu, one of whose divine sons was Abdiepta, a pre-Davidic
king of Jerusalem. Hepa is shown in a Hittite rock-sculpture at
Hattusas riding on a lion, which equates her with the Goddess Anatha
of Jerusalem, or Hera of Mycenae, both of whom had the lion for
their sacred beast. Her Greek name is Hebe, and Hebe appears in
Greek myth as Hera's daughter, marriage to whom immortalized
Heracles after the death of his twin Iphicles. And Anatha was the
Goddess for whose love, as has already been mentioned, the demi-
gods Mot and Aliyan contended.

HEBRON AS THE SOURCE OF THE WESTERN

LEGEND

Adam, the 'red man' and eponymous ancestor of the Edomites,
cousins of Israel, is said to have been buried at Hebron, where he

had an oracular shrine in the Cave of Machpelah, later 'bought ' by
Abraham from the Children of Heth and their King Ephron, son of
Zohar ('red'). This implies that the Israelites took possession of
the shrine which the Children of the Sea-goddess Tethys, or Thetis,
Mycenaean colonists, had consecrated to their oracular hero Phoro-
neus, the founder of Argos. Phoroneus's name, though perhaps
originally Fearinos, 'of the Dawn', or 'of the Spring', had become
popularly associated with pur, the Greek for 'fire' — as did that of
Pyrrha, the Goddess of the Puresati, or Philistines — since, like
Prometheus, he had invented the art of kindling fire. According to
Greek tradition, Argive Phoroneus, a grandson of Tethys, and the
first man to institute the worship of Hera — was Agenor's father; and
Agenor's name appears as Chnas in Phoenician, and as Canaan, or
Cain, in Hebrew. According to another account, Agenor and Bel
were twin sons of the nymph Libya by the god Poseidon: and this
means that their people belonged to the sub-Minoan sea-confederacy
in which the Mycenaeans played a leading part. It looks as if the native
Edomites, for whom later writers claimed descent from Esau, had
fused with the Mycenaeans and become sons of the 'red man ' ; since,
according to Genesis xxvi, Esau's marriage to Judith, daughter of
Beeri, 'wells', the son of Heth, grieved Esau's mother Rebekkah,
who was 'greatly vexed by the daughters of Heth'. Judith (the femin-
ine form of Jehudah, or Judah) is a variant of Ia-Hu, namely, Ashima,
the Dove-goddess. To judge from the quarrel between the twins
Jacob and Esau — and again between Perez and Zarah, the sons of
Judah — Hebron was a double kingdom, like Corinth, Sparta, or
Argos, over which the twins, representatives of the Corn Dionysus
and the Vine Dionysus, or of winter and summer, reigned alternately ;
and its name may well be a worn-down form of Phoronicum, the
first name given to Argos. But the legend of Jacob and Esau has been
separated from its ritual context and given a historical sense : Jacob
now represents the conquering Israelite tribe which stole Edom's
birthright for a 'plate of red lentils ' by occupying the shrine — Edom
in Hebrew also means a 'dish of vegetables '. Hebron was the most
important city of Southern Palestine, dominating a fertile highland
valley, and David made it his headquarters until he could seize the
strategically more important fortress of Jerusalem.

It seems probable, then, that the legends of the first four books of

Genesis were deduced from Mycenaeo-Edomite pictorial engravings
captured at Hebron by the Israelites ; that the characters in the ori-
ginal Garden of Eden legend were Hebe, Agenor, his twin-brother
Bel, and two other 'sons of Phoroneus ' mentioned by Greek mytho-
graphers, namely, Cepheus and Iasus; and that the Creation was
accomplished, with the help of the North Wind, by the Goddess
Baou, or Thetis, who appears in Genesis i.2 as the 'Spirit of God', a
female abstraction which the Pharisees read as Jehovah's Glory, or
Wisdom.

CONFUSED ORDER OF EVENTS IN GENESIS

The pictorial sequence identifying the various planetary powers
allotted by the Goddess to the Titans, or Lords of the Sacred Week
— the same planets ruled the week in southern Spain and pagan north-
western Europe, and among the Berbers of North Africa — has evi-
dently been misread as an account of the order in which God created
the Universe ; and this explains why the heavenly bodies appear after
the creation of grass and trees. Grass and trees represented the power
of Growth ; and the heavenly bodies the power of Wisdom.

I postulate four sequences of nine pictures each, arranged boustro-
phedon, 'as the ox ploughs ':

9876^4321

I234C6789

9876C432I

I234C6789

but which have been read thus:

98765-4321

9876^4321

A displacement, however, occurs in the last sequence, where 6789
has been interchanged with 1 234c ; namely, the inconsequent passage
about Lamech and his family.

The ritual blood feud which forms the chief subject of the last
three sequences has not been plainly recorded. Agenor's murder of
his twin-brother Bel, or Abel (Hebel, 'vanity', a cacophemism for
Bel), was probably avenged by Bel's successor Cepheus [Seth?], and
this murder in turn by Agenor's successor Iasus [Esau?] ; but all that
survives is a cry of guilt by Lamech (described as Cain's great-great-
grandson) that he has inadvertently killed an unnamed young man.
Cain's 'brand' was the cruciform tribal mark worn on the brow by
the Kenites, or 'descendants of Cain', a vagabond tribe of metal-
workers, shepherds and musicians, whose successors, the Sleb, wear
it today. 'Lamech' may be a metathesis of Amalek, 'king', a title
given to Esau's grandson (Genesis xxxvi. 12). Though the Amalekites
were closely related to the Kenites (1 Samuel xv. 6 and Numbers xxiv.
22), the Israelites warred continuously with them, which would
account for their denying 'Lamech ' his real name.

The names of the seven Titans are variously given by the Greek
mythographers. Rhea and Cronus, the only pair common to every
list, ruled the planet Venus (Friday) and the planet Saturn (Saturday)
respectively. Pausanias's list begins with the Titan Adanus, a Greek
word meaning 'acorn', to which the words 'Adam' and 'Eden' are
perhaps approximations ; 'acorn' had an erotic sense, and the oak,
an oracular tree of the Mycenaean Dove-goddess, was used in rain-
making rites.

A series of thirty-six pictures will now be presented twice, in two
different orders. The first series will correspond with the text of
Genesis, the second is a hypothetic reconstruction of the original
Mycenaeo-Edomite sequence. James Metcalf and I have elaborated
them together in sub-Mycenaean style, using the pictorial conven-
tions of that period.

THE GENESIS VERSION

genesis i. i. In the beginning God
created the heaven and the earth. [cf. ai ]

genesis i. 2. And the earth was without
form, and void; and darkness was upon
the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God
moved upon the face of the waters, [cf. a 2]

genesis i. 3- c. And God said, Let there
be light: and there was light. And God saw
the light, that it was good: and God divided
the light from the darkness.

And God called the light Day, and the
darkness he called Night. And the evening
and the morning were the first day. [cf. A3]

genesis i. 6-8. And God said, Let there
be a firmament in the midst of the waters,
and let it divide the waters from the waters.

And God made the firmament, and divided
the waters which were under the firmament
from the waters which were above the firma-
ment: and it was so.

And God called the firmament Heaven.
And the evening and the morning were the
second day. [cf. A4]

genesis i. 9-13. And God said, Let the
waters under the heaven be gathered together
unto one place, and let the dry land appear:
and it was so.

And God called the dry land Earth; and
the gathering together of the waters called
he Seas : and God saw that it was good.

And God said, Let the earth bring forth
grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit
tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed
is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

And the earth brought forth grass, and
herb yielding seed after his kind, and the
tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself,
after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

And the evening and the morning were the
third day. [cf. A£]

genesis i. 14-19. And God said, Let
there be lights in the firmament of the
heaven to divide the day from the night;
and let them be for signs, and for seasons,
and for days, and years:

And let them be for lights in the firmament
of the heaven to give light upon the earth:
and it was so.

And God made two great lights; the
greater light to rule the day, and the lesser
light to rule the night: he made the stars
also.

And God set them in the firmament of the
heaven to give light upon the earth,

And to rule over the day and over the
night, and to divide the light from the
darkness : and God saw that it was good.

And the evening and the morning were
the fourth day. [cf. a6]

genesis i. 20-23. And God said, Let the
waters bring forth abundantly the moving
creature that hath life, and fowl that may
fly above the earth in the open firmament
of heaven.

And God created great whales, and every
living creature that moveth, which the
waters brought forth abundantly, after their
kind, and every winged fowl after his kind:
and God saw that it was good.

And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful
and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas,
and let fowl multiply in the earth.

And the evening and the morning were
the fifth day. [cf. aj]

genesis i. 24-31. And God said, Let
the earth bring forth the living creature
after his kind, cattle and creeping thing,
and beast of the earth after his kind : and it
was so.

And God made the beast of the earth
after his kind, and cattle after their kind,
and everything that creepeth upon the earth
after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

And God said, Let us make man in our
image, after our likeness: and let them have
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over
the fowl of the air, and over the cattle,
and over all the earth, and over every
creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

So God created man in his own image, in
the image of God created he him ; male and
female created he them.

And God blessed them, and God said
unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and
replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over
the fowl of the air, and over every living
thing that moveth upon the earth.

And God said, Behold I have given you
every herb bearing seed, which is upon the
face of all the earth, and every tree, in the
which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed;
to you it shall be for meat.

And to every beast of the earth, and to
every fowl of the air, and to every thing that
creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is
life, I have given every green herb for meat:
and it was so.

And God saw every thing that he had
made, and, behold, it was very good. And
the evening and the morning were the sixth
day. [cf. A8]

genesis ii. 1-3. Thus the heavens and
the earth were finished, and all the host of
them.

And on the seventh day God ended his
work which he had made ; and he rested on
the seventh day from all his work which he
had made.

And God blessed the seventh day, and
sanctified it: because that in it he had rested
from all his work which God created and
made. [cf. A9]

genesis ii. 4—7. These are the genera-
tions of the heavens and of the earth when
they were created, in the day that the lord
God made the earth and the heavens,

And every plant of the field before it was
in the earth, and every herb of the field
before it grew: for the lord God had not
caused it to rain upon the earth, and there
was not a man to till the ground.

But there went up a mist from the earth,
and watered the whole face of the ground.

And the lord God formed man of the
dust of the ground, and breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life ; and man became a
living soul. [cf. B9]

genesis ii. 8-2o. And the lord God
planted a garden eastward in Eden ; and there
he put the man whom he had formed.

And out of the ground made the lord
God to grow every tree that is pleasant to
the sight, and good for food; the tree of
life also in the midst of the garden, and the
tree of knowledge of good and evil.

And a river went out of Eden to water the
garden ; and from thence it was parted, and
became into four heads.

The name of the first is Pison: that is it
which compasseth the whole land of Havilah,
where there is gold;

And the gold of that land is good: there
is bdellium and the onyx stone.

And the name of the second river is
Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the
whole land of Ethiopia.

And the name of the third river is Hidde-
kel : that is it which goeth toward the east of
Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.

And the lord God took the man, and put
him into the garden of Eden to dress it and
to keep it.

And the lord God commanded the man,
saying, Of every tree of the garden thou
mayest freely eat:

But of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the
day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely
die.

And the lord God said, It is not good that
the man should be alone ; I will make him an
help meet for him.

And out of the ground the lord God
formed every beast of the field, and every
fowl of the air; and brought them unto
Adam to see what he would call them: and
whatsoever Adam called every living crea-
ture, that was the name thereof.

And Adam gave names to all cattle, and
to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of
the field ; but for Adam there was not found
an help meet for him. [cf. b8]

genesis ii. 21-22. And the lord God
caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and
he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and
closed up the flesh instead thereof;

And the rib which the lord God had
taken from man, made he a woman, and
brought her unto the man. [cf. bj]

genesis ii. 23-2$. And Adam said, This is
now bone of my bones, and flesh of my
flesh: she shall be called Woman, because
she was taken out of Man.

Therefore shall a man leave his father and
his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife:
and they shall be one flesh.

And they were both naked, the man and
his wife, and were not ashamed. [cf. b6]

genesis iii. 1-6. Now the serpent was
more subtil than any beast of the field which
the lord God had made. And he said unto
the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not
eat of every tree of the garden ?

And the woman said unto the serpent,
We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the
garden :

But of the fruit of the tree which is in the
midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall
not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest
ye die.

And the serpent said unto the woman,
Ye shall not surely die :

For God doth know that in the day ye
eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened,
and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and
evil.

And when the woman saw that the tree
was good for food, and that it was pleasant
to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make
one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and
did eat, and gave also unto her husband
with her; and he did eat. [cf. 3c]

genesis iii. 7. And the eyes of them both
were opened, and they knew that they were
naked; and they sewed fig leaves together,
and made themselves aprons. [cf. B4]

genesis iii. 8-12. And they heard the
voice of the lord God walking in the garden
in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife
hid themselves from the presence of the
lord God amongst the trees of the garden.

And the lord God called unto Adam, and
said unto him, Where art thou?

And he said, I heard thy voice in the gar-
den, and I was afraid, because I was naked;
and I hid myself.

And he said, Who told thee that thou wast
naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof
I commanded thee that thou shouldest not
eat?

And the man said, The woman whom thou
gavest to be with me, she gave me of the
tree, and I did eat. [cf. B3]

genesis iii. 13. And the lord God said
unto the woman, What is this that thou hast
done? And the woman said, The serpent
beguiled me, and I did eat. [cf. B2]

genesis iii. 14-1^. And the lord God
said unto the serpent, Because thou hast
done this, thou art cursed above all cattle,
and above every beast of the field ; upon thy
belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat
all the days of thy life :

And I will put enmity between thee and
the woman, and between thy seed and her
seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou
shalt bruise his heel. [cf. bi]

genesis iii. 16a. Unto the woman he
said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and
thy conception; [cf. ci]

genesis iii. iGb. In sorrow thou shalt
bring forth children; and thy desire shall
be to thy husband, and he shall rule over
thee. [cf. C2]

genesis iii. 1 7-1 8a. And unto Adam
he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto
the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the
tree, of which I commanded thee, saying,
Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground
for thy sake ; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it
all the days of thy life ;

Thorns also and thistles shall it bring
forth to thee ; [cf. C3]

genesis iii. 186-19. And thou shalt eat
the herb of the field ;

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat
bread, till thou return unto the ground;
for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou
art, and unto dust shalt thou return, [cf. C4]

genesis iii. 20. And Adam called his
wife's name Eve ; because she was the mother
of all living. [cf. c c]

genesis iii. 21. Unto Adam also and to
his wife did the lord God make coats of
skins, and clothed them. [cf. c6]

genesis iii. 22-24. And the lord God
said, Behold, the man is become as one of us,
to know good and evil: and now, lest he
put forth his hand, and take also of the tree
of life, and eat, and live for ever:

Therefore the lord God sent him forth
from the garden of Eden, to till the ground
from whence he was taken.

So he drove out the man; and he placed
at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims,
and a flaming sword which turned every
way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

genesis iv. i. And Adam knew Eve his
wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain,
and said, I have gotten a man from the lord.

[cf. C8]

genesis iv. 2. And she again bare his
brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of
sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.

[cf. c 9 ]

genesis iv. 3-4. [And in process of time
it came to pass, that Cain brought of the
fruit of the ground an offering unto the

LORD.]

And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings
of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the
lord had respect unto Abel and to his
offering: [cf. D$]

Note : Genesis ir. 3 has been misplaced and
should be read with Genesis iv. 23—26. See
Introduction, p. 10; cf. d6.

genesis iv. £— 8. But unto Cain and to his
offering he had not respect. And Cain was
very wroth, and his countenance fell.

And the lord said unto Cain, Why art
thou wroth? and why is thy countenance
fallen?

If thou doest well, shalt thou not be
accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin
lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his
desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

And Cain talked with Abel his brother:
and it came to pass, when they were in the
field, that Cain rose up against Abel his
brother, and slew him. [cf. D4]

genesis iv. 9— 11. And the lord said
unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother?
And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's
keeper?

And he said, What hast thou done? the
voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me
from the ground.

And now art thou cursed from the earth,
which hath opened her mouth to receive
thy brother's blood from thy hand ;

[cf- 03]

genesis iv. 12-14. When thou tillest
the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto
thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond
shalt thou be in the earth.

And Cain said unto the lord, My punish-
ment is greater than I can bear.

Behold, thou hast driven me out this day
from the face of the earth; and from thy
face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive
and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall
come to pass, that every one that findeth
me shall slay me. [cf. D2]

genesis iv. ic. And the lord said unto
him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, ven-
geance shall be taken on him sevenfold.
And the lord set a mark upon Cain, lest
any finding him should kill him. [cf. di]

genesis iv. 16-20. And Cain went out
from the presence of the lord, and dwelt
in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.

And Cain knew his wife; and she con-
ceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a
city, and called the name of the city, after
the name of his son, Enoch.

And unto Enoch was born Irad: and Irad
begat Mehujael ; and Mehujael begat Methu-
sael ; and Methusael begat Lamech.

And Lamech took unto him two wives:
the name of the one was Adah, and the name
of the other Zillah.

And Adah bare Jabal: he was the father
of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have
cattle. [cf. D9]

genesis iv. 21. And his brother's name
was Jubal: he was the father of all such as
handle the harp and organ. [cf. d8]

genesis iv. 22. And Zillah, she also bare
Tubal-cain, an instructer of every artificer
in brass and iron: and the sister of Tubal-
cain was Naamah. [cf. dj]

genesis iv. 23-26. And Lamech said
unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear my
voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto
my speech: for I have slain a man to my
wounding, and a young man to my hurt.

If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly
Lamech seventy and sevenfold.

And Adam knew his wife again; and she
bare a son, and called his name Seth: For
God, said she, hath appointed me another
seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.

And to Seth, to him also there was born a
son; and he called his name Enos: then
began men to call upon the name of the
lord. [cf. d6]

35-

THE HEBRON ICONS

(ai) The generation of the great egg, laid in darkness, whereof the
shell brake and gave birth to all mountains and plains and rivers and
seas, and to the sun and moon, and to the stars of the firmament,
and to every thing that hath life.

cf. genesis i.i

(A2) In the beginning the world was without form and void. And our
Great Mother Eurynome rose naked from the abyss and, looking
about her, found that she was alone. She danced in the darkness, and
by her dancing the air was set in motion. A wind blew upon her face
from the north, and she took it in her hands to rub it, giving it the
similitude of a speckled serpent.

This same serpent lusted after our Mother and she suffered him to
cast his coils about her body, and to know her. But as yet he had no
name.

And in process of time our Mother took the form of a dove and
brooded upon the face of the water and was delivered of a great egg ;
which the Serpent coiled about to hatch it, so that it split open and
all things were created.

cf. genesis i. 2

(A3) Now, when our Great Mother looked upon her works and
saw that they were good, she established the years and the seasons,
and the months and the weeks for ever. And each week she divided
into seven nights and days.

The first day of the week she gave unto the sun, and made it a day
of light and healing.

cf. genesis i-3-£

(a 4) The second day she gave unto the moon, and made it a day of
enchantment, and of rain and all living waters.

cf. genesis i. 6 — 8

(a^) The third day she gave unto the earth, and made it a day of joy
and of all the trees and herbs that nourish man and beast.

cf. genesis i.9-13

(a 6) The fourth day she gave unto the air, and made it a day of
wisdom, and of the signs that are set in the firmament.

cf. genesis i. 14-19

(A7) The fifth day she gave unto the salt seas, and made it a day of awe,
and of all creatures that dwell in the deep or that fly across the face
of the deep.

cf. GENESIS i. 20-23

(a 8) The sixth day she gave unto fire, and made it a day of love,
whereby all beasts and fowls and creeping things are united, male
with female, and are one flesh, and increase and multiply.

cf. genesis i. 24-3 1

(a 9) The seventh day she gave unto repose, and made it a day of idle-
ness, whereon men eat and drink and have no care. Then did our
Mother create seven powers to rule the seven days : Hyperion for the
first day, Phoebe for the second, Crius for the third, Themis for the
fourth, Tethys for the fifth (whose children were Adanus and
Hebe), Rhea for the sixth, and Cronus for the seventh.

cf. GENESIS ii.I-3

(bi) Now, when our Great Mother Eurynome had accomplished all
these things, she spurned the Serpent with her heel and bruised his
head, and brake his teeth, that he might not boast himself to be the
creator of the world.

And she drave him from her to the garden of Adanus, which lieth
in the midst of the earth, eastward from the land of Egypt, and called
his name Death ; but others call him Ophion. (And of his teeth sprang
the first race of mortal men, the Sons of Ophion, who raged furiously
together, every man against his neighbour.)

cf. genesis iii.14-1^

(B2) Now, Hebe daughter of Rhea dwelt in the garden of Adanus,
her brother, a damsel cunning in song. And she 1 charmed the Serpent
with the voice of her singing that he did her no harm, but suffered
her to remain in the garden and eat all the fruits thereof, save only
the fruit of the apple tree whereon he hanged.

cf. GENESIS iii.13

(B3) And Cerdo, a daughter of Ophion, bore twin sons unto her
kinsman Phoroneus which first made the fire- wheel ; and called their
names Agenor and Belus. And when the young man Belus passed
by the garden of Adanus and heard the sound of Hebe's voice, how
she sang to the Serpent, his soul was ravished.

Therefore he entered into the garden and constrained her to lie
with him.

And it came to pass that, in the cool of the evening, Agenor,
which was twin to Belus, went to seek his brother. And hearing
voices from within the garden of Adanus, he likewise entered and
called to Belus by name, but he answered not.

cf. genesis iii.8-12

(B4) Then Agenor espied Belus and Hebe, where they privily tied
their girdles of leaves about them to cover their nakedness, and
he knew what they had done together and was consumed by jealousy ;
for he also desired to lie with Hebe. And Hebe fell into a like
passion for Agenor.

cf. genesis iii.7

(b^) And the Serpent Death, being very subtle, said unto Hebe:
'Desirest thou greatly to lie with Agenor? Behold, he shall be thine,
if thou wilt but deliver his brother Belus into my hand. ' She answered
and said: 'How shall I accomplish this thing? '

And the Serpent answered and said: 'Pluck the fruit which hangeth
from the topmost branch of this tree ; and give unto Agenor the flesh
of the fruit to eat, but do thou eat the seeds. '

Then Hebe bade Agenor pluck the fruit, and gave him to eat of
the flesh, and herself ate the seeds.

cf. genesis iii.i-6

5°

(b6) Now in this fruit was the life of Belus, and he fell and lay as one
dead.

And Agenor would have uncovered Hebe's nakedness, but she
forbade him, saying: 'Not yet. Desirest thou truly to be one flesh
with me? Then must thou slay thy brother Belus. For thus the
Serpent Death commanded me.'

cf. genesis ii. 2 3-2 £

(bj) Wherefore Agenor ran boldly against Belus where he lay, and
thrust him under the fifth rib with a sharp stone of flint, and he died.

cf. genesis ii. 2 1—2 2

(b8) But Agenor set the head of Belus in the garden of Adanus, and
the Serpent spake oracles through the mouth of Belus. And Agenor
sojourned in the land of Hebron, where are many rivers, which flow
out of the garden, and many beasts and fowls useful to man ; and he
dressed the trees of the land and ate their fruit.

cf. GENESIS ii.8-20

(B9) Thereafter Hebe formed men out of clay to be her bondservants,
and a help to Agenor where he laboured in the field, and she breathed
the breath of life into their nostrils. And this was the second creation
of mortal men.

cf. genesis ii.4-7

£4

(ci) Yet Hebe wept for Belus, to appease his ghost, and went daily
into the garden of Adanus.

cf. genesis iii.i6a

(C2) Then the Serpent spake to Hebe through the mouth of Belus,
saying: 'Behold, I will bring thee to the birth-stool.' And she
answered: 'Be it with me according to thy will.'

cf . genesis iii . 1 6b

(C3) But Agenor laboured on the earth and cut thorns and thistles,
and cleared a field for sowing.

cf. genesis iii.17— 18a

(C4) And he digged it; and Hebe planted corn and made bread
withal, and she gave him to eat.

cf. genesis iii. 1 8b— 19

(cc) Hebe also ruled the men of clay and judged them.

cf. GENESIS iii.20

(c6) And she taught them to dress the skins of swine and fashion
coats and girdles.

cf. genesis iii.21

(C7) But when certain men of clay entered into the garden of Adanus,
the Serpent drave them thence ; and he set a fire-wheel at the Eastern
gate of the garden, against they essayed to enter in again, not being
of his posterity.

cf. genesis iii.22-24

(c8) Now, in the seed which Hebe had eaten was the life of Belus,
and of this seed was a son born unto her according to the word which
the Serpent spake, and she called his name Iasus.

cf. genesis iv.i

(C9) Then said Agenor unto Hebe: 'Shall this child not die?' She
answered him saying: 'Nay, but suffer him to live, and I will bear thee
a son like unto thyself.'

And she conceived and brought forth a son, and called his name
Cepheus, wherefore Agenor spared the life of Iasus. Now, Cepheus
was a labourer, even as his father Agenor had been ; but Iasus was a
shepherd, like unto Bel his father.

cf. genesis iv.2

(di) And the Serpent Death spake again through the mouth of Belus,
and said unto Iasus: 'My son, I appoint thee to avenge the jealous
blood which Agenor shed when he slew thy father.' And he set a
cross of blood upon his brow.

cf. genesis iv.ic

(d2) Wherefore Iasus took up a sharp stone of flint and ran hastily,
and came upon Agenor where he tilled the groimd.

cf. genesis iv.12-14

(D3) And reproached him, saying: 'Wherefore slewest thou thy
brother Belus which was my father? Behold, his blood crieth to me
from the ground.'

cf. genesis iv.9-1 1

(D4) But Agenor dissembled, and said: 'Who set this foolishness in
thine heart ? '

Then Iasus answered: 'The Serpent spake unto me through the
mouth of Belus my father, and appointed me to be the avenger of
his blood.'

When Agenor heard that, his countenance was darkened, and he
sought to flee, but Iasus caught him by the hair of his head and slew
him.

cf. GENESIS iv.£-8

(d^) And Iasus purified himself of the blood which he had shed, and
offered sacrifices to our Great Mother from his flocks.

cf. genesis iv.4

(d6) But in the fullness of time the Serpent called for Cepheus, whom
Hebe had born to Agenor, and set a cross of blood upon his brow
also, and said: 'My son, I appoint thee to avenge the blood which
Iasus shed, though he be thy brother. Behold, this is the brand of
Agenor whom Iasus slew!'

Wherefore Cepheus brought an offering of the fruit of the earth
unto our Great Mother, and he took vengeance upon Iasus, and slew
him. And Cepheus revealed the matter unto Hebe, and unto the
wives which he had taken of the daughters of men, saying: 'Alas, I
have killed a young man to my hurt! ' And they mourned for Iasus;
and all their household together.

cf. genesis iv.3 and 23-26

(D7) And Hebe taught the sons of her house, both bond and free, to
be artificers in brass and iron.

cf. genesis iv.22

(d8) And instructed them in singing and music.

cf. GENESIS IV. 2 I

(D9) And gathered all them that dwelt in tents into a city, which she
called by the name of their forefather Phoroneus ; the same is now
Hebron. So our nation began, and on the avenger of blood vengeance
is taken unto this day.

cf. genesis iv. 16-20

Date Due

Due

Returned

Due

Returned

■ / .

ocratw

Adam's rib, main
213G776a 1958 C 3

3 ISbS 03570 S112

KEEP CARD IN POCKET

ResLib'

IT IS IMPORTANT THAT
CARD BE KEPT IN POCKET

303 UD

(L-3