Helel and the Dawn-Goddess: A Re-Examination of the Myth in Isaiah XIV 12-15

J. W. McKay

Vetus Testamentum, Vol. 20, Fasc. 4. (Oct., 1970), pp. 451-464.

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HELEL AND THE DAWN-GODDESS

A re-examination of the myth in Isaiah XIV 12-15

J. W. McKAY Hull

12. How you have fallen from the heavens, Helel ben Shahar;

You have been cut down to the ground, 0 weakling above the nations 2).

13. It was you who said in your heart, "I shall ascend the heavens;

above the stars of El I shall raise high my throne;

and I shall sit on the Mount of Assembly, on the slopes of Saphon;

14. I shall ascend above the heights of the clouds, I shall make myself like Elyon".

15. But you have been brought down to Sheol, to the recesses of the Pit.

For many decades commentators have found difficulty in explaining the mythological allusions in Is. xiv 12-15. I t used to be a commonly accepted hypothesis that the myth of Helel ben Shahar was based upon some now unknown Mesopotamian original 3), but since the discovery of the Ras Shamra texts it has been increasingly recognized that the mythology in these verses is more appropriate to a Canaanite-

') Slany commentators prefer the pointing 5?;1, sometimes on analogy with

Arabic J-$, the new crescent-moon (cf. H. WINCKLER, Geschichte Israels 11,

1900,p. 24; D. WINTON THOMAS, Liber Jesaiae, BH4, 1968, p. 22), or sometimes on the grounds of Hebrew grammar (cf. G . B. GRAY, Isaiah I - X X V I I , ICC, 1912,p. 257). But since 5y1gis a proper name and a hapax legomenon, it is perhaps

best to retain the original pointing. 2, See below, p. 452, n. 4. 3, J. SKINNER,Isaiah I - X X X I X , CBSC, 1960, p. 122; G. W. WADE,

Isaiah, WC, 1911, pp. 100-1;G . B. GRAY, op. cit., pp. 225-6; H . GUNKEL,Scb6pfung und Chaos, 1895, pp. 132-4.

Israelite setting I): the Mount of Assembly (win 73) may be com- pared with the Mount of El ('gr.11) where the assembly of the gods (pbr.mCd) of Ugarit took place 2), Saphon ( p r ) is well known from the Old Testament and from the Ras Shamra texts as the mountain of the gods ($n) 3), El was the supreme god of the Canaanite pan- theon 4), Elyon (71'1'7~) was a Canaanite deity known from the Old Testament and from Philo of Byblos 5), and She01 ('7l~ai) and the Pit (113) feature frequently in Hebrew cosmology 6). However, although the majority of scholars would now agree that the natural setting for the myth is to be found on the eastern hiediterranean seaboard, debate about the provenance of the myth and about the identification of Helel and Shahar continues.

It has been suggested that Helel and Shahar represent different aspects of the Moon. The Arabs called the new crescent Moon hilal, while sahr or iahr could denote the Moon or the Moon-god in Arabic, Aramaic, Syriac and Ethiopic. By repointing 'If/?;ras 5>.;1 and by

emending ~ R Wto WD, the divine names in Is. xiv 12 could be trans- lated "New Moon-god, son of the Moon-god" '). There are, how- ever, two important reasons why this solution should be considered unsatisfactory. Firstly, it seems unlikely that the word lnai, which occurs frequently in the Old Testament, should be emended to ~ n i v which is otherwise unknown in Biblical Hebrew. Secondly, there is no known Semitic myth in which the Moon-god or New Moon-god at- tempts to usurp the throne of heaven. Both these criticisms are argz/-menta e silentio, but they must be regarded as significant if a satisfactory solution can be formulated, as seems possible, from known data.

Helel and Shahar have also been likened to different aspects of the Sun. Helel has been identified with Nergal, the fiery Sun-god of

l) R. B. Y. SCOTT,Isaiah IB 5, pp. 261-2; R. E. CLEMENTS, 1-33 , God and Temple, 1965, p. 7; P. GRELOT, "Isaie XIV 12-15 et son arrikre-plan mythologique" RHR 149,1956, pp. 18-48.

2, B I11* B. 12, 18 (for all references to the Ugaritic texts, see G. R. DRIVER, Canaanite AQths and Legends, 1956). On the translation "Mount of El" see K.E. CLEMENTS,op. cit., p. 7, n. 1; M.13. POPE,El iiz the Ugaritic Texts, SVT 11, 1955, pp. 68-72.

3, Ps.xlviii2;BI*.i.1l;II.iv.19;II.v.23,55;etc. 4, C' A. S. KAPELRUD,The Rar Shamra Discoveries and the Old Testament, 1965,

p. 30. 6, EUSEBIUS, " T # L ~ G < ) ;Praeparatio Evangelica, I. 10. 11 ('E'hloh ~ a h o - 5 ~ ~ ~ 0 ~

equated with Yahweh in the Old Testament, cf. Ps. ix 3; xviii 14; xxi 8. 8, Cf. Ps. xxx 4; lxxxviii 4-7; cxliii 7. ') H. WINCKLER, THOMAS,op. cit., p. 24; D. w~~~~~ op. cit., p. 22; N. H.

SNAITH,The jezvid New Year Festiva/, 1947, p. 97.

453 HELEL AND THE DAWN-GODDESS

midsummer who departs into the underworld at the onset of winter, while Shahar, associated in Hos. vi 1-3 with the winter rains, has been compared with the winter Sun I). Although this theory gives meaning and purpose to the myth by bringing it within the context of the cycle of fertility, it stands open to objection. ? n ~in the Old Testament is the normal Hebrew word for "dawn", and it is doubtful whether it ever bore the secondary meaning which this identification suggests. It cannot be regarded as particularly significant that inw should frequently share in the Sun's attributes, for the dawn as a natural phenomenon is intimately associated with the Sun.

A third suggestion is that Helel should be identified with Jupiter. It is argued that only the royal star, Jupiter-Marduk, who is called el2 in Accadian, would have provided a suitable object for comparison with the king of Babylon 2). However, Marduk was king of the gods and already occupied the heavenly throne. Likewise the planet Jupiter regularly attains the celestial zenith and cannot correspond to a deity which fails to ascend "above the stars of El". Furthermore, there is no evidence that Marduk was the son of a dawn-god or -goddess. According to Entlma Elish i 78-84 his parents were Ea and Damkina.

The theory most widely favoured today is that Is. xiv 12-15 is a nature myth and that Helel is "the shining one" 3), the brightest star in the morning sky, Venus as the morning star. Venus, like Mercury, lies inside the Earth's orbit and appears in the west at evening fol- lowing the Sun to rest and in the east at or before dawn rising before the Sun. Because of its orbital path it is never seen to attain the ce- lestial zenith before it is blotted from sight by the light of the rising Sun. Instead it seems to the observer that it is unable to ascend "above the stars of El" and is compelled to descend from its highest point towards the morning horizon 4), eventually disappearing from

l) H. G. LAY, "Some Aspects of Solar Worship at Jerusalem", Z A W . IVF 14, 1937, pp. 269-81; "The Departure of the Glory of Yahweh", JBL 56, 1937, pp. 309 A. J. MORGENSTERN, The Fire upon the Altar, 1963, passim, thinks of Shahar as the rising Sun-god at the autumn New Year Festival.

2 , G. R. DRIVER, "Stars", HDB2, pp. 936-8; 4.S, H. LANGDON,Semitic ~tGthologv,1931, pp. 137 ff.

3, Cf. Accadian e l h , "shining". 4, It is probably because of this obseryation that Helel is derisively betitled

"weakling above the nations" ( v . 12). ~ Y l nis the Qal participle from the verb

w%, "to be weak", "to be prostrate". The translation of the EVV, "you who laid lowlweakened the nations", follows the transitive sense of the verb used in Exod. xvii 13. Jonah iv 10 uses the form w)!l with the meaning "weak", "the

view, as it were "cut down to the ground" and "brought down to Sheol, to the recesses of the Pit" beneath the eastern horizon I).

The strength of this interpretation is that it does not require textual emendation, it recognizes the normal meaning of the word Y n a i and it brings the myth within the context of known ancient mythology. Already at the end of last century GUNKEL, whilst generally arguing for a Babylonian background, noted that "in a similar vein is the Greek myth of the early death of Phaethon, son of Eos; furthermore, Phaethon is the morning-star, and in meaning the word cDaf0wv is identical with 55-3 (shining)" 2). P. GRELOT took up and developed this suggestion in the most detailed study of Is. xiv 12-15 yet undertaken 3). He notes that cpai0ov is not just a proper name in Greek literature, but a descriptive term applied variously to the Sun, the Moon, Jupiter and Auriga. However, he shows that @ai0ov and Adrpxos, the horses of Eos (Od. xxiii 246) and @ai~ouoa and A a p x ~ s i ~ ,the daughters of Helios (Od. xii 132), do seem to correspond to the two morning stars, Venus and Mercury. He also reminds us that in HESIOD (Theog. 986) Phaethon was a son of Eos and was associated with Aphrodite-Venus who "carried off the young boy . . . and made him a night-watchman (~~oxohiov vl;xlov) in the divine sanctuaries, a divine spirit (6aipova 616~)" (Theog. 988-91). Phaethon the horse, Phaethon the son of Eos and Phaetousa the daughter of Helios are, he believes, variant mythological symbols for one and the same phenomenon, Venus as the morning star, and therefore identical with Heosphoros, son of Eos (Theog. 378 fl.He then goes on to show how with the development of Greek mythology

b J weak one", cf. Aramaic dp?, Syriac d&mean "weak" and Arabic &,. means "poor". l)illin Is. xiv 12 may therefore mean "weakling", from the

intransitive sense of the verb, as used in Job xiv 10. 1f whn refers to the king of Babylon, then the translation of the EVV is appropriate, but if, as seems more likely, it refers to Helel who has fallen, then the translation "weakling" fits the context of the taunt song better. ~ ~ 1 1 3 ' 5 ~must then be understood as topograph- ical since it cannot be the object of an intransitive verb, and the emendation nlqll;l-!'Y ("lying powerless on the corpses") proposed by GUNKEL, 03.cit., p. 132, cf. T. K. CI~EYNE,Isaiah, SBOT, 1899, p. 124, is entirely unnecessary. Venus as the morning star rises before the sun in the eastern sky and from Pa- lestine would always appear "above the nations".

1) R. B. Y. SCOTT,op. cit., p. 261; R. E. CLEMENTS,op. cit., p. 7 ; J . SKINNER, op. cit., p. 122; P. GRELOT, op. cit., p a ~ ~ i m .

a) H. GUNKEL, cit., pp. 133-4. o?. 3) P. GRELOT, op. cit.

HELEL AND THE DAWN-GODDESS 455

Phaethon became a mere demi-god, the son of Helios, and the central figure in what is little more than a moral tale: Phaethon, son of Helios, a proud and arrogant youth, demanded and reluctantly ob- tained the permission of his father to drive the sun-chariot across the sky, but he proved too weak to restrain the solar horses who, excited by their new-found freedom, rushed wildly upwards endangering the heavens and downwards setting fire to the earth, until finally, to save the earth from destruction, Zeus struck the boy with a thunderbolt and his corpse fell from the chariot into the River Eridanus. GRELOT maintains that although there is much that is secondary in its develop- ment, this story is designed to illustrate the consequences of i jpp~q,

which is precisely the sin of Helel ben Shahar. The evidence, he sug- gests, is cumulative and it must be concluded that Helel is the same personage as Phaethon-Venus.

He then turns to the Ugaritic texts in search of a solution to the problem of mediation. Here he finds that Athtar (who in South Arabia is the god Venus) is, like Phaethon, an impetuous and am- bitious god who attempts to supplant first Yam (B 111%c) and then Baal (B III.i.26-37), but who on both occasions is frustrated in his plans. Although Athtar is presented as a son of Athirat (B III.i.15 f f ) , GRELOTsuggests the texts imply only that he belongs to the Athirat faction, a group of gods who stand opposed to Baal, or that he is a "descendant" of Athirat. Therefore, he argues, Athtar may be iden- tified with Helel, for Helel is son of Shahar (Is. xiv 12) whilst Shahar and Shalirn are sons of hthirat and Rahmiya (S ii. 17-19). Thus GRELOTmaintains that the same myth about the same gods is to be found in the literatures of Greece, Ugarit and Israel, albeit in variant forms.

GRELOT'Sstudy is to be welcomed as a most refreshing and scholarly attempt to solve an old problem, but it does leave some questions unanswered and is not entirely without its difficulties. His analysis of the Greek material is most interesting and illuminating, for it does help to overcome one of the basic difficulties in the comparison of Helel with Phaethon, namely the problem posed by the presence of several Phaethons in classical mythology. However, there remains one serious difficulty for the equation of Helel with Phaethon. The parent-deities would not appear to correspond, for Eos was a goddess whose beauty the Greeks extolled, while Shahar, with his brother Shalim, is a voracious young male god who roams the desert fringes "lips to earth and lips to heaven" devouring all things in his path and

yet is unsated (S ii.27 A). Secondly, GRELOT'S study of the Ugaritic material does not seem to be entirely satisfactory. It is not at all clear from the texts that Athtar is an impetuous and ambitious god who attempts to supplant Baal. Indeed it does not appear to have been of his own choice that he ascended the throne (B III.i.16 A) and it has been suggested that he was a mere weakling and a puppet of the gods who "was chosen as a substitute for Baal just because of his in- competence" I). He certainly did not have to be thrown down from heaven as did Phaethon and Helel, for he admits his own incompetence and willingly descends from the throne of Baal (B 1II.i. 34 A). Further-more, GRELOT seems to be seeking an easy way out of a difficult corner when he suggests that El asked Athirat to appoint one of her des- cendants, not one of her sons (dbd. bbnmk, B III.i.l8), to the throne. Be that as it may, Shahar in the Ras Shamra texts is a new-born god, not a parent-god, and there is no evidence whatsoever that he was father of Athtar. The implication of NK i.24 - ii. 2 is that Baal was Athtar's father.

Despite these difficulties in GRELOT'S work, it does seem that he has pointed in the right direction for a solution to the problem of Is. xiv 12-15. It is my intention to try to show that the Hebrew and the Greek myths correspond even more closely than GRELOT suspected, and also to suggest that Phoenician mediation may still be maintained on the basis of the same Ras Shamra texts as those to which GRELOT appealed, but not on the grounds that we possess an Ugaritic equi- valent to the myth of Helel.

Our first problem is that Eos in Greek mythology was a female deity, the Dawn-goddess, whereas 7nai in the Old Testament is a masculine noun and presumably, when employed as the name of a deity, as in Is. xiv 12, designates a male Dawn-god. ibr in the Ugaritic texts is certainly a god and not a goddess. He and his brother, Slm, are sons of El (S ii. 19, 31), "gracious and fair gods, sons of princes" (dm. n'mm. wyfmm. bn. Srm, S i.1-2). However, there is much evidence to suggest that lnai was known in the South of Palestine as a feminine deity, the goddess of dawn.

In Hebrew grammar ynai is always a masculine noun and it gen- erally denotes the natural phenomenon, dawn. Nonetheless, it is

1) A. S. KAPELRUD,Baalin the Ras Shamra Texts, 1952, p. 99.

HELEL AND THE DAWN-GODDESS 457

never simply an inanimate time division, as 173 (morning) is, for example. 773 is usually prefixed by one of the prepositions: -3 (4. Ps. cxxx 6),-5 (cf. Ps. xxx 6),--ru (cf. Exod. xii lo), tHn (cf. Ruth ii 7), or -In (cf. Exod. xviii 13). From a total of 266 occurrences only five times is the noun accompanied by an active verb, but none of these instances attributes personality to ip: ip3;r nm5 (Exod. xiv 27; Judg. xix 26; Ps. xlvi 6), i p 3 ;In8 (Is. xxi 12) and i p > *nn(Ps.lxv 9) I). In contrast, inai is almost invariably accompanied by active verbs which do imply personalization, such as 971 (Is. lviii 8), 359 (4. Gen. xix 15), i l ~(Ps. lvii 9), 7pw (Song vi lo), 8r1(Hos. vi 3). Apart from one solitary occurrence of i n w l (Hos. x 15) 2), 'lnw is never prefixed by a temporal preposition and such descriptive phrases as ;rju inai;r in3 (Gen. xix 15) or inwa niju3 (Judg. xix 25) are em- ployed to express the time element, "at dawn". In these instances inw is generally prefixed by the definite article (Gen. xxxii 26, 27; Josh. vi 15; Judg. xix 25; 1 Sam. ix 26; Neh. iv 15; Jonah jv 7) proving beyond all doubt that the natural phenomenon is in mind and not a deity, but it seems likely that the stereotyped image of a dawn which "rises" may depend on an earlier conception of the dawn as a divine being 3).

Elsewhere in the Old Testament inw is generally a personalized being, according to the MT, but the Versions almost universally attempt to remove the anthropomorphisms. (a) In Ps. lvii 9 Shahar is depicted as asleep and to be wakened by the Psalmist who cries i n w ; ~ ' I ~ Y H ,"I shall awaken Shahar". The Versions all treat inw as temporal and make the verb intransitive: "I shall awake in the morningw4). Exactly the same text and the same translations recur in Ps. cviii 3.

') There is one place in the Old Testament where 773 is personalized: Job xxxviii 12, "Have you commanded the morning (1i)l) since your days began ?". But in this chapter many other natural phenomena are personalized in the same way, e.g. the sea (aa. 8-11), the light and the darkness (vv. 19-21),the rain, the dew, the ice, the hoarfrost (vv. 28-30), etc.

2, But some commentators would prefer to emend this text and read iy$? (in the storm), cf. RSV, BH3 in lot.

3, Since nature gods must correspond to nature, it is often difficult to distin-guish whether a text refers to the natural phenomenon or to the deity. It is doubtless correct that the use of the verb 359 in conjunction with lnai results from obser- vation of the natural phenomenon, but it also suggests that the dawn was per- sonalized in a way in which ij?3was not.

4, LXX, iE~y&pB.iioopac 6pBpou Vg., exsurgam diluculo Pesh., lap L+LLI Glo

(b) The text of Ps. cx 3 is difficult to translate and appears to have suffered greatly in transmission, but from the Massoretic punctuation it would seem that i p q n n n l n must be taken as one phrase I). ipqn,. . .

although a hapax legomenon, may be simply a poetic alternative for the more frequent in?#, or, as seems more plausible, the nzem-preformative

of inwn may be a reduplication of the final mem of a n i n and could have found its way into the text through careless copying 2). Whether inwn an% or i n w an in was the original reading, it is likely that the phrase should be translated "from the womb of dawn" or "from the womb of Shahar", in which case the Psalmist's imagery may reflect an ancient belief in a personalized feminine Dawn. Once more, however, the Versions remove the personalization and interpret intdn as of temporal significance only, as if the original text had read inw;r 91553,

(c) In Ps. cxxxix 9 the Psalmist animadverts on the possibility of taking the wings of Shahar (inw-%D) and dwelling in the uttermost parts of the sea. Shahar is here a winged being who has access to the remotest parts of the earth, yet cannot exceed the bounds of God's domain. Once more the Versions alter the text and all traces of a personalized dawn disappear 4).

(d) The femininity of Shahar is again attested in Song vi 10:

"Who is this who is looking down like Dawn, fair as the Moon, bright as the Sun, awe-inspiring as the Host (of Heaven)" 7.

l) 'Athnah at the end of ~ J W Bclearly suggests that the hemistich ended there.

H. GUNKEL,Die Pralmen, 1929, p. 486, suggested that the two words be separated, repointed (lnta'r! an?n) and translated "from the womb, from the dawn", 1nWn being regarded as the opening word of following hemistich, cf. Pesh. bFs pp e.This suggestion is accepted by The Psahs, W. 0.E. OESTERLEY, 1939, p. 462, but GUNKEL'S restoration of v . 3 demands drastic textual emendation.

z, For both suggestions, see BDB, p. 1007. 9 LXX, Ex y u c r r p b ~ x p b iocrq6pou k~cyivv.qcru crc. Vg., e x utero ante kclczyerclm gencli te 4, LXX, Ehv Bva'hkpo r&.q xrkpuyciq p o u

Vg., ri sclmpsero pennas (mea~) dilttccllo Pesh., l++? yIY1 &a pi1 d o

5, Cf.LXX 8kpp05 h 5 T E T G C ~ ~ ~ V U L . "crowd",On the meaning "company", "host", see G. B. GRAY, "The Meaning of the Hebrew word 5 8 ~ , 11,JQR

1898-9, pp. 92-101.

459 I-IELEL AND THE DAWN-GODDESS

In this verse Shahar appears as a symbol of beauty with whom the beloved is compared. T o suit the comparison the feminine nouns nn5 and nnn are used in place of the masculine nY3 and wnw I).

Similarly n i k t ~ has a feminine termination, but the poet found Ynai perfectly suitable without any modification. Furthermore, nnn, nn5 and ni5m all have the definite article in the MT, but inw does not, again suggesting personalization. In this instance the Versions retain the comparison as it stands in the MT 2).

(e) According to Job iii 9 and xli 10 (EVV 18), Shahar had notewor- thy eyelids (inw-~DYDY), a feminine characteristic in ancient times as it is today (Prov. vi 25). Although the Septuagint and Vulgate retain the reading of the MT in Job xli 10, they translate Job iii 9 in such a way that the allusion to "eyelids" is omitted 3).

(f) Finally, it must be remarked that the Versions also regard i n w in Is. xiv 12as the impersonal phenomenon, dawn 4 ) .

It seems most improbable that the hlT is corrupt in almost every place where Shahar is portrayed as a personalized being, and it must be that the Versions altered the text so often for one of two reasons. Either the translators were aware that Shahar was or had been thought of as a deity and they were attempting to remove the traces of this pagan notion, or, as seems more likely, by the time the translations were being made the idea of a Dawn-goddess had so faded that each occurrence of the word inw was naturally interpreted as referring either to a point of time or to a natural phenomenon. If the latter assumption is correct, then such phrases as "the wings of dawn", "the womb of dawn", "Helel son of dawn", "I shall awaken dawn", etc. would have lost much of their significance and would often have been virtually meaningless. However, in each of the instances quoted, inw appears without the definite article in the MT and is most cer- tainly portrayed as a female deity, a Dawn-goddess. Nor is it really surprising to discover that ynw was originally a goddess, since the

1) Wnai appears to have been both masculine and feminine in the Old Testa-ment, d.BBDB, p. 1039.

=) LLXX, h a d 6pOpo~. Vg., quasi attvova Pesh., l;gf *t

3, LXX, x a l p+ 1 6 0 ~hwaq6pov dvarkhhov~ra Vg., non videat . . .orturn surgentis aurorae

4, L X X , 6 dw0(~6poc,6 X P W ~b v a ~ k h h ~ v Vg., Lucifer, qui rnatze oriebaris Pesh., 1 ~ 9 ~ wL.1

460 J. W. MCKAY

feminine form, nmw, is found on line fifteen of the Moabite Stone. It is now possible to reconsider the comparison of Eos, the Greek

goddess of dawn, with Shahar. Eos in classical mythology was an amorous deity whose oldest lovers were Astraios, Cephalus and Tithon I). Most of the stories in which she features are about kid- nappings of handsome men to live with her. She is said to have abducted Memnon, Clitus and Cephalus 2, and her love for Orion resulted in his death at the hands of the jealous Artemis 3). Her beauty was well known to HOMER who spared nothing in singing her praise. To him she was the "saffron-robed" (xpox6ncxho<,II. viii I), "rosy-fingered" (ho808dxruho<,II. i 477, etc.), "beautiful" (xahfi, II. ix 708), "fair-tressed" (~6xh6xapo~, 390). She would indeed Od. v have been a suitable symbol of beauty and love as was Shahar in Job iii 9 and Song vi 10. Secondly, according to one tradition Eos spent her nights asleep with her lover Tithon in the ocean bed, whence she awoke and rose each morning 4) , and according to another Athene must arouse the lazy Eos to leave her golden throne by the ocean stream and to bring daylight to the world 5). I t may have been be- cause of a similar tradition in the mythology about Shahar that the Psalmist claimed that he would awaken Shahar (Ps. lvii 9) and that he thought of flight on the wings of Shahar to the uttermost parts of the sea (Ps. cxxxix 9) 6). Finally, by her lover Cephalus, Eos bore a son called Phaethon, whose name means "bright", "shining" (cpuiOwv) '), just as Shahar had a son, Helel, whose name had exactly the same meaning. -

It now appears that the equation of Helel and Phaethon proposed by GRELOT stands on a firm foundation since the parent deities, Shahar of Hebrew and Eos of Greek mythology, show a remarkable degree of correspondence with each other.

I) HESIOD,Theog. 984-7; 378-82; HOLIER, Od. v 1. 2, HOMER, Met. vii 711 ff; HYGINUS,Od. xv 250; O ~ I D , FaD. clxxxix 2-3. 3, HOMER,Od. v 121 ff. 4, HOMER,II. xi 1 ;xix 1.

HOMER,Od.xxiii 240 ff. O) In Ps. cxxxix 9 the uttermost parts of the sea may either he contrasted with

the heights to which Shahar could fly, or be considered one of the places to which she had access. To the Greeks Eos was seen to rise out of the Adriatic Sea, but this association with the sea must have been very much in the background in Hebrew mythology, since Shahar rose over the eastern desert.

HESIOD,Theog. 986-7.

HELEL AND THE DAWN-GODDESS

We may now turn to our second problem the question of mediation. Whilst it is difficult to agree with GRELOT'S answer to this question, it must be admitted that he looked for it in the most natural direction. The Greeks and Phoenicians were both sea-faring nations and Israel maintained close links with the Phoenician city-states from the time of Solomon onwards. C. H. GORDON has illustrated how interchange of mythology took place in the "Heroic Age" I), but in any age before the rise of Alexander the Great the sea-trading Semites of the north form an obvious link between the classical world and southern Palestine. Since the "Day-star, son of the Dawn" features in no known mythologies outside Greece and Palestine 2), it may be that future archaeological discoveries will prove that it was not the Phoenicians who were the mediators of the myth, but within the context of our present knowledge it is possible to show that Phoenician mediation is a plausible hypothesis. There is no known Canaanite or Phoenician myth which shows close correspondence with the myths of Helel or Phaethon, but mythological motifs in both are found in the Ugaritic texts.

In Ugaritic mythology Athtar, son of Lady Athirat of the Sea (rbt.'trt.ym), is chosen to fill the throne of the dead Aleyn-Baal, but is unable to do so, for "his feet reached not to the stool, his head reached not to its top". He was therefore obliged to return to rule over the earth 3), possibly as god of underground streams and irri- gation 4). This myth contains the motif, similar to that in Is. xiv 12-15, of the attempt of a minor deity to ascend the heavenly throne "in the recesses of Saphon" (b;rrt.;pn) and of his failure to do so. But it appears difficult at first to see how one could have influenced the other, for there are many differences. Athtar does not purpose to usurp the divine throne and returns willingly to earth: "I cannot be king in the recesses of Saphon". He is not imprisoned in the

I) C.H. GORDON, Before the Bible, 1962. 2, When Ishtar descends to Arallu in search of the dead Tammuz, she an-

nounces herself as i i tm i-lat ie-ri-e-ti (Ishtar, goddess of the morning), cf. F. DELITZSCH, Handworterbucb, 1896, p. 635. Ishtar is here acting the part A~vri~che.r played by Aphrodite in Greek mythology and Anat in the Ugaritic texts, and there is no account of her ever attempting to ascend the throne of the gods. She is not the daughter of the dawn, but the goddess of the dawn.

3) B 111. i. 26-39. 4, B III*c; 4 A. CAQIJOT, "Le Dieu (Aftr et les textes de Ras Shamra", .i'yria

35,1958, pp. 45-60,

underworld like Helel or cast down dead like Phaethon, but "became king of the earth, god of it all". Furthermore, Athtar is not called "son of Shahar", but seems to be son of Baal and Athirat 1). It has also been debated whether Athtar was an astral deity 2), even though his namesake in Arabian paganism was the planetary deity, Venus 3).

In view of the many differences between the two myths and the dubiety about Athtar's nature too detailed comparison 4, seems un- justifiable, but it is still possible to see in the light of the Ugaritic myth some traces of the process by which the original Greek myth of Phaethon may have been modified before it entered the Book of Isaiah.

It may be recalled that Eos spent her nights in the ocean bed and had her throne by the ocean stream 7.It may also be noted that the Phoenician -Palestinian mother-goddess was often associated with the sea. On an inscription from Delos Astarte of Ashkelon", 'AcT&~TY/ ncrhcr~a~ivy,features as a patroness of sailors together with the Greek Aphrodite-Venus 7), in the Old Testament Ashtoreth is the goddess of the sea-port, Sidon (cf. 1 Kings xi 5), and in the Ras Shamra texts Athirat was Lady of the Sea. Eos, Astarte, Ashtoreth and Athirat cannot be equated on these grounds g), but here at least is the possible link which explains the mutation of the Phaethon myth on the soil of Palestine, for it does seem likely, despite uncer- tainties, that Athtar in Ugarit may at least sometimes have been iden- tified with Venus 9). To the Greeks the dawn star rose out of the sea

l) See above, p. 456. =) A. CAQUOT, op. cit. 3, Cf.G. RYCKIIIANS, 1951, p. 41. Les Religians A r a b ~ s ~re'islanziqt~~s, 4) CJ. GRELOT,op. cit.; see also W. I;. ALBRIGFIT,Archaeology and the Religion

of Israel, 1953, p. 86. 5 , See above, p. 460. 6 ) HERODOTUS(i 105) says that a temple at Ashkelon dedicated to 4 Ohpavia

'Alppo8i~ywas the oldest of all the temples of Aphrodite. ') R. A. S. ~IACALISTER, The Philistines, 1913, pp. 93ff. " A. S. KAPELRUD, The Ras Shamra Discoveries and the Old Testament, p. 62,

thinks that Astarte and Athirat, though they may have been originally distinct, came to be fused or identified with each other.

Q, That Athtar at Ugarit was a star-god is primarily a deduction from "common Semitic terminology", d. A. CAQUOT, Syria 35, p. 55; see also J. MAC'CHLINE, "Ishtar -- 'Ashtart", TGUOS 10, 1940-1, pp.11-20. However, in a similar way, the determination of Helel as a star derives from a consideration of the meaning of his name; cf. mmu!tili/ (shining) is an epithet of Venus in Accadian (SKINNER, op. cit., p. 122). See also J. GRAY,"The Desert God (ATTR in the Literature and Religion of Canaan", JIVES 8, 1949, pp. 72-83, for the identification of Athtar with Venus, and R. D~JSSAUD, Pontos et E3acal", CKAI, 1947, pp. "Astarte, 201-24, for the association of Athtar with the sea.

463 HELEL AND THE DAWN-GODDESS

before the dawn itself and was thus the son of Eos. T o the sea-faring Phoenicians this dawn star would also have been naturally the son of a sea-goddess, as Athtar was the son of Athirat. Of course, the connection of Dawn and the Dawn-star with the sea was largely forgotten by the Hebrews who were not a sea-going people, although a memory of it may be retained in Ps cxxxix 9.

It is most unlikely that Helel and Shahar are to be in any way equated with Athtar and Athirat, although the Canaanite and Is- raelite deities may have had similar aspects. But there was scope for confusion and for one myth to influence the other. When the Greek myth entered Canaan it underwent change and modification in such a way that it became, to all intents and purposes, a wholly Canaanite tale and, although the dramatis personae remained unchanged, their roles became modified in the light of the more familiar Canaanite mythology I).

It may now be possible to trace, in conclusion, the steps by which the Greek myth became changed to appear as it does in Is. xiv 12-15. (a) In pre-Classical Greece Phaethon, son of Eos and Cephalus, became confounded with Heosphoros (Venus as the morning star) son of Eos and Astraios. He also became confused with the solar child who attempted to drive his father's chariot across the sky. (b) Possibly in the Heroic Age the Phaethon myth entered Syria- Palestine where there already existed the fertility myth in which Athtar, son of Athirat, was unable to occupy the throne of Baal. (c) Because of similaritjes between Athirat and Eos and probably between Phaethon and Athtar, the two myths became confused and Phaethon's attempt to scale the heights of heaven was translated in terms of an attempt to occupy the throne of the chief god.

I) I cannot agree with IZI. H. POPE when he argues that "the ultimate my- thological background of this allegory (the Helel myth), as also in the case of the Prince of Tyre in Ezek. xxviii, is a theomachy or Titanomachy, similar to the Hurrian and Greek versions, in which El and his champion (Prince Sea) and his cohorts were defeated and banished to the netherworld." (op. cit., p. 103) He carefully avoids the question of Helel's identity and deliberately translates 5 ~ ' ~ f312 as "the highest stars", but the implication is clearly that behind Is, xiv 13-15 lies a myth of the overthrolrr of El. But Helel's identity cannot be dismissed without discussion in this way and in no known Semitic or Greek myth is the primaeval high god a son of the Dawn. Besides, there were many theomachies in ancient mythology apart from the overthrow of El and Kronos. The influence of the theomachy motif may indeed be seen in the Helel myth, but the source of this influence does not appear to be as specific as POPE u~ould suggest.

464 McKAY, HELEL AND THE DAWN-GODDESS

(d) The names Phaethon and Eos were never modified, but simply translated, possibly because they corresponded well with the astral phenomenon of Venus as the dawn star which never reaches the summit of heaven but is always compelled to return to earth as a "weakling above the nations", eventually descending below the horizon into Sheol. (e) Finally, the goddess Shahar became so firmly embedded in Hebrew mythology that long after the word Ynai came to be used as a masculine noun signifying little more than the natural phenomenon, the dawn, the myth of her son was remembered in Israel and Shahar continued to retain many to the features of her Greek counterpart, Eos. I t is difficult to understand why Yna i should have become a masculine noun in Hebrew. fhr was masculine in Ugaritic, but the Moabite Stone uses a feminine form. Perhaps both forms were originally known in Israel, but for some reason only the masculine form has survived in Biblical Hebrew, possibly for the simple reason that it was the one more widely used, but perhaps also because the notion of a dawn-goddess was never more than a poetic symbol representing no active cult or faith.