Astronomy (aarpovoftia, the laws of the stars'), a science which appears to have grown out of astrolo- gy (q. v.). The cradle of astronomy is to bo found in
ASTRONOMY
500
ASTRUC
Asia. Pliny, in his celebrated enumeration (Hist. Nat. vii, 57) of the inventors of the arts, sciences, and conveniences of life, ascribes the discovery of astrono- my to Phoenician mariners, and in the same chapter he speaks of astronomical observations found on burnt bricks (coctilibus laterculis) among the Babylonians, which ascend to above 2200 years before his time. Alexander sent to Aristotle from Babylon a series of astronomical observations, extending through l'JOO years. The astronomical knowledge of the Chinese and Indians goes up to a still earlier period (ITin. Hist. Nat. vi, 17-21). From the remote East astron- omy travelled in a westerly direction. The Egyptians at a very early period had some acquaintance with it. To them is to be ascribed a pretty near determination of the length of the year, as consisting of 3G5 days (Herodotus, ii, 4). The Egyptians were the teachers of the Greeks. Some portion of the knowledge which prevailed on the subject would no doubt penetrate to and become the inheritance of the Hebrews, who do not, however, appear to have possessed any views of astronomy which raised their knowledge to the rank of a science, or made it approach to a more correct theory of the mechanism of the heavens than that which was generally held. A peculiarity of the great- est importance belongs to the knowledge which the Israelites display of the heavens, namely, that it is thoroughly imbued with a religious character; nor is it possible to find in any other writings, even at this day, so much pure and elevated piety, in connection with observations on the starry firmament, as may be gathered even in single books of the Bible (Amos v, 8 ; Psalm xix). This was no doubt owing in part to the fact that the practice of astrology was interdicted to the Hebrews (Deut. xviii, 10). As earl)' as the time of the composition of perhaps the oldest book in the Bi- ble, namely, that of Job, the constellations were distin- guished one from another, and designated by peculiar and appropriate names (Job ix, 9 ; xxxviii, 31). In the Bible are found, (1) Heylel' (^j?"1!^), "the morning star," the planet Venus (Isa. xiv, 12; Rev. ii, 28); (2) Klmali' (!T2"), "Lucifer," " Pleiades," "the sev- en stars" (Job ix, 9 ; xxxviii, 31 ; Amos v, 8), the Pleiades; (3) Kesil' (b^OS), "Orion," a large and brilliant constellation, which stands in a line with the Pleiades. The Orientals seem to have conceived of Orion as a huge giant who had warred against God, and as bound in chains to the firmament of heaven (Job xxxviii, 31) ; and it has been conjectured that this notion is the foundation of the history of Nimrod (Gesen. Comment, zu Isaiah, i, 457). (4) Ash (233?), (Job ix, 9), " Arcturus," the Great Bear, which has still the same name among the Arabians (Niebuhr, p. 113). See Job xxxviii, 32, where the sons of Arcturus are the three stars in the tail of the Bear, which stand in a curved line to the left. (5) Nachash' (EJUS), (Job xxvi, 13, "the crooked serpent"), Draco, between the Great and the Little Bear; a constellation which spreads itself in windings across the heavens. (G) Dioscuri, kioaKovpoi (Acts xxviii, 11, "Castor and Pollux"). Gemini, or the Twins, on the belt of the Zo- diac, which is mentioned in 2 Kings xxiii, 5, under the general name of "the planets" (r.ib-f-^. Maze loth"), a word which signifies dwellings, stations in which the sun tarries in his apparent course through the heavens; and also by the kindred term " Mazza- ttOTH" (I Vq, Job xxxviii, 32). (Compare Gen. xxxvii, 9.) The entire body of the stars was called "the uost of beaven" (Isa. xl, 26; Jer. xxxiii, 22).
's a.h of tiie words here enumerated in its alpha*
betical order.) No trace is found in the Old Testa- ment of a division of the heavenly bodies into planets, fixed stars, and comet-; but in .hide 13, the phrase ■'-wandering stars" i«rr;„,,: irXavrjrai) is employed figuratively. After the Babylonish exile, the Jews
were compelled, even for the sake of their calendar, to attend at least to the course of the moon, which be- came an object of study, and delineations were made of the shapes that she assumes (Mishna, Ilosh ll.is.h. ii, 8 ; Mitchell, Astron. of Bible, N. Y. 1863). See Year. At an early period of the world the worship of the stars arose from that contemplation of them which in every part of the globe, and particularly in the East, has been found a source of deep and tranquil pleasure. See Adoration. "Men by nature" "deemed either fire or wind, or the swift air, or the circle of the stars, or the violent water, or the lights of heaven to be the gods which govern the world ;" " with whose beauty being delighted, they took them to be gods" (Wisdom xiii, 2). Accordingly, the religion of the Egyptians, of the Chaldees, Assj'rians, and the ancient Arabians, was nothing else than star-worship, although in the case of the first its origin is more thickly veiled. The sun, moon, and seven planets (those, that is, of the fixed stars which shine with especial brightness) ex- cited most attention, and won the greatest observance. We thus find, among the Babylonians, Jupiter (Belus, Gad, *l|,, Isa. lxv, 11), Venus ("Op, Meni' ', Isa. lxv, 11, where the first is rendered in the common version "that troop," the second, "that number"). Both these were considered good principles, the Heb. words both signifying fortune, i. e. good luck. Mercury, honored as the secretary of heaven, is also found in Isa. xlvi, 1, "Neeo (133) stoopeth;" Saturn ("^3, Kiyun, " Chiun," Amos v, 26); Mars ('5"0, " Ner- gal," 2 Kings xvii, 30); the last two were worship- ped as principles of evil. The character of this wor- ship was formed from the notions which were enter- tained of the good or ill which certain stars occasioned. Astrology found its sphere principally in stars con- nected with the birth of individuals. Thus Herodotus (ii, 82) states that among the Egyptians every day was under the influence of some god (some star), and that according to the day on which each person was born, so would be the events he would meet with, the character he would bear, and the period of his death. Astrology concerned itself also with the determination of lucky and unlucky days ; so in Job iii, 3, " Let the day perish wherein 1 was born ;" and Gal. iv, 10, "Ye observe days, and months, and times, and j'ears." The Chaldaeans, who studied the stars at a very early period, were much given to astrology, and were cele- brated for their skill in that pretended science (Isa. xlvii, 13). (See further on this general subject, Ham- mer, Ueber die Stembilder der Araber; Ideler, Unter- suchungen iib. d. Sternnamen, Berl. 1809; also Ueb. die Astron. der Alten, Berl. 1806; Weidler, Hist. Astronom. Viteb. 1714 ; Neumann, A strognostischs Benenniinyen im A. T. Bresl. 1819.)— Kitto, s. v. See Star.