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ON MARS AND PESTILENCE

Ev Cochrane

The recent emergence of archaeoastronomy as a science has produced a
wealth of information about the various celestial bodies.  To date,
however, the collection of information has proceeded at a faster pace than
has analysis. This is nowhere more apparent than in comparative analyses
of ancient traditions surrounding the planets.  One wants to know, for
example, what to make of the fact that the ancient Mesoamerican
skywatchers like their Babylonian counterparts represented the planet
Venus as a great warrior or as a fire-breathing dragon.61 Or why the
Babylonians together with several other advanced cultures described the
planet Saturn as a “Sun. 62 Such puzzles of planetary lore, difficult to
understand according to the central tenets of modern astronomy, could be
multiplied by the hundreds.

From a methodological standpoint, it is possible to investigate
archaeoastronomy from several different vantage points.  The most obvious,
of course, is to collect and analyze the ancients' observations and
traditions with regard to the various celestial bodies.  This task was
begun in the last century and is now well under way.

In addition to the information to be gained by simply compiling the
ancient traditions surrounding the respective planets, a second approach
would be to investigate the traditions surrounding ancient gods identified
with the various celestial bodies in the hope that some astronomical
information may have been preserved in the literature surrounding these
figures.  That the gods were identified with the planets early on is
well-known, of course, being a fundamental principle of Babylonian
religion.  The decisive question is how far back can this conception be
traced?  The Babylonian practice, in turn, is known to have had a
significant influence upon the religion of the ancient Greeks.63 Given
Plato's identification of Aphrodite with the planet Venus, for example,
one might compare the Greek traditions surrounding that goddess with
Babylonian and/or Mesoamerican traditions associated with the planet
Venus.  Surprising correspondences crop up even under the most cursory
investigation of this sort.  Thus Aphrodite was represented as "bearded",
as was the planet Venus in early Babylonian omen-literature.64 Inasmuch as
Aphrodite symbolized the very epitome of beauty and womanhood for the
ancient Greeks it is difficult to explain her anomalous beard apart from
the attested identification with the "bearded" planet.  Aphrodite's
"beard", apparently, represents a vestige of archaeoastronomical tradition
and raises a host of intriguing questions, not the least of which is what
other motives associated with the great Venusian goddesses have reference
to the appearance and/or behavior of the Cytherean planet?

A third strategy, hitherto overlooked, would be to compare ancient reports
surrounding the various planets with traditions involving heroes or
heroines identified with the respective planets.  Ancient beliefs
surrounding the planet Mars, for example, might be compared with
traditions surrounding Heracles, the identification of the Greek strongman
with the red planet being widespread in Hellenistic times.65 Here, too, it
would appear students of archaeoastronomy have overlooked a valuable
source of information.  Indeed, it was the vast nexus of characteristics
shared in common between the planet Mars and Heracles which led me to
postulate that the ultimate key to the myriad of mythological traditions
surrounding the Greek strongman was the primeval appearance and unusual
behavior of the red planet.66

In this article we propose to expand the horizons of archaeoastronomy by
exploring ancient beliefs associated with planets, gods, and heroes.  The
widespread association of the planet Mars with pestilence will serve as
our point of reference.

Mars and Pestilence

Throughout the ancient world, for no reason apparent to modern
astronomers, the red planet was consistently associated with death,
pestilence, and the onset of disease.  In Babylonian astronomical texts,
for example, the epithet mustabarru mutanu was applied to the planet Mars,
translated by Kugler as "he who is swollen with death (pestilence)."67

Similar ideas are discernible in the New World.  The Zinacantecan Indians,
for example, heirs to the ancient beliefs of the Maya, continue to believe
that the red planet is chiefly responsible for diseases of the eyes.68
This tradition prompted a leading scholar to identify the Aztec god Xipe
known also as the red Tezcatlipoca with the planet Mars, the former god
being credited in the Florentine Codex with having "visited the people
with blisters, festering, pimples, eye pains, watering of the eyes
withering of the eyes, cataracts, glazing of the eyes."69 That Hunt's
surmise is well-founded is further supported by the circumstance that
Tezcatlipoca is elsewhere linked with the onset of pestilence.70

Returning to the Old World, it is well-documented that several ancient
gods expressly identified with the planet Mars were intimately associated
with pestilence.  The Babylonian Nergal is a case in point.  Jastrow
summarizes the ancient conception of Nergal as follows:

The various names assigned to him, almost without exception, emphasize the
forbidding phase of his nature, and the myths associated with him deal
with destruction, pestilence, and death...In Babylonian astrology, he is
identified with the planet Mars, and the omen-literature shows that Mars
in ancient days, as still at the present time, was regarded as the planet
unlucky above all others.71

A similar figure is the West Semitic deity Reseph, whose cult enjoyed a
wide range of influence from Mari, to Cyprus, to Egypt.  Reseph is best
known, perhaps, from his cameo appearance in the Old Testament.  Thus in
Habbukah 3 it is said of Yahweh: "Before Him Pestilence marched, and
Plague went forth at this feet."  The name translated as Pestilence here
is that of the god Reseph. Reseph's identification with Nergal is widely
attested in the ancient sources and appears perfectly logical given their
common attributes.72

That Reseph likewise bore a planetary identification has only recently
been confirmed.  Thus, in an astrological text from Ras Shamra allegedly
concerned with an ancient eclipse of the sun, Reseph is invoked as a
satellite (gate- keeper) of the ancient sun-god.73 Here Dahood observed:
"The astralization of Resep may be much earlier than we suspect, and it is
only a lack of documentation which prevents us from understanding the full
and early Canaanite conception of Resep."74 More recently, Sawyer and
Stephenson have provided impressive arguments identifying Reseph with the
planet Mars.75

In ancient Greece it was the war-god Ares, also identified with the planet
Mars, who was feared and hated as the bringer of pestilence and plague.
Aeschylus, among others, refers to this aspect of the god's cult in the
following prayer:

No devastating curse of fell disease this city seize; No clamor of the
State rouse to war Ares, the lord of wail.  Swarm far aloof from Argos'
citizens all plague and pestilence, and may the Archer-god our children
spare!76

In the wake of such testimony, modern scholars have concluded that Ares'
association with pestilence belongs to the most archaic stage of the god's
cult.77

Alongside such well-known gods of pestilence as Nergal, Reseph, and Ares
one should also place the Greek Apollo.78 Apollo's association with
disease is well-known, being prominent already in the Iliad.  One of the
Homer's favorite epithets of Apollo 'Hekatebolos, the far-shooter", is
said to refer to the god's propensity for causing plague with his
"arrows".79 The following passage from the Iliad is representative of the
archaic Apollo, being in fact the first Apollonian epiphany in Greek
literature:

Down he strode, wroth at heart, bearing on his shoulders his bow and
covered quiver.  The arrows rattled on the shoulders of the angry god as
he moved; and his coming was like the night.  Then he sat down apart from
the ships and let fly a shaft; terrible was the twang of his silver bow.  
The mules he assailed first and the swift dogs, but thereafter on the men
themselves he let fly his stinging arrows, and smote; and ever did the
pyres of the dead burn thick.80

The fact that the ancient Greeks identified Apollo with Reseph confirms
the fundamental affinity of the two gods and supports the inclusion of
Apollo within this circle of gods.81 Apollo's identification with Reseph,
taken in conjunction with the numerous characteristics shared in common
between Apollo and the Latin god Mars, confirms the likelihood of a
planetary dimension to the cult of the Greek god.82

Mars too, apparently, was a god much involved with the phenomena of
pestilence and death.  The epithet Isminthians, for example, signifies a
god who sends, but also averts, plagues of mice, smintheus being an
ancient Cretan word meaning "mouse".83 Significantly, Mars shares this
epithet with Apollo.84

A link between the planet-god Mars and the phenomena of pestilence and/or
death is also suggested by evidence from ancient language.  The most
probable etymology of Mars refers it to the root m(a)r, an early name of
the Latin god being Marmar, a duplication of the root in question.85 Here
it is significant to note that the root mar appears at the base of words
meaning "death" and "pestilence" throughout the Indo-European world.  In
Latin, for example, there is an apparent relationship between Mars and
mors, “death. 86 Notice also the Latin word morbus: "disease", “sickness.
87 From the same root comes the English murrain, "plague or pestilence;"
Lithuanian maras and Old Slavic morz, both signifying "pestilence."88 In
Sanskrit the root mar, "to die", appears as the base in maraka, a word
signifying pestilence, plague, and murrain.89 Indeed, the word mar becomes
personified in Sanskrit mythology as Mar, a god of death, plague and
pestilence.90

It is probable that the same root occurs within Semitic languages as
well.91 The Egyptian word mer, for example, connotes “to be sick and forms
the root of mer-t, "sickness, fatal illness".92 The Akkadian word marasu
signifies "disease, sickness."93 According to Astour, this latter word
became personified as Maras, the god who brings disease and plague.94

The Pestilence-Bearing Hero

A persistent theme throughout this series of essays identifies various
great heroes of ancient myth with the planet Mars.  Having documented that
the planet Mars was associated with the phenomena of pestilence throughout
the ancient world, it remains to be shown that the same was true of the
so-called "Martian" heroes.

A widespread motive finds some misdeed of a hero resulting in pestilence
overtaking the land.  In Greek myth, for example, Lykurgos' treacherous
murder of his son is said to have produced a plague (or famine) over the
whole of Thrace.95 The Edonian strongman is best known, perhaps, from his
prominent role in Homer's account of Dionysus "death", but Lykurgos was
also a favorite subject in Greek tragedy, a lost tetralogy of Aeschylus
being devoted to his career.  Modern scholars, significantly, have
recognized in Lykurgos an avatar of the god Ares.96

The classic example of the pestilence-bearing hero is the Greek hero
Oedipus.  As Frazer observed in his commentary upon Sophocles' Oedipus
Rex, the pestilence which ravaged Thebes was thought to be directly
attributable to the sins of Oedipus:

According to Sophocles the land of Thebes suffered from blight, from
pestilence, and from the sterility both of women and cattle under the
reign of Oedipus and the Delphic oracle declared that the only way to
restore the prosperity of the country was to banish the sinner from it,
as if his mere presence withered plants, animals and women.97

Vital to the proper interpretation of Oedipus Rex, as I have argued
elsewhere, are the various parallels which Sophocles draws between Oedipus
and Ares.  In the prologue, for example, Sophocles alludes to the source
of the Theban pestilence, which he describes as a fever-demon: "A
fever-demon wastes the town and decimates with fire, stalking hated
through the emptied house where Cadmus lived."98 Later in the third
strophe Sophocles further identifies the agent behind the pestilence:
"Muffle the wildfire Ares, warring with copper- hot fever."99

In my opinion there is a strong likelihood that ancient traditions are
here being revealed, hitherto overlooked by the hundreds of commentators
upon Sophocles' magnificent drama.  On the one hand Oedipus is deemed
responsible for the pestilence.  Yet Ares too is identified as the agent
behind the very same pestilence.  Is this not a clear hint that, on this
point at least, Oedipus has assumed the characteristics of Ares?100

The warrior-hero's intimate association with the phenomena of pestilence
and disease is reflected also by the numerous myths in which a Martian
hero is afflicted with some crippling disease, typically as a result of
some crime or moral offense.  Heracles, to cite a famous example, becomes
afflicted with a hideous disease as a result of his treacherous murder of
Iphitus.101 It was this crime, it will be remembered, which formed the
backdrop of Sophocles' Trachinaia, during which Heracles is repeatedly
described as “diseased. According to Sophocles, Heracles was ravaged by a
“plague of fire as a result of his wearing the poison-laced garment given
him by Deianeira: "Alas, a plague is upon him more piteous than any
suffering that foemen ever brought upon that glorious hero."102

Heracles' plight has countless parallels from throughout the ancient
world.  Gilgamesh, for example, is stricken with a leprosy-like disease
upon offending the gods:

And see!  The King [Gilgamesh] leans fainting 'gainst the mast, With
glaring eyeballs, clenched hands, "aghast!  Behold!  that pallid face and
scaly hands! A leper white, accurst of gods, he stands!"103

A famous episode in the career of the Irish hero Finn finds him afflicted
with a mysterious disease rendering him mangy and bald: "A plague
(imbuile) came upon him then, so that he was made mangy, and he was called
Bald Demne (Demne Mael) because of it."104

Another variation upon this theme of the pestilence-bearing hero finds him
being identified as a boil or abscess.  The classic example of this
motive, once again, is offered by Oedipus.  As a result of his various
crimes the Theban King had come to be viewed as a source of pollution to
Thebes.  A logical consequence of this belief held that the city would
only be purified and return to normal upon the removal of Oedipus.  Thus
Kreon announces that the oracle at Delphi proclaimed that the only hope
for the city is to "sever from the body politic a monstrous growth that
battens there."105 That the monstrous growth is Oedipus himself is
confirmed in a subsequent passage where the seer Tiresias rebukes the
belligerent king as follows: "The rotting canker in the state is you."106

The comparison of Oedipus to a rotting canker, strange as it might appear
at first sight, would appear to conform to a universal pattern associated
with the warrior-hero.  Heroes from around the world are inexplicably
identified with cankers or ulcers (or, alternatively, said to have
grotesque running sores on their bodies).  A classic example of this
motive is presented by the incandescent warrior-hero of Ossetic myth,
Batraz, who is said to have been born from an abscess on the back of his
father Xaemyts.107 And as we have documented elsewhere, Batraz, like
Oedipus, would appear to be an heir to the mythology of Ares: "This hero
of the Nart legends, if one may rely on certain strong indications, has
taken upon himself and thereby conserved a part of the mythology of the
Scythian Ares, the latter, in the last analysis, an heir of the
Indo-Iranian Indra."108

A close parallel to Batraz can be found in the New World, where the
Klamath hero Aishish is described as an ulcer enclosed within the
creator's body.109 In full accordance with the thesis of the polar
configuration, upon his birth Aishish/Mars is said to have assumed a
position “south of the Creator.110

These ideas are particularly prominent in the cult of the Egyptian god
Bes, known to bear a close affinity to both Heracles and Gilgamesh.  The
god's name, for example, means "to flame up, to be hot."111 A related word
bes connotes a disease distinguished by "boils or sores, or swellings;"112
while besit signifies a "swelling in the body, boil, pustule, abscess."113

From Hero to Outcast

It is well-known that the central figures of the plays of Aeschylus,
Sophocles, and Euripedes were great heroes from ancient Greek tradition
who, for one reason or another, suffered a tragic reversal of fortune.  
The fate of Oedipus is well-known.  The greatest of Theban heroes, upon it
being found out that he had unknowingly murdered his father the King of
Thebes and wed his mother, ends his life as a blind, accursed outcast.  
Near the end of Oedipus Rex, after it has become apparent that Oedipus is
the cause of the plague which has ravaged his beloved Thebes, the
beleaguered hero begs: "Drive me quickly from this place, the most ruined,
most cursed, most god-hated man who ever lived."114

The inglorious end of Oedipus, in our opinion, can serve as a prototype
for most of the great warrior-heroes.  In Greek myth alone Jason, Theseus,
Lykurgos, and Bellerophontes suffer similar fates: The once glorified
savior of the people becomes the hated outcast.  The causes of the hero's
downfall vary, but common themes include: (1) the rape or abduction of a
great queen (or goddess); (2) the murder of a great king (or god); (3) a
series of crimes stemming from a bout of madness or drunkenness; (4) an
assault upon heaven.

In the case of Theseus, for example, it was his complicity in the death of
Hippolytus which precipitated his downfall: "Accused of his murder,
[Theseus] was found guilty, ostracized, and banished to Scyros, where he
ended his life in shame and grief."115

At the end of his renowned career, the leader of the Argonauts met with a
similar fate: "Jason, having forfeited the favor of the gods wandered
homeless from city to city, hated of men."116

Bellerophontes' end came when, at the very pinnacle of his career, he
attempted to scale the heights of Olympus upon the fabulous horse Pegasus.  
Outraged at the hero's insolence, Zeus is said to have arranged for a
gadfly to sting the flying horse, sending the intruder falling to earth,
whereupon:  "Bellerophontes, who had fallen into a thorn-bush, wandered
about the earth, lame, blind, lonely and accursed, always avoiding the
paths of men, until death overtook him."117

Another infamous sinner was the Edonian strongman Lykurgos, mentioned
earlier. Lykurgos drew the wrath of the gods for his assault upon Dionysus
and the maenads.  This episode was related by Homer in the Iliad.

But if you are some one of the immortals come down from the bright sky,
know that I will not fight against any god of the heaven, since even the
son of Dryas, Lykurgos the powerful, did not live long; he who tried to
fight with the gods of the bright sky, who once drove the fosterers of
rapturous Dionysus headlong down the sacred Nyseian hill, and all of them
shed and scattered their wands on the ground, stricken with an ox-goad by
murderous Lykurgos, while Dionysus in terror dived into the salt turf, and
Thetis took him to her bosom, frightened, with the strong shivers upon him
at the man's blustering. But the gods who live at their ease were angered
with Lykurgos, and the son of Kronos struck him to blindness, nor did he
live long afterwards, since he was hated by all the immortals.118

Heracles himself is known to have incurred the wrath of the gods on more
than one occasion for his numerous crimes.  Euripedes devoted an entire
play, Heracles Mad, to this theme: There the hero is smitten with a
disabling madness through the evil machinations of Hera, his erstwhile
mother and unrelenting enemy.  While in the throes of this
all-encompassing madness Heracles slays his wife Megara and three infants.  
Only divine intervention prevented the hero from slaughtering his own
father:

Then in wild career he starts to slay his aged sire; but lo! there came a
phantom, so it seemed to us onlookers, of Pallas, with plumed helm,
brandishing a spear; and she hurled a rock against the breast of Heracles,
which stayed him from his frenzied thirst for blood and plunged him into
sleep; to the ground he fell, smiting his back against a column that had
fallen on the floor in twain when the roof fell in.  Thereon we rallied
from our flight, and with the old man's aid bound him fast with knotted
cords to the pillar, that on his awakening he might do no further evil.  
So there he sleeps, poor wretch! a sleep that is not blest, having
murdered wife and children; nay, for my part I know not any many more
miserable than he.119

Even from this brief survey of the great Greek heroes there emerges a
discernible pattern.  After an offense of some sort the once beloved hero
finds himself hated by men and gods alike.

Martian Metamorphoses

Georges Dumezil, the leading practitioner of comparative mythology in
recent years, devoted several books to the mythology of the warrior, which
he interpreted in terms of the warrior-class in early Indo-European
culture.120 The sins of the warrior formed a prominent theme in Dumezil's
analysis.  In his discussion of the sins of Indra, the Vedic war-god and
patron of earthly warriors, Dumezil noted that the nature of the god's sin
was often such that it produced either a visible stain upon the god
himself or, alternatively, resulted in a drastic diminution in his
powers.121 Indra's murder of Visvarupa, for example, resulted in the
circumstance that "the majesty of Indra, overpowered by this brahmanicide,
underwent a considerable diminution. On another occasion Indra's assault
of Ahalya (the wife of Buddha), resulted in the god's body being marred by
a thousand eyes.122

As we have already discovered from our survey of Greek mythology,
disfigurement is a prominent motive in the careers of numerous heroes.  
Oedipus, Bellerophontes, and Lykurgos, it will be recalled, were blinded
as a consequence of their sins.  Bellerophontes was lamed.  And Lykurgos
and Heracles were stricken with madness, which itself produced a frightful
metamorphosis in appearance.

The most dramatic metamorphosis, however, is that which befell Heracles at
the end of his career.  Recall here that prior to submitting to his fiery
fate upon Mt. Oeta, the hero suffered horribly from a mysterious wasting
disease brought on by the garment provided to him by Deianeira.  In The
Trachiniae, Heracles himself is made to announce: "Glued to my sides, it
[the garment] hath eaten my flesh to the inmost parts already it hath
drained my fresh life- blood, and my whole body is wasted."123

As the hero prepares to go to his death he laments his fallen state:
"Look, all of you, on this miserable body; see how wretched, how piteous
is my plight!"124

What is the basis for the bizarre metamorphosis which befalls Heracles?  
Recalling our thesis that the mythology of the Greek strongman
commemorates memorable episodes in the ancient appearance and behavior of
the planet Mars the answer is not far to seek.  Indeed, it is our opinion
that there was an objective reference for the various afflictions which
visited the respective warrior-heroes; namely, a distortion or
degeneration in the appearance of the planet Mars.

Evidence in support of this thesis can be found in the Babylonian myth of
Nergal and Ereshkigal.  There the Babylonian war-god expressly identified
with the planet Mars is said to have become withered or otherwise
misshapen upon climbing the heavenly stairway to the kingdom of the
gods.125 A glance at the terms employed by the ancient poet to describe
the contortions undergone by Nergal reveals an image not unlike that of
Heracles whilst in the throes of his Oetean agony: qu-bu-hu, "to become
stunted, shrink, shrivel up;" su-un- dur, "to roll or twist one's eyes;"
pu-us-sul, “bent, crooked."126

Once again we find a Martian god associated with a disturbance of the
eyes.  Indeed the reference to Nergal's "rolling" eyes finds an exact
parallel in Sophocles' account of Heracles' metamorphosis:

No one dared to come before the man.  For the pain dragged him to earth,
or made him leap into the air, with yells and shrieks, till the cliffs
rang around, steep headlands of Locris, and Euboean capes.  But when he
was spent with oft throwing himself on the ground in his anguish, and oft
making loud lament then, from out of the shrouding altar-smoke, he lifted
up his wildly- rolling eyes 127

That there was an archetypal basis for Sophocles' ocular imagery is
supported by the fact that the very same image recurs in Euripedes'
Heracles Mad.  The great poet's description of the hero's madness is worth
quoting:

And as their father lingered, his children looked at him; and lo! he was
changed; his eyes were rolling; he was distraught; his eyeballs were
bloodshot and starting from their sockets, and foam was oozing down his
bearded cheek; A twofold feeling filled his servant's breasts, half
amusement, and half fear; and one looking to his neighbor said, “Is our
master making sport for us, or is he mad? 128

Parallels to the metamorphoses of Heracles and Nergal can be found
throughout the ancient world.  A case in point is the transformation which
overcame Shu towards the end of his career.  According to a late text
known as the Phakussa inscription, Shu became enfeebled of body and his
eyes became diseased.129 Certainly it is significant to find the same
emphasis upon a weakening of the body and a disturbance of the eyes, not
unlike the metamorphoses undergone by Nergal and Heracles.  And as would
prove to be the case with Nergal, Greek emigrants to Egypt identified
their favorite hero with Shu.130

An intriguing example of physical metamorphosis comes to us from the Gesta
Danorum.  There the hero Thorkill, an avatar of the war-god Thor (who
likewise was identified with the Greek Heracles), suffers a mysterious
affliction whereby a withering or emaciation affected the features of his
face and body, rendering the Norse strongman unrecognizable.131 Thorkill's
degeneration resembles the metamorphosis of Nergal upon his ascent to the
assembly of the gods, whereupon the Akkadian war-god became withered and
deformed.

If indeed the hero's metamorphosis was celestial in nature and hence
visible to all, one would not be surprised to see it reflected in the
language associated with the planet-god.  Note the apparent relationship
between Mars and the Latin word marceo, signifying “to wither, shrink,
shrivel, droop. 132 This latter word, significantly, was that used by Saxo
to describe the malady which struck Thorkill, during which the Norse
strongman became unrecognizable due to his becoming withered and
emaciated.  There is a perfectly logical explanation for the relationship
between the words Mars and marceo: Once upon a time the planet Mars
war-god and great hero alike suffered a metamorphosis in appearance during
which it appeared to shrink and wither.133

The Hero's Unrecognizability

Saxo's emphasis upon the fact that Thorkill became unrecognizable
represents an archaic element of the myth of the warrior-hero's
metamorphosis.  The same motive is also found in the Akkadian hymn of
Nergal, cited earlier, where, upon his ascent to the assembly of the gods
and suffering a transformation in appearance, the war-god is said to have
become unrecognizable to his fellow gods.134 Indra, too, in the wake of
his treacherous murder of Visvarupa, is said to have become
unrecognizable.135 The same motive is discernible in Euripedes' Heracles
Mad: There Theseus is unable to recognize the Greek strongman in the wake
of his fit of madness.136 The Celtic hero Cuchulainn, finally, is rendered
"unrecognizable" by his "furor", during which his body swelled enormously
and took on a gargantuan, brilliant red form and shook violently.137

This is a common motive in many folktales as well, the hero suffering one
affliction or another to the point where he becomes transformed in
appearance, typically in striking contrast to his previous beauty.  The
diminutive dragon- slayer Finn, for example, was on one occasion robbed of
his youthful appearance, thereby becoming unrecognizable to his
friends.138

The motive of the miraculously transformed and hence unrecognizable hero
forms a prominent feature in some of the most famous passages in world
literature.  A classic example occurs in the Odyssey.  There, it will be
remembered, Athena magically transforms Odysseus so that the wandering
hero might return incognito to his native Ithaca.  Homer places the
following words in the goddess' mouth:

I will disguise you so that no one will be able to know you.  I will
shrivel up the sound flesh of that muscular body, I will sweep off the
brown crop from your head, I will wrinkle up those beautiful eyes, I will
give you rags to wear which any one would be sick to see on a human being,
and you shall seem like a shabby vagabond to the proud gallants, and even
your own wife and son. 139

No sooner was this said than it came to pass:

Athena passed her rod over Odysseus.  She withered the sound flesh of his
muscular body, she swept the flaxen crop from his head, she made the skin
of every limb like the skin of the old man, she wrinkled up his beautiful
eyes, she changed his clothes into a shirt and a lot of filthy old rags
begrimed with foul-smelling smoke; upon this she threw a big hartskin with
the hair worn off, and she gave him a stick and a coarse bag full of holes
with a twisted cord to carry it.

Once again we notice the explicit reference to the withering of the
hitherto beautifully formed hero, although the occasion of the
metamorphosis has been transformed under the genius of Homer.140
Eventually, of course, as in many myths of the hero's metamorphosis,
Odysseus is rejuvenated.141

Then Athena stroked him with her golden rod.  She clothed him in spotless
raiment, and made him the picture of youth and strength; once more he was
dark and tanned, his cheeks filled out, a dark beard covered his chin.

Odysseus' son, witnessing the transformation, could hardly believe his
eyes:

You look different now, stranger, from what you were before; your clothes
are changed, your color is not the same.  Surely you are one of the gods
who rule the broad heavens.

Telemachos was correct.  His father was one of the gods in broad heaven
the planet Mars.142

Scapegoat of the Gods

Our discussion thus far has shown that as a consequence of his sins the
hero was afflicted with a visible stain or impoverishment of form.  This
stain, in numerous versions of the myth, requires certain purificatory
rites to be performed in order for the pollution to be absolved.  
Consider the example offered by Apollo, who is said to have become impure
in the wake of his slaying of Python, whereupon the god embarked upon a
period of wandering seeking purification.  It was in distant Tempe that
Apollo eventually received the necessary purification, and only then was
he allowed to return to Delphi.

Apollo's peregrinations were commemorated in the Stepterion.  Of this
ritual Plutarch remarked: "The wanderings and the servitude of the boy and
the purifications at Tempe raise a suspicion of some great pollution and
deed of daring."143

In this scenario of a god afflicted with some great stigma and banished to
a distant land for purification we recognize a mythical variation upon the
widespread custom of the expulsion of the scapegoat.  The scapegoat, it
will be remembered, was beset with the collective sins of the community
"conceived of as a visible stain or miasma" and banished ignominiously
from the land.144 In ancient Greece, the name for the scapegoat was
pharmakos, and in times of crisis, such as plague or famine, a pharmakos
would be chosen, generally from amongst the degenerate or downtrodden
(i.e., the person was either a slave, criminal, or grotesquely misshapen)
and, upon being subjected to various forms of abuse, including whipping,
beating, cursing, and stoning, was driven beyond the borders of the city.  
According to Hipponax, the pharmakos was occasionally sacrificed through
immolation, whereupon his ashes were thrown into the sea.145

It was the unanimous testimony of the ancients themselves that these
bizarre rites served the express purpose of ridding the land of some great
miasma, thereby purifying the city.146 Helladius, for example, observed of
the rite: "This purification was of the nature of an apotropaic ceremony
to avert diseases."147 Tzetzes offered a similar opinion:

The pharmakos was a purification of this sort of old.  If a calamity
overtook the city by the wrath of God, whether it were famine or
pestilence or any other mischief, they led forth as though to sacrifice
the most unsightly of them all as a purification and a remedy to the
suffering city.148

It is significant that rites involving the expulsion of the pharmakos were
expressly associated with the cult of Apollo, himself originally a god of
pestilence:

A perfect instance of this function can be discerned in the
Thargelia-rites, a truly Apollonian festival.  In many Ionian cities the
impurity, the miasma, was driven out in the representation of a pharmakos,
a selected person, mostly belonging to the marginal layers of society, who
was led through the city collecting the negative taints from the community
and carrying off the miasma in his person.149

As more than one scholar has noted, the peculiar rite of the pharmakos has
a close parallel in ancient Rome.  There the patron god of the ritual is
the Latin god of war, Mars:

Every year on the fourteenth of March a man clad in skins was led in
procession through the streets of Rome, beaten with long white rods, and
driven out of the city.  He was called Mamurius Veturius, that is, "the
old Mars," and as the ceremony took place on the day preceding the first
full moon of the old Roman year (which began on the first of March), the
skin-clad man must have represented the Mars of the old year, who was
driven out at the beginning of the new one.150

As was the case with the Greek pharmakos, the "Old Mars" represented such
a blight upon society that it was deemed "necessary to drive him beyond
the boundaries, that he may carry his sorrowful burden away to other
lands.  And, in fact, Mamurius Veturius appears to have been driven away
to the land of the Oscans, the enemies of Rome."151

Recalling the stigma attached to Apollo on account of his slaying of
Python, and inasmuch as the Latin Mars and Apollo are known to share
numerous other characteristics in common, the possibility must be
considered that the pharmakos originally represented Apollo himself, and
that the bizarre rites of the Thargelia and Stepterion were Greek versions
of the rite of "Old Mars".

But if, as we have argued in this series of essays, Apollo and Mars
originally signified the planet Mars, how does this finding contribute to
our discussion of the metamorphoses of the Martian heroes?  Simply put:
There is a common pattern discernable in the expulsion of the scapegoat
and the myth of the banishment of the warrior-hero in lieu of some great
crime, one having celestial precedents.  Certainly it is significant to
find that each of the peculiar elements of the scapegoat rites might be
paralleled in the biography of the Martian heroes.  Consider, for example,
the report that the "Old Mars" was clad in skins prior to his being
expelled from Rome.  Found in scapegoat rituals as distant as Tibet,152
this would appear to be a fundamental element of scapegoat-rites.  
Significantly, it is also a recurring motive in myths of the great heroes,
who frequently don the skins of one animal or another.  The most archaic
representations of Heracles, for example, depict him with the pelt of a
lion slung across his head, it's tail extending down his back.153

The greatest hero of the ancient Near East, Gilgamesh, was likewise
depicted wearing the skin of a lion, prompting numerous scholars to
identify him as the prototype for Heracles.154 The Egyptian god Bes was
also pictured wrapped in a lion skin, it's tail hanging down his back.155
Finn's propensity for dressing in the pelts of wild animals earned the
diminutive dragon-slayer the epithet "Lad of the skins".156

This motive was especially prominent in the career of Odysseus, who donned
skins on more than one occasion to transform his appearance.  In one
famous episode Odysseus adopted the disguise of a beggar in order to enter
Troy undetected.  Early on in the Odyssey Helen relates the following
story:

I am not going to tell you everything, all the long tale, all the labors
of Odysseus, that indomitable man; but one daring deed which he did in the
land of Troy where you Achaians had so many hardships.  He had allowed
himself to be cruelly scored with lashes; and with a ragged old wrap over
his shoulders, like a menial, he entered the streets of the enemy town; he
pretended to be a beggar, when he was anything but that in the Achaian
fleet.  In this disguise he entered the city of Troy, and they were all
taken in; I was the only one who knew him in that shape, and I questioned
him, but he was clever enough to evade me He killed many a Trojan with his
own spear before he got back again, and he brought away many secrets.  
There was loud lamentation among the women of Troy, but my own heart was
glad.157

Note that here Odysseus practically assumes the appearance of a scapegoat:
he is dressed in skins, whipped severely, and sent to a foreign land.  
Indeed it is probable that Homer is here relating sacred traditions
associated with Odysseus, the original significance of which had long
since been lost (the hero's name, "the hated one", likewise seems more
befitting a scapegoat than a glorious hero158).  Certainly it is difficult
to understand why a severe whipping would better enable the hero to go
unnoticed in Troy.159

Consider also the motive of cursing, common in ancient scapegoat rites.  
As we have documented elsewhere, Heracles was cursed on more than one
occasion in Greek myth (in the aftermath of his murder of Theiodamas, and
upon the slaughter of Syleus, for example).160 Upon the island of Rhodes,
moreover, the cursing of Heracles formed a central feature of the hero's
rites.161

Similar traditions are preserved of Gilgamesh, who was cursed by Ishtar as
a result of his killing of the bull of heaven.162 And as we have seen,
Gilgamesh, like Oedipus, Bellerophontes and many another hero, ends his
life “ accurst of gods.

The misshapen form traditionally associated with the scapegoat also finds
a parallel in the mythology surrounding the warrior-hero.  Consider the
following description of Thersites, next to Oedipus, perhaps the most
important scapegoat figure in Greek literature:

This was the ugliest man who came beneath Ilion.  He was bandy-legged and
went lame of one foot, with shoulders stooped and drawn together over his
chest, and above this his skull went up to a point with the wool grown
sparsely upon it.163

Thersites' bandy legs mirror those of Bes in Egyptian iconography.164 His
pointed skull, meanwhile, recalls the fact that the heads of Thor and
Cuchulainn were distinguished by projections of one form or another.165
His lameness recalls that of Samson, Lykurgos, and Bellerophontes, each of
whom was similarly deformed.166 The Greek hero Oedipus, about whom all
sorts of scapegoat traditions have become attached, bears a name which
perhaps alludes to his lameness, "swollen foot."167 Given the
characteristics shared by Thersites and various Martian heroes it is
significant to note that he was identified by the ancient Greeks with
Ares.168

The testimony of Hipponax that the pharmakos was occasionally burnt to
death, similarly, would also appear to have analogues in the scapegoat
rites of other lands as well as in the mythology of the great heroes.  
The human counterparts of Set were disposed of in this manner, for
example.169

In ancient Mexico, for example, it was customary in times of crisis, such
as an eclipse of the sun, to sacrifice hunchbacks and other grotesquely
deformed victims.170 This scapegoat-like rite appears to find its
aetiology in the myth surrounding the god Nanahuatl, who offered himself
as a martyr in order to resuscitate the missing sun:

It is said that in the absence of the sun all mankind lingered in
darkness.  Nothing but a human sacrifice could hasten his arrival.  Then
Metztli led forth one Nanahuatl, the leprous, and building a pyre, the
victim threw himself in its midst.  Straight-away Metztli followed his
example, and as she disappeared in the bright flames the sun rose over the
horizon.171

Nanahuatl, whose name signifies "pustule or ulcer," was the patron god of
people afflicted with diseases of the skin.172 Of this god Brundage
remarks: "He was distinguished by his poverty and his hideous
deformities—his whole body was covered with running sores."173

Nanahuatl's pathetic appearance mirrors that accorded scapegoats from the
Old World.  His role in the reappearance of the sun from the chaos of
darkness, meanwhile, is reminiscent of Indra's deliverance of the sun from
the darkness occasioned by the revolt of Vritra.  Indeed, as we will see,
the deliverance of the ancient sun-god from its prison of darkness is one
of the archetypal motives associated with the warrior-hero.

It is the tragic immolation of Heracles upon Mt. Oeta, however, which
offers the most compelling parallel to the plight of Nanahuatl.  
Heracles' reason for submitting to his fiery fate, as we have noted, was
that the hero suffered horribly from a mysterious wasting disease, during
which his body corroded away as if rotten.  It is because he too is said
to have suffered from a hideous skin-disease that Heracles became the
patron-god of people similarly afflicted.174

Alexikakos: Averter of Evil

The Greek term for a scapegoat, pharmakos, is cognate with pharmakon, "a
healing drug, or poison", from whence derives our word pharmacy.  
Although scholars have recognized that there must be a relationship
between the two words, the nature of the association between a scapegoat
and "healing" has hitherto remained obscure.

As we have documented elsewhere, paradox is inherent in the biography of
the warrior hero.  Thus it is that the very same gods credited with
causing pestilence are elsewhere invoked as agents of deliverance from
pestilence.  In early Greek cult, for example, it is Apollo who performed
this function: "In the belief of the Homeric age, and probably long
before, it was Apollo who sent pestilence and who removed it, and to whom
thanksgiving for deliverance from the scourge was sung."175 It was for
this reason that Apollo was invoked under the name Alexikakos, "averter of
evil."176

In ancient Italy it was Mars who was summoned to ward off pestilence.  
The archaic hymn of the Arval Brethren reads: "Let not plague and
destruction attack the many, O Mars."177 The epithet averruncus "averter
of evil traits" celebrates this aspect of the Latin god's cult.178

The Akkadian god Nergal was likewise invoked to rid the land of
pestilence.179 So too was the Canaanite Reseph.180

The same motive is also prominent in the cult of the warrior-hero.  Thus,
if one set of myths makes the warrior-hero the source of plague overtaking
the land, others credit him with delivering the land from plague.  A
common motive in the career of Heracles, for example, finds the hero being
credited with draining off some type of noxious debris which polluted or
otherwise afflicted the sacred land of the sun.  Heracles' diversion of
the river Alpheus, whereby he succeeded in cleaning the dung-filled
stables of Augeias "the filth of which had produced a pestilence across
the whole of the Peloponnesian Peninsula" is a case in point.181 Heracles'
role in the riddance of the Stymphalian birds offers another example of
this motive.  Here, it will be remembered, the swarm of gigantic birds was
so immense that it effectively blocked out the light of the sun, the
excrement of the birds producing a great plague.182 It was thus not
without cause that Heracles shared with Apollo the epithet Al exikakos.183

The Warrior-hero as Healer

The image of the warrior-hero as a ridder of pestilence, by a natural
train of logic, produces the conception of the warrior hero as a great
healer, even though this violent and frequently ruffianesque figure would
appear to be ill- suited for this particular role.  Heracles, again,
offers the most familiar example of this motive, being invoked as a healer
of disease, his influence supposedly exerting a beneficial effect upon the
health of crops as well.184

Similar traditions are preserved about other warrior-heroes.  Of
Thraetona, the Iranian Heracles, it was said that he "taught men the
medicine for the body which permits men to diagnose the plague and drive
off disease."185 Jason, the leader of the Argonauts, bears a name which
means "healer," which he received after delivering Orchomenus from the
ravages of a plague.186 Finn, the victim of a great plague in his name of
Demne, is elsewhere recalled as a leech, or healer.187

What is true for the Martian heroes also holds true for the Martian gods.  
Under the name of Paieon, Apollo was invoked as the physician and healer
of the gods.188 This strange conception of a god of pestilence as healer
was especially prominent in the ancient Near East.  In Akkadian cult, for
example, Nergal was invoked as the ultimate source of health and
well-being.189 Reseph performed a similar function in Egyptian and
Canaanite religion, as Shulman's identification with the healing-god
demonstrates.190 Particularly noteworthy is the Amorite god Maras, cited
earlier.  Of this god Astour has written:  "Maras is the name of a god who
inflicts diseases, but who, accordingly, also has the power of curing
them."191

The fact that similar traditions surround gods identified with the planet
Mars upon islands as distant apart as Polynesia and Britain attests to the
archetypal nature of the association of the planet Mars with healing.  
The Maori war-god Maru, for example, doubles as a great healer,
specifically invoked at the time of pestilence.192

In ancient Britain, Celtic gods identified with the Latin Mars and/or
Greek Apollo were consistently associated with the arts of healing.193
Here one scholar observed: "In Gaul, and to an extent in Britain, the
Roman war-god Mars became transformed to become a peaceful healer."194 As
we have seen here, however, it would be quite wrong to speak of a
transformation of the Roman god; rather the healing functions of the
war-god are archetypal in nature and belong amongst the most archaic
elements of his cult.

A particularly intriguing motive attested throughout ancient Gaul and
Britain finds the war-god in intimate association with sacred springs said
to confer deliverance from all manner of diseases and afflictions, but
especially from diseases of the eyes:

The non-military role of deities known as "Mars" in the Romano-Celtic
world may be observed in many regions of Gaul and Britain.  As a healer,
"Mars" is a fighter against disease. An interesting feature of Mars as a
healer is his particular patronage of people with eye afflictions.  He
appears thus at Vichy, as Mullo at Allonnes and at Mavilly.  Far away, at
Lydney (Gloucestershire), the local hero, Nodens, was equated with Mars
and, again, cured eye disease.195

Strikingly similar beliefs were associated with the sacred springs
consecrated to the Greek Heracles, the patron-god of hot springs, and
himself prone to disturbances of the eyes.196 Are we not here reminded
once again of the belief of the Zinacantecan Indians, mentioned at this
outset of this essay, which holds that the planet Mars was intimately
associated with diseases of the eyes?

Archegetes

If the myth of the scapegoat constitutes what one might call the negative
interpretation of the expulsion of Mars, a more positive interpretation
saw the Martian hero as searching out and ultimately preparing the way for
a new homeland.  Hence the widespread theme of the Martian hero as patron
of emigrants and colonizer.  Heracles, for example, was regarded as the
mythical founder of numerous ancient cities, particularly in Attica, the
Greek strongman receiving the epithet archegetes as a result.197
Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec Mars, was credited with having guided the
Aztecs to their ancestral homeland.198 The same motive is also common to
the cult of Indra, who appears as the leader of the Aryan migration in
Indian tradition.199

This motive, like that of the scapegoat, is especially prominent in the
myths and rituals associated with the Greek Apollo and Latin Mars, both of
whom bore the epithet Archegetes.200 As Apollo Agyieus, the Greek god was
renowned as the leader of Greek migrations.201 Cities consecrated to the
Athenian god were common throughout much of Asia Minor, many of them
allegedly founded by emigrants led by the god himself in the form of one
of his sacred animals, such as a raven or dolphin.202 Other cities were
said to have been founded by migrations of bands of youths specifically
consecrated to Apollo, expelled during times of crisis, such as plague.203

This latter practice offers a striking parallel to the ancient custom
known as ver sacrum, in which a youth or band of youths consecrated to
Mars was expelled from the city upon the appearance of a plague or some
other calamity, the ostensible purpose being to found a new
dwelling-site.204 Various ancient cities named after the god, including
Mamertium and Marruvium, were said to have been founded in this manner.205
Often the god himself was said to have led the migration in the form of a
sacred animal, typically a wolf or woodpecker.  Cities allegedly founded
in this manner include those associated with the Hirpani and Picantes.206

The intimate association of Mars with wolves and lupine imagery is
well-known. 207 The same imagery pervades the cult of Apollo, who was
known by the epithet of Lykeios, "the wolf-god."208 Given the central
thesis of this essay- that Apollo and Mars are to be identified with the
planet Mars- it is significant to note that ancient skywatchers in Babylon
and Greece identified the red planet as the "wolf-star."209

In summary, the fundamental identity of the ver sacrum and scapegoat
rituals is obvious.  Both were associated with the cult of Mars; and both
were enacted with the express purpose of resolving a situation of crisis,
frequently a great plague, which, if the truth be known, was due to the
same planet-god.  Only upon the expulsion of the Martian figure from the
afflicted area is the crisis alleviated.

Conclusion

In this essay we have documented the presence of a vast nexus of
traditions associating the planet Mars with pestilence.  According to the
conventional view, the connection between Mars and pestilence originated
with ancient Babylonian speculations regarding the respective planets and
is wholly subjective in nature, stemming from the arbitrary identification
of the red planet with Nergal (i.e., the planet Jupiter might just as
easily have been assigned Nergal and thus come to be associated with
pestilence).  Such an explanation ignores the important fact that Mars is
associated with a wide range of motives in addition to pestilence—war, the
color red, fire, wolves, rebellion, destruction, love, springs, mountains,
swords, eclipses, etc.—not all of which are present in the cult of Nergal.

The consistent association of various gods identified with the planet Mars
(Nergal, Reseph, Erra, Ares, Mars, etc.) with pestilence and other
"Martian" motives likewise speaks against the conventional view as these
cults are certainly much older than Babylonian astronomical speculation.  
If the cult of Nergal is the ultimate source for the constellation of
traditions surrounding the red planet, how do we explain their appearance
in the cults of Reseph, Erra, Ares and Mars?

The same conclusion holds true with regard to the mythology surrounding
the warrior-heroes: Such traditions are of untold antiquity and cannot be
reduced to Babylonian astronomical speculation.  Here it is not a question
of simply accounting for an isolated instance whereby some hero (such as
Heracles) is identified with the planet Mars and associated with
pestilence; rather what needs to be explained is the intimate association
of warrior-heroes throughout the ancient world with a complex set of
beliefs involving the phenomena of pestilence: the affliction of the hero
with a plague-like disease, the hero's appearance as a scapegoat, the
hero's assimilation to an ulcer, the hero's reputation as a great healer
(especially from the ravages of plague), the hero's propensity for using
pestilence-bearing (or poisonous) arrows, the hero's tendency to cause
pestilence, etc.  Viewed from the standpoint of comparative mythology, the
association of the warrior-hero with pestilence can be shown to be
archetypal in nature and universal in scope.

If the conventional position is ultimately indefensible, how then did it
arise?  The answer, it would appear, is very simple: It is difficult to
imagine how the planet Mars, today an inconspicuous dot of light
recognizable only to a select few, could come to be associated with the
phenomena of pestilence.  Consequently it was concluded that such
conceptions must trace to some other source besides the planet, such as
the cult of Nergal.

By pursuing a comparative approach to the traditions surrounding the
planet Mars we would draw a different conclusion.  As stated earlier, it
is our opinion that the constellation of traditions associating the planet
Mars with pestilence has its origin in objective phenomena involving the
red planet, albeit in circumstances difficult to imagine under the current
arrangement of the solar system.  Of the spectacular nature of these
circumstances we have written elsewhere.210 And, although it must be said
that here we enter largely uncharted waters and much remains unclear, it
is also true that real progress has been made towards elucidating the
extraordinary events behind the mythology surrounding Mars.  What follows
may best be considered a brief summary of the events as they relate to
Mars and its association with pestilence.

A wealth of evidence suggests that Mars at one time participated in a
unique polar configuration, during which the red planet appeared as a
small orb set against the backdrop of the larger planet Venus, these two
bodies together forming the Cyclopean "eye" of the ancient sun-god
(Saturn).  Mars' intimate association with pestilence, it seems clear,
traces to the spectacular events associated with the "birth" of the
Martian hero, during which Mars appeared to spring from Venus, thereby
entering upon a singular burst of activity.211

By all accounts the "birth" of Mars was an occasion of great tumult in
heaven, involving a profound disturbance of the polar configuration as a
whole.  Among the most memorable occurrences associated with this event
was the release of a vast cloud of meteoritic debris, this debris, in
turn, producing a temporary "eclipse" of the ancient sun-god.  Thus it is
that Mars came to be associated with eclipses throughout the ancient
world.212

Associated as it was with the birth of the ulcer-like Martian hero, the
chaotic debris obscuring the ancient sun-god was viewed by some as a great
pestilence befouling the celestial kingdom.  To this day many aboriginal
peoples see a link between eclipses and pestilence.213 And as Mars was
associated with eclipses of the "Sun", so too did it become associated
with pestilence, plague, and disease.

But if the "birth" and/or youthful indiscretions of the Martian hero
resulted in an eclipse-like pestilence overtaking the kingdom of the
ancient sun-god, the expulsion of Mars formed a prominent episode in the
sequence of events culminating in the restoration of the kingdom of the
gods.  As Mars moved away from Venus, much of the celestial debris appears
to have followed it, pelting and enveloping the red planet as a shower of
meteoritic material.  After an indeterminate period of time, Mars settled
into a stable position along the axis, closer to the Earth than before,
the debris following suit, with the result that the Sun once again came
into view.  It was Mars' role in the scouring or channeling off of this
debris, thereby releasing the sun-god from its prison of darkness, which
gave rise to the conception of the warrior-hero as leech, healer,
irrigator or drainer of marshes.214 And thus it was that the very agent
deemed responsible for the pestilence-like eclipse obscuring the s un the
Martian hero—came to be credited with delivering the heavenly kingdom of
noxious pests and murrain.215

Inasmuch as the planet Mars was deemed to have played a prominent role in
the spectacular cataclysm which overturned the heavenly kingdom, its
removal to a region outside the sacred domain—together with the subsequent
reappearance of the sun (i.e., Saturn)—gave rise to the interpretation
that the expulsion or banishment of Mars had been necessary for the
deliverance of the sun and the restoration of world order.  The ritual
expulsion of the scapegoat, according to this reconstruction, is
phenomenologically identical to the banishment of the warrior-hero and
commemorates the spectacular events associated with the expulsion and
wandering of the planet Mars.  The trials and tribulations which greeted
the human victim of these rites, similarly, were designed with the express
purpose of imitating the celestial ordeals endured by the red planet
during this period of instability: whipping, cursing (originally, it
appears, with "words of fire", pelting with stones, outfitting with skins,
im molation, etc.  The Latin rites surrounding Mars must remain
inexplicable apart from the thesis outlined in this essay: Why would the
Romans present their favorite god in such an ignominious light?

Mars' archetypal role as emigration-hero traces to the same series of
events: It was the removal of Mars from the heavenly kingdom beset by
pestilence that ushered in a period of transition characterized by
instability and wandering, ultimately preparing the way for the
reconstruction of a new kingdom upon another site and with different
parameters (Mars as archegetes and engineer of the sacred domain).  A new
age dawned with the reappearance of Saturn, the planet-god now being
associated with a series of bands and set atop a fiery pillar of light
(this pillar, it would appear, developed as a result of the fiery debris
having become spread out between the planets participating in the polar
configuration, particularly Mars and Earth).  Commonly envisaged as a
giant mountain, tree, or spring, the World Pillar was specifically
associated with the planet Mars, which now seemed to uphold Saturn's
kingdom.216

It was Mars' intimate association with this celestial spring which
accounts for the fact that so many Martian heroes were regarded as patrons
of hot- springs (Heracles, Apollo, Mars, etc.).217 And it was the peculiar
behavior of Mars within this fiery spring inspired a wealth of mythical
interpretations having to do with healing and rejuvenation.  For example,
if the Martian hero had been rendered "impure" or otherwise polluted as a
result of his nefarious behavior, with the development of the spring the
hero was thought to have been purified or otherwise revived.  Relevant
also are the widespread traditions which make the strength of the
warrior-hero ebb and flow in sympathy with a sacred spring.  Thus the
strength of Heracles was restored by the hot springs at Thermopylae when
he was exhausted by the labors.218 More familiar, perhaps, is the Biblical
tradition in which the exhausted Samson was revived by the spring at Lehi:
"And God split open the hollow place that is at Lehi, and there came water
from it; and when he [Samson] drank, his spirit returned, and he
revived."219

The aetiology of Mars' intimate association with diseases of the eye and
the healing thereof is less obvious but is most likely to be found in
these events as well.  Here it is necessary to remember that the planet
Venus was identified as the eye of the ancient sun-god throughout the
ancient world.220 The birth of Mars from the "eye-womb" of Venus
necessarily resulted in a disturbance of the eye as a whole, thereby
inspiring a host of mythical interpretations.  One of the most common
interpretations, as we have elsewhere intimated, envisaged the
warrior-hero being "blinded" upon its expulsion to the periphery of the
celestial kingdom (Mars caecus).221 As we have shown, however, the planet
Mars was wont to make occasional forays up and down the polar axis,
re-entering the eye-womb, as it were.222 It is in this fashion, perhaps,
that we are to understand the numerous myths which speak of the
warrior-hero's sight being restored: He had quite literally regained his
eye. 223

NOTE:  After the Footnote Section there is a contact list for -----
further information on current Velikovskian research.

61 E. Cochrane & D. Talbott, "When Venus was a Comet," Kronos XII:1
(Winter 1987), pp. 5-12.

62 M. Jastrow, "Sun and Saturn," Revue d'Assyriologie et d'Archeologie
Orientale 7 (1909), pp. 163-178.  See also the extensive discussion in D.
Cardona, "Intimations of an Alien Sky," AEON 2:5 (1991), pp. 10-17.

63 F. Cumont, Astrology and Religion Among the Greeks and Romans (New
York, 1960), pp. 22-41.

64 F. Kugler, Sternkunde und Sterndienst in Babel (Munster, 1935), pp.
303.  Mesoamerican skywatchers likewise appear to have described Venus as
a " bearded" planet.  See J. Thompson, Maya Hieroglyphic Writing (Norman,
1970), p. 218.

65 H. Seyrig, "Antiquities Syriennes," Syria 64 (1944-45), p. 62.  See
also B. L. van der Waerden, The Birth of Astronomy (New York, 1974), p.
190.

66 E. Cochrane, "Heracles and the Planet Mars," AEON I:4 (1988), pp.
89-106; Idem, "The Death of Heracles," AEON II:5 (1991), pp. 55-73.

67 F. Kugler, Sternkunde und Sterndienst in Babel (Munster, 1935), p. 304.  
Jeremias translates as "he who is saturated with death".  See A. Jeremias,
" Sterne," RML (Leipzig, 1884-1937), p. 1481.

68 E. Hunt, The Transformation of the Hummingbird (Ithaca, 1977), pp. 144-
145.

69 Ibid., p. 144.

70 B. Brundage, The Fifth Sun (Norman, 1983), pp. 101, 277.  Indeed the
entire mythology of Tezcatlipoca is consistent with his identification
with the planet Mars as I hope to show in a future essay.

71 M. Jastrow, Religious Belief in Babylonia and Assyria (New York, 1911),
p. 108.

72 E. Weiher, Der babylonische Gott Nergal (Berlin, 1971), p. 91.  See
also W. Fulco, The Canaanite God Resep (New Haven, 1976), p. 34; M.
Dahood, "Ancient Semitic Deities in Syria and Palestine," in S. Moscati,
ed., Le Antiche Divinita Semitiche (Rome, 1958), p. 86.

73 Gordon, No. 143.  This report is doubly important to us inasmuch as it
appears to identify the planet Mars as the door-keeper or porter of
heaven, a function elsewhere ascribed to Heracles, Apollo and Mars-gods
throughout the ancient world.  See E. Cochrane, "Apollo and the Planet
Mars," AEON I:1 (1988), p. 60.

74 Dahood, op. cit., p. 87.

75 J. Sawyer & F. Stephenson, "Literary and Astronomical Evidence for a
Total Eclipse of the Sun Observed in Ancient Ugarit on 3 May 1375 B.C.,"
BSOAS 33 (1970), p. 471.

76 Suppliants 678-685.

77 A. Furtwangler, "Ares," RLM (Hildesheim, 1965), Vol. 1, pp. 486-487.

78 E. Cochrane, "Apollo and the Planet Mars," AEON I:1 (1988), pp. 52-62.  
For a similar conclusion see M. Schretter, Alter Orient und Hellas
(Innsbruck, 1974).

79 W. Burkert, Greek Religion (Cambridge, 1985), p. 145.

80 Iliad I:44ff.

81 W. Fulco, op. cit., p. 38.  See also W. Albright, Yahweh and the Gods
of Canaan (Garden City, 1968), p. 139.

82 The fundamental affinity of Apollo and Mars was first emphasized by W.
Roscher, Studien zur Vergleichenden Mythologie der Griechen und Romer:
Apollon und Mars (Leipzig, 1873).  Further support for this proposition
has since been supplied by H. S. Versnal, "Apollo and Mars One Hundred
Years after Roscher," Visible Religion 4 (1986), pp. 132-72; and E.
Cochrane, "Apollo and the Planet Mars," AEON I:1 (1988), pp. 52-62.

83 H. Wagenvoort, Studies in Roman Literature, Culture and Religion (New
York, 1978), p. 219.

84 R.F. Willetts, Cretan Cults and Festivals (New York, 1962), p. 269.

85 W. Roscher, "Mars," Ausfuhrliches Lexikon der griechischen und
romischen Mythologie (Hildesheim, 1965), pp. 2435-2438.  Significantly,
similar names appear amongst the earliest pantheons of Egypt and
Mesopotamia.

86 Ibid., pp. 2437-2438.

87 Ibid., p. 351.

88 J. Pokorny, Indogermanisches etymologisches Worterbuch (Bern, 1959), p.
735.

89M. William, Sanskrit Dictionary (Oxford, 1872), p. 748.

90 Ibid., p. 772.

91 A. Bomhard, Toward Proto-Nostratic (Philadelphia, 1984), p. 273.

92E. Budge, An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary (New York, 1978), p. 314.

93 F. Delitsche, Assyrische Handworterbuch (Leipzig, 1896), p. 426.

94 M. Astour, Hellenosemitica (Leiden, 1967), pp. 273-4.

95 R. Graves, The Greek Myths Vol. 1 (New York, 1982), p. 105.

96 O. Gruppe, Griechische Mythologie (New York, 1975), pp. 1379-1380.

97 quoted in M. O'Brien, Twentieth Century Interpretations of Oedipus Rex
(Englewood Cliffs, 1968), p. 101.

98 P. Roche, The Oedipus Plays of Sophocles (New York, 1958), p. 24.

99 Ibid., p. 30.

100 For an extensive discussion of this question see E. Cochrane,
"Velikovsky and Oedipus," AEON I:6 (1988), pp. 14-38.

101 The word used of Heracles' disease, nousos, is also a generic term for
" plague".

102 The Complete Greek Drama, "The Trachiniae," ed. by W. Oates & E.
O'Neill (New York, 1938), p. 487.

103 L. Hamilton, "Ishtar and Izdubar," in Babylonian and Assyrian
Literature (New York, 1901), pp. 145.

104 Joseph Nagy, The Wisdom of the Outlaw: The Boyhood Deeds of Finn in
Gaelic Narrative Tradition (Berkeley, 1985), p. 152.

105 Roche, op. cit., p. 26.

106 Ibid., p. 36.

107 G. Dumezil, Legendes sur Les Nartes (Paris, 1930), p. 53.

108 G. Dumezil, The Destiny of the Warrior, op. cit., p. 137.

109 C. Strauss, The Naked Man (New York, 1981), pp. 30.

110 Ibid., p. 68.

111 E. Budge, An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary (New York, 1978), p.
221.

112 Ibid., p. 222.

113 Ibid., p. 222.  Significantly, the name Oedipus likewise contains the
root oidi, signifying a "swelling".  As we have shown elsewhere, the
planet Mars is fundamentally associated with swellings and inflammations
of all sorts.  It swells in size as it approaches the Earth; it swells in
furor; it swells as a tumorous growth; it becomes inflamed in passion; and
inflammatory in a rebellious sense.  See the discussion in E. Cochrane,
"Indra," AEON II:4 (1991), pp. 65-69.

114 Oedipus the King (Amherst, 1982), translated by R. Bagg, p. 61.

115 R. Graves, op. cit., p. 358.

116 R. Graves, op. cit., Vol. 2, p. 257.

117 R. Graves, op. cit., p. 254.

118 Iliad 6:130-140.

119 Euripedes, Heracles Mad 1003-1015.

120 G. Dumezil, The Destiny of the Warrior (Chicago, 1970); Idem, The Sins
of the Warrior (Berkeley, 1983).

121 G. Dumezil, The Destiny of the Warrior (Chicago, 1970), pp. 72-77.

122 This episode finds an intriguing parallel in the cult of Bes, who
likewise was represented with eyes all over his body.  See A. Palmer, The
Samson Saga (New York, 1977), p. 230.

123 Euripedes, The Trachiniae, 1051-1057.

124 Ibid., 1076-1080.

125 E. Weiher, op. cit., p. 52.  See also the discussion in J. V. Wilson,
The Rebel Lands (London, 1979) p. 98.  For a translation of the text see
O. Gurney, "The Sultantepe Tablets," Anatolian Studies 10 (1960), pp. 125,
130.

126 E. Weiher, op. cit., p. 52.

127 Sophocles, Trachiniae 786ff.

128 Euripedes, Heracles Mad 920ff.

129 B. Watterson, The Gods of Ancient Egypt (London, 1984), p. 52.

130 R. Roeder, "Schow," in RML, op. cit., p. 566.  In certain kinglists
Shu was also identified with Ares.  Ibid., p. 569.  Both identifications
are valid, Heracles and Ares both tracing to the planet Mars.

131 Saxo Grammaticus, The Danish History (Wiesbaden, 1967), p. 355.  See
also V. Rydberg, Teutonic Mythology (New York, 1907), p. 715.

132 D. Simpson, Casell's New Latin Dictionary (New York, 1960), p. 362.  
This word is certainly related to the Greek maraino, "waste away, decay".  
H. Liddell & R. Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon (Oxford, 1951), p. 885.  
Note also the same root in Latin marcor, "rottenness, decay."

133 In Irish tradition Cuchulainn is addressed as Sergaithe: "withered, or
shriveled".  See W. Stokes, "The Training of Cuchulainn," Revue Celtique
29 (1908), pp. 133, 152.

134 E. Weiher, op. cit., p. 52.

135 A. Hiltebeitel, The Ritual of Battle (London, 1976), p. 234.

136 J. Gregory, "Euripedes' Heracles," YCS 25 (1977), p. 270.

137 E. Hull, The Cuchullin Saga in Irish Literature (London, 1898), p.
162.  For an analysis of Cuchulainn's furor see the discussion in E.
Cochrane, " Indra," AEON II:4 (1991), pp. 67-71.

138 J. Nagy, op. cit., p. 160.

139 Odyssey 13:382-439.

140 Note that here Odysseus is rendered bald by the magic of Athena, not
unlike the Irish Finn.  The widespread motif of the bald Martian hero will
occupy us in a future essay.

141 Odyssey 16:172ff.  Mars is fundamentally the rejuvenated god.  This
motive, as we have documented, is prominent in the cults of Mars,
Heracles, Bes, Melqart, and Jason.  See E. Cochrane, "The Death of
Heracles," AEON II:5 (1991), pp. 66-72.

142 That Odysseus is to be identified with the planet Mars will be the
subject of a future essay.

143 Quoted in J. Harrison, Epilegomena to the Study of Greek Religion &
Themis (New York, 1962), p. 426.

144 The classic example of this ancient rite, of course, is that described
in Leviticus 16:21ff.

145For a survey see J. Bremmer, "Scapegoat Rituals in Ancient Greece,"
HSCP 87 (1983), p. 300.

146 Ibid., pp. 299-320.  See also the discussion in J. Harrison,
Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion (New York, 1975), pp. 95-119.

147 J. Harrison, op. cit., p. 99.

148 Tzetzes, Thousand Histories 23, 726-756

149 H. S. Versnal, op. cit., p. 138.

150 J. Frazer, The Scapegoat (London, 1913), p. 229.

151 Ibid., p. 231.

152 J. Bremmer, op. cit., p. 317.

153 For numerous examples of this motive see F. Brommer, Heracles: The
Twelve Labors of the Hero in Ancient Art and Literature (New Rochelle,
1986).  The motive of a hero dressed in the pelt of a fantastic beast is
universal in extent, being found in the La Venta culture of the New World
as well.  See W. Krickeberg, "Mesoamerica," in Pre-Columbian American
Religions (New York, 1969), p. 12.  Here it is significant to note that
Heracles is elsewhere said to have been driven from the palace of Eurytus,
not unlike a scapegoat.  There the King of the land is made to address the
Greek hero: "‘You are Eurystheus' slave and, like a slave, deserve only
blows from a free man.' So saying, he drove Heracles out of the Palace."
R. Graves, op. cit., p. 159.

154 B. Brundage, "Heracles the Levantine," JNES 17:4 (1958), pp. 209ff.

155 V. Wilson, "The Iconography of Bes with Particular Reference to the
Cypriot Evidence," Levant 7 (1975), p. 78.

156 J. Nagy, op. cit., p. 199.

157 Odyssey, IV:240ff.  Translated by W. Rouse (New York, 1964), p. 49.

158 K. Kerenyi, The Heroes of the Greeks (New York, 1959), p. 322.

159 Whipping to the point of death plays a prominent motive in the careers
of numerous warrior-heroes.  For a close parallel involving Cuchulainn,
see D. Nutt, Cuchulainn, The Irish Achilles (London, 1900), p. 25.

160 J. Fontenrose, Python (Berkeley, 1959), p. 196.

161 O. Gruppe, op. cit., p. 963.  See also B. Brundage, "Heracles the
Levantine," JNES 17:4 (1958), p. 229.

162 T. Jacobsen, The Treasures of Darkness (New Haven, 1976), pp. 95-96.  
That the heavenly bull was actually the Sumerian god An in bovine guise
has been recognized by Jacobsen, among others.

163 Iliad 2: 217-219.  Numerous scholars have identified Thersites with
the pharmakos.  See G. Murray, The Rise of the Greek Epic (Oxford, 1907),
p. 214.

164 V. Wilson, op. cit., pp. 77-83.

165 The Lappish idol of Thor featured a piece of flint protruding from the
god's head.  See G. Dumezil, Gods of the Northmen (Berkeley, 1973), p.
161.  For similar traditions surrounding Cuchulainn see E. Hull, The
Cuchullin Saga in Irish Literature (London, 1898), pp. 174-175.

166 L. Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, Vol. III (Philadelphia, 1954), p.
204.  There Ginzberg relates that Samson was "called Mizrak, ‘creeping,'
for he was lame of both feet, and hence could only creep and crawl."  
Certainly this is a strange description of the greatest hero of Hebrew
lore.

167 E. Cochrane, "Velikovsky and Oedipus," AEON I:6 (1988), pp. 37-38.

168 Pausanias 3:19:7.  See also the discussion in G. Murray, The Rise of
the Greek Epic (Oxford, 1907), p. 214.

169 Plutarch, de Is. et Os. LXXIII Significantly, red-headed victims were
chosen for these rites in commemoration of Set's red body and hair.  That
Set is to be identified with the planet Mars we have argued elsewhere.  
See E. Cochrane, Psychology, Psychologists, and Evolution (Ames, 1981),
pp. 319ff.

170 C. Burland, The Gods of Mexico (New York, 1967), p. 120.

171 D. Brinton, The Myths of the New World (New York, 1968), p. 158.

172 B. Brundage, op. cit., p. 44.  See also B. Brundage, The Phoenix of
the Western World (Norman, 1982), p. 224.

173 B. Brundage, The Fifth Sun (Norman, 1983), p. 41.

174 O. Gruppe, "Herakles," RE Supplement III (Stuttgart, 1918), pp.
1014-1015.

175 L. Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States Vol. II (New Rochelle,
1977), p. 233.

176 Ibid., p. 175.  See also the discussion in O. Gruppe, Griechische
Mythologie und Religionsgeschichte Vol. 2 (New York, 1975), pp. 1237-1239.

177 H. Rose, Some Problems of Classical Religion (Oslo, 1958), pp. 10.

178 Roscher, Apollon und Mars, op. cit., pp. 51-64.

179 E. Weiher, op. cit., p. 22.  See also J. Curtis, "An Investigation of
the Mount of Olives in the Judeo-Christian Tradition," HUCA 28 (1957), p.  
151; and H. Seyrig, op. cit., p. 72.

180 W. Fulco, The Canaanite God Resep (New Haven, 1976), pp. 12, 24.

181 Pausanias V:1:7

182 R. Graves, op. cit., Vol. 2, p. 119.  These birds, significantly, are
said to be sacred to Ares.  Heracles' reputation as a warder off of the
Keres, bird-like ghouls, would appear to trace to the same scenario.

183 L. Farnell, Greek Hero Cults and Ideas of Immortality (Oxford, 1921),
p. 150.

184 L. Farnell, op. cit., pp. 102, 133.  See also Gruppe, op. cit., pp.
1013- 1014.  Heracles is elsewhere credited with the discovery of the
all-healing plant known as heracleon, distinguished by its red flower.  
See R. Graves, op. cit., p. 155.

185 G. Dumezil, The Destiny of the Warrior (Chicago, 1970), p. 27.

186 R. Graves, op. cit., p. 221.

187 J. Nagy, op. cit., p. 34.

188 K. Kerenyi, The Gods of the Greeks (London, 1982), p. 143.

189 E. Weiher, op. cit., p. 22.

190 W. Fulco, op. cit., pp. 12, 24.

191 Astour, op. cit., pp. 273-274.

192 For the identification of Maru with the planet Mars see E. Best, Maori
Religion and Mythology (New York, 1977), p. 125.

193 M. Green, The Gods of the Celts (Gloucester, 1986), pp. 101, 118,
158-162.

194 Ibid., p. 158.

195 M. Green, Symbol and Image in Celtic Religious Art (London, 1992), pp.
114-115.

196 O. Gruppe, op. cit., pp. 1011-1013.

197 L. Farnell, op. cit., p. 170.

198 H.B. Alexander, Latin-American Mythology (New York, 1964), p. 114.

199 A. Macdonell, Vedic Mythology (New York, 1974), p. 64.  See also H.
Oldenberg, The Religion of the Veda (Delhi, 1988), p. 87.

200 W. Roscher, op. cit., pp. 2425-2427.

201 L. Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States, op. cit., p. 202.

202 The foundation legends of Kyrene and Krisa are cases in point.  See
the discussion in W. Roscher, "Mars," Ausfuhrliches Lexikon der
griechischen und romischen Mythologie (Hildesheim, 1965), p. 2408.

203 The epithet Dekatephoros, particularly applied to Apollo, signified
his association with the consecration of such bands of youths.  See H. W.
Parke, " Consecration to Apollo," Hermathena 72 (1948), p. 85.

204 The first scholar to call attention to the numerous parallels between
the Apollonian and Martian rites was W. Roscher, in Apollon und Mars
(Leipzig, 1873), pp. 82-87.  See also the comments of Parke, op. cit., p.
87.

205 W. Roscher, "Mars," Ausfuhrliches Lexikon der griechischen und
romischen Mythologie (Hildesheim, 1965), pp. 2412, 2426.

206 Roscher, "Mars," op. cit., p. 2394.

207 W. Roscher, op. cit., p. 2430.  See also the discussion in E.
Cochrane, " The Origins of the Latin God Mars," SISR XV (1993), p. 30.

208 For an extended discussion of this motive see D. Gershenson, Apollo
the Wolf-god (McLean, Vir., 1991), pp. 1-23.

209 P. Gossman, Planetarium Babylonicum (Rome, 1950), p. 65.  W. Roscher,
" Planeten," RML (Leipzig, 1884-1937), p. 2533-2534.  See also the
discussion by I. Velikovsky, Worlds in Collision (New York, 1973), pp.
268-269.

210 E. Cochrane, "Indra," AEON II:4 (1991), pp. 64-76.

211 See here the discussion in D. Talbott, "Mother Goddess and
Warrior-Hero," AEON I:5 (1988), pp. 47-54; E. Cochrane, "Indra," AEON II:4
(1991), pp. 64-76.

212 In Babylonian tradition, for example, "Mars [was] the star of the
Darkness/Eclipse."  See P. Gossman, Planetarium Babylonicum (Rome, 1950),
p. 132.  See also the discussion in E. Cochrane, "Heracles and the Planet
Mars," AEON I:4 (1988), pp. 90-94.

213 C. Levi-Strauss, The Raw and the Cooked (Chicago, 1969), p. 297,
documents the following belief among aboriginal peoples in South America:
"The Ge, along with many other peoples, believe there is a link between
eclipses and epidemics…When the sun is covered, one may expect smallpox."

214 See the discussion in D. Talbott, "Servant of the Sun God," AEON II:1
(1989), p. 43.

215 As we will document in future essays, other factors contributed to
Mars being viewed as a great healer, not the least of which was its role
in restoring the sun-god's eye and limbs.

216 E. Cochrane, "The Spring of Ares," Kronos XI:3 (Summer 1986), pp.
15-21.

217 E. Cochrane, "Apollo and the Planet Mars," AEON I:1 (1988), pp. 60-61.

218 K. Kerenyi, The Heroes of the Greeks (New York, 1959), p. 197.

219 Judges 15:19

220 E. Cochrane & D. Talbott, "When Venus was a Comet," Kronos XII:1
(1987), pp. 13-16.

221 E. Cochrane, "Velikovsky and Oedipus," AEON I:6 (1988), p. 30.

222 See the discussion in E. Cochrane, "The Death of Heracles," AEON II:5
(1991), pp. 66-68.

223 As noted earlier, a future essay will outline the events behind the
widespread myth of the warrior-hero's rescue and replacement of the "eye"
of the ancient sun-god.  Needless to say, this episode could have
contributed to Mars' reputation as a healer of eyes.