Monuments of the Deluge

Our attention was yesterday given to the consideration of the

direct traditions of the deluge, as existing among all or nearly all
the nations of mankind. But there is another kind of tradition, not
less significant and impressive, which commemorated the same
great event in names, and buildings, and ceremonies; and by
means of which the memorials of the deluge were wrought into
the entire structure of heathenism.
We cannot undertake to present to the reader a tithe of the
copious information which exists on this subject; but it may be in
our power to indicate its general purport.
It appears, then, to be very certain that the prominent features of
the life and character of Noah are incorporated with the history
and attributes of many of the deities worshipped in the heathen
world. As it is not our intention to occupy our space with a branch
of the subject which has been so often indicated as this, we shall
be content to point out the names of Osiris, Bacchus, Saturn,
Uranus, Deucalion, Minos, Janus, and the northern Bore; and
recommend the reader to explore the points of resemblance for
himself, the materials being easy of access.
In looking to the mere external monuments of the deluge, it is a
curious confirmation of the view which identifies the Egyptian
Osiris with Noah, to find that the most famous temple of this god
was at Theba (Thebes), or rather that the temple itself was so
called, and the city was then named from it. Now Theba is, as we
have already shown, the very name of the ark, by which it may
appear, that the temple itself was meant to represent the ark in
which Osiris was shut up by Typhon, and cast upon the waters.

With this should be connected the boat-like shrine, which appears

to have been the most sacred object in most of the Egyptian
temples, and which has an obvious connection with this tradition.
The same kind of memorial is to be observed in other countries,
where some kind of ark or ship was introduced in the mysteries,
and carried about in procession upon the sacred festivals. In a
series of pictures representing ceremonies in honor of Bacchus,
found in the lava-whelmed city of Herculaneum, appears, what
may be supposed with some probability, to offer the form which
the ancients supposed the ark to have; and which agrees well
enough with the idea we have been led to form of it. A woman is
carrying upon her shoulder a square box, having a projecting roof,
and at the end a door. Being carried in a commemorative
procession, it is clearly a sacred Thebet or ark. Its door at the
side, and projecting roof, declare that it was not a mere chest;
while the absence of the usual characteristics and the occasion of
its use, show that it is not a model house or a votive offering.
More striking still, as a direct memorial of the deluge, is the
famous Apamaean medal. It was struck during the reign of Philip
the Elder, at the town of Apamea in Phrygia. The city is known to
have been formerly called Kibotos, or the ark; and it is also
known that the coins of cities in that age exhibited some leading
point in their mythological history. The medal in question
represents a kind of square vessel floating in the water. Through
an opening in it, are seen two persons, a man and a woman, the
latter wearing a veil. Upon the upper verge of this chest or ark, is
perched a bird, and over against it another, which seems to flutter
with its wings, and bears a branch, with which it approaches the
ark. Before the vessel is a man following a woman, who, by their
attitude, seem to have just quitted it, and to have got upon the dry

land. These are doubtless the same pair, shown in a different

action. Whatever doubt might be entertained as to the purport of
this representation, seems to be removed by the letters engraved
upon the ark itself, beneath the persons enclosed therein. These
represent the word ne, Noebeing the very name of Noah in its
Greek formwhich form is the one it bears in the New Testament.
This is a most surprising circumstancenot the representation,
for we have others nearly as distinct, but that the very name of
Noah should have been so long preserved among the heathen, in
nearly its original form.
There seems to be little doubt that the various sacred mountains
which we find in various lands, are commemorative of the
mountain on which the ark rested. and which was venerated as
the spot of ground, once isolated among the waters, to which the
nations of mankind may all trace their origin. We find such sacred
mountains not only in America, but in Polynesia, Africa, India,
Arabia, and among the Jews. The high places on which the
latter were wont to offer their worship appear to have had the
same reference. So strong was the veneration for the holy
mountain, that those who in the course of their dispersion came to
extensive and unbroken plains, erected enormous masses of
building designed to represent or symbolize the mountain from
which their fathers had gone forthhence, probably, the pyramids
of Egypt, and hence, still more assuredly, the tall masses of
broken masonry that still appear in the Babylonian plains, whether
or not the tower of Babel is to be reckoned among the number.
It was a natural consequence of this veneration for mountains, by
which they were thus appropriated to purposes of religion, that
imitations of them in miniature should be constructed to answer
the same purpose, with the advantage of greater convenience.

Hence arose those sacred heaps of earth or stones, in valleys as

well as on the heights, denominated by the Hebrews Bamoth, by
the Greeks Bomoi, and by the British Cairns.
Kern or Karn signifies, in Arabic, the top of a mountain higher than
the rest. They could only therefore be so called mystically and
emblematically, when they were constructed, as they frequently
were, on plains. In fact, they were more needed in level tracts of
country by those who wished to have sacred places, and continue
the rites to which they had been accustomed among the
mountains. Having no natural hills to which they could resort, they
were under the necessity of making them in miniature near the
places of their residence; and then it may be supposed that every
tribe, and almost every distinguished family, would have an
oratory, or place of worship, of its own. The vast number of them
which appear in such situations, needs no other explanation.
They are mostly of a conical shape, unless in such situations or of
such materials as to have been worn down by the weather; and
the most perfect of those which have in different countries fallen
under our own notice, bear considerable resemblance to the
summit of Araratthe whole figure of which is deeply impressed
upon our memory, having had it constantly in view for many days.
They are found everywhere in the old world, and are scarcely less
frequent in the newnot less than three thousand of them having
been counted in North America alone, the smallest of which are
twenty feet high. It has been thought that the circles of stones,
commonly called druidical circles, have the same reference. The
circle marks the limit of the space enclosed to represent the
diluvian mountain, while the larger stone in the center indicates
the summit itself. In some cases, these stones actually do encircle
a mound, upon the top of which the central stone is placed, or
some other stone objects, such as cromlechs, kistvaens, or

shapeless rocks, the separate diluvian or arkite Note: A word used

to denote the various forms of worship or veneration connected
with the traditions and monuments of the ark and the deluge.
import of which we may now consider.
Cromlechs, as most of our readers know, are composed of a large
flat stone, supported in a horizontal position by others that stand
upright. They are generally placed on elevated grounds;
sometimes on the natural soil; sometimes on the top of cairns, or
artificial mounts; sometimes in a circle of upright stones. The
kistvaen, or stone-chest, as the name means, differs only from
the cromlech by the upright stones being broader, so as to have
the covered space less openenclosing it, in fact, like a chest.
These are much rarer than cromlechs. The most perfect
specimen in this country (Kits Coty House, near Aylesford, in
Kent) is of oblong figure, the back stone being the broadest, and it
is open in front. But in examples of similar structures, which are
found in Palestine, beyond the Jordan, the front is also closed by
a large stone in which there is a door. In all cases, they are of
rough unhewn stones; and the whole are kept in form by the great
weight of the covering stone. The kistvaens have been often
supposed to be tombs; but this is disproved by their interior length
being less than that of a man. The general belief is, that they were
designed to represent the ark of Noah, and we regret that space
does not allow us to produce the reasons which are supposed to
establish that opinion. Cromlechs have been conceived to be
altars by many who admit the kistvaens to have been arkite
memorials. But many of them are, from their form and height, so
utterly unsuited to the purposes of an altar, that it is much safer to
regard them as a somewhat different mode of representing the
ark. Both were not only monuments but instruments of ritual
service. In the ark, mankind passed, as it were, from the old sinful

world, to a new world, unpolluted by sin. Hence, in process of

time, when the traditions of the deluge became mixed up with
human inventions, the ark was regarded as a symbol of
purification from sin. It is on record, that devotees, remaining
cramped up in the purposely narrowed bounds of these stone
arks for a period of time, supposed to represent that of Noahs
confinement, came forth expurgated from the taints of their former
condition. We think it might be shown that, commencing with
those that were most close and narrow, the devotees progressed
through a series of these arkite enclosures, till at last they passed
merely through some one of those that were more open, to signify
their final passage out of their old into their new condition.
There seems some evidence to show that the isolated hollow
towers which are found in various parts of the world are, in like
manner, symbols of the mount and the ark, and that a sojourn
within their narrow bounds, followed by the passage out, was
regarded as an act of purgation, if not of regeneration. The round
towers of Ireland have received many worse explanations. Natural
caverns have in many lands been esteemed sacred under the
same ideas. In all these casesunder all these varieties of
circumstancesit appears that the sojourn in the ark was
regarded as a state of death to the old man; and of the coming
out through the door of the ark a passage to a new life in a
regenerated condition. The ancients, stumbling among the dark
mountains, sought thus to express their obscure traditions and
obscurer hopes, in matters which have, through Gods mercy,
become noontide facts to us.