they identified with S. George, because they found that the Christians had already adopted this course, and had fixed the ancient myth on the martyr of Nicomedia. In Babylonia it had already passed to Yanbūshādh; and it was made to pass further to Gherghis, much as in Greece the story of Apollo and Python was transferred to Perseus and the sea-monster, and, as we shall see presently, was adopted into Christian mythology, and attributed to the subject of this paper. And indeed the process was perhaps facilitated by the fact that one of the names of this solar god was Giggras; he was so called after the pipes used in wailing for him.
The circumstances of the death of Tammuz vary in the different Semitic creeds.
Let me place them briefly in apposition.
Nabathæan myth. Tammūz.
- A great hero, and prophet; is cruelly put to death several times, but revives after each martyrdom. His death a subject of wailing.
Phœnician myth. Adon or Baal.
- A beautiful deity, killed by the furious Boar god. Revived and sent to heaven. Divides his time between heaven and hell, subject of wailing, seeking, and finding.
