The reason for believing that Oannes, that was said to have
been the first of the fabulous creatures that came up out of the
sea and instructed the Babylonians, was represented as the
goat-horned fish, is as follows: First, the name Oannes, as
elsewhere shown, is just the Greek form of He-anesh, or "The
man," which is a synonym for the name of our first
parent, Adam. Now, Adam can be proved to be the original of Pan,
who was also called Inuus (see DYMOCK, sub voce "Inuus"),
which is just another pronunciation of Anosh without the article,
which, in our translation of Gen. v. 7, is made Enos. This name,
as universally admitted, is the generic name for man after the
Fall, as weak and diseased. The o in Enos is what is called the
vau, which sometimes is pronounced o, sometimes u, and sometimes
v or w. A legitimate pronunciation of Enos, therefore, is just
Enus or Enws, the same in sound as Inuus, the Ancient Roman name
of Pan. The name Pan itself signifies "He who turned
aside." As the Hebrew word for "uprightness"
signifies "walking straight in the way," so
every deviation from the straight lie of duty was Sin; Hata, the
word for sin, signifying generically "to go aside from
the straight line." Pan, it is admitted, was the Head
of the Satyrs--that is, "the first of the Hidden
Ones," for Satyr and Satur, "the Hidden
One," are evidently just the same word; and Adam was
the first of mankind that hid himself. Pan is said to have loved
a nymph called Pitho, or, as it is given in another form, Pitys
(SMITH, sub voce "Pan"): and what is Pitho or
Pitys but just the name of the beguiling woman, who, having been
beguiled herself, acted the part of a beguiler to her husband,
and induced him to take the step, in consequence of which he
earned the name Pan, "The man that turned aside."
Pitho or Pitys evidently come from Peth or Pet, "to
beguile," from which verb also the famous serpent
Python derived its name. This conclusion in regard to the
personal identity of Pan and Pitho is greatly confirmed by the
titles given to the wife of Faunus. Faunus, says Smith (Ibid.),
is "merely another name for Pan." * Now, the
wife of Faunus was called Oma, Fauna, and Fatua (Ibid., sub voce "Bona
Dea"), which names plainly mean "The mother
that turned aside, being beguiled." * This beguiled
mother is also called indifferently "the sister, wife,
or daughter" of her husband; and how this agrees with
the relations of Eve to Adam, the reader does not need to be
told.
Now, a title of Pan was Capricornus, or "The
goat-horned" (DYMOCK, sub voce "Pan"),
and the origin of this title must be traced to what took place
when our first parent became the Head of the Satyrs,--the "first
of the Hidden ones." He fled to hide himself; and Berkha, "a fugitive," signifies also "a
he-goat." Hence the origin of the epithet Capricornus,
or "goat-horned," as applied to Pan. But as
Capricornus in the sphere is generally represented as the "Goat-fish,"
if Capricornus represents Pan, or Adam, or Oannes, that shows
that it must be Adam, after, through virtue of the
metempsychosis, he had passed through the waters of the deluge;
the goat, as the symbol of Pan, representing Adam, the first
father of mankind, combined with the fish, the symbol of Noah,
the second father of the human race; of both whom Nimrod, as at
once Kronos, "the father of the gods," and Souro, "the seed," was a new incarnation.
Among the idols of Babylon, as represented in KITTO's Illust.
Commentary, vol. iv. p 31, we find a representation of this very Capricornus, or goat-horned fish; and Berosus tells us ("Berosiana,"
in BUNSEN, vol. i. p. 708), that the well-known
representations of Pan, of which Capricornus is a modification,
were found in Babylon in the most ancient times. A great deal
more of evidence might be adduced on this subject; but I submit
to the reader if the above statement does not sufficiently
account for the origin of the remarkable figure in the Zodiac, "The
goat-horned fish."
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