Thus we have seen the fabulous “world mountain” of early Babylonia pervading the mythologies of Europe and Asia, taking the form of the star-crowned Olympus on the Ægean sea, and of Meru, with her fadeless flowers, in the valleys of India. In northern Europe it is represented by the Nida mountains with their golden palaces, and in Persia by the beautiful Hara with her crown of living light. The Chaldean river of death, Datilla, flows also through the realms of Grecia under the name of Styx, and in the regions of the north it becomes the Ifing, and also the Gyöll. Again the mythical river seems to mount upward, and like the heavenly Nile, the Ganges springs from celestial heights and flows through the starry highlands of heaven, while the silvery torrents of the Persian stream come pouring down from the white summit of the Hara-Berezaita. The early Baal, with all the unspeakable abominations attending his worship, becomes refined in the form of Zeus or Jove, who hurls his lightnings from the brow of Olympus, and in the Ahūra-Mazda of the Persians, whose throne is “the lofty mountain.” Tammuz and Chemosh, whose hideous images called forth the contempt of the prophets, appear in the Persian pantheon as Mithra with his glittering steeds; Ashtaroth of Sidon, and Diana of Ephesus, lay aside their revolting sensuality, and come forth as the chaste and strong Diana of Grecian poetry, or the fair goddess of the dawn among the Hindūs and Persians. The germs of European and Asiatic mythology are therefore found in that cradle of idolatry, where the image-worship of Babylonia received the rebuke of the prophets, and where the red altars of Baal and Moloch were stained with human blood even amidst the highest forms of early art and culture. ----- Footnote 113: The statement of Herodotus concerning the attack upon the sacred bull is probably correct, even though the Egyptian monuments claim that Cambyses, and also the Roman emperors, bowed down to the Egyptian gods. We may conclude that Cambyses, in doing reverence to the gods of Egypt, was following in the footsteps of his cool and politic father (Cyrus), and was guided in these acts by the precedent which his father had set in reference to the gods of Babylonia. Footnote 114: Hindu Literature, p. 59. Footnote 115: “Let down our golden everlasting chain, Whose strong embrace holds heaven and earth and men; I fix the chain to great Olympus height, And the vast world hangs trembling in my sight.”—Il.viii, 19-26. Footnote 116: Isa. xiv, 13. Footnote 117: Ninth tablet of the Epic of Gisdhubar. Footnote 118: Hindu Literature, pp. 126-148. Footnote 119: Anderson—Norse Mythology, pp. 104-434. Footnote 120: Hindu Literature, p. 126. Footnote 121: