where mention is made of the chastisement of the stars which “did not come at their appointed times”. This corresponds to the reproach administered to the moon, mentioned in BR, loc. cit., for having encroached upon the province of its colleague (=the sun), i.e., for having shone during the day. The myth sought to explain the appearance of the moon by day, which, owing to the superiority of the sun over it, was rather baffling to the primitive mind. Hullin, loc. cit., as well as the later addition in BR (אני הוא שגרמתי), does not present the myth in its original form.—That the sun and moon are endowed with wisdom and passion like man is originally a mythological conception which had been maintained for a long time by Jews and Christians. On this conception in pseudepigraphic literature and Philo, comp. Psalms of Solomon, end (the prayer at the appearance of the new-moon, קדוש לבנה, in present use, which is already found in Sanhedrin 42a, partly corresponds to this psalm); Apocalypse of Baruch 48.9; Enoch 2, 1–5, 3 (it is more than a poetic description of the order reigning in nature and the lack of order displayed by man); Philo, De Plant. Noe, 3; Be Somn. 1, 4 and 2, 16. On the rabbinic sources containing this view, comp., besides the passages referred to at the beginning of this note, also those cited in notes 102, 104, 105, 112. For the Christian sources, see Origen, 1, 7; Visio Pauli 4–6. Like the heavenly bodies, even so the earth, the plants, in short, all existing things, were conceived more or less by analogy to man; comp. note 193.—Concerning the motions of the heavenly bodies, the Books of Enoch, as well as the old rabbinic sources, contain a good deal of material which is on the boundary line of mythology and astronomy; comp. Pesahim 94a; Yerushalmi Rosh ha-Shanah 2, 58a; Baba Batra 25a; PK 29, 186a–186b; ER 2, 9–10; Hallel 89; Shir 3.11; see also the two writings Baraita di-Shemuel and Baraita di-Mazzalot, which are entirely devoted to this subject. Old material is found also in Raziel, which is particularly instructive for the history of astrology. Of interest is “the case” in which the disc of the sun is inserted (ναρθήκιον נרתיק “case”), a conception often mentioned in old rabbinic literature as well as in the writings of the Persians and Arabs (comp. Grünbaum, Gesammelte Aufsätze, 145–146). It is noteworthy that this “case” is known in rabbinic sources (BR 6.6; Koheleth 1.5; PK 29, 186a; Nedarim 8b; ‘Abodah Zarah 3b; Tehillim 19, 168 and 170; Tan. B. II, 98; Tan. Tezawweh 8; Hallel 89; Baraita di-Ma'aseh Bereshit 50) by the Greek word נרתיק—Concerning the darkness of
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