the {253} astrological religion of the great desert city recognized a
supreme god residing in the highest heavens, and a solar god, his visible
image and agent, according to the Semitic theology of the last period of
paganism (_supra_, p. 134).

60. I have spoken of this solar eschatology in the memorial cited _infra_,
n. 88.

61. This opinion is that of Posidonius (see Wendland, _Philos Schrift ueber
die Vorsehung_, Berlin, 1892, p. 68, n. 1; 70, n. 2). It is shared by the
ancient astrologers.

62. This old pagan and gnostic idea has continued to the present day in
Syria among the Nosairis; cf. Dussaud, _Histoire et religion des Nosairis_,
1900, p. 125.

63. The belief that pious souls are guided to heaven by a psychopompus, is
found not only in the mysteries of Mithra (_Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 310),
but also in the Syrian cults where that role was often assigned to the
solar god, see Isid. Levy, _Cultes syriens dans le Talmud_ (_Revue des
etudes juives_, XLIII), 1901, p. 5, and Dussaud, _Notes_, p. 27; cf. the Le
Bas-Waddington inscription, 2442:

"[Greek: Basileu despota] (= the sun), [Greek: hilathi kai didou pasin
hemin hugien katharan, prexis agathas kai biou telos esthlon]."--

The same idea is found in inscriptions in the Occident; as for instance in
the peculiar epitaph of a sailor who died at Marseilles (Kaibel, _Inscr.
gr._, XIV, 2462 = _Epigr._, 650):

"[Greek: En de [te] tethneioisin homeguri [es] ge pelousin]
[Greek: doiai; ton hetere men epichthonie pephoretai,]
[Greek: he d' hetere teiressi sun aitherioisi choreuei,]
[Greek: es straties eis eimi, lachon theon hegemonea]."

It is the same term that Julian used (_Cesars_, p. 336 C) in speaking of
Mithra, the guide of souls: [Greek: hegemona theon]. Cf. also _infra_, n.
66 and ch. VIII, n. 24.

64. The Babylonian origin of the doctrine that the souls returned to heaven
by crossing the seven planetary spheres, has been maintained by Anz (_Zur
Frage nach dem Ursprung des Gnostizismus_, 1897; cf. _Mon. myst. Mithra_,
I. pp. 38 ff., p. 309; Bousset, _Die Himmelsreise der Seele_ [_Archiv fuer
Religionsw._, IV], 1901, pp. 160 ff.) and "Gnosis" in Pauly-Wissowa,
_Realencyclopaedie_, col. 1520. It has since been denied by Reitzenstein
(_Poimandres_, p. 79; cf. Kroll, _Berl. philol. Wochensch._, {254} 1906, p.
486). But although it may have been given its precise shape and been
transformed by the Greeks and even by the Egyptians, I persist in bel