Balder and His Father...

All Hail!

In the last post we marked what Robert Graves rightly calleth in his The White Goddess (chapitle 
24):

“...the single grand theme of poetry: the life, death and resurrection of the Spirit of the Year, the Goddess’s son and lover. ”

And that for "Spirit of the Year" we should read the Sun-god; and that the Sun-god of the pœtes, the scopas and skáld, the makers/makaris (see Beryn (Duke of Northumberland MS 55)   line 2462:  "I woll nat feyn oon woord, as makers doon to ryme"; Will. Dunbar Golden Targe "O reuerend Chaucere … Thou beris of makaris [M. maikaris] the tryumph riall;...") is the old god Balder.

Now Balder is the son of Wōden, thus the Chronicon Æthelweardi [MSS British library Cotton Otho A.x and Cotton Otho A.xii] marketh the stem-row of king Cerdic of Wessex:

“... octauus [pater eius ] Balder, nonus Vuothen, ...”

“... [his] eighth [father was] Balder, ninth Wōden,
...”
Which is one with what the witness born by the old handwrits of Iceland as to the gods of the Old North.  And lest any should misthink that our Wōden and their Óðinnr are not one and the same god, I give the Chronicon Æthelweardi I written by an Ealdorman of Wessex:

“Ideoque Britannia nunc Anglia appellatur, assumens nomen victorum; praefati enim duces eorum inde venerunt Britanniam primi: hoc est Hengest et Horsa filii Uuyrhtelsi, avus eorum Uuicta, et proavus eorum Uuithar, atavus eorum Uuothen, qui est rex multitudinis barbarorum. In tanta etenim seductione oppressi Aquilonales increduli, ut Deum colunt usque in hodiernam diem, viz. Dani, Northmanni quoque, & Sueni.”

“Britain, therefore, is now called Anglia [England], because it took the name of its conquerors: for their leaders aforesaid were the first who came thence to Britain; namely, Hengist and Horsa, sons of Wyhrtels: their grandfather was Wecta, and their greatgrandfather Withar, whose father was Woden, who also was king of a multitude of barbarians. For the unbelievers of the North are oppressed by such delusion that they worship him as a god even to this day, namely the Danes, the Northmen, and the Sueni ; ...”
 
And in Snorri's Edda, where he is borrowing our king lists we may read (Prologus 3):

“...Vóden. Þann köllum vér Óðin...”
 “...Vóden [that is Wōden], whom call we Odin... ”

Those wishing for a short summing up of this god's might can do no better than the two verses in Hyndluljóð from the Flateyjarbók where he is being spoken of under his byname (heiti) of Herjaföðr "the father of heers (=armies)":

2. Biðjum Herjaföðr | í hugum sitja,
hann geldr ok gefr | gull verðungu;
gaf hann Hermóði | hjalm ok brynju,
en Sigmundi | sverð at þiggja.

3. Gefr hann sigr sumum, | en sumum aura,
mælsku mörgum | ok mannvit firum;
byri gefr hann brögnum, | en brag skaldum,
gefr hann mannsemi | mörgum rekki.

2. We bid Heers' father | in mind to set,
he giveth wealth and | gold to the worthy;
he gave to Heremod | helm and byrnie,
And to Sigemund | a sword to wield.

3. he giveth sye (=vuctory) to some, | and ore to others,
To many skill in speech | and wit to men,
A birr-wind to the sailor, | to the singer his song,
he giveth a manly heart | to many a hathel (=hero).

This is Our Lord Wōden, the Northern Óðinnr.  But here we are most taken with:

 mælsku mörgum | ok mannvit firum;
 To many skill in speech | and wit to men,
 
And:

en brag skaldum,
to the singer his song (brag).

Although the Northmen will take Bragi as the god of pœtry, of skáldskapr, it would seem he is truly the old pœt, or skáld, Bragi Boddason inn gamli made into a god, and that he never shifted Wōden/Óðinnr from this work.  Thus Heimskringla eða Sögur Noregs konunga, Ynglinga saga 6 [awend. Samuel Laing]:

“Óðinn...mælti hann alt hendingum, svá sem nú er þat kveðit, er skáldskapr heitir. Hann ok hofgoðar hans heita ljóðasmiðir, því at sú íþrótt hófst af þeim í norðrlöndum.”

“Odin... He spoke everything in rhyme, such as now composed, which we call scald-craft. He and his temple priests were called song-smiths, for from them came that art of song into the northern countries.”

This should be read with an eye to the old tale we find in the Edda where, in Skáldskaparmál 5 and 6, we have the winning of the so-called “mead of pœtry” by Óðinn.  But what is bestowed by a draught thereof however, is truly what is bestowed by the gift of Óðinn himself:

“… ok varð þar af mjöðr sá, er hverr, er af drekkr, verðr skáld eða fræðamaðr.”

“… and the outcome was that mead by the virtue of which he who drinks becomes a skald or scholar.”

Skáld eða fræðamaðr... 

So Wōden/Óðinnr is not only a god of skáldskapr, but also of the (forn) fræði (old) knowledge (fræði is linked to fróðr, whence fróð-leikr knowledge) that went with it, and from which it can be said to always stand in need of.    Building on this Ynglinga saga  6 would have it that Óðinnr was the first finder and teacher of the íþróttir, or arts, in the North:

“Þá er Ásaóðinn kom á norðrlönd, ok með honum Díar, er þat sagt með sannyndum, at þeir hófu ok kendu íþróttir, þær er menn hafa lengi síðan með farit. Óðinn var göfgastr af öllum, ok af honum námu þeir allir íþróttirnar; því at hann kunni fyrst allar ok þó flestar.”

“When Odin of Asaland came to the north, and the Diar with him, they introduced and taught to others the arts which the people long afterwards have practised. Odin was the cleverest of all, and from him all the others learned their arts and accomplishments; and he knew them first, and knew many more than other people.”

And beside skáldskapr, the other íþróttir of Óðinn araught in Ynglinga saga are:

i) hof-görð temple building   (“Óðinn tók sér bústað við Löginn, þar sem nú eru kallaðar fornu Sigtúnir, ok gerði þar mikit hof ok blót eptir siðvenju Ásanna.” “Odin took up his residence at the Maelare lake, at the place now called Old Sigtun. There he erected a large temple, where there were sacrifices according to the customs of the Asaland people.” Ynglinga saga 6, This putteth me in mind of Maxims 1 in the Exeter Book, line 132 “Woden worhte weos”.);

ii) galdrar and seiðr witchcraft (see Ynglinga saga 7);

iii) rúnar (“Allar þessar íþróttir kendi hann með rúnum…” “He taught all these arts in Runes,…” Ynglinga saga 7), and although rúnar here could be taken only as another word for ljóð “songs” (see Bjarkamál “vífs rúnum”), it may also mean book-staves or letters and magic marks and tokens of all kinds (whence "heraldry"), thus in the so-called Rúnatal in the Hávamál (the mál “speech” of Hávi, Hávi a weak shape of Há(r) “High”, from the Cōdex Rēgius (GKS 2365 4to)) Óðinn himself seemeth to say “nam ec vp rvnar” “took I up runes” and the rúna-stafir rune-staves or letters are there meant (thus the Old English draught Adrianus cwæð to Ritheus (Cotton Julius A ii )  on folio 138 verso “Saga me hwa wrat bocstafas  ærest?” “Ic  þe secge Mercurius se gigant.” “Who invented letters? Mercurius the giant”, and Mercurius or Hermes/Theuth is “the father of letters” (πατὴρ ὢν γραμμάτων) as far back as Plato's Phædrus 275a, (see also Hyginus Fabulæ,   Diodorus Siculus The Library of History 5.74.1,  Plato Phædrus 274c-275b and Philebus 18b-d);

iv) spá-dómr "the sight",  foresight (“Oðinn hafði spádóm” foreword to Edda; “Óðinn var forspár ok fjölkunnigr” Ynglinga saga 5);

v) herskapr (“Óðinn var hermaðr mikill ok mjök víðförull ok eignaðist mörg ríki.” “Odin was a great and very far-travelled warrior, who conquered many kingdoms,…” Ynglinga saga 2);

vi) Lagasetning law-making, and above all those lög laws to do with the dead and the yearly rites (see Ynglinga saga 8 and 10); in prologus to Edda “Skipaði hann þar höfðingjum ok í þá líking, sem verit hafði í Trója, setti tólf höfuðmenn í staðinum at dæma landslög, ok svá skipaði hann réttum öllum sem fyrr hafði verit í Trója ok Tyrkir váru vanir. ” “There he established chieftains in the fashion which had prevailed in Troy; he set up also twelve head-men to be doomsmen over the people and to judge the laws of the land; and he ordained also all laws as, there had been before, in Troy, and according to the customs of the Turks.” - for Troy and Turks read Ásgarðr (“...borg í miðjum heimi, er kölluð er Ásgarðr. Þat köllum vér Trója”) and the Æsir.

It is worthwhile here to mark that of all the norðrlönd, it is in England that the stave-rhyme skáldskapr (that is, alliterative pœtry, the way of making found in the so-called  Elder Edda), lived on longest: Scotish Feilde being written in this wise about the fightlock at Flodden in 1515, the scop writing of himself -

He was a gentilman, by Jesu, that this Jest made,
which said but as ye see, for soth, and no other.
At Baguley that burne his biding place had.
His auncetors of old time haue yerded their longe
before William conquerour this Countrey Inhabited.

(I. F. Baird, Scotish Feilde and Flodden Feilde: Two Flodden Poems. New York: Garland, 1982,  lvs. 16-17)

(the Finnish and Eastlandish stave-rhyme as found in the Kalevala and so on, is worth withmeting with this, but it is not fully the same nor doth it share the same beginnings).  And it is from the old scopas' word-hoard that the English still have such well-matched utterings as “friend or foe” “heaven and hell” “stock and stone” “bed and board” “kith and kin” and so on.  Furthermore, that it is in England (and her colonies) that we find the law still upheld by twelve doomsmen or “jury-men”.  But English “common law” is, unlike the laws of mainland Europe, still unswayed by Roman law.  That English “common law” resteth on old unwritten laws is well known as Edward Coke wrote: “the Common Law of England had been time out of mind before the Conquest, and was not altered or changed by the Conqueror”.  But Coke is nevertheless, a little short-sighted in saying “the grounds of our common laws at this day were beyond the memory or register of any beginning”.  For if he only knew his Heimskringla he could have worked out that the beginning of the laws was needfully with Wōden/Óðinnr!  And when King Ælfred will have his laws from Moses he could have been doing no more than updating such an old belief by giving it a new shape. For Moses is not true history, and indeed would seem to be only what the one-god believers among the Jews made out of their old god Nebo (Isaiah 46:1 and Jeremiah 48:1), the even worth of the Greeks' Hermes, although they will flitt against this and have it the other way about.

Artapanus' About the Jews doth make fyrwit reading here:

“διὰ ταῦτα οὖν τὸν Μώϋσον ὑπὸ τῶν ὄχλων ἀγαπηθῆναι καὶ ὑπὸ τῶν ἱερέων ἰσοθέου τιμῆς καταξιωθέντα προσαγο ρευθῆναι Ἑρμῆν, διὰ τὴν τῶν ἱερῶν γραμμάτων ἑρμηνείαν. ”

“'For these reasons then Moses was beloved by the multitudes, and being deemed by the priests worthy to be honoured like a god, was named Hermes, because of his interpretation of the Hieroglyphics.”


[found in Eusebius of Caesarea: Praeparatio Evangelica (Preparation for the Gospel). Awend. E.H. Gifford (1903) -- Book 9, chap. 27, §§6-7]

There is no need to have such qualms over all this as many writers do.  For Wōden/Óðinnr is evened with the Romans' Mercurius thus our Wōden's day or Wednesday is in Latin dies Mercurii Mercurius' day.  And what is said of Wōden/Óðinnr in Heimskringla, is a fulsome match with what Cæsar said of the old Gaulish Mercurius who  was the first finder of all arts with the Gauls (see De Bello Gallico VI, xvii “hunc omnium inventorem artium ferunt” “they hold him the first finder of all arts”).  And, understanding the Romans' Mercurius as the Greeks' Hermes, it is also a match with what the Greeks’ wrote of Hermes Trismegistus or Theuth (see Plato Phædrus 274c-d “τοῦτον δὴ πρῶτον ἀριθμόν τε καὶ λογισμὸν εὑρεῖν καὶ [274δ] γεωμετρίαν καὶ ἀστρονομίαν, ἔτι δὲ πεττείας τε καὶ κυβείας, καὶ δὴ καὶ γράμματα.” “He it was who invented numbers and arithmetic and geometry and astronomy, also draughts and dice, and, most important of all, letters” (awend. Harold N. Fowler) also Philebus 18b; and Cyril Contra Julianum 1.41 “…καὶ πρός γε ἀριθμοὺς καὶ λογισμοὺς καὶ γεωμετρίαν ἀστρονομίαν τε καὶ ἀστρολογίαν, καὶ τὴν μουσικὴν καὶ τὴν γραμματικὴν ἅπασαν εὑρόντα παραδοῦναι”“… and beyond all this he discovered and bequeathed to posterity numbers, and calculations, and geometry, and astronomy, and astrology, and music, and the whole of grammar”(awend. G. R. S. Mead); and what Artapanus says of Moses truly longeth here as he formenged Moses and Hermes “…γενέσθαι δὲ τὸν Μώϋσον τοῦτον Ὀρφέως διδάσκαλον. ἀνδρωθέντα δ' αὐτὸν πολλὰ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις εὔχρηστα παραδοῦναι· καὶ γὰρ πλοῖα καὶ μηχανὰς πρὸς τὰς λιθοθεσίας καὶ τὰ Αἰγύπτια ὅπλα καὶ τὰ ὄργανα τὰ ὑδρευτικὰ καὶ πολεμικὰ καὶ τὴν φιλοσοφίαν ἐξευρεῖν·  ἔτι δὲ τὴν πόλιν εἰς λʹ νομοὺς διελεῖν καὶ ἑκάστῳ τῶν νομῶν ἀποτάξαι τὸν θεὸν σεφθήσεσθαι τά τε ἱερὰ γράμματα τοῖς ἱερεῦσιν, ... ἀπονεῖμαι δὲ καὶ τοῖς ἱερεῦσιν ἐξαίρετον χώραν.” “…And this Moses, they said, was the teacher of Orpheus; and when grown up he taught mankind many useful things. For he was the inventor of ships, and machines for laying stones, and Egyptian arms, and engines for drawing water and for war, and invented philosophy. Further he divided the State into thirty-six Nomes, and. appointed the god to be worshipped by each Nome, and the sacred writing for the priests, ... he also apportioned an especial district for the priests.”(awend. Gifford)).  So fully in keeping with what we should ween to see of a god of his kind.

 

We can thus see why Guido von List (1848-1919) in his Das Geheimnis der Runen, “The Secret of the Runes” (first published 1908) doth set the upspring of “aller Wissenschaften und Künste” “all arts and sciences” among “die Skaldenschaft”:

“... die Skaldenschaft die Uranfänge aller Wissenschaften und Künste, die noch heute blühen, in sich vereinigte, und dass sie - und das schon im hohen Alterum in weit vorchristlicher Zeit - als Dichter und Sänger, als Heraldiker [Maler], als Baumeister [Bildhauer, Steinmetz, Zimmerer] als Philosophen und Theosophen wie als Richter sich betätigte, in diesen Wissenschafts-, Kunst- und Berufszweigen ihre Symbolik und Hieroglyphik begründete und weiterbildete, und schliesslich in christlicher Aera in "verhehlter Weis" die in "heimlich Acht" genommene Lehre auf die, aus ihr herasusgewachsenen Zunftverbände der Wissenschaften, Künste und Gewerbe in verschiedener Ausgestaltung vererbte.  Durch die Kämpfe mit der Kirche [Hexenwesen, Ketzerverfolgungen, Reformationswirren] wie durch sonstige Wirren ...  …gingen die meisten Traditionen in jenen Körperschaften verloren, und nur spärliche Reste missverstandenen Formelkrames haben sich teilweise bis heute erhalten, während die Seele, das innere Leben verschwunden ist.”

“... the Skaldic Guild [Skaldenschaft] unites within itself the origins of all arts and sciences which are even today in full bloom, and that the skjalds were active – already in distant antiquity in considerably pre-christian times – as poets and singers, as heralds (painters), as master builders (sculptors, stonemasons, carpenters), as philosophers and Theosophists – as well as judges. They founded and refined their symbolism and hieroglyphics in these branches of arts, sciences, and crafts, and ultimately in the Christian era they handed down their arts and crafts through various developments, which had been taken into the “heimliche Acht” along “hidden ways,” to the guild leagues of sciences which had grown out of them. Through the struggles against the Church (witchcraft trials, persecutions of heretics, upheavals during the Reformations) as well as through other upheavals ...  …the majority of the traditions in those bodies were lost, and only disparate remnants of misunderstood formal odds and ends have been partially preserved to the present day, while the soul – the inner life – has disappeared.” (awending Stephen E. Flowers)

List’s “Baumeister [Bildhauer, Steinmetz, Zimmerer] ”  “Architects [sculptors, stonemasons, carpenters]” and “Zunftverbände der Wissenschaften, Künste und Gewerbe” “Guilds of Sciences, Arts and Craftsmen” lead us to our own Freemasons.  Now there are Freemasons and Freemasons.  And I speak here of the truefast old lodges, not those overthrown by Illuminati and such like (see J. Robison Proofs of a Conspiracy (1798)).

 

Above: weapon of the German Stonemasons from 1515. ᛋ

These old lodges always minned Hermes in their charges, but what was for open reading before the eyes of the world was not likely to be what the brethren knew themselves.  What they themselves believed is much more likely to be what we find in the seldom met with work Constitutions of the Ancient and Honorable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons by Rev. Thaddeus Mason Harris, A. M. dated 1798:

“A MANUSCRIPT copy of an examination of some of the Brotherhood, taken before King Henry VI, was found by the learned John Locke, Esq. in the Bodleian library.  ...

The ancient Manuscript is as follows, viz.

Certayne Questyons, with answeres to the same, concernynge the Mystery of maconrye; wryitenne by the hande of Kynge Henrye the Sixthe of the Name, and faythfullye copyed by me Johan Leylande Antiquarius, by the commaunde of his Highnesse. 

They be as Followethe:

Quest. What mote ytt be?

Answ. Ytt beeth the Skylle of nature, the understondynge of the myghte that is hereynne, and its sondrye werckynges; sonderlyche, the Skylle of reckenyngs, of waightes, and metynges, and the treu manere of faconnynge al thynges for mannes use, headlye, dwellynges, and buyldynges of alle kindes, and al odher thynges that make gudde to manne.

Quest. Where dyd ytt begyne ?

Answ. Ytt dyd begynne with the fyrste menne yn the este, whych were before the ffyrste manne of the weste, and comynge westlye, ytt hath broughte herwyth alle comfortes to the wylde and comfortlesse.

Quest. Who dyd brynge ytt westlye ?

Answ. The Venetians, whoo beynge grate merchaundes, comed ffyrste ffromme the este ynn Venetia, ffor the commodytye of merchaundysynge beithe este and weste, bey the Redde and Myddlelonde Sees.

Quest. Howe comede ytt yn Engelonde ?

Answ. Peter Gower, a Grecian, journyedde ffor kunnynge yn Egypte, and Syria, and yn everyche londe whereas the Venetians hadde plauntedde Maconrye, and wynnynge entraunce yn al Lodges of Maconnes, he lerned muche, and retournedde, and woned yn Grecia Magna wachsynge, and becommynge a myghtye wyseacre, and gratelyche renowned, and her he framed a grate Lodge at Groton and maked many Maconnes, some whereoffe dyd journey yn Fraunce, and maked manye Maconnes, wherefromme, yn processe of tyme, the arte passed in Engelonde.

Quest. Do the Maconnes discover here arts unto others ?

Answ. Peter Gower whenne he journeyedde to lernne, was ffyrste made, and anonne techedde; evenne soe shulde all odhers be yn recht. Natheless Maconnes hauethe alweys yn everyche tyme from tyme to tyme communycatedde to mannkynde soche of her secrettes as generallyche myghte be usefulle; they haueth keped backe soche allein as shulde be harmefulle yff they commed yn euylle haundes, oder soche as ne myghte be holpynge wythouten the techynges to be joynedde herwythe in the Lodge, oder soche as do bynde the Freres more strongelyche togeder, bey the proffytte, and commodytye comynge to the Confrerie herfromme.

Quest. Whatte artes haueth the Maconnes techedde mankynde ?

Answ. The artes Agricultura, Architechura, Astronomia, Geometria, Numeres, Musica, Poesie, Kymistrye, Governmente, and Relygyonne.

Quest. Howe commethe Maconnes more teachers than odher menne ?

Answ. They hemselfe haueth allein the arte of fyndynge neue artes, whyche art the ffyrste Maconnes receaued from Godde; by the whyche they fyndethe whatte artes hem plesethe, and the treu way of techynge the same. Whatt odher menne doethe ffynde out, ys onelyche bey chaunce, and therfore but lytel I tro.

Quest. Whatt dothe the Maconnes concele, and hyde ?

Answ. They concelethe the arte of ffyndynge neue artes, and thattys for there owne proffytte, and preise: They concelethe the arte of kepynge secrettes, thatt soe the worlde mayeth nothinge concele from them. They concelethe the arte of wunderwerckynge, and of fore sayinge thynges to comme, thatt so thay same artes may not be usedde of the wyckedde to an euylle ende; they also concelethe the arte of chaunges, the wey of wynnynge the facultye of Abrac, the skylle of becommynge gude and parfyghte wythouten the holpynges of fere, and hope; and the universelle longage of Maconnes.

Quest. Wylle he teche me thay same artes?

Answ. Ye shalle be techedde yff ye be werthye, and able to lerne.

Quest. Dothe alle Maconnes kunne more than odher menne ?

Answ. Not so. Thay onlyche haueth recht, and occasyonne more then odher menne to kunne, butt many doeth fale yn capacity, and manye more doth want industrye, that ys pernecessarye for the gaynynge all kunnynge.

Quest. Are Maconnes gudder menne then odhers ?

Answ. Some Maconnes are nott so vertuous as some odher menne; but yn the moste parte, thay be more gude then thay woulde be yf thay war not Maconnes.

Quest. Doth Maconnes love eidther odher myghtylye as beeth sayde ? Answ. Yea verylyche, and yt may not odherwyse be; for gude menne, and true, kennynge eidher odher to be soche, doeth always love the more as thay be more gude.

Here endethe the Questyonnes and Awnsweres.”

Peter Gower? Pythagoras!  And behind Pythagoras is Hermes, thus The Reply of the Master Abamon to the Letter of Porphyry to Anebo, and the Solutions to the Questions it Contains (otherwise known as Iamblichus' On the Mysteries...)[awend. Ƀdouard Des Places, E. C. Clarke, J. M. Dillon and J. P. Hershbell]:

“Φιλόσοφον δ’εἴτι προβάλλεις ἐρώτημα, διακρινοῦμέν σοι καὶ τοῦτο κατὰ τὰς Ἑρμοῦ παλαιᾶς στήλας, ἃς Πλάτων ἤδη πρόσθεν καὶ Πυθαγόρας διαναγνόντες φιλοσοφίαν συνεστήσαντο...”

 “Yet if you put forward a philosophical question, we will settle this also for you by recourse to the ancient stelae of Hermes, to which Plato before us, and Pythagoras too, gave careful study in the establishment of their philosophy...”


And Hermes is our Wōden/Óðinnr.  And in the Postula Sögur: Páls saga postula (AM 236 fol.) chap. 6, we will even find Óðins-borgar men (Oþenesborgar menn, mistakenly for Aþenisborgar menn, see Aþenisborg in chap. 7, but in chap. 4 he had only then written Guþ com til var i manna li[ciom] oc cølluþo þeir Paulum Oþin en Barnabas Þor.) put twice for Athenians!  So that when all things are umbethought, Guido von List's words are not as wild as they might seem at first.  

Now in the Master’s Degree of Freemasons there is a legend of the death of Hiram the master builder of Solomon’s Temple (see 2 Chronicles 2:13-14).  About this Hiram, Albert Pike in his Morals and Dogma … (1871) wisely wrote:

“From the journey of the Sun through the twelve signs came the legend of the twelve labors of Hercules, and the incarnations of Vishnu and Bouddha. Hence came the legend of the murder of Khir-Om [Hiram], representative of the Sun, by the three Fellow-crafts, symbols of the three winter signs, Capricornus, Aquarius, and Pisces, who assailed him at the three gates of Heaven and slew him at the winter solstice. Hence the search for him by the nine Fellowcrafts, the other nine signs, his finding, burial, and resurrection.”

So that Hiram is for the sun.  And might not this have once been a play on the death of Balder himself?  It should further be marked here that Solomon's Temple was truly hallowed to the worship of the sun, as the Bible giveth away with Ezekiel 8:16:

“And he brought me into the inner court of the LORD'S house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.”

And 2 Kings 23:11:

 “And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entering in of the house of the LORD, by the chamber of Nathanmelech the chamberlain, which was in the suburbs, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire.”

Whilst Jerusalem is the yeru, 'settlement' (from Semitic yry' 'to found, to lay a cornerstone'), of the god Shalem, Shalem being the Evening Star.  But here it would seem it is for the Akkadian Salmu "a likeness", a sun-god, and Solomon himself is only a thin euhemerisation of this god.

 Elsewhere in Morals and Dogma … Pike also wrote:

“Almost every nation will be found to have had a mythical being, whose strength or weakness, virtues or defects, more or less nearly describe the Sun's career through the seasons.”

And this is sooth, and as we have said, it is the great theme of poets, and underlieth the tale of Balder. 

Farewell.