Note 73 — THE FIRST SIN,
Reading edition
On the existence among the Babylonians of the idea of the cosmic tree, see C. W. Mansell, Gazette Archéologique, 1878, p. 138.
Among the myths borrowed by the philosopher Pherecides, of Syros, from the Phenician mysteries, was that of the winged-oak (ὑποπτερος δρὑς), over which Zeus had spread a magnificent veil representing the constellations, the earth and ocean. Here we manifestly have the cosmic tree again.