Dedication...
Illustrations ...
Preface...

CHAPTER I
The Hebrew Universe as Commonly Pictured
A typical representation...
Inconsistency in interpretation...
Lack of thoroughness...
Antecedent probabilities...
A profession of faith...
The declaration of an astronomer...

CHAPTER II
The Hebrew Universe as Pictured by Schiaparelli
An improved reconstruction of the system...
International interest therein...
Diagram less inclusive than its title...
A double firmament and the reasons therefor...
Embarrassing questions...
God’s will effective below but not above the earth...

CHAPTER III
The Babylonian Universe Newly Interpreted
Seven diagrams representing the Babylonian universe...
No two of the seven alike...
A new interpretation needed...
The twelve conditions to be met...
A diagram that satisfies each of the twelve requirements...
Origin of this remarkable world-concept...

CHAPTER IV
The Biblical, Rabbinical, and Koranic Universe in the Light of the Babylonian
Was the Biblical universe essentially Babylonian?...
An argument against the supposition...
Considerations favoring the supposition...
The Rabbinical world-view...
The Koranic...
Mohammed’s six ascents into the seventh heaven...

CHAPTER V
The Egyptian Universe
A pioneer’s first representation...
A contemporary criticism...
Picture embodying some later modifications...
Difficulties remain...
Traces of agreement with the Babylonian system...
Steindorff discovers but fails to correlate the Counter-earth...

CHAPTER VI
The Homeric Universe
A claim that the Homeric earth is a sphere...
Other parts of his universe more or less Babylonian...
Where further evidence may be found...
The irremovable “thresholds” above and below the earth...
Testimony of Herodotus to Babylonian influence...
An ampler present-day claim...

CHAPTER VII
The Indo-Iranian Universe
The world-concept of the Surya Siddhanta...
Sevenfold division of the Northern hemisphere...
Sevenfold division of the Southern hemisphere...
Substantial identity of Indian and Iranian world-concepts...
The seven "island continents”...
A puzzling passage made plain...

CHAPTER VIII
The Buddhistic Universe
Four chief deviations from the parent system...
Nine points of agreement with it...
Both agreements and deviations should be further investigated...
Two pictures of the Buddhistic universe...
One with quadrangular Dvipas, the other with circular...
More detailed description of this world-view in the Appendix...

CHAPTER IX
Recovered Trace of Two Lost Spheres
Two lunar and two solar spheres...
Discriminations hitherto neglected...
Difficulty of the task...
It should nevertheless be undertaken...
A long-standing problem in Egyptian cosmology...
Its solution...

CHAPTER X
Points and Problems for Future Studt
The prehistoric world-concept...
Myths as beginnings of a philosophy of nature...
Why hard to understand...
Their seeming lack of harmony often unreal...
Mythical representations of the world’s axis...
Also of the cosmic water-system...
And of inter-mundane highways...
The lunar sphere as bridge from underworld to upper...
The Zodiac, when invented, and where...
The answer to these questions becoming clearer...

APPENDIX
I. The Mandala Oblation...
II. Homer’s Abode of the Dead...
III. Homer’s Abode of the Living...
IV. The Gates of Sunrise in the Oldest Mythologies...
V. The Homeland of the Gandharvas...
VI. The World-Tree of the Teutons...
VII. Problems Still Unsolved in Indo-Aryan Cosmology...
VIII. Index of Authors...
IX. Index of Subjects...