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diff --git a/16653.txt b/16653.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1598204 --- /dev/null +++ b/16653.txt @@ -0,0 +1,17482 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Myths of Babylonia and Assyria, by Donald A. Mackenzie + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Myths of Babylonia and Assyria + +Author: Donald A. Mackenzie + +Release Date: September 5, 2005 [EBook #16653] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYTHS OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA *** + + + + +Produced by Sami Sieranoja, Tapio Riikonen and PG +Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + + + +MYTHS OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA + +Donald A. Mackenzie + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + Preface + Introduction +I. The Races and Early Civilization of Babylonia +II. The Land of Rivers and the God of the Deep +III. Rival Pantheons and Representative Deities +IV. Demons, Fairies, and Ghosts +V. Myths of Tammuz and Ishtar +VI. Wars of the City States of Sumer and Akkad +VII. Creation Legend: Merodach the Dragon Slayer +VIII. Deified Heroes: Etana and Gilgamesh +IX. Deluge Legend, the Island of the Blessed, and Hades +X. Buildings and Laws and Customs of Babylon +XI. The Golden Age of Babylonia +XII. Rise of the Hittites, Mitannians, Kassites, Hyksos, and + Assyrians +XIII. Astrology and Astronomy +XIV. Ashur the National God of Assyria +XV. Conflicts for Trade and Supremacy +XVI. Race Movements that Shattered Empires +XVII. The Hebrews in Assyrian History +XVIII. The Age of Semiramis +XIX. Assyria's Age of Splendour +XX. The Last Days of Assyria and Babylonia + + + + +PREFACE + + +This volume deals with the myths and legends of Babylonia and Assyria, +and as these reflect the civilization in which they developed, a +historical narrative has been provided, beginning with the early +Sumerian Age and concluding with the periods of the Persian and +Grecian Empires. Over thirty centuries of human progress are thus +passed under review. + +During this vast interval of time the cultural influences emanating +from the Tigro-Euphrates valley reached far-distant shores along the +intersecting avenues of trade, and in consequence of the periodic and +widespread migrations of peoples who had acquired directly or +indirectly the leavening elements of Mesopotamian civilization. Even +at the present day traces survive in Europe of the early cultural +impress of the East; our "Signs of the Zodiac", for instance, as well +as the system of measuring time and space by using 60 as a basic +numeral for calculation, are inheritances from ancient Babylonia. + +As in the Nile Valley, however, it is impossible to trace in +Mesopotamia the initiatory stages of prehistoric culture based on the +agricultural mode of life. What is generally called the "Dawn of +History" is really the beginning of a later age of progress; it is +necessary to account for the degree of civilization attained at the +earliest period of which we have knowledge by postulating a remoter +age of culture of much longer duration than that which separates the +"Dawn" from the age in which we now live. Although Sumerian (early +Babylonian) civilization presents distinctively local features which +justify the application of the term "indigenous" in the broad sense, +it is found, like that of Egypt, to be possessed of certain elements +which suggest exceedingly remote influences and connections at present +obscure. Of special interest in this regard is Professor Budge's +mature and well-deliberated conclusion that "both the Sumerians and +early Egyptians derived their primeval gods from some common but +exceedingly ancient source". The prehistoric burial customs of these +separate peoples are also remarkably similar and they resemble closely +in turn those of the Neolithic Europeans. The cumulative effect of +such evidence forces us to regard as not wholly satisfactory and +conclusive the hypothesis of cultural influence. A remote racial +connection is possible, and is certainly worthy of consideration when +so high an authority as Professor Frazer, author of _The Golden +Bough_, is found prepared to admit that the widespread "homogeneity of +beliefs" may have been due to "homogeneity of race". It is shown +(Chapter 1) that certain ethnologists have accumulated data which +establish a racial kinship between the Neolithic Europeans, the +proto-Egyptians, the Sumerians, the southern Persians, and the +Aryo-Indians. + +Throughout this volume comparative notes have been compiled in dealing +with Mesopotamian beliefs with purpose to assist the reader towards +the study of linking myths and legends. Interesting parallels have +been gleaned from various religious literatures in Europe, Egypt, +India, and elsewhere. It will be found that certain relics of +Babylonian intellectual life, which have a distinctive geographical +significance, were shared by peoples in other cultural areas where +they were similarly overlaid with local colour. Modes of thought were +the products of modes of life and were influenced in their development +by human experiences. The influence of environment on the growth of +culture has long been recognized, but consideration must also be given +to the choice of environment by peoples who had adopted distinctive +habits of life. Racial units migrated from cultural areas to districts +suitable for colonization and carried with them a heritage of +immemorial beliefs and customs which were regarded as being quite as +indispensable for their welfare as their implements and domesticated +animals. + +When consideration is given in this connection to the conservative +element in primitive religion, it is not surprising to find that the +growth of religious myths was not so spontaneous in early +civilizations of the highest order as has hitherto been assumed. It +seems clear that in each great local mythology we have to deal, in the +first place, not with symbolized ideas so much as symbolized folk +beliefs of remote antiquity and, to a certain degree, of common +inheritance. It may not be found possible to arrive at a conclusive +solution of the most widespread, and therefore the most ancient folk +myths, such as, for instance, the Dragon Myth, or the myth of the +culture hero. Nor, perhaps, is it necessary that we should concern +ourselves greatly regarding the origin of the idea of the dragon, +which in one country symbolized fiery drought and in another +overwhelming river floods. + +The student will find footing on surer ground by following the process +which exalts the dragon of the folk tale into the symbol of evil and +primordial chaos. The Babylonian Creation Myth, for instance, can be +shown to be a localized and glorified legend in which the hero and his +tribe are displaced by the war god and his fellow deities whose +welfare depends on his prowess. Merodach kills the dragon, Tiamat, as +the heroes of Eur-Asian folk stories kill grisly hags, by casting his +weapon down her throat. + + He severed her inward parts, he pierced her heart, + He overcame her and cut off her life; + He cast down her body and stood upon it ... + And with merciless club he smashed her skull. + He cut through the channels of her blood, + And he made the north wind to bear it away into secret places. + +Afterwards + + He divided the flesh of the _Ku-pu_ and devised a cunning plan. + +Mr. L.W. King, from whose scholarly _Seven Tablets of Creation_ these +lines are quoted, notes that "Ku-pu" is a word of uncertain meaning. +Jensen suggests "trunk, body". Apparently Merodach obtained special +knowledge after dividing, and perhaps eating, the "Ku-pu". His +"cunning plan" is set forth in detail: he cut up the dragon's body: + + He split her up like a flat fish into two halves. + +He formed the heavens with one half and the earth with the other, and +then set the universe in order. His power and wisdom as the Demiurge +were derived from the fierce and powerful Great Mother, Tiamat. + +In other dragon stories the heroes devise their plans after eating the +dragon's heart. According to Philostratus,[1] Apollonius of Tyana was +worthy of being remembered for two things--his bravery in travelling +among fierce robber tribes, not then subject to Rome, and his wisdom +in learning the language of birds and other animals as the Arabs do. +This accomplishment the Arabs acquired, Philostratus explains, by +eating the hearts of dragons. The "animals" who utter magic words are, +of course, the Fates. Siegfried of the _Nibelungenlied_, after slaying +the Regin dragon, makes himself invulnerable by bathing in its blood. +He obtains wisdom by eating the heart: as soon as he tastes it he can +understand the language of birds, and the birds reveal to him that +Mimer is waiting to slay him. Sigurd similarly makes his plans after +eating the heart of the Fafner dragon. In Scottish legend +Finn-mac-Coul obtains the power to divine secrets by partaking of a +small portion of the seventh salmon associated with the "well dragon", +and Michael Scott and other folk heroes become great physicians after +tasting the juices of the middle part of the body of the white snake. +The hero of an Egyptian folk tale slays a "deathless snake" by cutting +it in two parts and putting sand between the parts. He then obtains +from the box, of which it is the guardian, the book of spells; when he +reads a page of the spells he knows what the birds of the sky, the +fish of the deep, and the beasts of the hill say; the book gives him +power to enchant "the heaven and the earth, the abyss, the mountains +and the sea".[2] + +Magic and religion were never separated in Babylonia; not only the +priests but also the gods performed magical ceremonies. Ea, Merodach's +father, overcame Apsu, the husband of the dragon Tiamat, by means of +spells: he was "the great magician of the gods". Merodach's division +of the "Ku-pu" was evidently an act of contagious magic; by eating or +otherwise disposing of the vital part of the fierce and wise mother +dragon, he became endowed with her attributes, and was able to proceed +with the work of creation. Primitive peoples in our own day, like the +Abipones of Paraguay, eat the flesh of fierce and cunning animals so +that their strength, courage, and wisdom may be increased. + +The direct influence exercised by cultural contact, on the other hand, +may be traced when myths with an alien geographical setting are found +among peoples whose experiences could never have given them origin. In +India, where the dragon symbolizes drought and the western river +deities are female, the Manu fish and flood legend resembles closely +the Babylonian, and seems to throw light upon it. Indeed, the Manu +myth appears to have been derived from the lost flood story in which +Ea figured prominently in fish form as the Preserver. The Babylonian +Ea cult and the Indian Varuna cult had apparently much in common, as +is shown. + +Throughout this volume special attention has been paid to the various +peoples who were in immediate contact with, and were influenced by, +Mesopotamian civilization. The histories are traced in outline of the +Kingdoms of Elam, Urartu (Ancient Armenia), Mitanni, and the Hittites, +while the story of the rise and decline of the Hebrew civilization, as +narrated in the Bible and referred to in Mesopotamian inscriptions, is +related from the earliest times until the captivity in the +Neo-Babylonian period and the restoration during the age of the +Persian Empire. The struggles waged between the great Powers for the +control of trade routes, and the periodic migrations of pastoral +warrior folks who determined the fate of empires, are also dealt with, +so that light may be thrown on the various processes and influences +associated with the developments of local religions and mythologies. +Special chapters, with comparative notes, are devoted to the +Ishtar-Tammuz myths, the Semiramis legends, Ashur and his symbols, and +the origin and growth of astrology and astronomy. + +The ethnic disturbances which occurred at various well-defined periods +in the Tigro-Euphrates valley were not always favourable to the +advancement of knowledge and the growth of culture. The invaders who +absorbed Sumerian civilization may have secured more settled +conditions by welding together political units, but seem to have +exercised a retrogressive influence on the growth of local culture. +"Babylonian religion", writes Dr. Langdon, "appears to have reached +its highest level in the Sumerian period, or at least not later than +2000 B.C. From that period onward to the first century B.C. popular +religion maintained with great difficulty the sacred standards of the +past." Although it has been customary to characterize Mesopotamian +civilization as Semitic, modern research tends to show that the +indigenous inhabitants, who were non-Semitic, were its originators. +Like the proto-Egyptians, the early Cretans, and the Pelasgians in +southern Europe and Asia Minor, they invariably achieved the +intellectual conquest of their conquerors, as in the earliest times +they had won victories over the antagonistic forces of nature. If the +modern view is accepted that these ancient agriculturists of the +goddess cult were of common racial origin, it is to the most +representative communities of the widespread Mediterranean race that +the credit belongs of laying the foundations of the brilliant +civilizations of the ancient world in southern Europe, and Egypt, and +the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates. + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +Ancient Babylonia has made stronger appeal to the imagination of +Christendom than even Ancient Egypt, because of its association with +the captivity of the Hebrews, whose sorrows are enshrined in the +familiar psalm: + + By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down; + Yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. + We hanged our harps upon the willows.... + +In sacred literature proud Babylon became the city of the anti-Christ, +the symbol of wickedness and cruelty and human vanity. Early +Christians who suffered persecution compared their worldly state to +that of the oppressed and disconsolate Hebrews, and, like them, they +sighed for Jerusalem--the new Jerusalem. When St. John the Divine had +visions of the ultimate triumph of Christianity, he referred to its +enemies--the unbelievers and persecutors--as the citizens of the +earthly Babylon, the doom of which he pronounced in stately and +memorable phrases: + + Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, + And is become the habitation of devils, + And the hold of every foul spirit, + And a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.... + + For her sins have reached unto heaven + And God hath remembered her iniquities.... + The merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her, + For no man buyeth their merchandise any more. + +"At the noise of the taking of Babylon", cried Jeremiah, referring to +the original Babylon, "the earth is moved, and the cry is heard among +the nations.... It shall be no more inhabited forever; neither shall +it be dwelt in from generation to generation." The Christian Saint +rendered more profound the brooding silence of the desolated city of +his vision by voicing memories of its beauty and gaiety and bustling +trade: + + The voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers and trumpeters + shall be heard no more at all in thee; + And no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any + more in thee; + And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; + And the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no + more at all in thee: + For thy merchants were the great men of the earth; + For by thy sorceries were all nations deceived. + _And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, + And of all that were slain upon the earth_.[3] + +So for nearly two thousand years has the haunting memory of the +once-powerful city pervaded Christian literature, while its broken +walls and ruined temples and palaces lay buried deep in desert sand. +The history of the ancient land of which it was the capital survived +in but meagre and fragmentary form, mingled with accumulated myths and +legends. A slim volume contained all that could be derived from +references in the Old Testament and the compilations of classical +writers. + +It is only within the past half-century that the wonderful story of +early Eastern civilization has been gradually pieced together by +excavators and linguists, who have thrust open the door of the past +and probed the hidden secrets of long ages. We now know more about +"the land of Babel" than did not only the Greeks and Romans, but even +the Hebrew writers who foretold its destruction. Glimpses are being +afforded us of its life and manners and customs for some thirty +centuries before the captives of Judah uttered lamentations on the +banks of its reedy canals. The sites of some of the ancient cities of +Babylonia and Assyria were identified by European officials and +travellers in the East early in the nineteenth century, and a few +relics found their way to Europe. But before Sir A.H. Layard set to +work as an excavator in the "forties", "a case scarcely three feet +square", as he himself wrote, "enclosed all that remained not only of +the great city of Nineveh, but of Babylon itself".[4] + +Layard, the distinguished pioneer Assyriologist, was an Englishman of +Huguenot descent, who was born in Paris. Through his mother he +inherited a strain of Spanish blood. During his early boyhood he +resided in Italy, and his education, which began there, was continued +in schools in France, Switzerland, and England. He was a man of +scholarly habits and fearless and independent character, a charming +writer, and an accomplished fine-art critic; withal he was a great +traveller, a strenuous politician, and an able diplomatist. In 1845, +while sojourning in the East, he undertook the exploration of ancient +Assyrian cities. He first set to work at Kalkhi, the Biblical Calah. +Three years previously M.P.C. Botta, the French consul at Mosul, had +begun to investigate the Nineveh mounds; but these he abandoned for a +mound near Khorsabad which proved to be the site of the city erected +by "Sargon the Later", who is referred to by Isaiah. The relics +discovered by Botta and his successor, Victor Place, are preserved in +the Louvre. + +At Kalkhi and Nineveh Layard uncovered the palaces of some of the most +famous Assyrian Emperors, including the Biblical Shalmaneser and +Esarhaddon, and obtained the colossi, bas reliefs, and other treasures +of antiquity which formed the nucleus of the British Museum's +unrivalled Assyrian collection. He also conducted diggings at Babylon +and Niffer (Nippur). His work was continued by his assistant, Hormuzd +Rassam, a native Christian of Mosul, near Nineveh. Rassam studied for +a time at Oxford. + +The discoveries made by Layard and Botta stimulated others to follow +their example. In the "fifties" Mr. W.K. Loftus engaged in excavations +at Larsa and Erech, where important discoveries were made of ancient +buildings, ornaments, tablets, sarcophagus graves, and pot burials, +while Mr. J.E. Taylor operated at Ur, the seat of the moon cult and +the birthplace of Abraham, and at Eridu, which is generally regarded +as the cradle of early Babylonian (Sumerian) civilization. + +In 1854 Sir Henry Rawlinson superintended diggings at Birs Nimrud +(Borsippa, near Babylon), and excavated relics of the Biblical +Nebuchadrezzar. This notable archaeologist began his career in the +East as an officer in the Bombay army. He distinguished himself as a +political agent and diplomatist. While resident at Baghdad, he devoted +his leisure time to cuneiform studies. One of his remarkable feats was +the copying of the famous trilingual rock inscription of Darius the +Great on a mountain cliff at Behistun, in Persian Kurdistan. This work +was carried out at great personal risk, for the cliff is 1700 feet +high and the sculptures and inscriptions are situated about 300 feet +from the ground. + +Darius was the first monarch of his line to make use of the Persian +cuneiform script, which in this case he utilized in conjunction with +the older and more complicated Assyro-Babylonian alphabetic and +syllabic characters to record a portion of the history of his reign. +Rawlinson's translation of the famous inscription was an important +contribution towards the decipherment of the cuneiform writings of +Assyria and Babylonia. + +Twelve years of brilliant Mesopotamian discovery concluded in 1854, +and further excavations had to be suspended until the "seventies" on +account of the unsettled political conditions of the ancient land and +the difficulties experienced in dealing with Turkish officials. During +the interval, however, archaeologists and philologists were kept fully +engaged studying the large amount of material which had been +accumulated. Sir Henry Rawlinson began the issue of his monumental +work _The Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia_ on behalf of the +British Museum. + +Goodspeed refers to the early archaeological work as the "Heroic +Period" of research, and says that the "Modern Scientific Period" +began with Mr. George Smith's expedition to Nineveh in 1873. + +George Smith, like Henry Schliemann, the pioneer investigator of +pre-Hellenic culture, was a self-educated man of humble origin. He was +born at Chelsea in 1840. At fourteen he was apprenticed to an +engraver. He was a youth of studious habits and great originality, and +interested himself intensely in the discoveries which had been made by +Layard and other explorers. At the British Museum, which he visited +regularly to pore over the Assyrian inscriptions, he attracted the +attention of Sir Henry Rawlinson. So greatly impressed was Sir Henry +by the young man's enthusiasm and remarkable intelligence that he +allowed him the use of his private room and provided casts and +squeezes of inscriptions to assist him in his studies. Smith made +rapid progress. His earliest discovery was the date of the payment of +tribute by Jehu, King of Israel, to the Assyrian Emperor Shalmaneser. +Sir Henry availed himself of the young investigator's assistance in +producing the third volume of _The Cuneiform Inscriptions_. + +In 1867 Smith received an appointment in the Assyriology Department of +the British Museum, and a few years later became famous throughout +Christendom as the translator of fragments of the Babylonian Deluge +Legend from tablets sent to London by Rassam. Sir Edwin Arnold, the +poet and Orientalist, was at the time editor of the _Daily Telegraph_, +and performed a memorable service to modern scholarship by dispatching +Smith, on behalf of his paper, to Nineveh to search for other +fragments of the Ancient Babylonian epic. Rassam had obtained the +tablets from the great library of the cultured Emperor Ashur-bani-pal, +"the great and noble Asnapper" of the Bible,[5] who took delight, as +he himself recorded, in + + The wisdom of Ea,[6] the art of song, the treasures of science. + +This royal patron of learning included in his library collection, +copies and translations of tablets from Babylonia. Some of these were +then over 2000 years old. The Babylonian literary relics were, indeed, +of as great antiquity to Ashur-bani-pal as that monarch's relics are +to us. + +The Emperor invoked Nebo, god of wisdom and learning, to bless his +"books", praying: + + Forever, O Nebo, King of all heaven and earth, + Look gladly upon this Library + Of Ashur-bani-pal, his (thy) shepherd, reverencer of thy + divinity.[7] + +Mr. George Smith's expedition to Nineveh in 1873 was exceedingly +fruitful of results. More tablets were discovered and translated. In +the following year he returned to the ancient Assyrian city on behalf +of the British Museum, and added further by his scholarly achievements +to his own reputation and the world's knowledge of antiquity. His last +expedition was made early in 1876; on his homeward journey he was +stricken down with fever, and on 19th August he died at Aleppo in his +thirty-sixth year. So was a brilliant career brought to an untimely +end. + +Rassam was engaged to continue Smith's great work, and between 1877 +and 1882 made many notable discoveries in Assyria and Babylonia, +including the bronze doors of a Shalmaneser temple, the sun temple at +Sippar; the palace of the Biblical Nebuchadrezzar, which was famous +for its "hanging gardens"; a cylinder of Nabonidus, King of Babylon; +and about fifty thousand tablets. + +M. de Sarzec, the French consul at Bassorah, began in 1877 excavations +at the ancient Sumerian city of Lagash (Shirpula), and continued them +until 1900. He found thousands of tablets, many has reliefs, votive +statuettes, which worshippers apparently pinned on sacred shrines, the +famous silver vase of King Entemena, statues of King Gudea, and +various other treasures which are now in the Louvre. + +The pioneer work achieved by British and French excavators stimulated +interest all over the world. An expedition was sent out from the +United States by the University of Pennsylvania, and began to operate +at Nippur in 1888. The Germans, who have displayed great activity in +the domain of philological research, are at present represented by an +exploring party which is conducting the systematic exploration of the +ruins of Babylon. Even the Turkish Government has encouraged research +work, and its excavators have accumulated a fine collection of +antiquities at Constantinople. Among the archaeologists and linguists +of various nationalities who are devoting themselves to the study of +ancient Assyrian and Babylonian records and literature, and gradually +unfolding the story of ancient Eastern civilization, those of our own +country occupy a prominent position. One of the most interesting +discoveries of recent years has been new fragments of the Creation +Legend by L.W. King of the British Museum, whose scholarly work, _The +Seven Tablets of Creation_, is the standard work on the subject. + +The archaeological work conducted in Persia, Asia Minor, Palestine, +Cyprus, Crete, the Aegean, and Egypt has thrown, and is throwing, much +light on the relations between the various civilizations of antiquity. +In addition to the Hittite discoveries, with which the name of +Professor Sayce will ever be associated as a pioneer, we now hear much +of the hitherto unknown civilizations of Mitanni and Urartu (ancient +Armenia), which contributed to the shaping of ancient history. The +Biblical narratives of the rise and decline of the Hebrew kingdoms +have also been greatly elucidated. + +In this volume, which deals mainly with the intellectual life of the +Mesopotamian peoples, a historical narrative has been provided as an +appropriate setting for the myths and legends. In this connection the +reader must be reminded that the chronology of the early period is +still uncertain. The approximate dates which are given, however, are +those now generally adopted by most European and American authorities. +Early Babylonian history of the Sumerian period begins some time prior +to 3000 B.C; Sargon of Akkad flourished about 2650 B.C., and Hammurabi +not long before or after 2000 B.C. The inflated system of dating which +places Mena of Egypt as far back as 5500 B.C. and Sargon at about 3800 +B.C. has been abandoned by the majority of prominent archaeologists, +the exceptions including Professor Flinders Petrie. Recent discoveries +appear to support the new chronological system. "There is a growing +conviction", writes Mr. Hawes, "that Cretan evidence, especially in +the eastern part of the island, favours the minimum (Berlin) system of +Egyptian chronology, according to which the Sixth (Egyptian) Dynasty +began at _c_. 2540 B.C. and the Twelfth at _c_. 2000 B.C.[8] Petrie +dates the beginning of the Twelfth Dynasty at _c_. 3400 B.C. + +To students of comparative folklore and mythology the myths and +legends of Babylonia present many features of engrossing interest. +They are of great antiquity, yet not a few seem curiously familiar. We +must not conclude, however, that because a European legend may bear +resemblances to one translated from a cuneiform tablet it is +necessarily of Babylonian origin. Certain beliefs, and the myths which +were based upon them, are older than even the civilization of the +Tigro-Euphrates valley. They belong, it would appear, to a stock of +common inheritance from an uncertain cultural centre of immense +antiquity. The problem involved has been referred to by Professor +Frazer in the _Golden Bough_. Commenting on the similarities presented +by certain ancient festivals in various countries, he suggests that +they may be due to "a remarkable homogeneity of civilization +throughout Southern Europe and Western Asia in prehistoric times. How +far", he adds, "such homogeneity of civilization may be taken as +evidence of homogeneity of race is a question for the ethnologist."[9] + +In Chapter I the reader is introduced to the ethnological problem, and +it is shown that the results of modern research tend to establish a +remote racial connection between the Sumerians of Babylonia, the +prehistoric Egyptians, and the Neolithic (Late Stone Age) inhabitants +of Europe, as well as the southern Persians and the "Aryans" of India. + +Comparative notes are provided in dealing with the customs, religious +beliefs, and myths and legends of the Mesopotamian peoples to assist +the student towards the elucidation and partial restoration of certain +literary fragments from the cuneiform tablets. Of special interest in +this connection are the resemblances between some of the Indian and +Babylonian myths. The writer has drawn upon that "great storehouse" of +ancient legends, the voluminous Indian epic, the _Mahabharata_, and it +is shown that there are undoubted links between the Garuda eagle myths +and those of the Sumerian Zu bird and the Etana eagle, while similar +stories remain attached to the memories of "Sargon of Akkad" and the +Indian hero Karna, and of Semiramis (who was Queen Sammu-ramat of +Assyria) and Shakuntala. The Indian god Varuna and the Sumerian Ea are +also found to have much in common, and it seems undoubted that the +Manu fish and flood myth is a direct Babylonian inheritance, like the +Yuga (Ages of the Universe) doctrine and the system of calculation +associated with it. It is of interest to note, too, that a portion of +the Gilgamesh epic survives in the _Ramayana_ story of the monkey god +Hanuman's search for the lost princess Sita; other relics of similar +character suggest that both the Gilgamesh and Hanuman narratives are +derived in part from a very ancient myth. Gilgamesh also figures in +Indian mythology as Yama, the first man, who explored the way to the +Paradise called "The Land of Ancestors", and over which he +subsequently presided as a god. Other Babylonian myths link with those +found in Egypt, Greece, Scandinavia, Iceland, and the British Isles +and Ireland. The Sargon myth, for instance, resembles closely the myth +of Scyld (Sceaf), the patriarch, in the _Beowulf_ epic, and both +appear to be variations of the Tammuz-Adonis story. Tammuz also +resembles in one of his phases the Celtic hero Diarmid, who was slain +by the "green boar" of the Earth Mother, as was Adonis by the boar +form of Ares, the Greek war god. + +In approaching the study of these linking myths it would be as rash to +conclude that all resemblances are due to homogeneity of race as to +assume that folklore and mythology are devoid of ethnological +elements. Due consideration must be given to the widespread influence +exercised by cultural contact. We must recognize also that the human +mind has ever shown a tendency to arrive quite independently at +similar conclusions, when confronted by similar problems, in various +parts of the world. + +But while many remarkable resemblances may be detected between the +beliefs and myths and customs of widely separated peoples, it cannot +be overlooked that pronounced and striking differences remain to be +accounted for. Human experiences varied in localities because all +sections of humanity were not confronted in ancient times by the same +problems in their everyday lives. Some peoples, for instance, +experienced no great difficulties regarding the food supply, which +might be provided for them by nature in lavish abundance; others were +compelled to wage a fierce and constant conflict against hostile +forces in inhospitable environments with purpose to secure adequate +sustenance and their meed of enjoyment. Various habits of life had to +be adopted in various parts of the world, and these produced various +habits of thought. Consequently, we find that behind all systems of +primitive religion lies the formative background of natural phenomena. +A mythology reflects the geography, the fauna and flora, and the +climatic conditions of the area in which it took definite and +permanent shape. + +In Babylonia, as elsewhere, we expect, therefore, to find a mythology +which has strictly local characteristics--one which mirrors river and +valley scenery, the habits of life of the people, and also the various +stages of progress in the civilization from its earliest beginnings. +Traces of primitive thought--survivals from remotest antiquity--should +also remain in evidence. As a matter of fact Babylonian mythology +fulfils our expectations in this regard to the highest degree. + +Herodotus said that Egypt was the gift of the Nile: similarly +Babylonia may be regarded as the gift of the Tigris and +Euphrates--those great shifting and flooding rivers which for long +ages had been carrying down from the Armenian Highlands vast +quantities of mud to thrust back the waters of the Persian Gulf and +form a country capable of being utilized for human habitation. The +most typical Babylonian deity was Ea, the god of the fertilizing and +creative waters. + +He was depicted clad in the skin of a fish, as gods in other +geographical areas were depicted wearing the skins of animals which +were regarded as ancestors, or hostile demons that had to be +propitiated. Originally Ea appears to have been a fish--the +incarnation of the spirit of, or life principle in, the Euphrates +River. His centre of worship was at Eridu, an ancient seaport, where +apparently the prehistoric Babylonians (the Sumerians) first began to +utilize the dried-up beds of shifting streams to irrigate the soil. +One of the several creation myths is reminiscent of those early +experiences which produced early local beliefs: + + O thou River, who didst create all things, + When the great gods dug thee out, + They set prosperity upon thy banks, + Within thee Ea, the king of the Deep, created his dwelling.[10] + +The Sumerians observed that the land was brought into existence by +means of the obstructing reeds, which caused mud to accumulate. When +their minds began to be exercised regarding the origin of life, they +conceived that the first human beings were created by a similar +process: + + Marduk (son of Ea) laid a reed upon the face of the waters, + He formed dust and poured it out beside the reed ... + He formed mankind.[11] + +Ea acquired in time, as the divine artisan, various attributes which +reflected the gradual growth of civilization: he was reputed to have +taught the people how to form canals, control the rivers, cultivate +the fields, build their houses, and so on. + +But although Ea became a beneficent deity, as a result of the growth +of civilization, he had also a demoniac form, and had to be +propitiated. The worshippers of the fish god retained ancient modes of +thought and perpetuated ancient superstitious practices. + +The earliest settlers in the Tigro-Euphrates valley were +agriculturists, like their congeners, the proto-Egyptians and the +Neolithic Europeans. Before they broke away from the parent stock in +its area of characterization they had acquired the elements of +culture, and adopted habits of thought which were based on the +agricultural mode of life. Like other agricultural communities they +were worshippers of the "World Mother", the Creatrix, who was the +giver of all good things, the "Preserver" and also the +"Destroyer"--the goddess whose moods were reflected by natural +phenomena, and whose lovers were the spirits of the seasons. + +In the alluvial valley which they rendered fit for habitation the +Sumerians came into contact with peoples of different habits of life +and different habits of thought. These were the nomadic pastoralists +from the northern steppe lands, who had developed in isolation +theories regarding the origin of the Universe which reflected their +particular experiences and the natural phenomena of their area of +characterization. The most representative people of this class were +the "Hatti" of Asia Minor, who were of Alpine or Armenoid stock. In +early times the nomads were broken up into small tribal units, like +Abraham and his followers, and depended for their food supply on the +prowess of the males. Their chief deity was the sky and mountain god, +who was the "World Father", the creator, and the wielder of the +thunder hammer, who waged war against the demons of storm or drought, +and ensured the food supply of his worshippers. + +The fusion in Babylonia of the peoples of the god and goddess cults +was in progress before the dawn of history, as was the case in Egypt +and also in southern Europe. In consequence independent Pantheons came +into existence in the various city States in the Tigro-Euphrates +valley. These were mainly a reflection of city politics: the deities +of each influential section had to receive recognition. But among the +great masses of the people ancient customs associated with agriculture +continued in practice, and, as Babylonia depended for its prosperity +on its harvests, the force of public opinion tended, it would appear, +to perpetuate the religious beliefs of the earliest settlers, despite +the efforts made by conquerors to exalt the deities they introduced. + +Babylonian religion was of twofold character. It embraced temple +worship and private worship. The religion of the temple was the +religion of the ruling class, and especially of the king, who was the +guardian of the people. Domestic religion was conducted in homes, in +reed huts, or in public places, and conserved the crudest +superstitions surviving from the earliest times. The great "burnings" +and the human sacrifices in Babylonia, referred to in the Bible, were, +no doubt, connected with agricultural religion of the private order, +as was also the ceremony of baking and offering cakes to the Queen of +Heaven, condemned by Jeremiah, which obtained in the streets of +Jerusalem and other cities. Domestic religion required no temples. +There were no temples in Crete: the world was the "house" of the +deity, who had seasonal haunts on hilltops, in groves, in caves, &c. +In Egypt Herodotus witnessed festivals and processions which are not +referred to in official inscriptions, although they were evidently +practised from the earliest times. + +Agricultural religion in Egypt was concentrated in the cult of Osiris +and Isis, and influenced all local theologies. In Babylonia these +deities were represented by Tammuz and Ishtar. Ishtar, like Isis, +absorbed many other local goddesses. + +According to the beliefs of the ancient agriculturists the goddess was +eternal and undecaying. She was the Great Mother of the Universe and +the source of the food supply. Her son, the corn god, became, as the +Egyptians put it, "Husband of his Mother". Each year he was born anew +and rapidly attained to manhood; then he was slain by a fierce rival +who symbolized the season of pestilence-bringing and parching sun +heat, or the rainy season, or wild beasts of prey. Or it might be that +he was slain by his son, as Cronos was by Zeus and Dyaus by Indra. The +new year slew the old year. + +The social customs of the people, which had a religious basis, were +formed in accordance with the doings of the deities; they sorrowed or +made glad in sympathy with the spirits of nature. Worshippers also +suggested by their ceremonies how the deities should act at various +seasons, and thus exercised, as they believed, a magical control over +them. + +In Babylonia the agricultural myth regarding the Mother goddess and +the young god had many variations. In one form Tammuz, like Adonis, +was loved by two goddesses--the twin phases of nature--the Queen of +Heaven and the Queen of Hades. It was decreed that Tammuz should spend +part of the year with one goddess and part of the year with the other. +Tammuz was also a Patriarch, who reigned for a long period over the +land and had human offspring. After death his spirit appeared at +certain times and seasons as a planet, star, or constellation. He was +the ghost of the elder god, and he was also the younger god who was +born each year. + +In the Gilgamesh epic we appear to have a form of the patriarch +legend--the story of the "culture hero" and teacher who discovered the +path which led to the land of ancestral spirits. The heroic Patriarch +in Egypt was Apuatu, "the opener of the ways", the earliest form of +Osiris; in India he was Yama, the first man, "who searched and found +out the path for many". + +The King as Patriarch was regarded during life as an incarnation of +the culture god: after death he merged in the god. "Sargon of Akkad" +posed as an incarnation of the ancient agricultural Patriarch: he +professed to be a man of miraculous birth who was loved by the goddess +Ishtar, and was supposed to have inaugurated a New Age of the +Universe. + +The myth regarding the father who was superseded by his son may +account for the existence in Babylonian city pantheons of elder and +younger gods who symbolized the passive and active forces of nature. + +Considering the persistent and cumulative influence exercised by +agricultural religion it is not surprising to find, as has been +indicated, that most of the Babylonian gods had Tammuz traits, as most +of the Egyptian gods had Osirian traits. Although local or imported +deities were developed and conventionalized in rival Babylonian +cities, they still retained traces of primitive conceptions. They +existed in all their forms--as the younger god who displaced the elder +god and became the elder god, and as the elder god who conciliated the +younger god and made him his active agent; and as the god who was +identified at various seasons with different heavenly bodies and +natural phenomena. Merodach, the god of Babylon, who was exalted as +chief of the National pantheon in the Hammurabi Age, was, like Tammuz, +a son, and therefore a form of Ea, a demon slayer, a war god, a god of +fertility, a corn spirit, a Patriarch, and world ruler and guardian, +and, like Tammuz, he had solar, lunar, astral, and atmospheric +attributes. The complex characters of Merodach and Tammuz were not due +solely to the monotheistic tendency: the oldest deities were of +mystical character, they represented the "Self Power" of Naturalism as +well as the spirit groups of Animism. + +The theorizing priests, who speculated regarding the mysteries of life +and death and the origin of all things, had to address the people +through the medium of popular beliefs. They utilized floating myths +for this purpose. As there were in early times various centres of +culture which had rival pantheons, the adapted myths varied greatly. +In the different forms in which they survive to us they reflect, not +only aspects of local beliefs, but also grades of culture at different +periods. We must not expect, however, to find that the latest form of +a myth was the highest and most profound. The history of Babylonian +religion is divided into periods of growth and periods of decadence. +The influence of domestic religion was invariably opposed to the new +and high doctrines which emanated from the priesthood, and in times of +political upheaval tended to submerge them in the debris of immemorial +beliefs and customs. The retrogressive tendencies of the masses were +invariably reinforced by the periodic invasions of aliens who had no +respect for official deities and temple creeds. + +We must avoid insisting too strongly on the application of the +evolution theory to the religious phenomena of a country like +Babylonia. + +The epochs in the intellectual life of an ancient people are not +comparable to geological epochs, for instance, because the forces at +work were directed by human wills, whether in the interests of +progress or otherwise. The battle of creeds has ever been a battle of +minds. It should be recognized, therefore, that the human element +bulks as prominently in the drama of Babylon's religious history as +does the prince of Denmark in the play of _Hamlet_. We are not +concerned with the plot alone. The characters must also receive +attention. Their aspirations and triumphs, their prejudices and +blunders, were the billowy forces which shaped the shoreland of the +story and made history. + +Various aspects of Babylonian life and culture are dealt with +throughout this volume, and it is shown that the growth of science and +art was stimulated by unwholesome and crude superstitions. Many rank +weeds flourished beside the brightest blossoms of the human intellect +that wooed the sun in that fertile valley of rivers. As in Egypt, +civilization made progress when wealth was accumulated in sufficient +abundance to permit of a leisured class devoting time to study and +research. The endowed priests, who performed temple ceremonies, were +the teachers of the people and the patrons of culture. We may think +little of their religious beliefs, regarding which after all we have +only a superficial knowledge, for we have yet discovered little more +than the fragments of the shell which held the pearl, the faded petals +that were once a rose, but we must recognize that they provided +inspiration for the artists and sculptors whose achievements compel +our wonder and admiration, moved statesmen to inaugurate and +administer humanitarian laws, and exalted Right above Might. + +These civilizations of the old world, among which the Mesopotamian and +the Nilotic were the earliest, were built on no unsound foundations. +They made possible "the glory that was Greece and the grandeur that +was Rome", and it is only within recent years that we have begun to +realize how incalculable is the debt which the modern world owes to +them. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE RACES AND EARLY CIVILIZATION OF BABYLONIA + + + Prehistoric Babylonia--The Confederacies of Sumer and + Akkad--Sumerian Racial Affinities--Theories of Mongolian and + Ural-Altaic Origins--Evidence of Russian Turkestan--Beginnings of + Agriculture--Remarkable Proofs from Prehistoric Egyptian + Graves--Sumerians and the Mediterranean Race--Present-day Types in + Western Asia--The Evidence of Crania--Origin of the Akkadians--The + Semitic Blend--Races in Ancient Palestine--Southward Drift of + Armenoid Peoples--The Rephaims of the Bible--Akkadians attain + Political Supremacy in Northern Babylonia--Influence of Sumerian + Culture--Beginnings of Civilization--Progress in the Neolithic + Age--Position of Women in Early Communities--Their Legal Status in + Ancient Babylonia--Influence in Social and Religious Life--The + "Woman's Language"--Goddess who inspired Poets. + + +Before the dawn of the historical period Ancient Babylonia was +divided into a number of independent city states similar to those +which existed in pre-Dynastic Egypt. Ultimately these were grouped +into loose confederacies. The northern cities were embraced in the +territory known as Akkad, and the southern in the land of Sumer, or +Shumer. This division had a racial as well as a geographical +significance. The Akkadians were "late comers" who had achieved +political ascendency in the north when the area they occupied was +called Uri, or Kiuri, and Sumer was known as Kengi. They were a people +of Semitic speech with pronounced Semitic affinities. From the +earliest times the sculptors depicted them with abundant locks, long +full beards, and the prominent distinctive noses and full lips, which +we usually associate with the characteristic Jewish type, and also +attired in long, flounced robes, suspended from their left shoulders, +and reaching down to their ankles. In contrast, the Sumerians had +clean-shaven faces and scalps, and noses of Egyptian and Grecian +rather than Semitic type, while they wore short, pleated kilts, and +went about with the upper part of their bodies quite bare like the +Egyptian noblemen of the Old Kingdom period. They spoke a non-Semitic +language, and were the oldest inhabitants of Babylonia of whom we have +any knowledge. Sumerian civilization was rooted in the agricultural +mode of life, and appears to have been well developed before the +Semites became numerous and influential in the land. Cities had been +built chiefly of sun-dried and fire-baked bricks; distinctive pottery +was manufactured with much skill; the people were governed by +humanitarian laws, which formed the nucleus of the Hammurabi code, and +had in use a system of cuneiform writing which was still in process of +development from earlier pictorial characters. The distinctive feature +of their agricultural methods was the engineering skill which was +displayed in extending the cultivatable area by the construction of +irrigating canals and ditches. There are also indications that they +possessed some knowledge of navigation and traded on the Persian Gulf. +According to one of their own traditions Eridu, originally a seaport, +was their racial cradle. The Semitic Akkadians adopted the distinctive +culture of these Sumerians after settlement, and exercised an +influence on its subsequent growth. + +Much controversy has been waged regarding the original home of the +Sumerians and the particular racial type which they represented. One +theory connects them with the lank-haired and beardless Mongolians, +and it is asserted on the evidence afforded by early sculptural +reliefs that they were similarly oblique-eyed. As they also spoke an +agglutinative language, it is suggested that they were descended from +the same parent stock as the Chinese in an ancient Parthian homeland. +If, however, the oblique eye was not the result of faulty and +primitive art, it is evident that the Mongolian type, which is +invariably found to be remarkably persistent in racial blends, did not +survive in the Tigris and Euphrates valleys, for in the finer and more +exact sculpture work of the later Sumerian period the eyes of the +ruling classes are found to be similar to those of the Ancient +Egyptians and southern Europeans. Other facial characteristics suggest +that a Mongolian racial connection is highly improbable; the prominent +Sumerian nose, for instance, is quite unlike the Chinese, which is +diminutive. Nor can far-reaching conclusions be drawn from the scanty +linguistic evidence at our disposal. Although the languages of the +Sumerians and long-headed Chinese are of the agglutinative variety, so +are those also which are spoken by the broad-headed Turks and Magyars +of Hungary, the broad-headed and long-headed, dark and fair Finns, and +the brunet and short-statured Basques with pear-shaped faces, who are +regarded as a variation of the Mediterranean race with distinctive +characteristics developed in isolation. Languages afford no sure +indication of racial origins or affinities. + +Another theory connects the Sumerians with the broad-headed peoples of +the Western Asian plains and plateaus, who are vaguely grouped as +Ural-Altaic stock and are represented by the present-day Turks and the +dark variety of Finns. It is assumed that they migrated southward in +remote times in consequence of tribal pressure caused by changing +climatic conditions, and abandoned a purely pastoral for an +agricultural life. The late Sumerian sculpture work again presents +difficulties in this connection, for the faces and bulging occiputs +suggest rather a long-headed than a broad-headed type, and the theory +no longer obtains that new habits of life alter skull forms which are +usually associated with other distinctive traits in the structure of +skeletons. These broad-headed nomadic peoples of the Steppes are +allied to Tatar stock, and distinguished from the pure Mongols by +their abundance of wavy hair and beard. The fact that the Sumerians +shaved their scalps and faces is highly suggestive in this connection. +From the earliest times it has been the habit of most peoples to +emphasize their racial characteristics so as to be able, one may +suggest, to distinguish readily a friend from a foeman. At any rate +this fact is generally recognized by ethnologists. The Basques, for +instance, shave their pointed chins and sometimes grow short side +whiskers to increase the distinctive pear-shape which is given to +their faces by their prominent temples. In contrast, their neighbours, +the Andalusians, grow chin whiskers to broaden their already rounded +chins, and to distinguish them markedly from the Basques.[12] Another +example of similar character is afforded in Asia Minor, where the +skulls of the children of long-headed Kurds are narrowed, and those of +the children of broad-headed Armenians made flatter behind as a result +of systematic pressure applied by using cradle boards. In this way +these rival peoples accentuate their contrasting head forms, which at +times may, no doubt, show a tendency towards variation as a result of +the crossment of types. When it is found, therefore, that the +Sumerians, like the Ancient Egyptians, were in the habit of shaving, +their ethnic affinities should be looked for among a naturally +glabrous rather than a heavily-bearded people. + +A Central Asiatic source for Sumerian culture has also been urged of +late with much circumstantial detail. It breaks quite fresh and +interesting ground. Recent scientific expeditions in Russian and +Chinese Turkestan have accumulated important archaeological data which +clearly establish that vast areas of desert country were at a remote +period most verdurous and fruitful, and thickly populated by organized +and apparently progressive communities. From these ancient centres of +civilization wholesale migrations must have been impelled from time to +time in consequence of the gradual encroachment of wind-distributed +sand and the increasing shortage of water. At Anau in Russian +Turkestan, where excavations were conducted by the Pumpelly +expedition, abundant traces were found of an archaic and forgotten +civilization reaching back to the Late Stone Age. The pottery is +decorated with geometric designs, and resembles somewhat other +Neolithic specimens found as far apart as Susa, the capital of ancient +Elam, on the borders of Babylonia, Boghaz Koei in Asia Minor, the seat +of Hittite administration, round the Black Sea to the north, and at +points in the southern regions of the Balkan Peninsula. It is +suggested that these various finds are scattered evidences of early +racial drifts from the Central Asian areas which were gradually being +rendered uninhabitable. Among the Copper Age artifacts at Anau are +clay votive statuettes resembling those which were used in Sumeria for +religious purposes. These, however, cannot be held to prove a racial +connection, but they are important in so far as they afford evidence +of early trade relations in a hitherto unsuspected direction, and the +long distances over which cultural influence extended before the dawn +of history. Further we cannot go. No inscriptions have yet been +discovered to render articulate this mysterious Central Asian +civilization, or to suggest the original source of early Sumerian +picture writing. Nor is it possible to confirm Mr. Pumpelly's view +that from the Anau district the Sumerians and Egyptians first obtained +barley and wheat, and some of their domesticated animals. If, as +Professor Elliot Smith believes, copper was first used by the Ancient +Egyptians, it may be, on the other hand, that a knowledge of this +metal reached Anau through Sumeria, and that the elements of the +earlier culture were derived from the same quarter by an indirect +route. The evidence obtainable in Egypt is of interest in this +connection. Large quantities of food have been taken from the stomachs +and intestines of sun-dried bodies which have lain in their +pre-Dynastic graves for over sixty centuries. This material has been +carefully examined, and has yielded, among other things, husks of +barley and millet, and fragments of mammalian bones, including those, +no doubt, of the domesticated sheep and goats and cattle painted on +the pottery.[13] It is therefore apparent that at an extremely remote +period a knowledge of agriculture extended throughout Egypt, and we +have no reason for supposing that it was not shared by the +contemporary inhabitants of Sumer. + +The various theories which have been propounded regarding the outside +source of Sumerian culture are based on the assumption that it +commenced abruptly and full grown. Its rude beginnings cannot be +traced on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, but although no +specimens of the earliest form of picture writing have been recovered +from the ruins of Sumerian and Akkadian cities, neither have any been +found elsewhere. The possibility remains, therefore, that early +Babylonian culture was indigenous. "A great deal of ingenuity has been +displayed by many scholars", says Professor Elliot Smith, "with the +object of bringing these Sumerians from somewhere else as immigrants +into Sumer; but no reasons have been advanced to show that they had +not been settled at the head of the Persian Gulf for long generations +before they first appeared on the stage of history. The argument that +no early remains have been found is futile, not only because such a +country as Sumer is no more favourable to the preservation of such +evidence than is the Delta of the Nile, but also upon the more general +grounds that negative statements of this sort cannot be assigned a +positive evidence for an immigration."[14] This distinguished +ethnologist is frankly of opinion that the Sumerians were the +congeners of the pre-Dynastic Egyptians of the Mediterranean or Brown +race, the eastern branch of which reaches to India and the western to +the British Isles and Ireland. In the same ancient family are included +the Arabs, whose physical characteristics distinguish them from the +Semites of Jewish type. + +Some light may be thrown on the Sumerian problem by giving +consideration to the present-day racial complexion of Western Asia. +The importance of evidence of this character has been emphasized +elsewhere. In Egypt, for instance, Dr. C.S. Myers has ascertained that +the modern peasants have skull forms which are identical with those of +their pre-Dynastic ancestors. Mr. Hawes has also demonstrated that the +ancient inhabitants of Crete are still represented on that famous +island. But even more remarkable is the fact that the distinctive +racial type which occupied the Palaeolithic caves of the Dordogne +valley in France continues to survive in their vicinity after an +interval of over twenty thousand years.[15] It is noteworthy, +therefore, to find that in south-western Asia at the present day one +particular racial type predominates over all others. Professor Ripley, +who summarizes a considerable mass of data in this connection, refers +to it as the "Iranian", and says: "It includes the Persians and Kurds, +possibly the Ossetes in the Caucasus, and farther to the east a large +number of Asiatic tribes, from the Afghans to the Hindus. These +peoples are all primarily long-headed and dark brunets. They incline +to slenderness of habit, although varying in stature according to +circumstances. In them we recognize at once undoubted congeners of our +Mediterranean race in Europe. The area of their extension runs off +into Africa, through the Egyptians, who are clearly of the same race. +Not only the modern peoples, but the Ancient Egyptians and the +Phoenicians also have been traced to the same source. By far the +largest portion of this part of Western Asia is inhabited by this +eastern branch of the Mediterranean race." The broad-headed type +"occurs sporadically among a few ethnic remnants in Syria and +Mesopotamia".[16] The exhaustive study of thousands of ancient crania +in London and Cambridge collections has shown that Mediterranean +peoples, having alien traits, the result of early admixture, were +distributed between Egypt and the Punjab.[17] Where blending took +place, the early type, apparently, continued to predominate; and it +appears to be reasserting itself in our own time in Western Asia, as +elsewhere. It seems doubtful, therefore, that the ancient Sumerians +differed racially from the pre-Dynastic inhabitants of Egypt and the +Pelasgians and Iberians of Europe. Indeed, the statuettes from Tello, +the site of the Sumerian city of Lagash, display distinctively +Mediterranean skull forms and faces. Some of the plump figures of the +later period suggest, however, "the particular alien strain" which in +Egypt and elsewhere "is always associated with a tendency to the +development of fat", in contrast to "the lean and sinewy appearance of +most representatives of the Brown race".[18] This change may be +accounted for by the presence of the Semites in northern Babylonia. + +Whence, then, came these invading Semitic Akkadians of Jewish type? It +is generally agreed that they were closely associated with one of the +early outpourings of nomadic peoples from Arabia, a country which is +favourable for the production of a larger population than it is able +to maintain permanently, especially when its natural resources are +restricted by a succession of abnormally dry years. In tracing the +Akkadians from Arabia, however, we are confronted at the outset with +the difficulty that its prehistoric, and many of its present-day, +inhabitants are not of the characteristic Semitic type. On the Ancient +Egyptian pottery and monuments the Arabs are depicted as men who +closely resembled the representatives of the Mediterranean race in the +Nile valley and elsewhere. They shaved neither scalps nor faces as did +the historic Sumerians and Egyptians, but grew the slight moustache +and chin-tuft beard like the Libyans on the north and the majority of +the men whose bodies have been preserved in pre-Dynastic graves in the +Nile valley. "If", writes Professor Elliot Smith, "the generally +accepted view is true, that Arabia was the original home of the +Semites, the Arab must have undergone a profound change in his +physical characters after he left his homeland and before he reached +Babylonia." This authority is of opinion that the Arabians first +migrated into Palestine and northern Syria, where they mingled with +the southward-migrating Armenoid peoples from Asia Minor. "This blend +of Arabs, kinsmen of the proto-Egyptians and Armenoids, would then +form the big-nosed, long-bearded Semites, so familiar not only on the +ancient Babylonian and Egyptian monuments, but also in the modern +Jews."[19] Such a view is in accord with Dr. Hugo Winckler's +contention that the flow of Arabian migrations was northwards towards +Syria ere it swept through Mesopotamia. It can scarcely be supposed +that these invasions of settled districts did not result in the fusion +and crossment of racial types and the production of a sub-variety with +medium skull form and marked facial characteristics. + +Of special interest in this connection is the evidence afforded by +Palestine and Egypt. The former country has ever been subject to +periodic ethnic disturbances and changes. Its racial history has a +remote beginning in the Pleistocene Age. Palaeolithic flints of +Chellean and other primitive types have been found in large numbers, +and a valuable collection of these is being preserved in a French +museum at Jerusalem. In a northern cave fragments of rude pottery, +belonging to an early period in the Late Stone Age, have been +discovered in association with the bones of the woolly rhinoceros. To +a later period belong the series of Gezer cave dwellings, which, +according to Professor Macalister, the well-known Palestinian +authority, "were occupied by a non-Semitic people of low stature, with +thick skulls and showing evidence of the great muscular strength that +is essential to savage life".[20] These people are generally supposed +to be representatives of the Mediterranean race, which Sergi has found +to have been widely distributed throughout Syria and a part of Asia +Minor.[21] An interesting problem, however, is raised by the fact +that, in one of the caves, there are evidences that the dead were +cremated. This was not a Mediterranean custom, nor does it appear to +have prevailed outside the Gezer area. If, however, it does not +indicate that the kinsmen of the Ancient Egyptians came into contact +with the remnants of an earlier people, it may be that the dead of a +later people were burned there. The possibility that unidentified +types may have contributed to the Semitic blend, however, remains. The +Mediterraneans mingled in Northern Syria and Asia Minor with the +broad-headed Armenoid peoples who are represented in Europe by the +Alpine race. With them they ultimately formed the great Hittite +confederacy. These Armenoids were moving southwards at the very dawn +of Egyptian history, and nothing is known of their conquests and +settlements. Their pioneers, who were probably traders, appear to have +begun to enter the Delta region before the close of the Late Stone +Age.[22] The earliest outpourings of migrating Arabians may have been +in progress about the same time. This early southward drift of +Armenoids might account for the presence in southern Palestine, early +in the Copper Age, of the tall race referred to in the Bible as the +Rephaim or Anakim, "whose power was broken only by the Hebrew +invaders".[23] Joshua drove them out of Hebron,[24] in the +neighbourhood of which Abraham had purchased a burial cave from +Ephron, the Hittite.[25] Apparently a system of land laws prevailed in +Palestine at this early period. It is of special interest for us to +note that in Abraham's day and afterwards, the landed proprietors in +the country of the Rephaim were identified with the aliens from Asia +Minor--the tall variety in the Hittite confederacy. + +Little doubt need remain that the Arabians during their sojourn in +Palestine and Syria met with distinctive types, and if not with pure +Armenoids, at any rate with peoples having Armenoid traits. The +consequent multiplication of tribes, and the gradual pressure +exercised by the constant stream of immigrants from Arabia and Asia +Minor, must have kept this part of Western Asia in a constant state of +unrest. Fresh migrations of the surplus stock were evidently propelled +towards Egypt in one direction, and the valleys of the Tigris and +Euphrates in another. The Semites of Akkad were probably the +conquerors of the more highly civilized Sumerians, who must have +previously occupied that area. It is possible that they owed their +success to the possession of superior weapons. Professor Elliot Smith +suggests in this connection that the Arabians had become familiar with +the use of copper as a result of contact with the Egyptians in Sinai. +There is no evidence, however, that the Sumerians were attacked before +they had begun to make metal weapons. It is more probable that the +invading nomads had superior military organization and considerable +experience in waging war against detached tribal units. They may have +also found some of the northern Sumerian city states at war with one +another and taken advantage of their unpreparedness to resist a common +enemy. The rough Dorians who overran Greece and the fierce Goths who +shattered the power of Rome were similarly in a lower state of +civilization than the peoples whom they subdued. + +The Sumerians, however, ultimately achieved an intellectual conquest +of their conquerors. Although the leaders of invasion may have formed +military aristocracies in the cities which they occupied, it was +necessary for the great majority of the nomads to engage their +activities in new directions after settlement. The Semitic Akkadians, +therefore, adopted Sumerian habits of life which were best suited for +the needs of the country, and they consequently came under the spell +of Sumerian modes of thought. This is shown by the fact that the +native speech of ancient Sumer continued long after the dawn of +history to be the language of Babylonian religion and culture, like +Latin in Europe during the Middle Ages. For centuries the mingling +peoples must have been bilingual, as are many of the inhabitants of +Ireland, Wales, and the Scottish Highlands in the present age, but +ultimately the language of the Semites became the prevailing speech in +Sumer and Akkad. This change was the direct result of the conquests +and the political supremacy achieved by the northern people. A +considerable period elapsed, however, ere this consummation was +reached and Ancient Babylonia became completely Semitized. No doubt +its brilliant historical civilization owed much of its vigour and +stability to the organizing genius of the Semites, but the basis on +which it was established had been laid by the ingenious and +imaginative Sumerians who first made the desert to blossom like the +rose. + +The culture of Sumer was a product of the Late Stone Age, which should +not be regarded as necessarily an age of barbarism. During its vast +periods there were great discoveries and great inventions in various +parts of Asia, Africa, and Europe. The Neoliths made pottery and +bricks; we know that they invented the art of spinning, for +spindle-whorls are found even in the Gezer caves to which we have +referred, while in Egypt the pre-Dynastic dead were sometimes wrapped +in finely woven linen: their deftly chipped flint implements are +eloquent of artistic and mechanical skill, and undoubted mathematical +ability must be credited to the makers of smoothly polished stone +hammers which are so perfectly balanced that they revolve on a centre +of gravity. In Egypt and Babylonia the soil was tilled and its +fertility increased by irrigation. Wherever man waged a struggle with +Nature he made rapid progress, and consequently we find that the +earliest great civilizations were rooted in the little fields of the +Neolithic farmers. Their mode of life necessitated a knowledge of +Nature's laws; they had to take note of the seasons and measure time. +So Egypt gave us the Calendar, and Babylonia the system of dividing +the week into seven days, and the day into twelve double hours. + +The agricultural life permitted large communities to live in river +valleys, and these had to be governed by codes of laws; settled +communities required peace and order for their progress and +prosperity. All great civilizations have evolved from the habits and +experiences of settled communities. Law and religion were closely +associated, and the evidence afforded by the remains of stone circles +and temples suggests that in the organization and division of labour +the influence of religious teachers was pre-eminent. Early rulers, +indeed, were priest-kings--incarnations of the deity who owned the +land and measured out the span of human life. + +We need not assume that Neolithic man led an idyllic existence; his +triumphs were achieved by slow and gradual steps; his legal codes +were, no doubt, written in blood and his institutions welded in the +fires of adversity. But, disciplined by laws, which fostered +humanitarian ideals, Neolithic man, especially of the Mediterranean +race, had reached a comparatively high state of civilization long ages +before the earliest traces of his activities can be obtained. When +this type of mankind is portrayed in Ancient Sumeria, Ancient Egypt, +and Ancient Crete we find that the faces are refined and intellectual +and often quite modern in aspect. The skulls show that in the Late +Stone Age the human brain was fully developed and that the racial +types were fixed. In every country in Europe we still find the direct +descendants of the ancient Mediterranean race, as well as the +descendants of the less highly cultured conquerors who swept westward +out of Asia at the dawn of the Bronze Age; and everywhere there are +evidences of crossment of types in varying degrees. Even the influence +of Neolithic intellectual life still remains. The comparative study of +mythology and folk beliefs reveals that we have inherited certain +modes of thought from our remote ancestors, who were the congeners of +the Ancient Sumerians and the Ancient Egyptians. In this connection it +is of interest, therefore, to refer to the social ideals of the early +peoples who met and mingled on the southern plains of the Tigris and +Euphrates, and especially the position occupied by women, which is +engaging so much attention at the present day. + +It would appear that among the Semites and other nomadic peoples woman +was regarded as the helpmate rather than the companion and equal of +man. The birth of a son was hailed with joy; it was "miserable to have +a daughter", as a Hindu sage reflected; in various countries it was +the custom to expose female children after birth and leave them to +die. A wife had no rights other than those accorded to her by her +husband, who exercised over her the power of life and death. Sons +inherited family possessions; the daughters had no share allotted to +them, and could be sold by fathers and brothers. Among the peoples who +observed "male right", social life was reflected in the conception of +controlling male deities, accompanied by shadowy goddesses who were +often little else than figures of speech. + +The Ancient Sumerians, on the other hand, like the Mediterranean +peoples of Egypt and Crete, reverenced and exalted motherhood in +social and religious life. Women were accorded a legal status and +marriage laws were promulgated by the State. Wives could possess +private property in their own right, as did the Babylonian Sarah, wife +of Abraham, who owned the Egyptian slave Hagar.[26] A woman received +from her parents a marriage dowry, and in the event of separation from +her husband she could claim its full value. Some spinsters, or wives, +were accustomed to enter into business partnerships with men or +members of their own sex, and could sue and be sued in courts of law. +Brothers and sisters were joint heirs of the family estate. Daughters +might possess property over which their fathers exercised no control: +they could also enter into legal agreements with their parents in +business matters, when they had attained to years of discretion. Young +women who took vows of celibacy and lived in religious institutions +could yet make business investments, as surviving records show. There +is only one instance of a Sumerian woman ascending the throne, like +Queen Hatshepsut of Egypt. Women, therefore, were not rigidly excluded +from official life. Dungi II, an early Sumerian king, appointed two of +his daughters as rulers of conquered cities in Syria and Elam. +Similarly Shishak, the Egyptian Pharaoh, handed over the city of +Gezer, which he had subdued, to his daughter, Solomon's wife.[27] In +the religious life of ancient Sumeria the female population exercised +an undoubted influence, and in certain temples there were priestesses. +The oldest hymns give indication of the respect shown to women by +making reference to mixed assemblies as "females and males", just as +present-day orators address themselves to "ladies and gentlemen". In +the later Semitic adaptations of these productions, it is significant +to note, this conventional reference was altered to "male and female". +If influences, however, were at work to restrict the position of women +they did not meet with much success, because when Hammurabi codified +existing laws, the ancient rights of women received marked +recognition. + +There were two dialects in ancient Sumeria, and the invocatory hymns +were composed in what was known as "the women's language". It must not +be inferred, however, that the ladies of Sumeria had established a +speech which differed from that used by men. The reference would +appear to be to a softer and homelier dialect, perhaps the oldest of +the two, in which poetic emotion found fullest and most beautiful +expression. In these ancient days, as in our own, the ideal of +womanhood was the poet's chief source of inspiration, and among the +hymns the highest reach of poetic art was attained in the invocation +of Ishtar, the Babylonian Venus. The following hymn is addressed to +that deity in her Valkyrie-like character as a goddess of war, but her +more feminine traits are not obscured:-- + + HYMN TO ISHTAR + + To thee I cry, O lady of the gods, + Lady of ladies, goddess without peer, + Ishtar who shapes the lives of all mankind, + Thou stately world queen, sovran of the sky, + And lady ruler of the host of heaven-- + Illustrious is thy name... O light divine, + Gleaming in lofty splendour o'er the earth-- + Heroic daughter of the moon, oh! hear; + Thou dost control our weapons and award + In battles fierce the victory at will-- + crown'd majestic Fate. Ishtar most high, + Who art exalted over all the gods, + Thou bringest lamentation; thou dost urge + With hostile hearts our brethren to the fray; + The gift of strength is thine for thou art strong; + Thy will is urgent, brooking no delay; + Thy hand is violent, thou queen of war + Girded with battle and enrobed with fear... + Thou sovran wielder of the wand of Doom, + The heavens and earth are under thy control. + + Adored art thou in every sacred place, + In temples, holy dwellings, and in shrines, + Where is thy name not lauded? where thy will + Unheeded, and thine images not made? + Where are thy temples not upreared? O, where + Art thou not mighty, peerless, and supreme? + + Anu and Bel and Ea have thee raised + To rank supreme, in majesty and pow'r, + They have established thee above the gods + And all the host of heaven... O stately queen, + At thought of thee the world is filled with fear, + The gods in heaven quake, and on the earth + All spirits pause, and all mankind bow down + With reverence for thy name... O Lady Judge, + + Thy ways are just and holy; thou dost gaze + On sinners with compassion, and each morn + Leadest the wayward to the rightful path. + + Now linger not, but come! O goddess fair, + O shepherdess of all, thou drawest nigh + With feet unwearied... Thou dost break the bonds + Of these thy handmaids... When thou stoopest o'er + The dying with compassion, lo! they live; + And when the sick behold thee they are healed. + + Hear me, thy servant! hearken to my pray'r, + For I am full of sorrow and I sigh + In sore distress; weeping, on thee I wait. + Be merciful, my lady, pity take + And answer, "'Tis enough and be appeased". + + How long must my heart sorrow and make moan + And restless be? How long must my dark home + Be filled with mourning and my soul with grief? + O lioness of heaven, bring me peace + And rest and comfort. Hearken to my pray'r! + Is anger pity? May thine eyes look down + With tenderness and blessings, and behold + Thy servant. Oh! have mercy; hear my cry + And unbewitch me from the evil spells, + That I may see thy glory... Oh! how long + Shall these my foes pursue me, working ill, + And robbing me of joy?... Oh! how long + Shall demons compass me about and cause + Affliction without end?... I thee adore-- + The gift of strength is thine and thou art strong-- + The weakly are made strong, yet I am weak... + O hear me! I am glutted with my grief-- + This flood of grief by evil winds distressed; + My heart hath fled me like a bird on wings, + And like the dove I moan. Tears from mine eyes + Are falling as the rain from heaven falls, + And I am destitute and full of woe. + + * * * * * + + What have I done that thou hast turned from me? + Have I neglected homage to my god + And thee my goddess? O deliver me + And all my sins forgive, that I may share + Thy love and be watched over in thy fold; + And may thy fold be wide, thy pen secure. + + * * * * * + + How long wilt thou be angry? Hear my cry, + And turn again to prosper all my ways-- + O may thy wrath be crumbled and withdrawn + As by a crumbling stream. Then smite my foes, + And take away their power to work me ill, + That I may crush them. Hearken to my pray'r! + And bless me so that all who me behold + May laud thee and may magnify thy name, + While I exalt thy power over all-- + Ishtar is highest! Ishtar is the queen! + Ishtar the peerless daughter of the moon! + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE LAND OF RIVERS AND THE GOD OF THE DEEP + + + Fertility of Ancient Babylonia--Rivers, Canals, Seasons, and + Climate--Early Trade and Foreign Influences--Local Religious + Cults--Ea, God of the Deep, identical with Oannes of Berosus--Origin + as a Sacred Fish--Compared with Brahma and Vishnu--Flood Legends in + Babylonia and India--Fish Deities in Babylonia and Egypt--Fish God + as a Corn God--The River as Creator--Ea an Artisan God, and links + with Egypt and India--Ea as the Hebrew Jah--Ea and Varuna are Water + and Sky Gods--The Babylonian Dagan and Dagon of the + Philistines--Deities of Water and Harvest in Phoenicia, Greece, + Rome, Scotland, Scandinavia, Ireland, and Egypt--Ea's Spouse + Damkina--Demons of Ocean in Babylonia and India--Anu, God of the + Sky--Enlil, Storm and War God of Nippur, like Adad, Odin, &c.--Early + Gods of Babylonia and Egypt of common origin--Ea's City as Cradle of + Sumerian Civilization. + + +Ancient Babylonia was for over four thousand years the garden of +Western Asia. In the days of Hezekiah and Isaiah, when it had come +under the sway of the younger civilization of Assyria on the north, it +was "a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of +oil olive and of honey[28]". Herodotus found it still flourishing and +extremely fertile. "This territory", he wrote, "is of all that we know +the best by far for producing grain; it is so good that it returns as +much as two hundredfold for the average, and, when it bears at its +best, it produces three hundredfold. The blades of the wheat and +barley there grow to be full four fingers broad; and from millet and +sesame seed, how large a tree grows, I know myself, but shall not +record, being well aware that even what has already been said relating +to the crops produced has been enough to cause disbelief in those who +have not visited Babylonia[29]." To-day great tracts of undulating +moorland, which aforetime yielded two and three crops a year, are in +summer partly barren wastes and partly jungle and reedy swamp. +Bedouins camp beside sandy heaps which were once populous and thriving +cities, and here and there the shrunken remnants of a people once +great and influential eke out precarious livings under the oppression +of Turkish tax-gatherers who are scarcely less considerate than the +plundering nomads of the desert. + +This historic country is bounded on the east by Persia and on the west +by the Arabian desert. In shape somewhat resembling a fish, it lies +between the two great rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, 100 miles +wide at its broadest part, and narrowing to 35 miles towards the +"tail" in the latitude of Baghdad; the "head" converges to a point +above Basra, where the rivers meet and form the Shatt-el-Arab, which +pours into the Persian Gulf after meeting the Karun and drawing away +the main volume of that double-mouthed river. The distance from +Baghdad to Basra is about 300 miles, and the area traversed by the +Shatt-el-Arab is slowly extending at the rate of a mile every thirty +years or so, as a result of the steady accumulation of silt and mud +carried down by the Tigris and Euphrates. When Sumeria was beginning +to flourish, these two rivers had separate outlets, and Eridu, the +seat of the cult of the sea god Ea, which now lies 125 miles inland, +was a seaport at the head of the Persian Gulf. A day's journey +separated the river mouths when Alexander the Great broke the power of +the Persian Empire. + +In the days of Babylonia's prosperity the Euphrates was hailed as "the +soul of the land" and the Tigris as "the bestower of blessings". +Skilful engineers had solved the problem of water distribution by +irrigating sun-parched areas and preventing the excessive flooding of +those districts which are now rendered impassable swamps when the +rivers overflow. A network of canals was constructed throughout the +country, which restricted the destructive tendencies of the Tigris and +Euphrates and developed to a high degree their potentialities as +fertilizing agencies. The greatest of these canals appear to have been +anciently river beds. One, which is called Shatt en Nil to the north, +and Shatt el Kar to the south, curved eastward from Babylon, and +sweeping past Nippur, flowed like the letter S towards Larsa and then +rejoined the river. It is believed to mark the course followed in the +early Sumerian period by the Euphrates river, which has moved steadily +westward many miles beyond the sites of ancient cities that were +erected on its banks. Another important canal, the Shatt el Hai, +crossed the plain from the Tigris to its sister river, which lies +lower at this point, and does not run so fast. Where the artificial +canals were constructed on higher levels than the streams which fed +them, the water was raised by contrivances known as "shaddufs"; the +buckets or skin bags were roped to a weighted beam, with the aid of +which they were swung up by workmen and emptied into the canals. It is +possible that this toilsome mode of irrigation was substituted in +favourable parts by the primitive water wheels which are used in our +own day by the inhabitants of the country who cultivate strips of land +along the river banks. + +In Babylonia there are two seasons--the rainy and the dry. Rain falls +from November till March, and the plain is carpeted in spring by +patches of vivid green verdure and brilliant wild flowers. Then the +period of drought ensues; the sun rapidly burns up all vegetation, and +everywhere the eye is wearied by long stretches of brown and yellow +desert. Occasional sandstorms darken the heavens, sweeping over +sterile wastes and piling up the shapeless mounds which mark the sites +of ancient cities. Meanwhile the rivers are increasing in volume, +being fed by the melting snows at their mountain sources far to the +north. The swift Tigris, which is 1146 miles long, begins to rise +early in March and reaches its highest level in May; before the end of +June it again subsides. More sluggish in movement, the Euphrates, +which is 1780 miles long, shows signs of rising a fortnight later than +the Tigris, and is in flood for a more extended period; it does not +shrink to its lowest level until early in September. By controlling +the flow of these mighty rivers, preventing disastrous floods, and +storing and distributing surplus water, the ancient Babylonians +developed to the full the natural resources of their country, and made +it--what it may once again become--one of the fairest and most +habitable areas in the world. Nature conferred upon them bountiful +rewards for their labour; trade and industries flourished, and the +cities increased in splendour and strength. Then as now the heat was +great during the long summer, but remarkably dry and unvarying, while +the air was ever wonderfully transparent under cloudless skies of +vivid blue. The nights were cool and of great beauty, whether in +brilliant moonlight or when ponds and canals were jewelled by the +lustrous displays of clear and numerous stars which glorified that +homeland of the earliest astronomers. + +Babylonia is a treeless country, and timber had to be imported from +the earliest times. The date palm was probably introduced by man, as +were certainly the vine and the fig tree, which were widely +cultivated, especially in the north. Stone, suitable for building, was +very scarce, and limestone, alabaster, marble, and basalt had to be +taken from northern Mesopotamia, where the mountains also yield copper +and lead and iron. Except Eridu, where ancient workers quarried +sandstone from its sea-shaped ridge, all the cities were built of +brick, an excellent clay being found in abundance. When brick walls +were cemented with bitumen they were given great stability. This +resinous substance is found in the north and south. It bubbles up +through crevices of rocks on river banks and forms small ponds. Two +famous springs at modern Hit, on the Euphrates, have been drawn upon +from time immemorial. "From one", writes a traveller, "flows hot water +black with bitumen, while the other discharges intermittently bitumen, +or, after a rainstorm, bitumen and cold water.... Where rocks crop out +in the plain above Hit, they are full of seams of bitumen."[30] +Present-day Arabs call it "kiyara", and export it for coating boats +and roofs; they also use it as an antiseptic, and apply it to cure the +skin diseases from which camels suffer. + +Sumeria had many surplus products, including corn and figs, pottery, +fine wool and woven garments, to offer in exchange for what it most +required from other countries. It must, therefore, have had a brisk +and flourishing foreign trade at an exceedingly remote period. No +doubt numerous alien merchants were attracted to its cities, and it +may be that they induced or encouraged Semitic and other raiders to +overthrow governments and form military aristocracies, so that they +themselves might obtain necessary concessions and achieve a degree of +political ascendancy. It does not follow, however, that the peasant +class was greatly affected by periodic revolutions of this kind, which +brought little more to them than a change of rulers. The needs of the +country necessitated the continuance of agricultural methods and the +rigid observance of existing land laws; indeed, these constituted the +basis of Sumerian prosperity. Conquerors have ever sought reward not +merely in spoil, but also the services of the conquered. In northern +Babylonia the invaders apparently found it necessary to conciliate and +secure the continued allegiance of the tillers of the soil. Law and +religion being closely associated, they had to adapt their gods to +suit the requirements of existing social and political organizations. +A deity of pastoral nomads had to receive attributes which would give +him an agricultural significance; one of rural character had to be +changed to respond to the various calls of city life. Besides, local +gods could not be ignored on account of their popularity. As a result, +imported beliefs and religious customs must have been fused and +absorbed according to their bearing on modes of life in various +localities. It is probable that the complex character of certain +deities was due to the process of adjustment to which they were +subjected in new environments. + +The petty kingdoms of Sumeria appear to have been tribal in origin. +Each city was presided over by a deity who was the nominal owner of +the surrounding arable land, farms were rented or purchased from the +priesthood, and pasture was held in common. As in Egypt, where we +find, for instance, the artisan god Ptah supreme at Memphis, the sun +god Ra at Heliopolis, and the cat goddess Bast at Bubastis, the +various local Sumerian and Akkadian deities had distinctive +characteristics, and similarly showed a tendency to absorb the +attributes of their rivals. The chief deity of a state was the central +figure in a pantheon, which had its political aspect and influenced +the growth of local theology. Cities, however, did not, as a rule, +bear the names of deities, which suggests that several were founded +when Sumerian religion was in its early animistic stages, and gods and +goddesses were not sharply defined from the various spirit groups. + +A distinctive and characteristic Sumerian god was Ea, who was supreme +at the ancient sea-deserted port of Eridu. He is identified with the +Oannes of Berosus,[31] who referred to the deity as "a creature +endowed with reason, with a body like that of a fish, with feet below +like those of a man, with a fish's tail". This description recalls the +familiar figures of Egyptian gods and priests attired in the skins of +the sacred animals from whom their powers were derived, and the fairy +lore about swan maids and men, and the seals and other animals who +could divest themselves of their "skin coverings" and appear in human +shape. Originally Ea may have been a sacred fish. The Indian creative +gods Brahma and Vishnu had fish forms. In Sanskrit literature Manu, +the eponymous "first man", is instructed by the fish to build a ship +in which to save himself when the world would be purged by the rising +waters. Ea befriended in similar manner the Babylonian Noah, called +Pir-napishtim, advising him to build a vessel so as to be prepared for +the approaching Deluge. Indeed the Indian legend appears to throw +light on the original Sumerian conception of Ea. It relates that when +the fish was small and in danger of being swallowed by other fish in a +stream it appealed to Manu for protection. The sage at once lifted up +the fish and placed it in a jar of water. It gradually increased in +bulk, and he transferred it next to a tank and then to the river +Ganges. In time the fish complained to Manu that the river was too +small for it, so he carried it to the sea. For these services the god +in fish form instructed Manu regarding the approaching flood, and +afterwards piloted his ship through the weltering waters until it +rested on a mountain top.[32] + +If this Indian myth is of Babylonian origin, as appears probable, it +may be that the spirit of the river Euphrates, "the soul of the land", +was identified with a migrating fish. The growth of the fish suggests +the growth of the river rising in flood. In Celtic folk tales high +tides and valley floods are accounted for by the presence of a "great +beast" in sea, loch, or river. In a class of legends, "specially +connected with the worship of Atargatis", wrote Professor Robertson +Smith, "the divine life of the waters resides in the sacred fish that +inhabit them. Atargatis and her son, according to a legend common to +Hierapolis and Ascalon, plunged into the waters--in the first case the +Euphrates, in the second the sacred pool at the temple near the +town--and were changed into fishes". The idea is that "where a god +dies, that is, ceases to exist in human form, his life passes into the +waters where he is buried; and this again is merely a theory to bring +the divine water or the divine fish into harmony with anthropomorphic +ideas. The same thing was sometimes effected in another way by saying +that the anthropomorphic deity was born from the water, as Aphrodite +sprang from sea foam, or as Atargatis, in another form of the +Euphrates legend, ... was born of an egg which the sacred fishes found +in the Euphrates and pushed ashore."[33] + +As "Shar Apsi", Ea was the "King of the Watery Deep". The reference, +however, according to Jastrow, "is not to the salt ocean, but the +sweet waters flowing under the earth which feed the streams, and +through streams and canals irrigate the fields".[34] As Babylonia was +fertilized by its rivers, Ea, the fish god, was a fertilizing deity. +In Egypt the "Mother of Mendes" is depicted carrying a fish upon her +head; she links with Isis and Hathor; her husband is Ba-neb-Tettu, a +form of Ptah, Osiris, and Ra, and as a god of fertility he is +symbolized by the ram. Another Egyptian fish deity was the god Rem, +whose name signifies "to weep"; he wept fertilizing tears, and corn +was sown and reaped amidst lamentations. He may be identical with +Remi, who was a phase of Sebek, the crocodile god, a developed +attribute of Nu, the vague primitive Egyptian deity who symbolized the +primordial deep. The connection between a fish god and a corn god is +not necessarily remote when we consider that in Babylonia and Egypt +the harvest was the gift of the rivers. + +The Euphrates, indeed, was hailed as a creator of all that grew on its +banks. + + O thou River who didst create all things, + When the great gods dug thee out, + They set prosperity upon thy banks, + Within thee Ea, the King of the Deep, created his dwelling... + Thou judgest the cause of mankind! + O River, thou art mighty! O River, thou art supreme! + O River, thou art righteous![35] + +In serving Ea, the embodiment or the water spirit, by leading him, as +the Indian Manu led the Creator and "Preserver" in fish form, from +river to water pot, water pot to pond or canal, and then again to +river and ocean, the Babylonians became expert engineers and +experienced agriculturists, the makers of bricks, the builders of +cities, the framers of laws. Indeed, their civilization was a growth +of Ea worship. Ea was their instructor. Berosus states that, as +Oannes, he lived in the Persian Gulf, and every day came ashore to +instruct the inhabitants of Eridu how to make canals, to grow crops, +to work metals, to make pottery and bricks, and to build temples; he +was the artisan god--Nun-ura, "god of the potter"; Kuski-banda, "god +of goldsmiths", &c.--the divine patron of the arts and crafts. "Ea +knoweth everything", chanted the hymn maker. He taught the people how +to form and use alphabetic signs and instructed them in mathematics: +he gave them their code of laws. Like the Egyptian artisan god Ptah, +and the linking deity Khnumu, Ea was the "potter or moulder of gods +and man". Ptah moulded the first man on his potter's wheel: he also +moulded the sun and moon; he shaped the universe and hammered out the +copper sky. Ea built the world "as an architect builds a house".[36] +Similarly the Vedic Indra, who wielded a hammer like Ptah, fashioned +the universe after the simple manner in which the Aryans made their +wooden dwellings.[37] + +Like Ptah, Ea also developed from an artisan god into a sublime +Creator in the highest sense, not merely as a producer of crops. His +word became the creative force; he named those things he desired to +be, and they came into existence. "Who but Ea creates things", +exclaimed a priestly poet. This change from artisan god to creator +(Nudimmud) may have been due to the tendency of early religious cults +to attach to their chief god the attributes of rivals exalted at other +centres. + +Ea, whose name is also rendered Aa, was identified with Ya, Ya'u, or +Au, the Jah of the Hebrews. "In Ya-Daganu, 'Jah is Dagon'", writes +Professor Pinches, "we have the elements reversed, showing a wish to +identify Jah with Dagon, rather than Dagon with Jah; whilst another +interesting name, Au-Aa, shows an identification of Jah with Aa, two +names which have every appearance of being etymologically connected." +Jah's name "is one of the words for 'god' in the Assyro-Babylonian +language".[38] + +Ea was "Enki", "lord of the world", or "lord of what is beneath"; +Amma-ana-ki, "lord of heaven and earth"; Sa-kalama, "ruler of the +land", as well as Engur, "god of the abyss", Naqbu, "the deep", and +Lugal-ida, "king of the river". As rain fell from "the waters above +the firmament", the god of waters was also a sky and earth god. + +The Indian Varuna was similarly a sky as well as an ocean god before +the theorizing and systematizing Brahmanic teachers relegated him to a +permanent abode at the bottom of the sea. It may be that Ea-Oannes and +Varuna were of common origin. + +Another Babylonian deity, named Dagan, is believed to be identical +with Ea. His worship was certainly of great antiquity. "Hammurabi", +writes Professor Pinches, "seems to speak of the Euphrates as being +'the boundary of Dagan', whom he calls his creator. In later +inscriptions the form Daguna, which approaches nearer to the West +Semitic form (Dagon of the Philistines), is found in a few personal +names.[39] + +It is possible that the Philistine deity Dagon was a specialized form +of ancient Ea, who was either imported from Babylonia or was a sea god +of more than one branch of the Mediterranean race. The authorities are +at variance regarding the form and attributes of Dagan. Our knowledge +regarding him is derived mainly from the Bible. He was a national +rather than a city god. There are references to a Beth-dagon[40], +"house or city of Dagon"; he had also a temple at Gaza, and Samson +destroyed it by pulling down the two middle pillars which were its +main support.[41] A third temple was situated in Ashdod. When the +captured ark of the Israelites was placed in it the image of Dagon +"fell on his face", with the result that "the head of Dagon and both +the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold; only the stump +of Dagon was left".[42] A further reference to "the threshold of +Dagon" suggests that the god had feet like Ea-Oannes. Those who hold +that Dagon had a fish form derive his name from the Semitic "dag = a +fish", and suggest that after the idol fell only the fishy part (dago) +was left. On the other hand, it was argued that Dagon was a corn god, +and that the resemblance between the words Dagan and Dagon are +accidental. Professor Sayce makes reference in this connection to a +crystal seal from Phoenicia in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, bearing +an inscription which he reads as Baal-dagon. Near the name is an ear +of corn, and other symbols, such as the winged solar disc, a gazelle, +and several stars, but there is no fish. It may be, of course, that +Baal-dagon represents a fusion of deities. As we have seen in the case +of Ea-Oannes and the deities of Mendes, a fish god may also be a corn +god, a land animal god and a god of ocean and the sky. The offering of +golden mice representing "your mice that mar the land",[43] made by +the Philistines, suggests that Dagon was the fertilizing harvest god, +among other things, whose usefulness had been impaired, as they +believed, by the mistake committed of placing the ark of Israel in the +temple at Ashdod. The Philistines came from Crete, and if their Dagon +was imported from that island, he may have had some connection with +Poseidon, whose worship extended throughout Greece. This god of the +sea, who is somewhat like the Roman Neptune, carried a lightning +trident and caused earthquakes. He was a brother of Zeus, the sky and +atmosphere deity, and had bull and horse forms. As a horse he pursued +Demeter, the earth and corn goddess, and, like Ea, he instructed +mankind, but especially in the art of training horses. In his train +were the Tritons, half men, half fishes, and the water fairies, the +Nereids. Bulls, boars, and rams were offered to this sea god of +fertility. Amphitrite was his spouse. + +An obscure god Shony, the Oannes of the Scottish Hebrides, received +oblations from those who depended for their agricultural prosperity on +his gifts of fertilizing seaweed. He is referred to in Martin's +_Western Isles_, and is not yet forgotten. The Eddic sea god Njord of +Noatun was the father of Frey, the harvest god. Dagda, the Irish corn +god, had for wife Boann, the goddess of the river Boyne. Osiris and +Isis of Egypt were associated with the Nile. The connection between +agriculture and the water supply was too obvious to escape the early +symbolists, and many other proofs of this than those referred to could +be given. + +Ea's "faithful spouse" was the goddess Damkina, who was also called +Nin-ki, "lady of the earth". "May Ea make thee glad", chanted the +priests. "May Damkina, queen of the deep, illumine thee with her +countenance; may Merodach (Marduk), the mighty overseer of the Igigi +(heavenly spirits), exalt thy head." Merodach was their son: in time +he became the Bel, or "Lord", of the Babylonian pantheon. + +Like the Indian Varuna, the sea god, Ea-Oannes had control over the +spirits and demons of the deep. The "ferryman" who kept watch over the +river of death was called Arad-Ea, "servant of Ea". There are also +references to sea maidens, the Babylonian mermaids, or Nereids. We +have a glimpse of sea giants, which resemble the Indian Danavas and +Daityas of ocean, in the chant: + + Seven are they, seven are they, + In the ocean deep seven are they, + Battening in heaven seven are they, + Bred in the depths of ocean.... + Of these seven the first is the south wind, + The second a dragon with mouth agape....[44] + +A suggestion of the Vedic Vritra and his horde of monsters. + +These seven demons were also "the messengers of Anu", who, although +specialized as a sky god in more than one pantheon, appears to have +been closely associated with Ea in the earliest Sumerian period. His +name, signifying "the high one", is derived from "ana", "heaven"; he +was the city god of Erech (Uruk). It is possible that he was developed +as an atmospheric god with solar and lunar attributes. The seven +demons, who were his messengers, recall the stormy Maruts, the +followers of Indra. They are referred to as + + Forcing their way with baneful windstorms, + Mighty destroyers, the deluge of the storm god, + Stalking at the right hand of the storm god.[45] + +When we deal with a deity in his most archaic form it is difficult to +distinguish him from a demon. Even the beneficent Ea is associated +with monsters and furies. "Evil spirits", according to a Babylonian +chant, were "the bitter venom of the gods". Those attached to a deity +as "attendants" appear to represent the original animistic group from +which he evolved. In each district the character of the deity was +shaped to accord with local conditions. + +At Nippur, which was situated on the vague and shifting boundary line +between Sumer and Akkad, the chief god was Enlil, whose name is +translated "lord of mist", "lord of might", and "lord of demons" by +various authorities. He was a storm god and a war god, and "lord of +heaven and earth ", like Ea and Anu. An atmospheric deity, he shares +the attributes of the Indian Indra, the thunder and rain god, and +Vayu, the wind god; he also resembles the Semitic Adad or Rimman, who +links with the Hittite Tarku. All these are deities of tempest and the +mountains--Wild Huntsmen in the Raging Host. The name of Enlil's +temple at Nippur has been translated as "mountain house", or "like a +mountain", and the theory obtained for a time that the god must +therefore have been imported by a people from the hills. But as the +ideogram for "mountain" and "land" was used in the earliest times, as +King shows, with reference to foreign countries,[46] it is more +probable that Enlil was exalted as a world god who had dominion over +not only Sumer and Akkad, but also the territories occupied by the +rivals and enemies of the early Babylonians. + +Enlil is known as the "older Bel" (lord), to distinguish him from Bel +Merodach of Babylon. He was the chief figure in a triad in which he +figured as earth god, with Anu as god of the sky and Ea as god of the +deep. This classification suggests that Nippur had either risen in +political importance and dominated the cities of Erech and Eridu, or +that its priests were influential at the court of a ruler who was the +overlord of several city states. + +Associated with Bel Enlil was Beltis, later known as "Beltu--the +lady". She appears to be identical with the other great goddesses, +Ishtar, Nana, Zerpanitu^m, &c., a "Great Mother", or consort of an +early god with whom she was equal in power and dignity. + +In the later systematized theology of the Babylonians we seem to trace +the fragments of a primitive mythology which was vague in outline, for +the deities were not sharply defined, and existed in groups. Enneads +were formed in Egypt by placing a local god at the head of a group of +eight elder deities. The sun god Ra was the chief figure of the +earliest pantheon of this character at Heliopolis, while at Hermopolis +the leader was the lunar god Thoth. Professor Budge is of opinion that +"both the Sumerians and the early Egyptians derived their primeval +gods from some common but exceedingly ancient source", for he finds in +the Babylonian and Nile valleys that there is a resemblance between +two early groups which "seems to be too close to be accidental".[47] + +The Egyptian group comprises four pairs of vague gods and +goddesses--Nu and his consort Nut, Hehu and his consort Hehut, Kekui +and his consort Kekuit, and Kerh and his consort Kerhet. "Man always +has fashioned", he says, "and probably always will fashion, his god or +gods in his own image, and he has always, having reached a certain +stage in development, given to his gods wives and offspring; but the +nature of the position taken by the wives of the gods depends upon the +nature of the position of women in the households of those who write +the legends and the traditions of the gods. The gods of the oldest +company in Egypt were, the writer believes, invented by people in +whose households women held a high position, and among whom they +possessed more power than is usually the case with Oriental +peoples."[48] + +We cannot say definitely what these various deities represent. Nu was +the spirit of the primordial deep, and Nut of the waters above the +heavens, the mother of moon and sun and the stars. The others were +phases of light and darkness and the forces of nature in activity and +repose. + +Nu is represented in Babylonian mythology by Apsu-Rishtu, and Nut by +Mummu-Tiamat or Tiawath; the next pair is Lachmu and Lachamu, and the +third, Anshar and Kishar. The fourth pair is missing, but the names of +Anu and Ea (as Nudimmud) are mentioned in the first tablet of the +Creation series, and the name of a third is lost. Professor Budge +thinks that the Assyrian editors substituted the ancient triad of Anu, +Ea, and Enlil for the pair which would correspond to those found in +Egypt. Originally the wives of Anu and Ea may have made up the group +of eight primitive deities. + +There can be little doubt but that Ea, as he survives to us, is of +later characterization than the first pair of primitive deities who +symbolized the deep. The attributes of this beneficent god reflect the +progress, and the social and moral ideals of a people well advanced in +civilization. He rewarded mankind for the services they rendered to +him; he was their leader and instructor; he achieved for them the +victories over the destructive forces of nature. In brief, he was the +dragon slayer, a distinction, by the way, which was attached in later +times to his son Merodach, the Babylonian god, although Ea was still +credited with the victory over the dragon's husband. + +When Ea was one of the pre-Babylonian group--the triad of Bel-Enlil, +Anu, and Ea--he resembled the Indian Vishnu, the Preserver, while +Bel-Enlil resembled Shiva, the Destroyer, and Anu, the father, supreme +Brahma, the Creator and Father of All, the difference in exact +adjustment being due, perhaps, to Sumerian political conditions. + +Ea, as we have seen, symbolized the beneficence of the waters; their +destructive force was represented by Tiamat or Tiawath, the dragon, +and Apsu, her husband, the arch-enemy of the gods. We shall find these +elder demons figuring in the Babylonian Creation myth, which receives +treatment in a later chapter. + +The ancient Sumerian city of Eridu, which means "on the seashore", was +invested with great sanctity from the earliest times, and Ea, the +"great magician of the gods", was invoked by workers of spells, the +priestly magicians of historic Babylonia. Excavations have shown that +Eridu was protected by a retaining wall of sandstone, of which +material many of its houses were made. In its temple tower, built of +brick, was a marble stairway, and evidences have been forthcoming that +in the later Sumerian period the structure was lavishly adorned. It is +referred to in the fragments of early literature which have survived +as "the splendid house, shady as the forest", that "none may enter". +The mythological spell exercised by Eridu in later times suggests that +the civilization of Sumeria owed much to the worshippers of Ea. At the +sacred city the first man was created: there the souls of the dead +passed towards the great Deep. Its proximity to the sea--Ea was +Nin-bubu, "god of the sailor"--may have brought it into contact with +other peoples and other early civilizations. Like the early Egyptians, +the early Sumerians may have been in touch with Punt (Somaliland), +which some regard as the cradle of the Mediterranean race. The +Egyptians obtained from that sacred land incense-bearing trees which +had magical potency. In a fragmentary Babylonian charm there is a +reference to a sacred tree or bush at Eridu. Professor Sayce has +suggested that it is the Biblical "Tree of Life" in the Garden of +Eden. His translations of certain vital words, however, is sharply +questioned by Mr. R. Campbell Thompson of the British Museum, who does +not accept the theory.[49] It may be that Ea's sacred bush or tree is +a survival of tree and water worship. + +If Eridu was not the "cradle" of the Sumerian race, it was possibly +the cradle of Sumerian civilization. Here, amidst the shifting rivers +in early times, the agriculturists may have learned to control and +distribute the water supply by utilizing dried-up beds of streams to +irrigate the land. Whatever successes they achieved were credited to +Ea, their instructor and patron; he was Nadimmud, "god of everything". + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +RIVAL PANTHEONS AND REPRESENTATIVE DEITIES + + + Why Different Gods were Supreme at Different Centres--Theories + regarding Origin of Life--Vital Principle in Water--Creative Tears + of Weeping Deities--Significance of widespread Spitting + Customs--Divine Water in Blood and Divine Blood in Water--Liver as + the Seat of Life--Inspiration derived by Drinking Mead, Blood, + &c.--Life Principle in Breath--Babylonian Ghosts as "Evil Wind + Gusts"--Fire Deities--Fire and Water in Magical Ceremonies--Moon + Gods of Ur and Harran--Moon Goddess and Babylonian "Jack and + Jill"--Antiquity of Sun Worship--Tammuz and Ishtar--Solar Gods of + War, Pestilence, and Death--Shamash as the "Great Judge"--His Mitra + Name--Aryan Mitra or Mithra and linking Babylonian Deities--Varuna + and Shamash Hymns compared--The Female Origin of Life--Goddesses of + Maternity--The Babylonian Thor--Deities of Good and Evil. + + +In dealing with the city cults of Sumer and Akkad, consideration must +be given to the problems involved by the rival mythological systems. +Pantheons not only varied in detail, but were presided over by +different supreme gods. One city's chief deity might be regarded as a +secondary deity at another centre. Although Ea, for instance, was +given first place at Eridu, and was so pronouncedly Sumerian in +character, the moon god Nannar remained supreme at Ur, while the sun +god, whose Semitic name was Shamash, presided at Larsa and Sippar. +Other deities were similarly exalted in other states. + +As has been indicated, a mythological system must have been strongly +influenced by city politics. To hold a community in sway, it was +necessary to recognize officially the various gods worshipped by +different sections, so as to secure the constant allegiance of all +classes to their rulers. Alien deities were therefore associated with +local and tribal deities, those of the nomads with those of the +agriculturists, those of the unlettered folks with those of the +learned people. Reference has been made to the introduction of strange +deities by conquerors. But these were not always imposed upon a +community by violent means. Indications are not awanting that the +worshippers of alien gods were sometimes welcomed and encouraged to +settle in certain states. When they came as military allies to assist +a city folk against a fierce enemy, they were naturally much admired +and praised, honoured by the women and the bards, and rewarded by the +rulers. + +In the epic of Gilgamesh, the Babylonian Hercules, we meet with +Ea-bani, a Goliath of the wilds, who is entreated to come to the aid +of the besieged city of Erech when it seemed that its deities were +unable to help the people against their enemies. + + The gods of walled-round Erech + To flies had turned and buzzed in the streets; + The winged bulls of walled-round Erech + Were turned to mice and departed through the holes. + +Ea-bani was attracted to Erech by the gift of a fair woman for wife. +The poet who lauded him no doubt mirrored public opinion. We can see +the slim, shaven Sumerians gazing with wonder and admiration on their +rough heroic ally. + + All his body was covered with hair, + His locks were like a woman's, + Thick as corn grew his abundant hair. + He was a stranger to the people and in that land. + Clad in a garment like Gira, the god, + He had eaten grass with the gazelles, + He had drunk water with savage beasts. + His delight was to be among water dwellers. + +Like the giant Alban, the eponymous ancestor of a people who invaded +prehistoric Britain, Ea-bani appears to have represented in Babylonian +folk legends a certain type of foreign settlers in the land. No doubt +the city dwellers, who were impressed by the prowess of the hairy and +powerful warriors, were also ready to acknowledge the greatness of +their war gods, and to admit them into the pantheon. The fusion of +beliefs which followed must have stimulated thought and been +productive of speculative ideas. "Nowhere", remarks Professor Jastrow, +"does a high form of culture arise without the commingling of diverse +ethnic elements." + +We must also take into account the influence exercised by leaders of +thought like En-we-dur-an-ki, the famous high priest of Sippar, whose +piety did much to increase the reputation of the cult of Shamesh, the +sun god. The teachings and example of Buddha, for instance, +revolutionized Brahmanic religion in India. + +A mythology was an attempt to solve the riddle of the Universe, and to +adjust the relations of mankind with the various forces represented by +the deities. The priests systematized existing folk beliefs and +established an official religion. To secure the prosperity of the +State, it was considered necessary to render homage unto whom homage +was due at various seasons and under various circumstances. + +The religious attitude of a particular community, therefore, must have +been largely dependent on its needs and experiences. The food supply +was a first consideration. At Eridu, as we have seen, it was assured +by devotion to Ea and obedience to his commands as an instructor. +Elsewhere it might happen, however, that Ea's gifts were restricted or +withheld by an obstructing force--the raging storm god, or the +parching, pestilence-bringing deity of the sun. It was necessary, +therefore, for the people to win the favour of the god or goddess who +seemed most powerful, and was accordingly considered to be the +greatest in a particular district. A rain god presided over the +destinies of one community, and a god of disease and death over +another; a third exalted the war god, no doubt because raids were +frequent and the city owed its strength and prosperity to its battles +and conquests. The reputation won by a particular god throughout +Babylonia would depend greatly on the achievements of his worshippers +and the progress of the city civilization over which he presided. +Bel-Enlil's fame as a war deity was probably due to the political +supremacy of his city of Nippur; and there was probably good reason +for attributing to the sun god a pronounced administrative and legal +character; he may have controlled the destinies of exceedingly well +organized communities in which law and order and authority were held +in high esteem. + +In accounting for the rise of distinctive and rival city deities, we +should also consider the influence of divergent conceptions regarding +the origin of life in mingled communities. Each foreign element in a +community had its own intellectual life and immemorial tribal +traditions, which reflected ancient habits of life and perpetuated the +doctrines of eponymous ancestors. Among the agricultural classes, the +folk religion which entered so intimately into their customs and +labours must have remained essentially Babylonish in character. In +cities, however, where official religions were formulated, foreign +ideas were more apt to be imposed, especially when embraced by +influential teachers. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that in +Babylonia, as in Egypt, there were differences of opinion regarding +the origin of life and the particular natural element which +represented the vital principle. + +One section of the people, who were represented by the worshippers of +Ea, appear to have believed that the essence of life was contained in +water. The god of Eridu was the source of the "water of life". He +fertilized parched and sunburnt wastes through rivers and irrigating +canals, and conferred upon man the sustaining "food of life". When +life came to an end-- + + Food of death will be offered thee... + Water of death will be offered thee... + +Offerings of water and food were made to the dead so that the ghosts +might be nourished and prevented from troubling the living. Even the +gods required water and food; they were immortal because they had +drunk ambrosia and eaten from the plant of life. When the goddess +Ishtar was in the Underworld, the land of the dead, the servant of Ea +exclaimed-- + + "Hail! lady, may the well give me of its waters, so that I may + drink." + +The goddess of the dead commanded her servant to "sprinkle the lady +Ishtar with the water of life and bid her depart". The sacred water +might also be found at a confluence of rivers. Ea bade his son, +Merodach, to "draw water from the mouth of two streams", and "on this +water to put his pure spell". + +The worship of rivers and wells which prevailed in many countries was +connected with the belief that the principle of life was in moisture. +In India, water was vitalized by the intoxicating juice of the Soma +plant, which inspired priests to utter prophecies and filled their +hearts with religious fervour. Drinking customs had originally a +religious significance. It was believed in India that the sap of +plants was influenced by the moon, the source of vitalizing moisture +and the hiding-place of the mead of the gods. The Teutonic gods also +drank this mead, and poets were inspired by it. Similar beliefs +obtained among various peoples. Moon and water worship were therefore +closely associated; the blood of animals and the sap of plants were +vitalized by the water of life and under control of the moon. + +The body moisture of gods and demons had vitalizing properties. When +the Indian creator, Prajapati, wept at the beginning, "that (the +tears) which fell into the water became the air. That which he wiped +away, upwards, became the sky."[50] The ancient Egyptians believed +that all men were born from the eyes of Horus except negroes, who came +from other parts of his body.[51] The creative tears of Ra, the sun +god, fell as shining rays upon the earth. When this god grew old +saliva dripped from his mouth, and Isis mixed the vitalizing moisture +with dust, and thus made the serpent which bit and paralysed the great +solar deity.[52] + +Other Egyptian deities, including Osiris and Isis, wept creative +tears. Those which fell from the eyes of the evil gods produced +poisonous plants and various baneful animals. Orion, the Greek giant, +sprang from the body moisture of deities. The weeping ceremonies in +connection with agricultural rites were no doubt believed to be of +magical potency; they encouraged the god to weep creative tears. + +Ea, the god of the deep, was also "lord of life" (Enti), "king of the +river" (Lugal-ida), and god of creation (Nudimmud). His aid was +invoked by means of magical formulae. As the "great magician of the +gods" he uttered charms himself, and was the patron of all magicians. +One spell runs as follows: + + I am the sorcerer priest of Ea... + To revive the ... sick man + The great lord Ea hath sent me; + He hath added his pure spell to mine, + He hath added his pure voice to mine, + He hath added his pure spittle to mine. + + _R.C. Thompson's Translation._ + +Saliva, like tears, had creative and therefore curative qualities; it +also expelled and injured demons and brought good luck. Spitting +ceremonies are referred to in the religious literature of Ancient +Egypt. When the Eye of Ra was blinded by Set, Thoth spat in it to +restore vision. The sun god Tum, who was linked with Ra as Ra-Tum, +spat on the ground, and his saliva became the gods Shu and Tefnut. In +the Underworld the devil serpent Apep was spat upon to curse it, as +was also its waxen image which the priests fashioned.[53] + +Several African tribes spit to make compacts, declare friendship, and +to curse. + +Park, the explorer, refers in his _Travels_ to his carriers spitting +on a flat stone to ensure a good journey. Arabian holy men and +descendants of Mohammed spit to cure diseases. Mohammed spat in the +mouth of his grandson Hasen soon after birth. Theocritus, Sophocles, +and Plutarch testify to the ancient Grecian customs of spitting to +cure and to curse, and also to bless when children were named. Pliny +has expressed belief in the efficacy of the fasting spittle for curing +disease, and referred to the custom of spitting to avert witchcraft. +In England, Scotland, and Ireland spitting customs are not yet +obsolete. North of England boys used to talk of "spitting their sauls" +(souls). When the Newcastle colliers held their earliest strikes they +made compacts by spitting on a stone. There are still "spitting +stones" in the north of Scotland. When bargains are made in rural +districts, hands are spat upon before they are shaken. The first money +taken each day by fishwives and other dealers is spat upon to ensure +increased drawings. Brand, who refers to various spitting customs, +quotes _Scot's Discovery of Witchcraft_ regarding the saliva cure for +king's evil, which is still, by the way, practised in the Hebrides. +Like Pliny, Scot recommended ceremonial spitting as a charm against +witchcraft.[54] In China spitting to expel demons is a common +practice. We still call a hasty person a "spitfire", and a calumniator +a "spit-poison". + +The life principle in trees, &c., as we have seen, was believed to +have been derived from the tears of deities. In India sap was called +the "blood of trees", and references to "bleeding trees" are still +widespread and common. "Among the ancients", wrote Professor Robertson +Smith, "blood is generally conceived as the principle or vehicle of +life, and so the account often given of sacred waters is that the +blood of the deity flows in them. Thus as Milton writes: + + Smooth Adonis from his native rock + Ran purple to the sea, supposed with blood + Of Thammuz yearly wounded. + + _Paradise Lost_, i, 450. + +The ruddy colour which the swollen river derived from the soil at a +certain season was ascribed to the blood of the god, who received his +death wound in Lebanon at that time of the year, and lay buried beside +the sacred source."[55] + +In Babylonia the river was regarded as the source of the life blood +and the seat of the soul. No doubt this theory was based on the fact +that the human liver contains about a sixth of the blood in the body, +the largest proportion required by any single organ. Jeremiah makes +"Mother Jerusalem" exclaim: "My liver is poured upon the earth for the +destruction of the daughter of my people", meaning that her life is +spent with grief. + +Inspiration was derived by drinking blood as well as by drinking +intoxicating liquors--the mead of the gods. Indian magicians who drink +the blood of the goat sacrificed to the goddess Kali, are believed to +be temporarily possessed by her spirit, and thus enabled to +prophesy.[56] Malayan exorcists still expel demons while they suck the +blood from a decapitated fowl.[57] + +Similar customs were prevalent in Ancient Greece. A woman who drank +the blood of a sacrificed lamb or bull uttered prophetic sayings.[58] + +But while most Babylonians appear to have believed that the life +principle was in blood, some were apparently of opinion that it was in +breath--the air of life. A man died when he ceased to breathe; his +spirit, therefore, it was argued, was identical with the +atmosphere--the moving wind--and was accordingly derived from the +atmospheric or wind god. When, in the Gilgamesh epic, the hero invokes +the dead Ea-bani, the ghost rises up like a "breath of wind". A +Babylonian charm runs: + + The gods which seize on men + Came forth from the grave; + The evil wind gusts + Have come forth from the grave, + To demand payment of rites and the pouring out of libations + They have come forth from the grave; + All that is evil in their hosts, like a whirlwind, + Hath come forth from the grave.[59] + +The Hebrew "nephesh ruach" and "neshamah" (in Arabic "ruh" and "nefs") +pass from meaning "breath" to "spirit".[60] In Egypt the god Khnumu +was "Kneph" in his character as an atmospheric deity. The ascendancy +of storm and wind gods in some Babylonian cities may have been due to +the belief that they were the source of the "air of life". It is +possible that this conception was popularized by the Semites. +Inspiration was perhaps derived from these deities by burning incense, +which, if we follow evidence obtained elsewhere, induced a prophetic +trance. The gods were also invoked by incense. In the Flood legend the +Babylonian Noah burned incense. "The gods smelled a sweet savour and +gathered like flies over the sacrificer." In Egypt devotees who +inhaled the breath of the Apis bull were enabled to prophesy. + +In addition to water and atmospheric deities Babylonia had also its +fire gods, Girru, Gish Bar, Gibil, and Nusku. Their origin is obscure. +It is doubtful if their worshippers, like those of the Indian Agni, +believed that fire, the "vital spark", was the principle of life which +was manifested by bodily heat. The Aryan fire worshippers cremated +their dead so that the spirits might be transferred by fire to +Paradise. This practice, however, did not obtain among the fire +worshippers of Persia, nor, as was once believed, in Sumer or Akkad +either. Fire was, however, used in Babylonia for magical purposes. It +destroyed demons, and put to flight the spirits of disease. Possibly +the fire-purification ceremonies resembled those which were practised +by the Canaanites, and are referred to in the Bible. Ahaz "made his +son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the +heathen".[61] Ezekiel declared that "when ye offer your gifts, when ye +make your sons to pass through the fire, ye pollute yourselves with +all your idols".[62] In _Leviticus_ it is laid down: "Thou shalt not +let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Moloch".[63] It may be +that in Babylonia the fire-cleansing ceremony resembled that which +obtained at Beltane (May Day) in Scotland, Germany, and other +countries. Human sacrifices might also have been offered up as burnt +offerings. Abraham, who came from the Sumerian city of Ur, was +prepared to sacrifice Isaac, Sarah's first-born. The fire gods of +Babylonia never achieved the ascendancy of the Indian Agni; they +appear to have resembled him mainly in so far as he was connected with +the sun. Nusku, like Agni, was also the "messenger of the gods". When +Merodach or Babylon was exalted as chief god of the pantheon his +messages were carried to Ea by Nusku. He may have therefore symbolized +the sun rays, for Merodach had solar attributes. It is possible that +the belief obtained among even the water worshippers of Eridu that the +sun and moon, which rose from the primordial deep, had their origin in +the everlasting fire in Ea's domain at the bottom of the sea. In the +Indian god Varuna's ocean home an "Asura fire" (demon fire) burned +constantly; it was "bound and confined", but could not be +extinguished. Fed by water, this fire, it was believed, would burst +forth at the last day and consume the universe.[64] A similar belief +can be traced in Teutonic mythology. The Babylonian incantation cult +appealed to many gods, but "the most important share in the rites", +says Jastrow, "are taken by fire and water--suggesting, therefore, +that the god of water--more particularly Ea--and the god of fire ... +are the chief deities on which the ritual itself hinges". In some +temples there was a _bit rimki_, a "house of washing", and a _bit +nuri_, a "house of light".[65] + +It is possible, of course, that fire was regarded as the vital +principle by some city cults, which were influenced by imported ideas. +If so, the belief never became prevalent. The most enduring influence +in Babylonian religion was the early Sumerian; and as Sumerian modes +of thought were the outcome of habits of life necessitated by the +character of the country, they were bound, sooner or later, to leave a +deep impress on the minds of foreign peoples who settled in the Garden +of Western Asia. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that +imported deities assumed Babylonian characteristics, and were +identified or associated with Babylonian gods in the later imperial +pantheon. + +Moon worship appears to have been as ancient as water worship, with +which, as we have seen, it was closely associated. It was widely +prevalent throughout Babylonia. The chief seat of the lunar deity, +Nannar or Sin, was the ancient city of Ur, from which Abraham migrated +to Harran, where the "Baal" (the lord) was also a moon god. Ur was +situated in Sumer, in the south, between the west bank of the +Euphrates and the low hills bordering the Arabian desert, and not far +distant from sea-washed Eridu. No doubt, like that city, it had its +origin at an exceedingly remote period. At any rate, the excavations +conducted there have afforded proof that it flourished in the +prehistoric period. + +As in Arabia, Egypt, and throughout ancient Europe and elsewhere, the +moon god of Sumeria was regarded as the "friend of man". He controlled +nature as a fertilizing agency; he caused grass, trees, and crops to +grow; he increased flocks and herds, and gave human offspring. At Ur +he was exalted above Ea as "the lord and prince of the gods, supreme +in heaven, the Father of all"; he was also called "great Anu", an +indication that Anu, the sky god, had at one time a lunar character. +The moon god was believed to be the father of the sun god: he was the +"great steer with mighty horns and perfect limbs". + +His name Sin is believed to be a corruption of "Zu-ena", which +signifies "knowledge lord".[66] Like the lunar Osiris of Egypt, he was +apparently an instructor of mankind; the moon measured time and +controlled the seasons; seeds were sown at a certain phase of the +moon, and crops were ripened by the harvest moon. The mountains of +Sinai and the desert of Sin are called after this deity. + +As Nannar, which Jastrow considers to be a variation of "Narnar", the +"light producer", the moon god scattered darkness and reduced the +terrors of night. His spirit inhabited the lunar stone, so that moon +and stone worship were closely associated; it also entered trees and +crops, so that moon worship linked with earth worship, as both linked +with water worship. + +The consort of Nannar was Nin-Uruwa, "the lady of Ur", who was also +called Nin-gala. She links with Ishtar as Nin, as Isis of Egypt linked +with other mother deities. The twin children of the moon were Mashu +and Mashtu, a brother and sister, like the lunar girl and boy of +Teutonic mythology immortalized in nursery rhymes as Jack and Jill. + +Sun worship was of great antiquity in Babylonia, but appears to have +been seasonal in its earliest phases. No doubt the sky god Anu had his +solar as well as his lunar attributes, which he shared with Ea. The +spring sun was personified as Tammuz, the youthful shepherd, who was +loved by the earth goddess Ishtar and her rival Eresh-ki-gal, goddess +of death, the Babylonian Persephone. During the winter Tammuz dwelt in +Hades, and at the beginning of spring Ishtar descended to search for +him among the shades.[67] But the burning summer sun was symbolized as +a destroyer, a slayer of men, and therefore a war god. As Ninip or +Nirig, the son of Enlil, who was made in the likeness of Anu, he waged +war against the earth spirits, and was furiously hostile towards the +deities of alien peoples, as befitted a god of battle. Even his father +feared him, and when he was advancing towards Nippur, sent out Nusku, +messenger of the gods, to soothe the raging deity with soft words. +Ninip was symbolized as a wild bull, was connected with stone worship, +like the Indian destroying god Shiva, and was similarly a deity of +Fate. He had much in common with Nin-Girsu, a god of Lagash, who was +in turn regarded as a form of Tammuz. + +Nergal, another solar deity, brought disease and pestilence, and, +according to Jensen, all misfortunes due to excessive heat. He was the +king of death, husband of Eresh-ki-gal, queen of Hades. As a war god +he thirsted for human blood, and was depicted as a mighty lion. He was +the chief deity of the city of Cuthah, which, Jastrow suggests, was +situated beside a burial place of great repute, like the Egyptian +Abydos. + +The two great cities of the sun in ancient Babylonia were the Akkadian +Sippar and the Sumerian Larsa. In these the sun god, Shamash or +Babbar, was the patron deity. He was a god of Destiny, the lord of the +living and the dead, and was exalted as the great Judge, the lawgiver, +who upheld justice; he was the enemy of wrong, he loved righteousness +and hated sin, he inspired his worshippers with rectitude and punished +evildoers. The sun god also illumined the world, and his rays +penetrated every quarter: he saw all things, and read the thoughts of +men; nothing could be concealed from Shamash. One of his names was +Mitra, like the god who was linked with Varuna in the Indian +_Rigveda_. These twin deities, Mitra and Varuna, measured out the span +of human life. They were the source of all heavenly gifts: they +regulated sun and moon, the winds and waters, and the seasons.[68] + +These did the gods establish in royal power over themselves, because +they were wise and the children of wisdom, and because they excelled +in power.--_Prof. Arnold's trans. of Rigvedic Hymn_. + +Mitra and Varuna were protectors of hearth and home, and they +chastised sinners. "In a striking passage of the _Mahabharata_" says +Professor Moulton, "one in which Indian thought comes nearest to the +conception of conscience, a kingly wrongdoer is reminded that the sun +sees secret sin."[69] + +In Persian mythology Mitra, as Mithra, is the patron of Truth, and +"the Mediator" between heaven and earth[70]. This god was also +worshipped by the military aristocracy of Mitanni, which held sway for +a period over Assyria. In Roman times the worship of Mithra spread +into Europe from Persia. Mithraic sculptures depict the deity as a +corn god slaying the harvest bull; on one of the monuments "cornstalks +instead of blood are seen issuing from the wound inflicted with the +knife[71]". The Assyrian word "metru" signifies rain.[70] As a sky god +Mitra may have been associated, like Varuna, with the +waters above the firmament. Rain would therefore be +gifted by him as a fertilizing deity. In the Babylonian +Flood legend it is the sun god Shamash who "appointed +the time" when the heavens were to "rain destruction" +in the night, and commanded Pir-napishtim, "Enter into +the midst of thy ship and shut thy door". The solar +deity thus appears as a form of Anu, god of the sky and +upper atmosphere, who controls the seasons and the various +forces of nature. Other rival chiefs of city pantheons, +whether lunar, atmospheric, earth, or water deities, were +similarly regarded as the supreme deities who ruled the +Universe, and decreed when man should receive benefits +or suffer from their acts of vengeance. + +It is possible that the close resemblances between Mithra and Mitra of +the Aryan-speaking peoples of India and the Iranian plateau, and the +sun god of the Babylonians--the Semitic Shamash, the Sumerian +Utu--were due to early contact and cultural influence through the +medium of Elam. As a solar and corn god, the Persian Mithra links with +Tammuz, as a sky and atmospheric deity with Anu, and as a god of +truth, righteousness, and law with Shamash. We seem to trace in the +sublime Vedic hymns addressed by the Indian Aryans to Mitra and Varuna +the impress of Babylonian religious thought: + + Whate'er exists within this earth, and all within the sky, + Yea, all that is beyond, King Varuna perceives.... + + _Rigveda_, iv, 16.[72] + + + O Varuna, whatever the offence may be + That we as men commit against the heavenly folk, + When through our want of thought we violate thy laws, + Chastise us not, O god, for that iniquity. + + _Rigveda_, vii, 89.[73] + +Shamash was similarly exalted in Babylonian hymns: + + The progeny of those who deal unjustly will not prosper. + What their mouth utters in thy presence + Thou wilt destroy, what issues from their mouth thou wilt + dissipate. + Thou knowest their transgressions, the plan of the wicked thou + rejectest. + All, whoever they be, are in thy care.... + He who takes no bribe, who cares for the oppressed, + Is favoured by Shamash,--his life shall be prolonged.[74] + +The worshippers of Varuna and Mitra in the Punjab did not cremate +their dead like those who exalted the rival fire god Agni. The grave +was the "house of clay", as in Babylonia. Mitra, who was identical +with Yama, ruled over departed souls in the "Land of the Pitris" +(Fathers), which was reached by crossing the mountains and the rushing +stream of death.[75] As we have seen, the Babylonian solar god Nergal +was also the lord of the dead. + +As Ma-banda-anna, "the boat of the sky", Shamash links with the +Egyptian sun god Ra, whose barque sailed over the heavens by day and +through the underworld of darkness and death during the night. The +consort of Shamash was Aa, and his attendants were Kittu and Mesharu, +"Truth" and "Righteousness". + +Like the Hittites, the Babylonians had also a sun goddess: her name +was Nin-sun, which Jastrow renders "the annihilating lady". At Erech +she had a shrine in the temple of the sky god Anu. + +We can trace in Babylonia, as in Egypt, the early belief that life in +the Universe had a female origin. Nin-sun links with Ishtar, whose +Sumerian name is Nana. Ishtar appears to be identical with the +Egyptian Hathor, who, as Sekhet, slaughtered the enemies of the sun +god Ra. She was similarly the goddess of maternity, and is depicted in +this character, like Isis and other goddesses of similar character, +suckling a babe. Another Babylonian lady of the gods was Ama, Mama, or +Mami, "the creatress of the seed of mankind", and was "probably so +called as the 'mother' of all things".[76] + +A characteristic atmospheric deity was Ramman, the Rimmon of the +Bible, the Semitic Addu, Adad, Hadad, or Dadu. He was not a presiding +deity in any pantheon, but was identified with Enlil at Nippur. As a +hammer god, he was imported by the Semites from the hills. He was a +wind and thunder deity, a rain bringer, a corn god, and a god of +battle like Thor, Jupiter, Tarku, Indra, and others, who were all sons +of the sky. + +In this brief review of the representative deities of early Babylonia, +it will be seen that most gods link with Anu, Ea, and Enlil, whose +attributes they symbolized in various forms. The prominence accorded +to an individual deity depended on local conditions, experiences, and +influences. Ceremonial practices no doubt varied here and there, but +although one section might exalt Ea and another Shamash, the religious +faith of the people as a whole did not differ to any marked extent; +they served the gods according to their lights, so that life might be +prolonged and made prosperous, for the land of death and "no return" +was regarded as a place of gloom and misery. + +When the Babylonians appear before us in the early stages of the +historical period they had reached that stage of development set forth +so vividly in the _Orations_ of Isocrates: "Those of the gods who are +the source to us of good things have the title of Olympians; those +whose department is that of calamities and punishments have harsher +titles: to the first class both private persons and states erect +altars and temples; the second is not worshipped either with prayers +or burnt sacrifices, but in their case we perform ceremonies of +riddance".[77] + +The Sumerians, like the Ancient Egyptians, developed their deities, +who reflected the growth of culture, from vague spirit groups, which, +like ghosts, were hostile to mankind. Those spirits who could be +propitiated were exalted as benevolent deities; those who could not be +bargained with were regarded as evil gods and goddesses. A better +understanding of the character of Babylonian deities will therefore be +obtained by passing the demons and evil spirits under review. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +DEMONS, FAIRIES, AND GHOSTS + + + Spirits in Everything and Everywhere--The Bringers of Luck and + Misfortune--Germ Theory Anticipated--Early Gods indistinguishable + from Demons--Repulsive form of Ea--Spirit Groups as Attendants of + Deities--Egyptian, Indian, Greek, and Germanic parallels--Elder Gods + as Evil Gods--Animal Demons--The Babylonian + "Will-o'-the-Wisp"--"Foreign Devils"--Elves and Fairies--Demon + Lovers--"Adam's first wife, Lilith"--Children Charmed against Evil + Spirits--The Demon of Nightmare--Ghosts as Enemies of the + Living--The Vengeful Dead Mother in Babylonia, India, Europe, and + Mexico--Burial Contrast--Calling Back the Dead--Fate of Childless + Ghosts--Religious Need for Offspring--Hags and Giants and Composite + Monsters--Tempest Fiends--Legend of Adapa and the Storm Demon--Wind + Hags of Ancient Britain--Tyrolese Storm Maidens--Zu Bird Legend and + Indian Garuda Myth--Legend of the Eagle and the Serpent--The Snake + Mother Goddess--Demons and the Moon God--Plague + Deities--Classification of Spirits, and Egyptian, Arabian, and + Scottish parallels--Traces of Progress from Animism to Monotheism. + + +The memorable sermon preached by Paul to the Athenians when he stood +"in the midst of Mars' hill", could have been addressed with equal +appropriateness to the ancient Sumerians and Akkadians. "I perceive", +he declared, "that in all things ye are too superstitious.... God that +made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of +heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is +worshipped with men's hands as though he needed any thing, seeing he +giveth to all life, and breath, and all things ... for in him we live, +and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have +said, For we are also his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the +offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto +gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device."[78] + +Babylonian temples were houses of the gods in the literal sense; the +gods were supposed to dwell in them, their spirits having entered into +the graven images or blocks of stone. It is probable that like the +Ancient Egyptians they believed a god had as many spirits as he had +attributes. The gods, as we have said, appear to have evolved from +early spirit groups. All the world swarmed with spirits, which +inhabited stones and trees, mountains and deserts, rivers and ocean, +the air, the sky, the stars, and the sun and moon. The spirits +controlled Nature: they brought light and darkness, sunshine and +storm, summer and winter; they were manifested in the thunderstorm, +the sandstorm, the glare of sunset, and the wraiths of mist rising +from the steaming marshes. They controlled also the lives of men and +women. The good spirits were the source of luck. The bad spirits +caused misfortunes, and were ever seeking to work evil against the +Babylonian. Darkness was peopled by demons and ghosts of the dead. The +spirits of disease were ever lying in wait to clutch him with cruel +invisible hands. + +Some modern writers, who are too prone to regard ancient peoples from +a twentieth-century point of view, express grave doubts as to whether +"intelligent Babylonians" really believed that spirits came down in +the rain and entered the soil to rise up before men's eyes as stalks +of barley or wheat. There is no reason for supposing that they thought +otherwise. The early folks based their theories on the accumulated +knowledge of their age. They knew nothing regarding the composition of +water or the atmosphere, of the cause of thunder and lightning, or of +the chemical changes effected in soils by the action of bacteria. They +attributed all natural phenomena to the operations of spirits or gods. +In believing that certain demons caused certain diseases, they may be +said to have achieved distinct progress, for they anticipated the germ +theory. They made discoveries, too, which have been approved and +elaborated in later times when they lit sacred fires, bathed in sacred +waters, and used oils and herbs to charm away spirits of pestilence. +Indeed, many folk cures, which were originally associated with magical +ceremonies, are still practised in our own day. They were found to be +effective by early observers, although they were unable to explain why +and how cures were accomplished, like modern scientific investigators. + +In peopling the Universe with spirits, the Babylonians, like other +ancient folks, betrayed that tendency to symbolize everything which +has ever appealed to the human mind. Our painters and poets and +sculptors are greatest when they symbolize their ideals and ideas and +impressions, and by so doing make us respond to their moods. Their +"beauty and their terror are sublime". But what may seem poetic to us, +was invariably a grim reality to the Babylonians. The statue or +picture was not merely a work of art but a manifestation of the god or +demon. As has been said, they believed that the spirit of the god +inhabited the idol; the frown of the brazen image was the frown of the +wicked demon. They entertained as much dread of the winged and +human-headed bulls guarding the entrance to the royal palace as do +some of the Arab workmen who, in our own day, assist excavators to +rescue them from sandy mounds in which they have been hidden for long +centuries. + +When an idol was carried away from a city by an invading army, it was +believed that the god himself had been taken prisoner, and was +therefore unable any longer to help his people. + +In the early stages of Sumerian culture, the gods and goddesses who +formed groups were indistinguishable from demons. They were vaguely +defined, and had changing shapes. When attempts were made to depict +them they were represented in many varying forms. Some were winged +bulls or lions with human heads; others had even more remarkable +composite forms. The "dragon of Babylon", for instance, which was +portrayed on walls of temples, had a serpent's head, a body covered +with scales, the fore legs of a lion, hind legs of an eagle, and a +long wriggling serpentine tail. Ea had several monster forms. The +following description of one of these is repulsive enough:-- + + The head is the head of a serpent, + From his nostrils mucus trickles, + His mouth is beslavered with water; + The ears are like those of a basilisk, + His horns are twisted into three curls, + He wears a veil in his head band, + The body is a suh-fish full of stars, + The base of his feet are claws, + The sole of his foot has no heel, + His name is Sassu-wunnu, + A sea monster, a form of Ea. + + _R.C. Thompson's Translation._[79] + +Even after the gods were given beneficent attributes to reflect the +growth of culture, and were humanized, they still retained many of +their savage characteristics. Bel Enlil and his fierce son, Nergal, +were destroyers of mankind; the storm god desolated the land; the sky +god deluged it with rain; the sea raged furiously, ever hungering for +human victims; the burning sun struck down its victims; and the floods +played havoc with the dykes and houses of human beings. In Egypt the +sun god Ra was similarly a "producer of calamity", the composite +monster god Sokar was "the lord of fear".[80] Osiris in prehistoric +times had been "a dangerous god", and some of the Pharaohs sought +protection against him in the charms inscribed in their tombs.[81] The +Indian Shiva, "the Destroyer", in the old religious poems has also +primitive attributes of like character. + +The Sumerian gods never lost their connection with the early spirit +groups. These continued to be represented by their attendants, who +executed a deity's stern and vengeful decrees. In one of the +Babylonian charms the demons are referred to as "the spleen of the +gods"--the symbols of their wrathful emotions and vengeful desires. +Bel Enlil, the air and earth god, was served by the demons of disease, +"the beloved sons of Bel", which issued from the Underworld to attack +mankind. Nergal, the sulky and ill-tempered lord of death and +destruction, who never lost his demoniac character, swept over the +land, followed by the spirits of pestilence, sunstroke, weariness, and +destruction. Anu, the sky god, had "spawned" at creation the demons of +cold and rain and darkness. Even Ea and his consort, Damkina, were +served by groups of devils and giants, which preyed upon mankind in +bleak and desolate places when night fell. In the ocean home of Ea +were bred the "seven evil spirits" of tempest--the gaping dragon, the +leopard which preyed upon children, the great Beast, the terrible +serpent, &c. + +In Indian mythology Indra was similarly followed by the stormy Maruts, +and fierce Rudra by the tempestuous Rudras. In Teutonic mythology Odin +is the "Wild Huntsman in the Raging Host". In Greek mythology the +ocean furies attend upon fickle Poseidon. Other examples of this kind +could be multiplied. + +As we have seen (Chapter II) the earliest group of Babylonian deities +consisted probably of four pairs of gods and goddesses as in Egypt. +The first pair was Apsu-Rishtu and Tiamat, who personified the +primordial deep. Now the elder deities in most mythologies--the +"grandsires" and "grandmothers" and "fathers" and "mothers"--are ever +the most powerful and most vengeful. They appear to represent +primitive "layers" of savage thought. The Greek Cronos devours even +his own children, and, as the late Andrew Lang has shown, there are +many parallels to this myth among primitive peoples in various parts +of the world. + +Lang regarded the Greek survival as an example of "the conservatism of +the religious instinct".[82] The grandmother of the Teutonic deity Tyr +was a fierce giantess with nine hundred heads; his father was an enemy +of the gods. In Scotland the hag-mother of winter and storm and +darkness is the enemy of growth and all life, and she raises storms to +stop the grass growing, to slay young animals, and prevent the union +of her son with his fair bride. Similarly the Babylonian chaos +spirits, Apsu and Tiamat, the father and mother of the gods, resolve +to destroy their offspring, because they begin to set the Universe in +order. Tiamat, the female dragon, is more powerful than her husband +Apsu, who is slain by his son Ea. She summons to her aid the gods of +evil, and creates also a brood of monsters--serpents, dragons, vipers, +fish men, raging hounds, &c.--so as to bring about universal and +enduring confusion and evil. Not until she is destroyed can the +beneficent gods establish law and order and make the earth habitable +and beautiful. + +But although Tiamat was slain, the everlasting battle between the +forces of good and evil was ever waged in the Babylonian world. +Certain evil spirits were let loose at certain periods, and they +strove to accomplish the destruction of mankind and his works. These +invisible enemies were either charmed away by performing magical +ceremonies, or by invoking the gods to thwart them and bind them. + +Other spirits inhabited the bodies of animals and were ever hovering +near. The ghosts of the dead and male and female demons were birds, +like the birds of Fate which sang to Siegfried. When the owl raised +its melancholy voice in the darkness the listener heard the spirit of +a departed mother crying for her child. Ghosts and evil spirits +wandered through the streets in darkness; they haunted empty houses; +they fluttered through the evening air as bats; they hastened, moaning +dismally, across barren wastes searching for food or lay in wait for +travellers; they came as roaring lions and howling jackals, hungering +for human flesh. The "shedu" was a destructive bull which might slay +man wantonly or as a protector of temples. Of like character was the +"lamassu", depicted as a winged bull with human head, the protector of +palaces; the "alu" was a bull-like demon of tempest, and there were +also many composite, distorted, or formless monsters which were +vaguely termed "seizers" or "overthrowers", the Semitic "labashu" and +"ach-chazu", the Sumerian "dimmea" and "dimme-kur". A dialectic form +of "gallu" or devil was "mulla". Professor Pinches thinks it not +improbable that "mulla" may be connected with the word "mula", meaning +"star", and suggests that it referred to a "will-o'-the-wisp".[83] In +these islands, according to an old rhyme, + + Some call him Robin Good-fellow, + Hob-goblin, or mad Crisp, + And some againe doe tearme him oft + By name of Will the Wisp. + +Other names are "Kitty", "Peg", and "Jack with a lantern". "Poor +Robin" sang: + + I should indeed as soon expect + That Peg-a-lantern would direct + Me straightway home on misty night + As wand'ring stars, quite out of sight. + +In Shakespeare's _Tempest_[84] a sailor exclaims: "Your fairy, which, +you say, is a harmless fairy, has done little better than played the +Jack with us". Dr. Johnson commented that the reference was to "Jack +with a lantern". Milton wrote also of the "wandering fire", + + Which oft, they say, some evil spirit attends, + Hovering and blazing with delusive light, + Misleads th' amaz'd night wand'rer from his way + To bogs and mires, and oft through pond or pool; + There swallowed up and lost from succour far.[85] + +"When we stick in the mire", sang Drayton, "he doth with laughter +leave us." These fires were also "fallen stars", "death fires", and +"fire drakes": + + So have I seen a fire drake glide along + Before a dying man, to point his grave, + And in it stick and hide.[86] + +Pliny referred to the wandering lights as stars.[87] The Sumerian +"mulla" was undoubtedly an evil spirit. In some countries the "fire +drake" is a bird with gleaming breast: in Babylonia it assumed the +form of a bull, and may have had some connection with the bull of +lshtar. Like the Indian "Dasyu" and "Dasa",[88] Gallu was applied in +the sense of "foreign devil" to human and superhuman adversaries of +certain monarchs. Some of the supernatural beings resemble our elves +and fairies and the Indian Rakshasas. Occasionally they appear in +comely human guise; at other times they are vaguely monstrous. The +best known of this class is Lilith, who, according to Hebrew +tradition, preserved in the Talmud, was the demon lover of Adam. She +has been immortalized by Dante Gabriel Rossetti: + + Of Adam's first wife Lilith, it is told + (The witch he loved before the gift of Eve) + That, ere the snake's, her sweet tongue could deceive, + And her enchanted hair was the first gold. + And still she sits, young while the earth is old, + And, subtly of herself contemplative, + Draws men to watch the bright web she can weave, + Till heart and body and life are in its hold. + The rose and poppy are her flowers; for where + Is he not found, O Lilith, whom shed scent + And soft shed kisses and soft sleep shall snare? + Lo! as that youth's eyes burned at thine, so went + Thy spell through him, and left his straight neck bent + And round his heart one strangling golden hair. + +Lilith is the Babylonian Lilithu, a feminine form of Lilu, the +Sumerian Lila. She resembles Surpanakha of the _Ramayana_, who made +love to Rama and Lakshmana, and the sister of the demon Hidimva, who +became enamoured of Bhima, one of the heroes of the _Mahabharata_,[89] +and the various fairy lovers of Europe who lured men to eternal +imprisonment inside mountains, or vanished for ever when they were +completely under their influence, leaving them demented. The elfin +Lilu similarly wooed young women, like the Germanic Laurin of the +"Wonderful Rose Garden",[90] who carried away the fair lady Kunhild to +his underground dwelling amidst the Tyrolese mountains, or left them +haunting the place of their meetings, searching for him in vain: + + A savage place! as holy and enchanted + As ere beneath the waning moon was haunted + By woman wailing for her demon lover... + His flashing eyes, his floating hair! + Weave a circle round him thrice, + And close your eyes with holy dread, + For he on honey dew hath fed + And drunk the milk of Paradise. + + _Coleridge's Kubla Khan._ + +Another materializing spirit of this class was Ardat Lili, who appears +to have wedded human beings like the swan maidens, the mermaids, and +Nereids of the European folk tales, and the goddess Ganga, who for a +time was the wife of King Shantanu of the _Mahabharata_.[91] + +The Labartu, to whom we have referred, was a female who haunted +mountains and marshes; like the fairies and hags of Europe, she stole +or afflicted children, who accordingly had to wear charms round their +necks for protection. Seven of these supernatural beings were reputed +to be daughters of Anu, the sky god. + +The Alu, a storm deity, was also a spirit which caused nightmare. It +endeavoured to smother sleepers like the Scandinavian hag Mara, and +similarly deprived them of power to move. In Babylonia this evil +spirit might also cause sleeplessness or death by hovering near a bed. +In shape it might be as horrible and repulsive as the Egyptian ghosts +which caused children to die from fright or by sucking out the breath +of life. + +As most representatives of the spirit world were enemies of the +living, so were the ghosts of dead men and women. Death chilled all +human affections; it turned love to hate; the deeper the love had +been, the deeper became the enmity fostered by the ghost. Certain +ghosts might also be regarded as particularly virulent and hostile if +they happened to have left the body of one who was ceremonially +impure. The most terrible ghost in Babylonia was that of a woman who +had died in childbed. She was pitied and dreaded; her grief had +demented her; she was doomed to wail in the darkness; her impurity +clung to her like poison. No spirit was more prone to work evil +against mankind, and her hostility was accompanied by the most tragic +sorrow. In Northern India the Hindus, like the ancient Babylonians, +regard as a fearsome demon the ghost of a woman who died while +pregnant, or on the day of the child's birth.[92] A similar belief +prevailed in Mexico. In Europe there are many folk tales of dead +mothers who return to avenge themselves on the cruel fathers of +neglected children. + +A sharp contrast is presented by the Mongolian Buriats, whose outlook +on the spirit world is less gloomy than was that of the ancient +Babylonians. According to Mr. Jeremiah Curtin, this interesting people +are wont to perform a ceremony with purpose to entice the ghost to +return to the dead body--a proceeding which is dreaded in the Scottish +Highlands.[93] The Buriats address the ghost, saying: "You shall sleep +well. Come back to your natural ashes. Take pity on your friends. It +is necessary to live a real life. Do not wander along the mountains. +Do not be like bad spirits. Return to your peaceful home.... Come back +and work for your children. How can you leave the little ones?" If it +is a mother, these words have great effect; sometimes the spirit moans +and sobs, and the Buriats tell that there have been instances of it +returning to the body.[94] In his _Arabia Deserta_[95] Doughty relates +that Arab women and children mock the cries of the owl. One explained +to him: "It is a wailful woman seeking her lost child; she has become +this forlorn bird". So do immemorial beliefs survive to our own day. + +The Babylonian ghosts of unmarried men and women and of those without +offspring were also disconsolate night wanderers. Others who suffered +similar fates were the ghosts of men who died in battle far from home +and were left unburied, the ghosts of travellers who perished in the +desert and were not covered over, the ghosts of drowned men which rose +from the water, the ghosts of prisoners starved to death or executed, +the ghosts of people who died violent deaths before their appointed +time. The dead required to be cared for, to have libations poured out, +to be fed, so that they might not prowl through the streets or enter +houses searching for scraps of food and pure water. The duty of giving +offerings to the dead was imposed apparently on near relatives. As in +India, it would appear that the eldest son performed the funeral +ceremony: a dreadful fate therefore awaited the spirit of the dead +Babylonian man or woman without offspring. In Sanskrit literature +there is a reference to a priest who was not allowed to enter +Paradise, although he had performed rigid penances, because he had no +children.[96] + +There were hags and giants of mountain and desert, of river and ocean. +Demons might possess the pig, the goat, the horse, the lion, or the +ibis, the raven, or the hawk. The seven spirits of tempest, fire, and +destruction rose from the depths of ocean, and there were hosts of +demons which could not be overcome or baffled by man without the +assistance of the gods to whom they were hostile. Many were sexless; +having no offspring, they were devoid of mercy and compassion. They +penetrated everywhere: + + The high enclosures, the broad enclosures, like a flood + they pass through, + From house to house they dash along. + No door can shut them out; + No bolt can turn them back. + Through the door, like a snake, they glide, + Through the hinge, like the wind, they storm, + Tearing the wife from the embrace of the man, + Driving the freedman from his family home.[97] + +These furies did not confine their unwelcomed attentions to mankind +alone: + + They hunt the doves from their cotes, + And drive the birds from their nests, + And chase the marten from its hole.... + Through the gloomy street by night they roam, + Smiting sheepfold and cattle pen, + Shutting up the land as with door and bolt. + + _R.C. Thompson's Translation._ + +The Babylonian poet, like Burns, was filled with pity for the animals +which suffered in the storm: + + List'ning the doors an' winnocks rattle, + I thought me o' the ourie cattle, + Or silly sheep, wha bide this brattle + O' winter war.... + Ilk happing bird, wee, helpless thing! + That in the merry months o' spring + Delighted me to hear thee sing, + What comes o' thee? + Whare wilt thou cow'r thy chittering wing, + And close thy e'e? + +According to Babylonian belief, "the great storms directed from +heaven" were caused by demons. Mankind heard them "loudly roaring +above, gibbering below".[98] The south wind was raised by Shutu, a +plumed storm demon resembling Hraesvelgur of the Icelandic Eddas: + + Corpse-swallower sits at the end of heaven, + A Joetun in eagle form; + From his wings, they say, comes the wind which fares + Over all the dwellers of earth.[99] + +The northern story of Thor's fishing, when he hooked and wounded the +Midgard serpent, is recalled by the Babylonian legend of Adapa, son of +the god Ea. This hero was engaged catching fish, when Shutu, the south +wind, upset his boat. In his wrath Adapa immediately attacked the +storm demon and shattered her pinions. Anu, the sky god, was moved to +anger against Ea's son and summoned him to the Celestial Court. Adapa, +however, appeared in garments of mourning and was forgiven. Anu +offered him the water of life and the bread of life which would have +made him immortal, but Ea's son refused to eat or drink, believing, as +his father had warned him, that the sky god desired him to partake of +the bread of death and to drink of the water of death. + +Another terrible atmospheric demon was the south-west wind, which +caused destructive storms and floods, and claimed many human victims +like the Icelandic "corpse swallower". She was depicted with lidless +staring eyes, broad flat nose, mouth gaping horribly, and showing +tusk-like teeth, and with high cheek bones, heavy eyebrows, and low +bulging forehead. + +In Scotland the hag of the south-west wind is similarly a bloodthirsty +and fearsome demon. She is most virulent in the springtime. At +Cromarty she is quaintly called "Gentle Annie" by the fisher folks, +who repeat the saying: "When Gentle Annie is skyawlan (yelling) roond +the heel of Ness (a promontory) wi' a white feather on her hat (the +foam of big billows) they (the spirits) will be harrying (robbing) the +crook"--that is, the pot which hangs from the crook is empty during +the spring storms, which prevent fishermen going to sea. In England +the wind hag is Black Annis, who dwells in a Leicestershire hill cave. +She may be identical with the Irish hag Anu, associated with the "Paps +of Anu". According to Gaelic lore, this wind demon of spring is the +"Cailleach" (old wife). She gives her name in the Highland calendar to +the stormy period of late spring; she raises gale after gale to +prevent the coming of summer. Angerboda, the Icelandic hag, is also a +storm demon, but represents the east wind. A Tyrolese folk tale tells +of three magic maidens who dwelt on Jochgrimm mountain, where they +"brewed the winds". Their demon lovers were Ecke, "he who causes +fear"; Vasolt, "he who causes dismay"; and the scornful Dietrich in +his mythical character of Donar or Thunor (Thor), the thunderer. + +Another Sumerian storm demon was the Zu bird, which is represented +among the stars by Pegasus and Taurus. A legend relates that this +"worker of evil, who raised the head of evil", once aspired to rule +the gods, and stole from Bel, "the lord" of deities, the Tablets of +Destiny, which gave him his power over the Universe as controller of +the fates of all. The Zu bird escaped with the Tablets and found +shelter on its mountain top in Arabia. Anu called on Ramman, the +thunderer, to attack the Zu bird, but he was afraid; other gods appear +to have shrunk from the conflict. How the rebel was overcome is not +certain, because the legend survives in fragmentary form. There is a +reference, however, to the moon god setting out towards the mountain +in Arabia with purpose to outwit the Zu bird and recover the lost +Tablets. How he fared it is impossible to ascertain. In another +legend--that of Etana--the mother serpent, addressing the sun god, +Shamash, says: + + Thy net is like unto the broad earth; + Thy snare is like unto the distant heaven! + Who hath ever escaped from thy net? + Even Zu, the worker of evil, who raised the head + of evil [did not escape]! + + _L.W. King's Translation._ + +In Indian mythology, Garuda, half giant, half eagle, robs the Amrita +(ambrosia) of the gods which gives them their power and renders them +immortal. It had assumed a golden body, bright as the sun. Indra, the +thunderer, flung his bolt in vain; he could not wound Garuda, and only +displaced a single feather. Afterwards, however, he stole the moon +goblet containing the Amrita, which Garuda had delivered to his +enemies, the serpents, to free his mother from bondage. This Indian +eagle giant became the vehicle of the god Vishnu, and, according to +the _Mahabharata_, "mocked the wind with his fleetness". + +It would appear that the Babylonian Zu bird symbolized the summer +sandstorms from the Arabian desert. Thunder is associated with the +rainy season, and it may have been assumed, therefore, that the +thunder god was powerless against the sandstorm demon, who was chased, +however, by the moon, and finally overcome by the triumphant sun when +it broke through the darkening sand drift and brightened heaven and +earth, "netting" the rebellious demon who desired to establish the +rule of evil over gods and mankind. + +In the "Legend of Etana" the Eagle, another demon which links with the +Indian Garuda, slayer of serpents, devours the brood of the Mother +Serpent. For this offence against divine law, Shamash, the sun god, +pronounces the Eagle's doom. He instructs the Mother Serpent to slay a +wild ox and conceal herself in its entrails. The Eagle comes to feed +on the carcass, unheeding the warning of one of his children, who +says, "The serpent lies in this wild ox": + + He swooped down and stood upon the wild ox, + The Eagle ... examined the flesh; + He looked about carefully before and behind him; + He again examined the flesh; + He looked about carefully before and behind him, + Then, moving swiftly, he made for the hidden parts. + When he entered into the midst, + The serpent seized him by his wing. + +In vain the Eagle appealed for mercy to the Mother Serpent, who was +compelled to execute the decree of Shamash; she tore off the Eagle's +pinions, wings, and claws, and threw him into a pit where he perished +from hunger and thirst.[100] This myth may refer to the ravages of a +winged demon of disease who was thwarted by the sacrifice of an ox. +The Mother Serpent appears to be identical with an ancient goddess of +maternity resembling the Egyptian Bast, the serpent mother of +Bubastis. According to Sumerian belief, Nintu, "a form of the goddess +Ma", was half a serpent. On her head there is a horn; she is "girt +about the loins"; her left arm holds "a babe suckling her breast": + + From her head to her loins + The body is that of a naked woman; + From the loins to the sole of the foot + Scales like those of a snake are visible. + + _R.C. Thompson's Translation._ + +The close association of gods and demons is illustrated in an obscure +myth which may refer to an eclipse of the moon or a night storm at the +beginning of the rainy season. The demons go to war against the high +gods, and are assisted by Adad (Ramman) the thunderer, Shamash the +sun, and Ishtar. They desire to wreck the heavens, the home of Anu: + + They clustered angrily round the crescent of the moon god, + And won over to their aid Shamash, the mighty, and Adad, the + warrior, + And Ishtar, who with Anu, the King, + Hath founded a shining dwelling. + +The moon god Sin, "the seed of mankind", was darkened by the demons +who raged, "rushing loose over the land" like to the wind. Bel called +upon his messenger, whom he sent to Ea in the ocean depths, saying: +"My son Sin ... hath been grievously bedimmed". Ea lamented, and +dispatched his son Merodach to net the demons by magic, using "a +two-coloured cord from the hair of a virgin kid and from the wool of a +virgin lamb".[101] + +As in India, where Shitala, the Bengali goddess of smallpox, for +instance, is worshipped when the dreaded disease she controls becomes +epidemic, so in Babylonia the people sought to secure immunity from +attack by worshipping spirits of disease. A tablet relates that Ura, a +plague demon, once resolved to destroy all life, but ultimately +consented to spare those who praised his name and exalted him in +recognition of his bravery and power. This could be accomplished by +reciting a formula. Indian serpent worshippers believe that their +devotions "destroy all danger proceeding from snakes".[102] + +Like the Ancient Egyptians, the Babylonians also had their kindly +spirits who brought luck and the various enjoyments of life. A good +"labartu" might attend on a human being like a household fairy of +India or Europe: a friendly "shedu" could protect a household against +the attacks of fierce demons and human enemies. Even the spirits of +Fate who served Anu, god of the sky, and that "Norn" of the +Underworld, Eresh-ki-gal, queen of Hades, might sometimes be +propitious: if the deities were successfully invoked they could cause +the Fates to smite spirits of disease and bringers of ill luck. Damu, +a friendly fairy goddess, was well loved, because she inspired +pleasant dreams, relieved the sufferings of the afflicted, and +restored to good health those patients whom she selected to favour. + +In the Egyptian _Book of the Dead_ the kindly spirits are overshadowed +by the evil ones, because the various magical spells which were put on +record were directed against those supernatural beings who were +enemies of mankind. Similarly in Babylonia the fragments of this class +of literature which survive deal mainly with wicked and vengeful +demons. It appears probable, however, that the highly emotional +Sumerians and Akkadians were on occasion quite as cheerful a people as +the inhabitants of ancient Egypt. Although they were surrounded by +bloodthirsty furies who desired to shorten their days, and their +nights were filled with vague lowering phantoms which inspired fear, +they no doubt shared, in their charm-protected houses, a comfortable +feeling of security after performing magical ceremonies, and were +happy enough when they gathered round flickering lights to listen to +ancient song and story and gossip about crops and traders, the members +of the royal house, and the family affairs of their acquaintances. + +The Babylonian spirit world, it will be seen, was of complex +character. Its inhabitants were numberless, but often vaguely defined, +and one class of demons linked with another. Like the European fairies +of folk belief, the Babylonian spirits were extremely hostile and +irresistible at certain seasonal periods; and they were fickle and +perverse and difficult to please even when inclined to be friendly. +They were also similarly manifested from time to time in various +forms. Sometimes they were comely and beautiful; at other times they +were apparitions of horror. The Jinn of present-day Arabians are of +like character; these may be giants, cloudy shapes, comely women, +serpents or cats, goats or pigs. + +Some of the composite monsters of Babylonia may suggest the vague and +exaggerated recollections of terror-stricken people who have had +glimpses of unfamiliar wild beasts in the dusk or amidst reedy +marshes. But they cannot be wholly accounted for in this way. While +animals were often identified with supernatural beings, and foreigners +were called "devils", it would be misleading to assert that the spirit +world reflects confused folk memories of human and bestial enemies. +Even when a demon was given concrete human form it remained +essentially non-human: no ordinary weapon could inflict an injury, and +it was never controlled by natural laws. The spirits of disease and +tempest and darkness were creations of fancy: they symbolized moods; +they were the causes which explained effects. A sculptor or +storyteller who desired to convey an impression of a spirit of storm +or pestilence created monstrous forms to inspire terror. Sudden and +unexpected visits of fierce and devastating demons were accounted for +by asserting that they had wings like eagles, were nimble-footed as +gazelles, cunning and watchful as serpents; that they had claws to +clutch, horns to gore, and powerful fore legs like a lion to smite +down victims. Withal they drank blood like ravens and devoured corpses +like hyaenas. Monsters were all the more repulsive when they were +partly human. The human-headed snake or the snake-headed man and the +man with the horns of a wild bull and the legs of a goat were horrible +in the extreme. Evil spirits might sometimes achieve success by +practising deception. They might appear as beautiful girls or handsome +men and seize unsuspecting victims in deathly embrace or leave them +demented and full of grief, or come as birds and suddenly assume +awesome shapes. + +Fairies and elves, and other half-human demons, are sometimes regarded +as degenerate gods. It will be seen, however, that while certain +spirits developed into deities, others remained something between +these two classes of supernatural beings: they might attend upon gods +and goddesses, or operate independently now against mankind and now +against deities even. The "namtaru", for instance, was a spirit of +fate, the son of Bel-Enlil and Eresh-ki-gal, queen of Hades. +"Apparently", writes Professor Pinches, "he executed the instructions +given him concerning the fate of men, and could also have power over +certain of the gods."[103] To this middle class belong the evil gods +who rebelled against the beneficent deities. According to Hebridean +folk belief, the fallen angels are divided into three classes--the +fairies, the "nimble men" (aurora borealis), and the "blue men of the +Minch". In _Beowulf_ the "brood of Cain" includes "monsters and elves +and sea-devils--giants also, who long time fought with God, for which +he gave them their reward".[104] Similarly the Babylonian spirit +groups are liable to division and subdivision. The various classes may +be regarded as relics of the various stages of development from crude +animism to sublime monotheism: in the fragmentary legends we trace the +floating material from which great mythologies have been framed. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +MYTHS OF TAMMUZ AND ISHTAR + + + Forms of Tammuz--The Weeping Ceremony--Tammuz the Patriarch and the + Dying God--Common Origin of Tammuz and other Deities from an Archaic + God--The Mediterranean Racial Myth--Animal Forms of Gods of + Fertility--Two Legends of the Death of Tammuz--Attis, Adonis, and + Diarmid Slain by a Boar--Laments for Tammuz--His Soul in Underworld + and the Deep--Myth of the Child God of Ocean--Sargon Myth + Version--The Germanic Scyld of the Sheaf--Tammuz Links with Frey, + Heimdal, Agni, &c.--Assyrian Legend of "Descent of Ishtar"--Sumerian + Version--The Sister Belit-sheri and the Mother Ishtar--The Egyptian + Isis and Nepthys--Goddesses as Mothers, Sisters, and Wives--Great + Mothers of Babylonia--Immortal Goddesses and Dying Gods--The Various + Indras--Celtic Goddess with Seven Periods of Youth--Lovers of + Germanic and Classic Goddesses--The Lovers of Ishtar--Racial + Significance of Goddess Cult--The Great Fathers and their + Worshippers--Process of Racial and Religious Fusion--Ishtar and + Tiamat--Mother Worship in Palestine--Women among Goddess + Worshippers. + + +Among the gods of Babylonia none achieved wider and more enduring +fame than Tammuz, who was loved by Ishtar, the amorous Queen of +Heaven--the beautiful youth who died and was mourned for and came to +life again. He does not figure by his popular name in any of the city +pantheons, but from the earliest times of which we have knowledge +until the passing of Babylonian civilization, he played a prominent +part in the religious life of the people. + +Tammuz, like Osiris of Egypt, was an agricultural deity, and as the +Babylonian harvest was the gift of the rivers, it is probable that one +of his several forms was Dumu-zi-abzu, "Tammuz of the Abyss". He was +also "the child", "the heroic lord", "the sentinel", "the healer", and +the patriarch who reigned over the early Babylonians for a +considerable period. "Tammuz of the Abyss" was one of the members of +the family of Ea, god of the Deep, whose other sons, in addition to +Merodach, were Nira, an obscure deity; Ki-gulla, "world destroyer", +Burnunta-sa, "broad ear", and Bara and Baragulla, probably "revealers" +or "oracles". In addition there was a daughter, Khi-dimme-azaga, +"child of the renowned spirit". She may have been identical with +Belit-sheri, who is referred to in the Sumerian hymns as the sister of +Tammuz. This family group was probably formed by symbolizing the +attributes of Ea and his spouse Damkina. Tammuz, in his character as a +patriarch, may have been regarded as a hostage from the gods: the +human form of Ea, who instructed mankind, like King Osiris, how to +grow corn and cultivate fruit trees. As the youth who perished +annually, he was the corn spirit. He is referred to in the Bible by +his Babylonian name. + +When Ezekiel detailed the various idolatrous practices of the +Israelites, which included the worship of the sun and "every form of +creeping things and abominable beasts"--a suggestion of the composite +monsters of Babylonia--he was brought "to the door of the gate of the +Lord's house, which was towards the north; and, behold, there sat +women weeping for Tammuz".[105] + +The weeping ceremony was connected with agricultural rites. Corn +deities were weeping deities, they shed fertilizing tears; and the +sowers simulated the sorrow of divine mourners when they cast seed in +the soil "to die", so that it might spring up as corn. This ancient +custom, like many others, contributed to the poetic imagery of the +Bible. "They that sow in tears", David sang, "shall reap in joy. He +that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless +come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him."[106] In +Egypt the priestesses who acted the parts of Isis and Nepthys, mourned +for the slain corn god Osiris. + + Gods and men before the face of the gods are weeping for + thee at the same time, when they behold me!... + All thy sister goddesses are at thy side and behind thy couch, + Calling upon thee with weeping--yet thou are prostrate upon + thy bed!... + Live before us, desiring to behold thee.[107] + +It was believed to be essential that human beings should share the +universal sorrow caused by the death of a god. If they remained +unsympathetic, the deities would punish them as enemies. Worshippers +of nature gods, therefore, based their ceremonial practices on natural +phenomena. "The dread of the worshippers that the neglect of the usual +ritual would be followed by disaster, is particularly intelligible", +writes Professor Robertson Smith, "if they regarded the necessary +operations of agriculture as involving the violent extinction of a +particle of divine life."[108] By observing their ritual, the +worshippers won the sympathy and co-operation of deities, or exercised +a magical control over nature. + +The Babylonian myth of Tammuz, the dying god, bears a close +resemblance to the Greek myth of Adonis. It also links with the myth +of Osiris. According to Professor Sayce, Tammuz is identical with +"Daonus or Daos, the shepherd of Pantibibla", referred to by Berosus +as the ruler of one of the mythical ages of Babylonia. We have +therefore to deal with Tammuz in his twofold character as a patriarch +and a god of fertility. + +The Adonis version of the myth may be summarized briefly. Ere the god +was born, his mother, who was pursued by her angry sire, as the river +goddesses of the folk tales are pursued by the well demons, +transformed herself into a tree. Adonis sprang from the trunk of this +tree, and Aphrodite, having placed the child in a chest, committed him +to the care of Persephone, queen of Hades, who resembles the +Babylonian Eresh-ki-gal. Persephone desired to retain the young god, +and Aphrodite (Ishtar) appealed to Zeus (Anu), who decreed that Adonis +should spend part of the year with one goddess and part of the year +with the other. + +It is suggested that the myth of Adonis was derived in post-Homeric +times by the Greeks indirectly from Babylonia through the Western +Semites, the Semitic title "Adon", meaning "lord", having been +mistaken for a proper name. This theory, however, cannot be accepted +without qualifications. It does not explain the existence of either +the Phrygian myth of Attis, which was developed differently from the +Tammuz myth, or the Celtic story of "Diarmid and the boar", which +belongs to the archaeological "Hunting Period". There are traces in +Greek mythology of pre-Hellenic myths about dying harvest deities, +like Hyakinthos and Erigone, for instance, who appear to have been +mourned for. There is every possibility, therefore, that the Tammuz +ritual may have been attached to a harvest god of the pre-Hellenic +Greeks, who received at the same time the new name of Adonis. Osiris +of Egypt resembles Tammuz, but his Mesopotamian origin has not been +proved. It would appear probable that Tammuz, Attis, Osiris, and the +deities represented by Adonis and Diarmid were all developed from an +archaic god of fertility and vegetation, the central figure of a myth +which was not only as ancient as the knowledge and practice of +agriculture, but had existence even in the "Hunting Period". Traces of +the Tammuz-Osiris story in various forms are found all over the area +occupied by the Mediterranean or Brown race from Sumeria to the +British Isles. Apparently the original myth was connected with tree +and water worship and the worship of animals. Adonis sprang from a +tree; the body of Osiris was concealed in a tree which grew round the +sea-drifted chest in which he was concealed. Diarmid concealed himself +in a tree when pursued by Finn. The blood of Tammuz, Osiris, and +Adonis reddened the swollen rivers which fertilized the soil. Various +animals were associated with the harvest god, who appears to have been +manifested from time to time in different forms, for his spirit +pervaded all nature. In Egypt the soul of Osiris entered the Apis bull +or the ram of Mendes. + +Tammuz in the hymns is called "the pre-eminent steer of heaven", and a +popular sacrifice was "a white kid of the god Tammuz", which, however, +might be substituted by a sucking pig. Osiris had also associations +with swine, and the Egyptians, according to Herodotus, sacrificed a +pig to him annually. When Set at full moon hunted the boar in the +Delta marshes, he probably hunted the boar form of Osiris, whose human +body had been recovered from the sacred tree by Isis. As the soul of +Bata, the hero of the Egyptian folk tale,[109] migrated from the +blossom to the bull, and the bull to the tree, so apparently did the +soul of Osiris pass from incarnation to incarnation. Set, the demon +slayer of the harvest god, had also a boar form; he was the black pig +who devoured the waning moon and blinded the Eye of Ra. + +In his character as a long-lived patriarch, Tammuz, the King Daonus or +Daos of Berosus, reigned in Babylonia for 36,000 years. When he died, +he departed to Hades or the Abyss. Osiris, after reigning over the +Egyptians, became Judge of the Dead. + +Tammuz of the Sumerian hymns, however, is the Adonis-like god who +lived on earth for a part of the year as the shepherd and +agriculturist so dearly beloved by the goddess Ishtar. Then he died so +that he might depart to the realm of Eresh-ki-gal (Persephone), queen +of Hades. According to one account, his death was caused by the fickle +Ishtar. When that goddess wooed Gilgamesh, the Babylonian Hercules, he +upbraided her, saying: + + On Tammuz, the spouse of thy youth, + Thou didst lay affliction every year. + + _King's Translation_. + +References in the Sumerian hymns suggest that there also existed a +form of the legend which gave an account of the slaying of the young +god by someone else than Ishtar. The slayer may have been a Set-like +demon--perhaps Nin-shach, who appears to have symbolized the +destroying influence of the sun. He was a war deity, and his name, +Professor Pinches says, "is conjectured to mean 'lord of the wild +boar'". There is no direct evidence, however, to connect Tammuz's +slayer with the boar which killed Adonis. Ishtar's innocence is +emphasized by the fact that she mourned for her youthful lover, +crying: + + Oh hero, my lord, ah me! I will say; + Food I eat not ... water I drink not ... + Because of the exalted one of the nether world, him of the + radiant face, yea radiant, + Of the exalted one of the nether world, him of the dove-like + voice, yea dove-like.[110] + +The Phrygian Attis met his death, according to one legend, by +self-mutilation under a sacred tree. Another account sets forth, +however, that he was slain by a boar. The Greek Adonis was similarly +killed by a boar. This animal was a form of Ares (Mars), god of war +and tempest, who also loved Aphrodite (Ishtar). The Celtic Diarmid, in +his character as a love god, with lunar attributes, was slain by "the +green boar", which appears to have been one of the animals of a +ferocious Hag, an earth and air "mother" with various names. In one of +the many Fingalian stories the animal is + + ... That venomous boar, and he so fierce, + That Grey Eyebrows had with her herd of swine.[111] + +Diarmid had eloped with the wife of Finn-mac-Coul (Fingal), who, like +Ares, plotted to bring about his rival's death, and accordingly set +the young hero to hunt the boar. As a thunder god Finn carried a +hammer with which he smote his shield; the blows were heard in +Lochlann (Scandinavia). Diarmid, like Tammuz, the "god of the tender +voice and shining eyes", had much beauty. When he expired, Finn cried: + + No maiden will raise her eye + Since the mould has gone over thy visage fair... + Blue without rashness in thine eye! + Passion and beauty behind thy curls!... + Oh, yesternight it was green the hillock, + Red is it this day with Diarmid's blood.[112] + +Tammuz died with the dying vegetation, and Diarmid expired when the +hills apparently were assuming their purple tints.[113] The month of +Tammuz wailings was from 20th June till 20th July, when the heat and +dryness brought forth the demons of pestilence. The mourners chanted: + + He has gone, he has gone to the bosom of the earth, + And the dead are numerous in the land.... + Men are filled with sorrow: they stagger by day in gloom ... + In the month of thy year which brings not peace hast thou gone. + Thou hast gone on a journey that makes an end of thy people. + +The following extract contains a reference to the slaying of the god: + + The holy one of Ishtar, in the middle of the year the fields + languish... + The shepherd, the wise one, the man of sorrows, why have they + slain?... + In his temple, in his inhabited domain, + The child, lord of knowledge, abides no more... + In the meadows, verily, verily, the soul of life perishes. + +There is wailing for Tammuz "at the sacred cedar, where the mother +bore thee", a reference which connects the god, like Adonis and +Osiris, with tree worship: + + The wailing is for the herbs: the first lament is, "they are not + produced". + The wailing is for the grain, ears are not produced. + The wailing is for the habitations, for the flocks which bring + forth no more. + The wailing is for the perishing wedded ones; for the perishing + children; the dark-headed people create no more. + +The wailing is also for the shrunken river, the parched meadows, the +fishpools, the cane brakes, the forests, the plains, the gardens, and +the palace, which all suffer because the god of fertility has +departed. The mourner cries: + + How long shall the springing of verdure be restrained? + How long shall the putting forth of leaves be held back? + +Whither went Tammuz? His destination has already been referred to as +"the bosom of the earth", and in the Assyrian version of the "Descent +of Ishtar" he dwells in "the house of darkness" among the dead, "where +dust is their nourishment and their food mud", and "the light is never +seen"--the gloomy Babylonian Hades. In one of the Sumerian hymns, +however, it is stated that Tammuz "upon the flood was cast out". The +reference may be to the submarine "house of Ea", or the Blessed Island +to which the Babylonian Noah was carried. In this Hades bloomed the +nether "garden of Adonis". + +The following extract refers to the garden of Damu (Tammuz)[114]:-- + + Damu his youth therein slumbers ... + Among the garden flowers he slumbers; among the garden flowers + he is cast away ... + Among the tamarisks he slumbers, with woe he causes us to be + satiated. + +Although Tammuz of the hymns was slain, he returned again from Hades. +Apparently he came back as a child. He is wailed for as "child, Lord +Gishzida", as well as "my hero Damu". In his lunar character the +Egyptian Osiris appeared each month as "the child surpassingly +beautiful"; the Osiris bull was also a child of the moon; "it was +begotten", says Plutarch, "by a ray of generative light falling from +the moon". When the bull of Attis was sacrificed his worshippers were +drenched with its blood, and were afterwards ceremonially fed with +milk, as they were supposed to have "renewed their youth" and become +children. The ancient Greek god Eros (Cupid) was represented as a +wanton boy or handsome youth. Another god of fertility, the Irish +Angus, who resembles Eros, is called "the ever young"; he slumbers +like Tammuz and awakes in the Spring. + +Apparently it was believed that the child god, Tammuz, returned from +the earlier Sumerian Paradise of the Deep, and grew into full manhood +in a comparatively brief period, like Vyasa and other super-men of +Indian mythology. A couplet from a Tammuz hymn says tersely: + + In his infancy in a sunken boat he lay. + In his manhood in the submerged grain he lay.[115] + +The "boat" may be the "chest" in which Adonis was concealed by +Aphrodite when she confided him to the care of Persephone, queen of +Hades, who desired to retain the young god, but was compelled by Zeus +to send him back to the goddess of love and vegetation. The fact that +Ishtar descended to Hades in quest of Tammuz may perhaps explain the +symbolic references in hymns to mother goddesses being in sunken boats +also when their powers were in abeyance, as were those of the god for +part of each year. It is possible, too, that the boat had a lunar and +a solar significance. Khonsu, the Egyptian moon god, for instance, was +associated with the Spring sun, being a deity of fertility and +therefore a corn spirit; he was a form of Osiris, the Patriarch, who +sojourned on earth to teach mankind how to grow corn and cultivate +fruit trees. In the Egyptian legend Osiris received the corn seeds +from Isis, which suggests that among Great-Mother-worshipping peoples, +it was believed that agricultural civilization had a female origin. +The same myths may have been attached to corn gods and corn goddesses, +associated with water, sun, moon, and stars. + +That there existed in Babylonia at an extremely remote period an +agricultural myth regarding a Patriarch of divine origin who was +rescued from a boat in his childhood, is suggested by the legend which +was attached to the memory of the usurper King Sargon of Akkad. It +runs as follows: + + "I am Sargon, the mighty King of Akkad. My mother was a + vestal (priestess), my father an alien, whose brother inhabited + the + mountain.... When my mother had conceived me, she bare + me in a hidden place. She laid me in a vessel of rushes, stopped + the door thereof with pitch, and cast me adrift on the river.... + The river floated me to Akki, the water drawer, who, in drawing + water, drew me forth. Akki, the water drawer, educated me as + his son, and made me his gardener. As a gardener, I was beloved + by the goddess Ishtar." + +It is unlikely that this story was invented by Sargon. Like the many +variants of it found in other countries, it was probably founded on a +form of the Tammuz-Adonis myth. Indeed, a new myth would not have +suited Sargon's purpose so well as the adaptation of an old one, which +was more likely to make popular appeal when connected with his name. +The references to the goddess Ishtar, and Sargon's early life as a +gardener, suggest that the king desired to be remembered as an +agricultural Patriarch, if not of divine, at any rate of semi-divine +origin. + +What appears to be an early form of the widespread Tammuz myth is the +Teutonic legend regarding the mysterious child who came over the sea +to inaugurate a new era of civilization and instruct the people how to +grow corn and become great warriors. The Northern peoples, as +archaeological evidence suggests, derived their knowledge of +agriculture, and therefore their agricultural myths, from the +Neolithic representatives of the Mediterranean race with whom they +came into contact. There can be no doubt but that the Teutonic legend +refers to the introduction of agriculture. The child is called "Scef" +or "Sceaf", which signifies "Sheaf", or "Scyld, the son of Sceaf". +Scyld is the patriarch of the Scyldings, the Danes, a people of mixed +origin. In the Anglo-Saxon _Beowulf_ poem, the reference is to +"Scyld", but Ethelweard, William of Malmesbury, and others adhered to +"Sceaf" as the name of the Patriarch of the Western Saxons. + +The legend runs that one day a boat was seen approaching the shore; it +was not propelled by oars or sail. In it lay a child fast asleep, his +head pillowed upon a sheaf of grain. He was surrounded by armour, +treasure, and various implements, including the fire-borer. The child +was reared by the people who found him, and he became a great +instructor and warrior and ruled over the tribe as king. In _Beowulf_ +Scyld is the father of the elder Beowulf, whose grandson Hrothgar +built the famous Hall. The poem opens with a reference to the +patriarch "Scyld of the Sheaf". When he died, his body, according to +the request he had made, was laid in a ship which was set adrift: + + Upon his breast lay many treasures which were to travel with him + into the power of the flood. Certainly they (the mourners) + furnished him with no less of gifts, of tribal treasures, than + those had done who, in his early days, started him over the sea + alone, child as he was. Moreover, they set besides a + gold-embroidered standard high above his head, and let the flood + bear him--gave him to the sea. Their soul was sad, their spirit + sorrowful. Who received that load, men, chiefs of council, heroes + under heaven, cannot for certain tell.[116] + +Sceaf or Scyld is identical with Yngve, the patriarch of the Ynglings; +with Frey, the harvest and boar god, son of Njord,[117] the sea god; +and with Hermod, referred to as follows in the Eddic "Lay of Hyndla": + + To some grants he wealth, to his children war fame, + Word skill to many and wisdom to men, + Fair winds to sea-farers, song craft to skalds, + And might of manhood to many a warrior. + +Tammuz is similarly "the heroic lord of the land", the "wise one", the +"lord of knowledge", and "the sovereign, lord of invocation". + +Heimdal, watchman of the Teutonic gods, also dwelt for a time among +men as "Rig", and had human offspring, his son Thrall being the +ancestor of the Thralls, his son Churl of churls, and Jarl of +noblemen. + +Tammuz, like Heimdal, is also a guardian. He watches the flocks and +herds, whom he apparently guards against the Gallu demons as Heimdal +guards the world and the heavens against attacks by giants and +monsters. The flocks of Tammuz, Professor Pinches suggests, "recall +the flocks of the Greek sun god Helios. These were the clouds +illuminated by the sun, which were likened to sheep--indeed, one of +the early Sumerian expressions for 'fleece' was 'sheep of the sky'. +The name of Tammuz in Sumerian is Dumu-zi, or in its rare fullest +form, Dumuzida, meaning 'true or faithful son'. There is probably some +legend attached to this which is at present unknown."[118] + +So the Sumerian hymn-chanters lamented: + + Like an herdsman the sentinel place of sheep and cattle he + (Tammuz) has forsaken... + From his home, from his inhabited domain, the son, he of wisdom, + pre-eminent steer of heaven, + The hero unto the nether herding place has taken his way.[119] + +Agni, the Aryo-Indian god, who, as the sky sentinel, has points of +resemblance to Heimdal, also links with Tammuz, especially in his +Mitra character: + +Agni has been established among the tribes of men, the son of the +waters, Mitra acting in the right way. _Rigveda_, iii, 5, 3. + +Agni, who has been looked and longed for in Heaven, who has been +looked for on earth--he who has been looked for has entered all herbs. +_Rigveda_, i, 98.[120] + +Tammuz, like the Egyptian lunar and solar god Khonsu, is "the healer", +and Agni "drives away all disease". Tammuz is the god "of sonorous +voice"; Agni "roars like a bull"; and Heimdal blows a horn when the +giants and demons threaten to attack the citadel of the gods. As the +spring sun god, Tammuz is "a youthful warrior", says Jastrow, +"triumphing over the storms of winter".[121] The storms, of course, +were symbolized as demons. Tammuz, "the heroic lord", was therefore a +demon slayer like Heimdal and Agni. Each of these gods appear to have +been developed in isolation from an archaic spring god of fertility +and corn whose attributes were symbolized. In Teutonic mythology, for +instance, Heimdal was the warrior form of the patriarch Scef, while +Frey was the deified agriculturist who came over the deep as a child. +In Saxo's mythical history of Denmark, Frey as Frode is taken prisoner +by a storm giant, Beli, "the howler", and is loved by his hag sister +in the Teutonic Hades, as Tammuz is loved by Eresh-ki-gal, spouse of +the storm god Nergal, in the Babylonian Hades. Frode returns to earth, +like Tammuz, in due season. + +It is evident that there were various versions of the Tammuz myth in +Ancient Babylonia. In one the goddess Ishtar visited Hades to search +for the lover of her youth. A part of this form of the legend survives +in the famous Assyrian hymn known as "The Descent of Ishtar ". It was +first translated by the late Mr. George Smith, of the British Museum. +A box containing inscribed tablets had been sent from Assyria to +London, and Mr. Smith, with characteristic patience and skill, +arranged and deciphered them, giving to the world a fragment of +ancient literature infused with much sublimity and imaginative power. +Ishtar is depicted descending to dismal Hades, where the souls of the +dead exist in bird forms: + + I spread like a bird my hands. + I descend, I descend to the house of darkness, the dwelling of the + god Irkalla: + To the house out of which there is no exit, + To the road from which there is no return: + To the house from whose entrance the light is taken, + The place where dust is their nourishment and their food mud. + Its chiefs also are like birds covered with feathers; + The light is never seen, in darkness they dwell.... + Over the door and bolts is scattered dust. + +When the goddess reaches the gate of Hades she cries to the porter: + + Keeper of the waters, open thy gate, + Open thy gate that I may enter. + If thou openest not the gate that I may enter + I will strike the door, the bolts I will shatter, + I will strike the threshold and will pass through the doors; + I will raise up the dead to devour the living, + Above the living the dead shall exceed in numbers. + +The porter answers that he must first consult the Queen of Hades, here +called Allatu, to whom he accordingly announces the arrival of the +Queen of Heaven. Allatu's heart is filled with anger, and makes +reference to those whom Ishtar caused to perish: + + Let me weep over the strong who have left their wives, + Let me weep over the handmaidens who have lost the embraces of + their husbands, + Over the only son let me mourn, who ere his days are come is taken + away. + +Then she issues abruptly the stern decree: + + Go, keeper, open the gate to her, + Bewitch her according to the ancient rules; + +that is, "Deal with her as you deal with others who come here". + +As Ishtar enters through the various gates she is stripped of her +ornaments and clothing. At the first gate her crown was taken off, at +the second her ear-rings, at the third her necklace of precious +stones, at the fourth the ornaments of her breast, at the fifth her +gemmed waist-girdle,[122] at the sixth the bracelets of her hands and +feet, and at the seventh the covering robe of her body. Ishtar asks at +each gate why she is thus dealt with, and the porter answers, "Such is +the command of Allatu." + +After descending for a prolonged period the Queen of Heaven at length +stands naked before the Queen of Hades. Ishtar is proud and arrogant, +and Allatu, desiring to punish her rival whom she cannot humble, + +commands the plague demon, Namtar, to strike her with disease in all +parts of her body. The effect of Ishtar's fate was disastrous upon +earth: growth and fertility came to an end. + +Meanwhile Pap-sukal, messenger of the gods, hastened to Shamash, the +sun deity, to relate what had occurred. The sun god immediately +consulted his lunar father, Sin, and Ea, god of the deep. Ea then +created a man lion, named Nadushu-namir, to rescue Ishtar, giving him +power to pass through the seven gates of Hades. When this being +delivered his message + + Allatu ... struck her breast; she bit her thumb, + She turned again: a request she asked not. + +In her anger she cursed the rescuer of the Queen of Heaven. + + May I imprison thee in the great prison, + May the garbage of the foundations of the city be thy food, + May the drains of the city be thy drink, + May the darkness of the dungeon be thy dwelling, + May the stake be thy seat, + May hunger and thirst strike thy offspring. + +She was compelled, however, to obey the high gods, and addressed +Namtar, saying: + + Unto Ishtar give the waters of life and bring her before me. + +Thereafter the Queen of Heaven was conducted through the various +gates, and at each she received her robe and the ornaments which were +taken from her on entering. Namtar says: + + Since thou hast not paid a ransom for thy deliverance to her + (Allatu), so to her again turn back, + For Tammuz the husband of thy youth. + The glistening waters (of life) pour over him... + In splendid clothing dress him, with a ring of crystal adorn him. + +Ishtar mourns for "the wound of Tammuz", smiting her breast, and she +did not ask for "the precious eye-stones, her amulets", which were +apparently to ransom Tammuz. The poem concludes with Ishtar's wail: + + O my only brother (Tammuz) thou dost not lament for me. + In the day that Tammuz adorned me, with a ring of crystal, + With a bracelet of emeralds, together with himself, he adorned + me,[123] + With himself he adorned me; may men mourners and women + mourners + On a bier place him, and assemble the wake.[124] + +A Sumerian hymn to Tammuz throws light on this narrative. It sets +forth that Ishtar descended to Hades to entreat him to be glad and to +resume care of his flocks, but Tammuz refused or was unable to return. + + His spouse unto her abode he sent back. + +She then instituted the wailing ceremony: + + The amorous Queen of Heaven sits as one in darkness.[125] + +Mr. Langdon also translates a hymn (Tammuz III) which appears to +contain the narrative on which the Assyrian version was founded. The +goddess who descends to Hades, however, is not Ishtar, but the +"sister", Belit-sheri. She is accompanied by various demons--the +"gallu-demon", the "slayer", &c.--and holds a conversation with Tammuz +which, however, is "unintelligible and badly broken". Apparently, +however, he promises to return to earth. + + ... I will go up, as for me I will depart with thee ... + ... I will return, unto my mother let us go back. + +Probably two goddesses originally lamented for Tammuz, as the Egyptian +sisters, Isis and Nepthys, lamented for Osiris, their brother. Ishtar +is referred to as "my mother". Isis figures alternately in the +Egyptian chants as mother, wife, sister, and daughter of Osiris. She +cries, "Come thou to thy wife in peace; her heart fluttereth for thy +love", ... "I am thy wife, made as thou art, the elder sister, soul of +her brother".... "Come thou to us as a babe".... "Lo, thou art as the +Bull of the two goddesses--come thou, child growing in peace, our +lord!"... "Lo! the Bull, begotten of the two cows, Isis and +Nepthys".... "Come thou to the two widowed goddesses".... "Oh child, +lord, first maker of the body".... "Father Osiris."[126] + +As Ishtar and Belit-sheri weep for Tammuz, so do Isis and Nepthys weep +for Osiris. + + Calling upon thee with weeping--yet thou art prostrate upon thy + bed! + Gods and men ... are weeping for thee at the same time, when + they behold me (Isis). + Lo! I invoke thee with wailing that reacheth high as heaven. + +Isis is also identified with Hathor (Ishtar) the Cow.... "The cow +weepeth for thee with her voice."[127] + +There is another phase, however, to the character of the mother +goddess which explains the references to the desertion and slaying of +Tammuz by Ishtar. "She is", says Jastrow, "the goddess of the human +instinct, or passion which accompanies human love. Gilgamesh ... +reproaches her with abandoning the objects of her passion after a +brief period of union." At Ishtar's temple "public maidens accepted +temporary partners, assigned to them by Ishtar".[128] The worship of +all mother goddesses in ancient times was accompanied by revolting +unmoral rites which are referred to in condemnatory terms in various +passages in the Old Testament, especially in connection with the +worship of Ashtoreth, who was identical with Ishtar and the Egyptian +Hathor. + +Ishtar in the process of time overshadowed all the other female +deities of Babylonia, as did Isis in Egypt. Her name, indeed, which is +Semitic, became in the plural, Ishtarate, a designation for goddesses +in general. But although she was referred to as the daughter of the +sky, Anu, or the daughter of the moon, Sin or Nannar, she still +retained traces of her ancient character. Originally she was a great +mother goddess, who was worshipped by those who believed that life and +the universe had a female origin in contrast to those who believed in +the theory of male origin. Ishtar is identical with Nina, the fish +goddess, a creature who gave her name to the Sumerian city of Nina and +the Assyrian city of Nineveh. Other forms of the Creatrix included +Mama, or Mami, or Ama, "mother", Aruru, Bau, Gula, and Zerpanitu^m. +These were all "Preservers" and healers. At the same time they were +"Destroyers", like Nin-sun and the Queen of Hades, Eresh-ki-gal or +Allatu. They were accompanied by shadowy male forms ere they became +wives of strongly individualized gods, or by child gods, their sons, +who might be regarded as "brothers" or "husbands of their mothers", to +use the paradoxical Egyptian term. Similarly Great Father deities had +vaguely defined wives. The "Semitic" Baal, "the lord", was accompanied +by a female reflection of himself--Beltu, "the lady". Shamash, the sun +god, had for wife the shadowy Aa. + +As has been shown, Ishtar is referred to in a Tammuz hymn as the +mother of the child god of fertility. In an Egyptian hymn the sky +goddess Nut, "the mother" of Osiris, is stated to have "built up life +from her own body".[129] Sri or Lakshmi, the Indian goddess, who +became the wife of Vishnu, as the mother goddess Saraswati, a tribal +deity, became the wife of Brahma, was, according to a Purana +commentator, "the mother of the world ... eternal and +undecaying".[130] + +The gods, on the other hand, might die annually: the goddesses alone +were immortal. Indra was supposed to perish of old age, but his wife, +Indrani, remained ever young. There were fourteen Indras in every "day +of Brahma", a reference apparently to the ancient conception of Indra +among the Great-Mother-worshipping sections of the Aryo-Indians.[131] +In the _Mahabharata_ the god Shiva, as Mahadeva, commands Indra on +"one of the peaks of Himavat", where they met, to lift up a stone and +join the Indras who had been before him. "And Indra on removing that +stone beheld a cave on the breast of that king of mountains in which +were four others resembling himself." Indra exclaimed in his grief, +"Shall I be even like these?" These five Indras, like the "Seven +Sleepers", awaited the time when they would be called forth. They were +ultimately reborn as the five Pandava warriors.[132] + +The ferocious, black-faced Scottish mother goddess, Cailleach Bheur, +who appears to be identical with Mala Lith, "Grey Eyebrows" of +Fingalian story, and the English "Black Annis", figures in Irish song +and legend as "The Old Woman of Beare". This "old woman" (Cailleach) +"had", says Professor Kuno Meyer, "seven periods of youth one after +another, so that every man who had lived with her came to die of old +age, and her grandsons and great-grandsons were tribes and races". +When old age at length came upon her she sang her "swan song", from +which the following lines are extracted: + + Ebb tide to me as of the sea! + Old age causes me reproach ... + It is riches + Ye love, it is not men: + In the time when _we_ lived + It was men we loved ... + My arms when they are seen + Are bony and thin: + Once they would fondle, + They would be round glorious kings ... + I must take my garment even in the sun: + The time is at hand that shall renew me.[133] + +Freyja, the Germanic mother goddess, whose car was drawn by cats, had +similarly many lovers. In the Icelandic poem "Lokasenna", Loki taunts +her, saying: + + Silence, Freyja! Full well I know thee, + And faultless art thou not found; + Of the gods and elves who here are gathered + Each one hast thou made thy mate. + +Idun, the keeper of the apples of immortal youth, which prevent the +gods growing old, is similarly addressed: + + Silence, Idun! I swear, of all women + Thou the most wanton art; + Who couldst fling those fair-washed arms of thine + About thy brother's slayer. + +Frigg, wife of Odin, is satirized as well: + + Silence, Frigg! Earth's spouse for a husband, + And hast ever yearned after men![134] + +The goddesses of classic mythology had similar reputations. Aphrodite +(Venus) had many divine and mortal lovers. She links closely with +Astarte and Ashtoreth (Ishtar), and reference has already been made to +her relations with Adonis (Tammuz). These love deities were all as +cruel as they were wayward. When Ishtar wooed the Babylonian hero, +Gilgamesh, he spurned her advances, as has been indicated, saying: + + On Tammuz, the spouse of thy youth, + Thou didst lay affliction every year. + Thou didst love the brilliant Allalu bird + But thou didst smite him and break his wing; + He stands in the woods and cries "O my wing". + +He likewise charged her with deceiving the lion and the horse, making +reference to obscure myths: + + Thou didst also love a shepherd of the flock, + Who continually poured out for thee the libation, + And daily slaughtered kids for thee; + But thou didst smite him and didst change him into a leopard, + So that his own sheep boy hunted him, + And his own hounds tore him to pieces.[135] + +These goddesses were ever prone to afflict human beings who might +offend them or of whom they wearied. Demeter (Ceres) changed +Ascalaphus into an owl and Stellio into a lizard. Rhea (Ops) resembled + + The tow'red Cybele, + Mother of a hundred gods, + +the wanton who loved Attis (Adonis). Artemis (Diana) slew her lover +Orion, changed Actaeon into a stag, which was torn to pieces by his +own dogs, and caused numerous deaths by sending a boar to ravage the +fields of Oeneus, king of Calydon. Human sacrifices were frequently +offered to the bloodthirsty "mothers". The most famous victim of +Artemis was the daughter of Agamemnon, "divinely tall and most +divinely fair".[136] Agamemnon had slain a sacred stag, and the +goddess punished him by sending a calm when the war fleet was about to +sail for Troy, with the result that his daughter had to be sacrificed. +Artemis thus sold breezes like the northern wind hags and witches. + +It used to be customary to account for the similarities manifested by +the various mother goddesses by assuming that there was constant +cultural contact between separate nationalities, and, as a result, a +not inconsiderable amount of "religious borrowing". Greece was +supposed to have received its great goddesses from the western +Semites, who had come under the spell of Babylonian religion. +Archaeological evidence, however, tends to disprove this theory. "The +most recent researches into Mesopotamian history", writes Dr. Farnell, +"establish with certainty the conclusion that there was no direct +political contact possible between the powers in the valley of the +Euphrates and the western shores of the Aegean in the second +millennium B.C. In fact, between the nascent Hellas and the great +world of Mesopotamia there were powerful and possibly independent +strata of cultures interposing."[137] + +The real connection appears to be the racial one. Among the +Mediterranean Neolithic tribes of Sumeria, Arabia, and Europe, the +goddess cult appears to have been influential. Mother worship was the +predominant characteristic of their religious systems, so that the +Greek goddesses were probably of pre-Hellenic origin, the Celtic of +Iberian, the Egyptian of proto-Egyptian, and the Babylonian of +Sumerian. The northern hillmen, on the other hand, who may be +identified with the "Aryans" of the philologists, were father +worshippers. The Vedic Aryo-Indians worshipped father gods,[138] as +did also the Germanic peoples and certain tribes in the "Hittite +confederacy". Earth spirits were males, like the Teutonic elves, the +Aryo-Indian Ribhus, and the Burkans, "masters", of the present-day +Buriats, a Mongolian people. When the father-worshipping peoples +invaded the dominions of the mother-worshipping peoples, they +introduced their strongly individualized gods, but they did not +displace the mother goddesses. "The Aryan Hellenes", says Dr. Farnell, +"were able to plant their Zeus and Poseidon on the high hill of +Athens, but not to overthrow the supremacy of Athena in the central +shrine and in the aboriginal soul of the Athenian people."[139] As in +Egypt, the beliefs of the father worshippers, represented by the +self-created Ptah, were fused with the beliefs of the mother +worshippers, who adored Isis, Mut, Neith, and others. In Babylonia +this process of racial and religious fusion was well advanced before +the dawn of history. Ea, who had already assumed manifold forms, may +have originally been the son or child lover of Damkina, "Lady of the +Deep", as was Tammuz of Ishtar. As the fish, Ea was the offspring of +the mother river. + +The mother worshippers recognized male as well as female deities, but +regarded the great goddess as the First Cause. Although the primeval +spirits were grouped in four pairs in Egypt, and apparently in +Babylonia also, the female in the first pair was more strongly +individualized than the male. The Egyptian Nu is vaguer than his +consort Nut, and the Babylonian Apsu than his consort Tiamat. Indeed, +in the narrative of the Creation Tablets of Babylon, which will +receive full treatment in a later chapter, Tiamat, the great mother, +is the controlling spirit. She is more powerful and ferocious than +Apsu, and lives longer. After Apsu's death she elevates one of her +brood, named Kingu, to be her consort, a fact which suggests that in +the Ishtar-Tammuz myth survives the influence of exceedingly ancient +modes of thought. Like Tiamat, Ishtar is also a great battle heroine, +and in this capacity she was addressed as "the lady of majestic rank +exalted over all gods". This was no idle flattery on the part of +worshippers, but a memory of her ancient supremacy. + +Reference has been made to the introduction of Tammuz worship into +Jerusalem. Ishtar, as Queen of Heaven, was also adored by the +backsliding Israelites as a deity of battle and harvest. When Jeremiah +censured the people for burning incense and serving gods "whom they +knew not", he said, "neither they, ye, nor your fathers", they made +answer: "Since we left off to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and +to pour out drink offerings unto her, we have wanted all things, and +have been consumed by the sword and the famine". The women took a +leading part in these practices, but refused to accept all the blame, +saying, "When we burned incense to the queen of heaven, and poured out +drink offerings unto her, did we make our cakes and pour out drink +offerings unto her without our men?"[140] That the husbands, and the +children even, assisted at the ceremony is made evident in another +reference to goddess worship: "The children gather wood, and the +fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough, to make cakes +to the queen of heaven".[141] + +Jastrow suggests that the women of Israel wept for Tammuz, offered +cakes to the mother goddess, &c., because "in all religious bodies ... +women represent the conservative element; among them religious customs +continue in practice after they have been abandoned by men".[142] The +evidence of Jeremiah, however, shows that the men certainly +co-operated at the archaic ceremonials. In lighting the fires with the +"vital spark", they apparently acted in imitation of the god of +fertility. The women, on the other hand, represented the reproductive +harvest goddess in providing the food supply. In recognition of her +gift, they rewarded the goddess by offering her the cakes prepared +from the newly ground wheat and barley--the "first fruits of the +harvest". As the corn god came as a child, the children began the +ceremony by gathering the wood for the sacred fire. When the women +mourned for Tammuz, they did so evidently because the death of the god +was lamented by the goddess Ishtar. It would appear, therefore, that +the suggestion regarding the "conservative element" should really +apply to the immemorial practices of folk religion. These differed +from the refined ceremonies of the official cult in Babylonia, where +there were suitable temples and organized bands of priests and +priestesses. But the official cult received no recognition in +Palestine; the cakes intended for a goddess were not offered up in the +temple of Abraham's God, but "in the streets of Jerusalem" and those +of other cities.[143] + +The obvious deduction seems to be that in ancient times women +everywhere played a prominent part in the ceremonial folk worship of +the Great Mother goddess, while the men took the lesser part of the +god whom she had brought into being and afterwards received as +"husband of his mother". This may account for the high social status +of women among goddess worshippers, like the representatives of the +Mediterranean race, whose early religion was not confined to temples, +but closely associated with the acts of everyday life. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +WARS OF THE CITY STATES OF SUMER AND AKKAD + + + Civilization well advanced--The Patesi--Prominent City + States--Surroundings of Babylonia--The Elamites--Biblical References + to Susa--The Sumerian Temperament--Fragmentary Records--City States + of Kish and Opis--A Shopkeeper who became a Queen--Goddess + Worship--Tammuz as Nin-Girsu--Great Dynasty of Lagash--Ur-Nina and + his Descendants--A Napoleonic Conqueror--Golden Age of Sumerian + Art--The First Reformer in History--His Rise and Fall--The Dynasty + of Erech--Sargon of Akkad--The Royal Gardener--Sargon Myth in + India--A Great Empire--The King who Purchased Land--Naram Sin the + Conqueror--Disastrous Foreign Raid--Lagash again Prominent--Gudea + the Temple Builder--Dynasty of Ur--Dynasty of Isin--Another Gardener + becomes King--Rise of Babylon--Humanized Deities--Why Sumerian Gods + wore Beards. + + +When the curtain rises to reveal the drama of Babylonian civilization +we find that we have missed the first act and its many fascinating +scenes. Sumerians and Akkadians come and go, but it is not always +possible to distinguish between them. Although most Semites are +recognizable by their flowing beards, prominent noses, and long robes, +some have so closely imitated the Sumerians as to suffer almost +complete loss of identity. It is noticeable that in the north the +Akkadians are more Semitic than their contemporaries in the south, but +it is difficult at times to say whether a city is controlled by the +descendants of the indigenous people or those of later settlers. +Dynasties rise and fall, and, as in Egypt at times, the progress of +the fragmentary narrative is interrupted by a sudden change of scene +ere we have properly grasped a situation and realized its +significance. + +What we know for certain is that civilization is well advanced. Both +in the north and the south there are many organized and independent +city states, and not unfrequently these wage war one against another. +Occasionally ambitious rulers tower among their fellows, conduct +vigorous military campaigns, and become overlords of wide districts. +As a rule, a subjugated monarch who has perforce to acknowledge the +suzerainty of a powerful king is allowed to remain in a state of +semi-independence on condition that he pays a heavy annual tribute of +grain. His own laws continue in force, and the city deities remain +supreme, although recognition may also be given to the deities of his +conqueror. He styles himself a Patesi--a "priest king", or more +literally, "servant of the chief deity". But as an independent monarch +may also be a pious Patesi, it does not always follow when a ruler is +referred to by that title he is necessarily less powerful than his +neighbours. + +When the historical narrative begins Akkad included the cities of +Babylon, Cutha, Kish, Akkad, and Sippar, and north of Babylonia proper +is Semitic Opis. Among the cities of Sumer were Eridu, Ur, Lagash, +Larsa, Erech, Shuruppak, and probably Nippur, which was situated on +the "border". On the north Assyria was yet "in the making", and +shrouded in obscurity. A vague but vast area above Hit on the +Euphrates, and extending to the Syrian coast, was known as the "land +of the Amorites". The fish-shaped Babylonian valley lying between the +rivers, where walled towns were surrounded by green fields and +numerous canals flashed in the sunshine, was bounded on the west by +the bleak wastes of the Arabian desert, where during the dry season +"the rocks branded the body" and occasional sandstorms swept in +blinding folds towards the "plain of Shinar" (Sumer) like demon hosts +who sought to destroy the world. To the east the skyline was fretted +by the Persian Highlands, and amidst the southern mountains dwelt the +fierce Elamites, the hereditary enemies of the Sumerians, although a +people apparently of the same origin. Like the Nubians and the +Libyans, who kept watchful eyes on Egypt, the Elamites seemed ever to +be hovering on the eastern frontier of Sumeria, longing for an +opportunity to raid and plunder. + +The capital of the Elamites was the city of Susa, where excavations +have revealed traces of an independent civilization which reaches back +to an early period in the Late Stone Age. Susa is referred to in the +Old Testament--"The words of Nehemiah.... I was in Shushan the +palace".[144] An Assyrian plan of the city shows it occupying a +strategic position at a bend of the Shawur river, which afforded +protection against Sumerian attacks from the west, while a canal +curved round its northern and eastern sides, so that Susa was +completely surrounded by water. Fortifications had been erected on the +river and canal banks, and between these and the high city walls were +thick clumps of trees. That the kings of Elam imitated the splendours +of Babylonian courts in the later days of Esther and Haman and +Mordecai, is made evident by the Biblical references to the gorgeous +palace, which had "white, green, and blue hangings, fastened with +cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble; +the beds were of gold and silver, upon a pavement of red, and blue, +and white, and black marble ".[145] Beyond Elam were the plains, +plateaus, and grassy steppes occupied by the Medes and other peoples +of Aryan speech. Cultural influences came and went like spring winds +between the various ancient communities. + +For ten long centuries Sumer and Akkad flourished and prospered ere we +meet with the great Hammurabi, whose name has now become almost as +familiar as that of Julius Caesar. But our knowledge of the leading +historical events of this vast period is exceedingly fragmentary. The +Sumerians were not like the later Assyrians or their Egyptian +contemporaries--a people with a passion for history. When inscriptions +were composed and cut on stone, or impressed upon clay tablets and +bricks, the kings selected as a general rule to record pious deeds +rather than to celebrate their victories and conquests. Indeed, the +average monarch had a temperament resembling that of Keats, who +declared: + + The silver flow + Of Hero's tears, the swoon of Imogen, + Fair Pastorella in the bandits' den, + Are things to brood on with more ardency + Than the death day of empires. + +The Sumerian king was emotionally religious as the great English poet +was emotionally poetical. The tears of Ishtar for Tammuz, and the +afflictions endured by the goddess imprisoned in Hades, to which she +had descended for love of her slain husband, seemed to have concerned +the royal recorder to a greater degree than the memories of political +upheavals and the social changes which passed over the land, like the +seasons which alternately brought greenness and gold, barrenness and +flood. + +City chronicles, as a rule, are but indices of obscure events, to +which meagre references were sometimes also made on mace heads, vases, +tablets, stelae, and sculptured monoliths. Consequently, present-day +excavators and students have often reason to be grateful that the +habit likewise obtained of inscribing on bricks in buildings and the +stone sockets of doors the names of kings and others. These records +render obscure periods faintly articulate, and are indispensable for +comparative purposes. Historical clues are also obtained from lists of +year names. Each city king named a year in celebration of a great +event--his own succession to the throne, the erection of a new temple +or of a city wall, or, mayhap, the defeat of an invading army from a +rival state. Sometimes, too, a monarch gave the name of his father in +an official inscription, or happily mentioned several ancestors. +Another may be found to have made an illuminating statement regarding +a predecessor, who centuries previously erected the particular temple +that he himself has piously restored. A reckoning of this kind, +however, cannot always be regarded as absolutely correct. It must be +compared with and tested by other records, for in these ancient days +calculations were not unfrequently based on doubtful inscriptions, or +mere oral traditions, perhaps. Nor can implicit trust be placed on +every reference to historical events, for the memoried deeds of great +rulers were not always unassociated with persistent and cumulative +myths. It must be recognized, therefore, that even portions of the +data which had of late been sifted and systematized by Oriental +scholars in Europe, may yet have to be subjected to revision. Many +interesting and important discoveries, which will throw fresh light on +this fascinating early period, remain to be made in that ancient and +deserted land, which still lies under the curse of the Hebrew prophet, +who exclaimed: "Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the +Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and +Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited; neither shall the Arabian pitch +tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. But +wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be +full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs +shall dance there. And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in +their desolate houses and dragons in their pleasant palaces."[146] + +The curtain rises, as has been indicated, after civilization had been +well advanced. To begin with, our interests abide with Akkad, and +during a period dated approximately between 3000 B.C. and 2800 B.C., +when Egypt was already a united kingdom, and the Cretans were at the +dawn of the first early Minoan period, and beginning to use bronze. In +Kish Sumerian and Akkadian elements had apparently blended, and the +city was the centre of a powerful and independent government. After +years have fluttered past dimly, and with them the shadow-shapes of +vigorous rulers, it is found that Kish came under the sway of the +pronouncedly Semitic city of Opis, which was situated "farthest north" +and on the western bank of the river Tigris. A century elapsed ere +Kish again threw off the oppressor's yoke and renewed the strength of +its youth. + +The city of Kish was one of the many ancient centres of goddess +worship. The Great Mother appears to have been the Sumerian Bau, whose +chief seat was at Lagash. If tradition is to be relied upon, Kish owed +its existence to that notable lady, Queen Azag-Bau. Although floating +legends gathered round her memory as they have often gathered round +the memories of famous men, like Sargon of Akkad, Alexander the Great, +and Theodoric the Goth, who became Emperor of Rome, it is probable +that the queen was a prominent historical personage. She was reputed +to have been of humble origin, and to have first achieved popularity +and influence as the keeper of a wine shop. Although no reference +survives to indicate that she was believed to be of miraculous birth, +the Chronicle of Kish gravely credits her with a prolonged and +apparently prosperous reign of a hundred years. Her son, who succeeded +her, sat on the throne for a quarter of a century. These calculations +are certainly remarkable. If the Queen Azag-Bau founded Kish when she +was only twenty, and gave birth to the future ruler in her fiftieth +year, he must have been an elderly gentleman of seventy when he began +to reign. When it is found, further, that the dynasty in which mother +and son flourished was supposed to have lasted for 586 years, divided +between eight rulers, one of whom reigned for only three years, two +for six, and two for eleven, it becomes evident that the historian of +Kish cannot be absolutely relied upon in detail. It seems evident that +the memory of this lady of forceful character, who flourished about +thirteen hundred years before the rise of Queen Hatshepsut of Egypt, +has overshadowed the doubtful annals of ancient Kish at a period when +Sumerian and Semite were striving in the various states to achieve +political ascendancy. + +Meanwhile the purely Sumerian city of Lagash had similarly grown +powerful and aggressive. For a time it acknowledged the suzerainty of +Kish, but ultimately it threw off the oppressor's yoke and asserted +its independence. The cumulative efforts of a succession of energetic +rulers elevated Lagash to the position of a metropolis in Ancient +Babylonia. + +The goddess Bau, "the mother of Lagash", was worshipped in conjunction +with other deities, including the god Nin-Girsu, an agricultural +deity, and therefore a deity of war, who had solar attributes. One of +the titles of Nin-Girsu was En-Mersi, which, according to Assyrian +evidence, was another name of Tammuz, the spring god who slew the +storm and winter demons, and made the land fertile so that man might +have food. Nin-Girsu was, it would seem, a developed form of Tammuz, +like the Scandinavian Frey, god of harvest, or Heimdal, the celestial +warrior. Bau was one of the several goddesses whose attributes were +absorbed by the Semitic Ishtar. She was a "Great Mother", a creatrix, +the source of all human and bestial life, and, of course, a harvest +goddess. She was identified with Gula, "the great one", who cured +diseases and prolonged life. Evidently the religion of Lagash was +based on the popular worship of the "Queen of Heaven", and her son, +the dying god who became "husband of his mother". + +The first great and outstanding ruler of Lagash was Ur-Nina, who +appears to have owed his power to the successful military operations +of his predecessors. It is uncertain whether or not he himself engaged +in any great war. His records are silent in that connection, but, +judging from what we know of him, it may be taken for granted that he +was able and fully prepared to give a good account of himself in +battle. He certainly took steps to make secure his position, for he +caused a strong wall to be erected round Lagash. His inscriptions are +eloquent of his piety, which took practical shape, for he repaired and +built temples, dedicated offerings to deities, and increased the +wealth of religious bodies and the prosperity of the State by cutting +canals and developing agriculture. In addition to serving local +deities, he also gave practical recognition to Ea at Eridu and Enlil +at Nippur. He, however, overlooked Anu at Erech, a fact which suggests +that he held sway over Eridu and Nippur, but had to recognize Erech as +an independent city state. + +Among the deities of Lagash, Ur-Nina favoured most the goddess Nina, +whose name he bore. As she was a water deity, and perhaps identical +with Belit-sheri, sister of "Tammuz of the Abyss" and daughter of Ea, +one of the canals was dedicated to her. She was also honoured with a +new temple, in which was probably placed her great statue, constructed +by special order of her royal worshipper. Like the Egyptian goddess, +the "Mother of Mendes", Nina received offerings of fish, not only as a +patroness of fishermen, but also as a corn spirit and a goddess of +maternity. She was in time identified with Ishtar. + +A famous limestone plaque, which is preserved in the Louvre, Paris, +depicts on its upper half the pious King Ur-Nina engaged in the +ceremony of laying the foundations of a temple dedicated either to the +goddess Nina or to the god Nin-Girsu. His face and scalp are clean +shaven, and he has a prominent nose and firm mouth, eloquent of +decision. The folds of neck and jaw suggest Bismarckian traits. He is +bare to the waist, and wears a pleated kilt, with three flounces, +which reaches almost to his ankles. On his long head he has poised +deftly a woven basket containing the clay with which he is to make the +first brick. In front of him stand five figures. The foremost is +honoured by being sculptured larger than the others, except the +prominent monarch. Apparently this is a royal princess, for her head +is unshaven, and her shoulder dress or long hair drops over one of her +arms. Her name is Lida, and the conspicuous part she took in the +ceremony suggests that she was the representative of the goddess Nina. +She is accompanied by her brothers, and at least one official, Anita, +the cup-bearer, or high priest. The concluding part of this ceremony, +or another ceremonial act, is illustrated on the lower part of the +plaque. Ur-Nina is seated on his throne, not, as would seem at first +sight, raising the wine cup to his lips and toasting to the success of +the work, but pouring out a libation upon the ground. The princess is +not present; the place of honour next to the king is taken by the +crown prince. Possibly in this case it is the god Nin-Girsu who is +being honoured. Three male figures, perhaps royal sons, accompany the +prominent crown prince. The cup-bearer is in attendance behind the +throne. + +The inscription on this plaque, which is pierced in the centre so as +to be nailed to a sacred shrine, refers to the temples erected by +Ur-Nina, including those of Nina and Nin-Girsu. + +After Ur-Nina's prosperous reign came to a close, his son Akurgal +ascended the throne. He had trouble with Umma, a powerful city, which +lay to the north-west of Lagash, between the Shatt-el-Kai and +Shatt-el-Hai canals. An army of raiders invaded his territory and had +to be driven back. + +The next king, whose name was Eannatum, had Napoleonic +characteristics. He was a military genius with great ambitions, and +was successful in establishing by conquest a small but brilliant +empire. Like his grandfather, he strengthened the fortifications of +Lagash; then he engaged in a series of successful campaigns. Umma had +been causing anxiety in Lagash, but Eannatum stormed and captured that +rival city, appropriated one of its fertile plains, and imposed an +annual tribute to be paid in kind. An army of Elamites swept down from +the hills, but Ur-Nina's grandson inflicted upon these bold foreigners +a crushing defeat and pursued them over the frontier. Several cities +were afterwards forced to come under the sway of triumphant Lagash, +including Erech and Ur, and as his suzerainty was already acknowledged +at Eridu, Eannatum's power in Sumeria became as supreme as it was +firmly established. + +Evidently Zuzu, king of the northern city of Opis, considered that the +occasion was opportune to overcome the powerful Sumerian conqueror, +and at the same time establish Semitic rule over the subdued and +war-wasted cities. He marched south with a large army, but the +tireless and ever-watchful Eannatum hastened to the fray, scattered +the forces of Opis, and captured the foolhardy Zuzu. + +Eannatum's activities, however, were not confined to battlefields. At +Lagash he carried out great improvements in the interests of +agriculture; he constructed a large reservoir and developed the canal +system. He also extended and repaired existing temples in his native +city and at Erech. Being a patron of the arts, he encouraged sculpture +work, and the finest Sumerian examples belong to his reign. + +Eannatum was succeeded by his brother, Enannatum I. Apparently the new +monarch did not share the military qualities of his royal predecessor, +for there were signs of unrest in the loose confederacy of states. +Indeed, Umma revolted. From that city an army marched forth and took +forcible possession of the plain which Eannatum had appropriated, +removing and breaking the landmarks, and otherwise challenging the +supremacy of the sovran state. A Lagash force defeated the men of +Umma, but appears to have done little more than hold in check their +aggressive tendencies. + +No sooner had Entemena, the next king, ascended the throne than the +flame of revolt burst forth again. The Patesi of Umma was evidently +determined to free, once and for all, his native state from the yoke +of Lagash. But he had gravely miscalculated the strength of the +vigorous young ruler. Entemena inflicted upon the rebels a crushing +defeat, and following up his success, entered the walled city and +captured and slew the patesi. Then he took steps to stamp out the +embers of revolt in Umma by appointing as its governor one of his own +officials, named Ili, who was duly installed with great ceremony. +Other military successes followed, including the sacking of Opis and +Kish, which assured the supremacy of Lagash for many years. Entemena, +with characteristic vigour, engaged himself during periods of peace in +strengthening his city fortifications and in continuing the work of +improving and developing the irrigation system. He lived in the golden +age of Sumerian art, and to his reign belongs the exquisite silver +vase of Lagash, which was taken from the Tello mound, and is now in +the Louvre. This votive offering was placed by the king in the temple +of Nin-Girsu. It is exquisitely shaped, and has a base of copper. The +symbolic decorations include the lion-headed eagle, which was probably +a form of the spring god of war and fertility, the lion, beloved by +the Mother goddess, and deer and ibexes, which recall the mountain +herds of Astarte. In the dedicatory inscription the king is referred +to as a patesi, and the fact that the name of the high priest, Dudu, +is given may be taken as an indication of the growing power of an +aggressive priesthood. After a brilliant reign of twenty-nine years +the king died, and was succeeded by his son, Enannatum II, who was the +last ruler of Ur-Nina's line. An obscure period ensued. Apparently +there had been a city revolt, which may have given the enemies of +Lagash the desired opportunity to gather strength for the coming +conflict. There is a reference to an Elamite raid which, although +repulsed, may be regarded as proof of disturbed political conditions. + +One or two priests sat on the throne of Lagash in brief succession, +and then arose to power the famous Urukagina, the first reformer in +history. He began to rule as patesi, but afterwards styled himself +king. What appears certain is that he was the leader of a great social +upheaval, which received the support of a section of the priesthood, +for he recorded that his elevation was due to the intercession of the +god Nin-Girsu. Other deities, who were sons and daughters of Nin-Girsu +and Nina, had been given recognition by his predecessors, and it is +possible that the orthodox section of Lagash, and especially the +agricultural classes, supported the new ruler in sweeping away +innovations to which they were hostile. + +Like Khufu and his descendants, the Pyramid kings of Egypt's fourth +dynasty, the vigorous and efficient monarchs of the Ur-Nina dynasty of +Lagash were apparently remembered and execrated as tyrants and +oppressors of the people. To maintain many endowed temples and a +standing army the traders and agriculturists had been heavily taxed. +Each successive monarch who undertook public works on a large scale +for the purpose of extending and developing the area under +cultivation, appears to have done so mainly to increase the revenue of +the exchequer, so as to conserve the strength of the city and secure +its pre-eminence as a metropolis. A leisured class had come into +existence, with the result that culture was fostered and civilization +advanced. Lagash seems to have been intensely modern in character +prior to 2800 B.C., but with the passing of the old order of things +there arose grave social problems which never appear to have been +seriously dealt with. All indications of social unrest were, it would +appear, severely repressed by the iron-gloved monarchs of Ur-Nina's +dynasty. + +The people as a whole groaned under an ever-increasing burden of +taxation. Sumeria was overrun by an army of officials who were +notoriously corrupt; they do not appear to have been held in check, as +in Egypt, by royal auditors. "In the domain of Nin-Girsu", one of +Urukagina's tablets sets forth, "there were tax gatherers down to the +sea." They not only attended to the needs of the exchequer, but +enriched themselves by sheer robbery, while the priests followed their +example by doubling their fees and appropriating temple offerings to +their own use. The splendid organization of Lagash was crippled by the +dishonesty of those who should have been its main support. + +Reforms were necessary and perhaps overdue, but, unfortunately for +Lagash, Urukagina's zeal for the people's cause amounted to +fanaticism. Instead of gradually readjusting the machinery of +government so as to secure equality of treatment without impairing its +efficiency as a defensive force in these perilous times, he +inaugurated sweeping and revolutionary social changes of far-reaching +character regardless of consequences. Taxes and temple fees were cut +down, and the number of officials reduced to a minimum. Society was +thoroughly disorganized. The army, which was recruited mainly from the +leisured and official classes, went practically out of existence, so +that traders and agriculturists obtained relief from taxation at the +expense of their material security. + +Urukagina's motives were undoubtedly above reproach, and he showed an +example to all who occupied positions of trust by living an upright +life and denying himself luxuries. He was disinterestedly pious, and +built and restored temples, and acted as the steward of his god with +desire to promote the welfare and comfort of all true worshippers. His +laws were similar to those which over two centuries afterwards were +codified by Hammurabi, and like that monarch he was professedly the +guardian of the weak and the helper of the needy; he sought to +establish justice and liberty in the kingdom. But his social Arcadia +vanished like a dream because he failed to recognize that Right must +be supported by Might. + +In bringing about his sudden social revolution, Urukagina had at the +same time unwittingly let loose the forces of disorder. Discontented +and unemployed officials, and many representatives of the despoiled +leisured and military classes of Lagash, no doubt sought refuge +elsewhere, and fostered the spirit of revolt which ever smouldered in +subject states. At any rate, Umma, remembering the oppressions of +other days, was not slow to recognize that the iron hand of Lagash had +become unnerved. The zealous and iconoclastic reformer had reigned but +seven years when he was called upon to defend his people against the +invader. He appears to have been utterly unprepared to do so. The +victorious forces of Umma swept against the stately city of Lagash and +shattered its power in a single day. Echoes of the great disaster +which ensued rise from a pious tablet inscription left by a priest, +who was convinced that the conquerors would be called to account for +the sins they had committed against the great god Nin-Girsu. He +lamented the butchery and robbery which had taken place. We gather +from his composition that blood was shed by the raiders of Umma even +in the sacred precincts of temples, that statues were shattered, that +silver and precious stones were carried away, that granaries were +plundered and standing crops destroyed, and that many buildings were +set on fire. Amidst these horrors of savagery and vengeance, the now +tragic figure of the great reformer suddenly vanishes from before our +eyes. Perhaps he perished in a burning temple; perhaps he found a +nameless grave with the thousands of his subjects whose bodies had +lain scattered about the blood-stained streets. With Urukagina the +glory of Lagash departed. Although the city was rebuilt in time, and +was even made more stately than before, it never again became the +metropolis of Sumeria. + +The vengeful destroyer of Lagash was Lugal-zaggisi, Patesi of Umma, a +masterful figure in early Sumerian history. We gather from the tablet +of the unknown scribe, who regarded him as a sinner against the god +Nin-Girsu, that his city goddess was named Nidaba. He appears also to +have been a worshipper of Enlil of Nippur, to whose influence he +credited his military successes. But Enlil was not his highest god, he +was the interceder who carried the prayers of Lugal-zaggisi to the +beloved father, Anu, god of the sky. No doubt Nin-Girsu represented a +school of theology which was associated with unpleasant memories in +Umma. The sacking and burning of the temples of Lagash suggests as +much. + +Having broken the power of Lagash, Lugal-zaggisi directed his +attention to the rival city of Kish, where Semitic influence was +predominating. When Nanizak, the last monarch of the line of the +famous Queen Azag-Bau, had sat upon the throne for but three years, he +perished by the sword of the Umma conqueror. Nippur likewise came +under his sway, and he also subdued the southern cities. + +Lugal-zaggisi chose for his capital ancient Erech, the city of Anu, +and of his daughter, the goddess Nana, who afterwards was identified +with Ishtar. Anu's spouse was Anatu, and the pair subsequently became +abstract deities, like Anshar and Kishar, their parents, who figure in +the Babylonian Creation story. Nana was worshipped as the goddess of +vegetation, and her relation to Anu was similar to that of Belit-sheri +to Ea at Eridu. Anu and Ea were originally identical, but it would +appear that the one was differentiated as the god of the waters above +the heaven and the other as god of the waters beneath the earth, both +being forms of Anshar. Elsewhere the chief god of the spring sun or +the moon, the lover of the goddess, became pre-eminent, displacing the +elder god, like Nin-Girsu at Lagash. At Sippar the sun god, Babbar, +whose Semitic name was Shamash, was exalted as the chief deity, while +the moon god remained supreme at Ur. This specializing process, which +was due to local theorizing and the influence of alien settlers, has +been dealt with in a previous chapter. + +In referring to himself as the favoured ruler of various city deities, +Lugal-zaggisi appears as a ruler of all Sumeria. How far his empire +extended it is impossible to determine with certainty. He appears to +have overrun Akkad, and even penetrated to the Syrian coast, for in +one inscription it is stated that he "made straight his path from the +Lower Sea (the Persian Gulf) over the Euphrates and Tigris to the +Upper Sea (the Mediterranean)". The allegiance of certain states, +however, depended on the strength of the central power. One of his +successors found it necessary to attack Kish, which was ever waiting +for an opportunity to regain its independence. + +According to the Chronicle of Kish, the next ruler of Sumer and Akkad +after Lugal-zaggisi was the famous Sargon I. It would appear that he +was an adventurer or usurper, and that he owed his throne indirectly +to Lugal-zaggisi, who had dethroned the ruler of Akkad. Later +traditions, which have been partly confirmed by contemporary +inscriptions, agree that Sargon was of humble birth. In the previous +chapter reference was made to the Tammuz-like myth attached to his +memory. His mother was a vestal virgin dedicated to the sun god, +Shamash, and his father an unknown stranger from the mountains--a +suggestion of immediate Semitic affinities. Perhaps Sargon owed his +rise to power to the assistance received by bands of settlers from the +land of the Amorites, which Lugal-zaggisi had invaded. + +According to the legend, Sargon's birth was concealed. He was placed +in a vessel which was committed to the river. Brought up by a +commoner, he lived in obscurity until the Semitic goddess, Ishtar, +gave him her aid. + +A similar myth was attached in India to the memory of Karna, the +Hector of that great Sanskrit epic the _Mahabharata_. Kama's mother, +the Princess Pritha, who afterwards became a queen, was loved by the +sun god, Surya. When in secret she gave birth to her son she placed +him in an ark of wickerwork, which was set adrift on a stream. +Ultimately it reached the Ganges, and it was borne by that river to +the country of Anga, where the child was rescued by a woman and +afterwards reared by her and her husband, a charioteer. In time Karna +became a great warrior, and was crowned King of Anga by the Kaurava +warriors.[147] + +Before he became king, Sargon of Akkad, the Sharrukin of the texts, +was, according to tradition, a gardener and watchman attached to the +temple of the war god Zamama of Kish. This deity was subsequently +identified with Merodach, son of Ea; Ninip, son of Enlil; and +Nin-Girsu of Lagash. He was therefore one of the many developed forms +of Tammuz--a solar, corn, and military deity, and an interceder for +mankind. The goddess of Kish appears to have been a form of Bau, as is +testified by the name of Queen Azag-Bau, the legendary founder of the +city. + +Unfortunately our knowledge of Sargon's reign is of meagre character. +It is undoubted that he was a distinguished general and able ruler. He +built up an empire which included Sumer and Akkad, and also Amurru, +"the western land", or "land of the Amorites". The Elamites gave him +an opportunity to extend his conquests eastward. They appear to have +attacked Opis, but he drove them back, and on more than one occasion +penetrated their country, over the western part of which, known as +Anshan, he ultimately imposed his rule. Thither went many Semitic +settlers who had absorbed the culture of Sumeria. + +During Sargon's reign Akkad attained to a splendour which surpassed +that of Babylon. In an omen text the monarch is lauded as the "highly +exalted one without a peer". Tradition relates that when he was an old +man all the Babylonian states rose in revolt against him and besieged +Akkad. But the old warrior led forth his army against the combined +forces and achieved a shattering victory. + +Manishtusu, who succeeded Sargon I, had similarly to subdue a great +confederacy of thirty-two city states, and must therefore have been a +distinguished general. But he is best known as the monarch who +purchased several large estates adjoining subject cities, his aim +having been probably to settle on these Semitic allies who would be +less liable to rebel against him than the workers they displaced. For +the latter, however, he found employment elsewhere. These +transactions, which were recorded on a monument subsequently carried +off with other spoils by the Elamites and discovered at Susa, show +that at this early period (about 2600 B.C.) even a conquering monarch +considered it advisable to observe existing land laws. Urumush,[148] +the next ruler, also achieved successes in Elam and elsewhere, but his +life was cut short by a palace revolution. + +The prominent figure of Naram Sin, a later king of Akkad, bulks +largely in history and tradition. According to the Chronicle of Kish, +he was a son of Sargon. Whether he was or not, it is certain that he +inherited the military and administrative genius of that famous +ex-gardener. The arts flourished during his reign. One of the +memorable products of the period was an exquisitely sculptured +monument celebrating one of Naram Sin's victories, which was +discovered at Susa. It is one of the most wonderful examples of +Babylonian stone work which has come to light. + +A successful campaign had been waged against a mountain people. The +stele shows the warrior king leading his army up a steep incline and +round the base of a great peak surmounted by stars. His enemies flee +in confusion before him. One lies on the ground clutching a spear +which has penetrated his throat, two are falling over a cliff, while +others apparently sue for mercy. Trees have been depicted to show that +part of the conquered territory is wooded. Naram Sin is armed with +battleaxe and bow, and his helmet is decorated with horns. The whole +composition is spirited and finely grouped; and the military bearing +of the disciplined troops contrasts sharply with the despairing +attitudes of the fleeing remnants of the defending army. + +During this period the Semitized mountaineers to the north-east of +Babylonia became the most aggressive opponents of the city states. The +two most prominent were the Gutium, or men of Kutu, and the Lulubu. +Naram Sin's great empire included the whole of Sumer and Akkad, Amurru +and northern Palestine, and part of Elam, and the district to the +north. He also penetrated Arabia, probably by way of the Persian Gulf, +and caused diorite to be quarried there. One of his steles, which is +now in the Imperial Ottoman Museum at Constantinople, depicts him as a +fully bearded man with Semitic characteristics. During his lifetime he +was deified--a clear indication of the introduction of foreign ideas, +for the Sumerians were not worshippers of kings and ancestors. + +Naram Sin was the last great king of his line. Soon after his death +the power of Akkad went to pieces, and the Sumerian city of Erech +again became the centre of empire. Its triumph, however, was +shortlived. After a quarter of a century had elapsed, Akkad and Sumer +were overswept by the fierce Gutium from the north-eastern mountains. +They sacked and burned many cities, including Babylon, where the +memory of the horrors perpetrated by these invaders endured until the +Grecian Age. An obscure period, like the Egyptian Hyksos Age, ensued, +but it was of comparatively brief duration. + +When the mists cleared away, the city Lagash once more came to the +front, having evidently successfully withstood the onslaughts of the +Gutium, but it never recovered the place of eminence it occupied under +the brilliant Ur-Nina dynasty. It is manifest that it must have +enjoyed under the various overlords, during the interval, a +considerable degree of independence, for its individuality remained +unimpaired. Of all its energetic and capable patesis, the most +celebrated was Gudea, who reigned sometime before 2400 B.C. In +contrast to the Semitic Naram Sin, he was beardless and pronouncedly +Sumerian in aspect. His favoured deity, the city god Nin-Girsu, again +became prominent, having triumphed over his jealous rivals after +remaining in obscurity for three or four centuries. Trade flourished, +and the arts were fostered. Gudea had himself depicted, in one of the +most characteristic sculptures of his age, as an architect, seated +reverently with folded hands with a temple plan lying on his knees, +and his head uplifted as if watching the builders engaged in +materializing the dream of his life. The temple in which his interests +were centred was erected in honour of Nin-Girsu. Its ruins suggest +that it was of elaborate structure and great beauty. Like Solomon in +later days, Gudea procured material for his temple from many distant +parts--cedar from Lebanon, marble from Amurru, diorite from Arabia, +copper from Elam, and so forth. Apparently the King of Lagash was +strong enough or wealthy enough to command respect over a wide area. + +Another city which also rose into prominence, amidst the shattered +Sumerian states, was Ur, the centre of moon worship. After Gudea's +death, its kings exercised sway over Lagash and Nippur, and, farther +south, over Erech and Larsa as well. This dynasty endured for nearly a +hundred and twenty years, during which Ur flourished like Thebes in +Egypt. Its monarchs styled themselves as "Kings of the Four Regions". +The worship of Nannar (Sin) became officially recognized at Nippur, +the seat of Enlil, during the reign of King Dungi of Ur; while at +Erech, the high priest of Anu, the sky god, became the high priest of +the moon god. Apparently matriarchal ideas, associated with lunar +worship, again came into prominence, for the king appointed two of his +daughters to be rulers of conquered states in Elam and Syria. In the +latter half of his reign, Dungi, the conqueror, was installed as high +priest at Eridu. It would thus appear that there was a renascence of +early Sumerian religious ideas. Ea, the god of the deep, had long been +overshadowed, but a few years before Dungi's death a temple was +erected to him at Nippur, where he was worshipped as Dagan. Until the +very close of his reign, which lasted for fifty-eight years, this +great monarch of tireless activity waged wars of conquest, built +temples and palaces, and developed the natural resources of Sumer and +Akkad. Among his many reforms was the introduction of standards of +weights, which received divine sanction from the moon god, who, as in +Egypt, was the measurer and regulator of human transactions and human +life. + +To this age also belongs many of the Sumerian business and legal +records, which were ultimately carried off to Susa, where they have +been recovered by French excavators. + +About half a century after Dungi's death the Dynasty of Ur came to an +end, its last king having been captured by an Elamite force. + +At some time subsequent to this period, Abraham migrated from Ur to +the northern city of Harran, where the moon god was also the chief +city deity--the Baal, or "lord". It is believed by certain +Egyptologists that Abraham sojourned in Egypt during its Twelfth +Dynasty, which, according to the Berlin system of minimum dating, +extended from about 2000 B.C. till 1780 B.C. The Hebrew patriarch may +therefore have been a contemporary of Hammurabi's, who is identified +with Amraphel, king of Shinar (Sumer) in the Bible.[149] + +But after the decline of Ur's ascendancy, and long before Babylon's +great monarch came to the throne, the centre of power in Sumeria was +shifted to Isin, where sixteen kings flourished for two and a quarter +centuries. Among the royal names, recognition was given to Ea and +Dagan, Sin, Enlil, and Ishtar, indicating that Sumerian religion in +its Semitized form was receiving general recognition. The sun god was +identical with Ninip and Nin-Girsu, a god of fertility, harvest, and +war, but now more fully developed and resembling Babbar, "the shining +one", the solar deity of Akkadian Sippar, whose Semitic name was +Shamash. As Shamash was ultimately developed as the god of justice and +righteousness, it would appear that his ascendancy occurred during the +period when well-governed communities systematized their religious +beliefs to reflect social conditions. + +The first great monarch of the Isin dynasty was Ishbi-Urra, who +reigned for thirty-two years. Like his successors, he called himself +"King of Sumer and Akkad", and it appears that his sway extended to +the city of Sippar, where solar worship prevailed. Traces of him have +also been found at Eridu, Ur, Erech, and Nippur, so that he must have +given recognition to Ea, Sin, Anu, and Enlil. In this period the early +national pantheon may have taken shape, Bel Enlil being the chief +deity. Enlil was afterwards displaced by Merodach of Babylon. + +Before 2200 B.C. there occurred a break in the supremacy of Isin. +Gungunu, King of Ur, combined with Larsa, whose sun temple he +restored, and declared himself ruler of Sumer and Akkad. But Isin +again gathered strength under Ur-Ninip, who was not related to his +predecessor. Perhaps he came from Nippur, where the god Ninip was +worshipped as the son of Bel Enlil. + +According to a Babylonian document, a royal grandson of Ur-Ninip's, +having no direct heir, selected as his successor his gardener, +Enlil-bani. He placed the crown on the head of this obscure +individual, abdicated in his favour, and then died a mysterious death +within his palace. + +It is highly probable that Enlil-bani, whose name signifies "Enlil is +my creator", was a usurper like Sargon of Akkad, and he may have +similarly circulated a myth regarding his miraculous origin to justify +his sudden rise to power. The truth appears to be that he came to the +throne as the leader of a palace revolution at a time of great unrest. +But he was not allowed to remain in undisputed possession. A rival +named Sin-ikisha, evidently a moon worshipper and perhaps connected +with Ur, displaced the usurper, and proclaimed himself king. After a +brief reign of six months he was overthrown, however, by Enlil-bani, +who piously credited his triumph over his enemy to the chief god of +Nippur, whose name he bore. Although he took steps to secure his +position by strengthening the fortifications of Isin, and reigned for +about a quarter of a century, he was not succeeded by his heir, if he +had one. King Zambia, who was no relation, followed him, but his reign +lasted for only three years. The names of the next two kings are +unknown. Then came Sin-magir, who was succeeded by Damik-ilishu, the +last King of Isin. + +Towards the close of Damik-ilishu's reign of twenty-four years he came +under the suzerainty of Larsa, whose ruler was Rim Sin. Then Isin was +captured by Sin-muballit, King of Babylon, the father of the great +Hammurabi. Rim Sin was an Elamite. + +Afterwards the old order of things passed away. Babylon became the +metropolis, the names of Sumer and Akkad dropped out of use, and the +whole country between the rivers was called Babylonia.[150] The +various systems of law which obtained in the different states were +then codified by Hammurabi, who appointed governors in all the cities +which came under his sway to displace the patesis and kings. A new +national pantheon of representative character was also formed, over +which Merodach (Marduk), the city god of Babylon, presided. How this +younger deity was supposed to rise to power is related in the +Babylonian legend of Creation, which is dealt with in the next +chapter.[151] In framing this myth from the fragments of older myths, +divine sanction was given to the supremacy achieved by Merodach's +city. The allegiance of future generations was thus secured, not only +by the strong arm of the law, but also by the combined influence of +the reorganized priesthoods at the various centres of administration. + +An interesting problem, which should be referred to here, arises in +connection with the sculptured representations of deities before and +after the rise of Akkad as a great Power. It is found, although the +Sumerians shaved their scalps and faces at the dawn of the historical +age, that they worshipped gods who had long hair and also beards, +which were sometimes square and sometimes pointed. + +At what period the Sumerian deities were given human shape it is +impossible to determine. As has been shown (Chapters II and III) all +the chief gods and goddesses had animal forms and composite monster +forms before they became anthropomorphic deities. Ea had evidently a +fish shape ere he was clad in the skin of a fish, as an Egyptian god +was simply a bull before he was depicted in human shape wearing a +bull's skin. The archaic Sumerian animal and composite monster gods of +animistic and totemic origin survived after the anthropomorphic period +as mythical figures, which were used for decorative or magical +purposes and as symbols. A form of divine headdress was a cap enclosed +in horns, between which appeared the soaring lion-headed eagle, which +symbolized Nin-Girsu. This god had also lion and antelope forms, which +probably figured in lost myths--perhaps they were like the animals +loved by Ishtar and referred to in the Gilgamesh epic. Similarly the +winged bull was associated with the moon god Nannar, or Sin, of Ur, +who was "a horned steer". On various cylinder seals appear groups of +composite monsters and rearing wild beasts, which were evidently +representations of gods and demons in conflict. + +Suggestive data for comparative study is afforded in this connection +by ancient Egypt. Sokar, the primitive Memphite deity, retained until +the end his animal and composite monster forms. Other gods were +depicted with human bodies and the heads of birds, serpents, and +crocodiles, thus forming links between the archaic demoniac and the +later anthropomorphic deities. A Sumerian example is the deified +Ea-bani, who, like Pan, has the legs and hoofs of a goat. + +The earliest representations of Sumerian humanized deities appear on +reliefs from Tello, the site of Lagash. These examples of archaic +gods, however, are not bearded in Semitic fashion. On the contrary, +their lips and cheeks are shaved, while an exaggerated chin tuft is +retained. The explanation suggested is that the Sumerians gave their +deities human shape before they themselves were clean shaven, and that +the retention of the characteristic facial hair growth of the +Mediterranean Race is another example of the conservatism of the +religious instinct. In Egypt the clean-shaven Pharaohs, who +represented gods, wore false chin-tuft beards; even Queen Hatshepsut +considered it necessary to assume a beard on state occasions. +Ptah-Osiris retained his archaic beard until the Ptolemaic period. + +It seems highly probable that in similarly depicting their gods with +beards, the early Sumerians were not influenced by the practices of +any alien people or peoples. Not until the period of Gudea, the Patesi +of Lagash, did they give their gods heavy moustaches, side whiskers, +and flowing beards of Semitic type. It may be, however, that by then +they had completely forgotten the significance of an ancient custom. +Possibly, too, the sculptors of Lagash were working under the +influence of the Akkadian school of art, which had produced the +exquisite stele of victory for Naram-Sin, and consequently adopted the +conventional Semitic treatment of bearded figures. At any rate, they +were more likely to study and follow the artistic triumphs of Akkad +than the crude productions of the archaic period. Besides, they lived +in an age when Semitic kings were deified and the Semitic overlords +had attained to great distinction and influence. + +The Semitic folks were not so highly thought of in the early Sumerian +period. It is not likely that the agricultural people regarded as +models of gods the plunderers who descended from the hills, and, after +achieving successes, returned home with their spoils. More probably +they regarded them as "foreign devils". Other Semites, however, who +came as traders, bringing wood, stone, and especially copper, and +formed communities in cities, may well have influenced Sumerian +religious thought. The god Ramman, for instance, who was given +recognition all through Babylonia, was a god of hill folks as far +north as Asia Minor and throughout Syria. He may have been introduced +by settlers who adopted Sumerian habits of life and shaved scalp and +face. But although the old cities could never have existed in a +complete state of isolation from the outer world, it is unlikely that +their inhabitants modelled their deities on those worshipped by groups +of aliens. A severe strain is imposed on our credulity if we are +expected to believe that it was due to the teachings and example of +uncultured nomads that the highly civilized Sumerians developed their +gods from composite monsters to anthropomorphic deities. Such a +supposition, at any rate, is not supported by the evidence of Ancient +Egypt. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +CREATION LEGEND: MERODACH THE DRAGON SLAYER + + + Elder Spirits of the Primordial Deep--Apsu and the Tiamat + Dragon--Plot to Destroy the Beneficent Gods--Ea overcomes Apsu and + Muminu--The Vengeful Preparations of the Dragon--Anshar's Appeal to + Merodach--The Festival of the High Gods--Merodach exalted as Ruler + of the Universe--Dragon slain and Host taken captive--Merodach + rearranges the Pantheon--Creation of Man--Merodach as Asari--The + Babylonian Osiris--The Chief Purpose of Mankind--Tiamat as Source of + Good and Evil--The Dragon as the Serpent or Worm--Folk Tale aspect + of Creation Myth--British Neolithic Legends--German and Egyptian + Contracts--Biblical references to Dragons--The Father and Son + theme--Merodach and Tammuz--Monotheistic Tendency--Bi-sexual + Deities. + + +In the beginning the whole universe was a sea. Heaven on high had not +been named, nor the earth beneath. Their begetter was Apsu, the father +of the primordial Deep, and their mother was Tiamat, the spirit of +Chaos. No plain was yet formed, no marsh could be seen; the gods had +no existence, nor had their fates been determined. Then there was a +movement in the waters, and the deities issued forth. The first who +had being were the god Lachmu and the goddess Lachamu. Long ages went +past. Then were created the god Anshar and the goddess Kishar. When +the days of these deities had increased and extended, they were +followed by Anu, god of the sky, whose consort was Anatu; and Ea, most +wise and all-powerful, who was without an equal. Now Ea, god of the +deep, was also Enki, "lord of earth", and his eternal spouse, Damkina, +was Gashan-ki, "lady of earth". The son of Ea and Damkina was Bel, the +lord, who in time created mankind.[152] Thus were the high gods +established in power and in glory. + +Now Apsu and Tiamat remained amidst confusion in the deeps of chaos. +They were troubled because their offspring, the high gods, aspired to +control the universe and set it in order.[153] Apsu was still powerful +and fierce, and Tiamat snarled and raised tempests, smiting herself. +Their purpose was to work evil amidst eternal confusion. + +Then Apsu called upon Mummu, his counsellor, the son who shared his +desires, and said, "O Mummu, thou who art pleasing unto me, let us go +forth together unto Tiamat and speak with her." + +So the two went forth and prostrated themselves before the Chaos +Mother to consult with her as to what should be done to prevent the +accomplishment of the purpose of the high gods. + +Apsu opened his mouth and spake, saying, "O Tiamat, thou gleaming one, +the purpose of the gods troubles me. I cannot rest by day nor can I +repose by night. I will thwart them and destroy their purpose. I will +bring sorrow and mourning so that we may lie down undisturbed by +them." + +Tiamat heard these words and snarled. She raised angry and roaring +tempests; in her furious grief she uttered a curse, and then spake to +Apsu, saying, "What shall we do so that their purpose may be thwarted +and we may lie down undisturbed again?" + +Mummu, the counsellor, addressing Apsu, made answer, and said, +"Although the gods are powerful, thou canst overcome them; although +their purpose is strong, thou canst thwart it. Then thou shalt have +rest by day and peace by night to lie down." + +The face of Apsu grew bright when he heard these words spoken by +Mummu, yet he trembled to think of the purpose of the high gods, to +whom he was hostile. With Tiamat he lamented because the gods had +changed all things; the plans of the gods filled their hearts with +dread; they sorrowed and spake with Mummu, plotting evil. + +Then Ea, who knoweth all, drew near; he beheld the evil ones +conspiring and muttering together. He uttered a pure incantation and +accomplished the downfall of Apsu and Mummu, who were taken +captive.[154] + +Kingu, who shared the desires of Tiamat, spake unto her words of +counsel, saying, "Apsu and Mummu have been overcome and we cannot +repose. Thou shalt be their Avenger, O Tempestuous One." + +Tiamat heard the words of this bright and evil god, and made answer, +saying, "On my strength thou canst trust. So let war be waged." + +Then were the hosts of chaos and the deep gathered together. By day +and by night they plotted against the high gods, raging furiously, +making ready for battle, fuming and storming and taking no rest. + +Mother Chuber,[155] the creator of all, provided irresistible weapons. +She also brought into being eleven kinds of fierce monsters--giant +serpents, sharp of tooth with unsparing fangs, whose bodies were +filled with poison instead of blood; snarling dragons, clad with +terror, and of such lofty stature that whoever saw them was +overwhelmed with fear, nor could any escape their attack when they + +lifted themselves up; vipers and pythons, and the Lachamu, hurricane +monsters, raging hounds, scorpion men, tempest furies, fish men, and +mountain rams. These she armed with fierce weapons and they had no +fear of war. + +Then Tiamat, whose commands are unchangeable and mighty, exalted +Kingu, who had come to her aid, above all the evil gods; she made him +the leader to direct the army in battle, to go in front, to open the +attack. Robing Kingu in splendour, she seated him on high and spoke, +saying: + +"I have established thy command over all the gods. Thou shalt rule +over them. Be mighty, thou my chosen husband, and let thy name be +exalted over all the spirits of heaven and spirits of earth." + +Unto Kingu did Tiamat deliver the tablets of fate; she laid them in +his bosom, and said, "Thy commands cannot be changed; thy words shall +remain firm." + +Thus was Kingu exalted; he was vested with the divine power of Anu to +decree the fate of the gods, saying, "Let thy mouth open to thwart the +fire god; be mighty in battle nor brook resistance." + +Then had Ea knowledge of Tiamat's doings, how she had gathered her +forces together, and how she had prepared to work evil against the +high gods with purpose to avenge Apsu. The wise god was stricken with +grief, and he moaned for many days. Thereafter he went and stood +before his father, Anshar, and spake, saying, "Our mother, Tiamat, +hath turned against us in her wrath. She hath gathered the gods about +her, and those thou didst create are with her also." + +When Anshar heard all that Ea revealed regarding the preparations made +by Tiamat, he smote his loins and clenched his teeth, and was ill at +ease. In sorrow and anger he spoke and said, "Thou didst go forth +aforetime to battle; thou didst bind Mummu and smite Apsu. Now Kingu +is exalted, and there is none who can oppose Tiamat."[156] + +Anshar called his son, Anu, before him, and spoke, saying: "O mighty +one without fear, whose attack is irresistible, go now before Tiamat +and speak so that her anger may subside and her heart be made +merciful. But if she will not hearken unto thee, speak thou for me, so +that she may be reconciled." + +Anu was obedient to the commands of Anshar. He departed, and descended +by the path of Tiamat until he beheld her fuming and snarling, but he +feared to approach her, and turned back. + +Then Ea was sent forth, but he was stricken with terror and turned +back also.[157] + +Anshar then called upon Merodach, son of Ea, and addressed him, +saying, "My son, who softeneth my heart, thou shalt go forth to battle +and none shall stand against thee." + +The heart of Merodach was made glad at these words. He stood before +Anshar, who kissed him, because that he banished fear. Merodach spake, +saying: "O lord of the gods, withdraw not thy words; let me go forth +to do as is thy desire. What man hath challenged thee to battle?" + +Anshar made answer and said: "No man hath challenged me. It is Tiamat, +the woman, who hath resolved to wage war against us. But fear not and +make merry, for thou shalt bruise the head of Tiamat. O wise god, thou +shalt overcome her with thy pure incantation. Tarry not but hasten +forth; she cannot wound thee; thou shalt come back again." The words +of Anshar delighted the heart of Merodach, who spake, saying: "O lord +of the gods, O fate of the high gods, if I, the avenger, am to subdue +Tiamat and save all, then proclaim my greatness among the gods. Let +all the high gods gather together joyfully in Upshukinaku (the Council +Hall), so that my words like thine may remain unchanged, and what I do +may never be altered. Instead of thee I will decree the fates of the +gods." + +Then Anshar called unto his counsellor, Gaga, and addressing him, +said: "O thou who dost share my desires, thou who dost understand the +purpose of my heart, go unto Lachmu and Lachamu and summon all the +high gods to come before me to eat bread and drink wine. Repeat to +them all I tell you of Tiamat's preparations for war, of my commands +to Anu and Ea, who turned back, fearing the dragon, of my choice of +Merodach to be our avenger, and his desire to be equipped with my +power to decree fate, so that he may be made strong to combat against +our enemy." + +As Anshar commanded so did Gaga do. He went unto Lachmu and Lachamu +and prostrated himself humbly before them. Then he rose and delivered +the message of Anshar, their son, adding: "Hasten and speedily decide +for Merodach your fate. Permit him to depart to meet your powerful +foe." + +When Lachmu and Lachamu heard all that Gaga revealed unto them they +uttered lamentations, while the Igigi (heavenly spirits) sorrowed +bitterly, and said: "What change hath happened that Tiamat hath become +hostile to her own offspring? We cannot understand her deeds." + +All the high gods then arose and went unto Anshar, They filled his +council chamber and kissed one another. Then they sat down to eat +bread and drink sesame wine. And when they were made drunk and were +merry and at their ease, they decreed the fate for Merodach. + +In the chamber of Anshar they honoured the Avenger. He was exalted as +a prince over them all, and they said: "Among the high gods thou art +the highest; thy command is the command of Anu. Henceforth thou wilt +have power to raise up and to cast down. None of the gods will dispute +thy authority. O Merodach, our avenger, we give thee sovereignty over +the entire Universe. Thy weapon will ever be irresistible. Smite down +the gods who have raised revolt, but spare the lives of those who +repose their trust in thee." + +Then the gods laid down a garment before Merodach, saying: "Open thy +mouth and speak words of command, so that the garment may be +destroyed; speak again and it will be brought back." + +Merodach spake with his mouth and the garment vanished; he spake again +and the garment was reproduced. + +All the gods rejoiced, and they prostrated themselves and cried out, +"Merodach is King!" + +Thereafter they gave him the sceptre and the throne and the insignia +of royalty, and also an irresistible weapon[158] with which to +overcome his enemies, saying: "Now, O Merodach, hasten and slay +Tiamat. Let the winds carry her blood to hidden places." + +So was the fate of Merodach decreed by the gods; so was a path of +prosperity and peace prepared for him. He made ready for battle; he +strung his bow and hung his quiver; he slung a dart over his shoulder, +and he grasped a club in his right hand; before him he set lightning, +and with flaming fire he filled his body. Anu gave unto him a great +net with which to snare his enemies and prevent their escape. Then +Merodach created seven winds--the wind of evil, the uncontrollable +wind, the sandstorm, and the whirlwind, the fourfold wind, the +sevenfold wind, and the wind that has no equal--and they went after +him. Next he seized his mighty weapon, the thunderstone, and leapt +into his storm chariot, to which were yoked four rushing and +destructive steeds of rapid flight, with foam-flecked mouths and teeth +full of venom, trained for battle, to overthrow enemies and trample +them underfoot. A light burned on the head of Merodach, and he was +clad in a robe of terror. He drove forth, and the gods, his fathers, +followed after him: the high gods clustered around and followed him, +hastening to battle. + +Merodach drove on, and at length he drew nigh to the secret lair of +Tiamat, and he beheld her muttering with Kingu, her consort. For a +moment he faltered, and when the gods who followed him beheld this, +their eyes were troubled. + +Tiamat snarled nor turned her head. She uttered curses, and said: "O +Merodach, I fear not thy advance as chief of the gods. My allies are +assembled here, and are more powerful than thou art." + +Merodach uplifted his arm, grasping the dreaded thunderstone, and +spake unto Tiamat, the rebellious one, saying: "Thou hast exalted +thyself, and with wrathful heart hath prepared for war against the +high gods and their fathers, whom thou dost hate in thy heart of evil. +Unto Kingu thou hast given the power of Anu to decree fate, because +thou art hostile to what is good and loveth what is sinful. Gather thy +forces together, and arm thyself and come forth to battle." + +When Tiamat heard these mighty words she raved and cried aloud like +one who is possessed; all her limbs shook, and she muttered a spell. +The gods seized their weapons. + +Tiamat and Merodach advanced to combat against one another. They made +ready for battle. The lord of the high gods spread out the net which +Anu had given him. He snared the dragon and she could not escape. +Tiamat opened her mouth which was seven miles wide, and Merodach +called upon the evil wind to smite her; he caused the wind to keep her +mouth agape so that she could not close it. All the tempests and the +hurricanes entered in, filling her body, and her heart grew weak; she +gasped, overpowered. Then the lord of the high gods seized his dart +and cast it through the lower part of her body; it tore her inward +parts and severed her heart. So was Tiamat slain. + +Merodach overturned the body of the dead dragon and stood upon it. All +the evil gods who had followed her were stricken with terror and broke +into flight. But they were unable to escape. Merodach caught them in +his great net, and they stumbled and fell uttering cries of distress, +and the whole world resounded with their wailing and lamentations. The +lord of the high gods broke the weapons of the evil gods and put them +in bondage. Then he fell upon the monsters which Tiamat had created; +he subdued them, divested them of their powers, and trampled them +under his feet. Kingu he seized with the others. From this god great +Merodach took the tablets of fate, and impressing upon them his own +seal, placed them in his bosom. + +So were the enemies of the high gods overthrown by the Avenger. +Ansar's commands were fulfilled and the desires of Ea fully +accomplished. + +Merodach strengthened the bonds which he had laid upon the evil gods +and then returned to Tiamat. He leapt upon the dragon's body; he clove +her skull with his great club; he opened the channels of her blood +which streamed forth, and caused the north to carry her blood to +hidden places. The high gods, his fathers, clustered around; they +raised shouts of triumph and made merry. Then they brought gifts and +offerings to the great Avenger. + +Merodach rested a while, gazing upon the dead body of the dragon. He +divided the flesh of Ku-pu[159], and devised a cunning plan. + +Then the lord of the high gods split the body of the dragon like that +of a mashde fish into two halves. With one half he enveloped the +firmament; he fixed it there and set a watchman to prevent the waters +falling down[160]. With the other half he made the earth[161]. Then he +made the abode of Ea in the deep, and the abode of Anu in high heaven. +The abode of Enlil was in the air. + +Merodach set all the great gods in their several stations. He also +created their images, the stars of the Zodiac, and fixed them all. He +measured the year and divided it into months; for twelve months he +made three stars each. After he had given starry images of the gods +separate control of each day of the year, he founded the station of +Nibiru (Jupiter), his own star, to determine the limits of all stars, +so that none might err or go astray. He placed beside his own the +stations of Enlil and Ea, and on each side he opened mighty gates, +fixing bolts on the left and on the right. He set the zenith in the +centre. + +Merodach decreed that the moon god should rule the night and measure +the days, and each month he was given a crown. Its various phases the +great lord determined, and he commanded that on the evening of its +fullest brilliancy it should stand opposite the sun.[162] + +He placed his bow in heaven (as a constellation) and his net also. + +We have now reached the sixth tablet, which begins with a reference to +words spoken to Merodach by the gods. Apparently Ea had conceived in +his heart that mankind should be created. The lord of the gods read +his thoughts and said: "I will shed my blood and fashion bone... I +will create man to dwell on the earth so that the gods may be +worshipped and shrines erected for them. I will change the pathways of +the gods...." + +The rest of the text is fragmentary, and many lines are missing. +Berosus states, however, that Belus (Bel Merodach) severed his head +from his shoulders. His blood flowed forth, and the gods mixed it with +earth and formed the first man and various animals. + +In another version of the creation of man, it is related that Merodach +"laid a reed upon the face of the waters; he formed dust, and poured +it out beside the reed.... That he might cause the gods to dwell in +the habitation of their heart's desire, he formed mankind." The +goddess Aruru, a deity of Sippar, and one of the forms of "the lady of +the gods ", is associated with Merodach as the creatrix of the seed of +mankind. "The beasts of the field and living creatures in the field he +formed." He also created the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, grass, +reeds, herbs and trees, lands, marshes and swamps, cows, goats, +&c.[163] + +In the seventh tablet Merodach is praised by the gods--the Igigi +(spirits of heaven). As he has absorbed all their attributes, he is +addressed by his fifty-one names; henceforth each deity is a form of +Merodach. Bel Enlil, for instance, is Merodach of lordship and +domination; Sin, the moon god, is Merodach as ruler of night; Shamash +is Merodach as god of law and holiness; Nergal is Merodach of war; and +so on. The tendency to monotheism appears to have been most marked +among the priestly theorists of Babylon. + +Merodach is hailed to begin with as Asari, the introducer of +agriculture and horticulture, the creator of grain and plants. He also +directs the decrees of Anu, Bel, and Ea; but having rescued the gods +from destruction at the hands of Kingu and Tiamat, he was greater than +his "fathers", the elder gods. He set the Universe in order, and +created all things anew. He is therefore Tutu, "the creator", a +merciful and beneficent god. The following are renderings of lines 25 +to 32: + + Tutu: Aga-azaga (the glorious crown) may he make the crowns + glorious-- + The lord of the glorious incantation bringing the dead to life; + He who had mercy on the gods who had been overpowered; + Made heavy the yoke which he had laid on the gods who were his + enemies, + (And) to redeem (?) them created mankind. + "The merciful one", "he with whom is salvation", + May his word be established, and not forgotten, + In the mouth of the black-headed ones whom his hands have made. + + _Pinches' Translation_[164] + + + Tutu as Aga-azag may mankind fourthly magnify! + "The Lord of the Pure Incantation", "the Quickener of the Dead ", + "Who had mercy upon the captive gods", + "Who removed the yoke from upon the gods his enemies". + "For their forgiveness did he create mankind", + "The Merciful One, with whom it is to bestow life!" + May his deeds endure, may they never be forgotten + In the mouth of mankind whom his hands have made. + + _King's Translation._[165] + +Apparently the Babylonian doctrine set forth that mankind was created +not only to worship the gods, but also to bring about the redemption +of the fallen gods who followed Tiamat. + + Those rebel angels (_ili_ gods) He prohibited return; + He stopped their service; He removed them unto the gods (_ili_) who + were His enemies. + In their room he created mankind.[166] + +Tiamat, the chaos dragon, is the Great Mother. She has a dual +character. As the origin of good she is the creatrix of the gods. Her +beneficent form survived as the Sumerian goddess Bau, who was +obviously identical with the Phoenician Baau, mother of the first man. +Another name of Bau was Ma, and Nintu, "a form of the goddess Ma", was +half a woman and half a serpent, and was depicted with "a babe +suckling her breast" (Chapter IV). The Egyptian goddesses Neheb-kau +and Uazit were serpents, and the goddesses Isis and Nepthys had also +serpent forms. The serpent was a symbol of fertility, and as a mother +was a protector. Vishnu, the Preserver of the Hindu Trinity, sleeps on +the world-serpent's body. Serpent charms are protective and fertility +charms. + +As the origin of evil Tiamat personified the deep and tempests. In +this character she was the enemy of order and good, and strove to +destroy the world. + + I have seen + The ambitious ocean swell and rage and foam + To be exalted with the threatening clouds.[167] + +Tiamat was the dragon of the sea, and therefore the serpent or +leviathan. The word "dragon" is derived from the Greek "drakon", the +serpent known as "the seeing one" or "looking one", whose glance was +the lightning. The Anglo-Saxon "fire drake" ("draca", Latin "draco") +is identical with the "flying dragon". + +In various countries the serpent or worm is a destroyer which swallows +the dead. "The worm shall eat them like wool", exclaimed Isaiah in +symbolic language.[168] It lies in the ocean which surrounds the world +in Egyptian, Babylonian, Greek, Teutonic, Indian, and other +mythologies. The Irish call it "moruach", and give it a mermaid form +like the Babylonian Nintu. In a Scottish Gaelic poem Tiamat figures as +"The Yellow Muilearteach", who is slain by Finn-mac-Coul, assisted by +his warrior band. + + There was seen coming on the top of the waves + The crooked, clamouring, shivering brave ... + Her face was blue black of the lustre of coal, + And her bone-tufted tooth was like rusted bone.[169] + +The serpent figures in folk tales. When Alexander the Great, according +to Ethiopic legend, was lowered in a glass cage to the depths of the +ocean, he saw a great monster going past, and sat for two days +"watching for its tail and hinder parts to appear".[170] An +Argyllshire Highlander had a similar experience. He went to fish one +morning on a rock. "He was not long there when he saw the head of an +eel pass. He continued fishing for an hour and the eel was still +passing. He went home, worked in the field all day, and having +returned to the same rock in the evening, the eel was still passing, +and about dusk he saw her tail disappearing."[171] Tiamat's sea-brood +is referred to in the Anglo-Saxon epic _Beowulf_ as "nickers". The +hero "slew by night sea monsters on the waves" (line 422). + +The well dragon--the French "draco"--also recalls the Babylonian water +monsters. There was a "dragon well" near Jerusalem.[172] From China to +Ireland rivers are dragons, or goddesses who flee from the well +dragons. The demon of the Rhone is called the "drac". Floods are also +referred to as dragons, and the Hydra, or water serpent, slain by +Hercules, belongs to this category. Water was the source of evil as +well as good. To the Sumerians, the ocean especially was the abode of +monsters. They looked upon it as did Shakespeare's Ferdinand, when, +leaping into the sea, he cried: "Hell is empty and all the devils are +here".[173] + +There can be little doubt but that in this Babylonian story of +Creation we have a glorified variation of the widespread Dragon myth. +Unfortunately, however, no trace can be obtained of the pre-existing +Sumerian oral version which the theorizing priests infused with such +sublime symbolism. No doubt it enjoyed as great popularity as the +immemorial legend of Perseus and Andromeda, which the sages of Greece +attempted to rationalize, and parts of which the poets made use of and +developed as these appealed to their imaginations. + +The lost Sumerian story may be summarized as follows: There existed in +the savage wilds, or the ocean, a family of monsters antagonistic to a +group of warriors represented in the Creation legend by the gods. Ea, +the heroic king, sets forth to combat with the enemies of man, and +slays the monster father, Apsu, and his son, Mummu. But the most +powerful demon remains to be dealt with. This is the mother Tiamat, +who burns to avenge the deaths of her kindred. To wage war against her +the hero makes elaborate preparations, and equips himself with special +weapons. The queen of monsters cannot be overcome by ordinary means, +for she has great cunning, and is less vulnerable than were her +husband and son. Although Ea may work spells against her, she is able +to thwart him by working counter spells. Only a hand-to-hand combat +can decide the fray. Being strongly protected by her scaly hide, she +must be wounded either on the under part of her body or through her +mouth by a weapon which will pierce her liver, the seat of life. It +will be noted in this connection that Merodach achieved success by +causing the winds which followed him to distend the monster's jaws, so +that he might be able to inflict the fatal blow and prevent her at the +same time from uttering spells to weaken him. + +This type of story, in which the mother monster is greater and more +powerful than her husband or son, is exceedingly common in Scottish +folklore. In the legend which relates the adventures of "Finn in the +Kingdom of Big Men", the hero goes forth at night to protect his +allies against the attacks of devastating sea monsters. Standing on +the beach, "he saw the sea advancing in fiery kilns and as a darting +serpent.... A huge monster came up, and looking down below where he +(Finn) was, exclaimed, 'What little speck do I see here?'" Finn, aided +by his fairy dog, slew the water monster. On Finn, aided by his fairy +dog, slew the water monster. On the following night a bigger monster, +"the father", came ashore, and he also was slain. But the most +powerful enemy had yet to be dealt with. "The next night a Big Hag +came ashore, and the tooth in the front of her mouth would make a +distaff. 'You killed my husband and son,' she said." Finn acknowledged +that he did, and they began to fight. After a prolonged struggle, in +which Finn was almost overcome, the Hag fell and her head was cut +off.[174] + +The story of "Finlay the Changeling" has similar features. The hero +slew first a giant and then the giant's father. Thereafter the Hag +came against him and exclaimed, "Although with cunning and +deceitfulness you killed my husband last night and my son on the night +before last, I shall certainly kill you to-night." A fierce wrestling +match ensued on the bare rock. The Hag was ultimately thrown down. She +then offered various treasures to ransom her life, including "a gold +sword in my cave", regarding which she says, "never was it drawn to +man or to beast whom it did not overcome".[175] In other Scottish +stories of like character the hero climbs a tree, and says something +to induce the hag to open her mouth, so that he may plunge his weapon +down her throat. + +The Grendel story in _Beowulf_,[176] the Anglo-Saxon epic, is of like +character. A male water monster preys nightly upon the warriors who +sleep in the great hall of King Hrothgar. Beowulf comes over the sea, +as did Finn to the "Kingdom of Big Men", to sky Grendel. He wrestles +with this man-eater and mortally wounds him. Great rejoicings ensue, +but they have to be brought to an abrupt conclusion, because the +mother of Grendel has meanwhile resolved "to go a sorry journey and +avenge the death of her son". + +The narrative sets forth that she enters the Hall in the darkness of +night. "Quickly she grasped one of the nobles tight, and then she went +towards the fen", towards her submarine cave. Beowulf follows in due +course, and, fully armoured, dives through the waters and ultimately +enters the monster's lair. In the combat the "water wife" proves to be +a more terrible opponent than was her son. Indeed, Beowulf was unable +to slay her until he possessed himself of a gigantic sword, "adorned +with treasure", which was hanging in the cave. With this magic weapon +he slays the mother monster, whose poisonous blood afterwards melts +the "damasked blade". Like Finn, he subsequently returns with the head +of one of the monsters. + +An interesting point about this story is that it does not appear in +any form in the North German cycle of Romance. Indeed, the poet who +included in his epic the fiery dragon story, which links the hero +Beowulf with Sigurd and Siegfried, appears to be doubtful about the +mother monster's greatness, as if dealing with unfamiliar material, +for he says: "The terror (caused by Grendel's mother) was less by just +so much as woman's strength, woman's war terror, is (measured) by +fighting men".[177] Yet, in the narrative which follows the Amazon is +proved to be the stronger monster of the two. Traces of the mother +monster survive in English folklore, especially in the traditions +about the mythical "Long Meg of Westminster", referred to by Ben +Jonson in his masque of the "Fortunate Isles": + + Westminster Meg, + With her long leg, + As long as a crane; + And feet like a plane, + With a pair of heels + As broad as two wheels. + +Meg has various graves. One is supposed to be marked by a huge stone +in the south side of the cloisters of Westminster Abbey; it probably +marks the trench in which some plague victims--regarded, perhaps, as +victims of Meg--were interred. Meg was also reputed to have been +petrified, like certain Greek and Irish giants and giantesses. At +Little Salkeld, near Penrith, a stone circle is referred to as "Long +Meg and her Daughters". Like "Long Tom", the famous giant, "Mons Meg" +gave her name to big guns in early times, all hags and giants having +been famous in floating folk tales as throwers of granite boulders, +balls of hard clay, quoits, and other gigantic missiles. + +The stories about Grendel's mother and Long Meg are similar to those +still repeated in the Scottish Highlands. These contrast sharply with +characteristic Germanic legends, in which the giant is greater than +the giantess, and the dragon is a male, like Fafner, who is slain by +Sigurd, and Regin whom Siegfried overcomes. It is probable, therefore, +that the British stories of female monsters who were more powerful +than their husbands and sons, are of Neolithic and Iberian +origin--immemorial relics of the intellectual life of the western +branch of the Mediterranean race. + +In Egypt the dragon survives in the highly developed mythology of the +sun cult of Heliopolis, and, as sun worship is believed to have been +imported, and the sun deity is a male, it is not surprising to find +that the night demon, Apep, was a personification of Set. This god, +who is identical with Sutekh, a Syrian and Asia Minor deity, was +apparently worshipped by a tribe which was overcome in the course of +early tribal struggles in pre-dynastic times. Being an old and +discredited god, he became by a familiar process the demon of the +conquerors. In the eighteenth dynasty, however, his ancient glory was +revived, for the Sutekh of Rameses II figures as the "dragon +slayer".[178] It is in accordance with Mediterranean modes of thought, +however, to find that in Egypt there is a great celestial battle +heroine. This is the goddess Hathor-Sekhet, the "Eye of Ra".[179] +Similarly in India, the post-Vedic goddess Kali is a destroyer, while +as Durga she is a guardian of heroes.[180] Kali, Durga, and +Hathor-Sekhet link with the classical goddesses of war, and also with +the Babylonian Ishtar, who, as has been shown, retained the +outstanding characteristics of Tiamat, the fierce old "Great Mother" +of primitive Sumerian folk religion. + +It is possible that in the Babylonian dragon myth the original hero +was Ea. As much may be inferred from the symbolic references in the +Bible to Jah's victory over the monster of the deep: "Art thou not it +that hath cut Rahab and wounded the dragon?"[181] "Thou brakest the +heads of the dragons in the waters; thou brakest the heads of +leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people +inhabiting the wilderness";[182] "He divideth the sea with his power, +and by his understanding he smiteth through the proud (Rahab). By his +spirit he hath garnished the heavens: his hand hath formed (or +pierced) the crooked serpent";[183] "Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces +as one that is slain: thou hast scattered thine enemies with thy +strong arm";[184] "In that day the Lord with his sore and great and +strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing (or stiff) serpent, +even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that +is in the sea".[185] + +In the Babylonian Creation legend Ea is supplanted as dragon slayer by +his son Merodach. Similarly Ninip took the place of his father, Enlil, +as the champion of the gods. "In other words," writes Dr. Langdon, +"later theology evolved the notion of the son of the earth god, who +acquires the attributes of the father, and becomes the god of war. It +is he who stood forth against the rebellious monsters of darkness, who +would wrest the dominion of the world from the gods who held their +conclave on the mountain. The gods offer him the Tablets of Fate; the +right to utter decrees is given unto him." This development is "of +extreme importance for studying the growth of the idea of father and +son, as creative and active principles of the world".[186] In Indian +mythology Indra similarly takes the place of his bolt-throwing father +Dyaus, the sky god, who so closely resembles Zeus. Andrew Lang has +shown that this myth is of widespread character.[187] Were the +Babylonian theorists guided by the folk-lore clue? + +Now Merodach, as the son of Ea whom he consulted and received spells +from, was a brother of "Tammuz of the Abyss". It seems that in the +great god of Babylon we should recognize one of the many forms of the +primeval corn spirit and patriarch--the shepherd youth who was beloved +by Ishtar. As the deity of the spring sun, Tammuz slew the winter +demons of rain and tempest, so that he was an appropriate spouse for +the goddess of harvest and war. Merodach may have been a development +of Tammuz in his character as a demon slayer. When he was raised to +the position of Bel, "the Lord" by the Babylonian conquerors, Merodach +supplanted the older Bel--Enlil of Nippur. Now Enlil, who had absorbed +all the attributes of rival deities, and become a world god, was the + + Lord of the harvest lands ... lord of the grain fields, + +being "lord of the anunnaki", or "earth spirits". As agriculturists in +early times went to war so as to secure prisoners who could be +sacrificed to feed the corn spirit, Enlil was a god of war and was +adored as such: + + The haughty, the hostile land thou dost humiliate ... + With thee who ventureth to make war? + +He was also "the bull of goring horns ... Enlil the bull", the god of +fertility as well as of battle.[188] + +Asari, one of Merodach's names, links him with Osiris, the Egyptian +Tammuz, who was supplanted by his son Horus. As the dragon slayer, he +recalls, among others, Perseus, the Grecian hero, of whom it was +prophesied that he would slay his grandfather. Perseus, like Tammuz +and Osiris, was enclosed in a chest which was cast into the sea, to be +rescued, however, by a fisherman on the island of Seriphos. This hero +afterwards slew Medusa, one of the three terrible sisters, the +Gorgons--a demon group which links with Tiamat. In time, Perseus +returned home, and while an athletic contest was in progress, he +killed his grandfather with a quoit. There is no evidence, however, to +show that the displacement of Enlil by Merodach had any legendary +sanction of like character. The god of Babylon absorbed all other +deities, apparently for political purposes, and in accordance with the +tendency of the thought of the times, when raised to supreme rank in +the national pantheon; and he was depicted fighting the winged dragon, +flapping his own storm wings, and carrying the thunder weapon +associated with Ramman. + +Merodach's spouse Zer-panitu^m was significantly called "the lady of +the Abyss", a title which connects her with Damkina, the mother, and +Belit-sheri, the sister of Tammuz. Damkina was also a sky goddess like +Ishtar. + +Zer-panitu^m was no pale reflection of her Celestial husband, but a +goddess of sharply defined character with independent powers. +Apparently she was identical with Aruru, creatrix of the seed of +mankind, who was associated with Merodach when the first man and the +first woman were brought into being. Originally she was one of the +mothers in the primitive spirit group, and so identical with Ishtar +and the other prominent goddesses. + +As all goddesses became forms of Ishtar, so did all gods become forms +of Merodach. Sin was "Merodach as illuminator of night", Nergal was +"Merodach of war", Addu (Ramman) was "Merodach of rain", and so on. A +colophon which contains a text in which these identifications are +detailed, appears to be "a copy", says Professor Pinches, "of an old +inscription", which, he thinks, "may go back as far as 2000 B.C. This +is the period at which the name _Yau^m-ilu_, 'Jah is god', is found, +together with references to _ilu_ as the name for the one great god, +and is also, roughly, the date of Abraham, who, it may be noted, was a +Babylonian of Ur of the Chaldees."[189] + +In one of the hymns Merodach is addressed as follows:-- + + Who shall escape from before thy power? + Thy will is an eternal mystery! + Thou makest it plain in heaven + And in the earth, + Command the sea + And the sea obeyeth thee. + Command the tempest + And the tempest becometh a calm. + Command the winding course + Of the Euphrates, + And the will of Merodach + Shall arrest the floods. + Lord, thou art holy! + Who is like unto thee? + Merodach thou art honoured + Among the gods that bear a name. + +The monotheistic tendency, which was a marked feature of Merodach +worship, had previously become pronounced in the worship of Bel Enlil +of Nippur. Although it did not affect the religion of the masses, it +serves to show that among the ancient scholars and thinkers of +Babylonia religious thought had, at an early period, risen far above +the crude polytheism of those who bargained with their deities and +propitiated them with offerings and extravagant flattery, or exercised +over them a magical influence by the performance of seasonal +ceremonies, like the backsliders in Jerusalem, censured so severely by +Jeremiah, who baked cakes to reward the Queen of Heaven for an +abundant harvest, and wept with her for the slain Tammuz when he +departed to Hades. + +Perhaps it was due to the monotheistic tendency, if not to the fusion +of father-worshipping and mother-worshipping peoples, that bi-sexual +deities were conceived of. Nannar, the moon god, was sometimes +addressed as father and mother in one, and Ishtar as a god as well as +a goddess. In Egypt Isis is referred to in a temple chant as "the +woman who was made a male by her father Osiris", and the Nile god Hapi +was depicted as a man with female breasts. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +DEIFIED HEROES: ETANA AND GILGAMESH + + + God and Heroes and the "Seven Sleepers"--Quests of Etana, Gilgamesh, + Hercules, &c.--The Plant of Birth--Eagle carries Etana to + Heaven--Indian Parallel--Flights of Nimrod, Alexander the Great, and + a Gaelic Hero--Eagle as a God--Indian Eagle identified with Gods of + Creation, Fire, Fertility, and Death--Eagle carries Roman Emperor's + Soul to Heaven--Fire and Agricultural Ceremonies--Nimrod of the + _Koran_ and John Barleycorn--Gilgamesh and the Eagle--Sargon-Tammuz + Garden Myth--Ea-bani compared to Pan, Bast, and + Nebuchadnezzar--Exploits of Gilgamesh and Ea-bani--Ishtar's + Vengeance--Gilgamesh journeys to Otherworld--Song of Sea Maiden and + "Lay of the Harper"--Babylonian Noah and the Plant of Life--Teutonic + Parallels--Alexander the Great as Gilgamesh--Water of Life in the + _Koran_--The Indian Gilgamesh and Hercules--The Mountain Tunnel in + various Mythologies--Widespread Cultural Influences. + + +One of the oldest forms of folk stories relates to the wanderings of +a hero in distant regions. He may set forth in search of a fair lady +who has been taken captive, or to obtain a magic herb or stone to +relieve a sufferer, to cure diseases, and to prolong life. Invariably +he is a slayer of dragons and other monsters. A friendly spirit, or a +group of spirits, may assist the hero, who acts according to the +advice given him by a "wise woman", a magician, or a god. The spirits +are usually wild beasts or birds--the "fates" of immemorial folk +belief--and they may either carry the hero on their backs, instruct +him from time to time, or come to his aid when called upon. + +When a great national hero appealed by reason of his achievements to +the imagination of a people, all the floating legends of antiquity +were attached to his memory, and he became identified with gods and +giants and knight-errants "old in story". In Scotland, for instance, +the boulder-throwing giant of Eildon hills bears the name of Wallace, +the Edinburgh giant of Arthur's Seat is called after an ancient Celtic +king,[190] and Thomas the Rhymer takes the place, in an Inverness +fairy mound called Tom-na-hurich, of Finn (Fingal) as chief of the +"Seven Sleepers". Similarly Napoleon sleeps in France and Skobeleff in +Russia, as do also other heroes elsewhere. In Germany the myths of +Thunor (Thor) were mingled with hazy traditions of Theodoric the Goth +(Dietrich), while in Greece, Egypt, and Arabia, Alexander the Great +absorbed a mass of legendary matter of great antiquity, and displaced +in the memories of the people the heroes of other Ages, as those +heroes had previously displaced the humanized spirits of fertility and +growth who alternately battled fiercely against the demons of spring, +made love, gorged and drank deep and went to sleep--the sleep of +winter. Certain folk tales, and the folk beliefs on which they were +based, seem to have been of hoary antiquity before the close of the +Late Stone Age. + +There are two great heroes of Babylonian fame who link with Perseus +and Hercules, Sigurd and Siegfried, Dietrich and Finn-mac-Coul. These +are Etana and Gilgamesh, two legendary kings who resemble Tammuz the +Patriarch referred to by Berosus, a form of Tammuz the Sleeper of the +Sumerian psalms. One journeys to the Nether World to obtain the Plant +of Birth and the other to obtain the Plant of Life. The floating +legends with which they were associated were utilized and developed by +the priests, when engaged in the process of systematizing and +symbolizing religious beliefs, with purpose to unfold the secrets of +creation and the Otherworld. Etana secures the assistance or a giant +eagle who is an enemy of serpents like the Indian Garuda, half giant, +half eagle. As Vishnu, the Indian god, rides on the back of Garuda, so +does Etana ride on the back of the Babylonian Eagle. In one +fragmentary legend which was preserved in the tablet-library of +Ashur-banipal, the Assyrian monarch, Etana obtained the assistance of +the Eagle to go in quest of the Plant of Birth. His wife was about to +become a mother, and was accordingly in need of magical aid. A similar +belief caused birth girdles of straw or serpent skins, and eagle +stones found in eagles' nests, to be used in ancient Britain and +elsewhere throughout Europe apparently from the earliest times.[191] + +On this or another occasion Etana desired to ascend to highest heaven. +He asked the Eagle to assist him, and the bird assented, saying: "Be +glad, my friend. Let me bear thee to the highest heaven. Lay thy +breast on mine and thine arms on my wings, and let my body be as thy +body." Etana did as the great bird requested him, and together they +ascended towards the firmament. After a flight which extended over two +hours, the Eagle asked Etana to gaze downwards. He did so, and beheld +the ocean surrounding the earth, and the earth seemed like a +mountainous island. The Eagle resumed its flight, and when another two +hours had elapsed, it again asked Etana to look downwards. Then the +hero saw that the sea resembled a girdle which clasped the land. Two +hours later Etana found that he had been raised to a height from which +the sea appeared to be no larger than a pond. By this time he had +reached the heaven of Anu, Bel, and Ea, and found there rest and +shelter. + +Here the text becomes fragmentary. Further on it is gathered from the +narrative that Etana is being carried still higher by the Eagle +towards the heaven of Ishtar, "Queen of Heaven", the supreme mother +goddess. Three times, at intervals of two hours, the Eagle asks Etana +to look downwards towards the shrinking earth. Then some disaster +happens, for further onwards the broken tablet narrates that the Eagle +is falling. Down and down eagle and man fall together until they +strike the earth, and the Eagle's body is shattered. + +The Indian Garuda eagle[192] never met with such a fate, but on one +occasion Vishnu overpowered it with his right arm, which was heavier +than the whole universe, and caused many feathers to fall _off_. In +the story of Rama's wanderings, however, as told in the _Ramayana_ and +the _Mahabharata_, there are interesting references in this connection +to Garuda's two "sons". One was mortally wounded by Ravana, the demon +king of Ceylon. The other bird related to Rama, who found it disabled: +"Once upon a time we two (brothers), with the desire of outstripping +each other, flew towards the sun. My wings were burnt, but those of my +brother were not.... I fell down on the top of this great mountain, +where I still am."[193] + +Another version of the Etana story survives among the Arabian Moslems. +In the "Al Fatihat" chapter of the _Koran_ it is related that a +Babylonian king held a dispute with Abraham "concerning his Lord". +Commentators identify the monarch with Nimrod, who afterwards caused +the Hebrew patriarch to be cast into a fire from which he had +miraculous deliverance. Nimrod then built a tower so as to ascend to +heaven "to see Abraham's god", and make war against Him, but the tower +was overthrown. He, however, persisted in his design. The narrative +states that he was "carried to heaven in a chest borne by four +monstrous birds; but after wandering for some time through the air, he +fell down on a mountain with such a force that he made it shake". A +reference in the _Koran_ to "contrivances ... which make mountains +tremble" is believed to allude to Nimrod's vain attempt.[194] + +Alexander the Great was also reputed to have ascended on the back of +an eagle. Among the myths attached to his memory in the Ethiopic +"history" is one which explains how "he knew and comprehended the +length and breadth of the earth", and how he obtained knowledge +regarding the seas and mountains he would have to cross. "He made +himself small and flew through the air on an eagle, and he arrived in +the heights of the heavens and he explored them." Another Alexandrian +version of the Etana myth resembles the Arabic legend of Nimrod. "In +the Country of Darkness" Alexander fed and tamed great birds which +were larger than eagles. Then he ordered four of his soldiers to mount +them. The men were carried to the "Country of the Living", and when +they returned they told Alexander "all that had happened and all that +they had seen".[195] + +In a Gaelic story a hero is carried off by a Cromhineach, "a vast bird +like an eagle". He tells that it "sprang to the clouds with me, and I +was a while that I did not know which was heaven or earth for me". The +hero died, but, curiously enough, remained conscious of what was +happening. Apparently exhausted, the eagle flew to an island in the +midst of the ocean. It laid the hero on the sunny side. The hero +proceeds: "Sleep came upon herself (the eagle) and she slept. The sun +was enlivening me pretty well though I was dead." Afterwards the eagle +bathed in a healing well, and as it splashed in the water, drops fell +on the hero and he came to life. "I grew stronger and more active", he +adds, "than I had ever been before."[196] + +The eagle figures in various mythologies, and appears to have been at +one time worshipped as the god or goddess of fertility, and storm and +lightning, as the bringer of children, and the deity who carried souls +to Hades. It was also the symbol of royalty, because the earthly ruler +represented the controlling deity. Nin-Girsu, the god of Lagash, who +was identified with Tammuz, was depicted as a lion-headed eagle. Zeus, +the Greek sky and air god, was attended by an eagle, and may, at one +time, have been simply an eagle. In Egypt the place of the eagle is +taken by Nekhebit, the vulture goddess whom the Greeks identified with +"Eileithyia, the goddess of birth; she was usually represented as a +vulture hovering over the king".[197] + +The double-headed eagle of the Hittites, which figures in the royal +arms of Germany and Russia, appears to have symbolized the deity of +whom the king was an incarnation or son. In Indian mythology Garuda, +the eagle giant, which destroyed serpents like the Babylonian Etana +eagle, issued from its egg like a flame of fire; its eyes flashed the +lightning and its voice was the thunder. This bird is identified in a +hymn with Agni, god of fire, who has the attributes of Tammuz and +Mithra, with Brahma, the creator, with Indra, god of thunder and +fertility, and with Yama, god of the dead, who carries off souls to +Hades. It is also called "the steed-necked incarnation of Vishnu", the +"Preserver" of the Hindu trinity who rode on its back. The hymn +referred to lauds Garuda as "the bird of life, the presiding spirit of +the animate and inanimate universe ... destroyer of all, creator of +all". It burns all "as the sun in his anger burneth all +creatures".[198] + +Birds were not only fates, from whose movements in flight omens were +drawn, but also spirits of fertility. When the childless Indian sage +Mandapala of the _Mahabharata_ was refused admittance to heaven until +a son was born to him, he "pondered deeply" and "came to know that of +all creatures birds alone were blest with fecundity"; so he became a +bird. + +It is of interest, therefore, to find the Etana eagle figuring as a +symbol of royalty at Rome. The deified Roman Emperor's waxen image was +burned on a pyre after his death, and an eagle was let loose from the +great pile to carry his soul to heaven.[199] This custom was probably +a relic of seasonal fire worship, which may have been introduced into +Northern and Western Syria and Asia Minor by the mysterious Mitanni +rulers, if it was not an archaic Babylonian custom[200] associated +with fire-and-water magical ceremonies, represented in the British +Isles by May-Day and Midsummer fire-and-water festivals. Sandan, the +mythical founder of Tarsus, was honoured each year at that city by +burning a great bonfire, and he was identified with Hercules. Probably +he was a form of Moloch and Melkarth.[201] Doves were burned to +Adonis. The burning of straw figures, representing gods of fertility, +on May-Day bonfires may have been a fertility rite, and perhaps +explains the use of straw birth-girdles. + +According to the commentators of the _Koran_, Nimrod, the Babylonian +king, who cast victims in his annual bonfires at Cuthah, died on the +eighth day of the Tammuz month, which, according to the Syrian +calendar, fell on 13th July.[202] It is related that gnats entered +Nimrod's brain, causing the membrane to grow larger. He suffered great +pain, and to relieve it had his head beaten with a mallet. Although he +lived for several hundred years, like other agricultural patriarchs, +including the Tammuz of Berosus, it is possible that he was ultimately +sacrificed and burned. The beating of Nimrod recalls the beating of +the corn spirit of the agricultural legend utilized by Burns in his +ballad of "John Barleycorn", which gives a jocular account of +widespread ancient customs that are not yet quite extinct even in +Scotland:[203] + + They laid him down upon his back + And cudgelled him full sore; + They hung him up before a storm + And turned him o'er and o'er. + + They filled up a darksome pit + With water to the brim, + They heaved in John Barleycorn-- + There let him sink or swim. + + They wasted o'er a scorching flame + The marrow of his bones, + But the miller used him worst of all, + For he crushed him between two stones. + +Hercules, after performing many mythical exploits, had himself burned +alive on the pyre which he built upon Mount Oeta, and was borne to +Olympus amidst peals of thunder. + +Gilgamesh, the Babylonian Hercules, who links with Etana, Nimrod, and +Sandan, is associated with the eagle, which in India, as has been +shown, was identified with the gods of fertility, fire, and death. +According to a legend related by Aelian,[204] "the guards of the +citadel of Babylon threw down to the ground a child who had been +conceived and brought forth in secret, and who afterwards became known +as Gilgamos". This appears to be another version of the Sargon-Tammuz +myth, and may also refer to the sacrifice of children to Melkarth and +Moloch, who were burned or slain "in the valleys under the clefts of +the rocks"[205] to ensure fertility and feed the corn god. Gilgamesh, +however, did not perish. "A keen-eyed eagle saw the child falling, and +before it touched the ground the bird flew under it and received it on +its back, and carried it away to a garden and laid it down gently." +Here we have, it would appear, Tammuz among the flowers, and Sargon, +the gardener, in the "Garden of Adonis". Mimic Adonis gardens were +cultivated by women. Corn, &c., was forced in pots and baskets, and +thrown, with an image of the god, into streams. "Ignorant people", +writes Professor Frazer, "suppose that by mimicking the effect which +they desire to produce they actually help to produce it: thus by +sprinkling water they make rain, by lighting a fire they make +sunshine, and so on."[206] Evidently Gilgamesh was a heroic form of +the god Tammuz, the slayer of the demons of winter and storm, who +passed one part of the year in the world and another in Hades (Chapter +VI). + +Like Hercules, Gilgamesh figured chiefly in legendary narrative as a +mighty hero. He was apparently of great antiquity, so that it is +impossible to identify him with any forerunner of Sargon of Akkad, or +Alexander the Great. His exploits were depicted on cylinder seals of +the Sumerian period, and he is shown wrestling with a lion as Hercules +wrestled with the monstrous lion in the valley of Nemea. The story of +his adventures was narrated on twelve clay tablets, which were +preserved in the library of Ashur-banipal, the Assyrian emperor. In +the first tablet, which is badly mutilated, Gilgamesh is referred to +as the man who beheld the world, and had great wisdom because he +peered into the mysteries. He travelled to distant places, and was +informed regarding the flood and the primitive race which the gods +destroyed; he also obtained the plant of life, which his enemy, the +earth-lion, in the form of a serpent or well demon, afterwards carried +away. + +Gilgamesh was associated with Erech, where he reigned as "the lord". +There Ishtar had a great temple, but her worldly wealth had decreased. +The fortifications of the city were crumbling, and for three years the +Elamites besieged it. The gods had turned to flies and the winged +bulls had become like mice. Men wailed like wild beasts and maidens +moaned like doves. Ultimately the people prayed to the goddess Aruru +to create a liberator. Bel, Shamash, and Ishtar also came to their +aid. + +Aruru heard the cries of her worshippers. She dipped her hands in +water and then formed a warrior with clay. He was named Ea-bani, which +signifies "Ea is my creator". It is possible, therefore, that an +ancient myth of Eridu forms the basis of the narrative. + +Ea-bani is depicted on the cylinder seals as a hairy man-monster +resembling the god Pan. He ate grass with the gazelles and drank water +with wild beasts, and he is compared to the corn god, which suggests +that he was an early form of Tammuz, and of character somewhat +resembling the Egyptian Bast, the half-bestial god of fertility. A +hunter was sent out from Erech to search for the man-monster, and +found him beside a stream in a savage place drinking with his +associates, the wild animals. The description of Ea-bani recalls that +of Nebuchadnezzar when he was stricken with madness. "He was driven +from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew +of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers, and his +nails like birds' claws."[207] + +The hunter had no desire to combat with Ea-bani, so he had him lured +from the wilds by a beautiful woman. Love broke the spell which kept +Ea-bani in his savage state, and the wild beasts fled from him. Then +the temptress pleaded with him to go with her to Erech, where Anu and +Ishtar had their temples, and the mighty Gilgamesh lived in his +palace. Ea-bani, deserted by his bestial companions, felt lonely and +desired human friendship. So he consented to accompany his bride. +Having heard of Gilgamesh from the hunter, he proposed to test his +strength in single combat, but Shamash, god of the sun, warned Ea-bani +that he was the protector of Gilgamesh, who had been endowed with +great knowledge by Bel and Anu and Ea. Gilgamesh was also counselled +in a vision of night to receive Ea-bani as an ally. + +Ea-bani was not attracted by city life and desired to return to the +wilds, but Shamash prevailed upon him to remain as the friend of +Gilgamesh, promising that he would be greatly honoured and exalted to +high rank. + +The two heroes became close friends, and when the narrative becomes +clear again, they are found to be setting forth to wage war against +Chumbaba,[208] the King of Elam. Their journey was long and perilous. +In time they entered a thick forest, and wondered greatly at the +numerous and lofty cedars. They saw the great road which the king had +caused to be made, the high mountain, and the temple of the god. +Beautiful were the trees about the mountain, and there were many shady +retreats that were fragrant and alluring. + +At this point the narrative breaks off, for the tablet is mutilated. +When it is resumed a reference is made to "the head of Chumbaba", who +has apparently been slain by the heroes. Erech was thus freed from the +oppression of its fierce enemy. + +Gilgamesh and Ea-bani appear to have become prosperous and happy. But +in the hour of triumph a shadow falls. Gilgamesh is robed in royal +splendour and wears his dazzling crown. He is admired by all men, but +suddenly it becomes known that the goddess Ishtar has been stricken +with love for him. She "loved him with that love which was his doom". +Those who are loved by celestials or demons become, in folk tales, +melancholy wanderers and "night wailers". The "wretched wight" in +Keats' "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" is a typical example. + + O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, + Alone and palely loitering? + The sedge is withered from the lake + And no birds sing. + + * * * * * + + I met a lady in the meads, + Full beautiful--a faery's child; + Her hair was long, her foot was light, + And her eyes were wild. + + * * * * * + + She found me roots of relish sweet, + And honey wild and manna dew; + And sure in language strange she said, + "I love thee true". + +Having kissed her lover to sleep, the fairy woman vanished. The +"knight" then saw in a dream the ghosts of knights and warriors, her +previous victims, who warned him of his fate. + + I saw their starved lips in the gloam, + With horrid warning gaped wide; + And I awoke and found me here + On the cold hill's side. + +The goddess Ishtar appeared as "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" before +Gilgamesh and addressed him tenderly, saying: "Come, O Gilgamesh, and +be my consort. Gift thy strength unto me. Be thou my husband and I +will be thy bride. Thou shalt have a chariot of gold and lapis lazuli +with golden wheels and gem-adorned. Thy steeds shall be fair and white +and powerful. Into my dwelling thou shalt come amidst the fragrant +cedars. Every king and every prince will bow down before thee, O +Gilgamesh, to kiss thy feet, and all people will become subject unto +thee." + +Gilgamesh feared the fate which would attend him as the lover of +Ishtar, and made answer saying: "To what husband hast thou ever +remained faithful? Each year Tammuz, the lover of thy youth, is caused +by thee to weep. Thou didst love the Allala bird and then broke his +wings, and he moans in the woods crying, 'O my wings!' Thou didst love +the lion and then snared him. Thou didst love the horse, and then laid +harness on him and made him gallop half a hundred miles so that he +suffered great distress, and thou didst oppress his mother Silili. +Thou didst love a shepherd who sacrificed kids unto thee, and then +thou didst smite him so that he became a jackal (or leopard); his own +herd boy drove him away and his dogs rent him in pieces. Thou didst +love Ishullanu, the gardener of Anu, who made offerings unto thee, and +then smote him so that he was unable to move. Alas! if thou wouldst +love me, my fate would be like unto the fates of those on whom thou +hast laid affliction." + +Ishtar's heart was filled with wrath when she heard the words which +Gilgamesh had spoken, and she prevailed upon her father Anu to create +a fierce bull which she sent against the lord of Erech. + +This monster, however, was slain by Gilgamesh[209] and Ea-bani, but +their triumph was shortlived. Ishtar cursed Gilgamesh. Ea-bani then +defied her and threatened to deal with her as he had dealt with the +bull, with the result that he was cursed by the goddess also. + +Gilgamesh dedicated the horns of the bull to Shamash and returned with +his friend to Erech, where they were received with great rejoicings. A +festival was held, and afterwards the heroes lay down to sleep. Then +Ea-bani dreamt a dream of ill omen. He met his death soon afterwards, +apparently in a battle, and Gilgamesh lamented over him. From the +surviving fragments of the narrative it would appear that Gilgamesh +resolved to undertake a journey, for he had been stricken by disease. +He wept and cried out, "Oh! let me not die like Ea-bani, for death is +fearful. I will seek the aid of mine ancestor, Pir-napishtim"--the +Babylonian Noah, who was believed to be dwelling on an island which +corresponds to the Greek "Island of the Blessed". The Babylonian +island lay in the ocean of the Nether World. + +It seems that Gilgamesh not only hoped to obtain the Water of Life and +the Plant of Life to cure his own disease, but also to restore to life +his dead friend, Ea-bani, whom he loved. + +Gilgamesh set out on his journey and in time reached a mountain chasm. +Gazing on the rugged heights, he beheld fierce lions and his heart +trembled. Then he cried upon the moon god, who took pity upon him, and +under divine protection the hero pressed onward. He crossed the rocky +range and then found himself confronted by the tremendous mountain of +Mashi--"Sunset hill", which divided the land of the living from the +western land of the dead. The mountain peak rose to heaven, and its +foundations were in Aralu, the Underworld.[210] A dark tunnel pierced +it and could be entered through a door, but the door was shut and on +either side were two monsters of horrible aspect--the gigantic +"scorpion man" and his wife, whose heads reached to the clouds. When +Gilgamesh beheld them he swooned with terror. But they did him no +harm, perceiving that he was a son of a god and had a body like a god. + +When Gilgamesh revived, he realized that the monsters regarded him +with eyes of sympathy. Addressing the scorpion giant, he told that he +desired to visit his ancestor, Pir-napishtim, who sat in the council +of the gods and had divine attributes. The giant warned him of the +dangers which he would encounter, saying that the mountain passage was +twelve miles long and beamless and black. Gilgamesh, however, resolved +to encounter any peril, for he was no longer afraid, and he was +allowed to go forward. So he entered through the monster-guarded +mountain door and plunged into thick unbroken darkness. For twice +twelve hours he groped blindly onward, until he saw a ray of light. +Quickening his steps, he then escaped from the dreadful tunnel and +once more rejoiced in the rays of the sun. He found himself in an +enchanted garden, and in the midst of it he saw a divine and beautiful +tree towards which he hastened. On its gleaming branches hung clusters +of precious stones and its leaves were of lapis lazuli. His eyes were +dazzled, but he did not linger there. Passing many other wonderful +trees, he came to a shoreland, and he knew that he was drawing nigh to +the Sea of Death. The country which he entered was ruled over by the +sea lady whose name was Sabitu. When she saw the pilgrim drawing nigh, +she entered her palace and shut the door. + +Gilgamesh called out requesting that he should be allowed to enter, +and mingled his entreaties with threats to break open the door. In the +end Sabitu appeared and spoke, saying: + + Gilgamesh, whither hurriest thou? + The life that thou seekest thou wilt not find. + When the gods created man + They fixed death for mankind. + Life they took in their own hand. + Thou, O Gilgamesh, let thy belly be filled! + Day and night be merry, + Daily celebrate a feast, + Day and night dance and make merry! + Clean be thy clothes, + Thy head be washed, bathe in water! + Look joyfully on the child that grasps thy hand, + Be happy with the wife in thine arms![211] + +This is the philosophy of the Egyptian "Lay of the Harper". The +following quotations are from two separate versions:-- + + How rests this just prince! + The goodly destiny befalls, + The bodies pass away + Since the time of the god, + And generations come into their places. + + * * * * * + + (Make) it pleasant for thee to follow thy desire + While thou livest. + Put myrrh upon thy head, + And garments on thee of fine linen.... + Celebrate the glad day, + Be not weary therein.... + Thy sister (wife) who dwells in thy heart. + She sits at thy side. + Put song and music before thee, + Behind thee all evil things, + And remember thou (only) joy.[212] + +Jastrow contrasts the Babylonian poem with the following quotation +from Ecclesiastes:-- + + Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with + a merry heart.... Let thy garments be always white; and + let thy head lack no ointment. Live joyfully with the wife whom + thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he [God] + hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for + that + is thy portion in this life, and in thy labour which thou takest + under the sun.[213] + +"The pious Hebrew mind", Jastrow adds, "found the corrective to this +view of life in the conception of a stern but just God, acting +according to self-imposed standards of right and wrong, whose rule +extends beyond the grave." The final words of the Preacher are, "Fear +God and keep his commandments".[214] + +Gilgamesh did not accept the counsel of the fatalistic sea lady. He +asked her how he could reach Pir-napishtim, his ancestor, saying he +was prepared to cross the Sea of Death: if he could not cross it he +would die of grief. + +Sabitu answered him, saying: "O Gilgamesh, no mortal is ferried over +this great sea. Who can pass over it save Shamash alone? The way is +full of peril. O Gilgamesh, how canst thou battle against the billows +of death?" + +At length, however, the sea lady revealed to the pilgrim that he might +obtain the aid of the sailor, Arad Ea, who served his ancestor +Pir-napishtim. + +Gilgamesh soon found where Arad Ea dwelt, and after a time prevailed +upon him to act as ferryman. Arad Ea required a helm for his boat, and +Gilgamesh hastened to fashion one from a tree. When it was fixed on, +the boat was launched and the voyage began. Terrible experiences were +passed through as they crossed the Sea of Death, but at length they +drew nigh to the "Island of the Blessed" on which dwelt Pir-napishtim +and his wife. Wearied by his exertions and wasted by disease, +Gilgamesh sat resting in the boat. He did not go ashore. + +Pir-napishtim had perceived the vessel crossing the Sea of Death and +marvelled greatly. + +The story is unfortunately interrupted again, but it appears that +Gilgamesh poured into the ears of his ancestor the tale of his +sufferings, adding that he feared death and desired to escape his +fate. + +Pir-napishtim made answer, reminding the pilgrim that all men must +die. Men built houses, sealed contracts, disputed one with another, +and sowed seeds in the earth, but as long as they did so and the +rivers rose in flood, so long would their fate endure. Nor could any +man tell when his hour would come. The god of destiny measured out the +span of life: he fixed the day of death, but never revealed his +secrets. + +Gilgamesh then asked Pir-napishtim how it chanced that he was still +alive. "Thou hast suffered no change," he said, "thou art even as I +am. Harden not thy heart against me, but reveal how thou hast obtained +divine life in the company of the gods." + +Pir-napishtim thereupon related to his descendant the story of the +deluge, which is dealt with fully in the next chapter. The gods had +resolved to destroy the world, and Ea in a dream revealed unto +Pir-napishtim how he could escape. He built a ship which was tossed +about on the waters, and when the world had been destroyed, Bel +discovered him and transported him to that island in the midst of the +Sea of Death. + +Gilgamesh sat in the boat listening to the words of his ancestor. When +the narrative was ended, Pir-napishtim spoke sympathetically and said: +"Who among the gods will restore thee to health, O Gilgamesh? Thou +hast knowledge of my life, and thou shalt be given the life thou dost +strive after. Take heed, therefore, to what I say unto thee. For six +days and seven nights thou shalt not lie down, but remain sitting like +one in the midst of grief."[215] + +Gilgamesh sat in the ship, and sleep enveloped him like to a black +storm cloud. + +Pir-napishtim spoke to his wife and said: "Behold the hero who +desireth to have life. Sleep envelops him like to a black storm +cloud." + +To that lone man his wife made answer: "Lay thine hand upon him so +that he may have perfect health and be enabled to return to his own +land. Give him power to pass through the mighty door by which he +entered." + +Then Pir-napishtim addressed his wife, saying: "His sufferings make me +sad. Prepare thou for him the magic food, and place it near his head." + +On the day when Gilgamesh lay down, the food was prepared by seven +magic processes, and the woman administered it while yet he slept. +Then Pir-napishtim touched him, and he awoke full of life. + +Gilgamesh spake unto Pir-napishtim and said: "I was suddenly overcome +by sleep.... But thou didst awaken me by touching me, even thou.... +Lo! I am bewitched. What hast thou done unto thy servant?" + +Then Pir-napishtim told Gilgamesh that he had been given to eat of the +magic food. Afterwards he caused Arad Ea to carry Gilgamesh to a +fountain of healing, where his disease-stricken body was cleansed. The +blemished skin fell from him, and he was made whole. + +Thereafter Gilgamesh prepared to return to his own land. Ere he bade +farewell, however, Pir-napishtim revealed unto him the secret of a +magic plant which had power to renew life and give youth and strength +unto those who were old. + +Arad Ea conducted the hero to the island where the plant grew, and +when Gilgamesh found it he rejoiced, and said that he would carry it +to Erech, his own city, where he would partake of it and restore his +youth. + +So Gilgamesh and Arad Ea went on their way together, nor paused until +they came to a well of pure water. The hero stooped down to draw +water.[216] But while he was thus engaged that demon, the Earth Lion, +crept forth as a serpent, and, seizing the magic plant of life, +carried it away. Stricken with terror, Gilgamesh uttered a curse. Then +he sat down and wept bitterly, and the tears streamed over his face. +To Arad Ea he spake, saying: "Why has my health been restored to me? +Why should I rejoice because that I live? The benefit which I should +have derived for myself has now fallen to the Earth Lion." + +The two travellers then resumed their journey, performing religious +acts from time to time; chanting dirges and holding feasts for the +dead, and at length Gilgamesh returned to Erech. He found that the +city walls were crumbling, and he spake regarding the ceremonies which +had been performed while yet he was in a far-distant country. + +During the days which followed Gilgamesh sorrowed for his lost friend +Ea-bani, whose spirit was in the Underworld, the captive of the +spirits of death. "Thou canst not draw thy bow now," he cried, "nor +raise the battle shout. Thou canst not kiss the woman thou hast loved; +thou canst not kiss the child thou hast loved, nor canst thou smite +those whom thou hast hated." + +In vain Gilgamesh appealed to his mother goddess to restore Ea-bani to +him. Then he turned to the gods, and Ea heard him. Thereafter Nergal, +god of death, caused the grave to yawn, and the spirit of Ea-bani +arose like a wind gust. + +Gilgamesh, still dreading death, spoke to the ghost of his friend, +saying: "Tell me, my friend, O tell me regarding the land in which +thou dost dwell." + +Ea-bani made answer sorrowfully: "Alas! I cannot tell thee, my friend. +If I were to tell thee all, thou wouldst sit down and weep." + +Said Gilgamesh: "Let me sit down and weep, but tell me regarding the +land of spirits." + +The text is mutilated here, but it can be gathered that Ea-bani +described the land where ill-doers were punished, where the young were +like the old, where the worm devoured, and dust covered all. But the +state of the warrior who had been given burial was better than that of +the man who had not been buried, and had no one to lament or care for +him. "He who hath been slain in battle," the ghost said, "reposeth on +a couch drinking pure water--one slain in battle as thou hast seen and +I have seen. His head is supported by his parents: beside him sits his +wife. His spirit doth not haunt the earth. But the spirit of that man +whose corpse has been left unburied and uncared for, rests not, but +prowls through the streets eating scraps of food, the leavings of the +feast, and drinking the dregs of vessels." + +So ends the story of Gilgamesh in the form which survives to us. + +The journey of Gilgamesh to the Island of the Blessed recalls the +journeys made by Odin, Hermod, Svipdag, Hotherus and others to the +Germanic Hela. When Hermod went to search for Balder, as the Prose +Edda relates, he rode through thick darkness for nine days and nine +nights ere he crossed the mountains. As Gilgamesh met Sabitu, Hermod +met Modgudur, "the maiden who kept the bridge" over the river Gjoll. +Svipdag, according to a Norse poem, was guided like the Babylonian +hero by the moon god, Gevar, who instructed him what way he should +take to find the irresistible sword. Saxo's Hother, who is instructed +by "King Gewar", crosses dismal mountains "beset with extraordinary +cold".[217] Thorkill crosses a stormy ocean to the region of perpetual +darkness, where the ghosts of the dead are confined in loathsome and +dusty caves. At the main entrance "the door posts were begrimed with +the soot of ages".[218] In the _Elder Edda_ Svipdag is charmed against +the perils he will be confronted by as he fares "o'er seas mightier +than men do know", or is overtaken by night "wandering on the misty +way ".[219] When Odin "downward rode into Misty Hel" he sang spells at +a "witch's grave", and the ghost rose up to answer his questions +regarding Balder. "Tell me tidings of Hel", he addressed her, as +Gilgamesh addressed the ghost of Ea-bani. + +In the mythical histories of Alexander the Great, the hero searches +for the Water of Life, and is confronted by a great mountain called +Musas (Mashti). A demon stops him and says; "O king, thou art not able +to march through this mountain, for in it dwelleth a mighty god who is +like unto a monster serpent, and he preventeth everyone who would go +unto him." In another part of the narrative Alexander and his army +arrive at a place of darkness "where the blackness is not like the +darkness of night, but is like unto the mists and clouds which descend +at the break of day". A servant uses a shining jewel stone, which Adam +had brought from Paradise, to guide him, and found the well. He drank +of the "waters of life" and bathed in them, with the result that he +was strengthened and felt neither hunger nor thirst. When he came out +of the well "all the flesh of his body became bluish-green and his +garments likewise bluish-green". Apparently he assumed the colour of +supernatural beings. Rama of India was blue, and certain of his monkey +allies were green, like the fairies of England and Scotland. This +fortunate man kept his secret. His name was Matun, but he was +afterwards nicknamed "'El-Khidr', that is to say, 'Green'". What +explanation he offered for his sudden change of appearance has not +been recorded.[220] It is related that when Matun reached the Well of +Life a dried fish which he dipped in the water was restored to life +and swam away. In the _Koran_ a similar story is told regarding Moses +and Joshua, who travelled "for a long space of time" to a place where +two seas met. "They forgot their fish which they had taken with them, +and the fish took its way freely to the sea." The Arabian commentators +explain that Moses once agreed to the suggestion that he was the +wisest of men. In a dream he was directed to visit Al Khedr, who was +"more knowing than he", and to take a fish with him in a basket. On +the seashore Moses fell asleep, and the fish, which had been roasted, +leapt out of the basket into the sea. Another version sets forth that +Joshua, "making the ablution at the fountain of life", some of the +water happened to be sprinkled on the fish, which immediately leapt +up.[221] + +The Well of Life is found in Fingalian legends. When Diarmid was +mortally wounded by the boar, he called upon Finn to carry water to +him from the well: + + Give me a draught from thy palms, O Finn, + Son of my king for my succour, + For my life and my dwelling. + + _Campbell's West Highland Tales_, vol. iii, 80. + +The quest of the plant, flower, or fruit of life is referred to in +many folk tales. In the _Mahabharata_, Bhima, the Indian Gilgamesh or +Hercules, journeys to north-eastern Celestial regions to find the lake +of the god Kuvera (Kubera), on which grow the "most beautiful and +unearthly lotuses", which restore health and give strength to the +weary. As Gilgamesh meets with Pir-napishtim, who relates the story of +the Deluge which destroyed the "elder race", Bhima meets with Hanuman, +who informs him regarding the Ages of the Universe and the races which +were periodically destroyed by deluges. When Bhima reaches the lotus +lake he fights with demons. To heal his wounds and recover strength he +plunges into the lake. "As he drank of the waters, like unto nectar, +his energy and strength were again fully restored."[222] + +Hercules similarly sets out to search for the golden apples which grow +in + + those Hesperian gardens famed of old, + Fortunate fields, and groves and flowery vales. + +As Bhima slew Yakshas which guarded the lotuses, Hercules slew Ladon, +the guardian of the apples. Other heroes kill treasure-protecting +dragons of various kinds. + +There is a remarkable resemblance between the Babylonian account of +Gilgamesh's journey through the mountain tunnel to the garden and +seashore, and the Indian story of the demigod Hanuman passing through +the long cavern to the shoreland palace of the female ascetic, when he +was engaged searching for Sita, the wife of Rama, who had been carried +away by Ravana, the demon king of Ceylon. In the version of the latter +narrative which is given in the _Mahabharata_, Hanuman says: "I bring +thee good news, O Rama; for Janaka's daughter hath been seen by me. +Having searched the southern region with all its hills, forests, and +mines for some time, we became very weary. At length we beheld a great +cavern. And having beheld it, we entered that cavern which extended +over many _yojanas_. It was dark and deep, and overgrown with trees +and infested by worms. And having gone a great way through it, we came +upon sunshine and beheld a beautiful palace. It was the abode of the +Daitya (sea demon) Maya. And there we beheld a female ascetic named +Parbhavati engaged in ascetic austerities. And she gave us food and +drink of various kinds. And having refreshed ourselves therewith and +regained our strength, we proceeded along the way shown by her. At +last we came out of the cavern and beheld the briny sea, and on its +shores, the _Sahya_, the _Malaya_, and the great _Dardura_ mountains. +And ascending the mountains of _Malaya_, we beheld before us the vast +ocean (or, "the abode of Varuna"). And beholding it, we felt sorely +grieved in mind.... We despaired of returning with our lives.... We +then sat together, resolved to die there of starvation." + +Hanuman and his friends, having had, so far, experiences similar to +those of Gilgamesh, next discovered the eagle giant which had burned +its wings when endeavouring to soar to the sun. This great bird, which +resembles the Etana eagle, expressed the opinion that Sita was in +Lanka (Ceylon), whither she must have been carried by Ravana. But no +one dared to cross the dangerous ocean. Hanuman at length, however, +obtained the assistance of Vayu, the wind god, his divine father, and +leapt over the sea, slaying monsters as he went. He discovered where +the fair lady was concealed by the king of demons.[223] + +The dark tunnel is met with in many British stories of daring heroes +who set out to explore it, but never return. In the Scottish versions +the adventurers are invariably pipers who are accompanied by dogs. The +sound of the pipes is heard for a time; then the music ceases +suddenly, and shortly afterwards the dog returns without a hair upon +its body. It has evidently been in conflict with demons. + +The tunnel may run from a castle to the seashore, from a cave on one +side of a hill to a cave on the other, or from a seashore cave to a +distant island. + +It is possible that these widespread tunnel stories had origin among +the cave dwellers of the Palaeolithic Age, who believed that deep +caverns were the doors of the underground retreats of dragons and +giants and other supernatural enemies of mankind. + +In Babylonia, as elsewhere, the priests utilized the floating material +from which all mythologies were framed, and impressed upon it the +stamp of their doctrines. The symbolized stories were afterwards +distributed far and wide, as were those attached to the memory of +Alexander the Great at a later period. Thus in many countries may be +found at the present day different versions of immemorial folk tales, +which represent various stages of culture, and direct and indirect +contact at different periods with civilizations that have stirred the +ocean of human thought, and sent their ideas rippling in widening +circles to far-distant shores. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +DELUGE LEGEND, THE ISLAND OF THE BLESSED, AND HADES + + + Babylonian Story of the Flood--The Two Immortals on the Island of + the Blessed--Deluge Legends in the Old and New Worlds--How + Babylonian Culture reached India--Theory of Cosmic + Periods--Gilgamesh resembles the Indian Yama and Persian + Yimeh--Links with Varuna and Mitra--The Great Winter in Persian and + Teutonic Mythologies--Babylonian Hades compared with the Egyptian, + Greek, Indian, Teutonic, and Celtic Otherworlds--Legend of Nergal + and the Queen of Death--Underworld originally the Grave--Why + Weapons, &c., were Buried with the Dead--Japanese and Roman + Beliefs--Palaeolithic Burial Customs--"Our Graves are our + Houses"--Importance of Babylonian Funerary Ceremonies--Doctrine of + Eternal Bliss in Egypt and India--Why Suppressed in Babylonia--Heavy + Burial Fees--Various Burial Customs. + + +The story of the Deluge which was related to Gilgamesh by +Pir-napishtim runs as follows:-- + +"Hear me, O Gilgamesh, and I will make revelation regarding the hidden +doings of the high gods. As thou knowest, the city of Shurippak is +situated upon the bank of the Euphrates. The gods were within it: +there they assembled together in council. Anu, the father, was there, +and Bel the counsellor and warrior, Ninip the messenger, and Ennugi +the governor. Ea, the wise lord, sat also with them. In their hearts +the gods agreed together to send a great deluge. + +"Thereafter Ea made known the purpose of the divine rulers in the hut +of reeds, saying:[224] 'O hut of reeds, hear; O wall, understand ... O +man of Shurippak, son of Umbara Tutu, tear down thy house and build a +ship; leave all thou dost possess and save thy life, and preserve in +the ship the living seed of every kind. The ship that thou wilt build +must be of goodly proportions in length and height. It must be floated +on the great deep.' + +"I heard the command of Ea and understood, and I made answer, saying, +'O wise lord, as thou hast said so will I do, for thy counsel is most +excellent. But how shall I give reason for my doings to the young men +and the elders?' + +"Ea opened his mouth and said unto me, his servant: 'What thou shalt +say unto them is this.... _It hath been revealed unto me that Bel doth +hate me, therefore I cannot remain any longer in his domain, this city +of Shurippak, so I must depart unto the domain of Ea and dwell with +him.... Unto you will Bel send abundance of rain, so that you may +obtain birds and fishes in plenty and have a rich harvest. But Shamash +hath appointed a time for Ramman to pour down destruction from the +heavens._'"[225] + +Ea then gave instructions to Pir-napishtim how to build the ship in +which he should find refuge. So far as can be gathered from the +fragmentary text, it appears that this vessel was to have a deck house +six stories high, with nine apartments in each story. According to +another account, Ea drew a plan of the great ship upon the sand. + +Pir-napishtim set to work and made a flat-bottomed vessel, which was +120 cubits wide and 120 cubits in height. He smeared it with bitumen +inside and pitch outside; and on the seventh day it was ready. Then he +carried out Ea's further instructions. Continuing his narrative to +Gilgamesh, he said: + +"I gathered together all that I possessed, my silver and gold and +seeds of every kind, and my goods also. These I placed in the ship. +Then I caused to go aboard all my family and house servants, the +animals of the field and the beasts of the field and the +workers--every one of them I sent up. + +"The god Shamash appointed the time, saying: 'I will cause the Night +Lord to send much rain and bring destruction. Then enter thou the ship +and shut thy door.' + +"At the appointed time the Night Lord sent at even-time much rain. I +saw the beginning of the deluge and I was afraid to look up. I entered +the ship and shut the door. I appointed Buzur-Kurgala, the sailor, to +be captain, and put under his command the great vessel and all that it +contained. + +"At the dawn of day I saw rising athwart the heavens a dark cloud, and +in the midst of it Ramman thundered. Nebo and Merodach went in front, +speeding like emissaries over hills and plains. The cables of the ship +were let loose. + +"Then Ninip, the tempest god, came nigh, and the storm broke in fury +before him. All the earth spirits leapt up with flaming torches and +the whole land was aflare. The thunder god swept over the heavens, +blotting out the sunlight and bringing thick darkness. Rain poured +down the whole day long, and the earth was covered with water; the +rivers were swollen; the land was in confusion; men stumbled about in +the darkness, battling with the elements. Brothers were unable to see +brothers; no man could recognize his friends.... The spirits above +looked down and beheld the rising flood and were afraid: they fled +away, and in the heaven of Anu they crouched like to hounds in the +protecting enclosures. + +"In time Ishtar, the lady of the gods, cried out distressfully, +saying: 'The elder race hath perished and turned to clay because that +I have consented to evil counsel in the assembly of the gods. Alas! I +have allowed my people to be destroyed. I gave being to man, but where +is he? Like the offspring of fish he cumbers the deep.' + +"The earth spirits were weeping with Ishtar: they sat down cowering +with tightened lips and spake not; they mourned in silence. + +"Six days and six nights went past, and the tempest raged over the +waters which gradually covered the land. But when the seventh day +came, the wind fell, the whirling waters grew peaceful, and the sea +retreated. The storm was over and the rain of destruction had ceased. +I looked forth. I called aloud over the waters. But all mankind had +perished and turned to clay. Where fields had been I saw marshes only. + +"Then I opened wide the window of the ship, and the sunlight suffused +my countenance. I was dazzled and sank down weeping and the tears +streamed over my face. Everywhere I looked I saw water. + +"At length, land began to appear. The ship drifted towards the country +of Nitsir, and then it was held fast by the mountain of Nitsir. Six +days went past and the ship remained stedfast. On the seventh day I +sent forth a dove, and she flew away and searched this way and that, +but found no resting place, so she returned. I then sent forth a +swallow, and she returned likewise. Next I sent forth a raven, and she +flew away. She saw that the waters were shrinking, and gorged and +croaked and waded, but did not come back. Then I brought forth all the +animals into the air of heaven. + +"An offering I made on the mountain. I poured out a libation. I set up +incense vessels seven by seven on heaped-up reeds and used cedar wood +with incense. The gods smelt the sweet savour, and they clustered like +flies about the sacrificer. + +"Thereafter Ishtar (Sirtu) drew nigh. Lifting up the jewels, which the +god Anu had fashioned for her according to her desire, she spake, +saying: 'Oh! these gods! I vow by the lapis lazuli gems upon my neck +that I will never forget! I will remember these days for ever and +ever. Let all the gods come hither to the offering, save Bel (Enlil) +alone, because that he ignored my counsel, and sent a great deluge +which destroyed my people.' + +"But Bel Enlil came also, and when he beheld the ship he paused. His +heart was filled with wrath against the gods and the spirits of +heaven. Angrily he spake and said: 'Hath one escaped? It was decreed +that no human being should survive the deluge.' + +"Ninip, son of Bel, spoke, saying: 'Who hath done this save Ea alone? +He knoweth all things.' + +"Ea, god of the deep, opened his mouth and said unto the warrior Bel: +'Thou art the lord of the gods, O warrior. But thou wouldst not +hearken to my counsel and caused the deluge to be. Now punish the +sinner for his sins and the evil doer for his evil deed, but be +merciful and do not destroy all mankind. May there never again be a +flood. Let the lion come and men will decrease. May there never again +be a flood. Let the leopard come and men will decrease. May there +never again be a flood. Let famine come upon the land; let Ura, god of +pestilence, come and snatch off mankind.... I did not reveal the +secret purpose of the mighty gods, but I caused Atra-chasis +(Pir-napishtim) to dream a dream in which he had knowledge of what the +gods had decreed.' + +"Having pondered a time over these words, Bel entered the ship alone. +He grasped my hand and led me forth, even me, and he led forth my wife +also, and caused her to kneel down beside me. Then he stood between us +and gave his blessing. He spoke, saying: 'In time past Pir-napishtim +was a man. Henceforth Pir-napishtim and his wife will be like unto +deities, even us. Let them dwell apart beyond the river mouths.' + +"Thereafter Bel carried me hither beyond the mouths of rivers." + + * * * * * + +Flood myths are found in many mythologies both in the Old World and +the New. + +The violent and deceitful men of the mythical Bronze Age of Greece +were destroyed by a flood. It is related that Zeus said on one +occasion to Hermes: "I will send a great rain, such as hath not been +since the making of the world, and the whole race of men shall perish. +I am weary of their iniquity." + +For receiving with hospitable warmth these two gods in human guise, +Deucalion, an old man, and his wife Pyrrha were spared, however. Zeus +instructed his host to build an ark of oak, and store it well with +food. When this was done, the couple entered the vessel and shut the +door. Then Zeus "broke up all the fountains of the deep, and opened +the well springs of heaven, and it rained for forty days and forty +nights continually". The Bronze folk perished: not even those who fled +to the hilltops could escape. The ark rested on Parnassus, and when +the waters ebbed the old couple descended the mountain and took up +their abode in a cave.[226] + +In Indian mythology the world is destroyed by a flood at the end of +each Age of the Universe. There are four ages: the Krita or Perfect +Age, the Treta Age, the Dwapara Age, and the Kali or Wicked Age. These +correspond closely to the Greek and Celtic ages.[227] There are also +references in Sanskrit literature to the destruction of the world +because too many human beings lived upon it. "When the increase of +population had been so frightful," a sage related, "the Earth, +oppressed with the excessive burden, sank down for a hundred Yojanas. +Suffering pain in all her limbs, and being deprived of her senses by +excessive pressure, the Earth in distress sought the protection of +Narayana, the foremost of the gods."[228] + +Manu's account of the flood has been already referred to (Chapter II). +The god in fish shape informed him: "The time is ripe for purging the +world.... Build a strong and massive ark, and furnish it with a long +rope...." When the waters rose the horned fish towed the ark over the +roaring sea, until it grounded on the highest peak of the Himavat, +which is still called Naubandha (the harbour). Manu was accompanied by +seven rishis.[229] + +In the Celtic (Irish) account of the flood, Cessair, granddaughter of +Noah, was refused a chamber for herself in the ark, and fled to the +western borders of the world as advised by her idol.[230] Her fleet +consisted of three ships, but two foundered before Ireland was +reached. The survivors in addition to Cessair were, her father Bith, +two other men, Fintan and Ladru, and fifty women. All of these +perished on the hills except Fintan, who slept on the crest of a great +billow, and lived to see Partholon, the giant, arriving from Greece. + +There is a deluge also in Egyptian mythology. When Ra, the sun god, +grew old as an earthly king, men began to mutter words against him. He +called the gods together and said: "I will not slay them (his +subjects) until I have heard what ye say concerning them." Nu, his +father, who was the god of primeval waters, advised the wholesale +destruction of mankind. + +Said Ra: "Behold men flee unto the hills; their heart is full of fear +because of that which they said." + +The goddess Hathor-Sekhet, the Eye of Ra, then went forth and slew +mankind on the hills. Thereafter Ra, desiring to protect the remnant +of humanity, caused a great offering to be made to the goddess, +consisting of corn beer mixed with herbs and human blood. This drink +was poured out during the night. "And the goddess came in the morning; +she found the fields inundated, she rejoiced thereat, she drank +thereof, her heart was rejoiced, she went about drunken and took no +more cognizance of men."[231] + +It is obvious that the Egyptian myth refers to the annual inundation +of the Nile, the "human blood" in the "beer" being the blood of the +slain corn god, or of his earthly representative. It is probable that +the flood legends of North and South America similarly reflected local +phenomena, although the possibility that they were of Asiatic origin, +like the American Mongoloid tribes, cannot be overlooked. Whether or +not Mexican civilization, which was flourishing about the time of the +battle of Hastings, received any cultural stimulus from Asia is a +question regarding which it would be unsafe to dogmatize, owing to the +meagre character of the available data. + +The Mexican deluge was caused by the "water sun", which suddenly +discharged the moisture it had been drawing from the earth in the form +of vapour through long ages. All life was destroyed. + +A flood legend among the Nahua tribes resembles closely the Babylonian +story as told by Pir-napishtim. The god Titlacahuan instructed a man +named Nata to make a boat by hollowing out a cypress tree, so as to +escape the coming deluge with his wife Nena. This pair escaped +destruction. They offered up a fish sacrifice in the boat and enraged +the deity who visited them, displaying as much indignation as did Bel +when he discovered that Pir-napishtim had survived the great disaster. +Nata and Nena had been instructed to take with them one ear of maize +only, which suggests that they were harvest spirits. + +In Brazil, Monan, the chief god, sent a great fire to burn up the +world and its wicked inhabitants. To extinguish the flames a magician +caused so much rain to fall that the earth was flooded. + +The Californian Indians had a flood legend, and believed that the +early race was diminutive; and the Athapascan Indians of the +north-west professed to be descendants of a family who escaped the +deluge. Indeed, deluge myths were widespread in the "New World". + +The American belief that the first beings who were created were unable +to live on earth was shared by the Babylonians. According to Berosus +the first creation was a failure, because the animals could not bear +the light and they all died.[232] Here we meet with the germs of the +Doctrine of the World's Ages, which reached its highest development in +Indian, Greek, and Celtic (Irish) mythologies. + +The Biblical account of the flood is familiar to readers. "It forms", +says Professor Pinches, "a good subject for comparison with the +Babylonian account, with which it agrees so closely in all the main +points, and from which it differs so much in many essential +details."[233] + +The drift of Babylonian culture was not only directed westward towards +the coast of Palestine, and from thence to Greece during the +Phoenician period, but also eastward through Elam to the Iranian +plateau and India. Reference has already been made to the resemblances +between early Vedic and Sumerian mythologies. When the "new songs" of +the Aryan invaders of India were being composed, the sky and ocean +god, Varuna, who resembles Ea-Oannes, and Mitra, who links with +Shamash, were already declining in splendour. Other cultural +influences were at work. Certain of the Aryan tribes, for instance, +buried their dead in Varuna's "house of clay", while a growing +proportion cremated their dead and worshipped Agni, the fire god. At +the close of the Vedic period there were fresh invasions into middle +India, and the "late comers" introduced new beliefs, including the +doctrines of the Transmigration of Souls and of the Ages of the +Universe. Goddesses also rose into prominence, and the Vedic gods +became minor deities, and subject to Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. These +"late comers" had undoubtedly been influenced by Babylonian ideas +before they entered India. In their Doctrine of the World's Ages or +Yugas, for instance, we are forcibly reminded of the Euphratean ideas +regarding space and time. Mr. Robert Brown, junr., who is an authority +in this connection, shows that the system by which the "Day of Brahma" +was calculated in India resembles closely an astronomical system which +obtained in Babylonia, where apparently the theory of cosmic periods +had origin.[234] + +The various alien peoples, however, who came under the spell of +Babylonian modes of thought did not remain in a state of intellectual +bondage. Thought was stimulated rather than arrested by religious +borrowing, and the development of ideas regarding the mysteries of +life and death proceeded apace in areas over which the ritualistic and +restraining priesthood of Babylonia exercised no sway. As much may be +inferred from the contrasting conceptions of the Patriarchs of Vedic +and Sumerian mythologies. Pir-napishtim, the Babylonian Noah, and the +semi-divine Gilgamesh appear to be represented in Vedic mythology by +Yama, god of the dead. Yama was "the first man", and, like Gilgamesh, +he set out on a journey over mountains and across water to discover +Paradise. He is lauded in the Vedic hymns as the explorer of "the +path" or "way" to the "Land of the Pitris" (Fathers), the Paradise to +which the Indian uncremated dead walked on foot. Yama never lost his +original character. He is a traveller in the Epics as in the +Vedas.[235] + + Him who along the mighty heights departed, Him who searched and + spied the path for many, Son of Vivasvat, gatherer of the people, + Yama, the King, with sacrifices worship. _Rigveda_, x, 14, 1.[236] + To Yama, mighty King, be gifts and homage paid, He was the first + of men that died, the first to brave Death's rapid rushing stream, + the first to point the road To heaven, and welcome others to that + bright abode. _Sir M. Monier Williams' Translation_.[237] + +Yama and his sister Yami were the first human pair. They are identical +with the Persian Celestial twins, Yima and Yimeh. Yima resembles Mitra +(Mithra); Varuna, the twin brother of Mitra, in fact, carries the +noose associated with the god of death.[238] + +The Indian Yama, who was also called Pitripati, "lord of the fathers", +takes Mitra's place in the Paradise of Ancestors beside Varuna, god of +the sky and the deep. He sits below a tree, playing on a flute and +drinking the Soma drink which gives immortality. When the descendants +of Yama reached Paradise they assumed shining forms "refined and from +all taint set free".[239] + +In Persian mythology "Yima", says Professor Moulton, "reigns over a +community which may well have been composed of his own descendants, +for he lived yet longer than Adam. To render them immortal, he gives +them to eat forbidden food, being deceived by the Daevas (demons). +What was this forbidden food? May we connect it with another legend +whereby, at the Regeneration, Mithra is to make men immortal by giving +them to eat the fat of the _Ur-Kuh_, the primeval cow from whose slain +body, according to the Aryan legends adopted by Mithraism, mankind was +first created?" + +Yima is punished for "presumptuously grasping at immortality for +himself and mankind, on the suggestion of an evil power, instead of +waiting Ahura's good time". Professor Moulton wonders if this story, +which he endeavours to reconstruct, "owed anything to Babylon?" + +Yima, like the Babylonian Pir-napishtim, is also a revealer of the +secrets of creation. He was appointed to be "Guardian, Overseer, +Watcher over my Creation" by Ahura, the supreme god. Three hundred +years went past-- + + Then the earth became abounding, + Full of flocks and full of cattle, + Full of men, of birds, dogs likewise, + Full of fires all bright and blazing, + Nor did men, flocks, herds of cattle, + Longer find them places in it. + + _Jackson's Translation_. + +The earth was thereafter cloven with a golden arrow. Yima then built a +refuge in which mankind and the domesticated animals might find +shelter during a terrible winter. "The picture", says Professor +Moulton, "strongly tempts us to recognize the influence of the +Babylonian Flood-Legend."[240] The "Fimbul winter" of Germanic +mythology is also recalled. Odin asks in one of the Icelandic Eddie +poems: + + What beings shall live when the long dread winter + Comes o'er the people of earth?[241] + +In another Eddie poem, the Voluspa, the Vala tells of a Sword Age, an +Axe Age, a Wind Age, and a Wolf Age which is to come "ere the world +sinks". After the battle of the gods and demons, + + The sun is darkened, earth sinks in the sea. + +In time, however, a new world appears. + + I see uprising a second time + Earth from the Ocean, green anew; + The waters fall, on high the eagle + Flies o'er the fell and catches fish. + +When the surviving gods return, they will talk, according to the Vala +(prophetess), of "the great world serpent" (Tiamat). The fields will +be sown and "Balder will come"[242]--apparently as Tammuz came. The +association of Balder with corn suggests that, like Nata of the Nahua +tribes, he was a harvest spirit, among other things. + +Leaving, meantime, the many problems which arise from consideration of +the Deluge legends and their connection with primitive agricultural +myths, the attention of readers may be directed to the Babylonian +conception of the Otherworld. + +Pir-napishtim, who escaped destruction at the Flood, resides in an +Island Paradise, which resembles the Greek "Islands of the Blessed", +and the Irish "Tir nan og" or "Land of the Young", situated in the +western ocean, and identical with the British[243] + + island-valley of Avilion, + Where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow, + Nor ever wind blows loudly, but it lies + Deep meadow'd, happy, fair with orchard lawns + And bowery hollows crowned with summer sea.[244] + +Only two human beings were permitted to reside on the Babylonian +island paradise, however. These were Pir-napishtim and his wife. +Apparently Gilgamesh could not join them there. His gods did not +transport heroes and other favoured individuals to a happy isle or +isles like those of the Greeks and Celts and Aryo-Indians. There was +no Heaven for the Babylonian dead. All mankind were doomed to enter +the gloomy Hades of the Underworld, "the land of darkness and the +shadow of death; a land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the +shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is darkness", +as Job exclaimed in the hour of despair, lamenting his fate.[245] + +This gloomy habitation of the dead resembles the Greek Hades, the +Teutonic Nifelhel, and the Indian "Put". No detailed description of it +has been found. The references, however, in the "Descent of Ishtar" +and the Gilgamesh epic suggest that it resembled the hidden regions of +the Egyptians, in which souls were tortured by demons who stabbed +them, plunged them in pools of fire, and thrust them into cold outer +darkness where they gnashed their teeth, or into places of horror +swarming with poisonous reptiles. + +Ishtar was similarly tortured by the plague demon, Namtar, when she +boldly entered the Babylonian Underworld to search for Tammuz. Other +sufferings were, no doubt, in store for her, resembling those, +perhaps, with which the giant maid in the Eddic poem "Skirnismal" was +threatened when she refused to marry Frey, the god of fertility and +harvest: + + Trolls shall torment thee from morn till eve + In the realms of the Jotun race, + Each day to the dwellings of Frost giants must thou + Creep helpless, creep hopeless of love; + Thou shalt weeping have in the stead of joy, + And sore burden bear with tears.... + May madness and shrieking, bondage and yearning + Burden thee with bondage and tears.[246] + +In like manner, too, the inhabitants of the Indian Hell suffered +endless and complicated tortures.[247] + +The Persephone of the Babylonian Underworld was Eresh-ki-gal, who was +also called Allatu. A myth, which was found among the Egyptian +Tel-el-Amarna "Letters", sets forth that on one occasion the +Babylonian gods held a feast. All the deities attended it, except +Eresh-ki-gal. She was unable to leave her gloomy Underworld, and sent +her messenger, the plague demon Namtar, to obtain her share. The +various deities honoured Namtar, except Nergal, by standing up to +receive him. When Eresh-ki-gal was informed of this slight she became +very angry, and demanded that Nergal should be delivered up to her so +that he might be put to death. The storm god at once hastened to the +Underworld, accompanied by his own group of fierce demons, whom he +placed as guardians at the various doors so as to prevent the escape +of Eresh-ki-gal. Then he went boldly towards the goddess, clutched her +by the hair, and dragged her from her throne. After a brief struggle, +she found herself overpowered. Nergal made ready to cut off her head, +but she cried for mercy and said: "Do not kill me, my brother! Let me +speak to thee." + +This appeal indicated that she desired to ransom her life--like the +hags in the European folk tales--so Nergal unloosed his hold. + +Then Eresh-ki-gal continued: "Be thou my husband and I will be thy +wife. On thee I confer sovereignty over the wide earth, giving thee +the tablet of wisdom. Thou shalt be my lord and I will be thy lady." + +Nergal accepted these terms by kissing the goddess. Affectionately +drying her tears, he spoke, saying: "Thou shalt now have from me what +thou hast demanded during these past months." + +In other words, Nergal promises to honour her as she desired, after +becoming her husband and equal. + +In the "Descent of Ishtar" the Babylonian Underworld is called Cuthah. +This city had a famous cemetery, like Abydos in Egypt, where many +pious and orthodox worshippers sought sepulture. The local god was +Nergal, who symbolized the destructive power of the sun and the sand +storm; he was a gloomy, vengeful deity, attended by the spirits of +tempest, weariness, pestilence, and disease, and was propitiated +because he was dreaded. + +In Nether Cuthah, as Ea-bani informed Gilgamesh, the worm devoured the +dead amidst the dust and thick darkness. + +It is evident that this Underworld was modelled on the grave. In early +times men believed that the spirits of the dead hovered in or about +the place of sepulture. They were therefore provided with "houses" to +protect them, in the same manner as the living were protected in their +houses above the ground. + +The enemies of the human ghosts were the earth spirits. Weapons were +laid beside the dead in their graves so that they might wage war +against demons when necessary. The corpse was also charmed, against +attack, by the magical and protecting ornaments which were worn by the +living--necklaces, armlets, ear-rings, &c. Even face paint was +provided, probably as a charm against the evil eye and other subtle +influences. + +So long as corpses were left in their graves, the spirits of the dead +were, it would appear, believed to be safe. But they required food and +refreshment. Food vessels and drinking urns were therefore included in +the funerary furniture, and the dead were given food offerings at +regular intervals. Once a year the living held feasts in the burial +ground, and invited the ghosts to share in the repast. This custom was +observed in Babylonia, and is not yet obsolete in Egypt; Moslems and +Coptic Christians alike hold annual all-night feasts in their +cemeteries. + +The Japanese "Land of Yomi" is similarly an underworld, or great +grave, where ghosts mingle with the demons of disease and destruction. +Souls reach it by "the pass of Yomi". The Mikado, however, may be +privileged to ascend to heaven and join the gods in the "Eternal +Land". + +Among the ancient Romans the primitive belief survived that the spirit +of the dead "just sank into the earth where it rested, and returned +from time to time to the upper world through certain openings in the +ground (mundi), whose solemn uncovering was one of the regular +observances of the festal calendar".[248] + +According to Babylonian belief, the dead who were not properly buried +roamed through the streets searching for food, eating refuse and +drinking impure water. + +Prior to the period of ceremonial burials, the dead were interred in +the houses in which they had lived--a custom which has made it +possible for present-day scientists to accumulate much valuable data +regarding primitive races and their habits of life. The Palaeolithic +cave-dwellers of Europe were buried in their caves. These were then +deserted and became the haunts of wild animals. After a long interval +a deserted cave was occupied by strangers. In certain characteristic +caves the various layers containing human remains represent distinct +periods of the vast Pleistocene Age. + +When Mediterranean man moved northward through Europe, he utilized +some of these caves, and constructed in them well-built graves for his +dead, digging down through older layers. In thus making a "house" +within a "house", he has provided us with a link between an old custom +and a new. Apparently he was influenced by local practices and +beliefs, for he met and mingled in certain localities with the men of +the Late Palaeolithic Age. + +The primitive house-burial rite is referred to in the Ethiopic version +of the life of Alexander the Great. The "Two-horned", as the hero was +called, conversed with Brahmans when he reached India. He spoke to one +of them, "saying: 'Have ye no tombs wherein to bury any man among ye +who may die?' And an interpreter made answer to him, saying: 'Man and +woman and child grow up, and arrive at maturity, and become old, and +when any one of them dieth we bury him in the place wherein he lived; +thus our graves are our houses. And our God knoweth that we desire +this more than the lust for food and meat which all men have: this is +our life and manner of living in the darkness of our tombs.'" When +Alexander desired to make a gift to these Brahmans, and asked them +what they desired most, their answer was, "Give us immortality".[249] + +In the Gilgamesh epic the only ray of hope which relieves the gloomy +closing passages is Ea-bani's suggestion that the sufferings endured +by the dead may be alleviated by the performance of strict burial +rites. Commenting on this point Professor Jastrow says: "A proper +burial with an affectionate care of the corpse ensures at least a +quiet repose. + + Such a one rests on a couch and drinks pure water; + But he whose shade has no rest in the earth, as I have seen and + you will see, + His shade has no rest in the earth + Whose shade no one cares for ... + What is left over in the pot, remains of food + That are thrown in the street, he eats."[250] + + _Gilgamesh Epic_. + +By disseminating the belief that the dead must be buried with much +ceremony, the priests secured great power over the people, and +extracted large fees. + +In Egypt, on the other hand, the teachers of the sun cult sold charms +and received rewards to perform ceremonies so that chosen worshippers +might enter the sun-barque of Ra; while the Osirian priests promised +the just and righteous that they would reach an agricultural Paradise +where they could live and work as on earth, but receive a greater +return for their labour, the harvests of the Otherworld being of +unequalled abundance. + +In the sacred books of India a number of Paradises are referred to. No +human beings, however, entered the Paradise of Varuna, who resembles +the Sumerian Ea-Oannes. The souls of the dead found rest and enjoyment +in the Paradise of Yama, while "those kings that yield up their lives, +without turning their backs on the field of battle, attain", as the +sage told a hero, "to the mansion of Indra", which recalls the Valhal +of Odin. It will thus be seen that belief in immortality was a tenet +of the Indian cults of Indra and Yama. + +It is possible that the Gilgamesh epic in one of its forms concluded +when the hero reached the island of Pir-napishtim, like the Indian +Yama who "searched and spied the path for many". The Indian "Land of +the Pitris" (Ancestors), over which Yama presided, may be compared to +the Egyptian heaven of Osiris. It contains, we are told, "all kinds of +enjoyable articles", and also "sweet, juicy, agreeable and delicious +edibles ... floral wreaths of the most delicious fragrance, and trees +that yield fruits that are desired of them". Thither go "all sinners +among human beings, as also (those) that have died during the winter +solstice"[251]--a suggestion that this Paradise was not unconnected +with the Tammuz-like deity who took up his abode in the spirit land +during the barren season. + +The view may be urged that in the Gilgamesh epic we have a development +of the Tammuz legend in its heroic form. Like Ishtar, when she +descended to Hades, the King of Erech could not return to earth until +he had been sprinkled by the water of life. No doubt, an incident of +this character occurred also in the original Tammuz legend. The life +of the god had to be renewed before he could return. Did he slumber, +like one of the Seven Sleepers, in Ea's house, and not awake again +until he arrived as a child in his crescent moon boat--"the sunken +boat" of the hymns--like Scef, who came over the waves to the land of +the Scyldings? + +It seems remarkable that the doctrine of Eternal Bliss, which obtained +in Egypt on the one hand and in India on the other, should never have +been developed among the Babylonians. Of course, our knowledge in this +connection is derived from the orthodox religious texts. Perhaps the +great thinkers, whose influence can be traced in the tendencies +towards monotheism which became marked at various periods, believed in +a Heaven for the just and good. If they did, their teachings must have +been suppressed by the mercenary priests. It was extremely profitable +for these priests to perpetuate the belief that the spirits of the +dead were consigned to a gloomy Hades, where the degree of suffering +which they endured depended on the manner in which their bodies were +disposed of upon earth. An orthodox funeral ceremony was costly at all +times. This is made evident by the inscriptions which record the +social reforms of Urukagina, the ill-fated patesi of Lagash. When he +came to the throne he cut down the burial fees by more than a half. +"In the case of an ordinary burial," writes Mr. King, "when a corpse +was laid in a grave, it had been the custom for the presiding priest +to demand as a fee for himself seven urns of wine or strong drink, +four hundred and twenty loaves of bread, one hundred and twenty +measures of corn, a garment, a kid, a bed, and a seat." The reformer +reduced the perquisites to "three urns of wine, eighty loaves of +bread, a bed, and a kid, while the fee of his (the priest's) assistant +was cut down from sixty to thirty measures of corn".[252] + +The conservative element in Babylonian religion is reflected by the +burial customs. These did not change greatly after the Neolithic +period. Prehistoric Sumerian graves resemble closely those of +pre-Dynastic Egypt. The bodies of the dead were laid on their sides in +crouching posture, with a "beaker", or "drinking cup" urn, beside the +right hand. Other vessels were placed near the head. In this +connection it may be noted that the magic food prepared for Gilgamesh +by Pir-napishtim's wife, when he lay asleep, was also placed near his +head. + +The corpse was always decked with various ornaments, including rings, +necklaces, and armlets. As has been indicated, these were worn by the +living as charms, and, no doubt, they served the same purpose for the +dead. This charm-wearing custom was condemned by the Hebrew teachers. +On one occasion Jacob commanded his household to "put away the strange +gods which were in their hand, and all the ear-rings which were in +their ears; and Jacob buried them under the oak which was by +Shechem".[253] To Jacob, personal ornaments had quite evidently an +idolatrous significance. + +"A very typical class of grave furniture", writes Mr. King, "consisted +of palettes, or colour dishes, made of alabaster, often of graceful +shape, and sometimes standing on four feet.... There is no doubt as to +their use, for colour still remains in many of them, generally black +and yellow, but sometimes a light rose and light green." Palettes for +face paint have also been found in many early Egyptian graves. + +The gods had their faces painted like the living and the dead and were +similarly adorned with charms. In the course of the daily service in +the Egyptian temples an important ceremony was "dressing the god with +white, green, bright-red, and dark-red sashes, and supplying two kinds +of ointment and black and green eye paint".[254] In the word-picture +of the Aryo-Indian Varuna's heaven in the _Mahabharata_ the deity is +depicted "attired in celestial robes and decked with celestial +ornaments and jewels". His attendants, the Adityas, appear "adorned +with celestial garlands and perfumed with celestial scents and +besmeared with paste of celestial fragrance".[255] Apparently the +"paste", like the face paint of the Babylonians and Egyptians, had +protective qualities. The Picts of Scotland may have similarly painted +themselves to charm their bodies against magical influences and the +weapons of their enemies. A painted man was probably regarded as one +who was likely to have good luck, being guarded against bad luck. + +Weapons and implements were also laid in the Sumerian graves, +indicating a belief that the spirits of the dead could not only +protect themselves against their enemies but also provide themselves +with food. The funerary gifts of fish-hooks suggests that spirits were +expected to catch fish and thus obtain clean food, instead of +returning to disturb the living as they searched for the remnants of +the feast, like the Scottish Gunna, + + perched alone + On a chilly old grey stone, + Nibbling, nibbling at a bone + That we'll maybe throw away. + +Some bodies which were laid in Sumerian graves were wrapped up in reed +matting, a custom which suggests that the reeds afforded protection or +imparted magical powers. Magical ceremonies were performed in +Babylonian reed huts. As we have seen, Ea revealed the "purpose" of +the gods, when they resolved to send a flood, by addressing the reed +hut in which Pir-napishtim lay asleep. Possibly it was believed that +the dead might also have visions in their dreams which would reveal +the "purpose" of demons who were preparing to attack them. In Syria it +was customary to wrap the dead in a sheep skin.[256] As priests and +gods were clad in the skins of animals from which their powers were +derived, it is probable that the dead were similarly supposed to +receive inspiration in their skin coverings. The Highland seer was +wrapped in a bull's skin and left all night beside a stream so as to +obtain knowledge of the future. This was a form of the Taghairm +ceremony, which is referred to by Scott in his "Lady of the +Lake".[257] The belief in the magical influence of sacred clothing +gave origin to the priestly robes. When David desired to ascertain +what Saul intended to do he said, "Bring hither the ephod". Then he +came to know that his enemy had resolved to attack Keilah.[258] Elisha +became a prophet when he received Elijah's mantle.[259] + +Sometimes the bodies of the Sumerians were placed in sarcophagi of +clay. The earlier type was of "bath-tub" shape, round and +flat-bottomed, with a rounded lid, while the later was the +"slipper-shaped coffin", which was ornamented with charms. There is a +close resemblance between the "bath-tub" coffins of Sumeria and the +Egyptian pottery coffins of oval shape found in Third and Fourth +Dynasty tombs in rock chambers near Nuerat. Certain designs on wooden +coffins, and tombs as early as the First Dynasty, have direct +analogies in Babylonia.[260] + +No great tombs were erected in Sumeria. The coffins were usually laid +in brick vaults below dwellings, or below temples, or in trenches +outside the city walls. On the "stele of victory", which belongs to +the period of Eannatum, patesi of Lagash, the dead bodies on the +battlefield are piled up in pairs quite naked, and earth is being +heaped over them; this is a specimen of mound burial. + +According to Herodotus the Babylonians "buried their dead in honey, +and had funeral lamentations like the Egyptians".[261] The custom of +preserving the body in this manner does not appear to have been an +ancient one, and may have resulted from cultural contact with the Nile +valley during the late Assyrian period. So long as the bones were +undisturbed, the spirit was supposed to be assured of rest in the +Underworld. This archaic belief was widespread, and finds an echo in +the quaint lines over Shakespeare's grave in Stratford church:-- + + Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbeare + To dig the dust enclosed heare; + Blest be the man that spares these stones, + And curst be he that moves my bones. + +In Babylonia the return of the spirits of the dead was greatly +dreaded. Ishtar once uttered the terrible threat: "I will cause the +dead to rise; they will then eat and live. The dead will be more +numerous than the living." When a foreign country was invaded, it was +a common custom to break open the tombs and scatter the bones they +contained. Probably it was believed, when such acts of vandalism were +committed, that the offended spirits would plague their kinsfolk. +Ghosts always haunted the homes they once lived in, and were as +malignant as demons. It is significant to find in this connection that +the bodies of enemies who were slain in battle were not given decent +burial, but mutilated and left for birds and beasts of prey to devour. + +The demons that plagued the dead might also attack the living. A +fragmentary narrative, which used to be referred to as the "Cuthean +Legend of Creation",[262] and has been shown by Mr. L.W. King to have +no connection with the struggle between Merodach and the dragon,[263] +deals with a war waged by an ancient king against a horde of evil +spirits, led by "the lord of heights, lord of the Anunaki (earth +spirits)". Some of the supernatural warriors had bodies like birds; +others had "raven faces", and all had been "suckled by Tiamat". + +For three years the king sent out great armies to attack the demons, +but "none returned alive". Then he decided to go forth himself to save +his country from destruction. So he prepared for the conflict, and +took the precaution of performing elaborate and therefore costly +religious rites so as to secure the co-operation of the gods. His +expedition was successful, for he routed the supernatural army. On his +return home, he recorded his great victory on tablets which were +placed in the shrine of Nergal at Cuthah. + +This myth may be an echo of Nergal's raid against Eresh-ki-gal. Or, +being associated with Cuthah, it may have been composed to encourage +burial in that city's sacred cemetery, which had been cleared by the +famous old king of the evil demons which tormented the dead and made +seasonal attacks against the living. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +BUILDINGS AND LAWS AND CUSTOMS OF BABYLON + + + Decline and Fall of Sumerian Kingdoms--Elamites and Semites strive + for Supremacy--Babylon's Walls, Gates, Streets, and Canals--The + Hanging Gardens--Merodach's Great Temple--The Legal Code of + Hammurabi--The Marriage Market--Position of Women--Marriage brought + Freedom--Vestal Virgins--Breach of Promise and Divorce--Rights of + Children--Female Publicans--The Land Laws--Doctors legislated out of + Existence--Folk Cures--Spirits of Disease expelled by Magical + Charms--The Legend of the Worm--"Touch Iron"--Curative + Water--Magical Origin of Poetry and Music. + + +The rise of Babylon inaugurated a new era in the history of Western +Asia. Coincidentally the political power of the Sumerians came to an +end. It had been paralysed by the Elamites, who, towards the close of +the Dynasty of Isin, successfully overran the southern district and +endeavoured to extend their sway over the whole valley. Two Elamite +kings, Warad-Sin and his brother Rim-Sin, struggled with the rulers of +Babylon for supremacy, and for a time it appeared as if the intruders +from the East were to establish themselves permanently as a military +aristocracy over Sumer and Akkad. But the Semites were strongly +reinforced by new settlers of the same blended stock who swarmed from +the land of the Amorites. Once again Arabia was pouring into Syria +vast hordes of its surplus population, with the result that ethnic +disturbances were constant and widespread. This migration is termed +the Canaanitic or Amorite: it flowed into Mesopotamia and across +Assyria, while it supplied the "driving power" which secured the +ascendancy of the Hammurabi Dynasty at Babylon. Indeed, the ruling +family which came into prominence there is believed to have been of +Canaanitic origin. + +Once Babylon became the metropolis it retained its pre-eminence until +the end. Many political changes took place during its long and +chequered history, but no rival city in the south ever attained to its +splendour and greatness. Whether its throne was occupied by Amorite or +Kassite, Assyrian or Chaldean, it was invariably found to be the most +effective centre of administration for the lower Tigro-Euphrates +valley. Some of the Kassite monarchs, however, showed a preference for +Nippur. + +Of its early history little is known. It was overshadowed in turn by +Kish and Umma, Lagash and Erech, and may have been little better than +a great village when Akkad rose into prominence. Sargon I, the royal +gardener, appears to have interested himself in its development, for +it was recorded that he cleared its trenches and strengthened its +fortifications. The city occupied a strategic position, and probably +assumed importance on that account as well as a trading and industrial +centre. Considerable wealth had accumulated at Babylon when the +Dynasty of Ur reached the zenith of its power. It is recorded that +King Dungi plundered its famous "Temple of the High Head", E-sagila, +which some identify with the Tower of Babel, so as to secure treasure +for Ea's temple at Eridu, which he specially favoured. His vandalistic +raid, like that of the Gutium, or men of Kutu, was remembered for long +centuries afterwards, and the city god was invoked at the time to cut +short his days. + +No doubt, Hammurabi's Babylon closely resembled the later city so +vividly described by Greek writers, although it was probably not of +such great dimensions. According to Herodotus, it occupied an exact +square on the broad plain, and had a circumference of sixty of our +miles. "While such is its size," the historian wrote, "in magnificence +there is no other city that approaches to it." Its walls were +eighty-seven feet thick and three hundred and fifty feet high, and +each side of the square was fifteen miles in length. The whole city +was surrounded by a deep, broad canal or moat, and the river Euphrates +ran through it. + +"Here", continued Herodotus, "I may not omit to tell the use to which +the mould dug out of the great moat was turned, nor the manner in +which the wall was wrought. As fast as they dug the moat the soil +which they got from the cutting was made into bricks, and when a +sufficient number were completed they baked the bricks in kilns. Then +they set to building, and began with bricking the borders of the moat, +after which they proceeded to construct the wall itself, using +throughout for their cement hot bitumen, and interposing a layer of +wattled reeds at every thirtieth course of the bricks. On the top, +along the edges of the wall, they constructed buildings of a single +chamber facing one another, leaving between them room for a four-horse +chariot to turn. In the circuit of the wall are a hundred gates, all +of brass, with brazen lintels and side posts."[264] These were the +gates referred to by Isaiah when God called Cyrus: + + I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two + leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut: I will go before + thee, and make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces + the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron.[265] + +The outer wall was the main defence of the city, but there was also an +inner wall less thick but not much inferior in strength. In addition, +a fortress stood in each division of the city. The king's palace and +the temple of Bel Merodach were surrounded by walls. + +All the main streets were perfectly straight, and each crossed the +city from gate to gate, a distance of fifteen miles, half of them +being interrupted by the river, which had to be ferried. As there were +twenty-five gates on each side of the outer wall, the great +thoroughfares numbered fifty in all, and there were six hundred and +seventy-six squares, each over two miles in circumference. From +Herodotus we gather that the houses were three or four stories high, +suggesting that the tenement system was not unknown, and according to +Q. Curtius, nearly half of the area occupied by the city was taken up +by gardens within the squares. + +In Greek times Babylon was famous for the hanging or terraced gardens +of the "new palace", which had been erected by Nebuchadnezzar II. +These occupied a square which was more than a quarter of a mile in +circumference. Great stone terraces, resting on arches, rose up like a +giant stairway to a height of about three hundred and fifty feet, and +the whole structure was strengthened by a surrounding wall over twenty +feet in thickness. So deep were the layers of mould on each terrace +that fruit trees were grown amidst the plants of luxuriant foliage and +the brilliant Asian flowers. Water for irrigating the gardens was +raised from the river by a mechanical contrivance to a great cistern +situated on the highest terrace, and it was prevented from leaking out +of the soil by layers of reeds and bitumen and sheets of lead. +Spacious apartments, luxuriously furnished and decorated, were +constructed in the spaces between the arches and were festooned by +flowering creepers. A broad stairway ascended from terrace to terrace. + +The old palace stood in a square nearly four miles in circumference, +and was strongly protected by three walls, which were decorated by +sculptures in low relief, representing battle scenes and scenes of the +chase and royal ceremonies. Winged bulls with human heads guarded the +main entrance. + +Another architectural feature of the city was E-sagila, the temple of +Bel Merodach, known to the Greeks as "Jupiter-Belus". The high wall +which enclosed it had gates of solid brass. "In the middle of the +precinct", wrote Herodotus, "there was a tower of solid masonry, a +furlong in length and breadth, upon which was raised a second tower, +and on that a third, and so on up to eight. The ascent to the top is +on the outside, by a path which winds round all the towers. When one +is about halfway up, one finds a resting-place and seats, where +persons are wont to sit some time on their way to the summit. On the +topmost tower there is a spacious temple, and inside the temple stands +a couch of unusual size, richly adorned, with a golden table by its +side. There is no statue of any kind set up in the place, nor is the +chamber occupied of nights by anyone but a single native woman, who, +as the Chaldaeans, the priests of this god, affirm, is chosen for +himself by the deity out of all the women of the land." + +A woman who was the "wife of Amon" also slept in that god's temple at +Thebes in Egypt. A similar custom was observed in Lycia. + +"Below, in the same precinct," continued Herodotus, "there is a second +temple, in which is a sitting figure of Jupiter, all of gold. Before +the figure stands a large golden table, and the throne whereon it +sits, and the base on which the throne is placed, are likewise of pure +gold.... Outside the temple are two altars, one of solid gold, on +which it is only lawful to offer sucklings; the other, a common altar, +but of great size, on which the full-grown animals are sacrificed. It +is also on the great altar that the Chaldaeans burn the frankincense, +which is offered to the amount of a thousand talents' weight, every +year, at the festival of the god. In the time of Cyrus there was +likewise in this temple a figure of a man, twelve cubits high, +entirely of solid gold.... Besides the ornaments which I have +mentioned, there are a large number of private offerings in this holy +precinct."[266] + +The city wall and river gates were closed every night, and when +Babylon was besieged the people were able to feed themselves. The +gardens and small farms were irrigated by canals, and canals also +controlled the flow of the river Euphrates. A great dam had been +formed above the town to store the surplus water during inundation and +increase the supply when the river sank to its lowest. + +In Hammurabi's time the river was crossed by ferry boats, but long ere +the Greeks visited the city a great bridge had been constructed. So +completely did the fierce Sennacherib destroy the city, that most of +the existing ruins date from the period of Nebuchadnezzar II.[267] + +Our knowledge of the social life of Babylon and the territory under +its control is derived chiefly from the Hammurabi Code of laws, of +which an almost complete copy was discovered at Susa, towards the end +of 1901, by the De Morgan expedition. The laws were inscribed on a +stele of black diorite 7 ft. 3 in. high, with a circumference at the +base of 6 ft. 2 in. and at the top of 5 ft. 4 in. This important relic +of an ancient law-abiding people had been broken in three pieces, but +when these were joined together it was found that the text was not +much impaired. On one side are twenty-eight columns and on the other +sixteen. Originally there were in all nearly 4000 lines of +inscriptions, but five columns, comprising about 300 lines, had been +erased to give space, it is conjectured, for the name of the invader +who carried the stele away, but unfortunately the record was never +made. + +On the upper part of the stele, which is now one of the treasures of +the Louvre, Paris, King Hammurabi salutes, with his right hand +reverently upraised, the sun god Shamash, seated on his throne, at the +summit of E-sagila, by whom he is being presented with the stylus with +which to inscribe the legal code. Both figures are heavily bearded, +but have shaven lips and chins. The god wears a conical headdress and +a flounced robe suspended from his left shoulder, while the king has +assumed a round dome-shaped hat and a flowing garment which almost +sweeps the ground. + +It is gathered from the Code that there were three chief social +grades--the aristocracy, which included landowners, high officials and +administrators; the freemen, who might be wealthy merchants or small +landholders; and the slaves. The fines imposed for a given offence +upon wealthy men were much heavier than those imposed upon the poor. +Lawsuits were heard in courts. Witnesses were required to tell the +truth, "affirming before the god what they knew", and perjurers were +severely dealt with; a man who gave false evidence in connection with +a capital charge was put to death. A strict watch was also kept over +the judges, and if one was found to have willingly convicted a +prisoner on insufficient evidence he was fined and degraded. + +Theft was regarded as a heinous crime, and was invariably punished by +death. Thieves included those who made purchases from minors or slaves +without the sanction of elders or trustees. Sometimes the accused was +given the alternative of paying a fine, which might exceed by ten or +even thirty fold the value of the article or animal he had +appropriated. It was imperative that lost property should be restored. +If the owner of an article of which he had been wrongfully deprived +found it in possession of a man who declared that he had purchased it +from another, evidence was taken in court. When it happened that the +seller was proved to have been the thief, the capital penalty was +imposed. On the other hand, the alleged purchaser was dealt with in +like manner if he failed to prove his case. Compensation for property +stolen by a brigand was paid by the temple, and the heirs of a man +slain by a brigand within the city had to be compensated by the local +authority. + +Of special interest are the laws which relate to the position of +women. In this connection reference may first be made to the +marriage-by-auction custom, which Herodotus described as follows: +"Once a year in each village the maidens of age to marry were +collected all together into one place, while the men stood round them +in a circle. Then a herald called up the damsels one by one, and +offered them for sale. He began with the most beautiful. When she was +sold for no small sum of money, he offered for sale the one who came +next to her in beauty. All of them were sold to be wives. The richest +of the Babylonians who wished to wed bid against each other for the +loveliest maidens, while the humbler wife-seekers, who were +indifferent about beauty, took the more homely damsels with marriage +portions. For the custom was that when the herald had gone through the +whole number of the beautiful damsels, he should then call up the +ugliest--a cripple, if there chanced to be one--and offer her to the +men, asking who would agree to take her with the smallest marriage +portion. And the man who offered to take the smallest sum had her +assigned to him. The marriage portions were furnished by the money +paid for the beautiful damsels, and thus the fairer maidens portioned +out the uglier. No one was allowed to give his daughter in marriage to +the man of his choice, nor might anyone carry away the damsel whom he +had purchased without finding bail really and truly to make her his +wife; if, however, it turned out that they did not agree, the money +might be paid back. All who liked might come, even from distant +villages, and bid for the women."[268] + +This custom is mentioned by other writers, but it is impossible to +ascertain at what period it became prevalent in Babylonia and by whom +it was introduced. Herodotus understood that it obtained also in "the +Illyrian tribe of the Eneti", which was reputed to have entered Italy +with Antenor after the fall of Troy, and has been identified with the +Venetians of later times. But the ethnic clue thus afforded is +exceedingly vague. There is no direct reference to the custom in the +Hammurabi Code, which reveals a curious blending of the principles of +"Father right" and "Mother right". A girl was subject to her father's +will; he could dispose of her as he thought best, and she always +remained a member of his family; after marriage she was known as the +daughter of so and so rather than the wife of so and so. But marriage +brought her freedom and the rights of citizenship. The power vested in +her father was never transferred to her husband. + +A father had the right to select a suitable spouse for his daughter, +and she could not marry without his consent. That this law did not +prevent "love matches" is made evident by the fact that provision was +made in the Code for the marriage of a free woman with a male slave, +part of whose estate in the event of his wife's death could be claimed +by his master. + +When a betrothal was arranged, the father fixed the "bride price", +which was paid over before the contract could be concluded, and he +also provided a dowry. The amount of the "bride price" might, however, +be refunded to the young couple to give them a start in life. If, +during the interval between betrothal and marriage, the man "looked +upon another woman", and said to his father-in-law, "I will not marry +your daughter", he forfeited the "bride price" for breach of promise +of marriage. + +A girl might also obtain a limited degree of freedom by taking vows of +celibacy and becoming one of the vestal virgins, or nuns, who were +attached to the temple of the sun god. She did not, however, live a +life of entire seclusion. If she received her due proportion of her +father's estate, she could make business investments within certain +limits. She was not, for instance, allowed to own a wineshop, and if +she even entered one she was burned at the stake. Once she took these +vows she had to observe them until the end of her days. If she +married, as she might do to obtain the legal status of a married woman +and enjoy the privileges of that position, she denied her husband +conjugal rites, but provided him with a concubine who might bear him +children, as Sarah did to Abraham. These nuns must not be confused +with the unmoral women who were associated with the temples of Ishtar +and other love goddesses of shady repute. + +The freedom secured by a married woman had its legal limitations. If +she became a widow, for instance, she could not remarry without the +consent of a judge, to whom she was expected to show good cause for +the step she proposed to take. Punishments for breaches of the +marriage law were severe. Adultery was a capital crime; the guilty +parties were bound together and thrown into the river. If it happened, +however, that the wife of a prisoner went to reside with another man +on account of poverty, she was acquitted and allowed to return to her +husband after his release. In cases where no plea of poverty could be +urged the erring women were drowned. The wife of a soldier who had +been taken prisoner by an enemy was entitled to a third part of her +husband's estate if her son was a minor, the remainder was held in +trust. The husband could enter into possession of all his property +again if he happened to return home. + +Divorce was easily obtained. A husband might send his wife away either +because she was childless or because he fell in love with another +woman. Incompatibility of temperament was also recognized as +sufficient reason for separation. A woman might hate her husband and +wish to leave him. "If", the Code sets forth, "she is careful and is +without blame, and is neglected by her husband who has deserted her", +she can claim release from the marriage contract. But if she is found +to have another lover, and is guilty of neglecting her duties, she is +liable to be put to death. + +A married woman possessed her own property. Indeed, the value of her +marriage dowry was always vested in her. When, therefore, she divorced +her husband, or was divorced by him, she was entitled to have her +dowry refunded and to return to her father's house. Apparently she +could claim maintenance from her father. + +A woman could have only one husband, but a man could have more than +one wife. He might marry a secondary wife, or concubine, because he +was without offspring, but "the concubine", the Code lays down, "shall +not rank with the wife". Another reason for second marriage recognized +by law was a wife's state of health. In such circumstances a man could +not divorce his sickly wife. He had to support her in his house as +long as she lived. + +Children were the heirs of their parents, but if a man during his +lifetime gifted his property to his wife, and confirmed it on "a +sealed tablet", the children could have no claim, and the widow was +entitled to leave her estate to those of her children she preferred; +but she could not will any portion of it to her brothers. In ordinary +cases the children of a first marriage shared equally the estate of a +father with those of a second marriage. If a slave bore children to +her employer, their right to inheritance depended on whether or not +the father had recognized them as his offspring during his lifetime. A +father might legally disown his son if the young man was guilty of +criminal practices. + +The legal rights of a vestal virgin were set forth in detail. If she +had received no dowry from her father when she took vows of celibacy, +she could claim after his death one-third of the portion of a son. She +could will her estate to anyone she favoured, but if she died +intestate her brothers were her heirs. When, however, her estate +consisted of fields or gardens allotted to her by her father, she +could not disinherit her legal heirs. The fields or gardens might be +worked during her lifetime by her brothers if they paid rent, or she +might employ a manager on the "share system". + +Vestal virgins and married women were protected against the slanderer. +Any man who "pointed the finger" against them unjustifiably was +charged with the offence before a judge, who could sentence him to +have his forehead branded. It was not difficult, therefore, in ancient +Babylonia to discover the men who made malicious and unfounded +statements regarding an innocent woman. Assaults on women were +punished according to the victim's rank; even slaves were protected. + +Women appear to have monopolized the drink traffic. At any rate, there +is no reference to male wine sellers. A female publican had to conduct +her business honestly, and was bound to accept a legal tender. If she +refused corn and demanded silver, when the value of the silver by +"grand weight" was below the price of corn, she was prosecuted and +punished by being thrown into the water. Perhaps she was simply +ducked. As much may be inferred from the fact that when she was found +guilty of allowing rebels to meet in her house, she was put to death. + +The land laws were strict and exacting. A tenant could be penalized +for not cultivating his holding properly. The rent paid was a +proportion of the crop, but the proportion could be fixed according to +the average yield of a district, so that a careless or inefficient +tenant had to bear the brunt of his neglect or want of skill. The +punishment for allowing a field to lie fallow was to make a man hoe +and sow it and then hand it over to his landlord, and this applied +even to a man who leased unreclaimed land which he had contracted to +cultivate. Damage done to fields by floods after the rent was paid was +borne by the cultivator; but if it occurred before the corn was reaped +the landlord's share was calculated in proportion to the amount of the +yield which was recovered. Allowance was also made for poor harvests, +when the shortage was not due to the neglect of the tenant, but to +other causes, and no interest was paid for borrowed money even if the +farm suffered from the depredations of the tempest god; the +moneylender had to share risks with borrowers. Tenants who neglected +their dykes, however, were not exempted from their legal liabilities, +and their whole estates could be sold to reimburse their creditors. + +The industrious were protected against the careless. Men who were +negligent about controlling the water supply, and caused floods by +opening irrigation ditches which damaged the crops of their +neighbours, had to pay for the losses sustained, the damages being +estimated according to the average yield of a district. A tenant who +allowed his sheep to stray on to a neighbour's pasture had to pay a +heavy fine in corn at the harvest season, much in excess of the value +of the grass cropped by his sheep. Gardeners were similarly subject to +strict laws. All business contracts had to be conducted according to +the provisions of the Code, and in every case it was necessary that a +proper record should be made on clay tablets. As a rule a dishonest +tenant or trader had to pay sixfold the value of the sum under dispute +if the judge decided in court against his claim. + +The law of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth was strictly +observed in Babylonia. A freeman who destroyed an eye of a freeman had +one of his own destroyed; if he broke a bone, he had a bone broken. +Fines were imposed, however, when a slave was injured. For striking a +gentleman, a commoner received sixty lashes, and the son who smote his +father had his hands cut off. A slave might have his ears cut off for +assaulting his master's son. + +Doctors must have found their profession an extremely risky one. No +allowance was made for what is nowadays known as a "professional +error". A doctor's hands were cut off if he opened a wound with a +metal knife and his patient afterwards died, or if a man lost his eye +as the result of an operation. A slave who died under a doctor's hands +had to be replaced by a slave, and if a slave lost his eye, the doctor +had to pay half the man's market value to the owner. Professional fees +were fixed according to a patient's rank. Gentlemen had to pay five +shekels of silver to a doctor who set a bone or restored diseased +flesh, commoners three shekels, and masters for their slaves two +shekels. There was also a scale of fees for treating domesticated +animals, and it was not over-generous. An unfortunate surgeon who +undertook to treat an ox or ass suffering from a severe wound had to +pay a quarter of its price to its owner if it happened to die. A +shrewd farmer who was threatened with the loss of an animal must have +been extremely anxious to engage the services of a surgeon. + +It is not surprising, after reviewing this part of the Hammurabi Code, +to find Herodotus stating bluntly that the Babylonians had no +physicians. "When a man is ill", he wrote, "they lay him in the public +square, and the passers-by come up to him, and if they have ever had +his disease themselves, or have known anyone who has suffered from it, +they give him advice, recommending him to do whatever they found good +in their own case, or in the case known to them; and no one is allowed +to pass the sick man in silence without asking him what his ailment +is." One might imagine that Hammurabi had legislated the medical +profession out of existence, were it not that letters have been found +in the Assyrian library of Ashur-banipal which indicate that skilled +physicians were held in high repute. It is improbable, however, that +they were numerous. The risks they ran in Babylonia may account for +their ultimate disappearance in that country. + +No doubt patients received some benefit from exposure in the streets +in the sunlight and fresh air, and perhaps, too, from some of the old +wives' remedies which were gratuitously prescribed by passers-by. In +Egypt, where certain of the folk cures were recorded on papyri, quite +effective treatment was occasionally given, although the "medicines" +were exceedingly repugnant as a rule; ammonia, for instance, was taken +with the organic substances found in farmyards. Elsewhere some +wonderful instances of excellent folk cures have come to light, +especially among isolated peoples, who have received them interwoven +in their immemorial traditions. A medical man who has investigated +this interesting subject in the Scottish Highlands has shown that "the +simple observation of the people was the starting-point of our fuller +knowledge, however complete we may esteem it to be". For dropsy and +heart troubles, foxglove, broom tops, and juniper berries, which have +reputations "as old as the hills", are "the most reliable medicines in +our scientific armoury at the present time". These discoveries of the +ancient folks have been "merely elaborated in later days". Ancient +cures for indigestion are still in use. "Tar water, which was a remedy +for chest troubles, especially for those of a consumptive nature, has +endless imitations in our day"; it was also "the favourite remedy for +skin diseases". No doubt the present inhabitants of Babylonia, who +utilize bitumen as a germicide, are perpetuating an ancient folk +custom. + +This medical man who is being quoted adds: "The whole matter may be +summed up, that we owe infinitely more to the simple nature study of +our people in the great affair of health than we owe to all the later +science."[269] + +Herodotus, commenting on the custom of patients taking a census of +folk cures in the streets, said it was one of the wisest institutions +of the Babylonian people. It is to be regretted that he did not enter +into details regarding the remedies which were in greatest favour in +his day. His data would have been useful for comparative purposes. + +So far as can be gathered from the clay tablets, faith cures were not +unknown, and there was a good deal of quackery. If surgery declined, +as a result of the severe restrictions which hampered progress in an +honourable profession, magic flourished like tropical fungi. Indeed, +the worker of spells was held in high repute, and his operations were +in most cases allowed free play. There are only two paragraphs in the +Hammurabi Code which deal with magical practices. It is set forth that +if one man cursed another and the curse could not be justified, the +perpetrator of it must suffer the death penalty. Provision was also +made for discovering whether a spell had been legally imposed or not. +The victim was expected to plunge himself in a holy river. If the +river carried him away it was held as proved that he deserved his +punishment, and "the layer of the spell" was given possession of the +victim's house. A man who could swim was deemed to be innocent; he +claimed the residence of "the layer of the spell", who was promptly +put to death. With this interesting glimpse of ancient superstition +the famous Code opens, and then strikes a modern note by detailing the +punishments for perjury and the unjust administration of law in the +courts. + +The poor sufferers who gathered at street corners in Babylon to make +mute appeal for cures believed that they were possessed by evil +spirits. Germs of disease were depicted by lively imaginations as +invisible demons, who derived nourishment from the human body. When a +patient was wasted with disease, growing thinner and weaker and more +bloodless day by day, it was believed that a merciless vampire was +sucking his veins and devouring his flesh. It had therefore to be +expelled by performing a magical ceremony and repeating a magical +formula. The demon was either driven or enticed away. + +A magician had to decide in the first place what particular demon was +working evil. He then compelled its attention and obedience by +detailing its attributes and methods of attack, and perhaps by naming +it. Thereafter he suggested how it should next act by releasing a +raven, so that it might soar towards the clouds like that bird, or by +offering up a sacrifice which it received for nourishment and as +compensation. Another popular method was to fashion a waxen figure of +the patient and prevail upon the disease demon to enter it. The figure +was then carried away to be thrown in the river or burned in a fire. + +Occasionally a quite effective cure was included in the ceremony. As +much is suggested by the magical treatment of toothache. First of all +the magician identified the toothache demon as "the worm ". Then he +recited its history, which is as follows: After Anu created the +heavens, the heavens created the earth, the earth created the rivers, +the rivers created the canals, the canals created the marshes, and +last of all the marshes created "the worm". + +This display of knowledge compelled the worm to listen, and no doubt +the patient was able to indicate to what degree it gave evidence of +its agitated mind. The magician continued: + + Came the worm and wept before Shamash, + Before Ea came her tears: + "What wilt thou give me for my food, + What wilt thou give me to devour?" + +One of the deities answered: "I will give thee dried bones and scented +... wood"; but the hungry worm protested: + + "Nay, what are these dried bones of thine to me? + Let me drink among the teeth; + And set me on the gums + That I may devour the blood of the teeth, + And of their gums destroy their strength-- + Then shall I hold the bolt of the door." + +The magician provided food for "the worm", and the following is his +recipe: "Mix beer, the plant sa-kil-bir, and oil together; put it on +the tooth and repeat Incantation." No doubt this mixture soothed the +pain, and the sufferer must have smiled gladly when the magician +finished his incantation by exclaiming: + + "So must thou say this, O Worm! + May Ea smite thee with the might of his fist."[270] + +Headaches were no doubt much relieved when damp cloths were wrapped +round a patient's head and scented wood was burned beside him, while +the magician, in whom so much faith was reposed, droned out a mystical +incantation. The curative water was drawn from the confluence of two +streams and was sprinkled with much ceremony. In like manner the +evil-eye curers, who still operate in isolated districts in these +islands, draw water from under bridges "over which the dead and the +living pass",[271] and mutter charms and lustrate victims. + +Headaches were much dreaded by the Babylonians. They were usually the +first symptoms of fevers, and the demons who caused them were supposed +to be bloodthirsty and exceedingly awesome. According to the charms, +these invisible enemies of man were of the brood of Nergal. No house +could be protected against them. They entered through keyholes and +chinks of doors and windows; they crept like serpents and stank like +mice; they had lolling tongues like hungry dogs. + +Magicians baffled the demons by providing a charm. If a patient +"touched iron"--meteoric iron, which was the "metal of heaven"--relief +could be obtained. Or, perhaps, the sacred water would dispel the evil +one; as the drops trickled from the patient's face, so would the fever +spirit trickle away. When a pig was offered up in sacrifice as a +substitute for a patient, the wicked spirit was commanded to depart +and allow a kindly spirit to take its place--an indication that the +Babylonians, like the Germanic peoples, believed that they were +guarded by spirits who brought good luck. + +The numerous incantations which were inscribed on clay tablets and +treasured in libraries, do not throw much light on the progress of +medical knowledge, for the genuine folk cures were regarded as of +secondary importance, and were not as a rule recorded. But these +metrical compositions are of special interest, in so far as they +indicate how poetry originated and achieved widespread popularity +among ancient peoples. Like the religious dance, the earliest poems +were used for magical purposes. They were composed in the first place +by men and women who were supposed to be inspired in the literal +sense; that is, possessed by spirits. Primitive man associated +"spirit" with "breath", which was the "air of life", and identical +with wind. The poetical magician drew in a "spirit", and thus received +inspiration, as he stood on some sacred spot on the mountain summit, +amidst forest solitudes, beside a' whispering stream, or on the +sounding shore. As Burns has sung: + + The muse, nae poet ever fand her, + Till by himsel' he learn'd to wander, + Adown some trottin' burn's meander, + An' no think lang: + O sweet to stray, an' pensive ponder + A heart-felt sang! + +Or, perhaps, the bard received inspiration by drinking magic water +from the fountain called Hippocrene, or the skaldic mead which dripped +from the moon. + +The ancient poet did not sing for the mere love of singing: he knew +nothing about "Art for Art's sake". His object in singing appears to +have been intensely practical. The world was inhabited by countless +hordes of spirits, which were believed to be ever exercising +themselves to influence mankind. The spirits caused suffering; they +slew victims; they brought misfortune; they were also the source of +good or "luck ". Man regarded spirits emotionally; he conjured them +with emotion; he warded off their attacks with emotion; and his +emotions were given rhythmical expression by means of metrical magical +charms. + +Poetic imagery had originally a magical significance; if the ocean was +compared to a dragon, it was because it was supposed to be inhabited +by a storm-causing dragon; the wind whispered because a spirit +whispered in it. Love lyrics were charms to compel the love god to +wound or possess a maiden's heart--to fill it, as an Indian charm sets +forth, with "the yearning of the Apsaras (fairies)"; satires conjured +up evil spirits to injure a victim; and heroic narratives chanted at +graves were statements made to the god of battle, so that he might +award the mighty dead by transporting him to the Valhal of Odin or +Swarga of Indra. + +Similarly, music had magical origin as an imitation of the voices of +spirits--of the piping birds who were "Fates", of the wind high and +low, of the thunder roll, of the bellowing sea. So the god Pan piped +on his reed bird-like notes, Indra blew his thunder horn, Thor used +his hammer like a drumstick, Neptune imitated on his "wreathed horn" +the voice of the deep, the Celtic oak god Dagda twanged his windy +wooden harp, and Angus, the Celtic god of spring and love, came +through budding forest ways with a silvern harp which had strings of +gold, echoing the tuneful birds, the purling streams, the whispering +winds, and the rustling of scented fir and blossoming thorn. + +Modern-day poets and singers, who voice their moods and cast the spell +of their moods over readers and audiences, are the representatives of +ancient magicians who believed that moods were caused by the spirits +which possessed them--the rhythmical wind spirits, those harpers of +the forest and songsters of ocean. + +The following quotations from Mr. R.C. Thompson's translations of +Babylonian charms will serve to illustrate their poetic qualities:-- + + Fever like frost hath come upon the land. + + Fever hath blown upon the man as the wind blast, + It hath smitten the man and humbled his pride. + + Headache lieth like the stars of heaven in the desert and hath no + praise; + Pain in the head and shivering like a scudding cloud turn unto the + form of man. + + Headache whose course like the dread windstorm none knoweth. + + Headache roareth over the desert, blowing like the wind, + Flashing like lightning, it is loosed above and below, + It cutteth off him, who feareth not his god, like a reed ... + From amid mountains it hath descended upon the land. + + Headache ... a rushing hag-demon, + Granting no rest, nor giving kindly sleep ... + Whose shape is as the whirlwind. + Its appearance is as the darkening heavens, + And its face as the deep shadow of the forest. + + Sickness ... breaking the fingers as a rope of wind ... + Flashing like a heavenly star, it cometh like the dew. + +These early poets had no canons of Art, and there were no critics to +disturb their meditations. Many singers had to sing and die ere a +critic could find much to say. In ancient times, therefore, poets had +their Golden Age--they were a law unto themselves. Even the "minors" +were influential members of society. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +THE GOLDEN AGE OF BABYLONIA + + + Rise of the Sun God--Amorites and Elamites struggle for + Ascendancy--The Conquering Ancestors of Hammurabi--Sumerian Cities + Destroyed--Widespread Race Movements--Phoenician Migration from + Persian Gulf--Wanderings of Abraham and Lot--Biblical References to + Hittites and Amorites--Battles of Four Kings with Five--Amraphel, + Arioch, and Tidal--Hammurabi's Brilliant Reign--Elamite Power + Stamped Out--Babylon's Great General and Statesman--The Growth of + Commerce, Agriculture, and Education--An Ancient School--Business + and Private Correspondence--A Love Letter--Postal + System--Hammurabi's Successors--The Earliest Kassites--The Sealand + Dynasty--Hittite Raid on Babylon and Hyksos Invasion of Egypt. + + +Sun worship came into prominence in its most fully developed form +during the obscure period which followed the decline of the Dynasty of +Isin. This was probably due to the changed political conditions which +brought about the ascendancy for a time of Larsa, the seat of the +Sumerian sun cult, and of Sippar, the seat of the Akkadian sun cult. +Larsa was selected as the capital of the Elamite conquerors, while +their rivals, the Amorites, appear to have first established their +power at Sippar. + +Babbar, the sun god of Sippar, whose Semitic name was Shamash, must +have been credited with the early successes of the Amorites, who +became domiciled under his care, and it was possibly on that account +that the ruling family subsequently devoted so much attention to his +worship in Merodach's city of Babylon, where a sun temple was erected, +and Shamash received devout recognition as an abstract deity of +righteousness and law, who reflected the ideals of well organized and +firmly governed communities. + +The first Amoritic king was Sumu-abum, but little is known regarding +him except that he reigned at Sippar. He was succeeded by Sumu-la-ilu, +a deified monarch, who moved from Sippar to Babylon, the great wall of +which he either repaired or entirely reconstructed in his fifth year. +With these two monarchs began the brilliant Hammurabi, or First +Dynasty of Babylonia, which endured for three centuries. Except +Sumu-abum, who seems to stand alone, all its kings belonged to the +same family, and son succeeded father in unbroken succession. + +Sumu-la-ilu was evidently a great general and conqueror of the type of +Thothmes III of Egypt. His empire, it is believed, included the rising +city states of Assyria, and extended southward as far as ancient +Lagash. + +Of special interest on religious as well as political grounds was his +association with Kish. That city had become the stronghold of a rival +family of Amoritic kings, some of whom were powerful enough to assert +their independence. They formed the Third Dynasty of Kish. The local +god was Zamama, the Tammuz-like deity, who, like Nin-Girsu of Lagash, +was subsequently identified with Merodach of Babylon. But prominence +was also given to the moon god Nannar, to whom a temple had been +erected, a fact which suggests that sun worship was not more +pronounced among the Semites than the Arabians, and may not, indeed, +have been of Semitic origin at all. Perhaps the lunar temple was a +relic of the influential Dynasty of Ur. + +Sumu-la-ilu attacked and captured Kish, but did not slay +Bunutakhtunila, its king, who became his vassal. Under the +overlordship of Sumu-la-ilu, the next ruler of Kish, whose name was +Immerum, gave prominence to the public worship of Shamash. Politics +and religion went evidently hand in hand. + +Sumu-la-ilu strengthened the defences of Sippar, restored the wall and +temple of Cuthah, and promoted the worship of Merodach and his consort +Zerpanitu^m at Babylon. He was undoubtedly one of the forceful +personalities of his dynasty. His son, Zabium, had a short but +successful reign, and appears to have continued the policy of his +father in consolidating the power of Babylon and securing the +allegiance of subject cities. He enlarged Merodach's temple, E-sagila, +restored the Kish temple of Zamama, and placed a golden image of +himself in the temple of the sun god at Sippar. Apil-Sin, his son, +surrounded Babylon with a new wall, erected a temple to Ishtar, and +presented a throne of gold and silver to Shamash in that city, while +he also strengthened Borsippa, renewed Nergal's temple at Cuthah, and +dug canals. + +The next monarch was Sin-muballit, son of Apil-Sin and father of +Hammurabi. He engaged himself in extending and strengthening the area +controlled by Babylon by building city fortifications and improving +the irrigation system. It is recorded that he honoured Shamash with +the gift of a shrine and a golden altar adorned with jewels. Like +Sumu-la-ilu, he was a great battle lord, and was specially concerned +in challenging the supremacy of Elam in Sumeria and in the western +land of the Amorites. + +For a brief period a great conqueror, named Rim-Anum, had established +an empire which extended from Kish to Larsa, but little is known +regarding him. Then several kings flourished at Larsa who claimed to +have ruled over Ur. The first monarch with an Elamite name who became +connected with Larsa was Kudur-Mabug, son of Shimti-Shilkhak, the +father of Warad-Sin and Rim-Sin. + +It was from one of these Elamite monarchs that Sin-muballit captured +Isin, and probably the Elamites were also the leaders of the army of +Ur which he had routed before that event took place. He was not +successful, however, in driving the Elamites from the land, and +possibly he arranged with them a treaty of peace or perhaps of +alliance. + +Much controversy has been waged over the historical problems connected +with this disturbed age. The records are exceedingly scanty, because +the kings were not in the habit of commemorating battles which proved +disastrous to them, and their fragmentary references to successes are +not sufficient to indicate what permanent results accrued from their +various campaigns. All we know for certain is that for a considerable +period, extending perhaps over a century, a tremendous and disastrous +struggle was waged at intervals, which desolated middle Babylonia. At +least five great cities were destroyed by fire, as is testified by the +evidence accumulated by excavators. These were Lagash, Umma, +Shurruppak, Kisurra, and Adab. The ancient metropolis of Lagash, whose +glory had been revived by Gudea and his kinsmen, fell soon after the +rise of Larsa, and lay in ruins until the second century B.C., when, +during the Seleucid Period, it was again occupied for a time. From its +mound at Tello, and the buried ruins of the other cities, most of the +relics of ancient Sumerian civilization have been recovered. + +It was probably during one of the intervals of this stormy period that +the rival kings in Babylonia joined forces against a common enemy and +invaded the Western Land. Probably there was much unrest there. Great +ethnic disturbances were in progress which were changing the political +complexion of Western Asia. In addition to the outpourings of Arabian +peoples into Palestine and Syria, which propelled other tribes to +invade Mesopotamia, northern Babylonia, and Assyria, there was also +much unrest all over the wide area to north and west of Elam. Indeed, +the Elamite migration into southern Babylonia may not have been +unconnected with the southward drift of roving bands from Media and +the Iranian plateau. + +It is believed that these migrations were primarily due to changing +climatic conditions, a prolonged "Dry Cycle" having caused a shortage +of herbage, with the result that pastoral peoples were compelled to go +farther and farther afield in quest of "fresh woods and pastures new". +Innumerable currents and cross currents were set in motion once these +race movements swept towards settled districts either to flood them +with human waves, or surround them like islands in the midst of +tempest-lashed seas, fretting the frontiers with restless fury, and +ever groping for an inlet through which to flow with irresistible +force. + +The Elamite occupation of Southern Babylonia appears to have propelled +migrations of not inconsiderable numbers of its inhabitants. No doubt +the various sections moved towards districts which were suitable for +their habits of life. Agriculturists, for instance, must have shown +preference for those areas which were capable of agricultural +development, while pastoral folks sought grassy steppes and valleys, +and seafarers the shores of alien seas. + +Northern Babylonia and Assyria probably attracted the tillers of the +soil. But the movements of seafarers must have followed a different +route. It is possible that about this time the Phoenicians began to +migrate towards the "Upper Sea". According to their own traditions +their racial cradle was on the northern shore of the Persian Gulf. So +far as we know, they first made their appearance on the Mediterranean +coast about 2000 B.C., where they subsequently entered into +competition as sea traders with the mariners of ancient Crete. +Apparently the pastoral nomads pressed northward through Mesopotamia +and towards Canaan. As much is suggested by the Biblical narrative +which deals with the wanderings of Terah, Abraham, and Lot. Taking +with them their "flocks and herds and tents ", and accompanied by +wives, and families, and servants, they migrated, it is stated, from +the Sumerian city of Ur northwards to Haran "and dwelt there". After +Terah's death the tribe wandered through Canaan and kept moving +southward, unable, it would seem, to settle permanently in any +particular district. At length "there was a famine in the land"--an +interesting reference to the "Dry Cycle"--and the wanderers found it +necessary to take refuge for a time in Egypt. There they appear to +have prospered. Indeed, so greatly did their flocks and herds increase +that when they returned to Canaan they found that "the land was not +able to bear them", although the conditions had improved somewhat +during the interval. "There was", as a result, "strife between the +herdmen of Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle." + +It is evident that the area which these pastoral flocks were allowed +to occupy must have been strictly circumscribed, for more than once it +is stated significantly that "the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled +in the land". The two kinsmen found it necessary, therefore, to part +company. Lot elected to go towards Sodom in the plain of Jordan, and +Abraham then moved towards the plain of Mamre, the Amorite, in the +Hebron district.[272] With Mamre, and his brothers, Eshcol and Aner, +the Hebrew patriarch formed a confederacy for mutual protection.[273] + +Other tribes which were in Palestine at this period included the +Horites, the Rephaims, the Zuzims, the Zamzummims, and the Emims. +These were probably representatives of the older stocks. Like the +Amorites, the Hittites or "children of Heth" were evidently "late +comers", and conquerors. When Abraham purchased the burial cave at +Hebron, the landowner with whom he had to deal was one Ephron, son of +Zohar, the Hittite.[274] This illuminating statement agrees with what +we know regarding Hittite expansion about 2000 B.C. The "Hatti" or +"Khatti" had constituted military aristocracies throughout Syria and +extended their influence by forming alliances. Many of their settlers +were owners of estates, and traders who intermarried with the +indigenous peoples and the Arabian invaders. As has been indicated +(Chapter I), the large-nosed Armenoid section of the Hittite +confederacy appear to have contributed to the racial blend known +vaguely as the Semitic. Probably the particular group of Amorites with +whom Abraham became associated had those pronounced Armenoid traits +which can still be traced in representatives of the Hebrew people. Of +special interest in this connection is Ezekiel's declaration regarding +the ethnics of Jerusalem: "Thy birth and thy nativity", he said, "is +of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an +Hittite."[275] + +It was during Abraham's residence in Hebron that the Western Land was +raided by a confederacy of Babylonian and Elamite battle lords. The +Biblical narrative which deals with this episode is of particular +interest and has long engaged the attention of European scholars: + +"And it came to pass in the days of Amraphel (Hammurabi) king of +Shinar (Sumer), Arioch (Eri-aku or Warad-Sin) king of Ellasar (Larsa), +Chedor-laomer (Kudur-Mabug) king of Elam, and Tidal (Tudhula) king of +nations; that these made war with Bera king of Sodom, and with Birsha +king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, and Shemeber king of Zeboiim, +and the king of Bela, which is Zoar. All these joined together in the +vale of Siddim, which is the salt sea. Twelve years they served +Chedor-laomer, and in the thirteenth year they rebelled."[276] +Apparently the Elamites had conquered part of Syria after entering +southern Babylonia. + +Chedor-laomer and his allies routed the Rephaims, the Zuzims, the +Emims, the Horites and others, and having sacked Sodom and Gomorrah, +carried away Lot and "his goods". On hearing of this disaster, Abraham +collected a force of three hundred and eighteen men, all of whom were +no doubt accustomed to guerrilla warfare, and delivered a night attack +on the tail of the victorious army which was withdrawing through the +area afterwards allotted to the Hebrew tribe of Dan. The surprise was +complete; Abraham "smote" the enemy and "pursued them unto Hobah, +which is on the left hand of Damascus. And he brought back all the +goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the +women also, and the people."[277] + +The identification of Hammurabi with Amraphel is now generally +accepted. At first the guttural "h", which gives the English rendering +"Khammurabi", presented a serious difficulty, but in time the form +"Ammurapi" which appears on a tablet became known, and the conclusion +was reached that the softer "h" sound was used and not the guttural. +The "l" in the Biblical Amraphel has suggested "Ammurapi-ilu", +"Hammurabi, the god", but it has been argued, on the other hand, that +the change may have been due to western habitual phonetic conditions, +or perhaps the slight alteration of an alphabetical sign. +Chedor-laomer, identified with Kudur-Mabug, may have had several local +names. One of his sons, either Warad-Sin or Rim-Sin, but probably the +former, had his name Semitized as Eri-Aku, and this variant appears in +inscriptions. "Tidal, king of nations", has not been identified. The +suggestion that he was "King of the Gutium" remains in the realm of +suggestion. Two late tablets have fragmentary inscriptions which read +like legends with some historical basis. One mentions Kudur-lahmal +(?Chedor-laomer) and the other gives the form "Kudur-lahgumal", and +calls him "King of the land of Elam". Eri-Eaku (?Eri-aku) and Tudhula +(?Tidal) are also mentioned. Attacks had been delivered on Babylon, +and the city and its great temple E-sagila were flooded. It is +asserted that the Elamites "exercised sovereignty in Babylon" for a +period. These interesting tablets have been published by Professor +Pinches. + +The fact that the four leaders of the expedition to Canaan are all +referred to as "kings" in the Biblical narrative need not present any +difficulty. Princes and other subject rulers who governed under an +overlord might be and, as a matter of fact, were referred to as kings. +"I am a king, son of a king", an unidentified monarch recorded on one +of the two tablets just referred to. Kudur-Mabug, King of Elam, during +his lifetime called his son Warad-Sin (Eri-Aku = Arioch) "King of +Larsa". It is of interest to note, too, in connection with the +Biblical narrative regarding the invasion of Syria and Palestine, that +he styled himself "overseer of the Amurru (Amorites)". + +No traces have yet been found in Palestine of its conquest by the +Elamites, nor have the excavators been able to substantiate the claim +of Lugal-zaggizi of a previous age to have extended his empire to the +shores of the Mediterranean. Any relics which these and other eastern +conquerors may have left were possibly destroyed by the Egyptians and +Hittites. + +When Hammurabi came to the throne he had apparently to recognize the +overlordship of the Elamite king or his royal son at Larsa. Although +Sin-muballit had captured Isin, it was retaken, probably after the +death of the Babylonian war-lord, by Rim-Sin, who succeeded his +brother Warad-Sin, and for a time held sway in Lagash, Nippur, and +Erech, as well as Larsa. + +It was not until the thirty-first year of his reign that Hammurabi +achieved ascendancy over his powerful rival. Having repulsed an +Elamite raid, which was probably intended to destroy the growing power +of Babylon, he "smote down Rim-Sin", whose power he reduced almost to +vanishing point. For about twenty years afterwards that subdued +monarch lived in comparative obscurity; then he led a force of allies +against Hammurabi's son and successor, Samsu-iluna, who defeated him +and put him to death, capturing, in the course of his campaign, the +revolting cities of Emutbalum, Erech, and Isin. So was the last +smouldering ember of Elamite power stamped out in Babylonia. + +Hammurabi, statesman and general, is one of the great personalities of +the ancient world. No more celebrated monarch ever held sway in +Western Asia. He was proud of his military achievements, but preferred +to be remembered as a servant of the gods, a just ruler, a father of +his people, and "the shepherd that gives peace". In the epilogue to +his code of laws he refers to "the burden of royalty", and declares +that he "cut off the enemy" and "lorded it over the conquered" so that +his subjects might have security. Indeed, his anxiety for their +welfare was the most pronounced feature of his character. "I carried +all the people of Sumer and Akkad in my bosom", he declared in his +epilogue. "By my protection, I guided in peace its brothers. By my +wisdom I provided for them." He set up his stele, on which the legal +code was inscribed, so "that the great should not oppress the weak" +and "to counsel the widow and orphan", and "to succour the injured.... +The king that is gentle, king of the city, exalted am I."[278] + +Hammurabi was no mere framer of laws but a practical administrator as +well. He acted as supreme judge, and his subjects could appeal to him +as the Romans could to Caesar. Nor was any case too trivial for his +attention. The humblest man was assured that justice would be done if +his grievance were laid before the king. Hammurabi was no respecter of +persons, and treated alike all his subjects high and low. He punished +corrupt judges, protected citizens against unjust governors, reviewed +the transactions of moneylenders with determination to curb +extortionate demands, and kept a watchful eye on the operations of +taxgatherers. + +There can be little doubt but that he won the hearts of his subjects, +who enjoyed the blessings of just administration under a well-ordained +political system. He must also have endeared himself to them as an +exemplary exponent of religious tolerance. He respected the various +deities in whom the various groups of people reposed their faith, +restored despoiled temples, and re-endowed them with characteristic +generosity. By so doing he not only afforded the pious full freedom +and opportunity to perform their religious ordinances, but also +promoted the material welfare of his subjects, for the temples were +centres of culture and the priests were the teachers of the young. +Excavators have discovered at Sippar traces of a school which dates +from the Hammurabi Dynasty. Pupils learned to read and write, and +received instruction in arithmetic and mensuration. They copied +historical tablets, practised the art of composition, and studied +geography. + +Although there were many professional scribes, a not inconsiderable +proportion of the people of both sexes were able to write private and +business letters. Sons wrote from a distance to their fathers when in +need of money then as now, and with the same air of undeserved +martyrdom and subdued but confident appeal. One son indited a long +complaint regarding the quality of the food he was given in his +lodgings. Lovers appealed to forgetful ladies, showing great concern +regarding their health. "Inform me how it fares with thee," one wrote +four thousand years ago. "I went up to Babylon so that I might meet +thee, but did not, and was much depressed. Let me know why thou didst +go away so that I may be made glad. And do come hither. Ever have care +of thy health, remembering me." Even begging-letter writers were not +unknown. An ancient representative of this class once wrote to his +employer from prison. He expressed astonishment that he had been +arrested, and, having protested his innocence, he made touching appeal +for little luxuries which were denied to him, adding that the last +consignment which had been forwarded had never reached him. + +Letters were often sent by messengers who were named, but there also +appears to have been some sort of postal system. Letter carriers, +however, could not have performed their duties without the assistance +of beasts of burden. Papyri were not used as in Egypt. Nor was ink +required. Babylonian letters were shapely little bricks resembling +cushions. The angular alphabetical characters, bristling with +thorn-like projections, were impressed with a wedge-shaped stylus on +tablets of soft clay which were afterwards carefully baked in an oven. +Then the letters were placed in baked clay envelopes, sealed and +addressed, or wrapped in pieces of sacking transfixed by seals. If the +ancient people had a festive season which was regarded, like the +European Yuletide or the Indian Durga fortnight, as an occasion +suitable for the general exchange of expressions of goodwill, the +Babylonian streets and highways must have been greatly congested by +the postal traffic, while muscular postmen worked overtime +distributing the contents of heavy and bulky letter sacks. Door to +door deliveries would certainly have presented difficulties. Wood +being dear, everyone could not afford doors, and some houses were +entered by stairways leading to the flat and partly open roofs. + +King Hammurabi had to deal daily with a voluminous correspondence. He +received reports from governors in all parts of his realm, legal +documents containing appeals, and private communications from +relatives and others. He paid minute attention to details, and was +probably one of the busiest men in Babylonia. Every day while at home, +after worshipping Merodach at E-sagila, he dictated letters to his +scribes, gave audiences to officials, heard legal appeals and issued +interlocutors, and dealt with the reports regarding his private +estates. He looks a typical man of affairs in sculptured +representations--shrewd, resolute, and unassuming, feeling "the +burden of royalty", but ever ready and well qualified to discharge his +duties with thoroughness and insight. His grasp of detail was equalled +only by his power to conceive of great enterprises which appealed to +his imagination. It was a work of genius on his part to weld together +that great empire of miscellaneous states extending from southern +Babylonia to Assyria, and from the borders of Elam to the +Mediterranean coast, by a universal legal Code which secured +tranquillity and equal rights to all, promoted business, and set +before his subjects the ideals of right thinking and right living. + +Hammurabi recognized that conquest was of little avail unless followed +by the establishment of a just and well-arranged political system, and +the inauguration of practical measures to secure the domestic, +industrial, and commercial welfare of the people as a whole. He +engaged himself greatly, therefore, in developing the natural +resources of each particular district. The network of irrigating +canals was extended in the homeland so that agriculture might prosper: +these canals also promoted trade, for they were utilized for +travelling by boat and for the distribution of commodities. As a +result of his activities Babylon became not only the administrative, +but also the commercial centre of his Empire--the London of Western +Asia--and it enjoyed a spell of prosperity which was never surpassed +in subsequent times. Yet it never lost its pre-eminent position +despite the attempts of rival states, jealous of its glory and +influence, to suspend its activities. It had been too firmly +established during the Hammurabi Age, which was the Golden Age of +Babylonia, as the heartlike distributor and controller of business +life through a vast network of veins and arteries, to be displaced by +any other Mesopotamian city to pleasure even a mighty monarch. For two +thousand years, from the time of Hammurabi until the dawn of the +Christian era, the city of Babylon remained amidst many political +changes the metropolis of Western Asiatic commerce and culture, and +none was more eloquent in its praises than the scholarly pilgrim from +Greece who wondered at its magnificence and reverenced its +antiquities. + +Hammurabi's reign was long as it was prosperous. There is no general +agreement as to when he ascended the throne--some say in 2123 B.C., +others hold that it was after 2000 B.C.--but it is certain that he +presided over the destinies of Babylon for the long period of +forty-three years. + +There are interesting references to the military successes of his +reign in the prologue to the legal Code. It is related that when he +"avenged Larsa", the seat of Rim-Sin, he restored there the temple of +the sun god. Other temples were built up at various ancient centres, +so that these cultural organizations might contribute to the welfare +of the localities over which they held sway. At Nippur he thus +honoured Enlil, at Eridu the god Ea, at Ur the god Sin, at Erech the +god Anu and the goddess Nana (Ishtar), at Kish the god Zamama and the +goddess Ma-ma, at Cuthah the god Nergal, at Lagash the god Nin-Girsu, +while at Adab and Akkad, "celebrated for its wide squares", and other +centres he carried out religious and public works. In Assyria he +restored the colossus of Ashur, which had evidently been carried away +by a conqueror, and he developed the canal system of Nineveh. + +Apparently Lagash and Adab had not been completely deserted during his +reign, although their ruins have not yielded evidence that they +flourished after their fall during the long struggle with the +aggressive and plundering Elamites. + +Hammurabi referred to himself in the Prologue as "a king who commanded +obedience in all the four quarters". He was the sort of benevolent +despot whom Carlyle on one occasion clamoured vainly for--not an +Oriental despot in the commonly accepted sense of the term. As a +German writer puts it, his despotism was a form of Patriarchal +Absolutism. "When Marduk (Merodach)", as the great king recorded, +"brought me to direct all people, and commissioned me to give +judgment, I laid down justice and right in the provinces, I made all +flesh to prosper."[279] That was the keynote of his long life; he +regarded himself as the earthly representative of the Ruler of +all--Merodach, "the lord god of right", who carried out the decrees of +Anu, the sky god of Destiny. + +The next king, Samsu-iluna, reigned nearly as long as his illustrious +father, and similarly lived a strenuous and pious life. Soon after he +came to the throne the forces of disorder were let loose, but, as has +been stated, he crushed and slew his most formidable opponent, +Rim-Sin, the Elamite king, who had gathered together an army of +allies. During his reign a Kassite invasion was repulsed. The earliest +Kassites, a people of uncertain racial affinities, began to settle in +the land during Hammurabi's lifetime. Some writers connect them with +the Hittites, and others with the Iranians, vaguely termed as +Indo-European or Indo-Germanic folk. Ethnologists as a rule regard +them as identical with the Cossaei, whom the Greeks found settled +between Babylon and Media, east of the Tigris and north of Elam. The +Hittites came south as raiders about a century later. It is possible +that the invading Kassites had overrun Elam and composed part of +Rim-Sin's army. After settled conditions were secured many of them +remained in Babylonia, where they engaged like their pioneers in +agricultural pursuits. No doubt they were welcomed in that capacity, +for owing to the continuous spread of culture and the development of +commerce, rural labour had become scarce and dear. Farmers had a +long-standing complaint, "The harvest truly is plenteous, but the +labourers are few".[280] "Despite the existence of slaves, who were +for the most part domestic servants, there was", writes Mr. Johns, +"considerable demand for free labour in ancient Babylonia. This is +clear from the large number of contracts relating to hire which have +come down to us.... As a rule, the man was hired for the harvest and +was free directly after. But there are many examples in which the term +of service was different--one month, half a year, or a whole year.... +Harvest labour was probably far dearer than any other, because of its +importance, the skill and exertion demanded, and the fact that so many +were seeking for it at once." When a farm worker was engaged he +received a shekel for "earnest money" or arles, and was penalized for +non-appearance or late arrival.[281] + +So great was the political upheaval caused by Rim-Sin and his allies +and imitators in southern Babylonia, that it was not until the +seventeenth year of his reign that Samsu-iluna had recaptured Erech +and Ur and restored their walls. Among other cities which had to be +chastised was ancient Akkad, where a rival monarch endeavoured to +establish himself. Several years were afterwards spent in building new +fortifications, setting up memorials in temples, and cutting and +clearing canals. On more than one occasion during the latter part of +his reign he had to deal with aggressive bands of Amorites. + +The greatest danger to the Empire, however, was threatened by a new +kingdom which had been formed in Bit-Jakin, a part of Sealand which +was afterwards controlled by the mysterious Chaldeans. Here may have +collected evicted and rebel bands of Elamites and Sumerians and +various "gentlemen of fortune" who were opposed to the Hammurabi +regime. After the fall of Rim-Sin it became powerful under a king +called Ilu-ma-ilu. Samsu-iluna conducted at least two campaigns +against his rival, but without much success. Indeed, he was in the end +compelled to retreat with considerable loss owing to the difficult +character of that marshy country. + +Abeshu, the next Babylonian king, endeavoured to shatter the cause of +the Sealanders, and made it possible for himself to strike at them by +damming up the Tigris canal. He achieved a victory, but the wily +Ilu-ma-ilu eluded him, and after a reign of sixty years was succeeded +by his son, Kiannib. The Sealand Dynasty, of which little is known, +lasted for over three and a half centuries, and certain of its later +monarchs were able to extend their sway over part of Babylonia, but +its power was strictly circumscribed so long as Hammurabi's +descendants held sway. + +During Abeshu's reign of twenty-eight years, of which but scanty +records survive, he appears to have proved an able statesman and +general. He founded a new city called Lukhaia, and appears to have +repulsed a Kassite raid. + +His son, Ammiditana, who succeeded him, apparently inherited a +prosperous and well-organized Empire, for during the first fifteen +years of his reign he attended chiefly to the adornment of temples and +other pious undertakings. He was a patron of the arts with +archaeological leanings, and displayed traits which suggest that he +inclined, like Sumu-la-ilu, to ancestor worship. Entemena, the pious +patesi of Lagash, whose memory is associated with the famous silver +vase decorated with the lion-headed eagle form of Nin-Girsu, had been +raised to the dignity of a god, and Ammiditana caused his statue to be +erected so that offerings might be made to it. He set up several +images of himself also, and celebrated the centenary of the accession +to the throne of his grandfather, Samsu-iluna, "the warrior lord", by +unveiling his statue with much ceremony at Kish. About the middle of +his reign he put down a Sumerian rising, and towards its close had to +capture a city which is believed to be Isin, but the reference is too +obscure to indicate what political significance attached to this +incident. His son, Ammizaduga, reigned for over twenty years quite +peacefully so far as is known, and was succeeded by Samsuditana, whose +rule extended over a quarter of a century. Like Ammiditana, these two +monarchs set up images of themselves as well as of the gods, so that +they might be worshipped, no doubt. They also promoted the interests +of agriculture and commerce, and incidentally increased the revenue +from taxation by paying much attention to the canals and extending the +cultivatable areas. + +But the days of the brilliant Hammurabi Dynasty were drawing to a +close. It endured for about a century longer than the Twelfth Dynasty +of Egypt, which came to an end, according to the Berlin calculations, +in 1788 B.C. Apparently some of the Hammurabi and Amenemhet kings were +contemporaries, but there is no evidence that they came into direct +touch with one another. It was not until at about two centuries after +Hammurabi's day that Egypt first invaded Syria, with which, however, +it had for a long period previously conducted a brisk trade. Evidently +the influence of the Hittites and their Amoritic allies predominated +between Mesopotamia and the Delta frontier of Egypt, and it is +significant to find in this connection that the "Khatti" or "Hatti" +were referred to for the first time in Egypt during the Twelfth +Dynasty, and in Babylonia during the Hammurabi Dynasty, sometime +shortly before or after 2000 B.C. About 1800 B.C. a Hittite raid +resulted in the overthrow of the last king of the Hammurabi family at +Babylon. The Hyksos invasion of Egypt took place after 1788 B.C. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +RISE OF THE HITTITES, MITANNIANS, KASSITES, HYKSOS, AND ASSYRIANS + + + The War God of Mountaineers--Antiquity of Hittite + Civilization--Prehistoric Movements of "Broad Heads"--Evidence of + Babylon and Egypt--Hittites and Mongolians--Biblical References to + Hittites in Canaan--Jacob's Mother and her Daughters-in-law--Great + Father and Great Mother Cults--History in Mythology--The Kingdom of + Mitanni--Its Aryan Aristocracy--The Hyksos Problem--The Horse in + Warfare--Hittites and Mitannians--Kassites and Mitannians--Hyksos + Empire in Asia--Kassites overthrow Sealand Dynasty--Egyptian + Campaigns in Syria--Assyria in the Making--Ethnics of + Genesis--Nimrod as Merodach--Early Conquerors of Assyria--Mitannian + Overlords--Tell-el-Amarna Letters--Fall of Mitanni--Rise of Hittite + and Assyrian Empires--Egypt in Eclipse--Assyrian and Babylonian + Rivalries. + + +When the Hammurabi Dynasty, like the Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt, is +found to be suffering languid decline, the gaps in the dulled +historical records are filled with the echoes of the thunder god, +whose hammer beating resounds among the northern mountains. As this +deity comes each year in Western Asia when vegetation has withered and +after fruits have dropped from trees, bringing tempests and black +rainclouds to issue in a new season of growth and fresh activity, so +he descended from the hills in the second millennium before the +Christian era as the battle lord of invaders and the stormy herald of +a new age which was to dawn upon the ancient world. + +He was the war god of the Hittites as well as of the northern +Amorites, the Mitannians, and the Kassites; and he led the Aryans from +the Iranian steppes towards the verdurous valley of the Punjab. His +worshippers engraved his image with grateful hands on the beetling +cliffs of Cappadocian chasms in Asia Minor, where his sway was +steadfast and pre-eminent for long centuries. In one locality he +appears mounted on a bull wearing a fringed and belted tunic with +short sleeves, a conical helmet, and upturned shoes, while he grasps +in one hand the lightning symbol, and in the other a triangular bow +resting on his right shoulder. In another locality he is the bringer +of grapes and barley sheaves. But his most familiar form is the +bearded and thick-set mountaineer, armed with a ponderous thunder +hammer, a flashing trident, and a long two-edged sword with a +hemispherical knob on the hilt, which dangles from his belt, while an +antelope or goat wearing a pointed tiara prances beside him. This +deity is identical with bluff, impetuous Thor of northern Europe, +Indra of the Himalayas, Tarku of Phrygia, and Teshup or Teshub of +Armenia and northern Mesopotamia, Sandan, the Hercules of Cilicia, +Adad or Hadad of Amurru and Assyria, and Ramman, who at an early +period penetrated Akkad and Sumer in various forms. His Hittite name +is uncertain, but in the time of Rameses II he was identified with +Sutekh (Set). He passed into southern Europe as Zeus, and became "the +lord" of the deities of the Aegean and Crete. + +The Hittites who entered Babylon about 1800 B.C., and overthrew the +last king of the Hammurabi Dynasty, may have been plundering raiders, +like the European Gauls of a later age, or a well-organized force of a +strong, consolidated power, which endured for a period of uncertain +duration. They were probably the latter, for although they carried off +Merodach and Zerpanitu^m, these idols were not thrust into the melting +pot, but retained apparently for political reasons. + +These early Hittites are "a people of the mist". More than once in +ancient history casual reference is made to them; but on most of these +occasions they soon vanish suddenly behind their northern mountains. +The explanation appears to be that at various periods great leaders +arose who were able to weld together the various tribes, and make +their presence felt in Western Asia. But when once the organization +broke down, either on account of internal rivalries or the influence +of an outside power, they lapsed back again into a state of political +insignificance in the affairs of the ancient world. It is possible +that about 1800 B.C. the Hittite confederacy was controlled by an +ambitious king who had dreams of a great empire, and was accordingly +pursuing a career of conquest. + +Judging from what we know of the northern worshippers of the hammer +god in later times, it would appear that when they were referred to as +the Hatti or Khatti, the tribe of that name was the dominating power +in Asia Minor and north Syria. The Hatti are usually identified with +the broad-headed mountaineers of Alpine or Armenoid type--the +ancestors of the modern Armenians. Their ancient capital was at +Boghaz-Koei, the site of Pteria, which was destroyed, according to the +Greeks, by Croesus, the last King of Lydia, in the sixth century B.C. +It was strongly situated in an excellent pastoral district on the +high, breezy plateau of Cappadocia, surrounded by high mountains, and +approached through narrow river gorges, which in winter were blocked +with snow. + +Hittite civilization was of great antiquity. Excavations which have +been conducted at an undisturbed artificial mound at Sakje-Geuzi have +revealed evidences of a continuous culture which began to flourish +before 3000 B.C.[282] In one of the lower layers occurred that +particular type of Neolithic yellow-painted pottery, with black +geometric designs, which resembles other specimens of painted fabrics +found in Turkestan by the Pumpelly expedition; in Susa, the capital of +Elam, and its vicinity, by De Morgan; in the Balkan peninsula by +Schliemann; in a First Dynasty tomb at Abydos in Egypt by Petrie; and +in the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age (Minoan) strata of Crete by +Evans. It may be that these interesting relics were connected with the +prehistoric drift westward of the broad-headed pastoral peoples who +ultimately formed the Hittite military aristocracy. + +According to Professor Elliot Smith, broad-headed aliens from Asia +Minor first reached Egypt at the dawn of history. There they blended +with the indigenous tribes of the Mediterranean or Brown Race. A +mesocephalic skull then became common. It is referred to as the Giza +type, and has been traced by Professor Elliot Smith from Egypt to the +Punjab, but not farther into India.[283] + +During the early dynasties this skull with alien traits was confined +chiefly to the Delta region and the vicinity of Memphis, the city of +the pyramid builders. It is not improbable that the Memphite god Ptah +may have been introduced into Egypt by the invading broad heads. This +deity is a world artisan like Indra, and is similarly associated with +dwarfish artisans; he hammers out the copper sky, and therefore links +with the various thunder gods--Tarku, Teshup, Adad, Ramman, &c, of the +Asian mountaineers. Thunderstorms were of too rare occurrence in Egypt +to be connected with the food supply, which has always depended on the +river Nile. Ptah's purely Egyptian characteristics appear to have been +acquired after fusion with Osiris-Seb, the Nilotic gods of inundation, +earth, and vegetation. The ancient god Set (Sutekh), who became a +demon, and was ultimately re-exalted as a great deity during the +Nineteenth Dynasty, may also have had some connection with the +prehistoric Hatti. + +Professor Elliot Smith, who has found alien traits in the mummies of +the Rameses kings, is convinced that the broad-headed folks who +entered Europe by way of Asia Minor, and Egypt through the Delta, at +the close of the Neolithic Age, represent "two streams of the same +Asiatic folk".[284] The opinion of such an authority cannot be lightly +set aside. + +The earliest Egyptian reference to the Kheta, as the Hittites were +called, was made in the reign of the first Amenemhet of the Twelfth +Dynasty, who began to reign about 2000 B.C. Some authorities, +including Maspero,[285] are of opinion that the allusion to the Hatti +which is found in the Babylonian _Book of Omens_ belongs to the +earlier age of Sargon of Akkad and Naram-Sin, but Sayce favours the +age of Hammurabi. Others would connect the Gutium, or men of Kutu, +with the Kheta or Hatti. Sayce has expressed the opinion that the +Biblical Tidal, identified with Tudkhul or Tudhula, "king of nations", +the ally of Arioch, Amraphel, and Chedor-laomer, was a Hittite king, +the "nations" being the confederacy of Asia Minor tribes controlled by +the Hatti. "In the fragments of the Babylonian story of Chedor-laomer +published by Dr. Pinches", says Professor Sayce, "the name of +Tid^{c}al is written Tudkhul, and he is described as King of the +_Umman Manda_, or Nations of the North, of which the Hebrew _Goyyim_ +is a literal translation. Now the name is Hittite. In the account of +the campaign of Rameses II against the Hittites it appears as +Tid^{c}al, and one of the Hittite kings of Boghaz-Koei bears the same +name, which is written as Dud-khaliya in cuneiform.[286] + +One of the racial types among the Hittites wore pigtails. These head +adornments appear on figures in certain Cappadocian sculptures and on +Hittite warriors in the pictorial records of a north Syrian campaign +of Rameses II at Thebes. It is suggestive, therefore, to find that on +the stele of Naram-Sin of Akkad, the mountaineers who are conquered by +that battle lord wear pigtails also. Their split robes are unlike the +short fringed tunics of the Hittite gods, but resemble the long split +mantles worn over their tunics by high dignitaries like King +Tarku-dimme, who figures on a famous silver boss of an ancient Hittite +dagger. Naram-Sin inherited the Empire of Sargon of Akkad, which +extended to the Mediterranean Sea. If his enemies were not natives of +Cappadocia, they may have been the congeners of the Hittite pigtailed +type in another wooded and mountainous country. + +It has been suggested that these wearers of pigtails were Mongolians. +But although high cheek bones and oblique eyes occurred in ancient +times, and still occur, in parts of Asia Minor, suggesting occasional +Mongolian admixture with Ural-Altaic broad heads, the Hittite +pigtailed warriors must not be confused with the true small-nosed +Mongols of north-eastern Asia. The Egyptian sculptors depicted them +with long and prominent noses, which emphasize their strong Armenoid +affinities. + +Other tribes in the Hittite confederacy included the representatives +of the earliest settlers from North Africa of Mediterranean racial +stock. These have been identified with the Canaanites, and especially +the agriculturists among them, for the Palestinian Hittites are also +referred to as Canaanites in the Bible, and in one particular +connection under circumstances which afford an interesting glimpse of +domestic life in those far-off times. When Esau, Isaac's eldest son, +was forty years of age, "he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri +the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite"[287]. +Apparently the Hittite ladies considered themselves to be of higher +caste than the indigenous peoples and the settlers from other +countries, for when Ezekiel declared that the mother of Jerusalem was +a Hittite he said: "Thou art thy mother's daughter, that lotheth her +husband and her children."[288] Esau's marriage was "a grief of mind +unto Isaac and to Rebekah".[287] The Hebrew mother seems to +have entertained fears that her favourite son Jacob would +fall a victim to the allurements of other representatives of +the same stock as her superior and troublesome daughters-in-law, +for she said to Isaac: "I am weary of my life +because of the daughters of Heth; if Jacob take a wife +of the daughters of Heth, such as these which are of the +daughters of the land, what good shall my life do me?"[289] +Isaac sent for Jacob, "and charged him, and said unto +him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of +Canaan. Arise, go to Padan-aram, to the house of +Bethuel, thy mother's father; and take thee a wife from +thence of the daughters of Laban, thy mother's brother."[290] +From these quotations two obvious deductions may be +drawn: the Hebrews regarded the Hittites "of the land" +as one with the Canaanites, the stocks having probably +been so well fused, and the worried Rebekah had the +choosing of Jacob's wife or wives from among her own +relations in Mesopotamia who were of Sumerian stock +and kindred of Abraham.[291] It is not surprising to find +traces of Sumerian pride among the descendants of the +evicted citizens of ancient Ur, especially when brought +into association with the pretentious Hittites. + +Evidence of racial blending in Asia Minor is also afforded by Hittite +mythology. In the fertile agricultural valleys and round the shores of +that great Eur-Asian "land bridge" the indigenous stock was also of +the Mediterranean race, as Sergi and other ethnologists have +demonstrated. The Great Mother goddess was worshipped from the +earliest times, and she bore various local names. At Comana in Pontus +she was known to the Greeks as Ma, a name which may have been as old +as that of the Sumerian Mama (the creatrix), or Mamitu^m (goddess of +destiny); in Armenia she was Anaitis; in Cilicia she was Ate ('Atheh +of Tarsus); while in Phrygia she was best known as Cybele, mother of +Attis, who links with Ishtar as mother and wife of Tammuz, Aphrodite +as mother and wife of Adonis, and Isis as mother and wife of Osiris. +The Great Mother was in Phoenicia called Astarte; she was a form of +Ishtar, and identical with the Biblical Ashtoreth. In the Syrian city +of Hierapolis she bore the name of Atargatis, which Meyer, with whom +Frazer agrees, considers to be the Greek rendering of the Aramaic +'Athar-'Atheh--the god 'Athar and the goddess 'Atheh. Like the +"bearded Aphrodite", Atargatis may have been regarded as a bisexual +deity. Some of the specialized mother goddesses, whose outstanding +attributes reflected the history and politics of the states they +represented, were imported into Egypt--the land of ancient mother +deities--during the Empire period, by the half-foreign Rameses kings; +these included the voluptuous Kadesh and the warlike Anthat. In every +district colonized by the early representatives of the Mediterranean +race, the goddess cult came into prominence, and the gods and the +people were reputed to be descendants of the great Creatrix. This rule +obtained as far distant as Ireland, where the Danann folk and the +Danann gods were the children of the goddess Danu. + +Among the Hatti proper--that is, the broad-headed military +aristocracy--the chief deity of the pantheon was the Great Father, the +creator, "the lord of Heaven", the Baal. As Sutekh, Tarku, Adad, or +Ramman, he was the god of thunder, rain, fertility, and war, and he +ultimately acquired solar attributes. A famous rock sculpture at +Boghaz-Koei depicts a mythological scene which is believed to represent +the Spring marriage of the Great Father and the Great Mother, +suggesting a local fusion of beliefs which resulted from the union of +tribes of the god cult with tribes of the goddess cult. So long as the +Hatti tribe remained the predominant partner in the Hittite +confederacy, the supremacy was assured of the Great Father who +symbolized their sway. But when, in the process of time, the power of +the Hatti declined, their chief god "fell... from his predominant +place in the religion of the interior", writes Dr. Garstang. "But the +Great Mother lived on, being the goddess of the land."[292] + +In addition to the Hittite confederacy of Asia Minor and North Syria, +another great power arose in northern Mesopotamia. This was the +Mitanni Kingdom. Little is known regarding it, except what is derived +from indirect sources. Winckler believes that it was first established +by early "waves" of Hatti people who migrated from the east. + +The Hittite connection is based chiefly on the following evidence. One +of the gods of the Mitanni rulers was Teshup, who is identical with +Tarku, the Thor of Asia Minor. The raiders who in 1800 B.C. entered +Babylon, set fire to E-sagila, and carried off Merodach and his +consort Zerpanitu^m, were called the Hatti. The images of these +deities were afterwards obtained from Khani (Mitanni). + +At a later period, when we come to know more about Mitanni from the +letters of one of its kings to two Egyptian Pharaohs, and the Winckler +tablets from Bog-haz-Koei, it is found that its military aristocracy +spoke an Indo-European language, as is shown by the names of their +kings--Saushatar, Artatama, Sutarna, Artashshumara, Tushratta, and +Mattiuza. They worshipped the following deities: + + Mi-it-ra, Uru-w-na, In-da-ra, and Na-sa-at-ti-ia-- + +Mitra, Varuna, Indra, and Nasatyau (the "Twin Aswins" = Castor and +Pollux)--whose names have been deciphered by Winckler. These gods were +also imported into India by the Vedic Aryans. The Mitanni tribe (the +military aristocracy probably) was called "Kharri", and some +philologists are of opinion that it is identical with "Arya", which +was "the normal designation in Vedic literature from the Rigveda +onwards of an Aryan of the three upper classes".[293] Mitanni +signifies "the river lands", and the descendants of its inhabitants, +who lived in Cappadocia, were called by the Greeks "Mattienoi". "They +are possibly", says Dr. Haddon, "the ancestors of the modern +Kurds",[294] a conspicuously long-headed people, proverbial, like the +ancient Aryo-Indians and the Gauls, for their hospitality and their +raiding propensities. + +It would appear that the Mitannian invasion of northern Mesopotamia +and the Aryan invasion of India represented two streams of diverging +migrations from a common cultural centre, and that the separate groups +of wanderers mingled with other stocks with whom they came into +contact. Tribes of Aryan speech were associated with the Kassite +invaders of Babylon, who took possession of northern Babylonia soon +after the disastrous Hittite raid. It is believed that they came from +the east through the highlands of Elam. + +For a period, the dating of which is uncertain, the Mitannians were +overlords of part of Assyria, including Nineveh and even Asshur, as +well as the district called "Musri" by the Assyrians, and part of +Cappadocia. They also occupied the cities of Harran and Kadesh. +Probably they owed their great military successes to their cavalry. +The horse became common in Babylon during the Kassite Dynasty, which +followed the Hammurabi, and was there called "the ass of the east", a +name which suggests whence the Kassites and Mitannians came. + +The westward movement of the Mitannians in the second millennium B.C. +may have been in progress prior to the Kassite conquest of Babylon and +the Hyksos invasion of Egypt. Their relations in Mesopotamia and Syria +with the Hittites and the Amorites are obscure. Perhaps they were for +a time the overlords of the Hittites. At any rate it is of interest to +note that when Thothmes III struck at the last Hyksos stronghold +during his long Syrian campaign of about twenty years' duration, his +operations were directly against Kadesh on the Orontes, which was then +held by his fierce enemies the Mitannians of Naharina.[295] + +During the Hyksos Age the horse was introduced into Egypt. Indeed the +Hyksos conquest was probably due to the use of the horse, which was +domesticated, as the Pumpelly expedition has ascertained, at a remote +period in Turkestan, whence it may have been obtained by the +horse-sacrificing Aryo-Indians and the horse-sacrificing ancestors of +the Siberian Buriats. + +If the Mitanni rulers were not overlords of the Hittites about 1800 +B.C., the two peoples may have been military allies of the Kassites. +Some writers suggest, indeed, that the Kassites came from Mitanni. +Another view is that the Mitannians were the Aryan allies of the +Kassites who entered Babylon from the Elamite highlands, and that they +afterwards conquered Mesopotamia and part of Cappadocia prior to the +Hyksos conquest of Egypt. A third solution of the problem is that the +Aryan rulers of the Mitannian Hittites were the overlords of northern +Babylonia, which they included in their Mesopotamian empire for a +century before the Kassites achieved political supremacy in the +Tigro-Euphrates valley, and that they were also the leaders of the +Hyksos invasion of Egypt, which they accomplished with the assistance +of their Hittite and Amoritic allies. + +The first Kassite king of Babylonia of whom we have knowledge was +Gandash. He adopted the old Akkadian title, "king of the four +quarters", as well as the title "king of Sumer and Akkad", first used +by the rulers of the Dynasty of Ur. Nippur appears to have been +selected by Gandash as his capital, which suggests that his war and +storm god, Shuqamuna, was identified with Bel Enlil, who as a "world +giant" has much in common with the northern hammer gods. After +reigning for sixteen years, Gandash was succeeded by his son, Agum the +Great, who sat on the throne for twenty-two years. The great-grandson +of Agum the Great was Agum II, and not until his reign were the +statues of Merodach and his consort Zerpanitu^m brought back to the +city of Babylon. This monarch recorded that, in response to the oracle +of Shamash, the sun god, he sent to the distant land of Khani +(Mitanni) for the great deity and his consort. Babylon would therefore +appear to have been deprived of Merodach for about two centuries. The +Hittite-Mitanni raid is dated about 1800 B.C., and the rise of +Gandash, the Kassite, about 1700 B.C. At least a century elapsed +between the reigns of Gandash and Agum II. These calculations do not +coincide, it will be noted, with the statement in a Babylonian hymn, +that Merodach remained in the land of the Hatti for twenty-four years, +which, however, may be either a priestly fiction or a reference to a +later conquest. The period which followed the fall of the Hammurabi +Dynasty of Babylonia is as obscure as the Hyksos Age of Egypt. + +Agum II, the Kassite king, does not state whether or not he waged war +against Mitanni to recover Babylon's god Merodach. If, however, he was +an ally of the Mitanni ruler, the transference of the deity may have +been an ordinary diplomatic transaction. The possibility may also be +suggested that the Hittites of Mitanni were not displaced by the Aryan +military aristocracy until after the Kassites were firmly established +in northern Babylonia between 1700 B.C. and 1600 B.C. This may account +for the statements that Merodach was carried off by the Hatti and +returned from the land of Khani. + +The evidence afforded by Egypt is suggestive in this connection. There +was a second Hyksos Dynasty in that country. The later rulers became +"Egyptianized" as the Kassites became "Babylonianized", but they were +all referred to by the exclusive and sullen-Egyptians as "barbarians" +and "Asiatics". They recognized the sun god of Heliopolis, but were +also concerned in promoting the worship of Sutekh, a deity of sky and +thunder, with solar attributes, whom Rameses II identified with the +"Baal" of the Hittites. The Mitannians, as has been stated, recognized +a Baal called Teshup, who was identical with Tarku of the Western +Hittites and with their own tribal Indra also. One of the Hyksos +kings, named Ian or Khian, the Ianias of Manetho, was either an +overlord or the ally of an overlord, who swayed a great empire in +Asia. His name has been deciphered on relics found as far apart as +Knossos in Crete and Baghdad on the Tigris, which at the time was +situated within the area of Kassite control. Apparently peaceful +conditions prevailed during his reign over a wide extent of Asia and +trade was brisk between far-distant centres of civilization. The very +term Hyksos is suggestive in this connection. According to Breasted it +signifies "rulers of countries", which compares with the Biblical +"Tidal king of nations", whom Sayce, as has been indicated, regards as +a Hittite monarch. When the Hittite hieroglyphics have been read and +Mesopotamia thoroughly explored, light may be thrown on the relations +of the Mitannians, the Hittites, the Hyksos, and the Kassites between +1800 B.C. and 1500 B.C. It is evident that a fascinating volume of +ancient history has yet to be written. + +The Kassites formed the military aristocracy of Babylonia, which was +called Karduniash, for nearly six centuries. Agum II was the first of +their kings who became thoroughly Babylonianized, and although he +still gave recognition to Shuqamuna, the Kassite god of battle, he +re-exalted Merodach, whose statue he had taken back from "Khani", and +decorated E-sagila with gifts of gold, jewels, rare woods, frescoes, +and pictorial tiles; he also re-endowed the priesthood. During the +reign of his successor, Burnaburiash I, the Dynasty of Sealand came to +an end. + +Little is known regarding the relations between Elam and Babylonia +during the Kassite period. If the Kassite invaders crossed the Tigris +soon after the raid of the Mitannian Hittites they must have +previously overrun a great part of Elam, but strongly situated Susa +may have for a time withstood their attacks. At first the Kassites +held northern Babylonia only, while the ancient Sumerian area was +dominated by the Sealand power, which had gradually regained strength +during the closing years of the Hammurabi Dynasty. No doubt many +northern Babylonian refugees reinforced its army. + +The Elamites, or perhaps the Kassites of Elam, appear to have made +frequent attacks on southern Babylonia. At length Ea-gamil, king of +Sealand, invaded Elam with purpose, no doubt, to shatter the power of +his restless enemies. He was either met there, however, by an army +from Babylon, or his country was invaded during his absence. Prince +Ulamburiash, son of Burnaburiash I, defeated Ea-gamil and brought to +an end the Sealand Dynasty which had been founded by Ilu-ma-ilu, the +contemporary and enemy of Samsu-la-ilu, son of Hammurabi. Ulamburiash +is referred to on a mace-head which was discovered at Babylon as "king +of Sealand", and he probably succeeded his father at the capital. The +whole of Babylonia thus came under Kassite sway. + +Agum III, a grandson of Ulamburiash, found it necessary, however, to +invade Sealand, which must therefore have revolted. It was probably a +centre of discontent during the whole period of Kassite ascendancy. + +After a long obscure interval we reach the period when the Hyksos +power was broken in Egypt, that is, after 1580 B.C. The great Western +Asiatic kingdoms at the time were the Hittite, the Mitannian, the +Assyrian, and the Babylonian (Kassite). Between 1557 B.C. and 1501 +B.C. Thothmes I of Egypt was asserting his sway over part of Syria. +Many years elapsed, however, before Thothmes III, who died in 1447 +B.C., established firmly, after waging a long war of conquest, the +supremacy of Egypt between the Euphrates and the Mediterranean coast +as far north as the borders of Asia Minor. + +"At this period", as Professor Flinders Petrie emphasizes, "the +civilization of Syria was equal or superior to that of Egypt." Not +only was there in the cities "luxury beyond that of the Egyptians", +but also "technical work which could teach them". The Syrian soldiers +had suits of scale armour, which afterwards were manufactured in +Egypt, and they had chariots adorned with gold and silver and highly +decorated, which were greatly prized by the Egyptians when they +captured them, and reserved for royalty. "In the rich wealth of gold +and silver vases", obtained from captured cities by the Nilotic +warriors, "we see also", adds Petrie, "the sign of a people who were +their (the Egyptians') equals, if not their superiors in taste and +skill."[296] It is not to be wondered at, therefore, when the Pharaohs +received tribute from Syria that they preferred it to be carried into +Egypt by skilled workmen. "The keenness with which the Egyptians +record all the beautiful and luxurious products of the Syrians shows +that the workmen would probably be more in demand than other kinds or +slave tribute."[297] + +One of the monarchs with whom Thothmes III corresponded was the king +of Assyria. The enemies of Egypt in northern Mesopotamia were the +Hittites and Mitannians, and their allies, and these were also the +enemies of Assyria. But to enable us to deal with the new situation +which was created by Egypt in Mesopotamia, it is necessary in the +first place to trace the rise of Assyria, which was destined to become +for a period the dominating power in Western Asia, and ultimately in +the Nile valley also. + +The Assyrian group of cities grew up on the banks of the Tigris to the +north of Babylonia, the mother country. The following Biblical +references regarding the origins of the two states are of special +interest:-- + + Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and + Japheth.... The sons of Ham: Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and + Canaan.... And Cush begat Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one in + the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; wherefore it is + said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord. And the + beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and + Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Out of that land went forth Asshur + and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah, and Resen + between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city. The children + of Shem: Elam and Asshur ... (_Genesis_, x, 1-22). The land of + Assyria ... and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof + (_Micah_, v, 6). + +It will be observed that the Sumero-Babylonians are Cushites or +Hamites, and therefore regarded as racially akin to the +proto-Egyptians of the Mediterranean race--an interesting confirmation +of recent ethnological conclusions. + +Nimrod, the king of Babel (Babylon), in Shinar (Sumer), was, it would +appear, a deified monarch who became ultimately identified with the +national god of Babylonia. Professor Pinches has shown[298] that his +name is a rendering of that of Merodach. In Sumerian Merodach was +called Amaruduk or Amarudu, and in the Assyro-Babylonian language +Marduk. By a process familiar to philologists the suffix "uk" was +dropped and the rendering became Marad. The Hebrews added "ni" = +"ni-marad", assimilating the name "to a certain extent to the 'niphal +forms' of the Hebrew verbs and making a change", says Pinches, "in +conformity with the genius of the Hebrew language". + +Asshur, who went out of Nimrod's country to build Nineveh, was a son +of Shem--a Semite, and so far as is known it was after the Semites +achieved political supremacy in Akkad that the Assyrian colonies were +formed. Asshur may have been a subject ruler who was deified and +became the god of the city of Asshur, which probably gave its name to +Assyria. + +According to Herodotus, Nineveh was founded by King Ninus and Queen +Semiramis. This lady was reputed to be the daughter of Derceto, the +fish goddess, whom Pliny identified with Atargatis. Semiramis was +actually an Assyrian queen of revered memory. She was deified and took +the place of a goddess, apparently Nina, the prototype of Derceto. +This Nina, perhaps a form of Damkina, wife of Ea, was the great mother +of the Sumerian city of Nina, and there, and also at Lagash, received +offerings of fish. She was one of the many goddesses of maternity +absorbed by Ishtar. The Greek Ninus is regarded as a male form of her +name; like Atargatis, she may have become a bisexual deity, if she was +not always accompanied by a shadowy male form. Nineveh (Ninua) was +probably founded or conquered by colonists from Nina or Lagash, and +called after the fish goddess. + +All the deities of Assyria were imported from Babylonia except, as +some hold, Ashur, the national god.[299] The theory that Ashur was +identical with the Aryo-Indian Asura and the Persian Ahura is not +generally accepted. One theory is that he was an eponymous hero who +became the city god of Asshur, although the early form of his name, +Ashir, presents a difficulty in this connection. Asshur was the first +capital of Assyria. Its city god may have become the national god on +that account. + +At an early period, perhaps a thousand years before Thothmes III +battled with the Mitannians in northern Syria, an early wave of one of +the peoples of Aryan speech may have occupied the Assyrian cities. Mr. +Johns points out in this connection that the names of Ushpia, Kikia, +and Adasi, who, according to Assyrian records, were early rulers in +Asshur, "are neither Semitic nor Sumerian". An ancient name of the +goddess of Nineveh was Shaushka, which compares with Shaushkash, the +consort of Teshup, the Hittite-Mitanni hammer god. As many of the +Mitannian names "are", according to Mr. Johns, "really Elamitic", he +suggests an ethnic connection between the early conquerors of Assyria +and the people of Elam.[300] Were the pre-Semitic Elamites originally +speakers of an agglutinative language, like the Sumerians and +present-day Basques, who were conquered in prehistoric times by a +people of Aryan speech? + +The possibility is urged by Mr. Johns's suggestion that Assyria may +have been dominated in pre-Semitic times by the congeners of the Aryan +military aristocracy of Mitanni. As has been shown, it was Semitized +by the Amoritic migration which, about 2000 B.C., brought into +prominence the Hammurabi Dynasty of Babylon. + +A long list of kings with Semitic names held sway in the Assyrian +cities during and after the Hammurabi Age. But not until well on in +the Kassite period did any of them attain prominence in Western Asia. +Then Ashur-bel-nish-eshu, King of Asshur, was strong enough to deal on +equal terms with the Kassite ruler Kara-indash I, with whom he +arranged a boundary treaty. He was a contemporary of Thothmes III of +Egypt. + +After Thothmes III had secured the predominance of Egypt in Syria and +Palestine he recognized Assyria as an independent power, and supplied +its king with Egyptian gold to assist him, no doubt, in strengthening +his territory against their common enemy. Gifts were also sent from +Assyria to Egypt to fan the flame of cordial relations. + +The situation was full of peril for Saushatar, king of Mitanni. +Deprived by Egypt of tribute-paying cities in Syria, his exchequer +must have been sadly depleted. A standing army had to be maintained, +for although Egypt made no attempt to encroach further on his +territory, the Hittites were ever hovering on his north-western +frontier, ready when opportunity offered to win back Cappadocia. +Eastward, Assyria was threatening to become a dangerous rival. He had +himself to pay tribute to Egypt, and Egypt was subsidizing his enemy. +It was imperative on his part, therefore, to take action without +delay. The power of Assyria had to be crippled; its revenues were +required for the Mitannian exchequer. So Saushatar raided Assyria +during the closing years of the reign of Thothmes III, or soon after +his successor, Amenhotep II, ascended the Egyptian throne. + +Nothing is known from contemporary records regarding this campaign; +but it can be gathered from the references of a later period that the +city of Asshur was captured and plundered; its king, Ashur-nadin-akhe, +ceased corresponding and exchanging gifts with Egypt. That Nineveh +also fell is made clear by the fact that a descendant of Saushatar +(Tushratta) was able to send to a descendant of Thothmes III at Thebes +(Amenhotep III) the image of Ishtar (Shaushka) of Nineveh. Apparently +five successive Mitannian kings were overlords of Assyria during a +period which cannot be estimated at much less than a hundred years. + +Our knowledge regarding these events is derived chiefly from the +Tell-el-Amarna letters, and the tablets found by Professor Hugo +Winckler at Boghaz-Koei in Cappadocia, Asia Minor. + +The Tell-el-Amarna letters were discovered among the ruins of the +palace of the famous Egyptian Pharaoh, Akhenaton, of the Eighteenth +Dynasty, who died about 1358 B.C. During the winter of 1887-8 an +Egyptian woman was excavating soil for her garden, when she happened +upon the cellar of Akhenaton's foreign office in which the official +correspondence had been stored. The "letters" were baked clay tablets +inscribed with cuneiform alphabetical signs in the Babylonian-Assyrian +language, which, like French in modern times, was the language of +international diplomacy for many centuries in Western Asia after the +Hyksos period. + +The Egyptian natives, ever so eager to sell antiquities so as to make +a fortune and retire for life, offered some specimens of the tablets +for sale. One or two were sent to Paris, where they were promptly +declared to be forgeries, with the result that for a time the +inscribed bricks were not a marketable commodity. Ere their value was +discovered, the natives had packed them into sacks, with the result +that many were damaged and some completely destroyed. At length, +however, the majority of them reached the British Museum and the +Berlin Museum, while others drifted into the museums at Cairo, St. +Petersburg, and Paris. When they were deciphered, Mitanni was +discovered, and a flood of light thrown on the internal affairs of +Egypt and its relations with various kingdoms in Asia, while glimpses +were also afforded of the life and manners of the times. + +The letters covered the reigns of Amenhotep III, the great-grandson of +Thothmes III, and of his son Akhenaton, "the dreamer king", and +included communications from the kings of Babylonia, Assyria, Mitanni, +Cyprus, the Hittites, and the princes of Phoenicia and Canaan. The +copies of two letters from Amenhotep III to Kallima-Sin, King of +Babylonia, had also been preserved. One deals with statements made by +Babylonian ambassadors, whom the Pharaoh stigmatizes as liars. +Kallima-Sin had sent his daughter to the royal harem of Egypt, and +desired to know if she was alive and well. He also asked for "much +gold" to enable him to carry on the work of extending his temple. When +twenty minas of gold was sent to him, he complained in due course that +the quantity received was not only short but that the gold was not +pure; it had been melted in the furnace, and less than five minas came +out. In return he sent to Akhenaton two minas of enamel, and some +jewels for his daughter, who was in the Egyptian royal harem. + +Ashur-uballit, king of Ashur, once wrote intimating to Akhenaton that +he was gifting him horses and chariots and a jewel seal. He asked for +gold to assist in building his palace. "In your country", he added, +"gold is as plentiful as dust." He also made an illuminating statement +to the effect that no ambassador had gone from Assyria to Egypt since +the days of his ancestor Ashur-nadin-akhe. It would therefore appear +that Ashur-uballit had freed part of Assyria from the yoke of Mitanni. + +The contemporary king of Mitanni was Tushratta. He corresponded both +with his cousin Amenhotep III and his son-in-law Akhenaton. In his +correspondence with Amenhotep III Tushratta tells that his kingdom had +been invaded by the Hittites, but his god Teshup had delivered them +into his hand, and he destroyed them; "not one of them", he declared, +"returned to his own country". Out of the booty captured he sent +Amenhotep several chariots and horses, and a boy and a girl. To his +sister Gilu-khipa, who was one of the Egyptian Pharaoh's wives, he +gifted golden ornaments and a jar of oil. In another letter Tushratta +asked for a large quantity of gold "without measure". He complained +that he did not receive enough on previous occasions, and hinted that +some of the Egyptian gold looked as if it were alloyed with copper. +Like the Assyrian king, he hinted that gold was as plentiful as dust +in Egypt. His own presents to the Pharaoh included precious stones, +gold ornaments, chariots and horses, and women (probably slaves). This +may have been tribute. It was during the third Amenhotep's illness +that Tushratta forwarded the Nineveh image of Ishtar to Egypt, and he +made reference to its having been previously sent thither by his +father, Sutarna. + +When Akhenaton came to the throne Tushratta wrote to him, desiring to +continue the friendship which had existed for two or three generations +between the kings of Mitanni and Egypt, and made complimentary +references to "the distinguished Queen Tiy", Akhenaton's mother, who +evidently exercised considerable influence in shaping Egypt's foreign +policy. In the course of his long correspondence with the Pharaohs, +Tushratta made those statements regarding his ancestors which have +provided so much important data for modern historians of his kingdom. + +During the early part of the Tell-el-Amarna period, Mitanni was the +most powerful kingdom in Western Asia. It was chiefly on that account +that the daughters of its rulers were selected to be the wives and +mothers of great Egyptian Pharaohs. But its numerous enemies were ever +plotting to accomplish its downfall. Among these the foremost and most +dangerous were the Hittites and the Assyrians. + +The ascendancy of the Hittites was achieved in northern Syria with +dramatic suddenness. There arose in Asia Minor a great conqueror, +named Subbi-luliuma, the successor of Hattusil I, who established a +strong Hittite empire which endured for about two centuries. His +capital was at Boghaz-Koei. Sweeping through Cappadocia, at the head of +a finely organized army, remarkable for its mobility, he attacked the +buffer states which owed allegiance to Mitanni and Egypt. City after +city fell before him, until at length he invaded Mitanni; but it is +uncertain whether or not Tushratta met him in battle. Large numbers of +the Mitannians were, however, evicted and transferred to the land of +the Hittites, where the Greeks subsequently found them, and where they +are believed to be represented by the modern Kurds, the hereditary +enemies of the Armenians. + +In the confusion which ensued, Tushratta was murdered by Sutarna II, +who was recognized by Subbi-luliuma. The crown prince, Mattiuza, fled +to Babylon, where he found protection, but was unable to receive any +assistance. Ultimately, when the Hittite emperor had secured his sway +over northern Syria, he deposed Sutarna II and set Mattiuza as his +vassal on the throne of the shrunken Mitanni kingdom. + +Meanwhile the Egyptian empire in Asia had gone to pieces. When +Akhenaton, the dreamer king, died in his palace at Tell-el-Amarna, the +Khabiri were conquering the Canaanite cities which had paid him +tribute, and the Hittite ruler was the acknowledged overlord of the +Amorites. + +The star of Assyria was also in the ascendant. Its king, +Ashur-uballit, who had corresponded with Akhenaton, was, like the +Hittite king, Subbi-luliuma, a distinguished statesman and general, +and similarly laid the foundations of a great empire. Before or after +Subbi-luliuma invaded Tushratta's domains, he drove the Mitannians out +of Nineveh, and afterwards overcame the Shubari tribes of Mitanni on +the north-west, with the result that he added a wide extent of +territory to his growing empire. + +He had previously thrust southward the Assyro-Babylonian frontier. In +fact, he had become so formidable an opponent of Babylonia that his +daughter had been accepted as the wife of Karakhardash, the Kassite +king of that country. In time his grandson, Kadashman-Kharbe, ascended +the Babylonian throne. This young monarch co-operated with his +grandfather in suppressing the Suti, who infested the trade routes +towards the west, and plundered the caravans of merchants and the +messengers of great monarchs with persistent impunity. + +A reference to these bandits appears in one of the Tell-el-Amarna +letters. Writing to Akhenaton, Ashur-uballit said: "The lands (of +Assyria and Egypt) are remote, therefore let our messengers come and +go. That your messengers were late in reaching you, (the reason is +that) if the Suti had waylaid them, they would have been dead men. For +if I had sent them, the Suti would have sent bands to waylay them; +therefore I have retained them. My messengers (however), may they not +(for this reason) be delayed."[301] + +Ashur-uballit's grandson extended his Babylonian frontier into Amurru, +where he dug wells and erected forts to protect traders. The Kassite +aristocracy, however, appear to have entertained towards him a strong +dislike, perhaps because he was so closely associated with their +hereditary enemies the Assyrians. He had not reigned for long when the +embers of rebellion burst into flame and he was murdered in his +palace. The Kassites then selected as their king a man of humble +origin, named Nazibugash, who was afterwards referred to as "the son +of nobody". Ashur-uballit deemed the occasion a fitting one to +interfere in the affairs of Babylonia. He suddenly appeared at the +capital with a strong army, overawed the Kassites, and seized and slew +Nazibugash. Then he set on the throne his great grandson the infant +Kurigalzu II, who lived to reign for fifty-five years. + +Ashur-uballit appears to have died soon after this event. He was +succeeded by his son Bel-nirari, who carried on the policy of +strengthening and extending the Assyrian empire. For many years he +maintained excellent relations with his kinsman Kurigalzu II, but +ultimately they came into conflict apparently over disputed territory. +A sanguinary battle was fought, in which the Babylonians suffered +heavily and were put to rout. A treaty of peace was afterwards +arranged, which secured for the Assyrians a further extension of their +frontier "from the borders of Mitanni as far as Babylonia". The +struggle of the future was to be for the possession of Mesopotamia, so +as to secure control over the trade routes. + +Thus Assyria rose from a petty state in a comparatively brief period +to become the rival of Babylonia, at a time when Egypt at the +beginning of its Nineteenth Dynasty was endeavouring to win back its +lost empire in Syria, and the Hittite empire was being consolidated in +the north. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +ASTROLOGY AND ASTRONOMY + + + Culture and Superstition--Primitive Star Myths--Naturalism, + Totemism, and Animism--Stars as Ghosts of Men, Giants, and Wild + Animals--Gods as Constellations and Planets--Babylonian and Egyptian + Mysticism--Osiris, Tammuz, and Merodach--Ishtar and Isis as Bisexual + Deities--The Babylonian Planetary Deities--Planets as Forms of + Tammuz and Ghosts of Gods--The Signs of the Zodiac--The "Four + Quarters"--Cosmic Periods in Babylonia, India, Greece, and + Ireland--Babylonian System of Calculation--Traced in Indian Yuga + System--Astrology--Beliefs of the Masses--Rise of + Astronomy--Conflicting Views of Authorities--Greece and + Babylonia--Eclipses Foretold--The Dial of Ahaz--Omens of Heaven and + Air--Biblical References to Constellations--The Past in the Present. + + +The empire builders of old who enriched themselves with the spoils of +war and the tribute of subject States, not only satisfied personal +ambition and afforded protection for industrious traders and workers, +but also incidentally promoted culture and endowed research. When a +conqueror returned to his capital laden with treasure, he made +generous gifts to the temples. He believed that his successes were +rewards for his piety, that his battles were won for him by his god or +goddess of war. It was necessary, therefore, that he should continue +to find favour in the eyes of the deity who had been proved to be more +powerful than the god of his enemies. Besides, he had to make +provision during his absence on long campaigns, or while absorbed in +administrative work, for the constant performance of religious rites, +so that the various deities of water, earth, weather, and corn might +be sustained or propitiated with sacrificial offerings, or held in +magical control by the performance of ceremonial rites. Consequently +an endowed priesthood became a necessity in all powerful and +well-organized states. + +Thus came into existence in Babylonia, as elsewhere, as a result of +the accumulation of wealth, a leisured official class, whose duties +tended to promote intellectual activity, although they were primarily +directed to perpetuate gross superstitious practices. Culture was +really a by-product of temple activities; it flowed forth like pure +gold from furnaces of thought which were walled up by the crude ores +of magic and immemorial tradition. + +No doubt in ancient Babylonia, as in Europe during the Middle Ages, +the men of refinement and intellect among the upper classes were +attracted to the temples, while the more robust types preferred the +outdoor life, and especially the life of the soldier.[302] The +permanent triumphs of Babylonian civilization were achieved either by +the priests, or in consequence of the influence they exercised. They +were the grammarians and the scribes, the mathematicians and the +philosophers of that ancient country, the teachers of the young, and +the patrons of the arts and crafts. It was because the temples were +centres of intellectual activity that the Sumerian language remained +the language of culture for long centuries after it ceased to be the +everyday speech of the people. + +Reference has already been made to the growth of art, and the +probability that all the arts had their origin in magical practices, +and to the growth of popular education necessitated by the +centralization of business in the temples. It remains with us to deal +now with priestly contributions to the more abstruse sciences. In +India the ritualists among the Brahmans, who concerned themselves +greatly regarding the exact construction and measurements of altars, +gave the world algebra; the pyramid builders of Egypt, who erected +vast tombs to protect royal mummies, had perforce to lay the +groundwork of the science of geometry; and the Babylonian priests who +elaborated the study of astrology became great astronomers because +they found it necessary to observe and record accurately the movements +of the heavenly bodies. + +From the earliest times of which we have knowledge, the religious +beliefs of the Sumerians had vague stellar associations. But it does +not follow that their myths were star myths to begin with. A people +who called constellations "the ram", "the bull", "the lion", or "the +scorpion", did not do so because astral groups suggested the forms of +animals, but rather because the animals had an earlier connection with +their religious life. + +At the same time it should be recognized that the mystery of the stars +must ever have haunted the minds of primitive men. Night with all its +terrors appealed more strongly to their imaginations than refulgent +day when they felt more secure; they were concerned most regarding +what they feared most. Brooding in darkness regarding their fate, they +evidently associated the stars with the forces which influenced their +lives--the ghosts of ancestors, of totems, the spirits that brought +food or famine and controlled the seasons. As children see images in a +fire, so they saw human life reflected in the starry sky. To the +simple minds of early folks the great moon seemed to be the parent of +the numerous twinkling and moving orbs. In Babylon, indeed, the moon +was regarded as the father not only of the stars but of the sun also; +there, as elsewhere, lunar worship was older than solar worship. + +Primitive beliefs regarding the stars were of similar character in +various parts of the world. But the importance which they assumed in +local mythologies depended in the first place on local phenomena. On +the northern Eur-Asian steppes, for instance, where stars vanished +during summer's blue nights, and were often obscured by clouds in +winter, they did not impress men's minds so persistently and deeply as +in Babylonia, where for the greater part of the year they gleamed in +darkness through a dry transparent atmosphere with awesome intensity. +The development of an elaborate system of astral myths, besides, was +only possible in a country where the people had attained to a high +degree of civilization, and men enjoyed leisure and security to make +observations and compile records. It is not surprising, therefore, to +find that Babylonia was the cradle of astronomy. But before this +science had destroyed the theory which it was fostered to prove, it +lay smothered for long ages in the debris of immemorial beliefs. It is +necessary, therefore, in dealing with Babylonian astral myths to +endeavour to approach within reasonable distance of the point of view, +or points of view, of the people who framed them. + +Babylonian religious thought was of highly complex character. Its +progress was ever hampered by blended traditions. The earliest +settlers in the Tigro-Euphrates valley no doubt imported many crude +beliefs which they had inherited from their Palaeolithic +ancestors--the modes of thought which were the moulds of new theories +arising from new experiences. When consideration is given to the +existing religious beliefs of various peoples throughout the world, in +low stages of culture, it is found that the highly developed creeds of +Babylonia, Egypt and other countries where civilization flourished +were never divested wholly of their primitive traits. + +Among savage peoples two grades of religious ideas have been +identified, and classified as Naturalism and Animism. In the plane of +Naturalism the belief obtains that a vague impersonal force, which may +have more than one manifestation and is yet manifested in everything, +controls the world and the lives of human beings. An illustration of +this stage of religious consciousness is afforded by Mr. Risley, who, +in dealing with the religion of the jungle dwellers of Chota Nagpur, +India, says that "in most cases the indefinite something which they +fear and attempt to propitiate is not a person at all in any sense of +the word; if one must state the case in positive terms, I should say +that the idea which lies at the root of their religion is that of a +power rather than many powers".[303] + +Traces of Naturalism appear to have survived in Sumeria in the belief +that "the spiritual, the Zi, was that which manifested life.... The +test of the manifestation of life was movement."[304] All things that +moved, it was conceived in the plane of Naturalism, possessed "self +power"; the river was a living thing, as was also the fountain; a +stone that fell from a hill fell of its own accord; a tree groaned +because the wind caused it to suffer pain. This idea that inanimate +objects had conscious existence survived in the religion of the +Aryo-Indians. In the Nala story of the Indian epic, the _Mahabharata_, +the disconsolate wife Damayanti addresses a mountain when searching +for her lost husband: + + This, the monarch of all mountains, ask I of the king of men; + O all-honoured Prince of Mountains, with thy heavenward soaring + peaks ... + Hast thou seen the kingly Nala in this dark and awful wood.... + Why repliest thou not, O Mountain?" + +She similarly addresses the Asoka tree: + + "Hast thou seen Nishadha's monarch, hast thou seen my only + love?... + That I may depart ungrieving, fair Asoka, answer me...." + Many a tree she stood and gazed on....[305] + +It will be recognized that when primitive men gave names to mountains, +rivers, or the ocean, these possessed for them a deeper significance +than they do for us at the present day. The earliest peoples of +Indo-European speech who called the sky "dyeus", and those of Sumerian +speech who called it "ana", regarded it not as the sky "and nothing +more", but as something which had conscious existence and "self +power". Our remote ancestors resembled, in this respect, those +imaginative children who hold conversations with articles of +furniture, and administer punishment to stones which, they believe, +have tripped them up voluntarily and with desire to commit an offence. + +In this early stage of development the widespread totemic beliefs +appear to have had origin. Families or tribes believed that they were +descended from mountains, trees, or wild animals. + +Aesop's fable about the mountain which gave birth to a mouse may be a +relic of Totemism; so also may be the mountain symbols on the +standards of Egyptian ships which appear on pre-dynastic pottery; the +black dwarfs of Teutonic mythology were earth children.[306] + +Adonis sprang from a tree; his mother may have, according to primitive +belief, been simply a tree; Dagda, the patriarchal Irish corn god, was +an oak; indeed, the idea of a "world tree", which occurs in Sumerian, +Vedic-Indian, Teutonic, and other mythologies, was probably a product +of Totemism. + +Wild animals were considered to be other forms of human beings who +could marry princes and princesses as they do in so many fairy tales. +Damayanti addressed the tiger, as well as the mountain and tree, +saying: + + I approach him without fear. + "Of the beasts art thou the monarch, all this forest thy + domain;... + Thou, O king of beasts, console me, if my Nala thou hast + seen."[307] + +A tribal totem exercised sway over a tribal district. In Egypt, as +Herodotus recorded, the crocodile was worshipped in one district and +hunted down in another. Tribes fought against tribes when totemic +animals were slain. The Babylonian and Indian myths about the +conflicts between eagles and serpents may have originated as records +of battles between eagle clans and serpent clans. Totemic animals were +tabooed. The Set pig of Egypt and the devil pig of Ireland, Scotland, +and Wales were not eaten except sacrificially. Families were supposed +to be descended from swans and were named Swans, or from seals and +were named Seals, like the Gaelic "Mac Codrums", whose surname +signifies "son of the seal"; the nickname of the Campbells, "sons of +the pig", may refer to their totemic boar's head crest, which +commemorated the slaying, perhaps the sacrificial slaying, of the boar +by their ancestor Diarmid. Mr. Garstang, in _The Syrian Goddess_, +thinks it possible that the boar which killed Adonis was of totemic +origin. So may have been the fish form of the Sumerian god Ea. When an +animal totem was sacrificed once a year, and eaten sacrificially so +that the strength of the clan might be maintained, the priest who +wrapped himself in its skin was supposed to have transmitted to him +certain magical powers; he became identified with the totem and +prophesied and gave instruction as the totem. Ea was depicted clad in +the fish's skin. + +Animism, the other early stage of human development, also produced +distinctive modes of thought. Men conceived that the world swarmed +with spirits, that a spirit groaned in the wind-shaken tree, that the +howling wind was an invisible spirit, that there were spirits in +fountains, rivers, valleys, hills, and in ocean, and in all animals; +and that a hostile spirit might possess an individual and change his +nature. The sun and the moon were the abodes of spirits, or the +vessels in which great spirits sailed over the sea of the sky; the +stars were all spirits, the "host of heaven". These spirits existed in +groups of seven, or groups of three, and the multiple of three, or in +pairs, or operated as single individuals. + +Although certain spirits might confer gifts upon mankind, they were at +certain seasons and in certain localities hostile and vengeful, like +the grass-green fairies in winter, or the earth-black elves when their +gold was sought for in forbidden and secret places. These spirits were +the artisans of creation and vegetation, like the Egyptian Khnumu and +the Indian Rhibus; they fashioned the grass blades and the stalks of +corn, but at times of seasonal change they might ride on their tempest +steeds, or issue forth from flooding rivers and lakes. Man was greatly +concerned about striking bargains with them to secure their services, +and about propitiating them, or warding off their attacks with +protective charms, and by performing "ceremonies of riddance". The +ghosts of the dead, being spirits, were similarly propitious or +harmful on occasion; as emissaries of Fate they could injure the +living. + +Ancestor worship, the worship of ghosts, had origin in the stage of +Animism. But ancestor worship was not developed in Babylonia as in +China, for instance, although traces of it survived in the worship of +stars as ghosts, in the deification of kings, and the worship of +patriarchs, who might be exalted as gods or identified with a supreme +god. The Egyptian Pharaoh Unas became the sun god and the +constellation of Orion by devouring his predecessors[308]. He ate his +god as a tribe ate its animal totem; he became the "bull of heaven". + +There were star totems as well as mountain totems. A St. Andrew's +cross sign, on one of the Egyptian ship standards referred to, may +represent a star. The Babylonian goddess Ishtar was symbolized as a +star, and she was the "world mother". Many primitive currents of +thought shaped the fretted rocks of ancient mythologies. + +In various countries all round the globe the belief prevailed that the +stars were ghosts of the mighty dead--of giants, kings, or princes, or +princesses, or of pious people whom the gods loved, or of animals +which were worshipped. A few instances may be selected at random. When +the Teutonic gods slew the giant Thjasse, he appeared in the heavens +as Sirius. In India the ghosts of the "seven Rishis", who were +semi-divine Patriarchs, formed the constellation of the Great Bear, +which in Vedic times was called the "seven bears". The wives of the +seven Rishis were the stars of the Pleiades. In Greece the Pleiades +were the ghosts of the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione, and in +Australia they were and are a queen and six handmaidens. In these +countries, as elsewhere, stories were told to account for the "lost +Pleiad", a fact which suggests that primitive men were more constant +observers of the heavenly bodies than might otherwise be supposed. The +Arcadians believed that they were descended, as Hesiod recorded, from +a princess who was transformed by Zeus into a bear; in this form +Artemis slew her and she became the "Great Bear" of the sky. The +Egyptian Isis was the star Sirius, whose rising coincided with the +beginning of the Nile inundation. Her first tear for the dead Osiris +fell into the river on "the night of the drop". The flood which ensued +brought the food supply. Thus the star was not only the Great Mother +of all, but the sustainer of all. + +The brightest stars were regarded as being the greatest and most +influential. In Babylonia all the planets were identified with great +deities. Jupiter, for instance, was Merodach, and one of the astral +forms of Ishtar was Venus. Merodach was also connected with "the fish +of Ea" (Pisces), so that it is not improbable that Ea worship had +stellar associations. Constellations were given recognition before the +planets were identified. + +A strange blending of primitive beliefs occurred when the deities were +given astral forms. As has been shown (Chapter III) gods were supposed +to die annually. The Egyptian priests pointed out to Herodotus the +grave of Osiris and also his star. There are "giants' graves" also in +those countries in which the gods were simply ferocious giants. A god +might assume various forms; he might take the form of an insect, like +Indra, and hide in a plant, or become a mouse, or a serpent, like the +gods of Erech in the Gilgamesh epic. The further theory that a god +could exist in various forms at one and the same time suggests that it +had its origin among a people who accepted the idea of a personal god +while yet in the stage of Naturalism. In Egypt Osiris, for instance, +was the moon, which came as a beautiful child each month and was +devoured as the wasting "old moon" by the demon Set; he was the young +god who was slain in his prime each year; he was at once the father, +husband, and son of Isis; he was the Patriarch who reigned over men +and became the Judge of the Dead; he was the earth spirit, he was the +bisexual Nile spirit, he was the spring sun; he was the Apis bull of +Memphis, and the ram of Mendes; he was the reigning Pharaoh. In his +fusion with Ra, who was threefold--Khepera, Ra, and Tum--he died each +day as an old man; he appeared in heaven at night as the constellation +Orion, which was his ghost, or was, perhaps, rather the Sumerian Zi, +the spiritual essence of life. Osiris, who resembled Tammuz, a god of +many forms also, was addressed as follows in one of the Isis chants: + + There proceedeth from thee the strong Orion in heaven at evening, + at the resting of every day! + Lo it is I (Isis), at the approach of the Sothis (Sirius) period, + who doth watch for him (the child Osiris), + Nor will I leave off watching for him; for that which proceedeth + from thee (the living Osiris) is revered. + An emanation from thee causeth life to gods and men, reptiles and + animals, and they live by means thereof. + Come thou to us from thy chamber, in the day when thy soul + begetteth emanations,-- + The day when offerings upon offerings are made to thy spirit, + which causeth the gods and men likewise to live.[309] + +This extract emphasizes how unsafe it is to confine certain deities +within narrow limits by terming them simply "solar gods", "lunar +gods", "astral gods", or "earth gods". One deity may have been +simultaneously a sun god and moon god, an air god and an earth god, +one who was dead and also alive, unborn and also old. The priests of +Babylonia and Egypt were less accustomed to concrete and logical +definitions than their critics and expositors of the twentieth +century. Simple explanations of ancient beliefs are often by reason of +their very simplicity highly improbable. Recognition must ever be +given to the puzzling complexity of religious thought in Babylonia and +Egypt, and to the possibility that even to the priests the doctrines +of a particular cult, which embraced the accumulated ideas of +centuries, were invariably confusing and vague, and full of +inconsistencies; they were mystical in the sense that the +understanding could not grasp them although it permitted their +acceptance. A god, for instance, might be addressed at once in the +singular and plural, perhaps because he had developed from an +animistic group of spirits, or, perhaps, for reasons we cannot +discover. This is shown clearly by the following pregnant extract from +a Babylonian tablet: "_Powerful, O Sevenfold, one are ye_". Mr. L.W. +King, the translator, comments upon it as follows: "There is no doubt +that the name was applied to a group of gods who were so closely +connected that, though addressed in the plural, they could in the same +sentence be regarded as forming a single personality".[310] + +Like the Egyptian Osiris, the Babylonian Merodach was a highly complex +deity. He was the son of Ea, god of the deep; he died to give origin +to human life when he commanded that his head should be cut off so +that the first human beings might be fashioned by mixing his blood +with the earth; he was the wind god, who gave "the air of life"; he +was the deity of thunder and the sky; he was the sun of spring in his +Tammuz character; he was the daily sun, and the planets Jupiter and +Mercury as well as Sharru (Regulus); he had various astral +associations at various seasons. Ishtar, the goddess, was Iku +(Capella), the water channel star, in January-February, and Merodach +was Iku in May-June. This strange system of identifying the chief +deity with different stars at different periods, or simultaneously, +must not be confused with the monotheistic identification of him with +other gods. Merodach changed his forms with Ishtar, and had similarly +many forms. This goddess, for instance, was, even when connected with +one particular heavenly body, liable to change. According to a tablet +fragment she was, as the planet Venus, "a female at sunset and a male +at sunrise[311]"--that is, a bisexual deity like Nannar of Ur, the +father and mother deity combined, and Isis of Egypt. Nannar is +addressed in a famous hymn: + + Father Nannar, Lord, God Sin, ruler among the gods.... + _Mother body which produceth all things_.... + Merciful, gracious Father, in whose hand the life of the whole + land is contained. + +One of the Isis chants of Egypt sets forth, addressing Osiris: + + There cometh unto thee Isis, lady of the horizon, who hath + begotten herself alone in the image of the gods.... + She hath taken vengeance before Horus, _the woman who was made a + male by her father Osiris_.[312] + +Merodach, like Osiris-Sokar, was a "lord of many existences", and +likewise "the mysterious one, he who is unknown to mankind[313]". It +was impossible for the human mind "a greater than itself to know". + +Evidence has not yet been forthcoming to enable us to determine the +period at which the chief Babylonian deities were identified with the +planets, but it is clear that Merodach's ascendancy in astral form +could not have occurred prior to the rise of that city god of Babylon +as chief of the pantheon by displacing Enlil. At the same time it must +be recognized that long before the Hammurabi age the star-gazers of +the Tigro-Euphrates valley must have been acquainted with the +movements of the chief planets and stars, and, no doubt, they +connected them with seasonal changes as in Egypt, where Isis was +identified with Sirius long before the Ptolemaic age, when Babylonian +astronomy was imported. Horus was identified not only with the sun but +also with Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars.[314] Even the primitive +Australians, as has been indicated, have their star myths; they refer +to the stars Castor and Pollux as two young men, like the ancient +Greeks, while the African Bushmen assert that these stars are two +girls. It would be a mistake, however, to assume that the prehistoric +Sumerians were exact astronomers. Probably they were, like the +Aryo-Indians of the Vedic period, "not very accurate observers".[315] + +It is of special interest to find that the stars were grouped by the +Babylonians at the earliest period in companies of seven. The +importance of this magical number is emphasized by the group of seven +demons which rose from the deep to rage over the land (p. 71). Perhaps +the sanctity of Seven was suggested by Orion, the Bears, and the +Pleiad, one of which constellations may have been the "Sevenfold" +deity addressed as "one". At any rate arbitrary groupings of other +stars into companies of seven took place, for references are made to +the seven Tikshi, the seven Lumashi, and the seven Mashi, which are +older than the signs of the Zodiac; so far as can be ascertained these +groups were selected from various constellations. When the five +planets were identified, they were associated with the sun and moon +and connected with the chief gods of the Hammurabi pantheon. A +bilingual list in the British Museum arranges the sevenfold planetary +group in the following order:-- + + The moon, Sin. + The sun, Shamash. + Jupiter, Merodach. + Venus, Ishtar. + Saturn, Ninip (Nirig). + Mercury, Nebo. + Mars, Nergal. + +An ancient name of the moon was Aa, A, or Ai, which recalls the +Egyptian Aah or Ah. The Sumerian moon was Aku, "the measurer", like +Thoth of Egypt, who in his lunar character as a Fate measured out the +lives of men, and was a god of architects, mathematicians, and +scribes. The moon was the parent of the sun or its spouse; and might +be male, or female, or both as a bisexual deity. + +As the "bull of light" Jupiter had solar associations; he was also the +shepherd of the stars, a title shared by Tammuz as Orion; Nin-Girsu, a +developed form of Tammuz, was identified with both Orion and Jupiter. + +Ishtar's identification with Venus is of special interest. When that +planet was at its brightest phase, its rays were referred to as "the +beard" of the goddess; she was the "bearded Aphrodite"--a bisexual +deity evidently. The astrologers regarded the bright Venus as lucky +and the rayless Venus as unlucky. + +Saturn was Nirig, who is best known as Ninip, a deity who was +displaced by Enlil, the elder Bel, and afterwards regarded as his son. +His story has not been recovered, but from the references made to it +there is little doubt that it was a version of the widespread myth +about the elder deity who was slain by his son, as Saturn was by +Jupiter and Dyaus by Indra. It may have resembled the lost Egyptian +myth which explained the existence of the two Horuses--Horus the +elder, and Horus, the posthumous son of Osiris. At any rate, it is of +interest to find in this connection that in Egypt the planet Saturn +was Her-Ka, "Horus the Bull". Ninip was also identified with the bull. +Both deities were also connected with the spring sun, like Tammuz, and +were terrible slayers of their enemies. Ninip raged through Babylonia +like a storm flood, and Horus swept down the Nile, slaying the +followers of Set. As the divine sower of seed, Ninip may have +developed from Tammuz as Horus did from Osiris. Each were at once the +father and the son, different forms of the same deity at various +seasons of the year. The elder god was displaced by the son (spring), +and when the son grew old his son slew him in turn. As the planet +Saturn, Ninip was the ghost of the elder god, and as the son of Bel he +was the solar war god of spring, the great wild bull, the god of +fertility. He was also as Ber "lord of the wild boar", an animal +associated with Rimmon[316]. + +Nebo (Nabu), who was identified with Mercury, was a god of Borsippa. +He was a messenger and "announcer" of the gods, as the Egyptian Horus +in his connection with Jupiter was Her-ap-sheta, "Horus the opener of +that which is secret[317]". Nebo's original character is obscure. He +appears to have been a highly developed deity of a people well +advanced in civilization when he was exalted as the divine patron of +Borsippa. Although Hammurabi ignored him, he was subsequently invoked +with Merodach, and had probably much in common with Merodach. Indeed, +Merodach was also identified with the planet Mercury. Like the Greek +Hermes, Nebo was a messenger of the gods and an instructor of mankind. +Jastrow regards him as "a counterpart of Ea", and says: "Like Ea, he +is the embodiment and source of wisdom. The art of writing--and +therefore of all literature--is more particularly associated with him. +A common form of his name designates him as the 'god of the +stylus'."[318] He appears also to have been a developed form of +Tammuz, who was an incarnation of Ea. Professor Pinches shows that one +of his names, Mermer, was also a non-Semitic name of Ramman.[319] +Tammuz resembled Ramman in his character as a spring god of war. It +would seem that Merodach as Jupiter displaced at Babylon Nebo as +Saturn, the elder god, as Bel Enlil displaced the elder Ninip at +Nippur. + +The god of Mars was Nergal, the patron deity of Cuthah,[320] who +descended into the Underworld and forced into submission Eresh-ki-gal +(Persephone), with whom he was afterwards associated. His "name", says +Professor Pinches, "is supposed to mean 'lord of the great +habitation', which would be a parallel to that of his spouse, +Eresh-ki-gal".[321] At Erech he symbolized the destroying influence of +the sun, and was accompanied by the demons of pestilence. Mars was a +planet of evil, plague, and death; its animal form was the wolf. In +Egypt it was called Herdesher, "the Red Horus", and in Greece it was +associated with Ares (the Roman Mars), the war god, who assumed his +boar form to slay Adonis (Tammuz). + +Nergal was also a fire god like the Aryo-Indian Agni, who, as has been +shown, links with Tammuz as a demon slayer and a god of fertility. It +may be that Nergal was a specialized form of Tammuz, who, in a version +of the myth, was reputed to have entered the Underworld as a conqueror +when claimed by Eresh-ki-gal, and to have become, like Osiris, the +lord of the dead. If so, Nergal was at once the slayer and the slain. + +The various Babylonian deities who were identified with the planets +had their characters sharply defined as members of an organized +pantheon. But before this development took place certain of the +prominent heavenly bodies, perhaps all the planets, were evidently +regarded as manifestations of one deity, the primeval Tammuz, who was +a form of Ea, or of the twin deities Ea and Anu. Tammuz may have been +the "sevenfold one" of the hymns. At a still earlier period the stars +were manifestations of the Power whom the jungle dwellers of Chota +Nagpur attempt to propitiate--the "world soul" of the cultured +Brahmans of the post-Vedic Indian Age. As much is suggested by the +resemblances which the conventionalized planetary deities bear to +Tammuz, whose attributes they symbolized, and by the Egyptian +conception that the sun, Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars were manifestations +of Horus. Tammuz and Horus may have been personifications of the Power +or World Soul vaguely recognized in the stage of Naturalism. + +The influence of animistic modes of thought may be traced in the idea +that the planets and stars were the ghosts of gods who were superseded +by their sons. These sons were identical with their fathers; they +became, as in Egypt, "husbands of their mothers". This idea was +perpetuated in the Aryo-Indian _Laws of Manu_, in which it is set +forth that "the husband, after conception by his wife, becomes an +embryo and is born again of her[322]". The deities died every year, +but death was simply change. Yet they remained in the separate forms +they assumed in their progress round "the wide circle of necessity". +Horus was remembered as various planets--as the falcon, as the elder +sun god, and as the son of Osiris; and Tammuz was the spring sun, the +child, youth, warrior, the deity of fertility, and the lord of death +(Orion-Nergal), and, as has been suggested, all the planets. + +The stars were also the ghosts of deities who died daily. When the sun +perished as an old man at evening, it rose in the heavens as Orion, or +went out and in among the stars as the shepherd of the flock, Jupiter, +the planet of Merodach in Babylonia, and Attis in Asia Minor. The +flock was the group of heavenly spirits invisible by day, the "host of +heaven"--manifestations or ghosts of the emissaries of the controlling +power or powers. + +The planets presided over various months of the year. Sin (the moon) +was associated with the third month; it also controlled the calendar; +Ninip (Saturn) was associated with the fourth month, Ishtar (Venus) +with the sixth, Shamash (the sun) with the seventh, Merodach (Jupiter) +with the eighth, Nergal (Mars) with the ninth, and a messenger of the +gods, probably Nebo (Mercury), with the tenth. + +Each month was also controlled by a zodiacal constellation. In the +Creation myth of Babylon it is stated that when Merodach engaged in +the work of setting the Universe in order he "set all the great gods +in their several stations", and "also created their images, the stars +of the Zodiac,[323] and fixed them all" (p. 147). + +Our signs of the Zodiac are of Babylonian origin. They were passed on +to the Greeks by the Phoenicians and Hittites. "There was a time ", +says Professor Sayce, "when the Hittites were profoundly affected by +Babylonian civilization, religion, and art...." They "carried the +time-worn civilizations of Babylonia and Egypt to the furthest +boundary of Egypt, and there handed them over to the West in the grey +dawn of European history.... Greek traditions affirmed that the rulers +of Mykenae had come from Lydia, bringing with them the civilization +and treasures of Asia Minor. The tradition has been confirmed by +modern research. While certain elements belonging to the prehistoric +culture of Greece, as revealed at Mykenae and elsewhere, were derived +from Egypt and Phoenicia, there are others which point to Asia Minor +as their source. And the culture of Asia Minor was Hittite."[324] + +The early Babylonian astronomers did not know, of course, that the +earth revolved round the sun. They believed that the sun travelled +across the heavens flying like a bird or sailing like a boat.[325] In +studying its movements they observed that it always travelled from +west to east along a broad path, swinging from side to side of it in +the course of the year. This path is the Zodiac--the celestial "circle +of necessity". The middle line of the sun's path is the Ecliptic. The +Babylonian scientists divided the Ecliptic into twelve equal parts, +and grouped in each part the stars which formed their constellations; +these are also called "Signs of the Zodiac". Each month had thus its +sign or constellation. + +The names borne at the present day by the signs of the Zodiac are +easily remembered even by children, who are encouraged to repeat the +following familiar lines: + + The _Ram_, the _Bull_, the heavenly _Twins_, + And next the _Crab_, the _Lion_ shines. + The _Virgin_ and the _Scales_; + The _Scorpion, Archer_, and _Sea goat_, + The man that holds the _water pot_, + And _Fish_ with glitt'ring[326] tails. + +The table on p. 308 shows that our signs are derived from ancient +Babylonia. + +The celestial regions were also divided into three or more parts. +Three "fields" were allotted to the ancient triad formed by Ea, Anu, +and Bel. The zodiacal "path" ran through these "fields". Ea's field +was in the west, and was associated with Amurru, the land of the +Amorites; Anu's field was in the south, and was associated with Elam; +and Bel's central "field" was associated with the land of Akkad. When +the rulers of Akkad called themselves "kings of the four quarters", +the reference was to the countries associated with the three divine +fields and to Gutium[327](east = our north-east). Was Gutium +associated with demons, as in Scandinavia the north-east was +associated with the giants against whom Thor waged war? + + ++---------------------------------------------------------------------+ +| | Date of Sun's Entry | | +|Constellations.|(Babylonian Month in | Babylonian Equivalent. | +| | brackets). | | +|---------------+---------------------+-------------------------------| +|Aries (the |20th March (Nisan = |The Labourer or Messenger. | +|Ram). |March-April) | | +|---------------+---------------------+-------------------------------| +|Taurus (the |20th April (Iyyar = |A divine figure and the "bull | +|Bull). |April-May) |of heaven". | +|---------------+---------------------+-------------------------------| +|Gemini (the |21st May (Sivan = |The Faithful Shepherd and Twins| +|Twins). |May-June). |side by side, or head to head | +| | |and feet to teet. | +|---------------+---------------------+-------------------------------| +|Cancer (the |21st June (Tammuz = |Crab or Scorpion. | +|Crab). |June-July). | | +|---------------+---------------------+-------------------------------| +|Leo (the Lion).|22nd July (Ab = |The big dog (Lion). | +| |July-August). | | +|---------------+---------------------+-------------------------------| +|Virgo (the |23rd August (Elul = |Ishtar, the Virgin's ear of | +|Virgin). |August-Sept.). |corn. | +|---------------+---------------------+-------------------------------| +|Libra (the |23rd September (Tisri|The Balance. | +|Balance). |= Sept.-Oct.). | | +|---------------+---------------------+-------------------------------| +|Scorpio (the |23rd October | | +|Scorpion). |(Marcheswan = |Scorpion of darkness. | +| |Oct.-Nov.). | | +|---------------+---------------------+-------------------------------| +|Sagittarius |22nd November |Man or man-horse with bow, or | +|(the Archer). |(Chisleu = |an arrow symbol. | +| |Nov.-Dec.). | | +|---------------+---------------------+-------------------------------| +|Capricornus |21st December (Tebet |Ea's goat-fish. | +|(the Goat). |= Dec.-Jan.). | | +|---------------+---------------------+-------------------------------| +|Aquarius (the |19th January (Sebat =|God with water urn. | +|Water Carrier).|Jan.-Feb.). | | +|---------------+---------------------+-------------------------------| +|Pisces (the |18th February (Adar =|Fish tails in canal. | +|Fishes). |Feb.-March). | | ++---------------------------------------------------------------------+ + + +The Babylonian Creation myth states that Merodach, having fixed the +stars of the Zodiac, made three stars for each month (p. 147). Mr. +Robert Brown, jun., who has dealt as exhaustively with the +astronomical problems of Babylonia as the available data permitted +him, is of opinion that the leading stars of three constellations are +referred to, viz.: (1) the central or zodiacal constellations, (2) the +northern constellations, and (3) the southern constellations. We have +thus a scheme of thirty-six constellations. The "twelve zodiacal stars +were flanked on either side by twelve non-zodiacal stars". Mr. Brown +quotes Diodorus, who gave a resume of Babylonian +astronomico-astrology, in this connection. He said that "the five +planets were called 'Interpreters'; and in subjection to these were +marshalled 'Thirty Stars', which were styled 'Divinities of the +Council'.... The chiefs of the Divinities are twelve in number, to +each of whom they assign a month and one of the twelve signs of the +Zodiac." Through these twelve signs sun, moon, and planets run their +courses. "And with the zodiacal circle they mark out twenty-four +stars, half of which they say are arranged in the north and half in +the south."[328] Mr. Brown shows that the thirty stars referred to +"constituted the original Euphratean Lunar Zodiac, the parent of the +seven ancient lunar zodiacs which have come down to us, namely, the +Persian, Sogdian, Khorasmian, Chinese, Indian, Arab, and Coptic +schemes". + +The three constellations associated with each month had each a +symbolic significance: they reflected the characters of their months. +At the height of the rainy season, for instance, the month of Ramman, +the thunder god, was presided over by the zodiacal constellation of +the water urn, the northern constellation "Fish of the Canal", and the +southern "the Horse". In India the black horse was sacrificed at +rain-getting and fertility ceremonies. The months of growth, +pestilence, and scorching sun heat were in turn symbolized. The "Great +Bear" was the "chariot" = "Charles's Wain", and the "Milky Way" the +"river of the high cloud", the Celestial Euphrates, as in Egypt it was +the Celestial Nile. + +Of special interest among the many problems presented by Babylonian +astronomical lore is the theory of Cosmic periods or Ages of the +Universe. In the Indian, Greek, and Irish mythologies there are four +Ages--the Silvern (white), Golden (yellow), the Bronze (red), and the +Iron (black). As has been already indicated, Mr. R. Brown, jun., shows +that "the Indian system of Yugas, or ages of the world, presents many +features which forcibly remind us of the Euphratean scheme". The +Babylonians had ten antediluvian kings, who were reputed to have +reigned for vast periods, the total of which amounted to 120 saroi, or +432,000 years. These figures at once recall the Indian Maha-yuga of +4,320,000 years = 432,000 x 10. Apparently the Babylonian and Indian +systems of calculation were of common origin. In both countries the +measurements of time and space were arrived at by utilizing the +numerals 10 and 6. + +When primitive man began to count he adopted a method which comes +naturally to every schoolboy; he utilized his fingers. Twice five gave +him ten, and from ten he progressed to twenty, and then on to a +hundred and beyond. In making measurements his hands, arms, and feet +were at his service. We are still measuring by feet and yards +(standardized strides) in this country, while those who engage in the +immemorial art of knitting, and, in doing so, repeat designs found on +neolithic pottery, continue to measure in finger breadths, finger +lengths, and hand breadths as did the ancient folks who called an arm +length a cubit. Nor has the span been forgotten, especially by boys in +their games with marbles; the space from the end of the thumb to the +end of the little finger when the hand is extended must have been an +important measurement from the earliest times. + +As he made progress in calculations, the primitive Babylonian appears +to have been struck by other details in his anatomy besides his sets +of five fingers and five toes. He observed, for instance, that his +fingers were divided into three parts and his thumb into two parts +only;[329] four fingers multiplied by three gave him twelve, and +multiplying 12 by 3 he reached 36. Apparently the figure 6 attracted +him. His body was divided into 6 parts--2 arms, 2 legs, the head, and +the trunk; his 2 ears, 2 eyes, and mouth, and nose also gave him 6. +The basal 6, multiplied by his 10 fingers, gave him 60, and 60 x 2 +(for his 2 hands) gave him 120. In Babylonian arithmetic 6 and 60 are +important numbers, and it is not surprising to find that in the system +of numerals the signs for 1 and 10 combined represent 60. + +In fixing the length of a mythical period his first great calculation +of 120 came naturally to the Babylonian, and when he undertook to +measure the Zodiac he equated time and space by fixing on 120 degrees. +His first zodiac was the Sumerian lunar zodiac, which contained thirty +moon chambers associated with the "Thirty Stars" of the tablets, and +referred to by Diodorus as "Divinities of the Council". The chiefs of +the Thirty numbered twelve. In this system the year began in the +winter solstice. Mr. Hewitt has shown that the chief annual festival +of the Indian Dravidians begins with the first full moon after the +winter festival, and Mr. Brown emphasizes the fact that the list of +Tamil (Dravidian) lunar and solar months are named like the Babylonian +constellations.[330] "Lunar chronology", wrote Professor Max Mailer, +"seems everywhere to have preceded solar chronology."[331] The later +Semitic Babylonian system had twelve solar chambers and the thirty-six +constellations. + +Each degree was divided into sixty minutes, and each minute into sixty +seconds. The hours of the day and night each numbered twelve. + +Multiplying 6 by 10 (pur), the Babylonian arrived at 60 (soss); 60x10 +gave him 600 (ner), and 600x6, 3600 (sar), while 3600x10 gave him +36,000, and 36,000x12, 432,000 years, or 120 saroi, which is equal to +the "sar" multiplied by the "soss"x2. "Pur" signifies "heap"--the ten +fingers closed after being counted; and "ner" signifies "foot". Mr. +George Bertin suggests that when 6x10 fingers gave 60 this number was +multiplied by the ten toes, with the result that 600 was afterwards +associated with the feet (ner). The Babylonian sign for 10 resembles +the impression of two feet with heels closed and toes apart. This +suggests a primitive record of the first round of finger counting. + +In India this Babylonian system of calculation was developed during +the Brahmanical period. The four Yugas or Ages, representing the four +fingers used by the primitive mathematicians, totalled 12,000 divine +years, a period which was called a Maha-yuga; it equalled the +Babylonian 120 saroi, multiplied by 100. Ten times a hundred of these +periods gave a "Day of Brahma". + +Each day of the gods, it was explained by the Brahmans, was a year to +mortals. Multiplied by 360 days, 12,000 divine years equalled +4,320,000 human years. This Maha-yuga, multiplied by 1000, gave the +"Day of Brahma" as 4,320,000,000 human years. + +The shortest Indian Yuga is the Babylonian 120 saroi multiplied by +10=1200 divine years for the Kali Yuga; twice that number gives the +Dvapara Yuga of 2400 divine years; then the Treta Yuga is 2400 + 1200 += 3600 divine years, and Krita Yuga 3600 + 1200 = 4800 divine years. + +The influence of Babylonia is apparent in these calculations. During +the Vedic period "Yuga" usually signified a "generation", and there +are no certain references to the four Ages as such. The names "Kali", +"Dvapara", "Treta", and "Krita" "occur as the designations of throws +of dice".[332] It was after the arrival of the "late comers", the +post-Vedic Aryans, that the Yuga system was developed in India.[333] + +In _Indian Myth and Legend_[334] it is shown that the Indian and Irish +Ages have the same colour sequence: (1) White or Silvern, (2) Red or +Bronze, (3) Yellow or Golden, and (4) Black or Iron. The Greek order +is: (1) Golden, (2) Silvern, (3) Bronze, and (4) Iron. + +The Babylonians coloured the seven planets as follows: the moon, +silvern; the sun, golden; Mars, red; Saturn, black; Jupiter, orange; +Venus, yellow; and Mercury, blue. + +As the ten antediluvian kings who reigned for 120 saroi had an astral +significance, their long reigns corresponding "with the distances +separating certain of the principal stars in or near the +ecliptic",[335]) it seems highly probable that the planets were +similarly connected with mythical ages which were equated with the +"four quarters" of the celestial regions and the four regions of the +earth, which in Gaelic story are called "the four red divisions of the +world". + +Three of the planets may have been heralds of change. Venus, as " +Dilbat", was the "Proclaimer", and both Jupiter and Mercury were +called "Face voices of light", and "Heroes of the rising sun" among +other names. Jupiter may have been the herald of the "Golden Age" as a +morning star. This planet was also associated with bronze, as "Kakkub +Urud", "the star of bronze", while Mars was "Kakkub Aban Kha-urud," +"the star of the bronze fish stone". Mercury, the lapis lazuli planet, +may have been connected with the black Saturn, the ghost of the dead +sun, the demoniac elder god; in Egypt lapis lazuli was the hair colour +of Ra when he grew old, and Egyptologists translate it as black.[336] +The rare and regular appearances of Mercury may have suggested the +planet's connection with a recurring Age. Venus as an evening star +might be regarded as the herald of the lunar or silver age; she was +propitious as a bearded deity and interchanged with Merodach as a +seasonal herald. + +Connecting Jupiter with the sun as a propitious planet, and with Mars +as a destroying planet, Venus with the moon, and Mercury with Saturn, +we have left four colour schemes which suggest the Golden, Silvern, +Bronze, and Iron Ages. The Greek order of mythical ages may have had a +solar significance, beginning as it does with the "golden" period. On +the other hand the Indian and Irish systems begin with the Silvern or +white lunar period. In India the White Age (Treta Yuga) was the age of +perfect men, and in Greece the Golden Age was the age of men who lived +like gods. Thus the first ages in both cases were "Perfect" Ages. The +Bronze Age of Greece was the age of notorious fighters and takers of +life; in Babylonia the bronze planet Mars was the symbol of the +destroying Nergal, god of war and pestilence, while Jupiter was also a +destroyer as Merodach, the slayer of Tiamat. In India the Black Age is +the age of wickedness. The Babylonian Saturn, as we have seen, is +black, and its god, Ninip, was the destroying boar, which recalls the +black boar of the Egyptian demon (or elder god) Set. The Greek Cronos +was a destroyer even of his own children. All the elder gods had +demoniac traits like the ghosts of human beings. + +As the Babylonian lunar zodiac was imported into India before solar +worship and the solar zodiac were developed, so too may have been the +germs of the Yuga doctrine, which appears to have a long history. +Greece, on the other hand, came under the influence of Babylon at a +much later period. In Egypt Ra, the sun god, was an antediluvian king, +and he was followed by Osiris. Osiris was slain by Set, who was +depicted sometimes red and sometimes black. There was also a Horus +Age. + +The Irish system of ages suggests an early cultural drift into Europe, +through Asia Minor, and along the uplands occupied by the +representatives of the Alpine or Armenoid peoples who have been traced +from Hindu Kush to Brittany. The culture of Gaul resembles that of +India in certain particulars; both the Gauls and the post-Vedic +Aryans, for instance, believed in the doctrine of Transmigration of +Souls, and practised "suttee". After the Roman occupation of Gaul, +Ireland appears to have been the refuge of Gaulish scholars, who +imported their beliefs and traditions and laid the foundations of that +brilliant culture which shed lustre on the Green Isle in late Pagan +and early Christian times. + +The part played by the Mitanni people of Aryan speech in distributing +Asiatic culture throughout Europe may have been considerable, but we +know little or nothing regarding their movements and influence, nor +has sufficient evidence been forthcoming to connect them with the +cremating invaders of the Bronze Age, who penetrated as far as +northern Scotland and Scandinavia. On the other hand it is certain +that the Hittites adopted the planetary system of Babylonia and passed +it on to Europeans, including the Greeks. The five planets Ninip, +Merodach, Nergal, Ishtar, and Nebo were called by the Greeks after +their gods Kronos, Zeus, Ares, Aphrodite, and Hermes, and by the +Romans Saturnus, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and Mercurius. It must be +recognized, however, that these equations were somewhat arbitrary. +Ninip resembled Kronos and Saturnus as a father, but he was also at +the same time a son; he was the Egyptian Horus the elder and Horus the +younger in one. Merodach was similarly of complex character--a +combination of Ea, Anu, Enlil, and Tammuz, who acquired, when exalted +by the Amoritic Dynasty of Babylon, the attributes of the thunder god +Adad-Ramman in the form of Amurru, "lord of the mountains". During the +Hammurabi Age Amurru was significantly popular in personal names. It +is as Amurru-Ramman that Merodach bears comparison with Zeus. He also +links with Hercules. Too much must not be made, therefore, of the +Greek and Roman identifications of alien deities with their own. +Mulla, the Gaulish mule god, may have resembled Mars somewhat, but it +is a "far cry" from Mars-Mulla to Mars-Nergal, as it is also from the +Gaulish Moccus, the boar, called "Mercury", to Nebo, the god of +culture, who was the "Mercury" of the Tigro-Euphrates valley. +Similarly the differences between "Jupiter-Amon" of Egypt and +"Jupiter-Merodach" of Babylon were more pronounced than the +resemblances. + +The basal idea in Babylonian astrology appears to be the recognition +of the astral bodies as spirits or fates, who exercised an influence +over the gods, the world, and mankind. These were worshipped in groups +when they were yet nameless. The group addressed, "Powerful, O +sevenfold, one are ye", may have been a constellation consisting of +seven stars.[337] The worship of stars and planets, which were +identified and named, "seems never to have spread", says Professor +Sayce, "beyond the learned classes, and to have remained to the last +an artificial system. The mass of the people worshipped the stars as a +whole, but it was only as a whole and not individually."[338] The +masses perpetuated ancient animistic beliefs, like the pre-Hellenic +inhabitants of Greece. "The Pelasgians, as I was informed at Dodona," +wrote Herodotus, "formerly offered all things indiscriminately to the +gods. They distinguished them by no name or surname, for they were +hitherto unacquainted with either; but they called them gods, which by +its etymology means disposers, from observing the orderly disposition +and distribution of the various parts of the universe."[339] The +oldest deities are those which bore no individual names. They were +simply "Fates" or groups called "Sevenfold". The crude giant gods of +Scotland are "Fomhairean" (Fomorians), and do not have individual +names as in Ireland. Families and tribes were controlled by the Fates +or nameless gods, which might appear as beasts or birds, or be heard +knocking or screaming. + +In the Babylonian astral hymns, the star spirits are associated with +the gods, and are revealers of the decrees of Fate. "Ye brilliant +stars... ye bright ones... to destroy evil did Anu create you.... At +thy command mankind was named (created)! Give thou the Word, and with +thee let the great gods stand! Give thou my judgment, make my +decision!"[340] + +The Indian evidence shows that the constellations, and especially the +bright stars, were identified before the planets. Indeed, in Vedic +literature there is no certain reference to a single planet, although +constellations are named. It seems highly probable that before the +Babylonian gods were associated with the astral bodies, the belief +obtained that the stars exercised an influence over human lives. In +one of the Indian "Forest Books", for instance, reference is made to a +man who was "born under the Nakshatra Rohini ".[341] "Nakshatras" are +stars in the _Rigveda_ and later, and "lunar mansions" in Brahmanical +compositions.[342] "Rohini, 'ruddy', is the name of a conspicuously +reddish star, [Greek: alpha] Tauri or Aldebaran, and denotes the group +of the Hyades."[343] This reference may be dated before 600 B.C., +perhaps 800 B.C. + +From Greece comes the evidence of Plutarch regarding the principles of +Babylonian astrology. "Respecting the planets, which they call _the +birth-ruling divinities_, the Chaldeans", he wrote, "lay down that two +(Venus and Jupiter) are propitious, and two (Mars and Saturn) malign, +and three (Sun, Moon, and Mercury) of a middle nature, and one +common." "That is," Mr. Brown comments, "an astrologer would say, +these three are propitious with the good, and may be malign with the +bad."[344] + +Jastrow's views in this connection seem highly controversial. He holds +that Babylonian astrology dealt simply with national affairs, and had +no concern with "the conditions under which the individual was born"; +it did not predict "the fate in store for him". He believes that the +Greeks transformed Babylonian astrology and infused it with the spirit +of individualism which is a characteristic of their religion, and that +they were the first to give astrology a personal significance. + +Jastrow also perpetuates the idea that astronomy began with the +Greeks. "Several centuries before the days of Alexander the Great," he +says, "the Greeks had begun to cultivate the study of the heavens, not +for purposes of divination, but prompted by a scientific spirit as an +intellectual discipline that might help them to solve the mysteries of +the universe." It is possible, however, to overrate the "scientific +spirit" of the Greeks, who, like the Japanese in our own day, were +accomplished borrowers from other civilizations. That astronomy had +humble beginnings in Greece as elsewhere is highly probable. The late +Mr. Andrew Lang wrote in this connection: "The very oddest example of +the survival of the notion that the stars are men and women is found +in the _Pax_ of Aristophanes. Trygaeus in that comedy has just made an +expedition to heaven. A slave meets him, and asks him: 'Is not the +story true, then, that we become stars when we die?' The answer is, +'Certainly'; and Trygaeus points out the star into which Ion of Chios +has just been metamorphosed." Mr. Lang added: "Aristophanes is making +fun of some popular Greek superstition". The Eskimos, Persians, +Aryo-Indians, Germans, New Zealanders, and others had a similar +superstition.[345] + +Jastrow goes on to say that the Greeks "imparted their scientific view +of the Universe to the East. They became the teachers of the East in +astronomy as in medicine and other sciences, and the credit of having +discovered the law of the precession of the equinoxes belongs to +Hipparchus, the Greek astronomer, who announced this important theory +about the year 130 B.C."[346] Undoubtedly the Greeks contributed to +the advancement of the science of astronomy, with which, as other +authorities believe, they became acquainted after it had become well +developed as a science by the Assyrians and Babylonians. + +"In return for improved methods of astronomical calculation which," +Jastrow says, "_it may be assumed_ (the italics are ours), contact +with Greek science gave to the Babylonian astronomers, the Greeks +accepted from the Babylonians the names of the constellations of the +ecliptic."[347] This is a grudging admission; they evidently accepted +more than the mere names. + +Jastrow's hypothesis is certainly interesting, especially as he is an +Oriental linguist of high repute. But it is not generally accepted. +The sudden advance made by the Tigro-Euphratean astronomers when +Assyria was at the height of its glory, may have been due to the +discoveries made by great native scientists, the Newtons and the +Herschels of past ages, who had studied the data accumulated by +generations of astrologers, the earliest recorders of the movements of +the heavenly bodies. It is hard to believe that the Greeks made much +progress as scientists before they had identified the planets, and +become familiar with the Babylonian constellations through the medium +of the Hittites or the Phoenicians. What is known for certain is that +long centuries before the Greek science was heard of, there were +scientists in Babylonia. During the Sumerian period "the forms and +relations of geometry", says Professor Goodspeed, "were employed for +purposes of augury. The heavens were mapped out, and the courses of +the heavenly bodies traced to determine the bearing of their movements +upon human destinies."[348] + +Several centuries before Hipparchus was born, the Assyrian kings had +in their palaces official astronomers who were able to foretell, with +varying degrees of accuracy, when eclipses would take place. +Instructions were sent to various observatories, in the king's name, +to send in reports of forthcoming eclipses. A translation of one of +these official documents sent from the observatory of Babylon to +Nineveh, has been published by Professor Harper. The following are +extracts from it: "As for the eclipse of the moon about which the king +my lord has written to me, a watch was kept for it in the cities of +Akkad, Borsippa, and Nippur. We observed it ourselves in the city of +Akkad.... And whereas the king my lord ordered me to observe also the +eclipse of the sun, I watched to see whether it took place or not, and +what passed before my eyes I now report to the king my lord. It was an +eclipse of the moon that took place.... It was total over Syria, and +the shadow fell on the land of the Amorites, the land of the Hittites, +and in part on the land of the Chaldees." Professor Sayce comments: +"We gather from this letter that there were no less than three +observatories in Northern Babylonia: one at Akkad, near Sippara; one +at Nippur, now Niffer; and one at Borsippa, within sight of Babylon. +As Borsippa possessed a university, it was natural that one of the +three observatories should be established there."[349] + +It is evident that before the astronomers at Nineveh could foretell +eclipses, they had achieved considerable progress as scientists. The +data at their disposal probably covered nearly two thousand years. Mr. +Brown, junior, calculates that the signs of the Zodiac were fixed in +the year 2084 B.C.[350] These star groups do not now occupy the +positions in which they were observed by the early astronomers, +because the revolving earth is rocking like a top, with the result +that the pole does not always keep pointing at the same spot in the +heavens. Each year the meeting-place of the imaginary lines of the +ecliptic and equator is moving westward at the rate of about fifty +seconds. In time--ages hence--the pole will circle round to the point +it spun at when the constellations were named by the Babylonians. It +is by calculating the period occupied by this world-curve that the +date 2084 B.C. has been arrived at. + +As a result of the world-rocking process, the present-day "signs of +the Zodiac" do not correspond with the constellations. In March, for +instance, when the sun crosses the equator it enters the sign of the +Ram (Aries), but does not reach the constellation till the 20th, as +the comparative table shows on p. 308. + +When "the ecliptic was marked off into the twelve regions" and the +signs of the Zodiac were designated, "the year of three hundred +sixty-five and one-fourth days was known", says Goodspeed, "though the +common year was reckoned according to twelve months of thirty days +each[351], and equated with the solar year by intercalating a month at +the proper times.... The month was divided into weeks of seven +days.... The clepsydra and the sundial were Babylonian inventions for +measuring time."[352] + +The sundial of Ahaz was probably of Babylonian design. When the shadow +went "ten degrees backward" (_2 Kings_, xx, II) ambassadors were sent +from Babylon "to enquire of the wonder that was done in the land" (_2 +Chron._ xxxii, 31). It was believed that the king's illness was +connected with the incident. According to astronomical calculation +there was a partial eclipse of the sun which was visible at Jerusalem +on 11th January, 689 B.C, about 11.30 a.m. When the upper part of the +solar disc was obscured, the shadow on the dial was strangely +affected. + +The Babylonian astrologers in their official documents were more +concerned regarding international omens than those which affected +individuals. They made observations not only of the stars, but also +the moon, which, as has been shown, was one of their planets, and took +note of the clouds and the wind likewise. + +As portions of the heavens were assigned to various countries, so was +the moon divided into four quarters for the same purpose--the upper +part for the north, Gutium, the lower for the south, Akkad or +Babylonia, the eastern part for Elam, and the western for Amurru. The +crescent was also divided in like manner; looking southward the +astrologers assigned the right horn to the west and the left to the +east. In addition, certain days and certain months were connected with +the different regions. Lunar astrology was therefore of complicated +character. When the moon was dim at the particular phase which was +connected with Amurru, it was believed that the fortunes of that +region were in decline, and if it happened to shine brightly in the +Babylonian phase the time was considered auspicious to wage war in the +west. Great importance was attached to eclipses, which were +fortunately recorded, with the result that the ancient astronomers +were ultimately enabled to forecast them. + +The destinies of the various states in the four quarters were +similarly influenced by the planets. When Venus, for instance, rose +brightly in the field of Anu, it was a "prosperor" for Elam; if it +were dim it foretold misfortune. Much importance was also attached to +the positions occupied by the constellations when the planets were +propitious or otherwise; no king would venture forth on an expedition +under a "yoke of inauspicious stars". + +Biblical references to the stars make mention of well-known Babylonian +constellations: + + Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the + bands of Orion? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth (? the Zodiac) in + his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons? Knowest + thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof + in the earth? _Job_, xxxviii, 31-33. Which maketh Arcturus, Orion, + and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south. _Job_, ix, 9. Seek + him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow + of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night. + _Amos_, v, 8. + +The so-called science of astrology, which had origin in ancient +Babylonia and spread eastward and west, is not yet extinct, and has +its believers even in our own country at the present day, although +they are not nearly so numerous as when Shakespeare made Malvolio +read: + + In my stars I am above thee; but be not afraid of greatness: some + are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness + thrust upon 'em. Thy Fates open their hands....[353] + +or when Byron wrote: + + Ye stars! which are the poetry of heaven! + If in your bright leaves we would read the fate + Of men and empires--'t is to be forgiven + That in our aspirations to be great, + Our destinies o'erleap their mortal state + And claim a kindred with you....[354] + +Our grave astronomers are no longer astrologers, but they still call +certain constellations by the names given them in Babylonia. Every +time we look at our watches we are reminded of the ancient +mathematicians who counted on their fingers and multiplied 10 by 6, to +give us minutes and seconds, and divided the day and the night into +twelve hours by multiplying six by the two leaden feet of Time. The +past lives in the present. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +ASHUR THE NATIONAL GOD OF ASSYRIA + + + Derivation of Ashur--Ashur as Anshar and Anu--Animal forms of Sky + God--Anshar as Star God on the Celestial Mount--Isaiah's + Parable--Symbols of World God and World Hill--Dance of the + Constellations and Dance of Satyrs--Goat Gods and Bull Gods--Symbols + of Gods as "High Heads"--The Winged Disc--Human Figure as Soul of + the Sun--Ashur as Hercules and Gilgamesh--Gods differentiated by + Cults--Fertility Gods as War Gods--Ashur's Tree and Animal + forms--Ashur as Nisroch--Lightning Symbol in Disc--Ezekiel's + Reference to Life Wheel--Indian Wheel and Discus--Wheels of Shamash + and Ahura-Mazda--Hittite Winged Disc--Solar Wheel causes Seasonal + Changes--Bonfires to stimulate Solar Deity--Burning of Gods and + Kings--Magical Ring and other Symbols of Scotland--Ashur's Wheel of + Life and Eagle Wings--King and Ashur--Ashur associated with Lunar, + Fire, and Star Gods--The Osirian Clue--Hittite and Persian + Influences. + + +The rise of Assyria brings into prominence the national god Ashur, +who had been the city god of Asshur, the ancient capital. When first +met with, he is found to be a complex and mystical deity, and the +problem of his origin is consequently rendered exceedingly difficult. +Philologists are not agreed as to the derivation of his name, and +present as varied views as they do when dealing with the name of +Osiris. Some give Ashur a geographical significance, urging that its +original form was Aushar, "water field"; others prefer the renderings +"Holy", "the Beneficent One", or "the Merciful One"; while not a few +regard Ashur as simply a dialectic form of the name of Anshar, the god +who, in the Assyrian version, or copy, of the Babylonian Creation +myth, is chief of the "host of heaven", and the father of Anu, Ea, and +Enlil. + +If Ashur is to be regarded as an abstract solar deity, who was +developed from a descriptive place name, it follows that he had a +history, like Anu or Ea, rooted in Naturalism or Animism. We cannot +assume that his strictly local character was produced by modes of +thought which did not obtain elsewhere. The colonists who settled at +Asshur no doubt imported beliefs from some cultural area; they must +have either given recognition to a god, or group of gods, or regarded +the trees, hills, rivers, sun, moon, and stars, and the animals as +manifestations of the "self power" of the Universe, before they +undertook the work of draining and cultivating the "water field" and +erecting permanent homes. Those who settled at Nineveh, for instance, +believed that they were protected by the goddess Nina, the patron +deity of the Sumerian city of Nina. As this goddess was also +worshipped at Lagash, and was one of the many forms of the Great +Mother, it would appear that in ancient times deities had a tribal +rather than a geographical significance. + +If the view is accepted that Ashur is Anshar, it can be urged that he +was imported from Sumeria. "Out of that land (Shinar)", according to +the Biblical reference, "went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh."[355] +Asshur, or Ashur (identical, Delitzsch and Jastrow believe, with +Ashir),[356] may have been an eponymous hero--a deified king like +Etana, or Gilgamesh, who was regarded as an incarnation of an ancient +god. As Anshar was an astral or early form of Anu, the Sumerian city +of origin may have been Erech, where the worship of the mother goddess +was also given prominence. + +Damascius rendered Anshar's name as "Assoros", a fact usually cited to +establish Ashur's connection with that deity. This writer stated that +the Babylonians passed over "Sige,[357] the mother, that has begotten +heaven and earth", and made two--Apason (Apsu), the husband, and +Tauthe (Tiawath or Tiamat), whose son was Moymis (Mummu). From these +another progeny came forth--Lache and Lachos (Lachmu and Lachamu). +These were followed by the progeny Kissare and Assoros (Kishar and +Anshar), "from which were produced Anos (Anu), Illillos (Enlil) and +Aos (Ea). And of Aos and Dauke (Dawkina or Damkina) was born Belos +(Bel Merodach), whom they say is the Demiurge"[358] (the world artisan +who carried out the decrees of a higher being). + +Lachmu and Lachamu, like the second pair of the ancient group of +Egyptian deities, probably symbolized darkness as a reproducing and +sustaining power. Anshar was apparently an impersonation of the night +sky, as his son Anu was of the day sky. It may have been believed that +the soul of Anshar was in the moon as Nannar (Sin), or in a star, or +that the moon and the stars were manifestations of him, and that the +soul of Anu was in the sun or the firmament, or that the sun, +firmament, and the wind were forms of this "self power". + +If Ashur combined the attributes of Anshar and Anu, his early mystical +character may be accounted for. Like the Indian Brahma, he may have +been in his highest form an impersonation, or symbol, of the "self +power" or "world soul" of developed Naturalism--the "creator", +"preserver", and "destroyer" in one, a god of water, earth, air, and +sky, of sun, moon, and stars, fire and lightning, a god of the grove, +whose essence was in the fig, or the fir cone, as it was in all +animals. The Egyptian god Amon of Thebes, who was associated with +water, earth, air, sky, sun and moon, had a ram form, and was "the +hidden one", was developed from one of the elder eight gods; in the +Pyramid Texts he and his consort are the fourth pair. When Amon was +fused with the specialized sun god Ra, he was placed at the head of +the Ennead as the Creator. "We have traces", says Jastrow, "of an +Assyrian myth of Creation in which the sphere of creator is given to +Ashur."[359] + +Before a single act of creation was conceived of, however, the early +peoples recognized the eternity of matter, which was permeated by the +"self power" of which the elder deities were vague phases. These were +too vague, indeed, to be worshipped individually. The forms of the +"self power" which were propitiated were trees, rivers, hills, or +animals. As indicated in the previous chapter, a tribe worshipped an +animal or natural object which dominated its environment. The animal +might be the source of the food supply, or might have to be +propitiated to ensure the food supply. Consequently they identified +the self power of the Universe with the particular animal with which +they were most concerned. One section identified the spirit of the +heavens with the bull and another with the goat. In India Dyaus was a +bull, and his spouse, the earth mother, Prithivi, was a cow. The +Egyptian sky goddess Hathor was a cow, and other goddesses were +identified with the hippopotamus, the serpent, the cat, or the +vulture. Ra, the sun god, was identified in turn with the cat, the +ass, the bull, the ram, and the crocodile, the various animal forms of +the local deities he had absorbed. The eagle in Babylonia and India, +and the vulture, falcon, and mysterious Phoenix in Egypt, were +identified with the sun, fire, wind, and lightning. The animals +associated with the god Ashur were the bull, the eagle, and the lion. +He either absorbed the attributes of other gods, or symbolized the +"Self Power" of which the animals were manifestations. + +The earliest germ of the Creation myth was the idea that night was the +parent of day, and water of the earth. Out of darkness and death came +light and life. Life was also motion. When the primordial waters +became troubled, life began to be. Out of the confusion came order and +organization. This process involved the idea of a stable and +controlling power, and the succession of a group of deities--passive +deities and active deities. When the Babylonian astrologers assisted +in developing the Creation myth, they appear to have identified with +the stable and controlling spirit of the night heaven that steadfast +orb the Polar Star. Anshar, like Shakespeare's Caesar, seemed to say: + + I am constant as the northern star, Of whose true-fixed and + resting quality There is no fellow in the firmament. The skies are + painted with unnumbered sparks; They are all fire, and every one + doth shine; But there's but one in all doth hold his place.[360] + +Associated with the Polar Star was the constellation Ursa Minor, "the +Little Bear", called by the Babylonian astronomers, "the Lesser +Chariot". There were chariots before horses were introduced. A patesi +of Lagash had a chariot which was drawn by asses. + +The seemingly steadfast Polar Star was called "Ilu Sar", "the god +Shar", or Anshar, "star of the height", or "Shar the most high". It +seemed to be situated at the summit of the vault of heaven. The god +Shar, therefore, stood upon the Celestial mountain, the Babylonian +Olympus. He was the ghost of the elder god, who in Babylonia was +displaced by the younger god, Merodach, as Mercury, the morning star, +or as the sun, the planet of day; and in Assyria by Ashur, as the sun, +or Regulus, or Arcturus, or Orion. Yet father and son were identical. +They were phases of the One, the "self power". + +A deified reigning king was an incarnation of the god; after death he +merged in the god, as did the Egyptian Unas. The eponymous hero Asshur +may have similarly merged in the universal Ashur, who, like Horus, an +incarnation of Osiris, had many phases or forms. + +Isaiah appears to have been familiar with the Tigro-Euphratean myths +about the divinity of kings and the displacement of the elder god by +the younger god, of whom the ruling monarch was an incarnation, and +with the idea that the summit of the Celestial mountain was crowned by +the "north star", the symbol of Anshar. "Thou shalt take up this +parable", he exclaimed, making use of Babylonian symbolism, "against +the king of Babylon and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden +city ceased!... How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the +morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the +nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend unto heaven, +I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon +the mount of the congregation, _in the sides of the north_; I will +ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most +High."[361] The king is identified with Lucifer as the deity of fire +and the morning star; he is the younger god who aspired to occupy the +mountain throne of his father, the god Shar--the Polar or North Star. + +It is possible that the Babylonian idea of a Celestial mountain gave +origin to the belief that the earth was a mountain surrounded by the +outer ocean, beheld by Etana when he flew towards heaven on the +eagle's back. In India this hill is Mount Meru, the "world spine", +which "sustains the earth"; it is surmounted by Indra's Valhal, or +"the great city of Brahma". In Teutonic mythology the heavens revolve +round the Polar Star, which is called "Veraldar nagli",[362] the +"world spike"; while the earth is sustained by the "world tree". The +"ded" amulet of Egypt symbolized the backbone of Osiris as a world +god: "ded" means "firm", "established";[363] while at burial +ceremonies the coffin was set up on end, inside the tomb, "on a small +sandhill intended to represent the Mountain of the West--the realm of +the dead".[364] The Babylonian temple towers were apparently symbols +of the "world hill". At Babylon, the Du-azaga, "holy mound", was +Merodach's temple E-sagila, "the Temple of the High Head". E-kur, +rendered "the house or temple of the Mountain", was the temple of Bel +Enlil at Nippur. At Erech, the temple of the goddess Ishtar was +E-anna, which connects her, as Nina or Ninni, with Anu, derived from +"ana", "heaven". Ishtar was "Queen of heaven". + +Now Polaris, situated at the summit of the celestial mountain, was +identified with the sacred goat, "the highest of the flock of +night".[365] Ursa Minor (the "Little Bear" constellation) may have +been "the goat with six heads", referred to by Professor Sayce.[366] +The six astral goats or goat-men were supposed to be dancing round the +chief goat-man or Satyr (Anshar). Even in the dialogues of Plato the +immemorial belief was perpetuated that the constellations were "moving +as in a dance". Dancing began as a magical or religious practice, and +the earliest astronomers saw their dancing customs reflected in the +heavens by the constellations, whose movements were rhythmical. No +doubt, Isaiah had in mind the belief of the Babylonians regarding the +dance of their goat-gods when he foretold: "Their houses shall be full +of doleful creatures; and owls (ghosts) shall dwell there, and _satyrs +shall dance there_".[367] In other words, there would be no people +left to perform religious dances beside the "desolate houses"; the +stars only would be seen dancing round Polaris. + +Tammuz, like Anshar, as sentinel of the night heaven, was a goat, as +was also Nin-Girsu of Lagash. A Sumerian reference to "a white kid of +En Mersi (Nin-Girsu)" was translated into Semitic, "a white kid of +Tammuz". The goat was also associated with Merodach. Babylonians, +having prayed to that god to take away their diseases or their sins, +released a goat, which was driven into the desert. The present Polar +Star, which was not, of course, the Polar star of the earliest +astronomers, the world having rocked westward, is called in Arabic +Al-Jedy, "the kid". In India, the goat was connected with Agni and +Varuna; it was slain at funeral ceremonies to inform the gods that a +soul was about to enter heaven. Ea, the Sumerian lord of water, earth, +and heaven, was symbolized as a "goat fish". Thor, the Teutonic +fertility and thunder god, had a chariot drawn by goats. It is of +interest to note that the sacred Sumerian goat bore on its forehead +the same triangular symbol as the Apis bull of Egypt. + +Ashur was not a "goat of heaven", but a "bull of heaven", like the +Sumerian Nannar (Sin), the moon god of Ur, Ninip of Saturn, and Bel +Enlil. As the bull, however, he was, like Anshar, the ruling animal of +the heavens; and like Anshar he had associated with him "six +divinities of council". + +Other deities who were similarly exalted as "high heads" at various +centres and at various periods, included Anu, Bel Enlil, and Ea, +Merodach, Nergal, and Shamash. A symbol of the first three was a +turban on a seat, or altar, which may have represented the "world +mountain". Ea, as "the world spine", was symbolized as a column, with +ram's head, standing on a throne, beside which crouched a "goat fish". +Merodach's column terminated in a lance head, and the head of a lion +crowned that of Nergal. These columns were probably connected with +pillar worship, and therefore with tree worship, the pillar being the +trunk of the "world tree". The symbol of the sun god Shamash was a +disc, from which flowed streams of water; his rays apparently were +"fertilizing tears", like the rays of the Egyptian sun god Ra. Horus, +the Egyptian falcon god, was symbolized as the winged solar disc. + +It is necessary to accumulate these details regarding other deities +and their symbols before dealing with Ashur. The symbols of Ashur must +be studied, because they are one of the sources of our knowledge +regarding the god's origin and character. These include (1) a winged +disc with horns, enclosing four circles revolving round a middle +circle; rippling rays fall down from either side of the disc; (2) a +circle or wheel, suspended from wings, and enclosing a warrior drawing +his bow to discharge an arrow; and (3) the same circle; the warrior's +bow, however, is carried in his left hand, while the right hand is +uplifted as if to bless his worshippers. These symbols are taken from +seal cylinders. + +An Assyrian standard, which probably represented the "world column", +has the disc mounted on a bull's head with horns. The upper part of +the disc is occupied by a warrior, whose head, part of his bow, and +the point of his arrow protrude from the circle. The rippling water +rays are V-shaped, and two bulls, treading river-like rays, occupy the +divisions thus formed. There are also two heads--a lion's and a +man's--with gaping mouths, which may symbolize tempests, the +destroying power of the sun, or the sources of the Tigris and +Euphrates. + +Jastrow regards the winged disc as "the purer and more genuine symbol +of Ashur as a solar deity". He calls it "a sun disc with protruding +rays", and says: "To this symbol the warrior with the bow and arrow +was added--a despiritualization that reflects the martial spirit of +the Assyrian empire".[368] + +The sun symbol on the sun boat of Ra encloses similarly a human +figure, which was apparently regarded as the soul of the sun: the life +of the god was in the "sun egg". In an Indian prose treatise it is set +forth: "Now that man in yonder orb (the sun) and that man in the right +eye truly are no other than Death (the soul). His feet have stuck fast +in the heart, and having pulled them out he comes forth; and when he +comes forth then that man dies; whence they say of him who has passed +away, 'he has been cut off (his life or life string has been +severed)'."[369] The human figure did not indicate a process of +"despiritualization" either in Egypt or in India. The Horus "winged +disc" was besides a symbol of destruction and battle, as well as of +light and fertility. Horus assumed that form in one legend to destroy +Set and his followers.[370] But, of course, the same symbols may not +have conveyed the same ideas to all peoples. As Blake put it: + + What to others a trifle appears Fills me full of smiles and + tears.... With my inward Eye, 't is an old Man grey, With my + outward, a Thistle across my way. + +Indeed, it is possible that the winged disc meant one thing to an +Assyrian priest, and another thing to a man not gifted with what Blake +called "double vision". + +What seems certain, however, is that the archer was as truly solar as +the "wings" or "rays". In Babylonia and Assyria the sun was, among +other things, a destroyer from the earliest times. It is not +surprising, therefore, to find that Ashur, like Merodach, resembled, +in one of his phases, Hercules, or rather his prototype Gilgamesh. One +of Gilgamesh's mythical feats was the slaying of three demon birds. +These may be identical with the birds of prey which Hercules, in +performing his sixth labour, hunted out of Stymphalus.[371] In the +Greek Hipparcho-Ptolemy star list Hercules was the constellation of +the "Kneeler", and in Babylonian-Assyrian astronomy he was (as +Gilgamesh or Merodach) "Sarru", "the king". The astral "Arrow" +(constellation of Sagitta) was pointed against the constellations of +the "Eagle", "Vulture", and "Swan". In Phoenician astronomy the +Vulture was "Zither" (Lyra), a weapon with which Hercules (identified +with Melkarth) slew Linos, the musician. Hercules used a solar arrow, +which he received from Apollo. In various mythologies the arrow is +associated with the sun, the moon, and the atmospheric deities, and is +a symbol of lightning, rain, and fertility, as well as of famine, +disease, war, and death. The green-faced goddess Neith of Libya, +compared by the Greeks to Minerva, carries in one hand two arrows and +a bow.[372] If we knew as little of Athena (Minerva), who was armed +with a lance, a breastplate made of the skin of a goat, a shield, and +helmet, as we do of Ashur, it might be held that she was simply a +goddess of war. The archer in the sun disc of the Assyrian standard +probably represented Ashur as the god of the people--a deity closely +akin to Merodach, with pronounced Tammuz traits, and therefore linking +with other local deities like Ninip, Nergal, and Shamash, and +partaking also like these of the attributes of the elder gods Anu, Bel +Enlil, and Ea. + +All the other deities worshipped by the Assyrians were of Babylonian +origin. Ashur appears to have differed from them just as one local +Babylonian deity differed from another. He reflected Assyrian +experiences and aspirations, but it is difficult to decide whether the +sublime spiritual aspect of his character was due to the beliefs of +alien peoples, by whom the early Assyrians were influenced, or to the +teachings of advanced Babylonian thinkers, whose doctrines found +readier acceptance in a "new country" than among the conservative +ritualists of ancient Sumerian and Akkadian cities. New cults were +formed from time to time in Babylonia, and when they achieved +political power they gave a distinctive character to the religion of +their city states. Others which did not find political support and +remained in obscurity at home, may have yet extended their influence +far and wide. Buddhism, for instance, originated in India, but now +flourishes in other countries, to which it was introduced by +missionaries. In the homeland it was submerged by the revival of +Brahmanism, from which it sprung, and which it was intended +permanently to displace. An instance of an advanced cult suddenly +achieving prominence as a result of political influence is afforded by +Egypt, where the fully developed Aton religion was embraced and +established as a national religion by Akhenaton, the so-called +"dreamer". That migrations were sometimes propelled by cults, which +sought new areas in which to exercise religious freedom and propagate +their beliefs, is suggested by the invasion of India at the close of +the Vedic period by the "later comers", who laid the foundations of +Brahmanism. They established themselves in Madhyadesa, "the Middle +Country", "the land where the Brahmanas and the later Samhitas were +produced". From this centre went forth missionaries, who accomplished +the Brahmanization of the rest of India.[373] + +It may be, therefore, that the cult of Ashur was influenced in its +development by the doctrines of advanced teachers from Babylonia, and +that Persian Mithraism was also the product of missionary efforts +extended from that great and ancient cultural area. Mitra, as has been +stated, was one of the names of the Babylonian sun god, who was also a +god of fertility. But Ashur could not have been to begin with merely a +battle and solar deity. As the god of a city state he must have been +worshipped by agriculturists, artisans, and traders; he must have been +recognized as a deity of fertility, culture, commerce, and law. Even +as a national god he must have made wider appeal than to the cultured +and ruling classes. Bel Enlil of Nippur was a "world god" and war god, +but still remained a local corn god. + +Assyria's greatness was reflected by Ashur, but he also reflected the +origin and growth of that greatness. The civilization of which he was +a product had an agricultural basis. It began with the development of +the natural resources of Assyria, as was recognized by the Hebrew +prophet, who said: "Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with +fair branches.... The waters made him great, the deep set him up on +high with her rivers running round about his plants, and sent out her +little rivers unto all the trees of the field. Therefore his height +was exalted above all the trees of the field, and his boughs were +multiplied, and his branches became long because of the multitude of +waters when he shot forth. All the fowls of heaven made their nests in +his boughs, and under his branches did all the beasts of the field +bring forth their young, and under his shadow dwelt all great nations. +Thus was he fair in his greatness, in the length of his branches; for +his root was by great waters. The cedars in the garden of God could +not hide him: the fir trees were not like his boughs, and the chestnut +trees were not like his branches; nor any tree in the garden of God +was like unto him in his beauty."[374] + +Asshur, the ancient capital, was famous for its merchants. It is +referred to in the Bible as one of the cities which traded with Tyre +"in all sorts of things, in blue clothes, and broidered work, and in +chests of rich apparel, bound with cords, and made of cedar".[375] + +As a military power, Assyria's name was dreaded. "Behold," Isaiah +said, addressing King Hezekiah, "thou hast heard what the kings of +Assyria have done to all lands by destroying them utterly."[376] The +same prophet, when foretelling how Israel would suffer, exclaimed: "O +Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine +indignation. I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and +against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the +spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of +the streets."[377] + +We expect to find Ashur reflected in these three phases of Assyrian +civilization. If we recognize him in the first place as a god of +fertility, his other attributes are at once included. A god of +fertility is a corn god and a water god. The river as a river was a +"creator" (p. 29), and Ashur was therefore closely associated with the +"watery place", with the canals or "rivers running round about his +plants". The rippling water-rays, or fertilizing tears, appear on the +solar discs. As a corn god, he was a god of war. Tammuz's first act +was to slay the demons of winter and storm, as Indra's in India was to +slay the demons of drought, and Thor's in Scandinavia was to +exterminate the frost giants. The corn god had to be fed with human +sacrifices, and the people therefore waged war against foreigners to +obtain victims. As the god made a contract with his people, he was a +deity of commerce; he provided them with food and they in turn fed him +with offerings. + +In Ezekiel's comparison of Assyria to a mighty tree, there is no doubt +a mythological reference. The Hebrew prophets invariably utilized for +their poetic imagery the characteristic beliefs of the peoples to whom +they made direct reference. The "owls", "satyrs", and "dragons" of +Babylon, mentioned by Isaiah, were taken from Babylonian mythology, as +has been indicated. When, therefore, Assyria is compared to a cedar, +which is greater than fir or chestnut, and it is stated that there are +nesting birds in the branches, and under them reproducing beasts of +the field, and that the greatness of the tree is due to "the multitude +of waters", the conclusion is suggested that Assyrian religion, which +Ashur's symbols reflect, included the worship of trees, birds, beasts, +and water. The symbol of the Assyrian tree--probably the "world tree" +of its religion--appears to be "the rod of mine anger ... the staff in +their hand"; that is, the battle standard which was a symbol of Ashur. +Tammuz and Osiris were tree gods as well as corn gods. + +Now, as Ashur was evidently a complex deity, it is futile to attempt +to read his symbols without giving consideration to the remnants of +Assyrian mythology which are found in the ruins of the ancient cities. +These either reflect the attributes of Ashur, or constitute the +material from which he evolved. + +As Layard pointed out many years ago, the Assyrians had a sacred tree +which became conventionalized. It was "an elegant device, in which +curved branches, springing from a kind of scroll work, terminated in +flowers of graceful form. As one of the figures last described[378] +was turned, as if in act of adoration, towards this device, it was +evidently a sacred emblem; and I recognized in it the holy tree, or +tree of life, so universally adored at the remotest period in the +East, and which was preserved in the religious systems of the Persians +to the final overthrow of their Empire.... The flowers were formed by +seven petals."[379] + +This tree looks like a pillar, and is thrice crossed by +conventionalized bull's horns tipped with ring symbols which may be +stars, the highest pair of horns having a larger ring between them, +but only partly shown as if it were a crescent. The tree with its many +"sevenfold" designs may have been a symbol of the +"Sevenfold-one-are-ye" deity. This is evidently the Assyrian tree +which was called "the rod" or "staff". + +What mythical animals did this tree shelter? Layard found that "the +four creatures continually introduced on the sculptured walls", were +"a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle".[380] + +In Sumeria the gods were given human form, but before this stage was +reached the bull symbolized Nannar (Sin), the moon god, Ninip (Saturn, +the old sun), and Enlil, while Nergal was a lion, as a tribal sun god. +The eagle is represented by the Zu bird, which symbolized the storm +and a phase of the sun, and was also a deity of fertility. On the +silver vase of Lagash the lion and eagle were combined as the +lion-headed eagle, a form of Nin-Girsu (Tammuz), and it was associated +with wild goats, stags, lions, and bulls. On a mace head dedicated to +Nin-Girsu, a lion slays a bull as the Zu bird slays serpents in the +folk tale, suggesting the wars of totemic deities, according to one +"school", and the battle of the sun with the storm clouds according to +another. Whatever the explanation may be of one animal deity of +fertility slaying another, it seems certain that the conflict was +associated with the idea of sacrifice to procure the food supply. + +In Assyria the various primitive gods were combined as a winged bull, +a winged bull with human head (the king's), a winged lion with human +head, a winged man, a deity with lion's head, human body, and eagle's +legs with claws, and also as a deity with eagle's head and feather +headdress, a human body, wings, and feather-fringed robe, carrying in +one hand a metal basket on which two winged men adored the holy tree, +and in the other a fir cone.[381] + +Layard suggested that the latter deity, with eagle's head, was +Nisroch, "the word Nisr signifying, in all Semitic languages, an eagle +".[382] This deity is referred to in the Bible: "Sennacherib, king of +Assyria, ... was worshipping in the house of Nisroch, his god".[383] +Professor Pinches is certain that Nisroch is Ashur, but considers that +the "ni" was attached to "Ashur" (Ashuraku or Ashurachu), as it was to +"Marad" (Merodach) to give the reading Ni-Marad = Nimrod. The names of +heathen deities were thus made "unrecognizable, and in all probability +ridiculous as well.... Pious and orthodox lips could pronounce them +without fear of defilement."[384] At the same time the "Nisr" theory +is probable: it may represent another phase of this process. The names +of heathen gods were not all treated in like manner by the Hebrew +teachers. Abed-_nebo_, for instance, became Abed-_nego_, _Daniel_, i, +7), as Professor Pinches shows. + +Seeing that the eagle received prominence in the mythologies of +Sumeria and Assyria, as a deity of fertility with solar and +atmospheric attributes, it is highly probable that the Ashur symbol, +like the Egyptian Horus solar disk, is a winged symbol of life, +fertility, and destruction. The idea that it represents the sun in +eclipse, with protruding rays, seems rather far-fetched, because +eclipses were disasters and indications of divine wrath;[385] it +certainly does not explain why the "rays" should only stretch out +sideways, like wings, and downward like a tail, why the "rays" should +be double, like the double wings of cherubs, bulls, &c, and divided +into sections suggesting feathers, or why the disk is surmounted by +conventionalized horns, tipped with star-like ring symbols, identical +with those depicted in the holy tree. What particular connection the +five small rings within the disk were supposed to have with the +eclipse of the sun is difficult to discover. + +In one of the other symbols in which appears a feather-robed archer, +it is significant to find that the arrow he is about to discharge has +a head shaped like a trident; it is evidently a lightning symbol. + +When Ezekiel prophesied to the Israelitish captives at Tel-abib, "by +the river of Chebar" in Chaldea (Kheber, near Nippur), he appears to +have utilized Assyrian symbolism. Probably he came into contact in +Babylonia with fugitive priests from Assyrian cities. + +This great prophet makes interesting references to "four living +creatures", with "four faces "--the face of a man, the face of a lion, +the face of an ox, and the face of an eagle; "they had the hands of a +man under their wings, ... their wings were joined one to another; ... +their wings were stretched upward: two wings of every one were joined +one to another.... Their appearance was like burning coals of fire and +like the appearance of lamps.... The living creatures ran and returned +as the appearance of a flash of lightning."[386] + +Elsewhere, referring to the sisters, Aholah and Aholibah, who had been +in Egypt and had adopted unmoral ways of life Ezekiel tells that when +Aholibah "doted upon the Assyrians" she "saw men pourtrayed upon the +wall, the images of the Chaldeans pourtrayed with vermilion, girded +with girdles upon their loins".[387] Traces of the red colour on the +walls of Assyrian temples and palaces have been observed by +excavators. The winged gods "like burning coals" were probably painted +in vermilion. + +Ezekiel makes reference to "ring" and "wheel" symbols. In his vision +he saw "one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures, with his +four faces. The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto +the colour of beryl; and they four had one likeness; and their +appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a +wheel.... As for their rings, they were so high that they were +dreadful; and their rings were full of eyes round about them four. And +when the living creatures went, the wheels went by them; and when the +living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted +up. Whithersoever the spirit was to go, they went, thither was their +spirit to go; and the wheels were lifted up over against them; _for +the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels_....[388] And the +likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creature was as +the colour of terrible crystal, stretched forth over their heads +above.... And when they went I heard the noise of their wings, like +the noise of great waters, as the voice of the Almighty, the voice of +speech, as the noise of an host; when they stood they let down their +wings...."[389] + +Another description of the cherubs states: "Their whole body, and +their backs, and their hands, and their wings, and the wheels, were +full of eyes (? stars) round about, even the wheels that they four +had. As for the wheels, it was cried unto them in my hearing, O +wheel!"--or, according to a marginal rendering, "they were called in +my hearing, wheel, or Gilgal," i.e. move round.... "And the cherubims +were lifted up."[390] + +It would appear that the wheel (or hoop, a variant rendering) was a +symbol of life, and that the Assyrian feather-robed figure which it +enclosed was a god, not of war only, but also of fertility. His +trident-headed arrow resembles, as has been suggested, a lightning +symbol. Ezekiel's references are suggestive in this connection. When +the cherubs "ran and returned" they had "the appearance of a flash of +lightning", and "the noise of their wings" resembled "the noise of +great waters". Their bodies were "like burning coals of fire". +Fertility gods were associated with fire, lightning, and water. Agni +of India, Sandan of Asia Minor, and Melkarth of Phoenicia were highly +developed fire gods of fertility. The fire cult was also represented +in Sumeria (pp. 49-51). + +In the Indian epic, the _Mahabharata_, the revolving ring or wheel +protects the Soma[391] (ambrosia) of the gods, on which their +existence depends. The eagle giant Garuda sets forth to steal it. The +gods, fully armed, gather round to protect the life-giving drink. +Garuda approaches "darkening the worlds by the dust raised by the +hurricane of his wings". The celestials, "overwhelmed by that dust", +swoon away. Garuda afterwards assumes a fiery shape, then looks "like +masses of black clouds", and in the end its body becomes golden and +bright "as the rays of the sun". The Soma is protected by fire, which +the bird quenches after "drinking in many rivers" with the numerous +mouths it has assumed. Then Garuda finds that right above the Soma is +"a wheel of steel, keen edged, and sharp as a razor, revolving +incessantly. That fierce instrument, of the lustre of the blazing sun +and of terrible form, was devised by the gods for cutting to pieces +all robbers of the Soma." Garuda passes "through the spokes of the +wheel", and has then to contend against "two great snakes of the +lustre of blazing fire, of tongues bright as the lightning flash, of +great energy, of mouth emitting fire, of blazing eyes". He slays the +snakes.... The gods afterwards recover the stolen Soma. + +Garuda becomes the vehicle of the god Vishnu, who carries the discus, +another fiery wheel which revolves and returns to the thrower like +lightning. "And he (Vishnu) made the bird sit on the flagstaff of his +car, saying: 'Even thus thou shalt stay above me'."[392] + +The Persian god Ahura Mazda hovers above the king in sculptured +representations of that high dignitary, enclosed in a winged wheel, or +disk, like Ashur, grasping a ring in one hand, the other being lifted +up as if blessing those who adore him. + +Shamash, the Babylonian sun god; Ishtar, the goddess of heaven; and +other Babylonian deities carried rings as the Egyptian gods carried +the ankh, the symbol of life. Shamash was also depicted sitting on his +throne in a pillar-supported pavilion, in front of which is a sun +wheel. The spokes of the wheel are formed by a star symbol and +threefold rippling "water rays". + +In Hittite inscriptions there are interesting winged emblems; "the +central portion" of one "seems to be composed of two crescents +underneath a disk (which is also divided like a crescent). Above the +emblem there appear the symbol of sanctity (the divided oval) and the +hieroglyph which Professor Sayce interprets as the name of the god +Sandes." In another instance "the centre of the winged emblem may be +seen to be a rosette, with a curious spreading object below. Above, +two dots follow the name of Sandes, and a human arm bent 'in +adoration' is by the side...." Professor Garstang is here dealing with +sacred places "on rocky points or hilltops, bearing out the suggestion +of the sculptures near Boghaz-Keui[393], in which there may be +reasonably suspected the surviving traces of mountain cults, or cults +of mountain deities, underlying the newer religious symbolism". Who +the deity is it is impossible to say, but "he was identified at some +time or other with Sandes".[394] It would appear, too, that the god +may have been "called by a name which was that used also by the +priest". Perhaps the priest king was believed to be an incarnation of +the deity. + +Sandes or Sandan was identical with Sandon of Tarsus, "the prototype +of Attis",[395] who links with the Babylonian Tammuz. Sandon's animal +symbol was the lion, and he carried the "double axe" symbol of the god +of fertility and thunder. As Professor Frazer has shown in _The Golden +Bough_, he links with Hercules and Melkarth.[396] + +All the younger gods, who displaced the elder gods as one year +displaces another, were deities of fertility, battle, lightning, fire, +and the sun; it is possible, therefore, that Ashur was like Merodach, +son of Ea, god of the deep, a form of Tammuz in origin. His spirit was +in the solar wheel which revolved at times of seasonal change. In +Scotland it was believed that on the morning of May Day (Beltaine) the +rising sun revolved three times. The younger god was a spring sun god +and fire god. Great bonfires were lit to strengthen him, or as a +ceremony of riddance; the old year was burned out. Indeed the god +himself might be burned (that is, the old god), so that he might renew +his youth. Melkarth was burned at Tyre. Hercules burned himself on a +mountain top, and his soul ascended to heaven as an eagle. + +These fiery rites were evidently not unknown in Babylonia and Assyria. +When, according to Biblical narrative, Nebuchadnezzar "made an image +of gold" which he set up "in the plain of Dura, in the province of +Babylon", he commanded: "O people, nations, and languages... at the +time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, +dulcimer, and all kinds of musick... fall down and worship the golden +image". Certain Jews who had been "set over the affairs of the +province of Babylonia", namely, "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego", +refused to adore the idol. They were punished by being thrown into "a +burning fiery furnace", which was heated "seven times more than it was +wont to be heated". They came forth uninjured.[397] + +In the Koran it is related that Abraham destroyed the images of +Chaldean gods; he "brake them all in pieces except the biggest of +them; that they might lay the blame on that".[398] According to the +commentators the Chaldaeans were at the time "abroad in the fields, +celebrating a great festival". To punish the offender Nimrod had a +great pyre erected at Cuthah. "Then they bound Abraham, and putting +him into an engine, shot him into the midst of the fire, from which he +was preserved by the angel Gabriel, who was sent to his assistance." +Eastern Christians were wont to set apart in the Syrian calendar the +25th of January to commemorate Abraham's escape from Nimrod's +pyre.[399] + +It is evident that the Babylonian fire ceremony was observed in the +spring season, and that human beings were sacrificed to the sun god. A +mock king may have been burned to perpetuate the ancient sacrifice of +real kings, who were incarnations of the god. + +Isaiah makes reference to the sacrificial burning of kings in Assyria: +"For through the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down, +which smote with a rod. And in every place where the grounded staff +shall pass, which the Lord shall lay upon him, it shall be with +tabrets and harps: and in battles of shaking will he fight with it. +For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared: he +hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood: +the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle +it."[400] When Nineveh was about to fall, and with it the Assyrian +Empire, the legendary king, Sardanapalus, who was reputed to have +founded Tarsus, burned himself, with his wives, concubines, and +eunuchs, on a pyre in his palace. Zimri, who reigned over Israel for +seven days, "burnt the king's house over him with fire"[401]. Saul, +another fallen king, was burned after death, and his bones were buried +"under the oak in Jabesh".[402] In Europe the oak was associated with +gods of fertility and lightning, including Jupiter and Thor. The +ceremony of burning Saul is of special interest. Asa, the orthodox +king of Judah, was, after death, "laid in the bed which was filled +with sweet odours and divers kinds of spices prepared by the +apothecaries' art: and they made a very great burning for him" (_2 +Chronicles_, xvi, 14). Jehoram, the heretic king of Judah, who "walked +in the way of the kings of Israel", died of "an incurable disease. And +his people made no burning for him like the burning of his fathers" +(_2 Chronicles_, xxi, 18, 19). + +The conclusion suggested by the comparative study of the beliefs of +neighbouring peoples, and the evidence afforded by Assyrian +sculptures, is that Ashur was a highly developed form of the god of +fertility, who was sustained, or aided in his conflicts with demons, +by the fires and sacrifices of his worshippers. + +It is possible to read too much into his symbols. These are not more +complicated and vague than are the symbols on the standing stones of +Scotland--the crescent with the "broken" arrow; the trident with the +double rings, or wheels, connected by two crescents; the circle with +the dot in its centre; the triangle with the dot; the large disk with +two small rings on either side crossed by double straight lines; the +so-called "mirror", and so on. Highly developed symbolism may not +indicate a process of spiritualization so much, perhaps, as the +persistence of magical beliefs and practices. There is really no +direct evidence to support the theory that the Assyrian winged disk, +or disk "with protruding rays", was of more spiritual character than +the wheel which encloses the feather-robed archer with his +trident-shaped arrow. + +The various symbols may have represented phases of the god. When the +spring fires were lit, and the god "renewed his life like the eagle", +his symbol was possibly the solar wheel or disk with eagle's wings, +which became regarded as a symbol of life. The god brought life and +light to the world; he caused the crops to grow; he gave increase; he +sustained his worshippers. But he was also the god who slew the demons +of darkness and storm. The Hittite winged disk was Sandes or Sandon, +the god of lightning, who stood on the back of a bull. As the +lightning god was a war god, it was in keeping with his character to +find him represented in Assyria as "Ashur the archer" with the bow and +lightning arrow. On the disk of the Assyrian standard the lion and the +bull appear with "the archer" as symbols of the war god Ashur, but +they were also symbols of Ashur the god of fertility. + +The life or spirit of the god was in the ring or wheel, as the life of +the Egyptian and Indian gods, and of the giants of folk tales, was in +"the egg". The "dot within the circle", a widespread symbol, may have +represented the seed within "the egg" of more than one mythology, or +the thorn within the egg of more than one legendary story. It may be +that in Assyria, as in India, the crude beliefs and symbols of the +masses were spiritualized by the speculative thinkers in the +priesthood, but no literary evidence has survived to justify us in +placing the Assyrian teachers on the same level as the Brahmans who +composed the Upanishads. + +Temples were erected to Ashur, but he might be worshipped anywhere, +like the Queen of Heaven, who received offerings in the streets of +Jerusalem, for "he needed no temple", as Professor Pinches says. +Whether this was because he was a highly developed deity or a product +of folk religion it is difficult to decide. One important fact is that +the ruling king of Assyria was more closely connected with the worship +of Ashur than the king of Babylonia was with the worship of Merodach. +This may be because the Assyrian king was regarded as an incarnation +of his god, like the Egyptian Pharaoh. Ashur accompanied the monarch +on his campaigns: he was their conquering war god. Where the king was, +there was Ashur also. No images were made of him, but his symbols were +carried aloft, as were the symbols of Indian gods in the great war of +the _Mahabharata_ epic. + +It would appear that Ashur was sometimes worshipped in the temples of +other gods. In an interesting inscription he is associated with the +moon god Nannar (Sin) of Haran. Esarhaddon, the Assyrian king, is +believed to have been crowned in that city. "The writer", says +Professor Pinches, "is apparently addressing Assur-bani-apli, 'the +great and noble Asnapper': + +"When the father of my king my lord went to Egypt, he was crowned (?) +in the _ganni_ of Harran, the temple (lit. 'Bethel') of cedar. The god +Sin remained over the (sacred) standard, two crowns upon his head, +(and) the god Nusku stood beside him. The father of the king my lord +entered, (and) he (the priest of Sin) placed (the crown?) upon his +head, (saying) thus: 'Thou shalt go and capture the lands in the +midst'. (He we)nt, he captured the land of Egypt. The rest of the +lands not submitting (?) to Assur (Ashur) and Sin, the king, the lord +of kings, shall capture (them)."[403] + +Ashur and Sin are here linked as equals. Associated with them is +Nusku, the messenger of the gods, who was given prominence in Assyria. +The kings frequently invoked him. As the son of Ea he acted as the +messenger between Merodach and the god of the deep. He was also a son +of Bel Enlil, and like Anu was guardian or chief of the Igigi, the +"host of heaven". Professor Pinches suggests that he may have been +either identical with the Sumerian fire god Gibil, or a brother of the +fire god, and an impersonation of the light of fire and sun. In Haran +he accompanied the moon god, and may, therefore, have symbolized the +light of the moon also. Professor Pinches adds that in one inscription +"he is identified with Nirig or En-reshtu" (Nin-Girsu = Tammuz).[404] +The Babylonians and Assyrians associated fire and light with moisture +and fertility. + +The astral phase of the character of Ashur is highly probable. As has +been indicated, the Greek rendering of Anshar as "Assoros", is +suggestive in this connection. Jastrow, however, points out that the +use of the characters Anshar for Ashur did not obtain until the eighth +century B.C. "Linguistically", he says, "the change of Ashir to Ashur +can be accounted for, but not the transformation of An-shar to Ashur +or Ashir; so that we must assume the 'etymology' of Ashur, proposed by +some learned scribe, to be the nature of a play upon the name."[405] +On the other hand, it is possible that what appears arbitrary to us +may have been justified in ancient Assyria on perfectly reasonable, or +at any rate traditional, grounds. Professor Pinches points out that as +a sun god, and "at the same time not Shamash", Ashur resembled +Merodach. "His identification with Merodach, if that was ever +accepted, may have been due to the likeness of the word to Asari, one +of the deities' names."[406] As Asari, Merodach has been compared to +the Egyptian Osiris, who, as the Nile god, was Asar-Hapi. Osiris +resembles Tammuz and was similarly a corn deity and a ruler of the +living and the dead, associated with sun, moon, stars, water, and +vegetation. We may consistently connect Ashur with Aushar, "water +field", Anshar, "god of the height", or "most high", and with the +eponymous King Asshur who went out on the land of Nimrod and "builded +Nineveh", if we regard him as of common origin with Tammuz, Osiris, +and Attis--a developed and localized form of the ancient deity of +fertility and corn. + +Ashur had a spouse who is referred to as Ashuritu, or Beltu, "the +lady". Her name, however, is not given, but it is possible that she +was identified with the Ishtar of Nineveh. In the historical texts +Ashur, as the royal god, stands alone. Like the Hittite Great Father, +he was perhaps regarded as the origin of life. Indeed, it may have +been due to the influence of the northern hillmen in the early +Assyrian period, that Ashur was developed as a father god--a Baal. +When the Hittite inscriptions are read, more light may be thrown on +the Ashur problem. Another possible source of cultural influence is +Persia. The supreme god Ahura-Mazda (Ormuzd) was, as has been +indicated, represented, like Ashur, hovering over the king's head, +enclosed in a winged disk or wheel, and the sacred tree figured in +Persian mythology. The early Assyrian kings had non-Semitic and +non-Sumerian names. It seems reasonable to assume that the religious +culture of the ethnic elements they represented must have contributed +to the development of the city god of Asshur. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +CONFLICTS FOR TRADE AND SUPREMACY + + + Modern Babylonia--History repeating itself--Babylonian Trade Route + in Mesopotamia--Egyptian Supremacy in Syria--Mitanni and + Babylonia--Bandits who plundered Caravans--Arabian Desert Trade + Route opened--Assyrian and Elamite Struggles with Babylonia--Rapid + Extension of Assyrian Empire--Hittites control Western Trade + Routes--Egypt's Nineteenth Dynasty Conquests--Campaigns of Rameses + II--Egyptians and Hittites become Allies--Babylonian Fears of + Assyria--Shalmaneser's Triumphs--Assyria Supreme in + Mesopotamia--Conquest of Babylonia--Fall of a Great King--Civil War + in Assyria--Its Empire goes to pieces--Babylonian Wars with + Elam--Revival of Babylonian Power--Invasions of Assyrians and + Elamites--End of the Kassite Dynasty--Babylonia contrasted with + Assyria. + + +It is possible that during the present century Babylonia may once +again become one of the great wheat-producing countries of the world. +A scheme of land reclamation has already been inaugurated by the +construction of a great dam to control the distribution of the waters +of the Euphrates, and, if it is energetically promoted on a generous +scale in the years to come, the ancient canals, which are used at +present as caravan roads, may yet be utilized to make the whole +country as fertile and prosperous as it was in ancient days. When that +happy consummation is reached, new cities may grow up and flourish +beside the ruins of the old centres of Babylonian culture. + +With the revival of agriculture will come the revival of commerce. +Ancient trade routes will then be reopened, and the slow-travelling +caravans supplanted by speedy trains. A beginning has already been +made in this direction. The first modern commercial highway which is +crossing the threshold of Babylonia's new Age is the German railway +through Asia Minor, North Syria, and Mesopotamia to Baghdad.[407] It +brings the land of Hammurabi into close touch with Europe, and will +solve problems which engaged the attention of many rival monarchs for +long centuries before the world knew aught of "the glory that was +Greece and the grandeur that was Rome". + +These sudden and dramatic changes are causing history to repeat +itself. Once again the great World Powers are evincing much concern +regarding their respective "spheres of influence" in Western Asia, and +pressing together around the ancient land of Babylon. On the east, +where the aggressive Elamites and Kassites were followed by the +triumphant Persians and Medes, Russia and Britain have asserted +themselves as protectors of Persian territory, and the influence of +Britain is supreme in the Persian Gulf. Turkey controls the land of +the Hittites, while Russia looms like a giant across the Armenian +highlands; Turkey is also the governing power in Syria and +Mesopotamia, which are being crossed by Germany's Baghdad railway. +France is constructing railways in Syria, and will control the ancient +"way of the Philistines". Britain occupies Cyprus on the Mediterranean +coast, and presides over the destinies of the ancient land of Egypt, +which, during the brilliant Eighteenth Dynasty, extended its sphere of +influence to the borders of Asia Minor. Once again, after the lapse of +many centuries, international politics is being strongly influenced by +the problems connected with the development of trade in Babylonia and +its vicinity. + +The history of the ancient rival States, which is being pieced +together by modern excavators, is, in view of present-day political +developments, invested with special interest to us. We have seen +Assyria rising into prominence. It began to be a great Power when +Egypt was supreme in the "Western Land" (the land of the Amorites) as +far north as the frontiers of Cappadocia. Under the Kassite regime +Babylonia's political influence had declined in Mesopotamia, but its +cultural influence remained, for its language and script continued in +use among traders and diplomatists. + +At the beginning of the Pharaoh Akhenaton period, the supreme power in +Mesopotamia was Mitanni. As the ally of Egypt it constituted a buffer +state on the borders of North Syria, which prevented the southern +expansion from Asia Minor of the Hittite confederacy and the western +expansion of aggressive Assyria, while it also held in check the +ambitions of Babylonia, which still claimed the "land of the +Amorites". So long as Mitanni was maintained as a powerful kingdom the +Syrian possessions of Egypt were easily held in control, and the +Egyptian merchants enjoyed preferential treatment compared with those +of Babylonia. But when Mitanni was overcome, and its territories were +divided between the Assyrians and the Hittites, the North Syrian +Empire of Egypt went to pieces. A great struggle then ensued between +the nations of western Asia for political supremacy in the "land of +the Amorites". + +Babylonia had been seriously handicapped by losing control of its +western caravan road. Prior to the Kassite period its influence was +supreme in Mesopotamia and middle Syria; from the days of Sargon of +Akkad and of Naram-Sin until the close of the Hammurabi Age its +merchants had naught to fear from bandits or petty kings between the +banks of the Euphrates and the Mediterranean coast. The city of +Babylon had grown rich and powerful as the commercial metropolis of +Western Asia. + +Separated from the Delta frontier by the broad and perilous wastes of +the Arabian desert, Babylonia traded with Egypt by an indirect route. +Its caravan road ran northward along the west bank of the Euphrates +towards Haran, and then southward through Palestine. This was a long +detour, but it was the only possible way. + +During the early Kassite Age the caravans from Babylon had to pass +through the area controlled by Mitanni, which was therefore able to +impose heavy duties and fill its coffers with Babylonian gold. Nor did +the situation improve when the influence of Mitanni suffered decline +in southern Mesopotamia. Indeed the difficulties under which traders +operated were then still further increased, for the caravan roads were +infested by plundering bands of "Suti", to whom references are made in +the Tell-el-Amarna letters. These bandits defied all the great powers, +and became so powerful that even the messengers sent from one king to +another were liable to be robbed and murdered without discrimination. +When war broke out between powerful States they harried live stock and +sacked towns in those areas which were left unprotected. + +The "Suti" were Arabians of Aramaean stock. What is known as the +"Third Semitic Migration" was in progress during this period. The +nomads gave trouble to Babylonia and Assyria, and, penetrating +Mesopotamia and Syria, sapped the power of Mitanni, until it was +unable to resist the onslaughts of the Assyrians and the Hittites. + +The Aramaean tribes are referred to, at various periods and by various +peoples, not only as the "Suti", but also as the "Achlame", the +"Arimi", and the "Khabiri". Ultimately they were designated simply as +"Syrians", and under that name became the hereditary enemies of the +Hebrews, although Jacob was regarded as being of their stock: "A +Syrian ready to perish", runs a Biblical reference, "was my father +(ancestor), and he went down into Egypt and sojourned there with a +few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous".[408] + +An heroic attempt was made by one of the Kassite kings of Babylonia to +afford protection to traders by stamping out brigandage between Arabia +and Mesopotamia, and opening up a new and direct caravan road to Egypt +across the Arabian desert. The monarch in question was +Kadashman-Kharbe, the grandson of Ashur-uballit of Assyria. As we have +seen, he combined forces with his distinguished and powerful kinsman, +and laid a heavy hand on the "Suti". Then he dug wells and erected a +chain of fortifications, like "block-houses", so that caravans might +come and go without interruption, and merchants be freed from the +imposts of petty kings whose territory they had to penetrate when +travelling by the Haran route. + +This bold scheme, however, was foredoomed to failure. It was shown +scant favour by the Babylonian Kassites. No record survives to +indicate the character of the agreement between Kadashman-Kharbe and +Ashur-uballit, but there can be little doubt that it involved the +abandonment by Babylonia of its historic claim upon Mesopotamia, or +part of it, and the recognition of an Assyrian sphere of influence in +that region. It was probably on account of his pronounced pro-Assyrian +tendencies that the Kassites murdered Kadashman-Kharbe, and set the +pretender, known as "the son of nobody", on the throne for a brief +period. + +Kadashman-Kharbe's immediate successors recognized in Assyria a +dangerous and unscrupulous rival, and resumed the struggle for the +possession of Mesopotamia. The trade route across the Arabian desert +had to be abandoned. Probably it required too great a force to keep it +open. Then almost every fresh conquest achieved by Assyria involved it +in war with Babylonia, which appears to have been ever waiting for a +suitable opportunity to cripple its northern rival. + +But Assyria was not the only power which Babylonia had to guard itself +against. On its eastern frontier Elam was also panting for expansion. +Its chief caravan roads ran from Susa through Assyria towards Asia +Minor, and through Babylonia towards the Phoenician coast. It was +probably because its commerce was hampered by the growth of Assyrian +power in the north, as Servia's commerce in our own day has been +hampered by Austria, that it cherished dreams of conquering Babylonia. +In fact, as Kassite influence suffered decline, one of the great +problems of international politics was whether Elam or Assyria would +enter into possession of the ancient lands of Sumer and Akkad. + +Ashur-uballit's vigorous policy of Assyrian expansion was continued, +as has been shown, by his son Bel-nirari. His grandson, Arik-den-ilu, +conducted several successful campaigns, and penetrated westward as far +as Haran, thus crossing the Babylonian caravan road. He captured great +herds of cattle and flocks of sheep, which were transported to Asshur, +and on one occasion carried away 250,000 prisoners. + +Meanwhile Babylonia waged war with Elam. It is related that +Khur-batila, King of Elam, sent a challenge to Kurigalzu III, a +descendant of Kadashman-Kharbe, saying: "Come hither; I will fight +with thee". The Babylonian monarch accepted the challenge, invaded the +territory of his rival, and won a great victory. Deserted by his +troops, the Elamite king was taken prisoner, and did not secure +release until he had ceded a portion of his territory and consented to +pay annual tribute to Babylonia. + +Flushed with his success, the Kassite king invaded Assyria when +Adad-nirari I died and his son Arik-den-ilu came to the throne. He +found, however, that the Assyrians were more powerful than the +Elamites, and suffered defeat. His son, Na'zi-mar-ut'tash[409], also +made an unsuccessful attempt to curb the growing power of the northern +Power. + +These recurring conflicts were intimately associated with the +Mesopotamian question. Assyria was gradually expanding westward and +shattering the dreams of the Babylonian statesmen and traders who +hoped to recover control of the caravan routes and restore the +prestige of their nation in the west. + +Like his father, Adad-nirari I of Assyria had attacked the Aramaean +"Suti" who were settling about Haran. He also acquired a further +portion of the ancient kingdom of Mitanni, with the result that he +exercised sway over part of northern Mesopotamia. After defeating +Na'zi-mar-ut'tash, he fixed the boundaries of the Assyrian and +Babylonian spheres of influence much to the advantage of his own +country. + +At home Adad-nirari conducted a vigorous policy. He developed the +resources of the city state of Asshur by constructing a great dam and +quay wall, while he contributed to the prosperity of the priesthood +and the growth of Assyrian culture by extending the temple of the god +Ashur. Ere he died, he assumed the proud title of "Shar Kishshate", +"king of the world", which was also used by his son Shalmaneser I. His +reign extended over a period of thirty years and terminated about 1300 +B.C. + +Soon after Shalmaneser came to the throne his country suffered greatly +from an earthquake, which threw down Ishtar's temple at Nineveh and +Ashur's temple at Asshur. Fire broke out in the latter building and +destroyed it completely. + +These disasters did not dismay the young monarch. Indeed, they appear +to have stimulated him to set out on a career of conquest, to secure +treasure and slaves, so as to carry out the work of reconstructing the +temples without delay. He became as great a builder, and as tireless a +campaigner as Thothmes III of Egypt, and under his guidance Assyria +became the most powerful nation in Western Asia. Ere he died his +armies were so greatly dreaded that the Egyptians and Assyrians drew +their long struggle for supremacy in Syria to a close, and formed an +alliance for mutual protection against their common enemy. + +It is necessary at this point to review briefly the history of +Palestine and north Syria after the period of Hittite expansion under +King Subbi-luliuma and the decline of Egyptian power under Akhenaton. +The western part of Mitanni and the most of northern Syria had been +colonized by the Hittites.[410] Farther south, their allies, the +Amorites, formed a buffer State on the borders of Egypt's limited +sphere of influence in southern Palestine, and of Babylonia's sphere +in southern Mesopotamia. Mitanni was governed by a subject king who +was expected to prevent the acquisition by Assyria of territory in the +north-west. + +Subbi-luliuma was succeeded on the Hittite throne by his son, King +Mursil, who was known to the Egyptians as "Meraser", or "Maurasar". +The greater part of this monarch's reign appears to have been peaceful +and prosperous. His allies protected his frontiers, and he was able to +devote himself to the work of consolidating his empire in Asia Minor +and North Syria. He erected a great palace at Boghaz Koei, and appears +to have had dreams of imitating the splendours of the royal Courts of +Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon. + +At this period the Hittite Empire was approaching the zenith of its +power. It controlled the caravan roads of Babylonia and Egypt, and its +rulers appear not only to have had intimate diplomatic relations with +both these countries, but even to have concerned themselves regarding +their internal affairs. When Rameses I came to the Egyptian throne, at +the beginning of the Nineteenth Dynasty, he sealed an agreement with +the Hittites, and at a later date the Hittite ambassador at Babylon, +who represented Hattusil II, the second son of King Mursil, actually +intervened in a dispute regarding the selection of a successor to the +throne. + +The closing years of King Mursil's reign were disturbed by the +military conquests of Egypt, which had renewed its strength under +Rameses I. Seti I, the son of Rameses I, and the third Pharaoh of the +powerful Nineteenth Dynasty, took advantage of the inactivity of the +Hittite ruler by invading southern Syria. He had first to grapple with +the Amorites, whom he successfully defeated. Then he pressed northward +as far as Tunip, and won a decisive victory over a Hittite army, which +secured to Egypt for a period the control of Palestine as far north as +Phoenicia. + +When Mursil died he was succeeded on the Hittite throne by his son +Mutallu, whom the Egyptians referred to as "Metella" or "Mautinel". He +was a vigorous and aggressive monarch, and appears to have lost no +time in compelling the Amorites to throw off their allegiance to Egypt +and recognize him as their overlord. As a result, when Rameses II +ascended the Egyptian throne he had to undertake the task of winning +back the Asiatic possessions of his father. + +The preliminary operations conducted by Rameses on the Palestinian +coast were attended with much success. Then, in his fifth year, he +marched northward with a great army, with purpose, it would appear, to +emulate the achievements of Thothmes III and win fame as a mighty +conqueror. But he underestimated the strength of his rival and +narrowly escaped disaster. Advancing impetuously, with but two of his +four divisions, he suddenly found himself surrounded by the army of +the wily Hittite, King Mutallu, in the vicinity of the city of Kadesh, +on the Orontes. His first division remained intact, but his second was +put to flight by an intervening force of the enemy. From this perilous +position Rameses extricated himself by leading a daring charge against +the Hittite lines on the river bank, which proved successful. Thrown +into confusion, his enemies sought refuge in the city, but the Pharaoh +refrained from attacking them there. + +Although Rameses boasted on his return home of having achieved a great +victory, there is nothing more certain than that this campaign proved +a dismal failure. He was unable to win back for Egypt the northern +territories which had acknowledged the suzerainty of Egypt during the +Eighteenth Dynasty. Subsequently he was kept fully engaged in +maintaining his prestige in northern Palestine and the vicinity of +Phoenicia. Then his Asiatic military operations, which extended +altogether over a period of about twenty years, were brought to a +close in a dramatic and unexpected manner. The Hittite king Mutallu +had died in battle, or by the hand of an assassin, and was succeeded +by his brother Hattusil II (Khetasar), who sealed a treaty of peace +with the great Rameses. + +An Egyptian copy of this interesting document can still be read on the +walls of a Theban temple, but it is lacking in certain details which +interest present-day historians. No reference, for instance, is made +to the boundaries of the Egyptian Empire in Syria, so that it is +impossible to estimate the degree of success which attended the +campaigns of Rameses. An interesting light, however, is thrown on the +purport of the treaty by a tablet letter which has been discovered by +Professor Hugo Winckler at Boghaz Koei. It is a copy of a communication +addressed by Hattusil II to the King of Babylonia, who had made an +enquiry regarding it. "I will inform my brother," wrote the Hittite +monarch; "the King of Egypt and I have made an alliance, and made +ourselves brothers. Brothers we are and will [unite against] a common +foe, and with friends in common."[411] The common foe could have been +no other than Assyria, and the Hittite king's letter appears to convey +a hint to Kadashman-turgu of Babylon that he should make common cause +with Rameses II and Hattusil. + +Shalmaneser I of Assyria was pursuing a determined policy of western +and northern expansion. He struck boldly at the eastern Hittite States +and conquered Malatia, where he secured great treasure for the god +Ashur. He even founded colonies within the Hittite sphere of influence +on the borders of Armenia. Shalmaneser's second campaign was conducted +against the portion of ancient Mitanni which was under Hittite +control. The vassal king, Sattuari, apparently a descendant of +Tushratta's, endeavoured to resist the Assyrians with the aid of +Hittites and Aramaeans, but his army of allies was put to flight. The +victorious Shalmaneser was afterwards able to penetrate as far +westward as Carchemish on the Euphrates. + +Having thus secured the whole of Mitanni, the Assyrian conqueror +attacked the Aramaean hordes which were keeping the territory round +Haran in a continuous state of unrest, and forced them to recognize +him as their overlord. + +Shalmaneser thus, it would appear, gained control of northern +Mesopotamia and consequently of the Babylonian caravan route to Haran. +As a result Hittite prestige must have suffered decline in Babylon. +For a generation the Hittites had had the Babylonian merchants at +their mercy, and apparently compelled them to pay heavy duties. +Winckler has found among the Boghaz Koei tablets several letters from +the king of Babylon, who made complaints regarding robberies committed +by Amoritic bandits, and requested that they should be punished and +kept in control. Such a communication is a clear indication that he +was entitled, in lieu of payment, to have an existing agreement +fulfilled. + +Shalmaneser found that Asshur, the ancient capital, was unsuitable for +the administration of his extended empire, so he built a great city at +Kalkhi (Nimrud), the Biblical Calah, which was strategically situated +amidst fertile meadows on the angle of land formed by the Tigris and +the Upper Zab. Thither to a new palace he transferred his brilliant +Court. + +He was succeeded by his son, Tukulti-Ninip I, who was the most +powerful of the Assyrian monarchs of the Old Empire. He made great +conquests in the north and east, extended and strengthened Assyrian +influence in Mesopotamia, and penetrated into Hittite territory, +bringing into subjection no fewer than forty kings, whom he compelled +to pay annual tribute. It was inevitable that he should be drawn into +conflict with the Babylonian king, who was plotting with the Hittites +against him. One of the tablet letters found by Winckler at Boghaz Koei +is of special interest in this connection. Hattusil advises the young +monarch of Babylonia to "go and plunder the land of the foe". +Apparently he sought to be freed from the harassing attention of the +Assyrian conqueror by prevailing on his Babylonian royal friend to act +as a "cat's paw". + +It is uncertain whether or not Kashtiliash II of Babylonia invaded +Assyria with purpose to cripple his rival. At any rate war broke out +between the two countries, and Tukulti-Ninip proved irresistible in +battle. He marched into Babylonia, and not only defeated Kashtiliash, +but captured him and carried him off to Asshur, where he was presented +in chains to the god Ashur. + +The city of Babylon was captured, its wall was demolished, and many of +its inhabitants were put to the sword. Tukulti-Ninip was evidently +waging a war of conquest, for he pillaged E-sagila, "the temple of the +high head", and removed the golden statue of the god Merodach to +Assyria, where it remained for about sixteen years. He subdued the +whole of Babylonia as far south as the Persian Gulf, and ruled it +through viceroys. + +Tukulti-Ninip, however, was not a popular emperor even in his own +country. He offended national susceptibilities by showing preference +for Babylonia, and founding a new city which has not been located. +There he built a great palace and a temple for Ashur and his pantheon. +He called the city after himself, Kar-Tukulti-Ninip[412]. + +Seven years after the conquest of Babylonia revolts broke out against +the emperor in Assyria and Babylonia, and he was murdered in his +palace, which had been besieged and captured by an army headed by his +own son, Ashur-natsir-pal I, who succeeded him. The Babylonian nobles +meantime drove the Assyrian garrisons from their cities, and set on +the throne the Kassite prince Adad-shum-utsur. + +Thus in a brief space went to pieces the old Assyrian Empire, which, +at the close of Tukulti-Ninip's thirty years' reign, embraced the +whole Tigro-Euphrates valley from the borders of Armenia to the +Persian Gulf. An obscure century followed, during which Assyria was +raided by its enemies and broken up into petty States. + +The Elamites were not slow to take advantage of the state of anarchy +which prevailed in Babylonia during the closing years of Assyrian +rule. They overran a part of ancient Sumer, and captured Nippur, where +they slew a large number of inhabitants and captured many prisoners. +On a subsequent occasion they pillaged Isin. When, however, the +Babylonian king had cleared his country of the Assyrians, he attacked +the Elamites and drove them across the frontier. + +Nothing is known regarding the reign of the parricide Ashur-natsir-pal +I of Assyria. He was succeeded by Ninip-Tukulti-Ashur and +Adad-shum-lishir, who either reigned concurrently or were father and +son. After a brief period these were displaced by another two rulers, +Ashur-nirari III and Nabu-dan. + +It is not clear why Ninip-Tukulti-Ashur was deposed. Perhaps he was an +ally of Adad-shum-utsur, the Babylonian king, and was unpopular on +that account. He journeyed to Babylon on one occasion, carrying with +him the statue of Merodach, but did not return. Perhaps he fled from +the rebels. At any rate Adad-shum-utsur was asked to send him back, by +an Assyrian dignitary who was probably Ashur-nirari III. The king of +Babylon refused this request, nor would he give official recognition +to the new ruler or rulers. + +Soon afterwards another usurper, Bel-kudur-utsur, led an Assyrian army +against the Babylonians, but was slain in battle. He was succeeded by +Ninip-apil-esharia, who led his forces back to Asshur, followed by +Adad-shum-utsur. The city was besieged but not captured by the +Babylonian army. + +Under Adad-shum-utsur, who reigned for thirty years, Babylonia +recovered much of its ancient splendour. It held Elam in check and +laid a heavy hand on Assyria, which had been paralysed by civil war. +Once again it possessed Mesopotamia and controlled its caravan road to +Haran and Phoenicia, and apparently its relations with the Hittites +and Syrians were of a cordial character. The next king, Meli-shipak, +assumed the Assyrian title "Shar Kishshati", "king of the world", and +had a prosperous reign of fifteen years. He was succeeded by +Marduk-aplu-iddin I, who presided over the destinies of Babylonia for +about thirteen years. Thereafter the glory of the Kassite Dynasty +passed away. King Zamama-shum-iddin followed with a twelvemonth's +reign, during which his kingdom was successfully invaded from the +north by the Assyrians under King Ashur-dan I, and from the east by +the Elamites under a king whose name has not been traced. Several +towns were captured and pillaged, and rich booty was carried off to +Asshur and Susa. + +Bel-shum-iddin succeeded Zamama-shum-iddin, but three years afterwards +he was deposed by a king of Isin. So ended the Kassite Dynasty of +Babylonia, which had endured for a period of 576 years and nine +months. + +Babylonia was called Karduniash during the Kassite Dynasty. This name +was originally applied to the district at the river mouths, where the +alien rulers appear to have first achieved ascendancy. Apparently they +were strongly supported by the non-Semitic elements in the population, +and represented a popular revolt against the political supremacy of +the city of Babylon and its god Merodach. It is significant to find in +this connection that the early Kassite kings showed a preference for +Nippur as their capital and promoted the worship of Enlil, the elder +Bel, who was probably identified with their own god of fertility and +battle. Their sun god, Sachi, appears to have been merged in Shamash. +In time, however, the kings followed the example of Hammurabi by +exalting Merodach. + +The Kassite language added to the "Babel of tongues" among the common +people, but was never used in inscriptions. At an early period the +alien rulers became thoroughly Babylonianized, and as they held sway +for nearly six centuries it cannot be assumed that they were +unpopular. They allowed their mountain homeland, or earliest area of +settlement in the east, to be seized and governed by Assyria, and +probably maintained as slight a connection with it after settlement in +Babylonia as did the Saxons of England with their Continental area of +origin. + +Although Babylonia was not so great a world power under the Kassites +as it had been during the Hammurabi Dynasty, it prospered greatly as +an industrial, agricultural, and trading country. The Babylonian +language was used throughout western Asia as the language of diplomacy +and commerce, and the city of Babylon was the most important +commercial metropolis of the ancient world. Its merchants traded +directly and indirectly with far-distant countries. They imported +cobalt--which was used for colouring glass a vivid blue--from China, +and may have occasionally met Chinese traders who came westward with +their caravans, while a brisk trade in marble and limestone was +conducted with and through Elam. Egypt was the chief source of the +gold supply, which was obtained from the Nubian mines; and in exchange +for this precious metal the Babylonians supplied the Nilotic merchants +with lapis-lazuli from Bactria, enamel, and their own wonderful +coloured glass, which was not unlike the later Venetian, as well as +chariots and horses. The Kassites were great horse breeders, and the +battle steeds from the Babylonian province of Namar were everywhere in +great demand. They also promoted the cattle trade. Cattle rearing was +confined chiefly to the marshy districts at the head of the Persian +Gulf, and the extensive steppes on the borders of the Arabian desert, +so well known to Abraham and his ancestors, which provided excellent +grazing. Agriculture also flourished; as in Egypt it constituted the +basis of national and commercial prosperity. + +It is evident that great wealth accumulated in Karduniash during the +Kassite period. When the images of Merodach and Zerpanitu^m were taken +back to Babylon, from Assyria, they were clad, as has been recorded, +in garments embroidered with gold and sparkling with gems, while +E-sagila was redecorated on a lavish scale with priceless works of +art. + +Assyria presented a sharp contrast to Babylonia, the mother land, from +which its culture was derived. As a separate kingdom it had to develop +along different lines. In fact, it was unable to exist as a world +power without the enforced co-operation of neighbouring States. +Babylonia, on the other hand, could have flourished in comparative +isolation, like Egypt during the Old Kingdom period, because it was +able to feed itself and maintain a large population so long as its +rich alluvial plain was irrigated during its dry season, which +extended over about eight months in the year. + +The region north of Baghdad was of different geographical formation to +the southern plain, and therefore less suitable for the birth and +growth of a great independent civilization. Assyria embraced a chalk +plateau of the later Mesozoic period, with tertiary deposits, and had +an extremely limited area suitable for agricultural pursuits. Its +original inhabitants were nomadic pastoral and hunting tribes, and +there appears to be little doubt that agriculture was introduced along +the banks of the Tigris by colonists from Babylonia, who formed city +States which owed allegiance to the kings of Sumer and Akkad. + +After the Hammurabi period Assyria rose into prominence as a predatory +power, which depended for its stability upon those productive +countries which it was able to conquer and hold in sway. It never had +a numerous peasantry, and such as it had ultimately vanished, for the +kings pursued the short-sighted policy of colonizing districts on the +borders of their empire with their loyal subjects, and settling aliens +in the heart of the homeland, where they were controlled by the +military. In this manner they built up an artificial empire, which +suffered at critical periods in its history because it lacked the +great driving and sustaining force of a population welded together by +immemorial native traditions and the love of country which is the +essence of true patriotism. National sentiment was chiefly confined to +the military aristocracy and the priests; the enslaved and uncultured +masses of aliens were concerned mainly with their daily duties, and no +doubt included communities, like the Israelites in captivity, who +longed to return to their native lands. + +Assyria had to maintain a standing army, which grew from an alliance +of brigands who first enslaved the native population, and ultimately +extended their sway over neighbouring States. The successes of the +army made Assyria powerful. Conquering kings accumulated rich booty by +pillaging alien cities, and grew more and more wealthy as they were +able to impose annual tribute on those States which came under their +sway. They even regarded Babylonia with avaricious eyes. It was to +achieve the conquest of the fertile and prosperous mother State that +the early Assyrian emperors conducted military operations in the +north-west and laid hands on Mesopotamia. There was no surer way of +strangling it than by securing control of its trade routes. What the +command of the sea is to Great Britain at the present day, the command +of the caravan roads was to ancient Babylonia. + +Babylonia suffered less than Assyria by defeat in battle; its natural +resources gave it great recuperative powers, and the native population +was ever so intensely patriotic that centuries of alien sway could not +obliterate their national aspirations. A conqueror of Babylon had to +become a Babylonian. The Amorites and Kassites had in turn to adopt +the modes of life and modes of thought of the native population. Like +the Egyptians, the Babylonians ever achieved the intellectual conquest +of their conquerors. + +The Assyrian Empire, on the other hand, collapsed like a house of +cards when its army of mercenaries suffered a succession of disasters. +The kings, as we have indicated, depended on the tribute of subject +States to pay their soldiers and maintain the priesthood; they were +faced with national bankruptcy when their vassals successfully +revolted against them. + +The history of Assyria as a world power is divided into three periods: +(1) the Old Empire; (2) the Middle Empire; (3) the New or Last Empire. + +We have followed the rise and growth of the Old Empire from the days +of Ashur-uballit until the reign of Tukulti-Ninip, when it flourished +in great splendour and suddenly went to pieces. Thereafter, until the +second period of the Old Empire, Assyria comprised but a few city +States which had agricultural resources and were trading centres. Of +these the most enterprising was Asshur. When a ruler of Asshur was +able, by conserving his revenues, to command sufficient capital with +purpose to raise a strong army of mercenaries as a business +speculation, he set forth to build up a new empire on the ruins of the +old. In its early stages, of course, this process was slow and +difficult. It necessitated the adoption of a military career by native +Assyrians, who officered the troops, and these troops had to be +trained and disciplined by engaging in brigandage, which also brought +them rich rewards for their services. Babylonia became powerful by +developing the arts of peace; Assyria became powerful by developing +the science of warfare. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +RACE MOVEMENTS THAT SHATTERED EMPIRES + + + The Third Semitic Migration--Achaean Conquest of Greece--Fall of + Crete--Tribes of Raiders--European Settlers in Asia Minor--The Muski + overthrow the Hittites--Sea Raids on Egypt--The Homeric + Age--Israelites and Philistines in Palestine--Culture of + Philistines--Nebuchadrezzar I of Babylonia--Wars against Elamites + and Hittites--Conquests in Mesopotamia and Syria--Assyrians and + Babylonians at War--Tiglath-pileser I of Assyria--His Sweeping + Conquests--Muski Power broken--Big-game Hunting in + Mesopotamia--Slaying of a Sea Monster--Decline of Assyria and + Babylonia--Revival of Hittite Civilization--An Important Period in + History--Philistines as Overlords of Hebrews--Kingdom of David and + Saul--Solomon's Relations with Egypt and Phoenicia--Sea Trade with + India--Aramaean Conquests--The Chaldaeans--Egyptian King plunders + Judah and Israel--Historical Importance of Race Movements. + + +Great changes were taking place in the ancient world during the +period in which Assyria rose into prominence and suddenly suffered +decline. These were primarily due to widespread migrations of pastoral +peoples from the steppe lands of Asia and Europe, and the resulting +displacement of settled tribes. The military operations of the great +Powers were also a disturbing factor, for they not only propelled +fresh movements beyond their spheres of influence, but caused the +petty States to combine against a common enemy and foster ambitions to +achieve conquests on a large scale. + +Towards the close of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, of which +Amenhotep III and Akhenaton were the last great kings, two +well-defined migrations were in progress. The Aramaean folk-waves had +already begun to pour in increasing volume into Syria from Arabia, and +in Europe the pastoral fighting folk from the mountains were +establishing themselves along the south-eastern coast and crossing the +Hellespont to overrun the land of the Hittites. These race movements +were destined to exercise considerable influence in shaping the +history of the ancient world. + +The Aramaean, or Third Semitic migration, in time swamped various +decaying States. Despite the successive efforts of the great Powers to +hold it in check, it ultimately submerged the whole of Syria and part +of Mesopotamia. Aramaean speech then came into common use among the +mingled peoples over a wide area, and was not displaced until the time +of the Fourth Semitic or Moslem migration from Arabia, which began in +the seventh century of the Christian era, and swept northward through +Syria to Asia Minor, eastward across Mesopotamia into Persia and +India, and westward through Egypt along the north African coast to +Morocco, and then into Spain. + +When Syria was sustaining the first shocks of Aramaean invasion, the +last wave of Achaeans, "the tamers of horses" and "shepherds of the +people", had achieved the conquest of Greece, and contributed to the +overthrow of the dynasty of King Minos of Crete. Professor Ridgeway +identifies this stock, which had been filtering southward for several +centuries, with the tall, fair-haired, and grey-eyed "Keltoi" +(Celts),[413] who, Dr. Haddon believes, were representatives of "the +mixed peoples of northern and Alpine descent".[414] Mr. Hawes, +following Professor Sergi, holds, on the other hand, that the Achaeans +were "fair in comparison with the native (Pelasgian-Mediterranean) +stock, but not necessarily blonde".[415] The earliest Achaeans were +rude, uncultured barbarians, but the last wave came from some unknown +centre of civilization, and probably used iron as well as bronze +weapons. + +The old Cretans were known to the Egyptians as the "Keftiu", and +traded on the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. It is significant to +find, however, that no mention is made of them in the inscriptions of +the Pharaohs after the reign of Amenhotep III. In their place appear +the Shardana, the Mykenaean people who gave their name to Sardinia, +the Danauna, believed to be identical with the Danaoi of Homer, the +Akhaivasha, perhaps the Achaeans, and the Tursha and Shakalsha, who +may have been of the same stock as the piratical Lycians. + +When Rameses II fought his famous battle at Kadesh the Hittite king +included among his allies the Aramaeans from Arabia, and other +mercenaries like the Dardanui and Masa, who represented the +Thraco-Phrygian peoples who had overrun the Balkans, occupied Thrace +and Macedonia, and crossed into Asia Minor. In time the Hittite +confederacy was broken up by the migrating Europeans, and their +dominant tribe, the Muski[416]--the Moschoi of the Greeks and the +Meshech of the Old Testament--came into conflict with the Assyrians. +The Muski were forerunners of the Phrygians, and were probably of +allied stock. + +Pharaoh Meneptah, the son of Rameses II, did not benefit much by the +alliance with the Hittites, to whom he had to send a supply of grain +during a time of famine. He found it necessary, indeed, to invade +Syria, where their influence had declined, and had to beat back from +the Delta region the piratical invaders of the same tribes as were +securing a footing in Asia Minor. In Syria, Meneptah fought with the +Israelites, who apparently had begun their conquest of Canaan during +his reign. + +Before the Kassite Dynasty had come to an end, Rameses III of Egypt +(1198-1167 B.C.) freed his country from the perils of a great invasion +of Europeans by land and sea. He scattered a fleet on the Delta coast, +and then arrested the progress of a strong force which was pressing +southward through Phoenicia towards the Egyptian frontier. These +events occurred at the beginning of the Homeric Age, and were followed +by the siege of Troy, which, according to the Greeks, began about 1194 +B.C. + +The land raiders who were thwarted by Rameses III were the +Philistines, a people from Crete.[417] When the prestige of Egypt +suffered decline they overran the coastline of Canaan, and that +country was then called Palestine, "the land of the Philistines", +while the Egyptian overland trade route to Phoenicia became known as +"the way of the Philistines". Their conflicts with the Hebrews are +familiar to readers of the Old Testament. "The only contributions the +Hebrews made to the culture of the country", writes Professor +Macalister, "were their simple desert customs and their religious +organization. On the other hand, the Philistines, sprung from one of +the great homes of art of the ancient world, had brought with them the +artistic instincts of their race: decayed no doubt, but still superior +to anything they met with in the land itself. Tombs to be ascribed to +them, found in Gezer, contained beautiful jewellery and ornaments. The +Philistines, in fact, were the only cultured or artistic race who ever +occupied the soil of Palestine, at least until the time when the +influence of classical Greece asserted itself too strongly to be +withstood. Whatsoever things raised life in the country above the dull +animal existence of fellahin were due to this people.... The peasantry +of the modern villages ... still tell of the great days of old when it +(Palestine) was inhabited by the mighty race of the 'Fenish'."[418] + +When the Kassite Dynasty of Babylonia was extinguished, about 1140 +B.C., the Amorites were being displaced in Palestine by the +Philistines and the Israelitish tribes; the Aramaeans were extending +their conquests in Syria and Mesopotamia; the Muski were the overlords +of the Hittites; Assyrian power was being revived at the beginning of +the second period of the Old Empire; and Egypt was governed by a +weakly king, Rameses VIII, a puppet in the hands of the priesthood, +who was unable to protect the rich tombs of the Eighteenth Dynasty +Pharaohs against the bands of professional robbers who were plundering +them. + +A new dynasty--the Dynasty of Pashe--had arisen at the ancient +Sumerian city of Isin. Its early kings were contemporary with some of +the last Kassite monarchs, and they engaged in conflicts with the +Elamites, who were encroaching steadily upon Babylonian territory, and +were ultimately able to seize the province of Namar, famous for its +horses, which was situated to the east of Akkad. The Assyrians, under +Ashur-dan I, were not only reconquering lost territory, but invading +Babylonia and carrying off rich plunder. Ashur-dan inflicted a +crushing defeat upon the second-last Kassite ruler. + +There years later Nebuchadrezzar I, of the Dynasty of Pashe, seized +the Babylonian throne. He was the most powerful and distinguished +monarch of his line--an accomplished general and a wise statesman. His +name signifies: "May the god Nebo protect my boundary". His first duty +was to drive the Elamites from the land, and win back from them the +statue of Merodach which they had carried off from E-sagila. At first +he suffered a reverse, but although the season was midsummer, and the +heat overpowering, he persisted in his campaign. The Elamites were +forced to retreat, and following up their main force he inflicted upon +them a shattering defeat on the banks of the Ula, a tributary of the +Tigris. He then invaded Elam and returned with rich booty. The +province of Namar was recovered, and its governor, Ritti Merodach, who +was Nebuchadrezzar's battle companion, was restored to his family +possessions and exempted from taxation. A second raid to Elam resulted +in the recovery of the statue of Merodach. The Kassite and Lullume +mountaineers also received attention, and were taught to respect the +power of the new monarch. + +Having freed his country from the yoke of the Elamites, and driven the +Assyrians over the frontier, Nebuchadrezzar came into conflict with +the Hittites, who appear to have overrun Mesopotamia. Probably the +invaders were operating in conjunction with the Muski, who were +extending their sway over part of northern Assyria. They were not +content with securing control of the trade route, but endeavoured also +to establish themselves permanently in Babylon, the commercial +metropolis, which they besieged and captured. This happened in the +third year of Nebuchadrezzar, when he was still reigning at Isin. +Assembling a strong force, he hastened northward and defeated the +Hittites, and apparently followed up his victory. Probably it was at +this time that he conquered the "West Land" (the land of the Amorites) +and penetrated to the Mediterranean coast. Egyptian power had been +long extinguished in that region. + +The possession of Mesopotamia was a signal triumph for Babylonia. As +was inevitable, however, it brought Nebuchadrezzar into conflict some +years later with the Assyrian king, Ashur-resh-ishi I, grandson of +Ashur-dan, and father of the famous Tiglath-pileser I. The northern +monarch had engaged himself in subduing the Lullume and Akhlami hill +tribes in the south-east, whose territory had been conquered by +Nebuchadrezzar. Thereafter he crossed the Babylonian frontier. +Nebuchadrezzar drove him back and then laid siege to the border +fortress of Zanki, but the Assyrian king conducted a sudden and +successful reconnaissance in force which rendered perilous the +position of the attacking force. By setting fire to his siege train +the Babylonian war lord was able, however, to retreat in good order. + +Some time later Nebuchadrezzar dispatched another army northward, but +it suffered a serious defeat, and its general, Karashtu, fell into the +hands of the enemy. + +Nebuchadrezzar reigned less than twenty years, and appears to have +secured the allegiance of the nobility by restoring the feudal system +which had been abolished by the Kassites. He boasted that he was "the +sun of his country, who restored ancient landmarks and boundaries", +and promoted the worship of Ishtar, the ancient goddess of the people. +By restoring the image of Merodach he secured the support of Babylon, +to which city he transferred his Court. + +Nebuchadrezzar was succeeded by his son Ellil-nadin-apil, who reigned +a few years; but little or nothing is known regarding him. His +grandson, Marduk-nadin-akhe, came into conflict with Tiglath-pileser I +of Assyria, and suffered serious reverses, from the effects of which +his country did not recover for over a century. + +Tiglath-pileser I, in one of his inscriptions, recorded significantly: +"The feet of the enemy I kept from my country". When he came to the +throne, northern Assyria was menaced by the Muski and their allies, +the Hittites and the Shubari of old Mitanni. The Kashiari hill tribes +to the north of Nineveh, whom Shalmaneser I subdued, had half a +century before thrown off the yoke of Assyria, and their kings were +apparently vassals of the Muski. + +Tiglath-pileser first invaded Mitanni, where he routed a combined +force of Shubari hillmen and Hittites. Thereafter a great army of the +Muski and their allies pressed southward with purpose to deal a +shattering blow against the Assyrian power. The very existence of +Assyria as a separate power was threatened by this movement. +Tiglath-pileser, however, was equal to the occasion. He surprised the +invaders among the Kashiari mountains and inflicted a crushing defeat, +slaying about 14,000 and capturing 6000 prisoners, who were +transported to Asshur. In fact, he wiped the invading army out of +existence and possessed himself of all its baggage. Thereafter he +captured several cities, and extended his empire beyond the Kashiari +hills and into the heart of Mitanni. + +His second campaign was also directed towards the Mitanni district, +which had been invaded during his absence by a force of Hittites, +about 4000 strong. The invaders submitted to him as soon as he drew +near, and he added them to his standing army. + +Subsequent operations towards the north restored the pre-eminence of +Assyria in the Nairi country, on the shores of Lake Van, in Armenia, +where Tiglath-pileser captured no fewer than twenty-three petty kings. +These he liberated after they had taken the oath of allegiance and +consented to pay annual tribute. + +In his fourth year the conqueror learned that the Aramaeans were +crossing the Euphrates and possessing themselves of Mitanni, which he +had cleared of the Hittites. By a series of forced marches he caught +them unawares, scattered them in confusion, and entered Carchemish, +which he pillaged. Thereafter his army crossed the Euphrates in boats +of skin, and plundered and destroyed six cities round the base of the +mountain of Bishru. + +While operating in this district, Tiglath-pileser engaged in big-game +hunting. He recorded: "Ten powerful bull elephants in the land of +Haran and on the banks of the Khabour I killed; four elephants alive I +took. Their skins, their teeth, with the living elephants, I brought +to my city of Asshur."[419] He also claimed to have slain 920 lions, +as well as a number of wild oxen, apparently including in his record +the "bags" of his officers and men. A later king credited him with +having penetrated to the Phoenician coast, where he put to sea and +slew a sea monster called the "nakhiru". While at Arvad, the narrative +continues, the King of Egypt, who is not named, sent him a +hippopotamus (pagutu). This story, however, is of doubtful +authenticity. About this time the prestige of Egypt was at so low an +ebb that its messengers were subjected to indignities by the +Phoenician kings. + +The conquests of Tiglath-pileser once more raised the Mesopotamian +question in Babylonia, whose sphere of influence in that region had +been invaded. Marduk-nadin-akhe, the grandson of Nebuchadrezzar I, +"arrayed his chariots" against Tiglath-pileser, and in the first +conflict achieved some success, but subsequently he was defeated in +the land of Akkad. The Assyrian army afterwards captured several +cities, including Babylon and Sippar. + +Thus once again the Assyrian Empire came into being as the predominant +world Power, extending from the land of the Hittites into the heart of +Babylonia. Its cities were enriched by the immense quantities of booty +captured by its warrior king, while the coffers of state were glutted +with the tribute of subject States. Fortifications were renewed, +temples were built, and great gifts were lavished on the priesthood. +Artists and artisans were kept fully employed restoring the faded +splendours of the Old Empire, and everywhere thousands of slaves +laboured to make the neglected land prosperous as of old. Canals were +repaired and reopened; the earthworks and quay wall of Ashur were +strengthened, and its great wall was entirely rebuilt, faced with a +rampart of earth, and protected once again by a deep moat. The royal +palace was enlarged and redecorated. + +Meanwhile Babylonia was wasted by civil war and invasions. It was +entered more than once by the Aramaeans, who pillaged several cities +in the north and the south. Then the throne was seized by +Adad-aplu-iddina, the grandson of "a nobody", who reigned for about +ten years. He was given recognition, however, by the Assyrian king, +Ashur-bel-kala, son of Tiglath-pileser I, who married his daughter, +and apparently restored to him Sippar and Babylon after receiving a +handsome dowry. Ashur-bel-kala died without issue, and was succeeded +by his brother, Shamshi-Adad. + +An obscure period followed. In Babylonia there were two weak dynasties +in less than half a century, and thereafter an Elamite Dynasty which +lasted about six years. An Eighth Dynasty ensued, and lasted between +fifty and sixty years. The records of its early kings are exceedingly +meagre and their order uncertain. During the reign of Nabu-mukin-apli, +who was perhaps the fourth monarch, the Aramaeans constantly raided +the land and hovered about Babylon. The names of two or three kings +who succeeded Nabu-mukin-apli are unknown. + +A century and a half after Tiglath-pileser I conquered the north +Syrian possessions of the Hittites, the Old Assyrian Empire reached +the close of its second and last period. It had suffered gradual +decline, under a series of inert and luxury-loving kings, until it was +unable to withstand the gradual encroachment on every side of the +restless hill tribes, who were ever ready to revolt when the authority +of Ashur was not asserted at the point of the sword. + +After 950 B.C. the Hittites of North Syria, having shaken off the last +semblance of Assyrian authority, revived their power, and enjoyed a +full century of independence and prosperity. In Cappadocia their +kinsmen had freed themselves at an earlier period from the yoke of the +Muski, who had suffered so severely at the hands of Tiglath-pileser I. +The Hittite buildings and rock sculptures of this period testify to +the enduring character of the ancient civilization of the "Hatti". +Until the hieroglyphics can be read, however, we must wait patiently +for the detailed story of the pre-Phrygian period, which was of great +historical importance, because the tide of cultural influence was then +flowing at its greatest volume from the old to the new world, where +Greece was emerging in virgin splendour out of the ruins of the +ancient Mykenaean and Cretan civilizations. + +It is possible that the conquest of a considerable part of Palestine +by the Philistines was not unconnected with the revival of Hittite +power in the north. They may have moved southward as the allies of the +Cilician State which was rising into prominence. For a period they +were the overlords of the Hebrews, who had been displacing the older +inhabitants of the "Promised Land", and appear to have been armed with +weapons of iron. In fact, as is indicated by a passage in the Book of +Samuel, they had made a "corner" in that metal and restricted its use +among their vassals. "Now", the Biblical narrative sets forth, "there +was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel; for the +Philistines said, Lest the Hebrews make them swords and spears; but +all the Israelites went down to the Philistines, to sharpen every man +his share, and his coulter, and his axe, and his mattock".[420] "We +are inclined", says Professor Macalister, "to picture the West as a +thing of yesterday, new fangled with its inventions and its +progressive civilization, and the East as an embodiment of hoary and +unchanging traditions. But when West first met East on the shores of +the Holy Land, it was the former which represented the magnificent +traditions of the past, and the latter which looked forward to the +future. The Philistines were of the remnant of the dying glories of +Crete; the Hebrews had no past to speak of, but were entering on the +heritage they regarded as theirs, by right of a recently ratified +divine covenant."[421] + +Saul was the leader of a revolt against the Philistines in northern +Palestine, and became the ruler of the kingdom of Israel. Then David, +having liberated Judah from the yoke of the Philistines, succeeded +Saul as ruler of Israel, and selected Jerusalem as his capital. He +also conquered Edom and Moab, but was unsuccessful in his attempt to +subjugate Ammon. The Philistines were then confined to a restricted +area on the seacoast, where they fused with the Semites and ultimately +suffered loss of identity. Under the famous Solomon the united kingdom +of the Hebrews reached its highest splendour and importance among the +nations. + +If the Philistines received the support of the Hittites, the Hebrews +were strengthened by an alliance with Egypt. For a period of two and a +half centuries no Egyptian army had crossed the Delta frontier into +Syria. The ancient land of the Pharaohs had been overshadowed meantime +by a cloud of anarchy, and piratical and robber bands settled freely +on its coast line. At length a Libyan general named Sheshonk (Shishak) +seized the throne from the Tanite Dynasty. He was the Pharaoh with +whom Solomon "made affinity",[422] and from whom he received the city +of Gezer, which an Egyptian army had captured.[423] Solomon had +previously married a daughter of Sheshonk's. + +Phoenicia was also flourishing. Freed from Egyptian, Hittite, and +Assyrian interference, Tyre and Sidon attained to a high degree of +power as independent city States. During the reigns of David and +Solomon, Tyre was the predominant Phoenician power. Its kings, Abibaal +and his son Hiram, had become "Kings of the Sidonians", and are +believed to have extended their sway over part of Cyprus. The +relations between the Hebrews and the Phoenicians were of a cordial +character, indeed the two powers became allies. + + And Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants unto Solomon; for he had + heard that they had anointed him king in the room of his father: + for Hiram was ever a lover of David. And Solomon sent to Hiram, + saying, Thou knowest how that David my father could not build an + house unto the name of the Lord His God for the wars which were + about him on every side, until the Lord put them under the soles + of his feet. But now the Lord my God hath given me rest on every + side, so that there is neither adversary nor evil occurrent. And, + behold, I purpose to build an house unto the name of the Lord my + God, as the Lord spake unto David my father, saying, Thy son, whom + I will set upon thy throne in thy room, he shall build an house + unto my name. Now therefore command thou that they hew me cedar + trees out of Lebanon; and my servants shall be with thy servants: + and unto thee will I give hire for thy servants according to all + that thou shalt appoint: for thou knowest that there is not among + us any that can skill to hew timber like unto the Sidonians. And + it came to pass, when Hiram heard the words of Solomon, that he + rejoiced greatly, and said, Blessed be the Lord this day, which + hath given unto David a wise son over this great people. And Hiram + sent to Solomon, saying, I have considered the things which thou + sentest to me for: and I will do all thy desire concerning timber + of cedar, and concerning timber of fir. My servants shall bring + them down from Lebanon unto the sea: and I will convey them by sea + in floats unto the place that thou shalt appoint me, and will + cause them to be discharged there, and thou shalt receive them: + and thou shalt accomplish my desire, in giving food for my + household. So Hiram gave Solomon cedar trees and fir trees + according to all his desire. And Solomon gave Hiram twenty + thousand measures of wheat for food to his household, and twenty + measures of pure oil: thus gave Solomon to Hiram year by year. And + the Lord gave Solomon wisdom, as he promised him: and there was + peace between Hiram and Solomon; and they two made a league + together.[424] + +Hiram also sent skilled workers to Jerusalem to assist in the work of +building the temple and Solomon's palace, including his famous +namesake, "a widow's son of the (Hebrew) tribe of Naphtali", who, like +his father, "a man of Tyre", had "understanding and cunning to work +all works in brass".[425] + +Solomon must have cultivated good relations with the Chaldaeans, for +he had a fleet of trading ships on the Persian Gulf which was manned +by Phoenician sailors. "Once in three years", the narrative runs, +"came the navy of Tharshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and +apes, and peacocks."[426] Apparently he traded with India, the land of +peacocks, during the Brahmanical period, when the Sanskrit name +"Samudra", which formerly signified the "collected waters" of the +broadening Indus, was applied to the Indian Ocean.[427] + +The Aramaeans of the Third Semitic migration were not slow to take +advantage of the weakness of Assyria and Babylon. They overran the +whole of Syria, and entered into the possession of Mesopotamia, thus +acquiring full control of the trade routes towards the west. From time +to time they ravaged Babylonia from the north to the south. Large +numbers of them acquired permanent settlement in that country, like +the Amorites of the Second Semitic migration in the pre-Hammurabi Age. + +In Syria the Aramaeans established several petty States, and were +beginning to grow powerful at Damascus, an important trading centre, +which assumed considerable political importance after the collapse of +Assyria's Old Empire. + +At this period, too, the Chaldaeans came into prominence in Babylonia. +Their kingdom of Chaldaea (Kaldu, which signifies Sealand) embraces a +wide stretch of the coast land at the head of the Persian Gulf between +Arabia and Elam. As we have seen, an important dynasty flourished in +this region in the time of Hammurabi. Although more than one king of +Babylon recorded that he had extinguished the Sealand Power, it +continued to exist all through the Kassite period. It is possible that +this obscure kingdom embraced diverse ethnic elements, and that it was +controlled in turn by military aristocracies of Sumerians, Elamites, +Kassites, and Arabians. After the downfall of the Kassites it had +become thoroughly Semitized, perhaps as a result of the Aramaean +migration, which may have found one of its outlets around the head of +the Persian Gulf. The ancient Sumerian city of Ur, which dominated a +considerable area of steppe land to the west of the Euphrates, was +included in the Sealand kingdom, and was consequently referred to in +after-time as "Ur of the Chaldees". + +When Solomon reigned over Judah and Israel, Babylonia was broken up +into a number of petty States, as in early Sumerian times. The feudal +revival of Nebuchadrezzar I had weakened the central power, with the +result that the nominal high kings were less able to resist the +inroads of invaders. Military aristocracies of Aramaeans, Elamites, +and Chaldaeans held sway in various parts of the valley, and struggled +for supremacy. + +When Assyria began to assert itself again, it laid claim on Babylonia, +ostensibly as the protector of its independence, and the Chaldaeans +for a time made common cause with the Elamites against it. The future, +however, lay with the Chaldaeans, who, like the Kassites, became the +liberators of the ancient inhabitants. When Assyria was finally +extinguished as a world power they revived the ancient glory of +Babylonia, and supplanted the Sumerians as the scholars and teachers +of Western Asia. The Chaldaeans became famous in Syria, and even in +Greece, as "the wise men from the east", and were renowned as +astrologers. + +The prestige of the Hebrew kingdom suffered sharp and serious decline +after Solomon's death. Pharaoh Sheshonk fostered the elements of +revolt which ultimately separated Israel from Judah, and, when a +favourable opportunity arose, invaded Palestine and Syria and +reestablished Egypt's suzerainty over part of the area which had been +swayed by Rameses II, replenishing his exhausted treasury with rich +booty and the tribute he imposed. Phoenicia was able, however, to +maintain its independence, but before the Assyrians moved westward +again, Sidon had shaken off the yoke of Tyre and become an independent +State. + +It will be seen from the events outlined in this chapter how greatly +the history of the ancient world was affected by the periodic +migrations of pastoral folks from the steppe lands. These human tides +were irresistible. The direction of their flow might be diverted for a +time, but they ultimately overcame every obstacle by sheer persistency +and overpowering volume. Great emperors in Assyria and Egypt +endeavoured to protect their countries from the "Bedouin peril" by +strengthening their frontiers and extending their spheres of +influence, but the dammed-up floods of humanity only gathered strength +in the interval for the struggle which might be postponed but could +not be averted. + +These migrations, as has been indicated, were due to natural causes. +They were propelled by climatic changes which caused a shortage of the +food supply, and by the rapid increase of population under peaceful +conditions. Once a migration began to flow, it set in motion many +currents and cross currents, but all these converged towards the +districts which offered the most attractions to mankind. Prosperous +and well-governed States were ever in peril of invasion by barbarous +peoples. The fruits of civilization tempted them; the reward of +conquest was quickly obtained in Babylon and Egypt with their +flourishing farms and prosperous cities. Waste land was reclaimed then +as now by colonists from centres of civilization; the migrating +pastoral folks lacked the initiative and experience necessary to +establish new communities in undeveloped districts. Highly civilized +men sowed the harvest and the barbarians reaped it. + +It must not be concluded, however, that the migrations were historical +disasters, or that they retarded the general advancement of the human +race. In time the barbarians became civilized and fused with the +peoples whom they conquered. They introduced, too, into communities +which had grown stagnant and weakly, a fresh and invigorating +atmosphere that acted as a stimulant in every sphere of human +activity. The Kassite, for instance, was a unifying and therefore a +strengthening influence in Babylonia. He shook off the manacles of the +past which bound the Sumerian and the Akkadian alike to traditional +lines of policy based on unforgotten ancient rivalries. His concern +was chiefly with the future. The nomads with their experience of +desert wandering promoted trade, and the revival of trade inaugurated +new eras of prosperity in ancient centres of culture, and brought them +into closer touch than ever before with one another. The rise of +Greece was due to the blending of the Achaeans and other pastoral +fighting folks with the indigenous Pelasgians. Into the early States +which fostered the elements of ancient Mykenaean civilization, poured +the cultural influences of the East through Asia Minor and Phoenicia +and from the Egyptian coast. The conquerors from the steppes meanwhile +contributed their genius for organization, their simple and frugal +habits of life, and their sterling virtues; they left a deep impress +on the moral, physical, and intellectual life of Greece. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +THE HEBREWS IN ASSYRIAN HISTORY + + + Revival of Assyrian Power--The Syro-Cappadocian Hittites--The + Aramaean State of Damascus--Reign of Terror in + Mesopotamia--Barbarities of Ashur-natsir-pal III--Babylonia and + Chaldaea subdued--Glimpse of the Kalkhi Valley--The Hebrew Kingdoms + of Judah and Israel--Rival Monarchs and their Wars--How Judah became + subject to Damascus--Ahab and the Phoenician Jezebel--Persecution of + Elijah and other Prophets--Israelites fight against + Assyrians--Shalmaneser as Overlord of Babylonia--Revolts of Jehu in + Israel and Hazael in Damascus--Shalmaneser defeats Hazael--Jehu + sends Tribute to Shalmaneser--Baal Worship Supplanted by Golden Calf + Worship in Israel--Queen Athaliah of Judah--Crowning of the Boy King + Joash--Damascus supreme in Syria and Palestine--Civil War in + Assyria--Triumphs of Shamshi-Adad VII--Babylonia becomes an Assyrian + Province. + + +In one of the Scottish versions of the Seven Sleepers legend a +shepherd enters a cave, in which the great heroes of other days lie +wrapped in magic slumber, and blows two blasts on the horn which hangs +suspended from the roof. The sleepers open their eyes and raise +themselves on their elbows. Then the shepherd hears a warning voice +which comes and goes like the wind, saying: "If the horn is blown once +again, the world will be upset altogether". Terrified by the Voice and +the ferocious appearance of the heroes, the shepherd retreats +hurriedly, locking the door behind him; he casts the key into the sea. +The story proceeds: "If anyone should find the key and open the door, +and blow but a single blast on the horn, Finn and all the Feans would +come forth. And that would be a great day in Alban."[428] + +After the lapse of an obscure century the national heroes of Assyria +were awakened as if from sleep by the repeated blasts from the horn of +the triumphant thunder god amidst the northern and western +mountains--Adad or Rimmon of Syria, Teshup of Armenia, Tarku of the +western Hittites. The great kings who came forth to "upset the world" +bore the familiar names, Ashur-natsir-pal, Shalmaneser, Shamash-Adad, +Ashur-dan, Adad-nirari, and Ashur-nirari. They revived and increased +the ancient glory of Assyria during its Middle Empire period. + +The Syro-Cappadocian Hittites had grown once again powerful and +prosperous, but no great leader like Subbiluliuma arose to weld the +various States into an Empire, so as to ensure the protection of the +mingled peoples from the operations of the aggressive and ambitious +war-lords of Assyria. One kingdom had its capital at Hamath and +another at Carchemish on the Euphrates. The kingdom of Tabal +flourished in Cilicia (Khilakku); it included several city States like +Tarsus, Tiana, and Comana (Kammanu). Farther west was the dominion of +the Thraco-Phrygian Muski. The tribes round the shores of Lake Van had +asserted themselves and extended their sphere of influence. The State +of Urartu was of growing importance, and the Nairi tribes had spread +round the south-eastern shores of Lake Van. The northern frontier of +Assyria was continually menaced by groups of independent hill States +which would have been irresistible had they operated together against +a common enemy, but were liable to be extinguished when attacked in +detail. + +A number of Aramaean kingdoms had come into existence in Mesopotamia +and throughout Syria. The most influential of these was the State of +Damascus, the king of which was the overlord of the Hebrew kingdoms of +Israel and Judah when Ashur-natsir-pal III ascended the Assyrian +throne about 885 B.C. Groups of the Aramaeans had acquired a high +degree of culture and become traders and artisans. Large numbers had +filtered, as well, not only into Babylonia but also Assyria and the +north Syrian area of Hittite control. Accustomed for generations to +desert warfare, they were fearless warriors. Their armies had great +mobility, being composed mostly of mounted infantry, and were not +easily overpowered by the Assyrian forces of footmen and charioteers. +Indeed, it was not until cavalry was included in the standing army of +Assyria that operations against the Aramaeans were attended with +permanent success. + +Ashur-natsir-pal III[429] was preceded by two vigorous Assyrian +rulers, Adad-nirari III (911-890 B.C.) and Tukulti-Ninip II (890-885 +B.C). The former had raided North Syria and apparently penetrated as +far as the Mediterranean coast. In consequence he came into conflict +with Babylonia, but he ultimately formed an alliance with that +kingdom. His son, Tukulti-Ninip, operated in southern Mesopotamia, and +apparently captured Sippar. In the north he had to drive back invading +bands of the Muski. Although, like his father, he carried out great +works at Asshur, he appears to have transferred his Court to Nineveh, +a sure indication that Assyria was once again becoming powerful in +northern Mesopotamia and the regions towards Armenia. + +Ashur-natsir-pal III, son of Tukulti-Ninip II, inaugurated a veritable +reign of terror in Mesopotamia and northern Syria. His methods of +dealing with revolting tribes were of a most savage character. Chiefs +were skinned alive, and when he sacked their cities, not only +fighting-men but women and children were either slaughtered or burned +at the stake. It is not surprising to find therefore that, on more +than one occasion, the kings of petty States made submission to him +without resistance as soon as he invaded their domains. + +In his first year he overran the mountainous district between Lake Van +and the upper sources of the Tigris. Bubu, the rebel son of the +governor of Nishtun, who had been taken prisoner, was transported to +Arbela, where he was skinned alive. Like his father, Ashur-natsir-pal +fought against the Muski, whose power was declining. Then he turned +southward from the borders of Asia Minor and dealt with a rebellion in +northern Mesopotamia. + +An Aramaean pretender named Akhiababa had established himself at Suru +in the region to the east of the Euphrates, enclosed by its +tributaries the Khabar and the Balikh. He had come from the +neighbouring Aramaean State of Bit-Adini, and was preparing, it would +appear, to form a powerful confederacy against the Assyrians. + +When Ashur-natsir-pal approached Suru, a part of its population +welcomed him. He entered the city, seized the pretender and many of +his followers. These he disposed of with characteristic barbarity. +Some were skinned alive and some impaled on stakes, while others were +enclosed in a pillar which the king had erected to remind the +Aramaeans of his determination to brook no opposition. Akhiababa the +pretender was sent to Nineveh with a few supporters; and when they had +been flayed their skins were nailed upon the city walls. + +Another revolt broke out in the Kirkhi district between the upper +reaches of the Tigris and the southwestern shores of Lake Van. It was +promoted by the Nairi tribes, and even supported by some Assyrian +officials. Terrible reprisals were meted out to the rebels. When the +city of Kinabu was captured, no fewer than 3000 prisoners were burned +alive, the unfaithful governor being flayed. The city of Damdamusa was +set on fire. Then Tela was attacked. Ashur-natsir-pal's own account of +the operations runs as follows:-- + + The city (of Tello) was very strong; three walls surrounded it. + The inhabitants trusted to their strong walls and numerous + soldiers; they did not come down or embrace my feet. With battle + and slaughter I assaulted and took the city. Three thousand + warriors I slew in battle. Their booty and possessions, cattle, + sheep, I carried away; many captives I burned with fire. Many of + their soldiers I took alive; of some I cut off hands and limbs; of + others the noses, ears, and arms; of many soldiers I put out the + eyes. I reared a column of the living and a column of heads. I + hung on high their heads on trees in the vicinity of their city. + Their boys and girls I burned up in flames. I devastated the city, + dug it up, in fire burned it; I annihilated it.[430] + +The Assyrian war-lord afterwards forced several Nairi kings to +acknowledge him as their overlord. He was so greatly feared by the +Syro-Cappadocian Hittites that when he approached their territory they +sent him tribute, yielding without a struggle. + +For several years the great conqueror engaged himself in thus subduing +rebellious tribes and extending his territory. His military +headquarters were at Kalkhi, to which city the Court had been +transferred. Thither he drafted thousands of prisoners, the great +majority of whom he incorporated in the Assyrian army. Assyrian +colonies were established in various districts for strategical +purposes, and officials supplanted the petty kings in certain of the +northern city States. + +The Aramaeans of Mesopotamia gave much trouble to Ashur-natsir-pal. +Although he had laid a heavy hand on Suru, the southern tribes, the +Sukhi, stirred up revolts in Mesopotamia as the allies of the +Babylonians. On one occasion Ashur-natsir-pal swept southward through +this region, and attacked a combined force of Sukhi Aramaeans and +Babylonians. The Babylonians were commanded by Zabdanu, brother of +Nabu-aplu-iddin, king of Babylonia, who was evidently anxious to +regain control of the western trade route. The Assyrian war-lord, +however, proved to be too powerful a rival. He achieved so complete a +victory that he captured the Babylonian general and 3000 of his +followers. The people of Kashshi (Babylonia) and Kaldu (Chaldaea) were +"stricken with terror", and had to agree to pay increased tribute. + +Ashur-natsir-pal reigned for about a quarter of a century, but his +wars occupied less than half of that period. Having accumulated great +booty, he engaged himself, as soon as peace was secured throughout his +empire, in rebuilding the city of Kalkhi, where he erected a great +palace and made records of his achievements. He also extended and +redecorated the royal palace at Nineveh, and devoted much attention to +the temples. + +Tribute poured in from the subject States. The mountain and valley +tribes in the north furnished in abundance wine and corn, sheep and +cattle and horses, and from the Aramaeans of Mesopotamia and the +Syro-Cappadocian Hittites came much silver and gold, copper and lead, +jewels and ivory, as well as richly decorated furniture, armour and +weapons. Artists and artisans were also provided by the vassals of +Assyria. There are traces of Phoenician influence in the art of this +period. + +Ashur-natsir-pal's great palace at Kalkhi was excavated by Layard, who +has given a vivid description of the verdant plain on which the +ancient city was situated, as it appeared in spring. "Its pasture +lands, known as the 'Jaif', are renowned", he wrote, "for their rich +and luxuriant herbage. In times of quiet, the studs of the Pasha and +of the Turkish authorities, with the horses of the cavalry and of the +inhabitants of Mosul, are sent here to graze.... Flowers of every hue +enamelled the meadows; not thinly scattered over the grass as in +northern climes, but in such thick and gathering clusters that the +whole plain seemed a patchwork of many colours. The dogs, as they +returned from hunting, issued from the long grass dyed red, yellow, or +blue, according to the flowers through which they had last forced +their way.... In the evening, after the labour of the day, I often sat +at the door of my tent, giving myself up to the full enjoyment of that +calm and repose which are imparted to the senses by such scenes as +these.... As the sun went down behind the low hills which separate the +river from the desert--even their rocky sides had struggled to emulate +the verdant clothing of the plain--its receding rays were gradually +withdrawn, like a transparent veil of light from the landscape. Over +the pure cloudless sky was the glow of the last light. In the distance +and beyond the Zab, Keshaf, another venerable ruin, rose indistinctly +into the evening mist. Still more distant, and still more indistinct, +was a solitary hill overlooking the ancient city of Arbela. The +Kurdish mountains, whose snowy summits cherished the dying sunbeams, +yet struggled with the twilight. The bleating of sheep and lowing of +cattle, at first faint, became louder as the flocks returned from +their pastures and wandered amongst the tents. Girls hurried over the +greensward to seek their fathers' cattle, or crouched down to milk +those which had returned alone to their well-remembered folds. Some +were coming from the river bearing the replenished pitcher on their +heads or shoulders; others, no less graceful in their form, and erect +in their carriage, were carrying the heavy loads of long grass which +they had cut in the meadows."[431] + +Across the meadows so beautiful in March the great armies of +Ashur-natsir-pal returned with the booty of great campaigns--horses +and cattle and sheep, bales of embroidered cloth, ivory and jewels, +silver and gold, the products of many countries; while thousands of +prisoners were assembled there to rear stately buildings which +ultimately fell into decay and were buried by drifting sands. + +Layard excavated the emperor's palace and dispatched to London, among +other treasures of antiquity, the sublime winged human-headed lions +which guarded the entrance, and many bas reliefs. + +The Assyrian sculptures of this period lack the technical skill, the +delicacy and imagination of Sumerian and Akkadian art, but they are +full of energy, dignified and massive, and strong and lifelike. They +reflect the spirit of Assyria's greatness, which, however, had a +materialistic basis. Assyrian art found expression in delineating the +outward form rather than in striving to create a "thing of beauty" +which is "a joy for ever". + +When Ashur-natsir-pal died, he was succeeded by his son Shalmaneser +III (860-825 B.C.), whose military activities extended over his whole +reign. No fewer than thirty-two expeditions were recorded on his +famous black obelisk. + +As Shalmaneser was the first Assyrian king who came into direct touch +with the Hebrews, it will be of interest here to review the history of +the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah, as recorded in the Bible, +because of the light it throws on international politics and the +situation which confronted Shalmaneser in Mesopotamia and Syria in the +early part of his reign. + +After Solomon died, the kingdom of his son Rehoboam was restricted to +Judah, Benjamin, Moab, and Edom. The "ten tribes" of Israel had +revolted and were ruled over by Jeroboam, whose capital was at +Tirzah.[432] "There were wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam +continually."[433] + +The religious organization which had united the Hebrews under David +and Solomon was thus broken up. Jeroboam established the religion of +the Canaanites and made "gods and molten images". He was condemned for +his idolatry by the prophet Ahijah, who declared, "The Lord shall +smite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water; and he shall root up +Israel out of this good land, which he gave to their fathers, and +shall scatter them beyond the river, because they have made their +groves, provoking the Lord to anger. And he shall give Israel up +because of the sins of Jeroboam, who did sin, and who made Israel to +sin."[434] + +In Judah Rehoboam similarly "did evil in the sight of the Lord"; his +subjects "also built them high places and images and groves, on every +high hill, and under every green tree".[435] After the raid of the +Egyptian Pharaoh Shishak (Sheshonk) Rehoboam repented, however. "And +when he humbled himself, the wrath of the Lord turned from him, that +he would not destroy him altogether: and also in Judah things went +well."[436] + +Rehoboam was succeeded by his son Abijah, who shattered the power of +Jeroboam, defeating that monarch in battle after he was surrounded as +Rameses II had been by the Hittite army. "The children of Israel fled +before Judah: and God delivered them into their hand. And Abijah and +his people slew them with a great slaughter: so there fell down slain +in Israel five hundred thousand chosen men. Thus the children of +Israel were brought under at that time, and the children of Judah +prevailed, because they relied upon the Lord God of their fathers. And +Abijah pursued after Jeroboam, and took cities from him, Bethel with +the towns thereof, and Jeshanah with the towns thereof, and Ephraim +with the towns thereof. Neither did Jeroboam recover strength again in +the days of Abijah, and the Lord struck him and he died."[437] + +Ere Jeroboam died, however, "Abijah slept with his fathers, and they +buried him in the city of David: and Asa his son reigned in his stead. +In his days the land was quiet ten years. And Asa did that which was +good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God. For he took away the +altars of the strange gods, and the high places, and brake down the +images, and cut down the groves. And commanded Judah to seek the Lord +God of their fathers and to do the law and the commandment. Also he +took away out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the +images: and the kingdom was quiet before him. And he built fenced +cities in Judah: for the land had rest, and he had no war in those +years; because the Lord had given him rest."[438] + +Jeroboam died in the second year of Asa's reign, and was succeeded by +his son Nadab, who "did evil in the sight of the Lord, and walked in +the way of his father, and in his sin wherewith he made Israel to +sin".[439] Nadab waged war against the Philistines, and was besieging +Gibbethon when Baasha revolted and slew him. Thus ended the First +Dynasty of the Kingdom of Israel. + +Baasha was declared king, and proceeded to operate against Judah. +Having successfully waged war against Asa, he proceeded to fortify +Ramah, a few miles to the north of Jerusalem, "that he might not +suffer any to go out or come in to Asa king of Judah".[440] + +Now Israel was at this time one of the allies of the powerful Aramaean +State of Damascus, which had resisted the advance of the Assyrian +armies during the reign of Ashur-natsir-pal I, and apparently +supported the rebellions of the northern Mesopotamian kings. Judah was +nominally subject to Egypt, which, however, was weakened by internal +troubles, and therefore unable either to assert its authority in Judah +or help its king to resist the advance of the Israelites. + +In the hour of peril Judah sought the aid of the king of Damascus. +"Asa took all the silver and the gold that were left in the treasures +of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king's house, and +delivered them into the hand of his servants: and King Asa sent them +to Ben-hadad, the son of Tabrimon, the son of Hezion, king of Syria, +that dwelt at Damascus, saying, There is a league between me and thee, +and between my father and thy father: behold, I have sent unto thee a +present of silver and gold: _come and break thy league with Baasha +king of Israel, that he may depart from me_".[441] + +Ben-hadad accepted the invitation readily. He waged war against +Israel, and Baasha was compelled to abandon the building of the +fortifications at Ramah. "Then king Asa made a proclamation throughout +all Judah; none was exempted: and they took away the stones of Ramah, +and the timber thereof, wherewith Baasha had builded; and king Asa +built with them Geba of Benjamin, and Mizpah."[442] + +Judah and Israel thus became subject to Damascus, and had to recognize +the king of that city as arbiter in all their disputes. + +After reigning about twenty-four years, Baasha of Israel died in 886 +B.C. and was succeeded by his son Elah who came to the throne "in the +twenty and sixth year of Asa". He had ruled a little over a year when +he was murdered by "his servant Zimri, captain of half his chariots", +while he was "drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza steward of +his house in Tirzah".[443] Thus ended the Second Dynasty of the +Kingdom of Israel. + +Zimri's revolt was shortlived. He reigned only "seven days in Tirzah". +The army was "encamped against Gibbethon, which belonged to the +Philistines. And the people that were encamped heard say, Zimri hath +conspired and hath also slain the king; wherefore all Israel made +Omri, the captain of the host, king over Israel that day in the camp. +And Omri went up from Gibbethon and all Israel with him, and they +besieged Tirzah. And it came to pass when Zimri saw that the city was +taken, that he went into the palace of the king's house, and burnt the +king's house over him with fire, and died."[444] + +Omri's claim to the throne was disputed by a rival named Tibni. "But +the people that followed Omri prevailed against the people that +followed Tibni, son of Ginath: so Tibni died, and Omri reigned."[445] + +Omri was the builder of Samaria, whither his Court was transferred +from Tirzah towards the close of his six years reign. He was followed +by his son Ahab, who ascended the throne "in the thirty and eighth +year of Asa king of Judah.... And Ahab ... did evil in the sight of +the Lord above all that were before him." So notorious indeed were +father and son that the prophet Micah declared to the backsliders of +his day, "For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the +house of Ahab, and ye walk in their counsel; that I should make thee a +desolation, and the inhabitants thereof an hissing: therefore ye shall +bear the reproach of my people".[446] + +Ahab was evidently an ally of Sidon as well as a vassal of Damascus, +for he married the notorious princess Jezebel, the daughter of the +king of that city State. He also became a worshipper of the Phoenician +god Baal, to whom a temple had been erected in Samaria. "And Ahab made +a grove; and Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger +than all the kings of Israel that were before him."[447] Obadiah, who +"feared the Lord greatly", was the governor of Ahab's house, but the +outspoken prophet Elijah, whose arch enemy was the notorious Queen +Jezebel, was an outcast like the hundred prophets concealed by Obadiah +in two mountain caves.[448] + +Ahab became so powerful a king that Ben-hadad II of Damascus picked a +quarrel with him, and marched against Samaria. It was on this occasion +that Ahab sent the famous message to Ben-hadad: "Let not him that +girdeth on his harness (armour) boast himself as he that putteth it +off". The Israelites issued forth from Samaria and scattered the +attacking force. "And Israel pursued them: and Ben-hadad the king of +Syria escaped on a horse with the horseman. And the king of Israel +went out, and smote the horses and chariots, and slew the Syrians with +a great slaughter." Ben-hadad was made to believe afterwards by his +counsellors that he owed his defeat to the fact that the gods of +Israel were "gods of the hills; therefore they are stronger than we". +They added: "Let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we +shall be stronger than they". In the following year Ben-hadad fought +against the Israelites at Aphek, but was again defeated. He then found +it necessary to make "a covenant" with Ahab.[449] + +In 854 B.C. Shalmaneser III of Assyria was engaged in military +operations against the Aramaean Syrians. Two years previously he had +broken the power of Akhuni, king of Bit-Adini in northern Mesopotamia, +the leader of a strong confederacy of petty States. Thereafter the +Assyrian monarch turned towards the south-west and attacked the +Hittite State of Hamath and the Aramaean State of Damascus. The +various rival kingdoms of Syria united against him, and an army of +70,000 allies attempted to thwart his progress at Qarqar on the +Orontes. Although Shalmaneser claimed a victory on this occasion, it +was of no great advantage to him, for he was unable to follow it up. +Among the Syrian allies were Bir-idri (Ben-hadad II) of Damascus, and +Ahab of Israel ("Akhabbu of the land of the Sir'ilites"). The latter +had a force of 10,000 men under his command. + +Four years after Ahab began to reign, Asa died at Jerusalem and his +son Jehoshaphat was proclaimed king of Judah. "And he walked in all +the ways of Asa his father; he turned not aside from it, doing that +which was right in the eyes of the Lord: nevertheless the high places +were not taken away; for the people offered and burnt incense yet in +the high places."[450] + +There is no record of any wars between Israel and Judah during this +period, but it is evident that the two kingdoms had been drawn +together and that Israel was the predominating power. Jehoshaphat +"joined affinity with Ahab", and some years afterwards visited +Samaria, where he was hospitably entertained.[451] The two monarchs +plotted together. Apparently Israel and Judah desired to throw off the +yoke of Damascus, which was being kept constantly on the defence by +Assyria. It is recorded in the Bible that they joined forces and set +out on an expedition to attack Ramoth in Gilead, which Israel claimed, +and take it "out of the hand of the king of Syria".[452] In the battle +which ensued (in 853 B.C.) Ahab was mortally wounded, "and about the +time of the sun going down he died". He was succeeded by his son +Ahaziah, who acknowledged the suzerainty of Damascus. After a reign of +two years Ahaziah was succeeded by Joram. + +Jehoshaphat did not again come into conflict with Damascus. He devoted +himself to the development of his kingdom, and attempted to revive the +sea trade on the Persian gulf which had flourished under Solomon. "He +made ships of Tharshish to go to Ophir for gold; but they went not; +for the ships were broken (wrecked) at Ezion-geber." Ahaziah offered +him sailors--probably Phoenicians--but they were refused.[453] +Apparently Jehoshaphat had close trading relations with the +Chaldaeans, who were encroaching on the territory of the king of +Babylon, and menacing the power of that monarch. Jehoram succeeded +Jehoshaphat and reigned eight years. + +After repulsing the Syrian allies at Qarqar on the Orontes in 854 +B.C., Shalmaneser III of Assyria found it necessary to invade +Babylonia. Soon after he came to the throne he had formed an alliance +with Nabu-aplu-iddin of that kingdom, and was thus able to operate in +the north-west without fear of complications with the rival claimant +of Mesopotamia. When Nabu-aplu-iddin died, his two sons +Marduk-zakir-shum and Marduk-bel-usate were rivals for the throne. The +former, the rightful heir, appealed for help to Shalmaneser, and that +monarch at once hastened to assert his authority in the southern +kingdom. In 851 B.C. Marduk-bel-usate, who was supported by an Aramaean +army, was defeated and put to death. + +Marduk-zakir-shum afterwards reigned over Babylonia as the vassal of +Assyria, and Shalmaneser, his overlord, made offerings to the gods at +Babylon, Borsippa, and Cuthah. The Chaldaeans were afterwards subdued, +and compelled to pay annual tribute. + +In the following year Shalmaneser had to lead an expedition into +northern Mesopotamia and suppress a fresh revolt in that troubled +region. But the western allies soon gathered strength again, and in +846 B.C. he found it necessary to return with a great army, but was +not successful in achieving any permanent success, although he put his +enemies to flight. The various western kingdoms, including Damascus, +Israel, and Tyre and Sidon, remained unconquered, and continued to +conspire against him. + +The resisting power of the Syrian allies, however, was being greatly +weakened by internal revolts, which may have been stirred up by +Assyrian emissaries. Edom threw off the yoke of Judah and became +independent. Jehoram, who had married Athaliah, a royal princess of +Israel, was dead. His son Ahaziah, who succeeded him, joined forces +with his cousin and overlord, King Joram of Israel, to assist him in +capturing Ramoth-gilead from the king of Damascus. Joram took +possession of the city, but was wounded, and returned to Jezreel to be +healed.[454] He was the last king of the Omri Dynasty of Israel. The +prophet Elisha sent a messenger to Jehu, a military leader, who was at +Ramoth-gilead, with a box of oil and the ominous message, "Thus saith +the Lord, I have anointed thee king over Israel. And thou shalt smite +the house of Ahab thy master, that I may avenge the blood of my +servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the Lord, +at the hand of Jezebel.... And the dogs shall eat Jezebel in the +portion of Jezreel, and there shall be none to bury her." + +Jehu "conspired against Joram", and then, accompanied by an escort, +"rode in a chariot and went to Jezreel", so that he might be the first +to announce the revolt to the king whom he was to depose. + +The watchman on the tower of Jezreel saw Jehu and his company +approaching and informed Joram, who twice sent out a messenger to +enquire, "Is it peace?" Neither messenger returned, and the watchman +informed the wounded monarch of Israel, "He came even unto them, and +cometh not again; and the driving is like the driving of Jehu the son +of Nimshi; for he driveth furiously". + +King Joram went out himself to meet the famous charioteer, but turned +to flee when he discovered that he came as an enemy. Then Jehu drew +his bow and shot Joram through the heart. Ahaziah endeavoured to +conceal himself in Samaria, but was slain also. Jezebel was thrown +down from a window of the royal harem and trodden under foot by the +horsemen of Jehu; her body was devoured by dogs.[455] + +The Syrian king against whom Joram fought at Ramoth-gilead was Hazael. +He had murdered Ben-hadad II as he lay on a bed of sickness by +smothering him with a thick cloth soaked in water. Then he had himself +proclaimed the ruler of the Aramaean State of Damascus. The prophet +Elisha had previously wept before him, saying, "I know the evil that +thou wilt do unto the children of Israel; their strongholds wilt thou +set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and +wilt dash their children and rip up their women with child".[456] + +The time seemed ripe for Assyrian conquest. In 843 B.C. Shalmaneser +III crossed the Euphrates into Syria for the sixteenth time. His first +objective was Aleppo, where he was welcomed. He made offerings there +to Hadad, the local Thor, and then suddenly marched southward. Hazael +went out to oppose the advancing Assyrians, and came into conflict +with them in the vicinity of Mount Hermon. "I fought with him", +Shalmaneser recorded, "and accomplished his defeat; I slew with the +sword 1600 of his warriors and captured 1121 chariots and 470 horses. +He fled to save his life." + +Hazael took refuge within the walls of Damascus, which the Assyrians +besieged, but failed, however, to capture. Shalmaneser's soldiers +meanwhile wasted and burned cities without number, and carried away +great booty. "In those days", Shalmaneser recorded, "I received +tribute from the Tyrians and Sidonians and from Yaua (Jehu) son +(successor) of Khumri (Omri)." The following is a translation from a +bas relief by Professor Pinches of a passage detailing Jehu's tribute: + + The tribute of Yaua, son of Khumri: silver, gold, a golden cup, + golden vases, golden vessels, golden buckets, lead, a staff for + the hand of the king (and) sceptres, I received.[457] + +The scholarly translator adds, "It is noteworthy that the Assyrian +form of the name, Yaua, shows that the unpronounced aleph at the end +was at that time sounded, so that the Hebrews must have called him +Yahua (Jehua)". + +Shalmaneser did not again attack Damascus. His sphere of influence was +therefore confined to North Syria. He found it more profitable, +indeed, to extend his territories into Asia Minor. For several years +he engaged himself in securing control of the north-western caravan +road, and did not rest until he had subdued Cilicia and overrun the +Hittite kingdoms of Tabal and Malatia. + +Hazael of Damascus avenged himself meanwhile on his unfaithful allies +who had so readily acknowledged the shadowy suzerainty of Assyria. "In +those days the Lord began to cut Israel short: and Hazael smote them +in all the coasts of Israel; from Jordan eastward, all the land of +Gilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Manassites, from +Aroer, which is by the river Arnon, even Gilead and Bashan."[458] +Israel thus came completely under the sway of Damascus. + +Jehu appears to have cherished the ambition of uniting Israel and +Judah under one crown. His revolt received the support of the orthodox +Hebrews, and he began well by inaugurating reforms in the northern +kingdom with purpose apparently to re-establish the worship of David's +God. He persecuted the prophets of Baal, but soon became a backslider, +for although he stamped out the Phoenician religion he began to +worship "the golden calves that were in Bethel and that were in +Dan.... He departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, which made Israel +to sin."[459] Apparently he found it necessary to secure the support +of the idolators of the ancient cult of the "Queen of Heaven". + +The crown of Judah had been seized by the Israelitish Queen mother +Athaliah after the death of her son Ahaziah at the hands of Jehu.[460] +She endeavoured to destroy "all the seed royal of the house of Judah". +But another woman thwarted the completion of her monstrous design. +This was Jehoshabeath, sister of Ahaziah and wife of the priest +Jehoiada, who concealed the young prince Joash "and put him and his +nurse in a bedchamber", in "the house of God". There Joash was +strictly guarded for six years.[461] + +In time Jehoiada stirred up a revolt against the Baal-worshipping +queen of Judah. Having secured the support of the captains of the +royal guard and a portion of the army, he brought out from the temple +the seven years old prince Joash, "the king's son, and put upon him +the crown, and gave him the testimony, and made him king. And Jehoiada +and his sons anointed him, and said, God save the king. + +"Now when Athaliah heard the noise of the people running and praising +the king, she came to the people into the house of the Lord: and she +looked, and, behold the king stood at his pillar at the entering in, +and the princes and the trumpets by the king: and all the people of +the land rejoiced, and sounded with trumpets, also the singers with +instruments of musick, and such as taught to sing praise. Then +Athaliah rent her clothes, and said, Treason, Treason. + +"Then Jehoiada the priest brought out the captains of hundreds that +were set over the host, and said unto them, Have her forth of the +ranges: and whoso followeth her, let him be slain by the sword. For +the priest said, Slay her not in the house of the Lord. So they laid +hands on her; and when she was come to the entering of the horse gate +by the king's house, they slew her there. + +"And Jehoiada made a covenant between him, and between all the people, +and between the king, that they should be the Lord's people. Then all +the people went to the house of Baal, and brake it down, and brake his +altars and his images in pieces, and slew Mattan the priest of Baal +before the altars."[462] + +When Jehu of Israel died, he was succeeded by Jehoahaz. "The Lord was +kindled against Israel, and he delivered them into the hand of +Ben-hadad the son of Hazael all their days." Then Jehoahaz repented. +He "besought the Lord, and the Lord hearkened unto him: for he saw the +oppression of Israel, because the king of Syria oppressed them. And +the Lord gave Israel a saviour, so that they went out from under the +hands of the Syrians."[463] The "saviour", as will be shown, was +Assyria. Not only Israel, but Judah, under King Joash, Edom, the +Philistines and the Ammonites were compelled to acknowledge the +suzerainty of Damascus. + +Shalmaneser III swayed an extensive and powerful empire, and kept his +generals continually employed suppressing revolts on his frontiers. +After he subdued the Hittites, Kati, king of Tabal, sent him his +daughter, who was received into the royal harem. Tribes of the Medes +came under his power: the Nairi and Urartian tribes continued battling +with his soldiers on his northern borders like the frontier tribes of +India against the British troops. The kingdom of Urartu was growing +more and more powerful. + +In 829 B.C. the great empire was suddenly shaken to its foundations by +the outbreak of civil war. The party of rebellion was led by +Shalmaneser's son Ashur-danin-apli, who evidently desired to supplant +the crown prince Shamshi-Adad. He was a popular hero and received the +support of most of the important Assyrian cities, including Nineveh, +Asshur, Arbela, Imgurbel, and Dur-balat, as well as some of the +dependencies. Shalmaneser retained Kalkhi and the provinces of +northern Mesopotamia, and it appears that the greater part of the army +also remained loyal to him. + +After four years of civil war Shalmaneser died. His chosen heir, +Shamshi-Adad VII, had to continue the struggle for the throne for two +more years. + +When at length the new king had stamped out the last embers of revolt +within the kingdom, he had to undertake the reconquest of those +provinces which in the interval had thrown off their allegiance to +Assyria. Urartu in the north had grown more aggressive, the Syrians +were openly defiant, the Medes were conducting bold raids, and the +Babylonians were plotting with the Chaldaeans, Elamites, and Aramaeans +to oppose the new ruler. Shamshi-Adad, however, proved to be as great +a general as his father. He subdued the Medes and the Nairi tribes, +burned many cities and collected enormous tribute, while thousands of +prisoners were taken and forced to serve the conqueror. + +Having established his power in the north, Shamshi-Adad then turned +attention to Babylonia. On his way southward he subdued many villages. +He fell upon the first strong force of Babylonian allies at +Dur-papsukal in Akkad, and achieved a great victory, killing 13,000 +and taking 3000 captives. Then the Babylonian king, +Marduk-balatsu-ikbi, advanced to meet him with his mixed force of +Babylonians, Chaldaeans, Elamites, and Aramaeans, but was defeated in +a fierce battle on the banks of the Daban canal. The Babylonian camp +was captured, and the prisoners taken by the Assyrians included 5000 +footmen, 200 horsemen, and 100 chariots + +Shamshi-Adad conducted in all five campaigns in Babylonia and +Chaldaea, which he completely subdued, penetrating as far as the +shores of the Persian Gulf. In the end he took prisoner the new king, +Bau-akh-iddina, the successor of Marduk-balatsu-ikbi, and transported +him to Assyria, and offered up sacrifices as the overlord of the +ancient land at Babylon, Borsippa, and Cuthah. For over half a century +after this disaster Babylonia was a province of Assyria. During that +period, however, the influence which it exercised over the Assyrian +Court was so great that it contributed to the downfall of the royal +line of the Second Empire. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +THE AGE OF SEMIRAMIS + + + Queen Sammu-rammat the original of Semiramis--"Mother-right" among + "Mother Worshippers"--Sammu-rammat compared to Queen Tiy--Popularity + of Goddess Cults--Temple Worship and Domestic Worship--Babylonian + Cultural Influence in Assyria--Ethical Tendency in Shamash + Worship--The Nebo Religious Revolt--Aton Revolt in Egypt--The Royal + Assyrian Library--Fish Goddess of Babylonia in Assyria--The + Semiramis and Shakuntala Stories--The Mock King and Queen--Dove + Goddesses of Assyria, Phoenicia, and Cyprus--Ishtar's Dove Form--St. + Valentine's Day beliefs--Sacred Doves of Cretans, Hittites, and + Egyptians--Pigeon Lore in Great Britain and Ireland--Deities + associated with various Animals--The Totemic Theory--Common Element + in Ancient Goddess Cults--Influence of Agricultural Beliefs--Nebo a + form of Ea--His Spouse Tashmit a Love Goddess and + Interceder--Traditions of Famous Mother Deities--Adad-nirari IV the + "Saviour" of Israel--Expansion of the Urartian Empire--Its Famous + Kings--Decline and Fall of Assyria's Middle Empire Dynasty. + + +One of the most interesting figures in Mesopotamian history came into +prominence during the Assyrian Middle Empire period. This was the +famous Sammu-rammat, the Babylonian wife of an Assyrian ruler. Like +Sargon of Akkad, Alexander the Great, and Dietrich von Bern, she made, +by reason of her achievements and influence, a deep impression on the +popular imagination, and as these monarchs became identified in +tradition with gods of war and fertility, she had attached to her +memory the myths associated with the mother goddess of love and battle +who presided over the destinies of mankind. In her character as the +legendary Semiramis of Greek literature, the Assyrian queen was +reputed to have been the daughter of Derceto, the dove and fish +goddess of Askalon, and to have departed from earth in bird form. + +It is not quite certain whether Sammu-rammat was the wife of +Shamshi-Adad VII or of his son, Adad-nirari IV. Before the former +monarch reduced Babylonia to the status of an Assyrian province, he +had signed a treaty of peace with its king, and it is suggested that +it was confirmed by a matrimonial alliance. This treaty was repudiated +by King Bau-akh-iddina, who was transported with his palace treasures +to Assyria. + +As Sammu-rammat was evidently a royal princess of Babylonia, it seems +probable that her marriage was arranged with purpose to legitimatize +the succession of the Assyrian overlords to the Babylonian throne. The +principle of "mother right" was ever popular in those countries where +the worship of the Great Mother was perpetuated if not in official at +any rate in domestic religion. Not a few Egyptian Pharaohs reigned as +husbands or as sons of royal ladies. Succession by the female line was +also observed among the Hittites. When Hattusil II gave his daughter +in marriage to Putakhi, king of the Amorites, he inserted a clause in +the treaty of alliance "to the effect that the sovereignty over the +Amorite should belong to the son and descendants of his daughter for +evermore".[464] + +As queen or queen-mother, Sammu-rammat occupied as prominent a +position in Assyria as did Queen Tiy of Egypt during the lifetime of +her husband, Amenhotep III, and the early part of the reign of her +son, Amenhotep IV (Akhenaton). The Tell-el-Amarna letters testify to +Tiy's influence in the Egyptian "Foreign Office", and we know that at +home she was joint ruler with her husband and took part with him in +public ceremonials. During their reign a temple was erected to the +mother goddess Mut, and beside it was formed a great lake on which +sailed the "barque of Aton" in connection with mysterious religious +ceremonials. After Akhenaton's religious revolt was inaugurated, the +worship of Mut was discontinued and Tiy went into retirement. In +Akhenaton's time the vulture symbol of the goddess Mut did not appear +above the sculptured figures of royalty. + +What connection the god Aton had with Mut during the period of the Tiy +regime remains obscure. There is no evidence that Aton was first +exalted as the son of the Great Mother goddess, although this is not +improbable. + +Queen Sammu-rammat of Assyria, like Tiy of Egypt, is associated with +social and religious innovations. She was the first, and, indeed, the +only Assyrian royal lady, to be referred to on equal terms with her +royal husband in official inscriptions. In a dedication to the god +Nebo, that deity is reputed to be the protector of "the life of +Adad-nirari, king of the land of Ashur, his lord, and the life of +Sammu-rammat, she of the palace, his lady".[465] + +During the reign of Adad-nirari IV the Assyrian Court radiated +Babylonian culture and traditions. The king not only recorded his +descent from the first Shalmaneser, but also claimed to be a +descendant of Bel-kap-kapu, an earlier, but, to us, unknown, +Babylonian monarch than "Sulili", i.e. Sumu-la-ilu, the +great-great-grandfather of Hammurabi. Bel-kap-kapu was reputed to have +been an overlord of Assyria. + +Apparently Adad-nirari desired to be regarded as the legitimate heir +to the thrones of Assyria and Babylonia. His claim upon the latter +country must have had a substantial basis. It is not too much to +assume that he was a son of a princess of its ancient royal family. +Sammurammat may therefore have been his mother. She could have been +called his "wife" in the mythological sense, the king having become +"husband of his mother". If such was the case, the royal pair probably +posed as the high priest and high priestess of the ancient goddess +cult--the incarnations of the Great Mother and the son who displaced +his sire. + +The worship of the Great Mother was the popular religion of the +indigenous peoples of western Asia, including parts of Asia Minor, +Egypt, and southern and western Europe. It appears to have been +closely associated with agricultural rites practised among +representative communities of the Mediterranean race. In Babylonia and +Assyria the peoples of the goddess cult fused with the peoples of the +god cult, but the prominence maintained by Ishtar, who absorbed many +of the old mother deities, testifies to the persistence of immemorial +habits of thought and antique religious ceremonials among the +descendants of the earliest settlers in the Tigro-Euphrates valley. +Merodach's spouse Zerpanitu^m was not a shadowy deity but a goddess +who exercised as much influence as her divine husband. As Aruru she +took part with him in the creation of mankind. In Asia Minor the +mother goddess was overshadowed by the father god during the period of +Hatti predominance, but her worship was revived after the early people +along the coast and in the agricultural valleys were freed from the +yoke of the father-god worshippers. + +It must be recognized, in this connection, that an official religion +was not always a full reflection of popular beliefs. In all the great +civilizations of antiquity it was invariably a compromise between the +beliefs of the military aristocracy and the masses of mingled peoples +over whom they held sway. Temple worship had therefore a political +aspect; it was intended, among other things, to strengthen the +position of the ruling classes. But ancient deities could still be +worshipped, and were worshipped, in homes and fields, in groves and on +mountain tops, as the case might be. Jeremiah has testified to the +persistence of the folk practices in connection with the worship of +the mother goddess among the inhabitants of Palestine. Sacrificial +fires were lit and cakes were baked and offered to the "Queen of +Heaven" in the streets of Jerusalem and other cities. In Babylonia and +Egypt domestic religious practices were never completely supplanted by +temple ceremonies in which rulers took a prominent part. It was always +possible, therefore, for usurpers to make popular appeal by reviving +ancient and persistent forms of worship. As we have seen, Jehu of +Israel, after stamping out Phoenician Baal worship, secured a strong +following by giving official recognition to the cult of the golden +calf. + +It is not possible to set forth in detail, or with intimate knowledge, +the various innovations which Sammu-rammat introduced, or with which +she was credited, during the reigns of Adad-nirari IV (810-782 B.C.) +and his father. No discovery has been made of documents like the +Tell-el-Amarna "letters", which would shed light on the social and +political life of this interesting period. But evidence is not +awanting that Assyria was being suffused with Babylonian culture. +Royal inscriptions record the triumphs of the army, but suppress the +details of barbarities such as those which sully the annals of +Ashur-natsir-pal, who had boys and girls burned on pyres and the +heroes of small nations flayed alive. An ethical tendency becomes +apparent in the exaltation of the Babylonian Shamash as an abstract +deity who loved law and order, inspired the king with wisdom and +ordained the destinies of mankind. He is invoked on equal terms with +Ashur. + +The prominence given to Nebo, the god of Borsippa, during the reign of +Adad-nirari IV is highly significant. He appears in his later +character as a god of culture and wisdom, the patron of scribes and +artists, and the wise counsellor of the deities. He symbolized the +intellectual life of the southern kingdom, which was more closely +associated with religious ethics than that of war-loving Assyria. + +A great temple was erected to Nebo at Kalkhi, and four statues of him +were placed within it, two of which are now in the British Museum. On +one of these was cut the inscription, from which we have quoted, +lauding the exalted and wise deity and invoking him to protect +Adad-nirari and the lady of the palace, Sammu-rammat, and closing with +the exhortation, "Whoso cometh in after time, let him trust in Nebo +and trust in no other god". + +The priests of Ashur in the city of Asshur must have been as deeply +stirred by this religious revolt at Kalkhi as were the priests of Amon +when Akhenaton turned his back on Thebes and the national god to +worship Aton in his new capital at Tell-el-Amarna. + +It would appear that this sudden stream of Babylonian culture had +begun to flow into Assyria as early as the reign of Shalmaneser III, +and it may be that it was on account of that monarch's pro-Babylonian +tendencies that his nobles and priests revolted against him. +Shalmaneser established at Kalkhi a royal library which was stocked +with the literature of the southern kingdom. During the reign of +Adad-nirari IV this collection was greatly increased, and subsequent +additions were made to it by his successors, and especially +Ashur-nirari IV, the last monarch of the Middle Empire. The +inscriptions of Shamshi-Adad, son of Shalmaneser III, have literary +qualities which distinguish them from those of his predecessors, and +may be accounted for by the influence exercised by Babylonian scholars +who migrated northward. + +To the reign of Adad-nirari belongs also that important compilation +the "Synchronistic History of Assyria and Babylonia", which deals with +the relations of the two kingdoms and refers to contemporary events +and rulers. + +The legends of Semiramis indicate that Sammu-rammat was associated +like Queen Tiy with the revival of mother worship. As we have said, +she went down to tradition as the daughter of the fish goddess, +Derceto. Pliny identified that deity with Atargatis of +Hierapolis.[466] + +In Babylonia the fish goddess was Nina, a developed form of Damkina, +spouse of Ea of Eridu. In the inscription on the Nebo statue, that god +is referred to as the "son of Nudimmud" (Ea). Nina was the goddess who +gave her name to Nineveh, and it is possible that Nebo may have been +regarded as her son during the Semiramis period. + +The story of Semiramis's birth is evidently of great antiquity. It +seems to survive throughout Europe in the nursery tale of the "Babes +in the Wood". A striking Indian parallel is afforded by the legend of +Shakuntala, which may be first referred to for the purpose of +comparative study. Shakuntala was the daughter of the rishi, +Viswamitra, and Menaka, the Apsara (celestial fairy). Menaka gave +birth to her child beside the sacred river Malini. "And she cast the +new-born infant on the bank of that river and went away. And beholding +the newborn infant lying in that forest destitute of human beings but +abounding with lions and tigers, a number of vultures sat around to +protect it from harm." A sage discovered the child and adopted her. +"Because", he said, "she was surrounded by _Shakuntas_ (birds), +therefore hath she been named by me _Shakuntala_ (bird +protected)."[467] + +Semiramis was similarly deserted at birth by her Celestial mother. She +was protected by doves, and her Assyrian name, Sammu-rammat, is +believed to be derived from "Summat"--"dove", and to signify "the dove +goddess loveth her". Simmas, the chief of royal shepherds, found the +child and adopted her. She was of great beauty like Shakuntala, the +maiden of "perfect symmetry", "sweet smiles", and "faultless +features", with whom King Dushyanta fell in love and married in +Gandharva fashion.[468] + +Semiramis became the wife of Onnes, governor of Nineveh, and one of +the generals of its alleged founder, King Ninus. She accompanied her +husband to Bactria on a military campaign, and is said to have +instructed the king how that city should be taken. Ninus fell in love +with Semiramis, and Onnes, who refused to give her up, went and hanged +himself. The fair courtesan then became the wife of the king. + +The story proceeds that Semiramis exercised so great an influence over +the impressionable King Ninus, that she persuaded him to proclaim her +Queen of Assyria for five days. She then ascended the throne decked in +royal robes. On the first day she gave a great banquet, and on the +second thrust Ninus into prison, or had him put to death. In this +manner she secured the empire for herself. She reigned for over forty +years. + +Professor Frazer inclines to the view that the legend is a +reminiscence of the custom of appointing a mock king and queen to whom +the kingdom was yielded up for five days. Semiramis played the part of +the mother goddess, and the priestly king died a violent death in the +character of her divine lover. "The mounds of Semiramis which were +pointed out all over Western Asia were said to have been the graves of +her lovers whom she buried alive.... This tradition is one of the +surest indications of the identity of the mythical Semiramis with the +Babylonian goddess Ishtar or Astarte."[469] As we have seen, Ishtar +and other mother goddesses had many lovers whom they deserted like La +Belle Dame sans Merci (pp. 174-175). + +As Queen of Assyria, Semiramis was said to have cut roads through +mountainous districts and erected many buildings. According to one +version of the legend she founded the city of Babylon. Herodotus, +however, says in this connection: "Semiramis held the throne for five +generations before the later princess (Nitocris).... She raised +certain embankments, well worthy of inspection, in the plain near +Babylon, to control the river (Euphrates), which, till then, used to +overflow and flood the whole country round about."[470] Lucian, who +associates the famous queen with "mighty works in Asia", states that +she was reputed by some to be the builder of the ancient temple of +Aphrodite in the Libanus, although others credited it to Cinyras, or +Deukalion.[471] Several Median places bear her name, and according to +ancient Armenian tradition she was the founder of Van, which was +formerly called "Shamiramagerd". Strabo tells that unidentified +mountains in Western Asia were named after Semiramis.[472] Indeed, +many of the great works in the Tigro-Euphrates valley, not excepting +the famous inscription of Darius, were credited to the legendary queen +of Babylonia and Assyria.[473] She was the rival in tradition of the +famous Sesostris of Egypt as a ruler, builder, and conqueror. + +All the military expeditions of Semiramis were attended with success, +except her invasion of India. She was supposed to have been defeated +in the Punjab. After suffering this disaster she died, or abdicated +the throne in favour of her son Ninyas. The most archaic form of the +legend appears to be that she was turned into a dove and took flight +to heaven in that form. After her death she was worshipped as a dove +goddess like "Our Lady of Trees and Doves" in Cyprus, whose shrine at +old Paphos was founded, Herodotus says, by Phoenician colonists from +Askalon.[474] Fish and doves were sacred to Derceto (Attar),[475] who +had a mermaid form. "I have beheld", says Lucian, "the image of +Derceto in Phoenicia. A marvellous spectacle it is. One half is a +woman, but the part which extends from thighs to feet terminates with +the tail of a fish."[476] + +Derceto was supposed to have been a woman who threw herself in despair +into a lake. After death she was adored as a goddess and her +worshippers abstained from eating fish, except sacrificially. A golden +image of a fish was suspended in her temple. Atargatis, who was +identical with Derceto, was reputed in another form of the legend to +have been born of an egg which the sacred fishes found in the +Euphrates and thrust ashore (p. 28). The Greek Aphrodite was born of +the froth of the sea and floated in a sea-shell. According to Hesiod, + + The wafting waves + First bore her to Cythera the divine: + To wave-encircled Cyprus came she then, + And forth emerged, a goddess, in the charms + Of awful beauty. Where her delicate feet + Had pressed the sands, green herbage flowering sprang. + Her Aphrodite gods and mortals name, + The foam-born goddess; and her name is known + As Cytherea with the blooming wreath, + For that she touched Cythera's flowery coast; + And Cypris, for that on the Cyprian shore + She rose, amid the multitude of waves. _Elton's translation_. + +The animals sacred to Aphrodite included the sparrow, the dove, the +swan, the swallow, and the wryneck.[477] She presided over the month +of April, and the myrtle, rose, poppy, and apple were sacred to her. + +Some writers connect Semiramis, in her character as a dove goddess, +with Media and the old Persian mother goddess Anaitis, and regard as +arbitrary her identification with the fish goddess Derceto or +Atargatis. The dove was certainly not a popular bird in the religious +art of Babylonia and Assyria, but in one of the hymns translated by +Professor Pinches Ishtar says, "Like a lonely dove I rest". In another +the worshipper tries to touch Ishtar's heart by crying, "Like the dove +I moan". A Sumerian psalmist makes a goddess (Gula, who presided over +Larak, a part of Isin) lament over the city after it was captured by +the enemy: + + My temple E-aste, temple of Larak, + Larak the city which Bel Enlil gave, + Beneath are turned to strangeness, above are turned to + strangeness, + With wailings on the lyre my dwelling-place is surrendered to the + stranger, + _The dove cots they wickedly seized, the doves they entrapped_.... + The ravens he (Enlil) caused to fly.[478] + +Apparently there were temple and household doves in Babylonia. The +Egyptians had their household dovecots in ancient as in modern times. +Lane makes reference to the large pigeon houses in many villages. They +are of archaic pattern, "with the walls slightly inclining inwards +(like many of the ancient Egyptian buildings)", and are "constructed +upon the roofs of the huts with crude brick, pottery, and mud.... Each +pair of pigeons occupies a separate (earthen) pot."[479] It may be +that the dove bulked more prominently in domestic than in official +religion, and had a special seasonal significance. Ishtar appears to +have had a dove form. In the Gilgamesh epic she is said to have loved +the "brilliant Allalu bird" (the "bright-coloured wood pigeon", +according to Sayce), and to have afterwards wounded it by breaking its +wings.[480] She also loved the lion and the horse, and must therefore +have assumed the forms of these animals. The goddess Bau, "she whose +city is destroyed", laments in a Sumerian psalm: + + Like a dove to its dwelling-place, how long to my dwelling-place + will they pursue me, + To my sanctuary ... the sacred place they pursue me.... + My resting place, the brick walls of my city Isin, thou art + destroyed; + My sanctuary, shrine of my temple Galmah, thou art destroyed. + + _Langdon's translation._ + +Here the goddess appears to be identified with the doves which rest on +the walls and make their nests in the shrine. The Sumerian poets did +not adorn their poems with meaningless picturesque imagery; their +images were stern facts; they had a magical or religious significance +like the imagery of magical incantations; the worshipper invoked the +deity by naming his or her various attributes, forms, &c. + +Of special interest are the references in Sumerian psalms to the +ravens as well as the doves of goddesses. Throughout Asia and Europe +ravens are birds of ill omen. In Scotland there still linger curious +folk beliefs regarding the appearance of ravens and doves after death. +Michael Scott, the great magician, when on his deathbed told his +friends to place his body on a hillock. "Three ravens and three doves +would be seen flying towards it. If the ravens were first the body was +to be burned, but if the doves were first it was to receive Christian +burial. The ravens were foremost, but in their hurry flew beyond their +mark. So the devil, who had long been preparing a bed for Michael, was +disappointed."[481] + +In Indian mythology Purusha, the chaos giant, first divided himself. +"Hence were husband and wife produced." This couple then assumed +various animal forms and thus "created every living pair whatsoever +down to the ants".[482] Goddesses and fairies in the folk tales of +many countries sometimes assume bird forms. The "Fates" appear to +Damayanti in the Nala story as swans which carry love messages.[483] + +According to Aryo-Indian belief, birds were "blessed with fecundity". +The Babylonian Etana eagle and the Egyptian vulture, as has been +indicated, were deities of fertility. Throughout Europe birds, which +were "Fates", mated, according to popular belief, on St. Valentine's +Day in February, when lots were drawn for wives by rural folks. +Another form of the old custom is referred to by the poet Gay:-- + + Last Valentine, the day when birds of kind + Their paramours with mutual chirpings find, + I early rose.... + Thee first I spied, and the first swain we see, + In spite of fortune, shall our true love be. + +The dove appears to have been a sacred bird in various areas occupied +by tribes of the Mediterranean race. Models of a shrine found in two +royal graves at Mycenae are surmounted by a pair of doves, suggesting +twin goddesses like Isis and Nepthys of Egypt and Ishtar and +Belitsheri of Babylonia. Doves and snakes were associated with the +mother goddess of Crete, "typifying", according to one view, "her +connection with air and earth. Although her character was distinctly +beneficent and pacific, yet as Lady of the Wild Creatures she had a +more fearful aspect, one that was often depicted on carved gems, where +lions are her companions."[484] Discussing the attributes and symbols +of this mother goddess, Professor Burrows says: "As the serpent, +coming from the crevices of the earth, shows the possession of the +tree or pillar from the underworld, so the dove, with which this +goddess is also associated, shows its possession from the world of the +sky".[485] Professor Robertson Smith has demonstrated that the dove +was of great sanctity among the Semites.[486] It figures in Hittite +sculptures and was probably connected with the goddess cult in Asia +Minor. Although Egypt had no dove goddess, the bird was addressed by +lovers-- + + I hear thy voice, O turtle dove-- + The dawn is all aglow-- + Weary am I with love, with love, + Oh, whither shall I go?[487] + +Pigeons, as indicated, are in Egypt still regarded as sacred birds, +and a few years ago British soldiers created a riot by shooting them. +Doves were connected with the ancient Greek oracle at Dodona. In many +countries the dove is closely associated with love, and also +symbolizes innocence, gentleness, and holiness. + +The pigeon was anciently, it would appear, a sacred bird in these +islands, and Brand has recorded curious folk beliefs connected with +it. In some districts the idea prevailed that no person could die on a +bed which contained pigeon feathers: "If anybody be sick and lye a +dying, if they lye upon pigeon feathers they will be languishing and +never die, but be in pain and torment," wrote a correspondent. A +similar superstition about the feathers of different varieties of wild +fowl[488] obtained in other districts. Brand traced this interesting +traditional belief in Yorkshire, Lancashire, Derbyshire, and some of +the Welsh and Irish counties.[489] It still lingers in parts of the +Scottish Highlands. In the old ballad of "The Bloody Gardener" the +white dove appears to a young man as the soul of his lady love who was +murdered by his mother. He first saw the bird perched on his breast +and then "sitting on a myrtle tree".[490] + +The dove was not only a symbol of Semiramis, but also of her mother +Derceto, the Phoenician fish goddess. The connection between bird and +fish may have been given an astral significance. In "Poor Robin's +Almanack" for 1757 a St. Valentine rhyme begins:-- + + This month bright Phoebus enters Pisces, + The maids will have good store of kisses, + For always when the sun comes there, + Valentine's day is drawing near, + And both the men and maids incline + To choose them each a Valentine. + +As we have seen, the example was set by the mating birds. The +"Almanack" poet no doubt versified an old astrological belief: when +the spring sun entered the sign of the Fishes, the love goddess in +bird form returned to earth. + +Advocates of the Totemic theory, on the other hand, may hold that the +association of doves with snake goddesses and fish goddesses of +fertility was due to the fusion of tribes who had various animal +totems. "The Pelew Islanders believed", says Professor Frazer, "that +the souls of their forefathers lived in certain species of animals, +which accordingly they held sacred and would not injure. For this +reason one man would not kill snakes, another would not harm pigeons, +and so on; but everyone was quite ready to kill and eat the sacred +animals of his neighbours."[491] That the Egyptians had similar +customs is suggested by what Herodotus tells us regarding their sacred +animals: "Those who live near Thebes and the lake Moeris hold the +crocodile in religious veneration.... Those who live in or near +Elephantine, so far from considering these beasts as sacred, make them +an article of food.... The hippopotamus is esteemed sacred in the +district of Papremis, but in no other part of Egypt.... They roast and +boil ... birds and fishes ... excepting those which are preserved for +sacred purposes."[492] Totemic animals controlled the destinies of +tribes and families. "Grose tells us", says Brand, "that, besides +general notices of death, many families have particular warnings or +notices: some by the appearance of a bird, and others by the figure of +a tall woman, dressed all in white.... Pennant says that many of the +great families in Scotland had their demon or genius, who gave them +monitions of future events."[493] Members of tribes which venerated +the pigeon therefore invoked it like the Egyptian love poet and drew +omens from its notes, or saw one appearing as the soul of the dead +like the lover in the ballad of "The Bloody Gardener". They refrained +also from killing the pigeon except sacrificially, and suffered +agonies on a deathbed which contained pigeon feathers, the "taboo" +having been broken. + +Some such explanation is necessary to account for the specialization +of certain goddesses as fish, snake, cat, or bird deities. Aphrodite, +who like Ishtar absorbed the attributes of several goddesses of +fertility and fate, had attached to her the various animal symbols +which were prominent in districts or among tribes brought into close +contact, while the poppy, rose, myrtle, &c., which were used as love +charms, or for making love potions, were also consecrated to her. +Anthropomorphic deities were decorated with the symbols and flowers of +folk religion. + +From the comparative evidence accumulated here, it will be seen that +the theory of the mythical Semiramis's Median or Persian origin is +somewhat narrow. It is possible that the dove was venerated in Cyprus, +as it certainly was in Crete, long centuries before Assyrian and +Babylonian influence filtered westward through Phoenician and Hittite +channels. In another connection Sir Arthur Evans shows that the +resemblance between Cretan and early Semitic beliefs "points rather to +some remote common element, the nature of which is at present obscure, +than to any definite borrowing by one side or another".[494] + +From the evidence afforded by the Semiramis legends and the +inscriptions of the latter half of the Assyrian Middle Empire period, +it may be inferred that a renascence of "mother worship" was favoured +by the social and political changes which were taking place. In the +first place the influence of Babylon must have been strongly felt in +this connection. The fact that Adadnirari found it necessary to win +the support of the Babylonians by proclaiming his descent from one of +their ancient royal families, suggests that he was not only concerned +about the attitude assumed by the scholars of the southern kingdom, +but also that of the masses of old Sumerian and Akkadian stocks who +continued to bake cakes to the Queen of Heaven so as to ensure good +harvests. In the second place it is not improbable that even in +Assyria the introduction of Nebo and his spouse made widespread +appeal. That country had become largely peopled by an alien +population; many of these aliens came from districts where "mother +worship" prevailed, and had no traditional respect for Ashur, while +they regarded with hostility the military aristocracy who conquered +and ruled in the name of that dreaded deity. Perhaps, too, the +influence of the Aramaeans, who in Babylonia wrecked the temples of +the sun god, tended to revive the ancient religion of the +Mediterranean race. Jehu's religious revolt in Israel, which +established once again the cult of Ashtoreth, occurred after he came +under the sway of Damascus, and may have not been unconnected with the +political ascendancy elsewhere of the goddess cult. + +Nebo, whom Adad-nirari exalted at Kalkhi, was more than a local god of +Borsippa. "The most satisfactory view", says Jastrow, "is to regard +him as a counterpart of Ea. Like Ea, he is the embodiment and source +of wisdom.... The study of the heavens formed part of the wisdom which +is traced back to Nebo, and the temple school at Borsippa became one +of the chief centres for the astrological, and, subsequently, for the +astronomical lore of Babylonia.... Like Nebo, Ea is also associated +with the irrigation of the fields and with their consequent fertility. +A hymn praises him as the one who fills the canals and the dikes, who +protects the fields and brings the crops to maturity." Nebo links with +Merodach (Marduk), who is sometimes referred to as his father. Jastrow +assumes that the close partnership between Nebo and Merodach "had as a +consequence a transfer of some of the father Marduk's attributes as a +solar deity to Nebo,[495] his son, just as Ea passed his traits on to +his son, Marduk".[496] + +As the "recorder" or "scribe" among the gods, Nebo resembles the +Egyptian god Thoth, who links with Khonsu, the lunar and spring sun +god of love and fertility, and with Osiris. In Borsippa he had, like +Merodach in Babylon, pronounced Tammuz traits. Nebo, in fact, appears +to be the Tammuz of the new age, the son of the ancient goddess, who +became "Husband of his Mother". If Nebo had no connection with Great +Mother worship, it is unlikely that his statue would have borne an +inscription referring to King Adad-nirari and Queen Sammu-rammat on +equal terms. The Assyrian spouse of Nebo was called Tashmit. This +"goddess of supplication and love" had a lunar significance. A prayer +addressed to her in association with Nannar (Sin) and Ishtar, +proceeds: + + In the evil of the eclipse of the moon which ... has taken place, + In the evil of the powers, of the portents, evil and not good, + which are in my palace and my land, + (I) have turned towards thee!... + Before Nabu (Nebo) thy spouse, thy lord, the prince, the + first-born of E-sagila, intercede for me! + May he hearken to my cry at the word of thy mouth; may he remove + my sighing, may he learn my supplication! + +Damkina is similarly addressed in another prayer: + + O Damkina, mighty queen of all the gods, + O wife of Ea, valiant art thou, + O Ir-nina, mighty queen of all the gods ... + Thou that dwellest in the Abyss, O lady of heaven and earth!... + In the evil of the eclipse of the moon, etc. + +Bau is also prayed in a similar connection as "mighty lady that +dwellest in the bright heavens", i.e. "Queen of heaven".[497] + +Tashmit, whose name signifies "Obedience", according to Jastrow, or +"Hearing", according to Sayce, carried the prayers of worshippers to +Nebo, her spouse. As Isis interceded with Osiris, she interceded with +Nebo, on behalf of mankind. But this did not signify that she was the +least influential of the divine pair. A goddess played many parts: she +was at once mother, daughter, and wife of the god; the servant of one +god or the "mighty queen of all the gods". The Great Mother was, as +has been indicated, regarded as the eternal and undecaying one; the +gods passed away, son succeeding father; she alone remained. Thus, +too, did Semiramis survive in the popular memory, as the queen-goddess +of widespread legends, after kings and gods had been forgotten. To her +was ascribed all the mighty works of other days in the lands where the +indigenous peoples first worshipped the Great Mother as Damkina, Nina, +Bau, Ishtar, or Tashmit, because the goddess was anciently believed to +be the First Cause, the creatrix, the mighty one who invested the +ruling god with the powers he possessed--the god who held sway because +he was her husband, as did Nergal as the husband of Eresh-ki-gal, +queen of Hades. + +The multiplication of well-defined goddesses was partly due to the +tendency to symbolize the attributes of the Great Mother, and partly +due to the development of the great "Lady" in a particular district +where she reflected local phenomena and where the political influence +achieved by her worshippers emphasized her greatness. Legends +regarding a famous goddess were in time attached to other goddesses, +and in Aphrodite and Derceto we appear to have mother deities who +absorbed the traditions of more than one local "lady" of river and +plain, forest and mountain. Semiramis, on the other hand, survived as +a link between the old world and the new, between the country from +which emanated the stream of ancient culture and the regions which +received it. As the high priestess of the cult, she became identified +with the goddess whose bird name she bore, as Gilgamesh and Etana +became identified with the primitive culture-hero or patriarch of the +ancient Sumerians, and Sargon became identified with Tammuz. No doubt +the fame of Semiramis was specially emphasized because of her close +association, as Queen Sammu-rammat, with the religious innovations +which disturbed the land of the god Ashur during the Middle Empire +period. + +Adad-nirari IV, the son or husband of Sammu-rammat, was a vigorous and +successful campaigner. He was the Assyrian king who became the +"saviour" of Israel. Although it is not possible to give a detailed +account of his various expeditions, we find from the list of these +which survives in the Eponym Chronicle that he included in the +Assyrian Empire a larger extent of territory than any of his +predecessors. In the north-east he overcame the Median and other +tribes, and acquired a large portion of the Iranian plateau; he +compelled Edom to pay tribute, and established his hold in Babylonia +by restricting the power of the Chaldaeans in Sealand. In the north he +swayed--at least, so he claimed--the wide domains of the Nairi people. +He also confirmed his supremacy over the Hittites. + +The Aramaean state of Damascus, which had withstood the attack of the +great Shalmaneser and afterwards oppressed, as we have seen, the +kingdoms of Israel and Judah, was completely overpowered by +Adad-nirari. The old king, Hazael, died when Assyria's power was being +strengthened and increased along his frontiers. He was succeeded by +his son Mari, who is believed to be identical with the Biblical +Ben-Hadad III.[498] + +Shortly after this new monarch came to the throne, Adad-nirari IV led +a great army against him. The Syrian ruler appears to have been taken +by surprise; probably his kingdom was suffering from the three defeats +which had been previously administered by the revolting +Israelites.[499] At any rate Mari was unable to gather together an +army of allies to resist the Assyrian advance, and took refuge behind +the walls of Damascus. This strongly fortified city was closely +invested, and Mari had at length to submit and acknowledge Adad-nirari +as his overlord. The price of peace included 23,000 talents of silver, +20 of gold, 3000 of copper, and 5000 of iron, as well as ivory +ornaments and furniture, embroidered materials, and other goods "to a +countless amount". Thus "the Lord gave Israel a saviour, so that they +went out from under the hand of the Syrians: and the children of +Israel dwelt in their tents, as beforetime". This significant +reference to the conquest of Damascus by the Assyrian king is followed +by another which throws light on the religious phenomena of the +period: "Nevertheless they departed not from the sins of the house of +Jeroboam, who made Israel sin, but walked therein: and there remained +the grove also in Samaria".[500] Ashtoreth and her golden calf +continued to be venerated, and doves were sacrificed to the local +Adonis. + +It is not certain whether Adad-nirari penetrated farther than +Damascus. Possibly all the states which owed allegiance to the king of +that city became at once the willing vassals of Assyria, their +protector. The tribute received by Adad-nirari from Tyre, Sidon, the +land of Omri (Israel), Edom, and Palastu (Philistia) may have been +gifted as a formal acknowledgment of his suzerainty and with purpose +to bring them directly under Assyrian control, so that Damascus might +be prevented from taking vengeance against them. + +Meagre details survive regarding the reign of the next king, +Shalmaneser IV (781-772 B.C). These are, however, supplemented by the +Urartian inscriptions. Although Adad-nirari boasted that he had +subdued the kingdom of Urartu in the north, he appears to have done no +more than limit its southern expansion for a time. + +The Urarti were, like the Mitanni, a military aristocracy[501] who +welded together by conquest the tribes of the eastern and northern +Highlands which several Assyrian monarchs included in their Empire. +They acquired the elements of Assyrian culture, and used the Assyrian +script for their own language. Their god was named Khaldis, and they +called their nation Khaldia. During the reign of Ashur-natsir-pal +their area of control was confined to the banks of the river Araxes, +but it was gradually extended under a succession of vigorous kings +towards the south-west until they became supreme round the shores of +Lake Van. Three of their early kings were Lutipris, Sharduris I, and +Arame. + +During the reign of Shamshi-Adad the Assyrians came into conflict with +the Urarti, who were governed at the time by "Ushpina of Nairi" +(Ishpuinis, son of Sharduris II). The Urartian kingdom had extended +rapidly and bordered on Assyrian territory. To the west were the +tribes known as the Mannai, the northern enemies of the Medes, a +people of Indo-European speech. + +When Adad-nirari IV waged war against the Urarti, their king was +Menuas, the son of Ishpuinis. Menuas was a great war-lord, and was +able to measure his strength against Assyria on equal terms. He had +nearly doubled by conquest the area controlled by his predecessors. +Adad-nirari endeavoured to drive his rival northward, but all along +the Assyrian frontier from the Euphrates to the Lower Zab, Menuas +forced the outposts of Adad-nirari to retreat southward. The +Assyrians, in short, were unable to hold their own. + +Having extended his kingdom towards the south, Menuas invaded Hittite +territory, subdued Malatia and compelled its king to pay tribute. He +also conquered the Mannai and other tribes. Towards the north and +north-west he added a considerable area to his kingdom, which became +as large as Assyria. + +Menuas's capital was the city of Turushpa or Dhuspas (Van), which was +called Khaldinas[502] after the national god. For a century it was the +seat of Urartian administration. The buildings erected there by Menuas +and his successors became associated in after-time with the traditions +of Semiramis, who, as Queen Sammu-rammat of Assyria, was a +contemporary of the great Urartian conqueror. Similarly a sculptured +representation of the Hittite god was referred to by Herodotus as a +memorial of the Egyptian king Sesostris. + +The strongest fortification at Dhuspas was the citadel, which was +erected on a rocky promontory jutting into Lake Van. A small garrison +could there resist a prolonged siege. The water supply of the city was +assured by the construction of subterranean aqueducts. Menuas erected +a magnificent palace, which rivalled that of the Assyrian monarch at +Kalkhi, and furnished it with the rich booty brought back from +victorious campaigns. He was a lover of trees and planted many, and he +laid out gardens which bloomed with brilliant Asian flowers. The +palace commanded a noble prospect of hill and valley scenery on the +south-western shore of beautiful Lake Van. + +Menuas was succeeded by his son Argistis, who ascended the throne +during the lifetime of Adad-nirari of Assyria. During the early part +of his reign he conducted military expeditions to the north beyond the +river Araxes. He afterwards came into conflict with Assyria, and +acquired more territory on its northern frontier. He also subdued the +Mannai, who had risen in revolt. + +For three years (781-778 B.C.) the general of Shalmaneser IV waged war +constantly with Urartu, and again in 776 B.C. and 774 B.C. attempts +were made to prevent the southern expansion of that Power. On more +than one occasion the Assyrians were defeated and compelled to +retreat. + +Assyria suffered serious loss of prestige on account of its inability +to hold in check its northern rival. Damascus rose in revolt and had +to be subdued, and northern Syria was greatly disturbed. Hadrach was +visited in the last year of the king's reign. + +Ashur-dan III (771-763 B.C.) occupied the Assyrian throne during a +period of great unrest. He was unable to attack Urartu. His army had +to operate instead on his eastern and southern frontiers. A great +plague broke out in 765 B.C., the year in which Hadrach had again to +be dealt with. On June 15, 763 B.C., there was a total eclipse of the +sun, and that dread event was followed by a revolt at Asshur which was +no doubt of priestly origin. The king's son Adad-nirari was involved +in it, but it is not certain whether or not he displaced his father +for a time. In 758 B.C. Ashur-dan again showed signs of activity by +endeavouring to suppress the revolts which during the period of civil +war had broken out in Syria. + +Adad-nirari V came to the throne in 763 B.C. He had to deal with +revolts in Asshur in other cities. Indeed for the greater part of his +reign he seems to have been kept fully engaged endeavouring to +establish his authority within the Assyrian borders. The Syrian +provinces regained their independence. + +During the first four years of his successor Ashurnirari IV (753-746 +B.C.) the army never left Assyria. Namri was visited in 749-748 B.C., +but it is not certain whether he fought against the Urartians, or the +Aramaeans who had become active during this period of Assyrian +decline. In 746 B.C. a revolt broke out in the city of Kalkhi and the +king had to leave it. Soon afterwards he died--perhaps he was +assassinated--and none of his sons came to the throne. A year +previously Nabu-natsir, known to the Greeks as Nabonassar, was crowned +king of Babylonia. + +Ashur-nirari IV appears to have been a monarch of somewhat like +character to the famous Akhenaton of Egypt--an idealist for whom war +had no attractions. He kept his army at home while his foreign +possessions rose in revolt one after another. Apparently he had dreams +of guarding Assyria against attack by means of treaties of peace. He +arranged one with a Mesopotamian king, Mati-ilu of Agusi, who pledged +himself not to go to war without the consent of his Assyrian overlord, +and it is possible that there were other documents of like character +which have not survived to us. During his leisure hours the king +engaged himself in studious pursuits and made additions to the royal +library. In the end his disappointed soldiers found a worthy leader in +one of its generals who seized the throne and assumed the royal name +of Tiglath-pileser. + +Ashur-nirari IV was the last king of the Middle Empire of Assyria. He +may have been a man of high character and refinement and worthy of our +esteem, although an unsuitable ruler for a predatory State. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +ASSYRIA'S AGE OF SPLENDOUR + + + Tiglath-pileser IV, the Biblical Pul--Babylonian Campaign--Urartian + Ambitions in North Syria--Battle of Two Kings and Flight of + Sharduris--Conquest of Syro-Cappadocian States--Hebrew History from + Jehu to Menahem--Israel subject to Assyria--Urartu's Power + broken--Ahaz's Appeal to Assyria--Damascus and Israel + subdued--Babylonia united to Assyria--Shalmaneser and Hoshea--Sargon + deports the "Lost Ten Tribes"--Merodach Baladan King of + Babylonia--Egyptian Army of Allies routed--Ahaz and Isaiah--Frontier + Campaigns--Merodach Baladan overthrown--Sennacherib and the Hittite + States--Merodach Baladan's second and brief Reign--Hezekiah and + Sennacherib--Destruction of Assyrian Army--Sack of Babylon-- + Esarhaddon--A Second Semiramis--Raids of Elamites, Cimmerians, + Scythians, and Medes--Sack of Sidon--Manasseh and Isaiah's + Fate--Esarhaddon conquers Lower Egypt--Revolt of Assyrian + Nobles--Ashurbanipal. + + +We now enter upon the last and most brilliant phase of Assyrian +civilization--the period of the Third or New Empire during which +flourished Tiglath-pileser IV, the mighty conqueror; the Shalmaneser +of the Bible; "Sargon the Later", who transported the "lost ten +tribes" of Israel; Sennacherib, the destroyer of Babylon, and +Esarhaddon, who made Lower Egypt an Assyrian province. We also meet +with notable figures of Biblical fame, including Ahaz, Hezekiah, +Isaiah, and the idolatrous Manasseh. + +Tiglath-pileser IV, who deposed Ashur-nirari IV, was known to the +Babylonians as Pulu, which, some think, was a term of contempt +signifying "wild animal". In the Bible he is referred to as Pul, +Tiglath-pilneser, and Tiglath-pileser.[503] He came to the Assyrian +throne towards the end of April in 745 B.C. and reigned until 727 B.C. +We know nothing regarding his origin, but it seems clear that he was +not of royal descent. He appears to have been a popular leader of the +revolt against Ashur-nirari, who, like certain of his predecessors, +had pronounced pro-Babylonian tendencies. It is significant to note in +this connection that the new king was an unswerving adherent of the +cult of Ashur, by the adherents of which he was probably strongly +supported. + +Tiglath-pileser combined in equal measure those qualities of +generalship and statesmanship which were necessary for the +reorganization of the Assyrian state and the revival of its military +prestige. At the beginning of his reign there was much social +discontent and suffering. The national exchequer had been exhausted by +the loss of tribute from revolting provinces, trade was paralysed, and +the industries were in a languishing condition. Plundering bands of +Aramaeans were menacing the western frontiers and had overrun part of +northern Babylonia. New political confederacies in Syria kept the +north-west regions in a constant state of unrest, and the now powerful +Urartian kingdom was threatening the Syro-Cappadocian states as if its +rulers had dreams of building up a great world empire on the ruins of +that of Assyria. + +Tiglath-pileser first paid attention to Babylonia, and extinguished +the resistance of the Aramaeans in Akkad. He appears to have been +welcomed by Nabonassar, who became his vassal, and he offered +sacrifices in the cities of Babylon, Sippar, Cuthah, and Nippur. +Sippar had been occupied by Aramaeans, as on a previous occasion when +they destroyed the temple of the sun god Shamash which was restored by +Nabu-aplu-iddina of Babylon. + +Tiglath-pileser did not overrun Chaldaea, but he destroyed its +capital, Sarrabanu, and impaled King Nabu-ushabshi. He proclaimed +himself "King of Sumer and Akkad" and "King of the Four Quarters". The +frontier states of Elam and Media were visited and subdued. + +Having disposed of the Aramaeans and other raiders, the Assyrian +monarch had next to deal with his most powerful rival, Urartu. +Argistis I had been succeeded by Sharduris III, who had formed an +alliance with the north Mesopotamian king, Mati-ilu of Agusi, on whom +Ashur-nirari had reposed his faith. Ere long Sharduris pressed +southward from Malatia and compelled the north Syrian Hittite states, +including Carchemish, to acknowledge his suzerainty. A struggle then +ensued between Urartu and Assyria for the possession of the +Syro-Cappadocian states. + +At this time the reputation of Tiglath-pileser hung in the balance. If +he failed in his attack on Urartu, his prestige would vanish at home +and abroad and Sharduris might, after establishing himself in northern +Syria, invade Assyria and compel its allegiance. + +Two courses lay before Tiglath-pileser. He could either cross the +mountains and invade Urartu, or strike at his rival in north Syria, +where the influence of Assyria had been completely extinguished. The +latter appeared to him to be the most feasible and judicious +procedure, for if he succeeded in expelling the invaders he would at +the same time compel the allegiance of the rebellious Hittite states. + +In the spring of 743 B.C. Tiglath-pileser led his army across the +Euphrates and reached Arpad without meeting with any resistance. The +city appears to have opened its gates to him although it was in the +kingdom of Mati-ilu, who acknowledged Urartian sway. Its foreign +garrison was slaughtered. Well might Sharduris exclaim, in the words +of the prophet, "Where is the king of Arpad? where are the gods of +Arpad?"[504] + +Leaving Arpad, Tiglath-pileser advanced to meet Sharduris, who was +apparently hastening southward to attack the Assyrians in the rear. +Tiglath-pileser, however, crossed the Euphrates and, moving northward, +delivered an unexpected attack on the Urartian army in Qummukh. A +fierce battle ensued, and one of its dramatic incidents was a single +combat between the rival kings. The tide of battle flowed in Assyria's +favour, and when evening was falling the chariots and cavalry of +Urartu were thrown into confusion. An attempt was made to capture King +Sharduris, who leapt from his chariot and made hasty escape on +horseback, hotly pursued in the gathering darkness by an Assyrian +contingent of cavalry. Not until "the bridge of the Euphrates" was +reached was the exciting night chase abandoned. + +Tiglath-pileser had achieved an overwhelming victory against an army +superior to his own in numbers. Over 70,000 of the enemy were slain or +taken captive, while the Urartian camp with its stores and horses and +followers fell into the hands of the triumphant Assyrians. +Tiglath-pileser burned the royal tent and throne as an offering to +Ashur, and carried Sharduris's bed to the temple of the goddess of +Nineveh, whither he returned to prepare a new plan of campaign against +his northern rival. + +Despite the blow dealt against Urartu, Assyria did not immediately +regain possession of north Syria. The shifty Mati-ilu either cherished +the hope that Sharduris would recover strength and again invade north +Syria, or that he might himself establish an empire in that region. +Tiglath-pileser had therefore to march westward again. For three years +he conducted vigorous campaigns in "the western land", where he met +with vigorous resistance. In 740 B.C. Arpad was captured and Mati-ilu +deposed and probably put to death. Two years later Kullani and Hamath +fell, and the districts which they controlled were included in the +Assyrian empire and governed by Crown officials. + +Once again the Hebrews came into contact with Assyria. The Dynasty of +Jehu had come to an end by this time. Its fall may not have been +unconnected with the trend of events in Assyria during the closing +years of the Middle Empire. + +Supported by Assyria, the kings of Israel had become powerful and +haughty. Jehoash, the grandson of Jehu, had achieved successes in +conflict with Damascus. In Judah the unstable Amaziah, son of Joash, +was strong enough to lay a heavy hand on Edom, and flushed with +triumph then resolved to readjust his relations with his overlord, the +king of Israel. Accordingly he sent a communication to Jehoash which +contained some proposal regarding their political relations, +concluding with the offer or challenge, "Come, let us look one another +in the face". A contemptuous answer was returned. + + Jehoash the king of Israel sent to Amaziah king of Judah, saying, + The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in + Lebanon, saying, Give thy daughter to my son to wife: and there + passed by a wild beast that was in Lebanon, and trode down the + thistle. Thou hast indeed smitten Edom, and thine heart hath + lifted thee up: glory of this, and tarry at home, for why + shouldest thou meddle to thy hurt, that thou shouldest fall, even + thou, and Judah with thee? But Amaziah would not hear. Therefore + Jehoash king of Israel went up; and he and Amaziah king of Judah + looked one another in the face at Beth-shemesh [city of Shamash, + the sun god], which belongeth to Judah. And Judah was put to the + worse before Israel; and they fled every man to their tents. + +Jehoash afterwards destroyed a large portion of the wall of Jerusalem +and plundered the temple and palace, returning home to Samaria with +rich booty and hostages.[505] Judah thus remained a vassal state of +Israel's. + +Jeroboam, son of Jehoash, had a long and prosperous reign. About 773 +B.C. he appears to have co-operated with Assyria and conquered +Damascus and Hamath. His son Zachariah, the last king of the Jehu +Dynasty of Israel, came to the throne in 740 B.C. towards the close of +the reign of Azariah, son of Amaziah, king of Judah. Six months +afterwards he was assassinated by Shallum. This usurper held sway at +Samaria for only a month. "For Menahem the son of Gadi went up from +Tirzah, and came to Samaria, and smote Shallum the son of Jabesh in +Samaria, and slew him, and reigned in his stead."[506] + +Tiglath-pileser was operating successfully in middle Syria when he had +dealings with, among others, "Menihimme (Menahem) of the city of the +Samarians", who paid tribute. No resistance was possible on the part +of Menahem, the usurper, who was probably ready to welcome the +Assyrian conqueror, so that, by arranging an alliance, he might secure +his own position. The Biblical reference is as follows: "And Pul the +king of Assyria came against the land: and Menahem gave Pul a thousand +talents of silver, that his hand might be with him to confirm the +kingdom in his hand. And Menahem exacted the money of Israel, even of +all the mighty men of wealth, of each man fifty shekels of silver, to +give to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria turned back, and +stayed not there in the land."[507] Rezin of Damascus, Hiram of Tyre, +and Zabibi, queen of the Arabians, also sent gifts to Tiglath-pileser +at this time (738 B.C.). Aramaean revolts on the borders of Elam were +suppressed by Assyrian governors, and large numbers of the inhabitants +were transported to various places in Syria. + +Tiglath-pileser next operated against the Median and other hill tribes +in the north-east. In 735 B.C. he invaded Urartu, the great Armenian +state which had threatened the supremacy of Assyria in north Syria and +Cappadocia. King Sharduris was unable to protect his frontier or +hamper the progress of the advancing army, which penetrated to his +capital. Dhuspas was soon captured, but Sharduris took refuge in his +rocky citadel which he and his predecessors had laboured to render +impregnable. There he was able to defy the might of Assyria, for the +fortress could be approached on the western side alone by a narrow +path between high walls and towers, so that only a small force could +find room to operate against the numerous garrison. + +Tiglath-pileser had to content himself by devastating the city on the +plain and the neighbouring villages. He overthrew buildings, destroyed +orchards, and transported to Nineveh those of the inhabitants he had +not put to the sword, with all the live stock he could lay hands on. +Thus was Urartu crippled and humiliated: it never regained its former +prestige among the northern states. + +In the following year Tiglath-pileser returned to Syria. The +circumstances which made this expedition necessary are of special +interest on account of its Biblical associations. Menahem, king of +Israel, had died, and was succeeded by his son Pekahiah. "But Pekah +the son of Remaliah, a captain of his, conspired against him and smote +him in Samaria, in the palace of the king's house, ... and he killed +him, and reigned in his room."[508] When Pekah was on the throne, Ahaz +began to reign over Judah. + +Judah had taken advantage of the disturbed conditions in Israel to +assert its independence. The walls of Jerusalem were repaired by +Jotham, father of Ahaz, and a tunnel constructed to supply it with +water. Isaiah refers to this tunnel: "Go forth and meet Ahaz ... at +the end of the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the +fuller's field" (_Isaiah_, vii, 3). + +Pekah had to deal with a powerful party in Israel which favoured the +re-establishment of David's kingdom in Palestine. Their most prominent +leader was the prophet Amos, whose eloquent exhortations were couched +in no uncertain terms. He condemned Israel for its idolatries, and +cried: + + For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me and + ye shall live.... Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings + in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? But ye have + borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the + star of your god, which ye made to yourselves.[509] + +Pekah sought to extinguish the orthodox party's movement by subduing +Judah. So he plotted with Rezin, king of Damascus. Amos prophesied, + + Thus saith the Lord.... I will send a fire into the house of + Hazael, which will devour the palaces of Ben-hadad. I will break + also the bar of Damascus ... and the people of Syria shall go into + captivity unto Kir.... The remnant of the Philistines shall + perish. + +Tyre, Edom, and Ammon would also be punished.[510] Judah was +completely isolated by the allies who acknowledged the suzerainty of +Damascus. Soon after Ahaz came to the throne he found himself hemmed +in on every side by adversaries who desired to accomplish his fall. +"At that time Rezin, king of Syria, and Pekah ...came up to Jerusalem +to war: and they besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome him."[511] +Judah, however, was overrun; the city of Elath was captured and +restored to Edom, while the Philistines were liberated from the +control of Jerusalem. + +Isaiah visited Ahaz and said, + + Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be faint-hearted for + the two tails of these smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of + Rezin with Syria, and of the son of Remaliah. Because Syria, + Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have taken evil counsel against + thee, saying, Let us go up against Judah, and vex it, and let us + make a breach therein for us, and set a king in the midst of it, + even the son of Tabeal: Thus saith the Lord God, It shall not + stand, neither shall it come to pass.[512] + +The unstable Ahaz had sought assistance from the Baal, and "made his +son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the +heathen".[513] Then he resolved to purchase the sympathy of one of the +great Powers. There was no hope of assistance from "the fly that is in +the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt", for the Ethiopian Pharaohs +had not yet conquered the Delta region, so he turned to "the bee that +is in the land of Assyria".[514] Assyria was the last resource of the +king of Judah. + + So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, + saying, I am thy servant and thy son: come up and save me out of + the hand of Syria and out of the hand of the king of Israel, which + rise up against me. And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was + found in the house of the Lord, and in the treasures of the king's + house, and sent it for a present to the king of Assyria. And the + king of Assyria hearkened unto him: for the king of Assyria went + up against Damascus, and took it, and carried the people of it + captive to Kir[515] and slew Rezin.[516] + +Tiglath-pileser recorded that Rezin took refuge in his city like "a +mouse". Israel was also dealt with. + + In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglath-pileser king of + Assyria, and took Ijon and Abel-beth-maachah, and Janoah and + Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of + Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria. And Hoshea the son + of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remaliah, and + smote him, and slew him, and reigned in his stead.[517] + +Tiglath-pileser recorded: "They overthrew Paqaha (Pekah), their king, +and placed Ausi'a (Hoshea) over them". He swept through Israel "like a +hurricane". The Philistines and the Arabians of the desert were also +subdued. Tribute was sent to the Assyrian monarch by Phoenicia, Moab, +Ammon, and Edom. It was a proud day for Ahaz when he paid a visit to +Tiglath-pileser at Damascus.[518] An Assyrian governor was appointed +to rule over Syria and its subject states. + +Babylon next claimed the attention of Tiglath-pileser. Nabonassar had +died and was succeeded by his son Nabu-nadin-zeri, who, after reigning +for two years, was slain in a rebellion. The throne was then seized by +Nabu-shum-ukin, but in less than two months this usurper was +assassinated and the Chaldaeans had one of their chiefs, Ukinzer, +proclaimed king (732 B.C.). + +When the Assyrian king returned from Syria in 731 B.C. he invaded +Babylonia. He was met with a stubborn resistance. Ukinzer took refuge +in his capital, Shapia, which held out successfully, although the +surrounding country was ravaged and despoiled. Two years afterwards +Tiglath-pileser returned, captured Shapia, and restored peace +throughout Babylonia. He was welcomed in Babylon, which opened its +gates to him, and he had himself proclaimed king of Sumer and Akkad. +The Chaldaeans paid tribute. + +Tiglath-pileser had now reached the height of his ambition. He had not +only extended his empire in the west from Cappadocia to the river of +Egypt, crippled Urartu and pacified his eastern frontier, but brought +Assyria into close union with Babylonia, the mother land, the home of +culture and the land of the ancient gods. He did not live long, +however, to enjoy his final triumph, for he died a little over twelve +months after he "took the hands of Bel (Merodach)" at Babylon. + +He was succeeded by Shalmaneser V (727-722 B.C.), who may have been +his son, but this is not quite certain. Little is known regarding his +brief reign. In 725 B.C. he led an expedition to Syria and Phoenicia. +Several of the vassal peoples had revolted when they heard of the +death of Tiglath-pileser. These included the Phoenicians, the +Philistines, and the Israelites who were intriguing with either Egypt +or Mutsri. + +Apparently Hoshea, king of Israel, pretended when the Assyrians +entered his country that he remained friendly. Shalmaneser, however, +was well informed, and made Hoshea a prisoner. Samaria closed its +gates against him although their king had been dispatched to Assyria. + +The Biblical account of the campaign is as follows: "Against him +(Hoshea) came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria; and Hoshea became his +servant, and gave him presents. And the king of Assyria found +conspiracy in Hoshea: for he had sent messengers to So king of +Egypt,[519] and brought no present to the king of Assyria, as he had +done year by year; therefore the king of Assyria shut him up and bound +him in prison. + +"Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up +to Samaria, and besieged it three years."[520] + +Shalmaneser died before Samaria was captured, and may have been +assassinated. The next Assyrian monarch, Sargon II (722-705 B.C.), was +not related to either of his two predecessors. He is referred to by +Isaiah,[521] and is the Arkeanos of Ptolemy. He was the Assyrian +monarch who deported the "Lost Ten Tribes". + +"In the ninth year of Hoshea" (and the first of Sargon) "the king of +Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed +them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of +the Medes."[522] In all, according to Sargon's record, "27,290 people +dwelling in the midst of it (Samaria) I carried off". + + They (the Israelites) left all the commandments of the Lord their + God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a + grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven (the stars), and + served Baal. And they caused their sons and their daughters to + pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and + sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke + him to anger. Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and + removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe + of Judah only. And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, + and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from + Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of + the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in + the cities thereof.... And the men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, + and the men of Cuth (Cuthah) made Nergal, and the men of Hamath + made Ashima, and the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the + Sepharites burnt their children in fire to Adram-melech and + Anam-melech, the gods of Sepharvaim. + +A number of the new settlers were slain by lions, and the king of +Assyria ordered that a Samaritan priest should be sent to "teach them +the manner of the God of the land". This man was evidently an orthodox +Hebrew, for he taught them "how they should fear the Lord.... So they +feared the Lord", but also "served their own gods ... their graven +images".[523] + +There is no evidence to suggest that the "Ten Lost Tribes", "regarding +whom so many nonsensical theories have been formed", were not +ultimately absorbed by the peoples among whom they settled between +Mesopotamia and the Median Highlands.[524] The various sections must +have soon lost touch with one another. They were not united like the +Jews (the people of Judah), who were transported to Babylonia a +century and a half later, by a common religious bond, for although a +few remained faithful to Abraham's God, the majority of the Israelites +worshipped either the Baal or the Queen of Heaven. + +The Assyrian policy of transporting the rebellious inhabitants of one +part of their empire to another was intended to break their national +spirit and compel them to become good and faithful subjects amongst +the aliens, who must have disliked them. "The colonists," says +Professor Maspero, "exposed to the same hatred as the original +Assyrian conquerors, soon forgot to look upon the latter as the +oppressors of all, and, allowing their present grudge to efface the +memory of past injuries, did not hesitate to make common cause with +them. In time of peace the (Assyrian) governor did his best to protect +them against molestation on the part of the natives, and in return for +this they rallied round him whenever the latter threatened to get out +of hand, and helped him to stifle the revolt, or hold it in check +until the arrival of reinforcements. Thanks to their help, the empire +was consolidated and maintained without too many violent outbreaks in +regions far removed from the capital, and beyond the immediate reach +of the sovereign."[525] + +While Sargon was absent in the west, a revolt broke out in Babylonia. +A Chaldaean king, Merodach Baladan III, had allied himself with the +Elamites, and occupied Babylon. A battle was fought at Dur-ilu and the +Elamites retreated. Although Sargon swept triumphantly through the +land, he had to leave his rival, the tyrannous Chaldaean, in +possession of the capital, and he reigned there for over eleven years. + +Trouble was brewing in Syria. It was apparently fostered by an +Egyptian king--probably Bocchoris of Sais, the sole Pharaoh so far as +can be ascertained of the Twenty-fourth Dynasty, who had allied +himself with the local dynasts of Lower Egypt and apparently sought to +extend his sway into Asia, the Ethiopians being supreme in Upper +Egypt. An alliance had been formed to cast off the yoke of Assyria. +The city states involved Arpad, Simirra, Damascus, Samaria, and Gaza. +Hanno of Gaza had fled to Egypt after Tiglath-pileser came to the +relief of Judah and broke up the league of conspirators by capturing +Damascus, and punishing Samaria, Gaza, and other cities. His return in +Sargon's reign was evidently connected with the new rising in which he +took part. The throne of Hamath had been seized by an adventurer, +named Ilu-bi'di, a smith. The Philistines of Ashdod and the Arabians +being strongly pro-Egyptian in tendency, were willing sympathizers and +helpers against the hated Assyrians. + +Sargon appeared in the west with a strong army before the allies had +matured their plans. He met the smith king of Hamath in battle at +Qarqar, and, having defeated him, had him skinned alive. Then he +marched southward. At Rapiki (Raphia) he routed an army of allies. +Shabi (?So), the Tartan (commander-in-chief) of Pi'ru[526] (Pharaoh), +King of Mutsri (an Arabian state confused, perhaps, with Misraim = +Egypt), escaped "like to a shepherd whose sheep have been taken". Piru +and other two southern kings, Samsi and Itamara, afterwards paid +tribute to Sargon. Hanno of Gaza was transported to Asshur. + +In 715 B.C. Sargon, according to his records, appeared with his army +in Arabia, and received gifts in token of homage from Piru of Mutsri, +Samsi of Aribi, and Itamara of Saba. + +Four years later a revolt broke out in Ashdod which was, it would +appear, directly due to the influence of Shabaka, the Ethiopian +Pharaoh, who had deposed Bocchoris of Sais. Another league was about +to be formed against Assyria. King Azuri of Ashdod had been deposed +because of his Egyptian sympathies by the Assyrian governor, and his +brother Akhimiti was placed on the throne. The citizens, however, +overthrew Akhimiti, and an adventurer from Cyprus was proclaimed king +(711 B.C). + +It would appear that advances were made by the anti-Assyrians to Ahaz +of Judah. That monarch was placed in a difficult position. He knew +that if the allies succeeded in stamping out Assyrian authority in +Syria and Palestine they would certainly depose him, but if on the +other hand he joined them and Assyria triumphed, its emperor would +show him small mercy. As Babylon defied Sargon and received the active +support of Elam, and there were rumours of risings in the north, it +must have seemed to the western kings as if the Assyrian empire was +likely once again to go to pieces. + +Fortunately for Ahaz he had a wise counsellor at this time in the +great statesman and prophet, the scholarly Isaiah. The Lord spake by +Isaiah saying, "Go and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins, and put +off thy shoe from thy foot. And he did so, walking naked and barefoot. +And the Lord said, Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and +barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon +Ethiopia; so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians +prisoners.... And they (the allies) shall be afraid and ashamed of +Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory."[527] + +Isaiah warned Ahaz against joining the league, "in the year that +Tartan[528] came unto Ashdod (when Sargon the king of Assyria sent +him)". The Tartan "fought against Ashdod and took it".[529] According +to Sargon's record the Pretender of Ashdod fled to Arabia, where he +was seized by an Arabian chief and delivered up to Assyria. The +pro-Egyptian party in Palestine went under a cloud for a period +thereafter. + +Before Sargon could deal with Merodach Baladan of Babylon, he found it +necessary to pursue the arduous task of breaking up a powerful league +which had been formed against him in the north. The Syro-Cappadocian +Hittite states, including Tabal in Asia Minor and Carchemish in north +Syria, were combining for the last time against Assyria, supported by +Mita (Midas), king of the Muski-Phrygians, and Rusas, son of Sharduris +III, king of Urartu. + +Urartu had recovered somewhat from the disasters which it had suffered +at the hands of Tiglath-pileser, and was winning back portions of its +lost territory on the north-east frontier of Assyria. A buffer state +had been formed in that area by Tiglath-pileser, who had assisted the +king of the Mannai to weld together the hill tribesmen between Lake +Van and Lake Urmia into an organized nation. Iranzu, its ruler, +remained faithful to Assyria and consequently became involved in war +with Rusas of Urartu, who either captured or won over several cities +of the Mannai. Iranzu was succeeded by his son Aza, and this king was +so pronounced a pro-Assyrian that his pro-Urartian subjects +assassinated him and set on the throne Bagdatti of Umildish. + +Soon after Sargon began his operations in the north he captured +Bagdatti and had him skinned alive. The flag of revolt, however, was +kept flying by his brother, Ullusunu, but ere long this ambitious man +found it prudent to submit to Sargon on condition that he would retain +the throne as a faithful Assyrian vassal. His sudden change of policy +appears to have been due to the steady advance of the Median tribes +into the territory of the Mannai. Sargon conducted a vigorous and +successful campaign against the raiders, and extended Ullusunu's area +of control. + +The way was now clear to Urartu. In 714 B.C. Sargon attacked the +revolting king of Zikirtu, who was supported by an army led by Rusas, +his overlord. A fierce battle was fought in which the Assyrians +achieved a great victory. King Rusas fled, and when he found that the +Assyrians pressed home their triumph by laying waste the country +before them, he committed suicide, according to the Assyrian records, +although those of Urartu indicate that he subsequently took part in +the struggle against Sargon. The Armenian peoples were compelled to +acknowledge the suzerainty of Assyria, and the conqueror received +gifts from various tribes between Lake Van and the Caspian Sea, and +along the frontiers from Lake Van towards the south-east as far as the +borders of Elam. + +Rusas of Urartu was succeeded by Argistes II, who reigned over a +shrunken kingdom. He intrigued with neighbouring states against +Assyria, but was closely watched. Ere long he found himself caught +between two fires. During his reign the notorious Cimmerians and +Scythians displayed much activity in the north and raided his +territory. + +The pressure of fresh infusions of Thraco-Phrygian tribes into western +Asia Minor had stirred Midas of the Muski to co-operate with the +Urartian power in an attempt to stamp out Assyrian influence in +Cilicia, Cappadocia, and north Syria. A revolt in Tabal in 718 B.C. +was extinguished by Sargon, but in the following year evidences were +forthcoming of a more serious and widespread rising. Pisiris, king of +Carchemish, threw off the Assyrian yoke. Before, however, his allies +could hasten to his assistance he was overcome by the vigilant Sargon, +who deported a large proportion of the city's inhabitants and +incorporated it in an Assyrian province. Tabal revolted in 713 B.C. +and was similarly dealt with. In 712 B.C. Milid had to be overcome. +The inhabitants were transported, and "Suti" Aramaean peoples settled +in their homes. The king of Commagene, having remained faithful, +received large extensions of territory. Finally in 709 B.C. Midas of +the Muski-Phrygians was compelled to acknowledge the suzerainty of +Assyria. The northern confederacy was thus completely worsted and +broken up. Tribute was paid by many peoples, including the rulers of +Cyprus. + +Sargon was now able to deal with Babylonia, which for about twelve +years had been ruled by Merodach Baladan, who oppressed the people and +set at defiance ancient laws by seizing private estates and +transferring them to his Chaldaean kinsmen. He still received the +active support of Elam. + +Sargon's first move was to interpose his army between those of the +Babylonians and Elamites. Pushing southward, he subdued the Aramaeans +on the eastern banks of the Tigris, and drove the Elamites into the +mountains. Then he invaded middle Babylonia from the east. Merodach +Baladan hastily evacuated Babylon, and, moving southward, succeeded in +evading Sargon's army. Finding Elam was unable to help him, he took +refuge in the Chaldaean capital, Bit Jakin, in southern Babylonia. + +Sargon was visited by the priests of Babylon and Borsippa, and hailed +as the saviour of the ancient kingdom. He was afterwards proclaimed +king at E-sagila, where he "took the hands of Bel". Then having +expelled the Aramaeans from Sippar, he hastened southward, attacked +Bit Jakin and captured it. Merodach Baladan escaped into Elam. The +whole of Chaldaea was subdued. + +Thus "Sargon the Later" entered at length into full possession of the +empire of Sargon of Akkad. In Babylonia he posed as an incarnation of +his ancient namesake, and had similarly Messianic pretensions which +were no doubt inspired by the Babylonian priesthood. Under him Assyria +attained its highest degree of splendour. + +He recorded proudly not only his great conquests but also his works of +public utility: he restored ancient cities, irrigated vast tracts of +country, fostered trade, and promoted the industries. Like the pious +Pharaohs of Egypt he boasted that he fed the hungry and protected the +weak against the strong. + +Sargon found time during his strenuous career as a conqueror to lay +out and build a new city, called Dur-Sharrukin, "the burgh of Sargon", +to the north of Nineveh. It was completed before he undertook the +Babylonian campaign. The new palace was occupied in 708 B.C. Previous +to that period he had resided principally at Kalkhi, in the restored +palace of Ashur-natsir-pal III. + +He was a worshipper of many gods. Although he claimed to have restored +the supremacy of Asshur "which had come to an end", he not only adored +Ashur but also revived the ancient triad of Anu, Bel, and Ea, and +fostered the growth of the immemorial "mother-cult" of Ishtar. Before +he died he appointed one of his sons, Sennacherib, viceroy of the +northern portion of the empire. He was either assassinated at a +military review or in some frontier war. As much is suggested by the +following entry in an eponym list. + + Eponymy of Upahhir-belu, prefect of the city of Amedu ... + According to the oracle of the Kulummite(s).... A soldier + (entered) the camp of the king of Assyria (and killed him?), month + Ab, day 12th, Sennacherib (sat on the throne).[530] + +The fact that Sennacherib lamented his father's sins suggests that the +old king had in some manner offended the priesthood. Perhaps, like +some of the Middle Empire monarchs, he succumbed to the influence of +Babylon during the closing years of his life. It is stated that "he +was not buried in his house", which suggests that the customary +religious rites were denied him, and that his lost soul was supposed +to be a wanderer which had to eat offal and drink impure water like +the ghost of a pauper or a criminal. + +The task which lay before Sennacherib (705-680 B.C.) was to maintain +the unity of the great empire of his distinguished father. He waged +minor wars against the Kassite and Illipi tribes on the Elamite +border, and the Muski and Hittite tribes in Cappadocia and Cilicia. +The Kassites, however, were no longer of any importance, and the +Hittite power had been extinguished, for ere the states could recover +from the blows dealt by the Assyrians the Cimmerian hordes ravaged +their territory. Urartu was also overrun by the fierce barbarians from +the north. It was one of these last visits of the Assyrians to Tabal +of the Hittites and the land of the Muski (Meshech) which the Hebrew +prophet referred to in after-time when he exclaimed: + + Asshur is there and all her company: his graves are about him: + all of them slain, fallen by the sword.... There is Meshech, + Tubal, and all her multitude: her graves are round about him: all + of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword, though they caused + their terror in the land of the living.... (_Ezekiel_, xxxii.) + +Sennacherib found that Ionians had settled in Cilicia, and he deported +large numbers of them to Nineveh. The metal and ivory work at Nineveh +show traces of Greek influence after this period. + +A great conspiracy was fomented in several states against Sennacherib +when the intelligence of Sargon's death was bruited abroad. Egypt was +concerned in it. Taharka (the Biblical Tirhakah[531]), the last +Pharaoh of the Ethiopian Dynasty, had dreams of re-establishing +Egyptian supremacy in Palestine and Syria, and leagued himself with +Luli, king of Tyre, Hezekiah, king of Judah, and others. Merodach +Baladan, the Chaldaean king, whom Sargon had deposed, supported by +Elamites and Aramaeans, was also a party to the conspiracy. "At that +time Merodach Baladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent +letters and a present to Hezekiah.... And Hezekiah was glad of +them."[532] + +Merodach Baladan again seized the throne of Babylon. Sargon's son, who +had been appointed governor, was murdered and a pretender sat on the +throne for a brief period, but Merodach Baladan thrust him aside and +reigned for nine months, during which period he busied himself by +encouraging the kings of Judah and Tyre to revolt. Sennacherib invaded +Babylonia with a strong army, deposed Merodach Baladan, routed the +Chaldaeans and Aramaeans, and appointed as vassal king Bel-ibni, a +native prince, who remained faithful to Assyria for about three years. + +In 707 B.C. Sennacherib appeared in the west. When he approached Tyre, +Luli, the king, fled to Cyprus. The city was not captured, but much of +its territory was ceded to the king of Sidon. Askalon was afterwards +reduced. At Eltekeh Sennacherib came into conflict with an army of +allies, including Ethiopian, Egyptian, and Arabian Mutsri forces, +which he routed. Then he captured a number of cities in Judah and +transported 200,150 people. He was unable, however, to enter +Jerusalem, in which Hezekiah was compelled to remain "like a bird in a +cage". It appears that Hezekiah "bought off" the Assyrians on this +occasion with gifts of gold and silver and jewels, costly furniture, +musicians, and female slaves. + +In 689 B.C. Sennacherib found it necessary to penetrate Arabia. +Apparently another conspiracy was brewing, for Hezekiah again +revolted. On his return from the south--according to Berosus he had +been in Egypt--the Assyrian king marched against the king of Judah. + + And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib was come, and that he was + purposed to fight against Jerusalem, he took counsel with the + princes and his mighty men to stop the waters of the fountains + which were without the city: and they did help him.... Why should + the kings of Assyria come and find much water? + +Sennacherib sent messengers to Jerusalem to attempt to stir up the +people against Hezekiah. "He wrote also letters to rail on the Lord +God of Israel, and to speak against him, saying, As the gods of the +nations of other lands have not delivered their people out of mine +hand, so shall not the God of Hezekiah deliver his people out of mine +hand."[533] + +Hezekiah sent his servants to Isaiah, who was in Jerusalem at the +time, and the prophet said to them: + + Thus shall ye say to your master. Thus saith the Lord, Be not + afraid of the words which thou hast heard, with which the servants + of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. Behold, I will send a + blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and shall return to + his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own + land.[534] + +According to Berosus, the Babylonian priestly historian, the camp of +Sennacherib was visited in the night by swarms of field mice which ate +up the quivers and bows and the (leather) handles of shields. Next +morning the army fled. + +The Biblical account of the disaster is as follows: + + And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went + out, and smote the camp of the Assyrians an hundred and four score + and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, + behold, they were all dead corpses. So Sennacherib king of Assyria + departed, and went and returned and dwelt at Nineveh.[535] + +A pestilence may have broken out in the camp, the infection, perhaps, +having been carried by field mice. Byron's imagination was stirred by +the vision of the broken army of Assyria. + + The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold, + And his cohorts were gleaming with purple and gold; + And the sheen of their spears was like stars of the sea, + When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee. + + Like the leaves of the forest when summer is green, + That host with their banners at sunset were seen; + Like the leaves of the forest when autumn hath blown, + That host on the morrow lay withered and strown. + + For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast, + And breathed on the face of the foe as he passed; + And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill, + And their hearts but once heaved--and forever grew still! + + And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide, + But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride; + And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf, + And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf. + + And there lay the rider distorted and pale, + With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail; + And the tents were all silent--the banners alone-- + Thelances uplifted--the trumpet unblown. + + And the widows of Asshur are loud in their wail, + And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal; + And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword, + Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord. + +Before this disaster occurred Sennacherib had to invade Babylonia +again, for the vassal king, Bel-ibni, had allied himself with the +Chaldaeans and raised the standard of revolt. The city of Babylon was +besieged and captured, and its unfaithful king deported with a number +of nobles to Assyria. Old Merodach Baladan was concerned in the plot +and took refuge on the Elamite coast, where the Chaldaeans had formed +a colony. He died soon afterwards. + +Sennacherib operated in southern Babylonia and invaded Elam. But ere +he could return to Assyria he was opposed by a strong army of allies, +including Babylonians, Chaldaeans, Aramaeans, Elamites, and Persians, +led by Samunu, son of Merodach Baladan. A desperate battle was fought. +Although Sennacherib claimed a victory, he was unable to follow it up. +This was in 692 B.C. A Chaldaean named Mushezib-Merodach seized the +Babylonian throne. + +In 691 B.C. Sennacherib again struck a blow for Babylonia, but was +unable to depose Mushezib-Merodach. His opportunity came, however, in +689 B.C. Elam had been crippled by raids of the men of Parsua +(Persia), and was unable to co-operate with the Chaldaean king of +Babylon. Sennacherib captured the great commercial metropolis, took +Mushezib-Merodach prisoner, and dispatched him to Nineveh. Then he +wreaked his vengeance on Babylon. For several days the Assyrian +soldiers looted the houses and temples, and slaughtered the +inhabitants without mercy. E-sagila was robbed of its treasures, +images of deities were either broken in pieces or sent to Nineveh: the +statue of Bel-Merodach was dispatched to Asshur so that he might take +his place among the gods who were vassals of Ashur. "The city and its +houses," Sennacherib recorded, "from foundation to roof, I destroyed +them, I demolished them, I burned them with fire; walls, gateways, +sacred chapels, and the towers of earth and tiles, I laid them low and +cast them into the Arakhtu."[536] + +"So thorough was Sennacherib's destruction of the city in 689 B.C.," +writes Mr. King, "that after several years of work, Dr. Koldewey +concluded that all traces of earlier buildings had been destroyed on +that occasion. More recently some remains of earlier strata have been +recognized, and contract-tablets have been found which date from the +period of the First Dynasty. Moreover, a number of earlier pot-burials +have been unearthed, but a careful examination of the greater part of +the ruins has added little to our knowledge of this most famous city +before the Neo-Babylonian period."[537] + +It is possible that Sennacherib desired to supplant Babylon as a +commercial metropolis by Nineveh. He extended and fortified that city, +surrounding it with two walls protected by moats. According to +Diodorus, the walls were a hundred feet high and about fifty feet +wide. Excavators have found that at the gates they were about a +hundred feet in breadth. The water supply of the city was ensured by +the construction of dams and canals, and strong quays were erected to +prevent flooding. Sennacherib repaired a lofty platform which was +isolated by a canal, and erected upon it his great palace. On another +platform he had an arsenal built. + +Sennacherib's palace was the most magnificent building of its kind +ever erected by an Assyrian emperor. It was lavishly decorated, and +its bas-reliefs display native art at its highest pitch of excellence. +The literary remains of the time also give indication of the growth of +culture: the inscriptions are distinguished by their prose style. It +is evident that men of culture and refinement were numerous in +Assyria. The royal library of Kalkhi received many additions during +the reign of the destroyer of Babylon. + +Like his father, Sennacherib died a violent death. According to the +Babylonian Chronicle he was slain in a revolt by his son "on the +twentieth day of Tebet" (680 B.C). The revolt continued from the "20th +of Tebet" (early in January) until the 2nd day of Adar (the middle of +February). On the 18th of Adar, Esarhaddon, son of Sennacherib, was +proclaimed king. + +Berosus states that Sennacherib was murdered by two of his sons, but +Esarhaddon was not one of the conspirators. The Biblical reference is +as follows: "Sennacherib ... dwelt at Nineveh. And it came to pass, as +he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch (?Ashur) his god, that +Adrammelech and Sharezer (Ashur-shar-etir) his sons smote him with the +sword: and they escaped into the land of Armenia (Urartu). And +Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead." Ashur-shar-etir appears to +have been the claimant to the throne. + +Esarhaddon (680-668 B.C.) was a man of different type from his father. +He adopted towards vassal states a policy of conciliation, and did +much to secure peace within the empire by his magnanimous treatment of +rebel kings who had been intimidated by their neighbours and forced to +entwine themselves in the meshes of intrigue. His wars were directed +mainly to secure the protection of outlying provinces against +aggressive raiders. + +The monarch was strongly influenced by his mother, Naki'a, a +Babylonian princess who appears to have been as distinguished a lady +as the famous Sammu-rammat. Indeed, it is possible that traditions +regarding her contributed to the Semiramis legends. But it was not +only due to her that Esarhaddon espoused the cause of the +pro-Babylonian party. He appears to be identical with the Axerdes of +Berosus, who ruled over the southern kingdom for eight years. +Apparently he had been appointed governor by Sennacherib after the +destruction of Babylon, and it may be that during his term of office +in Babylonia he was attracted by its ethical ideals, and developed +those traits of character which distinguished him from his father and +grandfather. He married a Babylonian princess, and one of his sons, +Shamash-shum-ukin, was born in a Babylonian palace, probably at +Sippar. He was a worshipper of the mother goddess Ishtar of Nineveh +and Ishtar of Arbela, and of Shamash, as well as of the national god +Ashur. + +As soon as Esarhaddon came to the throne he undertook the restoration +of Babylon, to which many of the inhabitants were drifting back. In +three years the city resumed its pre-eminent position as a trading and +industrial centre. Withal, he won the hearts of the natives by +expelling Chaldaeans from the private estates which they had seized +during the Merodach-Baladan regime, and restoring them to the rightful +heirs. + +A Chaldaean revolt was inevitable. Two of Merodach Baladan's sons gave +trouble in the south, but were routed in battle. One fled to Elam, +where he was assassinated; the other sued for peace, and was accepted +by the diplomatic Esarhaddon as a vassal king. + +Egypt was intriguing in the west. Its Ethiopian king, Taharka (the +Biblical Tirhakah) had stirred up Hezekiah to revolt during +Sennacherib's reign. An Assyrian ambassador who had visited Jerusalem +"heard say concerning Tirhakah.... He sent messengers to Hezekiah +saying.... Let not thy God, in whom thou trustest, deceive thee +saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of +Assyria. Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done +to all lands by destroying them utterly; and shalt thou be delivered? +Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have +destroyed, as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden +which were in Telassar? Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of +Arphad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?"[538] +Sidon was a party to the pro-Egyptian league which had been formed in +Palestine and Syria. + +Early in his reign Esarhaddon conducted military operations in the +west, and during his absence the queen-mother Naki'a held the reins of +government. The Elamites regarded this innovation as a sign of +weakness, and invaded Babylon. Sippar was plundered, and its gods +carried away. The Assyrian governors, however, ultimately repulsed the +Elamite king, who was deposed soon after he returned home. His son, +who succeeded him, restored the stolen gods, and cultivated good +relations with Esarhaddon. There was great unrest in Elam at this +period: it suffered greatly from the inroads of Median and Persian +pastoral fighting folk. + +In the north the Cimmerians and Scythians, who were constantly warring +against Urartu, and against each other, had spread themselves westward +and east. Esarhaddon drove Cimmerian invaders out of Cappadocia, and +they swamped Phrygia. + +The Scythian peril on the north-east frontier was, however, of more +pronounced character. The fierce mountaineers had allied themselves +with Median tribes and overrun the buffer State of the Mannai. Both +Urartu and Assyria were sufferers from the brigandage of these allies. +Esarhaddon's generals, however, were able to deal with the situation, +and one of the notable results of the pacification of the +north-eastern area was the conclusion of an alliance with Urartu. + +The most serious situation with which the emperor had to deal was in +the west. The King of Sidon, who had been so greatly favoured by +Sennacherib, had espoused the Egyptian cause. He allied himself with +the King of Cilicia, who, however, was unable to help him much. Sidon +was besieged and captured; the royal allies escaped, but a few years +later were caught and beheaded. The famous seaport was destroyed, and +its vast treasures deported to Assyria (about 676 B.C). Esarhaddon +replaced it by a new city called Kar-Esarhaddon, which formed the +nucleus of the new Sidon. + +It is believed that Judah and other disaffected States were dealt with +about this time. Manasseh had succeeded Hezekiah at Jerusalem when but +a boy of twelve years. He appears to have come under the influence of +heathen teachers. + + For he built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father + had destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal, and made a grove, + as did Ahab king of Israel; and worshipped all the host of heaven, + and served them.... And he built altars for all the host of heaven + in the two courts of the house of the Lord. And he made his son + pass through the fire, and observed times, and used enchantments, + and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards: he wrought much + wickedness in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger. And + he set a graven image of the grove that he had made in the house, + of which the Lord said to David, and to Solomon his son, In this + house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all tribes of + Israel, will I put my name for ever.[539] + +Isaiah ceased to prophesy after Manasseh came to the throne. According +to Rabbinic traditions he was seized by his enemies and enclosed in +the hollow trunk of a tree, which was sawn through. Other orthodox +teachers appear to have been slain also. "Manasseh shed innocent blood +very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another."[540] +It is possible that there is a reference to Isaiah's fate in an early +Christian lament regarding the persecutions of the faithful: "Others +had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and +imprisonment: they were stoned, _they were sawn asunder_, were +tempted, were slain with the sword".[541] There is no Assyrian +evidence regarding the captivity of Manasseh. "Wherefore the Lord +brought upon them (the people of Judah) the captains of the host of +the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound +him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon. And when he was in +affliction, he besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly +before the God of his fathers, and prayed unto him: and he was +intreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to +Jerusalem into his kingdom."[542] It was, however, in keeping with the +policy of Esarhaddon to deal in this manner with an erring vassal. The +Assyrian records include Manasseh of Judah (Menase of the city of +Yaudu) with the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, Ashdod, Gaza, +Byblos, &c, and "twenty-two kings of Khatti" as payers of tribute to +Esarhaddon, their overlord. Hazael of Arabia was conciliated by having +restored to him his gods which Sennacherib had carried away. + +Egypt continued to intrigue against Assyria, and Esarhaddon resolved +to deal effectively with Taharka, the last Ethiopian Pharaoh. In 674 +B.C. he invaded Egypt, but suffered a reverse and had to retreat. Tyre +revolted soon afterwards (673 B.C). + +Esarhaddon, however, made elaborate preparations for his next +campaign. In 671 B.C. he went westward with a much more powerful army. +A detachment advanced to Tyre and invested it. The main force +meanwhile pushed on, crossed the Delta frontier, and swept +victoriously as far south as Memphis, where Taharka suffered a +crushing defeat. That great Egyptian metropolis was then occupied and +plundered by the soldiers of Esarhaddon. Lower Egypt became an +Assyrian province; the various petty kings, including Necho of Sais, +had set over them Assyrian governors. Tyre was also captured. + +When he returned home Esarhaddon erected at the Syro-Cappadocian city +of Singirli[543] a statue of victory, which is now in the Berlin +museum. On this memorial the Assyrian "King of the kings of Egypt" is +depicted as a giant. With one hand he pours out an oblation to a god; +in the other he grasps his sceptre and two cords attached to rings, +which pierce the lips of dwarfish figures representing the Pharaoh +Taharka of Egypt and the unfaithful King of Tyre. + +In 668 B.C. Taharka, who had fled to Napata in Ethiopia, returned to +Upper Egypt, and began to stir up revolts. Esarhaddon planned out +another expedition, so that he might shatter the last vestige of power +possessed by his rival. But before he left home he found it necessary +to set his kingdom in order. + +During his absence from home the old Assyrian party, who disliked the +emperor because of Babylonian sympathies, had been intriguing +regarding the succession to the throne. According to the Babylonian +Chronicle, "the king remained in Assyria" during 669 B.C., "and he +slew with the sword many noble men". Ashur-bani-pal was evidently +concerned in the conspiracy, and it is significant to find that he +pleaded on behalf of certain of the conspirators. The crown prince +Sinidinabal was dead: perhaps he had been assassinated. + +At the feast of the goddess Gula (identical with Bau, consort of +Ninip), towards the end of April in 668 B.C., Esarhaddon divided his +empire between two of his sons. Ashur-bani-pal was selected to be King +of Assyria, and Shamash-shum-ukin to be King of Babylon and the vassal +of Ashur-banipal. Other sons received important priestly appointments. + +Soon after these arrangements were completed Esarhaddon, who was +suffering from bad health, set out for Egypt. He died towards the end +of October, and the early incidents of his campaign were included in +the records of Ashur-bani-pal's reign. Taharka was defeated at +Memphis, and retreated southward to Thebes. + +So passed away the man who has been eulogized as "the noblest and most +sympathetic figure among the Assyrian kings". There was certainly much +which was attractive in his character. He inaugurated many social +reforms, and appears to have held in check his overbearing nobles. +Trade flourished during his reign. He did not undertake the erection +of a new city, like his father, but won the gratitude of the +priesthood by his activities as a builder and restorer of temples. He +founded a new "house of Ashur" at Nineveh, and reconstructed several +temples in Babylonia. His son Ashur-bani-pal was the last great +Assyrian ruler. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +THE LAST DAYS OF ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA + + + Doom of Nineveh and Babylon--Babylonian Monotheism--Ashur-banipal + and his Brother, King of Babylon--Ceremony of "Taking the Hands of + Bel"--Merodach restored to E-sagila--Assyrian Invasion of Egypt and + Sack of Thebes--Lydia's Appeal to Assyria--Elam subdued--Revolt of + Babylon--Death of Babylonian King--Sack of Susa--Psamtik of + Egypt--Cimmerians crushed--Ashur-bani-pal's Literary Activities--The + Sardanapalus Legend--Last Kings of Assyria--Fall of Nineveh--The New + Babylonian Empire--Necho of Egypt expelled from Syria--King + Jehoaikin of Judah deposed--Zedekiah's Revolt and Punishment--Fall + of Jerusalem and Hebrew Captivity--Jeremiah laments over + Jerusalem--Babylonia's Last Independent King--Rise of Cyrus the + Conqueror--The Persian Patriarch and Eagle Legend--Cyrus conquers + Lydia--Fall of Babylon--Jews return to Judah--Babylon from Cyrus to + Alexander the Great. + + +The burden of Nineveh.... The Lord is slow to anger, and great in +power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the Lord hath his way in +the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his +feet. He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the +rivers: Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon +languisheth.... He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy +face.... The gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall +be dissolved. And Huzzab shall be led away captive, she shall be +brought up, and her maids shall lead her as with the voice of doves, +tabering upon their breasts.... Draw thee waters for the siege, +fortify thy strong holds: go into clay, and tread the morter, make +strong the brick-kiln. There shall the fire devour thee; the sword +shall cut thee off.... Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria: thy +nobles shall dwell in the dust: thy people is scattered upon the +mountains, and no man gathereth them. There is no healing of thy +bruise; thy wound is grievous: all that hear the bruit of thee shall +clap the hands over thee: for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed +continually?[544] + +The doom of Babylon was also foretold: + + Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth.... Come down, and sit in the + dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no + throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans.... Stand now with thine + enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein + thou hast laboured from thy youth; if so be thou shalt be able to + profit, if so be thou mayest prevail. Thou art wearied in the + multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the + star-gazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee + from these things that shall come upon thee. Behold, they shall be + as stubble; the fire shall burn them.... Thus shall they be unto + thee with whom thou hast laboured, even thy merchants, from thy + youth: they shall wander every one to his quarter; none shall save + thee.[545] + +Against a gloomy background, dark and ominous as a thundercloud, we +have revealed in the last century of Mesopotamian glory the splendour +of Assyria and the beauty of Babylon. The ancient civilizations +ripened quickly before the end came. Kings still revelled in pomp and +luxury. Cities resounded with "the noise of a whip, and the noise of +the rattling of the wheels, and of the prancing horses, and of the +jumping chariots. The horseman lifteth up both the bright sword and +the glittering spear.... The valiant men are in scarlet."[546] But the +minds of cultured men were more deeply occupied than ever with the +mysteries of life and creation. In the libraries, the temples, and +observatories, philosophers and scientists were shattering the +unsubstantial fabric of immemorial superstition; they attained to +higher conceptions of the duties and responsibilities of mankind; they +conceived of divine love and divine guidance; they discovered, like +Wordsworth, that the soul has-- + + An obscure sense + Of possible sublimity, whereto + With growing faculties she doth aspire. + +One of the last kings of Babylon, Nebuchadrezzar, recorded a prayer +which reveals the loftiness of religious thought and feeling attained +by men to whom graven images were no longer worthy of adoration and +reverence--men whose god was not made by human hands-- + + O eternal prince! Lord of all being! + As for the king whom thou lovest, and + Whose name thou hast proclaimed + As was pleasing to thee, + Do thou lead aright his life, + Guide him in a straight path. + I am the prince, obedient to thee, + The creature of thy hand; + Thou hast created me, and + With dominion over all people + Thou hast entrusted me. + According to thy grace, O Lord, + Which thou dost bestow on + All people, + Cause me to love thy supreme dominion, + And create in my heart + The worship of thy godhead + And grant whatever is pleasing to thee, + Because thou hast fashioned my life.[547] + +The "star-gazers" had become scientists, and foretold eclipses: in +every sphere of intellectual activity great men were sifting out truth +from the debris of superstition. It seemed as if Babylon and Assyria +were about to cross the threshold of a new age, when their doom was +sounded and their power was shattered for ever. Nineveh perished with +dramatic suddenness: Babylon died of "senile decay". + +When, in 668 B.C., intelligence reached Nineveh that Esarhaddon had +passed away, on the march through Egypt, the arrangements which he had +made for the succession were carried out smoothly and quickly. Naki'a, +the queen mother, was acting as regent, and completed her lifework by +issuing a proclamation exhorting all loyal subjects and vassals to +obey the new rulers, her grandsons, Ashur-bani-pal, Emperor of +Assyria, and Shamash-shum-ukin, King of Babylon. Peace prevailed in +the capital, and there was little or no friction throughout the +provinces: new rulers were appointed to administer the States of Arvad +and Ammon, but there were no changes elsewhere. + +Babylon welcomed its new king--a Babylonian by birth and the son of a +Babylonian princess. The ancient kingdom rejoiced that it was no +longer to be ruled as a province; its ancient dignities and privileges +were being partially restored. But one great and deep-seated grievance +remained. The god Merodach was still a captive in the temple of Ashur. +No king could reign aright if Merodach were not restored to E-sagila. +Indeed he could not be regarded as the lord of the land until he had +"taken the hands of Bel". + +The ceremony of taking the god's hands was an act of homage. When it +was consummated the king became the steward or vassal of Merodach, and +every day he appeared before the divine one to receive instructions +and worship him. The welfare of the whole kingdom depended on the +manner in which the king acted towards the god. If Merodach was +satisfied with the king he sent blessings to the land; if he was angry +he sent calamities. A pious and faithful monarch was therefore the +protector of the people. + +This close association of the king with the god gave the priests great +influence in Babylon. They were the power behind the throne. The +destinies of the royal house were placed in their hands; they could +strengthen the position of a royal monarch, or cause him to be deposed +if he did not satisfy their demands. A king who reigned over Babylon +without the priestly party on his side occupied an insecure position. +Nor could he secure the co-operation of the priests unless the image +of the god was placed in the temple. Where king was, there Merodach +had to be also. + +Shamash-shum-ukin pleaded with his royal brother and overlord to +restore Bel Merodach to Babylon. Ashur-bani-pal hesitated for a time; +he was unwilling to occupy a less dignified position, as the +representative of Ashur, than his distinguished predecessor, in his +relation to the southern kingdom. At length, however, he was prevailed +upon to consult the oracle of Shamash, the solar lawgiver, the +revealer of destiny. The god was accordingly asked if +Shamash-shum-ukin could "take the hands of Bel" in Ashur's temple, and +then proceed to Babylon as his representative. In response, the +priests of Shamash informed the emperor that Bel Merodach could not +exercise sway as sovereign lord so long as he remained a prisoner in a +city which was not his own. + +Ashur-bani-pal accepted the verdict, and then visited Ashur's temple +to plead with Bel Merodach to return to Babylon. "Let thy thoughts", +he cried, "dwell in Babylon, which in thy wrath thou didst bring to +naught. Let thy face be turned towards E-sagila, thy lofty and divine +temple. Return to the city thou hast deserted for a house unworthy of +thee. O Merodach! lord of the gods, issue thou the command to return +again to Babylon." + +Thus did Ashur-bani-pal make pious and dignified submission to the +will of the priests. A favourable response was, of course, received +from Merodach when addressed by the emperor, and the god's image was +carried back to E-sagila, accompanied by a strong force. +Ashur-bani-pal and Shamash-shum-ukin led the procession of priests and +soldiers, and elaborate ceremonials were observed at each city they +passed, the local gods being carried forth to do homage to Merodach. + +Babylon welcomed the deity who was thus restored to his temple after +the lapse of about a quarter of a century, and the priests celebrated +with unconcealed satisfaction and pride the ceremony at which +Shamash-shum-ukin "took the hands of Bel". The public rejoicings were +conducted on an elaborate scale. Babylon believed that a new era of +prosperity had been inaugurated, and the priests and nobles looked +forward to the day when the kingdom would once again become free and +independent and powerful. + +Ashur-bani-pal (668-626 B.C.) made arrangements to complete his +father's designs regarding Egypt. His Tartan continued the campaign, +and Taharka, as has been stated, was driven from Memphis. The beaten +Pharaoh returned to Ethiopia and did not again attempt to expel the +Assyrians. He died in 666 B.C. It was found that some of the petty +kings of Lower Egypt had been intriguing with Taharka, and their +cities were severely dealt with. Necho of Sais had to be arrested, +among others, but was pardoned after he appeared before +Ashur-bani-pal, and sent back to Egypt as the Assyrian governor. + +Tanutamon, a son of Pharaoh Shabaka, succeeded Taharka, and in 663 +B.C. marched northward from Thebes with a strong army. He captured +Memphis. It is believed Necho was slain, and Herodotus relates that +his son Psamtik took refuge in Syria. In 661 B.C. Ashur-bani-pal's +army swept through Lower Egypt and expelled the Ethiopians. Tanutamon +fled southward, but on this occasion the Assyrians followed up their +success, and besieged and captured Thebes, which they sacked. Its +nobles were slain or taken captive. According to the prophet Nahum, +who refers to Thebes as No (Nu-Amon = city of Amon), "her young +children also were dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets: and +they (the Assyrians) cast lots for her honourable men, and all her +great men were bound in chains".[548] Thebes never again recovered its +prestige. Its treasures were transported to Nineveh. The Ethiopian +supremacy in Egypt was finally extinguished, and Psamtik, son of +Necho, who was appointed the Pharaoh, began to reign as the vassal of +Assyria. + +When the kings on the seacoasts of Palestine and Asia Minor found that +they could no longer look to Egypt for help, they resigned themselves +to the inevitable, and ceased to intrigue against Assyria. Gifts were +sent to Ashur-bani-pal by the kings of Arvad, Tyre, Tarsus, and Tabal. +The Arvad ruler, however, was displaced, and his son set on his +throne. But the most extraordinary development was the visit to +Nineveh of emissaries from Gyges, king of Lydia, who figures in the +legends of Greece. This monarch had been harassed by the Cimmerians +after they accomplished the fall of Midas of Phrygia in 676 B.C., and +he sought the help of Ashur-bani-pal. It is not known whether the +Assyrians operated against the Cimmerians in Tabal, but, as Gyges did +not send tribute, it would appear that he held his own with the aid of +mercenaries from the State of Caria in southwestern Asia Minor. The +Greeks of Cilicia, and the Achaeans and Phoenicians of Cyprus remained +faithful to Assyria. + +Elam gave trouble in 665 B.C. by raiding Akkad, but the Assyrian army +repulsed the invaders at Dur-ilu and pushed on to Susa. The Elamites +received a crushing defeat in a battle on the banks of the River Ula. +King Teumman was slain, and a son of the King of Urtagu was placed on +his throne. Elam thus came under Assyrian sway. + +The most surprising and sensational conspiracy against Ashur-bani-pal +was fomented by his brother Shamash-shum-ukin of Babylon, after the +two had co-operated peacefully for fifteen years. No doubt the +priestly party at E-sagila were deeply concerned in the movement, and +the king may have been strongly influenced by the fact that Babylonia +was at the time suffering from severe depression caused by a series of +poor harvests. Merodach, according to the priests, was angry; it was +probably argued that he was punishing the people because they had not +thrown off the yoke of Assyria. + +The temple treasures of Babylon were freely drawn upon to purchase the +allegiance of allies. Ere Ashur-bani-pal had any knowledge of the +conspiracy his brother had won over several governors in Babylonia, +the Chaldaeans, Aramaeans and Elamites, and many petty kings in +Palestine and Syria: even Egypt and Libya were prepared to help him. +When, however, the faithful governor of Ur was approached, he +communicated with his superior at Erech, who promptly informed +Ashur-bani-pal of the great conspiracy. The intelligence reached +Nineveh like a bolt from the blue. The emperor's heart was filled with +sorrow and anguish. In after-time he lamented in an inscription that +his "faithless brother" forgot the favours he had shown him. +"Outwardly with his lips he spoke friendly things, while inwardly his +heart plotted murder." + +In 652 B.C. Shamash-shum-ukin precipitated the crisis by forbidding +Ashur-bani-pal to make offerings to the gods in the cities of +Babylonia. He thus declared his independence. + +War broke out simultaneously. Ur and Erech were besieged and captured +by the Chaldaeans, and an Elamite army marched to the aid of the King +of Babylon, but it was withdrawn before long on account of the +unsettled political conditions at home. The Assyrian armies swept +through Babylonia, and the Chaldeans in the south were completely +subjugated before Babylon was captured. That great commercial +metropolis was closely besieged for three years, and was starved into +submission. When the Assyrians were entering the city gates a +sensational happening occurred. Shamash-shum-ukin, the rebel king, +shut himself up in his palace and set fire to it, and perished there +amidst the flames with his wife and children, his slaves and all his +treasures. Ashur-bani-pal was in 647 B.C. proclaimed King +Kandalanu[549] of Babylon, and reigned over it until his death in 626 +B.C. + +Elam was severely dealt with. That unhappy country was terribly +devastated by Assyrian troops, who besieged and captured Susa, which +was pillaged and wrecked. It was recorded afterwards as a great +triumph of this campaign that the statue of Nana of Erech, which had +been carried off by Elamites 1635 years previously, was recovered and +restored to the ancient Sumerian city. Elam's power of resistance was +finally extinguished, and the country fell a ready prey to the Medes +and Persians, who soon entered into possession of it. Thus, by +destroying a buffer State, Ashur-bani-pal strengthened the hands of +the people who were destined twenty years after his death to destroy +the Empire of Assyria. + +The western allies of Babylon were also dealt with, and it may be that +at this time Manasseh of Judah was taken to Babylon (_2 Chronicles_, +xxxiii, II), where, however, he was forgiven. The Medes and the Mannai +in the north-west were visited and subdued, and a new alliance was +formed with the dying State of Urartu. + +Psamtik of Egypt had thrown off the yoke of Assyria, and with the +assistance of Carian mercenaries received from his ally, Gyges, king +of Lydia, extended his sway southward. He made peace with Ethiopia by +marrying a princess of its royal line. Gyges must have weakened his +army by thus assisting Psamtik, for he was severely defeated and slain +by the Cimmerians. His son, Ardys, appealed to Assyria for help. +Ashur-bani-pal dispatched an army to Cilicia. The joint operations of +Assyria and Lydia resulted in the extinction of the kingdom of the +Cimmerians about 645 B.C. + +The records of Ashur-bani-pal cease after 640 B.C., so that we are +unable to follow the events of his reign during its last fourteen +years. Apparently peace prevailed everywhere. The great monarch, who +was a pronounced adherent of the goddess cults, appears to have given +himself up to a life of indulgence and inactivity. Under the name +Sardanapalus he went down to tradition as a sensual Oriental monarch +who lived in great pomp and luxury, and perished in his burning palace +when the Medes revolted against him. It is evident, however, that the +memory of more than one monarch contributed to the Sardanapalus +legend, for Ashur-bani-pal had lain nearly twenty years in his grave +before the siege of Nineveh took place. + +In the Bible he is referred to as "the great and noble Asnapper", and +he appears to have been the emperor who settled the Babylonian, +Elamite, and other colonists "in the cities of Samaria".[550] + +He erected at Nineveh a magnificent palace, which was decorated on a +lavish scale. The sculptures are the finest productions of Assyrian +art, and embrace a wide variety of subjects--battle scenes, hunting +scenes, and elaborate Court and temple ceremonies. Realism is combined +with a delicacy of touch and a degree of originality which raises the +artistic productions of the period to the front rank among the +artistic triumphs of antiquity. + +Ashur-bani-pal boasted of the thorough education which he had received +from the tutors of his illustrious father, Esarhaddon. In his palace +he kept a magnificent library. It contained thousands of clay tablets +on which were inscribed and translated the classics of Babylonia. To +the scholarly zeal of this cultured monarch is due the preservation of +the Babylonian story of creation, the Gilgamesh and Etana legends, and +other literary and religious products of remote antiquity. Most of the +literary tablets in the British Museum were taken from +Ashur-bani-pal's library. + +There are no Assyrian records of the reigns of Ashur-bani-pal's two +sons, Ashur-etil-ilani--who erected a small palace and reconstructed +the temple to Nebo at Kalkhi--and Sin-shar-ishkun, who is supposed to +have perished in Nineveh. Apparently Ashur-etil-ilani reigned for at +least six years, and was succeeded by his brother. + +A year after Ashur-bani-pal died, Nabopolassar, who was probably a +Chaldaean, was proclaimed king at Babylon. According to Babylonian +legend he was an Assyrian general who had been sent southward with an +army to oppose the advance of invaders from the sea. Nabopolassar's +sway at first was confined to Babylon and Borsippa, but he +strengthened himself by forming an offensive and defensive alliance +with the Median king, whose daughter he had married to his son +Nebuchadrezzar. He strengthened the fortifications of Babylon, rebuilt +the temple of Merodach, which had been destroyed by Ashur-bani-pal, +and waged war successfully against the Assyrians and their allies in +Mesopotamia. + +About 606 B.C. Nineveh fell, and Sin-shar-ishkun may have burned +himself there in his palace, like his uncle, Shamash-shum-ukin of +Babylon, and the legendary Sardanapalus. It is not certain, however, +whether the Scythians or the Medes were the successful besiegers of +the great Assyrian capital. "Woe to the bloody city! it is all full of +lies and robbery", Nahum had cried."... The gates of the rivers shall +be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved.... Take ye the spoil of +silver, take the spoil of gold.... Behold, I am against thee, saith +the Lord of hosts[551]." + +According to Herodotus, an army of Medes under Cyaxares had defeated +the Assyrians and were besieging Nineveh when the Scythians overran +Media. Cyaxares raised the siege and went against them, but was +defeated. Then the Scythians swept across Assyria and Mesopotamia, and +penetrated to the Delta frontier of Egypt. Psamtik ransomed his +kingdom with handsome gifts. At length, however, Cyaxares had the +Scythian leaders slain at a banquet, and then besieged and captured +Nineveh. + +Assyria was completely overthrown. Those of its nobles and priests who +escaped the sword no doubt escaped to Babylonia. Some may have found +refuge also in Palestine and Egypt. + +Necho, the second Pharaoh of the Twenty-sixth Egyptian Dynasty, did +not hesitate to take advantage of Assyria's fall. In 609 B.C. he +proceeded to recover the long-lost Asiatic possessions of Egypt, and +operated with an army and fleet. Gaza and Askalon were captured. +Josiah, the grandson of Manasseh, was King of Judah. "In his days +Pharaoh-nechoh king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to +the river Euphrates: and king Josiah went against him; and he (Necho) +slew him at Megiddo."[552] His son, Jehoahaz, succeeded him, but was +deposed three months later by Necho, who placed another son of Josiah, +named Eliakim, on the throne, "and turned his name to Jehoiakim".[553] +The people were heavily taxed to pay tribute to the Pharaoh. + +When Necho pushed northward towards the Euphrates he was met by a +Babylonian army under command of Prince Nebuchadrezzar.[554] The +Egyptians were routed at Carchemish in 605 B.C. (_Jeremiah_, xvi, 2). + +In 604 B.C. Nabopolassar died, and the famous Nebuchadrezzar II +ascended the throne of Babylon. He lived to be one of its greatest +kings, and reigned for over forty years. It was he who built the city +described by Herodotus (pp. 219 _et seq._), and constructed its outer +wall, which enclosed so large an area that no army could invest it. +Merodach's temple was decorated with greater magnificence than ever +before. The great palace and hanging gardens were erected by this +mighty monarch, who no doubt attracted to the city large numbers of +the skilled artisans who had fled from Nineveh. He also restored +temples at other cities, and made generous gifts to the priests. +Captives were drafted into Babylonia from various lands, and employed +cleaning out the canals and as farm labourers. + +The trade and industries of Babylon flourished greatly, and +Nebuchadrezzar's soldiers took speedy vengeance on roving bands which +infested the caravan roads. "The king of Egypt", after his crushing +defeat at Carchemish, "came not again any more out of his land: for +the king of Babylon had taken from the river of Egypt unto the river +Euphrates all that pertained to the king of Egypt."[555] Jehoiakim of +Judah remained faithful to Necho until he was made a prisoner by +Nebuchadrezzar, who "bound him in fetters to carry him to +Babylon".[556] He was afterwards sent back to Jerusalem. "And +Jehoiakim became his (Nebuchadrezzar's) servant three years: then he +turned and rebelled against him."[557] + +Bands of Chaldaeans, Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites were harassing +the frontiers of Judah, and it seemed to the king as if the Babylonian +power had collapsed. Nebuchadrezzar hastened westward and scattered +the raiders before him. Jehoiakim died, and his son Jehoiachan, a +youth of eighteen years, succeeded him. Nebuchadrezzar laid siege to +Jerusalem, and the young king submitted to him and was carried off to +Babylon, with "all the princes, and all the mighty men of valour, even +ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths: none remained +save the poorest sort of the people of the land".[558] Nebuchadrezzar +had need of warriors and workmen. + +Zedekiah was placed on the throne of Judah as an Assyrian vassal. He +remained faithful for a few years, but at length began to conspire +with Tyre and Sidon, Moab, Edom, and Ammon in favour of Egyptian +suzerainty. Pharaoh Hophra (Apries), the fourth king of the +Twenty-sixth Dynasty, took active steps to assist the conspirators, +and "Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon[559]". + +Nebuchadrezzar led a strong army through Mesopotamia, and divided it +at Riblah, on the Orontes River. One part of it descended upon Judah +and captured Lachish and Azekah. Jerusalem was able to hold out for +about eighteen months. Then "the famine was sore in the city, so that +there was no bread for the people of the land. Then the city was +broken up, and all the men of war fled, and went forth out of the city +by night by way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the +king's garden." Zedekiah attempted to escape, but was captured and +carried before Nebuchadrezzar, who was at Riblah, in the land of +Hamath. + + And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his + eyes.... Then he put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of + Babylon bound him in chains and carried him to Babylon and put him + in prison till the day of his death[560]. + +The majority of the Jews were deported to Babylonia, where they were +employed as farm labourers. Some rose to occupy important official +positions. A remnant escaped to Egypt with Jeremiah. + +Jerusalem was plundered and desolated. The Assyrians "burned the house +of the Lord and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem", +and "brake down all the walls of Jerusalem round about". Jeremiah +lamented: + + How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is + she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and + princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary! She + weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: among + all her lovers she hath none to comfort her: all her friends have + dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies. Judah + is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great + servitude: she dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no rest: + all her persecutors overtook her between the straits.... Jerusalem + remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all + her pleasant things that she had in the days of old....[561] + +Tyre was besieged, but was not captured. Its king, however, arranged +terms of peace with Nebuchadrezzar. + +Amel-Marduk, the "Evil Merodach" of the Bible, the next king of +Babylon, reigned for a little over two years. He released Jehoiachin +from prison, and allowed him to live in the royal palace.[562] Berosus +relates that Amel-Marduk lived a dissipated life, and was slain by his +brother-in-law, Nergal-shar-utsur, who reigned two years (559-6 B.C.). +Labashi-Marduk, son of Nergal-shar-utsur, followed with a reign of +nine months. He was deposed by the priests. Then a Babylonian prince +named Nabu-na'id (Nabonidus) was set on the throne. He was the last +independent king of Babylonia. His son Belshazzar appears to have +acted as regent during the latter part of the reign. + +Nabonidus engaged himself actively during his reign (556-540 B.C.) in +restoring temples. He entirely reconstructed the house of Shamash, the +sun god, at Sippar, and, towards the end of his reign, the house of +Sin, the moon god, at Haran. The latter building had been destroyed by +the Medes. + +The religious innovations of Nabonidus made him exceedingly unpopular +throughout Babylonia, for he carried away the gods of Ur, Erech, +Larsa, and Eridu, and had them placed in E-sagila. Merodach and his +priests were displeased: the prestige of the great god was threatened +by the policy adopted by Nabonidus. As an inscription composed after +the fall of Babylon sets forth; Merodach "gazed over the surrounding +lands ... looking for a righteous prince, one after his own heart, who +should take his hands.... He called by name Cyrus." + +Cyrus was a petty king of the shrunken Elamite province of Anshan, +which had been conquered by the Persians. He claimed to be an +Achaemenian--that is a descendant of the semi-mythical Akhamanish (the +Achaemenes of the Greeks), a Persian patriarch who resembled the +Aryo-Indian Manu and the Germanic Mannus. Akhamanish was reputed to +have been fed and protected in childhood by an eagle--the sacred eagle +which cast its shadow on born rulers. Probably this eagle was remotely +Totemic, and the Achaemenians were descendants of an ancient eagle +tribe. Gilgamesh was protected by an eagle, as we have seen, as the +Aryo-Indian Shakuntala was by vultures and Semiramis by doves. The +legends regarding the birth and boyhood of Cyrus resemble those +related regarding Sargon of Akkad and the Indian Karna and Krishna. + +Cyrus acknowledged as his overlord Astyages, king of the Medes. He +revolted against Astyages, whom he defeated and took prisoner. +Thereafter he was proclaimed King of the Medes and Persians, who were +kindred peoples of Indo-European speech. The father of Astyages was +Cyaxares, the ally of Nabopolassar of Babylon. When this powerful king +captured Nineveh he entered into possession of the northern part of +the Assyrian Empire, which extended westward into Asia Minor to the +frontier of the Lydian kingdom; he also possessed himself of Urartu +(Armenia). Lydia had, after the collapse of the Cimmerian power, +absorbed Phrygia, and its ambitious king, Alyattes, waged war against +the Medes. At length, owing to the good offices of Nebuchadrezzar of +Babylon and Syennesis of Cilicia, the Medes and Lydians made peace in +585 B.C. Astyages then married a daughter of the Lydian ruler. + +When Cyrus overthrew Cyaxares, king of the Medes, Croesus, king of +Lydia, formed an alliance against him with Amasis, king of Egypt, and +Nabonidus, king of Babylon. The latter was at first friendly to Cyrus, +who had attacked Cyaxares when he was advancing on Babylon to dispute +Nabonidus's claim to the throne, and perhaps to win it for a +descendant of Nebuchadrezzar, his father's ally. It was after the fall +of the Median Dynasty that Nabonidus undertook the restoration of the +moon god's temple at Haran. + +Cyrus advanced westward against Croesus of Lydia before that monarch +could receive assistance from the intriguing but pleasure-loving +Amasis of Egypt; he defeated and overthrew him, and seized his kingdom +(547-546 B.C.). Then, having established himself as supreme ruler in +Asia Minor, he began to operate against Babylonia. In 539 B.C. +Belshazzar was defeated near Opis. Sippar fell soon afterwards. +Cyrus's general, Gobryas, then advanced upon Babylon, where Belshazzar +deemed himself safe. One night, in the month of Tammuz-- + + Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his + lords, and drank wine before the thousand. Belshazzar, whiles he + tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels + which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which + was in Jerusalem; that the king, and his princes, his wives, and + his concubines, might drink therein.... They drank wine, and + praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of + wood, and of stone.... In that night was Belshazzar the king of + the Chaldeans slain.[563] + +On the 16th of Tammuz the investing army under Gobryas entered +Babylon, the gates having been opened by friends within the city. Some +think that the Jews favoured the cause of Cyrus. It is quite as +possible, however, that the priests of Merodach had a secret +understanding with the great Achaemenian, the "King of kings". + +A few days afterwards Cyrus arrived at Babylon. Belshazzar had been +slain, but Nabonidus still lived, and he was deported to Carmania. +Perfect order prevailed throughout the city, which was firmly policed +by the Persian soldiers, and there was no looting. Cyrus was welcomed +as a deliverer by the priesthood. He "took the hands" of Bel Merodach +at E-sagila, and was proclaimed "King of the world, King of Babylon, +King of Sumer and Akkad, and King of the Four Quarters". + +Cyrus appointed his son Cambyses as governor of Babylon. Although a +worshipper of Ahura-Mazda and Mithra, Cambyses appears to have +conciliated the priesthood. When he became king, and swept through +Egypt, he was remembered as the madman who in a fit of passion slew a +sacred Apis bull. It is possible, however, that he performed what he +considered to be a pious act: he may have sacrificed the bull to +Mithra. + +The Jews also welcomed Cyrus. They yearned for their native land. + + By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when + we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the + midst thereof. For there they that carried us away captive + required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us + mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing + the Lord's song in a strange land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, + let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, + let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not + Jerusalem above my chief joy.[564] + +Cyrus heard with compassion the cry of the captives. + + Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of + the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord + stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a + proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in + writing, saying, Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The Lord God of + heaven hath given me all kingdoms of the earth; and he hath + charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. + Who is there among you of all his people? his God be with him, and + let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house + of the Lord God of Israel (he is the God) which is in + Jerusalem.[565] + +In 538 B.C. the first party of Jews who were set free saw through +tears the hills of home, and hastened their steps to reach Mount Zion. +Fifty years later Ezra led back another party of the faithful. The +work of restoring Jerusalem was undertaken by Nehemiah in 445 B.C. + +The trade of Babylon flourished under the Persians, and the influence +of its culture spread far and wide. Persian religion was infused with +new doctrines, and their deities were given stellar attributes. +Ahura-Mazda became identified with Bel Merodach, as, perhaps, he had +previously been with Ashur, and the goddess Anahita absorbed the +attributes of Nina, Ishtar, Zerpanitu^m, and other Babylonian "mother +deities". + +Another "Semiramis" came into prominence. This was the wife and sister +of Cambyses. After Cambyses died she married Darius I, who, like +Cyrus, claimed to be an Achaemenian. He had to overthrow a pretender, +but submitted to the demands of the orthodox Persian party to purify +the Ahura-Mazda religion of its Babylonian innovations. Frequent +revolts in Babylon had afterwards to be suppressed. The Merodach +priesthood apparently suffered loss of prestige at Court. According to +Herodotus, Darius plotted to carry away from E-sagila a great statue +of Bel "twelve cubits high and entirely of solid gold". He, however, +was afraid "to lay his hands upon it". Xerxes, son of Darius (485-465 +B.C.), punished Babylon for revolting, when intelligence reached them +of his disasters in Greece, by pillaging and partly destroying the +temple. "He killed the priest who forbade him to move the statue, and +took it away."[566] The city lost its vassal king, and was put under +the control of a governor. It, however, regained some of its ancient +glory after the burning of Susa palace, for the later Persian monarchs +resided in it. Darius II died at Babylon, and Artaxerxes II promoted +in the city the worship of Anaitis. + +When Darius III, the last Persian emperor, was overthrown by Alexander +the Great in 331 B.C., Babylon welcomed the Macedonian conqueror as it +had welcomed Cyrus. Alexander was impressed by the wisdom and +accomplishments of the astrologers and priests, who had become known +as "Chaldaeans", and added Bel Merodach to his extraordinary pantheon, +which already included Amon of Egypt, Melkarth, and Jehovah. Impressed +by the antiquity and magnificence of Babylon, he resolved to make it +the capital of his world-wide empire, and there he received +ambassadors from countries as far east as India and as far west as +Gaul. + +The canals of Babylonia were surveyed, and building operations on a +vast scale planned out. No fewer than ten thousand men were engaged +working for two months reconstructing and decorating the temple of +Merodach, which towered to a height of 607 feet. It looked as if +Babylon were about to rise to a position of splendour unequalled in +its history, when Alexander fell sick, after attending a banquet, and +died on an evening of golden splendour sometime in June of 323 B.C. + +One can imagine the feelings of the Babylonian priests and astrologers +as they spent the last few nights of the emperor's life reading "the +omens of the air"--taking note of wind and shadow, moon and stars and +planets, seeking for a sign, but unable to discover one favourable. +Their hopes of Babylonian glory were suspended in the balance, and +they perished completely when the young emperor passed away in the +thirty-third year of his life. For four days and four nights the +citizens mourned in silence for Alexander and for Babylon. + +The ancient city fell into decay under the empire of the Seleucidae. +Seleucus I had been governor of Babylon, and after the break-up of +Alexander's empire he returned to the ancient metropolis as a +conqueror. "None of the persons who succeeded Alexander", Strabo +wrote, "attended to the undertaking at Babylon"--the reconstruction of +Merodach's temple. "Other works were neglected, and the city was +dilapidated partly by the Persians and partly by time and through the +indifference of the Greeks, particularly after Seleucus Nicator +fortified Seleukeia on the Tigris."[567] + +Seleucus drafted to the city which bore his name the great bulk of the +inhabitants of Babylon. The remnant which was left behind continued to +worship Merodach and other gods after the walls had crumbled and the +great temple began to tumble down. Babylon died slowly, but at length +the words of the Hebrew prophet were fulfilled: + + The cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and + the raven shall dwell in it.... They shall call the nobles thereof + to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall + be nothing. And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and + brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an habitation + of dragons, and a court for owls. The wild beasts of the desert + shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr + shall cry to his fellow: the screech owl also shall rest there, + and find for herself a place of rest.[568] + + + + +FOOTNOTES + + +[1] _Life of Apollonius of Tyana_, i, 2O. + +[2] _Egyptian Tales_ (Second Series), W.M. Flinders Petrie, pp. 98 _et +seq._ + +[3] _Revelation_, xviii. The Babylon of the Apocalypse is generally +believed to symbolize or be a mystic designation of Rome. + +[4] _Nineveh and Its Remains_, vol. i, p. 17. + +[5] _Ezra_, iv, 10. + +[6] The culture god. + +[7] Langdon's _Sumerian and Babylonian Psalms_, p. 179. + +[8] _Crete the Forerunner of Greece_, p. 18. + +[9] _The Scapegoat vol._, p. 409 (3rd edition). + +[10] _The Seven Tablets of Creation_, L. W. King, p. 129. + +[11] _Ibid_, pp. 133-4. + +[12] _The Races of Europe_, W.Z. Ripley, p. 203. + +[13] _The Ancient Egyptians_, by Elliot Smith, p. 41 _et seq._ + +[14] _The Ancient Egyptians_, p. 140. + +[15] _Crete the Forerunner of Greece_, C. H. and H. B. Hawes, 1911, p. 23 +_et seq._ + +[16] _The Races of Europe_, W. Z. Ripley, p. 443 _et seq._ + +[17] _The Ancient Egyptians_, pp. 144-5. + +[18] _The Ancient Egyptians_, p. 114. + +[19] _The Ancient Egyptians_, p. 136. + +[20] _A History of Palestine_, R.A.S. Macalister, pp. 8-16. + +[21] _The Mediterranean Race_ (1901 trans.), G. Sergi, p. 146 _et seq._ + +[22] _The Ancient Egyptians_, p. 130. + +[23] _A History of Civilization in Palestine, p. 20 et seq._ + +[24] _Joshua_, xi. 21. + +[25] _Genesis_, xxiii. + +[26] _Genesis_, xvi. 8, 9. + +[27] _1 Kings_, xvi. 16. + +[28] _2 Kings_, xviii, 32. + +[29] _Herodotus_, i, 193. + +[30] Peter's _Nippur_, i, p. 160. + +[31] A Babylonian priest of Bel Merodach. In the third century a.c. he +composed in Greek a history of his native land, which has perished. +Extracts from it are given by Eusebius, Josephus, Apollodorus, and +others. + +[32] _Indian Myth and Legend_, pp. 140, 141. + +[33] _The Religion of the Semites_, pp. 159, 160. + +[34] _Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, M. Jastrow, p. 88. + +[35] _The Seven Tablets of Creation_, L.W. King, vol. i, p. 129. + +[36] _Religious Belief in Babylonia and Assyria_, M. Jastrow, p. 88. + +[37] _Cosmology of the Rigveda_, Wallis, and _Indian Myth and Legend_, p. +10. + +[38] _The Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Records and Legends +of Assyria and Babylonia_, T.G. Pinches, pp. 59-61. + +[39] _The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, T.G. Pinches, pp. 91, 92. + +[40] _Joshua_, xv, 41; xix, 27. + +[41] _Judges_, xvi, 14. + +[42] _I Sam_., v, 1-9. + +[43] _I Sam_., vi, 5. + +[44] _The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia_, R. Campbell Thompson, +London, 1903, vol. i, p. xlii. + +[45] _The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia_, R. C. Thompson, vol. i, p. +xliii. + +[46] _A History of Sumer and Akkad_, L. W. King, p. 54. + +[47] _The Gods of the Egyptians_, E. Wallis Budge, vol. i, p. 290. + +[48] _The Gods of the Egyptians_, vol. i, p. 287. + +[49] _The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia_, vol. i, _Intro_. See also +Sayce's _The Religion of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia_ (Gifford +Lectures, 1902), p. 385, and Pinches' _The Old Testament in the Light +of Historical Records_, &c., p. 71. + +[50] _Indian Myth and Legend_, p. 100. + +[51] Maspero's _Dawn of Civilization_, p. 156 _et seq._ + +[52] _Egyptian Myth and Legend_, p. I _et seq._ The saliva of the frail and +elderly was injurious. + +[53] _Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection_, E. Wallis Budge, vol. ii, p. +203 _et seq._ + +[54] _Brana's Popular Antiquities_, vol. iii, pp. 259-263 (1889 ed.). + +[55] _The Religion of the Semites_, pp. 158, 159. + +[56] _Castes and Tribes of Southern India_, E. Thurston, iv, 187. + +[57] _Omens and Superstitions of Southern India_, E. Thurston (1912), pp. +245, 246. + +[58] Pausanias, ii, 24, 1. + +[59] _Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia_, R.C. Thompson, vol. ii, tablet +Y. + +[60] _Animism_, E. Clodd, p. 37. + +[61] _2 Kings_, xvi, 3. + +[62] _Ezekiel_, xx, 31. + +[63] _Leviticus_, xviii, 21. + +[64] _Indian Myth and Legend_, p. 65. + +[65] _Religious Belief in Babylonia and Assyria_, M. Jastrow, pp. 312, 313. + +[66] _The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, T.G. Pinches, p. 81. + +[67] In early times two goddesses searched for Tammuz at different periods. + +[68] _Indian Myth and Legend_, p. 30. + +[69] _Early Religious Poetry of Persia_, p. 35. + +[70] _Early Religious Poetry of Persia_, p. 37. + +[71] _The Golden Bough_ (Spirits of the Corn and Wild, vol. ii, p. 10), 3rd +edition. + +[72] _Indian Wisdom_, Sir Monier Monier-Williams. + +[73] _A History of Sanskrit Literature_, Professor Macdonell. + +[74] _Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria_, M. Jastrow, +pp. 111, 112. + +[75] _Indian Myth and Legend_, pp. xxxii, and 38 _et seq._ + +[76] _The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, T.G. Pinches, p. 94. + +[77] _The Religion of Ancient Greece_, J.E. Harrison, p. 46, and Isoc. +_Orat._, v, 117 + +[78] _The Acts_, xvii, 22-31. + +[79] _Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia_, vol. ii, p. 149 _et seq._ + +[80] _Egyptian Myth and Legend_, xxxix, _n._ + +[81] _Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt_, J.H. Breasted, +pp. 38, 74. + +[82] _Custom and Myth_, p. 45 _et seq._ + +[83] _The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, p. 108. + +[84] Act iv, scene 1. + +[85] _Paradise Lost_, book ix. + +[86] Chapman's _Caesar and Pompey_. + +[87] _Natural History_, 2nd book. + +[88] _Indian Myth and Legend_, 70, n. + +[89] _Indian Myth and Legend_, pp. 202-5, 400, 401. + +[90] _Teutonic Myth and Legend_, p. 424 et seq. + +[91] _Indian Myth and Legend_, p. 164 et seq. + +[92] _Popular Religion and Folk Lore of Northern India_, W. Crooke, vol. i, +p. 254. + +[93] When a person, young or old, is dying, near relatives must not call +out their names in case the soul may come back from the spirit world. +A similar belief still lingers, especially among women, in the +Lowlands. The writer was once present in a room when a child was +supposed to be dying. Suddenly the mother called out the child's name +in agonized voice. It revived soon afterwards. Two old women who had +attempted to prevent "the calling" shook their heads and remarked: +"She has done it! The child will never do any good in this world after +being called back." In England and Ireland, as well as in Scotland, +the belief also prevails in certain localities that if a dying person +is "called back" the soul will tarry for another twenty-four hours, +during which the individual will suffer great agony. + +[94] _A Journey in Southern Siberia_, Jeremiah Curtin, pp. 103, 104. + +[95] Vol. i, p. 305. + +[96] _Adi Parva_ section of _Mahabharata_, Roy's trans., p. 635. + +[97] Jastrow's _Aspects of Religious Belief in Babylonia_, &c., p. 312. + +[98] R.C. Thompson's trans. + +[99] _The Elder or Poetic Edda_, Olive Bray, part i, p. 53. + +[100] _Babylonian Religion_, L.W. King, pp. 186-8. + +[101] _The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia_, R. Campbell Thompson, vol. +i, p. 53 et seq. + +[102] _Omens and Superstitions of Southern India_, E. Thurston, p. 124. + +[103] _The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, p. 110. + +[104] _Beowulf_, Clark Hall, p. 14. + +[105] _Ezekiel_, viii. + +[106] _Psalms_, cxxvi. + +[107] _The Burden of Isis_, J.T. Dennis _(Wisdom of the East_ series), pp. +21, 22. + +[108] _Religion of the Semites_, pp. 412, 414. + +[109] _Egyptian Myth and Legend_, pp. 45 et seq. + +[110] Langdon's _Sumerian and Babylonian Psalms_, pp. 319-321. + +[111] Campbell's _West Highland Tales_, vol. iii, p. 74. + +[112] _West Highland Tales_, vol. iii, pp. 85, 86. + +[113] If Finn and his band were really militiamen--the original Fenians--as +is believed in Ireland, they may have had attached to their memories +the legends of archaic Iberian deities who differed from the Celtic +Danann deities. Theodoric the Goth, as Dietrich von Bern, was +identified, for instance, with Donar or Thunor (Thor), the thunder +god. In Scotland Finn and his followers are all giants. Diarmid is the +patriarch of the Campbell clan, the MacDiarmids being "sons of +Diarmid". + +[114] Isaiah condemns a magical custom connected with the worship of Tammuz +in the garden, _Isaiah_, xvii, 9, 11. This "Garden of Adonis" is dealt +with in the next chapter. + +[115] Quotations are from _Sumerian and Babylonian Psalms_, translated by +Stephen Langdon, Ph.D. (Paris and London, 1909), pp. 299-341. + +[116] _Beowulf_, translated by J.R. Clark Hall (London, 1911), pp. 9-11. + +[117] For Frey's connection with the Ynglings see Morris and Magnusson's +_Heimskringla_ (_Saga Library_, vol. iii), pp. 23-71. + +[118] _The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, p. 72. + +[119] Langdon's _Sumerian and Babylonian Psalms_, pp. 325, 339. + +[120] Professor Oldenberg's translation. + +[121] Osiris is also invoked to "remove storms and rain and give fecundity +in the nighttime". As a spring sun god he slays demons; as a lunar god +he brings fertility. + +[122] Like the love-compelling girdle of Aphrodite. + +[123] A wedding bracelet of crystal is worn by Hindu women; they break it +when the husband dies. + +[124] Quotations from the translation in _The Chaldean Account of Genesis_, +by George Smith. + +[125] Langdon's _Sumerian and Babylonian Psalms_, p. 329 _et seq._ + +[126] _The Burden of Isis_, translated by J.T. Dennis (_Wisdom of the East_ +series), pp. 24, 31, 32, 39, 45, 46, 49. + +[127] _The Burden of Isis_, pp. 22, 46. + +[128] _Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria_, +p. 137, and _Herodotus_, book i, 199. + +[129] _The Burden of Isis_, p. 47. + +[130] _Original Sanskrit Texts_, J. Muir, London, 1890, vol. i, p. 67. + +[131] _Original Sanskrit Texts_, vol. i, p. 44. + +[132] _Adi Parva_ section of _Mahabharata_ (Roy's translation), pp. 553, +555. + +[133] _Ancient Irish Poetry_, Kuno Meyer (London, 1911), pp. 88-90. + +[134] Translations from _The Elder Edda_, by O. Bray (part i), London, 1908. + +[135] _Babylonian Religion_, L.W. King, pp. 160, 161. + +[136] Tennyson's _A Dream of Fair Women._ + +[137] _Greece and Babylon_, L.R. Farnell (Edinburgh, 1911), p. 35. + +[138] The goddesses did not become prominent until the "late invasion" of +the post-Vedic Aryans. + +[139] _Greece and Babylon_, p. 96. + +[140] _Jeremiah_, xliv. + +[141] _Jeremiah, vii, 18._ + +[142] _Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria_, +pp. 348, 349. + +[143] _Jeremiah, vii, 17._ + +[144] _Nehemiah_, i, 1. + +[145] _Esther_, i, 6. + +[146] _Isaiah_, xiii, 19-22. + +[147] _Indian Myth and Legend_, pp. 173-175 and 192-194. + +[148] Or Rimush. + +[149] _Genesis_, xiv. + +[150] That is, the equivalent of Babylonia. During the Kassite period the +name was Karduniash. + +[151] The narrative follows _The Seven Tablets of Creation_ and other +fragments, while the account given by Berosus is also drawn upon. + +[152] The elder Bel was Enlil of Nippur and the younger Merodach of Babylon. +According to Damascius the elder Bel came into existence before Ea, +who as Enki shared his attributes. + +[153] This is the inference drawn from fragmentary texts. + +[154] A large portion of the narrative is awaiting here. + +[155] A title of Tiamat; pron. _ch_ guttural. + +[156] There is another gap here which interrupts the narrative. + +[157] This may refer to Ea's first visit when he overcame Kingu, but did not +attack Tiamat. + +[158] The lightning trident or thunderstone. + +[159] The authorities are not agreed as to the meaning of "Ku-pu." Jensen +suggests "trunk, body". In European dragon stories the heroes of the +Siegfried order roast and eat the dragon's heart. Then they are +inspired with the dragon's wisdom and cunning. Sigurd and Siegfried +immediately acquire the language of birds. The birds are the "Fates", +and direct the heroes what next they should do. Apparently Merodach's +"cunning plan" was inspired after he had eaten a part of the body of +Tiamat. + +[160] The waters above the firmament. + +[161] According to Berosus. + +[162] This portion is fragmentary and seems to indicate that the Babylonians +had made considerable progress in the science of astronomy. It is +suggested that they knew that the moon derived its light from the sun. + +[163] _The Seven Tablets of Creation_, L.W. King, pp. 134, 135. + +[164] _The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, T.G. Pinches, p. 43. + +[165] _The Seven Tablets of Creation_, L. W. King, vol. i, pp. 98, 99. + +[166] _Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch_., iv, 251-2. + +[167] Shakespeare's _Julius Caesar_, i, 3, 8. + +[168] _Isaiah_, li, 8. + +[169] Campbell's _West Highland Tales_, pp. 136 _et seq._ + +[170] _The Life and Exploits of Alexander the Great_, E. A. Wallis Budge, +pp. 284, 285. + +[171] Campbell's _West Highland Tales_. + +[172] _Nehemiah_, ii, 13. + +[173] _The Tempest_, i, 2, 212. + +[174] _Waifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition_, vol. iv, p. 176 et seq. + +[175] From unpublished folk tale. + +[176] _Beowulf_, translated by Clark Hall, London, 1911, p. 18 et seq. + +[177] _Beowulf_, translated by Clark Hall, London, 1911, p. 69, lines +1280-1287. + +[178] _Egyptian Myth and Legend_, pp. 260, 261. + +[179] _Egyptian Myth and Legend_, pp. 8, 9. + +[180] _Indian Myth and Legend_, pp. xli, 149, 150. + +[181] _Isaiah_, li, 9. + +[182] _Psalms_, lxxiv, 13, 14. It will be noted that the Semitic dragon, +like the Egyptian, is a male. + +[183] _Job_, xxvi, 12, 13. + +[184] _Psalms_, lxxxix, 10. + +[185] _Isaiah_, xxvii, I. + +[186] _Sumerian and Babylonian Psalms_, p. 204. + +[187] _Custom and Myth_, pp. 45 et seq. + +[188] Translation by Dr. Langdon, pp. 199 _et seq._ + +[189] _The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, T.G. Pinches, pp. 118, 119. + +[190] It is suggested that Arthur is derived from the Celtic word for +"bear". If so, the bear may have been the "totem" of the Arthur tribe +represented by the Scottish clan of MacArthurs. + +[191] See "Lady in the Straw" beliefs in _Brand's Popular Antiquities_, vol. +ii, 66 _et seq._ 1899 ed.). + +[192] Like the Etana "mother eagle" Garuda was a slayer of serpents (Chapter +III). + +[193] _Vana Parva_ section of the _Mahabharata_ (Roy's trans.), p. 818 _et +seq._, and _Indian Myth and Legend_, p. 413. + +[194] _The Koran_ (with notes from approved commentators), trans. by George +Sale, P-246, _n_. + +[195] _The Life and Exploits of Alexander the Great_, E. Wallis Budge +(London, 1896), pp. 277-8, 474-5. + +[196] Campbell's _West Highland Tales_, vol. iii, pp. 251-4 (1892 ed.). + +[197] _Religion of the Ancient Egyptians_, A. Wiedemann, p. 141. + +[198] _Adi Parva_ section of the _Mahabharata_ (Hymn to Garuda), Roy's +trans., p. 88, 89. + +[199] Herodian, iv, 2. + +[200] The image made by Nebuchadnezzar is of interest in this connection. He +decreed that "whoso falleth not down and worshippeth" should be burned +in the "fiery furnace". The Hebrews, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, +were accordingly thrown into the fire, but were delivered by God. +_Daniel_, iii, 1-30. + +[201] The Assyrian and Phoenician Hercules is discussed by Raoul Rochette in +_Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres_ (Paris, +1848), pp. 178 et seq. + +[202] G. Sale's _Koran_, p. 246, n. + +[203] In the Eddic poem "Lokasenna" the god Byggvir (Barley) is addressed by +Loki, "Silence, Barleycorn!" _The Elder Edda_, translation by Olive +Bray, pp. 262, 263. + +[204] _De Nat. Animal_., xii, 21, ed. Didot, p. 210, quoted by Professor +Budge in _The Life and Exploits of Alexander the Great_, p. 278, n. + +[205] _Isaiah_, lvii, 4 and 5. + +[206] _The Golden Bough (Adonis, Attis, Osiris_ vol.), "The Gardens of +Adonis", pp. 194 _et seq._ (3rd ed.). + +[207] _Daniel_, iv, 33. It is possible that Nebuchadnezzar, as the human +representative of the god of corn and fertility, imitated the god by +living a time in the wilds like Ea-bani. + +[208] Pronounce _ch_ guttural. + +[209] On a cylinder seal the heroes each wrestle with a bull. + +[210] Alexander the Great in the course of his mythical travels reached a +mountain at the world-end. "Its peak reached to the first heaven and +its base to the seventh earth."--_Budge_. + +[211] Jastrow's trans., _Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in +Babylonia and Assyria_, p. 374. + +[212] _Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt_ (1912), J.H. +Breasted, pp. 183-5. + +[213] _Ecclesiastes_, ix, 7-9. + +[214] Ibid., xii, 13. + +[215] Perhaps brooding and undergoing penance like an Indian Rishi with +purpose to obtain spiritual power. + +[216] Probably to perform the ceremony of pouring out a libation. + +[217] _Saxo_, iii, 71. + +[218] Ibid., viii, 291. + +[219] _The Elder Edda_, O. Bray, pp. 157 et seq. See also _Teutonic Myth and +Legend_. + +[220] _The Life and Exploits of Alexander the Great_, E. Wallis Budge, pp. +xl et seq., 167 et seq. + +[221] _The Koran_, trans, by G. Sale, pp. 222, 223 (chap. xviii). + +[222] _Vana Parva_ section of the _Mahabharata_ (Roy's trans.), pp. 435-60, +and _Indian Myth and Legend_, pp. 105-9. + +[223] _Vana Parva_ section of the _Mahabharata_ (Roy's translation), pp. +832, 833. + +[224] Ea addresses the hut in which his human favourite, Pir-napishtim, +slept. His message was conveyed to this man in a dream. + +[225] The second sentence of Ea's speech is conjectural, as the lines are +mutilated. + +[226] _The Muses' Pageant_, W.M.L. Hutchinson, pp. 5 _et seq._ + +[227] _Indian Myth and Legend_, pp. 107 _et seq._ + +[228] _Vana Parva_ section of the _Mahabharata_ (Roy's trans.), p. 425. + +[229] _Indian Myth and Legend_, p. 141. + +[230] _Book of Leinster_, and Keating's _History of Ireland_, p. 150 (1811 +ed.). + +[231] _Religion of the Ancient Egyptians_, A. Wiedemann, pp. 58 _et seq._ + +[232] Pinches' _The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, p. 42. + +[233] The problems involved are discussed from different points of view by +Mr. L.W. King in _Babylonian Religion_ (Books on Egypt and Chaldaea, +vol. iv), Professor Pinches in _The Old Testament in the Light of the +Historical Records and Legends of Assyria and Babylonia_, and other +vols. + +[234] _Primitive Constellations_, vol. i, pp. 334-5. + +[235] _Indian Myth and Legend_, chap. iii. + +[236] Professor Macdonell's translation. + +[237] _Indian Wisdom_. + +[238] "Varuna, the deity bearing the noose as his weapon", _Sabha Parva_ +section of the _Mahabharata_ (Roy's trans.), p. 29. + +[239] _Indian Myth and Legend_, pp. 38-42. + +[240] _Early Religious Poetry of Persia_, J.H. Moulton, pp. 41 _et seq._ and +154 _et seq._ + +[241] _The Elder Edda_, O. Bray, p. 55. + +[242] _The Elder Edda_, O. Bray, pp. 291 _et seq._ + +[243] _Celtic Myth and Legend_, pp. 133 _et seq._ + +[244] Tennyson's _The Passing of Arthur_. + +[245] _Job_, x, 1-22. + +[246] _The Elder Edda_, O. Bray, pp. 150-1. + +[247] _Indian Myth and Legend_, p. 326. + +[248] _The Religion of Ancient Rome_, Cyril Bailey, p. 50. + +[249] _The Life and Exploits of Alexander the Great (Ethiopic version of the +Pseudo Callisthenes)_, pp. 133-4. The conversation possibly never took +place, but it is of interest in so far as it reflects beliefs which +were familiar to the author of this ancient work. His Brahmans +evidently believed that immortality was denied to ordinary men, and +reserved only for the king, who was the representative of the deity, +of course. + +[250] _Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria_, +Morris Jastrow, pp. 358-9. + +[251] The _Mahabharata_ (_Sabha Parva_ section), Roy's translation, pp. +25-7. + +[252] _A History of Sumer and Akkad_, L.W. King, pp. 181-2. + +[253] _Genesis_, xxxv, 2-4. + +[254] _The Religion of Ancient Egypt_, W.M. Flinders Petrie, p. 72. + +[255] _Sabha Parva_ section of the _Mahabharata_ (Roy's trans.), p. 29. + +[256] _Egyptian Myth and Legend_, p. 214. + +[257] Canto iv:-- + +[258] _1 Samuel_, xxiii, 9-11. + +[259] _1 Kings_, xix, 19 and _2 Kings_, ii, 13-15. + +[260] _The Burial Customs of Ancient Egypt_, John Garstang, pp. 28, 29 +(London, 1907). + +[261] _Herod._, book i, 198. + +[262] _Records of the Past_ (old series), xi, pp. 109 et seq., and (new +series), vol. i, pp. 149 et seq. + +[263] L.W. King's _The Seven Tablets of Creation_. + +[264] _Herodotus_, book i, 179 (Rawlinson's translation). + +[265] _Isaiah_, xlv, 1, 2. + +[266] _Herodotus_, book i, 181-3 (Rawlinson's translation). + +[267] _History of Sumer and Akkad_, L.W. King, p. 37. + +[268] _Herodotus_, book i, 196 (Rawlinson's translation). + +[269] _Home Life of the Highlanders_ (Dr. Cameron Gillies on _Medical +Knowledge_,) pp. 85 _et seq._ Glasgow, 1911. + +[270] Translations by R.C. Thompson in _The Devils and Spirits of Babylon_, +vol. i, pp. lxiii _et seq._ + +[271] Bridges which lead to graveyards. + +[272] _Genesis_, xii and xiii. + +[273] _Genesis_, xiv, 13. + +[274] _Ibid_., xxiii. + +[275] _Ezekiel_, xvi, 3. + +[276] _Genesis_, xiv, 1-4. + +[277] _Ibid_., 5-24. + +[278] _Babylonian and Assyrian Laws, Contracts, and Letters_, C.H.W. Johns, +pp. 392 _et seq._ + +[279] Translation by Johns in _Babylonian and Assyrian Laws, Contracts, and +Letters_, pp. 390 _et seq._ + +[280] _Matthew_, ix, 37. + +[281] Johns's _Babylonian and Assyrian Laws, &c._, pp. 371-2. + +[282] _The Land of the Hittites_, John Garstang, pp. 312 _et seq._ and 315 +_et seq._ + +[283] _The Ancient Egyptian_, pp. 106 _et seq._ + +[284] _The Ancient Egyptians_, p. 130. + +[285] _Struggle of the Nations_ (1896), p. 19. + +[286] Note contributed to _The Land of the Hittites_, J. Garstang, p. 324. + +[287] _Genesis_, xxvi, 34, 35. + +[288] _Ezekiel_, xvi, 45. + +[289] _Genesis_, xxvii, 46. + +[290] _Genesis_, xxviii, 1, 2. + +[291] _Genesis_, xxiv. + +[292] _The Syrian Goddess_, John Garstang (London, 1913), pp. 17-8. + +[293] _Vedic Index of Names and Subjects_, Macdonald & Keith, vol. i, pp. +64-5 (London, 1912). + +[294] _The Wanderings of Peoples_, p. 21. + +[295] Breasted's _History of Egypt_, pp. 219-20. + +[296] _A History of Egypt_, W.M. Flinders Petrie, vol. ii, p. 146 _et seq._ +(1904 ed.). + +[297] _A History of Egypt_, W.M. Flinders Petrie, vol. ii, p. 147 (1904 +ed.). + +[298] _The Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Records and Legends +of Assyria and Babylonia_, pp. 126 _et seq._ + +[299] His connection with Anu is discussed in chapter xiv. + +[300] _Ancient Assyria_, C.H.W. Johns, p. 11 (London, 1912). + +[301] _The Tell-el-Amarna Letters_, Hugo Winckler, p. 31. + +[302] "It may be worth while to note again", says Beddoe, "how often finely +developed skulls are discovered in the graveyards of old monasteries, +and how likely seems Galton's conjecture, that progress was arrested +in the Middle Ages, because the celibacy of the clergy brought about +the extinction of the best strains of blood." _The Anthropological +History of Europe_, p. 161 (1912). + +[303] _Census of India_, vol. I, part i, pp. 352 et seq. + +[304] _Hibbert Lectures_, Professor Sayce, p. 328. + +[305] _The Story of Nala_, Monier Williams, pp. 68-9 and 77. + +[306] "In Ymer's flesh (the earth) the dwarfs were engendered and began to +move and live.... The dwarfs had been bred in the mould of the earth, +just as worms are in a dead body." _The Prose Edda_. "The gods ... +took counsel whom they should make the lord of dwarfs out of Ymer's +blood (the sea) and his swarthy limbs (the earth)." _The Elder Edda +(Voluspa_, stanza 9). + +[307] _The Story of Nala_, Monier Williams, p. 67. + +[308] _Egyptian Myth and Legend_, pp. 168 _it seq._ + +[309] _The Burden of Isis_, Dennis, p. 24. + +[310] _Babylonian Magic and Sorcery_, p. 117. + +[311] _Babylonian and Assyrian Religion_, T.G. Pinches, p. l00. + +[312] _The Burden of Isis_, J.T. Dennis, p. 49. + +[313] _Ibid_., p. 52. + +[314] _Religion of the Ancient Egyptians_, A. Wiedemann, p. 30. + +[315] _Vedic Index_, Macdonell & Keith, vol. i, pp. 423 _et seq._ + +[316] _Religion of the Ancient Babylonians_, Sayce, p. 153, n. 6. + +[317] _Religion of the Ancient Egyptians_, A. Wiedemann, p. 30. + +[318] _Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria_, +p. 95. + +[319] _Babylonian and Assyrian Religion_, pp. 63 and 83. + +[320] When the King of Assyria transported the Babylonians, &c., to Samaria +"the men of Cuth made Nergal", _2 Kings_, xvii, 30. + +[321] _Babylonian and Assyrian Religion_, p. 80. + +[322] _Indian Myth and Legend_, p. 13. + +[323] Derived from the Greek zoon, an animal. + +[324] _The Hittites_, pp. 116, 119, 120, 272. + +[325] "The sun... is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and +rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race." (_Psalm_ xix, 4 _et seq._) +The marriage of the sun bridegroom with the moon bride appears to +occur in Hittite mythology. In Aryo-Indian Vedic mythology the bride +of the sun (Surya) is Ushas, the Dawn. The sun maiden also married the +moon god. The Vedic gods ran a race and Indra and Agni were the +winners. The sun was "of the nature of Agni". _Indian Myth and +Legend_, pp. 14, 36, 37. + +[326] Or golden. + +[327] The later reference is to Assyria. There was no Assyrian kingdom when +these early beliefs were developed. + +[328] _Primitive Constellations_, R. Brown, jun., vol. ii, p. 1 _et seq._ + +[329] In India "finger counting" (Kaur guna) is associated with prayer or +the repeating of mantras. The counting is performed by the thumb, +which, when the hand is drawn up, touches the upper part of the third +finger. The two upper "chambers" of the third finger are counted, then +the two upper "chambers" of the little finger; the thumb then touches +the tip of each finger from the little finger to the first; when it +comes down into the upper chamber of the first finger 9 is counted. By +a similar process each round of 9 on the right hand is recorded by the +left up to 12; 12 X 9 = 108 repetitions of a mantra. The upper +"chambers" of the fingers are the "best" or "highest" (uttama), the +lower (adhama) chambers are not utilized in the prayer-counting +process. When Hindus sit cross-legged at prayers, with closed eyes, +the right hand is raised from the elbow in front of the body, and the +thumb moves each time a mantra is repeated; the left hand lies palm +upward on the left knee, and the thumb moves each time nine mantras +have been counted. + +[330] _Primitive Constellations_, R. Brown, jun., vol. ii, p. 61; and _Early +History of Northern India_, J.F. Hewitt, pp. 551-2. + +[331] _Rigveda-Samhita_, vol. iv (1892), p. 67. + +[332] _Vedic Index_, Macdonell & Keith, vol. ii, pp. 192 _et seq._ + +[333] _Indian Myth and Legend_ + +[334] Pp. 107 _et seq._ + +[335] _Primitive Constellation_, R. Brown, jun., vol. i, 1. 333. A table is +given showing how 120 saroi equals 360 degrees, each king being +identified with a star. + +[336] "Behold, his majesty the god Ra is grown old; his bones are become +silver, his limbs gold, and his hair pure lapis lazuli." _Religion of +the Ancient Egyptians_, A. Wiedemann, p. 58. Ra became a destroyer +after completing his reign as an earthly king. + +[337] As Nin-Girau, Tammuz was associated with "sevenfold" Orion. + +[338] _Babylonian and Assyrian Life_, pp. 61, 62. + +[339] Herodotus (ii, 52) as quoted in _Egypt and Scythia_ (London, 1886), p. +49. + +[340] _Babylonian Magic and Sorcery_, L.W. King (London, 1896), pp. 43 and +115. + +[341] _Vedic Index_, Macdonell & Keith, vol. ii, p. 229. + +[342] _Ibid_ vol. i, pp. 409, 410. + +[343] _Ibid_ vol. i, p. 415. + +[344] _Primitive Constellations_, vol. i, p. 343. + +[345] _Custom and Myth_, pp. 133 _et seq._ + +[346] Dr. Alfred Jeremias gives very forcible reasons for believing that the +ancient Babylonians were acquainted with the precession of the +equinoxes. _Das Alter der Babylonischen Astronomie_ (Hinrichs, +Leipzig, 1908), pp. 47 _et seq._ + +[347] _Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria_, +pp. 207 _et seq._ + +[348] _A History of the Babylonians and Assyrians_, p. 93. + +[349] _Babylonians and Assyrians: Life and Customs_, pp. 219, 220. + +[350] _Primitive Constellations_, vol. ii, pp. 147 et seq. + +[351] The Aryo-Indians had a lunar year of 360 days (_Vedic Index_, ii, +158). + +[352] _A History of the Babylonians and Assyrians_, p. 94. + +[353] _Twelfth Night_, act ii, scene 5. + +[354] _Childe Harold_, canto iii, v, 88. + +[355] _Genesis_, x, 11. + +[356] "A number of tablets have been found in Cappadocia of the time of the +Second Dynasty of Ur which show marked affinities with Assyria. The +divine name Ashir, as in early Assyrian texts, the institution of +eponyms and many personal names which occur in Assyria, are so +characteristic that we must assume kinship of peoples. But whether +they witness to a settlement in Cappadocia from Assyria, or vice +versa, is not yet clear." _Ancient Assyria_, C.H.W. Johns (Cambridge, +1912), pp. 12-13. + +[357] Sumerian Ziku, apparently derived from Zi, the spiritual essence of +life, the "self power" of the Universe. + +[358] _Peri Archon_, cxxv. + +[359] _Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, p. 197 et seq. + +[360] _Julius Caesar_, act iii, scene I. + +[361] _Isaiah_, xiv, 4-14. + +[362] _Eddubrott_, ii. + +[363] _Religion of the Ancient Egyptians_, A. Wiedemann, pp. 289-90. + +[364] _Ibid_., p. 236. Atlas was also believed to be in the west. + +[365] _Primitive Constellations_, vol. ii, p. 184. + +[366] _Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia_, xxx, II. + +[367] _Isaiah_, xiii, 21. For "Satyrs" the Revised Version gives the +alternative translation, "or he-goats". + +[368] _Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria_, +p. 120, plate 18 and note. + +[369] _Satapatha Brahmana_, translated by Professor Eggeling, part iv, 1897, +p. 371. _(Sacred Books of the East_.) + +[370] _Egyptian Myth and Legend_, pp. 165 et seq. + +[371] _Classic Myth and Legend_, p. 105. The birds were called +"Stymphalides". + +[372] The so-called "shuttle" of Neith may be a thunderbolt. Scotland's +archaic thunder deity is a goddess. The bow and arrows suggest a +lightning goddess who was a deity of war because she was a deity of +fertility. + +[373] _Vedic Index_, Macdonell & Keith, vol. ii, pp. 125-6, and vol. i, +168-9. + +[374] _Ezekiel_, xxxi, 3-8. + +[375] _Ezekiel_, xxvii, 23, 24. + +[376] _Isaiah_, xxxvii, 11. + +[377] _Ibid_., x, 5, 6. + +[378] A winged human figure, carrying in one hand a basket and in another a +fir cone. + +[379] Layard's _Nineveh_ (1856), p. 44. + +[380] _Ibid_., p. 309. + +[381] The fir cone was offered to Attis and Mithra. Its association with +Ashur suggests that the great Assyrian deity resembled the gods of +corn and trees and fertility. + +[382] _Nineveh_, p. 47. + +[383] _Isaiah_, xxxvii, 37-8. + +[384] _The Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Records and Legends +of Assyria and Babylonia_, pp. 129-30. + +[385] An eclipse of the sun in Assyria on June 15, 763 B.C., was followed by +an outbreak of civil war. + +[386] _Ezekiel_, i, 4-14. + +[387] _Ezekiel_, xxiii, 1-15. + +[388] As the soul of the Egyptian god was in the sun disk or sun egg. + +[389] _Ezekiel_, i, 15-28. + +[390] _Ezekiel_, x, 11-5. + +[391] Also called "Amrita". + +[392] The _Mahabharata_ (_Adi Parva_), Sections xxxiii-iv. + +[393] Another way of spelling the Turkish name which signifies "village of +the pass". The deep "gh" guttural is not usually attempted by English +speakers. A common rendering is "Bog-haz' Kay-ee", a slight "oo" sound +being given to the "a" in "Kay"; the "z" sound is hard and hissing. + +[394] _The Land of the Hittites_, J. Garstang, pp. 178 _et seq._ + +[395] _Ibid_., p. 173. + +[396] _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, chaps. v and vi. + +[397] _Daniel_, iii, 1-26. + +[398] The story that Abraham hung an axe round the neck of Baal after +destroying the other idols is of Jewish origin. + +[399] _The Koran_, George Sale, pp. 245-6. + +[400] _Isaiah_, xxx, 31-3. See also for Tophet customs _2 Kings_, xxiii, 10; +_Jeremiah_, vii, 31, 32 and xix, 5-12. + +[401] _1 Kings_, xvi, 18. + +[402] _1 Samuel_, xxxi, 12, 13 and _1 Chronicles_, x, 11, 12. + +[403] _The Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Records and Legends +of Assyria and Babylonia_, pp. 201-2. + +[404] _Babylonian and Assyrian Religion_, pp. 57-8. + +[405] _Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria_, +p. 121. + +[406] _Babylonian and Assyrian Religion_, p. 86. + +[407] At Carchemish a railway bridge spans the mile-wide river ferry which +Assyria's soldiers were wont to cross with the aid of skin floats. The +engineers have found it possible to utilize a Hittite river wall about +3000 years old--the oldest engineering structure in the world. The +ferry was on the old trade route. + +[408] _Deuteronomy_, xxvi, 5 + +[409] Pr. _u_ as _oo_. + +[410] The chief cities of North Syria were prior to this period Hittite. +This expansion did not change the civilization but extended the area +of occupation and control. + +[411] Garstang's _The Land of the Hittites_, p. 349. + +[412] "Burgh of Tukulti-Ninip." + +[413] Article "Celts" in _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, eleventh ed. + +[414] _The Wanderings of Peoples_, p. 41. + +[415] _Crete, the Forerunner of Greece_, p. 146. + +[416] Pr. Moosh'kee. + +[417] "Have I not brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt and the +Philistines from Caphtor (Crete)?" _Amos_, viii, 7. + +[418] _A History of Civilization in Palestine_, p. 58. + +[419] Pinches' translation. + +[420] _I Samuel_, xiii, 19. + +[421] _A History of Civilization in Palestine_, p. 54. + +[422] _1 Kings_, iii, 1. + +[423] _Ibid_., ix, 16. + +[424] _1 Kings_, v, 1-12. + +[425] _Ibid_., vii, 14 _et seq._ + +[426] _Ibid_., x, 22-3. + +[427] _Indian Myth and Legend_, pp. 83-4. + +[428] _Finn and His Warrior Band_, pp. 245 _et seq._ (London, 1911). + +[429] Also rendered Ashur-na'sir-pal. + +[430] _A History of the Babylonians and Assyrians_, G.S. Goodspeed, p. 197. + +[431] _Discoveries at Nineveh_, Sir A.H. Layard (London, 1856), pp. 55, 56. + +[432] "Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem." +_Solomon's Song_, vi, 4. + +[433] _2 Chronicles_, xii, 15. + +[434] _1 Kings_, xiv, 1-20. + +[435] _Ibid._, 21-3. + +[436] _2 Chronicles_, xii, 1-12. + +[437] _2 Chronicles_, xiii, 1-20. + +[438] _Ibid._, xiv, 1-6. + +[439] _1 Kings_, xv, 25-6. + +[440] _1 Kings_, xv, 16-7. + +[441] _Ibid._, 18-9. + +[442] _Ibid._, 20-2. + +[443] _1 Kings_, xvi, 9-10. + +[444] _Ibid._, 15-8. + +[445] _Ibid._, 21-2. + +[446] _Micah_, vi, 16. + +[447] _1 Kings_, xvi, 29-33. + +[448] _Ibid._, xviii, 1-4. + +[449] _1 Kings_, xx. + +[450] _Ibid._, xxii, 43. + +[451] _2 Chronicles_, xviii, 1-2. + +[452] _1 Kings_, xxii and _2 Chronicles_, xviii. + +[453] _1 Kings_, xxii, 48-9. + +[454] _1 Kings_, viii. + +[455] _2 Kings_, ix and _2 Chronicles_, xxii. + +[456] _2 Kings_, viii, 1-15. + +[457] _The Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Records and Legends +of Assyria and Babylonia_, pp. 337 _et seq._ + +[458] _2 Kings_, x, 32-3. + +[459] _Ibid._, 1-31. + +[460] _2 Kings_, xi, 1-3. + +[461] _2 Chronicles_, xxii, 10-12. + +[462] _2 Chronicles_, xxiii, 1-17. + +[463] _2 Kings_, xiii, 1-5. + +[464] _The Land of the Hittites_, J. Garstang, p. 354. + +[465] _The Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Records and Legends +of Assyria and Babylonia_, T.G. Pinches, p. 343. + +[466] _Nat. Hist_., v, 19 and _Strabo_ xvi, 1-27. + +[467] _The Mahabharata_: _Adi Parva_, sections lxxi and lxxii (Roy's +translation, pp. 213 216, and _Indian Myth and Legend_, pp. 157 _et +seq._ + +[468] That is, without ceremony but with consent. + +[469] _The Golden Bough_ (_The Scapegoat_), pp. 369 _et seq._, (3rd +edition). Perhaps the mythic Semiramis and legends connected were in +existence long before the historic Sammu-rammat, though the two got +mixed up. + +[470] _Herodotus_, i, 184. + +[471] _De dea Syria_, 9-14. + +[472] _Strabo_, xvi, 1, 2. + +[473] _Diodorus Siculus_, ii, 3. + +[474] _Herodotus_, i, 105. + +[475] _Diodorus Siculus_, ii, 4. + +[476] _De dea Syria_, 14. + +[477] This little bird allied to the woodpecker twists its neck strangely +when alarmed. It may have symbolized the coquettishness of fair +maidens. As love goddesses were "Fates", however, the wryneck may have +been connected with the belief that the perpetrator of a murder, or a +death spell, could be detected when he approached his victim's corpse. +If there was no wound to "bleed afresh", the "death thraw" (the +contortions of death) might indicate who the criminal was. In a +Scottish ballad regarding a lady, who was murdered by her lover, the +verse occurs: + +[478] Langdon's _Sumerian and Babylonian Psalms_, pp. 133, 135. + +[479] Introduction to Lane's _Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians._ + +[480] Tammuz is referred to in a Sumerian psalm as "him of the dovelike +voice, yea, dovelike". He may have had a dove form. Angus, the Celtic +god of spring, love, and fertility, had a swan form; he also had his +seasonal period of sleep like Tammuz. + +[481] Campbell's _Superstitions of the Scottish Highlands_, p. 288. + +[482] _Indian Myth and Legend_, p. 95. + +[483] _Ibid_., pp. 329-30. + +[484] _Crete, the Forerunner of Greece_, C.H. and H.B. Hawes, p. 139 + +[485] _The Discoveries in Crete_, pp. 137-8. + +[486] _Religion of the Semites_, p. 294. + +[487] _Egyptian Myth and Legend_, p. 59. + +[488] Including the goose, one of the forms of the harvest goddess. + +[489] _Brand's Popular Antiquities_, vol. ii, 230-1 and vol. iii, 232 (1899 +ed.). + +[490] _Ibid_., vol. iii, 217. The myrtle was used for love charms. + +[491] _The Golden Bough_ (_Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild_), vol. ii, +p. 293 (3rd ed.). + +[492] _Herodotus_, ii, 69, 71, and 77. + +[493] _Brand's Popular Antiquities_, vol. iii, p. 227. + +[494] Cited by Professor Burrows in _The Discoveries in Crete_, p. 134. + +[495] Like the Egyptian Horus, Nebo had many phases: he was connected with +the sun and moon, the planet Mercury, water and crops; he was young +and yet old--a mystical god. + +[496] _Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria_, +pp. 94 _et seq._ + +[497] _Babylonian Magic and Sorcery_, L.W. King, pp. 6-7 and 26-7. + +[498] _2 Kings_, xiii, 3. + +[499] _2 Kings_, xiii, 14-25. + +[500] _3 Kings_, xiii, 5, 6. + +[501] The masses of the Urartian folk appear to have been of Hatti +stock--"broad heads", like their descendants, the modern Armenians. + +[502] It is uncertain whether this city or Kullani in north Syria it the +Biblical Calno. _Isaiah_, x, 9. + +[503] _2 Kings_, xv, 19 and 29; _2 Chronicles_, xxviii, 20. + +[504] _2 Kings_, xviii, 34 and xix, 13. + +[505] _2 Kings_, xiv, 1-14. + +[506] _2 Kings_, xv, 1-14. + +[507] _2 Kings_, xv, 19, 20. + +[508] _2 Kings_, xv, 25. + +[509] _Amos_, v. + +[510] _Amos_, i. + +[511] _2 Kings_, xvi, 5. + +[512] _Isaiah_, vii, 3-7. + +[513] _2 Kings_, xv, 3. + +[514] _Isaiah_, vii, 18. + +[515] Kir was probably on the borders of Elam. + +[516] _2 Kings_, xvi, 7-9. + +[517] _2 Kings_, xv, 29, 30. + +[518] _2 Kings_, xvi, 10. + +[519] In the Hebrew text this monarch is called Sua, Seveh, and So, says +Maspero. The Assyrian texts refer to him as Sebek, Shibahi, Shabe, &c. +He has been identified with Pharaoh Shabaka of the Twenty-fifth +Egyptian Dynasty; that monarch may have been a petty king before he +founded his Dynasty. Another theory is that he was Seve, king of +Mutsri, and still another that he was a petty king of an Egyptian +state in the Delta and not Shabaka. + +[520] _2 Kings_, xvii, 3-5. + +[521] _Isaiah_, xx, 1. + +[522] _2 Kings_, xvii, 6. + +[523] _2 Kings_, xvii, 16-41. + +[524] The people carried away would not be the whole of the +inhabitants--only, one would suppose, the more important personages, +enough to make up the number 27,290 given above. + +[525] _Passing of the Empires_, pp. 200-1. + +[526] Those who, like Breasted, identify "Piru of Mutsri" with "Pharaoh of +Egypt" adopt the view that Bocchoris of Sais paid tribute to Sargon. +Piru, however, is subsequently referred to with two Arabian kings as +tribute payers to Sargon apparently after Lower Egypt had come under +the sway of Shabaka, the first king of the Ethiopian or Twenty-fifth +Dynasty. + +[527] _Isaiah_, xx, 2-5. + +[528] Commander-in-chief. + +[529] _Isaiah_, xx, 1. + +[530] _The Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Records and Legends +of Assyria and Babylonia_, T.G. Pinches, p. 372. + +[531] _Isaiah_, xxxvii, 9. + +[532] _Isaiah_, xxix, 1, 2. + +[533] _2 Chronicles_, xxxii, 9-17. + +[534] _2 Kings_, xix, 6, 7. + +[535] _2 Kings_, xix, 35, 36. + +[536] Smith-Sayce, _History of Sennacherib_, pp. 132-5. + +[537] _A History of Sumer and Akkad_, p. 37. + +[538] _Isaiah_, xxxvii, 8-13. + +[539] _2 Kings_, xxi, 3-7. + +[540] _2 Kings_, xxi, 16. + +[541] _Hebrews_, xi, 36, 37. + +[542] _2 Chronicles_, xxxiii, 11-3. It may be that Manasseh was taken to +Babylon during Ashur-bani-pal's reign. See next chapter. + +[543] Pronounce _g_ as in _gem_. + +[544] _Nahum_, i, ii, and iii. + +[545] _Isaiah_, xlvi, 1; xlvii, 1-15. + +[546] _Nahum_, iii, 2, 3; ii, 3. + +[547] Goodspeed's _A History of the Babylonians and Assyrians_, p. 348. + +[548] _Nahum_, iii, 8-11. + +[549] Ptolemy's Kineladanus. + +[550] _Ezra_, iv, 10. + +[551] _Nahum_, iii and ii. + +[552] 2 _Kings_, xxiii, 29. + +[553] _Ibid._, 33-5. + +[554] Nebuchadrezzar is more correct than Nebuchadnezzar. + +[555] _2 Kings_, xxiv, 7. + +[556] _2 Chronicles_, xxxvi, 6. + +[557] _2 Kings_, xxiv, 1. + +[558] _2 Kings_, xxiv, 8-15. + +[559] _Jeremiah_, lii, 3. + +[560] _Jeremiah_, lii, 4-11. + +[561] _The Laminations of Jeremiah_, i, 1-7. + +[562] _Jeremiah_, lii, 31-4. + +[563] _Daniel_, v, I et seq. + +[564] _Psalms_, cxxxvii, 1-6. + +[565] _Ezra_, i, 1-3. + +[566] _Herodotus_, i, 183; _Strabo_, xvi, 1, 5; and _Arrian_, vii, 17. + +[567] _Strabo_, xvi, 1-5. + +[568] _Isaiah_, xxiiv, 11-4. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Myths of Babylonia and Assyria +by Donald A. 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