The Babylonian conception of heaven and hell

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The Ancient East

No. IV

THE BABYLONIAN CONCEPTION
OF HEAVEN AND HELL

BY

DR. ALFRED JEREMIAS

The Ancient East

Under this title is being issued a series of short, popular,
but thoroughly scientific studies, by the leading scholars of
Germany, setting forth the recent discoveries and investiga-
tions in Babylonian, Assyrian and Egyptian History,
Religion, and Archccology, especially as they bear upon the
traditional views of early Eastern History. The German
originals have been appearing during the last eighteen
months. The English translations made by Miss Jane
Hutchison have been submitted in each case to the Authors,
and embody their latest views. Short, helpful bibliographies
are added. Each study consists of some 64 to 80 pages,
crown 8vo, and costs Is. seived, or Is. 6d. cloth.

The following are issued:

THE REALMS OF THE EGYPTIAN DEAD. By Pro-
fessor Alfred Wiedemann.

THE TELL EL AMARNA PERIOD, By Dr. C. Niebuhr.

THE BABYLONIAN AND THE HEBREW GENESIS.

By Professor IL Zimmern.

THE BABYLONIAN CONCEPTION OF HEAVEN
AND HELL. By Dr. Alfred Jeremias.

THE POPULAR LITERATURE OF EGYPT. By

Professor Alfred Wiedemann. \_In preparation.

THE

BABYLONIAN CONCEPTION
OF HEAVEN AND HELL

BY

ALFRED JEREMIAS, Ph.D:

PASTOR OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH

AUTHOR OF " BABYLONISCH-ASSYRISCHEN VORSTELLUNGE^'
VOM LEBEN NACH DEM TODE,"
"^ AND OF THE ARTICLES

" IZDUBAR," " ISHTAR," ETC., IN ROSCHEr's " LEXICON "

TRANSLATED BY J. HUTCHISON

LONDON: DAVID NUTT

57-59 LONG ACRE

1902

HENRY MORSE STEFHEHB

CONTENTS

I. Introduction

II. Death and Burial .

1. Man's Inevitable Fate

2. Mourning Customs

3. Funerary Rites .

4. Refusal of Funerar}' Rites

5. Places of Burial .

III. The World of the Dead

1. Place of the Underworld

2. The River of Death

3. Representations of Hades

4. Deities of the Underworld

5. Demons of the Underworld

6. The Underworld and Vegetation

IV. Necromancy ....

PAGE

I

V. Salvation from "The Land without

Return" 31

5090G2

CONTENTS

VI. Journey of Gilgamesh to "the Island
OF THE Blessed " .

34

VII. The Paradise of the First of Mankind
IN Eridu

VIII. Food and Water of Life in the Baby
lonian Paradise

IX. Conclusion : Psychology of the Baby
lonian Conceptions of Hades

39

47

THE BABYLONIAN

CONCEPTION OF HEAVEN

AND HELL

Introduction.

No consecutive account of the Babylonian religion
can as yet be given, nor will it for many years
come within the range of possibilities to achieve
it. Abundant fragments of Babylonian religious
and mythological literature have indeed been
brought to light by the excavations of the last
few years, and by dint of strenuous efforts a
large proportion has been classified and deci-
phered. But extending as they do over a period
of more than three thousand years it is in com-
paratively few cases that these fragments can be
set in chronological order. The preservation of
most of the religious texts known to us is due to
the collecting zeal of the Assyrian king Asurbanipal
(668-626 B.C.) at whose command copies of the
literary monuments of Babylonia were made on
clay tablets by the royal scribes. Magnificent

A

2 INTRODUCTION

material for the investigation of Babylonian
thought will be available if, in a happy future,
the interrupted excavations in the library of
Nineveh should ever be completed, but as yet
only a small portion of the contents has been
recovered and in a greatly damaged condition.
Even then our knowledge of the Babylonian
religion would still be lacking in essential data,
namely the traditionary lore of the temples : this
it is which would throw light on the histories of
the different cults.

In the following pages we have attempted to
set forth the Babylonian conceptions of a future
life, but it must be borne in mind that fragmentary
material only is available for the purpose. When
once the temple of Nergal at Kutha shall have
been excavated much more will certainly be
known regarding Babylonian eschatology than is
the case at present. Nevertheless it is precisely
this particular department of the religion that
lends itself most easily to any attempt at
systematic representation by us. The sacerdotal
religion of Babylonia took little heed of the
next world, presenting in this respect a marked
contrast to Egyptian thought. The gods of
Babylonian worship were, on the whole, gods of
practical life, even Nergal of Kutha being in the
first place a lord of the living. It was thus left
to the imagination of the people to brood over

ISRAEL AND BABYLONIA 3

thoughts of Hfe after death, and apparently the
mythological fragments that have been preserved
restore these somewhat persistent popular con-
ceptions in their main outlines.

The reader will be struck by the surpiising
correspondence between the Babylonian ideas
concerning death and Hades and Jewish notions
of the same. The connection of Israel with
Babylonia was indeed of the closest, and the
Tell el Amarna tablets have proved that Baby-
lonian thought had spread over the land of
Canaan before it was conquered by the Hebrews.
At the time these were written there stood in
Jerusalem a temple of the Babylonian Storm-god,
Ninib. In more than one traditional version of
the Hebrew stories of patriarchs Babylonia is
cited as the original home of the people of the
Bible, and during both Monarchy and Exile
Babylonian culture played among the Israelites a
part similar to that played by French culture in
Germany in the eighteenth century. It would
seem as though the gloomy conception of life in
the underworld was the common heritage of
Babylonians and Israelites from primitive Semitic
times.*

* A detailed handling of the existing material with philo-
logical treatment of the cuneiform documents may be found
in the author's " Babylonisch-Assyrischen Vorstellungen vom
Leben nach dem Tode" (Hinrichs, Leipzig), of which a new
and fully revised edition is in preparation.

/^

( 4 )

Di'ATH AND Burial.

To the Babylonian death was the "inevitable,"
"night-like" fate, which "in accordance with
primaeval law " brings to an end all human glory.
All his prayers were for long life, old age, and
terrestrial immortality in his posterity. " Make
my years to endure like the bricks of Ibarra,
prolong them into eternity," prayed Nebu-
chadnezzar. An ancient blessing ran :

" Anu and Anatu in heaven bless him ;
Bel and Beltis in Ekur grant unto him the lot of

(long) life ;
Ea and Damkina in ocean give unto him life of

long years ! "

It is told in the legendary story of one of the
heroes of ancient Babylonia how he found a plant
the eating of which restored the aged to youth.
" Dear life " might be lengthened out by conduct
well-pleasing to the gods. Tiglath Pilesar says of
his grandfather : " The work of his hands and his
sacrifices were well pleasing to the gods, and thus
he attained unto extreme old age." Nabonidos, the
last Chaldaean-Babylonian king, prays to the Moon-
god : "Keep me from sin against thy great Godhead,
and a life of far-off days grant unto me as a gift,"
while for Belsazar, his first born, he prays :
" Cause the fear of thy sublime godhead to dwell in
his heart that he consent not to sin ; may he be

MAN'S INEVITABLE FATE 5

satisfied with abundance of life!" Tiie formal
curses at the end of the royal inscriptions show,
on the other hand, that destruction of posterity
and sudden death were regarded as punishments
for ofifences against gods and men. He who
should destroy the inscriptions of Tiglath Pilesar
is threatened as follows : " May the god Ramman
command that he live not a day longer. Let his
name and seed be exterminated out of the land."
" So long as heaven and earth endure be his seed
destroyed," runs another terrible curse: "his
name blotted out, his posterity overthrown, may
his life end in hunger and misery, may his corpse
be cast out, no burial shall it receive."

None, however, could ultimately escape the
fate of death. Sudden and unexpected dawns
the day "that sets not free." "Life is cut off
like a reed." " He who at evening is living, in
the morning he is dead." Many a man dies on a
day that was not " the day of his fate." The lot,
the fate of man being determined by the gods in
the chamber of destiny, hence the day of death
was known as the " day of fate " ; of one who
died it was said ''the day of his fate tore him
away," but of a suicide: "Terror overpowered
him, and he went to death by his own will, not
by that of the gods." No herb grown might be
the antidote of death ; no spell could avail against
it. "So long as we build houses," says the

6 DEATH AND BURIAL

Babylonian Noah, " so long as we seal {i.e.,
conclude treaties), so long as brothers quarrel, so
long as there is hatred on earth, so long as rivers
swell in flood, ... no image (for purposes of
exorcism ?) will be made of death.''

The laments over the lot and doom of death
are often striking. In one of the religious texts
from the library of Asurbanipal we read of one
"the joy of whose heart is the fear of the gods,"
and to whom, nevertheless, " the day is sighing,
the night weeping, the month wailing, the year
lamentation : . . . Into dark bonds was I cast ; a
dagger pierced me ; the wound was deep ; . . .
in the night it suffered me not to breathe freely
for a moment ; my joints were torn and loosened;
on my couch ... as a bull, as a sheep, was I
wet with my urine; ... no exerciser expelled
my sickness; no priest put an end to my in-
firmity; no god helped ; none took my hand ; no
god had compassion on me ; no goddess came to
my side ; the grave was open ; . . . ere I was
yet dead was the funeral dirge due." . . . Then
at length redemption drew nigh. Another instance
runs as follows : " Death is the covering of my
couch; already have I struck up the lament (lit.,
tones of the flute)." It is in keeping with the
character of Babylonian mourning that at a certain
episode in the story of the Flood, Istar " shrieked
like a woman in travail, because the corpses of

ISTAR'S JOURNEY IN HADES 7

mankind filled the sea like fish spawn." "The
gods wept with her over the Anunaki, the gods
lay crouched (at the celestial lattice of Anu) ;
they abode there weeping, their lips firmly
closed."

Again and again the Babylonian legends give
poetic utterance to the thought that all splendour
vanishes, all strength fails before the might ol
death. " The Journey of Istar in Hades " tells
how life died away on earth when the goddess
sank into the Underworld. Even the death
goddess mourns and "sinks down like a reed
that is cut through," and says :

"... instead of bread, earth will I eat, instead of

wineT . . will I drink,
for the men will I weep, who leave their wives,
for the women will I weep, who [turn] from the

loins of their husbands,
for the little children will I weep, who before their

time [make an end ?]
Go, watchman, open to her the gate,
Seize her, according to the laws of old."

For by these laws all adornment must be left
behind, and naked must man pass into the world
of the dead.

The first gate he let her pass ; he divested
her, taking the great crown from off her head.

" Wherefore, O I warder, takest thou the great
crown from off my head ? "

8 DEATH AND BURIAL

"Enter, lady, for such is the decree of the
death goddess."

The second gate he let her pass ; he divested
her, taking from her ears the jewels.

" Wherefore, O ! warder, takest thou from my
ears the jewels ? "

" Enter, lady, for such is the decree of the
death goddess."

The third gate he let her pass ; he divested
her, taking from off her neck the chain.

"Wherefore, O! warder, takest thou from off
my neck the chain ? "

" Enter, lady, for such is the decree of the
death goddess."

The fourth gate he let her pass ; he divested her,
taking away the ornaments from her bosom.

" Wherefore, O ! warder, takest thou away
from my bosom the ornaments ? "

"Enter, lady, for such is the decree of the
death goddess."

The fifth gate he let her pass ; he divested her,
taking the jewelled girdle from her loins.

"Wherefore, O! warder, takest thou from my
loins the jewelled girdle ? "

"Enter, lady, for such is the decree of the
death goddess."

The sixth gate he let her pass; he divested
her, taking the bangles from her wrists and
ankles.

LAMENT OF GILGAMESH 9

" Wherefore, O ! warder, takest thou from my
wrists and ankles the bangles? "

" Enter, lady, for such is the decree of the
death goddess."

The seventh gate he let her pass ; he divested
her, taking from her body the garment.

" Wherefore, O ! warder, takest thou from my
body the garment ? "

" Enter, lady, for such is the decree of the
death goddess."

When it is told further how she was smitten
with sickness in the eyes, sickness in the loins,
sickness in the feet, sickness in the heart, sick-
ness in the head, this is doubtless meant to indi-
cate that death is the destruction of all the
senses, and that all that is of the body must fall
to corruption.

A passage in the Gilgamesh epic, extremely
interesting for the history of civilisation and
usually* interpreted as a lament by Gilgamesh
over his friend Eabani, runs: "To a temple [no
more thou goest] in white garments [no more
thou clothest thyself] . . . with perfumed fat ot
bulls no more thou anointest thyself, so that men
crowd round thee for the fragrance ; the bow
thou no longer settest on the ground (to draw it),

'■" In his recent translation, liowever, Jensen takes a different
view.

lo DEATH AND BURIAL

those who were wounded by the bow surround
thee ; the sceptre no more thou carriest in thine
hand, the spirits of the dead ban (?) thee ; bangles
no more thou puttest upon thine ankles, no (war-)
cry raisest thou evermore on earth ; thy wife
whom thou lovedst thou kissest no more ; thy
wife whom thou hatedst thou smitest no more ;
thy daughter whom thou lovedst thou kissest
no more ; thy daughter whom thou hatedst thou
smitest no more, the woe of the Underworld hath
seized upon thee."

The misery of death was a special theme of
song at the rites of mourning for the spring god
Tammuz (Adonis), who each year sank into the
world of the dead at the approach of winter.
One lament for Tammuz recalls to mind the
gardens and flower-pots used in the Phoenician
and Greek Adonis cult, the forced growth and
rapid fading of the plants. It runs: "Thou
shepherd and lord, spouse of Istar, king of the
Underworld, king of the dwelling-place of the
waters ; thou O shepherd art a seed corn that
drank no water in the furrow, whose germ bore
no fruit in the field, a young sapling that has not
been planted by the watercourse, a sapling, whose
root has been cut, a plant that drank no water in
the furrow." In another Tammuz dirge we read :
" Thou treadest (?) the closed way, the path
without return ... he departed, descended to

FUNERARY RITES ii

the bosom of the Underworld . . . the Sun-god
sent him down to the land of the dead, with
lamentations was he filled on the day when he
fell into great tribulation, in the month that let
not his life come to completion, on the path
where all is at end for man (* that brings the
children of men to rest,' adds the scribe), to the
wailing of the deed, he, the hero, to the far off
invisible land."

Some little knowledge of Babylonian funeral
customs can be gained from the scenes and in-
scriptions. The corpse was preserved by means
of milk, honey, oil, and salt; it was swathed in
linen, strewn with spices, and laid on a stone
bier. In the so-called Hades reliefs the fore-
arms of the corpse point upward. Wailers, both
male and female, are in attendance at the funeral,
lamenting and playing the flute ; the relatives
are present in "rent garments" or in mourning
garb ; libations, incense, dirges, prayers, and
perhaps animal sacrifices forming part of the
rites. On the reverse side of an unpublished frag-
ment from the library of Asurbanipal, the obverse
of which represents a royal burial, is the inscrip-
tion : " The wives lamented, the friends replied,"
pointing evidently to the use on such occasions
of antiphonal singing between men and women.

The accompanying action and gestures were

12 DEATH AND BURIAL

violent as with all Orientals. The mourner wept,
rent his garments, tore or shaved ofif his hair,
cast himself down upon the ground (see Job i. 20)^
scarred his face, beat his loins. In the annals of
Sargon it is said of a mourning Babylonian :
" He fell down upon the ground, rent his gar-
ment, took the razor, broke forth into wailing."

Babylonians and Assyrians buried their dead ;
with them as with the Hebrews the burning of the
corpse, except in case of necessity, was reckoned
indignity and disgrace. The "vulture stela"
found in the ruins of Ur of the Chaldees repre-
sents in one of its reliefs the burial of those slain
in battle. Kings and great nobles were buried
in temples and palaces, while the graves of the
common people lay without the city. The
ancient Babylonian kingGudea states incidentally
that he has built the temple according to the
Number Fifty, and erected within it a mausoleum
of cedar wood. It would seem, therefore, that
Babylonian temples like the Egyptian pyramids
conceal beneath them royal tombs. Another
majestic place of burial was the palace of
Sargon I., a king famous in legend; certain of
the Kassite kings were buried " in the palace of
Sargon." In the annals of Asurbanipal mention
is made of cemeteries at Babylon, Sippar, and
Kutha, and Sanherib tells how a flood in the

OFFERING TO THE DEAD 13

little river Tebilti had so disturbed the royal
tombs in the midst of Nineveh as to lay bare the
sarcophagi. Great care was lavished on furnish-
ing the graves of the rich and the great. The
Assyrian fragment mentioned above (page n)
describes the funeral ceremonies at the death of
a king. " In royal oil I laid him, with meet
solemnity, the gate of his grave, of his place of
rest have I closed with strong copper and have
made fast his . . . Vessels of gold and silver, all
that pertains to the furnishing of the tomb, (also)
the emblems of his authority which he loved have
I presented before the Sun god and laid them in
his grave with the father who begat me. Gifts
gave I to the princes, to the Anunaki, and to the
gods who inhabit the earth," i.e., the Underworld.
Drinking vessels and dishes of food for the dead
were not only laid with them in the tomb, but
were also placed upon it. Special care was taken
to supply the manes of the dead with water to
drink, and to this end apparently cisterns were
made in the cemeteries. " If the dead have none
to care for him," concludes the Twelve Tablet
epic, " then is he consumed by gnawing hunger,
vainly he languishes for refreshment ; what is
cast out on the street that he eats." The
libations, regularly offered on the anniversary of
death, formed the most important item in the
worship of the dead, and the responsibility for

14 DEATH AND BURIAL

ofifering them rested in the first place on the sur-
viving son. <^n a deed fixing a boundary any
man who should remove the boundary stone is
cursed as follows : " May Ninib, lord of land-
marks, rob him of his son, the Water-pourer."
The commemoration day of the dead is called
'• the day of the feast of the dead," " day of dejec-
tion," " day of lamentatation," " day of mourn-
ing." The nak me priests, or " water pourers,"
performed the libation rites at the graves. **At
the mourning festival of libations to the manes
of my royal ancestors," says Asurbanipal, " I put
on the garments of mourning and bestowed a
boon on gods and men, on the dead and on the
living." To this is added a penitential prayer
spoken by the king at the graves of his ancestors.
In his annals, however, he tells us that to his
slain enemies he denied the Dirge of the Water-
pourer. Bloody sacrifices of vengeance were also
made at the tomb. The same king relates how he
ordered prisoners of war to be slaughtered near
to a colossal bull, on the scene of the murder of
his grandfather Sanherib, as a solemn festival in
honour of the deceased monarch.

To be deprived of the prescribed rites of burial
was regarded as a terrible thing. The curse on
him who should destroy the sacred inscriptions
of the Assyrian kings is : " In famine shall his
life end, his corpse shall be cast out and receive no

REFUSAL OF FUNERARY RITES 15

burial." Elsewhere we are told that burial rites
were refused to a rebel who had committed
suicide. When conquered foes were to be treated
with special ignominy the tombs of their
ancestors were destroyed that the repose of the
dead within them might be disturbed, and the
prophecy of Jeremiah (viii. i, cf. Baruch ii. 24)
that the bones of the Jewish kings, priests,
prophets, and citizens will be taken from their
graves and scattered beneath the sun is in strict
accordance with the cruel war customs of Baby-
lonians and Assyrians. Asurbanipal tells how
after the overthrow of Elam he destroyed the
sanctuaries of the land, and then uncovered and
ravaged the mausoleums of the kings ; " their
bones I carried with me to Assyria, unrest laid I
on their shades, and cut them off from the funerary
rites of libation." King Sanherib was not satis-
fied with carrying off by ship the property and
subjects of Merodachbaladan, he must needs also
bring out from their mausoleum the bones of that
unhappy king's predecessors. Again we are told
how conquered kings, confined in the notorious
Cage which stood to the east of Nineveh, were
compelled for the special delectation of the
populace to break in pieces the bones of their
ancestors. No wonder many kings chose the
sites of their tombs in the inaccessible swamps of
the Euphrates, better to protect their sepulchres

u

i6 DEATH AND BURIAL

from pi ofanation : so says Arrian, and his state-
ment is supported by the inscriptions.

It cannot be averred absolutely that any of
the graves hitherto discovered in Mesopotamia
are of primitive origin. Certainly the cemeteries
discovered at Nimrud, Kuyundshik, and Khors-
abad, are not Assyrian ; as for Babylonian
cemeteries there is no fixing of their date. In
some tombs, such for example as the sepulchral
mound discovered by Taylor among the ruins of
Ur, the seal cylinders found indicate high
antiquity. The mounds, which mark the sites of
ancient cemeteries, have been kept so dry by
means of careful drainage through clay pipes that
the vaulting of the tombs and the clay sarco-
phagi are preserved in perfect condition. The
tombs of Ur are those for which there is most
reason to assume an Early Babylonian date.
These are of two kinds : one type consists of an
oval cover of clay, something like an inverted
dish, about seven feet long, five feet high and two
and a half feet broad ; the other is a brick vault,
seven feet long, five feet high, and three feet
broad. Among the skeletons traces have been
found of linen swathings, and in the tombs
vessels of clay and copper, some of them contain-
ing the remains of date kernels. The massive
cemented urns which were found containing
remains of skeletons among the ruins of Warka

CEMETERIES 17

(Erekli) are undoubtcdl}' of later date, perhaps
belonging even to the Parthian period.

In 1887 Robert Koldewey, now director of a
German excavation in the ruins of Babylon,
chanced, during a short expedition in Surghul
and El-Hiba (seven hours south-east of Shatra
in the triangle formed by the Euphrates, Tigris
and Shat-el-Hai), to discover two cemeteries
containing dwellings for the dead, and massive
tombs for the remains of bodies that had been
burned. Examination of the ashes showed that
the jewels of the women, the weapons, tools and
seals of the men, and the playthings of the
children, had been burned along with their bodies.
Traces of animal sacrifices and of incense were
recogmsed, as well as remains of vessels and
food for the dead ; there were also clay idols,
human and animal. The many fountains dis-
covered among the ruins of the cemetery testify
to the zeal with which the dead were supplied with
water for drinking. But these cinerary cemeteries
are not Ancient Babylonian, as Koldewey would
have us believe : the ancient Babylonians did not
burn their dead.

Important conclusions as to Babylonian prac-
tices and beliefs in relation to death may be
expected from the excavations at Niffcr (Nippur).
Observations made in the mounds of Niffcr and
Abu-IIabba (Sippar) have shown that these

i8 THE WORLD OF THE DEAD

ancient cities were divided into three sections :
the temple quarter, the city of the hving and the
city of the dead.

The World of the Dead.

The specific name for the world of the dead
was Aralu ; poetically it was known as Kurnugia,
i.e., irsitmn latarat, "land without return," "land
of the dead," *' the far-off land." The popular
fancy conceived this place of the dead after the
likeness of the tomb. Names such as Kigal,
"vast (underground) dwelling," Unugi, "dark
dwelling," designate both tomb and Underworld
alike. Thus the earliest answer to the question
" Where dwell the souls of the dead ? " would be,
" underground," and this explains the hyperbolic
statements of the royal inscriptions that the
foundations of their buildings rested on the
bosom of the Underworld. To this also may be
traced the description of the scorpion sphinxes,
of which it is said that their heads reached to the
vault of heaven and their breasts to beneath
Aralu. Hence, also, in " Istar's Journey in
Hades " lament is made that " Istar has gone down
into the earth (Underworld) and has not re-
turned." The entrance to this subterranean
land lay in the west. We shall refer later to an
exorcism in which the ghost is expressly relegated

PLACE OF THE UNDERWORLD 19

to the west that the warder of the Underworld
may there retain him. Not only was the west
the region of sunset and therefore of darkness ;
to the Babylonian it denoted the desert also, and
for him the desert, as the sea, was alike a place
of horror. The desert being, indeed, the battle-
field and playground of demons, it is consistent
with this view that the goddess Belit-Seri, " the
lady of the desert," is brought into connection
with the Underworld. The expression " far
place," which occurs twice on one of the so-called
Hades reliefs and is also used in exorcisms (" Let
the sickness of the head fly away like a bird to
the far place and the sick man be committed to
the gracious hands of his god "), may be under-
stood as a euphemism for the desert in the west
as well as for hell.

The account of the journey of Gilgamesh to
the "Island of the Blessed" speaks of the
threatening "floods of death" in the south-east,
in the Erythraean Sea. Again, in a formula for
exorcism, the heart of the magician is to be over-
come by " waters of death." These waters of
death must have some connection with the " river
of death " repeatedly mentioned in descriptions of
the Underworld, and which is occasionally desig-
nated by the name Khubur. When a priestly
magician says that he "has held back the boat
and cut off the quay and thus prevented the

20 THE WORLD OF THE DEAD

enchantment of the whole world," the allusion is
undoubtedly to events in the land of ghosts. The
passage recalls the threat of Istar to shatter the
Underworld and lead forth the dead into the
world above to flock with the living. We are
also reminded of the representation of the goddess
of Hades on two of the Hades reliefs where the
monster sails along the river of death kneeling in
a boat. Considering the inconsistency of all such
popular fancies it is hardly remarkable that,
according to the Gilgamesh epic, the "waters of
death " are in the south-east, though generally
the entrance to the Underworld was supposed to
lie in the west. Perhaps it was supposed that
there were two approaches, one by land in the
desert, another by the waters of the river of
death.

Seven walls, pierced by seven (or according to
one legend fourteen) gates, surrounded the place
of the dead, sometimes represented as open
country, sometimes as a city, sometimes as a
huge palace, but always described as full of
countless terrors. The opening part of the
" Journey of Istar in Hades " is well known :

" Of the land without return, the land [. . .],
thought Istar, daughter of the moon-god.
The moon-god's daughter thought . . .
of the house of darkness, the seat of Irkalla [i.c.^
Nergal),

•'THE HOUSE OF DUST" 21

of the house, whence those who enter return not,
of the path which leads forth, but not back again,
of the house, wherein he who enters is deprived

of Hght,
of the place where dust is their food, and clay

their nourishment,
where light they see not, in darkness dwell they,
where they are clad in garments of wings as

.birds,
dust lies thick on door and bolt."

Still worse were the prospects held out to any
specially unwelcome visitants. The queen of the
shades says to the messenger from the gods who
has forced his way into the Underworld: "With
a great curse I will curse thee; the food in the
gutters of the city shall be thy meat, the water in
the sewers of the city shall be thy drink ; the
shadows of the wall thy dwelling, a threshold of
stone thy seat; . . . shall break down thy
strength." In another epic fragment this identical
curse is directed against a captivating Jiierodulos
who by her cunning brought bane upon one of
the heroes.

The picture of the Underworld at the beginning
of " Istar's Journey in Hades" is found almost
word for word in an epic narrative belonging to
the cycle of Gilgamesh legends ; here, however,
the continuation is remarkable. "In the house
of dust, that I have trodden. . . . [there dwell]
wearers of crowns who ruled the land from of

2 2 THE WORLD OF THE DEAD

old, there set forth ... of Anu and Ea roasted
meat, set baked meats [ ] with cold,

with water from leather bottles ; in the house of
dust that I tread [dwell] £";/«-priests and Lagaru-
priests, there [dwell] exorcists and magicians,
there [dwell] the anointed priests of the great
gods, there dwell [the heroes] Etana and Ner,
there dwells Erishkigal, queen of the Underworld,
[there dwells] Belit-Seri, the scribe (female) of
the Underworld bends before her."" Then follows
the account, unfortunately fragmentary, of what
happened when the goddess Erishkigal raised
her head and became aware of the intruder.
The story certainly connects itself with the
Gilgamesh epic, on the last tablet of which the
h^ro entreats the ghost of his friend as it rises:
" Tell me, oh ! my friend, tell me, oh ! my friend,
what the Underworld is like; tell me." The
spirit of his friend answers : " I cannot (?) tell it
thee my friend, I cannot tell it thee; if I should
tell thee what it is like ... sit down and weep
. . ." In the following lines, which alas ! are
fragmentary, he after all seems disposed to give
his friend the information: "That wherein the
heart (on earth) has rejoiced, that below is turned
to dust."

In the midst of " the land without return " is a
palace, whence the gods of Hades exercise their
rule. A:cordingto the Babylonian Hades legends

DEITIES OF THE UNDERWORLD 23

the real power centred in a goddess called Allatu
(i.e., tHe " Mighty One "), or Erishkigal {i.e., the
"Mistress of the Great Place"). She is repre-
sented in the Hades reliefs as a lion-headed
monster (perhaps as being the wife of the lion-
god Nergal), kneeling on a horse in a boat, or —
without boat — standing upon a horse, snakes in
her hands and lions sucking at her breasts. The
concluding portion of theTwelveXablet epic, above
referred to, says of her: "She who is dark (?),
she who is dark, mother of Ninazu ; she who
is dark, whose gleaming shoulders (?) are hidden
by no garment, whose bosom like to a . . . not
. . ." This sombre goddess watches over the
primaeval laws of the Underworld, receives from
the mouth of the porter the names of fresh
arrivals, and upon those on whom her wrath falls
pronounces the great curse. With the help of
the Anunaki she jealously guards the spring (?)
of life which is hidden in a certain sanctuary of
the Underworld, the water of which can ravish
the dead from her power, as was indeed one day
about to happen. " Bending before her" stands
a divine female scribe of the Underworld, of
whose duties unfortunately we know nothing
more definite. Among the servants of Erishkigal
are prominent the often-named " watchman," or
Chief Porter, and Namtar, the god of pestilence.
Side by side with Erishkigal reigns, as king of

2 4 THE WORLD OF THE DEAD

Hades, Nergal, god of war and pestilence. He is
known as "lord of the tombs," "lord of the great
city," " king of the river (of death) " ; and ancient
Babylonian texts call him "lord of the great
land," "lord of the land without return." The
special seat of his cult, the Babylonian city
Kutha, became so closely identified with concep-
tions of Hades that in poetry the Underworld is
actually called "Kutha." His temple in Kutha
was regarded as the likeness of Hades, just as
other temples were supposed to 'be in the likeness
of the heavenly abodes of the gods worshipped in
them. Among the clay tablets of Tell el Amarna
is a Babylonian poem vividly describing the
marriage of Erishkigal and Nergal. In some of
its features the story recalls the Greek legend of
Persephone : " Once when the gods were about to
prepare a feast they sent a messenger to their
sister Erishkigal to say to her, ' We must certainly
descend to thee; if thou wilt not ascend to us,
send one to receive thy portion of the feast.'
Then Erishkigal sent Namtar, her servant."
From further fragments of the story we learn
that Nergal himself set out for the Underworld
with twice seven assistants, bearing such names
as Lightning, Fever, Fervent Heat, &c. The
servants of Nergal were placed at the fourteen
gates of the Underworld, and imperiously he
ordered the watchman to admit them. Then in

DEMONS OF THE UNDERWORLD 25

conclusion we read, " Wiihin the house he seized
Erishkigal by the hair, bent her down from the
throne to the ground in order to cut off her
licad. ' Slay me not, my brother, I have some-
what to say to thee.' Hearing this Nergal stayed
his hand. She wept and sobbed (?) 'Thou shalt
be my husband, I will be thy wife, I will give
thee dominion in the vast Underworld; I will
give into thine hands the tablet of wisdom, thou
shalt be lord, I will be queen.' When Nergal
heard this he seized her, kissed her, wiped away
her tears and said : ' What thou ever askedst of
me long months ago until now. . . .'"

In the train of Nergal, who himself was dreaded
as the the god of pestilence (in this character
known as Urragal), appear all evil spirits and
demons. These demons were regarded as the
offspring of Hades and said to be born in
the west on the mountain of sunset, that is, they
were supposed to exercise their activities by
night. When the sun comes forth from the
mountains on the east — says a poetical magic
formula— and all the gods assemble in presence
of the Sun-god, then the rays of the sun drive
away the spectres. Elsewhere we are told that
they exerted their evil powers from the desert ;
the desert which lay in the west of Babylonia,
being supposed, as already noted, to be in close
connection with the Underworld. "They shall

2 6 THE WORLD OF THE DEAD

withdraw afar, they shall retire from the city and
descend into the earth (the Underworld)," says
the exorcist. These demons of Hades were
imagined as blood-devouring, blood-sucking
monsters, not sparing even the images of the
gods. Like serpents they glided into houses.
"They take away the wife from her husband,
tear the child from his father's bosom, drive the
master away from his household." "From land
to land they go, driving the maidens from their
chambers, the son they lead away from the house
of his parents-in-law, they drive the child from
his father's house, they snatch the doves from
the dove-cot, the bird out of its nest, they drive
the swallows from their nests. They smite the
oxen, they smite the lambs ; mighty spirits (?),
evil demons, hunters are they." " In the pastures
they attack the folds, they bring sickness into the
stalls of the horses, they fill the mouth of the
asses with dust, they bring trouble into the stable
of the she-asses." Almost every part of the
body was threatened by its own special demon.
Ashakku brought fever to the brain, Namtar
threatened life with pestilence, Utukkii attacked
the throat, Alu the chest, Ekimimi the loins,
Rabiszii the skin. Labartu was the nightmare,
Labaszu epilepsy, while Liln and Lilit, spirits
known also to Jewish superstition, brought
infirmities of the night. The words of Rev.

GODS OF FERTILITY 27

xviii. 2 are in exact accordance with fact as
regards the Babylonian dread of spirits : " Babylon
the great is become a habitation of devils, and a
hold of every unclean spirit, and a hold of every
unclean and hateful bird." Specially dreaded, as
we have seen, were the sepulchral Utukku and
Ekimmu, the ghosts of the dead. "They pene-
trate into the houses, seize upon man and cast
him down in the night." There were many
means of exorcism of which the most effective
was to draw a picture of the demon and solemnly
burn it. Of death alone no image could be made
for this purpose. In a religious text occurs the
passage :

" High hold I the torch, put in the fire the images
of Uttiikit, of S/icdii, of Rabiszu, of Ekiintnii,
of LabartH, of Labassii, of Akhkhazu,
of Lilii, of Lilitit, of the maidservant of Lilit,
of every foe that seizes on mankind . . .
your smoke rise up to heaven,
may sparks conceal the sun,
your spells be broken by the priest, the son of
the god Ea."

For the student of comparative religion the
fact is specially noteworthy that among the
Babylonians also the gods of the Underworld
were closely allied with those of fertility and
agriculture. The growth and decay of vegetation
was brought into connection with the Underworld.

~v

2 8 NECROMANCY

This is shown in the worship of Tammuz and in
the invocations to the field-god Enmeshara. One
of these invocations says: "Lord of the Under-
world, sublime in Aralu (a name for Hades), lord
of the place and of the land without return,
mountain of the Anunaki, . . . great lord ; without
Ningirsu (god of agriculture) there is no success
in field or watercourse and no germ is fertile ! "
The giant Eabani also, who, in the Gilgamesh
epic, descends to the Underworld, is a god of the
tilled fields (in this respect recalling Pan), and the
hero Ner, who figures in one of the representa-
tions of the Underworld among the dwellers in
Hades, is certainly identical with the field-god
bearing the same name.

Necromancy.

Among the magic arts of the Babylonian priests
necromancy undoubtedly held a prominent place.
A series of mythological texts shows that scenes
such as that between Saul and the witch of Endor
were familiar to Babylonian fancy also. Among
the lists of the various orders of priests we find
the offices of " Exorcist of the spirits of the dead,''
the priest " who raises the spirit of the dead," and
the S/ia'i/ii, the "enquirer of the dead."

The literature so far known to us has no
example of the " enquiring of the dead." On the

INVOCATION OF SPIRIT OF EABANI 29

other hand, the ceremony for the raising of spirits
seems to be described in the concluding lines of
" Istar's Journey in Hades," though the exact
meaning remains indeed somewhat doubtful. It
is there stated in conclusion that at the feast of
Tanimuz the dead shall aiise and breathe the
fragrance of sacrifice. It may be concluded from
this that the feast of Tammuz was celebrated by
solemn invocations of the dead.

At the close of the Gilganiesh epic there is an
instance of how such invo:ation was actually
practised. On returning from his ancestor, Gil-
gamesh with his companion held solemn lamenta-
tion over his friend Eabani, who " verily has
sunk down to the shades." " Every twenty miles
they intoned the dirge (?), every thirty miles they
held a festival in honour of the dead." With his
dirge he went from one temple to another com-
plaining that no evil malady had consumed his
friend, that he had not fallen in the field of battle
among men, but that the world of the dead had
snatched him away. At last he turned to the god
of the Underworld himself, to the " hero and
lord " Nergal. Ea said to him, " * Knock at the
chamber of the tomb (?) [open the earth that the
spirit of Eabani may come forth from the Under-
world].' [When] the hero Nergal heard this he
knocked at the chamber of the tomb (?), opened
the Underworld, and straightway let the spirit of

30 NECROMANCY

Eabani go forth from out the earth like a breath
of wind." *

Thus then the ghosts of the dead were raised,
but to rid oneself of ghosts that had been raised
or that had escaped may well have appeared a
more difficult matter. " I will raise the dead
that they eat and live ; more than the living shall
the dead he," says Istar. To the Babylonians
this was a terrible threat, for by them the shades
from the Underworld were regarded as among the
most malignant of evil demons. In one exorcism
a sick man complains that the wizard and the
witch have delivered him into the hands of a
wandering ghost, and again the suffering of a
man grievously ill is accounted for by the state-
ment " the wicked ghost has come forth " (i.e.,
from the Underworld). A collection of prayers
of the time of Asurbanipal includes the prayer of
a man possessed by a ghost. Complaint is made
that the ghost will not loose his hold of the sick
man day or night, so that his hair stands on end
and his limbs are as if paralysed. The Sun god
is entreated to free him from this demon, whether
it be the shade of one of the family or that of
some murdered man that is oppressing his being.

■" This exorcism and indeed the whole Babylonian concep-
tion of the Underworld recalls the eleventh book of the
" Odyssey," where the spirits of the dead are called by night
to the Cimmerian shore, and wing their flight up to earth.

BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 31

The sufferer has already bestowed on his tor-
mentor clothes and shoes and a girdle, as well as
a water skin and food for his departing journey.
Now let him go to the West, to the Underworld,
and there may the god Nedu, the gate-keeper of
Hades, retain him fast that he escape no more.

Salvation from the " Land without Return."

In the light of the foregoing statements it can
hardly be doubted that the Babylonians believed
in personal immortality. The body decays in the
grave {s/ia/aintu is the name given to the corpse,
tliat is to say, '* that which is done with "), but
the soul lives in the gloom of Hades, and in that
abode of horror leads an immaterial, shadow-like
existence. Their thoughts, however, took a
further flight and conceived of a brighter fate.
Diogenes Laertius appears to have been correctly
informed in ascribing to the Babylonian schools of
philosophy (or rather schools of the priests) a
belief not only in immortality, but also to a
certain extent in a resurrection.* We have

* The attention of the English reader is drawn to the fact, f
that according to Jensen's recent translation of the Gilgamesh [
epic, the Babylonian priests distinctly taught the doctrine of
a resurrection, giving instances of its occurrence in order to
strengthen the belief in a future life. Though the English
edition of this pamphlet appears later than the German, it
does not deal with Jensen's general conclusions.

32 "THE LAND WITHOUT RETURN"

alread}^ seen that to the gods. of heaven was
attributed the power in certain cases to shatter
the whole realm of the dead, and also that in
isolated instances the spirit of a dead man might
be brought forth. The narrator of the "Journey
of Istar in Hades," indicates in the mystic con-
cluding lines of the poem what his auditor must
do " if deliverance is refused," and earlier in the
epic we are told how the goddess Istar herself is
set free after the porter has been forced to sprinkle
her with the " water of life." In the " eternal
palace," however, the inmost sanctuary of the
Underworld, there is a spring (?) of the water of
life, guarded, apparently, by the Anunaki, already
known to us as demons of the sepulchral world.
Only indeed by violence and with the help of a
special word of power of the god Ea can this water
be reached. It was owing to the feast of Tammuz,
who was condemned " to weep year after year,"
and whose return from the Underworld was cele-
brated annually, that the idea of deliverance from
Hades had become one of the most widely diffused
notions in the popular mind. The fact also that
a whole series of divinities are distinguished by
the epithet "raiser of the dead," is connected with
the same order of ideas. It is, indeed. tlje_Sun
and Spring gods especially that are said to love
to wake the dead. The statement was, there-
fore, due in the first place to experience of the

"THE RAISER OF THE DEAD" 33

renewal of nature in spring, though sometimes it
was appHed in a manner that cannot be misunder-
stood to the hope of mankind. Of Samas, the
Sun god, it is said, " to make the dead Hve, to
free the captive lies in thy hand." The god Nebo
is praised as he " who lengthens the days of life
and raises the dead." But above all it is Marduk,
god of the Early Sun and of the Spring Sun who
is spoken of as " the compassionate one, whose
joy is in raising the dead," or simply — as on the
last of the creation tablets — as " the raiser of the
dead." In a charm against demons and sickness
he is hailed as follows : " Thou compassionate
one among the gods, thou compassionate one,
thou who lovest to raise the dead, Marduk, king
of heaven and earth, king of Babylon, lord of
Esagila, king of Ezida, lord of the mighty house
of life, heaven and earth are thine, the space oi
heaven and earth is thine, exorcism of life is
thine, the saliva of life is thine, the pure exorcism
of the ocean is thine, black-haired mankind, living-
creatures, as many as dwell on the earth, all the
quarters of heaven, all spirits in heaven and earth
[turn ?] their ears to thee ; thou art Shedti, thou
art Lamasn (the spirit of protection and blessing),
thou makest alive, thou bringest to peace, thou
art the compassionate one among the gods . . .
to thee will I devote myself." Cyrus caused it
to be said of himself, after he had taken Babylon,

c

34 THE JOURNEY OF GILGAMESH

the city of Marduk, that the inhabitants with one
accord hailed him joyfully and greeted him with
beaming countenances as " the lord who in the
strength of him who calls the dead to life
(/.<?., Marduk), bad blessed them all with care
and protection." The same power of " raising
the dead " is attributed to Gula, the wife of
Marduk, who moreover is called " the lady, raiser
of the dead," and once mention is made of " the
ship of the goddess Gula, the raiser of the dead."
Curiously enough among the many theophoric
proper names embodying divine epithets attri-
buting life-giving power to a deity, there appears
the name " Nergaluballith," i.e., Nergal (god of
Hades) makes alive."

The Journey of Gilgamesh to the Island of
THE Blessed.

The Twelve Tablet epic has also come down
to us in fragments only. We know, however,
that the hero of the story had, along with his
gigantic friend, incurred the wrath and vengeance
of the mighty goddess Istar. Eabani had died
an ignominious death and gone down to Hades.
Gilgamesh was smitten by terrible sickness, but
was resolved not to die like his friend. Seized
by the fear of death he fell wailing to the ground,
but suddenly he conceived the bold resolve to

THE ENCHANTED GARDEN 35

hasten with all speed to his great ancestor, who
had once dwelt in Suripak, but who had attained
" the longed-for life in the assembly of the gods."
Of him will he seek healing, find out the secret of
immortality and also prepare the way for the
deliverance of his friend Eabani. For this
ancestor, as Gilgamesh tells us later, has the
power to interpret life and death. The skin-clad
wanderer travels far through awful ravines, and
after manifold dangers from which the moon-god
protects him, at length he reaches Mount Mashu.
The entrance to the mountain is guarded by
scorpion men of giant stature, whose wild appear-
ance inspires him with such fear and horror that
he loses consciousness. One of the monsters tries
to dissuade him from the terrible journey, telling
him that he must travel twelve miles through
impenetrable darkness. At length, in response
to his importunity, he opens the mountain door,
and, after four-and-twenty hours of wandering,
Gilgamesh stepped out into an enchanted garden,
in which especially one divine tree so delighted
him that he rushed up to it : " Precious stones it
bears as fruit — the branches were hung with them,
lapis lazuli it bears, fruits it bears, choice (?)
to look upon." A divine mermaid, dwelling
in a palace by the shore, put fresh difficulties
before him. With threats and entreaties he
sought to move her to show him the way to his

36 THE JOURNEY OF GILGAMESH

progenitor and to give him a boat in which to
cross the water. The mermaid warned him that
never had ferry been there and that the Sun god
only could cross the sea, for the waters of death
are as a bolt shot to, barring all entrance to the
Island of the Blessed. At length she betrayed to
him where he might find the man who had ferried
his ancestor across. Him Gilgamesh succeeded
in persuading to his will, and after a terrible
journey, minutely prepared for in advance, they
reached the Waters of Death, having covered a
distance of forty-five days' travel in three days.
After exhausting work at the oars had brought
them across these waters also, they approached
the shores of the Fields of the Blessed. From
the boat Gilgamesh complained to his ancestor of
his woe, related his heroic adventures, bewailed
the death of his friend and told how he had
toiled over lands and mountains and had traversed
all the seas without being able to cheer his
countenance by any happy sight. After a long
conversation discussing the inevitable and invin-
cible mortal fate of man, Gilgamesh comes to his
point and asks his ancestor how he had attained
to his own happy lot. Then this favourite of the
gods — no other than the Babylonian Noah — tells
Gilgamesh, as he listens from his boat, the story
of the Flood, which, as is well known, coincides
in parts almost verbally with the biblical narrative

THE MAGIC PLANT 37

of the Deluge, but concludes with the removal of
the rescued couple to a distant land, at the mouth
of the rivers, where they live as the gods. After
this tale Sit-napishtim (i.e., "Germ of Life") .
promises Gilgamesh " the life that he strives
after." He cast him into a sleep, with the help
of his wife prepared for him enchanted food and
treated him by seven magic processes. Then he
caused his ferryman to take him to the enchanted
fountain, where his boils were washed pure as
snow, the sea carried away his leprous skin, and
his whole body once more appeared sound and
healthy. Before he returned there was revealed
to him yet another particular secret, namely, that
a magic plant grew on the island, the twigs ot
which gave secret power to men : whoever ate ot
it regained the strength of his youth. Gilgamesh
got possession of the magic plant and in his joy
named it shebii-issakhir-amclit, i.e., "even when
old a man becomes young again." Then Gilgamesh
went back (by another route?) accompanied by
the ferryman. Every twenty miles they chanted
a dirge, every thirty miles they held a feast in
honour of the dead. Whilst Gilgamesh was
drawing water (for purposes of libation ?) tYom a
spring the magic plant slipped from his grasp and
a serpent known as the "earth lion" seized it
from him. In his terror at first he uttered a
curse, then he sat down and wept, tears flowed

38 THE JOURNEY OF GILGAMESH

over his cheeks. He said to his companion :
"To what end has my strength been renewed, to
what end does my soul rejoice in its restoration ?
No benefit have I done to myself, to the earth
lion is the benefit fallen." With dirges they
wandered on till they came to the city of Erekh.
For the present cuneiform literature unfortu-
nately tells us no more about this Island of the
Blessed which so vividly calls to mind the Greek
garden of the gods, Elysium, that Paradise in the
western ocean where rose the springs of nectar
and ambrosia. Neither do we hear of any other
inhabitants of it, though it can hardly be supposed
that the couple rescued from the Flood and their
ferryman dwelt there entirely alone. It is,
indeed, expressly stated that they lived "in the
assembly of the gods." Thither fancy transferred
other heroes of the people. Olympus was merged
with Elysium by the Babylonians as later by the
Greeks. Tiglath Pilesar expresses a hope that
the great gods " have called the race of his priest-
hood to a dwelling-place on the mount of the
gods for ever." According to the Gilgamesh epic
he "who had fallen in battle with men" can
claim a privileged lot after death. We are re-
minded of Walhalla when, at the close of the
same epic, we read of the fate of the fallen as
follows :

THE PARADISE IN ERIDU 39

" On a pillow reposeth
drinking pure water,
he who was slain in battle ;
his father and his mother hold his head,
and his wife [kneeleth] by his side (?)."

It is, perhaps, in a similar connection that
we must interpret the close of a hymn, which
runs :

" Glimmering water brought he in,"
Ninzadim, the great jeweller of Anu,
has to the care of his pure hands taken thee ;
Ea hath taken thee hence to the place of cleansing,
to the place of cleansing hath he taken thee
to (?) milk and honey he took thee,
water of exorcism placed he in thy mouth,
thy mouth he openeth by means of exorcism :

" Be clear as the heaven, be pure as the earth shine
like the innermost part of heaven "

The Paradise of the First Created of
Mankind in Eridu.

"At the mouth of the rivers," i.e., where the
Tigris and the Euphrates once flowed separately
into the sea, Gilgamesh sought and found the
entrance to the Island of the Blessed : " at the
mouth of the rivers " also, holy water was pro-
cured for use in exorcism. Near this spot lay
Eridu (the modern Abu-Shahrein, the Rata of
the Ptolemies), the city of the cult of Ea, chief

40 THE PARADISE IN ERIDU

magician among the gods. The enchantment of
Eridu plays a prominent part in the magical
literature of the Babylonians. Now the mytho-
logy of the Gilgamesh epic points in many ways
to the neighbourhood of Eridu and the activity
of Ea, who, however, had temples also in Erekh
and Surippak the actual scenes of the epic. " At
the mouth of the rivers " must be sought likewise
the garden of the gods where grew the enchanted
tree bearing precious stones as fruit, and near to
it the palace of the sea maiden who guarded the
ferry over the Waters of Death, Close by dwelt
the ferryman who took Gilgamesh across the
water, led him to the fountain of healing and
helped him to pluck the twigs from the tree of
life. The ferryman, moreover, is called Arad-Ea,
2>., " servant of Ea." It was Ea also who had
rescued the hero's ancestor and his wife from the
Flood. He must also have taken some part in
the creation of the giant Eabani who had helped
Gilgamesh in his exploits, for the name Eabani
means " Ea creates." The miraculous healing
to be found on the Island of the Blessed is
another reference to the magic of the priests of
Ea in Eridu.

These considerations have been advanced in
detail because it will be seen that Eridu itself (or
rather its cosmic archetype, all the great cities
and temples of Babylonia having corresponding

CREATION OF ADA? A 4^

cosmic originals (see page 24)) is represented as
a kind of Paradise. At the conclusion of a spell
in which the god of fire calls to his help Ea, the
wise son of Eridu, we read :

" In Eridu grows a dusky palm in a pure place,
its growth is superb, like lapis lazuli, it overshadows

the ocean ;
the sojourn of Ea is in Eridu, overflowing with

plenty,
his dwelling is the place of the Underworld,
his dwelling is the couch of the goddess Ba-u ;
within the splendid house, shady as the forest, none

may enter."

An epical fragment lately discovered shows
this Sanctuary of Eridu to have been the scene
of the creation of Adapa by the god Ea. The
account of the very act of creation has unfortu-
nately not been preserved, but from similar
descriptions in other specimens of cuneiform
literature we are justified in assuming that E a,
the divine " potter," moulded his creature out of
clay. Our fragment tells us that the god granted
Adapa "divine authority, great discernment to
order the laws of the land " ; that he gave him
wisdom— but did not give him everlasting life—
and that he made him " the mighty one, the child
of Eridu, to be the shepherd (?) of man." Further
we learn that he was entrusted with various
priestly functions and that he acted as baker and

42 FOOD AND WATER OF LIFE

cup-bearer to the gods. With the baker of Eridu
he superintended the bailing, daily he provided
Eridu with bread and water, with his own pure
hand he attended to the platters, no platter was
made ready without him, daily he embarked on
his boat and went fishing for Eridu; when Ea
stretched himself on his couch Adapa departed
from Eridu and sailed about all night catching
fish. From the fragments that relate the subse-
quent fate of Adapa we learn that Anu had been
considering how the gift of eternal life could be
given to this being who is in one passage distinctly
called " Germ of mankind." With this episode
we shall deal in the following section.

Food of Life and Water of Life in the
Babylonian Paradise.

The epic fragments discovered at Tell el Amarna
relate how Adapa was summoned before the throne
of Anu, god of heaven, to answer for a deed of
violence committed against the bird Zu, t.e.y the
incarnation of the South wind. Anu's wrath
being appeased he commanded a feast to be pre-
pared for Adapa and festal raiment and oil for
anointing to be given him. Garments and oil he
accepted, but meat and drink he refused, for Ea
had warned him : " When thou comest into the

BABYLONIAN NECTAR AND AMBROSIA 43

presence of Anu food of death will be offered thee,
eat not thereof! Water of death will be offered
thee, drink not thereof! " But lo ! it was indeed
food of life and water of life ! Anu was filled
with amazement. He had purposed that the man
to whom his creator had revealed the inmost things
of heaven and earth {i.e., had bestowed on him
the highest wisdom) should receive also the gift
of immortality. By his refusal Adapa had de-
frauded himself of this gift. Therefore Anu
commanded, " Take him and bring him back to
his earth."

In this narrative food of life and water of life
are supposed to be in the palace of the god of
heaven. This also is a similar conception to that
of Olympus and the Elysian Fields, for among
the Greeks the source of the Olympian nectar and
ambrosia was to be sought in the Paradise on the
Western Ocean. Food of life and water of life
were found also in the Babylonian Paradise " at
the mouth of the rivers," in Eridu and on the
Island of the Blessed. We have already told how
Gilgamesh obtained healing by means of the water
of the fountain of life and of the magic food on
the Island of the Blessed, and how he found the
magic plant of immortality. Obviously also, the
divine baker and cup-bearer has not, in the mind
of the narrator, to do with common food and
drink, but with the Babylonian equivalents of

44 FOOD AND WATER OF LIFE

nectar and ambrosia. The plant of life also, is
occasionally mentioned elsewhere. " Delicate as
the plant of life may his royal shepherdhood be,"
says the Assyrian king Rammanirari III., and
Asarhaddon expresses the wish " that his royal
rule may be favourable to the well-being of man-
kind, as is the plant of life." Frequent mention
is made of the water of life, especially in the wor-
ship of Ea and Marduk, and the story of Adapa
shows that this water was used for drinking and
not merely for sprinkling and lustration. In the
*' Journey of Istar through Hades " express men-
tion is made of drinking the water of life at the
despatching of Uddushunamir, the messenger of
the gods :

" Papsukal, the servant of the great gods, bowed his

face before [Samas],
in mourning garb clothed, with hair (?) dishevelled.
Samas stepped before Sin, his father, wee[ping],
before Ea the king his tears to pour forth :
Istar has gone down into the Underworld and has

not returned thence."

After he has told how all generation on earth
has been suspended because of this journey in
Hades, it continues :

" Then Ea in the wisdom of his heart created a male
being,
created Uddushunamir, the servant of the gods ;

THE SACRED RIVERS 45

Hail ! Uddushunamir, turn thy face to the gate ot

the land without return,
the seven gates of the land without return, may

they open be''ore thee,
may Erishkigal see thee and welcome thee joyfully.
When her heart shall be calmed and her spirit

cheered,
then conjure her in the name of the great gods.
Raise thou thy heads high, turn thy thoughts to the

place of the spring (?), (and say) :
Hail ! lady, may the spring (?) give me of its waters,

thereof will I drink." ' "

Later, indeed, when the desire of the messenger
has perforce been granted, the goddess of Hades
says to her servant Namtar, ** Sprinkle the
goddess Istar with the water of life and send her
away."

According to the exorcisms " holy water " was
to be found ** at the mouth of the rivers," />., at
the entrance to the Island of the Blessed on the
shores of which was also the fountain of healing.
The Euphrates and Tigris themselves were con-
sidered as sacred streams at the sources of which,
as an historical inscription testifies, sacrifices were
offered, and on the banks of which ceremonial
ablutions were performed. Ea and his son Mar-
duk were the lords of the water of life. At Ea's
command the Underworld was forced to reveal
its spring of the water of life, and elsewhere we
read ; " Go, my son Marduk, take the . . . one

46 FOOD AND WATER OF LIFE

. . . fetch water from the mouth of the two
streams, into this water put thy pure spell, and
consecrate it with thy pure spell, sprinkle [with
the same water] roan, the child of his god."
Another passage runs : " Pure water [. . .], water
of the Euphrates, that in the [. . .] place, water
that is well hidden in the ocean, the pure mouth
of Ea has purified it, the sons of the deep, the
seven, they have made the water pure, clear and
sparkling." According to a ritual text edited for
the Assyrian royal worship the priest, clad in
linen of Eridu, meets the king on the threshold
of the " house of purification " and greets him in
words that recall the blessing of Aaron !

" Ea make thee glad,
Damkina, queen of the deep, illumine thee with her

countenance,
Marduk, the mighty overseer .of the Igigi (heavenly

spirits), exalt thy head."

Then the priest continued : " Their deeds
endure on earth who take the holy message of
Ea for their guide ; the great gods of heaven
come to his side, in the great sanctuaries of
heaven and earth they come to his side ; those
chambers are pure and shining; in Ea's clear and
shining water bathe the Anunaki, the great gods
themselves purify their faces in it." Side by side
with Ea, his son Marduk has command of the

CONCLUSION 47

sacred water. In his temple was a holy fountain
and frequent mention is made of Marduk's
" vessel of purification," and of the " vessel of
the decree of fate." This water may well have
been represented at the great festival of the
decree of fate, and it may be assumed that the
vessel on wall sculptures and seal cylinders
carried by winged genii to the tree of life repre-
sents the vessel of the water of life, and the fruit
of the tree the corresponding food of hfe.

Conclusion. — Psychology of the Babylonian
Conceptions of Hades.

The Babylonian belief in a future life rested
evidently in the first place on the conception ot
the soul as an individual entity, which forsakes
the body at death. The body was regarded as
done with (this belief is indicated, as we have
seen, by the very word for corpse, shalamtu, see
page 31), when with the last breath the soul had
forsaken it. The soul therefore is called napishiu
— i.e., '* breath," and it is said of a ghost which
has been conjured up that he rises " like a breath
of wind " out of the earth (page 30).

Among many peoples the conceptions of the
world of the dead have been shaped according to
the wishes and hopes raised in the minds of men

48 CONCLUSION

as they muse on their own death, and look for-
ward to life in an imaginary world full of pleasures
denied them by the wretchedness of their life
on earth. But among the Babylonians, as also
among the Hebrews and the Greeks, representa-
tions of Hades reflect the melancholy thoughts
roused in human souls by mourning for their
dead. The soul of the dead sinks into a joyless
existence, the misery of which has been fore-
shadowed by the phenomena of mortal sickness.
The loss of a corporeal manifestation has already
deprived it of all adornment and all exercise of
the senses (page 9). Where is the soul to be
found ? Simplicity sought it in the tomb ; the
shade of the dead man finds it hard to part from
the body which gave him form and substance.
Hence the corpse was embalmed, and food and
drink were placed in the grave. But imagination
followed the fate of the soul beyond the tomb
into a world of its own, the entrance to which
lay in the West, whither also the sun journeyed
before sinking down into darkness, and which
was depicted as a faded counterpart of the world
of men. That the more primitive conception of
the dwelling of the soul in the grave still held its
ground is to be explained by the demands of
ancestor worship. In this cult the tombs were
the places of offering, and its influence was
stronger than any demands of logic.

DOCTRINE OF RETRIBUTION 49

Since to the Babylonians death and sojourn in
Hades loomed as a dark fate indeed, there must
soon have arisen in the soul of the people the
thought that there might be distinctions in the
fate of the dead, and retribution in the next world.
It must also have appeared impossible that the
ethical system of things taken for granted in
Babylonian hymns and prayers should be entirely
done away with beyond the tomb. Some traces
of a doctrine of retribution are, as a matter of fact,
to be found in the Babylonian representations of
Hades. What is the goddess scribe of the Under-
world writing as she stands bending before the
goddess of Hades (p. 23) ? What is the signifi-
cance of the arrangements by which the strength
of an unwelcome intruder was to be broken
(p. 21) ? Why were the Anunaki set upon a
golden throne when decision was to be made as
to whether Istar should go free ? Does it not
seem as though they exercised judicial functions
after the manner of the forty-two judges at the
Judgment of Osiris ? In an exorcism on one of
the Hades reliefs, mention is made of the " Judg-
ment of the life of the great gods." The fact that
individual favourites of the gods were removed to
a happy life on some Island of the Blessed or
elsewhere in the vicinity of the gods is no proof
of a belief in the separation of good and evil after
death, but it does testify that the Babylonians in

D

50 CONCLUSION

their meditations on death and the grave refused
to give up all ri^varepag eXirldcti-, '* sweeter hopes,"
and that they attributed to their gods a power
over the fate of man's soul extending beyond the
tomb.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX.

Alfred Jeremias, "Die Babylonisch-assyrischen \'orstel-
lungen \om Leben nach dem Tode (mit Beriicksich-
tigung der alttestamentlichen Parallelen)." Leipzig.
J. C. Hinrichs(i887). 6s.

P. Jensen, " Kosmologie der Babylonier." Strassburg
( 1 890). 40s.

Alfred Jeremias, article " Nergal" in Roschers Lexicon
der My/hologie, vol. iii. col. 250 et seq.

Bruno Meissner, " Babylonisch Leichenfeierlichkeiten
{IViener Zeitschr. /. d. Kunde des Morzenlandes
vol. xii. p. 59 et seq.

Scheil, "Relief reprdsentant une scene fun^raire baby-
lonienne" {Recueil de Travmcx relatif a la PJiilologie
et a VArcJicologic egypticimes et assyriennes., \ol. xx.
p. 5.

Messerschmidt, " Ein vergessenes Hades-Relief" {Orient-
al istisc/ie Lit. Zeitting., 1901, p. 175).

Y . Thureau-Uangin, " Inscription provenant d'un tombeau
babylonien " {Orientalistisclie Lit. Zeitung, 1901, p. 5).

Schwally, " Das Leben nach dem Tode nach den Vorstel-
lungen des alten Israels." Giessen (1892). (A useful
summary of purely Jewish ideas, but written without
knowledge of, or reference to, the Babylonian
evidence.) j.f.

52 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX

Frey, Johs. Tod, " Seelenglaube und Seelenkult im alten
Israel." Leipzig (1898). (Makes no use of Baby-
lonian evidence.) 4s.

The translations of the Gilgamesh (Nimrod) epos by
Alfred Jeremias : " Izdubar-Nimrud," Leipzig, 1891 {qf.
also his articles "Ishtar," " Izdubar," in Roscher's "Lexi-
con"), and P. Jensen, Keilnischriftliche Bibliothek^ Bd. vi.
"Die alt-babylonische Epen und Mythen"may also be
consulted. See also the articles " Creation," " Deluge,"
" Eschatology," " Nimrod," and " Paradise," in the " Ency-
clopsedia Biblica," edited by the Rev. Dr. Cheyne and
J. S. Black, and in Rev. Dr. J. Hastings' "Dictionary
of the Bible."

Bali.antyne, Hanson &* Co.

.ondoii &^ Eilinburgh

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