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THE    TEMPTATION    OF   EA-BANI 

From  the  Painting  by  E.  Wallcousim 


MYTHS  OF  BABYLONIA 
AND  ASSYRIA 


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DONALD  A.  MACKENZIE 


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lilustralLons  in  Qjtour  I 
Monocnrowe.       j 


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THE  GRESHAM  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 
34  SOUTHAMPTON  ST.  STRAND  LONDON 


PREFACE  vii 

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  in- 
dispensable 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  sur- 
prising 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  con- 
cern 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 


viii  PREFACE 

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  know- 
ledge 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  Philo- 
stratus,1  Apollonius  of  Tyana  was  worthy  of  being  remem- 
bered for  two  things — his  bravery  in  travelling  among 
fierce  robber  tribes,  not  then  subject  to  Rome,  and  his 

1  Life  of  Apollonius  of  Tyana,  i,  20. 


PREFACE  ix 

wisdom  in  learning  the  language  of  birds  and  other  ani- 
mals 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  "death- 
less 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  earthj^the  abyss,  the  mountains  and  the  sea".1 

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  con- 
tagious magic ;  by  eating  or  otherwise  disposing  of  the 
vital  part  of  the  fierce  and  wise  mother  dfagon,  he  became 
endowed  with  her  attributes,  and  was  able  to  proceed 

1  Egyptian  Tales  (Second  Scries),  W.  M.  Flindcrt  Petrieyfcp.  98  et  st$. 


x  PREFACE 

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  ex- 
periences 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  Baby- 
lonian 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  con- 
tact with,  and  were  influenced  by,  Mesopotamia!!  civiliza- 
tion. 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  Mesopotamia!!  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 


PREFACE  xi 

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  con- 
ditions 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  charac- 
terize 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. 


CONTENTS 


CHAP.  F  age 

INTRODUCTION         .--_...  xxi 

L     THE   RACES  AND  EARLY  CIVILIZATION  OF   BABYLONIA-  I 

II.     THE  LAND  OF  RIVERS  AND  THE  GOD  OF  THE  DEEP-  21 

III.  RIVAL  PANTHEONS  AND   REPRESENTATIVE  DEITIES         -  40 

IV.  DEMONS,   FAIRIES,  AND  GHOSTS  59 
V.      MYTHS  OF  TAMMUZ  AND   ISHTAR    -          -          -  8 1 

VI.     WARS  OF  THE  CITY   STATES  OF   SUMER  AND   AKKAD  -  109 

VII.     CREATION   LEGEND:    MERODACH  THE  DRAGON  SLAYER  138 

VIII.      DEIFIED   HEROES:    ETANA  AND   GILGAMESH        -          -  163 

IX.      DELUGE   LEGEND,   THE    ISLAND    OF   THE    BLESSED,   AND 

HADES     -          -          -          -          -          -          -          -190 

X.      BUILDINGS  AND  LAWS  AND  CUSTOMS  OF  BABYLON       -  217 

XL     THE  GOLDEN   AGE  OF   BABYLONIA    -  240 

XII.        RlSE       OF       THE        HlTTITES,       MlTANNlANS,       KASSITES, 

HYKSOS,  AND  ASSYRIANS     -----  260 

XIII.  ASTROLOGY  AND  ASTRONOMY  -         -          -          -         -  287 

XIV.  ASHUR  THE  NATIONAL  GOD  OF  ASSYRIA-          -  326 
X^V.     CONFLICTS  FOR  TRADE  AND  SUPREMACY   -          -         -  356 

XVI.      RACE  MOVEMENTS  THAT  SHATTERED  EMPIRES  -          -  376 

xiii 


xiv  CONTENTS 

CHAP.  Page 

XVII.  THE  HEBREWS  IN  ASSYRIAN  HISTORY  .....  30,4 

XVIII.  THE  AGE  OF  SEMIRAMIS         -         -  -         -  •  477 

XIX.  ASSYRIA'S  AGE  OF  SPLENDOUR          -  -         -  '444 

XX.  THE  LAST  DAYS  OF  ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA  »  -•  477 

INDEX          *         -        -                 «  *         -  -  joi 


PLATES    IN    COLOUR 


Page 
THE    TEMPTATION    OF   EA-BANI    (p.   173)         -         -          -     frontispiece 

From  the  painting  by  E.  Jfallcousins 

ISHTAR    IN    HADES facing       96 

From  the  painting  by  E.  ffallcousins 

MERODACH    SETS   FORTH    TO   ATTACK   TIAMAT          -       „         144 

From  the  painting  by  E.  Wallcounns 

THE    SLAYING   OF    THE    BULL    OF    ISHTAR  „          176 

From  the  painting  by  E.  Wallcousins 

THE    BABYLONIAN    DELUGE ,,192 

From  the  painting  by  E.  ff'allcousitts 

NEBUCHADNEZZAR    IN    THE    HANGING    GARDENS        -        „         220 

From  the  painting  by  E.  Pf^allcousins 

THE    BABYLONIAN    MARRIAGE    MARKET  „         224 

From  the  painting  by  Edivin  Long>  R.^f.9  in  the  Royal 
Holloiuay  College.     By  permission  of' the  Trustees 

THE    SHEPHERD    FINDS   THE    BABE    SEMIRAMIS  -         -       „         424 
From  the  painting  by  E.  WaUcousins 


PLATES    IN    MONOCHROME 


Page 
EXAMPLES    OF    RACIAL    TYPES facing       2 

From  a  draiving  by  E*  Pf^allcousins 

STATUE  OF  A  ROYAL   PERSONAGE  OR  OFFICIAL  OF 

NON-SEMITIC    ORIGIN ,,12 

WORSHIP    OF   THE    MOON    GOD    (CYLINDER-SEAL)    -  „         *o 

WINGED    MAN-HEADED    LION „         6z 

From  N.py.  Palace  of  Nimroud 

TWO    FIGURES   OF    DEMONS ,,         72 

WINGED    HUMAN-HEADED    COW(?)        -  „       100 

Front  Kouyunjik  (Nineveh} 

CYLINDER-SEAL    IMPRESSIONS    SHOWING    MYTHO- 
LOGICAL   FIGURES    AND    DEITIES  -  „        106 

PLAQUE    OF    UR-NINA „        116 

SILVER  VASE   DEDICATED  TO  THE   GOD   NIN-GIRSU 

BY    ENTEMENA   -- ,,120 

STELE    OF    NARAM    SIN „        128 

GUDEA ,,130 

From  the  statue  in  the  Loutvre>  Parft 
xviS 


xviii  PLATES   IN   MONOCHROME 

Page 

"THE   SEVEN   TABLETS   OF   CREATION"      -         -         -         facing  138 
From  the  library  of  Ashur-bani-pal  at  Kouyunjik  (Nineveh) 

SLIPPER- SHAPED      COFFIN,      MADE      OF      GLAZED 

EARTHENWARE ,,214 

STELE    OF    HAMMURABI,   WITH    "CODE   OF    LAWS"  „       222 

HAMMURABI    RECEIVING    THE    "CODE    OF    LAWS" 

FROM   THE    SUN    GOD       ------  ,,248 

THE  HORSE  IN  WARFARE  (ASHUR-NATSIR-PAL  AND 

ARMY   ADVANCING) ,,270 

Marble  dab  ft  om  N.fP.  Palace  of  Nimroud 

LETTER    FROM    TUSHRATTA,    KING    OF    MITANNI, 

TO   AMENHOTEP    III,    KING   OF   EGYPT        -         -  „       280 

THE    GOD    NINIP   AND    ANOTHER    DEITY  -  „       302 

SYMBOLS   OF    DEITIES   AS   ASTRONOMICAL    SIGNS    -  „       306 

Ft  om  sculptured  stone  in  the  British  Museum 

ASHUR   SYMBOLS ,,334 

WINGED     DEITIES     KNEELING     BESIDE     A    SACRED 

TREE -  „       340 

Mar  hie  slab  from  NJf.  Palace  of  Nimroud 

EAGLE-HEADED   WINGED    DEITY   (ASHUR)  -        -  „       344 

ASSYRIAN    KING    HUNTING    LIONS        -  „       384 

TYRIAN   GALLEY   PUTTING   OUT   TO   SEA-        -        -  „       388 

Marble  slab  from  Kouyunjik  (Nineveh) 

STATUE   OF   ASHUR-NATSIR-PAL „       396 

from  S.ff,  Palace  of  NimrQitj 


PLATES   IN   MONOCHROME  xix 

Page 
DETAILS    FROM    SECOND    SIDE    OF    BLACK.   OBELISK 

OF   SHALMANESER   III facing  410 

STATUE    OF    NEBO,    DEDICATED    BY    ADAD-NIRARI 

IV   AND    THE    QUEEN    SAMMU-RAMMAT        -         -  ,,       422 

TIGLATH-PILESER    IV    IN    HIS    CHARIOT     -  „       446 

COLOSSAL     WINGED     AND     HUMAN-HEADED     BULL 

AND    MYTHOLOGICAL    BEING          ....  „       456 

From  doofway  in  Palace  of  Sargon  at  Khorsabad 

ASSAULT    ON    THE    CITY   OF    ...ALAMMU    (FJERUSA- 

LEM)  BY  THE  ASSYRIANS  UNDER  SENNACHERIB  „       468 

Marble  slab  from  Kouyunjtk  (Nineveh) 

ASHUR-BANI-PAL    RECLINING    IN    A    BOWER       -         -  „       486 

Marble  slab  from  Kouyunjtk  (Nmc'vtJi) 

PERSIANS       BRINGING       CHARIOTS,       RINGS,       AND 

WREATHS ,,494 

Bas~rehef  from  Persepolis 


MAP   OF    BABYLONIA   AND    ASSYRIA    - 


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  per- 
secution 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  memor- 
able 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  .  ,  . 


xxii  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  deso- 
lated 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.1 

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  accumu- 
lated myths  and  legends.  A  slim  volume  contained  all 
that  could  be  derived  from  references  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment and  the  compilations  of  classical  writers. 

1  Revelation,  xviii.     The  Babylon  of  the  Apocalypse  is  generally  believed  to  sym- 
bolize or  be  a  mystic  designation  of  Rome, 


INTRODUCTION  xxiii 

It  is  only  within  the  past  half-century  that  the  wonder- 
ful 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  Baby- 
lonia and  Assyria  were  identified  by  European  officials 
and  travellers  in  the  East  early  411  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  him- 
self wrote,  "  enclosed  all  that  remained  not  only  of  the 
great  city  of  Nineveh,  but  of  Babylon  itself  ".l 

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  inde- 
pendent 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  so- 
journing 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  in- 
vestigate the  Nineveh  mounds ;  but  these  he  abandoned 

1  Nineveh  and  Its  Remains,  vol.  i,  p.  17. 


xxiv  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

for  a  mound  near  Khorsabad  which  proved  to  be  the  site 
of  the  city  erected  by  c<  Sargon  the  Later'*,  who  is  referred 
to  by  Isaiah.  The  relics  discovered  by  Botta  and  his  suc- 
cessor, Victor  Place,  are  preserved  in  the  Louvre0 

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  un- 
rivalled Assyrian  collection.  He  also  conducted  diggings 
at  Babylon  and  Niffer  (Nippur),  His  work  was  con- 
tinued by  his  assistant,  Hormuzd  Rassam,  a  native  Chris- 
tian 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  build- 
ings, 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  Bagh- 
dad, 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 


INTRODUCTION  xxv 

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  compli- 
cated Assyro-Babylonian  alphabetic  and  syllabic  characters 
to  record  a  portion  of  the  history  of  his  reign.  Rawlin- 
son's  translation  of  the  famous  inscription  was  an  im- 
portant contribution  towards  the  decipherment  of  the 
cuneiform  writings  of  Assyria  and  Babylonia. 

Twelve  years  of  brilliant  Mesopotamia!!  discovery 
concluded  in  1854,  and  further  excavations  had  to  be 
suspended  until  the  "seventies"  on  account  of  the  un- 
settled political  conditions  of  the  ancient  land  and  the 
difficulties  experienced  in  dealing  with  Turkish  officials. 
During  the  interval,  however,  archaeologists  and  philolo- 
gists 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 
u  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 


xxvi  MYTHS   OF  BABYLONIA 

Henry  Rawlinson.  So  greatly  impressed  was  Sir  Henry 
by  the  young  man's  enthusiasm  and  remarkable  intelli- 
gence 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  Shal- 
maneser.  Sir  Henry  availed  himself  of  the  young  in- 
vestigator's assistance  in  producing  the  third  volume  of 
The  Cuneiform  Inscriptions. 

In  1867  Smith  received  an  appointment  in  the  Assyri- 
ology  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  T>aily  Telegraph,  and  performed  a  memorable 
service  to  modern  scholarship  by  dispatching  Smith,  on 
behalf  of  his  paper,  to  Nineveh  to  search  for  other  frag- 
ments 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,1  who  took  delight,  as  he  himself  recorded,  in 

The  wisdom  of  Ea,2  the  art  of  song,  the  treasures  of  science. 

This  royal  patron  of  learning  included  in  his  library 
collection,  copies  and  translations  of  tablets  from  Baby- 
lonia. 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: 

l£xrat  iv,  10.  2The  culture  god. 


INTRODUCTION  xxvii 

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.1 

Mr.  George  Smith's  expedition  to  Nineveh  in  1873  was 
exceedingly  fruitful  of  results.  More  tablets  were  dis- 
covered and  translated.  In  the  following  year  he  re- 
turned 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  1 9th  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  dis- 
coveries 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'1;  a  cylinder  of  Na~ 
bonidus,  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  bas  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 

1  Langdon's  Sumerian  and  Babylonian  Pia!>n$,  p.  179. 


xxviii  MYTHS   OF  BABYLONIA 

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  Baby- 
lonian 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  ./Egean,  and  Egypt 
has  thrown,  and  is  throwing,  much  light  on  the  relations 
between  the  various  civilizations  of  antiquity.  In  addi- 
tion 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  intel- 
lectual life  of  the  Mesopotamia!!  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 


INTRODUCTION  xxix 

period  is  still  uncertain.  The  approximate  dates  which 
are  given,  however,  are  those  now  generally  adopted  by 
most  European  and  American  authorities.  Early  Baby- 
lonian history  of  the  Sumertan  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  Pro- 
fessor Flinders  Petrie.  Recent  discoveries  appear  to  sup- 
port 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,  accor- 
ding to  which  the  Sixth  (Egyptian)  Dynasty  began  at 
c.  2540  B.C.  and  the  Twelfth  at  c.  2000  B.C.1  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  con- 
clude, 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 

1  Crete  the  Forerunner  of  Greece,  p,  1 8. 


xxx  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

they  may  be  due  to  "  a  remarkable  homogeneity  of  civi- 
lization throughout  Southern  Europe  and  Western  Asia 
in  prehistoric  times.  How  far",  he  adds,  asuch  homo- 
geneity of  civilization  may  be  taken  as  evidence  of  homo- 
geneity of  race  is  a  question  for  the  ethnologist.*'1 

In  Chapter  I  the  reader  is  introduced  to  the  ethno- 
logical 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 
Mesopotamia!!  peoples  to  assist  the  student  towards  the 
elucidation  and  partial  restoration  of  certain  literary  frag- 
ments 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  Mahdbhdrata,  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 
Kama,  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  cal- 
culation associated  with  it.  It  is  of  interest  to  note,  too, 
that  a  portion  of  the  Gilgamesh  epic  survives  in  the 

1  The  Scapegoat  vol.,  p.  409  (3rd  edition). 


INTRODUCTION  xxxi 

Rdmdyana  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,  re- 
sembles 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  con- 
fronted 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  ac- 
counted 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 


XXX11  MYlJt-iS    UJh     15A15I1AJIN1A 

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  back- 
ground 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  pro- 
gress 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 


INTRODUCTION  xxxiii 

life  principle  in,  the  Euphrates  River.  His  centre  of  wor- 
ship 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  remi- 
niscent 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.1 

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.2 

Ea  acquired  in  time,  as  the  divine  artisan,  various  attri- 
butes 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  de- 
moniac 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 


*  The  Scvtn  Tablets  of  Creation^  1*,  W.  King,  p.  129.  2/£/W,  pp.  133-4, 


xxxiv  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  wor- 
shippers 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  re- 
flected 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 
apea  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 


INTRODUCTION  xxxv 

receive  recognition.  But  among  the  great  masses  of  the 
people  ancient  customs  associated  with  agriculture  con- 
tinued 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  con- 
querors to  exalt  the  deities  they  introduced. 

Babylonian  religion  was  of  twofold  character.  It  em- 
braced 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  "  burn- 
ings*' 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,  con- 
demned 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 
{o  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  Tammux 
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 

(0642)  3 


xxxvi  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  con- 
stellation. 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". 


INTRODUCTION  xxxvii 

The  King  as  Patriarch  was  regarded  during  life  as  an 
incarnation  of  the  culture  god :  after  death  he  merged  in 
the  god.  c<  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  a 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  Natural- 
ism as  well  as  the  spirit  groups  of  Animism. 


xxxviii  MYTHS   OF    BABYLONIA 

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  appli- 
cation 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 


INTRODUCTION  xxxix 

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  un- 
wholesome 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  achieve- 
ments compel  our  wonder  and  admiration,  moved  states- 
men to  inaugurate  and  administer  humanitarian  laws,  and 
exalted  Right  above  Might. 

These  civilizations  of  the  old  world,  among  which  the 
Mesopotamia!!  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. 


MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 
AND    ASSYRIA 


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 — South- 
ward 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'* — God- 
dess who  inspired  Poets. 

BEFORE  the  dawn  of  the  historical  period  Ancient  Baby- 
lonia was  divided  into  a  number  of  independent  city 
states  similar  to  those  which  existed  in  pre-Dynastic 
Egypt.  Ultimately  these  were  grouped  into  loose  con- 
federacies. 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 


2  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

"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  affini- 
ties. 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  tradi- 
tions Eridu,  originally  a  seaport,  was  their  racial  cradle. 
The  Semitic  Akkadians  adopted  the  distinctive  culture  of 


if" : 


jj^ 


J- - - —  ° 


EXAMPLES    OF    RACIAL    TYPES 

From  a  drawing  hy  E.  Ifallcousins 


EARLY  CIVILIZATION  3 

these  Sumerians  after  settlement,   and  exercised  an   in- 
fluence 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  im- 
probable; 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  lan- 
guages 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  indica- 
tion of  racial  origins  or  affinities. 

Another   theory   connects    the    Sumerians   with   the 


4  MYTHS  OF  BABYLONIA 

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  ot  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  sug- 
gest 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  dis- 
tinctive 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  dis- 
tinctive 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.1  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 

1  The  Races  of  Europe,  W.  Z.  Ripley,  p.  203. 


EARLY   CIVILIZATION  5 

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  com- 
munities. 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  exca- 
vations 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  Kfti  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 


6  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  evi- 
dence obtainable  in  Egypt  is  of  interest  in  this  connec- 
tion. 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  frag- 
ments of  mammalian  bones,  including  those,  no  doubt, 
of  the  domesticated  sheep  and  goats  and  cattle  painted 
on  the  pottery.1  It  is  therefore  apparent  that  at  an 
extremely  remote  period  a  knowledge  of  agriculture  ex- 
tended 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 

1  The  Ancient  Egyptians,  by  Elliot  Smith,  p.  41  ft  sey. 


EARLY  CIVILIZATION  7 

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  pos- 
sibility 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  some- 
where 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  genera- 
tions 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."1  This 
distinguished  ethnologist  is  frankly  of  opinion  that  the 
Sumerians  were  the  congeners  of  the  pre-Dynastic  Egyp- 
tians 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  distin- 
guish them  from  the  Semites  of  Jewish  type. 

Some  light  may  be  thrown  on  the  Sumerian  problem 
by  giving  consideration  to  the  present-day  racial  com- 
plexion 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 

1  The  Ancient  Egyptians,  p.  1 40. 


8  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

with  those  of  their  pre-Dynastic  ancestors.  Mr.  Hawcs 
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.1  It  is  note- 
worthy, 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  con- 
siderable mass  of  data  in  this  connection,  refers  to  it  as 
the  "Iranian",  and  says:  c(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  slender- 
ness  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".2 
The  exhaustive  study  of  thousands  of  ancient  crania  in 
London  and  Cambridge  collections  has  shown  that  Medi- 
terranean peoples,  having  alien  traits,  the  result  of  early 
admixture,  were  distributed  between  Egypt  and  the 
Punjab.8  Where  blending  took  place,  the  early  type, 

1  Crete  the  Forerunner  of  Greece,  C.  H.  and  H.  B.  Hawes,  1911,  p.  23  et  seq. 
J  The  Races  of  Europe,  W.  Z.  Ripley,  p.  443  et  seq.      *  The  Ancient  Egyptians,  pp.  144-5. 


EARLY   CIVILIZATION  9 

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  develop- 
ment of  fat",  in  contrast  to  "the  lean  and  sinewy  ap- 
pearance of  most  representatives  of  the  Brown  race".1 
This  change  may  be  accounted  for  by  the  presence  of  the 
Semites  in  northern  Babylonia. 

Whence,  then,  came  these  invading  Semitic  Akka- 
dians 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  abnor- 
mally dry  years.  In  tracing  the  Akkadians  from  Arabia, 
however,  we  are  confronted  at  the  outset  with  the  diffi- 
culty 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  repre- 
sentatives 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 

1  The  Ancient  Egyptians^  p.  114. 


io  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

have  been  preserved  in  pre-Dynastic  graves  in  the  Nile 
valley.  "If",  writes  Professor  Elliot  Smith,  "the  gene- 
rally 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/'1  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  Meso- 
potamia. It  can  scarcely  be  supposed  that  these  invasions 
of  settled  districts  did  not  result  in  the  fusion  and  cross- 
ment  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,  accord- 
ing to  Professor  Macalister,  the  well-known  Palestinian 

1  The  Ancient  Egyptians,  p.  136. 


EARLY   CIVILIZATION  11 

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'*.1 
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.2  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  Medi- 
terranean 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  Medi- 
terraneans mingled  in  Northern  Syria  and  Asia  Minor 
with  the  broad-headed  Armenoid  peoples  who  are  repre- 
sented 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  con- 
quests and  settlements.  Their  pioneers,  who  were  prob- 
ably traders,  appear  to  have  begun  to  enter  the  Delta 
region  before  the  close  of  the  Late  Stone  Age.3  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  Ana- 
kim,  "whose  power  was  broken  only  by  the  Hebrew 

1A  History  of  Palestine,  R,  A.  S.  Macalister,  pp.  8-1 6. 
2  The  Mediterranean  Race  (1901  trans.),  G.  Sergi,  p.  146  et  teq. 
8  The  Ancient  Egyptians,  p.  130. 
(0642)  4 


12  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

invaders n.1  Joshua  drove  them  out  of  Hebron,2  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  which  Abraham  had  purchased  a  burial 
cave  from  Ephron,  the  Hittite.3  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  multi- 
plication 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 
weaponso  Professor  Elliot  Smith  suggests  in  this  con- 
nection 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  consider- 
able 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 

1  A  History  of  Civilization  in  Palestine,  p.  2O  et  teq. 

2  Joshua,  xi.  21.  8  Genesis9xxm» 


STATUE    OF   A    ROYAL    PERSONAGE    OR    OFFICIAL    OF 
NON-SEMITIC    ORIGIN 

(British  Museum) 


EARLY   CIVILIZATION  13 

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  in- 
tellectual 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  Ak- 
kadians, 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  bi- 
lingual, 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  con- 
siderable 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  estab- 
lished had  been  laid  by  the  ingenious  and  imaginative  Sumer- 
ians 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 


i4  MYTHS  OF   BABYLONIA 

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  mathe- 
matical 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  civil- 
izations 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. 


EARLY   CIVILIZATION  15 

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  civiliza- 
tion long  ages  before  the  earliest  traces  of  his  activities 
can  be  obtained.  When  this  type  of  mankind  is  por- 
trayed 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  de- 
veloped 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  de- 
scendants 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  Neo- 
lithic intellectual  life  still  remains.  The  comparative 
study  of  mythology  and  folk  beliefs  reveals  that  we 
have  inherited  certain  modes  of  thought  from  our  re- 
mote ancestors,  who  were  the  congeners  of  the  Ancient 
Sumerians  and  the  Ancient  Egyptians.  In  this  connec- 
tion 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  especi- 
ally 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 


16  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  con- 
trolling 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.1  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  investmbnts,  as  surviving  records  show.  There 
is  only  one  instance  of  a  Sumerian  woman  ascending  the 
throne,  like  Queen  Hatshepsut  of  Egypt.  Women,  there- 

1  Genesis,  xvi.  8,  9. 


EARLY   CIVILIZATION  17 

fore,  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.  Simi- 
larly Shishak,  the  Egyptian  Pharaoh,  handed  over  the 
city  of  Gezer,  which  he  had  subdued,  to  his  daughter, 
Solomon's  wife.1  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  adapta- 
tions 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  posi- 
tion 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,  how- 
ever, 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,  per- 
haps 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  invoca- 
tion of  Ishtar,  the  Babylonian  Venus.  The'/ollowing 
hymn  is  addressed  to  that  deity  in  her  Valkyrie-like 
character  as  a  goddess  of  war,  but  her  more  feminine 
traits  are  not  obscured : — 

1  /  KingSy  xvi.  1 6. 


1 8  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 


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 — 
O  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, 


EARLY   CIVILIZATION  19 

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,  "  'T  is  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. 


20  MYTHS   OF  BABYLONIA 

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  Cannes  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".1  Herodotus  found  it  still  flourish- 
ing 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 ; 

1  2  Kings,  xviii,  32. 
21 


22  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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."1  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  thriv- 
ing 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  some- 
what 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 

1  Herodotus^  i,  193. 


THE  LAND   OF  RIVERS  23 

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 


24  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  dis- 
tributing 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  unvary- 
ing, 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 


THE   LAND   OF   RIVERS  25 

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."1 
Present-day  Arabs  call  it  "  kiyara",  and  export  it  for  coat- 
ing 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  coun- 
tries. It  must,  therefore,  have  had  a  brisk  and  flourish- 
ing 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 

J  Peter's  Nippur,  i,  p.  160. 


26  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

political  ascendancy.  It  does  not  follow,  however,  that 
the  peasant  class  was  greatly  affected  by  periodic  revolu- 
tions 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  re- 
ligious 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  simi- 
larly showed  a  tendency  to  absorb  the  attributes  of  their 


THE   LAND   OF   RIVERS  27 

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  Cannes  of  Berosus,1 
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-na- 
pishtim,  advising  him  to  build  a  vessel  so  as  to  be  pre- 
pared 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 

1 A  Babylonian  priest  of  Bel  Merodach.  In  the  third  century  B.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. 

(0642)  5 


28  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  approach- 
ing flood,  and  afterwards  piloted  his  ship  through  the 
weltering  waters  until  it  rested  on  a  mountain  top.1 

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  anthro- 
pomorphic 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."2 

As  "  Shar  Apsi ",  Ea  was  the  "  King  of  the  Watery 

1  Indian  Myth  and  Legend,  pp.  140,  141.         3  The  Religion  of  the  Semites^  pp.  159,  160. 


THE   LAND   OF   RIVERS  29 

Deep".  The  reference,  however,  according  to  Jastrow, 
u  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*'.1  As  Babylonia 
was  fertilized  by  its  rivers,  Ea,  the  fish  god,  was  a  ferti- 
lizing 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!2 

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, 

1  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  M.  Jastrow,  p.  88. 

2  The  Seven  Tablets  of  Creation,  L.  W.  King,  vol.  i,  p.  129. 


30  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  "-1  Simi- 
larly the  Vedic  Indra,  who  wielded  a  hammer  like  Ptah, 
fashioned  the  universe  after  the  simple  manner  in  which 
the  Aryans  made  their  wooden  dwellings.2 

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  ten- 
dency of  earlj£  religious  cults  to  attach  to  their  chief  god 
the  attributes  of  rivals  exalted  at  other  centres. 

1  Religious  Belief  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria^  M.  Jastrow,  p.  88. 

3  Cosmology  of  the  Rtgveda,  Wallis,  and  Indian  Myth  and  Legend^  p.  10. 


THE   LAND   OF   RIVERS  31 

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  identi- 
fication of  Jah  with  Aa,  two  names  which  have  every 
appearance  of  being  etymologically  connected."  Jah's 
name  "is  one  of  the  words  for  cgod'  in  the  Assyro- 
Babylonian  language".1 

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.2 

It  is  possible  that  the  Philistine  deity  Dagon  was  a 

1  The  Old  Testament  in  the  Light  of  the  Historical  Records  and  Legends  oj  Assyria  and 
Babylonia,  T.  G.  Pinches,  pp.  59-61. 

2  The  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  T.  G.  Pinches,  pp.  91,  92. 


32  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  know- 
ledge regarding  him  is  derived  mainly  from  the  Bible. 
He  was  a  national  rather  than  a  city  god.  There  are 
references  to  a  Beth-dagon1,  "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.2  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  ".8  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  offer- 
ing of  golden  mice  representing  "  your  mice  that  mar  the 

1  Joshua,  xv,  41;  xix,  27.  2  Judges,  xvi,  14. 

8  /  Sam.,  v,  1-9. 


THE  LAND   OF  RIVERS  33 

land",1  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  Cannes  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  Eddie  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  Dam- 
kina, queen  of  the  deep,  illumine  thee  with  her  counten- 

1  /  Sam.t  vi,  5. 


34  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

ance;  may  Merodach  (Marduk),  the  mighty  overseer  of 
the  Igigi  (heavenly  spirits),  exalt  thy  head/1  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  refer- 
ences 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.  .  .  .l 

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  asso- 
ciated 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, 
Stalling  at  the  right  hand  of  the  storm  god.2 

1  The  Devfts  and  Evil  Spirits  of  Btbylonia,  R.  Campbell  Thompson,  London,  1903, 
vol.  i,  p.  xlii. 

2  The  Devils  and  Evil  Spirits  of  Babylonia,  R.  C.  Thompson,  vol.  i,  p.  xliii. 


THE   LAND   OF   RIVERS  35 

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  Rim- 
man,  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  "moun- 
tain" and  "land"  was  used  in  the  earliest  times,  as  King 
shows,  with  reference  to  foreign  countries,1  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  dis- 
tinguish him  from  Bel  Merodach  of  Babylon.  He  was 

1  A  History  of  Sumer  and  Akkad^  L.  W.  King,  p.  54. 


36  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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,  Zer-panitum, 
&c.j  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".1 

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 

1  The  Gods  of  the  Egyptians,  E.  Wallis  Budge,  vol.  i,  p.  290. 


THE   LAND   OF   RIVERS  37 

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."1 

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  attri- 
butes 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 

1  The  Gods  of  the  Egyptians,  vol.  i,  p.  287. 


38  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

of  nature.  In  brief,  he  was  the  dragon  slayer,  a  dis- 
tinction, 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  Su- 
merian 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  exer- 
cised 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 


THE   LAND   OF   RIVERS  39 

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  (Somali- 
land),  which  some  regard  as  the  cradle  of  the  Medi- 
terranean 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.1  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  ". 

1  The  Devils  and  Evil  Spirits  of  Babylonia^  vol.  i,  Intro.  See  also  Sayce's  The  Religion 
of  Ancient  Egypt  and  Babylonia  (Giffbrd  Lectures,  1902),  p.  385,  and  Pinches'  The  Old 
Testamert  in  the  Light  of  Historical  Record*,  &c.,  p.  71. 


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  Weep- 
ing 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  re- 
garded 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 


40 


RIVAL  PANTHEONS  .  41 

a  community  in  sway,  it  was  necessary  to  recognize  offi- 
cially 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. 


42  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  com- 
mingling of  diverse  ethnic  elements/' 

4  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,  revolu- 
tionized 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,  there- 
fore, must  have  been  largely  dependent  on  its  needs  and 
experiences.  The  food  supply  was  a  first  consideration. 


RIVAL   PANTHEONS  43 

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  Baby- 
lonia 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  administra- 
tive 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  com- 
munity had  its  own  intellectual  life  and  immemorial  tribal 
traditions,  which  reflected  ancient  habits  of  life  and  per- 
petuated 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, 

(0042)  6 


44  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  fer- 
tilized 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  u  on 
this  water  to  put  his  pure  spell ". 

The  worship  of  rivers  and  wells  which  prevailed  in 


RIVAL   PANTHEONS  45 

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  wor- 
ship 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/'1  The  ancient  Egyptians  believed  that 
all  men  were  born  from  the  eyes  of  Horus  except  negroes, 
who  came  from  other  parts  of  his  body.2  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.3 

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  connec- 

1  Indian  Myth  and  Legend,  p.  100.        2  Maspero's  Dawn  of  Civilization,  p.  156  et  seq. 
8  Egyptian  Myth  and  Legend,  p.  i  et  seq.     The  saliva  of  the  frail  and  elderly  was 
injurious. 


46  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

tion  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  or  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  Turn,  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.1 

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, 

1  Ostris  and  the  Egyptian  Resurrection,  E.  Walljs  Budge,  vol.  ii,  p.  203  et  seq. 


RIVAL  PANTHEONS  47 

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  re- 
ferred 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  Scofs  Dis- 
covery 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.1  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. 

1  Brana's  Popular  Antiquities,  vol.  iii,  pp.  259-263  (1889  ec^*)' 


48  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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/'1 


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  sacri- 
ficed to  the  goddess  Kali,  are  believed  to  be  temporarily 
possessed  by  her  spirit,  and  thus  enabled  to  prophesy.2 
Malayan  exorcists  still  expel  demons  while  they  suck  the 
blood  from  a  decapitated  fowl.3 

Similar  customs  were  prevalent  in  Ancient  Greece. 
A  woman  who  drank  the  blood  of  a  sacrificed  lamb  or 
bull  uttered  prophetic  sayings.4 

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 

1  The  Religion  of  the  Semites,  pp.  158,  159. 

2  Castes  and  Tribes  of  Southern  India,  E.  Thurston,  iv,  187. 

3  Omens  and  Superstitions  of  Southern  India,  E.  Thurston  (1912),  pp.  245,  246. 

4  Pausanias,  ii,  24,  i. 


-RIVAL  PANTHEONS  49 

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.1 

The  Hebrew  "  nephesh  ruach  "  and  "  neshamah  '  (in 
Arabic  "  ruh  "  and  "  nefs  ")  pass  from  meaning  "  breath  " 
to  "  spirit  "o2  In  Egypt  the  god  Khnumu  was  "  Kneph  " 
in  his  character  as  an  atmospheric  deity  0  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  pro- 
phetic 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  wor- 
shippers, 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  wor- 
shippers cremated  their  dead  so  that  the  spirits  might  be 

1  Devils  and  Evil  Spirits  of  Babylonia,  R.  C.  Thompson,  vol.  ii,  tablet  T. 

2  Animism,  E.  Clodd,  p.  37. 


50  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  re- 
sembled 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 'V  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 ",2  In 
Leviticus  it  is  laid  down:  "Thou  shalt  not  let  any  of  thy 
seed  pass  through  the  fire  to  Moloch  ",3  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) 

1  2  Kings,  xvi,  3.  a  Exekiel,  xx,  31.  9  Lrviticus,  xviii,  21. 


1 


.£ 

C/J        ^5 

rt'        A 

I    I 


RIVAL  PANTHEONS  51 

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  con- 
sume the  universe.1  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  ot  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  nun,  a  "house  of  light".2 

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  preva- 
lent. 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  Baby- 
lonia. 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 

1  Indian  Myth  and  Legend,  p.  65. 

-Religious  Belief  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  M.  Jastrow,  pp.  312,  313. 


52  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

the  west  bank  of  the  Euphrates  and  the  low  hills  border- 
ing 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  ex- 
cavations conducted  there  have  afforded  proof  that  it 
flourished  in  the  prehistoric  period. 

As  in  Arabia,,  Egypt,  and  throughout  ancient  Europe 
and  elsewhere3  the  moon  god  of  Sumeria  was  regarded 
as  the  "  friend  of  man ".  He  controlled  nature  as  a 
fertilizing  agency;  he  caused  grass,  trees5  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  Anu395  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'V  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  moun- 
tains 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. 

1  The  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria^  T.  G.  Pinches,  p.  81. 


RIVAL   PANTHEONS  53 

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.1  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. 

Nergalj  another  solar  deity,  brought  disease  and  pesti- 
lence, and,  according  to  Jensen,  all  misfortunes  due  to 
excessive  heat.  He  was  the  king  of  death,  husband  of 

1  In  early  times  two  goddesses  searched  for  Tammuz  at  different  periods. 


54  MYTHS   OF  BABYLONIA 

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.1 

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  MalMhdrata"  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."2 

In  Persian  mythology  Mitra,  as  Mithra,  is  the  patron 

1  Indian  Myth  and  Legend,  p.  30.  2  Early  Religious  Poetry  of  Persia,  p.  35. 


RIVAL  PANTHEONS  55 

of  Truth,  and  "the  Mediator  "  between  heaven  and  earth.1 
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  ".2  The 
Assyrian  word  "metru"  signifies  rain.1  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  atmos- 
pheric deity  with  Anu,  and  as  a  god  of  truth,  righteous- 
ness,, and  law  with  Shamash.  We  seem  to  trace  in  the 

1  Early  Religious  Poetry  of  Persia,  p.  37. 

2  The  Golden  Bough  (Spirits  of  the  Corn  and  Wild,  vol.  ii,  p.  10),  3rd  edition. 


56  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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,  I6.1 

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,  8g.2 

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.3 

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.4  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 

1  Indian  Wisdom?  Sir  Monicr  Monier-Williams. 

2  A  History  of  Sanskrit  Literature,  Professor  Macdoncll. 

8  Religious  Belief  and  Practice  in  Babylonia  and  Assyna>  M.  Jastrow,  pp.  1 1 1,  112. 
4  Indian  Myth  and  Legend,  pp.  xxxii,  and  38  et  seq. 


RIVAL  PANTHEONS  57 

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  I  sis  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  c mother'  of  all  things".1 

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  pan- 
theon, 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  in- 
dividual deity  depended  on  local  conditions,  experiences, 
and  influences.  Ceremonial  practices  no  doubt  varied 

1  The  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria^  T.  G.  Pinches,  p.  94. 


58  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  wor- 
shipped either  with  prayers  or  burnt  sacrifices,  but  in 
their  case  we  perform  ceremonies  of  riddance".1 

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. 

1  The  Religion  of  Ancient  Greece,  J.  E.  Harrison,  p.  46,  and  Isoc.  Orat.,  v,  117 


CHAPTER  IV 
Demons,  Fairies,  and  Ghosts 

Spirits  in  Everything  and  Everywhere — The  Bringers  of  Luck  and  Mis- 
fortune—  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 

(0642)  59  7 


60  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

God,  we  ought  not  to  think  that  the  Godhead  is  like 
unto  gold,  or  silver,  or  stone,  graven  by  art  and  man's 
device."1 

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  con- 
trolled Nature:  they  brought  light  and  darkness,  sun- 
shine and  storm,  summer  and  winter;  they  were  mani- 
fested 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  Baby- 
lonians "  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  sup- 
posing that  they  thought  otherwise.  The  early  folks 
based  their  theories  on  the  accumulated  knowledge  of 
their  age.  They  knew  nothing  regarding  the  com- 

1  The  Acts,  xvii,  22-31, 


DEMONS,    FAIRIES,   AND   GHOSTS        61 

position  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  dis- 
coveries, 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  origi- 
nally associated  with  magical  ceremonies,  are  still  prac- 
tised 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  sym- 
bolize 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  impres- 
sions, 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. 


62  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  define'd,  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  siih-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.1 

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 

1  Devils  and  E<vtl  Spirits  of  Babylonia,  vol.  ii,  p.  149  etsey. 


Photo.  Mansell 


WINGED    MAN-HEADED    LION 

In  Marble.     From  N.W.  Palace  of  Nimroud ;  now  in  the  British  Museum 


DEMONS,   FAIRIES,   AND   GHOSTS        63 

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  com- 
posite monster  god  Sokar  was  "the  lord  of  fear".1  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.2  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  repre- 
sented by  their  attendants,  who  executed  a  deity's  stern 
and  vengeful  decrees.  In  one  of  the  Babylonian  charms 
the  demons  are  referred  to  as  u  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,  sun- 
stroke, 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. 

1  Egyptian  Myth  and  Legend,  xxxix,  n. 

*  Development  of  Religion  and  Thought  in  Ancient  Egypt^  J.  H.  Breasted,  pp.  38,  74, 


64  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

In  Indian  mythology  Indra  was  similarly  followed  by 
the  stormy  Maruts,  and  fierce  Rudra  by  the  tempestuous 
Rudras.  In  Teutonic  mythology  Odin  is  the  u  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  u  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".1  The  grand- 
mother 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, 

1  Custom  and  Myth,  p.  45  et  sey. 


DEMONS,   FAIRIES,    AND   GHOSTS        65 

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  de- 
struction 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  howl- 
ing 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 


66  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  'V  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*  a  sailor  exclaims :  "  Your 
fairy,  which,  you  say,  is  a  harmless  fairy,  has  done  little 
better  than  played  the  Jack  with  us".  Dr.  Johnson  com- 
mented 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.3 

"When  we  stick  in  the  mire",  sang  Drayton,  "he  doth 
with  laughter  leave  us."  These  fires  were  also  "fallen 
stars "5  "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.4 

1  The  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria^  p.  108.  2  Act  iv,  scene  i. 

*  Paradise  Lost,  book  ix.  4  Chapman's  Casar  and  Pom  fey. 


DEMONS,   FAIRIES,   AND   GHOSTS        67 

Pliny  referred  to  the  wandering  lights  as  stars.1  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  Ishtar. 
Like  the  Indian  "  Dasyu "  and  "Dasa",2  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  Li  lit h,  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  Rdmdyana,  who  made  love  to  Rama  and  Lakshmana, 
and  the  sister  of  the  demon  Hidimva,  who  became 

*  Natural  History,  2nd  book.  *  Indian  Myth  and  Legend,  70,  ». 


68  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

enamoured  of  Bhima,  one  of  the  heroes  of  the  Mahd- 
bh&rataf  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  simi- 
larly wooed  young  women,  like  the  Germanic  Laurin  of 
the  "Wonderful  Rose  Garden ",2  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  Euro- 
pean folk  tales,  and  the  goddess  Ganga,  who  for  a  time 
was  the  wife  of  King  Shantanu  of  the  Mahdbhdrata? 

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 

1  Indian  Myth  and  Legend^  pp.  202-5,  4°°>  4OI» 
2  Teutonic  Myth  and  Legend^  p.  424  et  seq.          8  Indian  Myth  and  Legend,  p.  164  tt  scq. 


DEMONS,   FAIRIES,   AND   GHOSTS        69 

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  Baby- 
lonia 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  im- 
purity 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.1  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 

1  Popular  Religion  and  Folk  Lore  of  Northern  India,  W.  Crooke,  vol.  i,  p.  254. 


70  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

dreaded  in  the  Scottish  Highlands.1  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.2 
In  his  Arabia  Deserta*  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  liba- 
tions poured  out,  to  be  fed,  so  that  they  might  not  prowl 

1  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  at- 
tempted 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. 

2  A  Journey  in  Southern  Siberia,  Jeremiah  Curtin,  pp.  103,  104.          *  Vol.  i,  p.  305. 


DEMONS,   FAIRIES,   AND   GHOSTS        71 

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  per- 
formed 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  refer- 
ence to  a  priest  who  was  not  allowed  to  enter  Paradise, 
although  he  had  performed  rigid  penances,  because  he  had 
no  children.1 

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.2 

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, 

1  Adi  Parva  section  of  Mahabharata,  Roy's  trans.,  p.  635. 
2Jastrow'8  Aspects  of  Religious  Belief  in  Babylonia,  &c.,  p.  312. 


72  MYTHS   OF  BABYLONIA 

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  conies  o'  thee  ? 
Wharc  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.  Man- 
kind heard  them  "loudly  roaring  above,  gibbering  below".1 
The  south  wind  was  raised  by  Shutu,  a  plumed  storm 
demon  resembling  Hraesvelgur  of  the  Icelandic  Eddas: 

Corpse-swal  lower  sits  at  the  end  of  heaven, 

A  Jotun  in  eagle  form; 
From  his  wings,  they  say,  comes  the  wind  which  fares 

Over  all  the  dwellers  of  earth.2 

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 

1  R.  C.  Thompson's  trans,         2  The  Elder  or  Poetic  Edda,  Olive  Bray,  part  i,  p.  53. 


TWO    FIGURES    OF    DEMONS 

The  upper  head  is  that  of  Shutu,  the  demon  of  the  south-west  wind,  whose  wings 
were  broken  by  Adapa,  son  of  Ea 

(British  Museum} 


DEMONS,   FAIRIES,   AND   GHOSTS        73 

and  summoned  him  to  the  Celestial  Court.  Adapa,  how- 
ever, 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 


74  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  moun- 
tain top  in  Arabia.  Anu  called  on  Ramman,  the  thun- 
derer, 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  sur- 
vives in  fragmentary  form.  There  is  a  reference,  how- 
ever, 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  ascer- 
tain. 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, 


DEMONS,   FAIRIES,  AND   GHOSTS        75 

flung  his  bolt  in  vain ;  he  could  not  wound  Garuda, 
and  only  displaced  a  single  feather.  Afterwards,  how- 
ever, 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  Mahdbhdratay  "  mocked  the  wind  with  his  fleetness  ". 

It  would  appear  that  the  Babylonian  Zu  bird  sym- 
bolized 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  trium- 
phant 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,  pro- 
nounces the  Eagle's  doom.  He  instructs  the  Mother 
Serpent  to  slay  a  wild  ox  and  conceal  herself  in  its  en- 
trails. 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. 

(C642)  8 


76  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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.1  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  resem- 
bling 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 

1  Babylonian  Religion,  L.  W.  King,  pp.  186-8. 


DEMONS,   FAIRIES,   AND   GHOSTS        77 

the  land  "  like  to  the  wind,  Bel  called  upon  his  messen- 
ger, 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".1 

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'1.2 

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 

1  cihe  Devils  and  Evil  Spirits  of  Babylonia,  R.  Campbell  Thompson,  vol.  i,  p.  53 
et  seq, 

3  Omens  and  Superstitions  of  Southern  lndia>  E.  Thurston,  p.  124.. 


78  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  irre- 
sistible 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  appari- 
tions 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. 


DEMONS,   FAIRIES,   AND   GHOSTS        79 

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  cc  devils ",  it  would  be  mis- 
leading 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  re- 
mained 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 


8o  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  man- 
kind 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."1  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  Beowu/fthe  "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".2  Simi- 
larly 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. 

1  The  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  p.  HO. 
-  Beowulfr  Clark  Hall,  p.  14. 


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, 
Sec. — 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  God- 
desses 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  Tiarnat — 
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 


82  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

"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  addi- 
tion 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  prac- 
tices 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  Baby- 
lonia— 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  ".* 

The  weeping  ceremony  was  connected  with  agricul- 
tural 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 


TAMMUZ   AND   ISHTAR  83 

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/'1 
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.2 

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  agri- 
culture as  involving  the  violent  extinction  of  a  particle 
of  divine  life."3  By  observing  their  ritual,  the  wor- 
shippers 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  Pro- 
fessor 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 

1  Psalms,  cxxvi. 

8  The  Burden  of  his,  J.  T.  Dennis  (Wisdom  of  the  East  scries),  pp.  Z19  22. 

*  Religion  of  the  Semites^  pp.  412,  414. 


84  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  pur- 
sued 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,  com- 
mitted 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 
"Adbn",  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  de- 
veloped 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  Mesopo- 
tamian  origin  has  not  been  proved.  It  would  appear 
probable  that  Tammuz,  Attis,  Osiris,  and  the  deities 
represented  by  Adonis  and  Diarmid  were  all  developed 


TAMMUZ   AND   ISHTAR  85 

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  associa- 
tions with  swine,  and  the  Egyptians,  according  to  Hero- 
dotus, sacrificed  a  pig  to  him  annually.  When  Set  at 
full  moon  hunted  the  boar  in  the  Delta  marshes,  he  prob- 
ably hunted  the  boar  form  of  Osiris,  whose  human  body 
had  been  recovered  from  the  sacred  tree  by  I  sis.  As  the 
soul  of  Bata,  the  hero  of  the  Egyptian  folk  tale,1  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. 

Myth  and  Legend)  pp.  45  ft  seq. 


86  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

In  his  character  as  a  long-lived  patriarch,  Tammuz, 
the  King  Daonus  or  Daos  of  Berosus,  reigned  in  Baby- 
lonia 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. 

Kings  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  evi- 
dence, 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.1 

1  Langdon's  Sumerian  and  Babylonian  Psalms^  pp.  319-3*1. 


TAMMUZ  AND   ISHTAR  87 

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  attri- 
butes, 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.1 

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.2 

Tammuz  died  with  the  dying  vegetation,  and  Diarmid 
expired  when  the  hills  apparently  were  assuming  their 
purple  tints.8  The  month  of  Tammuz  wailings  was  from 

1  Campbell's  West  Highland  Tales,  vol.  iii,  p.  74. 

2  Wat  Highland  Tales,  vol.  iii,  pp.  85,  86. 

*  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 


88  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

2oth  June  till  2oth  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  lan- 
guish ... 

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 

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  godc 
In  Scotland  Finn  and  his  followers  are  all  giants.  Diarmid  is  the  patriarch  of  the 
Campbell  clan,  the  MacDiarmids  being  "  sons  of  Diarmid  ". 


TAMMUZ   AND   ISHTAR  89 

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)1 : — 

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  re- 
turned 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  sur- 
passingly 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 

1  Isaiah  condemns  a  magical  custom  connected  with  the  worship  of  Tammuz  in  the 
garden,  Isaiah,  xvii,  9,  n.    This  "Garden  of  Adonis  "  is  dealt  with  in  the  next  chapter. 


90  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  hand- 
some 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.1 

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  Egyp- 
tian 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- 

1  Quotations    are    from   Sumerian   and  Babylonian    Psalms,   translated    by   Stephen 
Langdon,  Ph.D.  (Paris  and  London,  1909),  pp.  299-341. 


TAMMUZ   AND   ISHTAR  91 

Mother-worshipping  peoples,  it  was  believed  that  agri- 
cultural 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  re- 
mote period  an  agricultural  myth  regarding  a  Patriarch  of 
divine  origin  who  was  rescued  from  a  boat  in  his  child- 
hood, 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  con- 
nected 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 

(C642)  9 


92  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  Mediter- 
ranean 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  Ethel- 
weard,  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 


TAMMUZ   AND   ISHTAR  93 

received  that  load,  men,  chiefs  of  council,  heroes  under  heaven, 
cannot  for  certain  tell.1 

Sceaf  or  Scyld  is  identical  with  Yngve,  the  patriarch 
of  the  Ynglings;  with  Frey,  the  harvest  and  boar  god, 
son  of  Njord,2  the  sea  god;  and  with  Hermod,  referred 
to  as  follows  in  the  Eddie  "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  cc  the 
sovereign,  lord  of  invocation  ". 

Heimdal,  watchman  of  the  Teutonic  gods,  also  dwelt 
for  a  time  among  men  as  "  Rig ",  and  had  human  off- 
spring, 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,  "re- 
call 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 
c fleece*  was  c sheep  of  the  sky'.  The  name  of  Tammuz 
in  Sumerian  is  Dumu-zi,  or  in  its  rare  fullest  form,  Dumu- 
zida,  meaning  <  true  or  faithful  son  \  There  is  prob- 
ably some  legend  attached  to  this  which  is  at  present 
unknown."3 

1  Beowulf,  translated  by  J.  R.  Clark  Hall  (London,  1911),  pp.  9-11. 

2  For  Prey's  connection  with  the  Ynglings  see  Morris  and  Magnmson's  Htimiknngla 
(Saga  Library,  vol.  iii),  pp.  23-71. 

3  The  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyna,  p.  72. 


94  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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.1 

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.  Rigveday  i,  g8.2 

Tammuz,  like  the  Egyptian  lunar  and  solar  god 
Khonsu,  is  "the  healer ",  and  Agni  "drives  away  all  dis- 
ease". 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  ",3  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, 

1  Langdon's  Sumerian  and  Babylonian  Psalms,  pp.  325,  339- 

2  Professor  Oldenberg's  translation. 

3  Osiris  is  also  invoked  to  "remove  storms  and  rain  and  give  fecundity  in  the  night- 
time".    As  a  spring  sun  god  he  slays  demons;  as  A  lunar  god  he  brings  fertility. 


TAMMUZ   AND    ISHTAR  95 

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, 


96  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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,1  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, 

1  Like  the  love-compelling  girdle  of  Aphrodite, 


TAMMUZ  AND   ISHTAR  97 

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  Lhtar  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. 


98  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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,1 
With  himself  he  adorned  me;    may  men  mourners  and  women 

mourners 
On  a  bier  place  him,  and  assemble  the  wake.2 

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.3 

Mr.  Langdon  also  translates  a  hymn  (Tammuz  III) 
which  appears  to  contain  the  narrative  on  which  the 
Assyrian  version  was  founded.  The  goddess  who  de- 
scends 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  con- 
versation 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. 

1  A  wedding  bracelet  of  crystal  is  worn  by  Hindu  women;  they  break  it  when  the 
husband  dies. 

2  Quotations  from  the  translation  in   The  Chaldean  Account  of  Genesis,  by  George 
Smith. 

8  Langdon' a  Sumenan  and  Babylonian  Psalms^  p.  329  et  seq. 


TAMMUZ   AND    ISHTAR  99 

Probably  two  goddesses  originally  lamented  for  Tarn- 
muz,  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",  ...  u  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."1 

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  .   .  .  arc  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."2 

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 

1  The  Burden  of  his,  translated  by  J.  T.  Dennis  (Wisdom  of  the  East  series),  pp.  24, 
31*  32,  39,  45,  46,  49.  2  The  Burden  of  Lis,  pp.  22,  46. 


ioo  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

Ishtar".1  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.  Origin- 
ally 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  Zer-panitum. 
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  accom- 
panied 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. 

1  Aspects  of  Religious  Belief  and  Practice  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria^  p.  137,  and  Herodotus, 
book  i,  199. 


TftV,  *        i 


r-iioto.  ivianseu 


WINGED    HUMAN-HEADED    COW  (?) 

From  Kouyunjik  (Nineveh):  noiv  in  the  British  Museum 


TAMMUZ   AND    ISHTAR  101 

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  a  built  up  life  from  her  own 
body".1  Sri  or  Lakshmi,  the  Indian  goddess,  who  be- 
came the  wife  of  Vishnu,  as  the  mother  goddess  Sara- 
swati,  a  tribal  deity,,  became  the  wife  of  Brahma,  was, 
according  to  a  Purana  commentator,  "  the  mother  of  the 
world  .  .  .  eternal  and  undecaying".2 

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.3  In  the  Mahdbhdmta  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.4 

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 

1  The  Burden  of  /m,  p.  47. 

2  Original  Sanskrit  Texts,  J.  Muir,  London,  1890,  vol.  i,  p.  67. 
8  Original  Sanskrit  Texts,  vol.  i,  p.  44. 

4  Adi  Parva  section  of  Mahabharata  (Roy's  translation),  pp.  553,  555. 


102  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  us  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.1 

Freyja,  the  Germanic  mother  goddess,  whose  car  was 
drawn  by  cats,  had  similarly  many  lovers.  In  the  Ice- 
landic 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. 

1  Ancient  Irish  Poetry^  Kuno  Meyer  (London,  1911),  pp.  88-90. 


TAMMUZ   AND    ISHTAR  103 

Frigg,  wife  of  Odin,  is  satirized  as  well : 

Silence,  Frigg !     Earth's  spouse  for  a  husband, 
And  hast  ever  yearned  after  men ! l 

The  goddesses  of  classic  mythology  had  similar 
reputations.  Aphrodite  (Venus)  had  many  divine  and 
mortal  lovers.  She  links  closely  with  Astarte  and  Ashto- 
reth  (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.2 

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, 

1  Translations  from  The  Elder  Edda,  by  O.  Bray  (part  i),  London,  1908. 

2  Babylonian  Reltgion,  L.  W.  King,  pp.  160,  161. 


io4  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  Qineus, 
king  of  Calydon.  Human  sacrifices  were  frequently 
offered  to  the  bloodthirsty  "mothers".  The  most 
famous  victim  of  Artemis  was  the  daughter  of  Aga- 
memnon, "  divinely  tall  and  most  divinely  fair  ".* 
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  Mesopotamia!! 
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  -#Lgean  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/'2 

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 

1Tennyson*8  A  Dream  of  Fair  Women* 

3  Greece  and  Babylon,  L.  R.  Farnell  (Edinburgh,  I9ii)>  P*  35' 


TAMMUZ   AND   ISHTAR  105 

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-lndians  worshipped  father  gods,1  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  Mon- 
golian 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/'2  As  in  Egypt,  the  beliefs  of  the  father  wor- 
shippers, 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  v/as  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  Tammnz  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 

1  The  goddesses  did  not  become  prominent  until  the  "late  invasion"  of  the  post- 
Vedic  Aryans.  J  Greece  and  Babylon,  p.  96. 


io6  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

four  pairs  in  Egypt,  and  apparently  in  Babylonia  also, 
the  female  in  the  first  pair  was  more  strongly  indi- 
vidualized 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  con- 
trolling 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  cen- 
sured 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?"1  That  the 
husbands,  and  the  children  even,  assisted  at  the  ceremony 
is  made  evident  in  another  reference  to  goddess  worship: 

1  Jeremiah^  xliv. 


Female  figure  in  ;uiorati*on  before  a  goddess 


The  winged  Xshtar  above          rising  mm  got!,  the  river  god,  ami  other  deities 


"•JM 


Gilgamesh  in  conflict  with  bulls  (see  page  176) 
CYLINDER-SEAL    IMPRESSIONS 

{British   Museum] 


TAMMUZ   AND   1SHTAR  107 

"The  children  gather  wood,  and  the  fathers  kindle  the 
fire,  and  the  women  knead  the  dough,  to  make  cakes 
to  the  queen  of  heaven  ".1 

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  ".2  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  ap- 
parently 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  re- 
cognition 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.3 

1  Jeremiah^  vii,  18. 

2  Aspects  of  Religious  Belief  ana  Practice  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria^  pp.  348,  349. 
1  Jeremiah,  vii,  17. 

( c  642  ^>  10 


io8  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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 
cc  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 — Sur- 
roundings 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  Sumenan  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  Pur- 
chased 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  con- 
temporaries in  the  south,  but  it  is  difficult  at  times  to  say 
whether  a  city  is  controlled  by  the  descendants  of  the  in- 
digenous 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 


109 


no  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  un- 
frequently  these  wage  war  one  against  another.  Occasion- 
ally 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  cc  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 


WARS   OF   CITY   STATES  in 

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  Testa- 
ment— "The  words  of  Nehemiah  ...  I  was  in  Shushan 
the  palace  ".*  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  ",2  Beyond  Elam  were  the  plains,  plateaus, 
and  grassy  steppes  occupied  by  the  Medes  and  other 

1  Nchemtah,  i,  i.  2  Esther,  i,  6. 


ii2  MYTHS   OF  BABYLONIA 

peoples  of  Aryan  speech.  Cultural  influences  came  and 
went  like  spring  winds  between  the  various  ancient  com- 
munities. 

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  his- 
torical events  of  this  vast  period  is  exceedingly  fragmen- 
tary. 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  resem- 
bling 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 


WARS   OF   CITY   STATES  113 

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.  His- 
torical 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.  An- 
other may  be  found  to  have  made  an  illuminating  state- 
ment 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  cumu- 
lative 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'  ex- 
cellency, shall  be  as  when  God  overthrew  Sodom  and 


ii4  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

Gomorrah.  It  shall  never  be  inhabited ;  neither  shall 
the  Arabian  pitch  tent  there ;  neither  shall  the  shep- 
herds 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  ill  their 
pleasant  palaces."1 

The  curtain  rises,  as  has  been  indicated,  after  civiliza- 
tion had  been  well  advanced.  To  begin  with,  our  interests 
abide  with  Akkad,  and  during  a  period  dated  approxi- 
mately 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  float- 
ing 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 

1  Isaiah,  xiii,  19-22. 


WARS   OF   CITY   STATES  115 

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  sup- 
posed 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  indepen- 
dence. 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 


n6  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  god- 
desses 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.  Evi- 
dently 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  develop- 
ing 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 


W     -H 

Z>     « 


WARS   OF   CITY   STATES  117 

Nippur,  but  had  to  recognize  Ercch  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  founda- 
tions 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 


n8  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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,  per- 
haps 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  grand- 
father, 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 


WARS   OF   CITY   STATES  119 

come  under  the  sway  of  triumphant  Lagash,  including 
Erech  and  Ur,  and  as  his  suzerainty  was  already  acknow- 
ledged 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  improve- 
ments 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 


MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  Hi,  who  was  duly  installed  with  great 
ceremony.  Other  military  successes  followed,  including 
the  sacking  of  Opis  and  Kish,  which  assured  the  suprem- 
acy of  Lagash  for  many  years.  Entemena,  with  charac- 
teristic 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  Sutnerian  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  decora- 
tions 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 


SILVER   VASE    DEDICATED    TO    THE    GOD    NIN-GIRSU 
BY    ENTEMENA 

The  finest  example  extant  of  Sumerian  metal  work.     (See  page  120) 
Reproduced  by  permission  from  "  Decoicvertes  en  Chaldee"  (JL,  Letoux,  Paris} 


WARS   OF   CITY   STATES  121 

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  ap- 
parently remembered  and  execrated  as  tyrants  and  oppres- 
sors of  the  people.  To  maintain  many  endowed  temples 
and  a  standing  army  the  traders  and  agriculturists  had 
been  heavily  taxed.  Each  successive  monarch  who  under- 
took 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 


122  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  re- 
adjusting 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  re- 
proach, 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 


WARS   OF   CITY   STATES  123 

with  desire  to  promote  the  welfare  and  comfort  of  all  true 
worshippers.  His  Jaws  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,  re- 
membering 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  de- 
fend 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  com- 
mitted 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  stand- 
ing crops  destroyed,  and  that  many  buildings  were  set  on 
fire.  Amidst  these  horrors  of  savagery  and  vengeance, 

(0642)  -  n 


i24  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  Uruka- 
gina  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  suc- 
cesses. 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  asso- 
ciated 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.  Ami's  spouse  was 
Anatu,  and  the  pair  subsequently  became  abstract  deities, 
like  Anshar  and  Kishar,  their  parents,  who  figure  in  the 


WARS   OF   CITY   STATES  125 

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  in- 
fluence 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  con- 
temporary inscriptions,  agree  that  Sargon  was  of  humble 


126  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  Kama,  the  Hector  of  that  great  Sanskrit  epic  the 
Mahdbhdrata.  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  Kama 
became  a  great  warrior,  and  was  crowned  King  of  Anga 
by  the  Kaurava  warriors.1 

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  Tarn  muz — a  solar,  corn,  and 
military  deity,  and  an  interceder  for  mankind.  The  god- 
dess of  Kish  appears  to  have  been  a  form  of  Bau,  as  is 

1  Indian  Myth  and  Legend,  pp.  173-175  and  192-194. 


WARS   OF   CITY    STATES  127 

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  con- 
quests 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. 

Durinp  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 


128  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

conquering  monarch  considered  it  advisable  to  observe 
existing  land  laws.  Urumush,1  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.  Accord- 
ing 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  ex- 
quisitely 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  clutch- 
ing 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  con- 
quered 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  op- 
ponents of  the  city  states.  The  two  most  prominent 
were  the  Gutium,  or  men  of  Kutu,  and  the  Lulubu. 

1  Or  Rimush. 


PUoto.  Mansell 


STELE    OF    NARAM    SIN 

(Loui'rc,  Paris) 


WARS   OF   CITY   STATES  129 

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  per- 
petrated 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 


1 30  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  archi- 
tect, 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 


STATUE   OF   GUDEA 
(Louvre,  Paris] 


WARS   OF   CITY   STATES  131 

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.1 

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 

1  Genesis,  xiv. 


1 32  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  re- 
cognition. 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  de- 
veloped 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  suc- 
cessors, 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  after- 
wards displaced  by  Merodach  of  Babylon. 

Before  2200  B.C.  there  occurred  a  break  in  the  su- 
premacy of  Isin.  Gungunu,  King  of  Ur,  combined  with 
Larsa,  whose  sun  temple  he  restored,  and  declared  him- 
self 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  grand- 
son 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 


WARS   OF   CITY   STATES  133 

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  un- 
disputed possession.  A  rival  named  Sin-ikisha,  evidently 
a  moon  worshipper  and  perhaps  connected  with  Ur,  dis- 
placed 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  strength- 
ening 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  Ham- 
murabi. Rim  Sin  was  an  Elamite. 

Afterwards  the  old  order  of  things  passed  away.  Baby- 
lon became  the  metropolis,  the  names  of  Sumer  and  Akkad 
dropped  out  of  use,  and  the  whole  country  between  the 
rivers  was  called  Babylonia.1  The  various  systems  of 

1  That  ia,  the  equivalent  of  Babylonia.     During  the  Kassite  period  the  name  was 
Karduniash. 


134  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

law  which  obtained  in  the  different  states  were  then  codi- 
fied 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  (Mar- 
duk),  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.1  In  framing  this  myth  from  the  frag- 
ments 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  represen- 
tations 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  Su- 
merian animal  and  composite  monster  gods  of  animistic 

1  The  narrative  follows  The  Seven  Tablets  of  Creation  and  other  fragments,  while  the 
account  given  by  Berosua  is  also  drawn  upon. 


WARS   OF   CITY   STATES  135 

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  re- 
tained. The  explanation  suggested  is  that  the  Sumerians 
gave  their  deities  human  shape  before  they  themselves 
were  clean  shaven,  and  that  the  retention  of  the  charac- 
teristic facial  hair  growth  of  the  Mediterranean  Race  is 
another  example  of  the  conservatism  of  the  religious 
instinct.  In  Egypt  the  clean-shaven  Pharaohs,  who  re- 
presented gods,  wore  false  chin-tuft  beards;  even  Queen 


1 36  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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,  how- 
ever, 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  agri- 
cultural people  regarded  as  models  of  gods  the  plunderers 
who  descended  from  the  hills,  and,  after  achieving  suc- 
cesses, 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 


WARS  OF   CITY   STATES  137 

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  Mummu — 
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  Tarn  muz — Monotheistic  Ten- 
dency— 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  prim- 
ordial 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 


138 


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§ 


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CREATION   LEGEND  139 

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.1  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.2  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  undis- 
turbed 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 

1  The  elder  Bel  was  Enlil  of  Nippur  and  the  younger  Merodach  of  Babylon.  Accord- 
ing to  Damascius  the  eldei  Bel  came  into  existence  before  Ea,  who  as  Enki  shared  his 
attributes.  2  This  is  the  inference  drawn  from  fragmentary  texts* 

(C642)  12 


1 40  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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.1 

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,2  the  creator  of  all,  provided  irresistible 
weapons.  She  also  brought  into  being  eleven  kinds  of 
fierce  monsters — giant  serpents,  sharp  of  tooth  with  un- 
sparing 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 

1  A  large  portion  of  the  narrative  is  awanting  here. 
8  A  title  of  Tiamat;  pron.  ch  guttural. 


CREATION   LEGEND  141 

lifted  themselves  up;  vipers  and  pythons,  and  the  Lachamu, 
hurricane  monsters,  raging  hounds,  scorpion  men,  tem- 
pest 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.  Rob- 
ing 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  pre- 
pared 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  afore- 


1 42  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

time  to  battle;  thou  didst  bind  Mummu  and  smite  Apsu. 
Now  Kingu  is  exalted,  and  there  is  none  who  can  oppose 
Tiamat."  l 

Anshar  called  his  son,  Ami,  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.2 

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." 

1  There  is  another  gap  here  which  interrupts  the  narrative. 

3  This  may  refer  to  Ea's  first  visit  when  he  overcame  Kingu,  but  did  not  attack 
Tiamat. 


CREATION   LEGEND  143 

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  Upshu- 
kinaku  (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  de- 
sires, 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.  Fie  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. 


i44  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  com- 
mand 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  Uni- 
verse. 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  repro- 
duced. 

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 x 
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  unco  him 

1  The  lightning  trident  or  thunderstone. 


MERODACH    SETS    FORTH    TO    ATTACK    TIAMAT 
From  the  Painting  by  E.  WaHcousins 


CREATION   LEGEND  145 

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 


146  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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 


CREATION   LEGEND  147 

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,1  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.2  With  the  other  half  he  made  the  earth.3  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 

1  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  Mcrodach's 
"cunning  plan"  was  inspired  after  he  had  eaten  a  part  of  the  body  of  Tiamat. 

8  The  waters  above  the  firmament.  8  According  to  Berosus. 


148  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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.1 

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  god- 
dess 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." 

1  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. 


CREATION   LEGEND  149 

He  also  created  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates  rivers,  grass, 
reeds,  herbs  and  trees,  lands,  marshes  and  swamps,  cows, 
goats,  &C.1 

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  mono- 
theism appears  to  have  been  most  marked  among  the 
priestly  theorists  of  Babylon. 

Merodach  is  hailed  to  begin  with  as  Asari,  the  intro- 
ducer 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  ",  u  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.2' 

1  The  Seven  Tablets  of  Creation,  L.  W.  King,  pp.  134,  135. 

2  The  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  T.  G.  Pinches,  p.  43. 


150  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  "r 
"  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. 

Kings  Translation.1 

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  (/'//',  gods)  He  prohibited  return; 

He  stopped  their  service ;  He  removed  them  unto  the  gods  (ill) 

who  were  His  enemies. 
In  their  room  he  created  mankind.2 

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.  An- 
other 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. 

1  The  Seven  Tablets  of  Creation,  L.  W.  King,  vol.  i,  pp.  98,  99. 
3  Trans.  Soc.  Bib.  Arch.)  iv,  251-2. 


CREATION   LEGEND  151 

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.1 

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.2  It 
lies  in  the  ocean  which  surrounds  the  world  in  Egyptian, 
Babylonian,  Greek,  Teutonic,  Indian,  and  other  mytholo- 
gies. The  Irish  call  it  "  moriiach  ",  and  give  it  a  mermaid 
form  like  the  Babylonian  Nintu.  In  a  Scottish  Gaelic 
poem  Tiamat  figures  as  "The  Yellow  Muilear teach",  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.3 

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  "watch- 
ing for  its  tail  and  hinder  parts  to  appear  ".*  An 

1  Shakespeare's  Julius  C*sar9  i,  3,  8.  3  Isaiah,  li,  8. 

1  Campbell's  West  Highland  Tales,  pp.  136  et  seq. 

4  The  Life  and  Exploits  of  Alexander  the  Great,  E.  A.  Wallis  Budge,  pp.  284,  285. 


152  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  con- 
tinued 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  disappear- 
ing." l  Tiamat's  sea-brood  is  referred  to  in  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  epic  Beowulf  as  "  nickers  ".  The  hero  "  slew  by 
night  sea  monsters  on  the  waves0  (line  422). 

The  well  dragon — the  French  "draco" — also  recalls 
the  Babylonian  water  monsters.  There  was  a  "dragon 
well "  near  Jerusalem.2  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".3 

There  can  be  little  doubt  but  that  in  this  Babylonian 
story  of  Creation  we  have  a  glorified  variation  of  the  wide- 
spread 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. 

1  Campbell's  West  Highland  Tales.  2  Nehemiah,  ii,  13. 

9  The  Tempest^  i,  2,  212. 


CREATION   LEGEND  153 

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  ?'" 


154  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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.  c  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.1 

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  ex- 
claimed, "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, <c  never  was  it  drawn 
to  man  or  to  beast  whom  it  did  not  overcome  ".2  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?  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  slay  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 

1  Waifs  and  Strays  of  Celtic  Tradition^  vol.  iv,  p.  176  et  scy. 

2  From  unpublished  folk  tale. 

8  Beowulf^  translated  by  Clark  Hall,  London,  1911,  p.  18  et  seq. 


CREATION   LEGEND  155 

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  GrendeFs 
mother)  was  less  by  just  so  much  as  woman's  strength, 
woman's  war  terror,  is  (measured)  by  fighting  men".1 
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, 

1  Beowulf,  translated  by  Clark  Hall,  London,  1911,  p.  69,  lines  izSo-nS/. 
(0642)  13 


1 56  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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 
ar-e  similar  to  those  still  repeated  in  the  Scottish  High- 
lands. These  contrast  sharply  with  characteristic  Ger- 
manic 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  wor- 
ship 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 


CREATION  LEGEND  157 

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  'V 
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".2  Similarly  in  India,  the  post-Vedic  god- 
dess Kali  is  a  destroyer,  while  as  Durga  she  is  a  guardian 
of  heroes.3  Kali,  Durga,  and  Hathor-Sekhet  link  with 
the  classical  goddesses  of  war,  and  also  with  the  Baby- 
lonian 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?"4  "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"  ;5  "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";6  "Thou  hast  broken 
Rahab  in  pieces  as  one  that  is  slain:  thou  hast  scattered 
thine  enemies  with  thy  strong  arm";7  "In  that  day  the 


n  Myth  and  Legend,  pp.  260,  261.         2  Egyptian  Myth  and  Legend,  pp.  8,  9. 
8  Indian  Myth  and  Legend,  pp.  xli,  14.9,  150.  4  haiah,  li,  9. 

5  Psalms,  Ixxiv,  13,  14.     It  will  be  noted  that  the  Semitic  dragon,  like  the  Egyptian, 
is  «  male,  *  Job,  xxvi,  12,  13.  7  Psalms,  Ixxxix,  10. 


158  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  ",1 

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  rebel- 
lious 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  develop- 
ment is  "  of  extreme  importance  for  studying  the  growth 
of  the  idea  of  father  and  son,  as  creative  and  active  principles 
of  the  world  ".2  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.8  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  prime- 
val 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  develop- 
ment of  Tammuz  in  his  character  as  a  demon  slayer. 

1  Isaiah,  xxvii,  I.  2  Sumerian  and  Babylonian  Psalms,  p.  204- 

3  Custom  and  Myth^  pp.  45  ft  seq. 


CREATION   LEGEND  159 

When  he  was  raised  to  the  position  of  Bel,  "the 
Lord",  by  the  Babylonian  conquerors,  Merodach  sup- 
planted 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.1 

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  pro- 
phesied 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  fisher- 
man on  the  island  of  Seriphos.  This  hero  afterwards 
slew  Medusa,  one  of  the  three  terrible  sisters,  the  Gor- 
gons  —  a  demon  group  which  links  with  Tiamat.  In 
time,  Perseus  returned  home,  and  while  an  athletic  con- 
test 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, 

1  Translation  by  Dr.  Langdon,  pp.  199  et  seq. 


160  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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-panitum  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-panitum  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  asso- 
ciated 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  god- 
desses. 

As  all  goddesses  became  forms  of  Ishtar,  so  did  all 
gods  become  forms  of  Merodach.  Sin  was  "  Mero- 
dach 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  Taum-iluy  cjah  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."1 

In  one  of  the  hymns  Merodach  is  addressed  as 
follows : — 

1  Tht  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Atsyria^  T.  G.  Pinches,  pp.  118,  119. 


CREATION   LEGEND  161 

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-wor- 
shipping peoples,  that  bi-sexual  deities  were  conceived 
of.  Nannar,  the  moon  god,  was  sometimes  addressed  as 


1 62  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  stones  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  ac- 
cording 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 


163 


1 64  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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,1  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 
SkobeleflF  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  alter- 
nately 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  Gil- 
gamesh,  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 

1  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. 


DEIFIED    HEROES  165 

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  Other- 
world. 

Etana  secures  the  assistance  of  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.1 

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 

1  Sec  "  Lady  in  the  Straw  "  beliefs  in  Brand's  Popular  Antiquities,  vol.  ii,  66  et  $c$. 
(1899  ed.). 


1 66  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

from  which  the  sea  appeared  to  be  no  larger  than  a  pond. 
By  this  time  he  had  reached  the  heaven  of  Arm,  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  eagle1  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  RdmAyana  and  the 
Mahdbhdrata,  there  are  interesting  references  in  this  con- 
nection 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  out- 
stripping 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."2 


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".  Com- 

1  Like  the  Etana  "  mother  eagle  "  Garuda  was  a  slayer  of  serpents  (Chapter  III). 

2  Vana  Parva  section  of  the  Mahabharata  (Roy's  trans.),  p.  818  et  seq.y  and  Indian 
Myth  and  Legend^  p.  413. 


DEIFIED   HEROES  167 

mentators  identify  the  monarch  with  Nimrod,  who  after- 
wards 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.1 

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, 
arid  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".2 

In  a  Gaelic  story  a  hero  is  carried  off  by  a  Cro- 
mhineach,  "avast  bird  like  an  eagle".  He  tells  that  it 
"  sprang  to  the  clouds  with  me,  and  I  was  a  while  that  1 

1  The  Koran  (with  notes  from  approved  commentators),  trans,  by  George  Sale, 
p.  246,  n. 

*The  Life  and  Exploits  of  Alexander  the  Great,  E.  Waliis  Budge  (London,  1896), 
pp.  277-8,  474-5. 


1 68  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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.1'1 

The  eagle  figures  in  various  mythologies,  and  appears 
to  have  been  at  one  time  worshipped  as  the  god  or  god- 
dess 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  iden- 
tified with  "  Eileithyia,  the  goddess  of  birth ;  she  was 
usually  represented  as  a  vulture  hovering  over  the  king".2 

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  incarna- 
tion 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 

1  Campbell's  West  Highland  Tales,  vol.  iii,  pp.  251-4  (1892  ed.). 
*  Religion  of  the  Ancient  Egyptians,  A.  Wicdcmann,  p.  141. 


DEIFIED   HEROES  169 

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".1 

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  fMahdi- 
bhdrata  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.2  This  custom  was  prob- 
ably 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  custom3  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 

1  Adi  Pariia  section  of  the  Mahabharata  (Hymn  to  Garuda),  Roy's  trans.,  p.  88,  89. 

2  Herodian,  iv,  2. 

8  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, 


1 70  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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.1  Doves  were  burned  to 
Adonis,  The  burning  of  straw  figures,  representing  gods 
of  fertility,  on  May-Day  bonfires  may  have  been  a  fer- 
tility 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  bon- 
fires at  Cuthah,  died  on  the  eighth  day  of  the  Tammuz 
month,  which,  according  to  the  Syrian  calendar,  fell  on 
1 3th  July.2  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: 3 

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. 

1  The  Assyrian  and  Phoenician  Hercules  is  discussed  by  Raoul  Rochcttc  in  M.tmoirt\ 
dt  I* Academic  des  Inscription*  tt  Belles  Lettres  (Paris,  1848),  pp.  178  et  seq. 

2  G.  Sale's  Koran,  p.  246,  ». 

3  In  the  Eddie  poem  "Lokasenna"  the  god  Byggvir  (Barley)  is  addressed  by  Loki, 
"Silence,  BaJcycorn!"      The  Elder  Edda,  translation  by  Olive  Bray,  pp.  262,  263. 


DEIFIED   HEROES  171 

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  CEta,  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  ^Elian,1  "  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  clifts  of 
the  rocks  "2  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.  "  Igno- 
rant 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 

1  Dt  Nat.  Animal.,  xii,  21,  ed.  Didot,  p.  210,  quoted  by  Professor  Budge  in  The  Life 
xploit*  of  Alexander  the  Greaty  p.  278,  ».  2  Isaiah,  Ivii,  4  and  5. 

(  0  042  )  14 


MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

make  rain,  by  lighting  a  fire  they  make  sunshine,  and  so 
on.1*1  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  wa»  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. 

1  The  Golden  Bough  (Adonis,  Attn,  Ostn*  vol.),  "The  Gardens  of  Adonis",  pp.  194 
et  seq.  (3rd  ed.). 


DEIFIED   HEROES  173 

Arum  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/'1 

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  friend- 
ship. 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, 

1  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. 


174  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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,1  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  pros- 
perous 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  sud- 
denly 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  Keats1  "La  Belle  Dame  Sans  Merci"  is  a  typical 
example. 

1  Pronounce  ch  guttural. 


DEIFIED   HEROES  175 

0  what  can  ail  thee,  knight-at-arms, 
Alone  and  palely  loitering? 

The  sedge  is  withered  from  the  lake 
And  no  birds  sing. 

1  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 


176  MYTHS  OF  BABYLONIA 

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  Gilgamesh1  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 

1  On  a  cylinder  seal  the  heroes  each  wrestle  with  a  bull. 


H 

a 


a 


- 
0     « 

0    I 

§      8 

§1 


W 

X 
h 


DEIFIED   HEROES  177 

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  u  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  con- 
fronted  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  Under- 
world.1 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  mon- 

1  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, 


1 78  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

sters  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  wonder- 
ful 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 ! 


DEIFIED   HEROES  179 

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 ! l 

This  is  the  philosophy  of  the  Egyptian  "  Lay  of  the 
Harper  ".  The  following  quotations  are  from  two  sepa- 
rate 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.2 

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 

1  Jaitrow's  trans.,  Aspects  of  Religious  Belief  and  Practice  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria^ 

P-  374- 

1  Development  of  Religion  and   Thought  in  Ancient  Egypt  (1912),  J.  H.  Breasted, 
pp.   183*5. 


180  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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.1 

"  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  ",2 

Gilgamesh  did  not  accept  the  counsel  of  the  fatalistic 
sea  lady.  He  asked  her  how  he  could  reach  Pir-napish- 
tim, 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. 

1  Ecctestastes,  ix,  7-9.  2  /£/</.,  xii,  13. 


DEIFIED   HEROES  181 

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  con- 
tracts, 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,  u  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-napish- 
tim 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 


1 82  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

shalt  not  lie  down,  but  remain  sitting  like  one  in  the 
midst  of  grief." l 

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  ad- 
ministered 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  re- 
vealed unto  him  the  secret  of  a  magic  plant  which  had 
power  to  renew  life  and  give  youth  and  strength  unto 
those  who  were  old. 

1  Perhaps  brooding  and  undergoing  penance  like  an  Indian  Rishi  with  purpose  to 
obtain  spiritual  power. 


DEIFIED   HEROES  183 

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  to- 
gether, nor  paused  until  they  came  to  a  well  of  pure 
water.  The  hero  stooped  down  to  draw  water.1  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,  per- 
forming 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 

1  Probably  to  perform  the  ceremony  of  pouring  out  a  libation. 


1 84  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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 


DEIFIED   HEROES  185 

met  Sabitu,  Hermod  met  Modgudur,  "  the  maiden  who 
kept  the  bridge  "  over  the  river  Gjsll.  Svipdag,  accord- 
ing 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".1 
Thorkill  crosses  a  stormy  ocean  to  the  region  of  per- 
petual 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  ".* 
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  ".8  When  Odin  "  down- 
ward 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 

1  Saxot  iii,  71.  a  Ibid.)  viii,  291. 

9  The  Elder  Edda^  O.  Bray,  pp.  157  et  seq.     Sec  also  Teutonic  Myth  and  Legend. 


1 86  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  Eng- 
land and  Scotland.  This  fortunate  man  kept  his  secret. 
His  name  was  Matun,  but  he  was  afterwards  nicknamed 
"  <El-Khidr  ',  that  is  to  say, c  Green'  ".  What  explanation 
he  offered  for  his  sudden  change  of  appearance  has  not 
been  recorded.1  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.2 

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: 

1  The  Life  and  Exploit  of  Alexander  the  Great,  E.  Wallis  Budge,  pp.  xl  et  seq.,  167 
et  seq. 

'•*  The  Koran,  trans,  by  G.  Sale,  pp.  222,  223  (chap,  xviii). 


DEIFIED   HEROES  187 

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  Mahdbhdrata, 
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  beauti- 
ful 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.'1  l 

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,  Her- 
cules slew  Ladon,  the  guardian  of  the  apples.  Other 
heroes  kill  treasure-protecting  dragons  of  various  kinds. 
There  is  a  remarkable  resemblance  between  the  Baby- 
lonian account  of  Gilgamesh's  journey  through  the  moun- 
tain tunnel  to  the  garden  and  seashore,  and  the  Indian 
story  of  the  demigod  Hanuman  passing  through  the  long 

1  Vana  Parva  section  of  the  Mahdbharata  (Roy's  trans.),  pp.  435-60,  and  Indian 
Myth  and  Legend,  pp.   105-9. 

(0642)  16 


1 88  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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 
MahAbhdrata,  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  pro- 
ceeded 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,  experi- 
ences 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 


DEIFIED   HEROES  189 

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.1 

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  im- 
memorial 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. 

1  Vana  Parva  section  of  the  Mahabharata  (Roy's  translation),  pp.  832,  833. 


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:1  CO  hut  of 

1  Ea  addresses  the  hut  in  which  his  human  favourite,  Pir-napishtim,  slept.      His 
message  was  conveyed  to  this  man  in  a  dream. 

190 


DELUGE  LEGEND  191 

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  pro- 
portions 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  ser- 
vant :  c  What  thou  shalt  say  unto  them  is  this  .  .  .  // 
hath  been  revealed  unto  me  that  Eel  doth  hate  mey  there- 
fore 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.'"^ 

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 

1  The  second  sentence  of  Ea's  speech  is  conjectural,  as  the  lines  are  mutilated. 


192  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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 :  c  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  evenr 
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  emis- 
saries 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  dark- 
ness, 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 


THE    BABYLONIAN    DELUGE 

From  the  Painting  by  E.  Wallcousins 


DELUGE   LEGEND  193 

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  dis- 
tressfully, saying :  c  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  whirl- 
ing 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  1  sent 
forth  a  raven,  and  she  flew  away.  She  saw  that  the  waters 
were  shrinking,  and  gorged  and  croaked  and  waded,  but 


i94  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  accord- 
ing to  her  desire,  she  spake,  saying :  <  Oh !  these  gods ! 
1  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, 


DELUGE   LEGEND  195 

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  jand  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.'1 

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.  1  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.1 

1  The  Muses*  Pageant,  W.  M.  L.  Hutchinson,  pp.  5  et  seq. 


196  MYTHS  OF   BABYLONIA 

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.1  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."2 

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.8 

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.4  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. 

1  Indian  Myth  and  Legend^  pp.  107  et  setj. 

3  Vana  Parva  section  of  the  Mahdbharata  (Roy's  trans.),  p.  425. 
9  Indian  Myth  and  Legend,  p.  141. 

4  Book  ofLcimter,  and  Kcating'l  History  of  Irfland,  p.  150  (1811  cd.). 


DELUGE   LEGEND  197 

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  god- 
dess 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."1 

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  civiliza- 
tion, 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 

1  Religion  of  the  Ancient  Egyptian*)  A.  Wicdcmann,  pp.  58  tt  seq. 


198  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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,  dis- 
playing 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  extin- 
guish 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.1  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)  myth- 
ologies. 

The  Biblical  account  of  the  flood  is  familiar  to  readers. 
"It  forms'',  says  Professor  Pinches,  "a  good  subject  for 

1  Pinches*  The  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  p.  42. 


DELUGE   LEGEND  199 

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."1 

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.  Refer- 
ence 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  com- 
posed, 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  con- 
nection, shows  that  the  system  by  which  the  "  Day  of 
Brahma"  was  calculated  in  India  resembles  closely  an 


1  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 
Baby  Ion  id)  and  other  vols. 


200  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

astronomical  system  which  obtained  in  Babylonia,  where 
apparently  the  theory  of  cosmic  periods  had  origin.1 

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  stimu- 
lated 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  uncrematcd  dead  walked 
on  foot.  Yama  never  lost  his  original  character.  He  is 
a  traveller  in  the  Epics  as  in  the  Vedas.2 

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,  I.8 

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  William?  Trans/athn* 

Yama  and  his  sister  Yami  were  the  first  human  pair. 

1  Primitive  Constellations,  vol.  i,  pp.  334-5.         9  Indian  Myth  and  Legend,  chap.  iii. 
*  Professor  Macdonell's  translation.  4  Indian  Wisdom. 


DELUGE   LEGEND  201 

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.1 

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  ",2 

In  Persian  mythology"  Yima7*,  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, 
mapkind  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 — 

1  '*  Varuna,  the  deity  bearing  the  noose  as  his  weapon  ",  Sabha  Parva  section  of  the 
Mahabh&rata  (Roy's  trans.),  p.  29.  *  Indian  Myth  and  Legend^  pp.  38-42. 


202  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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,  cc  The  picture  ",  says  Professor  Moulton, "  strongly 
tempts  us  to  recognize  the  influence  of  the  Babylonian 
Flood  Legend/' x  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  ?2 

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 

1  Early  Religious  Poetry  of  Persia,  J.  H.  Moulton,  pp.  41  et  stf.  and  154  tt  seq, 
8  The  Elder  Edda,  O.  Bra/,  p.  55. 


DELUGE   LEGEND  203 

come  " l — 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  con- 
nection 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  2 

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.3 

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.4 

1  The  Elder  Edda,  O.  Bray,  pp.  291  et  seq. 

2  Celtic  Myth  and  Legend^  pp.  133  et  seq. 

8  Tennyson* 8  The  Passing  of  Arthur,  *  Job)  x,  i~2a. 

(ct-42)  16 


204  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  Under- 
world to  search  for  Tammuz.  Other  sufferings  were,  no 
doubt,  in  store  for  her,  resembling  those,  perhaps,  with 
which  the  giant  maid  in  the  Eddie  poem  "  Skirnismal " 
was  threatened  when  she  refused  to  marry  Frey,  the  god 
of  fertility  and  harvest : 

Trolls  shall  torment  thae  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.1 

In  like  manner,  too,  the  inhabitants  of  the  Indian  Hell 
suffered  endless  and  complicated  tortures.2 

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. 

1  The  Elder  Edda^  O.  Bray,  pp.  150-1.  2  Indian  Myth  and  Legend,  p.  326. 


DELUGE   LEGEND  205 

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  over- 
powered. 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  Under- 
world 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 


206  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

sand  storm;  he  was  a  gloomy,  vengeful  deity,  attended 
by  the  spirits  of  tempest,  weariness,  pestilence,  and  dis- 
ease, 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  Chris- 
tians alike  hold  annual  all-night  feasts  in  their  cemeteries. 

The  Japanese  "Land  of  Yomi"  is  similarly  an  under- 
world, 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 


DELUGE  LEGEND  207 

privileged  to  ascend  to  heaven  and  join  the  gods  in  the 
« Eternal  Land". 

Among  the  ancient  Romans  the  primitive  belief  sur- 
vived 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".1 

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  occu- 
pied 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 

1  The  Religion  of  Ancient  Rome,  Cyiil  Bailey,  p.  50. 


208  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

"Two-horned",  as  the  hero  was  called,  conversed  with 
Brahmans  when  he  reached  India.  He  spoke  to  one  of 
them,  "  saying  :  c  Have  ye  no  tombs  wherein  to  bury  any 
man  among  ye  who  may  die  ?'  And  an  interpreter  made 
answer  to  him,  saying:  c  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  Alex- 
ander desired  to  make  a  gift  to  these  Brahmans,  and  asked 
them  what  they  desired  most,  their  answer  was,  "  Give  us 
immortality".1 

In  the  Gilgamesh  epic  the  only  ray  of  hope  which 
relieves  the  gloomy  closing  passages  is  Ea-bani's  sugges- 
tion that  the  sufferings  endured  by  the  dead  may  be 
alleviated  by  the  performance  of  strict  burial  rites.  Com- 
menting 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  rood 
That  are  thrown  in  the  street,  he  eats."2 

Gilgamesh  Epic. 

1  The  Life  and  Exploits  of  Alexander  the  Great  (Ethiopic  version  of  the  Pseudo  Callis- 
thenes),  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. 

2  Aspects  of  Religious  Belief  and  Practice  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  Morris  Jastrow,  pp. 
358-9. 


DELUGE   LEGEND  209 

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  agricul- 
tural 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  en- 
joyment 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'11 — a  suggestion  that  this 

1  The  Mahdbhdrata  (Sabha  Parva  section),  Roy's  translation,  pp.  25-7. 


210  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  be- 
came 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  ex- 
tremely 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  dis- 
posed or  upon  earth.  An  orthodox  funeral  ceremony  was 
costly  at  all  times.  This  is  made  evident  by  the  inscrip- 
tions 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 


DELUGE  LEGEND  211 

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".1 

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".2  To  Jacob,  personal  ornaments  had  quite 
evidently  an  idolatrous  significance. 

"  A  very  typical  class  of  grave  furniture  ",  writes  Mr. 

1  A  History  of  Sumer  and  Akkad,  L.  W.  King,  pp.  1 8 1-2.         2  Gene  sit,  xxxv,  2-4. 


212  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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".1  In 
the  word-picture  of  the  Aryo-Indian  Varuna's  heaven  in 
the  MahAbhdrata  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".2  Apparently  the 
"paste",  like  the  face  paint  of  the  Babylonians  and 
Egyptians,  had  protective  qualities.  The  Picts  of  Scot- 
land 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 


1  The  Religion  of  Ancient  Egypt^  W.  M.  Flinders  Petric,  p.  72. 

2  Sabha  Parva  section  of  the  Mah&bh&rata  (Roy's  trans.),  p.  29. 


DELUGE   LEGEND  213 

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  '11  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  Baby- 
lonian 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.1  As  priests  and  gods  were  clad  in  the  skins  of 
animals  from  which  their  powers  were  derived,  it  is  prob- 
able 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  ".2  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". 

1  Egyptian  Myth  and  Legend,  p.  214. 

2  Canto  iv : — 

Last  eventide 

Brian  an  augury  hath  tried.  .  .  . 
The  Taghairm  called  5  by  which  afar 
Our  sires  foresaw  the  events  of  war. 
Duncraggan's  milk-white  bull  they  slew.  .  •  . 


2i4  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

Then  he  came  to  know  that  his  enemy  had  resolved  to 
attack  Keilah.1  Elisha  became  a  prophet  when  he  re- 
ceived Elijah's  mantle.2 

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.3 

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  ",4  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 : — 

1  /  Samuel,  xxiii,  9-11.         2/  Kings,  xix,  19  and  2  Kings,  ii,  13-15. 

8  The  Burial  Customs  of  Ancient  Egypt,  John  Garstang,  pp.  28,  29  (London,  1907). 

4  Herod.,  book  i,  198. 


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DELUGE   LEGEND  215 

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  con- 
tained. 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  ",a 
and  has  been  shown  by  Mr.  L.  W.  King  to  have  no  con- 
nection with  the  struggle  between  Merodach  and  the 
dragon,2  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  super- 
natural 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 

1  Records  of  the  Past  (old  series),  xi,  pp.  109  et  seq.>  and  (new  series),  vol.  i,  pp.  149 
ft  sej.  2  L.  W.  King's  The  Seven  Tablets  of  Creation. 


2i 6  MYTHS  OF  BABYLONIA 

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  super- 
natural 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 
I  sin,  successfully  overran  the  southern  district  and  en- 
deavoured 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  Amo- 
rites.  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 


217 


2i 8  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  great- 
ness. 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-Euph rates  valley.  Some  of  the  Kassite 
monarchs,  however,  showed  a  preference  for  Nippur. 

Of  its  early  history  little  is  known.  It  was  over- 
shadowed 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  gar- 
dener, appears  to  have  interested  himself  in  its  develop- 
ment, 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  van- 
dalistic  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. 


BUILDINGS  AND  LAWS   OF  BABYLON     219 

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  sur- 
rounded by  a  deep,  broad  canal  or  moat,  and  the  river 
Euphrates  ran  through  it. 

"Here",  continued  Herodotus,  UI  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."1  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.2 

The  outer  wall  was  the  main  defence  of  the  city,  but 
there  was  also  an  inner  wall  less  thick  but  not  much 

1  Hcrodofus,  book  i,  179  (Rawlinson's  translation).  s  Isaiah^  xlv,  i,  2. 

(0042)  17 


220  MYTHS   OF  BABYLONIA 

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  num- 
bered 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  con- 
trivance 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. 


BUILDINGS  AND  LAWS  OF  BABYLON     221 

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,  repre- 
senting 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  Chaldseans,  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 ; 


222  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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." l 

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  inunda- 
tion 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.2 

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  circum- 
ference 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 

1  He rodotus,  book  i,  181-3  (Rawlinson's  translation). 

2  History  ofSumer  and  Akkad,  L.  W.  King,  p.  37. 


Photo.  Giraudo 

STELE    OF    HAMMURABI,    WITH    « CODE    OF    LAWS" 
(Louvre;  Paris') 


BUILDINGS  AND   LAWS   OF  BABYLON     223 

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,  com- 
prising 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  land- 
owners, 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  invari- 


224  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

ably  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,  evi- 
dence 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 


BUILDINGS  AND   LAWS   OF  BABYLON     225 

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  beauti- 
ful 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/11 

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 
right1'  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 

1  Herodotus,  book  i,  196  (Ravvlinson's  translation). 


226  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

his  daughter,  and  she  could  not  marry  without  his  con- 
sent. 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 


BUILDINGS  AND   LAWS   OF  BABYLON     227 

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.  In- 
deed, 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. 


228  MYTHS   OF  BABYLONIA 

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  gar- 
dens 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 


BUILDINGS  AND  LAWS  OF  BABYLON     229 

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  fore- 
head 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  vic- 
tim'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  in- 
ferred 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  pro- 
perly. 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 


230  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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 
/or  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  accord- 
ing 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 


BUILDINGS  AND   LAWS   OF  BABYLON     231 

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  accord- 
ing 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  phy- 
sicians were  held  in  high  repute.  It  is  improbable,  how- 


232  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

ever,  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  ex- 
posure 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  sub- 
stances 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  medi- 
cal man  who  has  investigated  this  interesting  subject  in 
the  Scottish  Highlands  has  shown  that  "the  simple  obser- 
vation 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 


BUILDINGS  AND  LAWS  OF  BABYLON     233 

great   affair   of  health   than   we   owe   to   all    the   later 


science."1 


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  compara- 
tive 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.  Pro- 
vision 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  resi- 
dence of  "  the  layer  of  the  spell  ",  who  was  promptly  put 
to  death.  With  this  interesting  glimpse  of  ancient  super- 
stition 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. 

1  Home  Life  of  the  Highlanders  (Dr.  Cameron  Gillies  on  Medical  Knowledge),  pp.  8  5 
et  sey.     Glasgow,  1911. 


234  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  de- 
vouring 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  par- 
ticular 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  nourish- 
ment 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  identi- 
fied the  toothache  demon  as  "  the  worm  ".  Then  he  re- 
cited 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 


BUILDINGS  AND   LAWS   OF  BABYLON     235 

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  In- 
cantation." 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." l 

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 

1  Translations  by  R.  C.  Thompson  in  The  Devils  and  Spirits  of  Babylon,  vol.  i,  pp. 
Ixiii  ft  !cq. 

(0642)  18 


236  MYTHS  OF   BABYLONIA 

operate  in  isolated  districts  in  these  islands,  draw  water 
from  under  bridges  "  over  which  the  dead  and  the  living 
pass  ",*  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  blood- 
thirsty 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  im- 
portance, 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  wide- 
spread 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 

1  Bridges  which  lead  to  graveyards. 


BUILDINGS  AND   LAWS   OF  BABYLON     237 

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  inspira- 
tion, 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  himseP  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  them- 
selves to  influence  mankind.  The  spirits  caused  suffer- 
ing ;  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. 


238  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  state- 
ments 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  whis- 
pering winds,  and  the  rustling  of  scented  fir  and  blossom- 
ing 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. 


BUILDINGS  AND  LAWS  OF  BABYLON    239 

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  —  Sunierian  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 — Ham- 
murabi's Brilliant  Reign  —  Elanrke  Power  Stamped  Out  —  Babylon's  Great 
General  and  Statesman — The  Growth  of  Commerce,  Agriculture,  and  Educa- 
tion—  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  Ism.  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  Ela- 
mite  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  recog- 

240 


THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  BABYLONIA     241 

nition  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  con- 
queror 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 


242  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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,  re- 
stored the  wall  and  temple  of  Cuthah,  and  promoted  the 
worship  of  Merodach  and  his  consort  Zerpanitum  at 
Babylon.  He  was  undoubtedly  one  of  the  forceful  per- 
sonalities 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  en- 
larged 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  NergaTs  temple  at  Cuthah,  and  dug 
canals. 

The  next  monarch  was  Sin-muballit,  son  of  Apil-Sin 
and  father  of  Hammurabi.  He  engaged  himself  in  ex- 
tending 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- 


THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  BABYLONIA     243 

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  per- 
haps 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  testi- 
fied 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 


244  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  un- 
rest 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".  In- 
numerable 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  ap- 
pears 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 


THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  BABYLONIA     245 

Gulf.  So  far  as  we  know,  they  first  made  their  appear- 
ance on  the  Mediterranean  coast  about  2000  B.C.,  where 
they  subsequently  entered  into  competition  as  sea  traders 
with  the  manners  of  ancient  Crete.  Apparently  the 
pastoral  nomads  pressed  northward  through  Meso- 
potamia 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  dis- 
trict. 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  circum- 
scribed, 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.1 
With  Mamre,  and  his  brothers,  Eshcol  and  Aner,  the 

1  Genesis,  xii  and  xiii. 


246  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

Hebrew  patriarch  formed  a  confederacy  for  mutual  pro- 
tection.1 

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.2  This 
illuminating  statement  agrees  with  what  we  know  regard- 
ing 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  con- 
federacy 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."3 

It  was  during  Abraham's  residence  in  Hebron  that 
the  Western  Land  was  raided  by  a  confederacy  of  Baby- 
lonian 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 

1  Geneus,  xiv,  13.  J  lbiJ.y  xxiii.  *  E*tkiel9  xvi,  3. 


THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  BABYLONIA     247 

(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  to- 
gether in  the  vale  of  Siddim,  which  is  the  salt  sea. 
Twelve  years  they  served  Chedor-laomer,  and  in  the 
thirteenth  year  they  rebelled."1  Apparently  the  Elamites 
had  conquered  part  of  Syria  after  entering  southern  Baby- 
lonia. 

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/'2 

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  con- 
clusion was  reached  that  the  softer  "  h  "  sound  was  used 
and  not  the  guttural.  The  "1"  in  the  Biblical  Amraphel 

1  Genesis,  xiv,  1-4..  2  Ibid.)  5-24. 


248  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  inscrip- 
tions. "Tidal,  king  of  nations",  has  not  been  identified. 
The  suggestion  that  he  was  "King  of  the  Gutium"  re- 
mains 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  men- 
tioned. 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  Baby- 
lon*' 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)  ". 


HAMMURA1U    RECEIVING    THE    "CODE    OF    LAWS" 
FROM    THE    SUN    GOD 

(Louvre,  Paris') 


THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  BABYLONIA  249 

.No  traces  have  yet  been  found  in  Palestine  of  its  con- 
quest 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  appar- 
ently 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  re- 
volting 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  remem- 
bered 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 


250  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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."1 

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.  Ham- 
murabi 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  adminis- 
tration under  a  well-ordained  political  system.  He  must 
also  have  endeared  himself  to  them  as  an  exemplary  ex- 
ponent of  religious  tolerance.  He  respected  the  various 
deities  jn  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 

1  Babylonian  and  Assyrian  Laws,  Contracts,  and  Letter^  C.  H.  W.  Johns,  pp.  392 
et  seq. 


THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  BABYLONIA     251 

afforded  the  pious  full  freedom  and  opportunity  to  per- 
form 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  martyr- 
dom 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 

(0642)  19 


252  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  alpha- 
betical 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  good- 
will, 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 


THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  BABYLONIA     253 

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  busi- 
ness, 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  Lon- 
don 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  nnd  controller  of 
business  life  through  a  vast  network  of  veins  and  arteries, 
to  be  displaced  by  any  other  Mesopotamian  city  to  plea- 
sure even  a  mighty  monarch.  For  two  thousand  years, 
from  the  time  of  Hammurabi  until  the  dawn  of  the 


254  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

Christian  era,  the  city  of  Babylon  remained  amidst  many 
political  changes  the  metropolis  of  Western  Asiatic  com- 
merce and  culture,  and  none  was  more  eloquent  in  its 
praises  than  the  scholarly  pilgrim  from  Greece  who  won- 
dered 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  suc- 
cesses 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  con- 
queror, 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  plun- 
dering Elamites. 

Hammurabi  referred  to  himself  in  the  Prologue  as 
"a  king  who  commanded  obedience  in  all  the  four 


THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  BABYLONIA     255 

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  (Mero- 
dach)",  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/*1  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  I&issites,  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 

1  Translation  by  Johns  in  Babylonian  and  Assyrian  Laws,  Contracts^  and  Letters,  pp. 
390  et  scq. 


256  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

their  pioneers  in  agricultural  pursuits.  No  doubt  they 
were  welcomed  in  that  capacity,  for  owing  to  the  con- 
tinuous spread  of  culture  and  the  development  of  com- 
merce, rural  labour  had  become  scarce  and  dear.  Farmers 
had  a  long-standing  complaint,  "The  harvest  truly  is 
plenteous,  but  the  labourers  are  few'*.1  "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.2 

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 

1  Matthew,  ix,  37.         2  Johns's  Babylonian  and  Assyrian  Laivs,  &fc.,  pp.  371-2. 


THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  BABYLONIA  257 

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  archaeo- 
logical leanings,  and  displayed  traits  which  suggest  that 
he  inclined,  like  Sumu-la-ilu,  to  ancestor  worship.  Ente- 
mena,  the  pious  patesi  of  Lagash,  whose  memory  is 


258  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  grand- 
father, 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 


THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  BABYLONIA     259 

frontier  of  Egypt,  and  it  is  significant  to  find  in  this  con- 
nection 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,  some- 
time 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  re- 
sounds among  the  northern  mountains.  As  this  deity 
comes  each  year  in  Western  Asia  when  vegetation  has 
withered  and  after  fruits  have  dropped  from  trees,  bring- 
ing 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 


RISE   OF  THE   HITTITES,   ETC.        261 

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  light- 
ning 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  ^Egean  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  un- 
certain duration.  They  were  probably  the  latter,  for 
although  they  carried  off  Merodach  and  Zerpanitum,  these 


262  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  out- 
side 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  wor- 
shippers 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-Kfti, 
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  Cappa- 
docia,  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 


RISE   OF  THE   HITTITES,   ETC.         263 

mound  at  Sakje-Geuzi  have  revealed  evidences  of  a  con- 
tinuous culture  which  began  to  flourish  before  3000  B.C.1 
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.2 

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, 

1  The  Land  of  the  Hittites,  John  Garstang,  pp.  312  et  seq.  and  3 1 5  et  seq. 
9  The  Ancient  Egyptian^  pp.  106  et  $eq» 


264  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

which  has  always  depended  on  the  river  Nile.  Ptah's 
purely  Egyptian  characteristics  appear  to  have  been  ac- 
quired 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".1  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,2 
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  Tidcal  is  written  Tudkhul,  and  he  is  described 
as  King  of  the  Umman  Manda^  or  Nations  of  the  North, 

1  The  Anatnt  Egyptians,  p.  130.  a  Struggle  of  the  Nations  (1896),  p.  19. 


RISE   OF  THE   HITTITES,   ETC.        265 

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^al, 
and  one  of  the  Hittite  kings  of  Boghaz-K6i  bears 
the  same  name,  which  is  written  as  Dud-khaliya  in  cunei- 
form.1 

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  moun- 
taineers who  are  conquered  by  that  battle  lord  wear  pig- 
tails 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  pig- 
tailed  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 

1  Note  contributed  to  The  Land  of  the  Hittites,  J.  Garstang,  p.  324. 


266  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

representatives  of  the  earliest  settlers  from  North  Africa 
of  Mediterranean  racial  stock.  These  have  been  identi- 
fied 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  con- 
nection 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  " l.  Appar- 
ently 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."  2  Esau's  marriage  was  "  a  grief  of  mind  unto 
Isaac  and  to  Rebekah  "-1  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?"3 
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."4 
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 

1  Genesis,  xxvi,  34,  35.  2  Exekie/,  xvi,  45. 

*  Genesis^  xxvii,  46.  *  Genesis^  xxviii,  I,  2. 


RISE   OF   THE   HITTITES,   ETC        267 

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.1  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  wor- 
shipped 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  Mamitum 
(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  Hiera- 
polis  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",  Atar- 
gatis 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 

1  Genesis,  xxiv. 

(C042)  20 


268  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  Medi- 
terranean race,  the  goddess  cult  came  into  prominence, 
and  the  gods  and  the  people  were  reputed  to  be  descen- 
dants 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-Kfti  depicts  a  mythological  scene  which  is  be- 
lieved 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  c<  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."1 

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 

1  The  Syrian  Goddt^  John  Garstang  (London,  1913),  pp.  17-8. 


RISE   OF  THE   HITTITES,   ETC.         269 

by  early  "waves"  of  Hatti  people  who  migrated  from 
the  east. 

The  Hittite  connection  is  based  chiefly  on  the  follow- 
ing 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  Zerpanitum,  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-Koi,  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  follow- 
ing 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  'V  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 

1  Vedic  Index  of  Names  and  Subjects^  Macdonald  &  Keith,  vol.  i,  pp.  64-5  (London, 
1912). 


270  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

of  the  modern  Kurds 'V  a  conspicuously  long-headed 
people,  proverbial,  like  the  ancient  Aryo-Indians  and 
the  Gauls,  for  their  hospitality  and  their  raiding  pro- 
pensities. 

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  associ- 
ated 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  in- 
vasion 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 

1  The  Wanderings  of  Peoples,  p.  21. 


J    I 


1 

ft 


RISE   OF  THE   HITTITES,   ETC.        271 

operations  were  directly  against  Kadesh  on  the  Orontes, 
which  was  then  held  by  his  fierce  enemies  the  Mitannians 
of  Naharina.1 

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 

1  Brcasted's  History  of  Egypt)  pp.  219-20. 


272  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

as  a  "world  giant"  has  much  in  common  with  the  north- 
ern 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 
Zerpanitum  brought  back  to  the  city  ot  Babylon.  This 
monarch  recorded  that,  in  response  to  the  oracle  of 
Shamash,  the  sun  god,  he  sent  to  the  distant  land  ot 
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  cen- 
tury 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  refer- 
ence 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 


RISE   OF   THE   HITTITES,   ETC.         273 

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  lanias  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  com- 
pares 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  1 800  B.C.  and  1 500  B.C. 
It  is  evident  that  a  fascinating  volume  of  ancient  history 
has  yet  to  be  written. 

The  Kassites  formed  the  military  aristocracy  of  Baby- 
lonia, which  was  called  Karduniash,  for  nearly  six  cen- 
turies. Agum  II  was  the  first  of  their  kings  who  became 
thoroughly  Babylonianized,  and  although  he  still  gave 


274  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  1,  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  con- 
temporary 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  prob- 
ably 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 


RISE   OF  THE   HITTITES,   ETC.        275 

therefore  have  revolted.  It  was  probably  a  centre  of 
discontent  during  the  whole  period  of  Kassite  ascend- 
ancy. 

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.  "*  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  pro- 
ducts of  the  Syrians  shows  that  the  workmen  would 

1  A  History  of  Egypt,  W.  M.  Flinders  Petrie,  vol.  ii,  p.  146  et  seq.  (1904  ed.). 


276  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

probably  be  more  in  demand  than  other  kinds  of  slave 
tribute."1 

One  of  the  monarchs  with  whom  Thothmes  III  corre- 
sponded was  the  king  of  Assyria.  The  enemies  of  Egypt 
in  northern  Mesopotamia  were  the  Hittites  and  Mi- 
tannians,  and  their  allies,  and  these  were  also  the  enemies 
of  Assyria.  But  to  enable  us  to  deal  with  the  new  situa- 
tion 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. 

1 A  History  of  Egypt,  W.  M.  Flinders  Pctric,  vol.  ii,  p.  147  (1904  ed.). 


RISE   OF  THE   HITTITES,   ETC.        277 

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  shown1  that  his  name 
is  a  rendering  of  that  of  Merodach.  In  Sumerian  Mero- 
dach  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  re- 
puted 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 

1  The  Old  Testament  in  the  Light  of  the  Historical  R  words  and  Legends  of  Assyria  and 
Babylonia,  pp.  126  et  seq. 


278  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  Baby- 
lonia except,  as  some  hold,  Ashur,  the  national  god.1 
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  con- 
nection. 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  con- 
sort of  Teshup,  the  Hittite-Mitanni  hammer  god.  As 
many  of  the  Mitannian  names  "are",  according  to  Mr. 
Johns,  "really  Elamitic",  he  suggests  an  ethnic  connec- 
tion between  the  early  conquerors  of  Assyria  and  the 
people  of  Elam.2  Were  the  pre-Semitic  Elamites  origi- 
nally speakers  of  an  agglutinative  language,  like  the 
Sumerians  and  present-day  Basques,  who  were  conquered 
in  prehistoric  times  by  a  people  of  Aryan  speech? 

1  His  connection  with  Anu  is  discussed  in  chapter  xiv. 

2  Ancient  Assyria^  C.  H.  W.  Johns,  p.  n  (London,  1912). 


RISE   OF  THE   HITTITES,   ETC.         279 

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  contem- 
porary 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  Egyp- 
tian 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  terri- 
tory, the  Hittites  were  ever  hovering  on  his  north-western 
frontier,  ready  when  opportunity  offered  to  win  back 
Cappadocia.  Eastward,  Assyria  was  threatening  to  be- 
come 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 


280  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

Saushatar  raided  Assyria  during  the  closing  years  of  the 
reign  of  Thothmes  III,  or  soon  after  his  successor,  Amen- 
hotep  II,  ascended  the  Egyptian  throne. 

Nothing  is  known  from  contemporary  records  regard- 
ing this  campaign;  but  it  can  be  gathered  from  the  refer- 
ences of  a  later  period  that  the  city  of  Asshur  was  captured 
and  plundered;  its  king,  Ashur-nadin-akhe,  ceased  corre- 
sponding 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  suc- 
cessive 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-Koi  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  cunei- 
form 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 


7  Photo.  Manscll 

LETTER    FROM    TUSHRATTA,    KING    OF    MITANNI,    TO 
AMENHOTEP    III,    KING    OF    EGYPT 

One  of  the  TelM-Amarna  tablets,  noiv  in  the  British  Museum.      (See  pages  280-282} 


RISE   OF  THE   HITTITES,   ETC.        281 

to  Paris,  where  they  were  promptly  declared  to  be  for- 
geries, 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  Akhena- 
ton,  "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  quan- 
tity 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 


282  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  state- 
ment 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  Amen- 
hotep'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 


RISE   OF   THE   HITTITES,   ETC.         283 

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-Koi.  Sweeping  through 
Cappadocia,  at  the  head  of  a  finely  organized  army,  re- 
markable 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  mur- 
dered by  Sutarna  II,  who  was  recognized  by  Subbi- 
luliuma.  The  crown  prince,  Mattiuza,  fled  to  Babylon, 

(0642)  21 


284  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  Akhen- 
aton, was,  like  the  Hittite  king,  Subbi-luliuma,  a  distin- 
guished 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  h^d  become  so  formid- 
able 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  plun- 
dered 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 


RISE   OF  THE   H1TTITES,  ETC.        285 

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."1 

Ashur-uballit's  grandson  extended  his  Babylonian 
frontier  into  Amurru,  where  he  dug  wells  and  erected 
forts  to  protect  traders.  The  Kassite  aristocracy,  how- 
ever, 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  excel- 
lent relations  with  his  kinsman  Kurigalzu  II,  but  ulti- 
mately 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  c<  from 

1  The  Tell-el-Amarna  Letters,  Hugo  Winckler,  p.  31. 


286  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

the  borders  of  Mitanni  as  far  as  Babylonia  ".  The  struggle 
of  the  future  was  to  be  for  the  possession  of  Mesopo- 
tamia, so  as  to  secure  control  over  the  trade  routes. 

Thus  Assyria  rose  from  a  petty  state  in  a  compara- 
tively 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  pro- 
tection 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 


287 


288  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  per- 
petuate 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.1  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  re- 
mained 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  educa- 
tion necessitated  by  the  centralization  of  business  in  the 

1  "It  maybe  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  Europt,  p.  1 6 1  (1912). 


ASTROLOGY  AND  ASTRONOMY        289 

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  them- 
selves greatly  regarding  the  exact  construction  and  mea- 
surements 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  astron- 
omers 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 


290  MYTHS   OF  BABYLONIA 

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  impor- 
tance 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, 


ASTROLOGY  AND   ASTRONOMY        291 

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".1 

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/'2  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  con- 
scious existence  survived  in  the  religion  of  the  Aryo- 
Indians.  In  the  Nala  story  of  the  Indian  epic,  the 
Mahdbhdrata,  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 


1  Census  of  India,  vol.  i,  part  i,  pp.  352 

2  Hibbert  Lectures,  Professor  Sayce,  p.  ; 


292  MYTHS   OF  BABYLONIA 

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.  .  .  .* 

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  moun- 
tains, trees,  or  wild  animals. 

jEsop'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.2 

1  The  Story  of  Nala,  Monier  Williams,  pp.  68-9  and  77. 

2  "  In  Ymer*8  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 


ASTROLOGY   AND   ASTRONOMY        293 

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."1 

A  tribal  totem  exercised  sway  over  a  tribal  district.  In 
Egypt,  as  Herodotus  recorded,  the  crocodile  was  wor- 
shipped in  one  district  and  hunted  down  in  another. 
Tribes  fought  against  tribes  when  totemic  animals  were 
slain.  The  Babylonian  and  Indian  myths  about  the  con- 
flicts 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  commemo- 
rated 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 

Ymer's  blood  (the  sea)  and  his  swarthy  limbs  (the  earth),"     The  Elder  Edda  (Voluspfi) 
stanza  9). 

1  The  Story  of  Nala,  Monier  Williams,  p.  67. 


MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  be- 
came 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  develop- 
ment, 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  howl- 
ing 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  indi- 
viduals. 

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 


ASTROLOGY   AND   ASTRONOMY        295 

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.1  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  Baby- 
lonian 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  ap- 
peared 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 

ian  Myth  and  Legend,  pp.  168  et  seq. 


296  MYTHS  OF  BABYLONIA 

the  Pleiades  were  the  ghosts  of  the  seven  daughters  of 
Adas  and  Pleione,  and  in  Australia  they  were  and  are 
a  queen  and  six  handmaidens.  In  these  countries,  as  else- 
where, stories  were  told  to  account  for  the  "lost  Pleiad ", 
a  fact  which  suggests  that  primitive  men  were  more  con- 
stant observers  of  the  heavenly  bodies  than  might  other- 
wise 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  co- 
incided 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  recog- 
nition 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 


ASTROLOGY  AND  ASTRONOMY        297 

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  Turn— he  died  each  day  as 
an  old  man;  he  appeared  in  heaven  at  night  as  the  con- 
stellation Orion,  which  was  his  ghost,  or  was>  perhaps, 
rather  the  Sumerian  Zi5  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  be- 

getteth  emanations, — 
The  day  when  offerings  upon  offerings  are  made  to  thy  spirit, 

which  causeth  the  gods  and  men  likewise  to  live.1 

This  extract  emphasizes  how  unsafe  it  is  to  confine 
certain  deities  within  narrow  limits  by  terming  them  simply 

1  The  Burden  of  Isis,  Dennis,  p.  24. 


298  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

"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  in- 
stance, might  be  addressed  at  once  in  the  singular  and 
plural,  perhaps  because  he  had  developed  from  an  ani- 
mistic group  of  spirits,  or,  perhaps,  for  reasons  we  cannot 
discover.  This  is  shown  clearly  by  the  following  pregnant 
extract  from  a-  Babylonian  tablet:  "Powerful,  0  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  con- 
nected that,  though  addressed  in  the  plural,  they  could 
in  the  same  sentence  be  regarded  as  forming  a  single 
personality".1 

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 

1  Babylonian  JMagtc  And  Sorcery^  p.  117. 


ASTROLOGY   AND   ASTRONOMY        299 

"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  associa- 
tions 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  con- 
fused with  the  monotheistic  identification  of  him  with 
other  gods.  Merodach  changed  his  forms  with  Ishtar, 
and  had  similarly  many  forms.  This  goddess,  for  in- 
stance, 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  sun- 
set and  a  male  at  sunrise"1 — 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  ivhich  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? 

Merodach,  like  Osiris-Sokar,  was  a  "lord  of  many 
existences",  and  likewise  "the  mysterious  one,  he  who 
is  unknown  to  mankind'*.3  It  was  impossible  for  the 
human  mind  "a  greater  than  itself  to  know". 

1  Babylonian  and  Assyrian  Religion^  T.  G.  Pinches,  p.  100. 
J  The  Burden  of  his,  J.  T.  Dennii,  p.  49.  8  /£///.,  p.  $2. 

( c  642  )  22 


300  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  Ham- 
murabi 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  identi- 
fied not  only  with  the  sun  but  also  with  Saturn,  Jupiter, 
and  Mars.1  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  astron- 
omers. Probably  they  were,  like  the  Aryo-Indians  of  the 
Vedic  period,  "not  very  accurate  observers ".2 

It  is  of  special  interest  to  i 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  com- 
panies of  seven  took  place,  for  references  are  made  to 

1  Religion  of  tht  Ancient  Egyptians,  A.  Wiedemann,  p.  30. 
3  Vtdtc  Index,  Macdoncll  &  Keith,  vol.  i,  pp.  4.23  et  set}. 


ASTROLOGY   AND   ASTRONOMY        301 

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  Adh  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  bi- 
sexual 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. 


302  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  posthu- 
mous 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.1 

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  ",2  Nebo's  original  character  is  obscure. 

1  Religion  of  the  Ancient  Babylonians,  Sayce,  p.  153,  n.  6. 

2  Religion  of  the  Ancient  Egyptians,  A.  Wiedemann,  p.  30. 


Photo.  Manscll 


THE    GOD    NINIP    AND    ANOTHER    DEITY 

Marble  slab  from  Kouyunjik  (Nineveh}:  now  in  the  British  Museum 


ASTROLOGY  AND   ASTRONOMY        303 

He  appears  to  have  beeji  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  Mero- 
dach, and  had  probably  much  in  common  with  Merodach. 
Indeed,  Merodach  was  also  identified  with  the  planet 
Mercury.  Like  the  Greek  Hermes,  Nebo  was  a  messen- 
ger 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  par- 
ticularly associated  with  him.  A  common  form  of  his  name 
designates  him  as  the  *god  of  the  stylus  Y'1  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.2  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,3  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  c  lord  of  the  great  habita- 
tion ',  which  would  be  a  parallel  to  that  of  his  spouse, 
Eresh-ki-gal".4  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 

1  Aspects  of  Religious  Belief  and  Practice  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  p.  95. 

2  Babylonian  and  Assyrian  Religion,  pp.  63  and  83. 

8  When  the  King  of  Assyria  transported  the  Babylonians,  &c.,  to  Samaria  "  the  men 
of  Cuth  made  Nergal ",  2  Ktngs,  xvii,  30. 
*  Babylonian  and  Assyrian  Religion,  p.  80. 


304  MYTHS  OF  BABYLONIA 

called  Herdesher,  "  the  Red  Hprus  ",  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  mem- 
bers of  an  organized  pantheon.  But  before  this  develop- 
ment took  place  certain  of  the  prominent  heavenly  bodies, 
perhaps  all  the  planets,  were  evidently  regarded  as  mani- 
festations of  one  deity,  the  primeval  Tammuz,  who  was 
a  form  of  Ea,  or  of  the  twin  deities  Ea  and  Anu.  Tam- 
muz 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 


ASTROLOGY   AND   ASTRONOMY        305 

in  Egypt,  "  husbands  of  their  mothers ".  This  idea 
was  perpetuated  in  the  Aryo-Indian  Laws  of  Manu,  in 
which  it  is  set  forth  that  <c  the  husband,  after  conception 
by  his  wife,  becomes  an  embryo  and  is  born  again  of 
her  ".*  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  constel- 
lation. 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 

1  Indian  Myth  and  Legend,  p»  1 3. 


306  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

several  stations ",  and  "also  created  their  images,  the 
stars  of  the  Zodiac,1  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  Baby- 
lonian 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  Mykense 
had  come  from  Lydia,  bringing  with  them  the  civiliza- 
tion 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  Mykense  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."* 

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.3  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'1.  The  middle 

1  Derived  from  the  Greek  z<?on,  an  animal. 

3  The  Hitnte$)  pp.  116,  119,  120,  272. 

*  u  The  sun  ...  is  as  a  bridegroom  coming  out  of  his  chamber,  and  rejoiceth  as  a 
strong  man  to  run  a  race."  (Psalnt  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  Jndra  and  Agni  were  the 
winners.  The  tun  was  "of  the  nature  of  Agni".  Indian  Myth  and  Legend^  pp.  14, 
36,  37- 


:  SYMBOLS    OF    DEITIES   AS   ASTRONOMICAL    SIGNS 

Sculptured  on  a  stone  recording  privileges  granted  to 
Ritti-Marduk  by  Nebuchadnezzar  I 

(British  Museum] 


ASTROLOGY   AND   ASTRONOMY        307 

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  Ramy  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'ring1  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  them- 
selves "kings  of  the  four  quarters",  the  reference  was  to 
the  countries  associated  with  the  three  divine  fields  and 
to  Gutium2  (east  =  our  north-east).  Was  Gutium  asso- 
ciated with  demons,  as  in  Scandinavia  the  north-east  was 
associated  with  the  giants  against  whom  Thor  waged  war  ? 

The  Babylonian  Creation  myth  states  that  Merodach, 
having  fixed  the  stars  of  the  Zodiac,  made  three  stars  for 

1  Or  golden, 

3  The  later  reference  is  to  Assyria.     There  was  no  Assyrian  kingdom  when  these 
early  beliefs  were  developed. 


3o8 


MYTHS  OF  BABYLONIA 


Constellations. 


Aries  (the  Ram). 


Taurus  (the  Bull). 


Gemini     (the 
Twins). 


Cancer  (the  Crab). 
Leo  (the  Lion). 
Virgo  (the  Virgin). 


Libra     (the     Bal- 
ance). 

Scorpio  (the  Scor- 
pion). 


Sagittarius       (the 
Archer). 

Capricornus     (the 
Goat) 

Aquarius      (the 
Water  Carrier). 

Pisces  (the  Fishes). 


Date  of  Sun's  Entry 

(Babylonian 
Month  in  brackets). 


2oth  March 


(Nisan 

=•  March-April). 

zoth  April 
(lyyar  =  April-May). 

2ist  May 
(Si  van  =  May-June). 


2ist  June 
(Tain  muz  =  June-July). 

22nd  July 
(Ab  =  July-August) 

23rd  August 
(Elul  =  August-Sept ) 

2 3rd  September 
(Tisri  =  Sept.-Oct ). 

23rd  October 
(Marcheswan 

=  Oct.-Nov.). 

22nd  November 
(Chisleu  =  Nov.-Dcc.) 

2ist  December 
(Tebet  =  Dec.-Jan.). 

1 9th  January 
(Sebat  =  Jan. -Feb.). 

i 8th  February 
(Adar  =  Feb.-March). 


Babylonian  Equivalent. 


The  Labourer  or  Messenger. 

A  divine  figure  and  the 
"  bull  of  heaven  ". 

The  Faithful  Shepherd  and 
Twins  side  by  side,  or  head 
to  head  and  feet  to  feet. 

Crab  or  Scorpion. 
The  big  dog  (Lion). 


Ishtar,    the   Virgin's   ear   of 
corn. 

The  Balance. 


Scorpion  of  darkness. 


Man  or  man-horse  with  bow, 
or  an  arrow  symbol. 

Ea's  goat-fish. 


God  with  water  urn. 


Fish  tails  in  canal. 


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 


ASTROLOGY   AND   ASTRONOMY        309 

to,  viz.:  (i)  the  central  or  zodiacal  constellations,  (2)  the 
northern  constellations,  and  (3)  the  southern  constella- 
tions. 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  r6sum£  of  Babylonian  astronomico-astrology, 
in  this  connection.  He  said  that  "  the  five  planets  were 
called  c  Interpreters';  and  in  subjection  to  these  were  mar- 
shalled c Thirty  Stars',  which  were  styled  c 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."1  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  char- 
acters 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. 

1  Primitive  Constellations,  R.  Brown,  jun.,  vol.  ii,  p.  I  *t  uq. 


310  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

Of  special  interest  among  the  many  problems  pre- 
sented 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  u  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 
1 20  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 


ASTROLOGY  AND   ASTRONOMY        311 

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;1  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  i  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 


1  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 
ringer  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. 


312  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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.1  "Lunar  chronology ",  wrote  Professor 
Max  M tiller,  "  seems  everywhere  to  have  preceded  solar 
chronology."2  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);  60  x  10  gave  him  600  (ner),  and  600  x  6,  3600 
(sar),  while  3600  x  10  gave  him  36,000,  and  36,000  x  12, 
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 
6  x  10  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 

1  Primitive  Constellations,  R.  Brown,  jun.,  vol.  ii,  p.  61 ;  and  Early  History  of  JSort/iern 
India^  J,  F.  Hewitt,  pp.  551-2.  *  Ri^ueda-Samhita^  vol.  iv  (1892),  p.  67. 


ASTROLOGY   AND   ASTRONOMY        313 

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  calcu- 
lations. During  the  Vedic  period  "Yuga"  usually 
signified  a  "generation",  and  there  are  no  certain  refer- 
ences to  the  four  Ages  as  such.  The  names  "Kali", 
"Dvapara",  "Treta",  and  "Krita"  "occur  as  the 
designations  of  throws  of  dice".1  It  was  after  the  arrival 
of  the  "  late  comers ",  the  post-Vedic  Aryans,  that  the 
Yuga  system  was  developed  in  India.2 

In  Indian  Myth  and  Legend*  it  is  shown  that  the  Indian 
and  Irish  Ages  have  the  same  colour  sequence:  (i)  White 
or  Silvern,  (2)  Red  or  Bronze,  (3)  Yellow  or  Golden,  and 
(4)  Black  or  Iron.  The  Greek  order  is:  (i)  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  corre- 
sponding "with  the  distances  separating  certain  of  the 
principal  stars  in  or  near  the  ecliptic"/  it  seems  highly 

1  Vtdic  Index,  Macdoneil  &  Keith,  vol.  ii,  pp.  192  et  seq. 
*  Indian  Myth  and  Legend.  3  Pp.  107  et  seq* 

4  Primitive  Constellations,  R.  Brown,  jvm.,  vol.  i,  i.  333.     A  table  is  given  showing 
how  1 20  saroi  equals  360  degrees,  each  king  being  identified  with  a  star. 


MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

probable  that  the  planets  were  similarly  connected  with 
mythical  ages  which  were  equated  with  the  cc  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.1  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. 

*  **  Behold,  his  majesty  the  god  Ra  is  grown  old  ;  his  bones  are  become  silver,  his 
limbs  #old,  and  his  hair  pure  lapis  lazuli."  Religion  of  the  Ancient  Egyptians^  A.  Wiede- 
mann,  p.  58.  Ra  became  a  destroyer  after  completing  his  reign  as  an  earthly  king. 


ASTROLOGY   AND   ASTRONOMY        315 

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 

(0642)  23 


316  MYTHS  OF  BABYLONIA 

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 


ASTROLOGY   AND   ASTRONOMY        317 

"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  man- 
kind. 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.1  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,"2 
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."3  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, 

» 

1  As  Nin-Girsu,  Tammuz  was  associated  with  "sevenfold"  Oiion. 

3  Babylonian  and  Assyrian  Life,  pp.  61,  62. 

'Herodotus  (ii,  52)  as  quoted  in  Egypt  and  Scythia  (London,  1886),  p.  49. 


318  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

which  might  appear  as  beasts  or  birds,  or  be  heard  knock- 
ing 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  com- 
mand mankind  was  named  (created) !  Give  thou  the 
Word,  and  with  thee  let  the  great  gods  stand!  Give 
thou  my  judgment,  make  my  decision ! " l 

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  Baby- 
lonian 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  ".2  "  Nakshatras  "  are  stars  in  the 
Rigveda  and  later,  and  "lunar  mansions"  in  Brahmanical 
compositions.3  "  Rohini,  (  ruddy  ',  is  the  name  of  a  con- 
spicuously reddish  star,  a  Tauri  or  Aldebaran,  and  denotes 
the  group  of  the  Hyades."4  This  reference  may  be  dated 
before  600  B.C.,  perhaps  800  B.C. 

From  Greece  comes  the  evidence  of  Plutarch  regard- 
ing 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  com- 

1  Babylonian  Magic  and  Sorcery,  L.  W.  King  (London,  1896),  pp.  43  and  115. 

3  Vedic  Index,  Macdonell  &  Keith,  vol.  ii,  p.  229. 

*  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  pp.  409,  416.  4  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  p.  415. 


ASTROLOGY  AND   ASTRONOMY        319 

ments,   "an  astrologer  would  say,  these  three  are  pro- 
pitious with  the  good,  and  may  be  malign  with  the  bad."1 

Jastrow's  views  in  this  connection  seem  highly  con- 
troversial. 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,  a  the  Greeks  had  begun 
to  cultivate  the  study  of  the  heavens,  not  for  purposes  of 
divination,  but  prompted  by  a  scientific  spirit  as  an  intel- 
lectual 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  bor- 
rowers from  other  civilizations.  That  astronomy  had 
humble  beginnings  in  Greece  as  elsewhere  is  highly  pro- 
bable. The  late  Mr.  Andrew  Lang  wrote  in  this  con- 
nection :  "  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  :  c  Is  not  the  story  true,  then,  that  we  be- 
come 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, 

1  Primitive  Constellations,  vol.  i,  p.  343. 


320  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

Germans,  New  Zealanders,  and  others  had  a  similar 
superstition.1 

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  medi- 
cine and  other  sciences,  and  the  credit  of  having  dis- 
covered 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."2  Un- 
doubtedly 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,  "  /'/  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  eclip- 
tic." 3  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  dis- 
coveries 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 

1  Custom  and  Myth,  pp.  133  et  $eq. 

2  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  Astronomic  (Hinrichs,   Leipzig,    1908),  pp.  47  et  seq. 

3  Aspects  of  Religious  Belief  and  Practice  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  pp.  207  et  seq. 


ASTROLOGY   AND   ASTRONOMY        321 

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  de- 
termine the  bearing  of  their  movements  upon  human 
destinies/'1 

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  Baby- 
lon 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,  Bor- 
sippa,  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, 

1  A  History  of  the  Babylonians  and  Assyrians,  p.  93. 


322  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

near  Sippara  ;  one  at  Nippur,  now  Niffer  ;  and  one  at  Bor- 
sippa,  within  sight  of  Babylon.  As  Borsippa  possessed 
a  university,  it  was  natural  that  one  of  the  three  observa- 
tories should  be  established  there."1 

It  is  evident  that  before  the  astronomers  at  Nineveh 
could  foretell  eclipses,  they  had  achieved  considerable 
progress  as  scientists.  The  data  at  their  disposal  prob- 
ably covered  nearly  two  thousand  years.  Mr.  Brown, 
junior,  calculates  that  the  signs  of  the  Zodiac  were  fixed 
in  the  year  2084  B.C.2  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  constella- 
tions were  named  by  the  Babylonians.  It  is  by  calculat- 
ing 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  2Oth,  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 

1  Babylonians  and  Assyrian*;  Life  and  Customs,  pp.  219,  220. 
8  Primitive  Constellations,  vol.  ii,  pp,  147  et  sey. 


ASTROLOGY  AND  ASTRONOMY        323 

days  each,1  and  equated  with  the  solar  year  by  inter- 
calating 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."2 

The  sundial  of  Ahaz  was  probably  of  Babylonian 
design.  When  the  shadow  went  "ten  degrees  back- 
ward "  (2  KingSy  xx,  11)  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  nth  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  observa- 
tions 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 

1  The  Aryo-Indians  had  a  lunar  year  of  360  days  (Fedic  Index%  ii,  158). 

2  A  History  of  the  Babylonians  and  Assyrians,  p.  94. 


324  MYTHS  OF  BABYLONIA 

the  moon  was  dim  at  the  particular  phase  which  was  con- 
nected 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  mis- 
fortune. 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: 


ASTROLOGY  AND  ASTRONOMY        325 

In  my  stars  I  am  above  thee ;  but  be  not  afraid  of  greatness : 
some  are  born  great,  some  achieve  greatness,  and  some  have  great- 
ness thrust  upon  'em.  Thy  Fates  open  their  hands.  .  .  .* 

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.  .  .  .2 

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. 

1  Twelfth  Night)  act  ii,  scene  5.  2  Chtldt  Harold,  canto  iii,  v,  88. 


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 — EzekiePs  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  Solai  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  conse- 
quently 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. 


THE  NATIONAL  GOD   OF  ASSYRIA     327 

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  Arm  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  manifesta- 
tions 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.  <c  Out  of  that 
land  (Shinar)",  according  to  the  Biblical  reference,  "went 
forth  Asshur,  and  builded  Nineveh/'1  Asshur,  or  Ashur 
(identical,  Delitzsch  and  Jastrow  believe,  with  Ashir),2  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, 

1  Genesis,  x,  1 1 . 

2  "  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.  iz-ij. 


328  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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,1  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"2  (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  mani- 
festations 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, 

1  Sumcrian  Ziku,  apparently  derived  from  Zi,  the  spiritual  essence  of  life,  the  "self 
power  "  of  the  Universe.  2  Pen  Archon,  cxxv. 


THE   NATIONAL  GOD   OF  ASSYRIA     329 

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  Pyra- 
mid 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."1 

Before  a  single  act  of  creation  was  conceived  of,  how- 
ever, 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 

1  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria^  p.  197  tt  seq. 


330  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

Babylonia  and  India,  and  the  vulture,  falcon,  and  myste- 
rious 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.1 

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  ", 

1  Julius  Owr,  act  iii,  scene  I. 


THE   NATIONAL  GOD   OF  ASSYRIA     331 

or  "  Shar  the  most  high  ".  It  seemed  to  be  situated  at 
the  summit  of  the  vault  of  heaven.  The  god  Shar,  there- 
fore, 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."1  The  king  is  iden- 
tified with  Lucifer  as  the  deity  of  fire  and  the  morning 
star ;  he  is  the  younger  god  who  aspired  to  occupy  the 

1  Isaiah^  xiv,  4-14. 
(C642)  24 


332  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  ",*  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";2  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".3  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  Moun- 
tain ",  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,  de- 
rived 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  ".*  Ursa  Minor  (the  "Little  Bear" 
constellation)  may  have  been  <c  the  goat  with  six  heads  ", 

1  Eddubrott,  ii.  2  Religion  of  the  Ancient  Egyptians,  A.  Wiedemann,  pp.  289-90. 

3  Ibid.)  p.  236.     Atlas  was  also  believed  to  be  in  the  west. 

4  Primitive  Contteltations,  vol.  ii,  p.  184. 


THE   NATIONAL  GOD  OF  ASSYRIA    333 

referred  to  by  Professor  Sayce.1  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  ".2  In  other  words,  there  would  be  no 
people  left  to  perform  religious  dances  beside  the  "  deso- 
late 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  Su- 
merian  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  Mero- 
dach.  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 

1  Cuneiform  Inscriptions  of  Western  Asia,  xxx,  1 1 . 

8  Isaiah,  xiii,  21.     For  "Satyrs"  the  Revised  Version  gives  the  alternative  transla- 
tion, "  or  he-goats  ". 


334  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

Teutonic  fertility  and  thunder  god,  had  a  chariot  drawn 
by  goats.  It  is  of  interest  to  note  that  the  sacred  Su- 
merian  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  mountain1'. 
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  (i)  a 
winged  disc  with  horns,  enclosing  four  circles  revolving 
round  a  middle  circle;  rippling  rays  fall  down  from  either 


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THE   NATIONAL  GOD   OF  ASSYRIA     335 

side  of  the  disc ;  (2)  a  circle  or  wheel,  suspended  from 
wings,  and  enclosing  a  warrior  drawing  his  bow  to  dis- 
charge 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  'V 

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 

1  Aspects  of  Religious  Belief  and  Practice  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  p.  120,  plate  18 
and  note. 


336  MYTHS   OF  BABYLONIA 

away,  c  he  has  been  cut  off  (his  life  or  life  string  has  been 
severed)  V1  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  destruc- 
tion and  battle,  as  well  as  of  light  and  fertility.  Horus 
assumed  that  form  in  one  legend  to  destroy  Set  and  his 
followers.2  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  a  double  vision  ". 

What  seems  certain,  however,  is  that  the  archer  was 
as  truly  solar  as  the  "wings"  or  "rays".  In  Babylonia 
and  Assyria  Hie  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.3  In  the  Greek 
Hipparcho-Ptolemy  star  list  Hercules  was  the  constella- 
tion of  the  "  Kneeler ",  and  in  Babylonian -Assyrian 
astronomy  he  was  (as  Gilgamesh  or  Merodach)  "  Sarru  ", 
"  the  king  " .  The  astral  "  Arrow  "  (constellation  of  Sagitta) 

1  Satapatha  Brahmana,  translated  b/  Professor  Eggeling,  part  iv,  1897,  p.  371.    (Sacred 
Books  of  the  East.} 

3  Egyptian  MLyth  and  Legend^  pp.  165  et  seq. 

8  Clastic  Myth  and  Legend,  p.  105.     The  birds  were  called  "  Stymphalides ". 


THE   NATIONAL  GOD   OF  ASSYRIA     337 

was  pointed  against  the  constellations  of  the  "  Eagle ", 
"  Vulture  ",  and  "  Swan  ".  In  Phoenician  astronomy  the 
Vulture  was  "Zither*'  (Lyra),  a  weapon  with  which  Her- 
cules (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.1  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  dif- 
fered 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 

1  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  wae  a  deity  of 
war  because  she  was  a  deity  of  fertility. 


338  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  char- 
acter 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  intro- 
duced by  missionaries.  In  the  homeland  it  was  sub- 
merged by  the  revival  of  Brahmanism,  from  which  it 
sprung,  and  which  it  was  intended  permanently  to  dis- 
place. 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  em- 
braced and  established  as  a  national  religion  by  Akhenaton, 
the  so-called  "  dreamer ".  That  migrations  were  some- 
times 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  them- 
selves 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.1 

It  may  be,  therefore,  that  the  cult  of  Ashur  was  in- 
fluenced 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 

1  y*dic  Index)  Macdonell  &  Keith,  vol.  ii,  pp.  125-6,  and  vol.  i,  168-9. 


THE   NATIONAL  GOD   OF  ASSYRIA     339 

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/'1 

Asshur,  the  ancient  capital,  was  famous  for  its  mer- 
chants. It  is  referred  to  in  the  Bible  as  one  of  the  cities 
which  traded  with  Tyre  "  in  all  sorts  of  things,  in  blue 

1  Exckiel,  xxxi,  3-8. 


340  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

clothes,  and  broidered  work,  and  in  chests  of  rich  apparel, 
bound  with  cords,  and  made  of  cedar".1 

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."2  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."3 

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  com- 
merce ;  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 

1  Evekiely  xxvii,  23,  24.  2  hauih,  xxxvii,  u.  3  Ibid.,  x,  5,  6. 


w 
w 


Q 

S  2 

u    -5 


§ 
S 

w 
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2 
3 

w 


s 


w 
o 


THE   NATIONAL  GOD   OF  ASSYRIA     341 

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  Baby- 
lonian mythology,  as  has  been  indicated.  When,  there- 
fore, 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  con- 
sideration 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  described1  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  over- 

1  A  winged  human  figure,  carrying  in  one  hand  a  basket  and  in  another  a  fir  cone. 


342  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

throw  of  their  Empire.  .  .  .  The  flowers  were  formed  by 
seven  petals/'1 

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  <c  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".2 

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 

1  Layard'f  Nmruth  (1856),  p.  44,  2  Ibld^  p.  309. 


THE   NATIONAL  GOD   OF  ASSYRIA     343 

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  ?  metal  basket  on  which  two 
winged  men  adored  the  holy  tree,  and  in  the  other  a  fir 
cone.1 

Layard  suggested  that  the  latter  deity,  with  eagle's 
head,  was  Nisroch,  "the  word  Nisr  signifying,  in  all 
Semitic  languages,  an  eagle".2  This  deity  is  referred  to 
in  the  Bible :  "  Sennacherib,  king  of  Assyria,  .  .  .  was 
worshipping  in  the  house  of  Nisroch,  his  god".3  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  prob- 
ability ridiculous  as  well.  .  .  .  Pious  and  orthodox  lips 
could  pronounce  them  without  fear  of  defilement."*  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.  Abcd-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 

JThe  fir  cone  was  offered  to  Attis  and  Mithra.  It*  association  with  Ashur  suggests 
that  the  great  Assyrian  deity  resembled  the  gods  of  corn  and  trees  and  fertility. 

3  Nineveh^  p.  47.  *  Isaiah^  xxxvii,  37-8. 

*  The  Old  Testament  in  the  Light  of  the  Historical  Records  and  Legends  of  Assyria  and 
Babylonia^  pp.  129-30. 


344  MYTHS  OF   BABYLONIA 

rays,  seems  rather  far-fetched,  because  eclipses  were  dis- 
asters and  indications  of  divine  wrath;1  it  certainly  does 
not  explain  why  the  "rays"  should  only  stretch  out  side- 
ways, 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  sym- 
bolism. 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."2 

Elsewhere,  referring  to  the  sisters,  Aholah  and  Aholibah, 
who  had  been  in  Egypt  and  had  adopted  unmoral  ways  of 

1  An  eclipse  of  the  sun  in  Assyria  on  June  15,  763  B.C.,  was  followed  by  an  out- 
break of  civil  war.  2  Ezekiel,  i,  4-14. 


Photo.  Manscll 


EAGLE-HEADED    WINGED    DEITY    (ASHUR) 

Marble  Slab>  British  Afuseum 


THE   NATIONAL  GOD   OF  ASSYRIA     345 

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  ".*  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?  .  .  .  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.  .  .  ."8 

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 

1  Exekiel,  xxiii,  1-15. 

3  As  the  soul  of  the  Egyptian  god  was  in  the  sun  disk  or  sun  egg. 
i,  15-28. 


346  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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."  l 

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  Mahdbhdrata,  the  revolving  ring 
or  wheel  protects  the  Soma2  (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 

*  Evtkiel,  x,  11-5.  8  Also  called  "  Amrit*  ". 


THE   NATIONAL  GOD   OF  ASSYRIA     347 

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  Y'1 

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 

1  The  Mah&bh&rata  ^Adi  Parva),  Sections  xxxiii~iv. 
(0642)  25 


348  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  cin  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-Keui1, 
in  which  there  may  be  reasonably  suspected  the  surviving 
traces  of  mountain  cults,  or  cults  of  mountain  deities, 
underlying  thd*"  newer  religious  symbolism  ".  Who  the 
deity  is  it  is  impossible  to  say,  but  "  he  was  identified  at 
some  time  or  other  with  Sandes".2  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",8  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.4 

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 

1  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-baz'  Kay-ee",  a  slight  "oo"  sound  being  given  to  the  "a"  in  "Kay"; 
the  "  z  "  sound  is  hard  and  hissing. 

2  The  Land  of  the  Hittites,  J.  Garstang,  pp.  178  et  teq. 

$  Ibid,)  p.  173.  4/f dgnii)  Atfjst  Osiris,  chaps,  v  and  vi, 


THE   NATIONAL  GOD   OF  ASSYRIA     349 

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  u  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.1 

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".2  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  Chris- 
tians were  wont  to  set  apart  in  the  Syrian  calendar  the 

1  Daniel,  iii,  i-z6. 

2  The  story  that  Abraham  hung  an  axe  round  the  neck  of  Baal  after  destroying  the 
other  idols  is  of  Jewish  origin. 


350  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

25th  of  January  to  commemorate  Abraham's  escape  from 
NimrocPs  pyre.1 

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."2  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,  con- 
cubines, 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"3.  Saul,  another  fallen  king, 
was  burned  after  death,  and  his  bones  were  buried  "under 
the  oak  in  Jabesh".4  In  Europe  the  oak  was  associated 
with  gods  of  fertility  and  lightning,  including  Jupiter  and 
Thor.  The  ceremony  of  burning  Saul  is  of  special  in- 
terest. 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^ 

1  The  Koran,  George  Sale,  pp.  245-  6. 

2  Isaiah,  xxx,  31-3.     See  also  for  Tophet  customs  2  Kings,  xxiii,  10;  Jeremiah,  vii, 
31,  32  and  xix,  5-12.  8/  Kings,  xvi,  18. 

47  Samuel,  xxxi,  12,  13  and  /  Chronicles,  x,  n,  12. 


THE   NATIONAL  GOD   OF  ASSYRIA     351 

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, 
1 8,  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  spiri- 
tual 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. 


352  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  com- 
posed 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, 


THE   NATIONAL  GOD   OF  ASSYRIA     353 

but  his  symbols  were  carried  aloft,  as  were  the  symbols 
of  Indian  gods  in  the  great  war  of  the  Mahdbhdrata 
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,  cthe 
great  and  noble  Asnapper': 

"  When  the  father  of  my  king  my  lord  went  to  Egypt,  he  was 
crowned  (?)  in  the  gannl  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)."1 

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  in- 
voked 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 

1  The  Old  Testament  in  the  Light  of  the  Historical  Records  and  Legends  of  Assyria  and 
Babylonia,  pp.  201-2. 


354  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

Pinches  adds  that  in  one  inscription  "he  is  identified 
with  Nirig  or  En-reshtu  "  (Nin-Girsu  =  Tammuz).1  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."  2  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  deities1  names."3  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  vegeta- 
tion. 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, 

1  Babylonian  and  Assyrian  Religion,  pp.  57-8. 

2  Aspects  of  Religious  Belief  and  Practice  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  p.  121. 
8  Babylonian  and  Assy  nan  Religion,  p.  86. 


THE   NATIONAL  GOD   OF  ASSYRIA     355 

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,  cc  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  per- 
haps 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.  An- 
other possible  source  of  cultural  influence  is  Persia.  The 
supreme  god  Ahura-Mazda  (Ormuzd)  was,  as  has  been  in- 
dicated, 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  Baby- 
lonia 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  construc- 
tion of  a  great  dam  to  control  the  distribution  of  the 
waters  of  the  Euphrates,  and,  if  it  is  energetically  pro- 
moted 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  Baby- 
lonian culture. 

With  the  revival  of  agriculture  will  come  the  revival 
of  commerce.  Ancient  trade  routes  will  then  be  re- 
opened, and  the  slow-travelling  caravans  supplanted  by 

356 


CONFLICTS   FOR   TRADE  357 

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.1  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  Meso- 
potamia, 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 


1  At  Carchemish  a  railway  bridge  spans  the  mile-wide  river  ferry  which  Assyria'* 
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. 


358  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

politics  is  being  strongly  influenced  by  the  problems  con- 
nected 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  promi- 
nence. It  began  to  be  a  great  Power  when  Egypt  was 
supreme  in  the  "Western  Land"  (the  land  of  the  Amor- 
ites)  as  far  north  as  the  frontiers  of  Cappadocia.  Under 
the  Kassite  regime  Babylonia's  political  influence  had  de- 
clined 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  posses- 
sions of  Egypt  were  easily  held  in  control,  and  the  Egyp- 
tian merchants  enjoyed  preferential  treatment  compared 
with  those  of  Babylonia.  But  when  Mitanni  was  over- 
come, and  its  territories  were  divided  between  the  Assy- 
rians 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 


CONFLICTS   FOR   TRADE  359 

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  Mediter- 
ranean 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  plunder- 
ing 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  pro- 
gress 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 


360  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  populous1'.1 

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  Mesopo- 
tamia, and  opening  up  a  new  and  direct  caravan  road  to 
Egypt  across  the  Arabian  desert.  The  monarch  in  ques- 
tion 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  prob- 
ably on  account  of  his  pronounced  pro-Assyrian  ten- 
dencies that  the  Kassites  murdered  Kadashman-Kharbe, 

1  Deuteronomy^  xxvi,  5, 


CONFLICTS   FOR  TRADE  361 

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  oppor- 
tunity 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  Servians  com- 
merce 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  prob- 
lems 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 


362  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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'tash1,  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  1  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 

*  Pr.  «  as  oo, 


CONFLICTS   FOR   TRADE  363 

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  his- 
tory 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  colon- 
ized by  the  Hittites.1  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 

1  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. 
(0642)  26 


364  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  pros- 
perous. 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  Koi,  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  regard- 
ing 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  dis- 
turbed 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 


CONFLICTS   FOR   TRADE  365 

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  sud- 
denly 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  terri- 
tories which  had  acknowledged  the  suzerainty  of  Egypt 
during  the  Eighteenth  Dynasty.  Subsequently  he  was 


366  MYTHS   OF  BABYLONIA 

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  his- 
torians. No  reference,  for  instance,  is  made  to  the  boun- 
daries 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,  how- 
ever, is  thrown  on  the  purport  of  the  treaty  by  a  tablet 
letter  which  has  been  discovered  by  Professor  Hugo 
Winckler  at  Boghaz  Kfti.  It  is  a  copy  of  a  communi- 
cation 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  1  have  made  an  alliance,  and  made  our- 
selves brothers.  Brothers  we  are  and  will  [unite  against] 
a  common  foe,  and  with  friends  in  common." l  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  com- 
mon 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  influ- 

1  Garstang's  The  Land  of  the  Hittite^  p.  349. 


CONFLICTS   FOR  TRADE  367 

ence  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  Baby- 
lonian 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 
Kfti  tablets  several  letters  from  the  king  of  Babylon,  who 
made  complaints  regarding  robberies  committed  by  Amor- 
itic  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. 


368  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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,  bring- 
ing 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  Koi 
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  Baby- 
lonia invaded  Assyria  with  purpose  to  cripple  his  rival. 
At  any  rate  war  broke  out  between  the  two  countries,  and 
Tukulti-Nmip  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  de- 
molished, 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  suscepti- 
bilities by  showing  preference  for  Babylonia,  and  founding 


CONFLICTS   FOR  TRADE  369 

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-Ninip1. 

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, 

1 "  Burgh  of  Tukulti-Ninip." 


370  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

Perhaps  he  was  an  ally  of  Adad-shum-utsur,  the  Baby- 
lonian 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. 


CONFLICTS   FOR  TRADE  371 

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  in- 
scriptions. 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 


372  MYTHS   OF  BABYLONIA 

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  con- 
stituted the  basis  of  national  and  commercial  prosperity. 

It  is  evident  that  great  wealth  accumulated  in  Kar- 
duniash  during  the  Kassite  period.  When  the  images  of 
Merodach  and  Zerpanitu01  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  price- 
less 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.  Baby- 


CONFLICTS   FOR  TRADE  373 

Ionia,  on  the  other  hand,  could  have  flourished  in  com- 
parative 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  geo- 
graphical formation  to  the  southern  plain,  and  therefore 
less  suitable  for  the  birth  and  growth  of  a  great  inde- 
pendent 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  pro- 
minence 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 


374  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  mili- 
tary 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  Baby- 
lonians 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 


CONFLICTS  FOR   TRADE  375 

their  soldiers  and  maintain  the  priesthood ;  they  were 
faced  with  national  bankruptcy  when  their  vassals  success- 
fully revolted  against  them. 

The  history  of  Assyria  as  a  world  power  is  divided 
into  three  periods:  (i)  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  conserv- 
ing his  revenues,  to  command  sufficient  capital  with  pur- 
pose 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  adop- 
tion of  a  military  career  by  native  Assyrians,  who  officered 
the  troops,  and  these  troops  had  to  be  trained  and  dis- 
ciplined 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 — Philis- 
tines 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  dis- 
placement 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 

876 


RACE   MOVEMENTS  377 

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  exer- 
cise 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  ulti- 
mately submerged  the  whole  of  Syria  and  part  of  Meso- 
potamia. 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  Mesopo- 
tamia 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  Ara- 
maean invasion,  the  last  wave  of  Achaeans,  "  the  tamers  of 
horses"  and  "shepherds  of  the  people1',  had  achieved  the 
conquest  of  Greece,  and  contributed  to  the  overthrow  of 
the  dynasty  of  King  Minos  of  Crete.  Professor  Ridge- 
way  identifies  this  stock,  which  had  been  filtering  south- 
ward for  several  centuries,  with  the  tall,  fair-haired,  and 
grey-eyed  "Keltoi"  (Celts),1  who,  Dr.  Haddon  believes, 
were  representatives  of  "  the  mixed  peoples  of  northern 
and  Alpine  descent".2  Mr.  Hawes,  following  Professor 
Sergi,  holds,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the  Achaeans  were 

1  Article  u  Celts  "  in  Encydopadia  Britannica^  eleventh  ed. 
8  Tke  Wanderings  of  Peoples,  p.  41. 


378  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

"fair  in  comparison  with  the  native  (Pelasgian- Mediter- 
ranean) stock,  but  not  necessarily  blonde".1  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  con- 
federacy was  broken  up  by  the  migrating  Europeans,  and 
their  dominant  tribe,  the  Muski2 — the  Moschoi  of  the 
Greeks  and  the  Meshech  of  the  Old  Testament — came 
into  conflict  with  the  Assyrians.  The  Muski  were  fore- 
runners 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 

1  Crete,  th€  Forfrunner  of  Greece^  p.  146.  a  Pr,  Moosh'kcc, 


RACE   MOVEMENTS  379 

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  Egyp- 
tian 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.1  When  the 
prestige  of  Egypt  suffered  decline  they  overran  the  coast- 
line of  Canaan,  and  that  country  was  then  called  Palestine, 
"the  land  of  the  Philistines",  while  the  Egyptian  over- 
land 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  occu- 
pied the  soil  of  Palestine,  at  least  until  the  time  when  the 
influence  of  classical  Greece  asserted  itself  too  strongly 

1 "  Have  I  not  brought  up  Israel  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt  and  the  Philistines  from 
Caphtor  (Crete)?"  Amos,  viii,  7. 

( c  642 )  27 


380  MYTHS  OF   BABYLONIA 

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'."1 

When  the  Kassite  Dynasty  of  Babylonia  was  extin- 
guished, about  1 140  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  begin- 
ning 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  plun- 
dering them. 

A  new  dynasty — the  Dynasty  of  Pashe — had  arisen  at 
the  ancient  Sumerian  city  of  Ism.  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  recon- 
quering 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 

1  A  Hiitory  of  CrviliiHition  in  Palestine,  p.  58. 


RACE   MOVEMENTS  381 

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  com- 
panion, was  restored   to   his  family  possessions  and  ex- 
empted 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  them- 
selves 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  north- 
ward 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. 


382  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  1,  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  trans- 
ferred 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 


RACE   MOVEMENTS  383 

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.  There- 
after 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.  There- 
after 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 


384  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  Car- 
chemish,  which  he  pillaged.  Thereafter  his  army  crossed 
the  Euphrates  in  boats  of  skin,  and  plundered  and  de- 
stroyed 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."1  He  also  claimed  to  have  slain  920 
lions,  as  well  as  a  nujnber  of  wild  oxen,  apparently  includ- 
ing 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 
Mesopotamia!!  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 

1  Pinches'  translation. 


O 

J 

O 


p 

X 

O 

2 


RACE   MOVEMENTS  385 

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  pro- 
tected 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  Ara- 
maeans, 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  Assy- 
rian 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  there- 
after 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 


386  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  inde- 
pendence 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  emer- 
ging 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  dis- 
placing the  older  inhabitants  of  the  "  Promised  Land  ", 


RACE    MOVEMENTS  387 

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".1  "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  em- 
bodiment 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  tra- 
ditions 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."2 

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, 

1  /  Samuel,  xiii,  19.  2  A  History  of  Civilization  in  Palestine,  p.  54. 


388  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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",1  and  from  whom  he 
received  the  city  of  Gezer,  which  an  Egyptian  army  had 
captured.2  Solomon  had  previously  married  a  daughter 
of  Sheshonk's. 

Phoenicia  was  also  flourishing.  Freed  from  Egyptian, 
Hittite,  and  Assyrian  interference.  Tyre  and  Sidon  at- 
tained 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,  Abi- 
baal  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  knowgst  how  that  David  my  father  could 
not  build  an  house  unto  the  narrfe  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 

li  Kings,  iii,  i.  2  Ibid.,  ix,  16. 


O     "£ 

h  fi 


si 


1 


RACE   MOVEMENTS  389 

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  dischaiged  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.1 

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".2 

Solomon  must  have  cultivated  good  relations  with  the 
Chaldseans,  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."3  Apparently  he  traded  with  India, 
the  land  of  peacocks,  during  the  Brahmanical  period,  when 

1  /  /v/wjjj,  v,  1-12.  2  Ibid.,  vii,  14  ft  scq,  3  Ibid,,  x,  22-3. 


390  MYTHS   OF  BABYLONIA 

the  Sanskrit  name  "Samudra",  which  formerly  signified 
the  "collected  waters"  of  the  broadening  Indus,  was 
applied  to  the  Indian  Ocean.1 

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  acquir- 
ing 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  promi- 
nence 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 

1  Indian  Myth  and  Legend,  pp.  83-4. 


RACE   MOVEMENTS  391 

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,  Baby- 
lonia was  broken  up  into  a  number  of  petty  States,  as  in 
early  Sumerian  times.  The  feudal  revival  of  Nebuchad- 
rezzar 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  indepen- 
dence, 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  Chal- 
daeans 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  re- 
established 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 


392  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  per- 
sistency 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  civili- 
zation; 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  migra- 


RACE   MOVEMENTS  393 

tions  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  com- 
munities 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  in- 
stance, was  a  unifying  and  therefore  a  strengthening  influ- 
ence in  Babylonia.  He  shook  oflf  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  Chald&a  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 — Shalmancser  as  Overlord  of  Babylonia — Revolts  of  Jehu  in 
Israel  and  Ha/ael  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."1 

1  Finn  and  His  Warrior  Band,  pp.  245  et  seq.  (London,  1911). 
304 


HEBREWS   IN   ASSYRIAN   HISTORY     395 

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  Subbi- 
luliuma  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 

(C64ti)  28 


396  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  III1  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  con- 
flict 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,  inaugu- 
rated 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 

1  Also  rendered  Ashur-na'sir-pal. 


Photo.  Mansell 

STATUE    OF   ASHUR-NATSIR-PAL,   WITH    INSCRIPTIONS 
From  S.tf.  Palace  of  Nimroud :  noiu  in  British  Museum 


HEBREWS   IN   ASSYRIAN   HISTORY     397 

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  Meso- 
potamia. 

An  Aramaean  pretender  named  Akhiababa  had  estab- 
lished 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  dis- 
posed 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  opposi- 
tion. 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  be- 
tween the  upper  reaches  of  the  Tigris  and  the  south- 
western shores  of  Lake  Van.  It  was  promoted  by  the 
Nairi  tribes,  and  even  supported  by  some  Assyrian  offi- 
cials. Terrible  reprisals  were  meted  out  to  the  rebels. 


398  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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-pars  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.1 

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  terri- 
tory. 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  pur- 
poses, 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 

1 A  History  of  the  Babylonians  and  Assyrians,  G.  S,  Goodspeed,  p.  197. 


HEBREWS   IN   ASSYRIAN   HISTORY     399 

on  Sum,  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-paPs  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 
ih  spring.  "Its  pasture  lands,  known  as  the  cjaif',  are 


4oo  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  land- 
scape. 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  rrom  the  river 
bearing  the  replenished  pitcher  on  their  heads  or  shoulders; 
others,  no  less  graceful  in  their  form,  and  erect  in  their 


HEBREWS   IN   ASSYRIAN    HISTORY     401 

carriage,  were  carrying  the  heavy  loads  of  long  grass  which 
they  had  cut  in  the  meadows/'1 

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  ulti- 
mately 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  tech- 
nical 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  111  (860-825  B.C.),  whose  military  activi- 
ties 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 

1  Discoveries  at  Nine<ueh>  Sir  A.  H.  Layard  (London,  1856),  pp.  55,  56. 


402  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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.1  "There 
were  wars  between  Rehoboam  and  Jeroboam  continually."2 

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  agods  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." 3 

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  ".*  After  the  raid  of  the  Egyptian 
Pharaoh  Shishak  (Sheshonk)  Rehoboam  repented,  how- 
ever. "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."5 

Rehoboam  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Abijah,  who  shat- 
tered 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 

1  "  Thou  art  beautiful,  O  my  love,  as  Tirzah,  comely  a*  Jerusalem."      Solomon's 
Song,  vi,  4.  -2  Chronicle^  xii,  15. 

*/  Kings,  xiv,  1-20.  4  Ibid.,  21-3.  5  2  Chronicles,  xii,  I-I2. 


HEBREWS   IN  ASSYRIAN   HISTORY    403 

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."1 

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/'2 

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  ".3  Nadab 
waged  war  against  the  Philistines,  and  was  besieging  Gib- 
bethon  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 

1 2  Chronicles,  xiii,  1-20.  2  Ibid.,  xiv,  1-6. 

3  /  Kings,  xv,  25-6. 


4o4  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

north  of  Jerusalem,  "  that  he  might  not  suffer  any  to  go 
out  or  come  in  to  Asa  king  of  Judah".1 

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  Mesopotamia!!  kings.  Judah  was  nomi- 
nally 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".2 

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."3 

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 

1  /  Kings,  xv,  16-7.  2  Ibid.)  18-9. 


HEBREWS   IN   ASSYRIAN   HISTORY     405 

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".1  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."2 

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."3 

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  1  should 

/  Kings,  xvi,  9-10.  2  /£;</.,  15-8,  3  IbiJ.9  21-2. 


406  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

make  thee  a  desolation,  and  the  inhabitants  thereof  an 
hissing :  therefore  ye  shall  bear  the  reproach  of  my 
people  'V 

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."2  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.3 

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 

y  vi,  16.  8/  K'ngsy  xvi,  29-33. 

8  lbidt>  xviii,  1-4. 


HEBREWS   IN   ASSYRIAN   HISTORY     407 

at  Aphek,  but  was  again  defeated.     He  then  found  it 
necessary  to  make  "  a  covenant "  with  Ahab.1 

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/'2 

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.3  The  two  monarchs 
plotted  together.  Apparently  Israel  and  Judah  desired 

1  /  Kings,  xx.  2  Ibid.)  xxii,  43. 

8  2  Chronicles^  xviii,  1-2. 


4o8  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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 ".*  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.2  Apparently  Jehosha- 
phat 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 

*/  Kings,  xxii  and  2  Chronicles,  xviii.  2/  King*,  xxii,  48-9. 


HEBREWS   IN   ASSYRIAN   HISTORY     409 

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  Baby- 
lonia as  the  vassal  of  Assyria,  and  Shalmaneser,  his  over- 
lord, 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  ex- 
pedition 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  king- 
doms, 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.1  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, 

1  /  Kings,  viii. 


4io  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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,  accom- 
panied 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.1 

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 

1  3  Kings,  ix  and  t  Chronicles,  xxii. 


DETAILS    FROM    SECOND    SIDK    OF    HLACR    OBELISK    OF 
SHALMAXKSKR    III 

(i)  Tribute  bearers  of  Jehu,  Kinj,r  of  Israel.     (2)  Tributary  Animals. 
(3)   Tribute  bearers  \\ith  shawls  ami  bags 

(British  Museum] 


HEBREWS    IN    ASSYRIAN    HISTORY     411 

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".1 

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  de- 
feat; 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.  a  In  those  days",  Shalmaneser  recorded,  "I  re- 
ceived 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.2 

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, 

*<?  Kings,  viii,  1-15. 

3  The  Old  Testament  in  the  Light  of  the  Historical  Records  and  Legends  of  Asiyria  and 
Babylonia^  pp.  337  et  sty. 

(C642)  i  29 


4i2  MYTHS  OF   BABYLONIA 

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."1  Israel  thus  came  completely 
under  the  sway  of  Damascus. 

Jehu  appears  to  have  cherished  the  ambition  of  unit- 
ing 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/'2  Apparently  he  found  it  necessary  to 
secure  the  support  of  the  idolaters  of  the  ancient  cult 
of  the  "Queen  of  Heaven ". 

The  crown  of  Judah  had  been  seized  by  the  Israelitish 

1  ?  Kings,  x,  32-3,  a  Ibid.,  1-31, 


HEBREWS   IN   ASSYRIAN    HISTORY     413 

Queen  mother  Athaliah  after  the  death  of  her  son 
Ahaziah  at  the  hands  of  Jehu.1  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  bed- 
chamber", in  "the  house  of  God".  There  Joash  was 
strictly  guarded  for  six  years.2 

In  time  Jehoiada  stirred  up  a  revolt  against  the  Baal- 
worshipping  queen  of  Judah.  Having  secured  the  sup- 
port 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. 

1  2  KingSy  xi,  1-3.  2*  Chronicle^  xxii,  10-12. 


4i4  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

"  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.'*1 

When  Jehu  of  Israel  died,  he  was  succeeded  by 
Jehoahaz.  u  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."2  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  sup- 
pressing 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 

12  Chronicle^  xxiii,  i    17.  '2  2  Kings,  xiii,  1-5. 


HEBREWS   IN   ASSYRIAN   HISTORY     415 

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  Mesopo- 
tamia, 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,  Mar- 
duk-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  foot- 
men, 200  horsemen,  and  100  chariots 


4i 6  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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 — Tra- 
ditions of  Famous  Mother  Deities — Adad-nirari  IV  the  "  Saviour  "  of  Israel 
— Expansion  df  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  litera- 
ture, the  Assyrian  queen  was  reputed  to  have  been  the 

417 


4i  8  MYTHS   OF  BABYLONIA 

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  ar- 
ranged with  purpose  to  legitimatize  the  succession  of  the 
Assyrian  overlords  to  the  Babylonian  throne.  The  prin- 
ciple 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".1 

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, 

1  The  Land  of  the  Hitiites,  J.  Garstang,  p.  354. 


THE   AGE   OF   SEMIRAMIS  419 

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  MuL  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".1 

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  <c  Sulili ", 
i.e.  Sumu-la-ilu,  the  great-great-grandfather  of  Hammu- 
rabi. Bel-kap-kapu  was  reputed  to  have  been  an  over- 
lord 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  sub- 
stantial basis.  It  is  not  too  much  to  assume  that  he  was 
a  son  of  a  princess  of  its  ancient  royal  family.  Sammu- 

1  The  Old  Testament  in  the  Light  of  the  Historical  Records  and  Legends  of  Assyria  and 
Babylonia,  T.  G.  Pinches,  p.  343. 


420  MYTHS   OF  BABYLONIA 

rammat  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,  in- 
cluding parts  of  Asia  Minor,  Egypt,  and  southern  and 
western  Europe.  It  appears  to  have  been  closely  asso- 
ciated with  agricultural  rites  practised  among  representa- 
tive 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  main- 
tained 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  Zerpanitum  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  agricul- 
tural 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 


THE   AGE   OF   SEM1RAMIS  421 

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  "letters7*,  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  bar- 
barities 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  Baby- 
lonian Shamash  as  an  abstract  deity  who  loved  law  and 
order,  inspired  the  king  with  wisdom  and  ordained  the 


422  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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 


STATUE    OF    NEBO 

Dfdicated  by  Adad-nirari  IV,  and  the  Queen,  Sammu-rammat 
(British  Museum} 


THE   AGE   OF   SEMIRAMIS  423 

Shamshi-Adad,  son  of  Shalmaneser  III,  have  literary 
qualities  which  distinguish  them  from  those  of  his  pre- 
decessors, and  may  be  accounted  for  by  the  influence 
exercised  by  Babylonian  scholars  who  migrated  northward. 

To  the  reign  of  Adad-nirari  belongs  also  that  impor- 
tant 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.1 

In  Babylonia  the  fish  goddess  was  Nina,  a  developed 
form  of  Damklna,  spouse  of  Ea  of  Eridu.  In  the  in- 
scription 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  com- 
parative 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  new- 
born 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 

1  Nat.  Hht.y  v,  19  and  Straho,  xvi,  1-27. 


424  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

the  child  and  adopted  her.  "  Because  ",  he  said,  "  she 
was  surrounded  by  Shakuntas  (birds),  therefore  hath  she 
been  named  by  me  Shakuntala  (bird  protected)."1 

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  shep- 
herds, 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.2 

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 

1  The  Mah&bharata  :  Adi  Parva,  sections  Ixxi  and  Ixxii  (Roy's  translation,  pp.  213- 
216),  and  Indian  Myth  and  Legend^  pp.  157  et  seq. 

2  That  is,  without  ceremony  but  with  consent, 


THE    SHEPHERD    FINDS   THE    BABE    SEMIRAMIS 

From  the  Painting  by  E.  Wallcomins 


THE   AGE   OF   SEMIRAMIS  425 

days.  Semiramis  played  the  part  of  the  mother  goddess, 
and  the  priestly  king  died  a  violent  death  in  the  character 
of  her  divihe  lover.  "  The  mounds  of  Semiramis  which 
were  pointed  out  all  over  Western  Asia  were  s£id  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."1  As  we  have  seen,  Ishtar 
and  other  mother  goddesses  had  many  lovers  whom  they 
deserted  like  La  Belle  Dame  sans  Merci  (pp.  174—5). 

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/' 2  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.3  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.4 
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 

1  The  Golden  Bough  (The  Scapegoat),  pp.  369  et  scq.  (jrd  edition).  Perhaps  the 
mythic  Semiramis  and  legends  connected  were  in  existence  long  before  the  historic 
Sammu-rammat,  though  the  two  got  mixed  up. 

*  Herodotus,  i,  184.  *  D<  dea  Syria,  9-14.  *  Strabo^  xvi,  I,  3, 


426  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

Assyria.1  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.2  Fish  and  doves  were  sacred 
to  Derceto  (Attar),3  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."4 

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 

1  Diodorus  Siculus,  ii,  3.  3  Herodotus,  i,  105.  *  Diodorus  Siculus,  ii,  4. 

*  De  dea  Syria,  I 4. 


THE   AGE   OF   SEMIRAMIS  427 

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.1  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, 

1  This  little  bird  allied  to  the  woodpecker  twists  its  neck  strangely  when  alarmed. 
It  may  have  symbolized  the  coquettishncss  of  fair  maidens.  As  love  goddesses  were 
"  Fates  ",  however,  thr  wryneck  may  have  been  connected  with  the  belief  that  the  per- 
petrator 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 : 

'Twas  in  the  middle  o'  the  night 

The  cock  began  to  craw; 
And  at  the  middle  o'  the  night 
The  corpse  began  to  thraw. 
(0642)  30 


428  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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.1 

Apparently  there  were  temple  and  household  doves  in 
Babylonia.  The  Egyptians  had  their  household  dove- 
cots 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  in- 
wards (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."2  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.3 
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, 

T©  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. 

1  Langdon's  Sumerian  and  Babylonian  Psalms,  pp.  133,  135. 

2  Introduction  to  Lane's  Mariners  and  Customs  oj  the  Modern  Egyptians. 

5  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. 


THE   AGE   OF   SEMIRAMIS  429 

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. "  l 

In  Indian  mythology  Purusha,  the  chaos  giant,  first 
divided  himself.  "  Hence  were  husband  and  wife  pro- 
duced." This  couple  then  assumed  various  animal 
forms  and  thus  "created  every  living  pair  whatsoever 
down  to  the  ants".2  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.3 

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 

1  Campbell's  Superstitions  of  the  Scottish  Highlands,  p.  288. 
3  Indian  Myth  and  Legend^  p.  95.  3  Ibid.^  pp.  329-30. 


430  MYTHS  OF  BABYLONIA 

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/'1  Discussing 
the  attributes  and  symbols  of  this  mother  goddess,  Pro- 
fessor 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  ".2  Professor  Robertson  Smith 
has  demonstrated  that  the  dove  was  of  great  sanctity 
among  the  Semites.3  It  figures  in  Hittite  sculptures  and 
was  probably  connected  with  the  goddess  cult  in  Asia 

1  Crete,  the  Forerunner  of  Greece,  C.  H.  and  H.  B.  Hawes,  p.  139. 

8  The  Discoveries  in  Crete,  pp.  137-8.  8 Religion  of  the  Semites,  p.  194. 


THE   AGE  OF   SEMIRAMIS  431 

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?1 

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  inno- 
cence, 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  con- 
tained 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  fowl2  obtained  in 
other  districts.  Brand  traced  this  interesting  traditional 
belief  in  Yorkshire,  Lancashire,  Derbyshire,  and  some 
of  the  Welsh  and  Irish  counties.3  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  ".4 

The  dove  was  not  only  a  symbol  of  Semiramis,  but 

1  Egyptian  Myth  and  Legend,  p.  59. 

2  Including  the  goose,  one  of  the  forms  of  the  harvest  goddess. 

*  Brand's  Popular  Antiquities^  vol.  ii,  230-1  and  vol.  iii,  232  (1899  c<*0« 
4  Ibid.^  vol.  iii,  217.     The  myitle  was  used  for  love  charms. 


432  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  god- 
desses and  fishLgoddesses  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  neigh- 
bours.J>1  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  Mceris  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 

1  The  Golden  Bough  [Spirits  of  the  Corn  and  oj  the  Wild),  vol.  ii,  p.  293  (3rd  cd.). 


THE   AGE   OF   SEMIRAMIS  433 

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."1  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/*2  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  death- 
bed 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  cer- 
tainly was  in  Crete,  long  centuries  before  Assyrian  and 

1  Herodotus^  ii,  69,  71,  and  77.  2  Brand's  Popular  Antiquititsy  vol.  iii,  p.  227. 


434  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  com- 
mon element,  the  nature  of  which  is  at  present  obscure, 
than  to  any  definite  borrowing  by  one  side  or  another".1 
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  renas- 
cence  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  Adad- 
nirari  found  it  necessary  to  win  the  support  of  the  Baby- 
lonians by  proclaiming  his  descent  from  one  of  their 
ancient  royal  families,  suggests  that  he  was  not  only  con- 
cerned 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  <c  mother  worship  "  pre- 
vailed, 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 

1  Cited  by  Profeiior  Burrows  in  Tht  Discoveries  in  Crifr,  p.  134. 


THE  AGE   OF   SEMIRAMIS  435 

the  sway  of  Damascus,  and  may  have  not  been  uncon- 
nected 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  fer- 
tility. 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  (Mar- 
duk),  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,1  his 
son,  just  as  Ea  passed  his  traits  on  to  his  son,  Marduk".2 

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  fer- 
tility, and  with  Osiris.  In  Borsippa  he  had,  like  Mero- 
dach 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 

1  Like  the  Egyptian  Horus,  Nebo  had  many  phases:  he  was  connected  with  the  sun 
and  moon,  the  planet  Mercury,  water  and  crops  5  he  was  young  and  yet  old — a  mysticaJ 
god. 

8  Atptcts  of  Re lig ious  Btlitf  and  Practice  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  pp.  94  it  seq. 


436  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  u  mighty 
lady  that  dwellest  in  the  bright  heavens  ",  i.e.  "  Queen  of 
heaven".1 

Tashmit,  whose  name  signifies  a  Obedience  ",  accord- 
ing 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 

1  Babylonian  Magic  and  Sorcery,  L.  W.  King,  pp.  6-7  and  26-7. 


THE   AGE   OF    SEMIRAMIS  437 

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  for- 
gotten. 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  cul- 
ture 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 


438  MYTHS  OF   BABYLONIA 

Sammu-rammat,  with  the  religious  innovations  which  dis- 
turbed 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.  Al- 
though 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  Aramasan  state  of  Damascus,  which  had  with- 
stood 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.1 

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  Israel- 
ites.2 At  any  rate  Mari  was  unable  to  gather  together  an 
army  of  allies  to  resist  the  Assyrian,  advance,  and  took 

1  2  Kings,  xiii,  3.  a 2  Kings,  xiii,  14-25. 


THE   AGE   OF   SEMIRAMIS  439 

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  uthe 
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".1  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  pre- 
vented 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 

1  2  A.'/«£.t,  xiii,  5,  6. 


440  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

done  no  more  than  limit  its  southern  expansion  for  a 
time. 

The  Urarti  were,  like  the  Mitanni,  a  military  aristoc- 
racy1 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. 

*Thc  masses  of  the   Urartian  folk  appear  to  have  been  of  Hatti  sfock — "broad 
heads",  like  their  descendants,  the  modern  Armenians. 


THE   AGE   OF   SEMIRAMIS  441 

Having  extended  his  kingdom  towards  the  south, 
Menuas  invaded  Hittite  territory,  subdued  Malaria  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  Khaldmas l  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  pro- 
longed 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  con- 
ducted military  expeditions  to  the  north  beyond  the  river 

1  It  is  uncertain  whether  this  city  or  KulUni  in  north  Syria  is  the  Biblical  Calno. 
Itaiah,  x,  9. 


442  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  Shal- 
maneser  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  re- 
gained their  independence. 

During  the  first  four  years  of  his  successor  Ashur- 


THE    AGE    OF    SEMIRAMIS  443 

nirari  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 v  hours  the  king  engaged  himself  in  studious  pur- 
suits 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. 


(0642)  31 


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  Shard uris — 
Conquest  of  Syro-Cappadocian  States — Hebrew  History  from  Jehu  to  Mena- 
hem — Israel  subject  to  Assyria — Urartu's  Power  broken — Ahaz's  Appeal  to 
Assyria — Damascus  and  Israel  subdued — Babylonia  united  to  Assyria — Shal- 
maneser  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 — Heze- 
kiah  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  con- 
quers 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  Esar- 
haddon, who  made  Lower  Egypt  an  Assyrian  province. 
We  also  meet  with  notable  figures  of  Biblical  fame,  in- 
cluding Ahaz,  Hezekiah,  Isaiah,  and  the  idolatrous  Man- 
asseh. 

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 


ASSYRIA'S    AGE   OF   SPLENDOUR       445 

Tiglath-pileser.1  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.  Plun- 
dering 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, 

1  a  Kings)  xv,  19  and  29$  9  Cfirdmcfa,  xxvi",  *O« 


446  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  1  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  acknow- 
ledge his  suzerainty.  A  struggle  then  ensued  between 
Urartu  and  Assyria  for  the  possession  of  the  Syro-Cappa- 
docian  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 


o 

2 


X 
2 


r* 

-4 

O 


ASSYRIA'S   AGE   OF   SPLENDOUR      447 

was  slaughtered.  Well  might  Sharduris  exclaim,  in  the 
words  of  the  prophet,  "  Where  is  the  king  of  Arpad  ? 
where  are  the  gods  of  Arpad  P"1 

Leaving  Arpad,  Tiglath  - pileser  advanced  to  meet 
Sharduris,  who  was  apparently  hastening  southward  to 
attack  the  Assyrians  in  the  rear.  Tiglath-pileser,  how- 
ever, crossed  the  Euphrates  and,  moving  northward, 
delivered  an  unexpected  attack  on  the  Urartian  army  in 
Qummukh.  A  fierce  battle  ensued,  and  one  of  its  dra- 
matic 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  pur- 
sued 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. 

1 2  Khgij  xviii,  34  and  xix,  13. 


448  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  prob- 
ably 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  com- 
munication 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 j  and  they  fled  every  man  to  their  tents. 


ASSYRIA'S  AGE   OF   SPLENDOUR       449 

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.1 
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  Jabcsh 
in  Samaria,  and  slew  him,  and  reigned  in  his  stead."2 

Tiglath-pileser  was  operating  successfully  in  middle 
Syria  when  he  had  dealings  with,  among  others,  c<  Meni- 
himme  (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  wel- 
come 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  thou- 
sand 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."3  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 

1  2  Kings9  xiv,  1-14.  *2KingS)  xv,  1-14.  *  2  Ktngs,  xv,  19,  20. 


450  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  pene- 
trated 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."1  When  Pekah 
was  on  the  throne,  Ahaz  began  to  reign  over  Judah. 

Judah  had  taken  advantage  of  the  disturbed  conditions 

1  2  Kings,  xv,  25.  * 


ASSYRIA'S   AGE   OF   SPLENDOUR       451 

in  Israel  to  assert  its  independence.  The  walls  of  Jeru- 
salem 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  pro- 
phet Amos,  whose  eloquent  exhortations  were  couched  in 
no  uncertain  terms.  He  condemned  Israel  for  its  idola- 
tries, 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  offer- 
ings in  the  wilderness  forty  years,  O  house  of  Israel  ?  But  ye  ha\  e 
borne  the  tabernacle  of  your  Moloch  and  Chiun  your  images,  the 
star  of  your  god,  which  ye  made  to  yourselves.1 

Pekah  sought  to  extinguish  the  orthodox  party's 
movement  by  subduing  Judah.  So  he  plotted  with 
Rezin3  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.2 
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 

1  Amos>  v.  2  Amos)  i. 


452  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

Ahaz,  but  could  not  overcome  him."1  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.2 

The  unstable  Ahaz  had  sought  assistance  from  the 
Baal,  and  "made  his  son  to  pass  through  the  fire,  accord- 
ing to  the  abominations  of  the  heathen".3  Then  he 
resolved  to  purchase  the  sympathy  of  one  of  the  great 
Powers.  There  was  no  hope  of  assistance  from  cc  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".4  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  Kir6  and  slew  Rezin.6 

1 2  Kings,  xvi,  5.          *  Isaiah,  vii,  3-7.          82  Kings,  xv,  3.         4  Isaiah,  vii,  18. 
5  Kir  was  probably  on  the  borders  of  Elam.  8  2  Kings,  xvi,  7-9. 


ASSYRIA'S   AGE   OF   SPLENDOUR       453 

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.1 

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.2  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  Baby- 
lon, which  opened  its  gates  to  him,  and  he  had  himself 

1  2  Kings,  xv,  29,  30.  2  2  KingS)  xvi,  IO. 


454  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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,1  and  brought  no  present  to  the  king  of  Assyria, 


1  In  the  Hebrew  text  this  monarch  is  called  Sua,  Seven,  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  j  that  monarch  may  have 
been  a  petty  king  before  he  founded  his  Dynasty.  Another  theory  is  that  he  was  Seve, 


ASSYRIA'S   AGE   OF   SPLENDOUR       455 

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 

»»  i 
years.    l 

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,2  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."3  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 

king  of  Mutsri,  and  still  another  that  he  was  a  petty  king  of  an  Egyptian  state  in  the 
Delta  and  not  Shabaka. 

1  3  King^  xvii,  3-5.  3  Isatah,  xx,  i.  3  2  Kwgs<>  xvii,  6. 


456  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

Ashima,  and  the  Avites  made  Nibhaz  and  Tartak,  and  the  Sepha- 
rites  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'1.1 

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.2  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 

1  2  Kings,  xvii,  16-41. 

2  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. 


COLOSSAL   WINGED   AND    HUMAN-HEADED    BULL 
AND    MYTHOLOGICAL    BEING 

From  doorway  in  Palace  of  S argon  at  Khorsabad ':   now  in  British  Museum' 


ASSYRIA'S  AGE   OF   SPLENDOUR       457 

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."1 

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  Chaldasan, 
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, 

1  Pausing  of  the  Empires,  pp.  200-1* 


458  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  south- 
ward. At  Rapiki  (Raphia)  he  routed  an  army  of  allies. 
Shabi  (?So),  the  Tartan  (commander-in-chief)  of  Pi'ru  * 
(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  Boc- 
choris  of  Sais.  Another  league  was  about  to  be  formed 
against  Assyria.  King  Azuri  of  Ashdod  had  been  de- 
posed 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- 

1  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  sub- 
sequently referred  to  with  two  Arabian  kings  as  tiibute  payers  to  Sargon  apparently  after 
Lower  Egypt  had  come  under  the  sway  of  Shabaka,  the  first  king  of  the  Ethiopian  or 
Twenty-fifth  Dynasty. 


ASSYRIA'S   AGE   OF   SPLENDOUR       459 

Assyrians  to  Ahaz  of  Judah.  That  monarch  was  placed 
in  a  difficult  position.  He  knew  that  if  the  allies  suc- 
ceeded 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."1 

Isaiah  warned  Ahaz  against  joining  the  league,  "  in 
the  year  that  Tartan2  came  unto  Ashdod  (when  Sargon 
the  king  of  Assyria  sent  him)".  The  Tartan  "fought 
against  Ashdod  and  took  it".3  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 

1  haiahy  xx,  2-5.  2  Commander-in-chief,  3  haiah^  xx,  i. 

(C642)  32 


460  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  tribes- 
men 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  pru- 
dent 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 


ASSYRIA'S  AGE   OF   SPLENDOUR       46 1 

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,  Cappa- 
docia,  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  wide- 
spread 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  re- 
volted 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 


462  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  fifst  move  was  to  interpose  his  army  between 
those  of  the  Babylonians  and  Elamites.  Pushing  south- 
ward, 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.  Mero- 
dach 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  Bor- 
sippa,  and  hailed  as  the  saviour  of  the  ancient  kingdom. 
He  was  afterwards  proclaimed  king  at  E-sagila,  where 
he  a  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  Baby- 
lonia 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. 


ASSYRIA'S   AGE   OF   SPLENDOUR       463 

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  pro- 
moted 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  prin- 
cipally 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  I2th,  Sennacherib  (sat  on 

the  throne).1 

The  fact  that  Sennacherib  lamented  his  father's  sins 
suggests  that  the  old  king  had  in  some  manner  offended 

1  The  Old  Testament  in  the  Light  of  the  Historical  Records  and  Legends  of  Assyria  and 
Babylonia,  T.  G.  Pinches,  p.  372. 


464  MYTHS   OF  BABYLONIA 

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  dis- 
tinguished 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.  .  .  .  (E*ekiely  xxxii.) 

Sennacherib  found  that  lonians  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 


ASSYRIA'S  AGE   OF   SPLENDOUR       465 

death  was  bruited  abroad.  Egypt  was  concerned  in  it. 
Taharka  (the  Biblical  Tirhakah1),  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.  u  At  that  time  Mero- 
dach Baladan,  the  son  of  Baladan,  king  of  Babylon,  sent 
letters  and  a  present  to  Hezekiah  .  .  .  And  Hezekiah 
was  glad  of  them/'2 

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 

^  xxxvii,  9.  *  Isaiah,  xxxix,  I,  2. 


466  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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.'71 

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.2 

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. 

1  2  Chronicle^  xxxii,  9-17.  2  2  L'*njr^  xix,  6,  7. 


ASSYRIA'S  AGE   OF   SPLENDOUR       467 

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.1 

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 — 
The  lances  uplifted — the  trumpet  unblown. 

And  the  widows  of  Asshur  are  loud  in  their  wail, 
And  the  idols  are  broke  in  the  temple  of  Baal; 

1  2  Kings,  xix,  35,  36. 


468  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  after- 
wards. 

Sennacherib  operated  in  southern  Babylonia  and  in- 
vaded 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  Chal- 
daean  named  Mushezib-Merodach  seized  the  Babylonian 
throne. 

In  691  B.C.  Sennacherib  again  struck  a  blow  for  Baby- 
lonia, 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  dis- 
patched 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 


f-  Photo.  Alan  sen 

ASSAULT    ON    THE    CITY   OF  ...ALAMMU    (?  JERUSALEM) 
HY    THE    ASSYRIANS    UNDER    SENNACHERIB 

The  besieging  archers  are  protected  by  wicker  screens 
Marble  Slab  from  Kouyutijik  {Nineveh}:  now  in  British  Museum 


ASSYRIA'S  AGE   OF   SPLENDOUR       469 

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  de- 
stroyed 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."1 

"  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."2 

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 

1  Smith-Sayce,  History  of  Stnnachetib,  pp.  132-5. 

2  A  History  of  Sumer  and  Akkad,  p.  37. 


470  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  "  2oth  of 
Tebet "  (early  in  January)  until  the  2nd  day  of  Adar  (the 
middle  of  February).  On  the  i8th  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  con- 
spirators. The  Biblical  reference  is  as  follows :  "  Senna- 
cherib .  .  .  dwelt  at  Nineveh.  And  it  came  to  pass,  as 
he  was  worshipping  in  the  house  of  Nisroch  (PAshur)  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 


ASSYRIA'S   AGE   OF   SPLENDOUR       471 

as  distinguished  a  lady  as  the  famous  Sammu-rammat. 
Indeed,  it  is  possible  that  traditions  regarding  her  con- 
tributed 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  ap- 
pointed 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  de- 
veloped those  traits  of  character  which  distinguished  him 
from  his  father  and  grandfather.  He  married  a  Baby- 
lonian 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  under- 
took 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  indus- 
trial 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  Elarn,  where  he  was  assassinated ; 
the  other  sued  for  peace,  and  was  accepted  by  the  diplo- 
matic 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 


472  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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?"1 
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  Elam- 
ites  regarded  this  innovation  as  a  sign  of  weakness,  and 
invaded  Babylon.  Sippar  was  plundered,  and  its  gods 
carried  away.  The  Assyrian  governors,  however,  ulti- 
mately 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 

1  Isaiah^  xxxvii,  8-13. 


ASSYRIA'S   AGE   OF   SPLENDOUR       473 

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  de- 
ported 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  suc- 
ceeded 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,1 

1  2  Kings,  xxi,  3-7. 


474  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  Jeru- 
salem from  one  end  to  another/11  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  ".2 
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. "3  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  (Menas6  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  Esar- 

1  a  Kings,  xxi,  1 6.  *  Hebrews,  xi,  36,  37. 

*2  Chronicle^  xxxiii,  11-3.     It  may  be  that  Manasseh  was  taken  to  Babylon  during 
Ashur-bani-pal's  reign.     See  next  chapter. 


ASSYRIA'S  AGE   OF   SPLENDOUR       475 

haddon  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  Singirli1  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  repre- 
senting 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  neces- 
sary to  set  his  kingdom  in  order.  - 

During  his  absence  from  home  the  old  Assyrian  party, 
who  disliked  the  emperor  because  of  Babylonian  sym- 
pathies, had  been  intriguing  regarding  the  succession  to 

1  Pronounce  g  as  in  gem, 


33 


476  MYTHS  OF  BABYLONIA 

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  con- 
spirators. The  crown  prince  Sinidinabal  was  dead:  per- 
haps 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  Esar- 
haddon, 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  overbear- 
ing 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-bani- 
pal  and  his  Brother,  King  of  Babylon — Ceremony  of  "Taking  the  Hands  oT 
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 — Cimmerian* 
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  languished!,  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 

477 


478  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

over  thee :  For  upon  whom  hath  not  thy  wickedness  passed  con* 
tinually  f1 

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  prognosticates,  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.2 

Against  a  gloomy  background,  dark  and  ominous  as 
a  thundercloud,  we  have  revealed  in  the  last  century  of 
Mesopotamia!!  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  pransing  horses,  and  of  the  jumping  chariots.  The 
horseman  lifteth  up  both  the  bright  sword  and  the  glitter- 
ing spear.  .  .  ,  The  valiant  men  are  in  scarlet/'3  But 
the  minds  of  cultured  men  were  more  deeply  occupied 
than  ever  with  the  mysteries  of  life  and  creation.  In  the 
librarieSj  the  temples,  and  observatories,  philosophers  and 
scientists  were  shattering  the  unsubstantial  fabric  of  im- 
memorial superstition  ;  they  attained  to  higher  concep- 
tions of  the  duties  and  responsibilities  of  mankind ;  they 

^  i,  ii,  and  iii.  2  Isaiah,  xivi,  I;  xlvii,  1-15. 

3  Nahuni)  iii,  2,  3*,  ii,  3. 


THE   LAST   DAYS   OF   ASSYRIA         479 

conceived  of  divine  love  and  divine  guidance;  they  dis- 
covered, 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— 

0  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* 

1  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.1 

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 

1  Goodtpced'i  A  Hittory  of  th«  Babylonians  and  Assyrians,  p.  348, 


480  MYTHS  OF  BABYLONIA 

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  suc- 
cession 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  pro- 
vinces: new  rulers  were  appointed  to  administer  the  States 
of  Arvad  and  Ammon,  but  there  were  no  changes  else- 
where. 

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  griev- 
ance 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  de- 
pended 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. 


THE   LAST   DAYS   OF  ASSYRIA         481 

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  de- 
posed 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  repre- 
sentative. 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 


482  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

gods,  issue  thou  the  command  to  return  again  to 
Babylon.0 

Thus  did  Ashur-bani-pal  make  pious  and  dignified 
submission  to  the  will  of  the  priests.  A  favourable  re- 
sponse 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  ob- 
served 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  satis- 
faction 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  indepen- 
dent 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  in- 
triguing 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 


THE   LAST   DAYS   OF   ASSYRIA         483 

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  66 1  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'1.1  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  de- 
velopment 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  Cim- 
merians 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 

hum)  iii,  8-n. 


484  MYTHS   OF  BABYLONIA 

the  aid  of  mercenaries  from  the  State  of  Caria  in  south- 
western 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  Chal- 
daeans,  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 


THE   LAST  DAYS  OF  ASSYRIA         485 

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  Chaldseans,  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  Chaldaeans  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  chil- 
dren, his  slaves  and  all  his  treasures.  Ashur-bani-pal  was 
in  647  B.C.  proclaimed  King  Kandalanu1  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  cam- 
paign that  the  statue  of  Nana  of  Erech,  which  had  been 
carried  off  by  Elamites  1635  years  previously,  was  re- 
covered 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 

1  Ptolemy's  Kincladanu*. 


486  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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,  1 i),  where,  how- 
ever, he  was  forgiven.  The  Medes  and  the  Mannai  in 
the  north-west  were  visited  and  subdued,  and  a  new  alli- 
ance 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  him- 
self 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. 


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THE   LAST   DAYS   OF   ASSYRIA         487 

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".1 

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  Gil- 
gamesh  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-paFs 
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 

1  E*ra,  iv,  10. 


488  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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  de- 
fensive alliance  with  the  Median  king,  whose  daughter  he 
had  married  to  his  son  Nebuchadrezzar.  He  strengthened 
the  fortifications  of  Babylon,  rebuilt  the  temple  of  Mero- 
dach,  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  Sar- 
danapalus.  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  dis- 
solved. .  .  .  Take  ye  the  spoil  of  silver,  take  the  spoil 
of  gold.  .  .  .  Behold,  I  am  against  thee,  saith  the  Lord 
of  hosts."1 

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  Mesopo- 
tamia, 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 

m^  iii  and  ii. 


THE   LAST   DAYS   OF  ASSYRIA         489 

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." l  His  son,  Jehoahaz,  succeeded  him,  but 
was  deposed  three  months  later  by  Necho,  who  placed 
another  son  of  Josiah,  named  Eliakim,  on  the  throne> 
uand  turned  his  name  to  Jehoiakim".2  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.3  The  Egyptians  were  routed  at 
Carchemish  in  605  B.C.  (Jeremiah,  xvi,  2). 

In  604  B.C.  Nabopolassar  died,  and  the  famous  Nebu- 
chadrezzar 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  Hero- 
dotus (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  magni- 
ficence 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 

1  H  Kings,  xxiii,  29.  2  Ibid.,  33-5. 

*  Nebuchadrezzar  is  more  correct  than  Nebuchadnezzar* 


490  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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."1 
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  ",2  He  was  after- 
wards sent  back  to  Jerusalem.  "And  Jehoiakim  became 
his  (Nebuchadrezzar's)  servant  three  years:  then  he  turned 
and  rebelled  against  him."3 

Bands  of  Chaldseans,  Syrians,  Moabites,  and  Ammon- 
ites 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  Jehoi- 
achan,  a  youth  of  eighteen  years,  succeeded  him.  Nebu- 
chadrezzar 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".4  Nebuchadrezzar  had  need  of  warriors  and  work- 
men. 

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, 

1  2  Kings,  xxiv,  7.  a  2  Chronicle^  xxxvi,  6. 

8  2  Kingi^  xxiv,  I.  *  2  %'"*&>  xx»v>  8-15. 


THE   LAST   DAYS   OF   ASSYRIA         491 

Moab,  Edom,  and  Ammon  in  favour  of  Egyptian  suze- 
rainty. 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".1 

Nebuchadrezzar  led  a  strong  army  through  Meso- 
potamia, 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.2 

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  Assy- 
rians "  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 

1  Jeremiah^  lii,  3.  *  hrcmiah,  Hi,  4-11. 

(C042)  34 


492  MYTHS   OF   BABYLQN1A 

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.  .  .  ,1 

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.2  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  recon- 
structed 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, 

1  The  Lamentations  of  Jeremiahy  i,  1-7.  *  Jeremiah^  lii,  31-4. 


THE   LAST   DAYS   OF   ASSYRIA         493 

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  forth5 
Merodach  "  gazed  over  the  surrounding  lands  .  t  .  look- 
ing 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  Achae- 
menes  of  the  Greeks),  a  Persian  patriarch  who  resembled 
the  Aryo-Indian  Manu  and  the  Germanic  Mannus.  Akha- 
manish was  reputed  to  have  been  fed  and  protected  in 
childhood  by  an  eagle-t-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  Kama  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  pos- 
session of  the  northern  part  of  the  Assyrian  Empire,  which 
extended  westward  into  Asia  Minor  to  the  frontier  of  the 
Lydian  kingdom  ;  he  also  possessed  hirftself  of  Urartu 


494  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

(Armenia).  Lydia  had,  after  the  collapse  of  the  Cim- 
merian 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  de- 
feated 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  him- 
self 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 


< 
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o 
2 


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1 
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THE   LAST   DAYS   OF  ASSYRIA         495 

wood,  and  of  stone.  ...  In  that  night  was  Belshazzar  the  king 
of  the  Chaldeans  slain.1 

On  the  1 6th  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  under- 
standing with  the  great  Achsemenian,  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  <c  took 
the  hands"  of  Bel  Merodach  at  E-sagila,  and  was  pro- 
claimed "  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  priest- 
hood. 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 

1  Daniflt  v,  I  ft  sty. 


496  MYTHS  OF   BABYLONIA 

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.1 

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  pro- 
clamation 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.2 

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  be- 
came identified  with  Bel  Merodach,  as,  perhaps,  he  had 
previously  been  with  Ashur,  and  the  goddess  Anahita 
absorbed  the  attributes  of  Nina,  Ishtar,  Zerpanitum,  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 

1  Psalms,  cxxxvii,  1-6.  *  Ezra,  i,  1-3. 


THE   LAST   DAYS   OF   ASSYRIA         497 

party  to  purify  the  Ahura-Mazda  religion  of  its  Babylonian 
innovations.  Frequent  revolts  in  Babylon  had  afterwards 
to  be  suppressed.  The  Merodaoh  priesthood  apparently 
suffered  loss  of  prestige  at  Court.  According  to  Herod- 
otus, 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/'1  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  over- 
thrown 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, 

lHerodotu^  i,  1835  Strabo,  xvi,  I,  5;  and  Arrian^  vii,  17. 


498  MYTHS   OF   BABYLONIA 

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,  "at- 
tended 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."1 

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  ful- 
filled: 

1  Strabo,  xvi,  1-5. 


THE  LAST  DAYS  OF  ASSYRIA        499 

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.1 

1  ffatah,  xxxiv,  i  I-A. 


INDEX 


{/owe!  Sounds:— #,  as  in  palm  \  a,  AS  in  late',  it,  almost  like  u  in  fur;  e,  like  a  in  /a/*; 
in  /*<?;  /,  as  £  in  tne\  ?,  as  in  sigh  ;  <>,  as  In  shor'e;  */,  at>  in  £ull\   it,  as  in  s«« ;  y,  as  in  < 


A,  Aa,  Ai,  Sumerian  names  of  moon, 

..  301;    Ea  as,  31. 

Aa,  the  goddess,  consort  of  Shamash, 

57,  100. 

Aah,  Egyptian  name  of  moon,  301. 
Abijah  (a-b!  jah),  King  of  Judah,  402, 

Abraham,  12;  the  Isaac  sacrifice,  50; 
period  of  migration  from  Ur,  131, 
245 ;  association  of  with  Amorites, 
246;  conflict  with  Amraphcl  (Ham- 
murabi) and  his  allies,  246,  247; 
Babylonian  monotheism  in  age  of, 
160;  Nimrod  and  in  Koran,  166, 

167,  349,  35_o- 

Aclueans  (a-ke'ans),  the  Celts  and, 
377 ;  in  Crete  and  Egypt,  378 ; 
Pelasgians  and,  393 ;  the  Cyprian  and 
Assyria,  484. 

Achsemenian  (a-ke?  -  nvn'ian),  Cyrus 
called  an,  493 ;  Daiius  I  claims  to 
be  an,  496.  See  Akhamani^h. 

Adad  (ad'ad),  deities  that  link  with,  35, 
57,  261,  395;  in  demon  war,  76. 

Adad-nirari  I  (ad'ad-ni-ra'ri),  of  As- 
syria, 362,  363. 

Adad-nirari  III,  396. 

Adad-nirari  IV,  King  of  Assyria,  Baby- 
lonian influence  in  court  of,  419;  as 
** husband  of  his  mother",  420;  in- 
novations of,  421 ;  Kalkhi  library, 
422;  "synchronistic  history",  423; 
Nebo  worship,  435,436;  as  "saviour" 
of  Israel,  438,  439;  Urartu  problem, 

439»  44°: 

Adad-nirari  V,  442. 
Adad-shum-utsur    (ad'ad-shilm-ii'tsur), 

King  of  Babylonia,  as  overlord  of 

Assyria,  370. 


Adam,  "first  wife"  of  a  demon,  67; 
the  shining  jewel  of,  185. 

Adapa  (a'da-pa),  the  Babylonian  Thor, 
72,  73- 

Addu  (ad'dii),  as  form  of  Merodach, 
1 60. 

Adonis  (a-do'nis),  Tammuz  and  myth 
of,  83,  84;  antiquity  of  myth  of,  84; 
blood  of  in  river,  85;  the  boat  or 
chest  of,  90,  103;  "the  Garden  of, 
171,  172;  slain  by  boar,  294,  304. 

Afghans,  skull  forms  of,  8. 

Ages,  the  mythical,  Tammuz  as  ruler 
of  one  of  the,  83,  84;  Greek  flood 
legend  and,  195,  196 ;  the  Indian 
and  Celtic,  196;  in  American  myths, 
198;  Babylonian  and  Indian  links, 
199;  in  Persian  and  Germanic  my- 
thologies, 202,  203  ;  various  systems 
compared,  310  ct  sea. 

Agni  (ag'nee),  Indian  fire  and  fertility 
god,  49;  Nusku  and,  50;  links  with 
Tammuz,  94;  eagle  as,  168,  169; 
Nergal  and,  304 ;  the  goat  and,  333 ; 
Melkarth  and,  346. 

Agriculture,  mother  worship  and,  xxix, 
xxx ;  cults  of  Osiris-Isis  and  Tam- 
muz -  Ishtar,  xxxi ;  early  Sumerians 
and,  2 ;  in  Turkestan  and  Egypt,  6 ; 
early  civilizations  and,  14  ;  Herodotus 
on  Babylonian,  21,  22  ;  irrigation  and 
river  floods,  23,  24,  26;  deities  and 
water  supply,  33 ;  Tammuz  -  Adonis 
myth,  85;  weeping  ceremonies,  82 
et  seq.\  Nimrod  myth,  170;  demand 
for  harvesters  in  Babylonia,  256. 

Agum  (a'giim),  Kassite  kings  named, 
272  et  sen. 

Agum  the  Great,  Kassite  king,  recovers 


502 


INDEX 


from  Mitanni  Merodach  and  his 
spouse,  272. 

Ahab,  King  of  Israel,  405-7,  408,  473. 

Ahaz,  King  of  Judah,  fire  ceremony 
practised  by,  50;  sundial  of  and 
eclipse  record,  323,  450;  relations 
with  Assyria,  452,  453,  459. 

Ahaziah  (a-ha-zi'ah),  King  of  Israel, 
408-10. 

Ahiir'a  Maz'da,  eagle  and  ring  symbol 
of,  347 ;  Ashur  and,  355 ;  Cambyses 
and,  495;  identified  with  Merodach, 
496 ;  reform  of  cult  of,  497. 

Air  of  Life,  Breath  and  spirit  as,  48,  49. 

Akhamanish  (a-kha-man'ish),  the  Per- 
sian Patriarch,  493;  Germanic  Man- 
nus  and  Indian  Manu  and,  493 ;  eagle 
and,  493. 

Akhenaton  (a-khen-a'ton),  foreign  cor- 
respondence of,  280  et  seg. ;  Assyrian 
King's  relations  with,  285;  Aton 
cult  of,  338,  422;  attitude  of  to 
mother  worship,  418,  419. 

Akkad  (ak'kad).  Its  racial  and  geo- 
graphical significance,  I ;  early  name 
of  Uri  or  Kiuri,  2;  early  history  of, 
109  et  seq. 

Akkad,  City  of,  Sargon  of,  125  et  seg.; 
Naram-Sin  and,  128,  129;  in  Ham- 
murabi Age,  256;  observatory  at, 
321.  Also  rendered  Agade. 

Akkadians,  characteristics  of,  2;  culture 
of  Sumerian,  2,  3,  13;  the  conquerors 

,.  of  Sumerians,  12. 

Aku,  moon  as  the  "measurer",  301. 

Akurgal  (a-ktir'gal),  King  of  Lagash, 
son  of  Ur-Nina,  118. 

Alban,  the  British  ancestral  giant,  42. 

Aleppo  (a-lep'po),  Hadad  worshipped 
at,  411. 

Alexander  the  Great,  Southern  Baby- 
lonia in  age  of,  22,  23;  his  vision  of 
Tiamat,  151;  myths  of,  164;  the 
eagle  and,  167;  Gilgamesh  and,  172; 
water  of  life,  185,  186;  Brahmans 
and,  207,  208;  welcomed  in  Baby- 
lon, 497;  Pantheon  of,  497;  death  of, 
498. 

Algebra,  Brahmans  formulated,  289. 

Allatu  (al'la-tU).     See  Eresh-ki-gaL 

Alu  (a'Ki),  the,  tempest  and  nightmare 
demon,  65,  68,  69. 

Alyat'tes,  King  of  Lydia,  war  against 
Medes,  494;  Median  marriage  al- 

..  liance,  494. 

A'ma,  the  mother  goddess,  57,  100. 


Amaziah,  King  of  Judah,  448,  449. 
Amel-marduk   (a'mel-mar'duk),   "Evil 

Merodach  ",  King  of  Babylon,  492. 
Amenhotep  III  (a-men-hS'tep)  of  Egypt, 

280;  Tushratta's  appeals  to,  282. 
Amon,  wife  of,  221 ;  the  "  world  soul" 

belief  and,  329. 

Amorites,  Land  of.     See  Amurru. 
Amorites,  Sargon  of  Akkad  and,  125-7; 

in    pre- Hammurabi  Age,  217;    Sun 

cult   favoured  by  in   Babylon,   240; 

Moon  cult  of  in  Kish,  241 ;  blend  of 

in  Jerusalem,  246;  raids  of,  256;  as 

allies    of    Hittites,    284,    363,    364; 

Philistines  and,  380;  "  mother  right" 

amongst,  418. 

Amphitrite,  the  sea  goddess,  33. 
Amraphel    (am'ra-phel),    the    Biblical, 

identified  with  Hammurabi,  131,  246, 

247. 
Amurru  (am'iir-ru),   land  of  Amorites, 

127;  Sargon  and  Naram  Sin  in,  127-9; 

Gudea  of  Lagash  trades  with,   130; 

Elamite  overlordship  of,  248. 
Amurru,  the  god  called,  Merodach  and 

Adad-Ramman  and,  316. 
Anahita    (ana-hi'ta),    Persian   goddess, 

identified  with  Nina-Ishtar,  496. 
An'akim,  "  sons  of  Anak  ",  the  Hittites 

and,  n,  12. 

Anatu  (an-a'tu),  consort  of  Anu,  138. 
Anau,  Turkestan,  civilization  of  and  the 

Sumerian,  5;  votive  statuettes  found 

at,  5- 
Ancestral   totems,  annual   sacrifice  of, 

294;  in  Babylonia  and  China,  295. 
Andiomeda  (an-drom'e-da),  legend  of, 

152. 

Angus,  the  Irish  love  god,  90,  238. 
Animal  forms  of  gods,  134,  135. 
Animism,    xxxiii ;     spirit    groups    and 

gods,  35,  294  et  seq.;  fairies  and  elves 

relics  of,  79,  80 ;  stars  and  planets  as 

ghosts,  295,  304;  star  worship,  317; 

Pelasgian  gods  as  Fates,  317. 
"  Annie,    Gentle",   the   Scottish   wind 

hag,  73- 
Annis,  Black,  Leicester  wind  hag,  73, 

101. 
An'shan,  Province  of,  Sargon  of  Akkad 

conquers,  127;  Cyrus,  King  of,  493. 
An'shar,   the  god,   in  group  of  elder 

deities,  37;  Anu  becomes  like,  124; 

in  Creation  legend,  138  et  seq, ;  Ashur 

a  form  of,  326,  354;  as  "  Assoros", 

328;  as  night  sky  god,  328;  identified 


INDEX 


503 


with  Polar  star,  330,  331 ;  as  astral 
Satyr  (goat-man),  333;  Tammuzand, 
333;  his  six  divinities  of  council,  334. 

Anthat  (anth'at),  goddesses  that  link 
with,  268. 

Anthropomorphic  gods,  the  Sumerian, 
134-6. 

Ann  (a'nii),  god  of  the  sky,  demons  as 
messengers  of,  34,  77 ;  in  early  triad, 
35,  36;  among  early  gods,  37;  Brahma 
and,  38;  links  with  Mithra,  55;  other 
gods  and,  53,  57;  as  father  of  demons, 
63 ;  solar  and  lunar  attributes  of,  53, 
55;  wind  spirits  and,  72,  73,  74;  in 
demon  war,  76;  as  father  of  Isis,  100; 
Ur-Nina  and,  116;  as  father  of  Enlil, 
124;  as  form  of  Anshar,  125,  328; 
high  priest  of  and  moon  god,  130; 
during  Isin  Dynasty,  132;  in  Creation 
legend,  138  et  seq. ;  Merodach  directs 
decrees  of,  149;  Etana  and  eagle  in 
heaven  of,  166;  in  Gilgamesh  legend, 
173  et  seq.\  in  Deluge  legend,  190  et 
seq.\  planetary  gods  and,  304;  zodiacal 
"  field  of",  307;  the  star  spirits  and, 
318;  as  Anos,  328;  as  the  "high 
head  ",  334;  Sargon  II  and,  463. 

An'zan.     See  Anshan. 

Apep  (a 'pep),  the  Egyptian  serpent 
demon,  46,  156. 

Aphrodite  (af-ro-dl'te),  boar  lover  of 
slays  Adonis,  87 ;  lovers  of,  103 ;  the 
"bearded"  form  of,  267,  301;  birds 
and  plants  sacred  to,  427;  as  a  fate, 
427,  433;  legends  attached  to,  437. 

Apil-Sin  (a'pil-sin),  King,  grandfather  of 
Hammurabi,  242. 

Apis  bull  (a-pis),  inspiration  from  breath 
of,  49;  Cambyses  sacrifices  to  Mithra, 

495- 

Apsu-Rishtu  (ap'sii-rish'tu),  god  of  the 
deep,  like  Egyptian  Nu,  37,  64;  as 
enemy  of  the  gods,  38 ;  Tiamat  and, 
106;  in  Creation  legend,  138  et  seq.\ 
reference  to  by  Damascius,  328. 

Apuatu  (a-pii'a-tu)  (Osiris)  as  the  Patri- 
arch, xxxii. 

Arabia,  moon  worship  in,  52;  owl  a 
mother  ghost  in,  70;  in  Zu  bird  myth, 
74,  75;  invaded  by  Naram  Sin,  129; 
Etana  myth  in,  166,  167;  water  of 
life  myth,  186;  Sargon  II  and  kings 
of,  458;  Sennacherib  in,  466. 

Arabians,  the,  of  Mediterranean  race,  7; 
Semites  of  Jewish  type  and,  7,  10; 
prehistoric  migrations  of,  n?  12. 


Arad  Ea  (ar-ad-e'a),  "ferryman"  ot 
Hades  water,  34;  Gilgamesh  crosses 
sea  of  death  with,  180  et  seq. 

Aramoe'ans,  migrations  of,  359;  called 
"Suti",  "Achlame",  "Arimi", 
"Khabiri",  and  "Syrians",  360; 
Assyria  and  the,  367;  as  allies  of 
Hittites,  377,  378;  state  of  Damascus 
founded  by,  390;  Ashur-natsir-pal  III 
and,  398,  399;  "mother  worship" 
and,  434;  as  opponents  of  sun  wor- 
ship, 445;  settled  in  Asia  Minor,  461. 

Archer,  the  Astral,  Ashur,  Gilgamesh, 
and  Hercules  as,  336,  337;  robed 
with  feathers,  344;  Ashur  and  San- 
dan  as,  352. 

Ardat  Lili  (ar'dat  li-li),  a  demon  lover, 
68. 

Ardys,  King  of  Lydia,  Assyria  helps, 
486. 

Ares,  Greek  war  god,  as  boar  slayer  of 
Adonis,  87,  304. 

Argistis  I  (ar'gist-is),  King  of  Urartu, 
campaigns  of,  441,  442,  or,  Argistes. 

Argistis  II  of  Uiartu,  raids  of  Cim- 
merians and  Scythians,  461. 

Arioch  (a'ri-ok),  the  Biblical,  Warad- 
Sin  as,  247,  248. 

Arithmetic,  finger  counting  in  Babylonia 
and  India,  310;  development  of,  312. 

Ark,  in  flood  legend,  191  et  seq. 

Aries  money,  Babylonian  farm  labourers 
received,  256. 

Armenia,  Thunder  god  of,  261,  395; 
goddess  Anaitis  in,  267.  See  Urartu. 

Armenians,  the  use  of  cradle  board  by, 
4,  5;  ancestors  of,  283. 

Armenoid  Race,  the,  in  Semitic  blend, 
10;  in  Asia  Minor,  Syria,  and  Europe, 
1 1 ,  262 ;  traces  of  in  prehistoric 
Egypt,  u,  263,  264;  in  Palestine,  12; 
culture  of,  315. 

Arnold,  Edwin,  xxii. 

Arpad  (ar'pad)  in  reign  of  Tiglath- 
pileser  IV,  446,  447. 

Arrow,  a  symbol  of  lightning  and  fer- 
tility, 337;  Ashur's  and  the  goddess 
Neith's,  337  n.  See  Archer,  the 
Astral, 

Art,  magical  origin  of,  288. 

Artaxerxes,  497. 

Artemis  (ar'te-mis),  the  goddess,  lovers 
slain  by,  104;  as  wind  hag,  104;  the 
"  Great  Bear"  myth  and,  296. 
Artisan  gods,  Ea,  Ptah,  Khnumu,  and 
Indra  as,  30, 


504 


INDEX 


Aruru   (ar'u-ru),   the  mother  goddess, 

100,  1 60,  420;  assists  Merodach  to 

create  mankind,   148;  in  Gilgamesh 

legend,   172  et  seq. 
Aryans  (a'ri-ans),  Mitannians  as,  269, 

270;   Kassites  and,  270. 
Asa,  King  of  Judah,  burning  at  grave 

of>  35°J  images  destroyed  by,  403; 

appeal    for  aid   to   Damascus,   404; 

death  of,  407. 
Asari  (a-sa'ri),  Merodach  as,  and  Osiris, 

159- 

Ash'dod,  Cyprian  King  of,  458,  459. 

Ashtoreth  (ash-to'reth),  Ishtar  and,  100; 
lovers  of,  103;  goddesses  that  link 
with,  267;  worship  of  at  Samaria,  439; 
also  rendered  Ash'ta-roth. 

Ashur  (a'shur),  Asura  theory,  278;  as 
Aushar,  "  water  field",  the  "Holy 
One",  and  Anshar,  326;  the  Biblical 
patriarch,  327;  "  Ashir"  and  Cappa- 
docia,  327 ;  Brahma  and,  328 ;  as 
Creator,  329;  bull,  eagle,  and  lion 
identified  with,  330;  connected  with 
sun,  Regulus,  Arcturus,  and  Orion, 
331;  King  and,  331;  Isaiah's  parable, 
331;  as  bull  of  heaven,  334 ;  winged 
disk  or  "wheel"  of,  334,  335;  stan- 
dard of  as  "world  spine",  335;  the 
archer  in  "wheel",  335;  despiritual- 
ization  theory,  335,  336;  the  solar 
archer  as  Merodach,  Hercules,  and 
Gilgamesh,  336;  the  arrow  of,  337; 
Babylonian  deities  and,  337;  Baby- 
lonian and  Persian  influences,  338 ; 
as  god  of  fertility,  &c.,  339;  Assyrian 
civilization  reflected  by,  340;  as  corn 
god  and  war  god,  340;  the  Biblical 
Nisroch,  341;  the  eagle  and,  343; 
Ezekiel's  references  to  life  wheel,  344 
et  seq,\  fire  cult  and,  346;  Indian 
wheel  symbol,  346,  347;  Persian 
wheel  or  disk,  347;  wheels  of  Shamash 
and  Ishtar,  347;  the  Egyptian  Ankh, 
347 ;  Hittite  winged  disk,  347,  348 ; 
Sandan  and,  347,  348;  Attisand,  348; 
son  of  Ea  like  Merodach,  348;  aided 
by  fires  and  sacrifices,  351;  disk  a 
symbol  of  life,  fertility,  &c.,  351;  the 
lightning  arrow,  352 ;  temples  of  and 
worship  of,  352;  close  association  of 
with  kings,  352,  353;  association  of 
with  moon  god,  353;  astral  phase  of, 
354;  Jastrow's  view,  354;  Pinches  on 
Merodach  and  Osiris  links,  354;  as 
patriarch,  corn  god,  &c.,  354,  355; 


"spouse  of,  355;  a  Baal,  355;  earth- 
quake destroys  temple  of,  363;  Shal- 
maneser  I  obtains  treasure  for,  366; 
Esarhaddon  builds  temple  to,  476; 
Sennacherib  murdered  in  temple  of, 
4jro;  Ahuza  Mazda  and,  496.  See 
Asskur^  the  Biblical  Patriarch. 

Ashur-bani-pal  (a'shur-ban'i-pal),  dis- 
covery of  library  of,  xxii,  xxiii ;  doc- 
tors and,  231,  232;  worship  of  Ashur 
and  Sin,  353;  Merodach  restored  to 
Babylon  by,  481,  482;  Egyptian  cam- 
paign, 482;  sack  of  Thebes,  483; 
emissaries  from  Gyges  of  Lydia  visit, 
483;  Shamash -shum-ukin's  revolt 
against,  484;  suicide  of  Shamash- 
shum-ukin,  485;  Lydia  aided  by,  486; 
Sardanapalus  legend,  486 ;  the  Bibli- 
cal "Asnapper",  487;  palace  of,  487. 

A'shur-dan'  I,  of  Assyria,  370. 

Ashur-dan  III,  reign  of,  442. 

Ashur-danin-apli  (a'shur-dan-in'apli),  re- 
volt of  in  Assyria,  414,  415. 

Ashur-elit-ilani  (a'shur-e'lit-il-a'ni),  King 
of  Assyria,  487,  488. 

Ashur-natsir-pal  I  (a'shur-na'tsir-pal)  of 
Assyria,  369. 

Ashur-natsir-pal  III,  his  "reign  of 
terror '',  396 ;  conquests  and  atro- 
cities of,  397,  398;  Babylonians  over- 
awed by,  399;  death  of,  401. 

Ashur-nirari  IV  (a'shur-ni-ra'ri),  last 
king  of  Assyria's  "Middle  Empire", 
442,  443- 

Ashur-uballit  (a'shur-u-bal-lit),  King  of 
Assyiia,  Egypt  and,  281,  282,  285; 
conquests  of,  284;  grandson  of  as 
King  of  Babylon,  284;  Arabian  desert 
trade  route,  360. 

Asia  Minor,  hill  god  of,  136;  prehistoric 
alien  pottery  in,  263. 

Ass,  the  sun  god  as,  329;  in  Lagash 
chariot,  330. 

"Ass  of  the   East",   horse  called   in 

..  Babylonia,  270. 

As'shur,  City  of,  Ashur  the  god  of,  277; 
Mitanni  king  plunders,  280;  imported 
beliefs  in,  327 ;  Biblical  reference  to, 
339;  development  of  god  of,  355; 
Merodach's  statue  deported  to,  469. 

As'shur,  the  Biblical  Patriarch  of  As- 
syria, 276,  277,  327.  See  Ashttr. 

Assyria,  excavations  in,  xix  et  seq.\ 
Amorite  migration  to,  217;  Ham- 
murabi kings  as  overlords  of,  241, 
419;  Thothmes  III  corresponds  with 


INDEX 


505 


king  of,  276;  Biblical  reference  to 
rise  of,  276,  277;  Aryan  names  of 
early  kings  of,  278;  Mitanni  kings  as 
overlords  of,  279,  280;  Semitized  by 
Amorites,  279;  in  Tell-el-Amarna 
letters,  281,  282;  rise  of  after  fall  of 
Mitanni,  284;  struggles  with  Baby- 
lonia for  Mesopotamia,  284-6;  361  et 
seq.\  the  national  god,  Ashur,  326  et 
seq. ;  Isaiah's  reference  to,  340;  Egyp- 
tians and  Hittites  allied  against,  366, 
368 ;  Old  Empire  Kings,  366  et  seq. ; 
Babylonia  controls,  370:  character 
of,  372-5;  periods  of  history  of,  375; 
at  close  of  Kassite  period,  380;  end 
of  Old  Empire,  386;  Second  Empire 
°fi  39  *  *t  seq.\  sculpture  of  and 
Sumerian,  401 ;  mother  worship  in, 
420  et  seq.\  Urartu's  struggle  with, 
440-2 ;  end  of  Second  Empire,  443 ; 
Third  Empire,  444  et  seq.\  Egypt 
becomes  a  province  of,  475  ft  sea.\ 
last  king  of,  487;  fall  of  Nineveh,  488; 
Cyaxares  lules  over,  493. 

Astarte  (as-tar'te),  lovers  of,  103;  ani- 
mals of  on  Lagash  vase,  120;  god- 
desses that  link  with,  267;  Semiramis 
and,  425. 

Astrology,  basal  idea  in  Babylonian, 
317;  Babylonian  and  Grecian,  318  et 
seq.\  literary  references  to,  325. 

Astrology  and  astronomy,  287  et  seq. 
See  Stars ,  Planets  >  and  Constellations. 

Astronomers,  eclipses  foretold  by  in  late 
Assyrian  period,  321,  322. 

Astronomy,  Merodach  fixes  stars,  &c., 
in  Creation  legend,  147,  148;  dis- 
covery that  moon  is  lit  by  sun,  148  n. ; 
Mythical  Ages  and,  $iQetseq.m,  theory 
of  Greek  origin  of,  319  et  seq.\  pre- 
cession of  the  equinoxes,  320,  320  n. ; 
Assyro  -  Babylonian  observatories, 
320-2;  Hittites  pass  Babylonian  dis- 
coveries to  Europe,  316;  in  late  As- 
syrian and  neo- Babylonian  period,  479, 
480. 

Astyages  (as-ty'a-jez).  King  of  the 
Medes,  Cyrus  displaces,  493 ;  wife  of 
a  Lydian  princess,  494. 

Asura  fire  (a-shoo'ra),  in  the  sea,  50,  51. 

Atargatis  (at-ar-ga'tis),  the  goddess, 
legend  of  origin  of,  28;  as  a  bi-sexual 
deity,  267;  Derceto  and,  277,  426, 
427;  Nina  and,  277,  278. 

Ate  (a'te),  mother  goddess  of  Cilicia, 
267. 


Athaliah  (ath-a-ll'ah),  Queen,  ot  Judah, 
409;  reign  of,  413;  Joash  crowned, 
413;  soldiers  slay,  413,  414. 

Athena  (ath^'na),  indigenous  goddess  of 
Athens,  105 ;  goat  and,  337. 

Athens,  imported  gods  in,  105. 

Atmospheric  deities,  Enlil,  Indra,  Ram- 
man,  &c.,  as,  35;  "  air  of  life  "  from, 
48,  49. 

Aton,  Akhenaton's  god,  the  goddess 
Mut  and,  419,  422. 

Attis  (at'tis),  the  Phrygian  god,  Tarn- 
muz  and,  84;  death  of,  87;  as  lover 
of  Cybele,  103,  104;  deities  that  link 
with,  267;  as  Jupiter,  305;  Ashur 
and,  354-5 ;  symbols  of,  348. 

Au'-Aa,  Jah  as  Ea,  31. 

Australia,  star  myths  in,  296,  300. 

Axe,  the  double,  symbol  of  god,  348. 

Azag-Bau  (a'zag  ba'u),  legendary  queen 
of  Kish,  114;  humble  origin  of,  115. 

Azariah  (az-a-rl'ah),  King  of  Judah, 
449- 

Baal,  the  moon  god  as,  51;  shadowy 
spouse  of,  100;  Ashur  as,  355;  wor- 
ship of  the  Phoenician  in  Israel,  406. 

Baal-clag'on,  the  god,  symbols  of,  32. 

Ba'asha,  King  of  Israel,  403;  Damascus 
aids  Judah  against,  404,  405. 

Ba'a-u,  the  Phoenician  mother  goddess, 
150. 

Babbar  (bab'bar),  sun  god,  125;  Nin 
Girsu  and,  132;  of  Sippar,  240. 
See  Shamash. 

Babylon,  in  early  Christian  literature, 
xvii;  German  excavations  at,  xxiv; 
Isaiah  foretells  doom  of,  113,  114, 
478;  sack  of  by  Gutium,  129;  politi- 
cal rise  of,  217  et  seq.\  early  history 
of,  218;  Greek  descriptions  of  late 
city  of,  219  et  seq.\  "hanging  gar- 
dens" of,  220;  date  of  existing  ruins 
of,  222;  marriage  market  of,  224, 
225;  sun  worship  in,  240;  the  Lon- 
don of  Western  Asia,  253 ;  return  of 
Merodach  from  Mitanni  to,  272 ; 
observatory  at,  321;  destruction  of 
by  Sennacherib,  468,  469;  restored 
by  Esarhaddon,  471 ;  Ashur-bani-pal 
restores  Merodach  to,  461,  482; 
Shamash-fiiim-ukin's  revolt  in,  484, 
485 ;  Belshazzar's  feast  in,  494,  495 ; 
under  the  Persians,  496;  Xerxes 
pillages  Merodach's  temple  in,  497; 
Alexander  the  Great  in,  497,  498; 


506 


INDEX 


under  empire  ot  Seleucidse,  498; 
slow  death  of,  498,  499. 

Babylonia,  excavations  in,  xix  et  seq. ; 
religion  of,  xxviii,  xxxi;  debt  of 
modern  world  to,  xxxv;  early  divi- 
sions of,  I  et  seq.\  harvests  of,  21, 
22;  the  two  seasons  of,  23,  24;  rise 
of  empire  of,  133;  Amorite  migra- 
tion into,  217;  Golden  Age  of,  253; 
Hittite  invasion  of,  259;  Tell-el- 
Amarna  letters  and,  281 ;  early 
struggles  with  Assyria,  284-6;  star 
myths  of,  290  et  seq. ;  ancestor  wor- 
ship in,  295 ;  beginning  of  arithmetic 
in,  310  et  scq.'j  Kassites  and  Meso- 
potamia, 358, 359, 361  eiseq. ;  Arabian 
desert  route,  360 ;  influence  of  Hittites 
in,  364,  366,  368 ;  Assyria  controlled 
by,  37O;  Kassite  dynasty  ends,  370-1 ; 
compared  with  Assyria,  371-5;  Tig- 
lath-pileser  I  and,  385 ;  Ashur-natsir- 
pal  III  overawes,  399;  Shamshi- 
Adad  VII  subdues,  414, 415;  Tiglath- 
pileser  IV,  the  "Pulu"  of,  444-6; 
Esarhaddon  and,  471-6;  Neo-Baby- 
Ionian  Age,  478  et  seq.\  Alexander 
the  Great  and,  497. 

Baghdad  railway,  following  ancient 
trade  route,  357,  357  ti. 

Balder,  the  Germanic  god,  Gilgamesh 
and,  184;  new  age  of,  202,  203. 

Ba-neb-tet'tu,  Egyptian  god,  29. 

Barley,  husks  of  in  Egyptian  pre- 
Dynastic  bodies,  6. 

Barleycorn,  John,  Nimrod  and  Ice- 
landic god  Barleycorn  and,  170, 
171. 

Barque  of  Ra,  sun  as  and  the  Baby- 
lonian "boat",  56,  57. 

Basques,  the,  language  ot  and  the 
Sumerian,  3 ;  shaving  customs  of,  4. 

Bast,  the  Egyptian  serpent  mother,  76. 

Ba'ta,  the  Egyptian  tale  of,  85. 

Bats,  ghosts  as,  65. 

Battle,  the  EverlaOing,  65. 

Bau  (ba'ii),  mother  goddess,  100;  Gula 
and  Ishtar  and,  116;  in  Kish,  114, 
126,  127;  associated  with  Nin-Girsu, 
115,  116;  Tiamat  and,  150;  doves 
and,  428  ;  creatrix  and,  437. 

Bear,  as  a  clan  totem,  164. 

Bearded  gods,  the  Sumerian,  135,  136, 
137;  Egyptian  customs,  136. 

"Beare,  the  Old  Woman  of",  as  the 
eternal  goddess,  101,  102. 

Pehistun,  rock  inscription  at,  xx. 


Bel,  the,  Merodach  as,  34 ;  Enlil  as  the 
"elder",  35;  demons  as  "beloved 
sons"  of,  63;  Zu  bird  strives  to  be, 
74 ;  in  demon  war,  77 ;  as  son  of  Ea, 
I39>  decapitated  to  create  mankind, 
148 ;  Etana  visits  heaven  of,  166 ;  in 
Gilgamesh  legend,  172;  in  flood 
legend,  190  et  seq.\  Zodiacal  "  field" 
of,  307;  Sargon  II  and  the  "elder", 
463- 

Bel'-Kap-Ka'pii,  King  of  Babylonia,  as 
overlord  of  Assyria,  419. 

Bel-nirari  (bel'-ni-ra'ri),  King  of  Assyria, 
285,  286. 

Bel-shum-id'din,  last  Kassite  king,  371. 

Beli  (ba'le),  "the  Howler",  enemy  oi 
Germanic  corn  god,  95. 

Belit-sheri  (bel-it-sh^'ri),  sister  of  Tam- 
muz,  in  Hades,  98,  117. 

Belshaz'zar,  King  of  Babylon,  over- 
throw of,  494,  495. 

Beltane  Day,  fire  ceremony  of,  50. 

Beltu  (bal'tii),  the  goddess,  36,  IOO. 

Ben-ha'dad  I,  King  of  Damascus,  as 
overlord  of  Judah  and  Israel,  404. 

Ben-hadad  II,  Ahab  defeats  twice,  406, 
407;  murder  of  by  Hazael,  410. 

Ben-hadad  III,  Assyrians  overcome, 
438,  439- 

Beowulf  (ba-6-wulf ),  brood  of  Cain  in, 
80;  Scyld  myth,  92,  93;  sea  monsters, 
152;  mother-monster  in  like  Sumerian 
and  Scottish,  154,  155. 

Ber,  "lord  of  the  wild  boar",  Ninip 
as,  302. 

Bero'sus,  27,  30,  83,  148,  164,  170,  198, 
466,470,492. 

Bhima  (bhee'ma),  the  Indian,  like  Gil- 
gamesh and  Hercules,  187. 

Birds,  as  ghosts  and  fates,  65;  owl  as 
mother's  ghost,  70;  demons  enter  the, 
71;  Sumerian  Zu  bird  and  Indian 
Garuda,  74,  75,  168,  169;  in  Ger- 
manic legends,  147  n.',  as  symbols  of 
fertility,  169;  birth  eagle,  168,  169, 
171;  imitation  of  and  musical  culture, 
238;  associated  with  goddesses,  423 
et  seq.\  fairies  as,  429.  See  Doves> 
Eagle^  Raven^  Swan,  Vulture^  Wry- 
neck. 

Birth,  magical  aid  for,  165;  straw  girdles, 
serpent  skins,  eagle  stones,  and  magi- 
cal plant,  165. 

Bi-sexual  deities,  Nannar,  moon  god, 
Ishtar,  Isis,  and  Ha  pi  as,  161,  162' 
Nina  and  Atargatis  as,  277,  278; 


INDEX 


507 


Mcrodach  and  Ishtar  change  forms, 
299;  Venus  both  male  and  female, 
299;  mother  body  of  moon  father, 
299;  Isis  as  a  male,  299. 

Bitumen,  Mesopotamia^  wells  of,  25. 

Blake,  W.,  double  vision,  336. 

Blood,  as  vehicle  of  life,  45,  47,  48; 
inspiration  from,  48;  corn  stalks  as, 
55;  sap  of  trees  as,  47. 

Boann  (bo'an),  Irish  river  and  corn 
goddess,  33. 

Boar,  offered  to  sea  god,  33;  demon 
Set  as,  85 ;  Babylonian  Ninshach  as, 
86;  Adonis  slayer  as,  86,  87;  Alt  is 
slain  by,  87;  Diarmid  slain  by,  87; 
the  Irish  " green  boar",  87;  the 
Totemic  theory,  293,  294;  Ninip-Ber 
as  lord  of  the  wild,  302;  Nergal  as, 
304;  Ares  as,  304;  Ninip  and  Set  as, 
315 ;  the  Gaulish  boar  god  and  Mer- 
cury, 316,  317. 

Boghaz-K6i  (bog-haz'-keui),  prehistoric 
pottery  at,  5 ;  Hittite  capital,  262 ; 
mythological  sculptures  near,  268; 
Winckler  cuneiform  tablets  from,  280, 

367. 

Bones,   why  taken   from  graves,   214; 

Shakespeare's  curse,  215. 
Borsippa   (bor'sip-pa),   observatory  at, 

321. 

Botta,  P.  C.,  excavations  of,  xix,  xx. 
Bracelet,  the  wedding,  Ishtar's,  98;  the 

Hindu,  98;*. 
Brahma,  the  Indian  god,  like  Ea,  27; 

Anu  and,  38;  wife  of,  101;  eagle  as, 

169;  Ashur  and,  328. 
Brahmans,  algebra  formulated  by,  289 ; 

Assyrian  teachers  and,  352. 
Breath  of  Apis  bull,  inspiration  from, 

49-. 
Britain,    the    ancestral    giant    of,    42 ; 

Tammuz  myth  in,  85;  birth  girdles 

in,  165 ;  "  Island  of  the  Blessed  "  of, 

203;  in  Egypt  and  Persia,  357. 
Brood  of  Tiamat,  in  Creation  legend, 

141. 
Brown,  Robert,  on  Babylonian  culture 

in  India,   199,  200,  308,  309,  310, 

318,  322, 
Brown  Race,  the.     See  Mediterranean 

Race. 
Buddha  (biid'ha),  Babylonian  teachers 

like,  42. 
Budge,  E.  Wallis,  on  oldest  companies 

of  Babylonian  and  Egyptian  gods,  36, 

37- 

(0642) 


Bull,  offered  to  sea  god,  33;  Ninip  as 
the,  53,  302,  334;  of  Mithra,  55; 
the  winged,  41,  65;  Osiris  as,  85, 
89,  99;  Tammuz  as,  85;  Attis  and 
the,  89;  Enlil  as,  159;  of  Ishtar  in 
Gilgamesh  myth,  176;  seers  wrapped 
in  skin  of,  213;  Horus  as,  301,  302; 
as  sky  god,  329;  Ashur  as,  334;  the 
lunar,  135,  334. 

Burial  customs,  cremation  ceremony, 
49,  50,  350;  "house  of  clay",  56; 
*' houses"  and  charms  for  dead,  206, 
207,  212;  Palaeolithic  and  Neolithic, 
207;  the  Egyptian,  209;  religious 
need  for  ceremonies,  208,  209;  Su- 
merian  like  early  Egyptian,  211,  214; 
priestly  fees,  210,  21 1 ;  food,  fish- 
hooks and  weapons  in  graves,  212; 
why  dead  were  clothed,  213;  honey 
in  coffins,  214;  disturbance  of  bones, 
214,  215;  burnings  at  Hebrew  graves, 

350,  351. 
Buriats,  the,  " calling  back"  of  ghosts 

by,  69,  7°  5   earth  and  air  elves  of, 

105. 
Burkans    (boor'kans),    "the   masters", 

spirits  or  elves  of  Siberians,  105. 
Burnaburiash  I  (bur'na-biir'i-ash),  Kas- 

site  king,  274. 
Burns,  Robert,  72;  the  John  Barley  coin 

myth,  170. 
Burrows,  Professor,  Cretan  snake  and 

dove  goddess,  430. 
Byron,  star  lore,  325. 

Cailleach  (kal'yak),  the  Gaelic,  a  wind 
hag,  73;  as  eternal  goddess,  101. 

Calah  (ka'lah),  the  Biblical.  See  Kalklii. 

Calendar,  the  early  Egyptian,  14;  the 
Babylonian,  305. 

Cambyses  (kam-bl'sez),  as  King  of 
Babylon,  495 ;  sacrifice  of  Apis  bull 
to  Mithra  by,  495;  wife  of  a  Semi- 
ramis,  496. 

Canaan,  Abraham  arrives  in,  245 ;  tribes 
in,  245,  246;  Elamite  conquest  of, 
247,  248,  249;  first  reference  to 
Israelites  in,  379. 

Canaanites,  Hittites  identified  with,  266. 

Canals  of  Ancient  Babylonia,  22,  23. 

Cappadocia,  Cimmerians  in,  472. 

Captivity,  the  Hebrew,  Chebar  river 
(Kheber  canal)  at  Nippur,  344. 

Carchemish  (kar'k^mish),  German  rail- 
way bridge  and  Hittite  wall  at,  357  ». ; 
Hittite  city  state  of,  395;  revolt  of, 
35 


508 


INDEX 


461;  Nebuchadrezzar  defeats  Pharaoh 

Necho  at,  489. 
Caria    (kar'i-a),   assists   Lydia  against 

Cimmerians,  484;  mercenaries  from 

in  Egypt,  486. 
Cat,  sun  god  as,  329. 
Caucasus,  the,  skull  forms  in,  8. 
Cave  dwellers,  the  Palestinian,  10. 
Celtic  goddesses,  of  Iberian  origin,  105. 
Celtic  water  demon  myths,  28. 
Celts,  Achseans  and,  377. 
Ceres  (se-rez),  103. 
Chaldse'ans,  Babylonian  priests  called, 

222,  497 ;  in  Hammurabi  Age,  257 ; 

history  of,  390 ;  Aramaeans  and,  390; 

Judah's  relations  with,   408;    Meio- 

dach  Baladan  King  of,  457  et  seq* ; 

revolt  of  against  Esarhaddon,  471 ; 

revolt  of  against  Ashur-bani-pal,  484; 

Nabo-polassar  King  of  Babylon,  487. 
Charms,  the  burial,  206;  ornaments  as, 

211;    the    metrical    and    poetic   de- 
velopment, 237-9. 
Chedor-laomer    (ched'or-la'o-mer),    the 

Biblical,  247,  248. 
Chellean  (shel'le-an)  flints,  in  Palestine, 

10. 

Cherubs,  the  four-faced,  344. 
Child  god,  Tammuz  and  Osiris  as  the, 

89,   90;    Sargon   of  Akkad   as,   91  ; 

Germanic  Scyld  or  Sceaf  as,  92,  93. 
Children,  stolen  by  hags  and  fairies,  68; 

in  mother  worship,  107,  108. 
China,  spitting  customs  in,  47;  dragons 

of,  152;  ancestor  worship  in,  295. 
Chinese,  language  of  and  the  Sumerian, 

3- 

Chronology,  inflated  dating  and  Berlin 
system,  xxiv,  xxv. 

Cilicia,  thunder  god  of,  261;  Ate,  god- 
dess of,  267;  Hittite  Kingdom  of, 
395;  loniansin,  464;  in  anti-Assyrian 
league,  473  *>  Ashur-bani-pal  expels 
Cimmerians  from,  484,  486. 

Cimmerians,  raids  of  in  Asia  Minor,  461, 
464;  Esarhaddon  and,  472;  Gyges 
of  Lydia  and,  483,  484,  486 ;  Lydians 
break  power  of,  486. 

Clans,  Totemic  names  and  symbols  of, 

293- 

Clepsydra,  a  Babylonian  invention,  323. 

Clothing,  magical  significance  of,  212; 
the  reed  mats  and  sheepskins  in  graves, 
213;  the  bull  skin,  213;  the  ephod 
and  prophet's  mantle,  213,  214, 

Comana  (ko-ma'na),  Hittite  city  ot,  395. 


Constellations,  the  Zu  bird,  74;  why 
animal  forms  were  adopted,  289;  the 
"  Great  Bear"  in  various  mythologies, 
295,  296,  309;  the  Pleiades,  296, 
297;  Pisces  as  "fish  of  Ea",  296; 
the  "sevenfold  one",  298,  300; 
Merodach's  forms,  299;  Castor  and 
Pollux  myths  in  Australia,  Africa,  and 
Greece,  300;  Tammuz  and  Orion, 
301;  months  controlled  by,  305;  signs 
of  Zodiac,  305 ;  Babylonian  and 
modern  signs,  308;  the  central, 
northern,  and  southern,  309;  "Fish 
of  the  Canal"  and  "the  Horse", 
309 ;  the  "Milky  Way  ",  309 ;  identi- 
fied before  planets,  318;  Biblical  and 
literary  references  to,  324,  325;  the 
"Arrow",  "Eagle",  "Vulture", 
"Swan",  and  "Lyra",  336,  337. 

Copper,  Age  of  in  Palestine,  1 1 ;  first 
use  of,  12;  in  Northern  Mesopotamia, 
25 ;  Gudea  of  Lagash  takes  from 
El  am,  130. 

Corn  child  god,  Tammuz  and  Osiris  as, 
$9»  90;  Surgon  as,  91 ;  the  Gei  manic 
Sc>  Id  or  Scef,  92,  93,  04  ;  Frey  and 
Heimdal  as,  94. 

Corn  Deities,  as  river  and  fish  gods  and 
goddesses,  29,  32,  33. 

Corn  god,  moon  god  as,  52;  Mithra  as, 
55;  the  thunder  god  as,  57,  340; 
Tammuz  and  Osiris  as,  81  et  seq.\ 
Khonsu  as,  90;  Frey  and  Agni  as, 
94;  fed  with  sacrificed  children,  171. 

Corn  goddess,  Isis  as,  90;  fish  goddess 
as,  117. 

Cow  goddesses,  Isis,  Nepthys,  and 
Hathor  as,  99,  329. 

Creation,  local  character  of  Babylonian 
conception,  xxix;  of  mankind  at 
Eridu,  38;  legend  of,  134,  i$%etseq.\ 
night  as  parent  of  day,  330. 

Creative  tears,  45  et  seq. 

Creator  gods,  Ea  and  Ptah  as,  30; 
eagle  god  as,  169. 

Creatress,  the  goddess  Mama  as,  57; 
Aruru  as,  100,  148;  forms  of,  437. 

Cremation,  traces  of  in  Gezer  caves,  1 1 ; 
the  ceremony  of,  49 ;  not  Persian  or 
Sumerian,  50;  in  European  Bronze 
Age,  316;  Saul  burned,  350;  Sar- 
danapalus  legend,  350. 

Crete,  chronology  or,  xxv,  114;  no 
temples,  xxxi;  women's  high  social 
status  in,  16}  Dagon's  connection 
with,  33 ;  prehistoric  pottery  in,  263 ; 


INDEX 


509 


Hyksos  trade  with,  273;  Achaeans 
invade,  376,  377;  Philistine  raiders 
from,  379;  dove  and  snake  sacred 
in,  430;  dove  goddess  not  Baby- 
lonian, 433,  434. 

Crocodile  god  of  Egypt,  29;  sun  god 
as,  329. 

Croesus  of  Lydia,  Cyrus  defeats,  494. 

Cromarty,  the  south-west  wind  hag  or, 

73- 

Cronos,  as  the  Destroyer,  64;  Ninip 
and  Set  and,  315. 

Cuneiform  writing,  earliest  use  of,  7. 

Cushites,  Biblical  reference  to,  276. 

Cuthah  (ku'thah),  Nergal,  god  of,  54; 
annual  fires  at,  170;  the  Underworld 
city  of,  205;  demon  legend  of,  215, 
216;  men  of  in  Samaria,  455,  456. 

"Cuthean  Legend  of  Creation",  215, 
216. 

Cyaxares  (sy-ax'ar-es),  Median  King, 
Nineveh  captured  by,  488;  ally  of 
Nabopolassar,  493. 

Cybele  (ky-bc'le),  Attis  lover  of,  103, 
^  104,  267, 

Cyprus,  dove  goddess  not  Babylonian, 
433>  434J  dove  goddess  of,  426,  427, 
43  3>  4345  Ashur-bani-pal  and,  484. 

Cyrus,  Merodach  calls,  493 ;  the  Patri-    j 
arch  of,  493 ;  the  eagle  tribe  of,  493  ;    » 
Astyages  defeated  by,  493;  Egypto-    ; 
Lydian   alliance   against,    494;    Na- 
bonidus  and,  494 ;  Croesus  of  Lydia 
overthrown  by,  494;  fall  of  Babylon, 
494,   495  5    the   King  of  Babylonia, 
495;    welcomed  by  Jews,  495;    re- 
building of  Jerusalem  temple,  496. 

Dadu  (da'dii),  Ramman  as,  57. 

Dagan  (da'g'an),  the  Babylonian,  iden- 
tical with  Ea,  31 ;  Nippur  temple  of, 
131 ;  under  Isin  Dynasty,  132. 

Dagda   (dag'da),   the   Irish   corn   god, 

33,  238. 
Dagon  (dag'on),  Jah  and  Ea  as,  31 ; 

Dagan  and,   31,  32;    as  a  fish  and 

corn  deity,  32 ;  Baal-dagon  and,  32 ; 

offering  of  mice  to,  32,  33. 
Daguna  (dag'ii-na),  Dagon  and  Dagan 

and,  31. 
Daityas  (dait'yas),  the  Indian,  like  Baby- 

Ionian  demons,  34. 

Damascius,  on  Babylonian  deities,  328. 
Damascus,    Aramaean    state    of,    390; 

Israel  and  Judah  subject  to,  195,  396; 

Asa's  appeal  to,  404;  conflict  with 


Assyria,  407;  Judah  and  Israel  allied 
against,  408;  murder  of  Ben-hadad 
II,  410;  Palestine  subject  to,  414; 
Israel  overcomes,  449;  conquered  by 
Adad-nirari  IV,  438,  439. 

Damik-ilishu  (dam-ik-il-i'shu),  last  king 
of  Isin  Dynasty,  133. 

Damkina  (dam'ki-na),  wife  of  Ea,  33,  34; 
demon  attendants  of,  63;  as  mother 
of  Ea,  105  ;  as  mother  of  Enlil,  139; 
Zerpanitu"1  and,  160;  association  of 
with  moon,  436;  creatrix  and,  437. 

Damu  (da'mu),  the  fairy  goddess  of 
dreams,  77,  78. 

Danavas  (dan'avas),  the  Indian,  like 
Babylonian  demons,  34. 

Dancing,  the  constellations,  333. 

Danes,  haivest  god  as  patriarch  of,  92. 

Daniel,  Nebuchadrezzar's  "fiery  fur- 
nace", 349. 

Danu  (da -mi),  the  Irish  goddess,  268. 

Daonus  or  Daos,  the  shepherd,  Tammuz 
as,  83,  86. 

Dari'us  I,  claims  to  be  Achaemenian, 
496;  plots  against  Merodach  cult, 

497- 

Darius  II,  death  of  at  Babylon,  497. 

Darius  III,  Alexander  the  Great  over- 
throws, 497. 

Dasa  (da'sa),  the  Indian,  as  "foreign 
devil ",  67, 

Dasyu  (dash'yoo) ,  the  Indian,  as  *  *  foreign 
devil",  67. 

Date  palm,  in  Babylonia,  25. 

David,  the  ephod  used  by,  213,  214, 
388. 

Dead,  the,  Nergal  lord  of,  56;  ghosts 
of  searching  for  food,  70,  71;  Osiris 
lord  of,  86;  charms,  weapons,  and 
food  for,  206;  "houses"  of,  206-8; 
spirits  of  as  warriors  and  fishermen, 
212. 

Death,  eagle  of,  168;  the  Roman,  169; 
Hercules  and,  170. 

Death,  the  sea  of,  in  Gilgamesh  epic, 
178  et  seq. 

Death,  the  stream  of,  56. 

Deer,  associated  with  Lagash  goddess, 
1 20. 

Deities,  the  local,  43,  44;  food  and 
water  required  by,  44;  the  mead  of, 
45;  early  groups  of  in  Egypt  and 
Sumeria,  105,  106;  made  drunk  at 
banquet,  144. 

Deluge  Legend,  Smith  translates,  xxii 
See  Flood  Lcgettds. 


INDEX 


Demeter  (d<f-m*'ter),  the  goddess,  Posei- 
don as  lover  of,  33,  103. 

Demons,  the  Babylonian  Ocean,  34; 
gods  as,  35,  62,  135;  Enlil  lord  of, 
35,  63;  Tiamat  and  Apsu  as,  37,  38, 
64;  Tiamat's  brood,  140,  141,  214, 
215;  "ceremonies  of  riddance",  58; 
as  sources  of  misfortune,  60;  in  images, 
61;  the  winged  bull,  &c.,  65;  the 
"will-o'-the-wisp",  66,  67;  Ann  as 
father  of,  63,  60;  as  lovers,  67,  68; 
Adam's  first  wife  Lililh,  67;  ghosts 
as,  69,  215;  penetrate  everywhere,  71, 
72;  as  pigs,  horses,  goats,  &c.,  71; 
Set  pig  of  Egypt,  85 ;  as  wind  hags, 
72,  73;  the  Zu  bird,  74;  Indian  eagle, 
166;  association  of  with  gods,  76;  the 
serpent  mother  one  of  the,  74-6 ;  the 
Jinn,  78;  as  composite  monsters,  79; 
the  Teutonic  Beli,  95;  in  mythology 
and  folk  lore,  151  et  seq. ;  the  Gorgons, 
159;  King  of  Cuthah's  battle  against, 
214,  215;  disease  germs  as,  234. 

De  Morgan,  pottery  finds  by,  263. 

Derceto  (der-k^'to),  fish  goddess,  Semi- 
ramis  and,  277,  418,  423;  mermaid 
form  of,  426;  Atargatis  legend,  426, 
427;  dove  symbol  of,  432;  legends 
attached  to,  437. 

De  Sarzec,  M.,  xxiii., 

"  Descent  of  Ishtar",  poem,  95  et  seq. 

Destroyer,  the,  "World  Mother"  as, 
xxx,  100;  Ninip  as,  53;  goddess  Nin- 
sun  as,  57;  Enlil  and  Nergal  as,  62, 
^3,  303;  Egyptian  and  Indian  deities 
as,  63,  85,  157,  336;  Cronos  as,  64; 
"Shedu"  bull  as^  65;  Set"  boar  as, 
85;  Babylonian  boar  god  as,  86; 
eagle  as,  168,  169;  "winged  disk" 
as,  336;  sun  as,  336;  Thor,  Ashur, 
Tammuz,  and  Indra  each  as,  340. 

Diarmid,  the  Celtic,  Tammuz-Adonis 
and,  84,  87;  water  of  life  myth,  186, 
187;  Totemic  boar  and,  293. 

Dietrich  (det'rech :  *ch'  as  in  loch)  as 
the  thunder  god,  74,  164. 

Diodo'rus,  on  Babylonian  star  lore,  309. 

Disease,  Nergal  the  god  of,  53,  54 ; 
goddess  of,  77;  demons  of,  60,  63,  77. 

Divorce,  in  Babylonia,  227. 

Doctors,  laws  regarding,  230,  231 ; 
Herodotus  on,  231 ;  Assyrian  king 
and,  231,  232. 

Doves,  goddesses  and,  418;  Semiramis 
protected  after  birth  by,  424;  goddess 
of  Cyprus  and,  426;  Aphrodite  and, 


427;  Ishtar  and  Gula  and,  427,  428; 
associated  with  temples  and  homes, 
428;  in  Gilgamesh  epic,  428;  deities 
identified  with,  429;  ravens  and,  429; 
sacred  at  Mycenae,  430;  snakes  and 
in  Crete,  430;  sacred  among  Semites 
and  Hittites,  430;  Egyptian  lovers 
and,  431;  pigeon  lore  in  England, 
Ireland,  and  Scotland,  431;  fish  and, 
432 ;  Totemic  theory,  432  el  seg. ; 
antiquity  of  veneration  of,  433,  434 ; 
sacrificed  in  Israel,  439 ;  the  Persian 
eagle  legend  and,  493. 

Dragon,  the,  of  Babylon,  62;  in  group 
of  seven  spirits,  63;  Tiamat  as  the 
female,  38,  64;  Tiamat  as  ocean,  15, 
as  "  fire  drake",  "  worm",  &c.,  151; 
"Ku-pu"  of  Tiamat,  147;  heart  of, 
147  n. ;  liver  vulnerable  part  of,  153; 
the  male,  156  (see  Apsit)\  Biblical 
references  to,  114,  157,  158;  Eur- 
Asian  variations  of  myth  of,  151,  152; 
well  of  at  Jerusalem,  152;  the  Egyp- 
tian, 156;  Sutekh  as  slayer  of,  157; 
Merodach  as  slayer  of  (see  Alerodach). 

Drake,  the  Fire,  the  Babylonian,  66,  67; 
dragon  as,  151. 

Dreams,  the  fairy  goddess  of,  77,  78. 

Drink  traffic,  women  monopolized  in 
Babylonia,  229. 

Drinking  customs,  religious  aspect  of, 
45;  inspiration  from  blood,  48;  the 
gods  drunk  at  Anshar's  banquet,  144. 

Dungi  (diin'gi),  King  of  Ur,  130;  daugh- 
ters of  as  rulers,  130;  an  Ea  wor- 
shipper, 131. 

Dyaus  (rhymes  with  "mouse"),  dis- 
placed by  Indra,  302. 

Dying  gods,  the  eternal  goddess  and 
the,  101  et  seq,\  death  a  change  of 
form,  305. 

Ea  (a'a),  god  of  the  deep,  Ashur-bani- 
pal  and,  xxii,  xxiii;  a  typical  Baby- 
lonian god,  xxviii,  xxix,  27;  Cannes 
and,  27,  30;  as  world  artisan  like 
Ptah  and  Indra,  30;  connection  of 
with  sea  and  Euphrates,  28,  29,  39; 
as  sea-demon,  62 ;  names  of,  30,  39 ; 
as  fish  and  corn  god,  32;  Dagon, 
Poseidon,  Neptune,  Frey,  Shony,  &c., 
and,  31,  33;  Dagon  and  Dagan,  31; 
Ea  as  Dagan  at  Nippur,  131;  as  Ya, 
or  Jah,  of  Hebrews,  31;  Totemic 
fish  of,  294;  Indian  Varuna  and,  31, 
34,  209;  wife  of  as  earth  lady,  33; 


INDEX 


511 


wife  of  as  mother,  105;  Anu  and,  34; 
Enlil  and,  35 ;  demons  of,  35,  63 ; 
in  early  triad,  36,  37,  463 ;  Indian 
Vishnu  and,  38;  as  dragon  slayer,  38, 
140,  153,  157;  Adapa,  son  of,  a 
demon  slayer,  72,  73;  in  demon  war, 
77 J  as  "great  magician",  38,  46; 
moon  god  and,  40,  50,  51,  53;  solar 
attributes  of,  50,  51,  53;  food  supply 
and,  43;  beliefs  connected  with,  44; 
Nusku  as  messenger  of,  50;  Nebo  a 
form  of,  303,  435;  gods  that  link 
with,  57,  58;  as  form  of  Anshar,  125; 
family  of  including  Merodach  and 
Tarn  muz,  72,  73,  82;  daughter  of, 
117;  Merodach  supplants,  158;  Enlil 
as  son  of,  139;  Ashur  as  son  of,  348; 
planetary  gods  and,  304;  worshipped 
at  Lagash,  116;  earliest  form  of,  134; 
under  Ism  Dynasty,  132;  in  Creation 
legend,  138  et  seq. ;  astral  "field"  of, 
147,  307;  constellations  and,  296; 
Merodach  directs  decrees  of,  149; 
Etana  and  eagle  visit  heaven  of,  166; 
in  flood  legend,  190  et  seq. ;  as  Aos, 
328;  the  goat  and,  333;  as  "high 
head",  334;  Sargon  II  and,  463. 

Ea-bani  (a'a-ba'ni),  41,  42;  ghost  of  as 
"  wind  gust ",  48,  49;  goat  demi-god, 
135;  lured  from  the  wilds,  173;  as 
ally  of  Gilgamesh,  174;  Ishtar's  woo- 
ing, 174,  175;  slaying  of  Ishtar's  bull, 
176;  death  of,  176,  177;  ghost  of  in- 
voked by  Gilgamesh,  183,  184. 

Eagle,  the,  Sumerian  Zu  bird  and 
Indian  Garuda  eagle,  74,  75,  165, 
166,  168,  169,  330,  346,  347;  the 
lion  headed  as  Nin-Girsu  (Tammuz), 
1 20,  135;  in  Etana  myth,  165;  in 
Nimvodmyth,  166,  167;  in  Alexander 
the  Great  legend,  167 ;  in  Scottish 
folk  tale,  167,  168;  as  soul  carrier, 
168;  Roman  Emperor's  soul  and,  169; 
Hercules  and,  170,  349;  Gilgamesh 
protected  at  birth  by,  171;  Persian 
patriarch  protected  at  birth  by,  493; 
the  Totemic  theory,  293,  493;  wheel 
of  life  and,  346,  347;  Ashur  and 
Horus  and,  343 ;  wings  of  on  Ashur 
disk,  351,  352. 

Eagle  stone,  as  a  birth  charm,  165. 

Eagle  tribe,  the  ancient,  493. 

Eannatum  (a'  an  -na'  turn),  King  of 
Lagash,  a  great  conqueror,  118,  119; 
rules  Ur  and  Erech,  1 19 ;  works  of, 
119;  mound  burial  in  period  of,  214. 


Earth  children,  elves  and  dwarfs  as, 
292,  292  n. 

Earth  spirits,  males  among  father  wor- 
shippers, 105;  the  Egyptian,  Teu- 
tonic, Aryan,  and  Siberian,  105;  elves 
and  fairies  as,  294,  295. 

Earth  worship,  moon  and  stone  wor- 
ship and,  52. 

Ecclesiastest  "Lay  of  the  Harper", 
"Song  of  the  Sea  Lady"  and,  179, 
1 80. 

Ecke  (eck-a),  Tyrolese  storm  demon, 
74. 

Eclipse  foretold  by  Assyrian  and  Baby^ 
Ionian  astronomers,  321,  322;  the 
Ahaz  sundial  record,  323;  Babylonian 
records  of,  324;  in  reign  of  Ashur- 
dan  III,  442. 

Ecliptic,  when  divided,  322. 

Edinburgh,  the  giant  Arthur  of,  164. 

Edom,  Judah  and,  402,  409,  448 ;  trib- 
ute from  to  Assyria,  439. 

Education,  in  Hammurabi  Age,  251. 

Egg,  the,  goddess  Atargatis  born  of,  28, 
426;  thorn  as  life  in,  352. 

Egypt,  agricultural  festivals  in,  xxxi; 
debt  of  modern  world  to,  xxxv ;  pre- 
historic agriculture  in,  6;  Mediter- 
ranean lace  in,  7 ;  early  shaving 
customs,  5,  9,  10 ;  theory  copper  first 
used  in,  12;  social  status  of  women 
in,  16;  early  gods  of  and  Sumerian, 
26,  36,  37 ;  creative  tears  of  deities 
of,  45 ;  lunar  worship  in,  52 ;  god 
and  goddess  cults  in,  105;  Great 
Mother  Nut  of,  106;  at  dawn  of 
Sumerian  history,  114;  bearded 
deities  of,  136;  dragon  of,  156; 
"  Lay  of  Harper"  and  Sumerian 
"Song  of  Sea  Lady",  178,  179; 
flood  legend  of,  197 ;  feast  of  dead 
in,  206 ;  burial  customs  and  Sumeriari, 
209-14;  Hyksos  invasion  and  Hittite 
raid  on  Babylon,  259;  culture  debt  of 
to  Syria,  275;  prehistoric  Armenoid 
invasion  of,  I  r,  263 ;  prehistoric  black 
foreign  pottery,  263 ;  Totemism  in, 
292-5,  432-3 ;  Syrian  empire  of  lost, 
284;  fairies  and  elves  of,  294;  Pharaoh 
displaces  gods  in,  295;  doctrine  ot 
mythical  ages  in,  315;  the  phoenix, 
330;  the  "man  in  the  sun",  336: 
Neith  as  a  thunder  goddess,  337, 
337  77. ;  Ankh  symbol,  347 ;  influence 
of  Hittitesin,  364;  wars  with  Hittites, 
365,  366;  Cretans  and  sea  raiders, 


512 


INDEX 


378;  Hebrews  and,  388;  "mother 
right",  in,  418;  sacred  pigeons  in, 
428;  fosters  revolt  against  Sargon  II, 
457;  Pharaoh  and  Pirn  of  Mutsri, 
458  and  «. ;  Sennacherib  defeats  army 
of,  465;  intrigues  against  Assyria, 
465,  471 ;  as  Assyrian  province,  475; 
Ashur-bani-pal  and,  482,  484;  As- 
syrian yoke  shaken  off,  486;  Scythians 
on  frontier  of,  488;  after  Assyria's 
fall,  489 ;  Hophra  plots  against  Nebu- 
chadrezzar II,  491. 

El'ah,  King  of  Israel,  405. 

El  am,  prehistoric  pottery  of,  5,  263; 
copper  from,  130;  British  influence 
*n>  357>  taravan  routes  of,  361. 

Elamites,  relations  with  early  Sumerians, 
ill;  defeated  by  Eannatum of  Lagash, 
Il8;  raid  on  Lagash  by,  121  ;  Sargon 
of  Akkad  defeats,  127;  Ur  dynasty 
overthrown  by,  131;  in  Hammurabi 
Age,  217;  conquests  of  Warad-Sin 
and  Rim-Sin,  217;  King  Sin-mubal- 
lit's  struggle  with,  242,  243;  Medes 
and,  244;  King  of  and  Abraham, 
247 ;  in  Syria,  247 ;  driven  from 
Babylonia,  249;  in  Kassite  period, 
274,  370,  380,  381 ;  connection  of 
with  early  Assyria,  278;  struggle  for 
trade  expansion,  361  et  seg.\  Baby- 
lonian raid,  369;  during  Solomon 
period,  391 ;  Esarhaddon  and,  472  ; 
Ashur-bani-pal  subdues,  484,  485. 

Elisha,  call  of  Jehu,  409,  410;  call  of 
Hazael,  410,  411. 

Elves,  the  Babylonian,  67;  as  lovers, 
68;  origin  of  conception  of,  79,  80, 
292 ;  like  Indian  Ribhus  and  Siberian 
"masters",  105;  the  European, 
Egyptian,  and  Indian,  294;  human 
bargains  with,  294,  295. 

Enannatum  I  (en-an-na'tum)  of  Lagash, 
defeats  Umma  force,  119. 

Enannatum  II,  King  of  Lagash,  last  of 
Ur-Nina's  line,  120. 

England,  the  ancestral  giant  of,  42 ; 
spitting  customs  in,  47;  return  of 
dead  dreaded  in,  70,  7 on.;  Black 
Annis,  the  wind  hag,  73,  101 ;  fairies 
and  elves  of,  80,  186;  the  "fire 
drake"  of,  151;  "Long  Meg"  a 
hag  of,  156;  "Long  Tom"  a  giant 
of,  156;  pigeon  lore  in,  431. 

Enki  (an'ki),  "lord  of  the  world  ",  Ea 
as,  31.  See  Ea. 

En'lil,  god  of  Nippur  and  elder  Bel, 


lord  of  demons,  35;  spouse  of,  36; 
in  early  group  of  deities,  37;  like 
Indian  Shiva,  38;  deities  that  link 
with,  35,  57,  271,  272;  as  destroyer, 
62,  63;  "fates"  as  sons  of,  80;  Ur 
Nina  worshipped,  116;  as  son  of 
Anu,  124;  as  son  of  Ea,  139;  Ninip 
as  son  and  father  of,  53,  158,  302; 
during  Isis  Dynasty,  132;  astral 
"field"  of,  147;  Merodach  directs 
decrees  of,  149;  as  corn  god,  159; 
monotheism  of  cult  of,  161 ;  temple 
of  as  "world  house "r  35,  332;  as 
bull  and  "high  head",  334;  Etana 
in  heaven  of,  166;  also  rendered  Ellil. 
See  Bel. 

Enlil-bani  (en'lil-ba'ni),  King  of  Isin,  a 
usurper  like  Sargon,  133. 

En-Mersi  (en-m^r'si),  a  form  of  Tam- 
muz,  116. 

Enneads,  the  Babylonian  and  Egyptian, 
36. 

Entemena(en-te'men-a),Kingof  Lagash, 
Umma  subdued  by,  119,  120 ;  famous 
silver  vase  of,  120;  worshipped  as  a 
god,  257,  258. 

Kphod,  the,  used  by  David,  213,  214. 

Ephron  the  Hittite,  12. 

Equinoxes,  piecession  of,  where  law  of 
discovered:  Greeceor  Babylonia?  320, 
320  ».,  322. 

Erech,  Anu  god  of,  34;  gods  of  be- 
come flies  and  mice,  41 ;  destroying 
sun  goddess  of,  57 ;  Ur-Nina  and, 
116;  under  Lagash,  119;  an  ancient 
capital,  124,  125;  rise  of  after  Akkad, 
129 ;  moon  god  at,  130 ;  in  Gilgamesh 
epic,  172  et  Sf</.;  in  revolt  against 
Ashur-bani-pal,  484;  Nabonidus  and, 
492. 

Eresh-ki-gal  (eresh-hi'gal),  goddess  of 
death,  53 ;  Nergal  husband  and  con- 
queror of,  53,  54,  204,  205,  303 ;  as 
a  Norn,  77;  "  Fates"  as  sons  of,  80; 
as  wife  of  Enlil,  80;  Germanic  hag 
like,  95;  punishment  of  Ishtar  by, 
96,  97;  as  destroyer,  100. 

Eridu  (/ri-du),  once  a  seaport,  22,  25, 
38;  Ea  the  god  of,  27;  sanctity  of, 

38,  39- 

Eros,  Greek  love  god,  90. 

E-sagila  (*?-sagyi-la),  Merodach's  temple, 
221 ;  Hammurabi  and,  252;  in  Kassite 
Age,  274;  as  symbol  of  world  hill, 
332;  sacked  by  Sennacherib,  468; 
gods  of  Ur,  Erech,  Larsa,  and  Eridu 


INDEX 


in,  492,  493 ;  Xerxes  pillages,  497  ; 
Alexander  the  Great  repairs,  497 ; 
decay  of,  498. 

Esarhaddon  (e'sar-had'don),  character 
of,  470;  Babylonian  wife  of,  471; 
Egypto-Syrian  league  against,  471, 
472;  Queen  Nakia  regent  of,  472; 
alliance  with  Urartu,  473;  sack  of 
Sidon,  473;  Manasseh's  revolt,  474; 
invasion  of  Egypt,  475;  revolt  in 
Assyria,  476;  successors  chosen  by, 
476';  death  of,  476. 

Esau,  Hittite  wives  of,  266. 

Etana  (tf-ta'na),  Zu  bird  myth  and, 
74-6 ;  quest  of  the  "  Plant  of  Birth  ", 
164,  165;  flight  with  eagle  to 
heavens,  165,  166. 

Eternal  goddess,  the,  husbands  of  die 
annually,  101  et  seq. 

Ethnology,  folk  beliefs  and,  xxvi. 

Euphrates,  the  river,  22;  as  "the  soul 
of  the  land",  23;  rise  and  fall  of,  24; 
as  the  creator,  29. 

Europe,  lunar  worship  in,  52;  Armenoid 
invasion  of,  264. 

Evans,  Sir  Arthur,  pottery  finds  by,  263. 

Evil  eye,  the,  235,  236. 

"Evil  Merodach",  King  of  Babylon, 
492. 

Evolution,  in  Babylonian  religion,  xxxiv. 

Ezekiel,  on  fire-worshipping  ceremony, 
50;  Tammuz  weeping,  82;  on  ethnics 
of  Jerusalem,  246;  on  Ilittite  char- 
acteristics, 266;  Assyria  the  cedar, 
340,  341;  the  wheel  of  life  symbol, 
344  ft  seq. 

Ezra,  return  of  Jewish  captives  with, 
496. 

Face  paint,   for   the   dead,   206;    why 

used  for  dead,  living,  and  gods,  212. 
Fafner  dragon,  156. 
Fairies,  the  Babylonian,  67;  origin  of, 

79,  80;  green  like  other  spirits,  186; 

the  European,  Egyptian,  and  Indian, 

294;  human  bargains  with,  294,  295; 

birds  as,  429. 
Farm  labourers,  scarcity  of  in  Babylonia, 

256. 
Farnell,  Dr.,  on  pre-Hellenic  religion, 

104;  on  racial  gods  in  Greece,  105. 
Fates,  the  birds  as,  65, 147  «. ,  427  n. ,  430; 

as  servants  of  Anu,  77;  moon  as  chief 

of  the,  301;  oldest  deities  as,  317; 

on  St.  Valentine's  Day,  430;  Aphro* 

dite  and  Ishtar  as,  433. 


Father,  the  Great,  Anu  as,  38;  Ram- 
man-Hadad  as,  57;  Apsu,  the  chaos 
demon  as,  64;  Osiris  as,  99;  shadowy 
spouse  of,  100;  nomadic  people  and, 
105;  worshipped  by  Hatti,  xxx,  268, 
420. 

Father  and  son  conflict ;  younger  god 
displaces  elder,  Ninip  and  Enlil, 
Merodach  and  Ea,  Indra  and  Dyaus 
myths,  158;  Osiris  and  Horus,  159; 
in  astral  myths,  302,  303,  304,  305, 
348. 

Feast  of  Dead,  206. 

Fig  tree,  in  Babylonia,  25. 

Finger  counting,  in  Babylonia  and  India, 
311  et  seq. 

Finn-mac-Coul  (finn'mac-cool),  as  hero 
and  god,  87,  87  n. ,  88  n. ;  as  mother 
monster  slayer,  153,  154;  Beowulf 
and,  155;  as  a  "sleeper",  164,  394; 
water  of  life  myth,  186,  187. 

Finns,  language  of  and  the  Sumerians, 
3;  of  Ural-Altaic  stock,  4. 

Fire,  as  vital  principle,  50,  5 1  \  fire  and 
water  ceremonies,  50,  51;  the  ever- 
lasting fire  in  the  sea,  50,  51;  the 
Babylonian  "Will-o'-the-wisp",  66; 
Eagle  and,  169;  the  May  Day,  348; 
ceremony  of  riddance,  349;  Baby- 
lonian burnings,  348;  Nimrod'*  pyre, 
349>  35°;  Tophet,  350;  royal  burn- 
ings in  Israel  and  Judah,  350,  351. 

Fire  drake,  the  Babylonian,  66,  151. 

Fire  gods,  the  Babylonian  and  Indian, 

49- 

First  born,  sacrifice  of,  50. 

Fish  deities,  Sumerian  Ea  and  Indian 
Brahma  and  Vishnu  as,  27,  28 ;  in 
Eur-Asian  legends,  28 ;  Sumerian  and 
Egyptian,  29 ;  connection  of  with 
corn,  29,  32;  goddess  of  Lagash,  117; 
Western  Asian  fish  goddesses,  277, 
418,  423,  426;  dove  symbol  of,  431, 
432;  Totemism  and,  294. 

Flies,  gods  turn  to,  41. 

Flood  legend,  the  Babylonian,  24,  55, 
190  et  seq.\  the  Greek,  195;  the 
Indian,  xxvi,  196;  the  Irish,  196; 
the  Egyptian,  197 ;  the  American, 
197,  198;  the  Biblical,  198,  199. 

Folk  cures,  the  ancient,  61,  231,  232-4. 

Folk  lore,  mythology  and,  xxv,  xxxiv, 
42,  151  et  seq.,  189;  ethnology  in, 
xxvi. 

Food  of  death,  44. 

Food  of  the  gods,  44, 


INDEX 


Food  supply,  religion  and  the,  42,  43. 
1 '  Foreign  devils   ,  the  Babylonian  and 

Indian,  67. 
Four  quarters,  the,  in  astronomy,  307; 

lunar  divisions,  323. 
Fowl,  inspiration  from  blood  of,  48. 
France,  skull  forms  in  Dordogne  valley, 

8;  Syrian  railways  of,  357. 
Frazer,  Professor,  xxv;  "homogeneity 

of  beliefs",  xx  vi;  Adonis  garden,  171, 

172;    Hercules  and  Melkarth,  348; 

on  Semiramis  legend,  424,  425. 
Frey  (fri),  the  Germanic  patriarch  and 

corn   god,    33,    93,    94;    links   with 

Tatnmuz  myth,  95,  1 16,  204. 
Freyja   (frl'ya),    the    Germanic   eternal 

goddess,  102;  lovers  of,  102. 
Frigg,  Germanic  goddess,  lovers  of,  103. 
Frode  (fro'de).     See  Frey. 

Gabriel,  Abraham  rescued  from  Nim- 

rod's  pyre  by,  349,  350. 
Gaga  (ga'ga),  messenger  of  Anshar,  143. 
Gallu  (gal  lii),  as  "  foreign  devil  ",  65-7. 
Gandash  (gan'dash),  Kassite  king,  271. 
Ganga  (gang'a),  the  Indian  goddess,  as 

king's  lover,  68. 
"  Garden  of  Adonis",  171,  172. 
'Gardens,  the  Hanging,  of  Babylon,  220. 
Garstang,  Professor,  on  fall  of  Hatti  and 

god  cult,  268;   on  Totemic  Adonis 

boar,  293,  294;  Hittite  Sandan  disk, 

348. 
Ganida  (gar-ood'a),  Indian  eagle  god, 

Zu  bird  and,  xxvi;  myth  of,  74,  75; 

Etana  eagle  and,  165;  sons  of,  166; 

identified  with  Agni,  Brahma,  Indra, 

Yama,  &c.,  168,  169;   wheel  of  life 

and,  346,  347. 
Gauls,    Hittite   raiders   like   the,   261 ; 

gods  of  and  the  Babylonian,  316,  317. 
Germ  theory, anticipated  by  Babylonians, 

61,  234. 
Germany,  double-headed  eagle  of,  1 68; 

the  Baghdad  railway,  357. 
Gezer   cave  dwellings,   10;    cremation 

practised  in,   n. 

Ghosts,  "wind  gusts"  as,  48,  49;  asso- 
ciated with  demons,  60,  215,  216; 

as  birds,  65;  as  death  bringers,  69, 

295 ;  the  terrible  mothers,  69;  where 

dreaded  and  where  invoked,  69,  70; 

Babylonian    "night  prowlers",   70; 

food    required    by,    70,    212,    213; 

Ishtar's  threat  to  raise,  215;  King  of 

Cuthah  and,  215,  216;  as  "Fates" 


and  enemies  of  the  living,  295 ;  wor- 
ship of,  295;  Orion  and  Jupiter  as, 

305- 

Giants,  the  British  Alban,  42;  the  Baby- 
lonian, 71?  graves  of,  296. 

Gibil  (gi'bil),  fire  god,  Nusku  and,  353. 

Gilgamesh  (gil'ga-mesh),  the  Babylonian 
Hercules,  41;  revelation  of  ghost  to, 
48,  49,  183,  184;  quest  of,  164;  birth 
legend  of,  171;  eagle  rescues,  171; 
lord  of  Erech,  172;  coming  of  Ea- 
bani,  173;  Ishtar's  fatal  love  of,  174; 
"  La  Belle  Dame  Sans  Merci",  174, 
175;  Ishtar  spurned  by,  99,  176; 
Ishtar's  bull  slain,  176;  death  of  Ea- 
bani,  176;  quest  of  Water  of  Life  and 
Plant  of  Life,  177;  the  mountain  tunnel 
and  Sea  of  Death,  178;  song  of  the 
Sea  Lady,  178,  179;  reaches  Pir- 
napishtim's  island,  180;  ancestor's  re- 
velation to  and  magic  food,  182;  plant 
of  life,  183;  Earth  Lion  robs,  183; 
Germanic  gods  and  heroes  and,  184, 
185;  flood  legend  revealed  to,  190  et 
seq.;  Tammuz  and,  210;  Ashur  and, 
336 ;  Persian  eagle  and,  493. 

Gillies,  Dr.  Cameron,  on  Scottish  folk 
cures,  232,  233. 

Gira  (gi'ra),  the  god,  42. 

Girru  (gir'rii),  the  fire  god,  49. 

Gish  Bar,  the  fire  god,  49. 

Goat,  inspiration  from  blood  of,  48; 
demons  enter  the,  71;  on  Lagash 
vase,  120;  the  six-headed,  332;  the 
satyr  or  astral  goat  man,  333;  the 
white  kid  of  Tammuz,  85,  333;  the 
Arabic  "kid"  star,  333;  associated 
with  Anshar,  Agni,  Varuna,  Ea,  and 
Thor,  329,  333,  334;  forehead  symbol 
of  like  Apis  symbol,  334;  Minerva's 
shield  has  skin  of,  337. 

Goblin,  the  Babylonian,  66. 

God,  the  Dead,  grave  of  Osiris,  296; 
also  alive  and  in  various  forms,  297. 

God  cult,  fusion  of  with  goddess  cult, 
105. 

Goddesses,  at  once  mothers,  wives,  and 
daughters  of  gods,  99,  101,  436; 
husbands  of  die  annually,  101  et  seq.\ 
lovers  of  various,  102;  of  Mediter- 
ranean racial  tribes,  105;  Ishtar  as 
*'  La  Belle  Dame  Sans  Merci",  174-6; 
the  Semiramis  legend,  417  et  seq. 

Gods,  Babylonian  and  Egyptian  groups, 
36,  37;  the  younger  and  elder,  149; 
why  Sumerian  were  bearded,  135-7. 


INDEX 


Goodspeed,  Professor,  on  early  astro- 
nomy, 321,  322. 

Gorgons,  the,  Tiamat  and,  159. 

Graves,  charms  and  weapons  in,  206; 
as  houses  of  dead,  206,  208;  of  gods 
and  giants,  296. 

Great  Mother,  the,  forms  of,  36;  Hit- 
titeand  Sumerian  forms,  267;  Anaitis, 
Ate,  Cybele,  Ishtar,  Isis,  Astarte, 
Ashtoreth,  and  Atargatis,  267;  Kadesh, 
Anthat,,  and  Danu,  268. 

Greece,  spitting  customs  in,  46,  47; 
blood  drinking  in,  48 ;  wanton  god- 
desses of,  104;  imported  gods  in,  105; 
dragon  myths  of,  151,  152;  eagle 
connected  with  birth  and  death  in, 
168;  flood  legend  of,  195,  196; 
11  Island  of  Blessed",  203;  star  myths 
of,  300;  Babylonian  culture  reached 
through  Hittites,  306;  doctrine  of 
worlds  ages,  $iQtt sfq. ;  pre-Hellenic 
beliefs  in,  84,  104,  317;  astrology  in, 
318  et  seq.;  astronomy  in,  316,  319 
et  seq.;  in  pre- Phrygian  period,  386; 
fusion  of  races  in,  393. 

Greeks  of  Cilicia,  Ashur-bani-pal  and, 
484.  See  lonians. 

Green,  a  supernatural  colour,  186. 

•'Grey  Eyebrows",  a  Gaelic  hag,  87; 
myth  of,  101. 

Gudea  (gii'de-a),  King  of  Lagash,  sculp- 
tures, buildings,  and  trade  of,  xxiii, 
129,  130;  bearded  gods  of,  136. 

Gula  (goo'la),  mother  goddess,  100; 
Bau  and,  116;  feast  of,  476. 

Gungunu  (giin'gun-u),  King  of  Ur,  132. 

Guns,  called  after  giants  "Long  Meg" 
and  "Long  Tom",  156. 

Gutium  (gu'tium),  northern  mountain- 
eers, 128,  129,  264;  demons  and, 

307. 

Gyges  (gy'jes),  King  of  Lydia,  emis- 
saries of  visit  Nineveh,  483,  486. 

Hadad,  Ramman  as,  57,  261,  411. 
Iladdon,  Dr.,  Achoean  racial  affinities, 

377- 

Hades,  Ishtar  receives  water  of  life  in, 
44;  Tammuz  spends  winter  in,  53, 
98;  Indian  "land  of  fathers",  56; 
land  of  no  return,  58;  descent  of 
Ishtar  to,  95  et  seq.\  "  Island  of  the 
Blessed ",  180  et  seq. ;  Babylonian 
conception  of,  203 ;  the  Celtic,  203 ; 
the  Greek,  Germanic,  Indian,  and 
Egyptian,  204;  the  grave  as,  206; 


the  Japanese,  206;  the  Roman,  207; 
Babylonian  king  and  queen  of.     See 
Nergal  and  Eresh-ki-gal. 
Hags,  of  storm,   marsh  and  mountain 
as  primitive  goddesses:  the  Scottish, 
64,  87;  the  Babylonian,  68,  71,  72, 
73,  185;  the  Germanic,  72,  73,  95. 
See  Annie,  Annis,  Beowulf,  Mothers, 
and  Tiamat. 
I  lair,  evidence  from  early  graves  and 

sculptures,  4,  9,   10. 
Hamath,    Hitlite   city  of,   395;    Israel 
overcomes,  449;  Ilu-bi-di,  the  smith 
king  of,  457,  458. 

Hamites,  Biblical  reference  to,  276. 
Hammurabi  (ham'mu-ra'bi),  Dagan  as 
creator  of,  31 ;  Sin-mubaUit  father 
of,  133;  pantheon  of,  134,  254;  the 
Biblical  Amraphel,  131,  246,  247; 
"  Khammurabi  "  and  "  Ammurapi " 
forms  of,  247,  248;  Rim  Sin,  the 
Elamite,  and,  249 ;  character  of,  249- 
55 ;  god  Nebo  ignored  by,  303  ;  legal 
code  of,  2,  222,  223  ft  seq. 
Hammurabi  Dynasty,  the,  Amorites 
and,  217,  218;  early  Amorite  kings 
of  Sippar,  241,  242;  schools  and  cor- 
respondence during,  252;  Kassites 
first  appear  during,  255;  Sealand 
Dynasty  in,  257 ;  late  kings  of,  257, 
258;  Hittite  raid  at  close  of,  258- 
60 ;  Assyria  during,  279,  419;  astro- 
nomy in,  300. 

Hanuman     (han'u-man),     the     Indian 
monkey  god,  Bhima  and,   187;  like 
Gilgamesh,  188,   189. 
Hapi   (ha'pi),    Nile   god,    a    bi-sexual 

deity,   161. 

Haran,  Abraham's  migration  from  Ur 
to,    131,   245;  Ashur  and  Sin  wor- 
shipped at,  353 ;  Nabonidus's  temple 
to  Sin  at,  494. 
Haiper,  Professor,  321. 
Harvest  deities,  fish  forms  of,  29,  32; 
river  and   ocean   gods  as,   33;    the 
pre-Hellenic,  84;  the  Egyptian,  85. 
Harvest  moon,  the,  crops  ripened  by, 

52- 
Hathor  (hat'hor),  the  fish  goddess  and, 

29;  Ishtar  and,  57,  99. 
Hathor-Sekhet,  the  destroyer,  157,  197. 
Hatshepsut   (hat-shep'soot),   Queen  of 

Egypt,   16;  Sumerian  queen  earlier 

than,   115. 
Hatti  (hat'ti),  dominant  tribe  of  Hittites, 

246;  of  Armenoid  race,  262;  as  Great 


5i6 


INDEX 


Father  worshippers,  260 ;  Mitannians 
and,  269. 
Hattusil  I  (hat-too'sil),  King  of  Hittites, 

Hattusil  II,  Hittite  king,  Egyptian 
treaty,  366;  influence  of  in  Babylonia, 
364,  368  j  marriage  treaty  with  Amo- 
rite  king,  418. 

Hawes,  Mr.,  on  Cretan  chronology, 
xxv ;  Cretan  racial  types,  8. 

Hawk,  demons  enter  the,  71. 

Hazael  (haz'a-el),  King  of  Damascus, 
410;  Shalmaneser  III  defeats,  411; 
Israel  oppressed  by,  412. 

Heaven,  Queen  of,  Hebrews  offer  cakes   , 
to,   106;    women  prominent  in  wor- 
ship of,   106,   107. 

Hebrews,  in  Canaan,  379;  Philistines 
as  overlords  of,  379,  380,  386,  387; 
as  allies  of  Egypt  and  Tyre,  388; 
under  David  and  Solomon,  388,  389; 
Pharaoh  Sheshonk  plunders,  391 ; 
kingdoms  of  Judah  and  Israel,  401 
et  seq. ;  in  late  Assyrian  period,  448  | 
et  seq.  See  Israel  xnAJudah.  | 

Heimdal  (him'dal),  as  patriarch  and  ! 
world  guardian,  93;  Tammuz  and  | 
Agni  like,  94;  Nin-Girsu  of  Lagash  I 
like,  116. 

Hercules,  Gilgamesh  and,  41,  164, 
172;  as  dragon  slayer,  152;  eagle  as 
soul  of,  170,  349;  burning  of,  171; 
of  Cilicia  and  deities  that  link  with, 
261;  Merodach  and,  316;  Ashur  and, 
336;  astral  arrow  of,  337;  Melkarth 
and,  348. 

Hermes  (h^r'mez),  Nebo  as,  303. 

Hermod  (her 'mod),  the  Germanic 
Patriarch,  93;  Gilgamesh  and,  184. 

Herodotus,  on  Babylonian  harvests,  21, 
22;  on  Babylonian  burial  customs, 
214;  description  of  Babylon,  219  et 
seq. ;  on  Babylonian  marriage  market, 
224,  225 ;  on  doctors  and  folk  cures, 
231,  232;  on  origin  of  Nineveh,  277; 
on  Egyptian  Totemism,  293,  432 ; 
on  pre- Hellenic  beliefs,  317;  on 
Semiramis  legend,  425;  on  fall  of 
Assyria,  488. 

Heth,  children  of,  Hittites  as,  246. 

Hezekiah  (hez-e-ki'ah),  21,  340;  Mero- 
dach-Balad  conspiracy,  465;  destruc- 
tion of  Assyrian  army,  466,  467; 
Esarhaddon  and,  471,  472. 

Hierap'olis,  Atargatis  goddess  of,  267. 

"  High  Heads  ",  symbols  and  M  world 


spine",  332;  Anshar,  Ann,  Enlil,  Ea, 
Merodach,  Nergal,  and  Shamash  as, 

334- 

Hindus,  Mediterranean  race  represented 
among,  8. 

Hipparchus,  the  Greek  astronomer, 
discoveries  of,  320,  321. 

Hiram,  King  of  Tyre,  as  Solomon's 
ally,  388,  389. 

Hit,  the  bitumen  wells  of,  25. 

Hittites,  the  father  worshippers  among, 
xxx,  420;  racial  types  in  confederacy 
of,  n,  12,  246,  265,  266;  double- 
headed  eagle  of,  168;  in  ethnics  of 
Jerusalem,  246 ;  Hebrews,  dealings 
with,  246,  266,  267 ;  earliest  refer- 
ences to  in  Egypt  and  Babylonia, 
258,  259,  264;  prehistoric  culture 
of,  263 ;  thunder  god  of  and  linking 
deities,  261,  268;  Merodach  carried 
oft' by,  261;  fusion  of  god  and  goddess 
cults  by,  267,  268;  relations  with 
Mitannians  and  Kassites,  270-2,  282, 
358;  Subbi-luliuma,  the  conqueror, 
283;  conquest  of  Mitanni,  284;  Baby- 
lonian culture  passed  to  Greece  by, 
306,  316;  the  winged  disk  of,  347, 
348 ;  Ashur  cult  and,  355 ;  Syria 
after  expansion  of,  363;  King  Mursil, 
364;  influence  of  in  Egypt  and  Baby- 
lonia, 364;  wais  of  Seti  I  and  Rameses 
II  against,  364,  365;  alliance  with 
P^gypt,  366;  early  struggle  with  As- 
syria, 367,  368;  Muski  as  overlords 
of,  380;  Nebuchadrezzar  I  defeats, 
381 ;  late  period  of  Empire  of,  386; 
citystates  of  Hamath  and  Carchemish, 
395;  Shalmaneser  III  and,  414; 
"mother  right  among",  418;  con- 
nection of  with  Urartu,  440  w.;  com- 
bination against  Sargon  II,  459,  460; 
Biblical  reference  to  Tabal  and  Me- 
shech,  464. 

Horse,  sea  god  as  a,  33 ;  demons  enter 
the,  71 ;  domesticated  in  Turkestan, 
271;  introduction  of  to  Babylonia 
and  Egypt,  270,  271;  sacrificed  by 
Aryo-Indian  and  Buriats,  271,  309; 
constellation  of,  309. 

Horns  (ho'rus),  god  of  Egypt,  creative 
tears  of,  45;  as  the  sun,  Saturn, 
Jupiter,  and  Mars,  300,  304;  the 
" elder"  and  "younger",  302;  as 
the  "opener",  304;  "world  soul" 
conception  and,  304;  has  many  forms 
like  Tammuz,  305;  Ninip  and,  316; 


INDEX 


51? 


"winged  disk"  of,  336;   the  eagle 
and,  343. 
Hoshea  (ho-she'a),  King  of  Israel,  453, 

454- 

Host  of  heaven,  305. 

Hotherus  (hoth'erus),  Gilgamesh  and, 
184,  185. 

"House  of  Clay",  the  grave  called, 
56;  206-8. 

Hraesvelgur  (hra'svel-gur),  Icelandic 
wind  demon,  72.  i 

Human  sacrifices,  the  May  Day,  50. 

"Husband  of  his  mother",  xxxii;  in 
Sumerian,  Indian,  and  Egyptian 
mythologies,  106,  304,  305;  Kingu 
becomes  lover  of  Tiarnat,  106 ;  sun 
as  offspring  and  spouse  of  the  moon, 
301;  Adad-nirari  IV  as,  420.  See 
Father  and  son  conflict. 

Hydra,  as  Dragon,  152. 

Hyksos  (hik'sos),  Egypt  invaded  by, 
259;  Mitannians  and,  270;  horse  in- 
troduced into  Egypt  by,  271 ;  theories 
regarding,  271 ;  trading  relations  of 
with  Crete  and  Persia,  273;  period 
of  expulsion  of,  275. 

Iberians,  the,  Sumerians  and  Egyptians 
congeners  of,  9;  goddesses  of,  105; 
folk  tales  of,  156. 

Ibis,  demons  enter  the,  71. 

Iceland,  wind  hag  of,  73;  Barleycorn 
a  god  of,  I7O«. 

Idols,  spirit  of  god  or  demon  in,  6i; 
gods  of  taken  prisoners,  62. 

Idun(ee'doon), Germanic  goddess,  lovers 
of,  1 02. 

Igigi  (i'gig-i),  spirits  of  heaven,  34,  149. 

Ilu-bi'di,  smith  king  of  Hamath,  457, 
458. 

Immortality,  quest  of  Gilgamesh,  177; 
Song  of  the  Sea  Lady,  178,  179; 
Lay  of  the  Harper,  179;  Pir-napish- 
tim  and  Gilgamesh,  181  et  seq. ;  Ea- 
bani's  revelation,  183-4;  no  Baby- 
lonian Paradise,  203,  210,  211; 
Brahmans  ask  Alexander  the  Great 
for,  208;  Egyptian  Ra  and  Osirian 
doctrines,  209. 

India,  Sumerian  myths  in,  xxvi,  xxvii; 
Mediterranean  race  in,  7 ;  Brahma- 
Vishnu  and  Ea,  27;  Babylonian  flood 
myth  in,  27,  28,  196;  demons  of  and 
the  Babylonian,  34;  mother  ghost  in, 
69;  Garuda  eagle  and  Sumerian  Zu 
bird,  74,  75,  165-9,  330;  wedding 


bracelet  of  and  Ishtar's,  98,  98;;.; 
eternal  "  mothers"  and  "  dying  gods" 
in,  101;  Ribhus  the  "elves"  of,  105; 
fairies  of,  294;  Gilgamesh  myth  in, 
187-9;  Babylonian  culture  in,  199, 
200,  313;  face  paint  of  gods  in,  211; 
jungle-dwellers'  conception  of  "Self 
Power",  291,  304;  star  myths  of, 
296;  early  astronomers  of,  300;  lunar 
zodiac  of,  309;  constellations  identified 
before  planets  in,  318;  horse  sacrifice 
in,  309 ;  sun  and  moon  marriages  in, 
306;  doctrine  of  World's  Ages  in,  310 
et  seq.]  "finger  counting"  at  prayer 
in,  31 1 «.;  deities  connected  with  goat 
in,  333;  "man  in  the  eye"  belief, 
335>  336;  cult  of  "late  invaders"  of, 
338;  fire  cult  in,  346;  Solomon's  trade 
with,  389,  390;  Jehoshaphat's  fleet, 
408;  swans  as  love  messengers  in,  429. 
"  Indo-Europeans",  Mitannians  as,  269, 

270. 

Indra  (ind'ra),  god  of  India,  a  world 
artisan  like  Ea  and  Ptah,  30;  Anu's 
messengers  like  Maruts  of,  34 ;  Enlil 
and,   35;    Ramman,    Iladad,    Thor, 
£c,,  and,  57,  261,  340;   in  Garuda 
myth,    74,    75 ;    dies    annually    like 
Tammuz,  101;  various  forms  of,  IOI; 
as  slayer  of  father,  158,  302;  eagle  as, 
169;    Paradise  of  like  Odin's,   209; 
thunder  horn  of,  238. 
Insects,  gods  as,  296. 
Inspiration,  derived  from  sacred  juice, 
45;   from  drinking  blood,  48;  from 
incense  and  breath  of  Apis  bull,  49. 
Inundation,  the  Babylonian,  24. 
Inverness,    the    "sleeper"    and    fairy 

mound  of,   164. 

lonians,  deported  from  Cilicia  to  Nine- 
veh, 464. 
Iranian  sun  god,  Sumerians  and,   55» 

56. 

Ireland,  the  corn  god  and  river  goddess 
of,  33,  238;  spitting  customs  in,  47; 
"  calling  back  "  of  souls  in,  70,  70  n. ; 
Anu  a  wind  hag,  73 ;  Tammuz-Diar- 
mid  myth  in,  85,  87;  Angus,  the  love 
god  of,  90,  238,  428 «.;  the  eternal 
goddess  of,  101,  102,  268;  the 
"moruach"  (worm)  of,  151;  flood 
legend  of,  196;  the  Hades  of,  203; 
pig  as  devil  in,  293;  doctrine  of 
world's  ages  in,  310  et  scq.\  origin 
of  culture  of,  315,  316;  giant  gods 
of,  317;  pigeon  lore  in,  431. 


5i8 


INDEX 


Iron,  in  northern  Mesopotamia,  25;  used 
in  folk  cures,  236. 

Irrigation,  in  early  Sumeria,  23,  39. 

Isaac,  forbids  Jacob  to  marry  a  Hit  the, 
266. 

Isaiah,  21;  doom  of  Babylonia,  113, 
4995  "worm"  of,  the  dragon,  151; 
use  of  Babylonian  symbolism  by,  331, 
341;  "satyrs"  referred  to  by,  333; 
on  Assyria  the  Destroyer,  340;  on 
Tophet,  350;  reference  to  Jerusalem's 
water  supply,  451;  warns  Ahaz,  459; 
destruction  of  Sennacherib's  army, 
466;  tradition  of  murder  of,  474. 

Ishbi-Urra  (ish'bi-oor'ra),  King  of  Isin, 
132. 

Ishtar  (ish'tar),  Isis  cult  and,  xxxi;  hymn 
to,  18-20;  Beltu  and,  36;  water  of 
life  given  to,  44 ;  as  earth  goddess, 
53;  identical  with  Hathor,  57;  in 
demon  war,  76;  as  "Queen  of 
Heaven",  81,  106,  107;  lamentation 
of  for  Tammuz,  86,  88,  98;  in  Sargon 
of  Akkad  myth,  91;  descent  of  to 
Hades  poem,  95  et  seq.;  magical 
ornaments  of,  96;  punishment  of,  96, 
97;  rescue  of,  98;  Belit-sheri  associ- 
ated with,  98;  as  love  goddess,  99; 
temple  women  of,  99,  106,  107;  ab- 
sorbs other  goddesses,  loo,  117,  277, 
496;  as  daughter  of  Ann  and  Nannar, 
IOO;  as  mother  of  Tammuz,  100;  the 
loversof,  103, 126, 174-6;  likeTiamat, 
106;  under  Isin  Dynasty,  132;  links 
with  Indian  and  Egyptian  goddesses, 
157;  Damkina  and,  160;  as  a  bi- 
sexual deity,  161 ;  in  Etana  legend, 
166;  in  Gilgamesh  legend,  172-7;  in 
flood  legend,  193,  194;  Frey's  bride 
and,  204;  threat  to  raise  dead,  213; 
€sh  goddesses  and,  117,  277;  Nine- 
veh image  of  sent  t/>  Egypt,  280;  star 
°f>  295 ;  changes  star  forms  with 
Merodach,  299;  month  of,  305;  wheel 
symbol  of,  347;  Nineveh  temple  of 
destroyed,  363;  worshipped  by  Nebu- 
chadrezzar I,  382;  cult  of  in  Assyria, 
420;  Semiramis  and,  425;  as  a  Fate, 
433;  moon  god  and,  436;  Creatrix 
and,  437;  worshipped  by  Sargon  II, 
463;  worshipped  by  Esarhaddon,  471; 
Persian  goddess  and,  496. 

Ishtarate  (ish-tar-a'te),  "Ishtars",  god- 
desses in  general  called,  100. 

Isin,  Dynasty  of,  131;  early  kings  of, 
132  et  scq.y  last  kings  of,  133;  sun 


worship  and,  240;  Dynasty  of  Pashe, 
380. 

Isis  (1'sis),  goddess  of  Egypt,  Ishtar  cult 
and,  xxxi;  fish  goddess  and,  29;  as 
Nile  goddess,  33 ;  creative  tears  of, 
45;  mourning  of  for  Osiris,  83,  99; 
as  daughter,  wife,  sister,  and  mother 
of  Osiris,  99;  as  corn  goddess,  90;  as 
serpent  goddess,  150;  as  bi-sexual 
deity,  161;  male  form  of,  299;  the 
star  of,  296,  300;  address  of  to  dif- 
ferent forms  of  Osiris,  297. 

"  Island  of  the  Blessed  ",  in  Gilgamesh 
epic,  1 80  et  seq.}  the  Greek  and 
Celtic,  203. 

Isiacl,  first  Egyptian  reference  to,  379; 
subject  to  Damascus,  396;  separation 
of  from  Judah,  401  *•/  seq.\  Abijah's 
victory  over,  402,  403 ;  first  conflict 
with  Assyria,  407;  tribute  to  Shal- 
maneser  III,  411,  412;  Assyria  as 
"saviour"  of,  414,  438,  439;  god- 
dess cult  in,  421;  Aramaeans  and 
mother  worship  in,  434;  war  with 
Judah,  448;  Tiglath-pileser  harries, 
453;  the  lost  ten  tubes,  455,  456. 

"Jack  and  Jill",  the  Sumerian  lunar, 

53- 

"Jack  with  a  Lantern",  the  Baby- 
lonian, 66. 

Jacob,  personal  ornaments  as  charms 
to,  2li;  marriage  of,  266. 

Jah,  the  Hebrew,  Ea  as,  31;  Dagon 
as,  31;  as  dragon  slayer,  157;  mono- 
theism, 160. 

Japan,  the  Hades  of,  206. 

Jastrow,  Professor,  on  Ea,  29,  30,  435; 
on  culture  and  lacial  fusion,  42;  on 
fire  and  water  ceremonies,  51;  on 
moon  names,  52;  on  female  con- 
servatism, 107,  179,  180;  on  burial 
customs,  208;  on  Nebo,  303,  435; 
on  Greek  and  Babylonian  astrology 
and  astronomy,  319^  seq. ;  on  Anshar, 
Ashir,  and  Ashur,  354. 

Jehoahaz  (je-hf/a-haz),  King  of  Judah, 
414 ;  Necho  deposes,  489. 

Jehoash  (je-ho'ash),  King  of  Israel,  448, 

449- 
Jehoiachin(je-hoi'a-chin),  King  of  Judah, 

carried  to  Babylon,  490. 
Jehoiakim  (je-hoi'a-kim),  King  of  Judah, 

489,  490,  492. 
Jehoram  (je-ho'ram),  King  of  Judah,  no 

burning  at  grave  of,  350. 


INDEX 


Jehoshaphat  (je-hosh'a-phat),  King  of 
Judah,  407 ;  navy  of  wrecked,  408. 

Jehu  (je'hu),  King,  of  Israel,  Elisha 
calls,  409,  410;  tribute  to  Shal- 
maneser  III,  411,  412;  mother  wor- 
ship in  reign  of,  421,  434. 

Jeremiah,  liver  as  seat  of  life,  48;  on 
mother  worship,  1 06,  107,  421; 
Pharaoh  Necho,  489. 

Jeremias,  Dr.  Alfred,  on  precession  of 
equinoxes,  320 ;/. 

Jeroboam  (jer-o-bo'am),  revolt  of,  402; 
Abijah  defeats,  402,  403;  an  ally  of 
Assyria,  449. 

Jerusalem,  the  "new",  xvii;  Palaeo- 
lithic collection  at,  10;  "dragon 
well"  at,  152;  "father"  of  Amorite, 
"  mother"  of  Hittite,  246 ;  eclipse  re- 
cord from,  323;  "Queen  of  Heaven" 
worshipped  in,  421;  wall  of  destroyed 
by  Jehoash,  449;  new  wall  and  water 
supply  of,  451;  siege  of  by  Senna- 
cherib, 465,  466;  Assyrian  ambas- 
sador visits,  471,  472;  sack  of  by 
Nebuchadrezzar  II,  490,  491 ;  Cyrus 
and  rebuilding  of,  496;  return  of 
captives  to,  496. 

Jewellery,  the  magic,  Ishtar's,  96,  98. 

Jewish  type,  Akkadians  of,  I,  2;  Arabs 
not  of,  9;  the  racial  blend  which 
produced,  10  tt  seq. 

Jews,  Cyrus  welcomed  in  Babylon  by, 
495  ;  return  pf  to  Jerusalem,  496. 

Jezebel  (jez'e-bel),  Queen,  406;  miuder 
of,  410. 

Jinn,  the  Aiabian,  78. 

Joash  (jo'ash),  King  of  Judah,  con- 
cealment of  in  childhood,  413;  coro- 
nation of,  413,  414. 

Johns,  Mr.,  on  Aryans  in  early  Assyria, 
278,  279. 

Joram  (jo'ram),  King  of  Israel,  408, 
409;  Jehu  murders,  410. 

Josiah  (jo-sl'ah),  King  of  Judah,  Necho 
and,  489. 

Jotham  (j6'tham),  King  of  Judah,  451. 

Judah,  subject  to  Damascus,  396;  sepa- 
ration of  from  Israel,  401  ct  $eq.\ 
Edom  revolts  against,  409;  defeated 
by  Israel,  448;  Damascus  and  Israel 
plot  against,  451;  Ahaz  appeals  to 
Assyria,  452;  Sennacherib  deports 
prisoners  from,  465 ;  in  Esarhaddon's 
reign,  474;  Pharaoh  Necho  in,  489; 
the  Captivity,  491 ;  return  of  captives, 
496. 


Jupiter,  the  planet,  Ramman  and  Hadad 
as,  57;  Merodach  creates,  147;  Mero- 
dach  as,  296;  Horus  as,  300,  302; 
associated  with  sun  and  moon,  301 ; 
as  ghost  of  sun,  305;  as  "bull  of 
light",  301;  Nin-Girsu  (Tammuz) 
as,  301 ;  month  of,  305 ;  Attis  as, 
305;  as  "face  voice  of  light"  and 

j        "star    of   bronze",    314,    315;    in 

|        astrology,  318. 

i  Jupiter-Amon,  317. 

|   Jupiter- Belus,  Merodach  as,  221,  317. 

Kadasbman  -  Kharbe  (kad  -  ash '  man  • 
khar'be),  King  of  Babylon,  grandson 
of  Ashur-uballit,  284,  285;  opens 
Arabian  desert  trade  route,  360; 
murder  of,  361. 

Kadesh  (ka'desh),  goddesses  that  link 
with,  268. 

Kali  (ka'lee),  the  Indian  goddess,  goat 
sacrificed  to,  48. 

Kalkhi  (kal'khi),  excavations  at,  xix,  xx ; 
capital  of  Shalmaneser  I,  367 ;  head- 
quarters of  Ashur-natsir-pal  III,  398; 
description  of,  399,  400;  library  at, 
422,  470;  religious  revolt  at,  422; 
Sargon  II  and,  463 ;  temple  to  Nebo 
at,  487. 

Karduniash  (kar-doon'i-ash),  Baby- 
lonia called,  273. 

Kama  (kar'na),  Indian  hero:  like  Sar- 
gon of  Akkad,  126. 

Kassites,  Nippur  as  capital  of,  218;  in 
Hammurabi  Age,  255;  as  agricul- 
turists, 256;  Aryans  associated  with, 
270;  Mitannians,  Hyksos  and,  270, 
271,  272,  273;  Babylonia  consoli- 
dated by,  274,  393;  early  Assyrian 
kings  and,  279;  in  Tell-el-Amarna 
letters,  281;  and  Mesopotamian  ques- 
tion, 358;  Arabian  desert  trade  route, 
360;  dynasty  of  ends,  370,  371 ;  Sen- 
nacherib and  the  mountain,  464. 

Keats,  John,  112;  "La  Belle  Dame 
Sans  Merci"  and  Ishtar,  174. 

Kengi  (Wn'gi),  early  name  of  Sumer,  2. 

Khammurabi  (kham-mu-ra'bi),  247. 
See  Hammurabi. 

Khani  (kha'ni).     See  Mitanni. 

Kharri  (khar'ri),  Mitannians  called; 
perhaps  "Arya",  269. 

K  hatti.     See  Haiti  and  ffittites. 

Kheta.     See  Hittites. 

Khnumu  (knoo'moo),  the  Egyptian  god, 
i       Ea  compared  to,  30. 


520 


INDEX 


Khonsu  (kon'soo),  Tammuz  a  healer 
like,  90,  94. 

Kid,  sacrificed  to  Tammuz,  85,  333; 
star  called  by  Arabs,  333. 

King,  L.  W.,  Creation  tablets,  xxiv,  29; 
211;  on  "Cuthean  Legend  of  Crea- 
tion", 215,  216;  on  seven  gods  as 
one,  298;  on  Sennacherib's  sack  of 
Babylon,  469. 

Kings,  worship  of,  in  Hammurabi  Age, 
242,  257,  258;  burning  of,  350,  351; 
Ashur's  association  with,  352. 

Kingu  (kin'goo),  in  Creation  Legend, 
as  son  and  lover  of  Tiamat,  106 ;  stiis 
Tiamat  to  avenge  Apsu,  140;  exalted 
by  Tiamat,  140;  overcome  by  Mero- 
dach,  145,  146. 

Kish,  early  dynasty  of,  114;  legendary 
queen  of,  114,  115;  Entemena's  sack 
of,  120;  Sargon  and,  125,  126;  god- 
dess of,  126,  127;  kings  and  gods  of, 
241. 

Kishar  (ke'shar),  the  god,  in  group  of 
elder  deities,  37,  138. 

Kneph,  the  Egyptian  air  god,  49. 

Koran  (ko'ran),  Etana  eagle  myth  in, 
166,  167;  Nimrod  agricultural  myth 
in,  170;  water  of  life  legend  in,  186; 
Abraham  and  Nim rod's  pyre,  349. 

Kudur  Mabug  (ku'dur  mab'ug),  Elamite 
King  of  Sumer,  242,  243  ;  the  Biblical 
Chedor-laomei,  247,  248. 

Kuiri  (kil'i-ri),  early  name  of  Akkad,  2. 

Kurds  (koords),  the,  use  of  cradle  board 
by.  4>  5?  of  Mediterranean  race,  8; 
Mitannians  as  ancestors  of,  270,  283. 

Kurigalzu  II  (ku'ri-gal'zu),  King  of 
Babylonia,  285. 

Kurigalzu  III,  Kassite  king,  wars  with 
Elam  and  Assyria,  362. 

Kuta  and  Kiitha.     See  Cuthah. 

Kutu  (kii'tii),  the  men  of,  128,  264. 
See  Gutium. 

Labartu  (la-bar'tli),  the,  a  mountain 
hag,  68;  as  a  luck  spirit,  77. 

Labashi  -  Marduk  (la'ba  -  shi  -  mar'diik ), 
King  of  Babylonia,  492. 

"La  Belle  Dame  Sans  Merci",  Ishtar 
as,  174,  175. 

Lachamu  (lach-a'mii),  goddess,  in  Crea- 
tion legend,  37,  138,  143. 

Lachmu  (lach'mu),  god,  in  Creation 
legend,  37,  138,  143. 

Lagash  (la'gash),  city  of,  early  rulers  of, 
115  it  scq.\  deities  of,  116-8;  rela- 


tions with  Umma,  118-20;  site  of  at 
Tello,  1  20;  revolution  in,  120;  Uru- 
kagina,  the  reformer  of,  121-4;  sack 
of,  124;  Gudea,  King  of,  129;  sculp- 
tures, buildings,  and  trade  of,  130; 
bearded  god  of,  135,  136;  burning 
of  in  Hammurabi  Age,  243.  Also 


Lakshmi  (laksh'mee),  the  Indian  eternal 

mother,  101. 
Lamassu  (la'mas-su),  the  winged  bull, 

65- 
Lamb,  the  sacrificed,  inspiration  from 

blood  of,  48. 
Land  laws,   in  early  Sumeria,  26;   of 

Babylonia,  229,   230. 
Lang,    Andrew,   on    Cronos,   64;    on 

father  and  son  myth,  1  58  ;  on  Greek 

star  lore,  319. 
Langdon,    Dr.,    Sumcnan   psalms,   96 

et  seq.  ;  on  Ninip  and  Enlil,  158;  on 

doves  and  goddesses,  428. 
Language,    race    and,    3;     Sumerians, 

Chinese,  Turks,  Magyars,  Finns,  and 

Basques  compared,  3. 
Larsa  (lar'sa),  sun  god  chief  deity  of,  40; 

revolt   against   Isin,    132;    Rim-Sin, 

king  of,  133;  rise  of  sun  cult  of,  240; 

Elamite  kings  of,  242;  the  Biblical 

Ellasar,  247;  Nabonidus  and,  492. 
Laurin  (law'reen),  the  Germanic  elfin 

lover,  68. 

Law  courts,  in  Hammurabi  Age,  223. 
Layard,  Sir  A.  H.,  discoveries  of,  xix 

et  seq.  ;  Ashur  symbols,  343;  descrip- 

tion of  Kalkhi,  399-401. 
"Lay  of  the  Harper",  the  Sumerian 

4  'Song  of  the  Sea  Lady"  and,  178, 

179. 

Lead,  in  northern  Mesopotamia,  25. 
Lebanon,  Gudea  of  Lagash  gets  timber 

from,  130. 

Leicestershire  wind  hag,  73. 
Library,   Shalmaneser   III  founded  at 

Kalkhi,  422. 

Libyans,  the,  shaving  customs  of,  9. 
Life,  the  water  of,  44,  45;  the  plant  of, 

44;  blood  and  sap  and,  45;  liver  as 

seat  of,  48;  habits  of  and  modes  of 

thought,  51. 

Light  on  head,  Merodach's,  145. 
Lna  or  Li'lu,  the  demon,  67. 
Li'lith,  "Adam's  first  wife",  67;  Indian 

Surpanaka  like,  67. 
Linen,     manufactured    in     prehistoric 

Egypt,  14. 


INDEX 


521 


Lion  god,  Nergal  as  the,  54. 

Lions,  associated  with  mother  goddess, 
1 20. 

Liver,  the,  as  seat  of  life,  48;  dragon's 
vulnerable  part,  153. 

Loftus,  W.  K.,  xx. 

Loki,  the  Germanic  god,  taunts  god- 
desses regarding  lovers,  102,  103;  god 
Barleycorn  and,  170. 

"Long  Meg",  the  English  giantess, 
I5$i  !56;  "  Long  Tom  "  and,  156. 

"Long  Tom",  the  giant,  guns  called, 

156. 

Love  charms  and  love  lyrics,  238. 
Love  goddess,  Ishtar  as,  99,  175,  176; 

the  inconstancy  of,  99  et  seq.>   102, 

103,  104. 

Lovers,  the  demon,  67,  68. 
Lucian  (loosh'yan),   Serniramis  legend, 

425- 

Lucifer,  Babylonian  king  as,  331. 
Luck,   spitting   to   secure,   46   et  seq.\ 

spirits  of,  77. 
Lugal-zaggisi  (lu'gal-zag'gi-si),  King  of 

Umma,  sack  of  Lagash  by,  123,  124; 

gods  of,  124;  Kish  captured  by,  124; 

Erech  capital  of  emphe  of,  124,  125; 

supposed  invasion  of  Syria  by,  125. 
Lulubu  (lul'ii-bii),  mountaineers,  128. 
Lunar  chronology,  solar  chronology 

pieceded  by,  312;  "  Four  Quarters", 

323.  324- 

Lunar  zodiac,  the  original,  309. 

Lycia,  god  had  wife  in,  221. 

Lydia,  emissaries  from  to  Ashur-bani- 
pal,  483;  helps  Egypt  against  As- 
syria, 486;  alliance  with  Egypt  against 
Cyrus,  494. 

Ma,  the  goddess,  serpent  form  of,  76; 

Tiamat  and,  150;  goddess  of  Com  ana, 

267. 

Magic  and  poetry,  236  et  seg. 
Magician,  the  great,  Ea  as,  38. 
Magyars,  language  of  and  the  Sumerian, 

Mahabharata,  the  (maha'bha"rata),  67, 
68;  the  various  Indrasin,  101;  Kama 
myth  in,  126;  eagle  myth,  166;  Bhima 
like  Gilgamesh  in,  187;  Naturalism 
and  Totemism  in,  291,  292,  293;  the 
"wheel  of  life"  in,  346-7;  the  Sha- 
kuntala  legend  in,  423,  424. 

Mama  (ma'ma),  the  mother  goddess,  57, 
267;  as  Creatrix,  100. 

Man,  creation  of,  38;  Ea  desired,  148; 


Merodach  sheds  blood  for,  148;  Be- 

rosus  legend,  148,  149,  150, 
Man  bull,  the  winged,  65. 
Manasseh,    King   of  Judah,   idolatries 

°f»  473  5  legend  of  Isaiah's  end,  474 ; 

captivity  of,  474;  Ashur-bani-pal  and, 

486. 
Manishtusu  (m'an-ish-tu'sii),  successor  of 

Sargon  I,  empire  of,  127. 
Mannai  (man'nai),  state  of,  473,  486. 
Manu  (man'oo),  the  Indian  patriarch, 

like  Babylonian  Noah,  27 ;  the  fish 

and  flood  myth,  27,  28,  196. 
Mara  (ma'ra),  the  European  demon  of 

nightmare,  69. 

Marduk  (mar'duk).     See  Merodach. 
Marduk-balatsu-ikbi  (mar'duk-bal'atsu- 

ik-bi),   King  of  Babylonia,  defeat  of 

by  Shamshi-Adad  VII,  415,  416. 
Marduk-bel-usate  (mar'duk-bel-u-sa'te), 

revolt  of  in  Babylonia,  408,  409. 
Marduk  - zakir  -  shum  (mar '  duk  -  za-  kir  '- 

shum),   King  of  Babylonia,  408;    a 

vassal  of  Assyria,  409. 
Mari  (ma'ri),  king  of  Damascus,  as  the 

Biblical  Ben  Hadad  III,  438,  439. 
Marriage  contracts,  in  Hammurabi  code, 

225  et  set]. 
Marriage  market  of  Babylon,  the,  224, 

225. 

Marriage  of  deities,  the  Hittite,  268. 
Mars,   Horus  as,  300,   304;  month  of, 

305;   as  "bronze  fish  stone",  314; 

the   Gaulish   mule  god  as,   316;    in 

astrology,  318. 
Mars,  Nergal,  wolf  planet  of  pestilence, 

as,  301,  303,  316. 
Mars,  the  planet,  boar  slayer  of  Adonis 

as,    87 ;    in   sun   and    moon   group, 

301. 
Maruts    (mar'oots),    the    Indian,    like 

Anu's  demons,  34,  64. 
Mashi    (ma'shi),    the   mountain   of,    in 

Gilgamesh  epic,  177,  178. 
Maspero,    Professor,    on    antiquity    of 

Hittites,  264;  on  Assyrian  colonists, 

456. 
"Masters,  the",  Buriat  earth  and  air 

spirits,  105. 
Mati-ilu  (ma'ti-i'lu),  of  Agusi,  relations 

of  with  Assyria  and  Urartu,  443,  446, 

447 ;  overthrow  of  by  Tiglath-pileser 

IV. 
Mattiuza  (mat-ti-ii'za),  King  of  Mitanni, 

flight  of,  283;  as  Hittite  vassal,  284. 
May  Day,  fire  ceremonies  of,  50. 


522 


INDEX 


Mead,  of  the  gods,  45 ;  blood  as,  48 ; 
eagle  steals,  74. 

Measurer,  the,  moon  as,  52. 

Medes,  Hi;  in  Hammurabi  Age,  244; 
Sargon  II  and,  460;  Ashur-bani-pal 
and,  486;  and  fall  of  Nineveh,  488; 
Scythians  and,  472,  488;  alliance  of 
with  Lydia,  494;  Cyrus  as  King  of, 

493- 

Mediterranean  Race,  the,  Basques  a 
variation  of,  3;  Sumerians  and  proto- 
Egyptians  of,  7»  8 ;  Cretans  of,  8 ; 
Ripiey  traces  in  Asia,  8,  9,  n;  in 
Africa  and  Europe,  9;  "cradle  "of, 
39 ;  Tammuz- Adonis  myth  and,  85 ; 
mother  worship  and  status  of  women 
in,  104,  105,  108,  420  tt  seq.\  in 
Hittite  confederacy,  266;  the  Biblical 
Cushites  and  Hamites  and,  276. 

Medusa,  Tiamat  and,  159. 

Meg,  Long.     See  Long  Mfg. 

Melkarth  (mel'karth),  children  sacrificed 
to,  171;  Hercules  and,  348;  burning 
of,  349. 

Memphis  (mem'phis),  Assyrians  fight 
Ethiopians  at,  475,  483. 

Men,   in   worship  of  mother   goddess, 

-     107,  108. 

Menahem  (men'a-hem),  King  of  Israel, 
pays  tribute  to  Assyria,  449. 

Meneptah  (men-e'ta  or  men'e-ta  ),  King 
of  Egypt,  relations  of  with  Hittites, 
378;  sea  raiders  defeated  by,  378, 

379- 

Menuas  (men'ii-as),  King  of  Urartu, 
440;  conquests  of,  441. 

Mercury,  the  planet;  in  sun  and  moon 
group,  301;  Nebo  as,  301,  302; 
month  of,  305;  the  "face  voice  of 
light ",  314;  "  lapis  lazuli  "  star,  314; 
the  Gaulish  boar  god  as,  316,  317; 
in  astrology,  318. 

Mermaids,  the  Babylonian,  34. 

Mermer  (mer'mer),  a  name  of  Nebo  and 
Ramman,  303. 

Merodach  (mer'6-dach),  the  god:  crea- 
tion of  mankind,  xxix,  148;  Dam- 
kina  and,  34;  Enlil  as  older  Bel  than, 
35;  Ea  and,  38;  water  of  life  belief, 
44;  Nusku  as  messenger  of,  50;  in 
demon  war,  77;  brothers  and  sister 
of,  82;  Zamama  of  Kish  and,  126; 
rise  of,  134;  Anshar's  appeal  to  in 
Creation  legend,  142;  the  avenger, 
143;  proclaimed  king  of  the  gods, 
144;  weapons  and  steeds  of,  145; 


Tiamat  slain,  and  brood  of  captured 
by,  146;  eats  "Ku-pu"  of  Tiamat, 
147,  147/7.,  153;  forms  earth  and 
sky,  147,  328;  creates  stars  of  Zodiac, 
147  ;  lunar  and  solar  decrees  of,  148; 
other  deities  and,  34,  35,  38,  149,  158, 
159,  298,  299,  303,  316,  336,  337, 
348,  354,  420;  hymn  to,  149,  150, 
161 ;  as  Tammuz,  158;  Osiris  and, 
159,  298,  354;  Perseus  and,  159; 
Nimrod  and,  167,  277,  343;  temple 
of,  221  ;  Hammurabi  Age  kings  and, 
241-2,  252 ;  Hittites  carry  off  image 
of,  261,  262,  269,  272;  Kassites  and, 
272,  274,  372 ;  complex  character  of, 
298,  299;  stars  of,  296,  299,  300,  305; 
Jupiter  form  of  as  sun  ghost,  305 ; 
Nebo  and,  303,  435;  month  of,  305; 
goddesses  and,  221,  299,  316,  420; 
world  hill  and,  332 ;  as  "  high  head", 
334;  Ashurand,  336,  337,  348,  354; 
image  at  Asshur,  468,  469 ;  restora- 
tion of,  481 , 482  ;  ceremony  of  "  taking 
hands"  of,  480,  481;  Cyrus  and, 
493,  495;  Ahura  Mazda  and,  496; 
Darius  I  and,  497;  Xerxes  pillages 
temple  of,  497;  Alexander  the  Great 
and,  497;  late  worship  of,  498. 

Merodach  Baladan  (mer'o-dach  bal'ad- 
an),  King  of  Babylon,  457 ;  second 
reign  of,  465 ;  death  of,  468 ;  sons  of 
and  Esarhaddon,  471. 

Mesopotamia,  present-day  racial  types 
in,  8;  Assyria  and  Babylonia  struggle 
to  control,  286,  381,  382,  384;  unaer 
Kassites,  358,  360,  361 ;  atrocities  of 
Ashur-natsir-pal  III  in,  397. 

Messenger  of  gods,  Sumerian  Nusku 
and  India  Agni  as,  50;  Papsukel  as, 
97;  Gaga  as,  143. 

Metals,  the  northern  Mesopotamia,  25. 

Mexico,  the  terrible  mother  ghost  of, 
69. 

Meyer,  Professor  Kuno,  101,  102. 

Micah,  the  prophet,  405,  406. 

Mice,  the  golden,  Dagon  offering  of, 
32>  33  J  g°°\s  ftSi  41  >  as  destroyers 
of  Sennacherib's  army,  466. 

Midas  (ml'das),  King  of  Phrygia,  Sar- 
gon II  and,  460,  462. 

Migrations,  earliest  from  Arabia  and 
Asia  Minor,  10,  II,  12;  the  Canaan- 
itic  or  Amorite,  217;  Median  and 
Iranian,  244;  the  Phoenician,  244, 
245;  of  Abraham  and  Lot,  245,  246; 
of  Hittites  to  Palestine,  246;  pre- 


INDEX 


523 


historic  pottery  evidence  of,  263; 
cults  and,  338;  Aramaean,  359,  360, 
376-8;  Achaean,  376-8;  the  Moslem, 
377;  the  "Bedouin  peril",  392; 
effects  of  on  old  empires,  393. 

Milky  Way,  the,  309. 

Millet,  husks  of  in  Egyptian  pre- 
Dynastic  bodies,  6. 

Minerva,  Neith  and,  337. 

Mitanni  (mi-tan'ni),  Mitra,  Indra,  &c., 
gods  of,  55,  269;  rise  of  kingdom  of, 
268 ;  Kurds  descendants  of  people  of, 
270;  Egypt  and,  270,  271,  279,  282, 
358,  359;  Kassites  and  Hyksos  and, 
270,  271,  273;  Assyria  subject  to, 
270,  279;  Merodach's  image  in,  272; 
in  Tell-el-Amarna  letters,  281;  con- 
quered by  Hittites,  283,  284 ;  cultural 
influence  of,  316;  Assyria  occupies, 

367- 

Mithra  (mith'ra),  the  Persian  god;  at- 
tributes of,  54,  55 ;  Sumerian  gods 
and,  55>  5°  J  eagle  as,  168,  169; 
Ashur  and,  338 ;  Cambyses  sacrifices 
Apis  bull  to,  495. 

Mitra  (mit'ra),  Aryo-Indian  god,  Sham- 
ash  and,  54;  association  of  with  rain, 
55;  Sumerians  and,  55,  56;  identified 
with  Yama,  56,  201 ;  links  with  Agni 
and  Tammuz,  94;  in  Mitanni,  55, 
269. 

Moab,  Judah  and,  402. 

Mohammed,  spitting  custom  of,  46. 

Moisture  of  life,  gods  and,  45. 

Moloch,  the  god,  fire  ceremony  and, 
50;  children  sacrificed  to,  171. 

Money,  spat  on  to  ensure  increase,  47. 

Mongolians,  the,  Sumerians  unlike,  3, 4 ; 
elves  of,  105;  Hittites  and,  265 ,  266. 

Monotheism,  in  Creation  legend,  149; 
Babylonia,  160,  161. 

Mons  Meg,  156. 

Moon,  the,  water  worship  and  worship 
of»  4S>  S1  J  Nannar  (Sin),  god  of,  40; 
origin  of  in  sea  fire,  50,  5 1 ;  as  source 
of  fertility  and  growth,  52 ;  consort 
and  family  of,  53;  Mitra  and  Varuna 
as  regulators  of,  54;  goblet  of,  75; 
in  demon  war,  76;  devoured  by  pig 
demon,  85 ;  god  of  as  father  of  Isis, 
100;  In-sexual  deity  of,  161,  299, 
301;  as  a  planet,  301;  forms  of  god 
of,  297,  298;  Venus  and,  314;  in 
astrology,  318;  the  "four  quarters 
of"»  323»  324-  See  Nannar  and 
Sin. 

(0642) 


Moon  goddess,  the,  53. 

Moses,  in  Koran  water  of  life  story,  186. 

Mother,  the  Great,  agriculturists  and, 
xxx  ;  as  source  of  food  supply,  xxxii ; 
destroying  goddesses  as,  57 ;  Tiamat 
as,  64,  1 06,  140,  157;  the  serpent  as, 
74-6;  the  Gaelic  Hag  as,  87;  Ishtar 
as,  100,  157;  Nut  of  Egypt  as,  100, 
106;  the  Aryo-Indian  Sri-Lakshmi 
as,  101 ;  lovers  of  die  yearly,  IOI  et 
sty.',  human  sacrifices  to,  104;  wor- 
ship of  in  Jerusalem,  106;  women  as 
offerers  to,  106-8;  Kish  queen  and, 
114;  Lagash  form  of,  1 16 ;  lions, 
deer,  and  wild  goatb  of,  120;  at  crea- 
tion of  mankind,  148 ;  as  star  Sirius, 
296 ;  Semiramis  legend  and,  436,  437. 
See  Mother  Worship. 

Mother  demons,  in  Sumerian  and  Anglo- 
Scottish  folk  tales,  153;  Neolithic 
origin  of,  156. 

Mother  ghost,  the  terrible,  in  Western 
Asia,  India,  and  Mexico,  69;  Buriats 
plead  with,  69,  70. 

"Mother  of  Mendes'',  the,  Egyptian 
fish  and  corn  deity,  29;  Nina  and, 

U7- 
"Mother    right",    Hittiles    and,    418; 

Darius  I  succeeds  through,  496. 

Mother  worship,  in  Mediterranean 
racial  areas,  104,  105;  in  Semiramis 
Age,  417  et  seq.\  Queen  Tiy  and, 
434 ;  goddesses  as  mother,  wife,  and 
daughter  of  god,  436 ;  Sargon  II  and, 
463;  Esarhaddon  and,  471;  Ashur- 
bani-pal  and,  486;  Artaxerxes  pro- 
motes, 497. 

Mothers,  the  twin,  Isis  and  Nepthys  as, 
99. 

Moulton,  Professor,  on  Indian  concep- 
tion of  conscience,  54 ;  on  Mithraism, 
201. 

Mountain  gods,  Enlil  and  the,  35. 

"  Mountain  of  the  West ",  Olympus  as, 
332 ;  temples  as  symbols  of,  332. 

Mountains,  as  totems,  291,  292. 

Mouse,  god  as  a,  296. 

Mulla,  Gaulish  mule  god,  as  Mars,  316. 

Mulla  (mul'la),  the  "Will-o'-the-wisp", 
66  et  scq. 

Miiller,  Max,  on  lunar  chronology,  312. 

Mummu  (miim'mii),  plots  with  Apsuand 
Tiamat,  139,  140;  overcome  by  Ea, 
140,  142. 

Mummu-Tiamat,  or  Tiawath.  Sec  Tut- 
mat< 

36 


524 


INDEX 


Mursil  (mUr'sil),  King  of  Hittites,  364; 
conquests  of  Egypt,  364. 

Music,  magical  origin  of,  238. 

Muski  (moosh'kee),  overlords  of  Hit- 
tites, 380;  Hittites  freed  from  yoke 
of,   386;    Thraco-  Phrygian  kingdom    | 
of,  395;   Assyrians  fight  with,  397; 
the  Biblical  Meshech,  464.  I 

MUt,  Egyptian  cult  of,  105,  418;  Aton 
and,  419. 

Mutallu  (mii'tal'lii),  Hittite  king,  wars 
of  with  Rameses  II,  365,  366.  j 

Mysticism,   the   "lord   of  many  exist-    i 
ences",  297,  299;   Osiris  as  father, 
husband,  son,  £c.,  297;  Babylonian   , 
and   Egyptian,   297,   298;    forms  of  j 
Horus,  300,  304;  "world  soul"  con- 
ception,  304;    father   and  son   gods 
identical,  304,  305;  Anshar  and  Anu    ! 
and  "self  power",  328;  Ashur  and    ; 
Brahma,  328.  i 

Nabonidus  (na-bo'nid-us),  King  of  Baby- 
lonia, religious  innovations  of,  492, 
493  J  relations  with  Cyrus,  494,  495, 

Nabo-pol-as'sar,  King  of  Babylon,  487; 
alliance  of  with  Mcdes,  488;  fall  of 
Nineveh,  488;  Cyaxares  the  ally  of, 

,493- 

Kabu  (na'bu).     See  Nebo. 
Nabu-aplu-iddin  (na'bu-ap-lu-id'din), 

King  of  Babylon,  408. 
Nabu-na'id,   King  of  Babylonia.      See 


Nadab  (na'dab),  King  of  Israel,  403. 
Nahum,  the  doom  of  Nineveh,  477,  478, 

488. 

Naki'a,  queen  mother  of  Ksarhaddon, 
470;  reigns  in  absence  of  Esarhaddon, 
472;  coronation  of  Ashur-bani-pal, 
480. 

Namtar  (nam'tar),  demon  of  disease, 
smites  Ishtar  in  Hades,  97. 

Nana  (na'na),  goddess  of  Erech,  124, 
125;  statue  of  1635  years  in  Elam, 
485. 

Nannar  (nan'nar),  moon  god,  origin  of  , 
name  of,  52;  consort  and  children  of, 
53;  as  father  of  Isis,  IOO;  as  a  bi- 
sexual deity,  161,  299;  cult  of  in 
Kish,  241;  as  bull  of  heaven,  334; 
Ishtar  and,  436.  See  Moon  and  Sin. 

Naram-Sin  (na'ram-sin),  King  of  Akkad, 
famous  stele  of,  128;  great  empire  of, 
129;  pigtails  worn  by  enemies  of,  265. 

Naturalism,  xxxiii;    the  conception  of 


"self  power",  291;  Sumerian  and 
Indian  beliefs,  291,  292,  304,  328, 
329;  Totemism  and,  293  tt  seq.\ 
various  co-existing  forms  of  deities, 

297- 

Navigation,  Sumerians  and,  2. 

Nebo  (na'bo),  protector  of  Ashur-bani' 
pal's  library,  xxii,  xxiii,  303;  as  Mer- 
cury, the  messenger,  302;  Merodach 
and  Ea  and,  303,  435,  436;  as 
Mermer-Ramman,  303;  month  of, 
305;  Semiramis  inscription,  419,  422; 
mother  worship  and,  434;  spouse  of, 
436;  small  Kalkhi  temple  of,  487. 

Nebuchadrezzar  I  (ne-bu-chad-rez'zar) 
of  Babylonia,  380;  conquests  of,  381; 
power  of,  382. 

Nebuchadrezzar  II,  Hanging  Gardens 
of,  220,  489;  fiery  furnace  of,  349; 
monotheistic  hymn  of,  479;  Egyptians 
routed  by,  489;  King  of  Judah  cap- 
tured by,  490;  takes  Jews  captive, 
491,  492. 

Necho,  the  Pharaoh,  Asiatic  campaigns 
of,  489;  rout  of  by  Nebuchadrezzar, 
489,  490. 

Necho  of  Sais,  Assyrian  governor  in 
Egypt,  475;  Ashur-bani-pal  and,  482; 
slain  by  Ethiopians,  483. 

Neheb-Kau  (ne'heb-ka'u),  Egyptian 
serpent  goddess,  150. 

Nehemiah  in  the  Susan  palace,  in; 
restoration  of  Jews,  496. 

Neith,  Egyptian  cult  of,  105;  her  arrows 
of  fertility,  337;  "shuttle"  of  a 
thunderbolt,  337  tt. 

Neolithic  Age,  See  Stone  Age^  the  Late. 

Neolithic  folk  tales,  156. 

Nepthys  (nep'thys)  mourning  for  Osiris, 
83;  laments  with  Isis  for  Osiris,  99; 
as  joint  mother  of  Osiris,  99;  as  ser- 
pent goddess,  150. 

Neptune,  connection  of  with  Ea,  Dagon, 
&c.,  33;  the  horn  of,  238. 

Nereids  (ne'rc-ids),  the,  33;  the  Baby- 
lonian, 34;  as  demon  lovers,  68. 

Nergal  (ner^gal),  solar  god  of  disease, 
53;  as  King  of  Hades,  53,  54;  Yama 
and,  56;  as  Destroyer,  62,  63,  303; 
like  Teutonic  Beli,  95;  as  form  of 
Merodach,  160;  conflict  with  Eresh- 
ki-gal,  205;  as  planet  Mars,  303; 
Horus  and  Ares  and,  304;  like  Agni, 
304;  Osiris  and  Tammuz  and,  304; 
month  of,  305 ;  as  "  high  head",  334; 
worship  of  in  Samaria,  455, 


INDEX 


525 


Nergal-shar-utsur  (ti'tstir),  King  of  Baby- 
lonia, 492. 

Nidaba  (ni'da-ba),  goddess  of  Lugal- 
zaggisi,  124. 

Nightmare,  Babylonian  demon  of,  68, 
69. 

Nimrod,  eagle  myth  regarding,  167; 
agricultural  myth  of,  170;  John 
Barleycorn  and,  170,  170^. ;  the 
Biblical  "  mighty  hunter",  276;  as 
Ni-Marad  (Merodach),  277,  343;  the 
fires  of,  350;  Asshur  and,  354. 

Nimrud.     See  Kalkhi. 

Nina  (ni'na),  the  fish  goddess,  Ishtar 
as,  too;  at  Lagash,  117,  118,  327; 
Derceto  and  Atargatis  and,  277; 
goddess  of  Nineveh,  327,  423;  creatrix 
and,  437 ;  Persian  Anahita  and,  496. 

Nineveh,  excavations  at,  xix;  called 
after  Nina,  fish  goddess,  100,  423; 
King  Ninus  and,  424;  Biblical  re- 
ference to  origin  of,  276,  277  ;  Semi- 
ramis  legend  of  origin  of,  277 ; 
plundered  by  King  of  Mitanni,  280; 
observatory  at,  321;  Ashur  and,  354; 
palace  of  Ashur-natsir-pal  III  at,  399; 
lonians  deported  from  Cilicia  to,  464 ; 
as  Babylon's  rival,  469 ;  Esarhaddon's 
Ashur  temple  at,  476 ;  Nahum's  pro- 
phecy, 477,  478;  Ashur-bani-pal's 
palace  and  library  at,  487;  fall  of, 
488;  Scythian  legend,  488. 

Nin-Girsu(nin-gir'su),  the  god  of  Lagash, 
Ninip  and  Tammuz  and,  53,  115, 
*i6*  333;  Ur-Nina  and,  117,  118; 
Urukagina,  the  reformer,  and,  121 
et  set/. ;  famous  silver  vase  from  temple 
of,  120;  lion -headed  eagle  of,  120; 
Gudea's  temple  to,  130;  Shamashand 
Babbar  arid,  132;  development  of, 
135;  eagle  of,  168;  Merodach  and 
Zamama  and,  126,  241. 

Ninip  (nin'ip,  or  Nin'ib),  as  Nirig  and 
destroying  sun,  53;  Zamama  identi- 
fied with,  126;  during  Isin  Dynasty, 
132;  in  flood  legend,  190  et  set/.; 
father  and  son  myth,  158,  302;  as 
bull  god  and  boar  god,  302,  334; 
month  of,  305;  the  boar  and,  315; 
as  Kronos  and  Saturn,  as  elder  and 
younger  Horus,  316. 

Nin'-shach,  Babylonian  boar  god,  86. 

Nin'-sun,  as  destroying  goddess,  57, 
100. 

Nin'tU,  the  Babylonian  serpent  mother, 
76;  Tiamat  and,  150. 


Ninus,  king,  legendary  founder  of  Nine- 
veh, 277,  424;  Semiramis  and,  424, 
425. 

Nin'yas,  son  of  Semiramis,  426. 

Nippur  (nip'pur),  Enlil  god  of,  35; 
Ninip  the  Destroyer  advances  against, 
53;  Ramman,  Hadad  or  Dadu  and, 
57;  Ur-Nina  and,  116,  117;  Lugal- 
zaggisi  and,  124;  Ur  moon  god  at, 
130;  Ea's  temple  at,  131;  Isin  kings 
from,  132,  133;  Kassites  showed 
preference  for,  21$;  observatory  at, 
321;  Kheber  (Chebar)  canal  near, 

344- 
Nirig  (ni'rig),  as  Ninip  and  destroying 

sun,  53.     See  Ninip. 
Nisroch,   the  Biblical,  Ashur  as,   343, 

470. 

Njord  (nyerd),  the  Eddie  sea  god,  33. 
Noah,  the  Babylonian,  27. 
Nii,  the  Egyptian  god,  the  crocodile  as, 

29;  Sumerian  form  of,  36,  37;  vaguer 

than  Nut,  106. 

Nudimmud  (nu'dim-miid).     See  Ea. 
Nusk'u,  the  god,  as  fire  deity,  49,  50, 

51;    as  messenger  of  gods,   50,  53; 

connection  of  with  sea  fire,  50,  51; 

association   of   with   sun  and   moon 

gods,  50,  353;  identified  with  Nirig 

and  Tammuz,  354. 
Nut  (noo'it),  the  Egyptian  goddess,  36 ; 

Tiamat  as,  37;  as  mother  of  Osiris, 

101;  Nu  vaguer  than,  106. 

Oak,  Saul  buried  under,  350;  associa- 
tion of  with  thunder  gods,  350. 

Oannes  (6-an'nes),  as  Ea,  27,  30. 

Odin  (o'din),  64;  lovers  of  wife  of,  103; 
Gilgamesh  and,  184,  185;  the  mythi- 
cal Ages  and,  202 ;  Paradise  of  like 
Indra's,  209. 

Olympus,  the  Babylonian,  332. 

Omri,  King  of  Israel,  405. 

Opener,  the,  Ilorus  as,  302.  See 
Apuaia  and  Patriarch. 

Opis,  Kish  swayed  by,  114;  King  of 
captured  by  Eannatum  of  Lagash, 
119;  Entemena's  sack  of,  120. 

Ops,  103. 

Ori'on,  the  Constellation,  as  form  of 
Osiris,  297;  Nin-Girsu  and  Tammuz 
as,  301 ;  as  form  of  the  sun,  305. 

Orion,  the  Greek  giant,  origin  of,  45. 

Osiris  (5-sl'ris),  Tammuz  cult  arid  cult 
of,  xxxi,  81.  Yama  and  Gilgamesh 
and,  xxxii;  as  god  of  the  Nile,  33; 


S26 


INDEX 


creative  tears  of,  45;  as  a  "  dangerous 
god  ",  63;  as  patriarch,  52,  82,  83, 
04,  86,  90;  weeping  for,  83,  twin 
goddesses  mourn  for,  99;  Adonis 
myth,  83,  84;  oiigin  of,  84;  blood  of 
in  Nile,  85;  swine  associated  with, 
85;  as  the  lunar  babe,  89;  as  child, 
husband,  brother,  and  father  of  Isis, 
&c.,  99,  297;  as  son  with  two 
mothers,  99;  Nut  as  mother  of,  101 ; 
Paradise  of,  209 ;  fusion  of  Ptah  with 
Seb  and,  264;  Isis  star  and,  296;  the 
grave  of,  296;  makes  Isis  a  male,  299; 
Nergal  and,  304;  in  star  lore,  315; 
backbone  symbol  of  world  mountain, 
332 ;  Merodach  and  Ashur  and,  354. 

Osiris-Sokar,  Merodach  like,  299. 

Owl,  as  ghost  of  sorrowful  mother,  65 ; 
Arabian  belief  regarding,  70;  refer- 
ence to  in  haiah,  114. 

Ox,  the  wild,  in  eagle  and  serpent  myth, 
75»  76. 

Palaeolithic  Age,  skull  forms  of  in 
France,  8;  Palestine  in,  10. 

Palestine,  early  races  in,  10;  Palaeolithic 
finds  in,  10;  cave  dwellers  of,  10,  11; 
in  empire  of  Naram  Sin,  129;  Abra- 
ham's wanderings  in,  245;  tribes  he 
found  in,  245,  246;  Elamites  in,  247, 
248,  249;  Necho's  campaigns  in,  489. 

Pan,  Ea-bani  and,  1 35 ;  the  pipes  of,  238. 

Pantheon,  the  National,  during  Isin 
Dynasty,  132. 

Pap-sukal  (pap-su'kal),  messenger  of 
gods,  rescues  Ishtar  from  Hades,  97. 

Paradise,  childless  ghosts  excluded 
from,  71 ;  the  Indian,  Germanic,  and 
Egyptian,  209;  Babylonian  beliefs, 
210.  See  Hades. 

Patesi  (pa'te-si),  priest  king,  I. 

Patriarch,  the,  Apuatu  as,  xxxii;  Sargon 
of  Akkad  as,  xxxiii,  91 ;  Yama  as, 
xxxii,  56,  200;  Osiris  and  Tammuz 
as,  xxxii,  82,  86,  90,  297;  Scyld  or 
Sceaf  as,  92 ;  Yngve,  Frey,  Hermod, 
and  Heimdal  as,  93;  the  mythical 
"sleepers"  and,  164;  Nimrod  as, 
170,  277,  354;  Gilgamesh  as,  xxxii, 
200;  Mitra  as,  201;  the  Biblical 
Asshur,  276,  327,  354;  King  Ninus 
of  Nineveh  and,  424, 425;  the  Persian 
and  Cyrus,  493. 

Paul,  Mars'  hill  sermon  of,  59,  60. 

Pekah,  King  of  Israel,  450,  451 ;  As- 
syrian king  overthrows,  453. 


Pelasgians,  the,  Sumerian  kinship  with, 
9;  Achaeans  and,  393. 

Pennsylvania,  University  of,  expedition 
of,  xxiv. 

Penrith,  "  Long  Meg's "  stone  circle 
near,  156. 

Persephone  (per-sef'on-e),  the  Baby- 
Ionian,  53;  as  lover  of  Adonis,  90. 

Perseus,  legend  of,  152;  the  Babylonian, 
159,  164. 

Persia,  fire  worship  in,  50;  Yama  of 
India  and  Gilgamesh,  and  Yima  of, 
200,  20 1 ;  the  mythical  Ages  of,  202; 
eagle  symbol  of  great  god  of,  347, 
493;  Ashur  cult  and,  355;  Britain 
and  Russia  in,  357;  Cyrus  King  of, 
493 ;  religion  of  and  Babylonian  in- 
fluence, 496. 

j    Persian  Gull,  early  Sumerians  traded  on, 
2;  Eridu  once  a  port  on,  22. 

Petrie,  Professor  Flinders,  dating  of, 
xxv,  212;  alien  pottery  in  Egypt 
found  by,  263 ;  on  Egypt's  culture 
debt  to  Syria,  275. 

Pharaoh,  "  Piru"  theory,  458,  458 n. 

Philistines,  the,  their  god  Dagon,  32, 
33 ;  "  way  of "  an  ancient  trade  route, 
357;  invasion  of  Palestine  by,  379; 
as  overlords  of  Hebrews,  379,  380; 
Hittites  and,  386 ;  civilization  of, 
387,  403,  405;  a*,  vassals  of  Damas- 
cus, 414;  tribute  from  to  Assyria, 

439- 

Phoenicians,  Baau,  mother  goddess  of, 
150;  traditional  racial  cradle  of,  244  • 
appearance  of  on  Mediterranean  coast, 
245;  Melkarthjgod  of,  346;  as  allies 
of  Hebrews,  388. 

Phrygia,  thunder  god  of,  261;  Cybele 
and  Attis  of,  267;  Muski  and,  395; 
King  Midas  of,  460;  Cimmerians 
overrun,  472;  Lydia  absorbs,  494. 

Picts,    why   they   painted    themselves, 

2X2. 

Pig,  demon  in,  71;  sacrificed  to  Tam- 
muz, 85 ;  associated  with  Osiris,  85 ; 
sacrifice  of  to  cure  disease,  236;  to- 
temic  significance  of,  293;  as  the 
devil  in  Egypt  and  Britain,  293; 
Ninip  as  boar  god,  302, 

Pigeons.     See  Doves. 

Pillar  worship,  "  world  tree "  and 
41  world  spine",  334. 

Pinches,  Professor,  on  Ea,  Ya  or  Tah, 
and  Dagan,  3 1 ;  on  Babylonian  * '  Will- 
o'- the -wisp  ,  66;  on  Babylonian 


INDEX 


527 


boar  god,  86  ,*  on  flocks  of  Tammuz, 
93;  on  Creation  hymn,  149,  150;  on 
Babylonian  monotheism,  160;  on 
names  of  Hammurabi,  Tidal,  &c., 
248;  on  Merodach  as  Nimrod,  277; 
on  Nebo  and  Ramman,  303;  on 
Ashur  worship,  352,  353 ;  on  Nusku 
and  Tammuz,  353,  354;  on  Ashur, 
Merodach,  and  Osiris,  354;  on  the 
sacred  doves,  427. 

Pir-na-pish'tim,  the  Babylonian  Noah, 
27 ;  sun  god  and,  55  >  Gilgamesh's 
journey  to  island  of,  177,  178,  180; 
revelation  of,  181,  182;  the  flood 
legend  of,  190  et  $eq.\  the  Indian 
Yama  and,  200;  the  Persian  Yima 
and,  201. 

Planets,  deities  identified  with,  296; 
Merodach  as  Jupiter  and  Mercury, 
299;  Venus  female  at  sunset  and 
male  at  sunrise,  299;  when  gods 
were  first  associated  with,  300;  Horus 
identified  with  three,  300;  the  seven 
included  sun  and  moon,  301 ;  Jupiter 
as  "  bull  of  light",  301;  the  "bearded 
Aphrodite"  and  Ishtar,  301;  Ninip 
(Nirig)  and  Horus  as  Saturn,  302; 
Nebo  and  Merodach  as  Mercury, 
303;  Nergal  and  Horus  as  Mars,  303, 
304;  in  doctrine  of  mythical  Ages, 
$i$etseq. ;  the  Babylonian  and  Greek, 
316;  in  astrology,  318. 

Plant  of  Birth,  Etana's  quest  for,  164. 

Plant  of  Life,  Gilgamesh's  quest  for,  164, 

177- 

Plato,  the  dance  of  the  stars,  333. 

Pleiades  (pli'a-dez),  the.  See  Constel- 
lations. 

Pleistocene  (plist'o-sen)  Age,  the,  Pales- 
tinian races  of,  10. 

Pliny,  on  the  "Will-o'-the-wisp",  67. 

Plutarch,  the  Osirian  bull  myth,  89;  on 
Babylonian  astrology,  318. 

Poetry,  magical  origin  of,  236  et  seq. 

Poets,  inspired  by  sacred  mead,  45. 

Polar  star,  as  "world  spike",  332; 
Lucifer  as,  331,  332. 

Pork,  tabooed  by  races,  293. 

Poseidon  (po-sl'don),  64,  105. 

Postal  arrangements,  in  Hammurabi 
Age,  251. 

Pottery,  linking  specimens  of  in  Turke- 
stan, Elam,  Asia  Minor,  and  Southern 
Europe,  5,  263. 

Prajapati  (praja'pati),  the  Indian  god, 
creative  tears  of,  45. 


Preservers,   the,   mother  goddesses  as, 

100. 

Priests,  En-we-dur-an-ki  of  Sippar,  42 ; 
the  sorcerer's  spell,  46;  Dudu  of 
Lagash,  120;  as  rulers  of  Lagash, 
12 1 ;  and  burial  ceremonies,  208,  209; 
fees  of  cut  down  by  reformer,  210, 
21 1 ;  as  patrons  of  culture,  287,  288, 
289. 

Pritha  (preet'ha),  mother  of  Indian 
Kama,  126. 

Prophecy,  blood  -  drinking  ceremony 
and,  48;  breath  of  Apis  bull  and, 
49. 

Prophets,  clothing  of,  213,  214. 

Psamtik  (sam'tik),  Pharaoh  of  Egypt 
under  Assyrians,  483;  throws  off 
Assyrian  yoke,  486. 

Ptah  (ta),  the  Egyptian  god,  Ea  com- 
pared to,  30;  cult  of  and  mother 
worshippers,  105;  deities  that  link 
with,  263,  264. 

Pul,  Assyrian  king  called  in  Bible,  444. 

Pumpelly  expedition,  Turkestan  dis- 
coveries of,  5,  6,  263. 

Punt,  the  land  of,  as  "cradle"  of 
Mediterranean  race,  39. 

Purusha  (pur-ush'a),  the  Indian  chaos 
giant,  429. 

Quarters,  the  four.    See  Four  quarters. 

Queen  of  Heaven,  the,  Ishtar  as,  81; 
descent  of  to  Hades,  95  et  seq. ;  Bau- 
Gulaas,  116;  Etana  and  eagle  legend 
and,  1 66;  Ashur  worshipped  like, 
352;  Jehu  worshipped,  412,  421. 

Queen  of  Kish,  the  legendary  Azag- 
Bau,  114;  humble  origin  of,  115. 

Ra  (ra  or  ra),  the  Egyptian  god,  as  chief 
of  nine  gods,  36;  creative  tears  of,  45, 
334;  creative  saliva  of,  46;  the  "Eye  " 
of  blinded  and  cured,  46;  as  a  de- 
stroyer, 63;  in  flood  legend,  197; 
Paradise  of,  209;  Osiris  and,  297;  as 
old  man,  314;  as  cat,  ass,  bull,  ram, 
and  crocodile,  329. 

Races,  languages  and,  3;  the  Sumerian 
problem,  3;  shaving  customs  of,  4; 
the  Semitic  blend,  10;  culture  pro- 
moted by  fusion  of,  42;  god  and 
goddess  cults  and,  105.  See  Ar- 
menoids%  Mongolians,  Mediterranean 
Racet  Semites,  Sumerians. 

Rain  gods,  Enlil,  Ramman,  Indra,  &c., 
as>  35>  57 i  Mitraand  Varuna  as,  55. 


INDEX 


Rainy  season  in  Babylonia,  24. 
Ram,  sun  god  as,  329;  Osiris  as,  85. 
Rama,    the    Indian    demi-god,    demon 

lover  of,  67;  colour  of,  186. 
Rdmdyana  (ram -ay 'an -a),  the,  67;  eagle 

myth  in,  166. 
Rameses  I  (ram'e-sez  or  ra-me'ses),  H it- 

tites  and,  364. 
Rameses  II,  of  Egypt,  wars  of  in  Syria, 

365;  the  Ilittite  treaty,  366;  Hittites 

aided  by  Aramreans  against,  378. 
Rameses  III,  sea  raiders  scattered  by, 

379;  Philistines,  and,  379. 
Ramman    (ram'man),    the   atmospheric 

and   thunder  god,    57 ;    in   Zu   bird 

myth,  74;  in  demon  war,  76;  a  hill 

god,  136;  Merodach  and,  159,  160; 

in  flood  legend,   192  et  seq.\  deities 

that  link  with,  261;   called  Mermer 

like  Nebo,  303;  month  of,  309. 
Rams,  offered  to  sea  god,  33. 
Rassam,  Hormuzd,  xx,  xxiii. 
Ravens,  demons  enter  the,  71;  in  folk 

cures,  234;  as  unlucky  birds,  429. 
Rawlinson,  Sir  Henry,  xx,  xxi. 
Rebekah,  Hittite  daughters-in-law  of, 

266,  267. 
Reed  hut,  Ea  revelation  to  Pir-napish- 

tim  in,  190,  191;  and  reeds  in  graves, 

213. 
Reformer,  the  first  historic,  Urukagina 

of  Lagash,  121  et  scq. 
Rehoboam   (re-ho-bo'am),   subject   to 

Egypt,  402. 
Rem,  the  Egyptian  god  of  fish  and  corn, 

29. 
Rephaim  (reph'a-im),  the,  Hittites  and, 

II,   12. 

Rezin,  King  of  Damascus,  449;  Pekah 
plots  with,  451;  Tiglath-pileser  IV 
and,  453. 

Rhea,  103. 

Rhone,  the  river,  dragon  of,  152. 

Ribhus  (rib'hus),  the  elves  of  India,  105. 

Ridgeway,  Professor,  on  the  Acha?ans, 

377- 

Rim-Anum  (rim-an'um),  revolt  of  in 
Hammurabi  Age,  242. 

Rimmon  (rim'mon),  Enlil,  Tarku,  £c., 
as,  35,  57,  395- 

Rim-Sin,  struggle  of  with  Babylon,  217; 
Hammurabi  reduces  power  of,  249; 
put  to  death  by  Samsu-iluna,  249,  256. 

Rim'ush.     See  Urumush. 

Ripley,  Professor  W.  Z.,  on  Mediter- 
ranean racial  types  in  Asia,  8. 


Risley,  Mr.,  on  Naturalism  in  India, 

291. 
Rivers,  worship  of,  44;  life  principle  in, 

48;  created  by  Merodach,  149. 
Robin  Good  fellow,  the  Babylonian,  66. 
Roman  burial  customs,  207. 
Rome,  the  death  eagle  of,  169. 
j    Rose  Garden,  the  Wonderful,  68. 
!    Rossetti,    Dante    Gabiiel,    the    Lilith 
|       sonnet,  67. 
j   Rudra  (rood'ra),  the  Indian  god,  64. 

Rusas  (rii'sas),  King  of  Urartu,  Sargon 
!        II  routs,  460,  461. 
1    Russia,  the  double-headed  eagle  of,  168; 
j        Persian  and  Armenian  questions,  357. 
;    Russian  Turkestan,  early  civilization  of 
|       and  the  Sumerian,  5. 
I 
Saliva,   Isis  serpent  formed  from,  45; 

magical  qualities  of,  46. 
Samaria,   building  of,  405 ;    murder  of 
Jezebel  in,  410;    Assyrians  capture, 
455 J     "ten    tribes"    deported,   455; 
Babylonians  settled  in,  456. 
Sammu-rammat       (sam  'mu  -  ram  -  mat), 
Queen  of  Assyria,  as  Semiramis,  417, 
437,  438;   a  Babylonian,  418;    high 
status    of,    419;     relation    to   Adad- 
nirari  IV,  419,  420;   innovations  of, 
421;  mother  worship  and,  423,  436; 
Queen  Nakia  like,  470,  471. 
Samsu-iluna  (sam-su-il-u'na),  King,  son 
of  Hammurabi,  slays  Rim-Sin,  249; 
Kassites   appear    in    reign   of,    255; 
Erech  and  Ur  restored  by,  256. 
Sandan  (san'dan),  the  god,  261;  Agni 
and  Melkarth  and,  346 ;  winged  disk 
of,  348.     Also  tendered  Sandes. 
Sandstorms,  the  Babylonian,  24. 
Sap  of  plants,  vitalized  by  water  of  life, 

45- 

Sarah,  Abraham's  wife,  1 6, 

Saraswati  (sa-ras'wa-tee),  wife  of 
Brahma,  lor. 

Sardanapalus  (sar-dan-a-pa'lus),  palace 
burning  of,  350;  Ashur-bani-pal  and, 
486,  487,  488. 

Sargon  of  Akkad,  as  Patriarch,  xxxiii; 
the  Patriarch -Tarn  muz  myth  of,  91, 
437;  humble  origin  of,  125;  legend 
of  like  Indian  Kama  stoiy,  126; 
empire  of,  127;  Enlil-bani  of  Ism 
like,  133;  Gilgamesh  legend  and, 
171,  172;  Sargon  II  an  incarnation 
of,  462. 

Sargon  II,  King  of  Assyria,  excavations 


INDEX 


529 


at  city  of,  xx;  "Lost  Ten  Tribes" 
deported  by,  455 ;  Merodach  Baladan 
revolt,  457;  Syrian  revolts  against, 
458,  459;  tribute  from  Piru  of  Mutsri, 
458;  Piru  and  Pharaoh,  458  n. ;  Isaiah 
warns  Ahaz  regarding,  459;  Hittites 
and,  460;  Urartu  crippled  by,  460, 
461 ;  Merodach  Baladan  ejected  by, 
462 ;  Messianic  pretensions  of,  462 ; 
Dur-Sharrukin  built  by,  463;  deities 
worshipped  by,  463;  assassination  of, 
463,  464. 

Saturn,  the  planet,  Horus  as,  300,  302; 
in  sun  and  moon  group,  301;  Ninip 
(Nirig)  as,  301 ;  as  ghost  of  elder  god, 
302;  month  of,  305;  the  "black", 
3H.  3*5;  in  astrology,  318. 

Satyrs,  the  dance  of  at  Babylon,  114, 

333- 

Saul,  the  ephod  ceremony,  213,  214; 
cremation  of,  350. 

Saushatar  (sa-U-sha'tar),  King  of  Mi- 
tanni,  Assyria  subdued  by,  279,  280. 

Sayce,  Professor,  on  Dagon-Dagan 
problem,  32;  on  Daonus  and  Tam- 
muz,  83;  on  Hittite  chronology,  264; 
on  star  worship,  317;  on  the  goat 
god,  332,  333;  Hittite  winged  disk, 

^  347,  348,  428. 

Sceaf  or  Scef,  "the  sheaf",  Tammuz 
and  the  Germanic  myth  of,  91,  92, 
93,  210. 

Schliemann,  pottery  finds  by,  263. 

Schools,  in  Hammurabi  Age,  251. 

Scorpion  man  and  wife,  in  Gilgamesh 
epic,  I77i  178. 

Scotland,  the  sea  god  of,  33;  spitting 
customs  in,  47 ;  the  "  Great  Mother  " 
in,  a  demon,  64;  return  of  dead 
dreaded  in,  70;  "calling  back  "  belief 
in,  70  ».;  south-west  wind  a  hag  like 
Babylonian,  73 ;  fairies  and  elves  of, 
80,  1 86;  Tammuz-Diarmid  myth  of, 
85;  Diarmid  a  love  god  of,  87;  the 
eternal  goddess  of,  101;  "the  Yellow 
Muilearteach  "  of,  151;  slain  by  Finn 
as  Merodach  slays  Tiamat,  151 ;  great 
eel  story  of,  152;  mother-monster 
Sumerian  lore  in,  153;  giant  lore  of, 
164,  317;  Etana-like  eagle  myth  of, 
167,  168;  John  Barleycorn,  the  Ice- 
landic god  Barleycorn  and  Nimrod, 
170,  I70w,,  171 ;  water  of  life  myths 
of,  1 86,  187;  dark  tunnel  stories  of, 
189;  Pictish  customs  in,  212;  the 
Gunna,  213;  seers  and  bull  skin 


ceremony,  213;  folk  cures  in,  232, 
233;  pig  as  the  devil  in,  293;  May 
day  solar  belief  in,  348;  the  "seven 
sleepers"  in,  394;  "death  thraw" 
belief,  427  n. ;  doves  and  ravens,  429; 
pigeon  lore  in,  431. 

Scott,  Sir  Walter,  the  Taghairm  cere- 
mony, 213. 

Scyld.     See  Sceaf. 

Scythians,  raids  of  in  Western  Asia, 
461;  Esarhaddon  and,  472;  fall  of 
Nineveh,  488. 

Sea  demon,  Ea  as  a,  62. 

Sea  fire,  50,  51. 

Sea  giants,  the  Babylonian,  34. 

Sea  goddess,  Ea's  spouse  as,  and  earth 
lady,  34. 

Sea  gods,  Ea,  Dagon,  Poseidon,  Nep- 
tune, Shony,  and  Njord  as,  33. 

"Sea  Lady",  the,  Sabitu,  in  Gil- 
gamesh epic,  178,  179;  Germanic 
hag  and,  184,  185;  the  Indian  Maya 
like,  1 88. 

Sea  of  Death,  in  Gilgamesh  epic,  178 
ft  stq. 

Sealand,  Dynasty  of  in  Hammurabi  Age, 
257;  in  Kassite  Age,  274,  275. 

Seasonal  changes,  evil  spirits  cause,  65. 

Seasons,  the,  of  Babylonia,  23,  24. 

Sebek  (seb'ek),  Egyptian  crocodile  god, 
as  a  weeping  deity,  29. 

Sekhet  (se'khet),  the  Egyptian  goddess, 
Ishtar  and,  57. 

Seleucid   Period,   Lagash  occupied  in, 

243- 

Seleucus  I,  498. 

Seieukeia,  rival  city  to  Babylon,  498. 

"  Self  power  ",  xxxiii ;  conception  of  in 
stage  of  Naturalism,  291;  the  "world 
soul"  conception,  304;  Anu  a  form 
of,  328;  the  "  world  soul ",  328;  gods 
as  phases  of,  329 ;  stars  as  phases  of, 

33.1- 

Semiramis  (sem-ir'a-mis),  Queen,  as 
founder  of  Nineveh,  277;  Queen 
Sammu  -  rammat  as,  417;  mother 
worship  and,  423,  434;  birth  legend 
like  Shakuntala's,  423,  424;  as  re- 
presentative of  mother  goddess,  425 ; 
buildings  and  mounds  of,  425,  426; 
Persian  connection,  427,  433;  dove 
symbol  of,  431,  432 ;  origin  of  legend 
of,  437,  438 ;  Urartu  and,  441;  Queen 
Nakia  and,  471;  wife  of  Cambyses 
like,  496.  See  Sammu-rammat. 

Semites,  Akkadians  were,  2 ;  the  racial 


530 


INDEX 


blend  of,  9  et  seq.\  influence  of  on 
Sumerian  gods,  135,  136,  137. 

Sennacherib  (sen-nak'er-ib),  King  of 
Assyria,  463;  wars  of  in  Elam  and 
Asia  Minor,  464;  lonians  deported 
to  Nineveh  by,  464;  Mcrodach 
Baladan's  second  reign,  465;  army  of 
destroyed  by  "  angel  of  the  Lord", 
466,  467;  death  of  Merodach  Bala- 
dan,  468 ;  destruction  of  Babylon  by, 
468,  469;  murder  of,  470;  Nakia, 
Babylonian  wife  of,  471. 

Sergi,  Professor,  on  Syrian  and  Asia 
Minor  races,  11,  267. 

Serpent,  Isis  makes  from  saliva  of  Ra, 
45  J  in  grouP  °f  seven  spirits,  63 ;  the 
world,  150;  dragon  as,  157,  158; 
totcrnic  theory,  293,  296;  in  Crete, 
430. 

Serpent  charms,  as  fertility  and  birth 
charms,  150,  165. 

Serpent  worship,  77. 

Serpents,  the  mother  of,  in  Zu  bird 
myth,  74,  75;  the  Babylonian  and 
Egyptian,  74-6,  150. 

Sesostris  (se-sos'tris),  Hittite  god  identi- 
fied with,  441;  Semiramis  and,  426. 

'Set,  as  boar  demon,  46,  85,  293 ;  as  the 
dragon,  156;  as  thunder  god,  261, 

Seti  I  (set'ee),  of  Egypt,  struggle  of 
with  Hittites,  364. 

Seven,  the  demons  in  groups  of,  34. 

"Sevenfold  One",  298;  constellations 
as,  300  et  stq.\  Tammuz  as,  304,  317. 

"Seven  sleepers",  the,  394. 

Seven  spirits,  the,  dragon,  &c.,  in,  63; 
the  daughters  of  Anu,  68;  the  sex- 
less, 71. 

Shabaka  (sha'ba-ka),  King  of  Egypt, 
the  Biblical  So  and,  454  n. 

Shakespeare,  "Jack"  the  fairy,  66; 
Tiamat-like  imagery  in,  151;  "sea 
devils",  152;  grave  inscription  of, 
214,  215  j  astrology  references,  324, 

3*5- 

Shakuntala    (sha  -  koon  'ta  -  lah),    birth 

legend  of  like  Semiramis's,  423,  424 ; 
Persian  eagle  legend  and,  493. 

Shallum  (shal'lum),  revolt  of  at  Sa- 
maria, 449. 

Shalmaneser  I  (shal-manV-ser),  of 
Assyria,  a  great  conqueror,  363; 
western  and  northern  expansion, 
366;  Kalkhi  capital  of,  367. 

Shalmaneser  III,  referred  to  in  Bible, 
401;  attacks  on  Aramaeans  and  Hit- 


tites, 407;  Ahab  of  Israel  rights 
against,  407;  authority  of  in  Baby- 
lonia, 408,  409;  defeat  of  Hazael  of 
Damascus,  411;  tribute  from  Jehu  of 
Israel,  411,  412;  conquests  of,  414; 
revolt  of  son  against,  414;  death  of, 
415 ;  Babylonian  culture,  422;  library 
of  at  Kalkhi,  422. 

Shalmaneser  IV,  of  Assyria,  reign  of, 
439;  Urartu  wars  of,  442. 

Shalmaneser  V,  imprisons  Hoshea  of 
Israel,  454,  455. 

Shamash  (&ham'ash),  Semitic  name  of 
sun  god,  40;  Babbar  Sumerian  name 
of,  54,  240;  Mitra  and  Varuna  and, 
54;  as  god  of  destiny,  55;  Mithra  and, 

55,  56;  sun  as  "boat  of  the  sky", 

56,  57;    consort  and  attendants  of, 

57,  100;  local  importance  of,  58;  in 
eagle  and  serpent  myths,  75,  76;   in 
demon  war,  76 ;  development  of,  132 ; 
in  Gilgamesh  legend,  172  et  seq.\  as 
an  abstract  deity,  240,   241;    oracle 
of  pleads  for  Merodach,  272;  month 
of>  3°5;  as  the  "high  head",  334; 
"water   sun"   of,    334;     the   wheel 
symlx)!  of,  347 ;    Aramaeans  destroy 
temple  of,  445;  worshipped  by  Esar- 
haddon,  471;   oracle  of  and  Ashur- 
bani-pal,  481;  Nabonidus  and,  492. 

Shamash  -  shum  •  ukin  (sham 'ash  -  shum- 
u'km),  King  of  Babylon,  471,  476, 
480;  restoration  of  Merodach,  480, 
481 ;  revolt  of  against  Ashur-bani-pal, 
484;  bums  himself  in  palace,  485. 

Shamshi-Adad  VII  (sham'shi-ad'ad), 
King  of  Assyria,  414;  civil  war,  415; 
conquests  of,  415,  416;  culture  in 
reign  of,  423;  rise  of  Urartu,  440. 

Shar,  the  god.     See  Attshar. 

Shar  Apsi,  "King  of  the  Deep",  Ea 
as,  28,  29. 

"Shar  Kishshate",  "King  of  the 
-World",  Assyrian  title,  363,  370. 

Sharduris  III  (shar'du-ris),  of  Urartu, 
routed  by  Tiglath-pileser  IV,  446, 447. 

Shaving  customs,  significance  of,  4;  of 
Arabians  and  Libyans,  &c.,  9;  why 
Sumerian  gods  were  bearded,  I35~7- 

Shedu  (sha'du),  the  destroying  bull,  65; 
as  household  fairy,  77. 

Sheep,  skin  of  in  graves,  213. 

Shepherd,  the  divine,  Tammuz  as,  53. 

Sheshonk  (shi&h'ak),  Pharaoh  of  Egypt, 
alliance  with  Solomon,  388;  Hebrews 
spoiled  by,  391,  402, 


INDEX 


Shinar,  the  Biblical,  1 1 1,  247;  Amraphel 
(Hammurabi)  of,  131. 

Shishak.     See  Sheshonk. 

Shiva,  the  Indian  god,  Bel  Enlil  like, 
38;  the  Sumerian  Ninip  like,  53; 
Osiris  and  Ra  like,  63 ;  in  "  dying 
Indra"  myth,  101. 

Shony  (shon'ee),  sea  god  of  Scottish 
Hebrides,  33. 

Shii,  the  Egyptian  god,  created  from 
saliva,  46. 

Shubari  (shu-ba'ri)  tribes,  284. 

Shurippak'  or  Shurruppak',  city  of,  in 
flood  legend,  190,  191,  243. 

Shushan.     See  Susa. 

Siberia,  elves  of,  105;  "calling  back" 
of  ghosts  in,  69,  70. 

•Sidon,  conspiracy  against  Nebuchad- 
rezzar II,  491;  tribute  of  to  Adad- 
nirari  IV,  439;  Tyre  and,  388,  392; 
Israel  an  ally  of,  406;  in  league 
against  Esarhaddon,  472;  destruction 

of,  473- 
Siegfried  (seeg'freed),  "birds  of  Fate" 

sang  to,  65;   the  "Regin"  dragon, 

156,  164. 

Signs  of  the  Zodiac.     See  Zodiac. 
Sigurd  (see'goord),  link  with  Merodach 

as  dragon  slayer,  147  n. ;  the  "  Fafner " 

dragon,  156,  164. 
Sin,  desert  of,  called  after  moon  god, 

52- 

Sin,  the  moon  god,  51,  52;  consort  and 
children  of,  53;  Shamash,  Mitra,  and 
Varuna  chastise,  54,  55;  in  demon 
war,  76,  77;  as  father  of  Isis,  100; 
as  form  of  Merodach,  160;  month  of, 
305;  Ashur  worshipped  with,  353; 
Nabonidus  as  worshipper  of,  494. 
See  Moon  and  Nannar. 

Sinai,  mountains  of,  called  after  moon 
god,  52. 

Sin-iksha  (sin-ik'sha).  King  of  Ism,  133. 

Sin-magir  (sin  •  ma'gir),  King  of   Isin, 

133- 

Sin-muballit  (sin-mti-bariit),  King, 
father  of  Hammurabi,  132,  242; 
struggle  of  with  Elamites,  243. 

Sin-shar-ish'kun,  last  King  of  Assyria, 
487. 

Sippar  (sip'par),  sun  god  chief  deity  of, 
40;  a  famous  priestly  teacher  of,  42; 
goddess  of  assists  Merodach  to  create 
mankind^  148;  rise  of  sun  cult  of,  240; 
first  Amoritic  king  of,  241;  Esarhad- 
don plunders,  472. 


Sirius,  the  star,  Teutonic  giant  as,  295 ; 
goddess  Isis  as,  296. 

Skull  forms,  language  and,  3 ;  of  Mon- 
golian, Ural-Altaic,  and  Mediter- 
ranean peoples,  3,  4;  Kurdish  and 
Armenian  treatment,  4,  5;  of  early 
Egyptians  and  Sumerians,  7  et  $eq.\ 
Palaeolithic  still  survive,  8;  persistence 
of,  8;  broad  heads  in  Western  Asia, 
Egypt,  and  India,  8,  9;  the  Semitic, 
10. 

Sky,  conception  of  "  Self  Power "  of, 
292;  god  of,  31;  goddesses  of,  36,  37. 

Sleeper,  the  divine,  Angus,  the  Irish, 
and  Tammuz,  90. 

Sleepers,  the  seven,  the  Indras  as,  101; 
Thomas  the  Rhymer,  Finn,  Napoleon, 
and  Skobeleff  as,  164;  as  spirits  of 
fertility,  164;  Tammuz  and,  210. 

Smith,  Professor  Elliot,  on  Sumerian 
origins,  7 ;  on  origin  of  Semites,  IO ; 
on  conquest  by  Akkadians  of  Sume- 
rians, 12;  on  first  use  of  copper,  12; 
on  early  Egyptian  invasion  of  "  broad 
heads",  263,  264. 

Smith,  George,  career  and  discoveries 
of,  xxi-iii;  "Descent  of  Ishtar",  95 
et  seq. 

Smith,  Professor  Robertson,  on  Atar- 
^atis  legend,  28;  on  life-blood  be- 
liefs, 47;  on  agricultural  weeping 
ceremony,  83. 

Snakes,  doves  and,  Cretan  goddess  and, 

430- 
So,  King  of  Egypt,  Shabaka  and  other 

kings  and,  454,  454  n, 
Sokar,  a  composite  monster  god,  135. 
Sokar  (sok'ar),  Egyptian  lord  of  fear,  63. 
Solomon,  King,  ally  of  Egypt  and  Tyre, 

388,  389;   sea  trade  of  with  India, 

389,  390;  Babylonia  during  period  of, 
391;  Judah  and  Israel  separated  after 
death  of,  401,  402. 

Soma  (s6'ma),  source  of  inspiration,  45. 
Song  of  the  Sea  Lady,  in  Gilgamesh  epic, 

178,  179. 
"Soul  of  the  land",   river  Euphrates 

as  the,  23. 

Souls,  carried  to  Hades  by  eagle,  1 68. 
Spells  on  water,  44;  layers  of  punished, 

233- 

Spinning,  in  Late  Stone  Age,  14. 

Spirits,  "air"  and  "breath"  as,  48, 
49;  gods  evolved  from,  60;  the  good 
and  evil,  58,  63,  77,  78,  236;  the 
Gorgons,  159;  periodic  liberation  of, 


532 


INDEX 


65;  the  "calling  back"  belief,  69, 
70;  penetrate  everywhere,  yi,  72;  of 
luck  and  fate,  77,  236;  elves,  Rib- 
hus,  and  Burkans  as,  105. 
Spitting  customs,  in  Asia,  Africa,  and 
Europe,  46,  47. 

Spring  sun,  tbe,  Tammuz  as  god  of,  53. 

Sri,  tbe  Indian  eternal  mother,  101. 

Stars,  the,  great  beauty  of  in  Baby- 
lonia, 24;  "Will-o'-the-wisps"  as, 
67;  Zu  bird  and,  74;  Merodach  fixes 
Signs  of  the  Zodiac,  147;  the  "sta- 
tions" of  Enlil  and  Ea,  147;  animals 
and  myths  of  the,  289;  in  various 
local  mythologies,  290 ;  the  4 '  host 
of  heaven  ",  294 ;  as  totems,  295 ;  as 
ghosts,  295,  304;  in  mythologies  of 
Teutons,  Aryo- Indians,  Greeks, 
Egyptians,  &c.,  295,  296,  319,  320; 
star  of  Osiris,  296;  Ishtar  myths,  295, 
299;  Merodach  as  Regulus  and  Ca- 
pella,  299;  bi-sexual  deities  and  the, 
299;  early  association  of  Isis  with, 
300;  three  for  each  month,  307,  308, 
309;  the  "divinities  of  council",  309; 
the  doctrine  of  mythical  Ages  and,  310 
et  stq.\  popular  worship  of,  317;  as 
"  birth-ruling  divinities  ,  318;  spirits 
of  associated  with  gods,  318;  in 
Indian  Vedas  and  "Forest  Books", 
318;  Biblical  references  to,  324; 
literary  references  to,  325;  Anshar 
as  the  Pole  star,  330;  Isaiah  and 
Polar  star  myth,  331  ;  Polar  star  as 
"the  kid",  333;  in  Ashur  ring 
symbol,  344. 

Steer,  moon  god  as  the,  52,  135. 

Stone  Age,  the  Late,  pottery  of  in 
Turkestan,  Elam,  Asia  Minor,  and 
Europe,  5 ;  origin  of  agriculture  in,  6; 
in  Palestine,  10;  racial  blending  in 
Egypt  in,  ii;  civilization  in,  13 
tt  seq.\  refined  faces  of  men  of,  15. 

Stone  worship,  moon  worship  and,  52; 
Ninip  the  bull  god  and,  53. 

Storm  demons,  the  Babylonian  Shutu 
and  Adapa  legend,  72,  73;  the  Euro- 
pean, 72,  73.  See  Wind  hags. 

Strabo,  on  Babylonian  works  of  Alex- 
ander, 498;  on  Semiramis  legend, 
425. 

Straw  girdle,  a  birth  charm,  165. 

Subbi-luliuma  (sub'bi-lu-li-d'ma),  Hit- 
tite  king,  conquests  of,  283,  363. 

Sumer,  or  Sumeria  (shoo'mer  and  sum - 
a'ri-a),  its  racial  and  geographical 


significance,  i;  early  name  of  Kengi, 
2;  agriculture  in  at  earliest  period,  6; 
culture  of  indigenous,  6,  7;  women's 
high  social  status  in,  1 6,  17 ;  Eridu  a 
seaport  of,  22;  surplus  products  and 
trade  of,  25 ;  gods  of  like  Egyptian, 
26,  36,  37;  modes  of  thought  and 
habits  of  life  in,  51 ;  the  Great  Mother 
Tiamat  of,  106;  early  history  of,  109 
<?/  se<j. ;  principal  cities  of,  no;  the 
"plain  of  Shinar",  in;  why  gods 
of  were  bearded,  135,  136,  137; 
burial  customs  of  like  early  Egyptian, 
211,  214;  cities  of  destroyed  in  Ham- 
murabi Age,  243;  the  Biblical  Shinar 
is,  247 ;  stars  in  primitive  religion  of, 
289;  Naturalism  and  the  Zi,  291; 
sculpture  of  compared  with  Assyrian, 
401. 

Sumerian  goddesses,  laciai  origin  of, 
105. 

Sumerians,  characteristics  of,  2 ;  Ak- 
kadians adopted  culture  of,._2,  3; 
unlike  the  Chinese,  3 ;  Mongolian 
affinities  of  doubtful,  3;  language  of 
agglutinative  like  those  of  Chinese, 
Turks,  Magyars,  Finns,  and  Basques, 
3;  Ural-Altaic  racial  theory,  4; 
shaving  customs  of,  5;  of  Mediter- 
ranean or  Brown  Race,  7 ;  congeners 
of  prehistoric  Europeans,  9;  Arabs 
and  Egyptians  and,  9,  10;  conquered 
by  Akkadians,  12;  survival  of  culture 
and  language  of,  13;  in  early  Copper 
Age,  12,  13;  pious  records  of  kings 
of,  112;  how  history  of  is  l>eing  re- 
stored, 113;  the  earliest  dates,  114; 
end  of  political  power  of,  217;  as 
early  astronomers,  300. 

Sumu-abum  (su'mu -a'bum),  early 
Amoritic  king,  241. 

Sumu-la-ilu  (su  mu'la-i'lu),  early  King 
of  Hammurabi  Age,  241;  capture  of 
Kish  by,  241,  242;  Assyrian  king 
claims  descent  from,  419. 

Sun,  origin  of  in  sea  fire,  50,  51;  sea- 
sonal worship  of,  53,  240;  Mitra  and 
Varuna  as  regulators  of,  54 ;  as  "boat 
of  the  sky",  56;  as  a  planet,  301;  as 
bridegroom,  306,  306  **. ;  in  astrology, 
318;  the  "  man  in  "  the,  335,  336. 

Sun,  god  of,  Ninip,  Nirig,  and  Ncrgal 
as,  53.  54,  3°3;  Babbar  as,  54;  as 
Judge  of  living  and  dead,  54 ;  as  seer 
of  secret  sin,  54,  55 ;  links  between 
Sham  ash,  Mitra,  and  Varuna,  54,  55 : 


INDEX 


533 


Ninip  and  Nin-Girsu,  and  Babbar 
and  Shamash,  132;  Tammuz  as,  158; 
forms  of,  297,  298;  Horus  as  the, 
300;  as  offspring  and  spouse  of  moon, 
301;  Orion  as  a  manifestation  of,  305 ; 
animals  identified  with,  329,  330; 
symbols  of,  335,  336. 
Sundial,  a  Babylonian  invention,  323; 

of  Ahaz,  323. 
Sun  god,  Shamash  as,  40;  centres  of, 

40.     See  Shamash. 
Sun  goddess,  the  Babylonian  and  Hit- 

tite,  57. 
Surpanakha  (sur-pa'nak-ha),  the  Indian 

demon,  like  Lilith,  67. 
Susa,  prehistoric  pottery  of,  5 ;  capital 
of  Elam,  in;  Hammurabi  Code  dis- 
covered at,  222 ;  burning  of  Persian 
palace  at,  497. 
Sutarna  II  (su-tar'na),  King  of  Mitanni, 

283;  deposed  by  rival,  284. 
Sutekh  (siit'ekh),  as  tribal  god,  156;  as 
dragon  slayer,  157;    Hittite  thunder 
and  fertility  god  and,  261. 
Suti  (sii'ti),  the,  Aramaean  robbers,  285, 
359.  360;  settled  in  Asia  Minor,  461. 
Svip'dag,  Gilgamesh  and,  184,  185. 
Swan,  Irish  love  god  as,  428 ».;   love 

messenger  in  India,  429. 
Swan  maidens,  as  lovers,  68. 
Swine,  offerings  of  to  sea  god,  33 ;  de- 
mons enter,  71 ;  sacrificed  to  Tammuz, 
85  ;  associated  with  Osiris,  85 ;  Gaelic 
Hag's  herd  of,  87 ;  sacrifice  of  to  cure 
disease,   236;    Ninip  as    boar  god, 
,  302. 

Symbolism,  forehead  symbol  of  Apis 
bull  and  Sumerian  goat,  334;  "high 
heads'*:  Anshar,  Anu,  Enlil,  Ea, 
Merodach,  Nergal,  and  Shamash, 
334;  symbols  of  "high  heads",  334; 
the  ' '  world  spine '  and  *  *  woi  Id 
tree",  334;  the  "water  sun"  of 
Shamash,  334;  Ashur's  winged  disks 
or  "  wheels  ",  334  et  seq. ;  "  man  in 
the  sun"  in  Assyria,  Egypt,  and 
India,  335,  336;  Blake's  "double 
vision",  336;  the  arrow  symbol, 
337;  "shuttle"  of  Neith  a  thunder- 
bolt, 337  ».;  Assyria  the  cedar,  340, 
341;  Isaiah  and  Ezekiel  use  Baby- 
lonian and  Assyrian,  341;  the  eagle, 
343i  344 ;  Ezekiel's  wheels  and  four- 
faced  cherubs,  344  et  seq. ;  wheels  or 
disks  of  Hittites,  Indians,  &c.,  347, 
348;  the  double  axe,  348;  the  Ashur 


arrow,  351,  352;  the  "dot  within 
the  circle"  and  egg  thorn,  352. 
Syria,  broad  heads  in,  8 ;  early  races  in, 
n;  supposed  invasion  of  by  Lugal- 
zaggisi,  125;  Sargon  of  Akkad's 
empire  in,  127;  hill  god  of,  136; 
sheepskin  burials  in,  213;  culture  of 
higher  than  Egypt  at  end  of  Hyksos 
Age,  275. 

Tabal  (ta-bal'),  Hittite  Cilician  king- 
dom of,  395;  Shalmaneser  III  sub- 
dues king  of,  414;  Sargon  II  conquers, 
460,  461;  Biblical  reference  to,  464; 
tribute  from  to  Ashur-bani-pal,  483. 

Tablets  of  Destiny,  the,  Zu  bird  steals, 
74;  Tiamat  gives  to  Kingu  in  Crea- 
tion legend,  141,  145;  Merodach 
takes  from  Kingu,  146;  Ninip  re- 
ceives, 158. 

Taharka  (ta-har'ka),  King  of  Egypt,  in 
anti- Assyrian  revolt,  465;  intrigues 
against  Esarhaddon,  471;  Esarhad- 
don's  invasion  of  Egypt,  475;  flight 
of,  475,  476;  death  of,  482. 

Tammuz,  Osiris  and,  xxxi,  8i;  varia- 
tions of  myths  of,  xxxii ;  blood  of  in 
river,  47,  48;  as  the  shepherd  and 
spring  sun,  53;  spends  winter  in 
Hades,  53;  links  with  Mithra,  55, 
94;  son  of  Ea,  82;  Belit-sheri,  sister 
of,~98;  Ishtar,  mother  and  lover  of, 
101 ;  worship  of  among  Hebrews,  82, 
106,  107;  as  "the  man  of  sorrows", 
88 ;"  the  true  and  faithful  son  ",  93 ; 
as  the  patriarch,  82;  Sargon  of  Akkad 
myth  and,  91;  links  with  Adonis, 
Attis,  Diarmid,  and  pre- Hellenic 
deities,  83,  84;  blood  of  in  river,  85; 
kid  and  sucking  pig  of,  85 ;  as  "  steer 
of  heaven",  85;  Nin-shach,  boar  god, 
as  slayer  of,  86;  Ishtar  laments  for, 
86;  month  of  wailings  for,  87-9;  why 
Ishtar  deserted,  99,  103;  as  the  love 
god,  87;  dies  with  vegetation,  &c.,  87, 
88 ;  sacred  cedar  of,  88 ;  in  gloomy 
Hades,  89;  return  of  like  Frode 
(Frey),  95;  as  the  slumbering  corn 
child,  89,  90,  91;  Teutonic  Scyld  or 
Sceaf  and,  92,  93;  Frey,  Hermod, 
and  Heimdal  like,  93;  as  world 
guardian  and  demon-slayer  like  Heim- 
dal and  Agni,  94;  as  the  healer  like 
Khonsu,  94 ;  Ishtar  visits  Hades  for, 
96,  97,  98;  refusal  to  leave  Hades, 
98;  like  Kingu  in  Tiamat  myth,  106; 


534 


INDEX 


Nin-Girsu,  or  En-Mersi,  of  Lagash 
a  form  of,  116,  120;  Nina  and  Belit- 
sheri  and,  117;  Sargon  myth  like 
Indian  Kama  story,  126,437;  Zamama, 
Merodach,  Ninip  and,  53,  126,  158, 
241,  302,  305;  as  elder  god,  159; 
Etana  and  Gilgamesh  and,  164;  as 
patriarch  and  sleeper,  164;  eagle  of, 
120,  1 68;  Nimrod  myth,  170;  John 
Barleycorn  and,  170;  Gilgamesh  and, 
171,  172,  210;  in  Gilgamesh  epic, 
176;  Nebo  and,  303,  435;  Adonis 
slain  by  boar  god  of  \var,  304;  planet- 
ary deities  and,  301,  304;  forms  of 
like  Horus,  305;  astral  links  with 
Merodach  and  Attis,  305;  Ashur  and, 
337,  340,  348;  identified  with  Nusku, 
&c.,  354;  as  Anshar,  En  Mersi,  and 
Nin-Girsu,  333;  doves  and,  428  n. 

Tanutamon  (ta-nut'amon),  Ethiopian 
king,  Assyrians  expelled  from  Mem- 
phis by,  482,  483;  defeat  of,  483. 

Tarku  (tar'kii),  Asia  Minor  thunder  god, 
35>  57,  261,  395. 

Tarsus,  Hittite  city  of,  395. 

Tashmit  (tash'mit),  spouse  of  Nebo,  436; 
creatrix  and,  437. 

Taylor,  J.  E.,  xx. 

Tears,  agricultural  weeping  ceremonies, 
82  tt  se</. 

Tears  of  deities,  the  fertilizing,  29;  the 
cieative,  45,  46. 

Tefnut  (tef  nut),  the  Egyptian  goddess, 
created  from  saliva,  46. 

Tell-el-Amarna  letters,  historical  evi- 
dence from,  280  ct  *<y. ;  Assyrian 
king's  letter,  284,  285. 

Tello  (tello'),  I^agash  site,  120;  archaic 
forms  of  gods,  135;  mound  of,  Lagash   j 
site,  243.  I 

Temples,  the  houses  of  gods,  60. 

Teshub  or  Teshup  (tesh'ub),  thunder   ' 
god  of  Armenia,  261;  as  a  Mitannian 
god,  269;  in  Tell-el-Amarna  letters, 
282,  395. 

Teutonic  sea-fire  belief,  51. 

Thebes,  sack  of  by  Assyrians,  483. 

Theodoric  (toyd'rik  or  the-od'o-rik), 
the  Goth,  myths  of,  164. 

Thomas  the  Rhymer,  as  a  "sleeper", 
164. 

Thompson,  R.  Camptiell,  34,  39,  72, 
76,  234,  235,  238,  239. 

Thor,  Ramman  and  Dadu  or  Hadad  as, 
57;  Dietrich  as,  74,  164;  the  hammer 
of,  238;  deities  that  link  with,  261; 


the  goat  and,  333,  334;  Ashur, 
Tammuz,  and  Indra  and,  340. 

Thorkill  (th6r'kill),  the  Germanic,  Gil- 
gamesh and,  185. 

Thoth  (thOth  or  ta-hoo'tee),  the  Egyptian 
god,  as  chief  of  Ennead,  36;  curative 
saliva  of,  46;  Sumerian  moon  god 
like,  301. 

Thothmes  III  (thSth'mes),  of  Egypt, 
wars  against  Mitanni,  275 ;  corre- 
spondence of  with  Assyrian  king,  276, 
279. 

Thunder  god,  Ramman,  Hadad  or 
Dadu,  and  Enlil  as,  35,  57;  Indra 
as,  35;  Dietrich  as  Thor,  74;  in  Baby- 
lonian Zu  and  Indian  Garuda  myths, 
74,  75,  169;  in  demon  war,  76;  Mero- 
dach as,  144;  Hercules  as,  171;  horn 
and  hammer  of,  238;  the  Hittite,  260; 
the  Amorite,  Mitannian,  Kassite,  and 
Aryan,  261;  Plan  of  Egypt  a,  263, 
264. 

Thunder  goddess,  the  Egyptian  Keith 

a,  337  »• 

Thunderstone,  weapon  of  Merodach 
and  Ramman,  144,  159,  160. 

Tiamat  (ti'a-nmt),  like  Egyptian  Nut, 
37;  in  group  of  early  deities,  64;  the 
*'  brood"  of,  64,  65;  as  Great  Mother, 
1 06;  in  Creation  legend,  138;  plots 
with  Ap«u  and  Mummu,  139;  as 
Avenger  of  Apsu,  140;  exalts  Kingu, 
141;  Anu  and  Ea  fears,  142;  Mero- 
dach goes  against,  144;  slaying  of, 
146;  Merodach  divides  "  Ku-pu  "  of, 
147;  the  dragon's  heart,  147  w.j 
body  of  forms  sky  and  earth,  147; 
followers  of  "fallen  gods",  150;  as 
origin  of  good  and  evil,  150;  bene- 
ficent forms  of,  150;  as  the  dragon 
of  the  deep,  151 ;  Gaelic  sea  monster 
and,  151 ;  Alexander  the  Great  sees, 
151;  the  Scottish  "eel"  and,  151; 
"  brood  of  "  in  Beowulf >  151;  vulner- 
able part  of,  153;  Ishtar  and,  157; 
the  Gorgons  and,  159;  in  Germanic 
legend,  202;  grave  demons  and,  215? 
reference  to  by  Damascius,  328.  (Also 
rendered  "  Tiawath".) 

Tiana  (ti-an'i),  Hittite  city  of,  395. 

Tibni,  revolt  of  in  Israel,  405. 

Tidal  (ti'dal),  Saga  on  Hittite  connec- 
tions of,  264,  265;  Tudhula  of  the 
Hittites  as,  247,  248. 

Tiglath-pileser  I  (tig'lath  pi-le'ser),  of 
Assyria,  382;  conquests  of,  383,  384. 


INDEX 


535 


Tiglath-pileser  IV,  the  Biblical  "  Pul ", 
444;  Babylonian  campaign  of,  445, 
446;  Sharduris  of  Urartu  defeated  by, 
446,  447;  Israel,  Damascus,  and 
Tyre  pay  tribute  to,  449 ;  destruction 
ot  Urarti  capital,  450;  appeal  of  Ahaz 
to,  451,  452;  Israel  punished  by,  453; 
Babylon  welcomes,  453;  triumphs  of, 

454- 
Tigris,  the  river,  22;  as  "  the  bestower 

of  blessings ",  23 ;  rise  and  fall  and 

length  of,  24. 
Tiy,  Queen,  in  Tell-el-Amarna  letters, 

283;  Semiramis  like,  418;  At  on  and 

Mut  worship,  419;   mother  worship 

and,  423. 
Toothache,    Babylonian   cure   of,    234, 

235- 

Totems,  the  bear,  164;  mountains, 
trees,  and  animals  as,  292,  293 ;  sur- 
names and,  293;  the  fish  of  Ea  and, 
294;  eating  the  in  Egypt,  295; 
doves,  snakes,  crocodiles,  &c.,  as, 
432,  433;  Persian  eagle,  493. 

Trade  routes,  Babylonia  and  Assyria 
struggle  for,  286;  the  ancient,  356; 
Baghdad  and  other  railways  following, 
357 ;  ancient  Powers  struggled  to 
control,  358;  Babylon's  route  to 
Egypt,  359;  Arabian  desert  route 
opened,  360;  route  abandoned,  361; 
Elam's  caravan  roads,  361 ;  struggle 
for  Mesopotamia,  361  ft  stq.\  Baby- 
lon's trade  with  China,  Egypt,  &c., 
37 1 »  372. 

Transmigration  of  souls,  315. 

"  Tree  of  Life  ",  Professor  Sayce  on  the 
Babylonian,  39. 

Tree  worship,  Tammuz,  Adonis  and 
Osiris  and,  88;  Ashur  and,  339; 
Ezekiel  on  Assyria's  tree,  340,  341. 

Trees,  in  Babylonia,  24,  25;  sap  as  the 
"blood"  of,  47;  as  totems,  291, 

293- 
Trident,    the    lightning,    weapon    of 

Merodach,  144. 
Tritons,  the,  33. 
Tudhula    (tud'hu-la),   a    Hittite  king, 

identified   with  Biblical  Tidal,   247, 

248;  forms  of  name  of,  264,  265. 
Tukulti-Ninip    I    (tu-kul'ti-nin'ip),    of 

Assyria,  308,  369. 
Tukulti-Ninip  III,  396. 
Tunnel,  the  dark,  in  Gilgamesh  epic, 

178;  Germanic  land  of  darkness,  185; 

in  Alexander  the  Great  myth,  185, 


1 86;  in  Indian  legends,  187,  188;  in 
Scottish  folk  tales,  189. 

Turkestan,  early  civilization  of  and  the 
Sumerian,  5;  did  agriculture  originate 
in?  6;  prehistoric  painted  pottery  in, 
263. 

Turkey,  great  Powers  and,  357;  lan- 
guage of  and  Sumerian,  3. 

Turks,  of  Ural-Altaic  stock,  4. 

Tushratta  (tiish'rat-ta),  King  of  Mi- 
tanni,  280;  correspondence  of  with 
Egyptian  kings,  282  et  seq,\  murder 
of,  283. 

Twin  goddesses,  Ishtar  and  Belitsjieri, 
98,  99;  Isis  and  Nepthys,  99. 

Tyr,  the  Germanic  god,  mother  of  a 
demon,  64. 

Tyre,  relations  with  Sidon  and  Hebrews, 
388,  389,  392 ;  tribute  of  to  Adad- 
nirari  IV,  439;  gifts  from  to  Tiglath- 
pileser  IV,  449;  King  Luli  and  As- 
syria, 465;  Esarhaddon  and,  474,  475; 
tribute  from  to  Ashur-bani-pal,  483; 
conspiracy  against  Nebuchadrezzar  II, 
491,  492. 

Tyrol,  the  demon  lover  of,  68;  wind 
hags  of,  74. 

Uazit  (oo'az-it),  Egyptian  serpent  god- 
dess, 150. 

Umma  (oom'ma),  city  of,  Lagash  and, 
118;  captured  by  Eannatum,  118; 
crushing  defeat  of  by  Entemena, 
119,  1 20;  king  of  destroys  Lagash, 
123,  124. 

Ur,  Nannar,  moon  god  of,  40;  the 
moon  god  Baal  of,  51;  antiquity  of, 
52 ;  Lagash  king  sways,  1 19 ;  empire 
of,  130;  moon  god  of  supreme,  130; 
Abraham  migrates  from,  131,  245; 
revolt  of  with  Larsa  against  Isin,  132; 
moon  god  of  in  Kish,  241;  under 
Elamite  kings  of  Larsa  in  Ham- 
murabi Age,  242 ;  Abraham's  migra- 
tion from,  245;  Chaldaeans  and,  391; 
revolt  against  Ashur-bani-pal,  484; 
Nabonidus  and,  492. 

Ura  (oo'ra),  god  of  disease,  77* 

Ural-Altaic  stock,  Turks  and  Finns  of, 
Sumerians  and,  4. 

Urartu  (ur-ar'tii),  combines  with  Phry- 
gians and  Hittites  against  Sargon  II, 
460;  as  vassal  state  of  Assyria,  461; 
rise  of  kingdom  of,  395;  god  and 
culture  of,  440;  Adad -nirari  and, 
440;  ethnics  of,  440  w.j  capital  of, 


INDEX 


t  Sharduris  oNtputed  by  Tiglath- 

IV,  446,  44V  450  J   allian 
fittites  against  $trgon  II,  460 
state  oj  Asstm,  461;  Cim 
medians  3tad  Scythians  raw,  461,  464; 
Sermachemj's   mu\ddrcrs\  escape  to, 
470  \  in    Bgarhadflpn's  aeign,   472  ; 
Assyfcn   alliance  ..  With,  '473,    486; 
Cyaxa|es  kipgt  ot,  493. 
......  i  early  nkme  of-Akkad,  2. 

Vur-ni'na\    $ting  of  Lagash, 

f  Worshipped 
blague  of, 

-nin'ip),  ing 
fnysteriols  death  of, 
Uruk  (lir'ul).     See  E 
Urukagina*  (ur-u-kag'in-a 
Lagash,   j&jrst    reformer 
12  1;   taxes  and  temple 


by,  122,  210,  21 1 ;  fall  of,  123, 
Uruniush    (ur'u-mush),   Akkadian 

peror,  127. 
Utu  (xi'tii),  Sumerian  name  of  |«n  god/ 

55- 


King    o£/ 
l     histor/, 
ducecj, 


Valentine,  St.,  mating  d&y  of, 

Variima,  the  Indian  god,  links  with  Ea- 
Oafcues,  31,  34;  sga,  fire  of,  50,  51  ; 
Shamash  the  sun  god  and,  54  ;  as- 
sociation of  with  rain,  55;  Sumerian 
links  with,  55,  56;  worshippers  of 
buried  dead,  56  ;  no  human  beings  in 
Paradise  of,  209;  attire  of  deities  in 
Paradise  of,  212;  the  goat  and,  333. 

Vas'olt,  Tyrolese  storm  demon,  74. 

Vayu  (va'yu),  Indian  wind  go<J^$5. 

Vedas  (vay'das),  astrojiofiay  of  the,  318. 

V^UHSjAs  goddess,  17,  296;  lovers  of, 
10?. 

Venus,  the  planet,  Ishtar  as,  296; 
female  at  sunset  and  male  at  sunrise, 
299;  in  sun  and  moon  group,  301$ 
rays  of  as  beard,  301;  as  the  "  Pro- 
claimer",  314;  connection  of  with 
moon,  314;  in  astrology,  318,  324. 

Vestal  virgins,  228,  229. 

Vishnu  (vish'noo),  the  Indian  god,  like 
Ea,  27;  Ea  like,  38;  eagle  giant  as 
vehicle  of,  75;  Sri  or  Lakshmi  wife 
of,  101;  sleep  of  on  world  serpent, 
150;  eagle  and,  169,  347. 

«'  Vital  spark  ",  the,  fire  0^49. 

Voice,   the   pure,   in   Sumerian   spell, 


Vulture,  as  deity  ot  fertility,  429,  430  ; 
the  Persian  eagle  legend  and,  493  j 


goddess  of  Egypt,  1 68 }  as  protectors^ 
of  Shakuntala,  423,  424. 

Wales,  pig  as  the  devil  in,  293. 
^Warad  Sin,  struggle  of  with  Babylon, 
217;  the  Biblical  Arioch,  247,  248. 

See  Erech. 

control  and  distribution  of  in 
jihylonia,  23,  24;  corn  deities  and, 
essence  of  life  in,  44,  45,  51. 
Is  and  demons,  27  et  seq. 
Water  Vf  Life,   Gilgamesh's  quest  of, 
•177  iX&gr.;  itt  Alexander  the  Great 
myth,  »6;  in  Kfran  legend,  1 86^  .iff 
Gaelic  fcgends,  186,  187;  in  Indian 
7,  210. 

5,  in  folk  cures,  234. 
ives,  212. 

Stone  Age,  14. 
ionics,  the  agricultural, 
/  82  et  seq. ;  thd  Egyptian  god  Rem,  29. 
Wells,  worship  *f,  44. 
Westminster  AcUbey,   Long  Meg  and, 

156.  } 

Wheel  of  Life,Mie,  Ashur,  334  et  seq. ; 
Ezekiel' slreforenees  to,  344  et  seq. ;  in 
Babylontn,  Indian,  Persian,  and 
Hittite  Mythologies,  346-8;  in  Indian 
mythology,  346,  347,;  the  sun  and 
the,  34§f  "  dot  within  the  circle  "  and 
rn,  352;  Ahum  Mazda's,  355. 
^Merodach,  22  ij  Amon's  wife, 

Huntsmen,  the,  Asiatic  gods  as, 

35»  64. 
4 « Will-o'-the-wisp ",     the    Babylonian 

and  European,  66,  67. 
Winckler,   Dr.    Hugo,   Semitic  migra- 
tions, 10;  on  Mitannian  origins,  268, 

269;   Boghaz-K6i  tablets  found  by, 

280,  367. 
Wind,   the   south-west,   demon   of   in 

Babylonia  and  Europe,  72,  73. 
Wind  gods,  Vayu,  Enlil,  Ramman,  &c., 

as,  35- 
Wind  hags,  Babylonia  Shutu,  Scottish 

Annie,  English  Annis,  Irish  Anu,  73; 
_.,  Icelandic  Angerboda,   73;   Tyrolese 

"  wind  brewers",  74;  Artemis  as  one 

of  the,  104. 
Winds,  the  seven,  as  servants  of  Mero- 

dach,  145. 
Wine  seller  who  became  queen,  114, 

115;  the  female,  229. 
Wolf,  Nergal-Mars  as  the,  303. 
Women,  as  rulers  in  Egypt  and  Baby- 


INDEX 


537 


Ionia,  1 6,  17;  treatment  of  in  early 
times,  15;  Nomads  oppressors  of,  16; 
exalted  by  Mediterranean  peoples,  16; 
Sumerian  laws  regarding,  16,  17;  the 
Sumerian  language  of,  17;  in  goddess 
worship,  1 06-8;  social  status  of,  108; 
position  of  in  Hammurabi  Code,  224 
et  seq.;  the  marriage  market,  224, 
225;  drink  traffic  monopolized  by, 
229. 

World  hill,  in  Babylonian,  Indian,  and 
Egyptian  mythologies,  332. 

World  serpent,  in  Eur-Asian  mytho- 
logies, 151. 

World  Soul,  the  Brahmanic,  304,  328, 

329- 

"  World  spike  ",  star  called,  332. 
"  World  spine",  the,  332;  the  "world 

tree"  and,  334;  Ashur  standard  as, 

World  tree,  symbol  of  "  world  spine", 

334- 
Worm,  the,  dragon  as,  151;  the  legend 

of  the,  234,  235. 
Wryneck,  goddess  and  the,  427  «. 

Xerxes,  Meiodach's  temple  pillaged  by, 
497- 

Ya,  the  Hebrew,  Ea  as,  31. 

Yama  (ya'ma),  Osiris  and  Gilgamesh 
and,  xxxii;  Mitra  and,  56;  eagle  as, 
169;  Gilgamesh  and,  200;  the  Para- 
dise of,  209. 

Yng've,  the  Germanic  patriarch,  93. 

Yiigas,  the  Indian  doctrine  of,  Baby- 
lonian origin  of,  310  et  seq. 


Zabium  (za'bi-um),  king  in  Hammurabi 
Age,  242, 

Zachariah,  King  of  Israel,  449. 

Zamama  (za-ma'ma),  god  of  Kish,  Tarn- 
muz  traits  of,  126;  identified  with 
Merodach,  241. 

Zambia  (zam'bi-a),  King  of  Isin,  133. 

Zedekiah,  King  of  Judah,  conspiracy 
against  Babylonia,  490;  punishment 
of,  491;  the  captivity,  491. 

Zerpanitu1"  (zar-pa'nit-um),  mother  god- 
dess, 100;  as  "Lady  of  the  Abyss", 
1 60;  as  Aruru,  1 60;  Persian  goddess 
and,  496. 

Zeus  (to  rhyme  with  mouse] ,  the  god, 
as  sea-god's  brother,  33;  in  Adonis 
myth,  90;  an  imported  god,  105;  in 
father  and  son  myth,  158;  eagle  of, 
1 68;  deities  that  link  with,  261;  the 
"  Great  Bear"  myth  and,  296. 

Zi  (zee'),  the  Sumerian  manifestation  of 
life,  291,-  "Sige  the  mother"  as  Ziku, 
328  n. 

Zimri,  revolt  of  in  Israel,  405. 

Zoxiiac,  Signs  of  the,  147,  301,  305; 
Babylonian  origin  of,  306;  Hittites, 
Phoenicians,  and  Greeks  and,  306; 
stars  of  as  "Divinities  of  Council", 
309;  division  of,  307;  the  fields  of 
Ea,  Anu,  and  Bel,  307;  three  stars 
for  each  month,  307-9;  the  lunar  in 
various  countries,  309;  when  signs  of 
were  fixed,  322. 

Zu  bird,  Garuda  eagle  and,  xxvi;  myth 
of,  74;> 

Zuzu  (zti'zil),  King  of  Opis,  captured  by 
Eannatum  of  Lagash,  119.