THE HIBBERT LECTURES,

1887.
 THE HIBBERT LECTURES, 1887.

LECTURES
ON TEE

ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF RELIGION

A8 ILLUBTRATED BY TEE RELIGION OP THE

ANCIENT BABYLONIANS.

FIFTH EDITION.

C
WILLIAMS AND NORGATE,
14, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON ;
20, SOUTH FXRDERICK BTREET, EDINBUILQH;
AND 7, BROAD STREET, OXFORD.
-
1898.
[AU rserurd.]
 LONDON :
PRINTED BY 0 . ORBPR AND SON
178. STRAND.
 PREFACE.

A molm of apology is needed for the numeraus repetitions

i n the following chapters, which are due to the fact that t h e
chaptera were written and delivered in the form of Lectures.
I cannot guarantee the exactness of every word in the trans-
lations of the cuneiform texts given i n them. The meaning of
individual words may at times be more precisely defined by t h e
discovery of fuller materials, even where it has been supposed
that their signification has been fixed with certainty. The same
fate has befallen the interpretation of the Sebrew Scriptures.
and is still more likely to befall a progressive study like
Assyrian.
How rapidly progressive the latter is, may be gathered from
the number of contributions to our knowledge of Babylonian
religion made since the following Lectures were in the hands of
the priuter. Prof. Tiele, in a Paper entitled, " De BeteeLenis
van Ea en zijn Verl~ondingtot llaruduk en Nabu," has tried to
show that Ea was originally connected with the fire; Mr. Pinches
has published a late Babylonian text in the Bub~loniunRecord.
from which i t appeals that the wR, or "tithe," mas paid to the
temple of the Son-god not only by individuals, but also by
towns ; and Dr. Jensen, in the ZeitschrqtfXir A s s ~ ~ i o l o y i(ii.
e 1).
has made it probable that the d a r u of the hymn trauslated on
pp. 68, 69, was the feast of the new moon
\\\ 2 64
 Certain abbreviations are used in the folluming pages. TV.A.1.
means the five volunles of T11eC~neiforinfi~scriptiossof R'cstein
Asia, published by the Trustees of the British Mujdum ; I). 1'.
denotes "determinative prefix;" and the letters D.T., E., >I.,
S. and I<., refer to tablets ~narkedaccordingly in the Ilritisll
Xnseum. "Cnnnmbercd" texts mean tablets which lrncl not
beeu catalogued at the time when I copied them. Words
writteu in capitals deuote ideographs whose true pronuncistioil
is unknown.
A H. SAYCE

QUEEN'S COLL.. Os~ono,

June 4th. 1887.
 CONTENTS.

LECTUREI.
INTRODUCTORY.
PA81
Di5cnltiea of the snbject-Character and age of the materials-Mo*
cation of earlier views--Rise of Semitic culture in the court of Sargon
of Aecad, B.C. 3700-His conquest of Cypm-Intercourre with
Egypt-Earlier culture of prr-Semitio Chsldma-Connection between
Babylonian and Hebrew religion-Two periods of Babylonian infln-
ence upon the Jew-Odgin of the names of Dloses, Joseph, Saul,
David and Solomon-hsemblaneea between t l ~ eBnbylonian and
Jewish priesthood and ritual-Babplonian temples and sabbaths-
Human sacrifice--Unclean meats ............... 1

LECTURE11.
BEL-MERODACH OF BABYLON.
Cyrus s worshipper of Bel-Merorlnch-View of the priesthood about
his conyuest-Merodach the supreme Be1 or Baal of Babylon-Com-
pnriaon between him and Yahveh-Babylonian religion characterised
by loealisation-Temple of Bel-Doctrine of the resurreetion-
DIerodach originally the Sun-god of Eridu-Neho the divine prophet
of Borsippa-Assur of Assyria-His origin-His resemblance to
Yabveh of Israel ........................ 85

LECTUBE111.
THE GODS OF BABYLONIA.
General character of Babylonian religion-Ea the C~~lture-god-The
pre-Semitic nronumenta of Tel-loh (B.C. 4000)-Early trade with
India-Ea as god of the sea-The pre-Semitic deities creators, the
Se~nitiodeities fathers-Two centres of Babylonian culture, Eridu
WI the coast and Nipur in the north-Mul-lil, "the lord of the
ghost-world," the god of Nipur-Mul-lil the older Bel, confused with
Nerodach the yo~mgerBel-Other gods: Adsr, the Moon-god, the
Sun-god, &.-The Moon-god of Haxm-The goddesses of Semitic
Babylonia mere reflections of the male deities-Ano, Nergal, and the
Air-god-Rimmon and Hadad-Doctrine of the origin of evil-The
seven wicked spirits ..................... 130
viii COXTEKTS.

LECTURE
IV.
TA!.IlIUZ AND ISTAR; PROMETIIEUS AND TOTEDIISM.
PdOZ
The descent of Istar into Hades-Tammnz-Adonis the slain Sun-go&-
0rigina~ll.sof p1.e-Semitic Erido-The world-tree-Thc tree of life
and tile tree of lino~viedga-The ammtrs of Istrr-Istar, primitively
the gii~l<lessof the earth, identified with tho evruing-stnr-In the
vest, as . k s l ~ t ~ ~ r eiclerltified
tl~, with tile nroan-Of pre-Sennitie origin
-The orgies of Istnr-~r-orship-The purer side of hcr worship-Istar
the Artcnlis nlul Apllrodit6 of the Greelcs-Ansuxrs of the oracle of
Istar to Esar~lrscidon-Tbe dream of Aasur-bani-pal-The Semitic
gods of hamm form, theprc-Semitio of' animal furnl-Early Chaldzan
totems-The scr~icrlt-Tlka Babylonian Prometlteos and his trans-
formation into a bird-'<The voice of the Lordx-The power of the
nilne-Exeon~~nunication: the Chaldznn fate-The l'lague-gad-
The angel of destruction seen by Dnvid ............ 221

I>EOTURE
V.
TIIE SACRED BOOKS OF CHALDLEA.
The Chaldznn Rig-Veda-The magical texts-the penitential psalms-
The llynms to the Sun-god of Sippnra-Relative ages of the eallec-
tions-The strrica-books of the temliles-Aecaclian the sacred lan-
guage of tile S a ~ ~ ~ Babylonian
itic priesthuocl-SI~nmanis~~~-Gra~luaI
evolution of the gads-Creation of tlie state-rcligion ;m,l the l~ierm,:l~y
of t l ~ egods-Dcgmllntion of the spirits of the earlier hith-Con-
sciansnew of sin-Views of the luture state-The 11lountai11 of the
world-Hndes and heaven .................. 315

LECTCRE TI.
COSIIOGONIES AND ASTRO-THEOLOGY.
B n i ~ ~ l o n i aeos~rrological
n ~ystems-Tinnlnt, the dragon of tho deep,
Ilers~~~ifii..i chaos nud is slain by Merodach-Thc creation in days-
A~lticil~iitions of Danvin-Sahisnl and Bahylaninn n~tronmr~y-The
I ~ i e s becomes
t an astrologer-Lute date of tile system-IVo~.ship uf
rircrs and urauntains-Bahyloni Beth-els and tliu llillors of tlie
s,,n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
D I S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
A ~ ~ P I : X I.
,, 11. 3Ir. G. Smith's Account of t l ~ eTclnple of Dcl . . . . . . 137
,, 111. The 1hgica.l Texts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .411
,, IT. Hymn8 to t l ~ eGods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4iD
,, V. T l ~ eFenilcntial Psjalma ............... 521
,, VI. Litanies to tlla Gods ............... 532
I ~ o r sOF ~I'ORDS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541
lv~sx . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .645
 THE

RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT BABYLONLAXP,

LEWREI.
INTRODUCTORY.

ITwaa with considerable diidence that I accepted the

invitation of the Hibbert Trustees to give a course of
'Lectures on the Religion of the Ancient Babylonians.
The subject itself is new; the materials for treating it
are still scanty and defective; and the workers in thc
ficld have been few. The religion of the Babylonians
has, it is true, already attracted the attention of the
Father of Assyriology," Sir Henry Rawlinson, of tl~c.
brilliant and gifted Franqois Lenormant, of tho eminent
Dutch scholar Dr. Tiele, and of Dr. Fritz Hommel, onc
of the ablest of the youngcr band of Assyrian students ;
but no attempt has yet been made to trace its origin and
history in a systematic manner. The attempt, indeed,
is full of difficulty. We have to build up a fabric out
of broken and half-deciphered texts, out of stray allu-
sions and obscure teferenccs, out of monuments many
of which are late and still more are of uncertain age.
If, therefore, my account of Babylonian religion may
P
 seem to you incomplete, if I am compelled at timm to
break off in my story or to have recourse to conjecture,
I must crave your indulgence and ask you to remember
the difficulties of the taslr. To open up new ground is
ncver an casy matter, more especially mhen the field of
reseaich ' ts Vast ;' and a new discovery may at any
moment overthrow the theories we have formcd, or givo
a new complexion to received facts.
I may as well confess at the outset that had I known
all the difficulties I was about to meet with, I should never
have had the courage to face them. It mas not until I
was committed beyond the power of mithdrawal that I
began fully to realisc how great they were. Unlikc
those who have addressed you before in this place, I
have had to work upon materials at once deficient and
fragmentary. Mine has not been the pleasant labour of
marshalling well-ascertained facts in order, or of select-
ing and arranging masses of material, the very abundance
of which has alone caused embarrassment. On the con-
trary, T have had to make most of my bricks without
straw. Herc and there, indeed, pilrts of the subject have
been lighted up in a may that left little to be desired,
but elsewhere1 have had to stmggle on in thick dark-
ness. br at most ili dim twilight. I have felt as in a
forcst whefe t h e moon shone at times through opcn
spaccs in thethick foliage, but served only to maltc the
surrounciing gloom still more apparent, and .tvhe.-~ I
had to search.in vain for 8. cA~ethat would lead me from
one interi-a1 of light to another.
The sources of our information about the religion of
the nneicnt Babylonians and their kinsfolk the Assyrians
arc alnlost wholly monumental. Beyond a few stray
notices in the Old Testament, and certain statements
found in classical authors which are for the mast part
the offspring of Greek imagination, our knowledge con-
cerning it is derived from the long-buried reoords of
Nineveh and Babylon. It is from the sculptures that
lined the walls of the Assyrian palaces, from the inscrip-
tions that ran across them, or from the clay tablets that
were stored within the libraries of the great cities, that
we must collect our materials and deduce our theories.
Tradition is mute, or almost so; between the old Baby-
lonian world and our own a deep gulf yawns, across
which we have to build a bridge by the help of texts
that explorers have disinterred and scholars have pain-
fully deciphered. But the study of these texts is one
of no ordinary difficulty. They are written in characters
that were once pictorial, like the hieraglyphs of Egypt,
and were intended to express the sounds of a language
wholly different from that of the Semitic Babylonians
and Assyrians, from whom most of our inscriptions come.
The result of these two facts was two-fold. On the one
hand, every character had more than one value when
used phonetically t o denote a syllable; on the other
hand, every character could be employed ideographically
t o represent an object or idea. And just as simple ideas
could thus be represented by single characters, so com-
pound ideas could be represented by a combination of
characters. I n the language of the primitive inhabitants
of Babylonia, the world beyond the grave was known as
ArfLli, and was imaged as a dark subterranean region
where the spirits of the dead kept watch over hoards
of unnumbered gold. But the word ArBli was not
written phonetically, nor was it denoted by a singlo
B2
4 LECTURE I.

ideograph; the old Chaldean chose rather to represent

it by three separate characters which would literally
mean "the house of the land of death."
When the Babylonians or Assyrians desired that what
they wrote should be read easily, they adopted devices
which enabled them to overcome the cumbersome obscur-
ity of their system of writing. A historical inscription,
for example, may be read with little difficulty; it is
only our ignorance of the signification of particular
words which is likely to cause us trouble in deciphering
its meaning. But when we come to deal with a reli-
gious text, the case is altogether different. Religion
has always loved to cloak itself in mystery, and a priest-
hood is notoriously averse from revealing in plain lan-
guage the secrets of which it believes itself the possessor.
To the exoteric world it speaks in parables; the people
that knoweth not the law is accursed. The priesthood
of Babylonia formed no exception to the general rule.
As me shall see, it was a priesthood at once powerful
and highly organised, the parallel of which can hardly
bc found in the ancient world. Wc need not wonder,
therefore, if a considerable portion of the sacred texts
which it has bequeathed to us were intentionally made
difficult of interpretation; if the words of which they
colisisted were expressed by ideographs rather than writ-
ten phonetically; if characters were used with strangc
and far-fetched values, and the true pronunciation of
divine names was carefully hidden from the uninititttcd
multitude.
But these are not all the difficulties that beset us
rvhcn we endeavour to penetrate into the meaning of the
religious tcxts. I have already said that the cuneiform
system of vriting was not the invention, but the heritage,
of the Semitic Babylonians and Assyrians. The Semites
of the historical period, those subjects of Sennacherib
and Nebuchadnezzar who were so closely allied in blood
and language to the Hebrews, were not the first occu-
pants of the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrata. They
had been preceded by a population which in default of
a better name I shall term Accadian or Proto-Chaldeau
throughout these Lectures, and which was in no wise
related to them. The Accadians spoke an agglutinative
language, a language, that is to say, which resembled in
its structure the languages of the modern Finns cr
Turks, and their physiological features, so far as we can
trace them from the few monuments of the Accadian
cpoch that remain, differed very markedly from those of
the Semites. I t was to the Accadians that the begin-
nings of Chaldean cnlture and civilisation were due.
They were the teachers and masters of the Semites, not
only in the matter of writing and literature, but in other
elements of cult- re as well. This is a fact so startling,
so contrary to preconceived ideas, that it was long
refused credence by the leading Orientalists of Europe
who had not occupied themselves with cuneiform studies.
Even to-day there are scholars, and notably one who
has himself achieved success in Assyrian research, who
still refuse to believe that Babylonian civilisation was
originally the creation of a race which has long since
fallen into the rear rank of human progress. But un-
l e ~ sthe fact is admitted, it is impossible to explain the
origin either of the cureiform system of writing or of
that system of theology the outlines of which I have
undertaken to expound.
 Here, then, is one of the difficulties against whioh the
student of Babylonian religion has to contend. W e
have to distinguish the Accadian and the Semitic ele-
ments which entcr into it, as me11 as the mixture which
the meeting of these elements brought about. W e have
to determine what texts are Accadian, what are Semitic,
what, finally, are due to a syncretic admixture of the two.
What makcs tho task one of more than ordinary difficulty
is the fact that, like Latin in the Middle Ages, the dead
or dying Accadian became a sacred language among the
Semitic priesthood of a later period. Not only was it
considered necessary to the right performance of the
ritual that genuinely old Accadian tests should bc
recited in their original language and with a corrcct
pronunciation, but new texts were coniposed in the
extinct idiom of Accad which bore the same linguistic
relation to tho older ones as the Latin compositions of
the mediieval monks bear to the works of the Latin
fathers. Unfortunately, in the present statc of our
knowledge, it is sometimes impossible to tell to which of
these two classes of texts a document belongs, and yet
upon the right dctcrmination of the question may depend
also the right determination of the development of Baby-
lonian religion.
Thc Accadian element in this religion is productive
of yet another difficulty. As we shall see, a large pro-
portion of the deities of the Babylonian faith had their
first origin in the beliefs of the Accadian people. The
names by which they were addressed, however, were
usually written ideographically, not phonetically, after
the fashion of the Accadian scribes, and the reading of
these names is consequently often uncertain. Even if a
gloss happens to inform us of the correct reading of one
of these names, i t by no means follows that we thereby
know how to read its later Semitic equivalent. The
Semites continued to represent the names of the gods by
the same ideographs that had been used by their Acca-
diau predecessors, but in most cases they naturally gave
them a different pronunciation. Even now, when the
study of Assyrian has so far advanced that the Hebrew
lexico,p-apher is able to call in its hclp in determining
the meaning of Hebrew words, and when an ordinary
historical inscription can be rend with almost as much
facility as a page of the Old Testament, we are still
ignorant of the true name of one of the chief Assyrian
divinities. The name of Adar, commonly assigned by
Assyriologists to the Assyrian war-god, has little else
to rest upon except the fact that Adrammelech or "king
Adar" was the divinity in whose. honour the men of
Sepharvaim burnt their children in the fire, according
to the second book of Kings (xvii. 31)' And yet the
name is one which not only constantly occurs in the
Assyrian inscriptions, but also enters into the name of
more than one Assyrian king. Can there be a better
illustration of the difficulties which surround the student
1 Lehmann (De Inacr&tiunibus mmatia yum pertineat ad fimaa-
ncnz-ukin, p. 47) has made i t probable that Adrammelech represents
the goddess Adar-malkat, "Adar the queen," who seems to be identified
with A or Anunit, the goddess "of births" (kd, W. A. I. ii. 57, 14).
and to correspond to the Semitic goddess Eda, "the begetter." I n
this case the name of Sennacherib's son, Adrammelech, must be con
sidered to be corrupt. Erbo, however, would be an Aramaic and not
a Babylonian form, if it is a Semitie word; the Babylonian is Eritu,
which is given in K 4195, 6, aa a name of Istor. I n W. A. L ii 54,
60, and S 1720, 2, Eru, 'Ithe budmaidon" (W. A, I. v. l9,43), is an
Acoudian title of ZarpDnit
of Babylonian religion, as me11 as of the extent to which
110 is deserted by classical tradition?
As with the name which we provisionally read Adar,
so also is it with the name which we provisionally read
Gisdhubar. Gisdhubar was the hero of the great Chaldean
opic, into the eleventh book of which was woven the
story of the Deluge; he had been the fire-god of the
Accadians before he became the solar hero of Semitic
legend; and there are grounds for thinking that Mr.
Ucorge Smith was right in seeing in him the prototype
of the Biblical Ximrod. Nevertheless, the only certain
fi~ctabout his name is that it ended in the sound of r.
That it was not Gisdhubar or Izdnbar, however, is
almost equally certain. This would be merely the pho-
netic reading of the three ideographs which compose the
name, and characters when used as ideographs were
~raturallynot read phonetically.'
I haye not yet finished my enumeration of the d i 5 -
cnlties and obstacles that meet the inquirer into the
nature and history of Babylonian religion on the very
threshold of his researches. The worst has still to be
mentioned. With the exception of the historical inscrip-
tions which adorned the sculptured slabs of the Assyrian
1 Hommel (Proc. Soc. B ib.Arch. Ap. 1866, p. 119) believes that he
!,as found the tyue readinq of the name, and a proof of its eorrespond-
cnee with the Semitic Nimrod, i n W. A. I. iv. 2. 21, 22., 23. 3. 26,
27, whcro the Semitic Xamratsit answers to the name of an Accadian
divinity whicl~may be rend Gi-isdu-par-ra or Gis-du-par-ra. But from
R 949, Oh. 6 , where the Sun-god is called bi2 nammtsit, i t is clear
that xamratait is merely personified difficulty, being the feminine of
the common adjective namvatsu, "difficult." The Aecadian divinity,
therefore, is the goddess of difficulty, and can have no connection with
R. male Fire-god. Her name should probably be read Gi-ib-bir-ra, s
derivative from gib, the Acradian form of gig, "difficult.'
palaces or were inscribed on clay cylinders buried at the
angles of a royal building, our documentary materials con-
sist entirely of clay tablets covered with minute characters.
In Assyria, tbe tablets were baked in the kiln after beiug
inscribed ; for this purpose holes were made in the clay
to allow the cscnpe of superfluous moisture, and the fear
of fracture prevented the tablets from being of a great
size. I n the more southern climate of Babylonia, the
tablets were generally dried in the sun, the result being
the disintegration of the clay in the course of centuries,
the surface of the brick being sometimes reduced to
powder, while at other times the whole brick has been
shivered into atoms. But apart from the records of
"the banking firm" of the Egibi family, which carried on
its business from the time of Nebuchadnezzar and his
predecessors to that of Darius Hystaspis, we possess as
yet comparatively fcw of the tablets that once stocked
the libraries of Babylonia and must still be lying buried
beneath the ground. The main bulk of our collection
comes from the great library of Nineveh, which occupied
one of thc upper rooms in the palace of Assur-bani-pal
at Kouyunjik. It stood within the precincts of the
temple of Nebo,' and its walls were lined with shelves,
on which were laid the clay books of Assyria or the rolls
of papyrus which have long since peri~hed.~ The library

1 TV. A. I. ii. 36, 27 : "I placed (the old tablets nnd papyri) in the
inner chamber of the temple of Nebo, his lord, lrhich is in Nineveh."
The &it nanrari, or "observatory," on the contrary, was the "tower"
of the temple of Istar, whose coustrnction and dimensions are described
in an interesting but unfortunately mutilated text (S 1894). Its
breadth, we are told, was 3543 cubits.
For the papyrus, frequently mentioned in the colophons of Assur-
bani-pal's tablets, under the name of 0x6-LI-KEC-61, or "gram of guid-
 10 LECTURE I.

consisted for the most part of copies or editions of older

works that had been brought from Babylonia, and dili-
gently copied by numerous scribes, like the "proverbs of
Solomon which the men of Hezekiah, king of Judah,
copied out."' The library had been transferred from
Calah by Sennacherib towards the lattcr part of his
reign,2 but the larger portion of the collection mas got
together by Assur-bani-pal, the son of Esar-haddon, and
the Sardanapallos of the Greeks. He was the first,
indeed me may say the only, Assyrian monarch who
really cared for literature and learning. His predecessors
had been men of war; if they established libraries, it
was only from imitation of their more cultivated neigh-
hours in Babylonia, and a desire to remain on good
terms with the powerful classes of scribes and priests.
But Assur-bani-pal, mith all his luxury and love of dis-
play-or perhaps by reason of it-vas a genuinc lover
of books. When rebellion had been quelled in Baby-
lonia, and the Babylonian cities had boen taken by storm,
the spoil that mas most acceptable to the Assyrian king
were the written volumes that their libraries contained.
-
ipg," see my rema~l<sin the Zeitschrift fiir xe'eilschr;ftforschzlng, ii.
3, 11. 208. Another ideographic name was Grs-zu, "vegetable of know-
ledge" (TV. A. I. ii. 36, 11). The Assyrian name NaS U I . ~literally
,
"leaf," R 2, iii. Rev.7. GIS-LI-uau-61was pronounced li18 or liuu in
Assyrian, the Hebrew Zuakl~,of which the Assyrian luvu is another
form.
1 Prov. xxv. 1.
Nebo-zuquh-yukin, who was chief librarian from the 6th year of
Sargon (E.C. 716) to the 22nd year of Sennachcrib (B.C. 684), does
not seem to have quitted Calah. So far as we know, the first work
written under his direction had been a copy of a text of the standard
wo~kon astrology, "The Illumination of Bcl," rvbich had been brouglit
from Babylon to the librnry at Calah.
No present could be sent him which he valued mom
than some old text from Erech or Ur or Babylon. But
naturally i t was the works which related to Assyria, or
to the special studies of its royal masters, that mere most
sought after. The Assyrian cared little for the annalistic
records of the Babylonian kings, or for the myths and
legends which enveloped the childhood of the Babylonian
cities and contained no reference to things Assyrian ; it
was only where the intcrest of the story extended beyond
the frontiers of Babylonia, or where the religious texts
held a place in the ritual of thc Assyrian priesthood,
that it was thought worth while to transport them to a
northern home. If the theology was Assyrian as well
as Babylonian, or if a legend mas as popular in Assyria
as it had been in Babylonia, or if, finally, a branch of
study had a special attraction for Assyrian readcrs,
the works embodying these subjects wcre transferred
to the library of Nineveh, and there re-edited by tho
Assyrian scribes. Hence it is that certain sides of the
old theology are represented so fully in Assyrian litcra-
ture, while other sides are not represented at all ; hence,
too, it is that the drawers of the British Museum are
filled with tablets on the pseudo-science of omens which
hare littlo save a philological importance attaching to
thorn.
The library was open, it would seem, to all comers,
and Assur-bani-pal did his utmost to attract "readers"
to the "inspection" and study of the books it contained.
But the literary age of Assyria was short-lived. Even
before Assur-bani-pal died, the mighty empire he had
inherited was tottering to its fall. Egypt had been lost
to i t for ever; Babylonia was clamouring for indepen-
dence; and the semi-barbarous nations of the north and
cast were threatening its borders. Ere the century
closed, Nineveh was taken by its enemies, and its palaces
sacked and destroyed.
The library of Iiouyunjik shared in the common ovcr-
throw. Its papyri and leathern scrolls were burned
with fire, and its clay books fell in shattered confusion
among the ruins below. There they lay for more than
two thousand years, covered by the friendly dust of de-
caying bricks, until Sir A. H. Layard discovered the
old library and revealed its contents to the world of
to-day. His excayations have been followed by those of
Mr. George Smith and Mr. Hormuzd Rassam, and the
greater portion of Assur-bani-pal's library is now in the
British Museum. I t is out of its age-worn fragments
that the story I have to tell in this course of Lectures
has been mainly put together.
But the sketch I have given of its history is sufficient
to show how hard such a task must necessarily be. I n
the first place, the library of Nineveh was only one of
the many libraries which once existed in the cities of
Assyria and Babylonia. Its founders never aimed at
eompletencss, or intended to deposit in it more than a
portion of the ancient literature of Babylonia. Then,
further, even this literature was not always copied in
full. From time to time the text is brolcen off, and the
words "lacuna" or L'recent fracture" appear upon the
tablet. The original text, it is clear, was not perfect;
the tablet which as copied had been injured, and was
thus no longer legible throughout. Such indications,
however, of the faultiness of the editio princeps are a
good proof that the Assyrian scribes did their best to
reproduce it with accuracy, and that if they failed to do
so it was through no fault of their own. But they did
fail sometimes. The Babylonian forms of the cuneiform
characters are often hard to read, and there was no
standard official script in Babylonia such as there was in
Assyria. Education was not in the hands of a single
class, as was the case in the latter country; most Baby-
lonians could read and write, and consequently the forms
of handwriting found upon their monuments are almost
as numerous as in the modern world. Hence i t is that
the Assyrian copyist sometimes mistook a Babylonian
character, and represented it by a wrong equivalent.
The most serious result, however, of the fact that the
library of Nineveh mainly consisted of terra-cotta tablets,
broken and scattered in wild confusion when the city was
destroyed, still remains to be told. The larger propor-
tion of the texts we have to use are imperfect. Many
of them are made up of small fragments, which havc
been pieced together by the patient labour of the As-
syrian scholars in the British Museum. I n other cases,
only a fragment, not unfrequently a minute fragment,
of a text has been preserved. Often, therefore, we come
across a text which would scem to throw an important
light on some department of Assyrian thought and life
if only we had the clue to its meaning, but the text is
broken just where that clue would have been found.
This fragmentary character of our documents, in fact, is
not only tautalising to the student, but it may be the
cause of serious error. Where we hare only fra-pents
of a text, it is not impossible that we may wholly mis-
conceive their relation and meaning, and so build theories
upon them which the discovery of the missing portions
 of the' tablet would oTerthrow. This is especially the
case in the province of religion and mythology, where it
is so easy to put a false construction upon isolated pas-
sages, the context of which must be supplied from con-
jecture. We know from experience what strange inter-
pretations have been imposed upon passages of the Bible
that have been torn from their context; the student of
Babylonian religion must therefore be forgiven if the
condition in which his materials have reached him should
at times lead him astray. Noreover, it must be remem-
bered that the fragmentary condition of our texts makes
the work of the decipherer much harder than it would
otherwise be. A new word or an obscure phrase is often
made perfectly idtelligibie by the context; but where
this fails us, all interpretation must necessarily be uncer-
tain, if not impossible.
There is yet another difficulty connected with our
needful dependence upon the broken tablets of Assur-
bani-pal's library--a difficulty, however, that would not
be felt except by the student of Babylonian religion.
None of the tablets that are derived from it are older
than the eighth century.hefore our era; how then are
me to determine the relative ages of the various religious
or mythological documents which are embodied in them ?
It is true that we are generally told to what library of
Babylonia the original text belonged, but we looli in
vain for any indication of date. And yet an approxi-
matcly accurate chronology is absolutely indispensable
for a history of religion and religious ideas. If, indeed,
wc could explore tho Babylonian libraries themselves,
thcrc ~vouldbe a bcttcr chance of our discovering tho
relative antiquity of the documents they may still con-
 ~RODUCTORY. 15
tain. But at present this is impossible, and except in a
few instances we have to be content with the copies o!
the older documents which were made by the Assyrian
scribes.
I am bound to confess that the difficulty is a very
formidable one. It was not until I had begun to test
the theories hitherto put forward regarding the devclop-
ment of Babylonian religion, and had tried to see what
could be fairly deduced from the texts themselves,'that I
realised how formidable it actually was. There is only
one way of meeting it. It is only by a process of care-
ful and cautious induction, by noting every indication of
date, whether linguistic or otherwise, which a text may
offer, by comparing our materials one with another, and
calling in the help of what we have recently learnt about
Babylonian history-.above all, by following the method
of nature and science in working from the known to thc
unknown-that it is possible to arrive at any couclusious
at all. If, therefore, I shall seem in the course of these
Lecturcs to speak less positively about the early develop-
ment of Babylonian theology than my predecessors in
tho same field have done, or than I should have done
myself a few years ago, let it be borne in mind that the
fault lies not in me but in the want of adequate materials.
I t is useless to form theories which may be overthrown
at any moment, and which fail to explain all the known
facts.
So far, I fear, I have done little else than lay before
you a dreary catalogue of the difficulties and obstncles
that meet the historian of Babylonian religion at the
very outset of his inquiry. If the picture had no other
side, if there were little or nothing to counterbalance
16 LECTURE I.

the difficulties, we might as well admit that the tin= fw

investigdting the theological conceptions of the ancient
Babylonians and Assyrians had not yet come, and that
we must be content to leave the subject where it mas
left by Sir H. Rawlinson nearly thirty years ago. For-
tunatcly, however, this is not the case. Mutilated and
broken as they are, we still havc texts sufficient to
cnable us at all events to sketch the outlines of Baby-
lonian'theology-nay, from time to time to fill them in as
well. The Babylonians were not contcnt with merely
editing their ritual and religious hymns or their myths
about the gods and heroes ; they also compiled
. commen-
taries and explanatory text-books which gave philological
and othcr information about the older religious
- literature ;
they drew up lists of the deities and their various titles ;
they dcscribed the tcmples in which thcir images were
placed, and the relation of the differcnt members of tho
divine hierarchy one to another. They evcn showed an
interest in the gods of other countries, and the names
given by neighhouring nations to divinities which they
identified with their own are at times recorded. It is
true that many of the sacred texts were so written as to
be intelligible only to the initiated; but the initiatccl
were provided with keys and glosses, many of which arc
in our hands. I n some respects, therefore, we are better
off than the ordinary Babylonian himsclf would havc
been. W e can penetrate into thc real meaning of docu-
ments which to him were a sealed book. Nay, morc
.than this. The researches that have been made during
the last half-century into the crecds and beliefs of tho
nations of the world both past and present, have given
us a clue to the interpretation of these documents which
 INTRODUCTORT, 17
even the initiated priests did not possess. We can guess
nt the origin and primary meaning of rites and cere-
n~onies, of beliefs and myths, which the Babylonians
lsnew of only in their later form and under their tradi-
tional guise. To them, Cfisdhubar, the hero of their great
epic, was but a champion and conqueror of old time;
whose deeds were performed on the soil of Babylonia,
and whose history was as real as that of the sovereigns
of their own day. We, on the contrary, can penetrate
beneath the myths which have grown up around his
name, and can discover in him the lineaments of a soiar
hero who was himself but the transformed descendant
of a humbler god of fire.
I n spite, however, of the aids that have been provided
for the modern student among the relics of the great
library of Nineveh, his two chief difficulties still remain :
the fragmentary character of his materials and his igno-
rance of the true chronology of the larger portion of them.
This last is the most serious difficulty of all, since
recent discoveries have M) e~largedour ideas of the anti-
quity of Babylonian civilisation, and have so revolu-
tionised the views into which we had comfortably settled
down, that our conclusions on the development of Baby-
lonian religion must be completely modified. At the risk,
therefore, of making this first Lecture a dull and unin-
teresting one, and of seeming to wander from the subject
upon which I have been called to speak, I must enter
into some details as to the early history of the population
among whom the religious system revealed to us by the
cuneiform inscriptions first originated and developed.
Until very lately, Assyrian scholars had fancied that
the rise and early history of Babylonia could be already
5
 traced in its main outlines. B y combining the state-
ments of classical authors with the data furnished by
such early monuments as n7e possessed, a consistent
scheme seemed to have been made out. About three
thousand years before our era, it was supposed, the
smaller states which occupied the fertile plain of Baby-
lonia were united into a single monarchy, the capital of
which was "Ur of the Chaldees," thc modern Mughdr,
on the western aide of thc Euphrates. The whole country
v a s at this period under the domination of the Bccadians,
though the Semitic nomad and trader were already
beginning to make their aupearance. I t was divided
into two provinces, the northern called Accad, and the
southcrn Sumer or Shinar. in which two separate, though
closely allied, dialects were spoken. Nom and again,
however,' the two provinces were independent of one ano-
ther, and there mere even times when the smaller states
comprised in them successfully re-asserted their former
frecdom. About 2000 B.C., the Accadian was gradually
superseded by the Semite. and before long the Accadian
language itself became extinct, remaining only as the
sacred and learned language of religion and law. Thc
rise of Scmitic supremacy was marked by the reigns of
Sargon I. and his sou Naram-Sin, who established their
scat at Accad, near Sippara, where they founded an
important library, and from whence thcy led military
expeditions as far westward as the Mediterranean Sea.
Tho overthrow of Sargon7s dynasty, however, rras soon
brought about through the conquest of Babylonia by
Khammnmgns, a Iiosszan from the mountains of Elam.
He made Eabylon for the first time the capital of the
country, ail& founded a dynasty whose ruie lasted for
several centuries. Before the Koesaean conquest, the
Babylonian system of religion mas already complete.
It emanated from the primitive Accadiau population,
though it was afterwards adopted and transformed by
their Semitic successors. I t was originally Shamanistic,
like the native religions of the Siberians or Lapps.
The sorcerer took the place of the priest, magical incau-
tations the place of a ritual, and innumerable spirits the
place of gods. By degrees, however, these earlier con-
ceptions became modified; a priesthood began t o establish
itself; and as a necessary consequence some of the ele-
mental spirits mere raised to tho rank of deities. The
old magical incantations, too, gave way to hymns in
honour of the new gods, among mhom the Suu-god was
specially prominent, and these hymns came in time to
form a collection similar to that of the Hindu Rig-Veda,
and mere accounted equally sacred. Thii process of
religious development was assisted by the Semitic occu-
pation of Babylonia. The Semites brought with them
new theological conceptions. With them the Sun-god,
in his two-fold aspect of benefactor and destroyer, was
the supreme object of worship, all other deities being
resolvable into phases or attributes of the supreme Baal.
At his side stood his female double and reflection, the
goddess of fertility, who was found again under various
names and titles at the side of every other deity. Tbe
union of these Semitic religious conceptions with the
developing creed of Accad produced a statc-religion,
mntched over and directed by a poverful priesthood,
which continued more or less unaltered down to the
days of Xebuchadnezzar and his successors. It, mas this
eta&-religion that was carried by the Semitic Assyrians
c2
20 LECTURE I.

into their home on the banks of the Tigris, where it

underwent one or two modifications, in all essential
respects, however, remaining unchanged.
Now there is much in this neat and self-consistent
account of Babylonian religion which rests on the autho-
rity of the cuneiform documents, and about which there-
fore there is no room for dispute. But the inferences
which have been drawn from the facts presented by these
cuneiform documents, as well as the general theory by
which the inferences have bcen eompaeted together into
a consistent whole, are, it must be remembered, inferences
and theory only. Owing to the fragmentary nature of
the evidence, it has been necessary to supplement the
deficiencies of the record by assumptions for which there
is no documentary testimony whatever. The dates which
form the skeleton, as it were, of the whole theory, have
been derived from Greek and Latin writers. While
certain portions of the scheme have been definitely
acquired by science, since they embody monumental facts,
other portions are destitute of any other fonndation than
the combinatory powers of modern scholars. The scheme,
therefore, must be regarded as a mere working hypothesis,
as one of those provisional theories which science is con-
stantly compelled to put forward in order to co-ordinate
and combine the facts known at the time, but which
must givc way to other hypotheses as nem facts are dis-
covered which do not harmonise with the older expla-
nations. It not unfrequentlp happens that a hypothesis
which has scrved its purpose wcll enough by directing
rcsearch into a particular channel, and which after all is
pcirtialb correct, may be overthrown by the discovery of
3 single new fact. Such has been the fate of the theory
aa to thc development of Babylonian religion which I
have been describing above.
The single fact which has shaken it to its vcry founda-
tions is the discovery of the date to which the reign of
Sargon of Acoad must be assigned. The last king of
of Babylonia, Nabonidos, had antiquarian tastes, and
busied himself not only with the restoration of the old
temples of his country, but also with the disinterment of
the memorial cylinders which their builders and restorers
had buried beneath their foundations. I t ~vasknown
that the great temple of the Snn-god at Sippara, where
the mounds of Abu-Habba now mark its rcinains, had
becu originally erected by Naram-Sin the son of Sargon,
and attempts had been already made to find the records
which, it was assumed, he had entoliibed under its
angles. With true antiquarian zeal, Nabonidos continued
thc search, and did not dcsist until, like the Dean and
Chapter of some modern cathedral, he had lighted upon
'(the foundation-stone" of Naram-Sin himself. This
llfoundation-stone," he tells us, had bcen seen by none
of his predecessors for 3200 yeara. I n the opinion,
accordingly, of Nabonidos, a king who was curious about
the past history of his country, and whose royal position
gave him the best possible opportunities for learning
all that could be known about it, Naram-Sin and his
father Sargon I. lived 3200 years before his own time,
or 3750 B.C.
The date is so remote and so contrary to a11 our pret
-
conceived ideas regarding the antiquity of the Babyloniaa
monarchy, that I may be excused if at first I cxpresscd
doubts as to its accuracy. We are now accustomed to
contemplate with equanimity the long chronology whick
the monnments demand for the history of Pharaonio
Egypt, but \Ire had also been accustomed to regard the
history of Babylonia as beginning at the earliest in the
third millennium before our era. Assyrian scholars had
inherited the chronological prejudices of a formcr gencra-
tion, and a starveling chronology seemed to be confirmed
by the statements of Greek writers.
I was, homever, soon forced to re-consider the reasons
of my scepticism. The cylinder on which Nal~onidos
rccounts his discovery of the foundation-stone of Karam-
Sin was brought from the excavations of Mr. Hormuzd
Rassam in Babylonia, and explained by Mr. Pinches six
years ago. Soon aftervards, Mr. Pinches was fortunate
enough to find among some other inscriptions from Baby-
lonia fragments of three different lists, in one of which
the kings of Babylonia were arranged in dynasties, and
the number of years each king reigned was stated, as
well as the number of years the several dynasties lasted.
An Assyrian copy of a similar list had been already dis-
covered hy Mr. George Smith, who, with his usual quick-
ness of perception, saw that it must have resembled the
lists from which Bt?r6ssos, the Greek historian of Chaldaea,
drew the materials of his chronology; but the copy mas
so mcrc a fragment that the chronological position of the
kings mentioned upon it was a matter of dispute. Hap-
pily this is not the case with the principal test published
by Mr. Pinches. I t had been compiled by a native of
Babylon, who consequently began with the first dynasty
which made Babylon the capital of the kingdom, and
mho seems to have flourished in the time of Nabonidos.
W e can check the accuracy of his statements in a some-
what curious way. One of the two other texts brought
to light by Mr. Pinches is a schoolboy?sexercise copy of
the first two dynasties mentioned on the annalistic tablet.
There are certain variations between thc two texts, how-
ever, which show that the schoolboy or his master must
have used some other list of the early kings than that
which was employed by the compiler of the tablet;
ncvertheless, the names and the r e p a l years, mith one
exception, agree exactly in each. I n Assyria, an accurate
chronology was kept by means of certain officers, the
so-called Eponyms, who were changed every year and
gare their names to the year over which they presided.
We have at present no positive proof that the years were
dated in the same way in Babylonia; but since most
Assyrian institutions were of Babylonian origin, it is
pobable
- that they were. At all events, tho scribes of a
later day believed that thcy had trustworthy chrono-
logical evidence extending back into a dim antiquity;
and when we remembcr the imperishable character of
the clay literature of the country, and the fact that thc
British Museum actually contains deeds and other legal
documents datcd in the r e i p of Khammuragas, more
than four thousand years ago, there is no reason why
we should not consider the bclief to have been justified.
Now the annalistic tablet takes us back reign by reign,
dynasty by dynasty, to about the year 2400 B.C. Among
the monarchs mentioned upon it is Khammuragas, whose
reign is placed 113 years later (B.C. 2290).' b f Sargon
-- -- --
1 As the reign of Khammuragns lasted 55 years, its end would have
been about B.C. 2335. This curiously agrees with the dato nrrived at
(first by von Gutschmidt) for the be$nning of the Eahglol~ianem. If
the Lotin translation can be trusted (Simpliciuw, ad Arid. de ,.,'=la,
503A), the astronomical observations sent by I<dlisthenes from Ihbylon
to Aristot,le in B.C. 331 rcnched hack for 1903 years (i.e. to B.C. 2234).
and his aon Naram-Sin, however, there is no trace. But
this is not all. On the shclvcs of the British Dluseum
yon may sec huge sun-dried bricks, on which arc stamped
the names and titles of kings who erected or repaired
the temples where they have been found. I n the dynasties
of the annalistic tablet their names arc as much absent
as is the name of Sargon. They must havc belonged to
an earlier period than thdt with which the list of the
tablet bcgins, and havc reigned hefore the time when,
trccording to the margins of our Bibles, the flood of Noah
was covering the earth, and roducing such briclts as
these to their primzval slimc. But the kings who havc
recorded their constructive operations on the bricks arc
seldom connected with one another. Thoy arc rather
the isolated links of a broken chain, and thus presup-
pose a long period of timc during which their reigns
must have fillen. This conclusion is verified by another
document, also coming from Babylonia and also first
published by Mr. Pinches. This document contains a
very long catalogue of royal names, not chronologically
arranged, as is expressly stated, but drawn up for a
philological purpose-that of csplaining in Assyrian
the Accadian and Kosszan names of the non-Semitic
rulers of Babylonia. Though the document is imperfect
.~~

1,erossos,
,~ % according to Pliny (N. H. v i i 57), stated that these obscrvn-
tions began at Baby1011 490 years before the Greek era of Phoraneus
(H.C. 1753), i.e. B.C. 2243, thongh Epigenes mode it 720 years (B.C.
2473). Babylon, according to Stephonos of D y z % ~ ~ t i i(s. l nv~. ) , s.:is
built 1002 years bcfore the date (given by Hel1anil;os) for the siege of
Troy (H.C. 1229), whicl~would bring us to G.C. 2331, while Ktariaa
(ap. Georg. Synk.) made tile reign of B@los, or Bel-Merodach of baby^
loll, last for 55 years from U.C. 2286 to 2231. Tho correspondence of
the reign of the Gt3los of k t ~ s i a swith the reign of I<ha:llnluragas is at
least curious.
it embodies about sixty names which do not occur on
the annalistic tablet, and must therefore be referred to
an earlier epoch than that with which the latter begins.
But these names, like the majority of those stamped
on the bricks from the ancient temples, are not of Semitic
but of Accadian origin. If, then, the Aecadian domina-
tion preceded the rule of the Semitie Babylonians, the
long array of sovereigns to whom they belonged must
have reigned before the age of the Semitic rulers of
Acead, Sargon and Naram-Sin. This, however, is a con-
clusion from which the historian will needs recoil. Thc
long space of 1300 years which intervened between the
time of Sargon and that of the dynasty of Khammuragas
cannot have been wholly filled with Semitic princes who
have left no monument behind them. W e seem eom-
pelled to acknowledge that the Semitic rule in Babylonia
was not achieved once for all. The struggle between
thc older and younger population of the country mas
not determined by a single battle or a single reign. Tho
dynasty which followed that of Kharnmuragas bears for
the most part Accadian names, and may therefore be
regarded as marking an Aecadian revival. Before tho
age of Khammuragas the same event may have often
happened. Now it was a dynasty sprung from a Semitic
settlement that acquired the supremacy in Babylonia;
at other times the ruler of a city which still held out
against the Semite succeeded in establishing his power
over the whole country. I n the dynastic tablet the
immediate predecessor of Khammuragas is a Semito
bearing the Semitic name of Sin-muballidh, and yet we
learn from the insoriptions of Khammuragas himself that
he had made himself master of Chaldrea by the overthrow
26 LECTURE I.

of the Accadian prince Rim-Agu. Noreover, whatever

might have been the original character of the Semitio
occupation of Babylonia, from the time of Sargon I.
downwards it mas of a more or less peaceable nature;
Accadians and Semites mingled together, and from the
mixture sprang the peculiar civilisation of Babylonia,
and the peculiar typo of its people.
Sargon himself was a monarch mhonl both Accadian
and Semite delighted to honour. Myths surrounded his
infancy as they surrounded the infancy of Kyros, and
popular legend saw in him the hero-prince who had been
deserted in childhood and brought up among squalid
surroundings, until the time came that he should declare
himself in his true character and receive his rightful
inheritance.' H e mas born, it was said, of an unknown
-
1 Sargon may be the Thilgamos of Elinn, transmitted in a Persian
dress, and the legend about him is evidently that conneetecl by Agnthias
(ii. 25, 15) wit11 Beletarb (?Tiglnth-Pileser), who is stated to have
been the gardener of the former king, BClokhos or Geleous, and the
fouilder of n new dynasty. 111 the Epic of Gisdhuhar the name of tllc
gardener lvooed by Istnr is given as Isnllann the girdenor of Snu.
Thc text giving the legend of Snrgon, as published in W.A.I. iii. 4, 7,
is as follows :
1. " Sargon, the mighty king, the king of Accad (urn) I.
2. My mother (was) a princess ; my father I knew n o t ; the
brother of my father dmolls i n the mountain.
3. (In) the city of Azupiranu, which is built on the hank of the
Euphrates,
4. (my) mother, tho princess, conceived me; i n a secret plnee she
brought mo forth ;
5. sho placed me i n a basket of reeds; with bitnnien my exit
(gate) she closed ;
6. she gave me to the river, wlrich drowned me not.
7. The river carried me along; to Akki the irrigator it brought me;
8. Akki tho irrigator in the goodness of (his) heart lifted me u p ;
9. Alcki the irrigator roarcd me as (his own) son ;
father; as N m had wooed the mother of the founder of
Rome, so some god whom later tradition feared t o name
had wooed the mother of the founder of the first Semitic
empire. She brought forth her first-born "in a secret
place" by the side of the Euphrates, and placed him in
a basket of rushes which she daubed with bitumen and
entrusted to the waters of the river. The story reminds
us of Perseus launched upon the sea with his mother
Danae in a boat, of Romnlus and Remus exposed to t.he
fury of the Tibcr, and still more of Noses in his ark of
bulrushes upon the Nile. The Euphrates refused to
drown its future lord, and bore the child in safety to
Akki "tho irrigator," the representative of the Aocadian
peasants who tilled the laud for their Semitic masters.
I n this lowly condition and among a subjugated race
10. Akki the irrigator made me his gardener,
11. (and in) my garclenership did Istar love me.
12. For 45 (1) years I ruled the kingdom.
13. The men of the black-headed race I governed, I (organised).
14. Over rugged mountains in chariots of bronze I rode.
15. I (go~erned)the upper mountains ;
16. I (ruled) the rulers of the lower mountaina
17. To the sea-coast (1) three times did I advance; Dilmun sub-
(mitted) ;
18. The fortress of the goddess of Hades (Dur-AN-Kigal)bowed.. ..
.
19. I destroyed. . .
20. When the king who comes nfter me in future (days)
21. (shall govern) the men of the black-headed raeo ;
22. (shall ride) over the rugged mountains in chariots (of bronze),
23. shall govern the upper muuntains (and rule) the kin@
24. of the lower mountains; (to) the sea-coast (1)
25. shall advance three times; (shall cause Dilmun to submit) ;
26. (when) the fortress of the goddess of Hades shall bow ; from
..
my city of Acead. . !'
Ti.ti-sal-lat (1) seems to mean "the sea-coast" of the Mediterranean;
cp. Tit-num,the Accndian name of Phcenicia, as well as Dhi-dhi, an*
ther Accadian name of the same country (IV.A. 1. ii. 51, 19).
Sargon was brought up. Aklii took compassion on the
little waif, and reared hill1 as if he had been his own son.
As he grew older he was set to till the garden and culti-
vate the fruit-trees, and while engaged in this hnmblc
work attracted thc lore of tho goddcss Istar. Then came
the hour of his deliverax~cefrom servile employment, and,
liltc David, he made his may to a thronc. For long years
he ruled the black-headed racc of Accad ; llc rode through
subjugated countries in chariots of bronze, and crossed
tlic Persian Gulf to the sacred islc of Dilmun. The very
name the people gave him was a proof of his prellcstincd
rise to greatness. Sargon n.as not his real titlc. This
was Sarganu, which a slight change of pronunciation
altered into Sargina, a mord that conveyed the meaning
of L L constituted" or predestined'' "king" to his Acca-
dian subjects. It was the form assumed in their mouths
by the Semitic Sarrzc-Biizzl, and thus reminded them of
thc Sun-god Tammuz, the youthful bridcgroom of Istar.
who was addressed as ablzi kinzl or 'Lonlyson," as wcll
as of Nebo the \.cry son" (u61u khzu) of thc god Mero-
dach.l Sargina, however, was not the only name by
which the king was known to them. They cnllcd him
also Da'dil or Du'dal, a title which the Semitic scribcs
afterwards explained to mean "Sargon, the king of
constituted right (sar-kinti), de~iserof constitute~l1:1\v,
deviser of prosperity," though its true signification was
rather ['the very wise."2

1 Upon the inscription of " Sar-ga-ni, the king of tlic citg,.the king
of Accad," see Pinches, Proc. Sac. Bili. Avclr. J o u e 1686, p. 744.
Sarganu has tho same origin as the Biblical Ssrug.
W. A. I ii. 46, 40 and 32, ~ ~ h c r(wit!>
e the earlier Soitleiinn 1rt.o-
nunciation tal-tal or talal) it is a title of Ea as the gud of "~vis~loru;'
 ~TRODUCTOEY. 29
But in spite of the atmosphere of myth whioh came
to enshroud him, as i t enshrouded the persons of Kyros,
of Charlemagne, and of other heroes of popular history,
Sargon was a historical monarch and the founder of a
really great empire. The British Museum actually pos-
sesses an inscribed egg of veined marble which he dedi-
cated to the Sun-god of Sippara, and the seal of his
librarian Ibni-sarru is in the hands of M. Le Clercq of
Paris. What may be termed the scientific literature of
the library of Nineveh makes frequent reference t o
him, and we learn that it was for the great library
which he established in his capital city of Accad that
the two standard Babylonian works on astronomy and
terrestrial omens were originally compiled. The work
on astronomy mas entitled The Observations of Bel,"'
and consisted of no less than seventy-two books, deal-
ing with such matters as the conjunction of the sun
and moon, the phases of Venus, and the appearances
of comets. It was translated in later days into Greek
by the historian B&rBssos; and though supplemented
by numerous additions in its passage through the hands
of generations of Babylonian astronomers, the original

When applied to Sargon, the title was ideographically expressed b y

repenting the character for "king;' in order to denote that he was
"the king indeed!' One of the earliest of the monarchs whose names
are found at Tel-loh is called Taltal-kur-galla, "the wise one of tho
great mountain."
Or perhaps ' I The Illumination of Be1 (Mul-lil)," Namar-Bili. Seo
my paper on "The Astronomy and Astrology of the Babylonians," in
the D. Soc. Bib.Arcl~.iii. 1 (1874). Later copyists nlistook the title
for a proper name, and accordingly referred the compilation of the work
t o a certain Namar-Bili. U p to the tirue of B$rBssos, however, it mas
remembered that the god Be1 himself was its traditional author, and the
work is sometimes quoted as simply "Eel" (e.g. W. A. I. iii. 52, 27).
work contained so many records of cclipses as to demon-
strate the antiquity of Babylonian astronomy even in
the remote age of Sargon himself. But besides our
knowledge of Sargon's patronage of learning, we also
know something about the civil history of his reign. A
copy of its annals has come down to us. Wc gather
from these that he was not only.successful in overthrom-
ing all opposition at home, he was also equally successful
abroad. His first campaign was against thc powerful
kingdom of Elarp in the East, where he overthrew the
cnemy and mutilated their slain. Next he turned to
the West, laying his yoke on Syria, and subjugating
"the four quarters" of the world. Then the rival kings
of Babyloll and other Chaldean cities felt his powcr;
and out of the spoil of the vanquished he built the city
of Accad and gave it its name. From this time forward
his attention was chiefly devoted to the West. Year aftcr
year he penetrated into Syria, until at last, we are told,
"he had neither equal nor rival; " he crossed the Meditcr-
ranean to the island we now call Cyprus, and "in the
third ycar," at the bounds of the setting sun, his hands
conquered all peoples and his mouth decrccd a single
cmpire. Here on the shores of Cyprus the great conqueror
erected imngcs of himself, and then carried tho booty of
the island to the opposite coast of Asia. Such a glimpse
into the history of what became afterwards a Grecian
sea, when as yet no Grcclts had made their ray to their
later home, is startling to those ~vhoscconceptions of
authentic history have bccu limited by the narrow horizon
of the classical world. Its trustmorthincss, howevcr, has
been curiously vcrificd by a discovery made by General
de Cesnola in the tredsure-vaults of a Kypriau telnple
among the rnins of the ancient Kurion. Here, among
other hematite cylinders of early Babylonian origin,
he found one the first owner of which describes himself
as a " servant" or '' worshipper" of " the deified Naram-
Sin."' Naram-Sin mas the son and successor of Sargon,
and it is not likely that he would have received divine
honours aftcr the fall of the dynasty to which he belonged.
The fact that the cylinder was discovered in Cyprus
seems to show that even after Sargon's death a connec-
tion continued to exist between Cyprus and the imperial
power of Babylonia. Naram-Sin, however, was more bent
on the conquest of NagQna, or the Sinaitic Peninsula,
than upon further campaigns in the West. Sinai, with its
mines of turquoise and copper, had been a prize coveted
by the Egyptians ever since the age of the ThirdDynasty,
and one of the first efforts of the rising rival power on
the banks of the Euphrates was t o gain possession of the
Fame country. Naram-Sin, so runs the annalistic tablet,
"marched to the land of Naghna ; the land of Nagina
he conquered, and overcame its king."
The land of NagAna was already known to the inha-
bitants of Babyl~nia.~ The earliest Chaldsean monuments

See my paper in the Trans Sac. Bib. Arch. v. % (1877).

Oppert, Lenormant and myself have long eince shown that Magan
originally denoted the Sinaitic peninsula, and Delattre has recently
made it clear (L'Arz'e occidenlale) that Dlelukhkha, which is constantly
associated with Magan, was the desert district imme(1iately to the south
of the Wadiel-'Arish. Assur-bani-pal transfers the name of Magan to
the neighbouring land of lower Egypt, while Xelukhkha is used for
Ethiopia or Meroe by Sargon and his successors. The name of Magan,
however, was probably used from the first in an extended sense, since
a list of reeds (W. A. I. v. 32. 64, 65) describes the diypatq or "papy-
rus," Heh. diph, as "the reed of Magan" (Xakkan in Assyrian). The
early date to which a knowledge of the p h n t went back is evidenced
get discovered are those which have been excavated a t
Tel-loh in southern Chaldaea by a Frenchman, M. de
Sarzec, and are now deposited in the Louvre. Some of
them go back almost to the very beginnings of Chaldaean
art and cuneiform writing. Indeed, the writing is hardly
yet cuneiform; the primitive pictorial forms of many
of the characters are but thinly disguised, and the ver-
tical direction they originally followed, like Chinese, is
still preserved. The language and art alike are Proto-
Chaldaean : there is as yet no sign that the Semite was
in the land. Among the monuments are seated figures
carved out of stone. The stone in several instances is
dioritc, a stone so hard that even the modern workman
may well despair of chiselling i t into the lineaments of
the human form. Now an inscription traced upon one
of the figures tells us that the stone mas brought from
the land of Magan. Already, therefore, before the time
of Sargon and the rise of Semitic supremacy and eivil-
isation, the peninsula of Sinai was not only known to the

by its having an Accadian name, giri, "the flor~eringreed" (borrowed

by Semitic Babylonian under the form of kidu). That Magan or
?Jagha was a mountainous country appears from a bilingual hymn to
Adar, which mentions "the mountain of Ilagzina" (Mr. A. I. iv. 13,
16); and i n W. A. I. ii. 51, 17, while Xelukhkha is described as "the
country of turquoise," Mngan is aescribed as "the country of bronze."
It is possible that the name of Magan or M a g h a is derived from
mrdl;o, wliicli signifies i n old Egyptian "the turquoise" of the Sinaitio
mines. I n an early Babylonian geographical list (I\'. A. I. iv. 38. 13.
14), i\lngin~and Xelukhkha are associated with the Gabylonian sea-
port of Eridu, which throws light on l ' t l ~ eships" of nhgan and
MelukhkEa mentioned i n W. A. I. ii. 46. 6, 7, immediately after " t h e
ships of Dilmnn." The trading ships of Eridu \r.ould have touched first
a t Dilmun, then at Magall, and finally at l\felukbkhn. For a BaSy-
lonia11 country or mountain (!) of Magan, such as some scholars have
dreamed of, therc is not a particle of cvidcnce.
 INTRODUCTORY. 33
inhabitants of Chaldsea, but blocks of stone mere trans-
ported from it to the stoneless plain of Babylonia? and
there made ~ l a s t i cunder the hand of the sculptor. I
have already alluded to the fact that the quarries of Sinai
had been known to the Egyptians and worked by them
as early as the epoch of the Third Dynasty, some 6000
years ago. Is it more than a coincidence that one of
the most marvellous statues in the world, and the chief
ornament of the Museum of BulBq, is a seated figure of
king Khephrsn of the Fourth Dynasty, carved out of
green diorite, like the statues of Tel-loh, and representing
the monarch in almost the same attitude? The Baby-
lonian work is ruder than the Egyptian work, it is tme ;
but if we place them side by side, it is hard to resist the
conviction that both belong to the same school of sculp-
ture, and that the one is but a less skilful inlitation of
the other. The conviction grows upon 11s when we find
that diorite is as foreign to the soil of Egypt as it is to
that of Babylonia, and that the standard of measurement
marked upon the plan of the city, which one of the
figures of Tel-lch holds upon his lap, is the same as
the standard of measurement of the Egyptian pyramid-
builders-the kings of the fourth and two followil~g
dynasties.'
Egyptian research has independently arrived at the
conclusion that the pyramid-builders were at least as old
as tho fourth millennium before the Christian era. Thc
great pyramids of Gizeh were in course of erection, the
hieroglyphic system of writing was already fully devc-
The cubit of 20.63, quito diffel.ent from the later Assgro-Eaby-
lonian cubit of 21.6. See Flindera Petrie in Nuit~re,A o ~ 9,. 1883,
p. 341.
D
 loped, Egypt itself was thoroughly organised and in the
enjoyment of a high culture and civilisation, at a time
when, according to Archbishop Usher's chronology, the
morld was being created. Thc discoveries at Tel-loh
have revealed to us a corresponding period in the history
of Babylonia, earlier considerably than the age of Sargon
of Accad, in which me seem to find traces of contact
between Babylonia and the Egyptians of the Old Empire.
It would even seem as if the conquests of Naram-Sin in
Sinai were due to the fall of the Sixth Dynasty and the
overthrow of the power of the old Egyptian empire.
For some centuries after that event Egypt is lost to
history, and its garrisons and miners in the Sinakio
peninsula must have been recalled to serve against
enemies nearer home.
If there is any truth in the arguments I have been
using, we may now, I think, accept with confidence the
date assigned to Sargon of Accad by Nabonidos, strange
as it may appear to read of expeditions undertaken by
Bab-jlonian kings against Cyprus and Sinai at so remote
an epoch. Important results will follow from such a
conclusion for the history of Babylonian religion. W e
shall have time enough for the slow absorption of Acca-
dian religious ideas into the uncultured Semitic mind,
for the gradual transformation they underwent, and for
the development of those later forms of belief and practice
to which the main bulk of our materials relate. We
can now tracc in some measure the modes in which
lccadian and Semite acted and re-acted upon one another,
as well as the chief periods at which the influence of the
one or of the other was at its height.
The monuments of Tel-loh carry us back to a p m
Semitic era. The deities they commemorate are P&-
Chaldrean, and we may gather from them some idea of
Proto-Chaldaean religion in the heyday of its power.
Babylonia was still divided into a number of petty states,
which were, however, at times united for a while under
a single head, and each state had its own peculiar cult.
Gradually the encroaching Semite dispossessed the older
dynasties and came to form an upper class, first of soldiers
and traders, and then of priests also, throughout the land.
It was in northern Babylonia probably that he made
his influence first felt. Here, at any rate, the kingdom
mas founded which culminated in the brilliant reigns of
Sargon of Accad end his son Naram-Sin. Before this,
the old culture of the non-Semitio population had been
fully absorbed by the Semitic intruders. The intercourse
between the two races was already for the most part a
peaceful one. The great mass of the older people were
contented to till the ground, to irrigate the fields, and to
become the serfs of their Semitic lords. But inter-mar-
riages must have often taken place; members of the
same family bear sometimes Accadian, sometimes Semitic
names, and the same king, whether Accadian or Semite,
issues his edicts in both languages. The cuneiform
system of writing was handed on to the Semites while
d l in an incomplete state. New values and meanings
were givcn t o the signs, new characters and combinations
of characters mere devised, and in writing Semitic mords
the old ideographic usage of the Accadian scr~ptcon-
tinued to be imitated. Thc process was aided by the
patronage afforded to literature in the court of Sargon.
Here Semitic and Accadian scribes vied with onc another
in compiling new tests and in making the old ones
D 2
 36 L E ~ R EI.

accessible to Semitic learners. An artificial literary dia-

lect sprang up, the basis of which was Semitic, but into
which Accadian mords and phrases were thrown p&le-
m&le. B y way of revenge, the Accadian texts which
emanated from the literati of the court were filled with
Semitic words and expressions. Sometimes they were
the work of Semites writing in a foreign language, some-
times of Accadians who were living in an atmosphere
of Semitic life and thought.
What happened in the case of the language must have
happened also in the case of religion. W e know that
many of the gods of the later Babylonian faith have
Accadian names, and that the ideas connected with them
betray a non-Semitic origin; we may therefore expect to
find Accadian religious conceptions accommodated to those
of the Semite, and Semitic conceptions so closely inter-
twined with Accadian beliefs as to make i t impossible for
us now to separate them. How far this is the case I
hope to point out in a future Lecture.
The fall of the dynasty of Sargon may have brought
with it a temporary revival of Accadian supremacy. A t
any rate, the Semitic elcment almays remained strongest
in northern Babylonia : in southern Babylonia it seems
to me not impossible that one of the numerous dialects
of the old language may havc lingered down to the time
of Nebuchadnezzar or Nabonidos. But even in northern
Babylonia the Semitic element was not pure. I t mainly
represented the dominant class, and not the people as
well, as mas the case in Assyria. The result is that the
Babylonian presents us with a moral and intellectual
typc which is not genuinely Semitic. To convince our-
selves of this fact, it is only nccessfiry to compare the
Ehbylonian with his neighbour the Assyrian. The As-
syrian has all the characteristics of the Semite. His
hooked nose and angular features proclaim his origin on
the physical side as unmistakably as his intensity, his
ferocity, his love of trade and his nomadic habits pro-
claim it on the moral side. The Babylonian, on the
other hand, was square-built and somewhat full-faced,
a n agriculturist rather than a soldier, a scholar rather
than a trader. The intensity of religious belief which
marked the Assyrian was replaced in him by superstition,
and the barbarities which the Assyrian perpetrated in
the name of Assur and loved to record in his .inscriptions
were foreign to his nature. If the Assyrian was the
Roman of the ancient East, the Babylonians mere the
Chinese.
Nevertheless, the contrast of type displayed by the
two nations must have been the growth of centuries, and
due to that absorption of one race by another of which
Ireland furnishes so familiar an example. The Semites
of Babylonia-the Babylonians, as I will henceforth call
them-and the Assyrians must once have been the same
people. Assyrian and Babylonian differ only as two
English dialects diffcr, and are therefore known by the
common name of Assyrian; and it was from Babylonia
that the Assyrians derived their system of writing, tho
greater part of their literature, their religion and their
Jaws. It is true that some of this may have been bor-
rowed in later times when the two kingdoms existed
side by side, or when Babylonia became the appanage
of its ruder but more warlike neighborn; the main bulk,
however, like the language, must have been the heritage
which the ancestors of Sennacherib and Sardanapallos
 carried mith them into their northern home. The reli-
gions of Babylonia and Assyria must be treated together,
we shall h d , indeed, that in certain particulars they
disagree; but these particulars form no portion of their
essential character; they are merely unessentials which
can be put aside without injury to our view of the main
facts.
But, it will be asked, what interest can the religions
of Babylonia and Assyria have for us, much more an
inquiry into their nature and origin? They have long
since perished, like the people who professed them, and
have left no apparent traces of their influence upon the
nations about whom we know and care most. The
Greeks and Romans concerned themselves so little with
these Eastern barbarians as neither to read nor to pre-
serve the only Greek history of Chaldaea which was
written by a native and professed to be derived from
native accounts; we owe the fragments we have of it ta
the apologetic zeal of Christian controversialists. Still
less would it appear that these old people of Babylonia
and Assyria can have had any influence upon the world
of to-day, or have served to mould the ideas and the
society of modern Europe. Such questions may be asked,
and until lately it would have been hard to answer them.
And yet a moment's consideration might have shown
that there was one nation at all events which has exer-
cised, and still excrcises, a considerable intluence upon
our own thought and life, and which had been brought
into close contact with the religion and culture of Baby-
lonia at a critical epoch in its history. The influence of
Jewish religion upon Christianity, and consequently upon
the races that have been moulded by Christianity, has
been lasting and profound. Now Jewish religion was
intimately bound up with Jewish history, more intimately
perhaps than has been the case with any other great
religion of the world. It took its colouring from the
events that marked the political life of the Hebrew
people; it developed in unison with their struggles and
successes, their trials and disappointments. Its great
devotional utterance, the Book of Psalms, is national,
not individual; the individual in it has merged his own
aspirations and sufferings into those of the whole com-
munity. The course of Jewish prophecy is equally
stamped with the impress of the national fortunes. I t
grows clearer and more catholic as the intercourse of the
Jewish people with those around them becomes wider;
and the lesson is taught at last that the God of the Jews
is the God also of the whole world. Now the chosen
instruments for enforcing this lesson, as we are expressly
told, were the Assyrian and the Babylonian. The Assy-
rian was the rod of God's anger,' while the Babylonish
exile was the bitter punishment meted out to Judah for
its sins. The captives who returned again to their own
land came back with changed hearts and purified minds ;
from henceforward Jerusalem was to be the unrivalled
dwelling-place of "the righteous nation which keepeth
the truth."
Apart, therefore, from any influence which the old
religious heliefs of Babylonia may have had upon the
Greeks, and which, as we shall see, was not so wholly
wanting as was formerly imagined, their contact with
the religious conceptions of the Jewish exiles must, t o
- -
1.9. r 6.
40 LECTURE L

my the least, have produced an effect which it is well

n,orth our while to study. Hitherto, the traditional
view has bccn that this effect exhibited itself wholly on
the antagonistic side; tho Jews carried nothing away
frotn tho land of their captivity except an intense hatred
of idolatry, more especially Babylonian, as well as of
the beliefs and practices associated therewith. Now and
then, it is true, some bold spirit, like Bishop Warburton,
may have vcntured to propound the paradox that the
doctrine of the resurrection was first learnt by the Jews
in Babylonia, but it was treated generally as a paradox,
and of late ycars, if admitted at all, lvas considered a
proof of the influence not of the Babylonians but of
their Persian conquerors.
The traditional view had no facts to build upon except
such conclusions as it could draw from the Old Testament
itself. To-day all this is changed. We know something
now about thc deities whom the Babylonians worshipped,
about the rites and cercmonies they practised, and about
the religious ideas they entertained. The resuit of this
knowledge is to show us that the Jews did not live in
the midst of the Babylonians for seventy years without
borrowing from them something more than the names of
the months. Nay more; it shows us that the language
of the Babylonian conquerors was not tho so-called
Chaldee, which is really an Aramaic dialect, but a lan-
guage more closely resembling that of the exiles them-
selves. I t is true that a Jew could not have understood a
Babylonian, any more than a Welshman can understand
a Breton, but it was very easy for him to learn to
understand. Assyrian, that is to say the language of
Babylonia, is on the whole more nearly related to Hebrew
 INTRODUCTORY. 41
than it is to any other member of the Semitic family of
speech.
Bnt it mas not only through the Babylonian exile that
the religious ideas of the Babylonian and the Jew came
into contact with each other. I t was then, indeed, that
tho ideas of the conquering race-the actual masters ot
the captives, who had long been accustomed to regard
Babylonia as the home of a venerable learning and
culture-were likely to make their deepest and most
enduring impression; it was then, too, that the Jew for
the &st time found the libraries and ancient literature
of Chaldea open to his study and use. But old tradition
had already pointed to the valley of the Euphrates as
the primeval cradle of his race. W e all remember how
Abraham, it is said, was born in Ur of the Chaldccs, and
how the earlier chapters of Genesis make the Euphrates
and Tigris two of the rivers of Paradise, and describe
the building of the Tower of Babylon as the cause of
the dispersion of mankind. Now the Hebrew language
was the language not only of the Israelites, but also of
those earlier inhabitants of the country whom the Jews
called Canaanites and the Greeks Phoenicians. Like
the Israelites, the Phcenicians held that their ancestors
had come from the Persian Gulf and the alluvial plain
of Babylonia. The tradition is confirmed by the re-
searches of comparative philology. Many of the words
which the Semites have in common seem to point to the
neighbourhood of Babylonia as the district from which
those who used them originally came, and where they
zalled the fauna and flora of the country by common
names. Their first home appears to have been in the
LOW-lyingdesert which stretches eastward of Chaldrek-
42 LECTURE I.

on the very side of the Euphrates, in fact, on which

stood the great city of Ur, thc modern Mugheir. Here
they led a nomad life, overawed by tho higher culture
of the settled Accadian race, until a time came when
they began to absorb it themselves, and eventually, a s
we have seen, to dispossess and supersede their teachers.
The tribes which travelled northward and westward
must, we should think, have carried with them some of
the elements of the culture they had learnt from their
Accadian neighbonrs. And such, indeed, we find to be
the case. The names of Babylonian deities meet us
again in Palestine and the adjoining Semitic lands.
Nebo, the Babylonian god of prophecy and literature,
has given his name to towns that stood within the terri-
tories of Reuben and Judah, as well as to the Idoabite
mountain on which Moses breathed his last; Anu, the
Babylonian god of heaven, and his female consort Anatu,
re-appear in Beth-Anath, <'the temple of Anatu," and
Anathoth, the birth-place of Jeremiah ; and Sinai itself is
but the mountain of Sin, the Babylonian Moon-god.1
W e may thus assume that there were two periods in
the history of the Jewish people in which they came
under the influence of the religious conceptions of Baby-
lonia. There was the later period of the Babylonish

1 That this is the true derivation of the name of Sinai and of the
desert of Sin is plain now that we know that the district i n question
mas possessed by Aramaic-speaking tribes whose kinsfolk spread east-
ward to the banks of the Euphrates, and who were allied i n blood to
t h e population of Moab and Canaan, where the names of Bnbgloninn
deities were not unfreqnent. The name of Sin, the Moon-god, is met
c i t h i n an Himyaritic inscription, and a god who thus found his way
to southern Arabia would be equally likely to find his way to northern
Arabia.
exile, when the influence was strong and direct; there
was also the earlier period, when the amount of influence
is more hard to determine. Much will depend upon the
view we take of the age of the Pentateuch, and of the
traditions or histcries embodied therein. Some will be
disposed to see in Abraham the conveyer of Babylonian
ideas to the west ; others will consider that the Israelites
made their first acquaintance with the gods and legends
of Babylonia through the Canaanites and other earlier
inhabitants of Palestine. Those who incline to the latter
belief may doubt whether the fathers of the Canaanitish
tribes brought the elements of their Babylonian beliefs
with them from Chaldea, or whether these beliefs were
of later importation, due to the western conquests of
Sargon and his successors. Perhaps what I have to say
in my subsequent Lectures will afford some data for
deciding which of these conflicting opinions is the more
correct.
Meanwhile, I will conclude this Lecture with a few
~llustrationsof the extent to which the study of Baby-
lonian religion may be expected to throw light on the
earlier portions of Scripture. W e have already noticed
the curious parallelism which exists between the legend
of Sargon's exposure in an ark of bulrushes and the
similar exposure of the great Israelitish leader Moses 011
the waters of the Nile. The parallelism exists even
further than this common account of their infancy.
Surgon of Aooad was emphatically the founder of Semitic
supremacy in Babylonia; he was the great lawgiver of
Babylonian legend; and to him was assigned the com-
pilation of those worka on astrology and augury from
which the wise men of the Chalhans subsequently
44 LECTURE 1.

derived their lore. Moses was equally the legislator of

the Israelites and the successful vindicator of Semitic
independence from the exactions of Egyptian tyranny,
and future generations quoted the books of the Eebrew
law under his name. As we have seen, Snrgon was a
historical personage, and popular tradition mercly treatrd
him as it has treated other heroes of the past, by attach-
ing to him the myths and legends that had once been
told of the gods.
Now the name of the great Hebrcm legislator has long
been a pnzzle and a subject of dispute. I n the Hebrew
Old Testament it is connectcd with the Hebrew verb
nzashbh, "to draw out," not, indeed, in the sense that
Moses was he who had been drawn out of the water, for
this mould not be grammatically permissible, though
Pharaoh's, daughter puns upon the idea (Exod. ii. lo),
but in the sense of a leader who had drawn his people
out of the house of bondage and led them through the
waves of the sea. The translators of the Septuagint, on
the other hand, living as they did in Egypt, endeavoured
to give the word an Egyptian form and an Egyptian
etymology. With them the name is always hlwuu.ir,
which Josephcs tells us is derived from the Egyptian
words mi, ('water," and us&, " saved from the water."'
Bat this etymology, apart from other imperfections,
depends upon the change the translators of the Septuagint
have themselves made in the pronunciation of the name.
Modern Egyptian scholars, equally willing to find for it
an Egyptian derivation, have had recourse to the Egyp-
tinn messu or mes, "a son." This word, it is true, when
occurring in proper names is usually combined with the
1 Antip. i i 9. 6 ; Cost. Ap. i. 3L
name of a deity ; Rsmeses, for example, the Sesostris of
the Greeks, being written in the hieroglyphics Ra-messu,
LLboin of the Sun-god." But i t is conceivable that we
might occasionally meet with it alone, and it is also con-
ceivable, though not very probable, that the daughter of
the Egyptian king would assign to her adopted child the
simple name of "son." I t is much less conceivable that
such an Egyptian name would be that by which a national
hero would be afterwards known to his Semitic country-
men. It is difficult to believe that the founder of the
Israelitish people would have borne a title which the
Israelites did not understand, and which could remind
them only of that hated Egyptian land wherein they had
been slaves.
Josephos has preserved an extract from the Egyptian
historiaxi Manetho, which relates the Egyptian version
of the story of the Exodus as it was told in the second
century before our era. I n this i t is stated that the
earlier name of Moses was Osarsiph, and that he had
been priest. of Heliopolis or On. Here it is evident that
Moses and Joseph have been confounded together. The
name of Joseph, who married the daughter of the priest
of On, has been decomposed into two element^, the first
of which is the divine name Jeho, and this has been
changed into its supposed Egyptian equivalent Osar or
Osiris. It is clear that, whatever might h&e been his
opinion about the name of Joseph, Maneetho had no doubt
that that of Moses was purely Israelitish. I t was not until
he had become the Israelitish lawgiver and had ceased to
be an Egyptian priest that Osarsiph took the name of
Moses.
But Moses finds nc satisfactory etymology in the
 pages of the Hebrew lexicon. It staeds alone among
Hebrew proper names, like Aaron and David. W e do
not hear of any other persons who have borne the name.
If, therefore, it is Semitic, it must belong to an older
stratum of Semitic nomenclature than that preserved
t o us in the Old Testament. We must look to other
branches of the Semitic stock for its explanation.
There is only one other branch of the Semitic family
whose records are earlier than those of the Hebrews.
Arabic literature begins long after the Christian era,
when Jewish and Greek and even Christian names and
ideas had penetrated into the heart of the Arabian penin-
sula. The Arabic language, moreover, belongs to a
different division of the Semitic family of speech from
that to which Hebrew belongs. To compare Arabic and
Hebrew together is like comparing Latin with modern
German. There is, however, one Semitic language which
has the closest affinities to Hebrew, and this is also t,he
language of which we possess records older than those
of the Hebrew Scriptures. I need hardly say that I am
referring to Assyrian.
Now the Assyrian equivalent of the Hebrew Mosheh,
" Moscs," would be mcisu, and, as it happens, mksu is a
word which occurs not unfrequently in the inscriptions.
It was a word of Accadian origin, but since the days of
Sargon of Accad had made itself so thoroughly at home
in the language of the Semitic Babylonians as to count
henceforth as a genuinely Semitic term. M6su signified
as nearly as possible all that we mean by the word
4Lhero."1 As such, it was an epithet applied to more
Mdst~,,"hero," has of course no connection with mdsu, "double,"
on which sea Jensen, i n the Zeitschr~tffiiv Assgviologie, i3, pp. 259.
than one divinity; there was one god more especially
for whom it became a name. This god was the deity
sometimes called Adar by Assyrian scholars, sometimes
Nin-ip, but whose ordinary name among the Assyrians
is still a matter of uncertainty. He was a form of the
Sun-god, originally denoting the scorching sun of mid-
day. He thus became invested with the sterner attri-
butes of the great luminary of day, and was known to
his worshippers as '(the warrior of the gods." The title
of z%fdsu, however, mas not confined to Adar. It was
given also to another solar deity, Nerodach, the tutelar
god of Babylon and the antagonist of the dragon of
chaos, and was shared by him with Nergal, whose special
function it was to guard and defend the world of the
dead. But Nergal himself was but the sun of night, the
solar deity, that is to say, after he had accomplished his
daily work in the bright world above and had descended
to illuminate for a time the world below.
It will thus be seen that the name of mcisu, ' I the hero"
or ' I leader," was in a peculiar sense associated with the
Sun-god, the central object of primitive Semitic worship.
But it seems to have had another signification which it
is difficult to bring into connection with the ideas of
leadership and war. The character which represented
260. I n V.A. I. iii. 70, 167, ?sdsu is rendered by asnridz~," firse
L i b h , illu us trio^^"). Some
born" or "lender" (in 1. 171 by ~ I Z Zand
might perhaps see a reference to the other meaning of mi= ("twin")
in the close association of 3Zoses and Aaron. There is no difficulty
about the equivalence of the sibilants in the Ilebrew and Assyrian
words, sinco the Hebrew shin corresponds with the Assyrian s in proper
names which, like Asshur, belong to the carlicr period of Hebrew inter-
xnme with Babylonia, and in words which are not proper names it
always corresponds. Tho name of Aaron, I may add, seems to find its
root in the Assyrian aharu, "to send"
 the idea of mdsu or "hero," also represented the idea of
collection of books."' With the determinalire of
personality prefixed, it further denotes " a scribe" or
"librarian." It is at least remarkable that Moses the
Ecbrew legislator was also the unwearied scribe to whom
Rcbrew tradition referred the collection of its earliest
documents and the compilation of its legal code.
But it was in the signification of "hero" that the
Assyrian mdsu made its wag into astrology, and was
thus carried wherever a knowledge of C h a l d ~ a nastro-
logical lore mas spread. The Accsdians had pictured
the sky as the counterpart of the rich alluvial plain of
Babylonia in mhich they dwelt. I n the remoto age to
which their first observations of the stars reached back,
the sun still entered the zodiacal constellation known t o
us as Taurus at the time of the vernal equinox. I t is
in consequence of this fact that the constellation is even
yet called by us Taurus, 'l the bull." The sun mas
likened by the old Accadian star-gazers to a ploughman
yoking his oxen to his glittering plough; nay, he mas
even likened t o an ox himself; and the title given to
Merodach the Sun-god when he passed through the
twelve zodiacal signs mas Gudi-bir, "the bull of light."
Hence it was that the ecliptic was termed "the yoltc of
Ileaven," bound as it were upon thc neck of the solar
bull; that the first of the zodiacal signs, the opener of
the primitire Accadian year, mas called the directing
bull," "the hull mho guides" the ycar; and that twit
prominent stars rccoived the names of "Bull of Anu"
and "Bull of Ilimmon." But as i11 the Baby1oni:zn
- ...
See W. A. L ii. 46. 25, 26, where mas is exy1.1ined by kkrsz7' 14

madud.
 plain below, so too in the pIain of heaven above, thsre
mere sheep as well as oxcn. The seven planets mere
"the seven bell-wethers," and by their side mas another
group of seven stars, entitlcd the lu-mdsi" or " sheep
of the hero."' The first of these mas "the star of the
wain;" and among them were reckoned the star of "the
eagle," the symbol of the meridian sun, the star of thc
goddess Bahu, 'lthe pure mild heifer" of the gods, and
the star "of the shepherd of the heavenly herds," the
hero "who fights with weapons." Tho last-mentioned
star is Regulus, and in his Greek name of Bodti%, "the
herdsman," me may see a lingering euho of tho Accadian
story which made its way through the hands of the
Phcenicians to Greece. Boatis, homever, mas not ori-
ginally the "hero," one of whose flock he mas himself
held to be. Mdsu,the "hero" of thc astronomers, could
only have been the sun.
It is not more strange that a name thus intimatelv
associated with the religious and astrological beliefs of
Babylonia should have found its may to the west, than
that names like Nebo and Sin, which arc similarly reli-
gious and astrological, should have done so too. Moses,
i t mill be remembered, died on the summit of Mount
Sebo in sight of tho " moon-city" Jericho. Now Nebo,

' Jensen has shown that lnrisi in this combination was further used
in the scnso of " tlvins," the stars comprising tho " In-mhi" being
g~.oupedas twins. I t is an exaniple of the obliterntioi~of the original
signification of an epithei by a secondary one. "The sheep of tho
hero," the Aceadian lu-n:m, hecarno the Semitic Iz-rnd~?, "thc twin
oxen," 114 boing an Assyrian word fur "ox." The "scven lx.bnd," or
"old sheep," shows, however, what the primitive meaning of lu must
b v e been.
]I
 as we shall see, was the prophet-god of Babylon and
Borsippa, the offspring of the Sun-god Merodach, and
the patron of mriting and literature. He also figured
among the stars. Together mith the stars of Istar and
Ncrgal, he mas accounted one of the seven "heroes" or
nzcisu. As Nebo mas the interpreter of Merodacll, so in
the language of astrology his star was itself a mksu or
solar hero. Sin mas the Babylonian name of the Moon-
god We learn from a Himyaritic inscription that his
name had been carried into southern Arabia, and there
is therefore no reason ~ v h yit should not have been im-
ported into northern Arabia as well. And me secm to
meet with it in the name of the milderness of Sin. to
which Moses conducted the children of Israel when they
had first left Egypt, before they arrived at Mount Sinai.
SLai itself can scarcely signify anything else than t h e
mountain sacrcd to the Moon-god; and me can therefore
well believe that a shrine of Sin may have existed upon
it, and pilgrims have made their may to the sanctuary
long before the Israelites demanded their "three days'
journey into the wilderness to sacrifice to the Lord"
(Exod. viii. 27).
It is possible that the name of Joseph, like that t f
Moses, may receive its explanation from Babylonia.
Already at thc time when the book of Genesis was
written, its original meaning seems to haye been for-
gotten. An alternative etymology is there proposed
(xxx. 23, 24), from cisciph, to talte away," and ycisdph,
" to add ;" while in thc Psalms (lxxxi. 6) another cleriva-
tion is suggested, mhich mould connect it (as was after-
wards done by Manetho) mith the sacred name of the
God of Israel.' Now Joseph was not only the father
of the Israelitish tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, he
was also a deity worshipped by the older inhabitants
of Canaan. More than two centuries before the date
assigned by Egyptologists to the Exodus, the great
Egyptian conqueror Thothmes 111. inscribed upon the
walls of the temple of Karnak the names of the cities
captured by him in Palestine. Among them are Yaqab-el,
'I Jacob the God," and Iseph-el, l LJoseph the God."

We are therefore tempted to think that the expression

lLthehouse of Joseph" may have belonged to an earlier
period than that in which it was applied to the tribes of
Ephraim and Manasseh ; that, in fact, like Beth-el, l Lthe
house of God," it was once used by the Canaanites in a
literal sense. Now Beth-el, we are told, the older name
of which was Luz, was taken by the house of Joseph,
and became in later times one of the two great sanctuaries
of the northern kingdom. What if Beth-el had itself
been the more ancient 'I house of Joseph;" what if " the
houso of the god" and the house of Joseph'' had in
Canaanitish days been one and the same ? The question
may receive an answer if we turn for i t to the Assyrian
inscriptions. Here we h d as+u or as+ used in the
sense of " a diviner." The word was actually borrowed
by the Aramaic of Daniel under the form of ~ s h s h d p h ; ~

' hfanetho (3p. Joseph. cant. Ap. i. 25) states that tho ori,oinal
e Moses was Osarsiph, and that he had been a priest of Helio-
n a ~ of
polis or On. Osnr-siph is simply Joseph, Osar or Osiris bein substi-
tutedfor Jeho (Jo) or Jahveh. Joseph, it will be remembered, married
the daughter of the priest of On.
' We should have expected a sumeeh instead of a d i n ; the word,
however, must have been borrowed, since we do not meet with it else
where in the Old Testament. By the side of mipu we find i d p , the
in old Hebrcw and Phcenician, its form would have
more nearly approached that of Joseph. The a ~ i p uor
" diviner" plays a considerable part in the religious
literature of Babylonia, and the very phrasc 6it assaputi,
"the house of thc oracle," is actually met with. A god
who seoms to be Eel in his character of delivering oracles
through the voice of tho thunder is called "the hero who
prophesies" or '[divines uprightly." Although, there-
fore, it is a point which cannot be proved at present, it
appears nevertheless probable that the name of Joseph
was originally identical with the Babylonian asipu, the
god of the oracle ;" and that long before the Israelitish
l~ouseof Joseph took possession of Luz, it hail been a
house of Joseph in another sense and the sanctuary of a
Canaanitish oracle.'
But whether or not we are to look to Babylonia for
an oxplanation of the name of Joseph, there is little
doubt that thc Babylonian pantheon throws light on the
names of tho threc first kings of Israel. Some years
ago I cndeavoured to show in the pages of the Nodern
Review (January, 1884), that the names by which they
arc known to history, Saul and David and Solomon,
were not the narncs they received in childhood, but
names subsequently applied to them and current among
the people. As regards the nilme of Solomon, we are
actually told that this mas the case ; his original namc-
the name giren by the Lord through Nathan-mas
-
name of a particular class of priests rvhose duties s e r e confined to
sootl~sayiog. I t was from this word that the character mhich denoted
"speccli" derived its value of i s Q ~ Siptu, "incautntion," was cn in
Accndian.
1 C'f Gcn. xliv. b
the Assyrian nunu, "a fish," it is possible that the cult
of Sallimman or Solomon in Assyria was due to the fact
that he was a fish-god, perhaps Ea himself. I n a list of
the gods whose images stood in the numerous temples of
Assyria (W.A. I. iii. 66, Rev.40), mention is made of
'LSallimmanu the fish, the god of the city of Temen-
Sallim (the foundation of peace).!' His worship was
carried westward at a comparatively early period, and
in the age of Shalmaneser 11. the royal scribe at Sadikan,
now Arban on the Khabfir, was named Sallirnmanu-nunu-
sar-ilani, " Solomon the fish is king of the gods."' So,
too, in the time of Tiglath-Pileser 111. (B.C. 732) the
Moabite king mas Salamanu or Solomon, a plain proof
both that the god was known in Moab, and also that in
Moab, as in Israel, the name of the god could be applied
to a man.
I f a gleam of light has thus been cast by the monu-,,
nents of Assyria and Babylonia upon the names of the
earlier kings of Israel, it is but feeble in comparison
with the illustrations they afford us of the ritual and
religious practices recorded in the Old Testament. The
ritual texts, fragmentary as they are, are numerous
among the di6ris of Assur-bani-pal's library, and the
references we find from time t o time in the historical
inscriptions to religious rites and ceremonies give us
tantalising glimpses into the senice and ceremonial of
the Assyro-Babylonian priesthood.
1 On a cylinder no,,. in the British Museum. The inscription runs :
"Tho seal of Muses-Adar the scribe, the son of Adar-esses the scribe,
the son of Sollimanu-nun-sar-ilani the scribe." Sir A. H. Layard dis-
euvored winged hulls at Arban, inscribed with the words, "The palace
of Muses-Adar." For a representation of the seal, see George Smith's
Cluzldean Gene& (ed. Sayce), p. 97.
Jedidiah, which was changed into Solomon, the peaceful
one," when his father had 'l peace from all his enemies,"
and had surrounded his new capital of Jerusalem (perhaps
the city of "peace") with a single wall.' That David's
first name was El-hanan (or Baal-hauan) has long been
suspected, since it is stated in one passage that Elhanan
the son of a Bethlehernite 'l slew Goliath the Gittite,
the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam,"2
while the feat is elsewhere ascribed to David; and at
the head of the thirty mighty men of David is placed
Elhanan the son of Dodo of Bethlehem, where we should
probably read "Elhanan who is Dodo" or David.3 Saul,
too, is presumably of similarly popular origin, the name
Saul, l1 the one asked for," being singularly appropriate to
a king for whom, we are told, the people had lLaskcd."
Now there is a curious parallelism between the three
first kings of Israel and the three last kings of Edam
enumerated in the 36th chapter of Genesis, mhere we
have, I believe, an extract from the state-annals of the
Edornites. Saul had l Lvexed" the E d ~ m i t e s and
, ~ David
had completed the conquest; but the accession of Solomon
and the murder of Joab brought with them almost imme-
2 Sam. xii. 24, 25. The verses should bc rendered : "She bare a
son and his namc was called Solomon; and the L o d loled him, and
sent by the hand of il'atlian the prophet and called his name Jedidinh,
because of the Lord."
l 2 Sum. xxi. 19, where Ya'srB, Ygur or YB'ir, seems to be a cor-
ruption of Jesse, and W i m , "weavers," has been repeated from the
following line. The text was a l ~ a d ycorrupt before the compilation of
1 Chron. xx. 5.
2 Sam. xxiii. 24. As thirty names follo~vthat of Elhanan, he
cannot himself have been one of the thirty, and being ranked with
them must have been their head.
4 1 San. xiv. 47 ;see, too, uii 9.
diately the successful revolt of Edam under Hadad, who
had married the sister of Pharaoh's queen.' I n strange
accordance with this, we find that the three last Edomite
kings mentioned in the list in Genesis were Saul, Baal-
hanan and Hadar-a name which must be corrected into
Hadad, as in Hadarezer for Hadadezer. Tho kings of
Edom seem to have had a predilection for assuming the
lmmes of the divinities they worshipped. W e have
among them Hadad, the son of Bedad (or Ben-Dad),
Hadad and Dad being, as we learn from the cuneiform
inscriptions, titles of the supreme Baal in Syria, whose
attributes caused the Assyrians to identify him with
their own Rimmou ; and Hadad was followed by Samlah
of Masrekah or the "Vine-lands," in whose name we
discover that of a Phoenician god recorded in a recently
found inscription as well as that of the Greek Semel6.2
-- -
' 1Kings xi. 19-25.
Sea the letters of Dr. Neuhauer and myself i n the Ati~enresmof
Sept. 1 2 and Sept. 26, 18E5. As the worship of Dionysos, the Wine-
god, had been borroved by the Greeks from tho East, i t had long hecu
assumad that the name of Semelff must he of Phcenicinn extraction;
hut i t was only i n 18S4 that a Phcpnician inscription was found in a
hay to the west of the Pciraos containing the name Pen.'Samlath (" tlie
face of 'Samlath"). The first king of Edoln mentioned in Gen. xxsui.
is Cela the son of Beor, that is, Bilenm or Ealaarn the son of Beor.
Dr. Neuhauer 113s shown that Calaatn is nil-'am, "Coal is Am(mi)."
the supreme god of Amlnon (as ivo hn~relearned froin tho cuneiform
inscriptions), whose name enters illto those of Jerobo-nm and Rcliubo-
am. An Assyrian mythological tablet (TI'. A. I. ii. 53, 65) infornrs us
that Emu (CY)was tlio Xcrgal of the Sl~uiteson the western Lank of
the Euphrates. The words ~ r r i t lwhich
~ the list of the Eclonrito 1riub.a
is introiluced ("These uro tho kings that reigned in the land of Edum
before there reigned any king over the children of Ismel") nro of course
a n addition by the Hebrew excerptist. I t vill he noticod that the
fahher of the last king in the list, Hndad 11. (Hadar), is not mentioned,
Gl~ile.contrary to the ahnost uuiversnl practice of the Old Testament,
 INTBODUCTOBY. 65
W e need not be surprised, therefore, if the name of Saul
also turns out to be that of a divinity. W e are told that
8aul came from Rehoboth of the river" Euphrates;
Lb

and since Rehoboth means the public squares and suburbs

of a capital city, and is consequently used of Nineveh
i n the book of Genesis (x. 11), we must look for the
Rehoboth of the Euphrates in Babylon. Now one of
the principal names under which the Sun-god was known
at Babylon was Savul or Sawul, which in Hebrew cha-
racters would become Saul. I n Saul, accordingly, I
think we may see a Babylonian deity transported to
Edam and perhaps also to Palestine.
Hadad occupied a higher position than Saul. He
was, as I have said, the supreme Baal or Sun-god, whose
worship extended southward from Carchemish to Edam
and Palestine. At Damascus he was adored under the
Assyrian name of Rimmon, and Zechariah (xii. 11) alludes
to the cult of the compound ada ad-~immon in the
close neighbourhood of the great Canaauitish fortress of
Megiddo. Coins bear the name of Abd-Hadad, "the
servant of Hadad," who reigned in the fourth century
a t Hierapolis, the later successor of Carchemish, and,
under the abbreviated form of Dida, Shalmaneser speaks
the names of his wife and mother-in-law are given. This is explained
by 1 Iiings xi. 19, where we are told that he xas married to the sister
of Tahpenes the Egyptian queen. Mr. Tomkins is probably right in
identifying Tahpenes with the name of the frontier-fortress which \va
known to the Greeks as Daphn~e,and is now called Tel-Dkfeneh, so
that the introduction of the name into the text of the book of Kings
~vouldhe a marginal gloss. Mehetah-el and Ne-zahnb are apparently
the Semitic substitutes of Egyptian nanies such as the Egyptian monu-
ments have made us familiar with. Me-zahah would presuppose an
Egyptian Nub, md Mr. Tomkins ingeniously suggests that Gsnutath,
the name of the eon of Hadad, represents the Egyptian Ha-nub-ti
56 LECTURE L

of 'Lthe god D$da of Alcppo" (Ehaltnan). The abbre-

viated form was that current among the nations of the
north ; in tho south it was confounded with the Semitic
word which appears in Assyrian as dndu, '' dear little
child." This is the word which me have in Be-dad oo
Ben-Dad, '' the son of Dad," the father of tho Edomitc
Hadad; we have it also in the David of the Old Testn-
ment. David, or Dod, as the word ought to be read,
which is sometimes written Dodo with the vocalic suffix
of the nominative, is the masculine corresponding to a
Phcenician goddess mhose name means "the belovcd
one," and who was called Dido by the writers of Rome.
Dido, in fact, was the consort of the Sun-god, conceived
as Tammuz, '<the belovcd son," and was the presiding
deity of Carthage, whom legend confounded with Elissa,
the foundrcss of the city. I n the article I havc alludecl
to above, I expressed my conviction that the names of
Dodo and David pointed to a worship of the Sun-god,
under the title of the beloved one," in southern Canaan
as well as in Phrcnicia. I had little idea at the timc
how soon my belief would be verified Within the last.
year, the squeeze of the Moabite stone, now in the Louvre,
has been subjected to a thorough examination by t h e
German Professors Socin and Smend, with tho result of
correcting some of tho reccived readings end of filling
up some of the lacunie. Onc of the most important dis-
coveries that have been thus made is that the Israelites
of thc northern kingdom worshipped a Dodo or Dod by
the side of Yahveh, or rather that they adored the
supremo God under the name of Dodo1 as well as under
1 Written m 17 in the NoaLite text, where Ac' elsewhere takes the
place of the Hebrrw waw.
 INTRODUCTORY. 67
that of Yahveh. Mesha, the Moabite king, in describing
the victories which his god Chemosh had enabled him to
gain over his Israelitish foes, tells us that he had carried
away from Ataroth "the arel (or altar) of Dodo and
dragged it before Chemosh," and from Ncbo "the are1.s
(or altars) of Yahveh," which he likewise " dragged beforc
Chemosh." Here the arel or altar" of Dodo is placed
in parallelism with the arels of Yallveh; and i t is quite
clear, therefore, that Dodo, like Yahveh, was a name
under which the deity was worshipped by the people of
the land. I have suggested that Dad or Dodo was an
old title of the supreme God in the Jebusite Jerusalem,
and that hencc Isaiah (v. I), when describing Jerusalem
as the tower of the vineyard the Lord had planted in
Israel, calls him Dad-i, my beloved." W e can easily
understand how a name of the kind, with such a signifi-
cation, should have been transferred by popular affection
.
kom the Deity to the king of whom it is said that "all
Israel and Judah loved him" (1 Sam. xviii. 16).
That Solomon was a divine name we have the express
testimony of the cuneiform inscriptions for asserting.
Sallimmanu, lithe god of peace," was a god honoured
particularly in Assyria, where the name of more than
one famous king (Shalman-eser) mas compounded with
it. As the name of Nineveh was ideographically es-
pressed by a fish within a basin of water,' while the
name itself vas connected in popular etymology with
~ ~

3 The ideograph also represented the name of tho goddess Nin&-a

word which means "the Lady" in Snnierian-who was the dnughter
of Ea the god of Eridu (W. A. I. iv. 1, 38). There mas a city or snno
tunry in Bnbjlonia of the same name (K 4629, Rer. 8), which explains
the statement of Xt&sias that Ninereh stood on the Euphrates (ap.
Diod. i i 3).
 I n Assyria the king himself performed many of the
functions of a high-priest. Like Solomon of Israel, he
could offer sacrifice and pour out libations t o the gods.
Assur-ris-ilim is entitled "the appointed of the divine
father (Bel), the priest (dangu) of Assur;"l Assur-natsir-
pal calls himself " the appointed of Bel, the priest (iangu)
of Assur, the son of Tiglath-Adar the appointed of
Bel, the .priest of Assur, the son of Rimmon-nirari the
appointed of Bel, the priest of Assur ;"2 Sargon is simi-
larly "the appointed of Bel, the exalted priest (NU-ES)
of Assur," well as "the high-priest (pategi) of Assur ;"
while Nebuchadnezzar designates himself " the worship-
per of Merodach, the supreme high-priest (pate&), the
beloved of Nebo."3 But the union of the two offices
was by no moans necessary. I n the far-off pre-Semitic
age there were kings of Tel-loh as well as pate&$ or
high-priests of Tel-loh, and the kings did not take the
title of high-priest, while the high-priests did not take
the title of king. The earliest records of Assyria went
back t o n period when as yet there were no kings, but
only '(high-priests of Assur ;" and among thc objects
brought from Babylonia by Dr. Hayes Ward is a barrel-
shaped weight of green basalt, on which we read : " the
palace of Nebo-sum-esir the son of Dakur, the high-
priest (pate&) of Merodach." A distinction is carefully
drawn between ('the king" and "the high-priest" in
the imprecation against the Vandals of the future attached
to an old historical text in the Accadian l a n g ~ a g e and
,~
- - who embodied thc Cuthsean legend
the poet - of the crea-
1 W. A. I. 5;. 3, 1% 9 W. A. I. iii. 3, 39.
5 W. A. I. i 53, i. 5. 4 W. A. I. i15. 62,65.
6 W.A.1. iv. 12. 36. 37.
60 LECTURE I.

tion i?i his verses concludes by saying : "Thou, whether

king, high-priest, shepherd or any one else whom God
shall call to rule the kingdom, I have made for thee this
tablet, I have inscribed for thee this record-stone, in the
city of Cutha, in the temple of 'Sulim."' Ktesias, there-
fore, was justified in making a high-priest of his Baby-
lonian Belesys-a name, by the way, which appears iu
the inscriptions, under the form of Bnlaiu, as that of a
Babylonian prince in the time of Tiglath-Pileser JII.%
The Semitic title of the high-priest (nisakku or issakku)
indicates that his main duty mas to pour out libations
1 Patesi and NU-ES are rendered by the Assprian nisaklm and i s s a k k .
These have nothing to do with an Accadian a&, as Lotz supposed,
much less with nisu and iah, " a man," as Guyar~l~uggcsted,but are
merely derivatives from the verb nusuku, "t,o pour ant a libation,"
which occurs i n the eleventh tablet of the Epic of Gisdhubar (eol. vi.
1. 4). Pntesi should prubably be read khattedi or khi;ttedi, since t h e
country of that rlarne is written indifferently PA-SE-KIand PA-TE-41-KI
( A I. ii. 3 1 The suhstitutioli of Bi (&g) forpatedi or khattdi
i n the penitential psalm (W. A. I. iv. 21, 45) seenis due to a blunder
of the Semitic scribe, who read the first character ( p a ) as di!~(see v.
19, 55). NU-ES: "the mnn of the temple," is a compound ideograph
of Semitic invention, which originated when false analogy had caused
the termination a7ilcu to be regarded as a separate suffix, so that the
root of nisakkw was supposed to he nw or n6s. The old rendering of
patdi by "viceroy" rested on a mistake; the word always has reference
to the orsh ship of a god. The Nebu-sum-esir mentioned in the text,
for instance, was not the viceroy of a king, but "the hish-pl.iest of
Merodach," who lived a t Babylon by the side of tho king. The analogy
of n i s a h k ~has created sakkanukku, " a high-priest," from salmm~u,which
is bnrrowcd from the Accadian aagan (W. A. I. iii. 70,40), tho Zbg~nBu
of B&rc%ss&.
4 Arbakes is equally the name of a Median chief mentioned b y
Sargon, and Sargon himself may he tlie Akraganb whom KtBsias makes
the last king but one of Assyria. A8 Schrader points out (Keilin-
schriften und Gesehichtsforsclru,ng,p. 516), i n the time of Iit&rina, Be-
lesys was the Persian governor of Syria and Assyria, and Arbakes of
Media (Xenophon, Anab. vii 8, 25).
in honour of the gods, and the phrases in which the
word occurs show that he was attached to the cult of
the supreme god of the country in which he lived. At
Babylon it was Merodach from whom the high-priest
received his title; at Nineveh it was Assur.
Under the high-priest several classes of subordinate
priests were ranged. There was the iangu, for example,
whose title interchanges at times with that of the high-
priest himself. The dangu properly signified one who
was 'Lbound" or attached to a particular deity or his
sanctuary, who mas his slave and bondsman. The name
may therefore be compared wit.h that of the Levites, if
the latter, too, are those who were "attached" to special
places of worship. At Nineveh there was a iangu attached
to the harem which was under the protection of Istar,
as well as one who was entitled "the strong dangu," and
who may ahcordingly be regarded as one of the chief
priests.'
By the side of the dangu stood thepcisisu or " anointer,"
whose duty it was to purify with oil both persons and
things. The cleansing of objects by anointing them
with oil was considered a matter of great importance;
even the stone tablets and foundation-stones of a building
arc ordered to be cleansed in this way. The use of
"pure water" for washing the hands and other parts of
the body occupies a conspicuous place in the ritual texts,
nnd in one of them we read the following instructions in
regard to a person who is undergoing purification :'
W. A. I. ii. 31. 60, 61. The remains of the pnlace discovered Ly
Layard at Arban (the ancient Sadiknn) belonged, according to the
inscription on the bulls, to "&Iu~uscs-Ahthe priest" (iangu)
\V.A. I. iv. 26, 40 sg.
 62 LECTURE I.

L i p w ewater give him to drink, and pour out the water

over the man; remove the root of the saffron(?),l and
offer pure wine and pure yeast, and place on the heart
the fat of a crane2 which has been brought from the
mountains, and anoint the body of the man seven times."
Another class of priests were the kuli, a word borrowed
by the Semites from the Accadian kal, "illustrious."
The kalu was also termed 1u6uru, ' I the elder," a word
again borrowed from the Accadian lubar, which in Sume-
rian appears in the earlier form of l a y ~ r . I~n the epic
of Gisdhubal; where Ea-bani (?) is describing the land
of Hades which he is doomed to enter, the luguru and
the p&sisu, or ' L a n ~ i n t e r , 'are
~ mentioned along with the
is+pu, or '(soothsayer," and the naukiw'hu, or '[great
one," from the Accadian mukh, in which Prof. Delitzsch
sees the "mag" or "(Rab-)magn of the Old Testament.*
'[(In the house, O my friend), which I must enter,"
Ea-bani is made to say, "(for me) is treasured up"
crown (among those who wear) crowns, who fiom days
of old have ruled the earth, (to whom) Anu and Be1
have given names of renown. Glory have they given
to the shades of the dead;6 they drink the bright waters.
1 Kz~i.l<ane^; i n Accadian, lizcr-gi-in-nu. Kurkd; Choldee, Icurk'yd.
8 See Zimmern, Bub. Bzlsspsal?nen, p. 28, note 2. I may add that
the kali are the Galli or eunuch-priests of the liappado'ainn jiolidcss,
their Assyrian name having been borrowed along with the re1i:ions
rites over which they presided.
4 The ~nnlcl~lcliz~ n ~ u s have
t represented a subdivision of the isilil~i,
since i n W. A. I. ii. 51, 55, the word is the equivalent of esscp76, " tlic
priest of the god Nibiitu." Cp. W. A. I. ii. 33, 31.
5 K u n ~ i m d s ; kunzldu means "to keep oneself," not "to liolv" (2s
Zinlmern and Lyon).
6 Kats~ltinnd kntslti, literally " fleshless ones ;" comparo ~ i ] , l ~ n i i t ~
in Is. xiv. 9. Tllo ideograph translated liutstsu (W. A. I. iv. 15, 38) is
In the house, 0 my friend, which I must enter dwell
the lord1 and the lagam, dwell the soothsayer (ia+pu)
and the makhkhu, dwell the anointing priest of the
abysses of the great gods, the god Etanu& and the god
Ner. (There dwells) the queen of the earth Nin-ki-gal;
(there the Lady) of the field, the scribe of the earth,
bows before her; (there she . . .) and makes answer in
her presence."
The abysses" or deeps" of the great gods is an
expression which requires explanation. The temples of
Babylonia were provided with large basins filled with
water and used for purificatory purposes, which resembled
' L the sea" made by Sololuon for his temple at Jerusalem,

and were called apdi, ii,Ldeeps"or aby~ses."~ I t was

with these "deeps" that thepdhu or "anointing priest,"
whose office it was to purify and cleanse, was specially
concerned. The basins doubtless stood in the open air,
in the great court within which the temple itself was
erected.

also rendered w ? ~ , mpd. The passage reads, dik(u) sum&. . .

from
htstsu, "lunacy, wasting fever . . . consumption." A synonym of
7~utsutuis turpu (Acwdian dimme, "spectre"), the Hebrew terapkim
(see Neubnuer in the Academy, Oct. 30, 1886).
Zimmern thinks that enu, "lord," denoted a class of priests; but
this is unlikely, unless we suppose the word to be borrowed from the
Accndian en, "nu incnntation" (Assyrian siptu). As, however, the
Assyrians formed enitu, L'lady" (W. A. I. iii. 4, 55), from enu, this s u p
position is improbable.
Hnupt, Nimrodtyos, pp. 17, 19. I n 19, 47, we must read d u p
damat, " femnle scribe."
The ceremonies attending the construction of a hronze bull intended
to support one of these seas, am described in IV. A. I. iv. 23, No. 1.
The "sea" is stated to have been placed "between the ears of th.
bull" (line 17).
 The description of E-Saggil, the temple of Bel-Merodach
at Babylon, which has been translated by Mr. George
Smith,' states that here at least there was a sccond court,
ihat of "Istar and Zam$m&," besides the great court.
Within the latter was another malled enclosure, built in
the form of a square, and containing tho great zljglurrat,
or '' tower," as well as the temples and chapcls of a large
number of dcities. This agglomeration of sacred edifices
was due to the fact that the temple of Be1 was a Baby-
lonian Pantheon where the images and cult of the mani-
fold gods of Chaldoea were gathered together. Where
the temple was dedicated to one divinity only, there was
of course only one building.
I n one particular, however, the temple of Bel-Merodach
differed frum that of every other Babylonian temple with
which we tire acquainted. This is in its orientation. Its
sidcs face the four points of the compass, whereas in the
case of the other tcmples it is the corners that do so.
The causc of this departure from the usual canons of
Babylonian sacred architecture has still to be discovered.
Within, the temple bore a striking likeness to that of
Solomon. At the extreme end was the p a ~ i k u or , ' I holy
of holies," concealed by a curtain or veil from tho eyes
of the p r ~ f a n e . ~Here, according to Kebuchadnczzar,
\\-as 'Ithe holy seat, the placc of the gods who determine
dcstiny, the spot where they assemble together(?),a the
shrine (paruk) of fate, whercin on the festival of Zagmuku
at the beginning of the year, on tho eighth and the
::le\cnth days, the divine king of hraven and earth, the
See Appendis TI. ? Hence the name p a r d h ~ ,Heb. pnrodeth.
lnri of the hcarens, seats himsclf, while the gods of
heaven and earth listen to him in fear (and) stand bowing
down before him."' Herc, too, Herodotos tells us (i. 183),
was a golden image of the god, mith a golden table in
Gont of it like the golden table of shewbread in the
,Jewish t e m ~ l c . ~
The little chapel of Makhir, '(the god of dreams,"
discovered by Mr. Hormuzd Rassam at Balawat, near
Nosul, gives us further information about the internal
arrangement of the shrine. I n this, Mr. Rassam found
a marble coffer containing tmo stone tablets which recorded
Assur-natsir-pal's victories and the erection of the chapel.
The coffer and its contents remind us forcibly of the
Isrilelitish ark with its "two tables of stone" (1 Kings
riii. 9). Before the coffer, n t the north-wcst of the
chamber, mas an altar of marble ascended by five steps,
whcre another stone tablet was disinterred similar to
those in the coffer. The gates that led to this temple of
M a k h i mere coated with plates of embossed bronze,
which are now in tho British Uuseum. The great temple
of Bel-Merodach at Babylon was adorned in a morc

1 w. A. T. i 54, ii. 5i-6'3.

2 Thcre seems to be evidence that the institution of tile shewbread
was linown i n Dolqionia. I n n fra,.~uentof a bilingual phrase-book
(I<4207) we read (lines 5, 9), (Acc.) ntclu sagor-an-tzrg-a6 - ~ G T( r l - n w -
va-in-fc-ne,vhich is translated Lildtu bit agarri ipr~llns, " thn footl-
provider looks down upon the house of b~.icli." (For &rrllu, ssce
1'. A. I. iv. 17, 26, where the corresponding Accadinn verb appears
as ide-minin-barren.) I n W. A. I. ii. 44, 74, hirntz~is the rendering
of the Accailian dur (KI-GAL), out of the ideograpllic representation of
which the Sen~iticscribes by nn erroneous r e d i n g fortued tho word
l l u . Now i n W. A. I. iv. 13, 12, 1v0 find ina kkul ma7;hkI~i kigallu
Zzira~ndta,"on the h i d l altar mayest thou found a place of feediilg,"
ie. a table of shewbread.
I
costly way. Its cedar-work was overlaid by Nebuchad.
nezzar with gold and silver, while its furniture, like that
of Solomon's temple, was of " massive gold."
The coffer of the little temple of Imgur-Bel, or Ralawat,
rcsembled in form the arks, or "ships" as they were
tcrmed, in which tho gods and their symbols were carried
in religious processions.' It thus gives us a fair idea of
what the Israelitish ark of the covenant must have been
like. It, too, was a small shrine of rectangular shape,
carried by means of staves passed through rings at it3
four corners. It is somewhat curious that the Assyrian
ark should have assumed this shape. The name by
which it went to the last was that of "ship," a proof
that it was originally in the form, not of an ark, but of a
ship. The same transformation is observable in the
Biblical account of the Deluge as compared with that of
the cuneiform inscriptions; hero also "the ship" of the
Babylonian version has bccome "an ark." But the fact
that the arks of the Bahylonian gods were once ships
points to a period when the first who made use of them
were dwellers by the sea-shore. W e are referred back
to the ancient Chaldaenn city of Eridu, on the shores of
the Persian Gulf, from whence, as we shall see hereafter,
the religion and religious ceremonies of prc-Semitic
Babylonia had once spread. The gods of Eridu merc
water-gods, and, like the deities of Egypt, had cach hls
sacred ship. These ships occupied an important place
in the Babylonian ritual; they all had special names,

1 I n Lynrrl's Monuments of Nil~eoeh,pl. 65, the images of the

gods are represented as standing upon platfocn~s(or bonts?) which are
caniea or. man's shoulders, t v o men supporting one end of cach ylav
form and two nlen tho other,
and were the visible abodes of the divinities to whom
they belonged. Let us listen, for instance, to an old
hymn that was recited when a new image of the god
was made in honour of "the ship of enthronement," the
papakh or L L ark" of Merodach :
"Its helm is of cedar ('Iwood
) . ...
Its ee~.pent-likeoar haa a handle of gold.
Its mast is pointed with turquoise.
Seven times seven lions of the field (Eden) occupy its deck.
The god Adm fills its cabin built within.
Its side is of cedar from its forest.
Its awning is the palm (2) wood of Dilvus
Carrying away (its) heart is the caunl.
Making glad its heart is the sunrise.
Its house, its ascent, is a mountain that gives rest to the heart.
The ship of Ea is Destiny.
Niu-gal, the princess (Dav-kina), is the goddess ~vhoaeword is life.
llerodach is the god who pronounces the good name.
The goddesp who benefits the house, the messenger of Ea the
ruler of the earth, even Nan-gar (the lady of work), the
bright one, the mighty workwoman of heaven, with pure
(and) blissful hand has uttered the word of life:
'hlay the ship before thee cross the canal l
May the ship behind thee sail over its mouth!
Within thee may the heart rejoicing make holiday I""
The hymn was an heirloom from Sumerian Eridu. I t
hnd come down from the days when Merodach was not
as yet the god of Babylon, but was the son of Ea, tho
water-god of Eridu. It is written in Accadian, and no
Semitic translation is attached to i t ; it is even possible
that some of the expressions used in the hymn had ceased
to be intelligible to the priests of E-Saggil who recited
At all events, the references to the ship of the deity
W. A. I. i i 25,9-32.
' I need hardly observe that the Sumerian word d p r , "side," krnur
(i;uri;r) iu the northern dialect of Accnd, hoa nolhinp to do with the
P2
68 LECTURE I.

r e r e no longer applicable in the Semitic age of BaLylon

The nzci or '<shipn of the pre-Semitic Sumerinns hat1
then become the papakhu or "ark" of the Semites ; helm
and oar and mast had alike disappeared, and it was no
longer required to sail across the sacred canals of thc
tem~les,but was carried on tlic shoulders of men.
The festivals at which such arks were borne in p n -
cession mere naturally numerous in a country mhcre
divinities innumerable mere adored. The festival of
ZAG-NU-xu, mentioned by Nebuchadnezzar as having bccn
held at Babylon at the beginning of the year, is possibly
the Sakcean feast of the clas\icnl mriters, when a slave
mas dressed in the robes of a Icing.' The service at the
temple of Bel-Uerodach which mas opened by the hymn
in honour of his ark, was accompanied by another specially
commemorating the festival itself : 2
"The day the (image of the) god hns been made, he has caused the
holy fealiva13 to be fully kept.
Semitic ignru, " a IICDP"(('mall"), though the scribes of Semitic Enby-
lonia afterxvnrlls currfounded the two n.ords together.
1 The montli, horvever, does not agree i n the case of the t v o feasts.
Athenzos (Dekn. siv.) says : " I:Cr8isos in the first book of his Uaby-
lonian History states that i n thc l l t l i n~onth,called Lhos, is celebrated
the feast of Sakea, for five days, wl~eiii t is tire custon~that the masters
shoulil obey their servants, one of whom is led round the house, cla4
i n n nlynl robe, and called Zoga~~i.." The Zognnbs was the Accn~lian
*"?an, borrov.ed as sn+anti by Semitic Babylonian (? A.I I.T . 40,
iii. 70,
ii. 51, 31), probably from sago, "head" Sakkanukka, "high-priest,"
is n dc~ivntivo.
TIT. A. I. iv. 25, 39 sp.
3 A ~ k u v ~~'commen~oration-feast."
i, Tho corresponding Accadian udu-
dwr is " a day of commenioration ;" in W. A. I. iv. 23, 1, dur alanc ie
rendered isinnu, "festival." I n I<2107, 14, i t is transinted sipat, "a11
incantation" or hymn; Iience we read i n a fragment (R 538) : "At d a r n
(~.epeat)n hymn i n the presence of Alcrodach, (the,)) four hymns to h
the holy god of Eridu." Then follurv the incnntations or hymns.
 T h e god has risen among all lands.
Lift up the (nimbus of) glory, adoru thyself with heroism, 0 hero
perfect of breast,
bid lustre surround this image, establish veneration.
The lightning Bashes; the festival appears like gold ;I
i n heaven the god has been created, on earth t h s god hae been
created !
This festival has been creatcd among the hosts of heaven ant1 earth.
This festival has issued forth frum the forest of the ceder-txes.
T h e festival is the creation of the god, the work of mankind.
Bid the festival be fully kept for ever;
according to the command of the raliant golden god.=
This festival is a sweet savour even when the m o u t l ~is unopened,
( a pleasant taste) when food is uneaten and water un(drunk)."

No better idea can be formed of the number and variety

of the Babylonian feasts than by rending a hemerology
of the intercalary month of Elul, where we find that
every day is dedicated to one or other of the gods, and
oertain rites and ceremonies prescribed for each.3 We

1 I n the Assyrian translation, 'l brilliantly."

hccadian : "Pronounce for over the festival completed, through
t h e creative messase of the valiant gulden god ;" Assyrian : " I n per-
petuity for ever cause (the festivnl) to he complete, by tile command r~f
t h e same god (who) brought (it) ahout."
8 W i t h this hemerology niay he conipared the follorving liturgical
fragment (I< 3765) :
2. On the 9 t h day there is no going forth ; t o the sun and n o o n
his offerings (nindalnrt) he nialies.
.. ..
3. On the 10th d a y . . there is na going h r t h . .
4. On the 11th day lo the sun and moon his olferings he makes;
the man (is pure) as the Sun-god.
5. On the 12th day to the son a ~ moon ~ d his offerings he makea;
an eclipse takes place; there is harm (boded to his) house.
6. On the 13th i a y to the moon his offerings he makes. To t h e
..
moon h e . . ; the man approaches the moon i n prayer.
7. On the 14th day to the sun and moon he does not prescut his
sin-offering (mukhibilti) ; ' receive my prayer' he does not say,
The moon and the sun draw near to Aau.
learn from the colophon that it was the seventh of a
series of tablets which must have furnished the Baby-
lonian with a complete LL~aints' calendar" for the whole
year. So careful was he not to lose an opportunity of
keeping holiday in honour of his deities, that oven the
intercalary months, which were rendered necessary from
time to time by the frequent disorder of the calendar,
were included in the series. Besides the festivals of the
regular Elul, there were consequently the festivals of a
second Elul whenever the priests deemed it needful to
insert one in the calendar. Hence, as the regular Elul
mas the sixth month of the year, our tablet is the seventh
of the series.
"The month of the second Elul. The first day (is dedicated) to Ann
and Ecl. A day of good luck. When during the month the moon is
seen, the shephsrd of mighty nations' (shall offer) t o the moon as a
fruo-will offering2 a gazelle without blemish . . . . he shall make his
free-will offering to tho S u n the mistress of the wo~ld,and to the Moon
tlre supreme god.= H e offers sacrifices. The lifting u p of his hand
find3 favour (mngir) with the god.
The second day (is dedicateted) t o the goddesses [the two Istnrs]. A
lucky day. The king makes Ilia free-will offering to the Sun the mis
tress of the world, and the Moon the supreme god. Sacrifices he offers.
Tne lifting up of his hand he presents to the god.

8. On the 15th day to the sun and the moon he mnkee his offer-
ings. The son and the moon behold his offerings. His sin-
offering he does not present; 'receive my prayer' he d w s
not say. On this day, during the day he approaches tho sun
i n prayer. There is no going forth. O n this day his wifc in
pregnant."
1 This title refers us to the age of Kkammuragas as the period when
tho work vas composed.
2 NkdnCu, Heb. nEdI~hClrhh. The Accadian equivalent is "tho duss

of the goddess."
8 The fact that the S u n is here a goddess shorvs that the hemerology
has no connection with Sippara. I t may hnvc originated in Ur.
 The 3rd day (is) s fastday,' (dedicated) to Memdach and Z q n n i t
A lucky day. During the night, in tho presence of Merodach and Istar,
the king makes his free-will offering. He offers sacrifices. The lifting
up of his hand finds favour with the god.
The 4th day (is) the feastdnya of Nebo (the son of Memdach). A
lucky day. Duriug the night, in the presence of Nebo and Tasmit,
the king makes his free-will offering. He offers eacrifices. The lifting
up of his hand he presents to the god.
The 5th day (is dedicated) to the Lord of the lower firmament and
the Lady of the lower firmament. A lucky day. During the night,
in the presence of Assurs and Nin-lil, the king makcs his free-will
offering. He offers saeriiices. The lifting up of his hand finds favour
with the god.
The 6th day (is dedicated) to Rimmon and Nin-lil. A lncky day.
The king (repeats) a penitential psalm and a litany. During the night,
before the east wind, the king makes his free-will offering to Rimmon.
He offera sacrifices. The lifting up of his hand he presents to the god.
The 7th day is a faatJay, (dedicated) to Jlerodach and Zarpanit. A
lucky day. A day of rest (Sabbath). The shepherd of mighty nations
must not eat flesh cooked at the fire (or) in the smoke. His clothes he
must not change. White garments he mqst not put on. He must not
offer sacrifice. The king must not drive a chariot He must not issue
royal decrees. I n a secmt place the augur must not mutter. Medicine
for the sickness of his body he must not apply.' For making n curse i t
is not fit. During the night the king makes his free-will offering before

1 NuAattu, borrowed from the Accadian nzc-had, "incomplete." The

Assyrian equivalent is yum idirtu, "day of mourning," W. A. I. ii.
32, 13. The third of the month Ah was the rrubat of Merodach, sc-
cording to Assur-bani-pal.
a Y u m AI-AB. AB-AB is stated to be equivalent to e p in S 1720,16,
for which Zimmern's signification of" cooking food" is probably correct,
since the next line of the tablet speaks of" the house of the dark flesh
of &." Sargon laid the foundations of his new city on this day (ac-
cording to his cylinder, line 59).
3 The Awyrian scribe has hem substituted " Assur" for the origind
Mul-lil of the text.
* Literally, "he must not bring medicine to his disease of body;"
see Zeit~hrift fur Kei18dn'ftfor~chung,ii. 1, pp. 2-4. Lot2 translates,
but wmngiy, "magus ssgroto manurn suam ne applicato."
72 LECTURE I.
Merodach a n J Istar. H e offers sacrifice. The lifting up of his lisnd
finds favour with tlre god.
The 8th day (is) the feast of Neho. A lucky day. During the nisht
the shepherd of mighty nations directs his hand to the sac~.ificeof a
sheep. The king makes liis vow to Nobo and Tasnlit. H e offers
sacrifice. The lifting up of liis hand he presents to the god.
The 9th day (is dedicated) to Adar and Guln. A lucky day. During
the night, i n the presence of Adar and Gola, the king makes his free.
will offering. H e offers sacrifice. The lifting up of his hand he pre-
sents to the god.
The 10th day (is dedicated) t o the Mistress of the lower firmament and
the divine Judge.' A lucky day. During the night, i n the presence of
the star of the chariot and the star of the son of Istar, the king makes
his freewill offering. H e offers sacrifice. The lifting u p of his hand
finds favour with the god.
The 11th day is the completion of the meal-offering2 to Tasinit and
Zarpanit. A lucky day. When the moon3 lifts up (its) crown of
moonlight, and (its) orb rejoices, t h e king makes his free-will offering
t o the moon H e offers sacrifice. The lifting up of his hand finds
favour with the god
The 12th day is the gift-day of Be1 and Beltis A lucky day. Tile
king makes his free-will offering to Be1 and Beltis. H e offers sncrifices.
Tho lifting u p of his hand finds favour with the god.
The 13th day (is sacred) to the Moon the supreme god. A lucky
day. The moon lifts up (it?) crown of mooiilight towards the enrth.
On this day assuredly the king makes his free-will offering to tlle Sun-
god the mistress of the world, and the Moon the supreme god. IIe
offers sacrifice. The lifting u p of his hand finds favour with the g o d
The 14th day (is sacred) to Beltis and Nergal. A lucky day. A
Sabbath. The shepherd of mighty-nations must not eat flesh cooked
on the fire (or) i n the smoke. The clothing of his body he must not
change. White garments he must not put on. He must not ofrer
sacrifice. H e must not drive a chariot. H e must not issue royal

1 The divine jurlgcs were twenty-four stars nssociated with the Zudiac,
twelve being north and twelve south, accordi~~g to Uiodbros (ii. 30).
See W.A.I. ii. 58, 17, iii. 66, 1-9, 16, 22.
&Io,niti,Hob. minkl~dh.There mas another word manitu, "a couch'
(W.A. I. ii. 23, 5;).
A h h a , as in Hebrew, one of the few instances i n which the ~rord
is used i n Assyrian.
decrees (In) a secret place the augur must not mutter. Medicine for
the sicknesg of his body he must not apply. For making a curse it ia
not fit. I n the night the king makes his free-611 offcring t o Beltis
and Nergal. H e offers sacrifice. The lifting u p of his hand finds
favour wit11 the god.
' f i e 1 5 t h day (is sacred) to the (Sun the) Lady of the Honse of
Heaven. (A day for) making the stated offering1 to Sin the supremo
god. A lucky day. The king makes his free-will offering t o Sanias
the mistress of the world, and Sin the supreme god. H e offers sncrifico.
The lifting u p of his hands finds favour with the god.
The 16th day (is) a fast-day to Merodach and Zarpanit A lucky
day. The king must not repeat a penitential psnlm. I n the night,
before Merodach and I~tar,2the king presents his free-will offering.
H e offers sacrifice. The lifting up of his hands finds favour with the
sod.
The 17th day (is) the feastday of Neho and Tasmit. A lucky day.
In the night, before Nobo and Tnsmit, the king presents his free-will
offering. H e offers sacrifice. The lifting u p of llis hands finds favour
with tho god.
The 18th day (is) the festival (idinnu) of S i n nud Samas. A lucky
day. The king presents his free-will offering t o Samas the mistress of
the rvorlcl, and Sin the supreme god. H e offers sacrifice. The lifting
up of his hands finds favour with the god.
The 19th day (is) the whiteJ day of t h e grent goddess Gula. A
lucky day. A Sabbath. The shephed of uighty nations must not eat
that what is cooked a t the fire, must not change the clothing of his
body, must not put on white garments, must not offer sacrifice. Tho
king must not drive (his) chariot, must not issue royal decrees. The
augur must not mutter (in) a secret place. Medicine must not be
npplicd to tho sickness of the body. For making a curse (the day) is

Nikudu, W. A. I. v. 11, 4, as corrected. Here the Accadian and

Sume~.ianequivalents are given of the Selnitic nindatm, " a free-";ill
offering" (nridnb), faklimu, "offering of shewbread," kistu, " a tribu-
tary offering," and nikcldu, " a stated offering" or "korhau" (Ass. kip
hannu), uindubu and taklirnu being alike translations of the Aceado-
Sumeriau "dues of the goddess."
' Istar is here identified wit11 Zarpanit.
V p p d , which like its synonym ellu (Heb. hdlal, comp. BilZdlim,
Lev. xix. 24), has the secondary meaning of "holy." Compare the
1?tin "dies candidus."
74 LECTURE L
not suitable. The king presents his free-will offering to Adar and
(iula. He offers sacrifice. The lifting up of his hands finds fnrour
with the god.
The 20th day (is) a day of light,' the gift-day of Sin and Samas.
A h~ckyday. The king presents his free-will offering to Samns tho
rnistress of the world, and Sin the supreme god He offers sacrifice.
The lifting u p of his hand finds favour with the god.
The 21st day (is the day for) making the stated offering to Sin and
Sumas. A lucky day. A Sabbath. The shepherd of mighty nations
niust not eat flesh cooked at the fire or in tho smoke, must not change
t l ~ eclothing of his body, must not put on white garments, must not
offer sacrifice. The king must not drive (his) chariot, must not issue
royal decrees. The augur must not mutter (in) a secret place. Medi-
ciuc niust not be applied to the sickness of the body. For making a
curse (the day) is not suitable. At dawn the king presents his free-
mill offering to Samas the mistress of the world, and Sin the supreme
god. He offers sacrifice. The lifting up of his hand finds favom with
the god.
The 22nd day (is the day for) malting the stated offering to (Sin and)
Snnias. (It is) the festival of the (Son the) mistress of the Palace.
A lucky day. The king presents his free-will offering to Samas the
ruistress of the world, and (Sin the supreme god). He offers sacrifice.
The lifting up of his hand finds favour with the god.
The 2 3 d day (is) the festival of Samas and Rimmon. A lucky day.
The king presents his free-will offering to Samas and Rimmon. He
offers sacrifice. The lifting up of his hand finds favour with the god.
The 24th day (is) the festival of the Lord of tho Palace and the
Histress of the Palace. A lucky day. The king presents his free-will
offering to the Lord of the Palace and tho Ilistress of the Palace. He
offers sacrifice. The lifting up of his hand finds favour with the
god.
The 25th day (is) the processional dayz of Eel and Beltis of Babylon.
A lucky day. I n the night the king presents his free-will offcring to
Eel before the star of the Foundation, and to Beltis of Babylon before
tho star of the Chariut. He offers sacrifice. The lifting up of his
hand finds favour with the god.
The 26th day (is the day) of bhe establishment of the enclosing wall

Probably the ideographic mode of representing +pd.

@ Sadlrakl~ti,literally " marelling."
 INTBODUCTOBT. 75
of Ea the supreme god A lucky day.' The king must repeat(!) a
penitential p a l m whatever(l) he may present. That day at nightfall
he makes a free-will offering to Ea the supreme god. He offers sacri-
fice. The lifting up of his hand finds favour with the god.
The 27th day (is the day) of the chasez of Nergal (and) the festival
of Zikuru. A lucky day. The king prosenta his free-will offering to
Nergnl and Zikum. He offers sacrifice. Tho lifting up of his haud
finds favour with the god.
The 28th day (is sacred) to Ila. (It is) the day of the resting of
Nergal. A lucky dny. A Sabbath. The shepherd of great nations
must not eat flesh cooked at the fire or in the smoke, must not change
Lhe clothing of his body, must not put on white garments, must not offer
sacrifice. The king must not drive a chariot. He must not issue royal
decrees. (In) n secret plnce the augur must not mutter. Medicine for
the sickness of the body must not he applied. For making a curse (the
day) is not suitable. To Ea the supreme god (the king) prcsenta (his
free-will offering). He offerssacrifice. The lifting up of his hnnd finds
favour with the god.
The 29th day (is) the day of the resting of tho Noon-god. The day
when the spirits of heaven and earth are adored. A lucky day. The
king presents his free-will offering to Sin the supreme god. He offers
sacrifice. The lifting up of his hand finds favour with the god.
The 30th day (is sacred) to Auu and Bel. A lucky day. The king
presents his free-will offering to Anu and Bel. He offers saorifice.
The lifting up of his hand finds favour with the god.
The 2nd month of Elul from the 1st to the 30th day, if t h king ~
=toms either his god or his goddess or his gods who have been expel-
led, that king has the divine colossus as his god.
I n the second Elul the king of the country givcs a name to the temple
of the god. Whether he builds a shrine (or). ... his heart is not good.

1 Nadzi amari (sue E-HUH, like i~lgar,Ass. yaru, "an enclosing

wall," W. A. I. ii. 15, 36).
2 ilJe-lul-ti "park" or " c h s e ;" see W. A. I. i. 7, B 2 ; 82. 8-16,
1, Rev. 6 , where eae?net~is the Accadinn, nud meldti sn latad the
Assyrian, equivalent of XI-E-NED:-INNANA ; S 704, 21 ('<they enclosed
the place of melulti"); K 161, Rec. iii. 7, where melvlti is in paml-
lelisnl with tarbatsi, "stall," Buburi, "cote," Bukulli, "stable," dqaari,
' , and irsi, "bed ;" S 526. 23, 25 ("the place of
"cage," i ~ i ~"lair,"
the ~i~elulti thou dost not plant, thou dost not cause tho little ones to
come out of the place of the iitehdti").
 I n the second Ell11 the king restores the sacrifice (mahhnc).
[Beginning of the next t i ~ b l ~oft tho serie~]:-The month Tisri (u
~cred)t o Satnns the 15-nrrior of mrnlkind. (These are) the c o m n ~ a ~ ~ d -
:>tentsof Bel-khomn~n(the priest) on the first day (sacre;) to Anu and
ikel.
[ C o ~ o ~ ~ o s . ] - T h 8ot h tablet (of the series beginning) 'The IIoon
~ l , >lord
e of thc month.' The posscssion of Assur-bani-pal, the king of
~xultitudes,the king of Assyria."

One of the most interesting facts that result from this

hemerology is, that the Sabbath was knomn to the Baby-
lonians and Assyrians. Its institution must have gone
Imck to the Accadian epoch, since the term used to repre-
wnt it in the text is the Accadian udu khulgal, "an
unlawful day," like the Latin 'l dies nefastus," which is
rendered by sulum, or Lcrcst-d:~y,"in Assyrian.' Semitic
Ilabylonian, however, possessed the term Sabbath as
well, and a vocabulary explains it as being "a day of
rest for the heart."2 Like the Hebrew Sabbath, it was

W. A. I. iii. 66, 53.

a W. A. I. i i 32, 16, Uum nukh libli=snbuttao. I n the new edition
of the Eficyclopadia Britan,zica, the reading yabattuu in this passage is
died a "textual emend;~tion"made by Delitzsch. This, hoivever, is
a mistake. I t is the reading of the original tablet, and the published
text was corrected by nlysclf long heforo Dclitzsch re-examined the
cll.iginal. The E,rcycIoplr,lirs B r i t n n n i e ~maizes another strange statc-
writ in describing the Hsbrerv Sabbath as a day Lcoffeasting and
good cheer." I t was, on tlio contn~ry,a day of rest (Gen. ii. 2, 3 ; Ex.
XX. lo), "the l ~ u l yday" on which the Jew was forbidden to do his
uwn pleasure-"not doing tliino o\vn \r.n?s, nor finding thine uwn
pJensuro, nor spcaking thine omn wr.uvdsn (Is. Iviii. 13)-in exact con-
fiirn~itywith the regulntio~bsof the Uabylonian Sabbath. The compiler
of the text (W. A. I. ii. 32) i n which sabattuv is explninod as " a day
nf rest of the heart," e1,idently rogarded the xvonl as derived from the
Accndian an-bat, "heart-resting," and he certainly had in support of
liis view the similar term nz~bnttu,from the Accndian nu-lmt. The
Assyrian verb sahntu is given as a synonym of garnu?%, "to complete,'
in IV.A. I. v. ?S, 14.
 INTRODUCTORY. 7'7
observed every seventh day, and was obviously connected
with the seventh-day periods of the moon.
But there were two respects in which i t differed from
the Hebrew inst,itution. Among the Israelites, "the
Sabbaths" and 'Cthe new moons" were separate from
one another; among the Babylonians, they coincided in
so fiar as the Sabbath fell on the first day of the lunar
month. Consequently, sinee the month consisted of thirty
days, the last meek contained nine days. I n the second
place, the 19th of the intercalary Elul was also a Sabbath.
Why it should have been so I cannot pretend to say.
Besides the stnted festivals and Sabbaths, extraordinary
days of thanksgiving or humiliation were ordained from
time to time. I n the closing years of the Assyrian
empire, when her foes were gathering around her, the
last king, Esarhaddon II., prayed to the Sun-god that
he would remove the sin" of his people, and ordered
the khal, or "prophet," to prescribe the legal solemnities
(nzesari iiinni) for a hundred days and a hundred nights,"
from the 3rd of Iyyar to the 15th of Ab.1 So, too,
Assur-bani-pal tells us, that after suppressing the revolt
in Babylonia and removing the corpses that had choked
the streets of the Babylor~iancities, by the command
of the augurs (iS+puti)" he "purified their shrines and
cleansed their chief places of prayer. Their angry gods
and wrathful goddesses he soothed with supplications
and penitential psalms. He restored and established ill
pcace their daily sacrifices, which they had discontinued,
as they had been in former days."2
The sacrifices and offerings of the Babylonians and

1 K4668, 2, 3. TK A. I. v. 4, 86 q.
78 LECTURE I.

Assyrians closely resembled those of the Israelites. Like

the latter, they mere divided into sacrifices of animals,
suoh as oxen, sheep or gazelles, and oflerings of meal
and wine. Wine was poured over the victim or the altar.
When the effeminate Assur-bani-pal had slaughtered a
battue of caged lions, he "set up over them the mighty
bow of Istar, the lady of war, presented offerings over
them, and made a sacrifice of wine over them."' An
old magical text prays that "the sick man may be
purified by sacrifices of mercy and peace," or "peace
offerings," as the translators of our Bible would hnve
expressed it.2 But although the Assyrian kings are
fond of boasting of their exploits in massacreing or tor-
turing their defeated enemies in honour of Assur, we
find no allusions in the inscriptions of the historical
period to human sacrifice. That human sacrifices, how-
ever, were known as far back as the Accadian era, is
shown by a bilingual text (K5139) which enjoins the
nbgal, or "chief prophet," to declare that the father must
give the life of his child for the sin of his own soul, the
child's head for his head, the child's neck for his neck,
the child's breast for his breast. The text not only
proves that the idea of vicarious punishment was already
conceived of; it also proves that the sacrifice of children
was a Babylonian institution. I n the great work on
astronomy called "The Observations of Be1,"3 we are
told that " on the high-places the son is burnt."' Tho
offering was consequently by fire, as in Phcenicia.
-
1W. A. I. i. 7. IV. A.I. ii. 18. 53, 54.
8 W. A. I. iii. 60, 162.
6 Am?, connected with nrtrrti, the lightning," an epithet of Rim.
mon. Delitzsch renders it "earthquake," in curious disregard of ths
 The sacrifiw were accompanied, sometimes by hymns
or incantations, sometimes by prayers. The prayers
were all prescribed, and a large number of them h a ~ e
been preserved. Here are some examples of them :
"At dawn and in the night (the worshipper) shall bow down (ikunl-
wid) before the Throne-bearer and shall speak as follows : '0Thmne-
benrer, giver of prosperity, a prayer !' After that he shall bow dolvu
to Nusku and shall speak thus : '0 Nusku, prince and king of thr
secrets of the great gods, a prayer !' After that he shall how down to
Adar and shall speak thus : ' 0 Adar, mighty lord of the deep plnces
of the wells, a prayerl' After that he shall how down to Gula and
shall speak thus : '0Gula, mother, begetter of the black-headed race,
a prayer!' After that he shall how down to Nin-lil and shall speak
thus : ' 0 Nin-lil, mighty goddess, wife of the divine Prince of Sove-
reignty, a prayer !' After that he shall bow down to Mul-lil and shnll
speak thus : '0lord exalted, establisher of law,' a prayer !' For three
days at dawn and at night, with face and mouth uplifted, during the
middle watch, the diviner (osip) shnll pour out libations."
The best idea, however, of what a Babylonian religious
service was like, may be gathered from the instructions
given to the priest who watched in the temple of Bel-
Merodach at Babylon on the night of the first day of the
new year.3 Part of his duty was to repeat a hymn, the
first fourteen lines of which were alternately in Accadiau
and Semitic. Curiously enough, however, there was nc
character both of Rimmon and of the plain of Babylonia. The won1
corresponds with the Heb. kharur. M. Mknant has pointed out several
instances in which a human sacrifice is represented on early Babylonian
cylinders (Ccitalogue de lu Collection de Clercq, i. pp. 18, 112 sq.
I n pl. xix. No. 181, is a ruder copy of a scene of human nacrifice
depicted on an early Babylonian cylinder procured by Dr. Max Ohne-
falsch-Richter in Cyprus).
\V. A. I. i ~ 61,
. 1 9 q.
Literally, "secret wisdom" (82. &16, 1, Oh. 23), with which
Delitzsch compares the Heb. f11oriih
W. A. L iv. 46, 47. The published text is very incorrect.
connection between tbe Accadian and the Semitic verses;
mliile the Semitic lines mcre addressed to Bel-Merodach
of Babylon and Borsipp, the Accadian portion had to
do with "a god of the sanctuary," whose only resemblance
to Be1 was that he is entitled "the lord of the world."
7>11eAccadian verses are thus evidently a heirloom from
distant past, possibly from the pre-Semitic days of
Babylon itself, and it is more than probable that the
meaning was but little understood by the Semitic priests.
This is horn the text begins :
" I n the month Nisan, on the second day 'and the first hour (Lusbu)
of thc night, the piicsta runst go and tako the waters of the rivcr in
his hand ; he mnst enter into the prese~~ce of Gel, and, putting on a
robe i n the pl.csence of Dcl, shall address to Eel this hymn :"
' 0 Eel, who iu his strength has no rival,
0 Ikl, king of blessedness, Bel (the lord) of tho worlil,'
Seeking nftcr the favonr of tho great gods,
Eel, who i n his glnnoo has destroyed the s t r o n ~ , ~
Del (the lord) of liinga, light of mankind, establisher of trust;'
0 Cel, thy sccptre is Babylon, Oorsippn is thy crown !
The rvidc heoven is the hahitation of thy liver !
0 lord, thine is the revcl;~tion,(and) the interpr~tntionsof visions;
0 firther (l) of lords, thee they bellold tho father of lords ;

1 It must bo ren~ernbered that the B;tbylonians, like the J e w ,

reckoncd the diry fro111 evc~lingto erening.
2 The Accarlian titlo Uru-gal, the chicf watcher," is usecl. The
tit!s pcrl~apsh ~ refcreuce
d to the nightly watch 1;ept i n the sanctuary
of Dlerodacb in the tower of E-Saggil.
S I omit tho Bccadian lines of the hymn, a s 1 nm unable to translate
them fully.
4 The preceding Accadino line is : " 0 lord of the hlessnrl sanctuary.
lord of the world !"
5 T l ~ epreceding Accadian line rends: ' I What is the lord (doing)
now 1 the lard is resting!'
fi The ~ x e ~ c c l i nAcmtdian
g line has: "The god of the sanctuary of
~naul;ind,the god wlin h9l.l~tlre sarlctuary of man."
 thine is the glance, (and) the seeing of wisdom ;'
they magnify (1) thee, 0 illaster of tho strong;
they adore(?) thee, 0 king (and) mighty prince;
they look up to thee, show unto them mercy;
cadsc them to behold the light that they may tell of thy ri:hteona-
ness.
0 Be1 (lord) of the world, light of the spirits of hewen, utterer of
blessings,
who is there whose mouth mnrninrs not of thy righteousness
or speaks not of thine exaltntion and eelehrates not thy glory t
0 Bel (lord) of the world, who dwellcst in the temple of the Sun,
reject not the hands that are raised to thee;'
Show memy to thy city Bnhylon,
to E-Saggil thy temple incline thy face,
grant the prayers of thy people the sons of Babylon !'"'

1 Or "law;" zimat urtuv, for which see Ur. A. I. v. 28, 92, and
iv. 15, 48 (where urtn is the Aecadian amma, which is ten't in iv.
28, 23).
"ith this text must be compared another (unmarked at the time
I copied it), which is interesting as &erring to tlie orncle established
within the "slnine" or "holy of holies" (parak) of the temple of Bel :
"(4) Like Be1 in the shrine of the destinies the prophecy shall be
nttered (ittaspzr), this shall he said : (5) ' Eel has come forth ; the king
I!as looked for me ( y u ~ d ' n ) ;(6) our lady (&lit-ni) has come forth; the
king has looked for thee; ( 5 ) the lord of Bahylon has issued forth;
the whole (gnmli) of the world is oil his face. (8) Zurpanit tlie yrin-
cess has issued forth; his mouth has gone to meet 1:er ( l ) (illaliu sano
2n'-su). (9) Tmmit has issued forth; he has gone to meet her ( l ) .
(10) Place the herbs in the hands of the goddess of Bahylon; (11)
0 ad&nnu (eunuch-priest) [place] the flute (or-NU), 0 seetl-planter [place]
the seed; ( I ? ) purify me (ell&a), purify me, and (13) fill Babylon
wit11 pure splendour, 0 Nin-lil, !$hen thoo pardonest the world ( W l a t
taint&).' (14) 0 Be1 who (art) in the shrine, surrounded by the river
(dikhir ndtri), (this) shall he said : (15) ' 0 FrIul.lil my lord (anla) in
Nipur I saw thee ; (16) 0 my shephcnl when I saw thee in the temple
of Sin the first-born, (17) I . . . thy foot a n d . . thy hand."' Tho
first three lines, which are mutilated, run as follows : " (1) . . . king
cf the rrdd;nnzc listen; (2) . . . in the llouse of the supreme chief (ah
r n d l t ) I saw yon my lord (un~ur-kun~c ama). (3) ... ha is bright and
I saw thee."
B
 TTariousspecial dresses were worn during the perforrn-
ance of the religious ceremonies, and ablutions in pure
water were strongly insisted on. Seven, too, was a sacred
number, whose magic virtues had descended to the
Semites from their Accadian predecessors. Whcn the
Chaldrean Noah escaped from the Deluge, his first act
was to build an altar and to set vessels, each containing
the third of an ephah, by sevens, over a bed of reeds,
pine-wood and thorns. Seven by seven had the magic
ltnots to be tied by the witch,' seven times had the body
of the sick man to be anointed with the purifying oil.2
As the Sabbath of rest fell on each seventh day of the
meek, so the planets, like the demon messengers of Anu,
mere seven in number, and "the god of the number
seven" received peculiar honour.
Along with this superstitious reverence for the sacred
number, went a distinction of the animal world into clean
and unclean, or rather into food that it mas lawful and
--
I W.A.I.iv.3.5,6.
a W. A. I. iv. 26, 49. The deluge was said t~ have lasted seven days;
tliree groups of stars-the tilqji or "eircles"(1), the masi or "double
stare," and the 7u-masi or "sheep of the hero," were each seven i n
number ; the gates which led to Hades were also seven ; Eredl is called
the city of "the seven zones" or "stones" (W. A. I. ii. 50, 55-57);
and, as Lotz reminds us, seven fish-like men ascended out of the Persian
Gulf, according to G&rBssus,i n order t o teach the anredilnvian Baby-
lonians the arts of life. Similarly we read the following prayer i n
>I 1246, 5-12. "Incantation.-0 strong (goddess), the violent (sum-
vatu), the furiona of breast ( ~ l u d r ~ l irta),
t u the powerful, thou beholdeat
(prrqata) the hostility of the onemy; who that is not Ea h a quieted
(thee) (su la E a ?nunnu yunakh) l who that is not hlerodach has paci-
fied (thee) l May Ea quiet (thee), may hlerodaeh pacify thee ! (Con-
elusion of) the spell. Incantation.-Make this prayer seven times over
; stretch (it) around his name (enw sunwu), and
the thread (~~rip,ziti)
live (DIL-ES)." I n 0 535. 10, 14, DIL-ES is interpreted lulludh.
unlawful to eat. The distinction may have gone back
to an age of totemism; at all events, it prevailed as
cxtensivcly among the Babylonians and Assyrians as it
did among the adherents of the Mosaic Law. I n one of
the penitential Psalms, the author expresses his contrition
for having "eaten the forbidden thing;" and if Jensen
is right in seeing the mild boar in the sakhu of the texts,
its flesh was not allowed to be eaten on the 30th of the
month Ab, nor, like that of the ox, on the 27th of
Marches\~an.' The very mention of the khumzir, or
domestic pig, is avoided in the Semitic Babylonian and
Assyrian inscriptions, and reptiles mere accounted as
unclean as they were among the Jews.2 It is true that
there are indications that human flesh bad once been
consumed in honour of the spirits of the earth, as Prof.
Maspero has latcly shown must also have been the case
in pre-historic Egypt, and a bilingual hymn still speaks
of lLeatiugthe front breast of a man;"S but such bar-

' "Dns Wildschrvein in den nssyrisch-habylonischen Insohriften,"

Zeitschrift fir Asayrioloyie, i. 3, pp. 306 sq. I may ndd here that
circumcision \vas known to the Babylonians as it was to the Jeiss. I n
a magical text (W. i.I. ii. 17, 63) i t was termed arlu, the Xeh. drdl,
which is used in Hebrew nnd Arabic in a precisely opposite sense; but
the ideographic equivalents of the Babylonian word ("the shaping of
the phallus") shorv what its signification in Assyrian must be.
a K (unnumbered), 20.
K4609. So in S 477. ii. 5, "the flcsh of a mnn" is mentioned
dong with "the flesh of the gazelle," "the flesh of the dog," "the
flesh of the wild boar," 'L the flesh of the ass," "the flesh of the horse,"
and "the flesh of the wild ass," nnd " the flesh of the dragon" (biabis),
all of which it was unlawful to eat. I n S 1520, 17, mention is ~nade
of "the house of the dark (DIR)flesh of Ea," where the idea may he
similar to that of the Egyptian texts in rvhicb the lia or "double" of
the dead is described as feasting on the gods. Cp. also an unnumbered
tablet containing n hymn to thegod Tutu : sngnta inn snmami inu nta.
Q 2
barous practices werc but dimly-remembered reminis-
cences of a barbarous past, and were never shared in by
the Semites. I t is equally true that medicine laid con-
tributions on the most unclean articles of food, including
snakes, the tongues of "black dogs" and even ordure;
but those who swallowed the compounds prescribed by
the medical faculty wcre those who had already lost
their faith in the old beliefs of the people, and had
substituted tho rec+e of the doctor for the spells of the
exorcist and the ritual of the priest. The practice of
medicine has often been accused of antagonism to reli-
gion; whatever may be the case in thesc modern days,
the theology of ancient llsbylonia harmonised but badly
with the prescriptions of its medical school.'

tat; nisi tahaqri surhda-ma [ina] i7'tsith~sim saan-DIES-szmu[talbami

siru dal,.l!dIiti tabnwi atta, "Thou art cxalteil in hearon ; in the morlcl
thou feedest on mankind; thou nrt p r i ~ ~ c c inl y the earth, the flesh of
tlleir hearts thou eatest, the flesh i n abundance thou eatest."
See my articlcs on " A n Ancient Babylonian Work on Medicine"
in the Zeilsckrijt.fiir h;oilscl~rlft/orschuizg,ii 1, 3.
 bmRE IT.
BEL-MEdODACH O F BABYLON.

INan inscription upon a clay cylinder brought froni

Babylonia seven years ago, Cyrus is made to declare that
the overthrow of Nabonidos, the last independent Baby-
lonian monarch, mas due to the anger of Be1 and the
other gods. Nabonidos had removed their images from
their ancient sanctuaries, and had collected them together
in the midst of Babylon. The priests maintained that
the deed had aroused the indignation of Merodach, "the
lord of the gods," who had accordingly rejected Naboni-
dos, even as Saul was rejected from being king of Israel,
and had sought for a ruler after his own heart. I t was
" in wrathn that the deities had '' left their shrines when

Nabonidos brought them into Babylon," and had prayed

Merodach, the divine patron of the imperial city, to "go
round unto all men wherever might be their seats."
Merodach sympathised with their wrongs; "he visited
the men of Sumer and Accad whom he had sworn shoulil
he his attendants," and "all lands beheld his friend."
He chose Cyrus, king of Elam, and destined him by
name for the sovereignty of Chaldrea. Cyrus, whom
the Hebrem prophet had already hailed as the Lord's
Anointed, was thus equally the favourite of the supreme
Babylonian god. "Merodach, the great lord, the restorer
86 LECTURE II.

of his we are told, "beheld with joy the decds

of his vicegerent who mas righteous in hand and heart.
To his city of Babylon hc summoned his march, and he
bade him takc the road t o Babylon; like a friend and rs
comrade he went at his side.', A single battle decided
the conflict: the Babylonians opened their gates, and
LLwithoutfighting or battle," Cyrus mas led in triumph
into the city of Babylon. His first care was to show his
gratitude towards the deities who had so signally aided
him. Their temples were rebuilt, and they themselves
wcre restored to their ancient scats.
With all the allowance that must be made for the
flattery cxacted by a successful conqueror, we must con-
fcss that this is a very remarkable document. I t is
written in the Babylonian language and in the Baby-
lonian form of the cuneiform syllabary, and we may
therefore infer that it was compiled by Babylonian scribes
and intended for the perusal of Babylonian readers. Yet
wc find the foreign conqueror described as the favourite
of the national god, while the last native king is hcld up
to reprobation as the dishononrer of the gods. I t is im-
possible not to compare the similar treatment experienced
by Nebuchadnezzar and the native Jewish kings respec-
tively at the hands of Jeremiah. The Jewish prophet
saw in the C h a l d ~ a ninvader the instrument of the God
of Judah, just its the Babylonian scribes saw in Cyrus
the instrument of the god of Babylon ; and the fall of the
house of David is attributed, just as much as the fall of
Nabonidos, to divine anger.
It is true that the reasons assigned for the divine
anger are not the same in the two cases. But the cause
of the indignation felt by the gods of Chaldzza against
 BEL-ACERODACH OF BABYLON. 87
Nabonidos offers a curious illustration of the words ad-
dressed by the Rab-shakeh of Seunachcrib to the people
of Jerusalem. "If ye say unto me," he declared, "we
trust in the Lord our God; is not that he whose high-
places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away, and
hath said to Judah and Jerusalem, ye shall worship
before this altar in Jerusalem ?" The destruction of the
local cults, the attempt to unify and centralise religious
worship, was to the Rab-shakeh, as it was to the Baby-
lonian scribes, and doubtless also to many of thc Jews in
the time of Hezekiah, an act of.the grossest impiety.
An annalistic tablet, drawn up not long after the con-
quest of Babylonia by Cyrus, hints that before making
his final attack on the country, the Elamite prince had
been secretly aided by a party of malcontents in Chaldsea
itself. I t is at all events significant that as soon as the
army of Nabonidos was defeated, the whole population a t
once submitted, and that even the capital, with its almost
impregnable fortifications, t,hrcw open its gates. The
revolts which took place afterwards in the reigns of
Dareios and Xerxes, and the extremities endured by
the Babylonians before they would surrender their city,
prove that their surrender was not the result of cowardice
or indifference to foreign iule. The great mass of the
people must have been discontented with Nabonidos
and anxious for his overthrow.
The anger of Merodacli and the gods, in fact, was but
a oon-ienient way of describing the discontent and anger
of an important section of the Babylonians themselves.
Nabonidos did not belong to the royal house of Ncbu-
chadnczzar; he seems to have raised himself to the
throne by means of a revolution, and his attempt at
88 LECTURE 14

centralisation excitcd strong local animosities against

him. Religion and civil govcrnnlcnt wore so closely
bound up together, that civil centralisation meant reli-
gious centralisation also; thc surest sign that the citice
of Babylonia had been absorbed in the capital was that
the images of the gods whose names had been associated
with them from time immemorial were carried away to
Babylon. The cities lost their separate existence along
with the deitics who matched over their individuak
fortunes.
The removal of the gods, horrevcr, implied something
more than the removal of a number of images and the
visible loss of local self-government or autonomy. Each
image mas tho centre of a particular cult, carricd on in
a particular temple in a particular way, and entrusted
to the charge of a special body of priests. It was no
wondcr, therefore, that the high-handed proceedings of
Nabonidos aroused the enmity of these numcrous local,
priesthoods, as well as of all those who profited in any
way from the maintenance of the local cults. Most of the
cities which were thus deprived of their ancestral deities
were as old as Babylon; many of them claimed to bo
older; while it was notorious that Babylon did not become
a capital until compariltively late in Babylonian history.
The Sun-god of Sippara, the Moon-god of Ur, mere alilze
oldcr than Mcrodach of Babylon. Indeed, thongh in
the age of Nabonidos the title of Be1 or LLlord"had
come to be applied to Merodach specially, it was k n o m
that there was a niore anciont Bel-Belitanas, "the
elder Bel," as the Greeks wrote the word-whose Nor-
ship had spread from the city of Nipur, and who formed
one of the supreme triad of Babylonian goda
 EEL-UEBODACH OF BABYLON. 89
Up to the last, Babylonian religion remained local.
I t was this local character that gives us the key t o
its origin and history, and explains much that would
otherwise seem inconsistent and obscure. The endeavour
of Nabonidos to undermine its local character and to
create a universal religion for a centralised Babylonia,
was deeply resented by both priests and people, and
nshercd in the fall of the Babylonian empire. Thc funda-
ment.al religious idea which had underlain tho empire
had been the supremacy of Merodach, the god of Babylon,
over all other gods, not the absorption of the deities of
the subject nations into a common cult. The policy of
Nabonidos, therefore, which aimed at making Nerodach,
not prirnus inter pares, but absolute lord of captive or
vassal deities, shocked the prejudices of the Babylonian
people, and eventually proved fatal to its author. I n
Cyrus, accordingly, the politic restorer of the captive popu-
lations and their gods to their old homes, the priests and
worshippers of the local divinities saw the pious adherent
of the ancient forms of faith, and the real favourite of
Merodach himself. Merodach had not consented to the
revolutionary policy of Nabonidos; he had, on the con-
trary, sympathised with the wrongs of his brother gods
in Babylonia and throughout the world, and had thus
deserted his own city and the renegade monarch who
ruled over it.
I n all this there is a sharp contrast to the main reli-
gious conception which subsequently held sway over the
Persian empire, as well as to that which was proclaimed
by the prophets of Judah, and in the reforms of Hezekiah
and Josiah was carried out practically by the Jewish
kings. The Ahura-mazda whom Daroios invokes on the
90 LECTURE 11.

rock of Behistun is not only the lord of the gods, he is a

lord who will not brook another god by his side. The
supreme god of the Pcrsian monarch is as absolute as
the Persian monarch himself. I n the Persian empire
which was organised by Dareios, centralisation becamo
for the first time a recognised and undisputed fact, and
political centralisation went hand-in-hand with religious
ccntralisation as well. I n Judal~,a theocracy was csta-
blished on the ruins of the old beliefs which had con-
nected certain localitics with certain forms of divinity,
and which found such naive expression in the words of
David to Saul (1Sam. xxvi. 19): 'L They have driven me
out this day from abiding in the inheritance of the Lord,
saying, Go, serve othcr gods." The destruction of the
high-places and the concentration of the worship of
Yahveh in Jerusalem, was followed by the ever-increasing
conviction that Yahveh was not only a jealous God who
would allow none other gods besides Himself; IIe was
also a God who claimed dominion over the whole world.
Now it mas precisely this conception which the Baby-
lonians, at least as a people, never attained. Nebuchad-
nezzar may invoke lferodach as 'L the lord of the gods,"
"the god of heaven and earth," "the eternal, tho holy,
the 19rd of all things," but he almost always couples
him with other deities-Nebo, Sin or Gula-of whom
he speaks in equally reverential terms. Even Nabonidos
uses language of Sin, the Moon-god, which is wholly
incompatible with a belief in the exclusive supremacy of
Merodach. H e calls him "the lord of the gods of heaven
and earth, the king of the gods and the god of gods,
who dwell in heaven and are mighty." Nerodach was,
in fact, simply the local god of Babylon. Events had
 BEL-MEBODACE OF BABYLON. 91
raised Babylon first to the dignity of the capital of
Babylonia, and then of that of a great empire, and ite
presiding deity had shared its fortunes. It was he who
had sent forth its peopla on their career of conquest; it
was to glorify his name that he had given them victory.
The introduction of other deities on an equal footing
with himself into his own peculiar seat, his own special
city, was of itself a profanation, and quite sufficient to
draw upon Nabonidos his vindictive anger. The Noon-
god might be worshipped at Ur ; it was out of place to
offer him at Babylon the .peculiar honours which were
reserved for Nerodach alone.
Here, then, is one of the results of that localisation of
religious worship which was characteristic of Babylonia.
Nabonidos not only offended the priests and insulted the
gods of other cities by bringing their images into Babylon,
he also in one sense impaired the monopoly which the
local deity of Babylon enjoyed He thus stirred up
angry feelings on both sides. Had he himself been free
from the common belief of tho Babylonian in the local
character of his gods, he might have effected a revolution
similar to that of Hezekiah; he had, however, the super-
stition which frequeutlyaccompaniesantiquarian instincts,
and his endeavour to make Babylon the common gather-
ing-place of the Babylonian divinities was dictated as
much by the desire to make all of them his friends as by
political design.'

1 It must be remembered that the attempt of h'abonidos wns essen-

tially different frorzl the mere gathering of the gods of Bnbylonia into
the great temple of Merodsch, which Nehuchndnezzar had made a kind
of Cbaldaean Pantheon Here they assumed a merely subordinate place
they weIe th3 attendants and servitors of the god of Babylon, and thek
 Now who was this Merodach, this patron-god of
Babylon, whose name I hare had so often to pronounce ?
Let us see, first of all, what we can learn about him
from the latest of our documents, the insoriptions of -

Nebuchadnezzar and his successors. I n these, Merodach

appears as the divine protector of Babylon and its inha-
bitants. He has the standing title of Bilu or "lurd,"
which the Greeks turned into B i j h o ~ ,and which is the
same as the Baal of the Old Testament. The title is
frequently used as a name, and is, in fact, the only namo
under which Merodach was known to the Greeks and
Romans. I n the Old Testament also it is as Be1 that ha
comes before us. When the prophet declares that Be1
boweth down" and is l L gone into captivity," he is refer-
ring to Merodach and the overthrow of Merodach's city.
To the Babylonian, Merodach was pre-eminently the
Baal" or lord," like the Bmlim or "lords l' worshipped
under special names and with special rites in the several
cities of Canaan.
The temple or 'l tomb1' of BClos, as it was also called
by the Greeks, was one of the wonders of the world.
H&rodotos, quoting probably from an earlier author,
describes it in the following terms :
<'The temple of Zeus R&los,with bronze gates which remained up to
my time, was a square building two furlongs every way. I n the middle

sllrines and chapels wrre ranged hr~mhlyround his lofty tower. As

Nebuchndnezznr himself says, they here "listened to l ~ i i ni n reverence
and stood bowing down before him." Nabonidos, on the other hand,
endeavoured to transplant the local cults of the deities, along with their
time-honoured inlages, to the cnpiral city, to place them there on a
footing of equality with hlerodacli, and so to defraud him of his privi-
leges ; while at the same time he removed the other deities from tlm
localities where alone they could be properly adored.
 BEL-XERODICH OF BABYLON. 93
of the temple was a tower of solid mnsonry, a furlong in length and
breadth, and upon this tower another tower had been erected, and npon
that again another, and so on for eight torven. And the ascent to them
was by an incline which sound round all the towen on the outside
About the middle of the incline are a resting-place and seats, where
thwe who ascend may sit and rest. I n the topmoat tower is a large
shrine, within which is a largo and well-appointed couch, with a golden
table at its sida But no image is set up there, nor does any one pass
the night there except a single woman, a native of the country, whom
the god selects for himself from among all the inhabitants, aa is awrted
by the Chnldaeans, the priests of the god They further say, though I
cannot believe it, that the god himself visits the shrine and takes his
rent upon the couch. . . . There is another shrine below belonging to
this Babylonian temple, and containing a great statue of Zeus [Belos]
of gold in a sitting posture, and a great golden table is set beaide it.
The pzdestal and chair of the statue are of gold, and, as the Chaldreans
used to say, the gold wns as mnch as 800 talents in weight. Outside
the shrine is a golden altar. There is also another great altar npnn
which full-grown sheep ate sacrificed, for npon the golden altar only
sucklings are allowed to lx offered. Upon the larger altar also the
Chaldzans burn each year a thousand talents of frankincense at the
time when they keep the festival of the god. I n this part of the
temple there was still at that time a figure of a man twelve cubits
high, of solid gold."
It is clear from this description that the great temple
of Babylon resembled a large square enclosure formed
by huge walls of brick, within which rose a tower in
eight stages. Below the tower was a shrine or temple,
and outside it two altars, the smaller one of gold for
special offerings, while the larger one was intended for
the sacrifice of sheep as well as for the burning of
inccnsc.'
We learn a good deal about this temple from the
inscriptions of Nebuchadnezzar, which show that although

1 Similarly in Solomon's temple there wero two altars, one for larger
and the other for smaller offerings (1 Kings viii. 64).
94 LECTURE 11.

H&rodotoswas correct in his general description of the

building, he has made mistakes in the matter of details.
The templc itself stood on the east side of Babylon, and
had existed since the age of Khammuragas (B.C. 2250),
and thc first dynasty which had made Babylon its capital.
It bore the title of E-Sngila or E-Saggil, an Accadian
name signifying ' L the house of the raising of the head."]
Its entrance also bore the Accadian title of Ka-khilibu,
which Nebuchadnezzar renders "the gate of glory." Ho
says of it: " Ka-khilibu, the gate of glory, as well as
the gate of E-Zida within E-Sagila, I made as brilliant
as the sun. The holy seats, the place of the gods who
determine destiny, which is the place of the assembly
(of the gods), the holy of holies of the gods of destiny,
mherein on the great festival (Zagmuku) at the begin-
ning of the year, on the eighth and the eleventh days
(of tho month), the divine king (Merodach), the god of
heaven and earth, the lord of heaven, descends, while
the gods in heaven and earth, listening to him with reve-

1 Nan2 sa red (W.A. I. ii. 26, 59) ; also saqd sa rid,"top of the
head" (Mr.A. I. ii. 30, 3), and r i s d i ~elatum, ' L ~ the
f lofty head" (ii.
30, 14). I n W. A. I. ii. 15, 45, snggil is rendered hy the Assy~ian
zaLa1, the Heb. &Xl, which is used of Solomon's temple in 1 Kings
viii. 13, where, as Gnyard has shown, the translatiun should be "houso
of exaltation." I n W. A. I. ii. 7, 26, it is rendered by the Assyrian
din&nu; and in ii. 7, 52, and 28, 42, gar sagg'Zla is rendered hy dak-

~~'~~- ~, . .
which probably means "a stronghold," is the equivalent of garsagqil;
and in S.949, Rev. 4, we read: "My shrine (puklzu) which Ea 113s
made . . . . my stronghold ( l ) (dinant?) which Alerodach has created."
I n the list of Babylonian kings in mliich the nloaning of their names
is explained, Es-Guzi appears as the earlier Sun~criontitle of E-Saggil.
Glwi, like saggil, ie interpreted sap8 sa risi and fiasli sn resi (IT. A. L
ii. 30, 4 ; 26, 58).
rential awe and standing humbly before him, determine
therein a destiny of long-ending days, even the destiny
of my life; this holy of holies, this sanctuary of the
lringdom, this sanctuary of the lordship of the first-born
of the gods, the prince, Merodach, which a former king
had adorned with silver, I overlaid with glittering gold
and rich ornament."' Just within the gate was the
"seat" or shrine of the goddess Zarpanit, the wife of
Merodach, perhaps to be identified with that Succoth-
benoth whose image, we are told in the Old Testament,
was made by the men of B a b y l ~ n . ~
E-Zida, "the firmly-establishedtemple," was the chapel
dedicated to Kebo, and derived its name from the great
temple built in honour of that deity at Borsippa. A.s
Nebo was the son of Merodach, it was only fitting that
his shrine should stand within the precincts of his father's
temple, by the side of the shrine sacred to his mother
Zarpanit. I t was within the shrine of Nebo, the god of
prophecy, that theparakku, or holy of holies, ww situated,
where Merodach descended at the time of the great fes-
tival at the beginning of the year, and the divine oracles
were announced to the attendant priests. The special
papakhm or sanctuary of Merodach himself was separate
from that of his son. I t went by the name of E-Kua,
"the house of the oracle,"3 and probably contained the
See Flemming, Die flusse Stei~plutteninscl,rift/tNebukadnaars ii.
(Gottingen, 1883).
For a descriptionof the great temple of Babylon, see George Smith's
nccount of the inscription concerning it quoted in the Appendix.
3 Bit-assaputi, for which the Semitic translator in W. A. I. iii 15, 4,
erroneously gives zcssabi, through a confusion of kun, "oracle," with
h e , "to sit." In ii. 15, 5, asaaputu, or "oracle," is given as a render-
ing of the Accadian namga or nagga ( A N ) Kurr, &'theoracle of the gmi
96 LECTURE 11.

golden statue of Be1 mentioned by Hsrodotos. Nebu.

chadnezzar tells us that he enrichcd its walls with '' glit-
tering gold." Beyond it rose the stately ekjgzlrat, of
tower of eight stages, called E-Temen-gurum, "the
house of the foundation-stone of hcaven and earth." As
was the case with the other towers of Babylonia and
Assyria, its topmost chambcr was used as an observatory.
No temple was complete without such a tower ; it mas to
the Babylonian what the high-placcs were to the inha-
bitants of a mountainous country like Canaan. I t takcs
us back to an age when the gods were believed to dwell
i n the visible sky, and when therefore man did his best
to rear his altars as near to them as possible. '<Let us
build us a city and a tomer," said the settlers in Babel,
'L whose top may reach unto hcaven."
The Babylonian Bel, accordingly, was Merodach, who
watched over the fortunes of Babylon and the great
temple there which had been erected in his honour. He
was not the national god of Babylonia, except in so far
as the city of Babylon claimed to represent the whole of
Babylonia; he was simply the god of the single city of
Babylon and its inhabitants. He was but one Baal out
of many Baalim, supreme only when his worshippers
were themselves supreme. I t was only when a Nebu-
chadnezzar or a Khammuragas was undisputed master of
Babylonia that the god they adored became "the prince
of the gods." But the other gods maintained their
Xua." I n ii. 62, 41, md Kua is explained to he "the ship of alero-
dnch." Kua is represented ideographically by the character m a ,which
was pronounced kua hen signifying " t o proclaim" (nabr,) or "an-
nounce a n oracle." hferodach was entitled Iina as "god of the oracle"
whose "prophet" and interpreter was Nebo. For as.ipu and asi/&
"the diviner" or "oracle-giver," see above, p. 51,
 BEL-XEBODACH OF BABYLON. 95
separate positions by his side, and in their onm cities
would have jealously resented any interfercrlce with
their ancient supremacy. As we have seen, Nabonidos
brought upon himself the anger of heaven because he
carried away the gods of Narad and Kis and other towns
to smell the train of Merodach in his temple at Babylon.
W e can now therefore appreciate at its true value the
language of Nebuchadnezzar when he spcaks thus of his
god :
('To Merodach, my lord, I prayed ; I began to him my patition ; the
word of my lieart sought him, and I said : ' 0 prince that art frotn
everlasting, lord of all that cxists, for the king whom tliou lovest,
whom thou callest by name, as it seems good unto thee thou guidost
his name aright, thon vatchest over him in the pa:h of righteousness !
I, the prince who obeys thee, nm the work of thy hands; thou creatost
me and hast entrusted to me the sovereignty over multitn~lesof men,
nccoding to thy goodness, 0 lord, which thou hast tnadc to pass ovcr
Ihem all. Let me love thy supreme lordship, let the f a r of thy diri-
nity exist in my heart, and give what seemeth good unto thee, sinco
thou maintainest my life.' Then he, the first-horn, the glorious, the
first-born of the gods, Nemdach the prince, heard niy prayer and
acecpted my petition."'
Once more :
"To Merodach, my lord, I prayed and lificd up my band: ' 0
Merodach, (my) lord, first-horn of the gods, tho mighty prince, thou
didst create me, and hast entrusted to me the dominion over multitudes
of men ; as my own dear life do I love the height of thy court ; among
all mankind have I not seen n city of the earth fairer than thy city of
Babylon. As I have loved the fear of thy divinity and have sougllt
after thy lordship, accept the lifting up of my hands, hearken to my
petition, for I tho king am the adorner (of thy shrine), who rejoices
thy heart, appointed a royal priest, the adorner of all thy fortresses.
By thy command, 0 Merodach, the merciful one, mny the temple I
have built endure for ever, and may I he satisricd with its fulnesr-'"'
.- -
' From the East India House Inscription, CoL i 52-ii (r.
Col. ix. 45-S. 5.
H
DS m~~ 11.

Here Ncrodach, it will be observed, though d'lord of

all that exists," is nevertheless only the first-born of the
gods. Therc were gods older than he, just as there were
cities older than Babylon. He could no$ therefore be
absolute lord of the world; it was only within Babylon
itself that this was the case; elsewhere his rule was
shared mith others. Hence it was that while Ncbuchad-
nezzar as a native of Babylon was tho work of his hands,
ontside Babylon there were other creators and other lords.
This fact is accentuated in an inscription of Nabonidos,
belonging to the earlier part of his reign, in which
Jferodach is coupled with the Moon-god of Ur and placed
on an equal footing with him.
One of the epithets applied by Nebuchaduezzar to
Merodach is that of rinzinu, or "merciful." It is indeed
a standing epithet of the god. Merodach was the inter-
cessor between the gods and men, and the interpreter of
the will of Ea, the god of wisdom. I n an old bilingual
hymn he is thus addressed :I "Thou art Merodach, the
merciful lord who loves to raisc the dead to life." The
expression is a remarkable one, and indicates that the
Babylonians were already acquainted with a doctrine of
the resurrection at an early period. Merodach's attribute
of mercy is coupled with his power to raise the dead.
The same expression occurs in another of these bilingual
hymns, which I intend to discuss in a future L e c t ~ r e . ~
Thc whole hymn is addressed to Merodach, and was
doubtless used in the religious services of E-Sagila. The
beginning and end are unfortunately lost. Where the
hymn first becomes legible, me read :

1 W.A. I. iv. 19. 1. 11 B W.A. I. iv. 29, L

 BEL-MEBODACH OF BABYLON. 99
*(Thou art) the king of the land, the lord of the world I
0 firstborn of Fa, omnipotent over heaven and eartL1
0 mighty lord of mankind, king of (all) hnds,
(Thou art) the god of gods,
(The prince) of heaven and earth who hath no rival,
The companion of Anu and Be1 (Mul-lil),
The merciful one among the gods,
The merciful one who loves to raise the dead to life,
Nlerodach, king of heaven and earth,
King of Babylon, lord of ksagilir,
King of E-Zida, king of E-makh-tilla (the supreme house of life),
Heaven and earth am thine !
The circuit of heaven and earth is thine,
The incantation that gives life is thine,
Tlw breath2 that gives life is thine,
The holy writings of the mouth of the deep is thine:
Mankind, even the black-headed race (of Accad),'
All living souls that h v e received a name, that exist in the world,
The four quarters of the earth wheresoever they are,
All the angel-hosts of heaven and earth
(Regard) thee and (lend to thee) an ear."
I t is impossible t o read this hymn without being struck
by the general similarity of tone that exists between it

1 Accadian, "filling heaven aiid earth."

Zvat, Heb. Kltavudh, or "Eve."
8 Mdanr, perhaps the <' Musams Omn&s"of BCBssos. Fa, the god
of the deep and of the city of Eridu, was the Onnn&sof B&r6ssos,and
not only the god of wisdom and author of Babylonian culture, but him-
self a writer of booka (see W. A. I. iv. 55,7), which proceeded as it wero
out of his mouth.
The precise meaning of this expression, which is frequent in the
hymns, is uncertain. I t may refer to the custom of wearing long black
hair, though in this cnse we should have expected the phrase to be
" black-haired" rnther than "black-headed." As, however, X. Dieu-
lafay's excavations on the site of Susa have brought to light enamelled
bricks of the Elamite period on which a black race of mankind is
portrayed, it may mean that the primitive Sumerian population of
Chaldm wm really black-skinned.
EI2
and another hymn which is addressed to the Sun-god.
Let us hear what the latter has to say to us:'
" 0 lord, the illuminator of darkness, thou that openest the face
of tho sick !
3lerciful god, planter of the lowly, supporter of tlie wcnk,
Unto thy light loolc t l ~ cgrcat gods,
The spirits of the earth all behold thy face.
The language of hosts as one word thou directest,
Smiting their heads they behold the light of the midday sun.
Like a wife thou behareat thyself, cheet.ful s n d rejoicing,
Yea, thou art their light in the vault of the far-off sky.
I n tho bronc1 earth thou art their illumination.
Jlen far and wide behold thee and rejoice.

...
The mighty gods have smelled a sweet snvour,
The holy food of heaven, the wine (of the sacrifice).
Whosoever has not turned his hand to wickedness . . . .
They shall eat the food (he offers, shall receive the sacrifice he
makes 2)"

Lilte Merodach, tho Sun-god also is "the merciful god."

Like Merodach, too, it is to him that gods and men alilic
turn their gaze. Even thc power of Merodach of raising
the dead to life is ascribed to him. A hymn to Samas
the Sun-god begins with the following words :
" 0 Sun-god, king of heaven and earth, director of things above
and below,
0 Sun-god, tliou thnt clothest the drdd with lifc, delivered by thy
hands,
Judge unhrihd, director of mankind,
Supren~eis the mercy of him who is the lord over difficulty,
Cidding the child and offspring come forth, light of the world,
Creator of all thy nniverse, tho Sun-god art t l ~ o u . " ~

Nay we not conclude, then, that originally Merodach

also was a solar deity, the particular Sun-god, in fact,
whose worship was carried on at Babylon?

1 W A. I. iv. 19, 2. S 947. Oh.3-8.

 DEL-MERODACE OF BABYLON. 101
The conclusion is verified by the express testimony of
thc ritual belonging to Merodach's temple E-Sagila. Here
we read that
" I n the month Nison, on the second day, two hours atZer nightfall,
the priest must come and take of the Jvaters of the river, must onter
into the presence of Bel; and putting on a stole in the presence of
Ikl, must say this prajer : '0Bel, who in his strength has no equal I
0 Ucl, blessed sovereign, lord of the world, soeking after the favour of
the great gods, the lord who i n his glance has destroyetl Lhe strong, lord
of Icings, light of mankind, establisher of faith ! 0 Uel, thy sceptre is
I:abylon, thy crown is Borsippa, the wide heavcn is the dwelling-place
of thy liver. . . . 0 lord of the irorld, light of the spirits of heaven,
~ittercrof blessings, ~ v h ois there nhose mouth mllrmnrs not of thy
righteousness, or speaks not of thy glory, aud celnbrntes not thy domi-
nion? 0 lord of the world, who il\vellest in tho tcmple of the Sun,
reject not the h m d s that are raised to thee; be merciful to thy city
I:abylon, to E-Sagila thy temple incline thy face; grant the prayers of
thy people the so~lsof Babylon.'"'

Nothing can be more explicit than the statement that

E-Sagila, the temple of Merodach, was also the temple
of the Sun. We thus come to understand the at,tributes
that are ascribed to Merodach and the lauguagc that is
used of him. He is "the light of the spirits of heaven,"
even as the Son-god, in the hymn I quoted just now, is
' I tho illuminator of darkness" whose face is bcheld by

the spirits of the earth. The wide heaven is naturally

his dwelling-place, and he raises the dead to life as the
sou of spring revivifies the dead vegetation of mintcr.
Tho part that he plays in the old mythological poems,
in the poems, that is, which embody the ancient myths
aild legends of Babylonia, is nom fully explained. One
of the most famous of these was the story of the combat
between Merodach and Tiamat, the dragon of darkness
1 W. A. I. iv. 46. For a fuller account of this hymn, see above, p 80.
102 LECTURE 11.

nud chaos. Aferodach advances to the fight a r m ~ dwith

a club and bow which Anu had placed in his hand and
which subsequently became a eonstellation, as wcll as
with his own peculiar weapon which hung behind his
back. It mas shaped like a sickle, and is the ipr? or
khcreb with which Greek mythology armed the Asiatic
hero Perseus. The struggle was long and terrible.
Tiamat opened her month to swallow the god, but he
thrust a storm-wind down her throat, and the monster
was burst asunder, while her allies fled in terror before
the victorious deity. The combat is represented in stone
in one of the Assyrian bas-reliefs now in the British
Museum. There we can scc the demon as she appcared
to the Assyrians, with clams and wings, s short tail, and
horns upon the head. When we remember the close
parallelism that exists between this conflict of Merodach
with Tiamat, and the war recorded in the Apocalypse
between Michael and " tho great dragon," it is difficult
not to trace in the lineaments of Tiamat the earliest por-
traiture of the mediaeval devil.
Another myth in which Merodach again appears as
champion of the bright powers of day in their eternal
struggle against night and storm, is the myth which
describes in but thinly-veiled language the eclipse of the
moon. W e are there told how I' the seven wicked spirits,
the seven ministers of storm and tempest, who had been
created in the lower part of heaven," assailed the Moon-
god as he sat in his appointed seat. His comrades, the
Sun-god and the Evening Star whom "Bel" had enjoined
t o share with him the sovereignty of the "lower heaven"
or visible sky, fled from before the coming attack, and Sin,
the Moon-god, was left alone to face his enemies. But
 BEL-MERODACH OF BABYLON. 103
'.Be17' beheld "the eclipse" of the lord of night, and
Merodach was sent to rescue him and restore once again
the light of the moon. Arrayed in " glistening armour,"
mitli a helmet of I'light like fire" upon his head, he went
forth accordingly against the powcrs of darkuess, and the
battle ended in his favour, like that against the dragon.
The Be1 of this legend, who has settled the places of
the Sun and the Moon in the sky, is not the Babylonian
Bel, hut the older Be1 of Nipur, from whom Nerodach,
the Be1 of Babylon, had afterwards to be distinguished.
The Accadian original of the poem belongs to a very
early epoch, before the rise of Babylon, when the supreme
Bcl of the Semitic inhabitants of Babylonia was still the
god whom the Accadians called Mul-lilla, l 1 the lord of
the lower world.', This Be1 or Mul-lilla fades into the
background as the Semitic element in Babylonian religion
became stronger and the influence of Babylon greater,
though the part that he played in astronomical and cos-
mological lore, as well as his local cult at Nipur, kept
his memory alive; while the dreaded visitants of night,
the demoniac lilu and lilat or lilith, from the lower world,
preserved a faint memory of the spirits of which he had
once been the chief. One by one, however, the attributes
that had formerly attached t o the older Be1 were absorbed
by the younger Be1 of Babylon. It was almost as it was
in Greece, where the older gods were dethroned by their
own offspring; in the Babylonia of Nebuchadnezzar and
Nabonidos, it was the younger gods-Merodach, Sin and
Samas-to whom vows were the most often made and
prayer the most often ascendcd. Such was the latest
result of the local character of Babylonian worship : the
younger gods were the gods of the younger Babylonian
104 LECTURE 11.

cities, and the god of Babylon, though he might be

tcrmed "the first-born of the gods," was in one sense
the youngest of them all.
The title, however, "first-born of the gods" was of
the same nature as the other title, ' I prince of the world,"
bestowed upon him by his grateful worshippers. It
meant little else than that Babylon stood at tho head of
the world, and that its god must therefore be the first-
born, not of one primzval dcity, but of a11 the p r i m ~ v a l
deities acknowledged in Chald~a. According to the
earlier faith, he mas the first-born of Ea only. Ea was
god of the deep, both of the atmospheric deep upon
.which the world floats, and of that matery deep, the
Okeanos of Homer, which surrounds the earth liltc n
coiled serpent. All streams and rivers were subject t o
his sway, for they flowed into that Persian Gulf which
the ignorance of the primitive Chaldaan imagined t o be
the ocean-stream itself. It was from the Persian Gulf
that tradition conceived the culture and civilisation of
Babylonia to hnve come, and Ea r n s therefore lord of
wisdom as well as lord of the deep. His son Merodach
was the ministcr of his counsels, by whom the commands
of wisdom were carried into practice. Merodach was
thus the active side of his father Ea ; to use the languagc
of Gnosticism, he was the practical activity that emanates
from wisdom.
Ea, however, was not the god of Babylon, nor was
Xis name of Semitic origin. H e watched over the des-
tinies of ' l the holy city" of Eridu, now Abu-Shahrein,
which stood in early days on the very shores of the
Persian Gulf. How Merodach came to be regarded a s
his son we can only guess. Perhaps Babylon had been
a colony of Eridu; perhaps it was from Eridu that the
culture associated with the name of Ea first made its
way to Babylon. We must be content with the fact
that from time immemorial Merodach had been the first-
born of Ea, and that thcrefore between Eridu and Babylon
a very close connection must have existed in pre-historio
times.
Was Merodach himself an Accadian or a Semitic deity ?
The names of the kings belonging to the first dynasty of
Babylon are mostly Semitic ; it might therefore be sup-
posed that the deity they worshipped was Semitic also.
And so undoubtedly was the Merodach of the historical
age, tho grcnt Be1 or Baal of Babylon. But we must
remember that tho foundation of Babylon went back
into the dim night of the past far beyond the era of its
first dynasty of Semitic kings, and that its very name
was but a translation of the older Ka-dimira, "gate of
the god." The temple of Merodach, moreover, bore, up
to the last, not a Semitic, but an Accadian designation.
As we shall see, along with the older culture the
Semitic settlers in Babylonia borrowed a good deal of
the theology of the Accadian people, modifying it in
accordance with their own beliefs, and identifying its
gods and demons with their own Baalim. I t would not
be surprising, then, if wc found that Merodach also had
once been an Accadian divinity, though his attributes,
and perhaps also his name, differed very considerably
from those of the Semitic Bel. Even after the Romans
had identified their Saturn with the Kronos of the
Greeks, the essential characteristics of the two deities
remained altogether different.
In the legend of the assault of the seven evil spirits
106 LECTURE XI.

upon the Noon-a legend which, unlike the hymns to

Merodach, goes back to the pre-Semitic epoch-the god
whom the Scmitic translator has identified with Nerodach
is called in the Acradian original Abari-uru-due, "the
chief who does good to man." He receives his title
from the fact that, like the Semitic Merodach, he is the
son of Ea, from whom he conveys to manlrind the charms
and philtres and other modes of healing and help which
n belief in sorcery invented. But there is little that is
solar about him. On the contrary, he is distinguished
from the Sun-god; and if he fights against the storm-
demolls n-ilh his helmet of light, it is because he is one
of the bright powers of day who benefit manlrind. The
fire-god is his minister, but he is himself little more
than the personified agency who carries the wisdom of
Ea to gods and men. It is in this way that he is
regarded as the god of life : the spells taught him by Ea
are able, if need be, to recover the sick and raise even
the dead to life. Hence he receives the title of Abari-
nam-tila, "the chief of life.'' The title, however, was
justified only by the creed of the sorcerer, not yet by
the worship of the solar Bel, the l' merciful" lord.
Whether the name Maruduk (Merodach) were Aocadian
or Senlitic in origin, I cannot say. If it is Semitic, it
has so changed its form that its etymology is no longer
recognisable. I t may be merely a Semitic transformation
of the Accadian Uru-dug, ' l benefactor of man;" in any ,
case, its origin was already forgotten in the days when
the Babylonians first began to speculate on the derivation
of their words. When first me meet with i t in Semitic
texts, it is expressed by two ideographs, n-hieh read
Amar-ud, ' l the heifer of day." This is a punning refer-
 BEL-JIERODACH OF BABYLON. 107
ence to the old Accadian notion of the sky as a ploughed
field through which the Sun drew the share in his
annual journey. Under this aspect, thc Sun was termed
by the Accadians Gudibir, "the bull of light;" hence
mhcn Merodach became a Sun-god, he was identified
with the ancient Gudibir, and astrology taught that he
mas one and same with each of the twelve zodiacal signs.'
We have thus been able, in spite of the imperfection
of our documents, to trace the history of the patron-god
of Babylon from the time when he was as yet merely
the interpreter .of the Accadian Ea, merely a water-spirit
rising with the dawn out of the Persian Gulf, to the
time when he became the Semitic Sun-god Bel, and
eventually the head of the Babylonian Pantheon. But
we have seen at the same time that up to the last he
remained essentially local in character; if hc was lord of
the other gods, it was only because the king of Babylon
was lord also of other cities and lands. , I t is not until
-
1 Halevy has proposed to see in the name of Marudnk the Semitic
may-utuki,"the lord of demons." This, however, is worse than the
Assyrian play upon the name, and takes no account of the fact that
m u m in Assyro-Babylonian means only "son," never "lord," and that
utuki contains a t and not ad. 111TV. A. I. ii. 48, 34, the Sun-god, i t
is true, is called Utnki, but this word has nothing to do rvlth udu, "the
day," but is tho Accadian utuk or "spirit." The Sun-god, in fact, was
addressed as "the great spirit" I f a conjecture is permitted, I would
propose to see in Maruduk a Semitised form of the Accadian Muru-dug,
"he who benefits man," the ASari of the full title being omitted. Jfum~,
whence u m , "man," is a dinlectic side-form of indu. But the vowel
of the fint syllable of Maruduk creates a difficulty, and since the Bahy-
lonians had forgotten the origin of the name, it is nut likely that we
ahall be more successf~ilthan they were in discovering it. Perhaps
Delitzseh is right (Wo lag dns Paradies, p. 228) in seeing in Maruduk
mar-Urudzq, "the son of Eridu." At all events, Merodach is called
"the son of Eridu" in W.A. I. iv. 8, 41, m d other places. Marnduk
in frequently con+~actedinto Marduk.
108 LECTURE 11.

Babylonia ecascs to be an independent power that this

local conception of the great Babylonian divinity tends
to disappear. At Babylon, Cyrus, tho foreigner from
Elam, becomes the favourite and the worshipper of
Hel-Merodach, and the priests of Merodach even pretcnd
that he had been the god's favourite bcfore he camc to
Babylon as its master and conqueror. Although, there-
fore, it is only in Babylonia that Merodach is the god of
Cyrus, as he had been the god of Ncbnchadnczzar, tho
fact that Cyrus was not a Babylonian necessarily cnlarged
the old conception of Bcl and gave to him a universal
character. From this tirnc cnwards, Merodach wits moro
and more the god, not of the Babylonians alone, but of
all men everywhere; when the Greek kings of Asia
causcd inscriptions to be written in the Habylo~~ian
languagc and writing, Merodach takes the placr of ZFUS,
and, as thc grandson of Aua or E6a, "the dawn," is
identified mith the Memnon of Eomeric story.'
1 In the cuneiform inscription of Antiukhos SBtOr, pnblislle~lby
Strassmnier i n the Verliaiirlli~ngcndesfiinjten Orie~ztali~ten-Co,~~,~'essec',
ii. 1, pp. 139-142, lferoclach is called (1. 20) "tho offspring of tilo
god who is the son of Aun" (Abil AUCL). 111 lincs 34-36, Ncbo is
called "the son of E~Sagsil,tho first-born of ASnri the chief (virti~),
the offspring of thc gad who is the son of A I I t~l ~ orlnccn." Here Ailn
is represelitcd as a goddess, and sincc her son was tho father of 3lcro-
(Inch, she must correspond to the goddcss Zil;uli~ of the early texts.
IIal0vy, confoundi11,n her with Ex, has zone on to irlentify Ea with tlie
Hebrew Yahvch-an iclcntification which, i t is nce<lless to say, is
phnneticnlly impossible. Ann is obviously thc Greek E6a, either 111c
accusative of ' H i ? or tho feminine of tho corresponding adjective.
From the time of ICtCsias, IIcmnbn, the son of the goddess Ens, 11nd
been made an iiss~ro~BobyIonian prince, and the rcscn~blnnceof tho
name of Ea to K5s may havc suggested the idea of associating him with
~Icradach,the lord of Ilabylon. Tentarnos, witli his double Tcutzos,
the king by ~vhom,according to Ktssins, hIornn8n Tms sent to the hclp
of Pritun, is simply '<the man of the sea" or trcatim, the name b y
 BEL-JIEBODACH OF BABYLON. 109
But alrcady bcforc tho age of Cyrus there m s one
portion of the Assyro-Babylonian rorld in which tho
narrower local view of Merodach had perforce disap-
peared. This was Assyria. The local gods of Babylonia
had been carried into Assyria by its Semitic settlcrs, or
else introduced into the cultivated circle of the court
by the literary classes of later days. Merodach was
necessarily among the latter. Certain of the Assyrian
kings, or at least their scribes, invoke Merodach mith the
samo fervour as the kings of Babylon. Shalmaneser 11.
calls him the prince of the gods," just as a pious Baby-
lonian mould have done; and the monarchs of the second
Assyrian empire, who were crowned at Babylon as the
German princes were crowned at Rome, consider thcm-
selves placed by the act under the patronage of the
Babylonian god.' Although, therefore, the earlier As-
syrian kings avoid the mention of Merodach, and thc
introduction of his name into a speci6cally Assyrian in-
scription is due either to the affectation of learning or to
a claim to the throne of Babylon, the very fact that the
nanlo was introduced altered tho conception under which

which the sea-coast of Babylonia, with its capital Eridu, was known.
Aua has, of coursc, nothing to do with the god Au, "the wind," a title
of Rimmon, which forms part of tho Iiropcr name Au-nahdi (I< 344. 6).
To "take tho hand of Gel" mas equivalent to recognition as king
of Dabylon. Possibly it clenotetl that tlre person who parformed the
ceremony had entered the holy of holies in which thc image of Bcl-
Ilerodach stood-an act permitted only to the high-priest or tho king
in his otfieo of high-priest (sakl~m~a7;a).Thc srr7cia~rubcis ~ometiures
identical with tho king, sometimes d i s t i n ~ i s h e dfrom the king (e.g.
TV. 8.1.i. 64. ix. 64). and the sakkunaliu of Babylon wa( 8 specinl
title (thus Esarharldon calls himself "6aI;I;annl;u of Babylon," but
"king of Sumer and Accad," W. A. I. i 48, No. 6). Like dungu, the
sord expressed servitude to tho god
110 LECTUBE 11.

'Merodach was regarded, and loosened the bonds of his

connection with a particular locality. I n Assyria at
least, Bel-Merodach was as much a univcrsal god as the
older gods of the colestial hierarchy.
This transformation of his nature was aidcd by the
inevitable confusion that arose between Bel-Merodach
and the older Bel. To such an extent was this confusion
carried, that we find Assnr-bani-pal describing Merodach
as L'Bel, the son of Bel.,' When such a statement
could be made in the learned court of Assur-bani-pal, it
is clear that to the ordinary Assyrian the son of Ea"
of ancient Babylonian belief had been absorbed into the
solar Bel, the supreme divinity of thc southern kingdom.
Even at Babylon, however, Merodach did not stand
alone. He shared his divine honours, as we have seen,
with his wife Zarpanitu and his son Nebo. The old
Accadian cult seems to have had a fancy for trinities or
triads, originating perhaps in the primary astronomical
triad of the Sun-god, the Moon-god and the Evening
Star. The Accadian triad usually consisted of male
deities. The Semites, however, as I hope to point out
in the next Lecture, introduced a new idea, that of sex,
into the theology of the country. Every god was pro-
vided with his female reflection, who stood to him in the
relation of the wife to the husband. Baal, accordingly,
had his fcmale reflex, his " face1' as it mas termed, Bilat
o r Beltis. By the side of the Baal of Babylon, therefore,
stood Bcltis, "the lady" by the side of her "lord."
Rcr local name mas Zarpanitu, which a punning etymo-
logy subsequently turned into Zir-banitu, " crcatrcss of
wed,"' sometimes written Zir-panitu, with an obvioua
1 So in 8 1720, 23 (AN) Zi-ir-ha-xi-tuv,W. 8. I. ii. B i , 12.
 BEL-YERODACH OF BABTLON. 111
play on the word panu, or L C face." Zarpanitu was of
purely Semitic origin. But she was identified with rtn
older Accadian divinity, Gasm~~, L C the wise one,"l tke
fitting consort of a deity whose office it was to convey
the wishes of the god of wisdom to suffering humanity.
The Accadian goddess, however, must originally have
stood rather in the relation of mother than of wife to the
primitive Merodach. She was entitled the lady of the
deep," "the mistress of the abode of the fish," and "the
voice of the deep."2 Hence she must have ranked by
the side of Ea, the fish-god and "lord of the deep;" and
in the title voice" or L C incantation of the deep," we may
see a rcfercnce to the ideas which caused Ea to become
the god of wisdom, and brought the fish-god Oannes out
of the Persian Gulf to carry culture and knowledge to
the inhabitants of Chaldea. I n the roar of the sea-waves,
the early dwellers on the shores of the Gulf must have
heard the voice of heaven, and their prophets and diviners
must have discovered in it a revelation of the will of the
gods. It is not surprising, therefore, if Zarpanit was
specially identified with the goddess Lakhamun, who was
worshipped in the sacred island of Dilmun, or with the
goddess Elagu, whose name was revered in the mountains
of Elam.s

' W. A. I. ii. 48, 37. The Accadia~~gasam is translated mud$, enpu,

in 82. 8-16, 1, OLu. 19.
2 TV. A. I. ii. 54. 62, 55, 57. Other titles were '[the lady of the
ciiy of Kurnun," though "the goddess Icurnun" was identificd with
Tasmit (W. A. I. ii. 48, 39), and Eru or Erua (W. A. I. i i 54. 60, 59,
S 1720, 2). It is probable that she was identified with Nina the fish-
goddess, the daughter of Ea.
W. A. I. ii. 54. 58, 65. The name is prohahly connected with
that of the cosmogonic deities Lnkhnln and Lakhanla, witb the 8-
 I n Semitic days, Zai-panit, the inheritor of all these
old traditions and worships, fell from her high estate.
She ceased to be the goddess of wisdom, the voice of the
deep revealing thc secrets of heaven to the diviner and
priest ; she became merely the female shadow and com-
panion of Merodach, to whom a shrine was erected at thc
entrance to his tcmple. Her distinctive attributcs all
belong to the pre-Semitic epoch; with the introduction
of a language which rccognised gender, she was lost in
the colourless throng of Ashtaroth or Baalat, the god-
desses who were called into existence by the masculine
Baalim.
Zarpanit, however, had gomething to do with the pro-
mincnce given to Nebo in the Babylonian cult. Nebo,
the son of &Icrodach and Zarpanitu, had, as we have
seen, a chapel called E-Zida within thc l~recinctsof the
great temple of his fathcr. E-Zida, "the constituted
house," dcrivcd its name from the great temple of Bor-
sippa, the suburb of Babylon, the ruins of which are
now known to travellers as the Birs-i-Nimriid. Borsippa,
it would seem, had oncc been an indepcndent town, and
Nebo, or tho prototype of Nebo, had been its protecting
deity. In thc middle of the city rose E-Zida, the temple
of Kcbo and Kana Tasmit, with its holy of holies, " thc
supreme house of life," and its lofty tower termed l L the
-

house of the seven spheres of heaven and earth.'' I t

bad been founded, though never finisllcd, according to
Nebuchadnczzar, by an ancient king. For long centuries
it had remained a heap of ruin, until rcstorcd by Ncbu-
ohadnomar, and legends had grown up thickly around
termination as that which v e find in the name of Dilmun or Dilvuu
itself
 BEL-YERODACE OF BABYLON. 113
it. It was known as the tul ellu, lithe pure" or "holy
mound," and one of the titles of Nebo accordingly was
I t god of the holy mound."'

The word Kebo is the Semitic Babylonian Nabiu or

Nab& I t means the proclaimer," "the prophet," and
thus indicates tho character of the god to whom it was
applied. Nebo was essentially the proclaimer of the
mind and wishes of Merodach. He stood to Merodach
in the same relation that an older mythology regarded
Nerodach as standing to Ea. While Merodach was
rather the god of healing, in accordance with his primi-
tively solar nature, Nebo was emphatically the god of
science and literature. The communication of the gifts
of wisdom, therefore, which originally emanated from
Ea, mas thus shared between Merodach and his son. At
Babylon, the culture-god of other countries was divided
into tmo personalities, the one conveying to man tho
wisdom that ameliorates his condition, the other the
knowledge which finds its expression in the art of writing.
This division was due to the local character of Baby-
lonian religion which I have tried to bring into relief.
When Babylon became the centre of tho Babylonian
monarchy, Borsippa was already its suburb. But the
suburb had a past life and history of its own, which
gathcred round its great temple and the god who was
worshipped there. When, thereforc, Borsippa was ab-
-
1 W.A. I. ii. 54, 71. Ann was "the king of the holy mound," but
in &I602, 14, Lugal-girrq \vlro was identifie~lwith Xergal, is brou,oht
into conneclion ~ v i t hit. I n the lezcod of the Tower of Uahel (U3 6 5 i .
i i I), reference is rnade to the "divine kin: of the l ~ o l ymound." "The
king who comes forth from the holy mound" IVRF one of "the three
great" or secret "names of Anu" (TV. A. I. iii. 68, 19), while " the god-
d~:ssof the holy mound" aas Istar (iii. 68, 27).
I
 sorbed into Babylon, its god mas absorbed at the same
time; he becamc onc of the triad worshipped by the
pions Babylonian, and was accounted the son of the god
of the larger city. But he still retaincd the proud title
of bilu asaridu, " the first-born Baal ;"I and it is possible -

that the true signification of the name of his sanctuary

;\ not 'I the constituted house,'' but "house of the con-
stituted" or "legitimate Up to the last, moreover,
Nebo maintained all his local rights. He was domesti-
cated, it is true, in Babylon, but he continued to be the
god of Borsippa, and it mas there that his true and
original temple lifted its tomer to the sky.3
W e have only t o glance over the titles which werc
given to Ncbo to see how thoroughly the conception of
"the prophet" was associated with that of 'Lthe writor."
He is not only 'I the wise," "the intelligent," "the
creator of peace," "the author of the ~ r a c l e ; " he
~ is
also "the creator of the written tablet," "the maker of
writing," "the opcner" and "enlarger of the ear."5
Assur-bani-pal is ncvcr weary of telling us, at the end of
the documents his scribcs had copied from their Baby-
lonian originals, that " Nebo and Tasmit had given him
broad ears (and) cndowed (him) with seeing cycs," so that

W. A.I. ii. 60, 30 (X 104). Under this title h e \\,as identified

~ v i t hEn-zag of Dilmnn (W. A. I. ii. 54, F6), whose name occurs in an
inscription found by Cnpt. Durand in tho islands of Dabrein (Jrl.
It. A. S. xii. 2, ISSO). Zag, it scems, si;nificil " first-horn" in tlte Isil-
guago of Dilvnn. The proper name of the god of Dilrun to ~ ~ l i o thc ln
title was given was Pati (I<104), or Wuati (W. A. I. ii. 54, 67), as it
is; also written.
4 See Ticle, De Hoofrltcmnpcl van Bcibel en die vniz Borsippa (1866).
3 Boysippa is called "tho second Babylon (Din-Tir)," I<4309, 23.

4 W. A. L ii. 60, 33. 6 1. A. I. ii. 60. 34, 46, 41.

%
'
he had "written, bound together and published the storc
of tablets, a work which none of tho Icings who had gonc
before had undertaken, even the secrets of Nebo, the list
of characters as many as exist." I n the literary dialect
of the Semitic epoch, Nebo went by the Accadian name!
of dim-sar, ' I the scribe," and the ideo,mph by which
he is sometime8 denoted was regarded by the Semitic
literati as signifying "the maker of intelligence" and
"the creator of writing."'
These, however, were not the only titles that Nebo
bore. He mas also "the bond of the universe," and
' l the overseer of the angel-hosts of heaven and earth."*

The latter office might be explained as derived from his

duties as scribe of the gods; but it is hard to discover
what connection there could be between the first title
and his association with literature. Light is thrown
upon it, however, by the fact that the ziggurrat or tower
of his temple at Borsippa had the name of "the housc
of the seven bonds of heaven and earth." The seven
' l bonds" seem to represent the seven planets, or rather

their stations; the tower was in seven stages, and each

stage was painted so as to symbolise the colours sym-
bolical of the several planets. Nebo must, therefore,
have once been an elemental god, or at all events a
god connected with the chief of the heavenly bodies.
We know that Babylonian astronomy madc him thc
presiding deity of the planet Mercury, just as it made
Merodach the presiding deity of Jupiter; but it cannot
have been in reference to this that the tower of his
W. A. I. ii. 60. 43, 45.
-.A. I. ii. 60. 31, 28. The Accadian equivalent of the first L
&fir, "father of the bond."
I a
116 LECTURE 11.

temple was dedicated to the seven heavenly spheres.

Ncbo cannot well have been one of the seven himself in
the conception of its builders ; he must rather have been
the universe in which the seven spheres were set.
W e shall thus rcach the truc explanation of the ideo-
graph by which he was commonly denoted, and which
has been translated '[the maker of wisdom," [[thecreator
of writing," by the Semitic scribes. But such translations
are mere glosses. Tho ideograph signifies nothing marc
than "maker" or "creator," and points to a time when
the local god of Borsippa was something more than the
son of Merodach and the patron of the literary class.
He was, in the belief of his worshippers at Borsippa, the
supreme god, the creator of the world.
Now there are traces of an old Accadian notion of the
universe according to which "the deep" was a flowing
stream which surrounded the earth like the Okeanos of
Homer. I t was sometirues compared to a snake, some-
times to a rope, and was then called ['the rope of the
great god." The spirit or deity who personified it was
Innina.' (1n)nina seems to be the divinity who in later
days was assumed to have given a name to Nineveh, and
the name is to be explained as meaning "the god Nin,"
1 W. A. I. ii. 51, 45-49, where "the river of the snake" is described
as being also "the river of the rope of the great god," "the river of the
great deep," "the river of the sheepcote of the ghost-world," and "the
river of Innina." In 82. 8-16, 1, Obo. 5, i?cnnnn is given as the Acca-
dian pronunciation of the ideograpli denoting " a goddess," the initial
syllable being only a weakening of the determinative AN, "divinity."
Nina and Nana are merely dialectic forms of the same word, which i n
the genderless Accadian meant indifferently " lord" and "lady," though
morc usually "lady." Nina seems to have bcen the pronuncintion
of the word at Eridu, Nana at Erech. At all events Kina WEE the
<laughterof l h
 BEL-XERODACH OF BBBYLOX. 117
or "the divine lord," just as Innana means "the goddess
Nana," "the divine lady." I t will be remembered that
the worship of Nana was associated with that of Nebo in
his temple at Borsippa. The name of Borsippa itself,
moreover, is sometimes written in a punning fashion by
the help of ideographs which would read in Accadian
Bat-Si-aabba, "the fortress of the horn of the sea," as if
it had once been held to stand on a ['horn" or inlet of
the Persian Gulf. I t is therefore possible that Innina
ruay have been the primitive Nebo of Borsippa, and that,
like the Ea of southern Babylonia, he may ha1.e been
regarded as himself the great " deep." If so, we should
have an explanation of his title '' the bond" or " rope of
the universe," that ocean-stream, in fact, which seemed
to bind together the heavens and the earth. It seems to
be the same as "the bond" or L'rope of the world" com-
memorated by Aecadian mythology (W. A. I. ii. 29, 62),
in curious parallelism to "the golden cord" of Homer
(12.viii. 19), which Zeus offered to let the other gods
hang from heaven to earth, in the vain endeavour to drag
him d o m from the upper end of it.
How the old demiurgic god of Borsippa, the symbol-
isation of the deep which wound like a rope round the
nether world, became the prophet-god Nebo of the
Semites, is difficult to understand. There is apparently
no connection between them. The prophet-god of thc
Aecadians was Tutu, the setting sun, who is said to
'Lprophesy before the king." The legends, however,
which attached themselves to the name of Ea show that
the Aeeadiana associated together the ideas of wisdom
and of that primordial deep of which the Persian Gulf
was the visible manifestation; in so far, therefore, as the
 primitive god of Borsippa was thc decp, he might also
have been considered to have bccn the author of know-
ledge and intelligence. Indeed, as crcator of the uni-
verse he must have been crcditcd with a certain degrec
of wisdom.
I t is l~ossible,however, that the mediation bctwccn thc
demiurgc of Borsippn and the Scmitio Nebo mas due t o
a confusioil of thc latter with an entirely different god
named Nuzliu. Nuzltu probably signified in Accadian
l Lthe brilliance of the dayhrealc ;" at all events he was a

solar deity, one of ~vhosetitles lvas '[lord of the zcnith;"

and in the cunciforln tcxts his name is often uscd to dcnotc
the zcnith, or elat suine, 'lheight of heaven," as it was
callcd in Assyrian, in opposition to thc god of the horizon.'
Xom the ideograph nrhich denoted " the daybreak," and
was frequently used to represent tho name of Nuzku,
Iiappcncd also to dcnote a lcsf ; and since tho Accudians
liad mrittcn upon tho lcaves and rind of the papyrus
bcforc they bcgan to mrite on clay, it was crnployed mith
:I certain detern1iuativc to dcnotc the stylus or pen of the

scr~be. Hence Xuzltu, the god of the zenith, bccamc also

I<hadl~,the god of the sciibc's pen.
Nuzku, however, does not nppcar to have belongecI
originally to Barsippa. He is cntitled "the mcsscngcr"
or 'langel of hful-la,n2the older Bel; and it mas only

1 See TT: .\. I. ii. 4S,55. The phrnse is frequent, "Fron~the horizon
(the god UII) to the zenith (the god Xuzku)." I n ii. 54, 73, the god
7 7 is
~ identificcl with Xebo; hence Nebo and Xuzlcu mill have beon
~ c ~ n l casdtwo different p11:tses of tile Sun-god, Nebo being the Sun
of the dnwn, and N u ~ k utho Sun of midday.
a W. A. I. ii. 10, 5 6 . I n R 2. 1, 159, 6, Nuzku is called "the
supreme messenger of E-lro~.." The amalgamation of Nebo and Nuzku
was no clo113t aided by tlle fact that ~vhileN u k u was thus the m e
 BEL-XERODACH OF BABYLON. 119

when the older Be1 of Nipur bemme merged in the

younger Bel-Merodach of Babylon, that Nuzku followed
the fortunes of his mastcr and was himsclf dorcesticated
in the city of the younger Bel. When the transformation
was finally completed, three separate deities found them-
selves united in the divine patron of the literary c1ass.l
Where~erthe literary class went, Kebo their patron
went with them. Ncbo consequently became less local
in character than the other divinities of the pantheon, a
1.esult that was further encouraged by the absorption of
his city of Borsippa into the larger Babylon. It is not
surprising, therefore, that Nebo showed a greater tendency
to migration than the older and more definitely localised
deities of Babylonia. A knowledge of Babylonian letters
and learning mas accompanied by a knowledge of tho

senzer of Nul-lil the older Eel, Nebo was the prophet and messenger
of hferodach the younger Bel. The confusion betmeen the two Bels
led necessarily to a corifusion between their trr-o ministers.
1 U p to the last, however, the priesthood of Babylon remembered
that Nebo and Nuzlcu were originally different divinities. In the great
temple of Memdach there was a separate chapel for Nuzku by the side
of the great tower. Nuzku originally appears to have come from Xipur.
and to have been identified with Sebo when the latter came to shara
with 3lerodach his solar character. But originally the local god of
Borrippn, mlio as the supreme deity of the place u,as worshipped by
thc inhabitants ao the creator of the universe, not the Sun-gnd,
but the power which hound the universe together. -4s this was tho
ocean-stream which encircled the horizon and was the home of tho
rising sun, it was not difficult to confound it with the morning sun
itself. I t seems s%nge that Nuzku, the messenger of "the lord of the
ghost-world," and as such the morniug-grey, should hove come to repre-
sent the zenith; but the same transference of meaning meets us in tho
Assyrian verb napakhu, which properly refers to the rising sun, but
is also used of the zenith. That Nuzku, "who goes on the left of the
companions of the king," was primarily the Fire-god is expressly atated
in K 170, Rsu. 6.
iao LECTURE n.
Babylonian god of letters and learning. I n Assylia,
Nebo was honoured as much as he was in Babylonia
itself. The Assyrian liings and scribes might be silent
about the name of iNerodach, but the name of Ncbo was
continually in their nlouths.' His name and worship
passed even to the distant Semitic tribes of the west.
The namcs of placcs in Palestine in which his name
occurs, proves that the god of prophecy was adored by
Canaanites and Moabites alike. Moscs, the leader and
prophet of Isracl, dicd on the peak of Nount Nebo, and
cities bcaring the name stood within the borders of the
tribes of Reuben and Judah. When the Israelites entered
upon thcir literary era, the old name of roeh, or "seer,"
was exchanged for the more literary one of NZbi, or
"prophet."
The Semites of Babylonia provided Nebo with a wife,
Tasmitu, "the hearer." She helped to open and enlarge
the ears which received the divine mysteries her husband's
inspiration enabled his devout servants to write down.
The revolution which transferred the learning of the
Babylonians from the Aocadians to the Semites, trans-
ferred the patronage of the literary class from the old
god Ea to his younger rivals Neho and Tasmit.
I have dwelt thus long on the nature and history of
the three deities who shared together the great temple
of Babylon, partly because our materials in regard ta
them are less imperfect than is the case with many of
the other gods, partly because they illustrate so well the
essentially local character of Babylonian religion. It is
-
1 In the prayer to Assur, K 100, Rrc. 18, Nebo is called "the m e s
senger of Assur," who thus takes the place of hIerodach of Elllrylon.
this which gives to it its peculiar complexion and fur-
nishes the key to its interpretation. I n so far as thc
worship of Nebo forms an exception to the general rule,
it is an exception which bears out the old legal maxim
that the exception proves thc rule. The worship of Nebo
was less local than that of other divinities, because he
was specially worshipped by a class which existed in each
of the local centres of the country. He alone was thc
god of a class rather than of a locality. Babylonian
history began with separate cities, and centralisation was
never carried so far as to break up the local usages and
cults that prevailed in them. I n the eyes of the people,
the several deities remained to the last a body of equals,
among whom the god of the imperial city presided, sinlply
because he was the god of the imperial city. If Ur had
taken the place of Babylon, the Moon-god of Ur would
have taken the place of Bel-Merodach. The gods of
Babylonia were like the local saints of Catholic Europe,
not like the Greek hierarchy of Olympus, ruled by the
despotic nod of Zeus.
The Semites of Babylonia thus closely resembled their
brother Semites of Canaan in thcir fundamental concep-
tion of religion. As the Canaanite or Phcenician had
"lords many," the multitudinous Baalim who repre-
sented the particular forms of the Sun-god worshipped in
each locality, so too the gods of Semitic Babylonia werc
equally multitudinous and local-Merodach, for example,
being merely the Be1 or Baal of Babylon, just as Mel-
karth (Melech-kiryath) was the Baal of Tyre. But the
parallelism extends yet further. We have seen that the
rise of the prophet-god in Babylonia marks the growing
importance of literature and a literary class, just as the
123 LECTURE 11.

beginning of a literary age in Israel is coeval wit11 the

change of the seer illto the prophet. Now the literary
a;e of Israel mas long preceded by a literary age among
their Phcenician ncighbours, and its growth is contem-
poraneons mith the closer rclations that grem up between
the monarchs of Israel and IIiram of Tyre. What Israel
waq in this respect to the Phcenicians, Assyria mas to
Babylonia. The Assyrians TTcre a nation of warriors and
traders rather than of students; thcir literature n-as for
the most part an exotic, a mere imitation of Babylonian
cuiture. I n Babylonia, education mas widely diffused;
in Assyria, it mas confined to the learned class. W e must
remember, therefore, that in dealing mith Assyrian docu-
ments me are dealing eithcr with a foreign importation
or -4th the thoughts and beliefs of a small and special
class.
This is the class from whom me have to gain our ltnom-
Icdgo of the form of religion prevalent in Assyria. It
is wholly Babylonian, mith one important exception.
Supreme over the old Babylonian pantheon rises tho
figore of a new god, tho uational deity of Assyria, its
impersonation Assur. Sssnr is not mc,rcly prii~lusiizter.
pares, merely the president of the divine assembly, like
lferodach; he is their lord and master in anqthcr and
more autocratic sense. Like the Yahveh of Israel, he
claims to be "king above all gods," that "among all
gods" there is none like unto liimself. I n his name and
through his help the Assyrian kings go forth to conquer;
the towns they bum, the men they slay, the captivcs
they take, are all his gifts. It is to destroy "the enemics
of Assur," and to lay thcir yoke upon those who disbelieve
in his name, that they load their armies into other lands;
 it is his decrees, his law, that they m i t e upon the monu-
ments they erect in conquered countries. The gods of
Babylonia are invoked, it is true ; their old Babylonian
titles are accordcd to them; they arc called upon to curse
the sacrilegious in the stereotyped phrases of the ancient
literature ; but it is Assur, and Assur alone, to whom the
Assyrian monarch turns in moments of distress; it is
Assur, and Assur alone, in whose name he subdues the
infidel. Only the goddess Istar finds a place by the side
of Assur.
I t is not difficult to account for all this. I n passing
from their native homes to Assyria, the Babylonian
deities lost that local character which was the very breath
of thcir existence. How far they ome their presence in
Assyrian literature to the literary class, how far they had
beeu brought from Babylonia in early days by the people
themselves, I am not prepared to say. One fact, however,
is clear; in becoming Assyrian the Babylonian gods have
lost both their definiteness and their rank. The invocations
addressed to them lack their old genuine ring, their titles
are borrowed from the literature of the southern kingdom,
and their functions are usurped by the new god Assur.
It is almost pitiable to find Bel-Merodach invoked, in
phrases that once denoted his power above other deities,
by the very kings who boast of their conquests over his
people, or mho even razed his city to the ground. The
Assyrian, in fact, occupied much the same position as an
'Israelite who, while recognising the supremacy of his
national God, thought it prudent or cultivated to offer
at the same time a sort of inferior homage to the Baalim
of Canaan.
At the outset, ~ s s uwas
r as much a purely local divinity
124 LECTURE 11.

: ~ n ,Bel-Mcrodachof Babylon. H e was the god of Assur

(now Kalch-Sherghat), the primitive capital of the country.
But several causes conspirod to occasion him to lose this
~ m c l ylocal character, and to assnme in place of it a
national character. The capital of Assyria .was shifted
from Assur to Nineveh, and thc worship of Assur, instead
of remaining fixed at Assur, was shifted at thc same time.
Then, moreover, the importation of Babylonian deities
had broken the close connection which esistcd in the
mind of a Babylonian between the dcity and the city
\vherc he was worshipped; to the Assyrian, Bel-Ncrodacll
was no longcr prculiarly the patron-god of Uabylon ; his
otllcr attributes came instead to the front. Assyria,
furthermore, from tho time it first became an independent
kingdom, formed an homogeneous whole; it mas not
divided into separate states, as mas so often the case with
Babylonia. A national feeling was conscqucntly pcr-
mitted to grow up, ~vhichthe traditions of the old citics
of Chaldcea and the frequent conquest of the country by
foreigners prcve~tcdfrom dcvcloping in the south. Per-
haps, too, tho composite origin of Assur himself ha3
something to do with the result.
The name of Assur is frequently represented by a
character which among other ideographic values had that
of "good." The name was accordingly explained by
the Assyrians of the later historical age as " thc good
god," with a reference perhaps to their orrn words asiizl,
" righteous," and asirtu, " rightconsness." But this was
not the original signification either of the name or of thc
character by which it was exprcsscd. The god so denoted
mas one of the p r i m ~ v a deities
l of Babylonian cosmology
who bore in Accadian the title of Ana sar (An-sar), "tho
 BEL-NERODAGH OF BABYLON. 123
god of the hosts of heaven," or simply Sar, "the upper
firmament." It was believed that Anu sar was the male
principle which, by uniting with the female principle
(Anu) kLsar, "(the goddcss of) the earth (and) the hosts
of heaven," produced the present world. It mas to this
old elemental deity that the great temple of E-sarra was
dedicated, whose son was said to be the god Ninip or
Adar.
A fragment of Babylonian eosmogomy has been pre-
served to us by Damascius, a writer of the sixth century,
who had access to older materials now lost. Here Ana-
sar and Ki-sar are called'Awwwpds and Ktuwap+, and we are
told of them that they were the offspring of the ~rimoeval
Lakhnla and Lakhama, and the progenitors of tbe three
supreme gods, Anu, Mul-lil and Ea. Tho worship of
these primeval divinities had been rooted in Assyrin
from an early period; probably the earliest Semitic emi-
grants from the south found it already established there.
It was inevitable that before long a confusion should
grow up between the name of the god An-sar or Asdr,
and that of the city of Assur in which he was adored.
But the city of Assur had nothing to do with the god.
The name seems to be a corruption of the Aeeadian
A-usar, or ('water-bank," first corrupted by its Semitic
inhabitants into Assur and then into Asur, with a pos-
sible reference to the word asurra, '(the bed (of a river)."'
1 The attempt has been made to show that the names of the god
and of the country ought to he distinguished from one another by
writing tho first with sa and the second with a single s. The Assyrimp,
however, wrote both alike, sometimes with ss, sometimes with s; and
the fact that the name of the country is often expressed by attaching
the determinative affix of locality to the name of the god proves that
they were not conscious of any difference, phonetic or otherwise,
126 LECTCRE 11.

The confusion bct\vcen Ass& the god and Assur the

city had the effcct of identifying the god with his city
more closely than could be the case ~viththe divine
patron of a Babylonian tomn. The city of Assur mas
itself a god: offences against the city were offences
against the god ; the cnemies of tho city mere the enemies
also of the god. The instinct, however, of regarding
thc deities they morshippcd as individuals, was too deeply
implailted within the mind of the Semitcs to allow
either this fact, or the further fact that the god himself
mas originally a mere elemental one, to obliterate hie
individual and anthropomorphic character. Though Assur
mas the personification of the city, he was also its Baal
or lord.
The transference of the centre of power from Assur to
Nineveh made the anthropomorphic side of Assur's nature
still more prominent. He represented nom the whole
nation and thc central power which governed the nzt' r IOU.

He mas thus the representative at once of the people

and of the king in whose hands the government of the
people mas centred. Assyria became "the land of the
god Assur," belonging to him in much the samc may as
the city of Babylon belonged to Bel-Merodach. But
whereas Bel-Mcrodach was the Baal of a particular city
only, Assur mas, like the Yahveh of Israel, the national
god of a race.
Thcrc rras yet anothcr respect in which Assur resem-I
bled thc Ynhvch of Israel. There was no goddess Assur-
ritu by the side of Assur, as there mas an Anatu by the

between the two. I n sup& a matter we cannot be wiser than out

Assg-rian teachers.
 EEL-YEKODACE OF BABYLON. 127
side of Ann, a Beltis by the side of Bel.1 If, in imita-
tion of Babylonian usage, Bilat or Beltis is sometimes
addressed as the consort of Assur, it is simply a literary
affectation; Assur was not a Be1 or Baal, like Merodach.
Bilat is a Babylonian goddess; she is properly the wife
of the older Bel, in later times identified with Zarpanit.
There is no indication that Assur had a "face" or reflec-
tion; he stands by himself, and the inspiration received
from him by the Assyrian kings is received from him
alone. When a female divinity is invoked along with
him, it is the equally independent goddess Istar or Ash-
toreth.
W e possess a list of the deities whose images stood in
the temples of Assur at Assur and N i n e ~ e h . ~At the
head of each list the name of Assur is thrice invoked,
and once his name is followed by that of Istar. There
was, in fact, a special form of Istar, under which she was
worshipped as "thc Istar of Nineveh;" but the form
mas purely local, not national, arising from the existence
there of a great templc dedicated to her. There mas no
national goddess to place by the side of the national god.
Assur consequently differs from the Babylonian gods,
not only in the less narrowly local character that belongs
to him, but also in his solitary nature. He is "king of
all gods" in a aense in which none of the deities of B&-
lonia were.3 He is like the king of Assyria himself,
1 If Istar is sometimes called Assuritu, "the Assyrian," the adjective
is al~vayaa mere title, and never becomes a proper name (see W. A. I.
v. 1, 65). Like the title "Istar of Nineveh," it serves only to distin-
guish the Assyrian Istar from the Istar of Arhela
2 W. A. I. iii. GG.
J The follolvingprayer or hymn (K 100) illustrates the may in v&h
the learned litcrati of Assur-bani-pnl's couit sought to luake good the
128 LECTURE 11.

brooking no rival, allowing neither wife nor son to shnre

in the honours mhich he claims for himself alone. He is

deficiencies of their national god, and to connect him mith tho deirieo
of Babylonia :
1. " A prayer to Assur the king of the gods, ruler (li) over heaven
and earth,
2. the father ~ v h ohas created the gods, the supreme first-horn (of
heaven and earth),
3. the supreme ~azittallumho (inclines) to counsol,
4. thc ,niver of the scentre and the throne.
5. (To) Nin-lil the wife of Asstir, the begetter (talikat), the crea
tress of heaven (and earth),
6. who by the coninland of hcr mouth. . ..
7. (To) Sin the lord of corninand, the uplifter of horns, the spec.
taelo of hearen,
8. who for delivering the measnge (has been appointed).
9. (To) the Sun-god, the great judge of tho gods, ~r.liocauses tire
lightning to issue forth,
..
10. who to his brilliant light . .
11. (To) Ann the lord and prince, possessing the life of Assnr the
father of tho (prcnt) gods.
12. (To) Rimnion the minister (!plgal) of heaven and earth, t h e
lord of the \x,in~land the lightning of heaven.
14. (To) Istnr tho queen of heaven and the stars, n~hoseseat (is
exnltc~l).
16. (To) hIarodach the prince of the gods, the interpreter (nan-~AII)
of the spirits of heaven and (earth).
16. (To) Adar the son of Mul-lil, tho giant (gitmalu), the first.
horn . . . .
li. fixed and . . . .
18. (To) Nebo tho messenger of Assur (An-sar) . .. .
19. (To) Ncrgal the lord of might (nbari) and strength (dunni),
\1.110 . . . .
20. (To) the god who marches in front, the first-born . ..
.
..
21. (To)tlle seven gads, thc warrior deities . .
32. the great gods, the lords (of heaven aud earth)."
On the obverse, littlc of which is left, mention is made of <'the i m a p
of the great gods," "as many as (ilwell) i n the midst of the stone," and
"at the opening of thcir holy mouth" they are askcd to befriend tho
king "himself, his princes (~nnTil,.i),their nnnie and their seed"
 BEL-XEBODACB OF BABYLON. 129
essentially a jealous god, and as such sends forth his
-4ssyrian adorers to destroy his unbelieving foes. Wife-
less, childless, he is mightier than the Babylonian Baalim;
less kindly, perhaps, less near to his worshipp6rs than
they mere, but more awe-inspiring and more powerful.
W e can, in fact, trace in him all the lineaments upon
which, under other conditions, there might have been
built up as pure a faith as that of the God of Israel.
 THE GODS O F B A B Y L O N I A .

INmy last Lecture I have been obliged to some extent

to antioipatc the conclusions to which a survey of tho
older literature of Babylonia mill lead us. I have had
to refer more than once to the older gods of thc land,
and to point out that the Babylonian deities of the later
inscriptions are only in part of purely Semitic origin, in
part adaptations of earlier Accadian divinities. They
are charocterised, however, by one common fcature ; thcy
are all alikc local, belonging to the cities where their
cults were established as literally as thc temples in mhich
they were adored. Merodach might, indeed, be invoked
elsewhere than at Babylon, but it was only as god of
Babylon that he would hear the prayer. I n Assyria
alone we find another order of things, more analogous to
that which meets us among thc Israelites; in Babylonia
the gods arc local Baalim as fully as they were in Phce-
nicia. What differences may have existed between the
religious conceptions of the Phanicians and Babylonians
i n this respect were but superficial, due mainly to the
fact that the Phcenician cities were never amalgamated
into a single empire, while Babylon succeeded in impos-
ing its authority upon its sister towns.
There are two especially of the older gods whose names
 THE GODS OP BABYLONIA. 131
have frequently recurred. These are Ea and the original
BeI. Let me speak of Ea first.
Ea, as we have already seen, was the god not only of
the deep, but also of wisdom. Ancient legends affirmed
that the Persian Gulf-the entrance to the deep or ocean-
stream-had been the mysterious spot from whence the
first elements of culture and civilisation had been brought
to Chaldrea. B&rBssos, the Chnldaean historian-so at
least his epitomiser Alexander PolyhistBr declared-had
reported them as follows :
" A t Babylon there was a great resort of people of various races who
inhabited Chaldiea, and lived in a lawless manner like the beasts of the
field. I n the first year there appeared in that part of the Erytlirrea~l
sea which borders upon Gabylonia, a creature cndowed with reason,
by name Oannes, whose whole body (according to the account o'
Apollodaros) was that of a fish; under the fish's head he had another
head, with feet also below siniilar to those of a man subjoined to the
tish's tail. His voice, too, and language mere articulate and human;
and a representation of him is preserved even to this day.
"This being was accustomed to pass the day among men, hut took no
food at that season; and he gave them an insight into letters and
sciences and arts of every kind. H e taught them to c o u s t ~ c houses,
t
to found temples, to compile laws, and explained to them the principles
of geometrical knowledge. H e mado them distinguish the seeds of
the earth, and showed them how to collect the fruits; in short, he
instructed them in everything which could tend to soften manners and
humauise their lives. From that time, uotbing material has been
added by way of improvement to his instructions. Now when the sun
had set, this being Oannes used to retire again into the sea, and pass
the night in the deep, for he was nmphibious. After this there appeared
other animals like Oannes, of which RErBssos proposes to give an
account when he comes to the history of tho kings. Moreover, Oannos
wrote concerning the generation of mankind, of their different wags of
life, and of their civil polity."'
-
'
Xusehios (C%ron.), Cory's tmnslatiou : "The other animals like
Oannb," according to Ahydeuos (ap. Euseh. Chron. i. 6, Xni), vere
Anddotoe in the time of Amillaros, the third antediluvian king, called
K 2
 132 LECTURE 111.

A native fragment of the legend has, it is probal.de,

been accidentally preserved among a series of extracts
from various Accadian works, in a bilingual reading-book
compiled for the use of Semitic students of Accadian.
It reads thus :
"To the wuters their god has returned;
into the house of (his) repose the protector descended.'
The wicked weaves spells, but the sentient one grows not old.
A wise people repeated his wisdom.
The unwise and the slave (literally person) the most valued of his
master forgot h i m ;
there was need of him and he restored (his) decrees
The exact etymology of the name which appears under

Amclan by Apollodbros, Euedbkos, Eneugilmos, Eneubulos and An&-

mentos in the time of nabs (! Tammuz) the shepherd, and Anadaphos
i n the time of Eoedbreskhos. ApollodGros niakes "the IIusaros
Oannh, the Ann2datos," appear in the time of AmmenGn the successor
of Amelen, another Annedotos in the time of Daonos the shepherd,
and Odakbn i n the time of Euedbreskhos. A comparison of Anbdaphos
and OdakBn shows the true reading to have been AnGdakbn, i.e. "Anu
and Dagon (Dagan)," who are constantly a?sociated together by Sargon,
and who says of them that he had L 1 written the laws (not "immunitas,"
as Winckler) of Harran by the will of Anu and Dagon." Anniklotos
seems to be a Grcck compound, "given by Anu." I n any case, some
of the successors of 0anni.s appear to have been derived from the
legends of Erech, tho city of Anu, and not, like the original Oann&s,from
Eridu. W i t h the exception of the first, n h o is mado a Enbylonian,
the antediluvian kings come either from Larankha, which, as we learn
froin the Deluge-tablet, is a corrupt reading for Stirippak near Sippnra,
or from Ponti-hibla, a Greek translation of " the country of tablets" or
"books," a title given to the Accad of Sargon, according to IV. A. I.
ii. 61, 8. \ire may infer from this that the whole story of the ante-
diluvian kings had its origin at Sippnra.
1 Zggillz~m(1~11ichdoes not signify " a cry of woe," as Jeremias sup-
poses) is explained by i~atsivu," the defender," i n JV. A. I. v. 26, 72.
Magiru, " tllc obedient one," is callecl lhs throne-bearer i n W. A. I. iii.
RS, 7, \?here the Iggillum is identified with En.
W. A. I. ii. 16. 57-71.
 TEE GODS OF BABYLONIA. 133
the Greek dress of Oann&shas not yet been ascertained.
Lenormant thought that it represented Ea-khan, ' l Ea the
fish." But whether or not this is the case, it is certain
that Oann&s and Ea are one and the same. Ea, as we
have seen, not only had his home in the waters of the
Persian Gulf, he was also the culture-god of primitive '
Babylonia, the god of wisdom, the instructor of his
worshippers in arts and science. An old Babylonian
sermon on the duty of a prince to administer justice
impartially and without bribes, declares that if "he
speaks according to the injunction (or writing) of the
god Ea, the great gods will seat him in wisdom and the
knowledge1 of righteousness."2 Ea mas, moreover, like
Oann&s,represented as partly man and partly fish. Some-
times the fish's skin is thrown over the mm's back, the
head of a fish appearing behind that of the man; some-
times the body of the man is made to terminate in the
tail of a fish. A gem in the British Museum, on which
the deity is depicted in the latter fashion, bears an in-
scription stating that the figure is that of l L the god of
pure life." Now "the god of pure life," as me are
expressly informed by a rubrical gloss to a hymn in
honour of the demiurge Ea (Obv. 5), was one of the
names of Ea.
The name Ea, which is transcribed Aos by Damaseius,
signifies " a house," or rather "belonging to a h ~ u s e . " ~

' Trrdnt, to be distillguishecl from TuclStt~,"offspring," W. A. L i i

29, 69.
W.A. I. iv. 55, 7. In a penitential psalm (W. A. I. iv. 61, 27),
"the wrili~lgof Ea" is referred to as "giving rest to the heart!'
Ea is tmnslnted "house," W. A. I. i i 15, 43; iv. 16, 48. Con-
versely the god Ea is represented by (ah-)E, "the god of the house,"
134 LECTURE 111.

En was therefore originally the house-godn-a desig-

nation which it is difficult to reconcile with his aquatic
tliaracter. Possibly his worship goes bnclr to a time
when the inhabitants of the coast of the Persian Gulf
lived in pile-dwellings like those of Switzerland or the
British Islands; possibly it belongs to a later period,
mhen the old marine god had become the household
deity of those who received his benefits and believed
him to be the source of their culture. He was sym-
bolised, it would seem, by a serpent;' and to this day
tho Zulus believe that the spirits of their ancestors are
embodied in certain harmless snakes which frequent their
homes. However this may be, the primeval seat of the
orsh ship of Ea was the city of Eridu, now represented
by the mounds of Abu Shahrein on the eastern bank of
the Euphrates, and not far to the south of Mugheir
or Ur.
Eridu is a contracted form of the older Eri-duga, or
good city," which appears in the non-Semitic texta of
northern Babylonia as Eri-z&ba,with the same meaning.
The place was thus a peculiarly holy spot, whose sanctity
was established far and wide throughout the country.
But it was not a holy city only. It is often termed,
in iv. 6, 47. This seems to be the form which has given risc to the
8-0s of Damascius. I n 0-annos the initial is due to tho contraction
of 6-0.
1 See above, p. 116. Among thexymbols of bhc gods on contract-
stones, the srrpent occupies .z prominent place. According to W. A. I.
ii. 59, 21, thc snake-god was Serakh, thc god of corn and "spirit uf
1s-gar,: wtlose name signified "the treading of corn" (v. 17. 31, 33),
and who is called ;'the overseer" or "assembler of the gods of heaven
and earth" (I< 4415, Rcv. 10). On the other hand, in an unnumbered
fragment (hl, line l o ) , "a, snake in thy bed" (nsunn-hi) is invoked aa
n curse.
 THE GODS OF BABYLONIA. 135
more especially in the sacred tests, ' L the lordly city,"'
and we are told that one of its titles mas "the Iand of
the sovereign." I n historical times, however, Eridu had
sunk to the condition of a second-rate or even third-rate
town; its power must therefore belong t o that dimly
remote age of which the discoveries at Tel-loh have
enabled us to obtain a few glimpses. There must havc
been a time when Eridu held a foremost rank among
the cities of Babylonia, and when it was the centre from
which the ancient culture and civilisation of the country
made its way.2
Along with this culture went the worship of Ea, the
god of Eridu, who to the closing days of the Babylonian
monarchy continued to be known as Eriddga, ILthegod
af Eridu." At the period when the first elements of
Chaldaan culture were being fostered in Eridu, the city
stood at the mouth of tho Euphrates and on the edge of
the Persian Gulf. If the growth of the alluvium at the
mouths of the Euphrates and Tigris has always been the
same as is the case at present (about sixty-six feet a year),
this woiild have been at the latest about 3000 B.C.;
but as the accumulation of soil has been more rapid of
late, the date would more probably be about 4000 B.C.
Already, therefore, the cult of Ea would have been esta-
blished, and the sea-faring traders of Eridu would have
placed themselves under his protection.
I t will be noticed that the culture-myths of Babylonia,
-~

KUX-KI,pronouncod Nunpi., according to 82. 8-16, 1, Obu. 21.

EN-KT, another title of Eridu, means "land of the lord."
The decay of Eridu am probably due to tho increase of the delta
at the head of the Persian Gulf, which made it an inland instead of a
uaritime city, and ao destroyed its trade.
136 LECTURE III.

like the culture-myths of America, bring the first civiliser

of the country from the sea. It is as a sea deity that
Oannes is the culturc-hero of the Chaldreans; it is from
the depths of the Persian Gulf that he c a ~ ~ i etos his
people the treasures of art and science. Two questions
are raised by this fact. Was the culture of Babylonia
imported from ahroad; and was Ea, its god of culture,
of foreign extraction ?
The last great work published by Lepsiusl was an
attempt to answer the first of these questions in the
affirmative. IIe revived the old theory of a mysterious
Cushite population which carried the civilisation of Egypt
to the shores of Babylonia. But to all theories of this
sort there is one conclusive objection. The origin of
Babylonian culture is so closely bound up with the origin
of the cuneiform system of writing, that the two cannot
be separated from each other. Between the hieroglyphics
of Egypt, however, and the primitive pictures out af
which the cuneiform characters developed, there is no
traceable connection. Apart from those general analogies
which we find in all early civilisations, the script, t h e
theology and the astronomy of Egypt and Babyloni,~
show no vestiges of a common source.
Nevertheless, there is now sufficient evidence to provc
that at the very damn of the historic period in Babylonia,
maritime intcrcourse was being carried on between this
country on the one hand and the Siuaitic Peninsula and
India on the other. The evidence is as startling as it is
curious.
The statues discovered by M. de Sarzec at Tel-loll,

1 T n t n d u c t i o n to his Nubisclic Grnlnn~ntik(1880).

 TKE GODS OF BABYLONIA. 137
which may be roughly dated about 4000 B.C., remind
every traveller who has been in Egypt of the great
diorite statue of king Khephren, the builder of the second
pyramid of Gizeh, which is now in the Biilak Museum.
The execution, indeed, is infinitely inferior; but the
attitude, the pose, the general effect, and to a certain
extent the dress, are remarkably alike. What is more,
some of the Tel-loh statues are carved out of hard diorite
stone. Now one of the inscriptions that accompany them
affirms that the stone was brought from the land of
Magan; and though in later times Magan was used to
denote Lower Egypt, Dr. Oppert and myself have long
ago pointed out that originally it signified the Sinaitio
Peninsula. Ever since the epoch of the Third Dynasty,
Egyptian garrisons had held possession of the Peninsula,
and Egyptian miners had quarried there ; and as the age
of the fourth Egyptian Dynasty corresponds with the
age which we must assign to the statues of Tel-loh, it
would seem that as far back as six thousand years ago
stone was conveyed by sea from the quarries of Sinai to
Egypt and Babylonia, and that a school of sculpture had
already arisen in that part of the world. What clinches
the matter is the fact obserp-ed by Mr. Petrie, that the
unit of measurement marked on the plan of the city
which one of the figures of Tel-loh carries upon its lap,
is the same as the unit of measurement employed by the
Pyramid builders.'
I n an opposite direction we may infer that Chaldrean
traders had also made their way to the western coast of
India. Apart from the existence of teak in the ruins of

' See above, p. 33.

138 LECTURE ~n.
Mugheir, an ancient Babylonian list of clothing mentions
sindhzc, or "muslin," the iadllz of the Old Testament, the
v ~ v s d vof the Greeks. That otv8dv is merely " the Indian"
cloth has long been recognised; and the fact that it
begins with a sibilant and not with a vowel, like our
"Indian," proves that it must have come to the west by
sea and not by land, where the original s would have
become 12 in Persian mouths.' That sindhu is really the
same word as utv8dv is shown by its Accadian equivalent,
mhich is expressed by ideographs signifying literally
'<vegetable cloth."
This intercourse with other countries, and the influence
mhich a school of sculpture in the Sinaitic Peninsula
appears to have exercised upon the Babylonians, must
necessarily hare had much to do with the early develop-
ment of Chaldrean culture, even though it were indige-
nous in its origin. I t therefore becomes possible that Ea,
the deity with whom the introduction of such a culture
is associated, may also have come from abroad. At pre-
sent, however, there is no proof of this, though it is quite
possible that some of his features are foreign ; and it is
even possible that the primitive Shamanistic worship of
spirits, which, as we shall see hereafter, originally cha.
racterised the religion of the Accadians, first became a
worship of the god Ea through foreign influence, other
spirits afterwards passing into gods when the example
had once been sct.
Ea, however, was not merely a god of the sea. The
Persian Gulf, which formed the entrance to the ocean-
' Supposing, of course, that, Iranian tribes were already settled to
thc east of Gnbylonin. I11TV. A. I. v. 28. 19, 20, sindl~ais explained
to be e n + Ku??i, "cloth of Xur; and addu, " a veil"
 'ITTI3 GODS OF BABYLONIA 139
stream that encircled the world, was fed by the great
river on which Eridu stood. Ea accordingly was a river-
god as well as a sea-god; he is entitled not only " the
king of the deep," but '(the king of the river"' also.
Out of the mixture of the two arose the conception of
the encircling ocean, and the further title, "god of the
river of the great ~ n a k e . " ~Ea was thus emphatically a
water-god, the deity wno presided over the watery ele-
ment wherever it was found, and whose home was in the
waves of the Persian Gulf.
Ea had a consort who was not at all like the Semitic
goddesses we have been considering in the last Lecture.
She was no pale reflexion of a male divinity, no Anat or
Beltis or Zarpanit, differing from her husband only in
the grammatical suffix of her name; but a genuine and
independent deity, whose powers were co-extensive with
those of Ea. She was known as Dav-kina or Dav-ki,
"the lady of the earth," and personified' the earth just as
Ea personified the water. Water and earth-these were
the two elements out of which the old inhabitants of
Eridu believed the world to have been formed. It was
the theory of Thal&sin its primitive shape; the water-
god at Eridu took the place occupied by the Sky-god in
other cities of Babylonia. H e was in fact addressed, not
only as "lord of the earth," but also as "lord of heaven
and earth," "the master of all created things," "the
ruler of all the world," l' the god of the universe," 'l the
prince of the zenith" of h e a ~ e n .There
~ is no room here
for the Anu or Sky-god of northern Babylonian theology.

' TY.A. I. ii. 55, 23. nT.

A. I. ii. 56, 27.
' 1s'. A. I. ii. 58, No. 5.
 Not only, then, the elements of culture and civiliea-
tion, but the created universe itself proceeded out of that
watery abyss, that l Ldeep," as it is called in our transla-
tion of the Book of Genesis, which was at once the home
and the visiblc form of Ea. Ea was the demiurge, and
a hymn exists in which he is addressed as such under
each of his many titles. Thus he is invoked as lithe
god of pure life" "who stretches out the bright 6rma-
ment, the god of good winds, the lord of hearing and
obedience, creator of the pure and the impure, establisher
of fertility, who brings to greatness him that is of small
estate. I n places d a c u l t of access we have smelt his
good wind. May he command, may he glorify, may he
hearken to his worshippers. 0 god of the pure crown,
moreover, may all creatures that have wings and fins be
strong. Lord of the pure oracle who giveth life to the
dead, who hath granted forgiveness to the conspiring
gods, hath laid homage and submission upon the gods
his foes. For their redemption did he create mankind,
even he the merciful one with whom is life. May he
establish and never may his word be forgotten in the
mouth of the black-headed race (of Sumir) whom his
hands created. As god of the pure incantation may he
further be invoked, before whose pure approach may the
evil trouble be overthrown, by whose pure spell the
siege of the foe is removed. 0 god who knowest the
heart, who knowest the hearts of the gods that move
his compassion, so that they let not the doing of evil
come forth against him, he who establishes the assembly
of the gods (and knows) their hearts, who subdues the
disobedient. . . . May he (determine) the courses of the
stars of heaven; like a flock may he order all the gods.
 THE GODS OF BABYLONIA. 141
May he exorcise the sea-monster of chaos; her secrets
may he discover(?) and destroy for evermore. Mankind
may he raise to length of days, and may he overthrow
mischief(?) for future time. Since (their) places he
created, he fashioned, he made strong, lord of the world
is he called by name, even father Bel. The names of
the angels1 he gave unto them. And Ea heard, and his
fiver was soothed, and he spake thus : 'Since he has made
his men strong by his name, let him, like myself, have
the name of Ea. May he bear (to them) the bond of all
my commands, and may he communicate all my secret
knowledge through the fifty names of the great gods.'
His fifty names he has pronounced, his ways he has
restored; may they be observed, and may he speak as
formerly. Wise and sentient, may he rule triumphantly.
May father to son repeat and hand them down. May
he open the ears of both shepherd and flock."
The fracture which has destroyed the middle part of
the hymn makes it difficult to connect together the
earlier and latter portions of the poem. The poet, how-
ever, evidently wishes to show that the demiurge Be1 of
northernBabylonia is one and the same with the demiurge
Or "spirits of heaven," called Igigi in Assyrian, perhaps from qdgu,
"to he powerful." The name is ideographically expressed by the detor-
minative of divinity followed by " twice five." Jensen, however, has
shown (Zeitsci~riftfurAssyriologie, i. I), that whereas the Andnaki or
'cspirits of earth" were denoted by the numeral 8 (Aceadian m'a), the
Igigi were denoted by the numeral 9 (Acc. isimu). I t is difficult to
fallom his further combinations, which would connect them with the
fClm of TV. A. I. ii. 35, 37 (expressed ideogaphically by AN-NUN-on&
"the gnat divine princes"), as well as with ra%ebu, the IIeh. Rahab.
The text has been published by George Smith in the T~a~unctione
vf the Society of Biblical Archmlogy, iv. 2, and by Delitzsch in h i
Aeryrieche hesfucke.
Ea of the south. It is one of the many attempts tllat
were mado in later days to harmonise and identify the
various local deities of Chaldaea to whom in different
localities the same attributes were assigned. The task
was rendered easier by the numerous names, or rather
titles, which the several deities bore. Here Ea is accrc-
dited with no less than fifty-all, too, transferred to him
from the other ('groat gods ;"and it is by a knowledge
of them that the secret wisdom of Ea is communicated
to both gods and men. I n Babylonia, as in most primitive
oommuuities, the name was regarded as identical with
the thing which it signified ; hence the mystic importance
attached to names and the leading part they played i n
exorcisms and charms.
How a water-god became the demiurge seems at first
sight obscure. But it ceases to be so when we remember
the local character of Babylonian religion. Ea was as
much the local god of Eridu as Merodach mas of Baby-
lon, or Assur of Assyria. His connection with the water
was due to the position of Eridu at the mouth of the
Euphrates and on the shore of the sea, as well as to the
maritime habits of its population. I n other respects he
occupied the same place as the patron-deities of the other
great cities. And these patron-dcitics were regarded as
creators, as those by whose agency tho present world
had come into existence, and by whose hands the ancestors
of thcir ~vorshippcrshad been made.
This conception of a creating deity is one of the dis-
tinguishing featurcs of early Babylonian religion. &a-
kind are not descended from a particular divinity, as
t11ey are in othcr theologies ; they are crcated by him.
Tho hymn to Ea tells us that the god of Eridu v a s the
 THE aoDs OF BABYLONIA. 143
creator of the black-headed race-that ia to say, tha old
non-Semitic population whose primary centre and start-
ing-point was in Eridu itself. It was as creators that
the Accadian gods were distinguished from the host of
spirits of whom I shall have t o speak in another Lecture.
The Accadian word for " god" was dimer, which appears
as dingir, from an older dingira, in the southern dialect of
Sumer. Now dimer or dingir is merely "the creator,"
formed by the suffix r or ra, from the verb dingi or dime,
"to create." A simpler form of dimer is dime, a general
name for the divine hierarchy. By the side of dime, dim,
stood gim, gim, with the same meaning; and from this
~ e r came
b the Sumerian name of Istar, Gingirn.' Istar
is said to have been the mother of mankind in the story
of the Deluge, and as Ctula, 'l the great" goddess, she is
addressed in a prayer as I L the mother who has borne the
men with the black heads."2 It was in consequence of
the fact that he was a creator that Ea was, according to
Accado-Sumerian ideas, a dingir or l Lgod."
I n the cosmology of Eridu, therefore, the origin of
the universe was the watery abyss. The earth lay upon
this like a wife in the arms of her husband, and Dav-kina
accordingly was adored as the wife of Ea. It was through

W. A. I. ii. 48, 29. There was another dimme, or more properly

dirnma, meaning "\veak," the Assyrinn torpu, from rap4 (W. A. I . v.
29, 71). Tarpu is the Hebrew terqhim, which, as Dr. Neubauer has
pointed out, must be connected with tho Rephaim, or "shades of the
dead," and hence "prehistoric people," and signify the images of dead
ancestors. Dimma, "weak," being confounded with dimme, " eroator,"
by the Semites, caused the ideograph which denotes "a spirit" to
ncquire the (Assyrian) value of rap, from rappu, n s y n o n p of kafstrtu,
"the shade of the dead."
W.A.x iv. 61.27.
her that the oraclcs of Ea, heard in the voice of the waves,
were cornmunicatcd to man. Dav-kina is entitled l1 the
mistress of the oracular voice of the deep," and also 'l the
lady who crcatcs the oracular voice of heaven."' The
oracles delivered by the thunder, the voice of heaven,
thus became the reflex of the oracles delivered through
the roaring of the sea.
W e may see here an allusion to the doctrine of a
watery abyss above the sky, of "the waters above the
firmament," that is, of which we read in Genesis. The
sky must have been looked upon as but another earth
which floated on the surface of an ocean-stream just as
did the nether earth itself. Hence in the theology of
Eridu there was no room for a god of the sky. The
visible sky was only Dav-kina in another form.
W e can now understand why i t was that in the theo-
logy of Eridu tho Sun-god was the offspring of Ea and
Dav-kina. The name that he bore there was Dumuzi or
Tammuz, "the only-begotten one," of whom I shall have
much to say in the next Lecture. A t present I need
only remark that he was the primzval Merodach; the
Sun-god born of Ea who was called Merodach by the
Babylonians was called Tammuz (Dumuzi,) by the people
of Eridu. Perhaps Merodach is after all nothing more
than "the god from Eridu." That he came originally
from Eridu we hare alrcady seen.

TV. A. I. ii. 5 5 . 56, 59. Perhaps the latter title should rather be
rendered "the lady of ]leaven whonee the oracular vuico is created."
I n line 55, me-te, ~ h i c ish usually the equivalent of dinutu, "ornamcnt;'
takes thz ?lace of me, just as in K 4245, Rev. 4, 5, where(^^) me sng-L
and me-te-sag-L follorv one another, sag being explained by ristd and
p n i , L by tho god Mul-lil, and A N me sag by BIR.
 THE GOD@ OF BABYLOSII. 145
Tae author of the hymn to the deminrge identifies
Ea with &[fatherBel." As "the lord of heaven and
earth," Ea was indeed a Baal or Be1 to the Semites, to
whose age the hymn belongs. But the particular Be1
with whom the poet wishes to identify him was Nul-lil,
the supreme god and demiurge of Nipur (the modern
Niffer). I n a list of the titles of Ea, we find it expressly
stated that he is one with " Mul-lil the strong."' But
such an identification belongs to the later imperial age
of Babylonian history. Mul-lil was primitively a purely
local divinity, standing in the same relation to his wor-
shippers at Nipur that Ea stood to his at Eridu.
Mul-lil signifies L C the lord of the ghost-world." Lib
was an Accado-Sumerian word which properly denoted
dust-storm" or "cloud of dust," but was also applied
to ghosts, whose food was supposed to be the dust of
the earth, and whose form was like that of a dust-cloud.
The Accadian language possessed no distinction of gender,
and lil therefore served to represent both male and female
ghosts. It was, however, borromed by the Semites under
the form of lillzmm, and to this masculine they naturally
added the feminine lilatu. Originally this lilatu repre-
sented what the Accadians termed "the handmaid of
the ghost" (kel-lilla),2 of whom it was said that the li[
had neither husband nor wife;3 but before long lilatu
was confounded with the Semitic lilitu, "the night,"
and so became a word of terror, denoting the night-demon
W. A. I. ii. 55, 20.
2 In W. A. I. iv. 16. 19-20, the Assyrian has " s e r v n ~ ~oft the ghost"
(ardat li[li]) for the Aceadian kiel &in-kdra, "servant of the ]$it.
~:uvsrar,"while k i d lilla is rendered by Zilatu.
W. A. I. i i 17, 30. . . .,
.,!
L
146 LECTURE III.

who sucked the blood of her sleeping rictims. I n the

legend of the Descent of Istar into Hades, the goddess is
made to threaten that unless she is admitted to the realm
of the dead she will let. them out in the form of vampires
to devour thc living. From the Semitic Babylonians
the name and conception of Lilatu passed to the Jews,
and in the book of Isaiah (xxxiv. 14) the picture of
the ghastly desolation which should befall Idurnsea is
heightened by its ruined mounds being made the haunt
of Lilith. According to the Rabbis, Lilith had been
the first wife of Adam, and had the form of a beautiful
woman; but she lived on the blood of children whom
she slew at night.
The "lord of the ghost-world" extended his sway
over this nether earth also. He is therefore entitled
" the lord of the world," as well as "king of all the

spirits of the earth."l According to one version of the

story of the Deluge, it was hc who caused the maters of
the flood to descend from hewen, and who d e s i p e i
the destruction of all mankind. "When Mul-lil," we
are told, "approached and saw the ship (of X'isuthrosj,
he stood still and was filled with wrath against the gods
and the spirits of h e a ~ e n . '~What soul has escaped there-
from?' (he cried). 'Let no man remain alive in the
great destruction.' " It was then that Ea came forward
with words of wisdom, and protested against this attempt
of Mul-lil to confound the innocent with the guilty.

W. A. I. i. 9, 3.
2 W e seem to have here a mythological reminiscence of the fact that
Mul-lil had originally been the god of the lower world and its hosts of
spirits, and that he was consequently in opposition to the gods of light
and the spirits of the upper air.
 THE GODS OF BABYLONIA. 147
"Let the sinner alone bear his sin; let the evil-doer
bear his own iniquity." And though the wrathful god
was pacified, so that Xisuthros and his companions were
allowed to escape from their threatened death, the rescued
hero did not forget the evil intentions of Mul-lil; but
when inviting the other gods to his sacrifice after his
descent from the ark, he specially excepted the god of
Nipur. "Let the (other) gods come to my altar, but
let Mul-lil not come to the altar, since he did not act
considerately, but caused a deluge and doomed my people
ito destruction."
I n these quotationa I have called the god by his old
Accadian name, Mul-1il.l But long before this account
of the Deluge was composed, even though in its present
form it probably reaches back more than 2000 years
before the Christian era, the Aocadian Mul-lil had become
the Semitic Bel. His primitive attributes, however, still
adhered to him. He was still the god of the lower
world, whose messengers were diseases and nightmares
and tho demons of night, and from whom came the
plagues and troubles that oppressed mankind. I n a
magical text (W.A. I. iv. 1. 5, 6), Namtar, the plague-
demon, is called the beloved son of Nul-1il"-standing,
i n fact, in the same relation to Mul-lil that Tammuz does
to Ea, and in the next line Mul-lil's wife is asserted to
be Nin-ki-gal or Allat, the queen of the mighty land"
of Hades.
This magical text, however, is a good deal older than
' Mul-lil was also known w En-Iil in one of the Accado-Surnerian
dialeets. En-lil was contracted into IUil according to W. A. 1. v. 37, 21,
which explains the'IAA,vos of Damascius (for which we ahould read
IMIMO2).
L2
 the time vhcn th- Semites adopted and transformed the
deities of the Accadiaus, or at all events it expresses the
ideas of that eal.licr period. When the god of Nipur
became Semitic, his character underwent a change. As the
supreme deity of the state he was necessarily a Baal, but
the Semitic Baal embodied very different conceptions from
those which were associated with the Accadiau Mul-lil.
I t is true that, as I have just pointed out, his primitive
attributes still clung to him, but they were suieradde&
to other attributes which showed him to be the supreme
Sun-god of Semitic worship. That supreme Sun-god,
however, revealed himself to his worshippers under two
aspects; he might be either the beneficent god who gave
life and light to the world, or he might be the fierce and
wrathful sun of summer who scorches all nature with his
hcat, and sinks at night, like a ball of glowing metal, into
the darliness of the under-world. Necessarily it was
rathcr under the latter aspect that the Mul-lil of Nipur
bocamc the Semitic Bel.
This is the Belwhose cult was carried to Assyria, and
whose name is mcntioncd frequently in the inscriptions
of Nineveh, where among other titles he bears that of
"father of the gods." This is a title which he received,
not in virtue of his primitive character, but because he
had become the Semitic Bel. H e warn distinguished from
the younger Be1 of Babylon, Bel-Merodach, as BrXtravis
or BoAnOiv (BlZ-Elthd~z):lithe older Baal,"' ~vhcnBabylon
became the imperial city, and its Be1 claimed to be the
father and head of the Babylonian gods. But the dis-
' Comp. Baudissin, Sturlien rur seiizitiscl~enReligionsyescl~iclte i.
p. 274. A god Bel-lahwru, " tho older Bel," is mentioned in the insorip
may be a form of BIul-lil.
tiona of Assyria, WILD
 THE GODS OF BABYLONIA. 149
tinction, as might be expected, was not always obsei~ed,
and the older and younger Be1 are sometimes confounded
together.
The confusion was rendered the more easy by the fact
that the wife of the Be1 of Nipur was addressed as Bilat,
and thus was undistinguished in name from Beltis of
Babylon. But she was in reality, as we have seen, the
queen of Hades, Nin-ki-gal as the Accadians called her,
or Allat as she is named in the Semitic texts.' Allat is
interpreted "the uuwearied;"2 like the Homeric epithet
of Hades, dS6pav~as, '(the inflexible" divinity who ceases
not to deal on all sides his fatal blows. Her proper title,
however-that, at least, under which she had originally
been known at Nipui-was Nin-lil, "the lady of the
ghost-~orld."~It is under this name that Assur-bani-
pal addresses her (W. A. I. ii. 66) as "the mistress of
the world, whose habitation is the temple of the library1'
(i.e. the temple of Istar at N i n e ~ e h ) . ~As Allat, the

I n a magical text (TV, A. I. ii. 18, 40) Kin-ki-gal is called the wife
of Nin-azu ; but that Nin-azu is merely a title of hIul-lil is shown by
W. A. I. ii. 57,51, where "the star of Nin-azu" is identified with Adar.
In W. A. I ii. 59, 35, the wife of Nin-azu is termed N ~ ~ - N E R - D A .
a R 204, ii. 9, allattum=~~u-k118u. W. A. I. ii. 19, 6.
' &-barbar; see W. A. I. iii. 3, 40. For the meaning of barbar, "a
Xibrary," cp. W. A. I. ii. 48, 26. The word is a re-duplicated form of
bay or Gra, "to reveal," hence used in the senses of '<whita0 (W. A.I.
iu. 21, 5) or "visible" (W. A. I. iv. 6, 46), and "an oracle" (W. A. I.
iv. 19, 48). The compound ideograph BAR-BAR is interpreted tabbak
ri~~Jul, "the outpouring of a libation," in S 934, 7, and Rm. 2. 11.
149, 4, and ?n&i, 'la hero," in W. A.I. iv. 21. 30, 32. With the
latter signification it was read mas-mas,which is a title of Nerodach
(K 100,15, K 48, Obu. 18). Since, however, IIerodach is called 'Ithe
lord of BAR-BAR-ti" in K 2546, Rev. 1, it is clear that the tnro senses
of the compound ideograph were played upon, as the reading here
must he si@, "an oracle." Between the time of Sennacherih and
goddess of Hades, she was a much-dreaded and formida-
ble figure, who is described in the legend of the Descent
of Istar as inflicting upon her sister-goddess a11 the pains
and diseases which emanated from her demoniac satellites.
The unfortunate Istar, stripped of her clothing and adorn-
ments, is held up to the scorn of the lower world ; and
Kamtar, the plague-demon, is ordered by Allat to smite
her with maladies in the eyes, in the sides, in the feet,
in the heart, in the head, and, in short, in all the limbs,
Throughout the legend Namtar appears as the messenger
of the infernal queen.
I t is thus clear that, just as Eridu in southern Baby-
lonia was the primitive seat of the worship of the Chal-
dean culture-god and of the civilisation with which his
name was connected, Nipur in northern Babylonia was
the original home of a very different kind of worship,
which concerned itself with ghosts and demons and the
various monsters of the under-world. It was, in fact,
the home of that belief in magic, and in the various
spirits exorcised by the magician, which left so deep an
impression upon the religion of early Babylonia, an&
about which I shall have to speak in a future Lecture,
The analogy of Eridu would lead us to infer, moreover,
that it was not only the home of this belief, but also t h e
source from which it made its way to other parts of the
country. I n the pre-historic age, Eridu in the south
and Nipur- in the north would have been the two religions
-
centres of Babylonian theology, from whence two wholly
different streams of religious thought and influence spread

Assur-bani-pal, the library of Nineveh seems to have been transferred

irom the temple of Istar to that of Nebo; see above, p. 9.
 THE QODB OF BABYLONIA. 151
and eventually blended. The mixture formed what I
may call the established religion of Chaldea in the pre-
Semitic period.
That this conclusion is not a mere inference is shown
by tha monuments discovered at Tel-loh. Tel-loh mas
geographically nearer to Eridu than to Nipur, and its
theology might therefore be expected to be more largely
influenced by that of Eridu than by that of Nipur. And
such, indeed, is the case. Temples and statues are
dedicated to Ea, "the king of Eridu," and more espe-
cially to Bahu, a goddess who occupied a conspicuous
place in the cosmological legends of Eridu. But Mul-lil,
the god of Nipur, appears far more frequently in the
inscriptions of Tel-loh than we should have anticipated.
Nin-kharmk, L L the mistress of the mountain," and mo-
ther of the gods," in whom we may see a local divi-
nity, is associated with him as wife ; and Nin-girdu him-
self, the patron god of Tel-loh, is made his "hero" or
"champion." So close, indeed, is the connection of thc
latter with Mul-lil, that the compilers of the mythological
tablets, in a latter age, identified him with the "warrior"
god of Nipur, Adar the son of Mul-lil.
Adar, or Ninep, or Uras-for his name has been read
in these various fashions, and the true reading still remains
unknown1-played a conspicuous part in Babylonian, and

' The only form out of these three which is monumentally csta-
blished is Uras. Uras is given as the pronunciation of the second
ideograph in the name of the god (W.A. I. i i i 70, 303-207, ii. 54,
34); and in W. A. I. ii. 57, 31, Uras is expressly stated to be the name
of NIN-IP, as "god of liglit" (uddans, see i i 63, 36, where there is a
play on the Assyrian baru, "fat," and buru, "to reveal"). From ZLTm
the Assyrians borrowed their urusu, "a mourning veil" (v. 25, 60).
fi md N~S-IPwere two prim~evaldeities who in Accadio~cosmology
 152 LECTURE III.

more especially Assyrian theology. He was regarded

as emphatically the warrior and champion of the gods,
and as such was naturally a favourito object of worship
amongst a nation of warriors like the Assyrians. Indeed,
it may be suspected that the extent to which the name
of the older Be1 was reverenced in Assyria mas in eome
measure due to the favour in which his son Adar was
held. I n tho inscriptions of Nineveh, the title of b 1 hero-
god" (nausu) is applied to him with peculiar frequency;
this Was the characteristic upon which the Assyrian
ltings more particularly loved to dwell. I n Babylonia,
on the other hand, Adar was by no means so favourite a
divinity. Here it was the milder and less warlike Mcro-
dach that took his place. The arts of peace, rather than
those of war, found favour among the Semitic population
of the southern kingdom.
Originally, like Merodach, Adar had been a solar deity.
We are distinctly told that he was the meridian sun,"'
whose scorching heats represented the fiercer side of Baal-
worship. But whereas Merodach was the sun conceived
of as rising from the ocean-stream, Adar was the sun

represented the mole and fcmale principles, but the genderless character
of thc Accadinn nia, "lord" or "lady," caused the Semites to change
NIN-IP into R god and identify him with IP, that is, "Anu who listens
to praycr" (ii. 54, 35). As u signified L'lord" in Accdian, it would
seem that they further identified the first syllable of U r n s with the
1~krof Nin-Uras. IIenco "the Assyrian king," Horus of Pliny (H.R.
xss. 51, cp. xxxrii. 52), who disovered a cure for drunkenness, as
well as tho Thomas of Kodrdnos (Kist. 15, 16, cp. Sui~lasand the
Paschal Chron. p. 68), who is called the Aseyrian Ar6s and made the
son of Zames or Samns. The reading Adar is derived from the Biblical
Admmmeloeh, but it is quite certain that it i~ false, and I have retained
it in the text only on account of its employ~nentby other Assyriologists
1 W. A. I. ii. 57. 51, 76 (where he is identified with Nermer).
 TEE GODS OF BABYLONIA. 153
who issues forth from the shades of night. His wife
accordingly is "the lady of the dawn."l Like all solar
deities in Babylonia, an oracle mas attached to his shrine.
His namc is espluined t o mean " the lord of the o r a ~ l e , " ~
and one of his titles mas '[the voice" or supreme."
It was on this account that later mythologists identified
him with neb^,^ though between the Sun-god of Nipur
and the prophet-deity of Borsippa there was originally
no sort of connection. On the other hand, it must have
been his solar character that gave rise to the two curious
titles of ['lord of the date"6 and "lord of the pign6
The latter title mas naturally dropped in the Semitic
period of Chaldsean history.
Adar bears the same relation to Mul-lil that Ikferodach
bears to Ea. Each alike is the son and messenger of the
W. A. I. ii. 59, 10.
2 W.A. I. ii. 57, 17. It is clear that the compiler of the mytho-
logical list here interpreted bum, the equivalent of urm, in the sense
of "a revelation" or "orncle," and read his title in Assyria not as Masu,
"a hero," hut as Baru, "the oracular god." It illustrates the same
play upon tho ideogrnphie writing of the god'a name as that which we
tind in BAR-BAR or bras-Mas for Merodach.
W. A. I. ii. 57, 26. ' W.A. I. ii. 57, 18.
W. A. L ii. 57, 28.
W. A. I. ii. 57,39. I n K 161, i. 8, one of the remedies prescribed
for disease of the heart is sin AN ATin~es,"swine's 0esh." Rimmon,
when worshipped as MStu (Martu), was also known as kl~umuntsir,
the Aceadised farm of the Semitic kl~umtain,"a pig" (W. A. 1. i i i
68, 70). The title "lord of the pig" connects Adar with the Aras of
Greek mythology, who in the form of the wild boar slew the Sun-god
Tammuz; while the title "lord of the daten-the chief fruit of Baby-
lonia-reminds us of Cain, who was "a tiller of the ground." Under
the name of Barn, Adar was identified with iron, since the name of
"iron" was denoted in Accadian by bar, "the shining" (see W.A.I. v.
30, 52), which was written with the determinative of divinity, i n d i w
Live of the meteoric origin of the first imn worked in Bat ylonia
older god. But whereas the errands upon which BTcro-
dach is sent are errands of mercy and benevolence, the
errands of Adar are those that befit an implacable war-
rior. He contends not against thc powers of darkness,
like Merodach, for tho father whose orders he obeys is
himself the ruler of the powers of darkness; it is against
mankind, as in the story of the Deluge, that his arms are
directed. He is a solar hero who belongs to the darkness
and not to the light.
I t is thus that one of his brothers is "the first-born"
of Mul-lil, Mul-nugi, 'Lthe lord from whom there is no
return."' Mul-nugi is the lord of Hades, the god who
is called Irkalla in the legend of the Descent of Istar,
and out of whose hands there is no escape. It may be
that he is but another foim of the Moon-god, since the
Moon-god, we are told, mas also the eldest son of Mul-lil.
But the name by which the Moon-god went at Nipui.
was one that signified ' I the god of gloming fire."2 It is
curious to find the mythologists identifying this 'Lgod
of gloming fire" with Adar ; but the error was natural ;
both alike were sons of Mul-lil, and both alikc represented
the great orbs of heaven.
See the Deluge-tablet, col. i. 1. 17. I n W. A.I. iii. 68, 7, he i s
callcd "the throne-bearer of Mul-lilla," and he ~r.ouldtherefore seem to
have been one of "the throne-bearers" of the Deluge-tablet (col. ii. 45)
who " we11t over mountain and plain" carrying destrnation with them.
Irkalla seems to bo a Semitic form of a Proto-Chaldirnn word. In
% A. I.
IT . 80, ivkallum is the rendering of tho Accadiau kmda,
v. 16,
"an euclosi~re"(comp. ii. 29, 63) ; and since the queen of Hades was
known as Nin-ki-gal, "the lady of the great country," while uru-gal or
eri-gal, "thc great city," was the Accadian designation of Hades or the
tomb (W. A. I. ii. 1. 191; 30. 13), it is possible that Irl nlla represents
nn earlier Eri-galla.
W. A. I. ii. 57, 56.
 TEE GODS OF BABYLONIA. 165
The chief seat, however, of the worship of the Moon-
god was not Nipur but Ur (the modern Mugheir). Here
stood the great temple the ruins of which were partially
explored by Loftus. Already in the oldest documents
that have come from thence, the god to whom the temple
was consecrated is identified with the Moon-god of Nipur.
Already he is termed "the &st-born of Mul-lil." The
spread of the cult of Mul-lilj therefore, and of the magic
which it implied, must have made its way as far south
as Ur in a .very remote age. But we have no reason for
believing that the Moon-god of Ur and the Moon-god of
Nipur were originally one and the same. Each Baby-
lonian town,large and small, had its own local Moon-god,
whose several names are recorded on a broken tablet.'
The forms under which the Moon-god was worshipped
in Babylonia were as numerous as the forms of the Sun-
god himself.
What seems yet more singular to the oomparative
mythologist is that, according to the official religion of
Chaldsea, the Sun-god was the offspring of the Moon-god.
Such a bclief could have arisen only where the Moon-god
was the supreme object of worship. I t is a reversal of
the usual mythological conception which makes the moon
the companion or pale reflection of the sun. It runs
directly counter to the Semitic Baal-worship. To the
Semite the Sun-god was the lord and father of the gods ;
the moon mas either his female consort, or, where Semitic
theology had been influenced by that of Chaldrea, an
inferior god.
But the belief was thoroughly in harmony with n
-
theology which admitted Mul-lil and his ghost-world to
W. A. L ii. 57, 56 sp.
-
the highest honours of the pantheon. With such a theo-
logy it was natural that the sun should be regarded as
issuing forth from the darkness of night. And the moon
was necessarily associated with tho night. Indeed, in
one passage' the Moon-god is actually identified with
the plaguo-demon Namtar, who was, as we have seeu,
the messenger of the queen of hell. Moreover, the Baby-
lonians were a nation of astronomers. Their astrology
was closely allied to their magic, and the lofty tomers of
their temples were used for the observation of the sky.
I t is not wonderful, therefore, that the cult of the moon
should occupy a foremost place in their creed, or that
the moon should be conceived as a male and not as a
female divinity.
I t was at Ur, however, that the Moon-god was placed
at the head of the divine hierarchy, and it was from Ur
that the ideas spread which caused him to be addressed
as "the father of the gods." At Ur, in fact, he held
the same place that Mul-lil held at Nipur; but while
Mul-lil seems to have represented the dark sky of night,
the Moon-god was the luminary which shed light upon
the darkness. He was known at Ur as Ranak or Nannar,a
1 W. A. I. ii. 57, 70. Unfortunately, the name of the city where this
v a s the case is lost. The "Lady who decides destiny," who is idanti-
fied with the impersonal "Mistress of the gods" of Sen~iticworship
(W. A . I. ii. 55, a), introduces us to a wholly different conception, and
:he later softening of the plague-demon into a mere instrunlent of
destiny.
T h e reading is given by 82. 8-16, 1, Oh. 3. Nannakos was
aupposed to be an antediluvian king who predicted the flood (Zen.
6, 10, Steph. Byz s.v. 'Ina'vrov) ; thu name, lika the legend of the ark
a t Apalneis or of Sisythes (Xisubhros) at Hierapolis (Mombij), probably
came into Asia Minor through the medium of the Hittites. Compare
the claim of the Arkadians to be irpos;Xqvoh (Scol. Bristoph. Nub. 398r
 THE Cf01)S OF BABYLONIA. 167
a name which the Semites by a popular etymology after-
wards connected with their word namaru, ' l to see;" so
that we find Nabonidos addressing the Moon-god of
Harran as ' l the light of heaven and earth" (nannari same
u irtsitim). In later days, bot,h Nanak and Nannar, like
other of the Babylonian gods, passed into heroes and
human kings. Nannakos was transported into Phrygia,
and Nannaros became a satrap of Babylonia under the
Median monarch Artaios-a personage, it need hardly
be observed, unknown t o actual history. The Persian
legend, as handed down by Ktksias, is as follows :
"There was a Persian of the name of Parsond8s,a i n the service of
the king of the Medes, a n eager huntsman, and active warrior on foot
and i n the chariot, distinguished i n council and i n the field, and of
influence with the king. Parsondb often urged tho king to make him
satrap of Babylon i n the place of Nannaros, who wore women's clothes
and ornaments, hut the king always put the petition aside, for i t could
not he granted without breaking the promise which his ancestor had
made to Belesys. Nannaros discovered the intentions of Parsondes,
and sought to secure himself against them, and to take vengeance. H e
promised great rewards to the cooks who were i n the train of the king,
if they succeeded i n seizing Parsondes and giving him up. One day,
Parsondes in the heat of the chase strayed far from the king. H e had
already killed many boars and deer, when the pursuit of a wild ass
carried him to a great distance. A t last he came upon the cooks, who
were occupied i n preparations for the king's table. Being thirsty,
Parsondes asked for wine; they gave it, took care of his horse, and
invited him to take food-an invitation agreeable to Parsondes, who
had been hunting the whole d3y. I I e bade them send the ass which
he had captured t~ the king, and tell his own servnnts v l ~ c r eh e was.
Then he ate of the various kinds of food set before him, and drank

1 I quote from the English translation of Duncker's Historg of

Antiguifu, v. pp. 298 sq.
2 The name of Parsond4 is probably takenfrom the important town
of Parkindu, among the mountains of the Namri. on the high-road b
A. I. i. 21. 69, 70).
Ekbatnna (\I7\'.
i5S LECTURE nr.
abundantly of the excellent wine, and at last asked for his horse in
o d e r to return to the king. But they bmught beautiful women to
him, and urged him to remain for the night. He agreed, and as soon
as, overconle by hunting, wine and love, he had Sallcn into a deep
sleep, the cooks bouncl him and brought him to Nannaros. Nannaros
reproached him with calling him an etfeminate man, and seeking to
obtain his satrapy ; 11e had the king to thank that the sntrnpy granted
to his ancestors had not been taken from him. Parsondes replied that
he considered himself more worthy of the office, becausa he was more
manly and more nscful to the king. But Nannaros swore by Bcl and
Nylitta that Parsondes shoul~lbe softer and whiter than a woman,
called for the eunuch who was over the female players, and bade him
shave the body of Parsondes, and bathe and anuint him everyday, put
women's clothes on him, plait his hair after the manner of women,
paint his face, and place him among the women who played the
guitnr and sang, and to tench him their arts. This was done, and soon
Parsondes played and sang better at the table of Nannaros than any of
the women. Jleanwhile the king of the Medes had caused search to
be made everywhere for Parsondes; and since he could nowhere be
found, and nothing could be heard of him, he believed that a lion or
some other wild animal had torn him when out hunting, and laulented
for his loss. Parsondes had lived for seven years as a woman i n Baby-
lon, when Nannaros caused an eunuch to be scoorged and grievously
maltreated. This eunuch Parsondcs induced by large presents to retire
t o Media and tell the king the n~isfortunewhich had come upon him.
Then the king sent a message commanding Nannaros to give up P a r
sondes. Nannaros declared that he had never seen him. But thc,
Iring sent a second messenger, charging him to put Nnnnaros to death
if h e did not surrender Parsondes. Nannaros entertained the mes-
senger of the king ;and when the meal was brought, 150 women entered,
of whom some played the guitar, while-others blew the flute. At the
end of tho meal, Nannaros asked the king's envoy which of all the
women was the most beautiful and had played best. The envoy pointed
to Parsondes. Nannaros laughed long and said, 'That is the person
whom you seek,'nntl roleased Parsondes, who on the next day returned
home with the envoy to tho king i n a chariot. The king was asto-
nished at the sight of him, and asked why he had not avoided such
disgace by death. Parsondes answered, ' I n order that I might see you
again and by yon execute vengeance on Nannnros, which could neva!
have been mine had I taken my life.' The king promised him that
his hope should not be deceived, aa soon as he came to Babylon. But
 TIIE GODS OF BABYLONIA. 159
when be enme there, ~ a n n a r o defended
s himaelf on the ground that
Zarsondea, though in no way injured by him, had m a l i e d him, and
sought to obtain the satrapy over Babylonia The king pointed out
that he had made himself judge in his own cause, and had irnposed a
punishment of a degrading character; in ten days he would pronounce
judgment upon him for his conduct. I n terror, Nannaros hastened
Lo MitmphernBs, the eunuch of greatest influence with the king, and
promisor1 him the most liberal re~vnrds,10 talents of gold and 100
talents of silver, 10 golden arid 200 silver bowls, if he could induce
the king to spare his life and retain him in the satrapy of Babylonia.
He was prepared to give the king 100 talents of gold, 1000 talents of
silver, 100 golden and 300 silver bowls, and costly robes with other
gifts; Parsondes also should receive 100 talents of silver and costly
robes. After many entreaties, 3Iitraphernh penuaded the king not to
order the execution of Nannaros, as he had not killed Panondes, but
to condemn him in the pennlty which he wea prepared to pay Parson-
des and the king. Nant~irronin gratitude threw himself at the feet of
the king; hut Parsondcs said, 'Cursed be the mnn who first brought
gold among men ; for the sake of gold I have been made a mockery to
the Babylonians."'
After this thoroughly characteristic exampIe of the
way in which Persian euhemerism turned the mythology
of their neighbours into fictitious history, it requires an
effort to go back t o the sober facts of the old cuneiform
tablets. Nannaros, or Nannar, however, was originally
no satrap of a Median king, but the supreme god of Ur,
in whose honour hymns vere composed and a ritual per-
formed similar to that carried on in honour of Merodach
a t Babylon. Thanks to the piety of the chief scribe of
Assur-bani-pal, Istar-sum-esses, one of these hymns has
been preserved to us in an almost complete state. The
:
Accadian original is accompanied by an interlinear Semi-
tic translation, both of which the chief scribe claims to
have accurately reproduced. The hymn runs thus :1
'W. A. I. iv. 9. The translation given by Dr. Oppert of this hymr.
in his F m p m t a mytl~ologiqtcesis full of errors, and frequently mi&&=
the meaning of the liuea
 1. "Lord and pri Ice of the gods who i n heaven and earth alone
is supremo !
2. Father Nannar, lord of the firmament, prince of the gods!
3. Father Nannar, lnrd of heaven,' mighty one, p ~ i n c eof the gods!
4. Father Na~inar,lord of the moon,%prince of the gods !
5. Father Nannar, lord of Ur, prince of the goris !
6. Eathcr Xannar, lord of the Temple of the mighty Light, prince
of tlle gods !
7. Father Nnnnar, who hid~lestthe crowned disk to rise, prince
of the gods !
8. Father Nannar, who makest the crowned disk3 fully perfect,
prince of the gods !
9. Fatiler Nannar, who sweeps away with a blow invincible, prince
of the gods !
10. Strong ox, whose horn is powerful, whose limbs are perfect,
whose heard is of crystal, ahose member is full of virility ;
11. Its fruit is gcnernted of itself; its eye is bent down to behold
(its) adornrnont; its virility is never exhausted.
12. Merciful one, begetter of the universe, who founds (his) illus-
trious seat among living creatures.'
13. Father, long-suffering and full of f~rgiveness,~ whose hand
upholds the life of all mankind !
1 3 Lord, thy divinity like the far-off heaven fills the wide sea with
fear.
14. On the surfaco of the peopled carth he bids the sanctuary be
placed, he l>roelaimstheir name.
15. Father, hcgetter of gods and mGn, who ennses the shrine t o be
founded, who establishes the offering.
16. W h o proclaims dominion, who gives the sceptre, who s h d
fix destiny unto a distant d a . ~ . ~
I The Semitic translator has mistaken the sense of the original and
suplwsed that the gorl Anu was intended by the poet. IIence he iden-
tifies the hfoon-~odnibh Assbros (the firmament) nnil Aim.
2 Here again the translator has erroneously rendered "the lord Sin."

Here the translator has completely mistaken the sense of the ori-
ginal and llas re~i~lerod "royalty" !
4 Such secrns to be the meaning of the Semitic translation. The
original is : "among men far and vide he erects the suprcme shrine."
"he Accadian is literally, "long-suffering in waiting."
6 So i n the tmuslation. The original is : "who gives t l ~ esceptre t4
tkose ahose drstiny is fixed unto a distant day."
 THE GOD8 OF BABYLONIA. 161
17. First-born, omnipotent, whose lieart is immensity, and there is
none who may discover it.'
18. Firm are his limbs (2) ; his knees rest not; he opens the path
of the gods his brethren.
19. (He is the god) who mokes the light from the horizon to the
zenith of heaven, opening wide the doors of the sky, and
establishing light (in the world).
20. Father, begetter of the univeise, illuminator of living being3
.. . .sender of. ...
21. Lord, the ordainer of the laws of heaven and earth, whose
command may not be (broken).
22. Thou holdest the rain and the lightning: defender of all living
things; there is no god who hath at any time discovered thy
fulness.
23. I n heaven who is supreme1 Thou alone, tbou art supreme.
24. On earth whn i~ supreme 1 Thou alone, thou art supreme.
25. As for thee, thy will is inade known in heaven, and the angels
bow their faces.
26. As for thee, thy will is made known npon earth, and the
spirits below kiss the ground.
27. As for thee, thy will is blown on high like the wind; the
stall and the foldS are quickened.
28. As for thee, thy will is done npon the earth, and the herb
grows green.
29. As for thee, thy will is seen in the lair4 and the shepherd's
hut ; it increases all living things.
30. As for thee, thy will hath created law and justice, so that
mankind has established law.
31. As for thee, thy will is the far-off heaven, the hidden enrth
which no man hath known.6

1 I n the original : "his heart is far-extended: none shall describe

the god!'
2 The order is reversed in the Semitic translation.
R t h ~u mdkitum, which are explained in 79. 7-8.5. Other ren-
derings of u-A given in this tablet are epim, "dust ;" subat n&, "the
seat of a stranger ;"and raninu, "the nourisher." For Atu, see K 4872.
54, 7 ; it is a derivative from the root of rim, "a shepherd."
' Tarbatsu; the firat ayllsble has been omitted in the printed text
6 The original Accadian is literally : "they will extend (as) heaven,
it stretohes below (as) earth, there are none who can record (it)."
M
 32. As for thee, who can learn thy will, who can rival it?
33. 0 lord, in heavcn (is thy) lordship, in the earth (is thy)
sovereignty; among the gods thy brethren a rival thou
hast not.
..
34. King of kings, of whose . . no man is judge, whose divinity
no god resembles.
[The next three lines are too broken for tmnslation.]
38. Look with favour on thy temple !
39. Look with favour on U r (thy city).
40. Let lhc high-horn dame ask rest of thee, 0 lord.
.
41. Let the free-born man, the . . . ask rest of thee, 0 lord !
42, 43. Let the spirits of heavcn and carth (ask rest of thee), 0
lord !"
[Tlio last few lines are destroycd.]
COLOPHON.-"L~~~ its old copy copied and published.
Tablet of 1st;lr-sum-esses, chief scribe of Assur-bani-pal, the
king of legions, tho king of Bssyria, and son of Nebo-zir-esir, chicf
of the penmen."

As the original language of this hymn is the Accadian

of northern Babylonia, andnot the Sumerian of the south,
it would seem that the priesthood and population of Ur
were derived from the north, and not' from the geogra-
phically nearer region of which Eridu was the head.
This will explain the relationship they discovered be-
tmeen their own supreme deity and the god of Nipur.
Ur was either a northern colony or had become incor-
poratod in the northern kingdom,' and its local god
accordingly became the first-born of Mul-lil. It is pos-
sible that the hymns of which I have just given a
specimen were influenced by Semitic ideas ; at all events,
throughout the northern part of Chaldaea, wherever the
Accudian dialect of the north mas spoken, a strong

1 This latter is the more probable explanation, since the Accadian of

the hymn is really that artificial language which grew up in the court
of Sargon.
 TEE GODS OF BABYLONIA. 163
Semitic element seems to have existed in the population
from an early period; and of Ur of the Casdim we are
specially told that i t was the birth-place of the Semitic
Abraham.
Now Abraham, i t will be remembered, migrated from
Ur to Harran, in northern Mesopotamia. The distance
between the two cities appears considerable, and yet
there was a very real connection between them. Like
Ur, Harran also was a city of the Moon-god, and the
temple of the Moon-god in Harran rivalled that at Ur.
-

Nay, more ; Harran was as closely connected with Baby-

lonian history and religion as was Ur itself. Its name
recurs in early Babylonian texts, and is indeed of Acca-
dim origin, Khawan being the Accadian word for "road,"
and denoting the city which lay on the great highway
from Chaldma to the west. The mythologists of Baby-
lonia entitled the planet Mercury "the spirit of the
men of Harran ;"I and Nabonidos boasts of his restoration
of "the temple of the Moon-god in Harran, in which.
from time immemorial the Moon-god, the mighty lord,
had placed the seat of the goodness of his heart." Clems
show us what the image of the god was like. It was
a simple cone of stone, above which blazed the star of
the moon, such as we see depicted on the seals ar~d
monuments of Assyria and Babylonia. Sargon couples
together Assur and Harran, whoso ancient customs he
claims to have restored, and declares that he had " spread
his shadow over Harran, and by the will of Anu and
Dagon had written (again) its laws." Shalmaneser 111.
and Assur-bani-pal had rebuilt the temple of the Moon-
164 LECTURE IIL

god there which bore the Accadian name of E-Khulkhul,

I L the house of rejoicing," and neither they nor Xabo-

nidos seem to have had any doubt that the Moon-god

worshipped therein was the same as the Moon-god wor-
shipped in Assyria and Babylonia.
Whether this were primitively the case must remain
an open question. I t is more probable that the Moon-
god of Harran was originally as much a local divinity
as the Moon-god of Ur, unless, indeed, Harran had been
itself the foundation of the kings of Ur in their early
campaigns to the west. But the leading place won by
Ur at the time when its kings made themselves masters
of the whole of Babylonia, caused the Moon-god of Ur
to supplant the Moon-gods of the other cities of the
country, just as the rise of Babylon caused Merodach to
supplant the other Sun-gods of Chaldcea. With the
growth of the Semitic power in Babylonia, the influence
of the Moon-god of Ur became greater and more exten-.
sive. Naunar was now invoked as Sin-a name which
at first appears to have denoted the orb of the moon only'
-and the name and worship of Sin spread not only in
Babylonia, but in other parts of the Semitic world. Hirr
name has been found in an inscription of southern Arabia,
and Sinai itself, the sacred mountain, is nothing more
than the sanctuary "dedicated to Sin." I t may be that
the worship of the Babylonian Moon-god was brought
to the peninsula of Sinai as far back as the days when
the sculptors of Tel-loh carved into human shape tho
blocks of diorite they received from the land of Magan.
1 Whether the name of Sin is of Accadian or Semitic origin must at
present remain an open question. At all events, I caunot believe that
it ia a Semitic corruption of an Accadian Zu-en.
 THE GODS OF BABYLONIA. 166
However this may be, the Moon-god of Ur, like tho
city over which he presided, took primary rank among
the Babylonians. His worshippers invoked him as the
father and creator of both gods and men. I t is thus that
Nabonidos celebrates his restoration of the temple of
Sin at Harran : l 1 May the gods who dwell in heaven
and earth approach the house of Sin, the father who
created them. As for me, Nabonidos, king of Babylon,
the completer of this temple, may Sin, the king of the
gods of heaven and earth, in the lifting up of his kindly
eyes, with joy look upon me month by month at noon
and sunset; may he grant me favourable tokens, may
he lengthen my days, may he extend my yean, may he
establish my reign, may he overcome my foes, may he
slay my enemies, may he sweep away my opponents.
May Nin-gal, the mother of the mighty gods, in the
presence of Sin, her loved one, speak like a mother. May
Samas and Istar, the bright offspring of his heart, to
Sin, the father who begat them, speak of blessing. May
Nuzku, the messenger supreme, hearken to my prayer
and plead for me."
The moon existed before the sun. This is the idea
which underlay the religious belief of Accad, exact con-
verse, as it was, of the central idea of the religion of the
Semites. I t was only where Accadian influence was
strong that the Semite could,be brought in any way to
accept it. I t was only in Babylonia and Assyria and on
the coasts of Arabia that the name of Sin was honoured ;
elsewhere the attributes of the Moon-god were transferred
to the goddess Istar, who, as we shall see hereafter, was
ori,&ally the evening star. But in Babylonia, Sin became
inevitably the father of the gods. His reign extended
166 LECTURE 111.

to the beginning of history ; Sargon, as the representative

of the Babylonian kings and the adorer of Merodach,
speaks of <<theremote days of the period of the Moon-
god," which another inscription makes synonymous with
"the birth of the land of Assur."' As the passago I
have quoted from Nabonidos shows, Sin was more parti-
cularly the father of Samas and Istar, of the Sun-god
and the goddess of the evening star.
But who was this Sun-god who was thus the offspring
of Sin? The Sun-gods of Babylonia were as numerous
as its Moon-gods; each city had its own; who then was
the Samas who was so specially the son of the Moon-god
of Ur? The answer is not very easy to give. Geogra-
phical considerations would lead us to think of the Sun-
god of Larsa, the modern Senkereh. Larsa mas near Ur,
though on the opposite bank of the river, and its temple
of the Sun had been famous from pre-Semitic times.
Tsibit Assuri, W. A. I. iii. 11. ii. 32. Oppert is right against
Georgo Smith and Lenormaut in holding that ad2 Si~zin the first-
quoted passage (Khors. 110) can~wthe a proper namc, Adi-Ur (!). A
fragmentary tablet (quoted on p. 62 of George Smith's Cl~aZdean
Genesis, ed. Sayce) contained a legend about the foundation of the city
of Assur and its two temples, ESarra, the templo of Adar, and E-Lusu.
W e read (line 6) : "The god Assur (AN KEI) opened his month and
says; to the god Khir . . . (he speaks) : 'above the deep (elinu a ~ d )
tho seat (of Ea), before (mikhrit) E-Snrra which I have built, below
the shrine (osmtn) I have made strong, let me construct E-Lusu the
seat of (the god. . .), let me found (Zusarsid) within it his fortress.. .
when (the god) ascends from the deep thou didst prepare a place (that
.
xvns still) unfinished. . thou didst establish in Assur (D. P. PAL-BAT-
R I ) the temples of the great gods . . . .' to his father Ann even to him
(o[na slasu) (he spoke) : 'The god . . . llas (appointed?) thee over
whatsoever thy hand has made, whatever thy (hand) possesses; over
the earth that thy hand has made, whatever (thy hand) possesses : the
city of Assur whose name thou hast given (sa irizzkura mmnsu), the
place (which) thou hast made exalted for ever' (fnnididnrisamn)."
 THE aOD8 OF BABYLONIA. 167
But there is a special reason which makes it probable
that the Sun-god of Larsa was the deity whose father
was Sin. The temple of Sin at Ur, the ruins of which
are still in existence, had been founded by Ur-Bagas,
the Grst monarch of united Babylonia of whom we know.
His monuments have been met with at Mugheir, at Larsa,
at Warka, at Niffer, and at Zerghul; and his bricks
show that he was the founder--or more probably the
restorer-not only of the great temple of the Moon-god
a t Ur, but also of those of the Sun-god at Larsa, of Mul-
lil at Nipur, and of Anu and Istar at Erech. Under his
rule, therefore, the unity of the empire found its religious
expression in the union of the worship of the Moon-god
of Ur with that of the Sun-god of Larsa. As the domi-
nant state, Ur necessarily stood to Larsa and Ereoh in the
relation of a metropolis, and its god thus became the pro-
genitor of the gods of Larsa and Erech. The Sun-god of
Larsa, like the Istar of Erech, became accordingly the
child of N a ~ a orr Sin.
It was as Kur(?)-nigin-gkra, "the god who makes the
palace (of the setting sun)," that the Sun-god of Larsa
seems to have been h o w n to his worshippers in pre-
Semitic days.' But when the Accadian was superseded
by the Semite, his special name was merged in the general
title of Samsu or Samas, '[the Sun." He became the
Baal of Larsa, who differed but little, save in the name
by which he was addressed, from the other Baalim of
Babylonia.
The fame of the Samas of Larsa, however, was obscured
at an early period by that of the Samas of Sippara. Sip-

W.A.I. ii 60, 12.

 163 LECTURE III.

para in historical times was pre-eminently the city of the

Sun-god. I t was there that 6 - ~ ~ b a r a"the
, house of
histre," the great temple of the Sun-god,' had been erected
in days to which tradition alone went back, and it was
around its shrine that Semitic sun-worship in Babylonia
was chiefly centred. Sippara and its immediate neigh-
bourhood had been the seat of early Semitic supremacy
in Chaldea. It was, it is true, of pre-Semitic foundation;
its primitive name Zimbir would show this, like the name
of E-BBbara itself; and we know that Samas had once
been worshipped within its walls under the Accadian
title of Bibara or Birra. But in these remote days Sip-
1"tn 'was probably an insignificant town; at all events,
tho memory of later ages knew of Sippara only in connec-
tion with the empire of Sargon of Accad and the Scmitie
version of the story of the D e l ~ g e . ~
I n the Old Testament, Sippara appears as a dual city-
Sepharvaim, " the two Sippans." One of these has been
discovercd in the mounds of Abu-Habba by Mr. Hormuzd
Rassam, IT~IO has brought from it a monument on which

The temple of the Sun-god at Larsa mas also knomn us E-bhbara

(\V. A. I. i. 65, 42) ; its zi!j!jurrnt was called "the house of the bond
of heaven and earth" (ii. 50, 19).
According to B2rassos, Xisutl~roshad written a history of all that
ltad happened before the deluge and buried the hooks at Sippnra, where
they were disinterred after the flood by his direction?. The legend
seems to have been based partly on a pvpular etyn~ologywhich con-
nected Sippara with sipru, L ( abook" (Heb. sepl~er), partly on the fact
that the whole district was termed "the country of books," in conse-
quence of its being the seat of the librnry of Sargon, whuse city of
Aeead formed a part of the double Sippam. That the story of t h a
deluge emanated in its present form from Sippara is indicated not
only by the legend of the burial of the books, but also by the fact that
the hero of it was "a man of Surippak," a small town close to Sippara.
 THE GOD8 OF BABYLONIA. 169
is carved a curious image of the divine solar disk. The
other has been found by Dr. Hayes Ward in the mounds
of Anbar, an how's distance from Sufeirah and the
Euphrates. The fragment of a geographical tablet seems
indeed to mention no less than four Sipparas-Sippan
proper, Sippara of the desert, Sippara "the ancient,"
and Sippara of the S ~ n - g o d ;but
~ since the historical
texts know of two only-Sippara of Anunit and Sippara
of Samas-it is best to regard the three first names as
alike denoting the same place, Sippara of Anunit, the
modern Anbar. I t must have been from this Sippara
that the Euphrates received its title, L'riverof Sippara,"
since Abu-Habba is seven miles distant from the present
bed of the stream.
I n the close neighbonrhood of this double Sippara,
Sargon built or restored the city to which he gave a
name, and from which the whole of northern Babylonia
received its title of Accad. It is called Agadh6 in the
non-Semitic texts, Accad (Akkadu) in the Semitic; though
whether the name is of Semitic or non-Semitic origin
cannot at present be decided. Sargon's patronage of
literature, and the celebrated library he founded in Accad,
caused the district to be known as "the region of book^."^
A popular etymology afterwards connected the name of
Sippala itself mith sepher, "a book," and the city accord-

1 U1-dua rendered by tsdtu, TV. A. I. iv. 13, 24, and kidittu, v. 21,
14, K 4874. Obv. 21, 22 (udu d-dua wEu ul-dua-lil= In'di-it-ti tsa-a-ti);
comp. K4171. Reu. 0, 23, 28 (UDU UL-DUA-u aupar sa Enuva s a f i
BAKE).
2 Hayes Ward, Proceedings of the American Oriental &iety, Ocl.
1885.
8 W.A. I. ii. 51, 8.
170 LECTURE 111.

ingly appears in the fragments of B&r6ssosas P~ntibibla,

or " Book-town."
With the spread and fame of the empire of fhrgon,
thc worship of Samas spread and became famous also.
The empire and the cult werc alike Semitic; wherever
the Scmite planted himself, the Sun-god mas morshipped
under some form and name. The extent, thcrefoi-e, of
thc worship of the Sun-god of Sippara marks the extent
and pomer of Sargon's kingdom. The older Samas of
Larsa was eclipsed by the new deity; henceforward
Sippara, and not Lnrsa, mas thc chief seat of the adoration
of Samas in Babylonia. It is to Sippa~ain all probability
that the hymns addressed to the Sun-god belong. They
are thc procluct of an age of new ideas and aspirations.
They represent the meeting and amalgamation of Semitic
and Accadian thought. Tho scribes and poets of Sargon's
court werc partly Semites, partly Accadians; but tho
Scmites had received an Accadian education, and the
Accadians had learnt the language and imitated the style
of their Semitic mastcrs. Though the originals of most
of the hymns are written in the old language of Accad-
a languago that had become sacred t o the Semites, and
in mhich alone the gods allowed themselves to be ad-
drcssed-the thoughts contained in them are for the
most part Semitic. We have no longer to do with a
Mul-lil, a lord of ghosts and demons, nor even with an
Ea, with his charms and sorccrics for the removal of
human ills, but with the supreme Baal of Semitic faith,
the father and creator of the morld, who vas for his
adorer at the moment of adoration the one omnipotent
god. It is tllus that we -read
-.
:'
. --
1 W. A. I. iv. 19, 2.
 THE GODS OP BABYLONIA. 171
*To be recited.'-1. Lord, illuminator of the darkness, opener of
the sickly fees,
2. Merciful god, who aetteth up the fallen, who helpeth the weak,
3. Unto thy light look the great gods,
4. The spirits of earth all gnze upon thy face;'
5. The language of hosts na one word thou directest,
6. Smiting t,heir head they look to the light of the midday sun.3
7. Like 3 wife, art thou set., glad and gladdening.
8. Thou art the light in the vault of the far-off heaven,
9. Thou art the spectacle of the brond earth.
10. Men far and near behold thee and rejoice.
?.I. The great gods have smelt the sweet savour (of thesacrifice),
12. the food of the shining heaven, the blessings (of the gods).
13. He who has not turned his hand to sin (thou wilt prosper),
14. he shall eat thy food, (he shall be blessed by thee)."

'.1 "hfighty lord, from the midst of the shining heaven is thy
rising;
2. 0 Sun-god, valiant hero, from the midst of the shining heaven
is thy rising ;
3. I n the enclosure of the shining heaven is the weapon of thy
falchion.
4. Where in the shining heavens is thy palace (kuin?ni)15
5. I n the great gate of the shining heavens, when thou openest(it),

1 EN,i.e. siptu, which at the commencement of theae Semitic texts

no longer means so nuch "an incantation" as part of a service which
must be "recited" by the priest. Though some of the hymns may go
back to the time of Sargon, others, at all events in their present furm,
must be considerably later.
* "Head," in the Accadian originaL
3 I n the Semitic translation, simply "the Sun-god." The Acuadian
original is literally, "they mnko obeisance of their head, and gazing,
0 light of the midday sun."
4 W. A. I. iv. 17.
(K)ummi<h). Kummu, which properly means "a palwe," in
used specially of the palace of the Sun-god into which he returns at
sunset. Hence i t is denoted in Accadian by the thme ideographs
"hole-sun-below."
 li2 LECTURE III.

6. i n the highest (summits) of the shining heavens, when thou

passest by,
7. (the angels!) joyfully draw near to thee in prayer.. . .
8. (The ministers?) of the queen of the gods attend thee with
rejoicing.
9. The . . . . for the repose of thy heart daily attend thee.
10. The . . . . of the hosts of the earth zealously regard theo.
11. The (hosts) of heaven and earth attend thee, even thee.
[The next few lines are too imperfect to he translated.]
18. With a bond are they united together straitly, (they that) are
with thee.
19. The divine man1 on behalf of his son attends thee, even thee,
at the head.=
2 0 (Worsh&per.)-Tho lord has sent me, even m a
21. The great lard Ea has sent me, even me.
22. (Priest.)-Attend and learn his word, enjoin his command.
23. Thou i n thy course directest the black-headed race (of Accad).
24. Cast on him a ray of mercy and let i t heal his sickness.
25. The man, the son of his has committed sin and transgres
nion.
26. (Worshipper.)-His limbs are sick, sick and in sickness he liea
27. 0 Sun-god, utter thy voice a t the lifting up of my hands.'
28. (Priest.)-Eat his food, receive his sacrifice, sho~vthyself his
god.
29. Cy thine order lot hissin be pardoned, his transgression removed.
30. Let his sickness quit his body (9, and let him live.
31. hlny he live like the king !
32. On the day that he lives (again) may he reverence thy supre-
macy.

1 Does this refer to the first man, like the Yima-Kshaeta of the
Zend-Avesta 1
2 So in the Semitic translation. The original has "alone" (us&).
3 A common phrase in the bilingual poems, denoting the close attach-
ment of the worshipper to his deity. There is no connection between
this idea and that embodied in the phrase, "the sons of God" (Gen.
vi. 2), or even in the statement that Adam was " t h e son of God"
(Luke iii. 38). But compare the expression, " a son of God," i n Don.
iii. 25.
I n the oliginal : "May the Sun-god look a t the lifting up of my
band."
 TEE GOD8 OF BABYLONIA. 173
33. Like n king may thy judgment adjudge.'
34. Me also, the magician, thy servant, may thy judgment adjudge.
35. Conclusivn (of the hymn). W7ten tlie mn id up
36. (t11M is) to be recited.*-I have cried to thee, 0 Sun-god, in the
midst of the glittering heaven;
37. in the shadow of the cedar thou dwellest, and
38. thy feet are set on the bright verdure of the herb.
39. The word inclines towards thee, it loves thee as a friend.
40. Thy brilliant light illumines all men.
41. Overthrower of all that would overthrow thee, assemble the
nations,
42. 0 Sun-god, for thou art he who knoweth their boundaries.
43. Destroyer of the wicked, who inspirest the explanation8
44. of s i p s and evil omens, of dreams and baneful vampires,'
45. who turnest evil into good, who destroyest men and countries
46. that devote themselves to baneful sorceries, I humble myself(?)
before thee.
47. Of bright conl-stalks their images I have fashioned
48. who have practised magic and devised the binding spell
49. Terrify their heart and they are filled with dejection,
50. and abide thou, 0 Sun-god, the light of the mighty goda
51. With the utmost of my breath let me rejoice.
52. May the gods who have created me take my hands;
53. Purify my mouth, direct my hands,
54. do than also direct, 0 lord of the light of hosts, 0 Sun-god the
jndge."

1 KA(determinative of speech) &la ila~engile. For &a (= saladhu

see
.a [am~di]), W .A. I. ii. 39, 14. Comp. W. A. I. iv. 12. 31, 32,
and 29. 16-18, where &la is rendered dalili. Tiglath-Pileser I. calls
himself dalil ili rabi una dalali, "judging according to the judgment
of the great gods." Delitzsch ( h t z ' s Tiglalh-Pilem, p. 149) and
Zimmern (Busspsalmen, p. 74) have entirely missed the true meaning
of the expression.
3 The following incantation is in Semitic-Awrian only, and was
probably appended to the old hymn in the time of Assur-bani-pal.
NamtabbG.
4 Also called "(female) devourers of men," W. A. I. ii 32,??. Comp
the legcud of the Descent of Istar into Hades, line 19.
174 LECTURE III.

1.' "1ncnntation.-0 Sun-god, from the foundation of the sky

thou comest forth (takhkhar),
2. a god whose journeying none can (rival),
3. a god who setteth at rest his father's heart.
4. Ea (Nu-dimmud) has enlarged for thee (thy) destiny among
the gods.
5. The seat (sulit) of the earth (he has filled) into thy h a n d
6. The fear of thy divinity (overwhelms) the world
7. From the . .. .the gods are born (7).
8. The Sun-god from the midst of heaven rises."
I n the closing days of the Babylonian monarchy,
Nabonidos, after restoring the temple of the Sun-god at
Sippara, addresses him in the following words: l'O
Samas, (mighty lord) of heaven and earth, light of the
gods his fathers, offspring of Sin and Nin-gal, when thou
enterest into E-Babbara, the temple of thy choice, when
thou inhabitest thy everlasting shrine, look with joy
upon me, Nabonidos, the king of Babylon, the prince
who has fed thee, who has done good to thy heart,
who has built thy dwelling-place supreme, and upon my
prosperous labours; and daily at noon and sunset, in
heaven and earth, grant me favourable omens, receive
my prayers, and listen to my supplications. May I he
lord of the firmly-established sceptre and sword, which
thou hast given my hands to hold, for ever and ever !"
Nahonidos, the Babylonian, the peculiar protQg6 of
Merodach, could not regard Samas with the same eyes
as the old poets of the city of the Sun-god. His supreme
Baal was necessarily Merodach, whose original identity
with Samas had long since been forgotten; and Samas of
Sippara was consequently to him only the Baal of another

-
and a subject state. Samas is therefore but one of the

1 S 690, 06~.
 RIE GODB OF BABYLONIA. 175
younger gods, who illuminates his divine fathers in the
higher heaven. He shares the power and glory of his
fathers only as the son shares the authority of the father
in the human family. Nothing can illustrate more clearly
the local character of Babylonian religion than this dif-
ference between the position assigned to Samas in the
hymns and in the inscription of Nabonidos. I n the one,
he is the supreme god who brooks no equal ; in the other,
the subordinate of Nerodach and even of the Noon-god
Sin.
As Semitic influence extended itself in Babylonia, the
Sun-god of Sippara came to absorb and be identified
with the numerous local solar deities of the Chaldrean
cities. It was only where a solar divinity was wor-
shipped by the Semitic race under another name, as at
Babylon or Eridu or Nipur, or where the Semites had
already adopted another deity as the supreme object of
their worship, as at Ur, that this process of absorption
and identification did not take place. At times the local
divinity became the son of Samas. Thus the Kossrean
Sun-god Kit, who had been introduced by the Kossrean
conquest, along with other gods like Simalia and Suga-
muna, under the Semitised name of Eittum, was made
his son,' and Makhir, the god of dreams, through an
error occasioned by the want of any indices of gender in
Accadian, was termed his d a ~ g h t e r . ~

W. A. I. ii. 58, 11. The Semitic worshipper no doubt identified

the name with his own word kitturn, "right."
a W.A. I. ii. 58, 13. I n v. 70. 1. 9. 15, on the contrary, Makhir
is a god. He was the god of revelation, since a knowledge of the
future was declared through dreams. Hence the Accadian ma-gal-zu,
"knowledge of the oraclo," ia interpreted suttupasaru, "to explain a
 This absence of any marks to denote grammatical
gender, which Accadian shared with other agglutinative
languages, must have been a sore puzzle and difficulty
to the Semite when he first began to worship the gods
of his more cultured neighbours. ATin,for instance, in
Proto-Chaldaean, signifies at once I' lord" and "lady," its
primary meaning being '(the great one." But tho
whole grammatical thought of the Semite was based
upon a difference of gender. Not only mere nouns dis-
tinguished into masculines and feminines, as in our own
Indo-European family of speech; the distinction was
further carried into the verb. A masculine without a
feminine was as inconceivable to him as the man without
the woman, the husband without the wife, the father
without the mother. But as in Semitic grammar, so
also in the Semitic conception of social life, the male was
the source of life and authority, the female being but
his weaker double, the pale reflection as it were of the
man. The father was the head of the family, the supremc
creator was the masculine Bel. This was the exact con-
verse of the ideas that prevailed among the Accadians.
Here it was the mother, and not the father, who stood at
the head of the family; and in the bilingual texts wc
find that in the Accadian original the female is always
mentioned before the male, while the Semitic translator
is careful to reverse the order. Woman in Accad occu-
pied a higher position than she did, or does, among
the Semites.
The goddesses of Accad, accordingly, were independent
dream" (v. 30, 13), and kibu sakanu, "to establish a (divine) rneesage"
(v. 30, 14). Sultupasurzl may, however, bc reall su~artupusaru,"la
explain a command."
 THE GODS OF BABYLONIA. 177
beings, like the god@whose equals they were. But it was
quite otherwise with the Semitic Babylonians. Except
where they had borrowed and more or less assimilated
an Accadian goddess, their female deities were simply
the complement of their male consorts-little more, in
foot, than the grammatical feminines of the gods. We
may almost say that they were created by grammatical
necessity. he Sun-god, therefore, as we have seen in
a former Lecture, was provided with his feminine com-
plement, with his "face" or reflection, as it was some-
times termed.
The Semites gave her the general title of Bilat matati,
' L the lady of the world." It was the title of most of the
goddesses. They were seldom deemed worthy of a name
of their own; they ehone by the reflected light of their
consorts ; and as the supreme god of the worshipper was
Bel, and more especially Bil matati, " the lord of the
world," his wife was necessarily also Bilat or Beltis, and
more especially Bilat matati. Somctimes, too, she was
called Bilat ili, "the lady of the gods," in reference to
the fact that the supreme Be1 was their lord and master.
One of the Accadian solar divinities with whom the
Bilat nzatati, when regarded as the wife of Samas, was
identified, was Aor Sirrida.1 A
had originally been a

1 A biling~~nl hymn to the Sun-god, which was recited by the priests

a t sunset, has been translated by Mr. Pinches (Tr. Soc. Bibl. Arch.
viii. 2) as follows :
"0Sun-god, i n the midst of heaven, i n thy setting
may the bolts of the glorious heavens speak peace to thee !
may the door of the heavens be gracious to thee!
may llisaru, thy beloved messenger, guide thee !
, seat of thy lordship, thy greatness shines forth
A t f k ~ a r r a the
>lay .i, thy bcloved wife, gladly rroceive the6 I
Y
male divinity representing the solar disk, the lixM of
the sun" (Bir-Utu and Utu-Utu), as he mas also entitled
in Accadian. But the solar disk, the face as it were of
the Sun-god, mas his female consort, according to the
religious conceptions of the Semites, and among them,
therefore, the old Accadian god was transformed into a
goddess. A, or Sirrida, thus became a Semitic goddess,
and sank intc a colonrless representative of the female
element in the divinity. The transformation was aided

may thy heart take rest!

may the glory of thy godhead he established to thee I
Warrior? hero, sun-god, may they glorify thee !
lord of E-Pam, may the course of thy path be true !
0 Sun-god, make straight thy path, go the everlastinx road to thy
rest.
0 Sungod, of the country the judge, of her decisions the director
art thou."
The same hymn wm also ch.mted in the morning, with the substitution
of " 0 Sun-god, from the glorious heaven rising," for the first line. It
was evidently originally intended for the temple of Samas at Sipparq
hut came in later times to bo used i n the ivorship of Nebo at Eorsippa,
Nebo being reeogniscd as the local Sun-god of Borsippn.
The original Sumerian form of the name of &. was Sirrigam. I n
W. A. I. ii. 47. 21-31, we have examples of the various ways in
which it might be written : Sir-ri-@-ma, Sur-gG-ma, 'Sir-gam, 'Sir-da-111
(Accndian), Sir-da (sln-da), 'Sir-gam with thc ideopnph of the sun
inserted, ,Sir-da-m (where the ideograph of the sun has the phonetic
value of dn transferred to it). Brom line 36 it appears that A was
properly a title, meaning "the father." A gloss on line 26 reads Tsab-
Utu instead of Bir-Utu, hut this is a mistake, since tsab was Semitic,
and signified "warrior" ( e ~ i min Aecadian) and not "light." Pinches
(ProcecclFgs of the Society of Bib. A~chmology,Nov. 1885) would
connect A with Yahveh ; hut this, of course, is philologically impossible,
while the supposed instances of an Assyrian god Ya are all due to misin-
terpretation of 111s texts, and the name of the Edomite king A-rammu
does not prove that the Edomite deity was identical with the Eaby-
A
lonian. Opport's proposal to identify with Malik or Moloch finds
no support iu the mmuments.
 THE aoDs OF BABYLOSIA. 179
by the absence of gender in Accadian, to which I have
already alluded. Where there were no external signs
of gender, and where Nin-Gan, one of the epithets
applied to A,might mean indifferently "lord of light1'
or <<ladyof light,)' it was not difficult to bring it about.
One of the deities partially ahsorbed by the Sun-god
was the ancient god of Fire. Among most primitive
peoples, fire is endowed with divine attributes. I t moves
and devours like a living thing ; it purifies and burns up
all that is foul; and it is through the fire upon the altar
-the representative of the fire upon the hearth-that
the savour of the burnt sacrifice ascends to the gods in
heaven. But fire is itself a messenger from above. I t
comes to us from the sky in the lightning-flash, and we
feel it in the rays of the noontide sun. The Fire-god
tended therefore to become on the one side the messenger
and intermediary between gods and men, and on the
other side the Sun-god himself.
I n pre-Semitic times, however, the Fire-god retained
all his primeval privileges and rank. He is still one of
the leading gods or " creatorsn of the pantheon. It is
he who controls the lower spirits of earth and heaven,
and to whom the prayers of the faithful are addressed.
Thus he is celebrated in an old hymn in the following
strains :'
1. "The (bed) of the earth they took for their border,? hut the god i
appeared not,
2. from the fnundations of the earth he appeared not to make
hostility;

1 W. A. I. iv. 15.
a In the Seuitic rendering, "(In the b e 4 of the earth their necks
were taken."
N 2
 3. (to) the heaven below they extended (their path), and to tLs
heaven that is unseen they clin~bedafar.'
4. I n the Star(s) of Heaven was not their ministry ;'in Mazzaroth
(the Zodiacal signs)s was their office.
5. The Fire-god, the firstborn supreme, unto heaven they pursued
and no father did he know.
6. 0 Fire-god, supreme on high, the first-born, the mighty, supreme
enjoiner of the commands of Anu !
7. The Fire-god enthrones with himself the friend that he loves.
8. H e reveals the enmity of those seven.
9. On the work he ponders in his dwelling-place.
10. O Fire-god, how were those seven begotten, how were they
nurtured 1
11. Thosc seven in the monnLain of the sunset were born;
12. those seven in the mountain of the sunrise grew up.
13. I n the hollows of the earth they have their dwelling;
14. on tho high-places of the earth their names are proclaimed.
15. As for them, in heaven and earth they have no dwellink hid-
den is their name.
16. Among the sentient gods they are not known.
17. Their name in heaven and earth exists not.
IS. Those seven from the mountain of the sunset gallop forth;
19. those seven in the mountain of the sunrise are bound to rest.
20. I n the hollows of the earth they set the foot.
21. On the high-places of the earth they lift the neck.
23. They by nought are kuo\?n; in heaven and earth is no know-
ledge of them!'

Fire was produced in Babylonia, as in other countries

of the ancient world, by rubbing two sticks one against
the other. The fire-stick, therefore, whose point was
ignited by the friction, was regarded with special vene-
tion. The idea of l'fire" was expressed by two ideographs
(QIS-sasand QIS-BIR) which signified literally "the wood

1 So the Semitic rendering. The original has, "the heavta which

has no exit they opened!'
"phtael of idu, '' to know."
' In the original : "the match of the thirty."
 TIIE GODS OF BABYLOMA. 161
of light." This L L wood of light" was exalted into a god.
Sometimes it represents aibil or Kibir, the fire-god, some-
times it is itself worshipped as a divinity under the namc
af 'Savul (in Semitic, 'Savullu). 'Savul seems to have
been adored more particularly in Babylon ; at all events
he was identified with Merodach as well as with Samas
In those later ages whcn the cult of the Accadian fire-
god passed into the cult of the Semitic Sun-god, and his
name forms part of that of the Babylonian king 'Savul-
sarra-yukin or Saosdukhinos, the brother of Assur-bani-
pal. I t even made its way into the far west. The namcs
of the kings of Edom preserved in the 36th chapter
of Genesis throw a curious light on Edomite mythology,
and show that ' S a d of Babylon was worshipped among
the mountains of Seir. We are told that Hadad the son
of Bedad, Samlah of Masrekah or the l L Vine-land," and
Saul of Rehoboth by the river Euphrates, succeeded one
another. Now Hadad, as we shall see, was the Sun-
god of the Syrians, whom the Assyrians identified with
their own Ramman or Rimmon; and the name of his
fathm Bedad is simply Ben-Dad, l' the son of Dad, "
another form of Hadad according to the cuneiform inscrip-
tions, and possibly the same as the David of the Hebrews,
the Dido, or beloved one," of the Phoenicians. Samlah
of the " Wine-land" is the Semel&of Greek mythology,
the mother of Dionysos the Wine-god. Her Phsnician
origin has long been recopised, and her name has
recently been met with in a masculine form in a Phae-
nician inscription. Saul of Rehoboth by the river
Euphrates is, letter for letter, identical with the Babylo-
nian 'Savul, and his Babylonian origin is further betrayed
by the statement that he came Gom the Euphrates.
Rehoboth means merely the "public places" of a city;
and when we remember that in the 10th chapter of
Genesis (v. ll), Rehoboth ('Ir) is the name applied to
the suburbs of Nineveh, it seems probable that in the
Rehoboth of the Euphrates me may discover the suburbs
of its sister-city Babylon.
Let us nom turn back again to Sippara, the city whose
Sun-god swallowed up so many of the primteval deities
of Accad, like the Kronos of Hellenic myth. By the side
of Sippara of Samas, I have said, arose the twin-city of
Sippara of Anunit. The final dental shows that Anunit
was a female divinity, and shows furthermore that she
was of Semitic origin. But i t was only as a female
divinity that she came from a Semitic source. She was,
in fact, the Semitic feminine of Andna, onc of the pri-
mordial gods of ancient Accad. Andna, it would appear,
must have been adored in Sippara in pre-Semitic days,
and subsequently worshipped for a time by the Semites,
who created out of his name his female consort Anunit.
Anunit v a s identified with Istar, and thus survived,
while her lord and master, to whom she owed her very
cxistence, passed into almost entire oblivion. For this
it is possible to assign a reason. Andna signifies '[the
master," and is the masculine correlative of Inniua or
Inina, the "mistress" of the ghost-world, to whom I
have had occasion to refer before.' Like Inina, he pre-
sided over the lower world, and was eonseqnently the
local god of primitive Sippara, who corresponded to the
Mul-lil of Nipur. But the name was also a general one,

1 As Innina ~ t a n d sfor an r~ina;the vowel of an, "divine one," being

assimilated to that of Kina, Anuna stands for an nuna, "the great god."
 THE GODS OF DABYLONIA. 183
and might be applied to any of the deities whom the
Accadians regarded as specially endowed with power.
Hence it is that in a bilingual hymn the Anhnas of the
lower world are called " the great gods ;"I while another
text declares that while lithe great gods are fifty in
number, the gods of destiny are seven and the Andna
of heaven are five."% Besides the five A n h a s of the
heaven, there were the more famous Anfinas of the lower
world, whose golden throne was placed in Hades by the
side of the waters of life. They were called the An&-
na-ge, " the masters of the under-world," a term which
the Semites pronounced Andnaki. These A n h k i were
opposed to the Igigi or angels, the spirits of the upper
air, and, the real origin of their name being forgotten, took
the place of the older A n b s . In one of the texts I
heve quoted, the Semitic translator not only renders the
simple Anfinas by "An&naki," he even speaks of the
"Anhnaki of heaven," mhich is a contradiction in terms.3
W. A. I. ii. 19, 8. "The A n h s of the lower world to the upper
firmament return." The hymn must be of Semitic origin, as the A c m
dinn version shows Sen~iticinfluence. Another hymn (ii. 19. 49, 50)
declares that "the Anlinas of the lower world in the hollows I cause to
grope like swine." I n a hymn in which the Firegod is identified with
Samas, the latter is called "the judge of the Anunnaki" (K 2585,
Obv. 9).
2 K 4629, Rev.
3 Upon the analogy of A n h k i , the Semites hare added a final gnb
t u r d to several of the words they borrowed from the Accadians, like
mrwaku, "a bed," from the Acc. asurra. Similarly the a~alogyof
issakku, "a high-priest," from the Semitic root nasaku, "to pour out
libations," has called into existence other nouns with final -akku. The
Accatlian abrik, "a vizier," borrowed by the Semites under the formof
abrikkn (82. 8-16. Obu. la), whence the ab?lrBk of Gen. slii 43 helped
in the same direction. he adverbs in -h of Zimmern (13abylonis>k
Busspsalmen, p. 94), like martsaku or zaurku, should be read martsatw
184 LECTURE III.
Though Anunit was considered merely a local form
of Istar (W.A.I. ii. 49, 12), the great temple of Ulbarl
-if that is the right pronunciation of the word-which
had been erected by Zabu about B.C. 2340, preserved
her special name and cult at Sippara, from whence it
passed into Assyria. Nabonidos tclls us that he restored
the temple "for Anunit, the mistress of battle, the bearer
of the bow and quiver, the accomplisher of the commaud
of Be1 her father, the sweeper away of the enemy, the
destroyer of the wicked, who marches before the gods, who
has made (his) omens favourable at sunrise and sunset."
I n calling her the lady of battle and daughter of 13e1,
Nabonidos identifics her with Istar, an identification
which is made oven Inore plain a few lines further on
(col. iii. 42, 48-51), where he makes her the sister of
Sarnas and daughter of Sin.
This identity of Anunit and Istar brings Sippara into
close connection with Erech, the modern Warka, the city
specially consecrated to the goddess of love. Erech, wo
are told in the story of the plague-demon N ~ r r a was ,~
"the seat of Anu and Istar, the city of the choirs of the
festival-girls and consecrated maidens of Istarjn3 where
in 2 - ~ n a "tho
, house of heaven," dwelt her priests, lithe
festival-makers n~hohad devoted their manhood in order

The word is found i n Ra. i. 10,(b)mn& UL-BAR-XES A 6 u R I it7chu121,

"the lights(?) of heaven and earth kept the bond." According to
W. A.I. ii. 61, 11, the temple of Ulbnr was i n Agadhe or Accad, thus
identifying Acead with Sippara of Anunit, and suggesting that the first
foundations of the temple went back to the time of Sargon, tho father
of Naram-Sin.
9 Col. ii. 4 sq.
3 Kitsn'ti samklidfu u kharimritu sa Zstar. For sainl;lrhtu (nnw),
cornp. Lev. xxiii. 40, Deut. xii. 18.
 TEE GODS OF BABYLONIA. 185
that men might adore the goddess, carrying swords,
carrying razors, stout dresses and flint-knives,"' "who
minister to cause reverence for the glory of Istar." * Erech,
too, was the city with whose fortunes the legend of
Gisdhubar was associated; it was here that he slew the
bull Anu had created to avenge the slight offered by
him to Istar ; and it was here in Uruk duburi, "in Erech
the shepherd's hut," that he exercised his sovereignty.
-

Erech is thus connected with the great epic of the Semitic

Babylonians, and it is probable that its author, Siu-liqi-
unnini, was a native of the place. However this may be,
Erech appears to have been one of the centres of Semitic
influence in Babylonia from a very early period. The
names of the kings stamped upon its oldest bricks bear
Semitic names, and the cxtent to which the worship of
Istar as developed at Erech spread through the Semitic
world points to its antiquity as a Semitic settlement.
It was not of Semitic foundation, however. Its carliest
name was the Accadian Unu-ki or Unuk, 'I the place of
the settlement," of which the collateral form Uruk does
not seem to have come into vogue before the Semitic
period. If I am right in identifying Unuk with the
Enoch of Genesis, the city built by Kain in commemora-
tion of his first-born son, Unuk must be regarded as
having received its earliest culture from Eridu, since
Enoch was the son of Jared, according to Gen. v. 18, and
Jared or Irad (Gen. iv. 18) is the same word as E r i d ~ . ~

Naspadl~rinas naglabi dupie pie ttsuni.

' Sa ana suplukl~kaptat D. P. Isfar itakkds.
' Zeitschrtjt jiir Keilscknjtforacl~ung,ii. 4 , p. 404, where I further
suggest that the name represented by the two varying forms of Methu-
selakh and Methusael should be Mutu-sa-ilati, "the husband of the
186 LECTURE 111.

The local god of Erech, howbver, was not En, the god
of the river and sea, but Ana, the sky. Thus whereas
at Eridu the present creation was believed to have origi-
nated out of water, the sky being the primseval goddess
Zikum or Zigara, mother alike of Ea and the other gods,
at Erech the sky was itself the god and the creator of the
visible universe. The two cosmologies are antagonistic
to one another, and produced manifold inconsistencics in
the later syncretic age of Babylonian rcligion.
But it was not in Erech alone that the sky was con-
sidered divine. Throughout Chaldrea, Am, " the sky,"
goddess," i.e. the Sun-god Tammuz, the husband of Istar. H e had s
shrine i n the forest of Eridn, while Istar mas thc presiding deity of
Erech. Lamech ~ ~ o ube l dthe Scrnitic equivalent of Larnga, n name of
the Moon-god, according to ii. 47.66, when represented by the character
which had the pronunciation of n r ~ ~ anangarv,
r, i n Semitic (3. 572).
Nag<'-r is probably a dialectic forlu of Lamga. I n S769. 1, 2, the ideo-
graph preceded by AR, 'clord('i~renderedin the Semitic line by g u ~ g t ~ n u .
Cp. " N G - n a p r , the great workman (nngar) of heaven," 1 . A. I. iv.
'
25,27. Adah and Zillah, thc wives of Lamech, would correspond with
the Assyrian edu and tsillu, "darkness" aud "shade." Jahal and Jubal,
the sons of Lamech, are merely variant forms of the same word, which
ia evidently the Assyrian obl?c, "son" (from ababr, "to bring down"),
like Abel (as Dr. Oppert long since pointed out). Ablu refers us to
"the only son" Tammuz (W.A. I. ii. 36, 54), who was " a shepherd"
like Jabal and Ahel, and whose untin~elydeath was commemorated by
t h e musical instruments of Jobal. I n Kypros, i n fact, he was known as
the son of Kinyras, a name that reminds us of the kinndr, or "harp."
Adonis-Tammuz, i t was said, was slain by Arss i n the form of a boar,
and Ares was identified with the Babylonian god Adar or Uras (see
above, p. 152), "the gdd of the pig," whose name (AN-EAR) was used ideo-
graphically to denote "iron," in curious parallelism to the fact that
Tubal-Cain, the son of Lameeh, was tho "instructnr of every artificer
i n brass and iron." There arc some mho would aver that the Tubnl-
Cain of Genesis is b u t the double of Cain, and that i t was he and wt
his father Lamech who had slain the "young man" (yeled, Assyrian
ilattu, a title of Tammuz). Adar, it may he noticed, was "the lord of
the date," and therefore of agriculture (see above, p. 153).
 TRE GODS OF BABYLONIA. 167
received worship, and the oldest magical texts invoke
"the spirit of the sky" by the side of that of the earth.
What distinguished the worship of Ana at Erech was
that here alone he was the chief deity of the local cult,
that here alone he had ceased to be a subordinate spirit,
and had become a dingir or "creator."'
Of this pre-Semitic period in the worship of Ana we
know but little. It is only when he has become the Anu
of the Semites and has undergone considerable changes
in his character and worship, that we make our first true
acquaintance with him. We come to know him as the
Semitic Baal-samaim, or "lord of heaven," the supreme
Baal, viewed no longer as the Sun-god, but as the whole
expanse of heaven which is illuminated by the sun.2
How early this must have been is shown by the exten-
sion of his name as far west as Palestine. I n the records
of the Egyptian conqueror Thothmes III.,in the 16th cen-
tury before our era, mention is made of tho Palestinian
town of Beth-bath, "the temple of Anat," the female
double of Anu. Another Beth-Anath was included
within the borders of the tribe of Naphtali (Josh. xix.

1 W e must not forget that in many passages in the Proto-Chaldmn

literature ana denotes simply "the sky," and not a divine being at all,
though the Semitic translators, misled by the determinative of divinity
with which the word is written, have usually supposed i t to represent
the god Anu.
a Compare the Phaenician nccount of the creation as reported by
Philo Byblius : "Of the wind Kolpia and of his wife Baau (i.e. Balm,
buhu), which is interpreted night, mere begotten two mortal men, Aibn
and Protogonos so called, and Aibn discovered food from treea. Thoae
begotten from these were called Geuos and Genea (1 Kain), and inho-
bited Phaenicia, and when grcat droughts came they stretched forth
their hands to heaven, towards the sun, for this they supposed to be
the only god, t'le lord of heaven, calling him Beel-samin.'
188 LECTURE III.

38); and Anathoth, whosc nanic shows us that, besides the

Ashtaroth or "Astartes," the Canaanites venerated their
local goddesses under the title of "Anats," was a city of
the priests. Anah or Anat mas the daughter of the Hivitc
Zibeon and mother-in-law of Esau (Gen. xxxvi. 1, 14),
and by her side wc hear of Anah or Anu, the son of the
Horite Zibeon, ~vho"found the mules (or hot-springs) in
the wilderness as he fed the asses of Zibeon his fathcr."
But Anu did not make his may westward alone. I n thc
Assyrian inscriptions Anu is coupled with Dagan, l Lthe
exalted one,"' whose femalc consort seems to harc been
Dalas or Salas. Thus Assur-natsir-pal calls himself the
beloved of Anu and Dagon ;" and Sargon asserts that hc
'(had extended his protection over thc city of Harran,
and, according to the ordinance of Anu and Dagon, had
written down their laws." Here Dagan or Dagon is
associated with Harran, the half-way house, as it wcrc,
bctmeen the Semites of Babylonia and the Semitcs of thc
west. From Harran we can tracc his name and cult to
Phcenicia. Beth-Dagon was a city of Asher, in the neigh-
bourhood of Tyre and Zidon (Josh. xix. 27), and thc
fragments of PhilBn Byblios, the Greek translator of thc
Phcenician writer Sankhuniathon, tell us expressly that
Dagon vas a Phcenician god. That the statement is
genuine is made clear by the false etymology assigned to
the name, from the Semitic ddgdn, 'l corn."2 But it was

1 W. A. I. iv. 20,16 ; 79. 7-8. 68. The Accadian da means "sum-

nit" (W. A. I. v. 21. 45. 6 ; ii. 26, 49), and pan is the participle of
tho substantive verb. I n W. A. I. iii. 68, 21, Dagon is identified with
Mullil For his wife Ddas or Snlas, see W. A. I. iii. 68, 22.
3 "Ouranos, succeeding to the kingdom of his fither, eontrseted
ma~.riagewith hi8 sister G6, and had by her four sons, 110s (El), wha
 THE aoDs OF BABYLONIA. 189
among the Philistines in the extreme south of Palestine
that the worship of Dagon attained its chief importance.
Here he appears to have been exalted into a Baal, and
t o have become the supreme deity of the confederate
Philistine towns. W e hear of his temples at Gaza
(Josh. xvi. 21-30) and at Ashdod (1 Sam. v. 1sp.), as
well as of a town of Beth-Dagon, and we gather from
the account given of hi image that he was represented
as a man with head and hands.
It is probable that the worship of Anu migrated west-
ward along with the worship of Istar. The god and
goddess of Erech could not mell be dissociated from one
another, and the spread of the worship of the goddess
among the Semitic tribes brought with it the spread of
the worship of the god also. I am inclined to think
that this must be placed at least as early as the age of
Sargon of Accad. The worship of Istar found its way to
all the branches of the Semitic family except the Arabic ;
and, as we shall see in a future Lectue, the form of the
name Ashtoreth, given to the goddess in Canaan, raises
a presumption that this was due, not to the campaigns
of the early Babylonian kings, but to the atill earlier
migrations of the Semitic population towards the west.
The old sky-god of the Accadians must have become the
Semitic Anu at a very remote period indeed.
But it was the sky-god of Erech only. It does not
follow that where the divine Ana, or " sky," is mentioned

is called Kronos, and Betylos (Bethel), and Dagon, which signifies

.
corn, and Atlas. . . Kmnos gave (a concubine of Ouranos) in marriage
to Dsgon, and she was delivered and called the child UernaroBn .. ..
And Dagoa, after he had found out broad-corn and the plough, %vaa
called Zeus Arotrioa"
 in the Accadian texts, the god who became the Semitic
Anu is referred to, even though the Semitic translators
of the texts imagined that such was the case. There
were numerous temples in Chaldaea into ~vhosenames the
name of the deified sky entered, but in most cases this
deified sky was not the sky-god of Erech. It is only
where the names have been given in Semitic times, or
wherc the Accadian texts are the production of Semitic
literati composing in the sacred language of the priests,
like the monks of the Middle Ages, that we may see the
Anu of the mythological tablets. Without doubt the
Semitic scribes have often confounded their Anu with
the local sky-god of the ancient documents, but this
should only make us the more cautious in dealing with
their work.
The original sky-god of Erech denoted the visible sky.
He is opposed to the visible earth, and was consequently
in most of the Chaldean cities an inferior deity, subor-
dinate to a Mul-lil, an Ea or a Sun-god, who ruled over
the sky and the earth. But when tho Accadian Ana
became the Semitic Anu, he assumed a more spiritual
character. I t was no longer the visible heaven that was
represented by him, but an in~risibleone, above and
beyond the heaven that we behold. Henceforward "the
heaven of Anu7'denoted the serene and changeless regions
t o which the gcds fled when the deluge had broken up
the face of the lower heaven, and which an Assyrian poet
calls l L the land of the silver sky." It mas to this spiri-
tualised heaven that the spirit of Ea-bani, the friend of
Gisdhubar, ascended, and from which hc gazed placidly
on the turmoil of the earth below; and it mas from his
scat therein that Auu assigned their places in the lo~ver
 THE CtODS OP BhBPLONIA. 131
heaven to Samas, Sin and Istar, the Sun, the Moon and
the Evening Star, according to the legend of the seven
wicked spirits.
But the spiritualisation of Anu did not stop here. As
a Semitic Baal he had become a supreme god, the lord
and father of the universe. It was only a step further,
therefore, to make him himself thc universe, and to resolve
into him the other deities of the Babylonian pantheon.
We read occasionally in the hymns of "the one god."
"The ban, the ban," a poet writes, personifying the
priestly sentence of excommunication, like the Ara of
Bskhylos or the divine burden of Zechariah (ix. l), l Lis
a barrier which none may overpass;' the barrier of the
gods against which they cannot transgress, the barrier of
heaven and earth which cannot be changed; the one god
against whom none may rebel; god and man cannot
explain (it); it is a snare not to be passed which is
formed against the evil, the cord of a snare from which
there is no exit which is turned against the evil." The
conception of Anu, however, as "the one god" was
pantheistic rather than monotheistic. The cosmological
deities of an older phase of faith were in the first instance
resolved into him. I n place of the genealogical, or gnostic,
system which we find in the account of the Creation in
days, we have a pantheistic system, in which Lakhama
and the other primeval forces of nature are not the
parents of Anu, but are identified with Anu himself.2 It
is easy to conceive how the old deity An-sar, 'l the upper
firmament," with all its host of spirits, might be iden-
' W. A. I. iv. 16, 1.
W. A. I. ii. 54, 40, "Lakhma is Anu, the god of the hosts ol
heaverr and earth" So in ii. 54, 34, &c., and iii. 69, 1.
 192 LECTURE 111.

tified with him ; but when we find Uras also, the Sun-god
of Nipur, made one with Anu, ' l the hearer of prayer,"
and the eagle-like Alala, the bridegroom of Istar and
double of Tammuz, equally resolved into the god of
Erech, it is plain that we have to do with an advanced
stage of pantheism. This monotheistic, or rather pan-
theistic, school of faith has been supposed by Sir Heniy
Rawlinson to have grown up at Eridu ; but the fact that
it centres round the name of Anu points rather to Erech
as its birth-place. How long it flourished, or whether it
extended beyond a narrow group of priestly thinkers, we
have no means of ascertaining. It is interesting, how-
ever, as showing that the same tendency which in Assyria
exalted Assur to the position of an all-powerful dcity
who would brook neither opposition nor unbelief, among
the more meditative Babylonians produced a crude system
of pantheism. Whatever question there may be as to
whether the pure and unmixed Semite is capable of ori-
ginating a pantheistic form of faith, there can be little
doubt about it where the Semite is brought into close
contact with an alien race. The difference between the
Assyrian and the Babylonian was the difference between
the purer Semite and one in whose veins ran a copious
stream of foreign blood.
The early importance and supremacy of Erech in
Semitic Babylonia caused its god to assume a place by
the side of Ea of Eridu and Mul-lil, the older Bel. It
is possible that the extension of his cult had already
begun in Accadian days. The Ana, or Sky-god, to whom
Gudea at Tel-loh erected a temple, may have been the
Sky-god of Erech, more especially when we remember
the connection that existed between Ereeh and Eridu on
 TIIC GODS OF U~BYI.OSIA. 193
Ihe one hand, and between Tel-loh and Eridu on the
other.' However this may be, from the commencement
of the Semitic period Anu appears as the first member
of a triad which consisted of Anu, Bcl or Mul-lil, and Ea.
His position in the triad was due to the leading position
held by Erech; the gods of Nipur and Eridu retained
the rank which their time-honoured sanctity and the
general extension of their cult had long secured to them;
but the rank of Anu was derived from the city of which
he was the presiding god. The origin of the triad was
thus purely accidental ; there was nothing in tho religious
conceptions of the Babylonians which led to its formation.
Once formed, however, i t was inevitable that a cosmolo-
gical colouring should be given to it, and that Anu. Be1
and Ea, should represent respectively the heaven, the
lover world and the watery element. Later ages likened
this cosmological trinity to the clemcntal trinity of the
Sun, the Noon and the Evening Star; and below the triad
of Anu, Be1 and Ea, was accordingly placed the triad of
of Sumns, Sin and Istar. But this secondary trinity
never attracted the Babylonian mind. Up to the last,
as we have seen, Sin continued to be the father of Samas
and Istar, and Babylonian religion remained true to its
primitive tendency to dualism, its separation of the divine
.world into male and female deities. The only genuine
trinity that can be discovered in the religious faith of
earlp Chalda?a mas that old Accadian system which con-
ceived of a divine father and mother by the side of their
son the Sun-god.
-
Tho ir!lportntien of the worship of Istnr into Tel-loh, w i t l ~her
tetu!,;~of E~tlna,or "house of heaven," would, hornever, fi~llyaccount
for the importation of the worship of Anu at ?,he some timo.
0
194 LECTURE III.
The Semitic Anu necessarily produced the feminine
Anat, and as necessarily Anat was identified with the
earth as Anu was with the sky. I n this way the Acca-
dian idea of a marriage union between the earth and the
sky was adapted to the newer Semitic beliefs. But wc
must not misunderstand the nature of the adaptation,
Anat never became an independent deity, as Dav-kina,
for example, had been from the outset; shc had ncl
separate existence apart from Anu. She is simply a
Bizat matuti, "a mistrcss of the world," or a Bilat ili, " a
mistress of the gods," like the wife of Be1 or of Samas:
she is, in fact, a mere colourless representation of the
female principle in the universe, with no attrihtes that
distinguish her from Anunit or Istar except the single
one that she was the feminine form of Ann. Hence
it is that the Canaanites had not only their Ashtaroth.
but their Anathoth as well, for the Anathoth or " Anats"
differed from the Ashtaroth or L'Ashtoreths" in little
else than name. So far as she was an active power, Anat
was the same as Istar; in all other respects she mas
merely the grammatical complement of Anu, the goddess
who necessarily stood at the side of a particular god.
There are still two other gods of whom I must speak
before I conclude this Lecture-Nergal, the god of Cutha,
and Ramman or Rimmon, the air-god. Nergal occupies
a peculiar position. He was the local deity of the town
called Gudua, "the resting-place," by the Accadians-a
name changed by the Semites into Kutu or Cutha-which
is now represented by the mounds of Tel-Ibrahim. For
reasons unknown to us, the necropolis of Cutha becamo
famous at an early time; and though the Rabyloniau
kings, like the kings of Assyria and Judah, were buried
in their own palaces,' it is probable that many of their
subjects preferred a sepulchre in the neighbourhood of
Cutha.
The original name of the god of Gudua was Nerra or
Ner, a word which the Semitic scribes render by gasru,
"the strong one," and less accurately nanzru, "the bright
one."Z Later legends had much to say about this ancient
hero-god. Like E t h a , his throne was placed in Hades,
where he sat crowned, awaiting the entrance of the dead
kings of the earth. But the hero-king of the myths mas
one and the same with the god whom his primitive wor-
shippers at Gudua made king of ardli or Hades. He
was, in fact, the personification of death. Hence his
title of "the strong one," tho invincible god who over-
powers the mightiest of mortal things. The realm over
which he ruled was iLtliegreat city" (uru-gal); great,
indeed, it must have been, for i t contained all the multi-
tudes of men who had passed amay from the earth.
Like the city over which he ruled, the god, too, was
himself "great." He came, therefore, to be familiarly
known air Nergal-Nirmal in the dialect of Accad-" the
great Ner," or hero." A punning etymology connected
his name with "the great city" (uru-gal), as if it had
been Ne(r)-uru-gal, "the Ner of Hades." But he was
also '(king of Cutha," as well as of the desert" on
-
' See the dynastic fragment published by George Smith ic the
Buns. Sac. Bib. Arcla. iii. 2, lines 27, 29, 30, 32, 34, 37.
W.A. I. iv. 9, 36. Nw is rendered m m m in K4245, Re". 13
(where "the god of the high voice" is said to be ner). A play seems
to be intended on gir (ngir), "the lightning-flash," which was npimrfa
in Assyrian, rcndered by ner in W. A. I. iv. 5, 15. Numrn in tho
Accado3ernitic of northern Babylonia was written in rebus fashion
NUM-om, ie. num-nzir. N e m was pronounced Ngirra; hence the gloss
Irra.
0 2
l!)6 LECTURE 111.

whose borders Cutha stood and where its necropolis was

probably situated; while other titles made him ((king of
heaven," l1 the king who marches before Ann," ('the
Iring Nerra," and ' I the mighty sovereign of the deep."'
A t Cuthn he had been known in pre-Semitic days as
Aria, "the founder," and his worshippers had called him
Allamu and Almu, the god "who issues forth in might."2
I3ut his most frequent appellation is U-gur, the god of
4 L the fal~hion,"~and under this name he tended to become
separate from Nergal, the god of the tomb, and to be
regarded as, like the Sun-god Adar, the champion of the
gods.
It mas as the death-dealing lord of Hades that Nergal
first beonme l Lthe hero of the gods,'' ' L who marches in
their front." The metaphor was taken from the champion
who, l i e Goliath, places himself before his comrades and

1 TV. A. I. ii. 54, 5. The title "king of heaven" must go back to

days when the sky-god of Erech mas as yet unknown at Cuthe, while
the title "great king of the ileep" indicates a connection with Eridu.
I n Phcenieia, \ve are told, he was 1;nown as Sar-rahu, "the great king,"
and among the Shuites on the vostern hank of the Euphrates as Emu.
Emu is 1etti.r fur letter tho national god of tho Ammonites, Ammi,
\vhich, as Dr. Neubauor has ~llorvn,appears as 'Am i n such Hebrew
names as Jeniho-am and Rchabo-am.
2 Allam-ta-en. Allai,~may bo connected with alam, "an image,"
which prnhably has the satno root as alu4 " a colossus," alal or aZa,
" a demon," alala, "the Sun-god," who mas afterwards identified with
Anu, and alim, " a steer," literally <'thestrong animal." But the worii
also seeuis to have been reail 'Solim (see Ur.A. I. ii. 61. 72, 73).
3 IV. A. I. ii. 2, 342. A s Ugur, the god was also worshipped as
'INergal of tho Mbdhi," or "apparitions" (W. A. I. iii. 67, 70). I n
later tin~esthe name may have been diviried into U-gur, "lord of the
glrr," which wooid then have been confounded with gul; "the deep"
(in Sumerian), one of the titles of Ea being En-gur, "lord of the deep"
(\V.A. I. ii. 58, 53).
 m GODS OF BABYLONIA. 197

challenges the enemy t o combat. I t is thus that we read

in the story of the Deluge, when the flood of rain and
destruction is described as coming upon the guilty world :
" Rirnmon in the midst of (heaven) thundered, and Neba
and the Wind-god went in front ; the throne-bearers went
over mountain and plain; Kergal the mighty removes
the wicked; Adar goes in front and casteth down."'
As lord of Hades, too, he was made the son of Mul-lil.
A hymn (K 5268), the colophon of which tells us that it
was composed in Cutha, begins with the words : "Let
Nergal be glorified, the hero of the gods, who comcth
forth as the strong one, the son of Mul-lil." I n the same
hymn, Marad is declared to be his city, from which we
may infer that Marad was near Cutha. Its protecting
divinity, however, was, strictly speaking, Lugal-thda,"the
royal offspring," or perhaps '<valiant king," a personi-
fication of the thunder-cloud and lightning ; but it is
evident from the hymn that he had been identilied with
the death-dealing god of Cutha. Of Laz, the wife of
Nergal, we know little or nothing. Her name survived
as the local divinity of Cutha, but her office and attri-
butes were taken by Allat. Even Nergal himself as
the lord of Hades belongs rather to the Accadian than
to the Semitic period. Among the Bemites he was the
hero and champion of the gods, and as such the destroyer
of the wicked, rather than the king of death who slays
dike the wicked and the good. The sovereignty of
Hades had passed out of his hands, and he had become

1 I t was in this capacity also that he appem as Nerra, the plague-

demon (misread Lubara by George Smith), whose adventures fornled
the subject of a long poem.
198 LECTURE III.

the companion of the solar Adar and the manior of the

gods of heaven.
Under his old name of Ner, however, a curions remi-
nisccncc of his primitive character lasted down to late
times. In the hymns and other poetical effusions, me
not unfrequently come across the phrase, '' mankind, the
cattle of the god Ner." I have already d r a m attention
to the agricultural nature of early Chaldrcan civilisation,
and the influence that agriculture had upon the modes
of thought and expression of the population. Not only
was the sky regarded as the counterpart of the Baby-
lonian plain, and the heavenly bodies transformed into
the herds and flocks that fed there, but the human
inhabitants of the earth mere themselves likened to the
cattle they pastured and fed. One of the earliest titles
of the Babylonian kings mas " shepherd," reminding us
of tho Homeric . r o ~ p i vha&, "shepherd of nations;'' and
in the Epic of Oisdhubar the sovereign city of Erech is
termed the dubur, or "shepherd's hut." Just as the
subjects of the king, therefore, were looked upon as the
sheep whom their ruler shepherded, so too mankind in
general mere regarded as the cattle slain by the god of
death. They were, in fact, his herd, whom he fed and
slaughtered in sacrifice to the gods.'
But apart from phrases of this kind, mhich embalmed
the beliefs and ideas of a half-forgotten age, Nergal of
Cutha was a decaying godhead. Eis pomcr waned with

1 So in a fragrnenta~.yhymn composed by order of Assur-bani-pal on

the occasion of an eclipse of the moon, mrtnhind are called "the people
of the black heads, the living assembly (liuhl~nrna),istt>, tile cattle
( p l ) of the god Ner, the reptiles (naminasse^)[whonl] thy [governance]
has overlooked" (I<2836, Obv. 11-13).
 THE cto~8OF BAEXLONIA. 199
the rise and growth of Semitic influence in Babylonia.
He thus formed a strong contrast to the god of the air
and wind, whose cult belongs essentially to the Semitic
period.
The primitive inhabitant of Babylonia paid a special
worship to the winds. He beheld in them spirits of good
and evil. He prayed for ('the good wind" which cooled
the heats of summer and brought moisture to the parched
earth, and he saw in the storm and tempest, in the freez-
ing blasts of winter and the hot wind that blew from the
burning desert, "the seven evil spirits." They were the
demons ('who had been created in the lower part of
heaven," and who warred against the Moon-god when
he suffered eclipse. They were likened to all that was
most noxious to man. The first, we are told, was "the
aword (or lightning) of rain ;" the second, l1 a vampire ;"*
the third, " a leopard ;" the fourth, " a serpent ;" the
-fifth, l La watch-dog" (?); the sixth, "a violent tempest
which (blows) against god and king;" and the seventh,
a baleful wind." But their power caused them to be
dreaded, and they were venerated accordingly. It was
remembered that they were not essentially evil. They,
too, had been the creation of Auu, for they came forth
from the sky, and all seven were "the messengers of Ann
their king." I n the war of the gods against the dragon
of chaos, they had been the allies of Merodach. We
read of them that ere the grcat combat began, the god
-
Umntgdlu, expressed by ideographs thnt signify "the solitary
monster." It denoted n f.~bulousbeast which "devoured the carpsea
of the dead" (W. A. I. ii. 19,62), and was therefore not exactly a "om-
pire, which devoured the living, but corresponded mther t~ one of the
creatures ~ucutionedin Is. xm. 21, 22, xxxiv. 14.
"created the evil wind, the hostile wind, the tempest,
the storm, the four winds, the seven winds, the whirl-
wind, the unceasing wind." When Merodaeh had slung
forth his boomerang1 and hit the dragon, ' I the evil wind
that seizes behind showed its face. And Tiamat (the
dragon of the sea) opened her mouth to swallow it, but
(the god) made the evil wind descend so that she eoulcl
not close her lips; with the force of the winds he filled
her stomach, and her heart was sickened and her mouth
distorted." Down to the closing days of the Assyrian
empire, the four winds, '' the gods of Nipur," were still
worshipped in Assyria (W.A. I. iii. 66, Rev. 26), and
Saru, the Wind-god, is mentioned as a separate divinity
in the story of the Deluge.
Among the winds there was one whose name awakened
feelings of dread in the mind of every Babylonian. This
was the tempest, called matu in Aeeadian,2 and abub in
Semitic. It was the tempest which had been once sent
by Be1 to drown guilty mankind in the waters of a deluge,
and whose return as the minister of divine vengeance
was therefore ever feared. As each year brought with it
the month of Sebat or January, with its '' curse of rain,"
the memory of that terrible event rose again in the Baby-

1 The word means literally "the cord of a snare.* Zimmern there.

fore thinks of "net," but the sculptures show that a boomerang is
meant.
8 Tlre word is written with the determinative of water A. It is prc-
bahly a contraction of Martn, since in the name of the god who after-
wards came to correspond to the Semitic Ramman, the first syllable is
represented by the character which usually has the value of mar. But
we know from another character which ha3 the same value that the
same word could assnmc in different dialectr or periods of Accadian the
varying forms of nal, mar a i d ma.
 TEE GODS OF BABYLONIA. 201
lonian mind. M$tu was a god whose favour had to be
conciliated, and whose name accordigly appears on
numbers of early cylinders.
But though M$tu was thus specially identified with
the great tempest which formed an era in Babylonian
history, it was not forgotten that he was but one of several
storm-gods, who were therefore spoken of as "the gods
M$tu."' Like the clouds, they were children of the sea,
and mere thus included in the family of Ea. It is possible
that this genealogy was due to the systematising labours
of a later day; but it is also possible that the gods M$tu
were primarily adored in Eridu, and that Eridu, and not
Surippak, was the original city of the Chaldrean Noah.
It is at least noticeable that the immortal home of the
translated Xisuthros was beyond the mouth of the Eu.
phrates, near which Eridu was built.
If Eridu were the birth-place of Mitu, it would explain
why the god of the tempest mas also the god of the
western mind. Elsewhere in Babylonia, the western
wind blow from across the desert and brought heat with
it rather than rain. But in those remote days, when the
northern portion of the Persian Gulf had not as yet been
filled up with miles of alluvial deposit, a westerly breeze
could still come to Eridu across the water. I n a peni-
tential psalm,2 Mitu, " the lord of the mountain" (mulu
mursamma-lil), whose wife, "the lady of the mountain,''
is mentioned on the monuments of Tel-loh, is invoked
along with his consort Gubarra, Ea, "the sovereign of
heaven and earth and sovereign of Eridu," Dav-kina,
Merodach, Zarpanit, Nebo and Nana-in short, along

1 W.A. I. ii. 66. 41, 42. W.A. I. iv. 21, a.

with the gods of Eridu and the kindred deitiea of Baby-
lon. It is true that the Matu of this psalm is not the
Mktu of the west, but of the eastern mountains of Elam;
we have seen, however, that more than one M8tu was
worshipped in primitive days, and it is the cradle and
starting-point of the name which we are now seeking tc

But whether or not Eridu were really the first home

of the cult of a god (or gods) Matu, it was with the
west that he came to be chiefly identified. Titnim, the
old Accadian name of tho land of Canaan, became the
land of Matu, which the Scmites, who faced the rising
sun in their prayers, rendered by Akharru, "the hinder
oountry." E i s worship was carried by Aramean tribes
across the desert to Syria and Damascus. But before
this happened, a change had taken place in the character
of M&tu himself. He had ceased to be Accadian and
had been transformed into a Semitic god, absorbing into
himself at the same time the name and attributes of
another deity.
This other deity was the god of the town of Muru, who
represented the air, more especially the atmosphere when
lighted up by the rays of the sun. His Accadian name
was Meri, l L the exalted" or " glorious," known also as
Mer-mer, "the very glorious." He represented what the
Semitic Babylonians termed the saruru, or 'L shining fir-
mament." His Accadian name was literally translated
into Semitic as Ramanu, "the exalted one," which later
generations connected witha root signifying "to thunder,"
and so wrote Rammanu (for Ramimknu), ,, "the thun-
derer." The Hebrew Masoretes started yet another false
etymology. They identified the word with rinzmon, " a
 THE OODB OF BABYLONIA. 203
pomegranate," and punctuated i t accordingly in the pas-
sages in which it occurs in the Old Testament. As,
however, the form Rimmon has thus become familiar to
English ears, while Ramman is of strange sound, it is
best to adhere to the Hebraised form of the god's name,
it1 spite of its ctymologioal incorrectness. Rimmon, therc-
fore, and not Raman or Ramman, is the form which I
shall employ in these Lectures.'
Now Rimmon, as wc learn from the books of Kings,
was the supreme god of thc Syrians of Damascus. He
was there identified with the Sun-god Hadad, the all-
powerful Baal of the northern Syrian tribes. As far
south as the plain of Jezreel, according to Zechariah
xii. 11, the worship of Hadad-Rimmon mas celebrated,
and Hadad-Rimmon is but a compound form which ex-
presses the identity of Rimmon and Hadad. The same
fact is made known to us by the Assyrian inscriptions.
Not only has Mr. PinchesBbrought to light a series of
four documents belonging t o the beginning of the reign
of Nabonidos, in which mention is made of a Syriaii
named Bin-Addu-natanu or Ben-Hadad-nathan, "the son
of Hadad has given;" we find also the names of Aramsean
chieftains written with the ideographs which denote the
Assyrian Rimmon, but pronounced, as variant copies of
the texts inform us, as Dadda or Dadi. Thus we read
of a North-Arabian prince called Bir-DQda,and the Ben-
Hadad of Scripture appears as Dadlidri, the Biblical

1 Tho name of Ramman i s preserved in the S6asrmos of Kt&siss,

which represents the Somas (Sawus)-Rammnn of tha monuments,--
a sufficient indication of the way in which the god's name was pro.
nounced in Assyria.
Guide to flu Nhroud C e n M Saloon, pp. 92, 93.
 IIadad-ezer, in the records of Shalmaneser 11. The name
made its way to the non-Semitic tribes of the Taurus.
4, Komagenian sovereign bears the name of Kigiri-Dada,
which appears also under the abbreviated form of Giri-
Uadi; and Dalilu was a Kaskian or Kolkhian king in
the time of Tiglath-Pileser 111.; while Dadi was a ruler
of Khubuskia, to the south-west of Armenia. That Hadad
was adored even in Edom is shown by the names of the
Edomite kings, Hadad the son of Bedad, and Hadad the
adversary of Solomon.
I n Bedad, which stands for Ben-Dad, the exact equiva-
lent of Ben-Hadad, we meet mith the same shortened
form of the name as that which we find in the Assyrian
inscriptions. I t is possible, therefore, that it was confused
mith another title of the Sun-god in Canaan, Dad or David,
l L the beloved one," the feminine correlative of which is

found in the familiar Dido. Dido was the goddess of

Carthage, not unnaturally confounded, by the piety of
later ages, with Elissa, the foundress of the city. Like
Hadad of Edom, David of Israel will thus have borne a
name which the people about him applied to t,heir sove-
reign god. It may be that those scholars are right who
believe that the real name of the sweet psalmist of Israel
was El-hanan or Baal-hanan ; if so, David will have been
a popular title derived from a popular appellation of the
Deity. H e wiil thus have shared the fate of his son and
successor, whose true name Jedidiah was changed into
Solomon-the name of the old Semitic "god of peacev-
when David sat at rest within the walls of his new
capital, Jerusalem, the city of "peace," and had rest from
his enemies on everv sidc.'
1 See above, p. 57.
 TIIE GODS OF BABYLOSII. 205
Hadad, Addu or Dadda, never superseded the native
name of Ramanu (Ramman) in 13ab~loniaand Assyria,
and remained foreign to the last. Ramsnu, however, was
sometimes addressed as Barqu or Barak, " the lightning;"
and it is possible that antiquarian zeal may have also
sometimes imposed on him the Accadian title of Meru.
He grew continuously in popular favour. I n Semitic
Babylonia, and yet more in Semitic Ass+, his aid was
constantly invoked; and, like Anu, Be1 and Ea, he tended
as time went on to become more and more national in
character. Ramman is one of the least local of Baby-
lonian gods.
This was due in great measure to the nature of his
origin. He began as the amalgamation of two distinct
deities, the wind-god and the air-god, and the extension
af his cult was marked by the absorption into his person
of the various deities of the winds adored by the older
faith. He continued to grow at their expense. The
spirits of the winds and storms sank lower and lower ;
and while the beneficent side of their operation attached
itself to Ramman, there remained to them only that side
which was harmful and demoniac.
The evolution illustrates the way in which the Baby-
lonian sought to solve the mystery of evil. The divine
powers he worshipped had once been alike the creators
of good and the creators of evil ; like the powers of nature
which they represented, they had been at once beneficent
and malevolent. By degrees, the two aspects of their
character came to be separated. The higher gods came
to be looked upon as the hearers of prayer and the
bestowers of all good gifts; while the instruments of
their vengeance and the inflictors of suffering and misery
206 LECTURE III.

upon man were the inferior spirits of the lower sphere.

But the old conception, which clcrived both good and evil
from the same source, did not wholly pass away. Evil
never came to be regarded as the antagonist of good; i t
was rather the necessary complement and minister of good.
The supreme Baal thus preserved his omnipotence, while
at the same time the ideas of pain and injustice mere
dissociated from him. I n his combat mith the dragon of
chaos, Merodach summons the ([evil wind" itself to
his assistance; and in the legend of the assault of tho
seven wicked spirits upon the Moon, they are nevertheless
called "the messengers of Anu their king." Nerra, the
god of plague and destruction, smites the people of Baby-
lonia on account of their sins by the command of the
gods, like the angel with the drawn sword whom David
saw standing over Jerusalem at the threshing-floor of
Araunah; and in the story of the Deluge it is because
of the wickedness of mankind that the flood is brought
upon the earth. The powers of darltncss are degraded
from their ancient position of independence, and either
driven, like Tiamat, beyond the bounds of the created
world, or reduced to the condition of ministers of divine
wrath.
If me mould realise how widely rcmoved is this con-
ception of them as the instruments of divinc anger from
that earlier view in which they are mere elemental
powers, in themselves neither good nor evil, me cannot
do better than compare these legendary compositions of
thc Semitic period with the old Accadian hymns that
relate to the se~~esharmful spirits. Let us listen to one,
for instance, which probably emanated from Eridu and
applied originally to the '' MBtu gods:"
 THE QODS OF BABYLONIA. 'LO7
3 "They are the destmctive reptiles, even the winds that create
evil !
2. as an evil reptile, aa an evil wind, do they appear!
3. as an evil reptile, aa an evil wind, who marches in front arc
they !
4. Children monstrous (gitmaluttc), monstrous sons are they I
5. 3lessengen of the pest-demon are they !
6. Throne-bearers of the goddess of Hades are they !
7. The whirlwind (mdtu) which is poured upon the land are they !
8. The seven are gods of the wide-spread heaven.
9. The seven are gods of the wide-spread earth.
10. The seven are gods of the (four) mnes'.
11. The sevcn are gods seven in number.'
12. Seven evil gods are they !
13. Seven evil demons are they !
14. Seven evil consuming spirits are they f
15. I n heaven are they seven, in earth are they seven !"'
Another poet of Eridu, in a hymn to the Fire-god,
speaks of the seven spirits in similar language :
1 The Semitic translator misrenden: "gods of the hosts (of tho
firmament)."
V.A. I. iv. 1. ii. 65-iii. 26. The hymn is interrupted by a
magical text, a later portion of it being quoted further on (2. v. 30-69)
aa follows :
1. "Seven are they, seven are they !
3. I n the hollow of the deep, seven are they I
3. (In) the glory of heaven, seven are they !
4. I n the hollow of the deep in a palace grew they up I (In the
.
original, "from the hollorv . . . came they forth").
5. Male they are not, female they are not !
6. They are the dust-storm, the travelled ones (1) are they 1
7. Wife they possess not, child is unborn to them.
8. Order and kindliness know they not.
9. They hearken not to prayer and supplication.
10. From tha horse of the mountain came they forth.
11. Of Ea are they the foes.
12. Tho throne-hearers of the gods are €hey.
13 To troub:e the canal in the street are they s e t
14. Evil are they, evil are they!
15. Seven are they, seveu aro they, seven doubly said are they!"
 L'O god of Fire," he asks, "how were those seven bcgotter., how
grew they u p ?
Those seven in the n~ountainof the sunset were born ;
those seven in the mountain of the su~lriscgrew up."
Throughout they aro regarded as elcmental powers,
:ind thcir truc character as destructive nrinds and tcrnpests
is but thinly veilcd by a cloak of poetic imagery. But
it will he noticed that they already belong to the harm-
ful side of nature; and though the word which I have
rendered "evil," a&er the example of the Semitic trans-
lators, mcans rather "injurious" than " evil" in our sense
of the word, they are already the products of night and
darkness; their birth-place is the mountain behind which
the sun sinks into the gloomy lower world. I n the 22nd
book of the great work on Astronomy, compiled for Sar-
gon of Accad, they are termed "the seven great spirits"
or galli,' and it is therefore possible that they had already
been identified with the "seven gods of destiny," the
Anhna-ge or L L spirits of the lower morld," of the cult of
Nipur.
In their gradual dcvclopn~cntinto the Semite Rimmon,
the spirits of the air uudcrwcnt a change of parcutage.
Matu, as we have seen, nras, like his kindred wind-gods
of Eridn, the offspring of Ea. But thc home of the wind
is rather the slry than the dccp, and Meri, "the shining
firmament," was naturally associated with the sky. When
Ana, lLthc slq," therefore, became thc Semitic Anu,
Rimmon, who united in liimsclf Matu and Meri and other
local gods of mind and mcather as well, was made his
son. I t is possible that thcre was another cause working

1 V, A. I. iii. 62, 12. Gallu was a loan-word from the Sumeriap

gull&, 71zzl77a in Aeeadian.
 THE aoDs OF BABYLONIA. 209
towards the same result. I n Syria, Rimmon mas iden-
tified with Hadad the Sun-god, and there are indications
that in parts of Babylonia also he had at one time a solar
character. As Meri (or Meru), he could cnsily pass into
a solar divinity, more especially as the re-duplicated
bfer-mer, "the most glorious,.' was a title of the meridian
Sun, who was identified in later days with Adar of Nipur,'
while it was also the name of Rimmon himself as adored
in one of the smaller towns of Chaldea.2 We are told,
moreover, that Rimnon was the god who had gone under
the Accadiau appellation of Utu-edina-g&ba, '(the ever-
glowing sun of the d e ~ e r t . " ~The elements, therefore,
existed among the Babylonians, as well as among the
Aramceans, out of which Rimmon could have been trans-
formed into a solar deity; it was only the stronger non-
Semitic influence which caused them to be displaced by
the associations and conceptions that confined his sphere
to the air. Rimmon, accordingly, among the Babylonians
and Assyrians, is the god of winds and cloud, of thunder
and lightning, of storm and rain; he is the inundator
who is called upon to corer the fields of the Lpious and
unjust with water, and to pour his refreshing streams
into a thirsty land. His wife went by the Accadian

W. A. I. ii. 57, 76.

W. A. L ii. 48, 35. " Neho, the binder of law," is also identified
with "the god Mermer" in TV. A. I. ii. 60, 37, but this was in refer-
ence to Nebo's original character as the god of the visible universe, who
bound its scveral parts together. When mmmer is explained by mkl&,
"storm," in W.A. I. v. 11, 46, nothing more is meant than that the
god hfermer had come to represent the storm. I t is an illustration
of the caution needed in dealing with the statements of the awalled
lexical lists.
W. A. I. ii. 48, 30.
P
210 LECTURE 111.

name of Snla, "the merciful" (?).I As her husband had

been identified with "the lord of the mountain," so she
too was identified with ('the lady of the m o ~ n t a i n , "to
~
whom Gudea had built a temple at Tel-loh. As "lady
of the mountain," however, she was more strictly the con-
sort of the Sun-god of Eridu ; and a mythological tablet
speaks accordingly of a I' Sala of the mountains, the wifb
of Merodach."3 I t is to Zarpimit, the wife of Merodach,
again, and not to Sala, that Nebuchadnezzar refers, when
he tells us how he '' built in Babylon the House Supreme,
the temple of the lady of the mountain, for the exalted
goddess, the mother who had borne" him. Sala and
Zarpanit, therefore, must once have been one and the
same divinity.

1 The Aecadian equivalent of rimind, "mareiful," is written with

the ideographs sag or sa, "heart," la1 or la, " filling: and dud or du.,
"extending" (W. A. I. iv. 9, 27, &c.). Rut the final character is pro-
bably a determinative only, giving the idea of "long-suffering," i n
which case we should read sala instead ofsalada I n W. A. I. iv. 19,
41, the word is apparently written phonetically, as sail-lil-cia; if so, we
must read saglal instead of sala. The name of tlie goddess might then
be explained as 'I woman," sala having this meaning in Aceadinn. The
name seems to he interpreted 'ctlle goddess of reptiles" (,ml& and
nastsr), as well as ' I the lady of the place of gold," i n W. A. I. ii 57,
33 (where, by the way, the character DIL has the meaning of "place,"
~vhiahi t has i n Amardian or " Protomedic," and in GIS-DIL-TE, the ideo-
graphic mode of writing yuzn, " a throne"). T l ~ emountains, more
especially those of the north, were "the land of gold"
2 W. A. I . ii. 57, 33.

8 I n W. A. I. iii. 67, 34, Sala is stated to be "the wife of Mnl-lil

i n the ghost-world." But this seems to refer only t o Mnl-lil aa tho
Semitic Bel, a Sun-god who rules among the shades below. I t is thus
that she is called tho wife of Duzu or Tam~nuz( i i 67, 3 4 ) like A (ii
5 12). She was, in fact, originally tlie goddess of the Sun, and cou-
seqnently her connection with Itamman must have been the result of
his amalgamation with Mer or Menuer.
 THE GOD8 OF BAEIYLONIA. 211
Sala was, furthermore, the '<lady (or exalted lady) of
the desertn-a title which brings to one's recollection
the similar title of Rimmon, as '<the ever-glowing sun
of the desert-land." I t is under this title that she is
addressed in a penitential psalm, where she is named,
not Sala, but GubBra, "the fire-flame," and associated
with N&tu (Mato), "the lord of the mountain."' As
the other deities invoked along with her are Ea and
Dav-kina, Nerodach and Zarpanit, Nebo and Tasrnit,
while the whole psalm is dedicated to Nana, the goddess
of Erech, it is clear that the psalm is the composition
of a worshipper of Nana and native of Erech, whose gods
were the gods of Eridu and those who claimed kindred
with them.
W e may, therefore, see in the primitive Sala the female
consort of the Sun-god of Eridu-the original, in fnct, of
the Babylonian Zarpanit, who became identified on the
one side with the "lady of the mountain," and on the
other with the wife of Meri, the Itbright firmament" of
the starry sky. Her name, GubLra, points to her solnr
connection, and makes it probable that she was not the
moon-which does not seem to have been regarded as
a goddess in any part of Babylonia-nor the d a m , but
the evening and morning star. This will explain why
it is that she was known as the goddess of the mountains,
over whose heights Venus aroso and set, or as the mistrcas .
of wisdom and hidden treasure, or, again, as the goddess
of tho copper hand.2 Other mythologies have stories of
--
W.A.I.iv.Zl,No.2.
5 W. A. I. ii. 57, 35. The Sun-god Savitnr is callcd "the golden-
handed" in tho Veda, a term explainell io later Sanskrit literature by
the statcmrllt that tho hand of the god had been cut at a sacrifice and
P2
312 LECTURE II.

a solar hero whose hand has been cut off aud replaced
by one of gold and bronze, and it is in the light of such
stories that the epithet must he explained. W e are
expressly told that Sala of the copper hand mas the wife
of Tammuz, the beautiful Sun-god of Eridu;' and we
lrnow that Tammuz, the son of tlic River-god Ea,2 was
thc spouse of Ittar, the evening star. What wonder,
then, that her later huiband Rimrnon should have become
the Sun-god of the Syrians, whose untimcly death was
mourned in the plain of Jezreel, as the untimcly death
of his doublc, the Babylonian Tammuz, mas n~ournedby
the momcn of Phcenicia and Jerusalem ?
I must reserve the story of Tammuz and Istar for
another Lecture. W e have almost completed now our
survey of the principal deities of Babylonia, of those who
in the struggle for existence outdistanced their compeers,
and iu the official inscriptions of Assyria and later Baby-
lonia appear at the head of the divine hierarchy. Furely
local in their origin, their worship gradually extended
itself ehicflg through the influence of the cities that wor-
shipped thcm, and absorbed at the same time the local
cults that came in their may. The adoption of Accadian
forms of worship by the Semites mas accompanied by a
process of generalisation and systematisation. The rcli-
gion of Accad was adapted to the religious illens of the
Semites, and was transformed accordingly. The Baalim of
the Semite took the place of the dingirene or l' creators" of
the Accadian. The Sun-god assumed a new and impor-

r~plnced1 9 a golrlcn one. The Teutonic Tyr is sin~ilarlyone-handed,

and tho Keltic Nuad with the silver hand offers a close pnrnllel to the
Chaldman goddcss mith the copper hand.
1 Mr. A. I. ii. 57, 34. a W. A. I. ii. 56, 31.
 TEE GODS OF BABYLONIA. 213
tant place. Whcrcver the Semite was wholly triumph-
ant, wherever he succeeded in founding an ernpirr, as at
Sippara and Babylon, the Sun-god acquired undisputed
sway. Wherever the older population maintained its
ground, as at Nipur or Eridu, the older deities, leavened
and transformed though they may have been by Semitic
thought, still continued to hold their own. I n places
iike Erech, whcre Accadian and Semitic influences seem
to have long struggled for the mastery, the old sky-god
remained indeed in namr, but mas changed into a Semitic
Baal.
But the process of transformation was long, and it
aeeded many centuries before it was complete. TYe
have glimpses out of the distant past of a time w h c thc
two populations livcd side by side in peace or mar, fight-
ing, trading and intermarrying, of Semitic conquerors
filling their courts with Accadian scribes and patranising.
the study of Accadian literature, and of Accailian clynasties
rising at times in Semitic states. Babylonia in those
days must have afforded a close parallel to Egypt during
the centuries of Hyksos dominion. The Scmitic invaders
of Egypt soon submitted to the spell of the higher culture
in the midst of which they found themselves. They
borrowed the titles of the Pharaohs; they patronised the
learning of their Egyptian subjects; and mhile asserting
the supremacy of their own Baal Sutekh, they yet identi-
fied him with the Egyptian Set and adopted the divinities
of the Egyptian pantheon. The learned court of an
Apepi Ra-aa-user, which produced one of the tmo treatises
on Egyptian geometry that have survived to us, offers a
close parallel to the court of a Sargon of Accad, which
 witnessed the compilation of the standard Babylonian
works on astrology and terrestrial omens.
But there mas one important differcnce between Egypt
and Babylonia. With the help of Nubian allies, the
Egyptians of the south succccded, after five hundred
years of submission, in driving the Semitic strangcr from
the northern land hc had made his own. Tho older
population of southern Babylonia was ncver so fortunate.
The Semite had come into Chaldi~anot only as a warriot.,
but as a tradcr as well. He had planted himself too
firmly in the cities of the north to be ever expelled. In
Genesis we see R'imrod, the representative of Semitic
domination, establishing his kingdom, not only in Babel
and Erech and Accad, but also in Calneh or Kulunu in
Shinar (Sumer) of the south. And a time came when
Calneh ceased to be the only statc of Sumcr wliich
ackno~vledgcdthe supremacy of the foreigner. Eridu
itself, the sacred city of an immemorial past, the primal
home of Chaldaean culture, became Semitic, and t h e
mouarchs of Babylonia assumed the imperial title of
kings of Accad and Surncr.
But all this happened long before the age of Kham-
muragas, with whom the history of the city of Babylon
begins. The Babylonia of Khammnrays diffcrs but
little from the B ~byloniaof Nabonidos. The religious
system of the country is already fully formed. Kay,
more; already in the remote age of Sargon of Accad
there are indications that thc process of assiulilation and
absorption had long been at work. Thc son and snc-
eessor of Sargon w,~sNaram-Sin, "the beloved of the
Moon-god," a sign that tho Jfoon-god of Ur \vas even
 TIIE GODS OF BAEYI.OSIA. 216
~ o inw favour in the court of Accad. I n fact, it must
have been among the priestly literati of Sargon that the
union of Accadian and Semitic religious belief toolc defi-
nite shape. I t marked the union of the Accadian and
Scmitic elements in the pop~ilationunder Semitic rule.
I t is possible that some of the mythological tablets in
which an attempt is made to liarmonise the deities of thc
various local cults and to bring them into genealogical
order, may go hack to this early date. It is more pro-
bable, however, that they all belong to that later period
when northern and southern Babylonia had long formec!
an united monarchy.
Unchecked, the tendency of Semitic religious thought
would have been to resolve the gods of the popular faith
into one supreme Baal, by the side of whom was throned
his colourless double or wife. This tendency actually
found expression in certain cases. But the cities of
Babylonia had too venerable a history to allow their local
deities to he thus confounded and lost, and the non-
Semitic element in the population, though less and less
represented in official documents, placed a check upon it.
It mas the genealogical theory, resuscitatcd in after times
in the Gnostic doctrine of emanations, which obtaincd
most favour. The gods became a fumily, and their
temples palaces in which attendant spirits ministered to
their wants.
At the head of the pantheon stood the trinity of Ann,
Bel of Nipur and Ea. The order in which they were
ranked indicates the relative periods at which the three
gods and the cities which originally worshipped them
became the property of the Semitic race. The rise of
Babylon; howcver, brought with it the displacement of
the older Bcl of Kipur. He was forced to yield to his
younger rival Bcl lIerodach, causing endless confusion
to the Babylo1ii;ln mythologists.
Around tho three chief gods were grouped the multi-
tudinous deities which Accndiau superstition or Semitic
piety had i n ~ ~ e n t cand
d drcamed of. Assur-natsir-pal
declares that thcre were " 65,000 great gods of heaven
and earth;" and though we may doubt whether the
Assyrian liiug was not indulging in a little royal esag-
geration, it is certain that the task of enumerating them
all would have exhausted the most indefatigable of
priestly scribrs. Besides the numberless minor deities of
the towns and villages, there mere the divine titles out of
which new gods had been evolved ; dirinities which owed
their existence to tho linguistic or literary errors of the
Semites; and, finally, foreign gods like Kittum and Suma-
liya of theKossreans, orLagamar of Susa. As if this goodly
host wore not enough, phrases from the ritual of tho
temples were elcvated to the rank of gods. &-sagil, for
instance, the temple of Merodach at Babylon, mas deified
under the name of " What does my lord eat ?" and the
spirit of 6 - ~ a g i lwas known as l L What does my lord
drink?"' while the divine porters of the temple mere
termed respectircly '' the binder of the waters of the god
of the sea," and ''tho giver of water for (purifying) the
hand."2 When we remember how the background of
this vast pantheon was filled with the obscure deities and
spirits of the ancient Accadiau cult, whose names survived
in magical charms and exorcisms, while the air above was
occupied by the " 300 spirits of heaven,', and the earth

1 W.A.I. ii. 56. 16. 17. W. A. I. ii 5G. 18. 19.

 TIIE GODS OF BABTL0SI.L 217
belcrw by the 600 spirits of earth," we begin to realisc
the force of the expression which made the supreme gods
rulers of the " legions" of earth and sky. Bil kissat, "the
lord of liosts," wns n phmse full of significance to tho
believing Babylonian.
It would bc useless to waste our time over dcities who
never obtained a prominent place in the official hierarchy
of the gods, and of vhom we know little beyond the names.
Nowand again, when the Assyrian kings made a tiiumphal
march through Babylonia, they sacrificed to the gods of
the cities through vhich they passed, and we hear of
Latarak the son of Anu, of Subulu, or of Utsur-amat-Sa;
but they probably knew as little about them as we do.
It is only from local documents like contracts and boun-
dary-stones that we can expect to learn anything about
such deities as Supu of D6r, and Tug of Kis with the
dragon's face, and what we learn will seldom throw
much light on Babylonian religion as a whole. When
Nebuchadnezzar gathered the gods of Babylonia into his
capital in token that tho god of Babylon was henceforth
lord of all the Chaldaean gods, with two exceptions it is
only to deities like Sin and Samas, Rimmon and Gula,
that he erected shrines. "The lady of the house of
heaven" and "the divine son of the house" are the only
divinities whom he mentions that bear unaccustomed
names, and they are doubtless merely titles of Beltis and
Adar or Nergal.
As long, however, as these multitudinous deities were
believed to exist, so long was it also believed that they
could injure or assist. Hence come such expressions as
thosc which meet us in the Penitential Psalms, "To the
god that is known and that is unknown, t o the goddess
 that is known and that is unknown, do I lift my prayer."
Hence, too, the care with wh'icl~the supreme Baal was
invoked as I' lord of the hosts of heaven and earth," since
homage paid to the master was paid to the subjects as
well. Henec, finally, the fact that the temples of the
higher gods, like the Capitol at Rome, became gathering-
places for the inferior divinities, and counterparts on the
earth of "the assembly of the gods" in heaven. That
curious product of Mandaite imagination, the Booli
of Nabathean Agriculture," which was translated into
Arahic by Ibn Wahshiya in the 10th century, sets before
us a curious picture of the temple of Tammuz in Babylon.
"The images (of the god^)," it tells us, L'congregatrd
from all parts of the n-orld to the temple of el-Ask61
(%-~agil) in Babylon, and betook themselves to the temple
(haikal) of the Sun, to the great golden image that is
suspended between heaven and earth in particular. The
image of the sun stood, they say, in the midst of the
temple, surrounded by all the images of the vorld. Nest
to it stood the images of the sun in all countries; then
those of the moon; next those of 3fars; after them the
irnages of Mercury ; then those of Jupiter; next of
Vcnus; and l ~ s of t all, of Saturn. Thereupon the imago
of the sun began to bcwail Tamniuz and the idols t o
mrcl1; and the image of the sun uttered a lament over
Tain~nuzand narrated his history, whilst the idols all
wept from the setting of tho sun till its rising at the end
of that night. Then the idols flew away, returning to
their omn countries."
The details are prohahly borrowed from the great temple
of pre-Mohammedan Dlecc~,but they correspond very
faithfully with what we now know thc interior of one of
 THE GODS OF DABYLOSIA. 210
the chief temples of Babylonia and Assyria to have been
like. Fragments have been preserved to us of a tablet
which enumerated the names of the minor deities whose
images stood in the pri~~cipiti
temples of Assyria, attend-
ing like servants upon the supreme god. Among them
are the names of foreign divinities, to whom the catholic
spirit of Babylonian religion granted a place in the
uatioilal pantheon when once the conquest of the towns
and countries over which they presided had proved their
submission to the Babylonian and Assyrian gods; even
Khaldis, the god of Ararat, figures among those who
dwelt in one of the chief temples of Assyria,' and whose
names were invoked by the visitor to the shrine. The
spectacle of such n temple, with the statue or symbol of
the supreme Baal rising majestically in the innermost
cell, and delivering his oracles from within tho hidden
chamber of that holy of holies, while the shrines of his
wife and offspring mere grouped around him, and the
statues of ministering deities stood slave-like in front,
was a fitting image of Babylonian religion. The gods
many and lords many" of an older creed still survived,
but they had become the jealously-defined officials of an
autocratic court. The democratic polytheism of an earlier
day had become imperial. Be1 mas the counterpart of
his vicegerent the Babylonian king, with this difference,
that whereas Babylonia had been fused into an united
monarchy, the hierarchy of the gods still acknowledged
more than one head. How long Anu and Ea, or Samas
and Sin, mould have continued to share mith Merodacl~
the highest honours of the official cult, we cannot say;
..
1 W. A. I. iii. 66, Rev. 7.
the process of degradation had already begun wbea
Babylonia ceased to be an independent kingdom and
Babylon the capital of an empire. Merodach remained
a supreme Baal-the cylinder inscription of Cyrus proves
60 much-but he never became the one supreme god.
 L E ~ IT
E.
TAMMJJZ AND ISTAR; PROMETHEUS AND
TOTEMISM.

AMONG the mythological poems bequeathed to us by

ancient Babylonia is one which, though doubtless based
on Accadian materials, has survived to us only in a Semi-
tic form. It recounts the descent of the goddess Istar
into Hades in search of the healing waters which should
restore to life her bridegroom Tammuz, the young and
beautiful Sun-god, slain by the cruel hand of night and
winter. The poem is as follows :
1. "TO the land whence none return, the region of (darkness),
2. Istar, the daughter of Sin, (inclined) her ear,
3. yea, Istar herself, the daughter of Sin, inclined @er) ear
4. to the house of darkness, the seat of the god Irkalla,
5. to the house from whose entrance there is no exit,
6. to the road from whose passage there is no retnrn,
7. to the house from whose visitors the light is excluded,'
8. the place where dust is their bread (and) their food is mud
9. The light they behold not, in darkness they dwell,
10. they are clad like birds in a gorrnent of feathers.
11. Over the door and the bolt the dust is scattered.
12. Istar, on arriving at the gate of Hades,
13. to the keeper' of the gate addresses the word :
14. 'Opener (keeper) of the waters, open thy gatel
15. Open thy gate that I may enter!

1 Literally "opener" (pitri or muselzi).

'722 LECTURE IV.

16. I f thou openest not the gate that I may enter,

17. I will smite the door, tho bolt I mill shatter,
13. I mill smite the threshold and pass througl~the p o r t a h
19. I will raise up the detld to devour the living,
20. above the living the drad shall exceed in number.'
21. The keeper opened his 111out11nlid speaks;
22. he says to the lirincess Istar:
23. 'Stay, 0 lady, thou must not break i t down I
24. Let me go and declare thy name tu Nin-ki-gal, the queen of
Hades.'
25. The keeper descended and declares (her name to Nin-kihg
[Allat]) :
26. ' 0 goddcss, the water t h y sister Istar (is come to seek);
27. trying (bafpi~tu)the mighty bars (she has threatened to break
open the donrs) (1)'
28. W h e n Allat (heard) this (she opened her mouth and says :)
29. 'Like a cut-off herh has (Istar) descended (into Hades);
30. like the lip of a drooping reed' she has prayed for (the waters
of life).
31. W h a t matters to me her wish 1 what (matters t o me) her anger?'
32. (When she says :) this water with (my bridegroom)
33. like' food would I eat, like beer would I drink :
34. let me weep for the heroes who hare left (their) wives;
35. let nie weep for the handwaids whom frcml the bosom of theu
husbands (thou hast taken);
36. for the little child let me weep whom t l ~ o uhost taken ere his
days are come.
37. Go, keeper (nevertheless), open for her (thy) gate;
38. Strip8 her also according to the ancient rules.'
39. Tho keeper w e d , he opened for her (his) gate:
40. 'Enter, 0 lady, let Cutha be glad (at thee);
41. let the palace of Hades rejoice before thee.'

See W.A. I. ii. 22, 8. Instead of enpat, "lip," Jeremias ( D i d

II~llenfulirt der Istar, 1886) leads sabat, "cutting off;" but he has
inisundcrstood the reference of lines 29, 30.
Litorally, "Whxt hns her heart brought m e ? what has her liver
(brought me) ? "
Cppidk, see TV. A. I. ii. 29, 38. This is preferable to my old
reading up:%-, "bewitch."
 TAUUUZ AND ISTAR. 2 23
42. The first gate he made her enter, and shut' (it); he threw
down the migllty crown of her head.
43. 'Why, 0 keeper, haat thou thrown down the mighty cmwn of
my headl'
44. 'Enter, 0 lady,'(for) thus are the orders of AUat.'
45. The second gate he made her enter and he ahnt; he threw
nway the earrings of her earn
46. 'Wherefore, 0 keeper, hast thou thrown away the earrings of
my ears 1'
47. 'Enter, 0 lndy, (for) thus are the orders of Allak'
48. The third gate he made her enter and he closed; he threw
away the precious stones of her neck(laue),
49. 'Wherefore, 0 keeper, hast thou thrown away the precious
stones of my neck(1ace)l'
50. 'Enter, O,lady, (for) thus am the orders of Allat.'
51. The fourth gate ho made her enter and closed; he threw away
the ornaments of her hreast.
52. 'Wherefore, 0 keeper, hast thou thrown away the ornaments of
my breast 2'
53. 'Enter, 0 lady, (for).thus am t h e orders of Allat!
54. The fifth gate he made her enter and closed; he threw away
the gemmed girdle of her waist.
65. 'Wherefore, 0 keeper, llost thou throw11 away the gentmed
girdle of my waist 1'
56. LEnter,0 lady, (for) thns are the orders of Allat.'
57. The aixth gate he made her enter and closed; he threw away
the bracelrts of her hnnds and her fcct.
58. 'Wherefore, 0 keeper, hnst thou thrown away the bracelets of
tny hands and nly feet l'
59. 'Enter, 0 lady, (for) t h ~ t sam the orders of Allat.'
60. The seventh gate he made her enter and closed; he threw
away the cincture of her body.
61. 'Wherefor?, 0 keeper, hast thou thrown away the cinctnre of
my body l'
62. 'Enter, 0 lady, (for) thus am the oiden of Ailat.'
63. After that Istar had descended into the land of Hades,
64. Allat beheld her and was haughty before her.

1 Not "unclothe," as Jemmiaa Mat& means "to shut," "discon.

tinua"
224 LECPUBE IV.

65. Istar took not counsel, she besought her with oaths.'
66. Allat opened her month and says,
67. to Namtar (the plogue-demon), her messenger. the word she
utters :
68. 'Go, Namtnr, (take Istar from) me, and
69. lead her out ; sixty times (strike) Istm (with disease) : .
69. the disease of the eyes (into) her ( e j c i ) ;
70. the disease of the side (into) her (side) ;
71. the disease of the feet into her (feet);
72. the disease of the heart into (her heart) ;
73. the diiease of the head strike (into her head) ;
71. into her, even the whole of her, and into (each limb strike d i e
ease).'
75. After that the lady M a r (into Hades had descended),
76. with the cow the bull would not unite (tho ass would r o t
approach the female),
77. the handmaid (in the atreet would not approach the freemu),
78. the freeman ceased (to give his order):
79. (the handmaid ceased to give her gift 1).
80. Pap-sukal, the messenger of the mighty gods, bowed his face
before (the SUII-god):
81. 'There is woe below,%(for all things) are full of destruction
(nadi).'
82. The Sun-god went ;in the presence of Sin his father he (stood),
83. in the presence of Ea the king (his) tears flowed down :
84. 'Istar descended to the earth and has not re-ascended.
85. Fratn the time that Istar has descended to the land of Hades,
86. with the cow the bull will not unite, the ass will not approach
the female,
87. the handmaid in the street will not approach the freeman,
88. the freeman has ceased to give his order,
89. the handmaid has ceased to give her (gift l).'
90. Ea in the wisdom of his heart formed (a man);'

' Jeremias, "she threw herself on her." This, however, wuld

hardly be the sense of the shaphel of bd, "to come."
2 Perhaps better with Jeremias : "slept while giving."

3 Saplia; if we read labis, we must translate, with Jeremias, "clothed

in a dress of mourning." But in this case, it would be difficult to
account for the onlission of the words of Pap-snkal.
4 So Jereruiaa
 TANMUZ AND IST~E. 225
91. he created Atau-su-namir (' His rising is seen'), the a n d l o , ~ e;'
92. [Go, Atsu-su-namir, towards the gate of Hades set thy faw ;
93. let the seven gates of Hades be opened before thee;
94. let Allat see thee and rejoice at thy presence,
95. when her heart is at rest and her liver is appeased.
26. Ccnjure her also by the names of the great gods
97. Turn thy heads; to the restingplace2 of the stormy wind set
thine ear;
98. the home of the pure one: the resting.place of the stormy wind,
let them prepare ('I ;) the waters in the midst let her drink.
99. When Allat heard this
100. she struck her girdle, she bit her thumb :
101. 'Thou hast asked of me a request none should request!
102. Go, Atsu-su-namir, let me injure thee with a great injury !'
103. May the garbage of the severs of the city be thy food !
104. IIny the vessels of the daughters5 of the city be thy drink !
105. May the darkness of the dungem he thy habitation I
106. May tho threshold be thy seat !
107. May drought and famine strike thine offspring !'
108. Allat opened her month and eays,
109. to Namtar her messengei the word she addresses:
110. 'Go, Namtar, strike open the firmly-built palace,
111. shatter the thresholds (which) bear np the stones of light;
112. bid the spirits of earth (Anlinaki) come forth and seat them on
a throne of gold;

1 Adiinnzc explained as "the female man" or "creature in W. A. I.

ii. 32, 22. Zimmern is probably right in connecting the word with
iSir~11,"a festival," since the tablet in which it appean seems to enu-
merate various classes of priests ; and in W.A. I. ii. 27,58, "the man"
or "creature of Istar" is called kalu, i.e. one of the Galli. Atsu-
su-namir may he also read Atsn-snnamir, "Rising, cause to shine"
(Shaphael imperative). Dr. Oppert r e a d Uddusu-namir, "renewal of
light," but this would require the form Uddns-namari (or nameri). I n
an unnumbered text given above (p. 81, note 2), the myinnu appears
as the eunuch-priest of Be1 armed with a flute.
2 'Sukhal, from dukhalu, for which see W. A. I. v. 40, 11, and K161.
i. 26. According to George Smith, du7d~uluis a synonym of sadakhu,
"to reach."
3 Jeremias, "(Say,) No, my lady." See W . k L if 10, 3
* See, however, IV. A. I. ii. 23, 20.
a
226 I E ~ R EIV.

113. over Iatar ponr the waters of life and bring her before ma'
114. Narntar went (and) smote the firmly-built palace,
115. he shattered the thresholds (which) bear up the stones of light,
116. he bade the spirits of earth come forth, on a throne of gold did
he seat (them),
117. over Istar he poured the waters of life and brought her along.
118. The first gate he passed her out of and restored to her tho
cincture of her body;
119. The second gate he made her pass, and restored to her tho
bracelets of her hands and her feet.
120. The third gate he ]nude her pass, and restored to her the
gemmed girdle of her waist.
121. The fourth gate he made her pass, and restored to her the
ornaments of her breasts.
122. The fifth gate he made her pass, and restored to her the jewels
of her necklace.
123. The sixth gate he made her pass, and restored to her tlie earrings
of her ears.
124. The seventh gate he made her pass, and resbored to her the
mighty crown of her head.
125. ' I f she (i.e. Allat) has not given thee that for which the ransom
is paid her, turn back to her again
126. for Tammnz the bridegroom of (thy) youth.
127. Pour over him the pnre waters, (anoint him) with precious oil.
128. Clothe him with R purple robe; a ring(?)' of crystal let him
strike upon (the hand).
129. Let Samkhat (the goddess of joy) enter2 the liver . . ..'
130. (Before this) the goddess Tillili had taken her jewels,
131. the eye-stones also (which) .were unbroken;
132. the goddess Tillili had heard of the deaths of her brother
(Tilrnmuz); she broke t l ~ ajewels4 (which she had taken),
~- ~ --

I Gibu is not to be read ideogi.npl~ieally,ns is supposed by Jeremias

(who has misunderstood lines 135-137); eomp. giM in Strassmaier,
p. 227, and gab6 in K 4223, col. ii. (ana khurran sawi halaksu gab6
In illik). See, horever, the text I have quoted above, p. 81, noto 2.
Linuha; the word is explained by passnges in the legends of tho
shepherd ENNUN-KA-TI (K 2546, Obv. l l ) , and of Atarpi (col. iii. 47,5C).
.&in; in W. A. I. v. 50, 62, tho verb i k r i l ~ ~isu used of tlie vio-
lent "mrrying below" of a hero by ' I the handmaid of a lib" or
"demon." Jeremias reads ili.lcil, "cry of woe."
4 Nore literally, "jewelled circlet" (darturn); see W.A.L v. 6. 45.
 TAMXUZ AND I ~ A R . 227
133. even the oye-etones which were full of tho face (of light?),
134. (crying) '0my brother, the only onc, do not destroy me.'
136. In the day that Tammuz bound on me a ring ( l ) of crystal and
a bracelet of turquoise, at that time he bound (them) on me,
136. at that time he hound (them) on me. Let the wailing men
and wailing women
137. bind (them) on the fuuernl pyre, and smell the sweet eavour.'
COLOPEON.The property of dssur-bani-pal, king of multitudes,
king of Assyria!'

The poem throws light upon certain passages both in

t,he Old Testament and in classical authors, and in turn
receives light from them. On the one hand, we now
know who was that Tammuz in whose honour Ezekiel
saw the women of Jerusalem weeping at the gate of
"the Lord's house."' On the other hand, it is clear that
the Tammuz and Istar of the Babylonian legend are the
Addnis and Aphrodite of Greek mythology. Like Tam-
muz, Addnis, the beloved one of Aphrodite, is slain by
the boar's tusk of winter, but eventually ransomed from
Hades by the prayers of the goddess. I t has long been
recognised that Aphroditk, the Kyprian goddess of love
and war, came to Hellas from Phcenicia, whether or not
we agree with Dr. Hommel in seeing in her name a
mere etymological perversion of the Phcenician Ashtoreth.
Adanis is the Phcenician Addni, "my lord," the cry
with which the worshippers of the stricken Sun-god
mourned his untimely descent into the lower world.
The cry was familiar throughout the land of Palcstine.
I n the valley of Megiddo, by the plain of Jezreel, each
year witnessed the mourning for Hadad-Rimmon"
(Zech. xii. ll), while hard by Amos heard the men of

Ezek. viii. 14.

0 2
 228 LECTURE IV.

Israel mourning for "the only son" (Am. viii. lo), and
the prophet of Judah gives the vcry words of the refrain:
Ah me, my brother, and ah me, my sister ! Ah me,
Adonis, and ah me, his lady !" (Jer. xxii. 18). Thc
words were carried across the western sca to men of an
alien race and language. ' I Cry uilinon, ailinon ! mos,
woe!" says the Greek poet of Athens,' and already in
Homeric dnys2 the dirge was attributed to a mythic
Linos whose magic fatc was cornmemoratcd in its open-
ing words : " 0 Linos, Linos !" Linos, hov-ever, had
no existence except in a popular etymology ; the Greek
ailinos is in reality the Phoenician ui-ldnn, " alas for us !"
mith which the lamentations for the death of the divine
AdBnis were wont to begin. Like the refrain quoted by
Jeremiah, the words eventually go back to Babylonia,
and find their counterpnrt in the closing lines of the old
Babylonian poem I have translated above. When Tillili
commences her wail over the dead Tammnz, she cries,
like the women of Judah and Phcenicia, 0 my brother,
the only one !" I t was, above all, in the Phcenician town
of Gebal or Byblos t l a t the death of AdBnis was conl-
memorated. IIcre, eight milcs to the north of Beyrat,
tho ancient military road led from eastern Asia to the
shores of the Mediterrauean, and brought from early
days the invading armies of Babylonia and Assyria to
the coasts and cities of Canaan. Hard by was the river
of Adonis, the Kalir Ibrahim of to-day, which rolled
through a rocky gorge into the sea. Each year, when
.the rains and melting s n o w of spring stained its waters
with the red marl of the mountains, the people of Gebal
- ~

1 o ~ , 121.
E s l i l ~ ~ l Ag~iin. * II. sriii. 570.
behdd in it the blood of the slaughtered Sun-god. I t was
then, in the month of Tammuz or June, that the funeral-
festival of the god was held. For seven days it lasted.
"Gardens of Adonis," as they were called, mere planted,
pots filled mith earth and cut herbs, which soon withered
away in the fierce heat of the summer sun-fitting
emblems of the lost Adonis himself. Neanwhile, the
streets and gates of the temples were filled with throngs
of wailing women. They tore their hair, they disfigured
the face, they cut the breast with sharp knives, in token
of the agony of their grief. Their cry of lamentation
went up to Heaven mingled with that of the G~lli,the
emasculated priests of Ashtoreth, who shared with them
their festival of woe over her murdered brid~, -room.
Adonis, the young, the beautiful, the beloved of Ash-
toreth, was dead; the bright sun of the springtide, like
the veraure of nature which he had called into life, was
slain and withered by the hot blasts of the summer.
I n later times, after the revolt of Egypt from the
Assyrian king and the rise of the 26th Dynasty, the cult
of Adonis at Gebal entered upon a new phase. Egyptian
beliefs and customs made their way into Phcenicia along
with Egyptian political influence, and the story of Adonis
was identified with that of the Egyptian Osiris. As the
Sun-god Osiris had been slain and had risen again from
the dead, so, too, had the Phoenician Adonis descended
into Hades and been rescued again from its grasp. How
long, indeed, he had remained in the world below was
a m ~ t t e rof doubt. There mere some who said that he
shared half the year with the goddess of death, and the
other half only mith the goddess of love; there were
others who declared that his year was divided into three-
230 LECTURE IV.

four months was he condemned to dwell in Hades, four

months he was free to live where he might choose, while
the other four were passed in the companionship of Ash-
toreth, and that it was to Ashtoreth that he devoted his
months of freedom. But all agreed that the Sun-god of
spring was not compelled to live for ever in the gloomy
under-world; a time came when he and nature would
alike revive. It was inevitable, therefore, that in the days
of Egyptianising fashion, Adonis and Osiris should be
looked upon as tho same god, and that the festival of
Adonis at Gebal should be assimilated t o that of Osiris
in Egypt. And so it came about that a new feature was
added to the festival of Adonis; the days of mourning
were succeeded by days of rejoicing ; the death of Adonis
was followed by the announcement of his resurrection.
A head of papyrus came from Egypt over the waves;
while, on the other hand, an Alexandrian legend told
how the mourning Isis had found again at Gebal the
chest in which the dismembered limbs of Osiris were laid.
I t is clear that the Babylonian poet who sang of the
descent of Istar into Hades had no conception of a festival
of joy that follomed immediately upon a festival of mourn-
ing. Nevertheless, the whole burden of his poem is the
successful journey of the goddess into the under-world
for the sake of the precious waters which should restorc
her beloved one to life. Even in Babylonia, therefore,
there must have been a season when the name of Tammw
was commemorated, not with words of woe, but with joy
and rejoicing. But it could have been only when the
fierce heats of the summer were past; when the northern
wind, which the Accadians called "the prospering one,"
began again to blow; and when the Sun-god regained
 TAMYUZ AND I8TAB. 231
once more the vigour of his spring-tide youth. That
therc had once been a festival of this kind is indicated
by the fact that the lamentations for his death did not
take place in all parts of Syria at the same time. W e
learn from Ammianus that when Julian arrived at Antioch
in the late autumn, he found the festival of Adonis being
celebrated "according to ancient usage," after the in-
gathering of the harvest and before the beginning of the
new year, in Tisri or October. I t must have been in
the autumn, too, that the feast of Hadad-Rimmon was
observed, to which Zechariah alludes; and Ezekiel saw
the women weeping for Tammuz in "the sixth mouth."
Nay, Macrobiusl even tells us that the Syrian worshippers
of Adonis in his time explained the boar's tusk which had
slain the god as the cold and darkness of winter, his
return to the upper world being his LLvictory over the
first six zodiacal signs, along with the lengthening day-
light."
W e can draw but one conclusion from all this. The
resurrectiou of Tammuz had once been commemorated as
well as his death, and the festivals had been identified,
not only with that of the Egyptian Osiris, as at Gebal,
but also with those of other Semitic forms of the Sun-god,
of Hadad and of Rimmon. When Macrobius states that
Adad meant "the only one" in Syrian, he implies that
Adad or Hadad-the Sun-god whose fcstival fell after
the harvests of autumn-was identical with Tammuz.
I n Babylonia, Tammuz was the Sun-god of spring; his
foe was the summer heat; his death r a s mourned in the
month of June. If there mas another feast in which
-
grief gave place to joy at his restoration to life, i t was
-
1 Saturn. i 21.
 separate from that which celebrated his death, and must
have taken place at a different time of the year. I n its
transplantation to the west, however, the cult of Tammuz-
,Adonis underwent a change. H e was identified with
other forms of the solar deity; his festivals were merged
into theirs; and, exccpt in places like Gebal, where a
natural phenomenon prevented the alteration, the anni-
versary of his death was shifted to the fall of the year.
He ceased to be the Sun-god of spring, and became
the Sun-god of summer. I n the highlands of Syria the
summer was not the dangerous foe it was in Babylonia.;
it was, on the contrary, a kindly friend, whose heats
quickened and fostered the golden grain. Winter, and
not summer, was the enemy who had slain the god.
The story of Tammuz was not of Semitic invention,
however much it may owe, in the form in which we know
it, to Semitic imagination. The month of Tammuz was
called in the Accadian calendar 'I the month of the errand
of Istar," a clear proof that the legend of the Descent of
the goddess into Hades was already known. Nor is the
name of Tammuz itself of Semitic origin. The Semites
did not agree about the precise form which it should
assume, and it is probable that the form (Tammnz) which
prevailed in the west was due to a l Lpopular etymology."
At all events, the Assyro-Babylonian form is not Tammuz,
but Duzn, itself contracted from Duwuzu, and a fair
representative of the original Accadian Dumu-zi or
Dnwu-zi, "the son of life." The word was interpreted
by the Semites as meaning the L'~ff~pring," 'l the only

son;"' but it may be merely a shortened form of tho

name Dumu-zi-apzu, the son of the spirit of the deep."
1 W. A. I. ii. 36, 54.
The "spirit of the deep" is of course Ea, as is expressly
stated in a mythological tablet,' where Dumu-xi-apzu is
given as the name of one of his six sons. How early the
designation must be, is shown by the fact that Ea appears
in it as not yet a god, but as a spirit only. W e are
carried back to the first dawn of Chaldrean religious
belief. The name was translated by the Semites "Timmw
(or Dimmuz) of the flood" (W.A.I. ii. 47, 29), and the
solar character of the deity was indicated by writing his
name with ideographs that signified "the maker of fire"
(tinz-izi).2 But this very mode of writing Ithe name,
which probably grew up in the court of Sargon of Accad,
proves that already the name had lost its last element.
The son of the spirit of the deep" had become '<the
son of life," the only son" of the god Ea. It is thus
that a mythological tablet gives "the River-god," who is
but Ea under another title, a single son Duzi,%where
the name has assumed its contracted Semitic form, and
is written with ideographs that mean "the heart of life."'

1 W. A. I. i i 56,33-38.
3 Thn-hi,or Dim-izi, is a good example of what Halevy has termed
the rebus. As in several other cases, notably that of the Fire-god
Gibil, the two elements of the name are transposed in writing (Izi-tina
instead of Em-izi). The tablet in which the name is explained is a
commentary on an old aetrological text, giving explanations of the rare
words and ideographs contained in the text. The text may have
emanated from the court of Sargon at Accad. Izi is given as the pro-
nunciation of the Accadian word for " fire'' in 82. 6-16 1. Rev. 16.
3 W. A. I. ii. 56, 31.

The spelling may have originated at Accad. At all events, both

A, the wife of the Sun-god of Sippara, and Sala, <<ofthe mountain of
gold," are called the wives of Duzu in W.A.I. ii. 57. 12, 34. It is
possible that in W. A. I. ii. 54. 8, 9, we ought to read Duzu and Dam;
if so, the two primordinl principles, the male Duzu nnd the female
 W e have just seen that the pronunciation Timmuz
mas once known to the Babylonian scribes. But it never
found its way into the language and literature of the
country. The medial labial became a semi-vowel; and
the attempt to give a Semitic colouring to the word
by hardening the initial consonant, never succeeded in
expelling the pronunciation which their Accadian neigh-
bours had made familiar to the Semites of Babylonia.
The case, however, was different in other portions of the
Semitic world. Here there was no Accadian population
to prevent the Semitised form from holding full sway,
and it was accordingly as Tammuz (or Timmuz) that the
name passed to the west. I t is probable that the iuter-
mediaries were those Aramrean tribes who stretched across
the desert from the borders of Babylonia to the fields of
Syria, and were known in after days under the compre-
hensive title of Nabathzans. At any rate, the morship of
Tammuz could not have been introduced into Palestine
by the Assyrian conquests, as has been suggested; had
it been so, the name of the god mould have had a
different form. Nor again, had such been the cnse, could
me have explained thc carly prevalence of the cult of
Adonis in Phcenioia and Cyprus,' and the traces that it
left even upon Homeric Greece. The name and story of
Tammuz must have come to Phcenicia in those remote
times when it was whispered that Kronos" or Ea had

Dnzu, will be here identified with Ann (and Anat). What makes this
the more likely is that a few lines further Alala and Tillili are also
identified with Anu and Anat.
' The name of Tamassoa, the city in whose neighbourhood were the
famous copper-mines of the island, perhaps preserved 8 recollection of
the name of Tnmmw It is called Tametsi by Esar-haddon.
 T A M ~ ZAND ~ A E . 235
taken YetIdl1 his 'Lonly begotten son," and =raying
him in royal robes had sacrificed him on an altar in a
season of distress.2
Greek mythology itself knew the name of Tammuz as
well as that of Adonis. Theias or ThoasS was not only
the Lemnian husband of Myrina aud the king of the
Tauric Khersonese who immolated strangers on the altars
of Artemis, he was also king of Assyria and father of
Adonis and his sister Myrrha or Smyrna. I n the Kyprian
myth the name of Theias is transformed into Kinyras;
but, like Theias, he is the father of Adonis by his daughter
Myrrha. Myrrha is the invention of a popular etymo-
logy ;4 the true form of the name was Smyrna or Myrinn,
a name famous in the legendary annals of Asia Minor.
Myrina or Smyma, it was said, was an Amazonian queen,
and her name is connected with the four cities of the
western coast-Smyrna, Kym&, Myrina and Ephesos-
whose foundation was ascribed to Amazonian heroines.
But the Amazons were really the warrior priestesses of
the great Asiatic goddess, whom the Greeks called the
Artemis of Ephesos, and who was in origin the Istar of
Babylonia modified a little by Hittite influence. I t was
she who, in the Asianic cult of Attys or Hadad, took the
place of Istar and Aphrodits ; for just as Attys himself
was Tammuz, so the goddess with whom he was asso-
ciated was Istar. At Hierapolis, which succeeded to the
religious fame and beliefs of the ancient Hittite city of

' Assyrian edu, "only one." Philo Byhl. p. 44.

a Thoas is practically identical with tho Ssahian Ta'uz. For Theias,
the Assyrian king, eee Apollod. iii. 14, 4 ; Tzelzes, ad LyIroph. 91.
The Aramaic mrtM, "mistress,"or the Assyrian martu, "daughter,"
may have assisted the etymology; compare the Bihlicnl name Miriam.
 Carchemish, the name under which the goddess went
seems to havc been Semiramis,' and it is possible that
Semiramis and Smy~naarc but varying forms of the same
word. However this may be, in the Kyprian Kinyras
who takes the place of Theias we have a play upon the
Phcenician kinndr, or l L cither," which is said to have been
used in the worship of Adonis. But its real origin seems
to be indicated by the name of Gingras which Adonis
himself bore.2 Eere it is difficult not to recognize the
old Accadian equivalent of Istar, Gingira or Gingiri,
" the creatress."
The fact that Tammuz was tho son of Ea points unmis-
takably to the source both of his name and of his worship.
He must have been the primitive Sun-god of Eridu,
standing in the same relation to Ea, the god of Eridu,
that Adar stood to Mul-lil, the god of Nipur. It is even
possible that the boar whose tusk proved fatal to Adonis
may originally have been Adar himself. Adar, as wc
have seen, was called the "lord of the swine7' in the
Accadian period, and the Semitic abhorrence of the ani-
mal may havc used it to symbolise the ancient rivalry
between the Sun-god of Nipur and the Sun-god of Eridu.4
Those r h o would see in the Cain and Abel of Scripture
the representatives of elemental deities, and who follow
Dr. Oppert in explaining the name of Abel by the Baby-
lonian ablu, " the son," slightly transformed by a popular
etymology, may be inclined to make them the Adar and
'I'amrnuz of Chaldaan faith.
1 Lucian, De Dea Syria, 33, 38.
s Athen. iv. 154, xiv. 618.
8 W.A. I. ii. 48, 29; K 170. Rev. 7 (AN-~CT~).
4 See above, y. 153.
 TAXMUZ AND ISTAB. 237
88 mother of Tammuz, Dav-kina, the wife of E8, had
a special name. She is called Tsirdu, or 'Birdul--a word
in which I believe we may see the Assyrian hrdu, " a
falcon." Now it will be remembered that 'Sirrida, also
written 'Sirdam, and pronounced 'Sirgam, 'Sirrigal or
'Sinigii, 'Surgii and Nirda,2 in the different dialects of
pre-Semitic Chaldrea, was a title of,;, the wife of the
Sun-god of Sippara or Accad. As we are told that a
temple of Tammuz existed at Accad, where it was known
by the double name of I' the tower of mighty bulk" and
"the shrine of obser~ation,"~ it would seem that the
worship of Tammuz had been transported from Eridu
to the capital of Sargon at the time when tho culture of
southerc Babylonia made its way to the north, and the
empire of Sargon was fusing the civilisation and religion
of the country into a single whole. I t was then that
the Sun-god of Eridu and the Bun-god of Accad would
naturally be identified together, and that the wife of
Samaa of Accad should become the goddess whom mytho-
logy represented as at once the wife and the mother of
Tamm'uz.
But the primitive home of Tammuz had been in that

1 W.A. I. ii. 59,9. As she seems to he identified with Istar in the

same psssnge, we may conclude that the compiler of the mythological
h t regarded her as equally the mother and the ~ i f of e Tammuz
A
W. A. I. ii. 57. 11, 24, 23, 21, 22, 26. I n line 20 the name of
is also written phonetically hy means of the ideograph for father (d).
I n lines 30, 31, BIR-UT-BAN and BIB-OT-AM m w t each be read 'Sipdam
(or 'Sirudam). Seo above, p. 178.
J W. A. L ii. 50. 10,ll. It would appear from this that the par&',
or ''shrine," was, like that of Bel-Merodach at Babylon, in the highesr
chamber of the ziyburat, or "tower," from whence observations of the
aky could be made.
"garden" of Edin, or Eden, which Babylonian tradition
placed in the immediate vicinity of Eridu.' The frag-
ment of an old bilingual hymn has been preserved,
which begins in the following way :
1. "(In) Eridu a stalk2 grew over-shadowing; in a holy place
did it become green ;
2, its root ([mrlsum) was of white crystal which stretched towards
the deep ;
3. (before) E a was its course in Eridu, teeming with fertility j
4. its seat was the (central) place4 of the earth;
5. its foliage (1) was the couch of Zikum (the primeval) mother.
6. Into the heart of its holy housc which spread its shade like a
forest hath no man entered.
7. (There i s the home) of the mighty motber who passes acroas
the sky.
8. (In) the midst of it was Tammnz.
10. (There is the shrine 1) of the two (gods)."
The description reminds us of the famoua Ygg-drasil

1 Hence his mother (and wife) is called "the lady of Edin" (W. A. I.
ii. 59. 10, 11.
2 See K 165,22 (n-QI ge~din),"the stalk of a grape." QI (=lammu)
fur is the Assyrian epitdtu, " a small stalk" (W. A. I. ii. 41. 5 4 56).
U-QIis also explained as ritzlsitehu, "a growing slip" (W. A.I. ii. 41,8).
W e are reminded of the old story of Jack and the Beanatalk a s well
as of the Polynesian tree which enables the climber to ascend into the
heavenly land. The mother of Tammuz was called "the (mistress) of
the vine" (W. A. I. ii. 59, 11). Hommel (Die Semitiachela Vb'll~r,
p. 406) very ingeniously reads the "QI-tree" as pi-kin, in Accadian
mus-kin,from which he derives the Assyrian mdukkanzr or mu.4.4ikaimnu,
<la palm." But the Semitic rendering is not ukkanu, as he reads, hut
kiskanu, from the Accadian giSkin. The palm was the sacred tree ot
Babylonia, and Adar was "lord of the date."
S The original seems to be literally, "while (before Ea) it went
(=grew), Eridu was richly fertile."
4 This appears to be the meaning of the line, the site of the tree
being regarded as, like Delphi among the Greeks, the dp$aXk of the
earth. The Snmerian equivalent of " earth" is SI-XAD, which must be
read 711n.E (W. A. L v. 38, 59) with the determinative prefix.
of Norse mythology, the world-tree whose roots descend
into the world of death, while its branches rise into
Asgard, the heaven of the gods. The Babylonian poet
evidently imagined his tree also to be a world-tree, whose
roots stretched downwards into the abysmal deep, where
Ea presided, nourishing the earth with the springs and
streams that forced their way upwards from it to the
surface of the ground. Its seat was the earth itself,
which stood midway between the deep below and Zikum,
the primordial heavens, above, who rested as it were
upon the overshadowing branches of the mighty "stem."
Within it, it would seem, was the holy house of Dav-
kina, "the great mother," and of Tammuz her son, a
temple too sacred and far hidden in the reeesses of the
earth for mortal man to enter. It is perhaps a remi-
niscence of this mystic temple that we find in the curious
work on l1 Nabathean Agriculture,'' composed in the
fourth or B t h century by a Mandaite of Chaldea, where
we are told of the temple of the sun in Babylon, in
which the images of the gods from all the countries of
the world gathered themselves together to weep for
Tammuz.1 What the tree or stalk" was which sprang

Ihn Wahshlyah, the trnnslator of the N a k t l ~ n a nAp'cricdtt~reof

Kuth2mi into Ambie, adds that he had "lit upon anocher Nabath..ean
hook, in which the legend of Tammnz was nannted in full ; how he
summoned a king to worship the seven (planeta) and the twelve (signs
of the Zodiac), and how the king put him to death, and how he still
lived after being killed, so that he had to put h i u to death several
times in a cruel manner, Tammuz coming to life again after each time,
until at last he died; nnd behold, it was identical with the legend of
St. George that is current among the Christians." Abfi Sayid Wahb
ihn Ihrabim, in his calendar of the Ssabian festivals, says under the
month Tammnz: "On the 15th of this month is the festival of the
weeping women, which is identical with Ta'uz, a festival held in l~onour
up like the bean-stalk of our old nursery tale, is indicated
in the magical text to which the fragment about it has
been appended.' I n this, Ea describes to Merodach the
means whereby he is to cure a man who is possessed of
the seven evil spirits. He is first to go to the cedar-
tree, the tree that shatters the power of the incubus,
upon whose core the name of Ea is recorded!" and then,
with the help of ' ( a good masal" or phylactery which
is placed on the sick man's head as he lies in bed at
night, to invoke the aid of the Fire-god to expel the
demons. I t is the cedar, therefore, which played the
same part in Babylonian magic as the rowan ash of
northern Europe, and which was believed to be under
the special protection of Ea; and the parallel, therefore,
betwecn the ash Ygg-drasil of Norsc mythology and the
world-tree of the poet of Eridu becomes even closer than
before.
Long after the days when the hymns and magical
texts of Eridu were composed, the mystic virtues of the-
cedar were still remembered. A tablet which describes
of the god Ta'uz. The women veep over him, (telling) how his lord
slew him, and ground his bones in a mill, and scattered them to the
winds; and they eat nothiog that has been ground in a mill, hut only
soaked wheat, vetches, dates, raisins and the like" (Chrvolson's Die
Ssalii~r,ii. p. ?7).
W. A. I. iv. 15. Rev. 10-13. I t ia pretty clear from the eculp
tures that the sacred troe of the Babylonians was the cedar, which mas
subsequently displaced by tlie palm; so that Hommel's view, which
sees a palm in "the stnlk" of Eridu, may still be maintained. On the
other hand, in JV. A. I. ii. 59. Rcv. 10, "the divine Lady of Eden" is
called "the goddess of the tree of life" in the Accndian of north Bahy-
lonia, "the goddess of the vine" in the Sumerian of south Babylonia.
It is clear from this that the sacred tree was also conceived of as the
vine. According to the Old Testament, it will be remembered, there
were two sacred trees in the garden of E d e n
 T A ~ U Z
AND ISTAR. 241
the initiation of an augur, and states how he must be
"of pure lineage, unblemished in hand and foot," speaks
thus of the vision which is revealcd to him before he is
"initiated and instructed in the presence of Samas and
Rimmon in the use of the book and stylus" by "the
scribe, the instructed one, who keeps the oracle of the
great gods:" he is made to descend into an artificial
-

imitation of the lower world, and there beholds the

altars amid the waters, the treasures of Anu, Be1 and
Ea, the tablets of the gods, the delivering of the oracle
of heaven and earth, and the cedar-tree, the beloved of
the great gods, which their hand has caused to grow."l
I t was possibly the fragrance of the wood when lighted
for sacrificial purposes that gave the tree its sacred
character,
But the cedar was something more than a world-tree.
It was employed, as we havc seen, in incantations and
magic rites which were intended to restore strength and
life to the human frame. It was thus essentially "a tree
of life," and the prototype and original of those conven-
tional trees of Iife with which the walls of the Assyrian
paiaces were adorned. Those who have visited the
Assyrian collection of the British Museum will remember
the curious form which it generally assumes, as well as
the figures of the two cherubs which kneel or stand before
it on either side. At times they are purely human; at
other times they have the head of a hawk and hold a
cone-the fruit of the cedar-over the tree by whose
oide they stand.
I t is possible that, as time went on, another tree became
'.
K 9486, Oh. 9-4. A fragment of a duplicate of this text u
published iu W. A. L i i 58, No. 3.
H
242 LECTUBE IV.

confounded with the original tree of life. The palm was

from the carliest period characteristic of Babylonia ; and
while its fruit secn~cclto be the stay and support of lifc,
the wine made from it made "glad the heart of man."
Date-wine was largely used, not only in Babylonian
medicine, but in the religious and magical ceremonies of
Eabylonia as well. I t is not at all improbable, therefore,
that the later Babylonian tree of life, with its strange
conventional form, was ail amalgamation of two actual
trees, the cedar and the palm. It is even possible that
while one of them, the cedar, was primarily the sacred
tree of Eridu, the other was originally the sacred tree of
some other locality of Chaldza.
What gives some colour to this last suggestion is, that
in later Babylonian belief the tree of life and the tree of
knowledge were one and the same. The text which
describes the initiation of a soothsayer associates the
cedar with "the treasures of Anu, Be1 and Ea, the tablets
of the gods, the delivering of the oracle of heaven and
earth." I t was upon the heart or core of the cedar, too,
that the name of Ea, the god of wisdom, was inscribed.
And it was wisdom rather than life, the knowledge of
the secrets of heaven and the magical arts that benefit or
injure, which the priesthood of Babylonia and the gods
they worshipped kept jealously guarded. Only tho ini-
tiated were allowed to taste of its fruit. I n this respect,
consequently, there n7as a. marked difference between the
belief of the Babylonians and the accouut which we find
in the earlier chapters of Genesis.
W e can trace the first steps by which the name and
nrorship of Tammuz made their way from Eridu north-
n-ards. In the same pari of Babylonia, a few miles only
 TAKMUZ AND I8TAB.
- 243
to the north, lie the mounds of Tel-loh, which have
yielded to French enterprize the earliest monuments of
Chaldsean art we as yet possess. We learn from them
that the god of Tel-loh was Nin-girQu. It was in honour
of Nin-girSu that the kings who reigned at 'Sirgulls
built and adorned their chief temples ; and in the inscrip-
tion of Sukal-duggina (?) he is brought into association
with the god of Nipur and entitled "the valiant warrior
of Mul-lil." Nin-girSu was, in fact, " the lord of GirQu,"
the native name, probabl~,of Tel-loh. When the cult
of Mul-lil found its way to Giriu, the god of Gir4u
necessarily entered into relation with him ; and as " the
lord of GirSu" seems to have been a Sun-god, he took the
place of Adar and became the valiant warrior of Mul-
l . I t was on this account that the mythologists sub-
sequently identified Adar and Nin-gir4u.l I n Accad,
-

however, an earlier identification had been discovered, in

whose justification, it is probable, more might have been
said. After the establishment of the worship of Tammuz
in Sippara, and the introduction of the divinities of
southern Babylonia into the north, Tammuz came to be
addressed there as Mul-Merii or En-Mei*i, the Accadian
or North-Chaldsean form of Nin-girSu. I n forgetfulness
of the real origin of the name, the Semitic scribes of
Sargon and his successors seem to hare interpreted the
titlc as if it meant "lord of the horned crown," the head-
dress morn by the Babylonian kings. A broken test,
which was probably the compilation of a bilingual Semite,
breaks out into these words:2 '< 0 Merodach, go, my
W. A. I. ii. 57, 74.
3 W. A. I. iv .) 6,icompleted
, from S 1208, which reads okola in-
stead of a1oiIi in line 17 (W. A. I. 57). Mir-Bi is found in on unnum-
R 2
244 LECTURE IV.

son, take the hand of the white offspring of hlul-Iderii

(Tammuz); lull the plague of the sick man to rest;
change his heart; assist the man;' grant the spell of
Ea ; the offspring of his heart mhom thou hast taken
alvay and the strong food of the man restore (to him)."
"The white offspring of Mul-MerBi" is pcrhaps an
equivalent of a coulmon phrase in these old tests : the
man the son of his god." It represents that close
relationship which mas supposed to exist between the
Babylonian and the god he worshipped, and which the
Egyptian symbolised by the assumption of an identitv
between himself and the divine being. But whereas tho
pantheistic Egyptian believed in his absorption into the
divinity, the pious Babylonian, who regarded his gods a s
creators and generators, called himself their son.
The worship of the Sun-god of Eridu had embodied
other elements before it reached northern Babylonia,
besides those which resulted in the identification of
Tammuz and Nin-GirBu. It was probably as Niu-Girdu
that he became the patron and lord of the green marsh-
plants which flourished in the neighbonrhood of Tel-loh ;
i t was as Nin-giriu that he was adored as the sou of Ea
the river-god, rather than of Ea the god of the deep;
and it was from the story of his untimely death that h e
came to be the Nergal of southern Chaldsea, the Sun-god
of winter and night who rules, like Rhadamanthos, in the
-

bered hilingual fragment bolunging to tho series R(0bv.6) : bit sa midi.

For Mul-rnerSi, see Mr. A. I. i i 59, 8. GirSn seems to mean the "bank"
of a river. At all events, i n S 1366, OLv. 3, 4,the Accadisn me-idi
gu id u D - s I P - N u N - s r - L x - ? n n is rendered by the Semitic &a g i ~ s ' iea
Pumtti, "on the hank of tlio Euplr~.ates."
1 The Semitic is literally, "put the man into the baud j" the Aces-
dian, " talc,: the hand of the man."
 T A ~ U ZAND ISTAR. 245
lower world. But he was more than this. The C b l -
deans Irere a people of agriculturists and herdsmen;
their monarchs were addressed as "shepherds;" and just
as Abel in the Old Testament is " a keeper of sheep,"
40, too, Tammuz in Babylonia was accounted a shepherd.
This is how an old Accadian hymn speaks of him (W. A.I.
iv. 27, No. 1) :
"0 Tammuz, shepherd and lord, bridegroom of Istar the lady of
heaven,
lord of Hades, lord of the shepherds' cot,'
the green corn%hich in the meadorvJ has not drunk the water,
its progemy in the desert is not green of leaf;
the acacia (1) tree which in the canal is planted not,'
the acacia(!) tree whose foundation is taken away;
the grain5 which in the ueadow has not drunk the water."
The poem is written in the artificial dialect which
sprang up in the court of Sargon, and it probably emn-
nated from the city of Accad.6 I t may have been one
of the dirges chanted in commemoration of the death of
Tammuz, the shepherd who mas cut off like the unwa-
tered corn, or the tree from beneath whose roots the
soft soil of the canal slips away.
The story of Tammuz of Eridu did not stand alone.
There were other cities of Babylonia which knew of a
hapless Sun-god cut off in the prime of his life, or perish-

1 Tul, i.e. " tel" or "mound." ' Aram, bina.

V o r n p . Jensen, Z. f. K. ii. 16.
For eristc, "to be planted," see TV. A. I. v. 24, 12.
W. k I. k 33, 73, compared with v. 21, 7, 8.
The Accadian is Semitised and the Semitic is Accadised. Thus in
the Accadian we have rii116bnfor diba, "shepherd," the Semitic td, and
gu from the Semitic qu; in the Semitic, rnuda~r^~ a derivative from the
Accadian dnr, "grass," radi, borrowed from the Accndian rat (more
corrcctly rdh, W. A. I. ii 38, IS), and gu instend of pu.
246 LECTURE m.
ing through love of a heartless goddess. But in these
legends, it would appear, the goddess herself was the
cause of the hero's death; so far from venturing into
the glooms of Hades for the sake of her youthful bride-
groom, it was she who had herself lured her lover to
his destruction. This was the light in which Istar was
represented at Erech, and this was the interpretation
put there upon the name of the Accadian month of the
Errand of Istar. The fate of the suitors of Istar is
glanced at in the sixth book of the Epic of Gisdhubar.
1. "For the favour of Gisdhubar the princess Istar lifted the eyes;
2. '(Loolc up), Gisdhubar, and be thou my bridegroom!
3. I am thy vine,' thou art its bond;
4. be thou my husband and I will be thy wife.
5. I will give thcc a chariot of crystal and gold,
6. whose pole is of gold and its horns are of glass,'
7. that thou mayst yoke (thereto) each day the mighty coursem
5. Euter our house in tho gloom of the cedar.
9. When than enterest our house
10. let (the river) Euphrates kiss thy feet.
11. Let kings, lords (and) princes (bow) beneath thee !
12. The tribute of the mountain and the plain let them bring the0
as an offering.
13. (Iu the fulrls!) lot thy flocks bring forth twins j
14. (in the stables) let the mule seek (its) burden;
15. let thy (horse) in the chariot be strong in galloping;
16. let (thine ox) i n the yoke have no rival.'
17. (Gisdbnbar) opened his mouth and speaks,
15. (be says thus) to the princess Istnr :
10. '(I will leave) to thyself thy possossion,
20. (in thy realm are) corpses and corruption(?),
21. . . . . disease and famine.
[The next seven lines are too mutilated to be translated.]
29. The wind and the blast hold opon the bask-door (of thy palace).
30. The palace is the destroyer of heroes.
- .- - ---
1 'Sabi. Haupt reads in74 "fruit."
El?nesz&;see W. A. L iv. 18, 4 3 m d ii 30, 42.
 T A ~ U ZAND ISTAR. 247
31. A deceitful (I)mouth are its hidden recessas
32. A destructive (l) portent are its columns.
33. A girdle of dark cloth are its columns.
34. Of white stone is the construction (musa6) of the stone fortress.
35. As for me, 'ti8 the mouth of the land of the enemy.
36. A devouring flame (l) is its lord.
37. Never may I he (thy) brideomom for ever I
38. Never may a god make thee joyous.
39. Go, and let me tell (the story) of thy enshvementa
40. of those into whose hands thou puttest no ransom.
41. To Tammuz the bridegroom (of thy youth) thou didst look;
42. year after year with weeping didst thou cling to him.
43. Alala, the eagle, also didst thou love;
44. thou didst strike him and break his wings;
45. he remained in the forest ; he begged for his win@
46. Thou didst love, too, a lion perfect in might;
47. seven by seven didst thou tear out his teeth, seven by seven.
48. And thou didat love a horse glorious in battle;
49. he submitted himself; with spur and whip didst thou cling to
him ;
50. seven leayes didst thou cling to him galloping;
51. in his tmuble and thirst didst thou cling to hi111:
5%. to his mother the goddess 'Silili with tears didat thou approach.
53. Thou didst love also the shepherd Tnbulu,
54. who continually poured out for thee the smoke (of sacrifice).
55. Every day wm he slaughtering for thee the victims;
56. thou didst bring him forth and into a hyena didst change him ;
57. his own sheepcote drove him away
58. and his own dogs tore his wounds.
59. Moreover, thou didst love Isullanu' the gardener of thy father,
60. who was ever raising for thee costly trees.
61. Every day had he made bright thy dish.
62. Thou didst take from him (his) eye and didst mock him:
63. '0 my Isullanu, come, let us eat thilie abundant store,
64. and bring out thy hand and dismiss all fear of W'
65. Isullanu says to thee :
66. 'As for me, what dost thou mk of me 1
67. 0 my mother, thou cookest not (and) I eat not;

I n W. A. I. i i i 68, 23, Isullauu is called by his Accadian name of

Si4ig*ig or Si-SimBim, "he who makes green the living thinfig"
248 L E ~ R EIV.

68. the food I have eaten are garlands and girdles;

69. the prison of the hurricane is (thy) hidden recess.'
70. Thou dillst listen and (didut impose) punishment ;
71. thou (lidst strike h i m ; to bondngo thou didst (assign him);
72. and thou madest him sit i n the midst of (a tomb?).
73. I will not ascend tho height; I \r,ill not dcscend to the (depth) ;
74. and get thou lovest mo that thou (mnyost makc) me as they are.'
75. 7Vl1cn Istnr (heard) this,
76. Istar mas enraged and (mountod up) to heaven.
77. Iloreovei Istar went before Anu (her fathar),
78. before Ann she went and she (says) :
79. ' 0 my father, Gisdhubar has kept watch on me;
80. Gisdhubar has courlted my garlmds,
81. my garlands and my girdles."'
Likc Potiphar's wife, Istar thus accuses Gisdhubar of
doing the exact contrary of mhat he really had done.
The portion of the tablet which contained thc conver-
sation between her and Anu is broken, but enough
remains to show that she eventually persuaded him to
punish the hero. Anu accordingly created a divine bull
of monstrous size; but without much result, as Gisdhubar
and his friend Ea-bani succeedcd in destroying the animal
and dragging its body in triumph through the streets
of Erech. With Gisdhubar and the divine bull of Anu,
however, we are not at present interested. What con-
cerns us just now is the list given by Gisdhubar of
tho unhappy victims of Istar's coquetry. Of the first,
Tammuz, there is but little said. Even Sin-liqi-unnini,
the author of the Epic of Gisdhubar, could find but little
in tho story of Tammuz which could throw discredit on
the goddess. The next mentioned is Alhla, '[the eagle."
Now the eagle is stated to be "the symbol (tsulro~zj of
the noon-tide sun;" and that Alrila, whose name is of
Sccadian origin signifying the great Spirit," has solar
c~uncctions,is indicated not only by the fact that his
 TAXMUZ AND ISTAR. 249
consort Tillili is the sister of Tammuz in the legend of the
Descent of Istar, but also from the compound title AZdla
alanz, " Albla of the image."' I n one of the local cos-
mogonies of Chaldaea, however, he and his consort took
the place of Assoros and Kissarb, the k rim or dial heavens
and earth. Like them, he was resolved into Anu by the
monotheistic school ;2 and a text associates both him and
Tillili with the cosmogonic deities Lukhma and Lakhama,
the gods who are immanent in the heaven and in the
earth."3 Who the lion and the horse were me do not
yet know; we hear of ( [ a god of lions" (W.A.I. iii. 66,
34), and one of the Assyrian names of the month Sebat mas
"the month of 'Silili" (K 104, Rev.). I n the shepherd
Tabulu, however, we have the double of the shepherd
Tammuz himself. The name reminds us of Abel and
Tubal-Kain, more especially when we remember that it
is but a tkhel formation-so common in Assyrian-from
the simpler abalu. His fate recalls that of the hunter
Aktaedn, torn by his own dogs through the anger of
1 IV. A. I. ii. 54, 12.
V V . A. I. ii. 54, 11. I n W. A. I. iii. 66, 15, we have (AN) Sam-su
(AN) ai'am; eomp. 11. 18, 20, 26.
D.T. 122, 17-20. Laban(!)-same, '<the brick foundation of
heaven" is also n~entionedi n the same text. Nahonidos, when de-
scribing the rabuilding of the teniple of the hIoon-god a t IIarran, says
that lie set about i t " b y the commission (not "work," as Latrille) of
the god Laban(!), the lord of foundations and brick-work" (libnbti,
W. A. I . V. 61. i. 53), and that on either side of the eastern gate of
the building he placed "two Lukhmu gods who sweep away my foes."
Lahan is mentioned (W. A. I. iii. 66, 6) among the gods whose images
atood i n the temple of Anu a t Assur, and i t is probable that he was of
foreign importation. According to Genesis, IIarran was the home of
Laban. The name would mean "tho white one." "The god of the
Foundatk~n"(dr) ia mentioned in 79. 7-8.6s. This was the horizon
of heaven as opposed to the zenith or Nebo.
260 LECTURE IV.

Artemis, the Asianic representative of the Babylonian

Istar. Isullanu, the gardener of Anu, is probably the
mythic prototype of the historical Sargon of Accad, whom
later legend turned into a gardener beloved by thc
goddess Istar. As it was upon the famous king of Accad
that the old myth was fastened, it is possible that Isullanu
had been tho representative of Tammuz at Accad before
the cult of the god of Eridu had been introduced there
from the south.
But who, all this while, was the goddess, whom one
legend made the faithful wife enduring even death for
her husband's sake, while another regarded her as the
most faithless and cruel of coquettes? I have already
spoken of her as the goddess of love, and such, indeed,
she was to the Babylonian or Assyrian of later days. I n
the story of her descent into Hades, her residence in the
lower world is marked by all cessation of intercourse
between male and female in the animal creation, as well
as among the gods of heaven. I t was this feature of the
story which caused it to find its way into the literature
of another people, and to survive the days when the clay
tablets of Assyria and Babylon could still be read. W e
find it serving to point a moral in the pages of the
Talmud. W e are there told how a pious rabbi once
prayed that the demon of lust shoulcl be bound, and how
his petition was granted. But society quickly fell into
a state of anarchy. No children were born; no eggs
even could be procured for food; and the rabbi was at
length fain to confess that his prayer had been a mistaken
one, and to ask that the demon should again be free.
But though a moral signification thus came to be read
into the old Babylonian myth, it was a signification that
was originally cntirely foreign to it. Prof. Tiele has
clearly shown that the legend of Istar's descent into
Hades is but a thinly-veiled description of the earth-
goddess seeking below for the hidden waters of life,
which shall cause the Sun-god and all nature with him
to rise again from their sleep of death.' The spirits of
earth, the gnomes that guard its treasures below, watch
over the waters, and not until they are led forth and
placed on their golden throne can their precious treasure
be secured. It is the earth who loses her adornments,
one by one, as she passes slowly downward into the
palace-prison of the infernal goddess, and it is the earth
who is once more gladdened at spring-time with the
returning love of the youthful Sun-god.
Istar, then, must primitively have been thc goddess
of the earth, and the bride of Tammuz at Eridu must
accordingly have been his mother Dav-kina. This alone
will explain the persistent element in the myth as it
made its may to the Greeks, according to which the
mother of Tammuz mas also his sister. Istar, Tillili,
Dav-kina, were all but different names and forms of the
same divinity. W e have just seen that Tillili, at all
events, was the primordial earth.
What Istar was primitively, however, will not explain
what she became in those later ages of Babylonian history
to which our monuments belong. Her origin faded more
and more into the hackground; new elements entered
into her character; and she absorbed the attributes and
functions of numberless local divinities. The Istar of
Assur-bani-pal or Nabonidos was the inheritress of cults
' Ades dtr sizikme Congrks iinierndiona2c 'I- Orientalisty ii 1,
pp. 495 sy.
252 LECTWE IV.

and beliefs which had grown up in different localities

and had gathered round the persons of other deities.
The Istar of the historical period is essentially Scmitic.
But let me not be misunderstood. What is Semitic in
her nature is an after-growth, which cannot be explained
unless we assume that it has grown out of non-Semitic
elements. The Semitic superstructure presupposes a
non-Semitic basis. It is only thus that we can explain
both the name of Istar and tlle striking difference that
exists in regard to her character between tho Semites of
Babylonia and those of the west. I t is only where the
Semite had come into contact with the Accadian that we
find the name and worship of Istar at all. W e loolr in
vain for it among the Arabs of central Arabia, among
the descendants of those who parted from their Semitio
brethren of the north before they mere affected by tho
culture of primaeval Babylonia. W e find the name of
Aththor, it is true, on the southern coast of Arabia; but
we find there also the name of the Babylonian Moon-god
Sin, and other traces of the influence which Babylonian
trade could not fail to exert in comparatively late days.
Inland, Istar remained unknown.
All attempts to discover a Semitic etymology for the
name have been unavailing. And there is a .good reason
mhy they should be so. The name itself bears evidence
to its non-Semitic origin. W e find it in its earliest form
in Babylonia; and here, though it denotes the name of a
female goddess, it is unprovided with that grammatical
sign of the feminine-the dental suffix-which marks
the names of other genuinely Semitic goddesses. Belit,
Zarpanit, Anat, Tasmit, all show by their termination
their source and meaning ; and Istar, without that termi-
 TAMMUZ AND I ~ A B . ' 253
nation, in spite of its meaning, shows equally plainly
what its source must be. As the name travelled further
to the west, away from its old associations with Chaldsea,
the grammatical instincts of the Semites could no longer
bc held in check, and Istar was transformed into the
Ashtoreth of the Old Testament and the Phcenieian
monuments, the Astart; of the Greeks. Even in Baby-
lonia and Assyria, when Istar became the representative
of all other female divinities, and the name passed into
a common term signifying goddess," the Semitic
feminine suffix was attached to it. But the suffix was
attached to it only when i t was thus used, no longer as
a proper name, but as one of the words of the Semitic
dictionary; whenever it still retained its ancient sense
and denoted a specific deity, it retained also its ancient
gcnderless appearance. As a foreign name, it continued
to the last a stranger in the province of Semitic grammar.
Wc can thus understand why it was that the Semites
sometimes changed the old Chaldsean goddess into a
male divinity. On the Moabite Stone, Mesha declares
that he dedicated Nebo of Israel to Istar-Kemosh, "to
Istnr who is the god Kemosh;" and an astronomical
tablet1 informs us that Dilbat, the planet Venus, which,
as we shall see, was the primitive Istar, is lea female at
suuset and a male at sunrise," the word employed for
male being a curiously artificial coinage, such as maless"
would be in English. I n fact, the tablet goes on to add
that Venus mas not only a male by reasonof her ideutifica-
tion with the morning star, she was also the rising Sun-god
himself, and thus a male and the offspring (of a male);"
254 LECTUBE IV.

while at sunset she was the god Adar, and thus "an
androgyne and the offspring (of an androgyne)." After
this, we are told that Venus at sunrise is Istar of Accad
by name," while at sunset shc is ('Istar of Erech by
name ;" at sunrise she is " Istar of the stars," at sunset
Mat ili, "the mistress of the gods." The doubt as to
whether Istar vere male or female was the same as that
which was felt by the Semites in regard to other Acca-
dian deities.' Where there was no grammatical indica-
tion, where the same word might mean "master" or
"mistress" according to the context, the zealous but
half-educated Semitic neophyte might well be forgiven
the mistakes he sometimes made in his adoption and
adaptation of the older divinities. I t was thus that the
ambiguity of the Accadian nin, which signified at once
lLlord"and "lady," led him at times to transform the
god Adar into a goddess; and I have already pointed
out in an earlier Lecture how in like manner the god
A became the wife of the Sun. But that a similar doubt
should hang over the sex of Istar proves more plainly
than anything else the non-Semitic origin of her name
and character."
When, however, we come to loolr closely into this
character, me shall find here also clear traces of a non-

1 I n \V.A. I. ii. 3.5, 18, we aro told that the god Tiskhu was "Istar
of Ereeh;" and yet i n ii. 5 i , 35, Tiskhu appears as the equivalent of
Ador as "god of libations." n u t i t must be remembered that the
Semites were doubtful about the sex of Adnr. On the other lia~tcl,
Iskhara, another name of Istar (ii. 49, 14; K4185, 7), is said to bi: 3
male deity whose wife !as Almanu or (Al)manBti (Strassmaier, 3901).
That the Phcenieians also knew of a male Istar is perl~apsindi-
cated by the Greeli myth which made Eur6pa the vife of bstcrios,
the king of Phcenieian K r M
 T A ~ AND
~ Z IBTAB. 255
Somitic descent. I n the first place, Istar ia distinguished
from the other goddesses of the Semitic world by her
independent nature. She is not the mere reflexion of
the male divinity, like Anat or Beltis or Zarpanit ; in so far
as she is Istar, she is placed on an equal footing with the
male deities of the pantheon. I n this respect she stands
in marked contrast to the goddesses of the pure Semitic
faith, and to the purely Semitic conception of the divine
government of the world. She holds equal rank with
the Sun-god Baal ; Babyloninn mythology, in fact, makes
her his sister, and treats her as if she were a god. We
may oven say that she takes rank before him, at all
events in early times, i n conformity with the old Acoadian
custom of setting the woman before the man, but in fla-
grant violation of the contrary practice of the Semitic race.
So far, indeed, from being the double and shadow of the
god, Istar is rather the divinity who gives life and sub-
stance to her divine lovers. Tammuz himself is but
"the bridegroom" of Istar; it was only for the sake of
Istar that his name mas held in honour. Istar, in short,
is an anomaly in the Semitic pantheon; she is there as a
godAess who masquerades in the garb of a god.
Away from Accadian iduences, in the Phcenician
lands of the west, the character, like the name, of the
goddess was more closely accommodated to Semitic ideas.
Istar had become Ashtoroth, and Ashtoreth had put on
the colourless character of the Semitic goddess. Hencc
it was that, just as Baal became the common designat'1011
of the male deity, Ashtoreth mas the common designa-
tion of the female. By the side of the Baalim stood the
Ashtaroth-those goddesses whose sole right to exist was
the necmity of providing the male divinity with a oon-
256 LECTURE IV.

sort. Asherah, the southern Canaanitish goddess of fer-

tility, alone retained some of the independence of the
Babylonian Istar.
I n the second place, there is a very important differ-
ence between the Istar of Babylonia and the Ashtoretb
of Phcenicia. Ashtomth was the goddess of the moon;
Istar was not. I t was in the west alone that Astart&was
" Qocen of heawn with crescent horns;
To ml~osebright inlage nightly by the muon
Sidonian v i r g i ~ ~paid
s tlieir vows and soll,ns."

It was in the west alone that the shrine was erected to

Ashtoreth Karnaim,' " Ashtoreth of the double horn ;',
and Greek legend described the wandering Astart&,andrr
the name of Eurdpa, crossing the celestial sea on the bull
that Anu had created for her so long before to punish
the disdainful Gisdhubar. I n Babylonia and Assyria,
however, Istar and the moon mere separate one from
another. The moon was conceived of as a god, not as a
goddess, in conformity with pre-Semitic ideas; and the
Moon-god Sin was never confounded with the goddess
Istar. It must have been the same wherever the worship
of Sin extended, whether in Harran in the north or in
Yemen and the Siuaitic desert in the south. But the
worship never made its way to Canaan. Sin failed to
establish himself there, and the moon accordingly re-
mained the pale mirror and double of the mightier Baal.
The Semites of Phcenicis were too distant from the cul-
tured kingdoms of tho Euphrates to allow t,heir religions
instincts to be overridden and transformed. The name
and cult of Istar were indeed introduced among them,

Gen xi". 5, where the w o ~ dis wrongly punctuated "Ashtcroth"

 TAMMUZ AND IBTAB. 257
b ta new interpretation was given to both. Istar sank
to the level and took the place of the older goddesses of
the Canaanitish faith.
Perhaps you will ask me what is the meaning of the
name of Istar? This, however, is a question which I
cannot answer. The Babylonians of the historical age
do not seem to have known what was its origin, and it is
therefore quite useless for us to speculate on the subject.
Its true etymology was buried in the night of antiquity.
But its earliest application appears to have been to the
evening star. This is the oldest signification that we can
assign to the word, which by the way, it may be noticed,
does not occur in any of the Accadian texts that we
possess.l
The legend of the assault of the seven wicked spirits
upon the moon tella us pretty clearly who the goddess
-

Istar was primarily supposed to be. Mul-lil, it is said,

&'hadappointed Sin, Samas and Istar, to rule the vault of
heaven," and, "along with Anu, had given them to share
the lordship of the hosts of heaven. To the three of
them, those gods his children, he had entrusted the night
and the day; that t,hey cease not their work he urged
them. Then those seven, the wicked gods, darted upon
the vault of heaven; before Sin, the god of light, they
oame in fierce attack; Samas the hero and Rimmon tho

1 From which we may infer that the name originated in one oE the
smaller cities of the country. It is possibly a side-form of Iskhan,
Is-tar and Is-kham being alike compounds of iu. The suffix -ra or .r
is common in Pmto-Chaldaean, and the Semitic spelling of the first syl.
Lahle (with 'ain), like that of the first syllable of Anu, pointp to its
having originally been as. Istar appears as EsMier in the book of
Esther, where Mordechai, it may be noted, ia 8 derivative from Mero-
d&
8
2.58 LECrORE IT.

warrior turned and fled; Istar set np a glittering throne

by the side ofAnn the king, and plotted for the sovereignty
of heaven."' Thus once more the mythologist gives the
goddess an unfaronrable character, though it is casy to
see what the story means. When the moon is eclipsed,
the evening star has no longer any rival in the sky; i t
shines with increased brilliancy, and seems to meditate
ruling the night alone, in company only with the heaven
itself.
Already, before the days of Sargon of Accad and the
compilation of the great Babylonian work on astronomy,
it had been discovered that the evening and morning
tars were one and the same. Not only, thereforc, was
Istar the evening star, the companion of the moon ; she
became also the morning star, the companion and herald
of the sun. I t was thus that she assumed the attributes
and titles of a male deity, since Dun-khud-e, the hero
who issuea forth at daybreak," was both a god and the
morning star. As the morning star, thereforc, Istar was
a god and the successor of a god, so that it is not won-
derful if the bewildered Semite, who found no visible
sign of gender in the name of the divinity he had adopted,
should sometimes have regarded Istar as the masculine
form of Ashtoreth. Some of the early Accadian titles
of Istar belong to her as the star of the morning, though
the title of " Lady of Rising,'j2 given her as "the mife
1 W. A . I. iv. 5, 60-i9.
W. A. I. ii. 54, 20. As 'lLady of the dawn" she was called Bis-
bizi, a re-duplicated form, apparently, of bis orpes, which is rendered
by n~amlu(W. A. I. iv. 69, 33; 21, 66), a synonym of alldlu (ii. 31,65)
and ralrdbu (ii. 35,35). Comparepes, " a pig." Rahdbuis the Hebrew
rahab, "the crocodile" as a symbol of Egypt, and denoted i n Assyrian
" a sea-monster." Hence George Smith seems to have been right in
of Ann" (W. A.I. ii. 54,15), would apply equally to the
cvccing star.
I n making her thc wife of tho Sky-god, the mytho-
logists wcrc only expressing in another way what the
poct of thc lcgcnd of thc sevcn cvil spirits had denoted
by saying that Istar set up her throne by the side of
Anu. More usually, however, the relation between Istar
and Anu was rcgardcd as a genetic one; she was the
daughter, rathcr than thc wife, of the Sky.' At times,
again, shc is callcd thc daughter of the Moon-god, the
Moon-god bcing hcrc the larger body which begets the
smaller star. I t is possible that these different views
about her descent arc dcrivcd from diff'erent centres of
worship; that which made her the daughter of Sin
having its origin in Ur, while that which made her the
daughtcr of Auu emanated from Erech. At any rate,
her connection with thc Moon-god seems to have been
the morc popular view in Semitic times.
As a planct, Istar's ordinary name was the Accadian
Dilbat, or L'Announcer." One of the smaller cities of
Babylonia had the samc namc, and was probably the chief
seat of the worship of the goddess under this particular
form. It is obvious that the name must have been
originally applied not to tho evening but to the morning
star. It was only as the announcer of day and the
herald of the sun that Venus could be the Accadian
representative of the Semitic Nebo. The other mes-

identifying tho bis-bis or "dp~gon"Tiamat with Rahab, since ig bis-bis

is interpreted turhlttzr (W. A. I. ii. 32, 9), 'I the locust-swarm of the
sea," according to ii. 5, 4.
' Both at Ereoh and Tel-loh her temple we9 called EAca, "the
temple of the Sky. '
s2
 sengers of the gods were male: and in Semitic times
the fact that there had once been ;I female mcssengcr
mas forgotten. The name of Dilbat, it is true, rcmainccl,
but only as the name of a star ; thc place of lstar as the
herald of the Sun-god wan taken, at Hahylon at :dl cvc~lts,
by Nebo.
I t is possible that the records of the city of Dilbat, if
ever they arc recovered, will show us that this was tltc
primal home of the name of Istar itself, and the centre
from which it first spread. If so, however, it was little
more than the primnl home of the goddess's name. Thc
real source and centre of the worship of Istar a t thc dawn
of the historical period, the starting-point front whielt
it was handed on to the Semites and becsn~eoverlaid
with Semitic beliefs and practices, was not Dilbat, but
Erech. I n the days when Erech had been a leading
state, when the cult of the Sky-god had been carried by
its people to other parts of the Eastern world, the cult
of Istar also had been carried with it. Whercvcr the
worship of Anu had gone, the worship of Istar, the
daughter of Anu, went too. But the Istar of Erech was
originally known by a different name. She was Nina,
' I the lady," a title which does not appear to have been

replaced by the name of Istar until after the beginning of

the Semitic period. At all events the common title of
the goddess in the Accadian texts is N4na; the word
Istar is never found in them. As Nina,' "the lady," she
continued to be known at Erech down to the most recent
times. I t was the famous image of Nana that the Elamite
-.-- --. -.---
-. .-.---
.
1 As the name is always written in combination with the prefix of
divinity, the compound charaoter was called In-Nbna, for An-Nha
(see above, p. 116).
invader Kudur-naukhundi had carried off 1635 years
before the gcncrds of Assur-bani-pal recovered it in thc
suck of Yh~~shan, andlide texts draw a distinction between
Nana andIstar. Thus ina tablet of exorcisms, the patient
is told to address "Istar, Nana and Kasb2,"' and an
a ~ ~ g u rtablet
a l is corcful to distinguish between Nana and
" Istar the queen" (milkal~).~
I t was, in fact, casy to identify a goddess who bore so
gcncral a name as that of "the lady" with any other
fcmalc diviuity. At Borsippa, for instance, Nana was
made one with an otherwise unknown deity 'Sutitil(?),
"the goddess who quickens the body." A text copied for
Assur-baui-pal from n tablet originally written atBabylon,
contaius part of a hymn which had to be rccited ' I in the
presence of Bcl-Merodach when he had seated himself
(itlash) in the house of sacrifice (akilum) in the beginning
of Nisan." The latter portion reads as follows :
" ( 0 %I, why) dost thou not take thy seat in Babylon1 I n &Sag-
gil is set thy dwellingplace. ' IIis is the . . . .' they have not said to
thee, and Zarpanit has not cried to thee. 0 Bel, why dost thou not
take thy seat in Borsippa 1 I n EZida is set thy dwelling-place. ' 0
Nebo, 1 am here,' they have not said to thee ; Naua the goddess who
quickens the body has not cried to thee. 0 Bol, why dost thou not
take thy seat in Xis? In EDubba (the house of libation) is set thy
dwelling-place. '0 Zau~ama," why dost thou not take thy seatl'

K 3464, 18.
9 K 230, Obu. 4, 13. Tho divine names in this tablet follow in this
order: Istar of Babylon, Nana, Kani-surra, the god of Kibib, Neho,
Tasmetu, Gula, 'Sakiu of EAna, Samas, Sala, Istar the queen, Nergal ;
(Ugur), Rimmou, Zamama, Mul-lil.
Zamama (in Sumerian Zagaga) was the Sun-god of Kis (W. A. I.
ii. 60, 7 ; 61, 52), and was consequently identified with Adar by the
mythologists (W. A. I. ii. 57, 70). On a contract-stone he is symbol-
Led by an eagle, which is said to be "the image of the southern sun
262 LECTURE IV.

Bahu, the queen of Xis, has not cried to thee. 0 Ccl, ivhy Jost thou
not take thy seat i n Cutha? I n E-'Suli~n[SIT-LAM] is set thy dwclling-
place. '0 Nergal (Ugur), why dost thou not take thy seat l' Laz
and the godlless Namit have not said unto thec. ' 0 my pure one,'
they have not cried nhto thee."'

It will be noticed that in this hymn, while Nana has

ceased to be the special goddess of Ercch and has bccome
the goddess of Borsippa, she is ranlced with Dahu of I<is
and L a and Mamit-that terrible "Ban" which even
the gods must obey-who presided over Cutha. Laz
disappeared almost entirely from the pantheon of later
Babylonia, and mas reniembcred only by antiquarians,
except perhaps in Cutha itself;2 but the name of Bahu
remained better known. Bahu probably mas the Gurrn
of Eridu, the great mother '' deep" mhich was the home
of the seven evil ~ p i r i t sand
, ~ represented the waters of
the abyss in their original chaotic state before they were
reduced to order by the creator E a 4 She seems to have
been the Bohu of Genesis, the Baau of the Phcenician

of Kis!' W e gather also from W. A. I. ii. 57, 53, that he was s ~ m h o l -

ised (lilre Alhla) by the eagle.
Unnumbered; a few lines are quoted by Strassmaicr, 6019.
Yet in 2 Kings xxii. 30, "the men of Cnth" are said to have
"made Nergal" only, from which we may infer that the ordinary popu-
lation even of Cutha had forgotten the special name of their ancient
godiless.
W. A. I. iv. 15, 5.
' Zikum and Zigarum or Zikdm are the names of Gurra when
regarded as the whole body of chaos out of which the hoaven and the
oarth more formed (W. A. I. ii. 45. 26, 27). Zigarum or Zikdra stands
for Zi-Gdra, "the spirit of Giira." Cp. Gen. i. 2. I f the kiug ol
Telloh whose name reads Ur-Bahu is to he identified with the well.
known Chaldaean monarch Ur-Bagas or Ur-Zikum, the identity of Bal~u
mll Zikum would be certain. Gahu is of Semitic origiu, but was bor.
coned by the Accadians at an early period
Sanchuniathon, whose Greek interpreter iaentifies her
with the night and makes her the mother of the first
mortal men. The Semitic Bohu, however, was no deity,
much less a goddess ; the word signified merely empti-
ness,:' and was thus a quite unsuitable rendering of the
old Accadian Gurra, "the watery deep." There is little
season for wonder, therefore, that the recollection of
what Bahu had primitively been should have faded out
of the memories of the Semitic Babylonians. Aa the
gods of the Accadians had become Baalim, so Bahu, like
the other goddesses of primreval Chaldaea, was swept
into the common vortex of Ashtaroth. She became
the wife of the Sun-god of Kis (W. A. I. iii. 68, 63), and,
when he was identified with the Sun-god of Nipur, of
Adar also (K 133, 21). She thus passed into Gula, "the
great goddess," who, though carefully distinguished from
both Bahu and Nana in the earlier texts, ended in the
Semitic period by becoming confounded with both. She
was originally the local goddess of Nidin,' and had the
titles of "lady of the evening," "lady of the house of
death," "lady of life and death." I n one of the prayers
prescribed for recitation in the temple of Merodach at
Babylon, she is invoked as " the mother who has begotten
the black-headed race (of Accadians)." She thus takes
the place that ia occupied by Istar in the story of the
Deluge, who is there made to declare that "I have
begotten my people," and is called Rubat, the Assyrian
equivalent of the Accadian Gula. I n fact, it is pretty
clear from the local titles of Gula that she must once
have been the evening star; and we can therefore under-
264 LECTURE IV.

stand why it is that on the one hand she is termed c' the
wife of the southern sun,"' and on the other hand is made
the consort of Adar by the mythologists. She forms the
common meeting-point of the various local deities of
Chaldsea who were connected with the Sun-god ; Bahu,
A, Sala, all alike are Gula, l L the great one ;" and Gula is
but the Accadian original of Rubat, the Semitic Istar.
I n this way we may explain the statement that Gula is
"the heaven" (W. A. I. v. 31, 58), the sky of the evening
which was ruled by the evening star.
But it is also quite possible that, as Hommel thinks,
one of the elements which went to make up the character
of the later Istar was a goddess of the sky who corre-
sponded to the Sky-god of Erech. If so, this might well
have been Gula, whose assimilation to Istar would have
been assisted by the close relation existing between Anu
and Nana. However that may be, the Istar of the
Semitic period inherited the attributes of Dav-kina, the
goddess of the earth. The bride of Tammue of Eridu
was not the Istar of Erech, not the Istar of the evening
star, but a goddess of the earth. At Eridu, the goddess
of the earth was Dav-kina, his own mother, and we can
thus trace to its primitive home those forms of the myth
of Ad8nis which made his mother his sister as well. I n
Cyprus, the Phoenicians called him Gingras, and declared
that Kinyras was his father's name. Kinyras, howevei-,
is but a popular perversion of Gingras, slightly changea
in pronunciation so as to remind the speaker of the
Phoenician kinnbl; the zither," just as Kenkhr&is, the
wife of Kinyras, is again but Gingras in an Hellenised
 TAMMUZ AND ISTAR. 265
form. Now the title of G i n p a seems to bear the marks
of its origin upon its face. I t is the old Accadian
Gingiri, or Giugira, which we are told was the Accadian
name of Istar.' Gin~iri,however, meant nothing more
specific than L L goddess." I t was the feminine equivalent
of the masculinedingir, and, like dingir, signified LLcreator."
The LLgreat"goddess of southern Babylonia was thus
the creator of the world just as much as the god who
stood by her side.
The identification of Istar and Qingira simplified the
process whereby the worship of the goddess spread through
Babylonia. Each city had its own Qingira, or "creatress ;"
each city, therefore, gave a welcome to its own Istar.
When the empire of Sargon had transported the deities
of southern Chaldsea to Accad, Istar naturally accom-
panied her bridegroom Tammuz. Whether the Semitic
colouring which the worship of Istar received was given
to it now for the first time at Accad, or whether it had
already been received at Erech, we have no means of
determining. The fact remains that from henceforth
Istar became a Semitic goddess; her cult was almost
W. A. I. ii. 48, 29. The ideo,pphs of which it is a gloss read
Sar-sar, a name of Ea, according to ii. 55, 54. Perhaps therefore we
should look to Eridu as the source of the name, where Ea and Dav-
kina would be grouped together as "the gods Sar-sar," corresponding
to the An-sar and Ki-sar of another system of cosmogony. However,
the words explained i n the portion of the text which gives the gloss
Gingira seem to belong to a document that emanated from the court of
Sargon of Accad; see 11. 40, 47, and the astronomical notices. I n the
early Accadian inscriptions Gingira has the more correct form Giugiri
(written o~nor-ri). The mode of witing the name proved very con-
venient for the Semites, who regarded it as expressing their Ista-ri
(instead of Istar or Istaru), as well as for the people of Van in after
timas, who employed it to denote the name of their own goddeaa 'Sari
(instead of 'Saris). See also above, p. 143.
2G6 LECTURE IV.

purely Semitic in character, and the tmo great centres of

her worship mere the Semitic cities of Erech and Accad.
Her worship was a reflexion of that worship of nature
which underlay the Semitic conception of Baalism. The
fierce passions excited by an Eastern sun found their
expression in it. Prostitution became a religious duty,
whose wages were consecrated to the goddess of love.
She mas served by cunuchs and by trains of men and
boys who dressed like women and gave thcrnselves up to
women's pursuits. Istar, in fact, had ceased to be the
'ipurc" goddess of the evening star. The other elements
in her hybrid character had come to the front, aided by
the Semitic conception of the femalc side of the divinity.
She was now the fruitful goddess of the earth, teeming
with fertility, the femininc development of the life-giving
Sun-god, the patroness of love. The worshipper who
would serve her truly had to share mith her her pains
and pleasures. Only thus could he livc the divine life,
and be, as it were, united with the deity. It was on this
account that tho women wept mith Istar each year over
the fatal wound of Tarnmuz ; it was on this account that
her temples werc fillcd mith the victims of sexual passion
and religious frenzy, and that her festivals were scenes
of consecrated orgies. As the worship of the goddess
spread westward, the revolting features connected with
it spread at the same time. The prophets of Israel
denounce the abominations committed in honour of Ash- ,
toreth and Baal within thc sacred walls of Jerusalem
itself; the Greek writers stand aghast at thc violations
of social decency enjoined as religious duties on the
adorers of the oriental Aphroditi ; and Lucian himself
-if Lucian indeed be the author of the treatise-is
 T.4MllUZ AND ISTAR. 2G7
shocked at the self-mutilation practised before the altar
of thc Syrian goddcss of IIierapolis. From Syria, the
cult, with all its rites, made its way, like that of Attys-
Adonis, to the populations bcyond the Taurus. At
Komana iu Kappadokia, t h e goddess Ma was ministered
to by GOO0 eunuch-priests, and the Galli of Phrygia
rivalled the priests of Baal and Ashtoreth in cutting
their arms with knives, in scourging their backs, and in
piercing their flesh with darts. The worship of the
fierce powcrs of nature, at once life-giving and dcath-
dealing, which required from the belicver a sympathetic
participation in the sufferings and pleasures of his deities,
produced alternate outbursts of frenzied self-torture and
frenzied lust.
There was, however, a gentler side to the worship of
Istar. The cult of a goddess ivho matched over thc
family bond and whose help was evcr assured to the
faithful in his trouble, could not but exercise a human-
ising influence, however much that influence may have
been sullied by the excesses of the popular religion.
But there were many whose higher and finer natures
were affected only by the humanising influence and not
by the popular faith. Babylonia does not seem to have
produced any class of men like the Israelitish prophets;
but it produced cultivated scribes and thinkers, who sought
and found beneath the superstitions of their countrymen
a purer religion and a more abiding form of faith. Istar
was to them a divine LLmother,"the goddess who had
begotten mankind, and who cared for their welfare with
a mother's love. It is true that they seem to have pre-
ferred addressing her by some other name than that
which was polluted by the Galli and their female com-
268 LECTURE IV.

rades; it was to ffula, rather than to Istnr or Rubat, that

the priest of Be1 mas told to pray ; and the translators of
the penitential psalms turn the Nana (Innana) of the
Accadian original into zktaritu, "the goddess," instead of
Istar. But if questioned, they would have said that ihc
goddess to whom their petitions and praises wcrc addressed
was indeed Istar, and that Gula and Nann and Milkat
were but various names under which the same deity was
adored. The people, it is true, may have regarded the
goddesses of Babylonia as separate diviuitics, oven as the
peasant of Spain or Italy may to-day regard his local
Virgins as distinct each one from the other ; the educated
Babylonian knew them to be but one-divers forms of
the godhead, but no more. .n fact, he did not scruple
to translate by the common name of Istar the several
names under which the chief goddess of Babylonia wcnt
in the old Accadian hymns. It is thus that we read in
one of these :
"The light of heaven, who blazeth like the fire, art thou,
0 goddess (istariturn), when thou fixest thy d~velling-placei n the
earth;
thou who art strong as the earth !
Thee, the path of justice approaches thee
when thon entcrest into the house of man.
A hyena, who springs to seize the lamb, art thou I
A lion, who stalks i n the midst, art thon!
By day, 0 virgin, adorn the heaven !
0 virgin Istar, adorn the heaven !
Thou who art set as the jewelled circlet of moonstone1 adorn the
heaven !

1 SUM,from the Accadian sub% the Assyrian equivalent of which was

(aban) yarakhu (W. A. I. ii. 40, 59). I n the legend of the Descent of
Istar (p. 227) the sutartum or "jewelled circlet" belongs to Tillili, and
is composedof "eye-stones." The Suba was the name of a god (ii. 58,46).
 TAMMOZ AND ISTAB. 269
Companion of the Sun-god, adorn the heaven !
'To canso enlightenment to prevail1 am I appointed, alone' sm I
appuinted.
By the side of my father the hloon-god3 to cause enlightenment
to prevail am I appointed, alone am I appointed.
By t l ~ naide of my brother the Sun-god to cause enlightenment
to p~ovailam I appointed, alone am I appointed.
My father Nannaru has appointed me ; to cause enlightenment to
prevail am I appointed.
I n the resplendent heaven to cause enlightenment to prevail am I
appointed, alone am I appointed.
Jn tho beginning was my glory, in the beginning was my glory.
I n t l ~ ebeginning was I a goddess (islu~iturn)who marched on
high.
Istar' the divillity of the evening sky am I.
Istar the divinity of tho dawn am I.
Iatar the opener of the bolts of the bright heaven is my (name of)
glory.
My glory extinguishes the heaven, i t spoils the earth.
Tho extinguisher of the heaveu, the spoiler of the earth is my
glory.
That which glows in the clouds of heaven, whose name is re-
nowned in the world, is my glory.
As queen5 of heaven above and below may my glory be addressed.
M y glnory awaepse away the mountains altogether.

and of a river which was consecrated to Tammnz (ii. 50, 12). As the
god Snba is stated to he a form of the Sun-god, like Ilba, he is donbt-
leas to he identified with Tammuz as "god of the Moonstone.''
1 I n the Accadian, "tho gift of light."

9 Citmulu. The wonl has no connection with g a d l u , "to finish,"

and means "sole," "unique" (as here, where the Aceadian equivalent
si,pifies "going alone"). The statement in W. A. I. iv. 69, 76, that
qitmulu is the Accadian sar, "big," is derived from the secondary sense
of gitmalu as "monstrous" or "gigantic!'
3listrsnslated in the Assyrian, which has wrongly construed the
Accadian postpositions.
4 I n the original Accadian, "mistress of the sky."

In the original, "the unique monster" (ustlgal).

The Aasyrim tramlation misrenders : "I sweep away."
270 LECTURE IV.

Thou art' the mighty fortress of the mountaim, thou art their
mighty bolt, 0 my glory.'

May thy heart rest, may thy liver bo tranquil.'

0 lord (Bcl) Anu the mighty one, may thy lioart be at rest.
0 lord (Eel), the mighty mountain Mul-lil, may thy liver bo tran.
quil.
0 goddess (istarilfim), lady of heaven, may thy heart he at rest.
0 mistress, lady of heaven, may tlry livor be tranquil.
0 mistress, lady of E-Ana, may thy heart be at rest.
0 mistress, lady of the land of Erech, may thy liver be tranquil.
0 mistress, lady of tho laud of the city of precious stones,3 may
thy heart he at rest.
0 mistress, lady of the mountain of mankind,' may thy liver be
tranquil.
0 mistress, lady of the templo of the paslurago of mankind, may
thy heart be at rest.
0 mistress, lady of Babylon, may thy liver bc tranquil.
0 mistress, lady of the name of Nana, may thy heart he at rest.
0 lady of the temple, lady of spirits, may thy liver he lranquil.
(COLOP~ON.)-Tearfulsupplication of the heart to Istar.
Like its old copy written and published. Palace of Assur-bani-
pal, king of Assyria."

But Istar was not merely the goddess of love. By the

side of the amorous goddess thcre was also a warlike one.
Thc Syrian goddess mho migrated westward was a war-

1 The Assyrian mistranslates : " I am!'

1 The concluding litany probably helongs to a later period than the
rest of the hymn, to which i t has been attached, and is of the age when
Erech and Babylon were the leading cities of Chaldaa.
3 "The city of Sula." "The river of Sula" is called "the river of
Tammuz" or of Suba in W. A. I. ii. 50, 12.
4 Kharsag-kalama, the name of a temple at Iiis (W. A. I. ii. 61,15),

or 'Sahu (v. 12. 49, 50), also called fiupar n'i, "the villase of the
shepherd," or kapur garradi, "the village of the warrior" Tammuz ( i i
62. 66, 67).
rior aa well as a bride. Among the Hittites and their
disciples in Asia Minor, she was served not only by Galli,
but by Amazons-warrior priestesses-as well. The
Artemis of Ephcsos, her lineal descendant, was separated
by a wide gulf from the Aphrodit6 of Cyprus. Both
Artemis and AphroditE: were alike the offspring of the
same Babylonian deity, but in making their way to Greece
thcy had become separated and diverse. The goddess
of the Eittitcs and of Asia Minor preserved mainly her
fiercer side ; the goddess of Phoenician Cyprus her gen-
tler side. Both sides, however, had once been united in
the Istar of Chaldoea. The Greek myths which recounted
thc story of Semiramis recorded the fact. For Semiramis
is but Istar inanother guise. As Istar was called LLqueen7'
by the Assyrians, so is Semiramis the queen of Assyria;
as Semiramis deserts Mendn for Ninos or Nineveh, so
did Istar desert her old haunts for her later temple at
Nineveh. The dove into which Semiramis was changed
was the bird sacred to Istar. Her passion for her son
Ninyas, L L the Ninevite," whom another version of the
myth names Zames or Samas, is an echo of the passion
of Istar, the Dav-kina of Eridu, for Tammuz the Sun-
god. The warrior-queen of Assyria, in fact, was the
great Babylonian goddess in her martial character.
While the gentler-mannered Babylonians preferred to
dwell upon the softer side of Ishr, the Assyrians, as was
natural in the case of a military nation, saw in her mainly
the goddess of war and battle. Like Babylonia, with its
two centres of her worship at Erech and Accad, Assyria
also had its two great sanctuaries of Istar at Nineveh and
Arbela. That she should have had no faillous templc in
272 LECTUBE IT.

Assur,' the old capital of the kingdom, shows clearly the

comparatively late development of her cult. Doubtless
the earliest inhabitants of the Assyrian cities had brought
with them the name and worship of Istar, but it could
only have been long afterwards that it attained its final
celebrity. Indeed, we can trace its progress through the
historical inscriptions until it culminates in the reign of
Assur-bani-pal.
There was a particular cause for this gradual develop-
ment which was connected with the warlike attributes
of the Assyrian Istar. Tho Assyrians were an essen-
tially Semitic people. Their supreme goddess accordingly
was that vague and colourless Bilit ili, "the mistress of
the gods," who sat as a queenly shadow by the side of
Bel. They had none of those associations with the
older Accadian goddesses, with their specific names and
functions, which the natives of the Babylonian cities
possessed; apart from Istar, the evening star, there was
no goddess among them who could claim a more inde-
pendent position than that of a Bilit ili. Assur himself
had no special consort, like Zarpanit at Babylon or even
A at Accad.% Except Istar, therefore, the Assyrian pan-
theon was destitute of a goddess who could aasert her
equality with the gods.
But the name of Istar, supported as it was by tho

1 Tiglath-Pileser 1. spwks of building one there along with temples

of Martu and of Bel-laharu, "the old Bel" (CoL vi. 86, 87). He gives
Istar the title of Asaun'ti, "Assyrian," not "Assurite."
2 Tiglath-Pileser 111. once mentions Seruha apparently as the con.
sort of Assur (Lay. 17, lb), but th'i ie in connection with hia occupe
tion of Babylonia
 TAXMUZ AND ISTAR. 273
traditions, the sacred teachillg and the literature the
Assyrians had brought from Babylonia, sufficed to keep
a5ve a recollection of the fact that such female divinities
had once been recognised. Accordingly, while Istar on
the one hand tended to be merged into the vague and
general Bilat ili, on the other hand she absorbed their
attributes into herself. With the increasing fame of her
shrines at Nineveh and Arbela, and the rise of Nineveh
as the capital of the country, the second process went on
rapidly. Istar, therefore, while still preserving her indi-
viduality, took upon herself all the offices and attributes
of Beltis, the wife of the Sun-god. The ancient myths
which had made her the bride of Tammuz and Alala, '
and her identification with in Semitic Accad, had
already paved the way. It wan thus that the fiercer
aspect of the Sun-god as a warrior, first reflected on his
consort, the Bilat ili, became transferred to the Assyrian
Istar. Istar of Arbela was primarily a militant deity,
the bearer of the bow of war. If the Bssyrians were
to have a goddess at all, a deity with an independent
character and position of her own, it was necessary that
she should be a goddess of war. The earlier kings of
Assyria, Rimmon-nirari I.,Tiglath-Pileser I.,Assur-natsir-
pal and his son Shalmaneser II., pay her but slight atten-
tion, invoking her only at the end of their list of gods;
and when they address her, it is as the lady of onset, !
the strengthener of battle," "the lady of battle and war," ,
the chieftainess of heaven and earth who makes perfect
the face of the warriors." Even Sargon and Sennacherib
are chary of their references to her; while Tiglath-
Pileser 111. in Babylonia sacrifices to Nana of Erech
T
274 LEUPURE IV.

rather than to Istar,' and Shalmaneser 11. distinguishes

between the military goddess Istar and Beltis (Nin-lil),
"the wife of Bel, the mother of the (great) gods." But
with Esar-haddon all is changed Oracles of encourage-
ment and prophecies of victory pour in for him from the
priestesses and priests of the temple of Istar at Arbela;
Istar declares herself to be his mistress, ('who will do
battle with the enemies before (his) feet." She promises
to give his foes into his hand : " Fear not, 0 Esar-had-
don," is the prophecy delivered through the mouth of
the priestess Bay&, "I am thy strong Baal, I devise the
might2 of thy heart: I am jealous3 as thy mother, for
thou hast given me power; the sixty great gods, my
strong ones, shall protect thee; the Moon-god shall he
on thy right hand, the Sun-god on thy left." Another
oracle is even more explicit:
"I am Istar of Arbela, 0 Esar-haddon, king of Assyria ; i n Assnr, in
(Nineveh), in Calah, in Arbela, long days and everlasting years will I
give to Esar-haddon my king. I am the lover of thy limbs,' thy nurse
and (thy am I. For long days and everlasting years thy
throne I have established in earth and heaven the mighty. For my
veil of gold in the midst of heaven I am jealous. I will cause the
light which clings to it to shine before the face of Esar-haddon, Icing
of Assyria, like the crown of my head, (and) behind his feet. Fear
not, 0 king, I have spoken with thee, I have not withheld myself(?)

1 Similarly Sennacherib (TV. A. I. i. 43, 31-33) speaks of "the

Sun-god of Laria, the Lady *of Rub-esi (l), the Lady of Erech Nana,
the goddess Utsura-amatha, the Lady of Life, the god Kasdinnam, the
goddess Kassitu, and Nergal." Kassitn probably means "the Kassite"
or Kossman goddess; in Kasdinnam we may see an Aramaean form ~f
the Biblical Kasdim.
2 Literally, "strong beams of wood."

3 Akharidi, akin to lchardatu, "solioitudan

4 LITseticloe," according to Haupt.

 TAMMUZ AND ISTAR. 275
(from thee). (Thy) foeman shall team to he. The river, in deapite of
opposition, I will osuae thee to crosa 0 Gar-haddon, the faithful son,
....
son of Beltis, with my hands do I make an end of thy foes."

Assur-bani-pal inherited his father's devotion to Istar,

as well as her care and proteotion. It was, however,
upon Istar of Nineveh, "the queen of Kidmur,"' rather
than upon Istar of Arbela, that his attention was more par-
ticularly bestowed. Nineveh was for him " the supreme
city of Istar," andit was by the command of Assur and
Istar" that his wars were undertaken, and by their help
that they were crowned with suceess. When Teumman
of Elam threatened the empire with invasion, he went
into the temple of the goddess, and, like Hezekiah when
he received the letter of Semacherib, knelt there at the
feet of his deity, and laid before her the scornful message
of the Elamite king. The whole passage in which Assur-
bani-pal describes his oonduct at this moment of danger
is a striking parallel to what we read in the Old Testa-
ment concerning the Jewish monarch.
"When Teummart," says Assur-bani-pal, "strengthened himself in
Elam, in the assembly of his forces, I looked to Iatar who looks on me.
I obeyed not the wmmand of his rebellious mouth, I surrendered not
the fugitives (he had demanded). Teumman devised evil, (and) the
Noon-god devised for him omens of evil ; in the month Tammue, an
eclipse during the morning watch obscured the lord of light and the
sun was darkened; and as he rested, so too did I rest for three days,
that the regoal years of the king of Elam might he ended and his
country de~tmyed. (Thus did) the Moon-god (give) me his command,
.
which may not he altered. . . . I n the month Ah, the month of the
appearance of the star of the Bow, the festival of the glorious queen
the daughter of Be1 (blul-lil), in order to worship her, the great (god-
dess), I stayed in Arbela, the chosen city of her heart. Of the invasion

Al8o written Kidimuri, K 11, 35. I t was the name of the part of
the palace set apsrt for the my81 harem.
T2
276 LECTERE IT.

of the Elamite, who marched godlesaly, they reported to me as follows:

'Teumman says thus and thus of Istar,'and they reported the tenor of
his message that he would not depart until he had gone against Assur-
bani-pal to make war. On account of thia threat which Teumman ha,<]
utterec, I prayed to the exalted one, Istar ; I wept before her, I bowed
beneath her, I did honour to her divinity, (and) she came with favollr
to me. ' 0 lady of Arbela,' I prayed, 'I am Assur-bani-pol, tho creation
of Lhy hands (and the creation of Assur), the father who created thee,
that I might restore the shrines of Assyria and complcte the fortresses
.
of Accad. . . . I seek after thy courts, I go to worship (thy divinity) ;
and now he, Teumman, king of Elam, who values not the gods, has
come up to (make war). Thou art the lady of ladies, the terror of
.
conflict, the lady of war, the queen of the gods,. . who in the presenoe
...
of Assur, the father that created thee, utterest blessings. I n t h e .
.
he hath desired me. . . to make glad the heart of Bssur and to give
. .
rest to the liver of Merodach. . . As for Teumman, king of Elam.
who has sinned (grievously) against Assur (the king of the gods), the
father that created thee, and against Merodach thy brother and conl-
.
paniun . . . and (against) me, Assur-bani-pal, whom (thou hnst desiredj
to give rest to the heart of Assur and (Memdach), he has gathered his
army, has made ready for mar, has asked his soldiers to march t c
Assyria; do thou that art the archer of the gods, strike him Jown like
s weight in the midst of the battle, and smite him as a tempest of evil
wind.' hZy lamentable supplication did Istar hear, and 'Fear not,' she
said; she caused me to overflow with (joy of) heart : 'For the lifting
up of thy hands which thou hast lifted up, for thine eyes (that) are
filled with tears, I have eompassion.' I n that very hour of the night
when I prayed to her, a certain seer slept, and he dreams a prophetic (1)
dream. A revelation during the night Istar revealed to him (which)
he repeated to me thus: 'Istar who dwells in Arbela entered, and
right and left was a quiver uplifted. She held a buw in her hand; she
drew a heavy falchion to make war; her countenance was wrathful.
Like a fond mother she speaks with thee, she cries to thee. Istar, the
exalted of the gods, appoints thee this message : 'Thou eutreatest to
gain victory; the place lies before thee ; I am coming !' Thou shalt
answer her thus: To the place to which thou goest with thee let me
go 1 The lady of ladies even she declares to thee thus : I will defend
thee that thou mayest dwell in the sacred precincts of Neho :' eat food.
drink wine, keep festival, glorify my divinity; when I have gone, this

1 See W. A. I. iii 29,18. The library of Kouyunjik seeme intended

 TAMWZ AND I ~ A B . 277
message shall be accomplished. I will cause the desire of thy heart to
prevail; thy face shall not grow pale, thy feet shall not stumble, thy
beauty ( l ) shall not fade. In the midst of battle, in her kindly womb
she embosoms thee and embraces thee on every side. Before her a tire
is kindled (fiercely) to overcome thy foes."'
Istar is here represented in human form, with a quiver
on either shoulder and a bow in the hand. This, in
fact, is the ordinary fashion in which Assyrian art por-
trayed the warlike goddess. But Assyrian art was not
peculiar in thus depicting the goddess of love and war.
I n the older art of Babylonia, of which that of Assyria
was but a modification, the deities of the popular faith
were all represented in human shape. The oldest cylin-
ders of Semitic Chaldaea agree in this respect with the
bas-reliefs of the palaces of Nineveh. It is only the
demons and inferior spirits, or mythical personages like
Ea-bani, the friend of Gisdhubar, who are portrayed as
animals, or as composite figures partly human and partly
bestial. Ea alone, in his character of "god of life,"a is
given the fish's skin, and even then the skin is but thrown
over his back like a priestly cloak. The composite mon-
sters, whose forms B&rbssossaw painted on the walls of
the temple of B&los,were the brood of chaos, not of the
present order of the world. The legend of the creation
preserved by the priests of Cutha declares that the crea-
tures, half men and half birds, which were depicted in
sacred art, were suckled by Tiamat, the dragon-like
personification of anarchy and chaos. Their disappear-
ance marked the victory of light over darkness, of the
gods of heaven over the Titanic monsters of an extinct

G. Smith'a Amr-bani-pal, pp. 117-126.

' On an early cylinder in the British Museum.
age. The deities of Babylonia mere emphatically human;
hunian in character and human in form. They stood in
marked contrast to tho animal-headed gods of Egypt,
and harmonised with the Semitic belief that made the
deity the father of the human race, who had created man
in his own image. Even in pre-Semitic days, Chaldlenn
art had already followed the samc l i c of thought, and
had depicted its divinities in the likcncss of men; but
in pre-Semitic days this mas a tendency only; i t was
not until the Acoadian came in contact with the Son~ite
that he felt the full force of the Semitic conccption, and
allowed his ancient deities of light and l i e to take per-
manently upon them the human shape.'
For there are many indications that it had not always
been so. The very fact that the divine beings who in
the Semitic era were relegated to the realms of chaos or
the inferior world of subordinate spirits, were to the last
represented as partly bestial in form, proves pretty clearly
that the Babylonians had once seen nothing derogatory
to the divine nature in such a modo of representation.
1 The f ~ c that
t the gods of Babylonia were represented in human
form leads us to expect to find also the converse fact, the apotheosis of
men. Our expectation is fulfilled, at any rate as regards the earlier
period of Semitic Babylonia. A hiematite cylinder, found by Gen. d i
Cesnola in Cyprus, gives Naram-Sin, the son of Sargon, the invader of
the island, the title of god, and on the bricks of Amar-Agu or Buru-Sin
of Ur (W. A. I. i. 5, xix.) the divine title is prefixed to the royal name.
I t is significant that this deification of the monarch is coeval with the
rise of Semitic supremacy, and that it never took firm hold of the reli-
gious faith of the people. A t all events, there is no trace of it from
the time of Khammuragas downwards. It is true that the Kassite
sovereign Agu-kak-rim& (cir. B.C. 1630) olaima to be descended from
the god Sugamur~a(W.A.I. v. 33. i. 4); hut Agu-kak-rim&was neither
a Semite nor a Sunlerian, and to claim descent from a god is not t h e
a m 0 as clai~ni~lg to he a god oneself.
 PROMETHEUS AND TOTEXISM. 279
The winged bulls who guarded the approach to the
temple and protected it from the invasion of evil spirits,
or the eagle-headed cherubs who knelt on either side of
the mered tree, were survivals of a time when "the great
gods of heaven and earth" were themselves imaged and
adored in similar form; The same evidence is borne by
the animals on whose backs the anthropomorphic deities
are depicted as standing in later art. When the gods
had become human, there was no other place left for the
animals with whom they had once been so intimately
connected. The evidence, however, is not borne by art
alone. The written texts aver that the gods were sym-
bolised by animals, like the Sun-god of Kis, whose
"image" or symbol was the eagle. It is these symbols
which appear on the Babylonian boundary-stones, where
in the infancy of Assyrian research they were supposed
to represent the Zodiacal signs.
That they were originally something more than mere
symbols is expressly indicated in the myths about the
goddess of love. Gisdhubar taunts her with her treat-
ment, not only of &&la, the eagle, but also of the horse
and the lion, whose names are not given to us. Here, at
any rate, popular tradition has preserved a recollection of
the time when the gods of Babylonia were still regarded
as eagles and horses and lions. We are taken back to
an epoch of totemism, when the tribes and cities of
Chaldaea had each its totem, or sacred animal, to whom
it offered divine worship, and who eventually became its
creator-god. Not less clear is the legend of the first
introduction of culture into the valley of the Euphrates.
Oannes, or Ea,it was ever remembered, had the body of
'a fish, and, like a bh, he sank each night into the waters
280 LECTURE IV.

of the Persian Gulf when the day mas closed which hc

had spent among his favoured disciples of Eridu. The
culture-god himself had once been a totem, from which
we may infer how long it was before totemism disap-
peared, at all events from southern Babylonia, where
the contact with Semitic thought was less strong and
abiding than was t.he case further north.
We can learn a good deal about this totemism from the
old ideographic representations of the names of the chief
deities. They are like fossils, embodying the beliefs of
a period which had long passed away at the date of the
earliest monuments that have come down to us. Thc
name of Ea himself affords us an example of what we
may find. It is sometimes expressed by an ideograph
which signifies literally an antelope" (dara in Accadian,
turakhu in Assyrian, whence perhaps the Biblical name
of Terah).' Thus we arc told that Ea was called '' tho
antelope of the deep," " the antelope the creator,"
antelope the prince," ('the lusty a n t e l ~ p e ; " ~and thc
ship" or ark of Ea in which his imago was carried at
festivals was entitled '' the ship of the divine antelope of
the deep."3 We should, indeed, haw: expected that the
animal of Ea would have been the fish rather than the
antelope, and the fact that it is not so points to the con-
clusion that the culture-god of southern Babylonia was
an amalgamation of two earlier deities, one the divine

1 Turakhu is the Arabic nrkhu, "an antelope," and is a tiphel form-

ation from the Assyrian verb ardkhu, "to run quickly." The word
has no connection with the Accadian dara. Friedrich Delitzsch long
ago suggested that it represented the BiblicalTernh (As.y?isclre Sfudien,
i. p. 51).
* W. A. I. ii. 55, 27-30, 8 W. A. I. ii 02, 3 8
 PROMETHEUS AND TOTEMISK. 281
antelope, and the other the divine fish. Perhaps it was
originally as the god of the river that Ea had been adored
under the form of the wild beast of the Eden or desert.
There was yet another animal with which the name of
Ea had been associated. This was the serpent. The
Euphrates in its southern course bore names in the early
inscriptions which distinctly connect the serpent with Ea
on the one hand, and the goddess Innina on the other.
It was not only called l Cthe river of the great deepn--
a term which implied that it was a ~rolongationof the
Persian Gulf and the encircling ocean; it was further
named the river of the &bur lilli, l Lthe shepherd's hut
of the lillu" or CCspirit,""the river of Innina," "the
river of the snake," and "the river of the girdle of the
great god."' In-nina is but another form of InnAna or
Niina, and we may see in her at once the Istar of Eridu
and the female correlative of A n b . Among the chief
deities reverenced by the rulers of Tel-loh was one whose
name is expressed by the ideographs of l1 fish" and " en-
closure," which servcd in later days to denote the name
of Nina or Nineveh. It seems clear, therefore, that the
pronunciation of Nina wae attached to it ; and Dr. Oppert
may accordingly be right in thus reading the name of
the goddess as she appears on the monuments of Tel-loh.
Nina, consequently, is both the fish-goddess and the
divinity whose name is interchanged with that of the
make.2 Now Nina was the daughter of Ea, her eldest
----

1 W.A. I. ii. 51, 45-49.

' In W. A. I. iv. 1. 33, 38, In-nina in mentioned dong with Nim,
but, as Rommel has already pointed out (Vorsernitisol~eKd~rm~,p.360),
this rnagicnl text includes older and newer elernente, the mention of
In-nha belonging to the later portion of the text
 j9
'1 4
-, LECTURE IV.

danghta being described in a text of Tel-loh as "the lady

of the city of Mar," the modern Tel Id, according to
Hommel, where Dungi built her a temple whieh he called
'l the house of the jewelled circlet" (sutartt~).This latter

epithet recalls to us the Tillili of the Tammuz legend as

well as the Istar of later Babylonia. I n fact, it is pretty
clcar that Nina, <'thelady," must have been that primi-
tive Istar of Eridu and its ncighbourhood who mourned
like Tillili the death of Tammuz, and whose title was
but a dialectic variation of that of Nana given to her a t
Erech.
After this, it is not di5cult to disentangle the primitive
relation that existed between thc totems of the antelope,
the fish and the serpent, at Eridu. Ea was the antelope
as god of the river ; as god of the deep he mas Oannes
the fish. His daughter was denoted by a compound
ideograph which represented her birth from the residence
of the fish-god, though she was herself one of the poisonous
reptiles that swarmed in the marshes at the mouth of the
Euphrates. It was in this way that the serpent became
connected with the god of wisdom, 'lmore subtil than
any beast of the field" which had been created in the
land of Edina.
It is now possible to explain the allusions in an old
Aecadian poem, in which Merodach (?)is made to describe
his weapon of war. After comparing it with "the fish
of seven fins," he goes on to say: l1 The tempest (mcitu)
of battle, my weapon of fifty heads (I bear), which l i e
the great serpent of seven heads is yoked with seven
heads, whieh like the strong serpent of the sea (sweeps
away) the foe." Here the serpent is regarded as essen-
W. A. I. ii. 19, 11-18.
tially a serpent of the sea, and in its seven heads we may
see the primitive conception of its divine power. The
" evil spirits" were seven in number also, like the spirits
of the earth, and the mythical fish whieh may be tho
totem of the fish-god is provided with seven fins.' The
destructive character of the great serpent is naturally
insisted on. Doubtless the serpent-god of the primitive
S~unerianwas morally of a negative nature, or else
regarded as injuring only his enemies, while he did good
to those who propitiated him. But this early serpent-
worship faded away with the tnnsformation of the totem
into an anthropomorphic deity. The goddess Nina ceased
to retain her serpentile attributes, and after the era of
the monuments of Tel-loh passed almost entirely out of
memory; while the serpent became, what indeed he
always seems to have been in genuine Semitic belief, the
incarnation of wickedness and guile. We read in the
bilingual lists of "the evil serpent," 'Ithe serpent of
darkness ;"2 and it is probable that the imagination of a
later time eonfounded this serpent of darkness with the
dragon Tiamat, the leader of the powers of night and
chaos. It was a curious process of development whieh
eventually transformed the old serpent-goddess, "the
lady Nina," into the embodiment of all that was hostile
to the powers of heaven; but, after all, Nina had sprung
from the bh-god of the deep, and Tiamat is herself "the
deep" in a Semitic dress.
At times Ea was regarded as a gazelles rather than
' W.A. I. ii 19, 65.
2 W.A. I. ii. 24. 10, 12. The "evil serpent" is called "the mon-
strous (mad)serpent of the sea" in W. A. I. ii. 19, 17.
8 Elim ia Acoodien, ditanu inAssyrian (W.A.I. ii. 6, 7; 59, 6;
284 LECTURE IV.

as an antelope. I t mas thus that he was entitled "tho

princely gazelle," l Lthe lusty gazelle," "the gazelle who
gives the earth" (W.A.I. ii. 55. 31-33); and MerodacL
as his son is termed ASari-elim, l Lthe mighty one of the
gazelle-god." A hymn which celebrates Merodach under
a number of his archaic names, declares that he is llAs'ari-
elim, the mighty prince, the light (of the gods), the
director of the laws of Anu, Be1 (Mul-lil) (and Ea)."'
The gazelle, however, was more correctly appropriated to
Mul-lil of Nipnr, who was specially called ('the gazelle-
god."2 We may infer, accordingly, that the gazelle had
once been the totem of Nipnr, and the representative of
its god of the under-world. It was, indeed, a peculiarly
sacred animal. We find it repeatedly on the early Chal-
diean cylinders, sometimes being offered in sacrifice to a
deity, sometimes simply standing st his side as a symbol.
It frequently takes the place of tho goat, which was also
sacred, and as such was exalted into the Zodiacal sign of
Capricornus. Since Tebet, the tenth month, corresponds
t o the sign of Capricornus and was dedicated to P a p - s h l ,
it is possible that Pap-sukal, 'l the messenger of the gods,"
was himself the goat-god. At any rate, there was a
dcity called U Z , ~the Accadian word for a goat; and a
iv. SO, 55). The position of the name in tho list of animals (W. A. I.
ii. 6 , 7), sho!vs what species of animal must be meant. Lulim, "a stag,"
seems to he a re-duplicated form of the same word. Both lulim and
elim are said to be equivalent to sarru, "king."
1 K 2854, 5 6. I n line 10, Merodach is apparently identified with
the god Tutu, of whom it is said that " he confronts their lifo" (B.L-AN-TE
ana nnpisii-sumc). I n the first line he is called ABari, sabis zalmat
kakladi, "nourisher(l) of the black-headed raca' Comp. W. A. I. ii
55, 69.
a W.A.I.iv. 70, 55; ii.59,5.
In W. A. I. i i 48, 34, the archaic Babylonian form of the oharacter
 PRONETHEUS A.ND TOTEMISM. 285
curious piece of sculpture on a stone tablet found by
Mr. Rassam in the temple of the Sun-god at Sippara
describes " Sin,Samas and Istar," as being 'I set as com-
p a ~ o n sat the approach to the deep in sight of the god
UZ."~ The crown of the Sun-god" is further said to
be the uz, or "glory," of the eyes, with a play upon the
rcsemMance of the Semitic word uzzu, 'Lglory," to the
Accndian uz, 'I a goat." The god Uz himself is depicted
as sitting on a throne, watching the revolution of the
solar disk, which is placed upon a table and slowly turned
by means of a rope. He holds in his hand a ring and
bolt, and is clad in a robe of goats' skin, the sacred dress
of the Babylonian priests. It reminds us of "the skins
of the kids of the goats" which Rebekah put upon Iaaac
in order that he might receive his father's blessing. The
milk.of the goat appears in the liturgical texts along with
other offerings to the gods ; thus we read in a hymn :a
goat which in a pure feeding-place
"The milk of a lighboolo~~red~
the shepherd of Tammuz4 has reared,

Uz is glossed by Utuki, " the (great) spirit," and explained to be synony-

mous with the Sun-god. As the document or documents upon whicb
this tablet is a commentary seem to have been a product of the court
of Sargon at Accad, we may infer that Uz, "the goat," was a title of the
Sun-god of Sippara. The mythical "goat with six heads" in &erred
to in a bilingual text (W. A. L iv. 30, 11).
1 W. A. I. v. 60. Tim. here means "companions," from mu, ' l to
make like!' The common word bikt has nothing to do with either
birit, "chain," or biriu, "a citadel," but is from b a d , ''to see."
9 W. A. I. iv. 28, 3.

8 Asundu, Accadian lig-Biga, "the long-horned," rendered banu, 01

"lightcoloured," in W. A. I. iv. 24, 11 ; ii. 6, 32. The species of goat
was called zur (Semitised into s u m ) in Accadian (W.A.I. ii. 2. 284,
285, compared with 21. 41).
4 Not "the shepherd Tammuq" which would require the convem
order of worda
286 LECTURE IT.

the milk of the goat let the shepherd give thee with his pure hand.,
Jdingle (it) in the middle of the skin of a suckling' yet unborn.
Let the god Aziga-8figa,2 the supreme gout of Mul-lil, with ilia
pure hands cause (it) to he eaten.
Merodach the son of Eridu has given the charm;
0 Nin-akha-k~ida,~ lady of the purely-gleaming water, make tho
worshipper pnre and bright !"
Here the divine goat is associated with Mul-lil, and
perhaps we may therefore conclude that it was specially
adored at Nipur. The inference is not certain, however,
Uniki, Accadian OAR-us;in a liturgical fragment (S 712, 5) we
read of "the wool (or hair) of a OAR-usyet unborn ;" and in S 2U73,
R 9, mention is made of " the flesll of the QAR."
2 ',Tho god of far-reachingpurity" or perhaps "thedistnnt gleam"(!).
;St
&, however, may represent i(ga, "the horned one." I n W. & I.
ii. 4, 662,digga is written iiqqn, nnd in 6, 5, seqa, and rendered by the
Asayrian atadti, "he-goat!' I n W. A. I. iii. 68, 12-14, Acaga-Buga
(bud), the wife of Rimmon, is called the milch-kid of Mul-lil, and the
names of its two shepherds are given in lines 36, 37.
3 in-akha-khda is invoked in other magic formulie : 90 in W. A. L
iv. 15, 39, it is said of the sick man, "May Nin-akha-kudda seize upon
his body and rest upon his head!" and in Hanpt's Keilschrifttate, ii. 26,
she is mentioned along with Bahu and Gula. In W. A. I. ii. 58. 48, 49,
we read of "the pure water of Ea, the purely-gleaming water of Nin-
akha-kudda, tho water of the pnre hand, of the pure deep," where the
goddess is associated with Ea and the deep; and in D.T. 57. Oh.14-16,
we have "the spell of En and Merodach, the spell of Damu and Gula,
the spell of Nin-akha-kudda." Similarly in 1266. 12, 13, an invocation
is addressed to "Nin-akha-kuddu, Nin-kurra, [En-nu-]@ the son of
Nin-si-nagar-bu, and Nin-zadim." I n K 4195, 12, Nin-akha-kuddu is
identified with Iskhara or Istar. In M 192, 4 sq., "the daily food" is
enumerated of Mul-lil, Ea "the king of the deep," "the divine king of
the gods and the queen (of the gods)," Samas "the lord of crowns, the
decider of (destiny)," "the god who prospers all above and below,"
Merodach, Adar "the first-horn of Mnl-lil," Nin-akha-kuddu, Nin
knrratim and Istar. Nin-alrha-kudda means " the lady who divides the
rising (fresh) waternasappears from thestatement in W. A. I. iii. 68, 40,
that she mas "the lady of the rising waters (a-khad) of En." The fol-
lowing line sho~vsthat Aphha, "the purely-gleaming water" (8unqu i n
Assyrian), was olso deified
as the text belongs to that later period when the cities
and deities of Babylonia had been brought into union
with one another.
I have already alluded to the fact that the Sun-god of
Nipur was connected with the pig. Adar was '' lord of
the swine," and' the swine would therefore seem to have
once been a totem of the city in which he was worshipped.
Nothing could show more clearly that Babylonian tote-
mism belongs to the preSemitic history of the country,
and the conclusion is supported by the large place
occupied by the dog in what I may call the zoological
mythology of Chaldsea. I n Semitic times the dog was
as distasteful to the Babylonians as he was, and is, to
the Semitic inhabitants of other parts of the world. We
have a proof of this in a prayer against the powers of
evil, in which we read :
"(From) the baleful fetter, the fetter which injures the feet.. ..the
dog, the snake, the scorpion, the reptile, and whatsoever is baleful, the
possession of the heart, the possession (of the body, may Merodach
preserve us)."'
The dog is avoided by the earlier art of Assyria; and
even in Babylonia, where a particular and much-esteemed
breed existed, almost the only representation of the animal
that is known is on a terra-cotta plaque of the Sassanian
period2 Nevertheless, there was a time when the Baby-
1 K (unnumbered), 19-21, bnanu limnu bvanu naptau sa sepa.. . .
un-KUtSi7 GIRTAB nan&maa(tuv)12 nin Zimnu &bit lihbi tdibit (zamri).
2 See the illustration of a "Terra-cotta Tablet from Babylon, repre-
santing an Indian dog," in Layard's Ninevdb and Bnbylon, p. 627. I n
Assyria, it is not until we come to the time of Assur-bani-pal that we
find the dog represented in the bas-reliefs. The five clay figures of dogs,
with their names inscribed upon them, now in the British Museum,
belong to the same monarch. The names are (1) Epar tallik epus
nahakha, '' He ran and barked ;"(2) Musetsn limnuti, "the producez
288 ~ECTUILEIV.

lonian dog m s otherwise regarded. Merodach and the

dog were brought into connection with one another.
The beneficent god of later Babylonian religion owned
four divine hounds,namedUkkumu, ' l the seizer," Altkulu,
"the devourer," Iksud8, "the capturer," and Iltebu,
"the pursuer."' We may suspect that the dogs were not
always sent on errands of mercy, and that originally they
had been devastating winds who followed in the track of
a death-dealing god. An incantation begins with the
words : " 0 Merodach, the lord of death, thy hand esta-
blishes the house of light,"2 where perhaps we have a
tradition of the age when Merodach was not as yet the
god who raises the dead to life, but the god of death
only. At all events, the hounds appear in no favourable
character in the fragment of a legend which related to
the shepherd Matsarat-pi-baladhi (?).3 After a reference
to Rimmon, the shepherd's heart is told to rejoice because
of the message sent him by Ea through the lips of Mero-
dach. '((Ea) has heard thee," it is said to him; "when
the great dogs" assault thee, then " Matsarat-pi-baladhi,
shepherd
. of the flock, seize them from behind and lay
them down. Hold them and overcome them. Strike
their head, pierce (nihi) their breast. An expedition
they are gone ; never may they return ! With the wind

of mischief;" (3) Dayan rits-su, "the judge of his companions;" (4)

Munasiku gari-su, "the biter of his foes ;" (5) Kasid abi, "the seizer d
enemies." See Houghton on "The Mammalia of the Assyrian Sculp-
tures" in the Trans. Sac. Bib.Arch. V. 1.
1 W. A. I. ii. 56, 22-25, Iltebu may he derived from lal~bu,"to
be violent!'
2 R 2. 11. 153. Rev. 7, 8.

3 K 2546. The name ia written NUN-KA-TI, "watch of the mouth

of life."
 PROYETHCOS AND TOTEMISM. 289
may they go, with the storm abo\ e it ! Take their road
and cut off their going. Seize their mouth, seize their
mouth, seize their weapons ! Seize their teeth (sut), and
make them ascend, by the command of Ea, the lord of
wisdom ; by the command of the Sun-god, the lord of all
that is above ; by the command of Mcrodach, the lord of
revelation" (bar-bar-ti). The recitation of this curious
legend formed part of a religious ceremony, and was
ordered to be followed by the triple repetition of a prayer
L' before the god hag-duga." This god, as we have
seen, was primarily a goat, and it was no doubt on this
account that a portion of an old poem about a shepherd
who had driven away the dogs from his flock mas intro-
duced into the service. The poem, however, like the
service, transports us to Semitic days; the dog has
become a hateful creature, and what divinity he has is
of a demoniac character.
Unlike the dog, the ox remained in honour among the
Babylonians, and the mythologists accordingly did not
wholly forget that one at least of l 1 the great gods" had
once been identified with this animal. An early geo,p-
phical list calls Dapara, "the mountain of the Bull-god,"
the country of crystal;' and that this was to be sought
i n southern Babylonia is indicated by the name of the
Uknu, the river of l Lcrystal." There is some evidence
that the primitive Bull-god was Merodach himself. Ea
and his wife had each tmo divine l i bulls" att~chedto
them, those of Ea being named "the god of the field of
Eden" and "the god of the house of Eden.'I2 These
bull-gods must be distinguished from the colossal figures,
-
1 W. A. I. ii. 51, 13. ' W.A.I. ii. 56, 69-62.
u
290 LECTUI:E IV.

the winged bulls, that guarded the entrance to a temple.'

We may speak of the latter as "Assyrian bulls," but
such was never their name among either Babylonians or
Assyrians. To them they represented divine beings, the
gods or genii of the household, in fact, but not bulls. Tho
face was wanting which was needed to transform the
colossus into an image of the animal. The human head
showed that the creature was endowed with humanity
as much as Ea-bani, the friend of Gisdhubar, whose-
body terminated in the legs of a goat, hut who was
nevertheless in all respects a man. The bull-like body
of the divine guardians of the household symbolised
strength, at all events to the Semitic Babylonian, who
persistently paraphrased the Accadian word for 'Lbull,"
when used as a proper name, by words that denoted
l'hero" and "strong one." The winged bulls and the
divine hulls of Eridu were not one and the same, however
much the imagination of a later day may have tended to
confound them together.
The fact that the tmo great deities of Rridu were thus
attended by a body-guard of divine hulls, u~alresus in-
clined to connect the Bull-god of Dapara very closely
indeed with the city of Eridu. We need not be astonished,
therefore, at finding Merodaoh entitled in early astrono-
mical literature Godi-bir, "the hull of light." The sky,
as we have seen, was regarded as a second Babylonia~~
plain, over which the sun ploughed his way along the
ecliptic or "furrow of heaven." The pole-star was called

1 I n Aceadian, ulcid and lumma; in Assyrian, sgdu, btcl~iduan4

Inmud&. The last wort1 seems to have been horroved from the Acca-
dian Zummu i n its primitive form (lamas). Alad ia "the spirit," from
nla, with the suffixd(u).
 PROYETHEUS AND TOTEMISM. 291
its "yoke," and Jnpiter, the nearest of the planets to
the ecliptic, was known as Lubat-Gudibir, "the wether"
or "planet of the Bull of Light." The Buil of Light,
therefore, was himself the ploughman of the celestial
fields, the Sun-god who trod his steady path through tho
heavenly signs, like the patient ox who dragged the plough
through the fields below. I t was as the Sun-god, moving
through the twelve Zodiacal signs of the year, that Mero-
dach, it is asserted, was known by this particular name.
Now the explanation of the name of Gudibir as Mero-
dach, the Sun-god, comes from a tablet which seems to
have been a philological eommeutary on the astronomical
works compiled for the court of Sargon of Accad. We
know that Sargon's patronage of science produced the
great standard Babylonian work on astronomy and astro-
logy, in seventy-two books, which went under the name
of the "Observations of Bel." I t was translated into
Greek by the Chaldtean historian B&rdssos, and large
portions of it, including a table of contents, are among
tho tablets found on the site of the library of Kouyunjik.
I n the course of centuries it had undergone largo - a
amount of interpolation and addition; marginal glosses
had crept into the text, and new paragraphs had been
inserted recording the observations that had been made

1 Or rather, perhaps, tho constellation of Draco generally, a Dra-

conis being at the time the pole-star. The star (or constellation) was
called MU-su-HEIR-DA in Accadian, which tile Semitic astronomers
paraphrased by "the star of Ann, the arbiter (~namit)of heaven"
(W. A. I. ii. 47, 16), and more literally " t l ~ eyoke of heaven" (v. 18,
24). The Accadian (or rather Somerian) is probably to ho read yzrdir
kesda, "yoke of t,l~eenclosure." Giira and yidrara, giis'u, yidiilla and
gunirra, am given an dialectical forms of the Accadian word for "yoko"
(w.A.I. V. 18. 17, 19, ao, a1 15, 2s).
u2
293 LECTURE IF.

by the astronomers and astrologers of Babylonia during

the whole length of the historical perind. I n the form,
therefore, in which it was edited for the library of
Nineveh, it was very different from the original work
that had been composed by the orders of Sargon. Old
and new matter had been mixcd up in it, and the enlargc-
ments introduced into it had probably nearly doubled its
original size. But the original work was itself a com-
pilation of records and observations that had been made
during an untold number of previous years. These
records and observations had for the most part been
written in Accadian; the result being that, although the
astronomy of the Chaldacans, as we know it, is purely
Scmitie in form and character, many of its technical
terms are non-Semitic, as well as the names of the celestial
bodies. Hence it is that me find a remarkable inconsis-
tency bctween certain facts reported by the astronomical
tablets and the astronomical system which thcy set before
us. This astronomical system is based upon tho assump
tion that the sun enters the first point of tho constellation
Aries at the time of the vernal equinox. The system
nlust thercfore have come into existence later than the
26th century before the Christian era, when Aries first
became thc starting-point of the Zodiacal signs. But
the signs themselves mere namcd, and the path of the
sun through them was mapped out, when the vernal
equinox still coincidcd with the sun's entrance, not into
Aries, but into Taurus. The whole pre-Scmitic nomen-
clature of the Zodiacal signs, and the months of the year
that corrcspond to them, rests on the supposition that the
Zodiacal hull ushcrs in the vernal year. Its Accadian
name was "the directing Bull," the bull that directs
the course of the year; and the sign which faced it, the
Scorpiou of a later age, was correspondingly termed the
star that is opposite to the foundation" of the year.
We can now understand why the Sun-god Merodach,
whom even the astronomers of the historical period con-
tinucd to identify with the typical constellation^ of the
t,welve months of the year,' should have been entitled
'' the Bull of Light" in the primitive astronomical records.
He was, in fact, the celestial bull who ploughed the
the great furrow of the sky, and from whom the first
sign of the Zodiac borrowed its name. We may see in
him the prototype of that famous bull of latcr legend
whom Anu created in order to avenge upon Gisdhnbar
the slight offered by the latter to Istar. The Sun-god
cventually became the monster slain by a solar hero.
Such are the results of time working upon the half-for-
gotten beliefs and tales of an earlier age.
Whiie in somc instances the old totemistic conceptions
were evaded by the degeneration of a god into a mere
animal, in others the reverse process took place, the
bestial element being eliminated from the nature of the
god. It was thus that "the divine storm-bird" of the
ancient Aocadian faith passed into the god Zu of the
Semitic epoch. "The divine storm-bird" was a ravenous
bird of prey, of large size and sharp beak, who darted on
its spoil and devoured the flesh. The Semitic Babylonians
idcntified it with their Zu, partly because zzc signified a
' W. A.I. iii. 53, 2. I n Nisnn, the first month, he was accordi~~gly
identified with Dun-kun-e, "the hero of the rising d a m , " or Mercury,
who is elsewhere called "the prince of the men of Halmn" (iii. 67, 28).
in consequence of the cult that was carried 011 there. I n Adar, the last
month, he was "the fish of Ea" or Pisces. "Tho Bull of henven"
(Gud-anaj in mentioned in iii 53, 56
 294 LECTI~RE IV.

" stormy wind," partly because a species of vulture waa

called by the same name. But the conception of the
tcmpest as a bird which rushes on its prey is common to
many mythologies. I n Aryan mythology the storm-
cloud appears under the varying forms of the eagle, the
.rvoodpecker, and the robin redbrcast, the sacred bird of
Thor; while in Chincse folk-lore the storm-bird is i L a
bird which in flying obscures the sun and of whose quills
are made water-tuns." The roc of the Arabian Nights,
with its wings ten thousand fathoms in width, and its
egg which it mas a sin in Aladdin to wish to take from
the place where it hung, is but an echo of the Chinese
storm-bird. I t is in the nest of the storm-bird that the
tempest is brewed; it swoops ilpon the earth with the rush
of his wings, and the lightning itself is but the gleam
of his flight. Even a poet of to-day instinctively speaks
of the curlews as "dreary gleams about the moorland
flying over Locksley Hall."
The divine storm-bird" was known as Lugal-banda,
the lusty king," and was the patron deity of the city
of Marad, near Sippara. He brought the lightning, the
6rc of heaven, from the gods to men, giving them at
once the knowledge of fire and the power of reading the
future in the flashcs of the storm. Like Prom&theus,
therefore, he was an outcast from the gods. He had
, stolen their treasures and secret wisdom, and had com-
municated them to mankind. I n Babylonia, as in Greccc,
the divinc benefactor of primitive humanity was doomerl
to suffer. Tho knowledge and the artificial warmth man
has gained are not the free gifts of the gods; they have
been wrenched from them by guile; and though man
has been allowed to retain them, hia divine friend and
 P R O ~ U AND
S TOTEMISX. 295
benefactor is condemned to punishment. The culture-
god of totemistic Marad is thus a very differeat being
from the culture-god of Eridu; both, indeed, are clad
jn animal form; but whereas the fish-god of Eridu is
the willing and unhindered communicator of civilisation,
whose successor, Merodacb, becomes a god of light and
healing, the bird-god of Marad is a pariah among his
,divine brethren, hunted out of heaven by the great gods,
and wresting from them by craft man's future knowledge
of good and evil. I t was only in the latcr syncretic age,
when these uglier facts of the earlier mythology were
glossed over or forgotten, that the divine "bull" was
described as "the offspring of the god Zu" (W. A. I. iv.
123, 19).
The scribes of Assur-bani-pal have preserved for us
the mutilated copy of a bilingual poem, or part of a
poem, which recounted the flight of Zu to the mountain
af 'Sabu or I&. It begins thus :l
"Lugal-tudda (tlcd) to the mountain a place remote
In the hill of 'Sabu he (dwelt).
No mother inhabits i t and (cares for him).
No father inhnbits i t and (associates) with him.
No priest2 who knows him (assists him).
H e who (changed) not the resolution, even the resolution of his
heart,
in his own heart (he kept) his resolution.
Into tho likeneas of a bird was he transformed,
into the likeness of Zu tho divine storm-bird was he transformed
His wife uplifts the nock.9
The wife of Zu, the son of Zu, may he cause them to dwell in a
cage,
1 W.A.I.iv.14,No.l.
' Kal, "the gallus-prieet" in the Aecndian. The Semitic remion
baa a p , " noble."
Assyrian tu(1le); see W. A. L iv. 15, 41.
298 LECTURE m.
even the god of the river-reeds (Enna) and the godd~essthe ladp
of the basket of river-reeds (Gn-enna).'
From his mountain he brought (hor),
as a woman fashionedvfar a mother made heautiful,a
the goddess of plants: as a woman fashioned for a mother mnda
beautiful.
Her paps5 were of white crystal;
her thighs6 were bathed in silver and gold.
[Here follow many nlutilated lineal
On (his) head he placed a circlet ;
.... on his head he sot a coronal
(when) he came from the nest of the god Zn.
(In a place) unknown in the mountain he mode his tomb."
It mill be seen that the identity of the god Zu with n
bird is explained in accordance with the ideas of a modern
time. It has become a transformation voluntarily under-
gone by the deity, for the sake, as it would seem, of
securing a beautiful bride. The old faith of totcmism is

1 Nin-Gu-enna was resolved into the Semitic Bilat-ili (W. A. I. ii.

.55, 11); hut according to 1V.A. I. iii. 67, 56, she was peculinrly t h e
ululi, or "spirit of the temple of hIu . . ." The Gn-enna, or guardian
of the river, was the title of an officer (K 177, 30).
9 Not "clever," as Lyon.
I n the Semitic translation : " a n~othcrv h o has been appointed
for beauty."
4 I n the Accadian original, Nin-ka-Bi. Her nine sons are enumerated
i n W. A. I. iii. 68, 25-32, the eldest being 'Sirib, "the goddess of
plants," herself! Among the others are "tlle god of the pure tongue,"
,'the god of the strong tongue," "tho god of the heautiful tongue,"
"tha god of the palate of the fat mouth," and "the god who is not
powerful." Nin-ka-bi should probably be rend Nin-gu-biga, "lady of
the full mouth."
5 Accadian lcakkul. The Assyrian maru is the Hebrew ntu, and
means "to suck," not "to pour out," as Zimmern SUppOSCS. Namzitum
is also found in K 161. iii. 24, and R 358, 4 (where it sipifies "a
howl").
6 Comp. W. A. I. ii. 1, 175, and 41, 53. The Accadian seems to ba
[lam-di-ldi.
thus changing into a fairy-tale. But there were other
stories which remembered that the transformation of the
god was not the voluntary act it is here represented to
have been. A long but broken text explains why it was
that he had to take refuge in the mountain of 'Sabu
under the guise of a bird of prey. W e learn that Zu
gazed upon the work and duties of Mul-lil; "he sees
the crown of his majesty, the clothing of his divinity,
the tablets of destiny, and Zu himself, and he sees also
the father of the gods, the bond of heaven and earth.
The desire to be Be1 (Mul-lil) is taken in his heart; yea,
he sees the father of the gods, the bond of heaven and
earth; the desire to be Be1 is taken in his heart : 'Let me
seize the tablets of destiny of the gods, and the laws of
all the gods let me establish (Zukhmum); let my throne
be set up, let me seize the oracles; let me urge on the
whole of a11 of them, even the spirits of heaven.' So his
heart devised opposition; at the entrance to the forest
where he was gazing he waited with his head (intent)
during the day. When Be1 pours out the pure waters,
his crown was placed on the throne, stripped from (his
head). The tablets of destiny (Zu) seized with his hand;
the attributes of Be1 he took; he delivered the oracles.
(Then) Zu fled away and sought his mountains. He
raised a tempest, making (a storm)."
Then Mul-lil, "the father and couucillor " of the gods,
consulted his brother divinities, going round to each in
turn. Anu was the first to speak. He "opened his
mouth, he speaks, he says to the gods his sons: '(Who-
ever will,) let him subjugate Zu, and (among all) men
let the destroyer pursue him (?).' (To Rimmon) the fist-
born, the strong, Anu declarcs (his) commaud, even to
298 LECTWE IV.

him : ... '0Rimmon, protector (?),may thy power of

fighting never fail ! (Slay) Zu with thy weapon. (May
thy name) be magnified in the assembly of the great gods.
(Among) the gods thy brethren (may it destroy) the
rival. May incense (?) (etarsi) be offered, and may
shrines be built ! (In) the four (zones) may they esta-
blish thy strongholds. May they magnify thy fortress
that it become a fane of power in the presence of the
gods, and may thy name be mighty ? ' (Rimmon)
answered the command, (to Anu) his father he utters
the word : ' (0my father, to a mountain) none has seen
rnayest thou assign (him) ; (never may) Zu play the thief
(again) among the gods thy sons ; (the tablets of destiny)
his hand has taken ; (the attributes of Bel) he seized, he
delivered the oracles ; {Zu) has fled away and has sought
his mountains.' " Rimmon goes on to decline the task,
which is accordingly laid upon another god, but with
like result. Then Anu turns to Nebo : " (To Nebo), the
strong one, the eldest son of Istar, (Anu declares hi^
=ill) and addresses him : . . . ' 0 Nebo, protector (?),
never may thy power of fighting fail! (Slay) Zu with
thy weapon. May (thy name) be magnified in the as-
sembly of the great gods ! Among the gods thy brethren
(may it destroy) the rival ! May incensk (?)be offered
and may shrincs be built! In the four zones may thy
strongholds be established ! May they magnify thy
stronghold that it become a fane of power in the presence
of the gods, and may thy name be mighty!' Nebo
answered the command : ' 0 my father, to a mountain
none hast seen mayest thou assign (him); never may Zu
play the thief (again) among the gods thy sons ! The
tablets of destiny his hand has taken; the attributes of
 AND TOTEMISX.
P R O ~ E O S 299
Be1 he has seized; he has delivered the oracles; Zu is
fled away and (has sought) his mountains.' " Like Rim-
mon, Nebo also refused to hunt down and slay his brother
god, the consequence being, as we have seen, that Zu
escaped with his lifc, but was changed into a bird, and
had to live an exile from heaven for the rest of time.
The divine storm-bird," however, who invested him-
self by stealth with the attributes of Mul-lil, and carried
the knomledge of futurity to mankind, served to unite
the two species of augury which read the future in the
flight of birds and the flash of the lightning. The f i s t
species mas but a branch of the general pseudo-science
which discovered coming events from the observation of
animals and their actions, while the second species was
closely allied to the belief that in the thunder men heard
the voice of the gods. The old belief marked its impress
upon Hebrew as well as upon Assyro-Babylonian thought.
l L The voice of thy thunder was in the whirlwind," says

the Psalmist;' and nothing can show more clearly what

must once have been the Canaanitish faith than the poetic
imagery of another Psalm (xxix.) : " The voice of the
Lord is upon the waters ; the God of glory thundereth ;
the Lord is upon many waters. The voice of the Lord is
powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty. The
voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars; yea, the Lord
bresketh the cedars of Lebanon. ..
. The voice of the
Lord shaketh the wilderness ; the Lord shnketh the wil-
derness of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord maketh the
hinds to calve, and discovereth the forests." I n the
Talmud, "the voice of the Lord" has become the bath 961,

1 Pa. l u v i i 18.
300 LECTURE IV.

or "daughter of the voice," a supernatural mcasage from

heaven which sometimes proceeded from the Holy of
Holies, sometimes, like the Gacpdv~ov of Socrates, assumed
the form of an intuition dirccting the rccipient as to his
course in life.1
This prophetic voice of heaven was heard in the thunder
by the Accadians as well as by the Semites. I have
already noticed that the Accadiaus believed the sounds
of nature to be divine voices, from which the initiated
could derive a knowledge of the future. At Eridu i t
was more especially the roar of the sea in which the
Sumerian priest listencd to the revelations of his deities,
and this perhaps was the oraclc through which Oanues
had spoken to men. I n the rival city of northern Baby-
lonia, where the supremc god presided over the realm of
the dead, and not over the waters of the sea, the divine
voice came to men in the thunder. By the side of Mul-
lil, the lord of the ghost-world, stood Mul-me-sarra
(Wiil-mo-sira), "the lord of the voice of the firmament.:'
Mul-me-sarra, in fact, was but Mul-lil himself in another
form, and hence, as lord of Hades, was the author, not
only of the thunder, but of subterranean noises as well.
I t is thus that he is addressed in a hymn, which is, how-
ever, not older than the Semitic period :

See Dr. S. Louis in the Proceedin~sof the Society o,. Zi:ihi'icot

Arclieology, Ap. 6 , 1886, pp. 117, 118.
2 I< 48. I t is probably quite late, but embodies earlier ideas. There
is no Accadinn text attached to it. On the reverse, which is almost
cntircly destroyed, mention is made o f "six hymns" to Samas, Mer*
daeh and Anu, besides other hymns to XIerodaeh which had to b e
recited on the north side of the altar. m d a hymn or hymne to Kusku
on the east side of it. "Altogether," it is stated, "there are fifteen
hymns (to be said! on the north and east sides. On the west, nine
 *O lord of the voice of the firmament, lord of the earth, prince of
Hades,
lord of the place' and the mountain from whence none returns.
even the mountain of the spirits of earth,
ordainer of the 1alr.s of the earth, the mighty bond of heaven and
earth,
mighty lord, in whose absence Nin-@rAu will not direct in garden
and canal, will not create tho crop ( a p u n a ) ;
lord of tho fetter (tnnnsi), who in his might rules the earth,
strengthening the broad (earth), holding the bolts of the lower
world,
giving sceptre and r c i p to Ann and Mul-lil;
by thy comnrand iet the foundation-stone of this place
lat long before thee at all seasons;2
like the seat of thy lordship let it he a judgmenthall on earth.
Upon i t may Ann, Be1 and Ea firmly establish the throne."

Perhaps Mul-me-sarra is also the deity who is addressed

i n another hymnS as '(the warrior-god (Erimmu), the
bright one, the sword (or lightning) of Istar," and of
whom it is said : '(May he give thee rest with kindly
hand ( ~ i t t u )may
, he rain life and tranquillity upon thee
with his hand! " Under the name of Iskhara, Istar herself
was called '(the svuord" or lightning of heaven," and
as such was identified with the constellation of the
S ~ o r p i o n ;and
~ the hand of the goddess Bunene is enti-
tled l L the inundator of the lightning," that of the Ela-
mite god Lagamar being ('the inundator of the earth,"

hymns to Assnr, Mul-me-sarra, the Sun of midday, Lm(!), and the

Hero-god (Dun) who quiets the heart, Be1 of cattle, the Lady of cattle,
Bel of the pure mound (Birri-Nimrud), (and) the Lady of the puro
mound. Offer sacrifices, lay reeds which have been cut up, offer food
and oil; let the hanil of tho prince take honey n n l butter, the food of
the god of revelations (BAR-BAR), and recite the following."
1 A&, possibly for nsari, "destruction," here.
Or, perhaps, "all the c'mlinal points" (IM-KAK-A-BI).
8 R2. 111. 150. Obv. ' K4195. 8-10.
 302 LECTURE IT.

aud that of the god of impurity "the inundator of the

crown (?)."I
The voices heard by the Babylonian in nature, however,
were not a whit more sacred to him than the inarticulate
voice which found cspression in the name. Like all
primitive peoples, the Chaldeans confounded the . person
and the name by which he was known. The name, in
fact, was the personality, and whatever happened to the
name would happen erlually to the personality. Injury
coi~ldbe done to a person by using his name in a spell ;
and, similarly, to pronounce the name of a deity compelled
him to attcnd to the wishes of the priest or exorcist.
As among the ancient Egyptians, the secret namcs of
the gods--many of them heirlooms from a p r i m ~ v a age,
l
whose actual meaning was forgotten-were not only
especially holy, but also especially efficacious. Names,
consequently, like the persons or things they represented,
were in themselves of good and evil omen; and the
Babylonian would have sympathised with the feeling
which made the Roman change Maleventum into Bene-
ventum, or has caused the Cape of Storms to become the
Cape of Good Hope. Whether this superstition about
aames was of purely Semitic origin, or whether it mas
shared in by the Accadians, we have no means of deter-
mining at present; the analogy of other races, however,
in a corresponding stage of social development mould
lead us to infer that the superstition was the independent
possession of Accadians and Semites alike. At all events,
it was deeply imprinted upon the Semitic mind. The
sacredness attached to the name of the God of Israel
 PEOJIETHEUB Aim TOTEMISM. 303
among the later Jews, and the frequent employment of
the name for the person of the Lord, bear witness to thc
fact. When Moses was ordained to his mission of lead-
ing his people out of Egypt and forming them into a
nation, it was prefaced by what was henceforth to be
the sacred and national name of their God.
There were names of good fortune and names of evil
fortune,' and special significance was attached to a
change of name. Three successive usurpers of the throne
of Assyria-Pul, Ulula or Ilulaios, and the father of
Sennacherib-all discarded their old names on the suc-
cessful accomplishment of their usurpation. Ful and
Ulul& adopted those of the two famous monarchs of the
older Assyrian dynasty, Tiglath-Pileser and Shalmaneser,
retaining their original designations only in Babylonia,
where the names they had adopted were associated with
ideas of hostility and invasion; while Sargon, who olaimed
to be lord of Babylonia as well as of Assyria, identified
himself with the past glories of the ancient kingdom by
taking the name of Sargon of Accad. The adoption of
these time-honoured names of itself conferred legitimacy
upon the new claimants of the throne; along with the
name they inherited the title and the claim to veneration
of those who had borne them. It must have been for a
similar reason that Esar-haddon's name, according t o
Sennacherib, was changed to that of Aasur-etil-yukin-
abla, " b u r the hero has established the son," "for
affection's sake,"2 though the prince preferred to retain
his earlier appellation of Esar-haddon or Assur-akh-
W.A. I. Y. 27, 49-52.
9 Ki nda, W. A. I. iii.16, 3. Poasibly the change of name w u
occasioned by the death of an elder brother.
 304 LECTURE IT.

"
iddina, Assur has given the Lrother," after his accession
to the throne. W e are reminded of the records of the
Jews, from which we learn that Jedidiah became the
Solomon of latcr history, and the Pharaoh of Egypt
" tnrned tho name" of Eliakim into Jehoiakim.
The preservation of their names was a matter about
which the kings of Babylonia and Assyriawere especially
anxious. Terrible curses are denounced against those
who should destroy or injure the writing of their
names," and substitute their own names instead. On
the other hand, the gods are invoked to allow the names
of the kings to last "for ever," or to I' guide their names
aright." Even captured cities have their names altered
in token of conquest, and it is possible that the seru-
pulous care with which the names of foreign potentates
are recorded in the Assyrian annals, as well as the interest
shown by both Babylonians and Assyrians in the lan-
guages of their neighbours, had to do with the peculiar
respect they paid to the name.
I n the ancient hymns, the phrase, "mankind, w h h
soever be their name," is of frequent occurrence, and
seems to signify that as the special favours of the gods
could be showered only on thosc whose names were recited,
a vague and general expression of the kind would avoid
the difficulty of enumcrating by its own name each divi-
sion of the human race. So, too, when the author of a
psalm speaks of a god or goddess whon~he
<[knewnot," it is probable that he is thereby deprecating
the wrath of some offended deity with whose name he is
unac~uaintcd.' A hymn t o the creator calls upon him
A frn~mentfrom the great medical work (M. 1101, O h . 3-14).
in xrllicl~t l ~ i !p~ti<:ntis allowed his choice of a practitioner's receipt or
 PXOYETHEU~AND TOTEMISY. 305
under his various names to dircct the laws of the world,
to raise the dead to life, to overthrow the wicked and
hostile, and t o guide the stars of heaven, and puts into
the mouth of Ea the following words : I' Since his name
has made his offspring strong, let his name be Ea even
as mine is; all the bonds of my lams may he carry (to
them) ; all my secret wisdom may he bear away, through
the fift,ynames of the great gods." After this, it is said,
his hearers "pronounced his fifty names and wrote down
his precepts."' As "the great gods" were fifty in num-
beq2 the ascription of their fifty names to the creator
was equivalent to identifying him with all of them.
When they lost their names, they lost their individual
personality as well.
Closely connected with the mystical importance thus
assigned to names was the awe and dread with which
the curse or excommunicationwas regarded. Once uttered
with the appropriate ceremonies, the binding of knots
and the invocation of divine names, it was a spell which
even the gods were powerless to resist. I n Assyrian i t

a charm, makes this pretty clear. The whole passage runs: "Cut up
some eyebright (l), the slice of a bird, the tongue of a dog, the plant
that grows in the plain, the 5.41 of the daslum, and tho golden Irakis
of the sheep (kaltis lunum khuratai, a species of grebe, according to
Houzhton), and compound these six ingredients: (or make a kliutwitiya
of herbs, offer beer, an11repeat a spell seven times to the heart :) drink
the mixture in wine; continue drinking (it) for three days, and on the
fourth day your health will he restored. (This is) the spell : 'Thou,
whoever he is, who like a road ha8 determined the path,' (which) repeat
in addition: 'The god, whoever he is, who like a road has determined
the path, like long-dmmn brandings (ke' sadduti) he has loved my
ganni."'
1 See above, p. 141.
8 K 4629, RW.

x
306 L E ~ R EIV.

mas called the mamit, in Accadian the iabba,' and was

naturally considered to be divine. I n Accadian, Mami
had been a goddess ; 2 the borrowed Assyrian deity, there-
fore, assumed the Semitic feminine termination. I n the
tenth book of the Epic of Gisdhubar, the goddess Mam-
metu, as her name is there spelt, is called L L the maker of
fate" who "has fixed the destinies" of mankind, "along
with" the spirits of the earth ; " she has established death
and life, but the days of death are ~ n k n o w n . " ~
Mamit thus bore a striking resemblance to the Fate
of thr Romans and tho At6 of the Greeks. Like At&,
her operations were usually conceived of as evil. Just as
Eamtar, the plague-demon, was also the personification
of doom and destiny, so too Mamit mas emphatically
the concrete curse. If she established life as well as
death, it was only because the term of life is figcd by
death; death, and not life, was the real sphere of her
work. Hence the mamit was known among the Acca-
dians as the (nam-) erima or hostile doom;" and though
Anu, as we have seen, might as the pole-star be called
the nzamit of heaven," it is in no friendly guise that the
nzanzit is presented to us in the magical texts. It was,
1 I n Sumerian, daggu, from an earlier B a n g u , perhaps connected
with danga, " a bond," whence the Semitic da'asugu, "to bind." A
special class of priests, "attnched," like the Levites, to particular sanc-
tusries, took their name from Bunga.
W. A. I. ii. 51, 55, "Mami the queen." '<The river of Mami the
queen" seenis to huve been near Cutha, since both i t and "the river of
the eompnnion of Mami" conic between "the river of the fortress of
Xergal" and "the river of the place of ascent of Laz." I n K 220, Ob.
27, the goddess Mamiti is mentioned immediately before Nin-gur, "the
lady of the abyss."
Hanpt, Babylonische Nimrodqos, p. 66. The Accadian equiva.
lenta of "the maker of fate" are given i n W. A. I. v. 9, 10.
 PBOUETIIEUS AND ~ T E M I S M . 307
in fact, like the power of excommunication in the Middle
Ages, the most terrible weapon that could be used by the
priestly exorcist. For the power of invoking the aid of
the goddess Mamit by pronouncing the curse was com-
pletely in his hands. All that was needed mas the per-
i'ormancc of certain rites and the repetition of certain
mords. Armed with the magic wand,l he could lay the
terrible excommunication on the head of his enemy, and
cause it to issue forth from the body of his friend. "Let
the mumit come forth that I may see the light," is one of
khe petitions we meet with in the tablet^;^ and Tiglath-
Pileser I. states that after his conquest. of the kings of
Nahri he " freed them, prisoners and bound as they were,
in the presence of the Sun-god (his) lord, and made them
smear to be his servants from henceforth and for ever,
under pain of the curse (mumit) of (his) great gods."S
I n the hymns the mumit occupies a conspicuous place.
Thus we read :
"The river-god is bright like the digger of the ground. The cume
(flies) before him; its cry (is) like that of a demon.' All the land
<lows like the height of the sunsethoriwn. May the sun at his rising
remove the darkness, and may thew never he gloom in the house. May
the cume go forth to the desert, to a pure place. 0 spirit of heaven,
conjure the curse; 0 spirit of earth, conjure i t !-The formula for undo-
ing the curse when the water of the river surrounds n man."s
1 Called gilqillum in Assyrian, "the reed of doom" in Aecadian
(W. A. I. ii. 24. 2, 3). I n a ritual text (1266, 1-6) the worshipper
is ordered to come into the presence of Es, and, turning his face to the
rising sun, to "place the point (am) of the reed of the free-will offerings
and the reed of the priosta (qaa nindabi qan urngalli), the in~plemellta
(unut) of the gods as many as exist, the implements of the sons of the
people."
W.A. I. iv. 7, 7. a W.A.I. i. 13. Col. v. 12-16.
4 In the Aeeadian, "the monstrous henst."

8 W . d . 1 . i ~ . 14,No. 2.

x2
308 LEC~WFX IV.

Another hymn begins in the following way:

" 0 c u m , curse, the boundary that none can pass ! The limit of
the gods (themselves) against which they may not transgress1 The
limit of heaven and earth which altereth not ! The unique god against
n h o m none may sin!' Neither god nor man can undo (it). A snare
not to be passed through, which is set for evil. Whether a n evil utuk,
or an evil alu, or an evil ehimmu, or an evil gallu, or an evil god, or ao
evil incubus, or a labadu, or a lalratsu, or an ak?~lcharu,or a lilu, or a
lilat, or the maid of a lilu, or the evil plague-demon, or a disease-hring-
ing asakku, or a bad sickness, which has set its head towards the drop-
ping2 water of Ea,'may the snare of Ea seize i t ! which has stretched
its head a g a i n s t q h e wisps of Kirba (the Corn-god), may the lasso of
Xirba hind i t ! Against the limitation (of the curse) i t has transgressed.
Never may (the limitation) of the gods, the limitation of heaven and
earth, depart from it. (The limitation nf the great) gods i t reverences
not. May (the lasso of) the great gods bind i t ! May the great gods
curse i t ! May they send hack (the demon) to (his) h o ~ n e ! The home
~ , f(his) habitation may they cause him to enter! As for him who has
turned to another place, to another place, a place invisible, may they
bring him ! As for him who has turned into the gate of the house.
the gate of a place from whence there is no exit may they cause him
to enter! As for him who has stationed himself in the door and bolts,
i n the door and bolts may they hind him with bonds from which there
is no release ! As for him who has blown (1) into the threshold and
socket, who into threshold and hinge has crept, like water may they
pour him out, like a cup may they shatter him, like a quarry-stone
nlay they break him to pieces ! As for him who has passed across the
heam, his wings nlay they cut ! As for him who has thrust his neck
into the chamber, may they twist his neck !"'
This is a fair sample of the incantations by means of
which the Babylonians believed that they could free
The Assyrian plays upon another meaning of the Accadian word.
and renders, "whom none may l~umble." Jensen is mistaken in con-
sidering the Assyrian word to stand for musopilu.
2 "Ti~lal" seems to he meant. I n W. A. I. iv. 3. 15, 16, izamlnr
is interchanged with inattz~ki~,
"spits out," as a rendering of biz-hiz-ene
(alternate renderings being, "thy weapon is the great monstcr [usun~.
gallu] which from its muuth spits out the breath" or "drips hlood").
6 Assyrian, "drips upon." 4 W.A.I.iv. 16,No. 1.
themselves from the demoniac agencies that surrounded
them. The power of the mamit mas such that the gods
themselves could not transgress it, and the mamit was
rooordingly invoked to protect the mortal from the demons
of plague and sickness. But the plague itself might be
regarded as a mamit or " doom" inacted by heaven upon
the guilty earth. Such is the view taken in the following
fragment, which1 once compared with the Biblical account
of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Perhaps
the doom of Sennacherib's host may furnish a closer
parallel :1
"A darkness came from the middle of the deep,
The doom des(cended) from the midst of the heaven,
The su.ord (mowed down) the earth like grass;
Towards the four winds thc flash (went) overthrowing like fire.
I t sickened the men of the city, it tortured their bodies.
In city and land i t caused lamentation; small and great2 (alike)
it (smote).
Freeman and handmaid it hound; with wailing it filled (them).
In heaven and earth like a storm-cloud it rained; it made a prey.
To the place of supplication of their god they hastened and raised
high the voice.
They received his mighty (aid) and like a garment it concealed

. . .. . ..
(them).
They . him and the poison (was expelled?).
(the). ernhraced) his feet.
[The next line is completely destroyed].
.. . . his body was tried
(In lamentation) he smites3 his breast."

The Babylonian, at all events in early times, did pot

1 W.A.I.iv.9,No. 1.
I n the Aeoadian original the order is reversed : "great and smalL"
W d a n n i s ; cf. S 949, Rev. 17, ina kGri u sakparim r a m n i udannie,
*with scourges and in expiation I beat myself." Zimmern m i s d
utannw, "he weakens."
310 LECTUFLE IV.

hold a very consistent theory about the origin of disease.

On the one hand, all sickness was ascribed to demoniacal
possession ; the demon had been eaten with the food, or
drunk with the water, or breathed in with the air, and
until he could be expelled there was no chance of recovery.
But, on the other hand, a pestilence, an epidemic, whicb
swept over a whole country, was regarded with t h e
same feelings of awe-struck veneration as the greater
gods themselves. It was believed to be an instrument
in their hands for punishing the sins and shortcomings
of mankind. As we shall see, the same theory was held
by the authors of the penitential psalms in respect of
maladies that attacked some single individual only ; but
it was the general persuasion when a wide-reaching cala-
mity like a plague afflicted the country. The plague
consequently was held to be a divine being who was sent
by the gods, like the storm or the deluge, to take ven-
geance on men for their misdeeds.
But this plague-god could be viewed under two aspects.
Under the oldcr one he was Namtar, the plague-demon,
who was the minister of the gods of the lower world and
the arbiter of human fate. In Semitic times the minister
of divine anger approached more nearly the Jewish con-
ception of the angel of death. He was himself a god,
and had under his command not only the " seven gods,"
but also a special messenger, Isum or Itak, '$the street-
traverser."' Isum was represented by the colossi whicb

1 On a cylinder in the possession of Dr. Huggins; also in W. A. I .

iv. 2. 23, 24, where the word "traverser" is represented by nrrgir, and
the Accadian name of Isum-'Sigsngga, "the head of destruction"-is
given. Like the seven evil spirits, Isum wan regarded as having tho
form of a whirlwind
stood at the approach to a temple;' his master'# name
was Nerm (Nera), who, as we have seen, was one and
the same as Nergal, the god of the dead. Nerra, "thc
warrior of the gods," as he is termed, appears in an old
legend, first brought to light by Mr. George Smith, as
bringing death and desolation upon the states of Ba-
bylonia, apparently in consequence of their evil-doing.
" Anu had heard" the report of the seven gods who had,
perhaps, been sent to investigate what was going on upon
the earth. Accordingly he summoned Nerra; l1 Let thy
hands march," he said, "since the inhabitants of the
country have seditiously broken their bond ;2 and I have
set thy heart to cause de~ollrtion;~ thou shalt strike t l ~ c
people of the black heads unto death with the desolation (?)
of the god Ner ; may thy weapons be their sword of
destruction, and let thy hands go !'14
Babylon is one of the first cities to feel the destroying
sword of the Chaldsean angel of death. It is besieged by
its foes, and during the siege, the sword, the famine and
the plague are let loose in its streets. .Nul-lil is repre-
sented as looking on, and at last saying in "his heart :"
" N e m is crouching at his great gate among the corpses of the noble
and the slave : Nerrn is crouching nt the g a b ; thou hnst set his seat
(there). Their foes have besieged the men of Babylon,s and tho11 art

W. A. I. ii. 50, 10.

K i sa nigi dad?ne kl~ubura'nnKA-HA imkl~atstsu.
' Ubld-ua Zihba-kaa m snkan kannrri. Kamarri is not " snare" here.
' A N Ner ; lu k a k k k a 15
Zalmat-hwkkodi a m sumuftit a ~ p u d p u p
amti-sunu-mal i l l i b idrika.
"The same siege of Babylon may possibly have been referred to in
tablet (S 2037), of which the ends only of a few lines remain. Thcy
begin thus : (1) .. . .
. "he lamented ; (2) . . he cricd out; (3) , ..
seize me; (4) ... Rabylon is token"
 their curse. Thou dillst bind them with chains(?) and didst fix the
doom(?), 0 warrior Nerra. Thou didst l a v e one and go forth against
another. The form of a do: dost thou assume and enterest into tho
palace. The people saw thee; their weapons were broken. The heart
of the high-priest, the avenger of Babylon, is full of valour ; when he
urged on his troops to take the spoil of the enemy, before the people
he l ~ n sdone wickedness. I n the city to which I shall send thee thou
shalt fear no mnn, shalt reverence none; small and great slay together,
rind leave not the youngest of the evil race. Thou shalt spoil the first
that come to Babylon, the penple of the king which is gathemd toge-
ther and entered into the city, shaking the bow and setting up the
spear, auxitiaries who hare transgressed against Ano and Dsgon; thou
shalt set up their rvenpons ; like tho waters of the storm shalt thou give
their corpses to the open places of the city ; thou shalt open their tree-
a u r a (!) and hid the river carry them away."'

Merodach mourned over the doom pronounced against

his city, and apparently with some effect ; for after a good
many broken and lost lines, the tablet goes on to describe
the despatch of the terrible plague-god to Erech, "the seat
of Anu and Istar, the city of the choirs of the festival-
makers and consecrated maidens of Istar," who " dreaded
death," for the nomad 'Suti of the desert had combined
against their state. Tho eunuch-priests were now com-
pelled to bow the face before another deity than the
peaceful Istar, who "cried and was tronbled over the
city of Erech." Eventually, however, Nem-a was "quieted"
by I' Isum his couucillor, the illustrious god who goes
before him," " and the warrior Nerra spake thus : ' Sea-
l land against sea-land, 'Sumasti against 'Sumasti, the
Assyrian against the Assyrian, the Elamite against the
Elamite, the Kossrean against the Kossreau, the Kurd
against the Kurd, the Lullubite against the Lullubite,
country against country, house against house, mau against

1 M 55, col. 1, 4-26.

man, brother against brother, let them destroy one another,
and afterwards let the Accadian come and slay them all,
and fall upon their breasts." The warrior Nerra (further)
addresses a speech to Isum, who goes before him : ' Go,
Isum, incline all thy heart to the word thou hast spoken.'
(Then) Isum sets his face towardsthe land of the west;
the seven warrior gods, unequalled, sweep (all things)
away behind him. At the land of Phcenicia, at the
mountains, the warrior arrived; he lifted up the hand,
he laid it on the mountain; the mountain of Phcenicia,
he counted as his own soil."
I n thus marching to the west, the minister of the Ba-
bylonian god of death approaches the county in which
another angel of pestilence was seen by the king of
Israel. "By the threshing-floor of h u n a h the Jebusite,"
David had beheld the angel of the Lord " stretching out
his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it." 89 in Babylon,
so too in Israel, the plague had been a visitation for the
sins of man. It was the instrument of God's anger
wielded by the hands of his angel-minister. That same
angel-minister had once before stood before Balaam, and
with a drawn sword in his hand had threatened the Syrian
prophet with death. He was not a demon from the
lower world, like the old Chaldsean plague-spirit Namtar ;
he was not the inexorable law of destiny, before whom
even the gods had to submit their wills ; but a member
of the celestial hierarchy, the messenger of a beneficent
God. He came to destroy, but it was to destroy the
guilty. The sins of man, and not the malevolence or
passionless law of a supernatur?.l being, brought death

Comp. Is. xix. 2 -4.

314 LEUITRE IV.

and suffering iutc the world. The Babylonian legend of

Nerra, l i e the records of the Old Testament, tells the
same tale as the Babylonian story of the Deluge.
So remarkable an agreement, on the one hand, between
the religious conceptions of Semitic Babylonia and Israel,
and, on the other, their equally remarkable contrast t o
the older Abcadian doctrines embodied in the plague-
demon Namtar and Mamit the goddess of fate, can be
explained in only one way. Even if the fact stood alone,
and we had no knowledge of the earlier history of
Chaldaea, we should be forced to conolude that while the
later population of Babylonia belonged to the same race
as that which inhabited Palestine, it was essentially dif-
ferent from the race which had formulated the oldei
beliefs. The Semitic belief, in fact, stands out in striking
contrast to beliefs which betrayed no consciousness of
human sin, and the necessity of finding in this an ox-
planation of malevolent action on thc part of the gods
above. The difference between the plague-god of Cutha
and the agencies which had once been imagined to work
evil to mankind, is a difference that cannot be bridged
over by any theory of development; it is necessarily due
to a difference of race.
 THE SACRED BOOKS OF OHA.LD2l!A.

To Franqois Lenormant, whose untimely death was

an irreparable loss to the progress of Assyrian research,
helongs the merit of first describing and defining the
sacred books of ancient Babylonia. With the keenness
of perception that characterised him, he pointed out two
main collections of Babylonian sacred texts ; one contain-
ing magic incantations and exorcisms; the other, hymns
to the gods. The magical tests obviously belong to an
earlier and less advanced stage of religious belief than
the hymns; they presuppose, in fact, a sort of Shamanism,
according to which each object and power of nature
has its zi or "spirit," which can be propitiated only
by a sorcerer-priest and certain magical -rites ; while the
hymns, on the other hand, introduce us to a world of
gods, and their language from time to time approaches a
high level of spiritual expression. The collection of
hymns Lenormant very happily named the Chaldsean
Rig-Veda, and to them he subsequently added a third
collection, consisting of penitential psalms which in many
respects resemble the psalms of the Old Testament. All
three collections are generally composed in both Accadiau
and Semitic Babylonian, the Semitic Babylonian being a
translation of the aresumably older Accadian text which
316 LECTURE V.

is written line by line above it. It was natural to sup-

pose that what has happened in the case of other sacred
books happencd also in Babylonia ; that the magical texts
mere first collected together, the collection subsequently
acquiring a sacred character; and' that a similar process
took place in the case of the hymns. The whole work
would have been complete before the culture and literature
of the Accadians mere handed on to the Semites : in this
way the preservation of the Accadiau originals mould be
accountcd for, the very words of the primitive documents
and their correct pronunciation having come to be looked
upon as sacred aud inspired; while the Semitic interlinear
translation served, like thc Aramaic Targums of the Old
Testament, to assist the priests in understanding the
object of their rccitations. As time went on, the reli-
gious beliefs which underlay the magical texts became
so far removed from those of a later age that the texts
themselves gradually passed into the background, the
collection of hymns taking more and more their place as
pre-eminently the Babylonian Bible.
The theory as thus stated is at once simple and pro-
bable. But although in its main outlines it is no doubt
correct, further research has shown that its simplicity is
due to the imperfection of the materials upon which
Lenormant had to work, and that it will have to be very
considerably modified before all the facts now known to
us are accounted for.
I n the first place, there are numerous magical texts
which are later, and not older, than many of the hymns.
Nothing is more common than to find a magical text
breaking off into a hymn or a fragment of a hymn the
recitatior~of which forms part of the spell or ceremony.
-4 large number of the hymns that have come down to
us are thus embedded in the magical documents of which
they form an integral part. The hymn to the seven
evil spirits, for instance, quoted in a former Lecture, is
really a portion of one of the most famous of the magicaI
texts. I n such instances there can be no question that
the hymn is older than the text in which it is found.
Moreover, i t is difficult to distinguish the hymns when
used in this way from similar poetical addresses to divine
beings, which, so far from being especially sacred, were
employed as spells in medical practice.
Thus in a great work on Babylonian medicine, frag-
ments of which I have published and explained,' receipts
for the cure of diseases, which scarcely differ from those
that would be prescribed to-day, are mingled with charms
and spells for driving away the demons of sickness.
The sick man, in fact, was given his choice between a
scientific treatment and a recourse to the old system of
the primitive LLmedicine-man;"and it was left to his faith
or superstition to determine whether he would employ
the regular practitioner or his spiritual predecessor the
exorcist-priest. Thus in the middle of a list of various
medicines, carefully prepared from different ingredients
and mixed with date-wine or water, we find an alter-
native spell, which the patient was instructed to "place
on the big toe of the left foot,'' and there cause it to
remain. The spell was as follows :
0 wind, my mother, mind, mind, ruler of the gods art thou, wind
among the storm-gods !
-
' ZeitachriftfiirKeilsch$tfora~hu,~,ii. 1, 3.
 318 LECTURE V.
Yea, thou m&st the veter' to stream down (tuisitsn), a l ~ dwi&
the gods thy brothers liftest up the stream (etsits) of tllg
wisdom.''
Now these two verses are introduced by a word which
was read en in Accadian, s+tu in Assyrian, and had the
meaning of <'spell" or "incantation." The same word
introduces also a certain number of the hynlus to the
gods, and thus throws light on the object of their quota-
tion and use. They were, in fact, spells, and the sacred-
ness with which they were invested was due to the fact
that they were so.%
W e now have an explanation of two further facts
which would otherwise be puzzling. On the one hand,
by the side of the hymns to the gods there exist texts
which agree with the hymns in form and character, but
differ from them in being addressed, like the medical
spell I have just quoted, to an inferior order of super-
natural beings. On the other hand, the place of a hymn
may be talren by a legendary poem or a portion of a
legendary poem. The transformation of the god Zu into
a bird, which I cited in the last Lecture, is an example of
this. If the legendary poem had to do with the divine
powers who were to be invoked or whose m a t h had to
be deprecated, its use as a spell was as efficacious as
that of a hymn. Our own folk-lore shows that nothing
comes amiss to the inventor of popular spells ; the Lord's
Prayer or a verse from the Bible are as serviceable in
Literally, "the urine," whieh indicates the object of the spell.
1

., The hymns to the Sun-god of Sippara, composed by Semitic priests,

2
form, hoverer, an exception to this rule. The introductory word aiptu
with them merely means "to bo recited," its old signification having
come in time to take thin meaning npon itself
 THE SACRED BOOK8 OF CEALDd%L. 319

curing disease or in removing the curse of a witch as the

most time-honoured combination of unintelligible words.
The relation between the magical texts and the hymns
of ancient Babylonia is now, therefore, clear. I n many
cases, at least, the hymns formed part of the magical
texts; they were the mystical incantations around the
recitation of which the rites prescribed in the texts were
intended to revolve. The magical text was not complete
without the repetitiou of a form of words as well as a
direct appeal to the names of certain supernatural beings;
and the form of words was in many instances furnished
by hymns to the gods or analogous kinds of composition.
It is not only the magical texts, however, in which we
*find the hymns embedded and prefaced by the significant
word s+tu, "incantation." They are still more nume-
rous in the ritual texts-in the texts, that is to say, which
describe the religious ceremonies the Babylonian was
called upon to perform. These ceremonies had for the
most part the same end and object as the magical texts;
they were not so much a communion with the deities of
heaven, as an attempt t o compel them by particular rites
and words to relieve the worshipper from trouble, or to
bestow upon him some benefit. Divine worship, in short,
was a perfornlance rather than an act of devotion, and
upon the correctness of the performance depended entirely
its efficacy. The mispronunciation of a single word, thc
omission to tie a knot at the right moment, would inva-
lidate the whole ceremony and render its repetition neces-
sary. The ritual, therefore, was a sort of acted magic,
and it is consequently not surprising that the hymns
should play the same part in it as they did in the incan-
tations of the magical texts.
 It follows from all this that many of the magical texts
are, like the ritual texts, later than many of the hymns.
The fact must necessarily introduce some modification
into Lenormant's theory of the origin of the sacred books
of Chaldaea.
I n the second place, not only the hymns, but even the
magical texts are at times composed in Semitic Baby-
lonian only. There is no trace of an Accadian original
of any kind whatever. And not only is this the case,
but these purely Semitic hymns occasionally glide into
what is neither more nor less than unadulterated magic.
Here is a specimen of one, which begins with an address
to the Sun-god full of deep feeling and exalted thought,
and finally passes into an incantation equally full of dull
bathos and debasing superstition : l
"0 Sun-god, king of heaven and earth, director of thin@ above
and below,
0 Sun-god, thou that clothest tbe dead with life, delivered by thy
hands,
Jndgs unbribed, director of mankind,
the mercy is supreme of him who is the lord over difficulty (bil
namratsit),
bidding son and offspring to come forth, light of the world,
creator of all khy universe, the Sun-god art thou !
0 Sun-god, when the ban (mamit) for many days
is bound behind me and there is no deliverer,
expulsion of the evil and of the sickness of the flesh is brought
about (by thee);
among mankind, the flock of the god Ner, whatever be their
names, he select8 me :

1 S 949, Obv. The upper part of tbe tablet is lost. All that remains
of it ere the two last lines : "He clothes with life, and to the blessed
hands of my god and my goddess for grace and life entrust me." Then
comes a line of separation, and the hymn to Samas is introduced by the
word s~ptu.
 THE SACBED BOOK8 OP CEALDdU. 521
d t e trouble
~ fill me with rest,
and day and night I will stand undarkened.
I n the anguish of my heart end the sickness of my Eesh I waa
bowed down.
0 father supreme, I am debased and walk to and fro.
With scourges' and in expiation I beat myself.
My littleness (1) I know not, the sin I have committed I knew not.
I am small and he is great;
The walls of my god may I psas.
0 bird, stand still and hear the hound !
0 Sun-god, stand still and hear me !
Overpower the name of the evil ban that has been created,
whether the ban of my father, or the ban of my begetter,
or the ban of the seven branches of the house of my father,
or the ban of my family and my slaves,
or the ban of my free-born women and concubines,
or the ban of the dead and living, or the ban of the adult ( l ) and
the suckling,
or the ban of my father and of him who is not my father.
For father and mother I pronounce the spell; and for brother and
child I prononnce the spell.
For friend and neighbour I pronounce the spell, and for lahourcr
and workman I pronounce the spell
For the field thou hast made and thy pasturage I pronounce the
spell.
May the name of my god be a father where there is no justice.
To mankind, the flock of the god Ner, whatever be their names,
who are in field nnd city,
speak, 0 Sun-god, n~ightylord, and let the evil ban be at rest."

1 Kdri; so in W. A. I. iv. 7, 4 : "the incantation is laid as a sconrge

(Mru) upon his back." The Accadian equivalent was l6ba (sometimes
written with the determinative prefix AL, W. A. I. v. 16. 24, 25), which
is also translated by the Assyrian mdlstum (Heb. shbdh). Sadi was
another Accado-Sumerian equivalent (iv. 1, 42). The w o d is expressed
ideographically (" cod-handcutting," and "cutting cord") in v. 14.
54, 55, where we also find mention of "the scourge," aa tna tabqirt,
d D , "which is used in penal examination" (Heb. hqpw~fh). The
illeographic equivalelit of the latter is "rope-length (darda)-making."
Ifuppu is further the Assyrian rendering of the ideographic compounds
"rope-skincutting" and " rope-hand-cutting" (v. 14. 57, 58).
Y
 325 LECTURE V.

Here the hymn to the Sun-god is made a vehicle for

removing the ban or "curse" that has fallen on the sick
man. The beliefs which produced the magical texts
must still have been active, although the hymn belongs
to a late period of Babylonian history; the old doctrine
of an inexonble fate, even if degraded into a belief in
the witch's art, still existed along with the worship of a
god who restored the dead to life and was supreme in
mercy to those that were in trouble." We havo only to
turn to our modern newspapers to discover how slowly
such primaeval beliefs die out, and how long they may
linger among the uneducated and suporstitious by the
side of the most exalted faiths and the mightiest triumphs
of inductive science. The fact that one text is magical,
while another contains a hymn to the deity, does not of
itself prove the relative ages of the two documents.
Then, thirdly, it has become increasingly manifest that
a good many of the so-called Accadian texts aro not
Accadian in their origin. As I pointed out several years
ago,' the old Accado-Sumerian language was learned by
the Semitic Babyloniam as Latin was learned by the medi-
aeval monks, and for much the same reasons. I t was the
language of the oldest sacred texts ; it was also the early
language of law; and both priests and lawyers were
accordingly intcrested in its preservation and use. What
happened to Latin in the Middle Ages had already hap-
~ e n e dto Accadian in Babylonia. The monks spoke and
wrote in a language which was Latin indeed, bet which
had lost its classical purity ; monkish Iatin was full of
modern words and idioms, and its grammar was not

Babylonian Litwattme, pp. 64, 71, 72.

 THE SACRED BOOKB OF CHALDBA. 323
always scrupulously accurate. On the other h d , it
contributed multitudes of words, and even forms of
expression, to the languages of every-day life that were
spoken around it, and the words were frequently modified
to suit the pronunciation and genius of the languages that
borrowed them, just aa the modern words which monkish
Latin had itself adopted were furnished with classical
termimtions and construed in a classical fashion. The
case was precisely the same in ancient Chaldcea. Here,
too, there was a monkish Accadian, both spoken and
written, some of which would have shocked the Accadian
speakers of an earlier age. The litercrti of the court
of Sargon of Accad had been partly Accadian, partly
Semitic ; the Accadian scribes mote and spoke Semitic,
the Semitic ecribes wrote and spoke Accadian. (The
result was necessarily a large amount of lending and
borrowing upon both sides, and the growth of an arti-
ficial literary language which maintained its ground
for centuries. The way for the rise of this artificial
dialect had already been prepared by the long contact
there had been between the two chief languages of primi-
tive Chaldsea. When two languages thus exist aide hy
aide-like Welsh, for example, by the side of English-
they will borrow one from another, the language of mipe
rior culture and organisation being that which exerts the
greatest influence. The pupils will imitate the speeoh of
their masters in art and science even if, as in the ease of
Greece and Rome, the masters in art and science are the
subjects in political power.
From a very early epoch, therefore, possibly before the
separation of the Semitic family, the old agglutinative
dialecte of W d s e a had been iduencing their Bemitic
r2
neighbours. The work carried on at the court of Sargon
was accordingly but a continuation of an older process.
But it was distinguished from the older process in two
ways. It was the work of cultivated men, working upon
literary models with a definite object in view. It was,
moreover, a mork that was carried on under Semitic
patronage and supremacy, with the necessary result that
in the new artificial language the influence of Semitic
thought and speech upon the decaying speech of pre-
Semitic Accad tended constantly to become greater. The
Accadiau texts, which were f i s t composed by Semitic
scribes, and subsequently handed down through genera-
tions of Semitic copyists, could not fail to show their
origin and history plainly stamped upon their face.
And such is actually the case as regards a good many
of the texts which in the early days of Accadian study
could not be distinguished from the genuine productions
of Accadian writers. I t was as yet impossible to separate
classical from monkish Accadian; to determine whether
the Semitic text were a translation of an older Accadian
one, or whether the Accadian was a literary rendering of
a Semitic original. Even now, with all the progress that
bas been made during the last few years in our know-
ledge of the pre-Semitic dialects of Chaldrea, i t is not
always easy to decide the question. It is not enough to
show that the Accadian text contains Semitic words or
idioms. The words may have been introduced by copy-
ists; while what we imagine to be Semitic idioms may
really be imitations of earlier Accadian modes of speech,
borrowed when the ancestors of the Semitic family still
lived together in their tents by the western banks of the
Euphrates. Apart from the monuments of Babylonia
 THE SACRED BOOKS OF CHALD.~A. 32s
and Assyria, we,have no records of Semitic specch which
reach back even approximately to that remote epoch
when the dialects which afterwards became the languages
of Assyria, of Aram and of Phcenicia, were still spoken
within the limits of a single community, and when that
community was still leading the life of the Bedouin of
to-day. It is always possible that words and forms of
expression which we believe to be distinctively Semitic
may, after all, have had an Accadiau origin; before this
can be settled, it will be necessary to exhume marc
monuments which, like those of Tel-loh, belong to the
pre-Semitic era, and to subject the non-Semitic langungc
in which they are written to a searching examination.'
Enough now, however, is known about the charac-
teristic features of pure and unadulterated Accado-Su-
merian to enable us to assign most of the hymns and
magical texts to their true origin, and to determine
whether their parentage is Semitic or Accadian. Not
unfrequently the conclusions which have been arrived at
on philological grounds are confirmed by the contenta of
the texts. Texts which refer to Semitic deities or to
Semitic sanctuaries disclose at once their real age and
source. It is equally impossible to refer to an early date
compositions which breathe a philosophical spirit, or are
in accord with the Semitic conceptions of the divine
government of the world. The only question is, to how
1 Arabic is of little assistance in aettling the question, since our
knowledge of it is so recent that it is impossible to say in many cases
whether the lexical and idiomatic pointa of agreement between it and
the North Semitic languages may not be due to borrowing. Aramsoan
tribes have lived in immediato proximity to the original speakers of
Arabic from very early t i e s , and must have lent runny word., if not
idioms, to their neighbours.
326 LECTURE V.

late a period such compositions belong; whether, for

example, the account of the Creation in days, which
bears so curious a resemblance to the first chapter of
Genesis, goes back to the epoch of Khammuragas, or is,
as I believe, a product of the age of Assur-bani-pal.
But even when we have determined the relative date
and origin of a particular composition, our difficulties are
by no means over. An ancient literature like that of
Babylonia must necessarily contain comparatively little
that is original. Most of the works that have come down
to us are based on older literary productions, and are
often mere ceutos of earlier compositions. m e great
Epic of Gisdhubar is little more in its present form than
a redaction of earlier poems relating to the H&rakl&sof
Erech. I t is full of episodes like that of the Deluge,
which have no very close connection with the main
subject of the worlt. And the episode itself may be
pieced together out of more than one earlier poem. Thus
the story of the Deluge shows clear traces of having been
compounded out of at least two older narratives, in one
of which the catastrophe was ascribed to the Sun-god, in
the other to Be1 (Aful-lil). The Descent of Istar into
Hades, again, begins with a description of the infernal
world, which, with a few slight differences of expression,
is found again in the sixth book of the Epic; a com-
parison of the two passages goes to show that the authors
of both have alike copied the description from an earlier
source. The Descent of Istar, indeed, abounds with pas-
sages which are plainly borrowed from other poems, and
whose richly poetical language stands out in marked
contrast to the dull and prosaic character of their setting;
while its concluding lincs have little connection with
 THE SACRED BOOK8 OF CHALDBA. 327
what precedes them, and are obviously an extract from
9 %parate work. The authors of thn penitential psalms
are fond of adding to their productions a litany of varying
length, in which the names of certain divinities are in-
voked ; the litany was a common possession which existed
in an independent form, and had been handed down from
an early period. Even the hymns are sometimes put
together out of older materials, l&e certain of the Old
Testament psalms; not only do the same phrases and
lines recur, but whole passages as well. It is the same
with the magical texts. Here, too, we have repetitions
and borrowing ; here, too, we have older fragmenb incor-
porated into later texts.
I t will be seen from this how much remains to be
done before the sacred books of ancient Babylonia can
be made fully to tell their tale, and t o what an extent
the first theory about their origin and history must
require modification. I n its main outlines, nevertheless,
khe theory first sketched by the brilliant inaight of
Lenormant still continues true; it is only in its details
that it needs correction and improvement.
The magical texts formed the earliest sacred literature
of Chaldlea. This fact remains unshaken. They reach
back to a period when the Semitic conception of a
supreme Baal was utterly unknown-when, indeed, there
was no definite conception of a god at all. The I'orea-
ting" deity of later Accadian belief had not yet emerged
from the religious consciousness of the Chaldean. Tho
inhabitant of Babylonia was as yet in the purely Shaman-
istic stage of religious development. The world about
him was peopled by supernatural powers, each of which
was to him a zi or "spirit.)' But it was not a spirit in
328 LECTURE V.

our sense of the word, nor in the sense in which the

term was used by the Semitic scribes of a later day.
The m' was simply that which manifested life, and the
test of the manifestation of life was movement. Every-
thing that moved, or seemed to move, was endowed with
life, for only in this way could primitive man explain
the fact. He himself moved and acted because he had
life; life, therefore, was the cause of movement. Hence
the objects and forces of nature were all assigned a zi
or spirit. The arrow that flew through the air, the
stone that struck and injured, the heavenly bodies that
moved across the sky, the fire that blazed up from the
ground devouring all that fell in its way, had all alike
their spirits. The spirits mere as innumerable as the
objects and forces which surrounded the Chaldzan, and
as mysterious and invisible as his own spirit or life.
I n this phase of faith the moral element was wholly
wanting. The Chaldiean had not yet entered the Garden
of Eden, and eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil. The visible things of nature may benefit or
injure; but their benefits and injuries seem altogether
capricious and accidental, entirely independent of the
actions and thoughts of man. The same stone which has
killed a man to-day may help to build his son's house
to-morrow; the fire which scorches to death will also
cook the food to sustain life. I n each event, all seems
determined by blind chance; the spirits of nature map
live and move, but they have no passions, no emotions.
If their invisible spirits are to be influenced, it must be
by other means than appeals to their love, their anger,
their jealousy or their pride.
Shamanism accordingly implies, not s priesthood, but
 THE SACRED BOOKS OF C H A L D ~ . 329
a body of "medicine-men," or exorcists, who know the
spells whereby the spirits of nature can be compelled
either to cease from injuring or to ill-treat the foe.
Whether the medicine-men of primseval Chaldsea had to
undergo any initiatory course of training, or whether
the profession were open to all alike, we do not know;
our records do not reach back to the remote period of
pure Shamanism, the magical texts being merely sur-
vivals whioh in their present form belong to a later time.
I t is this class of exorcists, however, which distin-
guishes the early Shamanism of Chaldsea from what Dr.
Tylor has termed simple Animism. Shamanism, is, in
fact, organised Animism ; Animism controlled and regu-
lated by a body of exorcists who take the place of the
priesthood of a higher cult. It was doubtless the exist-
ence of disease which first called this body of exorcists
into being. The prevention and cure of disease is the main
object of the magical texts and incantations. Disease
was looked upon, as it still is in many parts of the uncivi-
lized world, as possession by a malevolent spirit. Just as
an external wound might be caused by a piece of stone
or metal, so it was inferred an internal malady must be
caused by an invisible agent of a similar kind-that is,
by the bpirit of the stone or metal. The same means
that were adapted for getting rid of the visible stone and
metal would be suitable for getting rid of their invisible
spirits. There is no evidence to show that the exorcists
of Chaldsea ever professed to extract pieces of actual
stone or metal from the body of the sick, like the medi-
cine-men of Australia or America; but they claimed by
their spells to expel the spirits which enabled these pieces
of stone and metal to afflict and injure. Listen, for
 LECTURE V.

instance, to the opening words of the great collection of

Chaldrean magical texts :
"The evil god, the evil demon, the demon of the field, thn demon of
the mountain, the demon of the sea, the demon of tho tomb, the evil
spirit, the dazzling fiend, the evil wind, the assaulting wind which
strips off the clothing of tho body like an evil demon, -conjure, 0
spirit of heaven ! conjure, 0 spirit of earth ! . . . . T h ~ which
t is mis-
formed, that which,is disenscd, t!:ot which is racked (with pain), even
a diseased muscle, a constricted muecle, n swollen muscle, an aching
muscle, a painful muscle, a broken muselo, a n injured muscle,-conjure,
0 fipirit of heaven ! conjure, O spirit of earth,!
The sickness of the entrails, n sick heart, faintness of the heart,
disease, disease of the bile, headache, violent vomiting, a broken blood-
vessel (?), disease of the kidneys, difficult miction, painful sickness
which cannot he removed, a dream of ill omen,-conjure, 0 spirit of
heaven ! conjure, 0 spirit of earth !
Him who is the possessor of the likeness of another, the evil face, the
evil eye, the evil mouth, the evil tongue, the evil lips, the evil breath,
-conjure, 0 spirit of heaven ! conjure, 0 spirit of earth ! . . . .
The pailrful fever, the virulent fever, the fever which quits not a
man, the fever-demon who leaves not (the body), the fever unremov-
able, the baleful fever,-conjure, 0 spirit of heaven! conjure, 0 spirit
of earth !
The painful plague, the virulent plague, the plague which quits not
a man, the plague-demon who leaves not (the body), the plague unre-
movable, the baleful plague,-conjure, 0 spirit of heaven ! conjure, 0
spirit of earth !"
The exorcisms for driving away the spirits of disease
gradually introduced a moral element into the character
of the old spirits of nature. But the moral element was
wholly on the dark side. The spirits of disease were
essentially evil and malevolent,. I n so far as human
passions could be ascribed to them, the passions were those
of the wicked, not of the good. The worship of the spirits
of nature thus tended to become a religion of fear.
Side by side, however, with the growing belief in the
malevolence of the spirits of nature, there existed the
 THE SACRED BOOK8 OP CEALDBA. 331
totomism of which I have spoken in the last Lecture.
Animals, as well as other objeck, had each their specid
spirit, and these spirits naturally shared the feelings
and passions which moved the animals to which they
belonged. The sacred animals were regarded as moral
agents, like men; the ox, whose labours benefitedmankind,
protected his worshipper from the attacks of evil; while
the fish which supplied the inhabitants of Eridu with
food, also brought to them the elementa of culture and
civilisation. I n this way the Shamanism of earlier and
ruder times began to pass into a higher form of creed;
the exorcist approximated more and more to the priest,
and the spells he used tended to recognise the distinction
between good and evil in the world of spirits as well as
in the world of men.
It was at this point that cosmogonic speculations Grst
exercised an influence upon the religion of the Chaldean
states. The Babylonian began to gcneralise and to sum
up his individual impressions of outward phenomena in
wider and more abstract ideas. Earth and heaven took
the place of the individual objects and forces whose
sphere of action was in the one or the other ; the spirits
of these separate phenomena were subordinated to the
spirits of the earth and the sky. The stereotyped con-
clusion of the old Accadiau exorcism, aa we have just
heard, is, " Conjure, 0 spirit of heaven ! conjure, 0 spirit
of earth!" The earth out of whose bosom the agricultu-
rist received the bounties of life, the heavens from which
the fertilising rain and dew dropped upon the ground,
and the rays of the sun warmed all nature into activity,
became the supreme powers whose spirits dominated
over all others and demanded the reverence of man.
 Unlike the malevolent spirits of disease, the great cosmo-
gonic spirits mere essentially beneficent; the moral con-
ceptions of Chaldsean faith were enlarged by the belief in
the existence of good as well as of evil spirits, and the
superiority of the good to the evil. It was an immense
step in advance, and it corresponds with the time when the
religious literature of Babylonia first commences with the
oldest surviving magical texts. The earliest portions of
the latter belong to the age when the crude Shamanism of
the past had been tempered and modified by the first
beginnings of a theory of the world.
From this point onward we can trace the further de-
velopment of the older creed. The struggle between
good and evil had already begun in the mind of the
Chaldaean thinker. The supernatural beings he wor-
shipped were now divided, for the most part, into two
hostile camps. On the one side stood the demoxs of
disease and nightmare; on the other, the great cosmo-
gonic powers of earth and heaven. It is true that t h s
terrible spirits of disease, who loved the darkness of night
and the solitary places of the wilderness, were not yet
consciously conceived as demons, but the moment was
not far off when such would be the case. Light and
darkness now stood opposed to one another in the sp&tual
as well as in the physical world. The old medicine-man
was fast becoming a priest.
The introduction of cosmological ideas and speculations
into Chaldaean religion brought with it two results. First
of all, there grew out of it the conception of creating
gods. W e have already had occasion to observe the
essential distinction that existed between the Accadian
md Semitic conoeptiona of the universe: with the one,
a11 things were made ; with the other, they were begotten.
The Semitic Baal was a father ; the Accadian divinity a
creator. According to the Semite, the heavens and the
earth were mrred out of a pre-existent chaos; according
to the Accadian, the heavens and the earth were them-
selves primordial powers, maintaining an eternal struggle
with the chaos of darkness and anarchy. The tempprnry
triumph of chaos means the irruption of nnnrchy into
the fair order of mture-the destructive hurricane, the
devastating tempest, the darkening eclipse. The return
of light and sunshine, of bright skies and germinnting
seeds, marks the victory gained over the encroaching
forces of the lower world.
The earth and the sky became the &st creators, the
Grst gods. It is they who create all the good things
which man enjoys below, including man himself. The
spirit of the earth and the spirit of the heaven thus de-
veloped into creating gods. But it was before the old
habits of thought and expression could be quite eradicated
from the Chaldsean mind. The spirits which had de-
veloped into gods were themselves provided with spirits ;
there was a spirit of Ea and Dav-kina, of Ana and Mul-
lil, as well as of water and earth, of heaven and hell.
When the gods took upon them human shnpe, these
apirits were regarded as similar to the spirits of indi-
vidual men; and the functions and attributes of the
human spirit were reflected upon the spirits of the gods.
At the outset, however, it was with the animal and not
with the human world that the new gods were wsociated.
They were, in fact, confounded with the old totems. Just
as the heavenly bodies, which seemed to move of their
 bwn accord like living beings, were identified with the
sacred animals, ao too the spirits of earth and heaven,
of water and air, to whom a creative power had been
given, were similarly identified with them. The god
was a beast before he became a man, and the spirit that
moved him was that of the brnte.
I n the second place, the deification of the spirits of
earth and heaven necessarily brought with i t the deifica-
$ion of other spirits which resembled them in character
and power. The test of supernaturalism-of the exist-
ence of a spirit-was the power of movement possessed
bg an object or a force of nature; this power now
became itself the supernatural being, the god or spirit.
The apirit of the moon, for example, developed into a
god ; but the god was abstracted from the visible moon
itself, and identsed with the creative force of the lunar
orb which manifested itself in motion. The new god
might in turn be abstracted from the creative force, more
especially if he were assimilated to the sacred steer; in
this case the creative force would become his spirit, in
no way differing, it will be seen, &om the spirit that
was believed to reside in man.
W e have now reached the culminating point of the
old Accadian religion. Spirits innumerable still exist,
bnt they are controlled and overawed by creative gods.
The gods represent the order and law of the universe
embodied by the sa2iba, or "fate," to which even the gods
themselves must submit. Over against them are the
malevolent spirits of disease, of chaos and of darkness ;
while beside them are other spirits which still retain
their primitive character of moral indifference, neither
 THE ~ACRED W X ) OF
~ CHALDEA. r335
good nor bad, though aome might approxima& mowto
the good and others to the bad. But gods and dpirits
alike were amenable to the spells and exorcisms used by
the sorcerer-priest, for a priest he had now become By
his magical words he could remove the sickness which
was caused by demoniac possession, or bewitch the person
and the property of his enemy; he could compel the
gods to listen to his petition and to perform his oom-
mands. I n his hands and on his lips was the power of
the terrible sabba, which even the gods were forced to
obey. The sorcerer was still the intermediary between
mankind and the spiritual world.
But, as I have just said, he had lost much of his old
character. Among the spelle he employed were hymns
which imply a more advanced cult than that of mere
magic. Indeed, the very conception of a creative deity
necessarily brought with it a service of praise and adora-
tion and the formation of a fixed ritual. A beneficent
god required another kind of worship than that which
was appropriate to the non-moral spirits of Shamhaism.
When the spirit of heaven became Anu, temples were
raised in his honour, and the worshippers who entered
them required something else than that the priest should
16conjure" the object of his cult. We leave the era
which witnessed the rise of the magical texts, and enter
on the era of the hymns.
The Penitemtial Psalms, of which I shall speak further
on, frequently have a sort of litany attached to them,
written in Accadian only, and invokmg the aid of wrtain
deities under their pre-Semitic names or titlea The
litany was an old heirloom, deckions fromwhich were
taken by the authors of the psalm and added to their
compositions. One of those translated by Dr. Zimmernl
conoludes as follows :
"0 my god, the lord of prayer, may my prayer address thee !
0 my goddess, the lady of supplication, may my supplication
address thee !
0 Mat6 (Nttu), the lord of the mountain, may my prayer address
thee !
0 Gubarra, lady of Eden, may my prayer address thee !
0 lord of heaven and earth, lord of Eridu, may my supplication
address thee !
0 Merodacll (Asar-mulu-dnga), lord of Tin-tir (Babylon), may my
prayer address thee !
0 wifo of him, (the princely offspring (1) of heaven and) earth,
may my supplication address thee !
0 (messenger of the spirit) of the god who proclaims (the good
name), may my prayer address thee !
0 (bride, first-horn of) Uras(l), may my supplication address thee !
0 (lady, ~ 1 1hinds
o the hostile (1) mouth), may my prayer address
thee !
0 (exalted one, the great goddese, my l?dy Naua), may my s u p
plieation address thee !
May it say to thee: '(Direct thine eye kindly unto me).'
May it say to thee: '(Turn thy face kindly to me).'
(May i t say to thee : 'Let thy heart rest.')
(May it say to thee : 'Let thy liver be quieted.')
(May it say to thee : 'Let thy heart, like the heart of a mother
who has borne children, be gladdened.')
('Aa a mother who has borne children, as a father who has begob-
ten a child, let it be gladdened')." q

The litany belongs to a period considerably later than

that which witnessed the rise and first collection of the
magical texts. It is written in the Accadian dialect of
north Babylonia, which exhibits the old Sumerian of the
south in an advanced stage of decay, and further shows
traces of contact with a Semitic language. The deities

1 From Haupt's Akkadische Keilschrifttezte, pp. 116 6g.

whose names are invoked belong to different parts of
Babylonia, and point to a time when not only the separate
states of Chaldea had begun to recognise a common pan-
theon, but when northern and southern Babylonia had
already been united into a single empire. Nevertheless, ,
the litany is earlier than the age of Sargon of Accad and
the supremacy of the Semitic population. Though Mero-
dach has already migrated from Eridu to Babylon, still
referred to under its old Accadian name of Din-Tir, the
Sun-god of Sippara and Accad is altogether unknown.
There is no allusion to either city or to the divinities
they adored. Nana herself, the queen of Erech, is not
yet known as Istar, and the Tasmit of a later day is
"the bridal goddess, the first-born of Uras."
W e are still, therefore, lingering on the verge of the
pre-Semitic epoch. The Semite may be in the laud, but
the official religion does not as yet recognise him. The
difference, however, between the religious ideas of the
litany and those which inspired the old magical texts is
immense. A whole age of religious development lies
between them. The fundamental conception of the pre-
ceding period, i t is true, still survives; the deities must
be influenced by the spoken word of their worshipper.
But the spoken word has ceased to be the spell or incan-
tation; it has become a prayer and supplication. I t s
efficacy depends no longer on the exorcisms of a medicine-
man, but on the faithful petitiom of the worshipper
himself. And along with this change in the nature of
the cult has gone a corresponding change in the divine
beings to whom the cult is dedicated. They have become
gods, bound together in a common brotherhood, like the
brotherhood of the oium over whose fortunes they preside.
i?
Babylonia possesses not only go&; it possesses a pantheon,
an Olympus, as well.
It was, of course, only among the more cultivated
classes that this newer and higher conception of the divine
government of the world was likely to be found. The
masseu, doubtless, still clung to their old superstitions,
their old Shamanism. The formation of magical texts,
therefore, never ceased. The older tests continued to be
interpolated until their antiquity at last threw such a halo
of holiness around them that it was considered impious
to tamper with their words. Other texts of a similar
character were composed, which in course of time came
to receive as much reverence as the more ancient collec-
tion. Far down into Semitic times, csorcisms and incan-
tations continued to be h t t e n , and to receive the impri-
rnatur of the official priesthood. They even entered largely
into the ritual of the temples. But the sanctity attached
to them became fainter and fainter as years went on.
Although the sorcerer maintained his ground among the
uneducated multitude, like the witoh in modern times,
the spells with which he served himself mere simply
means for curing the bite of a scorpion, and such-like
necessities of popular medicine. They were dissociated
from the worship of the go& and degraded to vulgar
uses. Even in medicine the cultivated Babylonian gen-
tlemen preferred to employ the drugs prescribed by
scientific practitioners; the spells were left to the igno-
rant and superstitious. The old collections of magical
texts, indeed, remained among the sacred books of the
nation; but this was on account of their antiquity, and
not because they any longer expressed the religious
feelings of the day. The litany at the end of the peniten-
 TEE SACRED BOOK8 OF CHALDA3.4. 339
tin1 psalms marks the beginning of a new era in religious
thought.
This era is represented by the hymna to the gods. Dr.
Eommel has pointed out that the hymns fall into two main
classes. There are, firstly, the hymns which show no
trace of contact with the magical texts, and, secondly, other
hymns which are either partly magical in character or else
are introduced by the significant word en (siphi), '< incan-
tation." These latter hymns emanate for the most part
from Eridu and its neighbourhood, and bring Merodaoh
before us as carrying out the behests of his father Ea for
the good of man. Most of them, moreover, are dedicated
to those older divinities who, like Ctibil the fire-god, were
eclipsed by the more humnn deities of the later cult.
But the division must not he pressed too far. The intro-
ductory en, "incantation," merely indicatesthat the hymn
is of sufficiently early date to be incorporatedin a magical
text, or that it was selected as a spell, like the Lord's
Prayer or the fragmenta of Latin which have served the
same object in modern times. I t is of importance, how-
ever, to observe whether the hymn is of a semi-magical
character, like that to the Fire-god which I have quoted
i n n former Lecture, or whether it was originally alto-
gether independent of the use to which it has been put.
I n the first case, we may confidently assignit to the period
when Eridu was still the religious capital of Chaldma,
and the faith of the people was only emerging out of its
earlier Shamanistic phase. I n the other w e , where the
hymn itself is free from all taint of magic and 8hamanistic
superstition, we may as confidently ascribe it to a later
date. Its precise age will depend upon that of the text
in which it is embodied. If the latter is one of those
E2
 late survivals which proved how deeply rooted the beliei
in magic and witchcraft was among the lower strata of the
population, the hymn or fragment of the hymn which is
incorporated in it may be of almost any period. To deter-
mine its age more exactly, we must have recourse to the
language in which it is written and the other indications
of date i t may contain. Sometimes these may point to an
early epoch, at other times to a comparatively recent one.
The hymns to the Sun-god of Sippara afford a fixed
point of departure for settling the relative antiquity of
the hymns. They form a separate class by themselves,
and were part of the daily service performed by the
priests in the temple of Samas. It is plain, therefore,
that they had been collected for liturgical use, and had
been invested with a sacred character. There were
hymns that had to be recited at sunrise and sunset, or
on the special festivals held in honour of the god. The
individual hymns had doubtless been composed on dif-
ferent occasions and at different times, and it is possible
that they had been revised and altered more than once
before they were put together as a single whole. But
whatever may have been the respective ages of the indi-
vidual hymns, they were all alike of Semitic origin.
They all belong to the epoch when Sippam and Accad
were ruled by Semitic princes, and were a centre and
focus of Semitic influence. I t is true that the hymns
are provided with an Accadian test, which is followed,
line by line, by the Semitic rendering, as is the case with
the other bilingual texts of early date. But it is eclually
true that the Accadian text is really a translation of the
Semitic. It may have been made by Accadian scribes;
it may have been made, and more probably was made,
 THE SACBED BOOK^ OF C E A L D ~ . 341
by Semitic scribes, like the Accadian texts which ema-
nated from the library of Assur-bani-pal; but it is not
original. The Semitic words and idioms it contains bear
witness to its secondary character. There is only one
period in the history of Sippara, of which we know, to
which such a work is attributable. This is the age of
8argon and his son Naram-Sin. The pre-Semitic epoch
of northern Babylonia was but just passing away ; the
sacred texts, the hymns to the gods, the older incauta-
tions, were all in the agglutinative language of the first
inhabitants of the country. Though the ancient Sun-god
of Sippara had become the Semitic Samas, it was natural
to suppose that he would be better pleased with the lan-
guage in which the spirits and deities of Chaldsea had
been addressed than with the vulgar speech of every-day
We. Like the monk of the Middle Ages, accordingly,
who composed his prayers and hymns in Latin, the priest
of Samas addressed his god in the older and more sacred
tongue. The sentiment, the expression, might be Semitic,
but the form in vhich it must be clothed before it could
be acceptable to the divinity was Accadian.
I n a later age there was no longer the same strong
motive for assimilating the hymns to the Sun-god to
those addressed to the more purely Accadian deities of
Babylonia. The Semitic language became first literary
and then a fit vehicle of devotion. Not only were magical
texts written in it, but hymns also, without any endeavour
to render them into the obsolete Accadian. Assur-bani-
pal, antiquarian as he was, thinks it no sin to publish
hymns to Nebo and Samas in Semitic only, and the in-
vocations addressed to the gods by Nebuchadnezzar and
his sliccessors are in the same Semitic language as the
rest of their inscriptions. The translation of the hymns
to Samas into Accadian presupposes a time when the
Accadian influence was still powerful, and when Accadian
was still believed to be the language of the gods.
If, then, we can assign the hymns to Samas of Sippara
to the age of Sargon of Accad, it becomes more easy to
find an approximate date for the hymns to the other
great gods of Babylonia. Like the hymns to Samas, we
must suppose them to have belonged to different col-
lections employed liturgically in the chief temples of
Chaldea. We know, indeed, that this was the case as
regards the hymns addressed to Bel-Nerodach of Babylon.
With few exceptions they are bilingual, in Accadian and
Semitic ; and in the larger number of them the Accadian
text is the original. Where this is the case, and the
hymns belong to the sanctuaries of northern Babylonia,
we may consider them older than the age of Sargon. As
the anrient language of the country continued to be
spoken in southern Babylonia long after his time, the
same conclusion cannot be drawn in regard to the hymns
employed there, but it is probable that the majority of
them are quite as early as those of the north.
How far they have come down to us in their original
condition and form it is bard to say. Jn some instances
we can show that they have been modified and interpo-
lated, and analogy would lead us to suppose that such
was generally the case. Nor is it possible to determine
at present whether the collections of sacred hymns used
in the different temples of Babylonia were formed into a
single whole, and thus constituted a sort of Babylonian
Rig-Veda, as Lenormant conjectured. I t is very probable,
however, that the unificatiou of the country brought with
 THE 8ACB&D BOOBS OF CHhlDiEA. 343
it n unification of the eacred books used in its several
temples, and that the copies of the hymns we possess
were not made by the scribes of Assur-bani-pal from
the hymn-books of different sanctuaries, but from a com-
mon hymn-book in which the special collections had been
grouped together.
At the same time, if such a common hymn-book ever
existed, it must have contained selections only from the
hymn-books of the individual sanctuaries. One of the
few hymns to Nergal, for instance, which we possess,
was, me are told, copied from the service-book of Cutha,'
and this is by no means an isolated example of the kind.
On the other hand, the hymns--or more usually the
fragments of hymns-which are incorporated in the
magical texts, perhaps imply the existence of a sacred
volume which was in common use among the priestly
schools of Babylonia. This is a poht which it must be
left t o future research to decide.
But whether or not such an authorised collection of
hymns existed for the whole of Chaldsea, it is certain
that a considerable number of the hymns mere composed
when the chief cities of Babylonia and their presiding
deities had been, as it were, confederated together. The
matter is, indeed, complicstad by our ignorance of the
extent to mhich the hymns have been altered and inter-
polated before their present text was finally fixed; on
the whole, however, it seems pretty evident that Ana,
Nul-lil and Ea, had already been linked together in a
divine brotherhood, and that the other "great gods"
had been assigned their places in a common pantheon,
before a considerable proportion of the hymns had been
composed. A distinct advance had thus been made
beyond the religious conceptions of the litany of the
penitential psalms; not only are the gods of different
cities invoked side by side, but they are now connected
together in the bonds of a single family. Tho family
system, in fact, has taken the place of a system of mere
co-ordination.
Now the family system implies an entire change in
the conception of the gods themselves. They cease to
be creators; they become fathers and children. Along
with this change necessarily goes another. The gods
become human. The last vestiges of primitive totemism
fade away, and Morodach is no longer '<the bull of
light," the son of '(the antelope of the deep," but an
anthropomorphic god, standing in the same relation to
Ea that a human son stands to his human father. Baby-
lonian religion had long been tending to regard the gods
as supernatural men; the introduction of the family
relation completed the work.
The work, however, in its final form bears clear marks
of artiilciality. The whole family system, in which the
deities of different states are each given a definite posi-
tion, must have been deliberately built up. Family
relationships may grow up naturally among the divinities
worshipped in the same locality or in the colonies sent
out by a mother-state ; where these relationships are
found existing among divinities, originally independent
and each adored as supreme in its own primitive seat of
worship, they must belong to an artificial system, and
be the product of intentional arrangement. Religion, in
the hands of its official representatives in Chaldaea, had
 THE SACRED BOO- OF CEALDEA. 345
not only passed out of the sphere of simple and spon-
tancous belief, it had become organised and r e f l e c t i v e
a subject to be discussed and analysed, to be arranged
and methodised.
Can all this have been the natural and uninterrupted
development of the old pre-Semitic Shamanism? With
Franqois Lenormant, I think not. Between the religion
of the magical texts, of the earlier semi-magical hymns
and of the litanies on the one side, and the religion of
the later hymns on the other, there seems to me to be
an almost impassable gulf, which can be bridged over
only by the assumption of an intrusive foreign element.
What this element must have been we know already.
The Semitic nomads of the western desert in the days
of their barbarism had come into contact with the cul-
tured kingdoms and people of the valley of the Euphrates.
At first they were content to be pupils ; eventually they
became masters themselves. The amalgamation of the
two races produced the Babylonian population of later
times, and along with it the history, the civilisation and
the religion of a subsequent era. B&rBssosexpressly notes
that Babylonia was the home of dserent races ; he might
have added that it was the home also of different faiths.
The Semite sat at the feet of hie Accadian Gamaliel
when the crude Shamanism of the latter had passed into
a higher phase of religion, and the creator-gods had been
evolved out of the spirits of the earlier creed. He adopted
the gods, but at the eame time he adapted them to his
o m notions concerning the divine government of the
world. They became Baalim, so many manifestations of
the supreme deity whose children we are, and who exhi-
bits himself to us in the solar energy. The old goddess%
with the exception of Istar, sank to the rank of Ash-
taroth and "mistresses of the gods," mere companions
and doubles of the male divinity.
Now, as I have already tried to point out, the key-
stone of Semitic belief was the generative character of
the deity. A language which divided nouns into mascu-
lines and feminines, found it difllcult to conceive of a deity
which was not masculine and feminine too. The divine
hierarchy was necessarily regarded as a family, at the
head of which stood "father Bel." If the gods of Accad
were to be worshipped by the Semite, they must first
conform to the requirements of his religious conceptions,
and allow themselves to be grouped together as members
of a single family. All that stood outside the family
were servants and slaves--the hosts of heaven and earth
who performed the behests of their masters, and carried
the messages of Baal to all parts of tho universe. The
rest of the supernatural world, if such existed, was rele-
gated to the domain of the enemy; it comprised tho
empire of chaos and night, which, like the gods of foreign
nations, might at times invade the realms of the Baalim,
only, however, to be beaten back once more into the
outer darkness. The empire of chaos, however, was
really a btranger to genuine Semitic belief; it w ~ as
legacy left by the Accadians, which was assimilated and
adapted by the Semites as best they could. Where the
Semitic faith existed in its full purity, Satan, the adver-
sary, himself was but an angel and minister of the Lord,
and the supreme god was the creator alike of good and
evil, of light and darkness.
The rise of Sun-worship at Sippara, the prominence
given to the solar element in Babylonian religion gene-
 THE EACaBD BOOK8 OF CHALDB.4. ,847
d l y , the obliteration of the older gods whose attributes
d d not be harmonised with those of a Sun-god, and
the identification of deity after deity with the solar Baal,
was again the result of the introduction of Semitic ideas
iuto the religion of Chaldrea. Perhaps the most striking
transformation ever undergone by any object of religious
%th was the conversion of Mul-lil, the lord of the ghost-
world, into a Be1 or Baal, the god of light and life.
Such a transformation could not have been produced
naturally ; it needed the grafting of new religious con-
ceptions upon an older cult; it is a sudden change, not
a development.
Equally hard to explain, except by calling in the aid
of a foreign religious element, is the degradation of the
spirits of the primitive faith into demons. We have
traced the process whereby certain of these spirits deve-
loped into deities, whiie others of them were invested
with a distinctly malevolent character ; but they are not
yet demons. The evil spirits who brought disease or
caused eclipse might be the brood of chaos, and therefore
hostile to the g o b of light; but they were all the subjects
of Mul-lil, and even of the sorcerer and the medioine-
man. It was the necessity the Semite was under of
accommodating his beliefs to the doctrine of an empire
of chaos that turned them into veritable demons, work-
ing for evil against the gods in a world of evil of their
own. Persian dualism was no new thing in Babylonia;
the gods of good and the spirits of evil had been struggling
there one against the other since the remote days of
Sargon of Accad.'
Nothing can be more striking than the following expression in a
prayer to "Ea,Samas and Memdsch, the great gods, the suprame
 In what preccdes I have, of course, been describing
only the official religion of Babylonia, as it is known to
us from the sacred literature of the country. I t was
the religion of the upper classes, of the priesthood and of
khe court. What the mass of the people may have be-
lieved, and how far they may have participated in the
official cult, we can only guess. The later magical texts
and incantations were oondescensions to their necessities
and superstitions, like the legends of the gods which
formed the subject-matter of popular poetry. The differ-
ences that exist to-day between the creed of a Spanish
peasant and that of a scientific savant are not greater
than those which existed in Babylonia of old between
the religion of the multitude and that of the school which
resolved the divinities of the popular theology into forms
of the one supreme god.
The magical texts and hymns were not the only sacred
books possessed by the Babylonians. There was yet a
third class of sacred literature-those penitential psalms
to which I have so often alluded. The litany frequently
attached to them belongs, as we have seen, to the pre-
Semitic epoch, though it has been altered from time to
time in later ages. The litany, however, is not written,
like the magical texts and the majority of the hymns, in
the Sumerian dialect of the south, but in the Accadian
af the north. Dr. Hommel is perfectly right in calling
the Accadian of the north neo-Sumerian; it represents
the Sumerian of the early texts in an advanced stage of

powers who establish the ban,"--" the sins of my father and my mother
.
I saw not (Lwz]abi-yau ummi-ya Widati ul amrb.) . . from darkness I
stepped forth and (became) the soldier of Samas" (ultu edhuti idsat!-ua
tsab Samas [ a ~ ~ n k i nR] )278,
, Obu. 7-9.
 THE SACRED BOOKE OF CHALDBA. 349

decay. But this does not prove that it was spoken at a

later period than the Sumerian of the south, or that it is
the direct descendant of the latter dialect. There were
several dialects of the Accadian or pre-Semitic language
of Chaldrea; one of these gave rise to the Accadian of
northern Babylonia at a time when the Sumerian dialect
in the south still preserved its pristine purity. What
hastened the decay of the northern dialect was its contact
with Semitic. The Semites established themselves in
the northern part of the country long before they settled
in the south. The kingdom of Sargon rose and waned
at Accad more than a thousand years before Sumerian
dynasties ceased to rule in the southern cities. It is not
strange, therefore, if the Accadian of the north decayed
long before its sister dialect of Eridu, borrowing at the
same time Semitic words and modes of expression. It
is in this Accadian of the north that the penitential
psalms are written. They belong neither to the same age
nor to the same city. But they are all distinguished by
the same characteristics, which lend to them a striking
resemblance to the Psalms of the Old Testament. Let us
take one, for example, which has been preserved to us in
a fairly complete condition :
"The heart of my lord is wroth; may it he appeased !"
&lay the god vhom I know not be appeased !
May the goddessS whom I know not he appeased !
&lay the god I know and (the god) I know not be appeased I

1 W. A. I. 4, 10. Zimmern's Bz~sqsalmm,pp. 61 aq.

2 Literally, "return to its place."
3 The Assyrian translation here has Islar instead of Istarit, prhich
indicates its antiquity. The expression "whom I know not" me-
"whose name I know not." The author of the psalm is uncertain as
to the particular god v h o has punished him.
 May the goddess I know nnd (the goddea~)I know not be a p
peased !
May the heart of my god be appeased !
May the heart of my goddess be appeased !
Mny the god and the goddess I know and I knom not be a p p w d !
May the god who (haa been violent against me) be appeased) !
May the goddess (who has been violent against me be appeased) !
The sin that (I sinned I) kne~vnut.
The sin (that I committed I knew not).
A name of bleasing (may my god pronounce npon me).
A name of blessing (may tho god I know and know nut) record
for me.
A name of blessing (msy the goddess I know and know not) pro.
nounce npon me).
'
(Pure) food I have (not) eaten.
Clear water I have (not) drunk.
The cursed thing' of my god ~ulknowinglydid I eat;
The cursed thing of my goddess unknowingly did I trample on.
0 lord, my sins are many, my transgressions are great !
0 my god, my sins are many, my transgressions are p a t !
0 my goddess, my sins ate many, my transgressions are great!
0 god whom I lrnow and whom I know not, my sius are many,
my trans,mssions are great !
0 goddess whom I lznow and whom I know not, my sins are many,
my transgressions are great !
The sin that I sinned I knew not.
The transgression I committ~dI knew n o t
The cursed-thing that I ate I knew not,
The cursed thing that I trampled on I knew n o t
The lord in the wrath of his heart has regarded me;
God in the fierceness of his heart has revealed himself to me.
The goddess h w been violent against me and has put me to grieE
The god whom I know nnd wl~onlI know not has distressed me.
The goddess whom I know and whom I know not has inflicted
trouble.

1 The Assyrian ikkib, as Mr. Pinches has pointed out, is borrowed

from the Accadian iugiba, "what is harmful." Zimmern quotes Haupt's
To&, p. 119 (6 sq.), "the l~andmaideateth the cnmed thing, she h a
committed the cursed thing." We may compare the words of Gen.
ii. 17, "in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."
 TEE SACBED Boom OF caaLD- 561
1mqqht for help and none took my hand ;
1vept and none stood at my side ;
I cried aloud and there was none that heard me.
Iam in trouble and hiding ; I dare not look up.
To my god, the merciful one, I turn myself, I utter my praywb
The feet of my goddess I kiss and water with tears.'
To the god whom I know and whom I know not I utter my prayer.
0 lord, look upon (me; receive my prayer !)
0 goddes8, look upon (me ; accept my prayer !)
0 god whom I know (and whom I know not, accept my prayer !)
0 goddess whom I know (and whom I know not, accept my
prayer !)
How long, 0 god, (shall I suffer1)
How long, 0 goddean, (shall thy face be turned from me 1)
How long, 0 god wbom I know and know not, shall the fiercenw
(of thy heart continue?)
How long, 0 goddess whom I h o w and know not, shall thy
heart in ite hostility be [not] appeased?
Mankind is made to wander and there is none that knowelh.
Mankind, as many as pronounce a name, what do they know 1
Whether he shall have good or ill, there is none that knoweth.
0 lord, destroy not thy servant !
When cast into the water of the ocean (1) take his hand
The sins I have sinned torn to a blessing.
The transgressions I have committed may the wind carry away.
Strip off my manifold wickednesses as a garment.
0 my god, seven times seven are my transgressions; forgive my
sins I
0 my goddass, seven times seven are my transgreasiona ; forgive
my sins!
0 god whom I know and whom I know not, seren times seven
are my transgressions; forgive my sins !
0 goddess whom I know and whum I know not, seven times seven
are my t r a n s w i n n a ; forgive my sins I
Forgive my sins ; may thy ban he removed.¶

1 See W. A.I. v. 19.35-38; 20.55; ii. 21. 53; 24. 45.

2 Zimmern has mistaken the meaning of this paseage. I n W. A. I
iv. 12. 32, 33, sa-mun417Zalilis rendered unokkaru. &-FAR (perhaps
pronounced kw) is "spoken judgment," "excommunication ;"thus in
 May thy heart be appeased as the heart of a mother who has bum8
children.
As a mother who has borne children, as a father who has begotten
them, may i t be appeased !
C~LOPE~N.-Psalmof 65 lines ; a tablet for every god.
I t s repetition ensures my peace.=
Like its original copied and published : palace of Assur-bani-pal,
king of legions, king of Assyria."
It is only necessary to read the psalm to see in it
distinct traces of contact on the part of the Accadians
with Semitic thought. The god cannot be addressed
alone; the goddess necessarily stands at his side. The
introspection, moreover, which the psalm reveals is hardly
reconcilable with the religious conccptions presupposed
by the magical texts and the earlier hymns. The con-
sciousness of sin is a new feature in Chaldzan religion,
and belongs to the age that saw the rise of poems like
that on the Deluge, which ascribed tho sufferings of man-
kind to their wi-ong-doing. Hitherto the evil that existed
in the world had not heen given a moral significance.
It was due to the action of malevolent spirits or the
decrees of inexorable fate rather than to the wickedness
of man, and it was removed by spells and ceremonicv
which occasioned the interference of hhe god of wisdom
and his son Merodach. At most, it was considered a
punishment for offenccs against tho divine order of the

1253. Rev. 1, 2, we have ina KA-GA-kalu-ub(~u)-ludlhKA-TAR-zu sa

libbi-ka Zusupi, " b y thy word may I live ; may I llonour thy cornrnand-
ment, the word of thy heart!' I n W. A. I. iv. 29, 16-18, dalali, "exal-
tation" (not "~ubject"),is the equivalent of the Aceadian U B (for wllicll
see ii. 35, 36, 6viri = tnnittzi, " exaltzttion ").
This is the coneluslon of the original Accadian colophon. The
nest line is i n Assyrian, and was added by the scribes of Assur-baw
pal.
 THE SACBED BOOKS OF CHALD2Eb. 353
world, like the punishments inflicted by human judges
for disobedience to the laws. Unassisted by intercourse
lvith Semitic belief, Accadian religion never advanced
,beyond the idea of vicarious punishment, which grew
out of the doctrine of primitive society that demands an
eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. I t is a doctrine
that lies at the root of the institution of sacrifice, and it
marks the high tide of Accadian faith before the Semite
appeared upon the stage.
Along with these indications of Semitic influence.
however, the psalm bears equally clear evidence of its
Aecadian origin. The consciousness of sin is still but
rudimentary: the psalmist knows that one of the gods is
angry with him because he is suffering pain. He has
eaten what has been cursed by heaven, or else has un-
wittingly trampled on the forbidden thing. I n the
language of the Polynesians, he has touohed what is
tabooed, and the curse of heaven accordingly falls upon
him. Even when he speaks of his transgressions, he falls
into the language of the old magical texts; his sins are
seven times seven, that mystical number which was so
closely connected with the spirits of earth. The belief
in the mysterious power of names, moreover, is still
strong upon him. I n fear lest the deity he has offended
should not be named at all, or else be named incorrectly,
he does not venture to enumerate the gods, but classes
them under the comprehensive title of the divinities with
mhose names he is acquainted and those of whose names
he is ignorant. It is the same when he refers to the
human racc. Here, again, the ancient superstition about
words shows itself plainly. If he alludes to rnankinJ it
2A
 354 LECTURE V.

is to mankind as many as pronounce a name," as many,

that is, as have names which may be pronounced.
W e must, thcu, regard the penitential psalms as origi-
nating in the Aecadian epoch, but at a time when the
Accadian population was already profoundly influence&
by Semitic ideas. This agrees well with the language
and contents of the psalms themselves. They all belong
to northern Babylonia, more especially to Erech and
Nipur. But there is no reference in them to Sippare
and its Sun-god, no trace of acquaintanceship with the
empire of Sargon. I t would therefore seem that they
mount back to ax1 earlier date than the rise of the city of
Accad, and may consequeutly be placed midway between
the older hymns and those which mere composed i n
honour of the Sun-god.
But just as the sacred hymns were constantly adde&
to, new h y m being
~ ~ introduced into the ancient collee-
tions perhaps as late as the time of Assur-bani-pal, so,
too, the number of the penitential psalms was increase2
from time to time. At first the additions were in Acca-
d i m ; afterwards they mere written in Semitic only,
the character of the psalm being at the same time con-
siderably changed. i c Vain repetitious" were avoided,
and the psalm was more and more assimilated in form ta
a prayer; on the other hand, forms of expression wme
borrowed from the semi-magical hymns of Eridu, and
a stronger element of superstition gradually entered into
the composition of it. Here, for example, is a fragment
which I have elsewhere termed a prayer after a bad
dream, but which Dr. Zimmern, perhaps more correctly,
would entitle a psalm. The tablet which contains it iR
t h e n , th3 beginning and end of the prayer or psalm
being consequently lo&.'
" 0 my god who art violent (against me), receive (my supplication).
0 my goddess, thou whoart fierce (towards me), accept (my prayer).
Accept my prayer, (may thy liver he quieted).
0 my lord, 1ong.suffering (and) merciful, (may thy heart he a p
penned).
By day, directing unto death that which destroys me: 0 my god,
interpret (the vision).
0 my goddess, look upon me and accept my prayer.
May my sin he forgiven, may my trans,mssion be cleansed.
Let tlre yoke be unbound, the chain be loosed.
May the seven winds carry arvay my groaning.
Nay I strip off my evil so that the bird hear (it) up to heaven.
hlny the fish carry nway my trouhle, may the river hear (it) along.
May the reptile of the field receive (it) from me ; may the waters
of the river cleanse me as they flow.
Make me shine like a mask of gold.
May I be precious in thy sight as a gohlet (7) of glass.
Burn up (1) my evil, knit together8 my life; bind together thy altar
that I mny set up thine image.
Let me pass from my evil, m d let me be kept with thee.
Enlighten me and let me dream a favourable dream.
May t,he dream that I dream be favourable; may the dream that
I dream he established.
Turn the dream that I dream into a blessing.
May Makhir the god of dreams rest upon my had.
Yea, let me enter into E-Sagil, the palace of the gods, the temple
of life.
To Merodach, the merciful, to blessedness, to prosperi~ghands,
entrust me.
Let me exalt thy grwtncss, let me magnify thy divinity.
Let the men of my city honour thy mighty deeda!'

The p m h or prayer, it mill be seen, was composed

by a nati~eof Babylon, and probably formed part of the

' W. A. L iv. 66, No. 2. Pasdhi.

' Kqrtstmr; we may read (with Zimmern) etmq "protect.*
2 ~ 2
 ritual used in the service of the great temple of Mero-
Bach. I n any case it could hardly have been included
in the old collection of penitential psalms. These were
written in Accadian, and it is not probable that any were
admitted among them whose language showed plainly
their more recent date. Assur-bani-pal informs us1 that
a&or putting down the rebellion of his brother, thc
viceroy of Babylonia, he LLpacifiedthe angry gods and
wrathful goddesses with a public prayer (takribti) and a
penitential psalm, restoring and establishing in peacc
%heir festivals, which had been discontinued, as they
were in former days." As the word for penitential psalm
is expressed by the compound ideograph which served
to denote it in Accadian, it is possible that on the occa-
sion in question a psalm was selected from the ancient
collection; but it is also possible that a new psalm was
.eonlposed specially for the event.
That such special compositions were not unusual among
t h e Assyrians of Assur-bani-pal's days, is proved by a
'hymn or prayer on behalf of the king which the compiler
of a list of the gods in the chief temples of Assyria has
added to his catalogue. I t seems to have been intended
'for use in one of them. Where the text &st becomes
legible, the hymn rcads as follows :
" J o y of heart, production of purity, production of enlightenment
the explanation of rvhat is revealed and concealed (l),
~(sulcallirntt~),
reveal to tho city of As3ur; long days and years unending, a strong
rrwapon, a reign hereafter, names abundant and long, first-born \r.ho
sl,all be rulers, adjudge to the king my lord who has given all this to his
,gods. Habitations ( l ) many and far-extended adjudge to his people (l).
-4s s man may lie live and be at pence. Over kings and princes may
ire exorcise wide empire. May he come to a hoar old age. Fcr ~ h s
~-
-. --.-. --. --
W.8.I.v.4,88q. a W. A. I. iii. 66, Rev. 6 rq:
 THE SACRED BOOKS O F CHLLDZA. 367
men who pronounce these prayers may the land of the silver sky,' oil
unceasing and the wine of hloeeedneea, be their food, and a good noon-
tideP their light. Health to my body and prosperity is my prayer to
the gods who dae!! in the land of Assjria"
This prayer introduces us to a subject without a dis-
cussion of which no description of a religion can be com-
plete. What were the views about a future life enter-
tained by the Babylonians and Assyrians? Was their
religion intended for this world only, to avoid evil here
and to live happily, or did they look forvard to a world
beyond the grave, with joys and miseries of its own?
The reference to "the land of the silver sky" in the
prayer I have just cited would seem to show that Assy-
rian religion was neither a faith which, like that of t h e
Buddhist, hoped for the annihilation of consciousness,
nor yet a faith which, like that of the Greeks of old,
saw in the future nothing but a dreary existence in a
sunless world, a passage from the world of light and
life to the darkness and the night.
But this conclusion would not be in accordance with
the testimony of the older texts. The incantations and
exorcisms, the semi-magical hymns of Eridu, limit t h e
horizon of their view to the present l i e . The spirits
' We may compare with this expression a phrase in a small fragment
(R 528) which rnns : "At dawn a hymn (KEIR)before Sarnas . . . four .
hymns to En the pure god of the land of tho (silver 1) sky. .. . (hegill-
ning with) the incantation : The pure seat."
a Kirinr, allied to kararu, rendered AN-121,"divine fire," in W. A. I..
iv. 15. 18, 19, where we r e d , "in the nooz1-tides of clay and night:' (i.e.
the dead of night). I n W. A. I. ii. 47, 61, AN-121 is translated u r n ,
"full day," and in iii. 55. 49, 50, aa Jensen points out., we have the
four periods of tho day enumerated: "On the nineteenth day enter in
the morning the presence of Bahu, at noon (AX-121)the presence of tho
supreme god, in the afternoon the presence of Rimmon and in the
evening the presence of Istar."
358 LECTURE T.

with whom they people the univcrse are to be dreaded

or praiscd by the living only. The pains man seeks to
rcmove, the blcssings he asks for, all ccnse nith dcath.
There is little or no tracc of any thought of a world
hcyond. I n the hymns, it is true, Slerodach, the benc-
factor of the human race, is described as raising tho dcad
to life, but the life to mhich they arc raised is the life of
thc present world. Whatcrcr miglit have been the scnse
afterwards attached to the expression, in the early hylnns
it means nothing more than a belief in the power of
spclls to restore the dcad to life. The recovery of the
sick mas c~usideredin no way more wondcrful than a
recovery fro= a state of trance or from death itself; if
the god of wisdom and magic could effect the one, he
could equally effect the other.
I do not deny that the primitive Chaldroan may h w e
believed in the continuation of existence after death.
The belief in a Mul-lil, a lord of the ghost-world, pre-
supposes this. The lost friends who returned to him in
his dreams would h a w assured him that they had not
vanished utterly. But I can find no traces of ancestor-
worship in the ezrly literature of Chaldrea mhich has
survived to us. Whatever views the Chaldwan may have
entertained about the ghost-world, they mere vague and
shadowy ; it mas a subterranean region, inhabited for the
most part by spirits who mere not the spirits of the dead,
but of the objects of nature. They wcre typified by the
spirits of cnrth, and mere all the subjects of Mnl-lil.
The ghost-world of Nipur lay beneath the earth. It
mas here that the golden throne of the A n h a s , the
spirits of earth, was erected, hard by the waters of life
which they were appointed to guard. When the cult
 THE SACRED BOOK8 OF CHALDB.4. 359
of Nipur and the cult of Eridu were united into one,
this underground region was necessarily connected with
the great ocean-stream which encircled the earth. Here
accordingly was placed the home of the Andnas, and
it became the entrance to the realm of Hades. As
primitive Accadian geography, however, identified the
Euphrates and the Persian Gulf with the ocean-stream,
-

the approach to Hades passed into Datilla, the river of

;'
death and Xisuthros, the hero of the Dcluge, was trans-
lated to dwell among the gods beyond the mouth of the
Euphrates.2 This was the land set apart for the im-
mortal deities in the belief of the people of Eridu, for
their gods were gods of the sea whose waters washed
&heirshore. The unification of the creeds of Nipur and
Eridu thus brought with it an identification of the ghost-
world with the world of Ea, of the empire of Mul-lil
with the deep over which Ea ruled. The world of the
ghosts and the morld of the gods were accordingly oon-
founded together, the distinction betmccn them being
that whereas the ghosts were still left in their subter-
ranean abodes, Mul-lil was elevated to the world above,
there to dwell with Ea and his son Merodach, the god of
light. But this upper world of the gods was immediately
above the world of the ghosts. and was in fact the passago
into it.
This theological geography is perfectly incompatible
-
1 W. A. I. ii. 62, 50. "The ship of the river Datilla is the ship of
the Lady of life and deatl~"
2 Tho story here preserves a feature of the original myth. I n the
'time of the composition of the poem, the seat of the gods was regarded
rs being in heaven, so that the author of the Gisdhubar epic, Sin-liqi-
&ni hns Admitted a contradiction into hi narrntlve.
$GO LECTUCE 7 .

with anothcr theory of thc abode of the gods, which

placed it on the summit of Kharsag-kurkbra, "the moun-
tain of the world." This mountain of the world is de-
clared by Sargon to be thc mountain of Arsllu or Hades :
" The gods Ea, Sin, Samas, Rimmon, d d a r and their

august wives, who mere truly born in the midst of the

temple of Kharsag-kurkdra, the mountain of Arallu, have
excellently founded glistering sanctuaries and well-
wrought shrines in the city of Dur-Sargon."' Famous
temples mere named after it, in Assyria at all events,
and its site was sought in the mountainous region of the
north-west. An old geographical table tells us that
Arallu was the land or mountain of gold,? a statement.
which reminds us of the mords of Job (xxxvii. 22), "Out
of the north cometh gold," as me11 as of the Greelr legend
of the griffins who guarded the hiddcn gold in the distant
north. W e find an allusion to the Babylonian myth i n
the 14th chapter of Isaiah (1-er. 13). There the Baby-
lonian monarch is described as having said in his heart :
"I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above
the stars of E l ; I will sit also upon the mount of the
assembly (of the gods), in the extremities of the north;
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I mill be
like the Most High." Here, in this Chaldean Olympos,
the gods were imagined to have been born and to have
their seats; its summit was hidden by the clouds, and
the starry firmament seemed to rest upon it. I t is pos-
sible that it was identified, at any rate in later times,
with the mountain on which the ark of the Chaldoean

1 Rhors. 155sq. See Delitzscl~,Wo lay rlus Pu?adIe,~,pp. 117-122.

1 V
'
. A, I. it. 51, 11.
 THE S ~ C B E DBOOXS OF CHALDBA. 361
Noah msted, '' the mountain of Nizir," the modern Ro-
wandiz. Rowandu towers high above its fellows in the
Kurdish ranges, and the Babylonian might well believe
that its peak had never been ascended by mortal man.
If Xisuthros had touched the sacred soil with his ship,
he was qualified by the very fact to take his place amid
"the assembly of the gods."
"The mountain of the world" was peculiarly sacred
among the Assyrians. Perhaps their nearer proximity
to the great mountainous chains of the north-west, and
their distance from the sea, had made them more ready
to adopt the belief which placed the home of the gods
in the mountains of the north than beside the waters of
the Persian Gulf. It is d s c u l t to tell in what part of
Babylonia the belief first arose. If Kharsag-kalama, " the
mountain of mankind," the name given to the tower of
the chief temple of Kis, is the same as ('the mountain of
the world," we might discover its cradle in the neigh-
bourhood of Babylon. It will be remembered that in
the hymn to the Fire-god the seven spirits of earth are
declared to have been born in "the mountain of the sun-
set," and to have grown up I'in the mountain of the sun-
rise." Here the sun is distinctly regarded as rising and
setting behind a mountain; and since there were no moun-
tains on the western side of the Babylonian plain, we must
consider the poet to have looked upon the mountain
behind which the sun rose and set as one and the same.'
During the hours of darkness the Sun-god must have

1 I have assumed that the poet's horizon was bounded by the plain
of Babylonia. He may, however, have lived after the Babylonians bad
become acquainted with Palestine, and "the mount%:n of the sunset"
may therefore be the mountainous land of Dbidhi or Phmrdeia
been supposed to have journeyed underneath the earth,
traversing, it may be, the realms of Hades on his way.
Whether this mountain, which thus fringed, as it mere,
the sides of the earth, can be connected with "the moun-
tain of the world," I cannot say. I n any case, by the
side of a belief in a subterranean Hades and a paradise of
the gods beyond the mouth of the Euphrates, there was
also a belief in a Hadcs and a paradise which were esta-
blished on the loftiest of the mountains of the north.
A bilingual Babylonian hymn, which appears to have
been connected with Nipur relates to the latter belief.
It is thus that it begins : l
"0 mighty mountain of Mul-lil, Im-lcharsag (the mountain sky),
whose hend rivals the heavens ; the pure deep has been laid
as its foundation.
Among the mountains it lies like a strong wild bull.
I t s horns glisten like the splendour of the Sun-god.
Like the star of heaven that proclaims (the day) it is full of glib
tering rays.
The mighty mother Nin-lilli (the lady of the ghost-world), the
reverence2 of E-Sdra (the temple of the hosts of heaven), the
g l o r y Z ~E-Kiira
f (the templa of the hosts of earth), the adorn-
ment of EGiguna (the temple of the city of darkness), the
heart of E-Iii-gusdra (the temple of the land of light)."

I n this hymn the world-tree of Eridu, whoso roots were

planted in the deep, has made way for a world-mountain,
with its head reaching unto heaven like the tower of
Babel, and its feet planted upon the deep. As the con-
ception of the world-tree belonged to Sumir or southern
-
1 W.A.I.iv.27,No.2.
The fomala and male organa of generation are referred to. As the
word for "zhan~e"or "reverence" in the Accadian text is the Semitic
a m , the text must either belong to the Semitic period or hnve been
rcvised hv Semitic copyists.
 THE SACRED BOOKS OF CHALDS.4. 363
Babylonia, so the conception of the world-mountain
belongs to Accad or northern Babylonia; it is expressly
termed the mountain of Mul-lil, and is identified with
Nin-lil, the "reverence of E-SBra," whoso son was the
Sun-god Adar. It is at least noticeable that one of the
hymns to the Sun-god which originated at Sippara begins
by declaring that he l1rose from the mighty mountain,"
' l from the mountain of the stream," the place of the
destinies."l
The introduction of an Olympos into Babylonian mytho-
logy must necessarily have modified the conception of
the Chaldaean Hades, more especially when we find that
Mul-lil, the lord of the ghost-world, mas himself asso-
ciatcd with it. The world of the gods was separated
from the abode of the dead ; the latter remained below,
while the gods who had once presided there ascended to
the upper world. Their places were taken by the god
Irkalla and the goddess Allat, originally mere forms ot
Mul-lil and Nin-lil, but now distinguished from the Bcl
and Beltis into whom Mul-lil and Nin-lil had been trans-
formed. The addition of the sky-god of Erech to the
common pantheon of Babylonia still further tended to
divide the two worlds. The Olympos became a ladder
1 W. A.1 v. 51, 1-6. Can "the mountain of the stream" have
any reference to Gen. ii. 1 0 1 This mountain of the sun is described in
the second column of the ninth tablet of the Epic of Gisdhubar (Haupt,
Babylonisclro Nimrodepos) : "When he arrived at the twin ( d s i )
mountains, where day by day they guard the rising (and setting of the
sttn), their crown (touched) the mussy vault of heaven, helom their foot-
ing reached to (lcmdat) Hades; seorpion-men guard its gate, whose ter-
ribleness is dread and their appaaranco death; the greatness of their
splendour overthrows the forests. At the rising of the sun and the
setting of the sun they guard the Stm-god, and when Gisdhuhar ma
*rn, fear and dread took possession of his face."
364 LECTURE V.

to the heavens in which the visible deities of light-

Samas, Sin and Istar-ruled over the visible firmament,
while the other gods dwelt in a yet more remote region
of the universe, the heaven of Anu."
This is the point at which tho religious development
of Babylonian belief had arrived when the majority of
the legendary poems-or at least the older portions of
them-were composed. Hades is still the gloomy realm
heneath the earth, where the spirits of the dead flit about
in darkness, with dust and mud for their food and drink,
and from whence they escape at times to feed on the
blood of the living. Here the shades of the great heroes
of old sit each on his throne, crowned and terrible, rising
up only to greet the coming among them of one like unto
themselves. The passage to these subterranean abodes
is through the seven gates of the world, each guarded
by its porter, who admits the dead, stripping him of his
apparel, but never allowing him to pass through them
again to the upper world. Good and bad, heroes and
plebeians, are alike condemned to this dreary lot; a state
of future rewards and punishments is as yet undreamed
of ; moral responsibility ends with death. Hades is a land
of forgetfulness and of darkness, where the good and evil
deeds of this life ale remembered no more; and its occu-
pants are mere shadows of the men who once existed, and
whose consciousness is like the consciousness of the
spectral figures in a fleeting dream. The Hades of the
Babylonian legends closely resembles the Hades of the
Homeric poems.
But side by side with this pitiful picture of the world
beyond the grave, there vere the beginnings of higher
and nobler ideas. I n the Epie of Gisdhubar, the ghost of
 TEE RACRED BOOK8 OF OHbLDiSA. 365

%-bani is described as rising like a dust-cloud from the

&h and mounting up to heaven, where he Lives among
the gods, gazing on the deeds that are done below.
"On a couch he reclines and pure water he drinks. He who is slain
in battle, thou seest and I see. His father and his mother (support)
hie head; his wife addresses the corpse. His body in the field (is
placed) ; thou seest and I see. His ghost in the earth is uncovered ;
of hia ghost he has no overnight j thou seest and I see. The food at
the edge of the tomb is bewitched (1) ; the food which is thrown into
the street he eats."
Ea-bani, however, was half a god. Gisdhubar, too,
who seems to be associatod with him in his future lot,
was half divine. I f while E-bani and Gisdhubar were
thus permitted to
"live and lie reclined
On the hills, like gods together, careless of mankind,"
the other heroes of ancient renown, Ner and Ethna, were
relegated to the shades below, it was because Ner had
once been Nergal, the prince of the infernal world, and
Etina seems to be the Titan of B6rdssos who made war
against Kronos or Ea. But when the semi-human heroes
o f epic song had thus been permitted to enter heaven, it
could not be long before a similar permission was extended
to heroes who were wholly human. Little by little, as
the conception of the gods and their dwelling-placebecame
spiritualized, "the mountain of the world" passing first
into the sky and then into the invisible "heaven of Anu,"
the conception of the future condition of mankind became
spiritualised also. The doctrine of the immortality of the
conscious soul began to dawn upon the Babylonian mind,
and along with it necessarily went the doctrine of rewards
and punishments for the actions committed in the flesh.
The Babylonian was already familiar with the idea of
wcrificc f o r sin and of vicarious punishment; all that
remained was to enlarge the horizon of his faith, and to
extend his belief in the divine awards for piety and sin
to the life beyond the grave. The prayer I quoted just
now from the compiler of the list of the gods in tho
Assyrian temples, proves that some at least of the Assyro-
Babylonian people aslred their deities for something more
than merely temporal blessings. Thcy might pray that
thcir monarch should live l 1 a hundred years,"' but they
prayed also that they themselves might live '&forever"
hereafter in "the land of the silver sky." The world-
mountain had followec! the fate of the world-tree, and
been consigned to the mythologists and the mytholo-
gising poets; even the invisible heaven of Auu" itself
had vanished into the deep blue of the visible firmament;
above and beyond them all was the true home of the gods
and the spirits of the blest, a home towards which the
smoke of the altar might ascend, but into whose mysteries
none could penetrate till death and the grace of Baal had
freed him from the shackles of the flesh.

1 While 60 was the numerical unit of Accadian litenrture, the Semitic

Assyrians made 100 their standard number. T 6 e stereotyped form
of addressing the monaroh accordingly was, "A hundred years to t h e
king my lord; may he live to old age; may offspriug bo multiplied to
the king my lord 1" (K601,12-16; K538, 13--16).
 COSMOGONIES AND ASTRO-THEOLO(YY.

MOREthan once I have had to allude to the speculations

the Babylonians indulged in regarding the origin of the
world. I n an early age these speculations naturally
assumed a theological form. As the elements themselves
were regarded as divine, or at any rate as possessed of a
divine spirit, their source and shaping must have been
divine also. They were deities who had formed them-
selves into their present order and appearance, or else
they had been so formed by other and superior powers.
In eourse of time this theological conception became
mythological. The elements themselves ceased to be
divine, but they represented and symbolised divine beings
whose actions produced the existing order of nature.
The mythological conception in turn gave may to another,
which saw in the elements inert matter created, begotten
or moulded by the gods. Lastly, schools of philosophy
arose which sought to find in m t t e r the original cause
of all things, including even the gods, though they veiled
the materialism of their views under a mythological sym-
bolism.
Broadly speaking, the cosmological theories of Chaldm
divide themselves into two main classes, the genealogicnl
and the creative. Aewrding to Aocadian ideas, the w d d
368 LECTGILE TI.

was created by the gods; the Semite saw in it rather a

birth or emanation. A time came, it is true, when the
two sets of ideas were harmonised; and by tho assumption
of a chaos which had existed from "the beginning," and
the further assumption that "the grcat gods" had created
the cbjocts we see about us, room was left for the creative
hypothesis, while the belief in the birth of tho clement8
one out of the other was at the same time stoutly main-
tained. The form taken by the combination of the two
ideas will be best seen in the latest product of Assyro-
Babylonian cosmogonical systems, that which describes
the creation of the world in a series of days.
First of all, however, let us read the account given by
BbrSssos of the creation of the world, and professed by
him to be derived from the writings of Oannes, that semi-
piscine being who rose out of the waters of the Persian
Gulf to instruct the people of Chaldaea in the arts and
sciences of life. It is pretty certain that B&rSssoshad
access to documents which purported to come from the
hand of Oannes or Ea, and consequently to deal with
events which preceded the appearance of man on the
earth. The Chaldwan system of astronomy which B&rBs-
sos translated into Greek was likewise asserted by him
to have been composed by a god, namely Bel; and thc
fragments of the original work which we now posscss
show that his assertion was correct, inasmuch as the work
bears the title of the Observations of Bcl. The inscrip-
tions, moreover, expressly inform us that Ea was not
only the god of wisdom, but himself an author. We
learn from a tablet, "with warnings to kings against
injustice," that if the king l Ldecrees according to the
writing of Ea, the great gods will establish him in good
 COSIJOGOSIES AND ASTRO-THEOLOOY. 369

revort and the knowledge oi justice."' There is, there-

fore, no reason to doubt the statement of B6rBssos that
the account of the creation which he gives was extracted
from a document that professed to have been inscribed
by the god of Eridu himself.
"The following is the purport of what he said : There was a time
in which there existed nothing but darkness and an abyss of waters,
wherein resided most hideous beings, which were produced by a two.
fold principle. There appeared men, some of whom were furnished with
two wings, othen with four, and with two faces. They had one body,
but two heads; the one that of a man, the other of a woman; they
were likewise in their several organs both male and female. Other
human figures were to be seen with the legs and horns of a goat ; some
had horses' feet, ~vhileothers united the hindquarters of a hone with
the body of a man, resembling in shape the hippocentaurs. Bi~llslike-
wise wore bred there with the heads of men; and dogs with four-fold
bodies, terminated in their extremities with the tails of fishes; horses
also with the heads of dogs; men, too, and other animals, with the
h e d s and bodies of horses and the tails of fishes. I n short, there were
creatures in which were combined the limbs of every rpecies of animal.
I n addition to these, there wero fishes, reptiles, serpents, with other
monstrous animals, which assumed each other's shape and countenance.
Of all which were preserved delineations i n the temple of B8los a t
Babylon.
The person who wns supposed to have presided over them war a
woman named Omoroka, which in the Chaldxan language is Thalatth
(mad Thavatth), which in Greek is interpreted Thalassa (the sea) ; hot
according to the most true interpretation it is equivalent to the Moon.
-411 things being i n this situation, Bdlos came and cut the woman
asunder, and of one hnlf of her he formed the earth, and of the other
half the heavens, and at the same time destroyed the aninids within
her (in the abyss).
All this was an allegoricnl description of nature. For, the wholo
- ..
1 W. A. I. iv. 55. 7, 8. S@ar is literally " a message," but as tho
message was in later times a sritten one, it signifies " a letter" or
"writing." I have trnnalated sitilti (for sitidti), "good report," on the
strength of TV. A.I. Y. 17, 4-7, and tho meaning of its i d e ~ r n p h i c
eqoivalent, "fatherliness;" but it may signify "study!'
2B
 370 LECTURE VI.

universe eoncsting of moiet~~re,

andanimalri being continually g e n m t d
tho~~ein,the deity above-mentioned (BGlos) cut 0 5 his own head ; upon
which tlle other gqds mixed the blood, as i t goshed out, with the earth,
and fivm thence men were forn~ed. On this account it is that they
;are rational, and partake of divine kno\vledge. This BAlos, by whom
they signify Zeus, divided the da~kness,a i d separated the heavens from
the earth, and reduced the universe to order. But the recently-created
animals, not being able to bear the light, died. Bdlns upon this, seeing
n vast space unoccupied, though by nature fruitful, commanded one of
the gods to take off his head, nnd to mix the blood with the earth, and
franl thence to form other men and animals, which should be capable
of hearing the light. G8los forlncd also the stuls and the sun and thc
nioon and the five planets."l
The account of the cosmological theories of the Baby-
lonians thus given by Bkrdssos has not come to us imme-
diately from his hand. It was first copied from his book
by Alexander Polyhistor, a native of Asia Minor, who
was a slave at Rome for a short period in the time of
8ulla ; and from Polyhistor it has been embodied in the
works of the Christian writers Eus&bios and George the
Synkellos. It is not quite certain, therefore, whether
the whole of the quotation was originally written by
B&rdssoshimself. At a11 events, it evidently includes
two inconsistent accounts of the creation of the world,
which have been awkwardly fitted on to one another. In
one of them, the composite creatures who filled the watery
chaos, over which Thawtth, the Tiamat or Tiavat of the
inscriptions, presided, were represented as being destroyed
by Be1when he cut Thavatth asunder, forming the heavens
out of one portion of her body, and the earth out of the
other. I n the second version, the monsters of chaos
perished through the creation of light, and their places
rvcre talien by the animals and men produced by the
nkxture of the earth with the blood of Bel. What this
blood meant may be gathered from the Phcenician myth
which told how the blood of the sky, mutilated by his
son b n o s or Baal, feu upon the earth in drops of rain
and filled the springs and rivers. It was, in fact, the
fertilising rain.
Both versions of the genesis of the universe reported
by B&r6ssosagree not only in the representation of n
chaos that existed before the present order of things, but
also in the curious statement that this chaos was peopled
with strange creatures, imperfect first attempts of nature,
as it were, to form the animal creation of the present
world. I n these chaotic beginnings of animal life we
may see a sort of anticipation of the Darwinian hypo-
thesis. At any rate, the Babylonian theory on the sub-
ject must have been the source of the similar theory
propounded by the Ionic philosopher b x i m a n d e r in tho
sixth century before our era. The philosophical systems
of the early Greek thinkers of Asia Minor came to them
from Babylonia through the hands of the Phoenicians,
and it is consequently no more astonishing to h d Anaxi-
mander declaring that men had developed out of the fish
of the sea, than to k d his predecessor Thal&sagreeing
with the priests of Babylonia in holding that all things
have originated from a watery abyss.
The fact that Anaximander already knew of the &by-
ionian doctrine shows that it could not have been sug-
gested to BQ6ssos himself, as we might be tempted to
think, by the colossal bulls that guarded the gates, and
the curious monsters depicted on the walls, of the temple
of Bel. And we are now able to carry the belief back
to a period very much earlier than that of Anaximandw.
2 ~ 2
372 LECTURE VI.

The library of Nineveh contained the copy of a tablet

which, according to its concluding lines, was originally
written for the great temple of Ncrgal at Cutha.l The
words of the text are put in the mouth of Nergal the
destroyer, who is represented as sending out the hosts of
tho ancient brood of chaos to their destruction. Nergal
is identified with Nerra, the plague-god, who smites them
with pestilence, or rather with Ner, the terrible ((king
who gives not peace to his country, the shepherd who
grants no favour to his pe~ple."~We are first told how
the armies of chaos came into existence. "On a tablet
none wrote, none disclosed, and no bodies or brushwood
were produced in the land ; and there was none whom I
approached. Warriors with the body of a bird of tho
valley, men with the faces of ravens, did the great gods
create. In the ground did the gods create their city.
'l'iamat (the dragon of chaos) suckled them. Their pro-

' Cc:. iv. 11. 9 sp. Atta aawu pate& riu?n lzc n i , ~su,camn sa iltc
innmbu ( u ) sarruta tebus dup upuatu ebus-ka nctrd asdhzcr-ka ina a l i
GU-DU-A-KI ina bit So-LIX ci)na p a r a X [ ~ u ~D. ] P. U-GUK ezibakka :
"Thou, king, priest-ruler, shepherd, or whatcver thou art, ~vhomGod
rhsll proclaim to govern the king:om, for thee have I made this tablet,
for thee have I written the record-stone; i n the city of Cuthn, in the
temple of 'Sulim, i n the sanctuary of Nergal, have I left i t for thee."
2 Anc~pald mind czib o m k u sarru la musallini~~ nzuti-su ti ricum la
sznsalllma smmanu-n' 7si zcstdX7cr~npayn' r h lidti trsclsi snlun, mnti sisd
mztsi mtitu namtur arur-su : "What have I lef: for (my) reign? I a111
n king who gives not peace to his lend, and a shepherd ~ v h ogives not
peace io his people; since I have made corpses ant1 produced jungle,
the whole of the land and the men I have curscil with night, death and
pestilence." Buti means "thickets" or "ju~lgle," and corrcsl~on~la witla
the Accadian drrg; see GIS-DA day and GIS-na-PAL = fi%t(~in, 7V.A.I. ii.
41. 70, 71 (for N A M - n a :Icistzi, cf. v. 11, 3, also y i d u , "offering");
.
. . . drig = 6fltuoa ("thickness"), v. 20, 48; Bag = h/,tzim, v. 29, 56.
In 82. 6--22. 196. Rcw. 8, lrzrti is opposed to clihi,,i, " pasture-lanrla."
 COSX003SIES A S D ASTBO-THEOLOGY. 373
gcny (snsur) the mistress of the gods created. I n the
midst of the mountains they grew up and became heroes
and increased in number. Seven kings, brethren, ap-
peared and begat children. Six thousand in number
were their peoples. The god Banhi their father was
king; their mother was the queen Melili." It was the
subjects and the offspring of these semi-human heroes
whom the god Ner was deputed to destroy.
It is clear that the legend of C u t h agrees with B&rds-
sos in the main facts, however much it may differ in
details. I n both alike, we have a f i s t creation of living
beings, and these beings are of a composite nature, and
the nurselings of Tiamat or Chaos. I n both alike, the
whole brood is exterminated by the gods of light. A
curious point in connection with the lcgend is the descrip-
tion of chaos as a time when writing was as yet unknown
and records unkept. Perhaps we may see in this an
allusion to the fact that the Babylonian histories of the
pre-human period were supposed to have been composed
by the gods.
The date to which the legend in its prescnt form may
be assigned is difficult to determine. The inscription
is in Bemitic only, like the other creation-tablets, and
therefore cannot belong to the pre-Semitic age. I t be-
longs, moreover, to an epoch when the unification of the
deities of Babylonia had already taken place, and the
circle of "the great gods" was complete. Ea, Istar,
Zamama, Anunit, even Ncbo and I' Samas the warrior,"
are all referred to in it. We must therefore place its
oomposition after the rise not only of the hymns of
Sippala, but also of the celebrity of the Semitic god of
Borsippa. On the other hand, the reference to the pat&
374 LECTURE VI.

or priest-king in the concluding lines seems to prevent

us from assigning too late a date to the poem. Perhaps
me shall not be far wrong in ascribing it to the em of
IChammuragas.
Tiamat or Tiavat, the Thavatth of Bkrassos, is t h e
"
t'him or dccp " of the Old Testamei~t,and the word is
used in Assyrian, in the contracted form fczmtu, to denote
"the deep sea." I t mas upon the face of the t'hdm o r
"deep" that the breath of Elohim" brooded, according
to the first chapter of Genesis. The word is not only
Semitic, but, in its cosmological signification, of Semitic
o r . It has, however, an Accadian descent. The
belief that the watery abyss was the source of all things
went back to the worshippers of the sea-god Ea at Eridu.
But with them tho deep was termed ~pzzc,which a pnn-
ning ctymology afterwards read ab-zu, "the house of
knowledge," mherein Ea, the god of wisdom, mas imagined
to dwell. The Sumerian aZsu was borrowed by the Se-
mites under the form of updz~. The Sumerians had.
endowed it with s spirit, in accordance mibh the Sha-.
nanistic faith of early days, and as such had made it the
mother of Es and of the other gods. But I have alreacly
pointed out in a previous Lecture that the abzz~,or deep,
of mhich Ea was lord, mas not only the ocean-stream
that surrounded the earth, and ulmn which the earth
floated, like D&losin Greelr myth ; it mas also thc dcep.
which rolled above the firmament of heaven, through
whose windonrs its waters descended in the days of t h e
deluge. Consequently the mother of EELmas usually
known by another name than that of Apzu. She mas
Zikum or Zigarum, " the h e a ~ c n " (W. A. I. ii. 48, 26 ;.
50, 27), whom a mythological list describes as ' < t h e
 COSMOGONIES AND A8TRO-THEOLOGY. 875
mothel that has begotten heaven and earth" (W. A. I.
ii. 54, 18). I n the same passage she is declared to be
'' the handmaid of the spirit of E-kura," the lower firma-
ment or earth; and with this agrees the statement that
Zikura, a dialectic form of Zigarum,' is the earth itself
(W. A. I. ii. 4 7 ) . But it was not the existing earth
or the existing heaven that was represented by Zikum ;
she was rather the primordial abyss out of which both
earth and heaven mere produced. Possibly an old myth
may have related that she mas torn asunder when the
present world was made, the upper half of her becoming
the sky and the lower half the earth. This at least is
what we may gather from the story given by BGr6ssos.
As far back as tho days of the priest-kings of Tel-loh,
Zikum was honoured in southern Babylonia under the
name of B a h ~ . She
~ was "the daughter of heaven," to
whom they had erected a temple at Zerghul. Like Guln,
she was "the great mother," and in the era of totemism
was known as " the pure heifer." Bau, or Bnhu, is the
bohu of the Old Testament, tlieBaau of Phcenioiau mytho-
logy, of whom Philnn Byblios informs us that L L of the
wind Kolpia and of his wife Bnau, which is interpreted
' night,' were begotten two mortal men, Aidn and Pro-
' Zi-kum, Zi-garunl, Zi-knm, are all compounds of Zi," a spirit," and
are explained by Zi-iE)kura, "tlte spirit of the lower firmament." It
is possible that Zi-kum was originally "the spirit of the earth" alone,
Ea being tho spirit of the decp. Zi-knrn nnd Zi-garurn may have
different etymologies, since garurn seems to be connected with gsr, a
Snn~eriansyuomym of ripzu. I n W.A. I. iv. 15, 5, %fir-rcr is ren-
dered b y t h e Assyrian apdu. There seems tn have been a confusion
bet~veeuX-lidrit and &-gdra.
See Hommel, Vorsemitkchc Iidturen, p. 380. I do not feel quite
certain, however, about the idet~tification.
 3i6 LECTL-RE VI.

togonos."' Accord~ngto the book of Genesis, the earth

created by God in the beginning mas l L without form
and void," the word translated "void" being bohu or
"chaos." The wind or spirit which the Phcenicians
associatcd with Baau is the Sumerian spirit of the deep,
the Zi ZiIcum ilivoked in the magical texts."
An allusion to the creation of the heavens out of tho
watery abyss, and the subsequent formation of the earth,
is found in a mythological document, where we read:
l1 The heaven mas made from the waters; the god and

the goddess create the earth."3 The god and the goddess
must of course mean the heaven and the deep, and thus
presuppose a oosmological theory inconsistent with that
of the rulers of Tel-lob, who entitle Bahu the daughter
of the sky. We may gather from this that Bahu and
Zikum were not originally the same divinities, and that
it was only through a belief that the ocean-stream was
fed from heaven that Rahu became identified with it.
The Semites, therefore, could not have come into contact
with the cosmogony of the Sumerians until after the age
of the pate& of Zerghul.
But whatever form the old cosmogony may hare
assumed, the fundamental element in i t remained m-
changed. The watery abyss was always the primal
source of the universe. Whether it was the heaven
\which first rose out of the deep, and then in combination
with the deep produced the earth, or whether the deep

1 Euseb. P m p . Euzng. i. 10.

* So in TV'. A. I. iv. 1. ii. 36.
R l i O , Obv. 6, 7. The word "goddess" is phonetically written in
Accadi~nnln.gi-ri, wllich settles the reading of the form DIXGI-n'
on the
early bricks
 COSMOQONIF,S AND ASTRO-THEOLOGY. 577
itsclf deleloped into the heavens and the earth, the deep,
and the deep alone, was the first of things to exist. If
Bahu, therefore, was ever identified with the deep in the
mind of the southern Babylonian, it must have been
when the deep had ceased to be the watery abyss of
chaos and hnd become the home of the creator Ea, deriving
its waters from the heavens above.
But it is more probable that the identification was duo
to a total misconception of the true character of Bahu.
I n the Phoenician mythology as in Genesis, Bohu is sim-
ply ' I chaos," but it is the chaos which existed on earth,
not within the waters of the abyss. I t represents that
pre-human age which, according to the legend of Cutha,
witnessed the creation of the monsters of Tiamat. Theso
monsters had their home, their " city," in "the ground;"
there was therefore already an earth by the side of the
deep. But this earth was the abode of chaos, of Bahu,
and had originated, like the sky, out of the waters of the
abyss. There were thus two representatives of chaos,
the primse~alApzu, the Tiamat of the Semitic epoch,
and the secondary Bahu who presided over the chaos of
the earth. Later ages failed to distinguish between the
two, and Apzu and Bahu thus became one and the same.
But a new distinction now took the place of the older
one. Bahu was no longer distinguished from Apzu;
she was distinguished, on the other hand, from Tiamat.
Bahu became one of the great gods, whiie Tiamat was
left to personate chaos and all the anarchy and evil that
proceeded out of chaos. The spirits of earth were trans-
formed into the seven evil demons who had their dwelling
in the deep, and the cosmological sundering of the body
378 LECTURE YI,

of Zikum took a myt.hologica1 shape. It appears in tho

legendary pocms as the struggle between Merodach and
the dragon Tiamat, which ended in the rout of Tiamat
and her allies, and the tearing asunder of the body of the
fiend. The poems are all of the Semitic age; and though
the materials upon which they are based doubtless go
back to a pre-Semitic era, wc have no means at present
rf determining how much in them belongs to primitive
Chaldaea, and how much is the invention of Semitic
imagination. That Merodach appears in them as the
champion of the gods, proves only that. the legends they
embody originated in either Eridu or Babylon.
Nothing can show more plainly the wide gulf that lies
between the religions of pre-Semitic and Semitic Chaldsea,
than the contrast b e t ~ e e nthe Zikum of Eridu, the mother
of gods and men, and the wicked Tiamat of the legends,
with her misshapen body and malignant mind. I n the
watery abyss in which the first philosophers of Eridu
saw the origin of all things, there was nuthing unholy,
nothing abhorrent. On the contrary, it mas the home
and mother of the great god Ea, the primal source of his
wisdom and his benevolence towards man. It was from
its wntcrs that Oannes had ascended, bringing the light
of imowlcdgc and art to the human race. But the
matery abyss personified by thc Tiamot of the poems
belongs altogether to another category. It. represents all
that is opposcd to the present orderly course of the uni-
verse ; it stands outside and in opposition to the gods of
heaven, and is thus essentially evil. Not only has the
problem of the origin of evil presented itself to thc Baby-
lonian; he has found a solution of it in his dragon of
 COS1IOGONIES AND A8TRO-THEOLOGY. 379
chaos. It is thus that the great fight betmeen Be1 and
the ciragon is described :1
" H e (Ann 1) estahlished for him (Memdach 1) also the shrine of
the mighty,
before his fathers for (hia) kingdom he founded (it).'
Yea, thou art glorious among the great gods,
thy destiny has no rival, thy gift-day is Anu;
from that day unchanged is thy command;
high and low entreat thy hand;
may the word that goes forth from thy mouth he established, the
unending decision of thy gift-day.
None among the gods surpasses thy power;¶
as an adornment lras (thy hnnd) fonnded the shrine of the gods;
may the lace of their gathering (1)4 become thy home.
' 0 Merodach, thou art h e that avenges us;
we give thee the sovereignty, (we) the multitudes of the universe ;
thou possessest (it), and in the assembly (of the gods) may thy
word be exalted !
Never may they break thy weapons, may thine enemies tremble !
0 lord, he gracious to the soul of him who pntteth his trust i n thee,
and destroy (literally, pour out) the soul of the god who has hold
of evil.'
-
Fragments of nn Assyrian copy of the text from the library of
Ahssur-bani-pal at Nineveh were discovered by Mr. George Smith, and
published by him in the T7.amactions of the Suciety of Biblicul Archa-
ology, iv. 2, a mriaed edition of tliem being subsequently published
by Prof. Fr. Delitzsch in his Assyrische Lesestiicke. They have since
been supplemented by a tablet brought by Mr. Hormuzd Rassam from
Babylonia! which gives the beginning and end of the text, and shows
t1:at it helongcd to the fourth tablet of the Creation series. This
important tablet has been copied by Mr. Budge, who has been kind
cnough to allow nle the use of his copy. He gave an account of it in
the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Areh;eology, Nov. 6th, 1883,
reserving a complete paper on the subject for the Transactions of tho
same Society.
These are the last two lines of the third tablet of the Creatiou
series.
Literally, "passes by thy hnnd."
4 'Sagi, whi;h occurs d s o in K 2584, 10 (lilil dagi-rmnu).
380 LECTURE YI.

Then they placed in thcir midst by itsclf hi plan;l

they spoke to Mcrodach their first-born:
':hlay thy destiny, 0 lord, go before the gods, and
may they confirm the destruction and the creation of all that is said
Set thy mouth, may it destroy his plan;
turn, spczli unto liim and let him produce again his plan.'%
H e spalce and with his mouth destroyed his plan ;
he turned, he spalie to him and his plan xvaa re-created.
Like the ~vordthat issues from his mouth, the gods his father;,
bel~elcl(it) ;
they rejoicctl, they approached Kerodnch the king;
they herton-cd upon him tire sceptre (and) throne and reign,
they gave him a wcal,on unrivalled, consuming tho hostile:
'Go' (they said) 'and cut off the life of Tinmot;
let tho rrinds carry her bloo~lto secret places.'
They showed his path and they badc him listen and tnke the road.
There was too the bow, his weapon (which) he used;
he mode the club sr~ing,he fixed its sent;
then hc lifted up Ilia weapon, (which) he caused his right hand to
hold ;
t h e bow and the quiver he hung at his side;'
h e set the lightning before him ;
with a glance of smiftness he filled his body.
H e made also a snare to enclose the dragon of the s e a
.-

I Or "word." I t is impossible i n a translation to preserve tho play

11porl words in the original. Tho god of evil (Icingu, the husband of
Tinnlat) is rcpreaentod as llaving uttcrc~la word which beconles a ylan
o r p1.1t : it is this which Meru&icll is cillled upon to destroy and re-create.
Literally, "lift up his \vortl."
3 The amin; of Mero,lncl~\vith the boxv of Ann i n &'tho assenlbly
,,f the gods," \ws the subject of a special poem, of which a fragment
is preserved. One of thc canstellations was named "the Stnr of the
Bow ;" and according to the story of the noluge (Col. iii. 51,52), w l ~ e n
Yisuthros had left tho ark and offered his sacrifice on the peak of Mount
Kizir, "Istar (the great goddess) at (her) coming lifted up the mighty
shafts (namzabi) rvl~iehAnu had made." That the bow is here refc~.red
t o scems evident from a pnssago in a hymn (W.A.I. ii. 19. 7, 8). whore
allusion is marlz to "the b o a of the deluge," in Accadian ginne ( 0 1 s . n ~ ~ )
n l d t z ~ . Thc wort1 "boiv" is here translated, not by the ordinary Assy-
rian miclpaizu, i,ut by gusiil, tlle Heb. yeslteth. Comp. Gen. ir. 13-16.
 COSUOGOSIES AND ASTXO-THEOLOGY. 381
He scieed thp. four wind.i that they might not issne forth fmm her,
the sonth wind, the north wind, the east wind (and) the west wind
His hand brought the snare near unto the bow of his father A n u
IIc created the evil wind, the hostile wind, the storm, the tempest,
the four winds, the seven winds, the whirlwind, theunending wind;
he caused the winds he had created to issue forth, seven in all,
confounding the dragon Tiomat, as they swept after him.
Then Be1 lifted up the hurricane (deluge), Iris mighty weapon.
He rode in a chariot of destiny that fenm not a rival.'
He stood firm and buns the four reins at its side.
. . . . unsparing, inundating her coveling.
. . . . their teeth cnrry poison.
. . . . they sweep away the learned(f).
. . . . might and battle.
On the left they open . , . .
. . . . fear . . .
With lustre and (terror) he covered his head.
He directed also (his way), he made his path descend;
Humbly he aet the. . . . before him.
By (his) command he kept hack the. . ..
His finger holds the . . . .
On that day they exalted him, the gods exalted him,
the gods his fathers exalted him, the gods exalted him.
Then Be1 approached; he catchas Tiamat by her waist;
she seeks the huge bulk (l) of Kingu her husband,
she looks also for his counsel.
Then the rebellious one appointed him the destroyer of the c3m
mands (of Eel).
And the gods his helpers who marched beside him
hel~eld(how lferodach) the first-horn holds their yoke.
He laid judgment on Tiamat, hut she turned nqt her neck.
With her hostile lips she declared opposition :
. . .
. 0 lord, the gods swept after thee.
Thcj gathered thcir (forces) together to where thou wast
Eel (launched) the deluge, his mighty weapon ;
(against) Tiamat who had raised herself (1) thus he sent it.
---- -- -
1 If Delitzsch's copy is eorrect, it is possible to extract sense out of
the !ine only by supposing that the negative is misplaced, and that we
should rend maklrri la galidla. I n W. A. I. i i i 12, 32, galitli is used
sf the "ebbing" sea
382 LECTURE VI.

(Agoinst) the gods my fathem thy enmity hast thou directed

Thou hartlesser of thy companions, may thy weapons pierce their
hodias.
Stand op, and I and thou will fight togetlier.'
TVtsn Tiamat heard this,
she uttered her former spells, she repeat,ed her command
Tianiat also erierl out violently with a high voice.
From its roots she strengthened (her) seat completely.
S h e recites a n incantation, she casts a spell,
and the gods of hattle demand for themselves their arm&
'Il~enTiamat attacked Merodach the prince of the gods;
in combat they joined; they engaged i n battle.
Then Bel opened his snare and enclosed her;
the evil wind that scizcs from behind he sent before him.
Tiamat opened her mouth to swallow i t ;
lie made the evil wind to enter so that she could not close her lipa
The violence of the minds tortured her stomach, and
her heart was prostrated and her mouth rvas twisted
H e swung the club; he yliatrered hcr stomacl~;
b e out out her entrails; he mastered her heart;
he hound her and euded her life.
H e threw clown her corpse; he stood upon it.
\Then Tianlat who marched before (them) was conquered.
h e dispersed her forces, her host was overthrown,
and the gods her allies who marched beside her
trembled (and) feared (and) turned their back.
They escaped and saved their lives.
They clung to one another fleeing strengthlessly.
H e fo!lowed them and broke their arms.
H e cast his snare and they are caught in his net.
They recognise the spot ( l ) , they are filled with grief;
they bear their sin, they are kept in bondage,
and the elevenfold offspring are troubled through fear.
The brilliancy (of Gel) the spirits as they march clearly perceived
His hand lays darkness (upon their host).
A t the same time their opposition (fails) from under them,
and the god liingu who had (marshalled) their (forces)
he bonud hit11 also with the god of the tablets (of destiny in) hie
right hand ;
and he took from him the tahleta of destiny (that were) with him;
 C08MOGOXIE8 AND ASTBO-THEOLOGY. 383
with the string of the stylus' he sealed (them) and held the (cover 9 )
of the tablet.
From the timo he had hound and laid the yoke on hie foes
he led the illustrious enemy captive like an ox;
the victory of the Firmament (an-sar) he laid fully upon (his)
antagonists ;
lferodnch the warrior has overcome the lamentation of Ea the
lord of the world.
Over the gods in bondage he strengthened his watch, and
Tiamat whom lie had bound he first turned backward;
so He1 trampled on the foundations of Tiamat.
With 111sclub unswung (la maidi) he smate (her) skull,
h e broke (it) and caused her blood to flow ;
t h e north mind bore (it) away to secret places.
Then his father beheld, he rejoiced at the savour,
he bade the spirits (1) bring peace to himself;
And Bcl rested, his body he fed.
He strengthened his mind ('I), he formed a clever plan,
and he stripped her like a fish of (her) skin nccording to his plhn;
he described her likeness and (with it) overshadowed tho heavens ;
h e stretched out the skin, he kept a watch,
he urged on her waters that were not issuing forth ;
he lit up the sky, the sanctuary rejoiced,
and he presented himself before the deep the seat of E3.
Then Be1 mcasi~redthe offspring of the deep,
the mighty master established the Upper Firmament ( k ~ a r r a ae )
his image.
The mighty master caused Anu, Be1 (Mul-lil) and Ea
to inhabit the Upper Firmament which he had created, even the
heavens, their strongholds.
[First line of the 5th tablet] :-He prepared the stations of the
great gods.
I C o ~ o r e o x :--One
] hundred and forty-six lines of the 4th tablet
(of the series beginning) : 'When on high nnprochimed.'
According to the papyri of the tablet whose writing had been
injured.2

K X h ,see W. A. I. Y. 32, 53.

TmZItipu. A fragmentary prayer to Mrrodach (R601,Rev. 12),
in which mention is made of the man who "forsakes (issir) the com-
mand of Merodach" and of how " Nemdach will purify thy sin"@ilbtC
 384 LECTURE VI.

Copied for Nebo his lord by Nahid-Merodacb, the son of the

irrigator, for the preservation of his life
and the life of all his hoose. IIe wrote and placed (it) in kdida."'

The legend of the great battle between light and dark-

ness thus took the form of a poem addressed to Merodaoh,
and constituted the fourth tablet or book of the story of
the creation in days.
This story, which bears a curious resemblance to the
account of the creation in the first chapter of Genesis,
mas first brought to light by Mr. George Smith. The
first tablet of the series to which it belongs opens as
follows :
" A t that time the heaven above had not yet announced,
or the earth beneath recorded, a name ;
tho unopenedveep was their generator,
Mummu-Tiamat (the chaos of the sea) was the mother of them a l l
Their wnters lverc emhoxomed as one: and
the corn field4 mas unharvested, the pasture was nngrown.
A t that time the gods had not appeared any of them,

ki Jl(tri.~dukizukkb), ends with the colophon : (Bab-)iIi kima mustt~ldir

KHIn taullupi, "(copy of) Babylon ; like one who causes an injured text
to be written.
1 This copy seems to have been made in the Persian age, and the
text does not appear to be always correct. This would be explained by
the statement that the original \t.r.as injured. Of much older date is a
short incantation (M 1246, 3, 4) which concludes with the wolds : " 0
lord exalted (and) great, destroy (al~al)Tiamat, strike (pudl~rw)the
unpitying (Iu edheru) evil one."
2 L a p a t d ; Delitzsch reads, ristd, "the first-horn."

3 S 1140, 8, shows that this is the meaning of istexia.

4 For gil~ava,see 7 1'. k I. v. 1, 48-50 : n. P. Nirlin 7ddn ?jasakhnapu

gii'~w'.~~s'iliqjiili ~ t ~ i n m r ~ l~iIkLcL~~ L ,the corn-god continuously caused t h e
conr-field to grow, tho papyri were gladdened with frnit ;"and S799, 2,
rriia g i p B ~ ieltu e~uLbi(Accadian, mi-puvu-7;i owqqa iii~m:i-~lan-ttct~~),
"to tho holy corn-field he went down." The rvor~lhas nothing to du
with "clouds" or " ~ k n c s s , "as has bein supposed.
 COSXOGONIES AXD AmO-THEOLOGIY. 385
by no name were they recorded, no deatiny (had they fixed).
Then the (great) gods were created,
Lakhmu and Lakhamu issued forth (the first),
until they grew up (when)
An-sar and Ki-sar were created.
Long were the days, extended (was the time, and)
the gods Anu, (Be1 and Es were born).
7
An-sar and Ki-sar (gave then birth)!'

The cosmogomy here presented to us bears evident

marks of its late date. The gods of the popular religion
not only have their places in the universe k e d , the period
and manner of their origin even is described. he ele-
mentary spirits of the ancient Accadian faith have passed
into the great gods of Semitic belief, and been finallv
resolved into mere symbolical representatives of the pri-
mordial elements of the world. Under a thin disguise of
theological nomenclature, the Babylonian theory of the
universe has become a philosophic materialism. The gods
themselves come and go like mortal men; they are the
offspring of the everlasting elements of the heaven and
earth, and of that watery abyss out of which mythology
had created a demon of evil, but which the philosopher
knew to be the mother and source of all things. The
Tiamat of the first tablet of the Creation story is a very
different being from the Tiamat of the fourth.
The old Semitic confusion between names and things
was, however, as potent as ever. Heaven and earth
existed not in the beginning because no name had been
pronounced in them, and they themselves were nameless.
I t was the same with the gods. The gods, too, came into
being only when they received names. The day on which
the rames of Lakhmu and Lakhamu were first heard was
the day on which they first "issued forth."
2c
366 LECTURE TI.

I doubt much whether the story i~ its present form is

older than the time of Assur-bani-pal. It is true that a
copy of the fourth tablet, originally deposited in the
temple of Nebo at Borsippa, is now in the British Xuseum,
but this cannot be earlier than the reign of Sebuchad-
nezzar; and although the last two words of the first line
of tho story are quoted in it in an Accadian form, this
proves but little. The scribes of Assur-bani-pal's court
frequently amused themselves by composing in the old
language of Chaldaa, and the introduction of Accadiam
words into their texts gave them a flavour of antiquity.
However this may be, the cosmogony of the poem
eventually found its way into the pages of a Greek writer.
Damaskios, an author of the sixth century, has pres'ervez
an account of the cosmological system of the Babylo-
nians, which he probably borrowed from some older
work.' '' The Bnbylonians," he tellsus, " like the rest of
the barbarians, pass over in silence the one principle of the
universe, and they constitute two, Tavthe and Apasb,
making ApasOn the husband of Tavth;, and clenominating
I
her 'the mothcr of the gods.' And from these proceeds
an only-begotten son, Mumis, which, I conceive, is ncr
other than the intelligible world proceeding from the two
principles. From them also another progeny is derived,
Lakh6 and L a k h o ~ ;and
~ again a third, Kissar& an&
Assdros ; from which last three others proceed, Anos and'
Illinos and Aos. And of Aos and Davk& is born a son
called Bslos, who, they say, is the fabricator of the
world."
i
1 De Prirn. Primcip. 125, p. 384, ed. Kopp.
a So we must read, in place of the Dakl-3 and Dakhos of the MS9.
 COSXOQONIES AND ASTRO-THEOLOGY. 387
There is only one point in which the account of Da-
maskios differs from that of the cuneiform text. Mumis
or Mummu becomes in it the only son of Tavthb and
Apas8n, that is to say, of Tiamat and ApSu, "the deep,"
instead of being identified mith Tiamat. He takes the
place of the heaven and the earth, which the Assyrian
poet represents as born of ApSu and Jfummu-Tiamat.
The alteration seems to be duc to a later Babylonian
striving to reconcile the Assyrian cosmological system
with the belief that Bel-Merodach was thc creator of the
visible world. The birth of the gods is thus thrown back
beyond the creation of the heavens and the earth; whereas
in the Assyrian poem, as in the first chapter of Genesis,
the creation of the heavens and the earth is placed in
the forefront.
Between the cosmogony we have just been considering
and the Babylonian cosmogony reported by BS.r8ssos, no
reconciliation is possible. I n the one, Tiamat is already
the teeming mother of strange creatures before Be1 Mcro-
dach creates the light, and by tearing her asunder forms
the heaven and the earth. I n the other, Tiamat is the
mummu, or "chaos," which, in combination with ApSu,
" the deep," produces Lakhmu and Lakhamu, from whom
Ansar and Kisar, "the hosts of heaven" and "the hosts
of earth," are begotten; and then after long ages the
gods come into existence, to mhom, with Merodach the
son of Ea, the origin of all living things is ascribed. The
names of Ansar and Kisar have, however, wandered far
from their primitive signification. They have come to
represent the firmament above and the earth below-not
only tho visible sky and the visible earth, but also the
2c2
 388 LECTURE VI.

invisible " heaven oi Anu" and the underground world

of Hades.
Like Lakhmu and Lakhamu, they were resolved into
i forms of Anu and his female counterpart Anat by the
monotheistic, or rather pantheistic, school to whom I
have alluded in a former Lecture. It was to this pan-
theistic school that the materialistic school of the cosmo-
gonists was most sharply opposed. I n the lists in which
the views of the pantheistic school find expression, Lakh-
mu and Lakhamu appear as Lakhma, or Lukhma, and
Lakhama, an indication that the names are of non-Scmitio
origin. I t is possible that they denote the element of
"purity" presupposed by the creation of the world out
of tho watery abyss. At all events, they are placed in
one of the lists botween Du-eri and Da-eri, 'I the children
of thc state," and E-kur and E-sarra, ' l the temples of
earth and heaven." Like so many of the Babylonian
deities, their names and worship were probably carried
to Canaan. Lakhmi seems to be the name of a Philistine
in 2 Chron. xx. 6 , and Beth-lehem is best explained as
the house of Lelchem," like Beth-Ddgon, "the house of
Dagon," or Beth-Anoth, " the house of Anat."'
I t is unfortunate that the Assyrian cosmological poem
has reached us only in a fragmentary state. The latter
palt of the first tablet is lost, and the second and third
tablets have not yet been recovered. The first half of the
fifth tablet, howcvcr, is complete; and as it describes

Lakhmu is mcutioned but rarely i n the inscriptions. His name,

however, occurs in 1: 2866, 18, between those of Gola and Kimmon.
Perhaps it is connected etymologically with Lakhamun, the name of
Zarpanit in Dilvun
 CX)BMOGONIEB AND AsTRO-THEOLOGY. 389
the creation of the heavenly bodies, we may compare it
with the work of the fourth day according to Genesis,
more especially as the Assyrian poet assigns to the fourth
tablet the overthrow of Tiamat and her hosts. It begins
thus :
"(Anu) prepared the (seven) mansions of the great gods;
he fixed the stars, even the twin-stars, to correspond to them;
he ordained the year, appointing the signs of the Zodiac' over it;
for each of the twelve months he fixed three stars,
from the day when the year ieaups forth to the close.
He founded the mansion of the god of the ferry-boat (the Sun-god)
that they might know their bonds,
that they might not err, that they might not go astray in any way.
He established the mansion of Mul-lil and Fa along with himself.
He opened also the great gatas on either side,
the bolts he strengthened on the left hand and on the right,
and in their midst he made a staircase.
Re illuminated the Moon-god that he might watch over the night,
and ordained for him the euding of the night that the day may be
known,
(saying) : 'Month by month, without break, keep watch (1) in thy
disk ;
at the begin~ingof the month kindle the nigh$
announcing (thy) horns that the heaven may know.
On the seventh day, (filling thy) disk,
thou shalt open indeed (its) narrow c~ntmction.~
At that time the sun (will he) on the horizon of heaven at thy
(rising)."'
The rest of the text is in too mut,ilated a condition
to offer a connected sense, and we may therefore paas on
to another fragment which perhaps belongs to the seventh
tablet. At all events it records the creation of the
animals. "At that time," it declares,

1 M i d t a y u m a ~ i r . Oppert and Schrader have misunderstood the

expl~ssion. Miwdta is the m a d r b l h of Job xxxviii 32.
' SYtMwal meekhir(rdti eapu-)u
 390 LECTURF. VI.

"The gods i n their assembly crented (the hcasta);

they made perfect the mighty (monsters);
they caused bhe living creirturos of the (field) to come forth,
the cattle of the field, the wild beasts of the field, and tlie creep
ing things of the (field) ;
(they fixed their habitations) for the living creatures (of the field),
(and) adorned (the dwelling-p!aces of) tlie cattle and creeping thiuga
of the city.
(They made strong) the multitude of creeping things, all ?he off-
s p r i ~ ~(of
g the earth)."

The lines that follow are too much broken for transla-
tion; the only matter of remark which they contain is a
statemcnt put into the mouth of some deity that he had
"destroyed tho seed of Lakhama." Here, therefore,
there seems to be a clear reference to the monstrous brood
of chaos which the ancient cosmogony of Cutha regarded
as the offspring of Tiamat. The place of Tiamat has
been talcen by the cosn~ologicalprinciple Lakhama, and
the crnde conceptions of an earlier day have been worked
into the philosophical system of the later cosmology.
Tllc Babylonian Genesis, then, it will be seen, is
neitllcr simple nor uniform. I t s history forms a close
parallcl to the history of the Babylonian pantheon. Like
the pantheon, it is essentially local in character; but the
local elements have been combined eventually so as to
form that great epic of the Creation whose fragments
, llavc come to us from the library of Nineveh. Local,
howerer, as these elements mere in their origin, they all
ngree in cortain main particulars. I n each case the
watery ahyss is the primary source of all things ; in each
case the present creation has been preceded by another.
How far these common features are due to the compara-
tivc lntencss of the documents from which we derive our
 OOSMOQONIES M D ASTRO-THEOLOGY. 391

information we cannot say. For my own part, I suspect

that the legend of Cutha originally h e w nothing of the
aea-serpent Tiamat, the chaotic hosts of which it speaks
having been the progeny of the mountains and not of
the deep. But in its present form it agrees with all the
other Babylonian cosmogonies that have been preserved,
in making Tiamat their mother and nurse. The Baby-
lonian of the historical period was firmly persuaded that
in the ocean-stream that encircled the world lay the
germs of the whole universe.
This belief stands in marked contrast to that pre-
historic belief in a "mountain of the world'' which sur-
vived only in mythology. No doubt the two conceptions
could be reconciled by those who undertook the trouble ;
i t was possible to hold that this mountain of the world
was not the central shaft around which the earth and
heavens were built, but merely the centre of the existing
world. If this view was not generally taken, if in Baby-
lonia, hard by the Persian Gulf, the world-mountain
was allowed to drop out of sight, it must have been
because the ideas associated with it did not readily com-
bine with the cosmological theories of a later day. At
any rate, the cosmologies of Babylonia, whatever might
be the locality in which they were taught, were all based
a n the assumption that the watery abyss mas the first of
things.
This assumption agrees strikingly with the character
of the Sumeriau culture-god. Ea, the god of Eridu,
Oannes who rose out of the Persian Gulf, was primarily
e water-god. His home was in the deep; his mother
was the watery abyss. W e shall not go far wrong if we
,trace the fundamental doctrine of Chaldman cosmology
to Eridu and its worship of the deities of the deep.
Eridu did not communicate to the rest of Babylonia only
the seeds of culture or the adoration of Ea, the gcd of
wisdom ; it impressed upon all the cosmogonies of Baby-
lonia the stamp of its own, and originated that view of
the origin of the world which found its western prophet
in the first of Hellenic philosophers. Like so much else
that had its primal home in Shinar, it was carried west-
ward to the shores of the Mediterranean. P h ~ n i c i a n
cosmology also began with an abyss of waters in which
the seeds of all things were begotten;' and even the
Hebrew writer tells us that "in the beginning,'' before
Elohim ('carved out the heavens and the earth," "the
earth had been waste and void, and darkness was upon
the face of the deep."
It does not seem, however, that the belief in a pro-
visional creation, in the existence of composite animals
who perished when the present world came into being,
can have emanated from Eridu. At Eridu the deep was
not the representative of chaos and confusion ; quite the
contrary, it was a venerable divinity, the mother of Ea
himself. So far, moreover, from the composite animals
of mythology being subjects of abhorrence, Oannes, the
god of culture, the god of pure life, as the inscriptions
term him, was actually one of them. I t was he who is
described in the fragment of B&rAssosas half-human, with
the tail of a fish.
These composite creatures were really the offspring of
totemism and the attempts of a later age to explain the
figures which totemism had bequeathed to art and mytho-
1 Eoseb. Prep, Euang. i. 10; Damaskios, De Prim. Print*. 123,
p. 381, ed. Kopp.
 COSlLOQONIES AND ABTEO-THEOLOGY- 5

logy. A place had to be found for the o o l ' o a a r l ~ u ~ ~

human heads and eagles' wings, for the hawk-
cherubs who guarded the tree of life, for "the s m q k s -
men" who watched the sun at his rising and settias-
for the centaurs, half-man and half-horse, whose fo
engraved on Babylonian boundary-stones, and w h e ~ d
over to the Greeks through Phoenician h a n h Mi~allcgoS
these, it is true, were beneficent beings, like the.-
headed bulls; but the majority belonged to t h ~ w & i & a
of the earth and air against whom the sorcererrp%stW
prepared his spells. They had no place or portion GuiXk
existing order of the universe ; when, t h e r e f o x e , , T M
had become a cosmological principle, symbelised.bgSm
serpent or dragon and opposed to the gods oE Egb%S%
was easy to banish them all to her domain a d t a mg#i
her as their mother and nurse.
It may be that this was the work of the, p,+&
Babylon. At any rate, Bel-Nerodach is- credit&*
having been their destroyer, as he was also the d e s t r o g
of Tiamat herself; and it is difficult to believe the&
belief grew up anywhere else than in the city-dE&
owned Merodach as its lord. It is certain11 notiad&
that B&rBssosrefers to the images of the monsters-
in vermilion on the walls of the temple of hZerodacLdka
he is describing the strange creatures of tha rep-
world.
In the epic of the Creation, whether or n&it e w e s h
existence, as I have suggested, to an hsyrian p&.L
the age of Assur-bani-pal, we may see the f i n a L n d I k -
tion of the varying cosmological legends of B a b ~ a
They are here combined and harmonised togethez; d
though the whole is thrown into a mythologjcal fcmq, r
304 LECTURE VI.

befits the requirements of poetry, its spirit is unmistak-'

ably materialistic. I n spite of the fragmentary condition
in which it has come down t o us, it is possible to guess
at the order of its arrangement by comparing it with the
first chapter of Genesis.
The first tablet or book was occupied with tho cosmo-
gony proper and the creation of the gods. The birth of
the gods of light necessarily brought with it the creation
of the light itself. This mould have been followed by a
second tablet, in which the creation of the firmament of'
heaven was described. The gods needed a habitation,
and this was provided by the firmament of the sky. A
mythological tablet, it will be remembered, states that
"the heaven was created from the waters," before that
" the god and goddess," or Ansar and Kiuar, ' I created
the earth,,' in exact agreement with the account inGeuesis.
Here, too, the firmament of the heaven is created out
of the waters of the deep on the second day, dividing
the waters which were under the firmament from the
waters which were above the firmament," while the earth
does not emerge above the surface of the deep until the
third day. It is therefore probable that the third tablet
of the Assyro-Babylonian epic recounted the formation
of the earth. Unlike the Biblical narrative, however, in
place of the vegetable creation of the third day, it would
seem to have interpolated here the appearance of the
brood of chaos. The logend of Cutha declares that when
the earth was peopled by them, there were as yet neither
bodies nor brushwood," neither the animal nor the
vegetable
. world of to-day. However this may be, the
fourth tablet recorded the great struggle between Mero-
dach and Tiamat, of which no trace appears in the book
 COS3IOQONIES AND A STRO-THEOLOGY 395
of Genesis, though we seem to have allusions to a similar
conflict in the spiritual world in other parts of the Bible.
I n Isaiah xxiv. 21, 22, we read "that the Lord shall
visit the host of the high ones that are on high, and the
kings of the earth upon the earth. And they shall be
gathered together, as prisoners arc gathered in the pit,
and shall be shut up in prison;" mhile a well-known
passage in the Apocalypse (xii. 7-9) tells how "there
was war in heaven : Michael and his angels fought against
the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and
prevailed not; neither was their place found any more
i n heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old
serpent, called the Devil, and Satan." The fifth tablet,
as we have seen, was concerned with the appointment of
the heavenly bodies, the work of the fourth day in
Genesis; the sixth probably related the creation of vege-
tables, birds and fish; and the seventh that of animals
and mankind.' I n two respects, therefore, the epic
would have differed from the Biblical account : firstly, in
the interpolation of the appearance of the monsters of
chaos and of the combat between Merodach and the
dragon ; and secondly, in making the seventh day a day
of work and not of rest.
The epic never succeeded wholly in supplanting what
me may regard as the local legend of the Creation current
a t Babylon. Its cosmogony was indeed known to Da-
' A pasnge in one of the magical texts indicates that a similar view
as to the creation of the woman from the man prevailed in Babylonia, to
that which we read of in the hook of Genesis. I n W. A. I. iv. 1.
i. 36, 37, it is said of the seven evil spirits: "the woman from the
loins of the man they bring forth," in conformity with the Semitic
belief which derived the woman frum the man. This part cf the m a g i d
text, at all events, must belong to tho Gemitic period
396 LECTURE VI.

maskios, and doubtless suited the philosophic conctptions

of the Greco-Roman age far better than the older crea-
tion-stories of Babylonia; but it is ignored by B&rSssos,
who collected the materials of his narrative from the
priests of Bel-Merodach at Babylon. As one of their
order himself, he preferred to give their own versio~of
the creation of the world, rather than a version which
was less peculiarly Babylonian, however consonant the
latter might be with the opinions of his Greek readers.
The contents of the fifth tablet introduce us to a side
of Babylonian religion which occupied an important and
prominent position, at all events in the official cult. At
the beginning of the present century, writers upon the
ancient East were fond of enlarging upon a Sabaistic
system of faith which they supposed had once been the
dominant form of religion in Western Asia. Star-worship
was imagined to be the most primitive phase of Oriental
religion, and the reference to it in the book of Job was
eagerly seized upon as an evidence of the antiquity of
the book. Dupuis resolved all human forms of faith into
Zodiacal symbols, and Sir William Drummond went far
in the same direction. That the first gods of the heathen
were the planets and stars of heaven, was regarded by
high authorities as an incontrovertible fact.
The plains of Shinar were held to be the earliest home
of this Sabaism or star-worship. The astronomy and astro-
logy of Babylonia had been celebrated even by Greek and
Latin authors, and scholars were inclined to see in the
'' Chaldaean shepherds" the first observers of the heavens.
The " astrologers, the star-gazers, the monthly prognos-
ticators" of Babylon, are enumerated in the Old Testa-
ment (Is. xlvii. 13); and the small r rlinders brought by
 M)SMOM)RIEB AND AMT.0-THEOLOGY. 397
travellers from Bagdad, with their frequent representations
of a star or sun, seemed to leave no doubt that the deities
of Babylonia were in truth the heavenly bodies. The
decipherment of the cuneiform inscriptions has shown
that the belief in Babylonian " Sabaism" was, after all,
not altogether a chimsera.
Bltbylonia was really the cradle of astronomical obser-
vations. Long before the lofty zigurrdti or towers" of
the temples were reared, where the royal astronomers
had their stations and from whence they sent their reports
to the king, the leading groups of stars had been named,
a calendar had been formed, and the eclipses of the sun
and moon had been noted and recorded. The annual
path of the sun through the sky had been divided into
twelve sections, like the twelve kasbu or double houra ot
the day, and each section had been distinguished by its
chief constellation or star. I t was thus that the Zodiac
first came into existence. The names given to its con-
stellations are not only Accadian, but they also go back
t o the totemistic age of Accadian faith. The first sign,
the &st constellation, was that of '(the directing bull,':
so named from the solar bull who at the vernal equinox
began to plough his straight furrow through the sky,
directing thereby the course of the year. The last s i p
but one was "the fish of Ea;" while midway between
the two, presiding over the month whose name was
derived from its " facing the foundation" or ' l beginning"
of the year, was the great star of the Scorpion. The
fact that the year thus began with Taurus proves the
antiquity of the Chaldsean Zodiac, and of the months
of thirty days which corresponded t o its several signs.
From about B.C. 2500 and onwards, the precessio5 of
 398 LECTURE TI.

the equinoxes caused Aries, and not Taurus, to be the

asterism into which the sun entered at spring-time; tho
period when Taurus ushered in the year reached back
from that date to about B. C. 4700. The Zodiacal circle
may therefore have been invented nearly a thousanct
ycars before Sargou of Accad was born ; and that it was
invented at an early epoch is demonstrated by its close
connection with the Accadian calendar.
With the Semitic domination of Sargon of Accad,
however, Babylonian astronomy entercd upon a new
phase. To him, tradition ascribed the compilation of the
standard work on Babylonian astronomy and astrology
called the 'LObservationsof Bel," and afterwards translated
into Greek by B&rdssos. But tho edition of the work
which we possess presupposes a much latcr date. Aries,
and not Taurus, marks the beginning of the year, and
the text contains references to political and geographicaL
facts, some of which are probably not much older than
the age of Assur-bani-pal. This is explained by the
nnturc of the work. It was not so much a treatise on
astronomy, as on the pseudo-science that had been evolved
out of the observations of astronomy. Thc Chaldroan
. priests had grasped but imperfectly the idea of causation ;
their fundamental assumption was post hoc, ergo propter
hoc;" when two events had been noticed to happen on(.
after the other, the f i ~ was
t the cause of tho second.
Hence their anxiety to record the phenomena of thc
heavens and the occurrences that took place after each ;
if a war with Elam had followed an eclipse of the sun 011
a particular day, it was assumed that a recurrence of tllc
eclipse on the same day mould bc followcd by a recur-.
renoe of a war with Elam. I n this may a science of
 astrology was created whose students could foretel the
lfuture by observing the signs of the sky.
I t is obvious that a work whose object was to connect
nstronomical observations with current events must have
been constantly undergoing alteration and growth. New
observations would from time to time be introduced into
it, sometimes causing confusion or even omissions in the
text. There are instances in which we can detect the
presence of observitions placed side by side, though
belonging to very different periods, or of older records
which have been supplemented by the calculations of a
later age.' I n their present form, therefore, the '' Obser-
vations of Bel" have to be used with caution if we would
argue from them to the beliefs and practices of early
Babylonia.
But the astrological science, or pseudo-science, which
underlies the whole work, shows that even in its earliest
form it was a product of the Semitic epoch. Between
the attitude of mind presupposed by this pseudo-science,
and the attitude of mind presupposed by the magical
texts and Shamanistio cult of Sumerian Chaldea, there
lies an impassable gulf. According to the latter, events
are brought about by the agency of the innumerable
spirits of earth and air, and can be controlled by the
spells and exorcisms of the sorcerer; according to the
astrologer of Sargon's court, they are natural occurrences,
caused and determined by other natural occurrences

1 See the examination of the Venus-tablet (W. A. I. iii. 63), by Mr.

Bosanquet and myself in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astrow-
nicul Society, xl. 9, pp. 572, 578, where it is shown that a later
scribe has interpolated a series of fabricated observations in the middle
of 8n older and genuine record.
d m LECTURE VI.

4 S e h ..can%e .discovered and noted by the observer.

4of the astrologer the astronomer could be born;
F & k e e a science and sorcery there can be only an eternal
kEraa.
i33 Boes ,not follow, however, that the pre-Semitic
p @ a t i o n of Chaldsa took no notice of the phenomena
t &thesky- Unusual phenomena, such as an eclipse, must
19eaeasarily excite the attention of superstitious and half-
eGG&ed tribes; and the formation of a calendar, the
i~.mttion.of the Zodiac, and the naming of the principal
-hllstions, show that a rudimentary astronomy was
d h a a y i n existence. Indeed, the l L Observations of Bel"
d d y e o n t a i n technical terms of Accadian origin, but
t d b d y motices of phenomena lilie eclipses which pre-
-pose a long period of earlier observations. Unless
d , ~ : v h o r v a t i o n shad existed, even the first compilation
uGFtfkew..rk would have been impossible. It was astro-
l*y cnoi the rudiments of astronomy, for which the
S h i i t e s of Babylonia can claim the entire credit.
Zm .tke.lc.Observations of Bel" the stars are already
k v e s t e d with a divine character. The planets are gods
t i h & h e s u n and moon, and the stars have already been
i-flmtlfied with certain deities of the official pantheon, or
~.Smubmebeen dedicated to them. The whole heaven, as
as the periods of the moon, has been divided between
sfh.thme supreme divinities, Anu, Bel and Ea. I n fact,
&em i s an astro-theology, a system of Sabaism, as it
m d d have been callcd half a century ago.
:Thk astro-theology must go back to the very earliest
t4ka The cuneiform characters alone are a proof of
m s 'The common determinative of a deity is an eight-
r q - ~ ?star,
a a clcar evidence that at the period when the
 COSUOGONIES AND ASTBO-THEOLOGY. 401
cuneiform syllabary assumed the shape in whichme know
it, the stars were accounted divine. We have seen, more-
over, that the sun and moon and evening star were
objects of worship from a remote epoch, and the sacred-
dess attached to them would naturally have been reflected
upon the other heavenly bodies with which they were
associated. Totemism, too, implies a worship of the stars.
We find that primitive peoples confound them with
animals, their automatic motions being apparently expli-
cable by no other theory; and that primitive Chaldrea
was no exception to this rule has been already pointed
out. Here, too, the sun was an ox, the moon was a
steer, and the planeta were sheep. The adoration of
the stars, like the adoration of the sun and moon, must
have been a feature of the religion of primreval Shiuar.
But this primmval adoration was something very dif-
ferent horn the elaborate astro-theology of a later day.
So elaborate, indeed, is it that we can hardly believe it
t o have been known beyond the circle of the learned
classes. The stars in it became the symbols of the official
deities. Nergal, for example, under his two names of
Sar-nem and 'Sulim-ta-ea, was identifieJ with Jupiter
and Mars.' It is not difficult to discover how this
curious theologioal system arose. Its starting-point was
the prominence given to the worship of the evening and
morning stars in the ancient religion, and their subsequent
transformation into the Semitic Istar. The other planets
were already divine; and their identification with specific
deities of the official cult followed as a matter of course.
As the astronomy of Babylonia became more developed,
as the heavens were mapped out into groups of constel-
402 LECTUBE VI.

lation*, each of which received a definite name, while the

leading single stars were similarly distinguished and
named, the stars and corntellations followed the lead of
the planets. As Mars became Nergal, so Orion became
Tammuz.
The priest had succeeded the old Sumerian sorcerer,
and was now transforming himself into an astrologer. To
this cause we must trace the rise of Babylonian astro-
theology and the deification of the stars of heaven. The
Sabianism of the people of H a r r h in the early centuries
of the Christian era was no survival of a primitive faith,
but the last echo of the priestly astro-theology of Baby-
lonia. This astro-theology had been a purely artificial
system, the knowledge of which, like the knowledge of
astrology itself, was confined to the learned classes. It
first grew up in the court of Sargon of Accad, but its
completion cannot be earlier than the age of Kham-
muragas. I n no other way can we explain the pro-
minence givcn in it to Merodach, the god of Babylon.
But side by side with this " cunningly-devised"
system of theology, the ancient cult of the stars-not as
manifcstations or symbols of the official gods, but as
divine beings themselves-maintained itself not only
among the multitude, but among the higher orders as
well. The hemerology of the intercalary Elul, enume-
rating the feasts and fasts of the month and the religious
services to be performed on each, states that the tenth
day was sacred to the Lady of the Lower Firmament
(Bilat-Ekur) and the divine judges of the starry sky,
and that offerings and sacrifices should be made during
the night of it to two particular stars.' Towards the
W, A. I. iv. 32, 47-50, See nbove, p.-72.
 COSMOQONIEB AND -0-THEOLOGIY. 403

close of the Assyrian empire, we find an Assyrian scribe

similarly laying down that the king should offer aactificw
'(before the stars, before Assur, before Merodach," and
other gods.' The stars, be it noticed, here take the first
place, even before Assur, the god of Bssyria, and Mero-
dach, the god of Babylon, and hold the same rank as the
colossal bulls and sacred rivers mentioned by the same
author as objects of veneration.*
I n a country which owed so much to its great rivers
as Babylonia, we should naturally expect to find traces
of river-worship. And such indeed is the case. But
the rivers of Babylonia were not, like the Nile, the
bringers of unmixed good. They might indeed be termed
"the bearers of fertility," but their destructive floods
needed curbing by dams and canals ; and " the curse of
rain" that descended on the land during the winter
months made the rivers also curses instead of blessings.
Hence it was that, by the side of the cult paid to the
streams, and more especially to the supreme river-god,
the divine Euphrates, in whom the people of Eridu had
seen the features of Ea, there was a feeling of dread and
fear, which prevented the cult from attaining its full
development. Nevertheless, an old Accadian text declares
that "the name of the man shall perish who destroya the
body of a river ;"3 and a Semitic hymn, which is prefaced
by the mord sip&, "incantation," addresses the river
(Euphrates?) in words of adoration and respect :4

I \V. A. I. iii. 66, Rev. 12 sq.

' IT2'.A. I. iii. 66, Oh. 30-33.
8 TV. A. I. ii. 17, 26, completed by Strassmsiez.
' S 1704, Rev.
2n2
404 LECTURE VI.

"Thou, 0 river, I have made thee !'

A t the time I dug thee, the great gods (were) on thy bank.
Ea, the king of the deep, has created blessings i n thy heart.
H e has presented his deluge before thee.
Fire, might, brilliance (and) terribleness
have Ea and Dlerodach presented unto thee.
Judgment (1) hast thou given mnnkind,
0 mighty river, river supreme of limb?
Grant me (to bathe in) the straight conne of t h y waters.
The (impurity) which is in my body to thy channel carry it, even
to the channeL3
(Take) it, bear i t down into t h y stream.
(Deliver) me, and i t shall not come nigh my altar.
(Purify) my sin that I may live.
May I glorify (that which the god) has created.
31ay I exalt (ludlul) (thy) spring en^)."^
Side by side with this primitive morship of rivers and
Atti, nhm, ebrwu kmum.
Di(1)d tenidti tadin atti n h u mbiti, ndru tsidli m e d t i .
8 S a ina rum&-ya bard (KI-pun = ) kibir-ki uri-SZL
kibir-ki.
4 Here several lines arc lost. The text becomes legible again in t h e

fourth line of the obverse, from which i t appears that the tablet con-
tains charms against the bites of serpents. The lines which are legible
read as follows :
"Save me (a.wibuninni) from the venom of these serpents.
Myself and my house never may i t destroy, never may i t poison,
never may i t approach ;
never may i t overcome me; may it cross the river, may i t pass
over my life.
[Lacuna] pouring their poison into my body like the star-coloured
bird (larri).
May i t mount to heaven like an arrow, pouring forth the zikl~iof
its mission.
May (the serpents), 0 lord, be far from my body.
May they depart. . . and let me glorify your LUL-OIR.
Let me exalt (ludlul) the making of your god, 0 Ea, Snmas and
Merodach."
The last line shows that me have here to do wilh a product of the
school of Sippara, as the name of Samas is interpolated between the
old god of healing spells and his ministering son.
 COSYOGOXIES AND ASTBO-THEOLOGY. 405
springs, we find traces of a worship of the mountains.
But this worship belonged rather to the days when the
early colonists of Chaldaea had not as yet descended from
the mountains of the East, and its traces are a survival,
assisted perhaps by the conquest of the country in the
historical epoch by the Kossaean highlanders. At any
rate, in Babylonia itself the primitive cult of the moun-
tains could be carried on only artificially. The sacred
mountains of the plain were the mounds which marked
the sites of ancient temples, or the towers which rose
within them in order that the priest might continue on
their summits that close communion with heaven which
he had once enjoyed on the high places of the mountain-
tops. In the story of the Deluge, the mountain peak of
Rizir, where the rescued hero of the legend built his
altar and poured out his offerings, is called a z+guwat,
or temple-tower. Conversely, "the mountain of the
world" was the name given to a temple at Calah; and
the mountain of 'Sabu, to which the god Zu took his flight,
was Kharsak-kalama, <'the mountain of mankind," an
artificial mound near Kis. The most famous of these
sacred tels or mounds, however, was the famous tilu ellu,
"the illustrious mound," at Borsippa, now represented
by the Birs-i-Nimrud. Nebo, to whom the great temple
of Borsippa was dedicated, is called its god (W. A. I. ii.
54, 71). One of "the three great" or secret "names of
Anu" was that of "the lord who issues forth from the
illustrious mound" (W. A. I. iii. 68, ID), in reference to
the fact that the Accadian prototype of Nebo was once
the universe itself, in which the seven spheres of light
were set, and around which the ocean-stream wound l i e
a rope or serpent. When thc uld god of Borsippa had
 passed into the Semitic Nebo, the attributes mhich had
formerly connected him with the firmament of heaven
were transferred to Ann, the sky-god of the official cult.
A fragmentary tablet, which gives us, as I believe, the
Babylonian version of the building of the tower of Babel,
expressly identifies it with 'I the illustrions mound."
Here we are told of the leader of the rebellion that when!
"the thought of his h a r t was hostile" and he LLhadi
wronged the father of all the gods," when "he was
hurrying to seize Babylon,'' and "small and great were
mingling the mound," ' l the divine king of the illustrious
mound" intervened, " Anu iifted up (his hand) in front"'
and prayed "to his father the lord of the firmament."'
"All day long he troubled" them; they lamente&
on their couch he ended not" their I' distress." In
his wrath he overthrows (their) secret counsel; in his
(fury) he set his face to mingle (their) designs ; he gave
the command(?), he made strange their plan."' The
very word that the Habrew writer uses in order to
explain the origin of the name of Babylon, and which
the Authorised Version translates " confound," is here
employed of those who "mingled together" the mound,
and whose designs were afterwards themselves I ' mingled'"
by the god of heaven.
ILThe illustrious mound" was known as far back a s
the time when the months of the Accadian year were
named. The month which corresponded to the Semitic
Tasrit or Tisri, and our September, was "the month of
the illustrious mound." I t would seem, therefore, that
legend had referred the attempt to build the tower whose
The text has been published by Xi..Boscawen in the Transactiow
ofthe Slciety uf Biblicical A~chmuZugy,v. 1.
 COSUOCOSIES AND ASTRO-IZIEOLOQY. 407
head should reach to heaven to the autumnal equinox ;
at any rate, it is clear that the mound of Borsippa wae
not only in existence, but was already in a state of ruin
when the Accadian calendar was first drawn up.
The sacred mounds of Babylonia, in fact, like the
Gilgals of Palestine, appear to have been the sites of
older structures which had long fallen into decay, and
around mhich fancy and tradition were allowed to play
freely. They had in this way become veritable hills-
tumuli. as we should term them in our modem archwo-
logical vocabulary-and as such deserved the venerable
title of sadu, or "mountain." New temples like that of
"the mountain of the world" could be named after them,
but this did not imply a recollection that the sacred
mounds had once been temples themselves. They mere
rather, like the mountains of the eastern frontier, thc
everlasting altars of the gods, on whose summits worship
could most fittingly be paid to the deities of heaven.
h d , like the mountains, they were something more than
altars; they were themselves divine, the visible habita-
tions of the spirits of the air. It is possible that Prof.
Friedrich Delitzsch is right in proposing to see in the
Assyrian sadu, or "mountain," the explanation of the
Hebrew title of the Deity, El Shaddai.' At all events,
God is conlpared to a rock in the Old Testament (Dent.
xxxii. 15, Ps. xviii. 2), and the worship of sacred stones
mas widely spread through the Semitic world.

Mul-lil is called ku-gal, sndd rnbd in Semitic, "the great mountain,"

W.A.I. iv. 18, 15; 23, 30; andin v. 44,41, "the god Kur-gal" is
mndered by BeL In the list sf Babylonian king8 in which the menn-
ing of their names is explnined, the Accadian E-Guzi-khar,%gmmis
interpreted &-Sagfl-sajdu-ni, " &-Soggilis our mountain.'
 Between the sacred mounds of Babylonia, however,
and the sacred stones of Semitic faith, there was a wide
difference, answering to a difference in the minds of the
two races to whom these separate cults belonged. The
sacred stone was a Beth-el, or l Lhouse of god;" no habita-
tion of a mere spirit, but the dwelling-place of deity itsrlf.
Its sanctity was not inherent; it was sacred because it
had been transformed into an altar by the oil that was
poured out upon it in libation, or the priest who was
consecrated to its service. The worship of those sacred
stones was common to all the branches of the Semitic
family. The famous black stone of the Kaaba at DIecca
is a standing witness of the fact. So firmly rooted was
the belief in its divine character among the Arabs of
Mohammed's day that he was unable to eradicate it, but
was forced to make a compromise with the old faith by
attaching to the stone the traditions of the Old Testament.
The black stone, though more sacred than any others, did
not stand alone. All around Mecca there were similar
stones, termed Anzab, three of which may still be seen,
according to Mr. Doughty, at the gates of the city, where
they go by the names of IIobbal, Lata and Uzza. North-
ward of Mecca, at Medain-Saleh, the burial-place of the
ancient kingdom of the Nabathoeans, Mr. Doughty has
discovered niches in the rock containing sacred stones.
Above one of them is an inscription which shows that
the stone was the symbol or habitation of the god Auda
(or Aera) : "This is the place of prayer which Seruh
the son of Tuka has erected to Auda of Bostra, the great
god, in the month Nisan of the first year of king Malkhos."
Within the last few years, bas-reliefs have been found in
Sicily and Tunisia representing persons iu the act of
adoration before a small triad of stone. We are here on
Phoenician territory, and it is not strange therefore that
classical writers should speak of the BaLruAo~or Beth-els,
the meteoric stones which had fallen from heaven like
"the image" of Artemis at Ephesos, and were accord-
ingly honoured by the Phoenicians. I n the mythology
of Byblos, Heaven and Earth were said to have had four
sons, 110s or El, B&tylosor Beth-el, Dagon and Atlas;
and the god of heaven was further declared to have
invented the Baityli, making of them living stones.'
Bethuel is connected with Aram in the Old Testament
(Cten. xxii. 21,22); and we all remember how, on his way
to Haran, Jacob awakened out of sleep, saying, 'L Surely
the Lord is in this place," and "took the stone that he
had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and
poured oil upon the top of it, and called the name of that
place Beth-el." I n Palestine, however, the Beth-els were
arranged in a circle or Gilgal, rather than singly; the
isolated monuments were the cones of stone or the bare
tree-trunks which symbolised Asherah, the goddess of
fertility, and Baal the Sun-god. The sun-pillars and
the ashirim meet with frequent mention in the Biblical
records; and we may gain some idea as to what the latter
were like from the pictures we have on coins and gems
of the famous conical stone that stood withip the holy of
holies in the temple of the Paphian Aphrodith, as well as
from the description given of it by T a c i t u ~ . ~On a gem

' Euseb. P r q . Enang. i 10. HalBvy's ugnments against the iden-

tilication of Baitylos and the Beth-el amount to very li%llr.
* a t . ii. 2 : "Simulacrum desa non effifiie humana, coutinuua orbis
laliore initio tenuem in ambitum m e b modo exsurgenoa
 in the BritishMuseum, Sin, l' the god of H a m , " is repre-
sented by a stone of the same shape surmounted by a
star. The "pillars of the Sun" were also stones of a like
form. When the Phcenician temple in the island of Gozo,
whose ruins are known as the Temple of the Giants, was
excavated, two such columns of stone mere found, planted
in the ground, one of which still remains in situ. We
cannot forget that even in Solomon's temple, built as i t
was by Phcenician workmen, there were two columns of
stone, Boaz and Yakin, set on either side of the porch
(1 Kings vii. 21), like the two columns of gold ~ n d
emerald glass which Herodotos sam in the temple of
Melkarth at Tyre (Herodt. ii. 44).
The sacred stones which were thus worshipped in
Arabia, in Phmnieia and in Syria, were worshipped also
among the Semitea of Babylonia. There is a curious
reference to the consecration of a Beth-el i n the Epic of
Gisdhubar. When the hero had been dismissed by the
Chaldmn Noah, and his sickness had been carried away
by the waters of the sea, we are told that l L he bound
together heavy stones," and after taking an animal for
saerifioe, 'l poured orer it a homer" in libation. He
then commenced his homeward voyage up the Euphrates,
having thus secured the goodwill of heaven for his
~lndertaking.'

1 W.A. I. iv. 51, v. 52. vi. 1-4. The stones or ashe^rirn whiclr
had thus been cunsecrntrd by oil being poured over them, are frequently
mentioned i n the Babylonian and Assyrian inscriptions under the name
of kihlli. Ifidulh~is a word bol~owedfrom the Accadian ki-zul,''place
of oil" or "anointing," and repre~entedthe altar," so often depicted o n
Assyrian gems and bas-reliefs, which consisted of an uprighr post or
column, sorneti~ueswith an extinguisher-like top. A good representd 1'IUII
of three of tlicso columns, of different forms, will bo seen on n Phceni-
 The homeward voyage of the Chaldaean hero ia a
reminder that we, too, have flnished our aurvey of Baby-
lonian religion, so far as our present knowledge of it will
allow. Two facts in regard to it stand prominently
forth; its essentially local charaoter, and its hybrid
origin, W e cannot understand even ita most elementary
features unless we bear in mind that it is the product of
different races and different political systems. I n detail,
indeed, it may not always be easy to distinguish between
Accadian and Semitic, or between the gods of Eridu and
the gods of Babylon ; but the main outlines of the picture
are clear and distinct, and any attempt to obliterate or
forget them will lead only to confusion and error. That
the materials are still wanting for a complete history of
the rise and development of Babylonian religion, I am
only too well aware ; but where completeness is unattain-
able, even an imperfect sketch has its merits and value.
And the importanw of Babylonian religion to the student
of theology need not be pointed out. Apart from its
general interest in illustrating the history of religion
among one of the few races of mankind who have been
the pioneers of civilisation, it has a special interest from
its bearing on the faiths of Western Asia, and more espe-
cially on that of the people of Israel. If 1 have not
more frequently drawn attention to the latter, i t has been
due to my desire to keep faithfully to the subject of my
Lectures. I have undertaken to treat of Babylonian reli-
gion only, not of Semitic religion in general. For such

cian gem procured by Dr. Hayes Ward at Bagdad, and published by

him in the Ameriwn J o u m l of Archrnolop~,June 1886, p. 156. They
correspond to the "suu-pillars"nud ashe^rim,or symbols of the goddess
Asherah, 80 frequently alluded to in the Old Testament
412 LECTUBE VI.

a task there are others far more competent than myself;

great Arabic or Syriac or Hebrew scholars, who have
devoted their lives to the study of one or more of these
better-known Semitic tongues. My own studies have of
late years lain more and more in the ever-widening circle
of Assyrian research; here there is enough, and more
than enough, to fill the whole time and absorb the whole
energies of the worker ; and he must be content to confine
himself to his own subject, and by honest labour therein
to accumulate the facts which others more fortunate than
he may hereafter combine and utilise. This is the day of
specialists ; the increased application of the scientific
method and the rapid progress of discovery have made
it d%cult to do more than note and put together the
facts that are constantly crowding one upon the other
in a special branch of research. The time may come
again-nay, will come again-when once more the ever-
flowing stream of discovery will be checked, and famous
scholars and thinkers will arise to reap the harvest that
me have sown. Meanwhile I claim only to be one of the
humble labourers of our own busy age, who have done
my best to set before you t h facts
~ and theories we may
glean from the broken sherds of Nineveh, so far as they
bear upon the religion of the ancient Babylonians. I t is
for others, whose studics have taken a wider range, to
make use of the materials I have endeavoured to collect,
irnd to discover in them, if they can, guides and beacons
towards a purer form of faith than that which can be
found in the official creeds of our modern world.
 APPENDIX.

I.
TEEprimitive language and population of Chakha have excited so
much discussion, and the views held on the subject by Assyriologista
have undergone so much modification as their knowledge of the inscrip
tionn has become more extensive and exact, that it is necessary for me
to state precisely the conclusions to which, as i t seems to me, the
uvidence now at our disposal would lend us. Others besides Assyrian
students are probably aware that the question has aroused more than
one fierce controversy; every step i n advance has been gained after a
good den1 of fighting; and not only tho name and relationship of the
pre-Semitic language of Babylonia, but its priority to tho Semitic
Babylonian and even its very existence, have been made the subjects of
animated discussion. The cliscussion, it is true, has usoally been the
result of misuuderstandings 2nd enors, of hasty conclusion^ nud niisin-
terpreted facts; but in this mspect it has not differed widely from
most other discussions in science OY theolqy.
The decipherment of tlie Assyrian inscriptions had not proceeded
far before i t became clear that the Assyrian syllabary was not of
Semitic origin. This, at least, seemed to the first decipherers the most
natmal way of accounting for the curious fact that the characters pos-
sessed phonetic values which did uot correspond to the Semitic n,ords
represented by the same characters when used ideographically. The
characterwhich denoted "a head," for example, not only possessed tllc
Semiticvalue of ris, but also the non-Semitic value of sag. Moreover,
the syllabary expressed very imperfectly tlie sounds of a Semitic lan-
guage. The distinctive Semitic sounds of ayin, ~ B N Land taaddt, were
vanting in it, or else represented defectively. I n place of the clear
pronunciation of the consonants which distinguishes a Semitic idioa~,
it was found that surds and sonants were confounded together at tlie
end of a syllable. I t appeared evident, therefore, that the syllabary,
the pictorial ol.igin of which was soon recognised, must have been
 416 APPENDIX I.

invented by a non-Semitic people, and handed on by them to tha

Semitic populaticms who inhabited the valleys of the Tigris and Eu-
phrates during the historical period. Dr. Hincks proposed the name
of "Accadian" for the old language and its speakers, and Dr. Opport
believed that he saw i n i t marks of relationship to tho languages of
the "Tnwninn" or Ural-Altoic family.
I t was not long before this view of the origin of the Assyrian sylla-
l ~ s r yappeared to find a verification, partly i n the discovery of early
Dabylonian inscriptions written by means of it in a non-Semitic idiom,
partly i n the "bilingual texts" of Assur-bani-pal's librzry, in which tho
words and docrunents of the old idiom were interpreted by interlinear
or parallel translations i n Semitic Assyrian. All that remained was t o
analyse the words and forms of the old language-no easy m k , how-
ever, when it is remembered that they are for the most part written
ideographically, and not phonetically. Dr. Oppert's first essays i n this
direction were followed by an article of mine i n the Journal of PhiloZog~
for 1870, i n which I endenvoured to give the first fairly complete
sketch of lLAccadian" grammar. Three y e s n later this was systema-
t i ~ e dand extended by the brilliant and inexhaustible pen of Franqois
Lenormant.
Dr. Oppert objected t o the term "Accadian," which had been
ndopted from Dr. Hincks by Lenormant, Delitzseh and myself, and
proposed instead of i t the term "Sumerian." From an early epoch
Chaldrca had been divided into two main divisions, czlled respectively
Accad and Sumer ; and the monarchs who claimed sovereignty over t h e
whole country entitled them~elvesaccordingly "kings of Snmer and
Accad," in contradistinction to those who coold claim to be rulers of
"the land of Accad" only.' To Dr. Haigh belongs the credit of first
pointing out that Surner is the Shinar of the Old Testament %; while
George Smith, with his usual divinatory instinct, perceived that it
must represent southern Babylonia, Accad being the district round the
capital city of Accad, or Agad8 (formerly read AganE). George Smith's
views, however, were not at first adopted by other Assyriologists, and

1 Kengi Agade, misinterpreted i n later days to mean ' I Sumer and Accad."
a HalBvy's " Rahbinieal" etymology of Shinar does not require refutation.
Already in Uen. xi. 2, the name of Shinar has been extended to denote the
whole of Babylonia, as in Daniel and Zech. v. 11, just as in Micah v. 6, the
dominion of Nimrod seems to be extended to Assyria; but in Cen. x. 10,
the nan~eis still confined to southern Babylonia, m d is therefore used to
indicate the ~outhernposition i f CeJneh
ith only within the last three or four years that newly-found inseriw
tions have shown them to he correct.
The arguments by which Dr. Oppert supported his proposal were
not convincing, and for some time he secured no converts. But the
researches of Professor Paul Haupt, one of the ablest and hesttrained
of the younger band of Assyriologists, threw an entirely new light on
the matter. I had noticed (in 1874) the existence of more than one
dialect in Proto-Chaldzan, and in a paper on Accadian Phonology (in
1877) had tried to show that our "Aceadian" texts contain newer ap
well as older forms, and that many of them are wmposed in a language
which exhibits all the signs of long decay; hut it was roserved for
Prof. Raupt to demonstrate scientifically that there were two clearly-
marked dialects of Accadian, and to point out the principal charac-
teristics of each He assumed that the standard dialect, that which
preserved the old langunge in its purest and most archaio form, was
the dialect of Acead or northern Babylonia; the sewnd dialect, which
he regarded as standing to the other in the relation of a daughter or n
younger sister, being the dialect of Sumer or the south. My own view
bad originally been the converse of this, hut Prof. Haupt's arguments
brought me over to his side. Subsequently, however, his assumption
was attacked by Dr. Hommel; and after a considerable amount of
hesitation, I hnve arrived a t the conviction that Dr. Hommel is right.
<<Thedialect" which Prof. Haupt would make Sumerian and Dr.
Hommel Accadian, exhibits the language of early Chaldsea in a decayed
and degenerated form. It is largely affected by Semitie influence;
not only has it adopted Semitic words, but Semitic idioms as well.
These Semitisms, moreover, are partly popular, partly literary in origin :
some of them, that is, are manifestly the introductions of a learned
class xvho have importad them into Proto-Chaldean much in the same
way as Greek terms have been imported into English by men of
science, or French exprwions by Zitt&ateurn. Now i t was in northern
Babylonia, and not in the south, that Semitic influence and Semitic
supwmacy first made themselves felt. I t wns at Accad that the earlies
Semitic empire, that of Sargon, first grew up, And it was there that
the first Semitic library was founded under the patronage of a Semitic
monarch. Snmer continued much longer under Proto-Chaldean rule;
and it is possible, if not pmbable, that one or more ProtaChald-
dialects continued to be spoken in Sumer down to the days of Nehu-
chadnezzar himself.
Whether the Semitic name of Accad is derived from the Proto-Char-
dean Agad6 or the Froto-Chaldaean Agadd from the Semitic Accad, we
2E
 do not know; but i t is cartain that the importance of the city datq
only from the Semitic epoch of Babylonia The name is represented
by a compound ideograph (BUR-BUR)which signifies " a mound," and
n glops informs un that this ideograph was pronounced tills.' Sir
I1en1.y Rawlinson saw in tilla a derivative from eld, "to ascend," with
the signification of " high-lands;" and I formerly believed that support
for this view could be found in the word Accad itself, which I con-
l~ectedwith a supposed Pmto-Chald~eanaka, " to lift up." But this
belief was entiroly wrong. Acead has nothing to do with aka, which
means "to love," and tilla is the common Assyrian tillu, "a tel." It
signifies the mound on which a city or temple stood, as well as the
mound formed by the dEbris of a ruinei town. Accad man therefore
known as Tilla, either hccause i t stood on the site of an earlier pre-
Semitic city, or because of the lofty artificial platform on which it
was built.
The compound ideograph to which the pronunciation of Tilla was
attached was applied by Sargon to the country of Ararat or Armenia.
This may have been due t o a simple confusion of two geographical
names which had nothing to do with one another. I n the tablet
which givss us the name of Tilla, and which appears to have been
intended to explain difficultwords in texts emanating from the lihrnry
of Accad, Tilla is interpreted to mean Urdhu. Since the Euphrates
at Sippara was termed the Urudtuv, or "river of bronze" (from the
Pmto-Chaldrean urud, "bronz~"~),it seems probable that Urdhu is a
Semitised form of Urnd, a name which we may suppose to have been
given to Sippara or Accad and the surmundiug district in consequence
of the bronze with which their edifices were adorned. The resemblance
of Urdhu to Urardhu or Ararat, the Assyrian designation of Armenis,
may have led the Assyrian king to transfer an ideograph which pro-
perly denoted tho north of Babylonia to the mountainous land of
Armenia.
However this may be, Dr. Homrnel has, I believe, made it clear
that the texts whose primitive home can be shown to have been
Sumer are in the older nnd standard Proto-Chaldzean dialect, while
those which display a later and more Semitiscd phase of tlre languqe
belong p~.irnarilyto Accnd. At the same time, it must not be forgotten
that the priests of Accad not unfrequently attempted to write in the
arshaic and revered language of Sumer; while, on the other hand, texts
which originated in Sumer ha\,e undergone such extensive modi'i-

W. A. I. ii. 48, 13. ' W.A. I. ii. 46, 47.

.ations by repeated revision as to ha overlaid with the characteri~tics
of the northern dialect. It is also not impossible that changes similar
to those uudeqone by the old language in Acead may at a later time
have overtaken the dialect of the south, so that phonetic peculiarities,
which seem to us to belong to Accad, may really belong to the lan-
guage of Sumer in a later stage of decay.
I must here diverge for a moment in order to emphasise the fact
that very few of the earlier texts of Sumer and Accad have come down
to us in their original form. With the exception of the coutempo-
raneous inscriptions of the kings of Tel-loh or Mugheir, and perhaps
also of the hymns to the Sun-god of Sippara, which were composed in
literary "Accadian" at a time when the old language bad long become
extinct, the earlier literature of Chaldrea has been subjected to allern-
tiona and modifications of the most extensive kind. Documents of
different age and origin have bceu pieced together; words, lines, and
even whole passages have haen freely interpolated ; glosses have crept
into the text from the margin ;the l a n s a g e has been modernised again
and again; and the errors of copyists, intentional or unconscious, have
made their way into the text. The corruption of the text has been
further increased by the imperfect acquaintance of many of the later
editors with the pre-Semitic dialects of Chaldaea Thia has been a
frequent cause of error, and in one case at least has resulted in maca-
ronic verses, the Semitic portion of which has no real connection with
the Sumerian.' It is true that the scribes were assisted in under-
standing the earlier texts by commentaries, in which explanations
mere given of the more difficult words and ideographs ; hut the expla-
nations of the commentators were not always correct, while the com-
mentaries or s-called "bilingual lists" have themselves suffered from
the mistakes and ignorance of later editors. The scrupulous care with
which the scribes of Assur-bani-pal copied the tablets brought from
Babylonia, noting the places where there waa " a lacuna" (khibi) or
''a recent lacuna" (khibi em), giving alternative characters where the
scribe was uncertain as to the Assyrian character to which thb Baby-
lonian original corresponded, and at times h n k l y confessing the
inability of the copyist to understand his copy (zd idi, " I do not
know"), was a growth of comparatively modern date. The Babylonian
scribes may have shown the same carefulness for a few centuries before
the age cf Assur-hnni-pal, and efforts may have been made to secure
the accurate reproduction of the religious texts as soon as they acquired

See above, p. 80.

2E2
420 APPENDIX I.

a sacred character; but for at least two thoosand years alter the ern of
Sargon of Awad all the causes of corruption above enumerated were
freely at work, and it was just during this period that the larger part
of the Babylonian literature we possess assumed its present form. The
only wonder is that the non-Semitic portion of it should have been
handed dorvn as correctly as it is. I t was probably in the time of
Khammuragas (B.C. 2300) that the main bulk of it came into exist-
ence. There seems to have been a literary revival at that period, not
unlike the literary revival in Wales in the 12th and 13th centuries.
A considerable number of the older commentaries were probably
composed at the time ; at all events, the Epic of Gisdhubar and other
similar works are in all likelihood to be referred to this date. Under
Khnmmuragas, Babylon became the dominant state in Babylonia, and
absorbed the older fame of the Semitic empire at Accad and Sippara;
hence it is that the list of Babylonian dynasties begins with the
dynasty of Khammuragas, and that while the antediluvian kings of
Bbrassos belong for the most part to Larankha or Surippak, the near
neighbour of Accad, the first of them, Albros, is made a native of
Babylon.
But behind the Semitic legends of Accad and Babylon, as may be
seen from the foregoing Lectures, lie older non-Semitic legends which
speak of the origin of culture and civilisation in Chaldza. These
legends describe it as beginning on the shores of the Persian Gulf and
working its way to the cities of the north. This is in complete harmony
with what we have found to be the evidence of the native inscriptions.
Eridu, the primaeval capital of the south, was the first home of the
god of colture and healing, and it is with Eridu and its deities that the
oldest religious texts are intimately associated. As these texts are in
the standard dialect, it would follow that Dr. Hommel is right in
regarding it as the dialect of Sumer.
But yet more. The cuneiform system of writing was at the outset
pictorial, and its earliest documents would therefore be mainly writton
with ideographs, and not with phonetic signs. Now this is one of the
peculiarities which distinguish the texts of the standard dialect from
those conlposed in the second dialect, and consequently justifies us in
assigning them to Eridu and the surrounding district. If once we
assume that the standard dialect .is that of Sumer, and the secondaly
dialect that of Accad, everything falls naturally into its plac?.
The so-called "bilingual lists" sometimes qualify a word or form
belonging to the secondary or Accadian dialect by a couple of ideographs
which literally ="an "the lanyuqe of ofmoman." This "woman's lam
 APPENDIX I. 42 1
gun@" has been apposed ta have a grammatical reference, denoting
perhaps whnt we should call a "weak form p but though grammatical
terms were certainly used by the compilers of the lists, it is only those
of a more cbvious character, such as " sin@larn and "plural," "mas-
culine" and "femininep and I prefer to see in the expression, "woman's
language," a reference to one of those numerous cases in which the
language of the women and the numery is distinguished from that of the
men. I n northern Eabylouia, where Semitas and non-Semites inter-
mingled from an early period, there would have been reasons in plenty
for such an nppellation. Semitic wives would not have spoken Sume-
dan with the samo purity as their non-Semitic husbands ;while, on the
other hand, the dialect of the Sumerian wife would have been r o p d e d
by her Semitic husband as essentially a feminine idiom'
That more than one dialect prevailed in Chaldiea before its complete
occupation by the Semitas, is not only necessary from the nature of
things, but is also borne out by facts. Besides the two main dialects
of Sumer and Accad, our texts, in spite of the corruption they have
suffered, permit us to recoguise other subdialects, among which may
be noted the dialects of Sippara and Eridu. To them must be added
the literary dialect which probably grew up in the court of Sargon of
Accad, and is distinguished by its incorporation of Semitic words and
idioms, as well aa by its mixture of archaic and more modern non-
Semitic forms. An indication of its date may be found in the Semitic
loan-word gabiri, "a mountain" (Arabicjebel),l which had ceased to
be used in Asayro-Babylonian long before the age of Khammuragas.
Comspnding with this literary Accadiau was the literary Assgro-
Babylonian whose beginnings also go back to the era of Sargon of
Accnd. While the language of Accadian literature borrowed Semitic
words and exprea~io~s, the language of Semitic litemture borrowed
from Accadian. Where the ~cribeswere either Semites who had learnt
Accadian, or elm Accadians who had learnt Semitic, this was only

1 The ideographic designation of Sumer in late h p r i a n inseription~,

EXE-KU, is probably an example of whnt Halcvy ha8 happily termed a
rebus, and should be read emepu-cmgu in Babylonian-that is, "wise" or
"secret," in reference to the fact that the old language of Sumer was chiefly
employed in later days in the earnpasition of spells. Kn was chosen instea,+
of aa, partly because of its resemblance in sound to the Sumerian kua,"an
oracle," partly because the similarity of the Semitic a s a h , "to sit," to aeapu,
"to divine," had given the Sumerian ku, "to sit," the ftuthar sigaificatio~~
of " soothsaying."
* W. A I. ii 60, 66.
 natural; and since Chaldisnn culture and writing were of Sumerian
origin, while most of the religious and other texts mere composed in
the Sumerian lanpage, it was inevitable that the aniount of harrowing
on the Semitic side was greater than that on the Accadian side. The
technical terms of Sumerian science, or pseudo-science, whether this
dealt with magic or with astrology, were introduced into Semitic docu-
ments, and the Semitic vocabulary was enriched with words like
asalcku, "fever," and rihanna, " a co~~junctiou."As time went on, it
seems to have become more and more fashionable to import Accadian
or Sumerian words into literary Babylonian, and an imperfect know-
ledge of the old language not unfreqnently assigned to these words s
wrong form or a wrong maning. The most curious errors, however,
on the part of the borrowers were caused by the ideographic character
of the script. When the cuneiform system of writing was fiist learned
by the Semites, it mas still in process of formation. Its pictorial origin
was still remembered, and the Semitic scribes considered then~sclvesat
liberty not only to create new ideographs by combining two or more
together, hut even to invent ideographs for which there was no prece-
dent in the Sumerian syllabary. New phonetic values were iutroduccd,
derived from the Semitic words which expressed the mcnning of the
several ideographs, and the characters received new ideographic dgni-
fications due to the similarity of two Semitic roots, one of which only
was the real representative of the ideograph i n question. As the second
root mas often translated hack into Accado-Sumerian, and the Accads
Sumerian word so obtained was sometimes used as a phonetic value
of the ideograph, tho Accado-Sumerian texts which originated under
Semitic influence came to be filled with a s t r n g e medley of Sumerian
and Semitic.
I t NaS i n the Semitic texts, however, that literary affectation was
carried to the greatest lengths. I n the more modern epoch of cuneiform
writing, when the dialect of literature and the dialect of every-day
life had come to stand more and more apart, the learningof the scribes
n-as displayed in an almost Kabhalistic play upon the characters of
the syllabary. Not content with borrowing words and phrases from
tho Sumerian literature, which had now enteredupon a stage analogous
to that of monkish Latin, they read the ideographs phonetically, and
then imported them bodily into the inscriptions of the Seinitio liings.
Thus the Sumeriaus had sword dur, signifying " a table of shcwbread,"
and represented by the two ideographs KI-aaL, literally "great place;"
and we actually find this H I - ~ A L ,under the Semitic form of kigallv., used
in the inscriptions of Nebuchadnezzar and his successors, and inter-
preted to mean "a platiorm." A l o g e numbr, however, of t h w f a
fetched and erroneous forms are to be found only in tbs so-called
"hilinpal lists," and it is pmbahle that they never mads their way into
any actual text. The compiler of one of these lists was pmud of
showing his erudition by heaping words together which only the ini-
tiated wuld understand
But of course it was not the nrtificinl literary Semitic dialect don(
that was indebted to the Sumerian for theenrichment of itavocabnlary.
Two languages cannot be in contact one with another without mutual
borrowing, and the more cultivated language is the one which usually
gives more than it takes. The existence of the Sumerian language,
therefore, postulates not only a large number of Sumerinn loan-words
in the Assyro-Babylonian of dnily intercourse, but also, as students of
the science of language know well, a certain amount of influence upon
ita structure and grammar. Thus I have long believed that the dis-
tinction mnde in h s p B a h y l o n i a n between the pment asakkin and
the aorist astcun--9 distinction so contrary to the ordinnry character of
the Semitic verb--is due to the influence of the Snmerinn, which p o s
seased a real verb with a pment and an aorist; and i t is diicult to
explain in any other way the order of the Assyro-Babylonian sentence
which followed the Gumerian in placing the verb at the end, thus
setting at defiance the primary law of Semitic structure. Equally
instructive is the comparatively little use made by Assyro-Babylonian
of the permausive, which answers to the perfect of the other Semitic
tongues. The Semitic perfect could 501irish only where the verb
expressed condition and not time; a langunge which had developed
real tenses with a temporal signification hnd but slight need of itu
employment. I n fact, if he did not already know of the existencu
of Sumerian, the comparative gmmmnrian, like the discoverers of the
planet Urnnun, would have to presuppose i t
The eame would also be the case with the comparative philologlnt
who undertook an examination of the Assym-Babylonian vocabulnry.
Not only the literary dinlect, but thespokcn language as well, contained
an enormous number of words, of which we seek in vain for any antis.
factory representatives in the other Semitic hnguages. Now i t is a
commonplace of scientific philology that when we come acmss a large
residuum of words in a language for which we a n lind no allied word.
i n the other languages of the same family of speech, we must wnclude
tbat a considerable proportion of them have been bormwed fmm e l s e
where. I n Greek, Mr. Whnrton has shown that, besides 641 wordswhoae
foreign origin can be traced, there are about 620 which seem to have
424 APPENDIX I.

no Indo-Europrean etymology, and presumably, tlierefore, come for the

most part from a foreign source;' aud what is true of Greek is true
also of Semitic Babylonian. The roots preserved by one men~herof a
linguistic family andlost by all its sisters can never be vary numerous;
the roots-or m o r d b w h i c h i t has invented are fewer still ; and hence
the long list of words peculiar to Assyro-Babylonian points with an
unerring hand t o borrowing from a foreign source. I f we would feel
the full force of the argument, we must compare Assyro-Babylonian
with Hebrew, to which i t bears so close a relationship. The words
peculiar to Hebrew, and probnbly for the most part of foreign ertrac-
tion, like har, " a mountain," are i n the proportion of only one t o
ten when compared with the words peculiar to the language of Semitic
Babylonia used, so far as we can judge, i n the daily intercourse of the
people. Many of the latter we know to be derived from Sumerian,
and i t is therefore probable that as our knowledge of Sumerian increases
we shall find mnny more which have had the same origin. A t the
same time i t must not be supposed that Sumerian was the only foreign
tongue up011 which the Femites of Babylonia levied their contributions.
A t one period or another they were in contact with Elamites, K a s s ~ a n s ,
Sntians and tho like, and i t is only reasonable to conclude that they
borrowed something from each. We know, indeed, that they adopted
certain of the Elanlite and Kossaean deities, and those who adopt deities
are likely to adopt other things as welL No Semitic parallel has yet
been pointed out for the common Assyro-Babylonian verb kasadu, " t o
possess;" i t is eqnally difficult to discover for it a Sumerian derivation;
may i t not tbcn be a word, not evolved out of the inner conseiousneas
of the Babylonians, nor preserved by them while forgoltou by their
Semitic brethren, but taken from the language of one of their numerous
neighhours 1
There are two facts which make i t spaially difficult t o determine
whether a given word peculiar to Assyro-Babylonian, but not discover-
able in Sumerian, is really a loan-word or not. The first is our nn-
certainty as to tile primitive home of the speakers of the Semitic
parent-speech before its separation into the languages of the north and
the south. If,as I beliere, this home was i n the desert on the western
side of the Euphrates, in the immediate proximity of the Sumerian
kingdoms of Chaldcea, the parent-speech itself would have been i n
contact with Sumerian long before one of its dialects developed into
the Semitic language of Dobylonia, and we should therefore expect to

1 Etyma G m c q p. v i
End traces of Snmerian influence not only in the Semitic langonges of
h e north-Assym-Babyloninn, Phceniko-Hebrew and Aramiean-but
id the Semitic languages of the south as well. The second fact is the
want of any early monuments of Semitic speech except those composed
in the dialects of Dabylouia and Aasyria. The next oldest monuments
are in Phaniciau and Hebrew; but the Phcenicians and Hebrews,
according to their own traditions, had migrated from Eabylouia, and a
large part of the literature of the Old Testament belongs to the period
of the Babylonish Captivity. We know n o t h i i of Arabic bafore the
fifth century of the Christian era; and who ean teU the extent to which
i t had already been influenced by the Aramnic dialects which had
themselves been so long in contact with Babylonia 1 For these reasons
i t is somewhat rash to conclude, with Dr. Zimmern, that the occurrence
of the same phrase or idiom in an Accadiau and a Semitic text neces-
sarily proves that the Accadian text has been composed under Semitic
influonce. The rshness, indeed, is paralleled by the same scholar's
assertion that the interjections w and & have been introduced into an
Aecodiau text from Semitic Babylonia. As Professor Friedrich De-
litEBeh remarks, interjections are much the m e dl over the ~vor1d.l
But Professor Delitmh has himself put forward statements which
make one wish that Assyriologists would submit to a training in
scientific philology. His conception of a mot is still that of I b n
Kbayyuj,if we may judge from his assertion tbat the Semitic word for
"mother" is derired from the idea of "spaciousness ;'* and his opinion
that the word ad, in the sense of "father," is of Semitic origin, is a
greater crime against linguistic science than Dr. Zimmern's belief in
the peculiarly Semitic character of certain vocalic interjection^.^ I t is
only necessary to glance over a list of the words for " father" in the
vnrious languages of the world, to discover that ad or at is one of the
eornmonest of titles given by the child to the parent.4 Professor De-

' Zimmern, B q s a l m e n , p. 116.

* Th H e h m L a w g e viewed in t l Light
~ of Assyrian Resea~ch,p. 60.
' Zimmern, Bussp~almen,p. 114.
4 E.6. in Keltic, Albanian, Turkish, Kirgiss, Moko, Akra, Dacotan. See
Buschmann in the Ahhandlungen der Berliner A m & , 1852, p p 381 sp. I
. -
have ofkn wisbed that Assvrioloeists would devote some studv to nhouetics
" A

A page bristtling with diacritical marks may look scientific, but not uufre-
quently the appearance is grcnter than the reality. Diacritical marks are
objectionablefortwo reasons,fimt of nll because they mnnot be reproduced by
an ordinary printing-presa, and secondly bemuse they often serve to conceal
UI ignorance of what the sounds really were which were intended to br
 litzsch, however, after turning half the Semitic Babylonian vucabolary
into Accadian, has now gone to the opposite extrome, and would
transform what is Accadian into Semitic. The cause of both exagge&
tions is the same. H e has put his faith in the secalled ayllaha~iesand
bilingual lists rather than in the actual texts which we possess. Far
be it from me to disparage either the value of these lists or of the
work which has been accomplished by Professor Delitzsch aqd his
pupils. W e owe it in great measure to him that the decipherment of
Assyrian stands at its present level of scholarship, and the publication
of his long-promised but long-delayed Assyrian Dictionary will tend
to place the study of Assyrian on the same footing as that of the
bettm-known Semitic languages. But the Leipzig school has, with
one or two striking exceptions, been far too one-sided. Archreolom,
history, religion, mythology, have been neglected in favour of the almost
exclusive study of words: words, too, not as bound together i n the
sentences of nntranslated texte, but isolated and apart. Their explana-
tion has bcen sought in syl1ah;rrics and lists of synonyms, rather than
in the context of the docnmenls which have come down to us. This
excessive devotion to vocabularies has been too often accompanied by
a misconception or forgetfulness of the real nature of the "bilingual
lists." They are for the most part commentaries upon older texts,
made we know not when, and intended to explain the meaning of rare

expressed. If the Assyrian t s a W waa pronounced ta, it is better to write it

so than to denote it hy a syn~bulwhich may mean anytlling or nothing.
Where the two lettem belong to different syllables, which is rarely the w e

A,..,
. . .
in Assvrian. thev can be se~aratedbv. a hvohen ft-8).
! .nulo;icrs
.
.. . . In fact. when the
e . l ~ l rt.) n:prercnt thcir Jidt:riti.al n a r k , l y Ie~lerbt~ which
a n iutcllidil,l: pr mun~.iatic.trwn I c .ir<idor 1, I llnd tl.r'nt tl!ill:: i l l 1111.
face
.
c -f illrnttti. rosrtlilirier. It ir $,I1rrn. uvII 1, rloreccnt tlb~.ri~lll~lr
z;
of Assyrian by but this is the eygbol chosenay Sievers and other pho-
@il,i13n:

nolagistu to express the sound of sh, and it is accordingly replaced at times

by sh by those Assyrian scholars who make use of it. Unfortunately, pho-
netics prove that the Assyrian sibilant could not have had this value, aa
Rawlinson and Oppert long ago perceived. A wcll-known phonetic rule of
Assyrian is for a dental followed by the sibilant to become samech, the
dental being first assimilated to the sibilant. Now 88 is samech, but not
nhsh. The representation of the Assyrian teth by ? is another phonetic error.

0 - A -
The Assyrian telh had affinitieswith daleth and not with tau,as is proved
bv its freouent interchange with the former. as well as by the fact that the
same charactem were employed to express the daleth and the teth Its pm-
nunciation was in all orobabilitv that of the English dh (aa in the). As for
the p p h (which iu r;abylonia; ~assedinto g), ~ a l ; e o g r a ~ handphonetiosy
alike sanction its symholisation by p.
a vbsdeta wads, ideographs and exprehsiona The original te%twm
sometimes in Accado-Sumerian, sometimes in an older form of Semitic
Babylonian ; while at other times texts in both languages w m com-
mented on together by the scribe. I n the so-called non-Semitic column
of the "bilingnal lists," accordingly, we must expect to find not only
Accado-Sumelian, hut also Semitic words as well as ideographs which
may be either of Sumerian or of Semitic origin. h'ow and then the
scribe displays his learning 'by introducing synonyms or equivalent
ideographic comhinatious, many of which had probably never been
used in any real text at all. The mythological lists, which contain a
medley of divine names and epithets drawn from sources of all kinds
and ages, partly Accado-Sumerian, partly Assyrian, partly purely
ideographic, partly even Elamite or Kosszeau, atford a good example of
the difficulty and danger of trusting implicitly to such guides. I t is
from this cause t l ~ a Assyrian
t has been mistaken for Arcadian, Acca-
dian for Assyriau; while ideog~aphshave boen read phonetically, and
phonetic clraracters as if they were ideogmphs. We nmust never forget
that the object of the commentators was not to provido R bilingual
vocabulary; the distinction between Accadian and Assyrian was ono
which they hardly underatcad. Their task was to explain everything
that seemrd obscure to the current language of their own time, and
wnsequently obsolete or unnsnal Semitic words and forms, as well as
rare modes of writing otherwise well-known words, stood for them on
precisely the same footing as the words of the old dialects of Sumer
and Accnd. The lists of Semitic synonyms must he studied with equal
caution. The Assyrian scribe had not the same fine discrimination as
the modern lexicographer; it was sufficient for him to group words
together which had the same general sense or could be employed in
pamllel phrases. Moreover, in these lists he had an excellent oppor-
tunity of displaying the extent of hie erudition, and it is therefore by
no means always certain that all the words included i n them wera
ever used either in literature or in the language of daily life.
Another fact must be remembered which seriously detracts from the
value of the "bilingual lists" Whcre an Accado-Sumerian word is
translated by an Assyrian one, the latter has generally been taken by
the commentator from what may be termed the anthorised translation
of the nou-Semitic texts. But the Babylnnian translator had not the
same ideas in regard to translation as a modern scholar. At times,
indeed, he was slavishly literal-so literal, in fact, as to contravene the
common idiom of Semitic speech ; but more usually his rendering was
s p n p h m e rather than n tmnslation. It PU sufficient for him if he
428 APPENDIX I.

gave the general sense of the original, or what appeared to him tho
general sense ; since the notes attached to the bilingual texts given in
this volume will show that the translators were not always thoroughly
well acquainted with the language they undertook to explain. Hence
i t is that different Accado-Sumerian words are rendered by the same
Semitic equivalent, that Accado-Sumerian verbs are apt to be repre-
sented by the same monotonous ideas of "giving" or "placing," and
Accado-Sumerian adjectives by the same conceptions of "strong" or
"
great." Conversely, the same Accado-Sumerian word is made a
synonym of different Semitic ones. The result is, that the laboun of
the Leipzig school have made us acquainted with a prodigious number
of Assyrian words all signifying "to go," or " to bind," or "to give,"
or "to be strong." This is well enough for a beginning, but wc
naturally wish to know what kind of "going," or "binding," or
'I giving," is denoted in a particular case.

A11 this goes to show horn needful it is to criticise the native voca-
bularies, and more especially to control them by the evidence of
connected texts, if we would employ them with success. But there is
yet a further and important reason for criticism and control. These
native vocabularias are not infallible. Not only must we admit mis-
takes on the part of the original translator and the original com-
mentator; we must admit them also on the part of the later copyists.
The Leipzig school has done valuable work by insisting on the necessity
of having exact facsimiles of the tablek which have come down to us ;
but when these facsimiles are made, there is a further necessity for
vigorously applying to them the canons of textual criticism. The lime
is past when we can accept a reading simply because it is fmnd on
one of the tablets of Assur-bani-pal's library.
The Semitic character of Assyrian has been recognised from the first;
the linguistic relationship of Accado-Sumerian has been a more die-
pnted matter. Dr. Oppert long ago pointed out its agglutinative nature,
and endeavoured to connect it with the Turanian or Ural-Altaic family
of speech. I followed in the same path in 1870, and have ever sinco
felt convinced, for reasons which I need not here specify, that it mould
eventually prove to he an early representative of the Ural-Altaic lan-
guages, though separated from the existing n~embersof the family by
a wide interval of time and space. Lenormant's attempts, hvrvcver, to
demonstrate its affinity with the languages of the Uralic branch were
not very successful, and the adverse judgment of Dr. Donner seems to
have definitely decided the question against them. These attempts,
in fact, brilliant as they were, were nevertheless premature, and, as I
mid in 1877, until Aceado-Sumerian phonology has been determined
in ite main outlines, i t is useless to continue them. Before we can
compare Sumerian with other languages, we must first ascertain appmxi-
matsly how i t was pronounced, and what c h a n , ~ its pmnnnciation
underwent in the course of centuries
Thanks to Pmf. Haupt and Dr. Hommel, theae conditions have now
been fulfilled. Our knowledge of Sumerian is still, it is true, imperfect ;
but we now know enough about it to he able to compare i t with other
languages with some chance of success. No unprejudiced student of
linguistic science can resist the conviction that Dr. Hommel's com-
parison of the Sumerian grammar and vocnbulary with the grammar
and vocabulary of the Turko-Tatar languages is founded on a solid
basis of fact. Some of his comparisons may indeed be disputable, but
this does not affcct the net result. He has succeeded in discovering
the leading laws of phonetic change between Aceado-Sumerian and the
modern Turkish dialects, and has thus fulfilled the primary conditions
of proof demanded by linguistic science. The structure, the grammar,
the phonology, the vocalic harmony and the vocabulary, all go to show
t h a t the primitive language of Chalda?a is a remotely ancient repre-
sentative of the Altaic family of speech. The unexpected resemblances
that can he pointed out between such widely-sovered members of the
same family as Accado-Surnerian on the one side, and the modem
Turkish idioms on the other, are a remarkable illustration of the fixity
of human language. I n this, as in his historical combinations, Dr.
Hommel's work has been at once so brilliant and so good, that Icannot
refrain from formally expressing my admiration of i t Doubtless he is
rash at times, but rashness is the privilege of the pioneer.
After what precedes, it seems hardly necessary to diseuse seriously
M. HalOvy's curious contention that Accado-Sumeriau hnd no existeuce
Indeed, awriter who maintains that Mugheir is not "Ur of the Chaldees,"
appears to be beyond the reach of argument. But X.HalBvy is not only
a good Semitic scholar, he hns also a keen eye to the weak points in his
adversary's harness, and he has defended and re-modelled his paradox
with a perseverance and audacity worthy of a better cause. Started
while as yet he was ignorant of Assyrian, i t has been supported and
preached by him with renewed vigour since his eurolment in the hand of
kssyriologists. But his arguments and thcory have aliko changed n
good deal during the progress of his Assyrian studies, although his
main thesis remains unaltered, that "Aecadiau is not a languqe, but
a form ofwriting." His chief arguments, however, have been directed,
not towurds the demonstration of his own theory, but against the
430 APPENDIX I.

agsnmptiona and assertions of certain Assyriologiate. As these assump.

tions and assertions have too fraquently been based on hasty gene&-
isations and imperfectly known facts, their demolition has been a corn.
paratively easy matter; hut it has left the chief question at issue-that
of the existence of Sumerian-wholly untouched. The early relations
between Sumerians and Semites, the period when Sumerian became
an extinct language, the pronunciation and meaning of particular
Sumerian words-these are all subsidiary questions, the answers to
which may be right or wrong without affecting the main point in dis-
pute. The views attacked by If. Halevy are for the most part views
which I, at least, have never shared; for years I have maintained that
mmy of the Accadian texts r e possess were written by Semites, and
that the language of them is comparable to monkish or even "dog"
Latin;' while M. Halevy will bear mn witness that I have myself long
ago called his attention to Semitisms in the Accado-Sumerian portion
of the bilingual inscriptions. To argue from the presence of these
Semitisms that the rest of the texts must be in a strangely deformed
kind of Semitic, is an argummiumper saltum which, whatever force i t
may have against the views of other Bssyriologists, 'has certainly nerer
had any force against mine.
Apart from arguments which merely criticise the peculiar historical
theories or misreading3 of certain writers, I find M. Halbvy advancing
two only of any apparent weight against the belief that Sumerian was
a real language. One of these is, that it is expressed by the same cha-
racters as Semitic Babylonian. The statement is not quite exact; but
granting that it is, we have only to glance at the numerous languages
which make use of the Latin alphabet to discover its weakness. Even
within the cuneiform system of writing itself, the Alarodian language
of Van is written in the characters of the syllabary of Nineveh. M.
HalBvy's second argument is more specious, but urlfortunately i t is not
eorrcct. He nsserta h a t the syntax and idioms of the Sumerian sen-
tence are the same as those of the Assyrian sentence. But i t is not
necessary to translate many of the bilingual hymns before discovering
that the Seniitic rendering not uufrequently differs a good deal frnm
the Sumerian original; and that even in such small matters of idiom as
the order of two parallel mords, the Semitic scribe has not cared to
disturb the familiar Semitic expression by a literal translation of the
Bnmeriau text. Thus where the Sumerian has "female and male,"
"day and night," "fire and stones," the Semitic version ostentatiously
-
See, for e-~mple,my Babylonian Literatzcsa, p. 71.
gives Urmle and female,' "night and day," Ustonar and fire.' It is
the same disregard of exwt rendering which causes different Sumerian
words to be represented by the same Semitic one, or the same Semitic
word by different Sumerian on-. Nothing, however, can better illus-
trate the diversity of the syntax of the two langnages than the incorpo-
ration of the pronouns and the extensive employment of postposition.
which meet us in almost every line of a Sumerian text; while the
agreement ofAssyro-Babylonian and Sumerian in ragard to the position
of the verb is, as we have seen, one of those contraventions of Semitic
structure which indicate the disturbing influence of a foreign idiom on
the Semitic language of Babylonia and Assyria
M. Halevy's own explanation of the phenomena which, i n the
opinion of other Assyriologists, prove the existence of the Sumerian
Iangnnge, belongs rather to the age of the Eabhalists than to that of
linguistic scienee. I t ignores all that we now know of tho condition
of men in an early stage of culture, ss well aa of the development of a
system of writing. It is neither more nor less than the supposition
that the inventors of the Atbash and Kabhala presided over the
beginnings of cuneiform writing. It revives the old theory of n secret
writing invented by a primitive priesthood, and understood only by
the initiated few. Such a theory ia inconsistent with the doctrine of
evolution ; i t inverts the history of writing, and aseribes what is neces-
sarily a very late phenomenon to the first beginnings of a written
literature. Men who are laboriously developing a system of writing
out of pictorial hiemglyphn, are not the inventors of cipher and
"Atbash," or the elaboratora of a secret script A system of writing
must have become old and widely used before the idea can arise of
evolving out of it a mysterious script whose meaning shnll be known
only to a few. To refer such a script to a primitive age of culture i s
to misconceive utterly the conditions of human progress. The student
of anthropology can only wonder that a theory of the kind can have
been seriously promulgated in this age of scientific knowledge.
M. HalOvy does indeed support his hypothesis by appealing to the
fact that ideo,mphs are of frequent occurrence in the Semitic inscrip
tions of Assyria and Babylonia, and that one of the chief difficulties
presented by Assyrian proper names arises from their being expressed
ideographically. But the fact shows just tho contrary of what he
would have it prove. No one doubts that the ideographs occurling in
a Semitic cuneiform text represent Semitic words, and not n system of
secret or "hieratic" writing; why, then, should they he supposed to
repregent a system of secret writing when found in texts which do not
 432 APPENDIX I.

contain a single phoneticauy-written fiemitic word 1 If &I.Hal4vY1o

"hieratic" script had ever existed, we should meet with it in inscrip
tiona of whose Semitic character there is no question. But the best
disproof of such a "hicratic" system is the nature of so many of the
doc~imentswhich, according to the Assyriologiets, are oompoeed in the
Snmerian language. A " hieratic" script would have been used for
magical texts an11charms, conceivably also for religious literature, hut
certainly not for historical annals or the legal documents of private
individuals. Yet wc find historical texts like those of Khammuragaa
written in this hypothetical secret writing, and-still more wonderful
to relate-with a translation in ordinary Semitic Babylonian at the
side; while there are numberless deeds relating to the sale of slaves,
the loan of money or the purchase of property, composed in the same
mysterious script and without any Semitic version attached to them.
To believe that such documents are drawn up in a hieratic system of
writing requires the robust faith of a medkval rabbi.
Apart, bowsver, from a certain love of paradox which M. HalBvy
seems unable to resist, it is probable that this curious theory of a
Kabhalistic script as old as the oldest known inscriptions of Chaldaea
would never have been started, but for the premature theories, and
still more the erroneous readings, enonnced by Assyriologiste on tho
subject of Sumerian. The correct reading of Sumerian words is a
matter of extreme difficulty, and a considerable number of the readings,
given in earlier works on the language, and not unfrequently quoted
a t second-hand by philological pamdoxers in support of their peculiar
theories, mere mere makeshifts, which had no pretensions to accuracy.
What incroases tbe difficultyis that the Semitic scribes, through whom
we have to obtain our knowledge of the ancient language of Chaldaa,
were often as ignorant as ourselves, and either read phonetically what
was really written ideographically, or else substituted a Semitic for
the genuine Accado-Sumerian word. I t is only gradually that we are
acquiring a better knowledge of the Accado-Sumeriau vocabulary, and
are becoming able to control the statements made by the compilers of
the " hilingual lists." Sumerian, it must be remembered, started with
pictorial hieroglyphs; it was only by degrees that these came to be
used phonetically; and long before the system of writing had attained
completeness, it was adopted and further developed by n Somit,ic
population. The cuneiform script is therefore like a palimpsest vhcre
the original Sumerian text has been overlaid by a Semitic one ; and in
order to reach this test, the decipherer must first work his way througlt
what overlays and conceals it. If we would read it rightly, we must
 APPENDIX I. 43.1
airoat our minds of the prejudices derived from the study of its l a t 9
Semitic phase, and endeavour to interpret it by the analogy of similar
idcographic systems of writing, like the old Egyptian or the Chinese.
I t is only in this way that we shall come to understand the principles
that have guided its growth. W e shall then discover, for instance,
thst determinatives have played a much more important part in its
constitution than the Assyriologists, or indeed the Semitic scribes
themselves, have supposed. The determinatives retained by the
Semitic syllabary are hut a remnant of those that enter into the com-
position of the old Sumerian ideographs. The ideo,maph of "water,"
for example, is not only a determinative in the compound character
which signifies "to drink" (nak), but also in tho word which denotcs
a "storm" or "deluge" ( d t u ) . Of equal importance with the recog-
nition of this extended use of determinatives, is the recognition of a
principle which prevails widely in all pictorial systems of writing.
When phonetic values are beginning to attach themselves to the
primitive ideographs, an attempt is made to asaist the memory in
rememherirg the pronunciation and meaning of a particular word, by
writing it in ideographs which denote words whose sound nnd signifi-
cation alike recall tho word intended to he expressed. Thus " a fetter"
was called aaggid or nigida in Sumerian ;hut it waa represented hy the
two characters, m, " a hand," and gid, "to extend," w i d being wffi-
cicntly near saggid in pronunciation, while the ides of <'a fetter" was
called up by that of "extending the hand."' A t other times the
meaning and pronunciation of an ideograph were defined by coupling it
with another, which either gave its pmnnuciation-in which case the
ideogrnph became a simple determinative, as in h p r , " water3'-or else
indicated the precise shade of meaning with which i t was used. An
illustration of thelatter mode of combining characters may he taken from
the Semitic texts composed in the court of Sargon at an epoch when the
cuneiform system of writing rras still in process of formation. Here, for
example,we find the ideogrnph of hand-idza insemitic-further defined
h~ the attachment to i t of the character which bad the phonetic value
of Gap, and accordingly reminded the reader of kup, " a hand." I t is
from a neglect of these and similar devices common to all pictorial
forms of script, that the Snmerian vocabulary has been filled by Assy-
nologists with monstrous or hybrid forms. I t is only of late that
Assyrian students have begun to realise that the characters of nn ideo-
graphic system of writing are seldom to be read phonetically. When
434 AFPENDIX I.

B word is expressed by a combination of characters, its pronunciation

can only be recovered either by a gloss or by a comparison of the
vaxioua modes i n ~ < - l ~ iict his written. The error of the Semitic scribes,
who read 6 1 - ~ A asLkiyrrl instcad of &r, has been too often repested in
these lntter days.
I t cannot be supposed that. the criticisms of a scholar so erudite and
keen-sighted as M. Halkvy should remain wholly barren I n fact, they
have helped to further the progress of science, though not exactly in
the direction he desired or intended. His earlier uhjeclio~~s led to
Prof. Schrader's discovery that the characters of the cuneiform script
had all been catitloped and named i n the Accado-Sumerian period,
and that many of the values assigned to them i n the third column of
the so-called syllabaries are merely Semitised forms of these names.
H e bas himself done n ~ u o htowards forcing his brother Assyriologists
to recognise, not only that a goodly number of the Accadian texts
belong to the Semitic period and were conlposed or rernodelled b y
Semitic scribes, but also that from the first what he has termed the
rebus played an important part i n the forn~ationof c<~mpomndideo-
graphs and ideographic expressions. The rebus was always a favonrite
plaything i n the hands of Semitic litte!rateulr, though i t attained its
greatest proportions i n the later ages of cuneiform writing, when the
itlcograpl~of ' L c ~ ~ o w was
n " used to denote im,['strong," because one
of its valaes was pi,., which also signified " power," and the name of
Darius was written Dari-musu, i n order to assimilate i t to the Assyrian
d a m and nuwv, "everlasting" of "na~ne." But the theory itself
which b1. Halkvy's "rebus" hns been called upon t o support, will share
the fate of similar curiosities of philological literature, and be classed
with Sir William Jones's denial of the existence of Zend, and Dug:llcl
Stewart's demonstration that Sanskrit was a n invention of the Bmh-
mans, palmed off upon the unsuspecting mind of the modern European.
M. Hnldvy, however, is not alone in denying to tile Sumerians the
credit of originating the culture which most Assyriologists ascribe to
them. I cannot pronounce a n opinion on Prof. D e Lacouperie's theory
that the ancestors of the Chinese wore once i n contact, probably i n
Elom, with the inventors of the cuneiform system of writing, since I
nm not a Sinologist; though I find i t difficult to believe that "the
Gak tribes" could have carried not only the forms of the Su~ncrian
ideagmphs, but nlsu their pronuuciation \vith so little altoration as Prof.
T)e Lacouperie maintains, across ncarly the whole leilgth of barbarous
Asia. But there ore other writers who would suhstitnto for the Sume-
rians of the inscriptions the shado\~.yrace of Cushites; and since i n
w e n t yeam the Cnuhite theory has h e n r e v i d and datended by so
great an authority as Lepsins, it is necessary for me to st& in a felv
words why 1 feel myself compelled to reject it. That Babylonian tra-
dition brought the early civilisation of the country from the water8 of
the Persian Gulf is perfectly true, and rve have wen that the evidence
of the monuments tends Oo corroborate it. I t is also perfectly true
that there seems to have been intereoune, if not between Chaldaea and
Egypt, at d l events between Chaldaea aud the Sinaitic Peninsula, as
far hack as the days of the Fourth Egyptian Dynasty, and there is no
reason why this intercourse should not have brought vith it certain
elements of Egyptian art and civilisation. But the cuneiform system
of writing mas already developed, and the culture of Tel-lob had already
entered upon its later stage. There ia nothing that would lead ue to
believe that the beginnings of this writing and culture came to Erido
from abroad.
If Lepius were right, the primitive hieroglypypbs out of which the
cuneiform characters were evolved would offer resemblances to the hiero-
glyphs ofEgypt But this is not thecase. With the exception of such
obvious symbols as a circle to denote the sun, which occur in every
picbrial system of writing, the ideographs of Chaldies and Egypt have
nothing in common. Even the idea of divinity is lepresented differently
i n them. I n Chaldaa i t is expressed by an eight-rayed star ; in Egypt,
by a stone-headed axe. The existence of the famous " Cushite race," in
fact, depends on a misinterpretation of a verse of the Old Testsmant,
eked out by the loose terminology of Greek writers who spoke of "Ethio-
pians" in the east as well as in the west. The basis of the whole
Cnshite thcory are the words of Gen. x. 8, "And Cuah begat Nimrod."
Critics, however, have long since ngreed that the pnssage about Nimmd
is a later insertion in the ethnographical table of Genesis, and the pre-
ceding verses show that in the original text Cush is understood in the
same geographical sense as elsewhere in the Old Testament. Properly
spaking, Cush denoted Ethiopia or Nuhia, and was a name borrowed
from :he Egyptians, who called that part of the world Kesh; but since
the southern coasts of Arabia were peopled by colonies from Ethiopia,
it was further extended to them. The regions adjacent to Cnsh, Phut
or Punt on the Somhli coast, Egypt, and even Canaan, with its Philistine
emigrants from the Delta, were described as the children of Cush, just
as the Libyans or Lehabim were described as the children of Egypt
There io nothing to show that between the geographical Cush of Gen.
x. 6, 7, and Cush the father of Nimrod, there is anything more than a
similarity of name; for aught we know, the latter may be the Sumerkn
2 ~ 2
 436 APPENDIX I.

god of darkness and eclipse, Kus or Kusi. I n Gen ii. 13, it is true, a
land of Cush is brought into connection with Assyria and Babylonia;'
but the text here is probably corrupt. Instead of Cush, the original
reading was probably Cash, that is Kassi or Kossieans, the vowel s
having slipped into the k'thihh from the p'r4. I t is possible that t h e
father of Nimrod was also Cash rather than Cush, in which case Nimrod
wouldhe a representative of the Kossieans. However this may he, CusL
is never found elsevvhere in tho Bible mithany other meaningthan that
ofNubin or southern Arabia, while the Kusu of the Assyrian inscriptions
means Nubia alone. The hypothesis started by Mr. Pinchess that t h e
Cl~aldaeanscame out of Kappadokia because a Kappadokian district is
called K u h on an Assyrian tablet, reminds us of the ethnographicui
speculations of a former age, which identified the Cymry with t h o
Cimbri, and derived them both from Gomer.
For the Cushites, Mr. Rertin would, like M. Halkvy, substitute t h e
Semites ; only, unlike M. HalBvy, he believes that the Semites, nfter
inventing the cuneiform system of writing, handed it over to the Sume-
rians. But this is to invert the real order of events. The arguments
brought forward by Mr. Bertin in support of his thesis tell a contrary
tale; the primitive ideographs and their primitive phouetic valnes are
Snmerian and nut Semitic. When Mr. Bertiu can show that the
Semitic r i s was used by the Sumerians as a phonetic value of t h e
ideograph for "head," while the value of .fag was not known to t h e
early Semitic texts, it will be time to listen to his theory. Meanwhile
we may rest content with the old doctrines, .however commonplacu
they may be, engaged in the loss ambitious task of strengthening and
testing their foundations, and viorking out the problems which they
still present.

The Assbur of verse 14, however, is not Assyris, but the city of Assur.
Gihon, which watered Cush, seems to be a Hebraised farm of Glikhinnu, " a
snare," borrowed fmm the Sumerisn gi-khan (T.A. I. iv. 22, 31). &-khan
is usually written &A-khan,with the detern~instiveof "a cord," and BA-khan
(pronounced gikhan) is said, in W. A. I. ii. 36, 6, to bc a name of the
Euphrates. We must not forget that tho first syllable of the classical
"Kossaean" gives us the vowel o instead of a. Gibhinnu will have been
' sssimilated to the Hebrew word GilrhBn.
Proceedings of th Society of Biblical Archaology, Dee. 6th, 1881.
 ft

MR. 0. SMITH'S AOUOUNT OF THE TEMPLE OF BEL.*

"I DAVE discovered a Babylonian text, giving a remarkable account

of the Temple of Belns at Babylon ;and as my approaching departure
for Nineveh does not allow me time to make a full translation of the
document, I have prepared ashort account for your readers, giving the
points in the arrangement and dimensions of the buildings.
Additional interest attaches to this inscription from the fact that i t
is the first time any detailed description of a temple has been found
in the cuneiform texts; i t thus supplies the first information as to the
dinlensions of the ,mat temples, and it is fortunate that the one
described was the mnst famous in the valley of the Euphrates.
The importance of this temple is well known; it was the grandest
religious edifice in the country, the centre of the national worship, and
one of the wonders of the capital, Babylon.
This temple nfas founded centuries before Babylon became the chief
city in the state, and rctained its fame even down to Roman times.
Herodotus and Strabo have given us accounts of the Temple of Belw,
the former representing the principal bnilding as one stade in length
and breadth, and as consisting of eight stages or towers one above
anotber, forming a pyramid, the highest stage being the sanctuary.
Strabo states that this building was a stade in height, a stade being
supposed to equal abont 600 English feet.
The height given by Strabo for the tower of the Temple of Belw
bas already been considered very questionable (see Rawlinson's 'An-
cient Xonarcbies,' vol. ii. p. 515), and, now that we bare the dimen-
sions of the building, must be rejected.
First, I must remark on the Babylonian measures used, that they
are principally the cubit, equal to abont 1 foot 8 inches English ; and
the gar or an, equal to 12 cubits, or 20 feet English ; but there is

- --
mother series of numbers used in measuring, ceonsistiug apparently ot

+ Athemum, Feb. 12% 187a

438 APPENDIX 11.

numbers of hadeycorns arranged in sixties; thus the first number is a

length of 11.33.20, which consists of 11 x 3600 + 33 r 60 + 20 barley-
corns, in all 41,600 barleycorns, or 1155 feet, 7 iaskzs. The barleycorn
mas the standard unit of measure among the Babylonians, and for this
reason was used sometimes in measures of length without the other
terms.
First in the table6 we have the measnms of tha outer court, called
the 'Grand Court,' which is given as 11.33.20 in length (that is,
about 1156 feet) and 9. in breadth (that is, 900 feet). There is a
calculation as to the area of this court, which I pass over, and come
to the next court, called the 'Court of Ishtar and Zamama.' This
space is reckoned as 10.33.20 in length (1056 feet) and 4.30 (450 feet)
in hreadth. There is again here a calculation of area, which I omit.
Round the court were six gates admitting to the temples. There
were, 1, the grand gate ; 2, the gate of the rising snu (east); 3, the
great gate; 4, the g ~ t eof the colossi; 5, the gate of the canal; and
6, the gate of the tower-view.
The next division is the space or platform apparently walled, and
called a ki-gall<,sur, or bimt. I t is uncertain if this was paved, and
its extent is also uncertain. I t is stated as a square, three ku in length
and three ku in breadth, but the value of the im is uncertain. The
four walls faced tho cardinal points, in this agreeing with the other
parts, all the buildings having their sides west, north and south.
There were four gates, one in the centre of each side of this division :
1, the gate of the rising sun (east); 2, the southern gate; 3, the gate
of the setting sun (west) ;4, the northern gate.
Inside stood some building or enclosure, the name af which is
damaged. I t wns 10 gar long and 10 gar broad (200 feet by ZOO),
connected with the great Ziggurat or tower, which was the inner and
crowning edifice of the group. Bound the base of the Zigqrat or
tower were ranged the chapels or temples of the principal gods, on its
four sides, and facing the cardinal points.
On the eastern side stood a sanctuary or temple, 70 or SO cubits
long and 40 cubits hmad (117 or 133 feet by 67 feet), with sixteen
shrines, the principal being the shrines devoted to the god Waho and
Tasmit his wife. Xeho was considered the eldest son of Bel, the great
deity of the temple.
On the northern side stood two temples, one devoted to the god & !,I
the other to Nusku. The temple of Ea was 85 cubits long and 30
hroad (142 feat by 50 feet), and that of Nusku rw a sqaare, 35 cubita
each way (58 feet bv 58 fentb
 THE TEMPLE OF BEL. 439
On the sonthern side 8 W a single temple dedicated to the two p a t
gods, Anu and Bel. This was 70 cubits long and 30 eubite broad
(117 feet by 50 feet).
On the western side were the principal buildings, consisting of a
juuble house, with a court between the two wings. On tlie one side
the wing was 100 cubits long and 20 cubits broad (166 feet by 34 feet).
On tlie other side the wing was 100 cubits long and 65 cubits broad
(166 feet by 108 feet), and the space between them was 35 cubits wide
(58 feet). The building at the back was 125 cubits long and 30 cubits
broad (208 feet by 60 feet). I do not properly comprehend the dis-
poaition of the buildings on this side, andmy description of the position
of the western templea must he taken as conjectural. I n these weste~u
chambers stood the conch of the god, and the throne of gold mentioned
by Herodotus, besides other furniture of great value. The conch is
stated to have been 9 cubits long and 4 cubits broad (15 feet by 6 feet,
8 inches).
I n the centre of theee p p s of buildings stood the grandest portion
of &he whole pile, the grant Ziggurat, or temple-tower, built in stages,
ita sides facing the cardinal points.
The bottom or first stage was a square in plan, 1 5 gar in length
and b~xadth,and 5 1 gar in height (300 feet square, 110 feet high). This
stage appears to have been indented or ornamented with buttresses.
The nest or second stage of the tower was also square, being 13 gar
in length and brendth, and 3 gar in height (260 feet square, 60 feet
high). The epithet applied to this stage i~ obacure ; it had probnbly
sloping sides.
The third stage differs widely from the lower ones, and commences
a regular progressive series of stages, all of equal height. I t was 10 gar
in length and breadth, and 1 gar in height (200 feet square, 20 feet
high).
The fourth stage was 84 gar in length and breadth, and 1 gar in
height (170 feet square, 20 feet high).
The fifth stage was 7 gar in length and breadth, and 1 gur in height
(140 feet square, 20 feet high). Probably by accident, the dimensions
of the sixth stage of the tower are omitted in the inscription, hut they
can be easily restored in accordance with the others. This stage must
have been 54 gar in length and breadth, and 1 gar in height (110 feet
square, 20 feet high).
On this was rnisetl the seventh stage, which was the upper temple or
sanctuary of the god Bel. This building had a length of 4 gar, a
440 APPENDIX 11.

breadth of 33 gar, and a height of 21 gar (80 feet long, 70 feet broaa,
and 50 feet high).
Thus the whole height of this tower above its foundation wan 16gar,
or 300 feet, exactly equal to the breadth of the base; and as the fouu-
dntion was most probahly raised above the level of the ground, it would
;:ivs a height of over 300 feet above the plain for this grandest of Dahp
loniau temples.
The only ruin now existing at or near Babylon which can besuppoeed
to represent the temple of Belus is the mound and el~closureof Babil,
the iuins corresponding fairly with the account of these structures in
(.he Greek autlam and in the inscription. The sides of tha building
f.tce the cardinal points, like those in the inscription; the remains of
the two sides of the enclosure now existing indicate a circumference
ahout equal to the Greek measurement, and slightly in excess of that
in t,he inscription; but it must he remembered that tho exact length
of the Babylonian measures is not known, and there are different
opinions even as to the length of the Greek stade, while the present
remains of the wall require careful nleosurement to determine more
exactly their length and the dimensions they indicate. On the other
side of the Euphrates stands a ruin, Birs Nimmud, also consisting of
an enclosure, various temples, and a temple-tower ; but this represents
t.he site of the temple of Neho at Borsippa, and its angles, instead of
its sides, face the cardinal points, while r u t a single one of its known
dimensions agrees with the corresponding paint in the inscription.
The mound of Babil, which is already identified by the best authorities
with the temple of Beius, consists now of the lower stage of the toner
and the ruins of the buildiugs round ik"
 IIL
THE MAGICAL TEXTS.

I. (Haupt, AkkadLda clnd Sum.isdLe Keilscl~riffteztL,ii, pp. 82 q.;

W.A.I. ii 17, 18. Sumerian with Semitic translation in parnllel
columns. Also Sumerian text only in R 612.)
Col i 1. Incantation (aiptu). The evil (hostile) god, the evil demon
(utuk),
2. tho demon of the field, the demon of the mountain,
3. the demon of the sea, the demon of the tomb,
4. the evil spirit (aedu, Heb. 871M),the dazzling fiend (du, Bum.
galla),
5. the evil wind, the assaulting wind,
6. which strips off the clothing of the body as an evil demon,
7. conjure, 0 spirit of heaven ! conjure, 0 spirit of earth I

8. The (possessing) demon which seizes a man, the demon (eKmmta)

which seizea a man,
9. the (seizing) demon which works mischief, the evil demon,
10. conjure, 0 spirit of heaven ! conjure, 0 spirit of earth !

11. The s a c d prostitute whose heart in nick, the sacred prostitute

of the oracle (9,
12. the sacred prostitute of heaven (Ass.Anu) who rests not,
13, the embryo of the boginning of &zkcomplete month,
14. the unburied in the earth,
16. who turns not the breast, who lets not the hand fall,
16 the hostile one who smites the hend of the monntain,
17. conjure, 0 spirit of heaven ! conjure, 0 spirit of earth !

18. That which in misformed, that which in unlucky (Asa nnenb

hlished).
19. that whiih is racked, even a diaeae-ad rum&
4 42 APPENDIX 1x1.

20. aconstricted muscle,' a swollen muscle, an aching (lit. shrieking)

muscle, a painful muscle,
21. a broken muscle, an evil muscle,
22. conjure, 0 spirit of heaven! conjure, 0 spirit of earth 1

23. Sickness of the entrails, a sick neart, faintness of the heart,

24. sickness, disease of the hile, headache, an evil vomit,
25. a broken blood-vessel ( l ) ,
26. disease of the kidneys, difficult miction,
27. painful sickness which cannot be removed,
28. a dream of ill omen,
33. conjure, 0 spirit of heaven! conjure, 0 spirit of enrth I

30. R i m who is the possessor of the images of a man,

31. the evil face, the evil eye,
3% the evil mouth, t h e evil tongue,
33. the evil lip, the evil breath,*
34. conjure, 0 spirit of heaven! conjure, 0 spirit of earth I
35. The nurse,
36. the nurse whose breast is sweet,
37. the nurse whose breast is bitter,
38. the nurse whose breast is wounded,
39. the nurse who has died through a wound of the breast,
40. the pregnant woman whose wonlbS is opened,
41. the pregnant woman whose womb is struck,
42. the pregnant woman whose woiuh is loosed,
43. the pregnant xomun ~vhosewon~his unprosperous,
44. conjure, 0 spirit of heaven ! conjure, 0 spirit of earth I

45. The painful fever, the potent fever,

46. the fever which quits not a man,
47. the fever-demon who departs not,
48. the fever ~ n r e m o v a b l ethe
, ~ evil fever,
49. conjure, 0 spirit of heaven! col~jore,0 spirit of earth I
~~

Majkadu, aee W. A. I. v. 21,s; ii. 28,14; iv. 16,11, and Deluge Tablet,
iv. 6.
1 Isty Heh. khavudh, not "poison."

8 Xirimma, cf. the Atarpi-legend (iii. 49): Iipalkit ki&m-m, a a m u yB

pt&su akalw yJ ihTu,"may its (the field's) womb rebel, may food not comr
forth from it, may bread not be produced"
"Unasssiling" in tho Assyrian translatio~
 50. The painful plague, the potent plague,
51. the plague which quits not a man,
52. the plagnsdemon \vho departs not,
53. the plague unremovable, the evil plague,
54. conjure, 0 spirit of heaven! conjure, 0 npirit of earth I

65. The disease of the appeamnce which indicates disease,

56. the disease of the shadow: (of a man),
57. the disease which deprta not, the disease of the form,
58. the disease unremovable, the evil disease,
69. conjure, 0 spirit of heayen I conjure, 0 npirit of earth l

60. The spittle and breath which are foully formed in the mouth,?
61. the expectorations of the ~pittlewhich is foully enclosed (in the
mouth) [snllie],
62. the shaving of the privy parts, the ohaving of the body,
63. the cutting of the nails, cireumciaion: a rag:
64. an old ring, a broken
65. the sipped (water) which is returned fmm the body,
66. the food which is excreted from the body of s man,
67. the food which is returned i n eating,
68. the water which in drinking is w e d out,
69. the baleful hrenth which hides not tho dust,
70. even the wind of the desert that departs not,
71. conjure, 0 spirit of heaven ! conjure, 0 spirit of earth I

72. The cincture which ie buried (ebrit) in the ground,

73. the cloth which is severed from a man's body,
Col. ii. 1. the curse upon the head (which) strikes (1) the oarth,
2. which among the ignorant leads the hand of the man nstray,
-.
' KaMti.
* The Assyrian translates, "the product of the mouth and evil breath."
"Spittle" is a r s w in ilsayrian; comp. the Heb. r&.
N a q , Heh. 4
6 Arlu, Heb. ' a ~ &where
l, the word has the reverse sense to that which
the Accadian text shows it to have had in Assyrian. The corresponding
ideographs mean "the shaping of the phallus!' That Eircumobion was
practised in early Chaldsea is indicated by the primitive form of the c h m -
ter which denoted a phallus (Amiaud and iU8chineau: "Tableun compar6
des Ecritures Babylonienne et daayrienne," No. 74).
'
Malt&,Heb. m&Wim, Jer. xxxviii. 11, 1 8
Camp W.kL V. 47,13, lQpd iiiri ina ur ipli, "the link of the chain
f n m tke penia he unloosed," and the Latin injhlmn
444 APPENDIX 111.

3. the baleful thirst (which. ..

.),
4. the fear' of the comit~gof death (which . ..
.),
6. conjure, 0 spirit of heaven 1 conjure, 0 spirit of earth!

6. H i m who is placed i n the ground (or laid in) the field,

7. with his phallus (punud) uncut,
8 (in) a grave concealed or unconcealed,
9. the vampire who lies i n wait continually,
10. the destroying one who is uneoneealed,
11. whose head is unconcealed (in) the dust,
12. the son of the king who is buried in the desert or i n the palnce,
13. the mighty one who has been slain by a weapon,
14. conjure, 0 spirit of heaveu ! conjure, 0 epirit of earth!

15. That I may eest during the day,

16. that I may drink during the day,
17. that I may sleep during the day,
18. that I may satisfy myself during the day,
13. deliver
20. 0 spirit of heaven, (and) conjure, conjure, 0 spirit of earth1

21. Him who dies from hunger and watching,

22. him who dim from thirst and watching,
23. the feaster who in his feasting
24. his crumbs has not collected,
25. him whom tho fiood of a river
26. has destroyed so that his nanlo perishes,
27. him who dies i n the desert or in the marsh,
38. him who the Air-god has dmwned i n the field,
29. the handmaid of a lilu over whom death has no pow=,
30. the lilu himself who has no wife,
31. h i n ~whose 11ame is remembered,
32. him whoso name is not remembered,
33, 34. him who rises not from satisfying his hunger,
35. the noxious breast (of a nurse) a t the beginning of an incomplete
mouth,
36. conjure, 0 spirit of heaven I conjure, 0 spirit of earth!
--
37. May the divine attendant of Pap-sukal,
38. the creator of the life of the man,

1 Cilittam; so in 79 ?-8. 158, Rev. 8, atto aapliic? g i l i t h , "do thou look

on (our) fear!'
 TEE MAQICAL ZEXTB. 445
39. stand in the pmence of the Sun-god.
40. May the divine spirit (sedu) and the divine colossos (lamaddu),
the givera of blessings,
41. alight upon his head
42, 43. Over his life never may they cease (to watch).
44. Conjure, 0 spirit of heaven ! conjure, 0 spirit of earth

45. The pun, fignre of gossamer (2)'

46. which is placed in the hand of the gud of pure eating,
47. that he may rest his eyes upon it,
48. bind it to his right hand :
49. the ring of reverential fear, a pure stone,
50. vhich has been brought from his country,
61. for the satisfaction (rikuni)%f his eyes,
52. set on the little finger of his right hand :
53. conjure, 0 spirit of heaven ! conjure, 0 spirit of earth I

54. The white cloth, the cloth which is folded double,J

55, 56. bind both to the side and to the frame' of his couch;
57. the black cloth, the cluth ~ h i c his folded double,
68. bind upon his left hand.
69. The evil demon, the evil fiend (alu), the evil demon (ekimmu),
60. the evil gallu, the evil god, the evil incubus,
61. the female col~ssus;~ the s p e ~ t r ethe
, ~ vampire,'
64. the Zilu, the lilat, the handmaid of the lilu,
KamnudG, cf. "cloth of kameda," W. A.I. iv. 25, 6. The combination
of kamm with dim in the ideographic representation of dimm, "ghost" or
"female colossna," seems to show that kalnmedn must mean "olaud-like" or
L'unsubstantiaL"
* Hikani (as in l i e 47, amzlr likanz3 is akin to likatu, by which BAR,
"bright," is rendered (W.A.I. ii. 30, 35).
8 The Assyrian damd, " a fold," is hamowed from the Aeendian tabba.
The Aceadian szlr(m) is rendered by dnma and kapalu, "to fold," in W. 8.1.
iii. 70,159. It is here represented by izkhad (as in W.A.I. v. 19, 29), which
Zimmern readsitqa from etscpu. For damu=iiJallan, "double," see W.A.I.
v. 15, 44.
4 I n the Accadim, "head" (sobba).

Lamdtu, Acc. dimnze, "creative spirit"

' Labatsu, ACC.d i m w ("that which comes of the d i m " ) , is pmbably
the same as dimma, rendend by ulalu, W. A. I. ii. 28, 66, with which uldu,
"a spirit," is connected Cf. dim rendered by makutu, "feebleness," W.&L
ii. 2, 332.
Ikhkhazu, literally "the seizer;" Aco. dimme-pr.
446 APPENDIX 111.

63. the sorcery,' the breathing,-he breaking of w i d ,

64. the sickness, the sickly constitution,
65, 66. their head against his head,
67, 68. their hand against his hand,
69. their foot against his foot,
70. never may they set,
71. never may they turn !J
72. Conjnre, 0 spirit of heaven ! conjure, 0 spirit of earth I

Col. i i i 1. The god ABari-elim-nha (Merodach, "the mighty royal

steer"),
2. the first-born son of Ea (" the lord of the earth"),
3. glittering water, pure water,
4. holy water, resplendent water,
5, 6. the water twice seven times may h e bring,
7, 8. may he make pure, may he make resplendent.
9. May the evil incubus depart ;
10. to another place may ha betake himself;
11. may the propitious spirit (88du) (and) the propitious colossus
12. rest upon his body.
13. Conjure, 0 spirit of heaven ! conjure, 0 spirit of earth!

14. Biud this man with wisps of straw;

15. with wisps of straw which the wind has dried;
16, 17. bind the gate of the court on the right hand and on the left:
18, 19. unriddle the curse and all that is baleful :
20. oonjure, 0 spirit of heaven ! conjure, 0 spirit of earth !

21. Into the house never may they enter$

22. into the house of the l i v i n g 0 never may they enter;
23. into the house of another's ringed fence never may they enter;
24. into the hollow of a yoke never may they enter;
~~~ ~~

1 K G p , in the Acc. "evil breath."

2 In the Acc. "breath of knowledge."

Wc learn from a fragment (S 1140) what were the different parts of the
body upon which the several kinds of evil spirit were supposed to act: "The
evil a k l m v ~ attacks
t~ his breast; the evilgallu attacks his hand; the evil god
attacks his foot; thuse seven have ssiaed (the man) together (isleibis) ; his
body in another place like conmming fire they (burn)." I11 S 13GCi. 2, 10,
the gallib is thc Selnitie tr:i~islotionuf t!~e Aecadian (north Babj-lonian)
lil irri and li2iil.i-o.
b In the Assyrian rendering, '<never may he enter!'
 25. into the hollow of the tomb never may they enter;
26. into (the. ...) of the prison (1) never may they enter;
27. into (the. ...) of the well(!) never may they enter;
28. .
into (the . . .) of the tomh never may they enter ;
29. ..
into (the . .) of the furnace ( l ) never may they enter;
30. .
into (tho. . .) of the son of the Sun-god the glowing ( ~ 9 )
never may they enter ;
31. into (the plaoe that is un)illuminated never may they enter;
32. into the shad,~vrnever may they enter;
33. into the darkness never may they entor;
34. into the cup (1) never may they enter;
35. into the cup(!) of the libation-howl never may they enter:
36. into the ravines never may they enter;
37. into the ravines of the mountain never may they enter;
38. into the valley never may they enter;
39. into the vaults of the house never may they enter;
40. into the vaults of the tomb never may they enter;
41. into the hody' of a man who goes out never may they entar;
42. into the hody of a sick man never may they enter;
43. into the shadow of a man's step never may they enter;
44. with his goddesss never may they enter;
45. after his goddess never may they enter ;
46. into the gate of the house never may they enter;
47. into the doorposts of the house never may they enter;
48. into the door of the house never mny they entcr;
49. into the bolt of the house never may they enter;
50. into the fastenings of the house never nlay they enter;
--
I The Assyrian renders, "with the traveller may he never descend:'
Accadisn D. P. %ga-ni. 'Sigga is the Sumerian form of which airnmo
was the A c d i a n equivalent: in col. ii. 66, on the contrary, we had the
Accadian aabha, ''head," instead of the Sumerian aagga, showing the extent
to which this originally Sumerian text has been interpolated by the Accadian
scribes of northern Babylonia. If g k l , ravine" (iii. 36), is Semitic, it
will be an example of a Semitic word foisted into the text by the scribes of
Accad. Lines 36 and 37, in fact, are mere amplifications of the original
h e 38.
a The A c d i a n d & l has been hormwed fmm the Semitic W r , but
the change in the pronunciation shows that the borrowing was on the part
of the people, and not of the literary class, and that it probably goes hack
tu an early period. As lines 49 and 50, however, repeat the same state-
ment, it is probable that line 50 is an interpolation. In line 51 the Sume-
rim jigigav has, as wual, been eonio~tndedby the littevati of Ssrgon's court
with the Semitic sigaru, " a cage" or "fetter," the Accadian form being
jimar (W.A.1. iv. 18, 29).
448 APPENDIX m.
51. into the latch of the house never may they enter;
52. iuto the border (tupqat) of the house never may t h y enter;
53. into the sidc of the house never may they enter;
54. into the upper hinge1 (of the door) never may they enter;
55. iuto the lower hinge never may they enter;
96. into the upper hole for the hinge' never may they enter;
57. into the lower hole for the hinge never may they enter!
58. conjure, 0 spirit of heaven ! conjure, 0 spirit of earth 1

59. 0 fomale colossus, the daughter of Anu,B

GO. who declarest' the name of the gods,
61. the goddess Innin(a), the heroine (itillat)
62. among the (divine) mistresses (beldti),
63. the binder of the sickening fever,
64, 65. the glorious spirit (alitu) among mankind,
66. the female colossns supreme i n might
67. against (those who dare) not face (her);
cK col~jure,0 spirit of heaven 1 conjure, 0 spirit of earth I
69. . . ..
t l ~ ccl~osenplace of the Moon-god
51, 72. Destroyed.
73. Col~jore,0 spirit of heaven ! conjure, 0 spirit of earth I
Col, iv. 1, 2. (Against) the evil (dcmons) who return,
3. may the prince, Iferodach,
4. the prince, the hero of heaven and earth,
5. the first-born of En,
6. (reveal) an omen of life,
7. may he alight on the man's hend,
8, 9. over his life may he never cease (to watch);
10. conjure, 0 spirit of heaven ! conjure, 0 spirit of earth!
11. Xay the fire-god (Kibirra) the son of the earth. ...
12. (the offspring) of Ea the mighty. . ..
13. (the lord) of the demons (utuki) . . . .
14. (the minister 1) of the great gods. . ..
-.
15. (tho companion 1) of thc hero Adar
-..---
. .. .
1 The Semitic n u h u hes been borrowed, doubtless by the literary ciaas,
from the Aecadian nu-hsu, "the unresting!'
2 Tsirri, borrowed @y the people) from the Aceadian rara; see W.&L

iv. 24. 47, 48.

a In tho original Aecadian, "The dimme, the son of heaven"
4 'LUndcrstandsr))kha(i&), in the Assyrian version.
450 APPENDIX III.

50, 51. over his life never may h e cense (to watch);
52. conjure, 0 spirit of heaven ! conjure, 0 spirit of enrtht
53. May the sick man by offerin~sof mercy
54. (and) peace like copper' shine
55. To this man
56. may the Sun-god give life.
57. 0 Merodach (" tlre great princely steer"), &st-horn son of t h a
deep,
58. the I~lessingand the dazzling glory8 nre thine!
59. Conjure, 0 spirit of heaven ! conjure, 0 spirit of earth !
60. (COLOPUON.)(The next tablet begins :) Spirit of the legions of
earth and of the lugions of heaven.'
The property of Assur-hani-pal, the king of multitudes, the king of
Assyria."
11. The 5th tablet of the eollection of the Magical Texts (W. A. I. iv.
1, 2).
Col. i. 1. L'Incantation.-The storm-like-ghosti5 the tormentor6 of alP
things,
' Khassi, a literary laall-word from the Accadian (D. P.) !&mu.
" girdle" ar "loins,"
I n the Accadian, s u h ~ b M1alagh.gl~a.lil. For sw't~l~bi,
see W.A.I. v. 16. 30, 43. Sufub is rendered by the Assyrian eiipu and w'ap,
.and sui&bu, l L ngirdle," was a literary loan-word in place of the native
Semitic dumau. Instcad of suiubbi lnlaghgha-lil, the Semitic vcrsiol~has
lim~asis,"may he be polished." C'omp. ejipati ekili, "the harvest ( l ) oi
the field," K 61, 5. Comp. W. A.I. iv. 4, 40.
J Tatag-gubbi, Assyrian zuhunu. The Semitic version reverses the order
of these two words.
"he Semitic version reverses this order, giving, "spirit of (An-)sar and
Ki-sap."
Sum@,, from mpll, "to be weak," Heb. dphdim See Zimmern, BUSS-
psalmen, pp. 26, 27. Jensen is wrong in making it ''fever!' I n W. A.I. iv.
lo, 38, i t nlcans "weakness." The Accadian equivalent signifies "one whu
is gone to his rest," and, ns Zim~nernshows, is probably to be read seddl~e
oi. stde (in W.A.I. iv. 15, 38, seddlu is translated kutstsu, "skinlessness").
lirom this the Semites mould have horroiverl their sddu (Heb. ~ l ~ bsee
d , shove,
1'. 441), far which no satisfactory Semitic etymology can be found. Sddu i s
also the Semitic equivalent of the Aceadian alad, or "warrior spirit," whieli
;xlang with the lamma, or" divine colasws,"guarded the entrance to n palace
or temple. Zimmenl is doubtless rigltt in holJing that the collection of
JIagieal Texts was known ta the Assyrian scribes under the title of s2tqm,
in consequence of the fi~sttablet of the series having begun with this wad,
See next ppn6.e.
 THE XABICAL TEXTS. 451
2. and tlie ~lcmon(utukk?~)who disturbs the disturbers of Anu,
3. the plague-demon (namtnn~)the beloved son of Mul-lil,
4, the begetter' of Nin-ki-gal (the goddess of Hades),
6. above destroy like cunsumption (kutstm) and below cut down.
6. They are the creation of Hades, even they!
7. Above they roar, below they peep ;
8. the hitter breath of the gods are they.
9. The great worms2 who have been let loose from heaven am they!
10. The mighty ones ( k h d i , W.A.I. ii 37,13, Strass. 3440) whose
roar is in the city;
11. who cast down the water of heaven, sons who have come forth
from the earth! [In the Assyrian version: who diaturb the
disturbers of Anu, children of the wife of the earth are they.]
la. The lofty beam, the broad beam they eucirole like a crown.
13. From house to house they make their way.
14. As for them, the door restrains them not, the bolt turns them
not back.
15. Into the d w r like a snake they glide,
16. into the socket like a wind they blow.
17. The wqmau fmm the loins of the man thcy bring forth;
18. the child from the knees of the man they cause to issua"
19. The freeman from the house of his fecundity they call forth.
20. They are the scourging voice which they bind to the man's back.
21. The god of the man, 0 shepherd who lookest after the sheep
cote, (is) towards the man

which is an equivalent of mp. From the root rapd was formed the
Assyrian to~putu(W.A.I. v. 38, 27 ; 40,35), the Heh. tgdphim, which Dr.
Nenhnuer has already connected with the root vaphd. The worship of the
terdphim indicates an early ancestor-worship among the Semites.
@ Munaasiv, see W.A.I. iv. 16, 54; in the Atarpi legend (iii. 56) the Air-
god is naid to have ' L ~ i n e d(i8611~)
" the field.
1 Here the Aw+n translator has used the feminine alidti, hereby getting
into a difficulty, as the demon \urn called "son" ( m ~ uin) the preceding
line
Ud-gal: the Ud-gallu is conjoined with the ur-6at, or "beast of death,"
in K 3938, 6, and in S477, ii 11, the mention of "the flesh of the ud-dG.
follows that of the flesh of the gazelle, of man, of the dog, of the boar, of
the M, of the horse, and of the wild ass I n R 149, udda-khul is "paiaon."
Perhaps the udda was a species of aerpcnt. At all events, in W.A.I. v.
41, 6, vmi is the synonym of m n l m u , "reptile."
* Compare S 1366, Oh.5-8 : '' (The galk') has opened my loins and my
vife (ha iasued forth); he has opened my knee8 and the child (haa been
born)."
282
462 APPENDIX III.

22. whom his god' has carried away to the veL'

23. Whether i t be a ghost (rlinmnze),
24. whether i t be a spectre (dimmea),
25. ~vhetherit he a vampire,
26. whether it he the lord of sickness,
!7. whether it be the nurse,
98. whether it be the tear. . . .
whether it be the man . . . .
29.
30.
31.
whether it be the incubus (utuk) ...
whether it be the handmaid (of the incubus),
.
32. whether it be the side . . . .
33. whether it he the d a y . . . . .
[The next six lines aro too much broken for translation.]
34. whether i t be the milk that has descended or the milk that has
not descended ( l ) ,
35. whetlrcr I am hungry,S may I eat fuod,
36. whether I am t,hirsty, may I drink water,
Col. ii. 1. whether I am inseet-bitten (2), let me anoint myself with oil,
2. ahether I am stripped (sedde-tagga), let rue put clothing round
my loins.
3. The fever, the cume of the spirits of earth, conjures thee.
4. Baleful is the fever; thc curse of the spirits of earth conjures
thee.
5. Tho fever which has approached has confronted the sick man.
6. The fever may the spirit of hcaven conjure, may the spirit of
earth conjure.
7. Whether it be the spirit of the divine lord of the earths;
--

1 In the Sumerian, "gods!'

Kummmati, rendering the S~unerian(KU) suku. The determinative
8 l r o ~ sit to be an article of dress, and in N.A. I. i i 39, 67, it is stated to
liave been worn on "the bend of a female slave," the Accadian equivalent
of suh' being s8b:ba (11. 68-72). The latter is tranxlated ipru, "a veil" (ii.
39, 50, s&bain line 53 being nalbesu, "clothing"). Compare epavtum ==
nakhlaptu, "a veil" (TV.A.1. v. 28, 68). Henco " a dark veil" is vaguely
rendered s'imtz~,"ornament," in W.A.I. v. 16, 17. Xisuthros, in the story
of the Delnge, tells his wife to "fold up (eyi) the veil" of Gisdhubar an6
place it on llis head. The ideographic eqnivalent of nindah, " a free-will
offering," is suku Innane, the veil of the goddess," in reference to the sacri-
fice of their virginity by the women of Babylonia in honour of Istar. The
reference in the text is to a sort of monastic row, whereby a man placed
himself under the protection of the deity, and, as in the ease of Gisdhubar,
by wearing R veil on his head became proof against all evil spells.
In K4297, 16 (NIS)L:B-sa-as-TEE-A (saga?-tagga) is rendered by birdlo.
 THE MAGICAL TEXTS. 453
8. whether it be the spirit of the divine lady of the eartha;
9. whether it be the spirit of the divine lord of the stara;
10. whether i t he the spirit of the divine lady of the stars;
11. whether it be the spirit of the divine lord of seeds;
12. whether it be the spirit of the divine lady of seeds ;
13. whether it he the spirit of the god Blul-Da-uhma ;'
14. whether it be the spirit of the goddess Nin-Da-uhma;
15. whether it he the spirit of the divine lord caf the illustriow
mound (Birs-i-Nimrcd) ;
16. whether it be the spirit of the divine lady of the illastrious
mound ;
17. whether it be the spirit of the divine lord of the dayspring of
life ;
18. whether it he the spirit of the divine lady of the dayspring of
life ;
19. whether it be the spirit of the divine lord of the voice of the
firmament;
20. whether it be the spirit of the divine lady of the voice of the
firmament ;
21. 0 spirit, divine lordof the father and mother of Nul-lil,coqjure!
22. 0 spirit, divine lady of the father nnd mother of Mul-l& conjure!
23. 0 spirit of the Moon-god . whose ship crosses the girdle (1) of its
river, conjure !
2 1 0 spirit of the Sun-god, king and judge of the gods, conjure !
25. 0 snirit of Istar. who to the command of the suirita of earth
alone turns n o t t l e head, conjure ! a
26. 0 spirit of Zikum, mother of Ea, conjum I
27. 0 spirit of Nina, daughter of Ea, conjure I
28. 0 spirit of the divine lord (Accadian, lady) of growth, shepherd
of the pastures, conjure !
29. 0 spirit of the fire-god, that makest pure (!) thy head towartls
the earth, conjure I
-.
' The printed text has, falrelg, Dazarma
The three lines 23-25 are cridenllg au iuterpolation. They interrol.t
the rontcxt. a, the father n ~ mother
d r f the urin1:tive pod of Xivor n u - t
nntnmlly have been followed by the mother oithe god o i ~ r i d u -
the Jloon-god, the Sun-god and Istar, helonging to a wholly di5erent and
later theological system-while the alliteration in the Semitic version of
the %5thline shows that it must be tbe original of whioh the Accndian ir a
translation. It contains a play n p n the name of Isto,=: "nis Istori sn nrlo
kibiti sa A n b & wMnu la idaru (istanr)."
454 APPENDIX 111.

30. 0 spirit of the lady of the magic wand,' throne-bearer of the

earth, conjure !
31. 0 spirit of the seven doors of the earth, conjure I
32. 0 spirit of the seven bolts of the carth, conjure I
33. 0 spirit of the opening fire-gnd, opaner of the earth, conjure!
34. 0 spirit of the strong goddess with the cup of blessing(!), wife
of the plague-demon, conjure !
35. 0 spirit of the pure cloud-spirit, the daughter of the deep,
conjure !
36. The man, the son of his god,
37. when-e is angry,$ or wllcn he is violent, or when
38. he eats food, or when hr: drinks water,
39. the cup (!) of the father above thee, even Mul-lil, thy hand
places ;
40. (when) the water of the sea, the waters of the marsh-lands
(Merathaim), the water of thcTigris, the water of the Euphrates,
41. the water of the pool, (and) the water of the river fail,
4 4 to the god he betakes himself, his seeptre he grasps,
43. a seat he sets, he sits down ; he establishes thee . . ..
44. the mall, the son of his god, confronts (them, and) they return.
45. Conclusion (of the spell regarding) the evil incubus.

46. Incantation.-Destructive reptilcs, baleful winds are they I

Col. iii. 1. As a baleful reptile, as a baleful wind do they appear;
2. as a baleful reptile, (or) a baleful wind do they march i n front;
3. monstrous children, monstrous sons are they;
4. the messengers of the plaguedemon are they !
5. the throne-bearers of Nin-ki-gal (queen of Hades) are they;
6. a deluge which has been collecterl npon the land are they;
7. (they are) the seven gods of the widespread heaven,
8. the seven gods of tho broad earth,
9. the seven gods collfederatod togathor.'

' Cis Zida, "the eternal wood." I n W.B I. iv. 25,12, i t seems to mean
"a mast." The Lady of the Magic Wand was Allnt, the queen of Hades.
a Enna, to be distinguished from (m)enna, which in R204, Obv. 7, is
rendered by li,:.i.
Ba-,an-tnrin. I n K 4874, Oh.19, iie- tam'^^ seems to correspoi~dwith
tsirikhum; cf. khe-nib-tadne,rendered ligauim, W.A. I. iv. 16, 65.
The Accadian 47-4&, as i n K 4874, Rev. 9, where A B - K ~ A L 4r-dmi-an4
is rendered by y a m r a t a d t i , "he bound the spell together." CE W.&L
iv. 11.44 mu-nib4l.-4rri =imtaneiiM.
 THE MAI~IOALTEXTS.

10. The seven are gods seven in number,'

11. aaven evil gods are they I
12. Seven evil demons (lamaefuv) are they !
13. Seven evil consuming spirita (labatai) are they l
14. I n hcnven are they seven, in earth are they seven I
15. The evil incubna (utzck), the evil a l y the evil m k i m , the evil
gallu, the evil god, the evil succubus,
16. 0 spirit of heaven, oonjure I 0 spirit of earth, conjure I
'17. 0 spirit of Mul-lil, king%f the world, conjure!
18. 0 spirit of Nil-lii lady of the world, conjure !
19. 0 spirit of Uras (Adar), eon of h r r a (the temple of the hosts
of the firmament), conjure !
20. 0 spirit of Innana (Istar), lady of the world, illuminator of the
night, conjure !
21. when the body of the man, the son of his god.
22. eats food (or) drink8 water.

2 3 . 1ncautntion.-The plague (namtar), the fevers which will C 8 T

the people away,
24. the sickness, the consumption (dilibti) which will trouble man-
kind,
55. harmful to the flesh, injurious to the body,
26. the evil incubus, the evil alu, the evil noshim,
27. the evil man, the evil eye, the evil mouth, the evil tongue,
2 8 . from the flesh of the man, the son of his god, may they be
expelled, frum his body may they be driven forth
29. Against my body never Nay they come ;
.30.my eye never may they injure;
31. against my back never may they go;
5 2 . into my house never may they enter;
33. over the beams of my (house) never may they paps;
34. into the house of my seat never may they dcscend !
.35. 0 spirit of haven, conjure ! 0 spirit of earth, conjure I
-36. 0 spirit of Mul-lil, king of the world, conjure !
.37. 0 spirit of Nin-lii mistrsas of the world, conjure!
38. 0 spirit of Uraa, mighty warrior of Mul-lil, conjure !
39. 0 spirit of Nusku, supreme messenger of Nul-lil, conjure 1

1 I n the Semitic bumlation, "the seven are gods of multitudean

In the &mitio vanion, b.1, "lard."
'As*, an dssyrian lcan-word fmm the docadian 4,LL&m@h-
lestmfing.*
 456 APPENDIX III.

40. 0 spirit of hlul-zn-na (the Moon-god), first-horn son of Mul.lil,

conjnre !
41. 0 spirit of Innana (Istar), lady of the people (ummani), conjure t
Col. iv. 1. 0 spirit of Rimmon, the king' whose shout is good, con-
jure !
2. 0 spirit of the Snn-god, the king' of judgment, conjure I
3. 0 spirit of the A n h a s , $ the great gods, conjure !3

4. Conclusion (of the spell regarding) the evil incubus.

5. Incantation.-The master of heaven and earth, the warrior-spirit

(ddu) waster of the earth,
6. the warrior-spirit, waster of the earth, whose polyer is exalted,&
7. whose power is exalted, whose step is exalted;
8. the gallu, madly-rushing hull, the bull up re me,^
9. the hull who m n s through the houses,
10. the yalla who has no member, are those seven.
11. Mistress they know not.
12. The laud like husks they devour.
13. Compassion they know not.
14. Against mankind they rage.
15. The flesh they devour, the seed they sicken, the blood they d r i n k
16. . . . . the image of the gods are they.
17. I n the house of the god of the holy mound,a on the fruit of the
god of corn, are they fattened.
18. Demons (gallu) are they, filled with ~vickedness.7
19. Devourers of blood, unceasing are they.
20. Cut off from then1 (their power of) sorcery, and to highIan4
and lowland never may they return.
21. 0 spirits of heaven, conjure ! 0 spirits of earth, conjure !

Bili, ''lord," i n the Semitic veraion.

2 I n the Semitic version, AnunnnE, ('the spirits of the lower world!'
3 Lines 41-iv. 2 are interpolations, the o r i g g l exorcisn~hnviug ema-
nated from Nipur, and being, therefore, concerned only with Mnl-lil and
his attendant deities.
4 Su-am, "of heavenly power," in decndian, whence the literary name 05

Babylon, Su-ana-sr, "pltce of heavenly power!'

5 Paraphrased in the Assyrian rendering by " p a t ekinmu!'

0 The tempie of Nebo at Eorsippa We may infer from thin that the
incantation in lines 5-21 eruenated from Babylon.
. I n tile Acradinn, ''fillin:- the front with witchcraft."
 TEE MAGIC& mT8. 457
32. Conclusion (of the spell regarding) the evil incubna

23. Incantation.-The apparition, the apparition, which treads down

all things whatever their name ;
24. the trouhlers of the earth, the troublera of the heaven;
25. . .. . like the heaven not receiving.
[The rest of this incantation is destroyed]
.
40. Incantation.-Thc warriors . . . are they.
Col. v. 1. Troublers unique are they,' trouhlers of heaven have they
been born.%
2. They are whirlwind-like ghosts ; hasellere are they.
3. Wife they possess not; child they beget not.
4. Lusty offspring they know not.
5. Horses which have come forth8 from the mountain am they.
6. Unto Ea are they hostile.
7. The throne-bearers of the gods are they.
8. To trouble the canal4 in the street are they set.
9. Before Nergal the mighty warrior do they go to and fm
10. 0 spirit of heaven, eonjure ! 0 spirit of earth, conjure I
11. 0 spirit of the Moon-god, lord over diffic~lty,~ conjure I
12. 0 spirit of Isum,' traverser (nagir) of the street), drinker up of
the water, conjure I
13. To the body of the man come not nor return;
14. before him depart, behind him depart !

16. Conclusion (of the spell regarding) the evil i n c u b

16. Incantation.--Seven are they, seven are they,

17. in the hollow of the deep seven they are;
18. gleams of the sky are those seven.
19. I n the hollow of the deep, in a palace, they grew u p
20. Male they are not, female they are not.

1 The Semitic translator hns made nonaense of this line, rendering it,
"whom tmublers are unique!'
In the Semitic rendering, "houblers of Anu have they been created."
In the Semitic vereion, "descended"
4 Accadian Liim, perhaps borrowed fmm the Semitic iswy "to be

btraight," as conversely the Assyrian i u l ~is a loan-word from the Acradian

iih, " a ctUtingn or "canal!' A6 in Holland, ''canal" and "street" were
synonymous term&
' Nontratait. In the Acdian, "god of the throne of lighf"
' A d a n iig-aoggo, "head-destroying.
458 APPERDIX 111.

21. They are whirlwind-like ghosts; travellers are they.

23. Wife they possess not, child they beget not.
23. Compassion' and kindness know they not.
24. Prayer and supplication hear they not.
25. Horses whioh are bred in the mountains are the):
26. Unto Ea are they hostile.
27. The throne-bearers of the gods are they.
25. To trouble the canal in the street are they set.
99. Evil= are they, evil are they !
30. Seven are they, seven are they, seven twice spin are they l
31. 0 spirit of heaven, conjure ! 0 spirit of earth, conjure !

33. Conclusion (of the spell regarding) the evil incubus.

Col. vi. 1. . . . . the evil incubus (uhk) is riolent ;J

2. (that which) is unnamed has begotten him.
3. that which has not issued forth from a body has begotten him
4. His hand one ~cnlptured,~ and made his hand ;
5. his foot one sculptured, and made his foot ;
6. his head one aculptured, and made his head.
7. For his destiny the meadow of gold (aas prepared).
[Three lines lost.]
.
10. The (evil) incubus . . . may he never enter the house
11. May the evil incubus remove his seat to another place.
12. May the prospering incubus (and) the colossus of the land go
to and fro I
13. Couclusion (of the spell regarding) the evil incubus.

14. Incantation.-The evil incubus, the incubus of the luouutain

ravine. [The first line of the next tablet.]
15. Fifth tablet of (the series concerning) the evil incubi"

111. Incantation against madness (W. A. I. iv. 3, 4).

Col. i. 1. " Incantation.-The disease of the head coils (like a serpent)
in the desert, like a wind it blows.
2. Like the lightning it lightens ; above and below i t h a wrought
destruction.
Edhira, from &m, "ta tpspare." AccadiRn S i i i i .
V~tm iphteal
, of alass, "to be strong," connected with ursana It in
doubtful whether the corresponding Accadian lus is borrowed from umsu or
wagu from m.
4 bsyrian "cut," Accadian "took."
 3. Unfearing its god, like a reed has it cut (the man) oil.
4. Its cord (bua~ai)like a snare' has it wound around (h).
5. I t destroys the body of him who has not mother Iatar as his
guardian.
6. Like a star of the heavens i t shoots (itsarmr), like m t c r it
traverses the nizht.
7. Against the sick man i t turns its front, and like the day it
overyowerse him.
8. This man it smites, and
9. t6e man, like one who is faint at heart, stsggera ;
10. liko one whose heart is taken from him, he passes away.
11. Like one who is fallen in the fire, he quivers ;
12. like a wild ass inflamed with love, his eyea are filled with mist
13. With his life it devours the man,%to death it binds him.
14. The madness is as s heavy storm whose path there is nona that
knoweth.
15. Its perfect bewitchment,' its bond, there is none that knoweth
1G. Merodnch! substance of myself! go, my son !5
17. With the plant that gladdens life6 which grows i n the desert
before him,
18. like the Sun-god when he enters his house, cover the clothing
of thy head.
19. With the plant that gladdens life surround it like a c o v e r i ~ g . ~
20. At dawn,8 when the sun has not yet risen,

' Cikhinu, fmm the A c W n &khan (also written &A-&n). In'W.A.1.

ii 35,6, we are told that Gikhan (&A-khan)wss a 8ynonym of the Euphraten,
which explains the Oihon of Qen. ii 13, where the word haa been assimi-
lated to the Heb. gtkhdn, "a 8pTing.I'
I n the Semitic vemion ikhm, "scorches" (1).
* Accadian t o m ' Ittu, "sign," "omen.*
Fragments of Amdian from the words put into the mouth of EB in
other m q i d texts inserted here by way of a charm,
Aeoadian khdtil-gilhn (for gilla, '<to live," see W.A.I. iv. 23, 6 ) ,
whence the Semitic khiltalti (ii 28. 16), though the latter word msy he
read khilpalti, and conlpared with the Aramaic khilp&, "sedga' I t was a
plalrt that grew on the mountains (ii. e8. 16, 17).
7 The Semitic translator, in h is word-for-word rendering, has hem pro-
duced an extraordinary violation of Semitic grammar: "(with) the plant
that gladdens life cover like [as it were] m d enclose"(!).
Agu-ziga in A c d i a n , literally "the hour of the fresh hmeze." Thurr
we have the following hymn (D. T. 67, h.) : (1) "At dawn .(ap-Ma) the
bird proclaims not the fresh breeze (aiga) ; (2) the waters of the deep (pwa)
his nsnuth Sringn not; (3) the lord of ntrengh is i~na~tisfied (mga %&a,
 460 APPENDIX III.

21. pluck it from its place.

22. Seize its stem.'
23. Take the skin of a suckling that is still ungrown,
24. and bind (~vithit) the head of the sick man,
25. bind also the neck of the sick man.
26. Jfay (the sickness) of the man's head which is produced in the
slreets be removed ;
27. (which) the curse of the wind has borne to him, never may i t
return to its place !
28. 0 spirit of heaven, conjure ! 0 spirit of earth, conjure !

[The first 19 lines of the next spell are destroyed; then we read :I
Col. ii. 1. On cries of woe he feasts daily.
2. Merodach ! substance of myself! go, my son !
3. Take the skin of a suckling tbat is still u n p w n ;
4. let the wise woman bind (it) to the right hand and double i t
on the left.
5. Eiud the knot twice seven times;
6. lay (upon it) the spell of Eridu;
7. hind the head of the sick man;
8. hind the neck of the sick man.
9. hind his life ;
10. bind firmly his limbs;
11. approach his bed;
12. pour over him the magical waters ;l
13. may the disease of the head, like the eye when it rests itself,
ascend to heaven.
14. Like the waters of an ebbing (flood), to the earth may it descend
15. May the word of Ea issue forth.
16. May Dav-kina direct.
17. 0 Merodach, first-born of the deep, thou canat m&e pure and
prosperous !

18. Incantation.-The disease of the head is fallen on the man;

Ass. la i8W) ; (4) take the green corn ( a ~ sunni,

s Ass. binu) as food (c inn%
Asa patotan).')."
Accadian ana, connected with anu, "an ear of corn." The ideograph
denotes "what grows long." The Semitic rendering Surut is counected with
the Heb. i&, " a vine-shoot"
1 Or perhaps we should read sa ina zumur (ame)li bmfl, "which is iu the
body of the man!'
* Literally, "the waters of the spell."
 19. madness, ercn the disease of the muscle of the neck, haa fallen
on the man.
20. The disease of the head like a crown coils (around him) j
21. the disease of tho head, from the rising of the sun to the netting
of the sun,
23. unto the disease of the head answers in thunder.
23. I n the sea and the broad earth
24. the little crown is the cmwn that has departed,
25. the crown gigantic (is) its crown.
26. Make broad the ears, 0 (Merodach) son of Ea I
27. the disease of the head, like an ox, walks with rolling gnit
28. To his father (Merodach) approached and (his) decision' re.
ported :
29. ' 0 nly father, the disease of the head is fallen on the man;
30. like a wall . ... it is laid upon him.
.
31. (Be with) a weapon . . . let me cut off his sickness'
33. (Esunto his son Merodach) made reply :
[Several lines lost :]
39. The sickneas of the head, (like) a dove to (its) nest,
40. like a raven to the sky,
Col. iii. 1. like a bird iuto broad space, let it fly away.
2. To the prospering hands of his god let him be confided

3. Incantation.-The madness is bound in heaven, from the earth

it is driven nway.
4. The power of the freeman, the master of power, is opened
(afresh).
5. The hand of the fruitful handmaid returns not,*
6. which is laid on the body of the sick.
7. Aa for Istar, who rejoices in quietude, one that exists not' causes
her train4 to descend from the mountain.
5. To the form of the sick man they approach;"
9. she raises a cry of lamentation over the man :
10. 'Who takes (it) avay, v h o gives (him) health10

Aecadian gu-M, elsewhem written KA@U)-kud.

In the Aceadiau, "the bleased handmaid turns not back her hand."
In translating "one that exists not" (literally, "none ia"), the Semitic
scribe has mistaken the meaning of the Aecadian mu2u nu-tillo, "the
much."
4 Ulmanu, wnnected with alamu, a synonym of sadadu, "to Jraw."

"He approaches" in the Semitic text.

* In the Accadian, "takes sway."
 4 62 APPENDIX IIL

11. Even Istar, the daughter of Sin ;

12. the mighty father,' the son of Mul-lil;
13. (and) hlerodach, the son of Eridu.
14. May they give health to the body of the sick m m '
15. The god who adorns the gate ( 2 ) , who (issues 1) the comman4
has bound his (body).
16. On the butter which is brought from a pure stall,
17. the milk which is brought from a pure sheep-cote,
18. the pure butter of the pure stall lay a spell.
19. Nay the man, the son of his god, recover;=
20. may the man be bright and pure as the butter;
21. may he he white as this milk;
22. like refined (tsi~~rzipi)
silver may his firm fleshS glisten,
23. like copper may i t shine as a polished vessel.
24. To the Sun-god, the first-born of the gods, confide his body,
25. Nay the Sun-god, tho first-born of the gods, to the prospering
hands of his god confide him.-Incantation.'

26. Incantation.-Seizing the face, the middle of the head, of the

man ~vliois strengthless and ignorant,
27. like the covering(?) of a man (the disease) conceals;
28. i t directs the path of the man who has no god.
29. H e carves a n image, but encloses not the enclosure.
30. Like a water-snake, like o water-snake the roof of the yard
31. by day cnsts not a shadow, by night casts not a shadow.
32. Merodach looks o n ; 'Substance of mine art thou' (says . - Ea).
go, my son !
33. Tho slice of a snake, n'd, siman, abi,
34. human flesh. kharkhar, medicine of the m o ~ n t a i n s . ~
35. tho seed of the male orian, the lierb of Adar, his mouth,
36. the breath of the god of the river of the quarryman," the holly of
the god of the river of the quarryman,
37. his strong food,
38. mix together and rub into oil,

1 zVap-sirn-nun-hada,a title of Adar. Literally, "be turned!'

a Aceadian mu&, for the older Snmerian guhhu.
' Tlre references to Istar, Nul-lil and Samas, as well as the linguistic
fonns, show that this incantation is of very rnueh later date than those of
the obverse of the tablet. I t prohnLly emanatetl from Sippars
These are all medicines used bath by the exorcists and by the media!
praetitioncrs.
".,.curding to W.A I. ii. 63, 40, this deity was "the river-god," Ea.
 THE YACIICLLmxm. 463
39. m b on the body with pure hand.
[The following lines are too much broken for translation, like the
Inst incantation of the tablet : then comes the colophon :]
Col. iv. 35. The 9th tablet (of the series beginning :) Aspellfordieeses
of the head : thoroughly complete.
36. The palace of Assur-bani-pal, the king of legions, king of Assyrin,
37. who puts hie trust in Assur and Nin-lil."

IV. The 16th tablet concerning evil spirits (W.A.I. iv. 6, 6).
Col. i. 1. "The reptiles that creep round andround,the evil godsnre they
2. The warrior spirits (a&) that spare not, who were created in
the cloudy vault of heaven, are they.
3. They are they who produce disease.
..
4. Enlarging (their) evil heads, . . to lay the yoke (upon it they
march).
5. Among those seven, the first is a scorpion of rain,
6. The second is a monster (whose) mouth (no) one (can bridle).
7. The third is the lightning-flash, the strong son of. .. .
.
8. The fourth is a serpent . . .
9. The fifth is a watch-dog which (rages) against (his foes).
10. The sixth is a rushing (tempest) which to god and king (submits
not).
11. The seventh, like a messenger, is the evil wind mhich (Anu
made 9).
12. Those seven are the messengers of Anu their king.
13. I n city after city do they cause the rainy wind.
14. The storm that is in heaven they bind together strongly.
15. 'The fleecy cloltds that are in heaven making the rainy wind am
they.
16. The rushing blast of the wind which produces darkness on a
clear day are they.
17. With baleful wind, with evil wind, they darted forth.
18. The deluge of Rimmon, mighty whirlwinds are they,
19. at the right hand of Rimmon they march.
20. On the horizon of heaven like the lightning (they flaah)
21. To impose the yoke they march in front.
22. I n the wide heaven, the seat of Ann the king, they set them-
selves with evil purpose and had no rival.
23. On that day Mul-lil heard of this matter and carried tho worci
t., his heart.
 24. W i t h Ea, the supreme adviser of the gods, he as king,' and
25. had appointed Sin, Sn~nasand Istar to direct the cloudy region
of heaven.
26. Along with Ann he had divided among them the sovereignty
of the hosts of heaven.
27. Among the tbree of them, the gods his children,
28. he had divided the night and the day j that they ceaae not (their
work) he urged them.
29. On that clay those seven, the evil gods, i n the cloudy region of
heaven darted fbrth.
30. I n front of Nannarz violently they beset the Moon-god.
31. The hero Samas and Rimmon the warrior returned to their
quarters ;
32. Istar set (her) holy seat with Anu the king, and over the king-
dom of heaven is exalted.
CoL ii. [The first 19 lines are destroyed.]
20. ... . (Sin) was troubled and sat in grief;
21. (night and) day i n darkness, on the throne of his dominion seated
not.
22. The evil gods, the messengers of Ann their king,
23. enlarging (their) evil heads, assisted (one another).
24. Evil they plotted together.
25. From the midst of heaven, like the wind on tho land they
swooped.
26. 31nl-lil beheld the darkness of the hero Sin i n heaven.'
27. The lord (Eel) says to his messenger Ndsku :
28. ' 0 Ndsku, my messenger, carry my word to the deep;
29. the news of my son the Moon-god, who is grievously darkened
in heaven,
30. to E a in the deep convey.'
31. Ndsku exalted tho word of his lord ;
32. to E a in the deep ho went ~ i t the
h message.
- ~

' Imtalik means "he ~vasking," not "he took connsel," here, as is sho\m
by its equirdent in the Accadii~ntext (d-gdqd). The Semitic pa&,
"adviier," has been adopted in the Aceadiiln version, pointing (lilre Ule
mention of Sin, Snmas and Istar) to the composition of the poem i n the
Semitic era.
The Accadian text wads, "at the beginning they beset with violence
the festival of the Moon-god."
The Aceadian inritates the Seinitic idiom in this sentence, proving that
the Semitic version is the older.
 THE YAGICAL TESTY. $66
33. To the divine prince, the counsellor supreme, the lard, the sove-
reign of the world,
34. N h k u conveyed the word of his lord on the other si:a
35. Ea i n the deep listened to the tale, and
36. he hit his lip, with outcry he filled his moutll.
37. Ih addressed his son Merodach and roars out (isaIdtlc1~lrats)the
word :
38. 'Go, my son Merodach !
39. Grievous is the eclipse of the son of the festival, the >loon-god;'
40. his eclipse i n heaven is proceeding.
41. Those seven, the evil gods, the serpents of death,%who have no
fear,
42. those seven, the evil gods, who swoop (tebuni)like the deluge,
43. swoop upon the world like a. storrn.8
44. Before Nannar, the Moon-god violently (they beset) ;
44. the hero Sam= and Rimmon the warrior (return) to their
quarters ;*
.. 46. (Istar plants her holy seat with Anu the king, and over the
kingdom of heaven is exalted).'
[hlnny lines are lost here.]
Col. iii. 31. I n the gate of the palace tho mask (fold) doubly. .. .
32. I n a cloak5 of many colours, the skin of a suckling still ungrown
the skin of a n ungrown calf, make snpplieation.
33. Bind (the magic knots) round t,he hands and feet of the king,
the son of his god ;
33. the king, the son of his cod. who, like Nannar, the Moon-~od,
completes the life of the land :
34. like Nannar, the resplendent, his head upholds favour.
[Mnny lines lost.!
. ..
46. . . . make him . . pure and brilliant;
47. .. . . (the evil (gnd), the evil spirit (utz~k),the evil gall%:
.. .
48. .. the evil incubus (maakirn).

' The Semitic version is different here: "the news is that of my son the
Moon-god, who is grievonaly eclipsed in hewen." The text published by
Haupt has, "the son of the prince Nmar."
a I n the Accadian, "men of death!'
8 In Ha~~pt's text, "they seek the land, upon the world like a atorm they
anoop."
' Lines 26-44 have bem published by Haupt in his Akkadische und
SumrisJu K&rifrtezte, ii. pp. 76, 77.
The Semiticsamlin (Heb. s i a ) has been intmdnced into the Accadim
text. The genuine Accsdian equivalent wao n2 (W.A.I. iv. 21, 4).
2a
466 APPENDIX III.

49. Never may they enter (the house) ;

50. never may they approach (the doors) of the paltlae ;
51. never may they approach (the chamber) of the king;
.
52. never miry t!~eysurround the . . .
53. never may they enter tho . . . .
[Col iv. containinganother incantation against the evil spirits, in which
"the npirit of Mul-lil" is invoked and "the spell of Es" named,
is too mutilated for translation.]
Col. v. 36. Concl?lsion(of the spell) for eursing' the evil gods aecnrsed.

37. Incantation.-The huge reed of gold, the pure ~.eedof the marsh,
38. the pure dish of the gods,
39. the reed of the double white cup which determines favour,'
40. the messenger of Merodach am I.
41. When I deliver the pure incantadon,
42. I lay a foundation of bitumen below in the centre of the eat-.
43. May the god of the house dwell in the house !
44. May the propitious spirit (utuk) and the propitious god entar
the house !
45. May the evil utuk, the evil (god), the evil ekimmu, the evil gaZJu,
and the evil (ah),
46. (never approach) the king.
47. 0 spirit of heaven, conjure ! (0spirit of earth, conjure I)

48. Conclusion (of the spell) cursing the evil gods.

[The beginning of the next incantation is lost.]

Col. vi. 1. Never may they enter the palace;
2. never may they approach the king !
3. 0 spirit of heaven, conjure ! 0 spirit of earth, conjure I

4. Conclusion (of the spell) of the light-colonred goat-skin which

1s. ...
5 . Incantation.-Evil is the evil man, evil is that man;
6. that man among men is evil, that man is evil;
7. in the bed of a man he places a snake.
8. That man among men lays a snare misleadingly to enanare
(others).

Tarruda, rendered "to curae" in W. A.I. iv. 16, 39 'to &attern in iv.
8,41.
The divining cup is referred to
 TEE MAGICAL TEXTS. 467
9. The fear of him is the herald of his cry ; the breath of the man
destmya
10. The place of his sicknes the evil creeps into; bin h m t i t cuts
(in two).
[The following l i e s are too mutilated for translation.]
97. Conclusion (of the spell) cursing the evil goda

18. Incantation. The Sun-god . . . .

19. The 16th tnblet (of the series beginning) 'the evil spirite.'
20. Palace of Assur-bani-pal, the king of leg~ons,the king of byria,
21. who haa pnt his trust in b u r and Nin-1%
22. to whom Nebo and Taamit
33. have given broad ears,
24. that he might have seeing eyes;
25. the store of written tablets,
26. as regards which, among the kings that have gone before me,
37. there was none who undertook this business ;
28. the hidden wisdom of Neho, the lines of characters aa many as
singly exist,
29. on tablets I wrote, I connected together, I published, and
30. for the inspection of my readem
31. I placed within my palace.
32. Thine is the kingdom, 0 Assur, light of the king of the gods !
33. Whoever carries (them) away and his name with my name
31. shall write, may Aasur and Niu-lil mighty and violently
35. overthrow hihl and destroy his name (and) his seed in the land."

V.W.AI. ii 51, 1-31, xe\%ed by Jensen in the Zeitschrift fii?.

KeiI8Cnriftfurachung, ii. 4 pp. 320, 321.
1. [Lost.]
2. "never may they a p p m h . .. his hands.
3. Against such and such a man, the son of his god, may (the evil
spirits) never come.
.
4. Like a dove may he ascend'. . . to his place may he never
return.
5. Whatever is evil, whntever is bad, which is in the body of such
and such a man,
6. like the water [perspiration] of his body and the purifications (9%
of his hands,
---- - -

1 h m p . D.T. 57, O h . 13, !&ma tat+ still< ana saw so ax Anurn, "like
dove he ascends to the heaven of Anu!'
* Muidti. In S 1896, Rcv. 9, we have rabits muidti.
468 APPENDIX .!I:

7. may he strip. uff,. and mnv the river earw to the bottom of it.
bed.
8. The curse, 0 spirit of heaven, conjure ! 0 spirit of earth, conjore!

9. The coal (1vEich) the great gods have polished, on the torch I
have kindled
10. I offer the corn-gnd, the assembler of the gods of heaven and
earth.
11. May the est blishers of the fortresses of the great gods station
themselveshere, and
12. may they promise life to such and such a man, the son of such
and such a man, the son of his god.
13. May his god and his goddess remain here, and on this day may
they grant him grace.
-
14. Incantation.-The milk of a light-coloured goat I prepare i n
plenty, and I light the fire.
15. The coal I pince, I burn the vhole offering.
16. The libation pure and white of Ea, the messenger of Merodach
am I.
17. May the gods, as many as I have invoked, produce a flame.
18. N a y Fa and llerodach never have (wrath), though the god and
the goddess are angry.

19. (The coal I have kindled), the fire I have quieted, I burn, I
increase ;
20. the corn-god I have offered ; I am great and glorious.
21. May (the god of herbs), the assembler of god and man, deliver
from his bond.
22. Like n con1 I have blazed, I have quieted the bird :
23. like the fire I have burned, I have increased food ;
34. like the corn-god I have offcred, I am great and glorious.
25. May the god of herbs, the assembler of god and man, leliver
from his bond.
26. Deliver such and such a man the eon of his god, and may he
be saved.
27. Jncantation.-The directress ascends, the offspring of the house
of the life of the prince.
28. Like its old copy, written and published.
29. Tablet of Sdar-sunl-tir-su the ZbgauBs (sngaf~),the librarian :
Itis uitc:.nnco."
 TIIE YAGICAL TBSTB. 469
VI. hlagicsltext from &,idu (W. A.I. iv. 15). See p. 179.
Col. i. 1. "The (bed) of the earth was taken for their border, but the
god appeared not ;'
2. he appeared not on the horizon of the earth, making hostility ;
3. (to) the hcaven below theyextended (their path), and to the
heaven that is unseen they climbed afar.=
4. Among the star(s) of heaven was not their ministry (knowledge);
i n the watch of the thirty tars)^ was their office.
5. The Fire-god, the first-born, supreme, unto heaven they pursued,
and no father did he know.
6. 0 Fire-god, supreme on high, the first-born, the mighty, supreme
enjoiner of the commands of Anu !'
7. The fire-god enthrones with himself the friend that he loves.
8. He reveals the enmity of those seven.
9. On the w ~ r khe pondem in his dwelling-place.
10. 0 Fire-god, how were those seven begotten, how were they
nurtured 1
11. Those seren in the mountain of the sunset were born ;
12. those seven in the monntain of the sunrise grew up ;
13. I n the hollows of the earth they have their dwelling;
14. on the high-places of the earth their names are proclnimed.
15. As for thnm, in h a v e n and earth they have no dwelling, hidden
is their name.
16. Among the sentient gods they are not known.
17. Their name in heaven and earth exists ]lot.
18. Those seven from the mountain of the sunset gallop fort11 ;
19. those seven in the monntain of the sunrise are bound to rest.
20. I n the 1~0110~~s of the earth they set the foot;
21. on the high-places of the earth they lift the neck.
22. They by nought are known ; in heaven and earth is no know-
ledge of them.
23. To hIerodachS approach, and this word may he say to thee:
24. 'May he give thee the messageGfor those evil ones, the seren,
as many as go straight before thee;

1 A copyist has substituted la for ma, "not," in the Accadian text.

In the original A c c a d i , "the haven that has no exit they opened.
Matstsadti, "the Zodiaral signs," in the Semitic T&E
"Heaven" in the Accadian
Called Ajari in the Bccadian text
Amma, for tbo earlier Sumeri.n
4iO APPENDIX 111.

25. lie tine comm;~nd of whose mouth is favourable, the supreme

judge of heaven.''
26. The Fire-god to hlerodach approaches, and this word he speaks
t o thee;
27. i n the canopy of the bed at night he h e a n this word;
28. to his father Ea he descends into the house and says :
29. '0 my father, the Fire-god flames u p a t the rising of the s u n
nud their hiding-place approaches.
30. The paths of those seven he k u o ~ s and
, h e seeks= their quarters
i n various places.3
31. Enlarge the ears, 0 son of Eridu!'
32. Ea answered his sou Merodach :
33. ' M y son, those seven dwell i n the earth;
34. those seven from the earth have issued forth;
Col. ii. 1. those seven i n the earth were born;
2. those seven in the earth grew up.
3. To tread down the sides of the deep have they approached.
4. Go, my son Merodach !
5. Let the fire of the cedar-tree, the tree that destroys the wicked-
ness of the incubus,
6. on whose core the naine of E a is recorded,
7. with the spell supreme, the spell of Eridu, (and) of purity,
8. to foundation and roof let (its fire) ascend, and to the sick man
never may those seven approach.
9. Like a wide snare i n a wide place outspread5 the hand:
10. a t noon and niidniglrt 011 his head let i t lie;
11. by night let him charm (1)6 the canal and the street, and by
day with his hand.
12. I n the night let him place on the couch a sentence (naasd) from
a good hook on the sick man's head.'
13. The warrior sends (the message) t.o his friend:
14. ' N a y the Fire-god seize that incubus.
..

1 "A.lu"in the Semitic version, which is nonsense.

1 Siteh, iphteal permansive.
3 I n the Accndian, "he turns his head i n front" (W.A.I. iv. 81,29).

4 I n the Semitic version, "to roof and foundation."

Literally, " C B U S ~ to redine!'

&mi; eomp. itanma (W.A. I. iv. 7, 15), which the Accadian equiva-
lent shows must mean "lay a spell upon," or something similar. I n the
present pnasage the AccaJian enege is probably the older form of ma,"e
word" or "command."
 15. The evil ones, those wven, may 60 e a n ~them away and drive
(them) from the man's body.
16: By day smite the incubus unrestingly (I).
17. May tho Fire-god, the power supreme, restore his fonndation.
18. May Kin-ki-gal, the wife of Nin-nBn& establish hia face to he
with good fortune (1).
.
19. May his madness (and his) faintneas . . vanish away.
30. May Nin-akha-kdda take possession of his body, and rest npon
his head.'
21. Sueh (is) the speech of Nin-akhtckdb,
22. (such is) the s ~ e l of
l Eridu :
23. pronounce the spell of the deep and of Eridu supreme. . ..
24. May Isum,' the leader (nagir) of the incubus supreme among
the gods, rest npon his head, and in t.he night protect him.
25. By night and day to the prospering hands of Samas may ha
consign him. Incantation.

26. (In) EriduP a stalk (palm-tree?) grew overshadowing; i n a holy

place did i t become p e n .
27. Its root was of white crystal, which stretched towards the deep.
28. (Before) Ea was its course in Eridu, teeming with fertility.
29. Its seat was the (central) place of the earth.
30. Its foliages was the couch of Zikum the (primeval) mother.
31. Into the heart of its holy house, which spread its shade like a
forest, hath no man entered.
33. (There is the home) of the mighty mother who passes acnss
the sky.
33. (In) the midst of it was Tammue
34. .
35. (There is the shrine!) of the two (gods)."

VII. The sixth tablet of the series concerning " the weakening disease:'
(W. A. I. iv. 7,s) ;translated by Jensen, Ka'ldch~ftfurK&,chrif-
fwachung, i 4 , i i 1.
CoL i 1. " Incantation.-The evil curse lika a demon (gdlu) hss fallen
on the man.
-- --

IAccadian Kun-aagga. The original text is Snmerian and of an early

date, as i a shown by forms like digga, "to grow" or "flame np :' but it baa
been modfied and interpolated by Accdadian and Semitic copyists, who have
introduoed words like a m and la, and lines like the concluding one (d
ii 9s).
&a p. P38. (Ar)kzt-au.
i
472. APPENDIX III.
2. The voice a5 a scourge has fallen upon him.
3. The voice ill-boding has fallen upon him,
4. the evil curse, the ban (marnit), the madness.,
5. Tho evil curse has cut the throat of this Inan like a sheep.
6. His god has gone far from his body.
7. His gotldcss, the giver of counsel, has stationed herself without.
8. The scourging voice like a garment has covered him and be.
witched (1)' him.
9. hlerodach has regarded him.
10. To his father Ea into the house he descends and says :
11. ' 0 my father, the evil curse like a deinon (gallu) has fallen or1
the man.'
12. Twice did he speak to him, and (says):
13. '(What) this man should do I know not; what will give him
rest 1'
14. (Ea) to his son Merodach made answer :
16. '0my son, what dost thou not know 1 what shall I tell g3u
more 1
16. 0 Mcrodaeh, what dost thou not know 1 what shall I add to
t h y (knowledge) 1
17. What I know, thou too knowest.
18. Go, my son, Merodach !
19. Take tho man t o t h e house of pure sprinkling, and
20. remove his ban and expel his ban,
21. the evil that troubles his body,
22. whether i t be the curse of his father,
23. irr the curse of liis mother,
24. or the curse of his eider brother,
25. or the curse of the destruction2 of a man (which) he knows not.
26. May the ban by the spell of E e
27. like garlic be peeled off,
28. like a date be cut off,
29. like a branch be torn away.'
30. The ban, 0 spirit of heaven, conjure! 0 spirit of earth, coqjure I

31. Incantation.-Like this garlic which is peeled and cast into the
fire,
12. the burning flame shall consumo (it);
33. i n the garden i t shall not be planted,
34. in pool or canal it shall not be placed;
35. its root shall not take the earth;

See note 4 p. 470. r: * S~kastum,from sakasy "to destroy."

 THE MAQIOAL TEXTS. 473
36. its stem shall not grow, and shall not see the sun;
Col. ii. 1. for the food of god and king it shall not be used.
2. (So) may the gnardian-priest1 cause the ban to depart from him
(and) unloose the bond
3. of the torturing disease, the sin, the backsliding, t h wickedness,
the sinning,
4. the dlsease which exists in my hody, my flesh (and) my muscles.
5. Like this garlic may it be peeled off, and
6. ou this day may the burning flame consume.
7. May the ban depart that I may see the light.

8. 1ncantation.-Like this date which is cut and cast into the fire,
9. the bnrning flame shall consume (it),
10. to its stalk he who plucks (it) shall not restore (it),
11. for the dish of the king it shall not he used;
12. (so) may the guardian-priest cause the ban to depart from him
(and) unloose the bond
13. of the torturing disease, the sin, the backsliding, the wickedness,
the sinning,
14. the disease which exists in my bodj, my fleah (and) my muscles.
15. Like this date may it he cut, and
16. on this day may the bnrning flame conanme (it).
17. May the ball depart that I may see the light.

18. Incantation.-Like this branch which is tom away and cant

into the fire,
19. the burning flame shall consume (it),
20. its leaves to the trunk shall not. return;
21. for the work of dyeing it shall not be used.
22. (So) may the yardian-priest cause the ban to depart from him
(and) unloose the bond
33. of the torturing disease, the sin, the backsliding, the wickedness,
the sinning,
24. the disease which ex& in my body, my fleah (and) my muaclea
25. Like this branch may i t be tom away, and
26. on this day may the burning flame consume (it).
27. May the ban depah that I may see the light.

28. Incantation.-Like this wool which is torn and cast into the fire,
29. may tbe bnming flame consume (it) ;
- 30. to the back of its sheep i t shall not return ;

' 2-' whence turtony "commeader-in-chief ;' c i W. A. I, ii 31,BB.

 31. for the clothing of god and king it shall not be usod
32. (So) may the guardian-priest cause the ban to depart from him
(and) unlooae the bond
33. of the torturing disease, the sin, the backsliding, the wickedness,
the sinning,
34. the evil which exists in my body, my flesh (md) my muscles.
35. Like this wool may it be tom, and
36. on this day may the burning flame consume (it).
37. May the ban depart thst I may see the light.

38. Incantation.-Like this goat's hair, which is torn and cast into
the fire,
39. the burning flamc shall consume (it);
40. to the back of its goat it shall not return,
41. for the work of dyeing it shall not be used.
42. (So) may the guardian-prieat cause the ban to depart from him
(and) unloosc the bond
43. of the torturing diseuse, the sin, the backsliding, the wickedness,
the sinning,
44. the disease which exists in my body, my flesh (and) my muscles.
45. Like this goat's hair may it he torn, and
46. on this day may the burning flame consume (it).
47. May the ban depart that I may see the light.

48. Incantation.-Like this dyed thread (which) is tom and cnst

into the fire,
49. the burning flame shall consume (it),
50. the weaver into a garment shall not weave (it),
51. for the clothing of god and king it shall not be used.
52. (So) may the guardian-priest cause the ban to depart from him
(and) unloosc tho hond
53. of the torturing disease, the sin, the backsliding, the wickedness,
the sinning,
54. tbe disease which exists in my body, my flesh (and) my muscles.
55. Liko this dyed thread may it be torn, and
56. on this day may the burning flame consume (it).
57. May the ban d e p t that I may see the light.

CoL iii. 1. (This)seed of the pea(!)' (I cast into the file),

2. (speaking) thus : (May) n flame that (ceases) not (consume thee).

1 So B d k (from
~ the Talmudic). The Assyrian word ia -ti, ex-
pressed ideographicdlyby "husk-like plant of the mountain" (KD-KUB-LIL).
 THE XAOIOAL TEXTS. 475
3. may the guardian-priest cauee the (eril) ban to depart fram him
4. (and) unluose the bonJ of the ban,
6. the tortnring diseaae, the sln, the backsliding, the wickedness,
(the sinning),
6. the malady of the heart, the malady of the flesh that (is in m y
body),
7. the bewitchment,' the destn~ction,~ the pain,$ the foul spittle;
8. like the seed of this pea(?) it shall (be consumed) with fire,
9. the son of the gardener shall not plant (it) in the field,
10. in pool or canal i t shall not be laid,
11. its mob shall not take the ground,
12. its stalk shall not rise on high nor see the sun.
13. Never may the bewitchment he produced in my heart,
14. never may (the destruction) seize the spine,
16. never may (the pain) seize the root of my heart (=angina
pectwis) ;
16. may the guardian-priest (cause the ban to depart from it) and
unloose the bond.
17. (The tortnring disease, the sin, the) backsliding, the wickedness.
the (sinning),
18. (the disease which is in my body), my flesh and (my) muscles,
19. (like this seed of the pea nlay i t be destroyed, and)
20. on (this day may) the burning flame (consume it).
21. May the ban depart that I may see the light.

22. Incantation.-On her maiden (IsUr) has laid the command @),
23. Istar' has directed (her maiden).
24. The maiden has settled (the man in her bed?);
26. with white thread (and) b l a k thread the rod has folded a snare
double upon the dista5,
26. a huge snare, a great snare, a varicoloured snare, a snare that
removes the ban.
27. (Against) the curse of the evil ban of mankind,
28. (against) the malediction of the gods,
29. the snare that removes the ban
30. (the man) binds about (his head), his handa and hia feet

' Kispll, ideographically "evil breath."

2 B a a , ideographically "breath of violenma
* BUM, ideographically "breath of casting down" (@ 266). I n W. & I.
ii 29,34,p n n m m d is interpreted "the demon vho injurea the womb"
Nin-lil in the Accsrlian text
476 APPENDIX III.
31. Merodach, the son of Eridu, the prince, with his pore hands
breaks (it) ;
32. may he send the ban of that snare to the desert, a pure plaee.
33. May the evil ban settle elsewhere.
34. May this nxm be pure and resplendent !
35. To the prospering hands of his god may he be entrusted1
40. Conclusion (of the spell) for breaking the ban.

41. Incantation.-I uplift a vessel large and stately and kindle the
fire.
42. I kindle the coal, I burn the whole offering.
Col. iv. 1. The pure pourer of lihatious to Ea, the messenger of Nero-:
dach am I.
2. The coal I have kindled (and) I lull to rest.
3. The fire have I lighted (and) I incvease.
4. The n,hoie offering I have ofLered (and) I glorify.
5. Like the coal I have kindled, I will lull to rest;
6. (like) the fire I have lighted, I will increase ;
7. (like) the n l ~ o l eoffering I hare offered, I will glorify.
8. May the gud of herbs, the asse~nblcrof god and man,
9. unloose the knoc lie has knottcd.
LO. From the lillot of the heart may the god and goddess of m.
and-so, the son of so-and-so, delirer liim.
11. May liiu Lacksli,liog be outpooreil on this day.
12. hfay they forgive liim, may they deliver him!

13. Incantation.-Rest, 0 Fire-god the warrior !

14. Along with thee may the n~ountains(and) rivers rest 1
15. W i t h thee may the Tigris and (Euphrates) rest !
16. W i t h thee lnay the sea (and) the seas rest !
17. W i t h thee may the road ( k / ~ u r m r ~rest,
) the daughter of the
(great) gods !
18. W i t h thee may the plant of the high-place rest, the growth of
the height (suli) !
19. W i t h thee may the heart of my gml and my goddess mho are
angry rest !
20. W i t h thee may the heart of the god of my city and the goddesa
of my city who are angry rest !
21. On this day nlay the heart of m y god and my goddess nal,>ose
the knot,
22. and may the ban depart from my body !
23. Since thou (enlightenest) the judge with thy light,
 THE MAGICAL TEXTS. 477
24. aud (@ritest) thy protection to the arbitrator,
25. judge my judgment, decide my decision!

26. [First line of the nest tablet :] Incantation.-Wherefore has

the locust issued forth from (the henven) I
27. The (sixth) tnblet of the sulpu (consumption) series.
28. (Like its) copy (written and published).
29. Property of (Assur-bani-pal, king of legions,)king (of Assyria)."

VIII. K 1284, published by Lenormant, ktudes accadiennes, ii. 1, pp.

239 s p
1. "Incantation.-The evil plague-demon bums up' the land like
fire.
2. The plague-demon like the f e ~ e (usakk~c)
r altncks the man.
3. The plague-demon in the desert like a cloud of dust make8 lrie
way.
4. The plague-demon like a foe takes captive the man.
5. The plague-demon like a flame consumes the man.
6. The plague-demon, though he hath neither hands nor feet, eve%
goes round and round.
7. The plague-demon like destructitm cuts ~lo\vnthe sick man."

IX. Magical formulie published by Hauyt, Aklcudisohe und Sumerkchr

Keileilschnftbzte, ii. pp. 77-79,
Oh. 1. "Incantation.-The pure waters . . . .
3. The waters of the Euphrates whose place i s . . ..
3. The water which in the deep is firmly established
4. The pure mouth of Ea purifies them.
5.- The sons of the deep are those seven.
6. The waters glisten purely, the waters are bright, the watera
shine.
7. I n the presence of your father Ea,
8. may he be pure, may he be bright, may he shine.
9. May the evil tongue depart elsewhere.
10. Conclusion of the spell.-Before a vessel of pure water repeat
the .
prayer thrice.
~

11. Inrantat~on.-The river-goJ is fresh and bright likn a wrestler (1).

I?. n~r cry of the bin before him is lrkn (that of) a Jemon ((11;).

Ikhimu. In S 1425. 1, 2, the ideograph is rendered by ipamma. The

..
iraoguent runs : "(The demons) bun1 up the l6.nd like water (0,.. a m -
.
passion they h o w not,. . . againat n d i n d they rush."
$78 APPENDIX 1x1.

13. All the eahh i t egoloses like the height of the firmament
(si~netun).
14. May the Sun-god st his rising banish its dndiness, and never
may thore be night in the house.
Rmr. 1. May the ban depart to the desert (to) a pure plaee.
2. The ban, 0 spirit of heaven, conjure ! 0 spirit of earth, conjure!
3. Collelusion of the spell.-For undoing the ban when with the
water of the river-god thou assistest him ( t d a t t a r a ) .
4. Incantation.-0 Fire-god, the ~entientchief who art exalted io
the land,
5. the warrior, the son of the deep, who art exalted in the land,
6. O Fire-god, in thy holy fire,
7. in the house of dal.kness thou settest the light.
8. Of all that is called by a name thou fixest the destiny, and
9. of bronze and lead thou art the mingler (i.e. melter).
10. Of gold nnd silver1 tho11 art the prosperer.
11. Of Nin-sa-61 thou art the companion.
12. Thou art he who turns the breast of the foe at night.
13. Msy the lilnbbs of thc m%n,the son of his god, be bright l
14. Like the 11ea\.cn may he be pure !
15. Like the earth niny he he bright!
16. Like the midst of heaven may he shine !
17. May the evil tongue (depart) elsewhere!
18. Conclusion of the spell for undoing the ban. ...
13 804. Rev.
1. Incantation.-Land land, land . . ..
thine, thine, thine. . . .
...
2.
3. (is) the mouth, the mouth, the mouth, the mouth.
4. of the lord, the lord, the lord, the lord, the lord, the Lord, the
lord,. ...
4. the unique, the unique, the unique, the unique. ...
6. unique (among) Illen . . . .
7. 0 spirit of heavon, conjure !
8. 0 spirit of Mul-lil, king of the world, (conjure I)
9. 0 spirit of Nin-lil, lady of the world, (conjure !)
10. 0 spirit of Ada?, son of I!-sarra, (conjure !)
11. 0 spirit of Nergal, king of Cutha. (conjure !)
12. 0 spirit of the Sun-god, king of Laria, (conjure !)
IS. 0 spirit of Xusku . . . ."
---.
. In the Se~nitievenion, "of silver and golbS
 n:
HYHNS TO THE GODS

I Hymn to Adar (Haupt, Alrkadisdts und S u d c 7 i d Xea'Irdrffkde,

ii. No. 10).
1. "The sting of the scorpion (Wi)the ,'mighty aerpent of the god,
thou removest, making (it8 poison) to turn away from the land.
2. Adar, the king, the son of Mul-lil, has caused i t to turn into
~taelf.
3. He is the warrior whose laeao overthrows the foc
4. 0 Adar, the fear of thy shadow inclinaa towards the world.
5. He assembles his people in strength to invade the hostile country.
6. Adar, the kiug, the son of his father, has made them turn the
face aga~nstdhtent lands.
!. On the thmne of the shrine supreme, even on hia sealj is a
3
brilliant light2 when he lights i t up.
8. At the festival they establish him joyfully in his seat
9. He is the rival of Anu and Mul-lil, he maketh the wine to he
. good.
10. Batru supplicates him with a prayer for the kiug.
11. Adar the lord, the eon of Mul-lil, is the determiner of destiny.
12. The time is the weapon of my lard, in the mountain are hia ears.
13. The god who binds the hosta of the firmament spaaka to the
lord, to Adar!
14. ' 0 lord, a station on high (is thy habitation)
15. 0 Adar, thy command changes n o t , . .'.
.. ..
16. Anu the lord has created the earth.
17. Adar, the warrior who knows not fear, (has &ven awsy) the paat.
18. The son of the numa, the unmting, h8s (suckled) the essenoe of
milk.

' Not "Lion!'

1C m p ~ ~ thee Shekinah of the Ebbraw writem, the light which &one
wer the mercy-&
 480 APPENDIX IY.

19. 0 lord, the offspring that knows not a father, the smiter of the
mountain,
20. the strong (dam) hero, before whom the foe exists not,
21. Adar, manly exalter, who makes joyful his side,
22. 0 warrior, like a bull, mayeci 'hou strengthen the side.
23. The lord who (grants) pantun to his city (and) action to his
mother,
24. has driven t i e chariot over the mountain, has scattered wide
the seed.
25. (Men) altogether have proclaimed his name daily for sovereignty
. . over them.
26. I n their midst, like a great wild bull, has helifted up his horns.
27. Tile 9u stone, the precious stone, the strong stone, the snake-
stone and the mountain-stone,
28. tliewarrior-the fire-stone too-their warrior carries away to
the cities.'
29. The tooth of the worm (klrsi) that comes forth from the moun-
tain he binds.
30: To their hand, their city, their god and their land he brings it
hack."

11. TV.A. I. ii. 19. No. 2. H y n ~ nto Mcrodach.

Obv. I. "The smiter of the neck, the falchion, the blade that proclaims
me A ~ U( I, hear).
~
2. That from whose hanll the mountain escapes not, the lasso o i
battle, (I bear).
3. The spear (Sum. agav) of the hero, the long shaft of hattle, (I
bear).
4. The strap which is hound fast to the man, the bow (qmtt~)of
the deluge ( ~ b u b i )(I
, ~bear).

1 This line is evidently corrupt, and since the Semitic qarradu has been
%trodneed into the Accadian text, i t must be regarded as an interpolation.
The line must originally have run, uru-sag e r i bnh-iy-Jig, '(the hero has
carried to the oity."
I n the original Aoeadian, "the blade of my divinity!'
3 I s this an allasion to the "bow" of Uen i s.13-1G 1 At any rate the
original phrase, "the bow of the deluge," is dccadim @isme ndtu), and the
ward yism, "how," is rendered not by the usual Assyrian midl,nnu, but by
pastu, the Heb. qesheth. [For the pronunciatiun of a~s-BAM, "bow," see
W. A. I. ii. 89, 31.1 A frapentary text gives an ncconnt of the arming of
Xerorlaeh with "the bow of Ann" in "the assembly of the gods" beforo his
combat with Tiamat, and one of the constellations was named "the atax of
the bow!'
 EYXNS TO THE GODS. 481
6. Destroying the temples of the foe, thebow and the armw (kdxzh)
( I bear).
6. The deluge of battle, the weapon of fifty heads, ( I bear).
7. That which like the monstmus snake bears the yoke on its
seven heada (I bear).
8. That which like the strong serpent of the sea (drives1) tho foe
before it,
9. the overthrower of mighty battle, prevailing over heaven and
earth, the weapon of (fifty) heads, ( I h a ) .
10. That whose light gleams forth like the day, the god of the eastern
mountain, who binds the hand, ( I bear).
11. The establisher of heaven and earth, the god whose hand has
no foe, ( I bear).
12. The weapon, the terror of whose splendonr (overwhelms) the
earth,
13. which in my right hand mightily is d e to go, (and) with gold
and crystal (is covered),
14. (which) is net for the view (of mankind), the gad who ministers
' to life, ( I bear).

15. The weapon (which like). .. . battles against the hostile land,
the weapon of 6fty he&, (I bear).

Rar. 1. Like a bird . . ..

2. May their habitation be pure I
3. Against the terror of my splendour, which in glorioua as dnu,
who can stand 1
4. I am lord of the tower-like mountains, as h i h as the winds
they lwk.'
5. With a mountain of diamond (t): of turquoise and of crystal, I
fill my hand
6. The spirits of the earth liko a swine grope in the hollowe.
7. I n the mountain, to the hand of my supreme warriorship, I . . ..
my hand
8. I n my right hand the god who binds the hosts of the firmament
I bear.
9. I n my left hand the god who slays the hosts of the firmament
I bear.

This is the Semitic paraphrsse, the translator having punned upon the
mnlLlance of the Sllllitie dn', "dnda," to the A c d n n saarra, "the hosts
ofthe firmament." The original Acesdian text b literally, "which to the
dwell~ug-placeof thu L u ~ bof the Grmamrnt turn the head."
482 APPENDIX IV.

10. The Son-god of fifty faces, tho falchion which proelaims me m

Anu, I hear.
11. The hero wllo dcstroys the monn.ain, the Sun-god who lifte not
up the offering, I bear.
12. The nenpon, which like a monster (wumgalli) devoum the
corpses (of the dead), I bear.
13. The destroyer of the mountain, the glorious weapon of Aun, I
bear.
14. The subduer (nzzlsaknis) of the mon~tain,the fish with seven
fins, I bear.
15. The offspring of battle, the flail of the Lostile land, I bear."'

111. W.A.I. ii. 19. No. 1. Compared with R126 (Hymn to Adar).
Ohv. 1. "Below in the deep a loud voice is heard (lit. taken);
2. the terror of the splendour of Anu in the midst of heaven i s
the extension of his path.
3. The spirits of the earth, the great gods, urgu him on (I).
4. The lord like the delnge des~ends.~
5. Adar, the destroyer of the fortress of the hostile land, descends
like the deluge.
.
6. . . . the hostelries in the precinct (I) of heaven. . ..
7. (He establishes) his path by the command of Mul-lil, destroying
the temple.
8. The hero of the gods who sweeps away the land.
9. To Nippur from afar (nidis) he draws not near.
10. Nuzku, thf supreme messenger of Xul-lil, receives him in the
teniple (E-kur).
11. To the lord Ad.rr lie addresses words of peace.
12. '0 my king, thou makest warlike deeds perfect (mklulat), t o
thyself give car.
13. 0 my king, thuu mnkest warlike deeds (parradat) perfect, to
thyself give ear.
14. Tho terror of thy splendour like a . . ..
Rev. 1. Thy chariot is the voice of its thundericg ( a m r j i m rimenma).
2. I n thy marching, heaven and earth are its face.
3. To the lifting up of thy hands is the shadolv turned.
4. The spirits of the earth, the great gods, return to the winds.3

It is probable that the places of the obverse and reverse o u ~ hto t be

Gsterchanged.
Literally, "opens the clouds," +toll, for which see W,A I. iv. 23, 11.
This is the Semitic ''translation/ which, however, is due to bad ety-
ologising on the part of the translator, who haa identified the Semitio dm,
 3. Thy father on hi meat thou feareat not. , .

6. Mul-lil on his seat thou fearest not.

7. The spirits of the earth on the seat of the height of tho assembly
thou bindest n o t
8. Mny thy father present thee n i t h a gift in the hands of thy
!varriorship.
9. May Mul-lil present thee with a gift i n the hands of thy warrior-
ship.
10. A mighty king is Anu, the tirsthom of the gods.
11. The oreatiou (sit&) of Mul-111, the creation of the life of &kur.
12. (Thou art) the warrior of the mountain who subjugatest,
.
13. . . . the one god wiH not urge an.'"
-
IT. R 117.
Oh. 10. "For the lord .. ..he t m k and utter6 the prayer :
11. I0 lord, in thy city (which) thou loveat may thy heart 6 at
rest !
12. 0 lord Adar, (in the house which) thou lovest may thy heart
be at rest !
Rev. 1. I n the temple of Nippur, thy city which thou loveat, (may thy
heart be at rest I)
2. Into the house of prayer and listening, the seat of the goodness
of thy heart, in joy descend.
3. The (handmaid) of thy wife ia the servant of Nin-liL
4. Speak to her from thy heart, speak (to her) from thy liver.
5. Declare (in) the land the goodnw of ,the king unto distant
regionan' -
V. K 5001.
1. " 0 lord, who lifkst up the torch ( d i p m ) , who pursuest swiftly
(nzukhammedl~)the foe,
2. who carriest away the land of the disobedient, may thy heart
he exalted !
3. Thou who destroyat (mupalli) the life of the evil one, may thy
heart he exalted !
4. Thou who rainesb tire and stones' upon the enemy, may thy
heart he exalted !" -

"wind,'' and tam, "to return," with the A d a n raws, '<the hosts of the
firmament:' and nam-tnv, "destiny.)' The Accadian original is really, "as
far ns the hosts of the firmament determine destiny!'
1 In the Semitic translation, "stones and fire." Conlpare the mconnt of
the destn~etionof the cities of tllc plnin in Gen. xir. 24: "TheLord rained
upon Sobm and uyon Gomorrnh brimstone rind fire."
212
484 APPENDIX IT.

VI. W.A. I. iv. 11.

Obn 1. " (The chief shepherd [damgam]) became hostile (iltakhap) ;
all the world was troubled.
2. (The lord) of the chief shepherd became hostile; all the world
was troubled.
3. He cried in the house (es) of Xipur :
4. ' I n &-kur is the dwelling of the hero of the honse of life.'
5. I n Sippanr he was hostile :
6. 'The temple of Babira is the house of the judge of the world.'
7. I n Babylon w a ~he hostile :
8. fi-Saggil is the house of the temple of the resting-place of the
world.'
9. I n Borsippa did he become hostile:
10. ' I n e - ~ i d ais the house of the supreme temple of life;
11. the(ten1ple) of the foundations of heaven and earth in the honse
of the temple of the antelope of heaven.'
12. His lord sets the offerinp.1
13. (On) a throne of pain h e seats himself.
14. His lord behind him delivered not the oracle.
15. ~

16. With t e ~ r she weeps and mourns.

-
.. U1-lilli (Mul-lill descended to the zhosta

17. I n the distance one far off he (sees).

. ..
18. (On) his mound a fire (he kindled 1).
19. His god with the reed of weeping.
20. The anointer-priest speaks not.
21. The gallos.priest says not: ' When shall thy heart (be pacified) l'
2% The anointer comes forth from the (place of) anointing (kuzbi).
23. His lord comes forth from the corn-field.
24. The gallu-priest comes fort11 from his (place of) supplication.
25. His lord sits not down, his mistress sits not down
26. His lord shouted and rode upon the mountain.
27. His mistress shouted and rode to the moantain.
28. 'The fox is tied by his tail.'"
29. Lifting up his voice with the many-coloured bird he answers
30. His heart i s . . ..
Rev. 6. The incantation (in Sippara) is evil.
7. The house of the temde of Bahira is evil.
8. The incantation in llahylon is evil.
9. The incantation in e-Saggil ia eviL

1 In the Srmitie version, 'ltrembles.''

S ('Tonied round" in the Semitic version
 HYUSS TO 'TEE GOD% 4'85
10. The incantation in Borsippa is eviL
11. The incantation iu &Zida is evil.
12. I n the supreme temple of life it is evii.
13. I n the temple of Lhe foundations of heaven and earth it is e d .
14. In the temple of the antelope of heaven it is evil.
15. What is that which is in the heart of my lordl
16. What is there in his ear9
17. What has he perceived with his holy earl
18. The god has wrought destruction (sakllluqta).
19. He has caused the river to carry away (the people).
20. He has cawed (the simoom 1) of sicknssa ( p t i ) to wme forth
from the desert.
21. The (hair 1) of the head has been sown as seed in the field.
22. .. . . he cries out; words he addresses to him :
23. ' 0 (Mu])-lil and wife (of thee) Nin-lil!
24. His (spouse), the lady of the temple of. .. .'
25. (To the queen) the divine lady of Nipur he utters the cry.
26.
29. ...........
. the world he wmpletes.
thou restorest.
30.
31.
33.
........
during the night thou completeet.
among the flocks thou art set.
night by night a watch thou establisheat
33. .... and write the tablet of his bleasednes."

VII. W. A. I. iv. 13. No. 1. On the execution of a stone image of

Adar.
Oh. 1, 2. "(The god) A d a , the lord, the mu of Mul-(lil, who can
rival thee 1)
3. The strong stone (d), which in my battle (the bow contains),
4. like a glorious eye (is seen).
6. Thy hand thou raisest not. .. .
6. I n sovereignty the lord is alone (supreme).
7. 0 Adar, the lord, the son of Mul-lil, who can rival (theo) l
8. From the lofty mountains of Elam may it be fetched.
9. From the mountain of Magan (Sinai) may it be brought down.
10. Thou art (as) strong bronze, like the ski11 (thou art smooth!)
11. I am lord; to the hands of my warriorship mightily I (commit
i t I).
12. ( I am) the king who establishes his name f u r s life of long days.
13. His image ia resplendent unto future days.
14. I n the temple of Mul-lil (I)the temple of completion ....
16. a place of drinking (and eating), for beauty (conetmcted),
48e APPENDIX IV.

16. the lord has made good the stone.

17. For his body has he made its stonework.
18. Adar, the lord, the son of Mul-lil, (drives away 1) the cnme of
rain.
19. The stone which when it is harmful ( I ) to me, h e . . ..
20. that stone, which for my battle the bow holds (ta[mikh]),'
21. mayest thou, when thou ragest like a wild boar, o~ersl~adow.
23. It is laid, and according to the message is wrought, to its smallest
parts it is made perfeot.
24. May he who kno~vsthee bring thee back to the watere.
25. My king ha$ taken the stone of the papyrus for a stone,
26. Adar, the lord, the son of Mul-lil, cuts it not.
27. The opening (of) the ear thou makest holy (tqdis); mayest
thou send terror.
Reri. 1. I n the land of the foe, in all tho world together, mayest thou
proclaim my name.
2. I n peace with thee have I walked uprightly.
3. May thy might2 be hard upon him that is made small.
4. hly commnud in thy body let it guide aright.
5. In the slaughter of the weapon the warrior whom thou shyest
is utterly destroyed.
6. On the altar supreme mnyest thou lay the table of shewbread
(bimtu)!
7. May one purify the land happily for thee, and establish it in
exaltation.
8. My king has taken tho mountain-stone for a stone.
9. To its strength he gives answer.
10. Adar the lord, tho sun of Mul-lil, cuts it not.
11. (He is) the hero exalted, the hfting up of the light of whose
eyes is upon other lands.
12. The n~ounta~n-stone (it is) which in the hostile land utters
strongly (1) (its) cry to you.
13. A woman (1) did not fall (1) into my h a n d
14. With the strong I mas not weak (uttodhd).
15. At the foot of thy men thou didst pour out t h e . . ..
16. May the command of the Sun-god be a command unto thee i
17. Like a judge direct the world aright.
18. He who knows the commar~l,whatever be his name,
-
The hymn must he of some antiquity, since stone arrow-heads are hero
referred to.
Rabbut, Accadian F a ; aee W.A.I. v. 20, 2 2
 HYbINB TO THE QCDL

19. to the command may he guide thea*

VIIL W. A. I. iv. 13. No. 2.

1. "Thy hand is clean, thy hand is white;
2. may the hands of the gods that accompany thee be :lean, may
their hands be white !
3. On a pure dish eat pure food.
4. In a pure vessel drink pure water.
5. May the king, the son of his god, give ear to thee for judgmnt
( = a t the judgment-seat)."

Cg, W.A.Liv.14. No.2.

Oh. 1. " Incantation.-The pure waters ....
3. The waters of tho Euphrates which in a place. ...
3. The waters which are for ever collected together' in the deep,
4. the pure mouth of Ea has made resplendent.
6. The sons of the deep, those seven,
6. have made the waters reaplendent, have made the waters white,
have made the waters shine.
7. I n the presence of your father Ea,
8. in the presence of your mother Dav-kina,
9. may it be resplendent, may i t he white, may i t shine.
10. May the evil mouth, unresting, be closed.
11. End of the incantation. Repeat it three timea, using pure water.

12. Incantation-The curse is before him; its cry ia like that of a

demon ;
13. i t binds all the world like the zenith of the dawn.
14. The Sun-god at his rising scatters its darkness, and never may
there be gloom in the house !
Reu. 1. May the curse depart to the desert, a pure placn I
2. The curse, 0 spirit of heaven, conjure I 0 spirit of earth, conjure !
3. Conclusion of the incantation for exoreising the evil spell The
earth, 0 river-god, thou dost surround (tukattar).

4. Incantation.-The fire-god (is) the prince (vizier) who is Ligh in

the earth,
6. the warrior, the son of the deep, who is high in the earth
6. 0 Fire-god, by thy pure fire,
7. in the house of darkness thou makest light.

Literally, "Jirmly satabliahed," in the Semitic versiar

488 APPENDIX IT.

8. Thou lete ermine st the destiny of all that is called by a nama

9. Of bronze and lead thou art the mingler.
10. Of gold and silver' thou art the bencdictor.
11. Thou art the companion of the god Nin-guSi.
12. Thou art he that turuest (to flight) the breast of the evil man
at night.
13. Nayest thou enlighten the limbs of the man the son of his god.
14. Like heaven may he be pure I
15. Like the midst of heaven may he shine !"

X. W. A. I. iv. 14. No. 3. Hymn to Ncbo.

1. "TONebo the supreme messenger, who binds all things together,
2. the scribe of all that has a name, for thy purityz (ascribe) the
lordship.
3. The lifter up of the stylus supreme, the director of the world.
4. The possessor of the reed of augury, the traverser of atrange
(lands),
5. the opener of the wells, the fmctifier of the corn,
6. the god without whom3 the irrigated laud (iku) and the canal
are un(watered),
7. the glorious lord who pours out the oil of anointing and t h e
unguent,
8. hear the prayer, (consider the supplication 1
9. O mighty hero, king (of d-Zida ".)P

XI. W. A. I. iv. 18. No. 1. Hymn on the building of & ~ a &

1. "(The god who dwells?) in Babylon has proclaimed ite name
for ever.4
2. . . . . at the gate of the deep he built the house he loves.
3. (The men) of the city he 8118 with joy and gladness.
4. I t s head like heaven he r a i ~ e d . ~
5. A t the gate of the deep founding the house (with) fear and
mercy, for the glory of his godhead he made it march.
6. (0Eel) and Zarpanit, thy holy shrine he founds.
-- ----
1 The order is reversed in the Semitio rerslon.
The Semitic version seems to have "wisdom."
"he Aceadian has "the gods without him," bnt the Semitic tmdat01
has mistaken the plural for a singular.
4 In the Accsdian, sides, from sida, "perpetuaL"

S Comp. Gen. xi. 4

 HYKNB TO THE GODS. 489
7. He caused (6is guardian priests 9) to inhabit the rent of
nbundance.
..
8. The. . for it8 midst he opened.
9. (In the oracle) a favourable destiny he determines (barn).
10. (The men of the city joy and) gladneas established.
i 11. .. . .
the goddeaa (satisfies) the heart with sounds of music day
. and night."l
XII. W. A. I. iv. 18. No. 2. Fragment of a hymn to Merodach.
Oh. 1. "The resting-place of the lord of the supreme temple of life
is thy house,
2.' $-~agsil,the temple of thy lordship, is thy house.
3. May thy city speak to thee of a resting-place : (it is) thy house.
4. May Babylon speak to thee of a resting-place: (it is) thy house.
5. May Anu, the chief, the father of the gods, aay to thee : 'When
(wilt thou) rest 1'
6. May the great mountain (sadu mbu), the father of Mul-lil, (say
to thee) : 'When (wilt thou rest)l'
7. Xay Zikum, (the mistress) of the house, the mighty mother of
Mul-lil, (say to thee) : 'When (wilt thou rest) 1'
8. May the (spirits of the earth) of Mul-lil, the supreme powera of
Auu, (say to thee) : ' When (wilt thou rest) 1'

&. 1. Look downupon thy temple, look down upon thy city, 0 lord
of rest !
9. Look down upon Babylon and baggil, 0 lord of rest I
3. The scenery of Babylon, the enclosure of &saggil, the brickwork
of fi-~ida,may he restore to their place !
4. May the jpda of heaven and earth eay unto thee : ' 0 lord, be
at rest !'
6. Give life to Anear (Assur)2 thy shepherd, thy feeder; hear his
pryer !
6. Lay well the foundations of the throne of his sovereignty; m y
he nourish the seed of men unto everlasting days 1
7. The lifting up of the hand to Jderodach."
XIII. W. A. L iv. IS. No. 3.
1. "On the seat of the holy of holies of the oracle ....
I "Night and day" in the Semitic version.
An Assyrian scrihe seems to have introduced the name of the old capital
oitj of A m iuto the line in place oi same deity, probably Tanunw, who is
called "the divine eon" in the Accadian text.
490 APPENDIX IV.

2. a staff of crystnl for... . of the shepherd .. ..

(place in) his
hand.

.. .
3. Honey, milk and abundanoe of (corn, give to him).
4. The mountain which bears the offering, even the offering of.
5. The desert (and)
. . the field which bear the offering, even the
..
offering o f . .
6. The gnrden of fruit which bears the offering, even the nffering
of ....
7. I n tho right hand of the king the shepherd of his country may
the Sun-god be (carried 1).
8. I n his left hand may the Moon-god be (calriedl).
9. May thy prospering spirit (szdu), thy prospering colossos of the
lordship and sovereignty of the land, rest upon his body I

10. Conclusion of the spell for a storm (1).

11. Incantation.-The weapon which scatters rays of brilliance, that'

is made beautiful for kingship,
12. the lofty falchion which has bcen fitted for the hands of
sovereignty,
13. the forceful flash, made for tho hand to grasp (sutdkl~ar), there
is none who faces.
14. (It is) for the land of the enemy to sweep away the attacking
foe.
15. Ea, the king of the deep,
16. answered Nin-gur (1), the chief handmaid of Anu, and the word
he takes :
17. 'Go, Nin-gut. (l), great handmaiJ. of Anu I
18. I n the holy forest of the wood of the locust (1),
19. the p e a t stones, the great stones that are made beautiful with
rejoicing,
20. that are fitted to become the body' of the gods,
21. the porous stone (khulal) of the eyes, the porous stone of the
snake's sting, the porous-stone, the turquoise, the crystal,
22. the p b s u stone, the precious stone, glassz completely d o ~ b l e d , ~
23. its sapingu stone, (and) gold must be taken,
24. to be set on the pure breast of the man for an adornment.

1 "Flesh" in the Assyrian version. Of course, stone images are meant.

E J w , Aocadian sudam.
a Antoncma, explained in W . k I . ii. 20, 6, by ,&ppzLnI so lib%, "folding
'of the heart" In W.A.I. iv. 86, 38, it ia the equivalent of the Aseyrian
p.arikhth
 S TEE QODS.
H Y ~ TO 491

86, Tile pure gad who is exalted afar, the supreme bull of Mal-lil
purifies and enlightens.
28. hlny the evil prince depart to another plnce.
27. The p e a t stones, the gwat stones, the great stones of honow,
28. (the fragment) of crystal, the fragment of crystal,
20. the holy (stones) which are full of beauty and rejoicing, that
are fitted to be p d upon,
30. (which are) the flesh of the gods, vcry brilliant are they,
31. even the &BU (stone), the eye-stone of Melukhkha and the
porous stone !"
XIV. W. A.I. iv. 20. No. 2. ITymn to the Sun-god.
1. "0 Sun-god, on the horizon of heaven thou dawneat I
2. The pure b l t a of heaven thou openest!
3. The doors of heaven thou openest !
4. 0 Sun-god, thou liftest up thy head to the vorld !
6. 0 Sun-god, thou coverest the earth with the bright firmament
of heaven !
6. Thou settest the ear to (the prayers) of mankind;
7. thou plantest the foot of mankind. ...
8. The cattle of the god (Ner thou enlightenest)."

XV. W.A.I. iv. 20. No. 3. Hymn to Neb.

1. '< . .. . 0 lord of Borsippa I
2. Thon ereatest (l) the power, 0 son of k-saggil 1
3. 0 lord, there is no pomer that can compare with thy power!
4. 0 lord, who givest the name to Borsippg' there is no power
that can compnre with thy power !
6. There is no temple that can compare with thy temple I?-~ida!
6. There is no city that can compare with thy city Borsippa !
7. There is no place that can compnre with thy place Babylon !
8. Thyweapon is the unique monster (usz~mgallu),fromwhose mouth
the breath pours not out (ilzatluku), the blood drips not
(izamm).
9. Thy command is unchanseahle like the heavene; in heaven
thou art supreme !" '

XVI. W. A. I. iv. 21. No. 1.

Oh. 1. " A t the lifting up of your' hands, with a dark blue dress
(tssbatu) I cover xnyselt
In the Semitio rendering, simply LINebo."
The Semitic version mibtrsnelatas "their."
492 APPENDIX IV.

2. Arohe (aadinna) of many coloun I place in your hands; a cednlc

tree whose heart is strong. . . .
3. The barrier I have completely drawn; with clean hands the
sugatstsi (destroyers 1) I have brought for you.
..
4. The. . of the corn god, the curse of the gods I have brought
for you.

8. Complete the . ...of the image with two-fold knotting8 of the

image.
9. (Set) the image of the baleful gallu-demon on the head of the
sick man on the right hand and the left.
10. (Set) the image of Nergal (Lugal-nerra) who has no rival on the
enclosure of the house.
11. (Set) the image of 'Sulim-ta-e who has no r i d . . ..
12. (Set) the image of Narudu, who (performs) the commands of the
great gods, below on the bed. . ..
13. Agaiust all evil that cannot be faced ;set) the Honey-god and
Latnrak in the gate (of the house).
14. To expel all that is evil (set) him who' shatters the offspring of
evil in front of ita gate.
15. (Set) the twin fighters, the saqat8t6, in the midst of the gate.
16. (Set) the twin fighters who bind the hand on the threshold of
the gate on the right hand and on the left.
17. (Set) the image of the watcher of Ea and Merodach in the
midst of the gate on the right hand and on the left
18. (This?) is the spell of ABnri (&Ierodach) who dwells in tho
Image.. ..
Rev. 1. A spell! a spell! He laid on him the curse like the going
down of cattle and the coming up of cattle.
2. Ye are the offspring of the pure deep, the children of Ea.
3. Eat what is good, drink honey water, ye are n watch thnt no
evil (happen).

4. Like a god he concealed ( l ) the face of the seven images on (his)

hand .. ..
6. Before them (his) foot was stationary, and ti, the prenence of
the aeven images .. ..
1 Here the Semitic translator, who in the previous line has transferred
the Accadian nu-t&into the Semitic text, has introduced the Semitic relative
pronoun sa into the Accadiau text The whole text has evidently under-
gone extenel= Plterationa
 6. of the cedar (and) of the wespona which they lifted u p
-
7. Incantation.--The slaughterer of the hostile incuhos.
8. the presenter of life, the very strong ( n r * ~ @ h ~ ) ,
9. who turns the breast of the evil one,
10. the protector of the oracle of Mul-lil,
11. the fire-godwho swoepa away the foe,
12. the falchion which overwhelms the plague,
13. tho dragon (mamlu) which shines brightly,,'
14. the gods seven, the destroyers of hostility.

16. (The god) who makes perfect the barrier of heaven and earth."
XVII. W.A. I. iv. 22. No. 1.
Obv. 1. "(The demon) from k-knr has come forth.
2. From the temple of Nipur he has come forth.
3. The female spirit devours with a snake's mouth'
4. He has not overshadowed the . . ..
he has not made good the
evil.
5. The sickness of night and day is he.
6. His hand is the stormdemon (ala), his side is the deluge.
7. His face is that of the god of destruction.
8. His eye is filled with the shadow of tho forest
9. The.sole ( m d u ) of his foot is the lullub tree.'
10. May he lift up the muscle ss he hurries (it) along.
11. He makes (all) ereaturaa hurry (in fear).
12. Lifting up the body he seizes the. . ..
20. The side like a brick he breaks in pieeaa
21. The breqt like a snare he tears in two.
22. The ribs like an old ship he shatters.
23. The very heart like a double frame he s e k
24. The locust he makes lie down like watercrasa
26. The. . .. he divides like an ox.
26. .
The. . . he slaughters ond the ox he sparas n o t
27. The ox he slaughters and the wild hull he tam= n o t
28. ..
R e . . and nakes not perfect his horns.
29. He slaughters (the cows) md makas not their oxen

1 In the Accadian, "is fsvanrab-le"

In the Semitic version, simply prddhtuv, "the dentmyex.''
a In Accadian, "the atu of the dese~rt:'
here described aa "the tree of the
supreme spirit"
 494 APPEBDIX IV.

30. The cattle of the field he slaughters, and like a cloud o f .

locusts sweeps along together.
...
31. Like a how made ready (bame) he 6lls all that has a nama
32. Merodaoh beholds him, and
33. to his father Ea into the house he entered and says:
34. I 0 my father, the demon of msdness has gone forth from Bkur.'
35. Twice did he address him, and
36. what the man may do he knows not, or how he may he at rest,
Rev. 1. E a answered his son Merodach :
2. < M ysou, what knowest thou not, w b t can I teach thee 1
3. Nerodach, what knowest thou not, what can I teach thee?
4. What I know, thou too knowest.
5. Go, my son Merodach !
6. Take the . . . . of the vault nnd
7. at the mouth of the twin rivers take the watera, and
8. lay thy holy spell on their waters.
9. Purify (them) with thy pum charm.
10. Sprinkle the . . .. of the man the son of his god.
11. Bind the bond upon his head.
12. Let him he fed abundantly.
13. At the dayspring give the command.
14. I n the broad street place (him).
15. Let the madness of his head be removed (fmm him).
16. May the malady of the head which has descended (kitmum)
like the rain (sunni) of the night be driven awny.
17. May the word of Ea issue forth like the dawn I
18. May Dav-kina direct (it) !
19. May hlerodach, the eldest son of the deep, he light and happiness'
unto thee !"

XVIII. W. A. I. iv. 22. No. 2.

1. " h-Ierodach thine enkindler ( l ) (dali)....
2. in the night he was in grief, in the day he was troubled.
3. And in a dream he sent unto him a warning (gipilutuv) ;
4. revealing (it) in a vision,' he did not direct him.
5. The questioner (of the oracle) at the altar (~nuusakka) did not
open for him the eye. . .
6. His sick (neck) mas not quiet in the yoke.
..
7. The. . with pure means did not soothe him.

The ideopnph used in the Aceadiau tost for biru, " a vision," in the
representative of biw, 'Lproduce," showing that this text blongs to the
Semitic epoch
 8. Like an ox (in) the .. . .
was he.
9. Like a lamb (among) the bricks. . ..
waa he confounded, and
10. at the mouth of the camp (was he) laidY

SIX. W. A. I. iv. 2 3 . No. 1.

Zol. i. 6. "Seven are the gods the sons of Be1 who is the voica of the
firmament ; they Leap up the seat.

7. Twelve are the sons of copper; on the heart of the rim they
lay the copper.
8. The rim of the copper is dark (teM).
-
9. The great bull, the supreme bnll, who treads down the pure
pasturage,
10. has opened the heart. (of it), spreading wide (its) fertility,
il. planting the corn, and beautifying the field;
12. my pure hands has he purified before thee I

13. The mouth of the deep ( I the sea') which is between thn ears
of thc bull is made ; on the right is it made; a rim of copper
I fuund
14. On a reed whme head is cut thou shalt press a good reed.

15. The bull, the offspring of the god Zo, art thou !
16. At thy command am I carrying the paila for thee.
17. For ever is the Lody of the eternal tree thy comrade;
18. The great (gods 9, who determine the boundaries,
19. who establish (mdm) the laws of heaven aud earth.
..
20. . . May the rim be watched over, and
. ..
21. . to Be1 may he present (ligdl~ais).

22. . . . . of the bull is made, on the left hand i t is made; the rim1
of copper I found

23. How long, 0 lord of shade, shall the shade be a cover 1

24. How long, 0 mighty mountain, father of Md-lil, who art a
shade l
25. 0 shepherd thai determinest destiny, who art a shade, how long1
Col. ii. iii. and iv. nre too mutilated for translation.

Lit;& means the metal bmd which was laid over a door, like the metal
bands that bound together and m across the gates of Bdawat. In thi- text,
therefore, it may denote the " ~ v e r "of "the sea" mther than its "rim"
496 APPENDIX IV

Last line: At the time when thou hringest the hull to the: ample of'
Alummu (Chaos). The work of the gallos-priest"

XX. W. A. I. iv. 26, 1. Hymn to Nergal.

1. " 0 warrior, the mighty deluge, that sweepest away the hostile
land !
a. 0 warrior of the greet city of Hades, that sweepest away ths
hostile land !
3. 0 god that conlest forth from 'Sulim, that sweepest away the
hostile land !
4. 0 mighty ruler (am), illnstrious (nerra) lord, that sweepest away
the hostile land I
5. 0 lard of Cutha, that sweepest away the hostile land !
6. 0 lord of the temple of 'Sulim, that sweepest away the hostile
land !
7. 0 gallos-spirit (libir) of the divine master of the dawn, that
srveepest anay the hostile land !
8. 0 warrior of the god Supulu, that sweepest away the hostile
land !
0. the mighty deluge, who has no rival,
10. the uplifter of the weapon, who threshes out oppositicnl"

XXI. W. A. I. iv. 26. No. 5.

1. " (He travemas) the cand in his march ;
2. (he disturbs 1) the canal in his march ;
3. (he troubles 1) the public square (ribitu) when he seeks it;
4. (he troubles 1) the canal (and) the street in his march.
6. The libation (and) the outpouring he treads down;
6. in the waters that run not straight he plants thc foot.
7. The waters of an unclean hand does he give.
8. The woman xvhose hand is unpropitious does he receive.
3. The handmaid whose hand is unclean he looks down on.
1C. The woman of impurity he embraces."

XXII. W. A. I. iv. 26. No. 2.

1. " The poison of the snalre which infects the sheepeote,
2. tho poison of the scorpion which cannot he expelled fiom thc
man,
3. the poisonous water which descends in the dead of night,
4. the snare which is set at the edge of the forest,
E, the outspread net which is stretched unto the sea,
 IiYIfiTB TO THE GOD& 497
6. fmm ~rhoaemeshes no fish can escapa'

XXIII. W.A. I. iv. 26. No. 3. Hymn to N u k u (as the Fire god).
1. "The lord who giveth rca :? the heart, counsellor of the coun-
sels' of the great gods ;
2. Nuzku, who giveth rest to the heart, counsellor of the eonn-
sels of the goda ;
3. (god) of Nipur, who giveth rest to the heart, counsellor of the
counaels of the gods ;
4. wise prince, the flame of heaven, who giveth rest to the heart,
counsellor of the counsels of the gods;
5. the chief Mnbarra,g the exalted male,
6. who hurls down terror, whose clothing ('I is)splendonr ;
7. the forceful Fire-god (Mubarra), the exalter of the mountaiu-
peaks,
8. the uplifter of the toroh, the enlightener of the darknesa"

XXIV. W.A. I. iv. 26. No. 4.

1. "Who can escape from thy messnge (piridi orptrn'di) l
2. Thy word is the supreme snare whioh in stretched towards
heaven and earth.
3. It turns to the sea, and the sea dreada it
4. It turns to the marsh, and the marah mourn&
5. I t turns to the channels of the Euphrates, and
6. the word of Memdach disturbs its bed.
7. 0 lod, thou art supreme ! who is there that rivals thee 9
8. 0 Merodach, among the gods as m y as have a name thou art
Le that covereat them !"

XXV. W.& I. iv. 26. No. 7.

1. " . . . .and with a rag (1) which ia useless for the body.
2. (and) the water of a pool which the hand has not drawn, fill a
cup that is bound with a cord;
3. place in it green corn, pieces of bmken (9) cane, homed sugar (1)
(&hula) (and) drops of beer,
4. and lay it upon a double ring,
5. and give the man pure water to drink.

Malik m i M
aAccadian (north Babylonian) form of the Sumclisn Quharra, rendered
*the Pire-god" in the Semitic version.
' Literally, "band"
ax
 6. Pour the water over him, and
7. remove the womb of R crane, anlf
8. conlpound tho pure wine and pure sugar (9) ;
9. the fat of a crane which has been brought from the mopnwns
place in it, and
10. aeven times anoint (therewith) the body of the man"

XXVI. W. A. I. iv. 27. Xo. 4. Hymn to Mul-lil.

1. "(Of thee), 0 1\Iul-lil, mighty is the power,
2. who upliftest the terror of (thy) splendour, who protcctest the
day, who castest abroad (thy) majesty,
3. lord of the morningatnr, mighty (is thy) power,
4. destiny aupreme, who hnrlest abroad (thy) majesty;
5. the god of ghosts (Lillum)' was the father and mother that
begat him, mighty is (his) power;
6. the lasso that overthrows the hostile land;
7. the great lord (and) warrior, mighty (is his) power;
8. the house that exalts itself, which destroys the wicked sorcerer.
9. Of thee, the lord of Nipur, even of thee, mighty (is) the power,
10. 0 lol.d, the life of the land, the hero (mds'zr) of heaven and
carth."Z

XXVII. W. A. I. iv. 27. No. 5. Perhaps a poem on tha 1)elnge.

1. . .. .
(it overthrew 1) them like a cup of outpoured wine.
..
2. . . country to country ran together.
3. It mads the handmaid ascend her chamber (l) ;S
4. the freeman it made to depart from the house of her trade.
5. It drove the son from the house of his father;
6 . the doves i n their cotes it took
7. The bird on its wing it caused to ascend;
5. it made the swallo~vfly from his nest.
9. The ox it slaughtered, the lamb it slaughtered;

2 In the Accadian text, "the man of ghost(s)."

a In the Aeeadian text, "hero of the earth."
3 An(a)taki. The wort1 occurs again in the fragment of a bilingoal poem,
of which only the ends of the lines are preserved (S 701, lo), and ~ v h ~ e l ~
seems to refer to the ~leluge. The fragment is as follows 0.8): ". . . . they
made a tempest, . . . . the waters seized the corpses, . ...like (a fisherman 1)
.. .
they ea~tghtthe fish of the deep, . . . . they took the dakltani, . they took
the f o r t r a m , . . . . of her chamber (antakz) they took,. . . . in the park of
Istar they took,. .. . ..
the lord of the gods received, . .it concealed him,"
kc.
 ' O TBS GODS.
HYMX8 P 499
10. the great K-pents, the evil spirita (utukku), were their huntsmen.
11. ..
They. . of the laud
.. .
. ..
12. I n the brickwork of the foundations.
13. The mountain l ~ k ea cnp that is bound with a cord.
14. Balum, the mistreas of the supreme ones, the mountain of the
bqnd . . ..
15. The foot to the earth (she set) not.
16. The street of the laud (she crossed) n o t n

XXVIII. W. A. I. iv. 27. No. 6.

1. "The lamb, during the day, which Tammuzl (feeds),
2. make to lie down in front of the sick man;
3. remove its heart ;
4. place it in the hand of the man.
5. Itepeat the spell of Eridu :
6. 'The offspring of his heart thou haat taken away;
7. turn hack the food the man has swallowed;
8. expcl, pour out, his food, which burns as fire!'
9. Bind a wisp of straw round the man, and
10. repeat the spell of Eridu: ' 0 spirit of the great gods, conjure
11. the evil incubus (utuk), the evil alu, the evil demon (ehimmu),
12. the phantom (and) the vampire !'"

XXIX W. A. I. iv. 28. No. 1. Hymn to the Son-god.

Obv. 1. '' 0 Sun-god, the (supreme) judge of the world a d thou I
2. 0 lord of the living creation, the pitiful one who (direetast) the
world !
3. 0 Sun-god, on this day purify and illumine the king the son of
his god !
4. Let all that is wrought of evil which is in his body be removed
elsewhere !
5. Like the cup of the Zoganes, cleanse him!
6. Like a cup of ghee, make him bright !
7. Like the copper of a polished tablet, let him be made bright I

....
8. Undo his curse !
9. Until the day when he shall live, the svpremncy
Rw. 1. With Ann and Mul-lil . . ..
2. Direct the law of the n~ultitudesof mankind I
3. Thou art eternnl righteousness in the heaven l

1 En-m<r&in the Aceadian text.

' Bedered by the Assyrian kiltttu, "a burning," in 8% 9 (cE hI G02b
2x2
 500 APPENDIX IV.

4. Thoc art justioe, even the bond' of the ears of the world!
5. Thou knomest right, thuu knowest ~vickedness!
6. 0 Sun-god, righteousnees has lifted up its foot !a
7. 0 Sun-god, wickedness has beer cut as with a knife!
6. O Sun-god, the minister of Anu and Mu1-lil art thou I
9. 0 Sun-god, the judge supreme of heaven and earth art thou1

XXX. W.A.I. iv. 28. No. 2. Hymn to Rimmon.

8. ... .
the god, the lord of the deluge.
9. (Rimmon in) his anger has bound for him the heaven.
10. Rimmon in his strength has shaken for him the earth.
11. The mighty mountain, thou hast overmheluied it.
12. At his anger, at his strength,
13. at his roaring, at his thundering,
14. the gods of heaven ascend to the sky,
15. the gods of earth descend to the earth.
16. Into the horizon of heaven they enter,
17. into the zenith of heaven they make their way."

XXXI. W. A.L iv. 28. Xo. 4. (Haupt, Keilscfirifttezte, p. 182.)

OCv. 1. "Of Babylon the digging up. ...
2. Of the city the digging u p . . ..
3. Of NiSin the digging u p . . ..
4. The city whose corn is cut, in baskets (is carried?),
5. has let food be seen where there was no food.
6. She whose husband is a lad says: 'Where is my husband!'
7. The son of the lad says : 'Where is my son 1'
8. The handmaid says : 'Where is my brothor l'
9, I n the city the mother who bears children says : 'Where is my
son!'
10. The young girl says: 'Where is my father!'
11. He who resides in the street has driven (them) along.
12. The mean man comes forth, the great man comes forth (to
destroy).
13. (From) Nipur the mean man comes forth, the great man cornea
forth.

Birit. In W.A.I. iv. 14, 9, the snmc irleograph SI-GAL is rendered by

berati, well^ an illustmtion of the artificial cchnraeter of the inngoage of
tl:c hymns to the Sn~l-god. The Accadian of this line is: "Justice io
bcnven, a bond on eartlr art thoo."
a 'Neck" in the Acc.~clian text.
 HYMN8 TO THE QOD8. 501
14. (From) Babylon the mean man comes forth, the p a t man
wmes forth.
15. (From) Ni6in the mean man comes forth, the great man comes
forth.
.
16. . . . he made perfect the dog; he rearedthe watch-dog (iradhiru).
17. ....strength; ho made perfect the hymns
..
18. . , he filled the dust-cloud.
19. . ..not returning to his place.

Rev. 8. the god . .. .

from the temple came not forth.
9. The goddens of the city of Kur-ndna.
came not forth.
... from the temple

10. The mistress looked not towards her templa

11. The mistrass looked not towards her city. .
12. The. .. .
she knows, of the cities none exist
13. On the mounds of the temple of her commands she prayed.
14. On the foundations of the temple in the city of her holy border
she stood not.
15. On the hill of the city of the goddess K n r - n h a she sat not.
16. To the pure ear of her city she speaks.
17. To Bahvlon the evildoer she s ~ e a k :s
18. 'My house, the house of my life, has suffered evil..
19. The temple of Lads has done. . .."'
..
XXXII. W. A.I. iv. 29. No. I. Hymn to Merodach.
Oh.1. " ( 0 king) of the land, lord of the wodd !
2. ( 0 king), firsehorn of Ea,powerful (over) heaven and earth !
3. ... . mighty lord of mankind, king of the world, god of gods I
4. (Prince) of heaven and earth, who has no rival I
5. The companion of Anu and Mol-lil 1
6. The merciful one among the goda !
7. The merciful one who loveth to give life to the dead I
8. Merodach, king of h e a ~ e u ~ a uearth
d !
9. Ring of Dahylon, lord of E-Saggil !
10. King of A-~ida,lord of &-makh-tila ('the supmme Louse of
life') !
11. Heaven and earth are thine !
1%.All round heaven and earth is thine l
13. The spell that giveth life is thine I
14. Tho breath that giveth life is thine !
16. The holy writing of the mouth of the deep is thim I
16. Nankind, even the black-headed race,
502 APPENDIX IV.

17. the living creatures as many a s pronormee a name md exist i n

the earth,
18. the four zones, all that there are,
1 0 . the angels of the hosts of heaven and earth, whatever he their
number,
20. (all worship) thee and (lend to thee their) earn.
.
Rev. 1. Thou art t h e . . .
2. Thou art the (good) colossos.
3. Thou art the (god) who givest life (to the dead).
4. Thou art the (god) who makest (the sick) whole,
5. the merciful one among the gods,
6. the merciful one who loveth t o restore the dead to life,
7. Nerodach, king of heaven and earth together.
S. Thy name I celebrate, thy majesty I declare.
9. Let the gods exalt the memory of thy name, let them magnify
and exalt thee !
10. May he expel (littatdai) the sickness of the sick man !
11. The plague, the fever, the sprain (?),
12. the evil incubus (tituk), the evil alu, the evil ekimmu, (the evil)
gallu,
13. the evil god, the evil succubus,
14. the phantom (and) the vampire,
15. Lilith (and) the handmaid of the ghost (lilzr),
16. the evil (plagne), the fever, and the painful sicknew,
l i . (along with all) that worketh evil . .. ."
X X X I I I . W.A.I. iv. 29. No. 2.
1. "1ncantntion.-The injnrious fever (rages) against the head.
2. The evil plngue against the life.
3. The evil ukuk against the neck.
4. The evil alu against the breast.
5. The evil ekimmzc against the waist
6. The evil gallu against the hand."

XXXIV. W.A.I. iv. 30. No. 1.

Obu. 1. " 0 glorious one, ~ v h oart strong as the heaven I
2. Mighty warrior, who n ~ firm t as the earth !
3. Who, like the heaven and the earth, art exalted !
4. 0 warrior, on the day when thou marchest ngninst the land of
the enemy !
5. 0 g~briousone who, i n difficulty (fron xhich) there seerca no
exit.
 H Y ~ BTO TEE BODS. 503
6. what is there in the m i n e , what is there which thou dost not
overcome 1
7. What is there in the seas (which) drown ( y u m l l q u ) below l
6. The lofty stone thou destroyest on the day when in strength
its fo~ccsthou smitest.
9. The weak man is enlong thy weak onea.
10. The gods thou slaughtemt with destruction.
R?n. I. The gods of heaven have set thee to battle.
2. The gods of earth gather themselves together before thea
3. The ryirita of the earth prostrate their facea before thee.
4. The goat with six heads in the mountain contrives death.
5. The storm in the mountain is a destroying sword decreed to it."

XXXV. U'.A.I. iv. 30. No. 3.

Obv. 1. "With dalk clr,thing which is the terror of the vampire
(akhklanzu),
2. the dark cloak, the cloak of splendour, he has covered (?]umkhlip)
tlie pure body.
.
3. The evil . . . in the fastening of the gate he .. ..
.
4. . . . a cutting 05of the. . . . along with the weapon. . ..
5. (With) tlie knife (kinazi) like a lamb (he cut) the strings (1) of
thy heart.
6. The (evil) utuk, the evil alu . ...
7. I n the body of the man (the son) of his god, the alu . .. .
8. I n the shrine of Ea thou dost not stand, thuu dost not make
the pilgrimage.
9. On the ascent of the temple thou dost not stand, thou dhst not
make the pilgrimage.
10. Thou dost not say : 'Let me seize on the house 1'
11. Thou dost not say : 'Let me seize on the uscent !'
12. Thou dost not say : 'Let me seize on the (shrine) I'
13. 0 evil utuli, depart to distant places I
14. 0 evil alu, descend into the stream !
15. Thy station (mrmlaz) is a place hemmed in.
16. Thy resting-place (mamid) is established in the stream.'
XYXVI. W.A.I. iv. 30. No. 2, with S 2148. Fragment of a text
nbout the Deluge.
..
(S 2148) 1. . . binding the goat . . ..
2. Tlte coiv and its youngling (pupat) he binds.
3. The goat and its o5spring ( l d a ) he binda.
4. The cow and its ~ounglinghe slaughten
6. The goat and its offspring he slaughttn
--
504 APPENDIX IV.

6. Thou didst smite (l ) and I went as a hero who returna

(tukd),
not to rest.
7. As the flood of the warrior-god U-azu (the lord of medicine),
8. as the flood of my hero the god Damu.
(W.A.I. iv. 30.) Obu. 1. The flood of the (god) . . ..
a. The flood of the god Nangar (the moon), the lord of the bond
3. The flood of the gallos-spirit (libir) . ...
4. The flood of the god Gudi . . ..
5. The flood of the man of Kharran (the planet Mercury). ...
6. The flood of the great unique mother-goddess . . ..
7. The flood of the hrother of the mother of the male god.
8. I t came, it descended npon the breast of the earth.
9. The Sun-god caused the earth to see the dead, spread the dcad
over the earth.
10. He was full of lamentation on the day he slaughtered the
leader of the ranks.'
11. I n a month imperfect year by year,
12. to a road that benefits men, that pacifies mankind,
13. for the enclosure of his seat,
14. the hero (descended) to the distant earth which had not been seen.

15. When shall that grow up which was bouudlP

16. My bond has gone forth, it is carried away ((1);
17. from the city my bond has gone forth ;
18. from the house of the corn-field it has gone forth;
19. the hero of the coru-field has gone forth.
Rev. 1. The flood of the wnrrior-god U-a(zu).
2. The flood of my hmo, the god Damn.
3. The flood of the son my lord, the living (Tammuz).
4. The flood of the god Nangar, the lord of tho bond
5. The flood of the spirit (libi~),the lord of the gullu
6 . The flood of the god Gudi . . . .
7. The flood of the man of Kharran . . ..
8. The flaod of the great uniqne mother (Zikum).
9. The flaod of the brother of the mother of the male god,
1C. His youth from the sailing ship he (brought out?).
11. His age from the scattering of the corn he (brongl~tout!).
12. His manhood from the storm he (brought out 1:)

1 The Aceadian text has simply, "the day of destruction" (a siibb.2).

In the Aceadian text, "How long shall the hand be bound 1 how long
ihall the hand be bound 1"
 HYMNS TO THE GODS. 605
XXXVII. W.A.I. iv. 58, 59. A pmyer against aina
Obv. Col. i. 22. "(Along with the father his) son they cut o&
23. (along with) the son (his) father they c ~ off;
~ t
24. (along with) the mother (her) ddoghter they cut off;
25. (along with) the daughter (her) mother they cut off;
26. (along with) the bridesmaids the bride they cut off;
27. (along with) the bride the bridesmaids they cut off;
28. along with the brother his brother they cut off;
29. along with the friend his associate they cut off;
30. along with the neighbour his neighboor they cut off.
31. They cease not to capture, they pity not the bondage;
32. they let not the light in the prison-house be seen.
33. 'Take him to captivity, and hind him in bondage,' they have
said.
34. He knows not (his) sin against the god, he knows not (his) trans-
grassion (ennit) against the god and the goddess,
35. (yet) the god has smitten,' thegoddess has departed2 (from.bim).
36. Against his god is his sin, against his goddess is his iniquity
(khablut).
37. (There are) smitings (for tho sinner 1): them are sirdti for the
guardian-priest (urtqal.)
38. (The goddess) has departed (fmm him) ; against the great lady
(nin-gal) has he acted shamefully.

45. The doubled cord of injustice has seized thee. .. .

....
44. The rod (ribonit) of injnstice han taken (itahat) (thee)

46. The son has removed (iltaBnW) what is astablished, the son
has established (what should be removed).
47 I n a confederacy of injustice he has confederated thee, for (right
and) justice he has not formed a league.
48. He has laid on the yoke and taken up the landmark
49. He has entered the house of his compnnions.
50. He has attacked the property of his companions
51. He has poured out the blood of his compnnions.
52. He has stripped his companions of their clothing
53. Hia bitterness (wickedness) the freeman has left.
54. The freeman, the workman, has raised his family.
65. He has. .. .(his) family (phmu) and household @uktarla).

Id=, akin to &&ti, "battles.'

* Imtcs, not from 9n~d4"ta forget," but nulau, Heb. m ¶ A
' Perhaps bil mni, "lord of sin"
506 APPENDIX IV.

56. H e plantshimself where there is no opening.

57. H e directs his mouth, (hut) his heart is unfaithful
58. His mouth is sin, his hoart is . . . .
Col. ii. 1. His speech (rlribi) he has uttered ....
2. The faithful man he has pursued ( l ) ....
3. H e has driven away purity . . ..
4. H e has wrought wickedness. ...
9. The witch comes behind;
10. at the side the sorceress passes through ;
11. she who bears not children has done (the deed).
1% To the charin and the sorcery he hns put his hand.
13. B y the painful sickness (fl.aln the food) he has eaten,
14. by the nlnltitude of sins lie has committed,
15. by the assernhly he has overthrown,
16. by the gathered troops he has broken through,
17. by the words of the god and the goddess ha has forgntten,
18. by the promiscs he has matie in his heart n~rdhis nioilth and
has 11ot performed,
19. by tlie gift (and) the name of his god which he has forgotten,
20. he consecrates himself, he laments, he has drawn hack,
21. he has nialiifested fear, he has spoken contritely,
23. he has purified himself and inclined to the lifting u p of the
hand.
23. H e sets down the dish according to rule;
24. his god and his goddess feed along with him.
25. H e stands i n the congregation,' and ut.ters tlie prayer:
26. 'May I be pa~doned,'~ (for) he knew not and was forsworn.
27. H e seiaed and was fors\vorn.
28. Hc broke through and was forsworn.
29. Wit11 the gift he had given he v a s forsworn.
30. I n life he was forsrvorn.
31. To the divine colossos his finger he raised.
32. I n the divine colossos he has (fuund) father and mother.
33. The divine colossos (has heoome to him) tho u?ugul and the
nin-gat.
34. The divine colossos (has restored t o him) friend and comrade.
35. The divine col<~ssos (has restored to him) go+ and companion.

. 39. The suffering of (his) city. . .. . ~~.

.

Sipari, see W. A.I. ii. 35, 10.

Literally, "ma]- (the Sun-god) deliver!*
 ....
...
50. The word of (his) city

. ...
41. The cutting off (1) of his city.
42. At the command thon swenrest
43. swenring before. . ..
44. by the rod of affliction thon swearest by, ((ask!)
45. by the throne thon swearest by, (ask!)
46. hy the dish thon swearest by, (ask !)
47. by the goblet thou swearest by, (aak I)
48. Ask, ask !
49. Ask on the conch I
50. Ask on the sent !
51. Ask at the d ~ s h1
52. Ask at the giving of the goblet I
53. Ask at the kindling of the fire!
51. Ask at the fire !
55. Ask when it is aglow I
56. Ask from the tablet and the stylus of the tablet1
57. Ask of the bond and the fetter !
58. Ask at the side of the tame beast I
59. Ask at tke side of the wild beast I
60. Ask at the aide of the foundation1
61. Ask at the edge of the marsh 1
62. Ask at the bank of the river!
63. Ask by the side of the ship, nt the helm and at the prow !
64. Ask at the rising of the sou and the setting of the sun !
66. Ask nmong the gods of heaven (and) the sanctuaries of enrth !
66. Ask among the sanctnaries of the lord and the lady (Baal nnd
Beltls) !
67. Ask when thon comest out of the city and when thou goest into
the city !
68. Ask when thon comest out of the city-gate and when thou
enterest the city-gate !
69. Ask when thou comest out of the city and when thon entorest
into the house I
70. Ask in the street I
71. Ask in tho temple I
72. Ask on the road 1
73. May the Sun-gad, the judge, deliver l
74. Deliver, 0 Sun-god, lord of all that is above and below,
75. director of the gods, king of the world, father (of mankind) l
76. By thy command let justice be accomplished !
77. May he direct his people (teniaet-su) before him I
606 APPENDIX IV.

78. Deliver, 0 hero (masu) of the gods, compassionate lord. Lhe god
(hlerodach) !
79. (Deliver), (1divine lord of the house, deliver, 0 (Ea) l
.
80. (Daliver), 0 god who art lord . . .

82. Deliver, 0 Suqamuna and Sima(1iya) l

83. Deliver, 0 great gods. . . .
84. Deliver, 0 fire son of (the Fire-)god !
85. (May) Baal and Eeltis (stretch forth) the hand I
86. May Ann and Anat (stretch forlh) the hand!
87. May Mol-lil deliver, the king \rhohhas created (thee) l
88. May Kin-lil deliver, the queen of E-(kur) !
89. .
hIay tho temple of K i . . . deliver, the secret abode of... .
90. May the divine lord of the earth deliver, may the divine lady
of the earth deliver !
91. May the divine lord of the firmament deliver, may the divine
lady of the tirmament deliver!
92. >lay Ea deliver, the king of the deep !
93. hloy the deep &liver, the habitation of wisdom !
91. May Eridu deliver, may the house of the deep deliver I
95. hfay hlerodach deliver, the king of the angels!
96. May Zarpanit deliver, the queer, of E-Saggil !
97. May E-Saggil and Babylon delivor, the sent of the great gods I
98. May Nebo and Nana deliver in E-Zida !
09. May Tasmit rlcliver, the mighty bride !
100. I\hy the divine judge deliver, the throne-bearer of E-Saggil !
101. INsy tho god who pronounces blessings deliver, who causes good
fortune to enter !
102. May the fortress of heaven and earth and the house of the mighty
bond of the wnrld deliver !
103. May the great god and the goddess Dirituv deliver !
104. May. they. dclivcr when (as&)
. . thine eye weeps in trouble and
the god is not . . . .
105. May the god Yahrn and the got1 Khum(tsi)ru (the swine god)
deliver, the illustrious gods !
106. May the stars of the south, of the north, of the east and of the
west,. (like)
. . winds blow away the nume and inscribe its cuyso
(mamit) !
107. May Istar deliver in Erech, the shepherd's hut !
108. May the Lady of &-Ann (Nana) deliver in &Am, the robe (oi

109.
her glory l ) !
May Anunit deliver in Accad, the city of. ...
 HYMNB TO THE BODS. 509
110. May Axad deliver, the house of. ...
Col. iv. 1. May Iskham deliver, the mistress of mankind (dadma)!
2. May Siduri deliver, the Istar of wisdom, the living coloasos !
3. May Nena, Nergal and Ne~galgaldeliver !
4. May Lam and Khaui and Mulu-duga-uea deliver !
5. May the divine kirg of the desert (Eden), Latarak and 'Sarrakhu
deliver !
6. May Dun and Xisuthros and their monster (mamlu) deliver!
.
7. May Tihul and Sakkut and.. . and Immoriya deliver!
8. May Sagittarius and the star of stars (Iku) and Sirius and the
.
god . .. and the god Narudu deliver !
9. May the divine chief of the dawn and Arcturns and the god
.. .
Na . (deliver) !
10. May all the gods and goddessen whose names (are recorded
deliver) !
11. On this dny mny they (deliver) ! .. ..
COLOP~ON: Incantation.-' Every ourae which has seized upon the king
the son of his god.' The second tablet of the s u p ('fever') series!'

XXXVIII. S 924.; 79. 7-8.65.

Obv. 1. " H e whose hody is not directed aright.
2. Merodach (comes) ;
...
3. to his father Ea (the word he addrwses) :
4. '0my father, the outpouring of the libation, the outpouring h e
..
has devised . .'
5. I n water that flows not straight (he has bathed 1).
6. I n the water of the unclean hand he (rrashes1).
7. A woman with unlucky haud has approached (him).
8. A handmaid with an unclean haud (has washed him t).
9. A woman who inspires termr has seized (him).
10. A man of an unlucky hand has approached (him).
11. A man of an unclean hand has (waqhed him 1).
12. A man whoso hody is not directed aright has seized (him).
13. What wilt thou do1 as for m e . ..
.'
14. Ea (answered) his sou Merodach :
15. Go, my (son) Memdach; what thou knowest not (I know). . ..
Rev. 1. The limpid water (agub7A) which makes the house of tho gods
resplendent,

1 The ~ecoud text here interpolates two fragmntary lines which are not
in S 924. The lines are not provided with a Semitic translation, as they
are in the second text.
 2. the limpid water (which makes) the temple of the gods (to
shine),
..."
3. the limpid water which cleanses (the begetter I ) .

XXXIX. S 497.
7. "Incantation.-Tho water of judgment
. . (saar-nr), the waters of
the oracle.. ..
8. the spell (t&) of whosoever it be who (knows) Merodach, the
son of (Ea),
9. has purified the house of the land ... ."
XI. E 25S5.
Mu. 8. "May the Lord of justice and righteousness, the director (of
mankind),
9. the judge of the spirits of earth,
10. the Sun-god, him who enchants me ( h i p ) ,
11. him who bewitches me and her who bewitches me (muatepiati),
may he destroying (rakhi)
12. the enchantment and the image of their breath, breaking their
womb (ruli),
13. pass over them so thnt he may be over them and n o t . . . .
14. O Sun-god, may the Fire-god thy con~paniondestroy (them) !
15. 0 Sun-god, may the Fire-god . enclosing enclose thorn, even the
..
god of fire. .
16. May the Sun-god melt ( l ) (lissub) their image, may tlie Fire-
god receive their bodies !
17. ?.fay the Fire-god consume (likabbib) them, even the god of fire
who causes (destruction) !
18. The Fire-god is wrathful like water.
Rev. 1. May the Fire-god (carry them) to the land whence none return!
.
2. The Fire-god who illumines tlie gloom (zclili) of darkness . . .
3. The Fire-god (turns?) to the plaguegod (Numtu~u), the m e
senger of earth.
4. The Sun-god is he who inspires the breath of those who act (O).
5. Tlie god who is king of the dead and living (lj (DADu Kn~),
6. along with the god and goddess, has been angry with me.
7. I n the house of the kindling of the altar-Aamc (pnlcI,~~uIi:hkl~t~),
8. the Stingo! of the mighty mouth, the living one, knows; the
goddess A thus
9. (or) not thus lcnows, (but) I know not. Of the exorciser
10. of himwho bewitches rile and of h m who heviitcl:?~ ~s (xi&)c?
t i s dslstrnyer (vdLIi),
 11. their enchantment in the place of thy temple like a branch of
wood
1% against these (sorcerers) may they behold; may the god
13. over!vbelm them like a goblet, like
. .
14. a . . may he injure, may he cut off(1)
15. their life . ."..
XLI. 79. 7-8. 68.
Col. ii. 4. "Incantation.-0 dtsr son of heaven, may the son of Es,
6. Merodach, the son of Eridu, purify my hand !
6. May he make pure my mouth, may he make bright my foot !
7. May the e ~ itongue
l depart to another plaoe!"

XLII. S536. Hymn to Nergal.

2. "(In the. ..
.) may it be, in thy heart may it he, in thy liver
may it be I
.
3. (In the . . .) may i t be, in thy liver may it he, in thy henrt
may i t be !
4. Among the fat oxen thou entarest not on this side.
. .. .
6.
6. Among the sheep the.. ..
thou brinxest not out.
thou enterest not on this side.
7. To the sheep the atrong sheep thou,bringest not out.
8. 0 lord, thou entercet not the temple of bcer.
9. The clothing (hrmmtu) of the place of the oracle thou gathemt
not together.
10. 0 lord, the place of sovereignty (sit&) thou entcrest n o t
11. Her, even the servant who knows the word of the oracle, thou
seatest not.
12. 0 lord, the park of Istar thou establiihest not.
13. The little ones thou leadest not out of the park of Istar.
14. The place where the bond ( e n r r ) is fixed thou enterest n o t
15. The small child (~nara)who knows the bond thou bringest not
out.
16. The. ..
. thou dost not remove, its cow (lati) thou dost not
destroy.
. ..
17. . reclining with evil intent, the offering (kurbanna) thou
dost not kiss.
18. .. . .in the place of his lord ('Ithou
) dost not smite!'
XLIII. K 4874.
Obv. 1. " ( 0 hem whose) power ia over the hosts of heaven and d
until future days,
2. ... . he is good of mouth for exaltation.
612 APPENDIX IY.

3.. . .. men regard ihe observation of his token (itla'.

4. Directing the. ... in every fortress he establishes the daily
sacrifice.
6. (The man whom) he exalts he leads forth to headship.
..
6. . . he magnifies the command of his heart.
7. Directing t h e .. .. in every fortress he establishes the dai13
sacrifice.
8. Hs urges cn ([yu?nuhha]ru) the ending of the deluge.
.
9. . . . he has established justice great and pure, he has reared
the cedar.
10. .. .. Samns and Rimmon, the divine judges.
11. . .. . (he is) the faithful one who establishes the foundation of
the land.
12. . . . . to future ages, even to future ages.
13. (He is) the. . . . of thegoddem Uhan-same(the finger ofheavm)
the companion of AssBros.
14. .. . . the. . . . of the great (gods) am I.
.
15. . . . he has doubled the might of former kings.
16. . .. . he answered and the wicked woman writes.
1:. .. .. he grants the offering.
..
1s. . . lifting up the face.. .. my storm.
19. ... . the divine hero of justice has established (itlati;) else
where.
20. .. . . and he bound together ( e d ) their confederacy.
.
21. . . . his fortress they entered.
22. . ... her counsel she repeated.
23. . . . . his fortress did his onset capture (idhrz~ddu).
..
Rev. 1. . he founds the shrinc.
..
2. . . he sxvoops (over) the world, he beholds (ikl~adh)the
' confederacy.
3. ;. . . be uplifts not his gift (kudara).
.
4. . . . the man \vhomsoever he has not taken.
. ..
5. . his wife he binds (ymrnra) with ozths (fundti).
. .
6 . . . multitudes submitted to him.
.
7. . . . (if) he is angry, may he be quieted whoever 11s be.
8. . . . . the name they behold and his destruction (salurllr~
0. . . . . tho mountain, the man who utters goud words.
..
10. . . Mul-lil who exhorts (1) the gods.
11. .. . . the prince, the proclaimer of the cry ('7) (tairikhz~m).
.
12. . . . (spreading) splendour and glory, casting down fern.
13. . ... ...
his . and his lordship."
 HYXNB TO THE GODS. 613
XLIV. R 2. iii. 150.
Obn. 1. " 0 warrior-god (Erimmu), the shining one, the sword of burr
in strength (ursi) which accepts not prayer,
2. may the good prayer soothe thee !
3. May tho prnyer rain life and quietude upon thee !
. 4. Raise the cry of the oracle (snkri) (at) the dawning of dny, like
the offspring of a gazelle !
6. 0 lord of thy mother, thou marchest and turnest for thyself
thy marching.
6. Like the waters of a marsh, niayest thon he placid (llitak~dta);
7. like the waters of a pool (yarkl~i), mayest thou be s t rest
(IGnikh&tn).
8. Like the herdsman of the reposing ox, may sleep (1) overtake (1)
thee !
9. Hear me and (help me), 0 atnlwart king !
10. Mayest thou spread (Iutsalldta) (thy) shadow (over me) 1"'

XLV. Sp. iii. Bertin, Revve GAssy&olopie, i. 4. Hymn to the Sun

1. " 0 Sun-god, i n the midst of heaven, at thy setting,
2. may the enclosure of the pure hcnven speak to thee of poace !
3. May the gate of heaven be thy bond
4. May the directing god, the messenger who loves thee, direct thy
way.
6. I n EEabQra, the seat of thy sovereignty, thy supremacy rises
like the dawn.
6. May A,s the wife whom thou lovest, come before thee with joy!
7. May thy heart take rest !
8. May the glory of thy divinity b established for thee !
9. 0 Sun-god, warrior hero, may it exalt thee in strength !'
L 0. 0 lord of k ~ a b h a as
, ~thon marchest, may it direct thy coume !
1 Direct thy road, march along the path fixed for thy pavement
(durw).
1% 0 Sungod, judge of the world, the director of its laws art thou !
- -
The remainder of the tablet is too mutilated for translation. The find
lines are: "when the sun sets thou shalt say thus to the Sun-god: like a
father thou wilt draw me to the earth."
a I n the Assyrisn version, "May the gates of heaven approach thee!"
q n the Aceadinn, Ku-Nm-DA.
' Meli-g, in the A c d a n , from meli or mari, "~tren$h" (W. A. I. i s
L8, 19). The Assyrian version has simply, "may they exalt thee"
O~uittedin the Assyrian version.
2L
514 APPENDIX IV.

13. Conclusion of the spell : When the Sun-god may he the setting
sun.
14. The enchanter after the strengthening (1) of his mother . . ..
a prayer.
16. [First line of the next hymn.] 0 Sun-god that risest in tha
bright slry !
16. Like its original, copied and published.
17. Tablet of Keho-damiq, son of Ina-ili-hnr . . ..
18. For Nobo his lord, Nebo-baladhsu-iqbi, the son of the man of
e-Snggil,
19. for the preservation of his life, has caused Nebo-bani-akhi, the
son of tho man of E-Saqgil,
20. to write (it), and has placed (it) in k - ~ i d a . "

XLVI. Pinches, Tezts in the Babylonian Wedge-to?iting,p. 15. Alli-

terative Hymn.
Obv. 5. Monthly (nrld~u)and yearly may the prince of e - ~ a ~ gthe. il
supreme assist,
6. the strongholds (nrsubbg) of hlerodach and its brickwork may
the king assist;
7. (in) tho month (1) (aruklt) of life and the festivals of sacrifice
may glad music be sounded;
8. let the four (urhah) zones behold his countenance I
9. To those that bring (7) ( a ~ r i l ~his
i ) nourishers may h e grant life
and goodness of heart !

10. Founding (Lasimnul) the enceinte of tho sanctuary, restoring t h e

shrine,
11. Babylon (Bubilu), the city of multitudes, has ho completedas h i s
mighty fortress ;
12. (its) property (basriti) has he restored, even its vast temples;
13. the daily sacrifices that had been discontinued (batluti) lie has
established 3s of yore;
14. those who behold (his) mercy and power celebrate(?)' his. .. .
Rev. 3. May the fame (zikir) o f . .. .
mount upon wings !
4. May Zirpanit the princess, the supreme, assist the prince to his
sovereignty !
' Basamu means properly, "to mnke suitable" or ''prepare;" hence 'ln
neat." Basn~u,a species of large serpent [the mumgal), has no conn~c~lor!
with the root.
Ipulu, perhaps connectetl with pilib, ''white."
 HYMN8 TO THE 00D8. 615
6. May his seed (n'1.u) increase and may his progeny (nannab) be
numerona ! .
.-
6. &y trottble ( h i m ) never be to him ! may he overcome his woes
(nizmat) !
7. May the blessings (kind) of happiness and obedience wait upon
him daily !
8. Gardens ( kim't) of peace and joy of heart may he make for the
midst of Babylon !
9. Within (kirbl) ita temples may the women wnlk and accomplish
hi4 colnmands !
10. Within Babylon the prosperous exultantly may he establish joy!

11. May ita sides (sutaput)' be adorned2 with zakkal wood, and may
he achieve its exaltation !
12. The exits (suptitz]hf its strongbold may he nourish with the
primest oil !
13. The secret chambers (httumme) of its temples may he fill with
unnumbered goods and treasure !
14. As for (wpa?) their deeds. . . .
15. The name (sum) of the king . ."..
XLVII. W.A.I. v. 60, 51. Hymn to the Sun-god
Oba. Col. i 1. " Incantation.-.O Sun-god, from the great mountain is
thy rising;
2. from the great m ~ ~ n n b i nthe
, mountain of the ravine, is thy
rising ;
3. from the holy mound,' the place of the destinies, is thy rising.
4. To he with heaven and earth (is thy) appenrance; from t h e -
horizon (thou risest).
5. The great gods (bowing) the face stand before thee.
6. (The spirita obedient 1) t o (thy) command stand before thee.
7. (Men 2) . . . . their . . . . behold thee.
8. ... .of his four feet.

1 Prom e p , "to wind." In W. A. I. v. 27,9, e p ia a aplonym of mmnu,

"to bind," lim, h,rukdu(1) khuratsu Sutqutu must be distinguished
from w l q , " a passage" (from etiqu)).
2 Itataami~,to be distinguished from h m m (ihur), "to consider," an11

pamm, "to quit." Perhaps we sltould read tkamir, allied to the Heh
~imrdh,"mamc."
Or, perhaps, "thoee who issue forth fiwm its strongholdn
In the Semitio rendering, "from the mountain" simply.
2 ~ 2
 516 APPENDIX IV.

9... . . are directed towards thee.

10. 0 Sun-god, who kuorvest (all things), thine own counsellor art
thou !
11. 0 Sun-god, hero supreme, the lord of heaven and earth art thon 1
12. Whatsoever exists in the heart is uttered by (thy) mouth
13. (Thy) hands bring back to the0 the spirits of all men.
14. Wickedness (and) evil-dealing (thou destroyest).
- 15. Justice and righteousness thou hringest to pass.
16. The wicked man and the injurious (sagsa),
17. he who has sworn an oath in ignorance,
18. h e who has offered what he has (not) seen,
19. he whom the plague has seized,
20. he whom the fever has bound,
21. he upon whom the evil incubus (tituk) has settled,
23. he whom the evil alu has concealed ~ I hisI bed,
34. he whom tlie evil ekimmu has cast down at night,
25. he upon whom the mighty g d l u has laid the yoke,
26. he whose limbs the evil god has snared (iquru),
27. he, the clothing of wliose body the evil succubus has torn away,
.
28. (he whom) t h e . . . has taken,
.
29. (he whom the) . . . has cast down,
30. (he whom) the aklrklrazu has consumed,
31. he upon whom tlie handmaid of the lilu has cast the eye,
32. the freedman whom the handmaid of the lilu has embraced
fatally (ikrirn?~),
33. he whom an evil portent has cut off,
34. he whom the ban has bound,
35. he whom tlie evil mouth has devoted to destruction,
36. (he rvliom) the evil tongue has cursed,
37. (he whom) the evil eye has ruined (ihrimu) utterly,
38. (he whom) the strnnger has fettered,
39. (he) ,\,hose . . . . has been poured out for him,-
40. may (all) of them be with thee !

Col. ii. 27. Incantation.-The fever-demon has overwhelmed like a

river-flood,
28. the curse has (cut men off) like a green herb in the desert.
29. I n the sea, where is the home (of the fish),
. ..
30. the fever has cast its shallow (tsulillat) like a garment.
.
33. Tlre . . . returned to the great waters.
33. I n their niidst the fire burns, their fish (the fever-demon)
colisIirnes.
 mxxs TO TEE OODS. 617
34. To heaven his snare he spreads, and
36. the bird of heaven he inundates like the etorm.
36. The antelope by its head and its horns is taken.
37. The goat, the cl1amois of the mountains, their own young
chamois, is taken.
38. (The fever-demon) bows the neck of the gazelle (pugma) of the
desert.
39. He slaughters the cattle of the god Ner in the pasture.
40. The furious (demon) overwhelma the man in hie own house.
41. '0Merodach, substance of mine' (Ea ~ays),'go, my son !
42. Enclose in the ground the image thou hast founded for hi8
support !
43. Cause to the k i i to walk over i t I
44. Before the Sun-god take his hand I
45. Repeat the spell of the pure hymn I'
46. The waters of hia head (pour upon him)!
47. The waters of prophecy . . .' .
Reu. Col. iii. 12. Incantation.-The king who is pure in f a i t h f n h s
of heart. . ..
13. The oil of the cedar which (grows) in thd mountains . . . .
14. Renewing the green fruit, creating the glory of sovereignty,
. ..
15. . of kingship,
16. when thou enterest into the h o w of libations,
17. may Es make thee glad !
18. May Dav-kina, the queen of the deep, enlighten thea with her
sheen !
19. May M e d a c h , the great overseer2 of the spirits of heaven, exalt
thy head !
20. The great messenger, the pure one, of Ea has confirmed their
deeds for ever ( I )in the place where they are established,
21. The exalted gods of heaven and earth establish him.
22. I n the great shrines of heaven and earth they establish him.

23. He purifies their border (sanctuary), he makes it white;

24. I n his watera the pure are whita
25. The spirits of earth, the great gods, purify themselves.
26. The divine lord of . . ..
the pontiff (abgal) of morey, is the
white one of Eridu.
27. The divine lady of ....the poutiff of mercy, is the white one
of Eridu.
-
1 Or ''writinn" ( m d a ~ b "Priest" in the Aceadinn teat
518 APPENDIX IV.

28. H e who is the pure mouth1 of the deep fully accnmplishea

29. H e who is clothed with the lineu stuffs of Eridu fully m o m -
plishej.
30. I n the house of libations before the king E a they establish him.
31. By tho commands~of the Sun-god, the 6pent lord of heaven and
earth,
32. long may he extend to him life and goodness of heart 1
33. The king is the heifer of a pure cow.
34. When thou approachest the house of libations,
35. i n the waters (2) of Merodach of the deep,
.
36. may the . . . of the Sun-god enlighten thee I
37. May the (robe) of myalty clothe him!

44. W i t h the bent sacrificial reed (suduk) (make) libations a i t h the

hand.. ..
45. The divine prince, the lord of prophesying. . ..
.
46. By his spell of life . . .
47. The fish, the bird, the glory of the marsh, the countenance.. .,.
48. Zikum, the mistress of the deep . . . .
Col. iv. 21. When thou leaveat the house of libations,
22. maythe spirits (of the earth), the great gods, grant thee long life
and goodness of heart.
83. May Adar, the mighty warrior of lful-lil, be t h y helper on t h e
field of battle.
24. W h e n thou comest out of the house of libations,
25. may the propitious utuk and the propitious colossos turn to thee
i n peace.s
26. (Though) the ekimmu he hostile, and the alu hostile, (may) the
utulc be propitious and the divine colossos propitious.
2 i . May the spirits (of earth), the great gods, (be propitious).
28. May the Suu-god utter words of blessing unto thee 1"

XLVIII. W. A. I. v. 52.
Obu. Col. i. 4. " (0lord) of heaven and earth, divine lord of the star,
divine lady of the star !
5. (0 lorJ of Da-)uhma, ladx of Da-uhma !

1 In the Semitic verrion, asipu, "augur."

* Kihdti far pibdti, Aceadinn gudu, connected with gu&a,"the praclairner.*
a In the Accadian text, "extend (khen-dah-Sigiibds) the returning of the
hand."
 HYMN8 TO THE GODS. 619
6. (Divine lord) of the holy mound, divine lady of the holy
mound !
7. Kother of Nin-lil, father of Mul-lil !
8. Divine lord of the living day, divine lord of k-sarra !
9. Concubine of the spirit of heaven, divine lady of the mountain
(kharsagga) !
10. Sul-kun-en (Mercury), lord of the dish !
11. hlother of the Corn-god (Serakh), mother of the aeven gods I
12. Divine lord and high-priest of Nipur, mighty lord of Nipur l
13. Prophetess (l), divine lady of Nipur !
14. Nappdi, the lady o f . . ..
15. The god whose law is supreme, the incubus of k k n r I
16. hlother of the house, 'Sa-dam-nuna (L the bond of the princely
nntelope') !
27. Serpent-god (Serakh), the incubus of k-sum !
18. The propitious colossos (lama&) whose splendour ia exalted !
19. Son of the mighty prince, Nannaru the Moon-god !
20. Lord of the white image' of the spirit of Sin, wife of Sin !
21. Glorious image supreme, Mul-lil of life !
22. Dirine heaet of the Moon-god, who traverses the sides of the
house 1
23. .. .
. son of % ~ a b a!
Col. iv. 2. .. ..team I bore, and who is there that gives me reat(
3. (May thy heart) be still, may thy liver have rest !
.
4. 0 supreme judge.. . may thy heart be still !
5. ( 0 lady) of the temple of Dim-riri, may thy heart be still I
6. 0 lady who takes away life, may thy heart be still !
7. 0 lady of Niiin, may thy heart he still !
8. 0 lady of the mighty temple supreme, may thy heart be still !
9. 0 lady of the temple of Dim-riri, may thy heart be atill!
10. 0 my lady, my goddess Bahu, may thy hearb bestill!
11. 0 concubine and mother, Bahu, may thy heart' be still t
IS. 0 Bahn, propitious white image, may thy heart he still !
33. 0 namer of the evil name, lady of heaven, may tby heart he still!

14. Lamentation of the heart to the divine lady of life and death;
lamentation of the heart to the male (divinity) who has created
the white image.

' Nunw, in the A a s y r h version sir, a word related to SMiru, "white

gold "
520 APPENDIX IT.

15. [First line of next tahlet.] Of the evil deluge. The seizor of
.
the name . . .
1G. Sixth tablet (of the series beginning) : 'The male (divinity)
who has created the white image :' quite complete.
17. To Neho the mighty (gitmalu) son, the overseer of the hosts of
heaven and earth,
18. the holder of the papyrus scrolls, the taker of the stylus of the
tablets of destiny,
10. the lengthener of the day, the restorer of the dead to life, the
establisher of life for men in trouble,
20. the great lord of births (rri), Assnr-bani-pal the prince, the
servant of Assur, Be1 and Nebo,
21. the shepherd who feeds the sanctuaries of the great gods, the
establisher of their daily sacrifices,
52. the son of Essar-hnddon (the king of hosts), the king of Assyria,
23. the grandson of Seunacherib (the king) of hosts, the king of
Assyria,
24. for the preservation of his life, the length of his days, the
perfecting of his seed,
25. the establishment of the seat of the throne of his royalty, the
obedient to his glory and his honour,
26. the presentation of his prayers Lhat the disobedient to him may
be given into his hands,
27. (he who knows the purity of Ea, the gallos-priest of secret
treasure), the pontiff (ubkdlu),
28. (who has been made to walk that he may give rest to the heart
of the great gods).
29. (according to tho tablets, the copies of Assyria and) deead,
30. (on tablets I have written, connected together, published), and
31. (in the inner chamher of E-Zida, the temple of Neho, who is in
Nineveh, my lord, I placed).
32. (For tho pleasure of Neho, the king of the hosts of heaven and
earth, look with joy upon this chamber, and)
32. (support by day the head of Assnr-bani-pal, the worshipper 01
thy divinity; grant (his) prayer ;)
33. (decree his life that he may exalt thy great divinity.)"
 P;

TIIE PENITENTIAL PSALYB.

I. W.A. L iv. 29. No. 5. Haupt, Keilachriftexte, iii. No. 1 4 ; Zim-

mern, Balglonische Bnsplmen, i.
.
Oh. 1. "(Accept) the pmstration of the face of the living creature.. .
2. (I) thy servant ask (thee) for rest.
3. To the heart of him who has sinned thou utterest words of
bleeaing.'
4. Thou lookest on the man, and the man lives,
5. 0 potentate of the world, mistress of mankind I
6. Compassionate one, whose forgivenass is ready, who accept8 the
prayer.
7. [PR~EsT.]0 god and mother goddeea that are angry with him,
he calls upon thee !
8. Turn ithv .
, face) towards him and take his hand I
Rev. 1. Above thee, 0 god, have I no director.
2. Ever look upon me and accept my prayer.
3. Say, 'How long shall my (heart be wroth)?' and let thy liver
be quieted.
4. When, 0 my mistreas, shall thy countenance be turned in
pardon ?
6. Like a dove I mourn, on sighs do I feast myself.
6. [ P u ~ e s r ](From) woe and lamentation is (his) liver rested;
7. he weepa tea% (he utters) a cry!'

IL Haupt, AWcadiscI~eund Sumeribche ~ e i I s c ~ b ~iii 6 , 15;

f ~ No.
Zimmern, ii.
Oh. 1. "(Thou that performest) the commands of Be1 (Mul-lil), (thou
that strengtheneat 1) the limbs,
the point of the sword. ...
1 Zimmern has mhderstood thii psw,ga, taking the nonn for the verb,
and the verb for the noun.
Tnncp-ncia literally, "thou planteat deep in
him."
522 APPENDIX V.

3. thou that createst the gods, that performest the commands of

(Be]),
4. thou that producest the herbs, mistress of mankind,
5. creatress of the world, crsntress of all that has a form,
6. mother goddess (destroyer ol'evil), whose hand no god attacks,
7. exalted lady, whose co~rimandis mighty !
8. A prayer let md utter; let her do ntrru me m1t.t seems good to
her.
9. 0 my mistress, from the day when I was little much am I
yoked unto evil.
10. (Food) I have not eaten; weeping has been my veil.
11. (Water I have not drunk) ; tears have been my drink.
12. (My heart has rejoiced not) ; my liver has not been enlightened.
13. .. .. like a hero I have not walked.
.
Bet,. 1. . . . bitterly I mourn.
2. (My transgressions 1) are many, m y liver is full of anguish.
3. 0 my mistress, cause me t o know what I have done, establish
for me a place of rest !
4. Absolve my sin, lift up my countenance !
5. 0 m y god, the lord of prayer, nlay the prayer address thee !
6. 0 my goddess, the mistress of supplication, may the supplication
address thee !
7. 0 Mhtu, lord of the mountain, may the prayer address thee !
8. 0 Gubarra ('the fire-flame'),' lady of the border of Eden, may
the supplication address thee !
9. 0 (Ea), ruler of heaven and earth, ruler of Eridu, may t h e prayer
address thee !
10. 0 Dam-kina, mother of the house supreme, may the supplication
address thee !
11. 0 Merodach (lord of Babylon), may the prayer address thee !
12. His (spouse, the royal bond of heaven) and earth, may the s u p
ulicatiou address thee !
13. ( 0 messenger of life), the god (whose good name).is prononnoed,
may the prayer address thee !
1 Gubarra is the Sumerian (and older) form of the docadiau Mubarra,
"the Fire-god" (W.A. I. iv. 26, 39). The ideographic mode of writing the
word "fire," GIS-BAR,ahows that the original form must have been gusbarra,
g w becoming VLU (wu) as in mu from the primitive qua, ''heaven!' &,
'<the aky," and gw-pin, "the yellow metal" (gold), probably have the a m e
root as gw, '"re." Dialectal forms of Gubarra are Kibirra and Gibil
Oubarrs, the wife of Matu, waa subsequently identified with Sala, the wife
of Rimrnon ; and as Kihirra and Oibil wcre regarded ae go&, the f d a
Quharra dropped out of sight.
 THE PENITENTL~L PSALMS. 623
14. ( 0 bride, fimrstborn of IP)A, mny the supplication address thee !
15. ( 0 mistress of him who binds the mouth of the dog), may the
prayer address thee I
16. ( 0 exalted one, Gula, my mistress, even the goddens Nan% may
the supplication address thee 1')
Ib (L Regad me with favour,' may it say to thee !)
18. ('Turn thy face towards me,' may it say to thee I)
19. ('May thy liver be quieted,' may it say to thee !)
20. (May tby heart, as the heart of a mother who has home children,
return to its place I)
21. (As a mother who has borne children, ea a father who ha8
begotten (them), may it return to its plnce I)."

III. Haupt, A W i s c h a und SumerUohe Kalsehrifbtezfe, i i i No. 19 ;

Zimmern, B u a y a l n q No. 3.
1. [PRIEST.]" (Over his face, which for) tears is not lifted up, f&
the tear.
2. (Over his feet, on) which fetters are laid, fa& the tear.
3. (Over his hand,) which from weakness is at rest, falls the tear.
4. Over his breast, which like a flute pipes forth in cries, falls the
tear.
5. [PESITENT.]0 my mistress, in the trouble of my heart 1 mise
in trouble the cry to thee ; say : 'How long (shall my heart
be wroth) l'
6. 0 my miatreae, speak pardon to thy servant; let thy heart be
at rest !
7. To thy servant who suffem pain, grant mercy !
8. Turn thy neck unto him, accept his supplication I
9. Be at peace with thy servant with whom thou art angry !
Rev. 1. O my mistreas, my hands are hound, yet I embrace thee.
2. To the warrior, the hem Samas, the huaba~idof thy love, grant
a pledge that I may walk before thee with a l i e of long days.
3. My god haa made supplication unto thee; may thy heart he at
rest !
4. My goddess haa uttered a prayer unto thee; may thy liver be
quieted !
5. 0 hero, god of heaven, the husband of thy love, may the prayer
addresa thee I
.
6. . .. 0 god of uprightness, may the supplication address thee !
7. 0 . ..
. thy qallzc supreme, may the prayer addresa thee !
8. ( 0 Sun-god), the ptentate of k-&ham, may the supplication
address thee I
624 APPENDIX v.
9. ('Turn thine eye upon me,') may he say unto thee I
10. ('Turn thy face to me,') may he say unto thee !
11. ('Let thy heart be pacified,') may he say unto thee I
12. ('Let thy liver be quieted,') may he say unto thee !
13. (May thy heart, as the heart of a mother who has borne children,)
return to its place I
14. (As a mother who has borne, as a father who haa begotten,}
may i t return to its p l y I
15. (Psalm to) the goddess A"

IV. W. A. I. iv. 19. No. 3. Zimmern, No. 5.

1. "How long, 0 my mistress, shall the powerful stranger (consuma
thy land) l
2. In thy chief city Erech has famine come.
3. I n %-UL-BAR, the house of thy oracle, is blood poured out like
water.
4. On all thy lands has he laid the fire, and like smoke has out-
poured (it).
5. O my mistress, greatly am I yoked to evil.
6. 0 my mistress, thou hast surrounded me nnd hast appointed me
to pain.
7. The strong enemy, like a solitary reed, hss cut me down.
8. No message have I received ; myself have 1 not understood
9. Like a field, day and night do I mourn.
10. I, thy servant, bow myself before thee.
11. May thy heart be qnieted; may thy liver be appeased1
. ..
12. . lamentation; may thy henrt be pacified !"

V. W. A. I. iv. 21. No. 2. Zimmern, No. 6.

7. "The lord, whose heart above rests not,
8. the lord, whose heart below rests not,
9. above and below it rests not.
10. He who has bowed me down (and) cut me 0%'
11. on my hand has laid the fetter,
12. on my body has placed the chain.
13. The iris of my eyes he fills with tears,
14. mg heart he fills with depression (and) lamentation.
15. May his pure heart rest, may the prayer address h i
16. may his heart rest in quietude !
-- -

As there is a play here upon the assonance of the two Semitic words,
w a d d i d a d yqatti, it ia probable that the Semitic version ia the ori,hal.
 THE PENITENTIAL PBBLJ~S. 626
17. May the heart of his lordship rest in quietude I
18. ' 0 heart, turn thyself, turn thyself I' let it be said to him.
' 0 heart, rest, rest I' let i t be said to him.
19.
He g m t a much to his heart who pagses judgment on himselL1
20.
For the quieting of his heart may the spirits of earth establish
21.
(him) when he prays.
Rec. 1. May the spirita of earth who work trouble in heaven' (establish
him when he prays) !
2. His god has borne away the supplication :let the prayer (address
him\,I'
3. Quieting, or exorcising, the cry of anguish, may thy heart be
stilled !
4, 0 lord, the mighty priest, (Adnr) the lord of the galli, may the
prayer (address thee) !
5. 0 thou that speakest, lady of Nipur, may the lamentation (come
before thee) I
6; 0 divine ruler of heaven and earth, ruler of Eridu, may the
prayer (address thee) !
7. 0 mother of the house supreme, Dam-kina, may the lainentation
(come before thee; !
8. 0 Merodach, lord of Babylon? may the prayer (addrean thee) l
9. 0 wife of him, royal bond of heaven and earth, may the lamenta.
tion (come before thee) !
10. 0 messenger of life (Nebo), the god who proclaims the good
name, may the prayer (address thee) !
11. 0 bride, the daughter of the god IP-A, may the lamentation
(come before thee) !
12. 0 Matu, lord of the mountain, may the prsyer (add~essthee) !
13. 0 Gubarm, lady of the field,~. may the lamentation (wme before
thee) !
14. 'Look favourably upon me!' may he say to thea
15. 'Turn thy face toward me I' may he say to thee.
16. 'May thy heart he at rest !' may he say to thee.
17. 'May thy liver be quieted !' may he say to thee.
18. May thy heart, like the heart of a mother who has borne children,
return to its place !
19. As a mother who has borne children, as a father who has be-
gotten (them), may it return to its place 1
. ...
In the Aecadian, "who judges grace."
2"To Ann" in the Semitic version.
"he description of Iierodnch as "lord of Babylon" indicates a period
anbscqnent to the rise of Unliylon under Khanlmursgns.
526 APPENDIX V.
20. Penitenlial p s ~ l mforty-five
, lines i n number, the tablet of Mol-liL
31. Like its original, copied and published."

VI. W.A.I. iv. 26. No. 3 ; 27. No. 3. Zimmern, No. 7.

1. [PHIEST.] " I n lamentation is he seated,
3. i n cries of anguish (and) trouble of heapt,
3. in evil iveepiug, in evil Inmentation.
4. Liko doves does ho mourn bitterly night and day.
5. To his merciful god like a heifer he rows.
6. P ~ i n f ulamentation
l does he raise.
7 Before his god he prostrates his face i n prayer.
5. H e weeps, he has drawn near,' he holds not back.
9. [PENITENT.] Let me declare my doing, my doing which cannot
be declared.
10. Let me repeat my word, my word which cannot be repeated.
11. 0 my god, let me declare my doing, my doing which cannot be
declared."

VII. W.A.I. iv. 61. Nn. 1. Zimmern, No. 8.

6. "Sickness, a stroke. . . . (and) wasting press heavily on him ;
weak is (his) groaning ;
7. smiting, evil, fear and oppression have bowed him down (and)
stilled his lamentations.
8. H e bas sinned, and in anguish (ma~tsatus) he weeps unto thee
his liver is darkened ; he hastens to thee.
9. H e is taken ; he causes (his) tears to rain like a thunder-cloud;
h e is overpowered, and causes (his) eyelids to weep.
10. Like a shrieking bird he utters troublous cries : he declares his
misery (dulib) with crying.
11. W h a t can my lord's servant say and devise? May he open his
mouth (for that) which I k n o ~ vnot.
12. [PEKITENT.] Many iolleed are my sins I have sinned i n all : may
this (curse) pass away (and) depart to a placc inaccessible!
13. [PRIEST.] Sin has been laid (upon him); the covering of his
mouth and (eyes l ) has come upon him ; darkness of the face
is his daylight ( l ) ; he lies prostrate (2).
14. At the gate of his sin his hands sro bound ; if 'he shall deliver
thee' he has no knowledge.
15. H e has addressed thee i n prayer; may the writing of Ea @ve
mt to thy heart !
~-
' So Zimmern.
 THE PENITENTIAL PSALMS. 627
16. May his earnest supplicution find favour with thee above; (with)
groaning and casting down (he says :) 'When shall thy heart
(he paoified) l'
17. Behold his painful suffering; let thy heart rest and grant unto
him mercy.
18. Take his hand, forgive his sin; remove the madneas and the
wasting that is on him.
19. Set thy servant in thy favoi~mhlemonth,' and let thy majesty
bathe his disease in the river.
20. (Loosen) his chain, undo his fetter : enlighten (his face) ;entrust
him to his god who created him.
21. Give life to thy servant, let him exalt thy warlike deeds; may
all mankind (magnify) thy greatness !
22. Accept his gift, receive his ransom; in a land of pence may he
walk before thee !
23. With overflowing fulness let him feed thy sanctuary!
24. May the food of thy temple continue (for ever) !
23. May he pour out the oil of lhy courts like water; the oil may
he rain on thy threshold abundantly !
26. Xay he offer theeP the odours (1) of cedar, the finest of inoense,
the fatness of wheat !
Rea. 1. Look down, 0 lord, upon thy servant who is full of grief; let
thy wind blow and forthwithS deliver him !
6. May he pacify thy heavy anger; strike off his bonds; let him
breathe freely !
3. (Loosen) his fetter, undo his bonds I . ... d e c h his judgment I
4. .... pity, pity his life !

I. W.A.I. iv. 25. Ritual Text.

Oh.CoL i 9. " Ita helm in of the wood of.
10. Its serpent-like oar has a golden hand
...
11. Ita maat is pointed with turquoise.'
12. Seven timas seven lions of Eden occupy its d e c t
13. The god Kndur fills ita cabin built within.
14. Its side is of cedar from the forest.

1.e. addreas him favonrably.

Literally, "cast before thee" (1wailGka); camp. id$&, "he a t away!'
Zamar. Zamm ia "to come firth:" hence "a door" is d e d mifar
can*nr, " a 5ar to exit'' (W. A. I. ii 29, 51), and ramam is used o f the
"growing" of plants and the "risiin of stan.
' See W.A.I. ii. 51, 17.
520 APPENDIX Y.
15. Ita awning is of the palm-wood of Dilvua
16. Carrying away the heart is the a n a l ,
17. rejoicing its heart is the rising sun.
18. Its house, its ascent, is a mountain that gives rest to the Ireart.
19. The ship of the god of Eridu is destiny.
20. Dav-kina is the goddess who promises (it) life.
21. Merodach is the god who pronounces (its) good name.
22. The god who benefits the house makes it go in Eridu.
23. Nin-nangar, the bright one, the mighty workman of heaven,
24. with the pure and blissful hand has pronounced the word of life:
25. 'May the ship before thee cross the canal !
26. May the ship behind thee sail over its mouth !
27. May the heart within thee rejoicing make holiday (1) 1''
Col. ii. 2. Pour out on the sixth day. . . .
3. pure water (in) the temple of the lower ground. . . .
4. (Make) prostration towards the gate of the setting (sun). ...
5. From the temple of Bonippa take (thy) departure, a n d . . ..
6. his hand the gossamer (1) cloth, the white cloth (and) the filletP
7. binds, and with a baud (1) he covers (his) seat.
8. l i e heaps up the herbs and the dress; he offers the sacrificial
goblet.
9. LRecent lacuna.] The man that is made pure, the god who created
him goes a second time.
10. [Remnt lacuna.] (When) they have ended, the god inclines over
the seat.
11. [Reeent lacuna.] Stretch the l i e n and tie it about the round
(da?dikI~aru)cup.
12. Set it down; a second time the herbs and a mountain (1) dress
13. heap up (and) cut (on) the altar; offer the sacrificial goblet,
and the robe of a herald;
14. on the left side of the man that is purified thou must bind with
dark cloth, white cloth
15. (and) a fillet ; on his left hand thou must bin& a bar& dress.
16. [Recent lacuna.] The green corn his hand must cut.
17. [Recrnt lacuna.] Dipping (his hand in water) he says: ' 0
god of gold, the lusty one,
18. (it is) Ea, who verily has made the man that has been purified;
19. I have not made (him).' And the workman who has made the
&Teatwooden tablet,

In R 204 (K 20G1), 20, the Aceadian mli is interpreted by ruttulr

Pdikku (W.A.I. v. 14, 15), Aram. pUipyd
 THE PENITENTIAL PBALJ18. 629
20. dippinghia hand in the water of the god, snys : ' 0 Nin-igi-naugur-
Air,
21. (it is) Ea who verily has mnde the workman,
22. I have not made (him)! At sunset the garden
23. (thou must enter, and lifting) the hand to Be1 must covw his
throne with lirien.
24. The great wooden tablet thon must set up in the garden. At
sunrise,
25. on the bauk of the river, a green spot, thou muat d m up pum
water. Three knob
26. to Ea,the Sun-god and Merodach, thou must knot.
27. One knot to this god thou must knot.
28. Dates (nud) cones (1)l which thou haat gathered, (with) honey
and butter thou must place (saying) :
29. 'Be strong, be glorious !' Three victims to Bel Samas and
Merodaeh, thou muat aaerifice.
30. One victim to this god thou must 8acrifiee. Thou must offer
the sacrificial goblet, but
31. not set (tuken) the great round cup, lifting (it) up; and upon
the great round cup
32. cedar, herbs, green corn, fragments of a small trunk,
CoL iii. 1. a strong reed, the crssm of abundant butter and good oil
thou must placa
2. Limpid water, which thou haat set before the god, thon must
raise also towards a low plaee,
3. and dipping (the hands therein) must say :
4. Incantation.-The day the image of the god has heen made, he
has caused the holy festival to be fully kept.
5. The god has risen among all lauds.
6. Lift up the (nimbus of) glory, adorn thyself with heroism, 0
hero perfect of breast !
7. Bid lustre surround this image, estsblish veneration I
8. The lightning flashes ! the festival appears like gold.
9. I n heaveu the god has been created, on earth the god has been
created I
10. This festival has been created among the hosts of heaven and
earth.
11. This festival has issued forth from the forest of the cedar-trees.
12. This festival is the creation of the god, the work of mankind.

1 See W.A. I. ii. 42, 19. A - T I R - t k= ammu, Tiyam is "the cedar"

(W.A.I. ii. 23, 23). The determinative KU denotes "the husk of a seed"
(Am~riauhu).
2 Y
530 APPENDIX V.

13. Bid the festival be fully kept for ever,

14. according to the command of the lusty golden god 1
15. This festival is a sweet navour even when the mouth ia un-
opened.
16. (a pleasant taste) when food is uneaten and water un(drunk).

CoL iv. 1. He has brought the pure waters within it,

2. 0 goddess of plants, mighty plant of Ann !
3. With his pure hands he has established thee.
4. Ea, the divine antelope has carried thee to a place of purity,
5. to a place of purity has he carried thee.
6. With his lustrous hands has he carried thee.
7. With honey and butter has he carried thee.
8. He has laid the waters of prophecy on thy mouth.
9. He has opened thy mouth in prophecy.
10. Like the god, like the place (of the god), like the heart of the
god, 0 evil tongue !"
11. W.A.I. iv. 13. No. 3.
1. "His fist (1) he (shakes 1) torvards the four streets,
2. the top of his head he t u r n (1) towards the fouutnins(1) of tts
land.
3. Draw up (zin'q) the waters of prophesying.at his back.
4. :Cut the husk of the corn.eare (over) the gate (and) the mnlt
5. Evil is his face, but he ma)- not capture.
6. I n the night injure the master (1) of the house in the street,
7. Spoil, 0 pure one, the rancid oil ;
8. spoil the acid wine !"
m. s 80%
1. 'I. . . . seven cedar-trees before you....
2. (to) Samas and Rimmon (he shall) speak thna

3. He pmys, turning back the reed, (wearing) s mountain (ll)

dress. . ..
4. ' 0 Sun-god, the judge, (and) Rimmon, the lord of wells (bwI
5. Descend, 0 Sun-god, the judge! descend, 0 Rimmon, lord of
wells !
6. Descend, 0 Moon-god, lord of the crown I descend, 0 Nergnl.
lord of the weapon !
7. Descend, 0 Istar, lady of battle I
8. Descend, 0 Iskhura, lady of judgment t
 THE PENZTBNTIAL PSALMS. 631
9. Descend, 0 mistress of the desert, the sddfikkat of the great
gods,
10. the beloved of Anu I descend, 0 lady of the great goda,
11. I n my mouth his name is celebrated (xu)in whatsoever he has
done ;
; 12. and I will pray continually (tamid) : let there be justice I'

13. (He prays, taking) the cedar, bowed down (8'ukkupi) in a moun-
tain (1) dress.

14. ' ( 0 Sun-god), the judge I 0 Rimmon, lord of welisl

15. I approach you in prayer.
16. ( 0 Istar), supreme mistress, daughter of Ann!
17. (0goda), the judges I'

4. The Sun-god and Rimmon make small ('I) (izwzanu) nud . . ..

6. in whatsoever they have done I will pray continually : (let there
b justice !).
..
- -

6. He prays..
5 . ' 0 Suu-god, the judge I 0 Rimmon, (lord of wells) I'
8. He has directed the unction in. . ..
.
9. He has been visible on the right hand and MI the left. , .'
 VL
LITANIES TO THE GODB.

I. R 2. i. 159.
Obv. 3. " What have I done that I should bear the sin 1'
4. To the light I have uttered the spell (nfma),and yet I bear the
sin.
5. To Nuzku, the supreme messenger of &-kur, I have uttered tho
spell, and yet I bear the sin.
6. To the Moon-god I have uttered the spell, and yet I bear the s i a
7. To the Sun-god I have uttered the spell, and yet I bear the sin.
8. To Rimmon I have uttered the spell, and yet I bear the sin.
9. To Ea I have ntterrd the spell, and yet I bear the sin.
10. To Merodach I have uttered the spell, and yet I bear the sin.
11. To Nebo I have uttered tho spell, and yet I hear the pin.
12. To the great god and the great goddess I have uttered the spell,
and yet I bear the sin.
13. To my god I have uttered tile spell, and yet 1hear the sin.
14. To my goddess I have uttered the spell, and yet I hear the sin.
15. To the god of my city I have uttered the spell, and yet I bear
the sin.
16. To the god and goddess of my city I have uttered the spell, and
yet I bear the sin.
17. To the four streets I have uttered the spell, and yet I bear the
sin.
18. (To) Suqamuna I have uttered the spell, and yet I bear the sin.
19. (To) Sumaliya I have uttered the spell, and yet I besr the sin.
20. (To) the seven gods and the twin gods I have uttered the spell.
and yet I bear the sin.
21. (To) the god ~vhomI know not I have uttered the spell, and yet
I bear the sin.
22. (To). ... khuya I have uttered the spell; may my sin be
forgiven !"
The rest is too mutilated for translation.
 WANIES M TEE QODS.

COLOPEON. 1. '' (From) the hand of D i ....

2. in the eponymy o f . . ..
3. May he hnve peace !"
11. Unnumbered fragment.
Oh.1. hero, the illuminator of men, (the lord) of lords, the
light (P) . . ..
2. hero supreme, the lord who cometh forth as leader !'

3. 0 Elimma (Mul-lil), the hero who illuminates Inen aa man I

4. 0 Elimma (the chamois-god), lord supreme !
5. ( 0 ) great chief, lord of tho horn, Mul-lil !
6. ( 0 Elim)ma, lord of the god IP-A !
7. ( 0 divine) great chief, lord of the ghost-world I
8. ( 0 Elim)ma, master of fi-sar(ra) !
9. ( 0 Elim)ma, lord of the temple of the suprame heart I*

111. 79. 7-8. 28. (W.A.I. v. 52. No. 2.)

Obv. 9. " ( 0 lord [mda]) of sacrifice, may the prayer address thee !¶
10. ( 0 lord) of prayer, may the prayer address thee !

11. (Bless 0) the brickworks of e-kur, the brickwork of E-kur I

.
12. 0 . . . establish (RI) the temple of hlul-lil !
13. 0 . . ..
hero, establish the temple of Nin-lil l
14. 0 .... ruler of life, establish the temple of Mul-lil !
15. 0 .. . .
establish tha temple of Nin-lil I
.
16. 0 . . . &loon-god, eatablish the temple of Mul-lil I
17. 0 .. . .
fifty, establish the temple of Mnl-lil!
18. 0 suprerce, establish (the temple of) Mul-lil!
19. 0 rising Sun-god, establish (it) !
20. 0 (thou) that comest forth (from) the gate of the temple of
Erech, establish (it) l
..
21. 0 messenger o f . . fill (it) with drops4 of rain I
22. He fills the land with weeping. ...
23. He has ought his place of . .. .
24. A stranger has seized the house of the oracle (%&ti).

' (1) N E R - ~ A L .. ..
9 l % ~ hUD-DO-NB
KEU-91OD-nu-NE,(2) ctiWum
#qU:belummpB .....
: mdU ZU
....
UD-DU-NE : NEE-Gar.
nisi (bil) E l i . . nu(nc1). : etiUum

( M U - ~ aTazu
U ad-~&.ti
' Libitti, corresponding to the Accadian a-M-ip.
' Is%, reniered by t d h t i in W.&L iv. 97,23, and tsikhbtrm in v. Bqla
584 AWENDIX VI.

25. The wine' is outpoured and the lamentation ia outpomed.

Rev. 1. The lamentation he causes t o rain like a cloud i n the land
2. The lamentation seizes the land like a cloud.
3. Like a house of sickness that is destroyed, he sits2 i n team.
4. Like a house of sickness that is destroyed, what has happened
to me 1
5. The mighty shapherd's tent is (full of) sonolv and painfun
weeping.
6. I t s broad plain is desolated (1).
7. His chariot supreme mounts the height.
8. His (hone) supreme submits to the yoke.
) not outpoured? its food+
9. (In) this temple the beer ( s i k a n ~ is
is not presented."
IV. K 4620.
.
3. ". . . they leave.=
4. . .. . they have the exit (znmar) of the lordship.
5. . .. . and they leave the exit of the prison."
6. ... . from the pure ring (uspi), the pure bar (lilisi), they go out.
7. . . . . the ehain (khaZklzallati) and the yard-room (mandhur) o f
the pure prison they leave.

8. (0lord of the gods) who inhabit t h y ... .

may thy liver be,
appeased !
9. (0) Elimma, warrior, hero of the gods, (may thy liver be.
appessed) !
I n the Aecadinn text written Mu-TuK-IN, i e . laiidifr
So in the Aceadian text; but the Assyrian version offers the alternative
renierings, "he sits" (ittasab) and ''he lies" (irtabitp).
a Immanzi, in the Aecadian text al-mva.
' I n the Assyrian venion, "the pure food!'
I-za-am-mu-(m), i n the Accadian text munnan-tq-(a).
0 Balqyi. I n a fragmontaq bilingual psdm (S2054), referring to one
Cwho knew not the Sun-god: me read (1.9), "the priaon of weeping he has-
enused her to direct" (balag bikiti ustese~u-si); and then (lL 10-19, ". ..well
will he establish weeping for her; . . . . (in) lamentation they seat her
(napaii~~khu-si; muna-demsws) ; . . . . settle the prison (balaggu)!' Balaggu
is a lorn-word from the A c d i a n baleg, expressed by an ideograph which
is translated ega, "to surround," and amamu, "to bind" (TV.A.1. v. 27,10).
I n W.A.I. v. 32. 62-65, tiggtl ("a ring," from eg6) is a synonym of khal-
khallatu ("a chain") and unqu, "a ring,;' and is represented by kamkammar
&pa&, ('a ring of copper," and kenkammat ubani, "a finger-ring," preceded
by the determinative of "vessel" or "copper" as well as by the Accadian
bda6 (written &a&-lab, preceded by the anme determinative).
 LITAKIES TO TEE GODS. 636
10. (0) mighty chief, lord of I?-sar(m, may thy liver he appeased) !
11. ( 0 sovereign) supreme, mighty mountain, Mnl-(lil)!
12. (0 Nin-lil), mighty mother of the gods, (may thy liver be
appeased) I"
V. W.A.I. iv. 67. No. 2. Pmyers
Obv. 46. "Thou hearest the prayer, (thou) beholdest my fnce.
47. By day the worahip of (thy) divinity, the goodness of my heart,
48. (and) the daylight thou (grantest), 0 Istar; the darkness thou
wilt not bring back.
49. The prayer of the king ia thia : his happineas
50. and rejoicing bless (dummip') with blessing I
51. He has caused (his) men to take hold of the name of Istar and
call upon it.
52. The exaltation of the king she haa made like (wmabsil) that of
a god,
53. and the fear of the p a l m governs (ywdlidh) the people.
64. Verily he knows that along with the god thou favonrest these
prayers.
55. Hia people and himaelf are oiroumcised ( q d l u b t i ~unto
~ god.
56. As for what in kept back in hie heart for his god (and) his
6odd-,
67. ia there any (du) who can learn tho will of the gods in heaven 1
58. The counsel of the divine lord of spirits who can uademtand
(ikhakkim) l
59. How can one learn the coume of the god of glory (l) l
60. That which has lived and died at evening (ika amsat), d w h e
renew.
61. When the head is uplifted in honour, he brings all high-minded-
nesas to shame (ilrhtapar).
62. When the face ia hmught lor, he exalts (itsammur) and
brightens (it.)
63. At the opening of ilm light (pcridi), I melt like honey,
64. when the openings and closings (of day) and night recold their
decree.'
65. He has troubled me and has troubled (my) body.6

1 See W.A.I. iv. 99,JO.

Or mther, perhaps, "ennuchs;" see W.& I. ii 24, 68.
Tsamzar.
4 See W.A. I. v. 47,44, where "the openings and shuttinganare explained
to be "day and night.)'
' Thmugh "want of food," seeording to W.A.I. v. 47, 45.
636 APPENDIX VI.

66. He prophesies and rivals their divinity.

Rev. 1, 2. A fetter has he laid upon me and no bracelet.'

3. His rod (kltarll~vu)has destined me, a cruel (dannat) goad
(ziqatu).
4. All day long like a tyrant be pursues (me) ;
5. in the hnur of night he lets me not breathe freelv.
6. I n the work of service my bonds are unloosed.
7. My limbs, my extremities and my sides, belong to another.*
8. I n my lying down I roared like an o x
9. I bleated (t~btal11:Z)like a sheep in my shame.3
10. The scribe has torn away my sehing i~luscle;
11. and the augur removes4 my laws.
12. The diviner (cuipu) honours not the fact of my sickness,
13. and the augur has not given a command to my prayer.
14. God has not helped, has nut taken my hand;
15. Istar ha9 not pitied me, has not grasped my palms.
16. Thy hand has inclined towards the opening of the face (kim
h7bM1i), 0 my pvince !
17. That I die not, the queen has conjured my tears.
18. All my people have snid that (I am) an evil-doer,
19. and the lamb has heard my rejoicing before him.
20. He will bring good news (yubmsiru), his liver is bright,
.
21. h e . . . during the day of all my family;
..
23. upon the . . has their divinity had mercy."

VI. W. A. I. iv. 64. Cere~noniesand Prayers.

..
Oh. 1. "For an evil sickness thou must bring a . . of medicine to
the mound of the gallos-priest, sending a messenger but not
approaching the man.

2. The following ceremony must he observed.-In the night set

up a green branch which has grown in a distant spot before
Xlerodach.
3. Pile up dates and cones, pouring out oil, and place (there)
water, honey and butter.
4. Set up a vessel containing the third of an eplrah ; heap up
inwards (purbi) and corn ; place green herbs by twos
-
See x.A.I. v. 47, 60. ' Literally, "are atrange!'
Or, perhaps, LLdistress"(tabastanu), from abuau, "ta bind;" aynonym
&iIultu.
TI&& for uttassi. fmm RW.
 LITAI?IEB TO THE GODS. 537
5. Offer the cup of eacri6cidheer. I n front of the garden (I) among
.
the.. . trees, the cedars and the palms,
6. lag (it). Spread out (sadad) over (it) a strong carpet. Lay
(there) the herbs of the garden and the fruit of the garden.
7. Offer sacrifices. Place consecrated (1) flesh, fatty (1) flesh, roast (1)
flesh.
8. Take oil with wood. ...
and on the middle of this oil
9. pure rar-PAR, incense (I) . ..
.pieces of pure food, clean herbs,
10. wood of the tall tree, thorn wood, the slice of a snake,' 8161 and
SIMAN, compound together (istenis),
11. and lay in the midst of the oil. On the mound of the gall05
priest is the god of the gods of joy. Four fire-stones,
12. four bits of gold, four crystals, and four seals (cylinders) pre-
pare. The fire-stone, the gold,
13. the crystal and the seal-stone (must he) between the gods of
joy. Plant (sakuk) . . . .
14. With the dust of plants(!) in a great sacrificial cup which the
god....
15. In oil of the sherhin of Phaenicia and in the wood of. .. . place
the cloth. . ..
16. Take the sick man's hand and thrice repeat this incantation (to
Merodach).
17. Incantation.-0 Merodach, lord of the world. ...prince,
18. strong one, nnique, mighty (gitmalu) . . ..
19. hero (tizqaw) supreme, who (subjugates) hostility. . . .
20. forceful, king of . . . .
21. Merodach, whose view ( p q t u ) is (extended over the world). ...
22. vision and seership (1) . . . . the glorious one,
23. divine sou of the holy mound. . . .
24. the deluge of the weapon his hand (directs). .. .
30. gladdener (khbda)of the corn and the . . . . creator of the wheat
and the barley, renewer of the herb,
31. cmator of the work of the god and the goddess, their.. .. art
thou l
31. The dragon (mumgal) of the spirits of earth, the director of the
apirita of heaven,
32. the omniscient lord of heaven and earth, the creator of the law
( t d )of the universe,
33. thou nrt the lord, and like a crown hast thon made tke tablets
of the (destinies).

' Or, perhaps, "make-led"(Ma-&).

538 APPESDIX VI.

34. Thou also like the Gun-god (removest) the darkness. . ..

61. My god and my goddeas have taken me before tile judge.
62. By the command of thy mouth nlay there never approach me
t h e . . . . of bewitching and bewitchment !
63. Never may the breath of those who work charms among men
approach me !
64. Never mny evil dreams, signs and portrnts from heaven an&
earth approach me !
65. Never may the evil portent of city or country befall me !
65. Against the evil mouth and the evil tongue among nien may
thine eye preserve me (Zulin~)!
66. The medicine of the god of joy on my neck has fettered ( d i n -
niya) all the baleful things that do me harm.
67. May i t cmt the evil curse and the nnpropitious month into
another place !
08. May my light shine like s fire-stone, and never may I suffer
distress !
Rm. 1. May thy life make my life like a crystal, mny it grant mercy !
2. 0 my god and my goddess, who jndgo me, may my l m d
3. he blessed like gold in the mouth of men !
4. Like a seal may my troubles be sent far away !
5. Wever may the evil and unprupitions curse approach me, never
may it fetter (me) !
6. I n thy sight may my name and my double (sini) he guided
aright !
7. May the medicines and the rites(?) which are established before
thee put away (ZipSdu) all that is harmful to my image !.
8. Never may the strength and anger of the god draw nigh to me !
9. May the bondage of wickedness and sin explain to the man t h e
curse (mamit) !
10. May the lifting up of the hand and the invocation of the great
gds
11. in thy sight, 0 strong one, ask for the command !
12. Like the heavens, may I be pure when enchanl~nentsbefall me !
13. Like the earth, may I be bright in the time of evil witehc~nft!
14. Like the midst of heaven, may I shine, may I make the multi-
tude of my evils to fear !
15. May the green corn purify me; may the herb of Venus absolve
me; may the tree-trunk take away my sin !
16. May the cup of pure water of Mcrodach confer a blessing !
17. May the t\\.ofold fire of the Fire-god and the Sun-god enlighten
1ne !
 LITANIES T(hTEJ3 GODS. 639
18. B y .the commapd of Ea, the king of the deep, the god (of \visdom),
18. at the lifting up of my hand may thy heart havo rest, may Mero-
dmh, the hero of the gods (give thee trnnquillity) !
20. May the word of En beexalted, and. ]nay tho queen Dnv-kina
(be praised) !
21. Mny I thy servant, such and nuch.ans one, the son of such and
such an one, live; may I . . . .
22. May I see t h j sun, may I ex+ (thy bead?) I
23. May I see niy gad. . ..
24. 0 my goddess, may thy heart speak (blessings unto me),
25. and may I, the writer, thy servant, extol the work of thy god !

26 End of spell at the uplifting of the hand to Merodach.

32. (Take) the plant of the god of joy which grown from him, the
oil of the palm-stalk and the top of a palm-stalk;
33. place (them) together in oil of the sherhin of Phcenicia and with
a green root; (then) anoint the man.

34. Repeat this nction three times, and raise the form of the god of
joy.
35. Bring forth those stones, together with the plant of the god of
joy; over the middle of it say :

36. Incantation.--Thou, 0 god of joy, art the . .. .

a.eapon of Ea
and Nerodach !
37. Behold the enchantment and the witchcraft that has been
devised (1) ;
38, (hear 1) 0 god and guddess of mankind !"

VII. W. A. I. iv. 6%. No. 2. A Religious Ceremony.

Oh. 54. "The following ceremony should be performed.-Before the
pure god place the foot. Set up a green branch, pure water.
soure grains of corn and a layer of reeds. Twice place hcibs
(on it).
66. Sacrifice a white lamb. Thou must present (tudakhkhn) consc-
crated (1) flesh, fatly ( l ) flesh and roast (1) Hesh.
56. Offer beer and wine. Lny a pavement of brickwork aslope.
Present a sheep. Surround (tetsen) the entrance with gubsu
stone.
67. The fire on the hearth and the water of the river-god thou ~ u u s t
uplift, and must tnko hold (twtuldiaz) of a feather.
540 APPENDIX VI.

58. Like a feather is one's marching perfect. Cedarwood, sherbia

wood, scented reed, prickly grass,
59. the PAL grass and saffron(!) thou must heap up (and) offer beer
and wine. This spell three times
60. thou must repeat before Istar : ' H e has effected all that his
(beart) conceived.' (This is) the end of the spell. She will
hear the prayer.
61. As for this man, may the god, the king, the lord, the prince,
..
the . . of the gate of the palace be at peace vith him !
62. May his gods that were angry be at peace with him ! On the
day he prevails like a hero he marches.
63. He shall sweep ariag (his enemies), shall possess the land and
decree that stability he with himserf. This man doubly shall
the fire
64. (visit) and go straight unto his house. The impure man and
the impure woman he shall never m':
 INDEX OF WORDS TO T I E LECTURES.'

A
A B - . ~7i.
.balm (nblu), 186, 2%
abari, 128. E.
abgal (A.), 78. ea (A,), 133.
abrih, 183. edheru, 384.
sbob, 200. edhuti, 348.
ab~u(S.), 374. edu, 186.
add", 138. B. edu, "onlr,'' 236.
*dl, 166. bano, 285. e-gor (S.),67.
agagu, 141. bar, barbar (A,).149,l elim (A.), 283.
cgubbs (A).286. barbarti. 289. alinu, 166.
sharu, 47.
skitum,261.
1 Baru. 161, 159. d!o, elle, 73, 81.
elmesu, 216.
I
akkolo, 288. : : 2 . : : ; 2 ama, 82.
~.kbad(A.),286. 1 batqirtb, 22% emu, 285.

I
skbaridi, 274. benn4 184. en (A.). 52.
aln. aiad (A).196, 290. blnu, 245. eno, enitu, 63, 401
*lala (A,),248. birit, 286. epar, 287.
alam (A.), 196, 249. opim. 161.
alim (A.). 198. epitSito. 238.
sllallu,258. epu, 71.
buanu, 287. erim,erima (A.), 178, SOB
buhidu, 290. erisn, 245.
bPti 872. &ma, 111.
amma (A), 81. esernen (A), 75.
~ m r 4348. -PO, 62.
An6na (A,), 182. e b m i 298.
losapi, 352. etaits, 318.
ap uoa, 301.
63, 166. Q.
aqro, 295. pbl226.
arakbu, 280. galitti, 381.
mi (A,), 352. pllo, 208.
aria (A,), 196. prnli,81.
I arkbo, 72. w (A,),179.
arlu, 89, 443.
m, 10.
arur. arorti, 78.
I Dilbat (A,),259. pnni, 305.
pri,288.
p m (A.). 111.
assrid,,, 47. e m , 195.
asip, ittsapn,sl..pdo, 61, ge (A), 183.
79, 81, 95. din&, 94. ' 01-sq81.
uiru, 124. ditaou, 283. giba. 226.
*%rats,186. dokbdho. 84. gilgillurn, 307.
sari, 301. gillati, 383.
 54% INDEX OF WOBDS TO THE LECTURES.

gingiri (A,), 265. me-sag (A,), 144.

gipars, 384. ki@il",'i4. mesari, 77.
gir68, 244. kirbannu, 73. meskbidti, 389.
01s-BAR, 180. kiriru, 357. mesreti, 404.
p i k i n (A.!, 238. kidallu, 64, 411. me.te (A,), 144.
01s-n-nno-dr, 9. kiiibu, 383. mikhrit. 166.
is me (A,). 380. ki8ttu. 169. takhkbar. 173.
(A,), 291. kirkano. 238. milkatu, 261.
*.itmalu, 128. kistu, 73, 372. mi.pam-ki (A,), 384.
gitmaluta. 207, 269. k i h , 32. miarbta, 389.
gizi (A,), 32. kitsriti, 184. mukbibilti, 69.
Q u U m (A.), 211, kua ( A , ) , 95. mummo. 387.
Gudi-bir (A,), 107, 290. kue (A,), 95.
Qndua (A,), 194. kuromu, 171.
su-enna, 296. k""8, 7.
gugsl, 128. kuri, 309.321.
gur (S.), 196, 375. kurkane, 62.
gurgorru, 186. kurke, 6 2
gurum (A.), 96. kutstsur, 365.
gudir (A,), 291.
p u ~(S.),
i 94. L. N.
Lnbao (libnbti), 249. nabakbq 287.
L labar, 62. Nabiu, 113.
idirtu, 71. lagaru. 62. namtabtA, 173.
igaru, 68. 75. lamadiu, 290. ndu, nadi, 75, 224.
iggillum, 132. Lame, 185. ndnrta, 82.
Igigi, 141. lamma (A), 238,290. nagir, 310.
ikkib, 350. 11, 128. naglabi, 185.
ikkil, 226. lil, lilu. 103, 146, 281. tanidi, 166.
ikrim, 226. lilat, Lilitb, 103, 145. unakkaru, 351.
iltebu, 288. liu, lisu, 10. nalei, 210.
innann, innlns (A), 116, lubr (A,), 321. namari, namru. 9, 195.
182. car.orn. 404. n a m e naggn (A,), 94.
ippu, 73. lulinl, 284. n s m m d , 198.
irkallum, 154. lu-mani, 49, 82. namratsit, 8, 320.
irriri, 75. lunum, 306. nnma8, 210.
irtn, 82. nameabi, 380.
isimu (A,), 141. namritum, 296.
idinnu, 68, 77. Nsna (A,), 260.
ieippu, isipputi, 11,61,62, Nangar, nsgar, 67,186.
77 Nannar, 167.
~skl;an,257. napakbu, 119.
iesakku, 59, 183. napiti, 82.
iataritu, 268. naptsu, 287.
ivat, 99. trqqud. 311.
i z i (A,), 233. ioattuqo, 308.
h'er (A,), 195.
K. Nibatu. 62.
kakis, 305. nibi, 286.
kakkul (A,), 29% linsba, 226.
Iralu, 62, 225. nikaiu, 73.
kamarri, 311. nin(A.),116,162,176,264.
karndu, 62, 7% nindabut, 69,70, 75,308.
kapar, 270. nisekku, 59, 60.
kasum, 404. nobatto. 71.
Laadat. 363. Nunp4, 135.
xa.mn, 351. nunu, 58.
katsati, katsnti, 62, 148.
kd, 305.
kesda (A,), 164.
kibir, 404.
kibu, 176.
pnqata, 82. samro, 202.
pnrakku. 64: 81, 9 4 237. sasur, 373.
~ m a r u l, i 5 . sedu, 290. titp(, 82.
padhi, 355. samkh (A,). 184. timi, 285.
pmisu, l < l , sidbtum, 321. Ti-ti-sal-lat, 27.
lmle6i (A,), 59, 60. sipam, 75. Titnum, 27.
(A,), 163, 258.
suplukh, 185.
aindhu, 138.
sipar, nipm, 168,369.
~~~.
tudat. 133.
-~ ~-
t;dntu. 133.
)lukhu. 94. aipst, 138. tol, tilu, 245, 405.
~ u k h u r ,198. siptu, 63,68,149,171,318. turakhu. 2.80.
pul. 198. sitehu, 238.
puqu, 311. aitilti, 369.
subi, 268.
Q aokalimtn, $66.
q.~, 306. ! at. 174.
91% 286. sulum. 76.
qarradi, 270. aumutti, 311.
qmtu, 380. aunqu, 286.
qido, 372. aurbats, 84.
gn, 246. surpo, 63.
aunum, 2 3 8
B sut, 289.
nbPbo, 258. sotartarn, 227, 268,281.
nmmanu, 202. antkholrt, 589.
rappu, 143, 321. sottu, 175.
lussrsid, 166.
r l h , 141. -a
rimini, 96, 210. b h b (k),806.
rimka, 149. bbi, 246. nkno, 289.
ri'i, 270. U L - B * ~ , 184.
rlto, 161. z:b.;73208. VL-no.. 169.
ritu, 238. hi, 379. umllsi, ~ 0 1 .
ritq 288. boaqo, 306. uniki. 286.
rittu, 301. h p , 59, 61. onot, 306.
ruha, 303. 811 (k), 245. oppidb. 222.
r u m , 283. 6ig-Bigg (A,),285, 286.
Sikhir, 81.
8. &la, khcn-Bile (A.), 173.
mbllttu, 78. Bimatu, 144.
&tu, 76. Simb., Bibs (A,), 245.
a b u t , 222. Sippat- 31. 344.
&is, 284. buboro, 75,185,198,281.
sadalhu, 225. lukhd, 225.
d d u t i , 305. Sukkurutu. 94.
d h a k h u , 74. 6ok11llu, 75.
d i (A,), 321. Sur (A,,, 64.
mdh, 407. Surdu, 237.
sagan (A.), 60, 68.
asgata, 83. T.
8&l (A,), 94. t a b u , 149.
aakkanskku, 60, 68,109. tabqirti, 321.
sskprim, 309. itakkalo, 186. oaeabi; 95.
a k h o , 83. taklut, 128. otuk, 107.
Rala (A,), 210. taktibti, 358. 1 nz (A,), 284.
aaladhu, 173. trlrlirno, 73. 1 m u , 285.
Ballimmano, 57. MU (A..) @
,2
alum, 372. tamto. 374.
armkhPtu, 184. tamiii 81.
~unrata,82. tnnitti, 352.
B.-mun-Billalil (A,), 851. tsrbabo. 75, 181.
-8. 81. tarpn, 63, 148.
n r (A,), 269. tarri, 404.
644 INDEX OF WOI~DBTO TEE LECIWFZE.

eur (A), 285. 1 khidati, 548.

khilibu, 94.
KH. lukhrnurn, 297.
khhdbi, 196. .iurakhnaou. 584.
khal (A,), 77. kbubu~,hi.
khardato, 274. khulkhul (A,), 164.
kbarimbtu. 184. khumuntsir (A), k h m
tsir, 83, 153.
khutesitip, 306.
 INDEX.

a or Sirrid4 miginally s male Ac~adian A d i role the slrliart ; Itrumlea with

deity representing the aolar diak, be- the Semim and rsrging forton-, 26.
came his eanmrt, 176-9 and notrr; Accadians the inrentam of cuneiform
bilingual hymn recited atwnset, 177-8, ariting; their langoage snd features
nn,rir difereot fmm the Semite, r h o i o h e
Aamn, perhap fmm A- A h m , to ritd their c d t and oirilin*ion. 6.
aeod, 47, natc.
Abel, name of, aceording to Oppert, 236. ahom the true origin .nd p r e n b g e of
Abode of the "
- nod8 .:berond
. theBaohrates: most of the h p a s and m a g i d tests;
or, =cording to another scooont, oo p h i l d o g i d mnalminims often verified
Kbarsag-korkhm, "the maoot.io of by the text.; the dates of a t b a n infer-
the world ;.. its itoation; fameoa tem- red fmm the matter and atsle of the
ples nsmed d t e r it ; reference to the mmpaitions, or refemnas ia SPonitio
words of Job and Qreek legends; the dchi* pbilolo&bieal idem, sod oon-
pmud basst of the Babylonian king; oaotloasof tLsdirineporernment.826:
the Chsldaan Olympa; ppntlisr ems- n&nt d the c-t&n in da&
tity nod aite, 859-62; b ~ h o p a hjmn
l ita ressmblaoos to the first chaptar of

-.
refera it to Nipor; its wnnectioo r i t h Usoeais. 826.
northern Babylonia ; world-tree and Aec-7 bf in wed, rith ma-
aorld-mountain in relation to deitie, s i o d mi- in mpying, 1% 18.
862-8 ; the idea of Hsde. modified ; Adar, the p m r i i o n d reading of the
the world of the gods separahd fmm of the As8,ri.n r u - g o d ; omom ia the
the s b d e of the dead; the sky-gal of name of god of Sepbmmim b m q b t
Breeh added to the pantheon, 868-4. t o %mari. by tbemloniau: almin the
Abraham's removal to H a m . where s nsrngl of w;sral Ala+ri& Lingo and
temole of the Maan-pal rivalled tbat one of &nn.oherib's ton& 7 ; Adar.
of dr, 16s. Ninsp or Urea, elm ms ahampion of
"Abyees'' or "deep" of the great gods, the god% snd ori,qinally a aolar deity;
large b d n s filled with watar for pori- t r o curisms titlw explained, and hi. e
fieation, resembling the "esa" in the relation to Mol-lid; aa implamble mr-
outer court of Solomon's temple, 63 rim, 153-4.
and note$. Agadhd boilt or restored by Sargon, the
Aeradiao belicf tbat the moon existed foonderof itemlebratcd library; north-
before the son, the eoovsrse of the Je- em Babylonia called Amsrl fmm the
mitt?: the name of Siu maat bonound city; difuion of the colt d % m u a t
i n Babylonia, Assyds aod the cosata of S i p p n i n a Semitised form ~ a l i p s a i
Arabia; theattribotesof the Mmn.gd tbat of Lam; change in the Language
transferred to Iatar, 165. of the hrmna embalying new id= u l d
Amsdian notion of the nnirelae and the w i n t i o m ; worship of the supreme
deeo likened to Eomer'a Okeaoar: the Burl, the M a r m d araator of tho
pe&nified deity Innine, assomeh to world, the onsomniptsnt god; hymna,
have sfterra& given the name to 171-4.
Nineveh-meanin. "the rod Nin." aa A16la and A& .luoexplained. 248.0.
Innaoa signifies "-the goddcrs N;~S ;" Allosiom i t themoutha of the Eopbnts.
the latter asnociated with Ncbo a t BOF and Tigria; rat. of in- sod e x t a t
aippa. 116-7. pmve the long nalt of 4 185.
Aecadian religion at Bnt W m a n b , 19. Aaa the iby, the locnl god of Brsoh; ib*
Z ZT
 INDEX.

sky i M l f the god and crestor of the Arteios, a mythioal personage, 157.
visible universe; dieereot from that of Ash8rah the Canaanite goddess and the
Erido and i~eonsistentwith the later Babylonian Istar, 256.
belief, 186; the sky conaidered divine Ashteroth Karnaim nod the Qreek legend
throughout Clraldcen, and Ana invoked of Astart&under the name Eurapa, 256,
in the oldest magical texts; hut beeznle lssault of the seven wicked spirita upon
a dingir or creator a t Ereeh, 186-7; the moon; flight of Samaa and Rimrnon;
his cult changed by the Semitea, who whilst Istar plotted for the souereigilty
regarded him 3s Bad-Samaim ; Pqles. of hepaen; meaniogof the legend,25i-8.
tine towns menlioned in the eoqmssd A s a k the god ntrd A s u r the capital con-
of Thothnles 111. called Beth- Anath foundeJ and then identified ; hence tile
and Anathoth; thedaughterof aHivite cityitself heeamedivine,nndailaffenccs
chief was called Anah or Anath; and sgainst each were considered alike; still
a Horite prinw Anah or Anu, 187-8 ; the god's individuality and elemental
worship of the Semitio Ann oarried eharmter were retained, and he was s t
westward about the time of Sergao, once the persooifieation of the city and
189; eonfusioo of Aaodian Aos and its Baal, or "lord;" resemblance to
&mitic Anu, 189-90; changed posi- Yahreh in Israel, n national deity; no
tion when his wordtip assumed a more Assaritu by his side, like Anatu and
spiritualcbarnoter; bia hessen exalted Aou, Beltis and Be1 ; Istar invoked
aod the refuge of the gode during the with him aa an independent goddess,
Deluge; where the spirit of Ea-bani 126-7.
ascended, and whence Anu assigned Assoros and Kissa*, the primordial hea.
their plaoes to Samae, Sin aod Istar; veos and earth, 249.
forther spiritualination snd changes; Assor-bani-pd defeats hin brother's rebel.
the wnoaption rather [antheistie than lion, and reatores the eacrell festisala,
monothedie, 190-1 ; forces identified 354.
with him; dvsnoaof pntheismaudin- Asrydan religion wholly Babylonian with
BoenoeofalieosanSlrmitiobeliei,191-2. the sale exception of Assur as the head
Antiquity of Babylonian Mtronomy, 30. of the pantheon; like Yahveh in Israel,
Antiquityof Sin, "tbefatber of the gads" be is supreme, and king above all gods;
-ding to S q o n and one d the all acts of sovereignty and conquest are
inscriptions; called by Nabonidoe the done i n the n m e of Assur, and to
father of Ssmas and Istar; his temple destroy hisencmies; Babylonian deitica
at Ur fotlnded by Ur-&as, 166-7. invoked uoiler old titles, hut had lost
Anlmit, the SemiLio feminine of Aneoa, their definiteness; Assur looked to in
one of tbs primordial gods of Acead ; peril and distress: a purely local disi.
identified with Iatsr; meaning of the nity a t the primitive cxpital, but when
m w u l i u e and feminine nbmes; eon- removed to Ninevel,, the new capital of
neeted with MulJil; the Anfinas and a more compact lriogdom than Baby-
the great gods; their place in Hades; lonia, his worship became national; the
A n o d opposdtoangels, 182-Jend I name Assur and it5 meanings, 124-5;
notes; AnGnit considered a I d form I the name of the god and the country,
of Istar in the temple of Ulbar, wbo the same, 125, note.
was addresred by Nabonidas ss the mis- dsejrizus a mtion of wsrrion and traders
tress af battle, bearer of the haw, and rather than students; their litereturn
the dauahter of Eel; alsa the siater of an exotic, and a mere imitation af
Samaa and daughter of Sin, 184. Babylonian culture, 122.
AxBli, the world beyond tha grave, de- Assyrians compared physically and mer-
~ c r i b a l ;meaning of the name, 3. 4. tally with the Babylonians; causes of
Arohaie namm and sttributeo applied to the difference; indebted to the Baby-
Meredaoh in an A c d i a n hymn, 284. loniana for literature, religion and laws ;
Arbs in the form of &ips, containis ibe Greek and Roman indifference to Chal-
symbols of the god* camisd on men's ' d s a n history, 37-8.
nhoolders, point to t b s earlier home on Attributes of deities changed by the
the ahoren of the Persian Gulf and the Semites to embody different caneep-
of Eridu ; idiotity of the sacred tioos, ns Mul.lii and Baal or Cel; the
ships of Eridu and Bpgpt ; special elder and younger Be1 sometimes con-
nemes; hymn in honour of the g d founded, 148.9.
whem a new imnge was enthroned ; its Au, the goddess, the same as Zikum, ooo.
early date; the Sumerian dipobpnged founded with Ea by HnlBvy, 108, natc.
into an ark by the Semites, 67-8. Augury a d belief in the thunder aa the
 INDEX.

Bull-go& highly honourad; name D s p m ; a h a d the great temple ; lml c h a m

Merodreh s primitive hull-god ; the of the religion, 120-1.
divine hulk of E a and hia wife named Compaaite animals of mythology, some-
"the gad of the field of Eden" and times beneficent beinga, sa Oaones, t h e
'<the god of the house of Eden;' the god of cultore and <'s pure life," de.
winged hulls that guarded the entrance seribed aa half-man with the tnil of a
of a temple represented the genii or fish; but the majority were malignant.
gadsof the household; the human head and agaimt whom spells were osed by
and its import, sa in Ba-bani; the the exeroiat priest, 392-3.
winged dirine hulia of Eridu distinct, Composite oreaturea theofspring of totem-
but confounded in late? times; the ism ; their nature and uses, 393.
body-guard of the twogreat deities of Cosmology of Bridu; the watery ahyaa;
Bridu. 290; Merodach a l l e d Qudi.bir E a snd Dsv-kina: allusion to " t h e
in early astranomiosi literature, and firmament;" ~ a m u i i oTsmmun,143-4.
r
regarded a s the ploughman of the celes- Creation epic and its varying legends bar-
tial fields or aadiacsl signs; name ex- monised; hut unmistakably mmsterial-
plained on a tablet. 290.1. istie; details oompared with the Bible.
"Bn11 of Anu" and "Boll of Rimmon,'. 394-8
... ..
names of stam ; planets regarded as Critical Btate of the emoire before Assor-
sheep; the star of the "wain," "eagle," Iac.i-~081sdeath;~ g p b Iro n ; lhhylonta
"the goddess Bahu," and ,'the shep- rlitr,ourin:,for iodependenee; the oorth-
herd;" the last the prototype of the em border t h r ~ l e n w lby wmi-Larlm.
Greek Boatea, 48-9. rous nations; and befor; the century
closed, Nimeseh sncked and its palaces
Canaanite Ashtaroth and Ansthotb, only destroped, 11-2.
slightly d~fferent,194. Cubit, variations of, 33, note.
Csptivity of the Jews in Babylon and its Culture mfihs of Bahvlooia and America
efeets, 39-40. in relation t o their primitive oiuiliaa-
Ceder ementially s tree of life; depicted tion ; questions raised ; the Cushite
on the walls of the Assyrian palaces; theory of population conolusisely re-
curious figuresof cherubim on each side, futed by the oonnection of Babylonian
standing orkneelins; sometimes homan culture sud cuneiform writing, and no
and sometimes hssk-headed, holding s
cone in one hand, 241.
".
traoes of Eesotiao tbeo1o.s and astro.
nomy, 136.-.'
Chaldieso early a r t found a t Tel-loh; Cuths legend of oreation, and the corae
spresdof the worshipof Tammua north- a t the end. 60.
ward ; the native name of Tel-lah was Cproa on the overthrow of Nnhonidas,
Nin-girsu, from the gad afterwards from insoription on clay cylinder; t h e
identified with Adar; after the worship anger of Bel and other gads as deolsred
of Tammua in S i p p r a he wan addr-d ty'the 1,rme.w hml been m u r ~ lagain.&
aa Hul-memi, or Bo-Memi. 242-3. htm for having llmught lhzmr i m w ,
Chsldrean trade with India; teak, muslin; from the ~ n e i e n tsan:toanes; N ~ h n u i -
Accadiao idengraph for muslin, 137-8. don, like S a d , had heen rejeoted from
Chronology, great want o f ; antiquity of being king; Merodaeh had visited t h e
Bshylonian civilisation, and suppoaed deserted shrines in Somer and Aoead.
era of s single monarchy ruled by the and sympathised with the people's
Acoadians, with Ur as thecapital, 17.8. wmnw. and had chosen Csrus. kine of
Ciroomcision known to the Babylonians, Elsm; & the sovereignty.of dhsld&.
83, note. as he had been previously hailed by t h e
Clean and andean, or dietinotion of law- Jewish prophet; asingle battledecided
ful r u d onlawful food; probsblyrefem the struggle, and Babylon opened its
to totemiam ; distinction common t o gat- for his triumphant entry into t h e
Assyrians, Babylonians and J e w ; the oits: the oonoueror showed his mati-
flesh of the wild-boar and or, when ~ gd. W ~ O " ha I
t8,i; by r ~ s L d t i othc
forbidden; mention of the domestic pig aitlel htm to their sneient lent* nni
avoided in the insoriptions, and reptiles rcstari,ap their remdex: the r~rieetain
accounted unclean, a by the Jews, 83. turn flaitered and beldhim ipas tho
Comhat between Merodnoh and Tiamst; favourite of the national go&, and re-
parallel of Michml and the greatdragon; proached Nahanidos in the same way
struggle with the powers of darkness, ss Jeremiah had treated Nebuehadoer
102.3. zrrand the Jewish kings, 86 ;anoalistio
Comparison of the Babylonian triad who tablet erplaine why nearly the rho\.
 INDEX.

popmlatien mhmitted i t once; w t r a l - Qebd or Byhloa e r e q year; ioEusoee

ktion, oiril and religious, t h e real of Rerotian oustom and belief: Adonis
w- of Nabnidos' disaster and down- .ndiJs;raa thelame: ~ l e i a o l l r i i nlegend
fd,87-8. of Irma and h t r i s ; autumoal festival in
hrnour of Twnmua. 23 I : cult rhsozei
Dagan or Dagon, worshipped in Barran, in the west, and the god w a r d e d 38 3
Phoenicia and southern Philintia; tern. wlsr deity; origin of the story; the
plea BL G-. h h d o d and Beth-dagon, name Aecadian Dum-ei snd its mean-
188.9. in@; worshipped in Phoenioia, Cypma,
Damaac~us,ertraotfrom, on the primleva1 aud Greece; oult modified by the Hit-
divinities Ana-Seir, Ki-sar, Lakhrna. tites, 231-6.
Iakhama. Ana. Mol-lil and Ea, 125. Diffieultiea in studying the religion fmm
Uavid or Dod, and iWI mnoeetion with the mixed laoguagea of the text, and
Dido ; corroboration by Sooio and their different datea, 8.
Smend; worship of t h e supreme god Dilbat the planetary name of Istar; de-
under the name of Dodo and Yahveh; ment, attributes, and oorrespndenoe to
D W i , "my beloved? theepithet shows Nebo as the Announcer; her temple at
how national iffection transferred the Tel.lah oalled B-Anq 259 and notea:
name of the deity to the king, 56-7. her heme the city of Dilbat, but Erech
h s . k i n a or Dar-ki, the consort of Ea, the real centre of her worship in his-
p e r n o i f i d earth, m d the god Ba per- t o r i d times ; common title Nana; her
mnified water, as elemental deities ; image recovered a t the BaeL of Shushan;
theory of Thales, 139; the goddem of late texts dmtitioguish Nana and Istar;
the earth a t Erech; both the mother Dilbat the same a s l o t t i l a t Boraippa,
and &tar of Adonis d l e d Gingraa in 259.
Cypma; Gingiri or Gingra, the name Dianysas the vine-pod; hi worship d e
of Istar, the feminine of Din&, crea- rived fmm the Emt, 54, note.
tor, 264.5; each Babylonian city had D i s e w usoally w r i b e d to demaninoal
its own Gingim, or "oreatrsrs;" Ister possesion, and expolaion neceaaary be-
hoame a Semitic @ d m , and naturally fore recovery; pstilenoe and epidemics
accompanied her bridegmom Tammuz; regarded with awe as s punishment
Erech m d A o d great centres of her from the gods; the -me theorg found
wursbio. 284-5 and mtcr. ~.~ ~~.
i n wme of the wnitential m l m s~. : and

I
Dare of ihe p~rsmid.bu~laleta;develop. a vt.le-spread calamity like the plague
menr of hieroglypbira: hlehrulturaan~l
rislllsation of the ise"od, 33.4.
Dstillo, the river of dhtb,dear the mouth
-~
a u held to be s minister of veopeanee
sent bu the aaln on anaunt of sin.
~og.ld.
~ ~~ .
of the Euphrates, beyond whiob Xisu- Divine names; t m e prononeiation care-
thmswaa translated to dwell among the fully conesled from the uninitiated, 4.
gds, 359. Dog disliked by the Semite, and c l d
Deities of the popular faith represented among the powers of evil ; generally
in human a h s p ; the warlike Ietar with avoided in *?rly art, although the Baby-
quiver on a h shoulder and bow in lonians bad s fine breed; I n d i m dog
hand ; only demons and inferior spirits repmentea on t e m c o t t r tablets; five
or m y t h i d personages portrayed 8a of Amur-hni-pal's dogs inscribed on
eompmite oreatnreq partly human and the bas-relief8 now in the British
bestial; Ea bar onlysfiah'sskin thrown Museum, 287-8 ; Babylonian dog es-
over his ahouldera like a cloak ; the teemed in later times; Merodacb had
monaters seen by Brdews painted an fourdivine houndsnotalvayeemploged
the temple walls af Belas, the braad of onermodaofmerq; extnrctfmmlegend,
cham ; the creation-legend of Cutba, 288-9.
and t h e creatures aockled by Tismat;
their disappearance marked the victorg b,the god of the deep and the itma-
of light over darknew, and the gods of sphere; lord af all rivers and t h e sop-
heaven aver Titlnic monsterz, 277. p o d o-o-stream, the wnroe of Bahy-
Deseent of Istar into Hades ; a mytho- loniao civilisstion ; name not Semitic;
logicalpem; based an Acoadian m8ts- the g a l of Eridv once on the ~horesof
ride, 221-7; coriously illustrates the the Persian Gulf; early connection with
Old Testament and rlaaaio authors, and Babylon, 104-5; lepeods from BBrbwas

I
in return receives light from them; ex- and Polyhistar, 131-2 ; etymolag~d
planation of prticulars, 227-8; death name uncertain ; lenormsot'e eonjr-
of Tammru (Adonk) commemorated at ture; Bn'aidentitlaith Oannea; h o q
 w ed the waters of life; resdta of soit, cd the & ; n ~ -bib d in the
the onifioatiw of the oreeda oi Nipor ursioe of the temple of 8nm.s; m d a t
m d Erido, 558-9. aanMt,sn~rise,and on specialmasions:
Q'iadhah, originally a 6re.gcd and after- rll d Bemitic aridn. and belono~ltothe
rude * Bemitie solar hero, probably time when ~ i y & and ma> w u s
the prototype of Nimrod; name of great wntrea of influence; intern1 mi-
three ideagrspbs; Hommel's readins; denw of the wricd r h e n they were
objeotion and explanation, 8 sod note; composed, as &ring tile relgos of Bar-
the hero of the national epic, a Baby- gon, Nuam-Sin and Nebuobadneear;
lonian mnqoerm as real rur one of the general inferences respetiog the rest.
king., 17 ;falselyaeeosed by Istar. with 541-4; hymns oped in spells implied a
the help of Ea-bani, kille the bull sent higher cult than mere magic; the con-
by Ann to punish him; list of Irtar'a ception of a clestire deity necernsrily
~i~cim ; Qiedhobr
s assoointedwith dei- intrcduoed praiaa, a d o r a t i o n , ~ dsfixed
ties. 248-9. ritual; c o n t m t with Shlmantsm, 855.
B i z h o n r m i d s and the development of
bieriglyphiea, SS. In~~ntationa,exoroi.maandmagio,limited
Qast'r milk used with other offerines to
~~~
to tbe w e n t life; Chsldsean belief in
the gads ; hymn ssaoeiatiog the d k n e s ghcatwarld, or mntioued eriatenca
goat with Mul.lil, snrl magic formula, after death, under MuI.lil as lord, only
285-6 and notes.
~~~~ ~
w u e and shadows. 368.
~ n n i i a ,perhaps theprimitire Nebo of
Hadnd the supreme B.al or Son-gad; Borsippa, considered ss the g n a t deep
extent of his worship; adored as Rim- in Accedian m ~ t h o l q yacorioospaml-
;
mon a t Damascus; his name aocors in lel to Hameis "golden oord of Zeus,"
the namw of p- and plaoea; and 1 1 6 - 7 ; no apparent connection with
abbreviated to D6da a t Aleppq and the demiurge of Bonippa and the prv
mttfounded with the A q r i a o Dadu, phet-gad Nabo; explained by Amadiao
65-6. legends, 117.8.
Hamso (Kharrso) connected with Baby- Inrnoation of Mercdaeb by the later kinga
lonian history; epithet of Memory; crowned nt Babylon, 109.
temple restared bg Nabonidaa; figure Ir.4 and Jared, same name aa Erido, 185.
of the gcd on gems and seals; m t o r a - I r k l l a , another name of Mul-gi, the lord
tione by Sargon, Shalmanarer and As. of H ~ d w 154, and note.
sur.bani-pal; worship of theMoan.god Iatar the only goddeas who had a place by
once the Bame ra in Assyria and Baby- the side of Amor, 123; 1-r in primi.
lonia;
-. aseendenoy of the gad of Ur, tive and historical times; no Semitic
1BS-4. etymolog of name; no sign of gender,
High-priest's dotics in libstions t o the ss in Beltis, Zarpaoit, Anat and Taa-
gods; hi. diguity a t Babylon derived mit; the OldTestament and Phmician
from Merodaob, and a t Nineveb fmm Aabtmsth; sometimes 8 male divinity:
the Iatara of Accnd and &oh different,
253; Istar eeaaed to he the pure @-
no honour of tho il.iri$of
the d c d , aa d m of the evening sbr,and was re-
lo1ve.hi8ur.o Qyyr; bur avch barin. garded by the Semitea as the goddeas of
mre uracriear alm13r unkrown t o rt.e fruitfulness and lose; the soluytooos-
8emiiee, 83-4 and notes. nea. m d dchasing chwnoter of her
Buman shape and character of the god8 worship deoouoced by the prophets of
eoatraeted with the animal-beaded dei- Ismel, sndahockedtheQreeks; difloaion
ties of Egypt; harmony of Semitic be- of her cult and i t s abominable rites,
lief that the Creator made man in his 266-7; the gentler phase, r h e n not
own image; tendency of art among the tainted by papular freney, asid t o have
two races; the winged bulls a t the had a homanising effect upon the colti-
entrance of the temples, and the eagle- ~ a t e ddames; addressed in the p o i -
hewled chcraba on each side of the tential psalms as Gola, Nane and Mil-
sacred tree. were sorvisnls of a time kat, 267-8; Aooadian hymns to Istar,
when the eods were worshinoed under 868-70; the Syrim deity warlike, and
aimilar forms, proved bg ih'e written worshippd by the Hittites and their
texts, 278-9. disoiples in Asia Minor; the Qulli and
Hymn to Bel.Medaeh in the beginning Amslona; descent of Artemia and Aph-
of Ni-, 261-2; hjmns to the Llon.gcd mdite; Btory of Semiramis; differrot
of Sip- s 01.e to the rslatise anti- phase* of her cult, and templea a t N h .
 NDEX.

roh nnd Arbela; kter development as they were collected; aa of interlinear

a war-eoddess : also w h invoked
~ bv the
earlie; kioge ;'omole sent to ~sarlhnd-
I tranalationa and form.tion of the Bnbr-
lonian ~ i b l e ;modification of some of
don, 274-5; Aasor-bani-pal's devotion Lenormant's views neo-ry, 316-7.
and successes, 276-i. Library of Assur-bani-uslown to all: but
Isuilanu, the gardener of Anu, probably literary we ahort-liied, il.
the mythic prototype of Sargoo, 250. library of Nineveh and itaconlents; clay
tablets and rails of o a w r i chietlv conies
Jewish religion nod Christianity; the of alder walks from &bylonia i t 'had
former bound up with the fortunes af been brought from Calah by Sennaehe-
the people ; its devotional utterances rib, but mostly oollected by Assur-bani-
and prophecies; causes of its clearer pal. "a real lover of bwka;" be appre-
views of Qod ae the ruler of all the ciated the old textsfmm Erecb, Ur and
world; purifying effect of the captivity, Babylon, 1C-I.
39. Lilatu or Lilith, the night-demon; the
Joseph ; etymology of name ; father of name and oonoeption passed from the
Ephraim and Manassek~;connected with Jkbylomans to the Jews and Idumseans,
an old Canaanite deity; compared wlth 145-6.
Rethel; relation to A*, "a diviner," Lists of imsgea and deities in the temples
50-2 and nolea. of Assur and Nineveb ; supremacy of
Ksl:, a class o i priests; meaning and I Assur, thrice invoked nt ibe head of
each; his name aoee fallowed by lhat
origin of the term, 62. of Istnr; Assur "king of ail gods? no
Khammuragas, the founder of a new dy- wife or son t o share his hanours; a
nasty, first made Babylon the capital, jealous and powerful god; his worship
18-9, 23-4. had all the elements of a pure faith,
Kings, like Solomon, exercised priestly 127-9.
functions; h u t distinct a t Tel-loh; a t Literature of Babylonia chiefly based an
first only high-priests, 59. older compositions, as the Epic of Qis-
Kouyunjik library destroyed a t the fall of dbuhar formed fmm earlier poems on
Nineveh, and its buried treasures lay the exploits of Herakles af Erech; the
boneath the ruins till discovered by Sir Descent of Istar exhibits plainly bor.
H. C. Rawlinrou, who rewvered a part rowed passages; the penitential psalms,
oi the content,; Dlc Qeo. Smith and hymnsand mngial texts, show thesame
Mr. H. Rassam followed, and thegreater traces of repetition and borrowing;
pxrt is now in the British Museum, 12. clear indioations of a period when the
Semitio iden of a supreme B a d and a
Laban, s god whose image once stood io god were unknown, and only pure Sha.
the temple of Anu a t Assur, 249, note. manism prevailed, 327.8,
Legend of seven eri! apirits, 106. Looal character of Ea, Merodach and
L e g e n d q paemn and when composed; Asatzr. 142.
gloomy description of Hades, where Loeai deities, their worship, pried8 and
go?? and bad alil;e flit about in dark- templos; many cities oider than Baby-
noss, aud the shade. of heroes sit ea- loo, asSippsraand Ur; theloeslnature
throned to greet the new-oomers; re- of Uabylonian religion explains much
semblance to the Hades of the Homeric of ita history ; Nabooidw' polioy of
poems; exaltation and happiness of En- oentralisatian reaentod by all cissen,
bani, and reasons for Ner 2nd Etana and reversed by Cyrus, 89-91.
beins retained i o the wgions below ; Lugal -tudn, " t h e divine storm-bird,"
growth of more spiritur! ideas and the compared with Pmmlbeos as a bene-
doctrine of immortality; faith enlarged, factor to mankind, and doomed to sui-
and the good yearn to lire for ever "in ier ; contrasted with the fish-god of
the land of the silver sky," the true Eridu; bilingual poem an Zu, 294.6;
home of the gods and tlie blest, 365-6. the old faith of totemism changed; Zu's
Lehman an Adrammelech and Adar.Mil. flight; inilureaf the eauocil of tbegods
kat, 7, note. to destroy him, and transformation inla
Lenormant Franpoia on the Sacred Books a bird, 206.9.
of Chaldaes; contents of the two main
oollections; n. third series consisted of Mngnn or Magana, land of, with its mine.
penitential psalms, in many respects of turquoise and ooppr, conquered b r
similar to those of the Old Testamet~t; Naram-Sin, 31-2 and nolca.
when oomposed, and order in which hZsgien1 texts and hymns mnneetsd ria
 INDEX.

prtMllLr ribs a d ~ s n m o n i a ;wor- Yws, different e t p o l a s i a of -me ; He.

ebip a p e r f o r m ~ m w i t h r i g i ddhemnce hmw, Egyptian m d Amyrisn, 44-7.
toparticulara; infsraneefmm thstexts; H y e t q of era ae erplained by the Ac-
aou,etimcsno t r w s of original; the Se- ediana m d hbylonians; hymn to the
mitic passes into meremngic; hymn to harmfulspiritsand the fire-god, 206.8 ;
the Sun.gad, a mixture of deep feel- the wind and tempeat-godslittle besides
ing and debasing superstition, 319-20; e l e m e n d p w e r s ; homemd parentage
hymn to remove the ban orourse; slow of the apirita of the air, 208.
decay of magic and witobmaft; Aocado- Mwo-god of Ur distinot from that of Ni-
Sumorian language, 322.5. pur ; eaah BPbylonian town had its own
Makhir, "the god of dreams;" dimvery lmal Moan-god nod forms of adoration ;
of bin temple a t Balawat by Mr. Ram- i n Cbaldam religion the Son-god the
ssm ;itsinternnl mngementsandoon- orspring of the Mmn-god, 155-6.
tents; resemblances te the Iaraelitiah Mugheir, the aite of the ancient Ur, 42.
ark; templegatesemted withembossed Mul-lil, l'lord af the ghost world," angry
bronze plates, 65. with the gods for allowing Xisuthros
Mamit eompered with the &aman Pate and hismmpsnious to emape the vatera
and QreekAL4; aterribleweapnin the of the deluge in a ship; appeased by
bands of priestly exoreiets; hymn and &a's intercessions ; excepted from the
incantations against demoniac agency; sacrifice of Xisuthms after the descent
power of the Hamit; the plague con- from the ark; Nanltar called hia be-
sideredashesven-io0ioMfor~in;frag- laved son, 147; oitimately a kl or
meoton tbedeatructionof Sennaeherib'~ Baal, 347.
atmy, 306-9. Mul-nugi, also called Irkalla; his relation-
Haau, hero, an epitbet of several deities, shipand p s i t i o n s t Nipor and Ur, 154.
speoia:;g Adar, Merodach and the Sun- Mythologid tablets; their probable date,
gad; also " a scribe," or "librarian," 215.
and ir akology connected with Taorus,
47-8. Nabatheanlegend of Tammua and Saablan
MBtu, tbs god of the tempest, dreaded festival, 239, notb
8s the minister of Eel; one of several Nnbonidos' discovery of the date of the
storm-pods, tbeobildrenof the sea; his reigns of Sargon aod Nnram-Sin, con-
worship Semitiaed, and absorbing the firmed by Mr. Pinches' reading of the
name and attribotes d Meri and Mer- cylinder and other inmriptions and lists
mer, carried to Syris and Damasous, of kings; Mr. George Smith's previous
200-2. supposition ; methodaf testing thedate,
hledicine, and the nm of olean sod on. 23; his attempts to centralise the locnl
clean articles of food in relation te old cults, 91.2 and note; resented by all
beliefs, 84; p e a t work on, contains re- classes, 97.
ceipta for curing dieease mingled with Name and p e m n inaepmble among the
charms and spells, 317-8. Chaldmns; the personality liable to
Medicine-meuorexomiBts,andtheirpwer injury by uaiog the name in a spell:
ever tbe spirits of nature, 529. and uaing the name of a deity "om-
Memdneh'a titles, attribute. and worship; pelled senice te the priest or exorcist;
description of his temple ealled Mloa secret names of the Egyptian gods;
by the Qreeka; further from Nebnobad- wme names holy and efficacious, others
nezzaia inaeriptians; its ~ i t e ,name of goad or evil fortune ; superstition
and entrance-gatea; riohljdecorated by about names common to both races:
Nabuehadnemr; the shrine of Zar- saeredneas of the name of the god of
proit, 94-5; Memdsch identified with Lrael: kingly pride in the preserrs-
an Amadian deity, but his attributes tionof theirnames; thoseof conquered
benefioent rather than mlar ; etymology oitiesaltered; dread of unknown deities;
of namedoubtful; U-duganddnuzr- hymn to the ereator under the names
vd,erpleined; pun an the latter; elasaed of the fifty p a t pods; myatieal i m p r -
with the constellations, 106-7; becomes tance of names and dread of spells,
the bend of the pantheon; Gyros hia 304-5.
fasourite and worshipper; woeeption Name of E a r - h d d o n changed out of sEee-
of Bel-Alerodaoh enlarged ; his place tion by his father, 303-1.
amongtbeQreekaofAsiaMinor,108-10 Names of famous monarohs adopted b j
and note. sumeesful usorpers, 303.
Methuselekh and Methumel, variant. of Namtor,theplague-demou,andtbeJewisb
Mu-sa-ilati, 185.6, now. q e l d desth; his messenger I s m m
 LVDEB.

I t a k representad by the colossi a t tha beenme.ymL&af deitie4 anas O O I I O ~

entranw t o a temple; N e m and Ner- t h s o l q i d @am arose; the heavens
gal alike; legend discowred by Mr. Q. were furtherdivided and named ; Mars
Smith, 310-1 ; Eabylon depicted auf- beoarre Nergal, and Orion, Tammuz,
fering from the destroying angel; be- 401-2.
sieged by foes; the sword, famine and Older Babylonian gods partly Semitic nnd
the plwuelet loosein the streets; Mul- p r t l y Aeeadiao adaptations, but all
lil's soliloquy; Meradach mo~lrnsover local, and belonging t o the cities as
the doomed city; the help of other much as the temples; analogies and
deitiesin~okedagainstthenomnd'Suti; ditfereneeeof the Israelites and Pheni-
Nerrs quieted, and speech of Isum; eians, 130.
sweep of the warrior-gods westiuards Oppoeiteoharactarsassigned to Istar; Tal-
compared with the angel of pestilence mudictale; thewifeandmotherof Tam-
in the time of llavid; different from mur, 250.1.
Nalntar ; inference from the parallel Old tnblets and p p y r i p r e ~ e r s e da t Nine-
nnd contrast, 311-4. veb, 9.
Nanak znd Nanarnsed =names of heraea Omen tablets in the British Museum, 11.
and kings, 157. Origin of the world; the elements re-
Nnnar i n ~ o k e da. Sin; spread of tbe wor- garded a. divine, or possessed of a
ship of Sin in southern Arabia, 164-5. divine spirit; how farmedinto thepre-
Neho, the prophet god of Babylon and sent order of natore; next, symbolised
Bomippg the patron of writing and divine beings; this mytbio view gave
literature; association n i t h Istar and way t o the idea that matter was created
Nergnl; special attributes and titles; or begotten by the gods; next, matter
his ideagraph; position and rank st regarded as the cause of all things, 367;
Borsippa, 115-6; honoored in Aseyria, coamologioal theories resolved into ge-
Babylonia, Palestine and Xoab, 120. nealogy and creation; Aeedian and Se-
Nebuchadnezzaisaddrese toKerodaeh,97. mitic idea. harmonised by the assump-
Nineveh ideographically expressed by a tion of a chaosand creationof the world
lish; populvr etymology, 57. in days; BCrBasos' account said to have
Nin-girai or Tammue, the god of Tel.loh; been derivedfrom Oannes; extrsotfrom
addressed mashepherd; bymn or fune- adooument; transmissionaf theaceaunt
ral dirge; a, hapless Sun-god of Erech; oiBdr6ssos by Alexander Polyhistor and
e x t ~ a c tfrom the epic of Qisdbub;lr, early Christian miters, 368-70; two
245-8. ~ersions,swkwnrdly joined and incon-
sistent; the creation-of monsters, ani-
mhls and men, a sort of antioipation of
S n . k ~ . ~ d , c.\Ik~t,quwn
r ef UaJtb, 14:. Darwin's hypothesis, and the systems
6 , l.er[r<r.ut:,l... , ,lre,lc l,,,LI>l,<
! , r ,,.r.ic,.;cr. -
tic, 1,:ue. IT,:!. ,., I I.. of Anaximander and Thales, 370-1 ;
summarsof a o o w of s tablet made for
I
~ o L d spread
s the cult of Acead north
and west, proved from the names of
deities in Palestine, as Nebo, An", Ox, lonchanbured by mythologists, 289.
d n a t u and Sin. 42. liafr.
Nuzko, a solar gad ; his ideograpll denoted Palm and the tree of life; ebarwtteristie
"daybreak;" also " t h e scribea' pen ;" of Babylonia; date-wine lergely used au
confounded with Nebo, 118-9. s drink in medicine, religious eeremo-
nies and incantations; in later belief
"Observationsof Bel," the great work on the tree of life and tree of knowle~lee
astronomy and iistrology ; object, scope
and oontents; evidence of date, 293-4,
599-400 ; Aecadiilnastranomy included
s knowledge of eclipses, tbc formation Pantheon illust&tes tbe names of t b s
of a calendar, inaention of the Zvdinc kings Saul, David and Solomon ; psral-
:md naming of the cnnatellations; the lel of thenames of Edomite k i n ~ s 53-5.
,
Semites merely added astrology; tbc Papyrus titles in the colophons df Amor-
bemenly bodies considered divine and bl?ni-pal'&tablets, 9.10, tiole; the reed
dedicated t o particular deities; some of Mapan; Aeoadian,gizi, 31-2, note.
bad been changed into auimala by tote- ParsondZs' legend expla~nedby the cunei-
mism; the sun was nn or, the moon a form tableta; not s Median satrap, but
ttser, m d the pkiieta sleep; the stars the god of Ur; hymn in his honowi
 langonge of the h p n , m d the n h t i o n - or D d l , 208.1; the name used hy the
ship of Ur and Nipur, 157-63. t r i b e of t h e %urn and the KolLiOll~;
Patmn deities regarded aa crerton by pssiblyconfosed by the Bdomiteswith
their votaries. 142. the Canaanite DM or David; name of
Penitential psalms and litanies: part of Ramsnu never superseded by his other
one by Dr. Zimmern; its language, names, h a t sometimpr addreseed ss
style, and signs d a common pautheon, Bnrqu or Barat; haw his m l t extended
336-7; development and contrast of the and becsme more national. 204-5; for-
beliefs of the two races; the cultivated ther changes nod their cansea, 209-10.
elasses embraced the newer and higher River-worship onlypartisl, and the reason;
views, wiiilst the masses clung to the Senritio hymn addressed to the Eu-
old Shamanism long after magic and phrates, 403-4.
eroroisms hnd lart muoh of their power
and sanctity; the litanies mark a new Ssbaiom, 01. star-warship, enrliest home,
em i n religions thought; Dr. Hommel 396.
paints out peouliaritioa, use, date, and Sahisnism af Hvran i n the beginning of
mere survirnls; also dialects, 339-40; the Christisn era, only the last echo of
atriking resemblance of some to the Babylonian astm-theoloa, 402.
plalms of the Old Testament, 349-52; Sabbath, Acwdiu, like t h e Latin nrfas-
the two beliefs, and sin and sufferiag, lus; a "rest day" in Assyrian, and a
352. "day of rest far the heart;" in Baby-
Persian and Jeaiah systems cornpard, lonis kept every awenth day, and eon-
90-1. nected with lunar perials; ditferenees
Priests' titles, dasses and af6ceq 61-2. from the Hebrew institution, 76-7.
Position of Same. in the hymns and in- Snored mounds of Babylonia and the Qil-
mriptiooa of Nabonidos; absorption of gals of Palestine the sites of older strue-
lolsrdiuinities; the KO-an and othera turea; uses and asnociationa; tbemselsea
became hissaus, and Makbir hisdaugh- divine and the habitations of thespirits
ter, 175 and note. of the a i r ; Delitlacb's explanation of
Prayer or hymn to A s o r oonnecting him El.Shaddai, 407.
with Babylonian deities, 127-8, aote. Sacred stones of the Semitie f&th show a
Purification or cleansing of peraona and wide ditferenee in the cults of the two
objects impartant; ritual obeervsoees raoes; each eacred stone a Bethel, the
of anointing and washiog, 61.2. reason of itaaanctity; worshipof sacred
atones oommon to all t h e branches of
Relation of the Bshylonisn to his god the f a m i b ; famoos blaok stone of the
different from the E~yptianpantheistic K a n b and otbera nmund Kecos; Na-
notion of nbsorptian, 244. bathean niches in the rook far such
Religion of the country first Shamanism ; objects ; sscred stones from Sicily and
&uallyobaoged,and thespiritsraised Tunisiarepresenttbe worship of atriad;
to the rank of deities; hymoseomposed mytholo~yof Byblaa and the inlention
i o honour of the gals, and s collection of Baetyli; eonseeration of the stone by
formed like t h e Rig-Veda, 1 9 ; the Jacob which had served as his pillow ;
Semites intmduced suu.worahip and his Palcstine Bethels generally ranged in
counterpart, under wrioos phasea and circles, or Qilgals; cones of stone, or
namea; state religion established by tree tluoks,and othersymbols of deities
Khammursgas remained nearly the mentioned in the Bible, depioted on
same till after Nebuehodnezznia time, coins and gems, 408-9; Sin of Earran
19-21; the older faith held a partial ahown on .gem in theBritiah Museam;
footiog a t Nipur and Eridu a long time, stone pillars oomman in Phmieian tam-
212-4. plea: two erected in Solomon's by the
Religion of the upper elnaees, priesthood Tgrian workmen ; aecaunt of s Bethel
nnd court, known from the sacred lite- in the epic of Uisdhubarbefore the hero
rature; that of the m a w s consisted returns on his homeward voyage, 410.
chiefly of mngio and incantations, 348. Sacrifices and offerings nearly the same as
Resurrection views and their origin, 40. among the Israelites; hsur.bimi.pal's
Rimmon or Bamaou, the aupreme god of slaughter of a g e d lions, and offeriogn
theSyriansof Damaaeus,identifidwith of wine over them; human sacrifices;
Hadod, and the sameason the Amyrian children burnt, as in Phaenicia, 77-8;
monuments brought to l i c k by Mr. L .&orifices acoompanied by hymns, in-
Q. Pinchea; extentof hisworship; his eantatmns and prayers; examples a€
ideograph@, and variant nsmen,aa Dadda prayers; priestd duties and service the
 INDEX.

fimt night of the new jest in the temple imperfect: new n l o w and ~ i g n aIn-
of Bel-Memdaoh; text and notes of vented; ideograpbsrelained and script
ceremonial, 79-81 ; s ~ s d a dresses
l snd imitated; rivalry of the scribes ineopy-
ablutions necessary, 62. ing and compiliag; rise of a mired
Snkkanaku. n anecinl title of the hich- literarv dialeot and relicious ideas of
priest of el-i~erodaeh, sometimes;. the tGo mees; further-influenced by
sumed by tbe kings. 109. nole. dynastic changes, 85-6.
Saints' calendar for the intercalary month Seven a sacred number: the Chaldsean
Elul; every day devoted to one or other h'aah's sacrifice, and "se of sevens in
of the gads, with certain rites and eere.
monies. 70.5.
Sala and ~ a r p s o i once
t the aamedivinity,
I the saorihoial vessels; the seven magic
knots used by the witch; the seven
anointings of the sick with oil; the
210 ; Sala of the copper hand expressly sabbath or seventh day; the seveu pla.
oalled the wife of Tammuz, the beauti. nets and demon messengers of Anu;
ful Sun-god of Eridu, 212. the god of the same number; the De-
Salliman, or Solomon, name of a king af luge said to have lasted seven days;
Moab, 57-8. the seven sheep of the hero; the seven
Samas, the son of Sin, the Moan-god; the gates of Hades; the seven zones ar
Sun.gods of Babylonia as numerous as stones of Erech; and the seven fish-
its Moon-gods; each city had its own, like men from the Pemian Gulf, 82,
1 6 6 ; the Samas of Sarra and that of note8.
Sippara described, 16i-8. Sex introduced into theology by the Se-
Samlah, Senlele, and Pen-Samlntb, 54, mites. r h o provided every gad with his
note. female reflex, 110; want of sex in Ae-
Saw". name of an office nearlv like the eadian divinities a sore nuzzle to the
l&itioal, 61. Semites from their oppoGte modes of
Sargon honoured alike by Aeeadisns and thought with regard t o rank and pre-
Semites: myths relatinp to his histor7 eedenoe, 176-7.
Shamanism and Animism explained, and
use of magical texts, 330; the intm-
duction of a moral element, rise of
gsnu; same origin'as t h e ~ i b l < i n Serug,
l totemism, and the various stages of s
28, note; his early occupntian and his- higher cult; cosmogonio speoulations
torical ohsracter ; founded the great and the generalisstion of phenomena
library a t Aooad; seal of his librarian; followed, and faith was enlargod by the
t h e s t a o d a d works on nstronomv and belief in eaod and mil soirits: mntrast
omens; afterwards translated by ~ & r 6 s - of the t, systems, and thei; deaelop-
sm; Sarpan's conquest of E l n i , Syria meat reviewed, 332-3.
.. .
and Cvorus., oraved b~ Cesnola's disco. Shinar. nlaios of. thc earliest home af
veries, 29-31. ~abiiA;ism;thd astronomy and astro-
Sanec's discoveries a t Tel-loh show the logy of Babylonia celebrated by Greek
beninninzs af Chaldsean art nod writ- nnd Latin autbors. and alluded to in
in;; th; latter more pictorial than
euneitic a t the time, 3 2 ; statues of
diorite from illagan. when the mines
were held and worked by the Egyptians - r r . . t r l ior 11.2 p81ri. .r: h.rlin~
of the third dynasty; unit of measure. c r ~ . j *, i r l r a r ; l ! ~i.ai Ire!.~ n ~ n l e1l .
ment, 137. c t Y . t , l x t f o r n s J a t d P I#I.*LS r. ..riel;
Savul or&wul, s Babglonisn deity ;name the auo's s p p r e n t paih noted and
oarried to Palestine and Edom, 35. divided into twelve sectionqand named
Semitio conception of religion purely local from theehief eoustellations; the names
in Babylon, Canaan and Phaenicis; its refer to the totemistic age of the Am&-
Baalism in different nlaoes. so many dian faith. 396-7 : o~obabledate of the
inventionof the ~ a j i u e ,308.
Sin, name of several laeelities i n Arabis
.. and Moab, 42.
traders and priests; intercourse he- Sin the Xwn-god never confounded with
tween the Aceadians and the Semitic Istar in Harm", Yemen or Sinai, 256.
intruderseenerallvoeaoeful :the former Sin-muballidh defeated Rim-Acu, 25-6.
Sinai quarries worked 6000 :ears ago;
diorite ~ t a t u eof king Ksphren, and
that a t Tel-loh almost smmilar, 38;
 Ex.

oooatain md wildemcar connected Temple of Bel.Mcralncb embellished b j

with mwo-worship, 60. Nsborhdneuar with ailver and gold:
Sippara pre-eminently the oity of the Son- ita furniture, like %lomoo'n, of olueir.
god; it. great temple E-BabBra; the gold, 61-6.
city and neighboorhmd the original Templed Sals built by ffodea; her rela.
mat of Chald- aopremacy; eonoeeted tion and attrihoteq 210-1; addreused
with the empire of Sargon and the atory as f f u b a m in a ~eoitential walm:
d the Deluge; lsgeod of t h e buried stoo of the godde=.ssof thempp; hami
hmka of Xi8isotbmq 168 and mtc: the rsplsecd b j one of gold and broom. 2111.
Biblical Sepbansim; I(lssam'~diwo- Ternlalea of the l ~ i ~ l aoda
e r mmwrad to
veriea on the nits; mid to hare been the Capitol s t hmeee218. -
four Sippam, hot mly two historical; Tendency to modify religious thotight
e t y m o l w of name, 168-0; add- by among the semitea; trinity of Anu,
Nsbooldoa after restoring the temple, Bel of Nipur, and &s, a t the head of
174.5; Sippara of Ananit the t r i n - the motheon : the elder Be1 ~ieldedto
tit?; the deity the feminine of Anhnq Rel.'Merdach; .sat nunlbek of the
one of the primordial g& of Aemd, great gals of heaven and earth. h i d m
."*.".
7 eo
mnnorJcicieaof toatm and ,~Ilanc*,and
Sipto, an intnductoy word; ite w and the gods of foreign oountriea; i e i p l e s
signification, 318 and n o l r and titlea ala, deified; three hundred
Skygod of Ereoh and his change of posi- spirits of hearen, and air hundred
tion when his worship b s a m e more apirits of earth; force of the phmse,
spirituslised ; his heasen exalted, and "lord of basta" 216-7.
therefogeof thegals during thedeluge; T<mpbtm, Aspjrlao tarpu. 63, note.
where the spirit of Ea-bani ascended, Tbnnk~slogdryssnd.iayaofhorn~liauon
and from whence Ann ssaigmd their ar*~crallpordered t p the later kiops for
places toSamaq Sin and I~tilr;further dationai affairs. 771
apiritualiaation and changes; the eon- Threat of Istar if refused admiasion into
oeptioo rather pantheistic than mono- Hades, 146.
theietio, 190.1: force8 identified with Tkmat or Tiasit, Tharatth and Heh.
him ; advaooe of pantheism, and i d o - f'Mn. ernlained. 374.
ence of alien8 on Semitio belief, 191.2. Tiele's erplaoation of 1Btar.s deacent into
Solomon, s divine name, proved by the Hades, 251.
insori~tioos: oecon in the names of Titnim the old Aeardian name of Pales-
se&l kin& 57. tine. 202.
S t a n worshipped as disine beings, 402.3. Totemism onoe Eammon in Cbaldssa eri.
Suwoth-beuoth, . . . the .
perhap4 goddess Zar- dent f n m Rialhubar'a taunt of btar
panit, 95. for her treatment of Alala, the home
Suu-gal d-nt in Chaldaean mythology, and the lion; epoeh when emoh city
how explained, 156.6. bad its totem or -red animal; O s n n s
Sun-gal of Nipor connected with the pig ; described, 279.80; ideographs of the
Adar, " l a d of the swine," apparently n a m e of the chief deities; Ea mme.
onoe the totem of his city, 287. timea erpreseed by the ideograph for
"antelope," in AssyrianTu~akhu,orthe
Tablet of ororciams, and order of divine Bihlieal T e d ; other epithet. derived
names osed, 261 and wtc. fmm the antelope and 'Lship" used s i
Tabula the shepherd. the dooble of Tnm- festirala to oonvey &'a image; also as-
muz; Abel and Tobal-Kain. 249. miiated with s divine b h . 280; mn-
Taltal.kur-pill", name of nneof theoldest neeted with the serpent and the goddm
kings of Tel-lob, 29, w f e . Innina, the oorrelative of Anunit; de-
Tammuz, the Bun-god of Eridu, the h u a signated by the ideographs of "f&"
band of Sala of the capper hand; Tam. and L'snoloaure," afterwards as the
muz, son of En, wsa the spouse of Istar, name of Nineseh; interchange with
whose later husband, Rimmon, heoame the waLe ; her parentage ; t e m p l e
t h e Syrian Son.god. 212. built bv Dunzi. 281-2: exolanation of
Tasmit, the wife of Nebo, helped him in the toiema di'th? a"'ielul;e, Lsh an:
his useful laboom, 120. serpent; the seqlent of HJina (liar,);
Tebet, consecrated to Papsukal, 52-3 ; the taerirnl .Iw?riut>unof Hemlarh's r c a .
goat-god, 284. pons, and e x p h a t i o n of the mythical
Tel-loh monuments (we Sinai goarries, sevens; the lerpent changed into an
50); temple to Ana,theakygad, e m t a d anthmpmorphic deity, the inearnation
by ffudee, 192-3 ion wale. of p i l e and wickedness; relation to
558 INDEX.

Nina and Tiamst, 282-3; Ee, aa n

gaaelle, bad .i;~rioua titles; Merodnoh,
aa hia son, called Asari.elinl, 283-4.
'
/ Calah oalled "the mountain of iha
world ;" 'Snbu and Kharsak-kalnma.
but the most famous that of Borsipps.
Tower of Babel identified with "the illus- now cnlled Birei-Nimrud; one of the
triaus mound;" Babylonian version of sacred names of bnu derived from it,
the building and mnfurian of the has. . 405.
tile leaders of the rebellion; use and 1
meaning of the word "oonfound;'. the ' Zakm~kafestivalaelebrsted in the temple
mound in ruins before the oalendarrrs 1 of Bel.Merodacll, when the divine king
drawn up, 406-7.
Triad of the great gods; nlsn a aecondnry
1 seated himself in the lholy plaoe and
received the ho~naqeand adovation of
trinity of Samks, Sin and Istar; ten- ! the rest of the gods; the temple con-
dency to dualism; esrly Cbaldran the j tained s. golden ilnnae of the god, and
only genuine trinity, 193. I a golden tabie in its front; reremblanee
Tri:ds of A m d i n deities, usually male, t o the Jewish temple, 64-5; the festival
110. I suppsoaed to be the aame as the Sakceao;
T ~ i r d uor 'Sirdu, a name of Dav-kina, ! opening hymns arld eremooies, li8.9.
from the Assyrian 'Sirdu, a falcon; ', Zam,ma (Zagagn), the Sua-god af Kis;
Sirrida, sariantly written, -was a title
of the goddess A; the temple and wor-
abip of Tammuz in Aeoad, 237.
! I
same 8s Adsr, and ~ymboiisedby r lion,
261.2, note.
Zsrpnnitu, Zir-banitu, and Zir-panit.,
local names of Beltis; the name pure
ur.~agas,
fint.knom king of united
~ ~ b ~hislmopuments
~ ~ i ~ &fogheir,
; 1
Semitic, but she represented an older
Aeeadiaodisioity; her beneuolentoffiee,
L~~~ warka, iff^ zerghul; re. 110-1 ; her relation to Merodach and
stared temples, founded cities, and esta-
blished the religionof tbeoouotry, le:.
vz, :I goat, an Aecarlinn deity, represented I
/ E* i wonh1~1,ed with Lakhamun and
Elagu; chkfies in her cult, 111-2.
Ziggurat of skfies called the found%-
an * thmne, the reyo. ! tion-stone of heaven and earth; top
lution of the solar disk, holding in hia 1 chamber ohservntor~,96.
hands a ring, in a ' Zi, ompiritr, innumerable aod mysterious;
&ins; a put,,,, jaoah lo ! assigned toobjects nod farces of nature;
obtain his f a t h e i s blessing, 284-5. the moral element unknown in C h d
1 dzanfaith ; events determined byblind
chance, 328.
Vicarious punishment the limit of Acea- 1 Zikum and Zignrom or ZikGrs,
of
dian belief; modified and expanded by Q " ? ~ ~or
, ; kinXI
Semitic iofiuence; epoch of the peni- ! E the~ south
. 262,
~ ~ ~zikum ~ honoured
, eraof
Untialpsalms; lateradditions; spralm ' lulte;
as Bahu,
ar prayer, 353.5.
I1 totemism known 8s "the pure heifer,"
374.5; Aian and Protagonoa; Qenesie
Water-god of Eridu took the place of the ' andmytholngiealdoonments; thewaterg
sky-god of other cities; his titles and 1 iibyss, the primalsource of theuniverse;
functions. 139. Phienieisn mythology; chaos and evil,
Winds speoislly regarded by the primitive 377; Zikum and Tiamat contrasted ;
Babylonians as spirits of good and evil; fight between B d and the dragon; the
hence, bath venerated and dreaded, story compared with the first chapter of
199.200, Genesis; supposed dnte in its present
Worship of mountains a sorvi+al of the form; slightly different from the cuoei-
days before the Chald;ean colonists de- farm tablets, but irreooncilablc with
xendedfrom the mountainsof the Enst; the work of HBrbssos, 381.8; eompari.
mcred mounda on the plains and their son, and the work of the fourth day,
-en; the peak of Nizir; a temple a t 389-91.
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