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Myths of Babylonia and Assyria

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Title: Myths of Babylonia and Assyria

Author: Donald A. Mackenzie


        
Release date: September 5, 2005 [eBook #16653]
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Language: English

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MYTHS OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA

Donald A. Mackenzie



TABLE OF CONTENTS

                Preface
                Introduction
I.              The Races and Early Civilization of Babylonia
II.             The Land of Rivers and the God of the Deep
III.            Rival Pantheons and Representative Deities
IV.             Demons, Fairies, and Ghosts
V.              Myths of Tammuz and Ishtar
VI.             Wars of the City States of Sumer and Akkad
VII.            Creation Legend: Merodach the Dragon Slayer
VIII.           Deified Heroes: Etana and Gilgamesh
IX.             Deluge Legend, the Island of the Blessed, and Hades
X.              Buildings and Laws and Customs of Babylon
XI.             The Golden Age of Babylonia
XII.            Rise of the Hittites, Mitannians, Kassites, Hyksos, and
                Assyrians
XIII.           Astrology and Astronomy
XIV.            Ashur the National God of Assyria
XV.             Conflicts for Trade and Supremacy
XVI.            Race Movements that Shattered Empires
XVII.           The Hebrews in Assyrian History
XVIII.          The Age of Semiramis
XIX.            Assyria's Age of Splendour
XX.             The Last Days of Assyria and Babylonia




PREFACE


This volume deals with the myths and legends of Babylonia and Assyria,
and as these reflect the civilization in which they developed, a
historical narrative has been provided, beginning with the early
Sumerian Age and concluding with the periods of the Persian and
Grecian Empires. Over thirty centuries of human progress are thus
passed under review.

During this vast interval of time the cultural influences emanating
from the Tigro-Euphrates valley reached far-distant shores along the
intersecting avenues of trade, and in consequence of the periodic and
widespread migrations of peoples who had acquired directly or
indirectly the leavening elements of Mesopotamian civilization. Even
at the present day traces survive in Europe of the early cultural
impress of the East; our "Signs of the Zodiac", for instance, as well
as the system of measuring time and space by using 60 as a basic
numeral for calculation, are inheritances from ancient Babylonia.

As in the Nile Valley, however, it is impossible to trace in
Mesopotamia the initiatory stages of prehistoric culture based on the
agricultural mode of life. What is generally called the "Dawn of
History" is really the beginning of a later age of progress; it is
necessary to account for the degree of civilization attained at the
earliest period of which we have knowledge by postulating a remoter
age of culture of much longer duration than that which separates the
"Dawn" from the age in which we now live. Although Sumerian (early
Babylonian) civilization presents distinctively local features which
justify the application of the term "indigenous" in the broad sense,
it is found, like that of Egypt, to be possessed of certain elements
which suggest exceedingly remote influences and connections at present
obscure. Of special interest in this regard is Professor Budge's
mature and well-deliberated conclusion that "both the Sumerians and
early Egyptians derived their primeval gods from some common but
exceedingly ancient source". The prehistoric burial customs of these
separate peoples are also remarkably similar and they resemble closely
in turn those of the Neolithic Europeans. The cumulative effect of
such evidence forces us to regard as not wholly satisfactory and
conclusive the hypothesis of cultural influence. A remote racial
connection is possible, and is certainly worthy of consideration when
so high an authority as Professor Frazer, author of _The Golden
Bough_, is found prepared to admit that the widespread "homogeneity of
beliefs" may have been due to "homogeneity of race". It is shown
(Chapter 1) that certain ethnologists have accumulated data which
establish a racial kinship between the Neolithic Europeans, the
proto-Egyptians, the Sumerians, the southern Persians, and the
Aryo-Indians.

Throughout this volume comparative notes have been compiled in dealing
with Mesopotamian beliefs with purpose to assist the reader towards
the study of linking myths and legends. Interesting parallels have
been gleaned from various religious literatures in Europe, Egypt,
India, and elsewhere. It will be found that certain relics of
Babylonian intellectual life, which have a distinctive geographical
significance, were shared by peoples in other cultural areas where
they were similarly overlaid with local colour. Modes of thought were
the products of modes of life and were influenced in their development
by human experiences. The influence of environment on the growth of
culture has long been recognized, but consideration must also be given
to the choice of environment by peoples who had adopted distinctive
habits of life. Racial units migrated from cultural areas to districts
suitable for colonization and carried with them a heritage of
immemorial beliefs and customs which were regarded as being quite as
indispensable for their welfare as their implements and domesticated
animals.

When consideration is given in this connection to the conservative
element in primitive religion, it is not surprising to find that the
growth of religious myths was not so spontaneous in early
civilizations of the highest order as has hitherto been assumed. It
seems clear that in each great local mythology we have to deal, in the
first place, not with symbolized ideas so much as symbolized folk
beliefs of remote antiquity and, to a certain degree, of common
inheritance. It may not be found possible to arrive at a conclusive
solution of the most widespread, and therefore the most ancient folk
myths, such as, for instance, the Dragon Myth, or the myth of the
culture hero. Nor, perhaps, is it necessary that we should concern
ourselves greatly regarding the origin of the idea of the dragon,
which in one country symbolized fiery drought and in another
overwhelming river floods.

The student will find footing on surer ground by following the process
which exalts the dragon of the folk tale into the symbol of evil and
primordial chaos. The Babylonian Creation Myth, for instance, can be
shown to be a localized and glorified legend in which the hero and his
tribe are displaced by the war god and his fellow deities whose
welfare depends on his prowess. Merodach kills the dragon, Tiamat, as
the heroes of Eur-Asian folk stories kill grisly hags, by casting his
weapon down her throat.

    He severed her inward parts, he pierced her heart,
    He overcame her and cut off her life;
    He cast down her body and stood upon it ...
    And with merciless club he smashed her skull.
    He cut through the channels of her blood,
    And he made the north wind to bear it away into secret places.

Afterwards

    He divided the flesh of the _Ku-pu_ and devised a cunning plan.

Mr. L.W. King, from whose scholarly _Seven Tablets of Creation_ these
lines are quoted, notes that "Ku-pu" is a word of uncertain meaning.
Jensen suggests "trunk, body". Apparently Merodach obtained special
knowledge after dividing, and perhaps eating, the "Ku-pu". His
"cunning plan" is set forth in detail: he cut up the dragon's body:

    He split her up like a flat fish into two halves.

He formed the heavens with one half and the earth with the other, and
then set the universe in order. His power and wisdom as the Demiurge
were derived from the fierce and powerful Great Mother, Tiamat.

In other dragon stories the heroes devise their plans after eating the
dragon's heart. According to Philostratus,[1] Apollonius of Tyana was
worthy of being remembered for two things--his bravery in travelling
among fierce robber tribes, not then subject to Rome, and his wisdom
in learning the language of birds and other animals as the Arabs do.
This accomplishment the Arabs acquired, Philostratus explains, by
eating the hearts of dragons. The "animals" who utter magic words are,
of course, the Fates. Siegfried of the _Nibelungenlied_, after slaying
the Regin dragon, makes himself invulnerable by bathing in its blood.
He obtains wisdom by eating the heart: as soon as he tastes it he can
understand the language of birds, and the birds reveal to him that
Mimer is waiting to slay him. Sigurd similarly makes his plans after
eating the heart of the Fafner dragon. In Scottish legend
Finn-mac-Coul obtains the power to divine secrets by partaking of a
small portion of the seventh salmon associated with the "well dragon",
and Michael Scott and other folk heroes become great physicians after
tasting the juices of the middle part of the body of the white snake.
The hero of an Egyptian folk tale slays a "deathless snake" by cutting
it in two parts and putting sand between the parts. He then obtains
from the box, of which it is the guardian, the book of spells; when he
reads a page of the spells he knows what the birds of the sky, the
fish of the deep, and the beasts of the hill say; the book gives him
power to enchant "the heaven and the earth, the abyss, the mountains
and the sea".[2]

Magic and religion were never separated in Babylonia; not only the
priests but also the gods performed magical ceremonies. Ea, Merodach's
father, overcame Apsu, the husband of the dragon Tiamat, by means of
spells: he was "the great magician of the gods". Merodach's division
of the "Ku-pu" was evidently an act of contagious magic; by eating or
otherwise disposing of the vital part of the fierce and wise mother
dragon, he became endowed with her attributes, and was able to proceed
with the work of creation. Primitive peoples in our own day, like the
Abipones of Paraguay, eat the flesh of fierce and cunning animals so
that their strength, courage, and wisdom may be increased.

The direct influence exercised by cultural contact, on the other hand,
may be traced when myths with an alien geographical setting are found
among peoples whose experiences could never have given them origin. In
India, where the dragon symbolizes drought and the western river
deities are female, the Manu fish and flood legend resembles closely
the Babylonian, and seems to throw light upon it. Indeed, the Manu
myth appears to have been derived from the lost flood story in which
Ea figured prominently in fish form as the Preserver. The Babylonian
Ea cult and the Indian Varuna cult had apparently much in common, as
is shown.

Throughout this volume special attention has been paid to the various
peoples who were in immediate contact with, and were influenced by,
Mesopotamian civilization. The histories are traced in outline of the
Kingdoms of Elam, Urartu (Ancient Armenia), Mitanni, and the Hittites,
while the story of the rise and decline of the Hebrew civilization, as
narrated in the Bible and referred to in Mesopotamian inscriptions, is
related from the earliest times until the captivity in the
Neo-Babylonian period and the restoration during the age of the
Persian Empire. The struggles waged between the great Powers for the
control of trade routes, and the periodic migrations of pastoral
warrior folks who determined the fate of empires, are also dealt with,
so that light may be thrown on the various processes and influences
associated with the developments of local religions and mythologies.
Special chapters, with comparative notes, are devoted to the
Ishtar-Tammuz myths, the Semiramis legends, Ashur and his symbols, and
the origin and growth of astrology and astronomy.

The ethnic disturbances which occurred at various well-defined periods
in the Tigro-Euphrates valley were not always favourable to the
advancement of knowledge and the growth of culture. The invaders who
absorbed Sumerian civilization may have secured more settled
conditions by welding together political units, but seem to have
exercised a retrogressive influence on the growth of local culture.
"Babylonian religion", writes Dr. Langdon, "appears to have reached
its highest level in the Sumerian period, or at least not later than
2000 B.C. From that period onward to the first century B.C. popular
religion maintained with great difficulty the sacred standards of the
past." Although it has been customary to characterize Mesopotamian
civilization as Semitic, modern research tends to show that the
indigenous inhabitants, who were non-Semitic, were its originators.
Like the proto-Egyptians, the early Cretans, and the Pelasgians in
southern Europe and Asia Minor, they invariably achieved the
intellectual conquest of their conquerors, as in the earliest times
they had won victories over the antagonistic forces of nature. If the
modern view is accepted that these ancient agriculturists of the
goddess cult were of common racial origin, it is to the most
representative communities of the widespread Mediterranean race that
the credit belongs of laying the foundations of the brilliant
civilizations of the ancient world in southern Europe, and Egypt, and
the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates.




INTRODUCTION


Ancient Babylonia has made stronger appeal to the imagination of
Christendom than even Ancient Egypt, because of its association with
the captivity of the Hebrews, whose sorrows are enshrined in the
familiar psalm:

    By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down;
    Yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
    We hanged our harps upon the willows....

In sacred literature proud Babylon became the city of the anti-Christ,
the symbol of wickedness and cruelty and human vanity. Early
Christians who suffered persecution compared their worldly state to
that of the oppressed and disconsolate Hebrews, and, like them, they
sighed for Jerusalem--the new Jerusalem. When St. John the Divine had
visions of the ultimate triumph of Christianity, he referred to its
enemies--the unbelievers and persecutors--as the citizens of the
earthly Babylon, the doom of which he pronounced in stately and
memorable phrases:

    Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen,
    And is become the habitation of devils,
    And the hold of every foul spirit,
    And a cage of every unclean and hateful bird....

    For her sins have reached unto heaven
    And God hath remembered her iniquities....
    The merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her,
    For no man buyeth their merchandise any more.

"At the noise of the taking of Babylon", cried Jeremiah, referring to
the original Babylon, "the earth is moved, and the cry is heard among
the nations.... It shall be no more inhabited forever; neither shall
it be dwelt in from generation to generation." The Christian Saint
rendered more profound the brooding silence of the desolated city of
his vision by voicing memories of its beauty and gaiety and bustling
trade:

    The voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers and trumpeters
        shall be heard no more at all in thee;
    And no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any
        more in thee;
    And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee;
    And the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no
        more at all in thee:
    For thy merchants were the great men of the earth;
    For by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.
    _And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints,_
    _And of all that were slain upon the earth_.[3]

So for nearly two thousand years has the haunting memory of the
once-powerful city pervaded Christian literature, while its broken
walls and ruined temples and palaces lay buried deep in desert sand.
The history of the ancient land of which it was the capital survived
in but meagre and fragmentary form, mingled with accumulated myths and
legends. A slim volume contained all that could be derived from
references in the Old Testament and the compilations of classical
writers.

It is only within the past half-century that the wonderful story of
early Eastern civilization has been gradually pieced together by
excavators and linguists, who have thrust open the door of the past
and probed the hidden secrets of long ages. We now know more about
"the land of Babel" than did not only the Greeks and Romans, but even
the Hebrew writers who foretold its destruction. Glimpses are being
afforded us of its life and manners and customs for some thirty
centuries before the captives of Judah uttered lamentations on the
banks of its reedy canals. The sites of some of the ancient cities of
Babylonia and Assyria were identified by European officials and
travellers in the East early in the nineteenth century, and a few
relics found their way to Europe. But before Sir A.H. Layard set to
work as an excavator in the "forties", "a case scarcely three feet
square", as he himself wrote, "enclosed all that remained not only of
the great city of Nineveh, but of Babylon itself".[4]

Layard, the distinguished pioneer Assyriologist, was an Englishman of
Huguenot descent, who was born in Paris. Through his mother he
inherited a strain of Spanish blood. During his early boyhood he
resided in Italy, and his education, which began there, was continued
in schools in France, Switzerland, and England. He was a man of
scholarly habits and fearless and independent character, a charming
writer, and an accomplished fine-art critic; withal he was a great
traveller, a strenuous politician, and an able diplomatist. In 1845,
while sojourning in the East, he undertook the exploration of ancient
Assyrian cities. He first set to work at Kalkhi, the Biblical Calah.
Three years previously M.P.C. Botta, the French consul at Mosul, had
begun to investigate the Nineveh mounds; but these he abandoned for a
mound near Khorsabad which proved to be the site of the city erected
by "Sargon the Later", who is referred to by Isaiah. The relics
discovered by Botta and his successor, Victor Place, are preserved in
the Louvre.

At Kalkhi and Nineveh Layard uncovered the palaces of some of the most
famous Assyrian Emperors, including the Biblical Shalmaneser and
Esarhaddon, and obtained the colossi, bas reliefs, and other treasures
of antiquity which formed the nucleus of the British Museum's
unrivalled Assyrian collection. He also conducted diggings at Babylon
and Niffer (Nippur). His work was continued by his assistant, Hormuzd
Rassam, a native Christian of Mosul, near Nineveh. Rassam studied for
a time at Oxford.

The discoveries made by Layard and Botta stimulated others to follow
their example. In the "fifties" Mr. W.K. Loftus engaged in excavations
at Larsa and Erech, where important discoveries were made of ancient
buildings, ornaments, tablets, sarcophagus graves, and pot burials,
while Mr. J.E. Taylor operated at Ur, the seat of the moon cult and
the birthplace of Abraham, and at Eridu, which is generally regarded
as the cradle of early Babylonian (Sumerian) civilization.

In 1854 Sir Henry Rawlinson superintended diggings at Birs Nimrud
(Borsippa, near Babylon), and excavated relics of the Biblical
Nebuchadrezzar. This notable archaeologist began his career in the
East as an officer in the Bombay army. He distinguished himself as a
political agent and diplomatist. While resident at Baghdad, he devoted
his leisure time to cuneiform studies. One of his remarkable feats was
the copying of the famous trilingual rock inscription of Darius the
Great on a mountain cliff at Behistun, in Persian Kurdistan. This work
was carried out at great personal risk, for the cliff is 1700 feet
high and the sculptures and inscriptions are situated about 300 feet
from the ground.

Darius was the first monarch of his line to make use of the Persian
cuneiform script, which in this case he utilized in conjunction with
the older and more complicated Assyro-Babylonian alphabetic and
syllabic characters to record a portion of the history of his reign.
Rawlinson's translation of the famous inscription was an important
contribution towards the decipherment of the cuneiform writings of
Assyria and Babylonia.

Twelve years of brilliant Mesopotamian discovery concluded in 1854,
and further excavations had to be suspended until the "seventies" on
account of the unsettled political conditions of the ancient land and
the difficulties experienced in dealing with Turkish officials. During
the interval, however, archaeologists and philologists were kept fully
engaged studying the large amount of material which had been
accumulated. Sir Henry Rawlinson began the issue of his monumental
work _The Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia_ on behalf of the
British Museum.

Goodspeed refers to the early archaeological work as the "Heroic
Period" of research, and says that the "Modern Scientific Period"
began with Mr. George Smith's expedition to Nineveh in 1873.

George Smith, like Henry Schliemann, the pioneer investigator of
pre-Hellenic culture, was a self-educated man of humble origin. He was
born at Chelsea in 1840. At fourteen he was apprenticed to an
engraver. He was a youth of studious habits and great originality, and
interested himself intensely in the discoveries which had been made by
Layard and other explorers. At the British Museum, which he visited
regularly to pore over the Assyrian inscriptions, he attracted the
attention of Sir Henry Rawlinson. So greatly impressed was Sir Henry
by the young man's enthusiasm and remarkable intelligence that he
allowed him the use of his private room and provided casts and
squeezes of inscriptions to assist him in his studies. Smith made
rapid progress. His earliest discovery was the date of the payment of
tribute by Jehu, King of Israel, to the Assyrian Emperor Shalmaneser.
Sir Henry availed himself of the young investigator's assistance in
producing the third volume of _The Cuneiform Inscriptions_.

In 1867 Smith received an appointment in the Assyriology Department of
the British Museum, and a few years later became famous throughout
Christendom as the translator of fragments of the Babylonian Deluge
Legend from tablets sent to London by Rassam. Sir Edwin Arnold, the
poet and Orientalist, was at the time editor of the _Daily Telegraph_,
and performed a memorable service to modern scholarship by dispatching
Smith, on behalf of his paper, to Nineveh to search for other
fragments of the Ancient Babylonian epic. Rassam had obtained the
tablets from the great library of the cultured Emperor Ashur-bani-pal,
"the great and noble Asnapper" of the Bible,[5] who took delight, as
he himself recorded, in

    The wisdom of Ea,[6] the art of song, the treasures of science.

This royal patron of learning included in his library collection,
copies and translations of tablets from Babylonia. Some of these were
then over 2000 years old. The Babylonian literary relics were, indeed,
of as great antiquity to Ashur-bani-pal as that monarch's relics are
to us.

The Emperor invoked Nebo, god of wisdom and learning, to bless his
"books", praying:

    Forever, O Nebo, King of all heaven and earth,
    Look gladly upon this Library
    Of Ashur-bani-pal, his (thy) shepherd, reverencer of thy
        divinity.[7]

Mr. George Smith's expedition to Nineveh in 1873 was exceedingly
fruitful of results. More tablets were discovered and translated. In
the following year he returned to the ancient Assyrian city on behalf
of the British Museum, and added further by his scholarly achievements
to his own reputation and the world's knowledge of antiquity. His last
expedition was made early in 1876; on his homeward journey he was
stricken down with fever, and on 19th August he died at Aleppo in his
thirty-sixth year. So was a brilliant career brought to an untimely
end.

Rassam was engaged to continue Smith's great work, and between 1877
and 1882 made many notable discoveries in Assyria and Babylonia,
including the bronze doors of a Shalmaneser temple, the sun temple at
Sippar; the palace of the Biblical Nebuchadrezzar, which was famous
for its "hanging gardens"; a cylinder of Nabonidus, King of Babylon;
and about fifty thousand tablets.

M. de Sarzec, the French consul at Bassorah, began in 1877 excavations
at the ancient Sumerian city of Lagash (Shirpula), and continued them
until 1900. He found thousands of tablets, many has reliefs, votive
statuettes, which worshippers apparently pinned on sacred shrines, the
famous silver vase of King Entemena, statues of King Gudea, and
various other treasures which are now in the Louvre.

The pioneer work achieved by British and French excavators stimulated
interest all over the world. An expedition was sent out from the
United States by the University of Pennsylvania, and began to operate
at Nippur in 1888. The Germans, who have displayed great activity in
the domain of philological research, are at present represented by an
exploring party which is conducting the systematic exploration of the
ruins of Babylon. Even the Turkish Government has encouraged research
work, and its excavators have accumulated a fine collection of
antiquities at Constantinople. Among the archaeologists and linguists
of various nationalities who are devoting themselves to the study of
ancient Assyrian and Babylonian records and literature, and gradually
unfolding the story of ancient Eastern civilization, those of our own
country occupy a prominent position. One of the most interesting
discoveries of recent years has been new fragments of the Creation
Legend by L.W. King of the British Museum, whose scholarly work, _The
Seven Tablets of Creation_, is the standard work on the subject.

The archaeological work conducted in Persia, Asia Minor, Palestine,
Cyprus, Crete, the Aegean, and Egypt has thrown, and is throwing, much
light on the relations between the various civilizations of antiquity.
In addition to the Hittite discoveries, with which the name of
Professor Sayce will ever be associated as a pioneer, we now hear much
of the hitherto unknown civilizations of Mitanni and Urartu (ancient
Armenia), which contributed to the shaping of ancient history. The
Biblical narratives of the rise and decline of the Hebrew kingdoms
have also been greatly elucidated.

In this volume, which deals mainly with the intellectual life of the
Mesopotamian peoples, a historical narrative has been provided as an
appropriate setting for the myths and legends. In this connection the
reader must be reminded that the chronology of the early period is
still uncertain. The approximate dates which are given, however, are
those now generally adopted by most European and American authorities.
Early Babylonian history of the Sumerian period begins some time prior
to 3000 B.C; Sargon of Akkad flourished about 2650 B.C., and Hammurabi
not long before or after 2000 B.C. The inflated system of dating which
places Mena of Egypt as far back as 5500 B.C. and Sargon at about 3800
B.C. has been abandoned by the majority of prominent archaeologists,
the exceptions including Professor Flinders Petrie. Recent discoveries
appear to support the new chronological system. "There is a growing
conviction", writes Mr. Hawes, "that Cretan evidence, especially in
the eastern part of the island, favours the minimum (Berlin) system of
Egyptian chronology, according to which the Sixth (Egyptian) Dynasty
began at _c_. 2540 B.C. and the Twelfth at _c_. 2000 B.C.[8] Petrie
dates the beginning of the Twelfth Dynasty at _c_. 3400 B.C.

To students of comparative folklore and mythology the myths and
legends of Babylonia present many features of engrossing interest.
They are of great antiquity, yet not a few seem curiously familiar. We
must not conclude, however, that because a European legend may bear
resemblances to one translated from a cuneiform tablet it is
necessarily of Babylonian origin. Certain beliefs, and the myths which
were based upon them, are older than even the civilization of the
Tigro-Euphrates valley. They belong, it would appear, to a stock of
common inheritance from an uncertain cultural centre of immense
antiquity. The problem involved has been referred to by Professor
Frazer in the _Golden Bough_. Commenting on the similarities presented
by certain ancient festivals in various countries, he suggests that
they may be due to "a remarkable homogeneity of civilization
throughout Southern Europe and Western Asia in prehistoric times. How
far", he adds, "such homogeneity of civilization may be taken as
evidence of homogeneity of race is a question for the ethnologist."[9]

In Chapter I the reader is introduced to the ethnological problem, and
it is shown that the results of modern research tend to establish a
remote racial connection between the Sumerians of Babylonia, the
prehistoric Egyptians, and the Neolithic (Late Stone Age) inhabitants
of Europe, as well as the southern Persians and the "Aryans" of India.

Comparative notes are provided in dealing with the customs, religious
beliefs, and myths and legends of the Mesopotamian peoples to assist
the student towards the elucidation and partial restoration of certain
literary fragments from the cuneiform tablets. Of special interest in
this connection are the resemblances between some of the Indian and
Babylonian myths. The writer has drawn upon that "great storehouse" of
ancient legends, the voluminous Indian epic, the _Mahabharata_, and it
is shown that there are undoubted links between the Garuda eagle myths
and those of the Sumerian Zu bird and the Etana eagle, while similar
stories remain attached to the memories of "Sargon of Akkad" and the
Indian hero Karna, and of Semiramis (who was Queen Sammu-ramat of
Assyria) and Shakuntala. The Indian god Varuna and the Sumerian Ea are
also found to have much in common, and it seems undoubted that the
Manu fish and flood myth is a direct Babylonian inheritance, like the
Yuga (Ages of the Universe) doctrine and the system of calculation
associated with it. It is of interest to note, too, that a portion of
the Gilgamesh epic survives in the _Ramayana_ story of the monkey god
Hanuman's search for the lost princess Sita; other relics of similar
character suggest that both the Gilgamesh and Hanuman narratives are
derived in part from a very ancient myth. Gilgamesh also figures in
Indian mythology as Yama, the first man, who explored the way to the
Paradise called "The Land of Ancestors", and over which he
subsequently presided as a god. Other Babylonian myths link with those
found in Egypt, Greece, Scandinavia, Iceland, and the British Isles
and Ireland. The Sargon myth, for instance, resembles closely the myth
of Scyld (Sceaf), the patriarch, in the _Beowulf_ epic, and both
appear to be variations of the Tammuz-Adonis story. Tammuz also
resembles in one of his phases the Celtic hero Diarmid, who was slain
by the "green boar" of the Earth Mother, as was Adonis by the boar
form of Ares, the Greek war god.

In approaching the study of these linking myths it would be as rash to
conclude that all resemblances are due to homogeneity of race as to
assume that folklore and mythology are devoid of ethnological
elements. Due consideration must be given to the widespread influence
exercised by cultural contact. We must recognize also that the human
mind has ever shown a tendency to arrive quite independently at
similar conclusions, when confronted by similar problems, in various
parts of the world.

But while many remarkable resemblances may be detected between the
beliefs and myths and customs of widely separated peoples, it cannot
be overlooked that pronounced and striking differences remain to be
accounted for. Human experiences varied in localities because all
sections of humanity were not confronted in ancient times by the same
problems in their everyday lives. Some peoples, for instance,
experienced no great difficulties regarding the food supply, which
might be provided for them by nature in lavish abundance; others were
compelled to wage a fierce and constant conflict against hostile
forces in inhospitable environments with purpose to secure adequate
sustenance and their meed of enjoyment. Various habits of life had to
be adopted in various parts of the world, and these produced various
habits of thought. Consequently, we find that behind all systems of
primitive religion lies the formative background of natural phenomena.
A mythology reflects the geography, the fauna and flora, and the
climatic conditions of the area in which it took definite and
permanent shape.

In Babylonia, as elsewhere, we expect, therefore, to find a mythology
which has strictly local characteristics--one which mirrors river and
valley scenery, the habits of life of the people, and also the various
stages of progress in the civilization from its earliest beginnings.
Traces of primitive thought--survivals from remotest antiquity--should
also remain in evidence. As a matter of fact Babylonian mythology
fulfils our expectations in this regard to the highest degree.

Herodotus said that Egypt was the gift of the Nile: similarly
Babylonia may be regarded as the gift of the Tigris and
Euphrates--those great shifting and flooding rivers which for long
ages had been carrying down from the Armenian Highlands vast
quantities of mud to thrust back the waters of the Persian Gulf and
form a country capable of being utilized for human habitation. The
most typical Babylonian deity was Ea, the god of the fertilizing and
creative waters.

He was depicted clad in the skin of a fish, as gods in other
geographical areas were depicted wearing the skins of animals which
were regarded as ancestors, or hostile demons that had to be
propitiated. Originally Ea appears to have been a fish--the
incarnation of the spirit of, or life principle in, the Euphrates
River. His centre of worship was at Eridu, an ancient seaport, where
apparently the prehistoric Babylonians (the Sumerians) first began to
utilize the dried-up beds of shifting streams to irrigate the soil.
One of the several creation myths is reminiscent of those early
experiences which produced early local beliefs:

    O thou River, who didst create all things,
    When the great gods dug thee out,
    They set prosperity upon thy banks,
    Within thee Ea, the king of the Deep, created his dwelling.[10]

The Sumerians observed that the land was brought into existence by
means of the obstructing reeds, which caused mud to accumulate. When
their minds began to be exercised regarding the origin of life, they
conceived that the first human beings were created by a similar
process:

    Marduk (son of Ea) laid a reed upon the face of the waters,
    He formed dust and poured it out beside the reed ...
    He formed mankind.[11]

Ea acquired in time, as the divine artisan, various attributes which
reflected the gradual growth of civilization: he was reputed to have
taught the people how to form canals, control the rivers, cultivate
the fields, build their houses, and so on.

But although Ea became a beneficent deity, as a result of the growth
of civilization, he had also a demoniac form, and had to be
propitiated. The worshippers of the fish god retained ancient modes of
thought and perpetuated ancient superstitious practices.

The earliest settlers in the Tigro-Euphrates valley were
agriculturists, like their congeners, the proto-Egyptians and the
Neolithic Europeans. Before they broke away from the parent stock in
its area of characterization they had acquired the elements of
culture, and adopted habits of thought which were based on the
agricultural mode of life. Like other agricultural communities they
were worshippers of the "World Mother", the Creatrix, who was the
giver of all good things, the "Preserver" and also the
"Destroyer"--the goddess whose moods were reflected by natural
phenomena, and whose lovers were the spirits of the seasons.

In the alluvial valley which they rendered fit for habitation the
Sumerians came into contact with peoples of different habits of life
and different habits of thought. These were the nomadic pastoralists
from the northern steppe lands, who had developed in isolation
theories regarding the origin of the Universe which reflected their
particular experiences and the natural phenomena of their area of
characterization. The most representative people of this class were
the "Hatti" of Asia Minor, who were of Alpine or Armenoid stock. In
early times the nomads were broken up into small tribal units, like
Abraham and his followers, and depended for their food supply on the
prowess of the males. Their chief deity was the sky and mountain god,
who was the "World Father", the creator, and the wielder of the
thunder hammer, who waged war against the demons of storm or drought,
and ensured the food supply of his worshippers.

The fusion in Babylonia of the peoples of the god and goddess cults
was in progress before the dawn of history, as was the case in Egypt
and also in southern Europe. In consequence independent Pantheons came
into existence in the various city States in the Tigro-Euphrates
valley. These were mainly a reflection of city politics: the deities
of each influential section had to receive recognition. But among the
great masses of the people ancient customs associated with agriculture
continued in practice, and, as Babylonia depended for its prosperity
on its harvests, the force of public opinion tended, it would appear,
to perpetuate the religious beliefs of the earliest settlers, despite
the efforts made by conquerors to exalt the deities they introduced.

Babylonian religion was of twofold character. It embraced temple
worship and private worship. The religion of the temple was the
religion of the ruling class, and especially of the king, who was the
guardian of the people. Domestic religion was conducted in homes, in
reed huts, or in public places, and conserved the crudest
superstitions surviving from the earliest times. The great "burnings"
and the human sacrifices in Babylonia, referred to in the Bible, were,
no doubt, connected with agricultural religion of the private order,
as was also the ceremony of baking and offering cakes to the Queen of
Heaven, condemned by Jeremiah, which obtained in the streets of
Jerusalem and other cities. Domestic religion required no temples.
There were no temples in Crete: the world was the "house" of the
deity, who had seasonal haunts on hilltops, in groves, in caves, &c.
In Egypt Herodotus witnessed festivals and processions which are not
referred to in official inscriptions, although they were evidently
practised from the earliest times.

Agricultural religion in Egypt was concentrated in the cult of Osiris
and Isis, and influenced all local theologies. In Babylonia these
deities were represented by Tammuz and Ishtar. Ishtar, like Isis,
absorbed many other local goddesses.

According to the beliefs of the ancient agriculturists the goddess was
eternal and undecaying. She was the Great Mother of the Universe and
the source of the food supply. Her son, the corn god, became, as the
Egyptians put it, "Husband of his Mother". Each year he was born anew
and rapidly attained to manhood; then he was slain by a fierce rival
who symbolized the season of pestilence-bringing and parching sun
heat, or the rainy season, or wild beasts of prey. Or it might be that
he was slain by his son, as Cronos was by Zeus and Dyaus by Indra. The
new year slew the old year.

The social customs of the people, which had a religious basis, were
formed in accordance with the doings of the deities; they sorrowed or
made glad in sympathy with the spirits of nature. Worshippers also
suggested by their ceremonies how the deities should act at various
seasons, and thus exercised, as they believed, a magical control over
them.

In Babylonia the agricultural myth regarding the Mother goddess and
the young god had many variations. In one form Tammuz, like Adonis,
was loved by two goddesses--the twin phases of nature--the Queen of
Heaven and the Queen of Hades. It was decreed that Tammuz should spend
part of the year with one goddess and part of the year with the other.
Tammuz was also a Patriarch, who reigned for a long period over the
land and had human offspring. After death his spirit appeared at
certain times and seasons as a planet, star, or constellation. He was
the ghost of the elder god, and he was also the younger god who was
born each year.

In the Gilgamesh epic we appear to have a form of the patriarch
legend--the story of the "culture hero" and teacher who discovered the
path which led to the land of ancestral spirits. The heroic Patriarch
in Egypt was Apuatu, "the opener of the ways", the earliest form of
Osiris; in India he was Yama, the first man, "who searched and found
out the path for many".

The King as Patriarch was regarded during life as an incarnation of
the culture god: after death he merged in the god. "Sargon of Akkad"
posed as an incarnation of the ancient agricultural Patriarch: he
professed to be a man of miraculous birth who was loved by the goddess
Ishtar, and was supposed to have inaugurated a New Age of the
Universe.

The myth regarding the father who was superseded by his son may
account for the existence in Babylonian city pantheons of elder and
younger gods who symbolized the passive and active forces of nature.

Considering the persistent and cumulative influence exercised by
agricultural religion it is not surprising to find, as has been
indicated, that most of the Babylonian gods had Tammuz traits, as most
of the Egyptian gods had Osirian traits. Although local or imported
deities were developed and conventionalized in rival Babylonian
cities, they still retained traces of primitive conceptions. They
existed in all their forms--as the younger god who displaced the elder
god and became the elder god, and as the elder god who conciliated the
younger god and made him his active agent; and as the god who was
identified at various seasons with different heavenly bodies and
natural phenomena. Merodach, the god of Babylon, who was exalted as
chief of the National pantheon in the Hammurabi Age, was, like Tammuz,
a son, and therefore a form of Ea, a demon slayer, a war god, a god of
fertility, a corn spirit, a Patriarch, and world ruler and guardian,
and, like Tammuz, he had solar, lunar, astral, and atmospheric
attributes. The complex characters of Merodach and Tammuz were not due
solely to the monotheistic tendency: the oldest deities were of
mystical character, they represented the "Self Power" of Naturalism as
well as the spirit groups of Animism.

The theorizing priests, who speculated regarding the mysteries of life
and death and the origin of all things, had to address the people
through the medium of popular beliefs. They utilized floating myths
for this purpose. As there were in early times various centres of
culture which had rival pantheons, the adapted myths varied greatly.
In the different forms in which they survive to us they reflect, not
only aspects of local beliefs, but also grades of culture at different
periods. We must not expect, however, to find that the latest form of
a myth was the highest and most profound. The history of Babylonian
religion is divided into periods of growth and periods of decadence.
The influence of domestic religion was invariably opposed to the new
and high doctrines which emanated from the priesthood, and in times of
political upheaval tended to submerge them in the debris of immemorial
beliefs and customs. The retrogressive tendencies of the masses were
invariably reinforced by the periodic invasions of aliens who had no
respect for official deities and temple creeds.

We must avoid insisting too strongly on the application of the
evolution theory to the religious phenomena of a country like
Babylonia.

The epochs in the intellectual life of an ancient people are not
comparable to geological epochs, for instance, because the forces at
work were directed by human wills, whether in the interests of
progress or otherwise. The battle of creeds has ever been a battle of
minds. It should be recognized, therefore, that the human element
bulks as prominently in the drama of Babylon's religious history as
does the prince of Denmark in the play of _Hamlet_. We are not
concerned with the plot alone. The characters must also receive
attention. Their aspirations and triumphs, their prejudices and
blunders, were the billowy forces which shaped the shoreland of the
story and made history.

Various aspects of Babylonian life and culture are dealt with
throughout this volume, and it is shown that the growth of science and
art was stimulated by unwholesome and crude superstitions. Many rank
weeds flourished beside the brightest blossoms of the human intellect
that wooed the sun in that fertile valley of rivers. As in Egypt,
civilization made progress when wealth was accumulated in sufficient
abundance to permit of a leisured class devoting time to study and
research. The endowed priests, who performed temple ceremonies, were
the teachers of the people and the patrons of culture. We may think
little of their religious beliefs, regarding which after all we have
only a superficial knowledge, for we have yet discovered little more
than the fragments of the shell which held the pearl, the faded petals
that were once a rose, but we must recognize that they provided
inspiration for the artists and sculptors whose achievements compel
our wonder and admiration, moved statesmen to inaugurate and
administer humanitarian laws, and exalted Right above Might.

These civilizations of the old world, among which the Mesopotamian and
the Nilotic were the earliest, were built on no unsound foundations.
They made possible "the glory that was Greece and the grandeur that
was Rome", and it is only within recent years that we have begun to
realize how incalculable is the debt which the modern world owes to
them.




CHAPTER I.

THE RACES AND EARLY CIVILIZATION OF BABYLONIA


  Prehistoric Babylonia--The Confederacies of Sumer and
  Akkad--Sumerian Racial Affinities--Theories of Mongolian and
  Ural-Altaic Origins--Evidence of Russian Turkestan--Beginnings of
  Agriculture--Remarkable Proofs from Prehistoric Egyptian
  Graves--Sumerians and the Mediterranean Race--Present-day Types in
  Western Asia--The Evidence of Crania--Origin of the Akkadians--The
  Semitic Blend--Races in Ancient Palestine--Southward Drift of
  Armenoid Peoples--The Rephaims of the Bible--Akkadians attain
  Political Supremacy in Northern Babylonia--Influence of Sumerian
  Culture--Beginnings of Civilization--Progress in the Neolithic
  Age--Position of Women in Early Communities--Their Legal Status in
  Ancient Babylonia--Influence in Social and Religious Life--The
  "Woman's Language"--Goddess who inspired Poets.


Before the dawn of the historical period Ancient Babylonia was
divided into a number of independent city states similar to those
which existed in pre-Dynastic Egypt. Ultimately these were grouped
into loose confederacies. The northern cities were embraced in the
territory known as Akkad, and the southern in the land of Sumer, or
Shumer. This division had a racial as well as a geographical
significance. The Akkadians were "late comers" who had achieved
political ascendency in the north when the area they occupied was
called Uri, or Kiuri, and Sumer was known as Kengi. They were a people
of Semitic speech with pronounced Semitic affinities. From the
earliest times the sculptors depicted them with abundant locks, long
full beards, and the prominent distinctive noses and full lips, which
we usually associate with the characteristic Jewish type, and also
attired in long, flounced robes, suspended from their left shoulders,
and reaching down to their ankles. In contrast, the Sumerians had
clean-shaven faces and scalps, and noses of Egyptian and Grecian
rather than Semitic type, while they wore short, pleated kilts, and
went about with the upper part of their bodies quite bare like the
Egyptian noblemen of the Old Kingdom period. They spoke a non-Semitic
language, and were the oldest inhabitants of Babylonia of whom we have
any knowledge. Sumerian civilization was rooted in the agricultural
mode of life, and appears to have been well developed before the
Semites became numerous and influential in the land. Cities had been
built chiefly of sun-dried and fire-baked bricks; distinctive pottery
was manufactured with much skill; the people were governed by
humanitarian laws, which formed the nucleus of the Hammurabi code, and
had in use a system of cuneiform writing which was still in process of
development from earlier pictorial characters. The distinctive feature
of their agricultural methods was the engineering skill which was
displayed in extending the cultivatable area by the construction of
irrigating canals and ditches. There are also indications that they
possessed some knowledge of navigation and traded on the Persian Gulf.
According to one of their own traditions Eridu, originally a seaport,
was their racial cradle. The Semitic Akkadians adopted the distinctive
culture of these Sumerians after settlement, and exercised an
influence on its subsequent growth.

Much controversy has been waged regarding the original home of the
Sumerians and the particular racial type which they represented. One
theory connects them with the lank-haired and beardless Mongolians,
and it is asserted on the evidence afforded by early sculptural
reliefs that they were similarly oblique-eyed. As they also spoke an
agglutinative language, it is suggested that they were descended from
the same parent stock as the Chinese in an ancient Parthian homeland.
If, however, the oblique eye was not the result of faulty and
primitive art, it is evident that the Mongolian type, which is
invariably found to be remarkably persistent in racial blends, did not
survive in the Tigris and Euphrates valleys, for in the finer and more
exact sculpture work of the later Sumerian period the eyes of the
ruling classes are found to be similar to those of the Ancient
Egyptians and southern Europeans. Other facial characteristics suggest
that a Mongolian racial connection is highly improbable; the prominent
Sumerian nose, for instance, is quite unlike the Chinese, which is
diminutive. Nor can far-reaching conclusions be drawn from the scanty
linguistic evidence at our disposal. Although the languages of the
Sumerians and long-headed Chinese are of the agglutinative variety, so
are those also which are spoken by the broad-headed Turks and Magyars
of Hungary, the broad-headed and long-headed, dark and fair Finns, and
the brunet and short-statured Basques with pear-shaped faces, who are
regarded as a variation of the Mediterranean race with distinctive
characteristics developed in isolation. Languages afford no sure
indication of racial origins or affinities.

Another theory connects the Sumerians with the broad-headed peoples of
the Western Asian plains and plateaus, who are vaguely grouped as
Ural-Altaic stock and are represented by the present-day Turks and the
dark variety of Finns. It is assumed that they migrated southward in
remote times in consequence of tribal pressure caused by changing
climatic conditions, and abandoned a purely pastoral for an
agricultural life. The late Sumerian sculpture work again presents
difficulties in this connection, for the faces and bulging occiputs
suggest rather a long-headed than a broad-headed type, and the theory
no longer obtains that new habits of life alter skull forms which are
usually associated with other distinctive traits in the structure of
skeletons. These broad-headed nomadic peoples of the Steppes are
allied to Tatar stock, and distinguished from the pure Mongols by
their abundance of wavy hair and beard. The fact that the Sumerians
shaved their scalps and faces is highly suggestive in this connection.
From the earliest times it has been the habit of most peoples to
emphasize their racial characteristics so as to be able, one may
suggest, to distinguish readily a friend from a foeman. At any rate
this fact is generally recognized by ethnologists. The Basques, for
instance, shave their pointed chins and sometimes grow short side
whiskers to increase the distinctive pear-shape which is given to
their faces by their prominent temples. In contrast, their neighbours,
the Andalusians, grow chin whiskers to broaden their already rounded
chins, and to distinguish them markedly from the Basques.[12] Another
example of similar character is afforded in Asia Minor, where the
skulls of the children of long-headed Kurds are narrowed, and those of
the children of broad-headed Armenians made flatter behind as a result
of systematic pressure applied by using cradle boards. In this way
these rival peoples accentuate their contrasting head forms, which at
times may, no doubt, show a tendency towards variation as a result of
the crossment of types. When it is found, therefore, that the
Sumerians, like the Ancient Egyptians, were in the habit of shaving,
their ethnic affinities should be looked for among a naturally
glabrous rather than a heavily-bearded people.

A Central Asiatic source for Sumerian culture has also been urged of
late with much circumstantial detail. It breaks quite fresh and
interesting ground. Recent scientific expeditions in Russian and
Chinese Turkestan have accumulated important archaeological data which
clearly establish that vast areas of desert country were at a remote
period most verdurous and fruitful, and thickly populated by organized
and apparently progressive communities. From these ancient centres of
civilization wholesale migrations must have been impelled from time to
time in consequence of the gradual encroachment of wind-distributed
sand and the increasing shortage of water. At Anau in Russian
Turkestan, where excavations were conducted by the Pumpelly
expedition, abundant traces were found of an archaic and forgotten
civilization reaching back to the Late Stone Age. The pottery is
decorated with geometric designs, and resembles somewhat other
Neolithic specimens found as far apart as Susa, the capital of ancient
Elam, on the borders of Babylonia, Boghaz Köi in Asia Minor, the seat
of Hittite administration, round the Black Sea to the north, and at
points in the southern regions of the Balkan Peninsula. It is
suggested that these various finds are scattered evidences of early
racial drifts from the Central Asian areas which were gradually being
rendered uninhabitable. Among the Copper Age artifacts at Anau are
clay votive statuettes resembling those which were used in Sumeria for
religious purposes. These, however, cannot be held to prove a racial
connection, but they are important in so far as they afford evidence
of early trade relations in a hitherto unsuspected direction, and the
long distances over which cultural influence extended before the dawn
of history. Further we cannot go. No inscriptions have yet been
discovered to render articulate this mysterious Central Asian
civilization, or to suggest the original source of early Sumerian
picture writing. Nor is it possible to confirm Mr. Pumpelly's view
that from the Anau district the Sumerians and Egyptians first obtained
barley and wheat, and some of their domesticated animals. If, as
Professor Elliot Smith believes, copper was first used by the Ancient
Egyptians, it may be, on the other hand, that a knowledge of this
metal reached Anau through Sumeria, and that the elements of the
earlier culture were derived from the same quarter by an indirect
route. The evidence obtainable in Egypt is of interest in this
connection. Large quantities of food have been taken from the stomachs
and intestines of sun-dried bodies which have lain in their
pre-Dynastic graves for over sixty centuries. This material has been
carefully examined, and has yielded, among other things, husks of
barley and millet, and fragments of mammalian bones, including those,
no doubt, of the domesticated sheep and goats and cattle painted on
the pottery.[13] It is therefore apparent that at an extremely remote
period a knowledge of agriculture extended throughout Egypt, and we
have no reason for supposing that it was not shared by the
contemporary inhabitants of Sumer.

The various theories which have been propounded regarding the outside
source of Sumerian culture are based on the assumption that it
commenced abruptly and full grown. Its rude beginnings cannot be
traced on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, but although no
specimens of the earliest form of picture writing have been recovered
from the ruins of Sumerian and Akkadian cities, neither have any been
found elsewhere. The possibility remains, therefore, that early
Babylonian culture was indigenous. "A great deal of ingenuity has been
displayed by many scholars", says Professor Elliot Smith, "with the
object of bringing these Sumerians from somewhere else as immigrants
into Sumer; but no reasons have been advanced to show that they had
not been settled at the head of the Persian Gulf for long generations
before they first appeared on the stage of history. The argument that
no early remains have been found is futile, not only because such a
country as Sumer is no more favourable to the preservation of such
evidence than is the Delta of the Nile, but also upon the more general
grounds that negative statements of this sort cannot be assigned a
positive evidence for an immigration."[14] This distinguished
ethnologist is frankly of opinion that the Sumerians were the
congeners of the pre-Dynastic Egyptians of the Mediterranean or Brown
race, the eastern branch of which reaches to India and the western to
the British Isles and Ireland. In the same ancient family are included
the Arabs, whose physical characteristics distinguish them from the
Semites of Jewish type.

Some light may be thrown on the Sumerian problem by giving
consideration to the present-day racial complexion of Western Asia.
The importance of evidence of this character has been emphasized
elsewhere. In Egypt, for instance, Dr. C.S. Myers has ascertained that
the modern peasants have skull forms which are identical with those of
their pre-Dynastic ancestors. Mr. Hawes has also demonstrated that the
ancient inhabitants of Crete are still represented on that famous
island. But even more remarkable is the fact that the distinctive
racial type which occupied the Palaeolithic caves of the Dordogne
valley in France continues to survive in their vicinity after an
interval of over twenty thousand years.[15] It is noteworthy,
therefore, to find that in south-western Asia at the present day one
particular racial type predominates over all others. Professor Ripley,
who summarizes a considerable mass of data in this connection, refers
to it as the "Iranian", and says: "It includes the Persians and Kurds,
possibly the Ossetes in the Caucasus, and farther to the east a large
number of Asiatic tribes, from the Afghans to the Hindus. These
peoples are all primarily long-headed and dark brunets. They incline
to slenderness of habit, although varying in stature according to
circumstances. In them we recognize at once undoubted congeners of our
Mediterranean race in Europe. The area of their extension runs off
into Africa, through the Egyptians, who are clearly of the same race.
Not only the modern peoples, but the Ancient Egyptians and the
Phoenicians also have been traced to the same source. By far the
largest portion of this part of Western Asia is inhabited by this
eastern branch of the Mediterranean race." The broad-headed type
"occurs sporadically among a few ethnic remnants in Syria and
Mesopotamia".[16] The exhaustive study of thousands of ancient crania
in London and Cambridge collections has shown that Mediterranean
peoples, having alien traits, the result of early admixture, were
distributed between Egypt and the Punjab.[17] Where blending took
place, the early type, apparently, continued to predominate; and it
appears to be reasserting itself in our own time in Western Asia, as
elsewhere. It seems doubtful, therefore, that the ancient Sumerians
differed racially from the pre-Dynastic inhabitants of Egypt and the
Pelasgians and Iberians of Europe. Indeed, the statuettes from Tello,
the site of the Sumerian city of Lagash, display distinctively
Mediterranean skull forms and faces. Some of the plump figures of the
later period suggest, however, "the particular alien strain" which in
Egypt and elsewhere "is always associated with a tendency to the
development of fat", in contrast to "the lean and sinewy appearance of
most representatives of the Brown race".[18] This change may be
accounted for by the presence of the Semites in northern Babylonia.

Whence, then, came these invading Semitic Akkadians of Jewish type? It
is generally agreed that they were closely associated with one of the
early outpourings of nomadic peoples from Arabia, a country which is
favourable for the production of a larger population than it is able
to maintain permanently, especially when its natural resources are
restricted by a succession of abnormally dry years. In tracing the
Akkadians from Arabia, however, we are confronted at the outset with
the difficulty that its prehistoric, and many of its present-day,
inhabitants are not of the characteristic Semitic type. On the Ancient
Egyptian pottery and monuments the Arabs are depicted as men who
closely resembled the representatives of the Mediterranean race in the
Nile valley and elsewhere. They shaved neither scalps nor faces as did
the historic Sumerians and Egyptians, but grew the slight moustache
and chin-tuft beard like the Libyans on the north and the majority of
the men whose bodies have been preserved in pre-Dynastic graves in the
Nile valley. "If", writes Professor Elliot Smith, "the generally
accepted view is true, that Arabia was the original home of the
Semites, the Arab must have undergone a profound change in his
physical characters after he left his homeland and before he reached
Babylonia." This authority is of opinion that the Arabians first
migrated into Palestine and northern Syria, where they mingled with
the southward-migrating Armenoid peoples from Asia Minor. "This blend
of Arabs, kinsmen of the proto-Egyptians and Armenoids, would then
form the big-nosed, long-bearded Semites, so familiar not only on the
ancient Babylonian and Egyptian monuments, but also in the modern
Jews."[19] Such a view is in accord with Dr. Hugo Winckler's
contention that the flow of Arabian migrations was northwards towards
Syria ere it swept through Mesopotamia. It can scarcely be supposed
that these invasions of settled districts did not result in the fusion
and crossment of racial types and the production of a sub-variety with
medium skull form and marked facial characteristics.

Of special interest in this connection is the evidence afforded by
Palestine and Egypt. The former country has ever been subject to
periodic ethnic disturbances and changes. Its racial history has a
remote beginning in the Pleistocene Age. Palaeolithic flints of
Chellean and other primitive types have been found in large numbers,
and a valuable collection of these is being preserved in a French
museum at Jerusalem. In a northern cave fragments of rude pottery,
belonging to an early period in the Late Stone Age, have been
discovered in association with the bones of the woolly rhinoceros. To
a later period belong the series of Gezer cave dwellings, which,
according to Professor Macalister, the well-known Palestinian
authority, "were occupied by a non-Semitic people of low stature, with
thick skulls and showing evidence of the great muscular strength that
is essential to savage life".[20] These people are generally supposed
to be representatives of the Mediterranean race, which Sergi has found
to have been widely distributed throughout Syria and a part of Asia
Minor.[21] An interesting problem, however, is raised by the fact
that, in one of the caves, there are evidences that the dead were
cremated. This was not a Mediterranean custom, nor does it appear to
have prevailed outside the Gezer area. If, however, it does not
indicate that the kinsmen of the Ancient Egyptians came into contact
with the remnants of an earlier people, it may be that the dead of a
later people were burned there. The possibility that unidentified
types may have contributed to the Semitic blend, however, remains. The
Mediterraneans mingled in Northern Syria and Asia Minor with the
broad-headed Armenoid peoples who are represented in Europe by the
Alpine race. With them they ultimately formed the great Hittite
confederacy. These Armenoids were moving southwards at the very dawn
of Egyptian history, and nothing is known of their conquests and
settlements. Their pioneers, who were probably traders, appear to have
begun to enter the Delta region before the close of the Late Stone
Age.[22] The earliest outpourings of migrating Arabians may have been
in progress about the same time. This early southward drift of
Armenoids might account for the presence in southern Palestine, early
in the Copper Age, of the tall race referred to in the Bible as the
Rephaim or Anakim, "whose power was broken only by the Hebrew
invaders".[23] Joshua drove them out of Hebron,[24] in the
neighbourhood of which Abraham had purchased a burial cave from
Ephron, the Hittite.[25] Apparently a system of land laws prevailed in
Palestine at this early period. It is of special interest for us to
note that in Abraham's day and afterwards, the landed proprietors in
the country of the Rephaim were identified with the aliens from Asia
Minor--the tall variety in the Hittite confederacy.

Little doubt need remain that the Arabians during their sojourn in
Palestine and Syria met with distinctive types, and if not with pure
Armenoids, at any rate with peoples having Armenoid traits. The
consequent multiplication of tribes, and the gradual pressure
exercised by the constant stream of immigrants from Arabia and Asia
Minor, must have kept this part of Western Asia in a constant state of
unrest. Fresh migrations of the surplus stock were evidently propelled
towards Egypt in one direction, and the valleys of the Tigris and
Euphrates in another. The Semites of Akkad were probably the
conquerors of the more highly civilized Sumerians, who must have
previously occupied that area. It is possible that they owed their
success to the possession of superior weapons. Professor Elliot Smith
suggests in this connection that the Arabians had become familiar with
the use of copper as a result of contact with the Egyptians in Sinai.
There is no evidence, however, that the Sumerians were attacked before
they had begun to make metal weapons. It is more probable that the
invading nomads had superior military organization and considerable
experience in waging war against detached tribal units. They may have
also found some of the northern Sumerian city states at war with one
another and taken advantage of their unpreparedness to resist a common
enemy. The rough Dorians who overran Greece and the fierce Goths who
shattered the power of Rome were similarly in a lower state of
civilization than the peoples whom they subdued.

The Sumerians, however, ultimately achieved an intellectual conquest
of their conquerors. Although the leaders of invasion may have formed
military aristocracies in the cities which they occupied, it was
necessary for the great majority of the nomads to engage their
activities in new directions after settlement. The Semitic Akkadians,
therefore, adopted Sumerian habits of life which were best suited for
the needs of the country, and they consequently came under the spell
of Sumerian modes of thought. This is shown by the fact that the
native speech of ancient Sumer continued long after the dawn of
history to be the language of Babylonian religion and culture, like
Latin in Europe during the Middle Ages. For centuries the mingling
peoples must have been bilingual, as are many of the inhabitants of
Ireland, Wales, and the Scottish Highlands in the present age, but
ultimately the language of the Semites became the prevailing speech in
Sumer and Akkad. This change was the direct result of the conquests
and the political supremacy achieved by the northern people. A
considerable period elapsed, however, ere this consummation was
reached and Ancient Babylonia became completely Semitized. No doubt
its brilliant historical civilization owed much of its vigour and
stability to the organizing genius of the Semites, but the basis on
which it was established had been laid by the ingenious and
imaginative Sumerians who first made the desert to blossom like the
rose.

The culture of Sumer was a product of the Late Stone Age, which should
not be regarded as necessarily an age of barbarism. During its vast
periods there were great discoveries and great inventions in various
parts of Asia, Africa, and Europe. The Neoliths made pottery and
bricks; we know that they invented the art of spinning, for
spindle-whorls are found even in the Gezer caves to which we have
referred, while in Egypt the pre-Dynastic dead were sometimes wrapped
in finely woven linen: their deftly chipped flint implements are
eloquent of artistic and mechanical skill, and undoubted mathematical
ability must be credited to the makers of smoothly polished stone
hammers which are so perfectly balanced that they revolve on a centre
of gravity. In Egypt and Babylonia the soil was tilled and its
fertility increased by irrigation. Wherever man waged a struggle with
Nature he made rapid progress, and consequently we find that the
earliest great civilizations were rooted in the little fields of the
Neolithic farmers. Their mode of life necessitated a knowledge of
Nature's laws; they had to take note of the seasons and measure time.
So Egypt gave us the Calendar, and Babylonia the system of dividing
the week into seven days, and the day into twelve double hours.

The agricultural life permitted large communities to live in river
valleys, and these had to be governed by codes of laws; settled
communities required peace and order for their progress and
prosperity. All great civilizations have evolved from the habits and
experiences of settled communities. Law and religion were closely
associated, and the evidence afforded by the remains of stone circles
and temples suggests that in the organization and division of labour
the influence of religious teachers was pre-eminent. Early rulers,
indeed, were priest-kings--incarnations of the deity who owned the
land and measured out the span of human life.

We need not assume that Neolithic man led an idyllic existence; his
triumphs were achieved by slow and gradual steps; his legal codes
were, no doubt, written in blood and his institutions welded in the
fires of adversity. But, disciplined by laws, which fostered
humanitarian ideals, Neolithic man, especially of the Mediterranean
race, had reached a comparatively high state of civilization long ages
before the earliest traces of his activities can be obtained. When
this type of mankind is portrayed in Ancient Sumeria, Ancient Egypt,
and Ancient Crete we find that the faces are refined and intellectual
and often quite modern in aspect. The skulls show that in the Late
Stone Age the human brain was fully developed and that the racial
types were fixed. In every country in Europe we still find the direct
descendants of the ancient Mediterranean race, as well as the
descendants of the less highly cultured conquerors who swept westward
out of Asia at the dawn of the Bronze Age; and everywhere there are
evidences of crossment of types in varying degrees. Even the influence
of Neolithic intellectual life still remains. The comparative study of
mythology and folk beliefs reveals that we have inherited certain
modes of thought from our remote ancestors, who were the congeners of
the Ancient Sumerians and the Ancient Egyptians. In this connection it
is of interest, therefore, to refer to the social ideals of the early
peoples who met and mingled on the southern plains of the Tigris and
Euphrates, and especially the position occupied by women, which is
engaging so much attention at the present day.

It would appear that among the Semites and other nomadic peoples woman
was regarded as the helpmate rather than the companion and equal of
man. The birth of a son was hailed with joy; it was "miserable to have
a daughter", as a Hindu sage reflected; in various countries it was
the custom to expose female children after birth and leave them to
die. A wife had no rights other than those accorded to her by her
husband, who exercised over her the power of life and death. Sons
inherited family possessions; the daughters had no share allotted to
them, and could be sold by fathers and brothers. Among the peoples who
observed "male right", social life was reflected in the conception of
controlling male deities, accompanied by shadowy goddesses who were
often little else than figures of speech.

The Ancient Sumerians, on the other hand, like the Mediterranean
peoples of Egypt and Crete, reverenced and exalted motherhood in
social and religious life. Women were accorded a legal status and
marriage laws were promulgated by the State. Wives could possess
private property in their own right, as did the Babylonian Sarah, wife
of Abraham, who owned the Egyptian slave Hagar.[26] A woman received
from her parents a marriage dowry, and in the event of separation from
her husband she could claim its full value. Some spinsters, or wives,
were accustomed to enter into business partnerships with men or
members of their own sex, and could sue and be sued in courts of law.
Brothers and sisters were joint heirs of the family estate. Daughters
might possess property over which their fathers exercised no control:
they could also enter into legal agreements with their parents in
business matters, when they had attained to years of discretion. Young
women who took vows of celibacy and lived in religious institutions
could yet make business investments, as surviving records show. There
is only one instance of a Sumerian woman ascending the throne, like
Queen Hatshepsut of Egypt. Women, therefore, were not rigidly excluded
from official life. Dungi II, an early Sumerian king, appointed two of
his daughters as rulers of conquered cities in Syria and Elam.
Similarly Shishak, the Egyptian Pharaoh, handed over the city of
Gezer, which he had subdued, to his daughter, Solomon's wife.[27] In
the religious life of ancient Sumeria the female population exercised
an undoubted influence, and in certain temples there were priestesses.
The oldest hymns give indication of the respect shown to women by
making reference to mixed assemblies as "females and males", just as
present-day orators address themselves to "ladies and gentlemen". In
the later Semitic adaptations of these productions, it is significant
to note, this conventional reference was altered to "male and female".
If influences, however, were at work to restrict the position of women
they did not meet with much success, because when Hammurabi codified
existing laws, the ancient rights of women received marked
recognition.

There were two dialects in ancient Sumeria, and the invocatory hymns
were composed in what was known as "the women's language". It must not
be inferred, however, that the ladies of Sumeria had established a
speech which differed from that used by men. The reference would
appear to be to a softer and homelier dialect, perhaps the oldest of
the two, in which poetic emotion found fullest and most beautiful
expression. In these ancient days, as in our own, the ideal of
womanhood was the poet's chief source of inspiration, and among the
hymns the highest reach of poetic art was attained in the invocation
of Ishtar, the Babylonian Venus. The following hymn is addressed to
that deity in her Valkyrie-like character as a goddess of war, but her
more feminine traits are not obscured:--

    HYMN TO ISHTAR

    To thee I cry, O lady of the gods,
    Lady of ladies, goddess without peer,
    Ishtar who shapes the lives of all mankind,
    Thou stately world queen, sovran of the sky,
    And lady ruler of the host of heaven--
    Illustrious is thy name... O light divine,
    Gleaming in lofty splendour o'er the earth--
    Heroic daughter of the moon, oh! hear;
    Thou dost control our weapons and award
    In battles fierce the victory at will--
    crown'd majestic Fate. Ishtar most high,
    Who art exalted over all the gods,
    Thou bringest lamentation; thou dost urge
    With hostile hearts our brethren to the fray;
    The gift of strength is thine for thou art strong;
    Thy will is urgent, brooking no delay;
    Thy hand is violent, thou queen of war
    Girded with battle and enrobed with fear...
    Thou sovran wielder of the wand of Doom,
    The heavens and earth are under thy control.

    Adored art thou in every sacred place,
    In temples, holy dwellings, and in shrines,
    Where is thy name not lauded? where thy will
    Unheeded, and thine images not made?
    Where are thy temples not upreared? O, where
    Art thou not mighty, peerless, and supreme?

    Anu and Bel and Ea have thee raised
    To rank supreme, in majesty and pow'r,
    They have established thee above the gods
    And all the host of heaven... O stately queen,
    At thought of thee the world is filled with fear,
    The gods in heaven quake, and on the earth
    All spirits pause, and all mankind bow down
    With reverence for thy name... O Lady Judge,

    Thy ways are just and holy; thou dost gaze
    On sinners with compassion, and each morn
    Leadest the wayward to the rightful path.

    Now linger not, but come! O goddess fair,
    O shepherdess of all, thou drawest nigh
    With feet unwearied... Thou dost break the bonds
    Of these thy handmaids... When thou stoopest o'er
    The dying with compassion, lo! they live;
    And when the sick behold thee they are healed.

    Hear me, thy servant! hearken to my pray'r,
    For I am full of sorrow and I sigh
    In sore distress; weeping, on thee I wait.
    Be merciful, my lady, pity take
    And answer, "'Tis enough and be appeased ".

    How long must my heart sorrow and make moan
    And restless be? How long must my dark home
    Be filled with mourning and my soul with grief?
    O lioness of heaven, bring me peace
    And rest and comfort. Hearken to my pray'r!
    Is anger pity? May thine eyes look down
    With tenderness and blessings, and behold
    Thy servant. Oh! have mercy; hear my cry
    And unbewitch me from the evil spells,
    That I may see thy glory... Oh! how long
    Shall these my foes pursue me, working ill,
    And robbing me of joy?... Oh! how long
    Shall demons compass me about and cause
    Affliction without end?... I thee adore--
    The gift of strength is thine and thou art strong--
    The weakly are made strong, yet I am weak...
    O hear me! I am glutted with my grief--
    This flood of grief by evil winds distressed;
    My heart hath fled me like a bird on wings,
    And like the dove I moan. Tears from mine eyes
    Are falling as the rain from heaven falls,
    And I am destitute and full of woe.

           *       *       *       *       *

    What have I done that thou hast turned from me?
    Have I neglected homage to my god
    And thee my goddess? O deliver me
    And all my sins forgive, that I may share
    Thy love and be watched over in thy fold;
    And may thy fold be wide, thy pen secure.

           *       *       *       *       *

    How long wilt thou be angry? Hear my cry,
    And turn again to prosper all my ways--
    O may thy wrath be crumbled and withdrawn
    As by a crumbling stream. Then smite my foes,
    And take away their power to work me ill,
    That I may crush them. Hearken to my pray'r!
    And bless me so that all who me behold
    May laud thee and may magnify thy name,
    While I exalt thy power over all--
    Ishtar is highest! Ishtar is the queen!
    Ishtar the peerless daughter of the moon!




CHAPTER II.

THE LAND OF RIVERS AND THE GOD OF THE DEEP


  Fertility of Ancient Babylonia--Rivers, Canals, Seasons, and
  Climate--Early Trade and Foreign Influences--Local Religious
  Cults--Ea, God of the Deep, identical with Oannes of Berosus--Origin
  as a Sacred Fish--Compared with Brahma and Vishnu--Flood Legends in
  Babylonia and India--Fish Deities in Babylonia and Egypt--Fish God
  as a Corn God--The River as Creator--Ea an Artisan God, and links
  with Egypt and India--Ea as the Hebrew Jah--Ea and Varuna are Water
  and Sky Gods--The Babylonian Dagan and Dagon of the
  Philistines--Deities of Water and Harvest in Phoenicia, Greece,
  Rome, Scotland, Scandinavia, Ireland, and Egypt--Ea's Spouse
  Damkina--Demons of Ocean in Babylonia and India--Anu, God of the
  Sky--Enlil, Storm and War God of Nippur, like Adad, Odin, &c.--Early
  Gods of Babylonia and Egypt of common origin--Ea's City as Cradle of
  Sumerian Civilization.


Ancient Babylonia was for over four thousand years the garden of
Western Asia. In the days of Hezekiah and Isaiah, when it had come
under the sway of the younger civilization of Assyria on the north, it
was "a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of
oil olive and of honey[28]". Herodotus found it still flourishing and
extremely fertile. "This territory", he wrote, "is of all that we know
the best by far for producing grain; it is so good that it returns as
much as two hundredfold for the average, and, when it bears at its
best, it produces three hundredfold. The blades of the wheat and
barley there grow to be full four fingers broad; and from millet and
sesame seed, how large a tree grows, I know myself, but shall not
record, being well aware that even what has already been said relating
to the crops produced has been enough to cause disbelief in those who
have not visited Babylonia[29]." To-day great tracts of undulating
moorland, which aforetime yielded two and three crops a year, are in
summer partly barren wastes and partly jungle and reedy swamp.
Bedouins camp beside sandy heaps which were once populous and thriving
cities, and here and there the shrunken remnants of a people once
great and influential eke out precarious livings under the oppression
of Turkish tax-gatherers who are scarcely less considerate than the
plundering nomads of the desert.

This historic country is bounded on the east by Persia and on the west
by the Arabian desert. In shape somewhat resembling a fish, it lies
between the two great rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, 100 miles
wide at its broadest part, and narrowing to 35 miles towards the
"tail" in the latitude of Baghdad; the "head" converges to a point
above Basra, where the rivers meet and form the Shatt-el-Arab, which
pours into the Persian Gulf after meeting the Karun and drawing away
the main volume of that double-mouthed river. The distance from
Baghdad to Basra is about 300 miles, and the area traversed by the
Shatt-el-Arab is slowly extending at the rate of a mile every thirty
years or so, as a result of the steady accumulation of silt and mud
carried down by the Tigris and Euphrates. When Sumeria was beginning
to flourish, these two rivers had separate outlets, and Eridu, the
seat of the cult of the sea god Ea, which now lies 125 miles inland,
was a seaport at the head of the Persian Gulf. A day's journey
separated the river mouths when Alexander the Great broke the power of
the Persian Empire.

In the days of Babylonia's prosperity the Euphrates was hailed as "the
soul of the land" and the Tigris as "the bestower of blessings".
Skilful engineers had solved the problem of water distribution by
irrigating sun-parched areas and preventing the excessive flooding of
those districts which are now rendered impassable swamps when the
rivers overflow. A network of canals was constructed throughout the
country, which restricted the destructive tendencies of the Tigris and
Euphrates and developed to a high degree their potentialities as
fertilizing agencies. The greatest of these canals appear to have been
anciently river beds. One, which is called Shatt en Nil to the north,
and Shatt el Kar to the south, curved eastward from Babylon, and
sweeping past Nippur, flowed like the letter S towards Larsa and then
rejoined the river. It is believed to mark the course followed in the
early Sumerian period by the Euphrates river, which has moved steadily
westward many miles beyond the sites of ancient cities that were
erected on its banks. Another important canal, the Shatt el Hai,
crossed the plain from the Tigris to its sister river, which lies
lower at this point, and does not run so fast. Where the artificial
canals were constructed on higher levels than the streams which fed
them, the water was raised by contrivances known as "shaddufs"; the
buckets or skin bags were roped to a weighted beam, with the aid of
which they were swung up by workmen and emptied into the canals. It is
possible that this toilsome mode of irrigation was substituted in
favourable parts by the primitive water wheels which are used in our
own day by the inhabitants of the country who cultivate strips of land
along the river banks.

In Babylonia there are two seasons--the rainy and the dry. Rain falls
from November till March, and the plain is carpeted in spring by
patches of vivid green verdure and brilliant wild flowers. Then the
period of drought ensues; the sun rapidly burns up all vegetation, and
everywhere the eye is wearied by long stretches of brown and yellow
desert. Occasional sandstorms darken the heavens, sweeping over
sterile wastes and piling up the shapeless mounds which mark the sites
of ancient cities. Meanwhile the rivers are increasing in volume,
being fed by the melting snows at their mountain sources far to the
north. The swift Tigris, which is 1146 miles long, begins to rise
early in March and reaches its highest level in May; before the end of
June it again subsides. More sluggish in movement, the Euphrates,
which is 1780 miles long, shows signs of rising a fortnight later than
the Tigris, and is in flood for a more extended period; it does not
shrink to its lowest level until early in September. By controlling
the flow of these mighty rivers, preventing disastrous floods, and
storing and distributing surplus water, the ancient Babylonians
developed to the full the natural resources of their country, and made
it--what it may once again become--one of the fairest and most
habitable areas in the world. Nature conferred upon them bountiful
rewards for their labour; trade and industries flourished, and the
cities increased in splendour and strength. Then as now the heat was
great during the long summer, but remarkably dry and unvarying, while
the air was ever wonderfully transparent under cloudless skies of
vivid blue. The nights were cool and of great beauty, whether in
brilliant moonlight or when ponds and canals were jewelled by the
lustrous displays of clear and numerous stars which glorified that
homeland of the earliest astronomers.

Babylonia is a treeless country, and timber had to be imported from
the earliest times. The date palm was probably introduced by man, as
were certainly the vine and the fig tree, which were widely
cultivated, especially in the north. Stone, suitable for building, was
very scarce, and limestone, alabaster, marble, and basalt had to be
taken from northern Mesopotamia, where the mountains also yield copper
and lead and iron. Except Eridu, where ancient workers quarried
sandstone from its sea-shaped ridge, all the cities were built of
brick, an excellent clay being found in abundance. When brick walls
were cemented with bitumen they were given great stability. This
resinous substance is found in the north and south. It bubbles up
through crevices of rocks on river banks and forms small ponds. Two
famous springs at modern Hit, on the Euphrates, have been drawn upon
from time immemorial. "From one", writes a traveller, "flows hot water
black with bitumen, while the other discharges intermittently bitumen,
or, after a rainstorm, bitumen and cold water.... Where rocks crop out
in the plain above Hit, they are full of seams of bitumen."[30]
Present-day Arabs call it "kiyara", and export it for coating boats
and roofs; they also use it as an antiseptic, and apply it to cure the
skin diseases from which camels suffer.

Sumeria had many surplus products, including corn and figs, pottery,
fine wool and woven garments, to offer in exchange for what it most
required from other countries. It must, therefore, have had a brisk
and flourishing foreign trade at an exceedingly remote period. No
doubt numerous alien merchants were attracted to its cities, and it
may be that they induced or encouraged Semitic and other raiders to
overthrow governments and form military aristocracies, so that they
themselves might obtain necessary concessions and achieve a degree of
political ascendancy. It does not follow, however, that the peasant
class was greatly affected by periodic revolutions of this kind, which
brought little more to them than a change of rulers. The needs of the
country necessitated the continuance of agricultural methods and the
rigid observance of existing land laws; indeed, these constituted the
basis of Sumerian prosperity. Conquerors have ever sought reward not
merely in spoil, but also the services of the conquered. In northern
Babylonia the invaders apparently found it necessary to conciliate and
secure the continued allegiance of the tillers of the soil. Law and
religion being closely associated, they had to adapt their gods to
suit the requirements of existing social and political organizations.
A deity of pastoral nomads had to receive attributes which would give
him an agricultural significance; one of rural character had to be
changed to respond to the various calls of city life. Besides, local
gods could not be ignored on account of their popularity. As a result,
imported beliefs and religious customs must have been fused and
absorbed according to their bearing on modes of life in various
localities. It is probable that the complex character of certain
deities was due to the process of adjustment to which they were
subjected in new environments.

The petty kingdoms of Sumeria appear to have been tribal in origin.
Each city was presided over by a deity who was the nominal owner of
the surrounding arable land, farms were rented or purchased from the
priesthood, and pasture was held in common. As in Egypt, where we
find, for instance, the artisan god Ptah supreme at Memphis, the sun
god Ra at Heliopolis, and the cat goddess Bast at Bubastis, the
various local Sumerian and Akkadian deities had distinctive
characteristics, and similarly showed a tendency to absorb the
attributes of their rivals. The chief deity of a state was the central
figure in a pantheon, which had its political aspect and influenced
the growth of local theology. Cities, however, did not, as a rule,
bear the names of deities, which suggests that several were founded
when Sumerian religion was in its early animistic stages, and gods and
goddesses were not sharply defined from the various spirit groups.

A distinctive and characteristic Sumerian god was Ea, who was supreme
at the ancient sea-deserted port of Eridu. He is identified with the
Oannes of Berosus,[31] who referred to the deity as "a creature
endowed with reason, with a body like that of a fish, with feet below
like those of a man, with a fish's tail". This description recalls the
familiar figures of Egyptian gods and priests attired in the skins of
the sacred animals from whom their powers were derived, and the fairy
lore about swan maids and men, and the seals and other animals who
could divest themselves of their "skin coverings" and appear in human
shape. Originally Ea may have been a sacred fish. The Indian creative
gods Brahma and Vishnu had fish forms. In Sanskrit literature Manu,
the eponymous "first man", is instructed by the fish to build a ship
in which to save himself when the world would be purged by the rising
waters. Ea befriended in similar manner the Babylonian Noah, called
Pir-napishtim, advising him to build a vessel so as to be prepared for
the approaching Deluge. Indeed the Indian legend appears to throw
light on the original Sumerian conception of Ea. It relates that when
the fish was small and in danger of being swallowed by other fish in a
stream it appealed to Manu for protection. The sage at once lifted up
the fish and placed it in a jar of water. It gradually increased in
bulk, and he transferred it next to a tank and then to the river
Ganges. In time the fish complained to Manu that the river was too
small for it, so he carried it to the sea. For these services the god
in fish form instructed Manu regarding the approaching flood, and
afterwards piloted his ship through the weltering waters until it
rested on a mountain top.[32]

If this Indian myth is of Babylonian origin, as appears probable, it
may be that the spirit of the river Euphrates, "the soul of the land",
was identified with a migrating fish. The growth of the fish suggests
the growth of the river rising in flood. In Celtic folk tales high
tides and valley floods are accounted for by the presence of a "great
beast" in sea, loch, or river. In a class of legends, "specially
connected with the worship of Atargatis", wrote Professor Robertson
Smith, "the divine life of the waters resides in the sacred fish that
inhabit them. Atargatis and her son, according to a legend common to
Hierapolis and Ascalon, plunged into the waters--in the first case the
Euphrates, in the second the sacred pool at the temple near the
town--and were changed into fishes". The idea is that "where a god
dies, that is, ceases to exist in human form, his life passes into the
waters where he is buried; and this again is merely a theory to bring
the divine water or the divine fish into harmony with anthropomorphic
ideas. The same thing was sometimes effected in another way by saying
that the anthropomorphic deity was born from the water, as Aphrodite
sprang from sea foam, or as Atargatis, in another form of the
Euphrates legend, ... was born of an egg which the sacred fishes found
in the Euphrates and pushed ashore."[33]

As "Shar Apsi", Ea was the "King of the Watery Deep". The reference,
however, according to Jastrow, "is not to the salt ocean, but the
sweet waters flowing under the earth which feed the streams, and
through streams and canals irrigate the fields".[34] As Babylonia was
fertilized by its rivers, Ea, the fish god, was a fertilizing deity.
In Egypt the "Mother of Mendes" is depicted carrying a fish upon her
head; she links with Isis and Hathor; her husband is Ba-neb-Tettu, a
form of Ptah, Osiris, and Ra, and as a god of fertility he is
symbolized by the ram. Another Egyptian fish deity was the god Rem,
whose name signifies "to weep"; he wept fertilizing tears, and corn
was sown and reaped amidst lamentations. He may be identical with
Remi, who was a phase of Sebek, the crocodile god, a developed
attribute of Nu, the vague primitive Egyptian deity who symbolized the
primordial deep. The connection between a fish god and a corn god is
not necessarily remote when we consider that in Babylonia and Egypt
the harvest was the gift of the rivers.

The Euphrates, indeed, was hailed as a creator of all that grew on its
banks.

    O thou River who didst create all things,
    When the great gods dug thee out,
    They set prosperity upon thy banks,
    Within thee Ea, the King of the Deep, created his dwelling...
    Thou judgest the cause of mankind!
    O River, thou art mighty! O River, thou art supreme!
    O River, thou art righteous![35]

In serving Ea, the embodiment or the water spirit, by leading him, as
the Indian Manu led the Creator and "Preserver" in fish form, from
river to water pot, water pot to pond or canal, and then again to
river and ocean, the Babylonians became expert engineers and
experienced agriculturists, the makers of bricks, the builders of
cities, the framers of laws. Indeed, their civilization was a growth
of Ea worship. Ea was their instructor. Berosus states that, as
Oannes, he lived in the Persian Gulf, and every day came ashore to
instruct the inhabitants of Eridu how to make canals, to grow crops,
to work metals, to make pottery and bricks, and to build temples; he
was the artisan god--Nun-ura, "god of the potter"; Kuski-banda, "god
of goldsmiths", &c.--the divine patron of the arts and crafts. "Ea
knoweth everything", chanted the hymn maker. He taught the people how
to form and use alphabetic signs and instructed them in mathematics:
he gave them their code of laws. Like the Egyptian artisan god Ptah,
and the linking deity Khnumu, Ea was the "potter or moulder of gods
and man". Ptah moulded the first man on his potter's wheel: he also
moulded the sun and moon; he shaped the universe and hammered out the
copper sky. Ea built the world "as an architect builds a house".[36]
Similarly the Vedic Indra, who wielded a hammer like Ptah, fashioned
the universe after the simple manner in which the Aryans made their
wooden dwellings.[37]

Like Ptah, Ea also developed from an artisan god into a sublime
Creator in the highest sense, not merely as a producer of crops. His
word became the creative force; he named those things he desired to
be, and they came into existence. "Who but Ea creates things",
exclaimed a priestly poet. This change from artisan god to creator
(Nudimmud) may have been due to the tendency of early religious cults
to attach to their chief god the attributes of rivals exalted at other
centres.

Ea, whose name is also rendered Aa, was identified with Ya, Ya'u, or
Au, the Jah of the Hebrews. "In Ya-Daganu, 'Jah is Dagon'", writes
Professor Pinches, "we have the elements reversed, showing a wish to
identify Jah with Dagon, rather than Dagon with Jah; whilst another
interesting name, Au-Aa, shows an identification of Jah with Aa, two
names which have every appearance of being etymologically connected."
Jah's name "is one of the words for 'god' in the Assyro-Babylonian
language".[38]

Ea was "Enki", "lord of the world", or "lord of what is beneath";
Amma-ana-ki, "lord of heaven and earth"; Sa-kalama, "ruler of the
land", as well as Engur, "god of the abyss", Naqbu, "the deep", and
Lugal-ida, "king of the river". As rain fell from "the waters above
the firmament", the god of waters was also a sky and earth god.

The Indian Varuna was similarly a sky as well as an ocean god before
the theorizing and systematizing Brahmanic teachers relegated him to a
permanent abode at the bottom of the sea. It may be that Ea-Oannes and
Varuna were of common origin.

Another Babylonian deity, named Dagan, is believed to be identical
with Ea. His worship was certainly of great antiquity. "Hammurabi",
writes Professor Pinches, "seems to speak of the Euphrates as being
'the boundary of Dagan'," whom he calls his creator. In later
inscriptions the form Daguna, which approaches nearer to the West
Semitic form (Dagon of the Philistines), is found in a few personal
names.[39]

It is possible that the Philistine deity Dagon was a specialized form
of ancient Ea, who was either imported from Babylonia or was a sea god
of more than one branch of the Mediterranean race. The authorities are
at variance regarding the form and attributes of Dagan. Our knowledge
regarding him is derived mainly from the Bible. He was a national
rather than a city god. There are references to a Beth-dagon[40],
"house or city of Dagon"; he had also a temple at Gaza, and Samson
destroyed it by pulling down the two middle pillars which were its
main support.[41] A third temple was situated in Ashdod. When the
captured ark of the Israelites was placed in it the image of Dagon
"fell on his face", with the result that "the head of Dagon and both
the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold; only the stump
of Dagon was left".[42] A further reference to "the threshold of
Dagon" suggests that the god had feet like Ea-Oannes. Those who hold
that Dagon had a fish form derive his name from the Semitic "dag = a
fish", and suggest that after the idol fell only the fishy part (dāgo)
was left. On the other hand, it was argued that Dagon was a corn god,
and that the resemblance between the words Dagan and Dagon are
accidental. Professor Sayce makes reference in this connection to a
crystal seal from Phoenicia in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, bearing
an inscription which he reads as Baal-dagon. Near the name is an ear
of corn, and other symbols, such as the winged solar disc, a gazelle,
and several stars, but there is no fish. It may be, of course, that
Baal-dagon represents a fusion of deities. As we have seen in the case
of Ea-Oannes and the deities of Mendes, a fish god may also be a corn
god, a land animal god and a god of ocean and the sky. The offering of
golden mice representing "your mice that mar the land",[43] made by
the Philistines, suggests that Dagon was the fertilizing harvest god,
among other things, whose usefulness had been impaired, as they
believed, by the mistake committed of placing the ark of Israel in the
temple at Ashdod. The Philistines came from Crete, and if their Dagon
was imported from that island, he may have had some connection with
Poseidon, whose worship extended throughout Greece. This god of the
sea, who is somewhat like the Roman Neptune, carried a lightning
trident and caused earthquakes. He was a brother of Zeus, the sky and
atmosphere deity, and had bull and horse forms. As a horse he pursued
Demeter, the earth and corn goddess, and, like Ea, he instructed
mankind, but especially in the art of training horses. In his train
were the Tritons, half men, half fishes, and the water fairies, the
Nereids. Bulls, boars, and rams were offered to this sea god of
fertility. Amphitrite was his spouse.

An obscure god Shony, the Oannes of the Scottish Hebrides, received
oblations from those who depended for their agricultural prosperity on
his gifts of fertilizing seaweed. He is referred to in Martin's
_Western Isles_, and is not yet forgotten. The Eddic sea god Njord of
Noatun was the father of Frey, the harvest god. Dagda, the Irish corn
god, had for wife Boann, the goddess of the river Boyne. Osiris and
Isis of Egypt were associated with the Nile. The connection between
agriculture and the water supply was too obvious to escape the early
symbolists, and many other proofs of this than those referred to could
be given.

Ea's "faithful spouse" was the goddess Damkina, who was also called
Nin-ki, "lady of the earth". "May Ea make thee glad", chanted the
priests. "May Damkina, queen of the deep, illumine thee with her
countenance; may Merodach (Marduk), the mighty overseer of the Igigi
(heavenly spirits), exalt thy head." Merodach was their son: in time
he became the Bel, or "Lord", of the Babylonian pantheon.

Like the Indian Varuna, the sea god, Ea-Oannes had control over the
spirits and demons of the deep. The "ferryman" who kept watch over the
river of death was called Arad-Ea, "servant of Ea". There are also
references to sea maidens, the Babylonian mermaids, or Nereids. We
have a glimpse of sea giants, which resemble the Indian Danavas and
Daityas of ocean, in the chant:

    Seven are they, seven are they,
    In the ocean deep seven are they,
    Battening in heaven seven are they,
    Bred in the depths of ocean....
    Of these seven the first is the south wind,
    The second a dragon with mouth agape....[44]

A suggestion of the Vedic Vritra and his horde of monsters.

These seven demons were also "the messengers of Anu", who, although
specialized as a sky god in more than one pantheon, appears to have
been closely associated with Ea in the earliest Sumerian period. His
name, signifying "the high one", is derived from "ana", "heaven"; he
was the city god of Erech (Uruk). It is possible that he was developed
as an atmospheric god with solar and lunar attributes. The seven
demons, who were his messengers, recall the stormy Maruts, the
followers of Indra. They are referred to as

    Forcing their way with baneful windstorms,
    Mighty destroyers, the deluge of the storm god,
    Stalking at the right hand of the storm god.[45]

When we deal with a deity in his most archaic form it is difficult to
distinguish him from a demon. Even the beneficent Ea is associated
with monsters and furies. "Evil spirits", according to a Babylonian
chant, were "the bitter venom of the gods". Those attached to a deity
as "attendants" appear to represent the original animistic group from
which he evolved. In each district the character of the deity was
shaped to accord with local conditions.

At Nippur, which was situated on the vague and shifting boundary line
between Sumer and Akkad, the chief god was Enlil, whose name is
translated "lord of mist", "lord of might", and "lord of demons" by
various authorities. He was a storm god and a war god, and "lord of
heaven and earth ", like Ea and Anu. An atmospheric deity, he shares
the attributes of the Indian Indra, the thunder and rain god, and
Vayu, the wind god; he also resembles the Semitic Adad or Rimman, who
links with the Hittite Tarku. All these are deities of tempest and the
mountains--Wild Huntsmen in the Raging Host. The name of Enlil's
temple at Nippur has been translated as "mountain house", or "like a
mountain", and the theory obtained for a time that the god must
therefore have been imported by a people from the hills. But as the
ideogram for "mountain" and "land" was used in the earliest times, as
King shows, with reference to foreign countries,[46] it is more
probable that Enlil was exalted as a world god who had dominion over
not only Sumer and Akkad, but also the territories occupied by the
rivals and enemies of the early Babylonians.

Enlil is known as the "older Bel" (lord), to distinguish him from Bel
Merodach of Babylon. He was the chief figure in a triad in which he
figured as earth god, with Anu as god of the sky and Ea as god of the
deep. This classification suggests that Nippur had either risen in
political importance and dominated the cities of Erech and Eridu, or
that its priests were influential at the court of a ruler who was the
overlord of several city states.

Associated with Bel Enlil was Beltis, later known as "Beltu--the
lady". She appears to be identical with the other great goddesses,
Ishtar, Nana, Zerpanituᵐ, &c., a "Great Mother", or consort of an
early god with whom she was equal in power and dignity.

In the later systematized theology of the Babylonians we seem to trace
the fragments of a primitive mythology which was vague in outline, for
the deities were not sharply defined, and existed in groups. Enneads
were formed in Egypt by placing a local god at the head of a group of
eight elder deities. The sun god Ra was the chief figure of the
earliest pantheon of this character at Heliopolis, while at Hermopolis
the leader was the lunar god Thoth. Professor Budge is of opinion that
"both the Sumerians and the early Egyptians derived their primeval
gods from some common but exceedingly ancient source", for he finds in
the Babylonian and Nile valleys that there is a resemblance between
two early groups which "seems to be too close to be accidental".[47]

The Egyptian group comprises four pairs of vague gods and
goddesses--Nu and his consort Nut, Hehu and his consort Hehut, Kekui
and his consort Kekuit, and Kerh and his consort Kerhet. "Man always
has fashioned", he says, "and probably always will fashion, his god or
gods in his own image, and he has always, having reached a certain
stage in development, given to his gods wives and offspring; but the
nature of the position taken by the wives of the gods depends upon the
nature of the position of women in the households of those who write
the legends and the traditions of the gods. The gods of the oldest
company in Egypt were, the writer believes, invented by people in
whose households women held a high position, and among whom they
possessed more power than is usually the case with Oriental
peoples."[48]

We cannot say definitely what these various deities represent. Nu was
the spirit of the primordial deep, and Nut of the waters above the
heavens, the mother of moon and sun and the stars. The others were
phases of light and darkness and the forces of nature in activity and
repose.

Nu is represented in Babylonian mythology by Apsu-Rishtu, and Nut by
Mummu-Tiamat or Tiawath; the next pair is Lachmu and Lachamu, and the
third, Anshar and Kishar. The fourth pair is missing, but the names of
Anu and Ea (as Nudimmud) are mentioned in the first tablet of the
Creation series, and the name of a third is lost. Professor Budge
thinks that the Assyrian editors substituted the ancient triad of Anu,
Ea, and Enlil for the pair which would correspond to those found in
Egypt. Originally the wives of Anu and Ea may have made up the group
of eight primitive deities.

There can be little doubt but that Ea, as he survives to us, is of
later characterization than the first pair of primitive deities who
symbolized the deep. The attributes of this beneficent god reflect the
progress, and the social and moral ideals of a people well advanced in
civilization. He rewarded mankind for the services they rendered to
him; he was their leader and instructor; he achieved for them the
victories over the destructive forces of nature. In brief, he was the
dragon slayer, a distinction, by the way, which was attached in later
times to his son Merodach, the Babylonian god, although Ea was still
credited with the victory over the dragon's husband.

When Ea was one of the pre-Babylonian group--the triad of Bel-Enlil,
Anu, and Ea--he resembled the Indian Vishnu, the Preserver, while
Bel-Enlil resembled Shiva, the Destroyer, and Anu, the father, supreme
Brahma, the Creator and Father of All, the difference in exact
adjustment being due, perhaps, to Sumerian political conditions.

Ea, as we have seen, symbolized the beneficence of the waters; their
destructive force was represented by Tiamat or Tiawath, the dragon,
and Apsu, her husband, the arch-enemy of the gods. We shall find these
elder demons figuring in the Babylonian Creation myth, which receives
treatment in a later chapter.

The ancient Sumerian city of Eridu, which means "on the seashore", was
invested with great sanctity from the earliest times, and Ea, the
"great magician of the gods", was invoked by workers of spells, the
priestly magicians of historic Babylonia. Excavations have shown that
Eridu was protected by a retaining wall of sandstone, of which
material many of its houses were made. In its temple tower, built of
brick, was a marble stairway, and evidences have been forthcoming that
in the later Sumerian period the structure was lavishly adorned. It is
referred to in the fragments of early literature which have survived
as "the splendid house, shady as the forest", that "none may enter".
The mythological spell exercised by Eridu in later times suggests that
the civilization of Sumeria owed much to the worshippers of Ea. At the
sacred city the first man was created: there the souls of the dead
passed towards the great Deep. Its proximity to the sea--Ea was
Nin-bubu, "god of the sailor"--may have brought it into contact with
other peoples and other early civilizations. Like the early Egyptians,
the early Sumerians may have been in touch with Punt (Somaliland),
which some regard as the cradle of the Mediterranean race. The
Egyptians obtained from that sacred land incense-bearing trees which
had magical potency. In a fragmentary Babylonian charm there is a
reference to a sacred tree or bush at Eridu. Professor Sayce has
suggested that it is the Biblical "Tree of Life" in the Garden of
Eden. His translations of certain vital words, however, is sharply
questioned by Mr. R. Campbell Thompson of the British Museum, who does
not accept the theory.[49] It may be that Ea's sacred bush or tree is
a survival of tree and water worship.

If Eridu was not the "cradle" of the Sumerian race, it was possibly
the cradle of Sumerian civilization. Here, amidst the shifting rivers
in early times, the agriculturists may have learned to control and
distribute the water supply by utilizing dried-up beds of streams to
irrigate the land. Whatever successes they achieved were credited to
Ea, their instructor and patron; he was Nadimmud, "god of everything".




CHAPTER III.

RIVAL PANTHEONS AND REPRESENTATIVE DEITIES


  Why Different Gods were Supreme at Different Centres--Theories
  regarding Origin of Life--Vital Principle in Water--Creative Tears
  of Weeping Deities--Significance of widespread Spitting
  Customs--Divine Water in Blood and Divine Blood in Water--Liver as
  the Seat of Life--Inspiration derived by Drinking Mead, Blood,
  &c.--Life Principle in Breath--Babylonian Ghosts as "Evil Wind
  Gusts"--Fire Deities--Fire and Water in Magical Ceremonies--Moon
  Gods of Ur and Harran--Moon Goddess and Babylonian "Jack and
  Jill"--Antiquity of Sun Worship--Tammuz and Ishtar--Solar Gods of
  War, Pestilence, and Death--Shamash as the "Great Judge"--His Mitra
  Name--Aryan Mitra or Mithra and linking Babylonian Deities--Varuna
  and Shamash Hymns compared--The Female Origin of Life--Goddesses of
  Maternity--The Babylonian Thor--Deities of Good and Evil.


In dealing with the city cults of Sumer and Akkad, consideration must
be given to the problems involved by the rival mythological systems.
Pantheons not only varied in detail, but were presided over by
different supreme gods. One city's chief deity might be regarded as a
secondary deity at another centre. Although Ea, for instance, was
given first place at Eridu, and was so pronouncedly Sumerian in
character, the moon god Nannar remained supreme at Ur, while the sun
god, whose Semitic name was Shamash, presided at Larsa and Sippar.
Other deities were similarly exalted in other states.

As has been indicated, a mythological system must have been strongly
influenced by city politics. To hold a community in sway, it was
necessary to recognize officially the various gods worshipped by
different sections, so as to secure the constant allegiance of all
classes to their rulers. Alien deities were therefore associated with
local and tribal deities, those of the nomads with those of the
agriculturists, those of the unlettered folks with those of the
learned people. Reference has been made to the introduction of strange
deities by conquerors. But these were not always imposed upon a
community by violent means. Indications are not awanting that the
worshippers of alien gods were sometimes welcomed and encouraged to
settle in certain states. When they came as military allies to assist
a city folk against a fierce enemy, they were naturally much admired
and praised, honoured by the women and the bards, and rewarded by the
rulers.

In the epic of Gilgamesh, the Babylonian Hercules, we meet with
Ea-bani, a Goliath of the wilds, who is entreated to come to the aid
of the besieged city of Erech when it seemed that its deities were
unable to help the people against their enemies.

    The gods of walled-round Erech
    To flies had turned and buzzed in the streets;
    The winged bulls of walled-round Erech
    Were turned to mice and departed through the holes.

Ea-bani was attracted to Erech by the gift of a fair woman for wife.
The poet who lauded him no doubt mirrored public opinion. We can see
the slim, shaven Sumerians gazing with wonder and admiration on their
rough heroic ally.

    All his body was covered with hair,
    His locks were like a woman's,
    Thick as corn grew his abundant hair.
    He was a stranger to the people and in that land.
    Clad in a garment like Gira, the god,
    He had eaten grass with the gazelles,
    He had drunk water with savage beasts.
    His delight was to be among water dwellers.

Like the giant Alban, the eponymous ancestor of a people who invaded
prehistoric Britain, Ea-bani appears to have represented in Babylonian
folk legends a certain type of foreign settlers in the land. No doubt
the city dwellers, who were impressed by the prowess of the hairy and
powerful warriors, were also ready to acknowledge the greatness of
their war gods, and to admit them into the pantheon. The fusion of
beliefs which followed must have stimulated thought and been
productive of speculative ideas. "Nowhere", remarks Professor Jastrow,
"does a high form of culture arise without the commingling of diverse
ethnic elements."

We must also take into account the influence exercised by leaders of
thought like En-we-dur-an-ki, the famous high priest of Sippar, whose
piety did much to increase the reputation of the cult of Shamesh, the
sun god. The teachings and example of Buddha, for instance,
revolutionized Brahmanic religion in India.

A mythology was an attempt to solve the riddle of the Universe, and to
adjust the relations of mankind with the various forces represented by
the deities. The priests systematized existing folk beliefs and
established an official religion. To secure the prosperity of the
State, it was considered necessary to render homage unto whom homage
was due at various seasons and under various circumstances.

The religious attitude of a particular community, therefore, must have
been largely dependent on its needs and experiences. The food supply
was a first consideration. At Eridu, as we have seen, it was assured
by devotion to Ea and obedience to his commands as an instructor.
Elsewhere it might happen, however, that Ea's gifts were restricted or
withheld by an obstructing force--the raging storm god, or the
parching, pestilence-bringing deity of the sun. It was necessary,
therefore, for the people to win the favour of the god or goddess who
seemed most powerful, and was accordingly considered to be the
greatest in a particular district. A rain god presided over the
destinies of one community, and a god of disease and death over
another; a third exalted the war god, no doubt because raids were
frequent and the city owed its strength and prosperity to its battles
and conquests. The reputation won by a particular god throughout
Babylonia would depend greatly on the achievements of his worshippers
and the progress of the city civilization over which he presided.
Bel-Enlil's fame as a war deity was probably due to the political
supremacy of his city of Nippur; and there was probably good reason
for attributing to the sun god a pronounced administrative and legal
character; he may have controlled the destinies of exceedingly well
organized communities in which law and order and authority were held
in high esteem.

In accounting for the rise of distinctive and rival city deities, we
should also consider the influence of divergent conceptions regarding
the origin of life in mingled communities. Each foreign element in a
community had its own intellectual life and immemorial tribal
traditions, which reflected ancient habits of life and perpetuated the
doctrines of eponymous ancestors. Among the agricultural classes, the
folk religion which entered so intimately into their customs and
labours must have remained essentially Babylonish in character. In
cities, however, where official religions were formulated, foreign
ideas were more apt to be imposed, especially when embraced by
influential teachers. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that in
Babylonia, as in Egypt, there were differences of opinion regarding
the origin of life and the particular natural element which
represented the vital principle.

One section of the people, who were represented by the worshippers of
Ea, appear to have believed that the essence of life was contained in
water. The god of Eridu was the source of the "water of life". He
fertilized parched and sunburnt wastes through rivers and irrigating
canals, and conferred upon man the sustaining "food of life". When
life came to an end--

    Food of death will be offered thee...
    Water of death will be offered thee...

Offerings of water and food were made to the dead so that the ghosts
might be nourished and prevented from troubling the living. Even the
gods required water and food; they were immortal because they had
drunk ambrosia and eaten from the plant of life. When the goddess
Ishtar was in the Underworld, the land of the dead, the servant of Ea
exclaimed--

    "Hail! lady, may the well give me of its waters, so that I may
        drink."

The goddess of the dead commanded her servant to "sprinkle the lady
Ishtar with the water of life and bid her depart". The sacred water
might also be found at a confluence of rivers. Ea bade his son,
Merodach, to "draw water from the mouth of two streams", and "on this
water to put his pure spell".

The worship of rivers and wells which prevailed in many countries was
connected with the belief that the principle of life was in moisture.
In India, water was vitalized by the intoxicating juice of the Soma
plant, which inspired priests to utter prophecies and filled their
hearts with religious fervour. Drinking customs had originally a
religious significance. It was believed in India that the sap of
plants was influenced by the moon, the source of vitalizing moisture
and the hiding-place of the mead of the gods. The Teutonic gods also
drank this mead, and poets were inspired by it. Similar beliefs
obtained among various peoples. Moon and water worship were therefore
closely associated; the blood of animals and the sap of plants were
vitalized by the water of life and under control of the moon.

The body moisture of gods and demons had vitalizing properties. When
the Indian creator, Prajápati, wept at the beginning, "that (the
tears) which fell into the water became the air. That which he wiped
away, upwards, became the sky."[50] The ancient Egyptians believed
that all men were born from the eyes of Horus except negroes, who came
from other parts of his body.[51] The creative tears of Ra, the sun
god, fell as shining rays upon the earth. When this god grew old
saliva dripped from his mouth, and Isis mixed the vitalizing moisture
with dust, and thus made the serpent which bit and paralysed the great
solar deity.[52]

Other Egyptian deities, including Osiris and Isis, wept creative
tears. Those which fell from the eyes of the evil gods produced
poisonous plants and various baneful animals. Orion, the Greek giant,
sprang from the body moisture of deities. The weeping ceremonies in
connection with agricultural rites were no doubt believed to be of
magical potency; they encouraged the god to weep creative tears.

Ea, the god of the deep, was also "lord of life" (Enti), "king of the
river" (Lugal-ida), and god of creation (Nudimmud). His aid was
invoked by means of magical formulae. As the "great magician of the
gods" he uttered charms himself, and was the patron of all magicians.
One spell runs as follows:

    I am the sorcerer priest of Ea...
    To revive the ... sick man
    The great lord Ea hath sent me;
    He hath added his pure spell to mine,
    He hath added his pure voice to mine,
    He hath added his pure spittle to mine.

            _R.C. Thompson's Translation._

Saliva, like tears, had creative and therefore curative qualities; it
also expelled and injured demons and brought good luck. Spitting
ceremonies are referred to in the religious literature of Ancient
Egypt. When the Eye of Ra was blinded by Set, Thoth spat in it to
restore vision. The sun god Tum, who was linked with Ra as Ra-Tum,
spat on the ground, and his saliva became the gods Shu and Tefnut. In
the Underworld the devil serpent Apep was spat upon to curse it, as
was also its waxen image which the priests fashioned.[53]

Several African tribes spit to make compacts, declare friendship, and
to curse.

Park, the explorer, refers in his _Travels_ to his carriers spitting
on a flat stone to ensure a good journey. Arabian holy men and
descendants of Mohammed spit to cure diseases. Mohammed spat in the
mouth of his grandson Hasen soon after birth. Theocritus, Sophocles,
and Plutarch testify to the ancient Grecian customs of spitting to
cure and to curse, and also to bless when children were named. Pliny
has expressed belief in the efficacy of the fasting spittle for curing
disease, and referred to the custom of spitting to avert witchcraft.
In England, Scotland, and Ireland spitting customs are not yet
obsolete. North of England boys used to talk of "spitting their sauls"
(souls). When the Newcastle colliers held their earliest strikes they
made compacts by spitting on a stone. There are still "spitting
stones" in the north of Scotland. When bargains are made in rural
districts, hands are spat upon before they are shaken. The first money
taken each day by fishwives and other dealers is spat upon to ensure
increased drawings. Brand, who refers to various spitting customs,
quotes _Scot's Discovery of Witchcraft_ regarding the saliva cure for
king's evil, which is still, by the way, practised in the Hebrides.
Like Pliny, Scot recommended ceremonial spitting as a charm against
witchcraft.[54] In China spitting to expel demons is a common
practice. We still call a hasty person a "spitfire", and a calumniator
a "spit-poison".

The life principle in trees, &c., as we have seen, was believed to
have been derived from the tears of deities. In India sap was called
the "blood of trees", and references to "bleeding trees" are still
widespread and common. "Among the ancients", wrote Professor Robertson
Smith, "blood is generally conceived as the principle or vehicle of
life, and so the account often given of sacred waters is that the
blood of the deity flows in them. Thus as Milton writes:

    Smooth Adonis from his native rock
    Ran purple to the sea, supposed with blood
    Of Thammuz yearly wounded.

            _Paradise Lost_, i, 450.

The ruddy colour which the swollen river derived from the soil at a
certain season was ascribed to the blood of the god, who received his
death wound in Lebanon at that time of the year, and lay buried beside
the sacred source."[55]

In Babylonia the river was regarded as the source of the life blood
and the seat of the soul. No doubt this theory was based on the fact
that the human liver contains about a sixth of the blood in the body,
the largest proportion required by any single organ. Jeremiah makes
"Mother Jerusalem" exclaim: "My liver is poured upon the earth for the
destruction of the daughter of my people", meaning that her life is
spent with grief.

Inspiration was derived by drinking blood as well as by drinking
intoxicating liquors--the mead of the gods. Indian magicians who drink
the blood of the goat sacrificed to the goddess Kali, are believed to
be temporarily possessed by her spirit, and thus enabled to
prophesy.[56] Malayan exorcists still expel demons while they suck the
blood from a decapitated fowl.[57]

Similar customs were prevalent in Ancient Greece. A woman who drank
the blood of a sacrificed lamb or bull uttered prophetic sayings.[58]

But while most Babylonians appear to have believed that the life
principle was in blood, some were apparently of opinion that it was in
breath--the air of life. A man died when he ceased to breathe; his
spirit, therefore, it was argued, was identical with the
atmosphere--the moving wind--and was accordingly derived from the
atmospheric or wind god. When, in the Gilgamesh epic, the hero invokes
the dead Ea-bani, the ghost rises up like a "breath of wind". A
Babylonian charm runs:

    The gods which seize on men
      Came forth from the grave;
    The evil wind gusts
      Have come forth from the grave,
    To demand payment of rites and the pouring out of libations
      They have come forth from the grave;
    All that is evil in their hosts, like a whirlwind,
      Hath come forth from the grave.[59]

The Hebrew "nephesh ruach" and "neshamah" (in Arabic "ruh" and "nefs")
pass from meaning "breath" to "spirit".[60] In Egypt the god Khnumu
was "Kneph" in his character as an atmospheric deity. The ascendancy
of storm and wind gods in some Babylonian cities may have been due to
the belief that they were the source of the "air of life". It is
possible that this conception was popularized by the Semites.
Inspiration was perhaps derived from these deities by burning incense,
which, if we follow evidence obtained elsewhere, induced a prophetic
trance. The gods were also invoked by incense. In the Flood legend the
Babylonian Noah burned incense. "The gods smelled a sweet savour and
gathered like flies over the sacrificer." In Egypt devotees who
inhaled the breath of the Apis bull were enabled to prophesy.

In addition to water and atmospheric deities Babylonia had also its
fire gods, Girru, Gish Bar, Gibil, and Nusku. Their origin is obscure.
It is doubtful if their worshippers, like those of the Indian Agni,
believed that fire, the "vital spark", was the principle of life which
was manifested by bodily heat. The Aryan fire worshippers cremated
their dead so that the spirits might be transferred by fire to
Paradise. This practice, however, did not obtain among the fire
worshippers of Persia, nor, as was once believed, in Sumer or Akkad
either. Fire was, however, used in Babylonia for magical purposes. It
destroyed demons, and put to flight the spirits of disease. Possibly
the fire-purification ceremonies resembled those which were practised
by the Canaanites, and are referred to in the Bible. Ahaz "made his
son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the
heathen".[61] Ezekiel declared that "when ye offer your gifts, when ye
make your sons to pass through the fire, ye pollute yourselves with
all your idols".[62] In _Leviticus_ it is laid down: "Thou shalt not
let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Moloch".[63] It may be
that in Babylonia the fire-cleansing ceremony resembled that which
obtained at Beltane (May Day) in Scotland, Germany, and other
countries. Human sacrifices might also have been offered up as burnt
offerings. Abraham, who came from the Sumerian city of Ur, was
prepared to sacrifice Isaac, Sarah's first-born. The fire gods of
Babylonia never achieved the ascendancy of the Indian Agni; they
appear to have resembled him mainly in so far as he was connected with
the sun. Nusku, like Agni, was also the "messenger of the gods". When
Merodach or Babylon was exalted as chief god of the pantheon his
messages were carried to Ea by Nusku. He may have therefore symbolized
the sun rays, for Merodach had solar attributes. It is possible that
the belief obtained among even the water worshippers of Eridu that the
sun and moon, which rose from the primordial deep, had their origin in
the everlasting fire in Ea's domain at the bottom of the sea. In the
Indian god Varuna's ocean home an "Asura fire" (demon fire) burned
constantly; it was "bound and confined", but could not be
extinguished. Fed by water, this fire, it was believed, would burst
forth at the last day and consume the universe.[64] A similar belief
can be traced in Teutonic mythology. The Babylonian incantation cult
appealed to many gods, but "the most important share in the rites",
says Jastrow, "are taken by fire and water--suggesting, therefore,
that the god of water--more particularly Ea--and the god of fire ...
are the chief deities on which the ritual itself hinges". In some
temples there was a _bit rimki_, a "house of washing", and a _bit
nuri_, a "house of light".[65]

It is possible, of course, that fire was regarded as the vital
principle by some city cults, which were influenced by imported ideas.
If so, the belief never became prevalent. The most enduring influence
in Babylonian religion was the early Sumerian; and as Sumerian modes
of thought were the outcome of habits of life necessitated by the
character of the country, they were bound, sooner or later, to leave a
deep impress on the minds of foreign peoples who settled in the Garden
of Western Asia. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that
imported deities assumed Babylonian characteristics, and were
identified or associated with Babylonian gods in the later imperial
pantheon.

Moon worship appears to have been as ancient as water worship, with
which, as we have seen, it was closely associated. It was widely
prevalent throughout Babylonia. The chief seat of the lunar deity,
Nannar or Sin, was the ancient city of Ur, from which Abraham migrated
to Harran, where the "Baal" (the lord) was also a moon god. Ur was
situated in Sumer, in the south, between the west bank of the
Euphrates and the low hills bordering the Arabian desert, and not far
distant from sea-washed Eridu. No doubt, like that city, it had its
origin at an exceedingly remote period. At any rate, the excavations
conducted there have afforded proof that it flourished in the
prehistoric period.

As in Arabia, Egypt, and throughout ancient Europe and elsewhere, the
moon god of Sumeria was regarded as the "friend of man". He controlled
nature as a fertilizing agency; he caused grass, trees, and crops to
grow; he increased flocks and herds, and gave human offspring. At Ur
he was exalted above Ea as "the lord and prince of the gods, supreme
in heaven, the Father of all"; he was also called "great Anu", an
indication that Anu, the sky god, had at one time a lunar character.
The moon god was believed to be the father of the sun god: he was the
"great steer with mighty horns and perfect limbs".

His name Sin is believed to be a corruption of "Zu-ena", which
signifies "knowledge lord".[66] Like the lunar Osiris of Egypt, he was
apparently an instructor of mankind; the moon measured time and
controlled the seasons; seeds were sown at a certain phase of the
moon, and crops were ripened by the harvest moon. The mountains of
Sinai and the desert of Sin are called after this deity.

As Nannar, which Jastrow considers to be a variation of "Narnar", the
"light producer", the moon god scattered darkness and reduced the
terrors of night. His spirit inhabited the lunar stone, so that moon
and stone worship were closely associated; it also entered trees and
crops, so that moon worship linked with earth worship, as both linked
with water worship.

The consort of Nannar was Nin-Uruwa, "the lady of Ur", who was also
called Nin-gala. She links with Ishtar as Nin, as Isis of Egypt linked
with other mother deities. The twin children of the moon were Mashu
and Mashtu, a brother and sister, like the lunar girl and boy of
Teutonic mythology immortalized in nursery rhymes as Jack and Jill.

Sun worship was of great antiquity in Babylonia, but appears to have
been seasonal in its earliest phases. No doubt the sky god Anu had his
solar as well as his lunar attributes, which he shared with Ea. The
spring sun was personified as Tammuz, the youthful shepherd, who was
loved by the earth goddess Ishtar and her rival Eresh-ki-gal, goddess
of death, the Babylonian Persephone. During the winter Tammuz dwelt in
Hades, and at the beginning of spring Ishtar descended to search for
him among the shades.[67] But the burning summer sun was symbolized as
a destroyer, a slayer of men, and therefore a war god. As Ninip or
Nirig, the son of Enlil, who was made in the likeness of Anu, he waged
war against the earth spirits, and was furiously hostile towards the
deities of alien peoples, as befitted a god of battle. Even his father
feared him, and when he was advancing towards Nippur, sent out Nusku,
messenger of the gods, to soothe the raging deity with soft words.
Ninip was symbolized as a wild bull, was connected with stone worship,
like the Indian destroying god Shiva, and was similarly a deity of
Fate. He had much in common with Nin-Girsu, a god of Lagash, who was
in turn regarded as a form of Tammuz.

Nergal, another solar deity, brought disease and pestilence, and,
according to Jensen, all misfortunes due to excessive heat. He was the
king of death, husband of Eresh-ki-gal, queen of Hades. As a war god
he thirsted for human blood, and was depicted as a mighty lion. He was
the chief deity of the city of Cuthah, which, Jastrow suggests, was
situated beside a burial place of great repute, like the Egyptian
Abydos.

The two great cities of the sun in ancient Babylonia were the Akkadian
Sippar and the Sumerian Larsa. In these the sun god, Shamash or
Babbar, was the patron deity. He was a god of Destiny, the lord of the
living and the dead, and was exalted as the great Judge, the lawgiver,
who upheld justice; he was the enemy of wrong, he loved righteousness
and hated sin, he inspired his worshippers with rectitude and punished
evildoers. The sun god also illumined the world, and his rays
penetrated every quarter: he saw all things, and read the thoughts of
men; nothing could be concealed from Shamash. One of his names was
Mitra, like the god who was linked with Varuna in the Indian
_Rigveda_. These twin deities, Mitra and Varuna, measured out the span
of human life. They were the source of all heavenly gifts: they
regulated sun and moon, the winds and waters, and the seasons.[68]

These did the gods establish in royal power over themselves, because
they were wise and the children of wisdom, and because they excelled
in power.--_Prof. Arnold's trans. of Rigvedic Hymn_.

Mitra and Varuna were protectors of hearth and home, and they
chastised sinners. "In a striking passage of the _Mahabharata_" says
Professor Moulton, "one in which Indian thought comes nearest to the
conception of conscience, a kingly wrongdoer is reminded that the sun
sees secret sin."[69]

In Persian mythology Mitra, as Mithra, is the patron of Truth, and
"the Mediator" between heaven and earth[70]. This god was also
worshipped by the military aristocracy of Mitanni, which held sway for
a period over Assyria. In Roman times the worship of Mithra spread
into Europe from Persia. Mithraic sculptures depict the deity as a
corn god slaying the harvest bull; on one of the monuments "cornstalks
instead of blood are seen issuing from the wound inflicted with the
knife".[71] The Assyrian word "metru" signifies rain[70]. As a sky god
Mitra may have been associated, like Varuna, with the waters above the
firmament. Rain would therefore be gifted by him as a fertilizing deity.
In the Babylonian Flood legend it is the sun god Shamash who "appointed
the time" when the heavens were to "rain destruction" in the night, and
commanded Pir-napishtim, "Enter into the midst of thy ship and shut thy
door". The solar deity thus appears as a form of Anu, god of the sky and
upper atmosphere, who controls the seasons and the various forces of
nature. Other rival chiefs of city pantheons, whether lunar,
atmospheric, earth, or water deities, were similarly regarded as the
supreme deities who ruled the Universe, and decreed when man should
receive benefits or suffer from their acts of vengeance.

It is possible that the close resemblances between Mithra and Mitra of
the Aryan-speaking peoples of India and the Iranian plateau, and the
sun god of the Babylonians--the Semitic Shamash, the Sumerian
Utu--were due to early contact and cultural influence through the
medium of Elam. As a solar and corn god, the Persian Mithra links with
Tammuz, as a sky and atmospheric deity with Anu, and as a god of
truth, righteousness, and law with Shamash. We seem to trace in the
sublime Vedic hymns addressed by the Indian Aryans to Mitra and Varuna
the impress of Babylonian religious thought:

    Whate'er exists within this earth, and all within the sky,
    Yea, all that is beyond, King Varuna perceives....

            _Rigveda_, iv, 16.[72]


    O Varuna, whatever the offence may be
    That we as men commit against the heavenly folk,
    When through our want of thought we violate thy laws,
    Chastise us not, O god, for that iniquity.

            _Rigveda_, vii, 89.[73]

Shamash was similarly exalted in Babylonian hymns:

    The progeny of those who deal unjustly will not prosper.
    What their mouth utters in thy presence
    Thou wilt destroy, what issues from their mouth thou wilt
        dissipate.
    Thou knowest their transgressions, the plan of the wicked thou
        rejectest.
    All, whoever they be, are in thy care....
    He who takes no bribe, who cares for the oppressed,
    Is favoured by Shamash,--his life shall be prolonged.[74]

The worshippers of Varuna and Mitra in the Punjab did not cremate
their dead like those who exalted the rival fire god Agni. The grave
was the "house of clay", as in Babylonia. Mitra, who was identical
with Yama, ruled over departed souls in the "Land of the Pitris"
(Fathers), which was reached by crossing the mountains and the rushing
stream of death.[75] As we have seen, the Babylonian solar god Nergal
was also the lord of the dead.

As Ma-banda-anna, "the boat of the sky", Shamash links with the
Egyptian sun god Ra, whose barque sailed over the heavens by day and
through the underworld of darkness and death during the night. The
consort of Shamash was Aa, and his attendants were Kittu and Mesharu,
"Truth" and "Righteousness".

Like the Hittites, the Babylonians had also a sun goddess: her name
was Nin-sun, which Jastrow renders "the annihilating lady". At Erech
she had a shrine in the temple of the sky god Anu.

We can trace in Babylonia, as in Egypt, the early belief that life in
the Universe had a female origin. Nin-sun links with Ishtar, whose
Sumerian name is Nana. Ishtar appears to be identical with the
Egyptian Hathor, who, as Sekhet, slaughtered the enemies of the sun
god Ra. She was similarly the goddess of maternity, and is depicted in
this character, like Isis and other goddesses of similar character,
suckling a babe. Another Babylonian lady of the gods was Ama, Mama, or
Mami, "the creatress of the seed of mankind", and was "probably so
called as the 'mother' of all things".[76]

A characteristic atmospheric deity was Ramman, the Rimmon of the
Bible, the Semitic Addu, Adad, Hadad, or Dadu. He was not a presiding
deity in any pantheon, but was identified with Enlil at Nippur. As a
hammer god, he was imported by the Semites from the hills. He was a
wind and thunder deity, a rain bringer, a corn god, and a god of
battle like Thor, Jupiter, Tarku, Indra, and others, who were all sons
of the sky.

In this brief review of the representative deities of early Babylonia,
it will be seen that most gods link with Anu, Ea, and Enlil, whose
attributes they symbolized in various forms. The prominence accorded
to an individual deity depended on local conditions, experiences, and
influences. Ceremonial practices no doubt varied here and there, but
although one section might exalt Ea and another Shamash, the religious
faith of the people as a whole did not differ to any marked extent;
they served the gods according to their lights, so that life might be
prolonged and made prosperous, for the land of death and "no return"
was regarded as a place of gloom and misery.

When the Babylonians appear before us in the early stages of the
historical period they had reached that stage of development set forth
so vividly in the _Orations_ of Isocrates: "Those of the gods who are
the source to us of good things have the title of Olympians; those
whose department is that of calamities and punishments have harsher
titles: to the first class both private persons and states erect
altars and temples; the second is not worshipped either with prayers
or burnt sacrifices, but in their case we perform ceremonies of
riddance".[77]

The Sumerians, like the Ancient Egyptians, developed their deities,
who reflected the growth of culture, from vague spirit groups, which,
like ghosts, were hostile to mankind. Those spirits who could be
propitiated were exalted as benevolent deities; those who could not be
bargained with were regarded as evil gods and goddesses. A better
understanding of the character of Babylonian deities will therefore be
obtained by passing the demons and evil spirits under review.




CHAPTER IV.

DEMONS, FAIRIES, AND GHOSTS


  Spirits in Everything and Everywhere--The Bringers of Luck and
  Misfortune--Germ Theory Anticipated--Early Gods indistinguishable
  from Demons--Repulsive form of Ea--Spirit Groups as Attendants of
  Deities--Egyptian, Indian, Greek, and Germanic parallels--Elder Gods
  as Evil Gods--Animal Demons--The Babylonian
  "Will-o'-the-Wisp"--"Foreign Devils"--Elves and Fairies--Demon
  Lovers--"Adam's first wife, Lilith"--Children Charmed against Evil
  Spirits--The Demon of Nightmare--Ghosts as Enemies of the
  Living--The Vengeful Dead Mother in Babylonia, India, Europe, and
  Mexico--Burial Contrast--Calling Back the Dead--Fate of Childless
  Ghosts--Religious Need for Offspring--Hags and Giants and Composite
  Monsters--Tempest Fiends--Legend of Adapa and the Storm Demon--Wind
  Hags of Ancient Britain--Tyrolese Storm Maidens--Zu Bird Legend and
  Indian Garuda Myth--Legend of the Eagle and the Serpent--The Snake
  Mother Goddess--Demons and the Moon God--Plague
  Deities--Classification of Spirits, and Egyptian, Arabian, and
  Scottish parallels--Traces of Progress from Animism to Monotheism.


The memorable sermon preached by Paul to the Athenians when he stood
"in the midst of Mars' hill", could have been addressed with equal
appropriateness to the ancient Sumerians and Akkadians. "I perceive",
he declared, "that in all things ye are too superstitious.... God that
made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of
heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is
worshipped with men's hands as though he needed any thing, seeing he
giveth to all life, and breath, and all things ... for in him we live,
and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have
said, For we are also his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the
offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto
gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device."[78]

Babylonian temples were houses of the gods in the literal sense; the
gods were supposed to dwell in them, their spirits having entered into
the graven images or blocks of stone. It is probable that like the
Ancient Egyptians they believed a god had as many spirits as he had
attributes. The gods, as we have said, appear to have evolved from
early spirit groups. All the world swarmed with spirits, which
inhabited stones and trees, mountains and deserts, rivers and ocean,
the air, the sky, the stars, and the sun and moon. The spirits
controlled Nature: they brought light and darkness, sunshine and
storm, summer and winter; they were manifested in the thunderstorm,
the sandstorm, the glare of sunset, and the wraiths of mist rising
from the steaming marshes. They controlled also the lives of men and
women. The good spirits were the source of luck. The bad spirits
caused misfortunes, and were ever seeking to work evil against the
Babylonian. Darkness was peopled by demons and ghosts of the dead. The
spirits of disease were ever lying in wait to clutch him with cruel
invisible hands.

Some modern writers, who are too prone to regard ancient peoples from
a twentieth-century point of view, express grave doubts as to whether
"intelligent Babylonians" really believed that spirits came down in
the rain and entered the soil to rise up before men's eyes as stalks
of barley or wheat. There is no reason for supposing that they thought
otherwise. The early folks based their theories on the accumulated
knowledge of their age. They knew nothing regarding the composition of
water or the atmosphere, of the cause of thunder and lightning, or of
the chemical changes effected in soils by the action of bacteria. They
attributed all natural phenomena to the operations of spirits or gods.
In believing that certain demons caused certain diseases, they may be
said to have achieved distinct progress, for they anticipated the germ
theory. They made discoveries, too, which have been approved and
elaborated in later times when they lit sacred fires, bathed in sacred
waters, and used oils and herbs to charm away spirits of pestilence.
Indeed, many folk cures, which were originally associated with magical
ceremonies, are still practised in our own day. They were found to be
effective by early observers, although they were unable to explain why
and how cures were accomplished, like modern scientific investigators.

In peopling the Universe with spirits, the Babylonians, like other
ancient folks, betrayed that tendency to symbolize everything which
has ever appealed to the human mind. Our painters and poets and
sculptors are greatest when they symbolize their ideals and ideas and
impressions, and by so doing make us respond to their moods. Their
"beauty and their terror are sublime". But what may seem poetic to us,
was invariably a grim reality to the Babylonians. The statue or
picture was not merely a work of art but a manifestation of the god or
demon. As has been said, they believed that the spirit of the god
inhabited the idol; the frown of the brazen image was the frown of the
wicked demon. They entertained as much dread of the winged and
human-headed bulls guarding the entrance to the royal palace as do
some of the Arab workmen who, in our own day, assist excavators to
rescue them from sandy mounds in which they have been hidden for long
centuries.

When an idol was carried away from a city by an invading army, it was
believed that the god himself had been taken prisoner, and was
therefore unable any longer to help his people.

In the early stages of Sumerian culture, the gods and goddesses who
formed groups were indistinguishable from demons. They were vaguely
defined, and had changing shapes. When attempts were made to depict
them they were represented in many varying forms. Some were winged
bulls or lions with human heads; others had even more remarkable
composite forms. The "dragon of Babylon", for instance, which was
portrayed on walls of temples, had a serpent's head, a body covered
with scales, the fore legs of a lion, hind legs of an eagle, and a
long wriggling serpentine tail. Ea had several monster forms. The
following description of one of these is repulsive enough:--

    The head is the head of a serpent,
    From his nostrils mucus trickles,
    His mouth is beslavered with water;
    The ears are like those of a basilisk,
    His horns are twisted into three curls,
    He wears a veil in his head band,
    The body is a suh-fish full of stars,
    The base of his feet are claws,
    The sole of his foot has no heel,
    His name is Sassu-wunnu,
    A sea monster, a form of Ea.

            _R.C. Thompson's Translation._[79]

Even after the gods were given beneficent attributes to reflect the
growth of culture, and were humanized, they still retained many of
their savage characteristics. Bel Enlil and his fierce son, Nergal,
were destroyers of mankind; the storm god desolated the land; the sky
god deluged it with rain; the sea raged furiously, ever hungering for
human victims; the burning sun struck down its victims; and the floods
played havoc with the dykes and houses of human beings. In Egypt the
sun god Ra was similarly a "producer of calamity", the composite
monster god Sokar was "the lord of fear".[80] Osiris in prehistoric
times had been "a dangerous god", and some of the Pharaohs sought
protection against him in the charms inscribed in their tombs.[81] The
Indian Shiva, "the Destroyer", in the old religious poems has also
primitive attributes of like character.

The Sumerian gods never lost their connection with the early spirit
groups. These continued to be represented by their attendants, who
executed a deity's stern and vengeful decrees. In one of the
Babylonian charms the demons are referred to as "the spleen of the
gods"--the symbols of their wrathful emotions and vengeful desires.
Bel Enlil, the air and earth god, was served by the demons of disease,
"the beloved sons of Bel", which issued from the Underworld to attack
mankind. Nergal, the sulky and ill-tempered lord of death and
destruction, who never lost his demoniac character, swept over the
land, followed by the spirits of pestilence, sunstroke, weariness, and
destruction. Anu, the sky god, had "spawned" at creation the demons of
cold and rain and darkness. Even Ea and his consort, Damkina, were
served by groups of devils and giants, which preyed upon mankind in
bleak and desolate places when night fell. In the ocean home of Ea
were bred the "seven evil spirits" of tempest--the gaping dragon, the
leopard which preyed upon children, the great Beast, the terrible
serpent, &c.

In Indian mythology Indra was similarly followed by the stormy Maruts,
and fierce Rudra by the tempestuous Rudras. In Teutonic mythology Odin
is the "Wild Huntsman in the Raging Host". In Greek mythology the
ocean furies attend upon fickle Poseidon. Other examples of this kind
could be multiplied.

As we have seen (Chapter II) the earliest group of Babylonian deities
consisted probably of four pairs of gods and goddesses as in Egypt.
The first pair was Apsu-Rishtu and Tiamat, who personified the
primordial deep. Now the elder deities in most mythologies--the
"grandsires" and "grandmothers" and "fathers" and "mothers"--are ever
the most powerful and most vengeful. They appear to represent
primitive "layers" of savage thought. The Greek Cronos devours even
his own children, and, as the late Andrew Lang has shown, there are
many parallels to this myth among primitive peoples in various parts
of the world.

Lang regarded the Greek survival as an example of "the conservatism of
the religious instinct".[82] The grandmother of the Teutonic deity Tyr
was a fierce giantess with nine hundred heads; his father was an enemy
of the gods. In Scotland the hag-mother of winter and storm and
darkness is the enemy of growth and all life, and she raises storms to
stop the grass growing, to slay young animals, and prevent the union
of her son with his fair bride. Similarly the Babylonian chaos
spirits, Apsu and Tiamat, the father and mother of the gods, resolve
to destroy their offspring, because they begin to set the Universe in
order. Tiamat, the female dragon, is more powerful than her husband
Apsu, who is slain by his son Ea. She summons to her aid the gods of
evil, and creates also a brood of monsters--serpents, dragons, vipers,
fish men, raging hounds, &c.--so as to bring about universal and
enduring confusion and evil. Not until she is destroyed can the
beneficent gods establish law and order and make the earth habitable
and beautiful.

But although Tiamat was slain, the everlasting battle between the
forces of good and evil was ever waged in the Babylonian world.
Certain evil spirits were let loose at certain periods, and they
strove to accomplish the destruction of mankind and his works. These
invisible enemies were either charmed away by performing magical
ceremonies, or by invoking the gods to thwart them and bind them.

Other spirits inhabited the bodies of animals and were ever hovering
near. The ghosts of the dead and male and female demons were birds,
like the birds of Fate which sang to Siegfried. When the owl raised
its melancholy voice in the darkness the listener heard the spirit of
a departed mother crying for her child. Ghosts and evil spirits
wandered through the streets in darkness; they haunted empty houses;
they fluttered through the evening air as bats; they hastened, moaning
dismally, across barren wastes searching for food or lay in wait for
travellers; they came as roaring lions and howling jackals, hungering
for human flesh. The "shedu" was a destructive bull which might slay
man wantonly or as a protector of temples. Of like character was the
"lamassu", depicted as a winged bull with human head, the protector of
palaces; the "alu" was a bull-like demon of tempest, and there were
also many composite, distorted, or formless monsters which were
vaguely termed "seizers" or "overthrowers", the Semitic "labashu" and
"ach-chazu", the Sumerian "dimmea" and "dimme-kur". A dialectic form
of "gallu" or devil was "mulla". Professor Pinches thinks it not
improbable that "mulla" may be connected with the word "mula", meaning
"star", and suggests that it referred to a "will-o'-the-wisp".[83] In
these islands, according to an old rhyme,

    Some call him Robin Good-fellow,
      Hob-goblin, or mad Crisp,
    And some againe doe tearme him oft
      By name of Will the Wisp.

Other names are "Kitty", "Peg", and "Jack with a lantern". "Poor
Robin" sang:

    I should indeed as soon expect
    That Peg-a-lantern would direct
    Me straightway home on misty night
    As wand'ring stars, quite out of sight.

In Shakespeare's _Tempest_[84] a sailor exclaims: "Your fairy, which,
you say, is a harmless fairy, has done little better than played the
Jack with us". Dr. Johnson commented that the reference was to "Jack
with a lantern". Milton wrote also of the "wandering fire",

    Which oft, they say, some evil spirit attends,
    Hovering and blazing with delusive light,
    Misleads th' amaz'd night wand'rer from his way
    To bogs and mires, and oft through pond or pool;
    There swallowed up and lost from succour far.[85]

"When we stick in the mire", sang Drayton, "he doth with laughter
leave us." These fires were also "fallen stars", "death fires", and
"fire drakes":

    So have I seen a fire drake glide along
    Before a dying man, to point his grave,
    And in it stick and hide.[86]

Pliny referred to the wandering lights as stars.[87] The Sumerian
"mulla" was undoubtedly an evil spirit. In some countries the "fire
drake" is a bird with gleaming breast: in Babylonia it assumed the
form of a bull, and may have had some connection with the bull of
lshtar. Like the Indian "Dasyu" and "Dasa",[88] Gallu was applied in
the sense of "foreign devil" to human and superhuman adversaries of
certain monarchs. Some of the supernatural beings resemble our elves
and fairies and the Indian Rakshasas. Occasionally they appear in
comely human guise; at other times they are vaguely monstrous. The
best known of this class is Lilith, who, according to Hebrew
tradition, preserved in the Talmud, was the demon lover of Adam. She
has been immortalized by Dante Gabriel Rossetti:

    Of Adam's first wife Lilith, it is told
    (The witch he loved before the gift of Eve)
    That, ere the snake's, her sweet tongue could deceive,
    And her enchanted hair was the first gold.
    And still she sits, young while the earth is old,
    And, subtly of herself contemplative,
    Draws men to watch the bright web she can weave,
    Till heart and body and life are in its hold.
    The rose and poppy are her flowers; for where
    Is he not found, O Lilith, whom shed scent
    And soft shed kisses and soft sleep shall snare?
    Lo! as that youth's eyes burned at thine, so went
    Thy spell through him, and left his straight neck bent
    And round his heart one strangling golden hair.

Lilith is the Babylonian Lilithu, a feminine form of Lilu, the
Sumerian Lila. She resembles Surpanakha of the _Ramayana_, who made
love to Rama and Lakshmana, and the sister of the demon Hidimva, who
became enamoured of Bhima, one of the heroes of the _Mahabharata_,[89]
and the various fairy lovers of Europe who lured men to eternal
imprisonment inside mountains, or vanished for ever when they were
completely under their influence, leaving them demented. The elfin
Lilu similarly wooed young women, like the Germanic Laurin of the
"Wonderful Rose Garden",[90] who carried away the fair lady Kunhild to
his underground dwelling amidst the Tyrolese mountains, or left them
haunting the place of their meetings, searching for him in vain:

    A savage place! as holy and enchanted
    As ere beneath the waning moon was haunted
    By woman wailing for her demon lover...
    His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
    Weave a circle round him thrice,
    And close your eyes with holy dread,
    For he on honey dew hath fed
    And drunk the milk of Paradise.

            _Coleridge's Kubla Khan._

Another materializing spirit of this class was Ardat Lili, who appears
to have wedded human beings like the swan maidens, the mermaids, and
Nereids of the European folk tales, and the goddess Ganga, who for a
time was the wife of King Shantanu of the _Mahabharata_.[91]

The Labartu, to whom we have referred, was a female who haunted
mountains and marshes; like the fairies and hags of Europe, she stole
or afflicted children, who accordingly had to wear charms round their
necks for protection. Seven of these supernatural beings were reputed
to be daughters of Anu, the sky god.

The Alu, a storm deity, was also a spirit which caused nightmare. It
endeavoured to smother sleepers like the Scandinavian hag Mara, and
similarly deprived them of power to move. In Babylonia this evil
spirit might also cause sleeplessness or death by hovering near a bed.
In shape it might be as horrible and repulsive as the Egyptian ghosts
which caused children to die from fright or by sucking out the breath
of life.

As most representatives of the spirit world were enemies of the
living, so were the ghosts of dead men and women. Death chilled all
human affections; it turned love to hate; the deeper the love had
been, the deeper became the enmity fostered by the ghost. Certain
ghosts might also be regarded as particularly virulent and hostile if
they happened to have left the body of one who was ceremonially
impure. The most terrible ghost in Babylonia was that of a woman who
had died in childbed. She was pitied and dreaded; her grief had
demented her; she was doomed to wail in the darkness; her impurity
clung to her like poison. No spirit was more prone to work evil
against mankind, and her hostility was accompanied by the most tragic
sorrow. In Northern India the Hindus, like the ancient Babylonians,
regard as a fearsome demon the ghost of a woman who died while
pregnant, or on the day of the child's birth.[92] A similar belief
prevailed in Mexico. In Europe there are many folk tales of dead
mothers who return to avenge themselves on the cruel fathers of
neglected children.

A sharp contrast is presented by the Mongolian Buriats, whose outlook
on the spirit world is less gloomy than was that of the ancient
Babylonians. According to Mr. Jeremiah Curtin, this interesting people
are wont to perform a ceremony with purpose to entice the ghost to
return to the dead body--a proceeding which is dreaded in the Scottish
Highlands.[93] The Buriats address the ghost, saying: "You shall sleep
well. Come back to your natural ashes. Take pity on your friends. It
is necessary to live a real life. Do not wander along the mountains.
Do not be like bad spirits. Return to your peaceful home.... Come back
and work for your children. How can you leave the little ones?" If it
is a mother, these words have great effect; sometimes the spirit moans
and sobs, and the Buriats tell that there have been instances of it
returning to the body.[94] In his _Arabia Deserta_[95] Doughty relates
that Arab women and children mock the cries of the owl. One explained
to him: "It is a wailful woman seeking her lost child; she has become
this forlorn bird". So do immemorial beliefs survive to our own day.

The Babylonian ghosts of unmarried men and women and of those without
offspring were also disconsolate night wanderers. Others who suffered
similar fates were the ghosts of men who died in battle far from home
and were left unburied, the ghosts of travellers who perished in the
desert and were not covered over, the ghosts of drowned men which rose
from the water, the ghosts of prisoners starved to death or executed,
the ghosts of people who died violent deaths before their appointed
time. The dead required to be cared for, to have libations poured out,
to be fed, so that they might not prowl through the streets or enter
houses searching for scraps of food and pure water. The duty of giving
offerings to the dead was imposed apparently on near relatives. As in
India, it would appear that the eldest son performed the funeral
ceremony: a dreadful fate therefore awaited the spirit of the dead
Babylonian man or woman without offspring. In Sanskrit literature
there is a reference to a priest who was not allowed to enter
Paradise, although he had performed rigid penances, because he had no
children.[96]

There were hags and giants of mountain and desert, of river and ocean.
Demons might possess the pig, the goat, the horse, the lion, or the
ibis, the raven, or the hawk. The seven spirits of tempest, fire, and
destruction rose from the depths of ocean, and there were hosts of
demons which could not be overcome or baffled by man without the
assistance of the gods to whom they were hostile. Many were sexless;
having no offspring, they were devoid of mercy and compassion. They
penetrated everywhere:

    The high enclosures, the broad enclosures, like a flood
      they pass through,
    From house to house they dash along.
    No door can shut them out;
    No bolt can turn them back.
    Through the door, like a snake, they glide,
    Through the hinge, like the wind, they storm,
    Tearing the wife from the embrace of the man,
    Driving the freedman from his family home.[97]

These furies did not confine their unwelcomed attentions to mankind
alone:

    They hunt the doves from their cotes,
    And drive the birds from their nests,
    And chase the marten from its hole....
    Through the gloomy street by night they roam,
    Smiting sheepfold and cattle pen,
    Shutting up the land as with door and bolt.

            _R.C. Thompson's Translation._

The Babylonian poet, like Burns, was filled with pity for the animals
which suffered in the storm:

    List'ning the doors an' winnocks rattle,
    I thought me o' the ourie cattle,
    Or silly sheep, wha bide this brattle
      O' winter war....
    Ilk happing bird, wee, helpless thing!
    That in the merry months o' spring
    Delighted me to hear thee sing,
      What comes o' thee?
    Whare wilt thou cow'r thy chittering wing,
      And close thy e'e?

According to Babylonian belief, "the great storms directed from
heaven" were caused by demons. Mankind heard them "loudly roaring
above, gibbering below".[98] The south wind was raised by Shutu, a
plumed storm demon resembling Hraesvelgur of the Icelandic Eddas:

    Corpse-swallower sits at the end of heaven,
      A Jötun in eagle form;
    From his wings, they say, comes the wind which fares
      Over all the dwellers of earth.[99]

The northern story of Thor's fishing, when he hooked and wounded the
Midgard serpent, is recalled by the Babylonian legend of Adapa, son of
the god Ea. This hero was engaged catching fish, when Shutu, the south
wind, upset his boat. In his wrath Adapa immediately attacked the
storm demon and shattered her pinions. Anu, the sky god, was moved to
anger against Ea's son and summoned him to the Celestial Court. Adapa,
however, appeared in garments of mourning and was forgiven. Anu
offered him the water of life and the bread of life which would have
made him immortal, but Ea's son refused to eat or drink, believing, as
his father had warned him, that the sky god desired him to partake of
the bread of death and to drink of the water of death.

Another terrible atmospheric demon was the south-west wind, which
caused destructive storms and floods, and claimed many human victims
like the Icelandic "corpse swallower". She was depicted with lidless
staring eyes, broad flat nose, mouth gaping horribly, and showing
tusk-like teeth, and with high cheek bones, heavy eyebrows, and low
bulging forehead.

In Scotland the hag of the south-west wind is similarly a bloodthirsty
and fearsome demon. She is most virulent in the springtime. At
Cromarty she is quaintly called "Gentle Annie" by the fisher folks,
who repeat the saying: "When Gentle Annie is skyawlan (yelling) roond
the heel of Ness (a promontory) wi' a white feather on her hat (the
foam of big billows) they (the spirits) will be harrying (robbing) the
crook"--that is, the pot which hangs from the crook is empty during
the spring storms, which prevent fishermen going to sea. In England
the wind hag is Black Annis, who dwells in a Leicestershire hill cave.
She may be identical with the Irish hag Anu, associated with the "Paps
of Anu". According to Gaelic lore, this wind demon of spring is the
"Cailleach" (old wife). She gives her name in the Highland calendar to
the stormy period of late spring; she raises gale after gale to
prevent the coming of summer. Angerboda, the Icelandic hag, is also a
storm demon, but represents the east wind. A Tyrolese folk tale tells
of three magic maidens who dwelt on Jochgrimm mountain, where they
"brewed the winds". Their demon lovers were Ecke, "he who causes
fear"; Vasolt, "he who causes dismay"; and the scornful Dietrich in
his mythical character of Donar or Thunor (Thor), the thunderer.

Another Sumerian storm demon was the Zu bird, which is represented
among the stars by Pegasus and Taurus. A legend relates that this
"worker of evil, who raised the head of evil", once aspired to rule
the gods, and stole from Bel, "the lord" of deities, the Tablets of
Destiny, which gave him his power over the Universe as controller of
the fates of all. The Zu bird escaped with the Tablets and found
shelter on its mountain top in Arabia. Anu called on Ramman, the
thunderer, to attack the Zu bird, but he was afraid; other gods appear
to have shrunk from the conflict. How the rebel was overcome is not
certain, because the legend survives in fragmentary form. There is a
reference, however, to the moon god setting out towards the mountain
in Arabia with purpose to outwit the Zu bird and recover the lost
Tablets. How he fared it is impossible to ascertain. In another
legend--that of Etana--the mother serpent, addressing the sun god,
Shamash, says:

    Thy net is like unto the broad earth;
    Thy snare is like unto the distant heaven!
    Who hath ever escaped from thy net?
    Even Zu, the worker of evil, who raised the head
        of evil [did not escape]!

            _L.W. King's Translation._

In Indian mythology, Garuda, half giant, half eagle, robs the Amrita
(ambrosia) of the gods which gives them their power and renders them
immortal. It had assumed a golden body, bright as the sun. Indra, the
thunderer, flung his bolt in vain; he could not wound Garuda, and only
displaced a single feather. Afterwards, however, he stole the moon
goblet containing the Amrita, which Garuda had delivered to his
enemies, the serpents, to free his mother from bondage. This Indian
eagle giant became the vehicle of the god Vishnu, and, according to
the _Mahabharata_, "mocked the wind with his fleetness".

It would appear that the Babylonian Zu bird symbolized the summer
sandstorms from the Arabian desert. Thunder is associated with the
rainy season, and it may have been assumed, therefore, that the
thunder god was powerless against the sandstorm demon, who was chased,
however, by the moon, and finally overcome by the triumphant sun when
it broke through the darkening sand drift and brightened heaven and
earth, "netting" the rebellious demon who desired to establish the
rule of evil over gods and mankind.

In the "Legend of Etana" the Eagle, another demon which links with the
Indian Garuda, slayer of serpents, devours the brood of the Mother
Serpent. For this offence against divine law, Shamash, the sun god,
pronounces the Eagle's doom. He instructs the Mother Serpent to slay a
wild ox and conceal herself in its entrails. The Eagle comes to feed
on the carcass, unheeding the warning of one of his children, who
says, "The serpent lies in this wild ox":

    He swooped down and stood upon the wild ox,
    The Eagle ... examined the flesh;
    He looked about carefully before and behind him;
    He again examined the flesh;
    He looked about carefully before and behind him,
    Then, moving swiftly, he made for the hidden parts.
    When he entered into the midst,
    The serpent seized him by his wing.

In vain the Eagle appealed for mercy to the Mother Serpent, who was
compelled to execute the decree of Shamash; she tore off the Eagle's
pinions, wings, and claws, and threw him into a pit where he perished
from hunger and thirst.[100] This myth may refer to the ravages of a
winged demon of disease who was thwarted by the sacrifice of an ox.
The Mother Serpent appears to be identical with an ancient goddess of
maternity resembling the Egyptian Bast, the serpent mother of
Bubastis. According to Sumerian belief, Nintu, "a form of the goddess
Ma", was half a serpent. On her head there is a horn; she is "girt
about the loins"; her left arm holds "a babe suckling her breast":

    From her head to her loins
    The body is that of a naked woman;
    From the loins to the sole of the foot
    Scales like those of a snake are visible.

            _R.C. Thompson's Translation._

The close association of gods and demons is illustrated in an obscure
myth which may refer to an eclipse of the moon or a night storm at the
beginning of the rainy season. The demons go to war against the high
gods, and are assisted by Adad (Ramman) the thunderer, Shamash the
sun, and Ishtar. They desire to wreck the heavens, the home of Anu:

    They clustered angrily round the crescent of the moon god,
    And won over to their aid Shamash, the mighty, and Adad, the
        warrior,
    And Ishtar, who with Anu, the King,
    Hath founded a shining dwelling.

The moon god Sin, "the seed of mankind", was darkened by the demons
who raged, "rushing loose over the land" like to the wind. Bel called
upon his messenger, whom he sent to Ea in the ocean depths, saying:
"My son Sin ... hath been grievously bedimmed". Ea lamented, and
dispatched his son Merodach to net the demons by magic, using "a
two-coloured cord from the hair of a virgin kid and from the wool of a
virgin lamb".[101]

As in India, where Shitala, the Bengali goddess of smallpox, for
instance, is worshipped when the dreaded disease she controls becomes
epidemic, so in Babylonia the people sought to secure immunity from
attack by worshipping spirits of disease. A tablet relates that Ura, a
plague demon, once resolved to destroy all life, but ultimately
consented to spare those who praised his name and exalted him in
recognition of his bravery and power. This could be accomplished by
reciting a formula. Indian serpent worshippers believe that their
devotions "destroy all danger proceeding from snakes".[102]

Like the Ancient Egyptians, the Babylonians also had their kindly
spirits who brought luck and the various enjoyments of life. A good
"labartu" might attend on a human being like a household fairy of
India or Europe: a friendly "shedu" could protect a household against
the attacks of fierce demons and human enemies. Even the spirits of
Fate who served Anu, god of the sky, and that "Norn" of the
Underworld, Eresh-ki-gal, queen of Hades, might sometimes be
propitious: if the deities were successfully invoked they could cause
the Fates to smite spirits of disease and bringers of ill luck. Damu,
a friendly fairy goddess, was well loved, because she inspired
pleasant dreams, relieved the sufferings of the afflicted, and
restored to good health those patients whom she selected to favour.

In the Egyptian _Book of the Dead_ the kindly spirits are overshadowed
by the evil ones, because the various magical spells which were put on
record were directed against those supernatural beings who were
enemies of mankind. Similarly in Babylonia the fragments of this class
of literature which survive deal mainly with wicked and vengeful
demons. It appears probable, however, that the highly emotional
Sumerians and Akkadians were on occasion quite as cheerful a people as
the inhabitants of ancient Egypt. Although they were surrounded by
bloodthirsty furies who desired to shorten their days, and their
nights were filled with vague lowering phantoms which inspired fear,
they no doubt shared, in their charm-protected houses, a comfortable
feeling of security after performing magical ceremonies, and were
happy enough when they gathered round flickering lights to listen to
ancient song and story and gossip about crops and traders, the members
of the royal house, and the family affairs of their acquaintances.

The Babylonian spirit world, it will be seen, was of complex
character. Its inhabitants were numberless, but often vaguely defined,
and one class of demons linked with another. Like the European fairies
of folk belief, the Babylonian spirits were extremely hostile and
irresistible at certain seasonal periods; and they were fickle and
perverse and difficult to please even when inclined to be friendly.
They were also similarly manifested from time to time in various
forms. Sometimes they were comely and beautiful; at other times they
were apparitions of horror. The Jinn of present-day Arabians are of
like character; these may be giants, cloudy shapes, comely women,
serpents or cats, goats or pigs.

Some of the composite monsters of Babylonia may suggest the vague and
exaggerated recollections of terror-stricken people who have had
glimpses of unfamiliar wild beasts in the dusk or amidst reedy
marshes. But they cannot be wholly accounted for in this way. While
animals were often identified with supernatural beings, and foreigners
were called "devils", it would be misleading to assert that the spirit
world reflects confused folk memories of human and bestial enemies.
Even when a demon was given concrete human form it remained
essentially non-human: no ordinary weapon could inflict an injury, and
it was never controlled by natural laws. The spirits of disease and
tempest and darkness were creations of fancy: they symbolized moods;
they were the causes which explained effects. A sculptor or
storyteller who desired to convey an impression of a spirit of storm
or pestilence created monstrous forms to inspire terror. Sudden and
unexpected visits of fierce and devastating demons were accounted for
by asserting that they had wings like eagles, were nimble-footed as
gazelles, cunning and watchful as serpents; that they had claws to
clutch, horns to gore, and powerful fore legs like a lion to smite
down victims. Withal they drank blood like ravens and devoured corpses
like hyaenas. Monsters were all the more repulsive when they were
partly human. The human-headed snake or the snake-headed man and the
man with the horns of a wild bull and the legs of a goat were horrible
in the extreme. Evil spirits might sometimes achieve success by
practising deception. They might appear as beautiful girls or handsome
men and seize unsuspecting victims in deathly embrace or leave them
demented and full of grief, or come as birds and suddenly assume
awesome shapes.

Fairies and elves, and other half-human demons, are sometimes regarded
as degenerate gods. It will be seen, however, that while certain
spirits developed into deities, others remained something between
these two classes of supernatural beings: they might attend upon gods
and goddesses, or operate independently now against mankind and now
against deities even. The "namtaru", for instance, was a spirit of
fate, the son of Bel-Enlil and Eresh-ki-gal, queen of Hades.
"Apparently", writes Professor Pinches, "he executed the instructions
given him concerning the fate of men, and could also have power over
certain of the gods."[103] To this middle class belong the evil gods
who rebelled against the beneficent deities. According to Hebridean
folk belief, the fallen angels are divided into three classes--the
fairies, the "nimble men" (aurora borealis), and the "blue men of the
Minch". In _Beowulf_ the "brood of Cain" includes "monsters and elves
and sea-devils--giants also, who long time fought with God, for which
he gave them their reward".[104] Similarly the Babylonian spirit
groups are liable to division and subdivision. The various classes may
be regarded as relics of the various stages of development from crude
animism to sublime monotheism: in the fragmentary legends we trace the
floating material from which great mythologies have been framed.




CHAPTER V.

MYTHS OF TAMMUZ AND ISHTAR


  Forms of Tammuz--The Weeping Ceremony--Tammuz the Patriarch and the
  Dying God--Common Origin of Tammuz and other Deities from an Archaic
  God--The Mediterranean Racial Myth--Animal Forms of Gods of
  Fertility--Two Legends of the Death of Tammuz--Attis, Adonis, and
  Diarmid Slain by a Boar--Laments for Tammuz--His Soul in Underworld
  and the Deep--Myth of the Child God of Ocean--Sargon Myth
  Version--The Germanic Scyld of the Sheaf--Tammuz Links with Frey,
  Heimdal, Agni, &c.--Assyrian Legend of "Descent of Ishtar"--Sumerian
  Version--The Sister Belit-sheri and the Mother Ishtar--The Egyptian
  Isis and Nepthys--Goddesses as Mothers, Sisters, and Wives--Great
  Mothers of Babylonia--Immortal Goddesses and Dying Gods--The Various
  Indras--Celtic Goddess with Seven Periods of Youth--Lovers of
  Germanic and Classic Goddesses--The Lovers of Ishtar--Racial
  Significance of Goddess Cult--The Great Fathers and their
  Worshippers--Process of Racial and Religious Fusion--Ishtar and
  Tiamat--Mother Worship in Palestine--Women among Goddess
  Worshippers.


Among the gods of Babylonia none achieved wider and more enduring
fame than Tammuz, who was loved by Ishtar, the amorous Queen of
Heaven--the beautiful youth who died and was mourned for and came to
life again. He does not figure by his popular name in any of the city
pantheons, but from the earliest times of which we have knowledge
until the passing of Babylonian civilization, he played a prominent
part in the religious life of the people.

Tammuz, like Osiris of Egypt, was an agricultural deity, and as the
Babylonian harvest was the gift of the rivers, it is probable that one
of his several forms was Dumu-zi-abzu, "Tammuz of the Abyss". He was
also "the child", "the heroic lord", "the sentinel", "the healer", and
the patriarch who reigned over the early Babylonians for a
considerable period. "Tammuz of the Abyss" was one of the members of
the family of Ea, god of the Deep, whose other sons, in addition to
Merodach, were Nira, an obscure deity; Ki-gulla, "world destroyer",
Burnunta-sa, "broad ear", and Bara and Baragulla, probably "revealers"
or "oracles". In addition there was a daughter, Khi-dimme-azaga,
"child of the renowned spirit". She may have been identical with
Belit-sheri, who is referred to in the Sumerian hymns as the sister of
Tammuz. This family group was probably formed by symbolizing the
attributes of Ea and his spouse Damkina. Tammuz, in his character as a
patriarch, may have been regarded as a hostage from the gods: the
human form of Ea, who instructed mankind, like King Osiris, how to
grow corn and cultivate fruit trees. As the youth who perished
annually, he was the corn spirit. He is referred to in the Bible by
his Babylonian name.

When Ezekiel detailed the various idolatrous practices of the
Israelites, which included the worship of the sun and "every form of
creeping things and abominable beasts"--a suggestion of the composite
monsters of Babylonia--he was brought "to the door of the gate of the
Lord's house, which was towards the north; and, behold, there sat
women weeping for Tammuz".[105]

The weeping ceremony was connected with agricultural rites. Corn
deities were weeping deities, they shed fertilizing tears; and the
sowers simulated the sorrow of divine mourners when they cast seed in
the soil "to die", so that it might spring up as corn. This ancient
custom, like many others, contributed to the poetic imagery of the
Bible. "They that sow in tears", David sang, "shall reap in joy. He
that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless
come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him."[106] In
Egypt the priestesses who acted the parts of Isis and Nepthys, mourned
for the slain corn god Osiris.

    Gods and men before the face of the gods are weeping for
      thee at the same time, when they behold me!...
    All thy sister goddesses are at thy side and behind thy couch,
    Calling upon thee with weeping--yet thou are prostrate upon
      thy bed!...
    Live before us, desiring to behold thee.[107]

It was believed to be essential that human beings should share the
universal sorrow caused by the death of a god. If they remained
unsympathetic, the deities would punish them as enemies. Worshippers
of nature gods, therefore, based their ceremonial practices on natural
phenomena. "The dread of the worshippers that the neglect of the usual
ritual would be followed by disaster, is particularly intelligible",
writes Professor Robertson Smith, "if they regarded the necessary
operations of agriculture as involving the violent extinction of a
particle of divine life."[108] By observing their ritual, the
worshippers won the sympathy and co-operation of deities, or exercised
a magical control over nature.

The Babylonian myth of Tammuz, the dying god, bears a close
resemblance to the Greek myth of Adonis. It also links with the myth
of Osiris. According to Professor Sayce, Tammuz is identical with
"Daonus or Daos, the shepherd of Pantibibla", referred to by Berosus
as the ruler of one of the mythical ages of Babylonia. We have
therefore to deal with Tammuz in his twofold character as a patriarch
and a god of fertility.

The Adonis version of the myth may be summarized briefly. Ere the god
was born, his mother, who was pursued by her angry sire, as the river
goddesses of the folk tales are pursued by the well demons,
transformed herself into a tree. Adonis sprang from the trunk of this
tree, and Aphrodite, having placed the child in a chest, committed him
to the care of Persephone, queen of Hades, who resembles the
Babylonian Eresh-ki-gal. Persephone desired to retain the young god,
and Aphrodite (Ishtar) appealed to Zeus (Anu), who decreed that Adonis
should spend part of the year with one goddess and part of the year
with the other.

It is suggested that the myth of Adonis was derived in post-Homeric
times by the Greeks indirectly from Babylonia through the Western
Semites, the Semitic title "Adon", meaning "lord", having been
mistaken for a proper name. This theory, however, cannot be accepted
without qualifications. It does not explain the existence of either
the Phrygian myth of Attis, which was developed differently from the
Tammuz myth, or the Celtic story of "Diarmid and the boar", which
belongs to the archaeological "Hunting Period". There are traces in
Greek mythology of pre-Hellenic myths about dying harvest deities,
like Hyakinthos and Erigone, for instance, who appear to have been
mourned for. There is every possibility, therefore, that the Tammuz
ritual may have been attached to a harvest god of the pre-Hellenic
Greeks, who received at the same time the new name of Adonis. Osiris
of Egypt resembles Tammuz, but his Mesopotamian origin has not been
proved. It would appear probable that Tammuz, Attis, Osiris, and the
deities represented by Adonis and Diarmid were all developed from an
archaic god of fertility and vegetation, the central figure of a myth
which was not only as ancient as the knowledge and practice of
agriculture, but had existence even in the "Hunting Period". Traces of
the Tammuz-Osiris story in various forms are found all over the area
occupied by the Mediterranean or Brown race from Sumeria to the
British Isles. Apparently the original myth was connected with tree
and water worship and the worship of animals. Adonis sprang from a
tree; the body of Osiris was concealed in a tree which grew round the
sea-drifted chest in which he was concealed. Diarmid concealed himself
in a tree when pursued by Finn. The blood of Tammuz, Osiris, and
Adonis reddened the swollen rivers which fertilized the soil. Various
animals were associated with the harvest god, who appears to have been
manifested from time to time in different forms, for his spirit
pervaded all nature. In Egypt the soul of Osiris entered the Apis bull
or the ram of Mendes.

Tammuz in the hymns is called "the pre-eminent steer of heaven", and a
popular sacrifice was "a white kid of the god Tammuz", which, however,
might be substituted by a sucking pig. Osiris had also associations
with swine, and the Egyptians, according to Herodotus, sacrificed a
pig to him annually. When Set at full moon hunted the boar in the
Delta marshes, he probably hunted the boar form of Osiris, whose human
body had been recovered from the sacred tree by Isis. As the soul of
Bata, the hero of the Egyptian folk tale,[109] migrated from the
blossom to the bull, and the bull to the tree, so apparently did the
soul of Osiris pass from incarnation to incarnation. Set, the demon
slayer of the harvest god, had also a boar form; he was the black pig
who devoured the waning moon and blinded the Eye of Ra.

In his character as a long-lived patriarch, Tammuz, the King Daonus or
Daos of Berosus, reigned in Babylonia for 36,000 years. When he died,
he departed to Hades or the Abyss. Osiris, after reigning over the
Egyptians, became Judge of the Dead.

Tammuz of the Sumerian hymns, however, is the Adonis-like god who
lived on earth for a part of the year as the shepherd and
agriculturist so dearly beloved by the goddess Ishtar. Then he died so
that he might depart to the realm of Eresh-ki-gal (Persephone), queen
of Hades. According to one account, his death was caused by the fickle
Ishtar. When that goddess wooed Gilgamesh, the Babylonian Hercules, he
upbraided her, saying:

    On Tammuz, the spouse of thy youth,
    Thou didst lay affliction every year.

            _King's Translation_.

References in the Sumerian hymns suggest that there also existed a
form of the legend which gave an account of the slaying of the young
god by someone else than Ishtar. The slayer may have been a Set-like
demon--perhaps Nin-shach, who appears to have symbolized the
destroying influence of the sun. He was a war deity, and his name,
Professor Pinches says, "is conjectured to mean 'lord of the wild
boar'". There is no direct evidence, however, to connect Tammuz's
slayer with the boar which killed Adonis. Ishtar's innocence is
emphasized by the fact that she mourned for her youthful lover,
crying:

    Oh hero, my lord, ah me! I will say;
    Food I eat not ... water I drink not ...
    Because of the exalted one of the nether world, him of the
      radiant face, yea radiant,
    Of the exalted one of the nether world, him of the dove-like
      voice, yea dove-like.[110]

The Phrygian Attis met his death, according to one legend, by
self-mutilation under a sacred tree. Another account sets forth,
however, that he was slain by a boar. The Greek Adonis was similarly
killed by a boar. This animal was a form of Ares (Mars), god of war
and tempest, who also loved Aphrodite (Ishtar). The Celtic Diarmid, in
his character as a love god, with lunar attributes, was slain by "the
green boar", which appears to have been one of the animals of a
ferocious Hag, an earth and air "mother" with various names. In one of
the many Fingalian stories the animal is

    ... That venomous boar, and he so fierce,
    That Grey Eyebrows had with her herd of swine.[111]

Diarmid had eloped with the wife of Finn-mac-Coul (Fingal), who, like
Ares, plotted to bring about his rival's death, and accordingly set
the young hero to hunt the boar. As a thunder god Finn carried a
hammer with which he smote his shield; the blows were heard in
Lochlann (Scandinavia). Diarmid, like Tammuz, the "god of the tender
voice and shining eyes", had much beauty. When he expired, Finn cried:

    No maiden will raise her eye
    Since the mould has gone over thy visage fair...
    Blue without rashness in thine eye!
    Passion and beauty behind thy curls!...
    Oh, yesternight it was green the hillock,
    Red is it this day with Diarmid's blood.[112]

Tammuz died with the dying vegetation, and Diarmid expired when the
hills apparently were assuming their purple tints.[113] The month of
Tammuz wailings was from 20th June till 20th July, when the heat and
dryness brought forth the demons of pestilence. The mourners chanted:

    He has gone, he has gone to the bosom of the earth,
    And the dead are numerous in the land....
    Men are filled with sorrow: they stagger by day in gloom ...
    In the month of thy year which brings not peace hast thou gone.
    Thou hast gone on a journey that makes an end of thy people.

The following extract contains a reference to the slaying of the god:

    The holy one of Ishtar, in the middle of the year the fields
        languish...
    The shepherd, the wise one, the man of sorrows, why have they
    slain?...
    In his temple, in his inhabited domain,
    The child, lord of knowledge, abides no more...
    In the meadows, verily, verily, the soul of life perishes.

There is wailing for Tammuz "at the sacred cedar, where the mother
bore thee", a reference which connects the god, like Adonis and
Osiris, with tree worship:

    The wailing is for the herbs: the first lament is, "they are not
        produced".
    The wailing is for the grain, ears are not produced.
    The wailing is for the habitations, for the flocks which bring
        forth no more.
    The wailing is for the perishing wedded ones; for the perishing
    children; the dark-headed people create no more.

The wailing is also for the shrunken river, the parched meadows, the
fishpools, the cane brakes, the forests, the plains, the gardens, and
the palace, which all suffer because the god of fertility has
departed. The mourner cries:

      How long shall the springing of verdure be restrained?
      How long shall the putting forth of leaves be held back?

Whither went Tammuz? His destination has already been referred to as
"the bosom of the earth", and in the Assyrian version of the "Descent
of Ishtar" he dwells in "the house of darkness" among the dead, "where
dust is their nourishment and their food mud", and "the light is never
seen"--the gloomy Babylonian Hades. In one of the Sumerian hymns,
however, it is stated that Tammuz "upon the flood was cast out". The
reference may be to the submarine "house of Ea", or the Blessed Island
to which the Babylonian Noah was carried. In this Hades bloomed the
nether "garden of Adonis".

The following extract refers to the garden of Damu (Tammuz)[114]:--

    Damu his youth therein slumbers ...
    Among the garden flowers he slumbers; among the garden flowers
    he is cast away ...
    Among the tamarisks he slumbers, with woe he causes us to be
    satiated.

Although Tammuz of the hymns was slain, he returned again from Hades.
Apparently he came back as a child. He is wailed for as "child, Lord
Gishzida", as well as "my hero Damu". In his lunar character the
Egyptian Osiris appeared each month as "the child surpassingly
beautiful"; the Osiris bull was also a child of the moon; "it was
begotten", says Plutarch, "by a ray of generative light falling from
the moon". When the bull of Attis was sacrificed his worshippers were
drenched with its blood, and were afterwards ceremonially fed with
milk, as they were supposed to have "renewed their youth" and become
children. The ancient Greek god Eros (Cupid) was represented as a
wanton boy or handsome youth. Another god of fertility, the Irish
Angus, who resembles Eros, is called "the ever young"; he slumbers
like Tammuz and awakes in the Spring.

Apparently it was believed that the child god, Tammuz, returned from
the earlier Sumerian Paradise of the Deep, and grew into full manhood
in a comparatively brief period, like Vyasa and other super-men of
Indian mythology. A couplet from a Tammuz hymn says tersely:

    In his infancy in a sunken boat he lay.
    In his manhood in the submerged grain he lay.[115]

The "boat" may be the "chest" in which Adonis was concealed by
Aphrodite when she confided him to the care of Persephone, queen of
Hades, who desired to retain the young god, but was compelled by Zeus
to send him back to the goddess of love and vegetation. The fact that
Ishtar descended to Hades in quest of Tammuz may perhaps explain the
symbolic references in hymns to mother goddesses being in sunken boats
also when their powers were in abeyance, as were those of the god for
part of each year. It is possible, too, that the boat had a lunar and
a solar significance. Khonsu, the Egyptian moon god, for instance, was
associated with the Spring sun, being a deity of fertility and
therefore a corn spirit; he was a form of Osiris, the Patriarch, who
sojourned on earth to teach mankind how to grow corn and cultivate
fruit trees. In the Egyptian legend Osiris received the corn seeds
from Isis, which suggests that among Great-Mother-worshipping peoples,
it was believed that agricultural civilization had a female origin.
The same myths may have been attached to corn gods and corn goddesses,
associated with water, sun, moon, and stars.

That there existed in Babylonia at an extremely remote period an
agricultural myth regarding a Patriarch of divine origin who was
rescued from a boat in his childhood, is suggested by the legend which
was attached to the memory of the usurper King Sargon of Akkad. It
runs as follows:

    "I am Sargon, the mighty King of Akkad. My mother was a
    vestal (priestess), my father an alien, whose brother inhabited
        the
    mountain.... When my mother had conceived me, she bare
    me in a hidden place. She laid me in a vessel of rushes, stopped
    the door thereof with pitch, and cast me adrift on the river....
    The river floated me to Akki, the water drawer, who, in drawing
    water, drew me forth. Akki, the water drawer, educated me as
    his son, and made me his gardener. As a gardener, I was beloved
    by the goddess Ishtar."

It is unlikely that this story was invented by Sargon. Like the many
variants of it found in other countries, it was probably founded on a
form of the Tammuz-Adonis myth. Indeed, a new myth would not have
suited Sargon's purpose so well as the adaptation of an old one, which
was more likely to make popular appeal when connected with his name.
The references to the goddess Ishtar, and Sargon's early life as a
gardener, suggest that the king desired to be remembered as an
agricultural Patriarch, if not of divine, at any rate of semi-divine
origin.

What appears to be an early form of the widespread Tammuz myth is the
Teutonic legend regarding the mysterious child who came over the sea
to inaugurate a new era of civilization and instruct the people how to
grow corn and become great warriors. The Northern peoples, as
archaeological evidence suggests, derived their knowledge of
agriculture, and therefore their agricultural myths,

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