{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_16653/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_16653","id":"gutenberg_16653","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16653","summary":null,"tags":["Assyro-Babylonian religion","Category: History - Ancient","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Mythology","Mythology, Assyro-Babylonian"],"text":"Produced by Sami Sieranoja, Tapio Riikonen and PG\nDistributed Proofreaders\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMYTHS OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA\n\nDonald A. Mackenzie\n\n\n\nTABLE OF CONTENTS\n\n                Preface\n                Introduction\nI.              The Races and Early Civilization of Babylonia\nII.             The Land of Rivers and the God of the Deep\nIII.            Rival Pantheons and Representative Deities\nIV.             Demons, Fairies, and Ghosts\nV.              Myths of Tammuz and Ishtar\nVI.             Wars of the City States of Sumer and Akkad\nVII.            Creation Legend: Merodach the Dragon Slayer\nVIII.           Deified Heroes: Etana and Gilgamesh\nIX.             Deluge Legend, the Island of the Blessed, and Hades\nX.              Buildings and Laws and Customs of Babylon\nXI.             The Golden Age of Babylonia\nXII.            Rise of the Hittites, Mitannians, Kassites, Hyksos, and\n                Assyrians\nXIII.           Astrology and Astronomy\nXIV.            Ashur the National God of Assyria\nXV.             Conflicts for Trade and Supremacy\nXVI.            Race Movements that Shattered Empires\nXVII.           The Hebrews in Assyrian History\nXVIII.          The Age of Semiramis\nXIX.            Assyria's Age of Splendour\nXX.             The Last Days of Assyria and Babylonia\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\n\nThis volume deals with the myths and legends of Babylonia and Assyria,\nand as these reflect the civilization in which they developed, a\nhistorical narrative has been provided, beginning with the early\nSumerian Age and concluding with the periods of the Persian and\nGrecian Empires. Over thirty centuries of human progress are thus\npassed under review.\n\nDuring this vast interval of time the cultural influences emanating\nfrom the Tigro-Euphrates valley reached far-distant shores along the\nintersecting avenues of trade, and in consequence of the periodic and\nwidespread migrations of peoples who had acquired directly or\nindirectly the leavening elements of Mesopotamian civilization. Even\nat the present day traces survive in Europe of the early cultural\nimpress of the East; our \"Signs of the Zodiac\", for instance, as well\nas the system of measuring time and space by using 60 as a basic\nnumeral for calculation, are inheritances from ancient Babylonia.\n\nAs in the Nile Valley, however, it is impossible to trace in\nMesopotamia the initiatory stages of prehistoric culture based on the\nagricultural mode of life. What is generally called the \"Dawn of\nHistory\" is really the beginning of a later age of progress; it is\nnecessary to account for the degree of civilization attained at the\nearliest period of which we have knowledge by postulating a remoter\nage of culture of much longer duration than that which separates the\n\"Dawn\" from the age in which we now live. Although Sumerian (early\nBabylonian) civilization presents distinctively local features which\njustify the application of the term \"indigenous\" in the broad sense,\nit is found, like that of Egypt, to be possessed of certain elements\nwhich suggest exceedingly remote influences and connections at present\nobscure. Of special interest in this regard is Professor Budge's\nmature and well-deliberated conclusion that \"both the Sumerians and\nearly Egyptians derived their primeval gods from some common but\nexceedingly ancient source\". The prehistoric burial customs of these\nseparate peoples are also remarkably similar and they resemble closely\nin turn those of the Neolithic Europeans. The cumulative effect of\nsuch evidence forces us to regard as not wholly satisfactory and\nconclusive the hypothesis of cultural influence. A remote racial\nconnection is possible, and is certainly worthy of consideration when\nso high an authority as Professor Frazer, author of _The Golden\nBough_, is found prepared to admit that the widespread \"homogeneity of\nbeliefs\" may have been due to \"homogeneity of race\". It is shown\n(Chapter 1) that certain ethnologists have accumulated data which\nestablish a racial kinship between the Neolithic Europeans, the\nproto-Egyptians, the Sumerians, the southern Persians, and the\nAryo-Indians.\n\nThroughout this volume comparative notes have been compiled in dealing\nwith Mesopotamian beliefs with purpose to assist the reader towards\nthe study of linking myths and legends. Interesting parallels have\nbeen gleaned from various religious literatures in Europe, Egypt,\nIndia, and elsewhere. It will be found that certain relics of\nBabylonian intellectual life, which have a distinctive geographical\nsignificance, were shared by peoples in other cultural areas where\nthey were similarly overlaid with local colour. Modes of thought were\nthe products of modes of life and were influenced in their development\nby human experiences. The influence of environment on the growth of\nculture has long been recognized, but consideration must also be given\nto the choice of environment by peoples who had adopted distinctive\nhabits of life. Racial units migrated from cultural areas to districts\nsuitable for colonization and carried with them a heritage of\nimmemorial beliefs and customs which were regarded as being quite as\nindispensable for their welfare as their implements and domesticated\nanimals.\n\nWhen consideration is given in this connection to the conservative\nelement in primitive religion, it is not surprising to find that the\ngrowth of religious myths was not so spontaneous in early\ncivilizations of the highest order as has hitherto been assumed. It\nseems clear that in each great local mythology we have to deal, in the\nfirst place, not with symbolized ideas so much as symbolized folk\nbeliefs of remote antiquity and, to a certain degree, of common\ninheritance. It may not be found possible to arrive at a conclusive\nsolution of the most widespread, and therefore the most ancient folk\nmyths, such as, for instance, the Dragon Myth, or the myth of the\nculture hero. Nor, perhaps, is it necessary that we should concern\nourselves greatly regarding the origin of the idea of the dragon,\nwhich in one country symbolized fiery drought and in another\noverwhelming river floods.\n\nThe student will find footing on surer ground by following the process\nwhich exalts the dragon of the folk tale into the symbol of evil and\nprimordial chaos. The Babylonian Creation Myth, for instance, can be\nshown to be a localized and glorified legend in which the hero and his\ntribe are displaced by the war god and his fellow deities whose\nwelfare depends on his prowess. Merodach kills the dragon, Tiamat, as\nthe heroes of Eur-Asian folk stories kill grisly hags, by casting his\nweapon down her throat.\n\n    He severed her inward parts, he pierced her heart,\n    He overcame her and cut off her life;\n    He cast down her body and stood upon it ...\n    And with merciless club he smashed her skull.\n    He cut through the channels of her blood,\n    And he made the north wind to bear it away into secret places.\n\nAfterwards\n\n    He divided the flesh of the _Ku-pu_ and devised a cunning plan.\n\nMr. L.W. King, from whose scholarly _Seven Tablets of Creation_ these\nlines are quoted, notes that \"Ku-pu\" is a word of uncertain meaning.\nJensen suggests \"trunk, body\". Apparently Merodach obtained special\nknowledge after dividing, and perhaps eating, the \"Ku-pu\". His\n\"cunning plan\" is set forth in detail: he cut up the dragon's body:\n\n    He split her up like a flat fish into two halves.\n\nHe formed the heavens with one half and the earth with the other, and\nthen set the universe in order. His power and wisdom as the Demiurge\nwere derived from the fierce and powerful Great Mother, Tiamat.\n\nIn other dragon stories the heroes devise their plans after eating the\ndragon's heart. According to Philostratus,[1] Apollonius of Tyana was\nworthy of being remembered for two things--his bravery in travelling\namong fierce robber tribes, not then subject to Rome, and his wisdom\nin learning the language of birds and other animals as the Arabs do.\nThis accomplishment the Arabs acquired, Philostratus explains, by\neating the hearts of dragons. The \"animals\" who utter magic words are,\nof course, the Fates. Siegfried of the _Nibelungenlied_, after slaying\nthe Regin dragon, makes himself invulnerable by bathing in its blood.\nHe obtains wisdom by eating the heart: as soon as he tastes it he can\nunderstand the language of birds, and the birds reveal to him that\nMimer is waiting to slay him. Sigurd similarly makes his plans after\neating the heart of the Fafner dragon. In Scottish legend\nFinn-mac-Coul obtains the power to divine secrets by partaking of a\nsmall portion of the seventh salmon associated with the \"well dragon\",\nand Michael Scott and other folk heroes become great physicians after\ntasting the juices of the middle part of the body of the white snake.\nThe hero of an Egyptian folk tale slays a \"deathless snake\" by cutting\nit in two parts and putting sand between the parts. He then obtains\nfrom the box, of which it is the guardian, the book of spells; when he\nreads a page of the spells he knows what the birds of the sky, the\nfish of the deep, and the beasts of the hill say; the book gives him\npower to enchant \"the heaven and the earth, the abyss, the mountains\nand the sea\".[2]\n\nMagic and religion were never separated in Babylonia; not only the\npriests but also the gods performed magical ceremonies. Ea, Merodach's\nfather, overcame Apsu, the husband of the dragon Tiamat, by means of\nspells: he was \"the great magician of the gods\". Merodach's division\nof the \"Ku-pu\" was evidently an act of contagious magic; by eating or\notherwise disposing of the vital part of the fierce and wise mother\ndragon, he became endowed with her attributes, and was able to proceed\nwith the work of creation. Primitive peoples in our own day, like the\nAbipones of Paraguay, eat the flesh of fierce and cunning animals so\nthat their strength, courage, and wisdom may be increased.\n\nThe direct influence exercised by cultural contact, on the other hand,\nmay be traced when myths with an alien geographical setting are found\namong peoples whose experiences could never have given them origin. In\nIndia, where the dragon symbolizes drought and the western river\ndeities are female, the Manu fish and flood legend resembles closely\nthe Babylonian, and seems to throw light upon it. Indeed, the Manu\nmyth appears to have been derived from the lost flood story in which\nEa figured prominently in fish form as the Preserver. The Babylonian\nEa cult and the Indian Varuna cult had apparently much in common, as\nis shown.\n\nThroughout this volume special attention has been paid to the various\npeoples who were in immediate contact with, and were influenced by,\nMesopotamian civilization. The histories are traced in outline of the\nKingdoms of Elam, Urartu (Ancient Armenia), Mitanni, and the Hittites,\nwhile the story of the rise and decline of the Hebrew civilization, as\nnarrated in the Bible and referred to in Mesopotamian inscriptions, is\nrelated from the earliest times until the captivity in the\nNeo-Babylonian period and the restoration during the age of the\nPersian Empire. The struggles waged between the great Powers for the\ncontrol of trade routes, and the periodic migrations of pastoral\nwarrior folks who determined the fate of empires, are also dealt with,\nso that light may be thrown on the various processes and influences\nassociated with the developments of local religions and mythologies.\nSpecial chapters, with comparative notes, are devoted to the\nIshtar-Tammuz myths, the Semiramis legends, Ashur and his symbols, and\nthe origin and growth of astrology and astronomy.\n\nThe ethnic disturbances which occurred at various well-defined periods\nin the Tigro-Euphrates valley were not always favourable to the\nadvancement of knowledge and the growth of culture. The invaders who\nabsorbed Sumerian civilization may have secured more settled\nconditions by welding together political units, but seem to have\nexercised a retrogressive influence on the growth of local culture.\n\"Babylonian religion\", writes Dr. Langdon, \"appears to have reached\nits highest level in the Sumerian period, or at least not later than\n2000 B.C. From that period onward to the first century B.C. popular\nreligion maintained with great difficulty the sacred standards of the\npast.\" Although it has been customary to characterize Mesopotamian\ncivilization as Semitic, modern research tends to show that the\nindigenous inhabitants, who were non-Semitic, were its originators.\nLike the proto-Egyptians, the early Cretans, and the Pelasgians in\nsouthern Europe and Asia Minor, they invariably achieved the\nintellectual conquest of their conquerors, as in the earliest times\nthey had won victories over the antagonistic forces of nature. If the\nmodern view is accepted that these ancient agriculturists of the\ngoddess cult were of common racial origin, it is to the most\nrepresentative communities of the widespread Mediterranean race that\nthe credit belongs of laying the foundations of the brilliant\ncivilizations of the ancient world in southern Europe, and Egypt, and\nthe valley of the Tigris and Euphrates.\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\n\nAncient Babylonia has made stronger appeal to the imagination of\nChristendom than even Ancient Egypt, because of its association with\nthe captivity of the Hebrews, whose sorrows are enshrined in the\nfamiliar psalm:\n\n    By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down;\n    Yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.\n    We hanged our harps upon the willows....\n\nIn sacred literature proud Babylon became the city of the anti-Christ,\nthe symbol of wickedness and cruelty and human vanity. Early\nChristians who suffered persecution compared their worldly state to\nthat of the oppressed and disconsolate Hebrews, and, like them, they\nsighed for Jerusalem--the new Jerusalem. When St. John the Divine had\nvisions of the ultimate triumph of Christianity, he referred to its\nenemies--the unbelievers and persecutors--as the citizens of the\nearthly Babylon, the doom of which he pronounced in stately and\nmemorable phrases:\n\n    Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen,\n    And is become the habitation of devils,\n    And the hold of every foul spirit,\n    And a cage of every unclean and hateful bird....\n\n    For her sins have reached unto heaven\n    And God hath remembered her iniquities....\n    The merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her,\n    For no man buyeth their merchandise any more.\n\n\"At the noise of the taking of Babylon\", cried Jeremiah, referring to\nthe original Babylon, \"the earth is moved, and the cry is heard among\nthe nations.... It shall be no more inhabited forever; neither shall\nit be dwelt in from generation to generation.\" The Christian Saint\nrendered more profound the brooding silence of the desolated city of\nhis vision by voicing memories of its beauty and gaiety and bustling\ntrade:\n\n    The voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers and trumpeters\n        shall be heard no more at all in thee;\n    And no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any\n        more in thee;\n    And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee;\n    And the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no\n        more at all in thee:\n    For thy merchants were the great men of the earth;\n    For by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.\n    _And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints,\n    And of all that were slain upon the earth_.[3]\n\nSo for nearly two thousand years has the haunting memory of the\nonce-powerful city pervaded Christian literature, while its broken\nwalls and ruined temples and palaces lay buried deep in desert sand.\nThe history of the ancient land of which it was the capital survived\nin but meagre and fragmentary form, mingled with accumulated myths and\nlegends. A slim volume contained all that could be derived from\nreferences in the Old Testament and the compilations of classical\nwriters.\n\nIt is only within the past half-century that the wonderful story of\nearly Eastern civilization has been gradually pieced together by\nexcavators and linguists, who have thrust open the door of the past\nand probed the hidden secrets of long ages. We now know more about\n\"the land of Babel\" than did not only the Greeks and Romans, but even\nthe Hebrew writers who foretold its destruction. Glimpses are being\nafforded us of its life and manners and customs for some thirty\ncenturies before the captives of Judah uttered lamentations on the\nbanks of its reedy canals. The sites of some of the ancient cities of\nBabylonia and Assyria were identified by European officials and\ntravellers in the East early in the nineteenth century, and a few\nrelics found their way to Europe. But before Sir A.H. Layard set to\nwork as an excavator in the \"forties\", \"a case scarcely three feet\nsquare\", as he himself wrote, \"enclosed all that remained not only of\nthe great city of Nineveh, but of Babylon itself\".[4]\n\nLayard, the distinguished pioneer Assyriologist, was an Englishman of\nHuguenot descent, who was born in Paris. Through his mother he\ninherited a strain of Spanish blood. During his early boyhood he\nresided in Italy, and his education, which began there, was continued\nin schools in France, Switzerland, and England. He was a man of\nscholarly habits and fearless and independent character, a charming\nwriter, and an accomplished fine-art critic; withal he was a great\ntraveller, a strenuous politician, and an able diplomatist. In 1845,\nwhile sojourning in the East, he undertook the exploration of ancient\nAssyrian cities. He first set to work at Kalkhi, the Biblical Calah.\nThree years previously M.P.C. Botta, the French consul at Mosul, had\nbegun to investigate the Nineveh mounds; but these he abandoned for a\nmound near Khorsabad which proved to be the site of the city erected\nby \"Sargon the Later\", who is referred to by Isaiah. The relics\ndiscovered by Botta and his successor, Victor Place, are preserved in\nthe Louvre.\n\nAt Kalkhi and Nineveh Layard uncovered the palaces of some of the most\nfamous Assyrian Emperors, including the Biblical Shalmaneser and\nEsarhaddon, and obtained the colossi, bas reliefs, and other treasures\nof antiquity which formed the nucleus of the British Museum's\nunrivalled Assyrian collection. He also conducted diggings at Babylon\nand Niffer (Nippur). His work was continued by his assistant, Hormuzd\nRassam, a native Christian of Mosul, near Nineveh. Rassam studied for\na time at Oxford.\n\nThe discoveries made by Layard and Botta stimulated others to follow\ntheir example. In the \"fifties\" Mr. W.K. Loftus engaged in excavations\nat Larsa and Erech, where important discoveries were made of ancient\nbuildings, ornaments, tablets, sarcophagus graves, and pot burials,\nwhile Mr. J.E. Taylor operated at Ur, the seat of the moon cult and\nthe birthplace of Abraham, and at Eridu, which is generally regarded\nas the cradle of early Babylonian (Sumerian) civilization.\n\nIn 1854 Sir Henry Rawlinson superintended diggings at Birs Nimrud\n(Borsippa, near Babylon), and excavated relics of the Biblical\nNebuchadrezzar. This notable archaeologist began his career in the\nEast as an officer in the Bombay army. He distinguished himself as a\npolitical agent and diplomatist. While resident at Baghdad, he devoted\nhis leisure time to cuneiform studies. One of his remarkable feats was\nthe copying of the famous trilingual rock inscription of Darius the\nGreat on a mountain cliff at Behistun, in Persian Kurdistan. This work\nwas carried out at great personal risk, for the cliff is 1700 feet\nhigh and the sculptures and inscriptions are situated about 300 feet\nfrom the ground.\n\nDarius was the first monarch of his line to make use of the Persian\ncuneiform script, which in this case he utilized in conjunction with\nthe older and more complicated Assyro-Babylonian alphabetic and\nsyllabic characters to record a portion of the history of his reign.\nRawlinson's translation of the famous inscription was an important\ncontribution towards the decipherment of the cuneiform writings of\nAssyria and Babylonia.\n\nTwelve years of brilliant Mesopotamian discovery concluded in 1854,\nand further excavations had to be suspended until the \"seventies\" on\naccount of the unsettled political conditions of the ancient land and\nthe difficulties experienced in dealing with Turkish officials. During\nthe interval, however, archaeologists and philologists were kept fully\nengaged studying the large amount of material which had been\naccumulated. Sir Henry Rawlinson began the issue of his monumental\nwork _The Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia_ on behalf of the\nBritish Museum.\n\nGoodspeed refers to the early archaeological work as the \"Heroic\nPeriod\" of research, and says that the \"Modern Scientific Period\"\nbegan with Mr. George Smith's expedition to Nineveh in 1873.\n\nGeorge Smith, like Henry Schliemann, the pioneer investigator of\npre-Hellenic culture, was a self-educated man of humble origin. He was\nborn at Chelsea in 1840. At fourteen he was apprenticed to an\nengraver. He was a youth of studious habits and great originality, and\ninterested himself intensely in the discoveries which had been made by\nLayard and other explorers. At the British Museum, which he visited\nregularly to pore over the Assyrian inscriptions, he attracted the\nattention of Sir Henry Rawlinson. So greatly impressed was Sir Henry\nby the young man's enthusiasm and remarkable intelligence that he\nallowed him the use of his private room and provided casts and\nsqueezes of inscriptions to assist him in his studies. Smith made\nrapid progress. His earliest discovery was the date of the payment of\ntribute by Jehu, King of Israel, to the Assyrian Emperor Shalmaneser.\nSir Henry availed himself of the young investigator's assistance in\nproducing the third volume of _The Cuneiform Inscriptions_.\n\nIn 1867 Smith received an appointment in the Assyriology Department of\nthe British Museum, and a few years later became famous throughout\nChristendom as the translator of fragments of the Babylonian Deluge\nLegend from tablets sent to London by Rassam. Sir Edwin Arnold, the\npoet and Orientalist, was at the time editor of the _Daily Telegraph_,\nand performed a memorable service to modern scholarship by dispatching\nSmith, on behalf of his paper, to Nineveh to search for other\nfragments of the Ancient Babylonian epic. Rassam had obtained the\ntablets from the great library of the cultured Emperor Ashur-bani-pal,\n\"the great and noble Asnapper\" of the Bible,[5] who took delight, as\nhe himself recorded, in\n\n    The wisdom of Ea,[6] the art of song, the treasures of science.\n\nThis royal patron of learning included in his library collection,\ncopies and translations of tablets from Babylonia. Some of these were\nthen over 2000 years old. The Babylonian literary relics were, indeed,\nof as great antiquity to Ashur-bani-pal as that monarch's relics are\nto us.\n\nThe Emperor invoked Nebo, god of wisdom and learning, to bless his\n\"books\", praying:\n\n    Forever, O Nebo, King of all heaven and earth,\n    Look gladly upon this Library\n    Of Ashur-bani-pal, his (thy) shepherd, reverencer of thy\n        divinity.[7]\n\nMr. George Smith's expedition to Nineveh in 1873 was exceedingly\nfruitful of results. More tablets were discovered and translated. In\nthe following year he returned to the ancient Assyrian city on behalf\nof the British Museum, and added further by his scholarly achievements\nto his own reputation and the world's knowledge of antiquity. His last\nexpedition was made early in 1876; on his homeward journey he was\nstricken down with fever, and on 19th August he died at Aleppo in his\nthirty-sixth year. So was a brilliant career brought to an untimely\nend.\n\nRassam was engaged to continue Smith's great work, and between 1877\nand 1882 made many notable discoveries in Assyria and Babylonia,\nincluding the bronze doors of a Shalmaneser temple, the sun temple at\nSippar; the palace of the Biblical Nebuchadrezzar, which was famous\nfor its \"hanging gardens\"; a cylinder of Nabonidus, King of Babylon;\nand about fifty thousand tablets.\n\nM. de Sarzec, the French consul at Bassorah, began in 1877 excavations\nat the ancient Sumerian city of Lagash (Shirpula), and continued them\nuntil 1900. He found thousands of tablets, many has reliefs, votive\nstatuettes, which worshippers apparently pinned on sacred shrines, the\nfamous silver vase of King Entemena, statues of King Gudea, and\nvarious other treasures which are now in the Louvre.\n\nThe pioneer work achieved by British and French excavators stimulated\ninterest all over the world. An expedition was sent out from the\nUnited States by the University of Pennsylvania, and began to operate\nat Nippur in 1888. The Germans, who have displayed great activity in\nthe domain of philological research, are at present represented by an\nexploring party which is conducting the systematic exploration of the\nruins of Babylon. Even the Turkish Government has encouraged research\nwork, and its excavators have accumulated a fine collection of\nantiquities at Constantinople. Among the archaeologists and linguists\nof various nationalities who are devoting themselves to the study of\nancient Assyrian and Babylonian records and literature, and gradually\nunfolding the story of ancient Eastern civilization, those of our own\ncountry occupy a prominent position. One of the most interesting\ndiscoveries of recent years has been new fragments of the Creation\nLegend by L.W. King of the British Museum, whose scholarly work, _The\nSeven Tablets of Creation_, is the standard work on the subject.\n\nThe archaeological work conducted in Persia, Asia Minor, Palestine,\nCyprus, Crete, the Aegean, and Egypt has thrown, and is throwing, much\nlight on the relations between the various civilizations of antiquity.\nIn addition to the Hittite discoveries, with which the name of\nProfessor Sayce will ever be associated as a pioneer, we now hear much\nof the hitherto unknown civilizations of Mitanni and Urartu (ancient\nArmenia), which contributed to the shaping of ancient history. The\nBiblical narratives of the rise and decline of the Hebrew kingdoms\nhave also been greatly elucidated.\n\nIn this volume, which deals mainly with the intellectual life of the\nMesopotamian peoples, a historical narrative has been provided as an\nappropriate setting for the myths and legends. In this connection the\nreader must be reminded that the chronology of the early period is\nstill uncertain. The approximate dates which are given, however, are\nthose now generally adopted by most European and American authorities.\nEarly Babylonian history of the Sumerian period begins some time prior\nto 3000 B.C; Sargon of Akkad flourished about 2650 B.C., and Hammurabi\nnot long before or after 2000 B.C. The inflated system of dating which\nplaces Mena of Egypt as far back as 5500 B.C. and Sargon at about 3800\nB.C. has been abandoned by the majority of prominent archaeologists,\nthe exceptions including Professor Flinders Petrie. Recent discoveries\nappear to support the new chronological system. \"There is a growing\nconviction\", writes Mr. Hawes, \"that Cretan evidence, especially in\nthe eastern part of the island, favours the minimum (Berlin) system of\nEgyptian chronology, according to which the Sixth (Egyptian) Dynasty\nbegan at _c_. 2540 B.C. and the Twelfth at _c_. 2000 B.C.[8] Petrie\ndates the beginning of the Twelfth Dynasty at _c_. 3400 B.C.\n\nTo students of comparative folklore and mythology the myths and\nlegends of Babylonia present many features of engrossing interest.\nThey are of great antiquity, yet not a few seem curiously familiar. We\nmust not conclude, however, that because a European legend may bear\nresemblances to one translated from a cuneiform tablet it is\nnecessarily of Babylonian origin. Certain beliefs, and the myths which\nwere based upon them, are older than even the civilization of the\nTigro-Euphrates valley. They belong, it would appear, to a stock of\ncommon inheritance from an uncertain cultural centre of immense\nantiquity. The problem involved has been referred to by Professor\nFrazer in the _Golden Bough_. Commenting on the similarities presented\nby certain ancient festivals in various countries, he suggests that\nthey may be due to \"a remarkable homogeneity of civilization\nthroughout Southern Europe and Western Asia in prehistoric times. How\nfar\", he adds, \"such homogeneity of civilization may be taken as\nevidence of homogeneity of race is a question for the ethnologist.\"[9]\n\nIn Chapter I the reader is introduced to the ethnological problem, and\nit is shown that the results of modern research tend to establish a\nremote racial connection between the Sumerians of Babylonia, the\nprehistoric Egyptians, and the Neolithic (Late Stone Age) inhabitants\nof Europe, as well as the southern Persians and the \"Aryans\" of India.\n\nComparative notes are provided in dealing with the customs, religious\nbeliefs, and myths and legends of the Mesopotamian peoples to assist\nthe student towards the elucidation and partial restoration of certain\nliterary fragments from the cuneiform tablets. Of special interest in\nthis connection are the resemblances between some of the Indian and\nBabylonian myths. The writer has drawn upon that \"great storehouse\" of\nancient legends, the voluminous Indian epic, the _Mahabharata_, and it\nis shown that there are undoubted links between the Garuda eagle myths\nand those of the Sumerian Zu bird and the Etana eagle, while similar\nstories remain attached to the memories of \"Sargon of Akkad\" and the\nIndian hero Karna, and of Semiramis (who was Queen Sammu-ramat of\nAssyria) and Shakuntala. The Indian god Varuna and the Sumerian Ea are\nalso found to have much in common, and it seems undoubted that the\nManu fish and flood myth is a direct Babylonian inheritance, like the\nYuga (Ages of the Universe) doctrine and the system of calculation\nassociated with it. It is of interest to note, too, that a portion of\nthe Gilgamesh epic survives in the _Ramayana_ story of the monkey god\nHanuman's search for the lost princess Sita; other relics of similar\ncharacter suggest that both the Gilgamesh and Hanuman narratives are\nderived in part from a very ancient myth. Gilgamesh also figures in\nIndian mythology as Yama, the first man, who explored the way to the\nParadise called \"The Land of Ancestors\", and over which he\nsubsequently presided as a god. Other Babylonian myths link with those\nfound in Egypt, Greece, Scandinavia, Iceland, and the British Isles\nand Ireland. The Sargon myth, for instance, resembles closely the myth\nof Scyld (Sceaf), the patriarch, in the _Beowulf_ epic, and both\nappear to be variations of the Tammuz-Adonis story. Tammuz also\nresembles in one of his phases the Celtic hero Diarmid, who was slain\nby the \"green boar\" of the Earth Mother, as was Adonis by the boar\nform of Ares, the Greek war god.\n\nIn approaching the study of these linking myths it would be as rash to\nconclude that all resemblances are due to homogeneity of race as to\nassume that folklore and mythology are devoid of ethnological\nelements. Due consideration must be given to the widespread influence\nexercised by cultural contact. We must recognize also that the human\nmind has ever shown a tendency to arrive quite independently at\nsimilar conclusions, when confronted by similar problems, in various\nparts of the world.\n\nBut while many remarkable resemblances may be detected between the\nbeliefs and myths and customs of widely separated peoples, it cannot\nbe overlooked that pronounced and striking differences remain to be\naccounted for. Human experiences varied in localities because all\nsections of humanity were not confronted in ancient times by the same\nproblems in their everyday lives. Some peoples, for instance,\nexperienced no great difficulties regarding the food supply, which\nmight be provided for them by nature in lavish abundance; others were\ncompelled to wage a fierce and constant conflict against hostile\nforces in inhospitable environments with purpose to secure adequate\nsustenance and their meed of enjoyment. Various habits of life had to\nbe adopted in various parts of the world, and these produced various\nhabits of thought. Consequently, we find that behind all systems of\nprimitive religion lies the formative background of natural phenomena.\nA mythology reflects the geography, the fauna and flora, and the\nclimatic conditions of the area in which it took definite and\npermanent shape.\n\nIn Babylonia, as elsewhere, we expect, therefore, to find a mythology\nwhich has strictly local characteristics--one which mirrors river and\nvalley scenery, the habits of life of the people, and also the various\nstages of progress in the civilization from its earliest beginnings.\nTraces of primitive thought--survivals from remotest antiquity--should\nalso remain in evidence. As a matter of fact Babylonian mythology\nfulfils our expectations in this regard to the highest degree.\n\nHerodotus said that Egypt was the gift of the Nile: similarly\nBabylonia may be regarded as the gift of the Tigris and\nEuphrates--those great shifting and flooding rivers which for long\nages had been carrying down from the Armenian Highlands vast\nquantities of mud to thrust back the waters of the Persian Gulf and\nform a country capable of being utilized for human habitation. The\nmost typical Babylonian deity was Ea, the god of the fertilizing and\ncreative waters.\n\nHe was depicted clad in the skin of a fish, as gods in other\ngeographical areas were depicted wearing the skins of animals which\nwere regarded as ancestors, or hostile demons that had to be\npropitiated. Originally Ea appears to have been a fish--the\nincarnation of the spirit of, or life principle in, the Euphrates\nRiver. His centre of worship was at Eridu, an ancient seaport, where\napparently the prehistoric Babylonians (the Sumerians) first began to\nutilize the dried-up beds of shifting streams to irrigate the soil.\nOne of the several creation myths is reminiscent of those early\nexperiences which produced early local beliefs:\n\n    O thou River, who didst create all things,\n    When the great gods dug thee out,\n    They set prosperity upon thy banks,\n    Within thee Ea, the king of the Deep, created his dwelling.[10]\n\nThe Sumerians observed that the land was brought into existence by\nmeans of the obstructing reeds, which caused mud to accumulate. When\ntheir minds began to be exercised regarding the origin of life, they\nconceived that the first human beings were created by a similar\nprocess:\n\n    Marduk (son of Ea) laid a reed upon the face of the waters,\n    He formed dust and poured it out beside the reed ...\n    He formed mankind.[11]\n\nEa acquired in time, as the divine artisan, various attributes which\nreflected the gradual growth of civilization: he was reputed to have\ntaught the people how to form canals, control the rivers, cultivate\nthe fields, build their houses, and so on.\n\nBut although Ea became a beneficent deity, as a result of the growth\nof civilization, he had also a demoniac form, and had to be\npropitiated. The worshippers of the fish god retained ancient modes of\nthought and perpetuated ancient superstitious practices.\n\nThe earliest settlers in the Tigro-Euphrates valley were\nagriculturists, like their congeners, the proto-Egyptians and the\nNeolithic Europeans. Before they broke away from the parent stock in\nits area of characterization they had acquired the elements of\nculture, and adopted habits of thought which were based on the\nagricultural mode of life. Like other agricultural communities they\nwere worshippers of the \"World Mother\", the Creatrix, who was the\ngiver of all good things, the \"Preserver\" and also the\n\"Destroyer\"--the goddess whose moods were reflected by natural\nphenomena, and whose lovers were the spirits of the seasons.\n\nIn the alluvial valley which they rendered fit for habitation the\nSumerians came into contact with peoples of different habits of life\nand different habits of thought. These were the nomadic pastoralists\nfrom the northern steppe lands, who had developed in isolation\ntheories regarding the origin of the Universe which reflected their\nparticular experiences and the natural phenomena of their area of\ncharacterization. The most representative people of this class were\nthe \"Hatti\" of Asia Minor, who were of Alpine or Armenoid stock. In\nearly times the nomads were broken up into small tribal units, like\nAbraham and his followers, and depended for their food supply on the\nprowess of the males. Their chief deity was the sky and mountain god,\nwho was the \"World Father\", the creator, and the wielder of the\nthunder hammer, who waged war against the demons of storm or drought,\nand ensured the food supply of his worshippers.\n\nThe fusion in Babylonia of the peoples of the god and goddess cults\nwas in progress before the dawn of history, as was the case in Egypt\nand also in southern Europe. In consequence independent Pantheons came\ninto existence in the various city States in the Tigro-Euphrates\nvalley. These were mainly a reflection of city politics: the deities\nof each influential section had to receive recognition. But among the\ngreat masses of the people ancient customs associated with agriculture\ncontinued in practice, and, as Babylonia depended for its prosperity\non its harvests, the force of public opinion tended, it would appear,\nto perpetuate the religious beliefs of the earliest settlers, despite\nthe efforts made by conquerors to exalt the deities they introduced.\n\nBabylonian religion was of twofold character. It embraced temple\nworship and private worship. The religion of the temple was the\nreligion of the ruling class, and especially of the king, who was the\nguardian of the people. Domestic religion was conducted in homes, in\nreed huts, or in public places, and conserved the crudest\nsuperstitions surviving from the earliest times. The great \"burnings\"\nand the human sacrifices in Babylonia, referred to in the Bible, were,\nno doubt, connected with agricultural religion of the private order,\nas was also the ceremony of baking and offering cakes to the Queen of\nHeaven, condemned by Jeremiah, which obtained in the streets of\nJerusalem and other cities. Domestic religion required no temples.\nThere were no temples in Crete: the world was the \"house\" of the\ndeity, who had seasonal haunts on hilltops, in groves, in caves, &c.\nIn Egypt Herodotus witnessed festivals and processions which are not\nreferred to in official inscriptions, although they were evidently\npractised from the earliest times.\n\nAgricultural religion in Egypt was concentrated in the cult of Osiris\nand Isis, and influenced all local theologies. In Babylonia these\ndeities were represented by Tammuz and Ishtar. Ishtar, like Isis,\nabsorbed many other local goddesses.\n\nAccording to the beliefs of the ancient agriculturists the goddess was\neternal and undecaying. She was the Great Mother of the Universe and\nthe source of the food supply. Her son, the corn god, became, as the\nEgyptians put it, \"Husband of his Mother\". Each year he was born anew\nand rapidly attained to manhood; then he was slain by a fierce rival\nwho symbolized the season of pestilence-bringing and parching sun\nheat, or the rainy season, or wild beasts of prey. Or it might be that\nhe was slain by his son, as Cronos was by Zeus and Dyaus by Indra. The\nnew year slew the old year.\n\nThe social customs of the people, which had a religious basis, were\nformed in accordance with the doings of the deities; they sorrowed or\nmade glad in sympathy with the spirits of nature. Worshippers also\nsuggested by their ceremonies how the deities should act at various\nseasons, and thus exercised, as they believed, a magical control over\nthem.\n\nIn Babylonia the agricultural myth regarding the Mother goddess and\nthe young god had many variations. In one form Tammuz, like Adonis,\nwas loved by two goddesses--the twin phases of nature--the Queen of\nHeaven and the Queen of Hades. It was decreed that Tammuz should spend\npart of the year with one goddess and part of the year with the other.\nTammuz was also a Patriarch, who reigned for a long period over the\nland and had human offspring. After death his spirit appeared at\ncertain times and seasons as a planet, star, or constellation. He was\nthe ghost of the elder god, and he was also the younger god who was\nborn each year.\n\nIn the Gilgamesh epic we appear to have a form of the patriarch\nlegend--the story of the \"culture hero\" and teacher who discovered the\npath which led to the land of ancestral spirits. The heroic Patriarch\nin Egypt was Apuatu, \"the opener of the ways\", the earliest form of\nOsiris; in India he was Yama, the first man, \"who searched and found\nout the path for many\".\n\nThe King as Patriarch was regarded during life as an incarnation of\nthe culture god: after death he merged in the god. \"Sargon of Akkad\"\nposed as an incarnation of the ancient agricultural Patriarch: he\nprofessed to be a man of miraculous birth who was loved by the goddess\nIshtar, and was supposed to have inaugurated a New Age of the\nUniverse.\n\nThe myth regarding the father who was superseded by his son may\naccount for the existence in Babylonian city pantheons of elder and\nyounger gods who symbolized the passive and active forces of nature.\n\nConsidering the persistent and cumulative influence exercised by\nagricultural religion it is not surprising to find, as has been\nindicated, that most of the Babylonian gods had Tammuz traits, as most\nof the Egyptian gods had Osirian traits. Although local or imported\ndeities were developed and conventionalized in rival Babylonian\ncities, they still retained traces of primitive conceptions. They\nexisted in all their forms--as the younger god who displaced the elder\ngod and became the elder god, and as the elder god who conciliated the\nyounger god and made him his active agent; and as the god who was\nidentified at various seasons with different heavenly bodies and\nnatural phenomena. Merodach, the god of Babylon, who was exalted as\nchief of the National pantheon in the Hammurabi Age, was, like Tammuz,\na son, and therefore a form of Ea, a demon slayer, a war god, a god of\nfertility, a corn spirit, a Patriarch, and world ruler and guardian,\nand, like Tammuz, he had solar, lunar, astral, and atmospheric\nattributes. The complex characters of Merodach and Tammuz were not due\nsolely to the monotheistic tendency: the oldest deities were of\nmystical character, they represented the \"Self Power\" of Naturalism as\nwell as the spirit groups of Animism.\n\nThe theorizing priests, who speculated regarding the mysteries of life\nand death and the origin of all things, had to address the people\nthrough the medium of popular beliefs. They utilized floating myths\nfor this purpose. As there were in early times various centres of\nculture which had rival pantheons, the adapted myths varied greatly.\nIn the different forms in which they survive to us they reflect, not\nonly aspects of local beliefs, but also grades of culture at different\nperiods. We must not expect, however, to find that the latest form of\na myth was the highest and most profound. The history of Babylonian\nreligion is divided into periods of growth and periods of decadence.\nThe influence of domestic religion was invariably opposed to the new\nand high doctrines which emanated from the priesthood, and in times of\npolitical upheaval tended to submerge them in the debris of immemorial\nbeliefs and customs. The retrogressive tendencies of the masses were\ninvariably reinforced by the periodic invasions of aliens who had no\nrespect for official deities and temple creeds.\n\nWe must avoid insisting too strongly on the application of the\nevolution theory to the religious phenomena of a country like\nBabylonia.\n\nThe epochs in the intellectual life of an ancient people are not\ncomparable to geological epochs, for instance, because the forces at\nwork were directed by human wills, whether in the interests of\nprogress or otherwise. The battle of creeds has ever been a battle of\nminds. It should be recognized, therefore, that the human element\nbulks as prominently in the drama of Babylon's religious history as\ndoes the prince of Denmark in the play of _Hamlet_. We are not\nconcerned with the plot alone. The characters must also receive\nattention. Their aspirations and triumphs, their prejudices and\nblunders, were the billowy forces which shaped the shoreland of the\nstory and made history.\n\nVarious aspects of Babylonian life and culture are dealt with\nthroughout this volume, and it is shown that the growth of science and\nart was stimulated by unwholesome and crude superstitions. Many rank\nweeds flourished beside the brightest blossoms of the human intellect\nthat wooed the sun in that fertile valley of rivers. As in Egypt,\ncivilization made progress when wealth was accumulated in sufficient\nabundance to permit of a leisured class devoting time to study and\nresearch. The endowed priests, who performed temple ceremonies, were\nthe teachers of the people and the patrons of culture. We may think\nlittle of their religious beliefs, regarding which after all we have\nonly a superficial knowledge, for we have yet discovered little more\nthan the fragments of the shell which held the pearl, the faded petals\nthat were once a rose, but we must recognize that they provided\ninspiration for the artists and sculptors whose achievements compel\nour wonder and admiration, moved statesmen to inaugurate and\nadminister humanitarian laws, and exalted Right above Might.\n\nThese civilizations of the old world, among which the Mesopotamian and\nthe Nilotic were the earliest, were built on no unsound foundations.\nThey made possible \"the glory that was Greece and the grandeur that\nwas Rome\", and it is only within recent years that we have begun to\nrealize how incalculable is the debt which the modern world owes to\nthem.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\nTHE RACES AND EARLY CIVILIZATION OF BABYLONIA\n\n\n  Prehistoric Babylonia--The Confederacies of Sumer and\n  Akkad--Sumerian Racial Affinities--Theories of Mongolian and\n  Ural-Altaic Origins--Evidence of Russian Turkestan--Beginnings of\n  Agriculture--Remarkable Proofs from Prehistoric Egyptian\n  Graves--Sumerians and the Mediterranean Race--Present-day Types in\n  Western Asia--The Evidence of Crania--Origin of the Akkadians--The\n  Semitic Blend--Races in Ancient Palestine--Southward Drift of\n  Armenoid Peoples--The Rephaims of the Bible--Akkadians attain\n  Political Supremacy in Northern Babylonia--Influence of Sumerian\n  Culture--Beginnings of Civilization--Progress in the Neolithic\n  Age--Position of Women in Early Communities--Their Legal Status in\n  Ancient Babylonia--Influence in Social and Religious Life--The\n  \"Woman's Language\"--Goddess who inspired Poets.\n\n\nBefore the dawn of the historical period Ancient Babylonia was\ndivided into a number of independent city states similar to those\nwhich existed in pre-Dynastic Egypt. Ultimately these were grouped\ninto loose confederacies. The northern cities were embraced in the\nterritory known as Akkad, and the southern in the land of Sumer, or\nShumer. This division had a racial as well as a geographical\nsignificance. The Akkadians were \"late comers\" who had achieved\npolitical ascendency in the north when the area they occupied was\ncalled Uri, or Kiuri, and Sumer was known as Kengi. They were a people\nof Semitic speech with pronounced Semitic affinities. From the\nearliest times the sculptors depicted them with abundant locks, long\nfull beards, and the prominent distinctive noses and full lips, which\nwe usually associate with the characteristic Jewish type, and also\nattired in long, flounced robes, suspended from their left shoulders,\nand reaching down to their ankles. In contrast, the Sumerians had\nclean-shaven faces and scalps, and noses of Egyptian and Grecian\nrather than Semitic type, while they wore short, pleated kilts, and\nwent about with the upper part of their bodies quite bare like the\nEgyptian noblemen of the Old Kingdom period. They spoke a non-Semitic\nlanguage, and were the oldest inhabitants of Babylonia of whom we have\nany knowledge. Sumerian civilization was rooted in the agricultural\nmode of life, and appears to have been well developed before the\nSemites became numerous and influential in the land. Cities had been\nbuilt chiefly of sun-dried and fire-baked bricks; distinctive pottery\nwas manufactured with much skill; the people were governed by\nhumanitarian laws, which formed the nucleus of the Hammurabi code, and\nhad in use a system of cuneiform writing which was still in process of\ndevelopment from earlier pictorial characters. The distinctive feature\nof their agricultural methods was the engineering skill which was\ndisplayed in extending the cultivatable area by the construction of\nirrigating canals and ditches. There are also indications that they\npossessed some knowledge of navigation and traded on the Persian Gulf.\nAccording to one of their own traditions Eridu, originally a seaport,\nwas their racial cradle. The Semitic Akkadians adopted the distinctive\nculture of these Sumerians after settlement, and exercised an\ninfluence on its subsequent growth.\n\nMuch controversy has been waged regarding the original home of the\nSumerians and the particular racial type which they represented. One\ntheory connects them with the lank-haired and beardless Mongolians,\nand it is asserted on the evidence afforded by early sculptural\nreliefs that they were similarly oblique-eyed. As they also spoke an\nagglutinative language, it is suggested that they were descended from\nthe same parent stock as the Chinese in an ancient Parthian homeland.\nIf, however, the oblique eye was not the result of faulty and\nprimitive art, it is evident that the Mongolian type, which is\ninvariably found to be remarkably persistent in racial blends, did not\nsurvive in the Tigris and Euphrates valleys, for in the finer and more\nexact sculpture work of the later Sumerian period the eyes of the\nruling classes are found to be similar to those of the Ancient\nEgyptians and southern Europeans. Other facial characteristics suggest\nthat a Mongolian racial connection is highly improbable; the prominent\nSumerian nose, for instance, is quite unlike the Chinese, which is\ndiminutive. Nor can far-reaching conclusions be drawn from the scanty\nlinguistic evidence at our disposal. Although the languages of the\nSumerians and long-headed Chinese are of the agglutinative variety, so\nare those also which are spoken by the broad-headed Turks and Magyars\nof Hungary, the broad-headed and long-headed, dark and fair Finns, and\nthe brunet and short-statured Basques with pear-shaped faces, who are\nregarded as a variation of the Mediterranean race with distinctive\ncharacteristics developed in isolation. Languages afford no sure\nindication of racial origins or affinities.\n\nAnother theory connects the Sumerians with the broad-headed peoples of\nthe Western Asian plains and plateaus, who are vaguely grouped as\nUral-Altaic stock and are represented by the present-day Turks and the\ndark variety of Finns. It is assumed that they migrated southward in\nremote times in consequence of tribal pressure caused by changing\nclimatic conditions, and abandoned a purely pastoral for an\nagricultural life. The late Sumerian sculpture work again presents\ndifficulties in this connection, for the faces and bulging occiputs\nsuggest rather a long-headed than a broad-headed type, and the theory\nno longer obtains that new habits of life alter skull forms which are\nusually associated with other distinctive traits in the structure of\nskeletons. These broad-headed nomadic peoples of the Steppes are\nallied to Tatar stock, and distinguished from the pure Mongols by\ntheir abundance of wavy hair and beard. The fact that the Sumerians\nshaved their scalps and faces is highly suggestive in this connection.\nFrom the earliest times it has been the habit of most peoples to\nemphasize their racial characteristics so as to be able, one may\nsuggest, to distinguish readily a friend from a foeman. At any rate\nthis fact is generally recognized by ethnologists. The Basques, for\ninstance, shave their pointed chins and sometimes grow short side\nwhiskers to increase the distinctive pear-shape which is given to\ntheir faces by their prominent temples. In contrast, their neighbours,\nthe Andalusians, grow chin whiskers to broaden their already rounded\nchins, and to distinguish them markedly from the Basques.[12] Another\nexample of similar character is afforded in Asia Minor, where the\nskulls of the children of long-headed Kurds are narrowed, and those of\nthe children of broad-headed Armenians made flatter behind as a result\nof systematic pressure applied by using cradle boards. In this way\nthese rival peoples accentuate their contrasting head forms, which at\ntimes may, no doubt, show a tendency towards variation as a result of\nthe crossment of types. When it is found, therefore, that the\nSumerians, like the Ancient Egyptians, were in the habit of shaving,\ntheir ethnic affinities should be looked for among a naturally\nglabrous rather than a heavily-bearded people.\n\nA Central Asiatic source for Sumerian culture has also been urged of\nlate with much circumstantial detail. It breaks quite fresh and\ninteresting ground. Recent scientific expeditions in Russian and\nChinese Turkestan have accumulated important archaeological data which\nclearly establish that vast areas of desert country were at a remote\nperiod most verdurous and fruitful, and thickly populated by organized\nand apparently progressive communities. From these ancient centres of\ncivilization wholesale migrations must have been impelled from time to\ntime in consequence of the gradual encroachment of wind-distributed\nsand and the increasing shortage of water. At Anau in Russian\nTurkestan, where excavations were conducted by the Pumpelly\nexpedition, abundant traces were found of an archaic and forgotten\ncivilization reaching back to the Late Stone Age. The pottery is\ndecorated with geometric designs, and resembles somewhat other\nNeolithic specimens found as far apart as Susa, the capital of ancient\nElam, on the borders of Babylonia, Boghaz K\u00f6i in Asia Minor, the seat\nof Hittite administration, round the Black Sea to the north, and at\npoints in the southern regions of the Balkan Peninsula. It is\nsuggested that these various finds are scattered evidences of early\nracial drifts from the Central Asian areas which were gradually being\nrendered uninhabitable. Among the Copper Age artifacts at Anau are\nclay votive statuettes resembling those which were used in Sumeria for\nreligious purposes. These, however, cannot be held to prove a racial\nconnection, but they are important in so far as they afford evidence\nof early trade relations in a hitherto unsuspected direction, and the\nlong distances over which cultural influence extended before the dawn\nof history. Further we cannot go. No inscriptions have yet been\ndiscovered to render articulate this mysterious Central Asian\ncivilization, or to suggest the original source of early Sumerian\npicture writing. Nor is it possible to confirm Mr. Pumpelly's view\nthat from the Anau district the Sumerians and Egyptians first obtained\nbarley and wheat, and some of their domesticated animals. If, as\nProfessor Elliot Smith believes, copper was first used by the Ancient\nEgyptians, it may be, on the other hand, that a knowledge of this\nmetal reached Anau through Sumeria, and that the elements of the\nearlier culture were derived from the same quarter by an indirect\nroute. The evidence obtainable in Egypt is of interest in this\nconnection. Large quantities of food have been taken from the stomachs\nand intestines of sun-dried bodies which have lain in their\npre-Dynastic graves for over sixty centuries. This material has been\ncarefully examined, and has yielded, among other things, husks of\nbarley and millet, and fragments of mammalian bones, including those,\nno doubt, of the domesticated sheep and goats and cattle painted on\nthe pottery.[13] It is therefore apparent that at an extremely remote\nperiod a knowledge of agriculture extended throughout Egypt, and we\nhave no reason for supposing that it was not shared by the\ncontemporary inhabitants of Sumer.\n\nThe various theories which have been propounded regarding the outside\nsource of Sumerian culture are based on the assumption that it\ncommenced abruptly and full grown. Its rude beginnings cannot be\ntraced on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, but although no\nspecimens of the earliest form of picture writing have been recovered\nfrom the ruins of Sumerian and Akkadian cities, neither have any been\nfound elsewhere. The possibility remains, therefore, that early\nBabylonian culture was indigenous. \"A great deal of ingenuity has been\ndisplayed by many scholars\", says Professor Elliot Smith, \"with the\nobject of bringing these Sumerians from somewhere else as immigrants\ninto Sumer; but no reasons have been advanced to show that they had\nnot been settled at the head of the Persian Gulf for long generations\nbefore they first appeared on the stage of history. The argument that\nno early remains have been found is futile, not only because such a\ncountry as Sumer is no more favourable to the preservation of such\nevidence than is the Delta of the Nile, but also upon the more general\ngrounds that negative statements of this sort cannot be assigned a\npositive evidence for an immigration.\"[14] This distinguished\nethnologist is frankly of opinion that the Sumerians were the\ncongeners of the pre-Dynastic Egyptians of the Mediterranean or Brown\nrace, the eastern branch of which reaches to India and the western to\nthe British Isles and Ireland. In the same ancient family are included\nthe Arabs, whose physical characteristics distinguish them from the\nSemites of Jewish type.\n\nSome light may be thrown on the Sumerian problem by giving\nconsideration to the present-day racial complexion of Western Asia.\nThe importance of evidence of this character has been emphasized\nelsewhere. In Egypt, for instance, Dr. C.S. Myers has ascertained that\nthe modern peasants have skull forms which are identical with those of\ntheir pre-Dynastic ancestors. Mr. Hawes has also demonstrated that the\nancient inhabitants of Crete are still represented on that famous\nisland. But even more remarkable is the fact that the distinctive\nracial type which occupied the Palaeolithic caves of the Dordogne\nvalley in France continues to survive in their vicinity after an\ninterval of over twenty thousand years.[15] It is noteworthy,\ntherefore, to find that in south-western Asia at the present day one\nparticular racial type predominates over all others. Professor Ripley,\nwho summarizes a considerable mass of data in this connection, refers\nto it as the \"Iranian\", and says: \"It includes the Persians and Kurds,\npossibly the Ossetes in the Caucasus, and farther to the east a large\nnumber of Asiatic tribes, from the Afghans to the Hindus. These\npeoples are all primarily long-headed and dark brunets. They incline\nto slenderness of habit, although varying in stature according to\ncircumstances. In them we recognize at once undoubted congeners of our\nMediterranean race in Europe. The area of their extension runs off\ninto Africa, through the Egyptians, who are clearly of the same race.\nNot only the modern peoples, but the Ancient Egyptians and the\nPhoenicians also have been traced to the same source. By far the\nlargest portion of this part of Western Asia is inhabited by this\neastern branch of the Mediterranean race.\" The broad-headed type\n\"occurs sporadically among a few ethnic remnants in Syria and\nMesopotamia\".[16] The exhaustive study of thousands of ancient crania\nin London and Cambridge collections has shown that Mediterranean\npeoples, having alien traits, the result of early admixture, were\ndistributed between Egypt and the Punjab.[17] Where blending took\nplace, the early type, apparently, continued to predominate; and it\nappears to be reasserting itself in our own time in Western Asia, as\nelsewhere. It seems doubtful, therefore, that the ancient Sumerians\ndiffered racially from the pre-Dynastic inhabitants of Egypt and the\nPelasgians and Iberians of Europe. Indeed, the statuettes from Tello,\nthe site of the Sumerian city of Lagash, display distinctively\nMediterranean skull forms and faces. Some of the plump figures of the\nlater period suggest, however, \"the particular alien strain\" which in\nEgypt and elsewhere \"is always associated with a tendency to the\ndevelopment of fat\", in contrast to \"the lean and sinewy appearance of\nmost representatives of the Brown race\".[18] This change may be\naccounted for by the presence of the Semites in northern Babylonia.\n\nWhence, then, came these invading Semitic Akkadians of Jewish type? It\nis generally agreed that they were closely associated with one of the\nearly outpourings of nomadic peoples from Arabia, a country which is\nfavourable for the production of a larger population than it is able\nto maintain permanently, especially when its natural resources are\nrestricted by a succession of abnormally dry years. In tracing the\nAkkadians from Arabia, however, we are confronted at the outset with\nthe difficulty that its prehistoric, and many of its present-day,\ninhabitants are not of the characteristic Semitic type. On the Ancient\nEgyptian pottery and monuments the Arabs are depicted as men who\nclosely resembled the representatives of the Mediterranean race in the\nNile valley and elsewhere. They shaved neither scalps nor faces as did\nthe historic Sumerians and Egyptians, but grew the slight moustache\nand chin-tuft beard like the Libyans on the north and the majority of\nthe men whose bodies have been preserved in pre-Dynastic graves in the\nNile valley. \"If\", writes Professor Elliot Smith, \"the generally\naccepted view is true, that Arabia was the original home of the\nSemites, the Arab must have undergone a profound change in his\nphysical characters after he left his homeland and before he reached\nBabylonia.\" This authority is of opinion that the Arabians first\nmigrated into Palestine and northern Syria, where they mingled with\nthe southward-migrating Armenoid peoples from Asia Minor. \"This blend\nof Arabs, kinsmen of the proto-Egyptians and Armenoids, would then\nform the big-nosed, long-bearded Semites, so familiar not only on the\nancient Babylonian and Egyptian monuments, but also in the modern\nJews.\"[19] Such a view is in accord with Dr. Hugo Winckler's\ncontention that the flow of Arabian migrations was northwards towards\nSyria ere it swept through Mesopotamia. It can scarcely be supposed\nthat these invasions of settled districts did not result in the fusion\nand crossment of racial types and the production of a sub-variety with\nmedium skull form and marked facial characteristics.\n\nOf special interest in this connection is the evidence afforded by\nPalestine and Egypt. The former country has ever been subject to\nperiodic ethnic disturbances and changes. Its racial history has a\nremote beginning in the Pleistocene Age. Palaeolithic flints of\nChellean and other primitive types have been found in large numbers,\nand a valuable collection of these is being preserved in a French\nmuseum at Jerusalem. In a northern cave fragments of rude pottery,\nbelonging to an early period in the Late Stone Age, have been\ndiscovered in association with the bones of the woolly rhinoceros. To\na later period belong the series of Gezer cave dwellings, which,\naccording to Professor Macalister, the well-known Palestinian\nauthority, \"were occupied by a non-Semitic people of low stature, with\nthick skulls and showing evidence of the great muscular strength that\nis essential to savage life\".[20] These people are generally supposed\nto be representatives of the Mediterranean race, which Sergi has found\nto have been widely distributed throughout Syria and a part of Asia\nMinor.[21] An interesting problem, however, is raised by the fact\nthat, in one of the caves, there are evidences that the dead were\ncremated. This was not a Mediterranean custom, nor does it appear to\nhave prevailed outside the Gezer area. If, however, it does not\nindicate that the kinsmen of the Ancient Egyptians came into contact\nwith the remnants of an earlier people, it may be that the dead of a\nlater people were burned there. The possibility that unidentified\ntypes may have contributed to the Semitic blend, however, remains. The\nMediterraneans mingled in Northern Syria and Asia Minor with the\nbroad-headed Armenoid peoples who are represented in Europe by the\nAlpine race. With them they ultimately formed the great Hittite\nconfederacy. These Armenoids were moving southwards at the very dawn\nof Egyptian history, and nothing is known of their conquests and\nsettlements. Their pioneers, who were probably traders, appear to have\nbegun to enter the Delta region before the close of the Late Stone\nAge.[22] The earliest outpourings of migrating Arabians may have been\nin progress about the same time. This early southward drift of\nArmenoids might account for the presence in southern Palestine, early\nin the Copper Age, of the tall race referred to in the Bible as the\nRephaim or Anakim, \"whose power was broken only by the Hebrew\ninvaders\".[23] Joshua drove them out of Hebron,[24] in the\nneighbourhood of which Abraham had purchased a burial cave from\nEphron, the Hittite.[25] Apparently a system of land laws prevailed in\nPalestine at this early period. It is of special interest for us to\nnote that in Abraham's day and afterwards, the landed proprietors in\nthe country of the Rephaim were identified with the aliens from Asia\nMinor--the tall variety in the Hittite confederacy.\n\nLittle doubt need remain that the Arabians during their sojourn in\nPalestine and Syria met with distinctive types, and if not with pure\nArmenoids, at any rate with peoples having Armenoid traits. The\nconsequent multiplication of tribes, and the gradual pressure\nexercised by the constant stream of immigrants from Arabia and Asia\nMinor, must have kept this part of Western Asia in a constant state of\nunrest. Fresh migrations of the surplus stock were evidently propelled\ntowards Egypt in one direction, and the valleys of the Tigris and\nEuphrates in another. The Semites of Akkad were probably the\nconquerors of the more highly civilized Sumerians, who must have\npreviously occupied that area. It is possible that they owed their\nsuccess to the possession of superior weapons. Professor Elliot Smith\nsuggests in this connection that the Arabians had become familiar with\nthe use of copper as a result of contact with the Egyptians in Sinai.\nThere is no evidence, however, that the Sumerians were attacked before\nthey had begun to make metal weapons. It is more probable that the\ninvading nomads had superior military organization and considerable\nexperience in waging war against detached tribal units. They may have\nalso found some of the northern Sumerian city states at war with one\nanother and taken advantage of their unpreparedness to resist a common\nenemy. The rough Dorians who overran Greece and the fierce Goths who\nshattered the power of Rome were similarly in a lower state of\ncivilization than the peoples whom they subdued.\n\nThe Sumerians, however, ultimately achieved an intellectual conquest\nof their conquerors. Although the leaders of invasion may have formed\nmilitary aristocracies in the cities which they occupied, it was\nnecessary for the great majority of the nomads to engage their\nactivities in new directions after settlement. The Semitic Akkadians,\ntherefore, adopted Sumerian habits of life which were best suited for\nthe needs of the country, and they consequently came under the spell\nof Sumerian modes of thought. This is shown by the fact that the\nnative speech of ancient Sumer continued long after the dawn of\nhistory to be the language of Babylonian religion and culture, like\nLatin in Europe during the Middle Ages. For centuries the mingling\npeoples must have been bilingual, as are many of the inhabitants of\nIreland, Wales, and the Scottish Highlands in the present age, but\nultimately the language of the Semites became the prevailing speech in\nSumer and Akkad. This change was the direct result of the conquests\nand the political supremacy achieved by the northern people. A\nconsiderable period elapsed, however, ere this consummation was\nreached and Ancient Babylonia became completely Semitized. No doubt\nits brilliant historical civilization owed much of its vigour and\nstability to the organizing genius of the Semites, but the basis on\nwhich it was established had been laid by the ingenious and\nimaginative Sumerians who first made the desert to blossom like the\nrose.\n\nThe culture of Sumer was a product of the Late Stone Age, which should\nnot be regarded as necessarily an age of barbarism. During its vast\nperiods there were great discoveries and great inventions in various\nparts of Asia, Africa, and Europe. The Neoliths made pottery and\nbricks; we know that they invented the art of spinning, for\nspindle-whorls are found even in the Gezer caves to which we have\nreferred, while in Egypt the pre-Dynastic dead were sometimes wrapped\nin finely woven linen: their deftly chipped flint implements are\neloquent of artistic and mechanical skill, and undoubted mathematical\nability must be credited to the makers of smoothly polished stone\nhammers which are so perfectly balanced that they revolve on a centre\nof gravity. In Egypt and Babylonia the soil was tilled and its\nfertility increased by irrigation. Wherever man waged a struggle with\nNature he made rapid progress, and consequently we find that the\nearliest great civilizations were rooted in the little fields of the\nNeolithic farmers. Their mode of life necessitated a knowledge of\nNature's laws; they had to take note of the seasons and measure time.\nSo Egypt gave us the Calendar, and Babylonia the system of dividing\nthe week into seven days, and the day into twelve double hours.\n\nThe agricultural life permitted large communities to live in river\nvalleys, and these had to be governed by codes of laws; settled\ncommunities required peace and order for their progress and\nprosperity. All great civilizations have evolved from the habits and\nexperiences of settled communities. Law and religion were closely\nassociated, and the evidence afforded by the remains of stone circles\nand temples suggests that in the organization and division of labour\nthe influence of religious teachers was pre-eminent. Early rulers,\nindeed, were priest-kings--incarnations of the deity who owned the\nland and measured out the span of human life.\n\nWe need not assume that Neolithic man led an idyllic existence; his\ntriumphs were achieved by slow and gradual steps; his legal codes\nwere, no doubt, written in blood and his institutions welded in the\nfires of adversity. But, disciplined by laws, which fostered\nhumanitarian ideals, Neolithic man, especially of the Mediterranean\nrace, had reached a comparatively high state of civilization long ages\nbefore the earliest traces of his activities can be obtained. When\nthis type of mankind is portrayed in Ancient Sumeria, Ancient Egypt,\nand Ancient Crete we find that the faces are refined and intellectual\nand often quite modern in aspect. The skulls show that in the Late\nStone Age the human brain was fully developed and that the racial\ntypes were fixed. In every country in Europe we still find the direct\ndescendants of the ancient Mediterranean race, as well as the\ndescendants of the less highly cultured conquerors who swept westward\nout of Asia at the dawn of the Bronze Age; and everywhere there are\nevidences of crossment of types in varying degrees. Even the influence\nof Neolithic intellectual life still remains. The comparative study of\nmythology and folk beliefs reveals that we have inherited certain\nmodes of thought from our remote ancestors, who were the congeners of\nthe Ancient Sumerians and the Ancient Egyptians. In this connection it\nis of interest, therefore, to refer to the social ideals of the early\npeoples who met and mingled on the southern plains of the Tigris and\nEuphrates, and especially the position occupied by women, which is\nengaging so much attention at the present day.\n\nIt would appear that among the Semites and other nomadic peoples woman\nwas regarded as the helpmate rather than the companion and equal of\nman. The birth of a son was hailed with joy; it was \"miserable to have\na daughter\", as a Hindu sage reflected; in various countries it was\nthe custom to expose female children after birth and leave them to\ndie. A wife had no rights other than those accorded to her by her\nhusband, who exercised over her the power of life and death. Sons\ninherited family possessions; the daughters had no share allotted to\nthem, and could be sold by fathers and brothers. Among the peoples who\nobserved \"male right\", social life was reflected in the conception of\ncontrolling male deities, accompanied by shadowy goddesses who were\noften little else than figures of speech.\n\nThe Ancient Sumerians, on the other hand, like the Mediterranean\npeoples of Egypt and Crete, reverenced and exalted motherhood in\nsocial and religious life. Women were accorded a legal status and\nmarriage laws were promulgated by the State. Wives could possess\nprivate property in their own right, as did the Babylonian Sarah, wife\nof Abraham, who owned the Egyptian slave Hagar.[26] A woman received\nfrom her parents a marriage dowry, and in the event of separation from\nher husband she could claim its full value. Some spinsters, or wives,\nwere accustomed to enter into business partnerships with men or\nmembers of their own sex, and could sue and be sued in courts of law.\nBrothers and sisters were joint heirs of the family estate. Daughters\nmight possess property over which their fathers exercised no control:\nthey could also enter into legal agreements with their parents in\nbusiness matters, when they had attained to years of discretion. Young\nwomen who took vows of celibacy and lived in religious institutions\ncould yet make business investments, as surviving records show. There\nis only one instance of a Sumerian woman ascending the throne, like\nQueen Hatshepsut of Egypt. Women, therefore, were not rigidly excluded\nfrom official life. Dungi II, an early Sumerian king, appointed two of\nhis daughters as rulers of conquered cities in Syria and Elam.\nSimilarly Shishak, the Egyptian Pharaoh, handed over the city of\nGezer, which he had subdued, to his daughter, Solomon's wife.[27] In\nthe religious life of ancient Sumeria the female population exercised\nan undoubted influence, and in certain temples there were priestesses.\nThe oldest hymns give indication of the respect shown to women by\nmaking reference to mixed assemblies as \"females and males\", just as\npresent-day orators address themselves to \"ladies and gentlemen\". In\nthe later Semitic adaptations of these productions, it is significant\nto note, this conventional reference was altered to \"male and female\".\nIf influences, however, were at work to restrict the position of women\nthey did not meet with much success, because when Hammurabi codified\nexisting laws, the ancient rights of women received marked\nrecognition.\n\nThere were two dialects in ancient Sumeria, and the invocatory hymns\nwere composed in what was known as \"the women's language\". It must not\nbe inferred, however, that the ladies of Sumeria had established a\nspeech which differed from that used by men. The reference would\nappear to be to a softer and homelier dialect, perhaps the oldest of\nthe two, in which poetic emotion found fullest and most beautiful\nexpression. In these ancient days, as in our own, the ideal of\nwomanhood was the poet's chief source of inspiration, and among the\nhymns the highest reach of poetic art was attained in the invocation\nof Ishtar, the Babylonian Venus. The following hymn is addressed to\nthat deity in her Valkyrie-like character as a goddess of war, but her\nmore feminine traits are not obscured:--\n\n    HYMN TO ISHTAR\n\n    To thee I cry, O lady of the gods,\n    Lady of ladies, goddess without peer,\n    Ishtar who shapes the lives of all mankind,\n    Thou stately world queen, sovran of the sky,\n    And lady ruler of the host of heaven--\n    Illustrious is thy name... O light divine,\n    Gleaming in lofty splendour o'er the earth--\n    Heroic daughter of the moon, oh! hear;\n    Thou dost control our weapons and award\n    In battles fierce the victory at will--\n    crown'd majestic Fate. Ishtar most high,\n    Who art exalted over all the gods,\n    Thou bringest lamentation; thou dost urge\n    With hostile hearts our brethren to the fray;\n    The gift of strength is thine for thou art strong;\n    Thy will is urgent, brooking no delay;\n    Thy hand is violent, thou queen of war\n    Girded with battle and enrobed with fear...\n    Thou sovran wielder of the wand of Doom,\n    The heavens and earth are under thy control.\n\n    Adored art thou in every sacred place,\n    In temples, holy dwellings, and in shrines,\n    Where is thy name not lauded? where thy will\n    Unheeded, and thine images not made?\n    Where are thy temples not upreared? O, where\n    Art thou not mighty, peerless, and supreme?\n\n    Anu and Bel and Ea have thee raised\n    To rank supreme, in majesty and pow'r,\n    They have established thee above the gods\n    And all the host of heaven... O stately queen,\n    At thought of thee the world is filled with fear,\n    The gods in heaven quake, and on the earth\n    All spirits pause, and all mankind bow down\n    With reverence for thy name... O Lady Judge,\n\n    Thy ways are just and holy; thou dost gaze\n    On sinners with compassion, and each morn\n    Leadest the wayward to the rightful path.\n\n    Now linger not, but come! O goddess fair,\n    O shepherdess of all, thou drawest nigh\n    With feet unwearied... Thou dost break the bonds\n    Of these thy handmaids... When thou stoopest o'er\n    The dying with compassion, lo! they live;\n    And when the sick behold thee they are healed.\n\n    Hear me, thy servant! hearken to my pray'r,\n    For I am full of sorrow and I sigh\n    In sore distress; weeping, on thee I wait.\n    Be merciful, my lady, pity take\n    And answer, \"'Tis enough and be appeased\".\n\n    How long must my heart sorrow and make moan\n    And restless be? How long must my dark home\n    Be filled with mourning and my soul with grief?\n    O lioness of heaven, bring me peace\n    And rest and comfort. Hearken to my pray'r!\n    Is anger pity? May thine eyes look down\n    With tenderness and blessings, and behold\n    Thy servant. Oh! have mercy; hear my cry\n    And unbewitch me from the evil spells,\n    That I may see thy glory... Oh! how long\n    Shall these my foes pursue me, working ill,\n    And robbing me of joy?... Oh! how long\n    Shall demons compass me about and cause\n    Affliction without end?... I thee adore--\n    The gift of strength is thine and thou art strong--\n    The weakly are made strong, yet I am weak...\n    O hear me! I am glutted with my grief--\n    This flood of grief by evil winds distressed;\n    My heart hath fled me like a bird on wings,\n    And like the dove I moan. Tears from mine eyes\n    Are falling as the rain from heaven falls,\n    And I am destitute and full of woe.\n\n           *       *       *       *       *\n\n    What have I done that thou hast turned from me?\n    Have I neglected homage to my god\n    And thee my goddess? O deliver me\n    And all my sins forgive, that I may share\n    Thy love and be watched over in thy fold;\n    And may thy fold be wide, thy pen secure.\n\n           *       *       *       *       *\n\n    How long wilt thou be angry? Hear my cry,\n    And turn again to prosper all my ways--\n    O may thy wrath be crumbled and withdrawn\n    As by a crumbling stream. Then smite my foes,\n    And take away their power to work me ill,\n    That I may crush them. Hearken to my pray'r!\n    And bless me so that all who me behold\n    May laud thee and may magnify thy name,\n    While I exalt thy power over all--\n    Ishtar is highest! Ishtar is the queen!\n    Ishtar the peerless daughter of the moon!\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nTHE LAND OF RIVERS AND THE GOD OF THE DEEP\n\n\n  Fertility of Ancient Babylonia--Rivers, Canals, Seasons, and\n  Climate--Early Trade and Foreign Influences--Local Religious\n  Cults--Ea, God of the Deep, identical with Oannes of Berosus--Origin\n  as a Sacred Fish--Compared with Brahma and Vishnu--Flood Legends in\n  Babylonia and India--Fish Deities in Babylonia and Egypt--Fish God\n  as a Corn God--The River as Creator--Ea an Artisan God, and links\n  with Egypt and India--Ea as the Hebrew Jah--Ea and Varuna are Water\n  and Sky Gods--The Babylonian Dagan and Dagon of the\n  Philistines--Deities of Water and Harvest in Phoenicia, Greece,\n  Rome, Scotland, Scandinavia, Ireland, and Egypt--Ea's Spouse\n  Damkina--Demons of Ocean in Babylonia and India--Anu, God of the\n  Sky--Enlil, Storm and War God of Nippur, like Adad, Odin, &c.--Early\n  Gods of Babylonia and Egypt of common origin--Ea's City as Cradle of\n  Sumerian Civilization.\n\n\nAncient Babylonia was for over four thousand years the garden of\nWestern Asia. In the days of Hezekiah and Isaiah, when it had come\nunder the sway of the younger civilization of Assyria on the north, it\nwas \"a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of\noil olive and of honey[28]\". Herodotus found it still flourishing and\nextremely fertile. \"This territory\", he wrote, \"is of all that we know\nthe best by far for producing grain; it is so good that it returns as\nmuch as two hundredfold for the average, and, when it bears at its\nbest, it produces three hundredfold. The blades of the wheat and\nbarley there grow to be full four fingers broad; and from millet and\nsesame seed, how large a tree grows, I know myself, but shall not\nrecord, being well aware that even what has already been said relating\nto the crops produced has been enough to cause disbelief in those who\nhave not visited Babylonia[29].\" To-day great tracts of undulating\nmoorland, which aforetime yielded two and three crops a year, are in\nsummer partly barren wastes and partly jungle and reedy swamp.\nBedouins camp beside sandy heaps which were once populous and thriving\ncities, and here and there the shrunken remnants of a people once\ngreat and influential eke out precarious livings under the oppression\nof Turkish tax-gatherers who are scarcely less considerate than the\nplundering nomads of the desert.\n\nThis historic country is bounded on the east by Persia and on the west\nby the Arabian desert. In shape somewhat resembling a fish, it lies\nbetween the two great rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, 100 miles\nwide at its broadest part, and narrowing to 35 miles towards the\n\"tail\" in the latitude of Baghdad; the \"head\" converges to a point\nabove Basra, where the rivers meet and form the Shatt-el-Arab, which\npours into the Persian Gulf after meeting the Karun and drawing away\nthe main volume of that double-mouthed river. The distance from\nBaghdad to Basra is about 300 miles, and the area traversed by the\nShatt-el-Arab is slowly extending at the rate of a mile every thirty\nyears or so, as a result of the steady accumulation of silt and mud\ncarried down by the Tigris and Euphrates. When Sumeria was beginning\nto flourish, these two rivers had separate outlets, and Eridu, the\nseat of the cult of the sea god Ea, which now lies 125 miles inland,\nwas a seaport at the head of the Persian Gulf. A day's journey\nseparated the river mouths when Alexander the Great broke the power of\nthe Persian Empire.\n\nIn the days of Babylonia's prosperity the Euphrates was hailed as \"the\nsoul of the land\" and the Tigris as \"the bestower of blessings\".\nSkilful engineers had solved the problem of water distribution by\nirrigating sun-parched areas and preventing the excessive flooding of\nthose districts which are now rendered impassable swamps when the\nrivers overflow. A network of canals was constructed throughout the\ncountry, which restricted the destructive tendencies of the Tigris and\nEuphrates and developed to a high degree their potentialities as\nfertilizing agencies. The greatest of these canals appear to have been\nanciently river beds. One, which is called Shatt en Nil to the north,\nand Shatt el Kar to the south, curved eastward from Babylon, and\nsweeping past Nippur, flowed like the letter S towards Larsa and then\nrejoined the river. It is believed to mark the course followed in the\nearly Sumerian period by the Euphrates river, which has moved steadily\nwestward many miles beyond the sites of ancient cities that were\nerected on its banks. Another important canal, the Shatt el Hai,\ncrossed the plain from the Tigris to its sister river, which lies\nlower at this point, and does not run so fast. Where the artificial\ncanals were constructed on higher levels than the streams which fed\nthem, the water was raised by contrivances known as \"shaddufs\"; the\nbuckets or skin bags were roped to a weighted beam, with the aid of\nwhich they were swung up by workmen and emptied into the canals. It is\npossible that this toilsome mode of irrigation was substituted in\nfavourable parts by the primitive water wheels which are used in our\nown day by the inhabitants of the country who cultivate strips of land\nalong the river banks.\n\nIn Babylonia there are two seasons--the rainy and the dry. Rain falls\nfrom November till March, and the plain is carpeted in spring by\npatches of vivid green verdure and brilliant wild flowers. Then the\nperiod of drought ensues; the sun rapidly burns up all vegetation, and\neverywhere the eye is wearied by long stretches of brown and yellow\ndesert. Occasional sandstorms darken the heavens, sweeping over\nsterile wastes and piling up the shapeless mounds which mark the sites\nof ancient cities. Meanwhile the rivers are increasing in volume,\nbeing fed by the melting snows at their mountain sources far to the\nnorth. The swift Tigris, which is 1146 miles long, begins to rise\nearly in March and reaches its highest level in May; before the end of\nJune it again subsides. More sluggish in movement, the Euphrates,\nwhich is 1780 miles long, shows signs of rising a fortnight later than\nthe Tigris, and is in flood for a more extended period; it does not\nshrink to its lowest level until early in September. By controlling\nthe flow of these mighty rivers, preventing disastrous floods, and\nstoring and distributing surplus water, the ancient Babylonians\ndeveloped to the full the natural resources of their country, and made\nit--what it may once again become--one of the fairest and most\nhabitable areas in the world. Nature conferred upon them bountiful\nrewards for their labour; trade and industries flourished, and the\ncities increased in splendour and strength. Then as now the heat was\ngreat during the long summer, but remarkably dry and unvarying, while\nthe air was ever wonderfully transparent under cloudless skies of\nvivid blue. The nights were cool and of great beauty, whether in\nbrilliant moonlight or when ponds and canals were jewelled by the\nlustrous displays of clear and numerous stars which glorified that\nhomeland of the earliest astronomers.\n\nBabylonia is a treeless country, and timber had to be imported from\nthe earliest times. The date palm was probably introduced by man, as\nwere certainly the vine and the fig tree, which were widely\ncultivated, especially in the north. Stone, suitable for building, was\nvery scarce, and limestone, alabaster, marble, and basalt had to be\ntaken from northern Mesopotamia, where the mountains also yield copper\nand lead and iron. Except Eridu, where ancient workers quarried\nsandstone from its sea-shaped ridge, all the cities were built of\nbrick, an excellent clay being found in abundance. When brick walls\nwere cemented with bitumen they were given great stability. This\nresinous substance is found in the north and south. It bubbles up\nthrough crevices of rocks on river banks and forms small ponds. Two\nfamous springs at modern Hit, on the Euphrates, have been drawn upon\nfrom time immemorial. \"From one\", writes a traveller, \"flows hot water\nblack with bitumen, while the other discharges intermittently bitumen,\nor, after a rainstorm, bitumen and cold water.... Where rocks crop out\nin the plain above Hit, they are full of seams of bitumen.\"[30]\nPresent-day Arabs call it \"kiyara\", and export it for coating boats\nand roofs; they also use it as an antiseptic, and apply it to cure the\nskin diseases from which camels suffer.\n\nSumeria had many surplus products, including corn and figs, pottery,\nfine wool and woven garments, to offer in exchange for what it most\nrequired from other countries. It must, therefore, have had a brisk\nand flourishing foreign trade at an exceedingly remote period. No\ndoubt numerous alien merchants were attracted to its cities, and it\nmay be that they induced or encouraged Semitic and other raiders to\noverthrow governments and form military aristocracies, so that they\nthemselves might obtain necessary concessions and achieve a degree of\npolitical ascendancy. It does not follow, however, that the peasant\nclass was greatly affected by periodic revolutions of this kind, which\nbrought little more to them than a change of rulers. The needs of the\ncountry necessitated the continuance of agricultural methods and the\nrigid observance of existing land laws; indeed, these constituted the\nbasis of Sumerian prosperity. Conquerors have ever sought reward not\nmerely in spoil, but also the services of the conquered. In northern\nBabylonia the invaders apparently found it necessary to conciliate and\nsecure the continued allegiance of the tillers of the soil. Law and\nreligion being closely associated, they had to adapt their gods to\nsuit the requirements of existing social and political organizations.\nA deity of pastoral nomads had to receive attributes which would give\nhim an agricultural significance; one of rural character had to be\nchanged to respond to the various calls of city life. Besides, local\ngods could not be ignored on account of their popularity. As a result,\nimported beliefs and religious customs must have been fused and\nabsorbed according to their bearing on modes of life in various\nlocalities. It is probable that the complex character of certain\ndeities was due to the process of adjustment to which they were\nsubjected in new environments.\n\nThe petty kingdoms of Sumeria appear to have been tribal in origin.\nEach city was presided over by a deity who was the nominal owner of\nthe surrounding arable land, farms were rented or purchased from the\npriesthood, and pasture was held in common. As in Egypt, where we\nfind, for instance, the artisan god Ptah supreme at Memphis, the sun\ngod Ra at Heliopolis, and the cat goddess Bast at Bubastis, the\nvarious local Sumerian and Akkadian deities had distinctive\ncharacteristics, and similarly showed a tendency to absorb the\nattributes of their rivals. The chief deity of a state was the central\nfigure in a pantheon, which had its political aspect and influenced\nthe growth of local theology. Cities, however, did not, as a rule,\nbear the names of deities, which suggests that several were founded\nwhen Sumerian religion was in its early animistic stages, and gods and\ngoddesses were not sharply defined from the various spirit groups.\n\nA distinctive and characteristic Sumerian god was Ea, who was supreme\nat the ancient sea-deserted port of Eridu. He is identified with the\nOannes of Berosus,[31] who referred to the deity as \"a creature\nendowed with reason, with a body like that of a fish, with feet below\nlike those of a man, with a fish's tail\". This description recalls the\nfamiliar figures of Egyptian gods and priests attired in the skins of\nthe sacred animals from whom their powers were derived, and the fairy\nlore about swan maids and men, and the seals and other animals who\ncould divest themselves of their \"skin coverings\" and appear in human\nshape. Originally Ea may have been a sacred fish. The Indian creative\ngods Brahma and Vishnu had fish forms. In Sanskrit literature Manu,\nthe eponymous \"first man\", is instructed by the fish to build a ship\nin which to save himself when the world would be purged by the rising\nwaters. Ea befriended in similar manner the Babylonian Noah, called\nPir-napishtim, advising him to build a vessel so as to be prepared for\nthe approaching Deluge. Indeed the Indian legend appears to throw\nlight on the original Sumerian conception of Ea. It relates that when\nthe fish was small and in danger of being swallowed by other fish in a\nstream it appealed to Manu for protection. The sage at once lifted up\nthe fish and placed it in a jar of water. It gradually increased in\nbulk, and he transferred it next to a tank and then to the river\nGanges. In time the fish complained to Manu that the river was too\nsmall for it, so he carried it to the sea. For these services the god\nin fish form instructed Manu regarding the approaching flood, and\nafterwards piloted his ship through the weltering waters until it\nrested on a mountain top.[32]\n\nIf this Indian myth is of Babylonian origin, as appears probable, it\nmay be that the spirit of the river Euphrates, \"the soul of the land\",\nwas identified with a migrating fish. The growth of the fish suggests\nthe growth of the river rising in flood. In Celtic folk tales high\ntides and valley floods are accounted for by the presence of a \"great\nbeast\" in sea, loch, or river. In a class of legends, \"specially\nconnected with the worship of Atargatis\", wrote Professor Robertson\nSmith, \"the divine life of the waters resides in the sacred fish that\ninhabit them. Atargatis and her son, according to a legend common to\nHierapolis and Ascalon, plunged into the waters--in the first case the\nEuphrates, in the second the sacred pool at the temple near the\ntown--and were changed into fishes\". The idea is that \"where a god\ndies, that is, ceases to exist in human form, his life passes into the\nwaters where he is buried; and this again is merely a theory to bring\nthe divine water or the divine fish into harmony with anthropomorphic\nideas. The same thing was sometimes effected in another way by saying\nthat the anthropomorphic deity was born from the water, as Aphrodite\nsprang from sea foam, or as Atargatis, in another form of the\nEuphrates legend, ... was born of an egg which the sacred fishes found\nin the Euphrates and pushed ashore.\"[33]\n\nAs \"Shar Apsi\", Ea was the \"King of the Watery Deep\". The reference,\nhowever, according to Jastrow, \"is not to the salt ocean, but the\nsweet waters flowing under the earth which feed the streams, and\nthrough streams and canals irrigate the fields\".[34] As Babylonia was\nfertilized by its rivers, Ea, the fish god, was a fertilizing deity.\nIn Egypt the \"Mother of Mendes\" is depicted carrying a fish upon her\nhead; she links with Isis and Hathor; her husband is Ba-neb-Tettu, a\nform of Ptah, Osiris, and Ra, and as a god of fertility he is\nsymbolized by the ram. Another Egyptian fish deity was the god Rem,\nwhose name signifies \"to weep\"; he wept fertilizing tears, and corn\nwas sown and reaped amidst lamentations. He may be identical with\nRemi, who was a phase of Sebek, the crocodile god, a developed\nattribute of Nu, the vague primitive Egyptian deity who symbolized the\nprimordial deep. The connection between a fish god and a corn god is\nnot necessarily remote when we consider that in Babylonia and Egypt\nthe harvest was the gift of the rivers.\n\nThe Euphrates, indeed, was hailed as a creator of all that grew on its\nbanks.\n\n    O thou River who didst create all things,\n    When the great gods dug thee out,\n    They set prosperity upon thy banks,\n    Within thee Ea, the King of the Deep, created his dwelling...\n    Thou judgest the cause of mankind!\n    O River, thou art mighty! O River, thou art supreme!\n    O River, thou art righteous![35]\n\nIn serving Ea, the embodiment or the water spirit, by leading him, as\nthe Indian Manu led the Creator and \"Preserver\" in fish form, from\nriver to water pot, water pot to pond or canal, and then again to\nriver and ocean, the Babylonians became expert engineers and\nexperienced agriculturists, the makers of bricks, the builders of\ncities, the framers of laws. Indeed, their civilization was a growth\nof Ea worship. Ea was their instructor. Berosus states that, as\nOannes, he lived in the Persian Gulf, and every day came ashore to\ninstruct the inhabitants of Eridu how to make canals, to grow crops,\nto work metals, to make pottery and bricks, and to build temples; he\nwas the artisan god--Nun-ura, \"god of the potter\"; Kuski-banda, \"god\nof goldsmiths\", &c.--the divine patron of the arts and crafts. \"Ea\nknoweth everything\", chanted the hymn maker. He taught the people how\nto form and use alphabetic signs and instructed them in mathematics:\nhe gave them their code of laws. Like the Egyptian artisan god Ptah,\nand the linking deity Khnumu, Ea was the \"potter or moulder of gods\nand man\". Ptah moulded the first man on his potter's wheel: he also\nmoulded the sun and moon; he shaped the universe and hammered out the\ncopper sky. Ea built the world \"as an architect builds a house\".[36]\nSimilarly the Vedic Indra, who wielded a hammer like Ptah, fashioned\nthe universe after the simple manner in which the Aryans made their\nwooden dwellings.[37]\n\nLike Ptah, Ea also developed from an artisan god into a sublime\nCreator in the highest sense, not merely as a producer of crops. His\nword became the creative force; he named those things he desired to\nbe, and they came into existence. \"Who but Ea creates things\",\nexclaimed a priestly poet. This change from artisan god to creator\n(Nudimmud) may have been due to the tendency of early religious cults\nto attach to their chief god the attributes of rivals exalted at other\ncentres.\n\nEa, whose name is also rendered Aa, was identified with Ya, Ya'u, or\nAu, the Jah of the Hebrews. \"In Ya-Daganu, 'Jah is Dagon'\", writes\nProfessor Pinches, \"we have the elements reversed, showing a wish to\nidentify Jah with Dagon, rather than Dagon with Jah; whilst another\ninteresting name, Au-Aa, shows an identification of Jah with Aa, two\nnames which have every appearance of being etymologically connected.\"\nJah's name \"is one of the words for 'god' in the Assyro-Babylonian\nlanguage\".[38]\n\nEa was \"Enki\", \"lord of the world\", or \"lord of what is beneath\";\nAmma-ana-ki, \"lord of heaven and earth\"; Sa-kalama, \"ruler of the\nland\", as well as Engur, \"god of the abyss\", Naqbu, \"the deep\", and\nLugal-ida, \"king of the river\". As rain fell from \"the waters above\nthe firmament\", the god of waters was also a sky and earth god.\n\nThe Indian Varuna was similarly a sky as well as an ocean god before\nthe theorizing and systematizing Brahmanic teachers relegated him to a\npermanent abode at the bottom of the sea. It may be that Ea-Oannes and\nVaruna were of common origin.\n\nAnother Babylonian deity, named Dagan, is believed to be identical\nwith Ea. His worship was certainly of great antiquity. \"Hammurabi\",\nwrites Professor Pinches, \"seems to speak of the Euphrates as being\n'the boundary of Dagan', whom he calls his creator. In later\ninscriptions the form Daguna, which approaches nearer to the West\nSemitic form (Dagon of the Philistines), is found in a few personal\nnames.[39]\n\nIt is possible that the Philistine deity Dagon was a specialized form\nof ancient Ea, who was either imported from Babylonia or was a sea god\nof more than one branch of the Mediterranean race. The authorities are\nat variance regarding the form and attributes of Dagan. Our knowledge\nregarding him is derived mainly from the Bible. He was a national\nrather than a city god. There are references to a Beth-dagon[40],\n\"house or city of Dagon\"; he had also a temple at Gaza, and Samson\ndestroyed it by pulling down the two middle pillars which were its\nmain support.[41] A third temple was situated in Ashdod. When the\ncaptured ark of the Israelites was placed in it the image of Dagon\n\"fell on his face\", with the result that \"the head of Dagon and both\nthe palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold; only the stump\nof Dagon was left\".[42] A further reference to \"the threshold of\nDagon\" suggests that the god had feet like Ea-Oannes. Those who hold\nthat Dagon had a fish form derive his name from the Semitic \"dag = a\nfish\", and suggest that after the idol fell only the fishy part (dago)\nwas left. On the other hand, it was argued that Dagon was a corn god,\nand that the resemblance between the words Dagan and Dagon are\naccidental. Professor Sayce makes reference in this connection to a\ncrystal seal from Phoenicia in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, bearing\nan inscription which he reads as Baal-dagon. Near the name is an ear\nof corn, and other symbols, such as the winged solar disc, a gazelle,\nand several stars, but there is no fish. It may be, of course, that\nBaal-dagon represents a fusion of deities. As we have seen in the case\nof Ea-Oannes and the deities of Mendes, a fish god may also be a corn\ngod, a land animal god and a god of ocean and the sky. The offering of\ngolden mice representing \"your mice that mar the land\",[43] made by\nthe Philistines, suggests that Dagon was the fertilizing harvest god,\namong other things, whose usefulness had been impaired, as they\nbelieved, by the mistake committed of placing the ark of Israel in the\ntemple at Ashdod. The Philistines came from Crete, and if their Dagon\nwas imported from that island, he may have had some connection with\nPoseidon, whose worship extended throughout Greece. This god of the\nsea, who is somewhat like the Roman Neptune, carried a lightning\ntrident and caused earthquakes. He was a brother of Zeus, the sky and\natmosphere deity, and had bull and horse forms. As a horse he pursued\nDemeter, the earth and corn goddess, and, like Ea, he instructed\nmankind, but especially in the art of training horses. In his train\nwere the Tritons, half men, half fishes, and the water fairies, the\nNereids. Bulls, boars, and rams were offered to this sea god of\nfertility. Amphitrite was his spouse.\n\nAn obscure god Shony, the Oannes of the Scottish Hebrides, received\noblations from those who depended for their agricultural prosperity on\nhis gifts of fertilizing seaweed. He is referred to in Martin's\n_Western Isles_, and is not yet forgotten. The Eddic sea god Njord of\nNoatun was the father of Frey, the harvest god. Dagda, the Irish corn\ngod, had for wife Boann, the goddess of the river Boyne. Osiris and\nIsis of Egypt were associated with the Nile. The connection between\nagriculture and the water supply was too obvious to escape the early\nsymbolists, and many other proofs of this than those referred to could\nbe given.\n\nEa's \"faithful spouse\" was the goddess Damkina, who was also called\nNin-ki, \"lady of the earth\". \"May Ea make thee glad\", chanted the\npriests. \"May Damkina, queen of the deep, illumine thee with her\ncountenance; may Merodach (Marduk), the mighty overseer of the Igigi\n(heavenly spirits), exalt thy head.\" Merodach was their son: in time\nhe became the Bel, or \"Lord\", of the Babylonian pantheon.\n\nLike the Indian Varuna, the sea god, Ea-Oannes had control over the\nspirits and demons of the deep. The \"ferryman\" who kept watch over the\nriver of death was called Arad-Ea, \"servant of Ea\". There are also\nreferences to sea maidens, the Babylonian mermaids, or Nereids. We\nhave a glimpse of sea giants, which resemble the Indian Danavas and\nDaityas of ocean, in the chant:\n\n    Seven are they, seven are they,\n    In the ocean deep seven are they,\n    Battening in heaven seven are they,\n    Bred in the depths of ocean....\n    Of these seven the first is the south wind,\n    The second a dragon with mouth agape....[44]\n\nA suggestion of the Vedic Vritra and his horde of monsters.\n\nThese seven demons were also \"the messengers of Anu\", who, although\nspecialized as a sky god in more than one pantheon, appears to have\nbeen closely associated with Ea in the earliest Sumerian period. His\nname, signifying \"the high one\", is derived from \"ana\", \"heaven\"; he\nwas the city god of Erech (Uruk). It is possible that he was developed\nas an atmospheric god with solar and lunar attributes. The seven\ndemons, who were his messengers, recall the stormy Maruts, the\nfollowers of Indra. They are referred to as\n\n    Forcing their way with baneful windstorms,\n    Mighty destroyers, the deluge of the storm god,\n    Stalking at the right hand of the storm god.[45]\n\nWhen we deal with a deity in his most archaic form it is difficult to\ndistinguish him from a demon. Even the beneficent Ea is associated\nwith monsters and furies. \"Evil spirits\", according to a Babylonian\nchant, were \"the bitter venom of the gods\". Those attached to a deity\nas \"attendants\" appear to represent the original animistic group from\nwhich he evolved. In each district the character of the deity was\nshaped to accord with local conditions.\n\nAt Nippur, which was situated on the vague and shifting boundary line\nbetween Sumer and Akkad, the chief god was Enlil, whose name is\ntranslated \"lord of mist\", \"lord of might\", and \"lord of demons\" by\nvarious authorities. He was a storm god and a war god, and \"lord of\nheaven and earth \", like Ea and Anu. An atmospheric deity, he shares\nthe attributes of the Indian Indra, the thunder and rain god, and\nVayu, the wind god; he also resembles the Semitic Adad or Rimman, who\nlinks with the Hittite Tarku. All these are deities of tempest and the\nmountains--Wild Huntsmen in the Raging Host. The name of Enlil's\ntemple at Nippur has been translated as \"mountain house\", or \"like a\nmountain\", and the theory obtained for a time that the god must\ntherefore have been imported by a people from the hills. But as the\nideogram for \"mountain\" and \"land\" was used in the earliest times, as\nKing shows, with reference to foreign countries,[46] it is more\nprobable that Enlil was exalted as a world god who had dominion over\nnot only Sumer and Akkad, but also the territories occupied by the\nrivals and enemies of the early Babylonians.\n\nEnlil is known as the \"older Bel\" (lord), to distinguish him from Bel\nMerodach of Babylon. He was the chief figure in a triad in which he\nfigured as earth god, with Anu as god of the sky and Ea as god of the\ndeep. This classification suggests that Nippur had either risen in\npolitical importance and dominated the cities of Erech and Eridu, or\nthat its priests were influential at the court of a ruler who was the\noverlord of several city states.\n\nAssociated with Bel Enlil was Beltis, later known as \"Beltu--the\nlady\". She appears to be identical with the other great goddesses,\nIshtar, Nana, Zerpanitu^m, &c., a \"Great Mother\", or consort of an\nearly god with whom she was equal in power and dignity.\n\nIn the later systematized theology of the Babylonians we seem to trace\nthe fragments of a primitive mythology which was vague in outline, for\nthe deities were not sharply defined, and existed in groups. Enneads\nwere formed in Egypt by placing a local god at the head of a group of\neight elder deities. The sun god Ra was the chief figure of the\nearliest pantheon of this character at Heliopolis, while at Hermopolis\nthe leader was the lunar god Thoth. Professor Budge is of opinion that\n\"both the Sumerians and the early Egyptians derived their primeval\ngods from some common but exceedingly ancient source\", for he finds in\nthe Babylonian and Nile valleys that there is a resemblance between\ntwo early groups which \"seems to be too close to be accidental\".[47]\n\nThe Egyptian group comprises four pairs of vague gods and\ngoddesses--Nu and his consort Nut, Hehu and his consort Hehut, Kekui\nand his consort Kekuit, and Kerh and his consort Kerhet. \"Man always\nhas fashioned\", he says, \"and probably always will fashion, his god or\ngods in his own image, and he has always, having reached a certain\nstage in development, given to his gods wives and offspring; but the\nnature of the position taken by the wives of the gods depends upon the\nnature of the position of women in the households of those who write\nthe legends and the traditions of the gods. The gods of the oldest\ncompany in Egypt were, the writer believes, invented by people in\nwhose households women held a high position, and among whom they\npossessed more power than is usually the case with Oriental\npeoples.\"[48]\n\nWe cannot say definitely what these various deities represent. Nu was\nthe spirit of the primordial deep, and Nut of the waters above the\nheavens, the mother of moon and sun and the stars. The others were\nphases of light and darkness and the forces of nature in activity and\nrepose.\n\nNu is represented in Babylonian mythology by Apsu-Rishtu, and Nut by\nMummu-Tiamat or Tiawath; the next pair is Lachmu and Lachamu, and the\nthird, Anshar and Kishar. The fourth pair is missing, but the names of\nAnu and Ea (as Nudimmud) are mentioned in the first tablet of the\nCreation series, and the name of a third is lost. Professor Budge\nthinks that the Assyrian editors substituted the ancient triad of Anu,\nEa, and Enlil for the pair which would correspond to those found in\nEgypt. Originally the wives of Anu and Ea may have made up the group\nof eight primitive deities.\n\nThere can be little doubt but that Ea, as he survives to us, is of\nlater characterization than the first pair of primitive deities who\nsymbolized the deep. The attributes of this beneficent god reflect the\nprogress, and the social and moral ideals of a people well advanced in\ncivilization. He rewarded mankind for the services they rendered to\nhim; he was their leader and instructor; he achieved for them the\nvictories over the destructive forces of nature. In brief, he was the\ndragon slayer, a distinction, by the way, which was attached in later\ntimes to his son Merodach, the Babylonian god, although Ea was still\ncredited with the victory over the dragon's husband.\n\nWhen Ea was one of the pre-Babylonian group--the triad of Bel-Enlil,\nAnu, and Ea--he resembled the Indian Vishnu, the Preserver, while\nBel-Enlil resembled Shiva, the Destroyer, and Anu, the father, supreme\nBrahma, the Creator and Father of All, the difference in exact\nadjustment being due, perhaps, to Sumerian political conditions.\n\nEa, as we have seen, symbolized the beneficence of the waters; their\ndestructive force was represented by Tiamat or Tiawath, the dragon,\nand Apsu, her husband, the arch-enemy of the gods. We shall find these\nelder demons figuring in the Babylonian Creation myth, which receives\ntreatment in a later chapter.\n\nThe ancient Sumerian city of Eridu, which means \"on the seashore\", was\ninvested with great sanctity from the earliest times, and Ea, the\n\"great magician of the gods\", was invoked by workers of spells, the\npriestly magicians of historic Babylonia. Excavations have shown that\nEridu was protected by a retaining wall of sandstone, of which\nmaterial many of its houses were made. In its temple tower, built of\nbrick, was a marble stairway, and evidences have been forthcoming that\nin the later Sumerian period the structure was lavishly adorned. It is\nreferred to in the fragments of early literature which have survived\nas \"the splendid house, shady as the forest\", that \"none may enter\".\nThe mythological spell exercised by Eridu in later times suggests that\nthe civilization of Sumeria owed much to the worshippers of Ea. At the\nsacred city the first man was created: there the souls of the dead\npassed towards the great Deep. Its proximity to the sea--Ea was\nNin-bubu, \"god of the sailor\"--may have brought it into contact with\nother peoples and other early civilizations. Like the early Egyptians,\nthe early Sumerians may have been in touch with Punt (Somaliland),\nwhich some regard as the cradle of the Mediterranean race. The\nEgyptians obtained from that sacred land incense-bearing trees which\nhad magical potency. In a fragmentary Babylonian charm there is a\nreference to a sacred tree or bush at Eridu. Professor Sayce has\nsuggested that it is the Biblical \"Tree of Life\" in the Garden of\nEden. His translations of certain vital words, however, is sharply\nquestioned by Mr. R. Campbell Thompson of the British Museum, who does\nnot accept the theory.[49] It may be that Ea's sacred bush or tree is\na survival of tree and water worship.\n\nIf Eridu was not the \"cradle\" of the Sumerian race, it was possibly\nthe cradle of Sumerian civilization. Here, amidst the shifting rivers\nin early times, the agriculturists may have learned to control and\ndistribute the water supply by utilizing dried-up beds of streams to\nirrigate the land. Whatever successes they achieved were credited to\nEa, their instructor and patron; he was Nadimmud, \"god of everything\".\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\nRIVAL PANTHEONS AND REPRESENTATIVE DEITIES\n\n\n  Why Different Gods were Supreme at Different Centres--Theories\n  regarding Origin of Life--Vital Principle in Water--Creative Tears\n  of Weeping Deities--Significance of widespread Spitting\n  Customs--Divine Water in Blood and Divine Blood in Water--Liver as\n  the Seat of Life--Inspiration derived by Drinking Mead, Blood,\n  &c.--Life Principle in Breath--Babylonian Ghosts as \"Evil Wind\n  Gusts\"--Fire Deities--Fire and Water in Magical Ceremonies--Moon\n  Gods of Ur and Harran--Moon Goddess and Babylonian \"Jack and\n  Jill\"--Antiquity of Sun Worship--Tammuz and Ishtar--Solar Gods of\n  War, Pestilence, and Death--Shamash as the \"Great Judge\"--His Mitra\n  Name--Aryan Mitra or Mithra and linking Babylonian Deities--Varuna\n  and Shamash Hymns compared--The Female Origin of Life--Goddesses of\n  Maternity--The Babylonian Thor--Deities of Good and Evil.\n\n\nIn dealing with the city cults of Sumer and Akkad, consideration must\nbe given to the problems involved by the rival mythological systems.\nPantheons not only varied in detail, but were presided over by\ndifferent supreme gods. One city's chief deity might be regarded as a\nsecondary deity at another centre. Although Ea, for instance, was\ngiven first place at Eridu, and was so pronouncedly Sumerian in\ncharacter, the moon god Nannar remained supreme at Ur, while the sun\ngod, whose Semitic name was Shamash, presided at Larsa and Sippar.\nOther deities were similarly exalted in other states.\n\nAs has been indicated, a mythological system must have been strongly\ninfluenced by city politics. To hold a community in sway, it was\nnecessary to recognize officially the various gods worshipped by\ndifferent sections, so as to secure the constant allegiance of all\nclasses to their rulers. Alien deities were therefore associated with\nlocal and tribal deities, those of the nomads with those of the\nagriculturists, those of the unlettered folks with those of the\nlearned people. Reference has been made to the introduction of strange\ndeities by conquerors. But these were not always imposed upon a\ncommunity by violent means. Indications are not awanting that the\nworshippers of alien gods were sometimes welcomed and encouraged to\nsettle in certain states. When they came as military allies to assist\na city folk against a fierce enemy, they were naturally much admired\nand praised, honoured by the women and the bards, and rewarded by the\nrulers.\n\nIn the epic of Gilgamesh, the Babylonian Hercules, we meet with\nEa-bani, a Goliath of the wilds, who is entreated to come to the aid\nof the besieged city of Erech when it seemed that its deities were\nunable to help the people against their enemies.\n\n    The gods of walled-round Erech\n    To flies had turned and buzzed in the streets;\n    The winged bulls of walled-round Erech\n    Were turned to mice and departed through the holes.\n\nEa-bani was attracted to Erech by the gift of a fair woman for wife.\nThe poet who lauded him no doubt mirrored public opinion. We can see\nthe slim, shaven Sumerians gazing with wonder and admiration on their\nrough heroic ally.\n\n    All his body was covered with hair,\n    His locks were like a woman's,\n    Thick as corn grew his abundant hair.\n    He was a stranger to the people and in that land.\n    Clad in a garment like Gira, the god,\n    He had eaten grass with the gazelles,\n    He had drunk water with savage beasts.\n    His delight was to be among water dwellers.\n\nLike the giant Alban, the eponymous ancestor of a people who invaded\nprehistoric Britain, Ea-bani appears to have represented in Babylonian\nfolk legends a certain type of foreign settlers in the land. No doubt\nthe city dwellers, who were impressed by the prowess of the hairy and\npowerful warriors, were also ready to acknowledge the greatness of\ntheir war gods, and to admit them into the pantheon. The fusion of\nbeliefs which followed must have stimulated thought and been\nproductive of speculative ideas. \"Nowhere\", remarks Professor Jastrow,\n\"does a high form of culture arise without the commingling of diverse\nethnic elements.\"\n\nWe must also take into account the influence exercised by leaders of\nthought like En-we-dur-an-ki, the famous high priest of Sippar, whose\npiety did much to increase the reputation of the cult of Shamesh, the\nsun god. The teachings and example of Buddha, for instance,\nrevolutionized Brahmanic religion in India.\n\nA mythology was an attempt to solve the riddle of the Universe, and to\nadjust the relations of mankind with the various forces represented by\nthe deities. The priests systematized existing folk beliefs and\nestablished an official religion. To secure the prosperity of the\nState, it was considered necessary to render homage unto whom homage\nwas due at various seasons and under various circumstances.\n\nThe religious attitude of a particular community, therefore, must have\nbeen largely dependent on its needs and experiences. The food supply\nwas a first consideration. At Eridu, as we have seen, it was assured\nby devotion to Ea and obedience to his commands as an instructor.\nElsewhere it might happen, however, that Ea's gifts were restricted or\nwithheld by an obstructing force--the raging storm god, or the\nparching, pestilence-bringing deity of the sun. It was necessary,\ntherefore, for the people to win the favour of the god or goddess who\nseemed most powerful, and was accordingly considered to be the\ngreatest in a particular district. A rain god presided over the\ndestinies of one community, and a god of disease and death over\nanother; a third exalted the war god, no doubt because raids were\nfrequent and the city owed its strength and prosperity to its battles\nand conquests. The reputation won by a particular god throughout\nBabylonia would depend greatly on the achievements of his worshippers\nand the progress of the city civilization over which he presided.\nBel-Enlil's fame as a war deity was probably due to the political\nsupremacy of his city of Nippur; and there was probably good reason\nfor attributing to the sun god a pronounced administrative and legal\ncharacter; he may have controlled the destinies of exceedingly well\norganized communities in which law and order and authority were held\nin high esteem.\n\nIn accounting for the rise of distinctive and rival city deities, we\nshould also consider the influence of divergent conceptions regarding\nthe origin of life in mingled communities. Each foreign element in a\ncommunity had its own intellectual life and immemorial tribal\ntraditions, which reflected ancient habits of life and perpetuated the\ndoctrines of eponymous ancestors. Among the agricultural classes, the\nfolk religion which entered so intimately into their customs and\nlabours must have remained essentially Babylonish in character. In\ncities, however, where official religions were formulated, foreign\nideas were more apt to be imposed, especially when embraced by\ninfluential teachers. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that in\nBabylonia, as in Egypt, there were differences of opinion regarding\nthe origin of life and the particular natural element which\nrepresented the vital principle.\n\nOne section of the people, who were represented by the worshippers of\nEa, appear to have believed that the essence of life was contained in\nwater. The god of Eridu was the source of the \"water of life\". He\nfertilized parched and sunburnt wastes through rivers and irrigating\ncanals, and conferred upon man the sustaining \"food of life\". When\nlife came to an end--\n\n    Food of death will be offered thee...\n    Water of death will be offered thee...\n\nOfferings of water and food were made to the dead so that the ghosts\nmight be nourished and prevented from troubling the living. Even the\ngods required water and food; they were immortal because they had\ndrunk ambrosia and eaten from the plant of life. When the goddess\nIshtar was in the Underworld, the land of the dead, the servant of Ea\nexclaimed--\n\n    \"Hail! lady, may the well give me of its waters, so that I may\n        drink.\"\n\nThe goddess of the dead commanded her servant to \"sprinkle the lady\nIshtar with the water of life and bid her depart\". The sacred water\nmight also be found at a confluence of rivers. Ea bade his son,\nMerodach, to \"draw water from the mouth of two streams\", and \"on this\nwater to put his pure spell\".\n\nThe worship of rivers and wells which prevailed in many countries was\nconnected with the belief that the principle of life was in moisture.\nIn India, water was vitalized by the intoxicating juice of the Soma\nplant, which inspired priests to utter prophecies and filled their\nhearts with religious fervour. Drinking customs had originally a\nreligious significance. It was believed in India that the sap of\nplants was influenced by the moon, the source of vitalizing moisture\nand the hiding-place of the mead of the gods. The Teutonic gods also\ndrank this mead, and poets were inspired by it. Similar beliefs\nobtained among various peoples. Moon and water worship were therefore\nclosely associated; the blood of animals and the sap of plants were\nvitalized by the water of life and under control of the moon.\n\nThe body moisture of gods and demons had vitalizing properties. When\nthe Indian creator, Praj\u00e1pati, wept at the beginning, \"that (the\ntears) which fell into the water became the air. That which he wiped\naway, upwards, became the sky.\"[50] The ancient Egyptians believed\nthat all men were born from the eyes of Horus except negroes, who came\nfrom other parts of his body.[51] The creative tears of Ra, the sun\ngod, fell as shining rays upon the earth. When this god grew old\nsaliva dripped from his mouth, and Isis mixed the vitalizing moisture\nwith dust, and thus made the serpent which bit and paralysed the great\nsolar deity.[52]\n\nOther Egyptian deities, including Osiris and Isis, wept creative\ntears. Those which fell from the eyes of the evil gods produced\npoisonous plants and various baneful animals. Orion, the Greek giant,\nsprang from the body moisture of deities. The weeping ceremonies in\nconnection with agricultural rites were no doubt believed to be of\nmagical potency; they encouraged the god to weep creative tears.\n\nEa, the god of the deep, was also \"lord of life\" (Enti), \"king of the\nriver\" (Lugal-ida), and god of creation (Nudimmud). His aid was\ninvoked by means of magical formulae. As the \"great magician of the\ngods\" he uttered charms himself, and was the patron of all magicians.\nOne spell runs as follows:\n\n    I am the sorcerer priest of Ea...\n    To revive the ... sick man\n    The great lord Ea hath sent me;\n    He hath added his pure spell to mine,\n    He hath added his pure voice to mine,\n    He hath added his pure spittle to mine.\n\n            _R.C. Thompson's Translation._\n\nSaliva, like tears, had creative and therefore curative qualities; it\nalso expelled and injured demons and brought good luck. Spitting\nceremonies are referred to in the religious literature of Ancient\nEgypt. When the Eye of Ra was blinded by Set, Thoth spat in it to\nrestore vision. The sun god Tum, who was linked with Ra as Ra-Tum,\nspat on the ground, and his saliva became the gods Shu and Tefnut. In\nthe Underworld the devil serpent Apep was spat upon to curse it, as\nwas also its waxen image which the priests fashioned.[53]\n\nSeveral African tribes spit to make compacts, declare friendship, and\nto curse.\n\nPark, the explorer, refers in his _Travels_ to his carriers spitting\non a flat stone to ensure a good journey. Arabian holy men and\ndescendants of Mohammed spit to cure diseases. Mohammed spat in the\nmouth of his grandson Hasen soon after birth. Theocritus, Sophocles,\nand Plutarch testify to the ancient Grecian customs of spitting to\ncure and to curse, and also to bless when children were named. Pliny\nhas expressed belief in the efficacy of the fasting spittle for curing\ndisease, and referred to the custom of spitting to avert witchcraft.\nIn England, Scotland, and Ireland spitting customs are not yet\nobsolete. North of England boys used to talk of \"spitting their sauls\"\n(souls). When the Newcastle colliers held their earliest strikes they\nmade compacts by spitting on a stone. There are still \"spitting\nstones\" in the north of Scotland. When bargains are made in rural\ndistricts, hands are spat upon before they are shaken. The first money\ntaken each day by fishwives and other dealers is spat upon to ensure\nincreased drawings. Brand, who refers to various spitting customs,\nquotes _Scot's Discovery of Witchcraft_ regarding the saliva cure for\nking's evil, which is still, by the way, practised in the Hebrides.\nLike Pliny, Scot recommended ceremonial spitting as a charm against\nwitchcraft.[54] In China spitting to expel demons is a common\npractice. We still call a hasty person a \"spitfire\", and a calumniator\na \"spit-poison\".\n\nThe life principle in trees, &c., as we have seen, was believed to\nhave been derived from the tears of deities. In India sap was called\nthe \"blood of trees\", and references to \"bleeding trees\" are still\nwidespread and common. \"Among the ancients\", wrote Professor Robertson\nSmith, \"blood is generally conceived as the principle or vehicle of\nlife, and so the account often given of sacred waters is that the\nblood of the deity flows in them. Thus as Milton writes:\n\n    Smooth Adonis from his native rock\n    Ran purple to the sea, supposed with blood\n    Of Thammuz yearly wounded.\n\n            _Paradise Lost_, i, 450.\n\nThe ruddy colour which the swollen river derived from the soil at a\ncertain season was ascribed to the blood of the god, who received his\ndeath wound in Lebanon at that time of the year, and lay buried beside\nthe sacred source.\"[55]\n\nIn Babylonia the river was regarded as the source of the life blood\nand the seat of the soul. No doubt this theory was based on the fact\nthat the human liver contains about a sixth of the blood in the body,\nthe largest proportion required by any single organ. Jeremiah makes\n\"Mother Jerusalem\" exclaim: \"My liver is poured upon the earth for the\ndestruction of the daughter of my people\", meaning that her life is\nspent with grief.\n\nInspiration was derived by drinking blood as well as by drinking\nintoxicating liquors--the mead of the gods. Indian magicians who drink\nthe blood of the goat sacrificed to the goddess Kali, are believed to\nbe temporarily possessed by her spirit, and thus enabled to\nprophesy.[56] Malayan exorcists still expel demons while they suck the\nblood from a decapitated fowl.[57]\n\nSimilar customs were prevalent in Ancient Greece. A woman who drank\nthe blood of a sacrificed lamb or bull uttered prophetic sayings.[58]\n\nBut while most Babylonians appear to have believed that the life\nprinciple was in blood, some were apparently of opinion that it was in\nbreath--the air of life. A man died when he ceased to breathe; his\nspirit, therefore, it was argued, was identical with the\natmosphere--the moving wind--and was accordingly derived from the\natmospheric or wind god. When, in the Gilgamesh epic, the hero invokes\nthe dead Ea-bani, the ghost rises up like a \"breath of wind\". A\nBabylonian charm runs:\n\n    The gods which seize on men\n      Came forth from the grave;\n    The evil wind gusts\n      Have come forth from the grave,\n    To demand payment of rites and the pouring out of libations\n      They have come forth from the grave;\n    All that is evil in their hosts, like a whirlwind,\n      Hath come forth from the grave.[59]\n\nThe Hebrew \"nephesh ruach\" and \"neshamah\" (in Arabic \"ruh\" and \"nefs\")\npass from meaning \"breath\" to \"spirit\".[60] In Egypt the god Khnumu\nwas \"Kneph\" in his character as an atmospheric deity. The ascendancy\nof storm and wind gods in some Babylonian cities may have been due to\nthe belief that they were the source of the \"air of life\". It is\npossible that this conception was popularized by the Semites.\nInspiration was perhaps derived from these deities by burning incense,\nwhich, if we follow evidence obtained elsewhere, induced a prophetic\ntrance. The gods were also invoked by incense. In the Flood legend the\nBabylonian Noah burned incense. \"The gods smelled a sweet savour and\ngathered like flies over the sacrificer.\" In Egypt devotees who\ninhaled the breath of the Apis bull were enabled to prophesy.\n\nIn addition to water and atmospheric deities Babylonia had also its\nfire gods, Girru, Gish Bar, Gibil, and Nusku. Their origin is obscure.\nIt is doubtful if their worshippers, like those of the Indian Agni,\nbelieved that fire, the \"vital spark\", was the principle of life which\nwas manifested by bodily heat. The Aryan fire worshippers cremated\ntheir dead so that the spirits might be transferred by fire to\nParadise. This practice, however, did not obtain among the fire\nworshippers of Persia, nor, as was once believed, in Sumer or Akkad\neither. Fire was, however, used in Babylonia for magical purposes. It\ndestroyed demons, and put to flight the spirits of disease. Possibly\nthe fire-purification ceremonies resembled those which were practised\nby the Canaanites, and are referred to in the Bible. Ahaz \"made his\nson to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the\nheathen\".[61] Ezekiel declared that \"when ye offer your gifts, when ye\nmake your sons to pass through the fire, ye pollute yourselves with\nall your idols\".[62] In _Leviticus_ it is laid down: \"Thou shalt not\nlet any of thy seed pass through the fire to Moloch\".[63] It may be\nthat in Babylonia the fire-cleansing ceremony resembled that which\nobtained at Beltane (May Day) in Scotland, Germany, and other\ncountries. Human sacrifices might also have been offered up as burnt\nofferings. Abraham, who came from the Sumerian city of Ur, was\nprepared to sacrifice Isaac, Sarah's first-born. The fire gods of\nBabylonia never achieved the ascendancy of the Indian Agni; they\nappear to have resembled him mainly in so far as he was connected with\nthe sun. Nusku, like Agni, was also the \"messenger of the gods\". When\nMerodach or Babylon was exalted as chief god of the pantheon his\nmessages were carried to Ea by Nusku. He may have therefore symbolized\nthe sun rays, for Merodach had solar attributes. It is possible that\nthe belief obtained among even the water worshippers of Eridu that the\nsun and moon, which rose from the primordial deep, had their origin in\nthe everlasting fire in Ea's domain at the bottom of the sea. In the\nIndian god Varuna's ocean home an \"Asura fire\" (demon fire) burned\nconstantly; it was \"bound and confined\", but could not be\nextinguished. Fed by water, this fire, it was believed, would burst\nforth at the last day and consume the universe.[64] A similar belief\ncan be traced in Teutonic mythology. The Babylonian incantation cult\nappealed to many gods, but \"the most important share in the rites\",\nsays Jastrow, \"are taken by fire and water--suggesting, therefore,\nthat the god of water--more particularly Ea--and the god of fire ...\nare the chief deities on which the ritual itself hinges\". In some\ntemples there was a _bit rimki_, a \"house of washing\", and a _bit\nnuri_, a \"house of light\".[65]\n\nIt is possible, of course, that fire was regarded as the vital\nprinciple by some city cults, which were influenced by imported ideas.\nIf so, the belief never became prevalent. The most enduring influence\nin Babylonian religion was the early Sumerian; and as Sumerian modes\nof thought were the outcome of habits of life necessitated by the\ncharacter of the country, they were bound, sooner or later, to leave a\ndeep impress on the minds of foreign peoples who settled in the Garden\nof Western Asia. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that\nimported deities assumed Babylonian characteristics, and were\nidentified or associated with Babylonian gods in the later imperial\npantheon.\n\nMoon worship appears to have been as ancient as water worship, with\nwhich, as we have seen, it was closely associated. It was widely\nprevalent throughout Babylonia. The chief seat of the lunar deity,\nNannar or Sin, was the ancient city of Ur, from which Abraham migrated\nto Harran, where the \"Baal\" (the lord) was also a moon god. Ur was\nsituated in Sumer, in the south, between the west bank of the\nEuphrates and the low hills bordering the Arabian desert, and not far\ndistant from sea-washed Eridu. No doubt, like that city, it had its\norigin at an exceedingly remote period. At any rate, the excavations\nconducted there have afforded proof that it flourished in the\nprehistoric period.\n\nAs in Arabia, Egypt, and throughout ancient Europe and elsewhere, the\nmoon god of Sumeria was regarded as the \"friend of man\". He controlled\nnature as a fertilizing agency; he caused grass, trees, and crops to\ngrow; he increased flocks and herds, and gave human offspring. At Ur\nhe was exalted above Ea as \"the lord and prince of the gods, supreme\nin heaven, the Father of all\"; he was also called \"great Anu\", an\nindication that Anu, the sky god, had at one time a lunar character.\nThe moon god was believed to be the father of the sun god: he was the\n\"great steer with mighty horns and perfect limbs\".\n\nHis name Sin is believed to be a corruption of \"Zu-ena\", which\nsignifies \"knowledge lord\".[66] Like the lunar Osiris of Egypt, he was\napparently an instructor of mankind; the moon measured time and\ncontrolled the seasons; seeds were sown at a certain phase of the\nmoon, and crops were ripened by the harvest moon. The mountains of\nSinai and the desert of Sin are called after this deity.\n\nAs Nannar, which Jastrow considers to be a variation of \"Narnar\", the\n\"light producer\", the moon god scattered darkness and reduced the\nterrors of night. His spirit inhabited the lunar stone, so that moon\nand stone worship were closely associated; it also entered trees and\ncrops, so that moon worship linked with earth worship, as both linked\nwith water worship.\n\nThe consort of Nannar was Nin-Uruwa, \"the lady of Ur\", who was also\ncalled Nin-gala. She links with Ishtar as Nin, as Isis of Egypt linked\nwith other mother deities. The twin children of the moon were Mashu\nand Mashtu, a brother and sister, like the lunar girl and boy of\nTeutonic mythology immortalized in nursery rhymes as Jack and Jill.\n\nSun worship was of great antiquity in Babylonia, but appears to have\nbeen seasonal in its earliest phases. No doubt the sky god Anu had his\nsolar as well as his lunar attributes, which he shared with Ea. The\nspring sun was personified as Tammuz, the youthful shepherd, who was\nloved by the earth goddess Ishtar and her rival Eresh-ki-gal, goddess\nof death, the Babylonian Persephone. During the winter Tammuz dwelt in\nHades, and at the beginning of spring Ishtar descended to search for\nhim among the shades.[67] But the burning summer sun was symbolized as\na destroyer, a slayer of men, and therefore a war god. As Ninip or\nNirig, the son of Enlil, who was made in the likeness of Anu, he waged\nwar against the earth spirits, and was furiously hostile towards the\ndeities of alien peoples, as befitted a god of battle. Even his father\nfeared him, and when he was advancing towards Nippur, sent out Nusku,\nmessenger of the gods, to soothe the raging deity with soft words.\nNinip was symbolized as a wild bull, was connected with stone worship,\nlike the Indian destroying god Shiva, and was similarly a deity of\nFate. He had much in common with Nin-Girsu, a god of Lagash, who was\nin turn regarded as a form of Tammuz.\n\nNergal, another solar deity, brought disease and pestilence, and,\naccording to Jensen, all misfortunes due to excessive heat. He was the\nking of death, husband of Eresh-ki-gal, queen of Hades. As a war god\nhe thirsted for human blood, and was depicted as a mighty lion. He was\nthe chief deity of the city of Cuthah, which, Jastrow suggests, was\nsituated beside a burial place of great repute, like the Egyptian\nAbydos.\n\nThe two great cities of the sun in ancient Babylonia were the Akkadian\nSippar and the Sumerian Larsa. In these the sun god, Shamash or\nBabbar, was the patron deity. He was a god of Destiny, the lord of the\nliving and the dead, and was exalted as the great Judge, the lawgiver,\nwho upheld justice; he was the enemy of wrong, he loved righteousness\nand hated sin, he inspired his worshippers with rectitude and punished\nevildoers. The sun god also illumined the world, and his rays\npenetrated every quarter: he saw all things, and read the thoughts of\nmen; nothing could be concealed from Shamash. One of his names was\nMitra, like the god who was linked with Varuna in the Indian\n_Rigveda_. These twin deities, Mitra and Varuna, measured out the span\nof human life. They were the source of all heavenly gifts: they\nregulated sun and moon, the winds and waters, and the seasons.[68]\n\nThese did the gods establish in royal power over themselves, because\nthey were wise and the children of wisdom, and because they excelled\nin power.--_Prof. Arnold's trans. of Rigvedic Hymn_.\n\nMitra and Varuna were protectors of hearth and home, and they\nchastised sinners. \"In a striking passage of the _Mahabharata_\" says\nProfessor Moulton, \"one in which Indian thought comes nearest to the\nconception of conscience, a kingly wrongdoer is reminded that the sun\nsees secret sin.\"[69]\n\nIn Persian mythology Mitra, as Mithra, is the patron of Truth, and\n\"the Mediator\" between heaven and earth[70]. This god was also\nworshipped by the military aristocracy of Mitanni, which held sway for\na period over Assyria. In Roman times the worship of Mithra spread\ninto Europe from Persia. Mithraic sculptures depict the deity as a\ncorn god slaying the harvest bull; on one of the monuments \"cornstalks\ninstead of blood are seen issuing from the wound inflicted with the\nknife[71]\". The Assyrian word \"metru\" signifies rain.[70] As a sky god\nMitra may have been associated, like Varuna, with the\nwaters above the firmament. Rain would therefore be\ngifted by him as a fertilizing deity. In the Babylonian\nFlood legend it is the sun god Shamash who \"appointed\nthe time\" when the heavens were to \"rain destruction\"\nin the night, and commanded Pir-napishtim, \"Enter into\nthe midst of thy ship and shut thy door\". The solar\ndeity thus appears as a form of Anu, god of the sky and\nupper atmosphere, who controls the seasons and the various\nforces of nature. Other rival chiefs of city pantheons,\nwhether lunar, atmospheric, earth, or water deities, were\nsimilarly regarded as the supreme deities who ruled the\nUniverse, and decreed when man should receive benefits\nor suffer from their acts of vengeance.\n\nIt is possible that the close resemblances between Mithra and Mitra of\nthe Aryan-speaking peoples of India and the Iranian plateau, and the\nsun god of the Babylonians--the Semitic Shamash, the Sumerian\nUtu--were due to early contact and cultural influence through the\nmedium of Elam. As a solar and corn god, the Persian Mithra links with\nTammuz, as a sky and atmospheric deity with Anu, and as a god of\ntruth, righteousness, and law with Shamash. We seem to trace in the\nsublime Vedic hymns addressed by the Indian Aryans to Mitra and Varuna\nthe impress of Babylonian religious thought:\n\n    Whate'er exists within this earth, and all within the sky,\n    Yea, all that is beyond, King Varuna perceives....\n\n            _Rigveda_, iv, 16.[72]\n\n\n    O Varuna, whatever the offence may be\n    That we as men commit against the heavenly folk,\n    When through our want of thought we violate thy laws,\n    Chastise us not, O god, for that iniquity.\n\n            _Rigveda_, vii, 89.[73]\n\nShamash was similarly exalted in Babylonian hymns:\n\n    The progeny of those who deal unjustly will not prosper.\n    What their mouth utters in thy presence\n    Thou wilt destroy, what issues from their mouth thou wilt\n        dissipate.\n    Thou knowest their transgressions, the plan of the wicked thou\n        rejectest.\n    All, whoever they be, are in thy care....\n    He who takes no bribe, who cares for the oppressed,\n    Is favoured by Shamash,--his life shall be prolonged.[74]\n\nThe worshippers of Varuna and Mitra in the Punjab did not cremate\ntheir dead like those who exalted the rival fire god Agni. The grave\nwas the \"house of clay\", as in Babylonia. Mitra, who was identical\nwith Yama, ruled over departed souls in the \"Land of the Pitris\"\n(Fathers), which was reached by crossing the mountains and the rushing\nstream of death.[75] As we have seen, the Babylonian solar god Nergal\nwas also the lord of the dead.\n\nAs Ma-banda-anna, \"the boat of the sky\", Shamash links with the\nEgyptian sun god Ra, whose barque sailed over the heavens by day and\nthrough the underworld of darkness and death during the night. The\nconsort of Shamash was Aa, and his attendants were Kittu and Mesharu,\n\"Truth\" and \"Righteousness\".\n\nLike the Hittites, the Babylonians had also a sun goddess: her name\nwas Nin-sun, which Jastrow renders \"the annihilating lady\". At Erech\nshe had a shrine in the temple of the sky god Anu.\n\nWe can trace in Babylonia, as in Egypt, the early belief that life in\nthe Universe had a female origin. Nin-sun links with Ishtar, whose\nSumerian name is Nana. Ishtar appears to be identical with the\nEgyptian Hathor, who, as Sekhet, slaughtered the enemies of the sun\ngod Ra. She was similarly the goddess of maternity, and is depicted in\nthis character, like Isis and other goddesses of similar character,\nsuckling a babe. Another Babylonian lady of the gods was Ama, Mama, or\nMami, \"the creatress of the seed of mankind\", and was \"probably so\ncalled as the 'mother' of all things\".[76]\n\nA characteristic atmospheric deity was Ramman, the Rimmon of the\nBible, the Semitic Addu, Adad, Hadad, or Dadu. He was not a presiding\ndeity in any pantheon, but was identified with Enlil at Nippur. As a\nhammer god, he was imported by the Semites from the hills. He was a\nwind and thunder deity, a rain bringer, a corn god, and a god of\nbattle like Thor, Jupiter, Tarku, Indra, and others, who were all sons\nof the sky.\n\nIn this brief review of the representative deities of early Babylonia,\nit will be seen that most gods link with Anu, Ea, and Enlil, whose\nattributes they symbolized in various forms. The prominence accorded\nto an individual deity depended on local conditions, experiences, and\ninfluences. Ceremonial practices no doubt varied here and there, but\nalthough one section might exalt Ea and another Shamash, the religious\nfaith of the people as a whole did not differ to any marked extent;\nthey served the gods according to their lights, so that life might be\nprolonged and made prosperous, for the land of death and \"no return\"\nwas regarded as a place of gloom and misery.\n\nWhen the Babylonians appear before us in the early stages of the\nhistorical period they had reached that stage of development set forth\nso vividly in the _Orations_ of Isocrates: \"Those of the gods who are\nthe source to us of good things have the title of Olympians; those\nwhose department is that of calamities and punishments have harsher\ntitles: to the first class both private persons and states erect\naltars and temples; the second is not worshipped either with prayers\nor burnt sacrifices, but in their case we perform ceremonies of\nriddance\".[77]\n\nThe Sumerians, like the Ancient Egyptians, developed their deities,\nwho reflected the growth of culture, from vague spirit groups, which,\nlike ghosts, were hostile to mankind. Those spirits who could be\npropitiated were exalted as benevolent deities; those who could not be\nbargained with were regarded as evil gods and goddesses. A better\nunderstanding of the character of Babylonian deities will therefore be\nobtained by passing the demons and evil spirits under review.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nDEMONS, FAIRIES, AND GHOSTS\n\n\n  Spirits in Everything and Everywhere--The Bringers of Luck and\n  Misfortune--Germ Theory Anticipated--Early Gods indistinguishable\n  from Demons--Repulsive form of Ea--Spirit Groups as Attendants of\n  Deities--Egyptian, Indian, Greek, and Germanic parallels--Elder Gods\n  as Evil Gods--Animal Demons--The Babylonian\n  \"Will-o'-the-Wisp\"--\"Foreign Devils\"--Elves and Fairies--Demon\n  Lovers--\"Adam's first wife, Lilith\"--Children Charmed against Evil\n  Spirits--The Demon of Nightmare--Ghosts as Enemies of the\n  Living--The Vengeful Dead Mother in Babylonia, India, Europe, and\n  Mexico--Burial Contrast--Calling Back the Dead--Fate of Childless\n  Ghosts--Religious Need for Offspring--Hags and Giants and Composite\n  Monsters--Tempest Fiends--Legend of Adapa and the Storm Demon--Wind\n  Hags of Ancient Britain--Tyrolese Storm Maidens--Zu Bird Legend and\n  Indian Garuda Myth--Legend of the Eagle and the Serpent--The Snake\n  Mother Goddess--Demons and the Moon God--Plague\n  Deities--Classification of Spirits, and Egyptian, Arabian, and\n  Scottish parallels--Traces of Progress from Animism to Monotheism.\n\n\nThe memorable sermon preached by Paul to the Athenians when he stood\n\"in the midst of Mars' hill\", could have been addressed with equal\nappropriateness to the ancient Sumerians and Akkadians. \"I perceive\",\nhe declared, \"that in all things ye are too superstitious.... God that\nmade the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of\nheaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is\nworshipped with men's hands as though he needed any thing, seeing he\ngiveth to all life, and breath, and all things ... for in him we live,\nand move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have\nsaid, For we are also his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the\noffspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto\ngold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.\"[78]\n\nBabylonian temples were houses of the gods in the literal sense; the\ngods were supposed to dwell in them, their spirits having entered into\nthe graven images or blocks of stone. It is probable that like the\nAncient Egyptians they believed a god had as many spirits as he had\nattributes. The gods, as we have said, appear to have evolved from\nearly spirit groups. All the world swarmed with spirits, which\ninhabited stones and trees, mountains and deserts, rivers and ocean,\nthe air, the sky, the stars, and the sun and moon. The spirits\ncontrolled Nature: they brought light and darkness, sunshine and\nstorm, summer and winter; they were manifested in the thunderstorm,\nthe sandstorm, the glare of sunset, and the wraiths of mist rising\nfrom the steaming marshes. They controlled also the lives of men and\nwomen. The good spirits were the source of luck. The bad spirits\ncaused misfortunes, and were ever seeking to work evil against the\nBabylonian. Darkness was peopled by demons and ghosts of the dead. The\nspirits of disease were ever lying in wait to clutch him with cruel\ninvisible hands.\n\nSome modern writers, who are too prone to regard ancient peoples from\na twentieth-century point of view, express grave doubts as to whether\n\"intelligent Babylonians\" really believed that spirits came down in\nthe rain and entered the soil to rise up before men's eyes as stalks\nof barley or wheat. There is no reason for supposing that they thought\notherwise. The early folks based their theories on the accumulated\nknowledge of their age. They knew nothing regarding the composition of\nwater or the atmosphere, of the cause of thunder and lightning, or of\nthe chemical changes effected in soils by the action of bacteria. They\nattributed all natural phenomena to the operations of spirits or gods.\nIn believing that certain demons caused certain diseases, they may be\nsaid to have achieved distinct progress, for they anticipated the germ\ntheory. They made discoveries, too, which have been approved and\nelaborated in later times when they lit sacred fires, bathed in sacred\nwaters, and used oils and herbs to charm away spirits of pestilence.\nIndeed, many folk cures, which were originally associated with magical\nceremonies, are still practised in our own day. They were found to be\neffective by early observers, although they were unable to explain why\nand how cures were accomplished, like modern scientific investigators.\n\nIn peopling the Universe with spirits, the Babylonians, like other\nancient folks, betrayed that tendency to symbolize everything which\nhas ever appealed to the human mind. Our painters and poets and\nsculptors are greatest when they symbolize their ideals and ideas and\nimpressions, and by so doing make us respond to their moods. Their\n\"beauty and their terror are sublime\". But what may seem poetic to us,\nwas invariably a grim reality to the Babylonians. The statue or\npicture was not merely a work of art but a manifestation of the god or\ndemon. As has been said, they believed that the spirit of the god\ninhabited the idol; the frown of the brazen image was the frown of the\nwicked demon. They entertained as much dread of the winged and\nhuman-headed bulls guarding the entrance to the royal palace as do\nsome of the Arab workmen who, in our own day, assist excavators to\nrescue them from sandy mounds in which they have been hidden for long\ncenturies.\n\nWhen an idol was carried away from a city by an invading army, it was\nbelieved that the god himself had been taken prisoner, and was\ntherefore unable any longer to help his people.\n\nIn the early stages of Sumerian culture, the gods and goddesses who\nformed groups were indistinguishable from demons. They were vaguely\ndefined, and had changing shapes. When attempts were made to depict\nthem they were represented in many varying forms. Some were winged\nbulls or lions with human heads; others had even more remarkable\ncomposite forms. The \"dragon of Babylon\", for instance, which was\nportrayed on walls of temples, had a serpent's head, a body covered\nwith scales, the fore legs of a lion, hind legs of an eagle, and a\nlong wriggling serpentine tail. Ea had several monster forms. The\nfollowing description of one of these is repulsive enough:--\n\n    The head is the head of a serpent,\n    From his nostrils mucus trickles,\n    His mouth is beslavered with water;\n    The ears are like those of a basilisk,\n    His horns are twisted into three curls,\n    He wears a veil in his head band,\n    The body is a suh-fish full of stars,\n    The base of his feet are claws,\n    The sole of his foot has no heel,\n    His name is Sassu-wunnu,\n    A sea monster, a form of Ea.\n\n            _R.C. Thompson's Translation._[79]\n\nEven after the gods were given beneficent attributes to reflect the\ngrowth of culture, and were humanized, they still retained many of\ntheir savage characteristics. Bel Enlil and his fierce son, Nergal,\nwere destroyers of mankind; the storm god desolated the land; the sky\ngod deluged it with rain; the sea raged furiously, ever hungering for\nhuman victims; the burning sun struck down its victims; and the floods\nplayed havoc with the dykes and houses of human beings. In Egypt the\nsun god Ra was similarly a \"producer of calamity\", the composite\nmonster god Sokar was \"the lord of fear\".[80] Osiris in prehistoric\ntimes had been \"a dangerous god\", and some of the Pharaohs sought\nprotection against him in the charms inscribed in their tombs.[81] The\nIndian Shiva, \"the Destroyer\", in the old religious poems has also\nprimitive attributes of like character.\n\nThe Sumerian gods never lost their connection with the early spirit\ngroups. These continued to be represented by their attendants, who\nexecuted a deity's stern and vengeful decrees. In one of the\nBabylonian charms the demons are referred to as \"the spleen of the\ngods\"--the symbols of their wrathful emotions and vengeful desires.\nBel Enlil, the air and earth god, was served by the demons of disease,\n\"the beloved sons of Bel\", which issued from the Underworld to attack\nmankind. Nergal, the sulky and ill-tempered lord of death and\ndestruction, who never lost his demoniac character, swept over the\nland, followed by the spirits of pestilence, sunstroke, weariness, and\ndestruction. Anu, the sky god, had \"spawned\" at creation the demons of\ncold and rain and darkness. Even Ea and his consort, Damkina, were\nserved by groups of devils and giants, which preyed upon mankind in\nbleak and desolate places when night fell. In the ocean home of Ea\nwere bred the \"seven evil spirits\" of tempest--the gaping dragon, the\nleopard which preyed upon children, the great Beast, the terrible\nserpent, &c.\n\nIn Indian mythology Indra was similarly followed by the stormy Maruts,\nand fierce Rudra by the tempestuous Rudras. In Teutonic mythology Odin\nis the \"Wild Huntsman in the Raging Host\". In Greek mythology the\nocean furies attend upon fickle Poseidon. Other examples of this kind\ncould be multiplied.\n\nAs we have seen (Chapter II) the earliest group of Babylonian deities\nconsisted probably of four pairs of gods and goddesses as in Egypt.\nThe first pair was Apsu-Rishtu and Tiamat, who personified the\nprimordial deep. Now the elder deities in most mythologies--the\n\"grandsires\" and \"grandmothers\" and \"fathers\" and \"mothers\"--are ever\nthe most powerful and most vengeful. They appear to represent\nprimitive \"layers\" of savage thought. The Greek Cronos devours even\nhis own children, and, as the late Andrew Lang has shown, there are\nmany parallels to this myth among primitive peoples in various parts\nof the world.\n\nLang regarded the Greek survival as an example of \"the conservatism of\nthe religious instinct\".[82] The grandmother of the Teutonic deity Tyr\nwas a fierce giantess with nine hundred heads; his father was an enemy\nof the gods. In Scotland the hag-mother of winter and storm and\ndarkness is the enemy of growth and all life, and she raises storms to\nstop the grass growing, to slay young animals, and prevent the union\nof her son with his fair bride. Similarly the Babylonian chaos\nspirits, Apsu and Tiamat, the father and mother of the gods, resolve\nto destroy their offspring, because they begin to set the Universe in\norder. Tiamat, the female dragon, is more powerful than her husband\nApsu, who is slain by his son Ea. She summons to her aid the gods of\nevil, and creates also a brood of monsters--serpents, dragons, vipers,\nfish men, raging hounds, &c.--so as to bring about universal and\nenduring confusion and evil. Not until she is destroyed can the\nbeneficent gods establish law and order and make the earth habitable\nand beautiful.\n\nBut although Tiamat was slain, the everlasting battle between the\nforces of good and evil was ever waged in the Babylonian world.\nCertain evil spirits were let loose at certain periods, and they\nstrove to accomplish the destruction of mankind and his works. These\ninvisible enemies were either charmed away by performing magical\nceremonies, or by invoking the gods to thwart them and bind them.\n\nOther spirits inhabited the bodies of animals and were ever hovering\nnear. The ghosts of the dead and male and female demons were birds,\nlike the birds of Fate which sang to Siegfried. When the owl raised\nits melancholy voice in the darkness the listener heard the spirit of\na departed mother crying for her child. Ghosts and evil spirits\nwandered through the streets in darkness; they haunted empty houses;\nthey fluttered through the evening air as bats; they hastened, moaning\ndismally, across barren wastes searching for food or lay in wait for\ntravellers; they came as roaring lions and howling jackals, hungering\nfor human flesh. The \"shedu\" was a destructive bull which might slay\nman wantonly or as a protector of temples. Of like character was the\n\"lamassu\", depicted as a winged bull with human head, the protector of\npalaces; the \"alu\" was a bull-like demon of tempest, and there were\nalso many composite, distorted, or formless monsters which were\nvaguely termed \"seizers\" or \"overthrowers\", the Semitic \"labashu\" and\n\"ach-chazu\", the Sumerian \"dimmea\" and \"dimme-kur\". A dialectic form\nof \"gallu\" or devil was \"mulla\". Professor Pinches thinks it not\nimprobable that \"mulla\" may be connected with the word \"mula\", meaning\n\"star\", and suggests that it referred to a \"will-o'-the-wisp\".[83] In\nthese islands, according to an old rhyme,\n\n    Some call him Robin Good-fellow,\n      Hob-goblin, or mad Crisp,\n    And some againe doe tearme him oft\n      By name of Will the Wisp.\n\nOther names are \"Kitty\", \"Peg\", and \"Jack with a lantern\". \"Poor\nRobin\" sang:\n\n    I should indeed as soon expect\n    That Peg-a-lantern would direct\n    Me straightway home on misty night\n    As wand'ring stars, quite out of sight.\n\nIn Shakespeare's _Tempest_[84] a sailor exclaims: \"Your fairy, which,\nyou say, is a harmless fairy, has done little better than played the\nJack with us\". Dr. Johnson commented that the reference was to \"Jack\nwith a lantern\". Milton wrote also of the \"wandering fire\",\n\n    Which oft, they say, some evil spirit attends,\n    Hovering and blazing with delusive light,\n    Misleads th' amaz'd night wand'rer from his way\n    To bogs and mires, and oft through pond or pool;\n    There swallowed up and lost from succour far.[85]\n\n\"When we stick in the mire\", sang Drayton, \"he doth with laughter\nleave us.\" These fires were also \"fallen stars\", \"death fires\", and\n\"fire drakes\":\n\n    So have I seen a fire drake glide along\n    Before a dying man, to point his grave,\n    And in it stick and hide.[86]\n\nPliny referred to the wandering lights as stars.[87] The Sumerian\n\"mulla\" was undoubtedly an evil spirit. In some countries the \"fire\ndrake\" is a bird with gleaming breast: in Babylonia it assumed the\nform of a bull, and may have had some connection with the bull of\nlshtar. Like the Indian \"Dasyu\" and \"Dasa\",[88] Gallu was applied in\nthe sense of \"foreign devil\" to human and superhuman adversaries of\ncertain monarchs. Some of the supernatural beings resemble our elves\nand fairies and the Indian Rakshasas. Occasionally they appear in\ncomely human guise; at other times they are vaguely monstrous. The\nbest known of this class is Lilith, who, according to Hebrew\ntradition, preserved in the Talmud, was the demon lover of Adam. She\nhas been immortalized by Dante Gabriel Rossetti:\n\n    Of Adam's first wife Lilith, it is told\n    (The witch he loved before the gift of Eve)\n    That, ere the snake's, her sweet tongue could deceive,\n    And her enchanted hair was the first gold.\n    And still she sits, young while the earth is old,\n    And, subtly of herself contemplative,\n    Draws men to watch the bright web she can weave,\n    Till heart and body and life are in its hold.\n    The rose and poppy are her flowers; for where\n    Is he not found, O Lilith, whom shed scent\n    And soft shed kisses and soft sleep shall snare?\n    Lo! as that youth's eyes burned at thine, so went\n    Thy spell through him, and left his straight neck bent\n    And round his heart one strangling golden hair.\n\nLilith is the Babylonian Lilithu, a feminine form of Lilu, the\nSumerian Lila. She resembles Surpanakha of the _Ramayana_, who made\nlove to Rama and Lakshmana, and the sister of the demon Hidimva, who\nbecame enamoured of Bhima, one of the heroes of the _Mahabharata_,[89]\nand the various fairy lovers of Europe who lured men to eternal\nimprisonment inside mountains, or vanished for ever when they were\ncompletely under their influence, leaving them demented. The elfin\nLilu similarly wooed young women, like the Germanic Laurin of the\n\"Wonderful Rose Garden\",[90] who carried away the fair lady Kunhild to\nhis underground dwelling amidst the Tyrolese mountains, or left them\nhaunting the place of their meetings, searching for him in vain:\n\n    A savage place! as holy and enchanted\n    As ere beneath the waning moon was haunted\n    By woman wailing for her demon lover...\n    His flashing eyes, his floating hair!\n    Weave a circle round him thrice,\n    And close your eyes with holy dread,\n    For he on honey dew hath fed\n    And drunk the milk of Paradise.\n\n            _Coleridge's Kubla Khan._\n\nAnother materializing spirit of this class was Ardat Lili, who appears\nto have wedded human beings like the swan maidens, the mermaids, and\nNereids of the European folk tales, and the goddess Ganga, who for a\ntime was the wife of King Shantanu of the _Mahabharata_.[91]\n\nThe Labartu, to whom we have referred, was a female who haunted\nmountains and marshes; like the fairies and hags of Europe, she stole\nor afflicted children, who accordingly had to wear charms round their\nnecks for protection. Seven of these supernatural beings were reputed\nto be daughters of Anu, the sky god.\n\nThe Alu, a storm deity, was also a spirit which caused nightmare. It\nendeavoured to smother sleepers like the Scandinavian hag Mara, and\nsimilarly deprived them of power to move. In Babylonia this evil\nspirit might also cause sleeplessness or death by hovering near a bed.\nIn shape it might be as horrible and repulsive as the Egyptian ghosts\nwhich caused children to die from fright or by sucking out the breath\nof life.\n\nAs most representatives of the spirit world were enemies of the\nliving, so were the ghosts of dead men and women. Death chilled all\nhuman affections; it turned love to hate; the deeper the love had\nbeen, the deeper became the enmity fostered by the ghost. Certain\nghosts might also be regarded as particularly virulent and hostile if\nthey happened to have left the body of one who was ceremonially\nimpure. The most terrible ghost in Babylonia was that of a woman who\nhad died in childbed. She was pitied and dreaded; her grief had\ndemented her; she was doomed to wail in the darkness; her impurity\nclung to her like poison. No spirit was more prone to work evil\nagainst mankind, and her hostility was accompanied by the most tragic\nsorrow. In Northern India the Hindus, like the ancient Babylonians,\nregard as a fearsome demon the ghost of a woman who died while\npregnant, or on the day of the child's birth.[92] A similar belief\nprevailed in Mexico. In Europe there are many folk tales of dead\nmothers who return to avenge themselves on the cruel fathers of\nneglected children.\n\nA sharp contrast is presented by the Mongolian Buriats, whose outlook\non the spirit world is less gloomy than was that of the ancient\nBabylonians. According to Mr. Jeremiah Curtin, this interesting people\nare wont to perform a ceremony with purpose to entice the ghost to\nreturn to the dead body--a proceeding which is dreaded in the Scottish\nHighlands.[93] The Buriats address the ghost, saying: \"You shall sleep\nwell. Come back to your natural ashes. Take pity on your friends. It\nis necessary to live a real life. Do not wander along the mountains.\nDo not be like bad spirits. Return to your peaceful home.... Come back\nand work for your children. How can you leave the little ones?\" If it\nis a mother, these words have great effect; sometimes the spirit moans\nand sobs, and the Buriats tell that there have been instances of it\nreturning to the body.[94] In his _Arabia Deserta_[95] Doughty relates\nthat Arab women and children mock the cries of the owl. One explained\nto him: \"It is a wailful woman seeking her lost child; she has become\nthis forlorn bird\". So do immemorial beliefs survive to our own day.\n\nThe Babylonian ghosts of unmarried men and women and of those without\noffspring were also disconsolate night wanderers. Others who suffered\nsimilar fates were the ghosts of men who died in battle far from home\nand were left unburied, the ghosts of travellers who perished in the\ndesert and were not covered over, the ghosts of drowned men which rose\nfrom the water, the ghosts of prisoners starved to death or executed,\nthe ghosts of people who died violent deaths before their appointed\ntime. The dead required to be cared for, to have libations poured out,\nto be fed, so that they might not prowl through the streets or enter\nhouses searching for scraps of food and pure water. The duty of giving\nofferings to the dead was imposed apparently on near relatives. As in\nIndia, it would appear that the eldest son performed the funeral\nceremony: a dreadful fate therefore awaited the spirit of the dead\nBabylonian man or woman without offspring. In Sanskrit literature\nthere is a reference to a priest who was not allowed to enter\nParadise, although he had performed rigid penances, because he had no\nchildren.[96]\n\nThere were hags and giants of mountain and desert, of river and ocean.\nDemons might possess the pig, the goat, the horse, the lion, or the\nibis, the raven, or the hawk. The seven spirits of tempest, fire, and\ndestruction rose from the depths of ocean, and there were hosts of\ndemons which could not be overcome or baffled by man without the\nassistance of the gods to whom they were hostile. Many were sexless;\nhaving no offspring, they were devoid of mercy and compassion. They\npenetrated everywhere:\n\n    The high enclosures, the broad enclosures, like a flood\n      they pass through,\n    From house to house they dash along.\n    No door can shut them out;\n    No bolt can turn them back.\n    Through the door, like a snake, they glide,\n    Through the hinge, like the wind, they storm,\n    Tearing the wife from the embrace of the man,\n    Driving the freedman from his family home.[97]\n\nThese furies did not confine their unwelcomed attentions to mankind\nalone:\n\n    They hunt the doves from their cotes,\n    And drive the birds from their nests,\n    And chase the marten from its hole....\n    Through the gloomy street by night they roam,\n    Smiting sheepfold and cattle pen,\n    Shutting up the land as with door and bolt.\n\n            _R.C. Thompson's Translation._\n\nThe Babylonian poet, like Burns, was filled with pity for the animals\nwhich suffered in the storm:\n\n    List'ning the doors an' winnocks rattle,\n    I thought me o' the ourie cattle,\n    Or silly sheep, wha bide this brattle\n      O' winter war....\n    Ilk happing bird, wee, helpless thing!\n    That in the merry months o' spring\n    Delighted me to hear thee sing,\n      What comes o' thee?\n    Whare wilt thou cow'r thy chittering wing,\n      And close thy e'e?\n\nAccording to Babylonian belief, \"the great storms directed from\nheaven\" were caused by demons. Mankind heard them \"loudly roaring\nabove, gibbering below\".[98] The south wind was raised by Shutu, a\nplumed storm demon resembling Hraesvelgur of the Icelandic Eddas:\n\n    Corpse-swallower sits at the end of heaven,\n      A J\u00f6tun in eagle form;\n    From his wings, they say, comes the wind which fares\n      Over all the dwellers of earth.[99]\n\nThe northern story of Thor's fishing, when he hooked and wounded the\nMidgard serpent, is recalled by the Babylonian legend of Adapa, son of\nthe god Ea. This hero was engaged catching fish, when Shutu, the south\nwind, upset his boat. In his wrath Adapa immediately attacked the\nstorm demon and shattered her pinions. Anu, the sky god, was moved to\nanger against Ea's son and summoned him to the Celestial Court. Adapa,\nhowever, appeared in garments of mourning and was forgiven. Anu\noffered him the water of life and the bread of life which would have\nmade him immortal, but Ea's son refused to eat or drink, believing, as\nhis father had warned him, that the sky god desired him to partake of\nthe bread of death and to drink of the water of death.\n\nAnother terrible atmospheric demon was the south-west wind, which\ncaused destructive storms and floods, and claimed many human victims\nlike the Icelandic \"corpse swallower\". She was depicted with lidless\nstaring eyes, broad flat nose, mouth gaping horribly, and showing\ntusk-like teeth, and with high cheek bones, heavy eyebrows, and low\nbulging forehead.\n\nIn Scotland the hag of the south-west wind is similarly a bloodthirsty\nand fearsome demon. She is most virulent in the springtime. At\nCromarty she is quaintly called \"Gentle Annie\" by the fisher folks,\nwho repeat the saying: \"When Gentle Annie is skyawlan (yelling) roond\nthe heel of Ness (a promontory) wi' a white feather on her hat (the\nfoam of big billows) they (the spirits) will be harrying (robbing) the\ncrook\"--that is, the pot which hangs from the crook is empty during\nthe spring storms, which prevent fishermen going to sea. In England\nthe wind hag is Black Annis, who dwells in a Leicestershire hill cave.\nShe may be identical with the Irish hag Anu, associated with the \"Paps\nof Anu\". According to Gaelic lore, this wind demon of spring is the\n\"Cailleach\" (old wife). She gives her name in the Highland calendar to\nthe stormy period of late spring; she raises gale after gale to\nprevent the coming of summer. Angerboda, the Icelandic hag, is also a\nstorm demon, but represents the east wind. A Tyrolese folk tale tells\nof three magic maidens who dwelt on Jochgrimm mountain, where they\n\"brewed the winds\". Their demon lovers were Ecke, \"he who causes\nfear\"; Vasolt, \"he who causes dismay\"; and the scornful Dietrich in\nhis mythical character of Donar or Thunor (Thor), the thunderer.\n\nAnother Sumerian storm demon was the Zu bird, which is represented\namong the stars by Pegasus and Taurus. A legend relates that this\n\"worker of evil, who raised the head of evil\", once aspired to rule\nthe gods, and stole from Bel, \"the lord\" of deities, the Tablets of\nDestiny, which gave him his power over the Universe as controller of\nthe fates of all. The Zu bird escaped with the Tablets and found\nshelter on its mountain top in Arabia. Anu called on Ramman, the\nthunderer, to attack the Zu bird, but he was afraid; other gods appear\nto have shrunk from the conflict. How the rebel was overcome is not\ncertain, because the legend survives in fragmentary form. There is a\nreference, however, to the moon god setting out towards the mountain\nin Arabia with purpose to outwit the Zu bird and recover the lost\nTablets. How he fared it is impossible to ascertain. In another\nlegend--that of Etana--the mother serpent, addressing the sun god,\nShamash, says:\n\n    Thy net is like unto the broad earth;\n    Thy snare is like unto the distant heaven!\n    Who hath ever escaped from thy net?\n    Even Zu, the worker of evil, who raised the head\n        of evil [did not escape]!\n\n            _L.W. King's Translation._\n\nIn Indian mythology, Garuda, half giant, half eagle, robs the Amrita\n(ambrosia) of the gods which gives them their power and renders them\nimmortal. It had assumed a golden body, bright as the sun. Indra, the\nthunderer, flung his bolt in vain; he could not wound Garuda, and only\ndisplaced a single feather. Afterwards, however, he stole the moon\ngoblet containing the Amrita, which Garuda had delivered to his\nenemies, the serpents, to free his mother from bondage. This Indian\neagle giant became the vehicle of the god Vishnu, and, according to\nthe _Mahabharata_, \"mocked the wind with his fleetness\".\n\nIt would appear that the Babylonian Zu bird symbolized the summer\nsandstorms from the Arabian desert. Thunder is associated with the\nrainy season, and it may have been assumed, therefore, that the\nthunder god was powerless against the sandstorm demon, who was chased,\nhowever, by the moon, and finally overcome by the triumphant sun when\nit broke through the darkening sand drift and brightened heaven and\nearth, \"netting\" the rebellious demon who desired to establish the\nrule of evil over gods and mankind.\n\nIn the \"Legend of Etana\" the Eagle, another demon which links with the\nIndian Garuda, slayer of serpents, devours the brood of the Mother\nSerpent. For this offence against divine law, Shamash, the sun god,\npronounces the Eagle's doom. He instructs the Mother Serpent to slay a\nwild ox and conceal herself in its entrails. The Eagle comes to feed\non the carcass, unheeding the warning of one of his children, who\nsays, \"The serpent lies in this wild ox\":\n\n    He swooped down and stood upon the wild ox,\n    The Eagle ... examined the flesh;\n    He looked about carefully before and behind him;\n    He again examined the flesh;\n    He looked about carefully before and behind him,\n    Then, moving swiftly, he made for the hidden parts.\n    When he entered into the midst,\n    The serpent seized him by his wing.\n\nIn vain the Eagle appealed for mercy to the Mother Serpent, who was\ncompelled to execute the decree of Shamash; she tore off the Eagle's\npinions, wings, and claws, and threw him into a pit where he perished\nfrom hunger and thirst.[100] This myth may refer to the ravages of a\nwinged demon of disease who was thwarted by the sacrifice of an ox.\nThe Mother Serpent appears to be identical with an ancient goddess of\nmaternity resembling the Egyptian Bast, the serpent mother of\nBubastis. According to Sumerian belief, Nintu, \"a form of the goddess\nMa\", was half a serpent. On her head there is a horn; she is \"girt\nabout the loins\"; her left arm holds \"a babe suckling her breast\":\n\n    From her head to her loins\n    The body is that of a naked woman;\n    From the loins to the sole of the foot\n    Scales like those of a snake are visible.\n\n            _R.C. Thompson's Translation._\n\nThe close association of gods and demons is illustrated in an obscure\nmyth which may refer to an eclipse of the moon or a night storm at the\nbeginning of the rainy season. The demons go to war against the high\ngods, and are assisted by Adad (Ramman) the thunderer, Shamash the\nsun, and Ishtar. They desire to wreck the heavens, the home of Anu:\n\n    They clustered angrily round the crescent of the moon god,\n    And won over to their aid Shamash, the mighty, and Adad, the\n        warrior,\n    And Ishtar, who with Anu, the King,\n    Hath founded a shining dwelling.\n\nThe moon god Sin, \"the seed of mankind\", was darkened by the demons\nwho raged, \"rushing loose over the land\" like to the wind. Bel called\nupon his messenger, whom he sent to Ea in the ocean depths, saying:\n\"My son Sin ... hath been grievously bedimmed\". Ea lamented, and\ndispatched his son Merodach to net the demons by magic, using \"a\ntwo-coloured cord from the hair of a virgin kid and from the wool of a\nvirgin lamb\".[101]\n\nAs in India, where Shitala, the Bengali goddess of smallpox, for\ninstance, is worshipped when the dreaded disease she controls becomes\nepidemic, so in Babylonia the people sought to secure immunity from\nattack by worshipping spirits of disease. A tablet relates that Ura, a\nplague demon, once resolved to destroy all life, but ultimately\nconsented to spare those who praised his name and exalted him in\nrecognition of his bravery and power. This could be accomplished by\nreciting a formula. Indian serpent worshippers believe that their\ndevotions \"destroy all danger proceeding from snakes\".[102]\n\nLike the Ancient Egyptians, the Babylonians also had their kindly\nspirits who brought luck and the various enjoyments of life. A good\n\"labartu\" might attend on a human being like a household fairy of\nIndia or Europe: a friendly \"shedu\" could protect a household against\nthe attacks of fierce demons and human enemies. Even the spirits of\nFate who served Anu, god of the sky, and that \"Norn\" of the\nUnderworld, Eresh-ki-gal, queen of Hades, might sometimes be\npropitious: if the deities were successfully invoked they could cause\nthe Fates to smite spirits of disease and bringers of ill luck. Damu,\na friendly fairy goddess, was well loved, because she inspired\npleasant dreams, relieved the sufferings of the afflicted, and\nrestored to good health those patients whom she selected to favour.\n\nIn the Egyptian _Book of the Dead_ the kindly spirits are overshadowed\nby the evil ones, because the various magical spells which were put on\nrecord were directed against those supernatural beings who were\nenemies of mankind. Similarly in Babylonia the fragments of this class\nof literature which survive deal mainly with wicked and vengeful\ndemons. It appears probable, however, that the highly emotional\nSumerians and Akkadians were on occasion quite as cheerful a people as\nthe inhabitants of ancient Egypt. Although they were surrounded by\nbloodthirsty furies who desired to shorten their days, and their\nnights were filled with vague lowering phantoms which inspired fear,\nthey no doubt shared, in their charm-protected houses, a comfortable\nfeeling of security after performing magical ceremonies, and were\nhappy enough when they gathered round flickering lights to listen to\nancient song and story and gossip about crops and traders, the members\nof the royal house, and the family affairs of their acquaintances.\n\nThe Babylonian spirit world, it will be seen, was of complex\ncharacter. Its inhabitants were numberless, but often vaguely defined,\nand one class of demons linked with another. Like the European fairies\nof folk belief, the Babylonian spirits were extremely hostile and\nirresistible at certain seasonal periods; and they were fickle and\nperverse and difficult to please even when inclined to be friendly.\nThey were also similarly manifested from time to time in various\nforms. Sometimes they were comely and beautiful; at other times they\nwere apparitions of horror. The Jinn of present-day Arabians are of\nlike character; these may be giants, cloudy shapes, comely women,\nserpents or cats, goats or pigs.\n\nSome of the composite monsters of Babylonia may suggest the vague and\nexaggerated recollections of terror-stricken people who have had\nglimpses of unfamiliar wild beasts in the dusk or amidst reedy\nmarshes. But they cannot be wholly accounted for in this way. While\nanimals were often identified with supernatural beings, and foreigners\nwere called \"devils\", it would be misleading to assert that the spirit\nworld reflects confused folk memories of human and bestial enemies.\nEven when a demon was given concrete human form it remained\nessentially non-human: no ordinary weapon could inflict an injury, and\nit was never controlled by natural laws. The spirits of disease and\ntempest and darkness were creations of fancy: they symbolized moods;\nthey were the causes which explained effects. A sculptor or\nstoryteller who desired to convey an impression of a spirit of storm\nor pestilence created monstrous forms to inspire terror. Sudden and\nunexpected visits of fierce and devastating demons were accounted for\nby asserting that they had wings like eagles, were nimble-footed as\ngazelles, cunning and watchful as serpents; that they had claws to\nclutch, horns to gore, and powerful fore legs like a lion to smite\ndown victims. Withal they drank blood like ravens and devoured corpses\nlike hyaenas. Monsters were all the more repulsive when they were\npartly human. The human-headed snake or the snake-headed man and the\nman with the horns of a wild bull and the legs of a goat were horrible\nin the extreme. Evil spirits might sometimes achieve success by\npractising deception. They might appear as beautiful girls or handsome\nmen and seize unsuspecting victims in deathly embrace or leave them\ndemented and full of grief, or come as birds and suddenly assume\nawesome shapes.\n\nFairies and elves, and other half-human demons, are sometimes regarded\nas degenerate gods. It will be seen, however, that while certain\nspirits developed into deities, others remained something between\nthese two classes of supernatural beings: they might attend upon gods\nand goddesses, or operate independently now against mankind and now\nagainst deities even. The \"namtaru\", for instance, was a spirit of\nfate, the son of Bel-Enlil and Eresh-ki-gal, queen of Hades.\n\"Apparently\", writes Professor Pinches, \"he executed the instructions\ngiven him concerning the fate of men, and could also have power over\ncertain of the gods.\"[103] To this middle class belong the evil gods\nwho rebelled against the beneficent deities. According to Hebridean\nfolk belief, the fallen angels are divided into three classes--the\nfairies, the \"nimble men\" (aurora borealis), and the \"blue men of the\nMinch\". In _Beowulf_ the \"brood of Cain\" includes \"monsters and elves\nand sea-devils--giants also, who long time fought with God, for which\nhe gave them their reward\".[104] Similarly the Babylonian spirit\ngroups are liable to division and subdivision. The various classes may\nbe regarded as relics of the various stages of development from crude\nanimism to sublime monotheism: in the fragmentary legends we trace the\nfloating material from which great mythologies have been framed.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nMYTHS OF TAMMUZ AND ISHTAR\n\n\n  Forms of Tammuz--The Weeping Ceremony--Tammuz the Patriarch and the\n  Dying God--Common Origin of Tammuz and other Deities from an Archaic\n  God--The Mediterranean Racial Myth--Animal Forms of Gods of\n  Fertility--Two Legends of the Death of Tammuz--Attis, Adonis, and\n  Diarmid Slain by a Boar--Laments for Tammuz--His Soul in Underworld\n  and the Deep--Myth of the Child God of Ocean--Sargon Myth\n  Version--The Germanic Scyld of the Sheaf--Tammuz Links with Frey,\n  Heimdal, Agni, &c.--Assyrian Legend of \"Descent of Ishtar\"--Sumerian\n  Version--The Sister Belit-sheri and the Mother Ishtar--The Egyptian\n  Isis and Nepthys--Goddesses as Mothers, Sisters, and Wives--Great\n  Mothers of Babylonia--Immortal Goddesses and Dying Gods--The Various\n  Indras--Celtic Goddess with Seven Periods of Youth--Lovers of\n  Germanic and Classic Goddesses--The Lovers of Ishtar--Racial\n  Significance of Goddess Cult--The Great Fathers and their\n  Worshippers--Process of Racial and Religious Fusion--Ishtar and\n  Tiamat--Mother Worship in Palestine--Women among Goddess\n  Worshippers.\n\n\nAmong the gods of Babylonia none achieved wider and more enduring\nfame than Tammuz, who was loved by Ishtar, the amorous Queen of\nHeaven--the beautiful youth who died and was mourned for and came to\nlife again. He does not figure by his popular name in any of the city\npantheons, but from the earliest times of which we have knowledge\nuntil the passing of Babylonian civilization, he played a prominent\npart in the religious life of the people.\n\nTammuz, like Osiris of Egypt, was an agricultural deity, and as the\nBabylonian harvest was the gift of the rivers, it is probable that one\nof his several forms was Dumu-zi-abzu, \"Tammuz of the Abyss\". He was\nalso \"the child\", \"the heroic lord\", \"the sentinel\", \"the healer\", and\nthe patriarch who reigned over the early Babylonians for a\nconsiderable period. \"Tammuz of the Abyss\" was one of the members of\nthe family of Ea, god of the Deep, whose other sons, in addition to\nMerodach, were Nira, an obscure deity; Ki-gulla, \"world destroyer\",\nBurnunta-sa, \"broad ear\", and Bara and Baragulla, probably \"revealers\"\nor \"oracles\". In addition there was a daughter, Khi-dimme-azaga,\n\"child of the renowned spirit\". She may have been identical with\nBelit-sheri, who is referred to in the Sumerian hymns as the sister of\nTammuz. This family group was probably formed by symbolizing the\nattributes of Ea and his spouse Damkina. Tammuz, in his character as a\npatriarch, may have been regarded as a hostage from the gods: the\nhuman form of Ea, who instructed mankind, like King Osiris, how to\ngrow corn and cultivate fruit trees. As the youth who perished\nannually, he was the corn spirit. He is referred to in the Bible by\nhis Babylonian name.\n\nWhen Ezekiel detailed the various idolatrous practices of the\nIsraelites, which included the worship of the sun and \"every form of\ncreeping things and abominable beasts\"--a suggestion of the composite\nmonsters of Babylonia--he was brought \"to the door of the gate of the\nLord's house, which was towards the north; and, behold, there sat\nwomen weeping for Tammuz\".[105]\n\nThe weeping ceremony was connected with agricultural rites. Corn\ndeities were weeping deities, they shed fertilizing tears; and the\nsowers simulated the sorrow of divine mourners when they cast seed in\nthe soil \"to die\", so that it might spring up as corn. This ancient\ncustom, like many others, contributed to the poetic imagery of the\nBible. \"They that sow in tears\", David sang, \"shall reap in joy. He\nthat goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless\ncome again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.\"[106] In\nEgypt the priestesses who acted the parts of Isis and Nepthys, mourned\nfor the slain corn god Osiris.\n\n    Gods and men before the face of the gods are weeping for\n      thee at the same time, when they behold me!...\n    All thy sister goddesses are at thy side and behind thy couch,\n    Calling upon thee with weeping--yet thou are prostrate upon\n      thy bed!...\n    Live before us, desiring to behold thee.[107]\n\nIt was believed to be essential that human beings should share the\nuniversal sorrow caused by the death of a god. If they remained\nunsympathetic, the deities would punish them as enemies. Worshippers\nof nature gods, therefore, based their ceremonial practices on natural\nphenomena. \"The dread of the worshippers that the neglect of the usual\nritual would be followed by disaster, is particularly intelligible\",\nwrites Professor Robertson Smith, \"if they regarded the necessary\noperations of agriculture as involving the violent extinction of a\nparticle of divine life.\"[108] By observing their ritual, the\nworshippers won the sympathy and co-operation of deities, or exercised\na magical control over nature.\n\nThe Babylonian myth of Tammuz, the dying god, bears a close\nresemblance to the Greek myth of Adonis. It also links with the myth\nof Osiris. According to Professor Sayce, Tammuz is identical with\n\"Daonus or Daos, the shepherd of Pantibibla\", referred to by Berosus\nas the ruler of one of the mythical ages of Babylonia. We have\ntherefore to deal with Tammuz in his twofold character as a patriarch\nand a god of fertility.\n\nThe Adonis version of the myth may be summarized briefly. Ere the god\nwas born, his mother, who was pursued by her angry sire, as the river\ngoddesses of the folk tales are pursued by the well demons,\ntransformed herself into a tree. Adonis sprang from the trunk of this\ntree, and Aphrodite, having placed the child in a chest, committed him\nto the care of Persephone, queen of Hades, who resembles the\nBabylonian Eresh-ki-gal. Persephone desired to retain the young god,\nand Aphrodite (Ishtar) appealed to Zeus (Anu), who decreed that Adonis\nshould spend part of the year with one goddess and part of the year\nwith the other.\n\nIt is suggested that the myth of Adonis was derived in post-Homeric\ntimes by the Greeks indirectly from Babylonia through the Western\nSemites, the Semitic title \"Adon\", meaning \"lord\", having been\nmistaken for a proper name. This theory, however, cannot be accepted\nwithout qualifications. It does not explain the existence of either\nthe Phrygian myth of Attis, which was developed differently from the\nTammuz myth, or the Celtic story of \"Diarmid and the boar\", which\nbelongs to the archaeological \"Hunting Period\". There are traces in\nGreek mythology of pre-Hellenic myths about dying harvest deities,\nlike Hyakinthos and Erigone, for instance, who appear to have been\nmourned for. There is every possibility, therefore, that the Tammuz\nritual may have been attached to a harvest god of the pre-Hellenic\nGreeks, who received at the same time the new name of Adonis. Osiris\nof Egypt resembles Tammuz, but his Mesopotamian origin has not been\nproved. It would appear probable that Tammuz, Attis, Osiris, and the\ndeities represented by Adonis and Diarmid were all developed from an\narchaic god of fertility and vegetation, the central figure of a myth\nwhich was not only as ancient as the knowledge and practice of\nagriculture, but had existence even in the \"Hunting Period\". Traces of\nthe Tammuz-Osiris story in various forms are found all over the area\noccupied by the Mediterranean or Brown race from Sumeria to the\nBritish Isles. Apparently the original myth was connected with tree\nand water worship and the worship of animals. Adonis sprang from a\ntree; the body of Osiris was concealed in a tree which grew round the\nsea-drifted chest in which he was concealed. Diarmid concealed himself\nin a tree when pursued by Finn. The blood of Tammuz, Osiris, and\nAdonis reddened the swollen rivers which fertilized the soil. Various\nanimals were associated with the harvest god, who appears to have been\nmanifested from time to time in different forms, for his spirit\npervaded all nature. In Egypt the soul of Osiris entered the Apis bull\nor the ram of Mendes.\n\nTammuz in the hymns is called \"the pre-eminent steer of heaven\", and a\npopular sacrifice was \"a white kid of the god Tammuz\", which, however,\nmight be substituted by a sucking pig. Osiris had also associations\nwith swine, and the Egyptians, according to Herodotus, sacrificed a\npig to him annually. When Set at full moon hunted the boar in the\nDelta marshes, he probably hunted the boar form of Osiris, whose human\nbody had been recovered from the sacred tree by Isis. As the soul of\nBata, the hero of the Egyptian folk tale,[109] migrated from the\nblossom to the bull, and the bull to the tree, so apparently did the\nsoul of Osiris pass from incarnation to incarnation. Set, the demon\nslayer of the harvest god, had also a boar form; he was the black pig\nwho devoured the waning moon and blinded the Eye of Ra.\n\nIn his character as a long-lived patriarch, Tammuz, the King Daonus or\nDaos of Berosus, reigned in Babylonia for 36,000 years. When he died,\nhe departed to Hades or the Abyss. Osiris, after reigning over the\nEgyptians, became Judge of the Dead.\n\nTammuz of the Sumerian hymns, however, is the Adonis-like god who\nlived on earth for a part of the year as the shepherd and\nagriculturist so dearly beloved by the goddess Ishtar. Then he died so\nthat he might depart to the realm of Eresh-ki-gal (Persephone), queen\nof Hades. According to one account, his death was caused by the fickle\nIshtar. When that goddess wooed Gilgamesh, the Babylonian Hercules, he\nupbraided her, saying:\n\n    On Tammuz, the spouse of thy youth,\n    Thou didst lay affliction every year.\n\n            _King's Translation_.\n\nReferences in the Sumerian hymns suggest that there also existed a\nform of the legend which gave an account of the slaying of the young\ngod by someone else than Ishtar. The slayer may have been a Set-like\ndemon--perhaps Nin-shach, who appears to have symbolized the\ndestroying influence of the sun. He was a war deity, and his name,\nProfessor Pinches says, \"is conjectured to mean 'lord of the wild\nboar'\". There is no direct evidence, however, to connect Tammuz's\nslayer with the boar which killed Adonis. Ishtar's innocence is\nemphasized by the fact that she mourned for her youthful lover,\ncrying:\n\n    Oh hero, my lord, ah me! I will say;\n    Food I eat not ... water I drink not ...\n    Because of the exalted one of the nether world, him of the\n      radiant face, yea radiant,\n    Of the exalted one of the nether world, him of the dove-like\n      voice, yea dove-like.[110]\n\nThe Phrygian Attis met his death, according to one legend, by\nself-mutilation under a sacred tree. Another account sets forth,\nhowever, that he was slain by a boar. The Greek Adonis was similarly\nkilled by a boar. This animal was a form of Ares (Mars), god of war\nand tempest, who also loved Aphrodite (Ishtar). The Celtic Diarmid, in\nhis character as a love god, with lunar attributes, was slain by \"the\ngreen boar\", which appears to have been one of the animals of a\nferocious Hag, an earth and air \"mother\" with various names. In one of\nthe many Fingalian stories the animal is\n\n    ... That venomous boar, and he so fierce,\n    That Grey Eyebrows had with her herd of swine.[111]\n\nDiarmid had eloped with the wife of Finn-mac-Coul (Fingal), who, like\nAres, plotted to bring about his rival's death, and accordingly set\nthe young hero to hunt the boar. As a thunder god Finn carried a\nhammer with which he smote his shield; the blows were heard in\nLochlann (Scandinavia). Diarmid, like Tammuz, the \"god of the tender\nvoice and shining eyes\", had much beauty. When he expired, Finn cried:\n\n    No maiden will raise her eye\n    Since the mould has gone over thy visage fair...\n    Blue without rashness in thine eye!\n    Passion and beauty behind thy curls!...\n    Oh, yesternight it was green the hillock,\n    Red is it this day with Diarmid's blood.[112]\n\nTammuz died with the dying vegetation, and Diarmid expired when the\nhills apparently were assuming their purple tints.[113] The month of\nTammuz wailings was from 20th June till 20th July, when the heat and\ndryness brought forth the demons of pestilence. The mourners chanted:\n\n    He has gone, he has gone to the bosom of the earth,\n    And the dead are numerous in the land....\n    Men are filled with sorrow: they stagger by day in gloom ...\n    In the month of thy year which brings not peace hast thou gone.\n    Thou hast gone on a journey that makes an end of thy people.\n\nThe following extract contains a reference to the slaying of the god:\n\n    The holy one of Ishtar, in the middle of the year the fields\n        languish...\n    The shepherd, the wise one, the man of sorrows, why have they\n    slain?...\n    In his temple, in his inhabited domain,\n    The child, lord of knowledge, abides no more...\n    In the meadows, verily, verily, the soul of life perishes.\n\nThere is wailing for Tammuz \"at the sacred cedar, where the mother\nbore thee\", a reference which connects the god, like Adonis and\nOsiris, with tree worship:\n\n    The wailing is for the herbs: the first lament is, \"they are not\n        produced\".\n    The wailing is for the grain, ears are not produced.\n    The wailing is for the habitations, for the flocks which bring\n        forth no more.\n    The wailing is for the perishing wedded ones; for the perishing\n    children; the dark-headed people create no more.\n\nThe wailing is also for the shrunken river, the parched meadows, the\nfishpools, the cane brakes, the forests, the plains, the gardens, and\nthe palace, which all suffer because the god of fertility has\ndeparted. The mourner cries:\n\n      How long shall the springing of verdure be restrained?\n      How long shall the putting forth of leaves be held back?\n\nWhither went Tammuz? His destination has already been referred to as\n\"the bosom of the earth\", and in the Assyrian version of the \"Descent\nof Ishtar\" he dwells in \"the house of darkness\" among the dead, \"where\ndust is their nourishment and their food mud\", and \"the light is never\nseen\"--the gloomy Babylonian Hades. In one of the Sumerian hymns,\nhowever, it is stated that Tammuz \"upon the flood was cast out\". The\nreference may be to the submarine \"house of Ea\", or the Blessed Island\nto which the Babylonian Noah was carried. In this Hades bloomed the\nnether \"garden of Adonis\".\n\nThe following extract refers to the garden of Damu (Tammuz)[114]:--\n\n    Damu his youth therein slumbers ...\n    Among the garden flowers he slumbers; among the garden flowers\n    he is cast away ...\n    Among the tamarisks he slumbers, with woe he causes us to be\n    satiated.\n\nAlthough Tammuz of the hymns was slain, he returned again from Hades.\nApparently he came back as a child. He is wailed for as \"child, Lord\nGishzida\", as well as \"my hero Damu\". In his lunar character the\nEgyptian Osiris appeared each month as \"the child surpassingly\nbeautiful\"; the Osiris bull was also a child of the moon; \"it was\nbegotten\", says Plutarch, \"by a ray of generative light falling from\nthe moon\". When the bull of Attis was sacrificed his worshippers were\ndrenched with its blood, and were afterwards ceremonially fed with\nmilk, as they were supposed to have \"renewed their youth\" and become\nchildren. The ancient Greek god Eros (Cupid) was represented as a\nwanton boy or handsome youth. Another god of fertility, the Irish\nAngus, who resembles Eros, is called \"the ever young\"; he slumbers\nlike Tammuz and awakes in the Spring.\n\nApparently it was believed that the child god, Tammuz, returned from\nthe earlier Sumerian Paradise of the Deep, and grew into full manhood\nin a comparatively brief period, like Vyasa and other super-men of\nIndian mythology. A couplet from a Tammuz hymn says tersely:\n\n    In his infancy in a sunken boat he lay.\n    In his manhood in the submerged grain he lay.[115]\n\nThe \"boat\" may be the \"chest\" in which Adonis was concealed by\nAphrodite when she confided him to the care of Persephone, queen of\nHades, who desired to retain the young god, but was compelled by Zeus\nto send him back to the goddess of love and vegetation. The fact that\nIshtar descended to Hades in quest of Tammuz may perhaps explain the\nsymbolic references in hymns to mother goddesses being in sunken boats\nalso when their powers were in abeyance, as were those of the god for\npart of each year. It is possible, too, that the boat had a lunar and\na solar significance. Khonsu, the Egyptian moon god, for instance, was\nassociated with the Spring sun, being a deity of fertility and\ntherefore a corn spirit; he was a form of Osiris, the Patriarch, who\nsojourned on earth to teach mankind how to grow corn and cultivate\nfruit trees. In the Egyptian legend Osiris received the corn seeds\nfrom Isis, which suggests that among Great-Mother-worshipping peoples,\nit was believed that agricultural civilization had a female origin.\nThe same myths may have been attached to corn gods and corn goddesses,\nassociated with water, sun, moon, and stars.\n\nThat there existed in Babylonia at an extremely remote period an\nagricultural myth regarding a Patriarch of divine origin who was\nrescued from a boat in his childhood, is suggested by the legend which\nwas attached to the memory of the usurper King Sargon of Akkad. It\nruns as follows:\n\n    \"I am Sargon, the mighty King of Akkad. My mother was a\n    vestal (priestess), my father an alien, whose brother inhabited\n        the\n    mountain.... When my mother had conceived me, she bare\n    me in a hidden place. She laid me in a vessel of rushes, stopped\n    the door thereof with pitch, and cast me adrift on the river....\n    The river floated me to Akki, the water drawer, who, in drawing\n    water, drew me forth. Akki, the water drawer, educated me as\n    his son, and made me his gardener. As a gardener, I was beloved\n    by the goddess Ishtar.\"\n\nIt is unlikely that this story was invented by Sargon. Like the many\nvariants of it found in other countries, it was probably founded on a\nform of the Tammuz-Adonis myth. Indeed, a new myth would not have\nsuited Sargon's purpose so well as the adaptation of an old one, which\nwas more likely to make popular appeal when connected with his name.\nThe references to the goddess Ishtar, and Sargon's early life as a\ngardener, suggest that the king desired to be remembered as an\nagricultural Patriarch, if not of divine, at any rate of semi-divine\norigin.\n\nWhat appears to be an early form of the widespread Tammuz myth is the\nTeutonic legend regarding the mysterious child who came over the sea\nto inaugurate a new era of civilization and instruct the people how to\ngrow corn and become great warriors. The Northern peoples, as\narchaeological evidence suggests, derived their knowledge of\nagriculture, and therefore their agricultural myths, from the\nNeolithic representatives of the Mediterranean race with whom they\ncame into contact. There can be no doubt but that the Teutonic legend\nrefers to the introduction of agriculture. The child is called \"Scef\"\nor \"Sceaf\", which signifies \"Sheaf\", or \"Scyld, the son of Sceaf\".\nScyld is the patriarch of the Scyldings, the Danes, a people of mixed\norigin. In the Anglo-Saxon _Beowulf_ poem, the reference is to\n\"Scyld\", but Ethelweard, William of Malmesbury, and others adhered to\n\"Sceaf\" as the name of the Patriarch of the Western Saxons.\n\nThe legend runs that one day a boat was seen approaching the shore; it\nwas not propelled by oars or sail. In it lay a child fast asleep, his\nhead pillowed upon a sheaf of grain. He was surrounded by armour,\ntreasure, and various implements, including the fire-borer. The child\nwas reared by the people who found him, and he became a great\ninstructor and warrior and ruled over the tribe as king. In _Beowulf_\nScyld is the father of the elder Beowulf, whose grandson Hrothgar\nbuilt the famous Hall. The poem opens with a reference to the\npatriarch \"Scyld of the Sheaf\". When he died, his body, according to\nthe request he had made, was laid in a ship which was set adrift:\n\n    Upon his breast lay many treasures which were to travel with him\n    into the power of the flood. Certainly they (the mourners)\n    furnished him with no less of gifts, of tribal treasures, than\n    those had done who, in his early days, started him over the sea\n    alone, child as he was. Moreover, they set besides a\n    gold-embroidered standard high above his head, and let the flood\n    bear him--gave him to the sea. Their soul was sad, their spirit\n    sorrowful. Who received that load, men, chiefs of council, heroes\n    under heaven, cannot for certain tell.[116]\n\nSceaf or Scyld is identical with Yngve, the patriarch of the Ynglings;\nwith Frey, the harvest and boar god, son of Njord,[117] the sea god;\nand with Hermod, referred to as follows in the Eddic \"Lay of Hyndla\":\n\n    To some grants he wealth, to his children war fame,\n    Word skill to many and wisdom to men,\n    Fair winds to sea-farers, song craft to skalds,\n    And might of manhood to many a warrior.\n\nTammuz is similarly \"the heroic lord of the land\", the \"wise one\", the\n\"lord of knowledge\", and \"the sovereign, lord of invocation\".\n\nHeimdal, watchman of the Teutonic gods, also dwelt for a time among\nmen as \"Rig\", and had human offspring, his son Thrall being the\nancestor of the Thralls, his son Churl of churls, and Jarl of\nnoblemen.\n\nTammuz, like Heimdal, is also a guardian. He watches the flocks and\nherds, whom he apparently guards against the Gallu demons as Heimdal\nguards the world and the heavens against attacks by giants and\nmonsters. The flocks of Tammuz, Professor Pinches suggests, \"recall\nthe flocks of the Greek sun god Helios. These were the clouds\nilluminated by the sun, which were likened to sheep--indeed, one of\nthe early Sumerian expressions for 'fleece' was 'sheep of the sky'.\nThe name of Tammuz in Sumerian is Dumu-zi, or in its rare fullest\nform, Dumuzida, meaning 'true or faithful son'. There is probably some\nlegend attached to this which is at present unknown.\"[118]\n\nSo the Sumerian hymn-chanters lamented:\n\n    Like an herdsman the sentinel place of sheep and cattle he\n    (Tammuz) has forsaken...\n    From his home, from his inhabited domain, the son, he of wisdom,\n    pre-eminent steer of heaven,\n    The hero unto the nether herding place has taken his way.[119]\n\nAgni, the Aryo-Indian god, who, as the sky sentinel, has points of\nresemblance to Heimdal, also links with Tammuz, especially in his\nMitra character:\n\nAgni has been established among the tribes of men, the son of the\nwaters, Mitra acting in the right way. _Rigveda_, iii, 5, 3.\n\nAgni, who has been looked and longed for in Heaven, who has been\nlooked for on earth--he who has been looked for has entered all herbs.\n_Rigveda_, i, 98.[120]\n\nTammuz, like the Egyptian lunar and solar god Khonsu, is \"the healer\",\nand Agni \"drives away all disease\". Tammuz is the god \"of sonorous\nvoice\"; Agni \"roars like a bull\"; and Heimdal blows a horn when the\ngiants and demons threaten to attack the citadel of the gods. As the\nspring sun god, Tammuz is \"a youthful warrior\", says Jastrow,\n\"triumphing over the storms of winter\".[121] The storms, of course,\nwere symbolized as demons. Tammuz, \"the heroic lord\", was therefore a\ndemon slayer like Heimdal and Agni. Each of these gods appear to have\nbeen developed in isolation from an archaic spring god of fertility\nand corn whose attributes were symbolized. In Teutonic mythology, for\ninstance, Heimdal was the warrior form of the patriarch Scef, while\nFrey was the deified agriculturist who came over the deep as a child.\nIn Saxo's mythical history of Denmark, Frey as Frode is taken prisoner\nby a storm giant, Beli, \"the howler\", and is loved by his hag sister\nin the Teutonic Hades, as Tammuz is loved by Eresh-ki-gal, spouse of\nthe storm god Nergal, in the Babylonian Hades. Frode returns to earth,\nlike Tammuz, in due season.\n\nIt is evident that there were various versions of the Tammuz myth in\nAncient Babylonia. In one the goddess Ishtar visited Hades to search\nfor the lover of her youth. A part of this form of the legend survives\nin the famous Assyrian hymn known as \"The Descent of Ishtar \". It was\nfirst translated by the late Mr. George Smith, of the British Museum.\nA box containing inscribed tablets had been sent from Assyria to\nLondon, and Mr. Smith, with characteristic patience and skill,\narranged and deciphered them, giving to the world a fragment of\nancient literature infused with much sublimity and imaginative power.\nIshtar is depicted descending to dismal Hades, where the souls of the\ndead exist in bird forms:\n\n    I spread like a bird my hands.\n    I descend, I descend to the house of darkness, the dwelling of the\n        god Irkalla:\n    To the house out of which there is no exit,\n    To the road from which there is no return:\n    To the house from whose entrance the light is taken,\n    The place where dust is their nourishment and their food mud.\n    Its chiefs also are like birds covered with feathers;\n    The light is never seen, in darkness they dwell....\n    Over the door and bolts is scattered dust.\n\nWhen the goddess reaches the gate of Hades she cries to the porter:\n\n    Keeper of the waters, open thy gate,\n    Open thy gate that I may enter.\n    If thou openest not the gate that I may enter\n    I will strike the door, the bolts I will shatter,\n    I will strike the threshold and will pass through the doors;\n    I will raise up the dead to devour the living,\n    Above the living the dead shall exceed in numbers.\n\nThe porter answers that he must first consult the Queen of Hades, here\ncalled Allatu, to whom he accordingly announces the arrival of the\nQueen of Heaven. Allatu's heart is filled with anger, and makes\nreference to those whom Ishtar caused to perish:\n\n    Let me weep over the strong who have left their wives,\n    Let me weep over the handmaidens who have lost the embraces of\n        their husbands,\n    Over the only son let me mourn, who ere his days are come is taken\n        away.\n\nThen she issues abruptly the stern decree:\n\n    Go, keeper, open the gate to her,\n    Bewitch her according to the ancient rules;\n\nthat is, \"Deal with her as you deal with others who come here\".\n\nAs Ishtar enters through the various gates she is stripped of her\nornaments and clothing. At the first gate her crown was taken off, at\nthe second her ear-rings, at the third her necklace of precious\nstones, at the fourth the ornaments of her breast, at the fifth her\ngemmed waist-girdle,[122] at the sixth the bracelets of her hands and\nfeet, and at the seventh the covering robe of her body. Ishtar asks at\neach gate why she is thus dealt with, and the porter answers, \"Such is\nthe command of Allatu.\"\n\nAfter descending for a prolonged period the Queen of Heaven at length\nstands naked before the Queen of Hades. Ishtar is proud and arrogant,\nand Allatu, desiring to punish her rival whom she cannot humble,\n\ncommands the plague demon, Namtar, to strike her with disease in all\nparts of her body. The effect of Ishtar's fate was disastrous upon\nearth: growth and fertility came to an end.\n\nMeanwhile Pap-sukal, messenger of the gods, hastened to Shamash, the\nsun deity, to relate what had occurred. The sun god immediately\nconsulted his lunar father, Sin, and Ea, god of the deep. Ea then\ncreated a man lion, named Nadushu-namir, to rescue Ishtar, giving him\npower to pass through the seven gates of Hades. When this being\ndelivered his message\n\n    Allatu ... struck her breast; she bit her thumb,\n    She turned again: a request she asked not.\n\nIn her anger she cursed the rescuer of the Queen of Heaven.\n\n    May I imprison thee in the great prison,\n    May the garbage of the foundations of the city be thy food,\n    May the drains of the city be thy drink,\n    May the darkness of the dungeon be thy dwelling,\n    May the stake be thy seat,\n    May hunger and thirst strike thy offspring.\n\nShe was compelled, however, to obey the high gods, and addressed\nNamtar, saying:\n\n    Unto Ishtar give the waters of life and bring her before me.\n\nThereafter the Queen of Heaven was conducted through the various\ngates, and at each she received her robe and the ornaments which were\ntaken from her on entering. Namtar says:\n\n    Since thou hast not paid a ransom for thy deliverance to her\n      (Allatu), so to her again turn back,\n    For Tammuz the husband of thy youth.\n    The glistening waters (of life) pour over him...\n    In splendid clothing dress him, with a ring of crystal adorn him.\n\nIshtar mourns for \"the wound of Tammuz\", smiting her breast, and she\ndid not ask for \"the precious eye-stones, her amulets\", which were\napparently to ransom Tammuz. The poem concludes with Ishtar's wail:\n\n    O my only brother (Tammuz) thou dost not lament for me.\n    In the day that Tammuz adorned me, with a ring of crystal,\n    With a bracelet of emeralds, together with himself, he adorned\n        me,[123]\n    With himself he adorned me; may men mourners and women\n        mourners\n    On a bier place him, and assemble the wake.[124]\n\nA Sumerian hymn to Tammuz throws light on this narrative. It sets\nforth that Ishtar descended to Hades to entreat him to be glad and to\nresume care of his flocks, but Tammuz refused or was unable to return.\n\n        His spouse unto her abode he sent back.\n\nShe then instituted the wailing ceremony:\n\n        The amorous Queen of Heaven sits as one in darkness.[125]\n\nMr. Langdon also translates a hymn (Tammuz III) which appears to\ncontain the narrative on which the Assyrian version was founded. The\ngoddess who descends to Hades, however, is not Ishtar, but the\n\"sister\", Belit-sheri. She is accompanied by various demons--the\n\"gallu-demon\", the \"slayer\", &c.--and holds a conversation with Tammuz\nwhich, however, is \"unintelligible and badly broken\". Apparently,\nhowever, he promises to return to earth.\n\n         ... I will go up, as for me I will depart with thee ...\n         ... I will return, unto my mother let us go back.\n\nProbably two goddesses originally lamented for Tammuz, as the Egyptian\nsisters, Isis and Nepthys, lamented for Osiris, their brother. Ishtar\nis referred to as \"my mother\". Isis figures alternately in the\nEgyptian chants as mother, wife, sister, and daughter of Osiris. She\ncries, \"Come thou to thy wife in peace; her heart fluttereth for thy\nlove\", ... \"I am thy wife, made as thou art, the elder sister, soul of\nher brother\".... \"Come thou to us as a babe\".... \"Lo, thou art as the\nBull of the two goddesses--come thou, child growing in peace, our\nlord!\"... \"Lo! the Bull, begotten of the two cows, Isis and\nNepthys\".... \"Come thou to the two widowed goddesses\".... \"Oh child,\nlord, first maker of the body\".... \"Father Osiris.\"[126]\n\nAs Ishtar and Belit-sheri weep for Tammuz, so do Isis and Nepthys weep\nfor Osiris.\n\n    Calling upon thee with weeping--yet thou art prostrate upon thy\n      bed!\n    Gods and men ... are weeping for thee at the same time, when\n      they behold me (Isis).\n    Lo! I invoke thee with wailing that reacheth high as heaven.\n\nIsis is also identified with Hathor (Ishtar) the Cow.... \"The cow\nweepeth for thee with her voice.\"[127]\n\nThere is another phase, however, to the character of the mother\ngoddess which explains the references to the desertion and slaying of\nTammuz by Ishtar. \"She is\", says Jastrow, \"the goddess of the human\ninstinct, or passion which accompanies human love. Gilgamesh ...\nreproaches her with abandoning the objects of her passion after a\nbrief period of union.\" At Ishtar's temple \"public maidens accepted\ntemporary partners, assigned to them by Ishtar\".[128] The worship of\nall mother goddesses in ancient times was accompanied by revolting\nunmoral rites which are referred to in condemnatory terms in various\npassages in the Old Testament, especially in connection with the\nworship of Ashtoreth, who was identical with Ishtar and the Egyptian\nHathor.\n\nIshtar in the process of time overshadowed all the other female\ndeities of Babylonia, as did Isis in Egypt. Her name, indeed, which is\nSemitic, became in the plural, Ishtar\u00e1te, a designation for goddesses\nin general. But although she was referred to as the daughter of the\nsky, Anu, or the daughter of the moon, Sin or Nannar, she still\nretained traces of her ancient character. Originally she was a great\nmother goddess, who was worshipped by those who believed that life and\nthe universe had a female origin in contrast to those who believed in\nthe theory of male origin. Ishtar is identical with Nina, the fish\ngoddess, a creature who gave her name to the Sumerian city of Nina and\nthe Assyrian city of Nineveh. Other forms of the Creatrix included\nMama, or Mami, or Ama, \"mother\", Aruru, Bau, Gula, and Zerpanitu^m.\nThese were all \"Preservers\" and healers. At the same time they were\n\"Destroyers\", like Nin-sun and the Queen of Hades, Eresh-ki-gal or\nAllatu. They were accompanied by shadowy male forms ere they became\nwives of strongly individualized gods, or by child gods, their sons,\nwho might be regarded as \"brothers\" or \"husbands of their mothers\", to\nuse the paradoxical Egyptian term. Similarly Great Father deities had\nvaguely defined wives. The \"Semitic\" Baal, \"the lord\", was accompanied\nby a female reflection of himself--Beltu, \"the lady\". Shamash, the sun\ngod, had for wife the shadowy Aa.\n\nAs has been shown, Ishtar is referred to in a Tammuz hymn as the\nmother of the child god of fertility. In an Egyptian hymn the sky\ngoddess Nut, \"the mother\" of Osiris, is stated to have \"built up life\nfrom her own body\".[129] Sri or Lakshmi, the Indian goddess, who\nbecame the wife of Vishnu, as the mother goddess Saraswati, a tribal\ndeity, became the wife of Brahma, was, according to a Purana\ncommentator, \"the mother of the world ... eternal and\nundecaying\".[130]\n\nThe gods, on the other hand, might die annually: the goddesses alone\nwere immortal. Indra was supposed to perish of old age, but his wife,\nIndrani, remained ever young. There were fourteen Indras in every \"day\nof Brahma\", a reference apparently to the ancient conception of Indra\namong the Great-Mother-worshipping sections of the Aryo-Indians.[131]\nIn the _Mahabharata_ the god Shiva, as Mahadeva, commands Indra on\n\"one of the peaks of Himavat\", where they met, to lift up a stone and\njoin the Indras who had been before him. \"And Indra on removing that\nstone beheld a cave on the breast of that king of mountains in which\nwere four others resembling himself.\" Indra exclaimed in his grief,\n\"Shall I be even like these?\" These five Indras, like the \"Seven\nSleepers\", awaited the time when they would be called forth. They were\nultimately reborn as the five Pandava warriors.[132]\n\nThe ferocious, black-faced Scottish mother goddess, Cailleach Bheur,\nwho appears to be identical with Mala Lith, \"Grey Eyebrows\" of\nFingalian story, and the English \"Black Annis\", figures in Irish song\nand legend as \"The Old Woman of Beare\". This \"old woman\" (Cailleach)\n\"had\", says Professor Kuno Meyer, \"seven periods of youth one after\nanother, so that every man who had lived with her came to die of old\nage, and her grandsons and great-grandsons were tribes and races\".\nWhen old age at length came upon her she sang her \"swan song\", from\nwhich the following lines are extracted:\n\n    Ebb tide to me as of the sea!\n    Old age causes me reproach ...\n    It is riches\n    Ye love, it is not men:\n    In the time when _we_ lived\n    It was men we loved ...\n    My arms when they are seen\n    Are bony and thin:\n    Once they would fondle,\n    They would be round glorious kings ...\n    I must take my garment even in the sun:\n    The time is at hand that shall renew me.[133]\n\nFreyja, the Germanic mother goddess, whose car was drawn by cats, had\nsimilarly many lovers. In the Icelandic poem \"Lokasenna\", Loki taunts\nher, saying:\n\n    Silence, Freyja! Full well I know thee,\n      And faultless art thou not found;\n    Of the gods and elves who here are gathered\n      Each one hast thou made thy mate.\n\nIdun, the keeper of the apples of immortal youth, which prevent the\ngods growing old, is similarly addressed:\n\n    Silence, Idun! I swear, of all women\n      Thou the most wanton art;\n    Who couldst fling those fair-washed arms of thine\n      About thy brother's slayer.\n\nFrigg, wife of Odin, is satirized as well:\n\n    Silence, Frigg! Earth's spouse for a husband,\n      And hast ever yearned after men![134]\n\nThe goddesses of classic mythology had similar reputations. Aphrodite\n(Venus) had many divine and mortal lovers. She links closely with\nAstarte and Ashtoreth (Ishtar), and reference has already been made to\nher relations with Adonis (Tammuz). These love deities were all as\ncruel as they were wayward. When Ishtar wooed the Babylonian hero,\nGilgamesh, he spurned her advances, as has been indicated, saying:\n\n    On Tammuz, the spouse of thy youth,\n    Thou didst lay affliction every year.\n    Thou didst love the brilliant Allalu bird\n    But thou didst smite him and break his wing;\n    He stands in the woods and cries \"O my wing\".\n\nHe likewise charged her with deceiving the lion and the horse, making\nreference to obscure myths:\n\n    Thou didst also love a shepherd of the flock,\n    Who continually poured out for thee the libation,\n    And daily slaughtered kids for thee;\n    But thou didst smite him and didst change him into a leopard,\n    So that his own sheep boy hunted him,\n    And his own hounds tore him to pieces.[135]\n\nThese goddesses were ever prone to afflict human beings who might\noffend them or of whom they wearied. Demeter (Ceres) changed\nAscalaphus into an owl and Stellio into a lizard. Rhea (Ops) resembled\n\n        The tow'red Cybele,\n    Mother of a hundred gods,\n\nthe wanton who loved Attis (Adonis). Artemis (Diana) slew her lover\nOrion, changed Actaeon into a stag, which was torn to pieces by his\nown dogs, and caused numerous deaths by sending a boar to ravage the\nfields of Oeneus, king of Calydon. Human sacrifices were frequently\noffered to the bloodthirsty \"mothers\". The most famous victim of\nArtemis was the daughter of Agamemnon, \"divinely tall and most\ndivinely fair\".[136] Agamemnon had slain a sacred stag, and the\ngoddess punished him by sending a calm when the war fleet was about to\nsail for Troy, with the result that his daughter had to be sacrificed.\nArtemis thus sold breezes like the northern wind hags and witches.\n\nIt used to be customary to account for the similarities manifested by\nthe various mother goddesses by assuming that there was constant\ncultural contact between separate nationalities, and, as a result, a\nnot inconsiderable amount of \"religious borrowing\". Greece was\nsupposed to have received its great goddesses from the western\nSemites, who had come under the spell of Babylonian religion.\nArchaeological evidence, however, tends to disprove this theory. \"The\nmost recent researches into Mesopotamian history\", writes Dr. Farnell,\n\"establish with certainty the conclusion that there was no direct\npolitical contact possible between the powers in the valley of the\nEuphrates and the western shores of the Aegean in the second\nmillennium B.C. In fact, between the nascent Hellas and the great\nworld of Mesopotamia there were powerful and possibly independent\nstrata of cultures interposing.\"[137]\n\nThe real connection appears to be the racial one. Among the\nMediterranean Neolithic tribes of Sumeria, Arabia, and Europe, the\ngoddess cult appears to have been influential. Mother worship was the\npredominant characteristic of their religious systems, so that the\nGreek goddesses were probably of pre-Hellenic origin, the Celtic of\nIberian, the Egyptian of proto-Egyptian, and the Babylonian of\nSumerian. The northern hillmen, on the other hand, who may be\nidentified with the \"Aryans\" of the philologists, were father\nworshippers. The Vedic Aryo-Indians worshipped father gods,[138] as\ndid also the Germanic peoples and certain tribes in the \"Hittite\nconfederacy\". Earth spirits were males, like the Teutonic elves, the\nAryo-Indian Ribhus, and the Burkans, \"masters\", of the present-day\nBuriats, a Mongolian people. When the father-worshipping peoples\ninvaded the dominions of the mother-worshipping peoples, they\nintroduced their strongly individualized gods, but they did not\ndisplace the mother goddesses. \"The Aryan Hellenes\", says Dr. Farnell,\n\"were able to plant their Zeus and Poseidon on the high hill of\nAthens, but not to overthrow the supremacy of Athena in the central\nshrine and in the aboriginal soul of the Athenian people.\"[139] As in\nEgypt, the beliefs of the father worshippers, represented by the\nself-created Ptah, were fused with the beliefs of the mother\nworshippers, who adored Isis, Mut, Neith, and others. In Babylonia\nthis process of racial and religious fusion was well advanced before\nthe dawn of history. Ea, who had already assumed manifold forms, may\nhave originally been the son or child lover of Damkina, \"Lady of the\nDeep\", as was Tammuz of Ishtar. As the fish, Ea was the offspring of\nthe mother river.\n\nThe mother worshippers recognized male as well as female deities, but\nregarded the great goddess as the First Cause. Although the primeval\nspirits were grouped in four pairs in Egypt, and apparently in\nBabylonia also, the female in the first pair was more strongly\nindividualized than the male. The Egyptian Nu is vaguer than his\nconsort Nut, and the Babylonian Apsu than his consort Tiamat. Indeed,\nin the narrative of the Creation Tablets of Babylon, which will\nreceive full treatment in a later chapter, Tiamat, the great mother,\nis the controlling spirit. She is more powerful and ferocious than\nApsu, and lives longer. After Apsu's death she elevates one of her\nbrood, named Kingu, to be her consort, a fact which suggests that in\nthe Ishtar-Tammuz myth survives the influence of exceedingly ancient\nmodes of thought. Like Tiamat, Ishtar is also a great battle heroine,\nand in this capacity she was addressed as \"the lady of majestic rank\nexalted over all gods\". This was no idle flattery on the part of\nworshippers, but a memory of her ancient supremacy.\n\nReference has been made to the introduction of Tammuz worship into\nJerusalem. Ishtar, as Queen of Heaven, was also adored by the\nbacksliding Israelites as a deity of battle and harvest. When Jeremiah\ncensured the people for burning incense and serving gods \"whom they\nknew not\", he said, \"neither they, ye, nor your fathers\", they made\nanswer: \"Since we left off to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and\nto pour out drink offerings unto her, we have wanted all things, and\nhave been consumed by the sword and the famine\". The women took a\nleading part in these practices, but refused to accept all the blame,\nsaying, \"When we burned incense to the queen of heaven, and poured out\ndrink offerings unto her, did we make our cakes and pour out drink\nofferings unto her without our men?\"[140] That the husbands, and the\nchildren even, assisted at the ceremony is made evident in another\nreference to goddess worship: \"The children gather wood, and the\nfathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough, to make cakes\nto the queen of heaven\".[141]\n\nJastrow suggests that the women of Israel wept for Tammuz, offered\ncakes to the mother goddess, &c., because \"in all religious bodies ...\nwomen represent the conservative element; among them religious customs\ncontinue in practice after they have been abandoned by men\".[142] The\nevidence of Jeremiah, however, shows that the men certainly\nco-operated at the archaic ceremonials. In lighting the fires with the\n\"vital spark\", they apparently acted in imitation of the god of\nfertility. The women, on the other hand, represented the reproductive\nharvest goddess in providing the food supply. In recognition of her\ngift, they rewarded the goddess by offering her the cakes prepared\nfrom the newly ground wheat and barley--the \"first fruits of the\nharvest\". As the corn god came as a child, the children began the\nceremony by gathering the wood for the sacred fire. When the women\nmourned for Tammuz, they did so evidently because the death of the god\nwas lamented by the goddess Ishtar. It would appear, therefore, that\nthe suggestion regarding the \"conservative element\" should really\napply to the immemorial practices of folk religion. These differed\nfrom the refined ceremonies of the official cult in Babylonia, where\nthere were suitable temples and organized bands of priests and\npriestesses. But the official cult received no recognition in\nPalestine; the cakes intended for a goddess were not offered up in the\ntemple of Abraham's God, but \"in the streets of Jerusalem\" and those\nof other cities.[143]\n\nThe obvious deduction seems to be that in ancient times women\neverywhere played a prominent part in the ceremonial folk worship of\nthe Great Mother goddess, while the men took the lesser part of the\ngod whom she had brought into being and afterwards received as\n\"husband of his mother\". This may account for the high social status\nof women among goddess worshippers, like the representatives of the\nMediterranean race, whose early religion was not confined to temples,\nbut closely associated with the acts of everyday life.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\nWARS OF THE CITY STATES OF SUMER AND AKKAD\n\n\n  Civilization well advanced--The Patesi--Prominent City\n  States--Surroundings of Babylonia--The Elamites--Biblical References\n  to Susa--The Sumerian Temperament--Fragmentary Records--City States\n  of Kish and Opis--A Shopkeeper who became a Queen--Goddess\n  Worship--Tammuz as Nin-Girsu--Great Dynasty of Lagash--Ur-Nina and\n  his Descendants--A Napoleonic Conqueror--Golden Age of Sumerian\n  Art--The First Reformer in History--His Rise and Fall--The Dynasty\n  of Erech--Sargon of Akkad--The Royal Gardener--Sargon Myth in\n  India--A Great Empire--The King who Purchased Land--Naram Sin the\n  Conqueror--Disastrous Foreign Raid--Lagash again Prominent--Gudea\n  the Temple Builder--Dynasty of Ur--Dynasty of Isin--Another Gardener\n  becomes King--Rise of Babylon--Humanized Deities--Why Sumerian Gods\n  wore Beards.\n\n\nWhen the curtain rises to reveal the drama of Babylonian civilization\nwe find that we have missed the first act and its many fascinating\nscenes. Sumerians and Akkadians come and go, but it is not always\npossible to distinguish between them. Although most Semites are\nrecognizable by their flowing beards, prominent noses, and long robes,\nsome have so closely imitated the Sumerians as to suffer almost\ncomplete loss of identity. It is noticeable that in the north the\nAkkadians are more Semitic than their contemporaries in the south, but\nit is difficult at times to say whether a city is controlled by the\ndescendants of the indigenous people or those of later settlers.\nDynasties rise and fall, and, as in Egypt at times, the progress of\nthe fragmentary narrative is interrupted by a sudden change of scene\nere we have properly grasped a situation and realized its\nsignificance.\n\nWhat we know for certain is that civilization is well advanced. Both\nin the north and the south there are many organized and independent\ncity states, and not unfrequently these wage war one against another.\nOccasionally ambitious rulers tower among their fellows, conduct\nvigorous military campaigns, and become overlords of wide districts.\nAs a rule, a subjugated monarch who has perforce to acknowledge the\nsuzerainty of a powerful king is allowed to remain in a state of\nsemi-independence on condition that he pays a heavy annual tribute of\ngrain. His own laws continue in force, and the city deities remain\nsupreme, although recognition may also be given to the deities of his\nconqueror. He styles himself a Patesi--a \"priest king\", or more\nliterally, \"servant of the chief deity\". But as an independent monarch\nmay also be a pious Patesi, it does not always follow when a ruler is\nreferred to by that title he is necessarily less powerful than his\nneighbours.\n\nWhen the historical narrative begins Akkad included the cities of\nBabylon, Cutha, Kish, Akkad, and Sippar, and north of Babylonia proper\nis Semitic Opis. Among the cities of Sumer were Eridu, Ur, Lagash,\nLarsa, Erech, Shuruppak, and probably Nippur, which was situated on\nthe \"border\". On the north Assyria was yet \"in the making\", and\nshrouded in obscurity. A vague but vast area above Hit on the\nEuphrates, and extending to the Syrian coast, was known as the \"land\nof the Amorites\". The fish-shaped Babylonian valley lying between the\nrivers, where walled towns were surrounded by green fields and\nnumerous canals flashed in the sunshine, was bounded on the west by\nthe bleak wastes of the Arabian desert, where during the dry season\n\"the rocks branded the body\" and occasional sandstorms swept in\nblinding folds towards the \"plain of Shinar\" (Sumer) like demon hosts\nwho sought to destroy the world. To the east the skyline was fretted\nby the Persian Highlands, and amidst the southern mountains dwelt the\nfierce Elamites, the hereditary enemies of the Sumerians, although a\npeople apparently of the same origin. Like the Nubians and the\nLibyans, who kept watchful eyes on Egypt, the Elamites seemed ever to\nbe hovering on the eastern frontier of Sumeria, longing for an\nopportunity to raid and plunder.\n\nThe capital of the Elamites was the city of Susa, where excavations\nhave revealed traces of an independent civilization which reaches back\nto an early period in the Late Stone Age. Susa is referred to in the\nOld Testament--\"The words of Nehemiah.... I was in Shushan the\npalace\".[144] An Assyrian plan of the city shows it occupying a\nstrategic position at a bend of the Shawur river, which afforded\nprotection against Sumerian attacks from the west, while a canal\ncurved round its northern and eastern sides, so that Susa was\ncompletely surrounded by water. Fortifications had been erected on the\nriver and canal banks, and between these and the high city walls were\nthick clumps of trees. That the kings of Elam imitated the splendours\nof Babylonian courts in the later days of Esther and Haman and\nMordecai, is made evident by the Biblical references to the gorgeous\npalace, which had \"white, green, and blue hangings, fastened with\ncords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble;\nthe beds were of gold and silver, upon a pavement of red, and blue,\nand white, and black marble \".[145] Beyond Elam were the plains,\nplateaus, and grassy steppes occupied by the Medes and other peoples\nof Aryan speech. Cultural influences came and went like spring winds\nbetween the various ancient communities.\n\nFor ten long centuries Sumer and Akkad flourished and prospered ere we\nmeet with the great Hammurabi, whose name has now become almost as\nfamiliar as that of Julius Caesar. But our knowledge of the leading\nhistorical events of this vast period is exceedingly fragmentary. The\nSumerians were not like the later Assyrians or their Egyptian\ncontemporaries--a people with a passion for history. When inscriptions\nwere composed and cut on stone, or impressed upon clay tablets and\nbricks, the kings selected as a general rule to record pious deeds\nrather than to celebrate their victories and conquests. Indeed, the\naverage monarch had a temperament resembling that of Keats, who\ndeclared:\n\n                       The silver flow\n    Of Hero's tears, the swoon of Imogen,\n    Fair Pastorella in the bandits' den,\n    Are things to brood on with more ardency\n    Than the death day of empires.\n\nThe Sumerian king was emotionally religious as the great English poet\nwas emotionally poetical. The tears of Ishtar for Tammuz, and the\nafflictions endured by the goddess imprisoned in Hades, to which she\nhad descended for love of her slain husband, seemed to have concerned\nthe royal recorder to a greater degree than the memories of political\nupheavals and the social changes which passed over the land, like the\nseasons which alternately brought greenness and gold, barrenness and\nflood.\n\nCity chronicles, as a rule, are but indices of obscure events, to\nwhich meagre references were sometimes also made on mace heads, vases,\ntablets, stelae, and sculptured monoliths. Consequently, present-day\nexcavators and students have often reason to be grateful that the\nhabit likewise obtained of inscribing on bricks in buildings and the\nstone sockets of doors the names of kings and others. These records\nrender obscure periods faintly articulate, and are indispensable for\ncomparative purposes. Historical clues are also obtained from lists of\nyear names. Each city king named a year in celebration of a great\nevent--his own succession to the throne, the erection of a new temple\nor of a city wall, or, mayhap, the defeat of an invading army from a\nrival state. Sometimes, too, a monarch gave the name of his father in\nan official inscription, or happily mentioned several ancestors.\nAnother may be found to have made an illuminating statement regarding\na predecessor, who centuries previously erected the particular temple\nthat he himself has piously restored. A reckoning of this kind,\nhowever, cannot always be regarded as absolutely correct. It must be\ncompared with and tested by other records, for in these ancient days\ncalculations were not unfrequently based on doubtful inscriptions, or\nmere oral traditions, perhaps. Nor can implicit trust be placed on\nevery reference to historical events, for the memoried deeds of great\nrulers were not always unassociated with persistent and cumulative\nmyths. It must be recognized, therefore, that even portions of the\ndata which had of late been sifted and systematized by Oriental\nscholars in Europe, may yet have to be subjected to revision. Many\ninteresting and important discoveries, which will throw fresh light on\nthis fascinating early period, remain to be made in that ancient and\ndeserted land, which still lies under the curse of the Hebrew prophet,\nwho exclaimed: \"Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the\nChaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and\nGomorrah. It shall never be inhabited; neither shall the Arabian pitch\ntent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. But\nwild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be\nfull of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs\nshall dance there. And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in\ntheir desolate houses and dragons in their pleasant palaces.\"[146]\n\nThe curtain rises, as has been indicated, after civilization had been\nwell advanced. To begin with, our interests abide with Akkad, and\nduring a period dated approximately between 3000 B.C. and 2800 B.C.,\nwhen Egypt was already a united kingdom, and the Cretans were at the\ndawn of the first early Minoan period, and beginning to use bronze. In\nKish Sumerian and Akkadian elements had apparently blended, and the\ncity was the centre of a powerful and independent government. After\nyears have fluttered past dimly, and with them the shadow-shapes of\nvigorous rulers, it is found that Kish came under the sway of the\npronouncedly Semitic city of Opis, which was situated \"farthest north\"\nand on the western bank of the river Tigris. A century elapsed ere\nKish again threw off the oppressor's yoke and renewed the strength of\nits youth.\n\nThe city of Kish was one of the many ancient centres of goddess\nworship. The Great Mother appears to have been the Sumerian Bau, whose\nchief seat was at Lagash. If tradition is to be relied upon, Kish owed\nits existence to that notable lady, Queen Azag-Bau. Although floating\nlegends gathered round her memory as they have often gathered round\nthe memories of famous men, like Sargon of Akkad, Alexander the Great,\nand Theodoric the Goth, who became Emperor of Rome, it is probable\nthat the queen was a prominent historical personage. She was reputed\nto have been of humble origin, and to have first achieved popularity\nand influence as the keeper of a wine shop. Although no reference\nsurvives to indicate that she was believed to be of miraculous birth,\nthe Chronicle of Kish gravely credits her with a prolonged and\napparently prosperous reign of a hundred years. Her son, who succeeded\nher, sat on the throne for a quarter of a century. These calculations\nare certainly remarkable. If the Queen Azag-Bau founded Kish when she\nwas only twenty, and gave birth to the future ruler in her fiftieth\nyear, he must have been an elderly gentleman of seventy when he began\nto reign. When it is found, further, that the dynasty in which mother\nand son flourished was supposed to have lasted for 586 years, divided\nbetween eight rulers, one of whom reigned for only three years, two\nfor six, and two for eleven, it becomes evident that the historian of\nKish cannot be absolutely relied upon in detail. It seems evident that\nthe memory of this lady of forceful character, who flourished about\nthirteen hundred years before the rise of Queen Hatshepsut of Egypt,\nhas overshadowed the doubtful annals of ancient Kish at a period when\nSumerian and Semite were striving in the various states to achieve\npolitical ascendancy.\n\nMeanwhile the purely Sumerian city of Lagash had similarly grown\npowerful and aggressive. For a time it acknowledged the suzerainty of\nKish, but ultimately it threw off the oppressor's yoke and asserted\nits independence. The cumulative efforts of a succession of energetic\nrulers elevated Lagash to the position of a metropolis in Ancient\nBabylonia.\n\nThe goddess Bau, \"the mother of Lagash\", was worshipped in conjunction\nwith other deities, including the god Nin-Girsu, an agricultural\ndeity, and therefore a deity of war, who had solar attributes. One of\nthe titles of Nin-Girsu was En-Mersi, which, according to Assyrian\nevidence, was another name of Tammuz, the spring god who slew the\nstorm and winter demons, and made the land fertile so that man might\nhave food. Nin-Girsu was, it would seem, a developed form of Tammuz,\nlike the Scandinavian Frey, god of harvest, or Heimdal, the celestial\nwarrior. Bau was one of the several goddesses whose attributes were\nabsorbed by the Semitic Ishtar. She was a \"Great Mother\", a creatrix,\nthe source of all human and bestial life, and, of course, a harvest\ngoddess. She was identified with Gula, \"the great one\", who cured\ndiseases and prolonged life. Evidently the religion of Lagash was\nbased on the popular worship of the \"Queen of Heaven\", and her son,\nthe dying god who became \"husband of his mother\".\n\nThe first great and outstanding ruler of Lagash was Ur-Nina, who\nappears to have owed his power to the successful military operations\nof his predecessors. It is uncertain whether or not he himself engaged\nin any great war. His records are silent in that connection, but,\njudging from what we know of him, it may be taken for granted that he\nwas able and fully prepared to give a good account of himself in\nbattle. He certainly took steps to make secure his position, for he\ncaused a strong wall to be erected round Lagash. His inscriptions are\neloquent of his piety, which took practical shape, for he repaired and\nbuilt temples, dedicated offerings to deities, and increased the\nwealth of religious bodies and the prosperity of the State by cutting\ncanals and developing agriculture. In addition to serving local\ndeities, he also gave practical recognition to Ea at Eridu and Enlil\nat Nippur. He, however, overlooked Anu at Erech, a fact which suggests\nthat he held sway over Eridu and Nippur, but had to recognize Erech as\nan independent city state.\n\nAmong the deities of Lagash, Ur-Nina favoured most the goddess Nina,\nwhose name he bore. As she was a water deity, and perhaps identical\nwith Belit-sheri, sister of \"Tammuz of the Abyss\" and daughter of Ea,\none of the canals was dedicated to her. She was also honoured with a\nnew temple, in which was probably placed her great statue, constructed\nby special order of her royal worshipper. Like the Egyptian goddess,\nthe \"Mother of Mendes\", Nina received offerings of fish, not only as a\npatroness of fishermen, but also as a corn spirit and a goddess of\nmaternity. She was in time identified with Ishtar.\n\nA famous limestone plaque, which is preserved in the Louvre, Paris,\ndepicts on its upper half the pious King Ur-Nina engaged in the\nceremony of laying the foundations of a temple dedicated either to the\ngoddess Nina or to the god Nin-Girsu. His face and scalp are clean\nshaven, and he has a prominent nose and firm mouth, eloquent of\ndecision. The folds of neck and jaw suggest Bismarckian traits. He is\nbare to the waist, and wears a pleated kilt, with three flounces,\nwhich reaches almost to his ankles. On his long head he has poised\ndeftly a woven basket containing the clay with which he is to make the\nfirst brick. In front of him stand five figures. The foremost is\nhonoured by being sculptured larger than the others, except the\nprominent monarch. Apparently this is a royal princess, for her head\nis unshaven, and her shoulder dress or long hair drops over one of her\narms. Her name is Lida, and the conspicuous part she took in the\nceremony suggests that she was the representative of the goddess Nina.\nShe is accompanied by her brothers, and at least one official, Anita,\nthe cup-bearer, or high priest. The concluding part of this ceremony,\nor another ceremonial act, is illustrated on the lower part of the\nplaque. Ur-Nina is seated on his throne, not, as would seem at first\nsight, raising the wine cup to his lips and toasting to the success of\nthe work, but pouring out a libation upon the ground. The princess is\nnot present; the place of honour next to the king is taken by the\ncrown prince. Possibly in this case it is the god Nin-Girsu who is\nbeing honoured. Three male figures, perhaps royal sons, accompany the\nprominent crown prince. The cup-bearer is in attendance behind the\nthrone.\n\nThe inscription on this plaque, which is pierced in the centre so as\nto be nailed to a sacred shrine, refers to the temples erected by\nUr-Nina, including those of Nina and Nin-Girsu.\n\nAfter Ur-Nina's prosperous reign came to a close, his son Akurgal\nascended the throne. He had trouble with Umma, a powerful city, which\nlay to the north-west of Lagash, between the Shatt-el-Kai and\nShatt-el-Hai canals. An army of raiders invaded his territory and had\nto be driven back.\n\nThe next king, whose name was Eannatum, had Napoleonic\ncharacteristics. He was a military genius with great ambitions, and\nwas successful in establishing by conquest a small but brilliant\nempire. Like his grandfather, he strengthened the fortifications of\nLagash; then he engaged in a series of successful campaigns. Umma had\nbeen causing anxiety in Lagash, but Eannatum stormed and captured that\nrival city, appropriated one of its fertile plains, and imposed an\nannual tribute to be paid in kind. An army of Elamites swept down from\nthe hills, but Ur-Nina's grandson inflicted upon these bold foreigners\na crushing defeat and pursued them over the frontier. Several cities\nwere afterwards forced to come under the sway of triumphant Lagash,\nincluding Erech and Ur, and as his suzerainty was already acknowledged\nat Eridu, Eannatum's power in Sumeria became as supreme as it was\nfirmly established.\n\nEvidently Zuzu, king of the northern city of Opis, considered that the\noccasion was opportune to overcome the powerful Sumerian conqueror,\nand at the same time establish Semitic rule over the subdued and\nwar-wasted cities. He marched south with a large army, but the\ntireless and ever-watchful Eannatum hastened to the fray, scattered\nthe forces of Opis, and captured the foolhardy Zuzu.\n\nEannatum's activities, however, were not confined to battlefields. At\nLagash he carried out great improvements in the interests of\nagriculture; he constructed a large reservoir and developed the canal\nsystem. He also extended and repaired existing temples in his native\ncity and at Erech. Being a patron of the arts, he encouraged sculpture\nwork, and the finest Sumerian examples belong to his reign.\n\nEannatum was succeeded by his brother, Enannatum I. Apparently the new\nmonarch did not share the military qualities of his royal predecessor,\nfor there were signs of unrest in the loose confederacy of states.\nIndeed, Umma revolted. From that city an army marched forth and took\nforcible possession of the plain which Eannatum had appropriated,\nremoving and breaking the landmarks, and otherwise challenging the\nsupremacy of the sovran state. A Lagash force defeated the men of\nUmma, but appears to have done little more than hold in check their\naggressive tendencies.\n\nNo sooner had Entemena, the next king, ascended the throne than the\nflame of revolt burst forth again. The Patesi of Umma was evidently\ndetermined to free, once and for all, his native state from the yoke\nof Lagash. But he had gravely miscalculated the strength of the\nvigorous young ruler. Entemena inflicted upon the rebels a crushing\ndefeat, and following up his success, entered the walled city and\ncaptured and slew the patesi. Then he took steps to stamp out the\nembers of revolt in Umma by appointing as its governor one of his own\nofficials, named Ili, who was duly installed with great ceremony.\nOther military successes followed, including the sacking of Opis and\nKish, which assured the supremacy of Lagash for many years. Entemena,\nwith characteristic vigour, engaged himself during periods of peace in\nstrengthening his city fortifications and in continuing the work of\nimproving and developing the irrigation system. He lived in the golden\nage of Sumerian art, and to his reign belongs the exquisite silver\nvase of Lagash, which was taken from the Tello mound, and is now in\nthe Louvre. This votive offering was placed by the king in the temple\nof Nin-Girsu. It is exquisitely shaped, and has a base of copper. The\nsymbolic decorations include the lion-headed eagle, which was probably\na form of the spring god of war and fertility, the lion, beloved by\nthe Mother goddess, and deer and ibexes, which recall the mountain\nherds of Astarte. In the dedicatory inscription the king is referred\nto as a patesi, and the fact that the name of the high priest, Dudu,\nis given may be taken as an indication of the growing power of an\naggressive priesthood. After a brilliant reign of twenty-nine years\nthe king died, and was succeeded by his son, Enannatum II, who was the\nlast ruler of Ur-Nina's line. An obscure period ensued. Apparently\nthere had been a city revolt, which may have given the enemies of\nLagash the desired opportunity to gather strength for the coming\nconflict. There is a reference to an Elamite raid which, although\nrepulsed, may be regarded as proof of disturbed political conditions.\n\nOne or two priests sat on the throne of Lagash in brief succession,\nand then arose to power the famous Urukagina, the first reformer in\nhistory. He began to rule as patesi, but afterwards styled himself\nking. What appears certain is that he was the leader of a great social\nupheaval, which received the support of a section of the priesthood,\nfor he recorded that his elevation was due to the intercession of the\ngod Nin-Girsu. Other deities, who were sons and daughters of Nin-Girsu\nand Nina, had been given recognition by his predecessors, and it is\npossible that the orthodox section of Lagash, and especially the\nagricultural classes, supported the new ruler in sweeping away\ninnovations to which they were hostile.\n\nLike Khufu and his descendants, the Pyramid kings of Egypt's fourth\ndynasty, the vigorous and efficient monarchs of the Ur-Nina dynasty of\nLagash were apparently remembered and execrated as tyrants and\noppressors of the people. To maintain many endowed temples and a\nstanding army the traders and agriculturists had been heavily taxed.\nEach successive monarch who undertook public works on a large scale\nfor the purpose of extending and developing the area under\ncultivation, appears to have done so mainly to increase the revenue of\nthe exchequer, so as to conserve the strength of the city and secure\nits pre-eminence as a metropolis. A leisured class had come into\nexistence, with the result that culture was fostered and civilization\nadvanced. Lagash seems to have been intensely modern in character\nprior to 2800 B.C., but with the passing of the old order of things\nthere arose grave social problems which never appear to have been\nseriously dealt with. All indications of social unrest were, it would\nappear, severely repressed by the iron-gloved monarchs of Ur-Nina's\ndynasty.\n\nThe people as a whole groaned under an ever-increasing burden of\ntaxation. Sumeria was overrun by an army of officials who were\nnotoriously corrupt; they do not appear to have been held in check, as\nin Egypt, by royal auditors. \"In the domain of Nin-Girsu\", one of\nUrukagina's tablets sets forth, \"there were tax gatherers down to the\nsea.\" They not only attended to the needs of the exchequer, but\nenriched themselves by sheer robbery, while the priests followed their\nexample by doubling their fees and appropriating temple offerings to\ntheir own use. The splendid organization of Lagash was crippled by the\ndishonesty of those who should have been its main support.\n\nReforms were necessary and perhaps overdue, but, unfortunately for\nLagash, Urukagina's zeal for the people's cause amounted to\nfanaticism. Instead of gradually readjusting the machinery of\ngovernment so as to secure equality of treatment without impairing its\nefficiency as a defensive force in these perilous times, he\ninaugurated sweeping and revolutionary social changes of far-reaching\ncharacter regardless of consequences. Taxes and temple fees were cut\ndown, and the number of officials reduced to a minimum. Society was\nthoroughly disorganized. The army, which was recruited mainly from the\nleisured and official classes, went practically out of existence, so\nthat traders and agriculturists obtained relief from taxation at the\nexpense of their material security.\n\nUrukagina's motives were undoubtedly above reproach, and he showed an\nexample to all who occupied positions of trust by living an upright\nlife and denying himself luxuries. He was disinterestedly pious, and\nbuilt and restored temples, and acted as the steward of his god with\ndesire to promote the welfare and comfort of all true worshippers. His\nlaws were similar to those which over two centuries afterwards were\ncodified by Hammurabi, and like that monarch he was professedly the\nguardian of the weak and the helper of the needy; he sought to\nestablish justice and liberty in the kingdom. But his social Arcadia\nvanished like a dream because he failed to recognize that Right must\nbe supported by Might.\n\nIn bringing about his sudden social revolution, Urukagina had at the\nsame time unwittingly let loose the forces of disorder. Discontented\nand unemployed officials, and many representatives of the despoiled\nleisured and military classes of Lagash, no doubt sought refuge\nelsewhere, and fostered the spirit of revolt which ever smouldered in\nsubject states. At any rate, Umma, remembering the oppressions of\nother days, was not slow to recognize that the iron hand of Lagash had\nbecome unnerved. The zealous and iconoclastic reformer had reigned but\nseven years when he was called upon to defend his people against the\ninvader. He appears to have been utterly unprepared to do so. The\nvictorious forces of Umma swept against the stately city of Lagash and\nshattered its power in a single day. Echoes of the great disaster\nwhich ensued rise from a pious tablet inscription left by a priest,\nwho was convinced that the conquerors would be called to account for\nthe sins they had committed against the great god Nin-Girsu. He\nlamented the butchery and robbery which had taken place. We gather\nfrom his composition that blood was shed by the raiders of Umma even\nin the sacred precincts of temples, that statues were shattered, that\nsilver and precious stones were carried away, that granaries were\nplundered and standing crops destroyed, and that many buildings were\nset on fire. Amidst these horrors of savagery and vengeance, the now\ntragic figure of the great reformer suddenly vanishes from before our\neyes. Perhaps he perished in a burning temple; perhaps he found a\nnameless grave with the thousands of his subjects whose bodies had\nlain scattered about the blood-stained streets. With Urukagina the\nglory of Lagash departed. Although the city was rebuilt in time, and\nwas even made more stately than before, it never again became the\nmetropolis of Sumeria.\n\nThe vengeful destroyer of Lagash was Lugal-zaggisi, Patesi of Umma, a\nmasterful figure in early Sumerian history. We gather from the tablet\nof the unknown scribe, who regarded him as a sinner against the god\nNin-Girsu, that his city goddess was named Nidaba. He appears also to\nhave been a worshipper of Enlil of Nippur, to whose influence he\ncredited his military successes. But Enlil was not his highest god, he\nwas the interceder who carried the prayers of Lugal-zaggisi to the\nbeloved father, Anu, god of the sky. No doubt Nin-Girsu represented a\nschool of theology which was associated with unpleasant memories in\nUmma. The sacking and burning of the temples of Lagash suggests as\nmuch.\n\nHaving broken the power of Lagash, Lugal-zaggisi directed his\nattention to the rival city of Kish, where Semitic influence was\npredominating. When Nanizak, the last monarch of the line of the\nfamous Queen Azag-Bau, had sat upon the throne for but three years, he\nperished by the sword of the Umma conqueror. Nippur likewise came\nunder his sway, and he also subdued the southern cities.\n\nLugal-zaggisi chose for his capital ancient Erech, the city of Anu,\nand of his daughter, the goddess Nana, who afterwards was identified\nwith Ishtar. Anu's spouse was Anatu, and the pair subsequently became\nabstract deities, like Anshar and Kishar, their parents, who figure in\nthe Babylonian Creation story. Nana was worshipped as the goddess of\nvegetation, and her relation to Anu was similar to that of Belit-sheri\nto Ea at Eridu. Anu and Ea were originally identical, but it would\nappear that the one was differentiated as the god of the waters above\nthe heaven and the other as god of the waters beneath the earth, both\nbeing forms of Anshar. Elsewhere the chief god of the spring sun or\nthe moon, the lover of the goddess, became pre-eminent, displacing the\nelder god, like Nin-Girsu at Lagash. At Sippar the sun god, Babbar,\nwhose Semitic name was Shamash, was exalted as the chief deity, while\nthe moon god remained supreme at Ur. This specializing process, which\nwas due to local theorizing and the influence of alien settlers, has\nbeen dealt with in a previous chapter.\n\nIn referring to himself as the favoured ruler of various city deities,\nLugal-zaggisi appears as a ruler of all Sumeria. How far his empire\nextended it is impossible to determine with certainty. He appears to\nhave overrun Akkad, and even penetrated to the Syrian coast, for in\none inscription it is stated that he \"made straight his path from the\nLower Sea (the Persian Gulf) over the Euphrates and Tigris to the\nUpper Sea (the Mediterranean)\". The allegiance of certain states,\nhowever, depended on the strength of the central power. One of his\nsuccessors found it necessary to attack Kish, which was ever waiting\nfor an opportunity to regain its independence.\n\nAccording to the Chronicle of Kish, the next ruler of Sumer and Akkad\nafter Lugal-zaggisi was the famous Sargon I. It would appear that he\nwas an adventurer or usurper, and that he owed his throne indirectly\nto Lugal-zaggisi, who had dethroned the ruler of Akkad. Later\ntraditions, which have been partly confirmed by contemporary\ninscriptions, agree that Sargon was of humble birth. In the previous\nchapter reference was made to the Tammuz-like myth attached to his\nmemory. His mother was a vestal virgin dedicated to the sun god,\nShamash, and his father an unknown stranger from the mountains--a\nsuggestion of immediate Semitic affinities. Perhaps Sargon owed his\nrise to power to the assistance received by bands of settlers from the\nland of the Amorites, which Lugal-zaggisi had invaded.\n\nAccording to the legend, Sargon's birth was concealed. He was placed\nin a vessel which was committed to the river. Brought up by a\ncommoner, he lived in obscurity until the Semitic goddess, Ishtar,\ngave him her aid.\n\nA similar myth was attached in India to the memory of Karna, the\nHector of that great Sanskrit epic the _Mahabharata_. Kama's mother,\nthe Princess Pritha, who afterwards became a queen, was loved by the\nsun god, Surya. When in secret she gave birth to her son she placed\nhim in an ark of wickerwork, which was set adrift on a stream.\nUltimately it reached the Ganges, and it was borne by that river to\nthe country of Anga, where the child was rescued by a woman and\nafterwards reared by her and her husband, a charioteer. In time Karna\nbecame a great warrior, and was crowned King of Anga by the Kaurava\nwarriors.[147]\n\nBefore he became king, Sargon of Akkad, the Sharrukin of the texts,\nwas, according to tradition, a gardener and watchman attached to the\ntemple of the war god Zamama of Kish. This deity was subsequently\nidentified with Merodach, son of Ea; Ninip, son of Enlil; and\nNin-Girsu of Lagash. He was therefore one of the many developed forms\nof Tammuz--a solar, corn, and military deity, and an interceder for\nmankind. The goddess of Kish appears to have been a form of Bau, as is\ntestified by the name of Queen Azag-Bau, the legendary founder of the\ncity.\n\nUnfortunately our knowledge of Sargon's reign is of meagre character.\nIt is undoubted that he was a distinguished general and able ruler. He\nbuilt up an empire which included Sumer and Akkad, and also Amurru,\n\"the western land\", or \"land of the Amorites\". The Elamites gave him\nan opportunity to extend his conquests eastward. They appear to have\nattacked Opis, but he drove them back, and on more than one occasion\npenetrated their country, over the western part of which, known as\nAnshan, he ultimately imposed his rule. Thither went many Semitic\nsettlers who had absorbed the culture of Sumeria.\n\nDuring Sargon's reign Akkad attained to a splendour which surpassed\nthat of Babylon. In an omen text the monarch is lauded as the \"highly\nexalted one without a peer\". Tradition relates that when he was an old\nman all the Babylonian states rose in revolt against him and besieged\nAkkad. But the old warrior led forth his army against the combined\nforces and achieved a shattering victory.\n\nManishtusu, who succeeded Sargon I, had similarly to subdue a great\nconfederacy of thirty-two city states, and must therefore have been a\ndistinguished general. But he is best known as the monarch who\npurchased several large estates adjoining subject cities, his aim\nhaving been probably to settle on these Semitic allies who would be\nless liable to rebel against him than the workers they displaced. For\nthe latter, however, he found employment elsewhere. These\ntransactions, which were recorded on a monument subsequently carried\noff with other spoils by the Elamites and discovered at Susa, show\nthat at this early period (about 2600 B.C.) even a conquering monarch\nconsidered it advisable to observe existing land laws. Urumush,[148]\nthe next ruler, also achieved successes in Elam and elsewhere, but his\nlife was cut short by a palace revolution.\n\nThe prominent figure of Naram Sin, a later king of Akkad, bulks\nlargely in history and tradition. According to the Chronicle of Kish,\nhe was a son of Sargon. Whether he was or not, it is certain that he\ninherited the military and administrative genius of that famous\nex-gardener. The arts flourished during his reign. One of the\nmemorable products of the period was an exquisitely sculptured\nmonument celebrating one of Naram Sin's victories, which was\ndiscovered at Susa. It is one of the most wonderful examples of\nBabylonian stone work which has come to light.\n\nA successful campaign had been waged against a mountain people. The\nstele shows the warrior king leading his army up a steep incline and\nround the base of a great peak surmounted by stars. His enemies flee\nin confusion before him. One lies on the ground clutching a spear\nwhich has penetrated his throat, two are falling over a cliff, while\nothers apparently sue for mercy. Trees have been depicted to show that\npart of the conquered territory is wooded. Naram Sin is armed with\nbattleaxe and bow, and his helmet is decorated with horns. The whole\ncomposition is spirited and finely grouped; and the military bearing\nof the disciplined troops contrasts sharply with the despairing\nattitudes of the fleeing remnants of the defending army.\n\nDuring this period the Semitized mountaineers to the north-east of\nBabylonia became the most aggressive opponents of the city states. The\ntwo most prominent were the Gutium, or men of Kutu, and the Lulubu.\nNaram Sin's great empire included the whole of Sumer and Akkad, Amurru\nand northern Palestine, and part of Elam, and the district to the\nnorth. He also penetrated Arabia, probably by way of the Persian Gulf,\nand caused diorite to be quarried there. One of his steles, which is\nnow in the Imperial Ottoman Museum at Constantinople, depicts him as a\nfully bearded man with Semitic characteristics. During his lifetime he\nwas deified--a clear indication of the introduction of foreign ideas,\nfor the Sumerians were not worshippers of kings and ancestors.\n\nNaram Sin was the last great king of his line. Soon after his death\nthe power of Akkad went to pieces, and the Sumerian city of Erech\nagain became the centre of empire. Its triumph, however, was\nshortlived. After a quarter of a century had elapsed, Akkad and Sumer\nwere overswept by the fierce Gutium from the north-eastern mountains.\nThey sacked and burned many cities, including Babylon, where the\nmemory of the horrors perpetrated by these invaders endured until the\nGrecian Age. An obscure period, like the Egyptian Hyksos Age, ensued,\nbut it was of comparatively brief duration.\n\nWhen the mists cleared away, the city Lagash once more came to the\nfront, having evidently successfully withstood the onslaughts of the\nGutium, but it never recovered the place of eminence it occupied under\nthe brilliant Ur-Nina dynasty. It is manifest that it must have\nenjoyed under the various overlords, during the interval, a\nconsiderable degree of independence, for its individuality remained\nunimpaired. Of all its energetic and capable patesis, the most\ncelebrated was Gudea, who reigned sometime before 2400 B.C. In\ncontrast to the Semitic Naram Sin, he was beardless and pronouncedly\nSumerian in aspect. His favoured deity, the city god Nin-Girsu, again\nbecame prominent, having triumphed over his jealous rivals after\nremaining in obscurity for three or four centuries. Trade flourished,\nand the arts were fostered. Gudea had himself depicted, in one of the\nmost characteristic sculptures of his age, as an architect, seated\nreverently with folded hands with a temple plan lying on his knees,\nand his head uplifted as if watching the builders engaged in\nmaterializing the dream of his life. The temple in which his interests\nwere centred was erected in honour of Nin-Girsu. Its ruins suggest\nthat it was of elaborate structure and great beauty. Like Solomon in\nlater days, Gudea procured material for his temple from many distant\nparts--cedar from Lebanon, marble from Amurru, diorite from Arabia,\ncopper from Elam, and so forth. Apparently the King of Lagash was\nstrong enough or wealthy enough to command respect over a wide area.\n\nAnother city which also rose into prominence, amidst the shattered\nSumerian states, was Ur, the centre of moon worship. After Gudea's\ndeath, its kings exercised sway over Lagash and Nippur, and, farther\nsouth, over Erech and Larsa as well. This dynasty endured for nearly a\nhundred and twenty years, during which Ur flourished like Thebes in\nEgypt. Its monarchs styled themselves as \"Kings of the Four Regions\".\nThe worship of Nannar (Sin) became officially recognized at Nippur,\nthe seat of Enlil, during the reign of King Dungi of Ur; while at\nErech, the high priest of Anu, the sky god, became the high priest of\nthe moon god. Apparently matriarchal ideas, associated with lunar\nworship, again came into prominence, for the king appointed two of his\ndaughters to be rulers of conquered states in Elam and Syria. In the\nlatter half of his reign, Dungi, the conqueror, was installed as high\npriest at Eridu. It would thus appear that there was a renascence of\nearly Sumerian religious ideas. Ea, the god of the deep, had long been\novershadowed, but a few years before Dungi's death a temple was\nerected to him at Nippur, where he was worshipped as Dagan. Until the\nvery close of his reign, which lasted for fifty-eight years, this\ngreat monarch of tireless activity waged wars of conquest, built\ntemples and palaces, and developed the natural resources of Sumer and\nAkkad. Among his many reforms was the introduction of standards of\nweights, which received divine sanction from the moon god, who, as in\nEgypt, was the measurer and regulator of human transactions and human\nlife.\n\nTo this age also belongs many of the Sumerian business and legal\nrecords, which were ultimately carried off to Susa, where they have\nbeen recovered by French excavators.\n\nAbout half a century after Dungi's death the Dynasty of Ur came to an\nend, its last king having been captured by an Elamite force.\n\nAt some time subsequent to this period, Abraham migrated from Ur to\nthe northern city of Harran, where the moon god was also the chief\ncity deity--the Baal, or \"lord\". It is believed by certain\nEgyptologists that Abraham sojourned in Egypt during its Twelfth\nDynasty, which, according to the Berlin system of minimum dating,\nextended from about 2000 B.C. till 1780 B.C. The Hebrew patriarch may\ntherefore have been a contemporary of Hammurabi's, who is identified\nwith Amraphel, king of Shinar (Sumer) in the Bible.[149]\n\nBut after the decline of Ur's ascendancy, and long before Babylon's\ngreat monarch came to the throne, the centre of power in Sumeria was\nshifted to Isin, where sixteen kings flourished for two and a quarter\ncenturies. Among the royal names, recognition was given to Ea and\nDagan, Sin, Enlil, and Ishtar, indicating that Sumerian religion in\nits Semitized form was receiving general recognition. The sun god was\nidentical with Ninip and Nin-Girsu, a god of fertility, harvest, and\nwar, but now more fully developed and resembling Babbar, \"the shining\none\", the solar deity of Akkadian Sippar, whose Semitic name was\nShamash. As Shamash was ultimately developed as the god of justice and\nrighteousness, it would appear that his ascendancy occurred during the\nperiod when well-governed communities systematized their religious\nbeliefs to reflect social conditions.\n\nThe first great monarch of the Isin dynasty was Ishbi-Urra, who\nreigned for thirty-two years. Like his successors, he called himself\n\"King of Sumer and Akkad\", and it appears that his sway extended to\nthe city of Sippar, where solar worship prevailed. Traces of him have\nalso been found at Eridu, Ur, Erech, and Nippur, so that he must have\ngiven recognition to Ea, Sin, Anu, and Enlil. In this period the early\nnational pantheon may have taken shape, Bel Enlil being the chief\ndeity. Enlil was afterwards displaced by Merodach of Babylon.\n\nBefore 2200 B.C. there occurred a break in the supremacy of Isin.\nGungunu, King of Ur, combined with Larsa, whose sun temple he\nrestored, and declared himself ruler of Sumer and Akkad. But Isin\nagain gathered strength under Ur-Ninip, who was not related to his\npredecessor. Perhaps he came from Nippur, where the god Ninip was\nworshipped as the son of Bel Enlil.\n\nAccording to a Babylonian document, a royal grandson of Ur-Ninip's,\nhaving no direct heir, selected as his successor his gardener,\nEnlil-bani. He placed the crown on the head of this obscure\nindividual, abdicated in his favour, and then died a mysterious death\nwithin his palace.\n\nIt is highly probable that Enlil-bani, whose name signifies \"Enlil is\nmy creator\", was a usurper like Sargon of Akkad, and he may have\nsimilarly circulated a myth regarding his miraculous origin to justify\nhis sudden rise to power. The truth appears to be that he came to the\nthrone as the leader of a palace revolution at a time of great unrest.\nBut he was not allowed to remain in undisputed possession. A rival\nnamed Sin-ikisha, evidently a moon worshipper and perhaps connected\nwith Ur, displaced the usurper, and proclaimed himself king. After a\nbrief reign of six months he was overthrown, however, by Enlil-bani,\nwho piously credited his triumph over his enemy to the chief god of\nNippur, whose name he bore. Although he took steps to secure his\nposition by strengthening the fortifications of Isin, and reigned for\nabout a quarter of a century, he was not succeeded by his heir, if he\nhad one. King Zambia, who was no relation, followed him, but his reign\nlasted for only three years. The names of the next two kings are\nunknown. Then came Sin-magir, who was succeeded by Damik-ilishu, the\nlast King of Isin.\n\nTowards the close of Damik-ilishu's reign of twenty-four years he came\nunder the suzerainty of Larsa, whose ruler was Rim Sin. Then Isin was\ncaptured by Sin-muballit, King of Babylon, the father of the great\nHammurabi. Rim Sin was an Elamite.\n\nAfterwards the old order of things passed away. Babylon became the\nmetropolis, the names of Sumer and Akkad dropped out of use, and the\nwhole country between the rivers was called Babylonia.[150] The\nvarious systems of law which obtained in the different states were\nthen codified by Hammurabi, who appointed governors in all the cities\nwhich came under his sway to displace the patesis and kings. A new\nnational pantheon of representative character was also formed, over\nwhich Merodach (Marduk), the city god of Babylon, presided. How this\nyounger deity was supposed to rise to power is related in the\nBabylonian legend of Creation, which is dealt with in the next\nchapter.[151] In framing this myth from the fragments of older myths,\ndivine sanction was given to the supremacy achieved by Merodach's\ncity. The allegiance of future generations was thus secured, not only\nby the strong arm of the law, but also by the combined influence of\nthe reorganized priesthoods at the various centres of administration.\n\nAn interesting problem, which should be referred to here, arises in\nconnection with the sculptured representations of deities before and\nafter the rise of Akkad as a great Power. It is found, although the\nSumerians shaved their scalps and faces at the dawn of the historical\nage, that they worshipped gods who had long hair and also beards,\nwhich were sometimes square and sometimes pointed.\n\nAt what period the Sumerian deities were given human shape it is\nimpossible to determine. As has been shown (Chapters II and III) all\nthe chief gods and goddesses had animal forms and composite monster\nforms before they became anthropomorphic deities. Ea had evidently a\nfish shape ere he was clad in the skin of a fish, as an Egyptian god\nwas simply a bull before he was depicted in human shape wearing a\nbull's skin. The archaic Sumerian animal and composite monster gods of\nanimistic and totemic origin survived after the anthropomorphic period\nas mythical figures, which were used for decorative or magical\npurposes and as symbols. A form of divine headdress was a cap enclosed\nin horns, between which appeared the soaring lion-headed eagle, which\nsymbolized Nin-Girsu. This god had also lion and antelope forms, which\nprobably figured in lost myths--perhaps they were like the animals\nloved by Ishtar and referred to in the Gilgamesh epic. Similarly the\nwinged bull was associated with the moon god Nannar, or Sin, of Ur,\nwho was \"a horned steer\". On various cylinder seals appear groups of\ncomposite monsters and rearing wild beasts, which were evidently\nrepresentations of gods and demons in conflict.\n\nSuggestive data for comparative study is afforded in this connection\nby ancient Egypt. Sokar, the primitive Memphite deity, retained until\nthe end his animal and composite monster forms. Other gods were\ndepicted with human bodies and the heads of birds, serpents, and\ncrocodiles, thus forming links between the archaic demoniac and the\nlater anthropomorphic deities. A Sumerian example is the deified\nEa-bani, who, like Pan, has the legs and hoofs of a goat.\n\nThe earliest representations of Sumerian humanized deities appear on\nreliefs from Tello, the site of Lagash. These examples of archaic\ngods, however, are not bearded in Semitic fashion. On the contrary,\ntheir lips and cheeks are shaved, while an exaggerated chin tuft is\nretained. The explanation suggested is that the Sumerians gave their\ndeities human shape before they themselves were clean shaven, and that\nthe retention of the characteristic facial hair growth of the\nMediterranean Race is another example of the conservatism of the\nreligious instinct. In Egypt the clean-shaven Pharaohs, who\nrepresented gods, wore false chin-tuft beards; even Queen Hatshepsut\nconsidered it necessary to assume a beard on state occasions.\nPtah-Osiris retained his archaic beard until the Ptolemaic period.\n\nIt seems highly probable that in similarly depicting their gods with\nbeards, the early Sumerians were not influenced by the practices of\nany alien people or peoples. Not until the period of Gudea, the Patesi\nof Lagash, did they give their gods heavy moustaches, side whiskers,\nand flowing beards of Semitic type. It may be, however, that by then\nthey had completely forgotten the significance of an ancient custom.\nPossibly, too, the sculptors of Lagash were working under the\ninfluence of the Akkadian school of art, which had produced the\nexquisite stele of victory for Naram-Sin, and consequently adopted the\nconventional Semitic treatment of bearded figures. At any rate, they\nwere more likely to study and follow the artistic triumphs of Akkad\nthan the crude productions of the archaic period. Besides, they lived\nin an age when Semitic kings were deified and the Semitic overlords\nhad attained to great distinction and influence.\n\nThe Semitic folks were not so highly thought of in the early Sumerian\nperiod. It is not likely that the agricultural people regarded as\nmodels of gods the plunderers who descended from the hills, and, after\nachieving successes, returned home with their spoils. More probably\nthey regarded them as \"foreign devils\". Other Semites, however, who\ncame as traders, bringing wood, stone, and especially copper, and\nformed communities in cities, may well have influenced Sumerian\nreligious thought. The god Ramman, for instance, who was given\nrecognition all through Babylonia, was a god of hill folks as far\nnorth as Asia Minor and throughout Syria. He may have been introduced\nby settlers who adopted Sumerian habits of life and shaved scalp and\nface. But although the old cities could never have existed in a\ncomplete state of isolation from the outer world, it is unlikely that\ntheir inhabitants modelled their deities on those worshipped by groups\nof aliens. A severe strain is imposed on our credulity if we are\nexpected to believe that it was due to the teachings and example of\nuncultured nomads that the highly civilized Sumerians developed their\ngods from composite monsters to anthropomorphic deities. Such a\nsupposition, at any rate, is not supported by the evidence of Ancient\nEgypt.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\nCREATION LEGEND: MERODACH THE DRAGON SLAYER\n\n\n  Elder Spirits of the Primordial Deep--Apsu and the Tiamat\n  Dragon--Plot to Destroy the Beneficent Gods--Ea overcomes Apsu and\n  Muminu--The Vengeful Preparations of the Dragon--Anshar's Appeal to\n  Merodach--The Festival of the High Gods--Merodach exalted as Ruler\n  of the Universe--Dragon slain and Host taken captive--Merodach\n  rearranges the Pantheon--Creation of Man--Merodach as Asari--The\n  Babylonian Osiris--The Chief Purpose of Mankind--Tiamat as Source of\n  Good and Evil--The Dragon as the Serpent or Worm--Folk Tale aspect\n  of Creation Myth--British Neolithic Legends--German and Egyptian\n  Contracts--Biblical references to Dragons--The Father and Son\n  theme--Merodach and Tammuz--Monotheistic Tendency--Bi-sexual\n  Deities.\n\n\nIn the beginning the whole universe was a sea. Heaven on high had not\nbeen named, nor the earth beneath. Their begetter was Apsu, the father\nof the primordial Deep, and their mother was Tiamat, the spirit of\nChaos. No plain was yet formed, no marsh could be seen; the gods had\nno existence, nor had their fates been determined. Then there was a\nmovement in the waters, and the deities issued forth. The first who\nhad being were the god Lachmu and the goddess Lachamu. Long ages went\npast. Then were created the god Anshar and the goddess Kishar. When\nthe days of these deities had increased and extended, they were\nfollowed by Anu, god of the sky, whose consort was Anatu; and Ea, most\nwise and all-powerful, who was without an equal. Now Ea, god of the\ndeep, was also Enki, \"lord of earth\", and his eternal spouse, Damkina,\nwas Gashan-ki, \"lady of earth\". The son of Ea and Damkina was Bel, the\nlord, who in time created mankind.[152] Thus were the high gods\nestablished in power and in glory.\n\nNow Apsu and Tiamat remained amidst confusion in the deeps of chaos.\nThey were troubled because their offspring, the high gods, aspired to\ncontrol the universe and set it in order.[153] Apsu was still powerful\nand fierce, and Tiamat snarled and raised tempests, smiting herself.\nTheir purpose was to work evil amidst eternal confusion.\n\nThen Apsu called upon Mummu, his counsellor, the son who shared his\ndesires, and said, \"O Mummu, thou who art pleasing unto me, let us go\nforth together unto Tiamat and speak with her.\"\n\nSo the two went forth and prostrated themselves before the Chaos\nMother to consult with her as to what should be done to prevent the\naccomplishment of the purpose of the high gods.\n\nApsu opened his mouth and spake, saying, \"O Tiamat, thou gleaming one,\nthe purpose of the gods troubles me. I cannot rest by day nor can I\nrepose by night. I will thwart them and destroy their purpose. I will\nbring sorrow and mourning so that we may lie down undisturbed by\nthem.\"\n\nTiamat heard these words and snarled. She raised angry and roaring\ntempests; in her furious grief she uttered a curse, and then spake to\nApsu, saying, \"What shall we do so that their purpose may be thwarted\nand we may lie down undisturbed again?\"\n\nMummu, the counsellor, addressing Apsu, made answer, and said,\n\"Although the gods are powerful, thou canst overcome them; although\ntheir purpose is strong, thou canst thwart it. Then thou shalt have\nrest by day and peace by night to lie down.\"\n\nThe face of Apsu grew bright when he heard these words spoken by\nMummu, yet he trembled to think of the purpose of the high gods, to\nwhom he was hostile. With Tiamat he lamented because the gods had\nchanged all things; the plans of the gods filled their hearts with\ndread; they sorrowed and spake with Mummu, plotting evil.\n\nThen Ea, who knoweth all, drew near; he beheld the evil ones\nconspiring and muttering together. He uttered a pure incantation and\naccomplished the downfall of Apsu and Mummu, who were taken\ncaptive.[154]\n\nKingu, who shared the desires of Tiamat, spake unto her words of\ncounsel, saying, \"Apsu and Mummu have been overcome and we cannot\nrepose. Thou shalt be their Avenger, O Tempestuous One.\"\n\nTiamat heard the words of this bright and evil god, and made answer,\nsaying, \"On my strength thou canst trust. So let war be waged.\"\n\nThen were the hosts of chaos and the deep gathered together. By day\nand by night they plotted against the high gods, raging furiously,\nmaking ready for battle, fuming and storming and taking no rest.\n\nMother Chuber,[155] the creator of all, provided irresistible weapons.\nShe also brought into being eleven kinds of fierce monsters--giant\nserpents, sharp of tooth with unsparing fangs, whose bodies were\nfilled with poison instead of blood; snarling dragons, clad with\nterror, and of such lofty stature that whoever saw them was\noverwhelmed with fear, nor could any escape their attack when they\n\nlifted themselves up; vipers and pythons, and the Lachamu, hurricane\nmonsters, raging hounds, scorpion men, tempest furies, fish men, and\nmountain rams. These she armed with fierce weapons and they had no\nfear of war.\n\nThen Tiamat, whose commands are unchangeable and mighty, exalted\nKingu, who had come to her aid, above all the evil gods; she made him\nthe leader to direct the army in battle, to go in front, to open the\nattack. Robing Kingu in splendour, she seated him on high and spoke,\nsaying:\n\n\"I have established thy command over all the gods. Thou shalt rule\nover them. Be mighty, thou my chosen husband, and let thy name be\nexalted over all the spirits of heaven and spirits of earth.\"\n\nUnto Kingu did Tiamat deliver the tablets of fate; she laid them in\nhis bosom, and said, \"Thy commands cannot be changed; thy words shall\nremain firm.\"\n\nThus was Kingu exalted; he was vested with the divine power of Anu to\ndecree the fate of the gods, saying, \"Let thy mouth open to thwart the\nfire god; be mighty in battle nor brook resistance.\"\n\nThen had Ea knowledge of Tiamat's doings, how she had gathered her\nforces together, and how she had prepared to work evil against the\nhigh gods with purpose to avenge Apsu. The wise god was stricken with\ngrief, and he moaned for many days. Thereafter he went and stood\nbefore his father, Anshar, and spake, saying, \"Our mother, Tiamat,\nhath turned against us in her wrath. She hath gathered the gods about\nher, and those thou didst create are with her also.\"\n\nWhen Anshar heard all that Ea revealed regarding the preparations made\nby Tiamat, he smote his loins and clenched his teeth, and was ill at\nease. In sorrow and anger he spoke and said, \"Thou didst go forth\naforetime to battle; thou didst bind Mummu and smite Apsu. Now Kingu\nis exalted, and there is none who can oppose Tiamat.\"[156]\n\nAnshar called his son, Anu, before him, and spoke, saying: \"O mighty\none without fear, whose attack is irresistible, go now before Tiamat\nand speak so that her anger may subside and her heart be made\nmerciful. But if she will not hearken unto thee, speak thou for me, so\nthat she may be reconciled.\"\n\nAnu was obedient to the commands of Anshar. He departed, and descended\nby the path of Tiamat until he beheld her fuming and snarling, but he\nfeared to approach her, and turned back.\n\nThen Ea was sent forth, but he was stricken with terror and turned\nback also.[157]\n\nAnshar then called upon Merodach, son of Ea, and addressed him,\nsaying, \"My son, who softeneth my heart, thou shalt go forth to battle\nand none shall stand against thee.\"\n\nThe heart of Merodach was made glad at these words. He stood before\nAnshar, who kissed him, because that he banished fear. Merodach spake,\nsaying: \"O lord of the gods, withdraw not thy words; let me go forth\nto do as is thy desire. What man hath challenged thee to battle?\"\n\nAnshar made answer and said: \"No man hath challenged me. It is Tiamat,\nthe woman, who hath resolved to wage war against us. But fear not and\nmake merry, for thou shalt bruise the head of Tiamat. O wise god, thou\nshalt overcome her with thy pure incantation. Tarry not but hasten\nforth; she cannot wound thee; thou shalt come back again.\" The words\nof Anshar delighted the heart of Merodach, who spake, saying: \"O lord\nof the gods, O fate of the high gods, if I, the avenger, am to subdue\nTiamat and save all, then proclaim my greatness among the gods. Let\nall the high gods gather together joyfully in Upshukinaku (the Council\nHall), so that my words like thine may remain unchanged, and what I do\nmay never be altered. Instead of thee I will decree the fates of the\ngods.\"\n\nThen Anshar called unto his counsellor, Gaga, and addressing him,\nsaid: \"O thou who dost share my desires, thou who dost understand the\npurpose of my heart, go unto Lachmu and Lachamu and summon all the\nhigh gods to come before me to eat bread and drink wine. Repeat to\nthem all I tell you of Tiamat's preparations for war, of my commands\nto Anu and Ea, who turned back, fearing the dragon, of my choice of\nMerodach to be our avenger, and his desire to be equipped with my\npower to decree fate, so that he may be made strong to combat against\nour enemy.\"\n\nAs Anshar commanded so did Gaga do. He went unto Lachmu and Lachamu\nand prostrated himself humbly before them. Then he rose and delivered\nthe message of Anshar, their son, adding: \"Hasten and speedily decide\nfor Merodach your fate. Permit him to depart to meet your powerful\nfoe.\"\n\nWhen Lachmu and Lachamu heard all that Gaga revealed unto them they\nuttered lamentations, while the Igigi (heavenly spirits) sorrowed\nbitterly, and said: \"What change hath happened that Tiamat hath become\nhostile to her own offspring? We cannot understand her deeds.\"\n\nAll the high gods then arose and went unto Anshar, They filled his\ncouncil chamber and kissed one another. Then they sat down to eat\nbread and drink sesame wine. And when they were made drunk and were\nmerry and at their ease, they decreed the fate for Merodach.\n\nIn the chamber of Anshar they honoured the Avenger. He was exalted as\na prince over them all, and they said: \"Among the high gods thou art\nthe highest; thy command is the command of Anu. Henceforth thou wilt\nhave power to raise up and to cast down. None of the gods will dispute\nthy authority. O Merodach, our avenger, we give thee sovereignty over\nthe entire Universe. Thy weapon will ever be irresistible. Smite down\nthe gods who have raised revolt, but spare the lives of those who\nrepose their trust in thee.\"\n\nThen the gods laid down a garment before Merodach, saying: \"Open thy\nmouth and speak words of command, so that the garment may be\ndestroyed; speak again and it will be brought back.\"\n\nMerodach spake with his mouth and the garment vanished; he spake again\nand the garment was reproduced.\n\nAll the gods rejoiced, and they prostrated themselves and cried out,\n\"Merodach is King!\"\n\nThereafter they gave him the sceptre and the throne and the insignia\nof royalty, and also an irresistible weapon[158] with which to\novercome his enemies, saying: \"Now, O Merodach, hasten and slay\nTiamat. Let the winds carry her blood to hidden places.\"\n\nSo was the fate of Merodach decreed by the gods; so was a path of\nprosperity and peace prepared for him. He made ready for battle; he\nstrung his bow and hung his quiver; he slung a dart over his shoulder,\nand he grasped a club in his right hand; before him he set lightning,\nand with flaming fire he filled his body. Anu gave unto him a great\nnet with which to snare his enemies and prevent their escape. Then\nMerodach created seven winds--the wind of evil, the uncontrollable\nwind, the sandstorm, and the whirlwind, the fourfold wind, the\nsevenfold wind, and the wind that has no equal--and they went after\nhim. Next he seized his mighty weapon, the thunderstone, and leapt\ninto his storm chariot, to which were yoked four rushing and\ndestructive steeds of rapid flight, with foam-flecked mouths and teeth\nfull of venom, trained for battle, to overthrow enemies and trample\nthem underfoot. A light burned on the head of Merodach, and he was\nclad in a robe of terror. He drove forth, and the gods, his fathers,\nfollowed after him: the high gods clustered around and followed him,\nhastening to battle.\n\nMerodach drove on, and at length he drew nigh to the secret lair of\nTiamat, and he beheld her muttering with Kingu, her consort. For a\nmoment he faltered, and when the gods who followed him beheld this,\ntheir eyes were troubled.\n\nTiamat snarled nor turned her head. She uttered curses, and said: \"O\nMerodach, I fear not thy advance as chief of the gods. My allies are\nassembled here, and are more powerful than thou art.\"\n\nMerodach uplifted his arm, grasping the dreaded thunderstone, and\nspake unto Tiamat, the rebellious one, saying: \"Thou hast exalted\nthyself, and with wrathful heart hath prepared for war against the\nhigh gods and their fathers, whom thou dost hate in thy heart of evil.\nUnto Kingu thou hast given the power of Anu to decree fate, because\nthou art hostile to what is good and loveth what is sinful. Gather thy\nforces together, and arm thyself and come forth to battle.\"\n\nWhen Tiamat heard these mighty words she raved and cried aloud like\none who is possessed; all her limbs shook, and she muttered a spell.\nThe gods seized their weapons.\n\nTiamat and Merodach advanced to combat against one another. They made\nready for battle. The lord of the high gods spread out the net which\nAnu had given him. He snared the dragon and she could not escape.\nTiamat opened her mouth which was seven miles wide, and Merodach\ncalled upon the evil wind to smite her; he caused the wind to keep her\nmouth agape so that she could not close it. All the tempests and the\nhurricanes entered in, filling her body, and her heart grew weak; she\ngasped, overpowered. Then the lord of the high gods seized his dart\nand cast it through the lower part of her body; it tore her inward\nparts and severed her heart. So was Tiamat slain.\n\nMerodach overturned the body of the dead dragon and stood upon it. All\nthe evil gods who had followed her were stricken with terror and broke\ninto flight. But they were unable to escape. Merodach caught them in\nhis great net, and they stumbled and fell uttering cries of distress,\nand the whole world resounded with their wailing and lamentations. The\nlord of the high gods broke the weapons of the evil gods and put them\nin bondage. Then he fell upon the monsters which Tiamat had created;\nhe subdued them, divested them of their powers, and trampled them\nunder his feet. Kingu he seized with the others. From this god great\nMerodach took the tablets of fate, and impressing upon them his own\nseal, placed them in his bosom.\n\nSo were the enemies of the high gods overthrown by the Avenger.\nAnsar's commands were fulfilled and the desires of Ea fully\naccomplished.\n\nMerodach strengthened the bonds which he had laid upon the evil gods\nand then returned to Tiamat. He leapt upon the dragon's body; he clove\nher skull with his great club; he opened the channels of her blood\nwhich streamed forth, and caused the north to carry her blood to\nhidden places. The high gods, his fathers, clustered around; they\nraised shouts of triumph and made merry. Then they brought gifts and\nofferings to the great Avenger.\n\nMerodach rested a while, gazing upon the dead body of the dragon. He\ndivided the flesh of Ku-pu[159], and devised a cunning plan.\n\nThen the lord of the high gods split the body of the dragon like that\nof a mashde fish into two halves. With one half he enveloped the\nfirmament; he fixed it there and set a watchman to prevent the waters\nfalling down[160]. With the other half he made the earth[161]. Then he\nmade the abode of Ea in the deep, and the abode of Anu in high heaven.\nThe abode of Enlil was in the air.\n\nMerodach set all the great gods in their several stations. He also\ncreated their images, the stars of the Zodiac, and fixed them all. He\nmeasured the year and divided it into months; for twelve months he\nmade three stars each. After he had given starry images of the gods\nseparate control of each day of the year, he founded the station of\nNibiru (Jupiter), his own star, to determine the limits of all stars,\nso that none might err or go astray. He placed beside his own the\nstations of Enlil and Ea, and on each side he opened mighty gates,\nfixing bolts on the left and on the right. He set the zenith in the\ncentre.\n\nMerodach decreed that the moon god should rule the night and measure\nthe days, and each month he was given a crown. Its various phases the\ngreat lord determined, and he commanded that on the evening of its\nfullest brilliancy it should stand opposite the sun.[162]\n\nHe placed his bow in heaven (as a constellation) and his net also.\n\nWe have now reached the sixth tablet, which begins with a reference to\nwords spoken to Merodach by the gods. Apparently Ea had conceived in\nhis heart that mankind should be created. The lord of the gods read\nhis thoughts and said: \"I will shed my blood and fashion bone... I\nwill create man to dwell on the earth so that the gods may be\nworshipped and shrines erected for them. I will change the pathways of\nthe gods....\"\n\nThe rest of the text is fragmentary, and many lines are missing.\nBerosus states, however, that Belus (Bel Merodach) severed his head\nfrom his shoulders. His blood flowed forth, and the gods mixed it with\nearth and formed the first man and various animals.\n\nIn another version of the creation of man, it is related that Merodach\n\"laid a reed upon the face of the waters; he formed dust, and poured\nit out beside the reed.... That he might cause the gods to dwell in\nthe habitation of their heart's desire, he formed mankind.\" The\ngoddess Aruru, a deity of Sippar, and one of the forms of \"the lady of\nthe gods \", is associated with Merodach as the creatrix of the seed of\nmankind. \"The beasts of the field and living creatures in the field he\nformed.\" He also created the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, grass,\nreeds, herbs and trees, lands, marshes and swamps, cows, goats,\n&c.[163]\n\nIn the seventh tablet Merodach is praised by the gods--the Igigi\n(spirits of heaven). As he has absorbed all their attributes, he is\naddressed by his fifty-one names; henceforth each deity is a form of\nMerodach. Bel Enlil, for instance, is Merodach of lordship and\ndomination; Sin, the moon god, is Merodach as ruler of night; Shamash\nis Merodach as god of law and holiness; Nergal is Merodach of war; and\nso on. The tendency to monotheism appears to have been most marked\namong the priestly theorists of Babylon.\n\nMerodach is hailed to begin with as Asari, the introducer of\nagriculture and horticulture, the creator of grain and plants. He also\ndirects the decrees of Anu, Bel, and Ea; but having rescued the gods\nfrom destruction at the hands of Kingu and Tiamat, he was greater than\nhis \"fathers\", the elder gods. He set the Universe in order, and\ncreated all things anew. He is therefore Tutu, \"the creator\", a\nmerciful and beneficent god. The following are renderings of lines 25\nto 32:\n\n    Tutu: Aga-azaga (the glorious crown) may he make the crowns\n        glorious--\n    The lord of the glorious incantation bringing the dead to life;\n    He who had mercy on the gods who had been overpowered;\n    Made heavy the yoke which he had laid on the gods who were his\n        enemies,\n    (And) to redeem (?) them created mankind.\n    \"The merciful one\", \"he with whom is salvation\",\n    May his word be established, and not forgotten,\n    In the mouth of the black-headed ones whom his hands have made.\n\n            _Pinches' Translation_[164]\n\n\n    Tutu as Aga-azag may mankind fourthly magnify!\n    \"The Lord of the Pure Incantation\", \"the Quickener of the Dead \",\n    \"Who had mercy upon the captive gods\",\n    \"Who removed the yoke from upon the gods his enemies\".\n    \"For their forgiveness did he create mankind\",\n    \"The Merciful One, with whom it is to bestow life!\"\n    May his deeds endure, may they never be forgotten\n    In the mouth of mankind whom his hands have made.\n\n            _King's Translation._[165]\n\nApparently the Babylonian doctrine set forth that mankind was created\nnot only to worship the gods, but also to bring about the redemption\nof the fallen gods who followed Tiamat.\n\n    Those rebel angels (_ili_ gods) He prohibited return;\n    He stopped their service; He removed them unto the gods (_ili_) who\n        were His enemies.\n    In their room he created mankind.[166]\n\nTiamat, the chaos dragon, is the Great Mother. She has a dual\ncharacter. As the origin of good she is the creatrix of the gods. Her\nbeneficent form survived as the Sumerian goddess Bau, who was\nobviously identical with the Phoenician Baau, mother of the first man.\nAnother name of Bau was Ma, and Nintu, \"a form of the goddess Ma\", was\nhalf a woman and half a serpent, and was depicted with \"a babe\nsuckling her breast\" (Chapter IV). The Egyptian goddesses Neheb-kau\nand Uazit were serpents, and the goddesses Isis and Nepthys had also\nserpent forms. The serpent was a symbol of fertility, and as a mother\nwas a protector. Vishnu, the Preserver of the Hindu Trinity, sleeps on\nthe world-serpent's body. Serpent charms are protective and fertility\ncharms.\n\nAs the origin of evil Tiamat personified the deep and tempests. In\nthis character she was the enemy of order and good, and strove to\ndestroy the world.\n\n      I have seen\n    The ambitious ocean swell and rage and foam\n    To be exalted with the threatening clouds.[167]\n\nTiamat was the dragon of the sea, and therefore the serpent or\nleviathan. The word \"dragon\" is derived from the Greek \"drakon\", the\nserpent known as \"the seeing one\" or \"looking one\", whose glance was\nthe lightning. The Anglo-Saxon \"fire drake\" (\"draca\", Latin \"draco\")\nis identical with the \"flying dragon\".\n\nIn various countries the serpent or worm is a destroyer which swallows\nthe dead. \"The worm shall eat them like wool\", exclaimed Isaiah in\nsymbolic language.[168] It lies in the ocean which surrounds the world\nin Egyptian, Babylonian, Greek, Teutonic, Indian, and other\nmythologies. The Irish call it \"mor\u00faach\", and give it a mermaid form\nlike the Babylonian Nintu. In a Scottish Gaelic poem Tiamat figures as\n\"The Yellow Muilearteach\", who is slain by Finn-mac-Coul, assisted by\nhis warrior band.\n\n    There was seen coming on the top of the waves\n    The crooked, clamouring, shivering brave ...\n    Her face was blue black of the lustre of coal,\n    And her bone-tufted tooth was like rusted bone.[169]\n\nThe serpent figures in folk tales. When Alexander the Great, according\nto Ethiopic legend, was lowered in a glass cage to the depths of the\nocean, he saw a great monster going past, and sat for two days\n\"watching for its tail and hinder parts to appear\".[170] An\nArgyllshire Highlander had a similar experience. He went to fish one\nmorning on a rock. \"He was not long there when he saw the head of an\neel pass. He continued fishing for an hour and the eel was still\npassing. He went home, worked in the field all day, and having\nreturned to the same rock in the evening, the eel was still passing,\nand about dusk he saw her tail disappearing.\"[171] Tiamat's sea-brood\nis referred to in the Anglo-Saxon epic _Beowulf_ as \"nickers\". The\nhero \"slew by night sea monsters on the waves\" (line 422).\n\nThe well dragon--the French \"draco\"--also recalls the Babylonian water\nmonsters. There was a \"dragon well\" near Jerusalem.[172] From China to\nIreland rivers are dragons, or goddesses who flee from the well\ndragons. The demon of the Rhone is called the \"drac\". Floods are also\nreferred to as dragons, and the Hydra, or water serpent, slain by\nHercules, belongs to this category. Water was the source of evil as\nwell as good. To the Sumerians, the ocean especially was the abode of\nmonsters. They looked upon it as did Shakespeare's Ferdinand, when,\nleaping into the sea, he cried: \"Hell is empty and all the devils are\nhere\".[173]\n\nThere can be little doubt but that in this Babylonian story of\nCreation we have a glorified variation of the widespread Dragon myth.\nUnfortunately, however, no trace can be obtained of the pre-existing\nSumerian oral version which the theorizing priests infused with such\nsublime symbolism. No doubt it enjoyed as great popularity as the\nimmemorial legend of Perseus and Andromeda, which the sages of Greece\nattempted to rationalize, and parts of which the poets made use of and\ndeveloped as these appealed to their imaginations.\n\nThe lost Sumerian story may be summarized as follows: There existed in\nthe savage wilds, or the ocean, a family of monsters antagonistic to a\ngroup of warriors represented in the Creation legend by the gods. Ea,\nthe heroic king, sets forth to combat with the enemies of man, and\nslays the monster father, Apsu, and his son, Mummu. But the most\npowerful demon remains to be dealt with. This is the mother Tiamat,\nwho burns to avenge the deaths of her kindred. To wage war against her\nthe hero makes elaborate preparations, and equips himself with special\nweapons. The queen of monsters cannot be overcome by ordinary means,\nfor she has great cunning, and is less vulnerable than were her\nhusband and son. Although Ea may work spells against her, she is able\nto thwart him by working counter spells. Only a hand-to-hand combat\ncan decide the fray. Being strongly protected by her scaly hide, she\nmust be wounded either on the under part of her body or through her\nmouth by a weapon which will pierce her liver, the seat of life. It\nwill be noted in this connection that Merodach achieved success by\ncausing the winds which followed him to distend the monster's jaws, so\nthat he might be able to inflict the fatal blow and prevent her at the\nsame time from uttering spells to weaken him.\n\nThis type of story, in which the mother monster is greater and more\npowerful than her husband or son, is exceedingly common in Scottish\nfolklore. In the legend which relates the adventures of \"Finn in the\nKingdom of Big Men\", the hero goes forth at night to protect his\nallies against the attacks of devastating sea monsters. Standing on\nthe beach, \"he saw the sea advancing in fiery kilns and as a darting\nserpent.... A huge monster came up, and looking down below where he\n(Finn) was, exclaimed, 'What little speck do I see here?'\" Finn, aided\nby his fairy dog, slew the water monster. On Finn, aided by his fairy\ndog, slew the water monster. On the following night a bigger monster,\n\"the father\", came ashore, and he also was slain. But the most\npowerful enemy had yet to be dealt with. \"The next night a Big Hag\ncame ashore, and the tooth in the front of her mouth would make a\ndistaff. 'You killed my husband and son,' she said.\" Finn acknowledged\nthat he did, and they began to fight. After a prolonged struggle, in\nwhich Finn was almost overcome, the Hag fell and her head was cut\noff.[174]\n\nThe story of \"Finlay the Changeling\" has similar features. The hero\nslew first a giant and then the giant's father. Thereafter the Hag\ncame against him and exclaimed, \"Although with cunning and\ndeceitfulness you killed my husband last night and my son on the night\nbefore last, I shall certainly kill you to-night.\" A fierce wrestling\nmatch ensued on the bare rock. The Hag was ultimately thrown down. She\nthen offered various treasures to ransom her life, including \"a gold\nsword in my cave\", regarding which she says, \"never was it drawn to\nman or to beast whom it did not overcome\".[175] In other Scottish\nstories of like character the hero climbs a tree, and says something\nto induce the hag to open her mouth, so that he may plunge his weapon\ndown her throat.\n\nThe Grendel story in _Beowulf_,[176] the Anglo-Saxon epic, is of like\ncharacter. A male water monster preys nightly upon the warriors who\nsleep in the great hall of King Hrothgar. Beowulf comes over the sea,\nas did Finn to the \"Kingdom of Big Men\", to sky Grendel. He wrestles\nwith this man-eater and mortally wounds him. Great rejoicings ensue,\nbut they have to be brought to an abrupt conclusion, because the\nmother of Grendel has meanwhile resolved \"to go a sorry journey and\navenge the death of her son\".\n\nThe narrative sets forth that she enters the Hall in the darkness of\nnight. \"Quickly she grasped one of the nobles tight, and then she went\ntowards the fen\", towards her submarine cave. Beowulf follows in due\ncourse, and, fully armoured, dives through the waters and ultimately\nenters the monster's lair. In the combat the \"water wife\" proves to be\na more terrible opponent than was her son. Indeed, Beowulf was unable\nto slay her until he possessed himself of a gigantic sword, \"adorned\nwith treasure\", which was hanging in the cave. With this magic weapon\nhe slays the mother monster, whose poisonous blood afterwards melts\nthe \"damasked blade\". Like Finn, he subsequently returns with the head\nof one of the monsters.\n\nAn interesting point about this story is that it does not appear in\nany form in the North German cycle of Romance. Indeed, the poet who\nincluded in his epic the fiery dragon story, which links the hero\nBeowulf with Sigurd and Siegfried, appears to be doubtful about the\nmother monster's greatness, as if dealing with unfamiliar material,\nfor he says: \"The terror (caused by Grendel's mother) was less by just\nso much as woman's strength, woman's war terror, is (measured) by\nfighting men\".[177] Yet, in the narrative which follows the Amazon is\nproved to be the stronger monster of the two. Traces of the mother\nmonster survive in English folklore, especially in the traditions\nabout the mythical \"Long Meg of Westminster\", referred to by Ben\nJonson in his masque of the \"Fortunate Isles\":\n\n    Westminster Meg,\n    With her long leg,\n    As long as a crane;\n    And feet like a plane,\n    With a pair of heels\n    As broad as two wheels.\n\nMeg has various graves. One is supposed to be marked by a huge stone\nin the south side of the cloisters of Westminster Abbey; it probably\nmarks the trench in which some plague victims--regarded, perhaps, as\nvictims of Meg--were interred. Meg was also reputed to have been\npetrified, like certain Greek and Irish giants and giantesses. At\nLittle Salkeld, near Penrith, a stone circle is referred to as \"Long\nMeg and her Daughters\". Like \"Long Tom\", the famous giant, \"Mons Meg\"\ngave her name to big guns in early times, all hags and giants having\nbeen famous in floating folk tales as throwers of granite boulders,\nballs of hard clay, quoits, and other gigantic missiles.\n\nThe stories about Grendel's mother and Long Meg are similar to those\nstill repeated in the Scottish Highlands. These contrast sharply with\ncharacteristic Germanic legends, in which the giant is greater than\nthe giantess, and the dragon is a male, like Fafner, who is slain by\nSigurd, and Regin whom Siegfried overcomes. It is probable, therefore,\nthat the British stories of female monsters who were more powerful\nthan their husbands and sons, are of Neolithic and Iberian\norigin--immemorial relics of the intellectual life of the western\nbranch of the Mediterranean race.\n\nIn Egypt the dragon survives in the highly developed mythology of the\nsun cult of Heliopolis, and, as sun worship is believed to have been\nimported, and the sun deity is a male, it is not surprising to find\nthat the night demon, Apep, was a personification of Set. This god,\nwho is identical with Sutekh, a Syrian and Asia Minor deity, was\napparently worshipped by a tribe which was overcome in the course of\nearly tribal struggles in pre-dynastic times. Being an old and\ndiscredited god, he became by a familiar process the demon of the\nconquerors. In the eighteenth dynasty, however, his ancient glory was\nrevived, for the Sutekh of Rameses II figures as the \"dragon\nslayer\".[178] It is in accordance with Mediterranean modes of thought,\nhowever, to find that in Egypt there is a great celestial battle\nheroine. This is the goddess Hathor-Sekhet, the \"Eye of Ra\".[179]\nSimilarly in India, the post-Vedic goddess Kali is a destroyer, while\nas Durga she is a guardian of heroes.[180] Kali, Durga, and\nHathor-Sekhet link with the classical goddesses of war, and also with\nthe Babylonian Ishtar, who, as has been shown, retained the\noutstanding characteristics of Tiamat, the fierce old \"Great Mother\"\nof primitive Sumerian folk religion.\n\nIt is possible that in the Babylonian dragon myth the original hero\nwas Ea. As much may be inferred from the symbolic references in the\nBible to Jah's victory over the monster of the deep: \"Art thou not it\nthat hath cut Rahab and wounded the dragon?\"[181] \"Thou brakest the\nheads of the dragons in the waters; thou brakest the heads of\nleviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people\ninhabiting the wilderness\";[182] \"He divideth the sea with his power,\nand by his understanding he smiteth through the proud (Rahab). By his\nspirit he hath garnished the heavens: his hand hath formed (or\npierced) the crooked serpent\";[183] \"Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces\nas one that is slain: thou hast scattered thine enemies with thy\nstrong arm\";[184] \"In that day the Lord with his sore and great and\nstrong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing (or stiff) serpent,\neven leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that\nis in the sea\".[185]\n\nIn the Babylonian Creation legend Ea is supplanted as dragon slayer by\nhis son Merodach. Similarly Ninip took the place of his father, Enlil,\nas the champion of the gods. \"In other words,\" writes Dr. Langdon,\n\"later theology evolved the notion of the son of the earth god, who\nacquires the attributes of the father, and becomes the god of war. It\nis he who stood forth against the rebellious monsters of darkness, who\nwould wrest the dominion of the world from the gods who held their\nconclave on the mountain. The gods offer him the Tablets of Fate; the\nright to utter decrees is given unto him.\" This development is \"of\nextreme importance for studying the growth of the idea of father and\nson, as creative and active principles of the world\".[186] In Indian\nmythology Indra similarly takes the place of his bolt-throwing father\nDyaus, the sky god, who so closely resembles Zeus. Andrew Lang has\nshown that this myth is of widespread character.[187] Were the\nBabylonian theorists guided by the folk-lore clue?\n\nNow Merodach, as the son of Ea whom he consulted and received spells\nfrom, was a brother of \"Tammuz of the Abyss\". It seems that in the\ngreat god of Babylon we should recognize one of the many forms of the\nprimeval corn spirit and patriarch--the shepherd youth who was beloved\nby Ishtar. As the deity of the spring sun, Tammuz slew the winter\ndemons of rain and tempest, so that he was an appropriate spouse for\nthe goddess of harvest and war. Merodach may have been a development\nof Tammuz in his character as a demon slayer. When he was raised to\nthe position of Bel, \"the Lord\" by the Babylonian conquerors, Merodach\nsupplanted the older Bel--Enlil of Nippur. Now Enlil, who had absorbed\nall the attributes of rival deities, and become a world god, was the\n\n    Lord of the harvest lands ... lord of the grain fields,\n\nbeing \"lord of the anunnaki\", or \"earth spirits\". As agriculturists in\nearly times went to war so as to secure prisoners who could be\nsacrificed to feed the corn spirit, Enlil was a god of war and was\nadored as such:\n\n    The haughty, the hostile land thou dost humiliate ...\n    With thee who ventureth to make war?\n\nHe was also \"the bull of goring horns ... Enlil the bull\", the god of\nfertility as well as of battle.[188]\n\nAsari, one of Merodach's names, links him with Osiris, the Egyptian\nTammuz, who was supplanted by his son Horus. As the dragon slayer, he\nrecalls, among others, Perseus, the Grecian hero, of whom it was\nprophesied that he would slay his grandfather. Perseus, like Tammuz\nand Osiris, was enclosed in a chest which was cast into the sea, to be\nrescued, however, by a fisherman on the island of Seriphos. This hero\nafterwards slew Medusa, one of the three terrible sisters, the\nGorgons--a demon group which links with Tiamat. In time, Perseus\nreturned home, and while an athletic contest was in progress, he\nkilled his grandfather with a quoit. There is no evidence, however, to\nshow that the displacement of Enlil by Merodach had any legendary\nsanction of like character. The god of Babylon absorbed all other\ndeities, apparently for political purposes, and in accordance with the\ntendency of the thought of the times, when raised to supreme rank in\nthe national pantheon; and he was depicted fighting the winged dragon,\nflapping his own storm wings, and carrying the thunder weapon\nassociated with Ramman.\n\nMerodach's spouse Zer-panitu^m was significantly called \"the lady of\nthe Abyss\", a title which connects her with Damkina, the mother, and\nBelit-sheri, the sister of Tammuz. Damkina was also a sky goddess like\nIshtar.\n\nZer-panitu^m was no pale reflection of her Celestial husband, but a\ngoddess of sharply defined character with independent powers.\nApparently she was identical with Aruru, creatrix of the seed of\nmankind, who was associated with Merodach when the first man and the\nfirst woman were brought into being. Originally she was one of the\nmothers in the primitive spirit group, and so identical with Ishtar\nand the other prominent goddesses.\n\nAs all goddesses became forms of Ishtar, so did all gods become forms\nof Merodach. Sin was \"Merodach as illuminator of night\", Nergal was\n\"Merodach of war\", Addu (Ramman) was \"Merodach of rain\", and so on. A\ncolophon which contains a text in which these identifications are\ndetailed, appears to be \"a copy\", says Professor Pinches, \"of an old\ninscription\", which, he thinks, \"may go back as far as 2000 B.C. This\nis the period at which the name _Yau^m-ilu_, 'Jah is god', is found,\ntogether with references to _ilu_ as the name for the one great god,\nand is also, roughly, the date of Abraham, who, it may be noted, was a\nBabylonian of Ur of the Chaldees.\"[189]\n\nIn one of the hymns Merodach is addressed as follows:--\n\n    Who shall escape from before thy power?\n    Thy will is an eternal mystery!\n    Thou makest it plain in heaven\n    And in the earth,\n    Command the sea\n    And the sea obeyeth thee.\n    Command the tempest\n    And the tempest becometh a calm.\n    Command the winding course\n    Of the Euphrates,\n    And the will of Merodach\n    Shall arrest the floods.\n    Lord, thou art holy!\n    Who is like unto thee?\n    Merodach thou art honoured\n    Among the gods that bear a name.\n\nThe monotheistic tendency, which was a marked feature of Merodach\nworship, had previously become pronounced in the worship of Bel Enlil\nof Nippur. Although it did not affect the religion of the masses, it\nserves to show that among the ancient scholars and thinkers of\nBabylonia religious thought had, at an early period, risen far above\nthe crude polytheism of those who bargained with their deities and\npropitiated them with offerings and extravagant flattery, or exercised\nover them a magical influence by the performance of seasonal\nceremonies, like the backsliders in Jerusalem, censured so severely by\nJeremiah, who baked cakes to reward the Queen of Heaven for an\nabundant harvest, and wept with her for the slain Tammuz when he\ndeparted to Hades.\n\nPerhaps it was due to the monotheistic tendency, if not to the fusion\nof father-worshipping and mother-worshipping peoples, that bi-sexual\ndeities were conceived of. Nannar, the moon god, was sometimes\naddressed as father and mother in one, and Ishtar as a god as well as\na goddess. In Egypt Isis is referred to in a temple chant as \"the\nwoman who was made a male by her father Osiris\", and the Nile god Hapi\nwas depicted as a man with female breasts.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\nDEIFIED HEROES: ETANA AND GILGAMESH\n\n\n  God and Heroes and the \"Seven Sleepers\"--Quests of Etana, Gilgamesh,\n  Hercules, &c.--The Plant of Birth--Eagle carries Etana to\n  Heaven--Indian Parallel--Flights of Nimrod, Alexander the Great, and\n  a Gaelic Hero--Eagle as a God--Indian Eagle identified with Gods of\n  Creation, Fire, Fertility, and Death--Eagle carries Roman Emperor's\n  Soul to Heaven--Fire and Agricultural Ceremonies--Nimrod of the\n  _Koran_ and John Barleycorn--Gilgamesh and the Eagle--Sargon-Tammuz\n  Garden Myth--Ea-bani compared to Pan, Bast, and\n  Nebuchadnezzar--Exploits of Gilgamesh and Ea-bani--Ishtar's\n  Vengeance--Gilgamesh journeys to Otherworld--Song of Sea Maiden and\n  \"Lay of the Harper\"--Babylonian Noah and the Plant of Life--Teutonic\n  Parallels--Alexander the Great as Gilgamesh--Water of Life in the\n  _Koran_--The Indian Gilgamesh and Hercules--The Mountain Tunnel in\n  various Mythologies--Widespread Cultural Influences.\n\n\nOne of the oldest forms of folk stories relates to the wanderings of\na hero in distant regions. He may set forth in search of a fair lady\nwho has been taken captive, or to obtain a magic herb or stone to\nrelieve a sufferer, to cure diseases, and to prolong life. Invariably\nhe is a slayer of dragons and other monsters. A friendly spirit, or a\ngroup of spirits, may assist the hero, who acts according to the\nadvice given him by a \"wise woman\", a magician, or a god. The spirits\nare usually wild beasts or birds--the \"fates\" of immemorial folk\nbelief--and they may either carry the hero on their backs, instruct\nhim from time to time, or come to his aid when called upon.\n\nWhen a great national hero appealed by reason of his achievements to\nthe imagination of a people, all the floating legends of antiquity\nwere attached to his memory, and he became identified with gods and\ngiants and knight-errants \"old in story\". In Scotland, for instance,\nthe boulder-throwing giant of Eildon hills bears the name of Wallace,\nthe Edinburgh giant of Arthur's Seat is called after an ancient Celtic\nking,[190] and Thomas the Rhymer takes the place, in an Inverness\nfairy mound called Tom-na-hurich, of Finn (Fingal) as chief of the\n\"Seven Sleepers\". Similarly Napoleon sleeps in France and Skobeleff in\nRussia, as do also other heroes elsewhere. In Germany the myths of\nThunor (Thor) were mingled with hazy traditions of Theodoric the Goth\n(Dietrich), while in Greece, Egypt, and Arabia, Alexander the Great\nabsorbed a mass of legendary matter of great antiquity, and displaced\nin the memories of the people the heroes of other Ages, as those\nheroes had previously displaced the humanized spirits of fertility and\ngrowth who alternately battled fiercely against the demons of spring,\nmade love, gorged and drank deep and went to sleep--the sleep of\nwinter. Certain folk tales, and the folk beliefs on which they were\nbased, seem to have been of hoary antiquity before the close of the\nLate Stone Age.\n\nThere are two great heroes of Babylonian fame who link with Perseus\nand Hercules, Sigurd and Siegfried, Dietrich and Finn-mac-Coul. These\nare Etana and Gilgamesh, two legendary kings who resemble Tammuz the\nPatriarch referred to by Berosus, a form of Tammuz the Sleeper of the\nSumerian psalms. One journeys to the Nether World to obtain the Plant\nof Birth and the other to obtain the Plant of Life. The floating\nlegends with which they were associated were utilized and developed by\nthe priests, when engaged in the process of systematizing and\nsymbolizing religious beliefs, with purpose to unfold the secrets of\ncreation and the Otherworld. Etana secures the assistance or a giant\neagle who is an enemy of serpents like the Indian Garuda, half giant,\nhalf eagle. As Vishnu, the Indian god, rides on the back of Garuda, so\ndoes Etana ride on the back of the Babylonian Eagle. In one\nfragmentary legend which was preserved in the tablet-library of\nAshur-banipal, the Assyrian monarch, Etana obtained the assistance of\nthe Eagle to go in quest of the Plant of Birth. His wife was about to\nbecome a mother, and was accordingly in need of magical aid. A similar\nbelief caused birth girdles of straw or serpent skins, and eagle\nstones found in eagles' nests, to be used in ancient Britain and\nelsewhere throughout Europe apparently from the earliest times.[191]\n\nOn this or another occasion Etana desired to ascend to highest heaven.\nHe asked the Eagle to assist him, and the bird assented, saying: \"Be\nglad, my friend. Let me bear thee to the highest heaven. Lay thy\nbreast on mine and thine arms on my wings, and let my body be as thy\nbody.\" Etana did as the great bird requested him, and together they\nascended towards the firmament. After a flight which extended over two\nhours, the Eagle asked Etana to gaze downwards. He did so, and beheld\nthe ocean surrounding the earth, and the earth seemed like a\nmountainous island. The Eagle resumed its flight, and when another two\nhours had elapsed, it again asked Etana to look downwards. Then the\nhero saw that the sea resembled a girdle which clasped the land. Two\nhours later Etana found that he had been raised to a height from which\nthe sea appeared to be no larger than a pond. By this time he had\nreached the heaven of Anu, Bel, and Ea, and found there rest and\nshelter.\n\nHere the text becomes fragmentary. Further on it is gathered from the\nnarrative that Etana is being carried still higher by the Eagle\ntowards the heaven of Ishtar, \"Queen of Heaven\", the supreme mother\ngoddess. Three times, at intervals of two hours, the Eagle asks Etana\nto look downwards towards the shrinking earth. Then some disaster\nhappens, for further onwards the broken tablet narrates that the Eagle\nis falling. Down and down eagle and man fall together until they\nstrike the earth, and the Eagle's body is shattered.\n\nThe Indian Garuda eagle[192] never met with such a fate, but on one\noccasion Vishnu overpowered it with his right arm, which was heavier\nthan the whole universe, and caused many feathers to fall _off_. In\nthe story of Rama's wanderings, however, as told in the _Ramayana_ and\nthe _Mahabharata_, there are interesting references in this connection\nto Garuda's two \"sons\". One was mortally wounded by Ravana, the demon\nking of Ceylon. The other bird related to Rama, who found it disabled:\n\"Once upon a time we two (brothers), with the desire of outstripping\neach other, flew towards the sun. My wings were burnt, but those of my\nbrother were not.... I fell down on the top of this great mountain,\nwhere I still am.\"[193]\n\nAnother version of the Etana story survives among the Arabian Moslems.\nIn the \"Al Fatihat\" chapter of the _Koran_ it is related that a\nBabylonian king held a dispute with Abraham \"concerning his Lord\".\nCommentators identify the monarch with Nimrod, who afterwards caused\nthe Hebrew patriarch to be cast into a fire from which he had\nmiraculous deliverance. Nimrod then built a tower so as to ascend to\nheaven \"to see Abraham's god\", and make war against Him, but the tower\nwas overthrown. He, however, persisted in his design. The narrative\nstates that he was \"carried to heaven in a chest borne by four\nmonstrous birds; but after wandering for some time through the air, he\nfell down on a mountain with such a force that he made it shake\". A\nreference in the _Koran_ to \"contrivances ... which make mountains\ntremble\" is believed to allude to Nimrod's vain attempt.[194]\n\nAlexander the Great was also reputed to have ascended on the back of\nan eagle. Among the myths attached to his memory in the Ethiopic\n\"history\" is one which explains how \"he knew and comprehended the\nlength and breadth of the earth\", and how he obtained knowledge\nregarding the seas and mountains he would have to cross. \"He made\nhimself small and flew through the air on an eagle, and he arrived in\nthe heights of the heavens and he explored them.\" Another Alexandrian\nversion of the Etana myth resembles the Arabic legend of Nimrod. \"In\nthe Country of Darkness\" Alexander fed and tamed great birds which\nwere larger than eagles. Then he ordered four of his soldiers to mount\nthem. The men were carried to the \"Country of the Living\", and when\nthey returned they told Alexander \"all that had happened and all that\nthey had seen\".[195]\n\nIn a Gaelic story a hero is carried off by a Cromhineach, \"a vast bird\nlike an eagle\". He tells that it \"sprang to the clouds with me, and I\nwas a while that I did not know which was heaven or earth for me\". The\nhero died, but, curiously enough, remained conscious of what was\nhappening. Apparently exhausted, the eagle flew to an island in the\nmidst of the ocean. It laid the hero on the sunny side. The hero\nproceeds: \"Sleep came upon herself (the eagle) and she slept. The sun\nwas enlivening me pretty well though I was dead.\" Afterwards the eagle\nbathed in a healing well, and as it splashed in the water, drops fell\non the hero and he came to life. \"I grew stronger and more active\", he\nadds, \"than I had ever been before.\"[196]\n\nThe eagle figures in various mythologies, and appears to have been at\none time worshipped as the god or goddess of fertility, and storm and\nlightning, as the bringer of children, and the deity who carried souls\nto Hades. It was also the symbol of royalty, because the earthly ruler\nrepresented the controlling deity. Nin-Girsu, the god of Lagash, who\nwas identified with Tammuz, was depicted as a lion-headed eagle. Zeus,\nthe Greek sky and air god, was attended by an eagle, and may, at one\ntime, have been simply an eagle. In Egypt the place of the eagle is\ntaken by Nekhebit, the vulture goddess whom the Greeks identified with\n\"Eileithyia, the goddess of birth; she was usually represented as a\nvulture hovering over the king\".[197]\n\nThe double-headed eagle of the Hittites, which figures in the royal\narms of Germany and Russia, appears to have symbolized the deity of\nwhom the king was an incarnation or son. In Indian mythology Garuda,\nthe eagle giant, which destroyed serpents like the Babylonian Etana\neagle, issued from its egg like a flame of fire; its eyes flashed the\nlightning and its voice was the thunder. This bird is identified in a\nhymn with Agni, god of fire, who has the attributes of Tammuz and\nMithra, with Brahma, the creator, with Indra, god of thunder and\nfertility, and with Yama, god of the dead, who carries off souls to\nHades. It is also called \"the steed-necked incarnation of Vishnu\", the\n\"Preserver\" of the Hindu trinity who rode on its back. The hymn\nreferred to lauds Garuda as \"the bird of life, the presiding spirit of\nthe animate and inanimate universe ... destroyer of all, creator of\nall\". It burns all \"as the sun in his anger burneth all\ncreatures\".[198]\n\nBirds were not only fates, from whose movements in flight omens were\ndrawn, but also spirits of fertility. When the childless Indian sage\nMandapala of the _Mahabharata_ was refused admittance to heaven until\na son was born to him, he \"pondered deeply\" and \"came to know that of\nall creatures birds alone were blest with fecundity\"; so he became a\nbird.\n\nIt is of interest, therefore, to find the Etana eagle figuring as a\nsymbol of royalty at Rome. The deified Roman Emperor's waxen image was\nburned on a pyre after his death, and an eagle was let loose from the\ngreat pile to carry his soul to heaven.[199] This custom was probably\na relic of seasonal fire worship, which may have been introduced into\nNorthern and Western Syria and Asia Minor by the mysterious Mitanni\nrulers, if it was not an archaic Babylonian custom[200] associated\nwith fire-and-water magical ceremonies, represented in the British\nIsles by May-Day and Midsummer fire-and-water festivals. Sandan, the\nmythical founder of Tarsus, was honoured each year at that city by\nburning a great bonfire, and he was identified with Hercules. Probably\nhe was a form of Moloch and Melkarth.[201] Doves were burned to\nAdonis. The burning of straw figures, representing gods of fertility,\non May-Day bonfires may have been a fertility rite, and perhaps\nexplains the use of straw birth-girdles.\n\nAccording to the commentators of the _Koran_, Nimrod, the Babylonian\nking, who cast victims in his annual bonfires at Cuthah, died on the\neighth day of the Tammuz month, which, according to the Syrian\ncalendar, fell on 13th July.[202] It is related that gnats entered\nNimrod's brain, causing the membrane to grow larger. He suffered great\npain, and to relieve it had his head beaten with a mallet. Although he\nlived for several hundred years, like other agricultural patriarchs,\nincluding the Tammuz of Berosus, it is possible that he was ultimately\nsacrificed and burned. The beating of Nimrod recalls the beating of\nthe corn spirit of the agricultural legend utilized by Burns in his\nballad of \"John Barleycorn\", which gives a jocular account of\nwidespread ancient customs that are not yet quite extinct even in\nScotland:[203]\n\n    They laid him down upon his back\n      And cudgelled him full sore;\n    They hung him up before a storm\n      And turned him o'er and o'er.\n\n    They filled up a darksome pit\n      With water to the brim,\n    They heaved in John Barleycorn--\n      There let him sink or swim.\n\n    They wasted o'er a scorching flame\n      The marrow of his bones,\n    But the miller used him worst of all,\n      For he crushed him between two stones.\n\nHercules, after performing many mythical exploits, had himself burned\nalive on the pyre which he built upon Mount Oeta, and was borne to\nOlympus amidst peals of thunder.\n\nGilgamesh, the Babylonian Hercules, who links with Etana, Nimrod, and\nSandan, is associated with the eagle, which in India, as has been\nshown, was identified with the gods of fertility, fire, and death.\nAccording to a legend related by Aelian,[204] \"the guards of the\ncitadel of Babylon threw down to the ground a child who had been\nconceived and brought forth in secret, and who afterwards became known\nas Gilgamos\". This appears to be another version of the Sargon-Tammuz\nmyth, and may also refer to the sacrifice of children to Melkarth and\nMoloch, who were burned or slain \"in the valleys under the clefts of\nthe rocks\"[205] to ensure fertility and feed the corn god. Gilgamesh,\nhowever, did not perish. \"A keen-eyed eagle saw the child falling, and\nbefore it touched the ground the bird flew under it and received it on\nits back, and carried it away to a garden and laid it down gently.\"\nHere we have, it would appear, Tammuz among the flowers, and Sargon,\nthe gardener, in the \"Garden of Adonis\". Mimic Adonis gardens were\ncultivated by women. Corn, &c., was forced in pots and baskets, and\nthrown, with an image of the god, into streams. \"Ignorant people\",\nwrites Professor Frazer, \"suppose that by mimicking the effect which\nthey desire to produce they actually help to produce it: thus by\nsprinkling water they make rain, by lighting a fire they make\nsunshine, and so on.\"[206] Evidently Gilgamesh was a heroic form of\nthe god Tammuz, the slayer of the demons of winter and storm, who\npassed one part of the year in the world and another in Hades (Chapter\nVI).\n\nLike Hercules, Gilgamesh figured chiefly in legendary narrative as a\nmighty hero. He was apparently of great antiquity, so that it is\nimpossible to identify him with any forerunner of Sargon of Akkad, or\nAlexander the Great. His exploits were depicted on cylinder seals of\nthe Sumerian period, and he is shown wrestling with a lion as Hercules\nwrestled with the monstrous lion in the valley of Nemea. The story of\nhis adventures was narrated on twelve clay tablets, which were\npreserved in the library of Ashur-banipal, the Assyrian emperor. In\nthe first tablet, which is badly mutilated, Gilgamesh is referred to\nas the man who beheld the world, and had great wisdom because he\npeered into the mysteries. He travelled to distant places, and was\ninformed regarding the flood and the primitive race which the gods\ndestroyed; he also obtained the plant of life, which his enemy, the\nearth-lion, in the form of a serpent or well demon, afterwards carried\naway.\n\nGilgamesh was associated with Erech, where he reigned as \"the lord\".\nThere Ishtar had a great temple, but her worldly wealth had decreased.\nThe fortifications of the city were crumbling, and for three years the\nElamites besieged it. The gods had turned to flies and the winged\nbulls had become like mice. Men wailed like wild beasts and maidens\nmoaned like doves. Ultimately the people prayed to the goddess Aruru\nto create a liberator. Bel, Shamash, and Ishtar also came to their\naid.\n\nAruru heard the cries of her worshippers. She dipped her hands in\nwater and then formed a warrior with clay. He was named Ea-bani, which\nsignifies \"Ea is my creator\". It is possible, therefore, that an\nancient myth of Eridu forms the basis of the narrative.\n\nEa-bani is depicted on the cylinder seals as a hairy man-monster\nresembling the god Pan. He ate grass with the gazelles and drank water\nwith wild beasts, and he is compared to the corn god, which suggests\nthat he was an early form of Tammuz, and of character somewhat\nresembling the Egyptian Bast, the half-bestial god of fertility. A\nhunter was sent out from Erech to search for the man-monster, and\nfound him beside a stream in a savage place drinking with his\nassociates, the wild animals. The description of Ea-bani recalls that\nof Nebuchadnezzar when he was stricken with madness. \"He was driven\nfrom men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew\nof heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers, and his\nnails like birds' claws.\"[207]\n\nThe hunter had no desire to combat with Ea-bani, so he had him lured\nfrom the wilds by a beautiful woman. Love broke the spell which kept\nEa-bani in his savage state, and the wild beasts fled from him. Then\nthe temptress pleaded with him to go with her to Erech, where Anu and\nIshtar had their temples, and the mighty Gilgamesh lived in his\npalace. Ea-bani, deserted by his bestial companions, felt lonely and\ndesired human friendship. So he consented to accompany his bride.\nHaving heard of Gilgamesh from the hunter, he proposed to test his\nstrength in single combat, but Shamash, god of the sun, warned Ea-bani\nthat he was the protector of Gilgamesh, who had been endowed with\ngreat knowledge by Bel and Anu and Ea. Gilgamesh was also counselled\nin a vision of night to receive Ea-bani as an ally.\n\nEa-bani was not attracted by city life and desired to return to the\nwilds, but Shamash prevailed upon him to remain as the friend of\nGilgamesh, promising that he would be greatly honoured and exalted to\nhigh rank.\n\nThe two heroes became close friends, and when the narrative becomes\nclear again, they are found to be setting forth to wage war against\nChumbaba,[208] the King of Elam. Their journey was long and perilous.\nIn time they entered a thick forest, and wondered greatly at the\nnumerous and lofty cedars. They saw the great road which the king had\ncaused to be made, the high mountain, and the temple of the god.\nBeautiful were the trees about the mountain, and there were many shady\nretreats that were fragrant and alluring.\n\nAt this point the narrative breaks off, for the tablet is mutilated.\nWhen it is resumed a reference is made to \"the head of Chumbaba\", who\nhas apparently been slain by the heroes. Erech was thus freed from the\noppression of its fierce enemy.\n\nGilgamesh and Ea-bani appear to have become prosperous and happy. But\nin the hour of triumph a shadow falls. Gilgamesh is robed in royal\nsplendour and wears his dazzling crown. He is admired by all men, but\nsuddenly it becomes known that the goddess Ishtar has been stricken\nwith love for him. She \"loved him with that love which was his doom\".\nThose who are loved by celestials or demons become, in folk tales,\nmelancholy wanderers and \"night wailers\". The \"wretched wight\" in\nKeats' \"La Belle Dame Sans Merci\" is a typical example.\n\n    O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,\n      Alone and palely loitering?\n    The sedge is withered from the lake\n      And no birds sing.\n\n           *       *       *       *       *\n\n    I met a lady in the meads,\n      Full beautiful--a faery's child;\n    Her hair was long, her foot was light,\n      And her eyes were wild.\n\n           *       *       *       *       *\n\n    She found me roots of relish sweet,\n      And honey wild and manna dew;\n    And sure in language strange she said,\n      \"I love thee true\".\n\nHaving kissed her lover to sleep, the fairy woman vanished. The\n\"knight\" then saw in a dream the ghosts of knights and warriors, her\nprevious victims, who warned him of his fate.\n\n    I saw their starved lips in the gloam,\n      With horrid warning gaped wide;\n    And I awoke and found me here\n      On the cold hill's side.\n\nThe goddess Ishtar appeared as \"La Belle Dame Sans Merci\" before\nGilgamesh and addressed him tenderly, saying: \"Come, O Gilgamesh, and\nbe my consort. Gift thy strength unto me. Be thou my husband and I\nwill be thy bride. Thou shalt have a chariot of gold and lapis lazuli\nwith golden wheels and gem-adorned. Thy steeds shall be fair and white\nand powerful. Into my dwelling thou shalt come amidst the fragrant\ncedars. Every king and every prince will bow down before thee, O\nGilgamesh, to kiss thy feet, and all people will become subject unto\nthee.\"\n\nGilgamesh feared the fate which would attend him as the lover of\nIshtar, and made answer saying: \"To what husband hast thou ever\nremained faithful? Each year Tammuz, the lover of thy youth, is caused\nby thee to weep. Thou didst love the Allala bird and then broke his\nwings, and he moans in the woods crying, 'O my wings!' Thou didst love\nthe lion and then snared him. Thou didst love the horse, and then laid\nharness on him and made him gallop half a hundred miles so that he\nsuffered great distress, and thou didst oppress his mother Silili.\nThou didst love a shepherd who sacrificed kids unto thee, and then\nthou didst smite him so that he became a jackal (or leopard); his own\nherd boy drove him away and his dogs rent him in pieces. Thou didst\nlove Ishullanu, the gardener of Anu, who made offerings unto thee, and\nthen smote him so that he was unable to move. Alas! if thou wouldst\nlove me, my fate would be like unto the fates of those on whom thou\nhast laid affliction.\"\n\nIshtar's heart was filled with wrath when she heard the words which\nGilgamesh had spoken, and she prevailed upon her father Anu to create\na fierce bull which she sent against the lord of Erech.\n\nThis monster, however, was slain by Gilgamesh[209] and Ea-bani, but\ntheir triumph was shortlived. Ishtar cursed Gilgamesh. Ea-bani then\ndefied her and threatened to deal with her as he had dealt with the\nbull, with the result that he was cursed by the goddess also.\n\nGilgamesh dedicated the horns of the bull to Shamash and returned with\nhis friend to Erech, where they were received with great rejoicings. A\nfestival was held, and afterwards the heroes lay down to sleep. Then\nEa-bani dreamt a dream of ill omen. He met his death soon afterwards,\napparently in a battle, and Gilgamesh lamented over him. From the\nsurviving fragments of the narrative it would appear that Gilgamesh\nresolved to undertake a journey, for he had been stricken by disease.\nHe wept and cried out, \"Oh! let me not die like Ea-bani, for death is\nfearful. I will seek the aid of mine ancestor, Pir-napishtim\"--the\nBabylonian Noah, who was believed to be dwelling on an island which\ncorresponds to the Greek \"Island of the Blessed\". The Babylonian\nisland lay in the ocean of the Nether World.\n\nIt seems that Gilgamesh not only hoped to obtain the Water of Life and\nthe Plant of Life to cure his own disease, but also to restore to life\nhis dead friend, Ea-bani, whom he loved.\n\nGilgamesh set out on his journey and in time reached a mountain chasm.\nGazing on the rugged heights, he beheld fierce lions and his heart\ntrembled. Then he cried upon the moon god, who took pity upon him, and\nunder divine protection the hero pressed onward. He crossed the rocky\nrange and then found himself confronted by the tremendous mountain of\nMashi--\"Sunset hill\", which divided the land of the living from the\nwestern land of the dead. The mountain peak rose to heaven, and its\nfoundations were in Aralu, the Underworld.[210] A dark tunnel pierced\nit and could be entered through a door, but the door was shut and on\neither side were two monsters of horrible aspect--the gigantic\n\"scorpion man\" and his wife, whose heads reached to the clouds. When\nGilgamesh beheld them he swooned with terror. But they did him no\nharm, perceiving that he was a son of a god and had a body like a god.\n\nWhen Gilgamesh revived, he realized that the monsters regarded him\nwith eyes of sympathy. Addressing the scorpion giant, he told that he\ndesired to visit his ancestor, Pir-napishtim, who sat in the council\nof the gods and had divine attributes. The giant warned him of the\ndangers which he would encounter, saying that the mountain passage was\ntwelve miles long and beamless and black. Gilgamesh, however, resolved\nto encounter any peril, for he was no longer afraid, and he was\nallowed to go forward. So he entered through the monster-guarded\nmountain door and plunged into thick unbroken darkness. For twice\ntwelve hours he groped blindly onward, until he saw a ray of light.\nQuickening his steps, he then escaped from the dreadful tunnel and\nonce more rejoiced in the rays of the sun. He found himself in an\nenchanted garden, and in the midst of it he saw a divine and beautiful\ntree towards which he hastened. On its gleaming branches hung clusters\nof precious stones and its leaves were of lapis lazuli. His eyes were\ndazzled, but he did not linger there. Passing many other wonderful\ntrees, he came to a shoreland, and he knew that he was drawing nigh to\nthe Sea of Death. The country which he entered was ruled over by the\nsea lady whose name was Sabitu. When she saw the pilgrim drawing nigh,\nshe entered her palace and shut the door.\n\nGilgamesh called out requesting that he should be allowed to enter,\nand mingled his entreaties with threats to break open the door. In the\nend Sabitu appeared and spoke, saying:\n\n    Gilgamesh, whither hurriest thou?\n    The life that thou seekest thou wilt not find.\n    When the gods created man\n    They fixed death for mankind.\n    Life they took in their own hand.\n    Thou, O Gilgamesh, let thy belly be filled!\n    Day and night be merry,\n    Daily celebrate a feast,\n    Day and night dance and make merry!\n    Clean be thy clothes,\n    Thy head be washed, bathe in water!\n    Look joyfully on the child that grasps thy hand,\n    Be happy with the wife in thine arms![211]\n\nThis is the philosophy of the Egyptian \"Lay of the Harper\". The\nfollowing quotations are from two separate versions:--\n\n    How rests this just prince!\n    The goodly destiny befalls,\n    The bodies pass away\n    Since the time of the god,\n    And generations come into their places.\n\n           *       *       *       *       *\n\n    (Make) it pleasant for thee to follow thy desire\n    While thou livest.\n    Put myrrh upon thy head,\n    And garments on thee of fine linen....\n    Celebrate the glad day,\n    Be not weary therein....\n    Thy sister (wife) who dwells in thy heart.\n    She sits at thy side.\n    Put song and music before thee,\n    Behind thee all evil things,\n    And remember thou (only) joy.[212]\n\nJastrow contrasts the Babylonian poem with the following quotation\nfrom Ecclesiastes:--\n\n    Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with\n    a merry heart.... Let thy garments be always white; and\n    let thy head lack no ointment. Live joyfully with the wife whom\n    thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he [God]\n    hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for\n        that\n    is thy portion in this life, and in thy labour which thou takest\n    under the sun.[213]\n\n\"The pious Hebrew mind\", Jastrow adds, \"found the corrective to this\nview of life in the conception of a stern but just God, acting\naccording to self-imposed standards of right and wrong, whose rule\nextends beyond the grave.\" The final words of the Preacher are, \"Fear\nGod and keep his commandments\".[214]\n\nGilgamesh did not accept the counsel of the fatalistic sea lady. He\nasked her how he could reach Pir-napishtim, his ancestor, saying he\nwas prepared to cross the Sea of Death: if he could not cross it he\nwould die of grief.\n\nSabitu answered him, saying: \"O Gilgamesh, no mortal is ferried over\nthis great sea. Who can pass over it save Shamash alone? The way is\nfull of peril. O Gilgamesh, how canst thou battle against the billows\nof death?\"\n\nAt length, however, the sea lady revealed to the pilgrim that he might\nobtain the aid of the sailor, Arad Ea, who served his ancestor\nPir-napishtim.\n\nGilgamesh soon found where Arad Ea dwelt, and after a time prevailed\nupon him to act as ferryman. Arad Ea required a helm for his boat, and\nGilgamesh hastened to fashion one from a tree. When it was fixed on,\nthe boat was launched and the voyage began. Terrible experiences were\npassed through as they crossed the Sea of Death, but at length they\ndrew nigh to the \"Island of the Blessed\" on which dwelt Pir-napishtim\nand his wife. Wearied by his exertions and wasted by disease,\nGilgamesh sat resting in the boat. He did not go ashore.\n\nPir-napishtim had perceived the vessel crossing the Sea of Death and\nmarvelled greatly.\n\nThe story is unfortunately interrupted again, but it appears that\nGilgamesh poured into the ears of his ancestor the tale of his\nsufferings, adding that he feared death and desired to escape his\nfate.\n\nPir-napishtim made answer, reminding the pilgrim that all men must\ndie. Men built houses, sealed contracts, disputed one with another,\nand sowed seeds in the earth, but as long as they did so and the\nrivers rose in flood, so long would their fate endure. Nor could any\nman tell when his hour would come. The god of destiny measured out the\nspan of life: he fixed the day of death, but never revealed his\nsecrets.\n\nGilgamesh then asked Pir-napishtim how it chanced that he was still\nalive. \"Thou hast suffered no change,\" he said, \"thou art even as I\nam. Harden not thy heart against me, but reveal how thou hast obtained\ndivine life in the company of the gods.\"\n\nPir-napishtim thereupon related to his descendant the story of the\ndeluge, which is dealt with fully in the next chapter. The gods had\nresolved to destroy the world, and Ea in a dream revealed unto\nPir-napishtim how he could escape. He built a ship which was tossed\nabout on the waters, and when the world had been destroyed, Bel\ndiscovered him and transported him to that island in the midst of the\nSea of Death.\n\nGilgamesh sat in the boat listening to the words of his ancestor. When\nthe narrative was ended, Pir-napishtim spoke sympathetically and said:\n\"Who among the gods will restore thee to health, O Gilgamesh? Thou\nhast knowledge of my life, and thou shalt be given the life thou dost\nstrive after. Take heed, therefore, to what I say unto thee. For six\ndays and seven nights thou shalt not lie down, but remain sitting like\none in the midst of grief.\"[215]\n\nGilgamesh sat in the ship, and sleep enveloped him like to a black\nstorm cloud.\n\nPir-napishtim spoke to his wife and said: \"Behold the hero who\ndesireth to have life. Sleep envelops him like to a black storm\ncloud.\"\n\nTo that lone man his wife made answer: \"Lay thine hand upon him so\nthat he may have perfect health and be enabled to return to his own\nland. Give him power to pass through the mighty door by which he\nentered.\"\n\nThen Pir-napishtim addressed his wife, saying: \"His sufferings make me\nsad. Prepare thou for him the magic food, and place it near his head.\"\n\nOn the day when Gilgamesh lay down, the food was prepared by seven\nmagic processes, and the woman administered it while yet he slept.\nThen Pir-napishtim touched him, and he awoke full of life.\n\nGilgamesh spake unto Pir-napishtim and said: \"I was suddenly overcome\nby sleep.... But thou didst awaken me by touching me, even thou....\nLo! I am bewitched. What hast thou done unto thy servant?\"\n\nThen Pir-napishtim told Gilgamesh that he had been given to eat of the\nmagic food. Afterwards he caused Arad Ea to carry Gilgamesh to a\nfountain of healing, where his disease-stricken body was cleansed. The\nblemished skin fell from him, and he was made whole.\n\nThereafter Gilgamesh prepared to return to his own land. Ere he bade\nfarewell, however, Pir-napishtim revealed unto him the secret of a\nmagic plant which had power to renew life and give youth and strength\nunto those who were old.\n\nArad Ea conducted the hero to the island where the plant grew, and\nwhen Gilgamesh found it he rejoiced, and said that he would carry it\nto Erech, his own city, where he would partake of it and restore his\nyouth.\n\nSo Gilgamesh and Arad Ea went on their way together, nor paused until\nthey came to a well of pure water. The hero stooped down to draw\nwater.[216] But while he was thus engaged that demon, the Earth Lion,\ncrept forth as a serpent, and, seizing the magic plant of life,\ncarried it away. Stricken with terror, Gilgamesh uttered a curse. Then\nhe sat down and wept bitterly, and the tears streamed over his face.\nTo Arad Ea he spake, saying: \"Why has my health been restored to me?\nWhy should I rejoice because that I live? The benefit which I should\nhave derived for myself has now fallen to the Earth Lion.\"\n\nThe two travellers then resumed their journey, performing religious\nacts from time to time; chanting dirges and holding feasts for the\ndead, and at length Gilgamesh returned to Erech. He found that the\ncity walls were crumbling, and he spake regarding the ceremonies which\nhad been performed while yet he was in a far-distant country.\n\nDuring the days which followed Gilgamesh sorrowed for his lost friend\nEa-bani, whose spirit was in the Underworld, the captive of the\nspirits of death. \"Thou canst not draw thy bow now,\" he cried, \"nor\nraise the battle shout. Thou canst not kiss the woman thou hast loved;\nthou canst not kiss the child thou hast loved, nor canst thou smite\nthose whom thou hast hated.\"\n\nIn vain Gilgamesh appealed to his mother goddess to restore Ea-bani to\nhim. Then he turned to the gods, and Ea heard him. Thereafter Nergal,\ngod of death, caused the grave to yawn, and the spirit of Ea-bani\narose like a wind gust.\n\nGilgamesh, still dreading death, spoke to the ghost of his friend,\nsaying: \"Tell me, my friend, O tell me regarding the land in which\nthou dost dwell.\"\n\nEa-bani made answer sorrowfully: \"Alas! I cannot tell thee, my friend.\nIf I were to tell thee all, thou wouldst sit down and weep.\"\n\nSaid Gilgamesh: \"Let me sit down and weep, but tell me regarding the\nland of spirits.\"\n\nThe text is mutilated here, but it can be gathered that Ea-bani\ndescribed the land where ill-doers were punished, where the young were\nlike the old, where the worm devoured, and dust covered all. But the\nstate of the warrior who had been given burial was better than that of\nthe man who had not been buried, and had no one to lament or care for\nhim. \"He who hath been slain in battle,\" the ghost said, \"reposeth on\na couch drinking pure water--one slain in battle as thou hast seen and\nI have seen. His head is supported by his parents: beside him sits his\nwife. His spirit doth not haunt the earth. But the spirit of that man\nwhose corpse has been left unburied and uncared for, rests not, but\nprowls through the streets eating scraps of food, the leavings of the\nfeast, and drinking the dregs of vessels.\"\n\nSo ends the story of Gilgamesh in the form which survives to us.\n\nThe journey of Gilgamesh to the Island of the Blessed recalls the\njourneys made by Odin, Hermod, Svipdag, Hotherus and others to the\nGermanic Hela. When Hermod went to search for Balder, as the Prose\nEdda relates, he rode through thick darkness for nine days and nine\nnights ere he crossed the mountains. As Gilgamesh met Sabitu, Hermod\nmet Modgudur, \"the maiden who kept the bridge\" over the river Gj\u00f5ll.\nSvipdag, according to a Norse poem, was guided like the Babylonian\nhero by the moon god, Gevar, who instructed him what way he should\ntake to find the irresistible sword. Saxo's Hother, who is instructed\nby \"King Gewar\", crosses dismal mountains \"beset with extraordinary\ncold\".[217] Thorkill crosses a stormy ocean to the region of perpetual\ndarkness, where the ghosts of the dead are confined in loathsome and\ndusty caves. At the main entrance \"the door posts were begrimed with\nthe soot of ages\".[218] In the _Elder Edda_ Svipdag is charmed against\nthe perils he will be confronted by as he fares \"o'er seas mightier\nthan men do know\", or is overtaken by night \"wandering on the misty\nway \".[219] When Odin \"downward rode into Misty Hel\" he sang spells at\na \"witch's grave\", and the ghost rose up to answer his questions\nregarding Balder. \"Tell me tidings of Hel\", he addressed her, as\nGilgamesh addressed the ghost of Ea-bani.\n\nIn the mythical histories of Alexander the Great, the hero searches\nfor the Water of Life, and is confronted by a great mountain called\nMusas (Mashti). A demon stops him and says; \"O king, thou art not able\nto march through this mountain, for in it dwelleth a mighty god who is\nlike unto a monster serpent, and he preventeth everyone who would go\nunto him.\" In another part of the narrative Alexander and his army\narrive at a place of darkness \"where the blackness is not like the\ndarkness of night, but is like unto the mists and clouds which descend\nat the break of day\". A servant uses a shining jewel stone, which Adam\nhad brought from Paradise, to guide him, and found the well. He drank\nof the \"waters of life\" and bathed in them, with the result that he\nwas strengthened and felt neither hunger nor thirst. When he came out\nof the well \"all the flesh of his body became bluish-green and his\ngarments likewise bluish-green\". Apparently he assumed the colour of\nsupernatural beings. Rama of India was blue, and certain of his monkey\nallies were green, like the fairies of England and Scotland. This\nfortunate man kept his secret. His name was Matun, but he was\nafterwards nicknamed \"'El-Khidr', that is to say, 'Green'\". What\nexplanation he offered for his sudden change of appearance has not\nbeen recorded.[220] It is related that when Matun reached the Well of\nLife a dried fish which he dipped in the water was restored to life\nand swam away. In the _Koran_ a similar story is told regarding Moses\nand Joshua, who travelled \"for a long space of time\" to a place where\ntwo seas met. \"They forgot their fish which they had taken with them,\nand the fish took its way freely to the sea.\" The Arabian commentators\nexplain that Moses once agreed to the suggestion that he was the\nwisest of men. In a dream he was directed to visit Al Khedr, who was\n\"more knowing than he\", and to take a fish with him in a basket. On\nthe seashore Moses fell asleep, and the fish, which had been roasted,\nleapt out of the basket into the sea. Another version sets forth that\nJoshua, \"making the ablution at the fountain of life\", some of the\nwater happened to be sprinkled on the fish, which immediately leapt\nup.[221]\n\nThe Well of Life is found in Fingalian legends. When Diarmid was\nmortally wounded by the boar, he called upon Finn to carry water to\nhim from the well:\n\n    Give me a draught from thy palms, O Finn,\n    Son of my king for my succour,\n    For my life and my dwelling.\n\n            _Campbell's West Highland Tales_, vol. iii, 80.\n\nThe quest of the plant, flower, or fruit of life is referred to in\nmany folk tales. In the _Mahabharata_, Bhima, the Indian Gilgamesh or\nHercules, journeys to north-eastern Celestial regions to find the lake\nof the god Kuvera (Kubera), on which grow the \"most beautiful and\nunearthly lotuses\", which restore health and give strength to the\nweary. As Gilgamesh meets with Pir-napishtim, who relates the story of\nthe Deluge which destroyed the \"elder race\", Bhima meets with Hanuman,\nwho informs him regarding the Ages of the Universe and the races which\nwere periodically destroyed by deluges. When Bhima reaches the lotus\nlake he fights with demons. To heal his wounds and recover strength he\nplunges into the lake. \"As he drank of the waters, like unto nectar,\nhis energy and strength were again fully restored.\"[222]\n\nHercules similarly sets out to search for the golden apples which grow\nin\n\n      those Hesperian gardens famed of old,\n    Fortunate fields, and groves and flowery vales.\n\nAs Bhima slew Yakshas which guarded the lotuses, Hercules slew Ladon,\nthe guardian of the apples. Other heroes kill treasure-protecting\ndragons of various kinds.\n\nThere is a remarkable resemblance between the Babylonian account of\nGilgamesh's journey through the mountain tunnel to the garden and\nseashore, and the Indian story of the demigod Hanuman passing through\nthe long cavern to the shoreland palace of the female ascetic, when he\nwas engaged searching for Sita, the wife of Rama, who had been carried\naway by Ravana, the demon king of Ceylon. In the version of the latter\nnarrative which is given in the _Mahabharata_, Hanuman says: \"I bring\nthee good news, O Rama; for Janaka's daughter hath been seen by me.\nHaving searched the southern region with all its hills, forests, and\nmines for some time, we became very weary. At length we beheld a great\ncavern. And having beheld it, we entered that cavern which extended\nover many _yojanas_. It was dark and deep, and overgrown with trees\nand infested by worms. And having gone a great way through it, we came\nupon sunshine and beheld a beautiful palace. It was the abode of the\nDaitya (sea demon) Maya. And there we beheld a female ascetic named\nParbh\u00e0vati engaged in ascetic austerities. And she gave us food and\ndrink of various kinds. And having refreshed ourselves therewith and\nregained our strength, we proceeded along the way shown by her. At\nlast we came out of the cavern and beheld the briny sea, and on its\nshores, the _Sahya_, the _Malaya_, and the great _Dardura_ mountains.\nAnd ascending the mountains of _Malaya_, we beheld before us the vast\nocean (or, \"the abode of Varuna\"). And beholding it, we felt sorely\ngrieved in mind.... We despaired of returning with our lives.... We\nthen sat together, resolved to die there of starvation.\"\n\nHanuman and his friends, having had, so far, experiences similar to\nthose of Gilgamesh, next discovered the eagle giant which had burned\nits wings when endeavouring to soar to the sun. This great bird, which\nresembles the Etana eagle, expressed the opinion that Sita was in\nLanka (Ceylon), whither she must have been carried by Ravana. But no\none dared to cross the dangerous ocean. Hanuman at length, however,\nobtained the assistance of Vayu, the wind god, his divine father, and\nleapt over the sea, slaying monsters as he went. He discovered where\nthe fair lady was concealed by the king of demons.[223]\n\nThe dark tunnel is met with in many British stories of daring heroes\nwho set out to explore it, but never return. In the Scottish versions\nthe adventurers are invariably pipers who are accompanied by dogs. The\nsound of the pipes is heard for a time; then the music ceases\nsuddenly, and shortly afterwards the dog returns without a hair upon\nits body. It has evidently been in conflict with demons.\n\nThe tunnel may run from a castle to the seashore, from a cave on one\nside of a hill to a cave on the other, or from a seashore cave to a\ndistant island.\n\nIt is possible that these widespread tunnel stories had origin among\nthe cave dwellers of the Palaeolithic Age, who believed that deep\ncaverns were the doors of the underground retreats of dragons and\ngiants and other supernatural enemies of mankind.\n\nIn Babylonia, as elsewhere, the priests utilized the floating material\nfrom which all mythologies were framed, and impressed upon it the\nstamp of their doctrines. The symbolized stories were afterwards\ndistributed far and wide, as were those attached to the memory of\nAlexander the Great at a later period. Thus in many countries may be\nfound at the present day different versions of immemorial folk tales,\nwhich represent various stages of culture, and direct and indirect\ncontact at different periods with civilizations that have stirred the\nocean of human thought, and sent their ideas rippling in widening\ncircles to far-distant shores.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\nDELUGE LEGEND, THE ISLAND OF THE BLESSED, AND HADES\n\n\n  Babylonian Story of the Flood--The Two Immortals on the Island of\n  the Blessed--Deluge Legends in the Old and New Worlds--How\n  Babylonian Culture reached India--Theory of Cosmic\n  Periods--Gilgamesh resembles the Indian Yama and Persian\n  Yimeh--Links with Varuna and Mitra--The Great Winter in Persian and\n  Teutonic Mythologies--Babylonian Hades compared with the Egyptian,\n  Greek, Indian, Teutonic, and Celtic Otherworlds--Legend of Nergal\n  and the Queen of Death--Underworld originally the Grave--Why\n  Weapons, &c., were Buried with the Dead--Japanese and Roman\n  Beliefs--Palaeolithic Burial Customs--\"Our Graves are our\n  Houses\"--Importance of Babylonian Funerary Ceremonies--Doctrine of\n  Eternal Bliss in Egypt and India--Why Suppressed in Babylonia--Heavy\n  Burial Fees--Various Burial Customs.\n\n\nThe story of the Deluge which was related to Gilgamesh by\nPir-napishtim runs as follows:--\n\n\"Hear me, O Gilgamesh, and I will make revelation regarding the hidden\ndoings of the high gods. As thou knowest, the city of Shurippak is\nsituated upon the bank of the Euphrates. The gods were within it:\nthere they assembled together in council. Anu, the father, was there,\nand Bel the counsellor and warrior, Ninip the messenger, and Ennugi\nthe governor. Ea, the wise lord, sat also with them. In their hearts\nthe gods agreed together to send a great deluge.\n\n\"Thereafter Ea made known the purpose of the divine rulers in the hut\nof reeds, saying:[224] 'O hut of reeds, hear; O wall, understand ... O\nman of Shurippak, son of Umbara Tutu, tear down thy house and build a\nship; leave all thou dost possess and save thy life, and preserve in\nthe ship the living seed of every kind. The ship that thou wilt build\nmust be of goodly proportions in length and height. It must be floated\non the great deep.'\n\n\"I heard the command of Ea and understood, and I made answer, saying,\n'O wise lord, as thou hast said so will I do, for thy counsel is most\nexcellent. But how shall I give reason for my doings to the young men\nand the elders?'\n\n\"Ea opened his mouth and said unto me, his servant: 'What thou shalt\nsay unto them is this.... _It hath been revealed unto me that Bel doth\nhate me, therefore I cannot remain any longer in his domain, this city\nof Shurippak, so I must depart unto the domain of Ea and dwell with\nhim.... Unto you will Bel send abundance of rain, so that you may\nobtain birds and fishes in plenty and have a rich harvest. But Shamash\nhath appointed a time for Ramman to pour down destruction from the\nheavens._'\"[225]\n\nEa then gave instructions to Pir-napishtim how to build the ship in\nwhich he should find refuge. So far as can be gathered from the\nfragmentary text, it appears that this vessel was to have a deck house\nsix stories high, with nine apartments in each story. According to\nanother account, Ea drew a plan of the great ship upon the sand.\n\nPir-napishtim set to work and made a flat-bottomed vessel, which was\n120 cubits wide and 120 cubits in height. He smeared it with bitumen\ninside and pitch outside; and on the seventh day it was ready. Then he\ncarried out Ea's further instructions. Continuing his narrative to\nGilgamesh, he said:\n\n\"I gathered together all that I possessed, my silver and gold and\nseeds of every kind, and my goods also. These I placed in the ship.\nThen I caused to go aboard all my family and house servants, the\nanimals of the field and the beasts of the field and the\nworkers--every one of them I sent up.\n\n\"The god Shamash appointed the time, saying: 'I will cause the Night\nLord to send much rain and bring destruction. Then enter thou the ship\nand shut thy door.'\n\n\"At the appointed time the Night Lord sent at even-time much rain. I\nsaw the beginning of the deluge and I was afraid to look up. I entered\nthe ship and shut the door. I appointed Buzur-Kurgala, the sailor, to\nbe captain, and put under his command the great vessel and all that it\ncontained.\n\n\"At the dawn of day I saw rising athwart the heavens a dark cloud, and\nin the midst of it Ramman thundered. Nebo and Merodach went in front,\nspeeding like emissaries over hills and plains. The cables of the ship\nwere let loose.\n\n\"Then Ninip, the tempest god, came nigh, and the storm broke in fury\nbefore him. All the earth spirits leapt up with flaming torches and\nthe whole land was aflare. The thunder god swept over the heavens,\nblotting out the sunlight and bringing thick darkness. Rain poured\ndown the whole day long, and the earth was covered with water; the\nrivers were swollen; the land was in confusion; men stumbled about in\nthe darkness, battling with the elements. Brothers were unable to see\nbrothers; no man could recognize his friends.... The spirits above\nlooked down and beheld the rising flood and were afraid: they fled\naway, and in the heaven of Anu they crouched like to hounds in the\nprotecting enclosures.\n\n\"In time Ishtar, the lady of the gods, cried out distressfully,\nsaying: 'The elder race hath perished and turned to clay because that\nI have consented to evil counsel in the assembly of the gods. Alas! I\nhave allowed my people to be destroyed. I gave being to man, but where\nis he? Like the offspring of fish he cumbers the deep.'\n\n\"The earth spirits were weeping with Ishtar: they sat down cowering\nwith tightened lips and spake not; they mourned in silence.\n\n\"Six days and six nights went past, and the tempest raged over the\nwaters which gradually covered the land. But when the seventh day\ncame, the wind fell, the whirling waters grew peaceful, and the sea\nretreated. The storm was over and the rain of destruction had ceased.\nI looked forth. I called aloud over the waters. But all mankind had\nperished and turned to clay. Where fields had been I saw marshes only.\n\n\"Then I opened wide the window of the ship, and the sunlight suffused\nmy countenance. I was dazzled and sank down weeping and the tears\nstreamed over my face. Everywhere I looked I saw water.\n\n\"At length, land began to appear. The ship drifted towards the country\nof Nitsir, and then it was held fast by the mountain of Nitsir. Six\ndays went past and the ship remained stedfast. On the seventh day I\nsent forth a dove, and she flew away and searched this way and that,\nbut found no resting place, so she returned. I then sent forth a\nswallow, and she returned likewise. Next I sent forth a raven, and she\nflew away. She saw that the waters were shrinking, and gorged and\ncroaked and waded, but did not come back. Then I brought forth all the\nanimals into the air of heaven.\n\n\"An offering I made on the mountain. I poured out a libation. I set up\nincense vessels seven by seven on heaped-up reeds and used cedar wood\nwith incense. The gods smelt the sweet savour, and they clustered like\nflies about the sacrificer.\n\n\"Thereafter Ishtar (Sirtu) drew nigh. Lifting up the jewels, which the\ngod Anu had fashioned for her according to her desire, she spake,\nsaying: 'Oh! these gods! I vow by the lapis lazuli gems upon my neck\nthat I will never forget! I will remember these days for ever and\never. Let all the gods come hither to the offering, save Bel (Enlil)\nalone, because that he ignored my counsel, and sent a great deluge\nwhich destroyed my people.'\n\n\"But Bel Enlil came also, and when he beheld the ship he paused. His\nheart was filled with wrath against the gods and the spirits of\nheaven. Angrily he spake and said: 'Hath one escaped? It was decreed\nthat no human being should survive the deluge.'\n\n\"Ninip, son of Bel, spoke, saying: 'Who hath done this save Ea alone?\nHe knoweth all things.'\n\n\"Ea, god of the deep, opened his mouth and said unto the warrior Bel:\n'Thou art the lord of the gods, O warrior. But thou wouldst not\nhearken to my counsel and caused the deluge to be. Now punish the\nsinner for his sins and the evil doer for his evil deed, but be\nmerciful and do not destroy all mankind. May there never again be a\nflood. Let the lion come and men will decrease. May there never again\nbe a flood. Let the leopard come and men will decrease. May there\nnever again be a flood. Let famine come upon the land; let Ura, god of\npestilence, come and snatch off mankind.... I did not reveal the\nsecret purpose of the mighty gods, but I caused Atra-chasis\n(Pir-napishtim) to dream a dream in which he had knowledge of what the\ngods had decreed.'\n\n\"Having pondered a time over these words, Bel entered the ship alone.\nHe grasped my hand and led me forth, even me, and he led forth my wife\nalso, and caused her to kneel down beside me. Then he stood between us\nand gave his blessing. He spoke, saying: 'In time past Pir-napishtim\nwas a man. Henceforth Pir-napishtim and his wife will be like unto\ndeities, even us. Let them dwell apart beyond the river mouths.'\n\n\"Thereafter Bel carried me hither beyond the mouths of rivers.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nFlood myths are found in many mythologies both in the Old World and\nthe New.\n\nThe violent and deceitful men of the mythical Bronze Age of Greece\nwere destroyed by a flood. It is related that Zeus said on one\noccasion to Hermes: \"I will send a great rain, such as hath not been\nsince the making of the world, and the whole race of men shall perish.\nI am weary of their iniquity.\"\n\nFor receiving with hospitable warmth these two gods in human guise,\nDeucalion, an old man, and his wife Pyrrha were spared, however. Zeus\ninstructed his host to build an ark of oak, and store it well with\nfood. When this was done, the couple entered the vessel and shut the\ndoor. Then Zeus \"broke up all the fountains of the deep, and opened\nthe well springs of heaven, and it rained for forty days and forty\nnights continually\". The Bronze folk perished: not even those who fled\nto the hilltops could escape. The ark rested on Parnassus, and when\nthe waters ebbed the old couple descended the mountain and took up\ntheir abode in a cave.[226]\n\nIn Indian mythology the world is destroyed by a flood at the end of\neach Age of the Universe. There are four ages: the Krita or Perfect\nAge, the Treta Age, the Dwapara Age, and the Kali or Wicked Age. These\ncorrespond closely to the Greek and Celtic ages.[227] There are also\nreferences in Sanskrit literature to the destruction of the world\nbecause too many human beings lived upon it. \"When the increase of\npopulation had been so frightful,\" a sage related, \"the Earth,\noppressed with the excessive burden, sank down for a hundred Yojanas.\nSuffering pain in all her limbs, and being deprived of her senses by\nexcessive pressure, the Earth in distress sought the protection of\nNarayana, the foremost of the gods.\"[228]\n\nManu's account of the flood has been already referred to (Chapter II).\nThe god in fish shape informed him: \"The time is ripe for purging the\nworld.... Build a strong and massive ark, and furnish it with a long\nrope....\" When the waters rose the horned fish towed the ark over the\nroaring sea, until it grounded on the highest peak of the Himavat,\nwhich is still called Naubandha (the harbour). Manu was accompanied by\nseven rishis.[229]\n\nIn the Celtic (Irish) account of the flood, Cessair, granddaughter of\nNoah, was refused a chamber for herself in the ark, and fled to the\nwestern borders of the world as advised by her idol.[230] Her fleet\nconsisted of three ships, but two foundered before Ireland was\nreached. The survivors in addition to Cessair were, her father Bith,\ntwo other men, Fintan and Ladru, and fifty women. All of these\nperished on the hills except Fintan, who slept on the crest of a great\nbillow, and lived to see Partholon, the giant, arriving from Greece.\n\nThere is a deluge also in Egyptian mythology. When Ra, the sun god,\ngrew old as an earthly king, men began to mutter words against him. He\ncalled the gods together and said: \"I will not slay them (his\nsubjects) until I have heard what ye say concerning them.\" Nu, his\nfather, who was the god of primeval waters, advised the wholesale\ndestruction of mankind.\n\nSaid Ra: \"Behold men flee unto the hills; their heart is full of fear\nbecause of that which they said.\"\n\nThe goddess Hathor-Sekhet, the Eye of Ra, then went forth and slew\nmankind on the hills. Thereafter Ra, desiring to protect the remnant\nof humanity, caused a great offering to be made to the goddess,\nconsisting of corn beer mixed with herbs and human blood. This drink\nwas poured out during the night. \"And the goddess came in the morning;\nshe found the fields inundated, she rejoiced thereat, she drank\nthereof, her heart was rejoiced, she went about drunken and took no\nmore cognizance of men.\"[231]\n\nIt is obvious that the Egyptian myth refers to the annual inundation\nof the Nile, the \"human blood\" in the \"beer\" being the blood of the\nslain corn god, or of his earthly representative. It is probable that\nthe flood legends of North and South America similarly reflected local\nphenomena, although the possibility that they were of Asiatic origin,\nlike the American Mongoloid tribes, cannot be overlooked. Whether or\nnot Mexican civilization, which was flourishing about the time of the\nbattle of Hastings, received any cultural stimulus from Asia is a\nquestion regarding which it would be unsafe to dogmatize, owing to the\nmeagre character of the available data.\n\nThe Mexican deluge was caused by the \"water sun\", which suddenly\ndischarged the moisture it had been drawing from the earth in the form\nof vapour through long ages. All life was destroyed.\n\nA flood legend among the Nahua tribes resembles closely the Babylonian\nstory as told by Pir-napishtim. The god Titlacahuan instructed a man\nnamed Nata to make a boat by hollowing out a cypress tree, so as to\nescape the coming deluge with his wife Nena. This pair escaped\ndestruction. They offered up a fish sacrifice in the boat and enraged\nthe deity who visited them, displaying as much indignation as did Bel\nwhen he discovered that Pir-napishtim had survived the great disaster.\nNata and Nena had been instructed to take with them one ear of maize\nonly, which suggests that they were harvest spirits.\n\nIn Brazil, Monan, the chief god, sent a great fire to burn up the\nworld and its wicked inhabitants. To extinguish the flames a magician\ncaused so much rain to fall that the earth was flooded.\n\nThe Californian Indians had a flood legend, and believed that the\nearly race was diminutive; and the Athapascan Indians of the\nnorth-west professed to be descendants of a family who escaped the\ndeluge. Indeed, deluge myths were widespread in the \"New World\".\n\nThe American belief that the first beings who were created were unable\nto live on earth was shared by the Babylonians. According to Berosus\nthe first creation was a failure, because the animals could not bear\nthe light and they all died.[232] Here we meet with the germs of the\nDoctrine of the World's Ages, which reached its highest development in\nIndian, Greek, and Celtic (Irish) mythologies.\n\nThe Biblical account of the flood is familiar to readers. \"It forms\",\nsays Professor Pinches, \"a good subject for comparison with the\nBabylonian account, with which it agrees so closely in all the main\npoints, and from which it differs so much in many essential\ndetails.\"[233]\n\nThe drift of Babylonian culture was not only directed westward towards\nthe coast of Palestine, and from thence to Greece during the\nPhoenician period, but also eastward through Elam to the Iranian\nplateau and India. Reference has already been made to the resemblances\nbetween early Vedic and Sumerian mythologies. When the \"new songs\" of\nthe Aryan invaders of India were being composed, the sky and ocean\ngod, Varuna, who resembles Ea-Oannes, and Mitra, who links with\nShamash, were already declining in splendour. Other cultural\ninfluences were at work. Certain of the Aryan tribes, for instance,\nburied their dead in Varuna's \"house of clay\", while a growing\nproportion cremated their dead and worshipped Agni, the fire god. At\nthe close of the Vedic period there were fresh invasions into middle\nIndia, and the \"late comers\" introduced new beliefs, including the\ndoctrines of the Transmigration of Souls and of the Ages of the\nUniverse. Goddesses also rose into prominence, and the Vedic gods\nbecame minor deities, and subject to Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. These\n\"late comers\" had undoubtedly been influenced by Babylonian ideas\nbefore they entered India. In their Doctrine of the World's Ages or\nYugas, for instance, we are forcibly reminded of the Euphratean ideas\nregarding space and time. Mr. Robert Brown, junr., who is an authority\nin this connection, shows that the system by which the \"Day of Brahma\"\nwas calculated in India resembles closely an astronomical system which\nobtained in Babylonia, where apparently the theory of cosmic periods\nhad origin.[234]\n\nThe various alien peoples, however, who came under the spell of\nBabylonian modes of thought did not remain in a state of intellectual\nbondage. Thought was stimulated rather than arrested by religious\nborrowing, and the development of ideas regarding the mysteries of\nlife and death proceeded apace in areas over which the ritualistic and\nrestraining priesthood of Babylonia exercised no sway. As much may be\ninferred from the contrasting conceptions of the Patriarchs of Vedic\nand Sumerian mythologies. Pir-napishtim, the Babylonian Noah, and the\nsemi-divine Gilgamesh appear to be represented in Vedic mythology by\nYama, god of the dead. Yama was \"the first man\", and, like Gilgamesh,\nhe set out on a journey over mountains and across water to discover\nParadise. He is lauded in the Vedic hymns as the explorer of \"the\npath\" or \"way\" to the \"Land of the Pitris\" (Fathers), the Paradise to\nwhich the Indian uncremated dead walked on foot. Yama never lost his\noriginal character. He is a traveller in the Epics as in the\nVedas.[235]\n\n    Him who along the mighty heights departed, Him who searched and\n    spied the path for many, Son of Vivasvat, gatherer of the people,\n    Yama, the King, with sacrifices worship. _Rigveda_, x, 14, 1.[236]\n    To Yama, mighty King, be gifts and homage paid, He was the first\n    of men that died, the first to brave Death's rapid rushing stream,\n    the first to point the road To heaven, and welcome others to that\n    bright abode. _Sir M. Monier Williams' Translation_.[237]\n\nYama and his sister Yami were the first human pair. They are identical\nwith the Persian Celestial twins, Yima and Yimeh. Yima resembles Mitra\n(Mithra); Varuna, the twin brother of Mitra, in fact, carries the\nnoose associated with the god of death.[238]\n\nThe Indian Yama, who was also called Pitripati, \"lord of the fathers\",\ntakes Mitra's place in the Paradise of Ancestors beside Varuna, god of\nthe sky and the deep. He sits below a tree, playing on a flute and\ndrinking the Soma drink which gives immortality. When the descendants\nof Yama reached Paradise they assumed shining forms \"refined and from\nall taint set free\".[239]\n\nIn Persian mythology \"Yima\", says Professor Moulton, \"reigns over a\ncommunity which may well have been composed of his own descendants,\nfor he lived yet longer than Adam. To render them immortal, he gives\nthem to eat forbidden food, being deceived by the Daevas (demons).\nWhat was this forbidden food? May we connect it with another legend\nwhereby, at the Regeneration, Mithra is to make men immortal by giving\nthem to eat the fat of the _Ur-Kuh_, the primeval cow from whose slain\nbody, according to the Aryan legends adopted by Mithraism, mankind was\nfirst created?\"\n\nYima is punished for \"presumptuously grasping at immortality for\nhimself and mankind, on the suggestion of an evil power, instead of\nwaiting Ahura's good time\". Professor Moulton wonders if this story,\nwhich he endeavours to reconstruct, \"owed anything to Babylon?\"\n\nYima, like the Babylonian Pir-napishtim, is also a revealer of the\nsecrets of creation. He was appointed to be \"Guardian, Overseer,\nWatcher over my Creation\" by Ahura, the supreme god. Three hundred\nyears went past--\n\n    Then the earth became abounding,\n    Full of flocks and full of cattle,\n    Full of men, of birds, dogs likewise,\n    Full of fires all bright and blazing,\n    Nor did men, flocks, herds of cattle,\n    Longer find them places in it.\n\n            _Jackson's Translation_.\n\nThe earth was thereafter cloven with a golden arrow. Yima then built a\nrefuge in which mankind and the domesticated animals might find\nshelter during a terrible winter. \"The picture\", says Professor\nMoulton, \"strongly tempts us to recognize the influence of the\nBabylonian Flood-Legend.\"[240] The \"Fimbul winter\" of Germanic\nmythology is also recalled. Odin asks in one of the Icelandic Eddie\npoems:\n\n    What beings shall live when the long dread winter\n      Comes o'er the people of earth?[241]\n\nIn another Eddie poem, the Voluspa, the Vala tells of a Sword Age, an\nAxe Age, a Wind Age, and a Wolf Age which is to come \"ere the world\nsinks\". After the battle of the gods and demons,\n\n    The sun is darkened, earth sinks in the sea.\n\nIn time, however, a new world appears.\n\n    I see uprising a second time\n    Earth from the Ocean, green anew;\n    The waters fall, on high the eagle\n    Flies o'er the fell and catches fish.\n\nWhen the surviving gods return, they will talk, according to the Vala\n(prophetess), of \"the great world serpent\" (Tiamat). The fields will\nbe sown and \"Balder will come\"[242]--apparently as Tammuz came. The\nassociation of Balder with corn suggests that, like Nata of the Nahua\ntribes, he was a harvest spirit, among other things.\n\nLeaving, meantime, the many problems which arise from consideration of\nthe Deluge legends and their connection with primitive agricultural\nmyths, the attention of readers may be directed to the Babylonian\nconception of the Otherworld.\n\nPir-napishtim, who escaped destruction at the Flood, resides in an\nIsland Paradise, which resembles the Greek \"Islands of the Blessed\",\nand the Irish \"Tir nan og\" or \"Land of the Young\", situated in the\nwestern ocean, and identical with the British[243]\n\n      island-valley of Avilion,\n    Where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow,\n    Nor ever wind blows loudly, but it lies\n    Deep meadow'd, happy, fair with orchard lawns\n    And bowery hollows crowned with summer sea.[244]\n\nOnly two human beings were permitted to reside on the Babylonian\nisland paradise, however. These were Pir-napishtim and his wife.\nApparently Gilgamesh could not join them there. His gods did not\ntransport heroes and other favoured individuals to a happy isle or\nisles like those of the Greeks and Celts and Aryo-Indians. There was\nno Heaven for the Babylonian dead. All mankind were doomed to enter\nthe gloomy Hades of the Underworld, \"the land of darkness and the\nshadow of death; a land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the\nshadow of death, without any order, and where the light is darkness\",\nas Job exclaimed in the hour of despair, lamenting his fate.[245]\n\nThis gloomy habitation of the dead resembles the Greek Hades, the\nTeutonic Nifelhel, and the Indian \"Put\". No detailed description of it\nhas been found. The references, however, in the \"Descent of Ishtar\"\nand the Gilgamesh epic suggest that it resembled the hidden regions of\nthe Egyptians, in which souls were tortured by demons who stabbed\nthem, plunged them in pools of fire, and thrust them into cold outer\ndarkness where they gnashed their teeth, or into places of horror\nswarming with poisonous reptiles.\n\nIshtar was similarly tortured by the plague demon, Namtar, when she\nboldly entered the Babylonian Underworld to search for Tammuz. Other\nsufferings were, no doubt, in store for her, resembling those,\nperhaps, with which the giant maid in the Eddic poem \"Skirnismal\" was\nthreatened when she refused to marry Frey, the god of fertility and\nharvest:\n\n    Trolls shall torment thee from morn till eve\n      In the realms of the Jotun race,\n    Each day to the dwellings of Frost giants must thou\n      Creep helpless, creep hopeless of love;\n    Thou shalt weeping have in the stead of joy,\n      And sore burden bear with tears....\n    May madness and shrieking, bondage and yearning\n      Burden thee with bondage and tears.[246]\n\nIn like manner, too, the inhabitants of the Indian Hell suffered\nendless and complicated tortures.[247]\n\nThe Persephone of the Babylonian Underworld was Eresh-ki-gal, who was\nalso called Allatu. A myth, which was found among the Egyptian\nTel-el-Amarna \"Letters\", sets forth that on one occasion the\nBabylonian gods held a feast. All the deities attended it, except\nEresh-ki-gal. She was unable to leave her gloomy Underworld, and sent\nher messenger, the plague demon Namtar, to obtain her share. The\nvarious deities honoured Namtar, except Nergal, by standing up to\nreceive him. When Eresh-ki-gal was informed of this slight she became\nvery angry, and demanded that Nergal should be delivered up to her so\nthat he might be put to death. The storm god at once hastened to the\nUnderworld, accompanied by his own group of fierce demons, whom he\nplaced as guardians at the various doors so as to prevent the escape\nof Eresh-ki-gal. Then he went boldly towards the goddess, clutched her\nby the hair, and dragged her from her throne. After a brief struggle,\nshe found herself overpowered. Nergal made ready to cut off her head,\nbut she cried for mercy and said: \"Do not kill me, my brother! Let me\nspeak to thee.\"\n\nThis appeal indicated that she desired to ransom her life--like the\nhags in the European folk tales--so Nergal unloosed his hold.\n\nThen Eresh-ki-gal continued: \"Be thou my husband and I will be thy\nwife. On thee I confer sovereignty over the wide earth, giving thee\nthe tablet of wisdom. Thou shalt be my lord and I will be thy lady.\"\n\nNergal accepted these terms by kissing the goddess. Affectionately\ndrying her tears, he spoke, saying: \"Thou shalt now have from me what\nthou hast demanded during these past months.\"\n\nIn other words, Nergal promises to honour her as she desired, after\nbecoming her husband and equal.\n\nIn the \"Descent of Ishtar\" the Babylonian Underworld is called Cuthah.\nThis city had a famous cemetery, like Abydos in Egypt, where many\npious and orthodox worshippers sought sepulture. The local god was\nNergal, who symbolized the destructive power of the sun and the sand\nstorm; he was a gloomy, vengeful deity, attended by the spirits of\ntempest, weariness, pestilence, and disease, and was propitiated\nbecause he was dreaded.\n\nIn Nether Cuthah, as Ea-bani informed Gilgamesh, the worm devoured the\ndead amidst the dust and thick darkness.\n\nIt is evident that this Underworld was modelled on the grave. In early\ntimes men believed that the spirits of the dead hovered in or about\nthe place of sepulture. They were therefore provided with \"houses\" to\nprotect them, in the same manner as the living were protected in their\nhouses above the ground.\n\nThe enemies of the human ghosts were the earth spirits. Weapons were\nlaid beside the dead in their graves so that they might wage war\nagainst demons when necessary. The corpse was also charmed, against\nattack, by the magical and protecting ornaments which were worn by the\nliving--necklaces, armlets, ear-rings, &c. Even face paint was\nprovided, probably as a charm against the evil eye and other subtle\ninfluences.\n\nSo long as corpses were left in their graves, the spirits of the dead\nwere, it would appear, believed to be safe. But they required food and\nrefreshment. Food vessels and drinking urns were therefore included in\nthe funerary furniture, and the dead were given food offerings at\nregular intervals. Once a year the living held feasts in the burial\nground, and invited the ghosts to share in the repast. This custom was\nobserved in Babylonia, and is not yet obsolete in Egypt; Moslems and\nCoptic Christians alike hold annual all-night feasts in their\ncemeteries.\n\nThe Japanese \"Land of Yomi\" is similarly an underworld, or great\ngrave, where ghosts mingle with the demons of disease and destruction.\nSouls reach it by \"the pass of Yomi\". The Mikado, however, may be\nprivileged to ascend to heaven and join the gods in the \"Eternal\nLand\".\n\nAmong the ancient Romans the primitive belief survived that the spirit\nof the dead \"just sank into the earth where it rested, and returned\nfrom time to time to the upper world through certain openings in the\nground (mundi), whose solemn uncovering was one of the regular\nobservances of the festal calendar\".[248]\n\nAccording to Babylonian belief, the dead who were not properly buried\nroamed through the streets searching for food, eating refuse and\ndrinking impure water.\n\nPrior to the period of ceremonial burials, the dead were interred in\nthe houses in which they had lived--a custom which has made it\npossible for present-day scientists to accumulate much valuable data\nregarding primitive races and their habits of life. The Palaeolithic\ncave-dwellers of Europe were buried in their caves. These were then\ndeserted and became the haunts of wild animals. After a long interval\na deserted cave was occupied by strangers. In certain characteristic\ncaves the various layers containing human remains represent distinct\nperiods of the vast Pleistocene Age.\n\nWhen Mediterranean man moved northward through Europe, he utilized\nsome of these caves, and constructed in them well-built graves for his\ndead, digging down through older layers. In thus making a \"house\"\nwithin a \"house\", he has provided us with a link between an old custom\nand a new. Apparently he was influenced by local practices and\nbeliefs, for he met and mingled in certain localities with the men of\nthe Late Palaeolithic Age.\n\nThe primitive house-burial rite is referred to in the Ethiopic version\nof the life of Alexander the Great. The \"Two-horned\", as the hero was\ncalled, conversed with Brahmans when he reached India. He spoke to one\nof them, \"saying: 'Have ye no tombs wherein to bury any man among ye\nwho may die?' And an interpreter made answer to him, saying: 'Man and\nwoman and child grow up, and arrive at maturity, and become old, and\nwhen any one of them dieth we bury him in the place wherein he lived;\nthus our graves are our houses. And our God knoweth that we desire\nthis more than the lust for food and meat which all men have: this is\nour life and manner of living in the darkness of our tombs.'\" When\nAlexander desired to make a gift to these Brahmans, and asked them\nwhat they desired most, their answer was, \"Give us immortality\".[249]\n\nIn the Gilgamesh epic the only ray of hope which relieves the gloomy\nclosing passages is Ea-bani's suggestion that the sufferings endured\nby the dead may be alleviated by the performance of strict burial\nrites. Commenting on this point Professor Jastrow says: \"A proper\nburial with an affectionate care of the corpse ensures at least a\nquiet repose.\n\n    Such a one rests on a couch and drinks pure water;\n    But he whose shade has no rest in the earth, as I have seen and\n        you will see,\n    His shade has no rest in the earth\n    Whose shade no one cares for ...\n    What is left over in the pot, remains of food\n    That are thrown in the street, he eats.\"[250]\n\n            _Gilgamesh Epic_.\n\nBy disseminating the belief that the dead must be buried with much\nceremony, the priests secured great power over the people, and\nextracted large fees.\n\nIn Egypt, on the other hand, the teachers of the sun cult sold charms\nand received rewards to perform ceremonies so that chosen worshippers\nmight enter the sun-barque of Ra; while the Osirian priests promised\nthe just and righteous that they would reach an agricultural Paradise\nwhere they could live and work as on earth, but receive a greater\nreturn for their labour, the harvests of the Otherworld being of\nunequalled abundance.\n\nIn the sacred books of India a number of Paradises are referred to. No\nhuman beings, however, entered the Paradise of Varuna, who resembles\nthe Sumerian Ea-Oannes. The souls of the dead found rest and enjoyment\nin the Paradise of Yama, while \"those kings that yield up their lives,\nwithout turning their backs on the field of battle, attain\", as the\nsage told a hero, \"to the mansion of Indra\", which recalls the Valhal\nof Odin. It will thus be seen that belief in immortality was a tenet\nof the Indian cults of Indra and Yama.\n\nIt is possible that the Gilgamesh epic in one of its forms concluded\nwhen the hero reached the island of Pir-napishtim, like the Indian\nYama who \"searched and spied the path for many\". The Indian \"Land of\nthe Pitris\" (Ancestors), over which Yama presided, may be compared to\nthe Egyptian heaven of Osiris. It contains, we are told, \"all kinds of\nenjoyable articles\", and also \"sweet, juicy, agreeable and delicious\nedibles ... floral wreaths of the most delicious fragrance, and trees\nthat yield fruits that are desired of them\". Thither go \"all sinners\namong human beings, as also (those) that have died during the winter\nsolstice\"[251]--a suggestion that this Paradise was not unconnected\nwith the Tammuz-like deity who took up his abode in the spirit land\nduring the barren season.\n\nThe view may be urged that in the Gilgamesh epic we have a development\nof the Tammuz legend in its heroic form. Like Ishtar, when she\ndescended to Hades, the King of Erech could not return to earth until\nhe had been sprinkled by the water of life. No doubt, an incident of\nthis character occurred also in the original Tammuz legend. The life\nof the god had to be renewed before he could return. Did he slumber,\nlike one of the Seven Sleepers, in Ea's house, and not awake again\nuntil he arrived as a child in his crescent moon boat--\"the sunken\nboat\" of the hymns--like Scef, who came over the waves to the land of\nthe Scyldings?\n\nIt seems remarkable that the doctrine of Eternal Bliss, which obtained\nin Egypt on the one hand and in India on the other, should never have\nbeen developed among the Babylonians. Of course, our knowledge in this\nconnection is derived from the orthodox religious texts. Perhaps the\ngreat thinkers, whose influence can be traced in the tendencies\ntowards monotheism which became marked at various periods, believed in\na Heaven for the just and good. If they did, their teachings must have\nbeen suppressed by the mercenary priests. It was extremely profitable\nfor these priests to perpetuate the belief that the spirits of the\ndead were consigned to a gloomy Hades, where the degree of suffering\nwhich they endured depended on the manner in which their bodies were\ndisposed of upon earth. An orthodox funeral ceremony was costly at all\ntimes. This is made evident by the inscriptions which record the\nsocial reforms of Urukagina, the ill-fated patesi of Lagash. When he\ncame to the throne he cut down the burial fees by more than a half.\n\"In the case of an ordinary burial,\" writes Mr. King, \"when a corpse\nwas laid in a grave, it had been the custom for the presiding priest\nto demand as a fee for himself seven urns of wine or strong drink,\nfour hundred and twenty loaves of bread, one hundred and twenty\nmeasures of corn, a garment, a kid, a bed, and a seat.\" The reformer\nreduced the perquisites to \"three urns of wine, eighty loaves of\nbread, a bed, and a kid, while the fee of his (the priest's) assistant\nwas cut down from sixty to thirty measures of corn\".[252]\n\nThe conservative element in Babylonian religion is reflected by the\nburial customs. These did not change greatly after the Neolithic\nperiod. Prehistoric Sumerian graves resemble closely those of\npre-Dynastic Egypt. The bodies of the dead were laid on their sides in\ncrouching posture, with a \"beaker\", or \"drinking cup\" urn, beside the\nright hand. Other vessels were placed near the head. In this\nconnection it may be noted that the magic food prepared for Gilgamesh\nby Pir-napishtim's wife, when he lay asleep, was also placed near his\nhead.\n\nThe corpse was always decked with various ornaments, including rings,\nnecklaces, and armlets. As has been indicated, these were worn by the\nliving as charms, and, no doubt, they served the same purpose for the\ndead. This charm-wearing custom was condemned by the Hebrew teachers.\nOn one occasion Jacob commanded his household to \"put away the strange\ngods which were in their hand, and all the ear-rings which were in\ntheir ears; and Jacob buried them under the oak which was by\nShechem\".[253] To Jacob, personal ornaments had quite evidently an\nidolatrous significance.\n\n\"A very typical class of grave furniture\", writes Mr. King, \"consisted\nof palettes, or colour dishes, made of alabaster, often of graceful\nshape, and sometimes standing on four feet.... There is no doubt as to\ntheir use, for colour still remains in many of them, generally black\nand yellow, but sometimes a light rose and light green.\" Palettes for\nface paint have also been found in many early Egyptian graves.\n\nThe gods had their faces painted like the living and the dead and were\nsimilarly adorned with charms. In the course of the daily service in\nthe Egyptian temples an important ceremony was \"dressing the god with\nwhite, green, bright-red, and dark-red sashes, and supplying two kinds\nof ointment and black and green eye paint\".[254] In the word-picture\nof the Aryo-Indian Varuna's heaven in the _Mahabharata_ the deity is\ndepicted \"attired in celestial robes and decked with celestial\nornaments and jewels\". His attendants, the Adityas, appear \"adorned\nwith celestial garlands and perfumed with celestial scents and\nbesmeared with paste of celestial fragrance\".[255] Apparently the\n\"paste\", like the face paint of the Babylonians and Egyptians, had\nprotective qualities. The Picts of Scotland may have similarly painted\nthemselves to charm their bodies against magical influences and the\nweapons of their enemies. A painted man was probably regarded as one\nwho was likely to have good luck, being guarded against bad luck.\n\nWeapons and implements were also laid in the Sumerian graves,\nindicating a belief that the spirits of the dead could not only\nprotect themselves against their enemies but also provide themselves\nwith food. The funerary gifts of fish-hooks suggests that spirits were\nexpected to catch fish and thus obtain clean food, instead of\nreturning to disturb the living as they searched for the remnants of\nthe feast, like the Scottish Gunna,\n\n                 perched alone\n    On a chilly old grey stone,\n    Nibbling, nibbling at a bone\n      That we'll maybe throw away.\n\nSome bodies which were laid in Sumerian graves were wrapped up in reed\nmatting, a custom which suggests that the reeds afforded protection or\nimparted magical powers. Magical ceremonies were performed in\nBabylonian reed huts. As we have seen, Ea revealed the \"purpose\" of\nthe gods, when they resolved to send a flood, by addressing the reed\nhut in which Pir-napishtim lay asleep. Possibly it was believed that\nthe dead might also have visions in their dreams which would reveal\nthe \"purpose\" of demons who were preparing to attack them. In Syria it\nwas customary to wrap the dead in a sheep skin.[256] As priests and\ngods were clad in the skins of animals from which their powers were\nderived, it is probable that the dead were similarly supposed to\nreceive inspiration in their skin coverings. The Highland seer was\nwrapped in a bull's skin and left all night beside a stream so as to\nobtain knowledge of the future. This was a form of the Taghairm\nceremony, which is referred to by Scott in his \"Lady of the\nLake\".[257] The belief in the magical influence of sacred clothing\ngave origin to the priestly robes. When David desired to ascertain\nwhat Saul intended to do he said, \"Bring hither the ephod\". Then he\ncame to know that his enemy had resolved to attack Keilah.[258] Elisha\nbecame a prophet when he received Elijah's mantle.[259]\n\nSometimes the bodies of the Sumerians were placed in sarcophagi of\nclay. The earlier type was of \"bath-tub\" shape, round and\nflat-bottomed, with a rounded lid, while the later was the\n\"slipper-shaped coffin\", which was ornamented with charms. There is a\nclose resemblance between the \"bath-tub\" coffins of Sumeria and the\nEgyptian pottery coffins of oval shape found in Third and Fourth\nDynasty tombs in rock chambers near Nuerat. Certain designs on wooden\ncoffins, and tombs as early as the First Dynasty, have direct\nanalogies in Babylonia.[260]\n\nNo great tombs were erected in Sumeria. The coffins were usually laid\nin brick vaults below dwellings, or below temples, or in trenches\noutside the city walls. On the \"stele of victory\", which belongs to\nthe period of Eannatum, patesi of Lagash, the dead bodies on the\nbattlefield are piled up in pairs quite naked, and earth is being\nheaped over them; this is a specimen of mound burial.\n\nAccording to Herodotus the Babylonians \"buried their dead in honey,\nand had funeral lamentations like the Egyptians\".[261] The custom of\npreserving the body in this manner does not appear to have been an\nancient one, and may have resulted from cultural contact with the Nile\nvalley during the late Assyrian period. So long as the bones were\nundisturbed, the spirit was supposed to be assured of rest in the\nUnderworld. This archaic belief was widespread, and finds an echo in\nthe quaint lines over Shakespeare's grave in Stratford church:--\n\n    Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbeare\n    To dig the dust enclosed heare;\n    Blest be the man that spares these stones,\n    And curst be he that moves my bones.\n\nIn Babylonia the return of the spirits of the dead was greatly\ndreaded. Ishtar once uttered the terrible threat: \"I will cause the\ndead to rise; they will then eat and live. The dead will be more\nnumerous than the living.\" When a foreign country was invaded, it was\na common custom to break open the tombs and scatter the bones they\ncontained. Probably it was believed, when such acts of vandalism were\ncommitted, that the offended spirits would plague their kinsfolk.\nGhosts always haunted the homes they once lived in, and were as\nmalignant as demons. It is significant to find in this connection that\nthe bodies of enemies who were slain in battle were not given decent\nburial, but mutilated and left for birds and beasts of prey to devour.\n\nThe demons that plagued the dead might also attack the living. A\nfragmentary narrative, which used to be referred to as the \"Cuthean\nLegend of Creation\",[262] and has been shown by Mr. L.W. King to have\nno connection with the struggle between Merodach and the dragon,[263]\ndeals with a war waged by an ancient king against a horde of evil\nspirits, led by \"the lord of heights, lord of the Anunaki (earth\nspirits)\". Some of the supernatural warriors had bodies like birds;\nothers had \"raven faces\", and all had been \"suckled by Tiamat\".\n\nFor three years the king sent out great armies to attack the demons,\nbut \"none returned alive\". Then he decided to go forth himself to save\nhis country from destruction. So he prepared for the conflict, and\ntook the precaution of performing elaborate and therefore costly\nreligious rites so as to secure the co-operation of the gods. His\nexpedition was successful, for he routed the supernatural army. On his\nreturn home, he recorded his great victory on tablets which were\nplaced in the shrine of Nergal at Cuthah.\n\nThis myth may be an echo of Nergal's raid against Eresh-ki-gal. Or,\nbeing associated with Cuthah, it may have been composed to encourage\nburial in that city's sacred cemetery, which had been cleared by the\nfamous old king of the evil demons which tormented the dead and made\nseasonal attacks against the living.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\nBUILDINGS AND LAWS AND CUSTOMS OF BABYLON\n\n\n  Decline and Fall of Sumerian Kingdoms--Elamites and Semites strive\n  for Supremacy--Babylon's Walls, Gates, Streets, and Canals--The\n  Hanging Gardens--Merodach's Great Temple--The Legal Code of\n  Hammurabi--The Marriage Market--Position of Women--Marriage brought\n  Freedom--Vestal Virgins--Breach of Promise and Divorce--Rights of\n  Children--Female Publicans--The Land Laws--Doctors legislated out of\n  Existence--Folk Cures--Spirits of Disease expelled by Magical\n  Charms--The Legend of the Worm--\"Touch Iron\"--Curative\n  Water--Magical Origin of Poetry and Music.\n\n\nThe rise of Babylon inaugurated a new era in the history of Western\nAsia. Coincidentally the political power of the Sumerians came to an\nend. It had been paralysed by the Elamites, who, towards the close of\nthe Dynasty of Isin, successfully overran the southern district and\nendeavoured to extend their sway over the whole valley. Two Elamite\nkings, Warad-Sin and his brother Rim-Sin, struggled with the rulers of\nBabylon for supremacy, and for a time it appeared as if the intruders\nfrom the East were to establish themselves permanently as a military\naristocracy over Sumer and Akkad. But the Semites were strongly\nreinforced by new settlers of the same blended stock who swarmed from\nthe land of the Amorites. Once again Arabia was pouring into Syria\nvast hordes of its surplus population, with the result that ethnic\ndisturbances were constant and widespread. This migration is termed\nthe Canaanitic or Amorite: it flowed into Mesopotamia and across\nAssyria, while it supplied the \"driving power\" which secured the\nascendancy of the Hammurabi Dynasty at Babylon. Indeed, the ruling\nfamily which came into prominence there is believed to have been of\nCanaanitic origin.\n\nOnce Babylon became the metropolis it retained its pre-eminence until\nthe end. Many political changes took place during its long and\nchequered history, but no rival city in the south ever attained to its\nsplendour and greatness. Whether its throne was occupied by Amorite or\nKassite, Assyrian or Chaldean, it was invariably found to be the most\neffective centre of administration for the lower Tigro-Euphrates\nvalley. Some of the Kassite monarchs, however, showed a preference for\nNippur.\n\nOf its early history little is known. It was overshadowed in turn by\nKish and Umma, Lagash and Erech, and may have been little better than\na great village when Akkad rose into prominence. Sargon I, the royal\ngardener, appears to have interested himself in its development, for\nit was recorded that he cleared its trenches and strengthened its\nfortifications. The city occupied a strategic position, and probably\nassumed importance on that account as well as a trading and industrial\ncentre. Considerable wealth had accumulated at Babylon when the\nDynasty of Ur reached the zenith of its power. It is recorded that\nKing Dungi plundered its famous \"Temple of the High Head\", E-sagila,\nwhich some identify with the Tower of Babel, so as to secure treasure\nfor Ea's temple at Eridu, which he specially favoured. His vandalistic\nraid, like that of the Gutium, or men of Kutu, was remembered for long\ncenturies afterwards, and the city god was invoked at the time to cut\nshort his days.\n\nNo doubt, Hammurabi's Babylon closely resembled the later city so\nvividly described by Greek writers, although it was probably not of\nsuch great dimensions. According to Herodotus, it occupied an exact\nsquare on the broad plain, and had a circumference of sixty of our\nmiles. \"While such is its size,\" the historian wrote, \"in magnificence\nthere is no other city that approaches to it.\" Its walls were\neighty-seven feet thick and three hundred and fifty feet high, and\neach side of the square was fifteen miles in length. The whole city\nwas surrounded by a deep, broad canal or moat, and the river Euphrates\nran through it.\n\n\"Here\", continued Herodotus, \"I may not omit to tell the use to which\nthe mould dug out of the great moat was turned, nor the manner in\nwhich the wall was wrought. As fast as they dug the moat the soil\nwhich they got from the cutting was made into bricks, and when a\nsufficient number were completed they baked the bricks in kilns. Then\nthey set to building, and began with bricking the borders of the moat,\nafter which they proceeded to construct the wall itself, using\nthroughout for their cement hot bitumen, and interposing a layer of\nwattled reeds at every thirtieth course of the bricks. On the top,\nalong the edges of the wall, they constructed buildings of a single\nchamber facing one another, leaving between them room for a four-horse\nchariot to turn. In the circuit of the wall are a hundred gates, all\nof brass, with brazen lintels and side posts.\"[264] These were the\ngates referred to by Isaiah when God called Cyrus:\n\n    I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two\n    leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut: I will go before\n    thee, and make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces\n    the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron.[265]\n\nThe outer wall was the main defence of the city, but there was also an\ninner wall less thick but not much inferior in strength. In addition,\na fortress stood in each division of the city. The king's palace and\nthe temple of Bel Merodach were surrounded by walls.\n\nAll the main streets were perfectly straight, and each crossed the\ncity from gate to gate, a distance of fifteen miles, half of them\nbeing interrupted by the river, which had to be ferried. As there were\ntwenty-five gates on each side of the outer wall, the great\nthoroughfares numbered fifty in all, and there were six hundred and\nseventy-six squares, each over two miles in circumference. From\nHerodotus we gather that the houses were three or four stories high,\nsuggesting that the tenement system was not unknown, and according to\nQ. Curtius, nearly half of the area occupied by the city was taken up\nby gardens within the squares.\n\nIn Greek times Babylon was famous for the hanging or terraced gardens\nof the \"new palace\", which had been erected by Nebuchadnezzar II.\nThese occupied a square which was more than a quarter of a mile in\ncircumference. Great stone terraces, resting on arches, rose up like a\ngiant stairway to a height of about three hundred and fifty feet, and\nthe whole structure was strengthened by a surrounding wall over twenty\nfeet in thickness. So deep were the layers of mould on each terrace\nthat fruit trees were grown amidst the plants of luxuriant foliage and\nthe brilliant Asian flowers. Water for irrigating the gardens was\nraised from the river by a mechanical contrivance to a great cistern\nsituated on the highest terrace, and it was prevented from leaking out\nof the soil by layers of reeds and bitumen and sheets of lead.\nSpacious apartments, luxuriously furnished and decorated, were\nconstructed in the spaces between the arches and were festooned by\nflowering creepers. A broad stairway ascended from terrace to terrace.\n\nThe old palace stood in a square nearly four miles in circumference,\nand was strongly protected by three walls, which were decorated by\nsculptures in low relief, representing battle scenes and scenes of the\nchase and royal ceremonies. Winged bulls with human heads guarded the\nmain entrance.\n\nAnother architectural feature of the city was E-sagila, the temple of\nBel Merodach, known to the Greeks as \"Jupiter-Belus\". The high wall\nwhich enclosed it had gates of solid brass. \"In the middle of the\nprecinct\", wrote Herodotus, \"there was a tower of solid masonry, a\nfurlong in length and breadth, upon which was raised a second tower,\nand on that a third, and so on up to eight. The ascent to the top is\non the outside, by a path which winds round all the towers. When one\nis about halfway up, one finds a resting-place and seats, where\npersons are wont to sit some time on their way to the summit. On the\ntopmost tower there is a spacious temple, and inside the temple stands\na couch of unusual size, richly adorned, with a golden table by its\nside. There is no statue of any kind set up in the place, nor is the\nchamber occupied of nights by anyone but a single native woman, who,\nas the Chaldaeans, the priests of this god, affirm, is chosen for\nhimself by the deity out of all the women of the land.\"\n\nA woman who was the \"wife of Amon\" also slept in that god's temple at\nThebes in Egypt. A similar custom was observed in Lycia.\n\n\"Below, in the same precinct,\" continued Herodotus, \"there is a second\ntemple, in which is a sitting figure of Jupiter, all of gold. Before\nthe figure stands a large golden table, and the throne whereon it\nsits, and the base on which the throne is placed, are likewise of pure\ngold.... Outside the temple are two altars, one of solid gold, on\nwhich it is only lawful to offer sucklings; the other, a common altar,\nbut of great size, on which the full-grown animals are sacrificed. It\nis also on the great altar that the Chaldaeans burn the frankincense,\nwhich is offered to the amount of a thousand talents' weight, every\nyear, at the festival of the god. In the time of Cyrus there was\nlikewise in this temple a figure of a man, twelve cubits high,\nentirely of solid gold.... Besides the ornaments which I have\nmentioned, there are a large number of private offerings in this holy\nprecinct.\"[266]\n\nThe city wall and river gates were closed every night, and when\nBabylon was besieged the people were able to feed themselves. The\ngardens and small farms were irrigated by canals, and canals also\ncontrolled the flow of the river Euphrates. A great dam had been\nformed above the town to store the surplus water during inundation and\nincrease the supply when the river sank to its lowest.\n\nIn Hammurabi's time the river was crossed by ferry boats, but long ere\nthe Greeks visited the city a great bridge had been constructed. So\ncompletely did the fierce Sennacherib destroy the city, that most of\nthe existing ruins date from the period of Nebuchadnezzar II.[267]\n\nOur knowledge of the social life of Babylon and the territory under\nits control is derived chiefly from the Hammurabi Code of laws, of\nwhich an almost complete copy was discovered at Susa, towards the end\nof 1901, by the De Morgan expedition. The laws were inscribed on a\nstele of black diorite 7 ft. 3 in. high, with a circumference at the\nbase of 6 ft. 2 in. and at the top of 5 ft. 4 in. This important relic\nof an ancient law-abiding people had been broken in three pieces, but\nwhen these were joined together it was found that the text was not\nmuch impaired. On one side are twenty-eight columns and on the other\nsixteen. Originally there were in all nearly 4000 lines of\ninscriptions, but five columns, comprising about 300 lines, had been\nerased to give space, it is conjectured, for the name of the invader\nwho carried the stele away, but unfortunately the record was never\nmade.\n\nOn the upper part of the stele, which is now one of the treasures of\nthe Louvre, Paris, King Hammurabi salutes, with his right hand\nreverently upraised, the sun god Shamash, seated on his throne, at the\nsummit of E-sagila, by whom he is being presented with the stylus with\nwhich to inscribe the legal code. Both figures are heavily bearded,\nbut have shaven lips and chins. The god wears a conical headdress and\na flounced robe suspended from his left shoulder, while the king has\nassumed a round dome-shaped hat and a flowing garment which almost\nsweeps the ground.\n\nIt is gathered from the Code that there were three chief social\ngrades--the aristocracy, which included landowners, high officials and\nadministrators; the freemen, who might be wealthy merchants or small\nlandholders; and the slaves. The fines imposed for a given offence\nupon wealthy men were much heavier than those imposed upon the poor.\nLawsuits were heard in courts. Witnesses were required to tell the\ntruth, \"affirming before the god what they knew\", and perjurers were\nseverely dealt with; a man who gave false evidence in connection with\na capital charge was put to death. A strict watch was also kept over\nthe judges, and if one was found to have willingly convicted a\nprisoner on insufficient evidence he was fined and degraded.\n\nTheft was regarded as a heinous crime, and was invariably punished by\ndeath. Thieves included those who made purchases from minors or slaves\nwithout the sanction of elders or trustees. Sometimes the accused was\ngiven the alternative of paying a fine, which might exceed by ten or\neven thirty fold the value of the article or animal he had\nappropriated. It was imperative that lost property should be restored.\nIf the owner of an article of which he had been wrongfully deprived\nfound it in possession of a man who declared that he had purchased it\nfrom another, evidence was taken in court. When it happened that the\nseller was proved to have been the thief, the capital penalty was\nimposed. On the other hand, the alleged purchaser was dealt with in\nlike manner if he failed to prove his case. Compensation for property\nstolen by a brigand was paid by the temple, and the heirs of a man\nslain by a brigand within the city had to be compensated by the local\nauthority.\n\nOf special interest are the laws which relate to the position of\nwomen. In this connection reference may first be made to the\nmarriage-by-auction custom, which Herodotus described as follows:\n\"Once a year in each village the maidens of age to marry were\ncollected all together into one place, while the men stood round them\nin a circle. Then a herald called up the damsels one by one, and\noffered them for sale. He began with the most beautiful. When she was\nsold for no small sum of money, he offered for sale the one who came\nnext to her in beauty. All of them were sold to be wives. The richest\nof the Babylonians who wished to wed bid against each other for the\nloveliest maidens, while the humbler wife-seekers, who were\nindifferent about beauty, took the more homely damsels with marriage\nportions. For the custom was that when the herald had gone through the\nwhole number of the beautiful damsels, he should then call up the\nugliest--a cripple, if there chanced to be one--and offer her to the\nmen, asking who would agree to take her with the smallest marriage\nportion. And the man who offered to take the smallest sum had her\nassigned to him. The marriage portions were furnished by the money\npaid for the beautiful damsels, and thus the fairer maidens portioned\nout the uglier. No one was allowed to give his daughter in marriage to\nthe man of his choice, nor might anyone carry away the damsel whom he\nhad purchased without finding bail really and truly to make her his\nwife; if, however, it turned out that they did not agree, the money\nmight be paid back. All who liked might come, even from distant\nvillages, and bid for the women.\"[268]\n\nThis custom is mentioned by other writers, but it is impossible to\nascertain at what period it became prevalent in Babylonia and by whom\nit was introduced. Herodotus understood that it obtained also in \"the\nIllyrian tribe of the Eneti\", which was reputed to have entered Italy\nwith Antenor after the fall of Troy, and has been identified with the\nVenetians of later times. But the ethnic clue thus afforded is\nexceedingly vague. There is no direct reference to the custom in the\nHammurabi Code, which reveals a curious blending of the principles of\n\"Father right\" and \"Mother right\". A girl was subject to her father's\nwill; he could dispose of her as he thought best, and she always\nremained a member of his family; after marriage she was known as the\ndaughter of so and so rather than the wife of so and so. But marriage\nbrought her freedom and the rights of citizenship. The power vested in\nher father was never transferred to her husband.\n\nA father had the right to select a suitable spouse for his daughter,\nand she could not marry without his consent. That this law did not\nprevent \"love matches\" is made evident by the fact that provision was\nmade in the Code for the marriage of a free woman with a male slave,\npart of whose estate in the event of his wife's death could be claimed\nby his master.\n\nWhen a betrothal was arranged, the father fixed the \"bride price\",\nwhich was paid over before the contract could be concluded, and he\nalso provided a dowry. The amount of the \"bride price\" might, however,\nbe refunded to the young couple to give them a start in life. If,\nduring the interval between betrothal and marriage, the man \"looked\nupon another woman\", and said to his father-in-law, \"I will not marry\nyour daughter\", he forfeited the \"bride price\" for breach of promise\nof marriage.\n\nA girl might also obtain a limited degree of freedom by taking vows of\ncelibacy and becoming one of the vestal virgins, or nuns, who were\nattached to the temple of the sun god. She did not, however, live a\nlife of entire seclusion. If she received her due proportion of her\nfather's estate, she could make business investments within certain\nlimits. She was not, for instance, allowed to own a wineshop, and if\nshe even entered one she was burned at the stake. Once she took these\nvows she had to observe them until the end of her days. If she\nmarried, as she might do to obtain the legal status of a married woman\nand enjoy the privileges of that position, she denied her husband\nconjugal rites, but provided him with a concubine who might bear him\nchildren, as Sarah did to Abraham. These nuns must not be confused\nwith the unmoral women who were associated with the temples of Ishtar\nand other love goddesses of shady repute.\n\nThe freedom secured by a married woman had its legal limitations. If\nshe became a widow, for instance, she could not remarry without the\nconsent of a judge, to whom she was expected to show good cause for\nthe step she proposed to take. Punishments for breaches of the\nmarriage law were severe. Adultery was a capital crime; the guilty\nparties were bound together and thrown into the river. If it happened,\nhowever, that the wife of a prisoner went to reside with another man\non account of poverty, she was acquitted and allowed to return to her\nhusband after his release. In cases where no plea of poverty could be\nurged the erring women were drowned. The wife of a soldier who had\nbeen taken prisoner by an enemy was entitled to a third part of her\nhusband's estate if her son was a minor, the remainder was held in\ntrust. The husband could enter into possession of all his property\nagain if he happened to return home.\n\nDivorce was easily obtained. A husband might send his wife away either\nbecause she was childless or because he fell in love with another\nwoman. Incompatibility of temperament was also recognized as\nsufficient reason for separation. A woman might hate her husband and\nwish to leave him. \"If\", the Code sets forth, \"she is careful and is\nwithout blame, and is neglected by her husband who has deserted her\",\nshe can claim release from the marriage contract. But if she is found\nto have another lover, and is guilty of neglecting her duties, she is\nliable to be put to death.\n\nA married woman possessed her own property. Indeed, the value of her\nmarriage dowry was always vested in her. When, therefore, she divorced\nher husband, or was divorced by him, she was entitled to have her\ndowry refunded and to return to her father's house. Apparently she\ncould claim maintenance from her father.\n\nA woman could have only one husband, but a man could have more than\none wife. He might marry a secondary wife, or concubine, because he\nwas without offspring, but \"the concubine\", the Code lays down, \"shall\nnot rank with the wife\". Another reason for second marriage recognized\nby law was a wife's state of health. In such circumstances a man could\nnot divorce his sickly wife. He had to support her in his house as\nlong as she lived.\n\nChildren were the heirs of their parents, but if a man during his\nlifetime gifted his property to his wife, and confirmed it on \"a\nsealed tablet\", the children could have no claim, and the widow was\nentitled to leave her estate to those of her children she preferred;\nbut she could not will any portion of it to her brothers. In ordinary\ncases the children of a first marriage shared equally the estate of a\nfather with those of a second marriage. If a slave bore children to\nher employer, their right to inheritance depended on whether or not\nthe father had recognized them as his offspring during his lifetime. A\nfather might legally disown his son if the young man was guilty of\ncriminal practices.\n\nThe legal rights of a vestal virgin were set forth in detail. If she\nhad received no dowry from her father when she took vows of celibacy,\nshe could claim after his death one-third of the portion of a son. She\ncould will her estate to anyone she favoured, but if she died\nintestate her brothers were her heirs. When, however, her estate\nconsisted of fields or gardens allotted to her by her father, she\ncould not disinherit her legal heirs. The fields or gardens might be\nworked during her lifetime by her brothers if they paid rent, or she\nmight employ a manager on the \"share system\".\n\nVestal virgins and married women were protected against the slanderer.\nAny man who \"pointed the finger\" against them unjustifiably was\ncharged with the offence before a judge, who could sentence him to\nhave his forehead branded. It was not difficult, therefore, in ancient\nBabylonia to discover the men who made malicious and unfounded\nstatements regarding an innocent woman. Assaults on women were\npunished according to the victim's rank; even slaves were protected.\n\nWomen appear to have monopolized the drink traffic. At any rate, there\nis no reference to male wine sellers. A female publican had to conduct\nher business honestly, and was bound to accept a legal tender. If she\nrefused corn and demanded silver, when the value of the silver by\n\"grand weight\" was below the price of corn, she was prosecuted and\npunished by being thrown into the water. Perhaps she was simply\nducked. As much may be inferred from the fact that when she was found\nguilty of allowing rebels to meet in her house, she was put to death.\n\nThe land laws were strict and exacting. A tenant could be penalized\nfor not cultivating his holding properly. The rent paid was a\nproportion of the crop, but the proportion could be fixed according to\nthe average yield of a district, so that a careless or inefficient\ntenant had to bear the brunt of his neglect or want of skill. The\npunishment for allowing a field to lie fallow was to make a man hoe\nand sow it and then hand it over to his landlord, and this applied\neven to a man who leased unreclaimed land which he had contracted to\ncultivate. Damage done to fields by floods after the rent was paid was\nborne by the cultivator; but if it occurred before the corn was reaped\nthe landlord's share was calculated in proportion to the amount of the\nyield which was recovered. Allowance was also made for poor harvests,\nwhen the shortage was not due to the neglect of the tenant, but to\nother causes, and no interest was paid for borrowed money even if the\nfarm suffered from the depredations of the tempest god; the\nmoneylender had to share risks with borrowers. Tenants who neglected\ntheir dykes, however, were not exempted from their legal liabilities,\nand their whole estates could be sold to reimburse their creditors.\n\nThe industrious were protected against the careless. Men who were\nnegligent about controlling the water supply, and caused floods by\nopening irrigation ditches which damaged the crops of their\nneighbours, had to pay for the losses sustained, the damages being\nestimated according to the average yield of a district. A tenant who\nallowed his sheep to stray on to a neighbour's pasture had to pay a\nheavy fine in corn at the harvest season, much in excess of the value\nof the grass cropped by his sheep. Gardeners were similarly subject to\nstrict laws. All business contracts had to be conducted according to\nthe provisions of the Code, and in every case it was necessary that a\nproper record should be made on clay tablets. As a rule a dishonest\ntenant or trader had to pay sixfold the value of the sum under dispute\nif the judge decided in court against his claim.\n\nThe law of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth was strictly\nobserved in Babylonia. A freeman who destroyed an eye of a freeman had\none of his own destroyed; if he broke a bone, he had a bone broken.\nFines were imposed, however, when a slave was injured. For striking a\ngentleman, a commoner received sixty lashes, and the son who smote his\nfather had his hands cut off. A slave might have his ears cut off for\nassaulting his master's son.\n\nDoctors must have found their profession an extremely risky one. No\nallowance was made for what is nowadays known as a \"professional\nerror\". A doctor's hands were cut off if he opened a wound with a\nmetal knife and his patient afterwards died, or if a man lost his eye\nas the result of an operation. A slave who died under a doctor's hands\nhad to be replaced by a slave, and if a slave lost his eye, the doctor\nhad to pay half the man's market value to the owner. Professional fees\nwere fixed according to a patient's rank. Gentlemen had to pay five\nshekels of silver to a doctor who set a bone or restored diseased\nflesh, commoners three shekels, and masters for their slaves two\nshekels. There was also a scale of fees for treating domesticated\nanimals, and it was not over-generous. An unfortunate surgeon who\nundertook to treat an ox or ass suffering from a severe wound had to\npay a quarter of its price to its owner if it happened to die. A\nshrewd farmer who was threatened with the loss of an animal must have\nbeen extremely anxious to engage the services of a surgeon.\n\nIt is not surprising, after reviewing this part of the Hammurabi Code,\nto find Herodotus stating bluntly that the Babylonians had no\nphysicians. \"When a man is ill\", he wrote, \"they lay him in the public\nsquare, and the passers-by come up to him, and if they have ever had\nhis disease themselves, or have known anyone who has suffered from it,\nthey give him advice, recommending him to do whatever they found good\nin their own case, or in the case known to them; and no one is allowed\nto pass the sick man in silence without asking him what his ailment\nis.\" One might imagine that Hammurabi had legislated the medical\nprofession out of existence, were it not that letters have been found\nin the Assyrian library of Ashur-banipal which indicate that skilled\nphysicians were held in high repute. It is improbable, however, that\nthey were numerous. The risks they ran in Babylonia may account for\ntheir ultimate disappearance in that country.\n\nNo doubt patients received some benefit from exposure in the streets\nin the sunlight and fresh air, and perhaps, too, from some of the old\nwives' remedies which were gratuitously prescribed by passers-by. In\nEgypt, where certain of the folk cures were recorded on papyri, quite\neffective treatment was occasionally given, although the \"medicines\"\nwere exceedingly repugnant as a rule; ammonia, for instance, was taken\nwith the organic substances found in farmyards. Elsewhere some\nwonderful instances of excellent folk cures have come to light,\nespecially among isolated peoples, who have received them interwoven\nin their immemorial traditions. A medical man who has investigated\nthis interesting subject in the Scottish Highlands has shown that \"the\nsimple observation of the people was the starting-point of our fuller\nknowledge, however complete we may esteem it to be\". For dropsy and\nheart troubles, foxglove, broom tops, and juniper berries, which have\nreputations \"as old as the hills\", are \"the most reliable medicines in\nour scientific armoury at the present time\". These discoveries of the\nancient folks have been \"merely elaborated in later days\". Ancient\ncures for indigestion are still in use. \"Tar water, which was a remedy\nfor chest troubles, especially for those of a consumptive nature, has\nendless imitations in our day\"; it was also \"the favourite remedy for\nskin diseases\". No doubt the present inhabitants of Babylonia, who\nutilize bitumen as a germicide, are perpetuating an ancient folk\ncustom.\n\nThis medical man who is being quoted adds: \"The whole matter may be\nsummed up, that we owe infinitely more to the simple nature study of\nour people in the great affair of health than we owe to all the later\nscience.\"[269]\n\nHerodotus, commenting on the custom of patients taking a census of\nfolk cures in the streets, said it was one of the wisest institutions\nof the Babylonian people. It is to be regretted that he did not enter\ninto details regarding the remedies which were in greatest favour in\nhis day. His data would have been useful for comparative purposes.\n\nSo far as can be gathered from the clay tablets, faith cures were not\nunknown, and there was a good deal of quackery. If surgery declined,\nas a result of the severe restrictions which hampered progress in an\nhonourable profession, magic flourished like tropical fungi. Indeed,\nthe worker of spells was held in high repute, and his operations were\nin most cases allowed free play. There are only two paragraphs in the\nHammurabi Code which deal with magical practices. It is set forth that\nif one man cursed another and the curse could not be justified, the\nperpetrator of it must suffer the death penalty. Provision was also\nmade for discovering whether a spell had been legally imposed or not.\nThe victim was expected to plunge himself in a holy river. If the\nriver carried him away it was held as proved that he deserved his\npunishment, and \"the layer of the spell\" was given possession of the\nvictim's house. A man who could swim was deemed to be innocent; he\nclaimed the residence of \"the layer of the spell\", who was promptly\nput to death. With this interesting glimpse of ancient superstition\nthe famous Code opens, and then strikes a modern note by detailing the\npunishments for perjury and the unjust administration of law in the\ncourts.\n\nThe poor sufferers who gathered at street corners in Babylon to make\nmute appeal for cures believed that they were possessed by evil\nspirits. Germs of disease were depicted by lively imaginations as\ninvisible demons, who derived nourishment from the human body. When a\npatient was wasted with disease, growing thinner and weaker and more\nbloodless day by day, it was believed that a merciless vampire was\nsucking his veins and devouring his flesh. It had therefore to be\nexpelled by performing a magical ceremony and repeating a magical\nformula. The demon was either driven or enticed away.\n\nA magician had to decide in the first place what particular demon was\nworking evil. He then compelled its attention and obedience by\ndetailing its attributes and methods of attack, and perhaps by naming\nit. Thereafter he suggested how it should next act by releasing a\nraven, so that it might soar towards the clouds like that bird, or by\noffering up a sacrifice which it received for nourishment and as\ncompensation. Another popular method was to fashion a waxen figure of\nthe patient and prevail upon the disease demon to enter it. The figure\nwas then carried away to be thrown in the river or burned in a fire.\n\nOccasionally a quite effective cure was included in the ceremony. As\nmuch is suggested by the magical treatment of toothache. First of all\nthe magician identified the toothache demon as \"the worm \". Then he\nrecited its history, which is as follows: After Anu created the\nheavens, the heavens created the earth, the earth created the rivers,\nthe rivers created the canals, the canals created the marshes, and\nlast of all the marshes created \"the worm\".\n\nThis display of knowledge compelled the worm to listen, and no doubt\nthe patient was able to indicate to what degree it gave evidence of\nits agitated mind. The magician continued:\n\n    Came the worm and wept before Shamash,\n    Before Ea came her tears:\n    \"What wilt thou give me for my food,\n    What wilt thou give me to devour?\"\n\nOne of the deities answered: \"I will give thee dried bones and scented\n... wood\"; but the hungry worm protested:\n\n    \"Nay, what are these dried bones of thine to me?\n    Let me drink among the teeth;\n    And set me on the gums\n    That I may devour the blood of the teeth,\n    And of their gums destroy their strength--\n    Then shall I hold the bolt of the door.\"\n\nThe magician provided food for \"the worm\", and the following is his\nrecipe: \"Mix beer, the plant sa-kil-bir, and oil together; put it on\nthe tooth and repeat Incantation.\" No doubt this mixture soothed the\npain, and the sufferer must have smiled gladly when the magician\nfinished his incantation by exclaiming:\n\n    \"So must thou say this, O Worm!\n    May Ea smite thee with the might of his fist.\"[270]\n\nHeadaches were no doubt much relieved when damp cloths were wrapped\nround a patient's head and scented wood was burned beside him, while\nthe magician, in whom so much faith was reposed, droned out a mystical\nincantation. The curative water was drawn from the confluence of two\nstreams and was sprinkled with much ceremony. In like manner the\nevil-eye curers, who still operate in isolated districts in these\nislands, draw water from under bridges \"over which the dead and the\nliving pass\",[271] and mutter charms and lustrate victims.\n\nHeadaches were much dreaded by the Babylonians. They were usually the\nfirst symptoms of fevers, and the demons who caused them were supposed\nto be bloodthirsty and exceedingly awesome. According to the charms,\nthese invisible enemies of man were of the brood of Nergal. No house\ncould be protected against them. They entered through keyholes and\nchinks of doors and windows; they crept like serpents and stank like\nmice; they had lolling tongues like hungry dogs.\n\nMagicians baffled the demons by providing a charm. If a patient\n\"touched iron\"--meteoric iron, which was the \"metal of heaven\"--relief\ncould be obtained. Or, perhaps, the sacred water would dispel the evil\none; as the drops trickled from the patient's face, so would the fever\nspirit trickle away. When a pig was offered up in sacrifice as a\nsubstitute for a patient, the wicked spirit was commanded to depart\nand allow a kindly spirit to take its place--an indication that the\nBabylonians, like the Germanic peoples, believed that they were\nguarded by spirits who brought good luck.\n\nThe numerous incantations which were inscribed on clay tablets and\ntreasured in libraries, do not throw much light on the progress of\nmedical knowledge, for the genuine folk cures were regarded as of\nsecondary importance, and were not as a rule recorded. But these\nmetrical compositions are of special interest, in so far as they\nindicate how poetry originated and achieved widespread popularity\namong ancient peoples. Like the religious dance, the earliest poems\nwere used for magical purposes. They were composed in the first place\nby men and women who were supposed to be inspired in the literal\nsense; that is, possessed by spirits. Primitive man associated\n\"spirit\" with \"breath\", which was the \"air of life\", and identical\nwith wind. The poetical magician drew in a \"spirit\", and thus received\ninspiration, as he stood on some sacred spot on the mountain summit,\namidst forest solitudes, beside a' whispering stream, or on the\nsounding shore. As Burns has sung:\n\n    The muse, nae poet ever fand her,\n    Till by himsel' he learn'd to wander,\n    Adown some trottin' burn's meander,\n      An' no think lang:\n    O sweet to stray, an' pensive ponder\n      A heart-felt sang!\n\nOr, perhaps, the bard received inspiration by drinking magic water\nfrom the fountain called Hippocrene, or the skaldic mead which dripped\nfrom the moon.\n\nThe ancient poet did not sing for the mere love of singing: he knew\nnothing about \"Art for Art's sake\". His object in singing appears to\nhave been intensely practical. The world was inhabited by countless\nhordes of spirits, which were believed to be ever exercising\nthemselves to influence mankind. The spirits caused suffering; they\nslew victims; they brought misfortune; they were also the source of\ngood or \"luck \". Man regarded spirits emotionally; he conjured them\nwith emotion; he warded off their attacks with emotion; and his\nemotions were given rhythmical expression by means of metrical magical\ncharms.\n\nPoetic imagery had originally a magical significance; if the ocean was\ncompared to a dragon, it was because it was supposed to be inhabited\nby a storm-causing dragon; the wind whispered because a spirit\nwhispered in it. Love lyrics were charms to compel the love god to\nwound or possess a maiden's heart--to fill it, as an Indian charm sets\nforth, with \"the yearning of the Apsaras (fairies)\"; satires conjured\nup evil spirits to injure a victim; and heroic narratives chanted at\ngraves were statements made to the god of battle, so that he might\naward the mighty dead by transporting him to the Valhal of Odin or\nSwarga of Indra.\n\nSimilarly, music had magical origin as an imitation of the voices of\nspirits--of the piping birds who were \"Fates\", of the wind high and\nlow, of the thunder roll, of the bellowing sea. So the god Pan piped\non his reed bird-like notes, Indra blew his thunder horn, Thor used\nhis hammer like a drumstick, Neptune imitated on his \"wreathed horn\"\nthe voice of the deep, the Celtic oak god Dagda twanged his windy\nwooden harp, and Angus, the Celtic god of spring and love, came\nthrough budding forest ways with a silvern harp which had strings of\ngold, echoing the tuneful birds, the purling streams, the whispering\nwinds, and the rustling of scented fir and blossoming thorn.\n\nModern-day poets and singers, who voice their moods and cast the spell\nof their moods over readers and audiences, are the representatives of\nancient magicians who believed that moods were caused by the spirits\nwhich possessed them--the rhythmical wind spirits, those harpers of\nthe forest and songsters of ocean.\n\nThe following quotations from Mr. R.C. Thompson's translations of\nBabylonian charms will serve to illustrate their poetic qualities:--\n\n      Fever like frost hath come upon the land.\n\n    Fever hath blown upon the man as the wind blast,\n    It hath smitten the man and humbled his pride.\n\n    Headache lieth like the stars of heaven in the desert and hath no\n        praise;\n    Pain in the head and shivering like a scudding cloud turn unto the\n        form of man.\n\n        Headache whose course like the dread windstorm none knoweth.\n\n        Headache roareth over the desert, blowing like the wind,\n        Flashing like lightning, it is loosed above and below,\n        It cutteth off him, who feareth not his god, like a reed ...\n        From amid mountains it hath descended upon the land.\n\n            Headache ... a rushing hag-demon,\n            Granting no rest, nor giving kindly sleep ...\n            Whose shape is as the whirlwind.\n            Its appearance is as the darkening heavens,\n            And its face as the deep shadow of the forest.\n\n        Sickness ... breaking the fingers as a rope of wind ...\n        Flashing like a heavenly star, it cometh like the dew.\n\nThese early poets had no canons of Art, and there were no critics to\ndisturb their meditations. Many singers had to sing and die ere a\ncritic could find much to say. In ancient times, therefore, poets had\ntheir Golden Age--they were a law unto themselves. Even the \"minors\"\nwere influential members of society.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI.\n\nTHE GOLDEN AGE OF BABYLONIA\n\n\n  Rise of the Sun God--Amorites and Elamites struggle for\n  Ascendancy--The Conquering Ancestors of Hammurabi--Sumerian Cities\n  Destroyed--Widespread Race Movements--Phoenician Migration from\n  Persian Gulf--Wanderings of Abraham and Lot--Biblical References to\n  Hittites and Amorites--Battles of Four Kings with Five--Amraphel,\n  Arioch, and Tidal--Hammurabi's Brilliant Reign--Elamite Power\n  Stamped Out--Babylon's Great General and Statesman--The Growth of\n  Commerce, Agriculture, and Education--An Ancient School--Business\n  and Private Correspondence--A Love Letter--Postal\n  System--Hammurabi's Successors--The Earliest Kassites--The Sealand\n  Dynasty--Hittite Raid on Babylon and Hyksos Invasion of Egypt.\n\n\nSun worship came into prominence in its most fully developed form\nduring the obscure period which followed the decline of the Dynasty of\nIsin. This was probably due to the changed political conditions which\nbrought about the ascendancy for a time of Larsa, the seat of the\nSumerian sun cult, and of Sippar, the seat of the Akkadian sun cult.\nLarsa was selected as the capital of the Elamite conquerors, while\ntheir rivals, the Amorites, appear to have first established their\npower at Sippar.\n\nBabbar, the sun god of Sippar, whose Semitic name was Shamash, must\nhave been credited with the early successes of the Amorites, who\nbecame domiciled under his care, and it was possibly on that account\nthat the ruling family subsequently devoted so much attention to his\nworship in Merodach's city of Babylon, where a sun temple was erected,\nand Shamash received devout recognition as an abstract deity of\nrighteousness and law, who reflected the ideals of well organized and\nfirmly governed communities.\n\nThe first Amoritic king was Sumu-abum, but little is known regarding\nhim except that he reigned at Sippar. He was succeeded by Sumu-la-ilu,\na deified monarch, who moved from Sippar to Babylon, the great wall of\nwhich he either repaired or entirely reconstructed in his fifth year.\nWith these two monarchs began the brilliant Hammurabi, or First\nDynasty of Babylonia, which endured for three centuries. Except\nSumu-abum, who seems to stand alone, all its kings belonged to the\nsame family, and son succeeded father in unbroken succession.\n\nSumu-la-ilu was evidently a great general and conqueror of the type of\nThothmes III of Egypt. His empire, it is believed, included the rising\ncity states of Assyria, and extended southward as far as ancient\nLagash.\n\nOf special interest on religious as well as political grounds was his\nassociation with Kish. That city had become the stronghold of a rival\nfamily of Amoritic kings, some of whom were powerful enough to assert\ntheir independence. They formed the Third Dynasty of Kish. The local\ngod was Zamama, the Tammuz-like deity, who, like Nin-Girsu of Lagash,\nwas subsequently identified with Merodach of Babylon. But prominence\nwas also given to the moon god Nannar, to whom a temple had been\nerected, a fact which suggests that sun worship was not more\npronounced among the Semites than the Arabians, and may not, indeed,\nhave been of Semitic origin at all. Perhaps the lunar temple was a\nrelic of the influential Dynasty of Ur.\n\nSumu-la-ilu attacked and captured Kish, but did not slay\nBunutakhtunila, its king, who became his vassal. Under the\noverlordship of Sumu-la-ilu, the next ruler of Kish, whose name was\nImmerum, gave prominence to the public worship of Shamash. Politics\nand religion went evidently hand in hand.\n\nSumu-la-ilu strengthened the defences of Sippar, restored the wall and\ntemple of Cuthah, and promoted the worship of Merodach and his consort\nZerpanitu^m at Babylon. He was undoubtedly one of the forceful\npersonalities of his dynasty. His son, Zabium, had a short but\nsuccessful reign, and appears to have continued the policy of his\nfather in consolidating the power of Babylon and securing the\nallegiance of subject cities. He enlarged Merodach's temple, E-sagila,\nrestored the Kish temple of Zamama, and placed a golden image of\nhimself in the temple of the sun god at Sippar. Apil-Sin, his son,\nsurrounded Babylon with a new wall, erected a temple to Ishtar, and\npresented a throne of gold and silver to Shamash in that city, while\nhe also strengthened Borsippa, renewed Nergal's temple at Cuthah, and\ndug canals.\n\nThe next monarch was Sin-muballit, son of Apil-Sin and father of\nHammurabi. He engaged himself in extending and strengthening the area\ncontrolled by Babylon by building city fortifications and improving\nthe irrigation system. It is recorded that he honoured Shamash with\nthe gift of a shrine and a golden altar adorned with jewels. Like\nSumu-la-ilu, he was a great battle lord, and was specially concerned\nin challenging the supremacy of Elam in Sumeria and in the western\nland of the Amorites.\n\nFor a brief period a great conqueror, named Rim-Anum, had established\nan empire which extended from Kish to Larsa, but little is known\nregarding him. Then several kings flourished at Larsa who claimed to\nhave ruled over Ur. The first monarch with an Elamite name who became\nconnected with Larsa was Kudur-Mabug, son of Shimti-Shilkhak, the\nfather of Warad-Sin and Rim-Sin.\n\nIt was from one of these Elamite monarchs that Sin-muballit captured\nIsin, and probably the Elamites were also the leaders of the army of\nUr which he had routed before that event took place. He was not\nsuccessful, however, in driving the Elamites from the land, and\npossibly he arranged with them a treaty of peace or perhaps of\nalliance.\n\nMuch controversy has been waged over the historical problems connected\nwith this disturbed age. The records are exceedingly scanty, because\nthe kings were not in the habit of commemorating battles which proved\ndisastrous to them, and their fragmentary references to successes are\nnot sufficient to indicate what permanent results accrued from their\nvarious campaigns. All we know for certain is that for a considerable\nperiod, extending perhaps over a century, a tremendous and disastrous\nstruggle was waged at intervals, which desolated middle Babylonia. At\nleast five great cities were destroyed by fire, as is testified by the\nevidence accumulated by excavators. These were Lagash, Umma,\nShurruppak, Kisurra, and Adab. The ancient metropolis of Lagash, whose\nglory had been revived by Gudea and his kinsmen, fell soon after the\nrise of Larsa, and lay in ruins until the second century B.C., when,\nduring the Seleucid Period, it was again occupied for a time. From its\nmound at Tello, and the buried ruins of the other cities, most of the\nrelics of ancient Sumerian civilization have been recovered.\n\nIt was probably during one of the intervals of this stormy period that\nthe rival kings in Babylonia joined forces against a common enemy and\ninvaded the Western Land. Probably there was much unrest there. Great\nethnic disturbances were in progress which were changing the political\ncomplexion of Western Asia. In addition to the outpourings of Arabian\npeoples into Palestine and Syria, which propelled other tribes to\ninvade Mesopotamia, northern Babylonia, and Assyria, there was also\nmuch unrest all over the wide area to north and west of Elam. Indeed,\nthe Elamite migration into southern Babylonia may not have been\nunconnected with the southward drift of roving bands from Media and\nthe Iranian plateau.\n\nIt is believed that these migrations were primarily due to changing\nclimatic conditions, a prolonged \"Dry Cycle\" having caused a shortage\nof herbage, with the result that pastoral peoples were compelled to go\nfarther and farther afield in quest of \"fresh woods and pastures new\".\nInnumerable currents and cross currents were set in motion once these\nrace movements swept towards settled districts either to flood them\nwith human waves, or surround them like islands in the midst of\ntempest-lashed seas, fretting the frontiers with restless fury, and\never groping for an inlet through which to flow with irresistible\nforce.\n\nThe Elamite occupation of Southern Babylonia appears to have propelled\nmigrations of not inconsiderable numbers of its inhabitants. No doubt\nthe various sections moved towards districts which were suitable for\ntheir habits of life. Agriculturists, for instance, must have shown\npreference for those areas which were capable of agricultural\ndevelopment, while pastoral folks sought grassy steppes and valleys,\nand seafarers the shores of alien seas.\n\nNorthern Babylonia and Assyria probably attracted the tillers of the\nsoil. But the movements of seafarers must have followed a different\nroute. It is possible that about this time the Phoenicians began to\nmigrate towards the \"Upper Sea\". According to their own traditions\ntheir racial cradle was on the northern shore of the Persian Gulf. So\nfar as we know, they first made their appearance on the Mediterranean\ncoast about 2000 B.C., where they subsequently entered into\ncompetition as sea traders with the mariners of ancient Crete.\nApparently the pastoral nomads pressed northward through Mesopotamia\nand towards Canaan. As much is suggested by the Biblical narrative\nwhich deals with the wanderings of Terah, Abraham, and Lot. Taking\nwith them their \"flocks and herds and tents \", and accompanied by\nwives, and families, and servants, they migrated, it is stated, from\nthe Sumerian city of Ur northwards to Haran \"and dwelt there\". After\nTerah's death the tribe wandered through Canaan and kept moving\nsouthward, unable, it would seem, to settle permanently in any\nparticular district. At length \"there was a famine in the land\"--an\ninteresting reference to the \"Dry Cycle\"--and the wanderers found it\nnecessary to take refuge for a time in Egypt. There they appear to\nhave prospered. Indeed, so greatly did their flocks and herds increase\nthat when they returned to Canaan they found that \"the land was not\nable to bear them\", although the conditions had improved somewhat\nduring the interval. \"There was\", as a result, \"strife between the\nherdmen of Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle.\"\n\nIt is evident that the area which these pastoral flocks were allowed\nto occupy must have been strictly circumscribed, for more than once it\nis stated significantly that \"the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled\nin the land\". The two kinsmen found it necessary, therefore, to part\ncompany. Lot elected to go towards Sodom in the plain of Jordan, and\nAbraham then moved towards the plain of Mamre, the Amorite, in the\nHebron district.[272] With Mamre, and his brothers, Eshcol and Aner,\nthe Hebrew patriarch formed a confederacy for mutual protection.[273]\n\nOther tribes which were in Palestine at this period included the\nHorites, the Rephaims, the Zuzims, the Zamzummims, and the Emims.\nThese were probably representatives of the older stocks. Like the\nAmorites, the Hittites or \"children of Heth\" were evidently \"late\ncomers\", and conquerors. When Abraham purchased the burial cave at\nHebron, the landowner with whom he had to deal was one Ephron, son of\nZohar, the Hittite.[274] This illuminating statement agrees with what\nwe know regarding Hittite expansion about 2000 B.C. The \"Hatti\" or\n\"Khatti\" had constituted military aristocracies throughout Syria and\nextended their influence by forming alliances. Many of their settlers\nwere owners of estates, and traders who intermarried with the\nindigenous peoples and the Arabian invaders. As has been indicated\n(Chapter I), the large-nosed Armenoid section of the Hittite\nconfederacy appear to have contributed to the racial blend known\nvaguely as the Semitic. Probably the particular group of Amorites with\nwhom Abraham became associated had those pronounced Armenoid traits\nwhich can still be traced in representatives of the Hebrew people. Of\nspecial interest in this connection is Ezekiel's declaration regarding\nthe ethnics of Jerusalem: \"Thy birth and thy nativity\", he said, \"is\nof the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an\nHittite.\"[275]\n\nIt was during Abraham's residence in Hebron that the Western Land was\nraided by a confederacy of Babylonian and Elamite battle lords. The\nBiblical narrative which deals with this episode is of particular\ninterest and has long engaged the attention of European scholars:\n\n\"And it came to pass in the days of Amraphel (Hammurabi) king of\nShinar (Sumer), Arioch (Eri-aku or Warad-Sin) king of Ellasar (Larsa),\nChedor-laomer (Kudur-Mabug) king of Elam, and Tidal (Tudhula) king of\nnations; that these made war with Bera king of Sodom, and with Birsha\nking of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, and Shemeber king of Zeboiim,\nand the king of Bela, which is Zoar. All these joined together in the\nvale of Siddim, which is the salt sea. Twelve years they served\nChedor-laomer, and in the thirteenth year they rebelled.\"[276]\nApparently the Elamites had conquered part of Syria after entering\nsouthern Babylonia.\n\nChedor-laomer and his allies routed the Rephaims, the Zuzims, the\nEmims, the Horites and others, and having sacked Sodom and Gomorrah,\ncarried away Lot and \"his goods\". On hearing of this disaster, Abraham\ncollected a force of three hundred and eighteen men, all of whom were\nno doubt accustomed to guerrilla warfare, and delivered a night attack\non the tail of the victorious army which was withdrawing through the\narea afterwards allotted to the Hebrew tribe of Dan. The surprise was\ncomplete; Abraham \"smote\" the enemy and \"pursued them unto Hobah,\nwhich is on the left hand of Damascus. And he brought back all the\ngoods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the\nwomen also, and the people.\"[277]\n\nThe identification of Hammurabi with Amraphel is now generally\naccepted. At first the guttural \"h\", which gives the English rendering\n\"Khammurabi\", presented a serious difficulty, but in time the form\n\"Ammurapi\" which appears on a tablet became known, and the conclusion\nwas reached that the softer \"h\" sound was used and not the guttural.\nThe \"l\" in the Biblical Amraphel has suggested \"Ammurapi-ilu\",\n\"Hammurabi, the god\", but it has been argued, on the other hand, that\nthe change may have been due to western habitual phonetic conditions,\nor perhaps the slight alteration of an alphabetical sign.\nChedor-laomer, identified with Kudur-Mabug, may have had several local\nnames. One of his sons, either Warad-Sin or Rim-Sin, but probably the\nformer, had his name Semitized as Eri-Aku, and this variant appears in\ninscriptions. \"Tidal, king of nations\", has not been identified. The\nsuggestion that he was \"King of the Gutium\" remains in the realm of\nsuggestion. Two late tablets have fragmentary inscriptions which read\nlike legends with some historical basis. One mentions Kudur-lahmal\n(?Chedor-laomer) and the other gives the form \"Kudur-lahgumal\", and\ncalls him \"King of the land of Elam\". Eri-Eaku (?Eri-aku) and Tudhula\n(?Tidal) are also mentioned. Attacks had been delivered on Babylon,\nand the city and its great temple E-sagila were flooded. It is\nasserted that the Elamites \"exercised sovereignty in Babylon\" for a\nperiod. These interesting tablets have been published by Professor\nPinches.\n\nThe fact that the four leaders of the expedition to Canaan are all\nreferred to as \"kings\" in the Biblical narrative need not present any\ndifficulty. Princes and other subject rulers who governed under an\noverlord might be and, as a matter of fact, were referred to as kings.\n\"I am a king, son of a king\", an unidentified monarch recorded on one\nof the two tablets just referred to. Kudur-Mabug, King of Elam, during\nhis lifetime called his son Warad-Sin (Eri-Aku = Arioch) \"King of\nLarsa\". It is of interest to note, too, in connection with the\nBiblical narrative regarding the invasion of Syria and Palestine, that\nhe styled himself \"overseer of the Amurru (Amorites)\".\n\nNo traces have yet been found in Palestine of its conquest by the\nElamites, nor have the excavators been able to substantiate the claim\nof Lugal-zaggizi of a previous age to have extended his empire to the\nshores of the Mediterranean. Any relics which these and other eastern\nconquerors may have left were possibly destroyed by the Egyptians and\nHittites.\n\nWhen Hammurabi came to the throne he had apparently to recognize the\noverlordship of the Elamite king or his royal son at Larsa. Although\nSin-muballit had captured Isin, it was retaken, probably after the\ndeath of the Babylonian war-lord, by Rim-Sin, who succeeded his\nbrother Warad-Sin, and for a time held sway in Lagash, Nippur, and\nErech, as well as Larsa.\n\nIt was not until the thirty-first year of his reign that Hammurabi\nachieved ascendancy over his powerful rival. Having repulsed an\nElamite raid, which was probably intended to destroy the growing power\nof Babylon, he \"smote down Rim-Sin\", whose power he reduced almost to\nvanishing point. For about twenty years afterwards that subdued\nmonarch lived in comparative obscurity; then he led a force of allies\nagainst Hammurabi's son and successor, Samsu-iluna, who defeated him\nand put him to death, capturing, in the course of his campaign, the\nrevolting cities of Emutbalum, Erech, and Isin. So was the last\nsmouldering ember of Elamite power stamped out in Babylonia.\n\nHammurabi, statesman and general, is one of the great personalities of\nthe ancient world. No more celebrated monarch ever held sway in\nWestern Asia. He was proud of his military achievements, but preferred\nto be remembered as a servant of the gods, a just ruler, a father of\nhis people, and \"the shepherd that gives peace\". In the epilogue to\nhis code of laws he refers to \"the burden of royalty\", and declares\nthat he \"cut off the enemy\" and \"lorded it over the conquered\" so that\nhis subjects might have security. Indeed, his anxiety for their\nwelfare was the most pronounced feature of his character. \"I carried\nall the people of Sumer and Akkad in my bosom\", he declared in his\nepilogue. \"By my protection, I guided in peace its brothers. By my\nwisdom I provided for them.\" He set up his stele, on which the legal\ncode was inscribed, so \"that the great should not oppress the weak\"\nand \"to counsel the widow and orphan\", and \"to succour the injured....\nThe king that is gentle, king of the city, exalted am I.\"[278]\n\nHammurabi was no mere framer of laws but a practical administrator as\nwell. He acted as supreme judge, and his subjects could appeal to him\nas the Romans could to Caesar. Nor was any case too trivial for his\nattention. The humblest man was assured that justice would be done if\nhis grievance were laid before the king. Hammurabi was no respecter of\npersons, and treated alike all his subjects high and low. He punished\ncorrupt judges, protected citizens against unjust governors, reviewed\nthe transactions of moneylenders with determination to curb\nextortionate demands, and kept a watchful eye on the operations of\ntaxgatherers.\n\nThere can be little doubt but that he won the hearts of his subjects,\nwho enjoyed the blessings of just administration under a well-ordained\npolitical system. He must also have endeared himself to them as an\nexemplary exponent of religious tolerance. He respected the various\ndeities in whom the various groups of people reposed their faith,\nrestored despoiled temples, and re-endowed them with characteristic\ngenerosity. By so doing he not only afforded the pious full freedom\nand opportunity to perform their religious ordinances, but also\npromoted the material welfare of his subjects, for the temples were\ncentres of culture and the priests were the teachers of the young.\nExcavators have discovered at Sippar traces of a school which dates\nfrom the Hammurabi Dynasty. Pupils learned to read and write, and\nreceived instruction in arithmetic and mensuration. They copied\nhistorical tablets, practised the art of composition, and studied\ngeography.\n\nAlthough there were many professional scribes, a not inconsiderable\nproportion of the people of both sexes were able to write private and\nbusiness letters. Sons wrote from a distance to their fathers when in\nneed of money then as now, and with the same air of undeserved\nmartyrdom and subdued but confident appeal. One son indited a long\ncomplaint regarding the quality of the food he was given in his\nlodgings. Lovers appealed to forgetful ladies, showing great concern\nregarding their health. \"Inform me how it fares with thee,\" one wrote\nfour thousand years ago. \"I went up to Babylon so that I might meet\nthee, but did not, and was much depressed. Let me know why thou didst\ngo away so that I may be made glad. And do come hither. Ever have care\nof thy health, remembering me.\" Even begging-letter writers were not\nunknown. An ancient representative of this class once wrote to his\nemployer from prison. He expressed astonishment that he had been\narrested, and, having protested his innocence, he made touching appeal\nfor little luxuries which were denied to him, adding that the last\nconsignment which had been forwarded had never reached him.\n\nLetters were often sent by messengers who were named, but there also\nappears to have been some sort of postal system. Letter carriers,\nhowever, could not have performed their duties without the assistance\nof beasts of burden. Papyri were not used as in Egypt. Nor was ink\nrequired. Babylonian letters were shapely little bricks resembling\ncushions. The angular alphabetical characters, bristling with\nthorn-like projections, were impressed with a wedge-shaped stylus on\ntablets of soft clay which were afterwards carefully baked in an oven.\nThen the letters were placed in baked clay envelopes, sealed and\naddressed, or wrapped in pieces of sacking transfixed by seals. If the\nancient people had a festive season which was regarded, like the\nEuropean Yuletide or the Indian Durga fortnight, as an occasion\nsuitable for the general exchange of expressions of goodwill, the\nBabylonian streets and highways must have been greatly congested by\nthe postal traffic, while muscular postmen worked overtime\ndistributing the contents of heavy and bulky letter sacks. Door to\ndoor deliveries would certainly have presented difficulties. Wood\nbeing dear, everyone could not afford doors, and some houses were\nentered by stairways leading to the flat and partly open roofs.\n\nKing Hammurabi had to deal daily with a voluminous correspondence. He\nreceived reports from governors in all parts of his realm, legal\ndocuments containing appeals, and private communications from\nrelatives and others. He paid minute attention to details, and was\nprobably one of the busiest men in Babylonia. Every day while at home,\nafter worshipping Merodach at E-sagila, he dictated letters to his\nscribes, gave audiences to officials, heard legal appeals and issued\ninterlocutors, and dealt with the reports regarding his private\nestates. He looks a typical man of affairs in sculptured\nrepresentations--shrewd, resolute, and unassuming, feeling \"the\nburden of royalty\", but ever ready and well qualified to discharge his\nduties with thoroughness and insight. His grasp of detail was equalled\nonly by his power to conceive of great enterprises which appealed to\nhis imagination. It was a work of genius on his part to weld together\nthat great empire of miscellaneous states extending from southern\nBabylonia to Assyria, and from the borders of Elam to the\nMediterranean coast, by a universal legal Code which secured\ntranquillity and equal rights to all, promoted business, and set\nbefore his subjects the ideals of right thinking and right living.\n\nHammurabi recognized that conquest was of little avail unless followed\nby the establishment of a just and well-arranged political system, and\nthe inauguration of practical measures to secure the domestic,\nindustrial, and commercial welfare of the people as a whole. He\nengaged himself greatly, therefore, in developing the natural\nresources of each particular district. The network of irrigating\ncanals was extended in the homeland so that agriculture might prosper:\nthese canals also promoted trade, for they were utilized for\ntravelling by boat and for the distribution of commodities. As a\nresult of his activities Babylon became not only the administrative,\nbut also the commercial centre of his Empire--the London of Western\nAsia--and it enjoyed a spell of prosperity which was never surpassed\nin subsequent times. Yet it never lost its pre-eminent position\ndespite the attempts of rival states, jealous of its glory and\ninfluence, to suspend its activities. It had been too firmly\nestablished during the Hammurabi Age, which was the Golden Age of\nBabylonia, as the heartlike distributor and controller of business\nlife through a vast network of veins and arteries, to be displaced by\nany other Mesopotamian city to pleasure even a mighty monarch. For two\nthousand years, from the time of Hammurabi until the dawn of the\nChristian era, the city of Babylon remained amidst many political\nchanges the metropolis of Western Asiatic commerce and culture, and\nnone was more eloquent in its praises than the scholarly pilgrim from\nGreece who wondered at its magnificence and reverenced its\nantiquities.\n\nHammurabi's reign was long as it was prosperous. There is no general\nagreement as to when he ascended the throne--some say in 2123 B.C.,\nothers hold that it was after 2000 B.C.--but it is certain that he\npresided over the destinies of Babylon for the long period of\nforty-three years.\n\nThere are interesting references to the military successes of his\nreign in the prologue to the legal Code. It is related that when he\n\"avenged Larsa\", the seat of Rim-Sin, he restored there the temple of\nthe sun god. Other temples were built up at various ancient centres,\nso that these cultural organizations might contribute to the welfare\nof the localities over which they held sway. At Nippur he thus\nhonoured Enlil, at Eridu the god Ea, at Ur the god Sin, at Erech the\ngod Anu and the goddess Nana (Ishtar), at Kish the god Zamama and the\ngoddess Ma-ma, at Cuthah the god Nergal, at Lagash the god Nin-Girsu,\nwhile at Adab and Akkad, \"celebrated for its wide squares\", and other\ncentres he carried out religious and public works. In Assyria he\nrestored the colossus of Ashur, which had evidently been carried away\nby a conqueror, and he developed the canal system of Nineveh.\n\nApparently Lagash and Adab had not been completely deserted during his\nreign, although their ruins have not yielded evidence that they\nflourished after their fall during the long struggle with the\naggressive and plundering Elamites.\n\nHammurabi referred to himself in the Prologue as \"a king who commanded\nobedience in all the four quarters\". He was the sort of benevolent\ndespot whom Carlyle on one occasion clamoured vainly for--not an\nOriental despot in the commonly accepted sense of the term. As a\nGerman writer puts it, his despotism was a form of Patriarchal\nAbsolutism. \"When Marduk (Merodach)\", as the great king recorded,\n\"brought me to direct all people, and commissioned me to give\njudgment, I laid down justice and right in the provinces, I made all\nflesh to prosper.\"[279] That was the keynote of his long life; he\nregarded himself as the earthly representative of the Ruler of\nall--Merodach, \"the lord god of right\", who carried out the decrees of\nAnu, the sky god of Destiny.\n\nThe next king, Samsu-iluna, reigned nearly as long as his illustrious\nfather, and similarly lived a strenuous and pious life. Soon after he\ncame to the throne the forces of disorder were let loose, but, as has\nbeen stated, he crushed and slew his most formidable opponent,\nRim-Sin, the Elamite king, who had gathered together an army of\nallies. During his reign a Kassite invasion was repulsed. The earliest\nKassites, a people of uncertain racial affinities, began to settle in\nthe land during Hammurabi's lifetime. Some writers connect them with\nthe Hittites, and others with the Iranians, vaguely termed as\nIndo-European or Indo-Germanic folk. Ethnologists as a rule regard\nthem as identical with the Cossaei, whom the Greeks found settled\nbetween Babylon and Media, east of the Tigris and north of Elam. The\nHittites came south as raiders about a century later. It is possible\nthat the invading Kassites had overrun Elam and composed part of\nRim-Sin's army. After settled conditions were secured many of them\nremained in Babylonia, where they engaged like their pioneers in\nagricultural pursuits. No doubt they were welcomed in that capacity,\nfor owing to the continuous spread of culture and the development of\ncommerce, rural labour had become scarce and dear. Farmers had a\nlong-standing complaint, \"The harvest truly is plenteous, but the\nlabourers are few\".[280] \"Despite the existence of slaves, who were\nfor the most part domestic servants, there was\", writes Mr. Johns,\n\"considerable demand for free labour in ancient Babylonia. This is\nclear from the large number of contracts relating to hire which have\ncome down to us.... As a rule, the man was hired for the harvest and\nwas free directly after. But there are many examples in which the term\nof service was different--one month, half a year, or a whole year....\nHarvest labour was probably far dearer than any other, because of its\nimportance, the skill and exertion demanded, and the fact that so many\nwere seeking for it at once.\" When a farm worker was engaged he\nreceived a shekel for \"earnest money\" or arles, and was penalized for\nnon-appearance or late arrival.[281]\n\nSo great was the political upheaval caused by Rim-Sin and his allies\nand imitators in southern Babylonia, that it was not until the\nseventeenth year of his reign that Samsu-iluna had recaptured Erech\nand Ur and restored their walls. Among other cities which had to be\nchastised was ancient Akkad, where a rival monarch endeavoured to\nestablish himself. Several years were afterwards spent in building new\nfortifications, setting up memorials in temples, and cutting and\nclearing canals. On more than one occasion during the latter part of\nhis reign he had to deal with aggressive bands of Amorites.\n\nThe greatest danger to the Empire, however, was threatened by a new\nkingdom which had been formed in Bit-Jakin, a part of Sealand which\nwas afterwards controlled by the mysterious Chaldeans. Here may have\ncollected evicted and rebel bands of Elamites and Sumerians and\nvarious \"gentlemen of fortune\" who were opposed to the Hammurabi\nregime. After the fall of Rim-Sin it became powerful under a king\ncalled Ilu-ma-ilu. Samsu-iluna conducted at least two campaigns\nagainst his rival, but without much success. Indeed, he was in the end\ncompelled to retreat with considerable loss owing to the difficult\ncharacter of that marshy country.\n\nAbeshu, the next Babylonian king, endeavoured to shatter the cause of\nthe Sealanders, and made it possible for himself to strike at them by\ndamming up the Tigris canal. He achieved a victory, but the wily\nIlu-ma-ilu eluded him, and after a reign of sixty years was succeeded\nby his son, Kiannib. The Sealand Dynasty, of which little is known,\nlasted for over three and a half centuries, and certain of its later\nmonarchs were able to extend their sway over part of Babylonia, but\nits power was strictly circumscribed so long as Hammurabi's\ndescendants held sway.\n\nDuring Abeshu's reign of twenty-eight years, of which but scanty\nrecords survive, he appears to have proved an able statesman and\ngeneral. He founded a new city called Lukhaia, and appears to have\nrepulsed a Kassite raid.\n\nHis son, Ammiditana, who succeeded him, apparently inherited a\nprosperous and well-organized Empire, for during the first fifteen\nyears of his reign he attended chiefly to the adornment of temples and\nother pious undertakings. He was a patron of the arts with\narchaeological leanings, and displayed traits which suggest that he\ninclined, like Sumu-la-ilu, to ancestor worship. Entemena, the pious\npatesi of Lagash, whose memory is associated with the famous silver\nvase decorated with the lion-headed eagle form of Nin-Girsu, had been\nraised to the dignity of a god, and Ammiditana caused his statue to be\nerected so that offerings might be made to it. He set up several\nimages of himself also, and celebrated the centenary of the accession\nto the throne of his grandfather, Samsu-iluna, \"the warrior lord\", by\nunveiling his statue with much ceremony at Kish. About the middle of\nhis reign he put down a Sumerian rising, and towards its close had to\ncapture a city which is believed to be Isin, but the reference is too\nobscure to indicate what political significance attached to this\nincident. His son, Ammizaduga, reigned for over twenty years quite\npeacefully so far as is known, and was succeeded by Samsuditana, whose\nrule extended over a quarter of a century. Like Ammiditana, these two\nmonarchs set up images of themselves as well as of the gods, so that\nthey might be worshipped, no doubt. They also promoted the interests\nof agriculture and commerce, and incidentally increased the revenue\nfrom taxation by paying much attention to the canals and extending the\ncultivatable areas.\n\nBut the days of the brilliant Hammurabi Dynasty were drawing to a\nclose. It endured for about a century longer than the Twelfth Dynasty\nof Egypt, which came to an end, according to the Berlin calculations,\nin 1788 B.C. Apparently some of the Hammurabi and Amenemhet kings were\ncontemporaries, but there is no evidence that they came into direct\ntouch with one another. It was not until at about two centuries after\nHammurabi's day that Egypt first invaded Syria, with which, however,\nit had for a long period previously conducted a brisk trade. Evidently\nthe influence of the Hittites and their Amoritic allies predominated\nbetween Mesopotamia and the Delta frontier of Egypt, and it is\nsignificant to find in this connection that the \"Khatti\" or \"Hatti\"\nwere referred to for the first time in Egypt during the Twelfth\nDynasty, and in Babylonia during the Hammurabi Dynasty, sometime\nshortly before or after 2000 B.C. About 1800 B.C. a Hittite raid\nresulted in the overthrow of the last king of the Hammurabi family at\nBabylon. The Hyksos invasion of Egypt took place after 1788 B.C.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII.\n\nRISE OF THE HITTITES, MITANNIANS, KASSITES, HYKSOS, AND ASSYRIANS\n\n\n  The War God of Mountaineers--Antiquity of Hittite\n  Civilization--Prehistoric Movements of \"Broad Heads\"--Evidence of\n  Babylon and Egypt--Hittites and Mongolians--Biblical References to\n  Hittites in Canaan--Jacob's Mother and her Daughters-in-law--Great\n  Father and Great Mother Cults--History in Mythology--The Kingdom of\n  Mitanni--Its Aryan Aristocracy--The Hyksos Problem--The Horse in\n  Warfare--Hittites and Mitannians--Kassites and Mitannians--Hyksos\n  Empire in Asia--Kassites overthrow Sealand Dynasty--Egyptian\n  Campaigns in Syria--Assyria in the Making--Ethnics of\n  Genesis--Nimrod as Merodach--Early Conquerors of Assyria--Mitannian\n  Overlords--Tell-el-Amarna Letters--Fall of Mitanni--Rise of Hittite\n  and Assyrian Empires--Egypt in Eclipse--Assyrian and Babylonian\n  Rivalries.\n\n\nWhen the Hammurabi Dynasty, like the Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt, is\nfound to be suffering languid decline, the gaps in the dulled\nhistorical records are filled with the echoes of the thunder god,\nwhose hammer beating resounds among the northern mountains. As this\ndeity comes each year in Western Asia when vegetation has withered and\nafter fruits have dropped from trees, bringing tempests and black\nrainclouds to issue in a new season of growth and fresh activity, so\nhe descended from the hills in the second millennium before the\nChristian era as the battle lord of invaders and the stormy herald of\na new age which was to dawn upon the ancient world.\n\nHe was the war god of the Hittites as well as of the northern\nAmorites, the Mitannians, and the Kassites; and he led the Aryans from\nthe Iranian steppes towards the verdurous valley of the Punjab. His\nworshippers engraved his image with grateful hands on the beetling\ncliffs of Cappadocian chasms in Asia Minor, where his sway was\nsteadfast and pre-eminent for long centuries. In one locality he\nappears mounted on a bull wearing a fringed and belted tunic with\nshort sleeves, a conical helmet, and upturned shoes, while he grasps\nin one hand the lightning symbol, and in the other a triangular bow\nresting on his right shoulder. In another locality he is the bringer\nof grapes and barley sheaves. But his most familiar form is the\nbearded and thick-set mountaineer, armed with a ponderous thunder\nhammer, a flashing trident, and a long two-edged sword with a\nhemispherical knob on the hilt, which dangles from his belt, while an\nantelope or goat wearing a pointed tiara prances beside him. This\ndeity is identical with bluff, impetuous Thor of northern Europe,\nIndra of the Himalayas, Tarku of Phrygia, and Teshup or Teshub of\nArmenia and northern Mesopotamia, Sandan, the Hercules of Cilicia,\nAdad or Hadad of Amurru and Assyria, and Ramman, who at an early\nperiod penetrated Akkad and Sumer in various forms. His Hittite name\nis uncertain, but in the time of Rameses II he was identified with\nSutekh (Set). He passed into southern Europe as Zeus, and became \"the\nlord\" of the deities of the Aegean and Crete.\n\nThe Hittites who entered Babylon about 1800 B.C., and overthrew the\nlast king of the Hammurabi Dynasty, may have been plundering raiders,\nlike the European Gauls of a later age, or a well-organized force of a\nstrong, consolidated power, which endured for a period of uncertain\nduration. They were probably the latter, for although they carried off\nMerodach and Zerpanitu^m, these idols were not thrust into the melting\npot, but retained apparently for political reasons.\n\nThese early Hittites are \"a people of the mist\". More than once in\nancient history casual reference is made to them; but on most of these\noccasions they soon vanish suddenly behind their northern mountains.\nThe explanation appears to be that at various periods great leaders\narose who were able to weld together the various tribes, and make\ntheir presence felt in Western Asia. But when once the organization\nbroke down, either on account of internal rivalries or the influence\nof an outside power, they lapsed back again into a state of political\ninsignificance in the affairs of the ancient world. It is possible\nthat about 1800 B.C. the Hittite confederacy was controlled by an\nambitious king who had dreams of a great empire, and was accordingly\npursuing a career of conquest.\n\nJudging from what we know of the northern worshippers of the hammer\ngod in later times, it would appear that when they were referred to as\nthe Hatti or Khatti, the tribe of that name was the dominating power\nin Asia Minor and north Syria. The Hatti are usually identified with\nthe broad-headed mountaineers of Alpine or Armenoid type--the\nancestors of the modern Armenians. Their ancient capital was at\nBoghaz-K\u00f6i, the site of Pteria, which was destroyed, according to the\nGreeks, by Croesus, the last King of Lydia, in the sixth century B.C.\nIt was strongly situated in an excellent pastoral district on the\nhigh, breezy plateau of Cappadocia, surrounded by high mountains, and\napproached through narrow river gorges, which in winter were blocked\nwith snow.\n\nHittite civilization was of great antiquity. Excavations which have\nbeen conducted at an undisturbed artificial mound at Sakje-Geuzi have\nrevealed evidences of a continuous culture which began to flourish\nbefore 3000 B.C.[282] In one of the lower layers occurred that\nparticular type of Neolithic yellow-painted pottery, with black\ngeometric designs, which resembles other specimens of painted fabrics\nfound in Turkestan by the Pumpelly expedition; in Susa, the capital of\nElam, and its vicinity, by De Morgan; in the Balkan peninsula by\nSchliemann; in a First Dynasty tomb at Abydos in Egypt by Petrie; and\nin the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age (Minoan) strata of Crete by\nEvans. It may be that these interesting relics were connected with the\nprehistoric drift westward of the broad-headed pastoral peoples who\nultimately formed the Hittite military aristocracy.\n\nAccording to Professor Elliot Smith, broad-headed aliens from Asia\nMinor first reached Egypt at the dawn of history. There they blended\nwith the indigenous tribes of the Mediterranean or Brown Race. A\nmesocephalic skull then became common. It is referred to as the Giza\ntype, and has been traced by Professor Elliot Smith from Egypt to the\nPunjab, but not farther into India.[283]\n\nDuring the early dynasties this skull with alien traits was confined\nchiefly to the Delta region and the vicinity of Memphis, the city of\nthe pyramid builders. It is not improbable that the Memphite god Ptah\nmay have been introduced into Egypt by the invading broad heads. This\ndeity is a world artisan like Indra, and is similarly associated with\ndwarfish artisans; he hammers out the copper sky, and therefore links\nwith the various thunder gods--Tarku, Teshup, Adad, Ramman, &c, of the\nAsian mountaineers. Thunderstorms were of too rare occurrence in Egypt\nto be connected with the food supply, which has always depended on the\nriver Nile. Ptah's purely Egyptian characteristics appear to have been\nacquired after fusion with Osiris-Seb, the Nilotic gods of inundation,\nearth, and vegetation. The ancient god Set (Sutekh), who became a\ndemon, and was ultimately re-exalted as a great deity during the\nNineteenth Dynasty, may also have had some connection with the\nprehistoric Hatti.\n\nProfessor Elliot Smith, who has found alien traits in the mummies of\nthe Rameses kings, is convinced that the broad-headed folks who\nentered Europe by way of Asia Minor, and Egypt through the Delta, at\nthe close of the Neolithic Age, represent \"two streams of the same\nAsiatic folk\".[284] The opinion of such an authority cannot be lightly\nset aside.\n\nThe earliest Egyptian reference to the Kheta, as the Hittites were\ncalled, was made in the reign of the first Amenemhet of the Twelfth\nDynasty, who began to reign about 2000 B.C. Some authorities,\nincluding Maspero,[285] are of opinion that the allusion to the Hatti\nwhich is found in the Babylonian _Book of Omens_ belongs to the\nearlier age of Sargon of Akkad and Naram-Sin, but Sayce favours the\nage of Hammurabi. Others would connect the Gutium, or men of Kutu,\nwith the Kheta or Hatti. Sayce has expressed the opinion that the\nBiblical Tidal, identified with Tudkhul or Tudhula, \"king of nations\",\nthe ally of Arioch, Amraphel, and Chedor-laomer, was a Hittite king,\nthe \"nations\" being the confederacy of Asia Minor tribes controlled by\nthe Hatti. \"In the fragments of the Babylonian story of Chedor-laomer\npublished by Dr. Pinches\", says Professor Sayce, \"the name of\nTid^{c}al is written Tudkhul, and he is described as King of the\n_Umman Manda_, or Nations of the North, of which the Hebrew _Goyyim_\nis a literal translation. Now the name is Hittite. In the account of\nthe campaign of Rameses II against the Hittites it appears as\nTid^{c}al, and one of the Hittite kings of Boghaz-K\u00f6i bears the same\nname, which is written as Dud-khaliya in cuneiform.[286]\n\nOne of the racial types among the Hittites wore pigtails. These head\nadornments appear on figures in certain Cappadocian sculptures and on\nHittite warriors in the pictorial records of a north Syrian campaign\nof Rameses II at Thebes. It is suggestive, therefore, to find that on\nthe stele of Naram-Sin of Akkad, the mountaineers who are conquered by\nthat battle lord wear pigtails also. Their split robes are unlike the\nshort fringed tunics of the Hittite gods, but resemble the long split\nmantles worn over their tunics by high dignitaries like King\nTarku-dimme, who figures on a famous silver boss of an ancient Hittite\ndagger. Naram-Sin inherited the Empire of Sargon of Akkad, which\nextended to the Mediterranean Sea. If his enemies were not natives of\nCappadocia, they may have been the congeners of the Hittite pigtailed\ntype in another wooded and mountainous country.\n\nIt has been suggested that these wearers of pigtails were Mongolians.\nBut although high cheek bones and oblique eyes occurred in ancient\ntimes, and still occur, in parts of Asia Minor, suggesting occasional\nMongolian admixture with Ural-Altaic broad heads, the Hittite\npigtailed warriors must not be confused with the true small-nosed\nMongols of north-eastern Asia. The Egyptian sculptors depicted them\nwith long and prominent noses, which emphasize their strong Armenoid\naffinities.\n\nOther tribes in the Hittite confederacy included the representatives\nof the earliest settlers from North Africa of Mediterranean racial\nstock. These have been identified with the Canaanites, and especially\nthe agriculturists among them, for the Palestinian Hittites are also\nreferred to as Canaanites in the Bible, and in one particular\nconnection under circumstances which afford an interesting glimpse of\ndomestic life in those far-off times. When Esau, Isaac's eldest son,\nwas forty years of age, \"he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri\nthe Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite\"[287].\nApparently the Hittite ladies considered themselves to be of higher\ncaste than the indigenous peoples and the settlers from other\ncountries, for when Ezekiel declared that the mother of Jerusalem was\na Hittite he said: \"Thou art thy mother's daughter, that lotheth her\nhusband and her children.\"[288] Esau's marriage was \"a grief of mind\nunto Isaac and to Rebekah\".[287] The Hebrew mother seems to\nhave entertained fears that her favourite son Jacob would\nfall a victim to the allurements of other representatives of\nthe same stock as her superior and troublesome daughters-in-law,\nfor she said to Isaac: \"I am weary of my life\nbecause of the daughters of Heth; if Jacob take a wife\nof the daughters of Heth, such as these which are of the\ndaughters of the land, what good shall my life do me?\"[289]\nIsaac sent for Jacob, \"and charged him, and said unto\nhim, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of\nCanaan. Arise, go to Padan-aram, to the house of\nBethuel, thy mother's father; and take thee a wife from\nthence of the daughters of Laban, thy mother's brother.\"[290]\nFrom these quotations two obvious deductions may be\ndrawn: the Hebrews regarded the Hittites \"of the land\"\nas one with the Canaanites, the stocks having probably\nbeen so well fused, and the worried Rebekah had the\nchoosing of Jacob's wife or wives from among her own\nrelations in Mesopotamia who were of Sumerian stock\nand kindred of Abraham.[291] It is not surprising to find\ntraces of Sumerian pride among the descendants of the\nevicted citizens of ancient Ur, especially when brought\ninto association with the pretentious Hittites.\n\nEvidence of racial blending in Asia Minor is also afforded by Hittite\nmythology. In the fertile agricultural valleys and round the shores of\nthat great Eur-Asian \"land bridge\" the indigenous stock was also of\nthe Mediterranean race, as Sergi and other ethnologists have\ndemonstrated. The Great Mother goddess was worshipped from the\nearliest times, and she bore various local names. At Comana in Pontus\nshe was known to the Greeks as Ma, a name which may have been as old\nas that of the Sumerian Mama (the creatrix), or Mamitu^m (goddess of\ndestiny); in Armenia she was Anaitis; in Cilicia she was Ate ('Atheh\nof Tarsus); while in Phrygia she was best known as Cybele, mother of\nAttis, who links with Ishtar as mother and wife of Tammuz, Aphrodite\nas mother and wife of Adonis, and Isis as mother and wife of Osiris.\nThe Great Mother was in Phoenicia called Astarte; she was a form of\nIshtar, and identical with the Biblical Ashtoreth. In the Syrian city\nof Hierapolis she bore the name of Atargatis, which Meyer, with whom\nFrazer agrees, considers to be the Greek rendering of the Aramaic\n'Athar-'Atheh--the god 'Athar and the goddess 'Atheh. Like the\n\"bearded Aphrodite\", Atargatis may have been regarded as a bisexual\ndeity. Some of the specialized mother goddesses, whose outstanding\nattributes reflected the history and politics of the states they\nrepresented, were imported into Egypt--the land of ancient mother\ndeities--during the Empire period, by the half-foreign Rameses kings;\nthese included the voluptuous Kadesh and the warlike Anthat. In every\ndistrict colonized by the early representatives of the Mediterranean\nrace, the goddess cult came into prominence, and the gods and the\npeople were reputed to be descendants of the great Creatrix. This rule\nobtained as far distant as Ireland, where the Danann folk and the\nDanann gods were the children of the goddess Danu.\n\nAmong the Hatti proper--that is, the broad-headed military\naristocracy--the chief deity of the pantheon was the Great Father, the\ncreator, \"the lord of Heaven\", the Baal. As Sutekh, Tarku, Adad, or\nRamman, he was the god of thunder, rain, fertility, and war, and he\nultimately acquired solar attributes. A famous rock sculpture at\nBoghaz-K\u00f6i depicts a mythological scene which is believed to represent\nthe Spring marriage of the Great Father and the Great Mother,\nsuggesting a local fusion of beliefs which resulted from the union of\ntribes of the god cult with tribes of the goddess cult. So long as the\nHatti tribe remained the predominant partner in the Hittite\nconfederacy, the supremacy was assured of the Great Father who\nsymbolized their sway. But when, in the process of time, the power of\nthe Hatti declined, their chief god \"fell... from his predominant\nplace in the religion of the interior\", writes Dr. Garstang. \"But the\nGreat Mother lived on, being the goddess of the land.\"[292]\n\nIn addition to the Hittite confederacy of Asia Minor and North Syria,\nanother great power arose in northern Mesopotamia. This was the\nMitanni Kingdom. Little is known regarding it, except what is derived\nfrom indirect sources. Winckler believes that it was first established\nby early \"waves\" of Hatti people who migrated from the east.\n\nThe Hittite connection is based chiefly on the following evidence. One\nof the gods of the Mitanni rulers was Teshup, who is identical with\nTarku, the Thor of Asia Minor. The raiders who in 1800 B.C. entered\nBabylon, set fire to E-sagila, and carried off Merodach and his\nconsort Zerpanitu^m, were called the Hatti. The images of these\ndeities were afterwards obtained from Khani (Mitanni).\n\nAt a later period, when we come to know more about Mitanni from the\nletters of one of its kings to two Egyptian Pharaohs, and the Winckler\ntablets from Bog-haz-K\u00f6i, it is found that its military aristocracy\nspoke an Indo-European language, as is shown by the names of their\nkings--Saushatar, Artatama, Sutarna, Artashshumara, Tushratta, and\nMattiuza. They worshipped the following deities:\n\n    Mi-it-ra, Uru-w-na, In-da-ra, and Na-sa-at-ti-ia--\n\nMitra, Varuna, Indra, and Nasatyau (the \"Twin Aswins\" = Castor and\nPollux)--whose names have been deciphered by Winckler. These gods were\nalso imported into India by the Vedic Aryans. The Mitanni tribe (the\nmilitary aristocracy probably) was called \"Kharri\", and some\nphilologists are of opinion that it is identical with \"Arya\", which\nwas \"the normal designation in Vedic literature from the Rigveda\nonwards of an Aryan of the three upper classes\".[293] Mitanni\nsignifies \"the river lands\", and the descendants of its inhabitants,\nwho lived in Cappadocia, were called by the Greeks \"Mattienoi\". \"They\nare possibly\", says Dr. Haddon, \"the ancestors of the modern\nKurds\",[294] a conspicuously long-headed people, proverbial, like the\nancient Aryo-Indians and the Gauls, for their hospitality and their\nraiding propensities.\n\nIt would appear that the Mitannian invasion of northern Mesopotamia\nand the Aryan invasion of India represented two streams of diverging\nmigrations from a common cultural centre, and that the separate groups\nof wanderers mingled with other stocks with whom they came into\ncontact. Tribes of Aryan speech were associated with the Kassite\ninvaders of Babylon, who took possession of northern Babylonia soon\nafter the disastrous Hittite raid. It is believed that they came from\nthe east through the highlands of Elam.\n\nFor a period, the dating of which is uncertain, the Mitannians were\noverlords of part of Assyria, including Nineveh and even Asshur, as\nwell as the district called \"Musri\" by the Assyrians, and part of\nCappadocia. They also occupied the cities of Harran and Kadesh.\nProbably they owed their great military successes to their cavalry.\nThe horse became common in Babylon during the Kassite Dynasty, which\nfollowed the Hammurabi, and was there called \"the ass of the east\", a\nname which suggests whence the Kassites and Mitannians came.\n\nThe westward movement of the Mitannians in the second millennium B.C.\nmay have been in progress prior to the Kassite conquest of Babylon and\nthe Hyksos invasion of Egypt. Their relations in Mesopotamia and Syria\nwith the Hittites and the Amorites are obscure. Perhaps they were for\na time the overlords of the Hittites. At any rate it is of interest to\nnote that when Thothmes III struck at the last Hyksos stronghold\nduring his long Syrian campaign of about twenty years' duration, his\noperations were directly against Kadesh on the Orontes, which was then\nheld by his fierce enemies the Mitannians of Naharina.[295]\n\nDuring the Hyksos Age the horse was introduced into Egypt. Indeed the\nHyksos conquest was probably due to the use of the horse, which was\ndomesticated, as the Pumpelly expedition has ascertained, at a remote\nperiod in Turkestan, whence it may have been obtained by the\nhorse-sacrificing Aryo-Indians and the horse-sacrificing ancestors of\nthe Siberian Buriats.\n\nIf the Mitanni rulers were not overlords of the Hittites about 1800\nB.C., the two peoples may have been military allies of the Kassites.\nSome writers suggest, indeed, that the Kassites came from Mitanni.\nAnother view is that the Mitannians were the Aryan allies of the\nKassites who entered Babylon from the Elamite highlands, and that they\nafterwards conquered Mesopotamia and part of Cappadocia prior to the\nHyksos conquest of Egypt. A third solution of the problem is that the\nAryan rulers of the Mitannian Hittites were the overlords of northern\nBabylonia, which they included in their Mesopotamian empire for a\ncentury before the Kassites achieved political supremacy in the\nTigro-Euphrates valley, and that they were also the leaders of the\nHyksos invasion of Egypt, which they accomplished with the assistance\nof their Hittite and Amoritic allies.\n\nThe first Kassite king of Babylonia of whom we have knowledge was\nGandash. He adopted the old Akkadian title, \"king of the four\nquarters\", as well as the title \"king of Sumer and Akkad\", first used\nby the rulers of the Dynasty of Ur. Nippur appears to have been\nselected by Gandash as his capital, which suggests that his war and\nstorm god, Shuqamuna, was identified with Bel Enlil, who as a \"world\ngiant\" has much in common with the northern hammer gods. After\nreigning for sixteen years, Gandash was succeeded by his son, Agum the\nGreat, who sat on the throne for twenty-two years. The great-grandson\nof Agum the Great was Agum II, and not until his reign were the\nstatues of Merodach and his consort Zerpanitu^m brought back to the\ncity of Babylon. This monarch recorded that, in response to the oracle\nof Shamash, the sun god, he sent to the distant land of Khani\n(Mitanni) for the great deity and his consort. Babylon would therefore\nappear to have been deprived of Merodach for about two centuries. The\nHittite-Mitanni raid is dated about 1800 B.C., and the rise of\nGandash, the Kassite, about 1700 B.C. At least a century elapsed\nbetween the reigns of Gandash and Agum II. These calculations do not\ncoincide, it will be noted, with the statement in a Babylonian hymn,\nthat Merodach remained in the land of the Hatti for twenty-four years,\nwhich, however, may be either a priestly fiction or a reference to a\nlater conquest. The period which followed the fall of the Hammurabi\nDynasty of Babylonia is as obscure as the Hyksos Age of Egypt.\n\nAgum II, the Kassite king, does not state whether or not he waged war\nagainst Mitanni to recover Babylon's god Merodach. If, however, he was\nan ally of the Mitanni ruler, the transference of the deity may have\nbeen an ordinary diplomatic transaction. The possibility may also be\nsuggested that the Hittites of Mitanni were not displaced by the Aryan\nmilitary aristocracy until after the Kassites were firmly established\nin northern Babylonia between 1700 B.C. and 1600 B.C. This may account\nfor the statements that Merodach was carried off by the Hatti and\nreturned from the land of Khani.\n\nThe evidence afforded by Egypt is suggestive in this connection. There\nwas a second Hyksos Dynasty in that country. The later rulers became\n\"Egyptianized\" as the Kassites became \"Babylonianized\", but they were\nall referred to by the exclusive and sullen-Egyptians as \"barbarians\"\nand \"Asiatics\". They recognized the sun god of Heliopolis, but were\nalso concerned in promoting the worship of Sutekh, a deity of sky and\nthunder, with solar attributes, whom Rameses II identified with the\n\"Baal\" of the Hittites. The Mitannians, as has been stated, recognized\na Baal called Teshup, who was identical with Tarku of the Western\nHittites and with their own tribal Indra also. One of the Hyksos\nkings, named Ian or Khian, the Ianias of Manetho, was either an\noverlord or the ally of an overlord, who swayed a great empire in\nAsia. His name has been deciphered on relics found as far apart as\nKnossos in Crete and Baghdad on the Tigris, which at the time was\nsituated within the area of Kassite control. Apparently peaceful\nconditions prevailed during his reign over a wide extent of Asia and\ntrade was brisk between far-distant centres of civilization. The very\nterm Hyksos is suggestive in this connection. According to Breasted it\nsignifies \"rulers of countries\", which compares with the Biblical\n\"Tidal king of nations\", whom Sayce, as has been indicated, regards as\na Hittite monarch. When the Hittite hieroglyphics have been read and\nMesopotamia thoroughly explored, light may be thrown on the relations\nof the Mitannians, the Hittites, the Hyksos, and the Kassites between\n1800 B.C. and 1500 B.C. It is evident that a fascinating volume of\nancient history has yet to be written.\n\nThe Kassites formed the military aristocracy of Babylonia, which was\ncalled Karduniash, for nearly six centuries. Agum II was the first of\ntheir kings who became thoroughly Babylonianized, and although he\nstill gave recognition to Shuqamuna, the Kassite god of battle, he\nre-exalted Merodach, whose statue he had taken back from \"Khani\", and\ndecorated E-sagila with gifts of gold, jewels, rare woods, frescoes,\nand pictorial tiles; he also re-endowed the priesthood. During the\nreign of his successor, Burnaburiash I, the Dynasty of Sealand came to\nan end.\n\nLittle is known regarding the relations between Elam and Babylonia\nduring the Kassite period. If the Kassite invaders crossed the Tigris\nsoon after the raid of the Mitannian Hittites they must have\npreviously overrun a great part of Elam, but strongly situated Susa\nmay have for a time withstood their attacks. At first the Kassites\nheld northern Babylonia only, while the ancient Sumerian area was\ndominated by the Sealand power, which had gradually regained strength\nduring the closing years of the Hammurabi Dynasty. No doubt many\nnorthern Babylonian refugees reinforced its army.\n\nThe Elamites, or perhaps the Kassites of Elam, appear to have made\nfrequent attacks on southern Babylonia. At length Ea-gamil, king of\nSealand, invaded Elam with purpose, no doubt, to shatter the power of\nhis restless enemies. He was either met there, however, by an army\nfrom Babylon, or his country was invaded during his absence. Prince\nUlamburiash, son of Burnaburiash I, defeated Ea-gamil and brought to\nan end the Sealand Dynasty which had been founded by Ilu-ma-ilu, the\ncontemporary and enemy of Samsu-la-ilu, son of Hammurabi. Ulamburiash\nis referred to on a mace-head which was discovered at Babylon as \"king\nof Sealand\", and he probably succeeded his father at the capital. The\nwhole of Babylonia thus came under Kassite sway.\n\nAgum III, a grandson of Ulamburiash, found it necessary, however, to\ninvade Sealand, which must therefore have revolted. It was probably a\ncentre of discontent during the whole period of Kassite ascendancy.\n\nAfter a long obscure interval we reach the period when the Hyksos\npower was broken in Egypt, that is, after 1580 B.C. The great Western\nAsiatic kingdoms at the time were the Hittite, the Mitannian, the\nAssyrian, and the Babylonian (Kassite). Between 1557 B.C. and 1501\nB.C. Thothmes I of Egypt was asserting his sway over part of Syria.\nMany years elapsed, however, before Thothmes III, who died in 1447\nB.C., established firmly, after waging a long war of conquest, the\nsupremacy of Egypt between the Euphrates and the Mediterranean coast\nas far north as the borders of Asia Minor.\n\n\"At this period\", as Professor Flinders Petrie emphasizes, \"the\ncivilization of Syria was equal or superior to that of Egypt.\" Not\nonly was there in the cities \"luxury beyond that of the Egyptians\",\nbut also \"technical work which could teach them\". The Syrian soldiers\nhad suits of scale armour, which afterwards were manufactured in\nEgypt, and they had chariots adorned with gold and silver and highly\ndecorated, which were greatly prized by the Egyptians when they\ncaptured them, and reserved for royalty. \"In the rich wealth of gold\nand silver vases\", obtained from captured cities by the Nilotic\nwarriors, \"we see also\", adds Petrie, \"the sign of a people who were\ntheir (the Egyptians') equals, if not their superiors in taste and\nskill.\"[296] It is not to be wondered at, therefore, when the Pharaohs\nreceived tribute from Syria that they preferred it to be carried into\nEgypt by skilled workmen. \"The keenness with which the Egyptians\nrecord all the beautiful and luxurious products of the Syrians shows\nthat the workmen would probably be more in demand than other kinds or\nslave tribute.\"[297]\n\nOne of the monarchs with whom Thothmes III corresponded was the king\nof Assyria. The enemies of Egypt in northern Mesopotamia were the\nHittites and Mitannians, and their allies, and these were also the\nenemies of Assyria. But to enable us to deal with the new situation\nwhich was created by Egypt in Mesopotamia, it is necessary in the\nfirst place to trace the rise of Assyria, which was destined to become\nfor a period the dominating power in Western Asia, and ultimately in\nthe Nile valley also.\n\nThe Assyrian group of cities grew up on the banks of the Tigris to the\nnorth of Babylonia, the mother country. The following Biblical\nreferences regarding the origins of the two states are of special\ninterest:--\n\n    Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and\n    Japheth.... The sons of Ham: Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and\n    Canaan.... And Cush begat Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one in\n    the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; wherefore it is\n    said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord. And the\n    beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and\n    Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Out of that land went forth Asshur\n    and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah, and Resen\n    between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city. The children\n    of Shem: Elam and Asshur ... (_Genesis_, x, 1-22). The land of\n    Assyria ... and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof\n    (_Micah_, v, 6).\n\nIt will be observed that the Sumero-Babylonians are Cushites or\nHamites, and therefore regarded as racially akin to the\nproto-Egyptians of the Mediterranean race--an interesting confirmation\nof recent ethnological conclusions.\n\nNimrod, the king of Babel (Babylon), in Shinar (Sumer), was, it would\nappear, a deified monarch who became ultimately identified with the\nnational god of Babylonia. Professor Pinches has shown[298] that his\nname is a rendering of that of Merodach. In Sumerian Merodach was\ncalled Amaruduk or Amarudu, and in the Assyro-Babylonian language\nMarduk. By a process familiar to philologists the suffix \"uk\" was\ndropped and the rendering became Marad. The Hebrews added \"ni\" =\n\"ni-marad\", assimilating the name \"to a certain extent to the 'niphal\nforms' of the Hebrew verbs and making a change\", says Pinches, \"in\nconformity with the genius of the Hebrew language\".\n\nAsshur, who went out of Nimrod's country to build Nineveh, was a son\nof Shem--a Semite, and so far as is known it was after the Semites\nachieved political supremacy in Akkad that the Assyrian colonies were\nformed. Asshur may have been a subject ruler who was deified and\nbecame the god of the city of Asshur, which probably gave its name to\nAssyria.\n\nAccording to Herodotus, Nineveh was founded by King Ninus and Queen\nSemiramis. This lady was reputed to be the daughter of Derceto, the\nfish goddess, whom Pliny identified with Atargatis. Semiramis was\nactually an Assyrian queen of revered memory. She was deified and took\nthe place of a goddess, apparently Nina, the prototype of Derceto.\nThis Nina, perhaps a form of Damkina, wife of Ea, was the great mother\nof the Sumerian city of Nina, and there, and also at Lagash, received\nofferings of fish. She was one of the many goddesses of maternity\nabsorbed by Ishtar. The Greek Ninus is regarded as a male form of her\nname; like Atargatis, she may have become a bisexual deity, if she was\nnot always accompanied by a shadowy male form. Nineveh (Ninua) was\nprobably founded or conquered by colonists from Nina or Lagash, and\ncalled after the fish goddess.\n\nAll the deities of Assyria were imported from Babylonia except, as\nsome hold, Ashur, the national god.[299] The theory that Ashur was\nidentical with the Aryo-Indian Asura and the Persian Ahura is not\ngenerally accepted. One theory is that he was an eponymous hero who\nbecame the city god of Asshur, although the early form of his name,\nAshir, presents a difficulty in this connection. Asshur was the first\ncapital of Assyria. Its city god may have become the national god on\nthat account.\n\nAt an early period, perhaps a thousand years before Thothmes III\nbattled with the Mitannians in northern Syria, an early wave of one of\nthe peoples of Aryan speech may have occupied the Assyrian cities. Mr.\nJohns points out in this connection that the names of Ushpia, Kikia,\nand Adasi, who, according to Assyrian records, were early rulers in\nAsshur, \"are neither Semitic nor Sumerian\". An ancient name of the\ngoddess of Nineveh was Shaushka, which compares with Shaushkash, the\nconsort of Teshup, the Hittite-Mitanni hammer god. As many of the\nMitannian names \"are\", according to Mr. Johns, \"really Elamitic\", he\nsuggests an ethnic connection between the early conquerors of Assyria\nand the people of Elam.[300] Were the pre-Semitic Elamites originally\nspeakers of an agglutinative language, like the Sumerians and\npresent-day Basques, who were conquered in prehistoric times by a\npeople of Aryan speech?\n\nThe possibility is urged by Mr. Johns's suggestion that Assyria may\nhave been dominated in pre-Semitic times by the congeners of the Aryan\nmilitary aristocracy of Mitanni. As has been shown, it was Semitized\nby the Amoritic migration which, about 2000 B.C., brought into\nprominence the Hammurabi Dynasty of Babylon.\n\nA long list of kings with Semitic names held sway in the Assyrian\ncities during and after the Hammurabi Age. But not until well on in\nthe Kassite period did any of them attain prominence in Western Asia.\nThen Ashur-bel-nish-eshu, King of Asshur, was strong enough to deal on\nequal terms with the Kassite ruler Kara-indash I, with whom he\narranged a boundary treaty. He was a contemporary of Thothmes III of\nEgypt.\n\nAfter Thothmes III had secured the predominance of Egypt in Syria and\nPalestine he recognized Assyria as an independent power, and supplied\nits king with Egyptian gold to assist him, no doubt, in strengthening\nhis territory against their common enemy. Gifts were also sent from\nAssyria to Egypt to fan the flame of cordial relations.\n\nThe situation was full of peril for Saushatar, king of Mitanni.\nDeprived by Egypt of tribute-paying cities in Syria, his exchequer\nmust have been sadly depleted. A standing army had to be maintained,\nfor although Egypt made no attempt to encroach further on his\nterritory, the Hittites were ever hovering on his north-western\nfrontier, ready when opportunity offered to win back Cappadocia.\nEastward, Assyria was threatening to become a dangerous rival. He had\nhimself to pay tribute to Egypt, and Egypt was subsidizing his enemy.\nIt was imperative on his part, therefore, to take action without\ndelay. The power of Assyria had to be crippled; its revenues were\nrequired for the Mitannian exchequer. So Saushatar raided Assyria\nduring the closing years of the reign of Thothmes III, or soon after\nhis successor, Amenhotep II, ascended the Egyptian throne.\n\nNothing is known from contemporary records regarding this campaign;\nbut it can be gathered from the references of a later period that the\ncity of Asshur was captured and plundered; its king, Ashur-nadin-akhe,\nceased corresponding and exchanging gifts with Egypt. That Nineveh\nalso fell is made clear by the fact that a descendant of Saushatar\n(Tushratta) was able to send to a descendant of Thothmes III at Thebes\n(Amenhotep III) the image of Ishtar (Shaushka) of Nineveh. Apparently\nfive successive Mitannian kings were overlords of Assyria during a\nperiod which cannot be estimated at much less than a hundred years.\n\nOur knowledge regarding these events is derived chiefly from the\nTell-el-Amarna letters, and the tablets found by Professor Hugo\nWinckler at Boghaz-K\u00f6i in Cappadocia, Asia Minor.\n\nThe Tell-el-Amarna letters were discovered among the ruins of the\npalace of the famous Egyptian Pharaoh, Akhenaton, of the Eighteenth\nDynasty, who died about 1358 B.C. During the winter of 1887-8 an\nEgyptian woman was excavating soil for her garden, when she happened\nupon the cellar of Akhenaton's foreign office in which the official\ncorrespondence had been stored. The \"letters\" were baked clay tablets\ninscribed with cuneiform alphabetical signs in the Babylonian-Assyrian\nlanguage, which, like French in modern times, was the language of\ninternational diplomacy for many centuries in Western Asia after the\nHyksos period.\n\nThe Egyptian natives, ever so eager to sell antiquities so as to make\na fortune and retire for life, offered some specimens of the tablets\nfor sale. One or two were sent to Paris, where they were promptly\ndeclared to be forgeries, with the result that for a time the\ninscribed bricks were not a marketable commodity. Ere their value was\ndiscovered, the natives had packed them into sacks, with the result\nthat many were damaged and some completely destroyed. At length,\nhowever, the majority of them reached the British Museum and the\nBerlin Museum, while others drifted into the museums at Cairo, St.\nPetersburg, and Paris. When they were deciphered, Mitanni was\ndiscovered, and a flood of light thrown on the internal affairs of\nEgypt and its relations with various kingdoms in Asia, while glimpses\nwere also afforded of the life and manners of the times.\n\nThe letters covered the reigns of Amenhotep III, the great-grandson of\nThothmes III, and of his son Akhenaton, \"the dreamer king\", and\nincluded communications from the kings of Babylonia, Assyria, Mitanni,\nCyprus, the Hittites, and the princes of Phoenicia and Canaan. The\ncopies of two letters from Amenhotep III to Kallima-Sin, King of\nBabylonia, had also been preserved. One deals with statements made by\nBabylonian ambassadors, whom the Pharaoh stigmatizes as liars.\nKallima-Sin had sent his daughter to the royal harem of Egypt, and\ndesired to know if she was alive and well. He also asked for \"much\ngold\" to enable him to carry on the work of extending his temple. When\ntwenty minas of gold was sent to him, he complained in due course that\nthe quantity received was not only short but that the gold was not\npure; it had been melted in the furnace, and less than five minas came\nout. In return he sent to Akhenaton two minas of enamel, and some\njewels for his daughter, who was in the Egyptian royal harem.\n\nAshur-uballit, king of Ashur, once wrote intimating to Akhenaton that\nhe was gifting him horses and chariots and a jewel seal. He asked for\ngold to assist in building his palace. \"In your country\", he added,\n\"gold is as plentiful as dust.\" He also made an illuminating statement\nto the effect that no ambassador had gone from Assyria to Egypt since\nthe days of his ancestor Ashur-nadin-akhe. It would therefore appear\nthat Ashur-uballit had freed part of Assyria from the yoke of Mitanni.\n\nThe contemporary king of Mitanni was Tushratta. He corresponded both\nwith his cousin Amenhotep III and his son-in-law Akhenaton. In his\ncorrespondence with Amenhotep III Tushratta tells that his kingdom had\nbeen invaded by the Hittites, but his god Teshup had delivered them\ninto his hand, and he destroyed them; \"not one of them\", he declared,\n\"returned to his own country\". Out of the booty captured he sent\nAmenhotep several chariots and horses, and a boy and a girl. To his\nsister Gilu-khipa, who was one of the Egyptian Pharaoh's wives, he\ngifted golden ornaments and a jar of oil. In another letter Tushratta\nasked for a large quantity of gold \"without measure\". He complained\nthat he did not receive enough on previous occasions, and hinted that\nsome of the Egyptian gold looked as if it were alloyed with copper.\nLike the Assyrian king, he hinted that gold was as plentiful as dust\nin Egypt. His own presents to the Pharaoh included precious stones,\ngold ornaments, chariots and horses, and women (probably slaves). This\nmay have been tribute. It was during the third Amenhotep's illness\nthat Tushratta forwarded the Nineveh image of Ishtar to Egypt, and he\nmade reference to its having been previously sent thither by his\nfather, Sutarna.\n\nWhen Akhenaton came to the throne Tushratta wrote to him, desiring to\ncontinue the friendship which had existed for two or three generations\nbetween the kings of Mitanni and Egypt, and made complimentary\nreferences to \"the distinguished Queen Tiy\", Akhenaton's mother, who\nevidently exercised considerable influence in shaping Egypt's foreign\npolicy. In the course of his long correspondence with the Pharaohs,\nTushratta made those statements regarding his ancestors which have\nprovided so much important data for modern historians of his kingdom.\n\nDuring the early part of the Tell-el-Amarna period, Mitanni was the\nmost powerful kingdom in Western Asia. It was chiefly on that account\nthat the daughters of its rulers were selected to be the wives and\nmothers of great Egyptian Pharaohs. But its numerous enemies were ever\nplotting to accomplish its downfall. Among these the foremost and most\ndangerous were the Hittites and the Assyrians.\n\nThe ascendancy of the Hittites was achieved in northern Syria with\ndramatic suddenness. There arose in Asia Minor a great conqueror,\nnamed Subbi-luliuma, the successor of Hattusil I, who established a\nstrong Hittite empire which endured for about two centuries. His\ncapital was at Boghaz-K\u00f6i. Sweeping through Cappadocia, at the head of\na finely organized army, remarkable for its mobility, he attacked the\nbuffer states which owed allegiance to Mitanni and Egypt. City after\ncity fell before him, until at length he invaded Mitanni; but it is\nuncertain whether or not Tushratta met him in battle. Large numbers of\nthe Mitannians were, however, evicted and transferred to the land of\nthe Hittites, where the Greeks subsequently found them, and where they\nare believed to be represented by the modern Kurds, the hereditary\nenemies of the Armenians.\n\nIn the confusion which ensued, Tushratta was murdered by Sutarna II,\nwho was recognized by Subbi-luliuma. The crown prince, Mattiuza, fled\nto Babylon, where he found protection, but was unable to receive any\nassistance. Ultimately, when the Hittite emperor had secured his sway\nover northern Syria, he deposed Sutarna II and set Mattiuza as his\nvassal on the throne of the shrunken Mitanni kingdom.\n\nMeanwhile the Egyptian empire in Asia had gone to pieces. When\nAkhenaton, the dreamer king, died in his palace at Tell-el-Amarna, the\nKhabiri were conquering the Canaanite cities which had paid him\ntribute, and the Hittite ruler was the acknowledged overlord of the\nAmorites.\n\nThe star of Assyria was also in the ascendant. Its king,\nAshur-uballit, who had corresponded with Akhenaton, was, like the\nHittite king, Subbi-luliuma, a distinguished statesman and general,\nand similarly laid the foundations of a great empire. Before or after\nSubbi-luliuma invaded Tushratta's domains, he drove the Mitannians out\nof Nineveh, and afterwards overcame the Shubari tribes of Mitanni on\nthe north-west, with the result that he added a wide extent of\nterritory to his growing empire.\n\nHe had previously thrust southward the Assyro-Babylonian frontier. In\nfact, he had become so formidable an opponent of Babylonia that his\ndaughter had been accepted as the wife of Karakhardash, the Kassite\nking of that country. In time his grandson, Kadashman-Kharbe, ascended\nthe Babylonian throne. This young monarch co-operated with his\ngrandfather in suppressing the Suti, who infested the trade routes\ntowards the west, and plundered the caravans of merchants and the\nmessengers of great monarchs with persistent impunity.\n\nA reference to these bandits appears in one of the Tell-el-Amarna\nletters. Writing to Akhenaton, Ashur-uballit said: \"The lands (of\nAssyria and Egypt) are remote, therefore let our messengers come and\ngo. That your messengers were late in reaching you, (the reason is\nthat) if the Suti had waylaid them, they would have been dead men. For\nif I had sent them, the Suti would have sent bands to waylay them;\ntherefore I have retained them. My messengers (however), may they not\n(for this reason) be delayed.\"[301]\n\nAshur-uballit's grandson extended his Babylonian frontier into Amurru,\nwhere he dug wells and erected forts to protect traders. The Kassite\naristocracy, however, appear to have entertained towards him a strong\ndislike, perhaps because he was so closely associated with their\nhereditary enemies the Assyrians. He had not reigned for long when the\nembers of rebellion burst into flame and he was murdered in his\npalace. The Kassites then selected as their king a man of humble\norigin, named Nazibugash, who was afterwards referred to as \"the son\nof nobody\". Ashur-uballit deemed the occasion a fitting one to\ninterfere in the affairs of Babylonia. He suddenly appeared at the\ncapital with a strong army, overawed the Kassites, and seized and slew\nNazibugash. Then he set on the throne his great grandson the infant\nKurigalzu II, who lived to reign for fifty-five years.\n\nAshur-uballit appears to have died soon after this event. He was\nsucceeded by his son Bel-nirari, who carried on the policy of\nstrengthening and extending the Assyrian empire. For many years he\nmaintained excellent relations with his kinsman Kurigalzu II, but\nultimately they came into conflict apparently over disputed territory.\nA sanguinary battle was fought, in which the Babylonians suffered\nheavily and were put to rout. A treaty of peace was afterwards\narranged, which secured for the Assyrians a further extension of their\nfrontier \"from the borders of Mitanni as far as Babylonia\". The\nstruggle of the future was to be for the possession of Mesopotamia, so\nas to secure control over the trade routes.\n\nThus Assyria rose from a petty state in a comparatively brief period\nto become the rival of Babylonia, at a time when Egypt at the\nbeginning of its Nineteenth Dynasty was endeavouring to win back its\nlost empire in Syria, and the Hittite empire was being consolidated in\nthe north.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII.\n\nASTROLOGY AND ASTRONOMY\n\n\n  Culture and Superstition--Primitive Star Myths--Naturalism,\n  Totemism, and Animism--Stars as Ghosts of Men, Giants, and Wild\n  Animals--Gods as Constellations and Planets--Babylonian and Egyptian\n  Mysticism--Osiris, Tammuz, and Merodach--Ishtar and Isis as Bisexual\n  Deities--The Babylonian Planetary Deities--Planets as Forms of\n  Tammuz and Ghosts of Gods--The Signs of the Zodiac--The \"Four\n  Quarters\"--Cosmic Periods in Babylonia, India, Greece, and\n  Ireland--Babylonian System of Calculation--Traced in Indian Yuga\n  System--Astrology--Beliefs of the Masses--Rise of\n  Astronomy--Conflicting Views of Authorities--Greece and\n  Babylonia--Eclipses Foretold--The Dial of Ahaz--Omens of Heaven and\n  Air--Biblical References to Constellations--The Past in the Present.\n\n\nThe empire builders of old who enriched themselves with the spoils of\nwar and the tribute of subject States, not only satisfied personal\nambition and afforded protection for industrious traders and workers,\nbut also incidentally promoted culture and endowed research. When a\nconqueror returned to his capital laden with treasure, he made\ngenerous gifts to the temples. He believed that his successes were\nrewards for his piety, that his battles were won for him by his god or\ngoddess of war. It was necessary, therefore, that he should continue\nto find favour in the eyes of the deity who had been proved to be more\npowerful than the god of his enemies. Besides, he had to make\nprovision during his absence on long campaigns, or while absorbed in\nadministrative work, for the constant performance of religious rites,\nso that the various deities of water, earth, weather, and corn might\nbe sustained or propitiated with sacrificial offerings, or held in\nmagical control by the performance of ceremonial rites. Consequently\nan endowed priesthood became a necessity in all powerful and\nwell-organized states.\n\nThus came into existence in Babylonia, as elsewhere, as a result of\nthe accumulation of wealth, a leisured official class, whose duties\ntended to promote intellectual activity, although they were primarily\ndirected to perpetuate gross superstitious practices. Culture was\nreally a by-product of temple activities; it flowed forth like pure\ngold from furnaces of thought which were walled up by the crude ores\nof magic and immemorial tradition.\n\nNo doubt in ancient Babylonia, as in Europe during the Middle Ages,\nthe men of refinement and intellect among the upper classes were\nattracted to the temples, while the more robust types preferred the\noutdoor life, and especially the life of the soldier.[302] The\npermanent triumphs of Babylonian civilization were achieved either by\nthe priests, or in consequence of the influence they exercised. They\nwere the grammarians and the scribes, the mathematicians and the\nphilosophers of that ancient country, the teachers of the young, and\nthe patrons of the arts and crafts. It was because the temples were\ncentres of intellectual activity that the Sumerian language remained\nthe language of culture for long centuries after it ceased to be the\neveryday speech of the people.\n\nReference has already been made to the growth of art, and the\nprobability that all the arts had their origin in magical practices,\nand to the growth of popular education necessitated by the\ncentralization of business in the temples. It remains with us to deal\nnow with priestly contributions to the more abstruse sciences. In\nIndia the ritualists among the Brahmans, who concerned themselves\ngreatly regarding the exact construction and measurements of altars,\ngave the world algebra; the pyramid builders of Egypt, who erected\nvast tombs to protect royal mummies, had perforce to lay the\ngroundwork of the science of geometry; and the Babylonian priests who\nelaborated the study of astrology became great astronomers because\nthey found it necessary to observe and record accurately the movements\nof the heavenly bodies.\n\nFrom the earliest times of which we have knowledge, the religious\nbeliefs of the Sumerians had vague stellar associations. But it does\nnot follow that their myths were star myths to begin with. A people\nwho called constellations \"the ram\", \"the bull\", \"the lion\", or \"the\nscorpion\", did not do so because astral groups suggested the forms of\nanimals, but rather because the animals had an earlier connection with\ntheir religious life.\n\nAt the same time it should be recognized that the mystery of the stars\nmust ever have haunted the minds of primitive men. Night with all its\nterrors appealed more strongly to their imaginations than refulgent\nday when they felt more secure; they were concerned most regarding\nwhat they feared most. Brooding in darkness regarding their fate, they\nevidently associated the stars with the forces which influenced their\nlives--the ghosts of ancestors, of totems, the spirits that brought\nfood or famine and controlled the seasons. As children see images in a\nfire, so they saw human life reflected in the starry sky. To the\nsimple minds of early folks the great moon seemed to be the parent of\nthe numerous twinkling and moving orbs. In Babylon, indeed, the moon\nwas regarded as the father not only of the stars but of the sun also;\nthere, as elsewhere, lunar worship was older than solar worship.\n\nPrimitive beliefs regarding the stars were of similar character in\nvarious parts of the world. But the importance which they assumed in\nlocal mythologies depended in the first place on local phenomena. On\nthe northern Eur-Asian steppes, for instance, where stars vanished\nduring summer's blue nights, and were often obscured by clouds in\nwinter, they did not impress men's minds so persistently and deeply as\nin Babylonia, where for the greater part of the year they gleamed in\ndarkness through a dry transparent atmosphere with awesome intensity.\nThe development of an elaborate system of astral myths, besides, was\nonly possible in a country where the people had attained to a high\ndegree of civilization, and men enjoyed leisure and security to make\nobservations and compile records. It is not surprising, therefore, to\nfind that Babylonia was the cradle of astronomy. But before this\nscience had destroyed the theory which it was fostered to prove, it\nlay smothered for long ages in the debris of immemorial beliefs. It is\nnecessary, therefore, in dealing with Babylonian astral myths to\nendeavour to approach within reasonable distance of the point of view,\nor points of view, of the people who framed them.\n\nBabylonian religious thought was of highly complex character. Its\nprogress was ever hampered by blended traditions. The earliest\nsettlers in the Tigro-Euphrates valley no doubt imported many crude\nbeliefs which they had inherited from their Palaeolithic\nancestors--the modes of thought which were the moulds of new theories\narising from new experiences. When consideration is given to the\nexisting religious beliefs of various peoples throughout the world, in\nlow stages of culture, it is found that the highly developed creeds of\nBabylonia, Egypt and other countries where civilization flourished\nwere never divested wholly of their primitive traits.\n\nAmong savage peoples two grades of religious ideas have been\nidentified, and classified as Naturalism and Animism. In the plane of\nNaturalism the belief obtains that a vague impersonal force, which may\nhave more than one manifestation and is yet manifested in everything,\ncontrols the world and the lives of human beings. An illustration of\nthis stage of religious consciousness is afforded by Mr. Risley, who,\nin dealing with the religion of the jungle dwellers of Chota Nagpur,\nIndia, says that \"in most cases the indefinite something which they\nfear and attempt to propitiate is not a person at all in any sense of\nthe word; if one must state the case in positive terms, I should say\nthat the idea which lies at the root of their religion is that of a\npower rather than many powers\".[303]\n\nTraces of Naturalism appear to have survived in Sumeria in the belief\nthat \"the spiritual, the Zi, was that which manifested life.... The\ntest of the manifestation of life was movement.\"[304] All things that\nmoved, it was conceived in the plane of Naturalism, possessed \"self\npower\"; the river was a living thing, as was also the fountain; a\nstone that fell from a hill fell of its own accord; a tree groaned\nbecause the wind caused it to suffer pain. This idea that inanimate\nobjects had conscious existence survived in the religion of the\nAryo-Indians. In the Nala story of the Indian epic, the _Mahabharata_,\nthe disconsolate wife Damayanti addresses a mountain when searching\nfor her lost husband:\n\n    This, the monarch of all mountains, ask I of the king of men;\n    O all-honoured Prince of Mountains, with thy heavenward soaring\n        peaks ...\n    Hast thou seen the kingly Nala in this dark and awful wood....\n    Why repliest thou not, O Mountain?\"\n\nShe similarly addresses the Asoka tree:\n\n    \"Hast thou seen Nishadha's monarch, hast thou seen my only\n        love?...\n    That I may depart ungrieving, fair Asoka, answer me....\"\n    Many a tree she stood and gazed on....[305]\n\nIt will be recognized that when primitive men gave names to mountains,\nrivers, or the ocean, these possessed for them a deeper significance\nthan they do for us at the present day. The earliest peoples of\nIndo-European speech who called the sky \"dyeus\", and those of Sumerian\nspeech who called it \"ana\", regarded it not as the sky \"and nothing\nmore\", but as something which had conscious existence and \"self\npower\". Our remote ancestors resembled, in this respect, those\nimaginative children who hold conversations with articles of\nfurniture, and administer punishment to stones which, they believe,\nhave tripped them up voluntarily and with desire to commit an offence.\n\nIn this early stage of development the widespread totemic beliefs\nappear to have had origin. Families or tribes believed that they were\ndescended from mountains, trees, or wild animals.\n\nAesop's fable about the mountain which gave birth to a mouse may be a\nrelic of Totemism; so also may be the mountain symbols on the\nstandards of Egyptian ships which appear on pre-dynastic pottery; the\nblack dwarfs of Teutonic mythology were earth children.[306]\n\nAdonis sprang from a tree; his mother may have, according to primitive\nbelief, been simply a tree; Dagda, the patriarchal Irish corn god, was\nan oak; indeed, the idea of a \"world tree\", which occurs in Sumerian,\nVedic-Indian, Teutonic, and other mythologies, was probably a product\nof Totemism.\n\nWild animals were considered to be other forms of human beings who\ncould marry princes and princesses as they do in so many fairy tales.\nDamayanti addressed the tiger, as well as the mountain and tree,\nsaying:\n\n    I approach him without fear.\n    \"Of the beasts art thou the monarch, all this forest thy\n        domain;...\n    Thou, O king of beasts, console me, if my Nala thou hast\n        seen.\"[307]\n\nA tribal totem exercised sway over a tribal district. In Egypt, as\nHerodotus recorded, the crocodile was worshipped in one district and\nhunted down in another. Tribes fought against tribes when totemic\nanimals were slain. The Babylonian and Indian myths about the\nconflicts between eagles and serpents may have originated as records\nof battles between eagle clans and serpent clans. Totemic animals were\ntabooed. The Set pig of Egypt and the devil pig of Ireland, Scotland,\nand Wales were not eaten except sacrificially. Families were supposed\nto be descended from swans and were named Swans, or from seals and\nwere named Seals, like the Gaelic \"Mac Codrums\", whose surname\nsignifies \"son of the seal\"; the nickname of the Campbells, \"sons of\nthe pig\", may refer to their totemic boar's head crest, which\ncommemorated the slaying, perhaps the sacrificial slaying, of the boar\nby their ancestor Diarmid. Mr. Garstang, in _The Syrian Goddess_,\nthinks it possible that the boar which killed Adonis was of totemic\norigin. So may have been the fish form of the Sumerian god Ea. When an\nanimal totem was sacrificed once a year, and eaten sacrificially so\nthat the strength of the clan might be maintained, the priest who\nwrapped himself in its skin was supposed to have transmitted to him\ncertain magical powers; he became identified with the totem and\nprophesied and gave instruction as the totem. Ea was depicted clad in\nthe fish's skin.\n\nAnimism, the other early stage of human development, also produced\ndistinctive modes of thought. Men conceived that the world swarmed\nwith spirits, that a spirit groaned in the wind-shaken tree, that the\nhowling wind was an invisible spirit, that there were spirits in\nfountains, rivers, valleys, hills, and in ocean, and in all animals;\nand that a hostile spirit might possess an individual and change his\nnature. The sun and the moon were the abodes of spirits, or the\nvessels in which great spirits sailed over the sea of the sky; the\nstars were all spirits, the \"host of heaven\". These spirits existed in\ngroups of seven, or groups of three, and the multiple of three, or in\npairs, or operated as single individuals.\n\nAlthough certain spirits might confer gifts upon mankind, they were at\ncertain seasons and in certain localities hostile and vengeful, like\nthe grass-green fairies in winter, or the earth-black elves when their\ngold was sought for in forbidden and secret places. These spirits were\nthe artisans of creation and vegetation, like the Egyptian Khnumu and\nthe Indian Rhibus; they fashioned the grass blades and the stalks of\ncorn, but at times of seasonal change they might ride on their tempest\nsteeds, or issue forth from flooding rivers and lakes. Man was greatly\nconcerned about striking bargains with them to secure their services,\nand about propitiating them, or warding off their attacks with\nprotective charms, and by performing \"ceremonies of riddance\". The\nghosts of the dead, being spirits, were similarly propitious or\nharmful on occasion; as emissaries of Fate they could injure the\nliving.\n\nAncestor worship, the worship of ghosts, had origin in the stage of\nAnimism. But ancestor worship was not developed in Babylonia as in\nChina, for instance, although traces of it survived in the worship of\nstars as ghosts, in the deification of kings, and the worship of\npatriarchs, who might be exalted as gods or identified with a supreme\ngod. The Egyptian Pharaoh Unas became the sun god and the\nconstellation of Orion by devouring his predecessors[308]. He ate his\ngod as a tribe ate its animal totem; he became the \"bull of heaven\".\n\nThere were star totems as well as mountain totems. A St. Andrew's\ncross sign, on one of the Egyptian ship standards referred to, may\nrepresent a star. The Babylonian goddess Ishtar was symbolized as a\nstar, and she was the \"world mother\". Many primitive currents of\nthought shaped the fretted rocks of ancient mythologies.\n\nIn various countries all round the globe the belief prevailed that the\nstars were ghosts of the mighty dead--of giants, kings, or princes, or\nprincesses, or of pious people whom the gods loved, or of animals\nwhich were worshipped. A few instances may be selected at random. When\nthe Teutonic gods slew the giant Thjasse, he appeared in the heavens\nas Sirius. In India the ghosts of the \"seven Rishis\", who were\nsemi-divine Patriarchs, formed the constellation of the Great Bear,\nwhich in Vedic times was called the \"seven bears\". The wives of the\nseven Rishis were the stars of the Pleiades. In Greece the Pleiades\nwere the ghosts of the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione, and in\nAustralia they were and are a queen and six handmaidens. In these\ncountries, as elsewhere, stories were told to account for the \"lost\nPleiad\", a fact which suggests that primitive men were more constant\nobservers of the heavenly bodies than might otherwise be supposed. The\nArcadians believed that they were descended, as Hesiod recorded, from\na princess who was transformed by Zeus into a bear; in this form\nArtemis slew her and she became the \"Great Bear\" of the sky. The\nEgyptian Isis was the star Sirius, whose rising coincided with the\nbeginning of the Nile inundation. Her first tear for the dead Osiris\nfell into the river on \"the night of the drop\". The flood which ensued\nbrought the food supply. Thus the star was not only the Great Mother\nof all, but the sustainer of all.\n\nThe brightest stars were regarded as being the greatest and most\ninfluential. In Babylonia all the planets were identified with great\ndeities. Jupiter, for instance, was Merodach, and one of the astral\nforms of Ishtar was Venus. Merodach was also connected with \"the fish\nof Ea\" (Pisces), so that it is not improbable that Ea worship had\nstellar associations. Constellations were given recognition before the\nplanets were identified.\n\nA strange blending of primitive beliefs occurred when the deities were\ngiven astral forms. As has been shown (Chapter III) gods were supposed\nto die annually. The Egyptian priests pointed out to Herodotus the\ngrave of Osiris and also his star. There are \"giants' graves\" also in\nthose countries in which the gods were simply ferocious giants. A god\nmight assume various forms; he might take the form of an insect, like\nIndra, and hide in a plant, or become a mouse, or a serpent, like the\ngods of Erech in the Gilgamesh epic. The further theory that a god\ncould exist in various forms at one and the same time suggests that it\nhad its origin among a people who accepted the idea of a personal god\nwhile yet in the stage of Naturalism. In Egypt Osiris, for instance,\nwas the moon, which came as a beautiful child each month and was\ndevoured as the wasting \"old moon\" by the demon Set; he was the young\ngod who was slain in his prime each year; he was at once the father,\nhusband, and son of Isis; he was the Patriarch who reigned over men\nand became the Judge of the Dead; he was the earth spirit, he was the\nbisexual Nile spirit, he was the spring sun; he was the Apis bull of\nMemphis, and the ram of Mendes; he was the reigning Pharaoh. In his\nfusion with Ra, who was threefold--Khepera, Ra, and Tum--he died each\nday as an old man; he appeared in heaven at night as the constellation\nOrion, which was his ghost, or was, perhaps, rather the Sumerian Zi,\nthe spiritual essence of life. Osiris, who resembled Tammuz, a god of\nmany forms also, was addressed as follows in one of the Isis chants:\n\n    There proceedeth from thee the strong Orion in heaven at evening,\n        at the resting of every day!\n    Lo it is I (Isis), at the approach of the Sothis (Sirius) period,\n        who doth watch for him (the child Osiris),\n    Nor will I leave off watching for him; for that which proceedeth\n        from thee (the living Osiris) is revered.\n    An emanation from thee causeth life to gods and men, reptiles and\n        animals, and they live by means thereof.\n    Come thou to us from thy chamber, in the day when thy soul\n        begetteth emanations,--\n    The day when offerings upon offerings are made to thy spirit,\n        which causeth the gods and men likewise to live.[309]\n\nThis extract emphasizes how unsafe it is to confine certain deities\nwithin narrow limits by terming them simply \"solar gods\", \"lunar\ngods\", \"astral gods\", or \"earth gods\". One deity may have been\nsimultaneously a sun god and moon god, an air god and an earth god,\none who was dead and also alive, unborn and also old. The priests of\nBabylonia and Egypt were less accustomed to concrete and logical\ndefinitions than their critics and expositors of the twentieth\ncentury. Simple explanations of ancient beliefs are often by reason of\ntheir very simplicity highly improbable. Recognition must ever be\ngiven to the puzzling complexity of religious thought in Babylonia and\nEgypt, and to the possibility that even to the priests the doctrines\nof a particular cult, which embraced the accumulated ideas of\ncenturies, were invariably confusing and vague, and full of\ninconsistencies; they were mystical in the sense that the\nunderstanding could not grasp them although it permitted their\nacceptance. A god, for instance, might be addressed at once in the\nsingular and plural, perhaps because he had developed from an\nanimistic group of spirits, or, perhaps, for reasons we cannot\ndiscover. This is shown clearly by the following pregnant extract from\na Babylonian tablet: \"_Powerful, O Sevenfold, one are ye_\". Mr. L.W.\nKing, the translator, comments upon it as follows: \"There is no doubt\nthat the name was applied to a group of gods who were so closely\nconnected that, though addressed in the plural, they could in the same\nsentence be regarded as forming a single personality\".[310]\n\nLike the Egyptian Osiris, the Babylonian Merodach was a highly complex\ndeity. He was the son of Ea, god of the deep; he died to give origin\nto human life when he commanded that his head should be cut off so\nthat the first human beings might be fashioned by mixing his blood\nwith the earth; he was the wind god, who gave \"the air of life\"; he\nwas the deity of thunder and the sky; he was the sun of spring in his\nTammuz character; he was the daily sun, and the planets Jupiter and\nMercury as well as Sharru (Regulus); he had various astral\nassociations at various seasons. Ishtar, the goddess, was Iku\n(Capella), the water channel star, in January-February, and Merodach\nwas Iku in May-June. This strange system of identifying the chief\ndeity with different stars at different periods, or simultaneously,\nmust not be confused with the monotheistic identification of him with\nother gods. Merodach changed his forms with Ishtar, and had similarly\nmany forms. This goddess, for instance, was, even when connected with\none particular heavenly body, liable to change. According to a tablet\nfragment she was, as the planet Venus, \"a female at sunset and a male\nat sunrise[311]\"--that is, a bisexual deity like Nannar of Ur, the\nfather and mother deity combined, and Isis of Egypt. Nannar is\naddressed in a famous hymn:\n\n    Father Nannar, Lord, God Sin, ruler among the gods....\n    _Mother body which produceth all things_....\n    Merciful, gracious Father, in whose hand the life of the whole\n        land is contained.\n\nOne of the Isis chants of Egypt sets forth, addressing Osiris:\n\n    There cometh unto thee Isis, lady of the horizon, who hath\n        begotten herself alone in the image of the gods....\n    She hath taken vengeance before Horus, _the woman who was made a\n        male by her father Osiris_.[312]\n\nMerodach, like Osiris-Sokar, was a \"lord of many existences\", and\nlikewise \"the mysterious one, he who is unknown to mankind[313]\". It\nwas impossible for the human mind \"a greater than itself to know\".\n\nEvidence has not yet been forthcoming to enable us to determine the\nperiod at which the chief Babylonian deities were identified with the\nplanets, but it is clear that Merodach's ascendancy in astral form\ncould not have occurred prior to the rise of that city god of Babylon\nas chief of the pantheon by displacing Enlil. At the same time it must\nbe recognized that long before the Hammurabi age the star-gazers of\nthe Tigro-Euphrates valley must have been acquainted with the\nmovements of the chief planets and stars, and, no doubt, they\nconnected them with seasonal changes as in Egypt, where Isis was\nidentified with Sirius long before the Ptolemaic age, when Babylonian\nastronomy was imported. Horus was identified not only with the sun but\nalso with Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars.[314] Even the primitive\nAustralians, as has been indicated, have their star myths; they refer\nto the stars Castor and Pollux as two young men, like the ancient\nGreeks, while the African Bushmen assert that these stars are two\ngirls. It would be a mistake, however, to assume that the prehistoric\nSumerians were exact astronomers. Probably they were, like the\nAryo-Indians of the Vedic period, \"not very accurate observers\".[315]\n\nIt is of special interest to find that the stars were grouped by the\nBabylonians at the earliest period in companies of seven. The\nimportance of this magical number is emphasized by the group of seven\ndemons which rose from the deep to rage over the land (p. 71). Perhaps\nthe sanctity of Seven was suggested by Orion, the Bears, and the\nPleiad, one of which constellations may have been the \"Sevenfold\"\ndeity addressed as \"one\". At any rate arbitrary groupings of other\nstars into companies of seven took place, for references are made to\nthe seven Tikshi, the seven Lumashi, and the seven Mashi, which are\nolder than the signs of the Zodiac; so far as can be ascertained these\ngroups were selected from various constellations. When the five\nplanets were identified, they were associated with the sun and moon\nand connected with the chief gods of the Hammurabi pantheon. A\nbilingual list in the British Museum arranges the sevenfold planetary\ngroup in the following order:--\n\n    The moon, Sin.\n    The sun, Shamash.\n    Jupiter, Merodach.\n    Venus, Ishtar.\n    Saturn, Ninip (Nirig).\n    Mercury, Nebo.\n    Mars, Nergal.\n\nAn ancient name of the moon was Aa, \u00c2, or Ai, which recalls the\nEgyptian A\u00e2h or Ah. The Sumerian moon was Aku, \"the measurer\", like\nThoth of Egypt, who in his lunar character as a Fate measured out the\nlives of men, and was a god of architects, mathematicians, and\nscribes. The moon was the parent of the sun or its spouse; and might\nbe male, or female, or both as a bisexual deity.\n\nAs the \"bull of light\" Jupiter had solar associations; he was also the\nshepherd of the stars, a title shared by Tammuz as Orion; Nin-Girsu, a\ndeveloped form of Tammuz, was identified with both Orion and Jupiter.\n\nIshtar's identification with Venus is of special interest. When that\nplanet was at its brightest phase, its rays were referred to as \"the\nbeard\" of the goddess; she was the \"bearded Aphrodite\"--a bisexual\ndeity evidently. The astrologers regarded the bright Venus as lucky\nand the rayless Venus as unlucky.\n\nSaturn was Nirig, who is best known as Ninip, a deity who was\ndisplaced by Enlil, the elder Bel, and afterwards regarded as his son.\nHis story has not been recovered, but from the references made to it\nthere is little doubt that it was a version of the widespread myth\nabout the elder deity who was slain by his son, as Saturn was by\nJupiter and Dyaus by Indra. It may have resembled the lost Egyptian\nmyth which explained the existence of the two Horuses--Horus the\nelder, and Horus, the posthumous son of Osiris. At any rate, it is of\ninterest to find in this connection that in Egypt the planet Saturn\nwas Her-Ka, \"Horus the Bull\". Ninip was also identified with the bull.\nBoth deities were also connected with the spring sun, like Tammuz, and\nwere terrible slayers of their enemies. Ninip raged through Babylonia\nlike a storm flood, and Horus swept down the Nile, slaying the\nfollowers of Set. As the divine sower of seed, Ninip may have\ndeveloped from Tammuz as Horus did from Osiris. Each were at once the\nfather and the son, different forms of the same deity at various\nseasons of the year. The elder god was displaced by the son (spring),\nand when the son grew old his son slew him in turn. As the planet\nSaturn, Ninip was the ghost of the elder god, and as the son of Bel he\nwas the solar war god of spring, the great wild bull, the god of\nfertility. He was also as Ber \"lord of the wild boar\", an animal\nassociated with Rimmon[316].\n\nNebo (Nabu), who was identified with Mercury, was a god of Borsippa.\nHe was a messenger and \"announcer\" of the gods, as the Egyptian Horus\nin his connection with Jupiter was Her-ap-sheta, \"Horus the opener of\nthat which is secret[317]\". Nebo's original character is obscure. He\nappears to have been a highly developed deity of a people well\nadvanced in civilization when he was exalted as the divine patron of\nBorsippa. Although Hammurabi ignored him, he was subsequently invoked\nwith Merodach, and had probably much in common with Merodach. Indeed,\nMerodach was also identified with the planet Mercury. Like the Greek\nHermes, Nebo was a messenger of the gods and an instructor of mankind.\nJastrow regards him as \"a counterpart of Ea\", and says: \"Like Ea, he\nis the embodiment and source of wisdom. The art of writing--and\ntherefore of all literature--is more particularly associated with him.\nA common form of his name designates him as the 'god of the\nstylus'.\"[318] He appears also to have been a developed form of\nTammuz, who was an incarnation of Ea. Professor Pinches shows that one\nof his names, Mermer, was also a non-Semitic name of Ramman.[319]\nTammuz resembled Ramman in his character as a spring god of war. It\nwould seem that Merodach as Jupiter displaced at Babylon Nebo as\nSaturn, the elder god, as Bel Enlil displaced the elder Ninip at\nNippur.\n\nThe god of Mars was Nergal, the patron deity of Cuthah,[320] who\ndescended into the Underworld and forced into submission Eresh-ki-gal\n(Persephone), with whom he was afterwards associated. His \"name\", says\nProfessor Pinches, \"is supposed to mean 'lord of the great\nhabitation', which would be a parallel to that of his spouse,\nEresh-ki-gal\".[321] At Erech he symbolized the destroying influence of\nthe sun, and was accompanied by the demons of pestilence. Mars was a\nplanet of evil, plague, and death; its animal form was the wolf. In\nEgypt it was called Herdesher, \"the Red Horus\", and in Greece it was\nassociated with Ares (the Roman Mars), the war god, who assumed his\nboar form to slay Adonis (Tammuz).\n\nNergal was also a fire god like the Aryo-Indian Agni, who, as has been\nshown, links with Tammuz as a demon slayer and a god of fertility. It\nmay be that Nergal was a specialized form of Tammuz, who, in a version\nof the myth, was reputed to have entered the Underworld as a conqueror\nwhen claimed by Eresh-ki-gal, and to have become, like Osiris, the\nlord of the dead. If so, Nergal was at once the slayer and the slain.\n\nThe various Babylonian deities who were identified with the planets\nhad their characters sharply defined as members of an organized\npantheon. But before this development took place certain of the\nprominent heavenly bodies, perhaps all the planets, were evidently\nregarded as manifestations of one deity, the primeval Tammuz, who was\na form of Ea, or of the twin deities Ea and Anu. Tammuz may have been\nthe \"sevenfold one\" of the hymns. At a still earlier period the stars\nwere manifestations of the Power whom the jungle dwellers of Chota\nNagpur attempt to propitiate--the \"world soul\" of the cultured\nBrahmans of the post-Vedic Indian Age. As much is suggested by the\nresemblances which the conventionalized planetary deities bear to\nTammuz, whose attributes they symbolized, and by the Egyptian\nconception that the sun, Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars were manifestations\nof Horus. Tammuz and Horus may have been personifications of the Power\nor World Soul vaguely recognized in the stage of Naturalism.\n\nThe influence of animistic modes of thought may be traced in the idea\nthat the planets and stars were the ghosts of gods who were superseded\nby their sons. These sons were identical with their fathers; they\nbecame, as in Egypt, \"husbands of their mothers\". This idea was\nperpetuated in the Aryo-Indian _Laws of Manu_, in which it is set\nforth that \"the husband, after conception by his wife, becomes an\nembryo and is born again of her[322]\". The deities died every year,\nbut death was simply change. Yet they remained in the separate forms\nthey assumed in their progress round \"the wide circle of necessity\".\nHorus was remembered as various planets--as the falcon, as the elder\nsun god, and as the son of Osiris; and Tammuz was the spring sun, the\nchild, youth, warrior, the deity of fertility, and the lord of death\n(Orion-Nergal), and, as has been suggested, all the planets.\n\nThe stars were also the ghosts of deities who died daily. When the sun\nperished as an old man at evening, it rose in the heavens as Orion, or\nwent out and in among the stars as the shepherd of the flock, Jupiter,\nthe planet of Merodach in Babylonia, and Attis in Asia Minor. The\nflock was the group of heavenly spirits invisible by day, the \"host of\nheaven\"--manifestations or ghosts of the emissaries of the controlling\npower or powers.\n\nThe planets presided over various months of the year. Sin (the moon)\nwas associated with the third month; it also controlled the calendar;\nNinip (Saturn) was associated with the fourth month, Ishtar (Venus)\nwith the sixth, Shamash (the sun) with the seventh, Merodach (Jupiter)\nwith the eighth, Nergal (Mars) with the ninth, and a messenger of the\ngods, probably Nebo (Mercury), with the tenth.\n\nEach month was also controlled by a zodiacal constellation. In the\nCreation myth of Babylon it is stated that when Merodach engaged in\nthe work of setting the Universe in order he \"set all the great gods\nin their several stations\", and \"also created their images, the stars\nof the Zodiac,[323] and fixed them all\" (p. 147).\n\nOur signs of the Zodiac are of Babylonian origin. They were passed on\nto the Greeks by the Phoenicians and Hittites. \"There was a time \",\nsays Professor Sayce, \"when the Hittites were profoundly affected by\nBabylonian civilization, religion, and art....\" They \"carried the\ntime-worn civilizations of Babylonia and Egypt to the furthest\nboundary of Egypt, and there handed them over to the West in the grey\ndawn of European history.... Greek traditions affirmed that the rulers\nof Mykenae had come from Lydia, bringing with them the civilization\nand treasures of Asia Minor. The tradition has been confirmed by\nmodern research. While certain elements belonging to the prehistoric\nculture of Greece, as revealed at Mykenae and elsewhere, were derived\nfrom Egypt and Phoenicia, there are others which point to Asia Minor\nas their source. And the culture of Asia Minor was Hittite.\"[324]\n\nThe early Babylonian astronomers did not know, of course, that the\nearth revolved round the sun. They believed that the sun travelled\nacross the heavens flying like a bird or sailing like a boat.[325] In\nstudying its movements they observed that it always travelled from\nwest to east along a broad path, swinging from side to side of it in\nthe course of the year. This path is the Zodiac--the celestial \"circle\nof necessity\". The middle line of the sun's path is the Ecliptic. The\nBabylonian scientists divided the Ecliptic into twelve equal parts,\nand grouped in each part the stars which formed their constellations;\nthese are also called \"Signs of the Zodiac\". Each month had thus its\nsign or constellation.\n\nThe names borne at the present day by the signs of the Zodiac are\neasily remembered even by children, who are encouraged to repeat the\nfollowing familiar lines:\n\n    The _Ram_, the _Bull_, the heavenly _Twins_,\n    And next the _Crab_, the _Lion_ shines.\n        The _Virgin_ and the _Scales_;\n    The _Scorpion, Archer_, and _Sea goat_,\n    The man that holds the _water pot_,\n        And _Fish_ with glitt'ring[326] tails.\n\nThe table on p. 308 shows that our signs are derived from ancient\nBabylonia.\n\nThe celestial regions were also divided into three or more parts.\nThree \"fields\" were allotted to the ancient triad formed by Ea, Anu,\nand Bel. The zodiacal \"path\" ran through these \"fields\". Ea's field\nwas in the west, and was associated with Amurru, the land of the\nAmorites; Anu's field was in the south, and was associated with Elam;\nand Bel's central \"field\" was associated with the land of Akkad. When\nthe rulers of Akkad called themselves \"kings of the four quarters\",\nthe reference was to the countries associated with the three divine\nfields and to Gutium[327](east = our north-east). Was Gutium\nassociated with demons, as in Scandinavia the north-east was\nassociated with the giants against whom Thor waged war?\n\n\n+---------------------------------------------------------------------+\n|               | Date of Sun's Entry |                               |\n|Constellations.|(Babylonian Month in |    Babylonian Equivalent.     |\n|               |     brackets).      |                               |\n|---------------+---------------------+-------------------------------|\n|Aries (the     |20th March (Nisan =  |The Labourer or Messenger.     |\n|Ram).          |March-April)         |                               |\n|---------------+---------------------+-------------------------------|\n|Taurus (the    |20th April (Iyyar =  |A divine figure and the \"bull  |\n|Bull).         |April-May)           |of heaven\".                    |\n|---------------+---------------------+-------------------------------|\n|Gemini (the    |21st May (Sivan =    |The Faithful Shepherd and Twins|\n|Twins).        |May-June).           |side by side, or head to head  |\n|               |                     |and feet to teet.              |\n|---------------+---------------------+-------------------------------|\n|Cancer (the    |21st June (Tammuz =  |Crab or Scorpion.              |\n|Crab).         |June-July).          |                               |\n|---------------+---------------------+-------------------------------|\n|Leo (the Lion).|22nd July (Ab =      |The big dog (Lion).            |\n|               |July-August).        |                               |\n|---------------+---------------------+-------------------------------|\n|Virgo (the     |23rd August (Elul =  |Ishtar, the Virgin's ear of    |\n|Virgin).       |August-Sept.).       |corn.                          |\n|---------------+---------------------+-------------------------------|\n|Libra (the     |23rd September (Tisri|The Balance.                   |\n|Balance).      |= Sept.-Oct.).       |                               |\n|---------------+---------------------+-------------------------------|\n|Scorpio (the   |23rd October         |                               |\n|Scorpion).     |(Marcheswan =        |Scorpion of darkness.          |\n|               |Oct.-Nov.).          |                               |\n|---------------+---------------------+-------------------------------|\n|Sagittarius    |22nd November        |Man or man-horse with bow, or  |\n|(the Archer).  |(Chisleu =           |an arrow symbol.               |\n|               |Nov.-Dec.).          |                               |\n|---------------+---------------------+-------------------------------|\n|Capricornus    |21st December (Tebet |Ea's goat-fish.                |\n|(the Goat).    |= Dec.-Jan.).        |                               |\n|---------------+---------------------+-------------------------------|\n|Aquarius (the  |19th January (Sebat =|God with water urn.            |\n|Water Carrier).|Jan.-Feb.).          |                               |\n|---------------+---------------------+-------------------------------|\n|Pisces (the    |18th February (Adar =|Fish tails in canal.           |\n|Fishes).       |Feb.-March).         |                               |\n+---------------------------------------------------------------------+\n\n\nThe Babylonian Creation myth states that Merodach, having fixed the\nstars of the Zodiac, made three stars for each month (p. 147). Mr.\nRobert Brown, jun., who has dealt as exhaustively with the\nastronomical problems of Babylonia as the available data permitted\nhim, is of opinion that the leading stars of three constellations are\nreferred to, viz.: (1) the central or zodiacal constellations, (2) the\nnorthern constellations, and (3) the southern constellations. We have\nthus a scheme of thirty-six constellations. The \"twelve zodiacal stars\nwere flanked on either side by twelve non-zodiacal stars\". Mr. Brown\nquotes Diodorus, who gave a r\u00e9sum\u00e9 of Babylonian\nastronomico-astrology, in this connection. He said that \"the five\nplanets were called 'Interpreters'; and in subjection to these were\nmarshalled 'Thirty Stars', which were styled 'Divinities of the\nCouncil'.... The chiefs of the Divinities are twelve in number, to\neach of whom they assign a month and one of the twelve signs of the\nZodiac.\" Through these twelve signs sun, moon, and planets run their\ncourses. \"And with the zodiacal circle they mark out twenty-four\nstars, half of which they say are arranged in the north and half in\nthe south.\"[328] Mr. Brown shows that the thirty stars referred to\n\"constituted the original Euphratean Lunar Zodiac, the parent of the\nseven ancient lunar zodiacs which have come down to us, namely, the\nPersian, Sogdian, Khorasmian, Chinese, Indian, Arab, and Coptic\nschemes\".\n\nThe three constellations associated with each month had each a\nsymbolic significance: they reflected the characters of their months.\nAt the height of the rainy season, for instance, the month of Ramman,\nthe thunder god, was presided over by the zodiacal constellation of\nthe water urn, the northern constellation \"Fish of the Canal\", and the\nsouthern \"the Horse\". In India the black horse was sacrificed at\nrain-getting and fertility ceremonies. The months of growth,\npestilence, and scorching sun heat were in turn symbolized. The \"Great\nBear\" was the \"chariot\" = \"Charles's Wain\", and the \"Milky Way\" the\n\"river of the high cloud\", the Celestial Euphrates, as in Egypt it was\nthe Celestial Nile.\n\nOf special interest among the many problems presented by Babylonian\nastronomical lore is the theory of Cosmic periods or Ages of the\nUniverse. In the Indian, Greek, and Irish mythologies there are four\nAges--the Silvern (white), Golden (yellow), the Bronze (red), and the\nIron (black). As has been already indicated, Mr. R. Brown, jun., shows\nthat \"the Indian system of Yugas, or ages of the world, presents many\nfeatures which forcibly remind us of the Euphratean scheme\". The\nBabylonians had ten antediluvian kings, who were reputed to have\nreigned for vast periods, the total of which amounted to 120 saroi, or\n432,000 years. These figures at once recall the Indian Maha-yuga of\n4,320,000 years = 432,000 x 10. Apparently the Babylonian and Indian\nsystems of calculation were of common origin. In both countries the\nmeasurements of time and space were arrived at by utilizing the\nnumerals 10 and 6.\n\nWhen primitive man began to count he adopted a method which comes\nnaturally to every schoolboy; he utilized his fingers. Twice five gave\nhim ten, and from ten he progressed to twenty, and then on to a\nhundred and beyond. In making measurements his hands, arms, and feet\nwere at his service. We are still measuring by feet and yards\n(standardized strides) in this country, while those who engage in the\nimmemorial art of knitting, and, in doing so, repeat designs found on\nneolithic pottery, continue to measure in finger breadths, finger\nlengths, and hand breadths as did the ancient folks who called an arm\nlength a cubit. Nor has the span been forgotten, especially by boys in\ntheir games with marbles; the space from the end of the thumb to the\nend of the little finger when the hand is extended must have been an\nimportant measurement from the earliest times.\n\nAs he made progress in calculations, the primitive Babylonian appears\nto have been struck by other details in his anatomy besides his sets\nof five fingers and five toes. He observed, for instance, that his\nfingers were divided into three parts and his thumb into two parts\nonly;[329] four fingers multiplied by three gave him twelve, and\nmultiplying 12 by 3 he reached 36. Apparently the figure 6 attracted\nhim. His body was divided into 6 parts--2 arms, 2 legs, the head, and\nthe trunk; his 2 ears, 2 eyes, and mouth, and nose also gave him 6.\nThe basal 6, multiplied by his 10 fingers, gave him 60, and 60 x 2\n(for his 2 hands) gave him 120. In Babylonian arithmetic 6 and 60 are\nimportant numbers, and it is not surprising to find that in the system\nof numerals the signs for 1 and 10 combined represent 60.\n\nIn fixing the length of a mythical period his first great calculation\nof 120 came naturally to the Babylonian, and when he undertook to\nmeasure the Zodiac he equated time and space by fixing on 120 degrees.\nHis first zodiac was the Sumerian lunar zodiac, which contained thirty\nmoon chambers associated with the \"Thirty Stars\" of the tablets, and\nreferred to by Diodorus as \"Divinities of the Council\". The chiefs of\nthe Thirty numbered twelve. In this system the year began in the\nwinter solstice. Mr. Hewitt has shown that the chief annual festival\nof the Indian Dravidians begins with the first full moon after the\nwinter festival, and Mr. Brown emphasizes the fact that the list of\nTamil (Dravidian) lunar and solar months are named like the Babylonian\nconstellations.[330] \"Lunar chronology\", wrote Professor Max Mailer,\n\"seems everywhere to have preceded solar chronology.\"[331] The later\nSemitic Babylonian system had twelve solar chambers and the thirty-six\nconstellations.\n\nEach degree was divided into sixty minutes, and each minute into sixty\nseconds. The hours of the day and night each numbered twelve.\n\nMultiplying 6 by 10 (pur), the Babylonian arrived at 60 (soss); 60x10\ngave him 600 (ner), and 600x6, 3600 (sar), while 3600x10 gave him\n36,000, and 36,000x12, 432,000 years, or 120 saroi, which is equal to\nthe \"sar\" multiplied by the \"soss\"x2. \"Pur\" signifies \"heap\"--the ten\nfingers closed after being counted; and \"ner\" signifies \"foot\". Mr.\nGeorge Bertin suggests that when 6x10 fingers gave 60 this number was\nmultiplied by the ten toes, with the result that 600 was afterwards\nassociated with the feet (ner). The Babylonian sign for 10 resembles\nthe impression of two feet with heels closed and toes apart. This\nsuggests a primitive record of the first round of finger counting.\n\nIn India this Babylonian system of calculation was developed during\nthe Brahmanical period. The four Yugas or Ages, representing the four\nfingers used by the primitive mathematicians, totalled 12,000 divine\nyears, a period which was called a Maha-yuga; it equalled the\nBabylonian 120 saroi, multiplied by 100. Ten times a hundred of these\nperiods gave a \"Day of Brahma\".\n\nEach day of the gods, it was explained by the Brahmans, was a year to\nmortals. Multiplied by 360 days, 12,000 divine years equalled\n4,320,000 human years. This Maha-yuga, multiplied by 1000, gave the\n\"Day of Brahma\" as 4,320,000,000 human years.\n\nThe shortest Indian Yuga is the Babylonian 120 saroi multiplied by\n10=1200 divine years for the Kali Yuga; twice that number gives the\nDvapara Yuga of 2400 divine years; then the Treta Yuga is 2400 + 1200\n= 3600 divine years, and Krita Yuga 3600 + 1200 = 4800 divine years.\n\nThe influence of Babylonia is apparent in these calculations. During\nthe Vedic period \"Yuga\" usually signified a \"generation\", and there\nare no certain references to the four Ages as such. The names \"Kali\",\n\"Dvapara\", \"Treta\", and \"Krita\" \"occur as the designations of throws\nof dice\".[332] It was after the arrival of the \"late comers\", the\npost-Vedic Aryans, that the Yuga system was developed in India.[333]\n\nIn _Indian Myth and Legend_[334] it is shown that the Indian and Irish\nAges have the same colour sequence: (1) White or Silvern, (2) Red or\nBronze, (3) Yellow or Golden, and (4) Black or Iron. The Greek order\nis: (1) Golden, (2) Silvern, (3) Bronze, and (4) Iron.\n\nThe Babylonians coloured the seven planets as follows: the moon,\nsilvern; the sun, golden; Mars, red; Saturn, black; Jupiter, orange;\nVenus, yellow; and Mercury, blue.\n\nAs the ten antediluvian kings who reigned for 120 saroi had an astral\nsignificance, their long reigns corresponding \"with the distances\nseparating certain of the principal stars in or near the\necliptic\",[335]) it seems highly probable that the planets were\nsimilarly connected with mythical ages which were equated with the\n\"four quarters\" of the celestial regions and the four regions of the\nearth, which in Gaelic story are called \"the four red divisions of the\nworld\".\n\nThree of the planets may have been heralds of change. Venus, as \"\nDilbat\", was the \"Proclaimer\", and both Jupiter and Mercury were\ncalled \"Face voices of light\", and \"Heroes of the rising sun\" among\nother names. Jupiter may have been the herald of the \"Golden Age\" as a\nmorning star. This planet was also associated with bronze, as \"Kakkub\nUrud\", \"the star of bronze\", while Mars was \"Kakkub Aban Kha-urud,\"\n\"the star of the bronze fish stone\". Mercury, the lapis lazuli planet,\nmay have been connected with the black Saturn, the ghost of the dead\nsun, the demoniac elder god; in Egypt lapis lazuli was the hair colour\nof Ra when he grew old, and Egyptologists translate it as black.[336]\nThe rare and regular appearances of Mercury may have suggested the\nplanet's connection with a recurring Age. Venus as an evening star\nmight be regarded as the herald of the lunar or silver age; she was\npropitious as a bearded deity and interchanged with Merodach as a\nseasonal herald.\n\nConnecting Jupiter with the sun as a propitious planet, and with Mars\nas a destroying planet, Venus with the moon, and Mercury with Saturn,\nwe have left four colour schemes which suggest the Golden, Silvern,\nBronze, and Iron Ages. The Greek order of mythical ages may have had a\nsolar significance, beginning as it does with the \"golden\" period. On\nthe other hand the Indian and Irish systems begin with the Silvern or\nwhite lunar period. In India the White Age (Treta Yuga) was the age of\nperfect men, and in Greece the Golden Age was the age of men who lived\nlike gods. Thus the first ages in both cases were \"Perfect\" Ages. The\nBronze Age of Greece was the age of notorious fighters and takers of\nlife; in Babylonia the bronze planet Mars was the symbol of the\ndestroying Nergal, god of war and pestilence, while Jupiter was also a\ndestroyer as Merodach, the slayer of Tiamat. In India the Black Age is\nthe age of wickedness. The Babylonian Saturn, as we have seen, is\nblack, and its god, Ninip, was the destroying boar, which recalls the\nblack boar of the Egyptian demon (or elder god) Set. The Greek Cronos\nwas a destroyer even of his own children. All the elder gods had\ndemoniac traits like the ghosts of human beings.\n\nAs the Babylonian lunar zodiac was imported into India before solar\nworship and the solar zodiac were developed, so too may have been the\ngerms of the Yuga doctrine, which appears to have a long history.\nGreece, on the other hand, came under the influence of Babylon at a\nmuch later period. In Egypt Ra, the sun god, was an antediluvian king,\nand he was followed by Osiris. Osiris was slain by Set, who was\ndepicted sometimes red and sometimes black. There was also a Horus\nAge.\n\nThe Irish system of ages suggests an early cultural drift into Europe,\nthrough Asia Minor, and along the uplands occupied by the\nrepresentatives of the Alpine or Armenoid peoples who have been traced\nfrom Hindu Kush to Brittany. The culture of Gaul resembles that of\nIndia in certain particulars; both the Gauls and the post-Vedic\nAryans, for instance, believed in the doctrine of Transmigration of\nSouls, and practised \"suttee\". After the Roman occupation of Gaul,\nIreland appears to have been the refuge of Gaulish scholars, who\nimported their beliefs and traditions and laid the foundations of that\nbrilliant culture which shed lustre on the Green Isle in late Pagan\nand early Christian times.\n\nThe part played by the Mitanni people of Aryan speech in distributing\nAsiatic culture throughout Europe may have been considerable, but we\nknow little or nothing regarding their movements and influence, nor\nhas sufficient evidence been forthcoming to connect them with the\ncremating invaders of the Bronze Age, who penetrated as far as\nnorthern Scotland and Scandinavia. On the other hand it is certain\nthat the Hittites adopted the planetary system of Babylonia and passed\nit on to Europeans, including the Greeks. The five planets Ninip,\nMerodach, Nergal, Ishtar, and Nebo were called by the Greeks after\ntheir gods Kronos, Zeus, Ares, Aphrodite, and Hermes, and by the\nRomans Saturnus, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and Mercurius. It must be\nrecognized, however, that these equations were somewhat arbitrary.\nNinip resembled Kronos and Saturnus as a father, but he was also at\nthe same time a son; he was the Egyptian Horus the elder and Horus the\nyounger in one. Merodach was similarly of complex character--a\ncombination of Ea, Anu, Enlil, and Tammuz, who acquired, when exalted\nby the Amoritic Dynasty of Babylon, the attributes of the thunder god\nAdad-Ramman in the form of Amurru, \"lord of the mountains\". During the\nHammurabi Age Amurru was significantly popular in personal names. It\nis as Amurru-Ramman that Merodach bears comparison with Zeus. He also\nlinks with Hercules. Too much must not be made, therefore, of the\nGreek and Roman identifications of alien deities with their own.\nMulla, the Gaulish mule god, may have resembled Mars somewhat, but it\nis a \"far cry\" from Mars-Mulla to Mars-Nergal, as it is also from the\nGaulish Moccus, the boar, called \"Mercury\", to Nebo, the god of\nculture, who was the \"Mercury\" of the Tigro-Euphrates valley.\nSimilarly the differences between \"Jupiter-Amon\" of Egypt and\n\"Jupiter-Merodach\" of Babylon were more pronounced than the\nresemblances.\n\nThe basal idea in Babylonian astrology appears to be the recognition\nof the astral bodies as spirits or fates, who exercised an influence\nover the gods, the world, and mankind. These were worshipped in groups\nwhen they were yet nameless. The group addressed, \"Powerful, O\nsevenfold, one are ye\", may have been a constellation consisting of\nseven stars.[337] The worship of stars and planets, which were\nidentified and named, \"seems never to have spread\", says Professor\nSayce, \"beyond the learned classes, and to have remained to the last\nan artificial system. The mass of the people worshipped the stars as a\nwhole, but it was only as a whole and not individually.\"[338] The\nmasses perpetuated ancient animistic beliefs, like the pre-Hellenic\ninhabitants of Greece. \"The Pelasgians, as I was informed at Dodona,\"\nwrote Herodotus, \"formerly offered all things indiscriminately to the\ngods. They distinguished them by no name or surname, for they were\nhitherto unacquainted with either; but they called them gods, which by\nits etymology means disposers, from observing the orderly disposition\nand distribution of the various parts of the universe.\"[339] The\noldest deities are those which bore no individual names. They were\nsimply \"Fates\" or groups called \"Sevenfold\". The crude giant gods of\nScotland are \"Fomhairean\" (Fomorians), and do not have individual\nnames as in Ireland. Families and tribes were controlled by the Fates\nor nameless gods, which might appear as beasts or birds, or be heard\nknocking or screaming.\n\nIn the Babylonian astral hymns, the star spirits are associated with\nthe gods, and are revealers of the decrees of Fate. \"Ye brilliant\nstars... ye bright ones... to destroy evil did Anu create you.... At\nthy command mankind was named (created)! Give thou the Word, and with\nthee let the great gods stand! Give thou my judgment, make my\ndecision!\"[340]\n\nThe Indian evidence shows that the constellations, and especially the\nbright stars, were identified before the planets. Indeed, in Vedic\nliterature there is no certain reference to a single planet, although\nconstellations are named. It seems highly probable that before the\nBabylonian gods were associated with the astral bodies, the belief\nobtained that the stars exercised an influence over human lives. In\none of the Indian \"Forest Books\", for instance, reference is made to a\nman who was \"born under the Nakshatra Rohini \".[341] \"Nakshatras\" are\nstars in the _Rigveda_ and later, and \"lunar mansions\" in Brahmanical\ncompositions.[342] \"Rohini, 'ruddy', is the name of a conspicuously\nreddish star, [Greek: alpha] Tauri or Aldebaran, and denotes the group\nof the Hyades.\"[343] This reference may be dated before 600 B.C.,\nperhaps 800 B.C.\n\nFrom Greece comes the evidence of Plutarch regarding the principles of\nBabylonian astrology. \"Respecting the planets, which they call _the\nbirth-ruling divinities_, the Chaldeans\", he wrote, \"lay down that two\n(Venus and Jupiter) are propitious, and two (Mars and Saturn) malign,\nand three (Sun, Moon, and Mercury) of a middle nature, and one\ncommon.\" \"That is,\" Mr. Brown comments, \"an astrologer would say,\nthese three are propitious with the good, and may be malign with the\nbad.\"[344]\n\nJastrow's views in this connection seem highly controversial. He holds\nthat Babylonian astrology dealt simply with national affairs, and had\nno concern with \"the conditions under which the individual was born\";\nit did not predict \"the fate in store for him\". He believes that the\nGreeks transformed Babylonian astrology and infused it with the spirit\nof individualism which is a characteristic of their religion, and that\nthey were the first to give astrology a personal significance.\n\nJastrow also perpetuates the idea that astronomy began with the\nGreeks. \"Several centuries before the days of Alexander the Great,\" he\nsays, \"the Greeks had begun to cultivate the study of the heavens, not\nfor purposes of divination, but prompted by a scientific spirit as an\nintellectual discipline that might help them to solve the mysteries of\nthe universe.\" It is possible, however, to overrate the \"scientific\nspirit\" of the Greeks, who, like the Japanese in our own day, were\naccomplished borrowers from other civilizations. That astronomy had\nhumble beginnings in Greece as elsewhere is highly probable. The late\nMr. Andrew Lang wrote in this connection: \"The very oddest example of\nthe survival of the notion that the stars are men and women is found\nin the _Pax_ of Aristophanes. Trygaeus in that comedy has just made an\nexpedition to heaven. A slave meets him, and asks him: 'Is not the\nstory true, then, that we become stars when we die?' The answer is,\n'Certainly'; and Trygaeus points out the star into which Ion of Chios\nhas just been metamorphosed.\" Mr. Lang added: \"Aristophanes is making\nfun of some popular Greek superstition\". The Eskimos, Persians,\nAryo-Indians, Germans, New Zealanders, and others had a similar\nsuperstition.[345]\n\nJastrow goes on to say that the Greeks \"imparted their scientific view\nof the Universe to the East. They became the teachers of the East in\nastronomy as in medicine and other sciences, and the credit of having\ndiscovered the law of the precession of the equinoxes belongs to\nHipparchus, the Greek astronomer, who announced this important theory\nabout the year 130 B.C.\"[346] Undoubtedly the Greeks contributed to\nthe advancement of the science of astronomy, with which, as other\nauthorities believe, they became acquainted after it had become well\ndeveloped as a science by the Assyrians and Babylonians.\n\n\"In return for improved methods of astronomical calculation which,\"\nJastrow says, \"_it may be assumed_ (the italics are ours), contact\nwith Greek science gave to the Babylonian astronomers, the Greeks\naccepted from the Babylonians the names of the constellations of the\necliptic.\"[347] This is a grudging admission; they evidently accepted\nmore than the mere names.\n\nJastrow's hypothesis is certainly interesting, especially as he is an\nOriental linguist of high repute. But it is not generally accepted.\nThe sudden advance made by the Tigro-Euphratean astronomers when\nAssyria was at the height of its glory, may have been due to the\ndiscoveries made by great native scientists, the Newtons and the\nHerschels of past ages, who had studied the data accumulated by\ngenerations of astrologers, the earliest recorders of the movements of\nthe heavenly bodies. It is hard to believe that the Greeks made much\nprogress as scientists before they had identified the planets, and\nbecome familiar with the Babylonian constellations through the medium\nof the Hittites or the Phoenicians. What is known for certain is that\nlong centuries before the Greek science was heard of, there were\nscientists in Babylonia. During the Sumerian period \"the forms and\nrelations of geometry\", says Professor Goodspeed, \"were employed for\npurposes of augury. The heavens were mapped out, and the courses of\nthe heavenly bodies traced to determine the bearing of their movements\nupon human destinies.\"[348]\n\nSeveral centuries before Hipparchus was born, the Assyrian kings had\nin their palaces official astronomers who were able to foretell, with\nvarying degrees of accuracy, when eclipses would take place.\nInstructions were sent to various observatories, in the king's name,\nto send in reports of forthcoming eclipses. A translation of one of\nthese official documents sent from the observatory of Babylon to\nNineveh, has been published by Professor Harper. The following are\nextracts from it: \"As for the eclipse of the moon about which the king\nmy lord has written to me, a watch was kept for it in the cities of\nAkkad, Borsippa, and Nippur. We observed it ourselves in the city of\nAkkad.... And whereas the king my lord ordered me to observe also the\neclipse of the sun, I watched to see whether it took place or not, and\nwhat passed before my eyes I now report to the king my lord. It was an\neclipse of the moon that took place.... It was total over Syria, and\nthe shadow fell on the land of the Amorites, the land of the Hittites,\nand in part on the land of the Chaldees.\" Professor Sayce comments:\n\"We gather from this letter that there were no less than three\nobservatories in Northern Babylonia: one at Akkad, near Sippara; one\nat Nippur, now Niffer; and one at Borsippa, within sight of Babylon.\nAs Borsippa possessed a university, it was natural that one of the\nthree observatories should be established there.\"[349]\n\nIt is evident that before the astronomers at Nineveh could foretell\neclipses, they had achieved considerable progress as scientists. The\ndata at their disposal probably covered nearly two thousand years. Mr.\nBrown, junior, calculates that the signs of the Zodiac were fixed in\nthe year 2084 B.C.[350] These star groups do not now occupy the\npositions in which they were observed by the early astronomers,\nbecause the revolving earth is rocking like a top, with the result\nthat the pole does not always keep pointing at the same spot in the\nheavens. Each year the meeting-place of the imaginary lines of the\necliptic and equator is moving westward at the rate of about fifty\nseconds. In time--ages hence--the pole will circle round to the point\nit spun at when the constellations were named by the Babylonians. It\nis by calculating the period occupied by this world-curve that the\ndate 2084 B.C. has been arrived at.\n\nAs a result of the world-rocking process, the present-day \"signs of\nthe Zodiac\" do not correspond with the constellations. In March, for\ninstance, when the sun crosses the equator it enters the sign of the\nRam (Aries), but does not reach the constellation till the 20th, as\nthe comparative table shows on p. 308.\n\nWhen \"the ecliptic was marked off into the twelve regions\" and the\nsigns of the Zodiac were designated, \"the year of three hundred\nsixty-five and one-fourth days was known\", says Goodspeed, \"though the\ncommon year was reckoned according to twelve months of thirty days\neach[351], and equated with the solar year by intercalating a month at\nthe proper times.... The month was divided into weeks of seven\ndays.... The clepsydra and the sundial were Babylonian inventions for\nmeasuring time.\"[352]\n\nThe sundial of Ahaz was probably of Babylonian design. When the shadow\nwent \"ten degrees backward\" (_2 Kings_, xx, II) ambassadors were sent\nfrom Babylon \"to enquire of the wonder that was done in the land\" (_2\nChron._ xxxii, 31). It was believed that the king's illness was\nconnected with the incident. According to astronomical calculation\nthere was a partial eclipse of the sun which was visible at Jerusalem\non 11th January, 689 B.C, about 11.30 a.m. When the upper part of the\nsolar disc was obscured, the shadow on the dial was strangely\naffected.\n\nThe Babylonian astrologers in their official documents were more\nconcerned regarding international omens than those which affected\nindividuals. They made observations not only of the stars, but also\nthe moon, which, as has been shown, was one of their planets, and took\nnote of the clouds and the wind likewise.\n\nAs portions of the heavens were assigned to various countries, so was\nthe moon divided into four quarters for the same purpose--the upper\npart for the north, Gutium, the lower for the south, Akkad or\nBabylonia, the eastern part for Elam, and the western for Amurru. The\ncrescent was also divided in like manner; looking southward the\nastrologers assigned the right horn to the west and the left to the\neast. In addition, certain days and certain months were connected with\nthe different regions. Lunar astrology was therefore of complicated\ncharacter. When the moon was dim at the particular phase which was\nconnected with Amurru, it was believed that the fortunes of that\nregion were in decline, and if it happened to shine brightly in the\nBabylonian phase the time was considered auspicious to wage war in the\nwest. Great importance was attached to eclipses, which were\nfortunately recorded, with the result that the ancient astronomers\nwere ultimately enabled to forecast them.\n\nThe destinies of the various states in the four quarters were\nsimilarly influenced by the planets. When Venus, for instance, rose\nbrightly in the field of Anu, it was a \"prosperor\" for Elam; if it\nwere dim it foretold misfortune. Much importance was also attached to\nthe positions occupied by the constellations when the planets were\npropitious or otherwise; no king would venture forth on an expedition\nunder a \"yoke of inauspicious stars\".\n\nBiblical references to the stars make mention of well-known Babylonian\nconstellations:\n\n    Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the\n    bands of Orion? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth (? the Zodiac) in\n    his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons? Knowest\n    thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof\n    in the earth? _Job_, xxxviii, 31-33. Which maketh Arcturus, Orion,\n    and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south. _Job_, ix, 9. Seek\n    him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow\n    of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night.\n    _Amos_, v, 8.\n\nThe so-called science of astrology, which had origin in ancient\nBabylonia and spread eastward and west, is not yet extinct, and has\nits believers even in our own country at the present day, although\nthey are not nearly so numerous as when Shakespeare made Malvolio\nread:\n\n    In my stars I am above thee; but be not afraid of greatness: some\n    are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness\n    thrust upon 'em. Thy Fates open their hands....[353]\n\nor when Byron wrote:\n\n    Ye stars! which are the poetry of heaven!\n    If in your bright leaves we would read the fate\n    Of men and empires--'t is to be forgiven\n    That in our aspirations to be great,\n    Our destinies o'erleap their mortal state\n    And claim a kindred with you....[354]\n\nOur grave astronomers are no longer astrologers, but they still call\ncertain constellations by the names given them in Babylonia. Every\ntime we look at our watches we are reminded of the ancient\nmathematicians who counted on their fingers and multiplied 10 by 6, to\ngive us minutes and seconds, and divided the day and the night into\ntwelve hours by multiplying six by the two leaden feet of Time. The\npast lives in the present.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV.\n\nASHUR THE NATIONAL GOD OF ASSYRIA\n\n\n  Derivation of Ashur--Ashur as Anshar and Anu--Animal forms of Sky\n  God--Anshar as Star God on the Celestial Mount--Isaiah's\n  Parable--Symbols of World God and World Hill--Dance of the\n  Constellations and Dance of Satyrs--Goat Gods and Bull Gods--Symbols\n  of Gods as \"High Heads\"--The Winged Disc--Human Figure as Soul of\n  the Sun--Ashur as Hercules and Gilgamesh--Gods differentiated by\n  Cults--Fertility Gods as War Gods--Ashur's Tree and Animal\n  forms--Ashur as Nisroch--Lightning Symbol in Disc--Ezekiel's\n  Reference to Life Wheel--Indian Wheel and Discus--Wheels of Shamash\n  and Ahura-Mazda--Hittite Winged Disc--Solar Wheel causes Seasonal\n  Changes--Bonfires to stimulate Solar Deity--Burning of Gods and\n  Kings--Magical Ring and other Symbols of Scotland--Ashur's Wheel of\n  Life and Eagle Wings--King and Ashur--Ashur associated with Lunar,\n  Fire, and Star Gods--The Osirian Clue--Hittite and Persian\n  Influences.\n\n\nThe rise of Assyria brings into prominence the national god Ashur,\nwho had been the city god of Asshur, the ancient capital. When first\nmet with, he is found to be a complex and mystical deity, and the\nproblem of his origin is consequently rendered exceedingly difficult.\nPhilologists are not agreed as to the derivation of his name, and\npresent as varied views as they do when dealing with the name of\nOsiris. Some give Ashur a geographical significance, urging that its\noriginal form was Aushar, \"water field\"; others prefer the renderings\n\"Holy\", \"the Beneficent One\", or \"the Merciful One\"; while not a few\nregard Ashur as simply a dialectic form of the name of Anshar, the god\nwho, in the Assyrian version, or copy, of the Babylonian Creation\nmyth, is chief of the \"host of heaven\", and the father of Anu, Ea, and\nEnlil.\n\nIf Ashur is to be regarded as an abstract solar deity, who was\ndeveloped from a descriptive place name, it follows that he had a\nhistory, like Anu or Ea, rooted in Naturalism or Animism. We cannot\nassume that his strictly local character was produced by modes of\nthought which did not obtain elsewhere. The colonists who settled at\nAsshur no doubt imported beliefs from some cultural area; they must\nhave either given recognition to a god, or group of gods, or regarded\nthe trees, hills, rivers, sun, moon, and stars, and the animals as\nmanifestations of the \"self power\" of the Universe, before they\nundertook the work of draining and cultivating the \"water field\" and\nerecting permanent homes. Those who settled at Nineveh, for instance,\nbelieved that they were protected by the goddess Nina, the patron\ndeity of the Sumerian city of Nina. As this goddess was also\nworshipped at Lagash, and was one of the many forms of the Great\nMother, it would appear that in ancient times deities had a tribal\nrather than a geographical significance.\n\nIf the view is accepted that Ashur is Anshar, it can be urged that he\nwas imported from Sumeria. \"Out of that land (Shinar)\", according to\nthe Biblical reference, \"went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh.\"[355]\nAsshur, or Ashur (identical, Delitzsch and Jastrow believe, with\nAshir),[356] may have been an eponymous hero--a deified king like\nEtana, or Gilgamesh, who was regarded as an incarnation of an ancient\ngod. As Anshar was an astral or early form of Anu, the Sumerian city\nof origin may have been Erech, where the worship of the mother goddess\nwas also given prominence.\n\nDamascius rendered Anshar's name as \"Assoros\", a fact usually cited to\nestablish Ashur's connection with that deity. This writer stated that\nthe Babylonians passed over \"Sige,[357] the mother, that has begotten\nheaven and earth\", and made two--Apason (Apsu), the husband, and\nTauthe (Tiawath or Tiamat), whose son was Moymis (Mummu). From these\nanother progeny came forth--Lache and Lachos (Lachmu and Lachamu).\nThese were followed by the progeny Kissare and Assoros (Kishar and\nAnshar), \"from which were produced Anos (Anu), Illillos (Enlil) and\nAos (Ea). And of Aos and Dauke (Dawkina or Damkina) was born Belos\n(Bel Merodach), whom they say is the Demiurge\"[358] (the world artisan\nwho carried out the decrees of a higher being).\n\nLachmu and Lachamu, like the second pair of the ancient group of\nEgyptian deities, probably symbolized darkness as a reproducing and\nsustaining power. Anshar was apparently an impersonation of the night\nsky, as his son Anu was of the day sky. It may have been believed that\nthe soul of Anshar was in the moon as Nannar (Sin), or in a star, or\nthat the moon and the stars were manifestations of him, and that the\nsoul of Anu was in the sun or the firmament, or that the sun,\nfirmament, and the wind were forms of this \"self power\".\n\nIf Ashur combined the attributes of Anshar and Anu, his early mystical\ncharacter may be accounted for. Like the Indian Brahma, he may have\nbeen in his highest form an impersonation, or symbol, of the \"self\npower\" or \"world soul\" of developed Naturalism--the \"creator\",\n\"preserver\", and \"destroyer\" in one, a god of water, earth, air, and\nsky, of sun, moon, and stars, fire and lightning, a god of the grove,\nwhose essence was in the fig, or the fir cone, as it was in all\nanimals. The Egyptian god Amon of Thebes, who was associated with\nwater, earth, air, sky, sun and moon, had a ram form, and was \"the\nhidden one\", was developed from one of the elder eight gods; in the\nPyramid Texts he and his consort are the fourth pair. When Amon was\nfused with the specialized sun god Ra, he was placed at the head of\nthe Ennead as the Creator. \"We have traces\", says Jastrow, \"of an\nAssyrian myth of Creation in which the sphere of creator is given to\nAshur.\"[359]\n\nBefore a single act of creation was conceived of, however, the early\npeoples recognized the eternity of matter, which was permeated by the\n\"self power\" of which the elder deities were vague phases. These were\ntoo vague, indeed, to be worshipped individually. The forms of the\n\"self power\" which were propitiated were trees, rivers, hills, or\nanimals. As indicated in the previous chapter, a tribe worshipped an\nanimal or natural object which dominated its environment. The animal\nmight be the source of the food supply, or might have to be\npropitiated to ensure the food supply. Consequently they identified\nthe self power of the Universe with the particular animal with which\nthey were most concerned. One section identified the spirit of the\nheavens with the bull and another with the goat. In India Dyaus was a\nbull, and his spouse, the earth mother, Prithivi, was a cow. The\nEgyptian sky goddess Hathor was a cow, and other goddesses were\nidentified with the hippopotamus, the serpent, the cat, or the\nvulture. Ra, the sun god, was identified in turn with the cat, the\nass, the bull, the ram, and the crocodile, the various animal forms of\nthe local deities he had absorbed. The eagle in Babylonia and India,\nand the vulture, falcon, and mysterious Phoenix in Egypt, were\nidentified with the sun, fire, wind, and lightning. The animals\nassociated with the god Ashur were the bull, the eagle, and the lion.\nHe either absorbed the attributes of other gods, or symbolized the\n\"Self Power\" of which the animals were manifestations.\n\nThe earliest germ of the Creation myth was the idea that night was the\nparent of day, and water of the earth. Out of darkness and death came\nlight and life. Life was also motion. When the primordial waters\nbecame troubled, life began to be. Out of the confusion came order and\norganization. This process involved the idea of a stable and\ncontrolling power, and the succession of a group of deities--passive\ndeities and active deities. When the Babylonian astrologers assisted\nin developing the Creation myth, they appear to have identified with\nthe stable and controlling spirit of the night heaven that steadfast\norb the Polar Star. Anshar, like Shakespeare's Caesar, seemed to say:\n\n    I am constant as the northern star, Of whose true-fixed and\n    resting quality There is no fellow in the firmament. The skies are\n    painted with unnumbered sparks; They are all fire, and every one\n    doth shine; But there's but one in all doth hold his place.[360]\n\nAssociated with the Polar Star was the constellation Ursa Minor, \"the\nLittle Bear\", called by the Babylonian astronomers, \"the Lesser\nChariot\". There were chariots before horses were introduced. A patesi\nof Lagash had a chariot which was drawn by asses.\n\nThe seemingly steadfast Polar Star was called \"Ilu Sar\", \"the god\nShar\", or Anshar, \"star of the height\", or \"Shar the most high\". It\nseemed to be situated at the summit of the vault of heaven. The god\nShar, therefore, stood upon the Celestial mountain, the Babylonian\nOlympus. He was the ghost of the elder god, who in Babylonia was\ndisplaced by the younger god, Merodach, as Mercury, the morning star,\nor as the sun, the planet of day; and in Assyria by Ashur, as the sun,\nor Regulus, or Arcturus, or Orion. Yet father and son were identical.\nThey were phases of the One, the \"self power\".\n\nA deified reigning king was an incarnation of the god; after death he\nmerged in the god, as did the Egyptian Unas. The eponymous hero Asshur\nmay have similarly merged in the universal Ashur, who, like Horus, an\nincarnation of Osiris, had many phases or forms.\n\nIsaiah appears to have been familiar with the Tigro-Euphratean myths\nabout the divinity of kings and the displacement of the elder god by\nthe younger god, of whom the ruling monarch was an incarnation, and\nwith the idea that the summit of the Celestial mountain was crowned by\nthe \"north star\", the symbol of Anshar. \"Thou shalt take up this\nparable\", he exclaimed, making use of Babylonian symbolism, \"against\nthe king of Babylon and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden\ncity ceased!... How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the\nmorning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the\nnations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend unto heaven,\nI will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon\nthe mount of the congregation, _in the sides of the north_; I will\nascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most\nHigh.\"[361] The king is identified with Lucifer as the deity of fire\nand the morning star; he is the younger god who aspired to occupy the\nmountain throne of his father, the god Shar--the Polar or North Star.\n\nIt is possible that the Babylonian idea of a Celestial mountain gave\norigin to the belief that the earth was a mountain surrounded by the\nouter ocean, beheld by Etana when he flew towards heaven on the\neagle's back. In India this hill is Mount Meru, the \"world spine\",\nwhich \"sustains the earth\"; it is surmounted by Indra's Valhal, or\n\"the great city of Brahma\". In Teutonic mythology the heavens revolve\nround the Polar Star, which is called \"Veraldar nagli\",[362] the\n\"world spike\"; while the earth is sustained by the \"world tree\". The\n\"ded\" amulet of Egypt symbolized the backbone of Osiris as a world\ngod: \"ded\" means \"firm\", \"established\";[363] while at burial\nceremonies the coffin was set up on end, inside the tomb, \"on a small\nsandhill intended to represent the Mountain of the West--the realm of\nthe dead\".[364] The Babylonian temple towers were apparently symbols\nof the \"world hill\". At Babylon, the Du-azaga, \"holy mound\", was\nMerodach's temple E-sagila, \"the Temple of the High Head\". E-kur,\nrendered \"the house or temple of the Mountain\", was the temple of Bel\nEnlil at Nippur. At Erech, the temple of the goddess Ishtar was\nE-anna, which connects her, as Nina or Ninni, with Anu, derived from\n\"ana\", \"heaven\". Ishtar was \"Queen of heaven\".\n\nNow Polaris, situated at the summit of the celestial mountain, was\nidentified with the sacred goat, \"the highest of the flock of\nnight\".[365] Ursa Minor (the \"Little Bear\" constellation) may have\nbeen \"the goat with six heads\", referred to by Professor Sayce.[366]\nThe six astral goats or goat-men were supposed to be dancing round the\nchief goat-man or Satyr (Anshar). Even in the dialogues of Plato the\nimmemorial belief was perpetuated that the constellations were \"moving\nas in a dance\". Dancing began as a magical or religious practice, and\nthe earliest astronomers saw their dancing customs reflected in the\nheavens by the constellations, whose movements were rhythmical. No\ndoubt, Isaiah had in mind the belief of the Babylonians regarding the\ndance of their goat-gods when he foretold: \"Their houses shall be full\nof doleful creatures; and owls (ghosts) shall dwell there, and _satyrs\nshall dance there_\".[367] In other words, there would be no people\nleft to perform religious dances beside the \"desolate houses\"; the\nstars only would be seen dancing round Polaris.\n\nTammuz, like Anshar, as sentinel of the night heaven, was a goat, as\nwas also Nin-Girsu of Lagash. A Sumerian reference to \"a white kid of\nEn Mersi (Nin-Girsu)\" was translated into Semitic, \"a white kid of\nTammuz\". The goat was also associated with Merodach. Babylonians,\nhaving prayed to that god to take away their diseases or their sins,\nreleased a goat, which was driven into the desert. The present Polar\nStar, which was not, of course, the Polar star of the earliest\nastronomers, the world having rocked westward, is called in Arabic\nAl-Jedy, \"the kid\". In India, the goat was connected with Agni and\nVaruna; it was slain at funeral ceremonies to inform the gods that a\nsoul was about to enter heaven. Ea, the Sumerian lord of water, earth,\nand heaven, was symbolized as a \"goat fish\". Thor, the Teutonic\nfertility and thunder god, had a chariot drawn by goats. It is of\ninterest to note that the sacred Sumerian goat bore on its forehead\nthe same triangular symbol as the Apis bull of Egypt.\n\nAshur was not a \"goat of heaven\", but a \"bull of heaven\", like the\nSumerian Nannar (Sin), the moon god of Ur, Ninip of Saturn, and Bel\nEnlil. As the bull, however, he was, like Anshar, the ruling animal of\nthe heavens; and like Anshar he had associated with him \"six\ndivinities of council\".\n\nOther deities who were similarly exalted as \"high heads\" at various\ncentres and at various periods, included Anu, Bel Enlil, and Ea,\nMerodach, Nergal, and Shamash. A symbol of the first three was a\nturban on a seat, or altar, which may have represented the \"world\nmountain\". Ea, as \"the world spine\", was symbolized as a column, with\nram's head, standing on a throne, beside which crouched a \"goat fish\".\nMerodach's column terminated in a lance head, and the head of a lion\ncrowned that of Nergal. These columns were probably connected with\npillar worship, and therefore with tree worship, the pillar being the\ntrunk of the \"world tree\". The symbol of the sun god Shamash was a\ndisc, from which flowed streams of water; his rays apparently were\n\"fertilizing tears\", like the rays of the Egyptian sun god Ra. Horus,\nthe Egyptian falcon god, was symbolized as the winged solar disc.\n\nIt is necessary to accumulate these details regarding other deities\nand their symbols before dealing with Ashur. The symbols of Ashur must\nbe studied, because they are one of the sources of our knowledge\nregarding the god's origin and character. These include (1) a winged\ndisc with horns, enclosing four circles revolving round a middle\ncircle; rippling rays fall down from either side of the disc; (2) a\ncircle or wheel, suspended from wings, and enclosing a warrior drawing\nhis bow to discharge an arrow; and (3) the same circle; the warrior's\nbow, however, is carried in his left hand, while the right hand is\nuplifted as if to bless his worshippers. These symbols are taken from\nseal cylinders.\n\nAn Assyrian standard, which probably represented the \"world column\",\nhas the disc mounted on a bull's head with horns. The upper part of\nthe disc is occupied by a warrior, whose head, part of his bow, and\nthe point of his arrow protrude from the circle. The rippling water\nrays are V-shaped, and two bulls, treading river-like rays, occupy the\ndivisions thus formed. There are also two heads--a lion's and a\nman's--with gaping mouths, which may symbolize tempests, the\ndestroying power of the sun, or the sources of the Tigris and\nEuphrates.\n\nJastrow regards the winged disc as \"the purer and more genuine symbol\nof Ashur as a solar deity\". He calls it \"a sun disc with protruding\nrays\", and says: \"To this symbol the warrior with the bow and arrow\nwas added--a despiritualization that reflects the martial spirit of\nthe Assyrian empire\".[368]\n\nThe sun symbol on the sun boat of Ra encloses similarly a human\nfigure, which was apparently regarded as the soul of the sun: the life\nof the god was in the \"sun egg\". In an Indian prose treatise it is set\nforth: \"Now that man in yonder orb (the sun) and that man in the right\neye truly are no other than Death (the soul). His feet have stuck fast\nin the heart, and having pulled them out he comes forth; and when he\ncomes forth then that man dies; whence they say of him who has passed\naway, 'he has been cut off (his life or life string has been\nsevered)'.\"[369] The human figure did not indicate a process of\n\"despiritualization\" either in Egypt or in India. The Horus \"winged\ndisc\" was besides a symbol of destruction and battle, as well as of\nlight and fertility. Horus assumed that form in one legend to destroy\nSet and his followers.[370] But, of course, the same symbols may not\nhave conveyed the same ideas to all peoples. As Blake put it:\n\n    What to others a trifle appears Fills me full of smiles and\n    tears.... With my inward Eye, 't is an old Man grey, With my\n    outward, a Thistle across my way.\n\nIndeed, it is possible that the winged disc meant one thing to an\nAssyrian priest, and another thing to a man not gifted with what Blake\ncalled \"double vision\".\n\nWhat seems certain, however, is that the archer was as truly solar as\nthe \"wings\" or \"rays\". In Babylonia and Assyria the sun was, among\nother things, a destroyer from the earliest times. It is not\nsurprising, therefore, to find that Ashur, like Merodach, resembled,\nin one of his phases, Hercules, or rather his prototype Gilgamesh. One\nof Gilgamesh's mythical feats was the slaying of three demon birds.\nThese may be identical with the birds of prey which Hercules, in\nperforming his sixth labour, hunted out of Stymphalus.[371] In the\nGreek Hipparcho-Ptolemy star list Hercules was the constellation of\nthe \"Kneeler\", and in Babylonian-Assyrian astronomy he was (as\nGilgamesh or Merodach) \"Sarru\", \"the king\". The astral \"Arrow\"\n(constellation of Sagitta) was pointed against the constellations of\nthe \"Eagle\", \"Vulture\", and \"Swan\". In Phoenician astronomy the\nVulture was \"Zither\" (Lyra), a weapon with which Hercules (identified\nwith Melkarth) slew Linos, the musician. Hercules used a solar arrow,\nwhich he received from Apollo. In various mythologies the arrow is\nassociated with the sun, the moon, and the atmospheric deities, and is\na symbol of lightning, rain, and fertility, as well as of famine,\ndisease, war, and death. The green-faced goddess Neith of Libya,\ncompared by the Greeks to Minerva, carries in one hand two arrows and\na bow.[372] If we knew as little of Athena (Minerva), who was armed\nwith a lance, a breastplate made of the skin of a goat, a shield, and\nhelmet, as we do of Ashur, it might be held that she was simply a\ngoddess of war. The archer in the sun disc of the Assyrian standard\nprobably represented Ashur as the god of the people--a deity closely\nakin to Merodach, with pronounced Tammuz traits, and therefore linking\nwith other local deities like Ninip, Nergal, and Shamash, and\npartaking also like these of the attributes of the elder gods Anu, Bel\nEnlil, and Ea.\n\nAll the other deities worshipped by the Assyrians were of Babylonian\norigin. Ashur appears to have differed from them just as one local\nBabylonian deity differed from another. He reflected Assyrian\nexperiences and aspirations, but it is difficult to decide whether the\nsublime spiritual aspect of his character was due to the beliefs of\nalien peoples, by whom the early Assyrians were influenced, or to the\nteachings of advanced Babylonian thinkers, whose doctrines found\nreadier acceptance in a \"new country\" than among the conservative\nritualists of ancient Sumerian and Akkadian cities. New cults were\nformed from time to time in Babylonia, and when they achieved\npolitical power they gave a distinctive character to the religion of\ntheir city states. Others which did not find political support and\nremained in obscurity at home, may have yet extended their influence\nfar and wide. Buddhism, for instance, originated in India, but now\nflourishes in other countries, to which it was introduced by\nmissionaries. In the homeland it was submerged by the revival of\nBrahmanism, from which it sprung, and which it was intended\npermanently to displace. An instance of an advanced cult suddenly\nachieving prominence as a result of political influence is afforded by\nEgypt, where the fully developed Aton religion was embraced and\nestablished as a national religion by Akhenaton, the so-called\n\"dreamer\". That migrations were sometimes propelled by cults, which\nsought new areas in which to exercise religious freedom and propagate\ntheir beliefs, is suggested by the invasion of India at the close of\nthe Vedic period by the \"later comers\", who laid the foundations of\nBrahmanism. They established themselves in Madhyadesa, \"the Middle\nCountry\", \"the land where the Brahmanas and the later Samhitas were\nproduced\". From this centre went forth missionaries, who accomplished\nthe Brahmanization of the rest of India.[373]\n\nIt may be, therefore, that the cult of Ashur was influenced in its\ndevelopment by the doctrines of advanced teachers from Babylonia, and\nthat Persian Mithraism was also the product of missionary efforts\nextended from that great and ancient cultural area. Mitra, as has been\nstated, was one of the names of the Babylonian sun god, who was also a\ngod of fertility. But Ashur could not have been to begin with merely a\nbattle and solar deity. As the god of a city state he must have been\nworshipped by agriculturists, artisans, and traders; he must have been\nrecognized as a deity of fertility, culture, commerce, and law. Even\nas a national god he must have made wider appeal than to the cultured\nand ruling classes. Bel Enlil of Nippur was a \"world god\" and war god,\nbut still remained a local corn god.\n\nAssyria's greatness was reflected by Ashur, but he also reflected the\norigin and growth of that greatness. The civilization of which he was\na product had an agricultural basis. It began with the development of\nthe natural resources of Assyria, as was recognized by the Hebrew\nprophet, who said: \"Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with\nfair branches.... The waters made him great, the deep set him up on\nhigh with her rivers running round about his plants, and sent out her\nlittle rivers unto all the trees of the field. Therefore his height\nwas exalted above all the trees of the field, and his boughs were\nmultiplied, and his branches became long because of the multitude of\nwaters when he shot forth. All the fowls of heaven made their nests in\nhis boughs, and under his branches did all the beasts of the field\nbring forth their young, and under his shadow dwelt all great nations.\nThus was he fair in his greatness, in the length of his branches; for\nhis root was by great waters. The cedars in the garden of God could\nnot hide him: the fir trees were not like his boughs, and the chestnut\ntrees were not like his branches; nor any tree in the garden of God\nwas like unto him in his beauty.\"[374]\n\nAsshur, the ancient capital, was famous for its merchants. It is\nreferred to in the Bible as one of the cities which traded with Tyre\n\"in all sorts of things, in blue clothes, and broidered work, and in\nchests of rich apparel, bound with cords, and made of cedar\".[375]\n\nAs a military power, Assyria's name was dreaded. \"Behold,\" Isaiah\nsaid, addressing King Hezekiah, \"thou hast heard what the kings of\nAssyria have done to all lands by destroying them utterly.\"[376] The\nsame prophet, when foretelling how Israel would suffer, exclaimed: \"O\nAssyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine\nindignation. I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and\nagainst the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the\nspoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of\nthe streets.\"[377]\n\nWe expect to find Ashur reflected in these three phases of Assyrian\ncivilization. If we recognize him in the first place as a god of\nfertility, his other attributes are at once included. A god of\nfertility is a corn god and a water god. The river as a river was a\n\"creator\" (p. 29), and Ashur was therefore closely associated with the\n\"watery place\", with the canals or \"rivers running round about his\nplants\". The rippling water-rays, or fertilizing tears, appear on the\nsolar discs. As a corn god, he was a god of war. Tammuz's first act\nwas to slay the demons of winter and storm, as Indra's in India was to\nslay the demons of drought, and Thor's in Scandinavia was to\nexterminate the frost giants. The corn god had to be fed with human\nsacrifices, and the people therefore waged war against foreigners to\nobtain victims. As the god made a contract with his people, he was a\ndeity of commerce; he provided them with food and they in turn fed him\nwith offerings.\n\nIn Ezekiel's comparison of Assyria to a mighty tree, there is no doubt\na mythological reference. The Hebrew prophets invariably utilized for\ntheir poetic imagery the characteristic beliefs of the peoples to whom\nthey made direct reference. The \"owls\", \"satyrs\", and \"dragons\" of\nBabylon, mentioned by Isaiah, were taken from Babylonian mythology, as\nhas been indicated. When, therefore, Assyria is compared to a cedar,\nwhich is greater than fir or chestnut, and it is stated that there are\nnesting birds in the branches, and under them reproducing beasts of\nthe field, and that the greatness of the tree is due to \"the multitude\nof waters\", the conclusion is suggested that Assyrian religion, which\nAshur's symbols reflect, included the worship of trees, birds, beasts,\nand water. The symbol of the Assyrian tree--probably the \"world tree\"\nof its religion--appears to be \"the rod of mine anger ... the staff in\ntheir hand\"; that is, the battle standard which was a symbol of Ashur.\nTammuz and Osiris were tree gods as well as corn gods.\n\nNow, as Ashur was evidently a complex deity, it is futile to attempt\nto read his symbols without giving consideration to the remnants of\nAssyrian mythology which are found in the ruins of the ancient cities.\nThese either reflect the attributes of Ashur, or constitute the\nmaterial from which he evolved.\n\nAs Layard pointed out many years ago, the Assyrians had a sacred tree\nwhich became conventionalized. It was \"an elegant device, in which\ncurved branches, springing from a kind of scroll work, terminated in\nflowers of graceful form. As one of the figures last described[378]\nwas turned, as if in act of adoration, towards this device, it was\nevidently a sacred emblem; and I recognized in it the holy tree, or\ntree of life, so universally adored at the remotest period in the\nEast, and which was preserved in the religious systems of the Persians\nto the final overthrow of their Empire.... The flowers were formed by\nseven petals.\"[379]\n\nThis tree looks like a pillar, and is thrice crossed by\nconventionalized bull's horns tipped with ring symbols which may be\nstars, the highest pair of horns having a larger ring between them,\nbut only partly shown as if it were a crescent. The tree with its many\n\"sevenfold\" designs may have been a symbol of the\n\"Sevenfold-one-are-ye\" deity. This is evidently the Assyrian tree\nwhich was called \"the rod\" or \"staff\".\n\nWhat mythical animals did this tree shelter? Layard found that \"the\nfour creatures continually introduced on the sculptured walls\", were\n\"a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle\".[380]\n\nIn Sumeria the gods were given human form, but before this stage was\nreached the bull symbolized Nannar (Sin), the moon god, Ninip (Saturn,\nthe old sun), and Enlil, while Nergal was a lion, as a tribal sun god.\nThe eagle is represented by the Zu bird, which symbolized the storm\nand a phase of the sun, and was also a deity of fertility. On the\nsilver vase of Lagash the lion and eagle were combined as the\nlion-headed eagle, a form of Nin-Girsu (Tammuz), and it was associated\nwith wild goats, stags, lions, and bulls. On a mace head dedicated to\nNin-Girsu, a lion slays a bull as the Zu bird slays serpents in the\nfolk tale, suggesting the wars of totemic deities, according to one\n\"school\", and the battle of the sun with the storm clouds according to\nanother. Whatever the explanation may be of one animal deity of\nfertility slaying another, it seems certain that the conflict was\nassociated with the idea of sacrifice to procure the food supply.\n\nIn Assyria the various primitive gods were combined as a winged bull,\na winged bull with human head (the king's), a winged lion with human\nhead, a winged man, a deity with lion's head, human body, and eagle's\nlegs with claws, and also as a deity with eagle's head and feather\nheaddress, a human body, wings, and feather-fringed robe, carrying in\none hand a metal basket on which two winged men adored the holy tree,\nand in the other a fir cone.[381]\n\nLayard suggested that the latter deity, with eagle's head, was\nNisroch, \"the word Nisr signifying, in all Semitic languages, an eagle\n\".[382] This deity is referred to in the Bible: \"Sennacherib, king of\nAssyria, ... was worshipping in the house of Nisroch, his god\".[383]\nProfessor Pinches is certain that Nisroch is Ashur, but considers that\nthe \"ni\" was attached to \"Ashur\" (Ashuraku or Ashurachu), as it was to\n\"Marad\" (Merodach) to give the reading Ni-Marad = Nimrod. The names of\nheathen deities were thus made \"unrecognizable, and in all probability\nridiculous as well.... Pious and orthodox lips could pronounce them\nwithout fear of defilement.\"[384] At the same time the \"Nisr\" theory\nis probable: it may represent another phase of this process. The names\nof heathen gods were not all treated in like manner by the Hebrew\nteachers. Abed-_nebo_, for instance, became Abed-_nego_, _Daniel_, i,\n7), as Professor Pinches shows.\n\nSeeing that the eagle received prominence in the mythologies of\nSumeria and Assyria, as a deity of fertility with solar and\natmospheric attributes, it is highly probable that the Ashur symbol,\nlike the Egyptian Horus solar disk, is a winged symbol of life,\nfertility, and destruction. The idea that it represents the sun in\neclipse, with protruding rays, seems rather far-fetched, because\neclipses were disasters and indications of divine wrath;[385] it\ncertainly does not explain why the \"rays\" should only stretch out\nsideways, like wings, and downward like a tail, why the \"rays\" should\nbe double, like the double wings of cherubs, bulls, &c, and divided\ninto sections suggesting feathers, or why the disk is surmounted by\nconventionalized horns, tipped with star-like ring symbols, identical\nwith those depicted in the holy tree. What particular connection the\nfive small rings within the disk were supposed to have with the\neclipse of the sun is difficult to discover.\n\nIn one of the other symbols in which appears a feather-robed archer,\nit is significant to find that the arrow he is about to discharge has\na head shaped like a trident; it is evidently a lightning symbol.\n\nWhen Ezekiel prophesied to the Israelitish captives at Tel-abib, \"by\nthe river of Chebar\" in Chaldea (Kheber, near Nippur), he appears to\nhave utilized Assyrian symbolism. Probably he came into contact in\nBabylonia with fugitive priests from Assyrian cities.\n\nThis great prophet makes interesting references to \"four living\ncreatures\", with \"four faces \"--the face of a man, the face of a lion,\nthe face of an ox, and the face of an eagle; \"they had the hands of a\nman under their wings, ... their wings were joined one to another; ...\ntheir wings were stretched upward: two wings of every one were joined\none to another.... Their appearance was like burning coals of fire and\nlike the appearance of lamps.... The living creatures ran and returned\nas the appearance of a flash of lightning.\"[386]\n\nElsewhere, referring to the sisters, Aholah and Aholibah, who had been\nin Egypt and had adopted unmoral ways of life Ezekiel tells that when\nAholibah \"doted upon the Assyrians\" she \"saw men pourtrayed upon the\nwall, the images of the Chaldeans pourtrayed with vermilion, girded\nwith girdles upon their loins\".[387] Traces of the red colour on the\nwalls of Assyrian temples and palaces have been observed by\nexcavators. The winged gods \"like burning coals\" were probably painted\nin vermilion.\n\nEzekiel makes reference to \"ring\" and \"wheel\" symbols. In his vision\nhe saw \"one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures, with his\nfour faces. The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto\nthe colour of beryl; and they four had one likeness; and their\nappearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a\nwheel.... As for their rings, they were so high that they were\ndreadful; and their rings were full of eyes round about them four. And\nwhen the living creatures went, the wheels went by them; and when the\nliving creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted\nup. Whithersoever the spirit was to go, they went, thither was their\nspirit to go; and the wheels were lifted up over against them; _for\nthe spirit of the living creature was in the wheels_....[388] And the\nlikeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creature was as\nthe colour of terrible crystal, stretched forth over their heads\nabove.... And when they went I heard the noise of their wings, like\nthe noise of great waters, as the voice of the Almighty, the voice of\nspeech, as the noise of an host; when they stood they let down their\nwings....\"[389]\n\nAnother description of the cherubs states: \"Their whole body, and\ntheir backs, and their hands, and their wings, and the wheels, were\nfull of eyes (? stars) round about, even the wheels that they four\nhad. As for the wheels, it was cried unto them in my hearing, O\nwheel!\"--or, according to a marginal rendering, \"they were called in\nmy hearing, wheel, or Gilgal,\" i.e. move round.... \"And the cherubims\nwere lifted up.\"[390]\n\nIt would appear that the wheel (or hoop, a variant rendering) was a\nsymbol of life, and that the Assyrian feather-robed figure which it\nenclosed was a god, not of war only, but also of fertility. His\ntrident-headed arrow resembles, as has been suggested, a lightning\nsymbol. Ezekiel's references are suggestive in this connection. When\nthe cherubs \"ran and returned\" they had \"the appearance of a flash of\nlightning\", and \"the noise of their wings\" resembled \"the noise of\ngreat waters\". Their bodies were \"like burning coals of fire\".\nFertility gods were associated with fire, lightning, and water. Agni\nof India, Sandan of Asia Minor, and Melkarth of Phoenicia were highly\ndeveloped fire gods of fertility. The fire cult was also represented\nin Sumeria (pp. 49-51).\n\nIn the Indian epic, the _Mahabharata_, the revolving ring or wheel\nprotects the Soma[391] (ambrosia) of the gods, on which their\nexistence depends. The eagle giant Garuda sets forth to steal it. The\ngods, fully armed, gather round to protect the life-giving drink.\nGaruda approaches \"darkening the worlds by the dust raised by the\nhurricane of his wings\". The celestials, \"overwhelmed by that dust\",\nswoon away. Garuda afterwards assumes a fiery shape, then looks \"like\nmasses of black clouds\", and in the end its body becomes golden and\nbright \"as the rays of the sun\". The Soma is protected by fire, which\nthe bird quenches after \"drinking in many rivers\" with the numerous\nmouths it has assumed. Then Garuda finds that right above the Soma is\n\"a wheel of steel, keen edged, and sharp as a razor, revolving\nincessantly. That fierce instrument, of the lustre of the blazing sun\nand of terrible form, was devised by the gods for cutting to pieces\nall robbers of the Soma.\" Garuda passes \"through the spokes of the\nwheel\", and has then to contend against \"two great snakes of the\nlustre of blazing fire, of tongues bright as the lightning flash, of\ngreat energy, of mouth emitting fire, of blazing eyes\". He slays the\nsnakes.... The gods afterwards recover the stolen Soma.\n\nGaruda becomes the vehicle of the god Vishnu, who carries the discus,\nanother fiery wheel which revolves and returns to the thrower like\nlightning. \"And he (Vishnu) made the bird sit on the flagstaff of his\ncar, saying: 'Even thus thou shalt stay above me'.\"[392]\n\nThe Persian god Ahura Mazda hovers above the king in sculptured\nrepresentations of that high dignitary, enclosed in a winged wheel, or\ndisk, like Ashur, grasping a ring in one hand, the other being lifted\nup as if blessing those who adore him.\n\nShamash, the Babylonian sun god; Ishtar, the goddess of heaven; and\nother Babylonian deities carried rings as the Egyptian gods carried\nthe ankh, the symbol of life. Shamash was also depicted sitting on his\nthrone in a pillar-supported pavilion, in front of which is a sun\nwheel. The spokes of the wheel are formed by a star symbol and\nthreefold rippling \"water rays\".\n\nIn Hittite inscriptions there are interesting winged emblems; \"the\ncentral portion\" of one \"seems to be composed of two crescents\nunderneath a disk (which is also divided like a crescent). Above the\nemblem there appear the symbol of sanctity (the divided oval) and the\nhieroglyph which Professor Sayce interprets as the name of the god\nSandes.\" In another instance \"the centre of the winged emblem may be\nseen to be a rosette, with a curious spreading object below. Above,\ntwo dots follow the name of Sandes, and a human arm bent 'in\nadoration' is by the side....\" Professor Garstang is here dealing with\nsacred places \"on rocky points or hilltops, bearing out the suggestion\nof the sculptures near Boghaz-Keui[393], in which there may be\nreasonably suspected the surviving traces of mountain cults, or cults\nof mountain deities, underlying the newer religious symbolism\". Who\nthe deity is it is impossible to say, but \"he was identified at some\ntime or other with Sandes\".[394] It would appear, too, that the god\nmay have been \"called by a name which was that used also by the\npriest\". Perhaps the priest king was believed to be an incarnation of\nthe deity.\n\nSandes or Sandan was identical with Sandon of Tarsus, \"the prototype\nof Attis\",[395] who links with the Babylonian Tammuz. Sandon's animal\nsymbol was the lion, and he carried the \"double axe\" symbol of the god\nof fertility and thunder. As Professor Frazer has shown in _The Golden\nBough_, he links with Hercules and Melkarth.[396]\n\nAll the younger gods, who displaced the elder gods as one year\ndisplaces another, were deities of fertility, battle, lightning, fire,\nand the sun; it is possible, therefore, that Ashur was like Merodach,\nson of Ea, god of the deep, a form of Tammuz in origin. His spirit was\nin the solar wheel which revolved at times of seasonal change. In\nScotland it was believed that on the morning of May Day (Beltaine) the\nrising sun revolved three times. The younger god was a spring sun god\nand fire god. Great bonfires were lit to strengthen him, or as a\nceremony of riddance; the old year was burned out. Indeed the god\nhimself might be burned (that is, the old god), so that he might renew\nhis youth. Melkarth was burned at Tyre. Hercules burned himself on a\nmountain top, and his soul ascended to heaven as an eagle.\n\nThese fiery rites were evidently not unknown in Babylonia and Assyria.\nWhen, according to Biblical narrative, Nebuchadnezzar \"made an image\nof gold\" which he set up \"in the plain of Dura, in the province of\nBabylon\", he commanded: \"O people, nations, and languages... at the\ntime ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery,\ndulcimer, and all kinds of musick... fall down and worship the golden\nimage\". Certain Jews who had been \"set over the affairs of the\nprovince of Babylonia\", namely, \"Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego\",\nrefused to adore the idol. They were punished by being thrown into \"a\nburning fiery furnace\", which was heated \"seven times more than it was\nwont to be heated\". They came forth uninjured.[397]\n\nIn the Koran it is related that Abraham destroyed the images of\nChaldean gods; he \"brake them all in pieces except the biggest of\nthem; that they might lay the blame on that\".[398] According to the\ncommentators the Chaldaeans were at the time \"abroad in the fields,\ncelebrating a great festival\". To punish the offender Nimrod had a\ngreat pyre erected at Cuthah. \"Then they bound Abraham, and putting\nhim into an engine, shot him into the midst of the fire, from which he\nwas preserved by the angel Gabriel, who was sent to his assistance.\"\nEastern Christians were wont to set apart in the Syrian calendar the\n25th of January to commemorate Abraham's escape from Nimrod's\npyre.[399]\n\nIt is evident that the Babylonian fire ceremony was observed in the\nspring season, and that human beings were sacrificed to the sun god. A\nmock king may have been burned to perpetuate the ancient sacrifice of\nreal kings, who were incarnations of the god.\n\nIsaiah makes reference to the sacrificial burning of kings in Assyria:\n\"For through the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down,\nwhich smote with a rod. And in every place where the grounded staff\nshall pass, which the Lord shall lay upon him, it shall be with\ntabrets and harps: and in battles of shaking will he fight with it.\nFor Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared: he\nhath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood:\nthe breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle\nit.\"[400] When Nineveh was about to fall, and with it the Assyrian\nEmpire, the legendary king, Sardanapalus, who was reputed to have\nfounded Tarsus, burned himself, with his wives, concubines, and\neunuchs, on a pyre in his palace. Zimri, who reigned over Israel for\nseven days, \"burnt the king's house over him with fire\"[401]. Saul,\nanother fallen king, was burned after death, and his bones were buried\n\"under the oak in Jabesh\".[402] In Europe the oak was associated with\ngods of fertility and lightning, including Jupiter and Thor. The\nceremony of burning Saul is of special interest. Asa, the orthodox\nking of Judah, was, after death, \"laid in the bed which was filled\nwith sweet odours and divers kinds of spices prepared by the\napothecaries' art: and they made a very great burning for him\" (_2\nChronicles_, xvi, 14). Jehoram, the heretic king of Judah, who \"walked\nin the way of the kings of Israel\", died of \"an incurable disease. And\nhis people made no burning for him like the burning of his fathers\"\n(_2 Chronicles_, xxi, 18, 19).\n\nThe conclusion suggested by the comparative study of the beliefs of\nneighbouring peoples, and the evidence afforded by Assyrian\nsculptures, is that Ashur was a highly developed form of the god of\nfertility, who was sustained, or aided in his conflicts with demons,\nby the fires and sacrifices of his worshippers.\n\nIt is possible to read too much into his symbols. These are not more\ncomplicated and vague than are the symbols on the standing stones of\nScotland--the crescent with the \"broken\" arrow; the trident with the\ndouble rings, or wheels, connected by two crescents; the circle with\nthe dot in its centre; the triangle with the dot; the large disk with\ntwo small rings on either side crossed by double straight lines; the\nso-called \"mirror\", and so on. Highly developed symbolism may not\nindicate a process of spiritualization so much, perhaps, as the\npersistence of magical beliefs and practices. There is really no\ndirect evidence to support the theory that the Assyrian winged disk,\nor disk \"with protruding rays\", was of more spiritual character than\nthe wheel which encloses the feather-robed archer with his\ntrident-shaped arrow.\n\nThe various symbols may have represented phases of the god. When the\nspring fires were lit, and the god \"renewed his life like the eagle\",\nhis symbol was possibly the solar wheel or disk with eagle's wings,\nwhich became regarded as a symbol of life. The god brought life and\nlight to the world; he caused the crops to grow; he gave increase; he\nsustained his worshippers. But he was also the god who slew the demons\nof darkness and storm. The Hittite winged disk was Sandes or Sandon,\nthe god of lightning, who stood on the back of a bull. As the\nlightning god was a war god, it was in keeping with his character to\nfind him represented in Assyria as \"Ashur the archer\" with the bow and\nlightning arrow. On the disk of the Assyrian standard the lion and the\nbull appear with \"the archer\" as symbols of the war god Ashur, but\nthey were also symbols of Ashur the god of fertility.\n\nThe life or spirit of the god was in the ring or wheel, as the life of\nthe Egyptian and Indian gods, and of the giants of folk tales, was in\n\"the egg\". The \"dot within the circle\", a widespread symbol, may have\nrepresented the seed within \"the egg\" of more than one mythology, or\nthe thorn within the egg of more than one legendary story. It may be\nthat in Assyria, as in India, the crude beliefs and symbols of the\nmasses were spiritualized by the speculative thinkers in the\npriesthood, but no literary evidence has survived to justify us in\nplacing the Assyrian teachers on the same level as the Brahmans who\ncomposed the Upanishads.\n\nTemples were erected to Ashur, but he might be worshipped anywhere,\nlike the Queen of Heaven, who received offerings in the streets of\nJerusalem, for \"he needed no temple\", as Professor Pinches says.\nWhether this was because he was a highly developed deity or a product\nof folk religion it is difficult to decide. One important fact is that\nthe ruling king of Assyria was more closely connected with the worship\nof Ashur than the king of Babylonia was with the worship of Merodach.\nThis may be because the Assyrian king was regarded as an incarnation\nof his god, like the Egyptian Pharaoh. Ashur accompanied the monarch\non his campaigns: he was their conquering war god. Where the king was,\nthere was Ashur also. No images were made of him, but his symbols were\ncarried aloft, as were the symbols of Indian gods in the great war of\nthe _Mahabharata_ epic.\n\nIt would appear that Ashur was sometimes worshipped in the temples of\nother gods. In an interesting inscription he is associated with the\nmoon god Nannar (Sin) of Haran. Esarhaddon, the Assyrian king, is\nbelieved to have been crowned in that city. \"The writer\", says\nProfessor Pinches, \"is apparently addressing Assur-bani-apli, 'the\ngreat and noble Asnapper':\n\n\"When the father of my king my lord went to Egypt, he was crowned (?)\nin the _ganni_ of Harran, the temple (lit. 'Bethel') of cedar. The god\nSin remained over the (sacred) standard, two crowns upon his head,\n(and) the god Nusku stood beside him. The father of the king my lord\nentered, (and) he (the priest of Sin) placed (the crown?) upon his\nhead, (saying) thus: 'Thou shalt go and capture the lands in the\nmidst'. (He we)nt, he captured the land of Egypt. The rest of the\nlands not submitting (?) to Assur (Ashur) and Sin, the king, the lord\nof kings, shall capture (them).\"[403]\n\nAshur and Sin are here linked as equals. Associated with them is\nNusku, the messenger of the gods, who was given prominence in Assyria.\nThe kings frequently invoked him. As the son of Ea he acted as the\nmessenger between Merodach and the god of the deep. He was also a son\nof Bel Enlil, and like Anu was guardian or chief of the Igigi, the\n\"host of heaven\". Professor Pinches suggests that he may have been\neither identical with the Sumerian fire god Gibil, or a brother of the\nfire god, and an impersonation of the light of fire and sun. In Haran\nhe accompanied the moon god, and may, therefore, have symbolized the\nlight of the moon also. Professor Pinches adds that in one inscription\n\"he is identified with Nirig or En-reshtu\" (Nin-Girsu = Tammuz).[404]\nThe Babylonians and Assyrians associated fire and light with moisture\nand fertility.\n\nThe astral phase of the character of Ashur is highly probable. As has\nbeen indicated, the Greek rendering of Anshar as \"Assoros\", is\nsuggestive in this connection. Jastrow, however, points out that the\nuse of the characters Anshar for Ashur did not obtain until the eighth\ncentury B.C. \"Linguistically\", he says, \"the change of Ashir to Ashur\ncan be accounted for, but not the transformation of An-shar to Ashur\nor Ashir; so that we must assume the 'etymology' of Ashur, proposed by\nsome learned scribe, to be the nature of a play upon the name.\"[405]\nOn the other hand, it is possible that what appears arbitrary to us\nmay have been justified in ancient Assyria on perfectly reasonable, or\nat any rate traditional, grounds. Professor Pinches points out that as\na sun god, and \"at the same time not Shamash\", Ashur resembled\nMerodach. \"His identification with Merodach, if that was ever\naccepted, may have been due to the likeness of the word to Asari, one\nof the deities' names.\"[406] As Asari, Merodach has been compared to\nthe Egyptian Osiris, who, as the Nile god, was Asar-Hapi. Osiris\nresembles Tammuz and was similarly a corn deity and a ruler of the\nliving and the dead, associated with sun, moon, stars, water, and\nvegetation. We may consistently connect Ashur with Aushar, \"water\nfield\", Anshar, \"god of the height\", or \"most high\", and with the\neponymous King Asshur who went out on the land of Nimrod and \"builded\nNineveh\", if we regard him as of common origin with Tammuz, Osiris,\nand Attis--a developed and localized form of the ancient deity of\nfertility and corn.\n\nAshur had a spouse who is referred to as Ashuritu, or Beltu, \"the\nlady\". Her name, however, is not given, but it is possible that she\nwas identified with the Ishtar of Nineveh. In the historical texts\nAshur, as the royal god, stands alone. Like the Hittite Great Father,\nhe was perhaps regarded as the origin of life. Indeed, it may have\nbeen due to the influence of the northern hillmen in the early\nAssyrian period, that Ashur was developed as a father god--a Baal.\nWhen the Hittite inscriptions are read, more light may be thrown on\nthe Ashur problem. Another possible source of cultural influence is\nPersia. The supreme god Ahura-Mazda (Ormuzd) was, as has been\nindicated, represented, like Ashur, hovering over the king's head,\nenclosed in a winged disk or wheel, and the sacred tree figured in\nPersian mythology. The early Assyrian kings had non-Semitic and\nnon-Sumerian names. It seems reasonable to assume that the religious\nculture of the ethnic elements they represented must have contributed\nto the development of the city god of Asshur.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV.\n\nCONFLICTS FOR TRADE AND SUPREMACY\n\n\n  Modern Babylonia--History repeating itself--Babylonian Trade Route\n  in Mesopotamia--Egyptian Supremacy in Syria--Mitanni and\n  Babylonia--Bandits who plundered Caravans--Arabian Desert Trade\n  Route opened--Assyrian and Elamite Struggles with Babylonia--Rapid\n  Extension of Assyrian Empire--Hittites control Western Trade\n  Routes--Egypt's Nineteenth Dynasty Conquests--Campaigns of Rameses\n  II--Egyptians and Hittites become Allies--Babylonian Fears of\n  Assyria--Shalmaneser's Triumphs--Assyria Supreme in\n  Mesopotamia--Conquest of Babylonia--Fall of a Great King--Civil War\n  in Assyria--Its Empire goes to pieces--Babylonian Wars with\n  Elam--Revival of Babylonian Power--Invasions of Assyrians and\n  Elamites--End of the Kassite Dynasty--Babylonia contrasted with\n  Assyria.\n\n\nIt is possible that during the present century Babylonia may once\nagain become one of the great wheat-producing countries of the world.\nA scheme of land reclamation has already been inaugurated by the\nconstruction of a great dam to control the distribution of the waters\nof the Euphrates, and, if it is energetically promoted on a generous\nscale in the years to come, the ancient canals, which are used at\npresent as caravan roads, may yet be utilized to make the whole\ncountry as fertile and prosperous as it was in ancient days. When that\nhappy consummation is reached, new cities may grow up and flourish\nbeside the ruins of the old centres of Babylonian culture.\n\nWith the revival of agriculture will come the revival of commerce.\nAncient trade routes will then be reopened, and the slow-travelling\ncaravans supplanted by speedy trains. A beginning has already been\nmade in this direction. The first modern commercial highway which is\ncrossing the threshold of Babylonia's new Age is the German railway\nthrough Asia Minor, North Syria, and Mesopotamia to Baghdad.[407] It\nbrings the land of Hammurabi into close touch with Europe, and will\nsolve problems which engaged the attention of many rival monarchs for\nlong centuries before the world knew aught of \"the glory that was\nGreece and the grandeur that was Rome\".\n\nThese sudden and dramatic changes are causing history to repeat\nitself. Once again the great World Powers are evincing much concern\nregarding their respective \"spheres of influence\" in Western Asia, and\npressing together around the ancient land of Babylon. On the east,\nwhere the aggressive Elamites and Kassites were followed by the\ntriumphant Persians and Medes, Russia and Britain have asserted\nthemselves as protectors of Persian territory, and the influence of\nBritain is supreme in the Persian Gulf. Turkey controls the land of\nthe Hittites, while Russia looms like a giant across the Armenian\nhighlands; Turkey is also the governing power in Syria and\nMesopotamia, which are being crossed by Germany's Baghdad railway.\nFrance is constructing railways in Syria, and will control the ancient\n\"way of the Philistines\". Britain occupies Cyprus on the Mediterranean\ncoast, and presides over the destinies of the ancient land of Egypt,\nwhich, during the brilliant Eighteenth Dynasty, extended its sphere of\ninfluence to the borders of Asia Minor. Once again, after the lapse of\nmany centuries, international politics is being strongly influenced by\nthe problems connected with the development of trade in Babylonia and\nits vicinity.\n\nThe history of the ancient rival States, which is being pieced\ntogether by modern excavators, is, in view of present-day political\ndevelopments, invested with special interest to us. We have seen\nAssyria rising into prominence. It began to be a great Power when\nEgypt was supreme in the \"Western Land\" (the land of the Amorites) as\nfar north as the frontiers of Cappadocia. Under the Kassite regime\nBabylonia's political influence had declined in Mesopotamia, but its\ncultural influence remained, for its language and script continued in\nuse among traders and diplomatists.\n\nAt the beginning of the Pharaoh Akhenaton period, the supreme power in\nMesopotamia was Mitanni. As the ally of Egypt it constituted a buffer\nstate on the borders of North Syria, which prevented the southern\nexpansion from Asia Minor of the Hittite confederacy and the western\nexpansion of aggressive Assyria, while it also held in check the\nambitions of Babylonia, which still claimed the \"land of the\nAmorites\". So long as Mitanni was maintained as a powerful kingdom the\nSyrian possessions of Egypt were easily held in control, and the\nEgyptian merchants enjoyed preferential treatment compared with those\nof Babylonia. But when Mitanni was overcome, and its territories were\ndivided between the Assyrians and the Hittites, the North Syrian\nEmpire of Egypt went to pieces. A great struggle then ensued between\nthe nations of western Asia for political supremacy in the \"land of\nthe Amorites\".\n\nBabylonia had been seriously handicapped by losing control of its\nwestern caravan road. Prior to the Kassite period its influence was\nsupreme in Mesopotamia and middle Syria; from the days of Sargon of\nAkkad and of Naram-Sin until the close of the Hammurabi Age its\nmerchants had naught to fear from bandits or petty kings between the\nbanks of the Euphrates and the Mediterranean coast. The city of\nBabylon had grown rich and powerful as the commercial metropolis of\nWestern Asia.\n\nSeparated from the Delta frontier by the broad and perilous wastes of\nthe Arabian desert, Babylonia traded with Egypt by an indirect route.\nIts caravan road ran northward along the west bank of the Euphrates\ntowards Haran, and then southward through Palestine. This was a long\ndetour, but it was the only possible way.\n\nDuring the early Kassite Age the caravans from Babylon had to pass\nthrough the area controlled by Mitanni, which was therefore able to\nimpose heavy duties and fill its coffers with Babylonian gold. Nor did\nthe situation improve when the influence of Mitanni suffered decline\nin southern Mesopotamia. Indeed the difficulties under which traders\noperated were then still further increased, for the caravan roads were\ninfested by plundering bands of \"Suti\", to whom references are made in\nthe Tell-el-Amarna letters. These bandits defied all the great powers,\nand became so powerful that even the messengers sent from one king to\nanother were liable to be robbed and murdered without discrimination.\nWhen war broke out between powerful States they harried live stock and\nsacked towns in those areas which were left unprotected.\n\nThe \"Suti\" were Arabians of Aramaean stock. What is known as the\n\"Third Semitic Migration\" was in progress during this period. The\nnomads gave trouble to Babylonia and Assyria, and, penetrating\nMesopotamia and Syria, sapped the power of Mitanni, until it was\nunable to resist the onslaughts of the Assyrians and the Hittites.\n\nThe Aramaean tribes are referred to, at various periods and by various\npeoples, not only as the \"Suti\", but also as the \"Achlame\", the\n\"Arimi\", and the \"Khabiri\". Ultimately they were designated simply as\n\"Syrians\", and under that name became the hereditary enemies of the\nHebrews, although Jacob was regarded as being of their stock: \"A\nSyrian ready to perish\", runs a Biblical reference, \"was my father\n(ancestor), and he went down into Egypt and sojourned there with a\nfew, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous\".[408]\n\nAn heroic attempt was made by one of the Kassite kings of Babylonia to\nafford protection to traders by stamping out brigandage between Arabia\nand Mesopotamia, and opening up a new and direct caravan road to Egypt\nacross the Arabian desert. The monarch in question was\nKadashman-Kharbe, the grandson of Ashur-uballit of Assyria. As we have\nseen, he combined forces with his distinguished and powerful kinsman,\nand laid a heavy hand on the \"Suti\". Then he dug wells and erected a\nchain of fortifications, like \"block-houses\", so that caravans might\ncome and go without interruption, and merchants be freed from the\nimposts of petty kings whose territory they had to penetrate when\ntravelling by the Haran route.\n\nThis bold scheme, however, was foredoomed to failure. It was shown\nscant favour by the Babylonian Kassites. No record survives to\nindicate the character of the agreement between Kadashman-Kharbe and\nAshur-uballit, but there can be little doubt that it involved the\nabandonment by Babylonia of its historic claim upon Mesopotamia, or\npart of it, and the recognition of an Assyrian sphere of influence in\nthat region. It was probably on account of his pronounced pro-Assyrian\ntendencies that the Kassites murdered Kadashman-Kharbe, and set the\npretender, known as \"the son of nobody\", on the throne for a brief\nperiod.\n\nKadashman-Kharbe's immediate successors recognized in Assyria a\ndangerous and unscrupulous rival, and resumed the struggle for the\npossession of Mesopotamia. The trade route across the Arabian desert\nhad to be abandoned. Probably it required too great a force to keep it\nopen. Then almost every fresh conquest achieved by Assyria involved it\nin war with Babylonia, which appears to have been ever waiting for a\nsuitable opportunity to cripple its northern rival.\n\nBut Assyria was not the only power which Babylonia had to guard itself\nagainst. On its eastern frontier Elam was also panting for expansion.\nIts chief caravan roads ran from Susa through Assyria towards Asia\nMinor, and through Babylonia towards the Phoenician coast. It was\nprobably because its commerce was hampered by the growth of Assyrian\npower in the north, as Servia's commerce in our own day has been\nhampered by Austria, that it cherished dreams of conquering Babylonia.\nIn fact, as Kassite influence suffered decline, one of the great\nproblems of international politics was whether Elam or Assyria would\nenter into possession of the ancient lands of Sumer and Akkad.\n\nAshur-uballit's vigorous policy of Assyrian expansion was continued,\nas has been shown, by his son Bel-nirari. His grandson, Arik-den-ilu,\nconducted several successful campaigns, and penetrated westward as far\nas Haran, thus crossing the Babylonian caravan road. He captured great\nherds of cattle and flocks of sheep, which were transported to Asshur,\nand on one occasion carried away 250,000 prisoners.\n\nMeanwhile Babylonia waged war with Elam. It is related that\nKhur-batila, King of Elam, sent a challenge to Kurigalzu III, a\ndescendant of Kadashman-Kharbe, saying: \"Come hither; I will fight\nwith thee\". The Babylonian monarch accepted the challenge, invaded the\nterritory of his rival, and won a great victory. Deserted by his\ntroops, the Elamite king was taken prisoner, and did not secure\nrelease until he had ceded a portion of his territory and consented to\npay annual tribute to Babylonia.\n\nFlushed with his success, the Kassite king invaded Assyria when\nAdad-nirari I died and his son Arik-den-ilu came to the throne. He\nfound, however, that the Assyrians were more powerful than the\nElamites, and suffered defeat. His son, Na\u00b4zi-mar-ut\u00b4tash[409], also\nmade an unsuccessful attempt to curb the growing power of the northern\nPower.\n\nThese recurring conflicts were intimately associated with the\nMesopotamian question. Assyria was gradually expanding westward and\nshattering the dreams of the Babylonian statesmen and traders who\nhoped to recover control of the caravan routes and restore the\nprestige of their nation in the west.\n\nLike his father, Adad-nirari I of Assyria had attacked the Aramaean\n\"Suti\" who were settling about Haran. He also acquired a further\nportion of the ancient kingdom of Mitanni, with the result that he\nexercised sway over part of northern Mesopotamia. After defeating\nNa\u00b4zi-mar-ut\u00b4tash, he fixed the boundaries of the Assyrian and\nBabylonian spheres of influence much to the advantage of his own\ncountry.\n\nAt home Adad-nirari conducted a vigorous policy. He developed the\nresources of the city state of Asshur by constructing a great dam and\nquay wall, while he contributed to the prosperity of the priesthood\nand the growth of Assyrian culture by extending the temple of the god\nAshur. Ere he died, he assumed the proud title of \"Shar Kishshate\",\n\"king of the world\", which was also used by his son Shalmaneser I. His\nreign extended over a period of thirty years and terminated about 1300\nB.C.\n\nSoon after Shalmaneser came to the throne his country suffered greatly\nfrom an earthquake, which threw down Ishtar's temple at Nineveh and\nAshur's temple at Asshur. Fire broke out in the latter building and\ndestroyed it completely.\n\nThese disasters did not dismay the young monarch. Indeed, they appear\nto have stimulated him to set out on a career of conquest, to secure\ntreasure and slaves, so as to carry out the work of reconstructing the\ntemples without delay. He became as great a builder, and as tireless a\ncampaigner as Thothmes III of Egypt, and under his guidance Assyria\nbecame the most powerful nation in Western Asia. Ere he died his\narmies were so greatly dreaded that the Egyptians and Assyrians drew\ntheir long struggle for supremacy in Syria to a close, and formed an\nalliance for mutual protection against their common enemy.\n\nIt is necessary at this point to review briefly the history of\nPalestine and north Syria after the period of Hittite expansion under\nKing Subbi-luliuma and the decline of Egyptian power under Akhenaton.\nThe western part of Mitanni and the most of northern Syria had been\ncolonized by the Hittites.[410] Farther south, their allies, the\nAmorites, formed a buffer State on the borders of Egypt's limited\nsphere of influence in southern Palestine, and of Babylonia's sphere\nin southern Mesopotamia. Mitanni was governed by a subject king who\nwas expected to prevent the acquisition by Assyria of territory in the\nnorth-west.\n\nSubbi-luliuma was succeeded on the Hittite throne by his son, King\nMursil, who was known to the Egyptians as \"Meraser\", or \"Maurasar\".\nThe greater part of this monarch's reign appears to have been peaceful\nand prosperous. His allies protected his frontiers, and he was able to\ndevote himself to the work of consolidating his empire in Asia Minor\nand North Syria. He erected a great palace at Boghaz K\u00f6i, and appears\nto have had dreams of imitating the splendours of the royal Courts of\nEgypt, Assyria, and Babylon.\n\nAt this period the Hittite Empire was approaching the zenith of its\npower. It controlled the caravan roads of Babylonia and Egypt, and its\nrulers appear not only to have had intimate diplomatic relations with\nboth these countries, but even to have concerned themselves regarding\ntheir internal affairs. When Rameses I came to the Egyptian throne, at\nthe beginning of the Nineteenth Dynasty, he sealed an agreement with\nthe Hittites, and at a later date the Hittite ambassador at Babylon,\nwho represented Hattusil II, the second son of King Mursil, actually\nintervened in a dispute regarding the selection of a successor to the\nthrone.\n\nThe closing years of King Mursil's reign were disturbed by the\nmilitary conquests of Egypt, which had renewed its strength under\nRameses I. Seti I, the son of Rameses I, and the third Pharaoh of the\npowerful Nineteenth Dynasty, took advantage of the inactivity of the\nHittite ruler by invading southern Syria. He had first to grapple with\nthe Amorites, whom he successfully defeated. Then he pressed northward\nas far as Tunip, and won a decisive victory over a Hittite army, which\nsecured to Egypt for a period the control of Palestine as far north as\nPhoenicia.\n\nWhen Mursil died he was succeeded on the Hittite throne by his son\nMutallu, whom the Egyptians referred to as \"Metella\" or \"Mautinel\". He\nwas a vigorous and aggressive monarch, and appears to have lost no\ntime in compelling the Amorites to throw off their allegiance to Egypt\nand recognize him as their overlord. As a result, when Rameses II\nascended the Egyptian throne he had to undertake the task of winning\nback the Asiatic possessions of his father.\n\nThe preliminary operations conducted by Rameses on the Palestinian\ncoast were attended with much success. Then, in his fifth year, he\nmarched northward with a great army, with purpose, it would appear, to\nemulate the achievements of Thothmes III and win fame as a mighty\nconqueror. But he underestimated the strength of his rival and\nnarrowly escaped disaster. Advancing impetuously, with but two of his\nfour divisions, he suddenly found himself surrounded by the army of\nthe wily Hittite, King Mutallu, in the vicinity of the city of Kadesh,\non the Orontes. His first division remained intact, but his second was\nput to flight by an intervening force of the enemy. From this perilous\nposition Rameses extricated himself by leading a daring charge against\nthe Hittite lines on the river bank, which proved successful. Thrown\ninto confusion, his enemies sought refuge in the city, but the Pharaoh\nrefrained from attacking them there.\n\nAlthough Rameses boasted on his return home of having achieved a great\nvictory, there is nothing more certain than that this campaign proved\na dismal failure. He was unable to win back for Egypt the northern\nterritories which had acknowledged the suzerainty of Egypt during the\nEighteenth Dynasty. Subsequently he was kept fully engaged in\nmaintaining his prestige in northern Palestine and the vicinity of\nPhoenicia. Then his Asiatic military operations, which extended\naltogether over a period of about twenty years, were brought to a\nclose in a dramatic and unexpected manner. The Hittite king Mutallu\nhad died in battle, or by the hand of an assassin, and was succeeded\nby his brother Hattusil II (Khetasar), who sealed a treaty of peace\nwith the great Rameses.\n\nAn Egyptian copy of this interesting document can still be read on the\nwalls of a Theban temple, but it is lacking in certain details which\ninterest present-day historians. No reference, for instance, is made\nto the boundaries of the Egyptian Empire in Syria, so that it is\nimpossible to estimate the degree of success which attended the\ncampaigns of Rameses. An interesting light, however, is thrown on the\npurport of the treaty by a tablet letter which has been discovered by\nProfessor Hugo Winckler at Boghaz K\u00f6i. It is a copy of a communication\naddressed by Hattusil II to the King of Babylonia, who had made an\nenquiry regarding it. \"I will inform my brother,\" wrote the Hittite\nmonarch; \"the King of Egypt and I have made an alliance, and made\nourselves brothers. Brothers we are and will [unite against] a common\nfoe, and with friends in common.\"[411] The common foe could have been\nno other than Assyria, and the Hittite king's letter appears to convey\na hint to Kadashman-turgu of Babylon that he should make common cause\nwith Rameses II and Hattusil.\n\nShalmaneser I of Assyria was pursuing a determined policy of western\nand northern expansion. He struck boldly at the eastern Hittite States\nand conquered Malatia, where he secured great treasure for the god\nAshur. He even founded colonies within the Hittite sphere of influence\non the borders of Armenia. Shalmaneser's second campaign was conducted\nagainst the portion of ancient Mitanni which was under Hittite\ncontrol. The vassal king, Sattuari, apparently a descendant of\nTushratta's, endeavoured to resist the Assyrians with the aid of\nHittites and Aramaeans, but his army of allies was put to flight. The\nvictorious Shalmaneser was afterwards able to penetrate as far\nwestward as Carchemish on the Euphrates.\n\nHaving thus secured the whole of Mitanni, the Assyrian conqueror\nattacked the Aramaean hordes which were keeping the territory round\nHaran in a continuous state of unrest, and forced them to recognize\nhim as their overlord.\n\nShalmaneser thus, it would appear, gained control of northern\nMesopotamia and consequently of the Babylonian caravan route to Haran.\nAs a result Hittite prestige must have suffered decline in Babylon.\nFor a generation the Hittites had had the Babylonian merchants at\ntheir mercy, and apparently compelled them to pay heavy duties.\nWinckler has found among the Boghaz K\u00f6i tablets several letters from\nthe king of Babylon, who made complaints regarding robberies committed\nby Amoritic bandits, and requested that they should be punished and\nkept in control. Such a communication is a clear indication that he\nwas entitled, in lieu of payment, to have an existing agreement\nfulfilled.\n\nShalmaneser found that Asshur, the ancient capital, was unsuitable for\nthe administration of his extended empire, so he built a great city at\nKalkhi (Nimrud), the Biblical Calah, which was strategically situated\namidst fertile meadows on the angle of land formed by the Tigris and\nthe Upper Zab. Thither to a new palace he transferred his brilliant\nCourt.\n\nHe was succeeded by his son, Tukulti-Ninip I, who was the most\npowerful of the Assyrian monarchs of the Old Empire. He made great\nconquests in the north and east, extended and strengthened Assyrian\ninfluence in Mesopotamia, and penetrated into Hittite territory,\nbringing into subjection no fewer than forty kings, whom he compelled\nto pay annual tribute. It was inevitable that he should be drawn into\nconflict with the Babylonian king, who was plotting with the Hittites\nagainst him. One of the tablet letters found by Winckler at Boghaz K\u00f6i\nis of special interest in this connection. Hattusil advises the young\nmonarch of Babylonia to \"go and plunder the land of the foe\".\nApparently he sought to be freed from the harassing attention of the\nAssyrian conqueror by prevailing on his Babylonian royal friend to act\nas a \"cat's paw\".\n\nIt is uncertain whether or not Kashtiliash II of Babylonia invaded\nAssyria with purpose to cripple his rival. At any rate war broke out\nbetween the two countries, and Tukulti-Ninip proved irresistible in\nbattle. He marched into Babylonia, and not only defeated Kashtiliash,\nbut captured him and carried him off to Asshur, where he was presented\nin chains to the god Ashur.\n\nThe city of Babylon was captured, its wall was demolished, and many of\nits inhabitants were put to the sword. Tukulti-Ninip was evidently\nwaging a war of conquest, for he pillaged E-sagila, \"the temple of the\nhigh head\", and removed the golden statue of the god Merodach to\nAssyria, where it remained for about sixteen years. He subdued the\nwhole of Babylonia as far south as the Persian Gulf, and ruled it\nthrough viceroys.\n\nTukulti-Ninip, however, was not a popular emperor even in his own\ncountry. He offended national susceptibilities by showing preference\nfor Babylonia, and founding a new city which has not been located.\nThere he built a great palace and a temple for Ashur and his pantheon.\nHe called the city after himself, Kar-Tukulti-Ninip[412].\n\nSeven years after the conquest of Babylonia revolts broke out against\nthe emperor in Assyria and Babylonia, and he was murdered in his\npalace, which had been besieged and captured by an army headed by his\nown son, Ashur-natsir-pal I, who succeeded him. The Babylonian nobles\nmeantime drove the Assyrian garrisons from their cities, and set on\nthe throne the Kassite prince Adad-shum-utsur.\n\nThus in a brief space went to pieces the old Assyrian Empire, which,\nat the close of Tukulti-Ninip's thirty years' reign, embraced the\nwhole Tigro-Euphrates valley from the borders of Armenia to the\nPersian Gulf. An obscure century followed, during which Assyria was\nraided by its enemies and broken up into petty States.\n\nThe Elamites were not slow to take advantage of the state of anarchy\nwhich prevailed in Babylonia during the closing years of Assyrian\nrule. They overran a part of ancient Sumer, and captured Nippur, where\nthey slew a large number of inhabitants and captured many prisoners.\nOn a subsequent occasion they pillaged Isin. When, however, the\nBabylonian king had cleared his country of the Assyrians, he attacked\nthe Elamites and drove them across the frontier.\n\nNothing is known regarding the reign of the parricide Ashur-natsir-pal\nI of Assyria. He was succeeded by Ninip-Tukulti-Ashur and\nAdad-shum-lishir, who either reigned concurrently or were father and\nson. After a brief period these were displaced by another two rulers,\nAshur-nirari III and Nabu-dan.\n\nIt is not clear why Ninip-Tukulti-Ashur was deposed. Perhaps he was an\nally of Adad-shum-utsur, the Babylonian king, and was unpopular on\nthat account. He journeyed to Babylon on one occasion, carrying with\nhim the statue of Merodach, but did not return. Perhaps he fled from\nthe rebels. At any rate Adad-shum-utsur was asked to send him back, by\nan Assyrian dignitary who was probably Ashur-nirari III. The king of\nBabylon refused this request, nor would he give official recognition\nto the new ruler or rulers.\n\nSoon afterwards another usurper, Bel-kudur-utsur, led an Assyrian army\nagainst the Babylonians, but was slain in battle. He was succeeded by\nNinip-apil-esharia, who led his forces back to Asshur, followed by\nAdad-shum-utsur. The city was besieged but not captured by the\nBabylonian army.\n\nUnder Adad-shum-utsur, who reigned for thirty years, Babylonia\nrecovered much of its ancient splendour. It held Elam in check and\nlaid a heavy hand on Assyria, which had been paralysed by civil war.\nOnce again it possessed Mesopotamia and controlled its caravan road to\nHaran and Phoenicia, and apparently its relations with the Hittites\nand Syrians were of a cordial character. The next king, Meli-shipak,\nassumed the Assyrian title \"Shar Kishshati\", \"king of the world\", and\nhad a prosperous reign of fifteen years. He was succeeded by\nMarduk-aplu-iddin I, who presided over the destinies of Babylonia for\nabout thirteen years. Thereafter the glory of the Kassite Dynasty\npassed away. King Zamama-shum-iddin followed with a twelvemonth's\nreign, during which his kingdom was successfully invaded from the\nnorth by the Assyrians under King Ashur-dan I, and from the east by\nthe Elamites under a king whose name has not been traced. Several\ntowns were captured and pillaged, and rich booty was carried off to\nAsshur and Susa.\n\nBel-shum-iddin succeeded Zamama-shum-iddin, but three years afterwards\nhe was deposed by a king of Isin. So ended the Kassite Dynasty of\nBabylonia, which had endured for a period of 576 years and nine\nmonths.\n\nBabylonia was called Karduniash during the Kassite Dynasty. This name\nwas originally applied to the district at the river mouths, where the\nalien rulers appear to have first achieved ascendancy. Apparently they\nwere strongly supported by the non-Semitic elements in the population,\nand represented a popular revolt against the political supremacy of\nthe city of Babylon and its god Merodach. It is significant to find in\nthis connection that the early Kassite kings showed a preference for\nNippur as their capital and promoted the worship of Enlil, the elder\nBel, who was probably identified with their own god of fertility and\nbattle. Their sun god, Sachi, appears to have been merged in Shamash.\nIn time, however, the kings followed the example of Hammurabi by\nexalting Merodach.\n\nThe Kassite language added to the \"Babel of tongues\" among the common\npeople, but was never used in inscriptions. At an early period the\nalien rulers became thoroughly Babylonianized, and as they held sway\nfor nearly six centuries it cannot be assumed that they were\nunpopular. They allowed their mountain homeland, or earliest area of\nsettlement in the east, to be seized and governed by Assyria, and\nprobably maintained as slight a connection with it after settlement in\nBabylonia as did the Saxons of England with their Continental area of\norigin.\n\nAlthough Babylonia was not so great a world power under the Kassites\nas it had been during the Hammurabi Dynasty, it prospered greatly as\nan industrial, agricultural, and trading country. The Babylonian\nlanguage was used throughout western Asia as the language of diplomacy\nand commerce, and the city of Babylon was the most important\ncommercial metropolis of the ancient world. Its merchants traded\ndirectly and indirectly with far-distant countries. They imported\ncobalt--which was used for colouring glass a vivid blue--from China,\nand may have occasionally met Chinese traders who came westward with\ntheir caravans, while a brisk trade in marble and limestone was\nconducted with and through Elam. Egypt was the chief source of the\ngold supply, which was obtained from the Nubian mines; and in exchange\nfor this precious metal the Babylonians supplied the Nilotic merchants\nwith lapis-lazuli from Bactria, enamel, and their own wonderful\ncoloured glass, which was not unlike the later Venetian, as well as\nchariots and horses. The Kassites were great horse breeders, and the\nbattle steeds from the Babylonian province of Namar were everywhere in\ngreat demand. They also promoted the cattle trade. Cattle rearing was\nconfined chiefly to the marshy districts at the head of the Persian\nGulf, and the extensive steppes on the borders of the Arabian desert,\nso well known to Abraham and his ancestors, which provided excellent\ngrazing. Agriculture also flourished; as in Egypt it constituted the\nbasis of national and commercial prosperity.\n\nIt is evident that great wealth accumulated in Karduniash during the\nKassite period. When the images of Merodach and Zerpanitu^m were taken\nback to Babylon, from Assyria, they were clad, as has been recorded,\nin garments embroidered with gold and sparkling with gems, while\nE-sagila was redecorated on a lavish scale with priceless works of\nart.\n\nAssyria presented a sharp contrast to Babylonia, the mother land, from\nwhich its culture was derived. As a separate kingdom it had to develop\nalong different lines. In fact, it was unable to exist as a world\npower without the enforced co-operation of neighbouring States.\nBabylonia, on the other hand, could have flourished in comparative\nisolation, like Egypt during the Old Kingdom period, because it was\nable to feed itself and maintain a large population so long as its\nrich alluvial plain was irrigated during its dry season, which\nextended over about eight months in the year.\n\nThe region north of Baghdad was of different geographical formation to\nthe southern plain, and therefore less suitable for the birth and\ngrowth of a great independent civilization. Assyria embraced a chalk\nplateau of the later Mesozoic period, with tertiary deposits, and had\nan extremely limited area suitable for agricultural pursuits. Its\noriginal inhabitants were nomadic pastoral and hunting tribes, and\nthere appears to be little doubt that agriculture was introduced along\nthe banks of the Tigris by colonists from Babylonia, who formed city\nStates which owed allegiance to the kings of Sumer and Akkad.\n\nAfter the Hammurabi period Assyria rose into prominence as a predatory\npower, which depended for its stability upon those productive\ncountries which it was able to conquer and hold in sway. It never had\na numerous peasantry, and such as it had ultimately vanished, for the\nkings pursued the short-sighted policy of colonizing districts on the\nborders of their empire with their loyal subjects, and settling aliens\nin the heart of the homeland, where they were controlled by the\nmilitary. In this manner they built up an artificial empire, which\nsuffered at critical periods in its history because it lacked the\ngreat driving and sustaining force of a population welded together by\nimmemorial native traditions and the love of country which is the\nessence of true patriotism. National sentiment was chiefly confined to\nthe military aristocracy and the priests; the enslaved and uncultured\nmasses of aliens were concerned mainly with their daily duties, and no\ndoubt included communities, like the Israelites in captivity, who\nlonged to return to their native lands.\n\nAssyria had to maintain a standing army, which grew from an alliance\nof brigands who first enslaved the native population, and ultimately\nextended their sway over neighbouring States. The successes of the\narmy made Assyria powerful. Conquering kings accumulated rich booty by\npillaging alien cities, and grew more and more wealthy as they were\nable to impose annual tribute on those States which came under their\nsway. They even regarded Babylonia with avaricious eyes. It was to\nachieve the conquest of the fertile and prosperous mother State that\nthe early Assyrian emperors conducted military operations in the\nnorth-west and laid hands on Mesopotamia. There was no surer way of\nstrangling it than by securing control of its trade routes. What the\ncommand of the sea is to Great Britain at the present day, the command\nof the caravan roads was to ancient Babylonia.\n\nBabylonia suffered less than Assyria by defeat in battle; its natural\nresources gave it great recuperative powers, and the native population\nwas ever so intensely patriotic that centuries of alien sway could not\nobliterate their national aspirations. A conqueror of Babylon had to\nbecome a Babylonian. The Amorites and Kassites had in turn to adopt\nthe modes of life and modes of thought of the native population. Like\nthe Egyptians, the Babylonians ever achieved the intellectual conquest\nof their conquerors.\n\nThe Assyrian Empire, on the other hand, collapsed like a house of\ncards when its army of mercenaries suffered a succession of disasters.\nThe kings, as we have indicated, depended on the tribute of subject\nStates to pay their soldiers and maintain the priesthood; they were\nfaced with national bankruptcy when their vassals successfully\nrevolted against them.\n\nThe history of Assyria as a world power is divided into three periods:\n(1) the Old Empire; (2) the Middle Empire; (3) the New or Last Empire.\n\nWe have followed the rise and growth of the Old Empire from the days\nof Ashur-uballit until the reign of Tukulti-Ninip, when it flourished\nin great splendour and suddenly went to pieces. Thereafter, until the\nsecond period of the Old Empire, Assyria comprised but a few city\nStates which had agricultural resources and were trading centres. Of\nthese the most enterprising was Asshur. When a ruler of Asshur was\nable, by conserving his revenues, to command sufficient capital with\npurpose to raise a strong army of mercenaries as a business\nspeculation, he set forth to build up a new empire on the ruins of the\nold. In its early stages, of course, this process was slow and\ndifficult. It necessitated the adoption of a military career by native\nAssyrians, who officered the troops, and these troops had to be\ntrained and disciplined by engaging in brigandage, which also brought\nthem rich rewards for their services. Babylonia became powerful by\ndeveloping the arts of peace; Assyria became powerful by developing\nthe science of warfare.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI.\n\nRACE MOVEMENTS THAT SHATTERED EMPIRES\n\n\n  The Third Semitic Migration--Achaean Conquest of Greece--Fall of\n  Crete--Tribes of Raiders--European Settlers in Asia Minor--The Muski\n  overthrow the Hittites--Sea Raids on Egypt--The Homeric\n  Age--Israelites and Philistines in Palestine--Culture of\n  Philistines--Nebuchadrezzar I of Babylonia--Wars against Elamites\n  and Hittites--Conquests in Mesopotamia and Syria--Assyrians and\n  Babylonians at War--Tiglath-pileser I of Assyria--His Sweeping\n  Conquests--Muski Power broken--Big-game Hunting in\n  Mesopotamia--Slaying of a Sea Monster--Decline of Assyria and\n  Babylonia--Revival of Hittite Civilization--An Important Period in\n  History--Philistines as Overlords of Hebrews--Kingdom of David and\n  Saul--Solomon's Relations with Egypt and Phoenicia--Sea Trade with\n  India--Aramaean Conquests--The Chaldaeans--Egyptian King plunders\n  Judah and Israel--Historical Importance of Race Movements.\n\n\nGreat changes were taking place in the ancient world during the\nperiod in which Assyria rose into prominence and suddenly suffered\ndecline. These were primarily due to widespread migrations of pastoral\npeoples from the steppe lands of Asia and Europe, and the resulting\ndisplacement of settled tribes. The military operations of the great\nPowers were also a disturbing factor, for they not only propelled\nfresh movements beyond their spheres of influence, but caused the\npetty States to combine against a common enemy and foster ambitions to\nachieve conquests on a large scale.\n\nTowards the close of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, of which\nAmenhotep III and Akhenaton were the last great kings, two\nwell-defined migrations were in progress. The Aramaean folk-waves had\nalready begun to pour in increasing volume into Syria from Arabia, and\nin Europe the pastoral fighting folk from the mountains were\nestablishing themselves along the south-eastern coast and crossing the\nHellespont to overrun the land of the Hittites. These race movements\nwere destined to exercise considerable influence in shaping the\nhistory of the ancient world.\n\nThe Aramaean, or Third Semitic migration, in time swamped various\ndecaying States. Despite the successive efforts of the great Powers to\nhold it in check, it ultimately submerged the whole of Syria and part\nof Mesopotamia. Aramaean speech then came into common use among the\nmingled peoples over a wide area, and was not displaced until the time\nof the Fourth Semitic or Moslem migration from Arabia, which began in\nthe seventh century of the Christian era, and swept northward through\nSyria to Asia Minor, eastward across Mesopotamia into Persia and\nIndia, and westward through Egypt along the north African coast to\nMorocco, and then into Spain.\n\nWhen Syria was sustaining the first shocks of Aramaean invasion, the\nlast wave of Achaeans, \"the tamers of horses\" and \"shepherds of the\npeople\", had achieved the conquest of Greece, and contributed to the\noverthrow of the dynasty of King Minos of Crete. Professor Ridgeway\nidentifies this stock, which had been filtering southward for several\ncenturies, with the tall, fair-haired, and grey-eyed \"Keltoi\"\n(Celts),[413] who, Dr. Haddon believes, were representatives of \"the\nmixed peoples of northern and Alpine descent\".[414] Mr. Hawes,\nfollowing Professor Sergi, holds, on the other hand, that the Achaeans\nwere \"fair in comparison with the native (Pelasgian-Mediterranean)\nstock, but not necessarily blonde\".[415] The earliest Achaeans were\nrude, uncultured barbarians, but the last wave came from some unknown\ncentre of civilization, and probably used iron as well as bronze\nweapons.\n\nThe old Cretans were known to the Egyptians as the \"Keftiu\", and\ntraded on the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. It is significant to\nfind, however, that no mention is made of them in the inscriptions of\nthe Pharaohs after the reign of Amenhotep III. In their place appear\nthe Shardana, the Mykenaean people who gave their name to Sardinia,\nthe Danauna, believed to be identical with the Danaoi of Homer, the\nAkhaivasha, perhaps the Achaeans, and the Tursha and Shakalsha, who\nmay have been of the same stock as the piratical Lycians.\n\nWhen Rameses II fought his famous battle at Kadesh the Hittite king\nincluded among his allies the Aramaeans from Arabia, and other\nmercenaries like the Dardanui and Masa, who represented the\nThraco-Phrygian peoples who had overrun the Balkans, occupied Thrace\nand Macedonia, and crossed into Asia Minor. In time the Hittite\nconfederacy was broken up by the migrating Europeans, and their\ndominant tribe, the Muski[416]--the Moschoi of the Greeks and the\nMeshech of the Old Testament--came into conflict with the Assyrians.\nThe Muski were forerunners of the Phrygians, and were probably of\nallied stock.\n\nPharaoh Meneptah, the son of Rameses II, did not benefit much by the\nalliance with the Hittites, to whom he had to send a supply of grain\nduring a time of famine. He found it necessary, indeed, to invade\nSyria, where their influence had declined, and had to beat back from\nthe Delta region the piratical invaders of the same tribes as were\nsecuring a footing in Asia Minor. In Syria, Meneptah fought with the\nIsraelites, who apparently had begun their conquest of Canaan during\nhis reign.\n\nBefore the Kassite Dynasty had come to an end, Rameses III of Egypt\n(1198-1167 B.C.) freed his country from the perils of a great invasion\nof Europeans by land and sea. He scattered a fleet on the Delta coast,\nand then arrested the progress of a strong force which was pressing\nsouthward through Phoenicia towards the Egyptian frontier. These\nevents occurred at the beginning of the Homeric Age, and were followed\nby the siege of Troy, which, according to the Greeks, began about 1194\nB.C.\n\nThe land raiders who were thwarted by Rameses III were the\nPhilistines, a people from Crete.[417] When the prestige of Egypt\nsuffered decline they overran the coastline of Canaan, and that\ncountry was then called Palestine, \"the land of the Philistines\",\nwhile the Egyptian overland trade route to Phoenicia became known as\n\"the way of the Philistines\". Their conflicts with the Hebrews are\nfamiliar to readers of the Old Testament. \"The only contributions the\nHebrews made to the culture of the country\", writes Professor\nMacalister, \"were their simple desert customs and their religious\norganization. On the other hand, the Philistines, sprung from one of\nthe great homes of art of the ancient world, had brought with them the\nartistic instincts of their race: decayed no doubt, but still superior\nto anything they met with in the land itself. Tombs to be ascribed to\nthem, found in Gezer, contained beautiful jewellery and ornaments. The\nPhilistines, in fact, were the only cultured or artistic race who ever\noccupied the soil of Palestine, at least until the time when the\ninfluence of classical Greece asserted itself too strongly to be\nwithstood. Whatsoever things raised life in the country above the dull\nanimal existence of fellahin were due to this people.... The peasantry\nof the modern villages ... still tell of the great days of old when it\n(Palestine) was inhabited by the mighty race of the 'Fenish'.\"[418]\n\nWhen the Kassite Dynasty of Babylonia was extinguished, about 1140\nB.C., the Amorites were being displaced in Palestine by the\nPhilistines and the Israelitish tribes; the Aramaeans were extending\ntheir conquests in Syria and Mesopotamia; the Muski were the overlords\nof the Hittites; Assyrian power was being revived at the beginning of\nthe second period of the Old Empire; and Egypt was governed by a\nweakly king, Rameses VIII, a puppet in the hands of the priesthood,\nwho was unable to protect the rich tombs of the Eighteenth Dynasty\nPharaohs against the bands of professional robbers who were plundering\nthem.\n\nA new dynasty--the Dynasty of Pashe--had arisen at the ancient\nSumerian city of Isin. Its early kings were contemporary with some of\nthe last Kassite monarchs, and they engaged in conflicts with the\nElamites, who were encroaching steadily upon Babylonian territory, and\nwere ultimately able to seize the province of Namar, famous for its\nhorses, which was situated to the east of Akkad. The Assyrians, under\nAshur-dan I, were not only reconquering lost territory, but invading\nBabylonia and carrying off rich plunder. Ashur-dan inflicted a\ncrushing defeat upon the second-last Kassite ruler.\n\nThere years later Nebuchadrezzar I, of the Dynasty of Pashe, seized\nthe Babylonian throne. He was the most powerful and distinguished\nmonarch of his line--an accomplished general and a wise statesman. His\nname signifies: \"May the god Nebo protect my boundary\". His first duty\nwas to drive the Elamites from the land, and win back from them the\nstatue of Merodach which they had carried off from E-sagila. At first\nhe suffered a reverse, but although the season was midsummer, and the\nheat overpowering, he persisted in his campaign. The Elamites were\nforced to retreat, and following up their main force he inflicted upon\nthem a shattering defeat on the banks of the Ula, a tributary of the\nTigris. He then invaded Elam and returned with rich booty. The\nprovince of Namar was recovered, and its governor, Ritti Merodach, who\nwas Nebuchadrezzar's battle companion, was restored to his family\npossessions and exempted from taxation. A second raid to Elam resulted\nin the recovery of the statue of Merodach. The Kassite and Lullume\nmountaineers also received attention, and were taught to respect the\npower of the new monarch.\n\nHaving freed his country from the yoke of the Elamites, and driven the\nAssyrians over the frontier, Nebuchadrezzar came into conflict with\nthe Hittites, who appear to have overrun Mesopotamia. Probably the\ninvaders were operating in conjunction with the Muski, who were\nextending their sway over part of northern Assyria. They were not\ncontent with securing control of the trade route, but endeavoured also\nto establish themselves permanently in Babylon, the commercial\nmetropolis, which they besieged and captured. This happened in the\nthird year of Nebuchadrezzar, when he was still reigning at Isin.\nAssembling a strong force, he hastened northward and defeated the\nHittites, and apparently followed up his victory. Probably it was at\nthis time that he conquered the \"West Land\" (the land of the Amorites)\nand penetrated to the Mediterranean coast. Egyptian power had been\nlong extinguished in that region.\n\nThe possession of Mesopotamia was a signal triumph for Babylonia. As\nwas inevitable, however, it brought Nebuchadrezzar into conflict some\nyears later with the Assyrian king, Ashur-resh-ishi I, grandson of\nAshur-dan, and father of the famous Tiglath-pileser I. The northern\nmonarch had engaged himself in subduing the Lullume and Akhlami hill\ntribes in the south-east, whose territory had been conquered by\nNebuchadrezzar. Thereafter he crossed the Babylonian frontier.\nNebuchadrezzar drove him back and then laid siege to the border\nfortress of Zanki, but the Assyrian king conducted a sudden and\nsuccessful reconnaissance in force which rendered perilous the\nposition of the attacking force. By setting fire to his siege train\nthe Babylonian war lord was able, however, to retreat in good order.\n\nSome time later Nebuchadrezzar dispatched another army northward, but\nit suffered a serious defeat, and its general, Karashtu, fell into the\nhands of the enemy.\n\nNebuchadrezzar reigned less than twenty years, and appears to have\nsecured the allegiance of the nobility by restoring the feudal system\nwhich had been abolished by the Kassites. He boasted that he was \"the\nsun of his country, who restored ancient landmarks and boundaries\",\nand promoted the worship of Ishtar, the ancient goddess of the people.\nBy restoring the image of Merodach he secured the support of Babylon,\nto which city he transferred his Court.\n\nNebuchadrezzar was succeeded by his son Ellil-nadin-apil, who reigned\na few years; but little or nothing is known regarding him. His\ngrandson, Marduk-nadin-akhe, came into conflict with Tiglath-pileser I\nof Assyria, and suffered serious reverses, from the effects of which\nhis country did not recover for over a century.\n\nTiglath-pileser I, in one of his inscriptions, recorded significantly:\n\"The feet of the enemy I kept from my country\". When he came to the\nthrone, northern Assyria was menaced by the Muski and their allies,\nthe Hittites and the Shubari of old Mitanni. The Kashiari hill tribes\nto the north of Nineveh, whom Shalmaneser I subdued, had half a\ncentury before thrown off the yoke of Assyria, and their kings were\napparently vassals of the Muski.\n\nTiglath-pileser first invaded Mitanni, where he routed a combined\nforce of Shubari hillmen and Hittites. Thereafter a great army of the\nMuski and their allies pressed southward with purpose to deal a\nshattering blow against the Assyrian power. The very existence of\nAssyria as a separate power was threatened by this movement.\nTiglath-pileser, however, was equal to the occasion. He surprised the\ninvaders among the Kashiari mountains and inflicted a crushing defeat,\nslaying about 14,000 and capturing 6000 prisoners, who were\ntransported to Asshur. In fact, he wiped the invading army out of\nexistence and possessed himself of all its baggage. Thereafter he\ncaptured several cities, and extended his empire beyond the Kashiari\nhills and into the heart of Mitanni.\n\nHis second campaign was also directed towards the Mitanni district,\nwhich had been invaded during his absence by a force of Hittites,\nabout 4000 strong. The invaders submitted to him as soon as he drew\nnear, and he added them to his standing army.\n\nSubsequent operations towards the north restored the pre-eminence of\nAssyria in the Nairi country, on the shores of Lake Van, in Armenia,\nwhere Tiglath-pileser captured no fewer than twenty-three petty kings.\nThese he liberated after they had taken the oath of allegiance and\nconsented to pay annual tribute.\n\nIn his fourth year the conqueror learned that the Aramaeans were\ncrossing the Euphrates and possessing themselves of Mitanni, which he\nhad cleared of the Hittites. By a series of forced marches he caught\nthem unawares, scattered them in confusion, and entered Carchemish,\nwhich he pillaged. Thereafter his army crossed the Euphrates in boats\nof skin, and plundered and destroyed six cities round the base of the\nmountain of Bishru.\n\nWhile operating in this district, Tiglath-pileser engaged in big-game\nhunting. He recorded: \"Ten powerful bull elephants in the land of\nHaran and on the banks of the Khabour I killed; four elephants alive I\ntook. Their skins, their teeth, with the living elephants, I brought\nto my city of Asshur.\"[419] He also claimed to have slain 920 lions,\nas well as a number of wild oxen, apparently including in his record\nthe \"bags\" of his officers and men. A later king credited him with\nhaving penetrated to the Phoenician coast, where he put to sea and\nslew a sea monster called the \"nakhiru\". While at Arvad, the narrative\ncontinues, the King of Egypt, who is not named, sent him a\nhippopotamus (pagutu). This story, however, is of doubtful\nauthenticity. About this time the prestige of Egypt was at so low an\nebb that its messengers were subjected to indignities by the\nPhoenician kings.\n\nThe conquests of Tiglath-pileser once more raised the Mesopotamian\nquestion in Babylonia, whose sphere of influence in that region had\nbeen invaded. Marduk-nadin-akhe, the grandson of Nebuchadrezzar I,\n\"arrayed his chariots\" against Tiglath-pileser, and in the first\nconflict achieved some success, but subsequently he was defeated in\nthe land of Akkad. The Assyrian army afterwards captured several\ncities, including Babylon and Sippar.\n\nThus once again the Assyrian Empire came into being as the predominant\nworld Power, extending from the land of the Hittites into the heart of\nBabylonia. Its cities were enriched by the immense quantities of booty\ncaptured by its warrior king, while the coffers of state were glutted\nwith the tribute of subject States. Fortifications were renewed,\ntemples were built, and great gifts were lavished on the priesthood.\nArtists and artisans were kept fully employed restoring the faded\nsplendours of the Old Empire, and everywhere thousands of slaves\nlaboured to make the neglected land prosperous as of old. Canals were\nrepaired and reopened; the earthworks and quay wall of Ashur were\nstrengthened, and its great wall was entirely rebuilt, faced with a\nrampart of earth, and protected once again by a deep moat. The royal\npalace was enlarged and redecorated.\n\nMeanwhile Babylonia was wasted by civil war and invasions. It was\nentered more than once by the Aramaeans, who pillaged several cities\nin the north and the south. Then the throne was seized by\nAdad-aplu-iddina, the grandson of \"a nobody\", who reigned for about\nten years. He was given recognition, however, by the Assyrian king,\nAshur-bel-kala, son of Tiglath-pileser I, who married his daughter,\nand apparently restored to him Sippar and Babylon after receiving a\nhandsome dowry. Ashur-bel-kala died without issue, and was succeeded\nby his brother, Shamshi-Adad.\n\nAn obscure period followed. In Babylonia there were two weak dynasties\nin less than half a century, and thereafter an Elamite Dynasty which\nlasted about six years. An Eighth Dynasty ensued, and lasted between\nfifty and sixty years. The records of its early kings are exceedingly\nmeagre and their order uncertain. During the reign of Nabu-mukin-apli,\nwho was perhaps the fourth monarch, the Aramaeans constantly raided\nthe land and hovered about Babylon. The names of two or three kings\nwho succeeded Nabu-mukin-apli are unknown.\n\nA century and a half after Tiglath-pileser I conquered the north\nSyrian possessions of the Hittites, the Old Assyrian Empire reached\nthe close of its second and last period. It had suffered gradual\ndecline, under a series of inert and luxury-loving kings, until it was\nunable to withstand the gradual encroachment on every side of the\nrestless hill tribes, who were ever ready to revolt when the authority\nof Ashur was not asserted at the point of the sword.\n\nAfter 950 B.C. the Hittites of North Syria, having shaken off the last\nsemblance of Assyrian authority, revived their power, and enjoyed a\nfull century of independence and prosperity. In Cappadocia their\nkinsmen had freed themselves at an earlier period from the yoke of the\nMuski, who had suffered so severely at the hands of Tiglath-pileser I.\nThe Hittite buildings and rock sculptures of this period testify to\nthe enduring character of the ancient civilization of the \"Hatti\".\nUntil the hieroglyphics can be read, however, we must wait patiently\nfor the detailed story of the pre-Phrygian period, which was of great\nhistorical importance, because the tide of cultural influence was then\nflowing at its greatest volume from the old to the new world, where\nGreece was emerging in virgin splendour out of the ruins of the\nancient Mykenaean and Cretan civilizations.\n\nIt is possible that the conquest of a considerable part of Palestine\nby the Philistines was not unconnected with the revival of Hittite\npower in the north. They may have moved southward as the allies of the\nCilician State which was rising into prominence. For a period they\nwere the overlords of the Hebrews, who had been displacing the older\ninhabitants of the \"Promised Land\", and appear to have been armed with\nweapons of iron. In fact, as is indicated by a passage in the Book of\nSamuel, they had made a \"corner\" in that metal and restricted its use\namong their vassals. \"Now\", the Biblical narrative sets forth, \"there\nwas no smith found throughout all the land of Israel; for the\nPhilistines said, Lest the Hebrews make them swords and spears; but\nall the Israelites went down to the Philistines, to sharpen every man\nhis share, and his coulter, and his axe, and his mattock\".[420] \"We\nare inclined\", says Professor Macalister, \"to picture the West as a\nthing of yesterday, new fangled with its inventions and its\nprogressive civilization, and the East as an embodiment of hoary and\nunchanging traditions. But when West first met East on the shores of\nthe Holy Land, it was the former which represented the magnificent\ntraditions of the past, and the latter which looked forward to the\nfuture. The Philistines were of the remnant of the dying glories of\nCrete; the Hebrews had no past to speak of, but were entering on the\nheritage they regarded as theirs, by right of a recently ratified\ndivine covenant.\"[421]\n\nSaul was the leader of a revolt against the Philistines in northern\nPalestine, and became the ruler of the kingdom of Israel. Then David,\nhaving liberated Judah from the yoke of the Philistines, succeeded\nSaul as ruler of Israel, and selected Jerusalem as his capital. He\nalso conquered Edom and Moab, but was unsuccessful in his attempt to\nsubjugate Ammon. The Philistines were then confined to a restricted\narea on the seacoast, where they fused with the Semites and ultimately\nsuffered loss of identity. Under the famous Solomon the united kingdom\nof the Hebrews reached its highest splendour and importance among the\nnations.\n\nIf the Philistines received the support of the Hittites, the Hebrews\nwere strengthened by an alliance with Egypt. For a period of two and a\nhalf centuries no Egyptian army had crossed the Delta frontier into\nSyria. The ancient land of the Pharaohs had been overshadowed meantime\nby a cloud of anarchy, and piratical and robber bands settled freely\non its coast line. At length a Libyan general named Sheshonk (Shishak)\nseized the throne from the Tanite Dynasty. He was the Pharaoh with\nwhom Solomon \"made affinity\",[422] and from whom he received the city\nof Gezer, which an Egyptian army had captured.[423] Solomon had\npreviously married a daughter of Sheshonk's.\n\nPhoenicia was also flourishing. Freed from Egyptian, Hittite, and\nAssyrian interference, Tyre and Sidon attained to a high degree of\npower as independent city States. During the reigns of David and\nSolomon, Tyre was the predominant Phoenician power. Its kings, Abibaal\nand his son Hiram, had become \"Kings of the Sidonians\", and are\nbelieved to have extended their sway over part of Cyprus. The\nrelations between the Hebrews and the Phoenicians were of a cordial\ncharacter, indeed the two powers became allies.\n\n    And Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants unto Solomon; for he had\n    heard that they had anointed him king in the room of his father:\n    for Hiram was ever a lover of David. And Solomon sent to Hiram,\n    saying, Thou knowest how that David my father could not build an\n    house unto the name of the Lord His God for the wars which were\n    about him on every side, until the Lord put them under the soles\n    of his feet. But now the Lord my God hath given me rest on every\n    side, so that there is neither adversary nor evil occurrent. And,\n    behold, I purpose to build an house unto the name of the Lord my\n    God, as the Lord spake unto David my father, saying, Thy son, whom\n    I will set upon thy throne in thy room, he shall build an house\n    unto my name. Now therefore command thou that they hew me cedar\n    trees out of Lebanon; and my servants shall be with thy servants:\n    and unto thee will I give hire for thy servants according to all\n    that thou shalt appoint: for thou knowest that there is not among\n    us any that can skill to hew timber like unto the Sidonians. And\n    it came to pass, when Hiram heard the words of Solomon, that he\n    rejoiced greatly, and said, Blessed be the Lord this day, which\n    hath given unto David a wise son over this great people. And Hiram\n    sent to Solomon, saying, I have considered the things which thou\n    sentest to me for: and I will do all thy desire concerning timber\n    of cedar, and concerning timber of fir. My servants shall bring\n    them down from Lebanon unto the sea: and I will convey them by sea\n    in floats unto the place that thou shalt appoint me, and will\n    cause them to be discharged there, and thou shalt receive them:\n    and thou shalt accomplish my desire, in giving food for my\n    household. So Hiram gave Solomon cedar trees and fir trees\n    according to all his desire. And Solomon gave Hiram twenty\n    thousand measures of wheat for food to his household, and twenty\n    measures of pure oil: thus gave Solomon to Hiram year by year. And\n    the Lord gave Solomon wisdom, as he promised him: and there was\n    peace between Hiram and Solomon; and they two made a league\n    together.[424]\n\nHiram also sent skilled workers to Jerusalem to assist in the work of\nbuilding the temple and Solomon's palace, including his famous\nnamesake, \"a widow's son of the (Hebrew) tribe of Naphtali\", who, like\nhis father, \"a man of Tyre\", had \"understanding and cunning to work\nall works in brass\".[425]\n\nSolomon must have cultivated good relations with the Chaldaeans, for\nhe had a fleet of trading ships on the Persian Gulf which was manned\nby Phoenician sailors. \"Once in three years\", the narrative runs,\n\"came the navy of Tharshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and\napes, and peacocks.\"[426] Apparently he traded with India, the land of\npeacocks, during the Brahmanical period, when the Sanskrit name\n\"Samudra\", which formerly signified the \"collected waters\" of the\nbroadening Indus, was applied to the Indian Ocean.[427]\n\nThe Aramaeans of the Third Semitic migration were not slow to take\nadvantage of the weakness of Assyria and Babylon. They overran the\nwhole of Syria, and entered into the possession of Mesopotamia, thus\nacquiring full control of the trade routes towards the west. From time\nto time they ravaged Babylonia from the north to the south. Large\nnumbers of them acquired permanent settlement in that country, like\nthe Amorites of the Second Semitic migration in the pre-Hammurabi Age.\n\nIn Syria the Aramaeans established several petty States, and were\nbeginning to grow powerful at Damascus, an important trading centre,\nwhich assumed considerable political importance after the collapse of\nAssyria's Old Empire.\n\nAt this period, too, the Chaldaeans came into prominence in Babylonia.\nTheir kingdom of Chaldaea (Kaldu, which signifies Sealand) embraces a\nwide stretch of the coast land at the head of the Persian Gulf between\nArabia and Elam. As we have seen, an important dynasty flourished in\nthis region in the time of Hammurabi. Although more than one king of\nBabylon recorded that he had extinguished the Sealand Power, it\ncontinued to exist all through the Kassite period. It is possible that\nthis obscure kingdom embraced diverse ethnic elements, and that it was\ncontrolled in turn by military aristocracies of Sumerians, Elamites,\nKassites, and Arabians. After the downfall of the Kassites it had\nbecome thoroughly Semitized, perhaps as a result of the Aramaean\nmigration, which may have found one of its outlets around the head of\nthe Persian Gulf. The ancient Sumerian city of Ur, which dominated a\nconsiderable area of steppe land to the west of the Euphrates, was\nincluded in the Sealand kingdom, and was consequently referred to in\nafter-time as \"Ur of the Chaldees\".\n\nWhen Solomon reigned over Judah and Israel, Babylonia was broken up\ninto a number of petty States, as in early Sumerian times. The feudal\nrevival of Nebuchadrezzar I had weakened the central power, with the\nresult that the nominal high kings were less able to resist the\ninroads of invaders. Military aristocracies of Aramaeans, Elamites,\nand Chaldaeans held sway in various parts of the valley, and struggled\nfor supremacy.\n\nWhen Assyria began to assert itself again, it laid claim on Babylonia,\nostensibly as the protector of its independence, and the Chaldaeans\nfor a time made common cause with the Elamites against it. The future,\nhowever, lay with the Chaldaeans, who, like the Kassites, became the\nliberators of the ancient inhabitants. When Assyria was finally\nextinguished as a world power they revived the ancient glory of\nBabylonia, and supplanted the Sumerians as the scholars and teachers\nof Western Asia. The Chaldaeans became famous in Syria, and even in\nGreece, as \"the wise men from the east\", and were renowned as\nastrologers.\n\nThe prestige of the Hebrew kingdom suffered sharp and serious decline\nafter Solomon's death. Pharaoh Sheshonk fostered the elements of\nrevolt which ultimately separated Israel from Judah, and, when a\nfavourable opportunity arose, invaded Palestine and Syria and\nreestablished Egypt's suzerainty over part of the area which had been\nswayed by Rameses II, replenishing his exhausted treasury with rich\nbooty and the tribute he imposed. Phoenicia was able, however, to\nmaintain its independence, but before the Assyrians moved westward\nagain, Sidon had shaken off the yoke of Tyre and become an independent\nState.\n\nIt will be seen from the events outlined in this chapter how greatly\nthe history of the ancient world was affected by the periodic\nmigrations of pastoral folks from the steppe lands. These human tides\nwere irresistible. The direction of their flow might be diverted for a\ntime, but they ultimately overcame every obstacle by sheer persistency\nand overpowering volume. Great emperors in Assyria and Egypt\nendeavoured to protect their countries from the \"Bedouin peril\" by\nstrengthening their frontiers and extending their spheres of\ninfluence, but the dammed-up floods of humanity only gathered strength\nin the interval for the struggle which might be postponed but could\nnot be averted.\n\nThese migrations, as has been indicated, were due to natural causes.\nThey were propelled by climatic changes which caused a shortage of the\nfood supply, and by the rapid increase of population under peaceful\nconditions. Once a migration began to flow, it set in motion many\ncurrents and cross currents, but all these converged towards the\ndistricts which offered the most attractions to mankind. Prosperous\nand well-governed States were ever in peril of invasion by barbarous\npeoples. The fruits of civilization tempted them; the reward of\nconquest was quickly obtained in Babylon and Egypt with their\nflourishing farms and prosperous cities. Waste land was reclaimed then\nas now by colonists from centres of civilization; the migrating\npastoral folks lacked the initiative and experience necessary to\nestablish new communities in undeveloped districts. Highly civilized\nmen sowed the harvest and the barbarians reaped it.\n\nIt must not be concluded, however, that the migrations were historical\ndisasters, or that they retarded the general advancement of the human\nrace. In time the barbarians became civilized and fused with the\npeoples whom they conquered. They introduced, too, into communities\nwhich had grown stagnant and weakly, a fresh and invigorating\natmosphere that acted as a stimulant in every sphere of human\nactivity. The Kassite, for instance, was a unifying and therefore a\nstrengthening influence in Babylonia. He shook off the manacles of the\npast which bound the Sumerian and the Akkadian alike to traditional\nlines of policy based on unforgotten ancient rivalries. His concern\nwas chiefly with the future. The nomads with their experience of\ndesert wandering promoted trade, and the revival of trade inaugurated\nnew eras of prosperity in ancient centres of culture, and brought them\ninto closer touch than ever before with one another. The rise of\nGreece was due to the blending of the Achaeans and other pastoral\nfighting folks with the indigenous Pelasgians. Into the early States\nwhich fostered the elements of ancient Mykenaean civilization, poured\nthe cultural influences of the East through Asia Minor and Phoenicia\nand from the Egyptian coast. The conquerors from the steppes meanwhile\ncontributed their genius for organization, their simple and frugal\nhabits of life, and their sterling virtues; they left a deep impress\non the moral, physical, and intellectual life of Greece.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVII.\n\nTHE HEBREWS IN ASSYRIAN HISTORY\n\n\n  Revival of Assyrian Power--The Syro-Cappadocian Hittites--The\n  Aramaean State of Damascus--Reign of Terror in\n  Mesopotamia--Barbarities of Ashur-natsir-pal III--Babylonia and\n  Chaldaea subdued--Glimpse of the Kalkhi Valley--The Hebrew Kingdoms\n  of Judah and Israel--Rival Monarchs and their Wars--How Judah became\n  subject to Damascus--Ahab and the Phoenician Jezebel--Persecution of\n  Elijah and other Prophets--Israelites fight against\n  Assyrians--Shalmaneser as Overlord of Babylonia--Revolts of Jehu in\n  Israel and Hazael in Damascus--Shalmaneser defeats Hazael--Jehu\n  sends Tribute to Shalmaneser--Baal Worship Supplanted by Golden Calf\n  Worship in Israel--Queen Athaliah of Judah--Crowning of the Boy King\n  Joash--Damascus supreme in Syria and Palestine--Civil War in\n  Assyria--Triumphs of Shamshi-Adad VII--Babylonia becomes an Assyrian\n  Province.\n\n\nIn one of the Scottish versions of the Seven Sleepers legend a\nshepherd enters a cave, in which the great heroes of other days lie\nwrapped in magic slumber, and blows two blasts on the horn which hangs\nsuspended from the roof. The sleepers open their eyes and raise\nthemselves on their elbows. Then the shepherd hears a warning voice\nwhich comes and goes like the wind, saying: \"If the horn is blown once\nagain, the world will be upset altogether\". Terrified by the Voice and\nthe ferocious appearance of the heroes, the shepherd retreats\nhurriedly, locking the door behind him; he casts the key into the sea.\nThe story proceeds: \"If anyone should find the key and open the door,\nand blow but a single blast on the horn, Finn and all the Feans would\ncome forth. And that would be a great day in Alban.\"[428]\n\nAfter the lapse of an obscure century the national heroes of Assyria\nwere awakened as if from sleep by the repeated blasts from the horn of\nthe triumphant thunder god amidst the northern and western\nmountains--Adad or Rimmon of Syria, Teshup of Armenia, Tarku of the\nwestern Hittites. The great kings who came forth to \"upset the world\"\nbore the familiar names, Ashur-natsir-pal, Shalmaneser, Shamash-Adad,\nAshur-dan, Adad-nirari, and Ashur-nirari. They revived and increased\nthe ancient glory of Assyria during its Middle Empire period.\n\nThe Syro-Cappadocian Hittites had grown once again powerful and\nprosperous, but no great leader like Subbiluliuma arose to weld the\nvarious States into an Empire, so as to ensure the protection of the\nmingled peoples from the operations of the aggressive and ambitious\nwar-lords of Assyria. One kingdom had its capital at Hamath and\nanother at Carchemish on the Euphrates. The kingdom of Tabal\nflourished in Cilicia (Khilakku); it included several city States like\nTarsus, Tiana, and Comana (Kammanu). Farther west was the dominion of\nthe Thraco-Phrygian Muski. The tribes round the shores of Lake Van had\nasserted themselves and extended their sphere of influence. The State\nof Urartu was of growing importance, and the Nairi tribes had spread\nround the south-eastern shores of Lake Van. The northern frontier of\nAssyria was continually menaced by groups of independent hill States\nwhich would have been irresistible had they operated together against\na common enemy, but were liable to be extinguished when attacked in\ndetail.\n\nA number of Aramaean kingdoms had come into existence in Mesopotamia\nand throughout Syria. The most influential of these was the State of\nDamascus, the king of which was the overlord of the Hebrew kingdoms of\nIsrael and Judah when Ashur-natsir-pal III ascended the Assyrian\nthrone about 885 B.C. Groups of the Aramaeans had acquired a high\ndegree of culture and become traders and artisans. Large numbers had\nfiltered, as well, not only into Babylonia but also Assyria and the\nnorth Syrian area of Hittite control. Accustomed for generations to\ndesert warfare, they were fearless warriors. Their armies had great\nmobility, being composed mostly of mounted infantry, and were not\neasily overpowered by the Assyrian forces of footmen and charioteers.\nIndeed, it was not until cavalry was included in the standing army of\nAssyria that operations against the Aramaeans were attended with\npermanent success.\n\nAshur-natsir-pal III[429] was preceded by two vigorous Assyrian\nrulers, Adad-nirari III (911-890 B.C.) and Tukulti-Ninip II (890-885\nB.C). The former had raided North Syria and apparently penetrated as\nfar as the Mediterranean coast. In consequence he came into conflict\nwith Babylonia, but he ultimately formed an alliance with that\nkingdom. His son, Tukulti-Ninip, operated in southern Mesopotamia, and\napparently captured Sippar. In the north he had to drive back invading\nbands of the Muski. Although, like his father, he carried out great\nworks at Asshur, he appears to have transferred his Court to Nineveh,\na sure indication that Assyria was once again becoming powerful in\nnorthern Mesopotamia and the regions towards Armenia.\n\nAshur-natsir-pal III, son of Tukulti-Ninip II, inaugurated a veritable\nreign of terror in Mesopotamia and northern Syria. His methods of\ndealing with revolting tribes were of a most savage character. Chiefs\nwere skinned alive, and when he sacked their cities, not only\nfighting-men but women and children were either slaughtered or burned\nat the stake. It is not surprising to find therefore that, on more\nthan one occasion, the kings of petty States made submission to him\nwithout resistance as soon as he invaded their domains.\n\nIn his first year he overran the mountainous district between Lake Van\nand the upper sources of the Tigris. Bubu, the rebel son of the\ngovernor of Nishtun, who had been taken prisoner, was transported to\nArbela, where he was skinned alive. Like his father, Ashur-natsir-pal\nfought against the Muski, whose power was declining. Then he turned\nsouthward from the borders of Asia Minor and dealt with a rebellion in\nnorthern Mesopotamia.\n\nAn Aramaean pretender named Akhiababa had established himself at Suru\nin the region to the east of the Euphrates, enclosed by its\ntributaries the Khabar and the Balikh. He had come from the\nneighbouring Aramaean State of Bit-Adini, and was preparing, it would\nappear, to form a powerful confederacy against the Assyrians.\n\nWhen Ashur-natsir-pal approached Suru, a part of its population\nwelcomed him. He entered the city, seized the pretender and many of\nhis followers. These he disposed of with characteristic barbarity.\nSome were skinned alive and some impaled on stakes, while others were\nenclosed in a pillar which the king had erected to remind the\nAramaeans of his determination to brook no opposition. Akhiababa the\npretender was sent to Nineveh with a few supporters; and when they had\nbeen flayed their skins were nailed upon the city walls.\n\nAnother revolt broke out in the Kirkhi district between the upper\nreaches of the Tigris and the southwestern shores of Lake Van. It was\npromoted by the Nairi tribes, and even supported by some Assyrian\nofficials. Terrible reprisals were meted out to the rebels. When the\ncity of Kinabu was captured, no fewer than 3000 prisoners were burned\nalive, the unfaithful governor being flayed. The city of Damdamusa was\nset on fire. Then Tela was attacked. Ashur-natsir-pal's own account of\nthe operations runs as follows:--\n\n    The city (of Tello) was very strong; three walls surrounded it.\n    The inhabitants trusted to their strong walls and numerous\n    soldiers; they did not come down or embrace my feet. With battle\n    and slaughter I assaulted and took the city. Three thousand\n    warriors I slew in battle. Their booty and possessions, cattle,\n    sheep, I carried away; many captives I burned with fire. Many of\n    their soldiers I took alive; of some I cut off hands and limbs; of\n    others the noses, ears, and arms; of many soldiers I put out the\n    eyes. I reared a column of the living and a column of heads. I\n    hung on high their heads on trees in the vicinity of their city.\n    Their boys and girls I burned up in flames. I devastated the city,\n    dug it up, in fire burned it; I annihilated it.[430]\n\nThe Assyrian war-lord afterwards forced several Nairi kings to\nacknowledge him as their overlord. He was so greatly feared by the\nSyro-Cappadocian Hittites that when he approached their territory they\nsent him tribute, yielding without a struggle.\n\nFor several years the great conqueror engaged himself in thus subduing\nrebellious tribes and extending his territory. His military\nheadquarters were at Kalkhi, to which city the Court had been\ntransferred. Thither he drafted thousands of prisoners, the great\nmajority of whom he incorporated in the Assyrian army. Assyrian\ncolonies were established in various districts for strategical\npurposes, and officials supplanted the petty kings in certain of the\nnorthern city States.\n\nThe Aramaeans of Mesopotamia gave much trouble to Ashur-natsir-pal.\nAlthough he had laid a heavy hand on Suru, the southern tribes, the\nSukhi, stirred up revolts in Mesopotamia as the allies of the\nBabylonians. On one occasion Ashur-natsir-pal swept southward through\nthis region, and attacked a combined force of Sukhi Aramaeans and\nBabylonians. The Babylonians were commanded by Zabdanu, brother of\nNabu-aplu-iddin, king of Babylonia, who was evidently anxious to\nregain control of the western trade route. The Assyrian war-lord,\nhowever, proved to be too powerful a rival. He achieved so complete a\nvictory that he captured the Babylonian general and 3000 of his\nfollowers. The people of Kashshi (Babylonia) and Kaldu (Chaldaea) were\n\"stricken with terror\", and had to agree to pay increased tribute.\n\nAshur-natsir-pal reigned for about a quarter of a century, but his\nwars occupied less than half of that period. Having accumulated great\nbooty, he engaged himself, as soon as peace was secured throughout his\nempire, in rebuilding the city of Kalkhi, where he erected a great\npalace and made records of his achievements. He also extended and\nredecorated the royal palace at Nineveh, and devoted much attention to\nthe temples.\n\nTribute poured in from the subject States. The mountain and valley\ntribes in the north furnished in abundance wine and corn, sheep and\ncattle and horses, and from the Aramaeans of Mesopotamia and the\nSyro-Cappadocian Hittites came much silver and gold, copper and lead,\njewels and ivory, as well as richly decorated furniture, armour and\nweapons. Artists and artisans were also provided by the vassals of\nAssyria. There are traces of Phoenician influence in the art of this\nperiod.\n\nAshur-natsir-pal's great palace at Kalkhi was excavated by Layard, who\nhas given a vivid description of the verdant plain on which the\nancient city was situated, as it appeared in spring. \"Its pasture\nlands, known as the 'Jaif', are renowned\", he wrote, \"for their rich\nand luxuriant herbage. In times of quiet, the studs of the Pasha and\nof the Turkish authorities, with the horses of the cavalry and of the\ninhabitants of Mosul, are sent here to graze.... Flowers of every hue\nenamelled the meadows; not thinly scattered over the grass as in\nnorthern climes, but in such thick and gathering clusters that the\nwhole plain seemed a patchwork of many colours. The dogs, as they\nreturned from hunting, issued from the long grass dyed red, yellow, or\nblue, according to the flowers through which they had last forced\ntheir way.... In the evening, after the labour of the day, I often sat\nat the door of my tent, giving myself up to the full enjoyment of that\ncalm and repose which are imparted to the senses by such scenes as\nthese.... As the sun went down behind the low hills which separate the\nriver from the desert--even their rocky sides had struggled to emulate\nthe verdant clothing of the plain--its receding rays were gradually\nwithdrawn, like a transparent veil of light from the landscape. Over\nthe pure cloudless sky was the glow of the last light. In the distance\nand beyond the Zab, Keshaf, another venerable ruin, rose indistinctly\ninto the evening mist. Still more distant, and still more indistinct,\nwas a solitary hill overlooking the ancient city of Arbela. The\nKurdish mountains, whose snowy summits cherished the dying sunbeams,\nyet struggled with the twilight. The bleating of sheep and lowing of\ncattle, at first faint, became louder as the flocks returned from\ntheir pastures and wandered amongst the tents. Girls hurried over the\ngreensward to seek their fathers' cattle, or crouched down to milk\nthose which had returned alone to their well-remembered folds. Some\nwere coming from the river bearing the replenished pitcher on their\nheads or shoulders; others, no less graceful in their form, and erect\nin their carriage, were carrying the heavy loads of long grass which\nthey had cut in the meadows.\"[431]\n\nAcross the meadows so beautiful in March the great armies of\nAshur-natsir-pal returned with the booty of great campaigns--horses\nand cattle and sheep, bales of embroidered cloth, ivory and jewels,\nsilver and gold, the products of many countries; while thousands of\nprisoners were assembled there to rear stately buildings which\nultimately fell into decay and were buried by drifting sands.\n\nLayard excavated the emperor's palace and dispatched to London, among\nother treasures of antiquity, the sublime winged human-headed lions\nwhich guarded the entrance, and many bas reliefs.\n\nThe Assyrian sculptures of this period lack the technical skill, the\ndelicacy and imagination of Sumerian and Akkadian art, but they are\nfull of energy, dignified and massive, and strong and lifelike. They\nreflect the spirit of Assyria's greatness, which, however, had a\nmaterialistic basis. Assyrian art found expression in delineating the\noutward form rather than in striving to create a \"thing of beauty\"\nwhich is \"a joy for ever\".\n\nWhen Ashur-natsir-pal died, he was succeeded by his son Shalmaneser\nIII (860-825 B.C.), whose military activities extended over his whole\nreign. No fewer than thirty-two expeditions were recorded on his\nfamous black obelisk.\n\nAs Shalmaneser was the first Assyrian king who came into direct touch\nwith the Hebrews, it will be of interest here to review the history of\nthe divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah, as recorded in the Bible,\nbecause of the light it throws on international politics and the\nsituation which confronted Shalmaneser in Mesopotamia and Syria in the\nearly part of his reign.\n\nAfter Solomon died, the kingdom of his son Rehoboam was restricted to\nJudah, Benjamin, Moab, and Edom. The \"ten tribes\" of Israel had\nrevolted and were ruled over by Jeroboam, whose capital was at\nTirzah.[432] \"There were wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam\ncontinually.\"[433]\n\nThe religious organization which had united the Hebrews under David\nand Solomon was thus broken up. Jeroboam established the religion of\nthe Canaanites and made \"gods and molten images\". He was condemned for\nhis idolatry by the prophet Ahijah, who declared, \"The Lord shall\nsmite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water; and he shall root up\nIsrael out of this good land, which he gave to their fathers, and\nshall scatter them beyond the river, because they have made their\ngroves, provoking the Lord to anger. And he shall give Israel up\nbecause of the sins of Jeroboam, who did sin, and who made Israel to\nsin.\"[434]\n\nIn Judah Rehoboam similarly \"did evil in the sight of the Lord\"; his\nsubjects \"also built them high places and images and groves, on every\nhigh hill, and under every green tree\".[435] After the raid of the\nEgyptian Pharaoh Shishak (Sheshonk) Rehoboam repented, however. \"And\nwhen he humbled himself, the wrath of the Lord turned from him, that\nhe would not destroy him altogether: and also in Judah things went\nwell.\"[436]\n\nRehoboam was succeeded by his son Abijah, who shattered the power of\nJeroboam, defeating that monarch in battle after he was surrounded as\nRameses II had been by the Hittite army. \"The children of Israel fled\nbefore Judah: and God delivered them into their hand. And Abijah and\nhis people slew them with a great slaughter: so there fell down slain\nin Israel five hundred thousand chosen men. Thus the children of\nIsrael were brought under at that time, and the children of Judah\nprevailed, because they relied upon the Lord God of their fathers. And\nAbijah pursued after Jeroboam, and took cities from him, Bethel with\nthe towns thereof, and Jeshanah with the towns thereof, and Ephraim\nwith the towns thereof. Neither did Jeroboam recover strength again in\nthe days of Abijah, and the Lord struck him and he died.\"[437]\n\nEre Jeroboam died, however, \"Abijah slept with his fathers, and they\nburied him in the city of David: and Asa his son reigned in his stead.\nIn his days the land was quiet ten years. And Asa did that which was\ngood and right in the eyes of the Lord his God. For he took away the\naltars of the strange gods, and the high places, and brake down the\nimages, and cut down the groves. And commanded Judah to seek the Lord\nGod of their fathers and to do the law and the commandment. Also he\ntook away out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the\nimages: and the kingdom was quiet before him. And he built fenced\ncities in Judah: for the land had rest, and he had no war in those\nyears; because the Lord had given him rest.\"[438]\n\nJeroboam died in the second year of Asa's reign, and was succeeded by\nhis son Nadab, who \"did evil in the sight of the Lord, and walked in\nthe way of his father, and in his sin wherewith he made Israel to\nsin\".[439] Nadab waged war against the Philistines, and was besieging\nGibbethon when Baasha revolted and slew him. Thus ended the First\nDynasty of the Kingdom of Israel.\n\nBaasha was declared king, and proceeded to operate against Judah.\nHaving successfully waged war against Asa, he proceeded to fortify\nRamah, a few miles to the north of Jerusalem, \"that he might not\nsuffer any to go out or come in to Asa king of Judah\".[440]\n\nNow Israel was at this time one of the allies of the powerful Aramaean\nState of Damascus, which had resisted the advance of the Assyrian\narmies during the reign of Ashur-natsir-pal I, and apparently\nsupported the rebellions of the northern Mesopotamian kings. Judah was\nnominally subject to Egypt, which, however, was weakened by internal\ntroubles, and therefore unable either to assert its authority in Judah\nor help its king to resist the advance of the Israelites.\n\nIn the hour of peril Judah sought the aid of the king of Damascus.\n\"Asa took all the silver and the gold that were left in the treasures\nof the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king's house, and\ndelivered them into the hand of his servants: and King Asa sent them\nto Ben-hadad, the son of Tabrimon, the son of Hezion, king of Syria,\nthat dwelt at Damascus, saying, There is a league between me and thee,\nand between my father and thy father: behold, I have sent unto thee a\npresent of silver and gold: _come and break thy league with Baasha\nking of Israel, that he may depart from me_\".[441]\n\nBen-hadad accepted the invitation readily. He waged war against\nIsrael, and Baasha was compelled to abandon the building of the\nfortifications at Ramah. \"Then king Asa made a proclamation throughout\nall Judah; none was exempted: and they took away the stones of Ramah,\nand the timber thereof, wherewith Baasha had builded; and king Asa\nbuilt with them Geba of Benjamin, and Mizpah.\"[442]\n\nJudah and Israel thus became subject to Damascus, and had to recognize\nthe king of that city as arbiter in all their disputes.\n\nAfter reigning about twenty-four years, Baasha of Israel died in 886\nB.C. and was succeeded by his son Elah who came to the throne \"in the\ntwenty and sixth year of Asa\". He had ruled a little over a year when\nhe was murdered by \"his servant Zimri, captain of half his chariots\",\nwhile he was \"drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza steward of\nhis house in Tirzah\".[443] Thus ended the Second Dynasty of the\nKingdom of Israel.\n\nZimri's revolt was shortlived. He reigned only \"seven days in Tirzah\".\nThe army was \"encamped against Gibbethon, which belonged to the\nPhilistines. And the people that were encamped heard say, Zimri hath\nconspired and hath also slain the king; wherefore all Israel made\nOmri, the captain of the host, king over Israel that day in the camp.\nAnd Omri went up from Gibbethon and all Israel with him, and they\nbesieged Tirzah. And it came to pass when Zimri saw that the city was\ntaken, that he went into the palace of the king's house, and burnt the\nking's house over him with fire, and died.\"[444]\n\nOmri's claim to the throne was disputed by a rival named Tibni. \"But\nthe people that followed Omri prevailed against the people that\nfollowed Tibni, son of Ginath: so Tibni died, and Omri reigned.\"[445]\n\nOmri was the builder of Samaria, whither his Court was transferred\nfrom Tirzah towards the close of his six years reign. He was followed\nby his son Ahab, who ascended the throne \"in the thirty and eighth\nyear of Asa king of Judah.... And Ahab ... did evil in the sight of\nthe Lord above all that were before him.\" So notorious indeed were\nfather and son that the prophet Micah declared to the backsliders of\nhis day, \"For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the\nhouse of Ahab, and ye walk in their counsel; that I should make thee a\ndesolation, and the inhabitants thereof an hissing: therefore ye shall\nbear the reproach of my people\".[446]\n\nAhab was evidently an ally of Sidon as well as a vassal of Damascus,\nfor he married the notorious princess Jezebel, the daughter of the\nking of that city State. He also became a worshipper of the Phoenician\ngod Baal, to whom a temple had been erected in Samaria. \"And Ahab made\na grove; and Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger\nthan all the kings of Israel that were before him.\"[447] Obadiah, who\n\"feared the Lord greatly\", was the governor of Ahab's house, but the\noutspoken prophet Elijah, whose arch enemy was the notorious Queen\nJezebel, was an outcast like the hundred prophets concealed by Obadiah\nin two mountain caves.[448]\n\nAhab became so powerful a king that Ben-hadad II of Damascus picked a\nquarrel with him, and marched against Samaria. It was on this occasion\nthat Ahab sent the famous message to Ben-hadad: \"Let not him that\ngirdeth on his harness (armour) boast himself as he that putteth it\noff\". The Israelites issued forth from Samaria and scattered the\nattacking force. \"And Israel pursued them: and Ben-hadad the king of\nSyria escaped on a horse with the horseman. And the king of Israel\nwent out, and smote the horses and chariots, and slew the Syrians with\na great slaughter.\" Ben-hadad was made to believe afterwards by his\ncounsellors that he owed his defeat to the fact that the gods of\nIsrael were \"gods of the hills; therefore they are stronger than we\".\nThey added: \"Let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we\nshall be stronger than they\". In the following year Ben-hadad fought\nagainst the Israelites at Aphek, but was again defeated. He then found\nit necessary to make \"a covenant\" with Ahab.[449]\n\nIn 854 B.C. Shalmaneser III of Assyria was engaged in military\noperations against the Aramaean Syrians. Two years previously he had\nbroken the power of Akhuni, king of Bit-Adini in northern Mesopotamia,\nthe leader of a strong confederacy of petty States. Thereafter the\nAssyrian monarch turned towards the south-west and attacked the\nHittite State of Hamath and the Aramaean State of Damascus. The\nvarious rival kingdoms of Syria united against him, and an army of\n70,000 allies attempted to thwart his progress at Qarqar on the\nOrontes. Although Shalmaneser claimed a victory on this occasion, it\nwas of no great advantage to him, for he was unable to follow it up.\nAmong the Syrian allies were Bir-idri (Ben-hadad II) of Damascus, and\nAhab of Israel (\"Akhabbu of the land of the Sir'ilites\"). The latter\nhad a force of 10,000 men under his command.\n\nFour years after Ahab began to reign, Asa died at Jerusalem and his\nson Jehoshaphat was proclaimed king of Judah. \"And he walked in all\nthe ways of Asa his father; he turned not aside from it, doing that\nwhich was right in the eyes of the Lord: nevertheless the high places\nwere not taken away; for the people offered and burnt incense yet in\nthe high places.\"[450]\n\nThere is no record of any wars between Israel and Judah during this\nperiod, but it is evident that the two kingdoms had been drawn\ntogether and that Israel was the predominating power. Jehoshaphat\n\"joined affinity with Ahab\", and some years afterwards visited\nSamaria, where he was hospitably entertained.[451] The two monarchs\nplotted together. Apparently Israel and Judah desired to throw off the\nyoke of Damascus, which was being kept constantly on the defence by\nAssyria. It is recorded in the Bible that they joined forces and set\nout on an expedition to attack Ramoth in Gilead, which Israel claimed,\nand take it \"out of the hand of the king of Syria\".[452] In the battle\nwhich ensued (in 853 B.C.) Ahab was mortally wounded, \"and about the\ntime of the sun going down he died\". He was succeeded by his son\nAhaziah, who acknowledged the suzerainty of Damascus. After a reign of\ntwo years Ahaziah was succeeded by Joram.\n\nJehoshaphat did not again come into conflict with Damascus. He devoted\nhimself to the development of his kingdom, and attempted to revive the\nsea trade on the Persian gulf which had flourished under Solomon. \"He\nmade ships of Tharshish to go to Ophir for gold; but they went not;\nfor the ships were broken (wrecked) at Ezion-geber.\" Ahaziah offered\nhim sailors--probably Phoenicians--but they were refused.[453]\nApparently Jehoshaphat had close trading relations with the\nChaldaeans, who were encroaching on the territory of the king of\nBabylon, and menacing the power of that monarch. Jehoram succeeded\nJehoshaphat and reigned eight years.\n\nAfter repulsing the Syrian allies at Qarqar on the Orontes in 854\nB.C., Shalmaneser III of Assyria found it necessary to invade\nBabylonia. Soon after he came to the throne he had formed an alliance\nwith Nabu-aplu-iddin of that kingdom, and was thus able to operate in\nthe north-west without fear of complications with the rival claimant\nof Mesopotamia. When Nabu-aplu-iddin died, his two sons\nMarduk-zakir-shum and Marduk-bel-usate were rivals for the throne. The\nformer, the rightful heir, appealed for help to Shalmaneser, and that\nmonarch at once hastened to assert his authority in the southern\nkingdom. In 851 B.C. Marduk-bel-usate, who was supported by an Aram\u00e6an\narmy, was defeated and put to death.\n\nMarduk-zakir-shum afterwards reigned over Babylonia as the vassal of\nAssyria, and Shalmaneser, his overlord, made offerings to the gods at\nBabylon, Borsippa, and Cuthah. The Chald\u00e6ans were afterwards subdued,\nand compelled to pay annual tribute.\n\nIn the following year Shalmaneser had to lead an expedition into\nnorthern Mesopotamia and suppress a fresh revolt in that troubled\nregion. But the western allies soon gathered strength again, and in\n846 B.C. he found it necessary to return with a great army, but was\nnot successful in achieving any permanent success, although he put his\nenemies to flight. The various western kingdoms, including Damascus,\nIsrael, and Tyre and Sidon, remained unconquered, and continued to\nconspire against him.\n\nThe resisting power of the Syrian allies, however, was being greatly\nweakened by internal revolts, which may have been stirred up by\nAssyrian emissaries. Edom threw off the yoke of Judah and became\nindependent. Jehoram, who had married Athaliah, a royal princess of\nIsrael, was dead. His son Ahaziah, who succeeded him, joined forces\nwith his cousin and overlord, King Joram of Israel, to assist him in\ncapturing Ramoth-gilead from the king of Damascus. Joram took\npossession of the city, but was wounded, and returned to Jezreel to be\nhealed.[454] He was the last king of the Omri Dynasty of Israel. The\nprophet Elisha sent a messenger to Jehu, a military leader, who was at\nRamoth-gilead, with a box of oil and the ominous message, \"Thus saith\nthe Lord, I have anointed thee king over Israel. And thou shalt smite\nthe house of Ahab thy master, that I may avenge the blood of my\nservants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the Lord,\nat the hand of Jezebel.... And the dogs shall eat Jezebel in the\nportion of Jezreel, and there shall be none to bury her.\"\n\nJehu \"conspired against Joram\", and then, accompanied by an escort,\n\"rode in a chariot and went to Jezreel\", so that he might be the first\nto announce the revolt to the king whom he was to depose.\n\nThe watchman on the tower of Jezreel saw Jehu and his company\napproaching and informed Joram, who twice sent out a messenger to\nenquire, \"Is it peace?\" Neither messenger returned, and the watchman\ninformed the wounded monarch of Israel, \"He came even unto them, and\ncometh not again; and the driving is like the driving of Jehu the son\nof Nimshi; for he driveth furiously\".\n\nKing Joram went out himself to meet the famous charioteer, but turned\nto flee when he discovered that he came as an enemy. Then Jehu drew\nhis bow and shot Joram through the heart. Ahaziah endeavoured to\nconceal himself in Samaria, but was slain also. Jezebel was thrown\ndown from a window of the royal harem and trodden under foot by the\nhorsemen of Jehu; her body was devoured by dogs.[455]\n\nThe Syrian king against whom Joram fought at Ramoth-gilead was Hazael.\nHe had murdered Ben-hadad II as he lay on a bed of sickness by\nsmothering him with a thick cloth soaked in water. Then he had himself\nproclaimed the ruler of the Aramaean State of Damascus. The prophet\nElisha had previously wept before him, saying, \"I know the evil that\nthou wilt do unto the children of Israel; their strongholds wilt thou\nset on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and\nwilt dash their children and rip up their women with child\".[456]\n\nThe time seemed ripe for Assyrian conquest. In 843 B.C. Shalmaneser\nIII crossed the Euphrates into Syria for the sixteenth time. His first\nobjective was Aleppo, where he was welcomed. He made offerings there\nto Hadad, the local Thor, and then suddenly marched southward. Hazael\nwent out to oppose the advancing Assyrians, and came into conflict\nwith them in the vicinity of Mount Hermon. \"I fought with him\",\nShalmaneser recorded, \"and accomplished his defeat; I slew with the\nsword 1600 of his warriors and captured 1121 chariots and 470 horses.\nHe fled to save his life.\"\n\nHazael took refuge within the walls of Damascus, which the Assyrians\nbesieged, but failed, however, to capture. Shalmaneser's soldiers\nmeanwhile wasted and burned cities without number, and carried away\ngreat booty. \"In those days\", Shalmaneser recorded, \"I received\ntribute from the Tyrians and Sidonians and from Yaua (Jehu) son\n(successor) of Khumri (Omri).\" The following is a translation from a\nbas relief by Professor Pinches of a passage detailing Jehu's tribute:\n\n    The tribute of Yaua, son of Khumri: silver, gold, a golden cup,\n    golden vases, golden vessels, golden buckets, lead, a staff for\n    the hand of the king (and) sceptres, I received.[457]\n\nThe scholarly translator adds, \"It is noteworthy that the Assyrian\nform of the name, Yaua, shows that the unpronounced aleph at the end\nwas at that time sounded, so that the Hebrews must have called him\nYahua (Jehua)\".\n\nShalmaneser did not again attack Damascus. His sphere of influence was\ntherefore confined to North Syria. He found it more profitable,\nindeed, to extend his territories into Asia Minor. For several years\nhe engaged himself in securing control of the north-western caravan\nroad, and did not rest until he had subdued Cilicia and overrun the\nHittite kingdoms of Tabal and Malatia.\n\nHazael of Damascus avenged himself meanwhile on his unfaithful allies\nwho had so readily acknowledged the shadowy suzerainty of Assyria. \"In\nthose days the Lord began to cut Israel short: and Hazael smote them\nin all the coasts of Israel; from Jordan eastward, all the land of\nGilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Manassites, from\nAroer, which is by the river Arnon, even Gilead and Bashan.\"[458]\nIsrael thus came completely under the sway of Damascus.\n\nJehu appears to have cherished the ambition of uniting Israel and\nJudah under one crown. His revolt received the support of the orthodox\nHebrews, and he began well by inaugurating reforms in the northern\nkingdom with purpose apparently to re-establish the worship of David's\nGod. He persecuted the prophets of Baal, but soon became a backslider,\nfor although he stamped out the Phoenician religion he began to\nworship \"the golden calves that were in Bethel and that were in\nDan.... He departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, which made Israel\nto sin.\"[459] Apparently he found it necessary to secure the support\nof the idolators of the ancient cult of the \"Queen of Heaven\".\n\nThe crown of Judah had been seized by the Israelitish Queen mother\nAthaliah after the death of her son Ahaziah at the hands of Jehu.[460]\nShe endeavoured to destroy \"all the seed royal of the house of Judah\".\nBut another woman thwarted the completion of her monstrous design.\nThis was Jehoshabeath, sister of Ahaziah and wife of the priest\nJehoiada, who concealed the young prince Joash \"and put him and his\nnurse in a bedchamber\", in \"the house of God\". There Joash was\nstrictly guarded for six years.[461]\n\nIn time Jehoiada stirred up a revolt against the Baal-worshipping\nqueen of Judah. Having secured the support of the captains of the\nroyal guard and a portion of the army, he brought out from the temple\nthe seven years old prince Joash, \"the king's son, and put upon him\nthe crown, and gave him the testimony, and made him king. And Jehoiada\nand his sons anointed him, and said, God save the king.\n\n\"Now when Athaliah heard the noise of the people running and praising\nthe king, she came to the people into the house of the Lord: and she\nlooked, and, behold the king stood at his pillar at the entering in,\nand the princes and the trumpets by the king: and all the people of\nthe land rejoiced, and sounded with trumpets, also the singers with\ninstruments of musick, and such as taught to sing praise. Then\nAthaliah rent her clothes, and said, Treason, Treason.\n\n\"Then Jehoiada the priest brought out the captains of hundreds that\nwere set over the host, and said unto them, Have her forth of the\nranges: and whoso followeth her, let him be slain by the sword. For\nthe priest said, Slay her not in the house of the Lord. So they laid\nhands on her; and when she was come to the entering of the horse gate\nby the king's house, they slew her there.\n\n\"And Jehoiada made a covenant between him, and between all the people,\nand between the king, that they should be the Lord's people. Then all\nthe people went to the house of Baal, and brake it down, and brake his\naltars and his images in pieces, and slew Mattan the priest of Baal\nbefore the altars.\"[462]\n\nWhen Jehu of Israel died, he was succeeded by Jehoahaz. \"The Lord was\nkindled against Israel, and he delivered them into the hand of\nBen-hadad the son of Hazael all their days.\" Then Jehoahaz repented.\nHe \"besought the Lord, and the Lord hearkened unto him: for he saw the\noppression of Israel, because the king of Syria oppressed them. And\nthe Lord gave Israel a saviour, so that they went out from under the\nhands of the Syrians.\"[463] The \"saviour\", as will be shown, was\nAssyria. Not only Israel, but Judah, under King Joash, Edom, the\nPhilistines and the Ammonites were compelled to acknowledge the\nsuzerainty of Damascus.\n\nShalmaneser III swayed an extensive and powerful empire, and kept his\ngenerals continually employed suppressing revolts on his frontiers.\nAfter he subdued the Hittites, Kati, king of Tabal, sent him his\ndaughter, who was received into the royal harem. Tribes of the Medes\ncame under his power: the Nairi and Urartian tribes continued battling\nwith his soldiers on his northern borders like the frontier tribes of\nIndia against the British troops. The kingdom of Urartu was growing\nmore and more powerful.\n\nIn 829 B.C. the great empire was suddenly shaken to its foundations by\nthe outbreak of civil war. The party of rebellion was led by\nShalmaneser's son Ashur-danin-apli, who evidently desired to supplant\nthe crown prince Shamshi-Adad. He was a popular hero and received the\nsupport of most of the important Assyrian cities, including Nineveh,\nAsshur, Arbela, Imgurbel, and Dur-balat, as well as some of the\ndependencies. Shalmaneser retained Kalkhi and the provinces of\nnorthern Mesopotamia, and it appears that the greater part of the army\nalso remained loyal to him.\n\nAfter four years of civil war Shalmaneser died. His chosen heir,\nShamshi-Adad VII, had to continue the struggle for the throne for two\nmore years.\n\nWhen at length the new king had stamped out the last embers of revolt\nwithin the kingdom, he had to undertake the reconquest of those\nprovinces which in the interval had thrown off their allegiance to\nAssyria. Urartu in the north had grown more aggressive, the Syrians\nwere openly defiant, the Medes were conducting bold raids, and the\nBabylonians were plotting with the Chaldaeans, Elamites, and Aramaeans\nto oppose the new ruler. Shamshi-Adad, however, proved to be as great\na general as his father. He subdued the Medes and the Nairi tribes,\nburned many cities and collected enormous tribute, while thousands of\nprisoners were taken and forced to serve the conqueror.\n\nHaving established his power in the north, Shamshi-Adad then turned\nattention to Babylonia. On his way southward he subdued many villages.\nHe fell upon the first strong force of Babylonian allies at\nDur-papsukal in Akkad, and achieved a great victory, killing 13,000\nand taking 3000 captives. Then the Babylonian king,\nMarduk-balatsu-ikbi, advanced to meet him with his mixed force of\nBabylonians, Chaldaeans, Elamites, and Aramaeans, but was defeated in\na fierce battle on the banks of the Daban canal. The Babylonian camp\nwas captured, and the prisoners taken by the Assyrians included 5000\nfootmen, 200 horsemen, and 100 chariots\n\nShamshi-Adad conducted in all five campaigns in Babylonia and\nChaldaea, which he completely subdued, penetrating as far as the\nshores of the Persian Gulf. In the end he took prisoner the new king,\nBau-akh-iddina, the successor of Marduk-balatsu-ikbi, and transported\nhim to Assyria, and offered up sacrifices as the overlord of the\nancient land at Babylon, Borsippa, and Cuthah. For over half a century\nafter this disaster Babylonia was a province of Assyria. During that\nperiod, however, the influence which it exercised over the Assyrian\nCourt was so great that it contributed to the downfall of the royal\nline of the Second Empire.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVIII.\n\nTHE AGE OF SEMIRAMIS\n\n\n  Queen Sammu-rammat the original of Semiramis--\"Mother-right\" among\n  \"Mother Worshippers\"--Sammu-rammat compared to Queen Tiy--Popularity\n  of Goddess Cults--Temple Worship and Domestic Worship--Babylonian\n  Cultural Influence in Assyria--Ethical Tendency in Shamash\n  Worship--The Nebo Religious Revolt--Aton Revolt in Egypt--The Royal\n  Assyrian Library--Fish Goddess of Babylonia in Assyria--The\n  Semiramis and Shakuntala Stories--The Mock King and Queen--Dove\n  Goddesses of Assyria, Phoenicia, and Cyprus--Ishtar's Dove Form--St.\n  Valentine's Day beliefs--Sacred Doves of Cretans, Hittites, and\n  Egyptians--Pigeon Lore in Great Britain and Ireland--Deities\n  associated with various Animals--The Totemic Theory--Common Element\n  in Ancient Goddess Cults--Influence of Agricultural Beliefs--Nebo a\n  form of Ea--His Spouse Tashmit a Love Goddess and\n  Interceder--Traditions of Famous Mother Deities--Adad-nirari IV the\n  \"Saviour\" of Israel--Expansion of the Urartian Empire--Its Famous\n  Kings--Decline and Fall of Assyria's Middle Empire Dynasty.\n\n\nOne of the most interesting figures in Mesopotamian history came into\nprominence during the Assyrian Middle Empire period. This was the\nfamous Sammu-rammat, the Babylonian wife of an Assyrian ruler. Like\nSargon of Akkad, Alexander the Great, and Dietrich von Bern, she made,\nby reason of her achievements and influence, a deep impression on the\npopular imagination, and as these monarchs became identified in\ntradition with gods of war and fertility, she had attached to her\nmemory the myths associated with the mother goddess of love and battle\nwho presided over the destinies of mankind. In her character as the\nlegendary Semiramis of Greek literature, the Assyrian queen was\nreputed to have been the daughter of Derceto, the dove and fish\ngoddess of Askalon, and to have departed from earth in bird form.\n\nIt is not quite certain whether Sammu-rammat was the wife of\nShamshi-Adad VII or of his son, Adad-nirari IV. Before the former\nmonarch reduced Babylonia to the status of an Assyrian province, he\nhad signed a treaty of peace with its king, and it is suggested that\nit was confirmed by a matrimonial alliance. This treaty was repudiated\nby King Bau-akh-iddina, who was transported with his palace treasures\nto Assyria.\n\nAs Sammu-rammat was evidently a royal princess of Babylonia, it seems\nprobable that her marriage was arranged with purpose to legitimatize\nthe succession of the Assyrian overlords to the Babylonian throne. The\nprinciple of \"mother right\" was ever popular in those countries where\nthe worship of the Great Mother was perpetuated if not in official at\nany rate in domestic religion. Not a few Egyptian Pharaohs reigned as\nhusbands or as sons of royal ladies. Succession by the female line was\nalso observed among the Hittites. When Hattusil II gave his daughter\nin marriage to Putakhi, king of the Amorites, he inserted a clause in\nthe treaty of alliance \"to the effect that the sovereignty over the\nAmorite should belong to the son and descendants of his daughter for\nevermore\".[464]\n\nAs queen or queen-mother, Sammu-rammat occupied as prominent a\nposition in Assyria as did Queen Tiy of Egypt during the lifetime of\nher husband, Amenhotep III, and the early part of the reign of her\nson, Amenhotep IV (Akhenaton). The Tell-el-Amarna letters testify to\nTiy's influence in the Egyptian \"Foreign Office\", and we know that at\nhome she was joint ruler with her husband and took part with him in\npublic ceremonials. During their reign a temple was erected to the\nmother goddess Mut, and beside it was formed a great lake on which\nsailed the \"barque of Aton\" in connection with mysterious religious\nceremonials. After Akhenaton's religious revolt was inaugurated, the\nworship of Mut was discontinued and Tiy went into retirement. In\nAkhenaton's time the vulture symbol of the goddess Mut did not appear\nabove the sculptured figures of royalty.\n\nWhat connection the god Aton had with Mut during the period of the Tiy\nregime remains obscure. There is no evidence that Aton was first\nexalted as the son of the Great Mother goddess, although this is not\nimprobable.\n\nQueen Sammu-rammat of Assyria, like Tiy of Egypt, is associated with\nsocial and religious innovations. She was the first, and, indeed, the\nonly Assyrian royal lady, to be referred to on equal terms with her\nroyal husband in official inscriptions. In a dedication to the god\nNebo, that deity is reputed to be the protector of \"the life of\nAdad-nirari, king of the land of Ashur, his lord, and the life of\nSammu-rammat, she of the palace, his lady\".[465]\n\nDuring the reign of Adad-nirari IV the Assyrian Court radiated\nBabylonian culture and traditions. The king not only recorded his\ndescent from the first Shalmaneser, but also claimed to be a\ndescendant of Bel-kap-kapu, an earlier, but, to us, unknown,\nBabylonian monarch than \"Sulili\", i.e. Sumu-la-ilu, the\ngreat-great-grandfather of Hammurabi. Bel-kap-kapu was reputed to have\nbeen an overlord of Assyria.\n\nApparently Adad-nirari desired to be regarded as the legitimate heir\nto the thrones of Assyria and Babylonia. His claim upon the latter\ncountry must have had a substantial basis. It is not too much to\nassume that he was a son of a princess of its ancient royal family.\nSammurammat may therefore have been his mother. She could have been\ncalled his \"wife\" in the mythological sense, the king having become\n\"husband of his mother\". If such was the case, the royal pair probably\nposed as the high priest and high priestess of the ancient goddess\ncult--the incarnations of the Great Mother and the son who displaced\nhis sire.\n\nThe worship of the Great Mother was the popular religion of the\nindigenous peoples of western Asia, including parts of Asia Minor,\nEgypt, and southern and western Europe. It appears to have been\nclosely associated with agricultural rites practised among\nrepresentative communities of the Mediterranean race. In Babylonia and\nAssyria the peoples of the goddess cult fused with the peoples of the\ngod cult, but the prominence maintained by Ishtar, who absorbed many\nof the old mother deities, testifies to the persistence of immemorial\nhabits of thought and antique religious ceremonials among the\ndescendants of the earliest settlers in the Tigro-Euphrates valley.\nMerodach's spouse Zerpanitu^m was not a shadowy deity but a goddess\nwho exercised as much influence as her divine husband. As Aruru she\ntook part with him in the creation of mankind. In Asia Minor the\nmother goddess was overshadowed by the father god during the period of\nHatti predominance, but her worship was revived after the early people\nalong the coast and in the agricultural valleys were freed from the\nyoke of the father-god worshippers.\n\nIt must be recognized, in this connection, that an official religion\nwas not always a full reflection of popular beliefs. In all the great\ncivilizations of antiquity it was invariably a compromise between the\nbeliefs of the military aristocracy and the masses of mingled peoples\nover whom they held sway. Temple worship had therefore a political\naspect; it was intended, among other things, to strengthen the\nposition of the ruling classes. But ancient deities could still be\nworshipped, and were worshipped, in homes and fields, in groves and on\nmountain tops, as the case might be. Jeremiah has testified to the\npersistence of the folk practices in connection with the worship of\nthe mother goddess among the inhabitants of Palestine. Sacrificial\nfires were lit and cakes were baked and offered to the \"Queen of\nHeaven\" in the streets of Jerusalem and other cities. In Babylonia and\nEgypt domestic religious practices were never completely supplanted by\ntemple ceremonies in which rulers took a prominent part. It was always\npossible, therefore, for usurpers to make popular appeal by reviving\nancient and persistent forms of worship. As we have seen, Jehu of\nIsrael, after stamping out Phoenician Baal worship, secured a strong\nfollowing by giving official recognition to the cult of the golden\ncalf.\n\nIt is not possible to set forth in detail, or with intimate knowledge,\nthe various innovations which Sammu-rammat introduced, or with which\nshe was credited, during the reigns of Adad-nirari IV (810-782 B.C.)\nand his father. No discovery has been made of documents like the\nTell-el-Amarna \"letters\", which would shed light on the social and\npolitical life of this interesting period. But evidence is not\nawanting that Assyria was being suffused with Babylonian culture.\nRoyal inscriptions record the triumphs of the army, but suppress the\ndetails of barbarities such as those which sully the annals of\nAshur-natsir-pal, who had boys and girls burned on pyres and the\nheroes of small nations flayed alive. An ethical tendency becomes\napparent in the exaltation of the Babylonian Shamash as an abstract\ndeity who loved law and order, inspired the king with wisdom and\nordained the destinies of mankind. He is invoked on equal terms with\nAshur.\n\nThe prominence given to Nebo, the god of Borsippa, during the reign of\nAdad-nirari IV is highly significant. He appears in his later\ncharacter as a god of culture and wisdom, the patron of scribes and\nartists, and the wise counsellor of the deities. He symbolized the\nintellectual life of the southern kingdom, which was more closely\nassociated with religious ethics than that of war-loving Assyria.\n\nA great temple was erected to Nebo at Kalkhi, and four statues of him\nwere placed within it, two of which are now in the British Museum. On\none of these was cut the inscription, from which we have quoted,\nlauding the exalted and wise deity and invoking him to protect\nAdad-nirari and the lady of the palace, Sammu-rammat, and closing with\nthe exhortation, \"Whoso cometh in after time, let him trust in Nebo\nand trust in no other god\".\n\nThe priests of Ashur in the city of Asshur must have been as deeply\nstirred by this religious revolt at Kalkhi as were the priests of Amon\nwhen Akhenaton turned his back on Thebes and the national god to\nworship Aton in his new capital at Tell-el-Amarna.\n\nIt would appear that this sudden stream of Babylonian culture had\nbegun to flow into Assyria as early as the reign of Shalmaneser III,\nand it may be that it was on account of that monarch's pro-Babylonian\ntendencies that his nobles and priests revolted against him.\nShalmaneser established at Kalkhi a royal library which was stocked\nwith the literature of the southern kingdom. During the reign of\nAdad-nirari IV this collection was greatly increased, and subsequent\nadditions were made to it by his successors, and especially\nAshur-nirari IV, the last monarch of the Middle Empire. The\ninscriptions of Shamshi-Adad, son of Shalmaneser III, have literary\nqualities which distinguish them from those of his predecessors, and\nmay be accounted for by the influence exercised by Babylonian scholars\nwho migrated northward.\n\nTo the reign of Adad-nirari belongs also that important compilation\nthe \"Synchronistic History of Assyria and Babylonia\", which deals with\nthe relations of the two kingdoms and refers to contemporary events\nand rulers.\n\nThe legends of Semiramis indicate that Sammu-rammat was associated\nlike Queen Tiy with the revival of mother worship. As we have said,\nshe went down to tradition as the daughter of the fish goddess,\nDerceto. Pliny identified that deity with Atargatis of\nHierapolis.[466]\n\nIn Babylonia the fish goddess was Nina, a developed form of Damkina,\nspouse of Ea of Eridu. In the inscription on the Nebo statue, that god\nis referred to as the \"son of Nudimmud\" (Ea). Nina was the goddess who\ngave her name to Nineveh, and it is possible that Nebo may have been\nregarded as her son during the Semiramis period.\n\nThe story of Semiramis's birth is evidently of great antiquity. It\nseems to survive throughout Europe in the nursery tale of the \"Babes\nin the Wood\". A striking Indian parallel is afforded by the legend of\nShakuntala, which may be first referred to for the purpose of\ncomparative study. Shakuntala was the daughter of the rishi,\nViswamitra, and Menaka, the Apsara (celestial fairy). Menaka gave\nbirth to her child beside the sacred river Malini. \"And she cast the\nnew-born infant on the bank of that river and went away. And beholding\nthe newborn infant lying in that forest destitute of human beings but\nabounding with lions and tigers, a number of vultures sat around to\nprotect it from harm.\" A sage discovered the child and adopted her.\n\"Because\", he said, \"she was surrounded by _Shakuntas_ (birds),\ntherefore hath she been named by me _Shakuntala_ (bird\nprotected).\"[467]\n\nSemiramis was similarly deserted at birth by her Celestial mother. She\nwas protected by doves, and her Assyrian name, Sammu-rammat, is\nbelieved to be derived from \"Summat\"--\"dove\", and to signify \"the dove\ngoddess loveth her\". Simmas, the chief of royal shepherds, found the\nchild and adopted her. She was of great beauty like Shakuntala, the\nmaiden of \"perfect symmetry\", \"sweet smiles\", and \"faultless\nfeatures\", with whom King Dushyanta fell in love and married in\nGandharva fashion.[468]\n\nSemiramis became the wife of Onnes, governor of Nineveh, and one of\nthe generals of its alleged founder, King Ninus. She accompanied her\nhusband to Bactria on a military campaign, and is said to have\ninstructed the king how that city should be taken. Ninus fell in love\nwith Semiramis, and Onnes, who refused to give her up, went and hanged\nhimself. The fair courtesan then became the wife of the king.\n\nThe story proceeds that Semiramis exercised so great an influence over\nthe impressionable King Ninus, that she persuaded him to proclaim her\nQueen of Assyria for five days. She then ascended the throne decked in\nroyal robes. On the first day she gave a great banquet, and on the\nsecond thrust Ninus into prison, or had him put to death. In this\nmanner she secured the empire for herself. She reigned for over forty\nyears.\n\nProfessor Frazer inclines to the view that the legend is a\nreminiscence of the custom of appointing a mock king and queen to whom\nthe kingdom was yielded up for five days. Semiramis played the part of\nthe mother goddess, and the priestly king died a violent death in the\ncharacter of her divine lover. \"The mounds of Semiramis which were\npointed out all over Western Asia were said to have been the graves of\nher lovers whom she buried alive.... This tradition is one of the\nsurest indications of the identity of the mythical Semiramis with the\nBabylonian goddess Ishtar or Astarte.\"[469] As we have seen, Ishtar\nand other mother goddesses had many lovers whom they deserted like La\nBelle Dame sans Merci (pp. 174-175).\n\nAs Queen of Assyria, Semiramis was said to have cut roads through\nmountainous districts and erected many buildings. According to one\nversion of the legend she founded the city of Babylon. Herodotus,\nhowever, says in this connection: \"Semiramis held the throne for five\ngenerations before the later princess (Nitocris).... She raised\ncertain embankments, well worthy of inspection, in the plain near\nBabylon, to control the river (Euphrates), which, till then, used to\noverflow and flood the whole country round about.\"[470] Lucian, who\nassociates the famous queen with \"mighty works in Asia\", states that\nshe was reputed by some to be the builder of the ancient temple of\nAphrodite in the Libanus, although others credited it to Cinyras, or\nDeukalion.[471] Several Median places bear her name, and according to\nancient Armenian tradition she was the founder of Van, which was\nformerly called \"Shamiramagerd\". Strabo tells that unidentified\nmountains in Western Asia were named after Semiramis.[472] Indeed,\nmany of the great works in the Tigro-Euphrates valley, not excepting\nthe famous inscription of Darius, were credited to the legendary queen\nof Babylonia and Assyria.[473] She was the rival in tradition of the\nfamous Sesostris of Egypt as a ruler, builder, and conqueror.\n\nAll the military expeditions of Semiramis were attended with success,\nexcept her invasion of India. She was supposed to have been defeated\nin the Punjab. After suffering this disaster she died, or abdicated\nthe throne in favour of her son Ninyas. The most archaic form of the\nlegend appears to be that she was turned into a dove and took flight\nto heaven in that form. After her death she was worshipped as a dove\ngoddess like \"Our Lady of Trees and Doves\" in Cyprus, whose shrine at\nold Paphos was founded, Herodotus says, by Phoenician colonists from\nAskalon.[474] Fish and doves were sacred to Derceto (Attar),[475] who\nhad a mermaid form. \"I have beheld\", says Lucian, \"the image of\nDerceto in Phoenicia. A marvellous spectacle it is. One half is a\nwoman, but the part which extends from thighs to feet terminates with\nthe tail of a fish.\"[476]\n\nDerceto was supposed to have been a woman who threw herself in despair\ninto a lake. After death she was adored as a goddess and her\nworshippers abstained from eating fish, except sacrificially. A golden\nimage of a fish was suspended in her temple. Atargatis, who was\nidentical with Derceto, was reputed in another form of the legend to\nhave been born of an egg which the sacred fishes found in the\nEuphrates and thrust ashore (p. 28). The Greek Aphrodite was born of\nthe froth of the sea and floated in a sea-shell. According to Hesiod,\n\n          The wafting waves\n    First bore her to Cythera the divine:\n    To wave-encircled Cyprus came she then,\n    And forth emerged, a goddess, in the charms\n    Of awful beauty. Where her delicate feet\n    Had pressed the sands, green herbage flowering sprang.\n    Her Aphrodite gods and mortals name,\n    The foam-born goddess; and her name is known\n    As Cytherea with the blooming wreath,\n    For that she touched Cythera's flowery coast;\n    And Cypris, for that on the Cyprian shore\n    She rose, amid the multitude of waves. _Elton's translation_.\n\nThe animals sacred to Aphrodite included the sparrow, the dove, the\nswan, the swallow, and the wryneck.[477] She presided over the month\nof April, and the myrtle, rose, poppy, and apple were sacred to her.\n\nSome writers connect Semiramis, in her character as a dove goddess,\nwith Media and the old Persian mother goddess Anaitis, and regard as\narbitrary her identification with the fish goddess Derceto or\nAtargatis. The dove was certainly not a popular bird in the religious\nart of Babylonia and Assyria, but in one of the hymns translated by\nProfessor Pinches Ishtar says, \"Like a lonely dove I rest\". In another\nthe worshipper tries to touch Ishtar's heart by crying, \"Like the dove\nI moan\". A Sumerian psalmist makes a goddess (Gula, who presided over\nLarak, a part of Isin) lament over the city after it was captured by\nthe enemy:\n\n    My temple E-aste, temple of Larak,\n    Larak the city which Bel Enlil gave,\n    Beneath are turned to strangeness, above are turned to\n        strangeness,\n    With wailings on the lyre my dwelling-place is surrendered to the\n        stranger,\n    _The dove cots they wickedly seized, the doves they entrapped_....\n    The ravens he (Enlil) caused to fly.[478]\n\nApparently there were temple and household doves in Babylonia. The\nEgyptians had their household dovecots in ancient as in modern times.\nLane makes reference to the large pigeon houses in many villages. They\nare of archaic pattern, \"with the walls slightly inclining inwards\n(like many of the ancient Egyptian buildings)\", and are \"constructed\nupon the roofs of the huts with crude brick, pottery, and mud.... Each\npair of pigeons occupies a separate (earthen) pot.\"[479] It may be\nthat the dove bulked more prominently in domestic than in official\nreligion, and had a special seasonal significance. Ishtar appears to\nhave had a dove form. In the Gilgamesh epic she is said to have loved\nthe \"brilliant Allalu bird\" (the \"bright-coloured wood pigeon\",\naccording to Sayce), and to have afterwards wounded it by breaking its\nwings.[480] She also loved the lion and the horse, and must therefore\nhave assumed the forms of these animals. The goddess Bau, \"she whose\ncity is destroyed\", laments in a Sumerian psalm:\n\n    Like a dove to its dwelling-place, how long to my dwelling-place\n        will they pursue me,\n    To my sanctuary ... the sacred place they pursue me....\n    My resting place, the brick walls of my city Isin, thou art\n        destroyed;\n    My sanctuary, shrine of my temple Galmah, thou art destroyed.\n\n            _Langdon's translation._\n\nHere the goddess appears to be identified with the doves which rest on\nthe walls and make their nests in the shrine. The Sumerian poets did\nnot adorn their poems with meaningless picturesque imagery; their\nimages were stern facts; they had a magical or religious significance\nlike the imagery of magical incantations; the worshipper invoked the\ndeity by naming his or her various attributes, forms, &c.\n\nOf special interest are the references in Sumerian psalms to the\nravens as well as the doves of goddesses. Throughout Asia and Europe\nravens are birds of ill omen. In Scotland there still linger curious\nfolk beliefs regarding the appearance of ravens and doves after death.\nMichael Scott, the great magician, when on his deathbed told his\nfriends to place his body on a hillock. \"Three ravens and three doves\nwould be seen flying towards it. If the ravens were first the body was\nto be burned, but if the doves were first it was to receive Christian\nburial. The ravens were foremost, but in their hurry flew beyond their\nmark. So the devil, who had long been preparing a bed for Michael, was\ndisappointed.\"[481]\n\nIn Indian mythology Purusha, the chaos giant, first divided himself.\n\"Hence were husband and wife produced.\" This couple then assumed\nvarious animal forms and thus \"created every living pair whatsoever\ndown to the ants\".[482] Goddesses and fairies in the folk tales of\nmany countries sometimes assume bird forms. The \"Fates\" appear to\nDamayanti in the Nala story as swans which carry love messages.[483]\n\nAccording to Aryo-Indian belief, birds were \"blessed with fecundity\".\nThe Babylonian Etana eagle and the Egyptian vulture, as has been\nindicated, were deities of fertility. Throughout Europe birds, which\nwere \"Fates\", mated, according to popular belief, on St. Valentine's\nDay in February, when lots were drawn for wives by rural folks.\nAnother form of the old custom is referred to by the poet Gay:--\n\n    Last Valentine, the day when birds of kind\n    Their paramours with mutual chirpings find,\n    I early rose....\n    Thee first I spied, and the first swain we see,\n    In spite of fortune, shall our true love be.\n\nThe dove appears to have been a sacred bird in various areas occupied\nby tribes of the Mediterranean race. Models of a shrine found in two\nroyal graves at Mycenae are surmounted by a pair of doves, suggesting\ntwin goddesses like Isis and Nepthys of Egypt and Ishtar and\nBelitsheri of Babylonia. Doves and snakes were associated with the\nmother goddess of Crete, \"typifying\", according to one view, \"her\nconnection with air and earth. Although her character was distinctly\nbeneficent and pacific, yet as Lady of the Wild Creatures she had a\nmore fearful aspect, one that was often depicted on carved gems, where\nlions are her companions.\"[484] Discussing the attributes and symbols\nof this mother goddess, Professor Burrows says: \"As the serpent,\ncoming from the crevices of the earth, shows the possession of the\ntree or pillar from the underworld, so the dove, with which this\ngoddess is also associated, shows its possession from the world of the\nsky\".[485] Professor Robertson Smith has demonstrated that the dove\nwas of great sanctity among the Semites.[486] It figures in Hittite\nsculptures and was probably connected with the goddess cult in Asia\nMinor. Although Egypt had no dove goddess, the bird was addressed by\nlovers--\n\n    I hear thy voice, O turtle dove--\n      The dawn is all aglow--\n    Weary am I with love, with love,\n      Oh, whither shall I go?[487]\n\nPigeons, as indicated, are in Egypt still regarded as sacred birds,\nand a few years ago British soldiers created a riot by shooting them.\nDoves were connected with the ancient Greek oracle at Dodona. In many\ncountries the dove is closely associated with love, and also\nsymbolizes innocence, gentleness, and holiness.\n\nThe pigeon was anciently, it would appear, a sacred bird in these\nislands, and Brand has recorded curious folk beliefs connected with\nit. In some districts the idea prevailed that no person could die on a\nbed which contained pigeon feathers: \"If anybody be sick and lye a\ndying, if they lye upon pigeon feathers they will be languishing and\nnever die, but be in pain and torment,\" wrote a correspondent. A\nsimilar superstition about the feathers of different varieties of wild\nfowl[488] obtained in other districts. Brand traced this interesting\ntraditional belief in Yorkshire, Lancashire, Derbyshire, and some of\nthe Welsh and Irish counties.[489] It still lingers in parts of the\nScottish Highlands. In the old ballad of \"The Bloody Gardener\" the\nwhite dove appears to a young man as the soul of his lady love who was\nmurdered by his mother. He first saw the bird perched on his breast\nand then \"sitting on a myrtle tree\".[490]\n\nThe dove was not only a symbol of Semiramis, but also of her mother\nDerceto, the Phoenician fish goddess. The connection between bird and\nfish may have been given an astral significance. In \"Poor Robin's\nAlmanack\" for 1757 a St. Valentine rhyme begins:--\n\n    This month bright Phoebus enters Pisces,\n    The maids will have good store of kisses,\n    For always when the sun comes there,\n    Valentine's day is drawing near,\n    And both the men and maids incline\n    To choose them each a Valentine.\n\nAs we have seen, the example was set by the mating birds. The\n\"Almanack\" poet no doubt versified an old astrological belief: when\nthe spring sun entered the sign of the Fishes, the love goddess in\nbird form returned to earth.\n\nAdvocates of the Totemic theory, on the other hand, may hold that the\nassociation of doves with snake goddesses and fish goddesses of\nfertility was due to the fusion of tribes who had various animal\ntotems. \"The Pelew Islanders believed\", says Professor Frazer, \"that\nthe souls of their forefathers lived in certain species of animals,\nwhich accordingly they held sacred and would not injure. For this\nreason one man would not kill snakes, another would not harm pigeons,\nand so on; but everyone was quite ready to kill and eat the sacred\nanimals of his neighbours.\"[491] That the Egyptians had similar\ncustoms is suggested by what Herodotus tells us regarding their sacred\nanimals: \"Those who live near Thebes and the lake Moeris hold the\ncrocodile in religious veneration.... Those who live in or near\nElephantine, so far from considering these beasts as sacred, make them\nan article of food.... The hippopotamus is esteemed sacred in the\ndistrict of Papremis, but in no other part of Egypt.... They roast and\nboil ... birds and fishes ... excepting those which are preserved for\nsacred purposes.\"[492] Totemic animals controlled the destinies of\ntribes and families. \"Grose tells us\", says Brand, \"that, besides\ngeneral notices of death, many families have particular warnings or\nnotices: some by the appearance of a bird, and others by the figure of\na tall woman, dressed all in white.... Pennant says that many of the\ngreat families in Scotland had their demon or genius, who gave them\nmonitions of future events.\"[493] Members of tribes which venerated\nthe pigeon therefore invoked it like the Egyptian love poet and drew\nomens from its notes, or saw one appearing as the soul of the dead\nlike the lover in the ballad of \"The Bloody Gardener\". They refrained\nalso from killing the pigeon except sacrificially, and suffered\nagonies on a deathbed which contained pigeon feathers, the \"taboo\"\nhaving been broken.\n\nSome such explanation is necessary to account for the specialization\nof certain goddesses as fish, snake, cat, or bird deities. Aphrodite,\nwho like Ishtar absorbed the attributes of several goddesses of\nfertility and fate, had attached to her the various animal symbols\nwhich were prominent in districts or among tribes brought into close\ncontact, while the poppy, rose, myrtle, &c., which were used as love\ncharms, or for making love potions, were also consecrated to her.\nAnthropomorphic deities were decorated with the symbols and flowers of\nfolk religion.\n\nFrom the comparative evidence accumulated here, it will be seen that\nthe theory of the mythical Semiramis's Median or Persian origin is\nsomewhat narrow. It is possible that the dove was venerated in Cyprus,\nas it certainly was in Crete, long centuries before Assyrian and\nBabylonian influence filtered westward through Phoenician and Hittite\nchannels. In another connection Sir Arthur Evans shows that the\nresemblance between Cretan and early Semitic beliefs \"points rather to\nsome remote common element, the nature of which is at present obscure,\nthan to any definite borrowing by one side or another\".[494]\n\nFrom the evidence afforded by the Semiramis legends and the\ninscriptions of the latter half of the Assyrian Middle Empire period,\nit may be inferred that a renascence of \"mother worship\" was favoured\nby the social and political changes which were taking place. In the\nfirst place the influence of Babylon must have been strongly felt in\nthis connection. The fact that Adadnirari found it necessary to win\nthe support of the Babylonians by proclaiming his descent from one of\ntheir ancient royal families, suggests that he was not only concerned\nabout the attitude assumed by the scholars of the southern kingdom,\nbut also that of the masses of old Sumerian and Akkadian stocks who\ncontinued to bake cakes to the Queen of Heaven so as to ensure good\nharvests. In the second place it is not improbable that even in\nAssyria the introduction of Nebo and his spouse made widespread\nappeal. That country had become largely peopled by an alien\npopulation; many of these aliens came from districts where \"mother\nworship\" prevailed, and had no traditional respect for Ashur, while\nthey regarded with hostility the military aristocracy who conquered\nand ruled in the name of that dreaded deity. Perhaps, too, the\ninfluence of the Aramaeans, who in Babylonia wrecked the temples of\nthe sun god, tended to revive the ancient religion of the\nMediterranean race. Jehu's religious revolt in Israel, which\nestablished once again the cult of Ashtoreth, occurred after he came\nunder the sway of Damascus, and may have not been unconnected with the\npolitical ascendancy elsewhere of the goddess cult.\n\nNebo, whom Adad-nirari exalted at Kalkhi, was more than a local god of\nBorsippa. \"The most satisfactory view\", says Jastrow, \"is to regard\nhim as a counterpart of Ea. Like Ea, he is the embodiment and source\nof wisdom.... The study of the heavens formed part of the wisdom which\nis traced back to Nebo, and the temple school at Borsippa became one\nof the chief centres for the astrological, and, subsequently, for the\nastronomical lore of Babylonia.... Like Nebo, Ea is also associated\nwith the irrigation of the fields and with their consequent fertility.\nA hymn praises him as the one who fills the canals and the dikes, who\nprotects the fields and brings the crops to maturity.\" Nebo links with\nMerodach (Marduk), who is sometimes referred to as his father. Jastrow\nassumes that the close partnership between Nebo and Merodach \"had as a\nconsequence a transfer of some of the father Marduk's attributes as a\nsolar deity to Nebo,[495] his son, just as Ea passed his traits on to\nhis son, Marduk\".[496]\n\nAs the \"recorder\" or \"scribe\" among the gods, Nebo resembles the\nEgyptian god Thoth, who links with Khonsu, the lunar and spring sun\ngod of love and fertility, and with Osiris. In Borsippa he had, like\nMerodach in Babylon, pronounced Tammuz traits. Nebo, in fact, appears\nto be the Tammuz of the new age, the son of the ancient goddess, who\nbecame \"Husband of his Mother\". If Nebo had no connection with Great\nMother worship, it is unlikely that his statue would have borne an\ninscription referring to King Adad-nirari and Queen Sammu-rammat on\nequal terms. The Assyrian spouse of Nebo was called Tashmit. This\n\"goddess of supplication and love\" had a lunar significance. A prayer\naddressed to her in association with Nannar (Sin) and Ishtar,\nproceeds:\n\n    In the evil of the eclipse of the moon which ... has taken place,\n    In the evil of the powers, of the portents, evil and not good,\n        which are in my palace and my land,\n    (I) have turned towards thee!...\n    Before Nabu (Nebo) thy spouse, thy lord, the prince, the\n        first-born of E-sagila, intercede for me!\n    May he hearken to my cry at the word of thy mouth; may he remove\n        my sighing, may he learn my supplication!\n\nDamkina is similarly addressed in another prayer:\n\n    O Damkina, mighty queen of all the gods,\n    O wife of Ea, valiant art thou,\n    O Ir-nina, mighty queen of all the gods ...\n    Thou that dwellest in the Abyss, O lady of heaven and earth!...\n    In the evil of the eclipse of the moon, etc.\n\nBau is also prayed in a similar connection as \"mighty lady that\ndwellest in the bright heavens\", i.e. \"Queen of heaven\".[497]\n\nTashmit, whose name signifies \"Obedience\", according to Jastrow, or\n\"Hearing\", according to Sayce, carried the prayers of worshippers to\nNebo, her spouse. As Isis interceded with Osiris, she interceded with\nNebo, on behalf of mankind. But this did not signify that she was the\nleast influential of the divine pair. A goddess played many parts: she\nwas at once mother, daughter, and wife of the god; the servant of one\ngod or the \"mighty queen of all the gods\". The Great Mother was, as\nhas been indicated, regarded as the eternal and undecaying one; the\ngods passed away, son succeeding father; she alone remained. Thus,\ntoo, did Semiramis survive in the popular memory, as the queen-goddess\nof widespread legends, after kings and gods had been forgotten. To her\nwas ascribed all the mighty works of other days in the lands where the\nindigenous peoples first worshipped the Great Mother as Damkina, Nina,\nBau, Ishtar, or Tashmit, because the goddess was anciently believed to\nbe the First Cause, the creatrix, the mighty one who invested the\nruling god with the powers he possessed--the god who held sway because\nhe was her husband, as did Nergal as the husband of Eresh-ki-gal,\nqueen of Hades.\n\nThe multiplication of well-defined goddesses was partly due to the\ntendency to symbolize the attributes of the Great Mother, and partly\ndue to the development of the great \"Lady\" in a particular district\nwhere she reflected local phenomena and where the political influence\nachieved by her worshippers emphasized her greatness. Legends\nregarding a famous goddess were in time attached to other goddesses,\nand in Aphrodite and Derceto we appear to have mother deities who\nabsorbed the traditions of more than one local \"lady\" of river and\nplain, forest and mountain. Semiramis, on the other hand, survived as\na link between the old world and the new, between the country from\nwhich emanated the stream of ancient culture and the regions which\nreceived it. As the high priestess of the cult, she became identified\nwith the goddess whose bird name she bore, as Gilgamesh and Etana\nbecame identified with the primitive culture-hero or patriarch of the\nancient Sumerians, and Sargon became identified with Tammuz. No doubt\nthe fame of Semiramis was specially emphasized because of her close\nassociation, as Queen Sammu-rammat, with the religious innovations\nwhich disturbed the land of the god Ashur during the Middle Empire\nperiod.\n\nAdad-nirari IV, the son or husband of Sammu-rammat, was a vigorous and\nsuccessful campaigner. He was the Assyrian king who became the\n\"saviour\" of Israel. Although it is not possible to give a detailed\naccount of his various expeditions, we find from the list of these\nwhich survives in the Eponym Chronicle that he included in the\nAssyrian Empire a larger extent of territory than any of his\npredecessors. In the north-east he overcame the Median and other\ntribes, and acquired a large portion of the Iranian plateau; he\ncompelled Edom to pay tribute, and established his hold in Babylonia\nby restricting the power of the Chaldaeans in Sealand. In the north he\nswayed--at least, so he claimed--the wide domains of the Nairi people.\nHe also confirmed his supremacy over the Hittites.\n\nThe Aramaean state of Damascus, which had withstood the attack of the\ngreat Shalmaneser and afterwards oppressed, as we have seen, the\nkingdoms of Israel and Judah, was completely overpowered by\nAdad-nirari. The old king, Hazael, died when Assyria's power was being\nstrengthened and increased along his frontiers. He was succeeded by\nhis son Mari, who is believed to be identical with the Biblical\nBen-Hadad III.[498]\n\nShortly after this new monarch came to the throne, Adad-nirari IV led\na great army against him. The Syrian ruler appears to have been taken\nby surprise; probably his kingdom was suffering from the three defeats\nwhich had been previously administered by the revolting\nIsraelites.[499] At any rate Mari was unable to gather together an\narmy of allies to resist the Assyrian advance, and took refuge behind\nthe walls of Damascus. This strongly fortified city was closely\ninvested, and Mari had at length to submit and acknowledge Adad-nirari\nas his overlord. The price of peace included 23,000 talents of silver,\n20 of gold, 3000 of copper, and 5000 of iron, as well as ivory\nornaments and furniture, embroidered materials, and other goods \"to a\ncountless amount\". Thus \"the Lord gave Israel a saviour, so that they\nwent out from under the hand of the Syrians: and the children of\nIsrael dwelt in their tents, as beforetime\". This significant\nreference to the conquest of Damascus by the Assyrian king is followed\nby another which throws light on the religious phenomena of the\nperiod: \"Nevertheless they departed not from the sins of the house of\nJeroboam, who made Israel sin, but walked therein: and there remained\nthe grove also in Samaria\".[500] Ashtoreth and her golden calf\ncontinued to be venerated, and doves were sacrificed to the local\nAdonis.\n\nIt is not certain whether Adad-nirari penetrated farther than\nDamascus. Possibly all the states which owed allegiance to the king of\nthat city became at once the willing vassals of Assyria, their\nprotector. The tribute received by Adad-nirari from Tyre, Sidon, the\nland of Omri (Israel), Edom, and Palastu (Philistia) may have been\ngifted as a formal acknowledgment of his suzerainty and with purpose\nto bring them directly under Assyrian control, so that Damascus might\nbe prevented from taking vengeance against them.\n\nMeagre details survive regarding the reign of the next king,\nShalmaneser IV (781-772 B.C). These are, however, supplemented by the\nUrartian inscriptions. Although Adad-nirari boasted that he had\nsubdued the kingdom of Urartu in the north, he appears to have done no\nmore than limit its southern expansion for a time.\n\nThe Urarti were, like the Mitanni, a military aristocracy[501] who\nwelded together by conquest the tribes of the eastern and northern\nHighlands which several Assyrian monarchs included in their Empire.\nThey acquired the elements of Assyrian culture, and used the Assyrian\nscript for their own language. Their god was named Khaldis, and they\ncalled their nation Khaldia. During the reign of Ashur-natsir-pal\ntheir area of control was confined to the banks of the river Araxes,\nbut it was gradually extended under a succession of vigorous kings\ntowards the south-west until they became supreme round the shores of\nLake Van. Three of their early kings were Lutipris, Sharduris I, and\nArame.\n\nDuring the reign of Shamshi-Adad the Assyrians came into conflict with\nthe Urarti, who were governed at the time by \"Ushpina of Nairi\"\n(Ishpuinis, son of Sharduris II). The Urartian kingdom had extended\nrapidly and bordered on Assyrian territory. To the west were the\ntribes known as the Mannai, the northern enemies of the Medes, a\npeople of Indo-European speech.\n\nWhen Adad-nirari IV waged war against the Urarti, their king was\nMenuas, the son of Ishpuinis. Menuas was a great war-lord, and was\nable to measure his strength against Assyria on equal terms. He had\nnearly doubled by conquest the area controlled by his predecessors.\nAdad-nirari endeavoured to drive his rival northward, but all along\nthe Assyrian frontier from the Euphrates to the Lower Zab, Menuas\nforced the outposts of Adad-nirari to retreat southward. The\nAssyrians, in short, were unable to hold their own.\n\nHaving extended his kingdom towards the south, Menuas invaded Hittite\nterritory, subdued Malatia and compelled its king to pay tribute. He\nalso conquered the Mannai and other tribes. Towards the north and\nnorth-west he added a considerable area to his kingdom, which became\nas large as Assyria.\n\nMenuas's capital was the city of Turushpa or Dhuspas (Van), which was\ncalled Khaldinas[502] after the national god. For a century it was the\nseat of Urartian administration. The buildings erected there by Menuas\nand his successors became associated in after-time with the traditions\nof Semiramis, who, as Queen Sammu-rammat of Assyria, was a\ncontemporary of the great Urartian conqueror. Similarly a sculptured\nrepresentation of the Hittite god was referred to by Herodotus as a\nmemorial of the Egyptian king Sesostris.\n\nThe strongest fortification at Dhuspas was the citadel, which was\nerected on a rocky promontory jutting into Lake Van. A small garrison\ncould there resist a prolonged siege. The water supply of the city was\nassured by the construction of subterranean aqueducts. Menuas erected\na magnificent palace, which rivalled that of the Assyrian monarch at\nKalkhi, and furnished it with the rich booty brought back from\nvictorious campaigns. He was a lover of trees and planted many, and he\nlaid out gardens which bloomed with brilliant Asian flowers. The\npalace commanded a noble prospect of hill and valley scenery on the\nsouth-western shore of beautiful Lake Van.\n\nMenuas was succeeded by his son Argistis, who ascended the throne\nduring the lifetime of Adad-nirari of Assyria. During the early part\nof his reign he conducted military expeditions to the north beyond the\nriver Araxes. He afterwards came into conflict with Assyria, and\nacquired more territory on its northern frontier. He also subdued the\nMannai, who had risen in revolt.\n\nFor three years (781-778 B.C.) the general of Shalmaneser IV waged war\nconstantly with Urartu, and again in 776 B.C. and 774 B.C. attempts\nwere made to prevent the southern expansion of that Power. On more\nthan one occasion the Assyrians were defeated and compelled to\nretreat.\n\nAssyria suffered serious loss of prestige on account of its inability\nto hold in check its northern rival. Damascus rose in revolt and had\nto be subdued, and northern Syria was greatly disturbed. Hadrach was\nvisited in the last year of the king's reign.\n\nAshur-dan III (771-763 B.C.) occupied the Assyrian throne during a\nperiod of great unrest. He was unable to attack Urartu. His army had\nto operate instead on his eastern and southern frontiers. A great\nplague broke out in 765 B.C., the year in which Hadrach had again to\nbe dealt with. On June 15, 763 B.C., there was a total eclipse of the\nsun, and that dread event was followed by a revolt at Asshur which was\nno doubt of priestly origin. The king's son Adad-nirari was involved\nin it, but it is not certain whether or not he displaced his father\nfor a time. In 758 B.C. Ashur-dan again showed signs of activity by\nendeavouring to suppress the revolts which during the period of civil\nwar had broken out in Syria.\n\nAdad-nirari V came to the throne in 763 B.C. He had to deal with\nrevolts in Asshur in other cities. Indeed for the greater part of his\nreign he seems to have been kept fully engaged endeavouring to\nestablish his authority within the Assyrian borders. The Syrian\nprovinces regained their independence.\n\nDuring the first four years of his successor Ashurnirari IV (753-746\nB.C.) the army never left Assyria. Namri was visited in 749-748 B.C.,\nbut it is not certain whether he fought against the Urartians, or the\nAramaeans who had become active during this period of Assyrian\ndecline. In 746 B.C. a revolt broke out in the city of Kalkhi and the\nking had to leave it. Soon afterwards he died--perhaps he was\nassassinated--and none of his sons came to the throne. A year\npreviously Nabu-natsir, known to the Greeks as Nabonassar, was crowned\nking of Babylonia.\n\nAshur-nirari IV appears to have been a monarch of somewhat like\ncharacter to the famous Akhenaton of Egypt--an idealist for whom war\nhad no attractions. He kept his army at home while his foreign\npossessions rose in revolt one after another. Apparently he had dreams\nof guarding Assyria against attack by means of treaties of peace. He\narranged one with a Mesopotamian king, Mati-ilu of Agusi, who pledged\nhimself not to go to war without the consent of his Assyrian overlord,\nand it is possible that there were other documents of like character\nwhich have not survived to us. During his leisure hours the king\nengaged himself in studious pursuits and made additions to the royal\nlibrary. In the end his disappointed soldiers found a worthy leader in\none of its generals who seized the throne and assumed the royal name\nof Tiglath-pileser.\n\nAshur-nirari IV was the last king of the Middle Empire of Assyria. He\nmay have been a man of high character and refinement and worthy of our\nesteem, although an unsuitable ruler for a predatory State.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIX.\n\nASSYRIA'S AGE OF SPLENDOUR\n\n\n  Tiglath-pileser IV, the Biblical Pul--Babylonian Campaign--Urartian\n  Ambitions in North Syria--Battle of Two Kings and Flight of\n  Sharduris--Conquest of Syro-Cappadocian States--Hebrew History from\n  Jehu to Menahem--Israel subject to Assyria--Urartu's Power\n  broken--Ahaz's Appeal to Assyria--Damascus and Israel\n  subdued--Babylonia united to Assyria--Shalmaneser and Hoshea--Sargon\n  deports the \"Lost Ten Tribes\"--Merodach Baladan King of\n  Babylonia--Egyptian Army of Allies routed--Ahaz and Isaiah--Frontier\n  Campaigns--Merodach Baladan overthrown--Sennacherib and the Hittite\n  States--Merodach Baladan's second and brief Reign--Hezekiah and\n  Sennacherib--Destruction of Assyrian Army--Sack of Babylon--\n  Esarhaddon--A Second Semiramis--Raids of Elamites, Cimmerians,\n  Scythians, and Medes--Sack of Sidon--Manasseh and Isaiah's\n  Fate--Esarhaddon conquers Lower Egypt--Revolt of Assyrian\n  Nobles--Ashurbanipal.\n\n\nWe now enter upon the last and most brilliant phase of Assyrian\ncivilization--the period of the Third or New Empire during which\nflourished Tiglath-pileser IV, the mighty conqueror; the Shalmaneser\nof the Bible; \"Sargon the Later\", who transported the \"lost ten\ntribes\" of Israel; Sennacherib, the destroyer of Babylon, and\nEsarhaddon, who made Lower Egypt an Assyrian province. We also meet\nwith notable figures of Biblical fame, including Ahaz, Hezekiah,\nIsaiah, and the idolatrous Manasseh.\n\nTiglath-pileser IV, who deposed Ashur-nirari IV, was known to the\nBabylonians as Pulu, which, some think, was a term of contempt\nsignifying \"wild animal\". In the Bible he is referred to as Pul,\nTiglath-pilneser, and Tiglath-pileser.[503] He came to the Assyrian\nthrone towards the end of April in 745 B.C. and reigned until 727 B.C.\nWe know nothing regarding his origin, but it seems clear that he was\nnot of royal descent. He appears to have been a popular leader of the\nrevolt against Ashur-nirari, who, like certain of his predecessors,\nhad pronounced pro-Babylonian tendencies. It is significant to note in\nthis connection that the new king was an unswerving adherent of the\ncult of Ashur, by the adherents of which he was probably strongly\nsupported.\n\nTiglath-pileser combined in equal measure those qualities of\ngeneralship and statesmanship which were necessary for the\nreorganization of the Assyrian state and the revival of its military\nprestige. At the beginning of his reign there was much social\ndiscontent and suffering. The national exchequer had been exhausted by\nthe loss of tribute from revolting provinces, trade was paralysed, and\nthe industries were in a languishing condition. Plundering bands of\nAramaeans were menacing the western frontiers and had overrun part of\nnorthern Babylonia. New political confederacies in Syria kept the\nnorth-west regions in a constant state of unrest, and the now powerful\nUrartian kingdom was threatening the Syro-Cappadocian states as if its\nrulers had dreams of building up a great world empire on the ruins of\nthat of Assyria.\n\nTiglath-pileser first paid attention to Babylonia, and extinguished\nthe resistance of the Aramaeans in Akkad. He appears to have been\nwelcomed by Nabonassar, who became his vassal, and he offered\nsacrifices in the cities of Babylon, Sippar, Cuthah, and Nippur.\nSippar had been occupied by Aramaeans, as on a previous occasion when\nthey destroyed the temple of the sun god Shamash which was restored by\nNabu-aplu-iddina of Babylon.\n\nTiglath-pileser did not overrun Chaldaea, but he destroyed its\ncapital, Sarrabanu, and impaled King Nabu-ushabshi. He proclaimed\nhimself \"King of Sumer and Akkad\" and \"King of the Four Quarters\". The\nfrontier states of Elam and Media were visited and subdued.\n\nHaving disposed of the Aramaeans and other raiders, the Assyrian\nmonarch had next to deal with his most powerful rival, Urartu.\nArgistis I had been succeeded by Sharduris III, who had formed an\nalliance with the north Mesopotamian king, Mati-ilu of Agusi, on whom\nAshur-nirari had reposed his faith. Ere long Sharduris pressed\nsouthward from Malatia and compelled the north Syrian Hittite states,\nincluding Carchemish, to acknowledge his suzerainty. A struggle then\nensued between Urartu and Assyria for the possession of the\nSyro-Cappadocian states.\n\nAt this time the reputation of Tiglath-pileser hung in the balance. If\nhe failed in his attack on Urartu, his prestige would vanish at home\nand abroad and Sharduris might, after establishing himself in northern\nSyria, invade Assyria and compel its allegiance.\n\nTwo courses lay before Tiglath-pileser. He could either cross the\nmountains and invade Urartu, or strike at his rival in north Syria,\nwhere the influence of Assyria had been completely extinguished. The\nlatter appeared to him to be the most feasible and judicious\nprocedure, for if he succeeded in expelling the invaders he would at\nthe same time compel the allegiance of the rebellious Hittite states.\n\nIn the spring of 743 B.C. Tiglath-pileser led his army across the\nEuphrates and reached Arpad without meeting with any resistance. The\ncity appears to have opened its gates to him although it was in the\nkingdom of Mati-ilu, who acknowledged Urartian sway. Its foreign\ngarrison was slaughtered. Well might Sharduris exclaim, in the words\nof the prophet, \"Where is the king of Arpad? where are the gods of\nArpad?\"[504]\n\nLeaving Arpad, Tiglath-pileser advanced to meet Sharduris, who was\napparently hastening southward to attack the Assyrians in the rear.\nTiglath-pileser, however, crossed the Euphrates and, moving northward,\ndelivered an unexpected attack on the Urartian army in Qummukh. A\nfierce battle ensued, and one of its dramatic incidents was a single\ncombat between the rival kings. The tide of battle flowed in Assyria's\nfavour, and when evening was falling the chariots and cavalry of\nUrartu were thrown into confusion. An attempt was made to capture King\nSharduris, who leapt from his chariot and made hasty escape on\nhorseback, hotly pursued in the gathering darkness by an Assyrian\ncontingent of cavalry. Not until \"the bridge of the Euphrates\" was\nreached was the exciting night chase abandoned.\n\nTiglath-pileser had achieved an overwhelming victory against an army\nsuperior to his own in numbers. Over 70,000 of the enemy were slain or\ntaken captive, while the Urartian camp with its stores and horses and\nfollowers fell into the hands of the triumphant Assyrians.\nTiglath-pileser burned the royal tent and throne as an offering to\nAshur, and carried Sharduris's bed to the temple of the goddess of\nNineveh, whither he returned to prepare a new plan of campaign against\nhis northern rival.\n\nDespite the blow dealt against Urartu, Assyria did not immediately\nregain possession of north Syria. The shifty Mati-ilu either cherished\nthe hope that Sharduris would recover strength and again invade north\nSyria, or that he might himself establish an empire in that region.\nTiglath-pileser had therefore to march westward again. For three years\nhe conducted vigorous campaigns in \"the western land\", where he met\nwith vigorous resistance. In 740 B.C. Arpad was captured and Mati-ilu\ndeposed and probably put to death. Two years later Kullani and Hamath\nfell, and the districts which they controlled were included in the\nAssyrian empire and governed by Crown officials.\n\nOnce again the Hebrews came into contact with Assyria. The Dynasty of\nJehu had come to an end by this time. Its fall may not have been\nunconnected with the trend of events in Assyria during the closing\nyears of the Middle Empire.\n\nSupported by Assyria, the kings of Israel had become powerful and\nhaughty. Jehoash, the grandson of Jehu, had achieved successes in\nconflict with Damascus. In Judah the unstable Amaziah, son of Joash,\nwas strong enough to lay a heavy hand on Edom, and flushed with\ntriumph then resolved to readjust his relations with his overlord, the\nking of Israel. Accordingly he sent a communication to Jehoash which\ncontained some proposal regarding their political relations,\nconcluding with the offer or challenge, \"Come, let us look one another\nin the face\". A contemptuous answer was returned.\n\n    Jehoash the king of Israel sent to Amaziah king of Judah, saying,\n    The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in\n    Lebanon, saying, Give thy daughter to my son to wife: and there\n    passed by a wild beast that was in Lebanon, and trode down the\n    thistle. Thou hast indeed smitten Edom, and thine heart hath\n    lifted thee up: glory of this, and tarry at home, for why\n    shouldest thou meddle to thy hurt, that thou shouldest fall, even\n    thou, and Judah with thee? But Amaziah would not hear. Therefore\n    Jehoash king of Israel went up; and he and Amaziah king of Judah\n    looked one another in the face at Beth-shemesh [city of Shamash,\n    the sun god], which belongeth to Judah. And Judah was put to the\n    worse before Israel; and they fled every man to their tents.\n\nJehoash afterwards destroyed a large portion of the wall of Jerusalem\nand plundered the temple and palace, returning home to Samaria with\nrich booty and hostages.[505] Judah thus remained a vassal state of\nIsrael's.\n\nJeroboam, son of Jehoash, had a long and prosperous reign. About 773\nB.C. he appears to have co-operated with Assyria and conquered\nDamascus and Hamath. His son Zachariah, the last king of the Jehu\nDynasty of Israel, came to the throne in 740 B.C. towards the close of\nthe reign of Azariah, son of Amaziah, king of Judah. Six months\nafterwards he was assassinated by Shallum. This usurper held sway at\nSamaria for only a month. \"For Menahem the son of Gadi went up from\nTirzah, and came to Samaria, and smote Shallum the son of Jabesh in\nSamaria, and slew him, and reigned in his stead.\"[506]\n\nTiglath-pileser was operating successfully in middle Syria when he had\ndealings with, among others, \"Menihimme (Menahem) of the city of the\nSamarians\", who paid tribute. No resistance was possible on the part\nof Menahem, the usurper, who was probably ready to welcome the\nAssyrian conqueror, so that, by arranging an alliance, he might secure\nhis own position. The Biblical reference is as follows: \"And Pul the\nking of Assyria came against the land: and Menahem gave Pul a thousand\ntalents of silver, that his hand might be with him to confirm the\nkingdom in his hand. And Menahem exacted the money of Israel, even of\nall the mighty men of wealth, of each man fifty shekels of silver, to\ngive to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria turned back, and\nstayed not there in the land.\"[507] Rezin of Damascus, Hiram of Tyre,\nand Zabibi, queen of the Arabians, also sent gifts to Tiglath-pileser\nat this time (738 B.C.). Aramaean revolts on the borders of Elam were\nsuppressed by Assyrian governors, and large numbers of the inhabitants\nwere transported to various places in Syria.\n\nTiglath-pileser next operated against the Median and other hill tribes\nin the north-east. In 735 B.C. he invaded Urartu, the great Armenian\nstate which had threatened the supremacy of Assyria in north Syria and\nCappadocia. King Sharduris was unable to protect his frontier or\nhamper the progress of the advancing army, which penetrated to his\ncapital. Dhuspas was soon captured, but Sharduris took refuge in his\nrocky citadel which he and his predecessors had laboured to render\nimpregnable. There he was able to defy the might of Assyria, for the\nfortress could be approached on the western side alone by a narrow\npath between high walls and towers, so that only a small force could\nfind room to operate against the numerous garrison.\n\nTiglath-pileser had to content himself by devastating the city on the\nplain and the neighbouring villages. He overthrew buildings, destroyed\norchards, and transported to Nineveh those of the inhabitants he had\nnot put to the sword, with all the live stock he could lay hands on.\nThus was Urartu crippled and humiliated: it never regained its former\nprestige among the northern states.\n\nIn the following year Tiglath-pileser returned to Syria. The\ncircumstances which made this expedition necessary are of special\ninterest on account of its Biblical associations. Menahem, king of\nIsrael, had died, and was succeeded by his son Pekahiah. \"But Pekah\nthe son of Remaliah, a captain of his, conspired against him and smote\nhim in Samaria, in the palace of the king's house, ... and he killed\nhim, and reigned in his room.\"[508] When Pekah was on the throne, Ahaz\nbegan to reign over Judah.\n\nJudah had taken advantage of the disturbed conditions in Israel to\nassert its independence. The walls of Jerusalem were repaired by\nJotham, father of Ahaz, and a tunnel constructed to supply it with\nwater. Isaiah refers to this tunnel: \"Go forth and meet Ahaz ... at\nthe end of the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the\nfuller's field\" (_Isaiah_, vii, 3).\n\nPekah had to deal with a powerful party in Israel which favoured the\nre-establishment of David's kingdom in Palestine. Their most prominent\nleader was the prophet Amos, whose eloquent exhortations were couched\nin no uncertain terms. He condemned Israel for its idolatries, and\ncried:\n\n    For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me and\n    ye shall live.... Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings\n    in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? But ye have\n    borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the\n    star of your god, which ye made to yourselves.[509]\n\nPekah sought to extinguish the orthodox party's movement by subduing\nJudah. So he plotted with Rezin, king of Damascus. Amos prophesied,\n\n    Thus saith the Lord.... I will send a fire into the house of\n    Hazael, which will devour the palaces of Ben-hadad. I will break\n    also the bar of Damascus ... and the people of Syria shall go into\n    captivity unto Kir.... The remnant of the Philistines shall\n    perish.\n\nTyre, Edom, and Ammon would also be punished.[510] Judah was\ncompletely isolated by the allies who acknowledged the suzerainty of\nDamascus. Soon after Ahaz came to the throne he found himself hemmed\nin on every side by adversaries who desired to accomplish his fall.\n\"At that time Rezin, king of Syria, and Pekah ...came up to Jerusalem\nto war: and they besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome him.\"[511]\nJudah, however, was overrun; the city of Elath was captured and\nrestored to Edom, while the Philistines were liberated from the\ncontrol of Jerusalem.\n\nIsaiah visited Ahaz and said,\n\n    Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be faint-hearted for\n    the two tails of these smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of\n    Rezin with Syria, and of the son of Remaliah. Because Syria,\n    Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have taken evil counsel against\n    thee, saying, Let us go up against Judah, and vex it, and let us\n    make a breach therein for us, and set a king in the midst of it,\n    even the son of Tabeal: Thus saith the Lord God, It shall not\n    stand, neither shall it come to pass.[512]\n\nThe unstable Ahaz had sought assistance from the Baal, and \"made his\nson to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the\nheathen\".[513] Then he resolved to purchase the sympathy of one of the\ngreat Powers. There was no hope of assistance from \"the fly that is in\nthe uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt\", for the Ethiopian Pharaohs\nhad not yet conquered the Delta region, so he turned to \"the bee that\nis in the land of Assyria\".[514] Assyria was the last resource of the\nking of Judah.\n\n    So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria,\n    saying, I am thy servant and thy son: come up and save me out of\n    the hand of Syria and out of the hand of the king of Israel, which\n    rise up against me. And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was\n    found in the house of the Lord, and in the treasures of the king's\n    house, and sent it for a present to the king of Assyria. And the\n    king of Assyria hearkened unto him: for the king of Assyria went\n    up against Damascus, and took it, and carried the people of it\n    captive to Kir[515] and slew Rezin.[516]\n\nTiglath-pileser recorded that Rezin took refuge in his city like \"a\nmouse\". Israel was also dealt with.\n\n    In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglath-pileser king of\n    Assyria, and took Ijon and Abel-beth-maachah, and Janoah and\n    Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of\n    Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria. And Hoshea the son\n    of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remaliah, and\n    smote him, and slew him, and reigned in his stead.[517]\n\nTiglath-pileser recorded: \"They overthrew Paqaha (Pekah), their king,\nand placed Ausi'a (Hoshea) over them\". He swept through Israel \"like a\nhurricane\". The Philistines and the Arabians of the desert were also\nsubdued. Tribute was sent to the Assyrian monarch by Phoenicia, Moab,\nAmmon, and Edom. It was a proud day for Ahaz when he paid a visit to\nTiglath-pileser at Damascus.[518] An Assyrian governor was appointed\nto rule over Syria and its subject states.\n\nBabylon next claimed the attention of Tiglath-pileser. Nabonassar had\ndied and was succeeded by his son Nabu-nadin-zeri, who, after reigning\nfor two years, was slain in a rebellion. The throne was then seized by\nNabu-shum-ukin, but in less than two months this usurper was\nassassinated and the Chaldaeans had one of their chiefs, Ukinzer,\nproclaimed king (732 B.C.).\n\nWhen the Assyrian king returned from Syria in 731 B.C. he invaded\nBabylonia. He was met with a stubborn resistance. Ukinzer took refuge\nin his capital, Shapia, which held out successfully, although the\nsurrounding country was ravaged and despoiled. Two years afterwards\nTiglath-pileser returned, captured Shapia, and restored peace\nthroughout Babylonia. He was welcomed in Babylon, which opened its\ngates to him, and he had himself proclaimed king of Sumer and Akkad.\nThe Chaldaeans paid tribute.\n\nTiglath-pileser had now reached the height of his ambition. He had not\nonly extended his empire in the west from Cappadocia to the river of\nEgypt, crippled Urartu and pacified his eastern frontier, but brought\nAssyria into close union with Babylonia, the mother land, the home of\nculture and the land of the ancient gods. He did not live long,\nhowever, to enjoy his final triumph, for he died a little over twelve\nmonths after he \"took the hands of Bel (Merodach)\" at Babylon.\n\nHe was succeeded by Shalmaneser V (727-722 B.C.), who may have been\nhis son, but this is not quite certain. Little is known regarding his\nbrief reign. In 725 B.C. he led an expedition to Syria and Phoenicia.\nSeveral of the vassal peoples had revolted when they heard of the\ndeath of Tiglath-pileser. These included the Phoenicians, the\nPhilistines, and the Israelites who were intriguing with either Egypt\nor Mutsri.\n\nApparently Hoshea, king of Israel, pretended when the Assyrians\nentered his country that he remained friendly. Shalmaneser, however,\nwas well informed, and made Hoshea a prisoner. Samaria closed its\ngates against him although their king had been dispatched to Assyria.\n\nThe Biblical account of the campaign is as follows: \"Against him\n(Hoshea) came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria; and Hoshea became his\nservant, and gave him presents. And the king of Assyria found\nconspiracy in Hoshea: for he had sent messengers to So king of\nEgypt,[519] and brought no present to the king of Assyria, as he had\ndone year by year; therefore the king of Assyria shut him up and bound\nhim in prison.\n\n\"Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up\nto Samaria, and besieged it three years.\"[520]\n\nShalmaneser died before Samaria was captured, and may have been\nassassinated. The next Assyrian monarch, Sargon II (722-705 B.C.), was\nnot related to either of his two predecessors. He is referred to by\nIsaiah,[521] and is the Arkeanos of Ptolemy. He was the Assyrian\nmonarch who deported the \"Lost Ten Tribes\".\n\n\"In the ninth year of Hoshea\" (and the first of Sargon) \"the king of\nAssyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed\nthem in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of\nthe Medes.\"[522] In all, according to Sargon's record, \"27,290 people\ndwelling in the midst of it (Samaria) I carried off\".\n\n    They (the Israelites) left all the commandments of the Lord their\n    God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a\n    grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven (the stars), and\n    served Baal. And they caused their sons and their daughters to\n    pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and\n    sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke\n    him to anger. Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and\n    removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe\n    of Judah only. And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon,\n    and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from\n    Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of\n    the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in\n    the cities thereof.... And the men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth,\n    and the men of Cuth (Cuthah) made Nergal, and the men of Hamath\n    made Ashima, and the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the\n    Sepharites burnt their children in fire to Adram-melech and\n    Anam-melech, the gods of Sepharvaim.\n\nA number of the new settlers were slain by lions, and the king of\nAssyria ordered that a Samaritan priest should be sent to \"teach them\nthe manner of the God of the land\". This man was evidently an orthodox\nHebrew, for he taught them \"how they should fear the Lord.... So they\nfeared the Lord\", but also \"served their own gods ... their graven\nimages\".[523]\n\nThere is no evidence to suggest that the \"Ten Lost Tribes\", \"regarding\nwhom so many nonsensical theories have been formed\", were not\nultimately absorbed by the peoples among whom they settled between\nMesopotamia and the Median Highlands.[524] The various sections must\nhave soon lost touch with one another. They were not united like the\nJews (the people of Judah), who were transported to Babylonia a\ncentury and a half later, by a common religious bond, for although a\nfew remained faithful to Abraham's God, the majority of the Israelites\nworshipped either the Baal or the Queen of Heaven.\n\nThe Assyrian policy of transporting the rebellious inhabitants of one\npart of their empire to another was intended to break their national\nspirit and compel them to become good and faithful subjects amongst\nthe aliens, who must have disliked them. \"The colonists,\" says\nProfessor Maspero, \"exposed to the same hatred as the original\nAssyrian conquerors, soon forgot to look upon the latter as the\noppressors of all, and, allowing their present grudge to efface the\nmemory of past injuries, did not hesitate to make common cause with\nthem. In time of peace the (Assyrian) governor did his best to protect\nthem against molestation on the part of the natives, and in return for\nthis they rallied round him whenever the latter threatened to get out\nof hand, and helped him to stifle the revolt, or hold it in check\nuntil the arrival of reinforcements. Thanks to their help, the empire\nwas consolidated and maintained without too many violent outbreaks in\nregions far removed from the capital, and beyond the immediate reach\nof the sovereign.\"[525]\n\nWhile Sargon was absent in the west, a revolt broke out in Babylonia.\nA Chaldaean king, Merodach Baladan III, had allied himself with the\nElamites, and occupied Babylon. A battle was fought at Dur-ilu and the\nElamites retreated. Although Sargon swept triumphantly through the\nland, he had to leave his rival, the tyrannous Chaldaean, in\npossession of the capital, and he reigned there for over eleven years.\n\nTrouble was brewing in Syria. It was apparently fostered by an\nEgyptian king--probably Bocchoris of Sais, the sole Pharaoh so far as\ncan be ascertained of the Twenty-fourth Dynasty, who had allied\nhimself with the local dynasts of Lower Egypt and apparently sought to\nextend his sway into Asia, the Ethiopians being supreme in Upper\nEgypt. An alliance had been formed to cast off the yoke of Assyria.\nThe city states involved Arpad, Simirra, Damascus, Samaria, and Gaza.\nHanno of Gaza had fled to Egypt after Tiglath-pileser came to the\nrelief of Judah and broke up the league of conspirators by capturing\nDamascus, and punishing Samaria, Gaza, and other cities. His return in\nSargon's reign was evidently connected with the new rising in which he\ntook part. The throne of Hamath had been seized by an adventurer,\nnamed Ilu-bi\u00b4di, a smith. The Philistines of Ashdod and the Arabians\nbeing strongly pro-Egyptian in tendency, were willing sympathizers and\nhelpers against the hated Assyrians.\n\nSargon appeared in the west with a strong army before the allies had\nmatured their plans. He met the smith king of Hamath in battle at\nQarqar, and, having defeated him, had him skinned alive. Then he\nmarched southward. At Rapiki (Raphia) he routed an army of allies.\nShabi (?So), the Tartan (commander-in-chief) of Pi\u00b4ru[526] (Pharaoh),\nKing of Mutsri (an Arabian state confused, perhaps, with Misraim =\nEgypt), escaped \"like to a shepherd whose sheep have been taken\". Piru\nand other two southern kings, Samsi and Itamara, afterwards paid\ntribute to Sargon. Hanno of Gaza was transported to Asshur.\n\nIn 715 B.C. Sargon, according to his records, appeared with his army\nin Arabia, and received gifts in token of homage from Piru of Mutsri,\nSamsi of Aribi, and Itamara of Saba.\n\nFour years later a revolt broke out in Ashdod which was, it would\nappear, directly due to the influence of Shabaka, the Ethiopian\nPharaoh, who had deposed Bocchoris of Sais. Another league was about\nto be formed against Assyria. King Azuri of Ashdod had been deposed\nbecause of his Egyptian sympathies by the Assyrian governor, and his\nbrother Akhimiti was placed on the throne. The citizens, however,\noverthrew Akhimiti, and an adventurer from Cyprus was proclaimed king\n(711 B.C).\n\nIt would appear that advances were made by the anti-Assyrians to Ahaz\nof Judah. That monarch was placed in a difficult position. He knew\nthat if the allies succeeded in stamping out Assyrian authority in\nSyria and Palestine they would certainly depose him, but if on the\nother hand he joined them and Assyria triumphed, its emperor would\nshow him small mercy. As Babylon defied Sargon and received the active\nsupport of Elam, and there were rumours of risings in the north, it\nmust have seemed to the western kings as if the Assyrian empire was\nlikely once again to go to pieces.\n\nFortunately for Ahaz he had a wise counsellor at this time in the\ngreat statesman and prophet, the scholarly Isaiah. The Lord spake by\nIsaiah saying, \"Go and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins, and put\noff thy shoe from thy foot. And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.\nAnd the Lord said, Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and\nbarefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon\nEthiopia; so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians\nprisoners.... And they (the allies) shall be afraid and ashamed of\nEthiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory.\"[527]\n\nIsaiah warned Ahaz against joining the league, \"in the year that\nTartan[528] came unto Ashdod (when Sargon the king of Assyria sent\nhim)\". The Tartan \"fought against Ashdod and took it\".[529] According\nto Sargon's record the Pretender of Ashdod fled to Arabia, where he\nwas seized by an Arabian chief and delivered up to Assyria. The\npro-Egyptian party in Palestine went under a cloud for a period\nthereafter.\n\nBefore Sargon could deal with Merodach Baladan of Babylon, he found it\nnecessary to pursue the arduous task of breaking up a powerful league\nwhich had been formed against him in the north. The Syro-Cappadocian\nHittite states, including Tabal in Asia Minor and Carchemish in north\nSyria, were combining for the last time against Assyria, supported by\nMita (Midas), king of the Muski-Phrygians, and Rusas, son of Sharduris\nIII, king of Urartu.\n\nUrartu had recovered somewhat from the disasters which it had suffered\nat the hands of Tiglath-pileser, and was winning back portions of its\nlost territory on the north-east frontier of Assyria. A buffer state\nhad been formed in that area by Tiglath-pileser, who had assisted the\nking of the Mannai to weld together the hill tribesmen between Lake\nVan and Lake Urmia into an organized nation. Iranzu, its ruler,\nremained faithful to Assyria and consequently became involved in war\nwith Rusas of Urartu, who either captured or won over several cities\nof the Mannai. Iranzu was succeeded by his son Aza, and this king was\nso pronounced a pro-Assyrian that his pro-Urartian subjects\nassassinated him and set on the throne Bagdatti of Umildish.\n\nSoon after Sargon began his operations in the north he captured\nBagdatti and had him skinned alive. The flag of revolt, however, was\nkept flying by his brother, Ullusunu, but ere long this ambitious man\nfound it prudent to submit to Sargon on condition that he would retain\nthe throne as a faithful Assyrian vassal. His sudden change of policy\nappears to have been due to the steady advance of the Median tribes\ninto the territory of the Mannai. Sargon conducted a vigorous and\nsuccessful campaign against the raiders, and extended Ullusunu's area\nof control.\n\nThe way was now clear to Urartu. In 714 B.C. Sargon attacked the\nrevolting king of Zikirtu, who was supported by an army led by Rusas,\nhis overlord. A fierce battle was fought in which the Assyrians\nachieved a great victory. King Rusas fled, and when he found that the\nAssyrians pressed home their triumph by laying waste the country\nbefore them, he committed suicide, according to the Assyrian records,\nalthough those of Urartu indicate that he subsequently took part in\nthe struggle against Sargon. The Armenian peoples were compelled to\nacknowledge the suzerainty of Assyria, and the conqueror received\ngifts from various tribes between Lake Van and the Caspian Sea, and\nalong the frontiers from Lake Van towards the south-east as far as the\nborders of Elam.\n\nRusas of Urartu was succeeded by Argistes II, who reigned over a\nshrunken kingdom. He intrigued with neighbouring states against\nAssyria, but was closely watched. Ere long he found himself caught\nbetween two fires. During his reign the notorious Cimmerians and\nScythians displayed much activity in the north and raided his\nterritory.\n\nThe pressure of fresh infusions of Thraco-Phrygian tribes into western\nAsia Minor had stirred Midas of the Muski to co-operate with the\nUrartian power in an attempt to stamp out Assyrian influence in\nCilicia, Cappadocia, and north Syria. A revolt in Tabal in 718 B.C.\nwas extinguished by Sargon, but in the following year evidences were\nforthcoming of a more serious and widespread rising. Pisiris, king of\nCarchemish, threw off the Assyrian yoke. Before, however, his allies\ncould hasten to his assistance he was overcome by the vigilant Sargon,\nwho deported a large proportion of the city's inhabitants and\nincorporated it in an Assyrian province. Tabal revolted in 713 B.C.\nand was similarly dealt with. In 712 B.C. Milid had to be overcome.\nThe inhabitants were transported, and \"Suti\" Aramaean peoples settled\nin their homes. The king of Commagene, having remained faithful,\nreceived large extensions of territory. Finally in 709 B.C. Midas of\nthe Muski-Phrygians was compelled to acknowledge the suzerainty of\nAssyria. The northern confederacy was thus completely worsted and\nbroken up. Tribute was paid by many peoples, including the rulers of\nCyprus.\n\nSargon was now able to deal with Babylonia, which for about twelve\nyears had been ruled by Merodach Baladan, who oppressed the people and\nset at defiance ancient laws by seizing private estates and\ntransferring them to his Chaldaean kinsmen. He still received the\nactive support of Elam.\n\nSargon's first move was to interpose his army between those of the\nBabylonians and Elamites. Pushing southward, he subdued the Aramaeans\non the eastern banks of the Tigris, and drove the Elamites into the\nmountains. Then he invaded middle Babylonia from the east. Merodach\nBaladan hastily evacuated Babylon, and, moving southward, succeeded in\nevading Sargon's army. Finding Elam was unable to help him, he took\nrefuge in the Chaldaean capital, Bit Jakin, in southern Babylonia.\n\nSargon was visited by the priests of Babylon and Borsippa, and hailed\nas the saviour of the ancient kingdom. He was afterwards proclaimed\nking at E-sagila, where he \"took the hands of Bel\". Then having\nexpelled the Aramaeans from Sippar, he hastened southward, attacked\nBit Jakin and captured it. Merodach Baladan escaped into Elam. The\nwhole of Chaldaea was subdued.\n\nThus \"Sargon the Later\" entered at length into full possession of the\nempire of Sargon of Akkad. In Babylonia he posed as an incarnation of\nhis ancient namesake, and had similarly Messianic pretensions which\nwere no doubt inspired by the Babylonian priesthood. Under him Assyria\nattained its highest degree of splendour.\n\nHe recorded proudly not only his great conquests but also his works of\npublic utility: he restored ancient cities, irrigated vast tracts of\ncountry, fostered trade, and promoted the industries. Like the pious\nPharaohs of Egypt he boasted that he fed the hungry and protected the\nweak against the strong.\n\nSargon found time during his strenuous career as a conqueror to lay\nout and build a new city, called Dur-Sharrukin, \"the burgh of Sargon\",\nto the north of Nineveh. It was completed before he undertook the\nBabylonian campaign. The new palace was occupied in 708 B.C. Previous\nto that period he had resided principally at Kalkhi, in the restored\npalace of Ashur-natsir-pal III.\n\nHe was a worshipper of many gods. Although he claimed to have restored\nthe supremacy of Asshur \"which had come to an end\", he not only adored\nAshur but also revived the ancient triad of Anu, Bel, and Ea, and\nfostered the growth of the immemorial \"mother-cult\" of Ishtar. Before\nhe died he appointed one of his sons, Sennacherib, viceroy of the\nnorthern portion of the empire. He was either assassinated at a\nmilitary review or in some frontier war. As much is suggested by the\nfollowing entry in an eponym list.\n\n    Eponymy of Upahhir-belu, prefect of the city of Amedu ...\n    According to the oracle of the Kulummite(s).... A soldier\n    (entered) the camp of the king of Assyria (and killed him?), month\n    Ab, day 12th, Sennacherib (sat on the throne).[530]\n\nThe fact that Sennacherib lamented his father's sins suggests that the\nold king had in some manner offended the priesthood. Perhaps, like\nsome of the Middle Empire monarchs, he succumbed to the influence of\nBabylon during the closing years of his life. It is stated that \"he\nwas not buried in his house\", which suggests that the customary\nreligious rites were denied him, and that his lost soul was supposed\nto be a wanderer which had to eat offal and drink impure water like\nthe ghost of a pauper or a criminal.\n\nThe task which lay before Sennacherib (705-680 B.C.) was to maintain\nthe unity of the great empire of his distinguished father. He waged\nminor wars against the Kassite and Illipi tribes on the Elamite\nborder, and the Muski and Hittite tribes in Cappadocia and Cilicia.\nThe Kassites, however, were no longer of any importance, and the\nHittite power had been extinguished, for ere the states could recover\nfrom the blows dealt by the Assyrians the Cimmerian hordes ravaged\ntheir territory. Urartu was also overrun by the fierce barbarians from\nthe north. It was one of these last visits of the Assyrians to Tabal\nof the Hittites and the land of the Muski (Meshech) which the Hebrew\nprophet referred to in after-time when he exclaimed:\n\n    Asshur is there and all her company: his graves are about him:\n    all of them slain, fallen by the sword.... There is Meshech,\n    Tubal, and all her multitude: her graves are round about him: all\n    of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword, though they caused\n    their terror in the land of the living.... (_Ezekiel_, xxxii.)\n\nSennacherib found that Ionians had settled in Cilicia, and he deported\nlarge numbers of them to Nineveh. The metal and ivory work at Nineveh\nshow traces of Greek influence after this period.\n\nA great conspiracy was fomented in several states against Sennacherib\nwhen the intelligence of Sargon's death was bruited abroad. Egypt was\nconcerned in it. Taharka (the Biblical Tirhakah[531]), the last\nPharaoh of the Ethiopian Dynasty, had dreams of re-establishing\nEgyptian supremacy in Palestine and Syria, and leagued himself with\nLuli, king of Tyre, Hezekiah, king of Judah, and others. Merodach\nBaladan, the Chaldaean king, whom Sargon had deposed, supported by\nElamites and Aramaeans, was also a party to the conspiracy. \"At that\ntime Merodach Baladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent\nletters and a present to Hezekiah.... And Hezekiah was glad of\nthem.\"[532]\n\nMerodach Baladan again seized the throne of Babylon. Sargon's son, who\nhad been appointed governor, was murdered and a pretender sat on the\nthrone for a brief period, but Merodach Baladan thrust him aside and\nreigned for nine months, during which period he busied himself by\nencouraging the kings of Judah and Tyre to revolt. Sennacherib invaded\nBabylonia with a strong army, deposed Merodach Baladan, routed the\nChaldaeans and Aramaeans, and appointed as vassal king Bel-ibni, a\nnative prince, who remained faithful to Assyria for about three years.\n\nIn 707 B.C. Sennacherib appeared in the west. When he approached Tyre,\nLuli, the king, fled to Cyprus. The city was not captured, but much of\nits territory was ceded to the king of Sidon. Askalon was afterwards\nreduced. At Eltekeh Sennacherib came into conflict with an army of\nallies, including Ethiopian, Egyptian, and Arabian Mutsri forces,\nwhich he routed. Then he captured a number of cities in Judah and\ntransported 200,150 people. He was unable, however, to enter\nJerusalem, in which Hezekiah was compelled to remain \"like a bird in a\ncage\". It appears that Hezekiah \"bought off\" the Assyrians on this\noccasion with gifts of gold and silver and jewels, costly furniture,\nmusicians, and female slaves.\n\nIn 689 B.C. Sennacherib found it necessary to penetrate Arabia.\nApparently another conspiracy was brewing, for Hezekiah again\nrevolted. On his return from the south--according to Berosus he had\nbeen in Egypt--the Assyrian king marched against the king of Judah.\n\n    And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib was come, and that he was\n    purposed to fight against Jerusalem, he took counsel with the\n    princes and his mighty men to stop the waters of the fountains\n    which were without the city: and they did help him.... Why should\n    the kings of Assyria come and find much water?\n\nSennacherib sent messengers to Jerusalem to attempt to stir up the\npeople against Hezekiah. \"He wrote also letters to rail on the Lord\nGod of Israel, and to speak against him, saying, As the gods of the\nnations of other lands have not delivered their people out of mine\nhand, so shall not the God of Hezekiah deliver his people out of mine\nhand.\"[533]\n\nHezekiah sent his servants to Isaiah, who was in Jerusalem at the\ntime, and the prophet said to them:\n\n    Thus shall ye say to your master. Thus saith the Lord, Be not\n    afraid of the words which thou hast heard, with which the servants\n    of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. Behold, I will send a\n    blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and shall return to\n    his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own\n    land.[534]\n\nAccording to Berosus, the Babylonian priestly historian, the camp of\nSennacherib was visited in the night by swarms of field mice which ate\nup the quivers and bows and the (leather) handles of shields. Next\nmorning the army fled.\n\nThe Biblical account of the disaster is as follows:\n\n    And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went\n    out, and smote the camp of the Assyrians an hundred and four score\n    and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning,\n    behold, they were all dead corpses. So Sennacherib king of Assyria\n    departed, and went and returned and dwelt at Nineveh.[535]\n\nA pestilence may have broken out in the camp, the infection, perhaps,\nhaving been carried by field mice. Byron's imagination was stirred by\nthe vision of the broken army of Assyria.\n\n    The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold,\n    And his cohorts were gleaming with purple and gold;\n    And the sheen of their spears was like stars of the sea,\n    When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.\n\n    Like the leaves of the forest when summer is green,\n    That host with their banners at sunset were seen;\n    Like the leaves of the forest when autumn hath blown,\n    That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.\n\n    For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,\n    And breathed on the face of the foe as he passed;\n    And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,\n    And their hearts but once heaved--and forever grew still!\n\n    And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide,\n    But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride;\n    And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,\n    And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.\n\n    And there lay the rider distorted and pale,\n    With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail;\n    And the tents were all silent--the banners alone--\n    Thelances uplifted--the trumpet unblown.\n\n    And the widows of Asshur are loud in their wail,\n    And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;\n    And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,\n    Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord.\n\nBefore this disaster occurred Sennacherib had to invade Babylonia\nagain, for the vassal king, Bel-ibni, had allied himself with the\nChaldaeans and raised the standard of revolt. The city of Babylon was\nbesieged and captured, and its unfaithful king deported with a number\nof nobles to Assyria. Old Merodach Baladan was concerned in the plot\nand took refuge on the Elamite coast, where the Chaldaeans had formed\na colony. He died soon afterwards.\n\nSennacherib operated in southern Babylonia and invaded Elam. But ere\nhe could return to Assyria he was opposed by a strong army of allies,\nincluding Babylonians, Chaldaeans, Aramaeans, Elamites, and Persians,\nled by Samunu, son of Merodach Baladan. A desperate battle was fought.\nAlthough Sennacherib claimed a victory, he was unable to follow it up.\nThis was in 692 B.C. A Chaldaean named Mushezib-Merodach seized the\nBabylonian throne.\n\nIn 691 B.C. Sennacherib again struck a blow for Babylonia, but was\nunable to depose Mushezib-Merodach. His opportunity came, however, in\n689 B.C. Elam had been crippled by raids of the men of Parsua\n(Persia), and was unable to co-operate with the Chaldaean king of\nBabylon. Sennacherib captured the great commercial metropolis, took\nMushezib-Merodach prisoner, and dispatched him to Nineveh. Then he\nwreaked his vengeance on Babylon. For several days the Assyrian\nsoldiers looted the houses and temples, and slaughtered the\ninhabitants without mercy. E-sagila was robbed of its treasures,\nimages of deities were either broken in pieces or sent to Nineveh: the\nstatue of Bel-Merodach was dispatched to Asshur so that he might take\nhis place among the gods who were vassals of Ashur. \"The city and its\nhouses,\" Sennacherib recorded, \"from foundation to roof, I destroyed\nthem, I demolished them, I burned them with fire; walls, gateways,\nsacred chapels, and the towers of earth and tiles, I laid them low and\ncast them into the Arakhtu.\"[536]\n\n\"So thorough was Sennacherib's destruction of the city in 689 B.C.,\"\nwrites Mr. King, \"that after several years of work, Dr. Koldewey\nconcluded that all traces of earlier buildings had been destroyed on\nthat occasion. More recently some remains of earlier strata have been\nrecognized, and contract-tablets have been found which date from the\nperiod of the First Dynasty. Moreover, a number of earlier pot-burials\nhave been unearthed, but a careful examination of the greater part of\nthe ruins has added little to our knowledge of this most famous city\nbefore the Neo-Babylonian period.\"[537]\n\nIt is possible that Sennacherib desired to supplant Babylon as a\ncommercial metropolis by Nineveh. He extended and fortified that city,\nsurrounding it with two walls protected by moats. According to\nDiodorus, the walls were a hundred feet high and about fifty feet\nwide. Excavators have found that at the gates they were about a\nhundred feet in breadth. The water supply of the city was ensured by\nthe construction of dams and canals, and strong quays were erected to\nprevent flooding. Sennacherib repaired a lofty platform which was\nisolated by a canal, and erected upon it his great palace. On another\nplatform he had an arsenal built.\n\nSennacherib's palace was the most magnificent building of its kind\never erected by an Assyrian emperor. It was lavishly decorated, and\nits bas-reliefs display native art at its highest pitch of excellence.\nThe literary remains of the time also give indication of the growth of\nculture: the inscriptions are distinguished by their prose style. It\nis evident that men of culture and refinement were numerous in\nAssyria. The royal library of Kalkhi received many additions during\nthe reign of the destroyer of Babylon.\n\nLike his father, Sennacherib died a violent death. According to the\nBabylonian Chronicle he was slain in a revolt by his son \"on the\ntwentieth day of Tebet\" (680 B.C). The revolt continued from the \"20th\nof Tebet\" (early in January) until the 2nd day of Adar (the middle of\nFebruary). On the 18th of Adar, Esarhaddon, son of Sennacherib, was\nproclaimed king.\n\nBerosus states that Sennacherib was murdered by two of his sons, but\nEsarhaddon was not one of the conspirators. The Biblical reference is\nas follows: \"Sennacherib ... dwelt at Nineveh. And it came to pass, as\nhe was worshipping in the house of Nisroch (?Ashur) his god, that\nAdrammelech and Sharezer (Ashur-shar-etir) his sons smote him with the\nsword: and they escaped into the land of Armenia (Urartu). And\nEsarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.\" Ashur-shar-etir appears to\nhave been the claimant to the throne.\n\nEsarhaddon (680-668 B.C.) was a man of different type from his father.\nHe adopted towards vassal states a policy of conciliation, and did\nmuch to secure peace within the empire by his magnanimous treatment of\nrebel kings who had been intimidated by their neighbours and forced to\nentwine themselves in the meshes of intrigue. His wars were directed\nmainly to secure the protection of outlying provinces against\naggressive raiders.\n\nThe monarch was strongly influenced by his mother, Naki'a, a\nBabylonian princess who appears to have been as distinguished a lady\nas the famous Sammu-rammat. Indeed, it is possible that traditions\nregarding her contributed to the Semiramis legends. But it was not\nonly due to her that Esarhaddon espoused the cause of the\npro-Babylonian party. He appears to be identical with the Axerdes of\nBerosus, who ruled over the southern kingdom for eight years.\nApparently he had been appointed governor by Sennacherib after the\ndestruction of Babylon, and it may be that during his term of office\nin Babylonia he was attracted by its ethical ideals, and developed\nthose traits of character which distinguished him from his father and\ngrandfather. He married a Babylonian princess, and one of his sons,\nShamash-shum-ukin, was born in a Babylonian palace, probably at\nSippar. He was a worshipper of the mother goddess Ishtar of Nineveh\nand Ishtar of Arbela, and of Shamash, as well as of the national god\nAshur.\n\nAs soon as Esarhaddon came to the throne he undertook the restoration\nof Babylon, to which many of the inhabitants were drifting back. In\nthree years the city resumed its pre-eminent position as a trading and\nindustrial centre. Withal, he won the hearts of the natives by\nexpelling Chaldaeans from the private estates which they had seized\nduring the Merodach-Baladan regime, and restoring them to the rightful\nheirs.\n\nA Chaldaean revolt was inevitable. Two of Merodach Baladan's sons gave\ntrouble in the south, but were routed in battle. One fled to Elam,\nwhere he was assassinated; the other sued for peace, and was accepted\nby the diplomatic Esarhaddon as a vassal king.\n\nEgypt was intriguing in the west. Its Ethiopian king, Taharka (the\nBiblical Tirhakah) had stirred up Hezekiah to revolt during\nSennacherib's reign. An Assyrian ambassador who had visited Jerusalem\n\"heard say concerning Tirhakah.... He sent messengers to Hezekiah\nsaying.... Let not thy God, in whom thou trustest, deceive thee\nsaying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of\nAssyria. Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done\nto all lands by destroying them utterly; and shalt thou be delivered?\nHave the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have\ndestroyed, as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden\nwhich were in Telassar? Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of\nArphad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?\"[538]\nSidon was a party to the pro-Egyptian league which had been formed in\nPalestine and Syria.\n\nEarly in his reign Esarhaddon conducted military operations in the\nwest, and during his absence the queen-mother Naki'a held the reins of\ngovernment. The Elamites regarded this innovation as a sign of\nweakness, and invaded Babylon. Sippar was plundered, and its gods\ncarried away. The Assyrian governors, however, ultimately repulsed the\nElamite king, who was deposed soon after he returned home. His son,\nwho succeeded him, restored the stolen gods, and cultivated good\nrelations with Esarhaddon. There was great unrest in Elam at this\nperiod: it suffered greatly from the inroads of Median and Persian\npastoral fighting folk.\n\nIn the north the Cimmerians and Scythians, who were constantly warring\nagainst Urartu, and against each other, had spread themselves westward\nand east. Esarhaddon drove Cimmerian invaders out of Cappadocia, and\nthey swamped Phrygia.\n\nThe Scythian peril on the north-east frontier was, however, of more\npronounced character. The fierce mountaineers had allied themselves\nwith Median tribes and overrun the buffer State of the Mannai. Both\nUrartu and Assyria were sufferers from the brigandage of these allies.\nEsarhaddon's generals, however, were able to deal with the situation,\nand one of the notable results of the pacification of the\nnorth-eastern area was the conclusion of an alliance with Urartu.\n\nThe most serious situation with which the emperor had to deal was in\nthe west. The King of Sidon, who had been so greatly favoured by\nSennacherib, had espoused the Egyptian cause. He allied himself with\nthe King of Cilicia, who, however, was unable to help him much. Sidon\nwas besieged and captured; the royal allies escaped, but a few years\nlater were caught and beheaded. The famous seaport was destroyed, and\nits vast treasures deported to Assyria (about 676 B.C). Esarhaddon\nreplaced it by a new city called Kar-Esarhaddon, which formed the\nnucleus of the new Sidon.\n\nIt is believed that Judah and other disaffected States were dealt with\nabout this time. Manasseh had succeeded Hezekiah at Jerusalem when but\na boy of twelve years. He appears to have come under the influence of\nheathen teachers.\n\n    For he built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father\n    had destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal, and made a grove,\n    as did Ahab king of Israel; and worshipped all the host of heaven,\n    and served them.... And he built altars for all the host of heaven\n    in the two courts of the house of the Lord. And he made his son\n    pass through the fire, and observed times, and used enchantments,\n    and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards: he wrought much\n    wickedness in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger. And\n    he set a graven image of the grove that he had made in the house,\n    of which the Lord said to David, and to Solomon his son, In this\n    house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all tribes of\n    Israel, will I put my name for ever.[539]\n\nIsaiah ceased to prophesy after Manasseh came to the throne. According\nto Rabbinic traditions he was seized by his enemies and enclosed in\nthe hollow trunk of a tree, which was sawn through. Other orthodox\nteachers appear to have been slain also. \"Manasseh shed innocent blood\nvery much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another.\"[540]\nIt is possible that there is a reference to Isaiah's fate in an early\nChristian lament regarding the persecutions of the faithful: \"Others\nhad trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and\nimprisonment: they were stoned, _they were sawn asunder_, were\ntempted, were slain with the sword\".[541] There is no Assyrian\nevidence regarding the captivity of Manasseh. \"Wherefore the Lord\nbrought upon them (the people of Judah) the captains of the host of\nthe king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound\nhim with fetters, and carried him to Babylon. And when he was in\naffliction, he besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly\nbefore the God of his fathers, and prayed unto him: and he was\nintreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to\nJerusalem into his kingdom.\"[542] It was, however, in keeping with the\npolicy of Esarhaddon to deal in this manner with an erring vassal. The\nAssyrian records include Manasseh of Judah (Menas\u00ea of the city of\nYaudu) with the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, Ashdod, Gaza,\nByblos, &c, and \"twenty-two kings of Khatti\" as payers of tribute to\nEsarhaddon, their overlord. Hazael of Arabia was conciliated by having\nrestored to him his gods which Sennacherib had carried away.\n\nEgypt continued to intrigue against Assyria, and Esarhaddon resolved\nto deal effectively with Taharka, the last Ethiopian Pharaoh. In 674\nB.C. he invaded Egypt, but suffered a reverse and had to retreat. Tyre\nrevolted soon afterwards (673 B.C).\n\nEsarhaddon, however, made elaborate preparations for his next\ncampaign. In 671 B.C. he went westward with a much more powerful army.\nA detachment advanced to Tyre and invested it. The main force\nmeanwhile pushed on, crossed the Delta frontier, and swept\nvictoriously as far south as Memphis, where Taharka suffered a\ncrushing defeat. That great Egyptian metropolis was then occupied and\nplundered by the soldiers of Esarhaddon. Lower Egypt became an\nAssyrian province; the various petty kings, including Necho of Sais,\nhad set over them Assyrian governors. Tyre was also captured.\n\nWhen he returned home Esarhaddon erected at the Syro-Cappadocian city\nof Singirli[543] a statue of victory, which is now in the Berlin\nmuseum. On this memorial the Assyrian \"King of the kings of Egypt\" is\ndepicted as a giant. With one hand he pours out an oblation to a god;\nin the other he grasps his sceptre and two cords attached to rings,\nwhich pierce the lips of dwarfish figures representing the Pharaoh\nTaharka of Egypt and the unfaithful King of Tyre.\n\nIn 668 B.C. Taharka, who had fled to Napata in Ethiopia, returned to\nUpper Egypt, and began to stir up revolts. Esarhaddon planned out\nanother expedition, so that he might shatter the last vestige of power\npossessed by his rival. But before he left home he found it necessary\nto set his kingdom in order.\n\nDuring his absence from home the old Assyrian party, who disliked the\nemperor because of Babylonian sympathies, had been intriguing\nregarding the succession to the throne. According to the Babylonian\nChronicle, \"the king remained in Assyria\" during 669 B.C., \"and he\nslew with the sword many noble men\". Ashur-bani-pal was evidently\nconcerned in the conspiracy, and it is significant to find that he\npleaded on behalf of certain of the conspirators. The crown prince\nSinidinabal was dead: perhaps he had been assassinated.\n\nAt the feast of the goddess Gula (identical with Bau, consort of\nNinip), towards the end of April in 668 B.C., Esarhaddon divided his\nempire between two of his sons. Ashur-bani-pal was selected to be King\nof Assyria, and Shamash-shum-ukin to be King of Babylon and the vassal\nof Ashur-banipal. Other sons received important priestly appointments.\n\nSoon after these arrangements were completed Esarhaddon, who was\nsuffering from bad health, set out for Egypt. He died towards the end\nof October, and the early incidents of his campaign were included in\nthe records of Ashur-bani-pal's reign. Taharka was defeated at\nMemphis, and retreated southward to Thebes.\n\nSo passed away the man who has been eulogized as \"the noblest and most\nsympathetic figure among the Assyrian kings\". There was certainly much\nwhich was attractive in his character. He inaugurated many social\nreforms, and appears to have held in check his overbearing nobles.\nTrade flourished during his reign. He did not undertake the erection\nof a new city, like his father, but won the gratitude of the\npriesthood by his activities as a builder and restorer of temples. He\nfounded a new \"house of Ashur\" at Nineveh, and reconstructed several\ntemples in Babylonia. His son Ashur-bani-pal was the last great\nAssyrian ruler.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XX.\n\nTHE LAST DAYS OF ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA\n\n\n  Doom of Nineveh and Babylon--Babylonian Monotheism--Ashur-banipal\n  and his Brother, King of Babylon--Ceremony of \"Taking the Hands of\n  Bel\"--Merodach restored to E-sagila--Assyrian Invasion of Egypt and\n  Sack of Thebes--Lydia's Appeal to Assyria--Elam subdued--Revolt of\n  Babylon--Death of Babylonian King--Sack of Susa--Psamtik of\n  Egypt--Cimmerians crushed--Ashur-bani-pal's Literary Activities--The\n  Sardanapalus Legend--Last Kings of Assyria--Fall of Nineveh--The New\n  Babylonian Empire--Necho of Egypt expelled from Syria--King\n  Jehoaikin of Judah deposed--Zedekiah's Revolt and Punishment--Fall\n  of Jerusalem and Hebrew Captivity--Jeremiah laments over\n  Jerusalem--Babylonia's Last Independent King--Rise of Cyrus the\n  Conqueror--The Persian Patriarch and Eagle Legend--Cyrus conquers\n  Lydia--Fall of Babylon--Jews return to Judah--Babylon from Cyrus to\n  Alexander the Great.\n\n\nThe burden of Nineveh.... The Lord is slow to anger, and great in\npower, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the Lord hath his way in\nthe whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his\nfeet. He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the\nrivers: Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon\nlanguisheth.... He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy\nface.... The gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall\nbe dissolved. And Huzzab shall be led away captive, she shall be\nbrought up, and her maids shall lead her as with the voice of doves,\ntabering upon their breasts.... Draw thee waters for the siege,\nfortify thy strong holds: go into clay, and tread the morter, make\nstrong the brick-kiln. There shall the fire devour thee; the sword\nshall cut thee off.... Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria: thy\nnobles shall dwell in the dust: thy people is scattered upon the\nmountains, and no man gathereth them. There is no healing of thy\nbruise; thy wound is grievous: all that hear the bruit of thee shall\nclap the hands over thee: for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed\ncontinually?[544]\n\nThe doom of Babylon was also foretold:\n\n    Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth.... Come down, and sit in the\n    dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no\n    throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans.... Stand now with thine\n    enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein\n    thou hast laboured from thy youth; if so be thou shalt be able to\n    profit, if so be thou mayest prevail. Thou art wearied in the\n    multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the\n    star-gazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee\n    from these things that shall come upon thee. Behold, they shall be\n    as stubble; the fire shall burn them.... Thus shall they be unto\n    thee with whom thou hast laboured, even thy merchants, from thy\n    youth: they shall wander every one to his quarter; none shall save\n    thee.[545]\n\nAgainst a gloomy background, dark and ominous as a thundercloud, we\nhave revealed in the last century of Mesopotamian glory the splendour\nof Assyria and the beauty of Babylon. The ancient civilizations\nripened quickly before the end came. Kings still revelled in pomp and\nluxury. Cities resounded with \"the noise of a whip, and the noise of\nthe rattling of the wheels, and of the prancing horses, and of the\njumping chariots. The horseman lifteth up both the bright sword and\nthe glittering spear.... The valiant men are in scarlet.\"[546] But the\nminds of cultured men were more deeply occupied than ever with the\nmysteries of life and creation. In the libraries, the temples, and\nobservatories, philosophers and scientists were shattering the\nunsubstantial fabric of immemorial superstition; they attained to\nhigher conceptions of the duties and responsibilities of mankind; they\nconceived of divine love and divine guidance; they discovered, like\nWordsworth, that the soul has--\n\n                 An obscure sense\n    Of possible sublimity, whereto\n    With growing faculties she doth aspire.\n\nOne of the last kings of Babylon, Nebuchadrezzar, recorded a prayer\nwhich reveals the loftiness of religious thought and feeling attained\nby men to whom graven images were no longer worthy of adoration and\nreverence--men whose god was not made by human hands--\n\n    O eternal prince! Lord of all being!\n    As for the king whom thou lovest, and\n    Whose name thou hast proclaimed\n    As was pleasing to thee,\n    Do thou lead aright his life,\n    Guide him in a straight path.\n    I am the prince, obedient to thee,\n    The creature of thy hand;\n    Thou hast created me, and\n    With dominion over all people\n    Thou hast entrusted me.\n    According to thy grace, O Lord,\n    Which thou dost bestow on\n    All people,\n    Cause me to love thy supreme dominion,\n    And create in my heart\n    The worship of thy godhead\n    And grant whatever is pleasing to thee,\n    Because thou hast fashioned my life.[547]\n\nThe \"star-gazers\" had become scientists, and foretold eclipses: in\nevery sphere of intellectual activity great men were sifting out truth\nfrom the debris of superstition. It seemed as if Babylon and Assyria\nwere about to cross the threshold of a new age, when their doom was\nsounded and their power was shattered for ever. Nineveh perished with\ndramatic suddenness: Babylon died of \"senile decay\".\n\nWhen, in 668 B.C., intelligence reached Nineveh that Esarhaddon had\npassed away, on the march through Egypt, the arrangements which he had\nmade for the succession were carried out smoothly and quickly. Naki'a,\nthe queen mother, was acting as regent, and completed her lifework by\nissuing a proclamation exhorting all loyal subjects and vassals to\nobey the new rulers, her grandsons, Ashur-bani-pal, Emperor of\nAssyria, and Shamash-shum-ukin, King of Babylon. Peace prevailed in\nthe capital, and there was little or no friction throughout the\nprovinces: new rulers were appointed to administer the States of Arvad\nand Ammon, but there were no changes elsewhere.\n\nBabylon welcomed its new king--a Babylonian by birth and the son of a\nBabylonian princess. The ancient kingdom rejoiced that it was no\nlonger to be ruled as a province; its ancient dignities and privileges\nwere being partially restored. But one great and deep-seated grievance\nremained. The god Merodach was still a captive in the temple of Ashur.\nNo king could reign aright if Merodach were not restored to E-sagila.\nIndeed he could not be regarded as the lord of the land until he had\n\"taken the hands of Bel\".\n\nThe ceremony of taking the god's hands was an act of homage. When it\nwas consummated the king became the steward or vassal of Merodach, and\nevery day he appeared before the divine one to receive instructions\nand worship him. The welfare of the whole kingdom depended on the\nmanner in which the king acted towards the god. If Merodach was\nsatisfied with the king he sent blessings to the land; if he was angry\nhe sent calamities. A pious and faithful monarch was therefore the\nprotector of the people.\n\nThis close association of the king with the god gave the priests great\ninfluence in Babylon. They were the power behind the throne. The\ndestinies of the royal house were placed in their hands; they could\nstrengthen the position of a royal monarch, or cause him to be deposed\nif he did not satisfy their demands. A king who reigned over Babylon\nwithout the priestly party on his side occupied an insecure position.\nNor could he secure the co-operation of the priests unless the image\nof the god was placed in the temple. Where king was, there Merodach\nhad to be also.\n\nShamash-shum-ukin pleaded with his royal brother and overlord to\nrestore Bel Merodach to Babylon. Ashur-bani-pal hesitated for a time;\nhe was unwilling to occupy a less dignified position, as the\nrepresentative of Ashur, than his distinguished predecessor, in his\nrelation to the southern kingdom. At length, however, he was prevailed\nupon to consult the oracle of Shamash, the solar lawgiver, the\nrevealer of destiny. The god was accordingly asked if\nShamash-shum-ukin could \"take the hands of Bel\" in Ashur's temple, and\nthen proceed to Babylon as his representative. In response, the\npriests of Shamash informed the emperor that Bel Merodach could not\nexercise sway as sovereign lord so long as he remained a prisoner in a\ncity which was not his own.\n\nAshur-bani-pal accepted the verdict, and then visited Ashur's temple\nto plead with Bel Merodach to return to Babylon. \"Let thy thoughts\",\nhe cried, \"dwell in Babylon, which in thy wrath thou didst bring to\nnaught. Let thy face be turned towards E-sagila, thy lofty and divine\ntemple. Return to the city thou hast deserted for a house unworthy of\nthee. O Merodach! lord of the gods, issue thou the command to return\nagain to Babylon.\"\n\nThus did Ashur-bani-pal make pious and dignified submission to the\nwill of the priests. A favourable response was, of course, received\nfrom Merodach when addressed by the emperor, and the god's image was\ncarried back to E-sagila, accompanied by a strong force.\nAshur-bani-pal and Shamash-shum-ukin led the procession of priests and\nsoldiers, and elaborate ceremonials were observed at each city they\npassed, the local gods being carried forth to do homage to Merodach.\n\nBabylon welcomed the deity who was thus restored to his temple after\nthe lapse of about a quarter of a century, and the priests celebrated\nwith unconcealed satisfaction and pride the ceremony at which\nShamash-shum-ukin \"took the hands of Bel\". The public rejoicings were\nconducted on an elaborate scale. Babylon believed that a new era of\nprosperity had been inaugurated, and the priests and nobles looked\nforward to the day when the kingdom would once again become free and\nindependent and powerful.\n\nAshur-bani-pal (668-626 B.C.) made arrangements to complete his\nfather's designs regarding Egypt. His Tartan continued the campaign,\nand Taharka, as has been stated, was driven from Memphis. The beaten\nPharaoh returned to Ethiopia and did not again attempt to expel the\nAssyrians. He died in 666 B.C. It was found that some of the petty\nkings of Lower Egypt had been intriguing with Taharka, and their\ncities were severely dealt with. Necho of Sais had to be arrested,\namong others, but was pardoned after he appeared before\nAshur-bani-pal, and sent back to Egypt as the Assyrian governor.\n\nTanutamon, a son of Pharaoh Shabaka, succeeded Taharka, and in 663\nB.C. marched northward from Thebes with a strong army. He captured\nMemphis. It is believed Necho was slain, and Herodotus relates that\nhis son Psamtik took refuge in Syria. In 661 B.C. Ashur-bani-pal's\narmy swept through Lower Egypt and expelled the Ethiopians. Tanutamon\nfled southward, but on this occasion the Assyrians followed up their\nsuccess, and besieged and captured Thebes, which they sacked. Its\nnobles were slain or taken captive. According to the prophet Nahum,\nwho refers to Thebes as No (Nu-Amon = city of Amon), \"her young\nchildren also were dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets: and\nthey (the Assyrians) cast lots for her honourable men, and all her\ngreat men were bound in chains\".[548] Thebes never again recovered its\nprestige. Its treasures were transported to Nineveh. The Ethiopian\nsupremacy in Egypt was finally extinguished, and Psamtik, son of\nNecho, who was appointed the Pharaoh, began to reign as the vassal of\nAssyria.\n\nWhen the kings on the seacoasts of Palestine and Asia Minor found that\nthey could no longer look to Egypt for help, they resigned themselves\nto the inevitable, and ceased to intrigue against Assyria. Gifts were\nsent to Ashur-bani-pal by the kings of Arvad, Tyre, Tarsus, and Tabal.\nThe Arvad ruler, however, was displaced, and his son set on his\nthrone. But the most extraordinary development was the visit to\nNineveh of emissaries from Gyges, king of Lydia, who figures in the\nlegends of Greece. This monarch had been harassed by the Cimmerians\nafter they accomplished the fall of Midas of Phrygia in 676 B.C., and\nhe sought the help of Ashur-bani-pal. It is not known whether the\nAssyrians operated against the Cimmerians in Tabal, but, as Gyges did\nnot send tribute, it would appear that he held his own with the aid of\nmercenaries from the State of Caria in southwestern Asia Minor. The\nGreeks of Cilicia, and the Achaeans and Phoenicians of Cyprus remained\nfaithful to Assyria.\n\nElam gave trouble in 665 B.C. by raiding Akkad, but the Assyrian army\nrepulsed the invaders at Dur-ilu and pushed on to Susa. The Elamites\nreceived a crushing defeat in a battle on the banks of the River Ula.\nKing Teumman was slain, and a son of the King of Urtagu was placed on\nhis throne. Elam thus came under Assyrian sway.\n\nThe most surprising and sensational conspiracy against Ashur-bani-pal\nwas fomented by his brother Shamash-shum-ukin of Babylon, after the\ntwo had co-operated peacefully for fifteen years. No doubt the\npriestly party at E-sagila were deeply concerned in the movement, and\nthe king may have been strongly influenced by the fact that Babylonia\nwas at the time suffering from severe depression caused by a series of\npoor harvests. Merodach, according to the priests, was angry; it was\nprobably argued that he was punishing the people because they had not\nthrown off the yoke of Assyria.\n\nThe temple treasures of Babylon were freely drawn upon to purchase the\nallegiance of allies. Ere Ashur-bani-pal had any knowledge of the\nconspiracy his brother had won over several governors in Babylonia,\nthe Chaldaeans, Aramaeans and Elamites, and many petty kings in\nPalestine and Syria: even Egypt and Libya were prepared to help him.\nWhen, however, the faithful governor of Ur was approached, he\ncommunicated with his superior at Erech, who promptly informed\nAshur-bani-pal of the great conspiracy. The intelligence reached\nNineveh like a bolt from the blue. The emperor's heart was filled with\nsorrow and anguish. In after-time he lamented in an inscription that\nhis \"faithless brother\" forgot the favours he had shown him.\n\"Outwardly with his lips he spoke friendly things, while inwardly his\nheart plotted murder.\"\n\nIn 652 B.C. Shamash-shum-ukin precipitated the crisis by forbidding\nAshur-bani-pal to make offerings to the gods in the cities of\nBabylonia. He thus declared his independence.\n\nWar broke out simultaneously. Ur and Erech were besieged and captured\nby the Chaldaeans, and an Elamite army marched to the aid of the King\nof Babylon, but it was withdrawn before long on account of the\nunsettled political conditions at home. The Assyrian armies swept\nthrough Babylonia, and the Chaldeans in the south were completely\nsubjugated before Babylon was captured. That great commercial\nmetropolis was closely besieged for three years, and was starved into\nsubmission. When the Assyrians were entering the city gates a\nsensational happening occurred. Shamash-shum-ukin, the rebel king,\nshut himself up in his palace and set fire to it, and perished there\namidst the flames with his wife and children, his slaves and all his\ntreasures. Ashur-bani-pal was in 647 B.C. proclaimed King\nKandalanu[549] of Babylon, and reigned over it until his death in 626\nB.C.\n\nElam was severely dealt with. That unhappy country was terribly\ndevastated by Assyrian troops, who besieged and captured Susa, which\nwas pillaged and wrecked. It was recorded afterwards as a great\ntriumph of this campaign that the statue of Nana of Erech, which had\nbeen carried off by Elamites 1635 years previously, was recovered and\nrestored to the ancient Sumerian city. Elam's power of resistance was\nfinally extinguished, and the country fell a ready prey to the Medes\nand Persians, who soon entered into possession of it. Thus, by\ndestroying a buffer State, Ashur-bani-pal strengthened the hands of\nthe people who were destined twenty years after his death to destroy\nthe Empire of Assyria.\n\nThe western allies of Babylon were also dealt with, and it may be that\nat this time Manasseh of Judah was taken to Babylon (_2 Chronicles_,\nxxxiii, II), where, however, he was forgiven. The Medes and the Mannai\nin the north-west were visited and subdued, and a new alliance was\nformed with the dying State of Urartu.\n\nPsamtik of Egypt had thrown off the yoke of Assyria, and with the\nassistance of Carian mercenaries received from his ally, Gyges, king\nof Lydia, extended his sway southward. He made peace with Ethiopia by\nmarrying a princess of its royal line. Gyges must have weakened his\narmy by thus assisting Psamtik, for he was severely defeated and slain\nby the Cimmerians. His son, Ardys, appealed to Assyria for help.\nAshur-bani-pal dispatched an army to Cilicia. The joint operations of\nAssyria and Lydia resulted in the extinction of the kingdom of the\nCimmerians about 645 B.C.\n\nThe records of Ashur-bani-pal cease after 640 B.C., so that we are\nunable to follow the events of his reign during its last fourteen\nyears. Apparently peace prevailed everywhere. The great monarch, who\nwas a pronounced adherent of the goddess cults, appears to have given\nhimself up to a life of indulgence and inactivity. Under the name\nSardanapalus he went down to tradition as a sensual Oriental monarch\nwho lived in great pomp and luxury, and perished in his burning palace\nwhen the Medes revolted against him. It is evident, however, that the\nmemory of more than one monarch contributed to the Sardanapalus\nlegend, for Ashur-bani-pal had lain nearly twenty years in his grave\nbefore the siege of Nineveh took place.\n\nIn the Bible he is referred to as \"the great and noble Asnapper\", and\nhe appears to have been the emperor who settled the Babylonian,\nElamite, and other colonists \"in the cities of Samaria\".[550]\n\nHe erected at Nineveh a magnificent palace, which was decorated on a\nlavish scale. The sculptures are the finest productions of Assyrian\nart, and embrace a wide variety of subjects--battle scenes, hunting\nscenes, and elaborate Court and temple ceremonies. Realism is combined\nwith a delicacy of touch and a degree of originality which raises the\nartistic productions of the period to the front rank among the\nartistic triumphs of antiquity.\n\nAshur-bani-pal boasted of the thorough education which he had received\nfrom the tutors of his illustrious father, Esarhaddon. In his palace\nhe kept a magnificent library. It contained thousands of clay tablets\non which were inscribed and translated the classics of Babylonia. To\nthe scholarly zeal of this cultured monarch is due the preservation of\nthe Babylonian story of creation, the Gilgamesh and Etana legends, and\nother literary and religious products of remote antiquity. Most of the\nliterary tablets in the British Museum were taken from\nAshur-bani-pal's library.\n\nThere are no Assyrian records of the reigns of Ashur-bani-pal's two\nsons, Ashur-etil-ilani--who erected a small palace and reconstructed\nthe temple to Nebo at Kalkhi--and Sin-shar-ishkun, who is supposed to\nhave perished in Nineveh. Apparently Ashur-etil-ilani reigned for at\nleast six years, and was succeeded by his brother.\n\nA year after Ashur-bani-pal died, Nabopolassar, who was probably a\nChaldaean, was proclaimed king at Babylon. According to Babylonian\nlegend he was an Assyrian general who had been sent southward with an\narmy to oppose the advance of invaders from the sea. Nabopolassar's\nsway at first was confined to Babylon and Borsippa, but he\nstrengthened himself by forming an offensive and defensive alliance\nwith the Median king, whose daughter he had married to his son\nNebuchadrezzar. He strengthened the fortifications of Babylon, rebuilt\nthe temple of Merodach, which had been destroyed by Ashur-bani-pal,\nand waged war successfully against the Assyrians and their allies in\nMesopotamia.\n\nAbout 606 B.C. Nineveh fell, and Sin-shar-ishkun may have burned\nhimself there in his palace, like his uncle, Shamash-shum-ukin of\nBabylon, and the legendary Sardanapalus. It is not certain, however,\nwhether the Scythians or the Medes were the successful besiegers of\nthe great Assyrian capital. \"Woe to the bloody city! it is all full of\nlies and robbery\", Nahum had cried.\"... The gates of the rivers shall\nbe opened, and the palace shall be dissolved.... Take ye the spoil of\nsilver, take the spoil of gold.... Behold, I am against thee, saith\nthe Lord of hosts[551].\"\n\nAccording to Herodotus, an army of Medes under Cyaxares had defeated\nthe Assyrians and were besieging Nineveh when the Scythians overran\nMedia. Cyaxares raised the siege and went against them, but was\ndefeated. Then the Scythians swept across Assyria and Mesopotamia, and\npenetrated to the Delta frontier of Egypt. Psamtik ransomed his\nkingdom with handsome gifts. At length, however, Cyaxares had the\nScythian leaders slain at a banquet, and then besieged and captured\nNineveh.\n\nAssyria was completely overthrown. Those of its nobles and priests who\nescaped the sword no doubt escaped to Babylonia. Some may have found\nrefuge also in Palestine and Egypt.\n\nNecho, the second Pharaoh of the Twenty-sixth Egyptian Dynasty, did\nnot hesitate to take advantage of Assyria's fall. In 609 B.C. he\nproceeded to recover the long-lost Asiatic possessions of Egypt, and\noperated with an army and fleet. Gaza and Askalon were captured.\nJosiah, the grandson of Manasseh, was King of Judah. \"In his days\nPharaoh-nechoh king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to\nthe river Euphrates: and king Josiah went against him; and he (Necho)\nslew him at Megiddo.\"[552] His son, Jehoahaz, succeeded him, but was\ndeposed three months later by Necho, who placed another son of Josiah,\nnamed Eliakim, on the throne, \"and turned his name to Jehoiakim\".[553]\nThe people were heavily taxed to pay tribute to the Pharaoh.\n\nWhen Necho pushed northward towards the Euphrates he was met by a\nBabylonian army under command of Prince Nebuchadrezzar.[554] The\nEgyptians were routed at Carchemish in 605 B.C. (_Jeremiah_, xvi, 2).\n\nIn 604 B.C. Nabopolassar died, and the famous Nebuchadrezzar II\nascended the throne of Babylon. He lived to be one of its greatest\nkings, and reigned for over forty years. It was he who built the city\ndescribed by Herodotus (pp. 219 _et seq._), and constructed its outer\nwall, which enclosed so large an area that no army could invest it.\nMerodach's temple was decorated with greater magnificence than ever\nbefore. The great palace and hanging gardens were erected by this\nmighty monarch, who no doubt attracted to the city large numbers of\nthe skilled artisans who had fled from Nineveh. He also restored\ntemples at other cities, and made generous gifts to the priests.\nCaptives were drafted into Babylonia from various lands, and employed\ncleaning out the canals and as farm labourers.\n\nThe trade and industries of Babylon flourished greatly, and\nNebuchadrezzar's soldiers took speedy vengeance on roving bands which\ninfested the caravan roads. \"The king of Egypt\", after his crushing\ndefeat at Carchemish, \"came not again any more out of his land: for\nthe king of Babylon had taken from the river of Egypt unto the river\nEuphrates all that pertained to the king of Egypt.\"[555] Jehoiakim of\nJudah remained faithful to Necho until he was made a prisoner by\nNebuchadrezzar, who \"bound him in fetters to carry him to\nBabylon\".[556] He was afterwards sent back to Jerusalem. \"And\nJehoiakim became his (Nebuchadrezzar's) servant three years: then he\nturned and rebelled against him.\"[557]\n\nBands of Chaldaeans, Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites were harassing\nthe frontiers of Judah, and it seemed to the king as if the Babylonian\npower had collapsed. Nebuchadrezzar hastened westward and scattered\nthe raiders before him. Jehoiakim died, and his son Jehoiachan, a\nyouth of eighteen years, succeeded him. Nebuchadrezzar laid siege to\nJerusalem, and the young king submitted to him and was carried off to\nBabylon, with \"all the princes, and all the mighty men of valour, even\nten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths: none remained\nsave the poorest sort of the people of the land\".[558] Nebuchadrezzar\nhad need of warriors and workmen.\n\nZedekiah was placed on the throne of Judah as an Assyrian vassal. He\nremained faithful for a few years, but at length began to conspire\nwith Tyre and Sidon, Moab, Edom, and Ammon in favour of Egyptian\nsuzerainty. Pharaoh Hophra (Apries), the fourth king of the\nTwenty-sixth Dynasty, took active steps to assist the conspirators,\nand \"Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon[559]\".\n\nNebuchadrezzar led a strong army through Mesopotamia, and divided it\nat Riblah, on the Orontes River. One part of it descended upon Judah\nand captured Lachish and Azekah. Jerusalem was able to hold out for\nabout eighteen months. Then \"the famine was sore in the city, so that\nthere was no bread for the people of the land. Then the city was\nbroken up, and all the men of war fled, and went forth out of the city\nby night by way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the\nking's garden.\" Zedekiah attempted to escape, but was captured and\ncarried before Nebuchadrezzar, who was at Riblah, in the land of\nHamath.\n\n    And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his\n    eyes.... Then he put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of\n    Babylon bound him in chains and carried him to Babylon and put him\n    in prison till the day of his death[560].\n\nThe majority of the Jews were deported to Babylonia, where they were\nemployed as farm labourers. Some rose to occupy important official\npositions. A remnant escaped to Egypt with Jeremiah.\n\nJerusalem was plundered and desolated. The Assyrians \"burned the house\nof the Lord and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem\",\nand \"brake down all the walls of Jerusalem round about\". Jeremiah\nlamented:\n\n    How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is\n    she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and\n    princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary! She\n    weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: among\n    all her lovers she hath none to comfort her: all her friends have\n    dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies. Judah\n    is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great\n    servitude: she dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no rest:\n    all her persecutors overtook her between the straits.... Jerusalem\n    remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all\n    her pleasant things that she had in the days of old....[561]\n\nTyre was besieged, but was not captured. Its king, however, arranged\nterms of peace with Nebuchadrezzar.\n\nAmel-Marduk, the \"Evil Merodach\" of the Bible, the next king of\nBabylon, reigned for a little over two years. He released Jehoiachin\nfrom prison, and allowed him to live in the royal palace.[562] Berosus\nrelates that Amel-Marduk lived a dissipated life, and was slain by his\nbrother-in-law, Nergal-shar-utsur, who reigned two years (559-6 B.C.).\nLabashi-Marduk, son of Nergal-shar-utsur, followed with a reign of\nnine months. He was deposed by the priests. Then a Babylonian prince\nnamed Nabu-na\u00b4id (Nabonidus) was set on the throne. He was the last\nindependent king of Babylonia. His son Belshazzar appears to have\nacted as regent during the latter part of the reign.\n\nNabonidus engaged himself actively during his reign (556-540 B.C.) in\nrestoring temples. He entirely reconstructed the house of Shamash, the\nsun god, at Sippar, and, towards the end of his reign, the house of\nSin, the moon god, at Haran. The latter building had been destroyed by\nthe Medes.\n\nThe religious innovations of Nabonidus made him exceedingly unpopular\nthroughout Babylonia, for he carried away the gods of Ur, Erech,\nLarsa, and Eridu, and had them placed in E-sagila. Merodach and his\npriests were displeased: the prestige of the great god was threatened\nby the policy adopted by Nabonidus. As an inscription composed after\nthe fall of Babylon sets forth; Merodach \"gazed over the surrounding\nlands ... looking for a righteous prince, one after his own heart, who\nshould take his hands.... He called by name Cyrus.\"\n\nCyrus was a petty king of the shrunken Elamite province of Anshan,\nwhich had been conquered by the Persians. He claimed to be an\nAchaemenian--that is a descendant of the semi-mythical Akhamanish (the\nAchaemenes of the Greeks), a Persian patriarch who resembled the\nAryo-Indian Manu and the Germanic Mannus. Akhamanish was reputed to\nhave been fed and protected in childhood by an eagle--the sacred eagle\nwhich cast its shadow on born rulers. Probably this eagle was remotely\nTotemic, and the Achaemenians were descendants of an ancient eagle\ntribe. Gilgamesh was protected by an eagle, as we have seen, as the\nAryo-Indian Shakuntala was by vultures and Semiramis by doves. The\nlegends regarding the birth and boyhood of Cyrus resemble those\nrelated regarding Sargon of Akkad and the Indian Karna and Krishna.\n\nCyrus acknowledged as his overlord Astyages, king of the Medes. He\nrevolted against Astyages, whom he defeated and took prisoner.\nThereafter he was proclaimed King of the Medes and Persians, who were\nkindred peoples of Indo-European speech. The father of Astyages was\nCyaxares, the ally of Nabopolassar of Babylon. When this powerful king\ncaptured Nineveh he entered into possession of the northern part of\nthe Assyrian Empire, which extended westward into Asia Minor to the\nfrontier of the Lydian kingdom; he also possessed himself of Urartu\n(Armenia). Lydia had, after the collapse of the Cimmerian power,\nabsorbed Phrygia, and its ambitious king, Alyattes, waged war against\nthe Medes. At length, owing to the good offices of Nebuchadrezzar of\nBabylon and Syennesis of Cilicia, the Medes and Lydians made peace in\n585 B.C. Astyages then married a daughter of the Lydian ruler.\n\nWhen Cyrus overthrew Cyaxares, king of the Medes, Croesus, king of\nLydia, formed an alliance against him with Amasis, king of Egypt, and\nNabonidus, king of Babylon. The latter was at first friendly to Cyrus,\nwho had attacked Cyaxares when he was advancing on Babylon to dispute\nNabonidus's claim to the throne, and perhaps to win it for a\ndescendant of Nebuchadrezzar, his father's ally. It was after the fall\nof the Median Dynasty that Nabonidus undertook the restoration of the\nmoon god's temple at Haran.\n\nCyrus advanced westward against Croesus of Lydia before that monarch\ncould receive assistance from the intriguing but pleasure-loving\nAmasis of Egypt; he defeated and overthrew him, and seized his kingdom\n(547-546 B.C.). Then, having established himself as supreme ruler in\nAsia Minor, he began to operate against Babylonia. In 539 B.C.\nBelshazzar was defeated near Opis. Sippar fell soon afterwards.\nCyrus's general, Gobryas, then advanced upon Babylon, where Belshazzar\ndeemed himself safe. One night, in the month of Tammuz--\n\n    Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his\n    lords, and drank wine before the thousand. Belshazzar, whiles he\n    tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels\n    which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which\n    was in Jerusalem; that the king, and his princes, his wives, and\n    his concubines, might drink therein.... They drank wine, and\n    praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of\n    wood, and of stone.... In that night was Belshazzar the king of\n    the Chaldeans slain.[563]\n\nOn the 16th of Tammuz the investing army under Gobryas entered\nBabylon, the gates having been opened by friends within the city. Some\nthink that the Jews favoured the cause of Cyrus. It is quite as\npossible, however, that the priests of Merodach had a secret\nunderstanding with the great Achaemenian, the \"King of kings\".\n\nA few days afterwards Cyrus arrived at Babylon. Belshazzar had been\nslain, but Nabonidus still lived, and he was deported to Carmania.\nPerfect order prevailed throughout the city, which was firmly policed\nby the Persian soldiers, and there was no looting. Cyrus was welcomed\nas a deliverer by the priesthood. He \"took the hands\" of Bel Merodach\nat E-sagila, and was proclaimed \"King of the world, King of Babylon,\nKing of Sumer and Akkad, and King of the Four Quarters\".\n\nCyrus appointed his son Cambyses as governor of Babylon. Although a\nworshipper of Ahura-Mazda and Mithra, Cambyses appears to have\nconciliated the priesthood. When he became king, and swept through\nEgypt, he was remembered as the madman who in a fit of passion slew a\nsacred Apis bull. It is possible, however, that he performed what he\nconsidered to be a pious act: he may have sacrificed the bull to\nMithra.\n\nThe Jews also welcomed Cyrus. They yearned for their native land.\n\n    By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when\n    we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the\n    midst thereof. For there they that carried us away captive\n    required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us\n    mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing\n    the Lord's song in a strange land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem,\n    let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee,\n    let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not\n    Jerusalem above my chief joy.[564]\n\nCyrus heard with compassion the cry of the captives.\n\n    Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of\n    the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord\n    stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a\n    proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in\n    writing, saying, Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The Lord God of\n    heaven hath given me all kingdoms of the earth; and he hath\n    charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.\n    Who is there among you of all his people? his God be with him, and\n    let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house\n    of the Lord God of Israel (he is the God) which is in\n    Jerusalem.[565]\n\nIn 538 B.C. the first party of Jews who were set free saw through\ntears the hills of home, and hastened their steps to reach Mount Zion.\nFifty years later Ezra led back another party of the faithful. The\nwork of restoring Jerusalem was undertaken by Nehemiah in 445 B.C.\n\nThe trade of Babylon flourished under the Persians, and the influence\nof its culture spread far and wide. Persian religion was infused with\nnew doctrines, and their deities were given stellar attributes.\nAhura-Mazda became identified with Bel Merodach, as, perhaps, he had\npreviously been with Ashur, and the goddess Anahita absorbed the\nattributes of Nina, Ishtar, Zerpanitu^m, and other Babylonian \"mother\ndeities\".\n\nAnother \"Semiramis\" came into prominence. This was the wife and sister\nof Cambyses. After Cambyses died she married Darius I, who, like\nCyrus, claimed to be an Achaemenian. He had to overthrow a pretender,\nbut submitted to the demands of the orthodox Persian party to purify\nthe Ahura-Mazda religion of its Babylonian innovations. Frequent\nrevolts in Babylon had afterwards to be suppressed. The Merodach\npriesthood apparently suffered loss of prestige at Court. According to\nHerodotus, Darius plotted to carry away from E-sagila a great statue\nof Bel \"twelve cubits high and entirely of solid gold\". He, however,\nwas afraid \"to lay his hands upon it\". Xerxes, son of Darius (485-465\nB.C.), punished Babylon for revolting, when intelligence reached them\nof his disasters in Greece, by pillaging and partly destroying the\ntemple. \"He killed the priest who forbade him to move the statue, and\ntook it away.\"[566] The city lost its vassal king, and was put under\nthe control of a governor. It, however, regained some of its ancient\nglory after the burning of Susa palace, for the later Persian monarchs\nresided in it. Darius II died at Babylon, and Artaxerxes II promoted\nin the city the worship of Anaitis.\n\nWhen Darius III, the last Persian emperor, was overthrown by Alexander\nthe Great in 331 B.C., Babylon welcomed the Macedonian conqueror as it\nhad welcomed Cyrus. Alexander was impressed by the wisdom and\naccomplishments of the astrologers and priests, who had become known\nas \"Chaldaeans\", and added Bel Merodach to his extraordinary pantheon,\nwhich already included Amon of Egypt, Melkarth, and Jehovah. Impressed\nby the antiquity and magnificence of Babylon, he resolved to make it\nthe capital of his world-wide empire, and there he received\nambassadors from countries as far east as India and as far west as\nGaul.\n\nThe canals of Babylonia were surveyed, and building operations on a\nvast scale planned out. No fewer than ten thousand men were engaged\nworking for two months reconstructing and decorating the temple of\nMerodach, which towered to a height of 607 feet. It looked as if\nBabylon were about to rise to a position of splendour unequalled in\nits history, when Alexander fell sick, after attending a banquet, and\ndied on an evening of golden splendour sometime in June of 323 B.C.\n\nOne can imagine the feelings of the Babylonian priests and astrologers\nas they spent the last few nights of the emperor's life reading \"the\nomens of the air\"--taking note of wind and shadow, moon and stars and\nplanets, seeking for a sign, but unable to discover one favourable.\nTheir hopes of Babylonian glory were suspended in the balance, and\nthey perished completely when the young emperor passed away in the\nthirty-third year of his life. For four days and four nights the\ncitizens mourned in silence for Alexander and for Babylon.\n\nThe ancient city fell into decay under the empire of the Seleucidae.\nSeleucus I had been governor of Babylon, and after the break-up of\nAlexander's empire he returned to the ancient metropolis as a\nconqueror. \"None of the persons who succeeded Alexander\", Strabo\nwrote, \"attended to the undertaking at Babylon\"--the reconstruction of\nMerodach's temple. \"Other works were neglected, and the city was\ndilapidated partly by the Persians and partly by time and through the\nindifference of the Greeks, particularly after Seleucus Nicator\nfortified Seleukeia on the Tigris.\"[567]\n\nSeleucus drafted to the city which bore his name the great bulk of the\ninhabitants of Babylon. The remnant which was left behind continued to\nworship Merodach and other gods after the walls had crumbled and the\ngreat temple began to tumble down. Babylon died slowly, but at length\nthe words of the Hebrew prophet were fulfilled:\n\n    The cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and\n    the raven shall dwell in it.... They shall call the nobles thereof\n    to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall\n    be nothing. And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and\n    brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an habitation\n    of dragons, and a court for owls. The wild beasts of the desert\n    shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr\n    shall cry to his fellow: the screech owl also shall rest there,\n    and find for herself a place of rest.[568]\n\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES\n\n\n[1] _Life of Apollonius of Tyana_, i, 2O.\n\n[2] _Egyptian Tales_ (Second Series), W.M. Flinders Petrie, pp. 98 _et\nseq._\n\n[3] _Revelation_, xviii. The Babylon of the Apocalypse is generally\nbelieved to symbolize or be a mystic designation of Rome.\n\n[4] _Nineveh and Its Remains_, vol. i, p. 17.\n\n[5] _Ezra_, iv, 10.\n\n[6] The culture god.\n\n[7] Langdon's _Sumerian and Babylonian Psalms_, p. 179.\n\n[8] _Crete the Forerunner of Greece_, p. 18.\n\n[9] _The Scapegoat vol._, p. 409 (3rd edition).\n\n[10] _The Seven Tablets of Creation_, L. W. King, p. 129.\n\n[11] _Ibid_, pp. 133-4.\n\n[12] _The Races of Europe_, W.Z. Ripley, p. 203.\n\n[13] _The Ancient Egyptians_, by Elliot Smith, p. 41 _et seq._\n\n[14] _The Ancient Egyptians_, p. 140.\n\n[15] _Crete the Forerunner of Greece_, C. H. and H. B. Hawes, 1911, p. 23\n_et seq._\n\n[16] _The Races of Europe_, W. Z. Ripley, p. 443 _et seq._\n\n[17] _The Ancient Egyptians_, pp. 144-5.\n\n[18] _The Ancient Egyptians_, p. 114.\n\n[19] _The Ancient Egyptians_, p. 136.\n\n[20] _A History of Palestine_, R.A.S. Macalister, pp. 8-16.\n\n[21] _The Mediterranean Race_ (1901 trans.), G. Sergi, p. 146 _et seq._\n\n[22] _The Ancient Egyptians_, p. 130.\n\n[23] _A History of Civilization in Palestine, p. 20 et seq._\n\n[24] _Joshua_, xi. 21.\n\n[25] _Genesis_, xxiii.\n\n[26] _Genesis_, xvi. 8, 9.\n\n[27] _1 Kings_, xvi. 16.\n\n[28] _2 Kings_, xviii, 32.\n\n[29] _Herodotus_, i, 193.\n\n[30] Peter's _Nippur_, i, p. 160.\n\n[31] A Babylonian priest of Bel Merodach. In the third century a.c. he\ncomposed in Greek a history of his native land, which has perished.\nExtracts from it are given by Eusebius, Josephus, Apollodorus, and\nothers.\n\n[32] _Indian Myth and Legend_, pp. 140, 141.\n\n[33] _The Religion of the Semites_, pp. 159, 160.\n\n[34] _Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, M. Jastrow, p. 88.\n\n[35] _The Seven Tablets of Creation_, L.W. King, vol. i, p. 129.\n\n[36] _Religious Belief in Babylonia and Assyria_, M. Jastrow, p. 88.\n\n[37] _Cosmology of the Rigveda_, Wallis, and _Indian Myth and Legend_, p.\n10.\n\n[38] _The Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Records and Legends\nof Assyria and Babylonia_, T.G. Pinches, pp. 59-61.\n\n[39] _The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, T.G. Pinches, pp. 91, 92.\n\n[40] _Joshua_, xv, 41; xix, 27.\n\n[41] _Judges_, xvi, 14.\n\n[42] _I Sam_., v, 1-9.\n\n[43] _I Sam_., vi, 5.\n\n[44] _The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia_, R. Campbell Thompson,\nLondon, 1903, vol. i, p. xlii.\n\n[45] _The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia_, R. C. Thompson, vol. i, p.\nxliii.\n\n[46] _A History of Sumer and Akkad_, L. W. King, p. 54.\n\n[47] _The Gods of the Egyptians_, E. Wallis Budge, vol. i, p. 290.\n\n[48] _The Gods of the Egyptians_, vol. i, p. 287.\n\n[49] _The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia_, vol. i, _Intro_. See also\nSayce's _The Religion of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia_ (Gifford\nLectures, 1902), p. 385, and Pinches' _The Old Testament in the Light\nof Historical Records_, &c., p. 71.\n\n[50] _Indian Myth and Legend_, p. 100.\n\n[51] Maspero's _Dawn of Civilization_, p. 156 _et seq._\n\n[52] _Egyptian Myth and Legend_, p. I _et seq._ The saliva of the frail and\nelderly was injurious.\n\n[53] _Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection_, E. Wallis Budge, vol. ii, p.\n203 _et seq._\n\n[54] _Brana's Popular Antiquities_, vol. iii, pp. 259-263 (1889 ed.).\n\n[55] _The Religion of the Semites_, pp. 158, 159.\n\n[56] _Castes and Tribes of Southern India_, E. Thurston, iv, 187.\n\n[57] _Omens and Superstitions of Southern India_, E. Thurston (1912), pp.\n245, 246.\n\n[58] Pausanias, ii, 24, 1.\n\n[59] _Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia_, R.C. Thompson, vol. ii, tablet\nY.\n\n[60] _Animism_, E. Clodd, p. 37.\n\n[61] _2 Kings_, xvi, 3.\n\n[62] _Ezekiel_, xx, 31.\n\n[63] _Leviticus_, xviii, 21.\n\n[64] _Indian Myth and Legend_, p. 65.\n\n[65] _Religious Belief in Babylonia and Assyria_, M. Jastrow, pp. 312, 313.\n\n[66] _The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, T.G. Pinches, p. 81.\n\n[67] In early times two goddesses searched for Tammuz at different periods.\n\n[68] _Indian Myth and Legend_, p. 30.\n\n[69] _Early Religious Poetry of Persia_, p. 35.\n\n[70] _Early Religious Poetry of Persia_, p. 37.\n\n[71] _The Golden Bough_ (Spirits of the Corn and Wild, vol. ii, p. 10), 3rd\nedition.\n\n[72] _Indian Wisdom_, Sir Monier Monier-Williams.\n\n[73] _A History of Sanskrit Literature_, Professor Macdonell.\n\n[74] _Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria_, M. Jastrow,\npp. 111, 112.\n\n[75] _Indian Myth and Legend_, pp. xxxii, and 38 _et seq._\n\n[76] _The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, T.G. Pinches, p. 94.\n\n[77] _The Religion of Ancient Greece_, J.E. Harrison, p. 46, and Isoc.\n_Orat._, v, 117\n\n[78] _The Acts_, xvii, 22-31.\n\n[79] _Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia_, vol. ii, p. 149 _et seq._\n\n[80] _Egyptian Myth and Legend_, xxxix, _n._\n\n[81] _Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt_, J.H. Breasted,\npp. 38, 74.\n\n[82] _Custom and Myth_, p. 45 _et seq._\n\n[83] _The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, p. 108.\n\n[84] Act iv, scene 1.\n\n[85] _Paradise Lost_, book ix.\n\n[86] Chapman's _Caesar and Pompey_.\n\n[87] _Natural History_, 2nd book.\n\n[88] _Indian Myth and Legend_, 70, n.\n\n[89] _Indian Myth and Legend_, pp. 202-5, 400, 401.\n\n[90] _Teutonic Myth and Legend_, p. 424 et seq.\n\n[91] _Indian Myth and Legend_, p. 164 et seq.\n\n[92] _Popular Religion and Folk Lore of Northern India_, W. Crooke, vol. i,\np. 254.\n\n[93] When a person, young or old, is dying, near relatives must not call\nout their names in case the soul may come back from the spirit world.\nA similar belief still lingers, especially among women, in the\nLowlands. The writer was once present in a room when a child was\nsupposed to be dying. Suddenly the mother called out the child's name\nin agonized voice. It revived soon afterwards. Two old women who had\nattempted to prevent \"the calling\" shook their heads and remarked:\n\"She has done it! The child will never do any good in this world after\nbeing called back.\" In England and Ireland, as well as in Scotland,\nthe belief also prevails in certain localities that if a dying person\nis \"called back\" the soul will tarry for another twenty-four hours,\nduring which the individual will suffer great agony.\n\n[94] _A Journey in Southern Siberia_, Jeremiah Curtin, pp. 103, 104.\n\n[95] Vol. i, p. 305.\n\n[96] _Adi Parva_ section of _Mah\u00e0bh\u00e0rata_, Roy's trans., p. 635.\n\n[97] Jastrow's _Aspects of Religious Belief in Babylonia_, &c., p. 312.\n\n[98] R.C. Thompson's trans.\n\n[99] _The Elder or Poetic Edda_, Olive Bray, part i, p. 53.\n\n[100] _Babylonian Religion_, L.W. King, pp. 186-8.\n\n[101] _The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia_, R. Campbell Thompson, vol.\ni, p. 53 et seq.\n\n[102] _Omens and Superstitions of Southern India_, E. Thurston, p. 124.\n\n[103] _The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, p. 110.\n\n[104] _Beowulf_, Clark Hall, p. 14.\n\n[105] _Ezekiel_, viii.\n\n[106] _Psalms_, cxxvi.\n\n[107] _The Burden of Isis_, J.T. Dennis _(Wisdom of the East_ series), pp.\n21, 22.\n\n[108] _Religion of the Semites_, pp. 412, 414.\n\n[109] _Egyptian Myth and Legend_, pp. 45 et seq.\n\n[110] Langdon's _Sumerian and Babylonian Psalms_, pp. 319-321.\n\n[111] Campbell's _West Highland Tales_, vol. iii, p. 74.\n\n[112] _West Highland Tales_, vol. iii, pp. 85, 86.\n\n[113] If Finn and his band were really militiamen--the original Fenians--as\nis believed in Ireland, they may have had attached to their memories\nthe legends of archaic Iberian deities who differed from the Celtic\nDanann deities. Theodoric the Goth, as Dietrich von Bern, was\nidentified, for instance, with Donar or Thunor (Thor), the thunder\ngod. In Scotland Finn and his followers are all giants. Diarmid is the\npatriarch of the Campbell clan, the MacDiarmids being \"sons of\nDiarmid\".\n\n[114] Isaiah condemns a magical custom connected with the worship of Tammuz\nin the garden, _Isaiah_, xvii, 9, 11. This \"Garden of Adonis\" is dealt\nwith in the next chapter.\n\n[115] Quotations are from _Sumerian and Babylonian Psalms_, translated by\nStephen Langdon, Ph.D. (Paris and London, 1909), pp. 299-341.\n\n[116] _Beowulf_, translated by J.R. Clark Hall (London, 1911), pp. 9-11.\n\n[117] For Frey's connection with the Ynglings see Morris and Magnusson's\n_Heimskringla_ (_Saga Library_, vol. iii), pp. 23-71.\n\n[118] _The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, p. 72.\n\n[119] Langdon's _Sumerian and Babylonian Psalms_, pp. 325, 339.\n\n[120] Professor Oldenberg's translation.\n\n[121] Osiris is also invoked to \"remove storms and rain and give fecundity\nin the nighttime\". As a spring sun god he slays demons; as a lunar god\nhe brings fertility.\n\n[122] Like the love-compelling girdle of Aphrodite.\n\n[123] A wedding bracelet of crystal is worn by Hindu women; they break it\nwhen the husband dies.\n\n[124] Quotations from the translation in _The Chaldean Account of Genesis_,\nby George Smith.\n\n[125] Langdon's _Sumerian and Babylonian Psalms_, p. 329 _et seq._\n\n[126] _The Burden of Isis_, translated by J.T. Dennis (_Wisdom of the East_\nseries), pp. 24, 31, 32, 39, 45, 46, 49.\n\n[127] _The Burden of Isis_, pp. 22, 46.\n\n[128] _Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria_,\np. 137, and _Herodotus_, book i, 199.\n\n[129] _The Burden of Isis_, p. 47.\n\n[130] _Original Sanskrit Texts_, J. Muir, London, 1890, vol. i, p. 67.\n\n[131] _Original Sanskrit Texts_, vol. i, p. 44.\n\n[132] _Adi Parva_ section of _Mah\u00e0bh\u00e0rata_ (Roy's translation), pp. 553,\n555.\n\n[133] _Ancient Irish Poetry_, Kuno Meyer (London, 1911), pp. 88-90.\n\n[134] Translations from _The Elder Edda_, by O. Bray (part i), London, 1908.\n\n[135] _Babylonian Religion_, L.W. King, pp. 160, 161.\n\n[136] Tennyson's _A Dream of Fair Women._\n\n[137] _Greece and Babylon_, L.R. Farnell (Edinburgh, 1911), p. 35.\n\n[138] The goddesses did not become prominent until the \"late invasion\" of\nthe post-Vedic Aryans.\n\n[139] _Greece and Babylon_, p. 96.\n\n[140] _Jeremiah_, xliv.\n\n[141] _Jeremiah, vii, 18._\n\n[142] _Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria_,\npp. 348, 349.\n\n[143] _Jeremiah, vii, 17._\n\n[144] _Nehemiah_, i, 1.\n\n[145] _Esther_, i, 6.\n\n[146] _Isaiah_, xiii, 19-22.\n\n[147] _Indian Myth and Legend_, pp. 173-175 and 192-194.\n\n[148] Or Rimush.\n\n[149] _Genesis_, xiv.\n\n[150] That is, the equivalent of Babylonia. During the Kassite period the\nname was Karduniash.\n\n[151] The narrative follows _The Seven Tablets of Creation_ and other\nfragments, while the account given by Berosus is also drawn upon.\n\n[152] The elder Bel was Enlil of Nippur and the younger Merodach of Babylon.\nAccording to Damascius the elder Bel came into existence before Ea,\nwho as Enki shared his attributes.\n\n[153] This is the inference drawn from fragmentary texts.\n\n[154] A large portion of the narrative is awaiting here.\n\n[155] A title of Tiamat; pron. _ch_ guttural.\n\n[156] There is another gap here which interrupts the narrative.\n\n[157] This may refer to Ea's first visit when he overcame Kingu, but did not\nattack Tiamat.\n\n[158] The lightning trident or thunderstone.\n\n[159] The authorities are not agreed as to the meaning of \"Ku-pu.\" Jensen\nsuggests \"trunk, body\". In European dragon stories the heroes of the\nSiegfried order roast and eat the dragon's heart. Then they are\ninspired with the dragon's wisdom and cunning. Sigurd and Siegfried\nimmediately acquire the language of birds. The birds are the \"Fates\",\nand direct the heroes what next they should do. Apparently Merodach's\n\"cunning plan\" was inspired after he had eaten a part of the body of\nTiamat.\n\n[160] The waters above the firmament.\n\n[161] According to Berosus.\n\n[162] This portion is fragmentary and seems to indicate that the Babylonians\nhad made considerable progress in the science of astronomy. It is\nsuggested that they knew that the moon derived its light from the sun.\n\n[163] _The Seven Tablets of Creation_, L.W. King, pp. 134, 135.\n\n[164] _The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, T.G. Pinches, p. 43.\n\n[165] _The Seven Tablets of Creation_, L. W. King, vol. i, pp. 98, 99.\n\n[166] _Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch_., iv, 251-2.\n\n[167] Shakespeare's _Julius Caesar_, i, 3, 8.\n\n[168] _Isaiah_, li, 8.\n\n[169] Campbell's _West Highland Tales_, pp. 136 _et seq._\n\n[170] _The Life and Exploits of Alexander the Great_, E. A. Wallis Budge,\npp. 284, 285.\n\n[171] Campbell's _West Highland Tales_.\n\n[172] _Nehemiah_, ii, 13.\n\n[173] _The Tempest_, i, 2, 212.\n\n[174] _Waifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition_, vol. iv, p. 176 et seq.\n\n[175] From unpublished folk tale.\n\n[176] _Beowulf_, translated by Clark Hall, London, 1911, p. 18 et seq.\n\n[177] _Beowulf_, translated by Clark Hall, London, 1911, p. 69, lines\n1280-1287.\n\n[178] _Egyptian Myth and Legend_, pp. 260, 261.\n\n[179] _Egyptian Myth and Legend_, pp. 8, 9.\n\n[180] _Indian Myth and Legend_, pp. xli, 149, 150.\n\n[181] _Isaiah_, li, 9.\n\n[182] _Psalms_, lxxiv, 13, 14. It will be noted that the Semitic dragon,\nlike the Egyptian, is a male.\n\n[183] _Job_, xxvi, 12, 13.\n\n[184] _Psalms_, lxxxix, 10.\n\n[185] _Isaiah_, xxvii, I.\n\n[186] _Sumerian and Babylonian Psalms_, p. 204.\n\n[187] _Custom and Myth_, pp. 45 et seq.\n\n[188] Translation by Dr. Langdon, pp. 199 _et seq._\n\n[189] _The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, T.G. Pinches, pp. 118, 119.\n\n[190] It is suggested that Arthur is derived from the Celtic word for\n\"bear\". If so, the bear may have been the \"totem\" of the Arthur tribe\nrepresented by the Scottish clan of MacArthurs.\n\n[191] See \"Lady in the Straw\" beliefs in _Brand's Popular Antiquities_, vol.\nii, 66 _et seq._ 1899 ed.).\n\n[192] Like the Etana \"mother eagle\" Garuda was a slayer of serpents (Chapter\nIII).\n\n[193] _Vana Parva_ section of the _Mah\u00e1bh\u00e1rata_ (Roy's trans.), p. 818 _et\nseq._, and _Indian Myth and Legend_, p. 413.\n\n[194] _The Koran_ (with notes from approved commentators), trans. by George\nSale, P-246, _n_.\n\n[195] _The Life and Exploits of Alexander the Great_, E. Wallis Budge\n(London, 1896), pp. 277-8, 474-5.\n\n[196] Campbell's _West Highland Tales_, vol. iii, pp. 251-4 (1892 ed.).\n\n[197] _Religion of the Ancient Egyptians_, A. Wiedemann, p. 141.\n\n[198] _Adi Parva_ section of the _Mah\u00e0bh\u00e0rata_ (Hymn to Garuda), Roy's\ntrans., p. 88, 89.\n\n[199] Herodian, iv, 2.\n\n[200] The image made by Nebuchadnezzar is of interest in this connection. He\ndecreed that \"whoso falleth not down and worshippeth\" should be burned\nin the \"fiery furnace\". The Hebrews, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego,\nwere accordingly thrown into the fire, but were delivered by God.\n_Daniel_, iii, 1-30.\n\n[201] The Assyrian and Phoenician Hercules is discussed by Raoul Rochette in\n_M\u00e9moires de l'Acad\u00e9mie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres_ (Paris,\n1848), pp. 178 et seq.\n\n[202] G. Sale's _Koran_, p. 246, n.\n\n[203] In the Eddic poem \"Lokasenna\" the god Byggvir (Barley) is addressed by\nLoki, \"Silence, Barleycorn!\" _The Elder Edda_, translation by Olive\nBray, pp. 262, 263.\n\n[204] _De Nat. Animal_., xii, 21, ed. Didot, p. 210, quoted by Professor\nBudge in _The Life and Exploits of Alexander the Great_, p. 278, n.\n\n[205] _Isaiah_, lvii, 4 and 5.\n\n[206] _The Golden Bough (Adonis, Attis, Osiris_ vol.), \"The Gardens of\nAdonis\", pp. 194 _et seq._ (3rd ed.).\n\n[207] _Daniel_, iv, 33. It is possible that Nebuchadnezzar, as the human\nrepresentative of the god of corn and fertility, imitated the god by\nliving a time in the wilds like Ea-bani.\n\n[208] Pronounce _ch_ guttural.\n\n[209] On a cylinder seal the heroes each wrestle with a bull.\n\n[210] Alexander the Great in the course of his mythical travels reached a\nmountain at the world-end. \"Its peak reached to the first heaven and\nits base to the seventh earth.\"--_Budge_.\n\n[211] Jastrow's trans., _Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in\nBabylonia and Assyria_, p. 374.\n\n[212] _Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt_ (1912), J.H.\nBreasted, pp. 183-5.\n\n[213] _Ecclesiastes_, ix, 7-9.\n\n[214] Ibid., xii, 13.\n\n[215] Perhaps brooding and undergoing penance like an Indian Rishi with\npurpose to obtain spiritual power.\n\n[216] Probably to perform the ceremony of pouring out a libation.\n\n[217] _Saxo_, iii, 71.\n\n[218] Ibid., viii, 291.\n\n[219] _The Elder Edda_, O. Bray, pp. 157 et seq. See also _Teutonic Myth and\nLegend_.\n\n[220] _The Life and Exploits of Alexander the Great_, E. Wallis Budge, pp.\nxl et seq., 167 et seq.\n\n[221] _The Koran_, trans, by G. Sale, pp. 222, 223 (chap. xviii).\n\n[222] _Vana Parva_ section of the _Mah\u00e0bh\u00e0rata_ (Roy's trans.), pp. 435-60,\nand _Indian Myth and Legend_, pp. 105-9.\n\n[223] _Vana Parva_ section of the _Mah\u00e0bh\u00e0rata_ (Roy's translation), pp.\n832, 833.\n\n[224] Ea addresses the hut in which his human favourite, Pir-napishtim,\nslept. His message was conveyed to this man in a dream.\n\n[225] The second sentence of Ea's speech is conjectural, as the lines are\nmutilated.\n\n[226] _The Muses' Pageant_, W.M.L. Hutchinson, pp. 5 _et seq._\n\n[227] _Indian Myth and Legend_, pp. 107 _et seq._\n\n[228] _Vana Parva_ section of the _Mah\u00e1bh\u00e1rata_ (Roy's trans.), p. 425.\n\n[229] _Indian Myth and Legend_, p. 141.\n\n[230] _Book of Leinster_, and Keating's _History of Ireland_, p. 150 (1811\ned.).\n\n[231] _Religion of the Ancient Egyptians_, A. Wiedemann, pp. 58 _et seq._\n\n[232] Pinches' _The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, p. 42.\n\n[233] The problems involved are discussed from different points of view by\nMr. L.W. King in _Babylonian Religion_ (Books on Egypt and Chaldaea,\nvol. iv), Professor Pinches in _The Old Testament in the Light of the\nHistorical Records and Legends of Assyria and Babylonia_, and other\nvols.\n\n[234] _Primitive Constellations_, vol. i, pp. 334-5.\n\n[235] _Indian Myth and Legend_, chap. iii.\n\n[236] Professor Macdonell's translation.\n\n[237] _Indian Wisdom_.\n\n[238] \"Varuna, the deity bearing the noose as his weapon\", _Sabha Parva_\nsection of the _Mah\u00e1bh\u00e1rata_ (Roy's trans.), p. 29.\n\n[239] _Indian Myth and Legend_, pp. 38-42.\n\n[240] _Early Religious Poetry of Persia_, J.H. Moulton, pp. 41 _et seq._ and\n154 _et seq._\n\n[241] _The Elder Edda_, O. Bray, p. 55.\n\n[242] _The Elder Edda_, O. Bray, pp. 291 _et seq._\n\n[243] _Celtic Myth and Legend_, pp. 133 _et seq._\n\n[244] Tennyson's _The Passing of Arthur_.\n\n[245] _Job_, x, 1-22.\n\n[246] _The Elder Edda_, O. Bray, pp. 150-1.\n\n[247] _Indian Myth and Legend_, p. 326.\n\n[248] _The Religion of Ancient Rome_, Cyril Bailey, p. 50.\n\n[249] _The Life and Exploits of Alexander the Great (Ethiopic version of the\nPseudo Callisthenes)_, pp. 133-4. The conversation possibly never took\nplace, but it is of interest in so far as it reflects beliefs which\nwere familiar to the author of this ancient work. His Brahmans\nevidently believed that immortality was denied to ordinary men, and\nreserved only for the king, who was the representative of the deity,\nof course.\n\n[250] _Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria_,\nMorris Jastrow, pp. 358-9.\n\n[251] The _Mah\u00e0bh\u00e0rata_ (_Sabha Parva_ section), Roy's translation, pp.\n25-7.\n\n[252] _A History of Sumer and Akkad_, L.W. King, pp. 181-2.\n\n[253] _Genesis_, xxxv, 2-4.\n\n[254] _The Religion of Ancient Egypt_, W.M. Flinders Petrie, p. 72.\n\n[255] _Sabha Parva_ section of the _Mah\u00e0bh\u00e0rata_ (Roy's trans.), p. 29.\n\n[256] _Egyptian Myth and Legend_, p. 214.\n\n[257] Canto iv:--\n\n[258] _1 Samuel_, xxiii, 9-11.\n\n[259] _1 Kings_, xix, 19 and _2 Kings_, ii, 13-15.\n\n[260] _The Burial Customs of Ancient Egypt_, John Garstang, pp. 28, 29\n(London, 1907).\n\n[261] _Herod._, book i, 198.\n\n[262] _Records of the Past_ (old series), xi, pp. 109 et seq., and (new\nseries), vol. i, pp. 149 et seq.\n\n[263] L.W. King's _The Seven Tablets of Creation_.\n\n[264] _Herodotus_, book i, 179 (Rawlinson's translation).\n\n[265] _Isaiah_, xlv, 1, 2.\n\n[266] _Herodotus_, book i, 181-3 (Rawlinson's translation).\n\n[267] _History of Sumer and Akkad_, L.W. King, p. 37.\n\n[268] _Herodotus_, book i, 196 (Rawlinson's translation).\n\n[269] _Home Life of the Highlanders_ (Dr. Cameron Gillies on _Medical\nKnowledge_,) pp. 85 _et seq._ Glasgow, 1911.\n\n[270] Translations by R.C. Thompson in _The Devils and Spirits of Babylon_,\nvol. i, pp. lxiii _et seq._\n\n[271] Bridges which lead to graveyards.\n\n[272] _Genesis_, xii and xiii.\n\n[273] _Genesis_, xiv, 13.\n\n[274] _Ibid_., xxiii.\n\n[275] _Ezekiel_, xvi, 3.\n\n[276] _Genesis_, xiv, 1-4.\n\n[277] _Ibid_., 5-24.\n\n[278] _Babylonian and Assyrian Laws, Contracts, and Letters_, C.H.W. Johns,\npp. 392 _et seq._\n\n[279] Translation by Johns in _Babylonian and Assyrian Laws, Contracts, and\nLetters_, pp. 390 _et seq._\n\n[280] _Matthew_, ix, 37.\n\n[281] Johns's _Babylonian and Assyrian Laws, &c._, pp. 371-2.\n\n[282] _The Land of the Hittites_, John Garstang, pp. 312 _et seq._ and 315\n_et seq._\n\n[283] _The Ancient Egyptian_, pp. 106 _et seq._\n\n[284] _The Ancient Egyptians_, p. 130.\n\n[285] _Struggle of the Nations_ (1896), p. 19.\n\n[286] Note contributed to _The Land of the Hittites_, J. Garstang, p. 324.\n\n[287] _Genesis_, xxvi, 34, 35.\n\n[288] _Ezekiel_, xvi, 45.\n\n[289] _Genesis_, xxvii, 46.\n\n[290] _Genesis_, xxviii, 1, 2.\n\n[291] _Genesis_, xxiv.\n\n[292] _The Syrian Goddess_, John Garstang (London, 1913), pp. 17-8.\n\n[293] _Vedic Index of Names and Subjects_, Macdonald & Keith, vol. i, pp.\n64-5 (London, 1912).\n\n[294] _The Wanderings of Peoples_, p. 21.\n\n[295] Breasted's _History of Egypt_, pp. 219-20.\n\n[296] _A History of Egypt_, W.M. Flinders Petrie, vol. ii, p. 146 _et seq._\n(1904 ed.).\n\n[297] _A History of Egypt_, W.M. Flinders Petrie, vol. ii, p. 147 (1904\ned.).\n\n[298] _The Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Records and Legends\nof Assyria and Babylonia_, pp. 126 _et seq._\n\n[299] His connection with Anu is discussed in chapter xiv.\n\n[300] _Ancient Assyria_, C.H.W. Johns, p. 11 (London, 1912).\n\n[301] _The Tell-el-Amarna Letters_, Hugo Winckler, p. 31.\n\n[302] \"It may be worth while to note again\", says Beddoe, \"how often finely\ndeveloped skulls are discovered in the graveyards of old monasteries,\nand how likely seems Galton's conjecture, that progress was arrested\nin the Middle Ages, because the celibacy of the clergy brought about\nthe extinction of the best strains of blood.\" _The Anthropological\nHistory of Europe_, p. 161 (1912).\n\n[303] _Census of India_, vol. I, part i, pp. 352 et seq.\n\n[304] _Hibbert Lectures_, Professor Sayce, p. 328.\n\n[305] _The Story of Nala_, Monier Williams, pp. 68-9 and 77.\n\n[306] \"In Ymer's flesh (the earth) the dwarfs were engendered and began to\nmove and live.... The dwarfs had been bred in the mould of the earth,\njust as worms are in a dead body.\" _The Prose Edda_. \"The gods ...\ntook counsel whom they should make the lord of dwarfs out of Ymer's\nblood (the sea) and his swarthy limbs (the earth).\" _The Elder Edda\n(Voluspa_, stanza 9).\n\n[307] _The Story of Nala_, Monier Williams, p. 67.\n\n[308] _Egyptian Myth and Legend_, pp. 168 _it seq._\n\n[309] _The Burden of Isis_, Dennis, p. 24.\n\n[310] _Babylonian Magic and Sorcery_, p. 117.\n\n[311] _Babylonian and Assyrian Religion_, T.G. Pinches, p. l00.\n\n[312] _The Burden of Isis_, J.T. Dennis, p. 49.\n\n[313] _Ibid_., p. 52.\n\n[314] _Religion of the Ancient Egyptians_, A. Wiedemann, p. 30.\n\n[315] _Vedic Index_, Macdonell & Keith, vol. i, pp. 423 _et seq._\n\n[316] _Religion of the Ancient Babylonians_, Sayce, p. 153, n. 6.\n\n[317] _Religion of the Ancient Egyptians_, A. Wiedemann, p. 30.\n\n[318] _Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria_,\np. 95.\n\n[319] _Babylonian and Assyrian Religion_, pp. 63 and 83.\n\n[320] When the King of Assyria transported the Babylonians, &c., to Samaria\n\"the men of Cuth made Nergal\", _2 Kings_, xvii, 30.\n\n[321] _Babylonian and Assyrian Religion_, p. 80.\n\n[322] _Indian Myth and Legend_, p. 13.\n\n[323] Derived from the Greek zoon, an animal.\n\n[324] _The Hittites_, pp. 116, 119, 120, 272.\n\n[325] \"The sun... is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and\nrejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.\" (_Psalm_ xix, 4 _et seq._)\nThe marriage of the sun bridegroom with the moon bride appears to\noccur in Hittite mythology. In Aryo-Indian Vedic mythology the bride\nof the sun (Surya) is Ushas, the Dawn. The sun maiden also married the\nmoon god. The Vedic gods ran a race and Indra and Agni were the\nwinners. The sun was \"of the nature of Agni\". _Indian Myth and\nLegend_, pp. 14, 36, 37.\n\n[326] Or golden.\n\n[327] The later reference is to Assyria. There was no Assyrian kingdom when\nthese early beliefs were developed.\n\n[328] _Primitive Constellations_, R. Brown, jun., vol. ii, p. 1 _et seq._\n\n[329] In India \"finger counting\" (Kaur guna) is associated with prayer or\nthe repeating of mantras. The counting is performed by the thumb,\nwhich, when the hand is drawn up, touches the upper part of the third\nfinger. The two upper \"chambers\" of the third finger are counted, then\nthe two upper \"chambers\" of the little finger; the thumb then touches\nthe tip of each finger from the little finger to the first; when it\ncomes down into the upper chamber of the first finger 9 is counted. By\na similar process each round of 9 on the right hand is recorded by the\nleft up to 12; 12 X 9 = 108 repetitions of a mantra. The upper\n\"chambers\" of the fingers are the \"best\" or \"highest\" (uttama), the\nlower (adhama) chambers are not utilized in the prayer-counting\nprocess. When Hindus sit cross-legged at prayers, with closed eyes,\nthe right hand is raised from the elbow in front of the body, and the\nthumb moves each time a mantra is repeated; the left hand lies palm\nupward on the left knee, and the thumb moves each time nine mantras\nhave been counted.\n\n[330] _Primitive Constellations_, R. Brown, jun., vol. ii, p. 61; and _Early\nHistory of Northern India_, J.F. Hewitt, pp. 551-2.\n\n[331] _Rigveda-Samhita_, vol. iv (1892), p. 67.\n\n[332] _Vedic Index_, Macdonell & Keith, vol. ii, pp. 192 _et seq._\n\n[333] _Indian Myth and Legend_\n\n[334] Pp. 107 _et seq._\n\n[335] _Primitive Constellation_, R. Brown, jun., vol. i, 1. 333. A table is\ngiven showing how 120 saroi equals 360 degrees, each king being\nidentified with a star.\n\n[336] \"Behold, his majesty the god Ra is grown old; his bones are become\nsilver, his limbs gold, and his hair pure lapis lazuli.\" _Religion of\nthe Ancient Egyptians_, A. Wiedemann, p. 58. Ra became a destroyer\nafter completing his reign as an earthly king.\n\n[337] As Nin-Girau, Tammuz was associated with \"sevenfold\" Orion.\n\n[338] _Babylonian and Assyrian Life_, pp. 61, 62.\n\n[339] Herodotus (ii, 52) as quoted in _Egypt and Scythia_ (London, 1886), p.\n49.\n\n[340] _Babylonian Magic and Sorcery_, L.W. King (London, 1896), pp. 43 and\n115.\n\n[341] _Vedic Index_, Macdonell & Keith, vol. ii, p. 229.\n\n[342] _Ibid_ vol. i, pp. 409, 410.\n\n[343] _Ibid_ vol. i, p. 415.\n\n[344] _Primitive Constellations_, vol. i, p. 343.\n\n[345] _Custom and Myth_, pp. 133 _et seq._\n\n[346] Dr. Alfred Jeremias gives very forcible reasons for believing that the\nancient Babylonians were acquainted with the precession of the\nequinoxes. _Das Alter der Babylonischen Astronomie_ (Hinrichs,\nLeipzig, 1908), pp. 47 _et seq._\n\n[347] _Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria_,\npp. 207 _et seq._\n\n[348] _A History of the Babylonians and Assyrians_, p. 93.\n\n[349] _Babylonians and Assyrians: Life and Customs_, pp. 219, 220.\n\n[350] _Primitive Constellations_, vol. ii, pp. 147 et seq.\n\n[351] The Aryo-Indians had a lunar year of 360 days (_Vedic Index_, ii,\n158).\n\n[352] _A History of the Babylonians and Assyrians_, p. 94.\n\n[353] _Twelfth Night_, act ii, scene 5.\n\n[354] _Childe Harold_, canto iii, v, 88.\n\n[355] _Genesis_, x, 11.\n\n[356] \"A number of tablets have been found in Cappadocia of the time of the\nSecond Dynasty of Ur which show marked affinities with Assyria. The\ndivine name Ashir, as in early Assyrian texts, the institution of\neponyms and many personal names which occur in Assyria, are so\ncharacteristic that we must assume kinship of peoples. But whether\nthey witness to a settlement in Cappadocia from Assyria, or vice\nversa, is not yet clear.\" _Ancient Assyria_, C.H.W. Johns (Cambridge,\n1912), pp. 12-13.\n\n[357] Sumerian Ziku, apparently derived from Zi, the spiritual essence of\nlife, the \"self power\" of the Universe.\n\n[358] _Peri Archon_, cxxv.\n\n[359] _Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, p. 197 et seq.\n\n[360] _Julius Caesar_, act iii, scene I.\n\n[361] _Isaiah_, xiv, 4-14.\n\n[362] _Eddubrott_, ii.\n\n[363] _Religion of the Ancient Egyptians_, A. Wiedemann, pp. 289-90.\n\n[364] _Ibid_., p. 236. Atlas was also believed to be in the west.\n\n[365] _Primitive Constellations_, vol. ii, p. 184.\n\n[366] _Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia_, xxx, II.\n\n[367] _Isaiah_, xiii, 21. For \"Satyrs\" the Revised Version gives the\nalternative translation, \"or he-goats\".\n\n[368] _Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria_,\np. 120, plate 18 and note.\n\n[369] _Satapatha Brahmana_, translated by Professor Eggeling, part iv, 1897,\np. 371. _(Sacred Books of the East_.)\n\n[370] _Egyptian Myth and Legend_, pp. 165 et seq.\n\n[371] _Classic Myth and Legend_, p. 105. The birds were called\n\"Stymphalides\".\n\n[372] The so-called \"shuttle\" of Neith may be a thunderbolt. Scotland's\narchaic thunder deity is a goddess. The bow and arrows suggest a\nlightning goddess who was a deity of war because she was a deity of\nfertility.\n\n[373] _Vedic Index_, Macdonell & Keith, vol. ii, pp. 125-6, and vol. i,\n168-9.\n\n[374] _Ezekiel_, xxxi, 3-8.\n\n[375] _Ezekiel_, xxvii, 23, 24.\n\n[376] _Isaiah_, xxxvii, 11.\n\n[377] _Ibid_., x, 5, 6.\n\n[378] A winged human figure, carrying in one hand a basket and in another a\nfir cone.\n\n[379] Layard's _Nineveh_ (1856), p. 44.\n\n[380] _Ibid_., p. 309.\n\n[381] The fir cone was offered to Attis and Mithra. Its association with\nAshur suggests that the great Assyrian deity resembled the gods of\ncorn and trees and fertility.\n\n[382] _Nineveh_, p. 47.\n\n[383] _Isaiah_, xxxvii, 37-8.\n\n[384] _The Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Records and Legends\nof Assyria and Babylonia_, pp. 129-30.\n\n[385] An eclipse of the sun in Assyria on June 15, 763 B.C., was followed by\nan outbreak of civil war.\n\n[386] _Ezekiel_, i, 4-14.\n\n[387] _Ezekiel_, xxiii, 1-15.\n\n[388] As the soul of the Egyptian god was in the sun disk or sun egg.\n\n[389] _Ezekiel_, i, 15-28.\n\n[390] _Ezekiel_, x, 11-5.\n\n[391] Also called \"Amrita\".\n\n[392] The _Mahabharata_ (_Adi Parva_), Sections xxxiii-iv.\n\n[393] Another way of spelling the Turkish name which signifies \"village of\nthe pass\". The deep \"gh\" guttural is not usually attempted by English\nspeakers. A common rendering is \"Bog-haz' Kay-ee\", a slight \"oo\" sound\nbeing given to the \"a\" in \"Kay\"; the \"z\" sound is hard and hissing.\n\n[394] _The Land of the Hittites_, J. Garstang, pp. 178 _et seq._\n\n[395] _Ibid_., p. 173.\n\n[396] _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, chaps. v and vi.\n\n[397] _Daniel_, iii, 1-26.\n\n[398] The story that Abraham hung an axe round the neck of Baal after\ndestroying the other idols is of Jewish origin.\n\n[399] _The Koran_, George Sale, pp. 245-6.\n\n[400] _Isaiah_, xxx, 31-3. See also for Tophet customs _2 Kings_, xxiii, 10;\n_Jeremiah_, vii, 31, 32 and xix, 5-12.\n\n[401] _1 Kings_, xvi, 18.\n\n[402] _1 Samuel_, xxxi, 12, 13 and _1 Chronicles_, x, 11, 12.\n\n[403] _The Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Records and Legends\nof Assyria and Babylonia_, pp. 201-2.\n\n[404] _Babylonian and Assyrian Religion_, pp. 57-8.\n\n[405] _Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria_,\np. 121.\n\n[406] _Babylonian and Assyrian Religion_, p. 86.\n\n[407] At Carchemish a railway bridge spans the mile-wide river ferry which\nAssyria's soldiers were wont to cross with the aid of skin floats. The\nengineers have found it possible to utilize a Hittite river wall about\n3000 years old--the oldest engineering structure in the world. The\nferry was on the old trade route.\n\n[408] _Deuteronomy_, xxvi, 5\n\n[409] Pr. _u_ as _oo_.\n\n[410] The chief cities of North Syria were prior to this period Hittite.\nThis expansion did not change the civilization but extended the area\nof occupation and control.\n\n[411] Garstang's _The Land of the Hittites_, p. 349.\n\n[412] \"Burgh of Tukulti-Ninip.\"\n\n[413] Article \"Celts\" in _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, eleventh ed.\n\n[414] _The Wanderings of Peoples_, p. 41.\n\n[415] _Crete, the Forerunner of Greece_, p. 146.\n\n[416] Pr. Moosh\u00b4kee.\n\n[417] \"Have I not brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt and the\nPhilistines from Caphtor (Crete)?\" _Amos_, viii, 7.\n\n[418] _A History of Civilization in Palestine_, p. 58.\n\n[419] Pinches' translation.\n\n[420] _I Samuel_, xiii, 19.\n\n[421] _A History of Civilization in Palestine_, p. 54.\n\n[422] _1 Kings_, iii, 1.\n\n[423] _Ibid_., ix, 16.\n\n[424] _1 Kings_, v, 1-12.\n\n[425] _Ibid_., vii, 14 _et seq._\n\n[426] _Ibid_., x, 22-3.\n\n[427] _Indian Myth and Legend_, pp. 83-4.\n\n[428] _Finn and His Warrior Band_, pp. 245 _et seq._ (London, 1911).\n\n[429] Also rendered Ashur-na'sir-pal.\n\n[430] _A History of the Babylonians and Assyrians_, G.S. Goodspeed, p. 197.\n\n[431] _Discoveries at Nineveh_, Sir A.H. Layard (London, 1856), pp. 55, 56.\n\n[432] \"Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem.\"\n_Solomon's Song_, vi, 4.\n\n[433] _2 Chronicles_, xii, 15.\n\n[434] _1 Kings_, xiv, 1-20.\n\n[435] _Ibid._, 21-3.\n\n[436] _2 Chronicles_, xii, 1-12.\n\n[437] _2 Chronicles_, xiii, 1-20.\n\n[438] _Ibid._, xiv, 1-6.\n\n[439] _1 Kings_, xv, 25-6.\n\n[440] _1 Kings_, xv, 16-7.\n\n[441] _Ibid._, 18-9.\n\n[442] _Ibid._, 20-2.\n\n[443] _1 Kings_, xvi, 9-10.\n\n[444] _Ibid._, 15-8.\n\n[445] _Ibid._, 21-2.\n\n[446] _Micah_, vi, 16.\n\n[447] _1 Kings_, xvi, 29-33.\n\n[448] _Ibid._, xviii, 1-4.\n\n[449] _1 Kings_, xx.\n\n[450] _Ibid._, xxii, 43.\n\n[451] _2 Chronicles_, xviii, 1-2.\n\n[452] _1 Kings_, xxii and _2 Chronicles_, xviii.\n\n[453] _1 Kings_, xxii, 48-9.\n\n[454] _1 Kings_, viii.\n\n[455] _2 Kings_, ix and _2 Chronicles_, xxii.\n\n[456] _2 Kings_, viii, 1-15.\n\n[457] _The Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Records and Legends\nof Assyria and Babylonia_, pp. 337 _et seq._\n\n[458] _2 Kings_, x, 32-3.\n\n[459] _Ibid._, 1-31.\n\n[460] _2 Kings_, xi, 1-3.\n\n[461] _2 Chronicles_, xxii, 10-12.\n\n[462] _2 Chronicles_, xxiii, 1-17.\n\n[463] _2 Kings_, xiii, 1-5.\n\n[464] _The Land of the Hittites_, J. Garstang, p. 354.\n\n[465] _The Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Records and Legends\nof Assyria and Babylonia_, T.G. Pinches, p. 343.\n\n[466] _Nat. Hist_., v, 19 and _Strabo_ xvi, 1-27.\n\n[467] _The Mahabharata_: _Adi Parva_, sections lxxi and lxxii (Roy's\ntranslation, pp. 213 216, and _Indian Myth and Legend_, pp. 157 _et\nseq._\n\n[468] That is, without ceremony but with consent.\n\n[469] _The Golden Bough_ (_The Scapegoat_), pp. 369 _et seq._, (3rd\nedition). Perhaps the mythic Semiramis and legends connected were in\nexistence long before the historic Sammu-rammat, though the two got\nmixed up.\n\n[470] _Herodotus_, i, 184.\n\n[471] _De dea Syria_, 9-14.\n\n[472] _Strabo_, xvi, 1, 2.\n\n[473] _Diodorus Siculus_, ii, 3.\n\n[474] _Herodotus_, i, 105.\n\n[475] _Diodorus Siculus_, ii, 4.\n\n[476] _De dea Syria_, 14.\n\n[477] This little bird allied to the woodpecker twists its neck strangely\nwhen alarmed. It may have symbolized the coquettishness of fair\nmaidens. As love goddesses were \"Fates\", however, the wryneck may have\nbeen connected with the belief that the perpetrator of a murder, or a\ndeath spell, could be detected when he approached his victim's corpse.\nIf there was no wound to \"bleed afresh\", the \"death thraw\" (the\ncontortions of death) might indicate who the criminal was. In a\nScottish ballad regarding a lady, who was murdered by her lover, the\nverse occurs:\n\n[478] Langdon's _Sumerian and Babylonian Psalms_, pp. 133, 135.\n\n[479] Introduction to Lane's _Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians._\n\n[480] Tammuz is referred to in a Sumerian psalm as \"him of the dovelike\nvoice, yea, dovelike\". He may have had a dove form. Angus, the Celtic\ngod of spring, love, and fertility, had a swan form; he also had his\nseasonal period of sleep like Tammuz.\n\n[481] Campbell's _Superstitions of the Scottish Highlands_, p. 288.\n\n[482] _Indian Myth and Legend_, p. 95.\n\n[483] _Ibid_., pp. 329-30.\n\n[484] _Crete, the Forerunner of Greece_, C.H. and H.B. Hawes, p. 139\n\n[485] _The Discoveries in Crete_, pp. 137-8.\n\n[486] _Religion of the Semites_, p. 294.\n\n[487] _Egyptian Myth and Legend_, p. 59.\n\n[488] Including the goose, one of the forms of the harvest goddess.\n\n[489] _Brand's Popular Antiquities_, vol. ii, 230-1 and vol. iii, 232 (1899\ned.).\n\n[490] _Ibid_., vol. iii, 217. The myrtle was used for love charms.\n\n[491] _The Golden Bough_ (_Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild_), vol. ii,\np. 293 (3rd ed.).\n\n[492] _Herodotus_, ii, 69, 71, and 77.\n\n[493] _Brand's Popular Antiquities_, vol. iii, p. 227.\n\n[494] Cited by Professor Burrows in _The Discoveries in Crete_, p. 134.\n\n[495] Like the Egyptian Horus, Nebo had many phases: he was connected with\nthe sun and moon, the planet Mercury, water and crops; he was young\nand yet old--a mystical god.\n\n[496] _Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria_,\npp. 94 _et seq._\n\n[497] _Babylonian Magic and Sorcery_, L.W. King, pp. 6-7 and 26-7.\n\n[498] _2 Kings_, xiii, 3.\n\n[499] _2 Kings_, xiii, 14-25.\n\n[500] _3 Kings_, xiii, 5, 6.\n\n[501] The masses of the Urartian folk appear to have been of Hatti\nstock--\"broad heads\", like their descendants, the modern Armenians.\n\n[502] It is uncertain whether this city or Kullani in north Syria it the\nBiblical Calno. _Isaiah_, x, 9.\n\n[503] _2 Kings_, xv, 19 and 29; _2 Chronicles_, xxviii, 20.\n\n[504] _2 Kings_, xviii, 34 and xix, 13.\n\n[505] _2 Kings_, xiv, 1-14.\n\n[506] _2 Kings_, xv, 1-14.\n\n[507] _2 Kings_, xv, 19, 20.\n\n[508] _2 Kings_, xv, 25.\n\n[509] _Amos_, v.\n\n[510] _Amos_, i.\n\n[511] _2 Kings_, xvi, 5.\n\n[512] _Isaiah_, vii, 3-7.\n\n[513] _2 Kings_, xv, 3.\n\n[514] _Isaiah_, vii, 18.\n\n[515] Kir was probably on the borders of Elam.\n\n[516] _2 Kings_, xvi, 7-9.\n\n[517] _2 Kings_, xv, 29, 30.\n\n[518] _2 Kings_, xvi, 10.\n\n[519] In the Hebrew text this monarch is called Sua, Seveh, and So, says\nMaspero. The Assyrian texts refer to him as Sebek, Shibahi, Shab\u00e8, &c.\nHe has been identified with Pharaoh Shabaka of the Twenty-fifth\nEgyptian Dynasty; that monarch may have been a petty king before he\nfounded his Dynasty. Another theory is that he was Seve, king of\nMutsri, and still another that he was a petty king of an Egyptian\nstate in the Delta and not Shabaka.\n\n[520] _2 Kings_, xvii, 3-5.\n\n[521] _Isaiah_, xx, 1.\n\n[522] _2 Kings_, xvii, 6.\n\n[523] _2 Kings_, xvii, 16-41.\n\n[524] The people carried away would not be the whole of the\ninhabitants--only, one would suppose, the more important personages,\nenough to make up the number 27,290 given above.\n\n[525] _Passing of the Empires_, pp. 200-1.\n\n[526] Those who, like Breasted, identify \"Piru of Mutsri\" with \"Pharaoh of\nEgypt\" adopt the view that Bocchoris of Sais paid tribute to Sargon.\nPiru, however, is subsequently referred to with two Arabian kings as\ntribute payers to Sargon apparently after Lower Egypt had come under\nthe sway of Shabaka, the first king of the Ethiopian or Twenty-fifth\nDynasty.\n\n[527] _Isaiah_, xx, 2-5.\n\n[528] Commander-in-chief.\n\n[529] _Isaiah_, xx, 1.\n\n[530] _The Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Records and Legends\nof Assyria and Babylonia_, T.G. Pinches, p. 372.\n\n[531] _Isaiah_, xxxvii, 9.\n\n[532] _Isaiah_, xxix, 1, 2.\n\n[533] _2 Chronicles_, xxxii, 9-17.\n\n[534] _2 Kings_, xix, 6, 7.\n\n[535] _2 Kings_, xix, 35, 36.\n\n[536] Smith-Sayce, _History of Sennacherib_, pp. 132-5.\n\n[537] _A History of Sumer and Akkad_, p. 37.\n\n[538] _Isaiah_, xxxvii, 8-13.\n\n[539] _2 Kings_, xxi, 3-7.\n\n[540] _2 Kings_, xxi, 16.\n\n[541] _Hebrews_, xi, 36, 37.\n\n[542] _2 Chronicles_, xxxiii, 11-3. It may be that Manasseh was taken to\nBabylon during Ashur-bani-pal's reign. See next chapter.\n\n[543] Pronounce _g_ as in _gem_.\n\n[544] _Nahum_, i, ii, and iii.\n\n[545] _Isaiah_, xlvi, 1; xlvii, 1-15.\n\n[546] _Nahum_, iii, 2, 3; ii, 3.\n\n[547] Goodspeed's _A History of the Babylonians and Assyrians_, p. 348.\n\n[548] _Nahum_, iii, 8-11.\n\n[549] Ptolemy's Kineladanus.\n\n[550] _Ezra_, iv, 10.\n\n[551] _Nahum_, iii and ii.\n\n[552] 2 _Kings_, xxiii, 29.\n\n[553] _Ibid._, 33-5.\n\n[554] Nebuchadrezzar is more correct than Nebuchadnezzar.\n\n[555] _2 Kings_, xxiv, 7.\n\n[556] _2 Chronicles_, xxxvi, 6.\n\n[557] _2 Kings_, xxiv, 1.\n\n[558] _2 Kings_, xxiv, 8-15.\n\n[559] _Jeremiah_, lii, 3.\n\n[560] _Jeremiah_, lii, 4-11.\n\n[561] _The Laminations of Jeremiah_, i, 1-7.\n\n[562] _Jeremiah_, lii, 31-4.\n\n[563] _Daniel_, v, I et seq.\n\n[564] _Psalms_, cxxxvii, 1-6.\n\n[565] _Ezra_, i, 1-3.\n\n[566] _Herodotus_, i, 183; _Strabo_, xvi, 1, 5; and _Arrian_, vii, 17.\n\n[567] _Strabo_, xvi, 1-5.\n\n[568] _Isaiah_, xxiiv, 11-4.","title":"Myths of Babylonia and Assyria","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":153943}