1 
 
 H 
 
 ■ 
 
 ^H 
 
 
 _■ 
 
 ■ 
 
 A\. 
 
 iS\i v v - I • 
 
Class 
 Book 
 
 T?> 
 
 Copyright N° 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSfR 
 
THE GIRL WIFE AND THE BATA BULL 
 Fiom the painting by Maurice Greifsnhagen 
 
THE RELIGION OF 
 BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 ESPECIALLY IN ITS RELATIONS 
 TO ISRAEL 
 
 five lectures delivered at harvard university 
 By 
 
 ROBERT WILLIAM ROGERS 
 
 PH.D. (LEIPZIG), LITT.D., LL.dII F.R.G.S. 
 
 Professor in Drew Theological Seminary; Author of "A History of Babylonia 
 and Assyria" in Two Volumes 
 
 NEW YORK: EATON & MAINS 
 CINCINNATI: JENNINGS & GRAHAM 
 
 1908 
 
\te/ 
 
THE RELIGION OF 
 BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 ESPECIALLY IN ITS RELATIONS 
 TO ISRAEL 
 
 five lectures delivered at harvard university 
 By 
 
 ROBERT WILLIAM ROGERS 
 
 PH.D. (LEIPZIG), LITT.D., LL.D M F.R.G.S. 
 
 Professor in Drew Theological Seminary; Author of "A History of Babylonia 
 and Assyria" in Two Volumes 
 
 NEW YORK: EATON & MAINS 
 
 CINCINNATI: JENNINGS & GRAHAM 
 
 1908 
 
t>l 
 
 
 LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
 Two Copses Received 
 
 DEC 5 1908 
 
 CLASS GU XXc, No, 
 COPY 3. 
 
 Copyright, 1908, by 
 EATON & MAINS. 
 
TO 
 
 JOSEPH ASHBROOK 
 
 OF PHILADELPHIA 
 
 COUNSELOR OF MY YOUTH 
 
 FRIEND OF MY MANHOOD 
 
 ui 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 LECTURE I 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Recovery of a Lost Religion 1 
 
 LECTURE II 
 The Gods of Babylonia and Assyria 49 
 
 LECTURE III 
 The Cosmologies 99 
 
 LECTURE IV 
 The Sacred Books 142 
 
 LECTURE V 
 The Myths and Epics 185 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Babylonian Demons. British Museum Frontispiece \S 
 
 FIGURE PAGE 
 
 I. The Angel of Light in Conflict with a Dragon. ... 55 
 
 II. List of Names and Titles of Gods 79- 
 
 III. The Sun God (Shamash) of Sippar 84 
 
 IV. Statue of the God Nabu 86 
 
 V. Fragment of the First Tablet of Creation 107 
 
 VI. The Second Tablet of Creation 113 
 
 VII. The Third Tablet of Creation 117 
 
 VIII. The Fourth Tablet of Creation 120 - 
 
 IX. The Fifth Tablet of Creation 128 
 
 X. The Sixth Tablet of Creation 129 
 
 XI. The Seventh Tablet of Creation 130 
 
 XII. Two Incantation Tablets 144 
 
 XIII. Babylonian Demons 147 
 
 XIV. Incantation Tablet, Maqlu III 154 
 
 XV. The Descent of Ishtar to Hades. Obverse 191 - 
 
 XVI. The Descent of Ishtar to Hades. Reverse 194 
 
 XVII. The Story of the Deluge. Obverse 199 • 
 
 XVIII. The Story of the Deluge. Reverse 202 s 
 
 XIX. The Story of the Deluge. Obverse 204 
 
 XX. The Story of the Deluge. Reverse 206 
 
 Figure I is taken from L. W. King, Babylonian Religion and 
 Mythology, London, 1903, by kind permission of Messrs. Kegan 
 Paul, Trench, Trtibner & Co., Ltd., London. 
 
 Figure XVIII is taken from R. Campbell Thompson, The Devils 
 and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, London, 1903, by kind permission of 
 Messrs. Luzac & Co., London. 
 
 All the remaining illustrations are made from the copyright 
 photographs of W. A. Mansell & Co., 405 Oxford Street, London, 
 W., without whose permission they must not be reprinted. 
 
 vii 
 
Viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 FIGURES IN THE TEXT 
 
 PAGE 
 
 1 . The First Cuneiform Signs ever Copied 25 
 
 2. The First Persepolis Inscriptions Copied Entire 25, 26 
 
 3. The Inscriptions Deciphered by Grotefend 27, 28 
 
 4. The Process of Decipherment Word by Word 29-33 
 
 5. Three Tablets with the Name of Jahweh 91 
 
 The figures of the three tablets with the name of Jahweh, and the 
 Assyrian characters upon them, on page 91, are reproduced from 
 Friedrich Delitzsch, Babel und Bibel, Erster Vortrag, 5te Auflage, 
 Leipzig, 1905, pp. 49, 50, by kind permission of the J. C. Hin- 
 richs'sche Buchhandlung. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 In the month of July, 1908, I delivered at 
 Harvard University, in the Summer School of 
 Theology, five lectures which are now put into 
 this little book. They are printed substantially 
 as they were delivered, though a few passages 
 have been several times rewritten in an earnest 
 endeavor after lucidity and cogency. I am 
 grateful to my Harvard colleagues for this 
 pleasant opportunity to associate myself for 
 even a brief season with a great school of 
 scholars with whom my relations have always 
 been friendly, and from whom I have had much 
 stimulus and not a little encouragement. But 
 for their courteous invitation I should probably 
 not have turned aside from other labors to 
 write this little essay. 
 
 Since 1883 all the time that I have been able 
 to reserve from bread-earning labor has gone 
 into Assyrian investigation. In that brief pe- 
 riod I have seen the science of Assyriology 
 expand from a small discipline chiefly philolog- 
 ical in character, unprovided even with a print- 
 ed lexicon, into a vast complex of philology, 
 archaeology, anthropology, and cultural, politi- 
 cal, and religious history. No one man can any 
 longer have equal command in every portion 
 
 ix 
 
x PREFACE 
 
 of a field so extensive, and what was once a 
 single subject is now perforce divided into many 
 specialties. Almost from the beginning my own 
 studies were carried chiefly into the historical 
 side of Assyriology — a great field in itself, and 
 ever filled with surprises. From an unsym- 
 pathetic narrowness I have been delivered by 
 the calling which bade me teach the Old Testa- 
 ment in Hebrew to successive companies of 
 young men. The history of the Babylonians 
 and Assyrians played well into the teaching of 
 those Hebrew prophets, whose preaching has 
 Babylonian, Assyrian, and Chaldean kings and 
 armies for a background. The Old Testament 
 religion also early quickened my interest in the 
 religion of the great peoples of the Tigris and 
 Euphrates, with whom Israel had so many 
 common experiences. With sympathetic inter- 
 ests, therefore, both in history and in religion, 
 among the Assyrians and Babylonians on the 
 one side, as also in the Old Testament upon 
 the other, I have lived daily for years in an 
 ever fresh readjustment of my views concerning 
 their mutual relationship. Nothing written by 
 any serious student, who had made an effort to 
 understand either side of this great problem, 
 found me with unawakened interest. My pupils 
 have revealed to me their difficulties, and these 
 have been constantly an incitement to new 
 effort. My occasional intercourse with Pro- 
 fessor Morris Jastrow, on this side of the At- 
 
PREFACE xl 
 
 lantic, and my close friendship with Professors 
 Friedrich Delitzsch, of Berlin, Karl Marti, of 
 Bern, and A. H. Sayce, of Oxford, on the other 
 side, have kept this interest in a glow of enthu- 
 siasm. These lectures, however inadequate they 
 may finally seem to be, were written and 
 delivered in a white heat, and represent all 
 that I can now do in helping others to a vivid 
 picture of Israel's religious association with 
 Babylonia, or in solving the extremely difficult 
 problems which recent research, critical, archaeo- 
 logical, and religious, have put before us. That 
 the solutions which I here offer are final I do 
 not dream for a moment; that they are worth 
 consideration I firmly believe; that they have 
 helped me I know. I have tried honestly to 
 give credit for all that I have taken from 
 others. If I have carried off unacknowledged 
 some precious bit of another's work I shall be 
 sorry, and ready to apologize. If I have over- 
 looked a side light that might illuminate a 
 dark corner the next comer will be pretty certain 
 to take cheerful pleasure in gently indicating 
 my delinquency. 
 
 The book has a peculiarity which may per- 
 haps need a word of justification. The citations 
 from Babylonian and Assyrian texts are very 
 long. This interrupts the argument in a good 
 many places, and in some makes the book dull 
 reading. The reason for this new departure is 
 simple enough. Everybody who has studied 
 
xii PREFACE 
 
 the great and growing literature of the history 
 of religions must have noticed how easy it is 
 to prove almost anything if one only cites, in 
 illustration or in proof, a passage short enough. 
 Not a few writers have discovered fine spiritual 
 values in ancient religious material and have 
 defended their existence by citing only a few 
 lines of a hymn or a legend. If the whole con- 
 text had been given the spiritual essence would 
 have vanished out into a mere physical plaint. 
 It will probably not be said that I have failed 
 to give the whole color and movement and 
 meaning by quoting too briefly. Whether I 
 have correctly understood their bearing or not 
 must be decided by others. As to the transla- 
 tions, I can only say that most of them have 
 grown, and were not made especially for this 
 volume. I have been working over the original 
 Assyrian and Babylonian texts for years, filling 
 notebooks with translations or essays in trans- 
 lation, changing, correcting, improving, testing 
 every word by its appearance in newly published 
 texts, and by every new discovery of other schol- 
 ars. I have read portions of them aloud in hun- 
 dreds of public lectures, or in classroom work. I 
 hope that they represent pretty fairly what can 
 be done with the passages to-day. That they 
 could be improved in many places I do not 
 doubt. It is always easier to correct another's 
 work than one's own. But I have tried to 
 consider every suggestion and every translation 
 
PREFACE xiii 
 
 which have been published by others. My obli- 
 gations to them for a suggestive word here, or 
 a line there, I have tried to acknowledge by 
 numerous references, but I fear inadequately. 
 It is sometimes impossible to remember where 
 one first secured the best English word for an 
 Assyrian equivalent. Sometimes the same word 
 or phrase has been used by many translators. 
 Texts often translated, such, for example, as the 
 deluge story, tend naturally to a certain uni- 
 formity of expression. In general, however, I 
 wish here to express particular gratitude for the 
 help that King's translations of the creation tab- 
 lets have been to me. Nobody will soon again 
 be able to render those difficult texts without 
 leaning much upon him. If the arguments I 
 have advanced, or repeated, concerning Israel's 
 relation to Babylonia seem inadequate; if the 
 picture I have presented of the Babylonian re- 
 ligion be judged imperfect, perhaps nevertheless 
 some passer-by may find these very carefully 
 prepared translations useful in making up his 
 own judgment or painting his own picture. 
 
 Professor Sayce kindly read the entire book in 
 manuscript, and made a number of suggestions 
 for its improvement. It would perhaps be a 
 better book if I had adopted more of them, but 
 I wished it to express my own thinking what- 
 ever the issue might be. It was, however, his 
 kind and warm encouragement which helped 
 much toward my resolve to publish it. 
 
xiv PREFACE 
 
 To all who would fain secure some help from 
 another in this difficult field I offer this little 
 book, knowing well its limitations, and desiring 
 only to serve the cause of truth and righteous- 
 ness. The happy people who have found no 
 difficulties in the Old Testament while they 
 surveyed it in the light which now shines upon 
 it from Babylonia and Assyria need not trouble 
 themselves to read it; it is not for them that 
 it was written, nor was it delivered, in the 
 first instance, to such as they. 
 
 Robert W. Rogers. 
 
 Madison, New Jersey, 
 October 22, 1908. 
 
LECTURE I 
 
 THE RECOVERY OF A LOST RELIGION 
 
 There are few subjects that engage the 
 human mind more fraught with living, moving 
 interest than the religions of mankind. To 
 survey the faiths that are now potent among 
 men, to see how much they have to say of the 
 deep things that agitate the human breast, to 
 gather up into systematic form their message 
 of God, their struggle after righteousness, their 
 yearning after a life beyond the grave — these 
 are themes that yield nothing in interest or 
 importance to anything that has ever engaged 
 the thought of busy men. But even more 
 thrilling is the interest awakened when we 
 turn back into the history of these faiths. To 
 trace the multiform sects of modern Moham- 
 medanism from Syria and Egypt and Persia 
 and India over mountain and sea and plain 
 back to that tremendous impulse of Moham- 
 med himself amid those waste uplands and 
 dour tawny deserts of Arabia — who will deny 
 that this is a task worthy our best effort, and 
 filled with a reward all its own? Nay, to go 
 far beyond even this mighty and lonesome 
 man of the desert, to search out the motives 
 
2 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 of early Arabic heathenism, to seek the strains 
 of influence of Judaism and of Christianity upon 
 the prophet's mind, here is a call for keen 
 analysis, for great power of generalization and 
 combination, and for a glow of emotion and of 
 imagination. 
 
 Not to these high and difficult pursuits in 
 the study of a living faith do I invite your 
 attention, but to faiths dead, save in surviving 
 ideas or motives in other religions; not to the 
 present but to the past; not to questions open 
 before our eyes, discussed in temples and 
 shrines, but to matters long since stilled by 
 Time's hand. But I make no apology for these 
 ancient and silent, these remote and dead faiths. 
 They also have their message, and it yields no 
 palm of interest to the study even of Moham- 
 medanism. The religion of Babylonia and As- 
 syria is indeed a faith without living worshipers, 
 gone amid the mists that cloud the most pene- 
 trating vision, but its sacred books, badly 
 broken amid the crash of time, are once again 
 in our hands. Its truth is not lost, but living 
 still in other faiths. Its gods are mentioned in 
 the greater sacred books of the Hebrews. Its 
 plea for the surcease of remorse, for relief from 
 the agony of sin, finds still an echo in our hearts. 
 If indeed the history of man be a subject of 
 undying interest, surely the history of the 
 religious development of the millions of gifted 
 and virile men who made Babylon and Nineveh 
 
THE RECOVERY OF A LOST RELIGION 3 
 
 centers of world concourse and power may 
 well stir our pulses and quicken our thought. 
 But if this subject be full of interest, it 
 must be admitted that it is likewise full of 
 difficulty, and this characteristic must not be 
 overlooked. 
 
 It is but a few short years since the mounds 
 that covered the sites of ancient Nineveh and 
 Babylon began to give up their secrets. It 
 was long before men could decipher, and then 
 laboriously and slowly read, the records which 
 the explorer recovered. At first the decipherer 
 chose out the easier texts, the better preserved, 
 the more immediately interesting. In this proc- 
 ess the religious texts, by far the more diffi- 
 cult to read and to interpret, had to wait until 
 the last. And even now these texts are ex- 
 tremely difficult to master; they confront us 
 daily with problems still insoluble and the 
 workers are few. The day is still distant when 
 it will be possible to present in detail an organ- 
 ized and scientific picture of the ancient re- 
 ligion of the Babylonians and Assyrians. The 
 knowledge that we do possess is indeed frag- 
 mentary; in many points disputed, in much 
 obscure. But no science makes progress by 
 waiting for completion; men must ever present 
 such knowledge as they possess at the moment, 
 must paint such a picture as the imagination 
 may be able to produce from the materials at 
 hand, and from the conjectures which they 
 
4 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 suggest. In this way alone shall we come to 
 higher knowledge. 
 
 Besides all this, there is upon us another 
 pressure, urging us onward to the study of 
 this ancient faith. We are never able to forget 
 that these Babylonians and Assyrians were 
 closely akin to the Hebrews. Even the super- 
 ficial reader finds numerous points of contact 
 with them, and to him who searches deeply, 
 the Old Testament is seen to have many a pas- 
 sage upon which the religion of the two great 
 neighboring, though hostile, peoples may shed 
 some valuable light. 
 
 And so, impelled by the thirst for new knowl- 
 edge, however alien to our everyday thoughts, 
 and urged onward by the hope of seeing the 
 religion of the Old Testament in a new and 
 clearer light, let us begin to study the religion 
 of Babylonia and Assyria, especially in its re- 
 lations to the religion of Israel. 
 
 But we cannot hope adequately to under- 
 stand the religion unless we have before us a 
 clear picture of the sources from which our 
 knowledge is drawn, and as these sources are 
 chiefly to be found in the inscriptions we can- 
 not understand them unless we make plain to 
 our minds the twin processes of discovery and 
 decipherment which have made these inscrip- 
 tions accessible to us. 
 
 The process of discovery and decipherment 1 
 
 i The most detailed account of both discovery and decipherment is 
 
THE RECOVERY OF A LOST RELIGION 5 
 
 are often parallel and nearly always contempo- 
 raneous, but we shall do well to follow first, 
 and very briefly, the processes of discovery. 
 
 I. It was in the Middle Ages that men began 
 to travel over the great valleys of the Tigris 
 and Euphrates, seeking some signs of its former 
 magnificence and power. Perhaps the earliest 
 of the intelligent travelers was the rabbi Ben- 
 jamin, son of Jonah, of the city of Tudela in the 
 kingdom of Navarre. He set out from home 
 about 1160 A.D., and journeyed overland across 
 Spain and France and Italy. Thence he passed 
 on to Greece and to Constantinople. After 
 visiting the sacred places in Palestine he went 
 over the desert, by way of Tadmor, to Mosul 
 on the Tigris. What a wonderful journey that 
 was, in that distant day! At Mosul he wrote 
 in his journal these words: "This city, situated 
 on the confines of Persia, is of great extent and 
 
 found in -Rogers, History of Babylonia and Assyria, vol. i. New York, 
 1900. The most exhaustive account of the decipherment is given in 
 Arthur John Booth, The Discovery and Decipherment of the Trilingual 
 Cuneiform Inscriptions. London, 1902. A most valuable and pains- 
 taking work. There is a good general account of the excavations in 
 Hilprecht, Explorations in Bible Lands During the Nineteenth Century 
 pp. 1-577. Philadelphia, 1903. In this account pages 1-288 are de- 
 voted to the discoveries prior to 1889, and pages 289-577 to the work 
 of the University of Pennsylvania. Some of the early explorers left 
 unmentioned or but lightly touched upon by these writers are given in 
 The Sculptures and Inscriptions of Darius the Great on the Rock of Be- 
 histun, published by the Trustees of the British Museum. London, 
 1907. The introduction by Dr. L. W. King and Dr. E. A. Wallis Budge 
 is especially valuable for its account of Rawlinson's work, while the 
 illustrations are invaluable. There is a very lucid account of the ex- 
 ploration and decipherment in Charles Fossey, Manuel d' Assyriologie, 
 tome i, pp. 1-244. Paris, 1904. 
 
6 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 very ancient; it stands on the banks of the 
 Tigris, and is joined by a bridge to Nineveh. 
 Although the latter lies in ruins, there are 
 numerous inhabited villages and small towns 
 on its site. Nineveh is on the Tigris distant 
 one parasang from the town of Arbil." 1 These 
 words introduced the long-lost city of Nineveh 
 to the modern world, while the modern world 
 was still latent in the Middle Ages. Benjamin 
 had seen the mounds beyond the river and knew 
 that beneath them lay all that remained of 
 ancient Nineveh. Babylon he probably did not 
 see, for the mention which he makes of it 
 scarcely seems to be in the words of an eye- 
 witness. 
 
 From the time of Benjamin onward the sites 
 of Babylon and of Nineveh were visited again 
 and again by passing travelers, but the day 
 of scientific exploration was long deferred, and 
 only came with the nineteenth century. 
 
 It fell to the lot of an Englishman to begin 
 that great work of excavation which was to 
 restore the ancient civilization of Babylonia and 
 Assyria to modern thinking. Claudius James 
 Rich was born in Dijon, France, in 1787, of Eng- 
 lish parents and spent his childhood in Bristol, 
 England, and from that fine old city passed 
 early in life into the service of the East India 
 Company. After service in Bombay, Con- 
 stantinople, Smyrna, and in Egypt, he finally 
 
 1 See Rogers, History of Babylonia and Assyria, i, pp. 85ff. 
 
THE RECOVERY OF A LOST RELIGION 7 
 
 became resident of the East India Company 
 at Baghdad. There, though his attention was 
 at first attracted by the romantic city in which 
 he found himself, he soon began to turn his 
 thoughts to the remains of Babylon lying on the 
 Euphrates beyond the great swamps. On De- 
 cember 10, 1811, he saw for the first time the 
 great mounds, and as to many another in similar 
 circumstances his first impressions were dis- 
 appointing. Here is what he had to say of 
 them: 
 
 "From the accounts of modern travelers I 
 had expected to have found on the site of Baby- 
 lon more, and less, than I actually did. Less, 
 because I could have formed no conception of 
 the prodigious extent of the whole ruins, or 
 of the size, solidity, and perfect state of some 
 of the particular parts of them; and more, be- 
 cause I thought that I should have distin- 
 guished some traces, however imperfect, of 
 many of the principal structures of Babylon. 
 I imagined I should have said: Here were the 
 walls, and such must have been the extent of 
 the area. There stood the palace, and this 
 most assuredly was the tower of Belus. I 
 was completely deceived; instead of a few in- 
 sulated mounds, I found the whole face of the 
 country covered with the vestiges of building; 
 in some places consisting of brick walls sur- 
 prisingly fresh, in others merely of a vast suc- 
 cession of mounds of rubbish of such indeter- 
 
8 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 minate figures, variety, and extent as to in- 
 volve the person who should have formed any 
 theory in inextricable confusion and contra- 
 diction." 1 
 
 Rich remained only about ten days amid the 
 mounds, but they were fruitful indeed, for he 
 planned and correctly located by astronomical 
 observation all of them, and did the work so 
 successfully that it has proved a good basis for 
 all subsequent work. But he took another 
 step more far-reaching in its consequences. He 
 gathered a few natives and arming them with 
 pickaxes and shovels dug into one of the big 
 mounds to see what might lie beneath the sur- 
 face. There his discoveries were indeed meager, 
 but none other before him had thus essayed an 
 entrance into the very heart of the ancient 
 ruins, and his example was to prove enticing to 
 others. From the ruins he carried back to 
 Baghdad specimens of inscribed building bricks, 
 and likewise some smaller tablets which he had 
 purchased from the natives. These little tab- 
 lets formed the nucleus of the vast Babylonian 
 and Assyrian collections in the British Museum, 
 which have become by far the richest in the 
 world. 
 
 With this beginning at Babylon, Rich was 
 
 1 Fundgraben des Orients, bearbeitet durch eine Gesettschaft von Lieb- 
 habern, p. 129. Wien, 1813. The narrative of Rich comprises pages 129- 
 162 and also pages 197-200. The former are reprinted by his widow, 
 Narrative of a Journey to the Site of Babylon in 1821, now first published, 
 etc. London, 1839. 
 
THE RECOVERY OF A LOST RELIGION 9 
 
 moved to see the remains of ancient Nineveh 
 also, and on October 31, 1820, he entered Mosul 
 and there spent four months. He visited and 
 sketched and planned every one of the great 
 mounds which he considered to form part of 
 the ancient city of Nineveh. Here also, as at 
 Babylon, he secured from the natives tablets 
 written in the cuneiform character, which 
 neither he nor indeed anyone else could read, 
 but which were later to become intelligible to 
 men. Rich had begun bravely the work of 
 restoring both Babylon and Nineveh to the 
 modern world, and in the very next year (Oc- 
 tober 5, 1821) he fell a victim to cholera at 
 Shiraz while bravely seeking to serve and en- 
 courage others. The man who had done so 
 much for the recovery of the records of the 
 ancient world now died a hero in the humblest 
 service for the poorest of humanity. 
 
 The next step in the process of recovering 
 again the civilization of Nineveh was taken by 
 the French, who in 1842 created at Mosul a 
 vice-consulate. The man who was sent to fill 
 the post was Paul Emil Botta, who though but 
 thirty-seven years of age had had a wide ex- 
 perience of the world, and was familiar with 
 the methods of archaeological research which 
 his gifted nation had pursued in Egypt. He 
 occupied the new post on May 25, 1842 — a 
 fateful day in the history of Assyriology. He 
 made no haste in' the pursuit of his carefully 
 
10 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 formed plan to excavate in the mounds of Nin- 
 eveh, but rather looked over the whole field and 
 considered how he might best begin and where. 
 When he stood on the western bank of the 
 Tigris, at Mosul, he could see opposite the river 
 Choser discharging its waters into the great 
 river. The eye could follow the little river back 
 over the plain which rose toward the mountains 
 of Kurdistan upon the east and northeast. 
 Upon this plain there were a few wretched 
 villages, filled with squalid and fanatical in- 
 habitants. Besides these villages the most 
 noticeable objects were several vast mounds, 
 which had been often described before, and 
 Botta knew what they were supposed to be. 
 On his right hand, as he looked across the Tigris, 
 and south of the Choser, lay a mound which the 
 natives called Nebi Yunus (that is, Prophet 
 Jonah), to whose honor and memory the mosque 
 on the top of the mound was dedicated. On 
 the northern side of the Choser lay another and 
 larger mound called Kuyunjik, where there were 
 a few human habitations similar to those clus- 
 tered round the mosque on Nebi Yunus. The 
 mound of Kuyunjik was much the larger, and 
 beyond the two mounds was a raised line which 
 seemed to connect them, and might mark the 
 remains of an inclosing wall. Other mounds 
 were in sight or were known from the descrip- 
 tions of travelers, and Botta pondered long on 
 the best place to begin excavation. 
 
THE RECOVERY OF A LOST RELIGION 11 
 
 He had heard that at Babylon the natives 
 had dug up the ruins and had used the inscribed 
 or stamped building bricks in the erection of 
 their hovels. He hoped that a similar plan had 
 been pursued at Mosul, and intended to ascer- 
 tain from what mounds the natives had secured 
 the stamped bricks which he hoped to find. A 
 thorough search of the city revealed absolutely 
 none, and the few inscribed tablets found in the 
 hands of natives could not be traced to their 
 place of origin, for they naturally desired to 
 keep the secret for their own purposes. As all 
 hoped-for indications had failed, Botta was cast 
 upon his own unaided judgment, and at first 
 was inclined to dig in the mound of Nebi Yunus. 
 From this purpose he was finally dissuaded by 
 the fact that a village occupied a considerable 
 part of the mound, whose inhabitants would 
 not naturally be willing to have their houses 
 tumbled down by excavators. Besides this, 
 there were Mohammedan graves in the mound, 
 and above all was not the prophet Jonah him- 
 self believed to be interred there? To disturb 
 a spot thus sacred might cause a dangerous 
 outburst of fanaticism, and Botta turned, some- 
 what reluctantly, to the large mound of Ku- 
 yunjik. At the western edge and near the 
 southern extremity of the mound he began to 
 dig in December, 1842. His resources were 
 meager, and the results most disappointing. 
 While he worked in the trenches the inhabi- 
 
12 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 tants gathered round and watched curiously 
 the slow and careful work. They could not 
 know what it all meant, but it was clear enough 
 to their childish minds that this man was 
 earnestly seeking for the little pieces of baked 
 clay with the strange marks upon them. One 
 of the bystanders, w T hose home was at Khorsa- 
 bad, fourteen miles away on the river Choser, 
 brought to Botta for sale two large bricks with 
 inscriptions. This gave him the hint that 
 perhaps Khorsabad might be a more fruitful 
 field. At length, on March 20, 1843, his faith 
 in Kuyunjik gave out and he sent some of his 
 men to try the mound at Khorsabad. The re- 
 solve was fortunate, and in three days word 
 was brought to him at Mosul that antiquities 
 and inscriptions had already been found. He 
 was skeptical, fearing lest the records might 
 be some late Arabic graffiti, and was unwilling 
 to go himself lest what had been found should 
 prove valueless. He sent a servant with in- 
 structions to copy a few of the inscriptions and 
 then report. Convinced by this report, he 
 went to the scene and there beheld a sight 
 which thrilled him. 
 
 His workmen had lighted upon the remains 
 of an ancient wall, which they had followed 
 down and around and had so laid bare a large 
 room in which were lying fragments of marble 
 sculptures, calcined by fire, and numbers of 
 well-preserved inscriptions. He saw at once 
 
THE RECOVERY OF A LOST RELIGION 13 
 
 that this was but a part of some great palace 
 and proved his conjecture by driving wells 
 about it, from which similar objects were re- 
 trieved. He could remain but one day, but in 
 that day his eyes, though he did not then know 
 it, had rested upon the remains of the palaces 
 erected by one of the greatest kings who ever 
 ruled in Assyria, Sargon II (722-705 B.C.), who 
 had conquered the kingdom of Israel. From 
 Mosul Botta wrote on April 5, 1843, a quiet, 
 dignified, unenthusiastic letter to his friend 
 Julius Mohl, of Paris, and shortly afterward a 
 second letter which moved the French govern- 
 ment to place three thousand francs at his dis- 
 posal for further researches. 
 
 Though harassed by the natives, and an- 
 noyed by the efforts of the local Pasha to stop 
 his work, Botta pushed doggedly onward to a 
 magnificent success. The villagers were paid 
 to remove from the top of the mound. The 
 French government sent out M. E. Flandin, a 
 competent architect, to plan the rooms and 
 buildings as they were excavated, and while 
 Botta copied the inscriptions he prepared the 
 diagrams which would show the place of their 
 origin. Three hundred native laborers worked 
 lustily to lay bare the whole great complex of 
 palace buildings. Scores of inscriptions, chiefly 
 upon stone and monumental in character, were 
 now found. Great winged bulls that once had 
 guarded the palace doors were uncovered, and 
 
14 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 beautiful bas-reliefs were stripped from the 
 walls. The results surpassed all the dreams of 
 Mohl in Paris and of Botta in Mosul, and aston- 
 ished the savants of Paris. Here was a new 
 world, a new world of antiquity revealed to 
 modern eyes. In October, 1844, the work 
 ceased, and after many delays the whole mass 
 of material was successfully landed at Havre in 
 December, 1846, thence to be transported to 
 Paris and deposited in the Louvre. The work 
 was crowned by the publication in five mag- 
 nificent folio volumes of all of the drawings of 
 Flandin, the copies of the inscriptions, and the 
 descriptions of Botta. So ended in a worthy 
 publicity the first excavations which succeeded 
 in bringing to Europe a real collection of ancient 
 Assyrian monuments. 
 
 Even before Botta' s excavations had begun 
 a young Englishman, Austen Henry Layard, 
 traveling overland to seek a career in Ceylon, 
 came to see the mounds of Kuyunjik and Nebi 
 Yunus. He was deeply stirred, and wrote in 
 his journal: "These huge mounds of Assyria 
 made a deeper impression upon me, gave rise to 
 more serious thought and more earnest reflec- 
 tion, than the temples of Baalbec or the theaters 
 of Ionia." As he went by raft down the river 
 to Baghdad he passed the great mound of 
 Nimroud, which even more greatly impressed 
 him, and induced him to write: "My curiosity 
 had been greatly excited, and from that time I 
 
THE RECOVERY OF A LOST RELIGION 15 
 
 formed the design of thoroughly examining, 
 whenever it might be in my power, these sin- 
 gular ruins." 1 
 
 This resolution was taken in April, 1840, 
 more than two years before Botta had seen the 
 mounds. At least in the thought of excavation 
 Layard had anticipated Botta, though the 
 latter's good fortune finally gave him the 
 precedence. Layard went on his journey to- 
 ward Ceylon, but everywhere the sight of those 
 mounds overshadowed him until, in Hamadan 
 Persia, he could go no further and turned back 
 to seek some opportunity to excavate. In May, 
 1842, he passed through Mosul on the way to 
 Constantinople, and there found Botta already 
 engaged in carrying on excavations at Ku- 
 yunjik. Layard then formed a friendship with 
 Botta, and when the hour of discouragement 
 arrived it was he who urged him to persevere. 
 
 Arrived at Constantinople, Layard interested 
 Sir Stratford Canning, afterward Lord Strat- 
 ford de Redcliffe, who gave him £60, to which 
 Layard was to add an equal sum collected 
 among friends. With this small amount Layard 
 left Constantinople, October, 1845, and traveled 
 with all haste to Mosul. He avoided the Pasha 
 of Mosul by a ruse, and floated down to the 
 river on a raft to Nimroud, and slept a night 
 
 1 Nineveh and Its Remains; with an account of a visit to the Chaldean 
 Christians of Kurdistan, and the Yezidis, or Devil- worshipers; and an 
 enquiry into the Manners and Arts of the Ancient Assyrians, by Austen 
 Henry Layard, Esq., D.C.L., i, p. 8. 2 vols. London, 1849. 
 
16 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 among the natives. As he afterward wrote: 
 " Visions of palaces underground, of gigantic 
 monsters, of sculptured figures, and endless 
 inscriptions floated before me. After forming 
 plan after plan for removing the earth and ex- 
 tricating these treasures, I fancied myself 
 wandering in a maze of chambers from which 
 I could find no outlet. Then, again, all was 
 reburied and I was standing on the grass- 
 covered mound. Exhausted, I was at length 
 sinking into sleep when, hearing the voice of 
 Awad [his Arab host], I rose from my carpet 
 and joined him outside the hovel. The day 
 had already dawned; he had returned with six 
 Arabs, who agreed for a small sum to work 
 under my direction." 1 There indeed is the true 
 romance of exploration, and few sciences have 
 seen more of it than this new science of Assyr- 
 iology which is here, in this work of Botta and 
 of Layard, being founded. 
 
 The excavations thus begun were continued 
 until December, and then resumed again in 
 February, 1846. In that month came a dis- 
 covery less important for science itself than 
 many others, but of great value in raising the 
 interest in England in the work of excavation. 
 Layard had left the mound to visit a neighbor- 
 ing sheikh and on his return was met by two 
 Arabs hastening excitedly to meet him. 
 " 'Hasten, O Bey/ exclaimed one of them — 
 
 1 Nineveh and its Remains, i, p. 25. 
 
THE RECOVERY OF A LOST RELIGION 17 
 
 'hasten to the diggers, for they have found 
 Nimrod himself. Wallah, it is wonderful, but 
 it is true! we have seen him with our eyes. 
 There is no God but God'; and both joining in 
 this pious exclamation, they galloped off, with- 
 out further words, in the direction of their 
 tents." It was a great stone figure with the 
 head of a man, the body of a lion, and the wings 
 of an eagle, and twelve feet away was found its 
 counterpart. Layard was himself entranced by 
 the majestic figures, and amazed at the excel- 
 lence of their execution. Hear his exclama- 
 tions: "I used to contemplate for hours these 
 mysterious emblems, and muse over their in- 
 tent and history. What more noble forms 
 could have ushered the people into the temple 
 of their gods? What more sublime images 
 could have been borrowed from nature by men 
 who sought, unaided by the light of revealed 
 religion, to embody their conception of the wis- 
 dom, power, and ubiquity of a Supreme Being? 
 They could find no better type of intellect and 
 knowledge than the head of a man ; of strength, 
 than the body of a lion; of rapidity of motion, 
 than the wings of a bird. These winged human- 
 headed lions were not idle creations, the off- 
 spring of mere fancy; their meaning was written 
 upon them. They had awed and instructed races 
 which flourished three thousand years ago." 1 
 No explorer before had ever written of dis- 
 
 1 Layard, Nineveh and its Remains, i, 65ff. 
 
18 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 coveries In words of such eloquence and power; 
 none had ever displayed so much of enthu- 
 siasm, nor possessed so moving a power of 
 description. The effect upon England was 
 immediate and lasting. The British ambassa- 
 dor at Constantinople procured a vizirial letter 
 authorizing the excavations, and permitting 
 "the removal of such objects as should be dis- 
 covered." 
 
 After a brief interval in the heated season 
 work was resumed again in October, 1846, with 
 the help of a grant in aid from the British gov- 
 ernment. Layard had now the very helpful 
 assistance of Mr. Hormuzd Rassam, who was 
 himself born in the neighborhood and was able 
 to conduct all the necessary dealings with the 
 natives as no European could hope to be able 
 to do. 
 
 The excavations carried on under these 
 fortunate circumstances were successful be- 
 yond all Layard's fondest hopes. As the 
 trenches followed round the rooms of the great 
 palace of Shalmaneser I (1300 B.C.) they un- 
 covered slabs of alabaster richly carved in 
 relief with scenes of hunting, of war, and of 
 solemn religious ceremony. "The very life 
 of palace, camp, and field in Assyrian days 
 came back again before the astonished eyes of 
 the explorer, while these received an addition 
 to their verisimilitude by the discovery in 
 some of the ruins of pieces of iron which had 
 
THE RECOVERY OF A LOST RELIGION 19 
 
 once formed parts of the same kind of armor 
 as that portrayed on the reliefs, together with 
 iron and bronze helmets, while in others were 
 found vases and ornamentally carved pieces 
 of ivory. Here were the pictures and there 
 were the objects which they represented. As 
 the trenches were dug deeper or longer, monu- 
 ments carved or inscribed were found daily. 
 One trench ten feet beneath the surface un- 
 covered the edge of a piece of black marble. 
 It was the corner of 'an obelisk about seven 
 feet high, lying on its side.' It was covered on 
 three sides with inscriptions and with twenty 
 small bas-reliefs. The inscriptions recorded and 
 the bas-reliefs illustrated various forms of gift 
 and tribute which had been received by Shal- 
 maneser II (860-825 B.C.), though when they 
 were found this was, of course, not known. No 
 inscription equal in beauty and in the promise 
 of valuable historical material had yet been 
 found in Assyria. . . . Day after day the work 
 went on with the regular and constant dis- 
 covery of stone slabs similar to those which had 
 been found before, and with the finding of in- 
 scribed bricks, which, though not so beautiful 
 as the stone, contained much more historical 
 material." 1 
 
 Then Layard went away to dig at Kalah 
 Shergat, the mound which covered the first 
 capital of Assyria, where among other things a 
 
 1 Rogers, History of Babylonia and Assyria, i, pp. 155, 156. 
 
20 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 splendid inscription of Tiglathpileser I (1120 
 B.C.) rewarded his efforts. In June, 1847, the 
 work ceased and it was not resumed again until 
 the autumn of 1849, when the chief emphasis 
 was laid upon the mounds of Kuyunjik and 
 Nebi Yunus. In the former he discovered the 
 palace of Sennacherib, and his wonderful acu- 
 men enabled him to recognize the fact that this 
 edifice belonged to a king whose son was the 
 builder of the palace at Nimroud and whose 
 father built the palace discovered by Botta at 
 Khorsabad. When we remember that he could 
 not read Assyrian texts, nor could anyone else 
 at that time, his keenness and power of com- 
 bination are alike remarkable. In this expedi- 
 tion he recovered portions of the library of the 
 last great king of Assyria, Ashurbanipal (668- 
 625 B.C.), and conducted fruitful excavations 
 at Kalah Shergat, Nimroud, and Khorsabad. 
 He returned to England in April, 1852, and de- 
 voted his energies to the publication of the 
 narrative and the inscription materials which 
 he had recovered. 1 It was indeed a wonderful 
 record of successful labor, and the new science 
 of Assyriology was abundantly provided with 
 
 1 Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon, with travels in 
 Armenia, Kurdistan, and the Desert: being the result of a second ex- 
 pedition undertaken for the Trustees of the British Museum, by Austen 
 H. Layard, M.P. London, 1853. A Second Series of the Monuments 
 of Nineveh, including bas-reliefs from the palace of Sennacherib and 
 bronzes from the ruins of Nimroud, from drawings made on the spot 
 during the second expedition to Assyria, by Austen Henry Layard, 
 M.P. Seventy-one plates. London, 1853. 
 
THE RECOVERY OF A LOST RELIGION 21 
 
 material with which to build a new house of 
 learning. 
 
 Layard was followed by William Kennett 
 Loftus, who made small but useful excavations 1 
 at Warka, the ancient city of Erech, home of 
 one of the oldest, if not indeed the oldest, cult 
 of Babylonia. At about the same time J. E. 
 Taylor, British vice-consul at Bassorah, exca- 
 vated in the mound of Mugheir, beneath which 
 lay the ancient city of Ur, home of the worship 
 of the moon god. 
 
 While Loftus was still at his work the French 
 government sent out a great expedition to 
 Hillah, amid the remains of ancient Babylon. 
 Its most famous member was Jules Oppert, 
 whose name will live while the science of 
 Assyriology finds votaries, for he became one 
 of its founders. The expedition met with 
 the serious mishap of losing nearly all its in- 
 scription material by the overturning of a raft 
 in the Tigris, but Oppert brought to Europe so 
 many notes and copies that the published re- 
 sults were notable. 
 
 In the same year that the French expedition 
 was being planned the British Museum secured 
 a grant from Parliament and Hormuzd Rassam 2 
 was sent out to begin excavations again where 
 Layard had left off. Rassam's work began in 
 
 1 Travels and Researches in Chaldcea and Susiana, by William Kennett 
 Loftus, F.G.S. London, 1857.' 
 
 2 For some further description of Rassam's work see p. 101. 
 
22 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 1852 and was brilliantly successful. He recovered 
 the major part of the library of Ashurbanipal, 
 from which later students have extracted nearly 
 all the material for the reconstruction of the re- 
 ligions both of Babylonia and Assyria. In this 
 great mass of inscriptions when sent to the British 
 Museum were found the deluge tablets, whose 
 decipherment and publication by George Smith 
 rilled all England with a new passion for further 
 discovery. 
 
 In 1873 George Smith was sent by private 
 British enterprise back to Kuyunjik, where he 
 found more fragments of the Assyrian deluge 
 story, together with many important historical 
 texts. In 1875 he made a less successful ex- 
 pedition, and laid down his valuable life at 
 Aleppo on his way homeward. 
 
 In November, 1877, Rassam was back again 
 in Mosul, and thence went out to the mound 
 of Balawat, where he had the great good for- 
 tune to discover the beautifully inscribed and 
 adorned bronze plates which once had covered 
 the palace gates of Shalmaneser II. In that 
 same year M. Ernest de Sarzec, French consul 
 at Bassorah, began excavations at Telloh, which 
 extended, with some interruptions, until 1894. 
 He uncovered a fine temple of Gudea (3000 
 B.C.) and found in one archive chamber no less 
 than thirty thousand tablets, mostly, indeed, 
 of a business character, relating to trade, com- 
 merce, agriculture, and industry, but with 
 
THE RECOVERY OF A LOST RELIGION 23 
 
 many temple documents of the highest im- 
 portance for our study of that ancient faith. 
 
 At last in 1888 America began to join the 
 nations of Europe in excavation, and a well- 
 equipped expedition was sent out from Phila- 
 delphia under the leadership of Dr. John P. 
 Peters, to whose tremendous industry in stirring 
 up interest in Philadelphia the expedition owed 
 its origin. For two seasons he directed its 
 labors, and was then succeeded by the inde- 
 fatigable J. H. Haynes, who was in turn super- 
 seded by Professor H. V. Hilprecht as scientific 
 director. The successive campaigns of excava- 
 tion were carried on upon the great mound of 
 Niffer, the ancient Nippur, from which thou- 
 sands of tablets were taken whose publication 
 by Hilprecht and by his very able and skillful 
 assistant, Dr. Albert T. Clay, has greatly en- 
 riched our knowledge of early Babylonia. 
 
 In 1899 Germany, which had made distin- 
 guished contributions to science in the publica- 
 tion and explication of the Assyrian treasures 
 of the British Museum, sent its first expedition 
 to Babylon with Dr. Koldewey as director. At 
 a later date excavations were also begun on the 
 mound of ancient Asshur, and in both places, 
 but perhaps more especially at the latter site, 
 inscriptions of great value have been recovered. 
 To these two sites Professor Friedrich Delitzsch, 
 of Berlin, most distinguished of modern Assyr- 
 iologists, has made several journeys to inspect 
 
24 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 and interpret monuments and structures as 
 they were found. 
 
 And now in this rapid survey, in which many 
 valuable excavations by E. A. Wallis Budge, 
 L. W. King, and others had to be passed with- 
 out even a mention, we have come to our own 
 time. The work of excavation in Asshur, in 
 Babylon, and in other places in Assyria and 
 Babylonia still continues, and a steady stream 
 of tablets pours into the great museums de- 
 manding interpretation and appraisal. No one 
 of the historical or philological sciences ever 
 made more rapid strides in the accumulation of 
 material. Even the neighboring lands add 
 their contributions. In 1888 Egypt delivered 
 up out of the little village of Tell-el-Amarna 
 more than three hundred tablets written in 
 ancient Babylonian and forming a part of the 
 correspondence between Egyptian kings and 
 Asiatic kings and princes in the fifteenth pre- 
 Christian century; while but a few years later 
 the mounds of Susa under the close examina- 
 tion of M. Jacques de Morgan, of Paris, yielded 
 the priceless legal code of Hammurabi, greatest 
 of the early kings of Babylonia. 
 
 The story of exploration and excavation has 
 been told, and we must now turn to see how 
 men had learned to read the strange languages 
 in which this treasure trove of inscriptions was 
 written. The story goes back to very humble 
 and simple beginnings, and many men of divers 
 
THE RECOVERY OF A LOST RELIGION 25 
 
 races worked upon the difficult problem, each 
 contributing his share, often without knowing 
 how it might fit into that which was going on 
 elsewhere. 
 
 II. In the years 1614-1626 Pietro della Valle 
 traversed a large part of Turkey, Persia, and 
 India. In passing through Persia he visited 
 the ruins of Persepolis and there copied at 
 random into one of his letters a few signs which 
 neither he nor any other could then read. 
 
 <T ffi T<t \ «TT 
 
 Other travelers followed him and saw the 
 same inscription, but none made any contri- 
 bution toward its elucidation until 1674, 
 when Sir John Chardin copied very carefully 
 one small inscription which, when it was pub- 
 lished, enabled European scholars to see that 
 the characters of this strange writing were made 
 up of little arrowheads or wedges deftly com- 
 bined, and many reached the conclusion that 
 the language was to be read from left to right, 
 but none dared to essay the tremendous task 
 of its decipherment. 
 
 In the month of March, 1765, the ruins of 
 Persepolis were visited by Carsten Niebuhr, 
 father of the man who afterward became the 
 historian of Rome. Three weeks and a half he 
 remained among them and laboriously copied 
 
26 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 a number of the inscriptions, and copied them 
 with remarkable accuracy. When he found 
 leisure after his return home to examine and 
 compare what he had laboriously copied be- 
 neath the cruel sun of Persia, he soon convinced 
 himself that there was not one but three sep- 
 arate languages represented. In one of them 
 the little wedges were less complex than in the 
 second, while in the third they had very greatly 
 increased in complexity of form. He divided 
 the little inscriptions into three classes, and by 
 a process of comparison among those which be- 
 longed to class I, soon arrived at the perfectly 
 sound conclusion that in all these texts of that 
 class there were employed but forty-two signs. 
 These he copied out and set in order in one of 
 his plates, and what he had thus achieved no 
 later study would be able to overthrow. 
 
 When his copies were published two scholars 
 set seriously to work to decipher. The first 
 was Olav Gerhard Tychsen, professor of Oriental 
 languages in the University of Rostock, Ger- 
 many; the other was Friedrich Miinter, the 
 Danish academician of Copenhagen. Tychsen 
 made almost at once the important discovery 
 that there occurred at irregular intervals in all 
 the texts of class I a wedge that did not point 
 to the right or downward, but inclined diag- 
 onally — a slanting wedge — which he suggested 
 was used to divide between words. This was 
 to prove most useful in the hands of Miinter, 
 
26 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 a number of the inscriptions, and copied them 
 with remarkable accuracy. When he found 
 leisure after his return home to examine and 
 compare what he had laboriously copied be- 
 neath the cruel sun of Persia, he soon convinced 
 himself that there was not one but three sep- 
 arate languages represented. In one of them 
 the little wedges were less complex than in the 
 second, while in the third they had very greatly 
 increased in complexity of form. He divided 
 the little inscriptions into three classes, and by 
 a process of comparison among those which be- 
 longed to class I, soon arrived at the perfectly 
 sound conclusion that in all these texts of that 
 class there were employed but forty-two signs. 
 These he copied out and set in order in one of 
 his plates, and what he had thus achieved no 
 later study would be able to overthrow. 
 
 When his copies were published two scholars 
 set seriously to work to decipher. The first 
 was Olav Gerhard Tychsen, professor of Oriental 
 languages in the University of Rostock, Ger- 
 many; the other was Friedrich Miinter, the 
 Danish academician of Copenhagen. Tychsen 
 made almost at once the important discovery 
 that there occurred at irregular intervals in all 
 the texts of class I a wedge that did not point 
 to the right or downward, but inclined diag- 
 onally — a slanting wedge — which he suggested 
 was used to divide between words. This was 
 to prove most useful in the hands of Miinter, 
 

 
 ft* 
 
 V 
 
 ? 
 
 fi 
 
 
 7A Reduced from the Plate !n Chardin's Voyages, iii 
 
 T * 51 Reduced from the Plate in Chardin's Voyages. ttt"i 
 
 Sr^r Vol. Ill, Page 118 *' ' 
 
 j^ The inscription at the top of the page is Persian, the one on the left hand ^!J 
 
 *£■> i§ Sueian, the one on the right is Babylonian. -^ 
 
 9 & 
 
 5 */ 
 
 Jl Thb First Persepolis Inscriptions Copied Entire, # J. 
 
THE RECOVERY OF A LOST RELIGION 27 
 
 but Tychsen himself made only abortive at- 
 tempts to decipher one of the texts. Mlinter 
 identified the builders of Persepolis with the 
 Achsemenides, and so provided a most valuable 
 clue to the decipherment and even got so far as 
 to identify the characters for "a" and "b" — 
 the first firm step forward in the decipherment, 
 but the consummation must await the coming 
 of a genius. 
 
 In 1802 Fiorillo, librarian of the University 
 of Gottingen, drew the attention of Georg 
 Friedrich Grotefend, then a gymnasial teacher 
 in Frankfort-on-the-Main, to the lithographic 
 facsimiles which Niebuhr had published. Grote- 
 fend's interest was excited, and at once he began 
 the slow process of comparison and combina- 
 tion. His processes were perfectly simple and 
 may be made clear to any intelligent mind, 
 even though it possess no Oriental knowl- 
 edge. 
 
 He began with the assumption that there 
 were three languages, and that of these the 
 simplest was ancient Persian, the language of 
 the Achsemenides, who had erected these palaces 
 and temples and caused the inscriptions to be 
 cut. For the purposes of decipherment he 
 chose out two of these old Persian inscriptions 
 and laid them side by side. The ones which 
 were chosen were neither very long nor very 
 short; they were beautifully copied by Nie- 
 buhr, and the frequent recurrence of the same 
 
28 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 signs in them seemed to indicate that their 
 contents were similar. The inscriptions thus 
 selected were those numbered "B" and "G" by 
 Niebuhr (see plate), which, for the purpose of 
 this exposition, may be designated simply as 
 first and second (I and II). Following Tychsen 
 and Miinter, he held that these inscriptions, 
 which accompanied figures of kings, were the 
 titles of these monarchs, and were presumably 
 similar to the inscriptions of Sassanian kings 
 deciphered by De Sacy, all of which had a 
 stereotyped form about in this style: 
 
 "N., the great king, the king of kings, the 
 king of Iran and Aniran, son of N., the great 
 king," etc. 
 
 Grotefend placed the two little Persian texts 
 side by side and closely compared them. In 
 the work of Miinter a word had been pointed 
 out which appeared frequently in these inscrip- 
 tions, sometimes in a short form and sometimes 
 longer, as though in the latter case some gram- 
 matical termination had been added to it. In 
 these two inscriptions this word appeared both 
 in the shorter and in the longer form. Grotefend 
 was persuaded that this word meant "king/' as 
 Miinter had indeed suggested, and that when it 
 appeared twice in each of these texts in exactly 
 the same place, first in the shorter and then in 
 the longer form, the expression meant "king of 
 kings." A glance at the plate will show that 
 in these two inscriptions, in the second line, 
 
I >? 
 
28 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 signs in them seemed to indicate that their 
 contents were similar. The inscriptions thus 
 selected were those numbered "B" and "G" by 
 Niebuhr (see plate), which, for the purpose of 
 this exposition, may be designated simply as 
 first and second (I and II). Following Tychsen 
 and Miinter, he held that these inscriptions, 
 which accompanied figures of kings, were the 
 titles of these monarchs, and were presumably 
 similar to the inscriptions of Sassanian kings 
 deciphered by De Sacy, all of which had a 
 stereotyped form about in this style: 
 
 "N., the great king, the king of kings, the 
 king of Iran and Aniran, son of N., the great 
 king," etc. 
 
 Grotefend placed the two little Persian texts 
 side by side and closely compared them. In 
 the work of Miinter a word had been pointed 
 out which appeared frequently in these inscrip- 
 tions, sometimes in a short form and sometimes 
 longer, as though in the latter case some gram- 
 matical termination had been added to it. In 
 these two inscriptions this word appeared both 
 in the shorter and in the longer form. Grotefend 
 was persuaded that this word meant "king," as 
 Miinter had indeed suggested, and that when it 
 appeared twice in each of these texts in exactly 
 the same place, first in the shorter and then in 
 the longer form, the expression meant "king of 
 kings." A glance at the plate will show that 
 in these two inscriptions, in the second line, 
 
I. 
 
 Or ?T.K>,>fc <rT.<<> ,«u<< m ^ ki w *-~ 
 
 K',KT,?T.K>,m.K . TTT . >M. v«U ?< fn T<> KT ff T<T7 
 ,n.<K.T<-.<rr,g<,?TT rW. Vft.'rf & sW mP- 5 <pL k» 
 
 "^ SE 7Z S T~j — 77ZL — ;r— '- ' — sz-^ • • 
 
 m . 
 
 
 ' Niebuhb Tab. 24. B. 
 
 II. 
 
 JPS^^fff.TfcW.fT.T^A.<<ff.<<.fif. T<- Y<Y. YY^. Y<-. YTY 
 
 KmrYYY>nffY.a.Y<-Hf^ .<k.<tt.£a .«ff .^.fjf . k-.kt . 
 
 ►Niebuhr Tab. xxiv. G. 
 INSCRIPTIONS DECIPHERED BY GROTEFEND 
 
 ■ From Niebuhr. Reistbeschrribimg nach Arabim und andern umliegenden Landern. Kopenhagen, 1774-1884, Band II, p. 184. Tab. XXIV. 
 
THE RECOVERY OF A LOST RELIGION 29 
 
 after the first word divider, appear the two 
 sets of signs exactly alike, thus: 
 
 »«n.Of.Kr.NL!f.*h 
 
 This is followed by the same word, but much 
 increased in length, thus: 
 
 <*)«JT.«.W. t^KY. Yf . Y<-.-fTT 
 
 The supposition was that (a) meant king, while 
 (b) was the plural and meant kings, the whole 
 expression signifying king of kings. But further 
 this same word, supposed to signify "king," 
 occurred again in both inscriptions, namely, 
 in the first line, and in both instances it was 
 followed by the same word, namely: 
 
 I (c) 4* M £T T- 
 
 Here, then, was another expression containing 
 the word "king." What could it mean? Ob- 
 viously it meant "great," which occurs in just 
 that way in the Sassanian texts, mentioned 
 above. All this looked plausible enough, but it 
 was, after all, only conjecture. It must be sup- 
 ported by definite facts, and these words must 
 each be separated into its alphabetic con- 
 stituents and these understood, and supported 
 by clear evidence, before anyone would or 
 could believe in the decipherment. 
 
30 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 To this Grotefend bent every energy. His 
 method was as simple as before. He made out 
 to his own satisfaction the titles "great king, 
 king of kings." Now, in the Sassanian in- 
 scriptions the first word was always the king's 
 name, followed immediately by "great king, 
 king of kings"; it was probably true in this 
 case. But, if true, then these two inscriptions 
 were set up by different kings, for the name 
 of the first was, 
 
 while the other was, 
 
 But to simplify, or perhaps I should say to 
 complicate, the matter, the name with which 
 No. I begins appears again in No. II in the third 
 line, but changed somewhat in its ending, so 
 that it stands thus: 
 
 v> K W. B.KHt . <K .<jf. %. 
 
 From its situation in the two places Grotefend 
 concluded that (d) was the name in the nomi- 
 native and that (f) was the same name in the 
 genitive. Thus No. I begins, "N great king, 
 king of kings" and this same king appears in 
 No. II thus: "of N" In II this name is fol- 
 lowed by the word for "king," and after this 
 by another word which might mean "son," 
 
THE RECOVERY OF A LOST RELIGION 31 
 
 so that the whole phrase in II would be "of N 
 king son" that is, "son of N king," the order 
 of words being presumably different from that 
 to which we are accustomed. But this same 
 word, which is supposed to mean "son/' appears 
 also in No. I, line five, thus: 
 
 &)??.<Jt. n. 
 
 where it follows a name which does not possess 
 the title king. From all these facts Grotefend 
 surmised that in these tw r o inscriptions he had 
 the names of three rulers: (1) the grandfather, 
 who had founded a dynasty but did not possess 
 the title of king; (2) the son, who succeeded 
 him and bore the title of king; and (3) the 
 grandson, who also had the same title. The 
 next thing was to search through all the known 
 names of the Achsemenides to find three names 
 which would suit. The first names thought of 
 were Cambyses, Cyrus, and Cambyses. These 
 will, however, not serve, because the name of 
 the grandfather and grandson are exactly alike, 
 whereas on the two inscriptions even a glance 
 will show that they are different. The next 
 three to be considered are Hystaspes, Darius, 
 Xerxes. If these be correct, then the seven 
 signs with which No. I begins must be the 
 name Darius (see "d" above). The next thing 
 in order was to find and apply some test to this 
 conjecture. After much thought and comparison 
 
32 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 with Hebrew, and with Greek transliterations 
 of the name, Grotefend finally gave the word 
 the form "Darheush," as follows: 
 
 »!E YYY. 5f. K*. *.<JT.^. 
 
 D A R H E U SH 
 
 That seemed to fit well enough, and later study 
 has shown that it contains errors only in H 
 and E, which were not sufficient to vitiate the 
 process, nor interfere with carrying it further. 
 The next task was to make out the name at the 
 beginning of No. II. This was comparatively 
 easy, for nearly all these same letters were again 
 used, only the first, which was wanting, being 
 readily supplied from the Hebrew and Avestan 
 forms of the name, and the word was then read 
 thus: 
 
 CH SH H A R SH A 
 
 The error in this also was extremely slight. 
 
 He had now to find the letters for the third 
 name, and that was a much more difficult 
 problem. This was the name which appears 
 in I, line four, last word, thus: 
 
 Here were ten signs. Grotefend believed that 
 this word was in the genitive case, and some 
 
THE RECOVERY OF A LOST RELIGION 33 
 
 signs must be cut off as the genitive ending, 
 but it was difficult to decide how many were 
 thus to be rejected. He finally decided to cut 
 off the final three letters and so to take what 
 remained as the king's name. As we have al- 
 ready seen, the name which he was seeking 
 was Hystaspes, the late Persian form of which 
 Grotefend followed and so made out the name: 
 
 G O SH T ASP 
 
 In this word the error was confined to the first 
 two letters. 
 
 To Grotefend the whole process seemed to 
 confirm itself as it developed step by step. He 
 was convinced that he had correctly secured 
 thirteen letters of the Persian alphabet out of 
 a possible forty-two. He soon added others 
 by the use of the divine name Aurmazda as he 
 believed that it occurred in these texts. 
 
 He now felt able to translate these two little 
 inscriptions in a partial and tentative way as 
 follows : 
 
 I. Darius, the mighty king, king of kings, . . . son of 
 
 Hystaspes. 
 II. Xerxes, the mighty king, king of kings, . . . son of 
 Darius, the king. 
 
 The Gottingen Academy refused to publish his 
 work, and when finally it was brought out by 
 a friend its reception was chilling. But how- 
 
34 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 ever the men of his own day might dispute his 
 results and criticise his processes, the future 
 belonged to the humble classical scholar of 
 Hannover, and men would soon come to see 
 that he had provided a key which in due time 
 would unlock to the world the vast treasures 
 of Babylonian and Assyrian literature. The 
 later work of Grotefend was very largely abor- 
 tive, and the continuation of his successful 
 work passed into other hands. 
 
 The men who continued the tradition were 
 Eugene Burnouf, a distinguished French sa- 
 vant, and Christian Lassen, a Norwegian who 
 spent most of his life at Bonn, Germany, where 
 he became one of the founders of Sanskrit 
 philology. These two men, who were close 
 personal friends, published contemporaneously 
 essays upon this great problem of decipherment, 
 which quite naturally has led to a foolish dis- 
 pute as to their priority. The former added 
 much to Grotefend's work in deciphering the 
 geographical names Persia, Media, Babylon, 
 Arabia, Cappadocia, Sarangia, Bactria, and 
 Sogdiana, while Lassen correctly deciphered 
 six additional characters and was almost suc- 
 cessful in securing the values of two more. 
 
 While all this work was going on an English- 
 man, Major (afterward Sir) Henry C. Rawlin- 
 son, was engaged upon the same task. In 1835 
 he copied with great care, and at the peril of 
 his life, about two hundred lines from the great 
 
THE RECOVERY OF A LOST RELIGION 35 
 
 inscription of Darius at Behistun in Persia. 
 Like Grotefend, he also began with the names 
 Hystaspes, Darius, and Xerxes. These he says 
 he applied "at hazard to the three groups." 
 This he had undoubtedly arrived at quite in- 
 dependently of Grotefend, but his later progress 
 was helped by the material secured by Grote- 
 fend and forwarded to Rawlinson by Edwin 
 Norris, the secretary of the Royal Asiatic 
 Society. With this assistance, but most of all 
 aided by his own acumen, he succeeded during 
 the year 1837 in arriving at a tentative transla- 
 tion of the first two paragraphs of the Behistun 
 inscription; this he forwarded to the Royal 
 Asiatic Society, where it was received on March 
 14, 1838. In 1839 he wrote his preliminary 
 memoir and expected to publish it in the 
 spring of 1840. At this juncture, when he was 
 upon the very point of far surpassing all his 
 predecessors in the power actually to translate, 
 he had to spend troublous years in the Afghan 
 war, and not until December, 1843, could he 
 resume his far more important studies in 
 Baghdad. At last, after many delays and dis- 
 couragements, he published, in 1846, his me- 
 moir, or series of memoirs, on the ancient Per- 
 sian inscriptions, in which he gave, for the first 
 time, a nearly complete translation of the whole 
 Persian text of Behistun. In this Rawlinson 
 attained imperishable fame. With his work 
 the long process of the decipherment of ancient 
 
36 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 Persian came to an end. Later scholars needed 
 only to build upon his foundations. 1 
 
 Very little had thus far been done upon the 
 other two languages which appeared both at 
 Persepolis and at Behistun by the side of the 
 ancient Persian text. The man who had the 
 privilege of beginning the decipherment of the 
 second language of these groups of inscriptions 
 was Niels Louis Westergaard, who proceeded 
 by the same method as that which gave success 
 with the first group to Grotefend. The language 
 he called Median. After Westergaard, Edward 
 Hincks and the eminent French scholar, De 
 Saulcy, made contributions to the rapid progress 
 of this much easier problem. Professor A. H. 
 Sayce, of Oxford, and Jules Oppert, of Paris, 
 each contributed to the process, which may be 
 considered to be closed with the publication of 
 an elaborate edition of these texts by Dr. F. H. 
 Weissbach in 1890. The language was, at that 
 time and by the general agreement of scholars, 
 called Susian. For our purposes it is of minor 
 importance, and I have therefore passed very 
 lightly over the story of its decipherment. 
 
 A far more important as well as a supremely 
 difficult task awaited the decipherer's skill in 
 the third set of inscriptions found both at 
 
 1 For a full account of Rawlinson's work see Rogers, History of Baby- 
 lonia and Assyria, i, pp. 63ff., and compare The Sculptures and In- 
 scriptions of Darius the Great on the Rock of Behistun in Persia. [By 
 E. A. W. Budge, L. W. King, and R. C. Thompson.] Published by the 
 Trustees of the British Museum. London, 1907. 
 
THE RECOVERY OF A LOST RELIGION 37 
 
 Persepolis and at Behistun. As I said in the 
 very beginning of this narrative, the signs with 
 which the three sorts of inscriptions were written 
 increased in complexity from the first to the 
 third. The decipherment had proven that the 
 ancient Persian was written with an alphabetic 
 character, while Susian was syllabic and ideo- 
 graphic in its script. The third language, the 
 Assyro-Babylonian, was now in turn to be 
 attacked. The problem was indeed exceedingly 
 difficult, but the workers had increased and the 
 hopes were bright. 
 
 The most gifted of all the new workers was 
 the rector of the little parish of Killyleagh in 
 Ireland, the Rev. Edward Hincks, who had 
 already made important contributions to the 
 decipherment both of Persian and of Susian. 
 Both these services he was now to surpass, and 
 apparently with ease. 
 
 In the latter part of 1846 and early in 1847 
 Hincks read three papers before the Royal Irish 
 Academy and plunged boldly into the reading of 
 Babylonian. He saw that it was related to 
 the Semitic languages, Hebrew and Arabic, and 
 perceived that it was the same language as that 
 in which were written the small tablets which 
 were now coming in numbers out of Assyria and 
 Babylonia. If, therefore, he could decipher the 
 third language of Persepolis and Behistun he 
 would make it possible to read the entire 
 literature of the Babylonians and Assyrians. 
 
38 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 Hincks determined the meanings of a num- 
 ber of syllabic signs, and identified a large part 
 of the numerals. He was on the high road to a 
 reading of the texts, but he was too careful to 
 venture to translate. His method, despite his 
 natural enthusiasm, was rigidly scientific. 
 
 Botta was now back again in Paris, and was 
 publishing in parts a memoir upon the language 
 of the inscriptions which he had recovered. He 
 made but little effort to decipher or translate, 
 but collated all the inscriptions which he had 
 found and made systematic lists of the signs 
 which he found upon them. In this manner he 
 differentiated no less than 642 separate signs, 
 and so at one stroke showed how impossible 
 were the old alphabetic theories of this manner 
 of writing. 
 
 In 1849 Hincks read a remarkable paper on 
 the Khorsabad inscriptions. He had hitherto 
 worked only with the little Persepolitan texts; 
 he had now greatly broadened his field by tak- 
 ing in the material which Botta had secured. 
 Hincks was now able to demonstrate the syl- 
 labic character of many of the signs. There 
 was, for example, a sign for RA, and another 
 for RI, and yet another for RU; then there 
 was a sign for AR and presumably also for IR 
 and UR, though he could not perfectly define 
 the last two. At the end of this paper, which 
 was not finished until 1850, Hincks added a 
 few lines of translation from Assyrian. "This 
 
THE RECOVERY OF A LOST RELIGION 39 
 
 was indeed a translation in a sense attained by 
 no other interpreter. It gave first the Assyrian 
 characters, then an attempted transcription into 
 Roman characters, and finally the almost com- 
 plete and very nearly correct translation. It 
 is impossible to read this paper at this late date 
 without astonishment at its grasp of funda- 
 mental principles, its keen insight into linguistic 
 form and life, and its amazing display of powers 
 of combination." 1 
 
 In 1851 Rawlinson issued his long and eagerly 
 expected memoir, in which he published one 
 hundred and twelve lines of inscription in cunei- 
 form type accompanied by an interlinear tran- 
 scription into Roman characters and a transla- 
 tion into Latin. To this was added a body of 
 notes, with brief lists of signs and acute obser- 
 vations on many peculiarities of the language. 
 
 The whole process of decipherment up to this 
 time had been so much like a dream that many 
 persons doubted whether it had any really sub- 
 stantial basis. As an enlightened public opinion 
 is a valuable asset in all scientific progress, Mr. 
 Fox Talbot, of London, determined to set these 
 doubts at rest by a test, dramatic in its char- 
 acter, which should show how complete was 
 the agreement existing between the different 
 scholars who were at work upon the problem. 
 He translated a part of a new published text 
 of Tiglathpileser, and sent it under seal to the 
 
 1 Rogers, History of Babylonia and Assyria, i, pp. 187, 188. 
 
40 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 Royal Asiatic Society, to which he desired that 
 Rawlinson, Hincks, and Oppert should also 
 submit independent translations. When the 
 three sealed translations were opened before the 
 selected committee their substantial agreement 
 left no doubt that the decipherers had really 
 attained certainty as to the main body of their 
 results. 
 
 With this we may regard the process of de- 
 cipherment of the three groups of inscriptions 
 as concluded. It was now possible to read Per- 
 sian, Susian, and Babylonian. It was time to 
 begin the process of analysis of the texts. The 
 grammar must be built up stage by stage. The 
 texts must be ransacked for historical material. 
 The whole life of the great peoples who had 
 caused these records to be made must be stud- 
 ied. That task was to prove much larger than 
 the pioneers in decipherment could have 
 dreamed. From all the camps of excavators 
 new materials were pouring into museums, 
 both old and new. New students were spring- 
 ing up in unexpected places, yet the work grew 
 apace and far outstripped their utmost efforts. 
 Assyriology demonstrated its right to be ac- 
 cepted as a university discipline, and a new 
 science took its place by the side of its more 
 ancient compeers. 
 
 When once the process of decipherment had 
 reached assured results and the grammatical 
 control of the new texts was sufficiently as- 
 
THE RECOVERY OF A LOST RELIGION 41 
 
 sured to make translation reasonably certain, 
 the process of using the new material for his- 
 torical purposes began. It was quite natural 
 that history should come first. The names of 
 Assyrian and Babylonian kings had long been 
 popularly known in the Old Testament, and 
 the discovery of contemporaneous documents 
 containing accounts of their campaigns as told 
 by their own historiographers appealed to the 
 imagination, and stimulated interest in the new 
 science. Very early in the history of the science 
 English and French literary journals began to 
 print frequent notices of the discovery of the 
 names of Shalmaneser and Nebuchadrezzar and 
 others upon newly deciphered tablets. Very 
 early also came the announcement of the find- 
 ing of the names of biblical kings; indeed, it 
 was this sort of a discovery which was George 
 Smith's first introduction to Assyrian research. 1 
 This linking up of the documents of the Hebrews 
 and of the Babylonians continues with un- 
 abated interest and vigor to the present, and 
 has been of enormous value in the quickening 
 
 1 Smith's report of his first discovery is so interesting in the history 
 of Assyrian discovery that it is here reproduced entire: 
 
 "Assyrian Inscription. While examining part of the Assyrian col- 
 lection in the British Museum I lately discovered a short inscription 
 of Shalmaneser II, king of Assyria, in which it is stated that Jehu, 
 king of Israel, sent him tribute in the eighteenth year of his reign. 
 That he received tribute from Jehu is well known from the black obelisk 
 inscription, but the date of the event has not been previously ascer- 
 tained. This fact is of chronological interest. I may add that Jehu 
 in this inscription is styled 'Son of Omri/ the same as on the black 
 obelisk. George Smith." — Athenaeum, No. 2031, September 29, 1866, 
 p. 410. 
 
42 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 of general interest in the study. Without this 
 stimulus the means would hardly have been 
 forthcoming for some of the most successful 
 expeditions. 
 
 But if the historical material received atten- 
 tion first, very early indeed did men begin to 
 see that these new discoveries were introducing 
 us to the religion of the Assyrians and Baby- 
 lonians. In the beginning the great slabs, 
 sculptured in relief, were found to contain 
 figures of the gods, and demons, which were 
 reproduced without, of course, any attempt at 
 classifying or arranging them. They were often 
 labeled merely "Winged Divinity" or with 
 some other noncommital legend, but even so 
 early as 1857 considerable numbers of these 
 were presented to the popular eye in illustra- 
 tions.' Here was the raw material which must 
 soon be interpreted and organized. 
 
 The earliest students of the religious ma- 
 terial, in a more systematic way, were Francois 
 Lenormant in France and Archibald H. Sayce 
 in England. Lenormant was born in Paris, 
 January 17, 1837, and devoted his early years 
 to Greek archaeology, but later passing over to 
 Assyriology gave all the powers of a remark- 
 able mind, with extraordinary intuitive power, 
 to the new science. In the power to seize the 
 essential thing in a difficult, almost illegible 
 text, and discarding the merely adventitious 
 
 1 See Bonomi, Nineveh and its Palaces, 3d edition. London, 1857. 
 
THE RECOVERY OF A LOST RELIGION 43 
 
 arrive at a picture of some religious or magical 
 or liturgical idea, no later investigator has sur- 
 passed him. 1 His death at the early age of 
 forty-six was a sad loss. 
 
 The first attempt to present a connected ac- 
 count of all the known facts of the Babylonian 
 and Assyrian religion was made by Sayce in his 
 Hibbert Lectures, published in 1887. How diffi- 
 cult, nay, impossible, the task was he has him- 
 self stated in a later course of lectures devoted 
 to the same subject, in words which I may well 
 reproduce here: "It is now fourteen years ago 
 since I delivered a course of lectures for the 
 Hibbert Trustees on the religion of the ancient 
 Babylonians. The subject at that time was 
 almost untouched; even such materials as were 
 then accessible had been hardly noticed, and 
 no attempt had been made to analyze or reduce 
 them to order, much less to draw up a systematic 
 account of ancient Babylonian religion. It was 
 necessary to lay the very foundations of the 
 study before it could be undertaken, to fix the 
 characteristic features of the Babylonian faith 
 
 1 The following works of Lenormant may here be mentioned aa 
 especially significant in the early study of the religious texts: 
 
 1. Lettres Assyriologiqv.es et Epigraphiques sur Vhistorie et les antiquitis 
 
 de VAsie anterieure. 2 vols. Paris, 1871-1873. 
 
 2. Essai de commentaire des fragments cosmogoniques de Berose. Paris, 
 
 1871. 
 
 3. Le dMuge et Ve'pope'e babylonienne. Paris, 1873. 
 
 4. Les sciences occultes en Asie. 2 vols. Paris, 1874, 1875. I. La Magie 
 
 chez les Chaldeens et les origines Accadiennes. II. La divination 
 et la science des Presages chez les Chaldeans. 
 
44 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 and the lines along which it had developed, 
 and, above all, to distinguish the different ele- 
 ments of which it was composed. The pub- 
 lished texts did not suffice for such a work; 
 they needed to be supplemented from that great 
 mass of unpublished cuneiform documents with 
 which the rooms of our museums are filled. My 
 lectures were necessarily provisional and pre- 
 liminary only, and I had to content myself with 
 erecting a scaffold on which others might build. 
 The time had not yet come for writing a sys- 
 tematic description of Babylonian religion, and 
 of the phases through which it passed during 
 the long centuries of its existence." 1 This 
 states very well the great difficulty of the task. 
 The results achieved were remarkable. Every 
 worker from that day onward had before him 
 a scheme from which as a point of departure 
 fresh progress was to be made. The influence 
 of the book lives on, though time and fresh 
 research have corrected some of its conclusions 
 and modified others. It was foundation-laying 
 work, and for years no attempt was made to 
 supersede it. 
 
 The next great forward movement in the 
 study of the Babylonian religion lay in the in- 
 vestigation of special subjects and in the publi- 
 cation of religious texts. In this Rawlinson 
 
 »A. H. Sayce, The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia, The 
 Gifford Lectures on the Ancient Egyptian and Babylonian Conception 
 of the Divine, p. 252. Edinburgh, 1902. 
 
THE RECOVERY OF A LOST RELIGION 45 
 
 had already made a most important beginning/ 
 to be followed very soon by a series of publica- 
 tions by Professor Heinrich Zimmern, of the 
 University of Leipzig, the first devoted to the 
 Penitential Psalms, 2 and the others to incanta- 
 tions and their liturgical use. 3 These laid the 
 foundations in their field, displaying not merely 
 a wide grasp of the material, but a philological 
 acumen of the first order. During this same 
 period Professor Paul Haupt, of the Johns 
 Hopkins University, Baltimore, published the 
 great national Babylonian epic in masterly 
 fashion, 4 while J. A. Knudtzon, 5 James A. 
 Craig, 6 and George Reisner 7 in rapid succession 
 provided an abundance of material for the stu- 
 dent of the religious books. The systematic 
 and scientific study of the cosmologies begins 
 with Professor Peter Jensen, of the University 
 of Marburg, 8 whose work was rapidly followed 
 by new contributions of the highest importance 
 
 1 A Selection from the Miscellaneous Inscriptions of Western Asia, 
 ed. by H. C. Rawlinson. London, 1875. Second edition, ed. by T. G. 
 Pinches, 1891. 
 
 2 Heinrich Zimmern, Babylonische Busspsalmen. Leipzig, 1885. 
 
 3 Heinrich Zimmern, Beitrdge zur Kenntniss der Babylonischen Re- 
 ligion, (a) Beschworunstafeln Shurpu, (b) Ritualtafeln fur den Wahr* 
 soger, Beschworer, und Sanger. Leipzig, 1901. 
 
 4 Paul Haupt, Das Babylonische Nimrodepos. 2 vols. Leipzig, 1891. 
 8 J. A. Knudtzon, Assyrische Gebete an den Sonnengott. 2 vols. Leip- 
 zig, 1893. 
 
 6 James A. Craig, Assyrian and Babylonian Religious Texts. 2 vols. 
 Leipzig, 1895, 1897. 
 
 7 George Reisner, Sumerisch-Babylonische Hymnen. Berlin, 1896. 
 
 8 Peter Jensen, Kosmologie der Babylonier. Strassburg, 1890. 
 
46 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 from Professor Friedrich Delitzsch, 1 of the Uni- 
 versity of Berlin, until Leonard W. King 2 placed 
 the capstone upon this part of the structure in 
 the publication, with large additions of new 
 material, of all the creation myths of Baby- 
 lonia. The same scholar had previously dis- 
 cussed the magical texts 3 , and Dr. R. C. 
 Thompson, 4 C. Fossey, 5 A. Boissier, 6 and 
 Charles Virolleaud 7 had made important con- 
 tributions to the same field. Many of these 
 works would have been impossible but for the 
 self-sacrificing labor of Dr. Carl Bezold, after- 
 ward professor in the University of Heidelberg, 
 who began in 1889, and completed ten years 
 later, the publication in five volumes of a cata- 
 logue of all the cuneiform tablets in the 
 Kuyunjik collection of the British Museum. 
 
 The publication of texts and the systematic 
 ordering of the material which they had sup- 
 plied gave the call for a presentation of the 
 religion as a whole, for they naturally super- 
 seded, in large measure, the brilliant work 
 
 1 Friedrich Delitzsch, Das Babylonische Weltschopfungsepos. Leipzig, 
 1896. 
 
 2 L. W. King, The Seven Tablets of Creation; or, the Babylonian and 
 Assyrian Legends concerning the Creation of the World and of Man- 
 kind. 2 vols. London, 1902. 
 
 3 L. W. King, Babylonian Magic and Sorcery. London, 1896. 
 
 4 R. C. Thompson, The Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers of 
 Nineveh and Babylon. 2 vols. London, 1900. 
 
 » C. Fossey, La Magie Assyrienne. Paris, 1902. 
 
 8 A. Boissier, Document Assyriens relatifs aux presages. Paris, 1894ff. 
 
 7 Ch. Virolleaud, L'Astrologie Chaldtene. Paris, 1903ff. 
 
THE RECOVERY OF A LOST RELIGION 47 
 
 which Sayce had done in the Hibbert Lectures. 
 A pioneer in this work was the distinguished 
 C. P. Tiele, 1 of Leyden, whose very brief sketch 
 showed the breadth of his knowledge of the 
 history of religions; while Friedrich Jeremias 2 
 gave a clear presentation of the knowledge 
 then attained, and his brother Alfred Jeremias 3 
 made elaborate studies of the various gods of 
 the Babylonian and Assyrian pantheon, which 
 are models of their kind. 
 
 In 1898 appeared the first complete treatise 
 upon the religion of Babylonia and Assyria by 
 Professor Morris Jastrow, Jr., 4 of the University 
 of Pennsylvania, followed in the very next year 
 by a brief but able book by the indefatigable 
 Dr. King, 5 of the British Museum. In 1901 
 Professor Sayce 6 again gave a series of lectures, 
 from which I have already made a significant 
 quotation. Very shortly after the publication 
 of this first book in English Professor Jastrow 
 began its translation into German, issuing the 
 book in parts beginning with the year 1902 and 
 
 1 C. P. Tiele, Geschichte dei Religion im Alterthum, part i, pp. 127-216, 
 Die Religion in Bab. und Assyrien. Gotha, 1895. 
 
 2 Friedrich Jeremias, Die Bdbylonier und Assyrer, in Chantepie de la 
 Saussaye, Lehrbuch der Religionsgeschichte, i, pp. 163-221. 
 
 * In Roscher, Ausfuhrliches Lexikon der Griechischen und Romischen 
 Mythologie. 
 
 4 Morris Jastrow, Jr., The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria. Boston, 
 1898. 
 
 * L. W. King, Babylonian Religion and Mythology. London, 1899. 
 
 e A. H. Sayce, The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia. Edin- 
 burgh, 1902. 
 
48 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 now (1908) almost completed. 1 It has far ex- 
 ceeded the limits of a mere translation, being 
 filled with fresh texts and carrying the investi- 
 gation of the entire subject to points impossible 
 in 1898. It is a work of almost monumental 
 character and represents the present state of 
 knowledge. 
 
 We have surveyed the history of Assyrian 
 research from its beginning to the present 
 day, and may now turn to ask what we have 
 learned of this ancient faith once more restored 
 to knowledge, and to ask also what are its re- 
 lations to the faith of Israel and its sacred 
 books. 
 
 1 Morris Jastrow, Jr., Die Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens, Band i. 
 Giessen, 1904. 
 
LECTURE II 
 
 THE GODS OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 Far away in the mists which cover the 
 earliest of human habitations we can discern 
 in southern Babylonia signs of life, society, 
 and government in certain cities. More than 
 four thousand years before Christ civilization 
 had already reached a high point, the arts of 
 life had made much progress, and men were 
 able to write down their thoughts and words 
 in intelligible language. Here we stand at the 
 beginning of history; man can write. He has 
 acquired that high feeling of self-consciousness 
 which impels him to write down his name and 
 to boast of his deeds. Beyond that day, farther 
 and farther back into the centuries, stretch 
 those long prehistoric ages, of which we can 
 form only a conjectural picture. The mists 
 are penetrated here and there by little rays of 
 light from the earliest written records of the 
 historic period; and sometimes an inference 
 from some broken statue, from some geo- 
 graphical fact, from some little anthropological 
 datum may enable our vision to discern mov- 
 ing races, conquering kings, and murmuring 
 priests. 
 
 49 
 
50 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 In the earliest historic period we find two 
 quite distinct peoples dwelling and working 
 in Babylonia. One of these we call the Su- 
 merians, 1 the other the Semitic Babylonians. 
 The former are of unknown origin, having been 
 connected with various peoples, from those 
 dwelling along the Zagros to the Mongols in 
 the far east. The Semites, who appear first 
 in the northern part of the country, originated 
 in all probability in Arabia; the Sumerians, 
 who in the earliest times controlled the south, 
 may have entered the land by way of the Per- 
 sian Gulf. The differences between the two 
 races are clearly shown in their sculpture. The 
 
 1 There has been, since 1874, an earnest controversy as to the ex- 
 istence of the Sumerians. It was begun by the distinguished Parisian 
 Orientalist Joseph HaleVy, who tried to show that the Sumerian lan- 
 guage was merely an ideographic system of writing invented by the 
 Assyrian priests. At first his views met with the support of some 
 eminent names, but he now numbers but few supporters. Professor 
 Jastrow (Die Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens, i, pp. 18ff.) has sup- 
 ported HaleVy's contention, in the main, and argued earnestly that the 
 matter must not be considered a chose jugie, but in the recently pub- 
 lished parts of the new German edition of his book he seems more and 
 more to depart from HaleVy's position, though I have no evidence 
 that he has positively accepted the opposing view. I have already dis- 
 cussed the matter (History of Babylonia and Assyria, i, pp. 200-215), 
 and need only say here that the succeeding years have confirmed the 
 judgment there expressed, and repeated above. The history of the 
 whole controversy is given by F. H. Weissbach, Die Sumerische Frage, 
 Leipzig, 1898. Since then Pinches and Sayce have published (Pro- 
 ceedings of the Society of Biblical Archceology, xxiv, 1902, pp. 108ff.) 
 Greek transcriptions of Sumerian words exactly the same as those which 
 are in use to-day. I do not see how this evidence can be successfully 
 disposed of. The important discussion of the question by Eduard 
 Meyer (Sumerier und Semiten in Babylonien, Abhandlungen der konig- 
 lich Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1906, Philosoph. — 
 hist. Classe; also published separately, Berlin, 1906) ought here to be 
 especially commended. 
 
THE GODS OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 51 
 
 Semites wore long beards, carefully, even fan- 
 tastically, braided or arranged, and also long 
 hair. They were clad in colored garments, and 
 wore sandals. The Sumerians, on the other 
 hand, had no beard, and even shaved the head. 
 They wore a long mantle, and covered neither 
 the feet with shoes nor the head with a hat. 1 
 It was the Sumerians who invented and applied 
 the elements of the cuneiform writing, which 
 the Semites adopted from them and modi- 
 fied as time progressed. It served fairly 
 well to express the agglutinative speech of its 
 inventors, but failed most awkwardly to ex- 
 press the sounds of Semitic speech. 
 
 Most of the earliest inscriptions which have 
 come down to us, while written for the greater 
 part in Sumerian, contain in some degree a 
 mixture of Semitic words. The Sumerians were 
 gradually, though very slowly, forced back- 
 ward by conquest into subjection, and then 
 disappeared by amalgamation. Recent in- 
 vestigation would seem to indicate that they 
 existed to a much later day than was formerly 
 thought possible. 
 
 These two peoples in the earlier days in- 
 teracted upon each other. The elements of 
 Semitic religion were intermingled with those 
 of the Sumerians; the myths of the Semites 
 were adopted by their predecessors, who made 
 their contributions to the store of Semitic 
 
 1 Meyer, op. tit., p. 8ff. 
 
52 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 myth and legend. Even at this late day we can 
 read in the inscriptions of kings, both early and 
 late, names of gods which are surely Semitic, and 
 others which seem quite as certainly Sumerian. 
 
 It would be interesting, if only it were pos- 
 sible, to trace the separate influences of the 
 Sumerian and Semitic peoples in that long 
 sweep of history. We must be content to follow 
 the history in its broad lines without even 
 seeking to know what racial factors are in it. 
 
 Without a preliminary survey of the history 
 of these two peoples it is quite impossible to 
 understand the religion — which is the chief 
 purpose of these lectures. It is a truism that 
 all religions are closely connected with the 
 history of the people who profess them. In 
 no people is this more true than in the case of 
 the Babylonians and Assyrians. A considerable 
 proportion of their theological development 
 has political foundation, and several of their 
 gods are conditioned closely by the rise or fall 
 of political power. In no way so well can we 
 approach the pantheon as through the story 
 of the empire's rise and fall. I propose, there- 
 fore, first of all to outline the whole story of 
 both peoples before I come to the characteriza- 
 tion of the gods, though in at least two cases 
 we shall continually be able to see the gods 
 themselves in the very process of theological 
 definition as our eyes follow the armies in con- 
 quest and the statesmen in empire-building. 
 
wss^b 
 
 
 
 SmIpPw 
 
 ~^§SW 
 
 
 // ^n 
 
 
 &£k 
 
 
 
 jm/^-'^B 
 
 
 
 fek 
 
 . •- --■»■„ ^^sishh 
 
 3 fe 
 
 =r 
 
 1 
 
 
 ^gj 
 ™ 
 
 if 
 
 
 
 
 llll 
 
 m 
 
 ■P^^l.^ 
 
 ^8? 
 
 ]<*> 
 
THE GODS OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 53 
 
 In the earliest period known to us the central 
 governing fact was a city, with a king and a 
 local deity. The god is so related to his wor- 
 shipers that as they grew in wealth and power 
 so did he. Impelled sometimes by ambition, 
 often by hunger for bread, these petty kings 
 conquered communities in their immediate 
 neighborhood, and extended their sway. If 
 the inhabitants of Erech could conquer the 
 people of Larsa, was not this a proof that their 7 s 
 was the stronger god, and should not the con- 
 quered folk, or others who knew his prowess, 
 also worship him? Herein we may discern the 
 beginnings of small kingdoms, and the gradual 
 founding of a pantheon. 
 
 In these early days the name of Babylonia 
 was Kengi — that is, "land of canals and reeds." 
 Even then the waters were conveyed to the 
 fields and cities in artificially constructed canals, 
 while the most characteristic form of vegetable 
 life was the reed, growing luxuriantly along the 
 water courses. In the southern part of this 
 canal country, on the Persian Gulf, lay the city 
 of Eridu, perhaps the oldest city known to us 
 in the world. Its chief god was Ea. We do hot 
 know so much as the name of any of its early 
 kings, but the wide recognition in later times 
 of its god would seem to warrant the inference 
 that it had at one time exercised sway over a 
 large part of Babylonia. 
 
 The earliest king in Babylonia whose name 
 
54 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 has come down to us was Enshagkushanna, the 
 political center of whose kingdom was either 
 Erech or Shirpurla, but the religious center was 
 Nippur. The god whom he acknowledged 
 was En-lil, to whom he dedicated a calcite 
 stalagmite vase, which has come down to us 
 broken into fragments indeed, but still able 
 to witness to an ancient faith. This god has 
 honors heaped upon him by the peoples of 
 other places, and as Semitic civilization rose 
 triumphant over Sumerian he was identified with 
 the god Bel. 
 
 To this same period belong a line of rulers 
 with Sumerian names, such as Lugal-shag- 
 Engur, Ur-Nina, Akurgal, who ruled at Shir- 
 purla or Lagash, the ruins of which are covered 
 by the modern mound of Telloh. One of these 
 monarchs, named Eannatum, has left a long 
 inscription, boasting of the lands he had sub- 
 jugated and the cities he had destroyed, naming 
 among others Erech, Ur, Larsa, Gishku, Kish, 
 and Elam. 1 
 
 During all this period, when the city king- 
 doms in the south were rising and falling, there 
 was in northern Babylonia one city of which 
 little is heard — the city of Babylon. The city 
 could not be great until it had found a great 
 man. The sixth king of the first dynasty of 
 Babylon was Hammurabi, who ruled about 
 
 i On these early kings the excellent resumd by Albert T. Clay {Light 
 on the Old Testament from Babel, p. 38ff.) may now be consulted. 
 
THE GODS OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 55 
 
 two thousand years before Christ. This dynasty 
 was founded by invaders from Arabia, and for 
 three hundred years it maintained its supremacy 
 in Babylonia. But, great as the dynasty was in 
 power, it never again produced a man of such 
 commanding influence and power as Ham- 
 murabi. It was his military prowess which 
 united all Babylonia under a single sovereignty. 
 The old city kingdoms disappeared, the old 
 dynastic titles — King of Sumer and Accad — 
 lived on only as conventional relics of a bygone 
 day, while Babylon, and only Babylon, became 
 the city of royalty and destiny. It was the 
 genius of Hammurabi that supplied the city 
 with civil government, and extended order and 
 justice over the whole realm by a code of laws 1 
 which is even yet the wonder and admiration 
 of the whole world. The aggrandizement of 
 Babylon was the means of elevating her patron 
 deity Marduk to a position at the head of the 
 pantheon that then existed. There is no more 
 interesting development in all the history of 
 the Babylonian religion than this rise of Marduk 
 to supremacy. The religious literature that 
 had come down from ancient days was so 
 changed as to accord the new honors to Marduk, 
 
 1 The Code of Hammurabi, discovered December, 1901, and January, 
 1902, by J. de Morgan at Susa and published by Scheil in Mdmoires de 
 la Delegation en Perse, vol. v, has been repeatedly translated into several 
 languages. The most important for English readers are by C. H. W. 
 Johns in Hastings's Bible Dictipnary, Extra Volume, pp. 584ff., and by 
 R. F. Harper, The Code of Hammurabi, Chicago, 1904. 
 
56 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 displacing other gods by him. We shall see 
 later how other gods were glorified by their 
 worshipers from time to time, how Shamash 
 received honors that seemed to threaten the 
 preeminence of Marduk, but it was all in vain. 
 Down through that long line of the centuries 
 from 2000 B.C. to 500 B.C. he remained the 
 chief god of the city of Babylon, and none could 
 take away his palm of victory. It is a fascinat- 
 ing story of the political ascendency of a god ; 
 as his people grew in power, so also did he. It 
 is a marvel, but there are greater marvels in a 
 neighboring faith. 
 
 The first dynasty of Babylon fell before an 
 overpowering invasion of the Hittites from the 
 far western mountains above the Mediter- 
 ranean Sea 1 ; and when the turmoil was over 
 Kassite rulers established themselves upon the 
 throne which Hammurabi had made great. 
 They accepted the dominant faith, adminis- 
 tered the country with an iron hand and ex- 
 tended its borders, and when their dominion 
 came to an end, about 1200 B.C., the glory 
 and power of Marduk were assured until Baby- 
 lon should pass from Semitic hands forever. 
 
 During all the period of Marduk' s growth in 
 power, as his victorious people were sweeping 
 
 1 This fact, that it was a Hittite invasion which began the downfall, 
 is due to a discovery of L. W. King (Chronicles concerning Early Baby- 
 Ionian Kings, i, pp. 57, 59, 72, 149, etc.). The matter is of the highest 
 importance in the reconstruction of ancient history, for it affords a new 
 view of the Hittites, and a new appreciation of their position. 
 
THE GODS OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 57 
 
 other peoples into their net, a somewhat similar 
 movement was in progress on the banks of the 
 Tigris in the northern part of the great valley. 
 Assyria had been settled in the beginning by 
 colonists from Babylonia, and the original stock 
 was therefore the same. But while in Baby- 
 lonia there was from the beginning a great mix- 
 ture of blood, through the constant introduction 
 of new strains by conquest or peaceful settle- 
 ment, in Assyria, on the other hand, the Semitic 
 strain remained comparatively pure. The dif- 
 ferences in blood worked out into great national 
 differences which persisted until the end of both 
 kingdoms. The Assyrians were the more vig- 
 orous and warlike, while the Babylonians more 
 and more, until the Chaldean domination, be- 
 came the* custodians of an ancient culture, and 
 the founders of a noble civilization. 
 
 In the early days of the Assyrian power the 
 relations with Babylonia were peaceful, but 
 in the twelfth century began a series of contests 
 for the control of the whole great valley. The 
 first contest was between Nebuchadrezzar I 
 (about 1140 B.C.), 1 king of Babylon, and 
 
 1 To what I have said in my History of Babylonia and Assyria, i, 426, 
 there is now to be added a discussion by Hilprecht (The Babylonian 
 Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania, vol. xx, part i, Mathemat- 
 ical, Metrological, and Chronological Tablets from the Temple Library 
 of Nippur, p. 44 and especially footnote 1. Philadelphia, 1906). In 
 this place Hilprecht says: "I have been convinced that the objections 
 raised by Winckler and others against my placing Nebuchadrezzar I 
 at the head of the second dynasty of Isin ( — PA-SHE) are justified." 
 As I was one of the "others" who argued against Hilprecht's former 
 view I am glad to have his able support. 
 
58 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 Ashurrishishi, king of Assyria, and the Baby- 
 lonian king was defeated, and forced to retreat 
 in a rout, having burned his baggage to lighten 
 his return to Babylon. The Assyrian king did 
 not follow up his advantage, nor attempt to 
 seize territory previously acknowledged as be- 
 longing to his adversary, but it was ominous 
 for the future of Babylonia that one of the 
 ablest kings she had yet had was defeated by a 
 king out of Assyria. In a few years only, during 
 the reign of Marduk-nadin-akhe, king of Baby- 
 lon (about 1117-1096), the Assyrian king 
 Tiglathpileser I swept victoriously over the 
 northern part of Babylonia, capturing a num- 
 ber of cities, and even took Babylon itself. 
 This was the first great blow at Babylonian in- 
 dependence, and though the Assyrians did not 
 attempt to hold the city, the results could not 
 but be felt for years. 
 
 The Assyrian kings who succeeded Tiglath- 
 pileser were not able to wield his sword, and 
 soon a policy of conciliation was adopted, and 
 the Assyrian king Ashurbelkala gave his 
 daughter in marriage to the king of Babylonia. 
 During these days the Assyrians were chiefly 
 occupied in the strengthening and solidifying of 
 their kingdom, while the Babylonians were too 
 weak to undertake campaigns of conquest. The 
 Babylonians had lost the key to Western Asia 
 and the Assyrians had found it. The little city 
 kingdom of Babylonia under the genius of 
 
THE GODS OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 59 
 
 Hammurabi had become a great and powerful 
 empire. None had dared dispute its onward 
 march for a thousand years, but now its own 
 daughter state had blocked its path, and the 
 Babylonians would never again enjoy to the 
 same degree an independence and a hegemony 
 over other peoples. 
 
 And now we shall do well to look back over 
 this great onward and upward movement of 
 Assyria, and observe its religious side. The 
 first Assyrian capital city was Asshur, the first 
 rulers in Asshur were contemporaneous with 
 the great first dynasty of Babylon, to which 
 Hammurabi belonged. The chief god of the 
 city of Asshur bore the name Ashur. He is a 
 local deity, as was Marduk at Babylon, but 
 though Marduk always remained at Babylon, 
 Ashur accompanied his people when the capital 
 was changed to Calah, and then to Nineveh 
 and thence to Dur-Sharrukin (Khorsabad) and 
 back again to Nineveh. As the Assyrian arms 
 advanced victorious west and north and south, 
 so did the god Ashur advance in power and 
 dignity and rank. But in the period, which 
 we have now reached, in our historical survey, 
 when the Assyrians had conquered Babylon 
 they made no attempt to introduce the worship 
 of Ashur into the southern capital, much less 
 to supplant Marduk. They appeared rather as 
 willing worshipers of Marduk, and offered sacri- 
 fices in his temple, at the very moment when 
 
60 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 their inscriptions ascribed their victories over 
 their kinsfolk to the power of Ashur. 
 
 The period of Assyrian weakness, during 
 which Babylonia had enjoyed some measure of 
 political independence, ceased in 885 B.C., when 
 Ashurnazirpal III came to the throne. He 
 inherited a kingdom rich rather in possibilities 
 than in actual possessions, but no king like unto 
 him had ever before arisen in the little state by 
 the Tigris, and the power of the Assyrian 
 commonwealth grew apace. The Aramaic peo- 
 ples in Mesopotamia and along the Euphrates 
 were conquered, and the Assyrian arms were 
 once more felt all the way to the Mediterranean. 
 Wherever he went cities were destroyed, sowed 
 with salt, and their inhabitants slain or brutally 
 abused. Ashur is his chief aid, counselor, and 
 stay, and as peoples and petty kingdoms went 
 down beneath the Assyrian standards, so the 
 honor of Ashur was increased. 
 
 The successor of Ashurnazirpal was Shalman- 
 eser II, a great king of tremendous energy who 
 extended his dominions, and for the first time 
 in Assyrian history really tried to govern them. 
 He made an expedition in 854 against Syria, 
 and there met an alliance of nearly all the small 
 western states, to which Ahab, king of Israel, 
 made a contribution of men. This was the 
 first contact between the Assyrian power and 
 the Hebrew kingdom. Shalmaneser was again 
 in the west in 849, 846, 842, and 839. The 
 
THE GODS OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 61 
 
 Assyrian was beating in successive blows against 
 the defenses of the small states in Western Asia, 
 and his success in the end was certain. For 
 nearly a hundred years after the death of 
 Shalmaneser there arose kings in Assyria, not 
 indeed so powerful as Ashurnazirpal and Shal- 
 maneser, yet able to continue the development 
 of the kingdom. There were the usual troubles 
 that beset Oriental states, quarrels over the 
 succession, and rebellions against the king who 
 had gained the throne. In the midst of one of 
 these rebellions the dynasty that had long been 
 ruling disappeared and a usurper, Tiglath- 
 pileser IV, 1 known to the Hebrews also as Pul, 2 
 came to the throne. His accession marks the 
 beginning of a new age in the development of 
 the empire. 
 
 If Shalmaneser had begun the attempt really 
 to rule the conquered dependencies, it was 
 Tiglathpileser who first applied deportation and 
 colonization as means for the complete subju- 
 
 1 This is the king who was formerly known to Assyriologists as Tig- 
 lathpileser II, and who later became known as Tiglathpileser III, by 
 which name he is known in most, even of the more recent, publications. 
 Andrae has now shown that he must be designated as Tiglathpileser IV, 
 through the discovery of another king who preceded him and bore the 
 same name. See Andrae, Mittheilungen der Deutschen Orient Gesellschaft, 
 No. 32 (Nov., 1906), pp. 19ff., and compare King, Chronicles Concerning 
 Early Babylonian Kings, i, p. 202, n. 2. 
 
 2 2 Kings 15. 19. In 1 Chron. 5. 26, the writer considered Pul and 
 Tiglathpileser as different persons. There can, however, be no doubt 
 that they are the same person. The Babylonian Chronicle and the 
 Ptolemaic Canon place this beyond dispute. See Winckler, Die Keilin- 
 schriften und das Alte Testament, 3te Auf., p. 50, and Clay, Light on the 
 Old Testament from Babel, p. 326. 
 
62 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 gation and control of other peoples. He went 
 all over Western Asia in conquest; Damascus 
 fell before him, northern Babylonia was reduced, 
 and the conqueror adopted the style "King of 
 Sumer and Akkad," as though he were the 
 successor of the great Babylonian kings who 
 had borne that title. In the west he was, if 
 possible, still more successful. All northern 
 Syria became Assyrian territory, and nearly the 
 whole of the west paid heavy tribute. His great 
 reign culminated in 728 B.C., when he actually 
 took the hands of Marduk in Babylon in token 
 of his sonship, and ascended the throne as king 
 of Babylon — the proudest royal title in the 
 world. In the next year he was dead. He had 
 raised Assyria to a position of power unequalled 
 by that of any other people, and the god Ashur 
 had shared in the upward movement. He was 
 no longer a mere local deity, but one of the 
 greatest of all the gods. Shalmaneser had at- 
 tempted to give great honor to Shamash, but 
 Tiglathpileser consistently gives the highest 
 place to Ashur, god of battles, as he had almost 
 completely come to be. 
 
 In the short reign of Shalmaneser IV (727- 
 723 B.C.) the Assyrians besieged Samaria, and 
 at the beginning of the reign of Sargon II (722- 
 705 B.C.) the city succumbed. Sargon followed 
 very nearly in the course of Tiglathpileser IV, 
 and through tremendous difficulties carried the 
 empire far beyond its former position. Though 
 
THE GODS OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 63 
 
 the whole west "seethed with hate and discon- 
 tent against the Assyrian/' he reduced it to 
 subjection, and though Babylonia had found a 
 leader of consummate ability in the person of 
 Merodach-baladan, Sargon overcame "the blas- 
 phemous usurper, who, for twelve years, had, 
 against the will of the gods, ruled and tyran- 
 nized over Babylonia." 1 Sargon built himself 
 a new capital city, twenty miles away from 
 Nineveh on the foothills, and named it Dur- 
 Sharrukin. There he died in 705 at the hands 
 of an assassin. His inscriptions are full of re- 
 ligious passages, of praises to divers gods. 
 Unlike Tiglathpileser's constant praise of Ashur, 
 Sargon honors Shamash, Adad, Bel, Belit, Anu, 
 Ishtar, Ea, Belit-ilani, Ninib, and many others. 
 The successor of Sargon was his son Sen- 
 nacherib, whose name the Old Testament had 
 long made familiar to all men. A boastful, 
 arrogant, and cruel man, he was unable to equal 
 the position held by his father, and the empire 
 was weakened, not strengthened, by his policy. 
 At the very beginning of his reign he invaded 
 Babylonia and punished it severely for having 
 again accepted Merodach-baladan as its king. 
 Over the proud Babylonians he set up a puppet 
 king, who, he says, "like a little dog had been 
 brought up in my palace." In the year 701 
 
 1 The rhetoric belongs to Sargon's historiographer (Triumphal In- 
 scription, lines 121-124), and is a fair specimen of the hatreds of a 
 warlike age. 
 
64 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 he invaded Judah, and though he did not take 
 Jerusalem, he left it "like a lodge in a garden of 
 cucumbers/ ' for he had ravaged all Judah. He 
 attacked it again in 690, but had to return to 
 invade Babylonia to drive out the persistent 
 Merodach-baladan, who had taken the oppor- 
 tunity which Sennacherib's absence in the west 
 had afforded him, and was seated once more on 
 the throne of Hammurabi. Sennacherib seems 
 to have been filled with an overmastering pas- 
 sion of hate, a madness of fury. He took Baby- 
 lon, and in the year 689 destroyed it by fire, 
 and left the noblest city that had ever stood 
 in Western Asia a heap of blackened ruins. It 
 seems the act of a madman, for it impoverished 
 the world by the loss of untold treasures which 
 a gifted people had devised and executed during 
 the long roll of the centuries since the days of 
 Hammurabi. To him it was a triumph of the 
 gods, an enrichment of their glory and honor. 
 As he set out on this mission of destruction he 
 had prayed "to Ashur, Sin, Shamash, Bel, Nabu, 
 Nergal, Ishtar of Nineveh, Ishtar of Arbela, 
 the gods in whom I had confidence, that I might 
 conquer the powerful enemy. They gave ear to 
 my prayers at once and came to my help. ... I 
 seized the strong bow which Ashur had in- 
 trusted to me, and I grasped the javelin which 
 destroys life." From Babylon Sennacherib re- 
 turned to spend eight years more of life, and 
 then in 681, when he was kneeling at the shrine 
 
THE GODS OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 65 
 
 of Nisroch, 1 his god, he was assassinated by his 
 son, 2 and the reign of blood was over. 
 
 Esarhaddon, second son of Sennacherib, suc- 
 ceeded his father, and became in a few years 
 one of the greatest of the kings of Assyria. He 
 saw the folly of the destruction of Babylon, and 
 it is the chief glory of his reign that he began, 
 and partially carried out, its complete restora- 
 tion. It is most interesting to see that he 
 ascribes its destruction to the anger of the god 
 Marduk: 'To overthrow the country and to de- 
 stroy the people he formed hostile plans; the 
 canal Arakhtu, a river of plenty, a mighty flood, 
 like a storm-god was brought, and he caused it 
 to come against the city, its habitations, and its 
 temples, and he made it resemble a ruin. The 
 gods and goddesses residing therein ascended 
 to heaven; the people dwelling within it were 
 apportioned to bonds and bands, and they en- 
 
 1 The god Nisroch has long been a puzzle. It is probably only an in- 
 tentional malforming of the name of Marduk, as Abednego for Abed- 
 Nebo. If this be true the place of Sennacherib's death must be sought 
 in the great temple of Marduk at Babylon. This is confirmed by the 
 mention of his death in the inscriptions of Ashurbanipal, who posi- 
 tively affirms that he was slain there. This may well enough be accom- 
 modated to the biblical reference by supposing a lacuna in the text 
 (2 Kings 19. 36, 37) between the two verses. See further Winckler, 
 Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament, 3te Auf., p. 85, and Jeremias, 
 Das Alte T estament in Lichte des Alien Orients, 2te Auf., p. 531. For 
 a quite different explanation see Hilprecht, Babylonian Expedition of 
 the University of Pennsylvania, x. p. xvi. 
 
 2 The Babylonian Chronicle gives only one son; so also does Berosus, 
 the son's name according to Polyhistor being Ardumuzanus, and ac- 
 cording to Abydenus, Adramelus. The biblical passage gives two sons; 
 but it is rather probably two names for the one person. So Winckler, 
 op. cit., p. 85. 
 
66 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 tered into a state of slavery. He had decreed 
 ten years as the length of its state of ruin, and 
 the merciful Marduk was speedily appeased, 
 and he drew to his side Babylonia both above 
 and below. In the eleventh year I gave orders 
 to reinhabit it." At the beginning of this in- 
 scription Esarhaddon introduces himself as one 
 who fears Nabu and Marduk, and before he 
 begins the work of Babylon's restoration he 
 says: " About the doing of this work to the 
 judgment of Shamash, Ramman, Marduk, chief 
 justice of the gods, my lords, I bowed; I con- 
 sulted them." 
 
 The greatest achievement in war during his 
 reign was the conquest of Egypt. He prepared 
 long and carefully for this great campaign. As 
 early as 677 B.C. he invaded Phoenicia and de- 
 stroyed Sidon, but could not take Tyre, though 
 he battered at her land doors, for her sea doors 
 stood open and he could neither enter them 
 himself nor close them to the entry of supplies. 
 But all the rest of Syria offered a ready sub- 
 mission, and when he had weakened northern 
 and western Arabia so that it could give Egypt 
 no help, the way lay open before him into the 
 long and splendid valley of the Nile. It was 
 in the year 670 that the Assyrians entered the 
 Delta and went on in three successful battles, 
 during the month of July, to break down the 
 defenses of Tirhaqa, the Ethiopian king who 
 then ruled Egypt, and Memphis was taken. 
 
THE GODS OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 67 
 
 What a wealth of plunder must have come 
 from that one city, sufficient in itself alone to 
 make Nineveh a "pool" 1 of gold and silver. 
 
 The Assyrian empire had now attained the 
 zenith of its power and glory. Esarhaddon 
 could write upon the walls of a new palace 
 these splendid words of pride: "Esarhaddon the 
 great king, the powerful king, king of hosts, 
 king of Assyria, governor of Babylon, king of 
 Sumer and Akkad, king of the kings of Egypt, 
 of Pathros and Cush." To whom does he ascribe 
 all this victory? It is to Ashur that it is all 
 ascribed. Other gods might help him to re- 
 build Babylon, but none but Ashur could help 
 him to humble Egypt in the dust. Here are 
 the words with which he begins the story of 
 their great conquest: "When Ashur the great 
 lord — in order to show the people the mightiness 
 and greatness of my deeds — over the kings of 
 the four quarters of the world strengthened my 
 royal rule, and spread abroad the fame of my 
 name, and placed in my hand a mighty scepter 
 with which to overcome my enemies then the 
 country (Egypt) rebelled against Assyria." 
 The gods of Babylonia could not help him in 
 such a crisis; there was needed the strong bow 
 of Ashur — the great god of war. And even 
 Ashur had never wrought a greater wrong than 
 this sad desolation of Egypt. 
 
 When Esarhaddon was gone out from among 
 
 1 Nahum 2. 8. 
 
68 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 men he left behind him by will the provision, 
 not that one son should succeed him, but two, 
 and it was just that provision which began the 
 destruction of the empire. It was his intention 
 that his eldest son, Ashurbanipal, should be 
 king in Nineveh, and that his younger son, 
 Shamash-shum-ukin, should be king in Baby- 
 lon. The younger son was to be supreme in the 
 ancient city which had now been rebuilt, and 
 should yet, in matters of imperial moment, be 
 subordinate to his brother who ruled in Nine- 
 veh. It was an impossible arrangement; the 
 one or the other would have to give way, and 
 permanent peace could only be achieved through 
 civil war. It was that civil war which so sapped 
 the vital strength of Assyria as to prepare for 
 its end. Before the civil war there were severe 
 conflicts in which decay begins to make itself 
 known. 
 
 When Esarhaddon was dead Egypt revolted 
 at once, and Ashurbanipal had a severe cam- 
 paign until Thebes was taken, sacked, and the 
 army "with full hands" returned home. Necho 
 remained faithful to the end, but his son Psam- 
 meticus rebelled successfully and Assyrian domi- 
 nation over Egypt ceased forever. Never again 
 did the Assyrian empire reach so wide a territory 
 as in the reign of Esarhaddon. But, great 
 though this loss was, the greatest calamity of 
 the reign was the victory over Shamash-shum- 
 ukin, achieved at terrible sacrifice of valuable 
 
THE GODS OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 69 
 
 lives and of great treasure. Campaigns in Elam 
 and in Arabia fill out the measure of Ashur- 
 banipaPs work in war, for the greater part of his 
 energy went into building temples and palaces, 
 and he it was whose eager desire to found a 
 great royal library has preserved for us a large 
 part of all the written records of both Baby- 
 lonian and Assyrian deeds and thoughts which 
 have come down to us. For us his true great- 
 ness consists in these works of peace, but we 
 must not allow them to blind our eyes to the 
 savagery with which he waged war. There is a 
 trail of blood and fire over his story, and name- 
 less barbarities inflicted in many places disgrace 
 his memory. He boasts that he had acquired 
 "the wisdom of Nabu, and learned all the knowl- 
 edge of writing of all the scribes." He has the 
 largest pantheon of any of the Assyrian kings, 
 and we can still hear him invoking Ashur, 
 Beltis, Sin, Shamash, Adad, Bel, Nabu, Ishtar 
 of Nineveh, Ishtar of Arbela, Ninib, Nergal, and 
 others. But he calls himself the son of Ashur 
 and Beltis, and he boasts: "I am a warlike man, 
 the favorite of Ashur and Ishtar." 
 
 The kings who followed Ashurbanipal could 
 not lift his scepter, much less sway kingdoms 
 beneath it. The empire fell rapidly. The 
 Scythian hordes swept over Western Asia, the 
 Medes on the east listened to the suggestion of 
 a new usurper in Babylonia, and in 607-6 B.C. 
 the city of Nineveh, which had defied the whole 
 
70 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 earth and ruled its fairest portions, was taken 
 by the Medes, sacked, and left a heap of ruins, 
 while its proud inhabitants were scattered on 
 the mountains. The god Ashur went down 
 with his people. He was but a god of blood and 
 fire, and could not survive the decay of the 
 powers of blood and fire which alone had made 
 him great. He had no great ethical character, 
 was no better than his people. As the Egyptian 
 proverb has it, "The ox which goes at the head 
 of the herd and leads the others to pasture is 
 but an animal like his fellows." 1 
 
 When the sword and scepter slipped from the 
 hands of Ashurbanipal the supreme power in 
 Babylon was seized by the Chaldeans, who had 
 so long tried in vain to seize it. It was a Chal- 
 dean prince, by name Nabopolassar, who took 
 the reins of government in 625 B.C. and began 
 the upbuilding of a great new empire. We 
 know all too little of his reign, but we do learn 
 from one of his successors that it was he who 
 incited the Medes to attack Nineveh. He was 
 not allowed to seize the great possessions of 
 Assyria in Western Asia, for the Egyptians 
 under Necho II contested the claim. But the 
 greater son of Nabopolassar, Nebuchadrezzar, 
 drove the Egyptians in a rout home, and would 
 have successfully invaded Egypt had not the 
 death of his father compelled his immediate 
 return to Babylon. His further campaigns that 
 
 1 Maspero, The Struggle of the Nations, p. 503. 
 
THE GODS OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 71 
 
 have most deeply stirred the imagination and 
 affected human history were made against the 
 tiny little kingdom of Judah. Its capital city, 
 Jerusalem, he destroyed in 586 B.C., and car- 
 ried away a part of its inhabitants into Baby- 
 lonia. Tyre baffled him as it had many another 
 Eastern conqueror, but he penetrated success- 
 fully into Egypt. 
 
 These were great achievements, but Nebu- 
 chadrezzar himself desired to be best remem- 
 bered as the man who had rebuilt Babylon on 
 a scale of magnificence undreamed of in former 
 days. Under his administration the city grew 
 in commercial importance, and all lands, even 
 far-distant Greece, looked toward it with ad- 
 miration or envy. In Nebuchadrezzar the Chal- 
 deans reached the summit of their influence in 
 the world. A man of blood and iron he was, 
 but a man who reverenced the gods beyond all 
 the kings who had ruled before him. With him, 
 as with the Babylonian kings for many centuries, 
 the chief god was Marduk, whom the king calls 
 "the preeminent, the honored, the leader of the 
 gods, the Prince Marduk." To him he prays in 
 words of great beauty and impressiveness : 
 
 eternal prince! Lord of all being! 
 To the king whom thou lovest, and 
 Whose name thou hast proclaimed 
 As was pleasing to thee, 
 
 Do thou lead aright his name, 
 Guide him in a straight path. 
 
 1 am the prince, thy favorite, 
 
72 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 The creature of thy hand; 
 
 Thou hast created me, and 
 
 With dominion over all people 
 
 Thou hast intrusted me. 
 
 According to thy favor, O Lord, 
 
 Which thou dost bestow on 
 
 All people, 
 
 Cause me to love thy exalted lordship, 
 
 And create in my heart 
 
 The worship of thy divinity, 
 
 And grant whatever is pleasing to thee, 
 
 Because thou hast fashioned my life. 1 
 
 But though Marduk seems thus to be exalted 
 above all others, nevertheless Nebuchadrezzar 
 has an extended pantheon, with worship and 
 honors for Shamash and Adad and Ishtar and 
 many another. But there is no glory of war, 
 and no god to fill the place occupied by Ashur 
 in the Assyrian annals. 
 
 After the death of Nebuchadrezzar the Chal- 
 dean empire began to go rapidly toward its end. 
 The next king was Amel-Marduk (Evil-mero- 
 dach, 2 Kings 25. 27fL), who met his death in a 
 rebellion, and was followed by the two brief 
 reigns of Nergal-shar-usar (Neriglissar, Nergal- 
 sharezer, Jer. 39. 3, 13), and Labashi-Marduk. 
 The next king was Nabu-na'id (Nabonidus), the 
 last Chaldean king (555-538 B.C.), who busied 
 himself chiefly with the restoration of temples, 
 
 1 Nebuchadrezzar, East India House Inscription, col. i, 55-col. ii, i. 
 Compare translation into German by Winckler, Keilinschriftliche Bib- 
 liothek, iii, part 2, p. 13. 
 
THE GODS OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 73 
 
 and displayed the keen eagerness of an archaeolo- 
 gist to learn the names and dates of the kings 
 who had built the temples in the beginning or 
 had restored them in the days before him. He 
 was without military skill or interest, and as the 
 armies of Cyrus drew steadily southward toward 
 the capital he was in retirement at Tema, a 
 suburb of Babylon, while the "son of the king, 
 the nobles, and the army were in Akkad." 1 In 
 538 Babylon opened its doors to Cyrus without 
 a struggle, and the kingdom which Hammurabi 
 had founded ceased forever. Babylon became 
 the chief city of a province in the empire which 
 Cyrus built up with an almost incredible swift- 
 ness and sureness of action. With the passing 
 of Nabonidus the religion of the Babylonians 
 and Assyrians departed from among the vital 
 religions of men. The gods were indeed still 
 venerated for a time by the living men who had 
 lost their sovereign power, but not even Marduk 
 had the vitality to outlive the fortunes of his 
 people. He had been great because they were 
 great; in their sad plight he also had fallen on 
 evil days. 
 
 And now that we have surveyed the history 
 in which the religion of Babylonia and Assyria 
 had its growth and development, we must come 
 to a closer view of the religion, and we shall do 
 well to group the history into three great periods, 
 
 1 Probably under the leadership of Belshazzar. See Rogers, History 
 of Babylonia and Assyria, ii, 375. 
 
74 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 as Piofessor Jastrow 1 has done. I. The first of 
 these periods extends from the earliest times 
 known to us down to the union of the Baby- 
 lonian states under Hammurabi (about 2000 
 B.C.). II. The second period extends to the 
 rise of the Chaldean empire under Nabopolassar 
 (625 B.C.), and (III) the third period embraces 
 the brief history of this Chaldean or Neo- 
 Babylonian empire to the fall of Babylon under 
 Cyrus (538 B.C.). The Assyrian religion be- 
 longs in the second period, though it extends 
 even into the third period, for Nineveh did not 
 fall until 607 B.C. 
 
 The survey which is intended in this course 
 of lectures is divided into (a) the Pantheon, 
 (b) the Cosmologies, (c) the Sacred Books, and 
 (d) the Myths and Epics. The division is prac- 
 tical rather than scientific. If it were the pur- 
 pose in these lectures to view the religion of 
 the Babylonians and Assyrians objectively, to 
 cast up the balance of its theology and to view 
 it as it was alone, in and of itself, we should do 
 better to adopt Jastrow' s arrangement and di- 
 vide our discussion into (a) Pantheon, (b) 
 Religious Literature, and (c) Cultus. But it is 
 the aim of these lectures not merely to see w T hat 
 the religion of Babylonia and Assyria was, but 
 to view it with especial reference to its relation 
 to the religion of Israel and the influence of its 
 
 1 "The Religion of Babylonia," Hastings's Bible Dictionary, Extra 
 Volume, p. 536, col. 2. 
 
THE GODS OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 75 
 
 religious literature on the Old Testament. With 
 this end in view it is fitting to shift our emphasis 
 away from the cultus, which had a lesser in- 
 fluence upon Israel, to the religious literature, 
 which touches the Old Testament at so many 
 points, and may well occupy three lectures and 
 fall into the subdivisions of (a) the Cosmologies, 
 (b) the Sacred Books, and (c) the Myths and 
 Epics. 
 
 The origin of the Babylonian religion is hid 
 from our eyes in those ancient days of which 
 we know little, and can never hope to know 
 much. When we attempt to go behind the 
 written documents which have come down to 
 us from the early Sumerian kings we are tread- 
 ing in dark places, and may easily mistake a 
 bypath for the open road. But while we main- 
 tain all reserve and proceed with all caution, 
 not deluding ourselves with the false idea of 
 knowing much, perhaps we may safely say that 
 beneath all the belief in gods there lies deep 
 down in the Sumerian consciousness the belief 
 in animism, 1 and that herein are we to discern 
 one fundamental fact in the Babylonian religion. 
 It was the belief of the Sumerians, and of the 
 early Babylonians, who were influenced by 
 them, that every object, animate or inanimate, 
 as we may call them, had a zi, or spirit. We 
 translate this word zi "spirit," but it seems 
 
 1 See especially on Animism, Jevons, Introduction to the History of 
 Religion, p. 2 Iff. 
 
76 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 originally to have meant life. But life mani- 
 fests itself to us as motion. Everything which 
 moves has life. "Life was the only force known 
 to man which explained motion, and, con- 
 versely, motion was the sign and manifestation 
 of life. The arrow which sped through the air 
 or the rock which fell from the cliff did so in 
 virtue of their possessing life, or because the 
 motive force of life lay in some way or other 
 behind them. The stars which slowly moved 
 through the sky, and the sun which rose and 
 set day by day, were living beings; it was life 
 which gave them the power of movement, as 
 it gave the power of movement to man himself 
 and the animals by whom he was surrounded. 
 The power of movement, in fact, separated the 
 animate from the inanimate; all that moved 
 possessed life; the motionless was lifeless and 
 dead/' 1 This conception of the zi, or spirit, 
 endured long in the Babylonian religion, and 
 was only gradually replaced by higher ideas. 
 
 Besides this belief in animism I think that 
 we can see among the earliest peoples in Baby- 
 lonia the influence of a belief in ghosts, that 
 were related to the world of the dead, as the zi 
 was related to the world of the living. The Z^7, 
 or ghost, was a night demon of terrible and 
 baleful influence upon men, and only to be cast 
 out with many incantations. The lit was at- 
 tended by a serving maid, the ardat lili (maid 
 
 1 Sayce, The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia, p. 276. 
 
THE GODS OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 77 
 
 of night), which in the Semitic development 
 was transferred into the feminine lilitu. It is 
 most curious and interesting to observe that 
 this ghost-demon lived on through all the 
 history of the Babylonian religion and was 
 carried over into the Hebrew religion, there to 
 find one single mention in the words of one of 
 the prophets. 1 
 
 The origin of the Babylonian religion is to be 
 sought neither in animism nor in this "ghost" 
 idea. It goes far deeper. In the very earliest 
 Sumerian texts the gods are already present 
 and worshiped. As Max Muller has said, "We 
 can hear in all religions a groaning of the spirit, 
 a struggle to conceive the inconceivable, to 
 utter the unutterable, a longing after the 
 infinite, a love of God." 2 However one would 
 like to discover "the thread that connects the 
 origin of thought and languages with the origin 
 of mythology and religion," there is no proba- 
 bility that it will leap quickly to our under- 
 standing as we contemplate the dour remains 
 of the early faith of southern Babylonia. 
 
 But though we cannot find the origin we do 
 come early upon a real religion in Babylonia. 
 Contemporaneously with these animistic and 
 
 1 Isa. 34. 14. Heb., Lilith. A. V. translates erroneously "screech 
 owl"; the R. V., "night-monster." 
 
 2 Max Muller, Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion, as illus- 
 trated by the Religions of India, p. 23. London, 1880. Quoted, with 
 illuminative comment, by Jastrow, The Study of Religion, p. 163. Lon- 
 don, 1901. 
 
78 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 ghostly ideas we find numbers of local gods. 
 Every center of human habitation had its special 
 patron deity, and this deity is always associated 
 with some great natural phenomenon. It was 
 most natural that the sun and moon should 
 stand first and foremost among these gods, but 
 by the side of these other natural objects or 
 forces were personified and deified — streams, 
 stones, and many others. 
 
 Our chief source of information concerning 
 the gods of the first period of religious develop- 
 ment before the days of Hammurabi (2000 
 B.C.) is the historic inscriptions of the early 
 kings and rulers. Many of these describe votive 
 offerings of temples and treasures made to the 
 gods, and all of them are religious in tone and 
 filled with ascription of praise to the gods. 
 From these early texts Professor Jastrow 1 has 
 extracted the names of the following deities, 
 gods and goddessess. I reproduce his list as the 
 best yet made, but keep in mind that some of 
 the readings are doubtful and some were cer- 
 tainly otherwise read by the Babylonians or 
 Sumerians, though we do not now know how 
 they ought to be read. The progress of the 
 Assyrian research is continually providing cor- 
 rected readings for words hitherto known to 
 us only in ideograms. It is quite to be ex- 
 pected that many of these strange, not to say 
 
 1 Morris Jastrow, Jr., Die Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens, i, pp. 
 51, 52. Leipzig, 1902—. 
 
FIGURE II.— LIST OF NAMES AND TITLES OF GODS 
 
 British Museum, 4332 
 
 Size of the original, 8£ by 4| inches 
 
THE GODS OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 79 
 
 grotesque, names will some day prove to be 
 quite simple, and easy to utter: En-lil (El-lil, 
 Bel) Belit, Nin-khar-sag, Nin-gir-su, who also ap- 
 pears as Dun-gur, Bau, Ga-tum-dug, Nin-din- 
 dug, Ea, Nin-a-gal, Gal-dim-zu-ab, Nin-ki, Dam- 
 gal-nun-na, Nergal, Shamash, A or Malkatu, the 
 wife of Shamash, Nannar or Sin, Nin-Urum, 
 Innanna, Nana, Anunit, Nina, Ishtar, Ami, 
 Nin-dar-a, Gal-alim, Nin-shakh, Dun-shagga, 
 Lugal-banda, with a consort Nin-sun, Dumu-zi- 
 zu-ab, Dumu-zi, Lugal-Erim, Nin-e-gal and Nin- 
 gal, Nin-gish-zi-da, Dun-pa-uddu, Nin-mar, Pa- 
 sag, Nidaba, Ku(?)-anna, Shid, Nin-agid-kha- 
 du, Nin-shul-li, En-gubarra, Im-mi-khu(?), Ur- 
 du-zi, Kadi, Nu-ku-sir-da, Ma-ma, Za-ma-ma, 
 Za-za-ru, Im-pa-ud-du, Ur-e-nun-ta-ud-du-a, 
 Khi-gir-nunna, Khi-shagga, Gur-mu, Zar-mu, 
 Dagan, Damu, Lama, Nesu, Nun-gal, An-makh, 
 Nin-si-na, Nin-asu. In this list great gods, and 
 goddesses, and all kinds of minor deities are 
 gathered together, and the list looks and sounds 
 hopeless. But these are local deities, and some 
 of them are mere duplications. Nearly every 
 place in early times would have a sun god or a 
 moon god or both, and in the political develop- 
 ment of the country the moon god of the con- 
 quering city displaced or absorbed the moon 
 god of the conquered. When we have eliminated 
 these gods, who have practically disappeared, 
 there remains a comparatively small number of 
 gods who outrank all the others. 
 
80 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 In the earliest times known to us the greatest 
 of the gods is the god of Nippur, whose name in 
 the Sumerian texts is En-lil, or Ellil. 1 In the 
 Semitic pantheon he was identified with the god 
 Bel, and it is as Bel that he has chiefly been 
 known to later times. He is the "lord of the 
 underworld" in the very earliest inscriptions. 
 In the very ancient text of En-shag-kush-an-na 
 he is a powerful god who gave victory to the 
 king, and therefore received from the king a 
 dedication of the spoil. In Nippur was his chief 
 temple, called E-kur, or mountain house. It 
 was built and rebuilt by the kings of Babylonia 
 again and again from the days of Sargon I 
 (3800 B.C.) onward, and no less than twenty 
 kings are known to us from his days all the way 
 down the centuries to Ashurbanipal who prided 
 themselves on their work of rebuilding this one 
 temple. Far beyond Nippur his power ex- 
 tended; the kings of Kish brought offerings to 
 him; he is saluted as Bel, that is lord, "the great 
 lord the command of whose mouth cannot be 
 altered and whose grace is steadfast." When 
 Babylon came to be the chief city of Babylonia, 
 and so its local god, Marduk, rose in estimation, 
 the honors of En-lil were gradually transferred 
 to him. He was called Bel-Marduk, and in still 
 later times the name Bel even began to supplant 
 Marduk and the god of Babylon was called 
 
 ! See A. T. Clay, "Ellil, the God of Nippur," American Journal of 
 Semitic Languages and Literatures, vol. xxiii, No. 4, July, 1907. 
 
THE GODS OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 81 
 
 simply Bel. To Marduk was also ascribed the 
 honor and title of creator of the world, which 
 had originally belonged to En-lil. 
 
 By the side of En-lil in the early days there 
 was ranged a consort, Nin-lil, the queen 
 of the lower world, and when En-lil was 
 identified with Bel she became Belit. She is 
 also called Nin-khar-sag, "queen of the great 
 mountain." 
 
 The god who ranks next in importance to 
 En-lil in early Babylonia is Ea, 1 originally the 
 local god of Eridu. His Sumerian name is 
 En-ki, the god of the watery world, both of the 
 waters on the earth and of the waters beneath 
 the earth. His temple in Eridu was called 
 E-apsu, "house of the ocean," and the temple 
 and the god alike lead our thoughts back to 
 those ancient days when the city of Eridu was 
 located on the waters of the Persian Gulf, 
 and the Tigris and Euphrates poured their 
 waters through separate estuaries into the salt 
 sea. Berosus handed on to the Greeks the tra- 
 dition that the water deity Oannes, who ap- 
 parently personified the Persian Gulf, had 
 brought the beginnings of culture to mankind. 
 This Oannes is none other than Ea, who is con- 
 tinually called the "lord of wisdom," and who 
 was appealed to more than any other god in 
 the incantation tablets down to very late times. 
 
 1 It is probable that the name ought to be read Ae, instead of Ea. At 
 any rate, so the Greeks seem to have transliterated it ('^.°f, Damascius). 
 
82 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 When other gods failed he was addressed in 
 confident hope. 
 
 In the case of Ea, as in that of Ellil, when 
 Babylon became the world city the powers and 
 prerogatives of Ea were transferred to Marduk, 
 and the process in this case is particularly in- 
 teresting. Marduk is made the son of Ea by 
 a piece of theological speculation, and Ea is 
 made to rejoice in Marduk's honors and in his 
 elevation to the head of the pantheon. Ea had 
 been called the creator of men, but this is also 
 given over to Marduk, and when we come to 
 read the story of the flood in its ordinary 
 Assyrian version we shall see how the idea of 
 the creation of man by Marduk was wrought 
 into that ancient story. 
 
 Associated with Ellil and Ea Babylonia early 
 reverenced a god Anu, whose local worship is 
 associated with Erech in the south and with 
 Durilu, that is, Der, in the north. Lugal- 
 zaggisi was a "priest of Ana," and so we may 
 properly regard Ana as a Sumerian god, but he 
 is known to us chiefly through the Semites, who 
 called him Anu, the god of the heaven, or the 
 sky. 
 
 And now theological speculation even before 
 the days of Hammurabi made these three gods 
 into a triad, Anu, the god of heaven, and Ellil, or 
 Bel, the god of earth and air above the earth, and 
 Ea, the god of water on the earth and beneath the 
 earth. Down through the centuries these gods are 
 
THE GODS OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 83 
 
 continually invoked together. Behind these in 
 very ancient times, as the later creation story 
 shows us, there was a duad, Anshar, the god of 
 the upper all, and Kishar, the goddess of the 
 lower all, and beside these another duad, Lahmu, 
 Lahamu. But these disappeared out of later 
 theological thinking, save that from Anshar 
 came the name of Ashur, 1 the god of the Assyr- 
 ians, who looms so large in the history which 
 has already passed in review before us. 
 
 By the side of these gods stood goddesses, 
 with Anu, his wife Antum, or Antu, by the side 
 of Bel the goddess Belit, and by the side of Ea 
 his wife Damkina, but the role of these is not 
 great, and we may perhaps think of them 
 chiefly as the result of a grammatical necessity 
 in the Semitic mind, which must always asso- 
 ciate a feminine with a masculine. 
 
 And now we must turn from the triad Anu, 
 Bel, and Ea to see how another triad was built 
 up by the side of the first. And the god to 
 whom we must first give heed is Sin. We do 
 not know what was the origin of the word Sin, 
 but there can be no doubt of the god's place in 
 the pantheon. Sin is the moon god, and the 
 
 1 Professor Sayce has a different explanation of the origin of the divine 
 name Ashur, as the following indicates: "The supreme god of Assyria 
 was Assur; the other gods were of Babylonian origin. And in the name 
 of Assur we have the name of the country itself and its primitive capital. 
 Assur, in short, was the deified city of Assur, the divine state which 
 from the days of its successful revolt from Babylonia was predominantly 
 military, with all the union and discipline of a military organization. " — 
 The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia, p. 366. 
 
84 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 moon god had his local habitation in southern 
 Babylonia at Ur, and in northern Babylonia at 
 Harran. In early times the god is called Nannar, 
 which signifies "the one who gives light/' but 
 whether this is a name or an appelative is not 
 quite certain, and it may be that the word 
 Nannar ought really to be read Ur 1 — so making 
 the name of the god and his chief city the same. 
 No god much excels the god Sin in the honors 
 given him in early times, and this was most 
 natural, for the moon plays a great role in the 
 life of the nomadic peoples, especially those of 
 Arabia, who travel and indeed perform many 
 functions of life largely at night because of the 
 heat of the day. 
 
 As men advanced to the agricultural stage the 
 sun outstripped the moon in importance, and so 
 the sun gods of many different places began to 
 rank close to or above the moon god. The chief 
 of the solar deities was Shamash, who was 
 worshiped in the south at Larsa and in the north 
 at Sippar. His Sumerian name was Utu. But 
 there were other sun gods, Nin-girsu of Shir- 
 purla, and Nergal of Cutha, nay, even Marduk 
 of Babylon was originally a solar deity. Sha- 
 mash is regarded as the god of healing, and is 
 constantly appealed to in incantation texts 
 down to a very late date. To him also were 
 addressed hymns of such surpassing nobleness 
 
 It is written with the same ideogram as the name of the city. 
 
V 
 
 
 THE SUN GOD (SHAMASH) OF SIPPAR 
 British Museum 
 
THE GODS OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 85 
 
 of phrase and depth of feeling as to surpass 
 all others. 
 
 To Sin and Shamash there was joined to the 
 forming of a triad the great goddess Ishtar. 
 She is called at times the daughter of Anu, and 
 again the daughter of Bel or of Sin. She is the 
 goddess par excellence. Other female deities are 
 no more than pale reflections of the male deity 
 whose wives they were accounted, but Ishtar 
 is able to stand quite alone. She is the great 
 mother-goddess. She is the "queen of the 
 heavens and of the stars." She is the planet 
 Venus, and so is naturally grouped with the 
 moon and the sun into a triad. She is also the 
 goddess of life and of vegetation, and absorbed 
 into herself all the other goddesses whose at- 
 tributes were similar to hers. Even so early as 
 the period of Hammurabi she is also become the 
 "queen of battle and war," and in this role she 
 fits directly into the Assyrian consciousness and 
 is placed side by side with Ashur, not as a pale 
 reflection, as a wife or consort, but as a real 
 deity of tremendous importance. 
 
 In this second triad Ishtar is often replaced 
 by the god Adad, called also by the Assyrians 
 Ramman. He is the god of rain and of storms, 
 and hence also of the mountains, among which 
 the storms are gathered and the thunder is 
 heard to roll. Adad has no local abiding place 
 in Babylonia, and there seems but little doubt 
 that he was introduced among the Semites of 
 
86 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 Babylonia from the Semites of Syria. He has 
 a consort, Shala, 1 who plays no independent 
 part. 
 
 I have already shown how the god of Baby- 
 lon, Marduk, rose to the highest place in the 
 pantheon solely through the political growth of 
 Babylon. His temple in Babylon, called 
 E-sagila, that is, "the lofty house/ ' became 
 the chief sanctuary of the country. When we 
 come to discuss the splendid creation story 
 we shall see vividly how effectively the litera- 
 ture that once had honored other gods was 
 rewritten to set Marduk above all others. 
 
 Borsippa in later days is a suburb of Babylon, 
 but it was an older city than Babylon, and its 
 god Nabu, or Nebo, as the Old Testament calls 
 him, was an older and originally a more im- 
 portant god than Marduk. He was manifested 
 in the planet Mercury. He was originally, like 
 Ea, a water deity, and to him are ascribed many 
 of the attributes which distinguish Ea. He is 
 said to have taught mankind writing, and the 
 priests of Babylon even mention his name be- 
 fore Marduk's in their astronomical reports. In 
 the late period, when the art of writing filled so 
 large a place in royal and popular estimation 
 in Assyria, Nabu is even more highly esteemed 
 there than in Babylonia. 
 
 The god of Cutha was Nergal. As I have 
 already stated, he was in origin a solar deity, 
 
 1 Sala — "wife" in Mitannian (Sayce). 
 
STATUE OF THE GOD NABU 
 
 British Museum 
 
THE GODS OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 87 
 
 but his planet was Saturn, and he is the god of 
 fever and pestilence. With him there is con- 
 stantly confused the god Ninib, whose planet 
 is Mars, who is the god of war. These two gods, 
 Nergal and Ninib, like Ishtar, find even greater 
 honor among the Assyrians than among their 
 own people, the Babylonians. 
 
 We have now surveyed all the chief divinities 
 of the Babylonians and Assyrians, and we have 
 passed in a sort of hasty review the names of 
 many other minor deities. Some of them are 
 known to us only in proper names, others find 
 the merest passing mention in the boastful 
 words of some king. We have also seen how 
 the gods rose higher as their worshipers in- 
 creased in power, and how they slipped away 
 into weakness and dishonor as their worshipers 
 sank down in rank among other cities and peo- 
 ples. We have seen also how gods passed from 
 west to east and from east to west, and how 
 they absorbed gods of minor places within 
 themselves. We can see also how strong a 
 tendency there was to diminish the number of 
 the gods. They are in early days mentioned 
 by the score, but as time goes on many of these 
 vanish away and only the few remain. As 
 Jastrow 1 has pointed out, Shalmaneser II (859- 
 825 B.C.) had only eleven gods in his pantheon: 
 Ashur, Anu, Bel, Ea, Sin, Shamash, Ninib, 
 Nergal, Nusku, Belit, and Ishtar. Sennacherib 
 
 1 Jastrow, Die Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens, i, pp. 246, 247. 
 
88 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 (705-681) usually mentions only eight, namely, 
 Ashur, Sin, Shamash, Bel (that is, Marduk), 
 Nabu, Nergal, Ishtar of Nineveh, and Ishtar 
 of Arbela. But we must not lay much emphasis 
 upon the smallness of this number, for in his 
 building inscription at the end he invokes 
 twenty-five deities, and even though some of 
 these are duplicates of other gods, as Jastrow 
 correctly explains, nevertheless the entire list is 
 considerably increased over the eight above 
 mentioned. In the late Babylonian period the 
 worship seems chiefly devoted to Marduk, Nabu, 
 Sin, Shamash, and Ishtar. Often there seem 
 little faint indications of a further step forward. 
 Some of the hymns addressed to Shamash seem 
 almost upon the verge of exalting him in such 
 a way as to exclude the other deities, but the 
 step is never taken. The Babylonians, with all 
 their wonderful gifts, were never able to con- 
 ceive of one god, of one god alone, of one god 
 whose very existence makes logically impossible 
 the existence of any other deity. Monotheism 
 transcends the spiritual grasp of the Babylonian 
 mind. 
 
 Amid all this company of gods, amid all 
 these speculations and combinations, we must 
 keep our minds clear, and fasten our eyes upon 
 the one significant fact that stands out above 
 all others. It is that the Babylonians were not 
 able to rise above polytheism; that beyond 
 them, far beyond them, lay that great series of 
 
THE GODS OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 89 
 
 thoughts about God that ascribe to him alone- 
 ness, to which we may add the great spiritual 
 ideas which to-day may be roughly grouped 
 under Ethical Monotheism. Here and there 
 great thinkers in Babylonia grasped after higher 
 ideas, and were able only to attain to a sort of 
 pantheism of a speculative kind. A personal god, 
 righteous and holy, who loved righteousness and 
 hated sin, this was not given to them to conceive. 
 
 But to the poor little Hebrew folk who once 
 were slaves in Egypt, to them did these great 
 thoughts come, and to them came the amazing 
 power so to state them in history as to give 
 mankind once and for all a conception of God 
 of such power that the men who seize it begin 
 at once a transformation of life of surpassing 
 grandeur and importance. Wherein the Baby- 
 lonian religion fell short, therein the Hebrew 
 rose to conquer. 
 
 The Babylonian and Assyrian gods, from Anu, 
 Bel, and Ea on down through the long list, 
 have passed away from among men, and no- 
 where in all the world do men revere these 
 names. But there was one divine name in 
 Babylonia which has survived the crash of 
 time, and as the climax of all this study of the 
 names of the gods we must give due heed to it. 
 
 In August, 1898, Professor Sayce 1 made the 
 
 1 Expository Times, ix, p. 522. The name was quoted from the tablet 
 Bu. 88-5-12, 329, published in Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets, 
 iv, 27. 
 

 90 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 most interesting announcement that he had 
 just discovered upon a small Babylonian text 
 in the British Museum the name Ja-u-um-ilu, 
 which he translated " Yahveh is god." The pub- 
 lication of this announcement called forth at 
 once a note from Professor Hommel 1 suggesting 
 the appearance of the same Yau in another 
 Babylonian name. The discovery of Professor 
 Sayce seemed long to lie comparatively fallow. 
 It excited interest only among scholars, and 
 produced very little popular stir. But upon 
 January 13, 1902, Professor Friedrich Delitzsch, 
 of the University of Berlin, eminent alike as a 
 scholar, a teacher, and the founder of the great- 
 est school of Assyriologists in the world, de- 
 livered a lecture in the Sing Academie in Berlin 
 in the presence of the German emperor. The 
 lecture was a brilliant exposition of the achieve- 
 ments of Assyriology in casting a valuable light 
 upon the Old Testament. Much of what he said 
 awakened no controversy. It was, indeed, in 
 large part known already, and the interest lay 
 chiefly in the skill of its exposition by a master, 
 who had himself made contributions of enduring 
 quality to the science. But as the lecture went 
 on Professor Delitzsch spoke of the supposed 
 occurrence of monotheism in Babylonia, and 
 there entered upon a most disputed realm. Then 
 he said: "But, further, through the kindness of 
 the head of the department of Assyrian and 
 
 i Expository Times, x, p. 42, Oct., 1898. 
 
THE GODS OF BABYLONIA AXD ASSYRIA 
 
 91 
 
 Egyptian antiquities at the British Museum, I 
 am able to give a representation of three small 
 clay tablets (see below). What is to be seen 
 on these tablets? I shall be asked. Fragile, 
 broken clay upon which are scratched characters 
 scarcely legible! That is true, no doubt, yet 
 
 they are 
 precious 
 
 for this 
 reason : 
 they can 
 be dated 
 with cer- 
 tainty, 
 they be- 
 
 ^mffsh 
 
 
 - : -*Eae{. i s.s?. ;l; ; 
 
 Ia- 
 
 Ia- 
 
 d - ve- ilu 
 
 ilu 
 
 ve- 
 
 long" tO THREE TABLETS WITH THE NAME OF JAHWEH 
 
 the age of Hammurabi, one in particular 
 to the reign of his father, Sin-muballit. But 
 
 they are still more pre- 
 " cious for another reason : 
 they contain three names 
 which, from the point of 
 view of the history of re- 
 ^ V~ ligion, are of the most 
 
 U17t~ lilt 
 
 far-reaching importance : 
 The names are Yahwe is God. Therefore Yahwe, 
 the Existing, the Enduring one (we have reasons 
 for saying that the name ma}^ mean this), the 
 one devoid of all change, not like us men, who 
 to-morrow are but a thing of yesterday, but one 
 who, above the starry vault which shines with 
 
 la- 
 
92 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 everlasting regularity, lives and works from 
 generation to generation — this 'Yahwe' was the 
 spiritual possession of those same nomad tribes 
 out of which after a thousand years the children 
 of Israel were to emerge." 1 
 
 These words led to a controversy , widespread, 
 intense, and sometimes conducted in very bad 
 temper. All sorts of controversialists 2 entered 
 the field essaying to prove that Delitzsch had 
 either misread or misinterpreted his texts. The 
 matter has finally sifted down to very narrow 
 limits of doubt indeed. There can be no doubt 
 
 1 Friedrich Delitz=ch, Babel und Bibel, Erster Vortrag Funfte neu 
 durchgesehene Ausgabe, pp. 49, 50. Leipzig, 1905. See the translation 
 of this paragraph by C. H. W. Johns, Babel and Bible, pp. 70-72. Two 
 Lectures. London and New York, 1903. 
 
 2 There is no need to enumerate here the extensive list of replies to 
 Delitzsch. The following may be cited as being among the more sig- 
 nificant: 
 
 Eduard Konig, Bibel und Babel, Eine kulturgeschichtliche Skizze, 6te 
 
 Auf. Berlin, 1902. 
 Karl Budde, Das Alte Testament und die Ausgrabungen. Giessen, 1903. 
 Karl Budde, Was soil die Gemeinde aus dem Streit um Babel und Bibel 
 
 lernenl Leipzig, 1903. 
 Fritz Hommel, Die altorientalischen Denkmaler und das Alte Testament. 
 
 Eine Erwiderung auf Prof. Fr. Delitzsch's Babel und Bibel. Berlin, 
 
 1902. 
 Alfred Jeremias, Im Kampfe um Babel und Bibel. Ein wort zur Ver- 
 
 standigung und Abwehr, 3te Auf. Leipzig, 1903. 
 Samuel Oettli, Der Kampf um Bibel und Babel. Ein religionsgeschict- 
 
 licher Vortrag. 
 Heinrich Zimmern, Keilinschriften und Bibel. Berlin, 1903. 
 C. F. Lehmann, Babyloniens Kulturmission einst und jetzt. Leipzig, 
 
 1903. 
 C. Bezold, Die Babylonisch-assyrischcn Keilinschriften und ihre Bedeu- 
 
 tung fur das Alte Testament. Tubingen und Leipzig, 1904. 
 Max Lohr, Babel und die biblische Urgeschichte. Breslau, 1903. 
 Paul Haupt, Bible and Babel, Johns Hopkins University Circulars, No. 
 
 163, pp. 47-51. Baltimore, 1903. 
 
THE GODS OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 93 
 
 that Ja-u-um-ilu is to be read "Jau is god"; it 
 is exactly the equivalent of the biblical name 
 Joel. It may still be granted that a slight 
 doubt exists about the first two of these names. 
 It has been attempted on several sides to show 
 that the first half of these names may be a verb 
 form/ and the words therefore are interpreted 
 as meaning "God exists," or "God lives." But 
 there is no such personal name anywhere 
 to be found among the northern Semites, 
 and the explanation is without other support. 
 By far the more natural explanation is that 
 the name is to be interpreted as "Jahweh is 
 god." 
 
 Here, then, is the name Jahweh in use among 
 the Babylonians, at the Hammurabi period, two 
 thousand years before Christ. 
 
 But still further support for the Babylonian 
 use of the name has been provided by the dis- 
 coveries of Dr. Clay in the Kassite period, about 
 1500 B.C. He has found the names Ja-u-bani, 
 Ja-u-a, Ja-a-u, Ja-ai-u, and even the feminine 
 form Ja-a-u-tum. Ja-u-bani means "Jau is 
 creator," and is formed exactly as Ilu-bani 
 (Ilu is creator) and Shamash-bani (Shamash is 
 creator). Here, then, is positive proof that the 
 Babylonians were accustomed to the use of the 
 
 1 The attempt to show that the reading is incorrect and that the first 
 two should be read Ya-' a-bi-lu (so, for example, by Bezold in a very 
 interesting note, Zeitschrift fur Assyriologie, xvi, pp. 415ff.) must be 
 regarded as a failure. The reading is certain, the only possible doubt 
 concerns the interpretation. 
 
94 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 divine name Jau, or Jahweh, during the period 
 from 2000 B.C. to 1400 B.C. 1 
 
 Outside of Babylonia the divine name Jahweh 
 has also been found. Upon a letter discovered 
 at Ta'anek, above the plain of Esdraelon, and 
 written about 1450 B.C., there occurs the name 
 Akhi-ja-mi, 2 and this name seems to be the 
 equivalent of the Old Testament name Ahijah 
 (1 Kings 14. 4) (Jehovah is brother, or relative), 
 which is thus borne by a non-Israelite. But 
 the name Jahweh appears also as a part of 
 the name of a king of Hamath, the north Syr- 
 ian commonwealth, in the eighth century B.C. 
 This king, who was conquered by Sargon II, 
 king of Assyria (722-705 B.C.), bears the 
 name Ja-u-bi-'-di, and his name is also written 
 
 1 A name Lipush-e-a-um occurs as the name of a daughter of Naram- 
 Sin and granddaughter of Sargon I, a priestess of Sin (Thureau-Dangin, 
 Comptes Rendus, Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, 1899, p. 
 348, pi. 1). This has been taken by Radau {Early Babylonian History, 
 p. 173) as also containing the name Jau, and so as having some such 
 meaning as "May Jau make." This also has been accepted by Dr. 
 C. F. Burney in a most suggestive paper ("A Theory of the Develop- 
 ment of Israelite Religion in Early Times," Journal of Theological 
 Studies, April, 1908, p. 342). The reading is most doubtful, and should 
 not be cited as an occurrence of Jau. I am disposed to think that the 
 god here meant is Ea. 
 
 2 The letter is published by Hrozny in Sellin, Tell Ta'annek, p. 116. 
 Wien, 1904. See further a very cautious allusion to the name in Sellin, 
 Die alttestamentliche Religion im Rahmen der andern altorientalischen, 
 p. 61. Leipzig, 1908. In this little book it seems to me that Sellin 
 might have safely spoken more positively of the occurrence of Jahweh 
 in Babylonian; for example, in the following sentences the caution is 
 surely excessive: "1st der Name Jahwe ein spezifisches israelitisches 
 Eigenthum? Diese Behauptung liisst sich kaum noch mit Sicherheit 
 aufrecht halten. Zwar das Vorkommen des Namens auf kananaischen 
 Keilschrifttafeln siwohl aus Babylon (um 2000) wie aus Palastina (Ta- 
 'anak um 1450) ist sehr unsicher" (p. 61). 
 
THE GODS OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 95 
 
 I-lu-bi-'-di. 1 Here there is an interchange be- 
 tween Ilu and Jau exactly as in Hebrew the 
 name Elnathan interchanges with Jonathan. 
 
 There can therefore be no escape from the 
 conclusion that the divine name Jahweh is not 
 a peculiar possession of the Hebrews. It covers 
 a large extent of territory both geographically 
 and ethnologically, 2 and the rapid accumulation 
 of cases in which it appears during so few years 
 makes reasonably probable a still wider use of 
 the name than has yet been actually proved. 3 
 
 How came this name into the hands of the 
 Hebrews? That is a question most fascinating 
 and interesting, but it is impossible to answer 
 it with certainty. The Jahvist uses the name 
 Jahweh from the beginning, and regards it as 
 known and revered by the saints and heroes far 
 beyond the days of Moses, but the Elohist 
 (Exod. 3. 13ff.) and the Priest Codex (Exod. 6. 
 
 1 Inscriptions of Sargon, Stele i, 53; Annals, 23; Triumphal In- 
 scription, 33; Nimroud Inscription, 8. The passages may readily be 
 found in Winckler, Die KeiZschrifttexte Sargons. Leipzig, 1889. 
 
 2 1 cannot regard as successful the attempt of Dr. C. J. Ball to find 
 the word Jau in the Gilgamesh epic as a divine name or title, "a god- 
 man." (See the exposition of this explanation by C. F. Burney in the 
 article cited, Journal of Theological Studies, April, 1908, pp. 341, 342.) 
 The expression in question is ia-u amelu (Tablet x, col. iv, 17), applied 
 to Gilgames. The translation of ia-u proposed by Jensen, namety, 
 "woeful," is still the most probable. Elsewhere Gilgames is described 
 as showing plainly the effects of his great efforts and struggles. 
 
 3 For summaries of the evidence and appraisal of the value of the in- 
 dividual occurrences see A. H. Sayce, "The Name of Jeho, Jahveh," 
 Expository Times, vol. xviii, No. 1, Oct., 1906, pp. 26ff., and A. H. 
 Sayce, "The Name SflST," Expository Times, vol. xix, No. 11, Aug., 
 1908, pp. 525, 526. 
 
96 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 2ff.) assume that it was revealed first to Moses 
 and by him to the people. This, of course, does 
 not mean that the God himself was unknown 
 to the ancestors of Moses; indeed, the very- 
 earliest sources see in Jahweh the God of the 
 ancestors of Israel. But Moses is the founder, 
 the real founder of Israel's religion, and with 
 him begins the building up of that great series 
 of thoughts about this God which have given 
 all human thinking a new channel. 1 There are 
 good reasons for believing that among the 
 Kenites Jahweh was a God of high rank, and 
 among them Moses had residence, and all that 
 they had to witness of this God must have 
 passed before him; but it was no mere local 
 God that Moses introduced in power to Israel. 
 From the very beginning he is a God able to 
 put others beneath his feet. 2 
 
 1 On the name Jahweh see further the very able article by Driver, 
 which is by no means superseded, in Studia Biblica, i (1885), and the 
 same author's Book of Genesis (London, 1904), pp. 407, 409; Kautzsch, 
 Encyclopaedia Biblica, art. "Names," §§ 109-113, and the" same writer 
 in Hastings's Bible Dictionary, Extra Volume, pp. 625ff. 
 
 2 The whole question of Israel's witness to Jahweh in the earliest 
 time is ably handled by Marti in a paper of great suggestiveness ("Jahwe 
 und seine Auffassung in der altesten Zeit," Theologische Studien und 
 Kritiken, 1908, pp. 322-333), with most of which I find myself in com- 
 plete agreement. I must here quote a paragraph in which I am happy 
 to find a strong support for some things which I have earnestly de- 
 fended above. After asking how it happens that Jahweh becomes to 
 the Hebrews a quite different God from that which he had been to other 
 peoples, Marti proceeds thus: "Ich denke dabei an die Tatigkeit und 
 den Einfluss einer prophetischen Gestalt (etwa Mose). Jedenfalls aber 
 mochte ich es durchaus ablehnen, dass dazu irgendwie der imaginare 
 altorientalische Monotheismus mitgewirkt habe. Soweit ich sehen 
 kann, finde ich diesen Monotheismus des alten Orients nur in der 
 Phantasie einiger moderner Gelehrten, aber nirgends in den Kulturzen- 
 
THE GODS OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 97 
 
 At first sight this may seem like a startling 
 robbery of Israel, this taking away from her the 
 divine name Jahweh as an exclusive possession. 
 But it is not so. Jahweh himself is not taken 
 away. He remains the priceless possession, the 
 chief glory of Israel. It is only the name that 
 is shown to be widespread. And the name 
 matters little. The great question is, what 
 does this name convey? — what is its theological 
 content? 1 The name came to Israel from the 
 outside. But into that vessel a long line of 
 prophets, from Moses onward, poured such a 
 flood of attributes as never a priest in all West- 
 ern Asia, from Babylonia to the Sea, ever 
 dreamed of in his highest moments of spiritual 
 insight. In this name, and through Israel's his- 
 tory, God chose to reveal himself to Israel and 
 by Israel to the world. Therein lies the supreme 
 and lonesome superiority of Israel over Baby- 
 lonia. 
 
 During all those centuries from the dawn of 
 human history until the fall of Babylon in 538 
 B.C., polytheism, crass polytheism, had reigned 
 supreme in Babylonia and Assyria. But in the 
 little land of Israel monotheism struggled up 
 
 tren und Priesterkreisen des vorderen Orients. Zudem hat es die baby- 
 lonisch — assyrische Religion ihr Leben lang nie zu einem wirklichen 
 Monotheismus, der diesen Namen verdiente, gebracht und ist auch der 
 Gott Israels am Anfang, so sehr er eine der Damonen und andere 
 gottliche Machte uberragende Bedeutung besass, noch lange nicht der 
 eine Gott gewesen." — Op. cit, p. 333. 
 
 1 See the sane and convincing remarks of Driver, The Book of Genesis, 
 p. 409. London, 1904. 
 
98 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 through great and sore tribulations and at 
 length mastered the people, and through their 
 witness now marches on to possess the minds 
 of all men. Marduk in Babylon and Ashur in 
 Nineveh had little gleams of an ethical message 
 now and again, but there was no power in it. 
 But the Hebrew people seize one name, even 
 the name Jau, and in their hands it becomes a 
 living and ethical power, growing and increasing 
 until Jesus, greatest of the prophets, completed 
 the message of his predecessors. 
 
LECTURE III 
 
 THE COSMOLOGIES 
 
 The beginnings of things possess a deep in- 
 terest for all men. The modern man, with cen- 
 turies of speculation and other centuries of 
 scientific research stretching far away behind 
 him, feels deeply this call to know whence came 
 the earth with all its beauty of form and color, 
 this sky glorious with sun and moon and stars, 
 this marvelously balanced and almost infinitely 
 varied fauna and flora, this great human race 
 so unlike to the eye, yet so deeply alike in its 
 greater qualities. What a mystery it all is, and 
 how profoundly we are stirred as we reflect 
 even superficially upon that moving question, 
 Whence came all this? But if modern man, with 
 his poor little accumulations of past civilization, 
 with his little sum of scientific knowledge that 
 seems so great when he contemplates it by itself, 
 but looks so small when compared with the vast 
 numbers of mysteries still unexplained — if mod- 
 ern man feels the longing to know, to know 
 whence and how, so also did ancient man with 
 his fresh and vigorous mind in a world new and 
 stretching out beyond his ken, far more than it 
 seems now to do. And if civilized man feels the 
 
 99 
 
100 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 desire to penetrate the great solemn gray veil 
 that hangs over the beginnings of things, so 
 also did the barbarous, nay, even the savage 
 peoples whom we see dimly in the distance, on 
 the edge of great trackless deserts, and in the 
 river valleys. 
 
 There is no people of antiquity now known to 
 us which does not possess a creation story of 
 some kind. Some of these are grotesque, while 
 others rise to heights of poetic beauty. Of 
 them all the most interesting and by far the 
 most important in its bearing upon the Old 
 Testament is the Babylonian story of the crea- 
 tion. Before we come to its close study we may 
 well give a word to the story of its discovery 
 and decipherment. 
 
 The tenth day of May in the year 1840 was 
 a day of great moment in the history of Assyr- 
 iology, for on that day Austen Henry Layard, 
 who was making an overland journey to India, 
 first saw the big mounds on the opposite bank 
 of the Tigris from the little city of Mosul. It 
 was then that he wrote the memorable words, 
 "My curiosity had been greatly excited, and 
 from that time I formed the design of thoroughly 
 examining, whenever it might be in my power, 
 those singular ruins." It was five years before 
 he could fulfill that dream, and then it was the 
 mound of Nimroud, the ancient city of Calah, 
 where he began excavations. Both there and at 
 Kuyunjik he had splendid success, and restored 
 
THE COSMOLOGIES 101 
 
 to the astonished eyes of this modern world 
 many a splendid piece of ancient sculpture and 
 many a written record of Assyrian kings. It 
 was while he was thus engaged that he dis- 
 covered a young Oriental named Hormuzd Ras- 
 sam, whom he attached to his company of 
 helpers, and long afterward referred to as "my 
 faithful and invaluable friend and assistant." 
 Trained by a master, Rassam went out to the 
 mound of Kuyunjik in 1852, and there at the 
 end of the next year he discovered the palace of 
 Ashurbanipal, the last of the great Assyrian 
 kings, and from the walls of one room stripped 
 away the magnificent lion-hunt sculptures, 
 which to-day adorn the British Museum, Lon- 
 don. In that room, piled in heaps and masses, 
 lay hundreds of inscribed tablets that once 
 were the pride and the treasures of the library 
 of Ashurbanipal. These books he had caused 
 to be copied, and then laid away to be read to 
 him when he desired. He boasted of his love 
 for books in the almost plaintive phrase, "I 
 have a large ear for books," and all over Baby- 
 lonia his agents had gone collecting tablets to be 
 taken to Nineveh and copied. There the beau- 
 tifully wrought copies were carefully preserved, 
 while the originals went back to their ancient 
 homes in Nippur or Eridu or Ur. 
 
 The library which Rassam had thus restored 
 to the world was carried away to London, and 
 from its masses of material the historical in- 
 
102 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 scriptions were first searched out and published. 
 Again and again they were all sorted over and 
 examined by Sir Henry Rawlinson, by Professor 
 A. H. Sayce, and by others, but it was reserved 
 for the keen eyes of George Smith to pick out 
 some little broken fragments and upon them 
 laboriously trace out the Babylonian story of 
 creation. He made his first announcement of 
 the great discovery in the Daily Telegraph on 
 March 4, 1875, and in that same year, on No- 
 vember 2, read a brilliant paper before the 
 Society of Biblical Archaeology describing the 
 fragmentary tablets, translating portions of 
 them, and pointing out the curious and inter- 
 esting parallels with the Old Testament. That 
 was a wonderful piece of work. He made, in- 
 deed, certain identifications that later research 
 has not justified, such as finding in it allusions to 
 the fall of man, but in the main he came so close 
 to the correct meaning, as later investigation 
 has revealed it, that we can only be astonished 
 at his acumen and insight. Since his day 
 many scholars, working in divers places, have 
 contributed in large and small ways to the 
 translation and elucidation — to mention their 
 names would be to call the roll of the masters 
 among Asyriologists. It will serve to mention 
 those who have made perhaps the most signal 
 contributions to the study of this great text. 
 
 The first broad discussion of the creation tab- 
 lets was given by Professor Sayce, of Oxford, 
 
THE COSMOLOGIES 103 
 
 so often a pioneer, in his Hibbert Lectures in 
 1887, 1 and in 1888 2 he made a complete transla- 
 tion of all the fragments which had then been 
 found. They were all translated again and pro- 
 vided with many valuable notes in 1890 by 
 Professor Jensen, 3 of the University of Marburg. 
 This was followed in 1895 by a new and im- 
 proved translation by Professor Zimmern, 4 of 
 the University of Leipzig, and in the very next 
 year Professor Delitzsch, 5 of the University of 
 Berlin, translated again the whole story, to be 
 followed in 1900 and 1901 by a new complete 
 translation and commentary by Professor Jen- 
 sen. 6 The capstone upon the whole work was 
 placed in 1902 by Dr. L. W. King, 7 of the 
 British Museum. Up to that time only twenty- 
 one fragments had been known and translated. 
 To these King added no less than twenty-eight 
 
 1 Sayce, Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as illustrated by 
 the Religion of the Ancient Babylonians (Hibbert Lectures for 1887), 
 pp. 397ff. 
 
 2 Records of the Past, New Series, i, pp. 122ff . 
 
 3 Peter Jensen, Die Kosmologie der Babylonier, pp. 263ff. 
 
 4 Heinrich Zimmern, in Gunkel, Schdpfung und Chaos in Urzeit und 
 Endzeit, pp. 401ff. 
 
 5 Friedrich Delitzsch, " Das Babylonische Weltschopfungsepos," 
 Abhandlungen der philologisch-historischen Classe der Koniglichen Sach- 
 sischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, xvii, No. ii, and also published 
 separately. 
 
 8 Peter Jensen, Assyrisch-Babylonische Mythen und Epen (Schrader's 
 Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek, v), in two parts, the first containing trans- 
 literations and translations, the second the commentary. 
 
 7 L. W. King, The Seven Tablets of Creation ; or, The Babylonian and 
 Assyrian Legends concerning the Creation of the World and of Mankind. 
 2 vols. London, 1902. 
 
104 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 fragments previously unknown, and then trans- 
 lated the whole forty-nine in a masterly fashion. 
 Upon this edition all new progress must build 
 for many days to come. 
 
 And now let us come a little closer to this 
 wonderful ancient story. The Assyrian poem, 
 as it has come down to us, is fragmentary in- 
 deed, but enough remains to show us its original 
 content. It was called by the Assyrians Enuma 
 elish, "when above/ ' or "when in the height/ ' 
 these being the two Assyrian words with which 
 the text begins. According to the careful 
 enumeration and calculations of King it con- 
 sisted of nine hundred and ninety-four lines, 
 and these were divided into seven sections, each 
 section being inscribed upon a separate tablet 
 and each tablet being numbered in order. "The 
 shortest tablet contains one hundred and thirty- 
 eight lines, and the longest one hundred and 
 forty-six, the average length of a tablet being 
 about one hundred and forty-two lines." 1 
 
 The story begins with a primeval chaos of 
 waters in which lived the water gods Apsu and 
 Tiamat. From these sprang other gods, and 
 two of the later gods, named Ea and Marduk, 
 finally overthrew Apsu and Tiamat; while 
 Marduk, when his victory was complete, created 
 earth and man. Our copy of it was made, for 
 the most part, for the library of Ashurbanipal 
 (668-626 B.C.), but some of the fragments were 
 
 1 King, The Seven Tablets of Creation, i, p. xxv. London, 1902. 
 
THE COSMOLOGIES 105 
 
 written out in the Neo-Babylonian (625-538 
 B.C.) and in the Persian period (538-330 B.C.), 
 and one may even belong to the period of the 
 Arsacidse (250 B.C.). But these dates of the 
 actual copying out of the tablets which have 
 been preserved to our day give no idea of the 
 date of the composition of the story itself, and 
 to that we must now give attention. 
 
 The story in its present form is clearly of com- 
 posite character, 1 and it is easy to see as we read 
 it that it bears traces of a long period of editing 
 and compiling. King distinguishes, and I be- 
 lieve rightly, no less than five principal strands, 
 woven together to make the complete tapestry 
 picture. These are: (1) The Birth of the Gods, 
 (2) The Legend of Ea and Apsu, (3) The Dragon 
 Myth, (4) The Actual Account of Creation, and 
 (5) The Hymn to Marduk under his fifty titles. 
 
 Now, the very first thing to notice about its 
 present form is that it is compiled not to honor 
 the chief god of Assyria, who was Ashur, but 
 rather to give the highest rank among all the 
 gods to Marduk, the god of Babylon. This 
 makes it quite clear that the story is Baby- 
 lonian and not Assyrian. And now, if we analyze 
 the story a little more closely, following King's 
 enumeration of the original strands, we can see 
 that (a) the dragon myth existed in other forms, 
 in which other gods than Marduk were the 
 heroes; (b) the creation story also existed in 
 
 1 So King, op. cit., pp. lxvi ff. 
 
106 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 other forms, in one of which the creation is not 
 connected with the death of a dragon; and (c) 
 the hymn to Marduk can be clearly shown to 
 have existed quite separately from the creation 
 narrative. 
 
 And now, before we plunge into the reading 
 of the poem itself, we may well give heed to 
 one more question, and that a question of mov- 
 ing interest, the answer to which will project 
 its influence far over the poem, and confront us 
 when we attempt to attack a still greater prob- 
 lem. This question is, How old are these creation 
 legends — to what period do they go back in 
 their origins? Step by step we can trace them 
 back into the distant centuries, (a) When 
 Ashurnazirpal was king of Assyria (884-860 
 B.C.) he set up two great limestone slabs on 
 which are found representations of the con- 
 flict between Marduk and Tiamat. So the 
 creation legends go back into the ninth century, 
 two centuries older than their present form. 
 But (b) we can take a much more distant flight 
 than this, for a Babylonian king, Agum, who 
 reigned not later than the seventeenth century 
 before Christ, set up in the temple of E-sagila 
 at Babylon figures of dragons and other mon- 
 sters which undoubtedly portray Tiamat and 
 her foul brood, and thus this feature of the 
 story is carried a thousand years beyond the 
 great Assyrian monarch. A still greater age 
 is assured by (c) the recovery of numerous 
 
Obverse 
 
 Reverse 
 
 FIGURE V.— FRAGMENT OF THE FIRST TABLET OF CREATION 
 
 British Museum, K. 5419 C 
 
 Size of the original, 3i by 1-J- inches 
 
THE COSMOLOGIES 107 
 
 legends of the same type relating to Adapa, 
 to Ea and Atrakhasis, and to Etana which be- 
 long to the period of 2000 B.C. To this period, 
 the period which precedes and includes the 
 elevation of Babylon to be the chief city of 
 Babylonia — to this period must be ascribed the 
 origin and composition of the creation stories. 
 An antiquity so great as this adds a new in- 
 terest to the story which is now to be translated 
 and accompanied by such comment as may 
 make its meaning clear. 
 
 THE FIRST TABLET 
 
 When above the heaven was not named 
 And beneath the earth bore no name, 
 
 This means when there was neither heaven nor 
 earth, for to the Semite a thing which had no 
 name had no existence. 
 
 And the primeval Apsu, who begat them, 
 
 And Mummu^-Tiamat, the mother of them all, — 
 
 Here are two beings, the male god Apsu and 
 the goddess Tiamat ; the beings mentioned under 
 the phrase "mother of them all" are the ill 
 brood of monsters afterward called into ex- 
 
 1 The use of "Mummu" here is extremely difficult and the signification 
 doubtful. Below Mummu appears as a third person (see line 30), as a 
 messenger; but in this passage there is no connective between Mummu 
 and Tiamat, and if we assume here that Mummu is the name of this 
 messenger the passage becomes very hard syntactically, if not indeed 
 impossible. I am uncertain as to the meaning, and for the present leave 
 it stand as Mummu-Tiamat, as though the "Mummu" were merely some 
 sort of title or appellative. It is often translated "chaos Tiamat"; so 
 King. 
 
108 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 istence by Tiamat when the great conflict 
 begins. 
 
 5 Their waters were mingled together, 
 And no reed 1 was formed, no marsh seen, 
 When no one of the gods had been called into being, 
 (And) none bore a name, and no destinies [were fixed]. 
 Then were created the gods in the midst of [heaven], 
 
 10 Lakhmu and Lakhamu were called into existence 
 
 Ages increased 
 
 Anshar and Kishar were created, and over them . . . 
 
 Long were the days, then came there forth 
 
 Ami their son 2 
 
 These two beings Lakhmu and Lakhamu ap- 
 pear later in the story as fighting on the side 
 of Tiamat, but Anshar and Kishar are the first 
 of the gods to come into existence, the former 
 
 1 The meaning of gipara, here translated "reed," is doubtful. It is 
 usually rendered "field," but Sayce is probably right in connecting it 
 with Aramaic TSp, Greek irdirvpo^. Delitzsch translates "Gefilde"; 
 Bezold (Babylonisch-Assyrische Texte. I. Die Schopfungslegende, Bonn, 
 1904), doubtfully, "Feld." King translates "field," but in the glossary 
 writes, "giparu, 'field' (?), or possibly a kind of tree." 
 
 2 In the original text the lines were divided by a caesura into half lines. 
 The proof of this is abundant, and many lines are thus broken by express 
 indications in the Assyrian text. In the translations by Delitzsch and 
 by Zimmern the lines are also thus divided. I have not followed their 
 example for the reason that to do so involves inversions in the English 
 order in many places, or artificial expedients in the translation which 
 gi T /e a false impression to the English reader. For the purpose of these 
 lectures I am much more concerned to represent the thought of the poem 
 than its form. The reader who has an eye and an ear for verse will in 
 many places in my translation be able to discern the caesura. There 
 would be loss and not gain for all others in any attempt to separate the 
 lines into two parts. In neglecting the caesura I have also the excellent 
 example of King, to whose translation I owe much in many ways, and 
 also of Bezold, from whom also I have derived useful assistance. Zim- 
 mern insists strongly upon the importance of the caesura, and has 
 unfavorably criticized translations of Assyrian poetry in which it was 
 disregarded. But it is easier to represent it in German than in English. 
 
THE COSMOLOGIES 109 
 
 representing the heavenly and the latter 
 the earthly part of the universe. From these 
 there proceed, like emanations, the gods Ami 
 and Ea, the latter under the name of Nudim- 
 mud, who is said to be "abounding in all wis- 
 dom" and "exceeding strong." Now, Ami is 
 the head of the great triad, Anu, Ellil, and Ea, 
 and as the first and third are here mentioned 
 it is quite likely that the second was also orig- 
 inally named. But Ellil (or Bel) was afterward 
 eliminated from this story in order to lay all 
 the emphasis upon Marduk, the god of Babylon. 
 And now there arises a conflict between Apsu 
 and Tiamat, the representatives of chaos and 
 disorder, on the one side, and the gods Anu and 
 Ea, the representatives of order and cosmos, on 
 the other. The story runs on thus : 
 
 But [Tiamat and Apsu] were still in confusion, 
 
 They were troubled and 
 
 In confusion. 
 25 Apsu was not diminished 
 
 And Tiamat roared 
 
 They all smote 1 
 
 Their way was not good, they 
 
 Then Apsu, the begetter of the great gods, 
 30 Summoned Mummu, his messenger, and said unto 
 him, 
 
 "O Mummu, messenger that rejoicest my heart, 
 
 Come, let us go unto Tiamat." 
 
 They went and before Tiamat they lay down, 
 
 1 King translates, "She smote, and their deeds." But for an interest- 
 ing suggestion see Dhorme, Ohoix de Textes Religieux Assyro-Babyloniens, 
 p. 7. Paris, 1907. 
 
110 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 They consulted on a plan concerning the gods, their 
 sons. 
 
 This passage makes it clear enough that Apsu 
 was conceived as the male principle and Tia- 
 mat the female, and that from these had come 
 originally the gods. And now Apsu and Tia- 
 mat are angry at their own progeny, and it is 
 not perfectly clear what the cause of the anger 
 was, but perhaps the best suggestion thus far 
 offered is that they were simply enraged at the 
 progress made by the gods in bringing order 
 out of chaos. There would be no peace and no 
 resting place for them when Cosmos had dis- 
 placed Chaos. 
 
 35 Apsu opened his mouth and said to her, 
 
 And unto Tiamat, the brilliant, he spake a word: 
 
 " their way 
 
 By day I cannot rest, I cannot lie down by night, 
 I will destroy their way, I will [disperse them] 
 
 40 That the clamor may cease, that we may lie down." 
 When Tiamat [heard] these words, 
 
 She was furious, and cried for 
 
 She went into a terrible anger, 
 She conceived evil in her heart: 
 
 45 "All that which we have made we will destroy. 
 
 Lettheirwaybefullofwretchedness,andletusliedown." 
 Mummu answered, and gave counsel unto Apsu — 
 A hostile counsel was the counsel of Mummu: 
 "Come, their way is strong, but destroy thou it. 
 
 50 So shalt thou have rest by day, by night thou shalt 
 lie down." 
 
 The issue was now joined, and on behalf of the 
 gods Ea took up the dreadful contest, and in 
 
THE COSMOLOGIES 111 
 
 some way Anu is associated with him. At this 
 point the tablets are so fragmentary that we 
 cannot follow the story with perfect certainty, 
 but it is clear that Ea prevailed, destroyed Apsu 
 and captured Mummu. How this was accom- 
 plished we do not certainly know, but it would 
 appear that Ea overwhelmed them both, not by 
 violence, but by a "pure incantation." 1 
 
 Tiamat was unconquered and in confusion, 
 and then is urged on by a "bright god" who is 
 probably Kingu. Upon this a new conflict 
 begins. It seems quite probable that the pas- 
 sage which follows is a doublet. The first, 
 which honors Ea, by making him the hero, is 
 now succeeded by the second, in which Marduk 
 is the hero. But Marduk was not probably the 
 original hero of this section. It was the elder 
 Bel, the god of Nippur, whose original name 
 was En-lil, or Ellil. Marduk has simply dis- 
 placed him and assumed his position of honor. 
 We shall do well to note this particularly, for 
 we shall later be called on to see how Marduk 
 was displaced in turn by another and much 
 greater god. 2 Let us now resume the story: 
 
 1 This is not quite certain, but line 60 runs thus: 
 
 "Then went up Ea, who knoweth all things, and beheld their designs." 
 Line 61 has disappeared altogether, and then in line 62 we have: 
 
 " to make his pure incantation," 
 
 which seems at least to suggest that this was his weapon, especially as 
 in the fragmentary lines that remain there appear no hints of any other 
 weapons, such, for example, as are so elaborately described below when 
 Marduk is engaged. 
 
 * See p. 134. 
 
112 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 They cursed the day, and at the side of Tiamat 
 
 advanced, 
 110 They were furious, they devised mischief night and 
 
 day without rest. 
 They take up the combat, they devastate, they rage. 
 They join their forces, they organize battle. 
 [Ummu-Khubu]r [that is, Tiamat], who formed all 
 
 things, 
 Made also weapons invincible, she spawned monster 
 
 serpents, 
 115 Sharp of tooth and merciless in carnage; 
 
 [With venom instead of] blood she filled [their] 
 
 bodies. 
 Terrible dragons she clothed with terror, 
 With splendor she decked them, she made them of 
 
 lofty appearance. 
 Whoever beheld them, terror overcame him, 
 120 Their bodies reared up and none could withstand 
 
 their attack. 
 She set up serpents, and reptiles, and the monster 
 
 Lakhamu, 
 And hurricanes and furious dogs, and scorpion men 
 And mighty tempests, and fish men and [rams]; 
 They bore pitiless weapons, fearless of the fight. 
 125 [Puissant] were her orders, [none] could resist them. 
 In all, eleven monsters of this kind, she created. 
 Among the gods who were her firstborn, who formed 
 
 her troop, 
 She exalted Kingu; among them she made him great. 
 To march before the troops, to lead the throng, 
 130 To seize the weapons, 1 to advance, to begin the 
 
 attack, 
 The primacy in the combat, the control of the fight 
 She intrusted to him, in costly raiment she made him 
 
 sit. 
 
 1 "To give the battle signal." — King. 
 
Jg8 
 
 li^yili?^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■■ .'. ■ ," 
 
 
 
 mm 
 
 
 
 gg 
 
 
 **" 
 
 
 ^2^*-jv%rEfjSEE£ 
 
 
 
 <<«* 
 
 
 *M 
 
 Obverse 
 
 Reverse 
 
 FIGURE VI.— THE SECOND TABLET OF CREATION 
 
 British Museum, No. 40,559 
 
THE COSMOLOGIES 113 
 
 "I have uttered the spell, in the assembly of the 
 
 gods I have made thee Lord, 
 The lordship over all the gods I have intrusted to 
 
 thee. 
 135 Be thou exalted, thou mine only spouse. 
 
 May the Anunnaki exalt thy name over all." 
 
 She gave him the tablets of destiny, on his breast she 
 
 placed them. 
 "Thy command shall not fail, the word of thy mouth 
 
 shall be established." 
 When Kingu was exalted, and had received the 
 
 power of Anu, 
 140 He decreed destiny among the gods his sons, (saying:) 
 "The opening of your mouth shall quench the fire 
 
 god, 
 The strong in combat shall increase his strength." 
 
 Here ends the first tablet, ends in chaos, and 
 wild threats and inhuman passions, and strange 
 monsters and mighty forces of disorder. The 
 picture is made exceedingly somber, to throw 
 into higher light and more impressive relief the 
 splendid beauty and order of the world, which 
 Marduk's power and wisdom perfected. 
 
 The second tablet begins with a description 
 of the helplessness of the other gods until Mar- 
 duk accepts the challenge and enters the lists. 
 
 THE SECOND TABLET 
 
 Tiamat made strong her work, 
 Evil she devised among the gods her children. 
 To avenge Apsu, Tiamat planned evil, 
 And how she had collected her army, the god told Ea. 
 5 Ea listened to this word, and 
 
 He was sadly afflicted and sat in sorrow. 
 
114 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 The days went by, and his anger was appeased, 
 And to the place of Anshar, his father, he made his 
 
 way. 
 He went before Anshar, the father who begat him, 
 10 All that Tiamat had planned, he announced to him: 
 "Tiamat, our mother, has conceived a hatred against 
 
 us, 
 An assembly has she made, she rages in anger. 
 All the gods have turned to her, 
 Even those whom ye have created march at her side, 
 15 They have cursed the day, they advance at Tiamat's 
 side. 
 
 And now he repeats the passage already cited 
 above, with the lurid description of the mon- 
 strous serpents and the wild creatures which 
 Tiamat has "spawned." All this is intended to 
 heighten the difficulty in which the great gods 
 were placed and so to make more evident the 
 greatness of Marduk. The effect of the story 
 upon Anshar is thus recounted : 
 
 When Anshar heard that Tiamat was mightily in 
 revolt 1 
 50 He smote his loins, he bit his lips, 
 
 within he was not at peace, 
 
 His , he sounded a cry. 
 
 Ea has conquered Mummu and Apsu, but what 
 can now be done in this far greater difficulty? 
 He appeals to Ea: 
 
 Anshar unto his son addressed the word: 
 
 " My mighty warrior 
 
 Whose power is great, whose onslaught resistless, 
 
 1 The restoration and translation are King's. 
 
THE COSMOLOGIES 115 
 
 75 Go and stand before Tiamat, 
 
 That her spirit may be appeased, her heart calmed. 
 
 But if she hearken not to thy word, 
 
 Then shalt thou speak our message, that she may be 
 pacified." 
 
 He heard the word of his father Anshar 
 80 And turned his face to her, toward her he made his 
 way 
 
 And drew nigh, he saw the design of Tiamat 
 
 [But could not endure her presence], he turned back. 
 
 Ea, who had vanquished Apsu and captured 
 Mummu, is no match for Tiamat and turns 
 back. Anshar therefore turns to Marduk and 
 tries in every way to encourage him to under- 
 take the perilous conflict. Thus does he address 
 him: 
 
 110 "Thou art my son, who openeth wide his heart. 
 
 to the battle shalt thou approach, 
 
 he shall see thee in peace." 
 
 And the lord rejoiced at his father's word, 
 And he drew nigh and stood before Anshar. 
 
 115 Anshar looked upon him and his heart was filled 
 with joy, 
 He kissed his lips and fear departed from him. 
 
 These words and these acts of love are di- 
 rected to Marduk, to Marduk of Babylon, but 
 there can be no doubt that in the original ver- 
 sion the god who was thus honored and en- 
 couraged was Ellil, the elder Bel of Nippur. 
 He has been supplanted by the act of the priests 
 of Babylon. Marduk addresses his father in 
 these words: 
 
116 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 "[0 my father], let not the word of thy lips be covered, 
 O let me accomplish all that is in thy heart, 
 [O Anshar], let not the word of thy lips be covered, 
 120 let me accomplish all that is in thy heart." 
 
 "What man is it," saith Anshar, "that hath brought 
 thee to battle? 
 
 Tiamat, who is a woman, attacks thee with 
 
 arms 
 
 rejoice and be glad, 
 
 The neck of Tiamat shalt thou swiftly trample under 
 foot. 
 
 125 rejoice and be glad, 
 
 The neck of Tiamat shalt thou swiftly trample under 
 
 foot. 
 O my [son], who knowest all wisdom, 
 Appease Tiamat with thy pure incantation, 1 
 Set out speedily on thy way, 
 130 Thy blood shall not be poured out, thou shalt return 
 again." 
 The lord rejoiced at his father's word, 
 His heart exulted and he spoke to his father: 
 "O Lord of the gods, Destiny of the great gods, 
 If I, your avenger, 
 135 Do enchain Tiamat, and give you life, 
 Make an assembly, exalt my destiny. 
 In Upshukkinaku seat yourselves joyfully together, 
 With my word, in your stead, will I decree destiny. 
 That which I do shall remain unchanged, 
 140 It shall not be changed, it shall not fail, the word of 
 my lips." 
 
 1 This art of incantation Marduk has received from Ea (compare 
 Jastrow, Die Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens, i, p. 295). There is a 
 passage in the Shurpu texts (Zimmern, Beitrage zur Kentniss der Baby- 
 lonischen Religion, p. 27) in which Ea says to Marduk: 
 
 "That which I know, thou shalt know." 
 This is, of course, a part of the priestly plan in Babylon to elevate Mar- 
 duk to the first rank, of which I have spoken repeatedly elsewhere. 
 
^K''' J 
 
 
 1 ■ |M 
 
 ^•k-^ff^T^ ■ 
 
 TB 
 
 
 a 
 
 ^^4*^*"*'*^'' '' 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 " 
 
 v- 
 
 etfj*** 
 
 
 
 
 -. s 
 
 
 
 ,;<. ~ 
 
 
 ; 
 
 
 m. 
 
 
 bf 
 
 Obverse 
 
 Reverse 
 
 FIGURE VII— THE THIRD TABLET OF CREATION 
 British Museum, No. 93,017 
 
THE COSMOLOGIES 117 
 
 The tense interest and feeling of the story is 
 relaxed in the third tablet, which is devoted 
 entirely to securing the consent of the gods to 
 Marduk/s request for peculiar honors if he should 
 find victory over Tiamat. Perhaps a portion of 
 the tablet ought here to be quoted that our 
 picture of the entire legendary and mythological 
 matter may be complete. 
 
 THE THIRD TABLET 
 
 Anshar opened his mouth, and 
 [Unto Gaga], his [minister], spoke the word: 
 ["O Gaga, thou minister] that rejoicest my heart 
 [Unto Lakhmu and Lakh]amu will I send thee. 
 5 [The order of my heart] thou canst comprehend 
 
 thou shalt bring before me 
 
 let the gods, all of them, 
 
 [Make ready for a feast,] 1 at a banquet let them sit, 
 Let them eat bread, let them mix wine, 
 
 10 [For Marduk] their avenger let them decree destiny. 
 [Go,] Gaga, stand before them, 
 
 [All that] I say to thee, repeat thou to them, saying, 
 'Anshar, your son, hath sent me, 
 The command of his heart, he hath made me to know. 
 
 15 He saith, that Tiamat, our mother, has conceived a 
 hatred against us, 
 An assembly has she made, she rages in anger. 
 All the gods have turned to her, 
 Even those whom ye have created, march at her 
 side.' " 
 
 Then Anshar repeats again the same passage out 
 of the first tablet in which is described the mon- 
 
 1 All the bracketed restorations in these eight lines are due to King. 
 
118 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 strous serpents and all the fearsome, horrid 
 brood that Tiamat has spawned. Lakhmu and 
 Lakhamu, as Jastrow has pointed out, are here 
 in this speech set forth as leaders of the gods 
 called Igigi, who are in the later theology classi- 
 fied as heavenly gods, and also of the Anunnaki, 
 who are the earthly or subterranean gods. And 
 now the story is resumed, after the description 
 of the terrible allies of Tiamat, in these words: 
 
 "I have sent Aim, but he could not withstand her 
 presence. 
 
 Nudimmud [that is, Ea] was afraid and turned back. 
 55 But Marduk is ready, the director of the gods, your 
 son; 
 
 To set out against Tiamat, his heart has moved him. 
 
 He opened his mouth and spoke to me, saying, 
 
 'If I, your avenger, 
 
 Do enchain Tiamat and give you life, 
 60 Make an assembly, exalt my destiny. 
 
 In Upshukkinaku set yourselves joyfully together. 
 
 With my word, in your stead, will I decree destiny. 
 
 That which I do shall remain unchanged. 
 
 It shall not be changed, it shall not fail, the word of 
 my lips/ 
 65 Hasten, therefore, and fix quickly your destiny 
 
 That he may go and attack your strong enemy \" 
 
 Gaga went, he made his way and 
 
 Before Lakhmu and Lakhamu, the gods his fathers, 
 
 Humbly did he make obeisance, and kissed the ground 
 at their feet, 
 70 He humbled himself; then he stood up and spake to 
 them, saying, 
 
 "Anshar your son has sent me, 
 
 The purpose of his heart he has made known to me, 
 
THE COSMOLOGIES 119 
 
 He says that Tiamat, our mother, has conceived a 
 
 hatred against us, 
 An assembly has she made, she rages in anger." 
 
 And now once more do we have repeated the 
 thirty-three lines out of the first tablet contain- 
 ing the description of the demons, beasts, and 
 monsters spawned by Tiamat. The priests who 
 made this compilation were determined to get 
 this grewsome picture fully before the mind 
 and heart of all Babylon's worshipers. To 
 them all, this oft-repeated passage should show 
 from how great misery and danger Marduk had 
 delivered them. Following on this description, 
 Gaga repeats to the gods the demand of Mar- 
 duk for honors above the other gods. The 
 priests intended also to make plain that Marduk 
 had come to his honors only after the demand 
 had been made perfectly clear and unmistak- 
 able. Let us now see what the assembly had to 
 answer to the demands. And first of all the 
 gods must express horror at Tiamat and all her 
 deeds and plans. 
 
 125 Lakhmu and Lakhamu heard, they cried aloud, 
 All of the Igigi complained bitterly, saying, 
 
 "Because of what enmity is it that they 
 
 We do not understand the [deed] of Tiamat." 
 Then they gathered together, they went 
 
 130 The great gods, all of them, who decree [destiny], 
 
 They entered before Anshar, they filled 
 
 They kissed one another, in the assembly 
 
 They made ready the feast, at the banquet [they sat], 
 They ate bread, they mingled the wine. 
 
120 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 135 The sweet drink made them drunken 
 
 By drinking they were drunken, their bodies were 
 
 filled. 
 They shouted aloud, their heart was exalted, 
 Then for Marduk, their avenger, did they decree 
 
 destiny. 
 
 So concludes the third tablet with a company 
 of drunken gods in maudlin amiability prepared 
 to grant all the demands of Marduk. What a 
 contrast do Hebrew conceptions of godhead 
 present to this! We must desire eagerly to be 
 fair, not to say generous, in all our judgments 
 of the religions of mankind, but it were folly 
 not to observe the weakness and degradation of 
 this ancient faith at the same time that we see 
 its beauty and power. 
 
 And now begins the fourth tablet, with the 
 drunken gods heaping honors upon Marduk. 
 
 THE FOURTH TABLET 
 
 They prepared for him a princely seat, 
 Before his fathers he took his place as sovereign. 
 "Thou art most honored among the great gods, 
 Thy destiny is beyond compare, thy command is 
 
 Anu. 
 5 O Marduk, thou art most honored among the great 
 
 gods, 
 Thy destiny is beyond compare, thy command is 
 
 Anu. 
 In all time thy command shall not be changed, 
 To exalt and to abase lie in thy hand. 
 Established shall be the word of thy mouth, resistless 
 
 thy command, 
 
Obverse 
 
 
 f% 
 
 lEsSf**^" 
 
 
 
 4**f£S*-* 
 
 ^ . 
 
 pp 
 
 WEZv£> 
 
 ■*■****- *•"* 
 
 ■*-.*_/-? -* 1 
 
 
 It. 
 
 
 w 
 
 Reverse 
 FIGURE VIII.— THE FOURTH TABLET OF CREATION 
 
 British Museum, No. 93,016 
 
THE COSMOLOGIES 121 
 
 10 None among the gods shall transgress thy limits. 
 Abundance is the desire of the shrines of the gods, 
 In their place shall thy sanctuary be established. 
 O Marduk, thou art our avenger. 
 We give thee lordship over the whole world. 
 15 Thou shalt take thy seat in the assembly, thy word 
 
 shall be exalted. 
 Thy weapon shall not lose its power, it shall break 
 
 in pieces thy foe. 
 O lord, spare the life of him that trusteth in thee. 
 But, as for the god, who undertook evil, pour out his 
 
 life." 
 
 And now a curiously interesting test of Mar- 
 duk's power is proposed, accepted, and success- 
 fully carried out. He is to make a garment 
 disappear and then reappear. It makes one 
 think, superficially, of Gideon's test with the 
 fleece. 1 But here is the description that the 
 poem gives : 
 
 Then they placed among them a garment, 
 20 And unto Marduk, their firstborn, they spoke: 
 
 "Thy destiny, lord, is supreme among the gods, 
 
 To destroy and to create, when thou dost command, 
 it shall be fulfilled. 
 
 Thy command shall destroy the garment, 
 
 And if thou dost command, the garment shall be 
 intact." 
 25 Then he spoke with his mouth, the garment was de- 
 stroyed, 
 
 He commanded again, the garment was restored. 
 
 When the gods, his fathers, beheld the efficacy of 
 his word 
 
 They rejoiced, they paid homage, "Marduk is king. ,, 
 
 « Judg. 6. 36-40. 
 
122 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 Here is made plain that Marduk is conceived as 
 having Ea's power, the power of the word. 1 
 Ea, the god of wisdom in early times, is the god 
 who has the power of the word. Here is this 
 power taken over by Marduk. And now Mar- 
 duk must be prepared with all weapons of 
 offense and of defense for the great and terrible 
 conflict. 
 
 They bestowed upon him the scepter, the throne, 
 
 the palu. 2 
 30 They gave him an invincible weapon, which destroys 
 
 the enemy. 
 "Go and cut off the life of Tiamat, 
 Let the wind carry her blood into secret places. 
 After the gods his fathers had decreed for the lord 
 
 his destiny 
 They made his way a path of salvation and success. 
 35 He made ready the bow, chose it as his weapon, 
 
 He seized a spear, he fastened 
 
 He raised the club, in his right hand he grasped it, 
 The bow and the quiver he hung at his side. 
 He put the lightning in front of him, 
 40 With flaming fire he filled his body. 
 
 He made a net to inclose Tiamat within it. 
 
 He set it up at the four winds, that naught of her 
 
 might escape, 
 At the south wind, and the north wind, and the east 
 
 wind, and the west wind, 
 He brought near the net, the gift of his father Anu. 
 45 He created an evil wind, a tempest, and a hurricane, 
 A fourfold wind, a sevenfold wind, a whirlwind, a 
 
 wind beyond compare, 
 
 i That is, "the pure incantation." See p. Ill, note 1. 
 *Palu perhaps signifies ring (King). 
 
THE COSMOLOGIES 123 
 
 He sent forth the winds, which he had created, the 
 
 seven of them, 
 To disturb the inner parts of Tiamat, they followed 
 
 after him. 
 
 And now we come to the description of the 
 conflict. It is a thousand pities that breaks in 
 some of the lines mar the onward movement of 
 passionate description. What remains belongs 
 to the greatest monuments of the literature of 
 Babylonia and Assyria. 
 
 Then the lord took the flood, his mighty weapon, 
 50 He mounted the chariot, the storm incomparable, the 
 terrible, 
 He harnessed four horses and yoked them to it, 
 Destructive, pitiless, overwhelming, swift. 
 
 Some of the broken lines I now omit; the 
 splendid sweep of the onset is better without 
 them, and nothing essential to the narrative 
 disappears. 
 
 With overpowering brightness his head was crowned. 
 He took his road, he followed his path. 
 60 Toward Tiamat, the raging, he set his face. 
 
 Then they beheld him, the gods beheld him, 
 The gods his fathers beheld him, the gods beheld him. 
 65 And the lord drew nigh, he gazed upon the inward 
 parts of Tiamat, 
 He perceived the design of Kingu, her spouse. 
 As he gazed, he was troubled in his movements, 
 His resolution was destroyed, his action was dis- 
 ordered, 
 And the gods, his helpers, who marched by his side, 
 
124 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 70 Beheld their leader's .... their vision was troubled. 
 But Tiamat uttered [a cry], she turned not her neck, 
 With full lips, she held fast rebellion. 
 
 She utters some taunt, not fully preserved for 
 us, and — 
 
 75 Then the lord raised the flood, his mighty weapon, 
 And against Tiamat, who was raging, he sent it with 
 
 the words: 
 "Thou hast made thyself great, thou hast exalted 
 
 thyself on high, 
 And thy heart has moved thee to call to battle 
 
 80 
 
 Thou hast exalted Kingu to be thy spouse, 
 
 Thou hast him, to issue decrees like Anu, 
 
 thou hast followed after evil, 
 
 And against the gods my fathers thou hast wrought 
 
 evil 
 85 When thou hast prepared thy army, hast girded on 
 
 thy weapons, 
 Come on, I and thou, let us join battle." 
 When Tiamat heard these words, 
 She was beside herself, she lost her reason, 
 Tiamat cried wild and loudly, 
 90 She trembled, she shook to her foundations, 
 She recited an incantation, she uttered her spell, 
 And the gods of the battle cried for their weapons. 
 Then advanced Tiamat and Marduk, counselor of 
 
 the gods; 
 To the combat they marched, they drew nigh to 
 
 battle, 
 95 The lord spread out his net and caught her, 
 
 The storm wind that was behind him, he let loose in 
 
 her face. 
 When Tiamat opened her mouth to its widest 
 
THE COSMOLOGIES 125 
 
 He drove in the evil wind, that she could not close 
 
 her lips. 
 The terrible winds filled her belly, 
 
 100 And her heart was taken from her, and her mouth 
 she opened wide. 
 He seized the spear and tore her belly, 
 He cut her inward parts, he pierced her heart. 
 He made her powerless, he destroyed her life*, 
 He cast down her body and stood upon it. 
 
 105 When he had slain Tiamat, the leader, 
 
 Her power was broken, her army was scattered. 
 And the gods, her helpers, who marched at her side, 
 Trembled and were afraid and turned back. 
 They broke away to save their lives, 
 
 110 But they were surrounded, they could not escape. 
 He took them captive, he broke their weapons, 
 In the net they are cast down, they sat down, 
 The .... of the world they fill with cries of sorrow. 
 
 And so Tiamat is utterly overcome, and all the 
 terrible monsters so often described are wholly 
 ruined with her. 
 
 And Kingu, who had been exalted over them, 
 120 He conquered, and with the god Dugga he counted 
 him, 
 
 He took from him the tablets of destiny, which be- 
 longed not to him, 
 
 He sealed them with a seal and laid them in his own 
 breast. 
 
 Thereby he gave a token that the right of de- 
 termining destiny was now to be in the hand 
 of Marduk, god of Babylon. And now we are 
 drawing close to the real story toward which 
 our eyes have been turned from the beginning. 
 
126 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 We have come a long course through these 
 fields of mythology; we are now on the very 
 verge of learning how Marduk created the 
 world. 
 
 After he had conquered and cast down his enemies, 
 And had beaten down the insolent enemy, 
 125 And had fully established Anshar's victory over the 
 
 enemy, 
 And had attained the will of Nudimmud, 
 And over the captive gods had made the prison fast, 
 Then he turned back to Tiamat, whom he had con- 
 quered, 
 And the lord stood upon the hinder parts of Tiamat, 
 130 With his merciless club he broke her skull. 
 He cut through the channels of her blood, 
 And he made the North wind bear it away to secret 
 
 places. 
 His fathers saw, and they rejoiced and were glad, 
 Presents and gifts they brought unto him. 
 135 Then the lord rested, he looked upon her dead body, 
 As he divided the flesh of the he devised a 
 
 cunning plan. 
 He split her open like a flat fish into two halves; 
 One half of her he established as a covering for 
 
 heaven. 
 He fixed a bolt, he stationed a watchman. 
 140 He commanded them not to let her waters come forth. 
 He passed through the heavens, he considered its 
 
 regions, 
 And over against the Deep, he placed the dwelling of 
 
 Nudimmud, 
 And the lord measured the construction of the Deep, 
 And he founded E-sharra, a mansion like unto it. 
 145 The mansion E-sharra which he built like heaven, 
 He caused Anu, Bel, and Ea to inhabit in their districts 
 
THE COSMOLOGIES 127 
 
 Here have we the account of the making of the 
 big blue vault which still stretches above our 
 head. It is made of one half of the carcass of 
 Tiamat, flattened like a flat fish. This is con- 
 ceived as a great solid body — a firmament, 
 whose chief purpose is to retain the great 
 mass of waters of the heavenly ocean. A 
 watchman stands guard at the door which bolts 
 in "the waters that were above the heavens/ ' 
 In this heaven Marduk builds a mansion, 
 E-sharra, and there Anu and Bel have their 
 assigned place, while corresponding to that in 
 the great watery world Ea has his place, and 
 chaos is gone forever. 
 
 The fifth tablet begins with the creation of 
 the great heavenly bodies, but is so sadly frag- 
 mentary that we can have little satisfaction in 
 it. By the irony of fate, it seems to be the tablet 
 which we should most have liked to have com- 
 plete, for in it there was most probably the 
 account of the creation of vegetation and of 
 the animal world. It would be of surpassing 
 interest to know what the Babylonian priests 
 had to tell of the origin of earth and its green 
 carpet and its wondrous company of beasts and 
 birds. But all this has been lost out of the nar- 
 rative, and we shall have to wait and hope that 
 some day and somewhere a duplicate of the fifth 
 tablet may be found to supply this great lack. 
 To-day it is possible only to give a little piece of 
 this tablet, which tells of the heavenly bodies. 
 
128 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 THE FIFTH TABLET 
 
 He [that is, Marduk] made the stations for the great 
 
 gods; 
 The stars, like them, as the lumashi 1 he fixed. 
 He ordained the year, he marked off its sections, 
 For the twelve months he fixed three stars. 
 5 After he had fashioned images for the days of the 
 
 year, 
 He founded the station of Nibir [that is, Jupiter], to 
 
 determine their bounds; 
 That none might err or go astray, 
 He set the station of Bel and Ea by his side. 
 He opened gates on both sides, 
 10 He made strong the bolt on the left and on the right, 
 In the midst thereof he fixed the zenith; 
 The moon god he caused to shine forth, to him con- 
 fided the night. 
 He appointed him a being of the night, to determine 
 
 the days; 
 Every month, without ceasing, like a crown he made 
 
 him, saying, 
 15 "At the beginning of the month, when thou shinest 
 
 on the land 
 Thou shalt show the horns, to determine six days, 
 And on the seventh day thou shalt divide the crown 
 
 in two. 
 On the fourteenth day, thou shalt reach the half . . . 
 
 The rest of the tablet is too broken to be intel- 
 
 i The word lumashi in the astronomical texts designates a series of 
 seven stars. There is a very pretty controversy as to the meaning and 
 identification of these stars. Oppert translates spheres; Sayce, "twin 
 stars, literally, twin oxen," and explains that "seven of them were 
 reckoned." Zimmern says that they were not identical with the signs 
 of the Zodiac. Delitzsch does not commit himself, and King translates 
 "Zodiac." Jeremias in Das Alte Testament im Lichte des alten Orients, 
 p. 27, translates it Tierkreisbilder, while in his later brochure (Das Alter 
 
Obverse 
 
 Reverse 
 FIGURE IX.— THE FIFTH TABLET OF CREATION 
 
 British Museum 
 Size of the original, 2& by l£ inches 
 
Reverse 
 
 FIGURE X.— THE SIXTH TABLET OF CREATION 
 
 British Museum, No. 92,629 
 
THE COSMOLOGIES 129 
 
 ligible, save for a few lines which are not im- 
 portant for our purpose. 
 
 And now we come to the creation of man, 
 which is ascribed to the desire of the gods to 
 have worshipers. It is Marduk also who is the 
 creator of men. 
 
 THE SIXTH TABLET 
 
 When Marduk heard the word of the gods, 
 
 His heart moved him and he devised a cunning plan. 
 
 He opened his mouth and unto Ea he spoke, 
 
 That which he had conceived in his heart, he made 
 
 known unto him: 
 5 "My blood will I take and bone will I fashion, 
 
 I shall make man that man may 
 
 I shall create man who shall inhabit [the earth], 
 Let the worship of the gods be established, let their 
 
 shrines be [built]. 
 But I shall transform the ways of the gods, and I 
 
 shall change their paths. 
 10 Together shall they be honored, and unto evil shall 
 
 [they] .... 
 
 The rest of the tablet is broken and lost, save 
 for a few lines at the end in which the gods re- 
 ceive the victorious Marduk. 
 
 The seventh tablet is wholly given up to the 
 honoring and worshiping of Marduk by gods 
 and men alike. It begins thus: 
 
 der babylonischen Astronomic p. 28) he renders Mashigestirne. This 
 illustrates the doubtfulness of the word itself, and shows how uncertain 
 is the whole astrological scheme of Winckler and Jeremias. It is a 
 small point, indeed, but an instructive one. 
 
130 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 THE SEVENTH TABLET 
 
 Asari, Bestower of fruitfulness, [Founder of agricul- 
 ture], 
 
 Thou who didst create grain and plants, who caused [the 
 green herb to spring up], 
 
 Then come lines in which he is hailed as the one 
 who sets forth the decrees of Ami, Bel, and Ea, 
 that is, he has been promoted to the places which 
 they have occupied : 
 
 14 No one among the gods can rival him 
 
 18 Never shall his deeds be forgotten among men 
 
 112 He conquered Tiamat, he troubled and ended her 
 
 life. 
 In the future of mankind, in the aged days, 
 May this be heard without ceasing, may it endure 
 
 forever. 
 115 Since he created the heaven and made the earth, 
 "The Lord of the world," his father Bel called his 
 
 name. 
 The names which all the Igigi did name, 
 Ea heard and his heart was rejoiced [and he said]: 
 "He whose name his fathers have magnified 
 120 Shall be even as I, his name shall be Ea. 
 The whole of my orders shall he control, 
 The whole of my commands shall he pronounce ? 9 
 By the name of Fifty did the great gods 
 Make known his fifty names, they made his path 
 
 lofty. 
 125 Let them be held in remembrance, and let the first 
 
 man make them known. 
 The wise and the understanding shall consider them 
 
 together, 
 
Obverse 
 
 Reverse 
 
 FIGURE XI.— THE SEVENTH TABLET OF CREATION 
 
 British Museum, K. 8522 
 
 Size of the original, 3| by 2\ inches 
 
THE COSMOLOGIES 131 
 
 The father shall repeat them and teach them to his 
 
 son; 
 They shall be in the ear of the shepherd and the sheep 
 
 driver. 
 Let man rejoice in Marduk, the lord of the gods, 
 130 That he may make his land fertile, and that he may 
 have prosperity. 
 His word is established, his command is unchange- 
 able 
 The word of his mouth, no god hath annulled. 
 When he looketh in anger, he turns not his neck; 
 When he is wroth, no god can face his indignation. 
 135 Wide is his heart, broad is his compassion; 
 
 The sinner and the evil doer in his presence 
 
 They received instruction, they spoke before him 
 
 And so the last words are broken off and we 
 hear no more of Marduk's glories. So ends the 
 great Babylonian story of the creation, en- 
 shrined in a long series of myths, built up and 
 edited and changed so that the elder gods of 
 an ancient folk might give way before the ris- 
 ing Marduk, whose people were daily waxing 
 greater. It is in a sense a great political treatise, 
 yet also is it religious. The hearts of men 
 yearned over these things; we can feel, if we 
 have a bit of that spiritual consciousness that 
 never wholly leaves the world, the throb of a 
 spiritual struggle after God, and not merely an 
 ignoble strife after post and preference for a 
 deity. In the ultimate issue man is represented 
 as created in order that he may worship the 
 gods; so did the Babylonians recognize man's 
 
132 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 insatiable thirst for worship, man's yearning 
 for a tie to bind him back to God, man's un- 
 conquerable will to be religious. And it seems 
 often enough in human history as though the 
 theory of these old Babylonian priests was not 
 so irrational, but as wise as many a more boast- 
 ful philosophical or theological hypothesis con- 
 cerning man's nature. 
 
 We have been dealing with this great creation 
 story as Babylonian in origin; we have been 
 thinking of its present form as an expression of 
 the religious faith and the theological thinking 
 of Babylon. But we must take a far wider 
 view than this. Every day that passes makes 
 it more plain that the Babylonians influenced 
 their neighbors, as, indeed, all peoples have 
 done and are ever doing. And even though we 
 deny the modern theory, now widely though 
 happily not universally accepted, which finds 
 in Babylon the origins of nearly every idea or 
 custom, whether of political, social, or religious 
 life, yet nevertheless this fact does remain in- 
 disputable, that Babylonian ideas did find wide 
 currency in the ancient world. Just as that 
 cumbrous script, invented by Sumerians, im- 
 proved here and there by Semites, swept far 
 and near to be used by Chaldians, Elamites, 
 and others wherewith to write diverse languages, 
 so the baggage of many Babylonian thinkers 
 went traveling over deserts on camel-back 
 even to the blue waters of the Mediterranean. 
 
THE COSMOLOGIES 133 
 
 It would be surprising indeed if some of 
 these speculations did not come into the ears 
 of the prophets, poets, and wise men of Israel. 
 But they did come, and it is well worth while 
 to inquire how they were received, and how 
 the Hebrews were able to use their life and 
 color as media for the conveying of a far greater 
 spiritual message. At first blush we might 
 expect to find the most patent influence of 
 this Babylonian creation story in the Hebrew 
 creation stories in the book of Genesis, but ex- 
 actly the opposite is the case. The prophets and 
 poets it is who show us most clearly the echoes 
 of Babylonian religion and mythology amid 
 the limestone hills of Palestine. We shall do 
 well to examine at least a few passages in which 
 are to be discerned these same Babylonian 
 thoughts as have just passed in stately review 
 before us. Here is a passage in the Psalter in 
 which we can discern quite plainly the influence 
 of the Babylonian creation story: 1 
 
 O Jehovah God of hosts, 
 
 Who is a mighty one, like unto thee, Jehovah? 
 
 1 The credit of first discussing some of these interesting parallels be- 
 longs to Gunkel (Schopfung und Chaos in Urzeit und Endzeit. Eine re- 
 ligionsgeschichtliche Lntersuchung liber Gen. 1 und Ap. Joh. 12, von 
 Hermann Gunkel. Mit Beitragen von Heinrich Zimmern. Gottingen, 
 1895), whose book has been extraordinarily fruitful. The following may 
 also be compared: Zimmern, Biblische und bdbylonische Urgeschichte, 
 Leipzig, 1901, translated into English under the title, The Babylonian 
 and the Hebrew Genesis. London, 1901. See further W. O. E. Oesterly, 
 The Evolution of the Messianic Idea. London and New York, 1908. 
 This is a very suggestive book, and came first to my hands after these 
 lectures were in type. 
 
134 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 And thy faithfulness is round about thee. 
 
 Thou rulest the pride of the sea: 
 
 When the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them. 
 
 Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces, as one that is slain; 
 
 Thou hast scattered thine enemies with the arm of thy 
 
 strength. 
 The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: 
 The world and the fullness thereof, thou hast founded 
 
 them. 
 The north and the south, thou hast created them. 
 
 (Psa. 89. 8-12.) 
 
 This poet has heard of Tiamat and her story. 
 Here Tiamat is called Rahab, and it is not Mar- 
 duk, but Jehovah, who has slain her. Just as 
 the elder Bel, or Ellil, was displaced, as we 
 have seen by Marduk, so here Marduk is dis- 
 placed by Jehovah. He has "broken Rahab in 
 pieces" — nay, more, he has scattered his ene- 
 mies, that is, the helpers of Rahab. And then, 
 then, after he has defeated Rahab, he creates 
 the world. It is certainly the Babylonian Tia- 
 mat and Marduk story which this poet has in 
 his mind and is using poetically to glorify 
 Jehovah. And be it observed he is following 
 exactly the same order of progression as we 
 have just seen in the Babylonian story — first 
 the conflict, then the creation. 
 
 The great poet, the supremely great poet, 
 who wrote the book of Job also knows of these 
 myths and knows well how to use them. Hear 
 him as he describes the mighty works of Je- 
 hovah : 
 
THE COSMOLOGIES 135 
 
 He stirreth up the sea with his power, 
 
 And by his understanding he smiteth through Rahab. 
 
 By his Spirit the heavens are garnished; 
 
 His hand hath pierced the swift serpent. 
 
 (Job 26. 12, 13.) 
 
 Here is the same idea exactly, and again the 
 same poet sounds the same motive in the fine 
 words: 
 
 God will not withdraw his anger; 
 
 The helpers of Rahab do stoop under him. 
 
 (Job 9. 13.) 
 
 In other passages in the Old Testament the part 
 here played by Rahab is ascribed to the serpent, 
 without the mention of any name, or to levia- 
 than. Thus the great prophet Amos has heard 
 these stories, and can make to them a passing 
 allusion as he deals with big questions of right- 
 eousness. The sinners shall not escape: 
 
 Though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I 
 will search and take them out thence; and though they 
 be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence 
 will I command the serpent, and it shall bite them. 
 (Amos 9. 3.) 
 
 And in a fine passage in the Psalter leviathan is 
 plainly enough the figure of Tiamat: 
 
 Yet God is my King of old, 
 Working salvation in the midst of the earth. 
 Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: 
 Thou brakest the heads of the sea monsters in the waters. 
 Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces ; 
 Thou gavest him to be food to the people inhabiting the 
 wilderness. 
 
136 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 Thou didst cleave fountain and flood: 
 
 Thou driedst up mighty rivers. 
 
 The day is thine, the night also is thine : 
 
 Thou hast prepared the light and the sun. 
 
 Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: 
 
 Thou hast made summer and winter. (Psa. 74. 12-17.) 
 
 Here is proof enough that these Babylonian 
 myths were in current circulation in Israel, and 
 that poets and prophets knew how to adorn 
 their message with them. But we have also 
 the most abundant proof that these Babylonian 
 mythological ideas had passed over Canaan be- 
 fore Israel entered its coasts. The famous col- 
 lection of Tell-el-Amarna letters, discovered in 
 Egypt in 1887, which formed a part of the 
 correspondence of Egyptian kings about 1400 
 B.C., were written in the Babylonian script, and 
 many of them in various cities of Palestine, 
 Syria, Phoenicia, and Philistia. Among these 
 were some legends, 1 which thus bring the 
 clearest evidence that the Babylonian mytho- 
 logical influence spread as widely as commerce 
 and letters. When Israel entered the land all 
 these ideas were a part of the mental possession 
 of the people. They were there ready and 
 waiting to be absorbed by Israel. Whatever 
 influence they had upon IsraePs religious or 
 social thinking was then, in that early day, 
 exerted. The idea that Israel absorbed these 
 things during the exile can no longer seriously 
 
 1 See p. 187. 
 
THE COSMOLOGIES 137 
 
 be maintained. Centuries before the exile they 
 had passed through the minds of Israel's leaders, 
 had been sifted, rejected as valueless for the 
 greater part, but in some big places kept as the 
 media for the expression of a more spiritual 
 faith. 
 
 We must come now to see what influence was 
 exerted by the Babylonian creation story upon 
 the noble creation story in Gen. 1. 1 — 2. 4a. At 
 the very beginning George Smith saw that some 
 relationship existed, and no serious attempt to 
 deny the palpable fact has ever been made. It 
 must be evident to every student that the He- 
 brew priests knew the Babylonian story, that 
 all its mythological material lay in the back of 
 their minds, and that it was deliberately re- 
 jected when they wrote this beautiful story. 
 An examination of the Babylonian and Hebrew 
 narratives will show very plainly their re- 
 semblances and differences. 
 
 According to each account there existed a 
 watery chaos before the work of creation began. 
 In this chaos dwelt a monster Tiamat, per- 
 sonifying chaos and confusion. In the Hebrew 
 account the word tehom occurs, translated 
 "deep" in Gen. 1. 2, and this word tehom is 
 identically the same word as tiamat, changed 
 only slightly in passing from one language to 
 the other. But in the Hebrew account it is 
 stripped of mythical personality. It is the 
 "deep" and not a sea monster. The poets and 
 
138 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 prophets might use tiamat as Rahab or levia- 
 than for color, as we use Caliban or Prospero, 
 but the religion of Israel eliminated these myths 
 as unsuited to its spiritual message. But we 
 proceed further. 
 
 In the Hebrew narrative the first act of crea- 
 tion is the making of light (Gen. 1. 3-5), but in 
 the Babylonian story day and night seem to be 
 conceived as already existing when Apsu re- 
 volted, so that the two are here in agreement. 
 
 The second act of creation is the making of 
 the firmament which "divided the waters which 
 were under the firmament from the waters 
 which were above the firmament" (Gen. 1. 
 6-8). In the Babylonian poem the body of 
 Tiamat is divided and one half becomes the 
 firmament to keep the heavenly waters in 
 place. 
 
 The third and fourth acts of creation in the 
 Hebrew story are the creation of earth and of 
 vegetation (Gen. 1. 9-13). The corresponding 
 Babylonian story has been lost, but it seems 
 quite probable that these were described, in the 
 same order, on the fifth tablet. Berosus, in his 
 summary, says that Bel formed the earth out of 
 one half of Omorka's 1 body, and as in every 
 instance where we can test his narrative it has 
 proved to be correct, we have just ground for 
 
 1 The name Omorka ( O^dpua) is almost certainly a corruption of 
 Ummu-Khubur, the "Mother Khubur," which is a title of Tiamat. See 
 First Tablet, line 113, p. 112. 
 
THE COSMOLOGIES 139 
 
 believing that it is correct in this also. More- 
 over, at the very beginning of the seventh 
 tablet Marduk is hailed as "bestower of fruit- 
 fulness," "founder of agriculture/' "creator of 
 grain and plants/ ' he "who caused the green 
 herb to spring up." 
 
 The fifth act of creation is the making of the 
 heavenly bodies (Gen. 1. 14-19), and with this 
 the parallel is very close indeed. To the sixth 
 and seventh acts of creation (Gen. 1. 20-25) 
 the Babylonian parallels are wanting, but 
 Berosus gives us the hint that they were created 
 at the same time as man, so that it is probable 
 that this story appeared somewhere in the lost 
 portions of the fifth or sixth tablet. 
 
 The eighth act of creation, the capstone of 
 the whole (Gen. 1. 26-31), finds its parallel clear 
 and plain upon the sixth tablet. 
 
 The order of the separate acts of creation is 
 indeed not quite the same in the two accounts; 
 for example, the creation of the heavenly bodies 
 follows immediately upon the making of the 
 firmament in the Babylonian story, while in 
 the Hebrew it follows the making of the earth 
 and its vegetation. 
 
 How great are these resemblances! It is 
 quite impossible to suppose that they are due 
 to chance. These two stories did not arise 
 separately in Babylonia and in Israel. The Baby- 
 lonian story is the older by centuries, and upon 
 it the Hebrew story was founded. When the 
 
140 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 Babylonian narrative passed over to the He- 
 brews it is no longer possible to determine, but 
 it was surely soon after the invasion of Canaan 
 or earlier. 
 
 But great as are the resemblances which bind 
 these two narratives together, the differences 
 are far greater and more important. The sober- 
 ness, the dignity, the simplicity of the Hebrew 
 account lift it far above its ancient exemplar. 
 From it the crude nature myths have all been 
 stripped away; no drunken gods hold revels in 
 its solemn lines. But above even this stands 
 monotheism. Alone and lonesome is this God 
 whom the Hebrews knew. Hard and long was 
 the struggle upward into this great faith. 
 From the days of Moses to the days of Jeremiah 
 the charm of polytheism held many a goodly 
 spirit in Israel, but the great truth was latent, 
 fighting its way to a supremacy which should 
 here in Genesis find positive acknowledgment. 
 To that lofty faith the Babylonians never came. 
 This great glory belongs to Israel. Beyond the 
 limits of her realm no other folk had attained 
 this lofty preeminence. No other people brought 
 forth prophets to preach, or priests to teach, 
 this truth. Whence came this superiority? I 
 can find no origin for it but in a personal revela- 
 tion of God in human history. It was he who 
 made himself known to the Hebrew people 
 through their prophets, and through their liv- 
 ing experience of him in their history. He had 
 
THE COSMOLOGIES 141 
 
 indeed not left himself without a witness in 
 Babylonia, but the revelation to Israel lifted 
 her thinking to heights unknown before. The 
 foundations upon which this revelation rested 
 are to be discerned, in some part, in the religion 
 of the Babylonians, for it was out of this circle 
 of influences that the beginnings of Israel's 
 conscious thinking about the w^ork of creation 
 came. We shall do well not to despise the day 
 of these lesser things, but we must not fail to 
 see clearly the larger things which came through 
 Israel to the world. The Babylonian creation 
 stories remained mere stories unrelated to any 
 large purpose. In Israel, on the other hand, 
 these stories are related to a great system of 
 religious thinking with a noble beginning and 
 a still nobler goal. The story of man's creation 
 in the image of God rests not there, but moves 
 forward to the story of man's fall from his high 
 estate and to the voices of the prophet's calling 
 in God's name for him to turn from his unright- 
 eousness and live. It was, therefore, not merely 
 monotheism which Israel had here to teach, 
 great a message as that is. It is ethical mono- 
 theism. Not a God who is alone and apart, 
 but a God who is in ethical relationship with 
 his creatures, is here revealed. Our acquaint- 
 ance with this great idea makes it almost a 
 commonplace. We are scarcely able to realize 
 how great it is. It is, in truth, the greatest 
 thought that the ancient Orient ever learned. 
 
LECTURE IV 
 
 THE SACRED BOOKS 
 
 Which is the more essential possession for a 
 religion — a priesthood, or a sacred book? Nearly 
 all religions have both. The priest, this inter- 
 esting figure who stands mediating between 
 God and men, now offers sacrifices for the 
 washing away of guilt, and again makes de- 
 cisions in weighty matters which had vexed 
 the souls of men. In almost every religion he 
 seems the indispensable figure, as though with- 
 out him not only would the cultus be impossible, 
 but the very faith itself would disappear. But 
 one of the greatest of all religions disproves this 
 contention entirely. In any enumeration of the 
 religions of humanity Mohammedanism would 
 hold a high place, and Mohammedanism has no 
 priest, in the proper sense of the term, nor ever 
 has had. Yet it still sweeps with conquering 
 might over valley and plain in the vast con- 
 tinent of Africa, and its missionary spirit ex- 
 ceeds that of all faiths save one only. 
 
 No, the priest is not indispensable; a re- 
 ligion may live and grow and propagate vic- 
 toriously its ideas without a priest. But where 
 is the religion without a sacred book of some 
 
 142 
 
THE SACRED BOOKS 143 
 
 sort? The religions of Egypt have their sacred 
 books, and some of them full of yearning for 
 God and the life beyond the grave. Their pos- 
 session of a great organized and learned priest- 
 hood did not free them from the greater need 
 of the book. The need of a sacred book is 
 indeed far greater. The priesthood varies with 
 the flight of time, the priest dies and his suc- 
 cessor follows not in his footsteps, but turns 
 aside to some new doctrine or cultus, but the 
 sacred book abides, an anchor to the drifting 
 ship of faith; a foundation sure and steadfast 
 upon which the temple and its worship may 
 be erected. A religion may endure without a 
 priest, but history affords no instance of a re- 
 ligion without a sacred book. 
 
 The Babylonians had their sacred books; in 
 fact, they had little else in literature. 1 The 
 religious literature which has come down to us 
 from the earliest times far exceeds in amount 
 any other form of literature. Indeed, Jastrow 
 goes so far as to say that "in its beginnings this 
 literature is entirely religious." 2 
 
 For the purpose of our survey the religious 
 literature of the Babylonians and Assyrians may 
 be divided into (a) Magical Texts or Incanta- 
 
 1 1 am here, of course, using the term Babylonian in the strict sense, 
 as excluding and not comprehending the Assyrians, who had an exten- 
 sive literature of other kinds. 
 
 2 Hastings's Bible Dictionary, Extra Volume, 550, b. So also he says 
 {Die Religion Babyloniens und'Assyriens, i, 267), "In gewissem Sinne is 
 die gesamte Literatur Babyloniens religios." 
 
144 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 tions, (b) Hymns to the Gods, and (c) Peniten- 
 tial Psalms, and in this order do they rise from 
 the low levels of superstitious incantations to 
 exceedingly high levels of spiritual yearning, 
 though scarcely of spiritual attainment, in the 
 Psalms. There is a great spiritual history be- 
 tween the first and the last of these forms of 
 literature, but the sad element in it is this, that 
 this spiritual history does not represent a 
 growth that sloughed off the lower form as the 
 higher was attained. In the history of the 
 Babylonian religion the lower continued a 
 vigorous existence all the way to the end. Our 
 knowledge, indeed, of the whole of the litera- 
 ture is chiefly derived from the library of 
 Ashurbanipal; and the fact that in his library 
 the grossest forms of superstition were as care- 
 fully copied and as sacredly preserved as the 
 very noblest and most beautiful aspirations 
 after God is eloquent of the persistence of the 
 lower with the higher. 
 
 THE MAGICAL OR INCANTATION TEXTS 
 
 The gods of Babylonia and Assyria were 
 everywhere approached by men for positive 
 and for negative influences. They were desired 
 to grant those blessings, to give those helps 
 without which man could not attain his highest 
 happiness, and, on the other hand, they were 
 desired to remove the sorrows, griefs, afflictions, 
 and especially ill health, which bulk so largely 
 
THE SACRED BOOKS 145 
 
 in individual and in national life. For these two 
 great boons, for help or for succor, men prayed 
 to the gods, sacrificed to the gods, sang their 
 praises, or wept in despair when the gods heard 
 not or postponed their answer. But the Baby- 
 lonians did not think that the aid of the gods 
 was to ba expected in all sorts of little things. 
 The gods had a general surveillance over life and 
 history, but beneath their realm of influence 
 lay a great world of minor powers, which we may 
 call demons, or evil spirits. These demons were 
 everywhere, they lurked in every corner, watch- 
 ing for their prey. The city streets knew their 
 malevolent presence, the rivers, the seas, the 
 tops of mountains; they appeared sometimes as 
 serpents gliding noiselessly upon their victims, 
 as birds horrid of mien flying resistlessly to de- 
 stroy or afflict, as beings in human form, gro- 
 tesque, malformed, awe-inspiring through their 
 hideousness. To these demons all sorts of mis- 
 fortune were ascribed — a toothache, a headache, 
 a broken bone, a raging fever, an outburst of 
 anger, of jealousy, of incomprehensible disease. 
 Did a man lie wasting of disease and torn of 
 pain, a demon was within him, and the disease 
 was but the manifestation of his malevolence. 
 There could be no return of the precious boon of 
 good health until the demon was exorcised, and 
 it was to the exorcising of demons that so large, 
 so disproportionate, a part of the religious lit- 
 erature of Babylon and Nineveh was devoted. 
 
146 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 The exorcising of demons was the duty of the 
 priests, who appealed to the gods to drive them 
 out. The method pursued by the priests was 
 in the recitation of certain words or formulas, 
 accompanied by symbolical rites, or by ablu- 
 tions. Great importance was attached to specific 
 words or sets of words. The test of time was 
 supposed to have shown that certain words were 
 efficacious in certain concrete instances. If in 
 any case failure resulted it could only be ascribed 
 to the use of the wrong formula or set of words. 
 Hence there grew up a zealous and earnest de- 
 termination to preserve exactly the words which 
 in some cases had brought healing, and to keep 
 careful record of the exact words then used. 
 
 The next step, a perfectly natural one, was to 
 gather incantations into groups or rituals, classi- 
 fying them according to purpose or use. Sev- 
 eral of these incantation rituals have survived, 
 and though they are sad — for the agonies of 
 pain-tossed and broken-hearted men and women 
 cling to them even yet — they are still of deep 
 interest. We seem in them to touch closely a 
 vital, even though a hopeless, faith. There is a 
 melancholy pleasure in turning over these old 
 words, meaningless at times, as incantations are 
 wont to be. 
 
 There are now known six distinct series of 
 these incantation rituals: (1) Maqlu, that is 
 "burning," which is so called because there are 
 in it many symbolical burnings of images of 
 
THE SACRED BOOKS 147 
 
 witches. This series is used in the delivering 
 of sufferers from witches or sorcerers. 
 (2) Shurpu, another word for "burning," and 
 this series also deals much in symbolical burn- 
 ings and is used for practically the same set of 
 purposes as the former. (3) Labartu, the name 
 of a female demon which exercised a baleful 
 influence chiefly upon mothers and children. 
 In this series are incantations especially di- 
 rected against this class of demons. (4) Utukku 
 limnuti, evil demons. (5) Ti J u, head sickness, 
 and (6) Ashakku marsu, the Ashakku sickness. 
 It is a sorry collection indeed, but we shall not 
 do justice to the religion if we do not see also 
 this dark side of superstition. 
 
 In these incantations we make the acquaint- 
 ance of a large number of demons with strange 
 names, some of which possess a signification 
 known to us, while others are hopelessly dark. 
 Among those that we know at least partially 
 are the utukku, a strong demon; the shedu, 
 sometimes malevolent, but more often benevo- 
 lent, who stands by a man and helps him when 
 other demons pursue; the rabisu, which means 
 one who lies in wait, a demon that springs una- 
 wares upon his victim; the labartu, which attacks 
 women and children; the labasu, which throws 
 one down; the akhkhazu, which seizes and holds 
 its victim; the lilu (night), the female lilitu 
 (night), and the ardat Zi'Zv (maid of the night), 
 evil spirits which ply their evil trade at night. 
 
148 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 There are scores of other demons and evil 
 spirits or good, all of them the remnants of the 
 old animistic ideas which, as we have already 
 seen, he deep down in the beginnings of the 
 Babylonian religion. 1 And now let us turn to 
 some specimens of the texts themselves. Here 
 is a magical text: 
 
 The utukku of the field, and the utukku of the mountain. 
 The utukku of the sea, and the one that lurks in graves. 
 The evil shedu, the shining alu, 
 The evil wind, the terrible wind, 
 That sets one's hair on end. 
 
 Against these the spirits of heaven and earth 
 are invoked : 
 
 The utukku that seizes hold of a man, 
 The ekimmu that seizes hold of a man, 
 The ekimmu that works evil, 
 The utukku that works evil. 
 
 Sickness of the entrails, of the heart, of the head, of the 
 stomach, of the kidneys, of the limbs, of the muscles, of 
 the skin. 
 
 This is a wretched enough jargon, surely, but 
 its very brevity does injustice to this branch of 
 the religious literature. Even at the risk of 
 utter weariness we must have before us one 
 long text, complete as far as it has been pre- 
 served, and for this purpose the second tablet 
 of the Maqlu series 2 will serve well: 
 
 1 See p. 75. 
 
 2 The text is published by Tallquist, Die Assyrische Beschworungsserie 
 Maqlu, nach den originalen im British Museum herausgegeben. 1895. 
 The translation here given, while made from the original, owes much to 
 
THE SACRED BOOKS 149 
 
 Incantation. Nusku, great god, prince of the great gods, 
 Guardian of the offerings of all the Igigi, 
 Founder of cities, restorer of shrines, 
 Brilliant day, whose command is exalted, 
 5 Messenger of Anu, who gives heed to the decree of 
 Bel, 
 Who gives heed to Bel, counselor, rock of the Igigi, 
 Powerful in battle, whose onset is mighty, 
 Nusku, the burner, who compels his foes, 
 Without thee no table is prepared in the temple. 
 10 Without thee the great gods smell no savor of sac- 
 rifice, 
 Without thee Shamash, the judge, pronounces no 
 judgment. 
 
 Wise one 
 
 I, thy servant So and So, the son of So and So, whose 
 
 god is So and So, whose goddess is So and So, 
 I turn to thee, I seek thee, lifting up my hands to 
 thee, I fall at thy feet. 
 15 Burn the sorcerer and the sorceress. 
 
 May the life of my sorcerer and sorceress be de- 
 stroyed! 
 As for me, let me five, that I may make thy heart 
 glad, and that I may humbly serve thee! 
 
 Pronounce the incantation in a whisper. Have an image 
 of wax (?) therewith. 
 
 Incantation. fire god, perfect lord, thou makest thy 
 name known, 
 20 God Nannar, thou everything, 
 
 the work of Tallquist, without whose foundation-laying it could hardly 
 have been made. I have numbered the lines not only to make easy the 
 reference to the originals, but also to give an idea of the length of the 
 whole, and to show how much I have omitted. This one series consists 
 of eight tablets, and according to Tallquist's reckoning contained origi- 
 nally about 1,550 lines, of which about 1,200 have reached us in a fair 
 state of preservation. 
 
150 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 Thou lightest the house of darkness, thou 
 
 the lands, 
 
 Thou lightest the darkness, before thee I 
 
 take my stand. 
 
 As thou art a judge of judgment, 
 
 Like Sin and Shamash, thou givest judgment, 
 25 Pronounce my judgment, decree my fate. 
 
 [Several badly broken and several missing lines.] 
 35 Now, in the presence of thy great godhead, 
 
 The images in bronze [have I made], 
 
 The images of my sorcerer and sorceress, 
 
 Of my master and mistress in witchcraft, 
 
 Of my maddeners, male and female, 
 40 Of my destroyer and of my destroyeress, 
 
 Of the lord of my oppression and the lady of my 
 oppression, 
 
 And so it runs on line after line, exhausting all 
 the synonyms of the language, lest some pos- 
 sible form of bewitchment should be passed 
 over, and so the very form which had caused all 
 the trouble fail to be reached by the incanta- 
 tion. The worshiper has the image in his hand 
 as he recites all this formula. He now intends 
 to destroy it and by the same token to destroy 
 the evil demons, whatever they may be, which 
 it represents; so he speaks further: 
 
 Now, will I burn them and singe them 
 
 Before thy great godhead, 
 
 On the bank of the goddess of the river. 
 
 Look upon me graciously, O Lord, tear these out of 
 
 my body. 
 65 Release their evil witchcrafts. 
 
 Thou, fire god, art the lord, that dost march at my 
 
 side, 
 
THE SACRED BOOKS 151 
 
 Let me live, that I may make thy heart glad, that I 
 may humbly serve thee. 
 
 Pronounce the incantation in a whisper. Have a bronze 
 image of the river god therewith. 
 
 Incantation. O fire god, firstborn of Anu, 
 70 Thou art he that givest judgment, that determinest 
 fate, 
 Thou lightest up the darkness. 
 Into disorder and disturbance thou bringest order, 
 To the great gods thou givest fate, 
 Like unto thee, no god giveth fate. 
 75 Thou art he that giveth order and command. 
 [Several lines missing.] 
 Now before thy great divinity, 
 
 With thy hand have I made of bronze the images of 
 the sorcerer and the sorceress, 
 80 Before thee have I placed them and given them into 
 thy charge. 
 Let them die, but let me live, 
 Let them be under a ban, but let me prosper, 
 Let them perish, but let me increase, 
 Let them become weak, but let me wax strong, 
 85 O fire god, mighty, exalted among the gods, 
 
 Thou that conquerest the evil and the enemy, con- 
 quer them, and I shall not be destroyed. 
 May I thy servant five, may I remain secure, may I 
 
 stand before thy presence. 
 Thou art my god, thou art my lord, 
 Thou art my judge, thou art my helper, 
 90 Thou art my avenger. Pronounce the incantation. 
 
 Pronounce the incantation in a whisper. Have a bronze 
 image therewith. 
 
 Incantation. fire god, thou burner, mighty son of Anu, 
 Most terrible among the gods thy brothers art thou. 
 Who givest judgment like Sin and Shamash. 
 
152 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 95 Pronounce my judgment, determine my fate, 
 
 Burn the sorcerer and the sorceress. 
 
 O fire god, burn the sorcerer and the sorceress! 
 
 O fire god, roast the sorcerer and the sorceress! 
 
 O fire god, burn them! 
 100 O fire god, roast them! 
 
 fire god, overpower them! 
 
 O fire god, destroy them! 
 
 O fire god, carry them away! 
 
 As for those who practice evil sorcery and noxious 
 witchcraft, 
 105 Who, with evil purpose, have plotted against me, 
 
 Let a strong being take them away 
 
 .... deprive them of their property, and 
 
 Make the spoiler to lie down in their camps. 
 
 fire god, strong, powerful, mighty, 
 110 In the temple, the place of thy retreat, how long . . 
 
 At the sacrifice to Ea, thy begetter the 
 
 brilliant god, 
 
 Who Pronounce the incantation. . 
 
 Pronounce the incantation in a whisper. Have a honey 
 image therewith. 
 
 And so the stupid incantation continues, a 
 pathetic medley of nonsense, without a gleam 
 of real worship, without a moving spirit of 
 ethical content. It is all too sad, too wretched 
 and hopeless. But I must quote just a little 
 more of it. If the person over whom these sorry 
 incantations are recited is to get any real free- 
 dom the sorcerer must be so bound up that he 
 cannot again afflict his victim; he must be like- 
 wise afflicted as he has tortured the sufferer. 
 Now let us see how this is to be accomplished: 
 
THE SACRED BOOKS 153 
 
 Incantation. They have used all sorts of charms, 
 
 To entwine me as with ropes, 
 150 To overpower me as with a bird snare, 
 
 To tie me as with cords, 
 
 To overpower me as in a net, 
 
 To twist me as with a sling, 
 
 To tear me as a fabric, 
 155 To fill me with dirty water from a wall, 
 
 To tear me down as a wall. 
 
 Then the exorciser speaks: 
 
 But I, by command of Marduk, the lord of charms, 
 
 By Marduk, the lord of bewitchment, 
 
 Both the male and the female witch, 
 160 As with ropes I will entwine, 
 
 As in a bird snare I will entrap, 
 
 As with cords I will tie, 
 
 As in a net I will overpower, 
 
 As in a sling I will twist, 
 165 As a fabric I will tear, 
 
 With dirty water from a wall I will fill, 
 
 As a wall I will tear them down. 
 
 All these acts were performed with a little image 
 of bitumen covered with gypsum. 
 
 All this would be futile enough, and sad enough 
 in its utter hopelessness, if it appeared very 
 early in the history of the religion, was then 
 outgrown and left by the wayside of a faith 
 marching on to higher things. But it is not so. 
 These incantations remained, full of life and 
 vigor, to the very latest days. In all religions 
 it must be admitted that a big body of the be- 
 lievers lag far behind the gifted souls, who 
 
154 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 stride onward to distant heights, their spiritual 
 guidance within showing them ever a better, 
 though a narrower, way. But in Babylonia 
 these things endured among the leaders them- 
 selves. This very tablet, portions of which I 
 have here translated, was thought so important 
 that it was carefully copied out for Ashurbani- 
 paPs library, not as an interesting archaeological 
 curiosity, but as a living thing, still potent 
 among men. At the end of this tablet is this 
 colophon, eloquent of the persistence of this 
 sort of faith in even that great age, in the 
 seventh century before Christ, the very age of 
 Jeremiah, preacher of a puissant monotheism : 
 
 210 The second tablet of the Maqlu series, 
 
 Written according to the original, renewed and com- 
 pared, 
 The Palace of Ashurbanipal, king of the world, king 
 
 of Assyria, who puts his trust in Ashur and Belit, 
 To whom Nabu and Tashmetu have granted wide 
 
 open ears, 
 Who possesses clear-seeing eyes to honor the art of 
 
 tablet writing, 
 215 Such as no one of the kings my predecessors had 
 
 acquired, 
 
 The wisdom of Nabu 
 
 On tablets I have written, inscribed, compared, and 
 For my seeing and reading 
 Placed in my palace, 
 220 I the lord, who knoweth the light of Ashur, king of 
 
 the gods, 
 Whoever carries it away, or inscribes his name with 
 
 mine, 
 
FIGURE XIV.— INCANTATION TABLET, THE THIRD OF THE 
 MAQLU SERIES 
 
 British Museum, K. 2728 
 Size of the original, 8i by 5i inches 
 
THE SACRED BOOKS 155 
 
 May Ashur and Belit in anger and wrath overthrow 
 
 him, and 
 Destroy his name and seed out of the land. 
 
 No Assyrian king ever had so great a desire to 
 know the arts and letters and sciences of his 
 day as had Ashurbanipal. The incantations 
 were stored away for his eye, were to be read 
 in the hearing of his ear, an ear wide open for 
 the best. It is testimony enough to their 
 endurance. 
 
 Of all the literature of incantations perhaps 
 no single piece has more human interest than 
 the so-called legend of the worm. The worm 
 to which it refers is the worm which was sup- 
 posed to cause toothache, a terror then and a 
 horror still to many sons of men. As befits a 
 worm with power of torture so great, the legend 
 is couched in truly cosmogonic form. I dare 
 not pass it by, but must quote it entire : 
 
 After Anu [had created the Heavens] 
 The Heavens created [the Earth], 
 The Earth created the Rivers, 
 The Rivers created the Canals, 
 5 The Canals created the Marshes, 
 The Marshes created the Worm. 
 Then came the Worm to weep before Shamash, 
 Before Ea came her tears: — 
 "What wilt thou give me for my food, 
 10 What wilt thou give me to destroy?" 
 "I will give thee dried bones, 
 
 (And) scented — wood." 
 
 "What are these dried bones to me, 
 And scented ..... — wood!" 
 
156 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 15 Let me drink among the teeth, 
 And set me on the gums (?), 
 That I may devour the blood of the teeth 
 And of their gums destroy the strength; 
 Then shall I hold the bolt of the door." 
 
 Here, then, we have a life history of the worm 
 that causes the ache in the tooth; but we are 
 now dealing with incantations, and the next 
 question is, how to rid one's self of the ache 
 and of the worm which caused it. The text 
 proceeds to give two methods, the one a form 
 of words to be pronounced as a prayer or incan- 
 tation addressed to the god Ea, the other a 
 medicine to be applied to the tooth and accom- 
 panied by the incantation. The text concludes 
 thus: 
 
 So must thou say this: "0 Worm! 
 
 May Ea smite thee with the might of his fist." 
 
 INCANTATION OF THE SICK MOUTH 
 
 25 Thou shouldst do the following: 
 
 Mix beer, the plant SA-KIL-BAR, and oil together, 
 Repeat thereon the incantation thrice, 
 (And) put it on his tooth. 1 
 
 If this were the best of the religion of Baby- 
 lonia and Assyria it would take a low rank in- 
 deed among the faiths of mankind. But there 
 are higher things, and still higher, and toward 
 them we must begin to set our face. 
 
 1 The text is published in transliteration and translation in R. Campbel 
 Thompson, The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, vol. ii, pp. 160-163. 
 London, 1904. I have followed his rendering, with but minor changes. 
 
THE SACRED BOOKS 157 
 
 All this is primitive, resting down upon the 
 lower views of divine and demoniacal forces, 
 but into this very class of low incantation texts, 
 in the second tablet of the Shurpu series, 1 there 
 breaks forth a long and heart-aching appeal 
 with a true ethical note in it. The man who 
 makes it wishes to be delivered from his afflic- 
 tions, but the exorciser first desires to satisfy 
 himself as to the source of the guilt, or the 
 nature of the sin which has brought this afflic- 
 tion upon him. The tablet begins thus: 
 
 20 Hath he set a son at variance with a father, 
 
 A father with a son, 
 
 A daughter with a mother, 
 
 A mother with a daughter, 
 
 A daughter-in-law with a mother-in-law, 
 25 A mother-in-law with a daughter-in-law, 
 
 A brother with a brother, 
 
 A friend with a friend, 
 
 A companion with a companion? 
 
 Hath he not set free the prisoner, or loosed the 
 captive? 
 30 Hath he not let the prisoner see the light? 
 
 Hath he said of a prisoner, "Seize him/' or of a 
 bondman, "Bind him"? 
 
 Is it perchance a sin against a god, or a transgression 
 against a goddess? 
 
 Hath he vexed a god, or despised a goddess? 
 
 Some of it is indeed more or less tinged with 
 
 1 Published in a masterly fashion by Zimmern, Beitrage zur Kenntniss 
 der Babylonischen Religion. I. Die Beschworungsserie Shurpu. II. Rit- 
 ualtafeln fur den Wahrsager, Beschworer und Sanger. Leipzig, 1896- 
 1901. My translation rests primarily upon his work, though I have 
 ventured to differ upon some, minor points. 
 
158 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 the idea of merely ceremonial violations against 
 a god, but it runs on again into the true ethical 
 note: 
 
 36 Hath he despised father or mother, or insulted an 
 elder sister? 
 
 Hath he yielded in little things, and refused in great? 
 
 For No, said Yes? 
 
 For Yes, said No? 
 40 Hath he spoken a word unsuitable or rebellious? 
 
 Hath he spoken a coarse word? 
 
 I must not quote too many of these lines, but 
 I do wish to get before us very plainly this 
 higher ethical movement in this lower religious 
 environment, and I will therefore set down a 
 few more lines taken from different portions of 
 the same text, and specially chosen to show the 
 very high ethical position: 
 
 42 Hath he used false weights? 
 
 45 Hath he set up a wrong landmark, or failed to set up 
 the right landmark? 
 
 47 Hath he entered his neighbor's house? 
 
 Hath he approached his neighbor's wife? * 
 
 Hath he shed his neighbor's blood? 
 50 Hath he taken away his neighbor's garment? 
 
 55 Is his mouth straightforward, but his heart false? 
 Doth his mouth consent, but his heart deny? 
 
 70 Is it because of the grave misdeed which he hath done? 
 Or because of the many sins which he hath committed? 
 
THE SACRED BOOKS 159 
 
 There can be no doubt of the meaning of all 
 this. Here is a fully developed theological 
 dogma, which connects the sins of a man 
 directly with his misfortunes or his afflictions. 
 This is the same theological idea which fills so 
 large a place in the Wisdom literature of the 
 Old Testament. The one great burden of the 
 speeches of Job's accusing friends is just this, 
 that Job must have sinned grievously or he had 
 never suffered so terribly. Job himself has the 
 same theological conception, and storms against 
 God for injustice in condemning him to suffer 
 when he was conscious of no wrongdoing. Nay, 
 this same idea persists in Hebrew religion to 
 the end, and rings out at last in the urgent 
 question addressed to the Lord, "Who sinned, 
 this man or his parents?' ' 
 
 From this higher ethical platform we may 
 well take our departure from the magical texts, 
 realizing fully how deep and strong is man's 
 ethical sense in all religions, and at the same 
 time not forgetting the lower ideas with which 
 it is often associated. 
 
 The religious literature of the Babylonians 
 and Assyrians, as has already been said, rose 
 up to a great series of hymns to the gods. The 
 greatest number of these are dedicated to 
 Shamash, the sun god, but many of the finest 
 of them all were composed in honor of Sin, the 
 moon god. They have come down to us out of 
 almost all the periods of the religious history 
 
160 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 of the people. Some were composed in the very 
 latest days, during that reign of Nabodonis, 
 when the sound of Cyrus's advancing army 
 could be heard in the distance, and a few go 
 back to the days of the old city kingdoms. In- 
 deed, that early influence of the city kingdom 
 continues to the last. There was no outburst 
 of faith from polytheism into monotheism, 
 partly, perhaps, because the local power was 
 so intense. No city would give up its local 
 deity in order that any other city, no matter 
 how potent politically, might secure complete 
 preeminence for its god. Babylon might strug- 
 gle never so hard, in its organized priesthood, 
 to lift Marduk to high and ever higher position. 
 He still remained to the very end of the days 
 only one god among many, and the greatest of 
 the Babylonian kings, Nebuchadrezzar and 
 Nabonidus, to the very last vied with each 
 other in paying honor to Shamash in Sippar, 
 whose temple they continually rebuilt and 
 adorned with ever greater magnificence. 
 
 As I have said before, the lower forms of 
 religious thinking continued on to the very 
 latest hour, and were not driven out by the 
 higher. So we need not be surprised to find 
 that some of the noblest hymns were con- 
 temporaneous with the most wretched and 
 contemptible of the magic formulas. Indeed, 
 some of the hymns belong to the incantations 
 and are found as mere preludes to a jumble of 
 
THE SACRED BOOKS 161 
 
 formulas, intended to drive away a fever, whose 
 supposed potency resided in the exact repetition 
 of their very words. 
 
 To understand the hymns and prayers (for 
 the two run together, and are sometimes as 
 indistinguishable as they are in the nobler 
 Psalter of the Hebrews) we shall do best to turn 
 to the hymns themselves, and by long extracts 
 make their spirit and their music vocal in the 
 mind. 
 
 We may well begin with a prayer, one of the 
 earliest which has come down to us, the prayer 
 of Lugal-zaggisi (3500 B.C.). The king ascribes 
 his successes in war to the gods, and then bursts 
 out in this prayer to the older Bel of Nippur : 
 
 En-lil, the king of the lands, may Ami, to his be- 
 loved father speak my prayer; to my life may he add life, 
 and cause the lands to dwell in security; may he give me 
 warriors as many as the grass; the herds of heaven may 
 he watch over; the land with prosperity endow; the good 
 fortune which the gods have given me, may he not change ; 
 and may I ever remain the shepherd, who standeth at 
 the head. 1 
 
 Centuries later the great ruler Gudea scatters 
 such prayers plentifully through his inscrip- 
 
 1 Published by Hilprecht, The Babylonian Expedition of the University 
 of Pennsylvania, i, part 2, No. 87, partially translated by him, ibid., 
 p. 52ff., fully translated by Thureau-Dangin, Revue S6mitique, 1897, 
 pp. 263ff., and translated anew in Die Sumerischen und Akkadischen 
 Konigsinschriften (Leipzig, 1907), pp. 153ff. The prayer is found in 
 column iii, lines 14-36. See a different translation from mine in Radau, 
 Early Babylonian History, p. 139, and another in Jastrow, Die Religion 
 Babyloniens und Assyriens, i, p. 394. 
 
162 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 tions. Here, for example, is a prayer and hymn 
 addressed to Ningirsu: 
 
 O warrior! wild dragon, thou that hast no rival, 
 
 Ningirsu, thou that dost [breathe] in the depths, 
 
 Thou that art a prince in Nippur! 
 
 Warrior! whose commands shall I fulfill in truth? 
 
 Ningirsu, thy temple will I build thee. 
 
 Thy decisions will I fulfill. 1 
 
 The same monarch appeals often to the goddess 
 Bau, in words like these: 
 
 my queen, daughter of the pure heaven, 
 
 Who givest good counsel, and dost hold first rank among 
 
 the gods 
 Thou that grantest life unto the land. 
 
 Thou art the Queen, the mother that founded Lagash. 
 That people flourishes upon whom thou dost look in favor. 
 Long life falls to that man upon whom thou dost look in 
 favor. 
 
 1 have no mother — thou art my mother, 
 I have no father — thou art my father. 
 
 My father in a holy place I am come into the 
 
 world. 
 
 my goddess Ga-tum-dug, thou knowest what is good! 
 
 Thou hast granted me life, 
 
 1 will seek refuge from my anxiety in thy shadow, under 
 
 my mother's care. 2 
 
 Far above these prayers range the noble 
 
 1 Gudea, Cylinder A, col. ii, lines 10-18 (in Price's edition). For the 
 translation compare especially Thureau-Dangin, Die Sumerischen und 
 Akkadischen Konigsinschriften, p. 91. 
 
 2 Gudea, A, col. ii, 28-iii, 15. Compare Thureau-Dangin, op. cit. 
 pp. 92, 93. 
 
THE SACRED BOOKS 163 
 
 prayers of Nebuchadrezzar, of which this may 
 serve as a sufficient example: 
 
 eternal ruler, lord of all being, grant that the name 
 of the king that thou lovest, whose name thou hast pro- 
 claimed, may flourish as seems pleasing to thee. Lead 
 him in the right way. I am the prince that obeys thee, 
 the creature of thy hand. Thou hast created me, and 
 hast intrusted to me dominion over mankind. Accord- 
 ing to thy mercy, O lord, which thou bestowest upon all, 
 may thy supreme rule be merciful! The worship of thy 
 divinity implant in my heart! Grant me what seems 
 good to thee, for thou art he that hast fashioned my life. 1 
 
 These are prayers; the hymns rise to even 
 greater heights, and among these we can do 
 no better than turn to the splendid hymn to 
 the god Nannar, the moon god, the god of Ur. 
 The text which I here translate comes from a 
 copy which belonged to the library of Ashur- 
 banipal 2 ; it is written in Sumerian, in the dia- 
 lect of Eme-sal, as well as in Assyrian, and this 
 careful copying in both tongues may perhaps 
 serve as a token of the high esteem in which 
 it was held in the later Assyrian days : 
 
 O Lord, chief of the gods, who alone art exalted on earth 
 
 and in heaven. 
 Father Nannar, Lord, Anshar, chief of the gods, 
 
 1 IR., 53, col. i, 55— ii, 1. (The East India House Inscription.) It has 
 often been translated; see, for example, C. D. Gray in Harper's Assyrian 
 and Babylonian Literature, p. 135. 
 
 2 IV R., 2d edition, 9. For other translations compare R. F. Harper, 
 Assyrian and Babylonian Literature, pp. 430ff.; M. Jastrow, Die Re- 
 ligion Babyloniens und Assyrians, i, pp. 436ff. 
 
164 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 Father Nannar, Lord, great Ami, 1 chief of the gods, 
 
 Father Nannar, Lord, Sin, chief of the gods, 
 
 Father Nannar, Lord of Ur, chief of the gods, 
 
 Father Nannar, Lord of E-gish-shir-gal, chief of the gods, 
 
 Father Nannar, Lord of the veil, brilliant one, chief of 
 
 the gods, 
 Father Nannar, whose rule is perfect, chief of the gods, 
 Father Nannar, who dost march in great majesty, chief of 
 
 the gods, 
 O strong, young bull, with strong horns, perfect in muscles, 
 
 with beard of lapis lazuli color, 2 full of glory and 
 
 perfection, 
 Self-created, full of developed fruit, beautiful to look upon, 
 
 in whose being one cannot sufficiently sate himself; 
 Mother womb, begetter of all things, who has taken up 
 
 his exalted habitation among living creatures; 
 O merciful, gracious father, in whose hand rests the life 
 
 of the whole world. 
 O Lord, thy divinity is full of awe, like the far-off heaven 
 
 and the broad ocean. 
 O creator of the land, founder of sanctuaries, proclaimer 
 
 of their names. 
 O father, begetter of gods and men, who dost build dwell- 
 ings and establish offerings, 
 Who dost call to lordship, dost bestow the scepter, de- 
 
 terminest destinies for far-off days. 
 mighty leader, whose deep inner being no god under- 
 stands. 
 O sturdy one, whose knees do not grow weary, who dost 
 
 open the road for the gods thy brothers, 
 Thou that from the base of heaven to the height of 
 
 1 Sin is here identified with Ami. This method of honoring a god in 
 one place by identifying him with some other god worshiped elsewhere 
 is not a sign of monotheistic tendencies. See p. 166. 
 
 2 The moon god is represented generally, in Babylonian art, with a 
 long beard. 
 
THE SACRED BOOKS 165 
 
 heaven dost march in glory, opening the door of 
 
 heaven, and granting light to all men. 
 O father, begetter of all things, who lookest upon all 
 
 living beings .... 
 Lord, who determinest the decisions of heaven and 
 
 earth, whose command is not set aside. 
 Who holdest fire and water, and leadest all souls. 
 What god reaches thy fullness? 
 Who is exalted in heaven? Thou alone art exalted. 
 Who is exalted on earth? Thou alone art exalted. 
 Thy word 1 is proclaimed in heaven, and the Igigi prostrate 
 
 themselves, 
 Thy word is proclaimed on earth, and the Anunnaki kiss 
 
 the ground, 
 Thy word blows on high like a storm wind, and food and 
 
 drink stream before it. 
 Thy word settles down upon earth, and vegetation springs 
 
 up. 
 Thy word stretches itself out over stall and herd, and life 
 
 is increased. 
 Thy word, who can grasp it? Who is like unto it? 
 O Lord, there is none like unto thee in sovereignty in the 
 
 heaven, in sovereignty on earth. 
 O Lord of the exalted home of the gods, whose word has 
 
 no rival, whose divinity is beyond compare. 
 
 Much of this is full of splendid religious feel- 
 ing, and the exaltation of Sin sounds in places 
 as though the poet could scarcely acknowledge 
 any other god. But the proof that other gods 
 were invoked in the same terms and by the 
 
 1 Zimmern (Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament, p. 608, foot- 
 note 6) argues that this use of the expression "word" is a personification 
 which he compares with the Old Testament usage. I entirely agree 
 with Jastrow (op. cit., p. 437, footnote 8) that this is mistaken. It 
 means nothing more than "command." 
 
166 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 same kings is plentiful. There is perhaps a 
 stream here discernible which flows toward 
 henotheism, though there is surely no gleam of 
 monotheism. I doubt, indeed, whether it is 
 not rather a pantheistic tendency such as ap- 
 pears in the splendid Hymn to Aton of Amen- 
 ophis IV. 1 There was in a somewhat later 
 period than that to which this hymn belongs a 
 philosophical speculation among the priests of 
 Babylon by which they sought to identify with 
 Marduk the powers and privileges of the other 
 gods. This appears in the phrases, "Ninib is 
 the Marduk of battle," "Sin is Marduk the light 
 of night," "Ramman is the Marduk of rain." 
 There is here no sound of monotheism; it is at 
 best a philosophical speculation with a tendency 
 toward henotheism. It is a pity that these 
 priests were not able to rise above these limita- 
 tions into a real henotheism, nay, into mono- 
 theism itself; but the God who stands in the 
 shadows behind all the religious gropings of 
 man willed it not so. That greater honor was 
 reserved for the little people of the West, once 
 a nation of slaves in Egypt, and then the bringers 
 in of a new day to the world of men who sought 
 after God. 
 
 Perhaps we shall do well to remind ourselves 
 again that these hymns are connected often 
 with the magical and incantation literature, 
 
 1 See a beautiful translation of this hymn in James Henry Breasted, A 
 History of Egypt, pp. 371ff. New York, 1905. 
 
THE SACRED BOOKS 167 
 
 and this may well be accomplished by the cita- 
 tion of a few lines from a hymn to the goddess 
 Ishtar in which prayer and incantation and 
 hymn are blended : 
 
 A " PRAYER OF THE RAISING OF THE HAND " TO ISHTAR 1 
 
 Incantation. I pay unto thee, sovereign of sovereigns, 
 
 goddess of goddesses, 
 Ishtar, queen of all men, directress of mankind. 
 O Irini, 2 exalted one, mistress of the Igigi, 
 Thou art mighty, thou art queen, thy name is exalted. 
 5 Thou art the light of heaven and earth, O valiant 
 
 daughter of Sin, 
 Directing arms, establishing combat, 
 Framing all laws, bearing the crown of dominion. 
 O lady, thy greatness is majestic, exalted above all 
 
 the gods. 
 Star of lamentation, who makest hostility among 
 
 brethren at peace, 
 
 1 There has been found in the British Museum a most interesting class 
 of tablets, each having a colophon written between two straight lines, 
 drawn by the scribe and containing the words, "Prayer of the Lifting 
 of the Hand to ... " with the name of a god or goddess inserted at the 
 close. The expression of the raising of the hand refers to the act of 
 prayer, and the texts have at the close directions for the performing 
 of various ritual observances. The tablets were not numbered by the 
 Assyrians themselves into a series like the Maqlu and Shurpu series, 
 and so form rather a class than a series. All that were known up to 
 1896 were published by L. W. King (Babylonian Magic and Sorcery 
 being "The Prayers of the Lifting of the Hand." London, 1896). After- 
 ward King found another and far finer tablet of the same class which 
 was published along with the creation legends (King, The Seven Tablets 
 of Creation, London, 1902, ii, 75ff., the original text, and i, 222ff., the 
 translation). It has also been translated into German by Zimmern, 
 Babylonische Hymnen und Gebete, pp. 19ff. (Alter Orient, vii, 3), and into 
 French by Dhorme, Choix de Textes Religieux Assyro-Babyloniens, pp. 
 356ff. My translation owes some slight improvements to both of these. 
 On this class of texts one may further compare Weber, Die Literatur der 
 Babylonier und Assyrer, pp. 153ff. Leipzig, 1907. 
 
 2 Ishtar is identified with Irini, just as she is elsewhere with Anunit, 
 Belit, Nana, etc. For this process of identification see also p. 166. 
 
168 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 10 Making them abandon friendship 
 
 For a friend. lady of victory, making my desire 
 impetuous. 
 
 Gushea, 1 who art covered with battle, who art 
 
 clothed with fear, 
 Thou dost perfect destiny and decision, the law of 
 
 earth and heaven. 
 Sanctuaries, shrines, divine dwellings and temples 
 
 worship thee. 
 15 Where is thy name not heard? Where not thy decree? 
 Where are thy images not made? Where are thy 
 
 temples not founded? 
 Where art thou not great? Where art thou not 
 
 exalted? 
 Ami, Bel, and Ea have exalted thee, among the gods 
 
 have they increased thy dominion, 
 
 25 Thou judgest the cause of men with justice and right, 
 Thou regardest the violent and destructive, thou 
 directest them every morning. 
 
 This is all on a high plane, and much of it 
 seems almost as noble as the great hymn of Sin 
 which has just passed before us. But it soon 
 plunges downward through a beautiful prayer 
 into bans and witcheries and incantations. Let 
 us pass a little more of it in review : 
 
 1 invoke thee, /, sorrowful, sighing, suffering, 
 Look upon me, O my lady, and accept my supplica- 
 tion, 
 
 Pity me in truth, and hearken unto my prayer. 
 45 Speak deliverance unto me, let thy heart be appeased. 
 
 1 King reads Gutira, but doubtless Gushea is the correct reading. 
 Compare Meissner, Supplement zu den assyrischen Worterbuchern, p. 29. 
 
THE SACRED BOOKS 169 
 
 How long shall my body lament, full of troubles and 
 disorders? 
 
 How long shall my heart be afflicted, full of sorrow 
 and sighing? 
 
 How long shall my omens be sad, troubled and con- 
 fused? 
 
 How long shall my house be troubled, pouring forth 
 complaints? 
 
 55 Put an end to the evil bewitchments of my body, that 
 I may see thy clear light. 
 
 59 How long, O my lady, shall the ravenous demon 
 pursue me? 
 
 Here we may plainly see the higher slipping 
 away into the lower, the later religious attain- 
 ment slipping back into the early magic. But 
 it drops still lower, for the conclusion has 
 naught to offer but a meaningless ceremonial 
 and a reliance upon the iteration of this form 
 of words. So does the concluding passage 
 stand : 
 
 107 This shalt thou do .... a green bough shalt thou 
 sprinkle with pure water; four bricks from the 
 midst of a ruin shalt thou set up; 
 A lamb shalt thou take; with garbatu wood shalt 
 thou fill the censer, and thou shalt set fire (there- 
 to); sweet scented woods, some upunta plant 
 and some cypress wood, 
 Shalt thou keep up ; a drink offering shalt thou offer, 
 but thou shalt not bow thyself down. This in- 
 cantation before the goddess Ishtar 
 
 110 Three times shalt thou recite .... and thou shalt 
 not look behind thee. 
 
170 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 Incantation. O exalted Ishtar, that givest light unto 
 the four quarters of the world. 
 
 It is quite plain here that the very words must 
 be repeated. The efficacy of the spell depended 
 upon the exact repetition. The literature is 
 full of material of this kind. It mattered not 
 whether the priest understood the words or not: 
 "the inspiration lay in the words more than in 
 the sense they conveyed; and error of pronuncia- 
 tion was more fatal than a misunderstanding of 
 their meaning.' n It is indeed a strange mixture 
 of spiritual religion and of the sorcerer's arts 
 which here confronts us. 
 
 Before we leave these hymns we ought to 
 turn our minds for a little while to the greatest 
 of them all. The high position which we are 
 ready and willing to give to it seems to have 
 been given also in the ancient world, for the 
 fragments which have come down to us belong 
 to at least three distinct copies, and it seems a 
 just inference that its worth found a full recog- 
 nition. It is sadly broken, but we can make out 
 at least a portion of it. It is addressed to Sha- 
 mash, the sun god, and is quite free of the 
 magical formulas which have so disfigured the 
 hymns previously quoted. 
 
 The mighty mountains are filled with thy glance, 2 
 
 1 Sayce, The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylon, p. 414. 
 
 2 This hymn was first published by Briinnow, Zeitschrift fur Assyr- 
 iologie, iv, pp. 7-35. It has been republished with some additions by 
 C. D. Gray, The Shamash Religious Texts (Chicago, 1901), pp. 9-23, 
 
THE SACRED BOOKS 171 
 
 20 Thy holiness fills and overpowers all lands, 
 
 Thou dost reach the mountains, dost overlook the 
 
 earth; 
 At the uttermost points of earth, in the midst of 
 
 heaven, thou dost move, 
 The inhabitants of the whole earth thou dost watch 
 
 over, 
 All that Ea, the king, the prince, has created thou 
 
 dost watch over, 
 25 All created beings thou dost shepherd together. 
 Thou art the shepherd of all above and below, 
 Thou dost march in order over heaven's course, 
 To lighten the earth dost thou come daily. 
 The waters, the sea, the mountains, the earth, the 
 
 heaven, 
 30 How .... orderly dost thou come daily, 
 
 Among all the Igigi there is not that giveth rest, but 
 thee; 
 
 Among all the gods of the Universe, there is none 
 that exceeds thee. 
 
 At thy rising all the gods of the lands assemble to- 
 gether. 
 
 And so it sweeps on in noble adoration, heaping 
 praise upon the god, and rising height upon 
 height of exaltation to him. But grander by 
 far are the lines in which the god is praised as a 
 judge of righteousness, as a god to whom come 
 the deeds of men for review in praise or blame : 
 
 Column II: 
 
 Who plans evil — his horn thou dost destroy, 
 
 plates 1-2. It has also been translated, in part, by Jastrow, Die Re- 
 ligion Babyloniens und Assyriens, pp. 433, 434. The hymn contained 
 originally about 424 lines, and it is a great pity that it has come down 
 to us so badly broken. 
 
172 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 40 Whoever in fixing boundaries annuls rights. 
 The unjust judge thou restrainest with force. 
 Whoever accepts a bribe, who does not judge justly 
 
 — on him thou imposest sin. 
 But he who does not accept a bribe, who has a care 
 
 for the oppressed, 
 To him Shamash is gracious, his life he prolongs. 
 45 The judge who renders a just decision 
 
 Shall end in a palace, the place of princes shall be 
 
 his dwelling. 
 
 Column III: 
 
 The seed of those who act unjustly shall not flourish. 
 
 What their mouth declares in thy presence 
 
 Thou shalt burn it up, what they purpose wilt thou 
 
 annul. 
 15 Thou kno west their transgressions ; the declaration of 
 
 the wicked thou dost cast aside. 
 Every one wherever he may be is in thy care. 
 Thou directest their judgments, the imprisoned dost 
 
 thou liberate. 
 Thou nearest, Shamash, petition, prayer, and 
 
 appeal, 
 Humility, prostration, petitioning, and reverence. 
 20 With loud voice the unfortunate one cries to thee. 
 The weak, the exhausted, the oppressed, the lowly, 
 Mother, wife, maid appeal to thee. 
 He who is removed from his family, he that dwelleth' 
 
 far from his city. 
 
 And so it goes on calling out by name all classes 
 of society, the merchant, the hunter, the learned, 
 the humble shepherd, all of whom depend for 
 assistance upon the great and wise and good sun 
 god. This hymn rises far above aught else that 
 has yet claimed our attention in this old faith. 
 
THE SACRED BOOKS 173 
 
 Here is no suggestion of magic or sorcery; 
 here is no trace of animism or demonism. Here 
 is only praise for the great god of the sun. One 
 feels also most deeply how close this came to 
 an appreciation of the sun god as a judge of 
 men on an ethical basis, how near these old 
 hearts were to bursting through the veil into a 
 larger religious life. 
 
 But elsewhere all over Babylonia, in several 
 of the greatest temples, a similar struggle up- 
 ward was in progress, but the power to unite 
 these wavering hearts was wanting. 
 
 In E-zida, where Nabu was worshiped, the 
 temple of Borsippa, Babylon's neighboring city, 
 this hymn 1 was uttered : 
 
 lord, prince, firstborn of Marduk, 
 
 prudent ruler, offspring of Sarpanitum, 
 
 Nabu, bearer of the tablet of fates of the god, director 
 of E-sagila, 
 
 Lord of E-zida, protector of Borsippa, 
 5 Darling of Ea, giver of life, 
 
 Lord of Babylon, protector of life, 
 
 God of dwelling places, preserver of men, lord of 
 sanctuaries, 
 
 Thy honor is made known by mouth of men, O pro- 
 tecting god. 
 
 O son of the great Marduk, in thy mouth is justice. 
 10 In thy honored name, upon thy exalted command, 
 
 I, So and So, the son of So and So, of grievous illness 
 held, thy servant, 
 
 1 Published and translated by King, Babylonian Magic and Sorcery, 
 etc., Xo. 22, pp. 81ff. Compare also Jastrow, op. tit., p. 445. 
 
174 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 The hand of the Utukku and the breath of the 
 Burruda hath overcome and seized me, 
 
 Grant me to attain unto life and healing, 
 
 Establish righteousness in my mouth. 
 15 mercy within my heart, 
 
 Return and rest. May they command mercy. 
 
 May my god stand at my right hand, 
 
 May my goddess stand at my left hand. 
 
 May the good Shedu, the good Lamassu, stand by me, 
 20 Heal me through command and obedience. 
 
 This poem of praise to Nabu shows at once how 
 far these worshipers in Borsippa had come in 
 the lifting up of their patron deity toward the 
 height to which, as we have seen, the people of 
 Sippar had raised Shamash. But this hymn 
 shows also how tenaciously the demonistic ideas 
 had clung, how the Shedu and Lamassu still 
 claimed belief, and how persistently the dualistic 
 idea of goddess by the side of god lived on until 
 the very end, as Delitzsch 1 has pointed out in 
 earnest words which we shall do well not to 
 forget. 
 
 But great as Nabu may seem to be when we 
 have this hymn before us, he falls backward 
 into the shadows when our thoughts turn to 
 Marduk, god of Babylon, who rose high and 
 higher as the political preeminence of Babylon 
 was achieved and established. For him, as we 
 have already seen, the old religious and mytho- 
 
 1 "Denn, was nie zu vergessen ist, der Dualismus von Gott und Gottin 
 bleibt allem Anschein nach trotz der Vorstellung von Marduk als dem 
 Einen Gott, ja selbst trotz der Identifizierung von Marduk und Nebo 
 unangetastet." — Babel u. Bibel, i, 5te Auf., p. 82. 
 
THE SACRED BOOKS 175 
 
 logical literature was rewritten, that his political 
 claims might be supported by theological tenets. 
 What honors in hymns were paid to him we 
 must seek to know ere we pass away from the 
 hymns to the cry of the penitent. 
 
 A number of hymns to Marduk have come 
 down to us, representing many phases of re- 
 ligious development, and it is difficult to choose 
 among them, but we must take care to find the 
 best, that the religion of Marduk may be 
 represented at its highest point. Here is a 
 hymn 1 which will perhaps serve well as a be- 
 ginning : 
 
 Incantation : 
 
 9-10 Great king, lord of the lands, 
 11-13 Firstborn son of Ea, who is powerful in heaven 
 
 and upon earth, 
 14-16 Marduk, great lord of men, and king of the lands, 
 
 god of gods, 
 17-18 Prince of heaven and earth, who hath not his like, 
 19-20 Darling of Anu and of Bel, 
 21-22 Merciful among the gods, 
 23-24 Merciful, who loveth to awaken the dead, 
 25-26 Marduk, king of heaven and of earth, 
 27-28 King of Babylon, lord of E-sagila, 
 29-30 King of E-zida, lord of E-makhtila, 
 31-32 Heaven and earth are thine, 
 33-34 The bewitching of life is thine, 
 
 1 rV R., 2d edition, 29, No. 1. This portion of it is translated very- 
 well by Helm, Silnde und Erlosung nach Biblischer und Bdbylonischer 
 Anschauung (Leipzig, 1903), pp. 27, 28. The same scholar has reedited 
 the text and translated it in Beitrage zur Assyriologie, v, pp. 334, 336. 
 Text and translation also in C. Fossey, La magie assyrienne (Paris, 1902), 
 pp. 364ff. Translation by Jastrqw, Die Religion Babyloniens und Assyr- 
 iens, p. 501. 
 
176 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 35-36 The food of life is thine, 
 
 37-38 The pure incantation, the incantation of the deep 
 
 is thine, 
 
 39-40 Mankind, the black-haired men, 
 
 41-42 All that hath a soul upon earth are thine. 
 
 43-44 The four quarters of heaven, 
 
 45-46 The Igigi of all heaven and of earth, 
 
 47-49 So many as there are, 
 
 50-51 Unto thee is their thought directed, 
 
 Reverse : 
 
 1-2 Thou art their shedu, 
 3-4 Thou art their lamassu, 
 5-6 Thou art he that giveth them life, 
 7-8 Thou art he that restoreth it. 
 9-10 Merciful among the gods, 
 
 11 Merciful who loveth to awaken the dead, 
 
 12 Marduk, king of heaven and of earth, 
 
 13-14 Thy name will I name, thy greatness publish, 
 15-18 The mention of thy name the gods do praise. 
 19-20 Turn away the sickness of the sick man. 
 
 A noble hymn is this, but still bearing in it the 
 marks of polytheism, and showing in its last 
 words how close is the connection of even these 
 very lofty hymns with the healing of disease. 
 It is interesting also as showing the effort to 
 assemble in Marduk's hands powers and privi- 
 leges which had belonged to the older gods. 
 Here, for example, is the verse, 
 The pure incantation, the incantation of the deep is thine. 
 
 This is the oft-mentioned shipat-Eridu, the in- 
 cantation of Eridu, which in the earlier litera- 
 ture belongs to Ea. 
 
THE SACRED BOOKS 177 
 
 As a last witness to the hymns of the Baby- 
 lonian religion we may well have recourse to a 
 splendid hymn to Marduk, which first became 
 known to us in a copy recovered from the 
 library of Ashurbanipal. 1 It is one of the 
 romances of archaeology that the same hymn 
 has now been found in Babylon itself. 2 A com- 
 parison shows that the copyist made some 
 changes, besides adding at the end a few words 
 of prayer for Ashurbanipal, to whom the copy 
 was thenceforth to belong. Here is the prayer: 
 
 Grant that Ashurbanipal, the shepherd who honors 
 thee, may live. Hear his prayer. Establish in goodness 
 the foundation of his royal throne. Forever may he 
 guide the scepter of his people. 
 
 The Babylonian original has a colophon di- 
 recting that the hymn be used on the eleventh 
 day of Nisan, the first month of the new year, 
 when Marduk entered his own especial sanctuary 
 in the temple of E-sagila. As we shall see again 
 and again through the psalm comes the word 
 "Rest" or "Peace," which is but an abbreviation 
 of the old formula of the incantation texts, 
 "May thy heart be appeased." In these days 
 at the beginning of the new year Marduk, sur- 
 rounded by his court, was wont to establish and 
 decree the fates for the year. It is as an appeal 
 
 !The original text, IV R., 2d edition, 18, No. 2. Translated by 
 Jastrow, Die Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens, i, 503ff. 
 
 2 See Mittheilungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft, No, 9, and Weiss- 
 bach, Babylonische Miscellen, pp.' 36-41, pi. 13, 14. 
 
178 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 to him for mercy and tenderness and goodness 
 during the new year that this hymn is indited : 
 
 O Lord, on thine entrance into thy house, may thy house 
 rejoice in thee. 
 
 Mighty lord Marduk, on thine entrance into thy house, 
 may thy house rejoice in thee. 1 
 
 Great warrior, lord En-bi-lu-lu [that is, lord that com- 
 mands mankind], on thine entrance into thy house, 
 may thy house rejoice in thee. 
 
 Rest, O lord, rest, O lord, may thy house rejoice in thee. 
 
 Rest, lord of Babylon, may thy house rejoice in thee. 
 
 Rest, lord of E-sagila, may thy house rejoice in thee, 
 
 Rest, lord of E-zida, 2 may thy house rejoice in thee. 
 
 Rest, lord of E-makhtila, 3 may thy house rejoice in thee. 
 
 E-sagila, the house of thy lordship, may thy house re- 
 joice in thee. 
 
 Thy city cries out to thee, "Rest," may thy house rejoice 
 in thee. 
 
 Babylon cries out to thee, "Rest," may thy house rejoice 
 in thee. 
 
 The great Anu, father of the gods, cries out to thee, "Rest 
 at last." 
 
 May the mighty mountain, 4 father Bel, 5 cry to thee, 
 "Rest at last." 
 
 The queen of city and house, the great mother Belit, cry 
 to thee, "Rest at last/' 
 
 Ninib, the firstborn of Bel, with the exalted armor of Anu, 
 cry to thee, "Rest at last." 
 
 Sin, the light of heaven and earth, cry to thee, "Peace at 
 last." 
 
 1 In the second line, and thereafter only the word "house" is repeated, 
 the rest of the formula being mentally supplied from the first line. 
 
 2 E-zida, the temple of Nabu in Borsippa, also the name of a sanctuary 
 of Nabu in the temple of E-sagila. 
 
 3 E-makhtila, a temple or chapel of Nabu (Nebo) in Borsippa. 
 
 4 Mighty mountain, the home of the gods. 
 
 6 Father Bel is Ellil, the elder Bel of Nippur. 
 
THE SACRED BOOKS 179 
 
 The strong hero, Shamash, son of Nin-gal, cry to thee 
 
 "Peace at last." 
 Ea, king of the deep, cry to thee, "Peace at last." 
 Damkina, queen of the deep, cry to thee, "Peace at last." 
 Sarpanitum, the daughter-in-law of the deep, 
 The true messenger, Nabu, cry to thee, "Peace at last." 
 The daughter-in-law, firstborn of lb, cry to thee, "Peace 
 
 at last." 
 
 Tashmitum, cry to thee, "Peace at last." 
 
 The Lord Madanu, the overseer of the Anunnaki, cry to 
 
 thee, "Peace at last." 
 The exalted great lady, Nana, cry to thee, "Peace at last." 
 Bau, the gracious consort, cry to thee, "Peace at last." 
 Adad, beloved son of Anu, cry to thee, "Peace at last." 
 Shala, the great lady, cry to thee, "Peace at last." 
 The lord, possessor of power, who dwells in E-kur, may 
 
 the courage of thy godhead be appeased. 
 Lord of the gods art thou, may the gods of heaven and 
 
 earth appease thine anger. 
 Thy city, Nippur, cast not away. Let them cry to thee, 
 
 "0 lord, peace." 
 Sippar cast not away. Let her cry to thee, "0 lord, 
 
 peace." 
 Babylon, the city of thy peace, cast not away. Let her 
 
 cry to thee, "O lord, peace." 
 Look graciously upon thy house. Look graciously upon 
 
 thy city. Let them cry to thee, "O lord, peace." 
 Look graciously upon Babylon and E-sagila. Let them 
 
 cry to thee, "0 lord, peace." 
 The bolt of Babylon, the lock of E-sagila, the defense of 
 
 E-zida, 
 Bring back to their places, the gods of heaven and earth. 
 
 Let them cry to thee, "0 lord, peace." 
 
 In this hymn every line is divided with a little 
 stroke that the eye may at a glance see the way 
 
180 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 in which the hymn was to be sung antiphonally. 
 The priest pronounced the words of the first 
 half of the line, in all probability, and then the 
 choir responded with the refrain. As Jastrow 
 has pointed out, this affords a most interesting 
 parallel to the great Hallel Psalms 1 of the He- 
 brew Psalter. It would perhaps be quite safe 
 to suppose that the priests who composed them 
 had ringing in their ears the sounds of the 
 praises of Marduk by his priests. 
 
 The third division of the sacred literature of 
 the Babylonians and Assyrians is composed of 
 penitential psalms. These resemble the psalms 
 of the Old Testament, even though it be afar 
 off, in many particulars. They represent, in the 
 first place, a note of penitence for sin, which is 
 conceived as the real cause of all suffering and 
 sorrow, quite as in the Psalter. They are also, 
 like the Old Testament psalms, individualistic 
 in tone, though afterward, like the Psalter again, 
 adapted to public religious use. In many of 
 them we can distinguish the portion intended 
 for recitation by the penitent, and the portion 
 to be recited by the priest, who encourages him 
 to hope and trust in his god. The sin which 
 drives the penitent to these prayers runs all the 
 way from moral wrongdoing to the merest cere- 
 monial uncleanness. One can feel, even at this 
 long distance of time and remoteness of spiritual 
 fellowship, the real pang of concern for real 
 
 i The Hallel Psalms are 113-118. 
 
THE SACRED BOOKS 181 
 
 moral uncleanness which sounds in some of these 
 psalms. But even in these there is a mingling 
 of the blurred sounds of exorcism with the 
 spiritual note of real religious life. And it must 
 not be forgotten that there seems to run through 
 them all as a very basal idea the desire to be 
 delivered from some bodily distress or disease. 
 Sin is viewed in them not quite in the Old Testa- 
 ment sense, as sin per se, but in the lower sense, 
 as something to be forgiven before healing can 
 be had of bodily disease. The air that blew 
 over the great plains of Babylonia was not quite 
 the same as that which swept over Bethel or 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 A considerable number of these psalms have 
 come down to us addressed to Shamash, Ninib, 
 Ishtar, Marduk, and yet other gods and god- 
 desses. Some of them containing fine words of 
 adoration and appeal. Here are a few words 
 addressed to Ishtar : 
 
 I, thy servant, full of sighs, call upon thee. 
 
 The fervent prayer of him who has sinned do thou accept. 
 
 If thou lookest upon a man, that man liveth, 
 
 powerful mistress of mankind, 
 
 Merciful one to whom it is good to turn, who accepts sighs. 
 
 But the noblest and most beautiful of all the 
 penitential psalms ought here to find a place; 
 for the quoting of many is impossible under 
 these limits. The one which seems to me to 
 represent better than any other the highest 
 point attained by the religion of these people is 
 
182 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 an anonymous psalm/ a psalm which might be 
 addressed to any god that the worshiper might 
 know and choose, or which might be spoken 
 out into the unseen, if the penitent did not 
 know against what god he had committed an 
 offense : 
 
 The anger of the lord, may it be appeased. 2 
 
 The god that I know not, be appeased. 
 
 The goddess that I know not, be appeased. 
 
 The god, known or unknown, be appeased. 
 
 The heart of my god, be appeased. 
 
 The heart of my goddess, be appeased. 
 
 The anger of the god and of my goddess, be appeased. 
 
 The god, who is angry against me, be appeased. 
 
 A transgression against a god I knew not, I have com- 
 mitted. 
 
 A transgression against a goddess I knew not, I have com- 
 mitted. 
 
 A gracious name, may the god I knew not, name. 
 
 A gracious name, may the goddess I knew not, name. 
 
 A gracious name, may the god known or unknown, name. 
 
 The pure food of my god have I unwittingly eaten. 
 
 The clear water of my goddess I have unwittingly drunken. 
 
 The taboo of my god I have unwittingly eaten. 
 
 To an offense against my goddess I have unwittingly 
 walked. 
 
 O lord, my transgressions are many, great are my sins, 
 
 My god, my transgressions are many, great are my sins, 
 
 goddess, known or unknown, my transgressions are 
 many, great are my sins, 
 
 1 IV R., 10. Very frequently translated, among others by Sayce, 
 The Religions of Ancient Babylonia and Assyria, pp. 419-241; Zimmern, 
 Die Keilinschriften und das Alten Testament, pp. 61 Iff.; Jastrow, Die 
 Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens, ii, lOlff. 
 
 2 Literally, return to its place, that is, come to rest, to peace. 
 
THE SACRED BOOKS 183 
 
 The transgression that I have committed, I know not, 
 
 The sin that I have wrought, I know not. 
 
 The taboo, that I have eaten, I know not. 
 
 The offense, into which I walked, I know not. 
 
 The lord, in the wrath of his heart, has regarded me. 
 
 The god, in the anger of his heart, has surrounded me. 
 
 The goddess, who is angry against me, hath made me like 
 a sick man, 
 
 A god, known or unknown, hath oppressed me, 
 
 A goddess, known or unknown, has wrought me sorrow. 
 
 I sought for help, but none took my hand, 
 
 I wept, but none came to my side, 
 
 I cried aloud, and there was none that heard me. 
 
 I am full of trouble, overpowered, and dare not look up. 
 
 To my merciful god I turn, I utter my prayer, 
 
 The feet of my goddess I kiss, I touch them, 
 
 To the god, known or unknown, I turn, I utter my prayer. 
 
 To the goddess, known or unknown, I turn, I utter my 
 prayer. 
 
 O lord, turn thy face to me, receive my prayer. 
 
 O goddess, turn graciously to me, receive my prayer. 
 
 god, known or unknown, turn thy face to me, receive 
 my prayer. 
 
 O goddess, known or unknown, turn graciously to me, 
 receive my prayer. 
 
 How long, O my god, let thy heart be appeased. 
 
 How long, O my goddess, let thy heart be appeased. 
 
 god, known or unknown, let thy heart's anger return to 
 its place. 
 
 goddess, known or unknown, let thy hostile heart re- 
 turn to its place. 
 
 Mankind are foolish, and there is none that knoweth. 
 
 So many are they — who knoweth aught? 
 
 Whether they do evil or good, no one knoweth. 
 
 O lord, cast not away thy servant. 
 
 In the waters of mire he lies, seize his hand! 
 
 The sins, that I have done, turn to a blessing. 
 
184 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 The transgression, which I have committed, may the wind 
 bear away. 
 
 My manifold transgressions strip off like a garment. 
 
 my god, my transgressions are seven times seven, for- 
 give my transgressions. 
 
 my goddess, my transgressions are seven times seven, 
 forgive my transgressions. 
 
 O god, known or unknown, my transgressions are seven 
 times seven, forgive my transgressions. 
 
 O goddess, known or unknown, my transgressions are 
 seven times seven, forgive my transgressions, 
 
 Forgive my transgression, for I humble myself before thee. 
 
 Thy heart, like a mother's, may it return to its place, 
 
 Like a mother that hath borne children, like a father that 
 hath begotten them, may it turn again to its place. 
 
 In this the human heart speaks. Here are 
 the words of a man who had known sin and its 
 smitings, but to him there was no such clear 
 course to the mercy and forgiveness of a 
 heavenly Father as lay open and plain before 
 that wonderful company of singers whose songs 
 have been garnered into Israel's Psalter. 
 
 With these prayers of a penitent we come to 
 the end of the sacred books of the Babylonians 
 and Assyrians. These are really books of reli- 
 gious faith and yearning, and it was surely not 
 without His prompting that the best of them 
 burst out of human hearts in far-away Baby- 
 lonia. For God hath "made of one every nation 
 of men . . . ; that they should seek God, if 
 haply they might feel after him and find him, 
 though he is not far from each one of us." 1 
 
 i Acts 17. 26, 27. 
 
LECTURE V 
 
 THE MYTHS AND EPICS 
 
 The gods of the Babylonians are known to 
 us not only in the great hymns of praise which 
 were sung to their mighty names, or in incanta- 
 tions wherein they were besought to drive out 
 evil demons and restore the boon of good health; 
 they are known even more in that immense 
 mythology, of which we already possess so 
 much that several lectures ought to be given 
 to it. Moving as some of the hymns surely are, 
 they nevertheless have little of the human in- 
 terest which belongs to the story. All the 
 world loves the story-teller, and these stories 
 in which gods and demons and men walk and 
 talk together possess even to this day a fascina- 
 tion all their own. We cannot, indeed, use 
 them as sources for the reconstruction of the 
 theological system, for they have all been sub- 
 ject to change, the story itself running away 
 from the speculations among which it took its 
 rise. We cannot distinguish the part that is 
 original from that which the author or his 
 school added to it. The old ideas may still be 
 in hiding beneath the literary color, or they 
 may all have been explained away by the 
 mediating tendencies of a later age. 
 
 185 
 
186 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 But however useless as sources of theology, 
 there can be no doubt of their interest to all 
 students of religion, and especially to all stu- 
 dents of the Old Testament, for it is easy to 
 see that some of them, at least, have flowed 
 over their natural boundaries and found new 
 channels amid the kindred people of Israel. 
 
 For the most part the Babylonian poems of 
 mythical character have a god or hero about 
 whom the little story revolves; when this cen- 
 tral figure is surrounded by other gods or 
 heroes whose deeds or adventures move around 
 him, or interweave with his, the poem has be- 
 come an epic. 
 
 Many of the short stories and some of the 
 larger epics have come down to us, but they 
 apparently form only a small portion of the 
 great literature that once existed. A cata- 
 logue of such works was found in the library 
 of Ashurbanipal, on which we find the titles 
 of several which have been recovered in mod- 
 ern times, such as, "The Story of Gilgames," 
 "The Story of Etana," "The Story of the Fox," 
 "The Story of the Ox and of the Horse," the 
 royal legend of "Sargon the powerful king," all 
 of which are more or less known to us. But in 
 the same list we read of "The powerful Bull," 
 "When the Euphrates arose," "Adapa came to 
 [Nippur?]," "When Marduk in Sumer and 
 Akkad," none of which have come down to us 
 even in fragments. 
 
THE MYTHS AND EPICS 187 
 
 The largest part of the myths and epics 
 which have been preserved for us came from 
 the library of Ashurbanipal, and the originals 
 from which they were copied have not yet 
 been found. There is always the hope that 
 they may yet be recovered when the numerous 
 city mounds in Babylonia are excavated. It 
 would be interesting to have the originals for 
 comparison, in order to see how far they may 
 have been changed in the process of editing and 
 copying. 
 
 Among the Tell-el-Amarna tablets, about 
 1400 B.C., we have recovered portions of the 
 story of Nerigal and Ereshkigal 1 and the chief 
 portions of the Adapa story. From the period 
 of the first Babylonian dynasty, about 2000 
 B.C., we have recovered portions of the Atrak- 
 hasis myth, the Gilgames epic, and the deluge 
 story. But all the epics and myths which be- 
 long to the Ashurbanipal library may, with 
 reasonable certainty, be traced back in their 
 origin to that same wonderful period of intel- 
 lectual and political development, distinguished 
 for us chiefly by the great name of Hammurabi. 
 
 1 The very fragmentary text is published by Bezold and Budge, The 
 Tell-el-Amarna Tablets in the British Museum (London, 1892), plate 17; 
 compare Bezold in Oriental Diplomacy, No. 82. Winckler and Abel, Der 
 Thontafelfund von el Amarna (Berlin, 1889, 1890), pp. 164ff.; compare 
 Knudtzon, Beitrdge zur Assyriologie, iv, pp. 130ff. It is translated by 
 Jensen, Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek, vi, 1, pp. 74ff. Compare also Zim- 
 mern, Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament, 3te Auf., p. 583f. It 
 will appear again in a revised transliteration and translation by Knudt- 
 zon, Die El- Amarna Tafeln (Vorderasiatische Bibliothek) No. 357, but it 
 has not yet been published (Oct., 1908). 
 
188 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 And now how shall we choose from these rich 
 storehouses of myth and story, too numerous 
 to quote in full, too many even to tell in outline? 
 Let us begin with the story of Adapa : l 
 
 He possessed intelligence 
 
 His command, like the command of Anu ; stands for aye. 
 Ea granted him also a wide ear 2 to reveal the destiny of 
 
 the land, 
 He granted him wisdom, but he did not grant him eternal 
 
 life. 
 
 This semi-divine being Adapa, son of Ea, serves 
 in Ea's temple at Eridu, supplying the ritual 
 bread and water. One day, while fishing in the 
 sea, the south wind swept sharply upon him, 
 overturned his boat, and he fell into the sea, 
 the "house of the fishes." Angered by his mis- 
 fortune, he broke the wings of the south wind, 
 and for seven days it was unable to bring the 
 comfort of the sea coolness over the hot land. 
 And Anu said : 
 
 "Why has the south wind for seven days not blown over 
 
 the land?" 
 His messenger Ilabrat answered him: "My lord, 
 Adapa, the son of Ea, hath broken the wing of 
 The south wind." 
 
 1 The chief portions, in a fragmentary condition, come from the Tell-el- 
 Amarna collection. Jensen, Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek, vi, 1, pp. 92ff.; 
 see also in Vorwort, pp. xviif . Translation and also the original texts in 
 Scheil, Recueil, xx, pp. 4ff. Zimmern in Archiv fiXr Religionswissenschaft, 
 ii, 165ff. Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament, 3te Auf ., p. 520ff . Jrae- 
 mias in Roscher, Lexicon, iii, 2357, and also in Das Alte Testament im 
 Lichte des alten Orients, 2te Auf., p. 168. Dhorme, Choix dc Textes 
 Religieux Assyro-Babyloniens, pp. 148ff. 
 
 2 "A wide ear" is a frequent metaphor for "understanding." 
 
THE MYTHS AND EPICS 189 
 
 Then Anu ordered the culprit brought before 
 him, and before he departed to this ordeal Ea 
 gave him instructions. He is to go up to the 
 gatekeepers of heaven, Tammuz and Gish-zida, 
 clad in mourning garb to excite their sym- 
 pathy. When they ask why he is thus attired 
 he is to tell them that his mourning is for two 
 gods of earth who have disappeared (that is, 
 themselves), and then they will intercede for 
 him. Furthermore, he is cautioned not to eat 
 the food or drink the water that will be set 
 before him, for Ea fears that food and water of 
 death will be set before him to destroy him. 
 But exactly the opposite happened. Tammuz 
 and Gish-zida prevailed in pleading, and Anu 
 said: 
 
 "Bring for him food of life that he may eat it." They 
 brought him food of life, but he did not eat — They 
 brought him water of life, but he did not drink. They 
 brought him a garment ; he put it on. They brought him 
 oil; he anointed himself with it. 
 
 Adapa had obeyed Ea literally, and by so 
 doing had missed the priceless boon of immor- 
 tality. 
 
 For us the beautiful myth is interesting as 
 showing how similar are certain ideas and 
 motives in the literatures of Israel and Baby- 
 lonia. There is, indeed, no relationship be- 
 tween the name Adapa and the name Adam, 
 as has been supposed by some, but Adapa 
 served as a type of, mankind, as does Adam, 
 
190 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 and the "food of life" seems to belong to the 
 same category as the "tree of life" in Genesis. 
 In Babylonia there appears to have been a doc- 
 trine that man, though of divine origin, made 
 of Marduk's own bone and blood, nevertheless 
 did not share in the divine attribute of immor- 
 tality. Adam lost immortality because he de- 
 sired to become like God; Adapa, on the other 
 hand, was already endowed with knowledge and 
 wisdom, and failed of immortality not because 
 he was disobedient, like Adam, but because he 
 was obedient to Ea, his creator. The legend is 
 the Babylonian attempt to explain death; 
 Adapa did not secure immortality, and no 
 mortal has ever again had the opportunity to 
 attain it. Adam was banished from the garden 
 of Eden "lest he should put forth his hand, and 
 take of the tree of life, and eat, and live for- 
 ever," 1 while in the Babylonian myth Anu 
 really desired to confer immortality upon Adapa 
 because he thought it not fitting that he should 
 have the wisdom of the gods and yet fail of 
 their immortality. As Sayce has well said, 
 "Babylonian polytheism allowed the existence 
 of divided counsels among the gods; the mono- 
 theism of Israel made this impossible. There 
 was no second Jahweh to act in contradiction 
 to the first; Jahweh was at once the creator of 
 man and the God of heaven, and there was 
 none to dispute his will. There is no room for 
 
 » Gen. 3. 22. 
 
FIGURE XV.— THE DESCENT OF ISHTAR TO HADES 
 
 Assyrian Clay Tablet in the British Museum 
 
 Size of the original, 9} by 3£ inches 
 
 Obverse 
 
THE MYTHS AND EPICS 191 
 
 Aim in the book of Genesis; and as Ea, the 
 creator of Adapa, was unwilling that the man 
 he had created should become an immortal god, 
 so Jahweh, the creator of Adam, similarly 
 denied to him the food of immortal life." 1 
 
 If the myth of Adapa is interesting in the 
 story itself, and also in its revelation of the 
 Babylonian ideas of the immortal life, the 
 story of Ishtar's descent into the abode of the 
 dead is still more illuminating as revealing the 
 popular ideas as well as the theological concep- 
 tions of the abode of the dead. The story is so 
 important in so many ways that we shall do 
 well to have it before us in translation instead 
 of in mere paraphrase 2 : 
 
 To the land of No-return, the earth 
 
 Ishtar, the daughter of Sin, directed her thought, 3 
 The daughter of Sin directed her thought, 
 To the house of darkness, Irkalla's dwelling place, 
 5 To the house from which he who enters never returns, 
 To the road whose path turns not back, 
 To the house where he who enters is deprived of 
 
 light, 
 Where dust is their sustenance, their food clay, 
 Light they see not, in darkness do they sit, 
 
 1 Sayce, The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia, p. 385. 
 
 2 The original text is in IV R., 2d edition, 31, and in Cuneiform Texts, 
 xv, pi. 45-48. A. Jeremias, in Roscher, Lexicon der Griechischen und 
 Rdmischen Mythologie, iii, 1, col. 258ff.; also by the same, Holle und 
 Parodies, Der Alte Orient, i, 3te Aufl. Jensen, Keilinschriftliche Bib- 
 liothek, vi, 1. pp. 80ff. Zimmern, Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testa- 
 ment, 3te Aufl.., pp. 56 Iff. Dhorme, Choix de Textes Religieux Assyro- 
 Babyloniens, pp. 326ff. 
 
 3 Literally, placed her ear. 
 
192 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 10 They are clothed like a bird, with wings as a covering, 
 
 Over door and bolt is spread the dust. 
 
 Ishtar, when she came to the door of land of No- 
 return, 
 
 Addressed the word to the porter of the door: 
 
 "O porter, open the door, 
 15 Open the door that I may enter. 
 
 If thou dost not open the door, and I enter not, 
 
 I will shatter the door, I will break the bolt, 
 
 I will shatter the threshold, I will tear down the 
 doors, 
 
 I will bring up the dead that they may eat and live, 
 20 The dead more numerous than the living shall return." 
 
 The porter opened his mouth and spake, 
 
 He spake to the great Ishtar: 
 
 "Patience, my lady, do not destroy, 
 
 I will go, I will announce thy name to my sovereign, 
 Ereshkigal." 
 25 The porter went within, he spake to Ereshkigal : 
 
 "It is thy sister Ishtar . 
 
 The enmity of the great houses of joy " 
 
 When Ereshkigal heard that 
 
 As when one cuts down the tamarisk, 
 30 As when one breaks the reed .... she said: 
 
 "What does her heart wish of me? Why has her 
 wind borne her to me? 
 
 These waters have I with 
 
 For food I eat the clay, for drink will I drink .... 
 
 I will weep for the men who have left their wives, 
 35 I will weep for the women torn from their master's 
 bosom, 
 
 I will weep for the little children snatched away 
 before their day. 
 
 Go, porter, open the gate, 
 
 Do unto her according to the ancient custom. n 
 
 The porter went and opened for her his gate: 
 
THE MYTHS AND EPICS 193 
 
 40 "Enter, my lady, Cutha 1 greets thee. 
 
 May the palace of the land of No-return be glad at 
 thy presence." 
 
 As she passes through the seven gates of this 
 lower world the various articles of her clothing 
 are taken away. At the first gate her crown is 
 removed, at the next her earrings, at the third 
 her necklace, then her breastplate, then her 
 studded girdle, at the sixth her hand and foot 
 ornaments, and at the seventh her loincloth, so 
 that she enters the presence of Ereshkigal quite 
 nude. There no mercy was shown her; she 
 was afflicted with sixty diseases, and was im- 
 prisoned like the ordinary dead. While thus in 
 bondage beneath, the world above fell into 
 hopeless disorder, neither cattle nor men pro- 
 duced offspring, and the fertility of the land 
 ceased. 
 
 Reverse : 
 
 Pap-sukal, the messenger of the great gods, with 
 
 countenance downcast before Shamash, 
 Was clad in sackcloth, he wore a dark vestment. 
 Shamash came into the presence of Sin, his father, 
 
 weeping, 
 In the presence of Ea, the king, his tears ran down. 
 5 "Ishtar has gone down into the earth, and she has 
 not returned." 
 
 Ea created Asushunamir, and before him the 
 gates of Hades opened, he sprinkled Ishtar with 
 
 1 An important city of southern Babylonia, the seat of the worship of 
 Nergal, and hence a poetical designation of the lower world. 
 
194 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 the water of life, and then she returned to the 
 upper world, receiving at each gate upon her 
 return the objects of adornment which she had 
 left upon her entrance. It is a rather gloomy 
 future life that the poem reveals, but we shall 
 do well to heed the caution, already expressed, 
 that these myths are not to be taken as theo- 
 logical sources. The view of the abode of the 
 dead, as held by intelligent Babylonians, may 
 have been very different, even at the same time 
 that this interesting and beautiful poem was 
 most highly esteemed. 
 
 The greatest of all the stories of Babylonia is 
 the story of Gilgames, 1 for in it the greatest of 
 the myths seem to pour into one great stream 
 of epic. It was written upon twelve big tablets 
 in the library of Ashurbanipal, which have un- 
 fortunately been much broken in the crash of 
 time. It was copied from older tablets, and, 
 like most of the best mythological literature, 
 goes back to the earliest dynasty of Babylon. 
 
 The first tablet introduces Gilgames as the 
 great hero with a number of mighty deeds to 
 
 1 The original text of the Gilgames Epic is published in Haupt, Das 
 Babylonische Nimrod-Epos. Compare also Beitrdge zur Assyriologie, i, 
 49ff., 97ff. See also IV R., 2d edition, 41-44. Jeremias, Izdubar-Nimrod, 
 eine altbabylonische Beschwdrungslegende. Leipzig, 1891. Sauveplane, 
 Une Epopee babylonienne, in Revue des Religions, 1892, pp. 37ff. Jensen, 
 Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek, vi, 1, pp. 116ff. and 421ff. Dhorme, Choix 
 de Textes Religieux Assyro-Babylonienne, pp. 182ff. On the eleventh 
 tablet the literature is extensive; I mention here only the following, 
 from which the rest of the literature may be sought out: Zimmern in 
 Gunkel, Schopfung und Chaos, pp. 423ff.; Winckler, Keilinschriftliches 
 Textbuch zum Alten Testament, 2te Auf., pp. 84ff. 
 
FIGURE XVI.— THE DESCENT OF ISHTAR TO HADES 
 ■ Reverse 
 
THE MYTHS AND EPICS 195 
 
 his honor. In Uruk he is the ruler, and im- 
 presses all the young men into the hard labor 
 of building the city walls. The whole city 
 complains, and their cries rise even unto the 
 heavenly gods, against their unpopular king. 
 They besought the goddess Aruru, who had 
 created Gilgames, to create a rival for him, 
 that he might draw the attention of the tyrant 
 to other things. 
 
 Column II: 
 
 When Arum heard this, she made in her heart a man 
 
 after the likeness of Ami. 
 Aruru washed her hands, took a piece of clay, and 
 
 cast it on the ground. 
 35 Eabani she created, the hero, a lofty offspring, a 
 
 ruler of Mnib. 
 His whole body is covered with hair; he had long 
 
 hair on his head like a woman. 
 
 The hair of his head swept like the grain. 
 
 He knew not people and land. He was dressed in 
 
 garments like Gir. With the gazelles he ate 
 
 the herbs, 
 40 He quenched his thirst with the beasts, 
 
 With the beasts his heart rejoiced in the water. 
 
 In this free life among the beasts Eabani came 
 in conflict with a huntsman, who complained to 
 his father and then to Gilgames. On the advice 
 of these two the hunter took with him a maiden 
 whose charms enchained Eabani and induced 
 him to follow her to Uruk. There he met Gil- 
 games, and the first tablet concludes with the 
 beginning of friendship between them. 
 
196 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 The beginning of the second tablet is so badly 
 broken that fifty lines are wanting. From 
 some fragments we are able to make out that 
 Gilgames was unhappy because he could see 
 that Eabani was yearning for the wide field 
 and the friendly beasts, and was cursing the 
 harlot that had enticed him away from them. 
 But the sun god Shamash called to him out of 
 heaven that she had brought him only to good, 
 to divine food and royal drink and festival garb, 
 and to Gilgames who would give him the highest 
 place in Uruk by himself. Then a terrible 
 dream comes to Eabani, a dream which be- 
 tokens his own speedy death. The nether 
 world appears before him as a land of darkness 
 and gloom, as it did in the story of Ishtar which 
 we have just been reading. The tablet con- 
 cludes with an account of a journey which Gil- 
 games and Eabani are to undertake. In the 
 third tablet, which has also come down in a 
 badly broken condition, Gilgames seeks bless- 
 ings on the journey to the cedar mountain in 
 the east, where Khumbaba is the warder. In 
 the fourth tablet Khumbaba is described ; and his 
 fearful voice so terrifies Eabani that Gilgames 
 must reassure him before he will take up the 
 journey again. In the fifth tablet we read 
 how Gilgames and Eabani came at last to the 
 great cedar mountain. There they stood, filled 
 with wonder at the high cedar tree of which 
 Khumbaba was the warder. The cedar moun- 
 
THE MYTHS AND EPICS 197 
 
 tain is the home of the gods, and above all of 
 Ishtar. There again did Eabani dream, and 
 Gilgames interpreted his dreams as of good 
 augury for their contest with Khumbaba. At 
 the end of the tablet their victory over the 
 keeper of the forest is told. In tablet six we 
 reach a climax in the story. Ishtar is overcome 
 with love for the hero, so strong in his beauty, 
 and appeals to him to become her husband. 
 He spurns her advances, and reminds her that 
 it had fared ill with her former husbands, who 
 were dead, and a like fate he fears for himself 
 if he should accept her offer of marriage. Ishtar 
 is filled with rage and chagrin, and mounting up 
 to heaven appears before Ami and Antum, be- 
 seeching the great god to create a heaven-bull 
 who shall destroy Gilgames. But the bull goes 
 down to destruction before the two heroes, and 
 Gilgames and Eabani return to Erech to be 
 received by the inhabitants in a burst of joyous 
 acclaim. 
 
 Who is beautiful among men? 
 Who is glorious among heroes? 
 Gilgames is beautiful among men, 
 Gilgames is glorious among heroes. 
 
 Gilgames makes a feast in his palace, but when 
 men he down to sweet sleep Eabani again sees 
 a vision in his sleep. In the seventh tablet, of 
 which only a small portion remains, we hear of 
 a sore illness of Eabani, which is described 
 further in the eighth tablet, and then comes his 
 
198 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 death, and the terrible lament of Gilgames. In 
 the ninth tablet Gilgames laments his friend 
 and goes away into the wilderness, fearful lest 
 a similar fate befall himself, and anxious to find 
 his ancestor Ut-napishtim, who had long since 
 been carried away to the life beyond. The 
 journey lies over mountains, perhaps the Leb- 
 anon and Anti-Lebanon range, where scorpion- 
 men bar the way. At first the scorpion-man 
 advises against the mad enterprise, but at 
 length encourages him to go on. Over the 
 mountains he makes his way, and at length 
 comes out to a park of the gods, which seems 
 to have been situated on the side of the Medi- 
 terranean Sea on the Phoenician coast. There 
 he finds the goddess Siduri-Sabitu, seated upon 
 the throne of the sea, and threatens to break 
 down her barred doors if she does not admit 
 him. Once admitted, the goddess inquires why 
 he looks so distraught, and why he has wan- 
 dered so far. He tells her the story of Eabani's 
 great deeds, and of his death, and of how he, 
 fearing that he also would so die and never 
 rise again, had set out upon this journey. He 
 asks her the way to Ut-napishtim, and how he 
 could go. She warns him that the way thither 
 leads over the great sea of death, a journey that 
 none but Shamash, the sun god, may make; 
 but at last tells him of the sailor of Ut-napish- 
 tim, who may perhaps be induced to help him 
 over the sea thither. The sailor takes him on 
 
p CO 
 
 W « 
 Q + 
 
 w 
 
 H 
 
 fa 
 O 
 
 o 
 
 H 
 w 
 
 H 
 
 a 
 
 + >> 
 
 
 Hfi O ft 
 
 X S .2 d 
 
THE MYTHS AND EPICS 199 
 
 the journey, and after three days they surprise 
 Ut-napishtim, who asks the same questions as 
 Sabitu concerning his appearance and his 
 journey, which are answered by Gilgames with 
 the same account of Eabani. After this there 
 comes a most unfortunate break in the tablet, 
 and then its concluding lines. The eleventh 
 tablet begins with a continuation of the dia- 
 logue between Ut-napishtim and Gilgames, and 
 soon we are swept out into the great story of 
 the deluge: 
 
 Gilgames said to him, to Ut-napishtim, the far-away: 
 "I consider thee, O Ut-napishtim, 
 Thy appearance is not changed, thou art like me, 
 Thou art not different, thou art like me. 
 5 Thy heart is in perfect state, to make a combat, 
 Thou dost lie down upon thy side, and upon thy 
 
 back. 
 Tell me, how hast thou been exalted, and amid the 
 
 assembly of the gods hast found life?" 
 Ut-napishtim spoke to him, to Gilgames: 
 "I will reveal to thee, O Gilgames, the hidden word, 
 10 And the decision of the gods will I announce to thee." 
 
 And now beigns the story of the flood, noblest 
 and most beautiful of all the stories which this 
 gifted people have written: 
 
 Shurippak, a city which thou knowest, 
 Which lies on the bank of the Euphrates. 
 That city was very old, and the heart of the gods 
 Within it drove them to send a flood, the great gods; 
 15 There were their father Anu, 
 Their counselor the warrior Bel, 
 
200 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 Their messenger Ninib, 
 Their director Ennugi. 
 
 The lord of wisdom, Ea, counseled with them 
 20 And repeated their word to the reed-hut: 
 "O reed-hut, reed-hut, O wall, wall, 
 
 reed-hut, hearken, O wall, attend!" 
 
 These rather curious and difficult lines seem to 
 mean that the house of Ut-napishtim is ad- 
 dressed directly by the god Ea, and then the 
 man himself. This is an interesting variant 
 from the later statement in the same poem (see 
 line 196) that a dream was the means of com- 
 munication. Berosus also says that Kronos 
 appeared to him in sleep and revealed the 
 deluge. And now comes the direct address to 
 him: 
 
 "O man of Shurippak, son of Ubaratutu, 
 
 Pull down thy house, build a ship, 
 25 Leave thy possessions, take thought for thy life, 
 
 Thy property abandon, save thy life, 
 
 Bring living seed of every kind into the ship. 
 
 The ship that thou shalt build, 
 
 So shall be the measure of its dimensions, 
 30 Thus shall correspond its breadth and height, 
 
 Into the ocean let it fare." 
 
 1 understood it, and spake to Ea, my lord, 
 
 " , my lord, as thou hast commanded 
 
 I will observe, and will execute it. 
 35 But what shall I say to the city, the people and the 
 elders?" 
 Ea opened his mouth and spake, 
 He said unto me his servant, 
 "Thou shalt so say unto them, 
 'Because Bel hates me, 
 
THE MYTHS AND EPICS 201 
 
 40 No longer may I dwell in your city, nor remain on 
 Bel's earth. 
 Into the ocean must I fare, with Ea, my lord, to 
 dwell.' " 
 
 The god who is here represented as causing 
 the flood is the older Bel, whose name was Ellil, 
 the god of Nippur; but the story as it has come 
 down to us is a later recension in which other 
 gods, notably Adad, who belongs to a later 
 theological development, have been introduced. 
 Professor Jastrow is clearly right in seeing the 
 evidences of two separate versions combined 
 into one. In one of these Shurippak was the 
 object of the god's anger, in the other the flood 
 was universal; in one probably Ellil alone 
 caused the flood, in the other a council of the 
 gods was called to decide the matter. The 
 latter part of the first tablet is badly broken, 
 and is also comparatively unimportant for the 
 main story. I begin the translation again with 
 the second tablet, which describes the building 
 of the ship : 
 
 120 cubits high were its sides, 
 
 140 cubits reached the edge of its roof, 
 60 I traced its hull, I designed it 
 
 I built it in six stories, 
 
 I divided it in seven parts. 
 
 Its interior I divided into nine parts. 
 
 I strengthened it within against the water. 
 65 I prepared a rudder, and laid down the tackle. 
 
 Three sars of bitumen I poured over the outside (?), 
 
 Three sars of bitumen I poured over the inside, 
 
202 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 Three sars of oil the stevedores brought up. 
 
 Besides a sar of oil which men use as a libation, 
 70 The shipbuilder used two sars of oil. 
 
 For the people I slaughtered a bullock, 
 
 I slew lambs daily. 
 
 Of must, beer, oil, and wine 
 
 I gave the people to drink like water from the river. 
 75 A festival I made, like the days of the feast of Aqitu. 1 
 
 81 With all that I had I filled it (the ship). 
 
 With all that I had of silver I filled it. 
 
 With all that I had of gold I filled it. 
 
 With all that I had of living things I filled it. 
 85 I brought up into the ship my family and household, 
 
 The cattle of the field, the beasts of the field, crafts- 
 men all of them I brought in. 
 
 A fixed time had Shamash appointed, (saying,) 
 
 "When the ruler of darkness sends a heavy rain, 
 
 Then enter into the ship and close the door." 
 90 The appointed time came near, 
 
 The rulers of the kukku in the evening sent heavy 
 rain. 
 
 The dawning of that day I feared, 
 
 I feared to behold that day. 
 
 I entered the ship and closed the door. 
 95 To the ship's master, to Puzur-Bel, the sailor, 
 
 I intrusted the building with its goods. 
 
 When the first flush of dawn appeared 
 
 There came up from the horizon a black cloud. 
 
 Adad thundered within it, 
 100 While Nabu and Marduk went before. 
 
 They go as messengers over mountain and valley. 
 
 Nergal bore away the anchor. 
 
 Ninib advances, the storm he makes to descend. 
 
 The Anunnaki lifted up their torches, 
 
 Aqitu, the New Year's Feast. 
 
THE MYTHS AND EPICS 203 
 
 105 With their brightness they light up the land. 
 
 Adad's storm reached unto heaven, 
 
 All light was turned unto darkness, 
 
 It [flooded] the land like 
 
 the storm 
 
 110 Raged high, [the water climbed over] the mountains, 
 
 Like a besom of destruction they brought it upon men, 
 
 No man beheld his fellow, 
 
 No more were men recognized in heaven. 
 
 The gods feared the deluge, 
 115 They drew back, they climbed up to the heaven of 
 Anu. 
 
 The gods crouched like a dog, they cowered by the 
 wall. 
 
 Ishtar cried like a woman in travail, 
 
 The queen of the gods cried with a loud voice : 
 
 "The former race is turned to clay, 
 120 Since I commanded evil in the assembly of the gods. 
 
 When I commanded evil in the assembly of the gods, 
 
 For the destruction of my people I commanded a 
 combat. 
 
 That which I brought forth, where is it? 
 
 Like the spawn of fish it fills the sea." 
 125 The gods of the Anunnaki wept with her, 
 
 The gods sat bowed and weeping, 
 
 Covered were their lips. 
 
 Six days and nights 
 
 Blew the wind, the deluge and the tempest over- 
 whelmed the land. 
 130 When the seventh day drew nigh, the tempest ceased; 
 the deluge, 
 
 Which had fought like an army, ended. 
 
 Then rested the sea, the storm fell asleep, the flood 
 ceased. 
 
 I looked upon the sea, while I sent forth my wail. 
 
 All mankind was .turned to clay. 
 
204 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 135 Like a swamp the field lay before me. 1 
 
 I opened the window and the light fell upon my face, 
 
 I bowed, I sat down, I wept, 
 
 And over my face ran my tears. 
 
 I looked upon the world, all was sea. 
 140 After twelve days(?) 2 the land emerged. 
 
 To the land of Nisir the ship made its way, 
 
 The mount of Nisir held it fast, that it moved not. 
 
 One day, a second day did the mount of Nisir hold it. 
 
 A third day, a fourth day did the mount of Nisir 
 hold it. 
 145 A fifth day, a sixth day did the mount of Nisir hold it. 
 
 When the seventh day approached 
 
 I sent forth a dove and let her go. 
 
 The dove flew to and fro, 
 
 But there was no resting place and she returned. 
 150 I sent forth a swallow and let her go, 
 
 The swallow flew to and fro, 
 
 But there was no resting place and she returned. 
 
 I sent forth a raven and let her go, 
 
 The raven flew away, she saw the abatement of the 
 waters, 
 155 She drew near, she waded(?), she croaked, and came 
 not back. 
 
 Then I sent everything forth to the four quarters of 
 heaven, I offered sacrifice, 
 
 I made a libation upon the mountain's peak. 
 
 1 The line is at present, at least, hopelessly difficult and doubtful. 
 The translations offered diverge widely, of which these may serve as 
 specimens: 
 
 Sowie das Tageslicht herangekommen war, betete ich. (Jensen.) 
 Wie uri breitete sich aus vor mir das Gefild. (Winckler, Jeremias.) 
 Jusqu' aux toits atteignait le marais. (Dhorme.) 
 Like the surrounding field had become the bed of the rivers. (Muss- 
 
 Arnolt.) 
 In place of fields there lay before me a swamp. (King.) 
 
 2 Very doubtful. Many solutions have been proposed. Twelve double 
 hours(?) (Jeremias). 
 
FIGURE XIX.— THE STORY OF THE DELUGE 
 
 Assyrian Clay Tablet in the British Museum 
 
 Size of the original, 5f by 5i inches 
 
 Obverse 
 
 A duplicate of Figures XVII and XVIII 
 
THE MYTHS AND EPICS 205 
 
 By sevens I set out the sacrificial vessels, 
 
 Beneath them I heaped up reed and cedar wood and 
 
 myrtle. 
 160 The gods smelt the savor, 
 
 The gods smelt the sweet savor, 
 
 The gods gathered like flies over the sacrificer. 
 
 When at last the Lady of the gods drew near 
 
 She raised the rich jewels, which Anu, according to 
 
 her wish, had made. 
 165 "These days, by the jewels about my neck, I shall 
 
 not forget. 
 Upon these days shall I think, I shall never forget 
 
 them. 1 
 Let the gods come to the offering, 
 But let Bel come not to the offering, 
 For he took not counsel, and sent the deluge, 
 170 And my people he gave to destruction. " 
 When at last Bel drew near 
 He saw the ship ; then was Bel wroth, 
 He was filled with anger against the gods of the 
 
 Igigi: 
 "Who then has escaped with life? 
 175 No man must live in the destruction!" 
 Then Ninib opened his mouth and spake, 
 He said to the warrior Bel: 
 "Who but Ea created things, 
 And Ea knoweth every matter. " 
 180 Ea opened his mouth, and spake, 
 He spake to the warrior Bel: 
 "Thou spokesman among the gods, warrior Bel, 
 Because thou wert ill-advised, didst thou send a 
 
 flood. 
 On the sinner lay his sin, 
 
 1 In the Genesis narrative it is the rainbow, which is to remind God of 
 his covenant that he should not destroy the earth again by a flood (Gen. 
 9. 8-17). In the Babylonian story Ishtar's jewels fulfill this function. 
 
206 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 185 On the transgressor lay his transgression. 
 
 Forbear, let not all be destroyed, let not the inno- 
 cent^) be . . . 
 
 Why hast thou sent a deluge? 
 
 Had a lion come and mankind lessened! 
 
 Why hast thou sent a deluge? 
 190 Had a leopard come and mankind lessened? 
 
 Why hast thou sent a deluge? 
 
 Had a famine come and the land [destroyed!] 
 
 Why hast thou sent a deluge? 
 
 Had Nergal come and mankind [slain!] 
 195 I have not divulged the decision of the great gods. 
 
 I made Atrakhasis 1 see a dream, and so he heard the 
 
 god's decision." 
 
 This last passage contains a most interesting 
 indication of the differences between the gods 
 of the Babylonian pantheon. Here is Ea up- 
 braiding Bel for bringing on the flood. He 
 thinks that he might have punished sinners by 
 a lion, by a leopard, by a famine, and not have 
 brought such desolation upon the whole human 
 family. But for Ea's intervention even the 
 good Ut-napishtim might also have perished. 
 It was he alone who saved him by giving a 
 warning. Bel is moved by the reproof, as we 
 shall now see: 
 
 i Atrakhasis means "the very clever" (der Erzgescheite, Jeremias). It 
 is here a sort of surname of Ut-napishtim. There are, however, some 
 small texts, for example, British Museum DT, 42 (see Jeremias, Das Alte 
 Testament im Lichte des Alten Orients, 2te Auf., p. 233; Winckler, 
 Keilin n chriftliches Textbuch zum Alten Testaments, 2te Auf., pp. 94f.), 
 in which Atrakhasis is the only name of the deluge hero. Berosus calls 
 the Babylonian Noah, Xisuthros, which may be some sort of metathesis 
 of this Atrakhasis (so George Smith); but see Sayce, The Religions of 
 Ancient Egypt and Babylonia, p. 436, footnote 1. 
 
FIGURE XX.— THE STORY OF THE DELUGE 
 
 Reverse 
 
 A duplicate of Figures XVII and XVIII 
 
THE MYTHS AND EPICS 207 
 
 When he came to reason, 
 Bel went up into the ship. 
 He took my hand, [and] brought me forth. 
 200 He brought forth my wife, and made her kneel at 
 
 my side, 
 He turned us toward each other, he stood between us, 
 
 he blessed us: 
 "Formerly Ut-napishtim was of mankind, but 
 Now let Ut-napishtim and his wife be like the gods, 
 
 even us, 
 Lt Ut-napishtim dwell afar off at the mouth of the 
 
 rivers. 
 205 They took me and afar off, at the mouth of the rivers, 
 
 they made me to dwell/' 
 
 Here at the very last comes the explanation 
 which Gilgames had asked, concerning the resi- 
 dence of Ut-napishtim. And the place which 
 is here indicated is not the mouth of the rivers 
 Euphrates and Tigris, nor the wider waters of 
 the Persian Gulf, but rather the far-distant 
 waters of the Mediterranean, or even the big 
 Atlantic outside the straits of Gibraltar; for 
 so may we then reconcile this eleventh tablet 
 with the story of the journey of Gilgames nar- 
 rated in the ninth tablet of the epic. 
 
 That some relationship exists between this 
 story and the biblical narrative of the flood 
 needs no argument to prove; it stands open be- 
 fore the eye and beyond dispute. Especially 
 noteworthy at even the first glance are the 
 sending out of the birds, the divine pleasure 
 over the sweet savor of the sacrifice, and the 
 divine assurance that there will be no recur- 
 
208 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 rence of the flood. The Genesis narrative is 
 compounded of two originally separate stories, 
 the one reaching its present form at the hands 
 of a Judean compiler in the ninth century 
 before Christ, and the other at the hands of a 
 priestly writer about the exilic period. 1 The 
 Assyrian deluge story, itself also a compilation 
 stretching all the way from the period of Ham- 
 murabi to the age of Ashurbanipal, shows a 
 resemblance to the priestly document especially 
 in its account of the building of the ark, and 
 in its mention of the covenant; but to the Ju- 
 dean or prophetic story in the seven days, in 
 the sending out of the birds, and in the offering 
 of sacrifice. 
 
 But while there are great resemblances, there 
 are also great differences between these two 
 accounts. In the book of Genesis the flood is 
 sent from God as a punishment for the sins of 
 men, and it ceases when the divine compassion 
 is aroused, and God sets the bow in the heaven 
 as a pledge that he will never again destroy the 
 earth by water. On the Assyrian side the flood 
 
 i For the grounds of these general statements about the Genesis nar- 
 rative see Driver, The Book of Genesis, London, 1904, and compare also 
 his Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament, 6th edition, London, 
 1897. An excellent popular presentation of the argument is to be found 
 in Alfred Holborn, The Pentateuch in the Light of To-Day, being a simple 
 introduction to the Pentateuch on the lines of Higher Criticism. Edin- 
 burgh, 1902. In German, not translated into English, is a very admir- 
 able popular account, Adalbert Merx, Die Bucher Moses und Joshua. 
 Eine Einleitimg fur Laien. Tubingen, 1907. For the purpose of a com- 
 parison of the Genesis documents with the Babylonian story, Kent's 
 Student's Old Testament, vol. i, New York, 1904, would be useful. A 
 most valuable book. 
 
THE MYTHS AND EPICS 209 
 
 is caused by the capricious anger of Bel, and 
 the idea of the punishment for sin crops out 
 only as an incidental in the conversation be- 
 tween Ea and Bel at the end of the story. The 
 flood ceases because the other gods are terrified 
 and Ishtar intercedes for her own creation. 
 But there are even greater differences than 
 these, for on the one side is a crass polytheism 
 with the gods quarreling, cheating, deceiving 
 each other, cowering like dogs in a kennel, 
 fleeing in fear into the higher heaven, and 
 "gathering like flies over the sacrifieer." On 
 the other side is the one God, alone taking 
 thought for the sins of men, a moral Being free 
 of all caprice but actuated by the great moral 
 idea of love. 
 
 What now is the relationship of these two 
 narratives? It seems to me quite clear that 
 the material of the Hebrew narrative goes back 
 undoubtedly to this Babylonian original. This 
 ancient story becomes in the hands of Hebrew 
 prophet and priest simply the vehicle for the 
 conveyance of a spiritual truth concerning an 
 ethical and moral God. In the Babylonian 
 story as the scribes of Ashurbanipal edited it 
 there was no motive but the preservation of an 
 interesting tale of early days, but the Old Testa- 
 ment has made it the medium for the carrying 
 forward of spiritual religion. The gulf that 
 stretches between these two is wide and deep. 
 
 And now we have passed in review the broad 
 
210 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 features of the religion of the Babylonian peo- 
 ple. We have seen their great pantheon in 
 outline, the great triad of gods that stands at 
 the head, Anu, Bel, and Ea, and the duads of 
 Anshar and Kishar and Lakhmu and Lakhamu 
 that lie behind them. We have passed in re- 
 view the gods of highest repute in a later day, 
 Sin and Shamash and Ishtar, and the great 
 city gods, Ashur and Marduk. We have come 
 to know something of the lesser deities that 
 run in a diminishing scale downward until only 
 demons, good and evil, are before us. We have 
 passed over the cosmologies and have seen how 
 these gifted peoples have thought of the wonder 
 of sky and earth and men and animals, and 
 from these we have gone on to matters of less 
 moving interest, to books of magic and incanta- 
 tions, and then upward again have passed by 
 splendid hymns into solemn psalms of peni- 
 tence and of prayer. Thence have we made 
 the great circuit round to the myths, glowing 
 sometimes with beauty and color, and then to 
 the great epics, at once the flower of Assyrian 
 poesy and the highest outreach of the Baby- 
 lonian religion in its effort to lift men to an 
 interest in things divine. We have come all 
 the way from a primitive animism to a highly 
 organized polytheism surrounded by great gar- 
 dens of theological speculation ending in a 
 hope for existence, a dark, dull existence, in- 
 deed, and not a vivid life after death, but still 
 
THE MYTHS AND EPICS 211 
 
 a hope better than the dread of extinction. 
 And now we must ask whether there is any 
 great organizing idea which will bring all this 
 religion and all this theology and all this specu- 
 lation into one great comprehensive system. 
 The answer to that question can only be 
 reached after a survey of a series of modern 
 speculations begun in ingenious suggestions, 
 and carried on with a power of combination 
 and a wealth of learning that are alike worthy 
 of respect and deserving of examination. 
 
 The theory that the whole religion of Baby- 
 lonia and Assyria, nay, practically the whole 
 of the serious thinking and writing of both 
 realms, rests down upon a Weltanschauung, a 
 great theory of the universe, owes its origin and 
 exposition at least in its chief form to Professor 
 Hugo Winckler, of the University of Berlin, 
 who in a series of volumes and in numerous 
 pamphlets 1 has heaped suggestion upon sug- 
 gestion and then organized them all into one 
 
 1 Professor Winckler's contributions to exposition of this theory are 
 so numerous that it is scarcely possible to do more than indicate a few 
 of them. I hope that I have here cited a sufficient number to give to 
 any searcher a fair idea of the whole theory: 
 
 Hugo Winckler, Geschichte Israels in Einzeldarstelhingen. Theil ii. Die 
 Legende. Leipzig, 1900. — Die Weltanschauung des Alien Orients, 
 in Ex oriente lux I, 1. — Himmels- und Weltenbild der Babylonier 
 als Grundlage der Weltanschauung und Mythologie atter Volker, in 
 Der Alte Orient, 3. Leipzig, 1902. — Die Keilinschrifien und das Alte 
 Testament, 3te Auf., Theil i. — Die babylonische Geisteskultur in ihren 
 Beziehungen zur Kulturentwiclcelung der Menschheit (Wissenschaft 
 u. Bildung, Heft 13). Leipzig, 1907. — Altoriemtalische Geschichtsauf- 
 fassung. Ex oriente lux II. Leipzig, 1906. "Astronomisch- 
 mythologisches," in Altorientalische Forschungen (1901-05). Ara- 
 bisch-Semitisch-Orientalisch (1901). 
 
212 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 grand whole. The views of Winckler have been 
 accepted by Dr. Alfred Jeremias, pastor of the 
 great Luther-Church in Leipzig, and a Privat- 
 Dozent in the University of Leipzig. They 
 have also found acceptance, at least in some of 
 the contentions, by Professor Heinrich Zim- 
 mern, of the University of Leipzig, and one 
 of the greatest of modern Assyriologists. The 
 theory owes very much of its growing importance 
 to Jeremias, whose important contributions to 
 the detailed study of the Babylonian religion 
 have won for him universal respect, while his 
 great powers of exposition have made him a 
 valuable helper in the work of popularizing the 
 new doctrine. 1 
 
 The doctrine is complicated, and even those 
 who accept it in the main decline it in par- 
 ticular, and its exposition here is difficult. I 
 can do no more than to sketch it in outline in 
 the form which it takes in the writings especially 
 of Winckler and Jeremias. 
 
 According, then, to these scholars the Baby- 
 lonians conceived of the cosmos as divided 
 primarily into a heavenly and an earthly 
 world, each of which is further subdivided into 
 three parts. The heavenly world consists of 
 
 1 See especially Jeremias, Das Alte Testament im Hchte des alten Orients, 
 2te Auf., Leipzig, 1906, an able and extremely useful book to which I 
 have already made frequent reference. See further Jeremias, Baby- 
 lonisches im Neuen Testament. Leipzig, 1905. Im Kampfe um den 
 Alten Orient. 1907. Das Alter der babylonischen Astronomie. Leipzig, 
 1908. 
 
THE MYTHS AND EPICS 213 
 
 (a) the northern heaven, (b) the zodiac, and 
 (c) the heavenly ocean; while the earthly world 
 consists of (a) the heaven, that is, the air above 
 the earth, (b) the earth itself, and (c) the 
 waters beneath the earth. By the side of this 
 there exists also a simpler division of three into 
 the heaven, the earth, and the waters beneath 
 the earth. The visible heaven consists of a 
 solid firmament with two doors for the en- 
 trance and exit of the sun. Above this is the 
 great heaven, the abode of the gods. The 
 earth is a round plane, beneath it the waters 
 and the dark abode of the dead. 
 
 These great subdivisions are ruled by gods, 
 as I have already tried to show in the second 
 lecture — Anu in the heaven above, Bel in the 
 earth and air, and Ea in the waters beneath. 
 According to Winckler, Anu presides over the 
 upper heaven, and over the north pole of earth, 
 while Bel is lord of the zodiac and of the earth, 
 and Ea rules over the southern heaven, the 
 heavenly ocean, and the waters of earth and 
 the waters beneath. 
 
 More important than all these details is the 
 zodiac, the twelve heavenly figures which span 
 the heavens, and through which the moon 
 passes every month, the sun once a year, and 
 the five great planets that are visible to the 
 naked eye have their course. These moving 
 stars serve as the interpreters of the divine 
 will, while the fixed stars, so says Jeremias, are 
 
214 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 related thereto as the commentary written on 
 the margin of the book of revelation. 1 The 
 rulers of the zodiac are Sin, Shamash, and Ish- 
 tar, and according to the law of correspondence 
 the divine power manifested in them is identical 
 with the power of Ami, Bel, and Ea. The zodiac 
 represents the world-cycle in the year, and also 
 in the world-year. Therefore each one of these 
 gods may represent the total divine power, 
 which reveals itself in the cycle. By the side 
 of these three, Sin, Shamash, and Ishtar, which 
 represent respectively the Moon, the Sun, and 
 Venus, there are ranged Marduk, which is 
 Jupiter; Nabu, Mercury, Ninib, Mars; and 
 Nergal, Saturn — these being the planets known 
 to the ancients. 
 
 Now, according to Winckler and his school, 
 upon these foundations the ancient priesthood 
 of Babylonia built a closely knit and carefully 
 thought-out world-system of an astral char- 
 acter, and this world-system forms the kernel 
 of the ancient Oriental conception of the 
 universe. This conception of the universe has 
 a double-sided principle of far-reaching con- 
 sequence. First, the heavenly world with its 
 three divisions corresponds exactly to the 
 earthly world with its three divisions. Herein 
 lies the great fundamental leading idea of the 
 
 i "Der Tierkreis ist das Buch der Offenbarung Gottes, die Erschein- 
 ungen des Fixsternhimmels sind gewissermassen der an den Rand 
 geschriebene Kommentar." — Jcremias, op. cit., p. 45. 
 
THE MYTHS AND EPICS 215 
 
 entire system. Everything on earth corre- 
 sponds to its counterpart in heaven. In heaven 
 every god has a distinct district, a refievog, a 
 templum, beneath his sway, and in like manner 
 he has a corresponding district on earth in 
 which is his temple. Over this earthly district 
 there is a king, appointed by the god, and in 
 him the god is incarnated. Herein, according 
 to Winckler, is the explanation of the divisions 
 of territory found in the ancient Orient, and 
 the assignment to each of a separate Baal, or 
 god. 
 
 But as the lands correspond to heavenly en- 
 tities, so also do the cities, each of them repre- 
 senting a cosmic point, and each one of them 
 having its counterpart in heaven; there above 
 is the god of each city, who below on earth is 
 represented by his image in the temple, and 
 there above does he order and direct all that 
 happens below. From above also comes the 
 whole system of numeration. From the sidereal 
 and the astral-mythological changes there ac- 
 crue a large number of sacred or typical figures. 
 Indeed, according to Jeremias, "all numbers 
 are holy," 1 and if here and there certain num- 
 bers stand out above others, it is to be ex- 
 plained as the influence of some religious 
 calendar system. The fundamental numbers 
 are five and seven, which are the numbers of 
 the interpreters of the divine will in the heavens. 
 
 1 "Alle Zahlen sind heilig." — Jeremias, op. tit., p. 56. 
 
216 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 From these the sexagesimal system is derived, 
 for 5 + 7=12; 5x12=60. 
 
 So, in everything, there exists, according to 
 this theory, a harmony between heaven and 
 earth. Heaven is, in large and in small, a 
 mirror of earth. The macrocosm and the 
 microcosm display the same peculiarities; and 
 the same powers, each working in its own 
 sphere, bring forth the same cosmical harmony. 
 
 The other, or second side of the organizing 
 principle, is found in the great time divisions. 
 The course of the great stars gives the time 
 divisions of the calendar — day, year, world- 
 year, or world-era or world-period. This world- 
 era has its boundaries in the position of the 
 equinoctial point in the zodiac. A new world- 
 era begins whenever the sun on the spring 
 equinox enters a new sign in the zodiac. Ac- 
 cording to the theory the position of the sun 
 in the vernal equinox moves eastward from 
 year to year. In seventy-two years it moves 
 one day, and in about 2,200 years one month. 
 The period of 2,200 years forms, therefore, a 
 world-period. At the present day the sun at 
 the vernal equinox is in the sign of the Fish. 
 In the age before this it was in the sign of the 
 Ram. This era began in the eighth century 
 before Christ, at the beginning of the reign of 
 King Nabonassar (747 B.C.), who introduced a 
 new calendar. Before that period was the era 
 of the Bull. Each of these world-eras is ruled 
 
THE MYTHS AND EPICS 217 
 
 by some deity; thus, in the era of the Twins 
 (6000-4000 B.C.) ruled Sin, in the era of the 
 Bull (3000-1000 B.C.) Marduk was the ruler 
 of the world. From the seon of Sin come the 
 hymns of Sin, and from the Bull era come the 
 hymns addressed to Marduk, and in this same 
 era occurred the great political change by 
 which Babylon became the center of the world 
 and Marduk the chief of all the gods. 
 
 And now we are come to the crux of the 
 whole matter, to the one point toward which 
 this whole theory tends, to that issue which if 
 it be really true requires all our views of the 
 entire past history and religion and literature 
 of antiquity to be changed. Let me take 
 unusual precautions to state it with exactness 
 and with fairness to Professor Winckler, to 
 Dr. Jeremias, and to all who in part or whole 
 do hold with them. 
 
 Assuming all that I have just been stating 
 concerning earth and heaven to be true — that 
 the heavens are a mirror of earth; that the gods 
 reveal their will and purpose in the heavens, 
 and all the other principles and ideas therewith 
 connected which I have just passed in review — 
 then it follows that the heavens have become a 
 great book of reference in which may be dis- 
 cerned not only all that may hereafter come to 
 pass, but also all that has heretofore happened 
 among men. Everything which has happened 
 is only an earthly copy of a heavenly original, 
 
218 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 and there it is still writ above, and still there 
 to be read. All this was important enough for 
 practical everyday life in ancient times, but for 
 us who are trying to learn what actually has 
 happened among men in the far-distant past 
 it is of enormous moment. For, according to 
 Winckler, all the myths and all the legends of 
 the ancient world are hereby to be interpreted. 
 Nothing even in history, properly so called, is 
 to be understood otherwise. "An Oriental his- 
 tory without consideration of the world-era is 
 unthinkable. The stars rule the changes of the 
 times" (Jeremias). 1 According to this view 
 astrology is the last word of science in an- 
 tiquity. There is no view of myth or legend 
 or history to be taken without it. But it 
 sweeps out far beyond Babylonia and Assyria. 
 All peoples of antiquity come within its scope. 
 Is there a mystery anywhere, this ancient 
 Oriental conception of the universe will ex- 
 plain it. Naturally enough, Israel is swept 
 within its province. Saul is the Moon, and 
 David is Marduk, and Solomon is Nabu. The 
 entire literature of Israel, all her history, all 
 her theology, all her thinking are, so this theory 
 would have it, but the outworking of the Baby- 
 lonian idea. Everything in Israel is Babylon, 
 and Babylon is everything. It is indeed a 
 
 1 "Eine orientalische Geschichtsdarstellung ohne Rechnung mit 
 Weltzeitaltern ist nicht denkbar. Die Gestirne regieren den Wechsel 
 der Zeiten." — Jeremias, op. cit., p. 69. 
 
THE MYTHS AND EPICS 219 
 
 momentous change in all our thinking which 
 is here proposed. Dr. Jeremias has no hesita- 
 tion in speaking of it as an "epoch-making 
 discovery, of far-reaching consequence for the 
 understanding of the Old Testament manner of 
 speech." 
 
 And now we must come to the testing of 
 these things. Are they true in whole or in 
 part? If they are true at all, in how far may 
 they be accepted as of consequence in making 
 up our view of the Old Testament literature 
 and religion? 
 
 Let us, then, begin by freely and gladly ad- 
 mitting the immense debt of Old Testament 
 literature to the great Babylonian world. There 
 is no secret about this, it lies open to the eye 
 of even the casual reader, and the Old Testa- 
 ment writers themselves freely and openly 
 admitted it. The first eleven chapters of Gene- 
 sis in their present form, as also in the original 
 documents into which modern critical research 
 has traced their origin, bear eloquent witness to 
 Babylonia as the old home of the Hebrew peo- 
 ple and of their collection of sacred stories. 
 But besides this there are scattered in many 
 other places evidences clear and indisputable 
 of the influence of Babylonian literature and 
 thinking upon the Hebrews. It were idle to 
 enumerate all these, or even to attempt to do 
 so in the limited space of this one lecture. The 
 few that I do mention will suggest others to 
 
220 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 any thoughtful mind familiar with the splendid 
 words of the prophets, poets, lawgivers, and 
 wise men of Israel. 
 
 Heaven and earth are familiar enough in the 
 Old Testament, but we catch also an echo of 
 the threefold division in the command to make 
 "no graven image, nor any likeness of any 
 thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the 
 earth beneath, or that is in the water under the 
 earth." 1 In the heaven of heavens is God's 
 throne; while beneath the waters under the 
 earth is the dark abode of the dead, the Abad- 
 don or Hades. But in all these allusions to 
 heavens and earth I find no sign or sound of 
 any Babylonian theory of the universe. The 
 stars indeed find frequent mention, but only as 
 the works of Jahweh. "To whom then," says 
 the great exilic prophet, "To whom then will 
 ye liken me, that I should be equal to him? 
 saith the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, 
 and see who hath created these, that bringeth 
 out their host by number; he calleth them all 
 by name; by the greatness of his might, and 
 for that he is strong in power, not one is lack- 
 ing." 2 The star-worship did indeed penetrate 
 into Israel through the influence of the Canaan- 
 ites, whose cities in their very names bear 
 witness to this cult — Beth-shemesh, the house 
 of the sun; Ir-shemesh, the city of the sun — 
 
 i Exod. 20. 4. 
 2 Isa. 40. 25, 26. 
 
THE MYTHS AND EPICS 221 
 
 but all this was everywhere and always de- 
 nounced by the prophets as utterly inconsistent 
 with worship of Jahweh. Hear the ringing 
 words of Deuteronomy: "Take ye therefore good 
 heed unto yourselves, . . . lest thou lift up 
 thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest 
 the sun and the moon and the stars, even all 
 the host of heaven, thou be drawn away and 
 worship them, and serve them/' 1 Nay, these 
 prophetic spirits hate the whole star cult with 
 a burning hate, and will put to death any who 
 are enticed by it. 2 They sneer at the poor 
 dupes who have taken any thought of its im- 
 portance. "Let now the astrologers [literally, 
 the dividers of the heavens], the star-gazers, 
 the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and 
 save thee from the things that shall come upon 
 thee." 3 From the observation of the heavens 
 this prophet knows well enough that naught 
 may be learned of past or of future. All that 
 rests in Jahweh' s hand, and it will not be de- 
 clared through the stars, which are merely his 
 creatures. According to the Winckler theory 
 the stars are the very center of the whole 
 theory, and from these few passages it must 
 be plain that in all these things Israel kept her 
 own course, diverging widely from the entire 
 astrological system which he has wrought out. 
 
 i Deut. 4. 15, 19. 
 2 Deut. 17. 2ff. 
 s Isa. 47. 13. 
 
222 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 There is no need to deny that the poets of 
 Israel used Babylonian mythical and legendary 
 material as a means of poetical adornment, 
 somewhat as Milton used the richer mythical 
 materials of Greece and Rome; the only point 
 that I wish strongly to emphasize is that 
 Israel's religious literature affords absolutely no 
 proof of the existence in Israel's thinking of 
 any such theory of the universe as Winckler 
 has imagined. 
 
 But I must take one step further on this 
 delicate and difficult ground, and venture to 
 say that I am quite unable to accept Winckler' s 
 theory that the Babylonians or the Assyrians 
 ever had in their own speculations any such 
 conception of the universe as he has so la- 
 boriously wrought out. This theory has every- 
 thing to commend it in the extraordinary in- 
 genuity with which it is conceived and the 
 splendid learning with which it is urged, but it 
 lacks altogether the one greatest of all needs, 
 and that is evidence. There is, indeed, evi- 
 dence enough for many of the single features 
 which Winckler has combined, but with all 
 good will and temper and with long searching 
 in Winckler's writings and in the original texts 
 I cannot find the evidence for the conception of 
 the universe which, according to the theory, 
 lies at the base of all Babylonian thinking and 
 writing. It is, I think, not unfair to say that 
 the theory continually plays fast and loose with 
 
THE MYTHS AND EPICS 223 
 
 the religious facts as the actual texts reveal 
 them, and applies them now in one way and 
 now in another. It is likewise undeniable that 
 many of the astrological materials are quite 
 otherwise explained by Professor Jensen and 
 in still other ways by Professor Hommel, each 
 of whom has astrological theories of his own. 
 
 The strangest thing about the great system 
 seems to me to be the confidence with which 
 it is urged. The chief author and all who have 
 cooperated with him or expounded the theory 
 to wider circles seem not to realize that this 
 effort to unlock all doors with one key, to ex- 
 plain all mysteries with one theory, has been 
 repeatedly tried before and has always gone 
 down to failure. Perhaps the most striking of 
 these failures is the magnificent effort of 
 Charles Francois Dupuis. It all began with an 
 investigation of the origin of the Greek months. 
 From that he passed to a study of the constel- 
 lations, and thence to an attempt to locate the 
 origin of the zodiac. To him it seemed only 
 necessary to discover the land and the period 
 "in which the constellation of Capricorn must 
 have arisen with the sun on the day of the 
 summer solstice and the vernal equinox must 
 have occurred under Libra" After prolonged 
 investigation, carried out with prodigious learn- 
 ing and wonderful ingenuity, he arrived at the 
 conclusion that Upper Egypt was the land and 
 that a period of between fifteen and sixteen 
 
224 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 thousand years before the present time was 
 the time when the signs of the zodiac originated. 
 His books on these subjects, 1 with their beau- 
 tiful plates, are a melancholy example of 
 misdirected labor, and ought to serve to make 
 others less confident who follow in somewhat 
 similar lines. For Champollion showed readily 
 enough that the Egyptian use of the zodiac 
 dates only to the Greco-Roman period, and the 
 whole theory crumbled at once to pieces. But 
 before this had happened Dupuis had gone on 
 to use this principle, which he believed he had 
 discovered, to erect a tremendous system by 
 which he sought to explain the origin of all re- 
 ligions. 2 The learning of the book is fairly 
 staggering. It excited at the time great and 
 bitter controversy, and then, without any par- 
 ticular disproof, its theories melted quietly 
 away like the morning mists and disappeared. 
 But men are slow to learn by such examples, 
 
 1 Dupuis, MGmoire sur I'Origine des Constellations et sur V 'Explication 
 de la Fable par V Astronomie. Quarto. Paris, 1781. Also Memoire 
 Explicatif du Zodiaque Chronologique et Mythologique, Ouvrage contenant 
 le Tableau comparatif des Maisons de la Lune chez les differens Peuples 
 de l'Orient, et celui des plus anciennes observations qui s'y lient, d'apres 
 les Egyptiens, les Chinois, les Perses, les Arabes, les Chaldeens et les 
 Calendriers grecs. Quarto. Paris, 1806. Containing a beautiful copper- 
 plate of the zodiac, showing its connections with many different peoples. 
 Let not the reader fail to observe in the title of this second work how 
 very wide was the sweep of Dupuis's claim to explain the problems of 
 ancient astronomy and astrology. It affords a most curious parallel 
 to certain recent speculations. 
 
 2 Dupuis, Origine de tous les Cultes, ou Religion Universelle. Paris, 
 1794. Nouvelle edition, 10 vols., 1835-1836. A curious fragment of it 
 was translated into English under the title Christianity a Form of the 
 Great Solar Myth, from the French of Dupuis. London, n. d. 
 
THE MYTHS AND EPICS 225 
 
 and the failure of Dupuis did not prevent Pro- 
 fessor Friedrich Max Miiller and George Wil- 
 liam Cox 1 from bringing out a new explication 
 of the so-called Solar Myth by which they hoped 
 to explain many mythological difficulties and 
 not a few of their origins. Of all this theory it 
 is now possible for Andrew Lang to say: 
 "Twenty years ago the philological theory of 
 the Solar Myth was preached as 'scientific' in 
 the books, primers, and lectures of popular 
 science. To-day its place knows it no more." 2 
 
 I have discussed the Babylonian religion in 
 its broad outlines, and as one point after 
 
 1 George William Cox, The Mythology of Aryan Nations. London, 
 1874. 
 
 2 Andrew Lang, Homer and His Age, p. ix. London, 1906. This Solar 
 Myth theory in its day attempted to explain almost everything in a 
 number of realms. It drew forth a most amusing answer, extremely 
 clever in its use of the terminology of the theory, by R. F. Littledale. 
 This was published anonymously (in Kottabos, Trinity College, Dublin, 
 1870, pp. 145ff. It has been reprinted in R. Y. Tyrrell and E. Sullivan, 
 Echoes from Kottabos, London, 1906, pp. 279. It was even translated into 
 German, Wer war Max Miiller. Ein Beitrag zur vergleichenden Mythol- 
 ogie, Aus dem Englischen von K. Fr. Leipzig, n. d.). The eminent Hel- 
 lenist, Professor B. L. Gildersleeve, of Baltimore (American Journal of 
 Philology, 1906, vol. xxvii, p. 359; compare «also ibid., 1908, vol. xxix, 
 p. 117), says of it: "Twenty-five years ago there would have been some 
 point in the ridicule of the sun-myth. Much true glory was gained by 
 an article in the Kottabos, which proved on Max Miiller's principles that 
 Max Miiller himself was a solar myth; and there would have been a 
 certain relish in the application of the method to Eumaios, the divine 
 swineherd with his twelve months of sties and his three hundred and 
 sixty boars of days, but there is nothing more deplorable than the elabo- 
 rate interpretation of deceased jests; and it is hardly worth while to 
 resuscitate Paley's interpretation of the 'Odyssey' in order to vitalize a 
 joke." Perhaps one might dare to say that these new expositions of a 
 supposed Babylonian theory of the universe are no more secure than 
 the theories of Dupuis, Max Miiller, and Cox, and that "like a wave 
 shall they pass and be passed." 
 
226 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 another passed in review I have tried carefully 
 and accurately to show wherein the Hebrew 
 people had borrowed materials which were after- 
 ward used in their noble literature. I have not 
 wittingly passed over any single borrowing of 
 moment, which the researches of recent years 
 have made known to us. When all these are 
 added up and placed together they are small 
 in number and insignificant in size when com- 
 pared with all the length and breadth and 
 height of Israel's literature. Furthermore, 
 whatever was borrowed was stamped with 
 Israel's genius. The creation story, the flood 
 story, we have seen how these leaned upon Baby- 
 lonia for the mere stuff out of which a wholly 
 new fabric was woven. The word "sabbath" is 
 Babylonian indeed, but the great social and 
 religious institution which it represents in Israel 
 is not Babylonian, but distinctively Hebrew. 
 The divine name Jahweh appears among other 
 peoples, and passes in a long cycle over into 
 Babylonia, perhaps from some west Canaanite 
 stock. But the spiritual God who bears the 
 name in Israel is no Babylonian or Kenite deity. 
 The Babylonians during all their history, during 
 all their speculations, never conceived a God 
 like unto him. He belongs to the Hebrews, and 
 no other people can take away from Israel this 
 glory, for the glory of Israel is Jahweh. 
 
 The gods of Babylonia are connected, in some 
 way that we can no longer determine, with 
 
THE MYTHS AND EPICS 227 
 
 primitive animism or they are merely local 
 deities; the God of Israel is a God revealed in 
 history. He brought Israel out of Egypt. He 
 is continually made known to his people 
 through the prophets as a God revealed in 
 history. 
 
 The religion of Israel is not developed out of 
 Babylonian polytheism. Babylonian polythe- 
 ism existed as polytheism in the earliest periods 
 of which we have even the semblance of knowl- 
 edge, and it endured as polytheism unto the 
 end. The religion of Israel, on the other hand, 
 however humble some of its material origins 
 may be, moved steadily upward and onward till 
 the great monotheistic idea found universal ac- 
 ceptance in Israel. The religions of Moab and 
 Edom, of Philistia and Phoenicia, were sub- 
 ject to the same play of influences from Baby- 
 lonia and from Egypt, but naught came of it 
 all — no larger faith developed out of them. In 
 Israel alone ethical monotheism arose, spread 
 its wings, and took its flight over all the world. 
 The religion borrowed indeed material things. I 
 have said it again and again. But, as another 
 has said, the elephant which produced the ivory 
 dare not boast itself as the creator of the Athene 
 which the skill of Phidias had wrought out of 
 the dead matter. Whatever Israel took it 
 transformed. 
 
 What shall I say at last of all this, but sol- 
 emnly and earnestly to avow the conviction 
 
228 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 that the origin of Israel's religion, the motive 
 power of its mighty and resistless progress, is 
 to be sought in a personal revelation of God in 
 history, and that this personal revelation looks 
 forward to the kingdom that was to be, when 
 Judaism had passed over her carefully guarded 
 body of truth to the Christianity which was 
 to be born within her portals. The explanation 
 of the religion of Israel is not to be sought in the 
 religion of Babylonia which lies behind, out- 
 worn and useless, but in the living Christianity 
 which stands before it. 
 
INDEX OF PERSONS AND SUBJECTS 
 
 A (Malkatu), 79 
 
 Abel, 187 
 
 Abydenus, 65 
 
 Adad, 63, 72, 85 
 
 Adam, 190 
 
 Adapa, 107, 186, 188, 189, 191 
 
 Ae (Ea), 81 
 
 Agum, 106 
 
 Akhijami, 94 
 
 Akhkhazu, 147 
 
 Akurgal, 54 
 
 Amarna, TeH-el, 24, 136 
 
 Amel-Marduk, 72 
 
 Andrae, 61 
 
 Animism, 75 
 
 Aniran, 28 
 
 An-makh, 79 
 
 Anshar, 108, 114, 116, 117, 126, 
 
 163 
 Antiphonal singing, 179, 180 
 Antum, 83 
 Ami, 63, 79, 82, 83, 87, 111, 
 
 118, 120, 126, 149, 151, 157, 
 
 164, 168, 175, 178, 189, 191, 
 
 199, 203, 213 
 Anunit, 79 
 Anunnaki, 202, 203 
 Apsu, 104, 107, 115 
 Aqitu, 201 
 Arabia, 34, 50, 69 
 Arakhtu, canal, 65 
 Aramaic people in Babylonia, 60 
 Ardat lili, 76, 77, 147 
 Ardumazanus, 65 
 Aruru, 195 
 Asari 130 
 Ashur, 59, 64, 67, 69, 70, 87, 154, 
 
 157 
 Ashurbanipal, part of library 
 
 found, 20; remainder, 22, 154 
 Ashurbelkala, 58 
 Ashurnazirpal III, 60, 106 
 Ashurrishishi, 58 
 Asiatic Society, Royal, 40 
 Asshur, city, excavated, 23, 59 
 Assyrian, translated, 38, 39 
 
 Assyriology, a university disci- 
 pline, 40 
 Astral theory, 213ff 
 Asushunamir, 193 
 Aton, hymn to, 166 
 Atrakhasis, 107, 187, 206 
 Aurmazda, 33 
 
 Babel and Bible literature, 92 
 
 Babylon, 2, 8, 9, 34, 54, 64 
 
 Bactria, 34 
 
 Balawat, 22 
 
 Bans, 168 
 
 Bau, 79, 162 
 
 Behistun, 35, 36, 37 
 
 Bel, 63, 64, 79, 87, 126, 149, 168, 
 175, 200, 201, 205, 206, 207, 
 213 
 
 Belit, 63, 69, 79, 83, 87, 157 
 
 Belit-ilani, 63 
 
 Benjamin of Tudela, 5, 6 
 
 Berosus, 65, 81, 138, 139, 206 
 
 Bethel, 181 
 
 Bezold, Carl, 46, 92, 187 
 
 Boissier, A., 46 
 
 Bonomi, 42 
 
 Booth, A. J., 5 
 
 Borsippa, 85 
 
 Botta, Paul Emil, vice-consul at 
 Mosul, 9; explores Kuyunjik, 
 11; Khorsabad, 12, 13; pub- 
 lishes results, 14; discovery 
 compared, 20, 38 
 
 Breasted, James Henry, 166 
 
 Bronze image for incantation, 
 151 
 
 Briinnow, R., 170 
 
 Budde, Karl, 92 
 
 Budge, E. A. W., 5, 24, 36, 187 
 
 Bull, era of, 216; story of, 186 
 
 Burning. See Maqlu and Shurpu 
 
 Burnouf, Eugene, 34 
 
 Caesura, in Babylonian poetry, 
 
 108 
 Calah, 100 
 
 229 
 
230 
 
 INDEX OF PERSONS AND SUBJECTS 
 
 Caliban, 138 
 Cambyses, 31 
 Cappadocia, 34 
 Capricorn, 223 
 Champ ollion, 224 
 Chardin, John, 25 
 Charms, various, 153 
 Choser, 10 
 Christianity, 2 
 City government, 53 
 Clay, Albert T., 23, 54, 61, 80, 93 
 Cox, George William, 225 
 Craig, James A., 45 
 Creation stories widespread, 100; 
 original Babylonian form, 105 
 Cush, 67 
 
 Cutha, 84, 86, 193 
 Cyrus, 31, 73 
 
 Dagan, 79 
 
 Daily Telegraph, 102 
 
 Damascius, 81 
 
 Damascus, 62 
 
 Dam-gal-nun-na, 79 
 
 Damu, 79 
 
 Darius, 31, 33, 35, 36 
 
 David, 218 
 
 Decipherment, tested, 39, 40 
 
 Delitzsch, Friedrich, 23, 46, 90, 
 92, 103, 174 
 
 Deluge tablets found, 22; Baby- 
 lonian story of, 199ff.; Genesis 
 narrative from two sources, 
 208; Genesis story of, derived 
 from Babylonia, 2Q8 
 
 Demons, influence of, 145; exor- 
 cising of, 146 
 
 Der, 82 
 
 Dhorme, 167, 188, 191, 194, 204 
 
 Driver, Samuel R., 96, 208 
 
 Drunken, Babylonian gods, 120 
 
 Duads, 83 
 
 Dumu-zi, 79 
 
 Dumu-zi-zu-ab, 79 
 
 Dun-gur, 79 
 
 Dun-pa-uddu, 79 
 
 Dun-shagga, 79 
 
 Dupuis, Charles Francois, 223, 
 224 
 
 Durilu (Der), 82 
 
 Dur-Sharrukin, 59 
 
 Ea, god of Eridu, 53, 63, 79, 81, 
 86, 104, 115, 126, 168, 171, 
 
 173, 176, 188, 189, 190, 191, 
 
 193, 200, 205, 206, 210, 213 
 Eabani, 195, 196, 197, 198 
 E-gish-shir-gal, 164 
 Egypt, 1, 66; religions of, 143 
 Ekimmu, 148 
 E-kur, 80 
 Elam, 54, 69 
 
 Ellil, or En-lil, 54, 79, 161, 201 
 E-makhtila, 178 
 En-bi-lu-lu, 178 
 En-gubarra, 79 
 En-lil (see Ellil) identified with 
 
 Bel, 80 
 En-shag-kush-an-na, 54, 80 
 Enuma elish, 104 
 Erech, ancient Warka, 21, 54, 81 
 Ereshkigal, 192 
 Eridu, oldest city, 53, 188 
 E-sagila, 175, 178, 179 
 Esarhaddon, 65, 66, 67, 68 
 E-sharra, 126 
 Etana, story of, 186 
 Ethical message in Marduk and 
 
 Ashur, 98 
 Ethical values in incantations, 
 
 157ff. 
 Euphrates, 199, 207 
 Evil-merodach, 72 
 Expository Times, 89, 90 
 E-zida, 172, 175, 178, 179 
 
 Fifth tablet of creation, 128 
 Fiorillo, librarian at Gottingen, 
 
 27 
 Fire god, 149, 151 
 First tablet of creation, 107 
 Fish, era of, 216 
 Flandin, E., 13, 14 
 Flood, Babylonian story of, 
 
 199ff. See also Deluge. 
 Food of life, 190 
 Fossey, Charles, 5, 46, 175 
 Fourth tablet of creation, 120 
 Fox, story of, 186 
 French expedition, 21 
 
 Gal-alim, 79 
 Gal-dim-zu-ab, 79 
 Ga-tum-dug, 79 
 Ghosts, 76 
 
 Gildersleeve, B. L., 225 
 Gilgames, story of, 186, 194ff. 
 Gir, 195 
 
INDEX OF PERSONS AND SUBJECTS 
 
 231 
 
 Gishku, 54 
 
 Gishzida, 189 
 
 Goddesses, list of, 79 
 
 Gods, list of, 79 
 
 Gray, C. D., 170 
 
 Grotefend, Georg Friedrich, 27ff. 
 
 Gudea, 22, 161, 162 
 
 Gunkel, Hermann, 194 
 
 Gur-mu, 79 
 
 Gushea, 168 
 
 Gutira. See Gushea. 
 
 Halevy, Joseph, 50 
 
 Hallel Psalms, 180 
 
 Hamath, 94 
 
 Hammurabi, code of, 24, 55; 
 sixth king of first dynasty, 
 54, 55, 59, 64 
 
 Hannover, 34 
 
 Harmony between heaven and 
 earth, 216 
 
 Harper, Robert F., 55, 163 
 
 Hastings, J. H., 55, 74, 143 
 
 Haupt, Paul, 45, 92, 194 
 
 Haynes, J. H., 23 
 
 Heathenism, Arabic, 2 
 
 Hebrews, 2; akin to Baby- 
 lonians, 4 
 
 Hehn, 175 
 
 Henotheism, 166 
 
 Hibbert Lectures, 103 
 
 Hillah, 21 
 
 Hilprecht, H. V., 5, 57, 161 
 
 Hincks, Edward, 36, 37, 40 
 
 Historical inscriptions first stud- 
 ied, 42 
 
 Holborn, Alfred, 208 
 
 Hommel, Fritz, 90, 92, 223 
 
 Honey image for incantation, 
 152 
 
 Hrozny, 94 
 
 Hymns to the gods, 159ff. 
 
 Hystaspes, 31, 33, 35 
 
 Identification of one god with 
 
 another, 164, 166 
 Igigi, 119, 176 
 
 Ilu-bi-'-di, 94. See Ja-u-bi-'-di. 
 Im-mi-khu (?), 79 
 Im-pa-ud-du, 79 
 Incantation, a pure, 122 
 Incantations, vitality of, in 
 
 Babylonia, 153, 154 
 Innanna, 79 
 
 Iran, 28 
 
 Irini, 167 
 
 Ishtar, 63, 69, 72, 79, 85, 87, 
 
 167, 169, 170, 181, 214 
 Ishtar of Arbela, 64, 69, 88 
 Ishtar of Nineveh, 64, 69, 88 
 
 Jahweh, tablets, 91; the name 
 not an exclusive possession of 
 the Hebrews, 95; among the 
 Babylonians, 93 
 
 Jastrow, Morris, Jr., 47, 48, 50, 
 74, 78, 87, 116, 143, 161, 163, 
 165, 171, 175, 177, 180, 182, 
 201 
 
 Ja-u-a, 93 
 
 Ja-u-bani, 93 
 
 Ja-u-bi-'-di, 94. See also Ilu- 
 bi-'-di. 
 
 Ja-u-um-ilu, 90 
 
 Ja-ve-ilu, 91 
 
 Jensen, Peter, 45, 103, 204, 223 
 
 Jeremiah, 140, 154 
 
 Jeremias, Alfred, 65, 92, 128, 
 188, 191, 194, 204, 206, 212, 
 215, 217, 218, 219 
 
 Jeremias, Friedrich, 47 
 
 Jerusalem, 181; destroyed, 71 
 
 Jevons, 75 
 
 Job, 134, 159 
 
 Johns, C. H. W., 55 
 
 Jonah, 10 
 
 Judaism, 2 
 
 Jupiter, 128, 214 
 
 Kadi, 79 
 
 Kalah Shergat, 19, 20 
 
 Kassites, 56 
 
 Kengi, 53 
 
 Kent, Charles F., 208 
 
 Khi-gir-nunna, 79 
 
 Khi-shagga, 79 
 
 Khorsabad, Assyrian mound, 12; 
 explored by Botta, 12; the 
 palace of Sargon, 13; excava- 
 tions by Layard, 20; inscrip- 
 tions, 38 
 
 Khumbaba, 196 
 
 King, Leonard W., 5, 24, 36, 46, 
 47, 56, 61, 103, 104, 105, 108, 
 109, 112, 167, 168 
 
 Kingu, 112, 114, 123, 124 
 
 Kish, 54, 80 
 
 Kishar, 108 
 
232 
 
 INDEX OF PERSONS AND SUBJECTS 
 
 Knudtzon, J. A., 45, 187 
 Koldewey, 23 
 Kottabos, 225 
 Ku(?)-anna, 79 
 Kuyunjik, 10, 11, 20, 46, 100 
 
 Labartu, series, 147 
 
 Labasu, 147 
 
 Lagash, 54 
 
 Lakhamu, 108 
 
 Lakhmu, 108 
 
 Lama, 79 
 
 Lamassu, 174 
 
 Lang, Andrew, 225 
 
 Larsa, 54, 84 
 
 Lassen, Christian, 34 
 
 Layard, Austen Henry, visits 
 mounds of Kuyunjik and Nebi 
 Yunus, 14; also Nimroud, 14; 
 returns to Constantinople, 15; 
 assisted by Canning, 15; de- 
 scribes Nimroud, 16; makes 
 discovery there, 17; employs 
 Rassam, 18; discovers palace 
 of Shalmaneser I, 18; finds 
 inscription of Shalmaneser II, 
 19; excavates at Kalah Sher- 
 gat, 19; finds inscription of 
 Tiglathpileser I, 20; discovers 
 palace of Sennacherib, 20; 
 finds portion of Ashurbani- 
 pal's library, 20; excavates at 
 Kalah Shergat, Nimroud, and 
 Khorsabad, returns to Eng- 
 land and publishes results, 
 20 
 
 Lehmann-Haupt, C. F., 92 
 
 Lenormant, Francois, 42, 43 
 
 Leviathan, 135. See Rahab. 
 
 Libra, 223 
 
 Life after death in Babylonia, 
 210 
 
 Lil (ghost), 76 
 
 Lilitu, 77 
 
 Lilu, 147 
 
 Lipush-e-a-um, 94 
 
 Littledale, R. F., 225 
 
 Local gods, 78 
 
 Loftus, William Kennett, 21 
 
 Lohr, Max, 92 
 
 Lugal-banda, 79 
 
 Lugal-Erim, 79 
 
 Lugal-shag-Engur, 54 
 
 Lugal-zaggisi, prayer of, 161 
 
 Magical or incantation tablets, 
 144 
 
 Malkatu (A), 79 
 
 Ma-ma, 79 
 
 Maqlu, the series, 146; second 
 tablet of, 148ff. 
 
 Marduk, 55, 56, 59, 65, 66, 73, 
 80, 81, 82, 85, 104, 105, 106, 
 114, 115, 119, 120, 121, 124, 
 125, 129, 131, 134, 139, 153, 
 160, 166, 173, 175, 176, 181, 
 214, 217; hymn to, 177; 
 prayer to, 71 
 
 Marduk-nadin-akhe, 58 
 
 Mars, 87, 214 
 
 Marti, Karl, 96 
 
 Maspero, 70 
 
 Medes, 69 
 
 Media, 34 
 
 Median language, 36 
 
 Memphis, 66 
 
 Mercury, 214 
 
 Merodach-baladan, 63, 64 
 
 Merx, Adalbert, 208 
 
 Meyer, Eduard, 50, 51 
 
 Mohammed, 1 
 
 Mohammedanism, 1, 142 
 
 Mohl, Julius, 13, 14 
 
 Mongols, 50 
 
 Monotheism, 89, 97, 166; eth- 
 ical, 89, 141; in Israel, 140 
 
 Morgan, Jacques de, 24 
 
 Moses, 140 
 
 Mosul, 10, 13, 100 
 
 Mugheir (Ur), 21 
 
 Muller, Friedrich Max, 225 
 
 Mummu, 107, 109 
 
 Miinter, Friedrich, 26, 28 
 
 Muss-Arnolt, 204 
 
 Myths, mixture of Sumerian 
 and Semite, 51; not to be 
 used as sources of theology, 
 185 
 
 Nabonassar, 216 
 
 Nabonidus, 72, 160 
 
 Nabopolassar, 70, 74 
 
 Nabu, 64, 66, 69, 85, 154, 173, 
 
 174, 214 
 Nabu-na'id (Nabonidus), 72 
 Nana 79 
 Nannar (Sin), 79, 149, 163, 164; 
 
 hymn to, 163 
 Nebo, 85 
 
INDEX OF PERSONS AND SUBJECTS 
 
 233 
 
 Nebuchadrezzar 1, 57, 72, 160, 163 
 Nebi Yunus, mound, 10, 11 
 Necho, 68, 70 
 Nergal, 69, 79, 84, 86 
 Nergalsharusur (Neriglissar), 72 
 Nerigal and Ereshkigal, story of, 
 
 187 
 Nesu, 79 
 Nibir, 128 
 Nidaba, 79 
 
 Niebuhr, Carsten, 25, 28 
 Nile, 66 
 Nimroud, 20 
 Nina, 79 
 Nin-a-gal, 79 
 Nin-agid-kha-du, 79 
 Nin-asu, 79 
 Nin-dar-a, 79 
 Nin-din-dug, 79 
 Nin-e-gal, 79 
 Nineveh, 2, 6, 9, 70 
 Nin-gal, 79 
 Nin-gir-su, 79, 84, 162 
 Nin-gish-zi-da, 79 
 Ninib, 63, 69, 87, 166, 178, 181, 
 
 200, 205, 214 
 Nin-khar-sag, 79 
 Nin-ki, 79 
 Nin-mar, 79 
 Nin-shakh, 79 
 Nin-shul-li, 79 
 Nin-si-na, 79 
 Nin-sun, 79 
 Nin-urum, 79 
 Nippur, 54 
 Nisan, 177 
 Nisir, mount, 204 
 Nisroch, 65, 66 
 No-return, the land of, 191 
 Nudimmud, 108, 126. See Ea. 
 Nu-ku-sir-da, 79 
 Nun-gal, 79 
 Nus-ku, 149 
 
 Oannes, 81. See also Ea. 
 
 Oettli, Samuel, 92 
 
 Omorka, 138. See also Ummu- 
 
 Khubur and Tiamat. 
 Oppert, Jules, 21, 36, 40, 128 
 Ox and Horse, story of, 186 
 
 Pantheon of Shalmaneser II, 87; 
 
 of Sennacherib, 87, 88 
 Papsukal, 193 
 
 Pa-sag, 79 
 
 Pathros, 67 
 
 Penitential psalms, 180ff., the 
 
 most beautiful, 182 
 Persepolis, 25, 27, 36, 37 
 Persia, 1, 34 
 Persian Gulf, 53 
 Persian inscriptions, 27 
 Peters, John P., 23 
 Pinches, T. G., 50 
 Polyhistor, 65 
 Polytheism, 88, 97, 190 
 Prayers, 161ff. 
 Price, I. M.j 162 
 Priesthood in religions, 142, 143 
 Prospero, 138 
 Psalms, penitential, 180ff. 
 Psalter, Hebrew, 161 
 Psammeticus, 68 
 Pul (Tiglathpileser IV), 61, 62 
 
 Rabisu, 147 
 
 Radau, H., 94, 161 
 
 Rahab, 134. See also Leviathan. 
 
 Rainbow in Genesis, 205 
 
 Raising of the Hand, Prayer of, 
 167 
 
 Ramman, 66, 85, 166 
 
 Rassam, Hormuzd, employed by 
 Layard, 18; begins independ- 
 ent excavations, 21; recovers 
 major part of library of Ashur- 
 banipal, 22; discovers deluge 
 tablets, 22; excavates at Bal- 
 awat, 22; discovers library of 
 Ashurbanipal, 101 
 
 Rawlinson, Sir Henry C, copies 
 Behistun inscription, 35; de- 
 ciphers Persian texts, 35, 36; 
 publishes memoir, 39, 40, 102 
 
 Reisner, George, 45 
 
 Religion, study of, 1; of Baby- 
 lonia, periods of, 74 
 
 Resemblances between Genesis 
 and Babylonian creation 
 story, 138-140 
 
 Revelation of God, 228 
 
 Rich, Claudius James, born in 
 Dijon, 6; explores in Babylon, 
 7, 8; and at Nineveh, 9; died 
 at Shiraz, 9 
 
 Rituals, incantation, 146 
 
 Rogers, Robert W., 5, 6, 19. 36, 
 39, 50, 73 
 
234 
 
 INDEX OF PERSONS AND SUBJECTS 
 
 Roscher, 47 
 Rostock, 26 
 Royal Asiatic Society, 40 
 
 Sacred books in religions, 142, 143 
 
 Sacy, de, 28 
 
 Sala, 85 
 
 Sarangia, 34 
 
 Sargon I, 80, 106 
 
 Sargon II, 62, 94 
 
 Sarzec, Ernest de, 22 
 
 Saturn, 87 
 
 Saul, 218 
 
 Saulcy, de, 36 
 
 Sauveplane, 194 
 
 Sayce, A. H., 42, 44, 47, 50, 76, 
 
 83, 89, 95, 102, 128, 170, 182, 
 
 190, 191, 206 
 Scheil, 55 
 
 Script, the Sumerian, 132 
 Scythians, 69 
 
 Second tablet of creation, 113 
 Sellin, Ernst, 94 
 Semites, dress of, 51; originated 
 
 in Arabia, 50 
 Sennacherib, 20, 63, 64 
 Seventh tablet of creation, 130 
 Sexagesimal system, 216 
 Shala, 85 
 Shalmaneser I, 18 
 Shalmaneser II, 19, 22, 60 
 Shalmaneser IV, 62 
 Shamash, 62, 63, 66, 72, 79, 84, 
 
 149, 150, 151, 160, 172, 181, 
 
 193, 214; hymns to, 159 
 Shedu, 147, 148, 174 
 Shid, 79 
 
 Shipat-Eridu, 176 
 Shirpurla, 54 
 Shurippak, 199, 200 
 Shurpu, the series, 147; second 
 
 tablet of, 157ff. 
 Sickness, incantation for, 148 
 Siduri-Sabitu, 198 
 Sin (god), 64, 69, 79, 83, 150, 
 
 151, 165, 168, 191, 193, 214,217 
 Sin as the cause of misfortune, 
 
 159 
 Sippar, 84, 160 
 Sixth tablet of creation, 129 
 Smith, George, deciphers deluge 
 
 tablets, 22; excavates at Ku- 
 
 yunjik, 22; dies at Aleppo, 22; 
 
 first discovery, 41, 206 
 
 Sogdiana, 34 
 Solomon, 218 
 
 Speculations, Babylonian, in Is- 
 rael, 133 
 Sullivan, E., 225 
 Sumer and Akkad, 67 
 Sumerians, 50, 51 
 Susa, 24 
 
 Susian language, 36 
 Syria, 1, 62 
 
 Ta'anek, 94 
 
 Talbot, Fox, 39 
 
 Tallquist, K., 148 
 
 Tammuz, 189 
 
 Tashmetu, 154 
 
 Taylor, J. E., 21 
 
 Tehom (Tiamat), 137 
 
 Tell-el-Amarna, 187 
 
 Telloh, 22 
 
 Tema, 73 
 
 Texts, religious, difficulty of, 3 
 
 Thebes, 68 
 
 Theory of the universe, 211 
 
 Third tablet of creation, 117 
 
 Thompson, R. C, 36, 46, 158 
 
 Thureau-Dangin, 94, 161, 162 
 
 Tiamat, 104, 111, 115, 116, 117, 
 
 118, 130 
 Tierkreis (zodiac), 214, 216 
 Tiglathpileser I, 20, 39, 40, 58 
 Tiglathpileser IV (Pul), 61 
 Tigris, 57 
 Tirhaqa, 66 
 Ti'u, 147 
 
 Toothache, the worm of, 157 
 Tree of life, 190 
 Triads, 82, 85 
 
 Triad (Anu, Ellil, and Ea), 109 
 Tychsen, Olav Gerhard, 26, 28 
 Tyrrell, R. Y., 225 
 
 Ummu-Khubur (Tiamat), 112 
 
 Ur, 21, 54, 84. See also Mug- 
 heir. 
 
 Ur-du-zi, 79 
 
 Ur-e-nun-ta-ud-du-a, 79 
 
 Ur-Nina, 54 
 
 Uruk 195 
 
 Ut-napishtim, 198, 206, 207. 
 See also Xisuthros and Atra- 
 khasis. 
 
 Utu (Shamash), 84 
 
 Utukku, 147, 148 
 
INDEX OF PERSONS AND SUBJECTS 
 
 235 
 
 Valle, Pietro della, 25 
 Venus, 85 
 Virolleaud, Charles, 46 
 
 Warka, excavations at, 21 
 Water of life, 194 
 Weber, Otto, 167 
 Weissbach, F. H., 36, 50, 177 
 Weltanschauung, 211 
 Westergaard, Niels Louis, 36 
 "When the Euphrates arose," 
 
 186 
 Winckler, Hugo, 57, 61, 65, 72, 
 
 187, 194, 204, 211, 212, 214, 
 
 217, 222 
 Witcheries, 168 
 
 Xerxes, 31, 33, 35 
 Xisuthros, 206. See also Atra- 
 khasis and Ut-napishtim. 
 
 Yah we, 91. See also Jahweh. 
 
 Zagros, 50 
 
 Za-ma-ma, 79 
 
 Zar-mu, 79 
 
 Za-za-ru, 79 
 
 Zi (spirit), 75 
 
 Zimmern, Heinrich, 45, 92, 103, 
 
 108, 116, 128, 157, 165, 167, 
 
 182, 187, 191, 194 
 Zodiac, 213, 216. See also Tier- 
 
 kreis. 
 
 INDEX OF BIBLICAL PASSAGES 
 
 Gen. 1. 1-2. 4a 137 
 
 1.2 137 
 
 1. 3-5 138 
 
 1.6-8 138 
 
 1. 9-13 138 
 
 1. 14-19 139 
 
 1. 20-25 139 
 
 1. 26-31 139 
 
 3. 22 190 
 
 9. 8-17 205 
 
 Exod. 3. 13ff 95 
 
 6. 2ff 95 
 
 20.4 220 
 
 Deut. 4. 15, 19 221 
 
 17.2ff 221 
 
 Judg. 6.36-40 121 
 
 1 Kings 14. 4 94 
 
 2 Kings 15. 19 61 
 
 19.36,37 65 
 
 25.27ff 72 
 
 1 Chron. 5. 26 61 
 
 Job 9. 13 135 
 
 26. 12, 13 135 
 
 Psa. 74. 12-17 136 
 
 89. 8-12 134 
 
 Isa. 34. 14 77 
 
 40. 25, 26 220 
 
 47. 13 221 
 
 Jer. 39. 3, 13 72 
 
 Amos 9. 3 135 
 
 Nahum2. 8 67 
 
vV»' 
 
Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
 Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
 Treatment Date: Jan. 2005 
 
 PreservationTechnologies 
 
 A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 
 
 1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
 Cranberry Township. PA 16066 
 (724)779-2111 
 
u 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 013 770 669 6 
 
 ■ 
 
 1 ■ 
 
 ■DM 
 
 ra 
 
 n 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 w 
 
 H 
 
 H 
 
 
 H 
 
 m 
 
 mo '• ™ix 
 
 HM1