In the north the Cimmerians and Scythians, who were constantly warring against Urartu, and against each other, had spread themselves westward and east. Esarhaddon drove Cimmerian invaders out of Cappadocia, and they swamped Phrygia.

The Scythian peril on the north-east frontier was, however, of more pronounced character. The fierce mountaineers had allied themselves with Median tribes and overrun the buffer State of the Mannai. Both Urartu and Assyria were sufferers from the brigandage of these allies. Esarhaddon's generals, however, were able to deal with the situation, and one of the notable results of the pacification of the north-eastern area was the conclusion of an alliance with Urartu.

The most serious situation with which the emperor had to deal was in the west. The King of Sidon, who had been so greatly favoured by Sennacherib, had espoused the Egyptian cause. He allied himself with the King of Cilicia, who, however, was unable to help him much. Sidon was besieged and captured; the royal allies escaped, but a few years later were caught and beheaded. The famous seaport was destroyed, and its vast treasures deported to Assyria (about 676 B.C). Esarhaddon replaced it by a new city called Kar-Esarhaddon, which formed the nucleus of the new Sidon.

It is believed that Judah and other disaffected States were dealt with about this time. Manasseh had succeeded Hezekiah at Jerusalem when but a boy of twelve years. He appears to have come under the influence of heathen teachers.

For he built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal, and made a grove, as did Ahab king of Israel; and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them.... And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. And he made his son pass through the fire, and observed times, and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards: he wrought much wickedness in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger. And he set a graven image of the grove that he had made in the house, of which the Lord said to David, and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever.[539]

Isaiah ceased to prophesy after Manasseh came to the throne. According to Rabbinic traditions he was seized by his enemies and enclosed in the hollow trunk of a tree, which was sawn through. Other orthodox teachers appear to have been slain also. "Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another."[540] It is possible that there is a reference to Isaiah's fate in an early Christian lament regarding the persecutions of the faithful: "Others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword".[541] There is no Assyrian evidence regarding the captivity of Manasseh. "Wherefore the Lord brought upon them (the people of Judah) the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon. And when he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed unto him: and he was intreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom."[542] It was, however, in keeping with the policy of Esarhaddon to deal in this manner with an erring vassal. The Assyrian records include Manasseh of Judah (Menase of the city of Yaudu) with the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, Ashdod, Gaza, Byblos, &c, and "twenty-two kings of Khatti" as payers of tribute to Esarhaddon, their overlord. Hazael of Arabia was conciliated by having restored to him his gods which Sennacherib had carried away.

Egypt continued to intrigue against Assyria, and Esarhaddon resolved to deal effectively with Taharka, the last Ethiopian Pharaoh. In 674 B.C. he invaded Egypt, but suffered a reverse and had to retreat. Tyre revolted soon afterwards (673 B.C).

Esarhaddon, however, made elaborate preparations for his next campaign. In 671 B.C. he went westward with a much more powerful army. A detachment advanced to Tyre and invested it. The main force meanwhile pushed on, crossed the Delta frontier, and swept victoriously as far south as Memphis, where Taharka suffered a crushing defeat. That great Egyptian metropolis was then occupied and plundered by the soldiers of Esarhaddon. Lower Egypt became an Assyrian province; the various petty kings, including Necho of Sais, had set over them Assyrian governors. Tyre was also captured.

When he returned home Esarhaddon erected at the Syro-Cappadocian city of Singirli[543] a statue of victory, which is now in the Berlin museum. On this memorial the Assyrian "King of the kings of Egypt" is depicted as a giant. With one hand he pours out an oblation to a god; in the other he grasps his sceptre and two cords attached to rings, which pierce the lips of dwarfish figures representing the Pharaoh Taharka of Egypt and the unfaithful King of Tyre.

In 668 B.C. Taharka, who had fled to Napata in Ethiopia, returned to Upper Egypt, and began to stir up revolts. Esarhaddon planned out another expedition, so that he might shatter the last vestige of power possessed by his rival. But before he left home he found it necessary to set his kingdom in order.

During his absence from home the old Assyrian party, who disliked the emperor because of Babylonian sympathies, had been intriguing regarding the succession to the throne. According to the Babylonian Chronicle, "the king remained in Assyria" during 669 B.C., "and he slew with the sword many noble men". Ashur-bani-pal was evidently concerned in the conspiracy, and it is significant to find that he pleaded on behalf of certain of the conspirators. The crown prince Sinidinabal was dead: perhaps he had been assassinated.

At the feast of the goddess Gula (identical with Bau, consort of Ninip), towards the end of April in 668 B.C., Esarhaddon divided his empire between two of his sons. Ashur-bani-pal was selected to be King of Assyria, and Shamash-shum-ukin to be King of Babylon and the vassal of Ashur-banipal. Other sons received important priestly appointments.

Soon after these arrangements were completed Esarhaddon, who was suffering from bad health, set out for Egypt. He died towards the end of October, and the early incidents of his campaign were included in the records of Ashur-bani-pal's reign. Taharka was defeated at Memphis, and retreated southward to Thebes.

So passed away the man who has been eulogized as "the noblest and most sympathetic figure among the Assyrian kings". There was certainly much which was attractive in his character. He inaugurated many social reforms, and appears to have held in check his overbearing nobles. Trade flourished during his reign. He did not undertake the erection of a new city, like his father, but won the gratitude of the priesthood by his activities as a builder and restorer of temples. He founded a new "house of Ashur" at Nineveh, and reconstructed several temples in Babylonia. His son Ashur-bani-pal was the last great Assyrian ruler.



CHAPTER XX.

THE LAST DAYS OF ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA

Doom of Nineveh and Babylon—Babylonian Monotheism—Ashur-banipal and his Brother, King of Babylon—Ceremony of "Taking the Hands of Bel"—Merodach restored to E-sagila—Assyrian Invasion of Egypt and Sack of Thebes—Lydia's Appeal to Assyria—Elam subdued—Revolt of Babylon—Death of Babylonian King—Sack of Susa—Psamtik of Egypt—Cimmerians crushed—Ashur-bani-pal's Literary Activities—The Sardanapalus Legend—Last Kings of Assyria—Fall of Nineveh—The New Babylonian Empire—Necho of Egypt expelled from Syria—King Jehoaikin of Judah deposed—Zedekiah's Revolt and Punishment—Fall of Jerusalem and Hebrew Captivity—Jeremiah laments over Jerusalem—Babylonia's Last Independent King—Rise of Cyrus the Conqueror—The Persian Patriarch and Eagle Legend—Cyrus conquers Lydia—Fall of Babylon—Jews return to Judah—Babylon from Cyrus to Alexander the Great.

The burden of Nineveh.... The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers: Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth.... He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face.... The gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved. And Huzzab shall be led away captive, she shall be brought up, and her maids shall lead her as with the voice of doves, tabering upon their breasts.... Draw thee waters for the siege, fortify thy strong holds: go into clay, and tread the morter, make strong the brick-kiln. There shall the fire devour thee; the sword shall cut thee off.... Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria: thy nobles shall dwell in the dust: thy people is scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth them. There is no healing of thy bruise; thy wound is grievous: all that hear the bruit of thee shall clap the hands over thee: for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?[544]

The doom of Babylon was also foretold:

Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth.... Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans.... Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth; if so be thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail. Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the star-gazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee. Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them.... Thus shall they be unto thee with whom thou hast laboured, even thy merchants, from thy youth: they shall wander every one to his quarter; none shall save thee.[545]

Against a gloomy background, dark and ominous as a thundercloud, we have revealed in the last century of Mesopotamian glory the splendour of Assyria and the beauty of Babylon. The ancient civilizations ripened quickly before the end came. Kings still revelled in pomp and luxury. Cities resounded with "the noise of a whip, and the noise of the rattling of the wheels, and of the prancing horses, and of the jumping chariots. The horseman lifteth up both the bright sword and the glittering spear.... The valiant men are in scarlet."[546] But the minds of cultured men were more deeply occupied than ever with the mysteries of life and creation. In the libraries, the temples, and observatories, philosophers and scientists were shattering the unsubstantial fabric of immemorial superstition; they attained to higher conceptions of the duties and responsibilities of mankind; they conceived of divine love and divine guidance; they discovered, like Wordsworth, that the soul has—

An obscure sense Of possible sublimity, whereto With growing faculties she doth aspire.

One of the last kings of Babylon, Nebuchadrezzar, recorded a prayer which reveals the loftiness of religious thought and feeling attained by men to whom graven images were no longer worthy of adoration and reverence—men whose god was not made by human hands—

O eternal prince! Lord of all being! As for the king whom thou lovest, and Whose name thou hast proclaimed As was pleasing to thee, Do thou lead aright his life, Guide him in a straight path. I am the prince, obedient to thee, The creature of thy hand; Thou hast created me, and With dominion over all people Thou hast entrusted me. According to thy grace, O Lord, Which thou dost bestow on All people, Cause me to love thy supreme dominion, And create in my heart The worship of thy godhead And grant whatever is pleasing to thee, Because thou hast fashioned my life.[547]

The "star-gazers" had become scientists, and foretold eclipses: in every sphere of intellectual activity great men were sifting out truth from the debris of superstition. It seemed as if Babylon and Assyria were about to cross the threshold of a new age, when their doom was sounded and their power was shattered for ever. Nineveh perished with dramatic suddenness: Babylon died of "senile decay".

When, in 668 B.C., intelligence reached Nineveh that Esarhaddon had passed away, on the march through Egypt, the arrangements which he had made for the succession were carried out smoothly and quickly. Naki'a, the queen mother, was acting as regent, and completed her lifework by issuing a proclamation exhorting all loyal subjects and vassals to obey the new rulers, her grandsons, Ashur-bani-pal, Emperor of Assyria, and Shamash-shum-ukin, King of Babylon. Peace prevailed in the capital, and there was little or no friction throughout the provinces: new rulers were appointed to administer the States of Arvad and Ammon, but there were no changes elsewhere.

Babylon welcomed its new king—a Babylonian by birth and the son of a Babylonian princess. The ancient kingdom rejoiced that it was no longer to be ruled as a province; its ancient dignities and privileges were being partially restored. But one great and deep-seated grievance remained. The god Merodach was still a captive in the temple of Ashur. No king could reign aright if Merodach were not restored to E-sagila. Indeed he could not be regarded as the lord of the land until he had "taken the hands of Bel".

The ceremony of taking the god's hands was an act of homage. When it was consummated the king became the steward or vassal of Merodach, and every day he appeared before the divine one to receive instructions and worship him. The welfare of the whole kingdom depended on the manner in which the king acted towards the god. If Merodach was satisfied with the king he sent blessings to the land; if he was angry he sent calamities. A pious and faithful monarch was therefore the protector of the people.

This close association of the king with the god gave the priests great influence in Babylon. They were the power behind the throne. The destinies of the royal house were placed in their hands; they could strengthen the position of a royal monarch, or cause him to be deposed if he did not satisfy their demands. A king who reigned over Babylon without the priestly party on his side occupied an insecure position. Nor could he secure the co-operation of the priests unless the image of the god was placed in the temple. Where king was, there Merodach had to be also.

Shamash-shum-ukin pleaded with his royal brother and overlord to restore Bel Merodach to Babylon. Ashur-bani-pal hesitated for a time; he was unwilling to occupy a less dignified position, as the representative of Ashur, than his distinguished predecessor, in his relation to the southern kingdom. At length, however, he was prevailed upon to consult the oracle of Shamash, the solar lawgiver, the revealer of destiny. The god was accordingly asked if Shamash-shum-ukin could "take the hands of Bel" in Ashur's temple, and then proceed to Babylon as his representative. In response, the priests of Shamash informed the emperor that Bel Merodach could not exercise sway as sovereign lord so long as he remained a prisoner in a city which was not his own.

Ashur-bani-pal accepted the verdict, and then visited Ashur's temple to plead with Bel Merodach to return to Babylon. "Let thy thoughts", he cried, "dwell in Babylon, which in thy wrath thou didst bring to naught. Let thy face be turned towards E-sagila, thy lofty and divine temple. Return to the city thou hast deserted for a house unworthy of thee. O Merodach! lord of the gods, issue thou the command to return again to Babylon."

Thus did Ashur-bani-pal make pious and dignified submission to the will of the priests. A favourable response was, of course, received from Merodach when addressed by the emperor, and the god's image was carried back to E-sagila, accompanied by a strong force. Ashur-bani-pal and Shamash-shum-ukin led the procession of priests and soldiers, and elaborate ceremonials were observed at each city they passed, the local gods being carried forth to do homage to Merodach.

Babylon welcomed the deity who was thus restored to his temple after the lapse of about a quarter of a century, and the priests celebrated with unconcealed satisfaction and pride the ceremony at which Shamash-shum-ukin "took the hands of Bel". The public rejoicings were conducted on an elaborate scale. Babylon believed that a new era of prosperity had been inaugurated, and the priests and nobles looked forward to the day when the kingdom would once again become free and independent and powerful.

Ashur-bani-pal (668-626 B.C.) made arrangements to complete his father's designs regarding Egypt. His Tartan continued the campaign, and Taharka, as has been stated, was driven from Memphis. The beaten Pharaoh returned to Ethiopia and did not again attempt to expel the Assyrians. He died in 666 B.C. It was found that some of the petty kings of Lower Egypt had been intriguing with Taharka, and their cities were severely dealt with. Necho of Sais had to be arrested, among others, but was pardoned after he appeared before Ashur-bani-pal, and sent back to Egypt as the Assyrian governor.

Tanutamon, a son of Pharaoh Shabaka, succeeded Taharka, and in 663 B.C. marched northward from Thebes with a strong army. He captured Memphis. It is believed Necho was slain, and Herodotus relates that his son Psamtik took refuge in Syria. In 661 B.C. Ashur-bani-pal's army swept through Lower Egypt and expelled the Ethiopians. Tanutamon fled southward, but on this occasion the Assyrians followed up their success, and besieged and captured Thebes, which they sacked. Its nobles were slain or taken captive. According to the prophet Nahum, who refers to Thebes as No (Nu-Amon = city of Amon), "her young children also were dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets: and they (the Assyrians) cast lots for her honourable men, and all her great men were bound in chains".[548] Thebes never again recovered its prestige. Its treasures were transported to Nineveh. The Ethiopian supremacy in Egypt was finally extinguished, and Psamtik, son of Necho, who was appointed the Pharaoh, began to reign as the vassal of Assyria.

When the kings on the seacoasts of Palestine and Asia Minor found that they could no longer look to Egypt for help, they resigned themselves to the inevitable, and ceased to intrigue against Assyria. Gifts were sent to Ashur-bani-pal by the kings of Arvad, Tyre, Tarsus, and Tabal. The Arvad ruler, however, was displaced, and his son set on his throne. But the most extraordinary development was the visit to Nineveh of emissaries from Gyges, king of Lydia, who figures in the legends of Greece. This monarch had been harassed by the Cimmerians after they accomplished the fall of Midas of Phrygia in 676 B.C., and he sought the help of Ashur-bani-pal. It is not known whether the Assyrians operated against the Cimmerians in Tabal, but, as Gyges did not send tribute, it would appear that he held his own with the aid of mercenaries from the State of Caria in southwestern Asia Minor. The Greeks of Cilicia, and the Achaeans and Phoenicians of Cyprus remained faithful to Assyria.

Elam gave trouble in 665 B.C. by raiding Akkad, but the Assyrian army repulsed the invaders at Dur-ilu and pushed on to Susa. The Elamites received a crushing defeat in a battle on the banks of the River Ula. King Teumman was slain, and a son of the King of Urtagu was placed on his throne. Elam thus came under Assyrian sway.

The most surprising and sensational conspiracy against Ashur-bani-pal was fomented by his brother Shamash-shum-ukin of Babylon, after the two had co-operated peacefully for fifteen years. No doubt the priestly party at E-sagila were deeply concerned in the movement, and the king may have been strongly influenced by the fact that Babylonia was at the time suffering from severe depression caused by a series of poor harvests. Merodach, according to the priests, was angry; it was probably argued that he was punishing the people because they had not thrown off the yoke of Assyria.

The temple treasures of Babylon were freely drawn upon to purchase the allegiance of allies. Ere Ashur-bani-pal had any knowledge of the conspiracy his brother had won over several governors in Babylonia, the Chaldaeans, Aramaeans and Elamites, and many petty kings in Palestine and Syria: even Egypt and Libya were prepared to help him. When, however, the faithful governor of Ur was approached, he communicated with his superior at Erech, who promptly informed Ashur-bani-pal of the great conspiracy. The intelligence reached Nineveh like a bolt from the blue. The emperor's heart was filled with sorrow and anguish. In after-time he lamented in an inscription that his "faithless brother" forgot the favours he had shown him. "Outwardly with his lips he spoke friendly things, while inwardly his heart plotted murder."

In 652 B.C. Shamash-shum-ukin precipitated the crisis by forbidding Ashur-bani-pal to make offerings to the gods in the cities of Babylonia. He thus declared his independence.

War broke out simultaneously. Ur and Erech were besieged and captured by the Chaldaeans, and an Elamite army marched to the aid of the King of Babylon, but it was withdrawn before long on account of the unsettled political conditions at home. The Assyrian armies swept through Babylonia, and the Chaldeans in the south were completely subjugated before Babylon was captured. That great commercial metropolis was closely besieged for three years, and was starved into submission. When the Assyrians were entering the city gates a sensational happening occurred. Shamash-shum-ukin, the rebel king, shut himself up in his palace and set fire to it, and perished there amidst the flames with his wife and children, his slaves and all his treasures. Ashur-bani-pal was in 647 B.C. proclaimed King Kandalanu[549] of Babylon, and reigned over it until his death in 626 B.C.

Elam was severely dealt with. That unhappy country was terribly devastated by Assyrian troops, who besieged and captured Susa, which was pillaged and wrecked. It was recorded afterwards as a great triumph of this campaign that the statue of Nana of Erech, which had been carried off by Elamites 1635 years previously, was recovered and restored to the ancient Sumerian city. Elam's power of resistance was finally extinguished, and the country fell a ready prey to the Medes and Persians, who soon entered into possession of it. Thus, by destroying a buffer State, Ashur-bani-pal strengthened the hands of the people who were destined twenty years after his death to destroy the Empire of Assyria.

The western allies of Babylon were also dealt with, and it may be that at this time Manasseh of Judah was taken to Babylon (2 Chronicles, xxxiii, II), where, however, he was forgiven. The Medes and the Mannai in the north-west were visited and subdued, and a new alliance was formed with the dying State of Urartu.

Psamtik of Egypt had thrown off the yoke of Assyria, and with the assistance of Carian mercenaries received from his ally, Gyges, king of Lydia, extended his sway southward. He made peace with Ethiopia by marrying a princess of its royal line. Gyges must have weakened his army by thus assisting Psamtik, for he was severely defeated and slain by the Cimmerians. His son, Ardys, appealed to Assyria for help. Ashur-bani-pal dispatched an army to Cilicia. The joint operations of Assyria and Lydia resulted in the extinction of the kingdom of the Cimmerians about 645 B.C.

The records of Ashur-bani-pal cease after 640 B.C., so that we are unable to follow the events of his reign during its last fourteen years. Apparently peace prevailed everywhere. The great monarch, who was a pronounced adherent of the goddess cults, appears to have given himself up to a life of indulgence and inactivity. Under the name Sardanapalus he went down to tradition as a sensual Oriental monarch who lived in great pomp and luxury, and perished in his burning palace when the Medes revolted against him. It is evident, however, that the memory of more than one monarch contributed to the Sardanapalus legend, for Ashur-bani-pal had lain nearly twenty years in his grave before the siege of Nineveh took place.

In the Bible he is referred to as "the great and noble Asnapper", and he appears to have been the emperor who settled the Babylonian, Elamite, and other colonists "in the cities of Samaria".[550]

He erected at Nineveh a magnificent palace, which was decorated on a lavish scale. The sculptures are the finest productions of Assyrian art, and embrace a wide variety of subjects—battle scenes, hunting scenes, and elaborate Court and temple ceremonies. Realism is combined with a delicacy of touch and a degree of originality which raises the artistic productions of the period to the front rank among the artistic triumphs of antiquity.

Ashur-bani-pal boasted of the thorough education which he had received from the tutors of his illustrious father, Esarhaddon. In his palace he kept a magnificent library. It contained thousands of clay tablets on which were inscribed and translated the classics of Babylonia. To the scholarly zeal of this cultured monarch is due the preservation of the Babylonian story of creation, the Gilgamesh and Etana legends, and other literary and religious products of remote antiquity. Most of the literary tablets in the British Museum were taken from Ashur-bani-pal's library.

There are no Assyrian records of the reigns of Ashur-bani-pal's two sons, Ashur-etil-ilani—who erected a small palace and reconstructed the temple to Nebo at Kalkhi—and Sin-shar-ishkun, who is supposed to have perished in Nineveh. Apparently Ashur-etil-ilani reigned for at least six years, and was succeeded by his brother.

A year after Ashur-bani-pal died, Nabopolassar, who was probably a Chaldaean, was proclaimed king at Babylon. According to Babylonian legend he was an Assyrian general who had been sent southward with an army to oppose the advance of invaders from the sea. Nabopolassar's sway at first was confined to Babylon and Borsippa, but he strengthened himself by forming an offensive and defensive alliance with the Median king, whose daughter he had married to his son Nebuchadrezzar. He strengthened the fortifications of Babylon, rebuilt the temple of Merodach, which had been destroyed by Ashur-bani-pal, and waged war successfully against the Assyrians and their allies in Mesopotamia.

About 606 B.C. Nineveh fell, and Sin-shar-ishkun may have burned himself there in his palace, like his uncle, Shamash-shum-ukin of Babylon, and the legendary Sardanapalus. It is not certain, however, whether the Scythians or the Medes were the successful besiegers of the great Assyrian capital. "Woe to the bloody city! it is all full of lies and robbery", Nahum had cried."... The gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved.... Take ye the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold.... Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts[551]."

According to Herodotus, an army of Medes under Cyaxares had defeated the Assyrians and were besieging Nineveh when the Scythians overran Media. Cyaxares raised the siege and went against them, but was defeated. Then the Scythians swept across Assyria and Mesopotamia, and penetrated to the Delta frontier of Egypt. Psamtik ransomed his kingdom with handsome gifts. At length, however, Cyaxares had the Scythian leaders slain at a banquet, and then besieged and captured Nineveh.

Assyria was completely overthrown. Those of its nobles and priests who escaped the sword no doubt escaped to Babylonia. Some may have found refuge also in Palestine and Egypt.

Necho, the second Pharaoh of the Twenty-sixth Egyptian Dynasty, did not hesitate to take advantage of Assyria's fall. In 609 B.C. he proceeded to recover the long-lost Asiatic possessions of Egypt, and operated with an army and fleet. Gaza and Askalon were captured. Josiah, the grandson of Manasseh, was King of Judah. "In his days Pharaoh-nechoh king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates: and king Josiah went against him; and he (Necho) slew him at Megiddo."[552] His son, Jehoahaz, succeeded him, but was deposed three months later by Necho, who placed another son of Josiah, named Eliakim, on the throne, "and turned his name to Jehoiakim".[553] The people were heavily taxed to pay tribute to the Pharaoh.

When Necho pushed northward towards the Euphrates he was met by a Babylonian army under command of Prince Nebuchadrezzar.[554] The Egyptians were routed at Carchemish in 605 B.C. (Jeremiah, xvi, 2).

In 604 B.C. Nabopolassar died, and the famous Nebuchadrezzar II ascended the throne of Babylon. He lived to be one of its greatest kings, and reigned for over forty years. It was he who built the city described by Herodotus (pp. 219 et seq.), and constructed its outer wall, which enclosed so large an area that no army could invest it. Merodach's temple was decorated with greater magnificence than ever before. The great palace and hanging gardens were erected by this mighty monarch, who no doubt attracted to the city large numbers of the skilled artisans who had fled from Nineveh. He also restored temples at other cities, and made generous gifts to the priests. Captives were drafted into Babylonia from various lands, and employed cleaning out the canals and as farm labourers.

The trade and industries of Babylon flourished greatly, and Nebuchadrezzar's soldiers took speedy vengeance on roving bands which infested the caravan roads. "The king of Egypt", after his crushing defeat at Carchemish, "came not again any more out of his land: for the king of Babylon had taken from the river of Egypt unto the river Euphrates all that pertained to the king of Egypt."[555] Jehoiakim of Judah remained faithful to Necho until he was made a prisoner by Nebuchadrezzar, who "bound him in fetters to carry him to Babylon".[556] He was afterwards sent back to Jerusalem. "And Jehoiakim became his (Nebuchadrezzar's) servant three years: then he turned and rebelled against him."[557]

Bands of Chaldaeans, Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites were harassing the frontiers of Judah, and it seemed to the king as if the Babylonian power had collapsed. Nebuchadrezzar hastened westward and scattered the raiders before him. Jehoiakim died, and his son Jehoiachan, a youth of eighteen years, succeeded him. Nebuchadrezzar laid siege to Jerusalem, and the young king submitted to him and was carried off to Babylon, with "all the princes, and all the mighty men of valour, even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths: none remained save the poorest sort of the people of the land".[558] Nebuchadrezzar had need of warriors and workmen.

Zedekiah was placed on the throne of Judah as an Assyrian vassal. He remained faithful for a few years, but at length began to conspire with Tyre and Sidon, Moab, Edom, and Ammon in favour of Egyptian suzerainty. Pharaoh Hophra (Apries), the fourth king of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, took active steps to assist the conspirators, and "Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon[559]".

Nebuchadrezzar led a strong army through Mesopotamia, and divided it at Riblah, on the Orontes River. One part of it descended upon Judah and captured Lachish and Azekah. Jerusalem was able to hold out for about eighteen months. Then "the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land. Then the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled, and went forth out of the city by night by way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king's garden." Zedekiah attempted to escape, but was captured and carried before Nebuchadrezzar, who was at Riblah, in the land of Hamath.

And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes.... Then he put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in chains and carried him to Babylon and put him in prison till the day of his death[560].

The majority of the Jews were deported to Babylonia, where they were employed as farm labourers. Some rose to occupy important official positions. A remnant escaped to Egypt with Jeremiah.

Jerusalem was plundered and desolated. The Assyrians "burned the house of the Lord and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem", and "brake down all the walls of Jerusalem round about". Jeremiah lamented:

How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary! She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her: all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies. Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great servitude: she dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no rest: all her persecutors overtook her between the straits.... Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old....[561]

Tyre was besieged, but was not captured. Its king, however, arranged terms of peace with Nebuchadrezzar.

Amel-Marduk, the "Evil Merodach" of the Bible, the next king of Babylon, reigned for a little over two years. He released Jehoiachin from prison, and allowed him to live in the royal palace.[562] Berosus relates that Amel-Marduk lived a dissipated life, and was slain by his brother-in-law, Nergal-shar-utsur, who reigned two years (559-6 B.C.). Labashi-Marduk, son of Nergal-shar-utsur, followed with a reign of nine months. He was deposed by the priests. Then a Babylonian prince named Nabu-na'id (Nabonidus) was set on the throne. He was the last independent king of Babylonia. His son Belshazzar appears to have acted as regent during the latter part of the reign.

Nabonidus engaged himself actively during his reign (556-540 B.C.) in restoring temples. He entirely reconstructed the house of Shamash, the sun god, at Sippar, and, towards the end of his reign, the house of Sin, the moon god, at Haran. The latter building had been destroyed by the Medes.

The religious innovations of Nabonidus made him exceedingly unpopular throughout Babylonia, for he carried away the gods of Ur, Erech, Larsa, and Eridu, and had them placed in E-sagila. Merodach and his priests were displeased: the prestige of the great god was threatened by the policy adopted by Nabonidus. As an inscription composed after the fall of Babylon sets forth; Merodach "gazed over the surrounding lands ... looking for a righteous prince, one after his own heart, who should take his hands.... He called by name Cyrus."

Cyrus was a petty king of the shrunken Elamite province of Anshan, which had been conquered by the Persians. He claimed to be an Achaemenian—that is a descendant of the semi-mythical Akhamanish (the Achaemenes of the Greeks), a Persian patriarch who resembled the Aryo-Indian Manu and the Germanic Mannus. Akhamanish was reputed to have been fed and protected in childhood by an eagle—the sacred eagle which cast its shadow on born rulers. Probably this eagle was remotely Totemic, and the Achaemenians were descendants of an ancient eagle tribe. Gilgamesh was protected by an eagle, as we have seen, as the Aryo-Indian Shakuntala was by vultures and Semiramis by doves. The legends regarding the birth and boyhood of Cyrus resemble those related regarding Sargon of Akkad and the Indian Karna and Krishna.

Cyrus acknowledged as his overlord Astyages, king of the Medes. He revolted against Astyages, whom he defeated and took prisoner. Thereafter he was proclaimed King of the Medes and Persians, who were kindred peoples of Indo-European speech. The father of Astyages was Cyaxares, the ally of Nabopolassar of Babylon. When this powerful king captured Nineveh he entered into possession of the northern part of the Assyrian Empire, which extended westward into Asia Minor to the frontier of the Lydian kingdom; he also possessed himself of Urartu (Armenia). Lydia had, after the collapse of the Cimmerian power, absorbed Phrygia, and its ambitious king, Alyattes, waged war against the Medes. At length, owing to the good offices of Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon and Syennesis of Cilicia, the Medes and Lydians made peace in 585 B.C. Astyages then married a daughter of the Lydian ruler.

When Cyrus overthrew Cyaxares, king of the Medes, Croesus, king of Lydia, formed an alliance against him with Amasis, king of Egypt, and Nabonidus, king of Babylon. The latter was at first friendly to Cyrus, who had attacked Cyaxares when he was advancing on Babylon to dispute Nabonidus's claim to the throne, and perhaps to win it for a descendant of Nebuchadrezzar, his father's ally. It was after the fall of the Median Dynasty that Nabonidus undertook the restoration of the moon god's temple at Haran.

Cyrus advanced westward against Croesus of Lydia before that monarch could receive assistance from the intriguing but pleasure-loving Amasis of Egypt; he defeated and overthrew him, and seized his kingdom (547-546 B.C.). Then, having established himself as supreme ruler in Asia Minor, he began to operate against Babylonia. In 539 B.C. Belshazzar was defeated near Opis. Sippar fell soon afterwards. Cyrus's general, Gobryas, then advanced upon Babylon, where Belshazzar deemed himself safe. One night, in the month of Tammuz—

Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand. Belshazzar, whiles he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink therein.... They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone.... In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain.[563]

On the 16th of Tammuz the investing army under Gobryas entered Babylon, the gates having been opened by friends within the city. Some think that the Jews favoured the cause of Cyrus. It is quite as possible, however, that the priests of Merodach had a secret understanding with the great Achaemenian, the "King of kings".

A few days afterwards Cyrus arrived at Babylon. Belshazzar had been slain, but Nabonidus still lived, and he was deported to Carmania. Perfect order prevailed throughout the city, which was firmly policed by the Persian soldiers, and there was no looting. Cyrus was welcomed as a deliverer by the priesthood. He "took the hands" of Bel Merodach at E-sagila, and was proclaimed "King of the world, King of Babylon, King of Sumer and Akkad, and King of the Four Quarters".

Cyrus appointed his son Cambyses as governor of Babylon. Although a worshipper of Ahura-Mazda and Mithra, Cambyses appears to have conciliated the priesthood. When he became king, and swept through Egypt, he was remembered as the madman who in a fit of passion slew a sacred Apis bull. It is possible, however, that he performed what he considered to be a pious act: he may have sacrificed the bull to Mithra.

The Jews also welcomed Cyrus. They yearned for their native land.

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.[564]

Cyrus heard with compassion the cry of the captives.

Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The Lord God of heaven hath given me all kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel (he is the God) which is in Jerusalem.[565]

In 538 B.C. the first party of Jews who were set free saw through tears the hills of home, and hastened their steps to reach Mount Zion. Fifty years later Ezra led back another party of the faithful. The work of restoring Jerusalem was undertaken by Nehemiah in 445 B.C.

The trade of Babylon flourished under the Persians, and the influence of its culture spread far and wide. Persian religion was infused with new doctrines, and their deities were given stellar attributes. Ahura-Mazda became identified with Bel Merodach, as, perhaps, he had previously been with Ashur, and the goddess Anahita absorbed the attributes of Nina, Ishtar, Zerpanitu^m, and other Babylonian "mother deities".

Another "Semiramis" came into prominence. This was the wife and sister of Cambyses. After Cambyses died she married Darius I, who, like Cyrus, claimed to be an Achaemenian. He had to overthrow a pretender, but submitted to the demands of the orthodox Persian party to purify the Ahura-Mazda religion of its Babylonian innovations. Frequent revolts in Babylon had afterwards to be suppressed. The Merodach priesthood apparently suffered loss of prestige at Court. According to Herodotus, Darius plotted to carry away from E-sagila a great statue of Bel "twelve cubits high and entirely of solid gold". He, however, was afraid "to lay his hands upon it". Xerxes, son of Darius (485-465 B.C.), punished Babylon for revolting, when intelligence reached them of his disasters in Greece, by pillaging and partly destroying the temple. "He killed the priest who forbade him to move the statue, and took it away."[566] The city lost its vassal king, and was put under the control of a governor. It, however, regained some of its ancient glory after the burning of Susa palace, for the later Persian monarchs resided in it. Darius II died at Babylon, and Artaxerxes II promoted in the city the worship of Anaitis.

When Darius III, the last Persian emperor, was overthrown by Alexander the Great in 331 B.C., Babylon welcomed the Macedonian conqueror as it had welcomed Cyrus. Alexander was impressed by the wisdom and accomplishments of the astrologers and priests, who had become known as "Chaldaeans", and added Bel Merodach to his extraordinary pantheon, which already included Amon of Egypt, Melkarth, and Jehovah. Impressed by the antiquity and magnificence of Babylon, he resolved to make it the capital of his world-wide empire, and there he received ambassadors from countries as far east as India and as far west as Gaul.

The canals of Babylonia were surveyed, and building operations on a vast scale planned out. No fewer than ten thousand men were engaged working for two months reconstructing and decorating the temple of Merodach, which towered to a height of 607 feet. It looked as if Babylon were about to rise to a position of splendour unequalled in its history, when Alexander fell sick, after attending a banquet, and died on an evening of golden splendour sometime in June of 323 B.C.

One can imagine the feelings of the Babylonian priests and astrologers as they spent the last few nights of the emperor's life reading "the omens of the air"—taking note of wind and shadow, moon and stars and planets, seeking for a sign, but unable to discover one favourable. Their hopes of Babylonian glory were suspended in the balance, and they perished completely when the young emperor passed away in the thirty-third year of his life. For four days and four nights the citizens mourned in silence for Alexander and for Babylon.

The ancient city fell into decay under the empire of the Seleucidae. Seleucus I had been governor of Babylon, and after the break-up of Alexander's empire he returned to the ancient metropolis as a conqueror. "None of the persons who succeeded Alexander", Strabo wrote, "attended to the undertaking at Babylon"—the reconstruction of Merodach's temple. "Other works were neglected, and the city was dilapidated partly by the Persians and partly by time and through the indifference of the Greeks, particularly after Seleucus Nicator fortified Seleukeia on the Tigris."[567]

Seleucus drafted to the city which bore his name the great bulk of the inhabitants of Babylon. The remnant which was left behind continued to worship Merodach and other gods after the walls had crumbled and the great temple began to tumble down. Babylon died slowly, but at length the words of the Hebrew prophet were fulfilled:

The cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it.... They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing. And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls. The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow: the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest.[568]



FOOTNOTES

[1] Life of Apollonius of Tyana, i, 2O.

[2] Egyptian Tales (Second Series), W.M. Flinders Petrie, pp. 98 et seq.

[3] Revelation, xviii. The Babylon of the Apocalypse is generally believed to symbolize or be a mystic designation of Rome.

[4] Nineveh and Its Remains, vol. i, p. 17.

[5] Ezra, iv, 10.

[6] The culture god.

[7] Langdon's Sumerian and Babylonian Psalms, p. 179.

[8] Crete the Forerunner of Greece, p. 18.

[9] The Scapegoat vol., p. 409 (3rd edition).

[10] The Seven Tablets of Creation, L. W. King, p. 129.

[11] Ibid, pp. 133-4.

[12] The Races of Europe, W.Z. Ripley, p. 203.

[13] The Ancient Egyptians, by Elliot Smith, p. 41 et seq.

[14] The Ancient Egyptians, p. 140.

[15] Crete the Forerunner of Greece, C. H. and H. B. Hawes, 1911, p. 23 et seq.

[16] The Races of Europe, W. Z. Ripley, p. 443 et seq.

[17] The Ancient Egyptians, pp. 144-5.

[18] The Ancient Egyptians, p. 114.

[19] The Ancient Egyptians, p. 136.

[20] A History of Palestine, R.A.S. Macalister, pp. 8-16.

[21] The Mediterranean Race (1901 trans.), G. Sergi, p. 146 et seq.

[22] The Ancient Egyptians, p. 130.

[23] A History of Civilization in Palestine, p. 20 et seq.

[24] Joshua, xi. 21.

[25] Genesis, xxiii.

[26] Genesis, xvi. 8, 9.

[27] 1 Kings, xvi. 16.

[28] 2 Kings, xviii, 32.

[29] Herodotus, i, 193.

[30] Peter's Nippur, i, p. 160.

[31] A Babylonian priest of Bel Merodach. In the third century a.c. he composed in Greek a history of his native land, which has perished. Extracts from it are given by Eusebius, Josephus, Apollodorus, and others.

[32] Indian Myth and Legend, pp. 140, 141.

[33] The Religion of the Semites, pp. 159, 160.

[34] Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, M. Jastrow, p. 88.

[35] The Seven Tablets of Creation, L.W. King, vol. i, p. 129.

[36] Religious Belief in Babylonia and Assyria, M. Jastrow, p. 88.

[37] Cosmology of the Rigveda, Wallis, and Indian Myth and Legend, p. 10.

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

[39] The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, T.G. Pinches, pp. 91, 92.

[40] Joshua, xv, 41; xix, 27.

[41] Judges, xvi, 14.

[42] I Sam., v, 1-9.

[43] I Sam., vi, 5.

[44] The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, R. Campbell Thompson, London, 1903, vol. i, p. xlii.

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

[46] A History of Sumer and Akkad, L. W. King, p. 54.

[47] The Gods of the Egyptians, E. Wallis Budge, vol. i, p. 290.

[48] The Gods of the Egyptians, vol. i, p. 287.

[49] The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, vol. i, Intro. See also Sayce's The Religion of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia (Gifford Lectures, 1902), p. 385, and Pinches' The Old Testament in the Light of Historical Records, &c., p. 71.

[50] Indian Myth and Legend, p. 100.

[51] Maspero's Dawn of Civilization, p. 156 et seq.

[52] Egyptian Myth and Legend, p. I et seq. The saliva of the frail and elderly was injurious.

[53] Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection, E. Wallis Budge, vol. ii, p. 203 et seq.

[54] Brana's Popular Antiquities, vol. iii, pp. 259-263 (1889 ed.).

[55] The Religion of the Semites, pp. 158, 159.

[56] Castes and Tribes of Southern India, E. Thurston, iv, 187.

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

[58] Pausanias, ii, 24, 1.

[59] Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, R.C. Thompson, vol. ii, tablet Y.

[60] Animism, E. Clodd, p. 37.

[61] 2 Kings, xvi, 3.

[62] Ezekiel, xx, 31.

[63] Leviticus, xviii, 21.

[64] Indian Myth and Legend, p. 65.

[65] Religious Belief in Babylonia and Assyria, M. Jastrow, pp. 312, 313.

[66] The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, T.G. Pinches, p. 81.

[67] In early times two goddesses searched for Tammuz at different periods.

[68] Indian Myth and Legend, p. 30.

[69] Early Religious Poetry of Persia, p. 35.

[70] Early Religious Poetry of Persia, p. 37.

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

[72] Indian Wisdom, Sir Monier Monier-Williams.

[73] A History of Sanskrit Literature, Professor Macdonell.

[74] Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria, M. Jastrow, pp. 111, 112.

[75] Indian Myth and Legend, pp. xxxii, and 38 et seq.

[76] The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, T.G. Pinches, p. 94.

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

[78] The Acts, xvii, 22-31.

[79] Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, vol. ii, p. 149 et seq.

[80] Egyptian Myth and Legend, xxxix, n.

[81] Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, J.H. Breasted, pp. 38, 74.

[82] Custom and Myth, p. 45 et seq.

[83] The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 108.

[84] Act iv, scene 1.

[85] Paradise Lost, book ix.

[86] Chapman's Caesar and Pompey.

[87] Natural History, 2nd book.

[88] Indian Myth and Legend, 70, n.

[89] Indian Myth and Legend, pp. 202-5, 400, 401.

[90] Teutonic Myth and Legend, p. 424 et seq.

[91] Indian Myth and Legend, p. 164 et seq.

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

[93] When a person, young or old, is dying, near relatives must not call out their names in case the soul may come back from the spirit world. A similar belief still lingers, especially among women, in the Lowlands. The writer was once present in a room when a child was supposed to be dying. Suddenly the mother called out the child's name in agonized voice. It revived soon afterwards. Two old women who had attempted to prevent "the calling" shook their heads and remarked: "She has done it! The child will never do any good in this world after being called back." In England and Ireland, as well as in Scotland, the belief also prevails in certain localities that if a dying person is "called back" the soul will tarry for another twenty-four hours, during which the individual will suffer great agony.

[94] A Journey in Southern Siberia, Jeremiah Curtin, pp. 103, 104.

[95] Vol. i, p. 305.

[96] Adi Parva section of Mahabharata, Roy's trans., p. 635.

[97] Jastrow's Aspects of Religious Belief in Babylonia, &c., p. 312.

[98] R.C. Thompson's trans.

[99] The Elder or Poetic Edda, Olive Bray, part i, p. 53.

[100] Babylonian Religion, L.W. King, pp. 186-8.

[101] The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, R. Campbell Thompson, vol. i, p. 53 et seq.

[102] Omens and Superstitions of Southern India, E. Thurston, p. 124.

[103] The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 110.

[104] Beowulf, Clark Hall, p. 14.

[105] Ezekiel, viii.

[106] Psalms, cxxvi.

[107] The Burden of Isis, J.T. Dennis (Wisdom of the East series), pp. 21, 22.

[108] Religion of the Semites, pp. 412, 414.

[109] Egyptian Myth and Legend, pp. 45 et seq.

[110] Langdon's Sumerian and Babylonian Psalms, pp. 319-321.

[111] Campbell's West Highland Tales, vol. iii, p. 74.

[112] West Highland Tales, vol. iii, pp. 85, 86.

[113] If Finn and his band were really militiamen—the original Fenians—as is believed in Ireland, they may have had attached to their memories the legends of archaic Iberian deities who differed from the Celtic Danann deities. Theodoric the Goth, as Dietrich von Bern, was identified, for instance, with Donar or Thunor (Thor), the thunder god. In Scotland Finn and his followers are all giants. Diarmid is the patriarch of the Campbell clan, the MacDiarmids being "sons of Diarmid".

[114] Isaiah condemns a magical custom connected with the worship of Tammuz in the garden, Isaiah, xvii, 9, 11. This "Garden of Adonis" is dealt with in the next chapter.

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

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

[117] For Frey's connection with the Ynglings see Morris and Magnusson's Heimskringla (Saga Library, vol. iii), pp. 23-71.

[118] The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 72.

[119] Langdon's Sumerian and Babylonian Psalms, pp. 325, 339.

[120] Professor Oldenberg's translation.

[121] Osiris is also invoked to "remove storms and rain and give fecundity in the nighttime". As a spring sun god he slays demons; as a lunar god he brings fertility.

[122] Like the love-compelling girdle of Aphrodite.

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

[124] Quotations from the translation in The Chaldean Account of Genesis, by George Smith.

[125] Langdon's Sumerian and Babylonian Psalms, p. 329 et seq.

[126] The Burden of Isis, translated by J.T. Dennis (Wisdom of the East series), pp. 24, 31, 32, 39, 45, 46, 49.

[127] The Burden of Isis, pp. 22, 46.

[128] Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria, p. 137, and Herodotus, book i, 199.

[129] The Burden of Isis, p. 47.

[130] Original Sanskrit Texts, J. Muir, London, 1890, vol. i, p. 67.

[131] Original Sanskrit Texts, vol. i, p. 44.

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

[133] Ancient Irish Poetry, Kuno Meyer (London, 1911), pp. 88-90.

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

[135] Babylonian Religion, L.W. King, pp. 160, 161.

[136] Tennyson's A Dream of Fair Women.

[137] Greece and Babylon, L.R. Farnell (Edinburgh, 1911), p. 35.

[138] The goddesses did not become prominent until the "late invasion" of the post-Vedic Aryans.

[139] Greece and Babylon, p. 96.

[140] Jeremiah, xliv.

[141] Jeremiah, vii, 18.

[142] Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria, pp. 348, 349.

[143] Jeremiah, vii, 17.

[144] Nehemiah, i, 1.

[145] Esther, i, 6.

[146] Isaiah, xiii, 19-22.

[147] Indian Myth and Legend, pp. 173-175 and 192-194.

[148] Or Rimush.

[149] Genesis, xiv.

[150] That is, the equivalent of Babylonia. During the Kassite period the name was Karduniash.

[151] The narrative follows The Seven Tablets of Creation and other fragments, while the account given by Berosus is also drawn upon.

[152] The elder Bel was Enlil of Nippur and the younger Merodach of Babylon. According to Damascius the elder Bel came into existence before Ea, who as Enki shared his attributes.

[153] This is the inference drawn from fragmentary texts.

[154] A large portion of the narrative is awaiting here.

[155] A title of Tiamat; pron. ch guttural.

[156] There is another gap here which interrupts the narrative.

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

[158] The lightning trident or thunderstone.

[159] The authorities are not agreed as to the meaning of "Ku-pu." Jensen suggests "trunk, body". In European dragon stories the heroes of the Siegfried order roast and eat the dragon's heart. Then they are inspired with the dragon's wisdom and cunning. Sigurd and Siegfried immediately acquire the language of birds. The birds are the "Fates", and direct the heroes what next they should do. Apparently Merodach's "cunning plan" was inspired after he had eaten a part of the body of Tiamat.

[160] The waters above the firmament.

[161] According to Berosus.

[162] This portion is fragmentary and seems to indicate that the Babylonians had made considerable progress in the science of astronomy. It is suggested that they knew that the moon derived its light from the sun.

[163] The Seven Tablets of Creation, L.W. King, pp. 134, 135.

[164] The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, T.G. Pinches, p. 43.

[165] The Seven Tablets of Creation, L. W. King, vol. i, pp. 98, 99.

[166] Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch., iv, 251-2.

[167] Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, i, 3, 8.

[168] Isaiah, li, 8.

[169] Campbell's West Highland Tales, pp. 136 et seq.

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

[171] Campbell's West Highland Tales.

[172] Nehemiah, ii, 13.

[173] The Tempest, i, 2, 212.

[174] Waifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition, vol. iv, p. 176 et seq.

[175] From unpublished folk tale.

[176] Beowulf, translated by Clark Hall, London, 1911, p. 18 et seq.

[177] Beowulf, translated by Clark Hall, London, 1911, p. 69, lines 1280-1287.

[178] Egyptian Myth and Legend, pp. 260, 261.

[179] Egyptian Myth and Legend, pp. 8, 9.

[180] Indian Myth and Legend, pp. xli, 149, 150.

[181] Isaiah, li, 9.

[182] Psalms, lxxiv, 13, 14. It will be noted that the Semitic dragon, like the Egyptian, is a male.

[183] Job, xxvi, 12, 13.

[184] Psalms, lxxxix, 10.

[185] Isaiah, xxvii, I.

[186] Sumerian and Babylonian Psalms, p. 204.

[187] Custom and Myth, pp. 45 et seq.

[188] Translation by Dr. Langdon, pp. 199 et seq.

[189] The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, T.G. Pinches, pp. 118, 119.

[190] It is suggested that Arthur is derived from the Celtic word for "bear". If so, the bear may have been the "totem" of the Arthur tribe represented by the Scottish clan of MacArthurs.

[191] See "Lady in the Straw" beliefs in Brand's Popular Antiquities, vol. ii, 66 et seq. 1899 ed.).

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

[193] Vana Parva section of the Mahabharata (Roy's trans.), p. 818 et seq., and Indian Myth and Legend, p. 413.

[194] The Koran (with notes from approved commentators), trans. by George Sale, P-246, n.

[195] The Life and Exploits of Alexander the Great, E. Wallis Budge (London, 1896), pp. 277-8, 474-5.

[196] Campbell's West Highland Tales, vol. iii, pp. 251-4 (1892 ed.).

[197] Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, A. Wiedemann, p. 141.

[198] Adi Parva section of the Mahabharata (Hymn to Garuda), Roy's trans., p. 88, 89.

[199] Herodian, iv, 2.

[200] The image made by Nebuchadnezzar is of interest in this connection. He decreed that "whoso falleth not down and worshippeth" should be burned in the "fiery furnace". The Hebrews, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, were accordingly thrown into the fire, but were delivered by God. Daniel, iii, 1-30.

[201] The Assyrian and Phoenician Hercules is discussed by Raoul Rochette in Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres (Paris, 1848), pp. 178 et seq.

[202] G. Sale's Koran, p. 246, n.

[203] In the Eddic poem "Lokasenna" the god Byggvir (Barley) is addressed by Loki, "Silence, Barleycorn!" The Elder Edda, translation by Olive Bray, pp. 262, 263.

[204] De Nat. Animal., xii, 21, ed. Didot, p. 210, quoted by Professor Budge in The Life and Exploits of Alexander the Great, p. 278, n.

[205] Isaiah, lvii, 4 and 5.

[206] The Golden Bough (Adonis, Attis, Osiris vol.), "The Gardens of Adonis", pp. 194 et seq. (3rd ed.).

[207] Daniel, iv, 33. It is possible that Nebuchadnezzar, as the human representative of the god of corn and fertility, imitated the god by living a time in the wilds like Ea-bani.

[208] Pronounce ch guttural.

[209] On a cylinder seal the heroes each wrestle with a bull.

[210] Alexander the Great in the course of his mythical travels reached a mountain at the world-end. "Its peak reached to the first heaven and its base to the seventh earth."—Budge.

[211] Jastrow's trans., Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria, p. 374.

[212] Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt (1912), J.H. Breasted, pp. 183-5.

[213] Ecclesiastes, ix, 7-9.

[214] Ibid., xii, 13.

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

[216] Probably to perform the ceremony of pouring out a libation.

[217] Saxo, iii, 71.

[218] Ibid., viii, 291.

[219] The Elder Edda, O. Bray, pp. 157 et seq. See also Teutonic Myth and Legend.

[220] The Life and Exploits of Alexander the Great, E. Wallis Budge, pp. xl et seq., 167 et seq.

[221] The Koran, trans, by G. Sale, pp. 222, 223 (chap. xviii).

[222] Vana Parva section of the Mahabharata (Roy's trans.), pp. 435-60, and Indian Myth and Legend, pp. 105-9.

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

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

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

[226] The Muses' Pageant, W.M.L. Hutchinson, pp. 5 et seq.

[227] Indian Myth and Legend, pp. 107 et seq.

[228] Vana Parva section of the Mahabharata (Roy's trans.), p. 425.

[229] Indian Myth and Legend, p. 141.

[230] Book of Leinster, and Keating's History of Ireland, p. 150 (1811 ed.).

[231] Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, A. Wiedemann, pp. 58 et seq.

[232] Pinches' The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 42.

[233] The problems involved are discussed from different points of view by Mr. L.W. King in Babylonian Religion (Books on Egypt and Chaldaea, vol. iv), Professor Pinches in The Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Records and Legends of Assyria and Babylonia, and other vols.

[234] Primitive Constellations, vol. i, pp. 334-5.

[235] Indian Myth and Legend, chap. iii.

[236] Professor Macdonell's translation.

[237] Indian Wisdom.

[238] "Varuna, the deity bearing the noose as his weapon", Sabha Parva section of the Mahabharata (Roy's trans.), p. 29.

[239] Indian Myth and Legend, pp. 38-42.

[240] Early Religious Poetry of Persia, J.H. Moulton, pp. 41 et seq. and 154 et seq.

[241] The Elder Edda, O. Bray, p. 55.

[242] The Elder Edda, O. Bray, pp. 291 et seq.

[243] Celtic Myth and Legend, pp. 133 et seq.

[244] Tennyson's The Passing of Arthur.

[245] Job, x, 1-22.

[246] The Elder Edda, O. Bray, pp. 150-1.

[247] Indian Myth and Legend, p. 326.

[248] The Religion of Ancient Rome, Cyril Bailey, p. 50.

[249] The Life and Exploits of Alexander the Great (Ethiopic version of the Pseudo Callisthenes), pp. 133-4. The conversation possibly never took place, but it is of interest in so far as it reflects beliefs which were familiar to the author of this ancient work. His Brahmans evidently believed that immortality was denied to ordinary men, and reserved only for the king, who was the representative of the deity, of course.

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

[251] The Mahabharata (Sabha Parva section), Roy's translation, pp. 25-7.

[252] A History of Sumer and Akkad, L.W. King, pp. 181-2.

[253] Genesis, xxxv, 2-4.

[254] The Religion of Ancient Egypt, W.M. Flinders Petrie, p. 72.

[255] Sabha Parva section of the Mahabharata (Roy's trans.), p. 29.

[256] Egyptian Myth and Legend, p. 214.

[257] Canto iv:—

[258] 1 Samuel, xxiii, 9-11.

[259] 1 Kings, xix, 19 and 2 Kings, ii, 13-15.

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

[261] Herod., book i, 198.

[262] Records of the Past (old series), xi, pp. 109 et seq., and (new series), vol. i, pp. 149 et seq.

[263] L.W. King's The Seven Tablets of Creation.

[264] Herodotus, book i, 179 (Rawlinson's translation).

[265] Isaiah, xlv, 1, 2.

[266] Herodotus, book i, 181-3 (Rawlinson's translation).

[267] History of Sumer and Akkad, L.W. King, p. 37.

[268] Herodotus, book i, 196 (Rawlinson's translation).

[269] Home Life of the Highlanders (Dr. Cameron Gillies on Medical Knowledge,) pp. 85 et seq. Glasgow, 1911.

[270] Translations by R.C. Thompson in The Devils and Spirits of Babylon, vol. i, pp. lxiii et seq.

[271] Bridges which lead to graveyards.

[272] Genesis, xii and xiii.

[273] Genesis, xiv, 13.

[274] Ibid., xxiii.

[275] Ezekiel, xvi, 3.

[276] Genesis, xiv, 1-4.

[277] Ibid., 5-24.

[278] Babylonian and Assyrian Laws, Contracts, and Letters, C.H.W. Johns, pp. 392 et seq.

[279] Translation by Johns in Babylonian and Assyrian Laws, Contracts, and Letters, pp. 390 et seq.

[280] Matthew, ix, 37.

[281] Johns's Babylonian and Assyrian Laws, &c., pp. 371-2.

[282] The Land of the Hittites, John Garstang, pp. 312 et seq. and 315 et seq.

[283] The Ancient Egyptian, pp. 106 et seq.

[284] The Ancient Egyptians, p. 130.

[285] Struggle of the Nations (1896), p. 19.

[286] Note contributed to The Land of the Hittites, J. Garstang, p. 324.

[287] Genesis, xxvi, 34, 35.

[288] Ezekiel, xvi, 45.

[289] Genesis, xxvii, 46.

[290] Genesis, xxviii, 1, 2.

[291] Genesis, xxiv.

[292] The Syrian Goddess, John Garstang (London, 1913), pp. 17-8.

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

[294] The Wanderings of Peoples, p. 21.

[295] Breasted's History of Egypt, pp. 219-20.

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

[297] A History of Egypt, W.M. Flinders Petrie, vol. ii, p. 147 (1904 ed.).

[298] The Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Records and Legends of Assyria and Babylonia, pp. 126 et seq.

[299] His connection with Anu is discussed in chapter xiv.

[300] Ancient Assyria, C.H.W. Johns, p. 11 (London, 1912).

[301] The Tell-el-Amarna Letters, Hugo Winckler, p. 31.

[302] "It may be worth while to note again", says Beddoe, "how often finely developed skulls are discovered in the graveyards of old monasteries, and how likely seems Galton's conjecture, that progress was arrested in the Middle Ages, because the celibacy of the clergy brought about the extinction of the best strains of blood." The Anthropological History of Europe, p. 161 (1912).

[303] Census of India, vol. I, part i, pp. 352 et seq.

[304] Hibbert Lectures, Professor Sayce, p. 328.

[305] The Story of Nala, Monier Williams, pp. 68-9 and 77.

[306] "In Ymer's flesh (the earth) the dwarfs were engendered and began to move and live.... The dwarfs had been bred in the mould of the earth, just as worms are in a dead body." The Prose Edda. "The gods ... took counsel whom they should make the lord of dwarfs out of Ymer's blood (the sea) and his swarthy limbs (the earth)." The Elder Edda (Voluspa, stanza 9).

[307] The Story of Nala, Monier Williams, p. 67.

[308] Egyptian Myth and Legend, pp. 168 it seq.

[309] The Burden of Isis, Dennis, p. 24.

[310] Babylonian Magic and Sorcery, p. 117.

[311] Babylonian and Assyrian Religion, T.G. Pinches, p. l00.

[312] The Burden of Isis, J.T. Dennis, p. 49.

[313] Ibid., p. 52.

[314] Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, A. Wiedemann, p. 30.

[315] Vedic Index, Macdonell & Keith, vol. i, pp. 423 et seq.

[316] Religion of the Ancient Babylonians, Sayce, p. 153, n. 6.

[317] Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, A. Wiedemann, p. 30.

[318] Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria, p. 95.

[319] Babylonian and Assyrian Religion, pp. 63 and 83.

[320] When the King of Assyria transported the Babylonians, &c., to Samaria "the men of Cuth made Nergal", 2 Kings, xvii, 30.

[321] Babylonian and Assyrian Religion, p. 80.

[322] Indian Myth and Legend, p. 13.

[323] Derived from the Greek zoon, an animal.

[324] The Hittites, pp. 116, 119, 120, 272.

[325] "The sun... is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race." (Psalm xix, 4 et seq.) The marriage of the sun bridegroom with the moon bride appears to occur in Hittite mythology. In Aryo-Indian Vedic mythology the bride of the sun (Surya) is Ushas, the Dawn. The sun maiden also married the moon god. The Vedic gods ran a race and Indra and Agni were the winners. The sun was "of the nature of Agni". Indian Myth and Legend, pp. 14, 36, 37.

[326] Or golden.

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

[328] Primitive Constellations, R. Brown, jun., vol. ii, p. 1 et seq.

[329] In India "finger counting" (Kaur guna) is associated with prayer or the repeating of mantras. The counting is performed by the thumb, which, when the hand is drawn up, touches the upper part of the third finger. The two upper "chambers" of the third finger are counted, then the two upper "chambers" of the little finger; the thumb then touches the tip of each finger from the little finger to the first; when it comes down into the upper chamber of the first finger 9 is counted. By a similar process each round of 9 on the right hand is recorded by the left up to 12; 12 X 9 = 108 repetitions of a mantra. The upper "chambers" of the fingers are the "best" or "highest" (uttama), the lower (adhama) chambers are not utilized in the prayer-counting process. When Hindus sit cross-legged at prayers, with closed eyes, the right hand is raised from the elbow in front of the body, and the thumb moves each time a mantra is repeated; the left hand lies palm upward on the left knee, and the thumb moves each time nine mantras have been counted.

[330] Primitive Constellations, R. Brown, jun., vol. ii, p. 61; and Early History of Northern India, J.F. Hewitt, pp. 551-2.

[331] Rigveda-Samhita, vol. iv (1892), p. 67.

[332] Vedic Index, Macdonell & Keith, vol. ii, pp. 192 et seq.

[333] Indian Myth and Legend

[334] Pp. 107 et seq.

[335] Primitive Constellation, R. Brown, jun., vol. i, 1. 333. A table is given showing how 120 saroi equals 360 degrees, each king being identified with a star.

[336] "Behold, his majesty the god Ra is grown old; his bones are become silver, his limbs gold, and his hair pure lapis lazuli." Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, A. Wiedemann, p. 58. Ra became a destroyer after completing his reign as an earthly king.

[337] As Nin-Girau, Tammuz was associated with "sevenfold" Orion.

[338] Babylonian and Assyrian Life, pp. 61, 62.

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

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

[341] Vedic Index, Macdonell & Keith, vol. ii, p. 229.

[342] Ibid vol. i, pp. 409, 410.

[343] Ibid vol. i, p. 415.

[344] Primitive Constellations, vol. i, p. 343.

[345] Custom and Myth, pp. 133 et seq.

[346] Dr. Alfred Jeremias gives very forcible reasons for believing that the ancient Babylonians were acquainted with the precession of the equinoxes. Das Alter der Babylonischen Astronomie (Hinrichs, Leipzig, 1908), pp. 47 et seq.

[347] Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria, pp. 207 et seq.

[348] A History of the Babylonians and Assyrians, p. 93.

[349] Babylonians and Assyrians: Life and Customs, pp. 219, 220.

[350] Primitive Constellations, vol. ii, pp. 147 et seq.

[351] The Aryo-Indians had a lunar year of 360 days (Vedic Index, ii, 158).

[352] A History of the Babylonians and Assyrians, p. 94.

[353] Twelfth Night, act ii, scene 5.

[354] Childe Harold, canto iii, v, 88.

[355] Genesis, x, 11.

[356] "A number of tablets have been found in Cappadocia of the time of the Second Dynasty of Ur which show marked affinities with Assyria. The divine name Ashir, as in early Assyrian texts, the institution of eponyms and many personal names which occur in Assyria, are so characteristic that we must assume kinship of peoples. But whether they witness to a settlement in Cappadocia from Assyria, or vice versa, is not yet clear." Ancient Assyria, C.H.W. Johns (Cambridge, 1912), pp. 12-13.

[357] Sumerian Ziku, apparently derived from Zi, the spiritual essence of life, the "self power" of the Universe.

[358] Peri Archon, cxxv.

[359] Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 197 et seq.

[360] Julius Caesar, act iii, scene I.

[361] Isaiah, xiv, 4-14.

[362] Eddubrott, ii.

[363] Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, A. Wiedemann, pp. 289-90.

[364] Ibid., p. 236. Atlas was also believed to be in the west.

[365] Primitive Constellations, vol. ii, p. 184.

[366] Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, xxx, II.

[367] Isaiah, xiii, 21. For "Satyrs" the Revised Version gives the alternative translation, "or he-goats".

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

[369] Satapatha Brahmana, translated by Professor Eggeling, part iv, 1897, p. 371. (Sacred Books of the East.)

[370] Egyptian Myth and Legend, pp. 165 et seq.

[371] Classic Myth and Legend, p. 105. The birds were called "Stymphalides".

[372] The so-called "shuttle" of Neith may be a thunderbolt. Scotland's archaic thunder deity is a goddess. The bow and arrows suggest a lightning goddess who was a deity of war because she was a deity of fertility.

[373] Vedic Index, Macdonell & Keith, vol. ii, pp. 125-6, and vol. i, 168-9.

[374] Ezekiel, xxxi, 3-8.

[375] Ezekiel, xxvii, 23, 24.

[376] Isaiah, xxxvii, 11.

[377] Ibid., x, 5, 6.

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

[379] Layard's Nineveh (1856), p. 44.

[380] Ibid., p. 309.

[381] The fir cone was offered to Attis and Mithra. Its association with Ashur suggests that the great Assyrian deity resembled the gods of corn and trees and fertility.

[382] Nineveh, p. 47.

[383] Isaiah, xxxvii, 37-8.

[384] The Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Records and Legends of Assyria and Babylonia, pp. 129-30.

[385] An eclipse of the sun in Assyria on June 15, 763 B.C., was followed by an outbreak of civil war.

[386] Ezekiel, i, 4-14.

[387] Ezekiel, xxiii, 1-15.

[388] As the soul of the Egyptian god was in the sun disk or sun egg.

[389] Ezekiel, i, 15-28.

[390] Ezekiel, x, 11-5.

[391] Also called "Amrita".

[392] The Mahabharata (Adi Parva), Sections xxxiii-iv.

[393] Another way of spelling the Turkish name which signifies "village of the pass". The deep "gh" guttural is not usually attempted by English speakers. A common rendering is "Bog-haz' Kay-ee", a slight "oo" sound being given to the "a" in "Kay"; the "z" sound is hard and hissing.

[394] The Land of the Hittites, J. Garstang, pp. 178 et seq.

[395] Ibid., p. 173.

[396] Adonis, Attis, Osiris, chaps. v and vi.

[397] Daniel, iii, 1-26.

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

[399] The Koran, George Sale, pp. 245-6.

[400] Isaiah, xxx, 31-3. See also for Tophet customs 2 Kings, xxiii, 10; Jeremiah, vii, 31, 32 and xix, 5-12.

[401] 1 Kings, xvi, 18.

[402] 1 Samuel, xxxi, 12, 13 and 1 Chronicles, x, 11, 12.

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

[404] Babylonian and Assyrian Religion, pp. 57-8.

[405] Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria, p. 121.

[406] Babylonian and Assyrian Religion, p. 86.

[407] At Carchemish a railway bridge spans the mile-wide river ferry which Assyria's soldiers were wont to cross with the aid of skin floats. The engineers have found it possible to utilize a Hittite river wall about 3000 years old—the oldest engineering structure in the world. The ferry was on the old trade route.

[408] Deuteronomy, xxvi, 5

[409] Pr. u as oo.

[410] The chief cities of North Syria were prior to this period Hittite. This expansion did not change the civilization but extended the area of occupation and control.

[411] Garstang's The Land of the Hittites, p. 349.

[412] "Burgh of Tukulti-Ninip."

[413] Article "Celts" in Encyclopaedia Britannica, eleventh ed.

[414] The Wanderings of Peoples, p. 41.

[415] Crete, the Forerunner of Greece, p. 146.

[416] Pr. Moosh'kee.

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

[418] A History of Civilization in Palestine, p. 58.

[419] Pinches' translation.

[420] I Samuel, xiii, 19.

[421] A History of Civilization in Palestine, p. 54.

[422] 1 Kings, iii, 1.

[423] Ibid., ix, 16.

[424] 1 Kings, v, 1-12.

[425] Ibid., vii, 14 et seq.

[426] Ibid., x, 22-3.

[427] Indian Myth and Legend, pp. 83-4.

[428] Finn and His Warrior Band, pp. 245 et seq. (London, 1911).

[429] Also rendered Ashur-na'sir-pal.

[430] A History of the Babylonians and Assyrians, G.S. Goodspeed, p. 197.

[431] Discoveries at Nineveh, Sir A.H. Layard (London, 1856), pp. 55, 56.

[432] "Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem." Solomon's Song, vi, 4.

[433] 2 Chronicles, xii, 15.

[434] 1 Kings, xiv, 1-20.

[435] Ibid., 21-3.

[436] 2 Chronicles, xii, 1-12.

[437] 2 Chronicles, xiii, 1-20.

[438] Ibid., xiv, 1-6.

[439] 1 Kings, xv, 25-6.

[440] 1 Kings, xv, 16-7.

[441] Ibid., 18-9.

[442] Ibid., 20-2.

[443] 1 Kings, xvi, 9-10.

[444] Ibid., 15-8.

[445] Ibid., 21-2.

[446] Micah, vi, 16.

[447] 1 Kings, xvi, 29-33.

[448] Ibid., xviii, 1-4.

[449] 1 Kings, xx.

[450] Ibid., xxii, 43.

[451] 2 Chronicles, xviii, 1-2.

[452] 1 Kings, xxii and 2 Chronicles, xviii.

[453] 1 Kings, xxii, 48-9.

[454] 1 Kings, viii.

[455] 2 Kings, ix and 2 Chronicles, xxii.

[456] 2 Kings, viii, 1-15.

[457] The Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Records and Legends of Assyria and Babylonia, pp. 337 et seq.

[458] 2 Kings, x, 32-3.

[459] Ibid., 1-31.

[460] 2 Kings, xi, 1-3.

[461] 2 Chronicles, xxii, 10-12.

[462] 2 Chronicles, xxiii, 1-17.

[463] 2 Kings, xiii, 1-5.

[464] The Land of the Hittites, J. Garstang, p. 354.

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

[466] Nat. Hist., v, 19 and Strabo xvi, 1-27.

[467] The Mahabharata: Adi Parva, sections lxxi and lxxii (Roy's translation, pp. 213 216, and Indian Myth and Legend, pp. 157 et seq.

[468] That is, without ceremony but with consent.

[469] The Golden Bough (The Scapegoat), pp. 369 et seq., (3rd edition). Perhaps the mythic Semiramis and legends connected were in existence long before the historic Sammu-rammat, though the two got mixed up.

[470] Herodotus, i, 184.

[471] De dea Syria, 9-14.

[472] Strabo, xvi, 1, 2.

[473] Diodorus Siculus, ii, 3.

[474] Herodotus, i, 105.

[475] Diodorus Siculus, ii, 4.

[476] De dea Syria, 14.

[477] This little bird allied to the woodpecker twists its neck strangely when alarmed. It may have symbolized the coquettishness of fair maidens. As love goddesses were "Fates", however, the wryneck may have been connected with the belief that the perpetrator of a murder, or a death spell, could be detected when he approached his victim's corpse. If there was no wound to "bleed afresh", the "death thraw" (the contortions of death) might indicate who the criminal was. In a Scottish ballad regarding a lady, who was murdered by her lover, the verse occurs:

[478] Langdon's Sumerian and Babylonian Psalms, pp. 133, 135.

[479] Introduction to Lane's Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians.

[480] Tammuz is referred to in a Sumerian psalm as "him of the dovelike voice, yea, dovelike". He may have had a dove form. Angus, the Celtic god of spring, love, and fertility, had a swan form; he also had his seasonal period of sleep like Tammuz.

[481] Campbell's Superstitions of the Scottish Highlands, p. 288.

[482] Indian Myth and Legend, p. 95.

[483] Ibid., pp. 329-30.

[484] Crete, the Forerunner of Greece, C.H. and H.B. Hawes, p. 139

[485] The Discoveries in Crete, pp. 137-8.

[486] Religion of the Semites, p. 294.

[487] Egyptian Myth and Legend, p. 59.

[488] Including the goose, one of the forms of the harvest goddess.

[489] Brand's Popular Antiquities, vol. ii, 230-1 and vol. iii, 232 (1899 ed.).

[490] Ibid., vol. iii, 217. The myrtle was used for love charms.

[491] The Golden Bough (Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild), vol. ii, p. 293 (3rd ed.).

[492] Herodotus, ii, 69, 71, and 77.

[493] Brand's Popular Antiquities, vol. iii, p. 227.

[494] Cited by Professor Burrows in The Discoveries in Crete, p. 134.

[495] Like the Egyptian Horus, Nebo had many phases: he was connected with the sun and moon, the planet Mercury, water and crops; he was young and yet old—a mystical god.

[496] Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria, pp. 94 et seq.

[497] Babylonian Magic and Sorcery, L.W. King, pp. 6-7 and 26-7.

[498] 2 Kings, xiii, 3.

[499] 2 Kings, xiii, 14-25.

[500] 3 Kings, xiii, 5, 6.

[501] The masses of the Urartian folk appear to have been of Hatti stock—"broad heads", like their descendants, the modern Armenians.

[502] It is uncertain whether this city or Kullani in north Syria it the Biblical Calno. Isaiah, x, 9.

[503] 2 Kings, xv, 19 and 29; 2 Chronicles, xxviii, 20.

[504] 2 Kings, xviii, 34 and xix, 13.

[505] 2 Kings, xiv, 1-14.

[506] 2 Kings, xv, 1-14.

[507] 2 Kings, xv, 19, 20.

[508] 2 Kings, xv, 25.

[509] Amos, v.

[510] Amos, i.

[511] 2 Kings, xvi, 5.

[512] Isaiah, vii, 3-7.

[513] 2 Kings, xv, 3.

[514] Isaiah, vii, 18.

[515] Kir was probably on the borders of Elam.

[516] 2 Kings, xvi, 7-9.

[517] 2 Kings, xv, 29, 30.

[518] 2 Kings, xvi, 10.

[519] In the Hebrew text this monarch is called Sua, Seveh, and So, says Maspero. The Assyrian texts refer to him as Sebek, Shibahi, Shabe, &c. He has been identified with Pharaoh Shabaka of the Twenty-fifth Egyptian Dynasty; that monarch may have been a petty king before he founded his Dynasty. Another theory is that he was Seve, king of Mutsri, and still another that he was a petty king of an Egyptian state in the Delta and not Shabaka.

[520] 2 Kings, xvii, 3-5.

[521] Isaiah, xx, 1.

[522] 2 Kings, xvii, 6.

[523] 2 Kings, xvii, 16-41.

[524] The people carried away would not be the whole of the inhabitants—only, one would suppose, the more important personages, enough to make up the number 27,290 given above.

[525] Passing of the Empires, pp. 200-1.

[526] Those who, like Breasted, identify "Piru of Mutsri" with "Pharaoh of Egypt" adopt the view that Bocchoris of Sais paid tribute to Sargon. Piru, however, is subsequently referred to with two Arabian kings as tribute payers to Sargon apparently after Lower Egypt had come under the sway of Shabaka, the first king of the Ethiopian or Twenty-fifth Dynasty.

[527] Isaiah, xx, 2-5.

[528] Commander-in-chief.

[529] Isaiah, xx, 1.

[530] The Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Records and Legends of Assyria and Babylonia, T.G. Pinches, p. 372.

[531] Isaiah, xxxvii, 9.

[532] Isaiah, xxix, 1, 2.

[533] 2 Chronicles, xxxii, 9-17.

[534] 2 Kings, xix, 6, 7.

[535] 2 Kings, xix, 35, 36.

[536] Smith-Sayce, History of Sennacherib, pp. 132-5.

[537] A History of Sumer and Akkad, p. 37.

[538] Isaiah, xxxvii, 8-13.

[539] 2 Kings, xxi, 3-7.

[540] 2 Kings, xxi, 16.

[541] Hebrews, xi, 36, 37.

[542] 2 Chronicles, xxxiii, 11-3. It may be that Manasseh was taken to Babylon during Ashur-bani-pal's reign. See next chapter.

[543] Pronounce g as in gem.

[544] Nahum, i, ii, and iii.

[545] Isaiah, xlvi, 1; xlvii, 1-15.

[546] Nahum, iii, 2, 3; ii, 3.

[547] Goodspeed's A History of the Babylonians and Assyrians, p. 348.

[548] Nahum, iii, 8-11.

[549] Ptolemy's Kineladanus.

[550] Ezra, iv, 10.

[551] Nahum, iii and ii.

[552] 2 Kings, xxiii, 29.

[553] Ibid., 33-5.

[554] Nebuchadrezzar is more correct than Nebuchadnezzar.

[555] 2 Kings, xxiv, 7.

[556] 2 Chronicles, xxxvi, 6.

[557] 2 Kings, xxiv, 1.

[558] 2 Kings, xxiv, 8-15.

[559] Jeremiah, lii, 3.

[560] Jeremiah, lii, 4-11.

[561] The Laminations of Jeremiah, i, 1-7.

[562] Jeremiah, lii, 31-4.

[563] Daniel, v, I et seq.

[564] Psalms, cxxxvii, 1-6.

[565] Ezra, i, 1-3.

[566] Herodotus, i, 183; Strabo, xvi, 1, 5; and Arrian, vii, 17.

[567] Strabo, xvi, 1-5.

[568] Isaiah, xxiiv, 11-4.

THE END