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49. It (i.e., the ziggurat) stood before them majestically: at the bottom and [at the top] they observed its two horns.[1]
[Footnote 1: This is the first known mention of the "horns" of a ziggurat, and the exact meaning of the word is doubtful.]
50. After the Anunnaki had finished the construction of E-Sagila, and had completed the making of their shrines,
51. They gathered together from the ... of the Ocean (Apsu). In BAR-MAH, the abode which they had made,
52. He (i.e., Marduk) made the gods his fathers to take their seats ... [saying]: "This Babylon shall be your abode.
53. "No mighty one [shall destroy] his house, the great gods shall dwell therein.
[After line 53 the middle portions of several lines of text are obliterated, but from what remains of it it is clear that the gods partook of a meal of consecration of the shrine of E-Sagila, and then proceeded to issue decrees. Next Marduk assigns seats to the Seven Gods of Fate and to Enlil and Anu, and then he lays up in E-Sagila the famous bow which he bore during his fight against Timat. When the text again becomes connected we find the gods singing a hymn of praise to Marduk.]
94. "Whatever is ... those gods and goddesses shall bear(?)
95. "They shall never forget, they shall cleave to the god (?)
96. "... they shall make bright, they shall make shrines.
97. "Verily, the decision (concerning) the Black-headed [belongeth to] the gods
98. "... all our names have they called, he (Marduk) is most holy (elli)
99. "... they proclaimed and venerated (?) his names.
100. "His ... is exceedingly bright, his work is ...
101. "Marduk, whose father Anu proclaimed [his name] from his birth,
102. "Who hath set the day at his door ... his going,
103. "By whose help the storm wind was bound ...
104. "Delivered the gods his fathers in the time of trouble.
105. "Verily, the gods have proclaimed his sonship.
106. "In his bright light let them walk for ever.
107. "[On] men whom he hath formed, the created things fashioned by his fingers
108. "He hath imposed the service of the gods, and them he hath set free
109. "...
110. "... they looked at him,
111. "[He is] the far-seeing (maruku) god, verily ...
112. "Who hath made glad the hearts of the Anunnaki, who hath made them to ...
113. "The god Marudukku—verily, he is the object of trust of his country ...
114. "Let men praise him ...
115. "The 'King of the Protecting Heart,' (?), hath arisen and hath [bound] the Serpent ...
116. "Broad is his heart, mighty [his] belly.
117. "King of the gods of heaven and of earth, whose name our company hath proclaimed,
118. "We will fulfil (?) the utterance of his mouth. Over his fathers the gods,
119. "Yea, [over] the gods of heaven and earth, all of them,
120. "His kingship [we will exalt].
121. "[We] will look unto the King of all the heaven and the earth at night when the place of all the gods is darkness (literally sadness).
122. "He hath assigned our dwelling in heaven and in earth in the time of trouble,
123. "He hath allotted stations to the Igigi and the Anunnaki.
124. "The gods themselves are magnified by his name; may he direct their sanctuaries.
125. "ASAR-LU-DUG, is his name by which his father Anu hath named him.
126. "Verily, he is the light of the gods, the mighty ...
127. "Who ... all the parts of heaven and of the land
128. "By a mighty combat he saved our dwelling in the time of trouble.
129. "ASAR-LU-DUG, the god who made him (i.e. man) to live, did the god ... call him in the second place
130. "[And] the gods who had been formed, whom he fashioned as though [they were] his offspring.
131. "He is the Lord who hath made all the gods to live by his holy mouth."
[Lines 132-139 are too fragmentary to translate, but it is clear from the text that remains that Lakhmu, and Lakhamu, and Anshar all proclaimed the names of Marduk. When the text again becomes connected Marduk has just been addressing the gods.]
140. In Up-shukkinaku[1] he appointed their council for them.
[Footnote 1: From this text it seems clear that Up-shukkinaku was the name of a chamber in the temple of E-Sagila. This name probably means the "chamber of the shakkanaku," i.e., the chamber in which the governor of the city (shakkanaku) went annually to embrace the hands of the god Bel-Marduk, from whom he thereby received the right of sovereignty over the country.]
141. [They said]:—"Of [our] son, the Hero, our Avenger,
142. "We will exalt the name by our speech."
143. They sat down and in their assembly they proclaimed his rank.
144. Every one of them pronounced his name in the sanctuary.
SEVENTH TABLET.
1. O ASARI,—giver of plantations, appointer of sowing time,
2. Who dost make grain and fibrous plants, who makest garden herbs to spring up.
3. O ASARU-ALIM—who art weighty in the council-chamber, who art fertile in counsel,
4. To whom the gods pay worship (?) reverent ...
5. O ASARU-ALIM-NUNA—the adored light of the Father who begat him,
6. Who makest straight the direction of Anu, Bel, [and Ea].[1]
[Footnote 1: This line seems to imply that Marduk was regarded as the instructor of the "old" gods; the allusion is, probably, to the "ways" of Anu, Bel and Ea, which are treated as technical terms in astrology.]
7. He is their patron who fixed [their] ...
8. Whose drink is abundance, who goeth forth ...
9. O TUTU—creator of their new life,
10. Supplier of their wants, that they may be satisfied [or, glad],
11. Let but [Tutu] recite an incantation, the gods shall be at rest;
12. Let but [the gods] attack him (i.e., Tutu) in wrath, he shall resist them successfully;
13. Let him be raised up on a high throne in the assembly of the gods....
14. None among the gods is like unto him.
15. O god TUTU, who art the god ZI-UKKINA, life of the host of the gods,
16. Who stablished the shining heavens for the gods,
17. He founded their paths, he fixed [their courses].
18. Never shall his deeds be forgotten among men.
19. O god TUTU, who art ZI-AZAG, was the third name they gave him—holder (i.e., possessor) of holiness,
20. God of the favourable wind, lord of adoration and grace,
21. Creator of fulness and abundance, stablisher of plenty,
22. Who turneth that which is little into that which is much.
23. In sore straits we have felt his favouring breeze.
24. Let them (the gods) declare, let them magnify, let them sing his praises.
25. O TUTU, who art the god AGA-AZAG in the fourth place—let men exult.
26. Lord of the holy incantation, who maketh the dead to live,
27. He felt compassion for the gods who were in captivity.
28. He riveted on the gods his enemies the yoke which had been resting on them.
29. In mercy towards them he created mankind,
30. The Merciful One in whose power it is to give life.
31. His words shall endure for ever, they shall never be forgotten,
32. In the mouth of the Black-headed[1] whom his hands have made.
[Footnote 1: Here the title "Black-headed" refers to all mankind, but it is sometimes used by the scribes to distinguish the population of the Euphrates Valley from foreign peoples of light complexions.]
33. O God TUTU, who art the god MU-AZAG in the fifth place—let their mouth recite a holy incantation [to him],
34. Who by his own holy incantation hath destroyed all the evil ones.
]
35. O god SHAZU, the wise heart of the gods, who searchest the inward parts of the belly,
36. Who dost not permit the worker of evil to go forth by his side,
37. Establisher of the company of the gods ... their hearts.
38. Reducer of the disobedient ...
[Lines 39-106 are wanting. The positions of the fragmentary lines supplied by duplicate fragments are uncertain; in any case they give no connected sense.]
107. Verily, he holdeth the beginning and the end of them,[1] verily ...
[Footnote 1: Compare the language of the Kur'n (Surah II, v. 256), "He (Allah) knoweth what is before them and what is behind them."]
108. Saying, "He who entered into the middle of Timat resteth not;
109. "His name shall be 'Nibiru' the seizer of the middle.
110. "He shall set the courses of the stars of the heavens,
111. "He shall herd together the whole company of the gods like sheep.
112. "He shall [ever] take Timat captive, he shall slit up her treasure (variant, life), he shall disembowel her."[1]
[Footnote 1: These lines suggest that the fight between Marduk and Timat was recurrent; it is incorrect to translate the verbal forms as preterites.]
113. Among the men who are to come after a lapse of time,
114. Let [these words] be heard without ceasing, may they reign to all eternity,
115. Because he made the [heavenly] places and moulded the stable [earth].
116. Father Bel proclaimed his name, "Lord of the Lands."
117. All the Igigi repeated the title.
118. Ea heard and his liver rejoiced,
119. Saying, "He whose title hath rejoiced his fathers
120. "Shall be even as I am; his name shall be Ea.
121. "He shall dispose of all the magical benefits of my rites,
122. "He shall make to have effect my instructions."
123. By the title of "Fifty times" the great gods
124. Proclaimed his names fifty times, they magnified his going.
EPILOGUE.
125. Let the first comer take them and repeat them;
126. Let the wise man and the learned man meditate upon all of them;
127. The father shall repeat them to his son that he may lay hold upon them.
128. Let them (i.e., the names) open the ears of the shepherd and the herdsman.[1]
[Footnote 1: "To open the ears"—to give understanding.]
129. Let [man] rejoice in Marduk, the Lord of the Gods,
130. That his land may be fertile and he himself abide in security.
131. His word is true, his command altereth not.
132. No god hath ever brought to the ground that which issueth from his mouth.
133. They (i.e., the gods) treated him with contempt, he turned not his back [in flight],
134. No god could resist his wrath at its height.
135. His heart is large, his bowels of mercy are great.
136. Of sin and wickedness before him ...
137. The first comer utters his complaint of humiliation before him.
[Lines 138-142 are too fragmentary to translate.]
NOTES.
1. There are in the British Museum several fragments of Neo-Babylonian copies of the Seven Tablets of Creation, the exact position of which is at present uncertain. One of these (S. 2013) is of some importance because it speaks of one object which was in the "upper Timat", and of another which was in the "lower Timat". This shows that the Babylonians thought that one half of the body of Timat, which was split up by Marduk, was made into the celestial ocean, and the other half into the terrestrial ocean, in other words, into "the waters that were above" and "the waters that were beneath" the firmament respectively.
2. When George Smith published his Chaldean Account of Genesis in 1876, he was of opinion that the Creation Tablets in the British Museum contained descriptions of the Temptation of Eve by the serpent and of the building and overthrow of the Tower of Babel. The description of Paradise in Genesis ii seems to show traces of Babylonian influence, and the cylinder seal, Brit. Mus. No. 89,326, was thought to be proof that a Babylonian legend of the Temptation existed. In fact, George Smith printed a copy of the seal in his book (p. 91). But it is now known that the tablet which was believed to refer to man's eating of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge (K. 3, 473 + 79-7-8, 296 + R. 615) describes the banquet of the gods to which they invited Marduk. In like manner the text on K. 3657, which Smith thought referred to the Tower of Babel, is now known to contain no mention of a tower or building of any sort. It was also thought by him that K. 3364 contained a set of instructions which God gave to Adam and Eve after their creation, but it is now known and admitted by all Assyriologists that the text on this tablet contains moral precepts and has nothing to do with the Creation Series. Enquiries are from time to time made at the Museum for tablets which deal with the Temptation of Eve, and the destruction of the Tower of Babel, and the Divine commands to Adam and Eve; it is perhaps not superfluous to say that nothing of the kind exists.
LIST OF THE NAMES OF THE STARS OR SIGNS OF THE ZODIAC, WITH A LIST SHOWING THE MONTH THAT WAS ASSOCIATED WITH EACH STAR IN THE PERSIAN PERIOD.
BY SIDNEY SMITH, M.A., and C.J. GADD, M.A., Assistants in the Department.
No. 77,821 (85-4-30, 15).
Determinative Modern Month. of Star. Name of the Sign of the Zodiac. Equivalent
[Cuneiform] Goat. [Cuneiform] Bull.
[Cuneiform] Twins. [Cuneiform] Crab. [Cuneiform] Lion. [Cuneiform] Virgin. [Cuneiform] Scales. [Cuneiform] Scorpion. [Cuneiform] Bow. [Cuneiform] Capricornus [Cuneiform] Water-bearer [Cuneiform] The Fishes.
Month. Determinative of Star. Name of the Sign on the Zodiac. TRANSLITERATION. TRANSLATION. 1 Nisannu (kakkab) (amel) Agru.... The Labourer.
2 Airu " Kakkab u (kakkab) Alap shame The Star and the Bull of heaven.
3 Simanu " Re'u kinu shame u (kakkab) tu'ame rabuti The faithful shepherd of heaven and the Great Twins.
4 Duuzu " AL.LUL. (shittu)[1].... The Tortoise.
5 Abu " Kalbu rabu.... Great Dog (Lion).
6 Ululu " Shiru.... Virgin with ear of corn.
7 Tashritum " Zibanitum.... ....
8 Arah shamna " Akrabu.... The Scorpion.
9 Kislimu " PA.BIL.SAG.... Enurta (the god).
10 Tebetum " SUHUR.MASH.... The Goat-fish.
11 Shabatu " Gula.... The Great Star
12 Addaru " DIL.GAN.u rikis nuni The star ... and the Band of Fishes.
[Footnote 1: The Egyptian Sheta]
I have been assisted in the preparation of this monograph by Mr. Sidney Smith, M.A., Assistant in the Department.
E.A. WALLIS BUDGE.
DEPARTMENT OF EGYPTIAN AND ASSYRIAN ANTIQUITIES, BRITISH MUSEUM. June 1, 1921.
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