In all, eleven monstrous beings are created by Tiamat for the great conquest. At their head she places a being Kingu, whom she raises to the dignity of a consort.

The formal installation of Kingu is described as follows:

She raised Kingu among them to be their chief. To march at the head of the forces, to lead the assembly. To command the weapons to strike, to give the orders for the fray. To be the first in war, supreme in triumph. She ordained him and clothed him with authority (?).

Tiamat then addresses Kingu directly:

Through my word to thee, I have made thee the greatest among the gods. The rule over all the gods I have placed in thy hand. The greatest shalt thou be, thou, my consort, my only one.

Tiamat thereupon

Gives him the tablets of fate, hangs them on his breast, and dismisses him. 'Thy command be invincible, thy order authoritative.'[713]

The plan of procedure, it would appear, is the result of a council of war held by Apsu and Tiamat, who feel themselves powerless to carry on the contest by themselves. The portion of the tablet[714] in which this council is recounted is in so bad a condition that but little can be made out of it. Associated with Apsu and Tiamat in council, is a being Mummu, and since Damascius expressly notes on the direct authority of Berosus that Apsu and Tiamat produced a son Moumis,[715] there is every reason to believe that Mummu represents this offspring. In the subsequent narrative, however, neither Apsu nor Mummu play any part. Tiamat has transferred to Kingu and the eleven monsters all authority, and it is only after they are defeated that Tiamat—but Tiamat alone—enters the fray.

The rage of Tiamat is directed against Anshar, Kishar, and their offspring. Anu, Bel, and Ea, while standing at the head of the latter, are not the only gods introduced. When the contest begins, all the great gods and also the minor ones are in existence.

The cause of Tiamat's rage is indicated, though vaguely, in the portions preserved. In the opening lines of the epic there is a reference to the time 'when fates were not yet decided.' The decision of fates is in the Babylonian theology one of the chief functions of the gods. It constitutes the mainspring of their power. To decide fates is practically to control the arrangement of the universe—to establish order. It is this function which arouses the natural opposition of Tiamat and her brood, for Tiamat feels that once the gods are in control, her sway must come to an end. On the part of the gods there is great terror. They are anxious to conciliate Tiamat and are not actuated by any motives of rivalry. Order is not aggressive. It is chaos which manifests opposition to 'order.' In the second tablet of the series, Anshar sends his son Anu with a message to Tiamat:

Go and step before Tiamat. May her liver be pacified, her heart softened.

Anu obeys, but at the sight of Tiamat's awful visage takes flight. It is unfortunate that the second tablet is so badly preserved. We are dependent largely upon conjecture for what follows the failure of Anu's mission. From references in subsequent tablets, it seems certain that Anshar sends out Ea as a second messenger and that Ea also fails. Tiamat is determined upon destroying the gods, or at least upon keeping from them the 'decision of fates.' Anshar, it will be seen, stands at the head of the pantheon, and it seems natural that he, and not one of his offspring, should be the final victor. This indeed appears to have been the original form of the myth or at least one form of it. In a second form it was Bel to whom the victory was ascribed, and this Bel of the triad, we have seen, was En-lil, the chief god of Nippur; but both Anshar and Bel must give way to the patron deity of the city of Babylon—Marduk. Anshar-Ashur, the head of the Assyrian pantheon, could not be tolerated by the Babylonian priests as a power superior to Marduk. On the other hand, Anshar could not be set aside, for he survived in popular tradition. The result is a compromise. Marduk gains the victory over Tiamat, but is commissioned to do so by the assembly of the gods, including Anshar. As for the older Bel, he voluntarily transfers to Marduk his name. In this way, the god Bel of the triad becomes one with Marduk.

Perhaps in one religious center and at a time when Ea was the chief god, still another version existed which assigned the triumph to Ea, for as will be pointed out, traditions waver between assigning to Ea or to Bel-Marduk so fundamental a function as the creation of mankind. In short, the present form of the creation epic is 'eclectic' and embodies what the Germans call a tendenz. To each of the great gods, Anshar, Anu, Bel, and Ea, some part in the contest is assigned, but the greatest role belongs to Marduk.

The second tablet closes with Anshar's decision to send his son Marduk against Tiamat:

Marduk heard the word of his father. His heart rejoiced and to his father he spoke.

With joyous heart he is ready to proceed to the contest, but he at once makes good his claim to supreme control in case he is victorious. He addresses the assembled gods:

When I shall have become your avenger, Binding Tiamat and saving your life, Then come in a body, In Ubshu-kenna,[716] let yourselves down joyfully, My authority instead of yours will assume control, Unchangeable shall be whatever I do, Irrevocable and irresistible, be the command of my lips.

The declaration foreshadows the result.

The third tablet is taken up with the preliminaries for the great contest, and is interesting chiefly because of the insight it affords us into Babylonian methods of literary composition. Anshar sends Gaga[717] to the hostile camp with the formal announcement of Marduk's readiness to take up the cause of the gods. Gaga does not face Tiamat directly, but leaves the message with Lakhmu and Lakhamu:

Go Gaga, messenger (?) joy of my liver, To Lakhmu and Lakhamu I will send thee.

The message proper begins as follows:

Anshar your son has sent me, The desire of his heart he has entrusted to me. Tiamat, our mother is full of hate towards us, With all her might she is bitterly enraged.

The eleven associates that Tiamat has ranged on her side are again enumerated, together with the appointment of Kingu as chief of the terror-inspiring army. Gaga comes to Lakhmu and Lakhamu and delivers the message verbatim, so that altogether this portion of the narrative is repeated no less than four times.[718] The same tendency towards repetition is met with in the Gilgamesh epic and in the best of the literary productions of Babylonia. It may be ascribed to the influence exerted by the religious hymns and incantations where repetition, as we have seen, is also common, though serving a good purpose.

The message concludes:

I sent Anu, he could not endure her[719] presence. Ea[720] was afraid and took to flight. Marduk has stepped forward, the chief of the gods, your son, To proceed against Tiamat, he has set his mind.

Marduk's declaration is then repeated.

Upon hearing the message Lakhmu and Lakhamu and "all the Igigi"[721] are distressed, but are powerless to avert the coming disaster. The formal declaration of war having been sent, the followers of Anshar assemble at a meal which is realistically described:

They ate bread, they drank wine. The sweet wine took away their senses. They became drunk, and their bodies swelled up.

With this description the third tablet closes.

The meal symbolizes the solemn gathering of the gods. At its conclusion, so it would seem, Marduk is formally installed as the leader to proceed against Tiamat. The gods vie with one another in showering honors upon Marduk. They encourage him for the fight by praising his unique powers:

Thou art honored among the great gods, Thy destiny is unique, thy command is Anu.[722] Marduk, thou art honored among the great gods, Thy destiny is unique, thy command is Anu, Henceforth thy order is absolute. To elevate and to lower is in thy hands, What issues from thee is fixed, thy order cannot be opposed, None among the gods may trespass upon thy dominion.

...

Thy weapons will never be vanquished; they will shatter thy enemies. O lord! grant life to him who trusts in thee, But destroy the life of the god who plots evil.

As a proof of the power thus entrusted to Marduk, the gods give the latter a 'sign.' Marduk performs a miracle. A garment is placed in the midst of the gods.

Command that the dress disappear! Then command that the dress return!

Marduk proceeds to the test.

As he gave the command, the dress disappeared. He spoke again and the dress was there.

This 'sign,' which reminds one of Yahwe's signs to Moses as a proof of the latter's power,[723] is to be regarded as an indication that "destruction and creation" are in Marduk's hands. The gods rejoice at the exhibition of Marduk's power. In chorus they exclaim, "Marduk is king." The insignia of royalty, throne, sceptre, and authority are conferred upon him.

Now go against Tiamat, cut off her life, Let the winds carry her blood to hidden regions.[724]

Marduk thereupon fashions his weapons for the fray. Myth and realism are strangely intertwined in the description of these weapons. Bow and quiver, the lance and club are mentioned, together with the storm and the lightning flash. In addition to this he

Constructs a net wherewith to enclose the life of Tiamat. The four winds he grasped so that she could not escape.[725] The south and north winds, the east and west winds He brought to the net, which was the gift of his father Anu.

His outfit is not yet complete.

He creates a destructive wind, a storm, a hurricane, Making of the four winds, seven[726] destructive and fatal ones; Then he let loose the winds he created, the seven, To destroy the life[727] of Tiamat, they followed after him.

Marduk, taking his most powerful weapon in his hand,[728] mounts his chariot, which is driven by fiery steeds. The picture thus furnished of the god, standing upright in his chariot, with his weapons hung about him and the seven winds following in his wake, is most impressive.

He makes straight for the hostile camp. The sight of the god inspires terror on all sides.

The lord comes nearer with his eye fixed upon Tiamat, Piercing with his glance (?) Kingu her consort.

Kingu starts back in alarm. He cannot endure the 'majestic halo' which surrounds Marduk. Kingu's associates—the monsters—are terrified at their leader's discomfiture. Tiamat alone does not lose her courage.

Marduk, brandishing his great weapon, addresses Tiamat:

Why hast thou set thy mind upon stirring up destructive contest?

He reproaches her for the hatred she has shown towards the gods, and boldly calls her out to the contest:

Stand up! I and thou, come let us fight.

Tiamat's rage at this challenge is superbly pictured:

When Tiamat heard these words She acted as possessed, her senses left her; Tiamat shrieked wild and loud, Trembling and shaking down to her foundations. She pronounced an incantation, uttered her sacred formula.

Marduk is undismayed:

Then Tiamat and Marduk, chief of the gods, advanced towards one another. They advanced to the contest, drew nigh for fight.

The fight and discomfiture of Tiamat are next described:

The lord spread out his net in order to enclose her. The destructive wind, which was behind him, he sent forth into her face. As Tiamat opened her mouth full wide, He[729] drove in the destructive wind, so that she could not close her lips. The strong winds inflated her stomach. Her heart was beset,[730] she opened still wider her mouth,[731] He seized the spear and plunged it into her stomach, He pierced her entrails, he tore through her heart, He seized hold of her and put an end to her life, He threw down her carcass and stepped upon her.

The method employed by Marduk is so graphically described that no comment is necessary. After having vanquished Tiamat, the valiant Marduk attacks her associates. They try to flee, but he captures them all—including Kingu—without much difficulty and puts them into his great net. Most important of all, he tears the tablets of fate from Kingu and places them on his breast. This act marks the final victory. Henceforth, the gods with Marduk—and no longer Tiamat and her brood—decree the fate of the universe. There is great rejoicing among the gods, who heap presents and offerings upon Marduk. As the vanquisher of chaos, Marduk is naturally singled out to be the establisher of the fixed form and order of the universe. The close of the fourth tablet describes this work of the god, and the subject is continued in the following ones. Unfortunately, these tablets are badly preserved, so that we are far from having a complete view of the various acts of Marduk. He begins by taking the carcass of Tiamat and cutting it in half.

He cuts her like one does a flattened fish into two halves.

Previous to this he had trampled upon her and smashed her skull, as we are expressly told, so that the comparison of the monster, thus pressed out, to a flattened fish is appropriate.

He splits her lengthwise.

The one half he fashioned as a covering for the heavens, Attaching a bolt and placing there a guardian, With orders not to permit the waters to come out.

It is evident that the canopy of heaven is meant. Such is the enormous size of Tiamat that one-half of her body flattened out so as to serve as a curtain, is stretched across the heavens to keep the 'upper waters'—'the waters above the firmament' as the Book of Genesis puts it—from coming down. To ensure the execution of this design, a bolt is drawn in front of the canopy and a guardian placed there, like at a city wall, to prevent any one or anything from coming out.

This act corresponds closely to the creation of a "firmament" in the first chapter of Genesis. The interpretation is borne out by the statement of Alexander Polyhistor who, quoting from Berosus, states that out of one-half of Tiamat the heavens were made.[732] The further statement that out of the other half the earth was fashioned is not definitely stated in our version of the creation. The narrative proceeds as follows:

He passed through the heavens, he inspected the expanse.[733]

To understand this phrase, we must consider the general character of the "epic," which is, as we have already seen, a composite production, formed of popular elements and of more advanced speculations. The popular element is the interpretation of the storms and rains that regularly visit the Euphrates Valley before the summer season sets in, as a conflict between a monster and the solar deity Marduk. After a struggle, winds at last drive the waters back; Tiamat is vanquished by the entrance of the 'bad wind' into her body. The sun appears in the heavens and runs across the expanse, passing in his course over the entire vault. The conflict, which in the scholastic system of the theologians is placed at the beginning of things, is in reality a phenomenon of annual occurrence. The endeavor to make Marduk more than what he originally was—a solar deity—leads to the introduction of a variety of episodes that properly belong to a different class of deities. For all that, the original role of Marduk is not obscured. Marduk's passage across the heavens is a trace of the popular phases of the nature myth, and while in one sense, it is appropriately introduced after the fashioning of the expanse, it more properly follows immediately upon the conflict with Tiamat. In short, we have reached a point in the narrative where the nature myth symbolizing the annual succession of the seasons blends with a cosmological system which is the product of comparatively advanced schools of thought, in such a manner as to render it difficult to draw the line where myth ends and cosmological system begins. For the moment, the nature myth controls the course of the narrative. The sun, upon running its course across the heavens, appears to drop into the great ocean, which the Babylonians, in common with many ancient nations, imagined to surround and to pass underneath the earth.

Hence the next act undertaken by Marduk is the regulation of the course of this subterranean sea. The name given to this sea was Apsu. Marduk however does not create the Apsu. It is in existence at the beginning of things, but he places it under the control of Ea.

In front of Apsu, he prepared the dwelling of Nu-dimmud.[734]

This Apsu, as we learn from other sources,[735] flows on all sides of the earth, and since it also fills the hollow under the earth, the latter in reality rests upon the Apsu. Ea is frequently called "the lord of Apsu," but the creation epic, in assigning to Marduk the privilege of preparing the dwelling of Ea, reverses the true order of things, which may still be seen in the common belief that made Marduk the son of Ea. Marduk, the sun rising up out of the ocean, becomes the offspring of Ea, and even the political supremacy of Marduk could not set aside the prerogatives of Ea in the popular mind. In the cosmological system, however, as developed in the schools, such an attempt was made. While recognizing the 'deep' as the domain of Ea, the theologians saved Marduk's honor by having him take a part in fixing Ea's dwelling and in determining its limitations.

With the carcass of Tiamat stretched across the upper firmament and safely guarded, and with the Apsu under control, the way is clear for the formation of the earth. This act in the drama of creation is referred to in the following lines, though in a manner, that is not free from obscurity. The earth is pictured as a great structure placed over the Apsu and corresponding in dimension with it—at least in one direction.

The lord measured out the structure of Apsu. Corresponding to it, he fashioned a great structure[736] Esharra.

Esharra is a poetical designation of the earth and signifies, as Jensen has satisfactorily shown, "house of fullness"[737] or "house of fertility." The earth is regarded as a great structure, and placed as it is over the Apsu, its size is dependent upon the latter. Its measurement from one end to the other cannot exceed the width of the Apsu, nor can it be any narrower. The ends of the earth span the great Apsu. The following line specifies the shape given to Esharra:

The great structure Esharra, which he made as a heavenly vault.

The earth is not a sphere according to Babylonian ideas, but a hollow hemisphere having an appearance exactly like the vault of heaven, but placed in position beneath the heavenly canopy. As a hemisphere it suggests the picture of a mountain, rising at one end, mounting to a culminating point, and descending at the other end. Hence by the side of Esharra, another name by which the earth was known was Ekur, that is, 'the mountain house.'

Diodorus Seculus, in speaking of the Babylonian cosmology, employs a happy illustration. He says that according to Babylonian notions the world is a "boat turned upside down." The kind of boat meant is, as Lenormant recognized,[738] the deep-bottomed round skiff with curved edges that is still used for carrying loads across and along the Euphrates and Tigris, the same kind of boat that the compilers of Genesis had in view when describing Noah's Ark. The appearance in outline thus presented by the three divisions of the universe—the heavens, the earth, and the waters—would be that of two heavy rainbows, one beneath the other at some distance apart, resting upon a large body of water that flows around the horizons of both rainbows, and also fills the hollow of the second one.[739] The upper 'rainbow' is formed by one-half of the carcass of Tiamat stretched across in semi-circular shape; the lower one is the great structure Esharra made by Marduk, while the Apsu underneath is the dwelling of Ea. The creation epic, it may be noted once more, takes much for granted. Its chief aim being to glorify Marduk, but little emphasis is laid upon details of interest to us. The parcelling out of these three divisions among Anu, Bel, and Ea is therefore merely alluded to in the closing line of the fourth tablet:

He established the districts[740] of Anu, Bel, and Ea.

The narrative assumes what we know from other sources, that the heavens constitute the domain of Anu, Esharra belongs to Bel, while Apsu belongs to Ea.

The mention of the triad takes us away from popular myth to the scholastic system as devised by the theologians. The establishment of the triad in full control marks the introduction of fixed order into the universe. All traces of Tiamat have disappeared. Anu, Bel, and Ea symbolize the eternal laws of the universe.

There are, as we have seen, two factors involved in the role assigned to Marduk in the version of the creation epic under consideration,—one the original character of the god as a solar deity, the other the later position of the god as the head of the Babylonian pantheon. In the 'epic,' the fight of Marduk with Tiamat belongs to Marduk as a solar deity. The myth is based, as was above suggested,[741] upon the annual phenomenon witnessed in Babylonia when the whole valley is flooded and storms sweep across the plains. The sun is obscured. A conflict is going on between the waters and storms, on the one hand, and the sun, on the other hand. The latter finally is victorious. Marduk subdues Tiamat, fixes limitations to the 'upper and lower waters,' and triumphantly marches across the heavens from one end to the other, as general overseer.

This nature myth was admirably adapted to serve as the point of departure for the enlargement of the role of Marduk, rendered necessary by the advancement of the god to the head of the pantheon. Everything had to be ascribed to Marduk. Not merely humanity, but the gods also had to acknowledge, and acknowledge freely, the supremacy of Marduk.

The solar deity thus becomes a power at whose command the laws of the universe are established, the earth created and all that is on it. In thus making Marduk the single creator, the theologians were as much under the influence of Marduk's political supremacy, as they helped to confirm that supremacy by their system. With this object in view, the annual phenomenon was transformed into an account of what happened 'once upon a time.'

What impressed the thinkers most in the universe was the regular working of the laws of nature. Ascribing these laws to Marduk, they naturally pictured the beginnings of things as a lawless period. Into the old and popular Marduk-Tiamat nature myth, certain touches were thus introduced that changed its entire character. This once done, it was a comparatively simple matter to follow up the conflict of Marduk and Tiamat by a series of acts on Marduk's part, completing the work of general creation. The old nature myth ended with the conquest of the rains and storm and the establishment of the sun's regular course, precisely as the deluge story in Genesis, which contains echoes of the Marduk-Tiamat myth, ends with the promulgation of the fixed laws of the universe.[742]

What follows upon this episode in the Babylonian epic is the elaboration of the central theme, worked out in the schools of Babylonian thought and intended, on the one hand, to illustrate Marduk's position as creator and, on the other, to formulate the details of the cosmological system.

With the fifth tablet, therefore, we leave the domain of popular myth completely and pass into the domain of cosmological speculation. Fragmentary as the fifth tablet is, enough is preserved to show that it assumes the perfection of the zodiacal system of the Babylonian schools and the complete regulation[743] of the calendar. In this zodiacal system, as has been intimated and as will be more fully set forth in a special chapter, the planets and stars are identified with the gods. The gods have their 'stations' and their 'pictures' in the starry sky. The stars are the 'drawings' or 'designs of heaven.' It is Marduk again who is represented as arranging these stations:

He established the stations for the great gods.[744] The stars, their likeness,[745] he set up as constellations.[746] He fixed the year and marked the divisions.[747] The twelve months he divided among three stars. From the beginning of the year till the close (?) He established the station of Nibir[748] to indicate their boundary. So that there might be no deviation nor wandering away from the course He established with him,[749] the stations of Bel and Ea.

An epitome of the astronomical science of the Babylonians is comprised in these lines. The gods being identified with stars and each of the latter having its place in the heavens 'to establish the stations for the great gods' is equivalent to putting the stars in position. The regulation of the year forms part of the astronomical science. The three stars that constitute 'divisions' to aid in marking off the months are Nibir, Bel, and Ea. That the Babylonians had such a system as is here outlined is confirmed by Diodorus Seculus.[750] The position of Nibir, or Jupiter, whose course keeps closer to the ecliptic than that of any other planet, served as an important guide in calendrical calculations. The stars are represented as clinging to their course through maintaining their relationship to Nibir, while at the side of Nibir and as additional guides, Bel is identified with the north pole of the equator and Ea with a star in the extreme southern heavens, to be sought for, perhaps, in the constellation Argo. The description concludes:

He attached large gates to both sides, Made the bolt secure to the left and right.

The heavens are thus made firm by two gates, fastened with bolts and placed at either end. Through one of these gates the sun passes out in the morning, and at evening enters into the other. But the most important body in the heavens is the moon. Its functions are described in an interesting way:

In the midst[751] he made the zenith[752] (?) Nannar[753] he caused to go forth and handed over to him[5] the night. He fixed him[754] as the luminary of night to mark off the days.

The passage is made clear by a reference to the Book of Genesis, i. 16, where we are told that the moon was created 'for the rule of night.' A distinction between the Biblical and the cuneiform cosmology at this point is no less significant. While according to Babylonian ideas, the moon alone, or at most the moon with the stars, regulates the days, the Hebrew version makes the moon and sun together the basis for the regulation of the 'days and years.' The sun according to Babylonian notions does not properly belong to the heavens, since it passes daily beyond the limits of the latter. The sun, therefore, plays an insignificant part in the calendrical system in comparison with the moon.

Marduk addresses the moon, specifying its duties, what position it is to occupy towards the sun at certain periods during the monthly course, and the like. The tablet at this point becomes defective, and before the address comes to an end, we are left entirely in the lurch. To speculate as to the further contents of the fifth tablet and of the sixth (of which nothing has as yet been found) seems idle. Zimmern supposes that after the heavenly phenomena had been disposed of, the formation of the dry land and of the seas was taken up, and Delitzsch is of the opinion that in the sixth tablet the creation of plants and trees and animals was also recounted. I venture to question whether the creation of the 'dry land and seas' was specifically mentioned. Esharra, the earth, is in existence and the Apsu appears to include all waters, but that the epic treated of the creation of plant and animal life and then of the creation of man is eminently likely. We have indeed a fragment of a tablet[755] in which the creation of the 'cattle of the field, beasts of the field, and creeping things of the field' is referred to; but since it is the 'gods who in unison' are there represented as having created the animal kingdom, it is hardly likely that the fragment forms part of our 'epic' in which all deeds are ascribed to Marduk. It belongs in all probability to a different cosmological version, but so much can be concluded from it, that the Babylonians ascribed the creation of animals to some divine power or powers; and that therefore our 'epic' must have contained a section in which this act was assigned to Marduk.

A similar variation exists with reference to the tradition of the creation of mankind. There are distinct traces that the belief was current in parts of Babylonia which made Ea the creation of mankind.[756] Ea, it will be recalled, is the 'god of humanity' par excellence, and yet in the seventh (and probably closing) tablet of the series, Marduk is spoken of as the one "who created mankind."[757]

Variant traditions of this kind point to the existence of various centers of culture and thought in rivalry with one another. The great paean to Marduk would have been sadly incomplete had it not contained an account of the creation of mankind—the crowning work of the universe—by the head of the Babylonian pantheon. It is possible, therefore, that a tablet containing the address of a deity to mankind belongs to our series[758] and embodies orders and warnings given by Marduk after the creation of man, just as he addresses the moon after establishing it in the heavens. Purity of heart is enjoined as pleasing to the deity. Prayer and supplication and prostration are also commanded. It is said that

Fear of god begets mercy, Sacrifice prolongs life, And prayer dissolves sin.

The tablet continues in this strain. It is perhaps not the kind of address that we would expect Marduk to make after the act of creation, but for the present we must content ourselves with this conjecture, as also with the supposition that the creation of mankind constituted the final act in the great drama in which Marduk is the hero.

When Marduk's work is finished, the Igigi gather around him in adoration. This scene is described in a tablet which for the present we may regard[759] as the close of the series. No less than fifty names are bestowed upon him by the gods, the number fifty corresponding according to some traditions to the number of the Igigi. Marduk accordingly absorbs the qualities of all the gods. Such is the purpose of this tablet. The diction is at times exceedingly impressive.

God of pure life, they called [him] in the third place, the bearer of purification. God of favorable wind,[760] lord of response[761] and of mercy, Creator of abundance and fullness, granter of blessings, Who increases the things that were small, Whose favorable wind we experienced in sore distress. Thus let them[762] speak and glorify and be obedient to him.

The gods recall with gratitude Marduk's service in vanquishing Tiamat. Marduk is also praised for the mercy he showed towards the associates of Tiamat, whom he merely captured without putting them to death.

As the god of the shining crown in the fourth place, let them [i.e., mankind] exalt him. The lord of cleansing incantation, the restorer of the dead to life, Who showed mercy towards the captured gods, Removed the yoke from the gods who were hostile to him.

A later fancy identified the 'captured gods' with eleven of the heavenly constellations.[763]

Mankind is enjoined not to forget Marduk

Who created mankind out of kindness towards them, The merciful one, with whom is the power of giving life. May his deeds remain and never be forgotten By humanity, created by his hands.

Among other names assigned to him are 'the one who knows the heart of the gods,' 'who gathers the gods together,' 'who rules in truth and justice.' In allusion again to his contest with Tiamat, he is called 'the destroyer of the enemy and of all wicked ones,' 'who frustrates their plans.'

With the help of a pun upon his having 'pierced' Tiamat; he is called Nibir, i.e., the planet Jupiter.[764]

Nibir be his name, who took hold of the life of Tiamat. The course of the stars of heaven may he direct. May he pasture all of the gods like sheep.[765]

But the climax is reached when, upon hearing what the Igigi have done, the great gods, father Bel and father Ea cheerfully bestow their own names upon Marduk.

Because he created the heavens and formed the earth 'Lord of Lands'[766] father Bel called his name. When he heard of all the names that the Igigi bestowed Ea's liver rejoiced That they had bestowed exalted names upon his son. "He as I—Ea be his name. The control of my commands be entrusted to him. To him my orders shall be transmitted."

The historical background to this transference of the name of Bel has been dwelt upon in a previous chapter.[767] This "Marduk hymn" is to justify the transference of the role of the older Bel of Nippur to the younger god Marduk. Throughout, the tablet describing the contest of Marduk with Tiamat, Marduk is called Bel,[768] and while this name is used in the generic sense of "lord," the transference of the name of Bel to Marduk is evidently introduced to account for his assuming the prerogatives belonging to another god. The original 'lord' was En-lil of Nippur. The sacred significance of ancient Nippur made its patron deity the most important rival of Marduk. Bel could not be disposed of as Ea, who by virtue of his mythological relationships to Marduk—a solar deity—could be retained as the father of Marduk. There was nothing left but for Marduk to take the place of Bel. The constant introduction of the epithet 'Bel' into the Tiamat story points to an older version in which Bel was the hero. In popular traditions, Bel continued to be pictured as armed with mighty weapons,[769] and, though ready to inflict severe punishment for disobedience to his commands, he engages in contests for the benefit of mankind. The earth being his special sphere of action, what more natural than that he should have had a prominent share in adapting it as a habitation for mankind. He would be directly interested in fighting the powers of darkness.

In the weapons that Marduk employs, particularly the lightning and the winds which belong to an atmospheric god rather than a solar deity, we may discern traces of the older narrative which has been combined with the Marduk-Tiamat nature myth.[770] It may be that Kingu represents Bel's particular rival. In the narrative, it will be recalled, the contest with Tiamat is sharply separated from that with Kingu and his associates. The division that thus suggests itself between Marduk and Tiamat, on the one hand, Bel and the monsters with Kingu at their head, on the other, may certainly be termed a natural one. The solar deity Marduk disposed of the storms and rains of the winter, whereas, a god of "that which is below,"[771] i.e., the earth and the atmosphere immediately above the earth, would appropriately be represented as ridding the earth of the monsters in order to prepare it as a habitation for mankind. Ea was not such a serious rival to Marduk as the older Bel. Political rivalry between Nippur and Babylonia probably contributed towards the disposition to have Marduk completely absorb the role of Bel, whereas, this rivalry being absent in the case of Eridu (the original seat of Ea worship) and Babylon, the mythological relations between Ea and Marduk led, as already pointed out, in a perfectly natural way to making Marduk the son of Ea. Still, while cheerfully acknowledged by Ea as his equal, it is evident that in older traditions Ea was far superior to Marduk, and the latter replaces Ea as he does Bel. The real creator of mankind, according to certain traditions, is Ea, just as in all probabilities a third tradition existed which arose in Nippur giving to Bel that distinction. It is necessary, therefore, for Ea to declare that Marduk's name (i.e., his power) is the same as Ea. The alteration of the traditions is thus justified by a harmonistic theology. Marduk has triumphed over Bel and Ea. The god of Babylon reigns supreme, his sway acknowledged by those whom he supplants. Marduk's declaration that in the event of his vanquishing Tiamat he will assume authority over all the gods is thus formally confirmed. The epic closes grandiloquently:

With fifty names, the great gods According to their fifty names, proclaimed the supremacy of his course.

The compiler has added to the epic what Delitzsch appropriately designates an 'epilogue,'—a declaration of affection for Marduk. The epilogue consists of three stanzas. All mankind—royalty and subjects—are called upon to bear in mind Marduk's glorious deeds, achieved for the benefit of the world.

Let the wise and intelligent together ponder over it. Let the father relate it and teach it to his son.[772] To leader and shepherd[773] be it told. Let all rejoice in the lord of gods, Marduk That he may cause his land to prosper and grant it peace. His word is firm, his order irrevocable. What issues from his mouth, no god can alter.

Marduk's anger, the poet says in closing, terrifies even the gods, but he is a god upon whose mercy one may rely, though he punishes the evil-doer.

Bearing in mind the general nature of the creation epic we have discussed, we must of course in our conclusions distinguish between those elements in it which reflect the intent of the compiler or compilers to glorify Marduk at the expense of other gods and such parts as bear the stamp of being generally accepted beliefs. Setting aside, therefore, the special role assigned to Marduk, we find that the Babylonians never developed a theory of real beginnings. The creatio ex nihilo was a thought beyond the grasp even of the schools. There was always something, and indeed there was always a great deal—as much perhaps at the beginning of things as at any other time. But there was no cosmic order. Instead of a doctrine of creation, we have a doctrine of evolution from chaos to the imposition of eternal laws. The manifestation of these laws was seen first of all in the movements of the heavenly bodies. There was a great expanse, presenting the appearance of a stretched-out curtain or a covering to which the stars and moon were attached. Along this expanse the wandering stars moved with a certain regularity. The moon, too, had its course mapped out and the sun appeared in this expanse daily, as an overseer, passing along the whole of it. This wonderful system was the first to be perfected, and to the solar deity,[774] which seemed to control everything, was ascribed the distinction of having introduced the heavenly order. This notion we may well believe was of popular origin, though elaborated in the schools to conform to a developed astrological science.

The stars and moon never passed beyond certain limits, and, accordingly, the view was developed which gave to the canopy of heaven fixed boundaries. At each end of the canopy was a great gate, properly guarded. Through one of these the sun passed in rising out of the ocean, through the other it passed out when it had run its course. Learned speculation could not improve upon this popular fancy. As the heavens had their limitations, so also the great bodies of water were kept in check by laws, which, though eternal, were yet not quite as inexorable as those controlling the heavenly bodies. The yearly overflow of the Euphrates and Tigris was too serious a matter to be overlooked, and we shall see in a following chapter[775] how this phenomenon was interpreted as a rivalry between Bel and Ea, deliberately caused by the former in anger toward mankind. Still, as a general thing, the 'deep,' presided over by Ea, kept within the limits assigned to it. The waters above the canopy were under rigid control, and the lower waters flowed around the earth and underneath it, and bordered the canopy of heaven at its two ends.

The earth itself was a vast hollow structure, erected as a "place of fertility" under the canopy of heaven and resting on the great 'deep.' Its vegetation was the gift of the gods. 'Fertility' summed up the law fixed for the earth. Much as in the Book of Genesis, "to multiply and increase" was the order proclaimed for the life with which the earth was filled.

The creation of mankind was the last act in the great drama. Assigned in some traditions to Ea, in others as it would seem to Bel, the transfer of the traditions to Marduk is the deliberate work of the schools of theological thought. The essential point for us is that mankind, according to all traditions, is the product of the gods. In some form or other, this belief was popularly held everywhere. Its original form, however, is obscured beyond recognition by the theory which it is made to serve.

A second version of the course of creation[776] agrees in the main with the first one, but adds some points of interest. In this version, likewise, Marduk is assigned the most important role—an evidence that it was produced under similar influences as the larger epic. So far as preserved, the second version differs from the first in its brevity and in the prominence given to such themes as the development of animal life and the growth of civilization. It fills out to a certain degree the gaps in the first version, due to the fragmentary condition of the fifth tablet and the loss of the sixth. The brevity of the second version is due in part to the fact that it is introduced into an incantation text, and, what is more, incidentally introduced.

It begins as does the larger epic with the statement regarding the period when the present phenomena of the universe were not yet in existence, but it specifies the period in a manner which gives a somewhat more definite character to the conception of this ancient time.

The bright house of the gods was not yet built on the bright place, No reed grew and no tree was formed, No brick was laid nor any brick edifice[777] reared, No house erected, no city built, No city reared, no conglomeration[778] formed. Nippur was not reared, E-Kur[779] not erected. Erech was not reared, E-Anna[780] not erected. The deep[781] not formed, Eridu[782] not reared. The bright house, the house of the gods not yet constructed as a dwelling. The world[783] was all a sea.

Again it will be observed that neither popular nor scholastic speculation can picture the beginning of things in any other way than as an absence of things characteristic of the order of the universe.

The bright[784] house of the gods corresponds to Eshara and the canopy of heaven in the first version. The gods are again identified with the stars, and it is in the heavens—the bright place—that the gods dwell.[785] The reference to the absence of vegetation agrees closely with the corresponding passage in the larger creation epic. The limitations of the cosmological speculations of the Babylonians find a striking illustration in the manner in which the beginnings of human culture are placed on a level with the beginnings of heavenly and terrestrial phenomena. Nippur, Erech, and Eridu, which are thus shown to be the oldest religious centers of the Euphrates Valley, were indissolubly associated in the minds of the people with the beginning of order in the universe. Such was the antiquity of those cities as seats of the great gods, Bel, Ishtar, and Ea, that the time when they did not exist was not differentiated from the creation of the heavens and of plant life. This conception is more clearly emphasized by the parallelism implied between Eridu and the 'deep.' The 'formation' of Apsu corresponds to the 'structure' made by Marduk according to the first version, as the seat of Ea. The waters were not created by Marduk, but they were confined by him within a certain space. In a vague way, the 'deep' itself rested in a vast tub. The waters flowed freely and yet not without limitation.

The contest with Tiamat is not referred to in this second version, and this may be taken as an indication that the 'nature' myth was not an ingredient part of cosmological speculations, but only introduced into the first version because of its associations with Marduk.

The appearance of dry land is described somewhat vaguely as follows:

There was a channel[786] within the sea. At that time Eridu was erected, E-Sagila[787] was built, E-Sagila in the midst of the 'deep,' where the god of the glorious abode[788] dwells.

The mention of the channel appears to imply that the waters were permitted to flow off in a certain direction.

The conception would then be similar to the view expressed in Genesis, where the dry land appears in consequence of the waters being 'gathered' into one place.[789] The temple at Eridu is regarded as synonymous with the city, as the temples E-Kur and E-Anna are synonymous with Nippur and Erech respectively. Eridu at the head of the Persian Gulf, which for the Babylonians was the beginning of the great 'Okeanos' surrounding the world,[790] is the first dry land to appear and hence the oldest place in the world. At this point in the narrative a line is interpolated which clearly betrays the lateness of the version. The mention of E-Sagila suggests to a Babylonian, naturally, the great temple of Marduk in the city of Babylon—'the lofty house.' Local pride and the desire to connect Babylon with the beginning of things leads to the insertion:

Babylon was reared, E-Sagila built.

With this mention of Babylon, the connecting link is established which leads easily to the glorification of Babylon and Marduk. The thought once introduced is not abandoned. The rest of the narrative, so far as preserved, is concerned with Marduk. Eridu alone is beyond his jurisdiction. Everything else, vegetation, mankind, rivers, animals, and all cities, including even Nippur and Erech, are Marduk's work.

The Anunnaki[791] he[792] created together And bestowed glorious epithets upon the glorious city, the seat dear to their heart.

The 'glorious city' is Eridu, though the compiler would have us apply it to Babylon.

With the founding of Eridu, a limit was fixed for the 'deep.' The rest of the dry land is formed according to the theory of the writer by the extension of this place.

Marduk constructed an enclosure around the waters, He made dust and heaped it up within the enclosure.[793]

The naivete of the conception justifies us in regarding it as of popular origin, incorporated by the theologians into their system.

But this land is created primarily for the benefit of the gods.

That the gods might dwell in the place dear to their heart.

Naturally not all of the gods are meant,—perhaps only the Anunnaki,—for the great gods dwell in heaven. The creation of mankind is next described, and is boldly ascribed to Marduk.

Mankind he created.[794]

In the following line, however, we come across a trace again of an older tradition, which has been embodied in the narrative in a rather awkward manner. Associated with Marduk in the creation of mankind is a goddess Aruru.

The goddess Aruru created the seed of men together with him.[795]

We encounter this goddess Aruru in the Gilgamesh epic,[796] where she is represented as creating a human being,—Eabani; and, curiously enough, she creates him in agreement with the Biblical tradition, out of a lump of clay. It has already been pointed out that according to one tradition Ea is the creator of mankind,[797] and the conjecture has also been advanced that at Nippur, Bel was so regarded. In Aruru we have evidently a figure to whom another tradition, that arose in some district, ascribed the honor of having created mankind. The Gilgamesh story is connected with the city of Erech, and it is probable that the tale—at least in part—originated there. It becomes plausible, therefore, to trace the tradition ascribing the creation of man to Aruru to the same place. A passage in the Deluge story, which forms an episode of the Gilgamesh epic, adds some force to this conjecture. After the dreadful deluge has come, Ishtar breaks out in wild lament that mankind, her offspring, has perished: "What I created, where is it?"[798] She is called 'the mistress of the gods,'[799] and if Jensen is correct in an ingenious restoration of a defective text,[800] Aruru is given the same epithet in a lexicographical tablet. The Ishtar occurring in the Gilgamesh story is the old Ishtar of Erech. I venture to suggest, therefore, that Aruru and Ishtar of Erech are one and the same personage. Ishtar is, of course, as has been pointed out, merely a generic name[801] for the 'great goddess' worshipped under many forms. The more specific name by which Ishtar of Erech was known was Nana, but Nana again is nothing but an epithet, meaning, as the Babylonians themselves interpreted it, the 'lady' par excellence. Have we perhaps in Aruru the real name of the old goddess of Erech? At all events, the occurrence of Aruru in this second 'creation' story points to her as belonging to the district of which Erech was the center. In this way, each one of the three most ancient sacred towns of Babylonia would have its 'creator,'—Bel in Nippur, Ea in Eridu, and Aruru in Erech. The chief deity of Erech, it will be recalled, was always a goddess,—a circumstance that supports the association of Aruru with that place. Aruru being a goddess, it was not so easy to have Marduk take up her role, as he supplanted Bel. Again, Erech and Babylon were not political rivals to the degree that Nippur and Babylon were. Accordingly a compromise was effected, as in the case of Marduk and Ea. Aruru is associated with Marduk. She creates mankind with Marduk, and it would seem to be a consequence of this association that the name of Marduk's real consort, Sarpanitum, is playfully but with intent interpreted by the Babylonian pedants as 'seed-producing.'[802]

Our second version thus turns out to be, like the first, an adaptation of old traditions to new conditions. Babylon and Marduk are designedly introduced. In the original form Nippur, Eridu, and Erech alone figured, and presumably, therefore, only the deities of these three places. Among them the work of creation was in some way parceled out. This distribution may itself have been the result of a combination of independent traditions. In any early combination, however, we may feel certain that Marduk was not introduced.

After this incidental mention of Aruru, the narrative passes back undisturbed to Marduk.

The animals of the field, the living creatures of the field he created, The Tigris and Euphrates he formed in their places, gave them good names, Soil (?), grass, the marsh, reed, and forest he created, The verdure of the field he produced, The lands, the marsh, and thicket, The wild cow with her young, the young wild ox, The ewe with her young, the sheep of the fold, Parks and forests, The goat and wild goat he brought forth.

The text at this point becomes defective, but we can still make out that the clay as building material is created by Marduk, and that he constructs houses and rears cities. Corresponding to the opening lines, we may supply several lines as follows:

Houses he erected, cities he built, Cities he built, dwellings he prepared, Nippur he built, E-Kur he erected, Erech he built, E-Anna he erected.

Here the break in the tablet begins.

The new points derived from this second version are, (a) the details in the creation of the animal and plant world, (b) the mention of Aruru as the mother of mankind, and (c) the inclusion of human culture in the story of the 'beginnings.'

Before leaving the subject, a brief comparison of these two versions with the opening chapters of Genesis is called for. That the Hebrew and Babylonian traditions spring from a common source is so evident as to require no further proof. The agreements are too close to be accidental. At the same time, the variations in detail point to independent elaboration of the traditions on the part of the Hebrews and Babylonians.

A direct borrowing from the Babylonians has not taken place, and while the Babylonian records are in all probabilities much older than the Hebrew, the latter again contain elements, as Gunkel has shown, of a more primitive character than the Babylonian production. This relationship can only be satisfactorily explained on the assumption that the Hebrews possessed the traditions upon which the Genesis narrative rests long before the period of the Babylonian exile, when the story appears, indeed, to have received its final and present shape. The essential features of the Babylonian cosmology formed part of a stock of traditions that Hebrews and Babylonians (and probably others) received from some common source or, to put it more vaguely, held in common from a period, the limits of which can no longer be determined. While the two Babylonian versions agree in the main, embodying the same general traditions regarding the creation of the heavenly bodies and containing the same general conception of an evolution in the world from confusion and caprice to order, and the establishment of law, the variations in regard to the terrestrial phenomena must not be overlooked. According to the first version, mankind appears as the last episode of creation; in the second, mankind precedes vegetation and animal life.

If we now take up the two versions of creation found in Genesis, we will see that the same differences may be observed. According to the first, the so-called Elohistic version,[803] mankind is not created until the last day of creation; according to the second,[804] the so-called Yahwistic version, mankind is first created, then a garden is made and trees are planted. After that, the beasts of the field and the birds of heaven are called into existence.

The resemblance of the second Babylonian version to the Yahwistic version extends even to certain phrases which they have in common. The opening words of the Yahwist—

And no plant of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb of the field had yet sprung up—

might serve almost as a translation of the second line of the Babylonian counterpart. The reference to the Tigris and Euphrates in the second Babylonian version reminds one of the four streams mentioned in the Yahwistic version, two of which are likewise the Tigris and Euphrates. Again, Tiamat is mentioned only in the first Babylonian version, and T'hom similarly only in the Elohistic version; while, on the other hand, the building of cities is included in the Yahwistic version,[805] as it forms part of the second Babylonian version. The points mentioned suffice to show that the Elohistic version is closely related to the larger creation epic of the Babylonians, while the Yahwistic version—more concise, too, than the Elohistic—agrees to an astonishing degree with the second and more concise Babylonian record.

The conclusion, therefore, is justified that the variations between the Babylonian versions rest upon varying traditions that must have arisen in different places. The attempt was made to combine these traditions by the Babylonians, and among the Hebrews we may see the result of a similar attempt in the first two or, more strictly speaking, in the first three chapters of Genesis. At the same time, the manner in which both traditions have been worked over by the Hebrew compilers of Genesis precludes, as has been pointed out, the theory of a direct borrowing from cuneiform documents. The climatic conditions involved in the Hebrew versions are those peculiar to Babylonia. It is in Babylonia that the thought would naturally arise of making the world begin with the close of the storms and rains in the spring. The Terahites must therefore have brought these cosmological traditions with them upon migrating from the Euphrates Valley to the Jordan district.

The traditions retained their hold through all the vicissitudes that the people underwent. The intercourse, political and commercial, between Palestine and Mesopotamia was uninterrupted, as we now know, from at least the fifteenth century before our era down to the taking of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, and this constant intercourse was no doubt an important factor in maintaining the life of the old traditions that bound the two peoples together. The so-called Babylonian exile brought Hebrews and Babylonians once more side by side. Under the stimulus of this direct contact, the final shape was given by Hebrew writers to their cosmological speculations. Yahwe is assigned the role of Bel-Marduk, the division of the work of creation into six days is definitely made,[806] and some further modifications introduced. While, as emphasized, this final shape is due to the independent elaboration of the common traditions, and, what is even more to the point, shows an independent interpretation of the traditions, it is by no means impossible, but on the contrary quite probable, that the final compilers of the Hebrew versions had before them the cuneiform tablets, embodying the literary form given to the traditions by Babylonian writers.[807] Such a circumstance, while not implying direct borrowing, would account for the close parallels existing between the two Hebrew and the two Babylonian versions, and would also furnish a motive to the Hebrew writers for embodying two versions in their narrative.

FOOTNOTES:

[680] The so-called Elohistic version, Gen. i. 1-ii. 4; the Yahwistic version, Gen. ii. 5-24. Traces have been found in various portions of the Old Testament of other popular versions regarding creation. See Gunkel, Schoepfung und Chaos, pp. 29-114, 119-121.

[681] Gunkel, ib. pp. 28, 29. What Sayce (e.g., Rec. of the Past, N. S., I. 147, 148) calls the 'Cuthaean legend of the creation' contains, similarly, a variant description of Tiamat and her brood.

[682] Published by Pinches, Journal Royal Asiat. Soc., 1891, pp. 393-408.

[683] Complete publication by Delitzsch, Das Babylonische Weltschoepfungsepos (Leipzig, 1896) with elaborate commentary.

[684] See Zimmern in Gunkel's Schoepfung und Chaos, pp. 415, 416, and on the other side, Delitzsch, Babylonische Weltschoepfungsepos, p. 20. Zimmern's doubts are justified.

[685] Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch. vi. 7.

[686] Zeits. f. Assyr. viii. 121-124. Delitzsch, in his Babylonische Weltschoepfungsepos, pp. 61-68, has elaborately set forth the principles of the poetic composition. See also D. H. Mueller, Die Propheten in ihrer urspruenglichen Form, pp. 5-14.

[687] I.e., did not exist. To be 'called' or to 'bear a name' meant to be called into existence.

[688] I.e., of the waters.

[689] I.e., of heaven and earth.

[690] The word used is obscure. Jensen and Zimmern render "reed." Delitzsch, I think, comes nearer the real meaning with "marsh." See Haupt's translation, Proc. Amer. Oriental Soc., 1896, p. 161.

[691] Delitzsch supplies a parallel phrase like "periods elapsed."

[692] Supplied from Damascius' extract of the work of Berosus on Babylonia. See Cory, Ancient Fragments, p. 92; Delitzsch, Babylonische Weltschoepfungsepos, p. 94.

[693] The o is represented in Babylonian by a, and the ending at in Tiamat is an affix which stamps the Babylonian name as feminine. T'hom in Hebrew is likewise a feminine noun, but it should be noted that at a certain stage in the development of the Semitic languages, the feminine is hardly distinguishable from the plural and collective.

[694] Gunkel, Schoepfung und Chaos, pp. 29-82, 379-398.

[695] For our purposes it is sufficient to refer for the relations existing between Damascius and the cuneiform records to Smith's Chaldaeische Genesis, pp. 63-66, to Lenormant's Essai de Commentaire sur les fragments Cosmogoniques de Berose, pp. 67 seq., and to Jensen's Kosmologie der Babylonier, pp. 270-272.

[696] The names are given by Damascius as Apason and Tauthe.

[697] Suggested by Professor Haupt (Schrader, Cuneiform Inscriptions and the Old Testament, p. 7).

[698] Hommel, Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch., xviii. 19.

[699] See Jensen, Kosmologie, pp. 224, 225.

[700] Agumkakrimi Inscription (VR. 33, iv. 50); Nabonnedos (Cylinder, VR. 64, ll. 16, 17).

[701] Cory's Ancient Fragments, p. 58.

[702] See above, pp. 198, 199.

[703] See above, pp. 198, 199.

[704] I avoid the term "Sumerian" here, because I feel convinced that the play on Anshar is of an entirely artificial character and has no philological basis.

[705] See below, pp. 421-423.

[706] IIR. 54, no. 3.

[707] For a different interpretation of the phrase, see Jensen, Kosmologie, pp. 273, 274.

[708] See p. 107.

[709] Babylonische Weltschoepfungsepos, p. 94.

[710] Cory's Ancient Fragments, p. 58.

[711] An epithet descriptive of Tiamat. "Ummu" is "mother" and "khubur" signifies "hollow"; "mother of the hollow" would be a poetic expression for "source of the deep," and an appropriate term to apply to Tiamat. It has nothing to do with Omoroka. The latter, as Wright has shown, is a corruption of "O Marduk" (Zeits. f. Assyr. x. 71-74).

[712] The word used is Lakhami, the plural of Lakhamu.

[713] This scene, the description of the monsters and the installation of Kingu, occurs four times in the 'Epic.' See p. 424.

[714] Delitzsch, Babylonische Weltschoepfungsepos, p. 25.

[715] Cory, ib. p. 92.

[716] "The chamber of fates" where Marduk sits on New Year's Day and decides the fate of mankind for the ensuing year. Jensen and Zimmern read upshugina, but see Delitzsch, Babylonische Weltschoepfungsepos, p. 135.

[717] The deity is mentioned by Sennacherib (Meissner-Host, Bauinschriften, p. 108). See above, p. 238.

[718] In the first tablet, in the second in connection with the mission of Anu, and twice in the third in connection with Marduk's visit.

[719] Tiamat's presence.

[720] Called Nudimmud. Delitzsch, Babylonische Weltschoepfungsepos, p. 99, questions the identity with Ea, but his skepticism is unwarranted, though the title is also used of Bel.

[721] Here used to comprise the army of Tiamat.

[722] I.e., thy power is equal to that of Anu.

[723] Exod. iv. 2-8; other parallels might be adduced.

[724] I.e., far off.

[725] I.e., that a wind might not carry her off.

[726] Adding three to the ordinary winds from the four directions.

[727] For the explanation of the term used in the original—kirbish—see Delitzsch's excellent remarks, Babylonische Weltschoepfungsepos. pp. 132-134.

[728] Lit., 'storm,'—perhaps the thunderbolt, as Delitzsch suggests.

[729] Marduk.

[730] She lost her reason.

[731] Gasping, as it were, for breath.

[732] Cory's Ancient Fragments, p. 49.

[733] Lit., 'places,' here used as a synonym for 'heavens,' as an Assyrian commentator expressly states. See Delitzsch's remarks (Babylonische Weltschoepfungsepos, p. 147) against Jensen's and Zimmern's interpretation.

[734] I.e., Ea. See above, p. 424, note 3.

[735] The complete proof is brought by Jensen, Kosmologie, pp. 246-253.

[736] To render the word used as "Palace" (so Delitzsch), while not incorrect, is somewhat misleading.

[737] Kosmologie, p. 199.

[738] Magie und Wahrsagekunst der Chaldaer, p. 163.

[739] See the illustration in Jensen's Kosmologie, pl. 3.

[740] The word used also means "cities." A Babylonian district is naught but an extended city.

[741] See p. 429.

[742] Gen. viii. 22.

[743] See above, p. 370, and chapter xxii.

[744] I.e., for each of the great gods.

[745] I.e., of the gods.

[746] A particular group of stars—the mashi stars—is mentioned, but the term seems to be used in a rather general sense. I cannot share Delitzsch's extreme skepticism with regard to the interpretation of the fifth tablet. Jensen seems to have solved the chief difficulties.

[747] Jensen and Zimmern interpret "he drew the pictures," referring the phrase to the contours of the stars; but the parallelism speaks in favor of connecting the words with the "year." The divisions of the year or seasons seem to be meant.

[748] I.e., the planet Marduk, or Jupiter.

[749] I.e., with Nibir.

[750] See Jensen, Kosmologie, p. 354. George Smith already interpreted the passage in this way.

[751] I.e., of the heavens. Delitzsch renders "Schwerpunkt."

[752] Text elati. Jensen, Zimmern, and Halevy translate "zenith," but Delitzsch questions this.

[753] The moon-god.

[754] I.e., the moon.

[755] Published by Delitzsch, Assyrische Lesestuecke (3d edition), p. 94.

[756] See the proof as put together by Jensen, Kosmologie, pp. 293, 294.

[757] Line 15.

[758] So Delitzsch, Babylonische Weltschoepfungsepos, pp. 19, 20.

[759] Following Delitzsch, Babylonische Weltschoepfungsepos, pp. 20, 21. I pass over two fragments which Delitzsch adds to our 'epic.' They are not sufficiently clear to be utilized for our purposes. Delitzsch may be right with regard to no. 20, but if so, it forms part or another version of the Marduk-Tiamat episode. No. 19, treating of the bow of Marduk (?), does not seem to belong to our series.

[760] A standing phrase for "favor" in general.

[761] To prayer.

[762] The gods or the Igigi.

[763] See p. 486 and Gunkel's note, Schoepfung und Chaos, p. 26.

[764] See above, p. 434. The play is between Nibir (as though from the stem eberu) and itebbiru ("he pierced"), a form of eberu, and meaning 'to pass through.'

[765] This metaphor is carried over into astronomical science. The planets are known as "wandering sheep." See p. 459.

[766] Bel matate.

[767] See p. 118.

[768] Similarly in another version of the contest published by Delitzsch, Assyr. Woerterbuch, p. 390.

[769] See p. 54.

[770] Tiele (Gesch. der Religion im Alterthum, I. 176) assigns to Marduk a double character, making him both a god of light and a god of storms, but I venture to think that the latter attribute represents the transference of En-lil's power to Marduk.

[771] So Bel is called in contrast to Anu. See p. 53.

[772] One is reminded of the Biblical injunction with regard to the Laws of Yahwe, Deut. vi. 7: "Thou shall teach them to thy sons and speak constantly of them."

[773] I.e., to the kings who are frequently called 'shepherds' in the historical texts.

[774] Or, according to the earlier view, to an atmospheric god.

[775] "The Gilgamesh Epic."

[776] First published by Pinches, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1891, pp. 393-408.

[777] Clay, it will be recalled, was the building material in Babylonia.

[778] The word in the text is generally applied to "a mass" of animals, but also to human productions. See Delitzsch, Assyr. Handwoerterbuch, p. 467.

[779] Bel's temple at Nippur.

[780] Temple of Ishtar at Erech or Uruk.

[781] I.e., Apsu.

[782] City sacred to Ea at the mouth of the Persian Gulf.

[783] Lit., 'totality of lands.'

[784] Zimmern's rendering (Gunkel, Schoepfung und Chaos, p. 419) "sacred" (instead of 'bright') misses the point.

[785] Cf. S. A. Smith, Miscellaneous, K. 2866, l. 8, "the great gods dwelling in the heaven of Anu." The reference, therefore, cannot be to "the gathering place of the gods," where the fates of mankind are decided.

[786] The original has ratum. Delitzsch, Assyr. Handwoerterbuch, p. 663, compares Hebrew rahat, "trough." Zimmern (Gunkel, Schoepfung und Chaos, p. 419) translates "Bewegung," but on what grounds I do not know. The passage is obscure; the text possibly defective.

[787] If the reading E-Sagila is original. It is here used as the name of Ea's temple in Eridu, but it is of course possible that E-Sagila has been deliberately introduced to enhance the glory of Marduk's temple in Babylon.

[788] Ea.

[789] Gen. i. 9.

[790] See Haupt, Wo lag das Paradies, p. 7 (Ueber Land und Meer, 1894-95, no. 15, Sonderabdruck), who furnishes numerous illustrations of the indefinite geographical notions of the ancients.

[791] The group of celestial beings.

[792] I.e., Marduk.

[793] Read a-ma-mi.

[794] Zimmern purposes to connect this line with the preceding, but the sense in that case is not at all clear.

[795] I.e., with Marduk.

[796] Haupt's edition, p. 8, l. 34.

[797] See above, p. 437.

[798] Haupt, ib. p. 139, l. 116.

[799] Ib. l. 111.

[800] Kosmologie, p. 294, note 1.

[801] See p. 82.

[802] Zerbanitum, as though compounded of zer (seed), and bani (create). See p. 121.

[803] Gen. i. 1-ii. 4, embodied in the "Priestly Code."

[804] Gen. ii. 4 and extending in reality as far as iv. 25.

[805] Gen. iii. 17.

[806] See Gunkel, Schoepfung und Chaos, p. 13.

[807] On the acquaintance of Hebrew writers of the Babylonian exile with cuneiform literature and on the influence exercised by the latter, see D. H. Mueller, Ezechielstudien.



CHAPTER XXII.

THE ZODIACAL SYSTEM OF THE BABYLONIANS.

Planets, Stars, and Calendar.

It will be appropriate at this point, to give a brief account of the astronomical system as developed by the Babylonian scholars. The system forms a part of the Babylonian cosmology. The 'creation' narratives we have been considering are based upon the system, and the omen literature is full of allusions to it. Moreover, the understanding of some of the purely religious doctrines of the Babylonians is dependent upon a proper conception of the curious astrological speculations which from Babylonia made their way to the Greeks, and have left their traces in the astronomy of the present time.

The stars were regarded by the Babylonians as pictorial designs on the heavens. A conception of this kind is the outcome of popular fancy, and has its parallel among other nations of antiquity. We pass beyond the popular stage, however, when we find the stars described as the 'writing of heaven.'[808] Such a term is the product of the schools, and finds a ready explanation if we remember that the cuneiform script, like other scripts, was in its first stages pictorial. The Babylonian scholars not only knew this, but so well did they know it that writing continued to be regarded by them as picture drawing. The characters used by them were 'likenesses'[809] long after they had passed beyond the stage when they bore any resemblance to the pictures they originally represented. The expression 'writing of heaven' was, therefore, equivalent to 'picture of heaven.' The heavens themselves being regarded as a fixed vault, it followed that the movements observed there were caused by the stars changing their position; and the regular characters of these movements within certain periods led to speaking of the movements of the heavenly bodies as their 'courses.' It was furthermore apparent, even to a superficial observer, that some of the stars seemed fixed to their places, while others moved about. A distinction was thus drawn between wandering stars or planets and fixed stars. Groups of stars, the single members of which appeared in a constant relationship to one another, were distinguished partly by natural observation and partly as a convenient means of obtaining a general view of the starry canopy. It was such a group that more particularly justified the view which regarded the stars as pictorial designs. A line drawn so as to connect the stars of the group turned out to be a design of some sort. On omen tablets, geometrical figures are often found[810] and interpreted as omens, and it is plausible to suppose that the outlines presented by the stars of a group first suggested the idea of attaching significance to combinations of lines and curves. To connect these outlines with the pictures that formed the starting-point for the development of the script was again a perfectly natural procedure, although a scholastic one. The investigations of Delitzsch have shown that the more than four hundred cuneiform characters in use can be reduced to a comparatively small number of 'outlines' of pictures—to about forty-five. The subjects of these 'outlines' are all familiar ones,—sun, moon, stars, mountain, man, the parts of the human body, animals, plants, and utensils.[811] Association of ideas led to giving to the outlines presented by the groups of stars, a similar interpretation. The factor of imagination, of course, entered into play, but it is also likely that the comparison of these heavenly figures with the pictures of the script was the controlling factor that led to identifying a certain group of stars with a bull, another with a scorpion, a third with a ram, a fourth with a fish, still another with a pig, and more the like. That animals were chosen was due to the influence of animistic theories, and the rather fantastic shape of the animals distinguished led to further speculations. So, eleven constellations, that is to say, the entire zodiac with the exception of the bull—the sign of Marduk—were identified with the eleven monsters forming the host of Tiamat. The passage in the Marduk-Tiamat myth[812] which speaks of the capture of these monsters through Marduk appears to have suggested this identification, which, fanciful though it is, has a scholastic rather than a popular aspect. Jensen (to whom, together with Epping and Strassmaier,[813] most of our knowledge of this subject is due) has shown[814] that of the twelve constellations in our modern zodiac, the greater number are identical with those distinguished by the Babylonians; and while it is probable that two or three of our constellations are of occidental origin, the zodiacal system as a whole is the product of the Babylonian schools of astronomy. From Babylonia the system made its way to the west and through western, more particularly through Greek, influence back again to India and the distant east. The number of constellations distinguished by the Babylonian astronomers has not yet been definitely ascertained. They certainly recognized more than twelve. Further investigations may show that they knew of most of the forty-eight constellations enumerated by Ptolemy.

The general regularity of the courses taken by the sun, moon, and planets made it a comparatively simple matter to map out the limits within which these bodies moved. These limits impressed the Babylonians, as we have seen, with the thought of the eternal and unchangeable laws under which the planets stood. The laws regulating terrestrial phenomena, did not appear to be so rigid. There were symptoms of caprice, so that the order of the earth has the appearance of being an afterthought, suggested by the absolute order prevailing in the heavens. Comets, meteors, and eclipses alone seemed to interrupt this absolute order. As science advanced, it was found that even eclipses fell within the province of law. The course of astronomical science was thus clearly marked out—the determination of these laws.

The path taken by the sun served as a guide and as a means of comparison. Anu being both the chief god of heaven and the personification of heaven,[815] the sun's ecliptic became known as the 'way of Anu.' The division of this ecliptic into certain sections, determined by the constellations within the belt of the ecliptic, was the next step. The course of the moon and planets was determined with reference to the sun's ecliptic, and gradually a zodiacal system was evolved, the perfection of which is best exemplified by the fact that so much of the astronomical language of the present time is the same as that used by the ancient astronomers of the Euphrates Valley.

The sun and moon being regarded as deities, under the influence of primitive animistic ideas,[816] the stars would also come to be looked upon as divine. The ideograph designating a 'star' and which is prefixed as a determinative to the names of stars, consists of the sign for god repeated three times;[817] and in the case of those stars which are identified with particular deities, the simple determinative for god is employed. To regard the stars in general as gods is a consequence of animistic notions; but the further steps in the process which led to connecting the planets and certain other stars with particular deities who originally had nothing to do with the stars, fall within the province of scholastic theory.

As the jurisdiction of gods originally worshipped in a limited district increased, a difficulty naturally arose among the more advanced minds as to the exact place where the deity dwelt. This difficulty would be accentuated in the case of a god like Marduk becoming the chief god of the whole Babylonian Empire. His ardent worshippers would certainly not content themselves with the notion that a single edifice, even though it be his great temple at Babylon, could contain him. Again, the development of a pantheon, systematized, and in which the various gods worshipped in Babylonia came to occupy fixed relationships to one another, would lead to the view of putting all the gods in one place. The sun and moon being in the heavens, the most natural place to assign to the gods as a dwelling-place was in the region where Shamash and Sin (as every one could see for himself) had their seats. The doctrine thus arose that the great gods dwell in the 'heaven of Anu.' A doctrine of this kind would be intelligible to the general populace, but it is doubtful whether a belief which involved the establishment of a direct connection between the most prominent stars—the planets with the chief gods—ever enjoyed popular favor in Babylonia. The association is marked by an artificiality and a certain arbitrariness that stamps it not only as the product of theological schools, but as a thought that would remain confined to a limited circle of the population. Jensen suggests[818] that the planets may at one time have been merely regarded as standing under the influence of the great gods, and that a planet from being regarded as the star controlled by Marduk, became identified with Marduk. It seems more plausible that the association should have been direct. Even though the Babylonians may not have had any knowledge of the relative mass of the planets, in some way Jupiter must have appeared to them as the largest of the planets, and for this reason was identified with the head of the Babylonian pantheon, Marduk. In the creation epic, as we have seen, Jupiter-Marduk, under the name of Nibir, is represented as exercising a control over all the stars. Mythological associations appear to have played a part in identifying the planet Venus with the goddess Ishtar. A widely spread nature myth,[819] symbolizing the change of seasons, represents Ishtar, the personification of fertility, the great mother of all that manifests life, as proceeding to the region of darkness and remaining there for some time. The disappearance of the planet Venus at certain seasons, as morning star to reappear as evening star, suggested the identification of this planet with Ishtar. From these two examples we may conclude that the process which resulted in the identification of Saturn with Ninib, Mars with Nergal, Mercury with Nabu rested similarly on an association of ideas, derived from certain conceptions held of the gods involved. In regard to Ninib and Nergal it is of some importance to bear in mind that, like Marduk, they are at their origin solar deities, Ninib representing in the perfected theological system the morning sun, Marduk the sun of the early spring, and Nergal the mid-day sun and summer solstice.[820] The position of the planets Saturn and Mars, accordingly, with reference to the sun at certain periods of the year, may well have been a factor in the association of ideas involved.

The position of the sun, as the general overseer of the planets, led to the application of an interesting metaphor to express the relationship between the sun and the planets. Just as the human chiefs or kings were called 'shepherds,'—a metaphor suggested, no doubt, by agricultural life,—so the planets were commonly known as 'sheep' or, as Jensen suggests,[821] 'wandering sheep,' and it is rather curious that Mars-Nergal should have been designated as the 'sheep'[822] par excellence. The 'service' in which the planets stood to the sun is exemplified by another term applied to them, which designates them as the mediators carrying out the orders of their superior.

Lastly, it may be noted that each planet receives a variety of names and epithets in the astronomical texts,—a circumstance that points to the composite character of the developed planetary system of the Babylonians. Some of these names are of so distinctive a character as to justify the conclusion that they arose in the different centers where astronomical schools existed.

The process involved in the development of the system is thus complicated by factors introducing views originally confined to certain districts, and it becomes doubtful whether we will ever be able to trace all the steps involved in the process.

Corresponding to the unique position occupied by the superior triad Anu, Bel, and Ea in the theological system, a special place was assigned to them in the astronomical system. Anu is the pole star of the ecliptic, Bel the pole star of the equator, while Ea in the southern heavens was identified, according to Jensen,[823] with a star in the constellation Argo. Anu, Bel, and Ea represented the three most prominent fixed stars, but by the side of these a large number of other stars were distinguished and many of them identified with some deity. For some of these stars the modern equivalents have been ascertained through recent researches;[824] others still remain to be determined.

The astronomical science of the Babylonians thus resolves itself into these natural divisions:

(1) the constellations, especially those of the zodiac, (2) the five great planets, (3) the fixed stars, Anu, Bel, and Ea, (4) miscellaneous stars, and (5) the sun and moon.

The rivalry between the two great luminaries ends in a superior rank being accorded to the sun. Natural and indeed inevitable as this conclusion was, the scientific theory in the Euphrates Valley was presumably influenced to some extent by the circumstance that the head of the pantheon was a solar deity. We have seen that the tradition of this original character of Marduk survived in the popular mind.

Of the sun but little need be said here. As represented in the creation story, he was freer in his movements than any of the planets. He passed across the heavens daily as an overseer to see that everything was maintained in good order. As in Greek mythology, the sun was represented as riding in a chariot drawn by horses.[825] Scientific speculation advanced but little upon these popular fancies. The course that the sun took on the ecliptic was determined, and the ecliptic itself served as the guide for determining the position and movements of the stars. Under the growing influence of the Marduk cult and of such deities as Ninib, Nergal, and Nabu, associated with Marduk mythologically or politically, the old moon worship lost much of its prestige; but in astronomical science, the former independent rank of the moon is still in large measure preserved. In the enumeration of the planets the moon is mentioned first.[826] The moon is not a 'sheep' belonging to the flock of Shamash. The importance of the moon in the regulation of the calendar saved her from this fate. The beginning of the calendrical system, indeed, may well have been of popular origin. Ihering[827] is of the opinion that agricultural occupations made the marking off of time a popular necessity, and this view is borne out by the early epithets of the months among the Babylonians,[828] which, as among the Hebrews, are connected with agriculture and the life of the agriculturist. The later names also bear traces of the same train of thoughts. Leaving aside details into which it is needless to enter here, the part of the calendar which touches upon the religion of the Babylonians is the sacred character given to the months by making each one devoted to some god or gods. In this association there may be observed the same curious mixture of several factors that controlled the identification of the planets with the gods. The theory underlying the pantheon and certain mythological conceptions are two of the factors that can be clearly seen at work. The triad Anu, Bel, and Ea are accorded the first rank.[829]

The first month, Nisan, is sacred to Anu and Bel.

The second, Iyar, is sacred to Ea as the "lord of humanity."

Then follows Sin to whom, as the first-born of Bel,[830] the third month, Siwan, is devoted.

The four succeeding months are parceled out among deities closely connected with one another,—Ninib, Nin-gishzida, Ishtar, and Shamash. Of these, Ninib and Nin-gishzida are solar deities. Ninib, as the morning sun, symbolizes the approach of the summer season, while Nin-gishzida, another solar deity,[831] represents an advance in this season. To them, therefore, the fourth and fifth months, Tammuz (or Du'zu) and Ab respectively, are sacred. Ishtar is the goddess of fertility, and the sixth month, which represents the culmination of the summer season, is accordingly devoted to her. As the last of the group comes Shamash himself, to whom the seventh month, Tishri (or Tashritum), is sacred. Marduk and Nergal come next, the eighth month, Marcheshwan,[832] being sacred to the former, the ninth Kislev to the great warrior Nergal. The factors here involved are not clear, nor do we know why the tenth month is sacred to Papsukal—perhaps here used as an epithet of Nabu—to Anu, and to Ishtar. The eleventh month, the height of the rainy season and known as the "month of the course of rainstorms," is appropriately made sacred to Ramman, 'the god of storms.' The last month, Adar, falling within the rainy season is presided over by the seven evil spirits. Lastly, an interesting trace of Assyrian influence is to be seen in devoting to Ashur, "the father of the gods," the intercalated month, the second Adar. This introduction of Ashur points to the late addition of this intercalated month, and makes it probable also that the intercalation is the work of astronomers standing under Assyrian authority. A second intercalated month is Elul the second. This month is sacred to Anu and Bel, just like Nisan, the first month. The list, therefore, begins anew with the intercalated month. Such a procedure is natural, and one is inclined to conclude that the intercalated Elul is of Babylonian origin and older than the intercalated Adar.

It does not appear that the female consorts of the gods shared in the honors thus bestowed upon the male deities. Variations from the list as given also occur. So Ashurbanabal calls the seventh month, Elul, the month of 'the king of gods Ashur,'[833] while Sargon[834] assigns the fourth month to the 'servant of Gibil,' the fire-god, by which Nin-gishzida is meant, and the third month he calls the month of "the god of brick structures."[835]

In fact, the assigning of the months to the gods appears to partake more or less of an arbitrary character. Absolute uniformity probably did not prevail throughout Babylonia until a comparatively late period. Nor does it appear that any popular significance was attached to the sacred character thus given to the months. It was the work of the schools, as are most of the features involved in the elaboration of the calendar.

In somewhat closer touch with popular notions and popular observances were the names of the months. Confining ourselves to the later names,—the forms in which they were transmitted during the period of the Babylonian exile to the Jews,[836]—we find that the first month which, as we shall see, was marked by sacred observances in the temples of Marduk and Nabu at Babylon and Borsippa was designated ideographically as 'the month of the sanctuary,' the third as the period of 'brick-making,' the fifth as the 'fiery' month, the sixth as the month of the 'mission of Ishtar'—a reference to the goddess' descent into the region of darkness. Designations like 'taking (i.e., scattering) seed' for the fourth month, 'copious fertility' for the ninth month, 'grain-cutting' period for the twelfth, and 'opening of dams'[837] for the eighth contain distinct references to agriculture. The name 'destructive rain' for the eleventh month is suggested by climatic conditions. Still obscure is the designation of the seventh month as the month of the 'resplendent mound,'[838] and so also is the designation of the second month.[839]

The calendar is thus shown to be the product of the same general order of religious ideas that we have detected in the zodiacal and planetary systems. Its growth must have been gradual, for its composite character is one of its most striking features. The task was no easy one to bring the lunar year into proper conjunction with the solar year, and there are grounds for believing that prior to the division of the year into twelve parts, there was a year of ten months corresponding to a simpler, perhaps a decimal, system, which appears to have preceded the elaborate sexagesimal system.[840]

However this may be, the point of importance for our purposes is to detect the extension of religious ideas into the domain of science, and, on the other hand, to note the reaction of scientific theories on the development of religious thought. The cosmology of the Babylonians results from the continued play of these two factors. Hence the strange mixture of popular notions and fancies with comparatively advanced theological speculations and still more advanced scientific theories that is found in the cosmological system. Even mysticism is given a scientific aspect in Babylonia. The identification of the gods with the stars arises, as we have seen, from a scientific impulse, and it is a scientific spirit again that leads to the introduction of the gods into the mathematics of the day.[841] A number is assigned to each of the chief gods. And, though such a procedure has its natural outcome in Cabbalistic tendencies, we can still discern in the ideas that lead to this association of numbers with gods, influences at work that emanated from the astronomical schools. Thus the moon-god Sin is identified with the number thirty, suggested by the days of the ordinary month. Ishtar, the daughter of Sin, is number fifteen, the half of thirty. The unit in the sexagesimal—the number sixty—is assigned to Anu, the chief of the triad, while the other two members, Bel and Ea, follow as fifty and forty respectively. The dependence of this species of identification upon the calendrical system is made manifest by the inferior rank given to the sun, which receives the number twenty, the decimal next to that assigned to Sin, while Ramman, the third member of the second triad,[842] is identified with ten.[843] Absolute consistency in this process is, of course, as little to be expected as in other semi-mystical aspects of the science of the Babylonians; nor is it necessary for our purposes to enter upon the further consequences resulting from this combination of gods with numbers. The association of ideas involved in the combination furnishes another and rather striking illustration of the close contact between science and religion in the remarkable culture of the Euphrates Valley.

There was no conflict between science and religion in ancient Babylonia. Each reacted on the other, but the two factors were at all times closely united in perfect harmony,—a harmony so perfect, indeed, as to be impressive despite its naivete.

FOOTNOTES:

[808] E.g., IR. 52, no. 3, col. ii. l. 2; IIR. 38, 27b.

[809] The Greek name for the letters of the alphabet—symbolon, i.e., a "likeness"—illustrates the same view of the pictorial origin of writing.

[810] For illustrations, see Lenomant, Magie und Wahrsagekunst der Chaldaer, pp. 520-523.

[811] See the summary on pp. 198, 199, of Delitzsch, Ursprung der Keilschriftzeichen.

[812] See p. 436.

[813] Epping and Strassmaier, Astronomisches aus Babylon (Freiburg, 1889).

[814] Kosmologie, pp. 57-95. See especially the summary, pp. 82-84.

[815] See p. 89.

[816] See p. 48.

[817] On this ideograph, see Jensen, Kosmologie pp. 43, 44.

[818] Kosmologie, p. 134.

[819] See the following chapter on "The Gilgamesh Epic," and chapter xxv, "The Views of the Babylonians and Assyrians of the Life after Death."

[820] Jensen, ib. p. 140. See above, p. 67.

[821] bibbu.

[822] Ib. p. 99.

[823] Ib. p. 27.

[824] See especially Jensen's Kosmologie, pp. 46-57 and 144-160.

[825] Jensen, ib. pp. 108, 109.

[826] The constant order is moon, sun, Marduk, Ishtar, Ninib, Nergal, Nabu. E.g., IIR. 48, 48-34a-b.

[827] Vorgeschichte der Indo-Europaer, pp. 151 seq.

[828] On the older and later names of the Babylonians, see Meissner, Zeitschrift fuer die Kunde des Morgenlandes, v. 180, 181, and on the general subject of the Babylonian months, Muss-Arnolt's valuable articles in the Journal of Biblical Literature, xi. 72-94 and 160-176.

[829] IVR. pl. 33.

[830] En-lil.

[831] See above, p. 99.

[832] Lit., 'Arakh-shamnu,' i.e., month eight.

[833] Rassam, Cylinder, col. lii. l. 32.

[834] Cylinder, Inscription l. 61.

[835] Ib. l. 58,—a rather curious title of Sin.

[836] The Talmud preserves the tradition of the Babylonian origin of the Hebrew calendar (Ierusalem Talmud Rosh-Hashshana, l. 1).

[837] For the irrigation of the fields.

[838] In some way indicative of its sacred character. It is to be noted that this month—Tishri—is the festival month among the Hebrews and originally also among the Arabs. The 'mound' is a reference to the temples which were erected on natural or artificial eminences.

[839] The latter is described by a series of ideographs, "herd" and "to prosper." Is there perhaps a reference to cows giving birth to calves in this month, the early spring? For another, but improbable, explanation, see Babylonian and Oriental Record, iv. 37.

[840] Lehmann (Actes du 8^eme Congres Internationel des Orientalists, Leiden, 1891, i. 169, note) admits the probability of an earlier and more natural system.

[841] Lotz, Quaestiones de Historia Sabbati, pp. 27-29.

[842] Sin, Shamash, and Ramman. See pp. 108, 163.

[843] See for other combinations Lotz ib., and compare, e.g., VR. 36, where the number ten is associated with a large number of gods,—Anu, Anatum, Bel, Ishtar, etc.



CHAPTER XXIII.

THE GILGAMESH EPIC.

We have seen[844] that the religion of Babylonia permeates all branches of literature, so that it is not always possible to draw a sharp dividing line between sacred and secular productions.

To account for this, it is but necessary to bear in mind what the previous chapters have aimed to make clear, that religion furnished the stimulus for the unfolding of intellectual life, and that the literary and scientific productions represent the work of men primarily interested in religion. The significance attached as omens to heavenly phenomena led by degrees to the elaborate astronomical system outlined in the previous chapter. But the astronomers of Babylonia were priests, and indeed the same priests who compiled the hymns and incantations. What is true of astronomy applies to medicine, so far as medicine had an existence independent of incantations, and also to law. The physician was a priest, as was the judge and likewise the scribe.