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1916 Semitic Mythology
pag.39: The Hebrew
tradition connected
their ancestral home
with SYRIA, (so NOT PALESTINE !) also page 72 Habiru OR saishu Dilmun Saudi Arabia?
and especially with the “land
of the rivers,” the region of Harran and
Paddan on the river Balih.
https://archive.org/details/mythologyofallra51gray/page/n5
https://archive.org/details/ShlomoSandTheInventionOfTheJewishPeople2009
https://archive.org/details/ShlomoSandTheInventionOfTheLandOfIsrail_201801/page/n23
https://archive.org/details/SandHowIStoppedBeingAJew
THE MYTHOLOGY OF ALL RACES
Volume V
SEMITIC
SEMITIC
BY
STEPHEN HERBERT LANGDON, M.A.
JESUS COLLEGE, OXFORD
FELLOW OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY
MARY W. SHILLITO READER IN AND PROFESSOR
OF ASSYRIOLOGY
VOLUME V
ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF AMERICA
MARSHALL JONES COMPANY • BOSTON
M DCCCC XXXI
l\
A
Copyright, 1931
By Marshall Jones Company, Incorporated
Copyrighted in Great Britain
All rights reserved including the right to re-
produce this hook or parts thereof in any form
Printed July, 1931
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY
THE PLIMPTON PRESS • NORWOOD • MASSACHUSETTS
TO
THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND FACULTY
OF THE
UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK
BY A FORMER SCHOLAR OF THE SEMINARY
-f ^ OQO
-L O G O
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2016
https://archive.org/details/mythologyofallra51gray
CONTENTS
PAGE
Introduction xv
Chapter I. Geographical and Linguistic Distribution
OF Semitic Races, and Deities i
II. The Sumero-Accadian Pantheon .... 88
III. The Legend of Etana and the Plant of
Birth i66
IV. The Myth of Adapa and Adam 175
V. The Sumerian Legends of Tagtug and
Paradise 190
VI. Legends of the Deluge 203
VII. The Epic of Gilgamish 234
VIII. Legends of the Destruction of Men, or
THE Poem of Ea and Atarhasis 270
IX. The Babylonian Epic of Creation and Simi-
lar Semitic Myths 277
X. The Descent of Ishtar to Arallu .... 326
XI. Tammuz and Ishtar 336
XII. The Devils, Demons, Good and Evil Spirits 352
Notes 375
Bibliography 419
Index 433
ILLUSTRATIONS
FIGURES AND PLATES PAGE
1 Sabaean Altar 3
A. Grohmann, Gottersymbole, Abb. 88.
2 Lapis-lazuli Seal 4
Delaporte , i, PI. 35, No. 7.
3 Copper Coin with Crescent and Disk 4
From cast supplied by the British Museum. See p. 377, n. 9.
4 Copper Coin Shewing Sacred Baetyl 16
G. F. Hill , PL iv. 2.
5 Basalt Statue of Busares 17
Syria, V. PI. xx. No. 2.
6 Tyche of Antioch 18
Journal of Hellenic studies, ix, after P. Gardner.
7 Tyche of Damascus 19
Journal Asiatique, 1904, PI. i, No. 2.
8 Head of Tyche 1 9
G. F. Hill ,Pl. vi. 10.
9 The Assyrian Tyche 23
Sidney Smith, History of Assyria, p. 233.
10 Venus as Goddess of War 24
Langdon [h], PI. i, No. 1.
11 Ishtar’s War Chariot 27
Langdon [d], PI. vii, No. 2.
12 Enkidu and the Bull of Heaven 29
A. Boissier, Note sur deux cylindres orientaux, p. 9.
13 Egyptian Bas-relief, Shewing ‘Anat facing 30
H. Gressmann, Texte und Bilder^ PI. cxiv, opp. p. 30.
14 Hesi-Nekht Astart of Beth-shan facing 32
From photograph supplied by the University Museum, Philadel-
phia, opp. p. 31.
15 Terra-cotta Shrine of Beth-shan 31
Museum Journal, Vol. xvii, p. 295.
16 Ishtar Parakyptousa 32
D. G. Hogarth, Efhesus, PI. 28, No. 5.
17 Terra-cotta Movable Altar 33
W. Andrae, Die Archaischen Ischtar-Temfel, Taf. 17.
ILLUSTRATIONS
X
FIGURES AND PLATES PAGE
1 8 Nude Ishtar 34
R. Koldewey, Das wiedererstehende Babylon, p. 271.
19 Azizos and Monimos 35
Revue Archeologique, 1903, Part ii, p. 130.
After R. Dusseaud.
20 ‘Ate of Hierapolis 36
E. Babelon, Les Rots Perses, p. lii, Fig. 15.
21 Atargatis 36
H. Strong and J. Garstang, The Syrian Goddess, p. 70.
22 Western Type of Adad-Rimmon 39
Revue d^Assyriologie, xiii, p. 16, PI. ii, No. 16, after V. Scheil.
23 Yaw, Coin of Gaza 43
G. F. Hill, Coins of Palestine, PI. xix, 29.
24 Astart-Yaw 44
E. Babelon, Les Rois Perses, PI. viii. No. 7.
25 Stele of Mikal of Beisan jacing 44
Museum Journal, xix, p. 150. See pp. 46-8.
26 Bas-relief from Moab 46
H. Gressmann, Texte und Bilder^ Abb. 617.
27 Phoenician Deity, from Amrith 47
Ibid. Abb. 307.
28 SealofAddumu 48
Catalogue De Clercq, Vol. i. No. 386.
29 Seal of Rameses II 49
Museum Journal, xx, p. 55.
30 Coin of Tyre, Melkart on Sea-horse 51
E. Babelon, Les Rois Perses, PI. xxxv. No. 13.
31 Colonial Coin of Tyre with Sun Pillars 51
Ibid, xxxvii. No. 16.
32 Coin of Tyre 53
Ibid, xxxv. No. 20.
33 Sun-symbol of Tyre in Chariot 54
Ibid, xxxii, No. 15.
34 Tessara from Palmyra 57
Comptes Rendus de PAcademie frangaise, 1903, p. 277.
35 Bas-relief; Semia, Solar Deity, Adad 59
Revue Archeologique, 1904, Part ii, p. 249.
36 Sumerian Roll Seal 60
Otto Weber, Siegelbilder, No. 375.
37 Palmyrene Altar 62
Memoir es de PInstitut frangais, xx, PI. i. No. i.
After Layard.
ILLUSTRATIONS
XI
FIGURES AND PLATES PAGE
38 El with Wings. Astarte 68
E. Babelon, Les Rots Perses, PI. xxvii, No. 4.
39 Seal Shewing Two-headed Marduk 69
Babyloniaca, ix, p. 78, No. 128, after Contenau.
40 Stele of Yehaw-Melek 70
H. Gressmann, Texts uni Bilder^ Abb. 516.
41 Coin of Elagabalus. Eshmun the Healer 77
G. F. Hill, Coins of Phoenicia, PI. x, No. 14.
42 Statue of Dagan 8 1
Archiv fur Keilschriftforschung, iii, p. iii, after Nassoubi.
43 Coin Shewing Dagon 83
G. F. Hill, Coins of Phoenicia, PI. xlv. No. i.
44 Babylonian Bronze Plaque 85
Bronze Plaque in Collection de Clercq, after Catalogue De Clercq
ii, PI. xxxiv.
45 Assyrian Cone Seal with Fish-men 86
W. H. Ward, Seal Cylinders of Western Asia, No. 659.
46 Pictograph for Earth-goddess 90
Design by the author.
47 Grain-goddess 90
Catalogue De Clercq, No. 140.
48 God with Overflowing Waters 95
Revue d' Assyriologie, v, p. 131.
49 Winged Angel with Water of Life 96
Museum Journal, xviii, p. 75.
50 Gilgamish with Jar of Overflowing Water 98
Catalogue De Clercq, No. 46.
51 Boundary Stone of Melishipak facing 106
Delegation en Perse, i, PL xvi, opp. p. 105.
52 Top of a Water Jar IIO
Langdon, S. [d], PI. xiii. No. 2.
53 Mother and Child Ill
From photograph by the Oxford-Field Museum Expedition.
54 Ningirsu 116
Delaporte L. , p. 13, T. no.
55 Marduk in Chariot 118
W. H. Ward, Seal Cylinders of Western Asia, No. 127.
56 Musrussu 127
R. Koldewey, Das wiedererstehenie Babylon, Fig. 31.
ILLUSTRATIONS
xii
FIGURES AND PLATES PAGE
57 Ninurta Pursuing Musrussu 131
W. H. Ward, Seal Cylinders of Western Asia, No. 579.
58 Seal from Kish 133
From photograph by the Oxford-Field Museum Expedition.
59 Terra-cotta Bas-relief from Kish 137
From photograph by the Oxford-Field Museum Expedition.
60 Sun-god and Hammurabi 149
Delegation en Perse, iv, PI. iii.
61 Four-pointed Star 150
Babyloniaca, ii, p. 144.
62 Model of Statue of Shamash 151
H. C. Rawlinson, Inscriptions of Western Asia, v, PI. 57.
63 Coin of Caracalla Shewing Moon-god 154
Hill, G. F. , PI. xii. No. 8.
64 Assyrian Seal. Marduk and Nabu 159
Delaporte, L. [c], PI. 88, A 686.
65 Combat of Eagle and Serpent 1 70
Museum Journal, xix, p. 392, No. 28.
66 Etana on Eagle 172
O. Weber, Siegelbilder, No. 404.
67 Ilabrat or Papsukkal 176
From photograph by the Oxford-Field Museum Expedition.
68 Serpent and Tree of Life (?) 177
Delegation en Perse, xii. Fig. 288, after Toscane. See p. 179.
69 Woman and Serpent 178
Ibid., Fig. 299, after Toscane, see p. 179.
70 The Temptation According to Sumerian Myth 179
W. H. Ward, Seal Cylinders of Western Asia, No. 388.
71 Deity Offering Poppy Branch to a Worshipper 186
L. W. King, History of Sumer and Accad, p. 246.
72 Goddess Offering Palm Branch to Three Gods .... 187
Delaporte, L. [a]. No. 81.
73 Mother-goddess, Worshipper, and Tammuz 188
Ibid., No. III.
74 Flood Stratum at Kish facing 216
From photograph by the Oxford-Field Museum Expedition, opp.
p. 204.
75 Babylonian Map of the World 217
From CT. xxii, PL 48, after R. C. Thompson. Restored conjec-
turally, with omission of cuneiform text.
76 Enkidu in Combat with Two Lions 237
Revue d'Assyriologie, vi, p. 156, PI. i. No. 4.
ILLUSTRATIONS xlii
FIGURES AND PLATES PAGE
77 Gilgamish and Enkidu 238
From photograph by the Oxford-Field Museum Expedition.
78 Gilgamish, Enkidu, and Ishtar 245
Louis Speelers, Catalogue des Intailles et Emfreintes Orientates des
Musees Royaux du Cinquantenaire, p. 166.
79 Terra-cotta Mask of Humbaba 254
Revue d’Assyriologie, xxii, p. 23.
80 Terra-cotta Bas-relief of Humbaba 255
Ibid., p. 25.
81 Combat of Marduk and a Dragon 278
Otto Weber, Siegelbilder, No. 3 1 1 .
82 Combat of Marduk and Zu 279
W. H. Ward, Seal Cylinders of Western Asia, No. 580.
83 Combat of Marduk and Scorpion-man 280
Delaporte, L. [c], No. 652.
84 Combat of Marduk and the Eagle-headed Lion 281
W. H. Ward, Seal Cylinders of Western Asia, No. 585.
85 Marduk in Combat with Winged Lion 282
From photograph by the Oxford-Field Museum Expedition.
86 Combat of Marduk and a Dragon (Ostrich) 283
Delaporte, L. [a]. No. 330.
87 Man in Combat with Sphinx 284
Ibid., No. 325.
88 The Dragon Musrussu 285
Revue d’Assyriologie, vi, p. 96.
89 The Constellations Leo and Hydra as Musrussu .... 286
Archiv fiir Keilschriftforschung, iv, PI. v.
90 Marduk and Musrussu . 301
F. Weissbach, Babylonische Miscellen, p. 16.
91 Constellations Corvus, Hydra, and Virgo 305
Revue d’Assyriologie, xvi, p. 135.
92 The Pleiades. Moon in Taurus 305
Archiv fiir Keilschriftforschung, iv, PI. v.
93 The Tower of Babel 309
Journal of the Society of Oriental Research, xiv, p. 2.
94 Bas-relief of Ishtar 331
From photograph by the Oxford-Field Museum Expedition.
95 The Arabian Ghoul 353
C. M. Doughty, W anderings in Arabia, i, p. 54.
96 Assyrian Winged 359
L. W. King, Guide to the Babylonian and Assyrian Antiquities^
p. 10, PI. iv.
XIV
ILLUSTRATIONS
FIGURES AND PLATES PAGE
97 The Sumerian Lamassu 360
H. R. Hall, Assyrian Sculptures, PI. Ixviii, BM. 90954.
98 Lamashtu Sent on Her Journey jacing 368
Photograph from Beiblatt zuni Jahrbuch des Konigl-Preusz.
Kunstsatnlung. See p. 417, note 39, opposite p. 367.
99 Babylonian Amulet. Expulsion of Lamashtu 368
F. Weissbach, Babylonische Miscellen, p. 42.
100 Babylonian Amulet. Seven Devils and Lamashtu .... 370
Revue d'Assyriologie, xviii, PI. i, No. 2, after F. Thureau-Dangin.
1 01 Pazuzu, Demon of the Winds 371
Museum Journal, viii (1917), p. 43.
102 Head of Pazuzu
Revue d’Assyriologie, xi, p. 57.
372
INTRODUCTION
T he subject of this book offered such great difficulties in
the vastness of its material, in its contents, time, and geo-
graphical extent, in its significance as the presentation of the
mythology and religion of those cognate races, on whose soil
arose three great religions of the world, Judaism, Christianity,
and Mohammedanism, that the author has been embarrassed
by the difficulty of selecting what is strictly essential. Since the
notable effort of W. Robertson Smith to compass in a single
volume the religion of the Semitic races in his Religion of the
Semites (1889, 1894, 1901), in which the most important of
all Semitic races, the Accadian, was almost entirely neglected,
and the equally valuable survey by M. P. Lagrange, l^tudes sur
les religions semitiques (1903, 1905), the material, especially
in Cuneiform, South Arabian, and Phoenician, has increased to
such extent that the whole subject appears in a new light. This
book has been written almost entirely from the sources in the
original languages, Sumerian, Accadian, Hebrew, Phoenician,
Aramaic, Himyaritic (South Arabic), and Arabic. In the case
of the sources in the last two mentioned languages I have had
from time to time the invaluable assistance of my colleague.
Dr. D. S. Margoliouth, Laudian Professor of Arabic. On all
important points the specialists are requested to refer to the
notes j more especially have I felt bound to state in these the
philological reasons for arguments and translations based upon
Sumerian and Accadian texts. Here the new material is so im-
portant, and in some cases utilized for the first time, that the
notes are necessarily numerous.
In the translation of Sumerian and Accadian texts a few pe-
culiarities must be made clear to the general reader. Words in
XVI
INTRODUCTION
italics indicate that the meaning of the corresponding words of
the texts has not been fully established. It may appear incon-
sistent to find both “ land” and “ Land” in the translations;
“ Land ” is employed only when the Sumerian kalam-ma, Ac-
cadian matu, refer to the “ home-land,” that is, Sumer, Accad,
Babylonia, Assyria. In this book “ Accadian ” means the
Semitic languages of Babylonia and Assyria, which are funda-
mentally identical. Sumerian is not a Semitic language, but no
discussion of Semitic religion is possible without the Sumerian
sources. This language belongs to the agglutinating group, and
was spoken by the earliest inhabitants of Mesopotamia. They
founded the great cities of that land, Opis, Sippar, Kish, Nip-
pur, Erech, Ellasar, Shuruppak, Ur, Eridu, Lagash, etc., long
before 4000 b.c., and formulated the religious system which
the Accadians adopted. The date of the entry of the Semites
into Mesopotamia is uncertain, and it is even debatable whether
they are not as ancient in that land as the Sumerians themselves.
The entire evidence of the very early inscriptions proves that
the Sumerians not only invented the pictographic script, which
they developed into the more easily written cuneiform script,
but that they already had a very considerable literature, and a
great pantheon, when the Semites learned to write, and adopted
their religion and culture. The new material, now rapidly in-
creasing for the study of the most remote period of writing, tends
to confirm this view of the origin of Babylonian and Assyrian
mythology and religion. In taking a general survey of the
whole field of Semitic religion, over the wide territory of
Western Asia, and through the four thousand years and more
in which it ran its course, it is clear that it can be classified into
two large groups. The religion and mythology of all those
Semitic peoples, which, by accident of geographical contiguity
and cultural influence, came into contact with the advanced and
affluent civilization of Sumer and Accad, Babylonia and As-
syria, became heavy borrowers from that source. Sumero-
Babylonian cults established themselves in the very midst of
INTRODUCTION
xvii
the old Canaanitish, Aramaean, Phoenician, Moabite, and
Nabataean cults. The mythological conceptions of their own
deities were assimilated to or transformed by the doctrines
taught in the great temples of Sumer and Accad. Their
legends and myths are almost entirely of Sumero-Babylonian
origin. The cult of Tammuz, the lord of weeping and the
resurrection, appears firmily established at Gebal on the shores
of the Mediterranean at an early period. On the other hand
there is only the religion of Arabia, which remained entirely
outside the mission of the higher culture and theology of Sumer
and Accad.
There are, then, only two great currents of mythology and
religion in the Semitic lands — the Sumero-Babylonian of the
east and north, and the Arabian of the south. In the great cur-
rent of the northern stream are mingled many pure Semitic
sources in the west. Some of their cults, notably that of Adad,
actually influenced the mythology of Sumer and Accad. Of
these two systems of mythology, the Sumero-Babylonian is
Infinitely more profound and elaborate. Here alone great
mythological poems and epics were written, which attempted
to grapple with the problems of life, the origin of the universe,
the relation of the gods to men, the salvation of their souls.
In exposing the fundamental facts of the mythologies of the
western group, the history of Hebrew religion is a unique ele-
ment in the vast Semitic field. Although from the beginning
and during its entire evolution the religion of this small
Canaanitish people was constantly influenced by Babylonian
mythology, they alone of all the western peoples seem to have
understood the Import of the profound problems conveyed in
the guise of the legendary poems and epic verse of Babylonia
and Assyria. Converted into their own magnificent Hebrew
prose and poetry and in terms of their conception of deity,
Sumero-Babylonian theology and mythology found there their
greatest interpreter and means of transmission to the religions
which became the heirs of the ancient Semitic world. And it
INTRODUCTION
xviii
must be obvious to all unprejudiced minds, who have a clear
view of the whole sphere of Semitic religions, that Hebrew reli-
gion stands entirely apart and reached a higher plane at the
hands of “ Jehovah’s ” prophets. The author was bound to con-
fine himself strictly to mythology in this volume. In the pro-
phetic works of the Hebrew sources much mythology survives,
and use of it may lead to the inference that their place in the
history of religions does not differ essentially from the great
poets and teachers of Babylonia. This is clearly untrue. The
evolution of Hebrew religion is unique in the history of the
Semites.
Some of the views and arguments in this book undoubtedly
invite criticism. The quo warranto for all statements has been
defined in the notes and elucidated in the text. After long
study of the Semitic and Sumerian sources I have become con-
vinced that totemism and demonology have nothing to do with
the origins of Sumerian or Semitic religions. The former can-
not be proved at all} the latter is a secondary aspect of them.
I may fail to carry conviction in concluding that, both in Su-
merian and Semitic religions, monotheism preceded polytheism
and belief in good and evil spirits. The evidence and reasons
for this conclusion, so contrary to accepted and current views,
have been set down with care and with the perception of ad-
verse criticism. It is, I trust, the conclusion of knowledge and
not of audacious preconception.
To the editor of this series. Canon John A. MacCulloch, I am
indebted for his valuable proof-reading and assistance in edi-
torial details. I feel that I have put upon him an unusual
amount of labour in editing my manuscript, and I am grateful
to him for his assistance. My friends, Pere Schell, Professor of
Assyriology at the Sorbonne, Dr. F. Thureau-Dangin, Profes-
sor Zimmern of Leipzig, and many others have constantly kept
me supplied with their books and articles before they were ac-
cessible in ordinary commerce. The works of these three bril-
liant scholars have been of special value in the elucidation of
-
INTRODUCTION
XIX
cuneiform religious texts. Of particular value also have been
the voluminous and excellent copies of Sumerian texts by Pro-
fessor Chiera of Chicago, and the vast erudition of Professor
Bruno Meissner of Berlin and Professor Arthur Ungnad of
Breslau. The copies and interpretations of religious texts by
Professor Erich Ebeling of Berlin and Dr. R. C. Thompson of
Oxford reveal their great service in the preparation of this book
by the numerous references to their copies in the notes. The
numerous articles of Rene Dussaud cited there mark a distinct
advance in the interpretation of the religion of the Aramaeans
and Phoenicians. In my renewed study of the entire religious
literature of Sumer, Babylonia, and Assyria I have often had
occasion to ask for collations of and information concerning
tablets in the British Museum. Mr. C. J. Gadd, Assistant in
the Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, has ever
served me well with courtesy and accuracy. On matters in-
volving special knowledge of Egypt, Professor F. LI. Griffith
and Dr. A. M. Blackman have supplied me with the necessary
information.
A word to those who are not Semitic scholars should be added
concerning the pronunciation of the name of the Hebrew deity
Yaw. Phonetically this should have been written Yau. The
last letter is a semi-labial vowel and in my opinion no diph-
thongal sound should be inferred from the spelling adopted in
this book. If the word be written Ya-vf^ the reader will obtain
a pronunciation as accurate as a transcription can convey.
It is still impossible to utilize the newly found and recently
deciphered Phoenician inscriptions, written in a cuneiform al-
phabet. Charles Virolleaud, who first published some of the
tablets from Ras Shamra, near Minet-el-Beida in Syria, on the
shore of the Mediterranean Sea {Syria^ 1929, pp. 304—310),
writes that he has now been able to study large mythological
texts and that the language is classical Phoenician, of the fif-
teenth century b.c. It is obvious, therefore, that the early
Phoenician religion will soon be better understood. None of
XX
INTRODUCTION
these tablets containing the names of the Phoenician deities has
been published up to this date. The author must, therefore,
give his signature to this book in the hope that the new revela-
tion from Ras Shamra will support the views of the Phoenician
pantheon set forth here, and confirm the place which he has
assigned to it in the history of Semitic mythology.
S. LANGDON
Jesus College, Oxford
March 19, 1931
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
BY
STEPHEN HERBERT LANGDON
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
CHAPTER I
GEOGRAPHICAL AND LINGUISTIC
DISTRIBUTION OF SEMITIC
RACES, AND DEITIES
T he Semitic speaking peoples are divided geographically
into the eastern, western, northern, and southern groups.
Philologically these are known respectively as the Accadian,
Canaanitish, Aramaean, and Arabic races. The Accadian or
Mesopotamian branch possesses by far the oldest records of
any Semitic language, and it is so called because the first purely
Semitic line of kings reigned at Accad, a city near Sippar, be-
tween the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, the modern ruins called
ed-Deir.^ As a geographical term, “ Accad ” designates the cen-
tral part of the Mesopotamian Valley as far south as the
great cities Kish and Babylon, a region first occupied by the
Sumerians. Undoubtedly this part of Mesopotamia was known
as Accad, before 2732 b.c., when Sargon the ancient founded
the city Agade and the empire of the Accadians which com-
prised the whole of Western Asia.^ It is difficult to fix an
approximate date for the arrival of the Accadians in Mesopota-
mia. The Sumerians had founded cities all along the
Euphrates and Tigris before 4000 b.c., and their earliest cul-
ture as revealed by excavations at Kish, Jemdet Nasr, Shurup-
pak, and Ur cannot be placed later than 5000 b.c. Among the
kings who ruled in the first kingdom of the land at Kish, said
to have been founded immediately after the Flood, there
are seven Accadian names out of a total of twenty-three kings.®
2
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
This dynasty ruled approximately 3400-3170 b.c., hence it
may be assumed that this Semitic race arrived among the
Sumerians in the Kish area as early as the middle of the
fourth millennium b.c. Linguistically the Accadian language
is closely allied to Himyaritic, Sabaean, and Minaean or the
South Arabian branch of the Semitic people, and the few
Semitic deities which survived in the vast Sumerian pantheon
adopted by the Accadians supports the inference drawn from
comparative Semitic philology. Among the Semitic deities
whose names survived, when the Accadians adopted the entire
Sumerian pantheon, are Shamash the Sun-god and Ashdar the
Mother-goddess, identified with the planet Venus.^ Both
of these deities are common to all early Semitic peoples, but
Ashdar, as the word is first written on Sumerian monuments,
is the only direct phonetic reproduction of the South Arabian
‘Athtar, there the name of the planet Venus.
It must be admitted that, although the Semitic race can be
traced to a period circa 3300 b.c. in Accad, only one Semitic
name of a deity occurs on any of their monuments or in any
Sumerian or Accadian inscription before the age of Dungi of
LFr (2381-2326).® In fact Asdar is the only Semitic divine
name which occurs in the early period. The word for sun
and the Sun-god is invariably written with the Sumerian ideo-
gram for sun, babhary utUy and even the Semitic name of the
Sun-god does not appear before the first Babylonian dynasty.®
The phonetic pronunciation of the name of the Sun-god among
the Semites of Accad, when they first appear In history at
least 2500 years before we have any Semitic inscriptions out-
side the Mesopotamian area, appears to have been Sham-shuy
and although this word is pronounced Shamsu by the Mlnaeans
and Sabaeans when their inscriptions begin, it must be assumed
that Shamsu is an example of dissimilation in Arabic. The
Accadian form is the one regularly employed in the Canaanitish
and Aramaic inscriptions. The sporadic form samsu occurs
toward the end of the first dynasty.^
DISTRIBUTION OF SEMITIC RACES
3
Assuming that South Arabia is the original home of the
Semitic peoples, the theory adopted by the writer of this vol-
ume, it follows from the evidence of Minaean, Sabaean, and
Qatabanian inscriptions from Arabia Felix, modern Yemen,
and Hadramut, that the three principal and perhaps the only
deities originally worshipped by the Semites are the Sun,
Venus, and the Moon,
all astral deities.®
The sun and moon
in South Arabia, whose
monuments and in-
scriptions are dated
from about the ninth
to the second century
B.C., are symbolically
represented by a cres-
cent and disk (Fig. i).
This is also the sym-
bolism of these two
deities, which con-
stantly occurs in Su-
mero-Accadian sym-
bolism (Fig. 2). This
same symbolism occurs
frequently on coins of
the South Arabian people in Abyssinia, right down to the period
in which they were converted to Christianity in the fourth cen-
tury A.D. See Fig. 3. This is a copper coin and bears the
Greek inscription Ousannes Basileus AksomUon Bisi Tisene^
“ Ousannes King of the Aksomites, of the tribe Tisene.” The
head is that of the king, on obverse with a crown, and on re-
verse without a crown.® It is, therefore, clear that the Semites
who first appear in history so completely mingled with Sumerian
culture, more than 2000 years before there is any inscriptional
evidence about them elsewhere, were South Arabians. South
Fig. I. Sabaean Altar, Shewing Crescent
AND Disk
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
4
Arabian inscriptions have been found in Mesopotamia and at
Koweit on the Arabian shore of the Persian gulf near the
boundary of Iraqd® But the date of Himyaritic Minaean civili-
zation in the Yemen cannot be reduced to a late period merely
because their monuments do not begin before the first millen-
nium B.c. Their culture and religion are of hoary antiquity
and clearly extended along the entire eastern Arabian sea-coast
and the Persian Gulf. Magan and Meluhha of Sumerian
geography lay on the Arabian coast of the Persian Gulf, and
Magan was almost certainly identical
with the land of the Gerraei of the
Greek geographers. It was then this
Semitic people who entered Mesopo-
tamia before 3000 b.c., from Magan
and Arabia Felix, bringing with them
the ancient Semitic deities of South
Arabia. The names of the three prin-
cipal deities were Shamshu, ‘Athtar, and
"Zr'™ Shahar the Moon-god.
In South Arabia the Sun-god is a
female deity, and ‘Athtar, or god of the planet Venus, is a male
deity. But the Accadians, having identified these deities with
the Sumerian Sun-god, Utu or Babbar of Ellasar and Sippar,
Fig. 3
Crescent and Disk
DISTRIBUTION OF SEMITIC RACES
5
and with the Sumerian Innini, the Mother-goddess and the
planet Venus, reversed the genders of these deities, a change
which was latterly imposed upon the entire North and West
Semitic religions. In South Arabian there are many names for
the Moon-god, Shahar, the name common to all Arabic dia-
lects, Warah, “ the Wanderer,” Kahil, “ the Old One,” Wadd,
“the Loving,” Ilmuqah, of unknown meaning} and he is
frequently referred to as aby “ father,” ^amniy “ ancestor,”
“uncle.” None of these names for the Moon-god survived
in Accadian. According to D. Nielsen the South Arabian deity
Ilah, or II, which is also the common Semitic word for “ god,”
and corresponds to the Hebrew and Aramaic deity El, Elohim,
is one of the names of the Moon-god. The North Arabic al-
ilah = Allah, who became the supreme and only god of Mo-
hammedan religion, and El, El 5 him of the Northern Hebrew
tribes who with Yaw, a deity of the Southern Hebrew tribes,
became the supreme deity of Hebrew monotheism, would thus
originally denote the ancient and prehistoric Moon-god. On
this theory there will be more to say when the deities of the
Canaanites are discussed.
In Accadian it is the Sumerian name of the Moon-god which
is invariably used from first to last in their inscriptions, namely
Zu-en, commonly pronounced Sin. There is no doubt at all
concerning the Sumerian derivation of this name.^^ It occurs
twice in a Himyaritic inscription written S-i-n, clearly the god
Sin,^® where it cannot possibly be an Arabic name, but an im-
portation from Babylonian. Nabunidus, the last king of Baby-
lon (555—538 B.C.), is known to have resided for some time at
Teima in Arabia, north of El-‘ 01 a, where South Arabian in-
scriptions have been found, and it is certain that Babylonian in-
fluence pervaded the whole of South Arabia from a very early
period.
If the name Sin is the origin of the word Smai, Mount
Sinai, which occurs in early documents of the Hebrew Scrip-
tures, not earlier than lOOO b.c., then this mountain range in
6
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
the extreme north-western part of Arabia and especially its
principal mountain, Horeb, connected with the worship of
the Hebrew gods Yaw and Elohim, must have been an ancient
North Arabian centre of Moon worship, and the name itself is
taken from the Sumero-Babylonian Sin, after the name had
been transmitted to Arabia, and replaced some older Arabic
name for “ moon ” as the name of these mountains. In any
case this Sumerian name of the Moon-god was known to the
Hebrews; for it occurs in the names Shenazzar (sixth cen-
tury) and Shinab, king of Admah ; and the Canaanitish cult of
the moon was actually favoured by the kings of Judah before the
reign of Josiah.^® Job reflects the well-known Semitic sun and
moon worship in his remonstrance against this pagan practice:
“ If seeing the sun when it shone,
And the moon moving gloriously along,
My heart was secretly enticed.
And my hand kissed my mouth.”
It is, therefore, certain that Semitic religion in its most primi-
tive form begins with three astral deities. Sun, Moon, and
Venus, and that they came into contact with Sumerian civiliza-
tion at such an early period that the real Semitic characteristics
of these deities were totally transformed by the Sumerians.
Sumerian religion is based upon a vast pantheon and is ex-
tremely polytheistic. It was completely adopted by the
Accadians, and through the later Babylonian and Assyrian
kingdoms this extreme type of polytheism, rich in mythology
and theological speculation, influenced the religious beliefs
of nearly every Semitic race in Western Asia. Semitic religion,
pure and undefiled, must be sought in those impenetrable areas
of Arabia, where the great light of Sumer and Accad did not
shine, and in those stray references to the old Semitic cults
which survived in Syria and Phoenicia and Canaan. In these
latter lands, along the Mediterranean sea-coast, Egyptian in-
fluence must also be considered. But it was not important.
When we come to deal with the mythology and theology of
DISTRIBUTION OF SEMITIC RACES
7
the Northern and Western Semitic races, we shall see that Baby-
lonia is the source from which they absorbed all their fundamen-
tal ideas, and this process began when the first South Arabian
invasion of Sumer occurred and the first Semitic people learned
the arts of civilization from the Sumerians of Mesopotamia.
Arabian religion has no mythology at all concerning the gods
and goddesses of its pantheon. A few names of Arabic deities
of pre-Islamic times have survived in the Coran of Moham-
med, who founded a thorough monotheism on the deity Allah,
the old Ilah, or title of the Moon-god Wadd, Shahar, Ilmuqah
of the earlier pantheon.^® It is an idea common to all primi-
tive Semitic tribes that they descended from their patron deity,
not in the sense that this deity was a deified man, or that he
was a plant or animal (totemism), but in the sense that he was
their divine creator.^® The Minaeans described themselves as
sons of Wadd, the Qatabanians as sons of ‘Amm, and the
Sabaeans as sons of Ilmuqah, all titles of the Moon-god. This
idea of a god as father or ancestor of a tribe reveals itself in
proper names over the whole Semitic area. In South Arabic
Abikarib, “ My father is gracious,” is a very common personal
name, in which ah^ “ father,” refers to one of the deities, prob-
ably the Moon-god.®® This fatherhood of god is particularly
emphasized in early Accadian names, Abum-ilum, “ god is
father,” Abu-tab, “ the father is good,” Sin-abu-su, “ Sin
is his father.” The gods are also regarded as brothers and
sisters of men. “ Brother ” and “ sister ” in personal names
occur only in Accadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian, or in
Semitic lands under Babylonian influence, and probably refer
to Tammuz and his sister Ishtar, and may well be direct epithets
of these two deities.®® A name like Ahi-saduq, on a seal of
the Amoritic period,®® meaning “ My brother is righteous,”
undoubtedly describes a deity as “ My brother.” Ammi-
sadugu, “ My uncle is righteous,” is an exact parallel.
The description of a deity as “ brother ” is not found in
Arabic at any period. This mythological family relation of
8
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
god and man is common in Canaanitish, including Hebrew, and
in the Aramaic group j in Accadian it appears in the earliest
Semitic inscriptions.^^ Ahu-tab, “ the brother is good,” on a
monument of Manistusu of the 27th century b.c., is exactly
parallel to Ahi-tub, a common Hebrew name occurring not
earlier than the eleventh century b.c. In early Accadian,
Ahu-issap, “ The brother increases,” Ahu-ilum, “ El is
brother,” Salim-ahu, “ the brother is happy,” Ili-ahi, “ My
god is my brother,” Ahum-ilum, “ El is a brother,” clearly
demonstrate that this idea was firmly rooted in the mythology
of the Semites from prehistoric times.^® Since they are in
reality South Arabians, where Semitic religious ideas are re-
tained in their most primitive forms, it is inexplicable that the
“ brotherhood of god ” is not found there, or in the South
Arabian kingdom of Abyssinia, or in any of the North Arabian
centres to which Minaean-Sabaean culture spread, as at al ‘Ola
(in Minaean and Lihyanian inscriptions) or in the Hauran
(in Safaitic inscriptions).^® In Hebrew Ahi-yah, “ My brother
is Yah,” reveals this mythological relation between Yaw, the
tribal god of the Hebrews, and his people, as does also Ahi-
melek, where melek is either a title of Yaw, or the name of an
old Canaanitish deity. This idea is particularly prominent in
Hebrew. Ahi-ezer “ My brother is help,” Ahi-qam, in As-
syrian Ahiya-qamu,*^ “ My brother is risen Ahi-ram, in
Assyrian Ahi-ramu, “ My brother is supreme,” and in Ahi-
ram, king of Gebal, early Phoenician, circa 900 b.c.^® Its occur-
rence at Gebal, centre of the West Semitic cult of Adonis and
Astarte, i.e., of Tammuz and Ishtar, taken in connection with the
almost complete absence of the “ brotherhood of god ” in Ara-
bian religion where Babylonian religion had little influence,
would support the theory that “ brother,” when applied to
deities like Yaw, Melek, and Adonis, actually refers to these
deities as the dying and resurrected god, brother of the Earth-
goddess Astarte, Ishtar. Names like Ahu-bani, which occurs in
Babylonian not earlier than the Cassite period, compared with
DISTRIBUTION OF SEMITIC RACES
9
Sin-bani, “ Sin is creator,” Marduk-bani, Enlil-bani, Shamash-
bani, clearly prove that, even in Assyria and Babylonian,
“ brother ” is a title of any god and cannot refer to Tammuz or
Adonis, as it invariably does in Sumerian.
-
It must be admitted that any Semitic deity could be addressed
as the “ brother ” of the worshippers, in the same way as he
was called ah^ “ father,” or *ammu “ uncle,” “ ancestor j ”
and unless the “ brotherhood ” title can be attributed to the
Tammuz-Ishtar myth, it is difficult to explain this aspect of
Semitic mythology, in which the gods as “ brothers ” appear
as creators of their people.®^ The view of most Semitic scholars,
who follow W. R. Smith, is that the early Semites actually re-
garded themselves as related to deified persons, or in the final
instance to animals or plants from which the various Semitic
tribes supposed themselves descended. On this view totemism
is the original religion of the Semitic races, and the principal
argument used to support this theory is the widespread primitive
Semitic custom of naming men and women from animals, trees,
and plants. In early Accadian Shelibum, “ fox,” is a very com-
mon personal name,*^ which occurs in all periods of later
Babylonian and Assyrian history} Sha^albim is the name of a
Canaanitish town,®® and Shu‘al, “ fox,” is a good Hebrew name.
Bugakum, for Buqaqum, in early Accadian, probably means
“ flea,” and occurs as Baqqu in Babylonian. Burasu, “ the pine-
tree,” is a name occurring frequently in late Babylonian.
Zumbu “ the fly,” Zumba (hypocoristic), Hahhuru, “ raven,” ®*
Suluppa, “ date-fruit ” (hypocoristic), occur in late Babylonian
and Assyrian. Totemism is also argued from the reference to
baetylia and wooden pillars in Jeremiah ii. 27, where the wor-
shippers of the Canaanitish Baalim say to the “ tree,” i.e.
wooden pillar, “ thou art my father,” and to the “ stone,” “ thou
hast begotten me.” Here the ashera, or wooden pillar, and the
baetyl are, however, only symbols of deities. (See below under
baetylia). The word jor, “ rock,” is apparently a title both of
the Hebrew god Yaw and of an Aramaic deity.®®
10
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
In Mesopotamian Semitic names this aspect of nomenclature
is, therefore, extremely rare, and almost absent in the early
period. There is here a tendency to increase the use of ani-
mal names, and in a period of such advanced culture as the
Neo-Babylonian, there is no question about primitive totem-
istic ideas being present. It is impossible to study primitive
Bedouin culture even in the very earliest Accadian, before
3000 B.C., and Sumerian civilization had attained an ad-
vanced stage of culture before 4000 b.c. But the history of
animal and plant names among the Semites in Mesopotamia
proves that persons were called after plants and animals
because of some striking characteristics of the persons so
named.®®
Animal names are far more common in Canaanite Hebrew,
and Arabic 5 in Hebrew they occur chiefly as tribal or city names,
and belong entirely to the period before the Exile, Deborah,
“ the bee,” Ze’eb (a Midianite), “ the wolf,” a name extremely
common in Arabic of all periods,®^ Khagab, Khagabah, “ the
locust,” a family name of the Nethinim. In view of these facts,
G. B. Gray, Hebrew Proper Names, pp. 99—108, concluded
that primitive Semitic religion, or in any case Canaanitish reli-
gion, began with totemism. If this were true of Semitic reli-
gions we are bound to start with totemistic mythology. The
Semitic deities would be by origin animals or plants from which
the far-flung Semitic tribes, clans, and races are sprung. The
next stage would be that in which these deities are spoken of
as “ father,” “ brother,” “ ancestor,” or “ uncle ” i^amm,
halu), that is as divine and also natural relatives of a clan. The
argument, so far as animal names of clans and persons go,
seems to be disproved by the history of this custom in Accadian-
Babylonian and in Arabian religions. In South Arabia, which
affords the oldest inscriptions of Arabic, this custom is rare,
but it increases and becomes prolific in late pre-Islamic times,
and this is also true of Babylonia. Although the South Ara-
bians and the Accadians are far advanced beyond the primitive
DISTRIBUTION OF SEMITIC RACES
II
Bedouin stage in the periods when their inscriptions begin, their
history shows that it is characteristic of the Semites to use ani-
mal names in times of advanced culture, when there is no pos-
sible influence of primitive totemism. I, therefore, reject the
totemistic theory absolutely. Early Canaanitish and Hebrew
religions are far beyond primitive totemism (if it ever existed
among them) in the period when any definite information can
be obtained about them, and the prevalence of animal names in
early Hebrew history is probably due to a peculiar inclination
of this Semitic race.
All Semitic tribes appear to have started with a single tribal
deity whom they regard as the divine creator of his people, and
this deity seems to have been astral, the sun, or the moon, or
the planet Venus. The South Arabians of Aksum in Abyssinia
speak of their gods ‘ Astar (= Athtar = Venus), Medr or
Behr ( Earth-god ),^® and Mehrem, as “ they who begat
them.” The Moabites, a Canaanitish tribe, are called “ the
people of Kemoshj he (Kemosh) gave his sons as fugitives and
his daughters into captivity.” Here Kemosh is described as
father of the Moabites. Moses is commanded by Yaw to say
to Pharoah, “ Israel is my son, my first-born,” and the old
Hebrew song says of Yaw:
“ Is not He thy father, who produced thee?
Did He not make thee and establish thee ? ”
The same song speaks of Yaw as a “ rock ” that begat Israel
and as “ El who travailed with thee,” as a woman at child
birth.** “ I am a father to Israel and Ephraim is my first-born,”
writes Jeremiah, describing Yaw’s relation to the Hebrews, and
Ephraim is called the son of Yaw.**
To complete the evidence for this Semitic mythological con-
cept of the fatherhood of god, the following names from vari-
ous religions are selected. A king of Tyre (Phoenician) in the
fourteenth century b.c. is called Abi-milki, “ My father is my
king.” Here “ father ” stands for the god of Tyre, Melqart,
V— 3
12
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
whose name is explained by the Greeks as “ Heracles the
primeval father.” In Accadian, we have Pir’-Shamash, “ the
offspring of Shamash,” Ashur-ban-apli, “ Ashur is the creator
of the son ”j Apil-ili-shu, “ son of his god ” in Aramaic, Bir-
Atar, “ Son of Atar ” Bar-Rakib, “ Son of Rakib,” a king of
Ya’di} Bar-‘Ata, “son of Ata”j Bath-‘Ata, “Daughter of
Ata.” More difficult to verify by clear evidence is the paral-
lel conception, “ the motherhood ” of Semitic goddesses, and
consequently the title “ sister ” applied to them, corresponding
to the title “ brother ” of male deities. In Accadian, Baby-
lonian, and Assyrian religion, the virgin Earth-mother god-
desses, Innini-Ishtar, Nintud, Aruru, Ninhursag, Ninlil, are all
Sumerian, and borrowed by the Semites in prehistoric times. In
Sumerian mythology the creatress of mankind is this Earth-
mother goddess, and the “ motherhood of the goddess ” forms
the basis of an entire school of theology at Nippur, distinguished
from the school of theology at Eridu. At Nippur it is the
Earth-goddess Aruru or Mami who is said to have created man
from clay, a legend which will be discussed in its proper place.
This legend of the creation of man from clay is of Sumerian
origin, although the legend is preserved in Accadian texts only.'*®
In Sumerian legend the Earth-god Enlil is the brother
of the virgin Earth-mother Aruru,®® and when in Baby-
lonian and West Semitic religion a god is described as
“ brother,” it is extremely probable that the great Earth-god
(who is also a Sun-god) of Sumer or a West Semitic deity,
who has borrowed this aspect of Sumerian mythology, is
meant.
The Sumerian Earth-mother is repeatedly referred to in
Sumerian and Babylonian names as the mother of mankind —
Ninmar-ama-dim, “ Ninmar is a creating mother ”j Ama-
numun-zid, “the mother legitimate seed (has given) ”j Bau-
ama-mu, “ Bau is my mother.” This mythological doctrine is
thoroughly accepted in Babylonian religion. A poem has the
line: “ All creatures with the breath of life are the handiwork
DISTRIBUTION OF SEMITIC RACES
13
of Aruru,” and a prayer begins: “ O Gula, the mother, bearer
of the dark-headed people.” In early Accadian, this my-
thology is already firmly established among the Semites,
although it does not appear to belong to their primitive religion.
Ummi-tabat, “ My mother is good ”j Asdar-ummi, “ Ishtar is
my mother ” j the latter name is common in Babylonia. Ummu-
tabat, “ the mother is good,” occurs in the fifth century in Baby-
lonia. Belit-umma-nu, “ Beltis is our mother,” has the same
meaning as “ Sarpanit is our mother.” Istar-ummi-sarri-ni,
“ Ishtar is the mother of our king Mannu-ki-ummi, “ Who
is like the mother? ” Although the Babylonian feminine par-
ticiple mu^alUttUy “ the bearer,” is not found yet in any text,®*
but only the form alittu (construct alidat), it is extremely prob-
able that this title of the Babylonian Earth-goddess, chiefly
known in the West as Ashtoreth, is the original of Mylitta,®® a
name used by the Assyrians for Aphrodite.
In West Semitic this mythology is apparently almost un-
known. In Canaanitish there is only the Phoenician name ’Am-
‘Ashtart, “ the mother is Ashtoreth.” ®® In Hebrew there
is no evidence at all.®^ But names of deities in Phoenicia like
Melk-‘Ashtart, at Hammon near Tyre, Eshmun-‘Ashtart at
Carthage, ‘Ashtar-Kemosh, of the Moabites, clearly prove that
the Mother-goddess of the West Semitic races held even a
greater place in their religion than the local gods of their most
important cults. These names are taken to be construct forma-
tions by W. W. Baudissin {Adonis und Esmun, pp. 264-266)
and explained as “ Melk of the temple of Astarte,” i.e., the
Tyrian god Melquart worshipped in Astarte’s temple. Ashtar-
Kemosh would be Astarte worshipped in the temple of Ke-
mosh.®® Now these great Canaanitish gods, Eshmun, Kemosh,
Melqart, and Adon of Gebal, are sometimes regarded as the
husbands, sometimes as the sons, sometimes as the brothers of
the Earth-goddess Astarte, as we know from Sumerian and
Babylonian religion. In the West Semitic sources the title
“ sister ” for this goddess cannot be defended except by infer-
14
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
ence from the widespread title of the gods as “ brother,” and
the title is undoubtedly based upon this Semitic mythology.
The Earth-goddess, Astarte, who is by name the South
Arabian male deity Athtar and there the planet Venus, is em-
phatically a Babylonian deity in North and West Semitic reli-
gions. The entire mythology of Astarte goes back to the Su-
merian Ininni = Ashdar = Ishtar, goddess of Venus and
mother, wife, and lover of the Sumerian dying god Tammuz.
This is Inextricably united with the other fundamental Sumerian
mythological concept of the Earth-god Enlil, father of man-
kind, and his sister the Earth-goddess Aruru, Gula, Bau, Nin-
hursag, Nintud, commonly called in Babylonia Belit-ilani,
“ Queen of the gods.” In certain cults she is also the wife of
the Earth-god, as Ninlil, wife of Enlil, at Nippur, or Bau, wife
of Ningirsu, son of Enlil, at Lagash, or of Zamama, son of
Enlil, at Kish. In South Arabia the male deity ‘Athtar is the
planet Venus, and has no inherent connection at all with the
philologically identical feminine name ‘Ashtart of the Canaan-
ites. The West Semitic Earth-goddess, sister of all Canaanite
deities, El, Melqart, Eshmun, Yaw, Kemosh, is called Ashtar
(Moabite), or ‘Ashtart, because the Semitic race with their male
Venus came into contact with the Sumerian people, who wor-
shipped the female Innini, a Mother-goddess and the planet
Venus, at the dawn of history. ‘Athtar becomes now Ashdar
and Ishtar in Babylonia, and a Mother-goddess. In the West
the old Semitic deity ‘Ashtar is turned into a feminine form,
‘Ashtart, to conform to the Babylonian mythology, which un-
doubtedly suppressed primitive Semitic religious ideas among
the Aramaic and Canaanitish peoples. The word was pro-
nounced ‘Ashtoreth by the later Hebrews, when the monotheis-
tic teaching of Moses and the prophets prevailed. This is only
an attempt to cast ridicule upon the name of the Mother-
goddess of earlier polytheism by reading the consonants
of her name with vowels of the Hebrew word for
“ abomination,” “ shame,” hosheth. In Western Semitic
DISTRIBUTION OF SEMITIC RACES
15
religions ‘Ashtart represents the Sumero-Babylonian Mother-
goddess, Gula, Bau, Aruru, etc., rather than Innini-Ninsianna-
Ishtar, who is both Venus and the Mother-goddess. In Canaan-
itish religion ‘Ashtart is not the planet Venus. That is clear by
the Greek identifications of this goddess with Ge, “ the earth,”
sister of Uranus, in Sanchounyathdn, and the regular identifica-
tion of Astarte with Aphrodite, who is never identified with the
planet Venus.
In South Arabian religion the Mother-goddess is the Sun-
goddess, and there is no mythology there in which she is the
sister of a deity, or evidence that any Arabian deity is her
brother. In North Arabic religion, as represented on the Safaite
inscriptions of Hauran, the Mother-goddess is Hat, Allat, Hal-
lat.®® Since Herodotus in his History says that the Arabian
Aphrodite was named ’Alilat and ’Alitta, and Alitta is the
Babylonian title of the Mother-goddess (Alittu), it is clear that,
even in North Arabia, Babylonian mythology is the determining
element also.®^ Since Hat of South Arabia is the Sun-goddess,
and probably also among the Thamudic Lihyanians at al-‘01a,
who are only Northern Minaeans, naturally Hat survives in
Islamic tradition as a Sun -goddess.®^ But in North Arabia
Hat, “ the goddess,” has been subjected to Babylonian influences
as was Ashtart of the Canaanites. Here the goddess is the Earth-
mother, and when we are dealing with North Arabian religion,
the great sphere of Babylonian mythology and theology has been
entered.®® In fact there are only two large groups of Semitic
religions j on the one hand there is the Minaean-Sabaean
Qatabanian, including Abyssinia and the Thamudic-Minaean re-
ligion } on the other hand there is the Babylonian- Assyrian reli-
gion of Mesopotamia, which from prehistoric times moulded
the mythological and theological concepts of all Semitic races
of the Northern and Western Semitic areas, in Syria, Phoenicia,
Palestine, and Trans- Jordania.
Babylonian influence becomes particularly prominent in the
great Nabataean kingdom whose principal capitals were Petra
i6
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
and Damascus, and whose history can be traced from their first
mention by Ashurbanipal in the middle of the seventh cen-
tury B.C., to their absorption into the Roman Empire in io6 a.d.
They were a North Arabic race who used the Aramaic script,
and their principal male deity is Dusura, rendered into Greek
as Dousares, and identified by the Greeks with Dionysus.®® The
name means “ he of Shara ” {^dhu Sara), i.e., “ he of the moun-
tain range esh-shara,^ at Petra,®® and he is a Sun-god according
to Strabo.®^ Epiphanius, bishop of Salamis in Cyprus, writing
in the fourth century, preserves the only
illuminating information about the mythol-
ogy of this great cult of the Nabataeans.
As he was born and educated in Palestine,
and served in a monastic order there, his
statement must be taken authoritatively.
He says that the Nabataeans praised the vir-
gin whose Arabic name is XaajSoG.®® In
Nabataean the Arabic nominative ending in
u is regularly preserved in proper names,
and Epiphanius undoubtedly heard the word ka^bu, “ square
stone,” symbol in Nabataean religion for both Dusares and the
great Mother-goddess Allat of the Nabataeans. An Arabic
writer®® says that a four-sided stone was worshipped as Allat,
who in a Nabataean inscription was called “ Mother of the
gods.” On Fig. 4 is seen the reverse of a copper coin of the Ro-
man emperor Trajan Decius, struck at Bostra, shewing the
sacred baetyl or stone pillar of Dusares, bearing the inscription
actia dusaria, “ the Dusarean games.” Suidas, the Greek lexi-
cographer, under the word devaaprjs, says that the object of
Dusares’ worship was a black stone, four feet high and two feet
wide, standing on a base of gold. Moreover Epiphanius states
that Dusares was the oflFspring of the virgin Chaabou and only
son of the “ lord ” {deairdrov The panegyrarchs of Naba-
taean cities came to Petra to assist in the festival of his birth,
which was celebrated on the twenty-fifth of December.^®
Fig. 4. Copper Coin
Shewing Sacred
Baetyl
DISTRIBUTION OF SEMITIC RACES
17
Worship of a dying god,
son of the Earth-mother, was
the principal cult of this North
Arabian people during the pe-
riod immediately before and
after the life of Jesus of Naza-
reth in Palestine. The title
of the Mother-goddess Allat
is “ Mother of the gods ”
here, and a translation of the
title of the great Mother-
goddess of Babylonia, hHet
ilani, “ queen of the gods,”
whose title in Sumerian is also
goddess Mother.” Du-
sares and Allat of the Naba-
taeans are an Arabian reflex
of the great Babylonian myth
of Tammuz and Ishtar, and
if the god is identified with
Dionysus, the original char-
acter common to both is that of
a Sun-god and patron of fer-
tility. Strabo describes the
Nabataeans as a particularly
abstemious people 5 the Greeks
and Romans called Dusares
the Arabian Dionysus or
Bacchus} and a statue of him
found in the Hauran (see Fig.
5) portrays him as a deity of
the vine. The cornucopia and
patera are also characteristic
of Dusares on coins of Na-
bataean cities. As an Arabian
Fig. 5. Basalt Statue of Dusares,
Patron OF THE Vine. From the
Hauran
1 8 SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
Bacchus, Dusares is a Greek and Roman deity j as a god of
Fertility, represented by a baetyl, he is a local Arabic Earth
and Sun deity; and, as son of the virgin Earth-goddess, he
is a Babylonian deity. The celebration of his birth in De-
cember at Petra and the northern cities of Bostra and Adraa
in the Hauran with games and
festivities is a replica of the
spring festivities at Babylon,
when the death, burial, and
resurrection of Marduk were
celebrated with weeping, which
was exchanged for re j oicing.’^’^
The meaning of the actia du-
sarla at Petra may be inferred
from the similar festival at
Alexandria in Egypt, there
called after an unexplained
Egyptian word Kikellia, or in
Greek the Cronia, which also
occurred by night on the twenty-
fifth of December. In this festi-
val an image of a babe was taken
from the temple sanctuary and
greeted with loud acclamation
by the worshippers, saying,
“ the Virgin has begotten.” On
the night of the fifth of Decem-
ber occurred a festival before the image of Core; it ended with
bringing forth from beneath the earth the image of Aion,^® which
was carried seven times around the inner sanctuary of Core’s
temple. The image was then returned to its place below the sur-
face of the earth. Epiphanius, in whose writings this Egyptian
cult is described, identifies the virgin mother of this myth with
the Greek Under-world goddess Core, as he does the virgin
mother of Dusares, Chaabu of the Nabataeans. There is a wide
-
Fig. 6. Tyche of Antioch
DISTRIBUTION OF SEMITIC RACES
19
Fig,
Nabataean Coin.
Tyche of Damascus.
Aretas III
syncretism here in this Arabic religion, composed of Babylonian,
Greek, and Egyptian elements j and beyond all doubt the
Nabataeans possessed an elaborate cult of Tammuz and Ishtar,
of Osiris and Isis, of Dionysus and Basilinna, the equiva-
lent of Proserpine-Core, in which this
deity was represented as a youth, son
of the Mother-goddess, who was re-
born yearly in midwinter and who
died in the summer.^®
The Mother-goddess of the Nab-
ataeans, Allat, identified with Core
by the Greeks, is essentially the
North Semitic Ashtart, and the
Babylonian Ishtar. But she was also
identified with the Greek Tyche, and
more especially with Tyche of Antioch, whose representation on
coins throughout the Nabataean kingdom is taken from the beau-
tiful creation of the sculptor Eutychides (see Fig. 6).®“ Char-
acteristic of this type of the Mother-goddess as Fortuna or, more
properly, goddess of fate, is the mural crown and cornucopia.
The statue of Tyche of Antioch repre-
sents her seated on a rock, and from the
rock at her feet springs a youth, symbol
of the river Orontes at Antioch. Fig. 7
shews the Tyche of Damascus, seated
on a rock, from which the River-god
springs at her feetj she wears the tur-
reted mural crown, and holds a cornu-
copia. Copper coins bearing the figure
of the Arabian Fortuna are found at
Adraa, Bostra, Esbus (Heshbdn), Gerasa, Medaba, Philadel-
phia (‘Amman), and Petra. The same type is found on coins
of the great Arabian city Carrhae of the Romans, Harran of
the Babylonians and Assyrians j at Singara,®^ and at Ephesus.®®
Apparently the chief goddess of any Semitic city was known
Fig. 8. Head of Tyche.
Philadelphia. Marcus
Aurelius
20 SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
as “ Tyche of the city,” from the period of Alexander the
Great.
Allat of Petra and throughout the Nabataean kingdom thus
becomes the Fortuna or defender of her cities, and the mural
crown represents the turreted walls of her holy places.®® At the
entrance to Petra stand the imposing ruins of a temple of the
Tyche of this city, and in a niche over the portico is a statue of
Allat figured as the guardian Fortuna of her city.®® Tyche of
Palmyra is Atargatis,®^ the great Mother-goddess of that city,
represented on the mural paintings of Doura on the Euphrates
with mural crown j here the genius of the holy fountain, Ephka,
of Palmyra, appears as a nude maiden springing from the rock
on which the Mother-goddess sitsj beside her in the same pose
sits the Mother-goddess of Doura, Tux’? Aoupas. The genius
of the Euphrates, who springs from the rock on which she sits,
is here a bearded man. In most of the ubiquitous representa-
tions of this Semitic City-goddess, she bears the cornucopia,
symbol of abundance, a purely Greek conception, as on the statue
of Tyche of Doura.®® The Mother-goddess of Doura bears
the Babylonian name Nana,®® type of Ishtarj ®® at Doura and
throughout Western Asia she is habitually identified with Arte-
mis. Nana is also a virgin goddess like Artemis and specially
connected with the cult of Nebo at Barsippa. Although the
representations of this type of Mother-goddess in Semitic cities
of North Arabia and Syria in the Greek and Roman periods
have been preserved only under the influence of Greek art, the
goddess of Fate, especially as protectress of cities, is surely of
Semitic origin. The Nabataean goddess Manawatu,®^ plural
of the form Manat,®^ which occurs in Thamudic, i.e., before the
Nabataean period, consequently belongs to the old South
Arabian pantheon. The Coran writes the name Manatun; and
manijjaty plural manaja, is an ordinary Arabic word for “ fate,”
“ death.” Also zawwa-al-manijjaty “ the shears of fate,” ®®
supports the evidence from early Arabic and Nabataean in-
scriptions for assuming that the Arabian Mother-goddess ®‘‘ was
DISTRIBUTION OF SEMITIC RACES
21
a goddess who fixed the fates of mankind, of cities, and of na-
tions. A goddess of Fate, whose name is based upon the verb
or m-n-jy can be traced throughout Semitic mythology.
She appears in Hebrew as Mem in the post-exilic accusation of
Deutero-Isaiah:
“As for you who abandon Yaw, forgetful of my holy mount;
Preparing for Gad a table, and filling for Meni spiced wine.”
Etymologically, the form Mem is masculine, but the deity is a
goddess and belongs also to the Assyrian pantheon, where
Ishtar has the titles “ goddess Minu-anni,” “ Minu-ullu,” she
who “ apportions unto men sanction or denial.” A hymn
whose original belongs to the literature of early Babylonia,
glorifies Ishtar in the following lines:
“Mistress of habitations, lover of peoples, twin sister of [Shamash],
(Goddess) Minu-anni, the passionate, the perfect,
(Goddess) Minu-ulla, the lofty, arrayed in glory.”
In Babylonia Ishtar, identical with Canaanite Ashtoreth, be-
came the goddess of Fate, of good and adverse Fortune, and at
an early period.®® Moreover, in this aspect of Babylonian and
Assyrian mythology, she is here described as protectress of
habitations, precisely the character of the ubiquitous Tyche with
the mural crown in Nabataean, Aramaic, and Asiatic Greek
religious art. Manat is known to have been worshipped
throughout South Arabia from the early period, especially by
the tribes Aus and Chazrag, and her principal cult was at Qudaid
between Mecca and Medina. According to Arabian tradition,
she was represented by a rectangular stone there, and Moham-
med found her cult most difficult to suppress even at Mecca
itself.^®®
In Assyria, at least after the ninth century b.c., and in Baby-
lonia, perhaps from the early period, Ishtar was regarded as
the goddess of Fate, under the title Shimti, a word for “ fate ”
peculiar to the Accadian language.^®^ All Mother-goddesses in
22
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
Babylonian religion appear in this role as Moira, and Bau is
addressed, “ Fate of kings,^®^ Lady of Adab.” And the seven
Mother-goddesses of Nippur, Babylon, Barsippa, Der, Uruk,
Agade, and Hursagkalamma are described as “ the goddesses,
the Fates,” whereby the “ Seven Fates ” correspond to the
three Molrae of Greece. The pluralis majestatis stmatiy
“ fates,” is repeatedly employed for the goddess Fate, as well
as for the various Fate-goddesses.^®* This title of Fate, For-
tuna, Tyche, is not only the prototype of the North Arabian,
Aramaic, and Canaanite goddess of Fate, but the names Meni
and Shlmti were widely employed in those regions. Simi is
called the daughter of Hadad in Syriac, and Juno-Sima, daugh-
ter of Balmarcod, occurs in a bilingual Greek and Latin inscrip-
tion *®® from Deir-el-QaFa near Beyrout, where there was a
temple of the god Balmarcod.*®® The dedication is to Balmar-
cod, Hera, and Sima.*®^ Martialis, a Roman governor, built a
temple to Kvpia Sr^yuea, according to an inscription found
near Homs (Emesa),*®® and at Homs has been found a fine bas-
relief with three deities j in the centre, between two gods,
stands the veiled figure of the goddess Seimia, identified with
Athena. Near and behind her head is the star of the Babylo-
nian Ishtar in a circle.*®® Proper names in the Roman period are
Abedsimioi, “ Servant of Simi,” Amassemia (Arabic in Hau-
ran), Sumaios (Nabataean). The name survives to modern
times in the Arabic names of villages in Syria — Kafar-Shima,
Bet-Shama, and Shamat.**®
A Syrian deity AshTma was imported into Samaria in 722 b.c.,
from Hamath on the Orontes, and there seems to be no doubt
concerning her identity with the Assyrian Shimtl,*** in view of
the father-mother deity Ashim-Bethel, worshipped by the
Aramaic speaking Jews in Southern Egypt in the fifth century
B.C., who appears as Symbetylos in a Greek inscription from
Northern Syria.**®
The goddess of Fate belongs, therefore, to the mythology of
all Semitic races, and personifies the fatalism so characteristic
DISTRIBUTION OF SEMITIC RACES
23
of them in their religions. The northern and western type is
influenced by the Assyrian Meni, Shimtij the widely spread
representation of Tyche in Syria and Arabia (see Figs. 6-8) pre-
serves the mural crown of the Assyrian Shimti (see Fig. 9).
This representation of Ishtar with the mural crown, preserves
Fig. 9. The Assyrian Tyche with Mural Crown, Bas-relief from
Nimrud
an attribute which connects this type with the Ishtar of battle.^’^®
Logical is the identification with Athena, goddess of battle, pro-
tectress of the state and defender of kings.
All these names of Fate in the Aramaic-Canaanite languages
are of Babylonian origin. The indigenous deity is the god
Gad, who is a god of Fate, of Good Fortune, derived from
the common Semitic verb gadad, “ to cut off.” His worship
by the Hebrews has been mentioned above.^^* A similar deity
24
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
of the Arabians was Sa‘d, worshipped as a stone (baetyl) at
Gudda,“® and another Arabian deity of the same character is
found in the title of the Mother-goddess Allat, Rusa, “ good
fortune.” This Arabian goddess was widely worshipped among
the Sabaean-Himyaritic tribes of Hauran in Syria, and among
the Aramaeans of Syria. At Palmyra her name appears as
Arsa, and is there used for Venus as the evening star.’^^® This
widely spread Semitic myth of a goddess of Fate, which is only
a special aspect of the Mother-goddess, is certainly based upon
Fig. io. Venus as Goddess of War, with Star Symbol. Assyrian Seal
astrology and the planet Venus. The Arabian Allat,^^^ Rusa,
Arsa, became a goddess of Fortune by assimilation to the Baby-
lonian Ishtar, identified with Venus, the Sumerian Ninsianna,
Innini. Venus is both morning and evening star. Phosphorus
and Hesperus, and various titles of the Arabian Allat, such as
Sa‘d and ‘Uzza, have dual forms, Sa‘dan,^^® ‘Uzza, “the two
planets Venus.” In Babylonia the morning star is called the
“ male Venus,” and the evening star the “ female Venus.”
But in both aspects Ishtar is always a goddess in Babylonian
mythology. She is sometimes described by “ Ishtar of Agade ”
as morning star, and “ Ishtar of Erech ” as evening star.^^®
A long metrical poem describes Ishtar:
“ At sunrise she is mistress {belk\ at sunset she is votaress.”
DISTRIBUTION OF SEMITIC RACES
25
Mythology set in here at an early period and determined Ishtar,
and consequently the western goddesses Astarte, Allat, as a
double character. As morning star she is goddess of War (in
the West ‘Anat)/^^ and as everung star patroness of love and
harlotry.^^® For this reason the western goddesses of Fate
were worshipped on house-tops, where baked cakes were offered
to them, an obviously astral cult, and it could be served by
women only. So important did the favour of the goddess of
this lucky planet seem to the Arabians and Aramaeans that they
frequently made human sacrifices to her. Particularly beauti-
ful are the Sumerian and Babylonian hymns addressed to the
“ Queen of Heaven,” and although none of this religious litera-
ture of the cult of Allat, Astarte, Rusa, and Tyche has survived
in Aramaic, North Arabian, Canaanitish, and Hebrew, it is cer-
tain that noble songs of this kind were sung by them to the god-
dess of the morning and evening star.
“ To the pure flame that fills the heavens,
To the light of Heaven, Ishtar, who shines like the sun.
To the mighty Queen of Heaven, Ishtar, I address greeting
That she fix the fate of the lands.
May she rise faithfully at dawn of day.
May she fulfil the decrees (of fate) at the dark of the moon.”
These hymns to the planet of fate and war were accompanied
by offerings of wine, roasted cakes, and incense.^^® The cult of
the “ Queen of Heaven ” was widely spread in Canaan and
observed by the Hebrews also. Jeremiah censured this idolatry
in two famous passages.
“ The women knead dough to make cakes to the Queen of Heaven.”
And the Hebrews themselves admitted to the great prophet that
they and their fathers, their kings and princes, had always burnt
incense to the “ Queen of Heaven ” and poured out drink of-
ferings to her in the cities of Judah.^^^
26
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
As morning star Ishtar and Astarte are the War-goddess in
Babylonia and among all West Semitic people, where she has
the special name ‘Anat. This myth is of Sumerian origin.
“ The long bow, mighty of battle she holds in her hand.
With her left arm she lays low (the foe).
The queen of battle, the loud crying, utters a cry of wailing.”
So runs an ancient Sumerian hymn, and Hammurabi,^^® the
famous king of Babylon, composed a long mythical poem in
Semitic verse concerning her. So terrible was her love of war
that her patron deity Ea became enraged against her.
“ She descended, she mounted on high,
While raged the roar of her voice.
At the reins she stood not,^^®
But went forth in her might.
Her protector trembled in terror.
The god Ea, the wise one.
Was filled with wrath against her.”
The gods in council appealed to Ea to create a rival goddess,
that the goddess of war be held in check. He created Saltu
(“Hostility,” “Discord”), to oppose Ishtar, and sent her
forth with warning of the dread fury of the goddess of War.^®^
“ Her soul is rage, a storm of the ocean.
But it shall not conquer thee.
Thy plans shall cause to perish
All the ways
Of the mistress of peoples, the votaress;
O Saltu, though she rage again and again,
And her face (rage) fearfully
Yet shalt thou return in safety.^*
Alarmed by the reports of her rival, Ishtar sent her messenger,
Ninsubur, to bring a description of her. The report of her was
vivid and disquieting. She was the foe of the people and not
their friend, like Ishtar. “Her desire was to conquer, she
roared, hurled weapons, and thundered, and none could op-
pose her in battle.”
DISTRIBUTION OF SEMITIC RACES
27
Agusaya, “ the loud crying,” a goddess who is usually identi-
fied with Ishtar herself, was sent by the “ Lady of Battle ” to
subdue the terrible Saltu. She went to Ea and said: “Why
[O Ea, thou wise one], didst thou create [this Saltu] ? Whose
mouth is like the waters in full
flood.” Ea promised Agusaya
that he would cause Saltu to
cease making war against Ishtar
if she were elevated to the rank
of a goddess and mankind told
of her miraculous birth. “ May
she exist forever. Let sound of
liturgical lament be instituted
in the eternal rituals.” Ham-
murabi, in the epilogue of this
mythological poem, describes
the powers of each one of these
goddesses of War, Ishtar who is
supreme and whose orders the
terrible Saltu (“ Discord ”)
must obeyj Agusaya the power-
ful j Saltu creation of Ea, whose
greatness he proclaimed among
all peoples.^^^
The point of this early Ac-
cadian poem is that the warlike
goddess of the morning star has
a rival in “ Discord ” or “ Hos-
tility,” even more dreadful than herself. These are only titles
of the War-goddess exalted by the early Semites into separate
deities.^®® The reason for the ancient Sumerian identification of
the planet Venus with the beautiful goddess of Love and War
may only be surmised. This myth arose in hoary antiquity, be-
fore 3000 B.C., and forms one of the principal features of Baby-
lonian, Assyrian, Aramaic, and Canaanitish religion. Capricious
V— 4
Fig. II. Ishtar’s War Chariot.
Model from Kish
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
in love, wilful in action, Ishtar was a constant source of trouble
to the gods. She had no consort and really loved only the un-
fortunate youth Tammuz, who perished annually with the dy-
ing corn. By her beauty, demigods, men, and beasts were se-
duced to their destruction. In the sixth book of the Epic of
Gilgamish is told a legend of how she yearly sends Tammuz to
his doom and then decrees wailings for his departure. A bird
of many colours she loved,
“ But him thou smotest and brokest his wing.
He sits in the forest crying, alas my wing.”
She loved a lion, and then dug seven and seven pits for him,
and a horse, honoured in battle, and then smote him with whip,
spur, and lash. She received homage and worship from a herds-
man, and smote him, turning him to a jackal. Ishullunu, the
gardener of her father (the Heaven-god), had been one of her
devout worshippers. Him she beheld and desired greatly, prof-
fering rich repast and voluptuous pleasure. Ishullunu^®® re-
jected her shameful advances. Him she turned into a hog( ?
and caused him to live in misery.
When Gilgamish returned from his conflict with Humbaba,
he put on new raiment, and set his crown upon his head. The
halo of his victories, the beauty of the home-returned warrior,
fascinated the goddess. She proposed marriage, and Gilgamish
scornfully recounted her many love intrigues:
“ What husband would thou love always?
And me likewise thou lovest and wouldst make me even as they are.”
Ishtar flew to heaven in anger and appealed to Anu her father
to punish the insolent Gilgamish, by creating a “bull of
Heaven” to destroy him. In case of his refusal, she threat-
ened to call forth the dead from Hell to consume the living.
And so Anu created the Gudanna, “ celestial bull,” that is the
constellation Taurus, the bull of Heaven, which draws the
DISTRIBUTION OF SEMITIC RACES
29
Plough star (Triangulum). This constellation, rising in early
May (Hammurabi period), announces the scorching heat of
the climate of Sumer and Accad. Hence Anu warned Ishtar
that the bull would bring seven years of hunger on the land.
But Ishtar, faithful to her character as Mother-goddess, had
gathered provisions for seven years. Gilgamish and his friend
Enkidu,^^® however, slew the celestial bull,^®® “ which descended
from Heaven.” In rage Ishtar mounted the wall of Erech and
cursed Gilgamish. The heroes replied by throwing the right
Fig. 12. Enkidu in Combat with the Bull of Heaven. Ishtar Beholds
THE Fight
leg of the bull in her face. Ishtar assembled the temple pros-
titutes of Erech and mourned over the severed leg of the divine
bull.^"“
This astral connexion of the great Sumerian and Semitic
Mother-goddess resulted in a widely spread worship of her
under various titles throughout Western Asia, among the Ara-
maeans, Hebrews, Phoenicians, and Canaanites. As deity of
fate, of war, or of sexual reproduction, Ishtar (and Astarte) is
fundamentally the Sumerian goddess of the planet Venus;
Among the Western Semites her name as War-goddess is
‘Anata, Hanata, as it occurs in the earliest known cuneiform
texts of the Hammurabi period.^^^ Ancient Canaanite city
30
-
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
names contain her title, Beth-‘Anath, Beth-‘Anoth, ‘Anathoth.
Her worship as goddess of War in Syria and Canaan was so
famous that it spread to Egypt, and is mentioned frequently
in hieroglyphic texts of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
King Setho’s team of war-horses was called “ ‘Anat is content,”
and Ramses’ sword “ ‘Anat is victorious.” Fig. 13 shews in
the upper register the lewd type of the Mother-goddess, the
great Astarte. She stands on a lion (also symbolic of Ishtar
in Babylonia and Assyria), holding in one hand serpents, sym-
bolic of the life of the earth, and in the other lotus blooms,
symbolic of love. The inscription calls her Qadesh, Queen of
Heaven. Qadishtu, an ordinary word in Babylonian for “ har-
lot,” is also a title of Ishtar as patroness of temple prostitutes,
and so are probably the Phoenician Qadisht and Hebrew Qe-
desha titles of Astarte.^^® On her right is the Egyptian god
Min and on her left the great Syrian god Reshep, holding
spear and ank. Of Reshep the text says: “Reshep, the great
god, lord of the heavens, ruler of the nineness.” In the lower
register is the seated War-goddess ‘Anat, described in the text,
“ Queen of Heaven, Mistress of the gods.” ‘Anat is identi-
fied with Athena Soteira on an inscription from Cyprus.^**
That ‘Anat is Astarte has been proved by an Egyptian bas-
relief of the fourteenth century found at Beth-Shan, an ancient
city of Canaan, north of Jerusalem (Fig. 14). Here Qadesh-
Astarte is described by ‘Anat, “ Queen of Heaven, Mistress of
the gods.” Astarte is known to have had a temple at Beth-
Shan, and when the Philistines defeated the army of Israel and
slew Saul, they fastened his body to the walls of Beth-Shan and
placed his armour in the temple of Astarte.^^® Small shrines
bearing on their roofs figures of doves were found in the older
strata of her temple here, and the dove is constantly associated
with this goddess in Syria,’^^ and sacred to her among the Semites
generally. At Babylon a model of a dove in terra-cotta was
found in a brick box beneath the entrance of a door of the temple
of the Mother-goddess Ninmah.'^^® Doves and turtledoves were
Fig. 13. Egyptian Bas-relief Shewing ‘Anat. Dynasty XIX
Fig. 15. Terra-cotta Shrine of Beth-Shan
32
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
the only birds admitted in Hebrew sacrifices and rituals of puri-
fication. In the court of the inner shrine of Ishtar at Assur^^®
stood many small terra-cotta shrines in two stages, with win-
dows, and adorned on the cross sections with rows of doves, on
the roof with lions, and on the sides with serpents, all animals
symbolic of Ishtar. On the Beth-Shan shrines a nude figure sits
looking out from the upper window, holding birds in each
hand. A serpent^®®
winds upward from a
window on each side
of these Canaanite
shrines. They are
probably little mov-
able prayer-altars, car-
ried by each worship-
per for his devotions
before the eternal
Earth-goddess, mother
of men, protectress
and patroness of all
life.^®^
In Fig. 15, the
nude Ishtar who sits in
the upper window represents a widely spread Babylonian and
Canaanitish myth of the so-called Aphrodite Parakyptousa or
Venus Prospiciens, referred to by Ovid, whose cult is particularly
well known in Cyprus, both by similar clay models of houses and
in a local myth preserved by Plutarch. It is said that at Salamis
a harlot sat peeping out of a window and enticed many lovers, one
of whom, because of her cruel flirtations, died of unrequited love.
As the body of the beautiful youth was carried past her house on
its journey to the grave, she again looked from her window, not
in remorse, but gloating in triumph over the victim of her at-
tractions. Aphrodite in rage turned her into stone.^®* The cult
of Aphrodite, patroness of harlotry and lewd love, in Cyprus
Fig. 16. Ishtar Parakyptousa. Assyrian
Ivory Plaque
Fic. 14. Hesi-Nekht Astarte of Beth-Shan Wearing Head-dress
OF the Syrian Goddess, with Two Feathers
DISTRIBUTION OF SEMITIC RACES
33
was borrowed from Phoenicia, and eventually from Babylonia.
Faithless enticer of men with her beauty, she is represented on
Assyrian monuments also as Parakyptousa. Fig. i6 shews an
ivory panel from the palace of Ashurnasirpal (ninth cen-
tury), obviously of Phoeni-
cian handicraft, found in the
palace at Calah.
Ishtar, the harlot, who peers
from the window, was known
in Babylonia and Assyria as
Kilili.^®^ She brought woe
upon men and distracted their
minds. In such cases the
priests performed magic ritu- ^
als and the patient prayed to
her. A eunuch must sing a
lament to her. The prayer of
the afflicted man began:
“ Thou art Kilili who leans
from the window, . . . who
perceives the words of men
. . . causing the maiden to
depart from her couch.”
“ Thou hast brought me loss,
thy limbs upon me thou hast
put, O great Ishtar.” Kilili
mushirtu is the Babylonian
title of this seductive divinity, and means precisely “ Kilili
who leans out”} she was known as “the queen of the win-
dows.” A demon who cries at the window of a mushirtu^
i.e., “ harlot,” is cursed in the name of the gods.^” The
Sumerian titles are Absusu and Abtagigi, corresponding to
Kilili and Sahirtu, “ she who leans from windows,” “ she who
loiters about,” “ sends messages.” Abtagigi of messages and
Kilili of the windows are evil spirits which bring woe to men.^®®
Fig. 17. Terra-cotta Movable Al-
tar OF Worshipper before Ishtar of
Assur
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
34
She is the “ Beltis of wall and colonnade,” who sits in the re-
cesses of the city walls to entice men to their perditiond®° The
clay models of dove-cotes and altars in which Ishtar appears
at the windows with doves in her hands, or on which doves
stand, lend force to the assumption that
Kilili is identical with the Accadian word
kililuy kuUlu, some kind of birdd®^
Undoubtedly the sacrifice of doves in
the Hebrew rituals of expiation is a rem-
nant of this bird sacred to Astarte. Ishtar
of Nineveh was sent to Egypt by Tushratta,
king of the Mitanni, at the very time when
the Hebrews of the age of Moses were in-
vading Canaan, in order that the king of
Egypt might learn to worship herd®^ The
myth of Ishtar, Astarte, Atargatis, is one of
the principal factors in Sumerian and Sem-
itic religion. She is often represented as
a mother with a child at her breasts (the
Babylonian Nintud); Fig. i8 is an exam-
ple of a clay figurine, which is found in
abundance in Babylonia and Assyria.^®*
Common and ubiquitous throughout Meso-
potamia, Syria, Phoenicia, and Palestine, is
this nude figure of Ishtar as the goddess of
Love and Harlotry. It is found prolifically
in Babylonia from the West Semitic period onward, in Elam,
Syria, among the Hittites, Egypt, the Aegean islands, Asia
Minor, Phoenicia, and Canaan.^®* It would seem that a figurine
of this Aphrodite Vulgaris was possessed by every household,
and many carried cylinder seals with the nude goddess engraved
upon them. These are probably examples of the household
gods called teraphim by the Hebrews. The tale of Jacob and
Rachel of early Hebrew folk-lore contains a vivid account of
how Rachel would not leave her Aramaean home without the
Fig. 1 8. Nude Ishtar
Early Babylonian
DISTRIBUTION OF SEMITIC RACES
35
household gods/®® which she brought with her in the migration
to Canaan, but which were put aside by Jacob before he reached
Bethel, the shrine of the god El, and hidden under an oak
by Shechemd®® David’s wife found teraphim ready to hand
in his house, when she deceived Saul by substituting them
for David in his bedd®^ Even the prophet Hosea, zealous
advocate of the worship of Yaw, asserts that religion is im-
Fig. 19. Azizos AND Monimos, Companions of the Sun as an Eagle. Mural
Decoration from Temple Court of Baitocaice
possible without pillars, ephods, and teraphim.^®® In Assyria
an adopted son had no claims on the “ gods ” of his adopting
father/®®
At Edessa in the late period the morning and evening stars
bear Arabic names j both are masculine and are represented in
art as two youths, companions of the sun. Their names are
Azizos, “ the powerful,” the morning star, and Monimos,
“ the beneficent,” the evening star. These correspond to the
Palmyrene couple Arsu and ‘Azizu, where Arsu is undoubtedly
the female Venus, the evening star.^^® A monument of Baito-
caice (Fig. 19) shews the mythological conception of the two
phases of the planet Venus conceived as precursor and fol-
lower of the sun. This is based upon an astronomical observa-
tion discovered by the Sumerians in remote antiquity. Venus
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
36
is never more than 48 degrees before the sun in the morning or
after him at sunset, and hence Ishtar is also known as the twin
sister of Shamashd^^ The masculine gender of the double
Venus at Edessa is apparently either a survival of the ancient
South Arabian Athtar, or due to Greek influence (Phosphorus
Fig. 20. ‘Ate of Hierapolis Riding a Lion. Obverse
(left), Seated Figure of Adad
and Hesperus At Ferzol near Baalbek there is a rock
sculpture of the Syrian Sun-god riding a horse and led by the
youth Azizos.^^®
The Mother-goddess of the Aramaeans in the late period was
Atargatis, a Greek transcription of ‘Atar-‘Ate, corrupted also
to Tar-‘ata, hence Greek and Latin
Derketd. This double name contains
the ordinary Arabian name of Venus
Athtar and the Aramaic name of the
Mother-goddess, ^Ate, ^Ata, ‘Atta.^^^
Fig. 20 shews ‘Ate riding a lion, usual
animal symbol of Ishtar of Assyria j on
a similar coin before the lion stands the
dove, associated with her in all Sem-
itic mythology. On this coin of Alex-
ander, she wears a veil falling to the waist. The obverse has
the seated figure of Adad, the principal male deity of Hier-
opolis, the older Nappigi, Nanpigi, Greek Bambyce, which
was renamed Hierapolis by Seleucos Nicator (312-281 b.c.).
DISTRIBUTION OF SEMITIC RACES
37
Atargatis and Adad are called “ the Syrian gods of the Hiero-
politans” on the coin, seen in Fig. 2i. Atargatis sits on a
throne decorated with two lions, and Adad’s throne has two
bulls.
Lucian, in his account of the Syrian goddess, refers to the
shrine of Hierapolis as follows. Between the statues of Zeus
(Adad) and Hera (Atargatis) stands a peculiar image of gold,
which the Assyrians (i.e. Syrians) call ffrjfxrjiosj “a sym-
bol.” In his time (latter part of second century a.d.) the
Syrians, themselves, could not tell whether it represented
Dionysus, Deucalion, or Semiramis. On its top perched a dove,
and each year it was taken to the Mediterranean Sea to bring
water, which was poured into a cavern beneath the temple.
The myth ran that when Deucalion’s ark floated on the waters
of the Deluge, a cavern miraculously yawned at Hierapolis and
received the waters of the Flood. In memory of this sign of
divine intervention he founded a temple to Juno over the
cavern, and instituted the annual ritual of bringing water from
the sea and pouring it into the cavern.’”
Adad and Atargatis are described by Macrobius, a Roman
writer of the fourth century a.d., as the Sun-god and Earth-
goddess of Syria.”® But Adad, whose symbolic animal is a bull
in Assyria and Babylonia, is certainly not a Sun-god, and
Macrobius has confused the Sun-god of the Aramaeans, Malak-
bel of Palmyra, and the older and original Aramaic El, Rakkab,
Rakeb-El, Reshef, with Adad. There are three principal
Aramaic and Canaanite deities under various names, the Sun-
god (animal symbol the horse), the Rain and Thunder-god,
and the Earth-goddess. The Hebrews, who are apparently
a Canaanitish people, had these same deities, El, Sun-god,
Yaw, the Rain and Thunder-god, and Astarte.
Bambyce, the ancient Nappigi, is said to have been founded
by the legendary Babylonian survivor of the Deluge, Sisythus,
in Lucian, a corruption of Xisouthros, the Sumerian Ziusudra.
Lucian, like all Greek and Roman writers of the period, trans-
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
38
forms Semitic mythology into Greek and Roman terms and
assigns the legend of the Flood to the Greek Deucalion. This
Sumerian legend, based as we now know upon an ancient catas-
trophe in lower Mesopotamia, looms largely in the mythology
of Asia. Among the Aramaeans it has been preserved only
in this highly distorted form of a late writer. He says,
repeating the legend as the Greeks told it, that in the Deluge
the race of men perished to a man. This first race became
rebellious, did unholy deeds, disregarded the sanctity of oaths
and hospitality, and behaved cruelly to suppliants. The
earth discharged volumes of waters, rivers descended from
Heaven, and the sea mounted high. Deucalion alone was
saved, for he was wise and pious. He placed his wives and
children in an ark and entered in. There came to him into the
ark boars, horses, lions, serpents, all beasts which roam the
earth in couples. Zeus (i.e. Adad) had ordered it. They
floated on the waters as long as the Flood remained. From the
native Aramaeans of Bambyce Lucian learned the fable al-
ready cited concerning the cavern which swallowed the Flood.
Ritual followed myth here, and men came yearly from Syria,
Arabia, and beyond the Euphrates (Assyria of the earlier
period), to bring water from the sea to pour into the cavern.
According to the Babylonian version Adad let loose the tor-
rents of Heaven upon the world, and Ishtar wailed over the
destruction of mankind whom she had borne. In this version
is told also how Utnapishtim (= Ziusudra) sent forth a dove
from the ark on the seventh day of the Deluge. The ark (?)
and dove are seen in Fig. 21, where a Roman standard has
been added to it. A coin of Caracalla has the same design of
an ark (?) and dove, with Adad and Atargatis.^®® The Ara-
maean version of the Deluge proves that Adad and Ata had
been assimilated to the Babylonian Adad and Ishtar; Hittite
influence upon Semitic cults is a very secondary matter here,
and entirely negligible in the study of the larger issues of
Semitic mythology.
DISTRIBUTION OF SEMITIC RACES
39
Adad, Hadad, Reshef, and the Sun-god El, Rakkab, Malak-
Bel, are the principal male deities o£ all West Semitic peoples.
The god of Rain, Thunder, and Lightning has the title Ba‘al
Lebanan, “ Lord of the Lebanon,” and was so known among
the Sidonians. Rammanu,^®^ Ramimu, Ragimu, Murtaznu,
Murta’imu,^®® “ the Thunderer,” are names current in Baby-
lonia, where he was also known as Ilhallabu, “ god of
Aleppo.” Adad and Rammanu occur together as names of
the same deity.^®® Adad of Padda in Syria had the special
name Bardad,^®® and he was known at Hamath as Iluwir,^®^
a title composed of
the Semitic word ilu^
“ god,” and Sumerian
wir, mir, the word for
“ wind ” and “ rain-
storm.” The Hebrew
tradition connected
their ancestral home
with Syria, and espe-
cially with the “land
of the rivers,” the re-
gion of Harran and
Paddan on the river Balih. As god of the Lebanons {bel sadt)^
the Sumerians call Adad “ god Marru,” Marri, and the Accadi-
ans Ilumarru. This deity was identified with the Sumerian god
Mer, Imi, Rihamun, Mermer, Iskur, all words for “ wind,”
“storm,” “ roaring Nimgirgirri, Nimgigri, Nigir, “light-
ning ”} consequently Adad-Ramman became one of the princi-
pal Babylonian and Assyrian deities, consistently associated
with the Sun-god Shamash. These two gods are particularly
concerned with omens and divination in Babylonia. On the
monuments Adad is represented standing upon a bull, hurl-
ing a thunderbolt in his right hand and holding forked light-
ning in his left. A crouching bull with a two forked bolt
of lightning rising from his back, a figure consisting of three
40
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
forks of lightning, are his symbols/®® A Sumerian hymn
describes Adad in the following verses:
“ ‘ Lord Iskur, gigantic steer and glorious ’ is thy name.
‘ Father Iskur, lord that rideth the storm,’ is thy name.
Thy splendour covers the land like a garment.
At thy thunder the great mountain, father Enlil, is shaken.
At thy rumbling the great mother Ninlil trembles.
Enlil sent forth his son Iskur, saying:
‘ Who, my son, directeth the storm, causeth to descend the storm?
The lightning thy messenger goeth before (thee).
The foe doeth evil against the father thy creator, but who maketh him-
self like thee?
Destroy thou the foe with thy right hand, and let thy left hand pluck
him away.’
Iskur gave ear to the words of the father his creator.
Father Iskur, who went forth from the temple, storm of sonorous
voice.
Who from the temple and city went forth, the young lion.”
The poem at the end refers to a famous myth concerning the
bird of the storm, Zu, who stole the tablets of fate from the
temple of Enlil in Duranki. The gods assembled in consterna-
tion and appealed to Adad:
“ O strong Adad, thou smiter, let not thy battle-front waver.
Smite thou Zu with thy weapon.
Thy name shall be great in the assembly of the gods.
Among the gods, thy brothers, shalt thou have no rival.
Sanctuaries shall come into being and be built.
In the four quarters make thou thy cult cities.”
This Accadian poem attributes the defeat of Zu and the re-
covery of the tablets of fate to the god Lugalbanda, after
Adad, Ishtar, and Shara had refused to seek the terrible Zu in
the mountains. It is clear from the older Sumerian poem that
Iskur did obey his father Enlil and conquered Zuj the Ac-
cadian form of the myth is only a redaction of the legend from
some school of poets who desired to glorify their god Lugal-
banda (Ninurta). An early Accadian fragment preserves a
similar myth. Adad’s fury had decimated the land and de-
DISTRIBUTION OF SEMITIC RACES
41
stroyed the living/®^ Enlil summoned the Mother-goddess
Belit-ili, and ordered her to appease her brother. In the end
Enlil met Adad and addressed him:
“ O first among thy brothers, thou bull of the heavens,
In my land thou hast poured out misery unto silence.
I accorded thee sanctuaries to rule over.
May the king on behalf of his fathers fear thee.
Hear thou his prayers.
Cause abundance to rain upon his land.”
-
Adad’s fury is appeased by the grant of divine authority to ap-
point and defend the rulers of Babylonia. This divine ap-
pointment of kings by the Rain and Mountain-god of the
Aramaeans and Hebrews appears repeatedly in their mythol-
ogy. Adad, El, Reshef, Rakib-El, and Shamash gave Panamu
of Yadi the sceptre of Aleppo.^®^ So also is Yaw,^®® god of the
Children of Israel, described in the ancient Hebrew “ Song of
the Sea,” as a man of war: “ Thou sendest forth thy wrath,
consuming them like stubble, and with the blast of thy nostrils
the waters were piled up. Thou didst blow with thy wind,
the sea covered them.” Yaw appeared unto his people in a
cloud, and revealed himself on the mountains in fire, dark-
ness, and clouds, and spoke out of the midst of fire. The
“ Book of the Wars of Yahweh ” and the “ Book of
Jashar ” were two collections of ancient Hebrew martial
songs. From the latter collection come the “ Song of the
Bow ” and the hymn of Joshua at the battle of Gibeon. It
is extremely probable that Jashar is a title of the Babylonian
Adad.®®^ Jashar means “ the just,” and the corresponding
Accadian word Ishar appears as a title of Adad and Nergal in
Babylonian and Assyrian. The “ Book of Jashar ” may well
mean the book of the Canaanitish and Aramaean Thunder-god
Adad, and all the more since Paddan of Syria is written Padda
in Assyrian, and a name of Nergal (often confused with Adad)
is Ishar-padda. Already in the period of Ur (end of the
twenty-third century) Ishar-badan, apparently “ Ishar of
42
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
Padan,” occurs as a proper name, and the god Ishar-padan,
variant Ishar-padda, occurs in southern Babylonia in the period
when, according to tradition, Abraham migrated from Ur of the
Chaldees by way of Harran in Syria.
Job describes El, in the late period when Yaw and El had
been identified, in verses similar to the Sumerian and Accadian
hymns :
“ Hearken unto the rumbling of his voice,
And to the muttering that goeth out of his mouth.
He letteth it go under the whole Heaven
And lightning to the ends of the earth.”
As the Aramaean kings derived their rights to sceptre and
throne from Adad, so also Saul of Benjamin became the first
king of Israel by the direction of Yaw.^®® Jeroboam re-
ceived the same divine commission to rule over the ten
northern tribes of Solomon’s disrupted kingdom from Yaw.
All mythological references to the principal deity of the
twelve tribes of Israel, who appear to have been only a part of
the greater Hebrew people, indicate that he was identical with
the Amorite and Aramaean deity Hadad, Adad, Ilumarru,
and the Sumerian Mer. The name was originally written
Yaw, as is proved by the earliest written records of Samaria,
and among Samaritan exiles in Assyria, where the deity has in-
variably this form in all proper names. As an Aramaic
deity Yaw occurs in the name of a king of Hamath who was
captured by Sargon in 720 b.c. The name is written Ya-u-
bi-’-di, i.e., “ god Yaw is my help.” The element is
frequently employed with deities of the Aramaic pantheon,
as in Atar-bi’di, Mar ^“®-bi’di, Sagil-bi’di, Adadi-bi’di, Bed-El,
Hadba’d, ““ Apil-Addu-ba’di. The Jewish colony of Elephan-
tine in Southern Egypt, in the sixth and fifth centuries b.c.,
wrote in Aramaic and pronounced the name of their principal
deity Yaw.^“ In the sacred writings of the Jews this original
name is correctly preserved in proper names as Yaw and Yah,
but for some unexplained reason it was extended into a verbal
DISTRIBUTION OF SEMITIC RACES 43
form, apparently Yahweh, “ He causes to be,” and then
pointed with the vowels of the word Addnai, and pronounced
Adonai, whence the modern reading, Jehovah. In this book I
use the form Yaw. A name Yahweh, Jehovah, never existed.
Some have argued that the god Yaw was a Moon-god, but
the sources both Aramaic and Hebrew indicate his identity with
the Rain and Thunder-god Adad. A coin from Gaza in
Southern Philistia, fourth century b.c.,
the period of the Jewish subjection to
the last of the Persian kings, has the
only known representation of this He-
brew deity. The letters Y H W are
incised just above the hawk(?) which
the god holds in his outstretched left
hand. Fig. 23. He wears a himation,
leaving the upper part of the body Fig. 23. Yaw, Coin of Gaza.
1 j V • j t- 1 Fourth Century, b.c.
bare, and sits upon a winged wheel.
The right arm is wrapped in his garment. At his feet is a
mask. Because of the winged chariot and mask it has been
suggested that Yaw had been identified with Dionysus on ac-
count of a somewhat similar drawing of the Greek deity on a
vase where he rides in a chariot drawn by a satyr.^®® The coin
was certainly minted under Greek influence, and consequently
others have compared Yaw on his winged chariot to Trip-
tolemos of Syria, who is represented on a wagon drawn by two
dragons. It is more likely that Yaw of Gaza really represents
the Hebrew, Phoenician and Aramaic Sun-god El, Elohim,
whom the monotheistic tendencies of the Hebrews had long
since identified with Yaw. Sanchounyathon, an historian of
Gebal, whose lost writings are preserved by Eusebius, and who
in turn quotes them from Philo Byblius, is said to have dedi-
cated his History of Phoenicia to Abibalos, king of the Beru-
tians. This is probably Abiba‘al, king of Gebal, who lived in the
reign of Osorkon I (tenth century). Sanchounyathdn was un-
doubtedly a Phoenician writer of that period, as the statement of
44
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
Porphyry, preserved in Eusebius, asserts. He based his his-
tory upon Yerombalos, a priest of Yeuo, undoubtedly the god
Yaw, who is thus proved to have been worshipped at Gebal as
early as lOOO b.c. In a mound north-west of Beisan, modern
Ta‘annek, has been found a letter of the fifteenth century writ-
ten in cuneiform by Ahi-Yami, which
proves that Yaw was a deity of the
Canaanites.
An Aramaic Sun-god is Rakib El,
“ charioteer of El,” corresponding to
the Sumerian god Bunene rMh nar-
kahtly “ charioteer ” of the Sun-god,
“ who sits in the chariot-seat, whose on-
C^oin'of^Gaza'^^'^' is irresistible, who harnesses
the powerful mules, whose knees rest
not, who travels before thee at thy coming and going.”
The Sun-god is called the “ Rider,” Rakkab, in the name of
the Aramaean king of Samal, Bar-Rakkab,^“® and a citizen of
Samal is Bi’li-Rakkabi, “ My lord is my charioteer.”
Yaw was associated with the Canaanitish Mother-goddess,
‘Ashtart-‘Anat, as we know from the name of the deity of the
Jews at Elephantine, ‘Anat-Yaw, where two other father-
mother titles of divinities occur, such as Ashim-Bethel, ‘Anat-
Bethel, in which titles of Astarte are combined with the Sun-god
Bethel. It is precisely at Gaza, where Yaw as a Sun-god ap-
pears on a coin (Fig. 23), that coins frequently bear the figure
of this ‘Ash tart- Yaw, Anat-Yaw, Anat-Bethel, corresponding
to the Phoenician Melk-‘Ashtart, Eshmun-‘Ashtart. Fig. 24, of
the Persian period, is characteristic of this type of male-female,
or female-male deity, and the heads, being joined, prove that
under these names was worshipped a deity who combines the
attributes of both.^^^
An Aramaean and Canaanite deity is Reshep, concerning
whose identity with Adad and Yaw there are not unanimous
opinions.^^^ In the list of Aramaic deities of Zenjirli, early
eighth century, he is placed between El and Rekub-El, both
Fig. 25. Stele of Mikal of Beisan
DISTRIBUTION OF SEMITIC RACES
45
Sun-gods. A principal centre of his cult was Sidon of Phoenicia,
where a section of the city was known as Eres-Reshep, or, as some
divide the letters, Eres-Reshpam, or Reshepim, the later Greek
Apollonia at Sidon, and the modern Arabic Arsuf.^^® From
Sidon his cult spread to Cyprus, where he is identified on bi-
lingual inscriptions with Apollo.^^^ An Egyptian stele of the
twelfth century b.c. identifies Reshef with Saramana, or §ala-
mana, and represents him as a god of War with shield and battle-
axe.^^“ The deity Shulmanu appears in Assyria in the thirteenth
century and at Sidon in the third century, and in a Greek in-
scription from Northern Syria as Selamanes.^^^ A king of Moab
has the name Salamanu in the time of Ahaz of Judah. Hosea
(x.14), in a hopelessly corrupt passage, preserves the name
Shalman. Since Ishtar of Assur is called Shulmamtu, “ she
of the city Shulman,” it is obvious that the Assyrian god is
identical with the name of some city, as Adad was called
Iluhallabu, after the city Aleppo. Shulmanu, and Shalman
are probably identical with the ancient name of Jerusalem,
Shalem,^^® where Malkizedek was king and priest of the god
El in the days of Abraham (twenty-first century). The name
of this city was written Salim in the correspondence of Abdihiba,
king of Jerusalem, with Amenophis of Egypt in the fifteenth
century, but with the Sumerian prefix, uru^ “ city,” and con-
sequently U-ru-sa-lim replaced the older name before the
age of Moses and became Jerusalem of the later period. By
adding the locative ending an^ the name of the city became also
Salman, and its god El was called Ilu-Salman in Assyria, and in
Babylonia Sulman. Babylonian culture and religion exercised
a powerful influence on the whole region as is proved also by
the name of a city near Jerusalem in the days of Abdihiba, Bet-
Ninurta, or Bet-Anussat,^^^ “ House of the god Ninurta,”
where the cult of the Sumerian War-god Ninurta must have
been adopted by the Canaanites before this period, as also at
Beth-Ninurta near Gebal in Syria.^^^
The two Canaanite deities of Salem were, therefore, El, i.e.,
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
46
Salman, the Sun-god and Astarte or Salmanitu.^^® Reshef-Sha-
lamana, the War-god on the Egyptian stele, is almost certainly a
Sun-god, and the identification of Reshef with Apollo, also a
Sun-god, is correct. A Phoenician press seal mentions the god
Melqart-Resef.^’* Melqart, the local god of Tyre, was a Sun-
god. The Egyptian monument. Fig. 13, characterizes Reshef
by the head of a gazelle on the
forehead of the god, and a
number of Egyptian monu-
ments bearing the name of
Reshef have the same conical
crown and gazelle head. He is
usually represented brandishing
axe or spear and defending him-
self with a shield.^^® At Belsan,
in the temple of the local god,
has been found the stele of
Mekel, “ god of Beth-Shan ”
(Fig. 25).^^« Here Mekel,
identified by inscriptions with
Reshef, has a high conical
crown, decorated by two long
ribbons, one falling from the
Fig. 26. Bas-relief from Moab crown and ending in a tassel.
The other falls from the band
above the ears and on the fore-crown are the two bull horns,
characteristic of Sumerian, Babylonian, and Assyrian deitles.^^^
The pointed full beard, long high nose and cranial lineaments,
indicate with surety a Semitic deity. Before him stand Ame-
nemapt and his son Paremheb, Egyptian builders of the temple
in the reign of Thotmes III (fifteenth century). Since the
Egyptians represented Set-Sutek, the god of Thunder and
Lightning, in much the same way (having horns and one long
ribbon falling from the top of the crown), it is argued by some
that Reshef is a form of Adad.^^® Fig. 26 shews the only figure
DISTRIBUTION OF SEMITIC RACES
47
a
of a deity from Moab, which may be re- ^ ^
garded as Kemosh, god of the Moabites.
The same ribbon, here curled at the end,
and affording some reason to suppose that
it originally represents the tail of a lion or
some animal, falls from the top of a low
crown. Apparently neither gazelle head
nor two horn design is added to the fore-
head} the god holds a spear in readiness to
attack, and a lion in miniature stands be-
hind him. But in Babylonian iconography
the lion symbolized the Sun-god Nergal,
and the bull represents Adad in all Semitic
symbolism. Kemosh is frequently men-
tioned on the stele of Mesha‘, king of
Moab, and a father-mother goddess,
Ashtar-Kemosh, occurs there, but no in-
formation can be derived concerning the
nature of this deity from the contents of
the inscription.^^®
This West Semitic type of Sun-god is
also illustrated by Fig. 27, from Amrith,
on the sea-coast north of Gebal. Since the
stele carries a fragmentary Phoenician in-
scription, it cannot be earlier than the
tenth century. This Phoenician deity has
the same ribbon falling from the top of
the crown, and the fore part has a decora-
tion which has not even remote resemblance
to a bull’s horns or a gazelle’s head. He
wields a boomerang and holds a young lion
in his left hand. The deity also stands on a
lion, which walks on mountain tops. His character as a Sun-
god is clearly defined by the winged sun-disk} above his
head is the combined Babylonian symbol of sun and moon.®®’
Fig. 27. Phoenician
Deity, from Amrith
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
48
Fig. 28 is a seal of Addumu, king of Sidon, and from the same
period as the Amarna Letters.^®^ The deity hurling a spear and
guarding himself with a shield is clearly Reshef, who appears
on a seal of “ Annipi, son of Addume, king of the city Sidon.”
It cannot be assumed that the hanging ribbon and bull’s horns
are specifically characteristic of Adad-Set-Sutek, the Thunder-
god, or that gazelle head, spear, and shield are the only icono-
graphic signs of the War-god Reshef j for he is also represented
with two ribbons falling from the crown, and on a seal of
Rameses II, from Beisan, Mekel is represented as Reshef (Fig.
29). According to those who have seen this seal, the forehead
of the crown has a miniature gazelle head. Two ribbons fly
from the top of the conical crown of the War-god advancing
to battle, and since here he holds the battle-axe in his left hand,
Pere Vincent has finely observed that this is another connection
with the “ ambidexter Apollo.”
If Mekel on the stele of Beisan (Fig. 25) has iconographic
similarity to Egyptian representations of the Thunder-god, this
is due to syncretism and confusion of types. The double name
Reshef-Mekel occurs in inscriptions from Cyprus,^®® and once
it is falsely rendered into Greek by Apollo of Amyclae in
Lacedaemon.^®^ Reshef of Eliyath (Tamassos) in Cyprus is
rendered into Greek by Apollo the Eliyathian.®®® It is, there-
DISTRIBUTION OF SEMITIC RACES
49
fore, certain that this deity, whose worship has been found in
Moab, Canaan, throughout Phoenicia, Syria, and Cyprus, is
really Nergal, the terrible Sumerian and Babylonian Sun-god
of the fierce summer heat, sender of pestilence, fire, and plague,
lord of the lower world, and implacable judge of the souls of
the dead.
Mekel and Reshef are, therefore, titles of Nergal. Con-
cerning the meaning of the verb rasafu, “ to blaze,” “ to burn,”
there is no doubt, and Nergal or, more correctly, Nergal as
-rxM! — 7F> // \//, V'
^ tTTTl
Fig. 29. Seal of Rameses II, from Beisan
specifically the Fire-god Girra, is called rasfu, “ the Scorcher,”
or rasubbu in Babylonia.^^° The verb also occurs as sardpUy
and the god Sharrapu is a West Semitic deity, identified by the
Assyrians with Lugalgirra, i.e., Nergal as Pest-god.^^^ The
Janus nature of Nergal, the Sumerian personification of the
sun’s heat, is due to the division of the year into two parts,
the period of fierce heat and the period of cold 5 hence he was
known in the West as Sharrapu, “ Scorcher,” and Birdu,
“ Cold,” “ Chill,” the Meslamtae of the Assyrians. The
specialized aspects of this Sun-god resulted in his being on the
one hand a devouring deity of fire and heat, of war and pesti-
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
50
lence, and on the other hand as “ he who rises from Meslam,”
the beneficent god who returns from his sojourn in Hell after
the winter solstice to reclothe the earth in verdure and supply
it with grain and fruit. From summer solstice to winter solstice
he descends to Hell, and hence he became the lord of Arallu
and supreme judge of the souls of the dead. From this concep-
tion of the god of the lower world as the scorching heat of the
midsummer sun and a withering fire, arose in later times the
myth of Gehenna as a fiery place in Hell where the wicked are
for ever tortured.
The Egyptian and Phoenician writing of the name com-
monly read Mikal does not supply evidence for its vocalization,
and Makkal, Mukal, etc., may all be considered. In view of
the common Phoenician and Canaanitish custom • of casting
human victims into furnaces of fire (Topheth) as sacrifices to
this relentless deity of the lower world, the natural meaning
to be placed upon this word is “ Devourer,” from the verb
akal^ “ to eat.” But since Ge Hinnom, “ Valley of Hin-
nom,” or “Valley of the Sons of Hinnom,” near Jerusalem,
was a Canaanitish centre of the worship of Malik, to whom
human sacrifices were made,^* it is possible that this god of
Beth-Shan is the same deity and to be read by metathesis
Makil ---- Malik.
Not obvious is the use of this word maliky “ king,” as a title
of the Sun-god Nergal, or as a proper name for him. Nergal
is defined as the god Malik by the Assyrian scribes,^® and the
word means “ Counsellor,” “ Adviser.” It seems to have
been applied to him as the deity of pastures, flocks, and the
earth’s fertility, and not in the role of the sun’s torrid heat.
However this may be, Malik came to be one of the principal
names of this deity in both aspects throughout the West, and
at Tyre, his principal cult centre, he has the name Melqart, for
Malk-qart, “ Melek of the city.” At Hammon near Tyre
the father-mother deity Melk-‘Astarte preserves the original
title of the Sun-god of Tyre.^® The Sun-god of Babylonia,
DISTRIBUTION OF SEMITIC RACES
51
Fig. 30. Coin of Tyre.
Melqart on Sea-Horse
Phoenicia, Syria, and Canaan, especially the dreaded power of
the summer heat, is always the connotation of the title Malik
(Moloch). At Tyre and Gebal the deity appears in the fif-
teenth century in the names Abdi-Milki,^^® Ili-Milki, or Mil-
kili, king of a district near Jerusalem,
Milkuru of Gebal j Milki-u-ri, an
Aramaean.^®® A king of Tyre in the
time of Alexander was Azemilkos,
“ My strength is Melek.” On the
coins of Tyre Melqart is represented
as a bearded god riding the waves of
the Mediterranean Sea on the back of
a winged hippocampus. In his right
hand he draws a bow, and in his left
hand are held the reins of the flying sea-horse. On coins of the
Tyrian colonies the stone pillar, universal symbol of the Sun-
god, is a sure indication of the character of Malik of Tyre. A
Greek inscription below the two pillars reads “ holy rocks,”
Sanchounyathdn preserves a myth
concerning the two sun-pillars of the
cult at Tyre, which probably represent
the double aspects of the Phoenician
Sun-god Melqart. He says that his-
tory began at Tyre with Hypsu-
ranios,^®^ inventor of huts, and his
brother Ousoos, inventor of clothing
made from skins. When these were
dead, the Tyrians consecrated “ posts ”
to them and worshipped two pillars (stele) which Ous5os had
consecrated to fire and wind.
-
The cult of Melqart, who, by the accident of being the local
god of a great Phoenician seaport, became a patron of sea-faring
men, passed into Greek mythology as Melicertes, to whom
human sacrifices were made at Tenedos, As a solar deity, fol-
lowing the universal Semitic mythology of the sojourn of the
Fig. 31. Colonial Coin of
Tyre with Sun Pillars
52
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
Sun-god in the lower world until the days begin to lengthen
at the winter solstice, the Tyrians celebrated the resurrection
of Melqart on the second day of the Macedonian month Peritios,
corresponding to Tyrian February-March.^®® At this festival a
great fire was lighted, and “ having lost his old age in fire he
obtains in exchange his youth ” j there was in consequence a
feast on the second of this month throughout Syria called dies
natalis Solis invictiy “ Natal day of the unconquerable Sun.”
Another legend ran that he perished in fire at Tyre where was
his sepulchre} the Phoenician colony at Gades (Cadiz) in
Spain also had a sepulchre of Melqart, and there was one of
Melicertes at Corinth.^®® This legend of the death and burial
of the Sun-god of Tyre is undoubtedly based upon the legend
of the tomb of Bel-Marduk at Babylon. As Marduk rose from
his tomb at the New Year festival, so also the Tyrians believed
their Sun-god to come forth from his tomb, symbol of his annual
sleep of death in the lower world. At Aphaca in the Lebanons,
east of Gebal, was the tomb of Ba‘al, who, as shall be seen, is
probably Adonis of Gebal, also a Sun-god. The burning of
the image of Melqart, the Tyrian Hercules, that by passing
through fire he may receive his youth again to revive the life
of a dying world, seems to have been peculiar to Tyre and the
lands to which his cult spread.
It may be presumed from the human sacrifices to Malik in
Canaan and to Melqart as Cronus at Carthage that the
Phoenicians offered the first-born in the fire which celebrated
the victory of Sol invictuSy and insured themselves against the
wrath of the relentless god. The Melek of Tyre was identified
with Hercules, and the coins of Tyre (Fig. 32) from 126 b.c.
to 225 A.D., bear the head of the Greek Hercules, with lion-skin
knotted round his neck. The design of the older Mel-
qart (Fig. 30), who is represented as god of the chase riding on
a sea-horse, may have led to his identification with Hercules,
ubiquitously represented on coins clothed in a lion’s skin, draw-
ing bow with arrow, and brandishing a massive club,^®® the
DISTRIBUTION OF SEMITIC RACES
53
so-called Tyrian Hercules of Citium. There is another mytho-
logical connection between the Nergal-Malik type of Sun-
god of Tyre and the Greek deity, whose battles with the lions
of Mount Cithaeron and the Nemea, with the Arcadian stag,
the Erymanthian boar, and the Cretan bull, caused the Tyrians
to find in his deeds a similarity to their mythological tales of
Melqart. In fact one of the titles of Melqart is Sed, “ the
Hunter,” and the god has the double title, Sed-Melqart, at
Carthage. This epithet of Melqart has not been found for
Nergal in Babylonian, but Sa-i-id nakirim, “ Hunter of the
foe,” is used of Ninurta, god of the spring Sun.“® Since Ba‘al-
Hamman, principal male deity of Carthage,^®® is identified with
Hercules,®®® and Melqart occurs repeatedly at Carthage in
proper names, the identity of Ba‘al-Hamman with Sed-Mel-
qart is certain. Ba‘al-Hamman of the Phoenician colony at
Carthage is only a new name for the Sun-god of the mother-city
Tyre, and is taken directly from the cult centre Hamman near
Tyre,®®^ where the double deity Melk-‘Ashtart was worshipped.
Astarte of Tyre became the great goddess and principal deity
of Carthage} the double deity Sed-Tanit, corresponding to
Melk-‘Ashtart of Hamman, also emerges in the mythological
nomenclature of Carthage.®®®
54
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
The Sun-god was known as the god Sed, “ the Hunter,” at
Tyre and Carthage.^®* Sanchounyathon made use of trust-
worthy sources when he said that Agreus, the Hunter, and
Halleus, the Fisherman, were descendants of Samem-roumos,*®*
a title of the Sun-god, at Tyre. Here minor aspects of Mel-
qart are personified and treated as deities in his pantheon, an
ordinary Sumerian method. Agreus and Halieus ^®® begat
two brothers, one of whom was called Chrysdr, inventor of
hook, bait, fishing line, and small fishing boats, and was the
first who sailed. After his death he was deified under the
name Diamichius. From them descended Technites and
Geinos, who invented brick making.^®^ These begat Agros,
Agroueros, or Agrotes, “ the Farmer.”
To him the Phoenicians built a statue
and “ a temple drawn by oxen.” At
Gebal Agrotes was the greatest of
the gods. Since Agrotes also means
“ Hunter,” the name was applied to the
Sun-god El of Gebal. The statue and
temple drawn by oxen clearly refer to
Fig. 33. Sun-symbol of thg chariot of the Sun-god drawn by
Tyre in Chariot . 1 • r 1 • r
tour horses, a design found on coins ot
every city which emphasized the sun-cult. A chariot with four
horses driven by Helios stood on the gable of the magnificent
temple of the sun at Ba^albek, and coins of that city represent the
fagade of the temple mounted by the chariot of the sun.^®®
At Emesa (Homs) the sacred baetyl of Elagabal stands on
a chariot drawn by four horses.^®® The myth of the Sun-god
and his chariot and charioteer is of Babylonian origin,^^®
and a coin of Tyre has Melqart and his charioteer drawing
a chariot with four horses.®^^ Josiah destroyed the horses and
chariots of the sun at the entrance to the temple of Yaw
in Jerusalem (2 Kings, xxiii.ii), by which the Hebrew
chronicler means images of chariots and horses dedicated to
the Sun-god of Salem. A late Jewish writer in the Book
DISTRIBUTION OF SEMITIC RACES 55
of Enoch refers to the wind-driven chariot of the sun and
moon.
Sed, “ the Hunter,” has no connection with Shamash, Mel-
qart, Elagabal, Rakkab, etc., as the chariot rider of the sun.
“ The Hunter ” as an aspect of the Western Sun-god represents
rather Ninurta of the Sumerian pantheon. Ninurta, read ap-
parently Nimurta in dialectic Sumerian, is probably the origin
of the name Nimrod, the famous hunter of Hebrew mythology.
This myth, incorporated in one of the oldest Hebrew docu-
ments,^^^ reveals his Babylonian origin 5 for he is said to have
founded Babylon, Erech, Accad, and Calneh,^^® in Shine^ar
(Sumer). If Calneh is an error for Kullaba, a part of Erech, at
least two of these cities, Erech and Kullaba, were connected
with the exploits of the hero Gilgamish, and since Nimurta is
mentioned as the god of Kullaba,^^^ there seems to be a confu-
sion of two myths in the Hebrew legend. Nimrod, the mighty
hunter before Yaw, and son of Kush,^^® is clearly the Gilgamish
of Babylonian mythology; and Nimrod, founder of cities in
Sumer, and latterly builder of Nineveh, Rehoboth-lr, Calah,
and Resen between Nineveh and Calah in Assyria, is surely
Nimurta, the god of the spring Sun, son of the Earth-god Enlil
of Nippur. The myth of Nimrod is preserved by a stray refer-
ence in early Hebrew literature. Genesis x.8-12, and referred
to again by the late compiler of i Chronicles i. 10. The prophet
Micah calls Assyria “ the land of Nimrod.”
There is here a remnant of an ancient and widely spread
Semitic myth, originating in Sumer and Accad, concerning the
Sun-god Nimurta, who, in the original Sumerian Epic of Crea-
tion, defeated the dragon of chaos and founded cities. Since
Nineveh appears in history in the fifteenth century, and Calah
was founded by Shalmanasar I (thirteenth century), this leg-
end cannot be earlier. Nimurta was the principal deity of
Calah, and called “ the dweller of Calah.” In Sumero-
Babylonian religion he is the War-god and the planet Saturn,
and there is no myth concerning his hunting exploits, except in
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
56
connection with his hunting the foes of Babylonia. This aspect
of the Babylonian Nimurta must be assumed, for it surely ex-
isted, and the Phoenician Sed is the western reproduction of
this Semitic myth of the Sun-god as a hunter.
At Palmyra, the ancient Tadmar,^^^ the principal deities
were Yarhi-Bel, Agli-Bel, and Atargatis. Yarhi-Bel is regu-
larly transcribed Yaribolos in the Greek translations of Palmy-
rene texts,^^® and is proved by the tessara shewn in Fig. 34 to
be the Sun-god, and another name for the Aramaean Sun-god
Malak-Bel.^^® On the left stands the Sun-god, recognizable
by the rays of light spreading from his head. The Aramaic
inscription has the letters y-r-h-y-h-l. On the right is the
Moon-god, determined by the crescent which stands behind
his neck. The Aramaic inscription has the letters ^ -g-l-b-w-l.
On p. 22 reference was made to the bas-relief of Emesa (Fig.
35) on which Seimia, a title of the Mother-goddess of the
Aramaeans, Ate, Atargatis, Arabian Allat, is defined by a
Greek inscription as Athena. She stands between two deities j
on the left is the solar deity with rays of light spreading from
his headj he wears the dress of a Roman soldier specifying
him as a Warrior-god. On the right stands the figure of a
deity in oriental garb, holding a spear, and above his head
is the Greek word Kerauno, “ thunderbolt,” identifying him
with the Semitic god Adad. The monument is thought to be
broken away at the left, where a fourth deity may have
stood.^®^ Be that as it may, the Greek inscription, as preserved,
has Yarebol, Aglibbl, and Sei[mia]. Agli-Bol, the Moon-
god, does not appear on the monument and may be the
figure which conjecturally stood on the left. Seimia then
stands between the two Sun-gods of Palmyra, Malak-Bel and
Yarhi-B 31 , and before Yarhi-Bol the Greek text has prob-
ably Bel 5 .
The Palmyrene name of the Sun-god, Malak-Bel, often
called simply Bel, is of Babylonian origin, as the borrowed
name of the great god of Babylon, Marduk or Belu, proves.
Fig. 34. Tessara from Palmyra with Sun-god (left) and Moon-god
(right)
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
58
The local pronunciation of their god Ba‘al was Bol. Since no
Semitic word malaky for “ king,” “ counsellor,” exists, it is
impossible to connect this solar deity of central Syria with the
god Malik. Malik in Phoenician and Canaanitish mythology
is the Babylonian Nergal and Nimurta. Malak-Bel was iden-
tified by the Greeks with Zeus, and by the Romans with Sol
sanctissinms. At Palmyra the gods Agli-Bol and Malak-Bel
occur in that order, precisely as, in Babylonia and Assyria, Sin
and Shamash is a fixed sequence.^®^ Malak-Bel has been in-
terpreted to mean “ the messenger of Bel.” The messenger
of Bel of Babylon was Nabu,^®^ god of letters and writing.
Nabu has essentially and historically no connection with the
sunj he probably became the messenger of the Sun-god Mar-
duk, because he had been identified with the planet Mercury.
This planet is never seen except in the morning or evening
twilight, since it stands in close proximity to the sun. For this
reason Malak-Bol of Syria has been identified with Mercury.^®®
It has been assumed that Malak-Bel is simply a metathesis for
Bel-malak,^®® “ Bel has counselled,” but the Semites did not
form names of deities in that way. The god Balmalage,
listed among Phoenician deities by a scribe of Asarhaddon,^®^
is certainly compounded from the West Semitic general title
of deities, Ba‘al, and malaky “ messenger,” as it occurs in Punic
inscriptions, Ba'al-malak,^®® where the writing permits no doubt.
A Messenger-god Malak must have been well known among
West Semitic peoples. It is found in the Edomite divine name
Qaush-malaka.^®® Qaush seems to have been the national deity
of this people who occupied the mountainous region south of
Judea.^®*^ The personal name Il-ma-la-[ku] occurs in an
Assyrian contract, with Aramaic transcription El-malak.®®^
Malak-Bel is identified with Mercury in a Greek inscrip-
tion of Abila (Suk-Barada) in the Anti-Lebanon, north-west of
Damascus.
A marble altar from Palmyra, dedicated by Tiberius
Claudius Felix to Malak-Bel and the gods of Tadmor in
I Ape B 6^ A cO A rA I B WA fi)/< A I C6i;
' oyire pccoTHpiACAYi oy- k os:!: ^
Fig, 35. Bas-relief, Shewing Seimia between the Solar Deity (left)
AND AdAD (right)
V — 6
6o
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
Greek, and to Sol sanctissimus in Latin, has a myth of the
sun portrayed in art.^®® The four sides of the altar represent
the birth, youth, middle age, and old age of the diurnal or
annual life of the sun. On the back side Malak-Bel, as a naked
boy, issues from the top of a cypress-tree bearing on his shoul-
ders a ram. Only the upper part of his body has emerged.
Here is the rising sun born on the eastern horizon of the wooded
Lebanon sky-line, precisely as in Babylonian art he rises over
the mountains of Elam. Fig. 36, a Sumerian seal of about the
twenty-fifth century, shews the Sun-god, Babbar, Shamash,
emerging from the wooded mountains of the east, holding in his
left hand the key with which he unlocks the gate of sunrise.
Above him stands the winged figure of Innini, Ishtar, the morn-
ing star, and, from behind, the god Immer, Adad, sends show-
ers upon mountain and plain. The bull, symbol of the
Rain and Thunder-god, lies at his feet. On the left stands a
god with a bow, probably representing the Sun-god as a hunter,
and the lion of the sun with open jaws rushes at the celestial
hunter from the left. The eagle, Sumerian symbol of the
luminary which takes its daily flight across the vault of Heaven
and traverses the celestial dominion of the stars and constella-
tions, descends towards the rising sun from the storm-clouds of
Adad.
DISTRIBUTION OF SEMITIC RACES
6i
In Sumerian art Shamash is invariably represented, even at
his rising, as an old man. For his various aspects, they have
special forms of the solar deity, as Ninurta for the morning
or spring sun, Nergal for the midday or summer sun. The
myth of the naked youth rising from the wooded hills of the
Lebanons, the good shepherd bearing a ram on his shoulders,
cannot be traced to Babylonian mythology, unless the myth of
the shepherd Tammuz lies at the basis of this late Semitic
iconography.
The right side of the altar shews Malak-Bel driving a chariot
drawn by four winged griffins j behind him stands the winged
goddess of Victory, who places a crown upon his head. This
scene represents the youth of the sun mounting victoriously
toward the vault of heaven.^®'* The front of the altar (Fig. 37 )
has the bust of Malak-Bel supported by an eagle. From his
head spring the brilliant rays of the midday sun.^®® The left
side has the bust of the bearded Sun-god, with hood and sickle.
This is Cronos, the setting sun (or autumn sun), after he has
run his course and descends toward the western horizon in his
old age.^®® A monument of Palmyra represents the two great
gods of Palmyra, Malak-Bel and Agli-Bol, sun and moon,^®^
standing with hands clasped before a cypress-tree. On the
left is Malak-Bel, a youth with a sickle, and on the right
Agli-B31, in garb of a Roman soldier j a crescent stands
behind his shoulders precisely as on the Palmyrene tessara,
Fig- 34-
The close relation between the Thunder and Rain-god,
Ramman-Adad, and the Sun-god in Semitic mythology is one
of the aspects of Babylonian religion most prominent and most
difficult to explain. The Earth-god Enlil of Sumerian re-
ligion is by origin “ Lord of the Wind,” god of the vast Under-
world, whence come the winds and storms, his son is Ishkur,
Immer, Mur, and the Semitic god of Winds, Rain, and Light-
ning, Adad.®®® On the other hand the Sun-god Ninurta
is also the son of Enlil, and Enlil himself is identified with
SOimiMCT ISSI M0«^¥M
Tll“C WPll¥3“lPiLlX- IT
CLA¥1D1( A-HUE LFJS“iT
V@TVM4@LYgl?m«T-ILai^J«S'I^KSl®
C^L®lEJMSgS*ei°G©M° HD
Fig. 37. Palmyrene Altar, Front View
DISTRIBUTION OF SEMITIC RACES 63
Shamash. The mythological origin of these diverse concep-
tions seems to be that the sun and the winds issue from the vast
infernal regions of the dominion of Enlil, lord of both upper
and lower worlds. Undoubtedly the Greek myth of Aeolus, to
whom Zeus gave control of the winds, which he let forth from
the caves of the mountains, has been ultimately derived from
this ancient Sumerian conception of the Earth-god.^®® Shamash
and Adad are the two supreme gods of Divination in Babylonia
and Assyria. It is, therefore, not surprising that, among
the Aramaeans, Adad, Ramman, Ilumer, is often confused
with the Sun-God Malak-Bel, Yarhi-Bol, or that Yaw
of the Hebrews completely absorbed the character of the Sun-
god El.
Among the Aramaeans and Phoenicians there is a deity Bal-
shamin, Balshameme,®®® “ Lord of the Heavens.” In Palmy-
rene inscriptions he has the titles “ the good and rewarding
god,” and “ lord of the world.” ®®® The Greek translation
of Ba‘al-shamin on an altar from Tayyibe, north-east of
Palmyra, is Zeus megistos kerauniosy i.e., “ Most mighty Zeus,
Thunder (er).” ®®® There is, therefore, no doubt but that Bal-
shamm is Adad. Plautus transcribes Ba‘alshamim, the Phoeni-
cian form in Punic inscriptions, by Balsamem. The title occurs
in inscriptions from Phoenicia,®®* among the Nabataeans of
Hauran (south of Damascus),®®® in Sardinia,®®® and among the
Arabians of the Hauran in the Christian period.®®^ Since all
these Phoenician, Aramaic, Nabataean, and Safaitic inscriptions
derive from the late period, second century b.c. to the second
century a.d., it was at first supposed that “ Lord of the
Heavens ” revealed a monotheistic title of the great Semitic
Rain and Thunder-god Adad, taken from the late Hebrew
title of Yaw, el hassamainiy “ god of the Heavens.” ®®® But
this assertion, even when it was made, ignored the occurrence of
this god already found among Phoenician deities in the time
of Esarhaddon, and any monotheistic idea was invalidated by
the occurrence of Ba‘alsamin with the god Shai‘haqaum and the
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
64
goddess Lat in Safaitic. Moreover Teshub, the Hittite Adad,
has the title “ lord of the Heavens and Earth ” in Accadian
cuneiform treaties between the Hittites and Mitannians, in the
fifteenth and fourteenth centuries b.c., and the Hittite Sun-god
is called “ lord of the Heavens ” in the same documents. A
Palmyrene inscription renders Ba‘alshamin by “ Helios ” in
the Greek version/” and Syriac writers translate Zeus Olympios
by Ba‘alshamm. Hesychius, the Greek lexicographer, renders
Ramas, i.e., Ramman = Adad, by “ Zeus hypsistos,” but Philo
Byblius identified Kurios ouranou, “ lord of the Heavens ”
with Helios, the Sun-god. This title, Balsamin, therefore, be-
gan in the Hittite religion for both Adad and Shamash. The
West Semitic peoples then use it as the name of the god of
the Skies, either Adad or Shamash. This is only another
example of the persistent confusion of these two Semitic
deities.®^"
-
There is a legend of a certain Ahiqar, a wise scribe and
counsellor of Senecherib, king of Assyria, preserved in an
Aramaic source found at Elephantine in Egypt, of the fifth
century b.c., which latterly became a subject of folk-lore
throughout the ancient east.^^^ In his old age Ahiqar lamented
that he had no son to continue his services at the court of
Assyria, and appealed to the gods to give him an heir that
he might be trained in the philosophy and political wisdom
with which he had so successfully served the Assyrian em-
pire. According to the Arabic version of this tale he appealed
to the “ Most high god, creator of the Heavens and Earth,”
to give him a boy, that he might be consoled by him, and be
present at his death to close his eyes and bury him. The
Armenian version preserves a more polytheistic account of this
part of the story. He went before the gods with offerings and
prayed: “ O my lords and gods, Belshim and Shimil and Shamin,
ordain and give to me male seed.” The gods, however, re-
fused his supplication, but ordered him to adopt his sister’s son
Nathan. The remainder of the story of Ahiqar does not con-
DISTRIBUTION OF SEMITIC RACES 65
cern Semitic mythology, but the occurrence of Belshim in the
Armenian version, who is clearly the Balshamm and Balsha-
meme of Aramaic and Phoenician mythology, as the first of the
gods to whom Ahiqar appealed, proves how firmly this title of
the great Semitic deity had supplanted the older name Adad in
the late period. For Balshamm has been found in Armenian
sources outside their version of Ahiqar.
The Semitic word for “god,” whose root is unknown, but
common to all Semitic languages, is ilu (Accadian), el (Canaan-
itish, Himyaritic, Aramaic)} strengthened triliteraU^® forms,
Hebrew eloah^ Aramaic elah, Arabic ilah (Himyaritic, North
Arabic). In Accadian, ilu regularly represents Sumerian digir^
dingiTy^^ which is written with an ideogram meaning “ high,”
“ Heaven.” It seems plausible to assume that this Semitic
general word originally denoted a Sky-god. It is difficult to
suppose that in the oldest Arabian religion the word could have
had special reference to the sun, for there the sun is feminine.
But Semitic religion begins with the worship of sun, moon, and
the planet Venus, and hence their word for “god” probably
does mean “ high,” “ heavenly.”
This word, like hafaly Accadian hHu, became a specific name
for a deity in Semitic religion. This is, however, a local and not
a general aspect of their mythology, ilu never became the name
of any special god in Babylonia, nor did dingir in Sumerian.
The only instance of this in Babylonia is the use of the word
Bel for Marduk of Babylon. Wherever this title is employed
in West Semitic religion Marduk is meant, never Enlil of Nip-
pur} dingir and ilu are employed for specific gods only in the
phrase, “ his god ” or “ my god,” where the word “ god ” re-
fers to the special protecting deity of a Sumerian or an Acca-
dian.®^®
Among the Aramaeans, Phoenicians, and Canaanites El seems
to have become a special name for Shamash, due to the pre-
ponderant importance of this deity. The early Aramaic in-
scriptions mention the deity Rakib-El,®^® which defines El as a
66
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
Sun-god. These texts have four titles of the Sun-god or as-
pects of the sun in the same line, El, Reshef, Rakib-El, and
Shamash.®^® El, Rakib-El, and Shamash occur together, and
El occurs also in Sabaean with Athtar. Here El or II is cer-
tainly used for the principal deity of the Sabaean pantheon,
Ilmuqah, the Moon-god, in the sense of “ the god.” El
was the name of the principal deity of Gebal.®^^ Sanchounya-
thdn has ’Elioun, and says that he was called Hypsistos, “ most
high”} this is the Greek transcription of the Canaanite word
^elyofif “ most high,” used as a title of the Hebrew deity, El, in
the story of Melchizedek and Abraham, where El is appar-
ently the god of Salem.®"® In later Hebrew mythology, when
monotheism or complete syncretism of the deities Yaw and El
prevailed, the title elyon is also applied to Yaw. In the com-
plicated scheme of the pantheon at Gebal, as handed down by
Sanchounyath5n, Berouth was the wife of Elioun, and they
begat Uranos (Heaven), and Ge, the Earth-goddess. There
is, here, apparently a mutilated transformation of the Sumero-
Babylonian pantheon at the head of whose hereditary scheme
stand Anu and Antu, the Sky-god and his wife. Hypsistos was
slain in conflict with wild beasts, and was deified. Sanchounya-
thon, or the redactors of his original works, treats these deities
as ancient heroes, after the manner of Greek mythology. The
legend of the death of Elioun or Hypsistos is undoubtedly
based upon the cult of Adonis of Gebal, whose wounding by a
boar in the precipitous mountain valley of the Adonis River,
which flows from Aphaca in the Lebanon and reaches the sea at
Gebal, is one of the episodes in this cult.
From Uranos and Ge sprang Ilos, called Cronos, Betulos,
Dagon, and Atlas. Ilos or Cronos drove his father Elioun
from the kingdom and founded Byblos (Gebal). The com-
•rades of Ilos are called Eloeim in this source, a transcription
of the Phoenician ®®^ or Hebrew eldhim, “ gods.” Ilos or El had
a son Sadidus, whose name is apparently derived from Shaddai,
a Hebrew title of El.®®® El is depicted as having been a cruel
DISTRIBUTION OF SEMITIC RACES 67
tyrant of Gebalj being suspicious of Atlas, his brother, he cast
him into a deep cavern and buried him, and for the same reason
he dispatched Sadidos with a sword and severed the head of his
own daughter. He married Astarte, Rhea, and Dione, daugh-
ters of his own father. Astarte was the Ba^alat or Beltis of
Gebal. She and her brother El are the Aphrodite and Adonis
of the most famous of all Semitic legends, which will be dis-
cussed in the Chapter on Tammuz and Ishtar. By her El had
seven daughters called the Titanides, one of whom was married
to Sydycos, who begat Asclepius, that is the Greek equivalent
of Esmun, god of Sidon. In Sanchounyathdn’s genealogy of the
gods of Tyre, where Melqart-Hypsuranios corresponds to El
of Gebal, Sydycos and (his brother) Misor occur. These names
are Greek transcriptions of the Semitic words sedeq^ “ justice,”
and mtshoTy “ righteousness.” Sanchounyathon translates both
names by adjectives, “ the just ” and “ the easily freed.” The
Greek translation of Misor has confused the verb mashary “ to
let loose,” with the noun mtshor, which could not occur unless
the Greek, or original Phoenician, writer was dealing with Baby-
lonian names. Babylonian mythology has two attendants of
Shamash, Kittu, who stands at his right, and Misaru, who
stands at his left.^^® MTsharu obtained considerable vogue in
West Semitic religion, for he is repeatedly associated with Adad
and his consort Shala.®^^ At Erech he was worshipped in the
temple of Adad.®^® Kittu appears in the Phoenician pan-
theon as Sydyc, either a West Semitic translation or from a
Babylonian name which has not been found.
That El was the special name of the “ Ba‘al of Gebal,” as he
was called by the Egyptians, is proved by the emphasis laid
upon this title by the inhabitants of that city in their proper
names. El-ba‘al, “ El is lord,” is the name of an ancient
king.^^® In the Persian period names of kings of Gebal are
Elpa‘al,^^“ “ El has made,” ‘Ainel,^^^ “ Eye of El.” He is
often described simply as Ba‘al, “ lord,” in names of Gebal, e.g.,
‘Azba‘al, “ Might of Ba^al,” Yeharba‘al.®^® On coins of
68
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
Gebal El is represented with six wings, two pairs extended from
the back in flight, and one pair below, drooping at rest. Fig.
38, obverse, of the year 80 b.c., has the head of Astarte or
Beltis of Gebal with mural crown, identifying her with Tyche.
The reverse has the winged El, characteristic of coins of the
period of the Seleucidae, from Antiochus Epiphanes onward.
He holds a long wand or sceptre. Sanchounyathon thus de-
scribes this deity: “ He has four eyes, two behind and two be-
fore, two of which are closed in sleep. On his shoulders are four
Fig. 38. El (right) with Wings. Obverse (left), Astarte
wings, two in the act of flying, and two reposing at rest. The
symbol meant that while he slept he also watched, and while he
flew he also rested.”
This myth, combined with the representation on the coins,
proves that it rests upon the Babylonian conception of the course
of the sun by day and his repose in the lower world by night.
He is a Janus figure, and representations of this deity who looks
both ways are as old as the age of the Sumerian priest-king
Gudea of Lagash, and as late as the fifth century.^^® Fig. 39, a
seal from Arrapha, shews the god Marduk with two heads
looking right and left. These heads, however, have mythologi-
cal faces, half bird and half animal, with grinning jaws. Ap-
parently here the twin-demon Nergal type of Sun-god is repre-
sented beside the symbol of the sun, a four-rayed star in a circle,
DISTRIBUTION OF SEMITIC RACES 69
supported by a staff. On another seal from Arrapha the two-
headed monster has two wings and supports the same sun sym-
boL®^® Nergal, or the Sun-god, as a hostile deity of the sun’s
heat and of the lower world, is frequently called the twin god,
and as such his names are Lugalgirra and Meslamtaea. His
symbol on monuments is a pillar with two lion heads, dos a doSy
looking right to left.®®’ The winged sun disk in various forms
begins to appear in the Cassite period and on seals of Arrapha it
is frequent.®®® Fig. 40, from the top of a stele of Yehaw-melek,
Fig. 39. Seal Shewing Two-headed Marduk
king of Gebal, fifth century, shews this king in Persian dress,
offering a libation to Astarte or Beltis of Gebal. A large sun
disk of Assyrian type spreads out its wings above the scene. The
goddess is here represented as the Egyptian Hathor.
The Janus nature of El of Gebal accords perfectly with
Babylonian mythology. The Epic of Creation has the follow-
ing description of Marduk:
“ Four were his eyes and four his ears.
When he moved his lips, fire blazed forth.
Four ears grew large,
And the eyes behold all things even as he (Ea).”
The mythological conception of the winged Sun-god is also
revealed in Hebrew poetry, where the idea undoubtedly sur-
70
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
vived from the earlier type of their own El or El5him. “ Hide
me under the shadow of thy wings,” in a prayer to Yaw j “ The
sons of men put their trust in the shadow of thy wings,” in a
hymn to Him (as El5him) ; Boaz welcomed the Moabite
woman Ruth to his land and religion with the words: “Yaw,
the god of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust ”j
a prayer to God (Elohim) has: “I put my trust in the covert
of thy wings.”®*® The figure in these passages is commonly
supposed to be taken from a bird protecting her young j this is
clearly the simile in Deuteronomy xxxii.ii and Psalm xci. 4 .
Mythology and simile are probably combined in Hebrew
poetry j for there is no doubt but that Eldhim, Elyon, Shad-
dai, which occur in some of these passages, are identical
with El, the Sun-god of Phoenicia and the Aramaeans. El
or Cronos of Gebal invented the scimitar®** and spear. The
scimitar is held in the hand of figurines of both the single-
and double-headed Ashur, Sun-god of Assyria, found in
DISTRIBUTION OF SEMITIC RACES
71
strata of the twenty-fourth century at the ancient capital of
Assyria.®^^
The influence of Babylonian mythology upon El of the West
Semitic races is unmistakable. He is both Shamash, the benefi-
cent, and Nergal, the dreadful. As god of the lower world
his name Malcandros appears in a myth preserved by Plutarch.
This famous story, told or referred to in many Greek sources of
the early Christian period, has been reconstructed by Baudissin.
According to Plutarch,®^® Osiris, who had been treacherously
put into a coffin by his brother Set and flung into the Nile,
floated down the Nile and out into the Mediterranean Sea. The
coffin finally drifted to the harbour of Gebal (Byblos), and was
washed ashore. An erica-Xxzt grew up suddenly and enclosed
the coffin. Malcandros, king of Gebal, cut down this tree and
used it as a pillar of his house, not knowing that it contained the
body of Osiris. Isis, sister of Osiris, wandered up and down
Egypt seeking her lost husband and brother. Somehow in-
formation came to her that his body was in the pillar of the
house of Malcandros, whither she went and sat down by a well
to weep. Astarte, queen of Gebal, attracted by her sorrow, and
by the divine aroma which she had breathed upon the queen’s
handmaidens, received her into her house and made her nurse of
her child. By night she fluttered about the pillar with mourn-
ful twittering. She finally revealed her identity and begged
for the pillar, which they gave her. Having cut out the body
of Osiris she fell upon it in loud lament, and returned with it to
Egypt. The pillar she wrapped in fine linen, anointed it and
gave it to Malcandros and Astarte. It stood in the temple of
Osiris, i.e., Adonis, at Gebal even unto the days of Plutarch.
Malcandros or Malcander is clearly a title of El, derived
from Malk-addir, “ Malk the mighty the title Melk, Malk,
“king,” of the Sun-god, more especially of Nergal, has been
discussed.®** A king of Gebal in the Persian period was Adar-
malk.®*® This is surely the same name as that of the god
Adrammelek, whose worship was introduced into Samaria by
72
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
the Sepharvites in the eighth century, and to whom they burned
their children in fire.®^® By a new interpretation of the inscrip-
tion of Eshmun‘azar of Sidon, a mythological passage in the
curse against those who open his sarcophagus should probably
read : “ May they have no resting-place with the Shades, nor be
buried in a grave, nor have son or seed in their stead, and may
the holy gods imprison them with Malkaddir.” The con-
ception of souls of the dead held captive in Hell by Nergal is
Babylonian also.
The Hebrew deity El, whose character as a Sun-god has been
repeatedly mentioned, and whose name occurs also quite regu-
larly in the plural Elohim, but employed as a singular, is the
god of the Habiru, a people who appear in various kingdoms
and local city dynasties of Babylonia and Assyria from the
twenty-second century until the Cassite period, among the
Hittites, and as an invading warlike tribe in Syria, Phoenicia,
and Canaan in the fifteenth and fourteenth centuries. I am
entering upon debatable ground here when I assume that the
Habiru and their god Ilani (plural always written ideographi-
cally) are identical with the Hebrews and their god Elohim.
There seems to be no doubt at all but that this is the casej every
argument against it has been specious and without conviction.
Accepting this thesis, the Hebrews had served for six centuries
as mercenary soldiers and traders among the Babylonians, As-
syrians, Hittites, Mitannians, and Aramaeans before they en-
tered and occupied Canaan; and, granted that their persistent
use of ilani Habiri, “ the Habiru gods,” is, in reality, a
singular like the Hebrew El5him, it follows that it is identical
with the Hebrew god El, Elah, Elohim. Phoenician also uses
the word “gods” as a singular.®^® This is a common usage
among Canaanitish scribes of the period of the Habiru invasions
into Syria and Palestine. So, for example, Shuwardata of Kelte
calls Pharaoh, “ my god and my sun,” in the text actually “ my
gods and my Shamash.” A man of Qadesh in Northern Syria
writes to Pharaoh attributing his defeat of the invading Habiru
DISTRIBUTION OF SEMITIC RACES
73
to the fact that “ his godhead ” and “ sunship ” went before his
face. Here the plural ilanu is used as an abstract noun, as is also
the word “ god Shamash.” In Hittite the Habirite god is called
Uani Habiriyas, Habiries^ “ Habirite gods.” That the Ha-
birites, or, as I assume, the Hebrews, in the days of their wan-
derings in Babylonia, from the days of Abraham “ the Hebrew ”
and Hammurabi (Amraphel), had a deity known to the peoples
with whom they came into contact as “ the Hebrew god,” is
proved by a list of nine gods and goddesses worshipped in the
temple of Adad at the old capital of Assyria, in a text at least as
old as the twelfth century. Here the singular, ilu Habiru oc-
curs, which I take to mean not “ god Habiru,” but “ Habirite
god,” or, if ilu is here, as in ildni Habiriy a specific name of a
deity, i.e., El, the “ Habirite El.” The genitive and accusative
of this gentilic word is Habin and the nominative plural should
be ildni Habiru or the “ Hebrew Elbhim ” in the texts of the
Hittite capital, Boghazkeui.
There are no important myths in Hebrew religion concerning
either of their two deities El and Yaw, but if the origin of the
god Elohim in the Old Testament can be explained as a direct
survival of the Habirite ildni, it is obvious that their long asso-
ciation with Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian, and Hittite re-
ligion explains the great Babylonian myths which appear in He-
brew mythology. The myths of Creation in Genesis i-ii, of
Paradise and the Fall of Man (iii), and of the Flood (vi— ix),
are admittedly of Babylonian origin, and all three in the He-
brew account are compiled from two versions in which El5him
or Yaw appears respectively. It is extremely difficult to de-
cide which of these sources is the older, but if the Habiru
are the Hebrews, clearly those sources of these myths in
which the deity El5him appears are the originals. Yaw, the
Rain- and Thunder-god, appears to be a West Semitic deity
unknown to them under that name until they entered Canaan.
The meaning of this name being wholly unknown, but his
identity with the god Adad certain, it is imprudent to reject
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
74
the supposition that it is not a purely Habirite or Hebrew
word for the deity of rains, storms, and winds, and as old
as the god Elohim among them. There are purely Hebrew
myths such as the communication of the tables of the law on
Mount Sinai, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the
plagues in Egypt, Balaam and the ass, Jonah and the whale,
Samson and Delilah. The myth of the ten prediluvian patri-
archs is Babylonian. Of all these only those of Babylonian
origin confront us with problems of universal dimensions. In
the Chapters on Sumerian and Babylonian myths these will be
considered. The Hebrew national legends will be discussed in
their proper connections. Here, in preparation for those Chap-
ters, it is necessary to point out the reasons for the almost com-
plete ascendancy of Babylonian mythology in the greater mytho-
logical documents of the Old Testament and the historical
reasons for it.®®^
-
An important Phoenician deity was Eshmun of Sidon, identi-
fied by the Greeks with Asclepius, god of Medicine, whose
symbol was the serpent. In the Greek sources he was the son of
Sydycos, which we have seen to be a title of the Sun-god as “ Jus-
tice.” Sanchounyath5n, however, says that the Cabiri were de-
scended from Sydycos, and that others, descended from these,
discovered medicinal herbs, the cure of poisons and charms.
According to others there were eight Cabiri of whom Esmounos
was the last, and so certain Greeks derived his name from the
Semitic word shemonay “ eight.” Others say that he, being
beautiful, was loved by Astronoe, the Phoenician goddess and
mother of the gods. While hunting in the groves he saw the
goddess pursuing himj being hard pressed in the chase by the
amorous goddess, who was about to capture him, Esmounos cut
off his own genitals with an axe. In remorse Astronoe sum-
moned Paeon and turned the youth into a god by generative
heat. The Phoenicians, therefore, called him Esmoun because
of the heat of life. This tradition is based upon the Semitic
word es/i, “ fire,” and some fanciful ( ? ) explanation for mown.
DISTRIBUTION OF SEMITIC RACES
75
In any case Damascius, by whom this story has been preserved,
evidently means that Esmoun signifies “ he who restores the
heat of life,” and, taken with the more ancient Phoenician source
in Sanchounyathdn, it is clear that this deity was 'par excellence
a “ healer ” of the sick, precisely as was his Sumerian counter-
part Tammuz.^®*
The self-mutilation of Eshmun belongs to the category of
myths concerning other gods loved by the Mother-goddess, and
defines him at once as one of the dying gods of Semitic religion,
like Adonis, Tammuz, and the Phrygian Attis. A distorted
form of this myth, by which the comely young god, who is the
incarnation of vegetation, knowing his inevitable death and
descent to the lower world, rejects the love of the Earth-god-
dess and castrates himself in supreme sacrifice for the life of
mankind, is told by Lucian concerning Combabus, at Hierap-
olis.®^® Eshmun is called Addni, “ My lord,” or Ad5n, “ Lord,”
in Phoenician inscriptions from Cyprus where his cult flour-
ished.®®® A trilingual Latin, Greek, and Punic inscription from
the island of Sardinia mentions an altar dedicated to Ad5n Esh-
mun or Asclepius, with the Greek and Latin title Merre, cor-
responding to the Phoenician “ Me’arreh,” if that is the read-
ing,®®^ which may mean “ Wanderer.” “ Wanderer ” would
describe Eshmun as the young god who dies yearly with the
corn before the sickle, and wanders in the lower world until his
annual resurrection with the springtime verdure. Tammuz is
also called in Sumerian “ the wanderer on the plains of the
lower world.” ®®® In the Sardinian text an altar is dedicated
to Eshmun by one Cleon, because the god had healed him. It
seems evident, therefore, that Eshmun, whose cult has been
found also at Beirut ®®® near Gebal (Byblus), is identical with
the same type of dying god, Adonis of Gebal, whose cult was
also firmly established in Cyprus.®®® For some reason this title
adoniy “ my lord,” became the peculiar title of the dying god
of Gebal, and survived in its Greek form Adonis j the myths con-
cerning him and his cult will be discussed in the Chapter on
V— 7
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
76
Tammuz and Ishtar. At Gebal statues of three deities were
found in the court of a temple of the Egyptian period, and these
have been identified with Astarte, El, and the later Adonis or
Eshmun.^®^ The local name of the dying god of Gebal, son
and lover of Astarte, is said to be represented by the Egyptian
Khay-taou, god of the region of Gebal and the Adonis valley,
on a seal of the sixth dynasty.®®^ A suggestion that this word
means “ He who manifests himself as one warming ” has been
made by Professor Montet, and, if this be true, the connection
with the name Eshmun as god of generative heat as suggested
above is certain. Tammuz is often addressed in Sumerian as
“ my lord,” “ my hero,” ®®® and there is no doubt but that this
entire cult of a dying god who descends yearly to the shades of
the nether world, mourned with annual wailings by women, and
in imitation of whose supreme sacrifice his priests emasculated
themselves in the cults of Phoenicia, Phrygia, and Rome,
is either wholly of Sumerian and Babylonian origin, or pro-
foundly influenced by the Tammuz cult. In any case Christian
writers state definitely that Tammuz was Adonis.®®* Jerome
speaks of the cult of “ Tammuz who is Adonis ” in his own day
at Bethlehem, where the lover of Venus was bewailed in a
J.J. 365
grotto.
The ordinary expression characteristic of Tammuz wailings
in Sumerian was a kalag, in Babylonian wai itluy “ Alas ! O
hero.” The kings of Judah were bewailed at their death with
the phrase hoi addn, “ Alas! O lord ” (Jeremiah xxxiv.5), and
it may be conjectured that the Phoenician and Canaanitish wail-
ing for the dying god of vegetation was hoi adonl, “ Alas my
lord.” The original Phoenician pronunciation of this word
was aduny and it belongs to the Phoenician and Hebrew vocabu-
lary exclusively.®®® This appellative for the son of the Mother-
goddess Astarte in West Semitic religion cannot be borrowed
from Babylonia, nor is it likely that hoi adon is a translation of
wai itlu. The conclusion is that this cult of a dying god belongs
to the oldest mythology of Semitic religion, or to Phoenician,
DISTRIBUTION OF SEMITIC RACES
77
Canaanitish, and Aramaean mythology j it has already been
noted among the Nabataean Arabians under Dusares, but can-
not be traced in South Arabia. It belongs to the sphere of
Semitic religion profoundly influenced by Babylonia. In its
development it was essentially the Tammuz cult transplanted
to Phoenicia. The plural adonim
like elim and eldhim, “gods,” is
also used as a singular in Phoenician,
and, in the Old Testament, Yaw is
constantly addressed as adonaty “ my
lords,” for “ my lord,” parallel to
the Phoenician title adorn. This
title, “ my lord,” has been found in
Phoenician with Eshmun only, and
there is consequently hardly any Fig. 41. Coin of Elagabalus.
doubt but that Adonis of Gebal is the ”
same god. In Hebrew adorn and addnai appear to be exclusively
used of the god Yaw, latterly in fact pointed with the vowels
of Addnaiy as Yahdwah, Yehowah. There is clearly no mytho-
logical connection between Eshmun, Adonis, and the Hebrew
deity YaW',®®^ who has been identified with Adad above.
From the Roman period come coins with the figure of a
youthful god who stands between two serpents. None of these
can safely be attributed to Sidon, but the similarity to the Greek
representations of Asclepius has convinced scholars that these
depict Eshmun, “ the Healer.” Fig. 41 shews one of these
types from Beyrutus (Beirut), just south of Gebal. A coin of
Sidon shews him leaning on a staff about which a serpent
winds.®®® The serpent is symbolic of the generative and healing
powers of the earth, and is associated with both the Earth-
goddess and her dying son and lover in Sumerian, Babylonian,
and West Semitic mythology. Ningishzida, one of the names
of the young god as principle of arboreal life, in Sumerian
mythology called the companion of Tammuz, is represented
from early times with a serpent springing from each shoulder.
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
78
An omen of the Babylonians was that if a child was born with a
head like a serpent it was a mystery sent by Ningishzida.®^®
Both Tammuz and his mother bore the title ama-usumgal-
anna, “ mother-great-serpent of Heaven,” that is the serpent
deity who emanated from the Heaven-god Ann.®” The corn
goddess Nidaba has serpents springing from her shoulders. A
shrine of Astarte from Beisan has a serpent climbing upward
along its front from a lower window (Fig. 15), and a curious
vase with apertures, from her temple at Beisan, has two serpents
twining in and out of them.’*’'^ The Sumerians and Babylonians,
as usual, made this aspect of the god and goddess of Vegetation
and Healing into special serpent deities, but in West Sem-
itic religion where this tendency to create a vast pantheon by
deification of special aspects of nature did not obtain, there
is no trace of a special serpent deity who is god or goddess of
Healing.
Worship of the serpent deity, as god of Healing, that is Esh-
mun, must have been extremely popular in Canaan and Philistia.
It was Yaw himself who directed Moses to set up a brazen ser-
pent upon a pole, and those bitten by serpents were healed when
they looked upon it.”® This legend arose in the early days of
Hebrew mythology to explain the worship of Nehushtan, a
brazen serpent set upon a pole, a practice which survived until
the reformation of Hezekiah.®^^
The last important deity, undoubtedly of Semitic origin,
whose cults were so widely spread that he must be included in
this sketch of their mythology, was Dagon or, as he appears in
cuneiform documents, Dagan, Dagun. In him we have one of
the few Semitic gods who represent the specific deification of
corn and agriculture. He appears first in the Amorite or Ara-
maean kingdom, Mari, on the upper Euphrates, below the
kingdom of Hana, whose capital was TIrqa, modern Asharah,
below the mouth of the Habur. The king of Mari in the days
of Naram-Sin (twenty-seventh century) was Migir-Dagan,
“ Favourite of Dagan ” j Sargon, founder of the dynasty of
DISTRIBUTION OF SEMITIC RACES
79
Agade worshipped in Tululi, and Dagan gave this famous
Semitic king the lands of the whole upper Euphrates even to the
Mediterranean sea-board.^^® By the martial aid of the weapons
of Dagan, Naram-Sin conquered the whole of the Phoenician
coast and the Taurus region.®^® At an early period the Sumeri-
ans included him in their own pantheon, a distinction conferred
upon no foreign deity after 2000 b.c. But here he was given
only a minor position as attendant of the Earth-god Enlil.®^^
Wherever the Semitic religion asserts itself in Babylonia and
Assyria from the age of Sargon onward, and is not completely
submerged in Sumerian orthodox forms, the god Dagan appears
with persistence. This is particularly true of personal names
of Semites at all times, from the period of Agade onward and
especially among the Western Semites, who founded the
dynasties of Isin and Babylon.®^® No Sumerian personal name,
in which Dagan is the divine name, has been found, although the
name of a city in Sumer called Bit-Gimil-Dagan in the kingdom
of Dungi is always written in ideograms,®*® and the personal
name Gimil-Dagan is also occasionally written in Sumerian
fashion.®®^ Few names with Dagan have Accadian forma-
tions, such as Idin-Dagan and Ishme-Dagan, Iti-Dagan, Silli-
Dagan, Silush-Dagan, Nur-Dagan. The majority have West
Semitic verbal forms and meanings, as Yashub-Dagan, “ Dagan
turns back,” i.e., repents of his wrath, corresponding to the
Hebrew name Yashubj Yashmah-Dagan, “ Dagan hears ”j
Yawi-Dagan, “Dagan loves Hisni-Dagan, “Dagan is my
strength”; Yahmu-Dagan, “Dagan protects (?) ”; Yassib-
Dagan, “Dagan establishes”; Sumu-Dagan; Nahum-Dagan,
“ Dagan is friendly.” Of special importance is the name of
Izrah-Dagan at Hana on the middle Euphrates, from which
most of these names come, and where Dagan was one of the
principal deities at an early period. This name means literally,
Dagan sows,” and it furnishes one of the evidences on which
the statement that Dagan was a corn deity rests.®*® It corre-
sponds to the Hebrew Jezreel. Unfortunately the verbal root
8o
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
has also a secondary meaning, “ to beget,” and both names may
mean “ Dagan begets,” “ El begets.” The original name is,
therefore, Dagan, and its Phoenician form Dagon, as transcribed
in Greek, followed the normal phonetic change, as in the He-
brew Dagon.^®® The word is identical with the Hebrew and
Phoenician word dagariy “ corn,” found in no other Semitic lan-
guage, which agrees with all the Assyriological evidence that
this deity is exclusively Canaanitish. Again the statement of the
early Phoenician historian must be taken as authoritative. Ura-
nus (Heaven) married his sister Ge (Earth), and had by her
four sons, Ilos (El) or Cronos, Betylus, Dag5n, “ which is
bread-corn,” and Atlas. And Dag5n, after he had discovered
bread-corn and the plough, was named Zeus Arotrios, “ Zeus the
farmer.”
In Assyrian mythology Dagan was associated with the
Earth-god Enlil, and regarded as one of the deities who sat in
judgment on the souls of the dead in the lower world with
Nergal and Misharu, “ the divine judges,” and others in the
“ house of the ordeal.” He appears in cuneiform inscriptions
as the principal deity of the ancient Canaanite and Aramaean
centres of Mari and Hana between Hit and the mouth of the
Habur on the Euphrates, including the Padan Aram and Har-
ran of early Hebrew history. Shamshi-Adad I, king of Assyria,
“ worshipper of Dagan,” built a temple to this god at Tirga,
called Ekisiga, “ House of sacrifices (to the dead),” and
Hammurabi, his great southern contemporary, conquered the
province Mari to the south of Tirga by the might of Dagan “ his
creator.” The three Semitic deities of this, the oldest Semitic
centre whose mythology has been preserved not completely con-
taminated with Sumerian theology, were Shamash, Dagan, and
Idurmer.®®® These are clearly the Sun-god, the god of Fer-
tility, and the Rain and Thunder-god Adadj for the enigmati-
cal iturmer or idurmer must be connected with Ilumer.®®^
In Fig. 42 is shewn the only statue of a god which can be
safely regarded as the mighty Dagan of Semitic mythology.
Fig. 42. Statue of Dagan
82
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
The dress is late Sumerian, and so is the posture of the hands j
both dress and posture are those of a Sumerian at prayer.
The full beard and moustache after the Assyrian style prove
the Semitic character; the horned turban shews that it is a deity.
Since it is dedicated to a god (whose name is broken away) by
a governor of Mari under a king of Ur in the twenty-fourth
century, and it carries a curse in the name of Ishtar, Dagan, and
Enki against him who should destroy the inscription, it is well
nigh certain that this is Dagan. Adopted into Babylonian
mythology as a god of agriculture, he was said to sit in the lower
world, where before him through all eternity the seven children
of the infernal deity Enmesharra were kept in bondage.®*®
Ishtar is described as “ the creation and offspring of Dagan,” in
a Babylonian hymn,®*® which proves that he had been identified
with the great Earth-god of Sumerian religion, Enlil.
The widely spread worship of Dagan among the Western
Semites is proved by the statements of Hebrew writers. His
cult appears in the far south of Philistia, at the coast cities Gaza
and Ashdod. The Nazirite Samson, of whom a legend is told
in Judges xiii-xvii, to explain the Hebrew custom of compelling
men consecrated to the service of Yaw to be unshorn, met his
death at Gaza. When he was brought, bound and blinded, into
that city, the Philistines praised their god Dagon {eld him
Dagon). And a legend of the same period of early Hebrew
history is told concerning “ the ark of the covenant of Yaw,”
which they took from Shiloh and brought into their camp as
they were pitched for battle against the Philistines. In the
battle the ark of Yaw was captured and taken to Ashdod and
set before Dagdn in his temple. Such divine power had the
ark that, when the Philistines returned to their temple the
following morning, the statue of Dagdn was found fallen on
its face before it. Dagdn was restored to his place, but on the
following morning his statue lay in fragments on the threshold;
the head and hands were broken from the torso,®®® after the
manner of statues found by excavators to this day in the temples
DISTRIBUTION OF SEMITIC RACES 83
of Babylonia. It was to Ashdod (Azotus) that Apollonius,
general of Demetrius II, fled after the battle with Jonathan,
ally of Alexander Balas. He and the remnants of his army
took refuge in the temple of Dagon.®®^
According to the writer of i Chronicles x.io, the Philistines
fastened the head of Saul in the temple of Dagon, which must
mean that they carried it away to Philistiaj for the parallel
passage, i Samuel xxxi.io, says that they fastened his body to
the wall of Bethshan, where stood two temples, one to Ash-
taroth and one to Reshef-Mikel.®®^ It
is certain that Dagdn has no connection
with Mikel, and a temple of Dagon at
Bethshan is most improbable. The
sources do not agree, but the variant
adds emphasis to all the other refer-
ences in Hebrew literature. Dagdn
was the most important deity of Phi-
listia. His cult in this region may be fig. 43. Coin of Unknown
as old as that at Marl on the Euphrates, Supposed to Repre-
, 1 r r •• r 1 • Dagon
but the hrst reference to it is found in
the name of a city king of southern Palestine, Dagan-takala,
“ Trust in Dagan,” fifteenth century.®®®
By falsely deriving Dagon from the word dag, “ fish,” Jew-
ish rabbis of the Middle Ages described him as a Fish-god,
having from the navel up the form of a man, but downward the
form of a fish.®®* On coins of the northern Phoenician city
Aradus (Persian period) a marine deity of the kind, which may
have suggested this Interpretation, occurs frequently.®®® Fig.
43 is a coin from some unknown city, supposed by some to come
from Ashdod (Azotus), because of the abbreviated mint signa-
ture AZ, or perhaps Ascalon.®®® This coin is also of the Persian
period and has a half human and half fish deity. On the
Aradus coins he holds a dolphin in each hand by the tail, but
on this coin he has the trident of Poseidon and a wreath. Ac-
cording to Jerome, Dagon was the god of Ascalon, Gaza, and
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
84
all the cities of the Philistines. Whether the Philistines were
of Semitic stock or not, their great deity Dagon certainly was
Semitic, and one of the great gods of the far flung occupation
of western lands — Syria, Phoenicia, Philistia, Canaan, Moab,
by that branch of the Semitic race.
-
In late Greek sources there is a myth concerning the great
Syrian goddess Atargatis at Ascalon, where her name was cor-
rupted to Derketo. Here a large pool full of fish in a temenos
was sacred to her. She is described as having a woman’s face
and body to the waist, but the lower part had the form of a fish.
Perhaps this myth was transferred to Dag5n, which would rein-
force the erroneous myth taken from the derivation of the con-
fusion of Dag5n with the word for “ fish.” It is certain that the
Fish-deity on the coins of Phoenicia is not Dagdn, unless this
erroneous myth had arisen already in the fifth century b.c. A
monument of Nineveh, representing a minor deity fertilizing
the date-palm, wearing a cowl and hood to represent a fish, has
been repeatedly published in popular books as the god Dagon.^®^
Priests often clothed themselves in a garment in the form of
a fish, when officiating in rituals of purification, symbolic of the
power of the Water deity Enki of Eridu, god of Lustration. In
the third register of Fig. 44 a man possessed of one of the seven
devils, who appear in the second register, lies on a bed, and a
priest, robed to represent the Fish-god Enki, stands at his
head, another at his feet.®®® Two brick boxes, each contain-
ing seven terra-cotta figurines of the deity in fish robe, all ap-
parently without horns on the cowl to indicate a deity, were
found beneath the pavement of a late building at Ur.®®® These
were laid down to invoke the protection of the Water-god.
In religious texts they are called the images of the “ seven wise
ones,” with bodies of fish. There are three types: (i) In their
right hands they carry a “ purifier,” and in their left hands
a water bucket. These were buried under the door-sill of the
chamber of lustrations {kummu). (2) In their right hands
they carry a date spathe, and their left hands are held to their
Fig, 44. Babylonian Bronze Plaque, Shewing Priest Robed to
Represent the Fish-god Enki
86
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
breasts. These were buried opposite the gateway and behind
the chair of the owner of a house. (3). In their right hands
they carry a great spear, while they place their left hands on
their breasts. These were buried in the centre of the house
before the chair. Late Assyrian seals have fish-men (Fig.
45) very similar to those which occur on the Phoenician coins
of Aradus, and here two streams of water descend to them from
a vase, or descend from them to a vase. This fish-man of As-
syria is probably one of the
dragons of Chaos, called Kulili,
conquered by Marduk in the
creation myth. He was identi-
fied with the constellation
Aquarius. The fish-man of
Phoenicia is certainly not Aqua-
rius, but a deity of the coast
cities. Since Anu, the Heaven-
god in Sumerian, has the title
Gula, and the constellation
Gula was Aquarius, it is entirely
possible that the fish-man on
Fig. 45 represents a Rain-god,
and in Phoenicia the fish-man would be naturally identified
with the greatest god of their pantheon, Adad. At all events
the representation of the god of Aradus is of Assyrian origin.
There seems to be no connection at all between Adad, a Sky-
god, intimately associated with Anu in Babylonia, and Dagon,
an Earth deity. Dagon has been connected also with Odakhn,
the name of the fish-man who, like Oannes, emerged from the
sea in the time of the seventh prediluvian king to reveal to
men science and letters. But this is impossible, and Odakdn is
more likely the Graecized form of Uttuku.'*®®
In closing this survey of the more important deities who in
various races can be surely described as of genuinely Semitic
origin, special mention should be made of the preponderate
Fig. 45. Assyrian Cone Seal with
Fish-men
DISTRIBUTION OF SEMITIC RACES 87
importance of the moon among the Semites of South Arabia, and
the almost total absence of this cult among North Semitic races.
Among the Northern Semitic peoples only one deity, who is
surely a Moon-god, has been found, namely Agli-Bol of
Palmyra in the late period. Even this local name for the Moon-
god may be an Aramaic title and translation of some Babylo-
nian aspect of the Moon-god of Harran. There is no North
Semitic Moon-god at all who had in any way general acceptance
in their religion. In the next Chapter, where the major Su-
merian deities are discussed, the moon cult, which obtained con-
siderable vogue in West and North Semitic lands in the late
period, will be found to have been entirely of Babylonian origin.
In contrast to South Semitic religion, the cult of the Sun-god is
characteristic of Aramaic and Canaanitish religion.
-
CHAPTER II
THE SUMERO-ACCADIAN PANTHEON
T he Sumerian pantheon in variety and numbers exceeds
that of both Greek and Roman religions combined. A
simple list of their deities would fill a large volume and contain
more than five thousand names. The Accadians, Babylonians,
and Assyrians added a few minor deities to this enormous pan-
theon, but in the great scholastic period of Sumerian theology,
the pantheon was reduced to a logical scheme (twenty-fifth to
twenty-third centuries), the temple liturgies for daily use in
the church calendar, for festivals and expiation rituals, appeared
then in their final canonical forms. This pantheon and the
liturgies and litanies which were based upon it, were accepted
as sacred and canonical by the Semites of Babylonia and Assyria,
and remained essentially unchanged throughout the temple
worship of both kingdoms until the end of the Assyrian empire
in 612 B.c. In Babylonia the adherents of this great religious
system continued it unmolested by their Persian, Greek, and
Parthian conquerors after the fall of the Neo-Babylonian king-
dom in 538 B.C., and Babylonian editions of Sumerian temple
liturgies, lists of gods, and myths were used and read as late
as the second century b.c. It is this vast influence in time and
space (for the West and North Semitic peoples were constantly
in more or less intensive contact with and often subject to the
mighty empires of Agade, Ur (Sumerian), Babylon, Ashur,
and Nineveh) which so completely transformed Aramaean,
Phoenician, and Hebrew mythology and religion. Any com-
plete survey of Semitic mythology without Sumerian is impos-
sible in our time, and in the discussion of the great pantheon,
adopted by the Babylonians and Assyrians, the reader must bear
THE SUMERO-ACCADIAN PANTHEON 89
in mind that the author is presenting the pantheon of the great-
est ancient Semitic people in Sumerian terms, as they themselves
thought of it and believed in it.
The complicated Sumerian pantheon was obviously the work
of theologians and of gradual growth. Almost all the names
of deities express some aspect of nature worship, some personi-
fication of natural powers, ethical or cultural functions, per-
fectly intelligible to the Sumerologist. The names of their
oldest trinity. An, “ Heaven-god,” Enlil, “ Earth-god,” and
Enki, “ Water-god,” are not lost in the mysteries of folk-lore.
They are names given to definite mythological conceptions by
clear thinking theologians and accepted in popular religion.
Whether they were called by other unintelligible popular names
in the prehistoric period, when they wandered on the Iranian
plateau long before 5000 b.c., is a question for which we have
no answer. As it was evolved after their occupation of Meso-
potamia, the pantheon is the product of theology and not of
natural religion. The earliest written records from which
any information concerning the Sumerian deities can be ob-
tained is found twenty-five feet below modern plain level at
Kish and at a prehistoric site, modern Jemdet Nasr, seventeen
miles north-east of Kish,^ and from a period area 4000 b.c.
On the prehistoric tablets only the trinity An, Enlil, Enki is
found, possibly Babbar the Sun-god also. Since in their my-
thology all the gods descended from An, the Sky-god, it is
extremely probable that the priests who constructed this pan-
theon were monotheists at an earlier stage, having only the
god An, a word which actually means “ high.” This is to be
expected, for we have here not a mythology springing from
primitive religion, but speculation based upon nature, spiritual,
and ethical values. The tablets are frequently covered with
curious seals, but it is difficult to discover any mythology on
them; wild and tame animals are frequent, especially the ser-
pent, and some fantastic monsters,^ and in one case there is a man
holding a long serpent.® On one seal there is a design of a tower
90
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
rising by five stages to a smaller but higher top stage on only one
side, which may possibly prove that they had already begun to
build towers of this kind as symbols of the earth and sacred to
the Earth-godd It is obvious that the serpent was already re-
garded as symbolic of the generative powers of the
earth in this very early period, but the Earth-mother
goddess, whose primitive pictograph (Fig. 46) ap-
parently represents a serpent winding around a
staff, does not appear on the pictographic inscriptions
which have been recovered.® On seals of the primi- Fig. 46.
tive period the Grain-goddess appears with a minor Pictograph
male deity (see Fig. 47), who is also a deity of ^°goddes™'
vegetation. The latter may be Tammuzj he is here
represented with a beard, but Tammuz is invariably described as
a child or youth. Very primitive seals represent a male deity
whose upper parts are human,® but whose lower parts are a long
coiled serpent, undoubtedly the serpent deity Mush, whose
Fig. 47. Grain-goddess, with a Male Deity of Vegetation, probably
Tammuz
Accadian names Sherah, “ grain,” “ vegetation,” and Shahan,
“ fire,” clearly reveal his connection with the generative powers
of the earth and the heat of the sun. However, one of the para-
site Tammuz forms was Ningishzida a tree deity, who is invari-
ably represented with a mythical serpent springing from each
shoulder, and he too always appears bearded.^ The cult of the
THE SUMERO-ACCADIAN PANTHEON 91
Earth-goddess and her son, the young god of vegetation, belongs
to the early period. By giving special names to the diverse
functions of each deity the theologians obtained an enormous
pantheon, and by assigning special functions of the three great
gods to their sons, and again giving special names to their
functions, the parent tree became a forest of gods and minor
deities. In addition to this, at an early period the constella-
tions, fixed stars, and planets were identified with various
deities. Astral names were, therefore, invented for each deity,
which added a very large number of names to the pantheon.
As soon as any given deity became patron of a special religious
or intellectual activity, they received additional names for
these activities. For example, the Earth-goddess, as female
principle of An, received the title Ninanna, Nininni, Innini,
but, as goddess of child-birth, Nintud, Aruru, Ninhursag, Nin-
karraka, and as the planet Venus, Ninanaslanna, Ninsianna,
Ninsinna, Ninisinna, “ Heavenly lady, light of heaven as
patroness of medicine she was Gula. These are all regarded
as separate goddesses in the cults and literature. Each of the
great deities received as many as fifty to a hundred different
names, and they had their attendants and courts in Heaven
or in the lower world, wherever mythological fancy placed
their abode. They had their musicians, messengers, counsellors,
bakers, butlers, barbers, gardeners, throne-bearers, priests of
sacrifices, watchmen, shepherds, commissioners, envoys, boat-
men, sword-bearers, wizards,® gate-keepers, charioteers, etc.
Anu was the first of the gods of civilized man, descended
through a line of divine beings, beginning with Apsu, the nether
sea of fresh water, and Tiamat, the dragon of the ocean. This
late theological speculation by which the gods and all things
were created from water was certainly no part of the original
system, which apparently was monotheistic to begin with, at
least in the Sumerian religion as it has come down to us. The
later speculative system is set forth at the beginning of the
Accadian or Babylonian Epic of Creation.
92
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
“ When on high the Heavens were not named,
And below a home existed not,
Apsu, the primeval, their engenderer.
And the ‘ Form ’ Tiamat, bearer of all of them.
Mingled their waters together;
The secret chambers were not constructed and marsh-lands were not
seen;
When none of the gods had been brought into being.
And they were not named, and had not been assigned (their) destinies,
Then were created the gods in the midst thereof.
Lahmu and Lahamu were brought into being and they were named.
For ages they grew up and became lofty.
Anshar and Kishar were created more excellent than they.
The days lengthened and the years increased.
Anu their son, the rival of his fathers —
Anshar made Anu his first-born equal (to himself).
And as to Anu, he begat Nudimmud,
Nudimmud, begetter of his fathers was he.”
In these seventeen opening lines the Epic on the origin of the
gods according to later theories makes Anu the first actual per-
sonal deity; for Anshar and Kishar mean simply “host of
Heaven,” “ host of Earth,” or male and female creative spirits
of what is above and beneath. From Anu descended the water
deity Enki, latterly called Ea, “ god of the house of the waters,”
who as creator of mankind received the title Nudimmud, “ crea-
tor of the form of man.” The Earth-god Enlil is nowhere
described as the son of Anu.® His name means literally, “ Lord
of the wind ”; for the winds were supposed to issue from the
caverns of his vast abode in the nether world.^®
The texts which first contain the fully developed early pan-
theon come from Shuruppak in southern Sumer, and from a
period more than 500 years later than the pictographic tablets
of Kish.^^ Not until this period does the Moon-god appear
under the title en-zu, i.e., zu-en, latterly Sin, but his princi-
pal title is Nanna, which means “ lord of Heaven,” the same
word as Ninanna, Innini. Here the Moon-god has already re-
ceived the title, “ Lord of wisdom,” as a god of divination. Sin.
The scribes of this early period place An, Enlil, Innini, Enki,
THE SUMERO-ACCADIAN PANTHEON
93
Nanna, Utu, in that order at the head o£ the pantheon, that
is Heaven, Earth, Earth-goddess as female principle of
Heaven, Water-god, Moon-god, Sun-god. The two sons of the
Earth-god, Ninurta and Nergal, who figure so largely in later
Sumerian and Babylonian mythology, do not yet appear by
name; earlier titles of Ninurta, god of the spring sun, are
already here, as Ningirsu and Ninsubur; while Lugalmeslam,
“ King of Meslam,” i.e., of the underworld, and Gir, prove that
the mythology concerning the terrible deity of summer heat and
winter’s cold, Nergal, was already part of their religion.
Above I concluded that the Semitic word for “ god ”
meant originally, “ he who is high,” a Sky-god; and here also
I believe that their religion began with monotheism ; they prob-
ably worshipped El, Ilah, as their first deity, a Sky-god, cor-
responding to the Babylonian Anu, and the Greek Zeus. In
Sumerian, the word for “ god,” dinglr^ also means, “ shining,”
“ bright,” and the sign used for writing dingir also stands for
An, the Sky-god; the word also means “ high,” “ Heaven.”
An is the only Sumerian deity whose ideogram is never pre-
ceded by the determinative for “ god.” They write dingir
Enlil, “ god Enlil,” dingir Sin, “ god Sin,” etc., but never dingir
An. Surely this means that An (Anu) is not only older than
other deities, but An was in the beginning “ god,” “ the Sky-
god.” The ideogram for writing “ god,” “ high,” “ Heaven,”
“ bright,” and for the god An, was the picture of a star. In the
minds of the earliest Sumerians dingir Enlil, dingir Enki, etc.,
really mean An-Enlil, An-Enki, etc. ; that is Enlil, Enki, etc.,
are only aspects of the father Anu. On seals of the pictographic
tablets and on painted pots of that prehistoric period, the pic-
ture of a star constantly occurs.’^ This star sign is almost the
only religious symbol in this primitive age. These facts cannot
be explained without assuming monotheism in the beginning.
For the purpose of discussing the Sumerian and Babylonian
myths it is not necessary or possible within the compass of a
popular book to name and describe the prolific number of
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
94
deities. Only those on whose cults is built the main structure
of their mythology are more specifically defined here. An, or
as he shall be henceforth named in the Accadian form, Anu,
had his principal cult at Erech where he was worshipped in
Eanna, “ house of Heaven,” with the still more important
virgin deity Innini-Ishtar. As father of all gods he remained
in most distant contact with mankind, and is rather a theological
principle than a cult deity. In a theological list (and in these
lists of all periods Anu always stands at the beginning) his name
is replaced by the Sumerian and Accadian words for “ god.”
According to the myth of Etana, Anu had his throne in the
highest or third Heaven where Etana sought the magical plant
of birth, and in the Adapa myth at the gate of Anu stood Tam-
muz and Ningishzida. Here Anu kept the bread and water
of eternal life. From Anu descended the authority of kings at
the beginning of political institutions upon earth.^® The as-
tronomers divided the fixed stars into three parallel bands
called the “ way of Anu,” “ way of Enlil,” and “ way of Ea.”
The band of Anu included those stars in what seemed to them
the highest part of heaven along the ecliptic. The northern
band was the “ way of Enlil,” and the southern the “ way of
Ea.” As a constellation he was placed in the “ yoke of the
wagon star ” among the northern polar stars, about which
the firmament revolves.""® At Erech each morning of the
year sacrifices were made to the polar stars of Anu and
his wife Antum, and from the top of the stage tower prayers
were said to their constellations as they rose by night. A
prayer to the polar star began, “ O star of Anu, prince of the
heavens.” ”
The myth of three Heavens was current in Babylonia and
Assyria as early as the tenth century. The lowest Heaven was
the sphere of the seven planets and was said to have been
adorned with jasper."® The middle Heaven was the abode of
the three hundred Igigi, or gods of the upper world, as dis-
tinguished from the three hundred Anunnaki, or gods of the
THE SUMERO-ACCADIAN PANTHEON 95
lower world. It was adorned with saggilmud stone, and here
Marduk sat in a shrine of lapis lazuli, adorned with byssus and
sapphire. This is the plane of the constellations of the three
“ ways ” of Enlil, Anu, and Ea. In the highest Heaven sat
Anu, wherein also the three hundred Igigi sat. It was adorned
with luludata stone. It was here that Etana sought the sammu
sa aladi^ “ plant of birth,” that his wife might bear an heir to
the throne of Kish. This legend of three Heavens reappears
in the pre-Christian Jewish period, in the dream of Levi.^® A
later legend of seven Heavens appears in the Book of the Secrets
of Enoch Here Enoch ascended by seven stages on the wings
of angels, and in the seventh Heaven found the throne of
God.
The bread and water of immortal life, which Anu kept in
the highest Heaven, is extremely ancient, and is referred to in
Sumerian art by the overflowing vase, often held in the hands
of a god, who has been identified with the god of Springs and
Rivers (Enki, Ea) by many.^^ Fig. 48 is a good example of
the god with overflowing waters, whom I take to be Anu with
the waters of eternal life, from which Gilgamish fills his jar
on this seal. The waters descend to figures of Capricorn and
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
96
Aquarius (see p. 86) and the latter constellation belongs to
the “ way ” of Anu.^* That the vase of overflowing water,
often with a plant springing from it, belongs to the god who is
throned in high Heaven, is proved by Fig. 49, from a bas-relief
of Ur-Nammu of Ur. Here a winged angel descends from
Heaven with the vase from which the waters of eternal life fall
to a jar held in the outstretched hand of the pious king. The
scene occurs at the top of both sides of this bas-relief on which
other scenes represent him in prayer before a vase from which
springs a palm with overhanging fruit j into it the king
pours the water of Heaven, from the vase in which he had re-
ceived it from the angel.
An incantation for childbirth contains this same legend of
angels descending from Heaven with jars of oil and water to
lave the body of the “ handmaid of the Moon-god,” when in
pain she bore the divine calf Amarga. This myth runs as fol-
lows:
THE SUMERO-ACCADIAN PANTHEON 97
10. “ Only ‘ cow of Sin,’ ‘ Maid of Sin,’ is her name.
She was adorned with adornments.
She was luxurious in form. Sin saw her and loved her.
With the light of Sin, with a sheen (?) he provided her.
He caused her to have control of the herds.
15. They that are shepherded walk after her.
She rules over the plants as she waters them.
They give her water to drink abundantly at the watering place.
In the secret place of the herdsmen, where shepherds see not.
The restless young bull mounted the cow taking her virginity.
20. When her days were ended, her months completed.
The cow was in agony, she quivered in pain.
The shepherd, with bowed face, and all the herdsmen wailed for
her.
At her wailing, at the cry of her travail, Nannar was aroused.
Sin in Heaven heard her cry, and lifted his hand to the Heavens.
25. Two female genii of Heaven descended, perfect ones; one bore
an oil jar.
The second let fall water for travail in birth; with the oil jar she
touched her face.
With water for travail in birth she sprinkled all her body.
A second time she touched her face with the oil jar.
With water for travail in birth she sprinkled all her body.
30. When for the third time she touched her.
The calf fell to the earth like a gazelle.
‘ Amarga ’ he created, the name of the calf.
As the ‘ Maid of Sin ’ gave birth happily.
May this handmaiden who travails bear.”
A tree, probably the laurus nohilis {eru), was sacred to Anu,
and also the tamarisk. A staflF of laurus nobilis was supposed to
aid women in childbirth.^^ This myth of the water of life,
bread of life, plant of birth, and probably that of the plant
of life, also current in Sumerian mythology, is surely the origin
of the manna in Hebrew mythology, said to be the exudation of
the tamarisk. Yaw rained bread from Heaven, which the
Israelites called man, during their wanderings in Sinai 5 it
must have occurred to a people familiar with this Babylonian
myth to call the food so miraculously sent by nature, “ bread
from Heaven.” The tree sacred to Anu was called ma-nu in
Sumerian, and is persistently connected with the tamarisk and
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
98
date-palm in the texts. Not impossibly is the Hebrew term
taken directly from this Sumerian word.
The angels who descended to aid Ishtar in the birth of her
son Tammuz are confused with natural procreation of animals
in the myth translated above j for in the myth of the birth of
Tammuz, Ishtar is always a virgin goddess. This descent
of angels seems to have given Isaiah the inspiration for his
vision of the seraphim. When king Uzziah died he saw Adonai
(Yaw) sitting on a throne high and lifted up, and over Him
stood seraphim, each with six wings. “ Woe is me! for I am
-
Fig. 50. Gilgamish with Jar of Overflowing Water
undone j because I am a man of unclean lips,” said the prophet.
One of the seraphim descended, having a live coal which he
had taken with tongs from the altar ; with this coal he touched
the mouth of the prophet, saying: “ Lo| this hath touched thy
lips, thy sin is purged.”
The tamarisk was said to have been created in Heaven along
with the date-palm,^® and these are surely connected with the
plant which springs from the overflowing jar on seals and
monuments. The seal (Fig. 50) of Ibnisharri, dedicated to
Shargalisharri, king of Agade, shews Gilgamish holding the
overflowing jar of water from which springs the plant of life.
From it drinks Gudanna, the bull of Heaven (p. 28). Gilga-
mish in Sumerian mythology was the deified hero, who, fearing
death, sought for the plant of life in the island beyond the
THE SUMERO-ACCADIAN PANTHEON 99
seas. On seals he is repeatedly associated with the overflowing
jar, and in one example the jar pours out water to him from
the sky.®° Anu’s sacred number was “ sixty.”
Enlil the Earth-god was, strictly speaking, only the god
of the upper world, in distinction from the underworld, where
reigned the terrible goddess Ereshkigal. His name “ lord of
the winds ” is taken from the myth of a cave of winds in the
interior of the earth apparently, but in later times the control
of the winds was given to the god Ishkur, Mir, Mur, identified
with the West Semitic Adad, Ramman (see p. 61). This
original character of Enlil as god of Storms and Rains is un-
mistakable. The world was thought of as a vast mountain
{kur^ and named Ekur, “ house of the mountain,” in the in-
terior of which stood the hursag mountain, called also “ moun-
tain of Arallu.” Hursag is described as the place where the
winds dwell,” and a prayer has the following lines:
“ O great Enlil, tm-hur-sag^ whose head rivals the Heavens,
Whose foundation is laid in the pure abyss,
Who reposes in the lands like a furious wild bull,
Whose horns gleam like the rays of the Sun-god.”
Imhursag means “ Wind of the underworld mountain.” The
stage tower of his temple Ekur at Nippur bore the name
E-imhursag, and one of his titles was “ Wind of the earth.”
Ningirsu, “ lord of floods,” was his son, and his father named
him “ King of the Storm of Enlil.” The functions of all
his sons, Ninurta, god of War and sol invictus, the spring sun,
Ishkur, Ningirsu, and Nergal, originally belonged to him, but
in the later specialization of deities he, like Anu, has only
abstract relations with men as the powerful deity of the earth.
Rarely does he appear as an agricultural deity. “ O my lord,
the ploughshare thou hast caused to impregnate (the earth), the
harrow thou hast caused to impregnate (the earth).”®® In
the liturgies he has almost exclusively the character of a ter-
rible, wrathful god who brings disaster upon his own people
lOO
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
for their sins and upon the enemies of Sumer. The agent of
his anger is always the “ Word ” which issues from his mouth,
and goes though the world causing calamity, flood, hurricane,
fire, pillage of cities, hunger, and exile. The word of wrath
may be uttered by any one of his great sons, but it is primarily
the prerogative of the “ Earth Mountain ” of Ekur. Anu has the
beneficent angels of the waters of life. EnliPs messengers
are those of vengeance and destruction. Their names are
Kingaludda, Kengida, Uddagubba, and the Fire-god Gibil.®*
This myth found its way into Hebrew religion:
“He sendeth his commandment upon earth;
His Word runneth very swiftly.”
In late Jewish mythology the description is as terrible as that
of the Babylonian liturgies:
“ Thine all-powerful Word leaped down from the royal throne,
A stern warrior, into the midst of the doomed land.
Bearing as a sharp sword thine unfeigned commandment.
And standing filled all things with death.”
Every liturgy contained a hymn to this Word of Wrath; a
good example is cited here from a lament on the destruction of
Ur, where the disaster is attributed to the word of Nannar, the
god of that city and son of Enlil.
“ In those days the spirit of wrath upon that city was sent and the city
lamented.
Father Nannar upon the city of master- workmen sent it and the
people lamented.
In those days the spirit of wrath descended upon the Land and the
people lamented.
Her people thou hast caused to sit outside her without water-jars.
Within her reed baskets were cast in the ways and the people
lamented.
The great city gate and the highways with dead were choked.^*
No Sumerian myth of any importance in a literary sense has
survived, concerning Enlil,®® although it is possible that to him
THE SUMERO-ACCADIAN PANTHEON loi
the Sumerians first attributed the creation of the world, an act
latterly attributed to his son Ninurta, and by the Babylonians
to Marduk, This myth seems to have survived in only one
passage of a hymn:
“ The foundation of the Heavens thou hast made and no hand shall
undermine it.
The vault of the Heavens thou hast made and none can ascend it.”
Throughout Babylonian mythology there persists a legend of
the “ Tablets of Fate ” which originally belonged to Enlil,
and concerning their theft by the dragon Zu the following
myth has been preserved in Accadian. It existed in a Sumerian
original, as is proved by one of the tablets of the series.^® The
storm dragon Zu saw the royal power of Enlil, the crown of
his sovereignty, the robes of his divinity, and the Tablets of
Fate in his possession.
“ He conceived in his heart to seize the Enlilship,
(saying) ‘ I will take possession of the Tablets of Fate of the gods,
And I will control the orders of all the gods.
I will occupy the throne and be master of decrees.’
He waited at the entrance of the throne-room, which he saw, at day-
break.
As Enlil washed himself with clean water.
And had mounted the throne, and put on his crown,
The Tablets of Fate he seized in his hand.
He took possession of Enlilship, the ‘ casting ’ of decrees.
Zu flew away hastening to the mountains.”
This was a supreme disaster for the gods. The laws which
govern the universe had been written on tablets in the conclave
of the gods and worn on the breast of the supreme ruler of the
world. Silence fell on all and they turned to Anu their father
and counsellor, who said to his sons:
“ Who will slay Zu and
Make glorious his name among the habitations? ”
First he summoned his son Adad who refused to follow the
dreadful dragon j for “ Who is like Zu among the gods, thy
102
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
sons? ” He then summoned another god (whose name is
broken away), and still a third god, Shara, both of whom re-
fused in the same words. This part of the myth is parallel to
the scene in the Epic of Creation, where Ea, Enlil (?), and
Anu also feared to attack the dragon Tiamat. Finally it was
the god Lugalbanda, or Ninurta, the son of Enlil, who found
the nest of Zu in the fabulous mountain Sabu, and by the aid
of the Wine-goddess Ninkasi rescued the Tablets of Fate.^^ It
was also Ninurta, who, in the Sumerian myth of creation, slew
the dragon of chaos.
Apparently the Tablets of Fate originally belonged to Tia-
mat, the female dragon of the sea, before the earth was created.
She gave them to her chief supporter Kingu in her conflict with
the gods. According to the Babylonian version, it was Marduk,
who destroyed Tiamat and bound Kingu, who bore the Tablets
of Fate on his breast. These Marduk took from him and ever
after kept them on his breast. Ninurta is called the smiter of
Zu in the Babylonian legends. The Tablets of Fate of the
gods were written for each year in the assembly hall of Enlil,
the Ubsukkinna, in the conclave of gods at the beginning
of the New Year, a myth latterly transferred to Marduk
of Babylon. Nabu, scribe of the gods, was said to carry
them. The name Enlil survived in western sources only in the
account of Babylonian theogony by Damascius, a Syrian, who
became head of the Neo-Platonic school at Athens, end of
the fifth century a.d. His theogony is based upon the Baby-
lonian Epic of Creation. Enlil was never known as Bel by the
Babylonians.^^
Of more importance for mythology is the third member of
the original trinity, Enki of Eridu at the mouth of the Eu-
phrates. The name means “ Lord of the earth,” by which is
meant the lower world where dwell the Anunnaki in the Apsu,
or sea from which the Sumerians supposed fountains and rivers
to spring. He was essentially the god of fresh water, and con-
sequently he and the Eridu theogony, Marduk, Gibil, are deities
THE SUMERO-ACCADIAN PANTHEON 103
of lustration. The title e-a^ “ god of the house of water,” does
not appear until the period of Dungi of Ur, and henceforth
became the favourite name, almost invariably employed by the
Accadian texts in bilingual inscriptions for the Sumerian title
Enki. The Greek writers knew only this title, which appears
as ’Aos in Damascius, and ’Qavvrjs (Oannes) in Berossus.
The latter Greek writer, who was himself a Babylonian priest
of Bel-Marduk in the age of Alexander, reports the following
myth. In the remote past, before the Flood, men lived in
lawless manner like beasts of the field. Then appeared Oannes
from the sea. He had the body of a fish, and under the fish’s
head he had another head, but his feet were like those of a
man, subjoined to the tail. He passed the day among men,
and taught them letters, science, arts, laws, construction of
cities and temples, and geometry. He also introduced agricul-
ture and all which would soften their manners and humanize
their lives. Since that time nothing has been added to improve
upon his instructions. By night he retired into the sea. Ac-
cording to one excerpt of Berossus (Alexander Polyhistor)
this revelation occurred in the time of Alorus (Sumerian Alu-
lim), the first of the ten pre-diluvian kings, but Apollodorus
reports Berossus to have placed it in the reign of the fourth
king Ammenon. Altogether Oannes is said to have made
four appearances as a fish-man at intervals of enormous dura-
tion exceeding thirty thousand years, each time in a different
reign.
A description of Ea as Lahmu of the sea, which was current
as late as the age of Berossus, has been preserved in Assyrian.
“ The head is that of a serpent} on his nose are depicted . . . }
from his mouth drips water} he is provided with . . . like a
sea-serpent} thrice are his . . . ringed} he is provided with
... on his cheek} his body is a skate fish and encrusted with
stars} the claws of his feet are his soles, which have no heels.”
Ea is the Sumerian patron of arts and philosophy, and his cult
at Eridu represents one of the two great schools of Sumerian
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
1 04
and Babylonian theology. Here they taught the philosophy
borrowed by Ionian philosophers, namely that all things ema-
nated from water, and came into existence by the creative Word,
Mummu of Ea.'** To him the Sumerians of the Eridu school
attributed the creation of man from clay, “ Lord of mankind,
whose hand fashioned man.” One of their myths has this
version. The gods created Heaven and Earth, and all crea-
tures with the breath of life, and then the god Ninigikug
(= Ea) created two small creatures whom among living crea-
tures he made most glorious.*®
Another prayer recited at the restoration of a temple has
this myth:
“ When Ann had created the Heavens,
And Nudimmud (Ea) had created the Apsu as his abode,
Ea gathered clay from the Apsu and
Created the god of Brick-making (Kulla) for the restoration (of
temples).
He created cane-brake and forest(? ) for the work of his creation(? )
He created the god of carpenters, moulders, and Arazu, as completers
of the work of his creation (? ).
He created the mountains and the seas for . . .
He created the god of goldsmiths, smithies, jewellers, and sculptors
for the deeds of . . .
and their rich produce for offerings ...
He created the Corn-goddess, the goddess of Flocks and
Wine, Ningishzid, Ninsar ... as those who enrich the fixed
sacrifices.
He created Uduntamkur and Uduntamnag, they who support the
offerings.
He created Kugsugga, mighty priest of the gods, as the executor of the
ritual orders.
He created the king as a restorer of [holy places]
He created man as the maker of . .
Ea was the god of all mystic learning and the Mummu or crea-
tive Word, Logos, which made all things, and fashioned the
things begotten.*® The doctrine was applied by the Alex-
andrian author of the Wisdom of Solomon to the Hebrew
god Yaw:
THE SUMERO-ACCADIAN PANTHEON 105
“ Oh God of the fathers, and Lord who keepest mercy,
Who madest all things by thy Word,
And by thy Wisdom thou didst form man.” '*®
He was regarded as the god of the Tigris and Euphrates, of
rivers and fountains. As such his title is Engur, an ordinary
word for “ river,” and in rituals of purification the River-
goddess is addressed in the following mystic hymn:
“ Thou River, creatress of all things,®®
When the great gods dug thee, on thy bank they placed
Mercy. Within thee Ea, king of the Apsu, built his abode.
They gave thee the Flood, the unequalled.
Fire, rage, splendour, and terror,
Ea and Marduk gave thee.
Thou judgest the judgment of men.
O great River, far-famed River, River of sanctuaries.
Thy waters are release ; receive from me prayer.”
In the theological lists Enki has numerous titles as patron of
the arts. Dunga and Lumha are Ea of singers and psalmists.
This myth reappears in Hebrew, in the early document con-
cerning the patrons of arts, where Lamech = Lumha is said
to have been the father of three sons, Jabal, patron of tents and
flocks, Jubal, of music, and Tubal-cain, of the forge. Ninbubu
is Ea of sailors, Nindubarra of shipmenders, Nurra of potters.
There are thirty-six titles of this kind in the official list.
The conception of his form which seems to have been most
prevalent in Babylonian mythology is that of the monster called
Darabzu, “ Antelope of the nether-sea ” in the official lists, and
Kusarikku, “ fish-ram,” or Suhurmashu, “ skate-goat,” in popu-
lar mythology. The latter names agree with the description
of Oannes, preserved by Berossus, and with the emblem of this
god on the monuments, usually a composite creature, with
fore-parts of a goat and body of a fish. A good example of this
symbol is seen on Fig. 51, first register, where the trinity Anu,
Enlil, and Ea stand in a row, Anu and Enlil being represented
by tall horned turbans resting on a throne, and Ea by the goat-
io6
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
fish, which also supports a low throne.®^ On this throne stands
also a symbol of Ea, a pillar with ram’s head. The names
Kusarikku and Suhurmashu were also used for Capricorn and
one of the monsters of chaos in the train of the dragon Tiamat.
Images and bas-reliefs of this “ antelope of the Apsu ” must
have been common} Berossus, describing the fish-man Oannes,
says that a likeness of him had been preserved even to his day,
and it may be that the fish-man on Phoenician coins was derived
from this type of Oannes. Images of the fish-ram of the deep
to represent Ea were made by the Sumerians, and Gimil-Sin,
king of Ur, promulgated a date by the formula, “ Year when
the ship of the antelope of the Apsu was completed.”
The principal role of Ea in mythology is as a god of purifica-
tion in the water rituals, called rituals of the “ house of bap-
tism,” and “ house of washing,” all of which belonged to a
great Sumerian series called en e-nu-ru, “ Incantation of the
house of Nuru,” taken from the title of Ea, Nunurra. In these
rituals there occurs a myth introduced by the priesthood of
Babylon, in which Ea, after learning of the wicked machinations
of the seven devils, sends his son Marduk to expel them by
magical operations. A good example occurs in the sixteenth
tablet of the series called udug hul-mes or in Accadian utukke
limnutiy “ the evil devils.” Here the object of the long series
of incantations is to defend the king and the nation against the
malign influences of the seven devils during the three days of
the moon’s eclipse. The astronomers discovered that the pe-
riod of the dark of the moon was due to natural laws, but the ex-
planation was that the seven devils had invaded the vault of
Heaven and surrounded the Moon-god, obscuring his visage.
“ Enlil saw the eclipse of the hero Sin in Heaven, and
The lord hailed his messenger Nusku.
Tidings of my son Sin who in Heaven has been woefully darkened,
Repeat to Ea in the Deep.
Nusku gave heed to the word of his lord.
To Ea in the Deep he set foot quickly.
Fig. 51. Boundary Stone of Melishipak. Cassite
Period, Twelfth Century, b.c.
THE SUMERO-ACCADIAN PANTHEON 107
To the prince, the far-famed ‘ leading goat,’ the lord Nudimmud.
Nusku repeated the word of his lord straightway.
Ea in the Deep heard this matter.
He bit his lip and his mouth was filled with woe cries.
Ea called to his son Marduk, informing him of the matter.
Go, O my son, Marduk.
Of the princely son, the Crescent Sin, woeful is his eclipse,
His eclipse in Heaven has been brought about.
The seven evil gods, the slayers, fearless are they.
The seven evil gods like a cyclone went forth and enter the Land.
They have come up against the Land like a storm.
And the front of the crescent of Sin wrathfully they surround.
The hero Shamash and Adad the heroic they have turned to their side.”
Here as usual in these texts follow directions for the magic
ritual. The priests entering upon their rituals to drive out
demons say:
“ I am a man of Enki,
I am a man of Damgalnunna,®®
I am the messenger of Marduk.
To heal his sickness
The great lord Enki (Ea) has given me warrant.
His holy curse he has put with my curse.
His holy mouth he has put with my mouth.
His wizardry he has put with my wizardry.
His intercession he has put with my intercession.
Verily that which is in the body of the sick man devastates the sanc-
tuaries.
By the incantation of Ea may these wicked ones be expelled.”
Few prayers to Ea have survived in Sumerian and Accadian.
One long Sumerian hymn glorifying his temple and cult at
Eridu describes him as “ creator of fates,” “ who causes peoples
to spring up like grass.” An Accadian prayer to him under
the tide, “ Enlil of intelligence ” (Enlilbanda), begins:
“ King of Wisdom, maker of intelligence.
Far-famed leading goat, adornment of the ‘ House of the Deep.’
Enlilbanda, the skilled, the protecting angel.
Valiant one of Eridu, adviser of the Igigi.
To the great gods thou givest counsel.
O Ea, by thy incantation of life, raise the dying.”
V— 9
-
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
io8
This deity is invariably described as the friend and saviour of
men, and there are no references in all the vast religious litera-
ture to his anger and vengeance, except where he is included
with other gods and invoked to destroy those who violate con-
tracts,®®
For this reason the mythical being called the fish-ram ob-
tained the title karubu^ rendered above by “ protecting angel.”
The Accadian word was undoubtedly borrowed in Hebrew my-
thology as keruby “ cherub.” The word has strictly speaking
the meaning “ one who is favourable,” “ who js benign,”
“ who intercedes for,” and images of them were set at the gates
of temples and palaces to place these under the protection of
the mighty god of wisdom and mystic powers. Asarhaddon
placed images of lions, the murderous Zu, Lahmu, and the
god Kuribu at the entrances to the gates of the temple of Ishtar
in Arbela.®^ These were all, in reality, monsters of chaos, iden-
tified with constellations, subdued by Marduk and made to
serve the gods. Kuribu, Karubu, or Karibu, the mythical being
of Ea, serves in mythology as the fish-ram, symbol of the god
of the Deep, and also as Capricorn.
In religion and mythology, of even greater importance than
these three heads of the trinity, Anu, Enlil, and Enki, is the
Sumerian Mother-goddess, whose character was so manifold
that she became many distinct goddesses. In Chapter I the
paramount importance of the Earth-goddess Astarte among all
the West Semitic races was emphasized. Babylonian religion
caused a profound revolution throughout the West in the name
and gender of the Arabian and original Semitic goddess of the
planet Venus. The great and ubiquitous cult of the virgin
Earth-goddess in Canaan, Phoenicia, and Syria seems to have
been entirely borrowed from Babylonia. As already suggested,
the primitive name of this Sumerian goddess seems to have been
Ninanna, Innini, “ Queen of Heaven,” but the pictograph first
used to write her name represents a serpent twining on a staff.
The name probably rests upon the primitive identification with
THE SUMERO-ACCADIAN PANTHEON 109
the planet Venus, and upon the theological principle that she
was created by Anu, the Heaven-god, as his female counterpart.
Three main types of the Earth-goddess, together with their
minor manifestations, are clearly recognizable, Innini, the
Semitic Ishtar, Mah, “ the mighty goddess,” Accadian Belit-ili,
“ Queen of the gods,” and the underworld goddess Eresh-
kigal.
The order in the official Assyrian theogony places the Earth-
mother-goddess dingir-Mah immediately after the Earth-god
Enlil, and she was in fact his sister. The supreme importance
of this goddess is obvious by the place and nature of her symbol
among the emblems of the gods. On Fig. 51 her throne fol-
lows those of the trinity, Anu, Enlil, Ea, and supports a curious
object, a broad band shaped like the Greek letter 12, Omega
inverted. On one throne, where it follows the symbols of
Marduk and Nebo (first two symbols in third register here),
this band lies flat on the throne, with ends coiled inward, not
outward as here. On other monuments the Omega symbol
stands alone without a throne, and in a position exactly like
Omega. This symbol is called markasu rahuy “ the great band ”
of the Esikilla, “ holy house.” The word markasu, “ band,”
“ rope ” is employed in Babylonian philosophy for the cosmic
principle which unites all things, and is used also in the sense of
“ support,” the divine power and law which hold the universe
together. It is employed more often of the god of the first
principle, water, Enki-Ea, and of his sons Marduk and Nebo.
Ninlil, wife of Enlil, frequently identified with Mah, ruled
the constellation Margldda, Ursa major, the wagon star, which
was also called the “ band of the Heavens,” because it remains
fixed at the pole of the Heavens.
After the multifarious activities of the Earth-goddess were
apportioned to the three major types, for Mah or Belit-ili was
reserved in particular the protection and increase of animal life.
She it was who, in the teaching of the great theological school
of the cult of Enlil and Ninlil of Nippur, created man from
no
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
clay, and her salient character is the goddess of Childbirth.
Under a minor form (Gula) she became the patroness of
medicine. Essentially an unmarried goddess, her minor types,
Bau, Gula, became wives of the sons of Enlil, Ningirsu,
Ninurta, as Erishkigal became the wife of Nergal, son of Enlil.
The official pantheon gives forty-one names for dingir-Mah,
among which the scribes indicate five as the most important.
These are Ninmah, “ Mighty queen,” Ninhursag, “ Queen of
Fig. 52. Top Portion of a Water Jar in Grave of the Palace at Kish
the earth mountain,” Nintur (dialectic Sentur), “ Queen, the
womb,” Ninmea, or Nunusesmea, “ Queen who allots the
fates,” and Ninsikilla, “ the pure Queen.” Under the last title
she was wife of her son Nesu (dialectic Lisi). The god Nesu
is known almost entirely by his star Antares in Scorpio, which
was also identified with Nebo.
Among other titles which appear in the myths are Aruru,
Nintud, “ Queen who bears,” Amatudda, “ Bearing mother,”
Amadubad, “ Mother who opens the lap (womb),” and Mama,
Mami. It is extraordinary that the theological lists give her a
husband by name Shulpae, in reality a name of Marduk as the
planet Jupiter. Every city had a temple, usually named Emah,
THE SUMERO-ACCADIAN PANTHEON in
or at least a shrine to this goddess, but her principal cult centres
were Adab and Kesh in southern Sumer, and at Kish (near
Babylon), said to have been the first city founded after the
Flood, and certainly the oldest Sumerian capital. Here her
temple was named Hursagkalamma, restored by Nebuchadnez-
zar with enormous proportions, and relics of her cult are found
at great depth beneath the plain here. At one period the dead
were provided with large water- jars which
bore broad handles with rude busts of this
goddess of Birth and Healing. See Fig.
52. When Merodachbaladan restored her
temple at Hursagkalamma (a name given
to this part of Kish), he addressed her:
“ Ninlil, great queen, far-famed queen,
merciful mother, who sits in the house of
the world, the revered.” A description
has been preserved, which does not en-
tirely agree with the very human and beau-
tiful figures of her, found abundantly in
nearly all periods in Babylonia, especially
at Kish.®® Although these figurines do not
have the head-dress of a goddess, the fre-
quency with which they occur at her prin-
cipal cult centres, establishes their identifi-
cation with Ninmah, Aruru, or Ninhursag.
An Assyrian text describes her as follows: “The head (has) a
turban and . . . j she is provided with knots on the turban
like earth flies j with a . . . and her hand is human j she
binds on a waist-band, leaving her breast openj in her left arm
she carries a child, which feeds at her breast j with her right
arm she caresses itj from her head to her waist-band she has
the naked body of a woman j from her waist-band to the soles
she is covered with scales like a serpent} her navel is placed
in a waist-band.”
References to Mah as she who gave birth to man, in the
Fig. 53. Figure of
Mother and Child
FROM Late Period
II2
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
sense that she created him from clay, are numerous in my-
thology. In this sense the texts usually employ the title Aruru.
A bilingual poem, in which the traditions of the Eridu and
Nippur school were combined, describes the creation of the
world as follows:
“ All the lands were sea.
When the interior of the sea was a well,
Then Eridu was made and Esagilla created.
Esagilla, which in the Deep, the “ King of the Holy Chamber ”
inhabited.
Babylon was made and Esagilla completed.
The gods, the Anunnaki, together made (them).
The holy city they named ‘ Abode of the joy of their hearts.’
Marduk assembled wicker-work on the face of the waters.
He created dust and heaped it up with the wicker-work
To cause the gods to dwell in the abode of the joy of their hearts,
Mankind he created.
Aruru with him created the seed of mankind.”
This is a late Babylonian version of creation in which Marduk
replaces Enki-Ea. In a myth of the destruction of mankind by
drought, famine, and pestilence, it was Mami who recreated
men from clay at the command of Ea. She is here called
“ Mother womb, creatress of destiny,” Having uttered an
incantation over clay, she placed seven pieces of clay at her right
hand, and seven at her leftj between them she put a baked
brick. These became seven and seven childbearing wombs,
seven creating males, and seven creating females. She de-
signed them in her own likeness.®® The same myth describes
in the next episode how a deluge destroyed mankind, and
Mami, summoned by the gods, was told to “ create lullu ®® that
he bear the yoke.” As in the myth translated above, man was
necessary to the happiness of the gods. In this episode, pre-
served only on a fragment from the old Babylonian version,
Mami made man from clay and Ea charged the gods to slay
a god that Ninhursag might mix the clay with his flesh and
blood.®’^ Another text says that Anu wept when the demoness
Lamastu destroyed children with plague, and Aruru-Belit-ili’s
THE SUMERO-ACCADIAN PANTHEON 113
eyes flowed with tears, saying, “ Why should we permit those
whom we created to perish? ”
The myth of the Mother-goddess and her son and husband
who died yearly and descended for a time to the underworld
to be rescued and restored to his wife and mother, generally
appears in Sumerian and especially Babylonian religion at Erech
in the cult of Innini and Dumuzi, Ishtar and Tammuz, but
the older form of this myth in Sumerian seems to have been
associated with the cult of Nintur, Ninhursag, Aruru, and her
son and husband Nesu. It is perhaps a coincidence that the
ancient pictograph for tur consists of the pictures for right and
left hand, and that Nintur = Mami created men from pieces of
clay at her right and left hand.®® The sign tur certainly means
“ bearing womb ” in Nintur, “ Queen of the womb,” and the
same sign developed a form read Ul, “ feeble,” “ decrepit,” also
the word for “ man,” lily Accadian liluy lulluy who was created
from clay by this goddess. The same sign has the meaning
“ ill,” “ pain,” “ sickness ” {tur)y and her son, the dying god,
is described in one hymn as mu-lu-Ul, “ the feeble one.” It
seems, then, that the most ancient titles of this goddess refer
to her having created man and to her having borne the dying
god. Man, the mortal one, whose life-blood and flesh sprang
from a god himself, walks forever in the shadow of death, as
does his divine brother the god Lil, or Nesu.^® A Sumerian
hymn also speaks of the dying god as the brother of Nintur —
Ninhursag:
“ How long, O my brother, O son of Gashanmah?
For my brother I utter lament, utter lament, utter lament always.
I utter lament, a chant of woe for the hero.
I repeat, ‘ how long,’ I repeat ‘ how long,’ ever repeat ‘ how long.’
O hero, thy mother repeats ‘ how long.’
She cries, ‘ O my son, whither shall I entrust thee?
O my brother, from thy resting-place arise, thy mother seeks thee.’
The brother to his sister replied,
‘ Deliver me, O my sister, deliver me.
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
114
The place where I He is dust of the earth ; the slayers repose there.
Restless is my sleep, the wicked dwell there.
O my sister, where I sleep I rise not.
May my mother, who seeks me, free me from imprisonment.’ ”
In this text Lil imprisoned in Arallu is restored to the world
by a magic ritual in which a couch is prepared for his soul.
Throughout this text the Mother-goddess as his sister has the
name Egime, the a-tur {tur)y and his mother, Ninhursag. Ap-
parently the god Shulpae (= Enlil) is assumed to be the father
of the dying god in this text, which is contrary to the entire
contents of the myth, where a virgin birth is always presumed.
In the theological lists pertaining to this myth of Nintur and
Lil, the names Lillu, Nesu, and Assirgi occur for the son of the
goddess Mah.
Not only did the Sumerians and Babylonians believe that
Arum, Nintur, etc., had created man from clay, but when cir-
cumstances required, she was summoned by the gods to create a
man for some special purpose. When Gilgamish sorely op-
pressed the people of Erech the gods heard their wailing [and
said to Arum] :
“ Thou hast created an impetuous son [like a wild bull high is his head].
He has no rival; forth go his weapons.
With the lasso are sent forth his . . .
The men of Erech were cast in misery in their abodes.
Gilgamish leaves not a son to his father.
Day and night he is violent . . .
He is the shepherd of Erech of the sheepfolds.
He is their shepherd and . . .
The strong, the glorified, knower of . . .
Gilgamish leaves not a maiden to [her mother].
Nor the daughter of warrior, nor the betrothed of a man.
Anu? heard their (the people’s) wailing.
They called for the great Aruru (saying),
‘Thou hast created [Gilgamish],
And now create his likeness.
Let [his soul] be like the spirit of his heart.
Let them rival each other, and Erech have peace.’
When Aruru heard this, she created in her mind an image of Anu.
THE SUMERO-ACCADIAN PANTHEON 115
Aruru washed her hands, clay she gathered and cast it on the field.
[In the field] she created the hero Enkidu, the hostile offspring, the
army of Ninurta.”
Here Aruru at the beginning of the Epic of Gilgamish is said
to have created both Gilgamish and the wild man Enkidu. In
later parts of the Epic the goddess Ninsun, called the ri-im-tum
or ri-mat, “ wild cow,” is repeatedly named as the mother of
Gilgamish.^®
The sons of Enlil, Ninurta and Nergal, are the deities of
supreme importance in the Sumerian mythology, and it was a
tribute to the outstanding figure of Ninurta, that the Baby-
lonians attributed to Marduk the role originally assumed by
Ninurta in the great myth of creation, and as a Sun-god. The
original name was Ninurash, and urash is a word for “ morning-
light,” hence his wife (Bau, Gula), has the title Ninudzalli,
“ Lady of the morning-light.” This is the deity Sol invictus
and the War-god of Sumer and Babylonia. On Fig. 51 the
symbol of Ninurta (second from left in second register) is
a weapon with eagle’s head,’^ standing between a winged griffon
(Nergal) and his other symbol, the eagle. In the fourth regis-
ter, the last symbol on the right has an eagle perched on a pil-
lar, also a symbol of Ninurta.^® The eagle on a pillar is also
called “ the twin gods of battle, Shuqamuna and Shumaliya,”
and one monument has these names of the twin gods inscribed
beside the shaft.'^^ To the right of the eagle in the second regis-
ter stands another symbol of the War-god, a weapon with
panther’s head. The two weapons of Ninurta with heads of an
eagle and panther are called the gods Sharur and Shargaz
on one monument.^®
The eagle, therefore, was the symbol of the Sun-god as the
spring and morning sun, victorious over the powers of dark-
ness and the underworld through which he passed nightly.
Although Shuqamuna and Shumaliya are called “ twin gods,”
Shumaliya is known to be a goddess. Like all Sun-gods, how-
ever, Ninurta was also a twin god, and hence one of the most
ii6
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
common Sumerian names for him was “ god-Mash,” the twin
god, expressing his two original aspects as god of the sun above
and below the equator, the beneficent spring sun, and the hostile
god of summer heat and winter’s cold. It is true that to Nergal
was latterly assigned the character of the hostile phases of
the sun, and Ninurta received the propitious powers of that
luminary, but he also retains in many minor aspects traces of
Fig. 54. Ningirsu
the ancient duality. The two names of Mash are Umunlua and
Umunesiga, apparently “ Lord who gives plenty ” and “ Lord
the cruel.”
In mythology Ninurta’s supreme function is war on behalf of
the gods or his people. Ningirsu, the name for him at Lagash,
appears on the seal (Fig. 54) holding a curved weapon with
lion’s head on his left shoulder j a lion’s head springs from
each shoulder, and his right hand holds seven weapons, each
with feline heads. The throne has two crossing lions on its
side, symbols of war, and below the inscription, “ Urdun, priest
of incantations of Ningirsu,” stands the lion-headed eagle, em-
blem of all types of the War-god. In this case the eagle has
two heads characteristic of the twin god, but often only one
head. The emblems of all those cities, where the cult of the
War-god under various local names was prominent, consisted
THE SUMERO-ACCADIAN PANTHEON 117
of a lion-headed eagle grasping in each talon the haunch of a
wild animal. At Lagash, where he had the title Ningirsu, his
emblem is the eagle grasping two lions in this manner; at
Umma (modern Djokha) the animals are ibexes; at Kish,
the seat of the principal cult of the War-god Zamama, the ani-
mals are stags or antelopes, and on the emblem of Kish the
head of the eagle is natural, not lion-headed.®^ Emblems of
this kind from unknown sites on which the eagle does not have
the lion’s head, and with other animals, such as rams,®* are quite
numerous.®® The principal god of Elam, Nin-Shushinak,
“Lord of Susa,” or simply Shushinak, was identified with
Ninurta.®® On painted vases of great antiquity from Susa, the
eagle grasps two aquatic birds, and it occurs also on bitumen
vases.®^ At Tal Ubaid near Ur the finest deep bas-relief (in
copper) of this emblem ever recovered, has the lion-headed
eagle grasping two deer.®® The pottery of Susa has also the
deployed eagle alone, which is probably not identical with the
eagle (with or without lion’s head), symbol of the War-god,
but stands for the bird of the sun simply.®® The original name
of the deployed eagle grasping lions and other animals is “ Bird
Imgig,” always called a god, but in later times “ Bird Im-
dugud,” or Zu, that is “ Storm-bird.” In the myth of Zu,
enemy of the gods, cited above, he was conquered by Ninurta,
and for this reason henceforth became his symbol. The eagle
with deployed wings and rapacious talons appears also in Hit-
tite iconography where it sometimes occurs grasping two ser-
pents.®® The symbol spread from Sumer to Asia Minor and
thence to Europe where it survives to this day. The persistence
of the sun cult at Jerusalem reappears in the golden eagle
placed by Herod on the roof of the temple of Yaw in Jerusalem,
which scandalized the high priest Matthias. He and the pious
Judas cast it down and thereby incurred the supreme penalty of
death at the hands of the dying Herod.®’
The Sumerian legend of the conquest of the dragon of the
storm and chaos, the monster Zu or Imgig, by Ninurta, has
-
ii8
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
been preserved only in stray references of later literature, but
it formed the basis for the elaborate Babylonian Epic of Crea-
tion in which Marduk subdued the female dragon of chaos,
there called Tiamat, and her host. As he, with his weapon
Sharur, “ the cyclone,” rode to battle in a wagon whose roar
shook heaven and Earth, so also Marduk “ took up the ‘ cy-
clone ’ his great weapon and drove the chariot of the storm, the
unopposable and terrible.” Fig. 5 5 shews him driving a winged
dragon, fore-parts lion and hind-parts with tail and feet of an
eagle. A liturgy refers to this old Sumerian myth. The legend
Fig. 55. Marduk Driving Chariot with Winged Dragon
of a gigantic conflict between the Sun-god and the demon of
darkness “ in the beginning,” when the champion of the gods
created the world, established the stars in their places, and
the planets in their courses, presupposed an age when “ darkness
was on the face of the deep,” and when “ Eldhim said, ‘ Let
there be light and there was light,’ ” in the words of the late
compiler of Hebrew traditions.®^ Ninurta is addressed by Anu
and Enlil and ordered to subdue the dragon of chaos, ushumgal,
the “ Great Sea Serpent,” and his ally Zu:
“ Lord of the encompassing net, lord full of terror,
Advance, ride forth; O lord, advance, ride forth.
Great champion, whose word bringeth joy; O lord advance, ride forth.
May great Anu see thee ; O lord, advance, ride forth.
Thou that boldest in leash the Zu-bird ; O lord advance, ride forth.
O lord establish thou thy foundations, yea thou alone, over thy foes.”
THE SUMERO-ACCADIAN PANTHEON 119
In this mythology the eagle, bird of the sun, is clearly dis-
tinct from Imgig or Zu, the ally of the ushumgal or sea-serpent.
On the monuments of all periods the eagle stands for Ninurta
as Sol invictuSy and the eagle with rapacious claws is the storm
bird subdued by this god. This is evident because Ninurta as
Zamama was identified with the constellation Aquila. The
eagle as symbol in Aramaean and Phoenician (see Fig. 19)
is most probably taken directly from this ancient Sumerian
iconography.®^ On Fig. 36, a seal of about the twenty-fifth
century, the eagle is associated with the rising sun, and Fig. 37
shews the midday sun supported on the wings of an eagle, on
an altar of Palmyra. On the other hand the eagle-dragon,
Imgig, was identified with the constellation Pegasus.®*
Ninurta was the subject of two long Sumerian epics and many
hymns. Of the two epics one known as “ The king, the day, the
sheen of whose splendour is far-famed” consisted of about
fourteen tablets in the late bilingual Assyrian version. Tablets
II— IX are almost entirely missing at present. Tablet I is a
hymn in glorification of Ninurta, son of Enlil, as the War-god
who defeats the foes of Sumer:
“ Hero whose powerful net overwhelms the foe.
Ninurta, the royal son, to whom his father prostrates himself afar off.
When Bau prays to him for the king.
When Ninurta the lord, son of Enlil, decrees fate,
Then the weapon of the lord turns its attention to the mountain,®®
The god Sharur cries to the lord Ninurta:
‘ O lord, loftily placed among all lords,
O son, who sat not with a nurse, whom the strength of milk [fed
not].
On that hero, as on a bull, I place my confidence.
My lord, merciful to his city, solicitous for his mother.
Scaled the mountain and scattered seed far and wide.
And the plants with one accord named him as their king.’ ”
Here begins an obscure myth which runs through the entire
epic, the hostility of the various stones and how they were sub-
dued by Ninurta and assigned to various uses. If the earth’s
120
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
vegetation sprang from the sowing of this god, the stones were
hostile and the foes of civilization. The su stone, the sagkal
stone, dolerlte, the wz stone, the “ mountain stone,” and their
leader the alabaster, devastated the cities. “ From the moun-
tain there went forth a poisonous tooth, scurrying, and at his
(Ninurta’s) side the gods of his city cowered on the earth.”
Whether this assault of the stones and the mountain serpent
upon Ninurta’s city (Nippur) refers to some invasion of Sumer
in remote antiquity or to a nature myth is uncertain. Ninurta
turned his face to that place and prepared for war. The Tigris
paled and trembled at his fury. He rode to battle in his ship
Magurmuntae and his people knew not whither he had gone.
The birds in the land of the foe were smitten and their feathers
fell to earth j the thunder of Adad smote the fish of the Deep,
and their cattle were deafened.
“ He caused dogs to consume the hostile land like milk.
The invader cried to his wife and son,
But could not ward off the arm of the lord Ninurta.
His weapon was mingled with dust on the mountain and the Plague
had no compassion.
The divine Sharur weapon raised his hand on high to his lord (saying) :
‘ O hero, what has befallen thee?
The wrath of the mountain hast thou not smitten? ’ ”
It is impossible to follow the course of this epic in the broken
condition of the sources at this point. On one fragment the
myth of the naming of stones, which forms the important epi-
sode later on, is referred to.®® With Tablet IX begins an ad-
dress of Ninurta’s wife Bau or Gula.
“ The lord, soul of Enlil, who is adorned with crown upon his head,
The hero, whose power is not suited to be guided (by others).
Who hastened in majesty, whom (Enlil) sent for my husband.
Whom he begat for my spouse, when roof was not provided.
The son of Enlil rested [«o^], he turned not back his face.
The faithful man whom the faithful woman bore, has come to Eshu-
mera ’®® the place of which his eyes are fond.
I will ‘ sever the cord ’ for the strong lord.’^“’
I am queen alone, and I will go to the eternal lord.”
THE SUMERO-ACCADIAN PANTHEON 121
In the broken passage which follows, Ban prays to Ninurta for
some purpose not given on the fragment, and Ninurta’s reply
contains references to her entering the “ hostile land ” and
reigning there as its queen. Here begins the famous episode of
Ninurta’s addresses to twenty different stones. This myth is
referred to in a hymn to Ninurta:
“ The gypsum on the mountain thou didst trample upon.”
The first address does not preserve the name of the stone. It
began:
“ Once on a time, when Ninurta decreed fates,
Then in, the Land lived the X stone, it is said. Verily this is so.”
The fragmentary lines of this section possibly addressed to the
gypsum {kassu) afford no intelligible text. The second address
began :
“ My lord stood upon the X stone.”
and the whole of this section is missing. The third section began
near the end of Tablet X as follows:
“ My king stood upon the shammu-^tone.
To the illatu and the porphyry he cried.
Ninurta, son of Enlil, decreed their fates.’®*
Ninurta, the lord, son of Enlil cursed it :
‘ O shammu-stont, since in the mountain thou wentest up,
Since for my seizing thou didst bind me.
Since for my slaying thou didst smite me.
I am the lord Ninurta; since in my far-famed abode thou didst ter-
rify me.
May the powerful hero, possessor of strength, the superior, decrease
thy form.
O shammu-stont, may thy brothers pour thee out like meal.
Unto their descendants verily thou shalt be an object of woe, and their
corpses rule thou.
Thou art strong, but let thy wailing be, and thou perish by piercing.
Like a great wild bull, whom many slew, be (this) given as thy
portion,
O shammu-stont, in battle like a dog which the shepherd with weapon
overpowered.
122
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
I am lord; “ Porphyry for piercing,” this be thy name.’
Once on a time, when Ninurta decreed fates.
Then in the Land the illatu-stont, the porphyry, was pierced. Verily
this is so.”
In a fourth address Ninurta stood upon the j«-stone and the
basalt, and cursed them: “Like moths I will annihilate you.”
Goldsmith and smithy should use them. The fifth stone was
sagkalag, literally “chief stone.” This section is almost en-
tirely lost. The last two lines are:
“ Once on a time, when Ninurta decreed fates.
Then in the Land the sagkalag-stont did evil work (?), it is said.
Verily this is so.”
The sixth stone was dolerite, which is said to come from the
“ upper land ” and from Magan (Oman). This stone received
a good fate at the hands of Ninurta:
“ The king, who secures his name unto life of remote times.
Who makes his statue for eternity.
In Eninnu,^®^ temple which is filled with things desirable.
At the place of mortuary sacrifices . . . for seemly use may set
thee.**
The seventh address is to the stone and it is cursed:
“ Lie thou like a swine in thy work.
Be cast aside and for no purpose shalt thou be used, perish by pulveri-
zation.
He that finds thee shalt return thee to the water.”
The eighth stone, alalluniy received a good fate:
“ O alalluy possessor of wisdom, thou that reposest, verily thou shalt
put on my glory.
In the foreign land and likewise in the Land shalt thou proclaim my
name.
Thy greatness shall resist pulverization.
In the clash of arms, O hero, him whom thou slayest grandly cause
to perish.
The Land shall praise thee kindly and hold thee in honour.”
THE SUMERO-ACCADIAN PANTHEON 123
The ninth stone is the “mountain stone,” which received a
place of unparalleled honour:
“ O praised one, the light of whose eyes is cast abroad,
O mountain stone who in the hostile land hast raised a roar of wrath.
Who utterest a roar in battle, wrathfully, terribly.
Him whom my hand conquered not victoriously.
Whom with the cruel ones I bound not,
Shalt thou scatter at the feet of thy people.
Like gold shall they treasure thee.
O hero whom I bound, not have I rested until I gave thee life.”
Marble, the tenth stone, received an illustrious destiny. It
should be used for ornament in the temples and be the delight
of the gods. The eleventh stone, the algamish, is cursed with a
harsh fate:
“ Since thou didst plot against my advance,
Go thou before the craftsmen.
Its name shall be called ‘ Algamish ’ when the daily offering is
brought.”
The twelfth stone, dusu^ is grouped with the hulalu and por-
phyry, and received a good fate,^®® but the third stone, with
which porphyry was grouped, received an evil destiny. This
section is almost entirely missing in the texts j it ends:
“ May the land with homage bow down to thee.”
The thirteenth stone was chalcedony which was cursed with a
hard fate:
“ For thy . . . may the horn lacerate thee, and be thou laid for
adornment.
Set thy face upon one unworthy of thee.
Be thou torn like a mourner’s garment.
The copper-smith shall be set over thee and sever thee with chisel.
The man who brings thy flesh for enmity.
The carpenter who is able to do his work well.
Shall slay thee like death, and flay thee like ry^.”
The fourteenth address to the immana-stont is almost entirely
lost, but from the first line it is clear that it received an evil fate.
124
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
The fifteenth address begins with the maUd-stonty but like sec-
tions three, four, and twelve, other stones are grouped with the
one addressed. Here the dubban-y ukittum-y and gashurra-
stones seem to be species of the mashid. They are destined unto
fame. The sixteenth stone, shagaray is exalted to the chief place
among stones:
“ When thou fleest may every people,
With awe in the builded cities, resting-places of the goddess Ninhursag,
Chant songs of praise because of it.”
With the beginning of the address to the seventeenth stone,
marhushay which received a good fate, the text of the epic is
lost, and we know the names of the five remaining stones from
the catalogue only.
A Sumerian epic to Ninurta in three tablets was known by its
first line Ana-gim gim-muy “ He who like Anu . . .” The
theme of this epic is also war, the conquest of foreign lands, and
the triumphant return of Ninurta to his city Nippur. Of Tablet
I there are only a few references to the warlike power of
Ninurta, the wall of the hostile land, and how in his rage he
smote their gods. A section of Tablet II has the following
lines :
“ Anu in the midst of Heaven gave him fearful splendour.
The Annunaki, the great gods attain it not.
The lord went forth like a cyclone,
Ninurta, destroyer of the wall of the hostile land, went forth like a
cyclone.
Like a storm he raged on the foundation of Heaven.
When by the command of Enlil he took his way to Ekur,
He, the hero of the gods, casting a shadow of glory over the Land,
Even toward Nippur, far away, not near,
Nusku, the far-famed messenger of Enlil, came forth to meet him
in Ekur,
Speaking a word of greeting to the lord Ninurta:
‘ Thy fearful splendour has covered the house of Enlil like a garment.
At the noise of the rumbling of thy chariot
Heaven and Earth tremble as thou comest.
THE SUMERO-ACCADIAN PANTHEON 125
When thou Hftest thy arm a shadow stretches far.
The Annunaki flee in terror even to the host of them.
0 terrify not thy father in his abode.
And cause not the Annunaki to tremble in the dwelling Ubshu-
kinnu.’ ”
At the beginning of the third Tablet Ninurta is replying to
Nusku before his father Enlil and the divine court of Ekur:
“ The warriors, whom I have bound, shall bear a nose-cord like a
goring ox.
The kings, whom I have bound, shall bow their faces (to me) even
as to Shamash.
1 am the mighty cyclone of Enlil who on the mountain was irre-
sistible.
I am the lord Ninurta, let them kneel at the mention of my name.
When Anu, light of the gods,
Anu [a . . . ] chose in his great might, I am he.
By the weapon shattering the high mountains I am he that has war-
rant for kingship.”
He then praises Nippur as his beloved city and the city of his
brothers. Then the god Ninkarnunna, defined as the barber of
Ninurta in other texts, stood before Ninurta and said:
“ O lord, in thy city which thou lovest, may thy heart be at rest.
In the temple of Nippur, thy city, which thou lovest, may thy heart
be at rest.
When thou joyfully enterest the temple Shumera, the dwelling place
of thy heart’s contentment.
Say to thy wife, the maiden, queen of Nippur,
What is in thy heart, say to her what is in thy mind.
Say to her the kindly words of one who is forever king.”
Then Ninkarnunna with words of homage laved his heart with
gift of cool waters. “ These were the things which he said to
him to glorify his decrees forever.” “ When thou enterest into
Eshumera gloriously.” Ninurta looked kindly upon his wife,
the queen of Nippur, and told her what was in his heart and
mind, and the kindly words of one who is forever king. The
epic closes with the following lines:
126
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
“ The warrior whose valour is made most glorious,
Whose greatness in the temple of Enlil filled the world,
The lord, destroyer of the mountains, the unrivalled,
Wrathfully unchained his mighty battle.
The warrior went forth in his might,
Ninurta, the mighty son of Ekur.
O illustrious one of the father that begetteth, far-famed is thy praise.”
Lugallcurdub, a minor deity in the court of Ningirsu of La-
gash, is described in the following passage, where Gudea places
an image of him beside Ningirsu (= Ninurta) in the temple.
“ To hold the mace of seven heads, to open the door of the
temple Enkar, ‘ gate of battle,’ to prepare the sword blade,
the ml-lby the quiver, the raging hurra, and the plan of battle,
to devastate all lands hostile to Enlil, for the lord Ningirsu,
and at his orders, he (Gudea) caused the warrior to enter be-
side him, his lieutenant Lugalkur-dub, who with the weapon
sharur of battle subdues the lands, the chief lieutenant of
Eninnu, falcon of the hostile land.” Beside this deity Gudea
also placed “ the second lieutenant,” described as kur-su-na, the
raven, that he might destroy the hostile land with “ the mi-ib
of Anu, which like a lion rages over the mountains, and with
the sharur, the cyclone of battle, that its terrible sound wreak
destruction and restrain their hearts.”’”® In another passage
Gudea presented this War-god with the following symbols of
battle. “ The chariot ‘ subduer of the foreign land,’ bearing
splendour, clothed in terror, and its young ass, ‘panther of
sweet voice,’ with its coachman, the mace of seven heads, weapon
of battle, which the regions bear not, smiter in battle, the mi-ib,
weapon of hulalu-stont, with head of a panther, which turns
not back against the foreign land, the sword of nine emblems,
arm of valiance, the bow which roars like an ash forest, the
angry arrow of battle which darts like lightning, the quiver
which puts out its tongue against the gnashing wild beasts and
the serpent dragon.”””
These passages are principally concerned with wars against
the enemies of Sumer, but at the end of the last passage there
THE SUMERO-ACCADIAN PANTHEON 127
is a mythological reference to the mushuHu, “ raging serpent,”
or serpent dragon, which is one of the eleven dragons of Tiamat
in the Epic of Creation. In mythological representations of
Marduk this dragon seems to have been the one with which
the memorable primeval battle of the Sun-god with the dragons
of darkness was principally associated. On Fig. 51, third regis-
ter, first symbol, the throne of Marduk with spade is sup-
ported by the dragon which he subdued in his victory over
Fig. 56. Mushussu from Wall at Gate of Babylon
Tiamat. Fig. 56 shews one of the mushussu designed in white
glaze on a blue background on the walls of the gate of Baby-
lon. Gudea adorned the lock-blocks of the door of the tem-
ple of Ningirsu with figures of two monsters of chaos, hasmu
(viper) and nmshussuy which occur together among the dragons
of Tiamat.”^ On pp. 117-8 other references to the original
myth of Ninurta and the battle with the dragons were given.
A fragment, which probably belongs somewhere among the
scantily preserved Tablets II-VIII of the epic discussed
above,^^® contains several lines of a hymn of praise by Ninurta
himself concerning his weapons:
128
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SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
“ In my right hand I bear my divine sharur.
In my left hand I bear my divine shargaz.
The divine ‘ lion with fifty teeth,’ sickle of my Anuship, I bear.
My divine ‘ merciless lion,’ shattering the mountain, I bear.
My weapon agasilikku^ which consumes the dead like the great
dragon, I bear.
My heavy weapon of Anu, shattering the mountains, I bear.
My weapon nunu with seven wings, subduing the mountains, I bear.
The wild cow of battle, my wicked net of the hostile land, I bear.
The sword, sabre of my Anuship, severing the necks, I bear.
My mighty snare of battle, from whose hand the mountains flee not,
I bear.
The help of man, the long bow, arm of my battle, I bear.
Ram that attacks man, my quiver, the cyclone, I bear.
My boomerang and shield, devastating the house of the hostile land,
I bear.
My weapon with fifty heads, cyclone of battle, I bear.
My mace with seven heads, which like the mighty serpent with seven
heads murder does, I bear.
My weapon with seven heads, wrathful crusher of battle, power of
Heaven and Earth, before which the wicked escape not, I bear.
My divine Kurrashurur (‘god who causes the mountain distress’),
whose brightness like day-light is sent forth, I bear.
My divine Erimanutuk (‘ god whose power the wicked withstand
not’), establisher of Heaven and Earth, I bear.
The weapon whose splendour (covers) the Land, grandly made fit
for my right arm, (adorned) with gold and lapis lazuli, which
stands as object of admiration, my divine ‘ Help,’ I bear.
My weapon with fifty heads, which consumes in conflagration the
hostile land, I bear.”
With the names of these twenty weapons the tablet breaks away,
and other weapons probably followed here. The faculty of
deifying aspects and activities of gods is well illustrated here.
In this hymn seven of these weapons are called “gods,” and
a theological list gives five deified weapons as names of the
gods worshipped in various cities, one of which is the city Kar-
Ninurta, “ Wall of Ninurta.” The references in these hymns
to Ninurta’s conquest of the “ mountain ” refers to the wars of
the Sumerians with the inhabitants of the hill countries to the
north and east of Sumer, and the obscure myth of Ninurta and
THE SUMERO-ACCADIAN PANTHEON 129
the cursing or decreeing good and evil fates to stones may be
indirectly connected with these ancient wars and legends.
Of more purely mythical nature is the legend of the six-
headed wild goat slain in the mountain by Ninurta and men-
tioned in the following hymn:
“ Hero in thy going against the hostile land,
Honoured one who from the womb of woman didst not issue,
What is in the Deep, what that thou hast not attained?
What in sea and earth can increase thee?
The self-exalted stone thou didst destroy and the plants altogether thou
hast crushed.
The gods thou hast annihilated with destruction,^’^®
And the gods of Heaven stood by thee for battle.
The gods of Earth at thy call lapsed into silence.
The Anunnaki bowed their faces to thee.
The six-headed wild ram thou didst slay in the mountains.
The gypsum in the mountain thou didst trample upon.
The poisonous tooth of the sky thou hast broken.
When thou hast cried without, the people without thou didst prostrate.
When thou hast cried within, the people within thou didst prostrate.
When thou hast cried over the valleys with blood were they filled.
When thou hast cried over the habitations, thou didst count them as
heaps of ruins.”
The reference to a six-headed ram in the mountains refers to a
monster of the Elamitic land, Yamutbal,^^^ and to ancient wars
between the Sumerians and that mountainous country, which
the word “ mountain ” in all these myths designates. In mem-
ory of Ninurta’s victory over this land, Gudea placed an image
of the six-headed ram, which the hero (Ningirsu) slew, in the
portico of the “ gate of battle ” at Lagash.^^® The “ poisonous
tooth ” refers to a mythical bird, called in parallel texts the erin-
bird with claws,^^® also referred to by Gudea as the <?rm-bird
which lifts its eye upon the bull.” In the myth of Etana and
the eagle there is an episode of Zu, the eagle, which preyed upon
the carcass of a bull and was ensnared by a serpent. The
“ poisonous tooth ” occurred also in the epic discussed above.
The mythological poems, therefore, consistently describe the
130
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
War-god as he who leads the armies of Sumer to victory over
the mountainous lands east of the Tigris, and in these legends
appear mythical monsters, which seem to belong also to the
more famous myth of this sun-god’s conflict with the dragons
of darkness. Zu and Mushussu, the eagle and serpent dragon,
both occur in the passages cited above,’^’ and concern the same
region, where Sumerian traditions place the exploits of the War
and Sun-god j it became latterly the home of Iranians, whose
principal myth is identical with the battle of Ninurta with the
dragons of primeval chaos. Indra of Indian mythology slew
the demon Ahi (Serpent), and in that battle Heaven and
Earth trembled in fearj in the same manner Heaven and Earth,
and the gods on high and below, trembled at the fury of
Ninurta’s battle with the dragons. Another form of the Iranian
myth of the conflict of light and darkness is the battle of Trita
and the three-headed and six-eyed serpent Visvarupa in the
Veda.’^^ The Iranian myth is told of Ahura Mazda or Thrae-
taona and the three- jawed, triple-headed, six-eyed Azhi, rep-
resented as a being with two serpents springing from his shoul-
ders.’^® Another form of Thraetaona is Verethraghna who
subdued Azhi (=Ahi) and Vishapa, “he whose saliva is
poisonous.” There can be hardly any doubt but that Azhi is
the serpent dragon mushussu or the serpent with seven heads
mentioned in the hymn to Ninurta.’®* And Vishapa is surely
connected with Zu, “ the poisonous tooth.” Ninurta and the
dragons correspond so closely to Ahura Mazda and the similar
Iranian myth that it would be remarkable if this entire Indian
and Iranian legend was not ultimately Sumerian. The annual
victory of the spring sun over the period of winter’s darkness
probably suggested to the Sumerians the idea that in the begin-
ning all was a watery chaos ruled over by the serpent dragon
and her host when “darkness was on the face of the deep.”
After his conquest of the dragons and latterly of the moun-
tainous lands hostile to Sumer, the gods entrusted Ninurta
with the “ Tablets of Fate,” precisely as in the later Marduk
THE SUMERO-ACCADIAN PANTHEON 13 1
version that deity received them as a reward for his victory
over Tiamatd^® Fig. 57, from a seal of a comparatively late
period, shews the god Ninurta, or, in the later period, Marduk
or Ashur, pursuing the mushussu. In his right hand he holds
a weapon with six heads, and hurls a thunderbolt with his left
hand. The usual representation of this myth is the god with
drawn bow aiming an arrow at a winged lion; sometimes
the lion has an eagle’s head, and the god himself four wings in
late glyptique.’^® Sometimes the god wields a sickle attached
Fig. 57. Ninurta Pursuing the Musgussu
to a long handle. On some seals the animals are natural
eagles, ostriches, rams, and roe-bucks, a winged horse, and
unicorn.
Like all gods who were “ sons,” Ninurta was originally also
Tammuz, son of the Earth-mother, and died each year with
perishing vegetation. Few traces of his connection with that
myth and cult remain, as it was almost entirely suppressed by
the Tammuz cult. The most direct survivals are the myths of
Lil and Nintur’^ and of Marduk and Ishtar, both of which
correspond to Tammuz and Ishtar. Ab-u or Es-u, one of the
principal titles of Tammuz, is also a title of Ninurta.’^® Ni-
nurta was regent of the month Tammuz and has also the title
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
132
Ni(n)kilim, “Lord of swine,” in the earliest Sumerian textsd^®
The cult of Nikilim spread to the west, where he was wor-
shipped at an unknown site, Diniktud®” The Accadian word for
“ pig,” humusiruy is used as a title for Ninurta, and is followed
by another title, sugannunnay “ lord of the sea coast,” by which
Phoenicia is probably meant/®^ Aramaic transcriptions of the
name nin-ib in the Persian period give the pronunciation
Anushat, or Anmasht, or Enmasht, or Ennammasht. When
we take into consideration that klUniy “pig,” is also rendered
by nammashtUy^'^ “ small cattle,” probably also in a special
sense “ swine,” it is possible that Ninurta’s title may be
Ennammasht, “ Lord of swine.” It is, therefore, certain
that the pig was sacred to Ninurta, and possible that he was
known both in Babylonia and throughout the West as “Lord
of Swine.” In any case as War-god, he was associated with the
western War-god, who is there always the Sky- and Thunder-
god Adad, Ishar, Yaw. This probably explains why the pig,
at least among the worshippers of Yaw, i.e., the Hebrews, was
tabu and its flesh forbidden to be eaten. This animal was
well known in Sumer and Babylonia, but, in the innumerable
records of offerings and economic transactions, it practically
never occurs as a food, and a temple calendar forbids it to be
eaten on the thirtieth of the fifth month. A fable in Assyrian
states that the pig is unclean and an abomination to the gods.
It is difficult to understand why the Sumerians, Babylonians,
and Canaanites kept pigs at all j for it seems clear that none of
these peoples used them much for food.
The cult of Ninurta spread to the West in early times, and
a temple of Ninurta at Gebal is mentioned in the fifteenth cen-
tury, It was precisely at Gebal that the famous legend of the
annual wounding by a boar, in the wild and mountainous val-
ley of the Adonis, was told. The seal (Fig. 58) from Kish,
where Ninurta’s principal cult under the name Zamama as
War-god existed from prehistoric times, may possibly be con-
nected with a legend of the killing of Nikilim by a wild boar.
THE SUMERO-ACCADIAN PANTHEON 133
The meaning of the scene is obscure, and the figure of the
person lancing a spear from the top of a palm tree may not be
a deity. It may be connected with the motif of the Sun-god
appearing from a tree discussed in Chapter There was
also a city, Beth-Ninurta, near Jerusalem, in the same period.^®®
Since the god Damu, a regular title of Tammuz, was also a
deity of Gebal,^®® and since Damu also appears for Gula, wife
of Ninurta, it is obvious that not only the Adonis cult of Gebal
was borrowed from the Tammuz cult of Sumer, but that Ni-
nurta, Nikilim, “the lord of swine,” has a direct connection
with the Sumerian and Phoenician cults of the dying god.
The myths of the War-god of Sumer and Babylonia were
attached by the Hebrews to their own Yaw, who as Sky- and
Thunder-god fills this role in their mythology, or to the older
Hebrew deity, the Sun-god El, Eloah. With the myth illus-
trated by Fig. 57 compare the Hebrew survival in Job xxvi.
12-13:
“ Through his power the sea was stilled,
And by his adroitness he smote Rahab.
By his wind the Heavens are brightened;
His hand pierced the fleeing serpent.”
The primeval battle of the Sun-god with the dragons of the
watery chaos appears in the late hymn to Yaw:
134
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
“ Thou hast rent asunder the sea by thy power,
Thou hast broken the heads of the dragons on the waters.
Thou hast smitten the heads of Leviathan,
And given him as food to the wild beasts.”
Here Leviathan with many heads is reminiscent of the battle
of Ninurta and the six-headed ram. Yaw and the battle with
the dragons was a familiar theme in the visions of late Hebrew
poets. In the vision of a poet who prophesied the vengeance of
Yaw upon a sinful world, in which only His own people should
be saved, the dragon legend is used as a symbol of His punish-
ment of Assyria, Babylonia, and Egypt:
“ In that day Yaw will take vengeance.
With his sword, harsh, great, and powerful,
Upon Leviathan, the fleeing serpent.
And upon Leviathan, the coiling serpent.
And will strangle the dragon which is the sea.”
Job attributed the legend to El in the verses:
“ Eloah doth not turn back his anger;
The helpers of Rahab did stoop under him.”
In the troubled period of the Jewish Exile a poet appealed to
Yaw to shew again his power as in the ancient days when He
smote Rahab and pierced the dragon.^^®
Ninurta, however, was identified with Saturn (not with
Mars), called sag-us, or in Accadian, kaimanUy “the steady
star.” Amos accused his countrymen of the Northern King-
dom (Samaria) of bearing their images, Sikkut, “your king,”
and Kiyyun. One of the names of Ninurta was Sakkut,^^^
otherwise called Etalak, who with his companion, Latarak,
stood at the gate of sunrise to open the gate for the entering of
Shamash. We have already seen that the title maliky “ king,”
was popular in Canaan for the Sun-god, and in fact the Septua-
gint renders Amos v.26 by “ ye have borne the tent of Moloch.”
Ninurta, as god who opens the gate of sunrise, is a twin-god,
and a hymn to him has the following lines:
THE SUMERO-ACCADIAN PANTHEON 135
“ The gate of Heaven thou didst open.
The bolt of Heaven thou didst seize away.
The lock-pin of Heaven thou didst lift.
The lock-rail of Heaven thou didst pull back.”
Sikkut is a corruption of the popular name Sakkut as god of
Sunrise, and Kiyyun is a false vocalization in Hebrew for Kay-
wan, as the Septuagint Raiphan for Kaiphan proves.
Ninurta was, therefore, a deity whose cult was firmly estab-
lished in Canaan, as War-god, as Sun-god, as Saturn, and as
brother of the Earth-goddess Astarte or Ashtoreth. As Tam-
muz or “ brother,” Yaw appears in the Hebrew names Ahi-
Yaw, “ My brother is Yaw,” and in Ahi-Melek, “ My brother
is Malik,” and in many other names, survivals of this Baby-
lonian myth from the older Canaanitish religion. At Gebal
the name of an official, Abdi-Ninurta, in the fifteenth century,
proves the popularity of this deity in the home of the cults of
El and Adonis. In astrology Ninurta was identified under
various names with the complex of stars Sirius, called “ the ar-
row,” the Bow-star composed of €, 5 ,t of Cams Major, and
/c,X of Puppis and Orion, wherein the Babylonians probably
saw a gigantic hunter drawing an arrow on his bow.
In Chapter I the character and western forms of Nergal, the
Sumerian deity of the summer and winter sun, and counterpart
of Ninurta, were described in detail. The oldest known title
of this underworld deity is Lugalmeslam, “ King of Meslam.”
Meslam, the pronunciation of which is uncertain, is apparently
a cosmological word for a mythical chamber in the underworld
where the Sun-god remained during the night-time. The ordi-
nary title in the later periods is “ god who comes forth from
Meslam.” Most of the titles of this deity describe him as
formidable agent of death and pestilence, lord of the grave,
and judge of those that die. The title by which he was best
known, Gir-unu-gal, “ Mighty one of the vast abode,” became
Nergal in West Semitic transcriptions and must have been so
pronounced by the Babylonians. Other titles are “Raging
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
136
King of the earth,” “ Raging god,” “ Lion, the slayer,” “ He
who lies in wait for man on a journey,” and the Babylonians
named him “ the evil god,” that is Satan, who like Nergal in
Western mythology, was lord of the fires of Hell. This deity
is by origin undoubtedly the god of the burning sun, and his
title Gira means “ fire.” A text says that “ Shamash and Ner-
gal are one,” and his Accadian name umu means “ heat.” Like
his brother, Ninurta, he is also a god of War who carries merci-
less weapons. Also the moon, during its period of darkness at
the end of the month, belonged to the realm of Nergal in the
lower world, and offerings were made to him on those days.
On Fig. 51 his emblem is seen in the second register, first fig-
ure on the left, a winged lion on which stands a weapon with
two lion heads, characteristic of the Janus nature of Nergal,
god of inferno and pestilence on earth. Fig. 59, a terra-cotta
bas-relief from Kish, has the head of a deity, who should be
Zamama, the War-god. On the left stands the weapon with
panther’s head, symbol of Ninurta-Zamama, but on the right
the weapon with two lion heads of Nergal. There is a sun disc
at the side of the head. The combination of the emblems of
Ninurta and Nergal found on the site of the principal cult of the
War-god proves that the Babylonians had difficulty in distin-
guishing them.
But as a Fire-god and lord of the lower world he is also
god of flocks and foaling (Shagan), and he increases grain and
gives life to men. A prayer to him has the following lines:
“ O lord, powerful, exalted, first-born of Nunamnir,’^^
First among the Anunnaki, lord of battle.
Thou art become prince in Arallu; no rival hast thou.
With Sin in Heaven thou perceivest all things.
Enlil, thy father, gave thee the black-headed people, the totality of
creatures.
He entrusted to thy hand the cattle of the field,
and animals.”
A prayer to him as the planet Mars calls him the “ merciful
god ” who gives life to the dying.
THE SUMERO-ACCADIAN PANTHEON 137
Under the title Gira, Ira, Irra, Nergal appears in a long
Accadian myth known as “ King of all habitations ” or the
“ Series Irra,” said to have been revealed by night to a scribe
Kabti-ilani-Marduk. The name of the scribe and the fact that
no Sumerian original has been found, prove that it was written
Fig. 59. Terra-cotta Bas-relief from Kish, with
Head of the War-god
at Babylon either during or after the age of Hammurabi.^'*^
It was Ishum, messenger of Irra, who revealed the poem to this
scribe, and Irra was pleased by it saying: “ Whosoever reveres
this song shall accumulate riches in his sanctuary. The king
who magnifies the verses shall rule the regions. The psalmist
who chants it shall not die by pestilence. In the house where
this tablet is placed, though Irra rage and the seven gods slay,
the sword of pestilence shall not come nigh, but peace is pro-
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
138
vided for it.” The argument of the poem, which in the Nine-
vite edition occupied five tablets and about five hundred or
more lines, cannot be followed in many parts owing to numer-
ous lacunae in our present material.
-
Irra the slayer desired battle and spoke to his weapons, “ the
Seven gods,” to smear themselves with the poison of death.
They urged him forth to destroy the land. But Irra wished
to repose and enjoy himself with Mami his wife. Here the
dreadfulness of the “ Seven gods,” that is the seven weapons
of Irra, is described. Anu, the father of the gods, begat them,
gave them their names, and decreed their fates. The seven
fates are: (i) “On high appear and go without rival ”j (2)
“Be like the god Mes the furious great bull ”5 (3) “The ap-
pearance of a lion has been provided for thee . . . carry out
the order ”j (4) “ When thou liftest thy raging weapons let
the mountain perish ”5 (5) “Rush like the wind and spy
out the regions ”5 (6) “ Enter above and beneath and spare no
thing ”j (7) “The seventh he filled with poison of a dragon
serpent (saying) ‘cause to perish the soul of life.’ ” Anu gave
the seven gods to Irra for his helpers because Irra was enraged
against the people and had decided to slay man and beast.
And so the seven weapons arose and urged Irra to destroy menj
they will not sit in the city like pale-faced old men or like chil-
dren at home, or eat bread of women. Here there is a break
in the story and after the lacuna there is a long description
of the devastation planned by the Seven gods. Mountains
and lands, gods, demons, kings, men, and cattle shall be ter-
rified.
Irra heard them and was pleased. He ordered Ishum to
institute the calamity. “ Open the way, I will take the road.”
But Ishum counsels mercy and is rebuked by Irra: “Be silent,
O Ishum, hear my words. (In Heaven) I am the wild bull,
in earth the lion.” He then speaks of the “ city,” which in later
passages is Babylon, against which Irra’s wrath is principally
aroused. Here again there is a lacuna, after which Irra, still
THE SUMERO-ACCADIAN PANTHEON 139
speaking, divulges his reasons for plotting the destruction of
the land. They live in peace and are righteous, worshipping
the gods. Prisoners they release and set free the bound.
“ Like pious orphans they pray to god.
They observe the judgment of god and preserve justice.
They guard themselves against frivolity and withhold slander.”
He is, therefore, the incarnation of evil, who, like Satan, hates
all piety and goodness. This people, he says, are the favoured
ones of Marduk, who is the “ god ” referred to above. But
Irra will plunder Babylon. Here the poet inserts a long ex-
tract from a hymn to Shamash,^^® placed in the mouth of Irra:
“ The burglar, the thief, the foe of Shamash,
He who assaults on the country road, they come before thee.
Thou hast not held back those who come before thee ; thou dost grasp
their hands.
In the way of distress and sorrow thou directest his feet.”
But Irra, enraged because men forget his name and obey Mar-
duk, says:
“ The prince Marduk I will cause to rage, will summon him from his
throne and devastate the people.”
He goes to Babylon, city of the “ king of gods,” enters Mar-
duk’s temple, Esagila, and says that the adornment of his lord-
ship which, like a star of Heaven, is full of beauty, shall be
removed. Marduk replied that once before the Pest-god
Irra had ordered him to leave his throne, which he did, and
therefore “ I brought about the Flood, and let loose the pesti-
lence of Heaven and Earth, Living things were few, and so
I like a farmer took their seed and ... I saw the people who
remained after the Flood and . . .” Here the context seems to
imply that Marduk accuses Irra of having sent his weapons
forth to destroy what remained after the Flood, but Marduk
saved seven (?) wise ones {ummam) by causing them to de-
scend to the Apsu, and the precious mes-Xx^^'s, by “ changing
140
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
their places.” “ Because of this work which thou, O hero,
didst command to be done, where is the w^j-tree, flesh of the
gods, adornment of kings? ” “ The mesu-Xxz^^'* says Marduk,
“ had its roots in the wide sea, in the depth of Arallu, and its top
attained high Heaven.” He asks Irra where are the lapis lazuli,
the gods of the arts, and the seven wise ones of the Apsu.
This obscure passage apparently refers to an ancient destruc-
tion of the world caused by Irra, and the Flood, which in other
myths was sent by the great god Enlil because of the sins of
men. In Chapter VIII a legend of a series of world catas-
trophes sent by Enlil will be found. The seven wise ones
whom Marduk sent to the Apsu refer apparently to the myth
of the eight or ten pre-diluvian kings, who became “ seven
elders ” {afqallu) in later mythology, and were assigned in
this myth to the cities Ur, Nippur, Eridu, Kullab, Kesh,
Lagash, and Shuruppak. The seven ancient elders who lived
before the Flood had written down the secrets of divina-
tion, all magic arts, and wisdom. Berossus, however, pre-
serves a legend of four or five mythical monsters called An-
nedotus, which appeared from the sea in the pre-diluvian
period.^®® In one text the “ seven elders ” or wise men have
the forms of birds or fish.^®^ Irra’s reply to Marduk is all but
destroyed on the tablets. Marduk again tells him that, if he
leaves his throne, wild beasts and demons will invade the land,
and the gods of the lower sea will arise to make an end of all
living things. Irra intractable presents an ultimatum to Mar-
duk: “Until thou enterest that house (the nether sea) and
the Fire-god cleanses thy garments, and thou returnest to thy
place, so long will I continue to make mighty the pestilence of
Heaven and Earth. I will ascend to Heaven and give orders
to the Igigi, I will descend to Apsu and take charge of the
Anunnaki.” And so Marduk rose from his throne and set his
face to the abode of the gods of the nether sea, “ the inaccessible
place.” At this point the texts present only a few words in a
long lacuna in which some god (Enki?) addresses Marduk,
THE SUMERO-ACCADIAN PANTHEON 141
and then there is apparently a prophecy of destruction. Then
the gods Ea, Shamash, and Sin are filled with rage at the mis-
ery caused by Marduk’s abandoning his throne. Ea, who in all
similar myths appears as the saviour of mankind, now laments
over the world catastrophe and his son Marduk.
“ Now that Marduk has gone forth, he who these wise ones {caused to
descend to Afsu),
Whose images I created, to Irra . . . saying,
‘ They draw nigh where no god comes . .
To those wise ones wide hearts he [gave].
Understanding he gave them, their hands he filled richly.
This artful work they made brilliant and now it is cast asunder more
than before.”
Irra (in a broken passage) replied to him and continued his
threats. Of Marduk’s speech which follows no information
can be obtained from the fragment. Again Ishum addresses
Irra urging him to withhold his wrath. Irra sat in Emeslam
pondering over the situation, but his mind gave no answer.
He sought counsel of Ishum, first telling him his intention:
“ Open the way, I will take the road,
The days are ended, the fixed time has past.”
He then prophesies the destruction of Shamash, Adad, and
Marduk, and the annihilation of Babylon.
“ I will decimate the [land] and count it as ruin.
The cities I will destroy and turn them to a wilderness.”
Ishum’s reply is entirely lost in a long lacuna, in which an ad-
dress of Enlil to Irra began. The last lines of Enlil’s advocacy
of Irra’s plan to destroy the Babylonians are preserved:
“ Thou shalt ‘ plant ’ the weapons of the warriors, the proteges, the
disdain of Anu and Dagan,
And cause the carrefours of the city to receive their blood like the
waters of a torrent.
Thou shalt open their veins and cause the river to carry it.”
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
142
This is one of the prophecies or threats against Babylon which
are repeated below, and from which the Hebrew writer of
Isaiah, chapters xiii and xiv, probably drew inspiration for his
own terrible prophecy against Babylon. Marduk (here called
Enlil! ) cried out in woe and a curse irrevocable broke from his
lips: “Not shall he drink the waters of that river, nor shall he
. . . their blood and enter Esagila.” But Irra again com-
mands Ishum to prepare the way, and the Seven gods to wreak
destruction. Ishum once more counsels mercy:
“ Alas for my people which Irra the ‘ deluge ’ with great evils {would
exterminate) .
Against whom the hero Nergal, as in the days of the battle with
Asakku,^®^ {acts without mercy.)
As when Irra (?) to slay him retreated not . . .
As when to bind the wicked Zu a net [spread].
Ishum appeals again for mercy:
“ O leader, against god and king thou hast planned evil,
And against the hlack-headed people thou hast planned evil and re-
pentest not.”
Angered by the clemency of his messenger Irra rebukes him:
“ Of the Igigi knowest thou the mind and of the Anunnaki the intention?
And givest thou orders to the black-headed people and causest thou
wrath to slay the wicked god (Marduk)?
The king of the gods has gone from his throne,
And why should all the lands remain true? ”
Here Ishum’s reply is fragmentary, but he still protests. Again
Enlil, who in all earlier similar myths is the author of the
various world catastrophes, addresses Irra and encourages him:
“ O hero Irra, thou hast taken the reins of heaven.”
He proclaims him as in complete control of the “ pestilence of
Heaven and Earth,” and of Esagila, Marduk’s temple.
“ Thou hast not feared the name of the prince Marduk.”
THE SUMERO-ACCADIAN PANTHEON 143
He now directs Babylon, city of the king of the gods:
“ Thou hast changed thy divinity and become like a man.
Thou hast put on thy weapons and entered into it [Babylon].
In Shuanna, as one who devastates a city, thou speakest like one who
shatters.’^®®
The Babylonians, who, like reed of the cane-brake, have no overseer,
all of them have assembled unto thee.
He who knew not weapons unsheathes his iron dagger.
The quiver of him who knew not the arrow is full.
Upon the sanctuaries of Babylon fire is hurled as by a plunderer of
the land.
Of that city, against which I send thee, O thou man.
Fear not the god, be not frightened, O man; small and great put to
death altogether.
The suckling child spare not, no not any.
The heaped up treasures of Babylon shalt thou plunder.
Thou shalt ‘ plant ’ the weapons of the warriors, the proteges, the
disdain of Anu and Dagan,
And cause the carrefours of the city to receive their blood like waters
of a torrent.
Thou shalt open their veins and cause the river to carry it.”
Marduk cried in woe and a curse irrevocable broke from his
lips:
“ Not shall he drink the waters of that river nor shall he . . . their
blood and enter Esagila.”
Here there is a lacuna in which Irra seems to answer Marduk,
and, when the argument can be followed again, some god is
speaking to Irra, this time concerning the destruction of Erech,
city of Anu and Ishtar. Here the poem passes to facts and
not prophecy.
“Thou hast destroyed its wall without (permission) of Shamash and
cast down his throne.
In Erech, abode of Anu and Ishtar,
City of hierodules, whores, and courtesans.
For whom Ishtar paid a husband and counted him as theirs.
Where bedouin men and women utter cries,
(And) eunuchs and eunuch-singers are summoned to Eanna,
Whose virility Ishtar turned to effeminacy to terrify the people,
They who bear the dagger, razor, sword, and stone knife,
144
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
They who eat ... to make glad the mood of Ishtar,
Thou hast set a cruel and relentless governor.
Ishtar raged and was angered against Erech.
She summoned a foe and he seizes it away like grain before the
waters.”
And Anu wailed over the ruins of Badanki (Erech). Here
there is a long lacuna, until the text comes to a dire prophecy
against Babylon by Ishum addressing Irra. Ishum, who had
persistently advocated mercy, is now wholly on the side of Irra.
“ ‘ The son I will cause to die and his father shall bury him.
And then the father will I cause to die and he shall have none to bury
him.
O hero Irra, thou shalt destroy the faithful and the unfaithful.
Him that sinned against thee shalt thou destroy.
Him that sinned not against thee shalt thou destroy.’
And thus hast thou spoken in thy heart, O hero Irra:
‘ The mighty will I smite and put an end to the orphan.
The leader of the host will I slaughter, and put the host to rout.
Irkalla will I shake and the Heavens shall tremble.
The brilliancy of Jupiter (Marduk) will I cause to fall and the stars
will I suppress.
The root of the tree will I tear up and its sprout will not thrive.’ ”
The prophecy against Babylon and its king in Isaiah xiii, xiv
is clearly reminiscent of this passage. The Hebrew writer at-
tributes the ruin of Babylon to her own sins, and not as here to
the wilful hostility of the terrible Nergal, jealous of right-
eousness and angered because the Babylonians had not also wor-
shipped him. But the wrath of Irra and the wrath of the
Hebrew Yaw are described in much the same way. “ Their in-
fants shall be dashed in pieces before their eyes.” “ I will
make the heavens to tremble and the earth shall be shaken out
of her place.” So prophesied the Hebrew writer, and even
more obvious is his borrowing from the Irra myth when he
compares the king of Babylon to Helel: “ How art thou fallen
from Heaven, O Helel, son of the morning! ” In the cunei-
form text of the Irra myth Marduk is called Shulpae, the name
of Jupiter in the early morning, and there can be little doubt
THE SUMERO-ACCADIAN PANTHEON 145
but that Helel is a transcription of a Babylonian title of
Marduk- Jupiter, elil, “the shining one.” Irra rejoiced at the
prophecy of Ishum and said: “ Sea shall not spare sea, Subartu
not Subartu, Assyrian not Assyrian, Elamite not Elamite, . . .
land not land, city not city, house not house, brother not
brother. They shall slay each other, and then the Accadians
shall come and decimate all of them, prostrate them totally.”
Here Irra plans a world destruction by internecine strife, when
the Accadians shall profit from the universal disorder. This is
clearly an historical reference to the ancient conquests of Sargon
of Accad, who in fact overran the whole of Western Asia in the
twenty-eighth century b.c., and his records mention precisely
the same peoples. In fact the Irra myth has incorporated sev-
eral historical disasters from various periods in its composition,
which have no connection with the main motif, the destruction
of Babylon, probably at the hands of Sargon of Assyria, or
some earlier Babylonian disaster such as occurred at the hands
of Tukulti-Ninurta I in the thirteenth century. And so Irra
sent Ishum upon his direful mission 5 the Seven gods went
with him. They seized and plundered Mount Sharshar (?)
and devastated the vineyards of the “ forest of hashuru-
trees.” In a lacuna Irra describes his own work in the
present tense (here not prophetic) :
“ The seas I trouble and their produce . . .
Cane-brake and forest I parch . . .”
Only the end of this long description of the fall of Babylon is
preserved. Irra rested from the slaughter. All the gods stood
before him in terror, as he spoke to them:
“ Be silent, all of you, and learn my words.
Truly I prepared the calamity because of the former sin.
My heart raged that I decimated the peoples.
Like a hireling of the flocks the leading sheep from the fold I have
brought forth.^®®
Like one who plants not fruit-trees I weary not to cut down.
Like a plunderer distinguishing not faithful and wicked I seize away.
Like a devouring lion from whose mouth they seize not the corpse.
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
146
And where one perished in fear a second shall not counsel him.
Is not Ishum my forerunner? What is he?
Where is your patron, your high priest where?
Where are your offerings, where shall you fill incense? ”
The poem is not consistent in its explanation of Irra’s reasons
for destroying Babylonia. Here the reason is the “former
sin,” not otherwise explained, but in accordance with their
theology all calamities were punishments for their own or their
fathers’ sins. In other parts of the poem Irra’s motif is ex-
plicitly stated to be his own inherent love of plague and slaugh-
ter and hatred of righteousness. Ishum then addressed Irra:
“ O hero be still and hear my words.
Behold now, rest; we stand before thee.
In the day of thy wrath where is thy rival? ”
The poem ends with Irra’s appeasement and a prophecy of a
new age of prosperity for Babylon. He heard Ishum’s words
and his face beamed with pleasure. He entered Emeslam and
sat on his throne, summoned Ishum, and announced a proph-
ecy for the scattered people of Accad.
“ The peoples of the land are few, let them again become many.
Let them enter on their way, the destitute as one of abundance.
The orphaned Accadian shall overthrow the Sutean.
One shall overturn seven like sheep.
Their cities thou shalt turn to ruins and his mountain to a wilderness.
Thou restore the gods of the land, who have become angered, upon
their thrones.
The god of Flocks and the Grain-goddess will I cause to descend upon
the land.
The fields which I parched will bear produce.
Years without number shall they the praise of the great lord
Nergal, the hero.”
The Seven gods, who occupy an important place in Babylo-
nian and Assyrian religion, do not appear to belong to the origi-
nal Sumerian mythology. By origin they are deified weapons
of war, of the Sun-gods Ninurta and Nergal, and their number
“seven” seems to have resulted, in later times, from their
THE SUMERO-ACCADIAN PANTHEON 147
identification with the seven Pleiadesd®® Images of these
Seven gods, described as having terrifying wings, before whom
an image of Nergal was placed, are used to protect a man’s
house against demons in rituals.’®^ They are here addressed
in the singular as one deity, and identified with the Fire -god.
Their images were buried at the outer gate of a house, and they
are described in this manner. “ They have crowns, and stand
together upon a platform of reed matsj in their right hands
they carry a copper bow — . . . , in their left hands a copper
sword j they wear copper girths, and have copper horns j bows
and quivers are placed on their arms.” In all these rituals
they are accompanied by their sister Narudu. She wears on her
loins a band of kalu (glaze?) like a loin cloth and has a red
turban 5 from her left arm she suspends a seal. Eunuchs wore
garments like those of Narudu. Although the Seven gods aid
Nergal in ruthless slaughter of mankind, they, like him, are also
protectors of the people, and Asarhaddon names them “ the
heroic gods, who hold javelin and arrow, whose onslaught is
dire battle,” among the great gods who chose him to rule in
Assyria.
-
As god of the land of the dead Nergal was the implacable
judge of souls in Aralluj at least this myth of a last judgment
became current in the late period. His planet Mars is called the
“ star of judgment of the fate of the dead.” God of the grave,
of inspection, and of judgment, are the explanations of his prin-
cipal titles, and as god of judgment the Sumerian equivalent is
“ Terrible one of the lower world.” A ceremony for laying
the foundation of a building contains the following invocation
to Enmesarra, one of his titles:
“ O Enmesarra, lord of the earth, prince of Arallu,
Lord of the place, and of the land of no return, mountain (i.e. might)
of the Anunnaki,
Decider of decisions in the earth (lower world), great band (control-
ler) of Andurunna.’®°
Great lord, without whom Ningirsu directs not rivulet and canal, and
creates not verdure.
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
148
Lord of the enclosure, who rules the earth by his power.
Of vast power in terra firma, seizer of the regions of inferno,
Bestower of sceptre and ring ( ? ) upon Anu and Enlil.”
Of the judgment of the souls of the dead, there is this poem.
A man dreamed that he had died. He descended to the lower
world j he travelled with a boatman across the waters of death
and passed the terrifying watchman at the gates of Arallu. He
came before Nergal, who sat on a throne before five hundred
gods. He prostrated himself before Nergal and was threat-
ened with terrible punishment. But Ishum, named the “ de-
fender,” who spares life and loves righteousness, allayed the
wrath of Nergal. The man was absolved and Nergal finally
said: “ For thou hast not forgotten me and I will not destroy
thee. Worry and pain shall be thy portion no more. Thou
shalt be adorned with royal power and all lands shall praise
thee. For whosoever honours the god Ashur and celebrates
his New Year festival shall be lord in the garden of fulness.”
A collection of Tablets found in tombs of the Persian period
at Susa proves that the Babylonians believed in judgment and
rewards in Arallu. One of them has the following expression
of this faith:
“ Behold I depart, O my god, my lord.
Into the presence of the Anunnaki.
Lo I pass beyond the tomb.
May I take thy hand before the great gods.
And hear the judgment, and embrace thy feet.
Thou hast waited, and caused me to escape the house of darkness, O
my god.
Yea even the morass of distress and misery.
In the land of calamity thou hast sought me out.
Thou hast made me the precious gift of water and food
In the field of thirst.”
The two solar deities, Ninurta and Nergal, are clearly dis-
tinguished from the Sun-god Shamash, Sumerian Utu, “ heat,”
“ blaze,” “ day-light,” or Babbar, “ the shining.” The two
former as special aspects of the sun with reference to the earth
are far more important in mythology than the deity of the sun
Fig. 6o. Sun-god and Hammurabi
150
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
simply. There were two principal centres of sun worship, both
certainly dating from early Sumerian times, Ellasar in the south
and Sippar, about twenty-five miles north of Babylon. The texts
ordinarily call Shamash son of Ningal and Sin, the Moon-
goddess and Moon-god, and sometimes the son of Enlil, which
is undoubtedly the Original belief. In the theological lists he
follows the Moon-god. Shamash does not appear as a principal
figure in any Sumerian or Accadian myth. He was the god of
divination and purification far excellencey and as such he oc-
cupies a position of outstanding importance in the prayers of
those in distress. As the all-seeing god of Light, he was patron
of law and justice. It was he who revealed the laws of Baby-
lonia to the great king Hammurabi.
Fig. 6o, a bas-relief from the top
of the great diorite stele on which
this king inscribed the laws of Baby-
lonia, shews the Sun-god with rays
of light springing from each shoul-
der, seated, and extending toward
the worshipping king the sceptre
and ring, emblems of rule and
justice. The ordinary symbol of
Shamash is the four-pointed star
with rays streaming from the inner angles, the whole mounted
on a convex disk (Fig. 51, at the top). In later times, by
inverting the triangular points, the Assyrians obtained the so-
called Maltese cross, which is of Babylonian origin. Fig. 61
is taken from a necklace of Ashurnazirpal II j the king wore
five symbols on his necklace — the star of Ishtar-Venus, the
thunderbolt of Adad, the crescent of Sin, the horned turban
of Enlil-Ashur, and this symbol of Shamash. Ammizaduga,
king of Babylon, made a famous golden statue of Shamash
for his temple Ebarra in Sippar in 1913 b.c., which was
plundered from the temple, and recovered by Nabuapaliddin
(ninth century), who made a model of it for which Nabuaplausur
Fig. 61. Four-pointed Star.
Symbol of Shamash
THE SUMERO-ACCADIAN PANTHEON 151
made a clay boxj in this it was found and brought to the
British Museum. This model is seen in Fig. 62. He sits in a
shrine whose back and top consist of a great serpent, for some
reason associated with fire (see Shahan), his throne is adorned
with two lions and he holds sceptre and ring. Before his head
is a cartouche which reads: “ Crown of Shamash, staff (?) of
Shamash above are three astral symbols, (i) the moon disk.
Fig. 62. Model of Statue of Shamash, Ninth Century, b.c.
with globe of the sun, (2), (3) the star of Venus repeated. On
the serpent’s head sit two male deities, Kittu and Misharu,
“ Justice and Righteousness,” the ministers who stand at his
right and left hand. A cartouche behind them reads: “ Sin,
Shamash, and Ishtar at the top of the apsu; between (the eyes
of) the god Shahan are placed the twins.” These twins suspend
by ropes a huge sun symbol on a table. The king is led toward
it by a priest, and the Mother-goddess stands behind him, pray-
ing to Shamash for her royal frotege.
As god of the day-light this deity has almost no connection at
all with the sun during his passage through the lower world.
152
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
There is a curious legend of a tree used in magic to heal the sick.
It is said to have been planted in Eridu by the Water-god Enki,
and its abode was in the underworld. Its chamber was the bed
of the River-goddess.
“ In its holy house, casting its shadow like a forest, wherein no man
entered.
Wherein are Shamash and Tammuz,
At the junction of the river with two mouths.
The gods Kahegal, Igihegal, and Lahama-abzu of Eridu
Designed this kiskarm and cast upon it the incantation of the Deep.”
The Sumerian Moon-god, Sin, originally Zu-en, “ Knowing
lord,” belongs like Utu to the Enlil pantheon. The original
and oldest name was Nanna, or Innana, “ Lord of Heaven,”
and written ideographically ses-ki, “brother of the earth.”
The Accadians by false etymology with their word nannaru,
“ light,” always called this god Nannar. Besides these two
titles, which are based upon the moon as a luminary and on
his character as god of divination or deity by whose appearances
and relations to the stars omens were derived (Sin), there are
other titles, of which the following are of most importance:
Udsar, “ the crescent,” “ the new-moon,” hence also “ god
of the Boat,” Ma, Magur, and Magula-anna, “ Great boat of
Heaven.” As god of the new moon the title Asimur is com-
mon. The fifteenth day of the month, or day of the full moon,
was called sapattu, a day of rejoicing, prayer, and sacrifice in
the Babylonian calendar. The word occurs also as sabattUy and
designated the day of the full moon as the great festival of the
lunar month. The institution of the Hebrew sabbath, “ Sab-
bath,” as a rest day is probably an extension and transformation
of “ the great feast ” of the full moon of the Babylonian calen-
dar, applied by the Hebrews to the seventh, fourteenth,
twenty-first, and twenty-eighth days of the month, following
the quarters of the increasing and waning moon. It is possible
that the Babylonian calendar had regular festivals for the same
daysj for a group of tablets from the Persian period agrees in
THE SUMERO-ACCADIAN PANTHEON 153
distinguishing these days from all others by adding to the
regular sacrifices of sheep for the diku or summons to prayers
for each day of the month, in each case a small kid called hitfu
on these days/®* The day of the full moon was also celebrated
by ceremonies on the kettledrum, as was also the seventh day,
and consequently the periods of the moon’s quarters were cer-
tainly festal days in the Babylonian calendar, although the divi-
sion of the month into weeks was unknown. In any case the
Hebrew Sabbath originated in moon worship, as did the Baby-
lonian sha'pattu. In the official calendars the seventh, four-
teenth, twenty-first, and twenty-eighth days have special
rubrics. “ An evil day (i.e., day of danger). The shepherd of
great peoples shall not eat flesh cooked on coals nor baked
bread, nor change the garments on his body, nor put on clean
garments, nor make sacrifices. The king shall not ride in a
wagon, nor speak as a ruler. The seer shall make no pronounce-
ment in the place of mysteries. A physician shall not lay his
hand upon a sick person. It is a day unsuited for doing any-
thing.”
The principal centre of moon worship among the Sumerians
and Babylonians was Ur in the extreme south, and not far from
the seat of the sun worship, Ellasar. Another centre of moon
worship was Harran (Charrae) on the Balih River south of
Edessa. The cult of Harran was of Babylonian origin and
transported there for unknown reasons, probably by a wander-
ing Aramaean tribe who had become adherents of the cult in
Chaldea. Or it is not impossible that there is truth in the
Hebrew account of Abraham of Ur, who with his father and
his nephew Lot dwelt for a time in Harran on his migration to
Canaan. If this account be accepted it would follow that the
Habiru introduced the cults of Sin and his wife Ningal at Har-
ran in the period of the first dynasty. Sin of Harran is dis-
tinguished from the Babylonian Sin by the kings of Mitanni
in the early part of the fourteenth century.’®® Shalmanassar
II built Ehulhul, temple of Sin in Harran, and it was magnifi-
154
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
cently restored by Ashurbanipal. After his time the Medes de-
stroyed it, and Nabunidus, more than a half century later,
assembled troops, kings, and princes from the whole of Baby-
lonia, Syria, and Phoenicia to rebuild this temple. He placed
an image of a wild bull therein j two images of the god Lahmu
guarded the eastern gate. Images of Sin and Ningal, of Nusku,
god of the new moon, and of his wife Sadarnunna, he set up in
Ekulhul, and made Harran “ to shine like the rising moon.”
He restored a plaque on which Ashurbanipal had engraved a
bas-relief of Sin with an inscription to glorify this god, and
which had been hung on the neck of
the god’s statue. The cult of Sin,
“ Lord of Harran,” had profound in-
fluence upon Aramaean and West
Semitic religion, and even after the
city became the seat of a Christian
bishop a considerable part of the in-
habitants adhered to the heathen cult,
which persisted under Islam into the
Middle Ages. The coins of Roman
emperors struck at Charrae bear sym-
bols of Sin. The Tyche of Carrhae has a crescent above her
mural crown, and other coins have the crescent and star of
Venus. Fig. 63, a coin of Caracalla, shews on the reverse the
bust of the Moon-god of Harran with crescent springing from
his shoulder. The adherents of the cult of Sin at Harran were
known as Harranians or Ssabeans among Arabic and Syriac
writers, and their doctrines were transformed by Greek philoso-
phy and Gnosticism. Their week of seven days is certainly not
of Christian origin, but probably a direct inheritance from Baby-
lonia. The first day was sacred to Ilios, the Greek Helios, the
second to Sin, the third to Ares, the fourth to Mercury, called
Nabug (Nebo), the fifth to Bal (Bel-Marduk) or Jupiter, the
sixth to Balthi (Belit) or Venus, and the seventh to Cronus
(Ninurta) or Saturn. The remnants of Babylonian deities
Fig. 63. Coin of Cara-
calla, Shewing Moon-god
OF Harran
THE SUMERO-ACCADIAN PANTHEON 155
in these planetary names of the Harranian week prove that
Babylonian mythology was the basis of this remarkable cult/®®
Marduk owes his prominence in Babylonian religion and his
wide influence upon West Semitic mythology entirely to the
political importance of the city Babylon, which became the
capital of Sumer and Accad after the Sumerians had almost
entirely disappeared. In the ancient pantheon his title was
Asar, of unknown meaning, but certainly a minor deity of
Eridu, where the ideogram employed in writing his name also
had the value ishura, a name of the Grain-goddess. His aug-
mented title Asarri was commonly pronounced Asaru, and
explained as “ the bestower of husbandry.” By origin a vegeta-
tion deity and son of the Water-god Enki of Eridu, his sudden
appearance at Babylon under the new title Marduk as a Sun-
god is still unexplained. The word is apparently derived from
or at least written amar-udy “ Youth of the sun,” a word which,
following the principle of loan-words, passed into Accadian as
Amaruduku. Others derive the name from Accadian maru
and Duku{g)y i.e., “ Child of the holy chamber,” or throne
room of Enlil.^®^ His character is synthetic, into which the
priests of the capital incorporated most of the attributes of his
father Enki as god of Lustration, and of Enlil and his son
Ninurta. He had officially fifty names, which the six hundred
gods in assembly bestowed upon him after he had won for
them the battle against Tiamat and created Heaven and Earth.
The explanation of these names forms the seventh book of the
Babylonian Epic of Creation.^®® A fragmentary text identifies
Marduk with fourteen gods, among them Ea, Ninurta, Nergal,
Enlil, Sin, Shamash, Adad, and probably all the important
deities of the pantheon on the rest of the tablet. This is clear
evidence of a monotheistic tendency in the late period, when
there was also a school which made Enlil a monotheistic deity.^®®
The original character of Marduk as a deity of Eridu was that
of an agricultural and a vegetation deity. This aspect survives
in his title “ plougher of the fields,” and in his symbol on monu-
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
156
ments, the spade, marru.^^° The identification of Marduk with
Tammuz in the late period was, therefore, a survival of an an-
cient Sumerian myth of the Vegetation-god and is described
in the Chapter on Tammuz and Ishtar.
Marduk is the Bel of Babylonian and Assyrian religion,
corresponding to the West Semitic Ba‘al, “ lord.” The title
never denoted a specific deity and was employed for the god of
Babylon because of his supreme importance only. Wherever
Bel is employed in other Semitic languages and in classical
languages Marduk was meant. Bel-Marduk, as a mighty
figure in ancient religion, represents the spring sun and the
older Ninurta. His great festival, beginning at the spring
equinox and lasting for eleven days, was called zagmuky “ be-
ginning of the year,” or the akltUy from a special part of the
festival or procession to the “ house of the akitUy'* which was
the essential part of the New Year festivals in the old Su-
merian calendars of all the great cults. A similar festival of
Anu and Nana-Ishtar at the autumn equinox survived at Erech
in the Persian period. The old Sumerian cities never recog-
nized the new cult of Marduk, creation of the priests of the
capital, but it was in fact the myths and rituals of Babylon which
influenced directly the beliefs of the Hebrews and of the Gnos-
tic sects in the late period. The %agmuk at Babylon is called
“ the resurrection of the Enlil of the gods, Marduk.” The
long directions for the ceremonies of each day have survived
for the second, third, fourth, and fifth days of Nisan, and were
based largely upon episodes of the Epic of Creation. Many
of the hymns and ceremonies were mysteries known to the high
priest only. The ritual has a ceremony of burning a sheep in
an oven in memory of Marduk’s having burned Kingu, hus-
band of Tiamat, and a survival of a variant version of the con-
quest of the dragons, who were cast into Hell fire. This legend
was adopted by the Hebrews in the vision of Daniel (vii. <)—i i ),
in which the “ fourth beast ” was cast into burning flames by
Y aw, “ the ancient of days,” from before whom issued streams
THE SUMERO-ACCADIAN PANTHEON 157
of fire. Marduk is frequently described as the Fire-god, “ the
flame which causes the foes to be burned.”
On the eighth day of the festival all the great gods of Baby-
lonia were required to travel to Babylon in ceremonial ships
and meet in the hall of assembly of Esagila, Marduk’s temple,
where the fates for the ensuing year were determined. On the
eleventh day when Marduk returned to his temple from the
“ house of Akitu ” outside the city the following hymn was
sung;
“ O Bel, when thou enterest thy temple may thy temple rejoice to thee.
O mighty Bel-Marduk, when thou enterest thy temple may thy temple
rejoice to thee.
Repose O Bel, repose O Bel, may thy temple rejoice to thee.
May the gods of Heaven and Earth say to thee, ‘ repose, O Bel.’ ”
His marvellous birth is described in the Epic of Creation.
Created in the Apsu of Ea, he was the wisest of the wise, and
Damkina (wife of Ea) caused him to be nourished at the
breasts of goddesses. The marvellous birth of Marduk was
made a precedent for the births of kings to whom the faithful
assigned the role of redeemers, and Ashurbanipal is thus ad-
dressed by the god Nabu:
“ Small wert thou, Ashurbanipal, whom I confided to the queen of
Nineveh.
Weak wert thou, Ashurbanipal, who didst sit on the lap of the queen
of Nineveh.
Her four teats were offered to thy mouth; two thou didst suck, cover--
ing thy face tvith two.”
There is also a legend of Sargon the ancient whose mother was
a priestess, and whose father he knew not. He was born in
secrecy, and his mother put him in a wicker basket, sealing it
with bitumen j she placed the basket on the Euphrates which
did not engulf it, but bore it to one Akku, an irrigator. Akku
lifted him from the basket and reared him as his own son, and
made him a gardener. Ishtar loved him and he became king.^^^
The Biblical legend of the birth of Moses and his concealment
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
-
158
in an ark of bulrushes which was placed among flags in the river
and found by a daughter of Pharaoh belongs to the same
cycle of miraculous births of men, favoured by the gods and
sent as divinely appointed servants among men. The trans-
ference of the myth of a son of a god, who delivered the
gods from evil and inaugurated a new era, to a king, is
ancient. Sumerian kings frequently proclaimed themselves
to be sons of the Virgin-goddess and not infrequently
assumed the title “ god,” and even identified themselves with
Tammuz.
Nabu, literally the “ prophet,” “ herald,” god of writing,
whose cult and temple, Ezida, were at Barsippa, ten miles
south-west of Babylon, has a Semitic name. This is a transla-
tion of the old Sumerian title Me, “ to proclaim,” “ to be wise,”
or Sa. The oldest known titles are Ur and Dubbisag, “ the
scribe.” He, like Marduk, appears to have been adopted by
his city from the pantheon of Eridu, and he owes his promi-
nence in the late period entirely to the political Importance of
Barsippa. In the old Sumerian pantheon it was the Grain-
goddess Nidaba who was the patroness of letters. Nabu, how-
ever, was a divine scribe from the beginning of Sumerian re-
ligion, and was specially connected with Dilmun, a land on the
eastern coast of the Persian Gulf, made famous in legend by
the location of Paradise there in a poem to be discussed. His
wife was Tashmetu, “ hearing,” “ mercy,” also a Semitic title.
An earlier Sumerian name for her has not been found, and
she is described, usually, as “ the daughter-in-law ” of Marduk,
father of Nabu, and first-born daughter of Ninurta. Nabu is
consistently described as a god of wisdom and letters, the
Mummu or creative Logos of Enki, bearer of the tablets of fate,
and mighty messenger of the gods, “ without whom no plan is
initiated in Heaven.” His symbol on monuments. Fig. 51,
third register, is a writing-desk supported on a table, and the
whole stands upon the back of a monster hardly distinguishable
from the mushussu of Marduk. That this is the symbol of
THE SUMERO-ACCADIAN PANTHEON 159
Nabu is proved by Fig. 64/^® an Assyrian seal shewing Marduk
standing on the dragon (right) : he has bow and quiver, sceptre
and ring. Before him stands the spade j on the left is Nabu
standing upon an almost identical dragon, and identified by
the mason’s chisel before him. He holds a clay tablet in his
left hand. The ordinary symbol is an object which seems to be
a ruler or measuring rod with a deep groove down the centre.^^^
Fig. 64. Assyrian Seal. To right, Marduk on Dragon. To left, Nabu on
Dragon
The stage tower of Ezida at Barsippa was named Eurmeim-
inanki, “ House of him who controls the seven decrees of
Heaven and Earth.” According to Rawlinson, who examined
its ruins in the middle of the nineteenth century, the seven
stages still retained their colours, and from the ground upward
had the following order, each representing a planet: (i) black
(Saturn), (2) brown-red (Jupiter), (3) rose-red (Mars), (4)
gold (Sun), (5) white-gold (Venus), (6) dark-blue (Mer-
cury), (7) silver (Moon).^^® The top stages of this mighty
tower are not preserved now, nor are the colourings of the
lower stages; at Ur the lower stage of the four-staged tower
i6o
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
is painted black and the top stage is blue. In contrast to Mar-
duk, Nabu represented the period of the sun when the days
were shortest, from the eleventh of Tammuz to the third of
Kislev, or in a loose sense, the winter solstice. In the mystic
ritual of the New Year’s festival the sanctuary of Nabu at Baby-
lon was veiled, in memory of his descent or the descent of the
sun to the lower world. This veiling of the shrine occurred
on the fifth of Nisan, during the rejoicing for Marduk, the
risen god of the Spring-sun. The custom, however, has sur-
vived in Christian rituals in the veiling of the Cross during the
period of Jesus’ repose in the tomb.’^“ Since Mercury is al-
ways seen near the sun before sunrise and after sunset (like
Venus), Nabu, as messenger and prophet of the Sun-god, was
identified with that planet. A hymn has: “ Star of sunrise and
sunset ... at whose appearance the Igigi and Anunnaki joy-
fully As a fixed star Nabu seems to have been
identified with Aldebaran, which in the period of the origin
of astrology (first Babylonian dynasty) rose approximately at
the beginning of the Babylonian year (end of April) and hence
announced the year. Aldebaran was known as the “ star of
the tablet.” For this reason it was Nabu who wrote the tablets
of fate at the spring festival.’”
In late Hebrew and Jewish mythology, Nabu, the scribe of
the gods, who keeps the tablets of fates, appears in various
writers as an angel. Ezekiel saw in a vision seven men, one
of whom carried a writer’s ink-horn, and he went through Jeru-
salem setting a mark upon those who abhorred wickedness.
Enoch, an orthodox Jew of the early Christian period, men-
tions the angel Pravuil or Vretil, “ who is wise and writes down
all the Lord’s works.”
The national god of Assyria, Ashur, originally Ashir, bor-
rowed his entire mythological character from the Sumerian
Earth-god, Enlil, and the Sun-god, Marduk. Assyrian edi-
tions of the Epic of Creation substitute his name for Marduk
in the text, and Assyrian representations of the combat of Bel
THE SUMERO-ACCADIAN PANTHEON i6i
and the Dragon refer to him and not to Marduk. So far as
we are concerned with the figures of the pantheon which are
important in the Sumerian and Accadian myths, the only deity
which remains to be defined is Ereshkigal, “ Queen of the
lower world.”
The ordinary word for “ lower world,” Arallu, explained
as “ the great city,” “ mountain house of the dead,” has also
many synonyms. It is often referred to as “ Land of no re-
turn,” and the souls of the dead descended thereto by the
seven gates which were located in the west, or the place of the
setting sun. It was also known as “ the mountain,” and an
ordinary expression for dying is “ to reach the mountain.”
Since judgment was passed on the dead in Arallu, a word for
mountain {hursag^ Accadian hursanu^ hursu) was used for
“place of judgment,” in mythology and in legal procedure.
To send a defendant at law to the mountain meant to put him
to the ordeal, a custom which ordinarily consisted in throwing
him into the river. If the river “ overcame him,” i.e., if he
drowned, he was proved guilty, but if the river “ declared him
clean,” i.e., if he survived, he was proved innocent. This form
of ordeal is documented for cases against persons accused of
sorcery or wives accused of adultery. Another word for Arallu
is ganziTy explained by irkallu, “ great city,” and by “ gate of
the goddess of the lower world,” “ darkness.” One of the
names of Ereshkigal is Ganzir. A synonym is hilib. Eresh-
kigal appears repeatedly in Greek magical texts of the first
four centuries a.d. as EpecxiTaX, and often with a deity
Ne/3ouTO(roi;X?70, in which scholars find the Babylonian Nebo,
Nabu. An exorcism from Carthage has: “I curse thee in the
name of Hecate . . . and by the mare of Aktidphi Ereschei-
gal ”5 Aktibphi is said to be a name for Hecate. In some texts
Ereshkigal occurs with Persephone.^^®
Her Accadian name is Allatu, and her messenger is Namtar,
“ Fate,” chief of the seven devils, whose wife Hushbishag keeps
the tablets of Arallu on which the hour of death of every man
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
162
is written. To Arallu, the land of darkness, infested by mon-
sters and wandering souls of the wicked who had not received
the last rites of burial on earth, went the souls of all men. The
shades of the wicked {etimmu, Sumerian gigim) are demons
who rise from Hell to torment mankind. A man tormented by
these demons prays to the ghosts of his family, who, by virtue
of proper burial and perpetual offerings maintained for them
by their descendants, reposed in peace in Arallu:
“ O ye ghosts of my family, enlighteners of the tomb,
Of my father and grandfather, of my mother and grandmother, of
my brother and sister.
Of my family by male and female lines,
As many as sleep in the lower world, I have burnt funeral offerings
to you.
Water I have poured to you, I have caused you to repose.
I have bewailed you and . . . you.
This day before Shamash and Gilgamish stand in prayer for me.
Judge my case, render my decision.
The wickedness which is in my body, flesh and sinews.
Give over to the hand of Namtar, messenger of the nether world.
May Ningishzida, throne-bearer of the wide nether world, strengthen
their bondage.
To Nedu, great watchman of Hell, their faces
Let them set and descend to him unto the Land of no return.
I your servant may live and prosper.
Because of the witchcraft I have called upon your name.
I will cause your resting place to drink cool waters.
Give me life and I will sing thy praise.”
Namtaru kept the demons of the wicked in bondage, for those
who prayed. But he is consistently portrayed as the most ter-
rible of the demons.
In the early Sumerian texts and in Accadian texts, the hus-
band of Ereshkigal is always Ninazu and a Sumerian month in
which fell the autumn equinox was called Kisig-Ninazu, “ Feast
of the farentalia of Ninazu.” He is, therefore, the Sun-god
about to enter the period of decline, and to him, as lord of
Arallu, the Sumerians instituted a feast of All Souls. The fol-
lowing month was called Ezen-Ninazu, “ Festival of Ninazu,”
THE SUMERO-ACCADIAN PANTHEON 163
and Hammurabi calls himself “ the establisher of holy repasts
for Ninazu.” A myth, found on tablets of the fifteenth century
in Egypt among the correspondence of Canaanites, Babylonians,
Assyrians, and MitannI, tells how Nergal became husband of
Ereshkigald®^ This myth, written in Western • Babylonian
script, is annotated by points to divide the words, and seems to
have been a text-book in Canaan. The gods had prepared a
feast and wished to invite their sister Ereshkigal. But they
knew that she would not come, so they by a messenger requested
her to send for her portion of the food. She sent Namtar, who
mounted to high Heaven. Here there is a break, in which
Nergal alone of all the gods refused to rise from his seat to
greet Namtar.
When Namtar reported this to Ereshkigal, she raged and
ordered Namtar to tell the gods to send her the offender that
she might slay him. And they said :
“ Behold now, the god, who stood not up before thee.
Take away unto the presence of thy queen.”
Namtaru counted the gods, but one hid himself in the back-
ground. The discovery of the culprit Nergal followed in a
passage where the text is sadly damaged. He appealed to Ea,
who in all difficulties found a way of escape, and is by figure of
speech called NergaPs father here. Ea gave him fourteen com-
rades to go with him unto Ereshkigal. The names of the first
three are not preserved here. The others are Mutabriqu, “ the
lightning-maker,” Sharabda, “ Slanderer(? ),” Rabisu, “ Spy ”5
Tirid, “ Terror Idiptu, “ Whirlwind ”5 Bennu, “ Plague
Sidanu, “ Fever ”5 Miqtu, “ Prostration by heat ” j Belup( .? )ri j
Umma, “Heat”j Libu, “Ague.” He came to the gate of
Ereshkigal and summoned the watchman to loosen the strap
of the latch :
“ I will enter into the presence of thy queen,
Ereshkigal. I have been sent. The watchman went and
Spoke to Namtar: ‘ A god stands at the entrance of the gate.
164
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
Come, look at him, let him enter.’ Namtar went out
And saw him. . . . He said
To his queen, ‘ My queen, it is the god who in
Months ago disappeared and did not stand up before me.’
‘ Bring him in, he shall not go, surely I will slay him,’ she said.”
Nergal entered and placed each of his companions at one of the
fourteen doors, entrances to the house of Ereshkigal. He cre-
ated havoc in the forecourt and slew Namtar. To his comrades
he gave instructions to open all the doors: “For now will I
hasten for you.” In the interior of the house he seized Ereshki-
gal by her hair and cast her from her throne, and was about to
sever her head on the floor. “ Slay me not, my brother, I would
say thee a word,” she said. Nergal heard her and loosened his
grasp. She wept and sobbed:
“ Thou shalt be my husband, and I thy wife. I will cause thee to
possess
Kingship in the wide underworld. I will place the tablets of
Wisdom in thy hand. Thou shalt be lord
And I shall be queen.”
Nergal heard her speech, lifted her up and kissed her, wiping
away her tears, and said:
“ Why hast thou desired me since far away months, even until now? ”
The myth ends in this abrupt manner, and it is obviously a
late composition in glorification of Nergal. In the myth of the
Descent of Ishtar to the house of Ereshkigal, she descends by
seven gates, and a text names seven watchmen of Ereshkigal:
Nedu, Kishar, Endashurimma, Enzulla, Endukugga, Endu-
shuba, and En-nugigi.
Ereshkigal was identified with the constellation Hydra, but
her son Ningishzida was also identified with the same constella-
tion. An Assyrian text has this description of the Babylonian
Hecate: “ The head has the form of a turban, she has the snout
of a 'pagu{ ? ). One horn, which is like that of a kid, on her back
is short. One horn, which is like that of a kid, on her forehead
THE SUMERO-ACCADIAN PANTHEON 165
is sharp. She has a sheep’s ear and a human hand. With her
two hands she carries food and holds it to her mouth. Her body
is that of a fish and she is bent on her back. The sole of her
foot is . . . From between her horns to her rump hair is laid.
Beside the soles of her feet she . . . From her loins to her
soles she is a dog. The navel(? ) therein . . . She puts on a
waist-band. She is covered with scales like a serpent.”
CHAPTER III
THE LEGEND OF ETANA AND THE
PLANT OF BIRTH
P ASSING now to the legends of Sumer and Babylonia,
which gave rise to epics and poems, those which concern
the mysteries of life and death command first attention. These
are invariably connected with mythical plants and foods. The
long poem, which forms the subject of this Chapter, has for its
theme the plant of birth, which was in the keeping of Anu in
high Heaven, and the quest for it by Etana, king of Kish, who,
being without heir, sought to procure from Anu that magic
plant, which would cause his wife to bear a child. The lesson
taught by this myth was that kingship is hereditary, and that
legitimate kings, descended from one appointed by the gods, are
the sources of all civilization. The divine right of kings, their
messianic character as sons of the Mother-goddess, form the
Sumerian and Babylonian theory of the state. The Sumerian
lists of antediluvian and post-diluvian kings begin both periods
with the statement that “ rulership descended from Heaven.”
In the beginning began one Alulim to rule at Eridu, and to his
reign one source assigns 28,800 years, and another 67,200 years.
The traditions usually assign ten kings of enormous longevity
to the age before the Flood, corresponding to the ten Hebrew
patriarchs from Adam to Noah. The Sumerian period before
the Flood is given as 456,000 years on one source. Another
text gives only eight antediluvian kings, and 241,200 years.
After the Flood rulership again descended from Heaven (Anu)
at Kish, where twenty-three kings ruled for 24,510 years. In
this dynasty Etana was the thirteenth king, “ the shepherd who
ascended to Heaven,” and he reigned 1500 years. His son is
THE LEGEND OF ETANA
167
named Walih and Balih in the standard texts, but one text calls
him the “ god Iliad,” or Ildu, “ he who was born.” His wife
had given birth to still-born children several times. In the
legend he failed to reach high Heaven, but the birth of a son
to succeed him on the throne must have been attributed to some
miraculous cause.
No Sumerian text of this legend has been found, and the fol-
lowing account of it depends entirely upon fragments of an
early Babylonian edition and of a late Assyrian edition. The
late edition differs from the original old version so greatly in
diction that it must have been entirely rewritten. The poem
was known in Assyrian as ala isirUy “ the city they hated,” from
the opening line. In the beginning, when men had become
numerous, the gods of Heaven (Igigi) hated them. It was the
gods of the nether sea (Ea and his pantheon), the Anunnaki,
who wished to organize them into an ordered society. This
jealousy of the gods against man and the intervention of the
Water-god on their behalf reveals itself repeatedly in Sumero-
Babylonian mythology and appears also in Hebrew mythology.
“ The Seven gods ^ had locked the gates against the hosts (of mankind).” ^
Then Ishtar, the Mother-goddess, desired a shepherd for men.
A king she searched for.
“ The pale-faced people, all of them, had not set up a king.
Then no tiara was worn nor crown.
And no sceptre was studded with lapis lazuli.
Throne-rooms had not been created at the same time.
The seven gates were locked against the hosts of mankind.
Sceptre, crown, tiara, and staff
Were still placed before Anu in Heaven,
And there was no royal direction of her people.
Then kingship descended from Heaven.”
There is no explanation as to how the Igigi were persuaded to
become patrons of men, and here there is a long break in which
Etana and his wife seem to appear on the scene. In this long
lacuna it is certain that the age before the Flood, the Flood,
i68
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
and the founding of the kingdom of Kish were described.
Owing to the interruption of the argument it is difficult to
understand how it led up to the following episode of the serpent
and eagle. To provide for Etana’s ascent to Heaven, the de-
nouement of the myth, the eagle must be brought into the
story, but the mythical significance of the strife between the ser-
pent and the eagle is difficult. The text now describes an alli-
ance between the eagle and the serpent.
“ The eagle opened his mouth addressing the serpent:
‘ Come, let us swear to an oath of friendship and peace.
He who fears not the oath, heavy is the curse of Shamash upon him.’
Before Shamash, the heroic, they took the oath:
‘ Whosoever transgresses the boundary of Shamash,
May Shamash smite him calamitously by the hand of a smiter.
May the mountain ® close its entrance against him.’ ”
And so these sworn companions hunted for food together in the
mountains, the eagle capturing wild bulls and asses for the
serpent and its offspring, while the serpent caught goats and
kids for the eagle and its eaglets to eat. This myth was widely
spread in antiquity and a tablet containing this part of the epi-
sode from Susa has the following lines:
-
“ After they had sworn an oath,
All their children were conceived, all were born.
The serpent begat in the shade of an elm.
The eagle begat on its mountain peak.
The serpent caught a wild bull and an antelope,
And the eagle ate, his children ate.
The serpent caught a panther and a marsh lion.
And the eagle ate, his children ate.”
When the eaglets had grown strong the eagle plotted to devour
the young serpents :
“ Lo, I will devour the offspring of the serpent . . .
I will ascend and in Heaven dwell,
I will descend and eat fruit from the tree-tops.
My children have grown up and become large,
They shall go and seek [food for themselves:]
They shall seek the plant [of birth:].”
THE LEGEND OF ETANA 169
But one of the eaglets, who was “ exceedingly wise,” warned
his father against this treachery.
“ Eat not, my father, the net of Shamash will entrap thee.”
“ But he listened not to them, listened not to the words of his son.”
He descended and devoured the young of the serpent, cast his
friend, the serpent, from its nest and tore it assunder.
“ The serpent looked and his offspring were not.”
The serpent wept before Shamash.
“ I put my trust in thee, O heroic Shamash ; to the eagle I gave a gift of
good-will, but now he has torn my nest asunder.”
“ The wickedness, which he has done, Shamash, thou knowest.
Surely, O Shamash, thy net is the wide earth.
Thy trap is the far away Heaven.
From thy net may the eagle not escape.
The evil-doer, Zu, he that upholds evil against his companion.”
Here one version identifies the eagle of this myth with the
dragon Zu, the lion-headed eagle, enemy of the gods, but a
variant text has here “ doer of evil and shamelessness.” The
appeal is to Shamash, as god of Justice. The god advised him
to pass over the mountain, where he would find the carcass of
a wild bull, and to hide in its interior. The birds of Heaven
would descend upon it and devour its flesh. The eagle, not
knowing the danger, would descend upon the carcass.
“ When he enters into the interior, seize him by the wings.
Tear off his wings, his pinions and his talons.
Strip him and cast him into a pit. . . .
May he die the death of hunger and thirst.”
The serpent followed the advice of Shamash. The eagle saw
the carcass and said to his children;
“ Come, let us descend and devour the flesh of this wild ox.”
But “ the exceedingly wise one ” of his sons warned him of the
danger.
“ Descend not, my father, perchance the serpent lies in the interior of
the wild ox.”
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SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
But he heeded not the warning, descended and walked about
on the entrails, fluttered over the loins, was seized by the
serpent.
“ The eagle opened his mouth saying to the serpent:
‘ Have mercy upon me and I will bestow upon thee a dowry like a
bridegroom.’ ”
But the serpent said that Shamash had ordered his punishment.
He stripped him of his wings and pinions and cast him into
a pit.
Fig. 65. Combat of Eagle and Serpent
A Sumerian version of these episodes surely existed. Gudea,
in his great Sumerian cylinder inscriptions of the twenty-
sixth century, speaks of the dragon “ Zu, who with the serpent
passed over the mountain.” The combat of the eagle and the
serpent is represented on a soap-stone bas-relief from Nippur,
found in debris near a shrine of Bur-Sin of Ur (twenty-fourth
century), and shews the eagle in mortal combat with a serpent
(Fig. 65).* The astronomical origin of this episode is suggested
perhaps by the close connection between Serpens and Aquila,
if these identifications are earlier than the myth. Aquila stands
near the tail of Serpens, but Babylonian astrologers may have
made these identifications from the myth, which is more prob-
able. There is, however, no evidence that the Babylonians saw
THE LEGEND OF ETANA
171
a serpent in the group of stars now called Serpens. There was,
however, a star in Aquila called the “ carcass.”
From the pit the eagle appealed daily to Shamash:
“ Shall I die in the pit? Who knows how thy punishment has been
laid upon me?
Save the life of me the eagle.
Unto eternal days I will cause thy name to be heard.”
And Shamash replied:
“ Thou hast caused grave evils to be committed, bringing sorrow.
A thing inhibited by the gods, a disgraceful thing hast thou done.
Thou didst swear and verily I will visit it upon thee.
Go to a man whom I shall send thee ; let him take hold of thy hand.”
Now Etana appears in the argument. He was praying daily
to Shamash, reminding him of the sacrifices he had ceaselessly
made to him. He had always honoured the gods and revered
the souls of the dead.
“O lord, by thy command may (a child) come forth; give me the
plant of birth.
Shew me the plant of birth; deliver my offspring and make me a
name.”
Shamash directed him to the pit where the eagle was cast, say-
ing: “ He will shew thee the plant of birth.” Etana found the
eagle praying to Shamash and promising to repay the man who
would deliver him by doing anything he might ask. In the
eighth month Etana lifted him from the pit and gave him food j
he ate like a ravenous lion, and became strong.
“The eagle opened his mouth saying to Etana:
‘ My friend, verily we are joined in friendship, I and thou.
Tell me what thou desirest of me and I will give it thee.’ ”
Etana asks for the plant of birth. Here there is a long lacuna,
which gave an account of the first stage of the ascent of Etana
on the back of the eagle, to obtain the plant of birth in the
third Heaven of Anu. They reach the planetary sphere or
V — 13
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
172
first Heaven. Here the text is regained, and the eagle de-
scribes to Etana what he sees at the gates of Sin, Shamash, Adad,
and Ishtar, that is, of sun, moon, Venus, and the Thunder-god,
Adad. Ishtar sat in the midst of splendour, and lions crouched
at the foot of her throne. The text of the description of what
the Babylonians believed to be the planetary sphere and also
of the Thunder-god is too defective to yield any further in-
formation. The eagle now prepares for the second stage, to
reach the plane of the fixed stars.
“ Come, I will bear thee to the Heaven of Ann.
Place thy breast against my breast.
Upon the feathers of my wings place thy hands.
Upon the stumps of my wings place thy arms.”
Etana’s ascension is pictured on numerous seals, all of the
early Sumerian period. Fig. 66 shews Etana sitting crosswise on
the eagle’s breast with his arms about its neck. The seals in-
variably have Etana’s dogs looking upward toward their disap-
pearing master and his flocks of sheep and goats, left behind in
charge of shepherds. On the left this seal has a tree in which
the eagle sits, holding a small wild animal, apparently a lion’s
cub, in his right talon. The male and female lions, whose
offspring he has seized, rage impotently around the tree.
They ascended a double hour’s march.® The eagle said to
Etana :
THE LEGEND OF ETANA
173
“ Behold, my friend, the land, how it is.
Look upon the sea and the sides of the earth-mountain.
Lo the land becomes a mountain and the sea is turned to waters
of . . .”
They ascended another double hour’s march, and again the
eagle remarks on the appearance o£ land and sea. After three
double hour’s marches the sea looked like the canal of a gar-
dener. They arrived at the gates of Anu, Enlil, and Ea, that
is the plane of the three paths of the fixed stars. What they
saw here again fails us on the fragments, and we now come
to lines which imply that Etana fears to fly higher.
“ The load is too great . . . ; abandon the quest for the plant of
birth.”
But the eagle ascends through the next stage, to the plane of
Anu and Ishtar, the Queen of Heaven. After a double hour’s
march the wide sea appeared as a cattle-yard. After a second
double hour’s march the land appeared as a garden and the
sea like a wicker basket. At the end of a third double hour’s
ascent Etana could no longer distinguish the sea, and said:
“ My friend, I will not ascend to Heaven.
Take the way; lo I will descend (? ).”
Through the spheres they fell, and here the fragments as pre-
served give us no more clear information. Apparently Etana
perished in his fall j for a few lines at the end refer to his wife
who seems to be lamenting his death. His ghost is invoked to
deliver from some trouble.®
Such was the issue of the vain attempt to obtain the mystic
plant and reach the Paradise of the gods. From the origins of
Sumerian civilization to the end of the Persian period, this tale
must have been read and repeated throughout Western Asia.
After the death of Alexander the Great, who had conquered and
ruled Babylonia, it was transferred to him. The legend of the
Ascension of Alexander spread throughout the ancient world
and has descended to modern times in endless versions, Greek,
174
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
Latin, Armenian, Coptic, Syriac, and Old French. Representa-
tions of Alexander’s ascent on eagles yoked together are found
on tapestries, on illuminated manuscripts, painted on walls of
palaces, and even in sculptures of Christian cathedrals. A Jew-
ish scribe of the fourth century a.d. refers to it in the Talmud.
“ Alexander the Macedonian wished to ascend in the air. He
mounted, mounted, until he saw the earth as a cup and the
sea as a caldron.” Here follows a resume of the earliest Greek
versions. Arrived at the extremity of the earth, Alexander de-
sired to discover where the vault of Heaven reposed on the
earth. His soldiers selected two great birds, which he caused
to be without food for three days. He then put them under a
yoke, and attached the hide of a bull to the yoke. A basket
was fastened to the yoke, into which he climbed, having a long
spear. To the end of this spear he attached the liver of a horse.
The liver he held high above the heads of the hungry birds j
in their eagerness to reach it they carried him upward. He
ascended until the air became icy cold. Here he was halted by
a bird-man who said to him: “ Alexander, thou art ignorant of
terrestrial things, why desirest thou to understand those of
Heaven? Return quickly to earth, and fear lest thou be the
prey of these birds. Look upon the earth below.” Seized
with fear Alexander looked downward, and the earth looked
like a threshing floor, surrounded by a serpent, which was the
sea. He descended successfully “by the mercy of supreme
Providence,” but landed seven days’ journey from his camp.
Saved from famine by a satrap he received a guard of soldiers
and reached his camp.’^
CHAPTER IV
THE MYTH OF ADAPA AND ADAM
T he theological school of Eridu held the theory that
mankind lost eternal life through the jealousy of Enki
(Ea), who consistently appears in Babylonian myths as the
patron and saviour of mankind. The theory is set forth in a
poem, preserved only in Accadian, and in fragments of two
versions, one Canaanitish-Babylonian and one Assyrian. The
Canaanitish version was used as a text-book.^ Adapa of
Eridu was famed in legend as a sage, and his ordinary title
afqallu indicates that he was one of the pre-diluvian wise men.
He is said to have written a work on astronomy,^ and, like the
seven sages, he was a patron of the priesthood of incantations.
“The wise Adapa, sage of Eridu,” restrains the demoness
Lamastu and keeps her under surveillance in Eridu.* The
beginning of the Accadian poem concerning Adapa is lost and
consequently its title. To Adapa the god Ea gave vast under-
standing, “that he might give names to all concepts in the
earth.”* In Hebrew mythology Yaw, having created Adam,
brought before him animals and birds that he should name
them. The Accadian myth is more profound in that to Adapa,
“son of Ea,” is attributed the origin of all nouns of human
speech. If the opening lines of the myth were preserved, they
might prove that Adapa was also the first man in this tradi-
tion, although one passage describes him as “ human offspring,”
that is one descended from the human race.®
Ea, his creator, withheld from him eternal life. “ At that
time, in those years, Ea created the sage, the Eridian like a
leader among men.” None could annul his command 5 he ex-
celled in wisdom, and the Anunnaki, gods of the Ea pantheon.
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
176
had given him his name. His hands were clean, and he was a
priest of lustrations {-paUsu)
, who superintended the rituals.
He worked with the bakers and
provided the food and holy
water in the cult of the Water-
god of Eridu, preparing the al-
tar table, and without him it was
not cleared away. He sailed a
boat and pursued the trade of
fishing for Eridu. Daily he
guarded the sanctuary of Eridu,
when the far-famed god Ea went
in to his sleeping chamber. At
the quay of Eridu he embarked
on a sail-boat; the wind arose
and his boat went out to sea, as
he steered with his rudder. The
south wind blew and his boat
sank. “ I will break thy wings,”
he said to the south wind, and
as he spoke the wings of the
south wind were broken. For
seven days the south wind blew
not and so Anu called to his mes-
senger Ilabrat:
“ ‘ Why has the south wind not blown
upon the land since seven days? ’
His messenger Ilabrat answered
him: ‘ My lord,
Adapa, son of Ea, the wings of the
south wind
Have broken.’ ”
Ilabrat, or more properly Ili-abrat, “ god of the Wings,” ap-
pears in mythology more commonly under the Sumerian title
Papsukkal, “ Chief messenger,” and clay figurines, often found
THE MYTH OF ADAPA AND ADAM 177
in foundation boxes beneath the doors of temples, have been
taken to represent this messenger of the gods.® Fig. 67 is a
specimen of this type, identified with Papsukkal because of in-
scriptions on their
backs, “messenger of
the gods.” He usu-
ally carries a wand in
his right hand. There
are no figures of him
as a winged being.
Ninsubur is the deity
to whom the titles
Papsukkal and Ili-
abrat really belong.
On monuments he is
represented by a ra-
ven, sometimes ac-
companied by the
inscription, “ god Pap-
sukkal,” or “ god Suk-
kal.” The Babylonians, therefore, certainly held him to be a
winged messenger.’' When Anu bestowed upon Ishtar her
divine powers he addressed her in the following words:
“ My faithful messenger, whose lips are precious, who knows my secrets,
Ninsubur-Ili-abrat, my seemly messenger, verily shall be the executor
of thy desires at thy side.
Before thee may he constantly make agreeable the intentions of god
and goddess.”
Ninsubur is only a form of Tammuz, who, with Ningishzida,
guards the gate of Anu. When Anu heard the reply of his
messenger he cried “Help,” rose from his throne and said:
“Let them bring this one to me.” But Ea knew what had
transpired in Heaven. He devised a ruse for Adapa to deceive
Anu. He caused Adapa to be covered with boils, rendered
him soiled with . . . and put sackcloth upon him, giving him
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
178
this advice: “When thou goest up to Heaven and contest nigh
to the gate of Anu, Tammuz and Gishzida will stand in the
gate of Anu and behold theej they will question thee (saying) :
‘O man, for whom art thou become like this? O Adapa, for
whom art thou clad in sackcloth? He is told to reply:
“In our land two gods have disappeared and I have been
brought to this plight.”
Then they will say to him:
“ Who are the two gods who
have disappeared in the
land? ” Adapa is to reply:
“ Tammuz and Gishzida are
they.”
This is the only reference
to the ascension of the dying
gods to Heaven j Tammuz
and Ninsubur were both
identified with Orion, and
Ningishzida was identified
with Hydra. These two
constellations stand at the
beginning and end of the
Milky Way.® The astral
identifications were made in
view of their mythological
characters 5 Tammuz, the shepherd, is connected with Orion,
called the constellation Sibzianna, “ Faithful shepherd of
Heaven,” and Ningishzida, who is represented as a serpent
deity, is, therefore, connected with Hydra. In the develop-
ment of the legend, these two gods offer Adapa the bread
and water of life, and it may be conjectured that the dying
god had attained immortality and was received in Heaven be-
cause he had eaten these elements of divine life. The dying
god was originally called Ushumgalanna, “ Mighty serpent
dragon of Heaven ”j Tammuz and Ningishzida are only dif-
THE MYTH OF ADAPA AND ADAM 179
ferentiated types of this ancient deity, connected with the ser-
pent because they are gods of the earth’s fertility. There must
have been a Sumerian legend of the tree of life, for the serpent
is connected with trees not only on the early painted ware of
Susa, but also on bowls of the Sassanian period there. Fig. 68,
taken from a decoration on a bowl of the late period, has been
(together with similar designs) taken to be a survival of the
serpent guarding the tree of life. The artist may have in-
Fig. 70. The Temptation, According to Sumerian Myth
tended to represent nothing more than the connection between
the serpent and vegetation, but taken with the design on another
bowl (Fig. 69), where the serpent stands behind a woman, it
is difficult to dismiss the theory that the legend of the serpent
and the tree of life in Hebrew mythology actually survives on
the Susa pottery.® It must be of Sumerian origin ; for an early
roll cylinder (Fig. 70) now in the British Museum apparently
does refer to the temptation as held by the Sumerians. The
tree is obviously the date-palm, and two clusters of dates hang
from the trunk just below the branches. On the left is a
woman, behind whom stands the serpent. The man, who like
Adapa is a deified protagonist of an ancient tale, has the horned
head-dress of a god. The presence of the dying gods at the
gates of Anu, where Adapa now finds the food of immortality.
i8o
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
is probably due to the legend that they had escaped the annual
pains of death by receiving the ambrosia of the gods.
Ea tells Adapa that, when he explains to Tammuz and
Gishzida that he has come mourning for the dying gods of the
earth’s fertility, they will look at each other in astonishment
and speak kind words on his behalf to Anu, and “cause his
face to beam upon thee.” When he shall stand in Anu’s pres-
ence they (Tammuz and Gishzida) will offer him “bread of
death ” to eat and “ water of death ” to drink j Ea tells him to
refuse both. Thus is revealed the jealousy of the god Ea, who
did not wish his worshipper to obtain immortality. He de-
ceives him by so describing this food and drink, which were,
in reality, the sacred elements of eternal life. They will also
offer him a garment, and Ea tells him to put it onj and oil
they will extend to him, with which Ea orders him to anoint
himself.
-
“ The advice which I have given thee shalt thou not neglect.
That which I have commanded hold thou fast.”
The messenger of Anu came to the house of Ea and seized
Adapa, “ who had broken the wings of the south wind.”
“ Bring him to me,” commanded Anu.
“ He caused him to take the road to Heaven, and he ascended to Heaven.
When he ascended to Heaven and came nigh to the gate of Anu,
In the gate of Anu stood Tammuz and Gishzida.
When they saw Adapa they cried: ‘ Help!
0 man, for whom art thou become like this? O Adapa,
For whom art thou clad in sackcloth? ’
‘ In the land two gods have disappeared and I
Am clothed in sackcloth.’ ‘ Who are the two gods who have disap-
peared in the land? ’
‘ They are Tammuz and Gishzida.’ They looked at each other,
And were astonished. When Adapa before Anu, the king.
Arrived, Anu beheld him and cried:
‘ Come, O Adapa. The wings of the south wind, why
Hast thou broken? ’ Adapa answered Anu: ‘ My lord,
For the temple of my lord in the midst of the sea
1 was fishing. The sea was like a mirror.
THE MYTH OF ADAPA AND ADAM i8i
But the south wind rose and immersed me,
It caused me to descend to the house of the lord; in the rage of my
heart,
The south wind I cursed.’ They answered . . . Tammuz
And Gishzid, words of mercy to Anu
Speaking. He calmed and his heart was seized with fear, (saying) :
‘ Why has Ea caused man, the unclean.
To perceive the things of Heaven and Earth? A mind
Cunning has he bestowed upon him and created him unto fame.
What shall we do for him ? Bread of life
Get for him, let him eat.’ Bread of life
They got for him, but he ate not. Water of life
They got for him, but he drank not. A garment
They got for him, and he put it on. Oil
They got for him, and he anointed himself.
Anu beheld him and was astonished at him, (saying):
‘ Come, O Adapa, why hast thou not eaten and not drunk?
Thou shalt not live . . ”
Adapa replied that it was Ea who ordered him to act in
this manner, whereupon Anu ordered his messenger to take
him back to earth.
So ends the Canaanite fragment. An Assyrian fragment
contains a few lines from the end of the poem. Here Ann’s
wrath at Ea’s interference is mentioned. Adapa, from the
gates of Anu, scanned the wide Heaven from east to west and
saw its grandeur. Here the fate of Adapa was given, but the
text is unfortunately illegible. Anu placed some penalty upon
him corresponding to that imposed upon Adam by Yaw in
Genesis iii. 17-19. But, as in the Sumerian legend of the Fall
of Man, described in Chapter V, Anu provides some allevia-
tion for the sorrow and pain which should henceforth be the
lot of man. Upon Adapa he conferred sacerdotal privileges
in Eridu for ever. The fragment closes with these lines :
“ In the days when Adapa, the offspring of man.
With his . . . cruelly broke the wings of the south wind.
And ascended to Heaven, so verily
Did this come to pass, and whatsoever he brought about evilly for men.
And disease which he brought about in the bodies of men.
i 82
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
This will the goddess Ninkarrak allay.
May the sickness depart, the disease turn aside.
Upon that man may his crime fall
And . . . may he rest not in sweet sleep.”
From these lines it is obvious that the entire myth was com-
posed as an incantation to heal the sick. The author means to
say that the disease which the magician endeavours to heal
was caused not by the sins of the patient, but by Adapa, whose
fatal act brought death and pain into the world in an age when
sorrow was unknown in Paradise. But the gods provided
for man a divine physician, the goddess Gula or Ninkarrak.
Gula, often called the great physician, is a specialized form
of the Mother-goddess, Mah, Ninmah, Aruru, the Accadian
Belit-ili. Her symbol on monuments is the dog, as in Fig. 51,
third register, last figure on the right. The monuments usually
include the figure of Gula, seated on a throne, the whole sup-
ported on the back of the dog. Sometimes the dog, always
a hound, appears alone on boundary stones j on some the
dog sits beside her throne, the goddess is represented with both
hands raised in prayer to the gods on behalf of men.^® The
dog seems to have been associated with Gula because she is a
defender of homes. A Babylonian, in fear of demons, secured
the protection of his house by the magic ritual of a priest, and
was assured that “ a great dog sat at his outer gate, and Gula
the great physician sat on the lintel of his door.” But another
Babylonian invoked Ninkarrak to aid him against slanderers.
The following obscure lines occur in his invocation:
“ At the assembly of the palace gate,
At the congregation of wise men,
O Ninkarrak, restrain thy whelps.
In the mouths of thy strong dogs place a bit.”
Apparently he fears that false accusations by slanderers will
cause him to be brought into court, but why the goddess, who
is a protectress of the righteous, should loose her dogs against
THE MYTH OF ADAPA AND ADAM 183
him is not clear. Perhaps her dogs refer to the slanderers, in
which case the passage has no mythological meaning, and is
meant to describe evil-minded men as dogs.
The myth teaches the doctrine of original sin, in this case
attributed to Adapa. The doctrine arose in the orthodox priest-
hood as a defence of divine providence, when a Babylonian
school of philosophers challenged the ancient teaching of the
Sumerians, who held that the gods are good and just. It was
not they who sent disease and sorrow into the world, not they
who created man to die, but pain and mortality originated
in the ignorance of a great ancestor, tricked by the jealousy
of a god, and so passed for ever the great opportunity of
mankind.
The parallel myth, as it appears in an ancient Hebrew docu-
ment, has influenced the beliefs and conduct of mankind more
than any legend that has ever been conceived by the poets and
priests of antiquity. The Hebrew writer could not have had
the same motij in teaching the doctrine of original sin and the
origin of pain and sorrow that inspired the Babylonian author.
For the pessimistic literature of the Hebrew sceptics (Job,
Ecclesiastes) is much later than his period. Nor is there any
trace of its origin in rituals to heal the sick. Since the Adapa
legend and similar Babylonian doctrines concerning inherited
sin were known in Canaan before the earliest Hebrew docu-
ments existed, it is probable that the Hebrew myth is adapted
from them. Although the teaching of the Hebrew myth is the
same as that of the Adapa legend, the manner by which Adam
brought mortality and sorrow upon man is entirely different,
and contains the episode of the serpent which does not occur
in either the Adapa nor the Tagtug myth. The legend is told
in the third Chapter of Genesis, and is preceded in the same
document by the account of the creation of Adam, the first
man, and his wife.^®
In the account of creation given by this document, Yaw-
Elohlm planted a garden in Eden toward the east. This is
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
184
surely a survival of a Sumerian legend j for the word edin in
Sumerian means “ plain,” and “ Eden to the eastward,” refers
to some legendary part of Sumer, from the point of view of a
writer in Canaan. In the Tagtug legend of Paradise, this
primeval land of bliss is located in Dilmun, on the eastern shore
of the Persian Gulf. In this garden he placed “ man,” adam,
afterwards used as a proper name, Adam, and all trees good for
food, and “ the tree of life.” There was also “ the tree of
knowledge of good and evil.” Adam was forbidden to eat
from the tree of knowledge, in other words his happiness de-
pended upon his remaining entirely unconscious of evilj for
“good” has no meaning before evil exists. It was the plan
of Anu to keep man {amelutu) in ignorance of the secrets of
Heaven and Earth, and when he found that Adapa had learned
them from Ea, he had no alternative but to give him the bread
and water of life. Yaw had the same intention for Adam, who
became the gardener in Eden. Yaw caused a deep sleep to fall
upon Adam, and took one of his ribs, closed up the flesh, and
from it made woman. They were naked and yet had no sense
of shame ; for shame springs from knowledge of evil. Into this
garden of Paradise came the serpent, in Sumerian mythology
symbol of the earth’s fertility, and specially connected with
Ningishzida and Tammuz. The introduction of the serpent
into the myth probably rests upon the same motif y the jealousy
of God, who, knowing that man was immortal, tempted him
to his doom. Yaw had told Adam that in the day when he
should eat of “ the tree of knowledge ” he would die.
The serpent discovered from the woman that Yaw had
permitted them to eat the fruit of all the trees which He had
caused to grow for them, but had forbidden them to eat from
the tree “ in the midst of the garden,” lest they die. The ser-
pent replied that, on the contrary, by eating from it they would
discover the secrets of God, and knowing good and evil, they
would become like Him. The woman took and ate and gave
to her husband, who also ate. Straightway their nakedness was
THE MYTH OF ADAPA AND ADAM 185
revealed to them, and they concealed it with garments of fig-
leaves. Then came Yaw into the garden j Adam and his wife
hid themselves among the trees. Yaw called for the man who
said: “ I heard thy voice in the garden and was afraid, because
I was naked j and I hid myself.” By this reply Yaw dis-
covered that he had eaten from “ the tree of knowledge.”
Asked to explain his violation of the divine command, Adam
said that the woman had taken fruit from the tree and given
him to eat. The woman, questioned by Yaw, reported to Him
the temptation by the serpent. The serpent, therefore, is
cursed by Yaw:
“ Because thou hast done this thing,
Cursed art thou above all cattle,
And above all living things of the field.
Upon thy belly shalt thou go.
And dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman;
And between thy seed and her seed.
It shall bruise thy head
And thou shalt bruise its heel.”
This condemnation of the serpent is introduced into the myth
to explain the natural abhorrence of man for this creature, and
has no connection with the subtle reason for making the serpent
the cause of the Fall of Man. That rests surely upon the Baby-
lonian theory of the jealousy of the gods of fertility, probably
of Ningishzida and Tammuz, of whom the serpent was sym-
bolic, jealous of that man who would attain immortality like
themselves.
Yaw then condemns woman to the pains of child-birth, and
makes her subject to her husband. Babylonian rituals contain
ceremonies for the delivery of women in child-birth,^'^ and it is
possible that they also had a myth in which the pangs of child-
birth were attributed to the sin of some heroine of ancient times,
precisely as sorrow and disease were attributed to Adapa.
Yaw cursed the ground that it should no longer bear fruit
i86
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
spontaneously for man; henceforth he must obtain his food by
toil, and without toil the ground would now produce only
thorns and thistles. Mortality was, thereafter, the lot of man;
from dust had he been created and to dust must he return.
After the loss of Paradise and eternal life. Yaw made for Adam
and his wife coats of skin and clothed them, as Anu gave Adapa
a garment after he had rejected the bread of life. In the earlier
Fig. 71. Deity Offering Poppy Branch to a Worshipper
part of this document the tree of life is mentioned, but no refer-
ence is made to its being a forbidden tree. At the end of the
document Yaw expelled man from the garden of Eden, lest he
also eat from the tree of life. Eden remained on earth, guarded
by Cherubim and a flaming sword to bar the way to the tree
of life. For, said Yaw: “ the man is become like one of us to
know good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand and
take also of the tree of life and eat and live for ever.” The ex-
pression “ one of us,” implying polytheism, is clearly taken
from a Babylonian source. A legend of a tree of life has been
THE MYTH OF ADAPA AND ADAM 187
redacted with one concerning a tree of knowledge, of which,
at present, there is no trace at all in cuneiform literature.
If the scene on the seal (Fig. 70) really refers to the Tempta-
tion, then the tree of life is the date palm, at least in Sumer.
The Sumerians called a plant used in medicine the u-nam-tily
“plant of life,” Accadian irrUy identified by some with the
poppy, from which opium is made.^® But it is used in a mythi-
cal sense also. Suppliants of the king of Assyria wrote to him
as follows: “To the king, our lord, thy servants Belikbi and
Fig. 72. Goddess Offering Palm Branch to Three Gods
the Inhabitants of Gambulu (write), Ninurta and Gula com-
mand peace, happiness, and health of the king, our lord, for
ever. Dead dogs are we, but the king (our) lord has made us
live, offering the plant of life to our nostrils.” Of Asarhad-
don it is said: “ May (my) kingship be pleasing to the flesh of
peoples like the plant of life.” Sumerian seals sometimes shew
a deity who offers a poppy branch to a worshipper (see Fig. 71 ),
and it has been argued that the branches, which spring from the
shoulders of the goddess Ishtar on a monument of a king of
Lulubu in the upper valley of the Diala, are those of the
poppy. Fig. 72, an archaic Sumerian seal, shews a goddess
offering a palm branch to three godsj the god at the left is a
i88
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
deity of vegetation, indicated by palm-branches growing from
all parts of his body. This scene may perhaps represent the
presentation of the tree of life to the dying gods, Tammuz,
Ningishzida, Ninsubur. Frequently the Sumerian seals repre-
sent a god presenting a small cup to a worshipper. Fig. 73,
which is a good example of this myth, has the figure of the
Mother-goddess standing behind the worshipper, in an atti-
tude of interceding with the god on behalf of the man. The
Fig. 73. Mother-goddess, Worshipper, and Tammuz
inscription reads: “Goddess Ishtar and god Tammuz.” This
scene may represent the myth of Adapa, to whom Tammuz at
the command of Anu offered the water of life. Inscriptions
and religious archaeology, therefore, seem to prove the exist-
ence of the myth of a plant of life, and of the water of life.
References to the Garden of Eden do not occur in Hebrew
literature again until the end of the Jewish kingdom in the
time of Ezekiel,^’^ and the legend of Adam does not seem to
have been known to any of the early Hebrew writers. Ezekiel
composed a dirge on the destruction of Tyre and its king,
Ithoba‘al, who is described as having proclaimed himself to be
a god. “ In Eden, garden of God, wast thou and he sat
THE MYTH OF ADAPA AND ADAM 189
among Cherubim on the holy mountain of God. But Yaw
caused him to perish from among the “ sons of God.”
Ezekiel also compared Pharaoh Hophra to a cedar whose like
existed not in the “ garden of God,” and all the trees of
Eden which are in the “ garden of God ” envied it. The
trees of Eden in these prophecies refer to proud princes of
hostile states and cities, but Ezekiel’s figurative sarcasm proves
that he has in mind the ancient Hebrew legend of Genesis.
Adam and Eve, however, are not mentioned again in Hebrew
mythology until the late Apocryphal period, when the myth
formed the subject of endless allegorical and theological
speculation.
CHAPTER V
THE SUMERIAN LEGENDS OF
TAGTUG AND PARADISE
A mong the primeval heroes who were clients of the
Water-god, Enki-Ea, was also one Tagtug, better known
under another title Uttukku, “ the Weaver.” Tag-tug is in-
variably designated as a god, and the syllables mean, literally,
“ maker of garments.” The title was also given to a woman,
latterly identified with Ishtar, the weaver, spinster, under
which form she became the goddess who spins and cuts the
thread of life.^ This weaver, like Adapa, was a client of Enki,
and a door-keeper of Enki in Eridu.^ The name was also pos-
sibly pronounced Tibir,® “ smith,” “ metal-worker.” He is
mentioned in a Sumerian poem concerning the origin of civiliza-
tion which reads as follows:
I. “In the mountain of Heaven and Earth,
When Anu had created the gods, the Anunnaki,
When the Grain-goddess had not been created, and had not
been made verdant.
When Tagtug, the ... of the Land, had not yet been made,*
5. And Tibirra had not laid a (temple) foundation.
Ewes bleated not, lambs skipped not.
Goats were not, kids skipped not.
Ewes had not yet borne their lambs.
She goats had not yet borne their kids,
10. The name of the Grain-goddess, the purifying, and of the god-
dess of Flocks,
The Anunnaki, the great gods, had not yet known.
The grain semus for the thirtieth day was not.
The grain semus for the sixtieth day was not.
The grain . . . and barley-grain for the cherished multitudes,
were not.
THE SUMERIAN LEGENDS
191
15. Homes for repose were not.
Tagtug had not been born, nor lifted (to his head) a crown,
The lord, the god Mirsi,® the precious lord, had not been born.
The god Sumugan, the watchman, had not appeared.
Men of ancient days
20. Had not known food.
And they knew not tents of habitation.
The people in reed huts ( ? ) made their devotions.
Like sheep . . . they ate grass.
And they drank rain-water.
25. At that time in the place where are the forms of the gods.
In their house, ‘the holy chamber’ (Dukug), the goddess of
flocks and the Grain-goddess had not been made to thrive.
Then they made them to occupy the house of the table of the
gods.
The abundance of the goddess of flocks and of the Grain-
goddess,
The Anunnaki in ‘ the holy chamber ’
30. Ate and were not filled.
In their holy cattle-stall good milk . . .
The Anunnaki in ‘ the holy chamber ’
Drank and were not filled.
In the holy park, for their (the gods’) benefit,®
35. Mankind with the soul of life came into being.
Then Enki said to Enlil:
‘ Father Enlil, flocks and grain
In “ the holy chamber ” have been made plentiful.
In “ the holy chamber ” mightily shall they bring forth.’
40. By the incantation of Enki and Enlil
Flocks and grain in ‘ the holy chamber ’ brought forth.
Flocks in the folds [increased].
Pasture they provided for them abundantly.
For the Grain-goddess they prepared a house.
45. A yoke of four oxen for the plough they provided.”
The first eighteen lines of this myth refer to the age immedi-
ately after Anu, the Heaven-god, had created the gods of the
nether sea. Ashnan, the Grain-goddess, and Lahar, the god-
dess of sheep, had not yet appeared, nor had Tagtug, patron of
the craftsmen, been born. Mirsu, god of irrigation, and Sumu-
gan, god of the cattle, had not been sent to aid mankind. Lines
nineteen to twenty-five state clearly that man existed already
192
-
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
in that uncivilized primeval age, and had religious instinct
enough to worship Anu. The existence of the Igigi or great
gods of the upper world is presupposed. But man is still a
savage j now the gods in Dukug, the holy cosmic chamber,
created the goddesses of corn and flocks, so that they them-
selves might have food, but they were not filled, obviously be-
cause civilized man had not appeared to provide them with
regular sacrifices. Then men “ with the soul of life ” came into
being, and they were created for the benefit of the gods. The
theory that savage men, who ate herbs, had no souls, seems
to be clear enough here, and the same belief is apparently
held by the author of the Epic of Gilgamish, when he
described the savage Enkidu, before he had been introduced
to the ways of civilization and had learned to worship the
gods.
But flocks were born and grain thrived only in the cosmic
chamber. Now they are abundantly provided for man, a state-
ment which proves clearly enough the doctrine so strenuously
advocated by the representatives of the Pan-Babylonian school
of Assyriologists, that what exists on earth pre-existed in
Heaven, or in the home of the gods. The phraseology of the
poem implies this; for the poet passes immediately from the
description of the flocks and grain in Dukug to the statement
that they henceforth were given unto men. The poem now
continues:
46. “ The ewes which were placed in the folds,
The shepherd caused to become prolific in the folds.
The Grain- (goddess) which stood for harvest,
The flourishing maiden, was carried away in abundance.
50. In the field where she lifted high her head.
Where abundance from Heaven descended,
Flocks and grain they caused to be excellent.
Abundance they caused to be among the multitude of men.
In the Land creatures with the breath of life they caused to be.
55. The decrees of the gods they regulated.
In the store-houses of the Land food they made plentiful.
In the sanctuaries of the Land they caused glory to be.
THE SUMERIAN LEGENDS
193
Him that of pressed ( ? ) the house of the poor
They treated harshly, and caused it to have riches.
60. To two of them, whom in their land, Dilmun, they had placed.
Their glory in the temple they augmented?^
At this point the text is too fragmentary to afford much in-
formation. Mention is made of the vine and wine, and then
the Grain-goddess begins an address to Lahar, the patroness
of sheep. Here there is a long lacuna, and near the end of
the poem Lahar is addressing Ashnan:
“ O Ashnan, take counsel with thyself.
And do thou like me give food to eat.
They behold thy laws.
And I will follow thee
Let the miller . . .
What of thine is more, what of thine is less, make equal.
Then Ashnan by her fulness was pleased in heart and to earth
hastened.”
Ashnan replied to Lahar:
“As for thee, Iskur (Adad) is thy lord, Sumugan is thy minister; the
guardian of thy sleeping chamber.”
The text of the second part of this poem, as interpreted by the
writer, describes the conditions of civilization introduced, after
a long age of barbarism, by the Earth and Water-gods, Enlil
and Enki. If the translation of the lines referring to the
punishment of those who oppress the poor is correct, the poem
does not describe a sinless Paradise, but only a perfectly or-
ganized society in which the gods had established absolute
justice.'^
Another Sumerian hymn to the Grain-goddess, created by
Enlil, describes the age before man had built cities, sheep-folds,
and cattle-stalls 5 and it was Nidaba, the Grain-goddess, who
inaugurated the age of civilization.® At the end of the poem,
translated above, there is a reference to two persons who
had been placed in Dilmun. This is the well known land, men-
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
194
tioned in historical and religious texts throughout the long
history of Sumer, Accad, Babylonia, and Assyria} it lay on the
shores of the Persian Gulf and has been located by the writer
and others on the eastern shore. By some it has been identified
with the island Bahrein, and also with the western or Arabian
coast land opposite the island Bahrein. Whatever may have
been its geographical definition in historical times, Dilmun must
have included Eridu at the mouth of the Euphrates in my-
thology, and Dilmun was the Sumerian land and garden of
Paradise. A long Sumerian poem on Paradise and the loss
of eternal life has a somewhat different account of this myth
than that recorded In the later Accadian poem on Adapa.® It
bears the rubric, “ Praise Nidaba,” which defines the composi-
tion as a theological poem, unlike the Adapa poem, which was
written as a prelude to an incantation. From the rubric one
should expect that the author had written a myth on the origin
of civilization, attributing it to the Grain-goddess. It presents,
however, an almost complete parallel to the Hebrew legend
of Adam and the Garden of Eden.
The poem is divided into the following sections;
(A). ENKI AND HIS WIFE (DAMKINA) REPOSED
IN DILMUN WHERE MEN LIVED IN
PARADISE, OBVERSE I-II, 19:
“ They alone reposed in Dilmun ;
Where Enki with his wife reposed,
That place was pure, that place was clean.”
At the end of the poem translated above, “ two of them ” who
had been placed in Dilmun, must, therefore, refer to these
two deities and not to two human beings. The poem now
describes the prehistoric age of bliss in Dilmun.
“ In Dilmun the raven croaked not.
The kke shrieked not kite-like.
The lion mangled not.
The wolf ravaged not the lambs.
THE SUMERIAN LEGENDS
195
The dog knew not the kids in repose,
And the grain-eating swine he did . . .
The growing scion . . .
The birds of Heaven {abandoned) not their young.
None caused the doves to fly away.
None said, ‘ O disease of the eyes, thou art disease of the eyes.’
None said, ‘ O headache, thou art headache.’
None said to an old woman, ‘ Thou art an old woman.’
None said to an old man, ‘ Thou art an old man.’
In (that) city none inhabited a pure place which had not been laved
with water.
None said, ‘ There is a man who has trespassed against a canal.’
No prince withheld his mercy.
None said, ‘ A liar lies,’
None said ‘ Alas! ’ in the sanctuaries of the city.
Ninsikilla spoke to her father Enki (saying) :
‘ Thou hast founded a city, thou hast founded a city, to which thou
hast assigned its fate.
Dilmun, the city thou hast founded, thou hast founded a city to which
thou hast assigned a fate.
[Eridu} ] thou hast founded, a city thou hast founded, to which thou
hast assigned a fate.
In thy great . . . waters spring forth.
Lo, thy city drinks water in abundance.
Lo, Dilmun drinks water in abundance.
Lo, thy well of bitter waters springs forth as a well of sweet waters.
Lo, thy city is a house by the quay border in the Land.
Lo, Dilmun is a house by the quay border in the Land.
Now, O Sun-god arise.
O Sun-god in Heaven stand.
He that waits in Duezenna,
In the sleeping-chamber of Nanna(r),
Stands forth in prayer to thee at the mouth where the waters flow, by
the sweet waters of the earth.’
In his great . . . waters sprang forth.
His city drank waters in abundance.
Dilmun drank waters in abundance.
His well of bitter waters became a well of sweet waters.
In field and plain at harvest time grain throve.
His city became the house by the quay border in the Land.
Dilmun became the house by the quay border in the Land.
Now O Sun-god, shine forth. Verily it was so.’
196 SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
The poem up to this point has been interpreted by some scholars
as a description of the earth before civilization was bestowed
upon mankind by Enki, and not as a description of primeval
Paradise. This view does not take into consideration the totally
different account in the poem translated above/^ which is really
a description of the conditions such as these interpreters wish to
place upon this section of the poem under discussion. The longer
poem is a continuation of the former, and obviously describes
how “ the two ” who had been placed in Dilmun, that is Enki
and his wife, instituted a sinless age of complete happiness in
Dilmun. If this were not true, then there would be in the
further development of the argument an account of the creation
of gods, man, animals, and vegetation. The existence of man
in Dilmun is clearly implied not only in the section translated
above, but by the whole of the subsequent argument.
(B). REVELATION OF ENKI TO THE MOTHER-
GODDESS NINTUR, WHO HAD CREATED
MAN, COL. II, 20-46. SHE SHALL BEAR
OFFSPRING FROM THEIR UNION.
At this point begin several obscure episodes. It is certain
that they refer to the impregnation of the Mother-goddess Nin-
tur, Ninkur, by the god Enki. This was the interpretation of
many critics and I was quite wrong in my earlier editions in
translating these episodes as descriptions of the Deluge. Enki,
the possessor of wisdom, revealed his decision to Nintur, that
he would cohabit with her, and by this union was produced
Tagtug or Uttu.^®
“ His purpose secretly, grandly, and kindly he made known to her.^^
He said; ‘ Let none enter unto me.’
Enki said.
By heaven he swore:
‘ Lie with me, lie with me,’ were his words.
Enki beside Damgalnunna spoke his command:
‘ The womb of Ninhursag will I impregnate.
In utero accipiat semen dei Enki.
THE SUMERIAN LEGENDS
197
It shall be the first day in her first month.
It shall be the second day in her second month.
It shall be the third day in her third month.
It shall be the fourth day in her fourth month.
It shall be the fifth day in her fifth month.
It shall be the sixth day in her sixth month.
It shall be the seventh day in her seventh month.
It shall be the eighth day in her eighth month.
It shall be the ninth day in her ninth month, month of the period of
woman.
Like fat, like fat, like tallow,
Nintur, mother of the Land,
. . . shall bear.’ ”
(C). OBVERSE III, 1-8.
“ Nintur by the shore of the river replied:
^ Deus Enki super me procumbety procumbet*
Isimu, his messenger he called :
‘ None shall kiss this first-born daughter,
Nintur, this first-born daughter, none shall kiss.’
Isimu, his messenger, replied:
‘ None shall kiss this first-born daughter,
Nintur, this first-born daughter, none shall kiss.’ ”
(D). IMPREGNATION AND CHILD-BIRTH OF
NINTUR. OBVERSE III, 9-39.
“ My king (Enki), full of awfulness, yea of awfulness.
Set foot alone upon a boat.
Two attendants as watchmen he stationed.
Uber suum attigity voluptarie earn osculans.
Enki impregnated her womb.
In utero accepit semen del Enkl?^
This episode of the impregnation of the Mother-goddess
Nintur in a boat on the Euphrates is now followed by an account
of the nine months of her pregnancy, and the birth of a child.
Then the whole episode is repeated 5 at the end of this repeti-
tion the following episode occurs. The offspring of this divine
pair was Tagtug, the weaver and smith, founder of civilization.
He is described throughout as a god.
198
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
(E). EDUCATION OF TAGTUG. OBVERSE III,
39 — REVERSE II, 15.
“ Tagtug she reared.
Nintur to Tagtug called:
‘ I will purge thee, and my purging . . .
I will tell thee and my words . . .
He who alone super me procuhuity frocubuky
Was Enki qut super me procuhuity procubukd
Thus Tagtug learned from his mother the secret of his origin.
Here there is an unfortunate break in the text, but, from a few
signs, Nintur seems to be giving him his education in the midst
of a garden. He is told to stand in the buildings Baraguldu
and Rabgaranj for
“ In the temple he has caused to sit my guide,
Enki has caused my guide to sit.”
Then she tells him that two attendants will fill the canals and
irrigate the fields and garden. The secret instructions given to
Tagtug seem to have been discovered by Enki, for he says;
“ Who art thou that in the garden . . . ?
Enki to the gardener
Enki then sat on his throne, took his sceptre and waited for
Tibir in the temple. Tibir arrived and Enki ordered him to
open the door and enter, saying:
“ Who art thou? ”
To which Tagtug (Tibir) replied:
“ I am a gardener, the irriX plant and the fig . . .”
“ I will bestow upon thee the form of a god,*
said Enki. And so Tagtug joyfully opened the door of the
temple.
THE SUMERIAN LEGENDS
199
“ Enki educated- Tibir.
Joyfully he imparted to him his counsel.
Tagtug he educated^ he . . . him and . . . him.”
By the unfortunate break in this text the further instructions
given by Enki to the gardener of Paradise are lost, and when
the account can again be followed there is a description of how
at least seven plants grew in the garden j this seems to be part of
an address of Nintur to Tagtug, who again repeats to him the
phrase that it was Enki who impregnated her.
(F). LEGEND OF THE FALL OF MAN, REVERSE
II, 16-47.
This section is closely parallel to the Hebrew legend of the
“ tree of knowledge ” in Eden. Enki summoned his messenger
Isimu and said:
“ I have decreed for ever the fate of the plants.”
It is apparently Nintur, desiring to know this secret, who asks
the messenger: “What is this. What is this? ” If so, it was
she who desired to know the names of those plants which
Tagtug might eat and the name of the one forbidden.
“ His messenger Isimu replied (to her? ) :
‘ My king has spoken of the nard,
He may cut therefrom and eat.
My king has spoken of the plant . . . ,
He may gather therefrom and eat.
My king has spoken of the plant . . . ,
He may cut therefrom and eat.
My king has spoken of the prickly plant . . . ,
He may gather therefrom and eat.
My king has spoken of the plant . . . ,
He may cut therefrom and eat.
My king has spoken of the plant . . . ,
He may gather therefrom and eat.
My king has spoken of the plant . . . ,
He may cut therefrom and eat.
My king has spoken of the cassia^
He may gather therefrom and eat.’ ”
200
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
Here follows the line vital to the interpretation, and unless it
be taken in the sense implied by my interpretation, there can
be no question of a forbidden plant, by eating which Tagtug
brought upon himself the curse of the gods. The natural
translation would be:
“ Enki fixed the fate of the plant(s) and placed it (them) in the midst
(of the garden).”
But there now follows the following curse:
“ Ninhursag spoke an oath in the name of Enki,
‘ The face of life until he dies shall he not see.’ ”
The Anunnaki sat in the dust (to weep).
Violently she spoke to Enlil,
‘ I, Ninhursag, bore thee a child and what is my reward? ’ ”
Obviously Tagtug had committed some sin, the consequence
of which was the loss of eternal life. The expression “ face of
life ” is obscure, but the curse clearly means that, “ until he
dies,” that is, as long as he lives, he shall be no longer sheltered
from the woes that henceforth would beset all flesh — sickness,
death, and trouble. This sin is not mentioned and can be ex-
plained by interpreting the vital line of the passage above:
“ Enki fixed the fate of a plant and placed it in the midst of the
garden,” forbidding Tagtug to take from it to eat. This he
seems to have done, bringing upon himself the same curse as
Yaw placed upon Adam. It is, however, strange that the text
does not refer to this sin, and this interpretation must be ac-
cepted with caution. Ninhursag, the Mother-goddess, in this
episode appeals to Enlil, not to Enki, and as she was the wife
of Enlil, perhaps the myth should receive a different interpre-
tation. The motif of the curse may be jealousy on the part of
this divine pair. Enraged by the blessings bestowed upon the
offspring of Enki by Nintur, Ninhursag (who is in fact only
another name for Nintur) condemns Tagtug to remain a mor-
tal. Certainly by strict interpretation of the text and not read-
THE SUMERIAN LEGENDS
201
ing anything into it from the Hebrew legend of Adam, the
latter is the safest explanation.
Enlil the begetter replied vehemently:
“ Thou Ninhursag hast born me a child.
And so, ‘ In my city I will make thee a creature ^ shall thy name be
called.
. . . his head as a peculiar one he modelled.
His feet ( P ) as a peculiar one he designed.
His eyes as a peculiar one he made brilliant.”
The creation of another man or god by Enlil has no apparent
connection with the fate of Tagtug. Clearly Enlil created the
“ only one,” or “ peculiar one,” to appease Ninhursag, who
through jealousy ( ? ) had brought about the fall of the gardener
of Dilmun. According to another legend the Moon-god Sin
was born by the union of Enlil and Ninlil (= Ninhursag).
(G). THE MOTHER-GODDESS NINHURSAG CRE-
ATES DIVINE PATRONS TO AID IN HIS
MORTAL LIFE. REVERSE III.
Enlil and Ninhursag provided for the future, decreed the fate
(of Tagtug?), and fixed (his) destiny. Ninhursag now
addresses someone as “ my brother.” This, by the nature of
the address, must be Tagtug, son of Enki.
My brother, what with thee is ill?
Abu I have created for thee.
My brother, what with thee is ill?
Nindulla I have created for thee.
My brother, what with thee is ill?
Ninsu-utud I have created for thee.
My brother, what with thee is ill? ‘ My mouth is ill.’
Ninkasi I have created for thee.
My brother, what with thee is ill?
Nazi I have created for thee.
My brother, what with thee is ill?
Dazima I have created for thee.
My brother, what with thee is ill?
‘ My flocks are ill.’
‘ My wells are ill.’
‘ My teeth are ill.’
‘ My memhrum virile is ill.’
‘ My side (?) is ill.’
‘ My rib is ill.’
202
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
Nintil I have created for thee.
My brother, what with thee is ill? ‘ My intelligence is ill.’
Enshagme I have created for thee.”
These eight divinities created to serve fallen man are then
further described as follows:
“ These children who were born, who were provided for him —
Let Abu be lord of vegetation.
Let Nindulla be lord of Magan.
May Ninazu possess (marry?) Ninsu-utud.
Let Ninkasi be he that fills the heart.
May Umundara possess (marry?) Nazi.
May . . . possess (marry?) Dazima.
Let Nintil be queen of the month.
Let Lnshagme be lord of Dilmun.”
-
Of these eight divine helpers of man, four are male deities, and
four, Ninsu-utud, who heals the aching tooth, Nazi, Dazima,
and Nintil are goddesses. Ninkasi, god of the Vine, corre-
sponding to the Greek Dionysus, is often defined as a goddess
in Babylonian mythology. There was also the god of banquets,
Siris, Sirash, who is sometimes defined as a goddess.
The ancient Hebrew legend of Adam and Eden is followed
by a story of the birth of Cain and Abel, sons of Adam and
Eve. Cain was a tiller of the soil and Abel a keeper of sheep:
From Cain descended the following eight patrons of the arts,
Enoch, Irad, Mehiyya-El, Methusha-El, Lamech, Jabal, Jubal,
and Tubal-Cain. The text discloses the characters of only the
last three, Jabal, patron of tents and flocks, Jubal, patron of
music, Tubal-Cain, patron of metal-workers. Of these only
one, Lamech, is of Sumerian origin; this name is probably
Lumha, title of Enki as patron of singers. It is clear, then, that
the Sumerian epical poem of Tagtug and Dilmun is directly
connected with the ancient Hebrew document of Genesis ii.4—
iv.22. Although the text of the Sumerian poem still has un-
restored lacunae, and the meaning and connection of some
lines remain in doubt, it is clearly the source of the most im-
portant theological myth of Semitic antiquity.
CHAPTER VI
LEGENDS OF THE DELUGE
I N Western Asia the legend of the Flood is of Sumerian
origin, and is now known from the excavations at Kish and
Ur to have been based upon an historical catastrophe/ Fig.
74 shews the Flood stratum which passes through the ruins of
the temple of Ninhursag at Kish, just below plain level, and
below this stratum have been found early Sumerian antiquities
of the best period of their civilization. Nineteen feet below
this great Flood stratum are traces of another Flood, ap-
parently identical with a thick Flood stratum found also at
Ur. The great Flood stratum at Kish is dated by inscriptions
above and below it at about 3300 b.c., whereas the traces of
the earlier Flood may be placed shortly after 4000 b.c. It was
certainly the earlier Flood which provided the Sumerian
chroniclers with their scheme of dividing the history of Sumer
and Accad into the antediluvian and post-diluvian periods.
Their dynastic lists begin the post-diluvian period with the
first dynasty of Kish, founded by Ga-ur, preserved as
Euechoros by the Greeks.^ By no possible reduction can the
founding of the first dynasty of Kish be reduced lower than
4000 B.c.
Babylonian and Assyrian scribes frequently refer to the age
“ before the Flood ” as the lam abubiy abubu being the Accadian
original of the Hebrew word for the Flood, mabbuly and the
Aramaic mamola. A king praises himself as one “ [who loved
to read] the writings of the age before the Flood.” ^ Enmen-
duranna, or Enmenduranki, preserved as Euedorachos by
Berossus, was one of the legendary kings before the Flood whom
the Babylonians regarded as the founder of divination and
V— 15
204
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
apparently also of medicine and magic rituals of expiation.*
These rituals had been handed down as secret instructions from
the “ ancient sages before the Flood.” The Sumerians located
the principal event of the Flood at Shuruppak, the modern
ruins of which are named Fara, and one of these rituals was
said to have been copied there by a sage of Nippur in the reign
of Enlilbani of Isin (2144— 2121 b.c.). Ashurbanipal learned
to read the monumental inscriptions before the Flood. Beros-
sus preserved this tradition in his account of the Flood.
Xisuthrus, as he rendered the name Ziusudra, last of the
Sumerian antediluvian kings, warned of the Flood by Cronus,
was ordered to write down all history from the beginning to
the end, and to deposit the tablets at Sippar, city of the Sun-
god. After his escape in a boat Xisuthrus, when the waters
had dried up, found that it had stranded on a mountain in
Armenia. He, therefore, descended with his wife, daughter,
and pilot, bowed to the earth and offered sacrifices to the godsj
these four all disappeared, and in the Babylonian account they
received eternal life on an island beyond the Western Sea.
When the others who had been saved in the boat descended
they called for Xisuthrus, and heard his voice from the air
admonishing them to be pious 5 for because of his own piety he
had been translated to dwell with the gods. He ordered them
to return to Babylonia, to search for the writings at Sippar and
make them known to all men. This they did, and the Baby-
lonians and Assyrians believed that all revealed knowledge,
“ the mysteries ” of the expiation rituals and all true rules of
conduct, had been thus preserved for them directly from the
hands of the sages who lived before the deluge.®
The names of ten kings who lived before the Flood have
been recovered. The clay prism, now in Oxford, gives the
lengths of each reign, and the total is 456,000 years, a mythi-
cal figure obtained perhaps by assigning 120 sars or
120 X 3600 years to this period, which yields 432,000 years,
as preserved by Berossus. A Sumerian tablet has another
I.EGENDS OF THE DELUGE
205
version which gives only eight kings and 241,200 years
or 66 sars. This long mythical period was received and revised
by Indian and Chinese mythologists. The Chinese period or
age of the thirteen kings of Heaven and eleven kings of earth,
was also 432,000 years, and so was the Indian Kali-yuga. The
Hindus have four cosmic cycles, divided into the proportions
4, 3, 2, I. There are krta^ 1,440,000 years of unblemished
righteousness} treta^ 1,080,000 years of three fourths right-
eousness} drapdrUy 720,000 years of half righteousness} and
kali-yugay 360,000 years of one quarter righteousness. The
Hindu tradition is apparently developed from the Sumerian-
Indian-Chinese system by fanciful theological thinkers.®
The ten Sumerian antediluvian kings, who correspond to
the ten patriarchs of one Hebrew tradition,
with corresponding Greek transcriptions.
are given below
SUMERIAN.
GREEK.
HEBREW.
Alulim.
Aloros.
Adam.
Alagar.
Alaparos.
Seth.
Enmeluanna.
Amelon.
Enosh.
Enmengalanna.
god-Dumuzi, the
Ammendn.
Kenan.
shepherd.
Daozos.
Mahalalel.
Ensibzianna.
Amempsinos.
Jared.
Enmenduranna.
Euedorachos.
Enoch.
Ubardudu.
Opartes.
Methusaleh.
Aradgin.
Ardates.
Lamech.
Ziusudra.
Xisuthros (Sisythes)
Noah.
These Sumerian and Greek lists are obtained by critical ar-
rangement of the sources.^
Sumerian and Hebrew traditions agree in placing the Flood
in the time of the tenth king or patriarch.
The Syrian version of the Flood as it was transmitted and
transformed at Bambyce has already been noticed in Chapter
2o6 SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
I.® The earliest version has been found on a Sumerian tablet
from Nippur of about the twenty-third century b.c. Not
more than one quarter of this document has been preserved.
It apparently follows upon the myth of Tagtug in the pre-
ceding Chapter j for with the first line preserved, Nintur, who
had born Tagtug, mentions the “calamity” which had be-
fallen mankind. To which Enki (?) replied: “Oh Nintur,
what I have created. . . .” Then follow these lines spoken
apparently by Enki:
“ ‘ The Land in its foundations will I restore.
Cities wheresoever they be shall they build, and I cause their shelter to
give them rest.
In my city they shall lay its brick in a holy place,
And my dwelling in a holy place they shall set.
Brilliantly y with all things fitting shall they finish it.
The rituals and ordinances they shall fulfil magnificently.
The earth I will water and provide them counsel.’
After Anu, Enlil, Enki, and Ninhursag
Had created the dark-headed peoples
Creatures with the breath of lije on earth he made plentiful.
The cattle of the field, them that are four legged, on the plains he
called into being as was fitting.”
Here there is a long break in which the work of creation was
described and then follows this passage:
“ Then kingship descended from heaven.”
After the establishment of rituals and precepts, Enlil (?)
founded five cities, named them and assigned each to one of
the gods. To Enki he gave Eridu, to the Virgin, i.e., Innini,
he gave Badtibira, to Pabilhursag he gave Larak, to Utu
(Shamash) he gave Sippar, and to Aradda he gave Shuruppak.
“ Ajterward he . . . planted fruit-trees.
Little canals, whose moistening irrigates all {the land\ he provided.
This description of the antediluvian period was continued in
the break which recurs again here, and the reason for the
LEGENDS OF THE DELUGE
207
destruction of the world by a Flood is also lost. One Sumer-
ian list of the kings before the Deluge names the same five
cities as consecutive capitals. The great dynastic list has six
cities, Habur (Eridu), Ellasar, Badtibira, Larak, Sippar, and
Shuruppak, that is, it inserts Ellasar between the first and
second. The tradition reported by Berossus in Greek has only
four, Babylon, Pantibiblos, Larak, and [Shuruppak]. Baby-
lon and Ellasar owe their distinction in this prehistoric list
to local pride of scribes who redacted the legend in those
cities.
The Flood is now described. Then Nintur \cried^ like
{a woman in travail^ and Innini wailed for her people. Enki
bethought himself for counsel j the gods of Heaven and Earth
\invokedd\ the names of Anu and Enlil. Enki had discovered
the plan of Anu and Enlil to drown mankind. “ Now at that
time Ziusudra was king, a priest of lustrations was he.” Daily
he worshipped the gods with reverence, bowing his face to the
earth in fear of them. Then Enki “ without a dream,” that is
not by sending him revelation by a dream, repeated to him
“ their command.” The obscure and sudden transition of the
narrative seems to imply this interpretation. Enki repeated
to Ziusudra the plan of the gods to send a flood. He was told
that they had sworn by Heaven and Earth to destroy all man-
kind. Enki’s revelation to Ziusudra now follows:
“ . . . the gods a wall . . .
Ziusudra stand thou within and hear.
Beside the wall at my left hand stand . . .
Beside the wall I will speak to the . . .
My instructions hear . . .
By my hand shall a deluge be sent upon the . . .
The seed of mankind shall [perish] in destruction.
This is the decision, the command of the assembly [of the gods] .”
Here the instructions to build an ark and save his family
are lost in a long lacuna, and when the narrative reappears the
deluge is being described:
208
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
The rain storms, mighty winds all of them, they sent all at once.
The Flood came upon the . . .
When for seven days and seven nights.
The Flood had raged over the Land,
And the huge boat had been tossed on the great waters by the storms,
The Sun-god arose shedding light in Heaven and on Earth.
Ziusudra made an opening in the side of the great ship.
He let the light of the hero the Sun-god enter into the great ship.
Ziusudra, the king.
Before the Sun-god he bowed his face to the ground.
The king slaughtered an ox, sheep he sacrified in great numbers.”
The events after Ziusudra and his family descended from the
boat are lost in a long lacuna, and when the narrative can be
taken up again he is giving his last instructions to men before he
was translated by Enlil.
“ By the life of Heaven and Earth shall ye swear, and by you shall it be
bound (banned).
By Enlil and the life of Heaven and Earth shall ye swear and by you
it shall be bound (banned).
The creatures with the breath of life shall you cause to go forth.”
The last line, if correctly rendered, refers to the living things
saved in the ark. Then follow a few lines from a long de-
scription of Ziudsudra’s translation to the mountain of Dilmun.
“ Ziusudra, the king.
Before Enlil bowed his face to the earth.
To him he gave life like a god.
An eternal soul like that of a god he bestowed upon him.
At that time Ziusudra, the king.
Named, ‘ Saviour of living things and the seed of humanity,’
They caused to dwell in the inaccessible mountain, mountain of
Dilmun.”
The fragment ends here and the description of the mountain
where he henceforth enjoyed eternal life has not been re-
covered.®
Ziusudra left instructions to men, and a Sumerian fragment
of them has been found. He gives these instructions, speaking
LEGENDS OF THE DELUGE
209
in didactic style, each paragraph beginning: “ My son, where
the sun rises.” There are instructions to protect the homeless
and the stranger. There seems to have been a book of wisdom
attributed to the immortal Ziusudra, or, as the Babylonians
translated the name, Utnapishtim, all written in this style, and
many such books have survived in the Accadian language.^®
The Hebrew didactic style, “ My son,” in wisdom literature
is borrowed from these Accadian, and eventually Sumerian,
admonitions attributed to the Babylonian Noah.
The most detailed narrative concerning the Flood is in-
corporated into the Epic of Gilgamish, where it is not an essen-
tial part of that myth, being introduced because Gilgamish
sought for the plant of life in the legendary abode of Utnapish-
tim. It is written in Accadian, but the source is the older
Sumerian legend. In Tablet IX, Column i, Gilgamish, ter-
rified by the death of his friend Enkidu, determined to seek
Ziusudra or Utnapishtim, son of Ubar-Tutu. After a terrifying
dream he arose and journeyed to the Mashu Mountains, upon
which rests the vault of Heaven and whose foundations attain
Arallu:
Col. ii, 6. “ Scorpion-men guard its gate,
Whose terribleness is fierce, and whose glance is death.
Terrifying is their dazzlement, overpowering the moun-
tain ranges.
They guard Shamash at the rising and the setting of the
sun.
10. Gilgamish saw them and with terror
And dismay was his face darkened.
He took courage and saluted them.
The scorpion-man cries to his wife :
‘ He who comes to us — his body is flesh of the gods.’
To the scorpion-man his wife replied:
16. ‘ Two thirds of him is god and one third man.’ ”
Here the interview with the scorpion-man is broken by a long
lacuna, after which the narrative begins with Gilgamish’s re-
quest for information concerning the route to the abode of
210
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
Utnapishtim. (Col. iii.) He is told that none before had
traversed these mountains. Here there is a long break in the
text, after which the scorpion-man’s address to Gilgamish can
again be followed. (Col. iv.) He is told to traverse the
Mashu Mountains. He pursues the “ road of Shamash,” that
is toward the far west. His advance by stages of one double
hour’s march each (about six and a half miles) is described,
until he has painfully done twelve stages.
47. “ When he had accomplished the first hour’s march he . . .
Thick was the darkness, there being no light.
It permitted him not to see the region behind him.”
(Col. V.) At the end of the eighth hour he cried out loudly.
The eleventh hour was finished before sunrise, but at the end
of the twelfth hour there was light. When he saw the trees
of the ... he dashed forward. There he found cornelian
stones bearing fruit, full of foliage, and good to look uponj
lapis lazuli bore . . . and fruit desirable to see. (Col. vi.)
There is a further description, after a lacuna, of various pre-
cious stones in the region where Gilgamish arrived and came
to (Tablet X, Col. i.) the goddess Siduri, described as a wine
merchant {^sahttu). From an old Babylonian version’^ it seems
that Gilgamish, after he reached the Paradise of trees and
stones in the Mashu Mountains, met the Sun-god who, having
learned of his quest for the plant of life, was sad and thus
addressed him:
Old Version, i, 7. “ O Gilgamish, whither goest thou?
The life which thou seekest thou shalt not find.”
And Gilgamish replied:
Col. ii, 10. “ After I had roamed on the plain like a wanderer,
In the midst of the earth, the stars failed.
I lay down to sleep all years.
May my eyes see the sun, and may I enjoy the light.
Far was the darkness, where (? ) is there light enough?
15. When shall the dead see the brightness of Shamash? ”
LEGENDS OF THE DELUGE
2II
Siduri, or Shiduri, is a west Semitic name of Ishtar as pa-
troness of female wine-mixers and wine-merchants, and is
described as the “ goddess of Wisdom ” and protecting genius
of life in one text. The name is also written Shidurri on a
tablet of this legend from the Hittite capital. Gilgamish
found her dwelling in a cave by the sea. She had a wine jar"
and a brewing tub, and was covered with a veil. He ap-
proached her, clad in a skin garment; there was woe in his
heart and he appeared like one arrived from a far journey.
The Sabitu saw him from afar and said to herself;
ASSYR. VERSION, TAB. X
Col. i, 13. “ Who knows whether this man is a slayer [of . . .] ?
Whence has he flown hither in . .
When she saw him she fastened her gate; Gilgamish demanded
admittance, threatening to shatter her door and smash the lock-
pins. Apparently the Sabitu admits him to her presence, and
there follows this passage which recurs whenever Gilgamish
meets one of the gods or heroes on his journey.^® (Gilgamish
describes to her his exploits with his friend Enkidu. See the
Chapter on the Epic of Gilgamish) :
“ [We cast down Humbaba who dwelt in the] cedar [forest],
[In the f asses of the mountains] we slew lions.
[Sabitu] spoke to him, spoke to Gilgamish:
‘ The guard of the cedar forest thou didst slaughter.
[Thou didst cast down] Humbaba, who dwelt in the cedar forests.
[In the fasses] of the mountains thou hast slain lions.
[Thou hast seized] the bull which descended from Heaven, and thou
hast slaughtered him.
Why are thy cheeks pale, is thy countenance fallen?
Thy heart is made sad, thy appearance exhausted.
[And] there is woe in thy mind.
Thy face is like one who has come on a far journey.
. . . thy face is scorched by cold and heat.
. . . and thou wanderest on the plain.”
Gilgamish replies to her in a passage which recurs twice again
in his interviews with Ursanapi and Utnapishtim:
212
-
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
' Why are my cheeks not pale and is my countenance not fallen?
My heart not made sad, my appearance not exhausted?
Not woe in my mind,
And my face not like one who has come on a far journey?
My face . . . not scorched by cold and heat?
. . . and I wander not on the plain?
My friend, my adopted brother, chaser of asses of the mountain, pan-
ther of the plain,
Enkidu, my friend, my adopted brother, panther of the plain.
We who travelled everywhere and ascended the mountain.
We who seized the bull and slaughtered him.
We who cast down Humbaba, that dwelt in the cedar forest.
Col. ii, I. We who in passes of the mountains slew lions.
My friend [who] went [with me] in all difficulties,
Enkidu, who went [with me] in all difficulties.
The [fate of man] has overcome him,
Six days and nights I wept over him, not handing him over
to the tomb,
5. Until the worm fell on his nostril.
I feared and was frightened at death wandering on the
plain.
8. The affair of my friend \^weighs heavily ufon me^.
I have wandered on the plain a far journey, the affair of
Enkidu [weighs heavily upon me^.
A far road I have wandered on the plain.
How shall I be silent? How shall I cry aloud?
My friend whom I love has become like clay, Enkidu
whom I love has become like clay.
Shall I not sleep like him?
14. Shall I not rise (from the tomb) through all eternity? ”
Siduri, according to the ancient Babylonian version, gave him
this advice:
Ccl. hi, I. “ O Gilgamish, whither wilt thou go?
The life thou seekest thou shalt not find.
When the gods created mankind.
Death they prepared for man,
5. But life they retained in their hands.
Fill thou, O Gilgamish, thy belly.
Be merry day and night.
Every day prepare joyfulness.
Day and night dance and make music.
10. Let thy garments be made clean.
LEGENDS OF THE DELUGE
213
Let thy head be washed, and be thou bathed in water.
Give heed to the little one that takes hold of thy hand.
Let a wife rejoice in thy bosom.
14. For this is the mission of man.”
The late version omits this advice of Siduri, which is similar to
that given to him by Shamash. Now he enquires of her the
way to Utnapishtim, and asks for its “ sign.” If it be possible
he would cross the seaj if not he would wander by the plain.
She tells him that none had ever crossed that sea, save the
Sun-god.
ASSYR. VERSION, TAB. X
Col. ii, 25. “ Deep are the waters of death which prevent access to it.
Where, O Gilgamish, wilt thou cross the sea?
When thou reachest the waters of death, what wilt thou
do? ”
She then gave him the name of Utnapishtim’s boatman, Ur-
sanapi, Sursunabu in the old version, Ur-shanabi in the Hittite
translation. His name means, “ servant (?) of Enki,” sana'pt, or
the word for “ two thirds,” being a sacred number for this god.
He had also another title, Puzar-Kurgal, “secret of the god
Enlil,” kurgaly “great mountain,” being a title of Enlil who
plotted to destroy mankind by the Flood and whose secret was
discovered by Enki. The boatman of the ark was saved and
translated to the isle beyond the waters of death with his lord
Utnapishtim, and the epithets which he bears refer to his
connection with the Flood legend.^® There were “those of
stones ” with the boatman, an expression which recurs and has
not been explained.^® Ursanapi was engaged cutting urnu in
the forest. She told Gilgamish to consult the boatman 5 if it
be possible, to cross the sea with him, but if not to turn back.
32. “ When Gilgamish heard this,
He lifted his axe to his side,
34^. Drew the sword from his belt.
34*^. It whistled and descended upon the cruel ones.^°
35. Like a javelin it fell among them.”
214
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
For some reason Gilgamish shattered “ those of stone,” and in
the fragmentary text which follows, Ursanapi addresses Gil-
gamish 5 a boat, the waters of death, the wide sea, and a river
are mentioned.^^ Here Gilgamish is asking for a passage over
the sea. Again Ursanapi addresses him:
Col. iii, 2. “ Why are thy cheeks pale, is thy countenance fallen?
Thy heart is made sad, thy appearance exhausted,
[And] there is woe in thy mind.
Thy face is like one who has come on a far journey.
. . . thy face is scorched by cold and heat.
7. ... and thou wanderest on the plain.”
To this Gilgamish replies in the same lines as those of his reply
to Siduri:
10. “ Why are my cheeks not pale and is my countenance not
fallen? etc.,
ending,
31. “ Shall I not sleep like him?
Shall I not rise (from the tomb) through all eternity? ”
Thus Ursanapi also hears how Gilgamish, fearing the death
which had overtaken his friend Enkidu, seeks eternal life from
Utnaplshtim.^^
Gilgamish now asks the boatman the way to Utnaplshtim,
and demands “ the sign ” of the way. If the way over the sea
be impossible he would wander by land.
The old version has this account of the meeting of Gilgamish
and the boatman:
Col. iv, I. “ He shattered them in his rage.
He then stood again over against him.
Sursanabu beheld his face.
Sursanabu spoke unto him, unto Gilgamish:
5. ‘ Who art thou by name? O tell me!
6. I am Sursunabu, of Utnapishtim the far away.’ ”
Gilgamish replied:
8. “ Gilgamish is my name, I
Who have come from . . .
LEGENDS OF THE DELUGE
215
12. Now, O Sursanabu I see thy face.
Show me Utnapishtim the far away.”
ASSYR. VERSION
(Col. iii, 36.) Ursanapi in his reply reminds Gilgamish of how
he had shattered “ those of stone.” He commands him to take
his axe, go to the cedar forest, and cut poles sixty cubits long.^*
42. “ Construct and make ready a tula^^ bring it \to me \ .”
Gilgamish and Ursanapi embarked and launched the ship on
the billows of the sea, for the voyage of a month and fifteen
days. After three days Ursanapi reached the waters of death.
He thus addressed Gilgamish:
Col. iv, 2.
6 .
10.
15 -
18.
“ Thou crossesty O Gilgamish, \^the waters of death].
Let not thy hand touch the waters of death, . . .
Take thou a second, a third, and a fourth pole, O Gil-
gamish.
A fifth, a sixth, and a seventh pole take, O Gilgamish.
An eighth, a ninth, and a tenth pole take, O Gilgamish.
An eleventh, a twelfth pole take, O Gilgamish,
With one hundred and twenty (strokes) Gilgamish had
come to the end of the poles.
And he loosened his girdle . . .
Gilgamish . . .
With his hand he caused the boat to reach the quay.^^
Utnapishtim sees him afar off,
And said in his heart speaking a word,
Meditating with himself;
‘ Why are “ those of stone ” of the ship shattered?
And one not belonging to it sailing in the boat?
He who comes, what for a man is he not?
And . . .
I looked and what for [a god] is he not? ’ ”
Here the narrative concerning the meeting of Gilgamish and
Utnapishtim is lost. When it can be resumed Gilgamish is
speaking:
Col. V, I. “ Why are my cheeks not pale, and is my countenance not
fallen?
My heart not made sad, my appearance not exhausted? ”
2i6
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
In the lacuna before this passage Utnapishtim had spoken to
him the same words as Siduri and Ursanapi had done:
“ Why are thy cheeks pale, is thy countenance fallen? ” etc.,^®
Gilgamish’s reply is again identical with his two previous re-
plies to the goddess wine-merchant and the boatman.^® After
these late interpolations in the Assyrian text Gilgamish explains
to Utnapishtim the reason for his having crossed the sea to
obtain immortality. (Col. v, 23-35.) He relates the perils
of his journey through all lands, and over all seasj he had slept
not, and his body was fatigued with pain and misery. He had
slain wild animals for his food, and Siduri the wine-merchant
had locked her gate against him. Utnapishtim’s reply is pre-
served in a broken section of the text. He comments on the
misery allotted to mankind, and, after a long break, his reflec-
tions, which form part of the wisdom attributed by the Baby-
lonians to him, continue:
Col. vi, 26. “ Build we a house for ever?
Seal we (contracts) for ever?
Do brothers divide their inheritance for ever?
Is there begetting for ever in the \land,\ ?
29. Has the river brought up the flood . . . for ever?
35. (Frail) man is bound; and after he worships . . .
The Annunaki, the great gods, \hofue gathered hini\.
Mammit, maker of fate, together with them, has fixed
the fate.
Life and death they have provided.
39. They have not made known the days of death.”
The foregoing narrative, taken from Tablets nine and ten of
the Epic of Gilgamish,®^ contains the pilgrimage of Gilgamish
to Utnapishtim. A Babylonian map preserves their cosmologi-
cal conception of the world. Fig. 75 is a simplified repro(^uc-
tion of this map which comes from the period of the first
dynasty (2169-1870 b.c.). The inner circle represents the
Fig. 74. Flood Stratum at Kish
LEGENDS OF THE DELUGE
217
earth, which floats on the sea and is surrounded by the “ bitter
river.” Beyond this sea are seven regions (marked A, B, C, D,
E, F, G). Beside region E, beyond the western sea, the
scribe wrote “ three? double hour marches between,” that is
between the sea-shore and this unknown region, and adds
“ place where the sun is not seen.” Beside all the other re-
gions beyond the bitter river, the scribe indicates the interven-
ing distance. According to the Epic Gilgamish’s voyage across
the sea in the west occupied one month and fifteen days.
An inscription, with this figure, describes seven regions be-
yond the sea, each seven double hour marches from the land.
The drawing is damaged. From this Babylonian cosmology the
Persians obtained their idea of the seven Karshvars, of which
the earth is the central one (Hvanirathra). The Babylonian
map may have only six regions beyond the seaj for G and A
are not on the plan as preserved. The earth is not indicated
as a “ region ” on this map and consequently the plan is re-
stored on the supposition that they conceived of seven trans-
marine regions. The inscription speaks of three kings who
2i8
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
seem to have crossed this sea of death, Utnapishtim, Sargon,
and Nur-Dagan. Sargon is the famous founder of the empire
of Agade in the twenty-eighth century b.c.®^
Gilgamish, having heard the pessimistic wisdom of Utnapish-
tim on the fate of all men, marvels that he, who had attained
immortality, nevertheless appears to be a mortal like himself.
This moved him to explain how he came “to stand in the
assembly of the gods,” and how he “ discovered life.” The
story of the Flood is now described to Gilgamish as a
“ mystery.”
Tab. XI, II.
U-
20 .
25.
30.
“ Shuruppak there is, a city which thou knowest,®®
Which on the bank of the Euphrates was founded.
That city was old and the gods in it
Were moved in their hearts to send the Deluge, they
the great gods.
In it was their father Anu,
Their counsellor, the heroic Enlil,
Their throne-attendant Ninurta,
Their leader Ennugi.
Ninigikug, the god Ea, sat with them
And repeated their words to a reed hut:
‘ O reed hut, reed hut, O wall, wall,
Reed hut, hear, wall, understand.
O man of Shuruppak, son of Ubar-Tutu,
Destroy the house, build a ship.
Abandon possessions, seek life.
Hate property, seek life.
Bring up the seed of all living things into the ship.
The ship which thou shalt build.
Its proportions let be measured.
Its width and its length shall correspond.
. . . the deep cover it.’ ”
Utnapishtim promised to do as Ea had ordered, but was con-
cerned about what the people of Shuruppak would say when
they saw him building a ship. Ea tells him to say that Enlil
hates him, and he would dwell no more in their city but abide
with Ea on the ocean. But Utnapishtim seems to betray the
secret to his fellow citizens, for he said to them:
LEGENDS OF THE DELUGE
219
43. “ He (Enlil) will cause too much rain to fall upon you.
To the annihilation of birds, the annihilation of fishes.
[He will destroy for you] the thriving harvest.
The sender of hailstones
47. In the night-time will cause a hailstorm to rain upon you.”
As soon as the next day dawned all his people, small and great,
began work on the ship. He laid down its frame on the fifth
day. The bottom was one hundred and twenty cubits square
or about two hundred feet square, and its walls were one hun-
dred and twenty cubits high. Its roof corresponded, being one
hundred and twenty cubits wide and long. In other words, the
Babylonian ark was a huge cube two hundred feet on each side.
He built into it six floors, thus dividing it into seven compart-
ments or storeys. The interior had nine compartments, meaning
apparently that each storey had nine rooms. He drove water-
stoppers into its middle part. He secured a pole and put into the
ship all things necessary. Six sars of pitch he put into an oven.
Three sars of pitch he caused to be brought into the interior.
The ship’s basket-bearers brought three sars of oil beside a sar of
oil put into the hold, and two sars of oil which the boatman
stowed away. He slaughtered oxen and sheep each day for
feeding his workers and gave them beer, wines, and oil, and
they made a carnival as on New Year’s day. Utnapishtim
anointed himself with oil and reposed from his labour. The
date of the completion of the ship seems to have been given
as the month [Tesh]ri-tu, but this is uncertain. If so, the
Flood came in the autumn, but this would conflict with the
reference to the destruction of the harvest. He loaded the ship
with his gold and silver} all of his family embarked, and he
brought in cattle and all animals of the field, and all skilled men.
86. “ The Sun-god had prepared the appointed time,
‘ When the sender of hailstones in the night-time shall cause a
hailstorm to rain.’
‘ Enter thou into the ship and close thy door.’
That appointed time came.
V — 16
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
220
go. The sender of hailstones in the night-time caused a hailstorm to
rain.
I looked at the appearance of the day.
Upon seeing the day (weather) I took fright.
I entered the boat and closed the door.
To the keeper of the ship, to Puzur-Kurgal the boatman,
95. I gave over the great house, together with its possessions.
When day broke
There went up from the eastern horizon a black cloud.
Adad thundered therein.
Shamash and Marduk went before it.
100. Over mountain and sea went the throne-bearers.
The mighty Irra seized away the beams (of the dams).
And Ninurta coming caused the locks to burst.
The Anunnaki bore torches.
Making the land to glow with their gleaming.
105. The noise of Adad came unto Heaven.
Everything light turned to darkness.
The land like . . .
For one day the hurricane . . .
Swiftly blew . . .
1 10. Like the shock of battle over the [people] it came.
Brother saw not brother
And men could not be recognized from Heaven.
The gods were terrified at the Deluge,
Withdrew and ascended to the Heaven of Anu.
1 15. The gods, crouched like dogs, lay by the outer walls.
Ishtar cried like a woman in travail.
The queen of the gods (Mah), she of the sweet voice, moaned:
‘ (They of) yesterday verily (are) returned to clay.
Because I commanded evil in the assembly of the gods.
120. How in the assembly of the gods have I commanded evil?
Or commanded the shock of battle to destroy my people?
It was I who bore my people
And like the brood of fish they (now) fill the sea.’
The gods, the Anunnaki, wept with her.
125. The gods sat dejected in weeping.
Their lips were closed . . .
Six days and six nights
Raged the wind, the Deluge, the hurricane devastated the land.
When the seventh day arrived, the hurricane, the Deluge, the
shock of battle was broken,
130. Which had smitten like an army.
The sea became calm, the cyclone died away, the Deluge ceased.
LEGENDS OF THE DELUGE
221
I looked upon the sea and the sound of voices had ended.
And all mankind had turned to clay.
Like a roof the hedged park was levelled.
135. I opened a window and the light fell on my cheek.
I kneeled and sat down to weep,
Tears streaming on my cheeks.
I looked on the quarters of the billowing sea.
A region stood out at a distance of twelve double hour marches.
140. The boat touched upon mount Nisir.®®
Mount Nisir held it fast and allowed it not to move.”
On the seventh day Utnapishtim released a dove, which went
forth and returned, for it found no resting place. He released
a swallow, which returned. He sent forth a raven which saw
that the waters were drying upj it found food, wallowed in
mud, scratched and returned not. And so he knew that the
waters were dried up, and he released the animals to the four
winds and made an offering on the top of the mountain. The
gods smelled the incense of cedar and myrtle. They assembled
like flies about Utnapishtim as he sacrificed; for man had been
created to serve the gods and they now hungered for food of
the burnt offerings. Then came Mah, mother of men and
queen of the gods. She bore the great jewelsy which Anu had
made for her and said:
164. “O ye gods, these here, as I may not forget my lapis lazuli
neck-lace.
So shall I remember these days and forget not forever.
Let the gods come to the libation ;
But Enlil shall not come to the libation.
For he was heedless and brought about the Deluge,
169. And fated my peoples to disaster.”
When Enlil came and saw the ship he was enraged against the
gods of Heaven:
“And did anyone escape with (his) life? No man shall live in the
disaster.”
Then his son Ninurta replied:
“ Who but Ea contrives schemes? And Ea knows all plans.”
222 SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
Ea at once admits his intervention to save mankind and spoke
to Enlil:
178. “ O thou sage of the gods, and heroic,
How wast thou heedless and didst send the Deluge?
180. On the sinner place his sin; on the frivolous place his frivolity.
Desist, let him not be cut off ; consider, let him not . .
-
Enki, therefore, admits that EnliPs reason for sending the
Flood was the sin of mankind, but not all men were sinners and
he should not have destroyed the righteous. Both versions of
the Flood story in the Hebrew text of Genesis vi.5— 8 and vi.
9-22 attribute the Flood to the sins of men among whom only
Noah was found righteous by Yaw or Elohim. According to
the Hebrew version all received their just rewards. The tradi-
tion of the total destruction of mankind by a Flood occurred in
the Irra myth,®^ where another universal disaster by wild beasts
was mentioned. A myth, commonly designated as the Poem of
Ea and Atarhasis, describes a series of world calamities caused by
Enlil, drought, pestilence, and finally a flood, discussed in
Chapter VIII. The destruction of Babylonia by Irra seems to
have been based upon a later political catastrophe, but Ea now
reminds Enlil of all these former catastrophes and at the end
includes one caused by Irra, which cannot be that described in
Chapter V.
182. “ Instead of thy bringing about a deluge, let a lion come up and
decimate the people.
Instead of thy bringing about a deluge, let a leopard come up
and decimate the people.
Instead of thy bringing about a deluge, let hunger prevail and
the land . . .
185. Instead of bringing about a deluge, let Irra come up and the
people . . .”
Ea then tells Enlil how he caused Utnapishtim, here called
atrahasisy “ the exceedingly wise,” to have a dream, by which he
learned the plan of the gods to send the Flood. But above
(lines 19-31) this version had another explanation j Ea had
LEGENDS OF THE DELUGE
223
spoken directly to Utnapishtim in a mysterious manner, com-
municating his warning by a reed hut. This discrepancy in the
narrative is due to redaction of documents containing divergent
accounts of the legend. Ea defends the theory of individual re-
sponsibility, which is, in fact, contrary to the accepted Baby-
lonian principle of communal responsibility. EnliPs course of
action was entirely harmonious with the Babylonian theory of sin
and punishment, and especially with the doctrine that from
Adapa and Tagtug all men had inherited sin and deserved pun-
ishment. If one man and his family escaped this disaster it was
due to the intrigue of Ea, as the loss of eternal life through
Adapa was due to his intrigue inspired by jealousy. Noah’s
deliverance in the Hebrew version is clearly based upon the
doctrine advocated by Ea in the Assyrian edition of the Gilga-
mish Epic. He was saved because he was righteous.
Ea convinced Enlil that he was wrong in attempting to de-
stroy all men because many were sinful, or at least the poet so
assumes, and he ends his address with the following words:
“ And so now take ye counsel concerning him.”
This is addressed to all the gods who had aided Enlil in
his plan to destroy all living creatures. And so Enlil ascended
into the boat, took Utnapishtim by the hand and led him forth
with his wife whom he caused to kneel at his side. Enlil
touched their foreheads, stood between them and blessed them.
193. “ Formerly Utnapishtim was a man,
But now Utnapishtim and his wife shall be like the gods,
even us.
Utnapishtim shall dwell far away at the mouth of the rivers.”
Here again there seems to be a confusion of sources, for Gilga-
mish’s journey with the boatman across the western sea to find
Utnapishtim as related in Tablets nine and ten cannot be recon-
ciled with the location of the land of the blessed at the mouth
of the rivers in Tablet eleven, or the Flood story. The “ mouth
224
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
of the rivers ” is surely taken from the old Sumerian legend
in which Ziusudra was translated to Dilmun. Obviously some
island at the mouth of the Tigris and Euphrates is meant here.
Utnapishtim thus told Gilgamish the story of the Flood and
how he had attained immortality. In reply to Gilgamish’s quest
for the same blessing from the gods he said:
197. “ Now who of the gods, for thee, will take thee also into their
assembly? ”
For Gilgamish, on meeting Utnapishtim, had marvelled how
he had been received into the assembly of the gods.
198. “ The life which thou seekest shalt thou find?
Come, lie down to sleep six days and seven nights.”
When he sat down a deep sleep fell upon him and Utnapishtim
said to his wife:
“ See the strong man who desires life!
Sleep like a storm blows over him.”
His wife urged her husband to wake him and let him return by
the way he had come. Utnapishtim’s reply is enigmatic and has
been variously interpreted :
210. “ Mankind is evil, but is it evil for thee? ”
Apparently he means to say that to send him back to his land
would be to shew no mercy. Although mankind is wicked, that
is the concern of the gods and not theirs. There follows here
a magical ceremony whose meaning is obscure. Utnapishtim
orders his wife to bake seven breads and place them by the
head of Gilgamish as he lies in deep sleep beside his boat.
215. “ His first bread was dry.
The second was kneaded, the fourth was white, his roasted
bread.
The fifth, she put Tihu with it, the sixth was cooked.
218. The seventh — suddenly he touched him and the man awoke.”
LEGENDS OF THE DELUGE
225
Gilgamish on waking complains of being stiff and of having
been suddenly roused from his sleep. He is told to count his
breads. He asks Utnapishtim how he should proceed and
where he should go.
231. The plunderer has seized my . . .
Death sits in my sleeping chamber
And in the place . . . has death placed.”
Utnapishtim, now angry with his boatman for having conducted
to his quay this mortal, covered with sores and exhausted in
strength, thus addressed Ursanapi :
239. “ Take him and bring him to the washing-place.
Let him wash his sores in water that they be like snow.
Let him cast off his skins and the sea carry (them) away.
Well shall his body be clothed.
Let the turban of his head be made new.
With a garment, the clothing of his secret parts, let him be
clothed.
Until he comes to his city.
Until he arrives on his route,
Shall the garment not be soiledy but remain new.”
And so Ursanapi washed and clothed Gilgamish in new gar-
ments. Now they again embark in their boat and set out to
sea. Then Utnapishtim’s wife said to her husband:
259. “ Gilgamish goes, he is weary, he labours.
What wilt thou give him? he returns to his land.”
And so Gilgamish lifted his pole and pushed the boat to the
shore, when Utnapishtim said to him:
264. “ Gilgamish, thou art gone, thou art weary, thou labourest.
What shall I give thee? thou returnest to thy land.
I will reveal to thee a secret matter.
And not [shall thou disclose it] ; lo I will tell thee.
268. There is a plant like a briar \in the midst] of the ocean.
Whose thorn is like the rose and it will \_frick thy hand].
If thy hand attains that plant [thou shall live (?)].”
226
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
When Gilgamish heard this he tied heavy stones [to his feet],
which drew him to the ocean. The word used for “ ocean ”
means the mythical freshwater sea beneath the earth j it is
difficult to determine what meaning the myth concerning the
location of this plant intends to convey. The plant of healing,
kiskanUy grew in the ocean where dwells Ea, the Water-god, at
the junction of the two rivers. The myth, as narrated here, has
brought Gilgamish to a land beyond the bitter waters and be-
yond the extreme limits of the earth and the underworld ocean.
Apparently this version has again made use of the older Su-
merian poem which located the abode of Utnapishtim on an
island in the Persian Gulf. The plant grew in the depths of a
freshwater lake or fountain. Gilgamish obtained it, and, cast-
ing off each stone from his feet, rose to the surface and said to
the boatman:
288. “ O Ursanapi, this plant is the plant of metamorfhosis
By which man obtains his vigour.
I will carry it to Erech of the sheep-fold, will give it to eat to
the . . . and may he cut it off.
Its name is, ‘ The old man becomes a young man.’
I will eat and return to my youth again.”
They now set out on their return voyage across the sea. After
twenty double hours they broke bread. After thirty hours they
rested. Gilgamish saw a spring and descended to bathe. A
serpent smelled the odour of the plant, came up and carried it
away. As the serpent returned, it cast off its skin. And so it
was the serpent and not man that received the power of renew-
ing its youth. Gilgamish sat down to weep:
293. “For whom of mine, O Ursanapi, are my arms weary?
For whom of mine is the blood of my heart perished?
I have done myself no good.
A lion of the earth had done good for himself.
Now to a distance twenty double hours the wave carries the
plant away.
As I opened the jar it poured out the equipment.
299. But I have found the marvel which was placed beside me;
I will depart.”
LEGENDS OF THE DELUGE
227
After fifty double hours they reached Erech. It is difficult to
understand why Ursanapi abandoned Utnapishtim and returned
to live among mortals. Gilgamish tells him to ascend the wall
and walk about on it, to look for its dedication if perchance its
brick inscription had not been replaced, or the seven wise ones
had not laid its foundation.
In following the narrative of the Flood as told in the eleventh
book of the Epic of Gilgamish, the wanderings of Gilgamish
have been included, since the mythology concerning Ziusudra
or Utnapishtim is so closely connected with it. The episode of
the quest for the plant of rejuvenation has been also included,
although it forms in reality one of the major topics of the Gil-
gamish myth. This episode has no connection with the Flood,
but it completes the narrative of Gilgamish’s Odyssey.
The myth incidentally explains the well known phenomenon
of the annual rejuvenation of the serpent, and adds to the
legends of Adapa and Tagtug still another legend of how man
lost eternal life. The serpent’s theft of the plant has been
found in a Sumerian incantation against “ serpent seizing,” that
is, to heal a person seized by a serpent. Into this incantation
which begins; “ O serpent of double tongue, double tongue,
^ Great serpent ’ is its name,” a reference to the theft of the
plant has been incorporated:
“ The serpent by the stone, the serpent in the water, the serpent at the
quay of life.
Seized the watercress.
O woe, the dog tongue, the watercress it seized.”
The plant of rejuvenation was, therefore, the sihlu^ a kind of
cress or mustard.
The legend of the serpent’s theft of the plant, “ The old
becomes young,” passed early into Greek mythology by way of
Asia Minor. Aelian tells the following story about the snake
called Dipsas.
“ I must also sing a song upon this creature, a story which in
fact I know by hearsay, that I may not appear to be ignorant of
228
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
it. Tradition tells us that Prometheus stole fire, and the legend
relates that Zeus was indignant, and gave to those who informed
about the theft a drug which was an antidote to old age. I have
been told that the recipients put it on the back of an ass, who
went off carrying his burden. It was summer time, and the
thirsty beast went to a spring to quench his thirst. The snake
that guarded it stopped him and was driving him off, but the ass
in his distress gave him as payment for the ‘ cup o’ kindness ’ the
drug which he was carrying. So an exchange took place j the one-
drank, and the other doffed his slough, taking upon him, as the
story goes, the ass’s thirst. What then? Am I the maker of
the legend? Nay, I cannot say soj since before me Sophocles,
the tragic poet, and Deinolochus, the antagonist of Epicharmus,
and Ibycus of Rhegium and Aristias (?) and Apollophanes,
comic poets, sing of it.”
The names of some of these poets which Aelian has preserved
are significant, for they had some connection with Asia Minor.
Ibycus of the sixth century b.c. lived at the court of Polycrates
in Samos } and it is recognized that Sophocles shews traces of
familiarity with the eastern stories of Herodotus. Again, Ni-
cander, a didactic poet of the second century b.c., a native of
Colophon in Lydia, tells in his T heriaca what he calls “ an old-
world tale ” about the reason why the Dipsas has acquired its
name. This title “ Thirsty ” means that the snake causes in-
tense thirst in the victims of its bite, and the story gives the
reason why snakes cast their slough. It runs as follows:
“ An old-world tale is preserved among men, that when
Cronus’ eldest son became master of Heaven, he divided up
in his wisdom glorious governments amongst his brethren,
and gave youth as a reward to short-lived menj so honouring
them, because they disclosed the thief of fire, fools that they
were! for they got no gain from their evil counsel. Slow and
weary they made their gift follow upon ‘ White-coat.’
‘ Frisky ’ sped on with a throat burning with thirst j and seeing
a deadly reptile in its hole, he wagged his tail and besought
LEGENDS OF THE DELUGE
229
the creature to succour his evil plight. Then the snake asked
the poor fool for the load which he had taken upon his back,
and the ass in his necessity did not refuse it. From that time
forth reptiles cast their aged slough, but evil old age envelops
menj while the deadly beast received ‘ Brayer’s ’ complaint, and
inflicts a scarce-seen wound.”
The Scholiast on the passage gives two versions of the story
which differ only in one respect: in the first, mankind entreats
the gods to give them youth, to the intent that they might never
grow old} the other tale he calls “ Promethean,” and in it, as
in Nicander, the gift of “ Never-grow-old ” is given to man-
kind as a reward for disclosing who it was who stole fire. He
adds that the story is in Sophocles’ Kd-phoi^^
Two more small Accadian fragments of the Flood story have
been recovered, but they add no material information to the
two principal texts discussed in this Chapter. They only prove
the popularity of the legend among the Babylonians and
Assyrians.^^ In West Semitic mythology the legend survived
among the Aramaeans at Bambyce,^® and among the Hebrews.
The Hebrew story has survived in two sources, one early and
one late. They have been redacted into a single document in
Genesis vi.5— ix, but are easily distinguished. The version of
the early source so far as its narrative was preserved by the later
revisers has the following account.
Yaw saw that all men were wicked, and repented that he had
made man. And He said, “ I will destroy man whom I have
created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, and the
creeping thing and the fowl of the air.” Only Noah found fa-
vour before Yaw, who said to him: “ Come thou and all thy
house into the ark} for thee have I found righteous before me in
this generation.” He was commanded to take with him into the
ark seven males and seven females of every kind of clean beast,
a male and a female of every kind of unclean beast} also seven
males and seven females of all kinds of birds. These instruc-
tions were given seven days before the Flood. Yaw predicted
230
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
that He would cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and
nights. The Accadian version does not state the number of
days between the warning by Ea and the “ fixed time ” of the
Flood, but only that Utnapishtim laid down the frame of the
ark on the fifth day. The rain-storms lasted only six days and
nights in the Accadian version, and the disaster was increased
by the breaking of dams and locks.
And so it rained forty days and forty nights as Yaw had
said ; the waters increased and bore up the ark. All living things
on the earth were destroyed. When the rain ceased at the end
of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark and sent forth
a raven which went to and fro until the waters dried up. The
word for raven in the Hebrew text is the same as in the Ac-
cadian version, where it is the third bird sent forth, which found
the waters drying up and returned not. It is clear that the
Hebrew account depends upon the Accadian, but has changed the
order of the release of the birds.
Noah sent forth the dove, which found no resting place for the
sole of her foot and returned to the ark, precisely as in the
Accadian account. He waited another seven days and again
sent out the dove, which returned with an olive leaf in her
mouth. After another seven days he again sent forth the dove,
“ which returned not again to him any more.” He then built an
altar and sacrificed of every clean beast and fowl} ,Yaw smelled
the sweet savour of the sacrifices. This is taken almost literally
from the Accadian narrative of Utnapishtim’s sacrifice and how
the gods smelled its sweet odour. Yaw now resolves never
again to curse the ground because of man’s innate sinfulness nor
to smite again all living things} but henceforth the natural order
of nature shall prevail, as He had imposed it upon Adam and his
seed after the expulsion from Eden. Man must sow and reap,
there shall be cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night.
The soliloquy of Yaw is again based upon the polytheistic
version of the Accadian narrative, where Ea convinced Enlil of
his error in causing all life to be destroyed because of man’s
LEGENDS OF THE DELUGE
231
sinful nature and his wrong in punishing the righteous with the
sinful. Yaw declares, entirely in accordance with Sumero-Baby-
lonian theology, that “ the imagination of man’s heart is evil
from his youth up.” The Hebrew narrative is entirely mono-
theistic in spirit and teaching. The only trace of polytheism
which the writer allowed to survive is in the reference to Yaw’s
smelling the incense of the sacrifice. This is all the more re-
markable in view of the obvious dependence of this early He-
brew writer upon the Accadian polytheistic narrative.'’^
The second and later Hebrew account of the Flood invariably
used the name Elohim for the monotheistic deity, and although
written at a later period than the source discussed above, is cer-
tainly based upon a source equally ancient. It begins by giving
the generations of Noah, i.e., Shem, Ham, and Japhetj Noah
was “ a just man who walked with God.” Elohim found that
“ all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth,” and said to
Noah that “ the end of all flesh is come before me.” He com-
manded him to build an ark with rooms in it and to pitch it
within and without. The length was three hundred cubits, or
four hundred and forty-three feetj its breadth fifty cubits or
seventy-four feetj the height thirty cubits, or forty- four feet.
It had three stories and a door at the side.
-
El5him revealed to Noah his intention to send the mabhuly
“ Flood,” a word which is not used by the writer of the other
document.^® It is probably a corruption of the word ahubu con-
sistently used in the Accadian sources. He promised to make a
covenant with Noah, which was fulfilled after the Flood.
Noah was commanded to enter into the ark with his sons, his
wife, and his sons’ wives. Of each kind of living thing he must
take a male and a female into the ark. Noah was six hundred
years old when the Flood came 3 he entered the ark with his
sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, and took two of all beasts,
clean and unclean, of all fowls and creeping things.
He entered the ark on the seventeenth day of the second
month. This is usually taken to be the month corresponding
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
232
approximately to May, the year beginning in the spring accord-
ing to the later Hebrew system. On that same day “ the foun-
tains of the nether sea were cleft asunder and the windows
of Heaven opened,” the writer using the same Babylonian cos-
mological conceptions as he had employed in his description
of the creation of Heaven and earth in Genesis i.6— 7. Here
again his narrative reveals intimate knowledge of the Baby-
lonian account. The waters covered the earth fifteen cubits
deep, and the mountains were submerged. All living creatures
perished. The waters covered the earth one hundred and fifty
days, when Eldhim caused a wind to pass over the earth, and
the waters began to dry up. The ark rested upon the moun-
tains of Ararat in Armenia, on the seventeenth day of the sev-
enth month, but not until the first day of the tenth month did
the tops of the mountains appear. By the beginning of the
next year, on the first day of the first month the waters had dis-
appeared, and by the twenty-seventh day of the second month
the earth was dry. The Flood in this narrative lasted a year
and eleven days. This writer makes no reference to the send-
ing forth of a raven and a dove, but passes immediately to the
command of Eldhim to Noah, “ Go forth from the ark.” And
so he and his family descended with all the living things.
Elohim now blessed Noah, which corresponds to the blessing of
Utnapishtim, who received eternal life at the hands of Enlil.
The blessing of Noah is entirely different, for it contains re-
ligious and legal instructions, and in content corresponds more
to the instructions given by Xisuthrus to his family in the ac-
count preserved by Berossus.'*®
The blessing of Noah by Elohim marks a distinct moral and
religious advance upon all preceding narratives of the Flood
story and is clearly monotheistic. Man shall henceforth be
master of all living things, and they shall be his meat, but he is
forbidden to eat flesh which contains blood; for blood is the
seat of life and sacred to God. He is also forbidden to take
human life, and there is also the extraordinary instruction that
LEGENDS OF THE DELUGE
233
every beast which slays man shall be held accountable by
Eldhim. This theory, in which the death of man by an animal
is held to be murder is peculiar to Hebrew religion. Baby-
lonian law merely imposed a fine on the owner of an ox which
gored a man to death, if the owner knew that the ox was wont
to gore. In Hebrew law both ox and owner were put to death.
Babylonian law makes no reference at all to a formerly inoffen-
sive ox which gored a man, but Hebrew law not only required
such an ox to be stoned to death, but even its flesh might not be
eaten. Elohim’s instructions on this point rest upon a more
profoundly religious conception of animal life than that found
in any other Semitic religion or in Sumerian religion.
Elohim now fulfils his covenant with Noah and with his seed
after him, that not again should a flood destroy the earth, and
the sign of this covenant was that henceforth his “ bow ” should
be seen in the clouds. This is apparently the literal meaning of
the text, and assumes that the rainbow was not previously known
to man. It is difficult to deny that the writer actually means
to explain this natural phenomenon by this clearly mythologi-
cal origin. The word employed for “ rainbow ” here is the
ordinary Accadian and Hebrew word for “ bow,” and never
means “ rainbow ” in Accadian, nor is there any such my-
thological explanation found in Accadian. The bow which
Marduk used in his battle with Tiamat became the Bow Star or
Canls Major in Babylonian mythology. Yaw and Elohim
fought the same primeval battle with the dragon of Chaos,^^
and beyond doubt his bow was identified with the rainbow in
Hebrew mythology. This identification would have been natu-
ral in the case of Yaw, originally the god of clouds and storms.
The word for rainbow in Sumerian and Accadian is unknown.^®
CHAPTER VII
THE EPIC OF GILGAMISH
T he standard Assyrian edition of the legend of Gilgamish
has twelve Tablets} three Tablets of the old Accadian edi-
tion have been found, one of which is numbered (Tablet II),
and these do not agree in content with the corresponding num-
bers of the Assyrian version. The number “ twelve ” is, there-
fore, accidental, and the authors of this epic clearly did not adapt
the episodes to the twelve months. The myth contains two
principal themes which are interwoven with many minor ones,
the education of the savage Enkidu and Gilgamish’s quest of a
plant by which he might escape death. The major theme is the
mortality of man, and has been discussed in the preceding Chap-
ter. Only fragments of the original Sumerian epic have been
recovered, and it is probable that it did not originally con-
tain anything more than the narrative of the exploits of Gil-
gamish and Enkidu, the latter’s death, and Gilgamish’s wan-
derings to escape the eternal fate of man.
Gilgamish was an historical character, and fourth king of the
first dynasty of Erech} his father Is said to have been a Ulla,
which probably means an Ignorant person, a fool.^ For some
reason legends concerning him were rife in Sumer, and one
has been preserved by the late Greek writer Aellan, who tells
the following story. Seuechorus, king of the Babylonians,
heard how his astrologers had prophesied that his daughter
would bear a child and that this child would seize the kingdom.
He locked his daughter in the citadel, but she bore a son by an
obscure man. The king’s guards threw the child from the
tower. An eagle, perceiving him fall, seized him by the back
and carried the babe to a gardener who reared him. This child
was Gilgamos, who became king. The fragments of the origi-
THE EPIC OF GILGAMISH
235
nal Sumerian epic do not yield much information^ One of
these texts contains an episode not mentioned in the Accadian
version, a battle with the dragon Zud It was, however, the god
Lugalbanda, originally a king of Erech, and second predecessor
of Gilgamish, who smote Zu,^ an exploit attributed in later
mythology to Gilgamish.
Like his predecessors in the early Erech dynasty, Lugal-
banda and Tammuz,® Gilgamish became a recognized deity. A
prayer to him in a ritual of expiation begins;
“ Gilgamish, all powerful king, judge of the Anunnaki,
Prince, the solicitous, mighty among men.”
The prayer emphasizes his judicial insight into the affairs of
men, and it was the Sun-god who entrusted him with the super-
vision of judgment and decision.® He seems to have become an
underworld deity, and is mentioned in omens with Ningishzida,
and associated with the serpent.'^ His constant association with
Shamash in magic indicates a connection in late mythology with
the Sun-god, and especially with the Sun-god in the nether
world. A man harassed by the ghosts of his dead relatives,
prays that they stand before Shamash and Gilgamish, who con-
sign them to imprisonment in Hell. He is called “ lord of the
lower world,” and associated with Tammuz.® He had control
of the souls of heroes and in the month Ab (July- August), he
released them from their prison house for nine days.® For he,
although a god, had crossed the Hubur river of death, and had
taken his place among the gods of the “ great city ” of the dead.
The Accadian Epic of Gilgamish was known from its first
line, “ He who saw all things.” Tablet I, Col. i, begins with
an account of the wisdom of Gilgamish, how he discovered the
mysterious wisdom of the gods and brought home information
about the period before the Flood. He made a far journey
in weariness and pain and engraved on a stela all his labours.
He built the wall of Erech, a fact also referred to by a later
ruler of that city. He looked at the wall of Eanna, Anu’s tem-
V — 1 7
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
236
pie, which was made like brass and examined its foundation
wall, and attained the thresholds which had been there since
long before. He examined its foundations to discover whether
they were made of kiln-baked bricks, and whether they had been
laid by the seven wise men of old. There followed here in a
lacuna an account of his restoration of Eanna.
(Col. ii.) In the next part of the text the poet describes his
appearance. He was two thirds god and one third man. He
had no equal and his weapons went forth. The men of Erech
dreaded him. He decimated them, leaving not a son to his
father nor a maiden to her mother. The gods heard the lament
of daughters and wives and said to the Mother-goddess Aruru:
“ Thou hast caused to come into being a son, fierce like a wild bull and
high is his head.”
After describing again the tyranny of this “ shepherd of Erech ”
they appealed to Aruru:
“ Thou, Aruru, hast created Gilgamish,
And now create his like.
Verily let his rage be like to the rage of his heart.
Let them be rivals and Erech repose.”
And so Aruru washed her hands, cut off a piece of clay and cast
it on the ground, and created Enkidu the hero, a hostile off-
spring. His body was covered with hair, and the hair of his
head was like that of a woman.
“ The shag of his head hair grew luxuriantly like corn.
He knew not men and the Land.
He was clothed like Sumugan (the god of cattle).
Eating grass with the kids.
Drinking at the watering place with the cattle.”
Enkidu is the representative of prehistoric and savage man,
before he had been civilized. In late mythology the name has
always the determinative for “ god,” and in fact, like Gilga-
mish and many other ancient heroes, he received the divine title
and is found even in the official pantheon.^® The name occurs
THE EPIC OF GILGAMISH
237
in very ancient times without the title of deity/^ and is ex-
plained by the scribes as “ he who causes the canals and water
courses to lave the corn, and make the grain to thrive.” The
word was also pronounced Enkimdu, and the Hittites bor-
rowed it as Enkita. In the legend of the origin of civilization,
discussed in Chapter IV, the men of the prehistoric period ate
grass like sheep and drank water from the springs. They
knew not food as prepared by men, and in fact the half human
creatures of that period were not called “ man with the soul
of life ”j for as such he only came into being after the gods had
created the goddesses of flocks and grain, and made civilization
possible.^^
The archaeological representations of Enkidu and Gilgamish
occur on seals of the early period and were found at Kish below
the riverine stratum, which certainly represents one of the
floods which destroyed the cities of the Euphrates Valley.
Since Gilgamish, in this epic. Is placed after the famous Flood
described by Ziusudra, it is clear that the Flood of Sumerian,
Babylonian, and Hebrew legend must refer to one of much
earlier date, traces of which were found at Kish and Ur almost
at water level, and not later than 3500 b.c. and probably
earlier. Fig. 76 shews a seal of the period circa 2730 b.c. On
the right in the group of large figures Enkidu appears In com-
bat with two lions, one of which attacks him with left paw
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
238
lacerating his breast. The lower parts of Enkidu are those of a
bull with long tail falling to the ground and shaggy tufts of
hair grow about his knees. The bust, arms, and bearded face
are human, but the head has the horns and ears of a bull. The
long, bird-like nose is characteristic of all the innumerable rep-
resentations of Enkidu and Gilgamish which occur prolifically
in every ancient Sumerian city.^® To the right of the lions is
the human-headed bull with long beard. At the left of this
Fig. 77. Gilgamish and Enkidu. Cylinder Seal from Kish.
Agade Period
scene in smaller dimensions are tw'o representations of the di-
vine bull in conflict with Gilgamish. The conflict of Enkidu
and Gilgamish with this “ bull of Heaven ” has already been
described.^^
In describing this seal, which is utilized here specifically to
illustrate the agreement between the description of Enkidu in
the text and the representations of him in art, the discussion has
anticipated the story. Enkidu’s conflict with lions is repeatedly
mentioned in later parts of the epic. A good example of the
representations of Gilgamish in combat with a bull, and of
Enkidu with a lion, current in the period of the Agade dynasty
is seen in Fig. 77 from Kish.
A hunter met Enkidu at the well where Enkidu was drink-
THE EPIC OF GILGAMISH
239
ing and was terrified at his appearance, and “ his face was like
one who had come on a far journey.” He entered his house
and said to his father:
Col. iii, 2. “ My father, a peculiar man there is who has come from the
mountain.
In the land mighty is his strength.
His strength has been made mighty as the army of Anu.
5. He goes about in thy land [like . . .]
Eating grass with the cattle always,
And his feet are ever set at the watering place.
I feared and came not nigh him.
He has filled the wells which I dug . . , ,
10. Torn the nets which I stretched out.
He caused the cattle, the flocks of the field, to go away
from me.
Permitting me not to work in the field.”
His father sends him to Gilgamish in Erech and says that Gil-
gamish will advise him to take a harlot and lead her to Enkidu.
He will love her and abandon his cattle. And so he seeks Gil-
gamish in Erech and repeats to him the description of Enkidu
and his malevolent behaviour. Gilgamish directed him to take
a harlot, and when Enkidu follows the cattle to the watering-
place let her entice him with her sexual attractions. He will ap-
proach her and the cattle will abandon him.
The scene represented in Fig. 12 probably refers to this
story of the seduction of Enkidu. He is seen there in combat
with the bull of Heaven, but behind him, supported by two
kneeling figures, is a figure of a woman with nude bust.
And so the hunter conducted the harlot to the watering place
where they arrived after three days. There they sat two days
as the cattle and flocks came to drink. (Col. iv.) Enkidu came
also and drank. The harlot beheld the savage man. The
hunter said:
Col. iv, 8. “ This is he; O harlot, undo thy breast.
Open thy bosom, let him take of thy voluptuousness.
Be not ashamed, take of his lust.”
240
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
And so Enkidu fell to the seductions of the harlot. Six days
and seven nights he remained with her. When he returned to
his cattle the goats and herds fled from him.
26. “ Enkidu was distressed and his body was paralysed.
Still stood his knees as his cattle went away.
Enkidu slackened his running, not as he did formerly.
And he comprehended, extending his knowledge.
30. He returned and sat down at the feet of the harlot,
Looking upon the face of the harlot.
And as the harlot spoke his ears comprehended.”
The harlot said to him:
34. “ Thou art become beautiful, O Enkidu, like a god thou art.
Why with the flocks wanderest thou on the plain?
Come, I will bring thee into Erech, the sheepfold.^*
To the holy temple, abode of Anu and Ishtar.
Where is Gilgamish, the perfect in might,
39, And like a wild bull tyrannizes over the people.”
Enkidu now longed for a companion and agreed to accompany
the harlot to Gilgamish, saying:
Col. iv, 47. “I will summon him, ‘The mighty in strength speaks
to thee.’
Col. V, I. I will cry aloud in Erech, ‘ Mighty am I.’
I will change the things arranged.
He who was born in the plain, mighty is his strength.”
The harlot describes Erech where the people clothed them-
selves in mantles and held festivals. She also describes Gil-
gamish to Enkidu:
Col. V, 16. “ Beautiful in manliness, having vigour.
His whole body is adorned with voluptuous grace.
He has mighty strength more than thee.
Lying down to sleep neither day nor night.
20. O Enkidu, change thy perverse conduct.
Shamash loves Gilgamish.
Anu, Enlil, and Ea have enlarged his understanding.
Before thou earnest from the mountain,
Gilgamish in Erech sees visions of thee in dreams.
THE EPIC OF GILGAMISH
241
25. Gilgamish rose up to interpret the dreams saying to his mother:
‘ My mother, I saw a dream in my night.
There were stars in Heaven,
He fell upon me like the army of Anu.
I lifted him but he was too strong for me.
30. I pushed him away but could not shake him off.
Erech, the Land, stood about him.
36. [I loved him] like a woman and fell upon him in embrace.
[I brought him] and cast him at thy feet.
And thou hast made him to rival with me.’ ”
This dream of Gilgamish according to the Assyrian version
is told to Enkidu by the harlot. The second tablet of the early
Babylonian version begins here and in the first fifteen lines
has nearly the same content. Gilgamish’s mother was the
goddess Ninsun, according to the Assyrian text/^ and this was
also the legend found in Sumerian texts. Ninsun was the wife of
Lugalbanda, deified ancient king of Erech, and latterly the kings
of Ur claimed themselves to be sons of Ninsun. Ninsun then
interprets the dream.
41. “ The stars of heaven are thy . . .
[The army] of Anu fell upon thee,
[Him thou didst lift,] and he was too strong for thee,
[Him thou didst push away] and wast not able to shake off,
45 - [Whom thou didst bring] and cast at my feet.
Him have I made to rival with thee.
[Thou didst love him like a woman] and fell upon him in
embrace.
Col. vi, I. This is a mighty companion who delivers a friend.
Mighty in the Land is his strength.
Like the army of Anu has his strength been made mighty.
[Thou didst love him like a woman] and fell upon him in
embrace.
5. He will . . . thee.”
The interpretation of the dream given in the old Babylonian
version contains a command that Gilgamish should spare En-
kidu and bring him to her.^® Again Gilgamish dreamed and
reported it to his mother.
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
242
-
9. “ In Erech, the sheepfold, an ‘ axe ’ was laid and they assembled
about it.
Erech, the Land, stood about it.
The Land was assembled about it.
The skilled men gathered about it.
I brought it and cast it before thee.
I loved it like a woman and fell upon it in embrace.
15. It hast thou made to rival with me.? ”
The old version has also this curious reference to an “ axe ” in
the second dream. There it is said that the axe was of strange
form, and that Gilgamish put it on his arm, rejoicing to see it.
By some obscure simile “ axe ” is here employed for Enkidu.
Ninsun the wise, who knows all things, replied to her son Gil-
gamish and interpreted the second dream:
18. “ The axe which thou hast seen is a man.
Thou shalt love him like a woman, falling upon him in embrace.
I have made him to rival with thee.
This is a mighty companion who delivers a friend.
Mighty in the land is his strength.
23. Like the army of Anu has his strength been made mighty.”
The parallel Interpretation in the old version is lost. Gilga-
mish’s reply on hearing the interpretation of his two dreams
has not been preserved. It is clear from both versions that
the long account of the dreams was told to Enkidu by the
harlot.
(Tablet II, Col. i.) The narrative is now continued on the
old version which preserves the contents of Tablet II, Col. i,
of the Assyrian edition. Enkidu sits before the harlot forget-
ful of his past life. Again he cohabited with her six days and
seven nights. Again she praised his godlike appearance and
urged him to leave his flocks and go to Erech. Her words
pleased him.
Tab. II, ii, 17. “ She tore off a garment and clothed him with it.
Old Ver. With a second garment she clothed herself.
She clasped his hand, guiding him like a . . .
33. To the home (.? ) of the shepherd.”
THE EPIC OF GILGAMISH
243
In a short lacuna apparently the harlot introduced him to the
customs of civilized life. Milk of the cattle he drank j they
placed food before him, but he was only perplexed and under-
stood not. Enkidu had not learned to eat human food and the
harlot said to him:
Tab. II, iii, 12. “Eat bread, O Enkidu, it is the conformity of life.
Old Ver. Drink beer, it is the custom of the land.”
Enkidu ate and drank even seven pots of beer and became
merry. He anointed his body and became like a man. “ He
put on clothing, being like a husband, seized a weapon, and at-
tacked lions v/hich fall upon shepherds by night. Jackals he
smote, lions he subdued, and the great shepherds reposed.”
Enkidu, happy with the harlot, now lifted up his eyes and saw
for the first time a man, and cried out:
Tab. II, iv, 5. “ O harlot, take away the man, why has he come?
Old Ver. His name I will forget.”
But the harlot wishing to educate Enkidu called the man and
Enkidu looked at him and said:
10. “O man, whither hastenest thou? Why is thy going . . . ? ”
The man tells him that the custom of the people is to live at
home with a family. Gilgamish, king of Erech, lives with his
legitimate wife. For, “ when his breath (literally nostrils)
was created, this was his fate,” [Lines 28—9].
When Enkidu heard the name of Gilgamish he turned pale.
He and the harlot now (Col. v) enter Erech and the artisans
assembled about him, standing in the street of Erech of the
carrefours, discussing his appearance:
Tab. II, Old Ver., v, 9. “ He is like Gilgamish, but in stature is shorter.
In bone he has been made powerful.”
Here is narrated an episode which led to a combat between
Enkidu and Gilgamish. A couch was laid for the goddess
244
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
Ishara, and Gilgamish went in to lie with her. But Enkidu
cut off his access to her chamber. All Erech stood about him.
He came forth before Gilgamish and they met in the carrefour.
Enkidu barred access to the house of Ishara (?) and prevented
Gilgamish from entering. They grappled with each other,
goring like an ox.
Tab. II, Old Ver., vi, i8. “The threshold they destroyed, the wall
trembled.
Gilgamish ’s foot rested (firmly) on the
ground.
His wrath was cooled; he turned back his
onslaught.
After he had turned back his onslaught,
Enkidu said unto him, unto Gilgamish,
‘ As one extraordinary has thy mother
borne thee.
She the wild cow of (Erech) the sheep-
fold, Ninsun.
Thy head has been exalted more than a
husband.
33. Royal power over the people has Enlil de-
creed for thee.’ ”
Enkidu, fulfilling the mission for which he was created by
Aruru at the request of the gods, attacked Gilgamish ostensibly
for the possession of the goddess Ishara. This is the only good
story of a wrestling match in Semitic mythology. Hebrew
mythology has a story of Jacob’s wrestling with El, by the
stream Jabbok, which seems to be nothing more than an
attempt to explain the name Israel, attributed to Jacob. This
name means “ El strives (with),” and occurs in early Accadian
as Ishri-el, “ God strove (with).” Curiously enough this Ac-
cadian name occurs on a seal which represents Gilgamish strug-
gling with a bull and Enkidu with a lion. Jacob left alone by
night found himself wrestling with a man until day-break, who
found that he could not prevail against Jacob, and so smote his
thigh that it was disjointed. The man wished to depart at day-
break, for it was none other than El. Jacob refused until El
THE EPIC OF GILGAMISH
245
had blessed him. El, or here El 5 him, then demanded to know
his name, and was told that it was Jacob. El then said: “ Thy
name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel; for thou hast
striven with Eldhim and with men and hast prevailed.” Jacob
then asked his adversary for his name and received only the
reply: “ Wherefore dost thou ask for my name? ” but El
blessed him there. The place was henceforth called Peniel,
“ Face of El,” for there Jacob had seen El face to face. This
Fig. 78. Gilgamish, Enkidu, and Ishtar. Cylinder of Hammurabi Period
story of Jacob’s wrestling with El is referred to by the Prophet
Hosea: “ In his strength he strove with Elohim, and he strove
with an angel and prevailed, he wept and besought him for
favour.”
The episode became famous in Sumer and Babylonia and
it is shewn on numerous seals. Fig. 78, a seal of the age of
Hammurabi, has a good illustration of the combat of Gil-
gamish and Enkidu, and the miniature figure of a woman
stands between them. Gilgamish at the left has seized the
right wrist of the bull-man Enkidu; Enkidu has hold of the
right wrist of Gilgamish. This seems to reproduce faithfully
the text of the epic. They struggled for the possession of a
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
246
woman or a goddess. On seals of this kind almost invariably
a nude woman stands by watching the contest.^®
The meeting of Gilgamish and Enkidu resulted in their be-
coming fast friends, but at this point both versions are sadly
destroyed. Tablet III of the old version began with Gilgamish’s
reply to Enkidu after the latter had acknowledged his su-
premacy at the end of Tablet II and at the top of Col. iii of the
second Tablet in the Assyrian edition. Gilgamish asked him
why he desired to do this thing. For some reason Gilgamish
again describes to his mother Ninsun the powerful physique of
his newly found friend.
Tab. II, Col. iii, 43. “ In the land mighty is his strength,
Like the army of Ann has his strength been
made powerful.”
There was none like him and Gilgamish asked his mother to
“ provide him with . . . ,” for a wailer was he. The lost
section of the narrative may have described how Enkidu had
forsaken the harlot and how he lamented his licentious conduct.
Ninsun’s reply is almost entirely missing. “ My son . . . bit-
terly he weeps,” said she. (Col. iv.) In woe they stood
(looking at Enkidu), and saying: “ Enkidu has (no rival?),
his hair is dishevelled, and he lies ... In the plain was he
born and none . . .” Enkidu, standing by, heard their words
and was sad. His eyes filled with tears, his arms were limp,
and his strength failed. Gilgamish wondered at his misery
and asked him why he wept.
Tab. Ill, Old Ver., 84. “ Enkidu opened his mouth, speaking to Gil-
gamish,
The female companions, my friend, have
slackened my sinews.
My arms have become limp, my strength is
exhausted.”
Here begins the series of adventures of Gilgamish and En-
kidu. Gilgamish proposes to slay the monster Humbaba in the
cedar forests. The name is written Huwawa in the old ver-
THE EPIC OF GILGAMISH
247
sion and in the Hittite version. The prophecy of the gods
is fulfilled. Enkidu’s coming has diverted the attention of the
tyrant Gilgamish to far away ventures and Erech had peace.
The narrative now depends entirely on the text of the old
Accadian edition. After Gilgamish had proposed his plan
to attack Humbaba, Enkidu replied;
105. “I knew, O my friend, in the mountain, when I wandered with
the cattle.
That the forest stretched far away to a distance of ten thousand
double hour marches.
Who is there that will descend therein?
The roar of Humbaba is a hurricane, his mouth is fire, his
breath is death.
Why hast thou desired to do this thing,
1 15. A battle without precedent, the conquest of Humbaba? ”
But Gilgamish persisted and Enkidu again warned him of
the difficult journey and of Humbaba who sleeplessly guarded
the cedar forest. (Col. v.) For Enlil had decreed for him
sevenfold terror to keep safely the forest. He hears at a dis-
tance of ten thousand double hour marches in the cedar moun-
tain and whosoever goes down to his forest is seized by disease.
Gilgamish replied:
140. “ Who, my friend is so superior that ... he has ascended and
dwells with Shamash forever?
The days of man are numbered, and whatsoever they do is wind.
144. Now thou fearest death, vanished is the might of thy valour.
I will go before thee, perchance let him shout to me and thou
fearest to approach.
If I fall I shall establish my fame.
‘ Gilgamish fell by Humbaba the powerful,’ it shall be said.”
He then gave orders to the craftsmen to make weapons. Axes
weighing three talents each they moulded, and swords whose
blades weighed two talents, and the edges of their sides weighed
thirty mana each. Gilgamish then boasts of his venture:
1 8 1. “I Gilgamish will see him of whom they speak.
Him by whose name the lands are filled.
248
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
Will I conquer in the cedar forest.
‘ How is the offspring of Erech mighty,’
Shall I cause the Land to hear.
I will set my hand thereto and cut down the cedars.
I will make for myself an everlasting name.”
The elders of the city attempted to dissuade him, and describe
Humbaba in the same way as Enkidu had done. As he still
persisted in his adventure they advised him to seek the aid of
Shamash, the Sun-god.
215. “ Gilgamish kneeling (before Shamash) spoke these words:
‘ I come, O Shamash. I (grasp) thy hands.
Henceforth shall I save my soul.
Bring me back to the quay wall of Erech.’ ”
He now puts on his armour, bow and quiver, sword, and hatchet
and they take the road. (Assyrian Ver. Tablet III, Col. i.)
The Elders give him advice:
2. “Trust not, O Gilgamish, to thy might.
May thy . . . conquer (.i* ), make sure thy blow.
He that goes before will deliver a companion,
He that knows the route has protected a friend.
6. Enkidu will go before thee.
He knows the way of the cedar forest.
In battle he is proficient, in conflict experienced.
Enkidu will protect a friend and save a companion,
10. And will carry his body over the ditches.
In our assembly, O king, we have shewn thee respect,
12. And in turn shalt thou shew us respect, O king.”
In the old version the advice given to Gilgamish by the el-
ders is much longer. Shamash will cause him to attain his
desire and open the closed way for him, and give him victory,
and the god Lugalbanda will stand by him in his victory. He
shall wash his feet in the river of Humbaba, pour out cold
water to Shamash, and in his libation forget not Lugalbanda.
And Enkidu, now enthusiastic for the venture, encouraged him
to fear not. And so they began the journey to the cedar forest
of Humbaba.
In the Assyrian version Enkidu’s address of encouragement
THE EPIC OF GILGAMISH
249
is omitted j after the speech of the elders Gilgamish and En-
kidu go to Egalmah, temple of Ninsun, clasping each other
by the hand. Gilgamish entered before Ninsun and said:
23. “ O Ninsun, I have said (that I go)
On a far journey to the place of Humbaba.
A battle, which I know not, will I meet,
A route, which I know not, will I traverse,
27. Until the days when I go and return.
Until I arrive at the cedar forest.
Until I slay Humbaba the ferocious,
30. And destroy whatsoever evil Shamash hateth in the land.”
Ninsun heard the words of Gilgamish her son. (Col. ii.) She
attired herself in her regal garments, ascended to the roof of
her temple, offered incense to Shamash, and said:
10. “ Why hast thou put upon my son Gilgamish a restless heart and
incited him?
Now thou hast touched him and he goes.
On a far journey to the place of Humbaba,
18. And destroys whatsoever evil thou hatest in the land.”
(Col. iii, iv, V, vi.) Here there is a long lacuna where the
narrative is completely lost. Gilgamish has made libation to
Shamash and the Sun-god seems to reprove Enkidu for not hav-
ing done the same. There are references to further sacrifices
in Ninsun’s temple and finally Gilgamish apparently recites to
Enkidu the speech of the elders of the city ending:
Col. vi, 8. “ Enkidu will protect a friend and save a companion.
And will carry his body over the ditches.
In our assembly, O king, we have shewn thee respect.
And in turn shalt thou shew us respect, O king.”
To this Enkidu replied and apparently promised him faithful
service.
(Tablet IV.) At this point the narrative is no longer even
approximately continuous on the fragments, and the order of
the fragments is uncertain.^® Following the order assumed by
250
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
the writer, after a long lacuna Gilgamish is found describing
three dreams which had come to him, and this part of the epic
has been recovered in the library of the Hittite capital in Asia
Minor.“^ Gilgamish had told Enkidu his first dream j he was
glad, his face beamed. Apparently they are now on their jour-
ney, and as they rested by night this series of dreams came to
Gilgamish. After the first dream was told they took up their
journey and again rested by night.
KUB. iv. 1 2, 6.
10 .
15 -
20 .
“ A dream, poured out by night, made him shiver.
At midnight his dream was ended.
He related the dream to Enkidu, his friend.
‘ How! didst thou not summon me? why did I
awake ?
Enkidu, my friend, I have seen a second dream.
Thou hast summoned me, why am I terrified?
In addition to one dream I have seen a second.
My friend, in my dream the mountain crumbled.
It cast me down, fastening my feet in [the debris].
There was a mighty spectacle in the land. A
peculiar man [appeared] .
His beauty was beautiful in the land . . .
He drew me out from beneath the mountain
range . . .
He gave me water to drink and my heart . . .
And he set my feet on the soil.’
Enkidu said to that god, even to Gilgamish,
‘ My friend we will go . . .’ ”
The Assyrian version does not mention the man who saved
Gilgamish in his dream, and the Accadian text from Asia Minor
has preserved only a few signs of Enkidu’s interpretation} it
says only that “ he will (stand) by thee.” But the interpreta-
tion of the dream is more intelligible here. The mountain fell
on both of them and they were crushed like flies. Enkidu in-
terprets the dream to be favourable. Their being trapped by
the falling mountain means that they will seize Humbaba, and
cast his body on the ground.
Tab. IV, Col. ii, 43. K. 8586. In the morning they heard the
command of Shamash. After twenty double hour marches they
THE EPIC OF GILGAMISH
251
broke bread, and after thirty double hour marches they halted
for the night. Before Shamash they dug a well. Gilgamish
went up on a (mountain) and poured out his offering of fine
meal (to Shamash), saying:
“ O mountain, bring a dream . . .
Make for him . .
A cold wind blew and caused Gilgamish to sleep.
Tab. IV, Col. iii, 7.
Sm. 1040.
10.
15-
20.
“ Sleep that is poured on men fell upon him.
At midnight he ended his sleep.
He rose saying to his friend:
‘ My friend, didst thou not call me ? Why have
I awakened?
Didst thou not touch me? Why am I terrified?
Has a god not passed by? Why is my flesh
agitated?
My friend, I have seen a third dream.
And the dream which I saw is altogether
terrible.
The Heavens cried out, the Earth rumbled.
The day lapsed into silence, darkness came up.
Lightning flashed, fire flamed.
... it rained death.
Light . . . , and fire was extinguished.
The . . . which fell turned to ashes.’ ”
Enkidu interpreted this third dream, but here the narrative is
again lost and the prophecy derived from it has not been found
on the existing fragments. (Col. v.) After a long lacuna
the text speaks of the arrival at the forest. Humbaba wears
seven cloaks. He was like a furious wild bull and he called
the guard of the forest. Here again the text has a lacuna, and
when the narrative can be resumed (Col. vi) Enkidu com-
plains of weariness and does not wish to enter the forest, and
Gilgamish replies:
K. 8591. 30. “O my friend, knower of conflict, who . . . battle,
. . . thou didst overthrow having no fear of . . .
Thou didst . . . with me lions and . . .
Like a kettledrum verily was . . . the . . .
V — 18
252
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
May the weakness of thy arms vanish, and the feeble-
ness of thy hands depart.
35. Stand . . . , O my friend, together we will go down.
Let thy heart . . . for conflict, forget death and
fear not.”
And so they two came to the cedar forest (Tablet V, Col. i),
and stood gazing at its height, looking at the entrance to it
“ where Humbaba wanders about setting his footsteps.” The
roads were straight and the way good. The cedar mountain was
the abode of gods and the sanctuary of the goddess Irnini.
The cedar mountain is probably the Lebanons, the gods and
goddess of this region were Adad, Shamash, and Astarte. The
cedars held high their luxurious beauty on the face of the moun-
tain, “ good was its shade full of pleasure.” Gilgamish spoke
to Enkidu,^® but his speech occurs in a lacuna, and Enkidu’s re-
ply contains references to a door and when the narrative can
again be followed he is speaking to this door as to a person:
-
K. 3588. 38. “ O door of the forest, thou deaf one.
With whom there is no understanding,
40. At a distance of twenty double hour marches I have
admired thy (beautiful) wood.
While I saw the tall cedar . . .
Not did thy wood have a strange (^affearance') .
Seventy cubits thy height, twenty-four cubits thy
breadth . . .
Thy threshold, thy post foot and thy post . . .
45. Thy . . . thy ... in Nippur . . .
Had I known, O door, how is this thy . . .
And this thy beauty,
Lo I had lifted an axe, lo I had . . .
49. A baldachin surely I had erected . . .”
(Tab. V, Col. ii.) At this point the narrative is interrupted
by a break in the sources of nearly two hundred lines save for a
few almost unintelligible fragments, and then another lacuna
(Col. iv), when Gilgamish (.?) is speaking to Enkidu (?) of a
dream which he had (K. 3588, Col. vi.). Enkidu lies ill in his
bed and his condition is described during a period of twelve days
when Gilgamish cries out : “ My friend, he has cursed me,” “ I
THE EPIC OF GILGAMISH
253
feared the battle,” and the narrative of this episode ends by re-
ferring to the head of Humbaba which they had (cut off) . For-
tunately this battle with Humbaba, so deficiently preserved on
the Assyrian tablets, has been partly recovered in the Hittite
translation.®** These fragments begin by describing how Gil-
gamish, or Gishgimmash, as the Hittites pronounced the name,
was cutting down the cedars, and Humbaba in rage cried out:
“ Who has come and cut down the cedars which are held 'precious
in my mountains? ” Now the Sun-god, Shamash, comes to the
aid of Gilgamish and Enkidu, as the elders of Erech had told
them.®^ He encouraged them to fear not and they advanced to
meet Humbaba. Apparently the attack resulted in disaster, and
Gilgamish is found weeping before Shamash. The Sun-god
heard his prayer and mighty winds arose against Humbaba.
The north wind, the south wind, the snow-storm, the cyclone,
the wind of the wicked god, altogether eight winds, smote Hum-
baba in the eyes, so that he could not move forward or back-
ward.
Humbaba submitted and implored Gilgamish for mercy.
“ Let me go, Gilgamish, thou shalt be my lord, and I will be
thy servant.” He promised to deliver to him the much prized
cedars and {huild) houses for him. But Enkidu protested and
told him not to spare Humbaba.
The Humbaba episode, which occupies half of book three
and all of books four and five in the Assyrian edition, forms,
therefore, one of the principal parts of the epic. It certainly
entered into the scheme of the original Sumerian source. This
monster of the cedar forests is invariably called a god in the
texts and the original name was clearly Huwawa. There is no
mythological or philological connection between Huwawa and
the Combabus of the Syrian legend of Stratonice.®® Hum-
baba became a demon in later mythology and prayers refer to
him as a powerful being who takes charge of demons at the
command of Tammuz. A man tormented by a devil prays to
Tammuz:
254
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
“ The evil spy, supporter of evil, who is bound in me,
Unto the mighty god Humbaba, the merciless demon.
Confide.”
A variant of this passage reads “ god Hum-ba,” and another
has “ Hubaba the wicked demon,” where he is not called a
god.®® He seems to have been a monster whose name was de-
rived from the name of an animal. Prognostications made
from examining the entrails of an animal say that the entrails
may resemble the eye of
Humbaba, for which an-
other scribe wrote “ god
Humhum a terra-
cotta mask (Fig. 79)
shews the Babylonian
conception of his terrible
face, the beard being
represented by entrails.
It is inscribed with a
similar omen: “ If the
entrails be like the head
of Huwawa, it is the
Fig. 79. Terra-cotta Mask of Humbaba omen of Sargon who
ruled the world.” ®*
This proves that the custom of comparing entrails with the face
of Huwawa, or Humbaba, was already known in the period of
Sargon of Accad in the twenty-eighth century b.c., and that the
monster was not then classified as a deity. Other omens de-
rived from the strange appearances of monstrosities born of
women are compared with eyes of Huwawa, or the visage of
Huwawa.®® The face of this monster as he appears on Fig. 79,
and on another similar mask,®® is designed by a single winding
line, except eyes. This design was adopted because the early
artists had represented him with tortuous grinning features and
a curly head suggestive of entrails. The connection with en-
trails having been introduced into omen literature led to an over
THE EPIC OF GILGAMISH
255
emphasis of this aspect. Figure 80 probably represents the real
Humbaba of Sumerian and Babylonian mythology. A great
number of these masks shewing the head in the same style as
Fig. 80 have been found, all having projecting ears pierced by
a small hole, and clearly
intended to be attached to
a wall or part of the house
as a protection against the
demons. Some of these
masks wear a merry grin,
and illustrate the ancient
principle of fighting the de-
mons by presenting to them
a caricature of themselves.
There is an Elamitic god
called Humba, described as
the Enlil or Earth-god of
Susa, and this deity is a
variant of Hubaba in the
texts. This seems to be
mere homophonic confu-
sion, but the view that the
two are identical and that
the cedar forest of Hum-
baba was in Elam has been
generally held by scholars
before the original name
Huwawa was discovered.
Moreover in cuneiform in-
scriptions the “ cedar forest ” always refers to the Lebanons.
If a king of an early Sumerian dynasty became the subject of a
legend in which he subdued a monster who ruled the cedar-clad
mountains of Syria, and who offered cedars of his realm to pro-
pitiate his conqueror, it must be due to some unknown historical
expedition in very remote times.
Fig. 80.
Terra-cotta Bas-relief
Humbaba
OF
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
256
(Tablet VI.) The return journey of Gilgamish and Enkidu
to Erech after their victory over Humbaba is not described in
the epic. The poet passes at once to the famous story of
Ishtar’s unrequited love for the hero of the legend. Gilgamish
once again in Erech washed his hair, cleaned his garments, and
let his hair fall over his body. Ishtar beheld his beauty and
loved him, and offered to make him her husband. Kings and
princes would kneel before him.
17. “. . . mountain and land shall bear thee tribute.
Thy she goats shall bear prolifically, thy ewes shall bear twins.
Thy colt shall come with the burden of a mule.
Thy horse shall be strong in running with the chariot.
And may (thy ox) have no equal under the yoke.”
But Gilgamish rejected her gifts and her proposal. The treach-
erous love of Ishtar as told in this book of the epic has already
been described in a previous chapter.®^ Every one who had
loved her had fallen on sorrow. Tammuz, the allallu bird,
the lion, the horse, a shepherd, Ishullanu the gardener, all
had been loved by her and shamefully treated.
“ And me thou lovest and me even as them thou wouldst [treat].”
On hearing Gilgamish’s reply, Ishtar appealed to Anu, her
father, to create “ the bull of Heaven ” to destroy Gilgamish.
The account of Anu’s creation of the Gudanna, or bull of
Heaven, is lost in a lacuna. The text refers to his descending
(from Heaven), and his terrible breath destroyed two hun-
dred men at each snort. The third time he snorted against
Enkidu,®® but he seized him by the horns and the thick of his
tail. Together they slew the bull and placed the carcass before
Shamash, they went far off, prostrated themselves before this
god, and sat down “ they the two brothers.”
From the wall of Erech Ishtar cried aloud and cursed Gil-
gamish. Enkidu hearing this tore off the bull’s right leg and
threw it in her face, saying that he would do to her as he had
done to the bull. Ishtar assembled her whores and prostitutes,
THE EPIC OF GILGAMISH
2S1
and instituted wailing over the right leg of the bull. Gilga-
mish gave the bull’s horn to his god Lugalbanda to serve as an
ointment vase. The two friends washed their hands in the
Euphrates and went riding in the streets of Erech. The in-
habitants assembled to see them and said:
182. “ Who among strong men is illustrious?
Who among manly ones is glorious?
Gilgamish among strong men is illustrious.
Gilgamish among manly ones is glorious.”
Then he instituted a feast in his palace j men lay down to
sleep ; Enkidu slept and had a dream, arose, and disclosed it to
his friend, and said:
“ My friend, why have the great gods taken counsel together? ”
(Tablet VII.) So began the seventh book of the epic, and here
the Assyrian sources have a long lacuna of one hundred lines.
This part of the narrative has been found in the Hittite ver-
sion.^® Enkidu said that he saw Anu, Enlil, Ea, and Shamash
(in counsel). Anu said to Enlil:
“ ‘ Since they have slain the bull of Heaven, and the god Huwawa
They slew, so shall he who devastated the mountains of the cedars,’
Said Anu, ‘ among these (two) [die].’
But Enlil said, ‘ Enkidu shall die.
But Gilgamish shall not die.’ ”
Now Shamash, god of the Heavens, opposed Enlil and said:
“ Did they not slay at thy command
The bull of Heaven and the god Huwawa?
Now shall the innocent Enkidu die? ”
This speech is contrary to the statement in the third Tablet
which stated distinctly that Humbaba was slain at the order of
Shamash himself. The Hittite version says that Enlil angrily
replied to Shamash and explained that he was moved to con-
demn Enkidu because he, Shamash, had daily accompanied the
two heroes as a companion. All this Enkidu saw in his dream.
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
258
And so Enkidu lay before Gilgamish in distress j Gilgamish
wept because the gods had declared him innocent and his
brother Enkidu guilty, saying:
“ Now I will sit me down by the ghosts, at the door of the ghosts and see
my beloved brother no more with (my) eyes.”
The death of Enkidu does not occur until after another episode,
the nature of which remains obscure because the lacuna, in the
first part of book seven, which led up to the cursing of the
harlot, has never been completed. (Col. iii.) But for some rea-
son Enkidu seems to have attributed his fate to her. He prob-
ably argued that if she had not seduced him to leave his savage
but peaceful life on the plains, he had never known Gilga-
mish and had never undertaken the heroic labours which ended
in his condemnation to die. The narrative now contains an
account of how he cursed the harlot who had brought him to
Erech. “ I will curse thee with a great curse,” said he. The
contents of this long and terrible curse can be surmised from
the few direful phrases preserved. “ The shadow of the wall
be thy place,” “ The drunkard and the thirsty shall smite thy
cheek,” “ The highway shall be her abode, and she shall be the
ridicule of maidens.”
“ Because thou hast . . . me,
And me . . . thou hast ... in my field.”
Shamash heard the words of his mouth and straightway called
to him from Heaven:
35. “ Why, O Enkidu hast thou cursed the hierodule, the harlot?
Who caused to eat bread fit for divinity,
Who gave to drink wine fit for kingliness.
Who clothed thee in a great garment.
And caused thee to have the pious Gilgamish as a companion.
40. Now Gilgamish thy friend, thy elder brother.
Caused thee to sleep on a great bed.
In a bed of fine workmanship he caused thee to sleep.
He caused thee to sit in a peaceful seat, a seat at (his) left hand,
Making the kings of the earth kiss thy feet.
THE EPIC OF GILGAMISH 259
45. Causing the people of Erech to weep for thee, causing them to
wail for thee,
Placing at thy disposal the service of thriving peoples.
And he brought sores upon his body behind thee,
48. Clothing himself in a lion’s skin, and coursing the plain.”
Enkidu’s wrath was appeased by the argument of Shamash, and
there follows, in a defectively preserved text, a complete re-
versal of Enkidu’s disposition toward the harlot. (Col. iv.)
Now he blesses her and declares that kings and princes shall love
her, and she shall have an amorous husband.
Now Enkidu was miserable in mind, lay down to sleep alone,
saw another dream and reported it to his friend.
15. “ The Heavens cried out, the earth shook.'*®
... as I stood.
There was a . . . whose face was darkened.
Like a . . . was his face.
19. His . . . , claw of an eagle was his claw.”
The strange being seen by Enkidu in his dream led him to a
house of darkness, the abode of the goddess Irkalla or Allat,
goddess of the lower world, to the house whose inhabitants
are deprived of light, where their nourishment is dust and
their bread clay.
38. “ They are clad in a garment with wings like birds
And they see not the light, sitting in darkness.
At the house of dust which I entered
I looked and crowns lay there.
They of crowns sat there, they that ruled the land since former
times.
Bejore Anu and Enlil they were setting forth roast meat.
45. Cooked food they were setting forth, and giving them to drink
cool water, waters of drinking pouches.
High priests and psalmists sat there.
The priests of the water cult and the high pontiffs sat there.
Etana sat there, the god Gira sat there.
50. Ereshkigal, queen of the lower world, sat there,
Belit-seri, scribe of the lower world, kneeled before her.
26o
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
She . . . reading before her.
She lifted up her head and saw me, (saying)
54. ‘ . has seized this man.’ ”
(Cols. V, vi.) Most unfortunately Enkidu’s vision of Arallu
and his experiences there cannot be followed j for the fragments
completely fail from this point j the whole of the interpreta-
tion is also lost in a lacuna of one hundred lines. Here was
told the tale of how his dreams were fulfilled, and he died.
(Tablet VIII.) The eighth book described the wailing of
Gilgamish for his friend. It began at sunrise, when he wept
for his friend, addressing him as though he were still alive,
first recalling his early nomad life among the cattle and then
their exploits against Humbaba in the cedar forest and the
slaying of the bull of Heaven in Erech. He now asks the el-
ders of Erech to hear him.
Col. ii, 2. “I weep for Enkidu my friend,
Like a woman wailer I lament woefully.
He, the axe of my side, the ... of my arm.
The sword of my girdle, the ... of my face.
The raiment of my feasts, the ... of my pleasure.
7. ... has gone forth and lejt me.”
Here begins a lamentation which recurs three times in the tenth
book:
8. “ My friend, my adopted brother, chaser of asses of the
mountain, panther of the plain,
Enkidu, my friend, my adopted brother, panther of the
plain.
We who travelled everywhere and ascended the mountain.
We who seized the bull of Heaven and slaughtered him,
12. We who cast down Humbaba that dwelt in the cedar
forest.
Now what dream is it that has taken possession of thee?
Thou hast turned dark and hearest me not.”
But Enkidu lifted not his head; Gilgamish touched his heart
but it beat not. And so he knew that his friend was dead, and
THE EPIC OF GILGAMISH
261
he covered him like a bride. “ He roared ( ? ) like a lion, and
like a lioness which had been rohhed (?) of her whelps he . .
There seems to be a reference to shearing his hair and tearing
his clothes in sign of lamentation. Here the narrative is inter-
rupted by a long lacuna, and when the text is resumed, he is
recalling the kind deeds he had done for his dead friend.
Col. iii. “ I caused thee to sleep on a great bed,
In a bed of fine workmanship I caused thee to sleep,”
and repeating the lines addressed to Enkidu by Shamash in the
seventh book. (See p. 258 11 . 41 ff.) The passage ends:
“ I clothed myself in a lion’s skin, coursing the plain.”
Each period of his wailing began at sunrise, and in the next
section there is a reference to his removing cult objects which
had been used in his lament at sunrise on the day before, when
the rehearsal of his kindness to Enkidu occurred. If a new
fragment can be placed here,^® the lamentations continued at
sunrise the next day with a ritual in which Euphrates water
(?) (Col. iv), lapis lazuli, and cornelian are mentioned. The
ceremony also mentions alabaster, Enkidu’s clothing, and vari-
ous quantities of gold, and this day’s lament also ends with
an address to his dead friend in which he mentions “ thy
sword,” and an offering to the god Bibbu, that is the planet
Mercury. After a long lacuna the texts (Col. v) preserve the
address of some deity, probably Shamash, to Gilgamish, and
when he heard his instructions, Gilgamish “ conceived the
image of a ndruP In the preceding instructions he had either
been told to make a naru^ or Shamash had described to him
how Enkidu had crossed the naru or river of death. There is
uncertainty about the ritual here. The word naru also means
“ a singer.” It is improbable that Gilgamish had the supreme
power of gods to create a living creature, and the passage may
mean that Gilgamish pictured to himself the legendary Hubur
river which his friend had crossed.
262
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
At sunrise of the next morning he again continued his
lamentations and prepared a great table, filled a cornelian bowl
with honey, and a lapis lazuli bowl with cream. Here the text
of the eighth book ends, and the long lacuna which described
the ritual and lament has not yet been filled in. The eighth
book contained lamentations for six days, and when the text is
restored it will provide complete information concerning Baby-
lonian funeral services.
Books nine, ten, and eleven describe the wanderings of Gilga-
mish in quest of the plant of “ never grow old,” in the land of
Utnapishtim, where he also hears the story of the Flood. These
episodes have been told in the preceding Chapter.^^
Tablet IX, Col.i, I.
5 -
10.
12.
“ Gilgamish for Enkidu, his friend,
Weeps woefully, coursing the plain.
‘ Shall I not die even as Enkidu?
Sorrow has entered into my heart.
I have feared death, and so I course the plain.
Unto the presence of Utnapishtim, son of
Ubartutu,
I have started on the way, and quickly will I go.
I will come to the mountain passes by night.
If I see lions and be frightened,
I should lift up my head praying to the Moon-
god.
Unto the goddess, . . . the ... of the gods,
shall my implorations come.
O . . . save me, even me.’ ”
He had a terrifying dream in which he saw certain ones, “ who
rejoice to live.” He dreamed that he lifted an axe to his side
and drew a sword from his girdle. Like a javelin it fell among
them, he smote and scattered them. As the narrative is un-
folded it was seen that “ those who rejoice to live ” are the
attendants of the boatman who plied between the sea-border
of the world and the land of the immortal Utnapishtim. The
narrative is interrupted here by a long break and is again re-
sumed when he arrived at Mount Mashu, and with the episode
of the scorpion-men.^®
-
THE EPIC OF GILGAMISH
263
The story of the Flood ended with Gilgamish and the boat-
man Ursanapi at Erech, where they were occupied in restor-
ing the walls of the city. Book twelve begins with an entirely
new situation and was probably added by the scribes j it has no
relation to the main theme of the epicj Gilgamish’s futile quest
for the plant of life had been told and he had returned to Erech.
The poets now add a mythological poem on the conditions in
which the souls of the dead exist in Arallu. The poem begins :
I. “ Once on a time a net in the house of the carpenter verily was . . .
A trap [in the house of the carpenter verily was . . .].”
These obscure lines are not entirely elucidated by the later
references in the poem where Gilgamish complains that the
net and the trap had smitten him. There is some still un-
explained allusion here to the “ net and trap ” fashioned by the
gods, a poetical description of the fate of man. The gods have
all men in the toils of fate. It is possible that the house of the
carpenter refers to the god Enki, patron of all artisans, and that
the “ carpenter god ” had been ordered to fashion the “ net ”
for each man, which finally brings him to the end of his career.
The poet then says :
3. “ O my lord, why [was . . . ?],
The net [in the house of the carpenter . . . ? ]
The trap [in the house of the carpenter . • . ? ] .”
These lines are a reflection on life, and the poet now passes to
the concrete example of how Gilgamish himself failed to escape
from the net of the gods. This may, in fact, be part of the
group of wise sayings attributed to Utnapishtim 5 “ my lord ”
refers to Gilgamish. The poet now addresses Gilgamish and
says, “ Gilgamish [thou who . . .], if [thou wishest to . . .],”
and again, “Gilgamish [thou who . . .], if [thou wishest to
. . •], to the sanctuary of . . .” This is generally taken to
mean that Gilgamish wishes to descend to the lower world
to discover his friend Enkidu, and to see the abode of the dead.
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
264
The instructions of Utnapishtim were that to do this he must
not clothe himself in clean garments, or, as though he were a
fugitive, they would know him, alas!
16. “Thou shalt not anoint thyself with good oil of the stone bowl.
For they (the souls of the dead) will assemble about thee to
smell it.
Thou shalt not plant the bow on the ground,^®
For they who were smitten by the bow will surround thee.
20. Thou shalt not lift a cudgel in thy hand,
For the ghosts will curse thee.
Sandals on thy feet shalt thou not put.
Thou shalt not make a noise in the underworld.
Thy wife, whom thou lovest, shalt thou not kiss,
25. Thy wife, whom thou hatest, shalt thou not smite,
28. For the misery of the underworld will seize thee.”
He is told that in the land of the dead sleeps the Mother-
goddess Ninazu, and “ her two clean flanks are not covered by
a garment, her breast like the bowl of an ointment jar is not
. . .” She holds the dead in bondage.
But he clothed himself in a clean garment, and as though
he were a fugitive they knew him, alas ! He anointed himself,
and they assembled about him. He planted his bow on the
ground, and they who had died by the bow surrounded him.
He lifted a cudgel in his hand and the ghosts cursed him.
He put on sandals and made a noise in the underworld. He
kissed the wife he loved and smote the one he hated, he kissed
the son he loved and smote the one he hated, and the misery
of the underworld seized him. The Mother-goddess Ninazu,
or Ereshkigal, queen of Arallu, slept there, with her flanks un-
covered and her breast . . . like the bowl of an ointment jar.
Thus Gilgamish in defiance of the laws of Arallu, where
all must appear naked and be silent, had descended among the
dead to discover Enkidu.
50. “ Then, that Enkidu should ascend from the lower world,
Namtaru restrained not, the asakku demon restrained not, it was
the lower world that restrained him.
THE EPIC OF GILGAMISH 265
The spy of Nergal, the merciless, did not restrain him, it was the
lower world that restrained him.
Not the place of battle of men had smitten (him), it was the
lower world which had smitten him.”
These words are a soliloquy of Gilgamish, or perhaps a quota-
tion from the wisdom of Utnapishtim. The poet continues:
54. “ Then my lord, son of Ninsun, was weeping for his servant
Enkidu.
To Ekur, house of Enlil, alone he went, (saying) :
‘ Eather Enlil, once on a time a net smote me to earth,
A trap smote me to earth.
Enkidu, whom to bring up from the lower world,
Namtar has not restrained, the asakku demon has not restrained,
the lower world has restrained.
60. The spy of Nergal, the merciless, has not restrained, the lower
world has restrained.
Not the place of battle of men has smitten him, the lower world
smote him.’ ”
But Enlil answered him not and he appealed to Sin, the Moon-
god, in the same words, and again received no reply. He then
appealed to the god Ea, always the friend of men in distress.
Ea came to his aid and ordered Nergal, god of the lower
world, to open a hole in the earth that the soul of Enkidu
might ascend. And so he ascended like a wind. The friends
embraced each other, and Gilgamish said:
87. “Tell me, O my friend, tell me, O my friend.
Tell me the law of the lower world, which thou hast seen.”
To which Enkidu replied:
89. “ Not shall I tell thee, my friend, not shall I tell thee.
If I tell thee the law of the lower world which I have seen.
Sit thee down, weep.”
Here the description of Arallu is not well preserved. Enkidu
mentions the worm that eats, the dust that fills, and those
that sit. The poem ends with the following dialogue between
Enkidu and Gilgamish.
266
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
144. “He who by a ship’s hawser was smitten didst thou see? Yea
I saw;
Verily upon ... he lies and in pulling out plugs he . . .
He who died the death of . . . didst thou see? Yea I saw;
He sleeps on a bed by night and drinks cool water.
He who was slain in battle didst thou see? Yea I saw;
His father and his mother lifted up his head and his wife upon
him . . .
150. Him, whose corpse was cast on the plain, didst thou see? Yea
I saw;
His ghost rests not in the lower world.
Him, whose ghost has none to remember him, didst thou see?
Yea I saw.
Leavings of the pot, crumb of bread thrown in the street he
eats.”
So ends the Epic of Gilgamlsh in the Assyrian version. The
last lines prove that the doctrine of rewards and punishments
in the after life had now arisen among the Babylonians and
Assyrians. It is improbable that the legendary and philosophi-
cal poem which now forms the twelfth book, was attached to
the old Babylonian version of the twentieth century b.c. The
poem cannot be later than the seventh century and is probably
older.
Although this epic was obviously well known throughout
the West Semitic lands, and in Asia Minor among the Hit-
tites, it seems to have had no influence upon the mytholo-
gies of other races. Attempts have been made to shew in-
fluence of the Gilgamish Epic upon the Odyssey of the early
Greek poet Homer, but without convincing success. Emphasis
has been laid upon a connection between the Gilgamish and
Siduri episode and the somewhat similar episode of the nymph
Calypso and Odysseus on the island Ogygia.^® An exhaustive
study of possible traces of the influence of this epic upon Hebrew
mythology and upon the principal characters of early Chris-
tianity as they appear in the New Testament, Jesus and St.
Paul, has not convinced scholars, largely owing to the fact that
THE EPIC OF GILGAMISH
267
the attempt assumes real history to be legend. An example
of this kind of reasoning is the following. The Israelites, led
by Jacob, went to Egypt from Canaan, where his son Joseph
became their leader and where Jacob died. Then the Egyp-
tians under a new Pharaoh oppressed the Israelites and made
them build treasure cities for the Egyptians. This is said to be
derived from the first book of the Epic of Gilgamishj the citi-
zens of Erech were sorely oppressed by Gilgamish, who com-
pelled them to build the walls of Erech, and repair the tem-
ple of the Heaven-god Anu, which is called a “ store house ”
in the epic.
Pharaoh had a dream in which he saw seven fat kine feed-
ing in the pasture. And there came up seven lean kine which
devoured the seven fat kine. This was interpreted by Joseph
to mean that Egypt would have seven years of great prosper-
ity followed by seven years of famine. Joseph, therefore, ad-
vised the Pharaoh to appoint officers to lay up corn during the
seven years of plenty against the years of famine. In the sixth
book of the Epic of Gilgamish Ishtar implored her father Anu
to create the bull of Heaven to destroy Gilgamish against
whom she was enraged. In a broken passage there is a refer-
ence to seven years of famine, which Anu prophesies, if he creates
the bull, and he commands Ishtar to gather provisions for
men and cattle. This Ishtar did. The seven lean kine of the
Hebrew story are made to correspond with the bull of the Gil-
gamish Epic. By this line of argument traces of the epic have
been found in many other mythologies and the reader
must be referred to the two large volumes devoted to this
theory.^®
The theory which connects the various episodes with the
passage of the sun through the twelve signs of the zodiac may
be taken more seriously, but here again all attempts to explain
this complicated myth on astral principles have failed. The
hunter who appears in book one has been identified with Betel-
V — 19
268
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
geux in Orion, and Humbaba with Procyon in Canis Minor.
Gilgamish was the national hero of the Sumerians and Baby-
lonians, and the Epic of Gilgamish was their national epic.
Shamash, the Sun-god, appears in several episodes as the friend
and patron of Gilgamish, and Humbaba, whom Shamash hated,
was slain by Gilgamish. There is no reason to suppose that
Gilgamish was regarded as a “ redeemer ” of men j on the con-
trary it was through his stupidity that the plant of rejuvena-
tion was not recovered and given to mankind. If Shamash
hated the wicked Humbaba, that is probably because this mon-
ster of the Syrian cedar-clad mountains was originally an his-
torical person, and the foe of the early Sumerian kingdom.
Nor is there any obvious reason for identifying Gilgamish with
the two stars of Gemini, Castor and Pollux, nor the scorpion-
man, whom Gilgamish met on the shore of the western sea,
with the constellation Scorpio. The order of events, the re-
ligious and ethical theories put upon them by the author or au-
thors of this epic, are now fairly clear, and they do not dis-
close any astral or solar order. So far as can be determined,
the old Babylonian version did not have twelve books, and in
the Assyrian edition the twelfth book is clearly a late addition.
There is, therefore, no attempt to base the narrative upon the
year of twelve months, nor can any astral connection be dis-
covered in any of the twelve books to confirm this, even if the
books be assigned to the months of the solar year, beginning
with Nisan (March) and ending with Adar (February), and
placing the origin of the epic in the period when the sun at
the spring equinox stood in Taurus. On this assumption the
sun stood in Gemini during the second month, and in the sec-
ond book Gilgamish met his friend Enkidu. But on this as-
sumption Gilgamish’s meeting with the scorpion-man should
have been told in the seventh book} for in the seventh month
the sun stood in Scorpio. The episode of the scorpion-man
occurs in the ninth book. However suggestive these theories
THE EPIC OF GILGAMISH 269
may be, they must be considered on their merits and they ob-
viously have nothing to recommend them. The epic was based
upon historical circumstances, developed under the glamour of
legend into a great national poem which served as medium
for teaching some of the most important doctrines of the Su-
mero-Babylonian religion.
CHAPTER VIII
LEGENDS OF THE DESTRUCTION
OF MEN
OR
THE POEM OF EA AND ATARHASIS
I N the Chapter on the Flood story references to other world
catastrophes were found and an Accadian poem in at least
three books or tablets was devoted to a series of such calamities/
The texts of this long epical composition are so badly preserved
that only a general idea of their contents can be obtained from
them. In each catastrophe a person called Atarhasis-ameluy
“ The man Atarhasis,” is mentioned. This name means “ He
who knows exceedingly much ” and as a title is used of Adapa,
Utnapishtim, and of gods. In this poem the title is used as a
proper name and, if the same person is intended in each case, it
would mean that the same man survived each world catastrophe,
a conclusion obviously impossible. In each episode it was he
who appealed to the god Ea to allay the wrath of the gods.
The name is, therefore, only a title and the text affords no in-
formation concerning the actual name of the hero of each epi-
sode. There are apparently five destructions of the world, the
last one being the Flood, and since the Atarhasis of this epi-
sode is Ziusudra or Utnapishtim, the same title in the preced-
ing calamities must refer to respectively four of the legendary
kings before the Flood. In their reigns occurred the succes-
sive destructions of the world at long intervals.
The entire section at the beginning of the poem is lost. It
contained an account of how the Earth-god Enlil became an-
gered against mankind because of their wickedness and prophe-
LEGENDS OF DESTRUCTION OF MEN 271
sied that they would be destroyed by drought and famine,
text then preserves the description of the famine.^
The
Col. i, I. “ When the first year arrived there was . • .
When the second year arrived there were still stores.
When the third year arrived
The people struggled with each other in their cities.
5 . When the fourth year arrived, their cities were reduced to
straits.
Their wide . . . were reduced.
The people wandered in the streets downcast.
When the fifth year arrived, daughter waited to come in to
mother.
But the mother opened not her door to the daughter.
10. Daughter gazed at the scales of mother.
Mother gazed at the scales of daughter.®
When the sixth year arrived, they provided a daughter for
meat.
They provided an infant for meat; they filled the . . .
One house devoured the other.
15. Like millet were their faces covered.
The people lived in the midst of failing life.”
Here there is a long lacuna, at the beginning of which there is
a reference to the people sending a message to someone. Here
followed an appeal by Atarhasis to Ea, who appeased the wrath-
ful Enlil, and the famine ceased. After a long lapse of time,
under another pre-diluvian king (Col. ii), Enlil was again
angered by the wickedness of men, and again prophesied and
sent a famine, caused by a drought. The drought and famine
are described.
3- “ On high Adad made scarce his rain.
Beneath (the fountain) was stopped and the flood mounted not
from the fountain.
5. The field diminished its grain heaps.
He turned back the breast of Nidaba; the dark meadows turned
white.
The wide plain bore saltpetre.
Grass sprang not up, grain sprouted not.
Pestilence was prepared for the peoples.
10. The womb (of the ewe) was bound and delivered not the
young.”
272
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
Here followed the same description of six years of famine as
in the first episode. Now “ the lord of wisdom,” Atarhasis,
had his “ ear open unto Ea his lord,” and spoke with his god,
but Ea answered him not. The broken text refers to some
ceremony in which Atarhasis, to obtain an interview with the
Water-god, Ea, did something at the “ door of his god,” and
placed his bed over against the river. The narrative is again
lost in a short break. Here stood the account of how Ea al-
layed the wrath of Enlil (Col. iii) and stayed the destruction
of mankind a second time.
The next episode begins with a description of why Enlil de-
cided for a third time to destroy mankind.
2. “ Because of their uproar he was troubled.
Because of their multitude he had no quiet.
He held his convocation (of the gods),
5. Saying unto the gods, his sons:
‘ Oppressive has become the uproar of men.
By their uproar I am troubled.
In their multitude they maintain not silence.
Let . . . and there be fever.
10. Quickly let pestilence still their uproar.
Like a cyclone may there blow upon them
Sickness, ague, fever, and plague.’ ”
And so there was fever, and quickly pestilence stilled their
clamour, diseases blew upon them.
Again Atarhasis had his ear open unto Ea his lord and spoke
with his god, and Ea spoke with him. This time he obtained
a reply without magical ceremony.
21. “ Atarhasis opened his mouth and spoke.
Saying to Ea, his lord:
‘ . . . mankind lament.
And your . . . consumes the land.
. . . mankind lament.
And the ... of the gods consumes the land.
... ye have created us.
May sickness, ague, fever, and plague be warded off.’ ”
28.
LEGENDS OF DESTRUCTION OF MEN 273
Ea replied to Atarhasis, and told men to pray to their goddess,
and make sacrifices before herj she would hear their words.
This is the end of the third episode. The Assyrian text of the
fourth world destruction is now supplemented by the second
Tablet of the old version which begins here. Enlil summoned
his convocation of the gods his sons. He complains that the sins
of men have not diminished, but have become greater than be-
fore. He was disturbed by their clamour, and in their multitude
they kept not silent.
42. “ Let the fig tree be cut oflF for the people,
And vegetables be few in their stomachs.
On high may Adad make scarce his rain.
45. Beneath let (the fountain) be stopped and the flood not rise in
the fountain.
Let the field diminish its grain heaps,
Let him turn back the breast of Nidaba; let the dark meadows
turn white.
Let the wide field bear saltpetre.
Let her bosom rebel ; may grass not spring up, grain not sprout.
50. Let pestilence be prepared for the peoples.
Let the womb (of the ewe) be bound and deliver not the
young.”
-
And so drought came as Enlil had predicted. (Col. iv.)
Here there is a long lacuna, which contained the same description
of six years of famine as that which followed after the first and
second catastrophes. In this lacuna the narrative probably con-
tained an account of how Atarhasis again appealed to Ea, but
apparently this fourth destruction had made an end of mankind
entirely. For when the story is resumed men are created again
by the mother goddess Mami. The ancient version, which con-
tains part of this fourth episode, does not add much information.
It says that the land had become enlarged and the population
had multiplied. “ Because of their multitude Enlil ordered
their destruction. In addition to a drought he sent a wind to
despoil the . . .” Now the goddess Mami is summoned to cre-
ate men, and after she had uttered an incantation she cast it over
274
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
a lump of clay. She placed seven pieces of the clay on her right,
seven on her left, and created from them seven males on her
right, and seven females on her left j after her own likeness she
designed the forms of men.
At this point, interrupting the narrative, the scribe adds di-
rections for a woman in child-birth, which proves that the myth
was recited as a prelude to a magic ritual. In the house of a
woman, who is in child-birth, a brick shall be placed, which rep-
resents the divinity of the queen of the gods, the wise Mami.
By this brick, symbol of the clay from which Mami made man,
the angered gods will rejoice in the house of the pregnant
woman, and where the childbearing woman gives birth, shall the
mother nourish the infant herself. The ritual is here broken
away, and on the Assyrian version over one hundred and twenty
lines, narrating the last of the world disasters, are lost. This
was the Flood, as is known by the continuation of the story on
the second tablet of the old Babylonian version.
(Col. ii. Old Ver.) Enlil for a fourth time decided to destroy
the world, and a part of his prophecy is preserved. On the mor-
row Adad would send a rain-storm, but the people heeded not
and continued to make great uproar. Here a long description of
the approaching disaster occupying three columns of the text is
lost,* and it is impossible to conjecture what all the contents of
this great lacuna could possibly be. When the narrative can be
taken up again (Col. v) the god Ea is protesting with the gods
for commanding the Flood. Part of this lacuna contained Ea’s
warning to Atarhasis. But his protest against the destruction
of mankind by the deluge occurs, in this myth, before the event,
and not after it as in the narrative of the eleventh book of the
Epic of Gilgamish. Ea protests that the gods Shullat and Lu-
gal, that is Shamash and Marduk, should take part in this mad
plot of the gods. (Col. vi.) Here again the connection is lost
and the text of the second Tablet ends with Atramhasis"
speaking to Ea his lord. From an Assyrian fragment, which
belongs to the part of the story at the end of this Tablet,
LEGENDS OF DESTRUCTION OF MEN 275
the following lines can be restored.® Ea now describes
to Atarhasis the terrors of the Flood. He will reveal to him
the time of its arrival. He commands him to enter a ship and
close the doorj to load the ark with food and his possessions}
to bring his family and household into the ship, with his
skilled men} also the cattle and beasts of the field as many as
eat grass, Ea gave him those who would guard the door of the
ship. Atarhasis replied that he had never built a ship. A
broken passage contains instructions by Ea for building the
ship. Here the fragments end and the story of the escape of
Atarhasis from the Flood in this poem is lost.
(Tab. Ill, Old Ver.) The third Tablet of the old Babylo-
nian version, which contained in its first two columns the account
of the building of the ark and of the Flood, is preserved in frag-
mentary condition. The whole of the first two columns is
lost} at the middle of the third column begins the account of
how Mami again created men from clay. Enki (Ea) com-
manded the great gods to slay a god that Ninhursag, that is
Mami, might mingle the clay with the blood of the slain god
and make lullu or man “ to bear the yoke.”
26. “ Verily god and man,
Shall ... in the clay.” ^
Apparently Enki means to say that the Mother-goddess thus
created a being in whom existed divine and earthly elements.
Thus the Babylonians explained the origin of man’s immortal
soul, the temporary inhabitant of a body created from the earth.
The same legend appears in Greek mythology among the
Orphic writers, who, in their account of Zagreus, child of Zeus
and Persephone, relate the story that the Titans slew and
devoured this divine child. For this they were burned and
from their ashes was born man, but his soul sprang from the
blood of the slain god.
And so after the Flood man was again created from clay by
the Mother-goddess, as she had done after the fourth destruc-
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
276
tion of the world. At this point the narrative is broken by a
great lacuna in the third tablet 5 in the last column there are
remains of a magic ritual for delivering a woman in child-birth.
Again there is a reference to placing a brick, and
19. “The angry gods will rejoice in the house of the woman in
pregnancy.
Where the childbearing woman gives birth,
21. The mother will by herself bring forth an infant.”
Although this long poem is one of the most deficiently pre-
served of all the important mythological works of Babylonia
and Assyria, it is one of the most interesting and important.
Serving as a long narrative of the five catastrophes which visited
and destroyed all men in the pre-diluvian period, it was actu-
ally recited as a ritual to deliver a child. Thus a man was
born, and by relating the legend of how the Mother-goddess had
created men again after they had been destroyed, the magi-
cians invoked her aid in bringing into the world a new life and
a new soul. The poem bore the title Inuma, ilu-awelumy
“ When a god-man,” from the first words of the first line.
This probably refers to the purpose for which the poem was re-
cited and may be restored: “ When a god-man is born.” Re-
markable is the expression “ god-man,” which at once dis-
closes the belief in the semi-divine nature of mankind. This
doctrine finds renewed expression in the same poem after Mami
had created lullu {“ man”) from clay and the blood of a god.
In a broken passage the scribe apparently said that “ God and
man were mingled in the clay,” when man sprang from clay
in the hands of the Mother-goddess.
CHAPTER IX
THE BABYLONIAN EPIC OF CREATION
AND SIMILAR SEMITIC MYTHS
S UMERIAN myths concerning the primeval battle between
the Sun and War-god Ninurta and the dragon of Chaos,
Zu, have been mentioned in the discussions of the Sumerian and
Semitic pantheon. But there is no evidence in the extensive
Sumerian literature that they had any considered theory of the
creation of the world. That all things exist and were created
by the Word or Logos of the Water-god Enki was a theory de-
veloped by them. But cosmological reflections upon the crea-
tion of the universe by the Sun-god, after he had slain the
dragon of Chaos, which resulted in a considered myth and an
epical masterpiece, are apparently of Accadian origin. The
name of the dragon of Chaos, which appears in the great Epic
of Creation, is also Semitic and not Sumerian. Moreover the
dragon of the epic is a female, whereas in every Sumerian refer-
ence to this primeval battle of Bel and the Dragon the latter
is a male monster, and either the storm-bird Zu or the fabulous
serpent Mushussu. Both of these dragons are reduced to the
role of cohorts in the host of Tiamat, female dragon of the sea,
in the Babylonian myth. Moreover every known representation
of the battle of Bel and the Dragon in Babylonia and Assyria
represents the dragon either as a winged lion with scaly body
and bird talons, or as a serpent monster (Fig. 57). None of
these representations on seals and monuments is earlier than
the tenth century b.c., and even the prolific glyptique of the
Hammurabi period, when this epic was probably written, shews
no trace of the myth. Fig. 8 1 is a good example of the manner
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
278
in which the Assyrians represented Marduk or Ashur in conflict
with the lion type of dragon. This seal has an Aramaic in-
scription. The god rides upon a winged lion which belches
flames from its mouth. The lion belching flames and carrying
on its back a deity is a common motif , and belongs also to
Sumerian mythology.
Now it is certain that the Mushussu, subdued by Ninurta in
the old Sumerian mythology, was identified with the constella-
tion Hydra by the Babylonians (Fig. 89) in the late period.*
Fig. 81. Combat of Marduk and a Dragon. Cylinder Seal
This myth of the Bel-Dragon conflict was, therefore, well known
among the Babylonians, and it is all the more remarkable that
up to the present not a single Accadian seal or monument repre-
senting this combat in any style has been found outside the im-
mediate vicinity of Babylon. Be it that the designs shew Mar-
duk or Ashur subduing a winged lion, a serpent monster, or a
Scorpion-man, they are invariably Assyrian. This is due to the
simple fact that the Epic of Creation was a production of the
priests of the city Babylon to glorify Marduk, and the mythol-
ogy set forth in it was entirely rejected by all the other cults of
THE BABYLONIAN EPIC OF CREATION 279
Babylonia. They maintained allegiance to the old Sumerian
mythology and beliefs. If seal cylinders from Babylon itself
could be found,® they probably would disclose the same repre-
sentations as do the Assyrian seals. The Assyrians accepted the
mythology of the priests of Babylon, and possibly the priests of
Barsippa near Babylon did also. It is clear that the combat of
Marduk and Tiamat, as set forth in the Epic of Creation, gave
rise to the prolific designs of this legend in the late period. The
extraordinary aspect of the situation is that, in this mode of en-
Fig. 82. Combat of Marduk and the Dragon Zu. Cylinder Seal
graving seals and sculpturing designs on stone slabs of palaces,
the artists reverted to the ancient Sumerian myths. Not once
is the female dragon Tiamat represented. Fig. 82 shews one
of these designs} here the monster Zu has become Pegasus.^
Fig. 83 has a design which illustrates the conquest of the Scor-
pion-man in the epic. There are examples of a combat between
Marduk or Ashur and a winged sphinx,® a winged human-headed
animal with long beard,® a winged unicorn.^ The monster
usually appears as a winged lion, as on Fig. 8 1, and is the type
adopted by the sculptors of Assyria. A variation of the lion ®
is shewn by Fig. 84. Here the lion has the eagle head,® accom-
28 o
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
panied by the inscription, “ Marduk, protector of the soul, life
bestow.” The inscription apparently refers to the winged deity
who wields a sickle-shaped weapon, and identifies the deity as
Marduk. Another seal of the same type and bearing the same
inscription enforces this conclusion.
The only Babylonian seals of this kind known to the writer
are three from Kish. The seal. Fig. 85, was excavated at Kish
in a Neo-Babylonian level, and is undoubtedly based upon the
myth of Marduk and the dragons. Here Marduk with four
Fig. 83. Combat of Marduk and Scorpion-Man. Cylinder Seal
wings seizes a winged sphinx and a winged lion with eagle’s
head. On another seal from Kish the four- winged Marduk is in
the act of smiting a winged sphinx with a scimetar precisely as in
Fig. 84. All of these seals would naturally be assigned to As-
syria by scholars if no evidence of their 'provenance were avail-
able. Another seal excavated at Kish represents Marduk strug-
gling with two natural lions.’® It must be admitted that there is
a possibility of their having been imported from Assyria, but this
is improbable. They prove, apparently, that the mythological
views of the priests of Babylon were also accepted at Kish in
the age of Nebuchadnezzar, and that at Babylon itself and the
cities in its immediate environment the combat of Marduk with
THE BABYLONIAN EPIC OF CREATION 281
the dragons was represented in art. In Assyrian glyptique there
is another mythological representation in which the four-winged
Ashur smites an ostrich (Fig. 86) or is represented struggling
with two ostriches, one on either side.“ A figure of the winged
Marduk smiting a winged unicorn with his scimetar bears the
inscription: “ O Marduk, sparer of the soul, may I see thy
bright light.” But when Marduk is represented strug-
gling with such harmless animals as mountain deer,^® it is diffi-
cult to believe that the ancient combat of the Sun-god with
Fig. 84. Combat of Marduk and the Eagle-headed Lion. Cylinder Seal
a dragon is intended. It is equally difficult to understand
how the ostrich can represent a myth of this kind, were it
not for the fact that the ostrich was also a demon in Semitic
mythology.
Frequently a human figure, undoubtedly the king, takes the
place of the god Marduk in these combats with winged mon-
sters. This is based either upon the legend of Lugalbanda,
originally a king of Erech, and latterly identified with Ninurta,
who conquered the lion-headed eagle Zu, dragon of storms and
foe of the sun, or upon a ritual of this legend in which the king
represented the Sun-god. See Fig. 87, a human being, strug-
gling with a winged sphinx and a unicorn. It is difficult
282
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
to decide whether any of these monsters in conflict with Marduk
represents the lion-headed eagle Zu of the old Sumerian myth
of the Sun -god Ninurta and Zu the dragon of storms and dark-
ness. The combat between light and darkness is the basis of
the later myth of Marduk and Tiamat, but the cosmological
and theological speculation is new and based upon the theory
that all things sprang from watery chaos. For this reason the
female serpent-dragon Tiamat, literally the word for the bitter
Fig. 85. Cylinder Seal Excavated at the Temple Hursagkalama
IN Kish. Marduk in Combat with Winged Lion. Oxford Field
Museum Expedition
ocean, became the principal dragon of Chaos and foe of the
Sun-god. The dragon Zu of the old Sumerian myth does not
survive in the new Babylonian Epic of Creation. Here the
dragons in the train of Tiamat are Basmu, “ Viper,” Mushussru,
“ Raging-serpent,” latterly the constellation Hydra, Lahamu,
Ugallu, “ Great-lion,” probably Leo in Astronomy, Uridimmu,
“ the Gruesome-lion,” the constellation Lupus, Girtablili, “ the
Scorpion-man,” the constellation Sagittarius, Omu dapruti,
“ the Destructive Spirits,” used as a singular {fluralis majesta-
tis)y Kulilu, “ the Fish-man,” the constellation Aquarius, Kusa-
THE BABYLONIAN EPIC OF CREATION 283
riqqu, “ the Fish-man,” the constellation Capricorn. Other
lists based upon this epic have also Zu and Asakku.
Of all these dragons of Chaos (according to the new philoso-
phy of the epic), only Zu appears with certainty as a foe of the
sun in the older system of mythology. In the representations
of the battle of Marduk and the dragons the lion (Fig. 81) is
probably Ugalluj the serpent monster with two forefeet of a
lion or beast of prey (Fig. 57) is Mushussu. The winged horse
Fig. 86. Combat of Marduk and a Dragon Represented as an Ostrich.
Cylinder Seal
(Fig. 82) is a form of Zu, based on an astronomical identifica-
tionj possibly the eagle-headed lion (Fig. 84) is also Zu. The
Scorpion-man is clear enough and leaves no doubt (Fig. 83).
The winged sphinx (Fig. 85), the winged unicorn, the ostrich,
the winged human-headed beast with long beard, are not iden-
tifiable with any of these dragons. The bearded beast with legs
and body of a lion may perhaps be Kingu, husband of Tiamat
and leader of her host. The winged sphinx has forefeet of a
lion and hind legs of a bird of prey.
Besides Zu only the dragon Mushussu belongs to Sumerian
V — 20
284 SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
mythology, and there is no clear evidence that this serpent
monster ever figured as a foe of the Sun-god. Fig. 88, from
a monument of Gudea, shews the old Sumerian conception of
this monster. The body and head are ophidian, the forefeet
are those of a lion, and the hind legs those of a bird of prey.
The tail ends in a scorpion’s sting. It has a low crown with
two horns j two feathers project from the top, and a lock of
hair hangs from the back of its head. A seal of Gudea shews
the god Ningishzida with the heads of this monster projecting
Fig. 87. A Man in Combat with the Winged Sphinx and a Wild Animal.
Cylinder Seal
from his two shoulders.’^ The god Ningishzida was identified
with the constellation Hydra in the late period and so was also
Mushussu. The design of this animal as Hydra (Fig. 89),
from an astronomical tablet of the age of the Seleucidae, em-
phasizes the serpent form of the body. The wings are reduced
to small proportions. The horns and feathers are preserved
(only one of each being shewn), and the forefeet. The design
agrees almost completely with the scene of Marduk’s conquest
of this dragon on Fig. 57. In Sumerian mythology this mon-
ster is symbolic of Ningishzida, a vegetation deity and form of
the dying god Tammuz. Sometimes he has not only the
Mushussu springing from his shoulders but also a serpent twin-
THE BABYLONIAN EPIC OF CREATION 285
ing about his body/® He was a chthonian deity and his parents
were Ninazu and Ningirda, lord and queen of Arallu.
It is totally inexplicable that this monster, symbol of one of
the most beneficent and unwarlike of gods, should have become
one of the dragons of the salt sea and foe of Marduk. In the
Cassite period a debased type of Mushussu always accompanies
the symbols of Marduk (Fig. 51, third register) and his son
Nabu. A figure of this monster with emphasis upon its rapa-
cious legs and claws was found at Nippur, from the period of
Hammurabi, when the Epic of Creation was probably written.^®
The teaching of the Babylonian school certainly ran not at Nip-
286
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
pur, but this figure proves that the Mushussu had now become
a dragon and symbol of some evil power. For this reason the
advocates of the new philosophy and the new mythology at
Babylon, who attached these myths of the conquest of the Sun-
god over the dragons of darkness to Marduk, transformed
Mushussu into the dragon of watery Chaos. Henceforth it be-
comes the principal symbol of his victory, and elaborate figures
of this primeval sea-monster on the walls of Babylon recalled
to all men who lived there, or who visited the magnificent capi-
tal in the great days of Nebuchadnezzar and the Persian kings,
the triumph of Bel “ in the beginning ” when he created the
universe.
-
Fig. 89. The Constellations Leo and Hydra as Mushussu, with Planet
Jupiter. Astronomical Tablet of Persian Period
There is a close relation between this old Sumerian monster
and the new female dragon Tiamat, introduced by the authors
of the Epic of Creation to represent the hostile bitter waters
of Chaos. Mushussu is, in fact, described in a Sumerian poem
as inhabiting the tamtu or salt-sea, and in a work written to
glorify the War-god Ninurta. It is, therefore, possible that,
when the priests of Babylon elaborated the famous myth of the
creation of the Heaven and Earth by Marduk out of the body
of Tiamat, they already possessed a Sumerian legend which
contained at least the beginning of this theory of the origin of
all things from water.
A myth concerning a dragon Labbu, or Labu, has been pre-
served in Accadian, but references to this dragon in Sumerian
heroic poetry prove that a myth concerning a battle between
Ninurta and Labbu existed. The legend ran that cities and
peoples sorrowed and wailed because of the Labbu, saying:
THE BABYLONIAN EPIC OF CREATION 287
“ Who ^ore this great serpent?
The sea (Tamtu = Tiamat) it is that bore this great serpent.
Enlil designed him in the Heavens.
Fifty miles is his length, one mile long is his head ( ? ),
Six cubits (wide) is his mouth, twelve cubits is his . . .
Twelve cubits are the borders of his ears.
At a distance of sixty cubits he . . . birds.
In the water he drags his tail nine cubits.
He lifts high his tail. . . .”
All the Heaven bowed down before Enlil ( ? ) laying hold of the
robe of the Moon-god, and saying:
“ Who will go and slay the Labbu,
Deliver the wide land.
And exercise the kingship?
Go, O Tishpak, slay the Labbu,
Deliver the wide land.
And exercise kingship.”
It is not clear whether the gods gave Tishpak this order, or
whether it was Enlil or Sin, the Moon-god. The appeal to the
Moon-god recalls the myth of the seven devils who were sup-
posed to have surrounded the crescent of the moon, and caused
its period of darkness at the end of the month. In fact one of
these seven devils was called Abbu in a text which probably has
omitted the sign la, and the name is really Labbu.^^ Tishpak
is an Elamitic name for Ninurta, and a hymn to Ninurta says
that “ At the mention of his name the mighty power of the
form of Labbu whom Enlil in his might begat bowed before
him.”
Labbu means strictly speaking “ the raging one,” and is often
employed for “ lion.” In this myth Labbu is a “ great ser-
pent,” and the Sumerian epic of Ninurta discussed in Chap-
ter II refers to this Labbu, the great serpent, the powerful god,
despoiler of all lands, offspring of [the river Habur?], whom
the bearded Ninurta smote and [severed] his body.^® In the
late Assyrian version of this myth its original form is overlaid
with new motifs. The serpent monster created by Enlil refers
288
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
to an unrecovered Sumerian legend of the destruction of the
world by Enlil similar to those sent by the same god and de-
scribed in Chapter VIII. Then the Labbu is turned into a
dragon of Chaos, enemy of the gods, against whom their cham-
pion, always Ninurta in the old mythology, goes forth to battle.
Moreover a new astronomical interpretation is added. Enlil de-
signed him among the stars, which indicates a confusion with
Mushussu, that is Hydra. The most important aspect of the
myth is that as a dragon of Chaos, clearly foreign to the original
version, Labbu was begotten by the female dragon of the salt
sea, Tamtu.
When Tishpak heard the order of Enlil(.?) to slay Labbu
he said:
“Thou hast sent me, O lord; the offspring of the river [Habur^
I know not and the ... of Labbu.”
Here the text has a long break in which Tishpak’s speech is
lost, and when the narrative can be taken up again Enlil(?)
gives directions to Tishpak.
“ Cause a cloud to go up, a hurricane [unchain.^
The seal of thy soul before thy face [hold].
Rush forth, slay the Labbu.”
And so he sent forth a cloud and unchained a hurricane; he
held his seal of life before him, rushed forth, and slew Labbu.
For three years, three months, one day, and ten . . . the
blood of Labbu ran upon the [sea^.
This text provides one of the few clear evidences that Su-
merian mythology actually contained the basis of all later Baby-
lonian speculations concerning the origin of the universe from
water, and furnished the Babylonian schoolmen with material
for the myth of Tamtu or Tiamat, dragon of the sea. The old
Sumerian word for the salt-sea was a-ah-ha^ or simply ah^ and
they had a liturgy known as a-ab-ha the terrifying.” The
Sumerian dragon of the primeval bitter sea was a male dragon
THE BABYLONIAN EPIC OF CREATION 289
subdued by Ninurta."® In the later Babylonian speculation the
Semitic word for the salt-sea, tamtu, tiamtu, ta-a-wa-tu, tu-amaty
ti-amaty as it is variously spelled, supplanted the male dragon
Ugga, Mushussu of Sumerian mythology, and became a female
monster solely because this word is feminine in Semitic.
The Babylonian Epic of Creation was written in six books
or tablets, with a late appendix added as the seventh book, as
a commentary on the fifty sacred Sumerian titles of Marduk.
No copies of the Babylonian text exist earlier than the age of
Nebuchadnezzar. The epic had immense vogue in Assyria,
where the national god Ashur replaced Marduk’s name in most
of the copies, and it is from the city Ashur that all the earliest
known texts are derived. These are at least three centuries
earlier than any surviving southern copy. Since traces of the
influence of the epic are found in Babylonian iconography as
early as the sixteenth century, it is assumed that the work was
composed in the period of Babylon’s great literary writers of
the first dynasty. If they had a Sumerian model before them
it may have been the lost poem:
“ In a day of antiquity, when they created Heaven and Earth,
In a night of antiquity, when they created Heaven and Earth.”
Whatever may have been the philosophical theories set forth
in any of the earlier compositions, it is clear that the theories
propounded in this epic are those which prevailed henceforth
among Semitic peoples. The epic is known from its first line,
enuma elis la nabu samamUy “ When on high the Heavens
were not named,” involving the theory that nothing existed
before the gods had conceived its form and given it a name.
And “ beneath home(s) bore no name(s).” Then the apsu or
underworld fresh water sea, the primeval engenderer of all
things, and tiamtUy the salt-sea, bearer of all, mingled their
waters together. These were the original male and female
principles of the watery Chaos, and there was Mummu, mes-
senger of Apsu (personified as a divine creature) whose name
290
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
means “ intelligence,” the creative word or principle inherent
in water. Damascius, a Greek philosopher of the sixth century
A.D., reports this theory more accurately than any classical au-
thor. He says that the Babylonians pass over the first principle
of all things and begin with two, Tauthe and Apas5n, making
Apason the husband of Tauthe j from them proceeded the
only begotten Moymis. He interprets Mbymis to mean the
intelligible world. The Babylonians themselves interpreted
Mummu to mean both “ utterance,” i.e., “ word,” “ logos” and
“ life.” Berossus, who wrote at Babylon when these doctrines
were still well known, describes their theories as having been
revealed by Cannes himself. He says that there was a time
when all was darkness and water in which came to life monsters
of peculiar forms. There were men with two wings and some
with four wings, and two faces. They had two heads, one of a
male, the other of a female, and were androgynous. Some had
legs and horns of goats, some horses’ feetj some had the bodies
of men and hindquarters of horses like hippocentaurs. There
were men with heads of bulls, and dogs with four bodies and
tails of fishes; there were horses with heads of dogs and there
were men and animals having heads and bodies of horses, with
tails of fishes. All sorts of monstrous beings existed in this
Chaos, and Berossus saw designs of them in the temple of Bel
in Babylon.
These primeval monsters are the dragons in the train of
Tiamat, who figured in various older stories of the combats
of Ninurta and the monsters of darkness and watery Chaos. In
all the late texts Bel refers to Marduk. Berossus says that
there ruled over them a woman named Omoroka (usually cor-
rected to Omorka), in Chaldaean Thalatd, which means “ sea.”
Thalatd is surely a corruption of Thamte, for Tamtu, Tiamat.
No title of Tiamat which could have given rise to the name
Omoroka has been found.
Apsu and his wife Tiamat ruled in this Chaos long before the
gods existed.
THE BABYLONIAN EPIC OF CREATION 291
Tab. I, 7. “ When none of the gods had been brought into being,
And they were not named, and had not been decreed
(their) fates.”
The epic then describes how the gods of order descended
through a series of divine pairs. The first pair were Lahmu and
Lahamu, about whose characters the authors of the epic are
themselves in doubt, sometimes assigning them to the original
brood of dragons, and sometimes regarding them as the first
of the gods of order. These names are preserved by Damascius
as Lache and Lachos.
A description of a monster, called Sassu . . . innu, says
that it had a serpent head with body of a fish, and that it was
a Lahmu of the sea.^® Here the word is used as a general
name for a sea-serpent. The same text calls Asakku, one of
the primeval dragons, a Lahmu, and Lahmu himself is
described. He clutches Heaven with his two hands j he binds
on a girdle. His left foot treads the earth, and his right foot
is twisted. The ridge of his right foot is a bird’s claw, and
one of his parts is like that of a lion. His name is Lahmu,
the calamity.
After ages the pair Anshar and Kishar were created, and
they were more excellent than the preceding deities. With
them begins a series of emanations definitely regarded as gods
of the pantheon and opposed to the powers of darkness. An-
shar, the male, means simply “ host of Heaven,” and Kishar,
the female, “ host of Earth.”
13. “The days lengthened, the years increased.
Anu was their son, the equal of his fathers,
Anshar made Anu his first-born equal to himself.
Anu begat Nudimmud, his equal,
Nudimmud the ‘ begetter ’ of his fathers was he.”
Nudimmud, title of the third member of the trinity, is a
name of Enki (Ea) the Water-god. He is called “begetter,”
as the deity who created the pantheon of artisan gods, and his
292
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
fathers Lahmu, Anshar, and Anu, regarded him as the “ be-
getter ” among themselves. The epic omits the great Earth-
god Enlil, second member of the trinity. But Damascius pre-
serves the tradition that from KIssare and Assdros descended
Anos, Illinos, and Aos, i.e., Anu, Enlil, and Ea. The omission
of the all-important Enlil is due to the connivance of the priests
of Babylon, who wished to exalt their City-god Marduk into
the ancient roles of NInurta and his father Enlil. Marduk was
the son of Ea, and consequently the Water-god Ea enters upon
the scene as the first hero of the epic.
Ea or Nudimmud was wide-eared, wise, and mighty In
strength, even more than Anshar his progenitor 5 the gods
banded themselves together, revolted against Tiamat, and
glorified their defender (Ea). They troubled the mind of
Tiamat with their singing in Anduruna (a name of the under-
world in mythology) and their clamour was not diminished in
the Apsu. According to this myth the gods still lived in the
watery Chaos.
Their behaviour was obnoxious to Tiamat, and Apsu, her
husband, summoned Mummu, his messenger, and together
they went to Tiamat. They sat down before her and Apsu
said:
37. “ Their way has become grievous unto me.
By day I find not peace, by night I sleep not.
I will destroy and confound their ways.
Let tranquillity reign and let us sleep, even us.”
Tiamat flew into a rage and planned to destroy the gods.
Mummu urged his father Apsu to put an end to the rebellion.
51. “Apsu hearkened unto him and his countenance beamed.
Because he planned injuries against the gods his sons.
The neck of Mummu he embraced.
He lifted him to his knees and kissed him.”
These three planned the utter annihilation of the gods and they
repeated their decision to them:
THE BABYLONIAN EPIC OF CREATION 293
57. “The gods wept as they hastened.
Silence reigned and they sat whispering.
The exceedingly wise one, the clever in skill,
Ea, who knoweth all things, perceived their plan.”
Ea’s weapon, which he employed to subdue the dragon Apsu,
was a curse and an incantation. The first combat between the
gods and the dragons now arrives. Ea recited his curse over
the waters and poured out sleep over Apsu as he lay in a cavern.
Having him now at his mercy, Ea castrated him, severed his
sinews, and tore off his crown.
68. “ His splendour he took from him and he clothed himself with it.^^
He bound Apsu and slew him.
Mummu he tied and his skull he crushed.
He fixed upon the Apsu his dwelling.
72. Mummu he seized making firm his bands.”
By this myth the epic explains how Ea obtained the fresh-
water sea beneath the earth as his own abode. Ea’s method
of combat by an incantation is entirely consonant with his char-
acter in Sumero-Babylonian religion. He was the supreme
deity of lustration and keeper of the holy curses employed
by the priests against demons.
Ea founded his secret chamber in the Apsu, and therein
Lahmu and Lahamu took up their abode. This is the As-
syrian version, but the original Babylonian texts have Ea and
Damkina his wife as the pair who took possession of the Apsu.
Damascius again reported the tradition correctly when he
wrote Aos and Daauke. Here was born the hero of the myth,
Marduk, whom Damascius names Belos. The Assyrian copies,
of course, replace Marduk by Ashur. Marduk’s infancy and
youth are now described. Damkina, his mother, caused him
to suck at the breasts of goddesses, an illogical statement, for
no account is made of the creation of other goddesses. His
nurse filled him with terrible power, his form was beautiful,
and his eyes brilliant. Ea his father rejoiced for his noble
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
294
son and gave him double divinity 5 he surpassed all in height,
and his proportions were immeasurably great, overpowering
to behold,
Marduk is here described as Janus-headed, corresponding to
the traditions concerning the Sun-gods.^®
95, “ Four were his eyes, four were his ears.
When he moved his lips fire blazed forth.
Four ears grew large,
98, And his eyes behold all things even as that one (Ea).”
10 1. “ What for a son, what for a son?
A sun child was he. Sun-god of the gods.
He was clothed in the splendour of ten gods, powerful was he
exceedingly.
The . . . loaded their fieriness upon him.
. . . and Anu begat the four winds,
106. Which restrain the Mushussu, commander of the host.”
In a later episode Marduk employed the winds in his combat
with Tiamat, as did Tishpak in his struggle with the Labbu.
The dragon Tiamat was disturbed by the news of the death
of Apsu, her husband. Day and night she hastened. Her
offspring came to her aid.
109. “The sons imfure . . .
They plotted evil in their minds.
To Tiamat the mother these said:
‘ When they slew Apsu thy husband.
At his side thou didst not go, but thou didst sit as one wailing.
Make thou a scimetar julL of terror.
1 15. Torn asunder are thy bowels, and we sleep not.
Remember Apsu thy husband
And Mummu who is bound; thou sittest alone.
. . . quickly shalt thou hasten.
. . . thou lovest us not.
120. Poured out are our bowels, dazed are our eyes.
\Let them bear^ the yoke and let us repose unceasingly.
. . . take vengeance for them
. . . and hand over to the whirlwind.’
THE BABYLONIAN EPIC OF CREATION 295
124. Tiamat heard and the word(s) pleased her:
124. Come . . .] give ye and let us make spirits of wrath.
[Let us . . . ] and the gods in the midst of . . . [let
us ... ]
... we will make war, against the gods we will . . .’ ”
The text gives no further account of how Tiamat created
the host of monsters, but proceeds immediately to describe
them.
128. “They cursed the day- (light) and went forth at the side of
Tiamat.
They raged, they plotted, without resting night and day.
130. They raised (the standard of) battle, they fumed, they raged.
They assembled forces, making hostility.
Mother Hubur, the designer of all things.
Added thereto weapons which are not withstood; she gave birth
to mighty serpents.
Sharp of tooth, sparing not the fang.
135. With poison as blood she filled their bodies.
Gruesome monsters she caused to be clothed with terror.
She caused them to bear dreadfulness, she made them like gods.
Whosoever beholds them they ban with terror.
Their bodies rear up and none restrain their breast.”
Then the nine monsters in her train are named, nine in all.
The epic says that there were eleven, by which it must be sup-
posed that two are not mentioned. These are probably Zu
and Asakku, whose names may have been omitted through
some prejudice of the priests at Babylon. Their names appear,
however, in the rituals based upon this epic. Now appears for
the first time the monster Kingu, more correctly Qingu, also
written in one text Kingugu. This dragon does not appear
in early mythology at all, and is thought to be an invention of
the authors of the epic. If, however, Kingu is a creation of
the Babylonian priests in order to obtain a second husband for
Tiamat to replace the slain Apsu, it would be difficult to ex-
plain a late Babylonian copy of a mystic Tablet, a commentary
with symbols of deities, used by the kalu priests or psalmists.*^
It is said to have been copied at Nippur from an ancient text.
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
296
and it is certain that the Babylonian theories of creation were
never accepted at this ancient Sumerian city. This Tablet men-
tions the god Kingugu among seven captured gods, and identi-
fies him with Enmesharra, ancient god of the lower world.
His name is also written Kingu of the month Nisan,
whom Anu and Enlil [slew?]. The word is clearly
of Sumerian origin, but his function in earlier mythology is
unknown.
146. “ Among the gods her first-born, who formed her assembly,
She exalted Kingu, in their midst she magnified him.
As for those who go before the host, who direct the assembly,
To undertake the bearing of arms, to advance to the attack,
l 5 o. As to matters of battle, as to leadership.
She entrusted (them) to his hand and caused him to sit in the
council (saying)
‘ I have uttered thy spell ; in the assembly of gods have I mag-
nified thee.
The dominion of the gods, all of them, I have put into thy hand.
Verily thou hast been exalted, O my husband, thou alone.
May thy names be greater than all the Anunnaki.’ ”
-
Tiamat gave him the Tablets of Fate, fastened them to his
breast, and so Kingu at once took up his supreme authority
among the sons of Tiamat and said:
“ Open ye your mouths; verily it shall quench Gibil (the Fire-god).
He who is strong in conflict shall humiliate might.”
Marduk, the new champion of the gods of order, is frequently
referred to as the Fire-god. So also was Ninurta, prototype
of Marduk, in original Sumerian mythology.
(Tablet II.) Tiamat now prepared to wage war and avenge
Apsu. Ea, as usual, was the first of the gods to hear of the
preparations of the dragons of Chaos.
6. “ Painfully he became faint, like one that lapses into silence he sat
down.
The days lengthened and when his anger cooled.
To Anshar, his father, he pursued his way.”
THE BABYLONIAN EPIC OF CREATION 297
Ea repeated to Anshar the whole plot, saying: “Tiamat who
gave birth to us, has cursed us. She hath called together a
host, angrily raging. All the gods have turned away unto
her, except those whom thou hast created.” Ea describes to
Anshar the nine monsters, “ eleven in all,” and how Kingu
had become her husband and leader of the dragons. Anshar
smote his loins and bit his lips. He urged Ea to lead the
gods to battle; for had he not already destroyed Mummu
and Apsu? But none of the gods was less warlike than the
wise Ea and he refused the combat. Apparently the curse
which subdued Apsu would be ineffective against the armed
dragons and Kingu possessed of the Tablets of Fate. This was
the work for those of the sword and not of magic.
Anshar then appealed to Anu, who proceeded at once against
Tiamat. He fled in terror from before her, and as he fled he
said to her:
“ My hand is too weak to bind thee by myself.”
Anshar lapsed into silence, moaned, and assembled all of the
gods, the Anunnaki.
89. “ Their lips were closed, they sat as one wailing.
‘ Not any god proceeds [unto battle.]
From the presence of Tiamat not one escapes [with his life].’ ”
Anshar sat pondering as he presided over the assembly and
now bethought himself of Marduk, “ the scourge of conflict,”
“avenger of his father.” Marduk would avenge his father
Ea’s humiliation, even as Ninurta had done for his father Enlil.
A passage referring to the same situation in a lost Sumerian
myth has the following address of Enlil to Ninurta:
“ Ninurta, the lord, the fierce storm, the slayer of the wicked, my son
the avenger.
Where battle rages surely shall be thy companion.”
And so Ea summoned his son Marduk before the assembly,
urged him to consider the matter and to enter into the presence
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
298
of Anshar. Before that august presence stood the youthful
champion of the threatened gods, and said:
108. “ Anshar, remain not dumb; open thy lips.
Verily I will go; I will cause to be attained the fulness of thy
heart.
Who by name has brought battle against thee? ”
And Anshar replied:
“ My son, it is Tiamat, a woman ; she will come against thee with
weapons.”
Marduk assured Anshar that straightway he should tread
upon the neck of Tiamat, to which Anshar replied:
1 16. “ My son wise in all understanding.
Cause Tiamat to cease by the pure incantation.
The chariot of storms drive quickly.
Her helpers will not tarry for her; turn her back.”
Marduk, however, demands his price, and here the complicity
of the Babylonian schoolmen is again naively revealed. The
god of Babylon did not have the status of a great god in the
Sumerian pantheon. They now explained how he attained
this dignity, at least to their satisfaction, an effort which ex-
cited the scorn of the priests of the old cults. Marduk exacts
from Anshar the promise to convene the assembly of gods and
reconsider his “fate,” if he binds Tiamat and preserves their
lives.
126. “ In Ubshukkinaku seat yourself together gladly.
If my mouth be opened may I decree fates even as you.
And whatsoever I create shall change not.
May the speech of my lips not return and be of no avail.”
(Tablet III.) Anshar summoned his messenger Gaga and
sent him to Lahmu and Lahamu, commanding him to summon
all the gods to a banquet. He is told to describe to Lahmu and
Lahamu the whole plot of Tiamat. Gaga hears from Anshar
the long tale about the creation of the nine dragons and the
THE BABYLONIAN EPIC OF CREATION 299
advent of Kingu as their leader, how Anu had fled before Tia-
mat and Ea feared and turned back. Gaga is instructed to say
that Marduk had volunteered to slay Tiamat if he be raised to
the rank of a great god.
Gaga came to Lahmu and Lahamu, kneeled and kissed the
ground before them, and repeated the story of Tiamat’s
preparations to them. Marduk’s demand is put before them.
125. “When Lahha [Lahmu] and Lahamu heard this they cried
loudly.
The totality of the Igigi wailed bitterly;
‘ Why have they become hostile, until they have conceived this
device ?
We knew not of the deed of Tiamat.’ ”
Here the gods of the upper world are correctly described as the
Igigi, in distinction from the gods of the nether sea and the
lower world.
The gods assembled and departed to Ubshukkinaku, as-
sembly hall of Anshar.
132. “They kissed one another and convened in assembly.
They conversed together as they were seated at the banquet.
They ate bread and prepared wine.
135. The sweet drink put far away their cares.
As they drank liquor their bodies became satiated.
Much they babbled and their mood was exalted.
For Marduk their avenger they decreed his fate.”
(Tablet IV.) Although Heaven and Earth had not yet
been created and the power of Chaos still presided over the dis-
orderly primordial abyss, the illogical statement that the gods
found food and wine for a hilarious feast troubled not the
myth-makers of Babylon. In this cheerful mood the gods
summoned Marduk before them and said:
5. “Thou hast become honoured among the great gods.
Thy fate is unparalleled, thy commandment is like Anu’s.
From this day shall thy word not be changed.
To exalt and to humble — this is in thy hand.”
300
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
They gave him kingship of universal power and admitted him
to their assembly. To test his qualification as possessor of the
power to determine “ fate ” {shimtu) they placed a garment
in their midst, and said “ command ‘ to destroy and to make.’ ”
He commanded that the garment be destroyed and at his word
it was destroyed j he commanded that it be remade and it was
remade. The gods saw that he had attained the power of a
great divinity, he possessed the ability to decree “ fate”; they
rejoiced and said, “ Marduk is king.” They gave him the
insignia of kingship, sceptre, throne, and hatchet, and said:
31. “ Go and cut off the breath of life of Tiamat.
May the winds bear away her blood to a secret place.”
He made ready bow and arrow and took a toothed-sickle in his
right hand. Forked lightning he held before his face. Bow
and quiver hung at his side.
The representations of his combat with the Mushussu (see
Fig. 57) correspond faithfully with the text, except that here
Marduk has forked lightning in both hands. The weapon
translated by “toothed-sickle” is seen on numerous designs
of Marduk’s combats, for example Figs. 84, 86; a seal
cylinder dedicated to Marduk by Mardukzakirshum, king of
Babylonia (ninth century) shews him with an exaggerated
design of the long-handled scimetar in his right hand (Fig.
90). The forepart of Mushussu appears at his feet, and
he stands on the waters of the sea whose dragons he had
conquered.
He made a net to enmesh Tiamat, and caused the four winds
to come that she escape not, the south, north, east, and west
winds. He created the Seven Winds, and took his quiver the
“ Cyclone,” and drove in his chariot of the storm. The names
of the animals of his four span were “ The Destroyer,” “ The
Merciless,” “ The Stormer,” “ The Swift-pacing.” Sharp
were their teeth, bearing poison. He was clad in a kaunakes,
and a sheen of flames surrounded his head. He advanced
Fig. 90. Marduk and Mushussu. Cylinder Seal from
Babylon. Ninth Century b.c.
302
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
against Tiamat holding a charm of red paste (?) in his lips, and
bore on his wrist the “ Plant of extinguishing poison.”
He drew nigh and peered into her inward parts, and saw the
open jaws of Kingu her husband, and his confidence faltered,
his mind became distracted, and his movements disordered.
The gods, who had gathered to witness the combat, were faint
with despair. Tiamat cast her curse at him and said:
73. “ Thou hast been honoured to the place of lord of the gods who
rise up for thee.”
Bel seized his quiver, and thus challenged her:
77. “ Lo thou art come up, thou hast been lifted up on high.
Thy heart has prompted thee to summon to conflict.
81. Thou hast exalted Kingu unto marriage.
Thou hast made his decree greater than the decrees of Anu.
[Against] Anshar, king of the gods, thou hast sought after evil.
Against the gods, my fathers, thou hast established thy wickedness.
85. Let thy host be equipped and thy weapons be girded on.
Stand thou by and let us, me and thee, make battle.”
When Tiamat heard this challenge her body shook with ragej
she recited an incantation and uttered a curse. The weapons
clashed in the great struggle between light and darkness. Bel
spread his net, which Anu had given him, and enmeshed her.
He let loose the Imhullu wind in her face. As Tiamat opened
her mouth to devour him, the Imhullu wind blew into her, the
raging winds filled her belly. His arrow tore her belly, sev-
ered her inwards, and rent asunder her heart. He bound her
and stood upon her corpse. Her host of dragons scattered and
fled in terror. They sought to save their souls alive but were
trapped and bound.
1 12. “ Into a net were they thrown and in the snare they sat down.
They stood in secret chambers, being filled with lamentation.”
All of the eleven dragons were bound and cast into prison.
Henceforth they became gods of the lower world. They were
THE BABYLONIAN EPIC OF CREATION 303
also identified with various constellations by the astronomers.
Kingu also was bound and handed over to Nergal, god of
Arallu. Marduk seized the Tablets of Fate from Kingu’s
breast, sealed them with a seal, and fastened them to his own
breast.
Marduk now returned to the corpse of Tiamat. He split
her skull, severed her arteries, and the north-wind carried her
blood to a hidden place, a legend which may possibly explain
the origin of the name “Red Sea.” The connection with the
myth of Tishpak and the slaying of the Labbu (an older myth)
is unmistakable. Tishpak held his seal or talisman before him
or wore it at his throat when he attacked the Labbu, and the
blood of the Labbu ran for more than three years.
He split her into two parts, and with half of her he made the
Heavens. He drew out her skin and caused watchmen to
take charge of it. He directed them not to let her waters
come forth.
“ He set over against (the Heavens) the abode of Nudimmud on
the face of the Deep.
Bel measured the dimension of the Deep (Apsu).
144. A vast abode its counterpart he fixed, that is Esharra.
He caused Anu, Enlil, and Ea to occupy their abodes.”
Thus Marduk made Heaven for Anu, Esharra, or earth, for
Enlil, and fixed the place of the Apsu or fresh-water sea be-
neath the earth for Ea. The canopy of Heaven was made from
the stretched-out skin of Tiamat, and he confined the waters
which cause rain above this canopy. The watchmen of Heaven
are the figures of monsters and animals in the constellations.
The Hebrew account of creation as preserved in a late docu-
ment of Genesis, Chapter I, although clearly dependent upon
this Babylonian myth (at least in phraseology), portrays the
creation in strictly monotheistic terms. Before Elohim created
Heaven and Earth, the earth was formless and confused, and
darkness lay on the face of the primeval sea (Tehom). The
wind of Eldhim hovered over the face of the waters j perhaps
304
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
the writer does not have in mind the Babylonian conception
of a wind-blown watery abyss, but the creative spirit of Eldhim
brooding over it. A combat between light and darkness is
wholly absent here, but survives in other mythological refer-
ences in the Old Testament, especially in Job and the Psalms.^®
Light is created at the command of God and the regular move-
ment of the sun fixed, producing day and night, even before
Heaven and Earth were created out of the Teh 5 m. This was
the work of Elohim on the first day.
The creation of Heaven on the second day reflects clearly
enough the Babylonian epic. A “ firmament ” was created to
divide the waters above it from those beneath it and God called
it “ the Heavens.” “ The waters beneath the Heavens shall
gather into one place, and dry land shall appear,” said Elohim.
The word used for firmament means “ what is spread out,”
and corresponds to the skin of Tiamat used by Marduk to con-
struct the vault of Heaven. The dry land God named “ earth ”
and the waters that gathered together He named “ seas.”
(Tablet V.) The fifth tablet, which contained a poem on as-
tronomy, the creation and movements of the planets, positions
of the constellations, and probably also the creation of animals
and plants, is almost entirely unrecovered. This poem so far
as preserved contains much astrology. In fact it begins with
Marduk’s creation of the hypsomata or stellar positions in the
Heavens, where each planet had the greatest influence upon
nature and the affairs of men. Babylonian astronomy forms an
extremely important part of their mythology, but until the
late period was pursued almost entirely for astrological pur-
poses. The text says simply that Marduk created the stations
of the great gods. The following stations or hypsomata are
known. The station of Ishtar-Venus was Pisces 5 of Sin-
Moon, Taurus 5 of Shamash-Sun, Aries j of Nergal-Mars, Capri-
corn 5 of Marduk- Jupiter, Cancer j since all these identifications,
now known from astronomical texts, agree with Greek hypso-
mata, and Greek astronomical and astrological systems were
THE BABYLONIAN EPIC OF CREATION 305
almost entirely borrowed from Babylonia, it is presumed that
the stations of the other planets and gods identified with them
should be completed from Greek astrology} hence Ninurta-
Mars had the station Libra} Nabu-Mercury, Virgo. The reli-
gious or mythical reasons for these relations of planets to signs
Fig. 91. Constellations Corvus, Hydra, and Virgo, with Planet Mercury.
Astronomical Tablet. Persian Period
of the zodiac are unknown. The fish for some reason suggested
sexual love and ideas, and hence Pisces may have been chosen
for the planet of Ishtar. Fig. 89 shews Marduk- Jupiter in his
station west of Leo, near Cancer} his star stands just above the
head of Hydra before Leo on a monument of the eighth cen-
tury. Fig. 91 shews the planet of Nabu-Mercury in Virgo,
Fig. 92. The Pleiades, Moon in Taurus. Astronomical Tablet.
Persian Period
and to the left (west), the constellation Corvus, standing on
the tail of Hydra, the stellar Mushussu of Fig. 89. Virgo
is here represented as a goddess holding an ear of corn, the
original conception of Spica, principal star in Virgo. Fig. 92
shews the Moon-god Sin in Taurus. The Moon-god stands in
his crescent smiting a lion. To the left are the seven Pleiades.
3o6 SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
These figures are all taken from astronomical tablets of the Se-
leucidae period, but the astrological principles are known to
have originated earlier.^^
Marduk then placed all the constellations in their places,
and these are called their “likeness,” apparently referring to
the dragons which were bound by him and cast into the lower
world. He fixed the year, designed the twelve signs of the
zodiac through which the sun passes during twelve months,
and for each month he fixed three stars. The scribe means
that, as the sun passed through each sign of the zodiac, three
stars that rose in succession heliacally during that month are
taken as the decans of that month. That is, when the sun is
in its first ten days (approximately) of any month, a promi-
nent star rising heliacally during this first decan would be the
star of the first decan of that month. They would thus be “ time
regulators,” as the Greeks called the stellar decans. There are
many other theories about the thirty-six stars which fix the
course of the sun as time regulators, but they are too intricate
and conjectural to be stated here.®^ Thus Marduk defined
the days of the year by stellar signs.
He then fixed the points at which the sun crosses the celestial
equator at the spring and autumnal equinoxes. Having fixed
the stars in the track of the sun (ecliptic), that is the way of
Anu, he fixed the southern band of stars, or the way of Ea, and
the northern band of stars, or the way of Enlil. He made gates
at the eastern and western horizons for the sun to enter and
depart. In the belly of Tiamat he placed the vault of Heaven,
and fixed the motions of the moon. Unfortunately not more
than one fifth of the fifth Tablet is preserved, and the account
of other acts of the creation is lost. The contents of the long
lacuna can be conjectured by other accounts of the creation, and
the parallel Hebrew account.
(Tablet VI.) From the fragmentary lines at the end of the
fifth Tablet, it may be assumed that the gods praised Marduk
for having created Heaven and Earth and delivered them in
THE BABYLONIAN EPIC OF CREATION 307
sore distress. The sixth Tablet begins with an account of the
creation of man. In the Hebrew record of Genesis i-ii.4,
which probably followed the order of events in the Epic of
Creation, the account of the creation of man is also the last
act. Marduk brought Kingu bound before Ea, his father, and
slew him. From the blood of Kingu Ea made man. Marduk
now assigns to the gods of Heaven and Earth and to the gods
of the lower world their several functions. He placed three
hundred in Heaven, and three hundred to manage the “ ways
of the Earth.”
32. “After Marduk, the king, had issued the laws of the totality of
the gods.
And for the Anunnaki of Heaven and Earth had decreed their
laws.
The Anunnaki opened their mouths
35. Saying unto Marduk, their lord;
‘ O divine light, lord who has brought about our deliverance.
What shall be our sign of deliverance before thee?
Come let us make a shrine whose name is called,
“ Thy chamber, lo it is our place of repose by night ” ; come let us
repose therein.
Come, we will found a shrine as an abode for thee.
On the day when we shall arrive we will repose therein.’ ”
-
The epic here begins the mythical account of the founding in
Babylon of Marduk’s temple Esagila, “Temple of the lifting
of the head,” or “which lifts (high) its head,” and the origin
of the New Year festival, when all the gods were assembled to
his Ubshukinnaku to decree the fates for the ensuing year.
The authors assume that Esagila was the first temple built
on earth, an assertion which contradicted all the histori-
cal and legendary records of Sumer and Accad. Only Beros-
sus, himself a priest of Babylon, among historians, admitted
this pretension. He it was who placed Babylon first among
the antediluvian cities and suppressed Eridu of the ancient
records.
The gods themselves worked with pickaxes and made bricks.
308 SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
and in the second year finished Esagila, founded on the nether
sea. They built the lofty stage-tower on the nether sea, and
constructed chapels for themselves in Esagila. They then
assembled in the central shrine of Marduk where he addressed
them:
52. “This Babylon is the abode of your dwelling-place.
Make glad sound herein. . .
And so the gods sat down to a feast with much music and drink-
ing of liquor. Then laws were fixed and plans made. The
places of all the gods in Heaven and Earth were arranged.
The “ seven gods of fates ” fixed the fates. Marduk, here
called Enlil, placed his scimetar before them. The gods saw
his net and bow. Anu addressed the assembly, kissed the bow,
and gave it three names. “Long wood” was its first namej
the second name is lost on the Tablets j the third name was
“ Bow star,” that is Canis Major, the bow of the hunter Orion.
Here followed a hymn by the gods to Marduk:
82. “ His command is made surpassing. . . .
He has been exalted, he the heroic son. . . .
His supreme rule is made surpassing. . . .
85. May he shepherd the dark-headed peoples. ...
Forever without forgetting let them rehearse [his deeds].
May he establish for his fathers the great cult offerings.
May they (the people) perform their upkeep, and appoint their
festivals.
May he smell incense; their food offerings may he receive.
90. As an imitation of what he made in Heaven, on Earth a . . .
Shall he order and the dark-headed people shall dwell. . . .
Let mankind think of their god.”
The statement that all things on Earth are replicas of what is
in Heaven is clear proof of the theories of some modern
scholars.®^ For example, the constellation Iku, or Canal Star,
is said to be the star of Babylon, and the heavenly pattern of
Marduk’s temple Esagila. This constellation certainly in-
cluded Aries and Cetus. The sun at the spring equinox stood
THE BABYLONIAN EPIC OF CREATION 309
in Aries, during the period 1900 b.c., to the Christian era, and
its heliacal rising marked the beginning of the New Year then.
The New Year’s festival at Babylon included rituals based upon
the Epic of Creation, and consequently the natural identifica-
tion of Babylon and its great temple would have been Aries,
when the mythologists sought for a heavenly prototype. Dur-
ing the celebrations of this festival, on the fourth day of Nisan
the high priest stood
facing the north and
recited a hymn en-
titled: “ O Canal star,
thou Esagila, likeness
of Heaven and Earth,”
that is, likeness of the
temple in Heaven and
of the temple on
Earth, and three
times he praised Esa-
gila by reciting this
prayer. Figure 93,
from a Babylonian seal
cylinder, shews a de-
sign which is probably based upon this astronomical myth. It
represents the tower of Babylon with five stages only, whereas in
the late period it had seven. This alone proves that the seal is
earlier than the seventh century. A monument of Merodach-
baladan, end of the eighth century, has already been cited to
prove that the astral myths of the epic were known in Baby-
lonian iconography before the Neo-Babylonian period.
The tower stands on a stream represented as a rope, and
means that it stands on the Apsu or nether sea. The reason
for its being represented as a rope is due to Babylonian philoso-
phy } for the creative principle of the universe was water, or the
Water-god, who is often called the tarkulluy “ rope,” or
markasu, “ band of the universe.” The epic says that Esagila
Fig. 93. The Tower of Babel in Astro-
nomical Myth. Cylinder Seal, Thir-
teenth Century b.c.
310
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
and the stage-tower were founded on the Apsu. Before this
tower stands the priest, pouring out a libation toward the tower,
and holding a jar from which spring flames of incense. If this
scene is astronomical, the tower would represent Aries, and the
fish to the left, the constellation Pisces. The tower would also
stand for the beginning of the new year, and the fish for the
end of the old year. The priest would be performing the cere-
mony referred to above, and singing a hymn to the heavenly
tower or Aries. An astral identification for the Apsu or stream
of water is unknown 5 it may perhaps be identical with the
constellation of the holy city Eridu, seat of the cult of Enki,
god of the Apsu. This city was identified with a group of
stars, including Vela, Puppis, and part of the long constella-
tion Eridanus, “ The River ” of Greek astronomy. It has been
suggested that Eridanus, the huge constellation stretching across
the southern Heavens below Cetus and Pisces, from Orion to
Cursa, was derived from the city Eridu.®® The fox to the left
(in astronomy to the west) of the fish, would be an unidentified
Fox star, known to have been located there, The theory that
this seal represents the astral prototypes of Babylon and its
temples has its attractions, but should be accepted with caution.®®
The assumption that all things on earth have their counterparts
in Heaven was a belief universally accepted in Babylonia in
the pre-Christian centuries and widely accepted throughout
Western Asia in the Apocalyptic and Gnostic period. It gave
rise to a passionate belief in “ the mansions in the skies,” and
Jesus taught His disciples, “ In my Father’s house are many
mansions.”
The hymn of praise sung by the gods to Marduk ends with
a long eulogy of his fifty names, with laudatory comments
upon the thoughts suggested by his principal titles. First of all
they refer to his name Marduk, and then to Ligirsagkusassa,
“ Defender the solicitous,” “ who stood forth and her hostility
was broken.”
116. “ Wide is his heart, warming is his compassion.”
THE BABYLONIAN EPIC OF CREATION 31 1
The next name is Lugaldimmerankia, “ Lord of the gods of
Heaven and Earth,”
1 18. “We have exalted the commands of his mouth above those of
the gods his fathers.
So he is lord of the gods of Heaven and Earth — all of them.”
The next name is Naridimmeranki, “ Musterer of the gods of
Heaven and Earth,”
122. “ Who in Heaven and Earth founded our dwelling-place in time
of distress.
Who allotted places to the Igigi and Anunnaki.
At his names may the gods tremble, may they quake in (their)
dwelling-places.”
The next name is Asarludug, which his father Ann gave him,
126. “ He is the light of the gods, the mighty champion.
Who as consoling and protecting genius of the gods and the
land.
In mighty combat saved our dwelling-place in time of distress.”
And secondly the six hundred gods named Asarludug the god
Namtilaku, “ Life,”
130. “ Who restored the destroyed gods to be even as his own creation.
The lord, who by his holy incantation gave life to the dying
gods.”
And thirdly they called Asarludug the god Namru, “ The
bright one,” “ who brightens our way.” The epic closes with
the gods sitting in the hall of assembly at Babylon, singing
and praising the names of Marduk.
In a late period the scribes added a seventh book to the epic
commenting upon the fifty names of Marduk, and other gram-
matical commentaries explaining the elements in these Sumerian
titles have been found. These comments are idle Midrashim
attached to the great creative work of their predecessors and
do not afford much information concerning the meaning of the
epic. This book has an epilogue stating that these fifty names
312
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
had been handed down to men by the ancients, that father must
teach them to son and never be forgotten.
An account of Marduk’s creation of the world has been pre-
served as an introduction to a ritual of lustration for the build-
ing of a temple.^" This version begins by stating in the first
eleven lines that there was a time when the temples of the gods
were not yet built, reeds and trees grew not, and brick-making
had not been discovered, cities and houses were not built, nor
animals created. Nippur, Erech, Eridu, and the Apsu had not
been built nor “ the holy temple, temple of the gods,” referring
to Esagila, at Babylon. Then all the lands were sea (Tamtu-
Tehom).
II. “ When the interior of the sea was a well,
Then Eridu was created and Esagila built.
Esagila, which in the Apsu Lugaldukug founded.
14. Babylon was created and Esagila completed.”
According to this version Marduk, here called Lugaldukug,
“ Lord of the holy chamber,” founded Esagila “ in the midst ”
of the Deep, or on the bosom of the nether sea, and the Anun-
naki worked upon it together, and named it by a far-famed
name, “ The holy city, abode of their happiness.” The de-
pendence of this legend upon the text of the sixth book of the
Epic of Creation is obvious. But now the legend has a new ac-
count of creation.
17. “ Marduk constructed a reed mat- work on the face of the waters.
He created dust and poured it out upon the reed mat-work.
To cause the gods to dwell in ‘ the abode of their happiness,’
20. He created man.
Aruru created the seed of man with him.
He created the cattle, creatures with the breath of life on the
plain.
He created the Tigris and the Euphrates and set them in their
places.”
The text then describes the creation of grass, grain-bearing
plants, the marshes, reeds, the forest, and green verdure.
THE BABYLONIAN EPIC OF CREATION 313
Lands, marshes, and reed thickets, cows and calves, bulls, ewes,
and lambs, the sheep of the folds, gardens and forests, tame
and wild goats ... for him. By the border of the sea Mar-
duk raised a terrace, and brought forth the reed thickets and
dry land. He then created reeds and trees, instituted brick-
making, built cities, founded Nippur, Erech, and Eridu. Here
the text is broken away.
Another account of creation in Sumerian, preserved in a late
Assyrian copy with Accadian translation, is concerned exclu-
sively with the creation of man and the divine injunctions placed
upon him to direct his life.^^ The poem has a subscription
which says that its contents are a mystery to be read by the wise
only, and it was copied by the king’s scribe. It begins with a
brief account of the condition of the world before the creation
of man. In Heaven and Earth “ faithful twins ” had been all
brought into being, and the Mother-goddesses had been made
to thrive. The “ twins ” are probably the Igigi and Anunnaki,
or all the gods of Heaven and Earth and the lower world. The
Mother-goddesses refer to Ashnan and Lahar, patronesses of
grain and flocks, whose creation was described in another famous
Sumerian poem.^^ Earth had been created for habitation, the
principles and forms of Heaven and Earth had been fixed.
The gods had determined the courses of the Tigris and Eu-
phrates to regulate the irrigation of the land. Then Anu,
Enlil, Shamash, and Enki, together with all the great gods,
assembled in their great sanctuary and said: “What shall we
do now? What shall we create? ” And two of them replied to
Enlil:
24. “ In Uzuma, rope of Heaven and Earth,
Let us slay two gods the craftsmen;
From their blood let us create man.
27. The tribute to the gods shall be their tribute.”
The poem then states at great length the purpose for which the
gods created man. It was to establish for ever “ the boundary,”
by which the text apparently means the territorial limits of the
3H
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
sacred land Sumer. It was that spade and trencher-basket be
put into their hands, and that they build the temple of the gods.
Their mission shall be to delimit field against field, for ever,
to increase the number of temples and serve in the divine rituals.
They are, alas, created to enrich the field of the Anunnaki (in
the lower world). They shall fill granaries and produce abun-
dance in the land. They shall keep the religious festivals and
sing the litanies in which the names of the temples are given.
They shall praise Enlil and his wife and Aruru, queen of the
gods. Man shall have power to make his own plans, “ the
skilled for the skilled, the fool for the fool.” This is one of
the rare passages in which free will is even mentioned or recog-
nized in cuneiform literature. Man is like corn springing from
the ground. Only the stars change not eternally} they de-
termine day and night and indicate the times of the festivals
exactly. The poem closes with these lines: “ Anu, Enlil, Ea,
and Ninmah (Aruru) created a place for man. The Grain-
goddess was established in that place.”
The emphasis placed upon grain and flocks in the Sumerian
myths of creation is in sharp contrast to all the known Baby-
lonian sources. Hebrew mythology has an older record of
the creation beginning after the manner of the Babylonian
version which served as an introduction to a ritual for found-
ing a temple. Here also the narrative begins by describing a
time when plants and herbs of the field existed not, and the
earth was parched} for Yaw had not sent rain to moisten the
ground. This source also follows the same order in placing
the creation of man before the creation of plants and animals.
The Babylonian text makes special mention of the Tigris and
Euphrates, and so does the old Hebrew account. But the leg-
end of the Garden of Eden and its four rivers in the Hebrew
legend does not occur in any Sumerian or Babylonian work on
the creation. In Chapter V a possible Sumerian source for this
story has been discussed, but it contains no reference to the
Tigris and Euphrates. The introduction of the rivers Pison
THE BABYLONIAN EPIC OF CREATION 315
and Gihon in the Hebrew source cannot be explained by any
known version of the creation myth.
The Babylonian Epic of Creation is based upon a solar myth,
and intimately connected with the triumph of the vernal sun
and the spring equinox. At that time the Babylonians held a
great festival including mystery plays based upon the events
described in the epic.^^ The series of Tablets which contained
the directions for the rituals of the New Year’s festival at
Babylon, which lasted from the first to the eleventh of Nisan,
are not well preserved. Only those Tablets having the rituals
for the second, third, fourth, and fifth days are preserved. On
the second day, before sunrise, the high priest rose and bathed,
drew aside the veil before Bel, and entered the sanctuary of
Bel. Here he recited the following hymn.
5 . “ Bel, who in his wrath had no rival,
Bel, beneficent king, Bel of the lands.
Who restored peace unto the great gods,
Bel, who cast down the mighty ones by his glance,
O Bel of kings, light of men, assigner of portions,
10. O Bel, thine abode is Babylon, Barsippa is thy crown.
The vast Heavens are the totality of thy mind.
Bel, with thine eyes thou beholdest all things.
Thou controllest laws by thy laws.
Thou givest decrees by thy glance.
15. Thou burnest up the mighty ones by thy flame(?).
Thou bindest thy . . . with thy hands.
When thou lookest (upon them) thou hast mercy upon them.
18. Thou causest them to see the light; they rehearse thy valour.”
These lines obviously refer to episodes of the Epic of Creation ;
the binding of the dragons and the assigning of functions to
the gods are taken directly from it. But the hymn speaks also
of Marduk’s having cast the dragons into fire and then to have
had mercy upon them. There was also a tradition, which will
appear in the mystery ceremonies, of Kingu’s having been cast
into fire. As to Marduk’s having had mercy upon the bound
gods and having caused them to see the light, the only probable
V 2 2
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
316
explanation is that they were given places among the stars.
Every one of the nine dragons in the epic, and two, Zu and
Asakku, which do not appear there, were identified with con-
stellations.
The high priest opened the doors of the chapel and admitted
certain orders of priests and psalmists. There follows a cere-
mony in which a seal and the crown of Anu are mentioned.
The seal probably refers to a talisman worn by Marduk on his
neck when he attacked Tiamat, as did Tishpak when he slew
the Labbu. Again the priest sang a hymn referring to the
battle of Marduk with the wicked and powerful ones.
Early on the third day the high priest rose, bathed, and re-
cited a prayer to Bel alone in his chapel. This prayer is entirely
lost. He opened the doors for priests and psalmists, who per-
formed the customary (daily) services. Three hours after sun-
rise a metal-worker made two statues for the ceremony of the
sixth day. Each statue was seven fingers high} one held in his
left hand a serpent made of cedar, and his right hand was lifted
in prayer to Nabuj the other held a scorpion in his left hand
and also lifted his right hand to Nabu. They were clothed in
red garments and their loins were bound with date palms.
They remained in the temple of the god Sakut (Ninurta) until
the sixth day. On that day a swordsman severed their heads
and burnt them before Nabu. These were emblems of the
serpent-dragon Mushussu and the Scorpion-man, two of the
monsters originally subdued by Ninurta. The ceremony again
discloses a trace of a lost myth in which the dragons were cast
into fire.
On the fourth day, three hours before sunrise the high priest
rose, bathed in the Euphrates, pulled aside the curtain from
before Bel and Beltis, and recited a prayer to each divinity
(Marduk and Zarpanit). These are prayers of praise and peti-
tions for mercy upon the people of Babylon. The priest then
came out of the chapel and, facing north, recited the hymn of
the Canal Star, heavenly prototype of Esagila. He then ad-
THE BABYLONIAN EPIC OF CREATION 317
mitted the priests and psalmists to the chapel to perform the
customary (daily) services. After evening sacrifice he recited
the whole of the Epic of Creation, during which the crown of
Anu and the throne of Enlil were veiled. The veiling of these
deities was in memory of their flight before Tiamat. The de-
feat of Anu is told in the epicj the story of EnliPs defeat is
taken from a lost myth.
-
Four hours before sunrise on the fifth day the high priest
rose, bathed in water of the Tigris and Euphrates, drew aside
the curtain {gadalu) from before Bel, and recited a hymn to
Bel and one to Beltis, in Sumerian. Both hymns are of an astral
character, and it is curious that the day on which they were sung
(fifth), should correspond to the astral character of the fifth
book of the Epic of Creation. In the hymn to Marduk the
constellations Bootes and Eridanus, and the planets Jupiter
(Marduk), Mercury (Nabu), Saturn (Ninurta), are addressed.
Mars, usually planet of Ninurta, is addressed as the Fire-god
Gibil. Sirius “ measures the waters of the Tamtu,” that is here
the Milky Way. Addresses to Arcturus, Regulus(?), Grus
(Adad), the breast of Scorpio “who treads the bosom
of Tamtu,” to the sun and moon, close the astral hymn to
Marduk.
The hymn to Marduk’s wife Beltis also contains addresses to
constellations and stars j Venus, the Bow Star (Canis Major),
the planet and constellation of Ishtarj the Goat Star (Lyra),
also identified with Ishtarj the Star of Abundance (Coma Bere-
neces), identified with the goddess NE-zil-la j the star of venery
(Corona Borealis), identified with the goddess Nanaj the
Wagon Star (Ursa Major), identified with Ninlilj the hymn
ends with addresses to the constellations of Zarbanit (Virgo)
and Ninmah. The priests and psalmists now enter to sing the
liturgies for that day.
Two hours after sunrise the morning sacrifices for BSl and
Beltis are finished and a priest of incantation purifies the temple
with water from the Tigris and Euphrates. The kettle-drum
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
318
is sounded, torch and censer brought into the court, but the
magician must not enter the chapel of Bel and Beltis. He then
enters the chapel of Nabu and purifies it with censer, torch,
and holy water, and sprinkles it with Tigris and Euphrates
water. He places a silver censer in the court, calls a sword
bearer, who slays a sheep and atones the chapel of Nabu with
the sheep’s body. After reciting incantations for the purifica-
tion of this chapel, the magician must remove the sheep’s body,
go to the river, and, looking westward, cast it into the river.
This was in preparation for Nabu’s arrival from Barsippa to
take part in the New Year’s festival. The high priest was for-
bidden to see any part of this magic ritual j the magician and
sword bearer must both leave the city and remain in the fields
until the twelfth day, when the festival was finished.
At three and a third hours after sunrise the high priest came
out of Marduk’s chapel and summoned the craftsmen, who re-
moved the golden canopy of Marduk from the treasury and
veiled the chapel of Nabu. This chapel represented the dark
season of the year when the Sun-god’s time was mostly spent in
the lower world. After a hymn on the cleansing of the temple
has been sung the high priest re-enters Marduk’s chapel, pre-
pares a table of offerings and recites a prayer, and prays that he
will be gracious to him “ that takes thy hand.” The priest
is here preparing to take the hands of Bel and conduct him
to the Akitu, or house of the New Year’s festival outside
the city. The craftsmen then carry the table to Nabu’s chapel,
who arrives presently in his ship Iddahedu.
Now the king of Babylon arrives with Nabu’s statue, washes
his hands, and comes before Bel himself, where the high priest
takes from him his sceptre, his circle and scimetar, insignia of
royal power. These are taken into the chapel and placed be-
fore Bel. By him had they been given, and to him they are
returned. For the moment the king is a commoner, and the
high priest, representative of the most high god, smote the
cheeks of the king, led him before Bel, pulled the king’s ears.
THE BABYLONIAN EPIC OF CREATION 319
and made him kneel before the statue of Marduk-Bel. The
king then recited this prayer:
423. “ Not have I sinned, O lord of the lands, not have I been negli-
gent unto thy divinity.
Babylon have I not ruined, nor commanded its dispersion.
Not have I . . . Esagila, nor forgotten its rites.
Not have I smitten the cheeks of (my) subjects,
. . . nor caused their humiliation.
427. I have paid attention to Babylon, and not destroyed its walls.”
The high priest replied to the king for Bel and said “ fear
not for Bel would hear his prayer, magnify his kingdom, and
destroy his foes. Having thus rendered account of his steward-
ship to Bel, the king received back the insignia of his office.
The religious law of the state presumed that the high priest
had the sacred right to withhold the crown from any king who
had abused his office, but there are no inscriptions to confirm
the statement that he was ever forced to abdicate for that reason.
The high priest, however, smote the king’s cheek again, and if
the king wept he knew that Bel was pleased with him. If he
wept not he knew that Bel was displeased with the king and
that foes would come to cause his downfall.
Soon after sunset on the fifth day the high priest made a bun-
dle of forty reeds each three cubits long, dug a trench in the
temple-court and placed the bundle of reeds therein. Honey,
cream, and oil were poured upon it and a white bull was brought
to the trench. The reed bundle was set on fire. Presumably
the bull was sacrificed. In any case the bull represents the
Gudanna or “ bull of Heaven,” Taurus of the Zodiac, and
proves that this festival originated in the period when the sun
stood in Taurus at the spring equinox, that is in the period circa
3500-1900 B.c. It is unlikely that the ceremony has any refer-
ence to the slaying of the bull of Heaven by Gilgamish and
Enkidu. The king and [the high priest?] then chanted a
hymn to the “ divine bull,” and here the texts cease. The
rituals for the sixth to the eleventh days have not been recov-
320
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
ered, but it is known that the procession of all the gods, led by
Bel, to the house of the New Year’s sacrifices outside the city,
occurred on the tenth day. The great assembly of gods in the
hall of Esagila to declare fates for the ensuing year fell on
the eighth of Nisan. On the eleventh the procession returned
to Esagila,^®
Each act in the ceremony of the New Year’s festival had a
mystic meaning, and a Tablet of the series in which these
meanings were explained has been recovered. Undoubtedly
the whole ritual was explained in this way, but as only small
parts of both ritual and commentary have been found and they
do not coincide, the fragment of the commentary must be
studied separately. It begins with a reference to a trench over
which a priest performed a ceremony. Apparently something
was thrown into the trench, which meant the . . . which
[Ninurta] cast into the Deep {apsu) and entrusted to the Anun-
naki. The text also refers to a fire that was made, which sym-
bolized some valiant deed of Marduk in his infancy. Then
the hurling of firebrands is referred to, and they who hurled
them represented the gods, his fathers and brothers, when
they heard of [his birth?]. The gods kissed something,
which meant Marduk as the Mother-goddess Ninlil lifted and
kissed him in his infancy. A fire was kindled beneath an oven
and a sheep placed on it j this meant Kingu, husband of Tiamat,
whom Marduk burned. They lit firebrands at the oven, and
these meant the merciless arrows from the quiver of Bel, which,
as they were shot, carried terror and smote the mighty one,
with blood and gore were they stained, sprinkling the moun-
tains (with blood). The mountains meant the gods, his fathers
and brothers, who bound in their midst the wicked Zu and
Asakku.
In the ceremony the king lifted a weapon above his head and
burned a she-goatj that meant Marduk who lifted weapons
above his head and consumed in fire the sons of Enlil and Anu.
Here again the myth of the casting of the dragons into fire ap-
THE BABYLONIAN EPIC OF CREATION 321
pears in the ceremony, but not in the epic. The sons of Enlil
and Anu refer to some unknown myth. One text refers to
seven Asakku dragons, sons of Anu, who were conquered by
Ninurta. The king shattered a vessel, which meant that Mar-
duk bound Tiamat(?). The king tossed the roasted bread of
the priest, which symbolized how Marduk and Nabu [seized? ]
the hand(?) of . . . and Anu bound and broke him. The
king took his place at a certain station in the ritual and some-
thing was put into his hand as a psalmist sang a hymn, “ God-
dess the Radiant ”j this meant Marduk’s feet were set in Ea
and the planet Venus before him tarried.^® This part of the
ritual describes some constellation of Marduk, whose feet
stood in some constellation of Ea, and Venus stood in it.
The king tossed something which meant the heart of Anu
when he took his way, referring perhaps to the episode
in the epic where Anshar sent Anu against Tiamat and he
fled.
In the ritual a cavalryman, who [carries] a sweet fig and
holds a ... in his hand, and who brings it in to the god,
shewing the fig to the god and king, meant him whom they sent
to Enlil, whom they bound and whose hand Nergal took.
Here the ceremony refers to some myth in which Ninurta(?)
bound a dragon and sent him to his father Enlil, by whom he
was handed over to the god of the underworld. Someone en-
tered Esagila, and shewed the weapons in his hands to Marduk
and Zarbanit} they kissed him, and blessed him. The meaning
of this act is not explained. Eunuchs shouted, made clamour
in the plain, hurling firebrands, emitting loud cries, lifted each
other up, and acted distractedly 5 these symbolized those who
against Enlil and Anu made uproar, and poured out their terror
upon them, but whose . . . they (the gods) severed and
[cast] into the Apsu. Only half of this Tablet is preserved
and nothing can be gleaned from the few remaining signs con-
cerning episodes of the myths enacted in pantomime in the New
Year’s festival.
322
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
On the eleventh day when Marduk returned to Esagila the
hymn, “ Oh lord, when thou enterest thy temple, may thy
temple say to thee ‘ Rest,’ ” was sung. The prayer appeals to
the cities, temples, and the gods to say to Marduk, “ Rest, O
lord.” The New Year’s festival in Assyria was only a replica of
the same series of pantomimes at Babylon j but in Assyria the
name of the god Ashur displaced the name Marduk. The Epic
of Creation and the Zagmuk, or New Year’s festival, are based
upon a solar myth. Marduk the Sun-god returned from his
long sojourn in the lower world, triumphed over darkness, and
brought light to the world. On this myth the priesthood at
Babylon based a new pantomime, which portrayed the death
and resurrection of Bel, drawn, by analogy, from the myth of
the annual death and resurrection of Tammuz, god of vegeta-
tion. The descent of Marduk to the lower world must have
been familiar in Babylonian religion j it is mentioned in the Ira
myth where Marduk set his face to the land where none go,
the home of the Anunnaki.*^ The myth of the death and
resurrection of Bel is preserved only in the commentaries on
the meanings of each act in the ceremony, and consequently its
contents must be reconstructed from this framework j the fol-
lowing analysis does not provide a very clear narrative of the
legend if a text of it really existed.*® The principal commen-
taries available are all in the ceremony at Ashur, but a few
fragments from the original Marduk pantomime at Babylon
have been recovered, in copies from Nineveh. In West Semitic
religion traces of the same legend are found at Tyre, where
there was a tomb of Melqartj *” at Aphaca near Gebal there
was a tomb of Adonis, called also Bel ( jSoXos ) by Hesychius,
and another on the river Belus near Akko, called the memorial
of Memnon. No rituals representing the death, burial in a
tomb, and the resurrection from the tomb have been found on
West Semitic soil similar to the vivid enactment of each event
in this ceremony concerning Bel-Marduk at Babylon. That
the myth and ritual were well known throughout Syria, Phoe-
THE BABYLONIAN EPIC OF CREATION 323
nicia, and Palestine, at least in certain mystic and Gnostic cults,
is certain.
Strabo mentions the tomb of Bel as one of the striking fea-
tures of Babylon, and Xerxes dug into it and found a glass
coffin and corpse laid in oil. Alexander was commanded by his
seers to rebuild this tomb. These legends reveal the fact that
in the Greek period the stage tower of Babylon was taken for
the tomb of Bel, which only emphasizes the influence of the
legend and ceremony under discussion. The texts as preserved
begin with some act interpreted to mean that Bel was im-
prisoned in the lower world, and a messenger hastens saying:
“Who shall bring him forth? ” Nabu(?) comes from Bar-
sippa to seek after his father (Marduk) who is bound. Men
ran in the streets saying: “ Where is he held? ” and Marduk’s
wife prayed to the Moon-god saying: “ Give life to Bel.” She
comes to the gate of the tomb seeking him, and she finds there
“twins,” probably angels guarding the tomb. Certain cele-
brants make wailing j for the gods had bound him and he per-
ished from among the living. They had caused him to descend
to the house of bondage. Reference is made to the wounds of
Bel and his blood. A goddess(?) descends to seek for him.
There is then an obscure reference to a son of the god Ashur,
i.e.j Nabu son of Marduk, who went not with him saying: “ I
am not a sinner, and I shall not be wounded 5 for the ... of
Ashur (Marduk) have revealed my judgments and declared
my judgments.” Nabu, son of the slain Bel, here refers to the
sinner who had been condemned to die with Bel. Now this son
of Bel becomes the guard over his “ city prison,” that is in the
lower world. This has surely a connection with the theory
that Nabu represents the sun during the period of the year,
when the nights are longer than the days. The head of a
sheep(?) is tied to the door of the temple of Beltis, which
symbolized the head of a sinner whom they slew with Bel.
In the ceremony Nabu returned to Barsippa, [after] Bel
went to the lower world j the city then fell into tumult and there
324 SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
was fighting therein. Reed pigsties were placed in the way of
Nabu as he came from Barsippa to adore Belj he stood over
Bel, looking at himj that symbolized the malefactor who is
with Bel. The part played by Nabu is extremely obscure, but
he is clearly described as one who has some connection with the
slain sinner. Priests of incantation walked before Nabu, reciting
an incantation; they symbolized Bel’s people who wail before
him. A magus went before Beltis; he stood for the messen-
ger who wept before her and brought her the sad news of Bel’s
descent to the lower world, saying: “ they have carried him to
the mountain (lower world),” and she descended, saying: “ Oh
my brother, my brother. . . .” The magus brought garments
to the Beltis of Erech, which symbolized the raiment taken
from Bel. The inclusion of Beltis of Erech or Ishtar in this
pantomime proves that it is really based upon the older cult
of Tammuz and Ishtar. There is then a ceremony with a gar-
ment {serhu) with which the dead Bel seems to have been
clothed, and milk with which Ishtar of Nineveh fed Marduk
in his infancy. Ashurbanipal, king of Assyria, is said to have
been nourished by the goddess queen of Nineveh, at whose
breasts he was suckled. The Epic of Creation, narrating the
mighty deeds of the dead Bel, was then sung, and the high
priest wailed saying: “ What was his sin'? ” Marduk from his
tomb prayed to Sin and Shamash for life, represented in the
pantomime by someone looking to Heaven and praying.
Bel’s ascent from the lower world is now symbolized by
some person, and one text speaks of his ascent from the house
of bondage, whither he had been sent by judgments imposed
upon him. There is further reference to mad racing in the
cities in the month Nisan, and Bel’s clothing and sandals, which
had been brought to the temple of his wife Beltis of Babylon.
The acts of the ceremony, as set down and explained in the
commentary, do not follow in logical order; for after Bel’s
resurrection the text mentions his chariot which speeds to
the house of the New Year’s festival without its master. The
THE BABYLONIAN EPIC OF CREATION 325
celebrants broke into Bel’s tomb and struggled before it. The
celebration of the death and resurrection of Bel cannot be de-
scribed with any approach to accuracy owing to the fragmen-
tary sources, but some of the salient facts can be obtained from
them. It is clear that he was condemned, slain with a male-
factor, imprisoned in a tomb, descended to the lower world,
and rose again. This is one of those inexplicable and illogical
consequences of the occult religious mind of Babylonia. Bel,
the victorious god, conqueror of the powers of Chaos, creator
of the world, was tried, condemned, and sent to the lower
world by the gods, his fathers and brothers, whom he had de-
livered. It can be explained only by the uncontrollable tend-
ency of the Babylonian priesthood to place upon Marduk the
roles of all the principal gods. The cult of the dying god Tam-
muz had been throughout the long history of Sumer, Accad,
and Babylonia the one which held the greatest attraction for all
men. Not in war nor in the valour even of the triumphant Mar-
duk did men really place their trust and their hope, but in the
sufferings of the martyr Tammuz, ever victorious over death,
ever restoring a perishing world. The mild and patient Tam-
muz was greater than the god of fire and sword, though he had
created the Heavens with his hands and founded the Earth
upon the bosom of the Deep. All these things the speculative
priests of Babylon knew, and they were zealous for their god.
He must also become Tammuz the martyr, victorious over
death, and so they thought to secure for him the adoration and
love of humanity hitherto bestowed upon the dying god.
CHAPTER X
THE DESCENT OF ISHTAR TO ARALLU
I SHTAR, Accadian rendering of the Sumerian Innini, was
commonly regarded as the sister of the dying god Tammuz.
The myth of Tammuz, his annual descent to Arallu or the
lower world, the descent of his sister Innini to recover the lost
god, and his resurrection, gave rise to the most important cult
of Sumero-Babylonian religion. The myth of Innini’s descent
to Arallu forms a separate series of poems in Sumerian and
Accadian texts and is rarely referred to in the numerous litur-
gies and songs of the wailings for Tammuz. Of the older Su-
merian poems which describe her descent to Arallu extensive
fragments have now been recovered.^ So far as the sequence of
events in the narrative can be given from published material
the Sumerian legend was as follows.
-
The legend begins apparently with an appeal to Innini to
descend to the lower world {kur-ra ba-e-ed), for in Erech,
Nippur, Kish, and Agade, “ lordship has fallen.” This refers
to the death of Tammuz, who had disappeared from among
men. The death of the god of vegetation involves the tempo-
rary suspension of “ lordship ” on earth, a belief based upon the
identification of kings with the dying god in the period in which
this myth was written. The deification of kings and worship of
them during their reigns were characteristic of Sumerian re-
ligion in the time of the last dynasty of Ur and the succeeding
dynasties of Isin and Ellasar. When the “ god-kings ” died
they, like Tammuz, perished j for in life they were husbands of
Ishtar, as was also Tammuz, A hymn speaks of the dead kings
of Isin in a Tammuz liturgy as follows:
THE DESCENT OF ISHTAR TO ARALLU 327
“ The lord Idin-Dagan sleeps,
And the gardens of themselves restrain (their growth).
The city (weeps) for Ishme-Dagan, who slumbers,
And the gardens of themselves withhold (their fruit).
The city (weeps) for Lipit-Ishtar, who sleeps.
The city (weeps) for Ur-Ninurta, who sleeps.
The city (weeps) for Bur-Sin, who sleeps.
The sturdy youth is in the land of weeping.” ^
The implicit belief in the divine nature of kings did not cease in
Babylonia and Assyria with the disappearance of the Sumerian
cults based upon the worship of deified kings, living or dead.
They continued to connect them with Tammuz, and believed
that the fertility of the lands was intimately connected with
the life of their rulers divinely appointed by the gods.
And so Innini put on her garment shugurra^ and placed her
lofty crown upon her head. She put the “ beauty of her figure ”
upon herself, a description of one of her garments. She
adorned herself with ornaments of lapis lazuli and put on a
necklace of great lapis lazuli stones. She covered her breast
with erimmati jewels, and wore golden rings on her fingers. A
band of birth stones she girded on her loins.
“ O Innini, to the lower world go,”
they said, and her messenger Gashansubur stood before her, to
whom she said:
“ O my faithful one, my faithful one.
My messenger of good words.
My herald of true words.
When to the lower world I descend.
To the ... of the lower world go thou. . . .”
The continuation of the narrative is contained in an unpub-
lished textj when the accessible material can be again followed
Innini seems to be reporting to the god Amanki, the Water-god
Enki of the “ good city,” Eridu, that “ thy son dwells with
those in the lower world, thy pious holy one sleeps in the dust
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
328
of the lower world ... he lies prostrate in the abode of the
queen of Hell.” According to the author of these texts Innini
is the daughter of the Water-god, and she continues:
“ O father Amanki, wise lord . . .
The plant of life thou knowest, the water of life thou knowest.
This one restore to life for me.”
“ Innini to the lower world went.
To her messenger Gashansubur she called:
‘ Go, O Gashansubur.
This one I will make known to thee, he is named guzula* ®
Innini to the splendid palace of the underworld drew nigh.
The door of the Underworld harshly she . . .
The palace of the Lower world harshly she . . .
‘ Open the house, O watchman, open the house.
Open the house, O god Neti, open the house that I may enter.’
Neti, the great watchman of the lower world,
To the holy Innini replied:
‘ Who then art thou? ’
‘ I am the queen where the sun rises.’ ”
Innini here describes herself as the planet Venus at sunrise, to
which the watchman of the gates of Arallu replied:
“ If thou art Innini where the sun rises,
Why comest thou? to the lower world [why comest thou?]
On the road where he who journeys returns not. . . .”
Here the unpublished text continued the narrative, which is
partially preserved on another text.* The watchman reported
Innini’s arrival to his mistress Ereshkigal, queen of Arallu.
She ordered him to open the seven gates through which the
dead must pass to enter Hades. At the first gate the watchman
removed her crown and Innini cried out, “ Why is this? ” and
received the reply:
“ Pass on, O Innini, the decrees of the lower world [are thus ordained].
Innini, the laws of the lower world are so.”
At the second gate he removed “ the beauty of her figure.”
Again she cried out, “ Why is this? ” and received the same
THE DESCENT OF ISHTAR TO ARALLU 329
answer. At the third gate he removed the erimmati jewels
from her neck. At the fourth gate some garment whose name
is lost on the tablets was taken from her.® At the fifth gate
the gold rings were taken from her hands j the text has not
preserved the narrative concerning her passing the sixth and
seventh gates. Unfortunately the Sumerian tablets so far as
published do not contain the section which described Innini’s
perilous encounter with the queen of Arallu, nor how she was
rescued from the land of darkness with her brother Tammuz.
A tablet of the same series describes how vegetation thrived
again after Innini returned from the lower world.® For when
she disappeared from among men they had not food to eat nor
water to drink.
The Accadian version of this myth is completely preserved
and is justly regarded as one of the best mythological poems of
Babylonian literature.^ In the Sumerian version Innini (Ish-
tar) and Tammuz were regarded as the daughter and son of
the Water-god Enki. The Accadian version, however, has the
usual astral interpretation, making her the daughter of the
Moon-god.
Obverse
“ To the land of no return, the [unknown] soil,
Ishtar the daughter of Sin turned her attention.
Yea the daughter of Sin turned her attention . . .
To the house of darkness, abode of the ‘ Goddess of the Great
city ’ (AUat),
5. To the house whence they who enter escape not,
To the road whose passing has no return.
To the house where they who enter thirst for light,
Where dust is their nourishment, and their bread is clay.
Light they see not, but sit in darkness.
10. Like birds they are clothed with ‘ winged garments.’ ”
This description of the lower world was taken from the old
Sumerian version and is identical with the description of Arallu
which Enkidu gave to his friend Gilgamish.® The ghosts of
the dead are clothed like birds and fly in the shadowy spaces of
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
330
Hell. Those which escape from Arallu become demons and
are described thus:
“ The bound gods rise from the grave,
The evil winds rise from the grave.” ®
The demons fly like birds, and wander over the earth until the
curses of the magicians drive them again to their restless abode
in the lower world. In that land dust lay thick upon door
and lock, and silence reigned. When Ishtar arrived at the
gate she spoke to the watchman:
14. “ O watchman, open thy gate.
Open thy gate, I will enter.
If thou openest not the gate that I enter,
I will break the door and shatter the lock.
I will break the threshold and shatter the doors.
I will cause the dead to arise that they consume the living.
The dead shall be more numerous than the living.”
This petulant goddess of love and war made the same threat
to Anu in the Epic of Gilgamish, when she demanded ven-
geance upon Gilgamish for unrequited love. There also she
threatened to cause the dead to arise and consume the living if
Anu would not create the bull of Heaven.
The watchman, abashed at her arrogance, implored her not
to break down the door of the lower world, but wait at the gate
until he had reported her words to Ereshkigal. He entered
Arallu and said to his mistress:
26. “ This is thy sister Ishtar who stands at [the gate].
Supporter of the great music halls, troubler of the Deep before Ea
[her father].”^®
When Ereshkigal heard this her face became pale as a tamarisk
that is severed. Her lips turned dark as the lip of a pitched
wicker wine jar, and she said:
31. “ What has her heart planned against me? What has made her soul
glad in regard to me ?
This one has said, ‘ I will drink water with the Annunaki,
THE DESCENT OF ISHTx^R TO ARALLU 331
I will eat clay as bread, and drink the muddy waters as beer.
I will weep over strong men who have left wives.
35. I will weep over handmaidens who have been snatched from the
bosom of their husbands.
I will weep for the feeble infants who were summoned before
their time.’
Go, watchman, open thy gate for her.
Do unto her according to thy ancient custom.”
And so the watchman did accord-
ing to the ancient manner by which
all souls were admitted to Aralluj he
bade her welcome to Cutha (Arallu),
“the land of no return shall rejoice
for thee.” At the first gate he re-
moved her crown, “for such were
the laws of the underworld.” At
the second gate he removed her ear-
rings, at the third her necklace, at
the fourth her breast jewels, at the
fifth her waist-band studded with
birthstones, at the sixth the rings of
her hands and feet, at the seventh
her “ shame garment.” Fig. 94, a
terra-cotta plaque excavated at Kish,
shews one of the many designs of
Ishtar. Her crown, decorated with
the usual bull’s horns characteristic
of all divinities, her large pendants
hung from her ears, her necklace and upper robe are clearly
preserved on this monument. Her right hand holds a long
thin metal rod, and in her left hand she presents the caduceus,
with two serpent heads, the usual symbol of this deity of
life and fertility. Her left leg, bared by the style of her
robe, is set upon the back of a lion, symbol of the War-
goddess.
When Ishtar descended to the land of no return Ereshkigal
V 23
Fig. 94. Terra-cotta Bas-
relief OF Ishtar, Exca-
vated AT THE Temple Hur-
SAGKALAMA IN KiSH. OXFORD
FIELD Museum Expedition
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
332
trembled before her. She summoned her messenger Namtar
commanding him to imprison Ishtar in her palace and afflict
her with sixty maladies, in all her members. Now Ishtar suf-
fered the torments of the damned and was a prisoner in the
house of the queen of Arallu.
“ After Ishtar the queen (Beltis) had descended to the lower world,
The bull mounted not the cow, the ass impregnated not the she-ass.
The strong man impregnated not the maid in the highway.
The strong man slept in his chamber.
The maid slept beside him.”
Ishtar, patroness of sexual love, had abandoned the earth, and
desire to mate had vanished in man and beast." Papsukkal,
messenger of the gods, was prostrated with sorrow. He was
clothed in a mourner’s garment and was afflicted with sores.
Shamash wept before Sin his father, and before Ea his tears
flowed. He informed Ea how the world had become joyless
after Ishtar had descended to the land of no return. Refuge
of gods and men in time of trouble, Ea again intervened. He
formed an image in his mind and created a person so beautiful
that he was named Asu-su-namlr, “ His coming forth is bril-
liant,” which may refer to his glorious birth or perhaps to his
appearance. This person is described as a eunuch. Ea sent
him to Ereshkigal that she might be pleased by his appearance j
apparently Ea supposed that she would love this eunuch and
acquiesce in his request to release Ishtar. The choice of a
eunuch was made in accordance with Ishtar’s character as
patroness of eunuchs who served in her cults. Ea said to
Asu-su-namir:
Reverse
15. “ May Ereshkigal see thee and rejoice at thy presence.
After her heart becomes calm, her mind happy.
Cause her to swear by the life of the great gods.
Lift up thy head, turn thy attention to the leather halzlqu vessel
(saying),
1 9. ‘ Ho, O my lady, let them give me the leather halziqu vessel, that
I drink water therefrom.’ ”
THE DESCENT OF ISHTAR TO ARALLU 333
Here the text is abbreviated, and passes at once to Eresh-
kigal’s reply to the beautiful eunuch. Ea ever employed in-
cantations and oaths to accomplish his purpose. By the same
recourse to magic he overpowered Apsu, husband of Tiamat,
in the Epic of Creation. Although Ea’s plan secured the re-
lease of Ishtar it is difficult to understand the reason for his
success. Ereshkigal, upon hearing the eunuch’s request, smote
her thigh and bit her finger, saying:
22. “ Thou hast presented a request not permissible.
Go, O Asusu-namir, I curse thee with a great curse.’^
Bread of the ‘ plough ’ of the city shall be thy bread.
25. The habnutu vessels of the city shall be thy drinking-place.
The shadow of the wall shall be thy station.
The thresholds shall be thy abode.
28. The drunkard and the thirsty shall smite thy cheek.”
Why the eunuch’s request for the halzlqu water-jar should
have aroused the anger of the queen of Arallu is unexplained.
Perhaps there was a myth concerning its having contained the
water of life. The plant of life and the water of life are twice
mentioned in the Sumerian version of Innini’s descent to Arallu,
and there may have been a legend that the blessed among those
who died ate and drank of these elements in the land of the
lord and queen of the lower world. Apparently the eunuch
became the substitute for Ishtar, a vicarious sacrifice for that
goddess, for whom he had made the supreme sacrifice of his
manhood on earth. It is not clear, however, that the eunuch
was retained in Arallu. Ereshkigal then directed her messen-
ger Namtar to knock at the palace of the Annunaki, the Ekal-
gina or Diligina, and stamp on its thresholds of coral.
33. “Cause the Annunaki to ascend, cause them to sit on a (sic!)
golden throne.”
According to this passage the Annunaki, that is Ea and the pan-
theon of deities who dwell in the nether sea of fresh water, have
their abode below Arallu, or the land of the dead. She also
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
334
commanded Namtar to wash Ishtar with “ water of life ” and
bring her forth. The Annunaki were brought up and placed on
a {sic!) golden throne, Ishtar he washed and brought before
her. Namtar is then ordered to conduct Ishtar to the upper
world by the seven gates.
“ Go, Namtar, conduct Ishtar.
If she give thee not her ransom (money) bring her back.
Cast upon her the fate of the dead^*
Namtar caused her to ascend by the seven gates, restoring to
her at each gate the garment taken from her by the watchman.
The Accadian texts are in great confusion here and the Su-
merian version for the remainder of the legend is illegible.^®
In any case Tammuz still remained in Arallu. Ereshkigal in-
structed her messenger Namtar:
47. “ Tammuz the husband of her youth
Wash with clean water, anoint with fine oil.
With a dazzling garment clothe him, let him play the flute of
lapis lazuli.
50. May the harlots appease his soul.”
The narrative then passes to the wailing of Ishtar for her
brother Tammuz. Here she has the title Belili. When she
returned to earth she had assembled her treasures, and her bag
was full of “ eye stones,” the name of some precious stone.
She heard the wailing of her brother and smote her treasures
that the jewels filled her sanctuary, as she wailed:
“ O my only brother, distress me not,
When Tammuz arises to me.
When with him arise the flute of lapis lazuli and the ring of carnelian,
When with him arise the men and women wailers,
May the dead arise and smell the incense.”
This poem seems to have been recited as an incantation to
recall the souls of the dead to the 'parentalia. The living per-
petually kept solemn feasts for the souls of their ancestors, and
their ghosts were supposed to return from Arallu to partake of
THE DESCENT OF ISHTAR TO ARALLU 335
them. The resurrection of Tammuz is, of course, assumed by
the poet, but how his sister’s descent to Arallu had any effec-
tive part in his rescue from death is not made clear by this
poem. There was also a feast of “ all souls ” for the dead.’*
Ereshkigal is the Persephone of Greek mythology and Ishtar
the Aphrodite. The role which each plays in the myth of a
dying god is the same in Babylonia and Greece. Tammuz, the
beautiful youth loved by his sister Ishtar, who is also described
as the sister of Ereshkigal, became the Adorn, “ my lord,” of
West Semitic mythology. Transferred to Greek soil as Adonis,
the young god who died and rose again each year became the
subject of a myth obviously borrowed from this Sumero-
Babylonian legend, which can be traced at least to the twenty-
third century b.c. Aphrodite hid Adonis, when a babe, in a
chest and gave him in charge of Persephone, queen of the lower
world. But Persephone became so enamoured with his beauty
that she refused to return him to Aphrodite. The goddesses
disputed over him before Zeus, who decreed that he must re-
main with Persephone for half of each year, and with Aphrodite
for the other half.
CHAPTER XI
TAMMUZ AND ISHTAR
I N Sumerian literature the cult of the dying god Tammuz
and his sister Innini, or Accadian Ishtar, occupies such an
important position that it may be regarded as the principal as-
pect of their mythology and religious beliefs. This god is con-
sistently described as a beautiful youth and the name Tammuz
has been handed down to posterity because it is the one em-
ployed in the West Semitic cults borrowed from Babylonia and
Assyria. Ezekiel, writing in the early part of the sixth century
B.C., says that the Tammuz wailings had been introduced into
the Temple at Jerusalem in his day. There he saw women wail-
ing for Tammuz in the north court. ^ Wailing women mourned
for the departed Tammuz or Adoni, as the Phoenicians named
him, in the cults of Babylonia, Syria, Phoenicia, and Canaan.
The form Tammuz has become familiar from the spelling of
the Hebrew text of Ezekiel, but in Syria the name was pro-
nounced Tamuz, or Thamuz. At Harran in Syria the Arabic
sect known as the Ssabeans maintained the worship of this god
as late as the tenth century a.d., where the name was pro-
nounced Tamuz and Ta-uz. The festival of Ta-uz was also
known there as the festival of the weeping women and oc-
curred on the first of the month Tammuz. The women of this
Harranian cult wept for Tammuz whom a king had slain,
ground his bones, and scattered them to the winds. Hence
during this festival the women ate nothing which had been
ground in a mill. In the mythology of this cult Tammuz was
said to have perished several times and to have returned to life
each time for his final annihilation at the hands of the king.
The Harranian Tammuz cult existed also at Babylon as late
-
TAMMUZ AND ISHTAR
337
as the tenth century where the gods of the whole earth are said
to have held a feast of wailing in the temple AskuL Askul is
a corrupt survival of the name of Marduk’s temple Esagila,
and the legend concerning the assembly of gods is obviously
based upon one of the principal features of the Babylonian
New Year’s festival, when the gods of all Babylonia assembled
at Esagila to decree fates for the ensuing year. The survival
of a cult, in which the gods bewailed Tammuz in Esagila,
proves that this Harranian sect had kept alive the myth of the
Death and Resurrection of Marduk, which was, in fact, only
a transformation of the old Sumerian Tammuz myth.
Tammuz, therefore, survived for centuries in West Semitic
religion as a god of corn and vegetation, who died, and whose
death was attributed to a king in this pagan cult of Syria. In
the myth of the death of Bel-Marduk there are repeated refer-
ences to Bel’s having met a violent death.^ In the Sumero-
Babylonian liturgies there are no clear references to the death
of the young shepherd of the flocks and corn at the hands of a
king, or of another god, rival for the love of his beautiful sister
Ishtar. These texts refer frequently to the gallu and other
demons who seized Tammuz; one of them is called his slayer.^
The Sumerian myth, therefore, attributed the death of the
beautiful youth loved by Ishtar to the seven demons of the
lower world.*
Whatever may have been the origin of the myth among the
Harranlans that Tammuz was slain by a king, it is not certain
that a legend of this kind existed In the Sumerian texts. The
Harranians said that Tammuz summoned a king to worship
the seven planets and the twelve signs of the zodiac, and for
that reason the king slew him, but he returned to life. The
king repeatedly slew him, but each time he returned until he
was finally annihilated by grinding his bones in a mill. A
similar myth is told of the Christian martyr Saint George, born
at Lydda, modern Ludd in Palestine, 270 a.d. He was said to
have been an officer in the Roman army and a Christian. When
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
338
Diocletian persecuted the Christians this officer defied his em-
peror, resigned from the army, and suffered martyrdom, at
Nicomedia in Bithynia, the summer residence of Diocletian, in
the year of the persecution, 303 a.d.® He was said to have sum-
moned his king to turn to Christ, and for this reason the king
slew him. But he returned to lifej the king repeatedly slew
him, but like Tammuz he returned to life each time until he
was finally slain and buried at Lydda. The legend of St.
George was particularly famous in Armenia, where it gave a
name to the province Georgia. It was even more famous
among Islamic writers than among Christians in the Middle
Ages, and one of the Arabic writers who described the Tammuz
cult of the Harranians actually compares the legends of Tam-
muz and Saint George.®
According to another Arabic writer ’’ the legend of St. George
was transferred to the Tigris Valley. The king who slew him
lived at Mausil (Mossul). He is reported to have burned St.
George and to have scattered the ashes in the Tigris. The most
marvellous account of Djirdjis, as the Arabs called George of
Lydda, is related by the Arabic historian Tabari (ninth and
tenth centuries a.d.).® He places the story of George’s perse-
cutions at the hands of Dadyane (Diocletian) at Mossul and
repeats much the same tale with incredible stories of how the
Roman emperor endeavoured to destroy him. He was bound
to a plank and scraped with iron combs, but he died not. Dio-
cletian confined him in a cauldron of boiling water, but he came
out well and sound. He bound him hand and foot and had a
marble pillar laid on his back, so heavy that twenty men were
required to lift it. An angel came by night and lifted away
the pillar. He caused him to be sawn into two parts j each
half was cut into seven pieces and thrown to Hons. The lions
smelled the fourteen pieces and ate not. God assembled the
morsels and restored him to life. He was placed in a hollow
metal statue and baked for three days. The angel Michael
broke the statue and he came out alive. Finally the emperor
TAMMUZ AND ISHTAR
339
drove over his prostrate body in a chariot, whose wheels were
fitted with sharp knives. The body was severed in innumerable
pieces. They were assembled and burned and the ashes taken
to the shore of the sea. A wind gathered the ashes and George
again lived. He finally perished in some way at the hands of
Diocletian.
Saint George summoned Diocletian to turn to Christianity,
and Tammuz summoned a king to worship the stars. The
Christian myth, also a favourite one among the Arabians, is
obviously based upon the Tammuz legend of the Harranians.
An Arabic writer, Wahshijja, says that Tammuz was not a
Chaldaean, nor a Canaanite, nor a Hebrew, nor an Assyrian, but
a Djanbasien, or Djanbanien. This word seems to have no
relation to the word “ Shumerian,” which is undoubtedly meant
in this tradition. The same writer says that when the idols of
all the earth assembled before the golden idol of the sun in the
temple Askul (Esagila) in Babylon to bewail Tammuz, they
also wailed for one Yanbushad, who is furthermore described
as an ancient wise man.® Yanbushad is clearly the corruption of
some Babylonian name beginning with Nabu. This writer pre-
serves the older form of the name Tammuzi, based upon the
Sumerian original Dumu-zi.
Tammuz was consistently identified by early Christian writ-
ers with Adoni of Gebal (Byblos), and the Greek Adonis. In
the mythology of that cult there is also a similar legend of the
death of the young god. Bar Bahlul, a Syriac lexicographer of
the tenth century, says that Tamoza was a shepherd and hunter,
which agrees precisely with the Sumerian legends in which he
is constantly described as a shepherd. In Syrian legend this
Tamdza is said to have loved a beautiful woman from Cyprus
named Ba^alti, whose husband was Hephaestos. She fled with
Tammuz to the Lebanons, whither Hephaestos pursued the
fugitives. But Tammuz met Hephaestos and slew himj after-
wards Tammuz was slain by a boar. Ba‘alti died of love over
his body, and her father Heracles founded a feast of mourning
340
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
for her in the month Tammuz/® An earlier Christian Syriac
writer of the third century has the legend after this manner.
Ba‘alti, queen of Cyprus, was worshipped by the Phoenicians.
She fell in love with Tamdza, son of Kutar, king of the Phoeni-
cians, abandoned her kingdom, and took up her abode at Gebal.
She had loved Ares previously; Hephaestos, her husband, had
discovered them in intercourse, wherefore he slew Tammuz as
he was hunting wild hogs in the Lebanons.“ In all these leg-
ends Tammuz is employed by these Syriac writers for the Phoe-
nician Adoni-Esmun, since this name for the dying god was
more familiar to all the West Semitic peoples outside Phoenicia
than the local title (Adum) of Tammuz at Gebal. In fact,
a Sumerian title of Tammuz at Gebal is documented as early as
the fifteenth century; Rib-Addi, governor of Gebal, in a letter
to the king of Egypt, speaks of his god as Da-mu-ya, “ My
god Damu,” an ordinary title of Tammuz in the Sumerian litur-
gies. Beyond all doubt Adorn of Gebal, who is first mentioned
as Adonis by Strabo in the third century b.c., is only a Phoenician
title of the Babylonian Dumuzi, and his entire cult was bor-
rowed from Babylonia at an early period. Although the Phoe-
nician cult of Adorn and his lover, the Mother-goddess Astarte,
commonly called Ba‘alat of Gebal, developed certain new myth-
ological aspects in Phoenicia, the Syrian descriptions of them
as Tamdza and Ba^alti prove that they are borrowed from Du-
muzi and Ishtar, commonly called heltl, “ my lady,” of Baby-
lonia. The legend that Tammuz was slain by the husband of
the goddess is apparently peculiar to the Phoenician cult, but in
the case of St. George his death at the hands of a king was an
historical fact, which suggested to Christians the tales connected
with Tammuz in West Semitic mythology.
It is probable that the West Semitic word aduniy adoniy “ my
lord,” was a common title of Tammuz in Assyria and in the
Tammuz cults of the Syrian provinces as early as the age of
Hammurabi.^® The title Ba‘alti for Ishtar, his sister and lover
in the Phoenician cult, leaves no doubt concerning Babylonian
TAMMUZ AND ISHTAR
341
influence upon the Adonis cult. In the Tammuz hymns Ishtar
is repeatedly addressed as “ my lady ” in Sumerian, and as
hHtiy “ my lady,” in Accadian texts. Belti, “ my lady,” is char-
acteristic of the addresses to Zarbanit, wife of Marduk, and
Bel and Belti of Babylon usurped the role of Tammuz and
Ishtar in the late period.^^ Zarbanit is also addressed as
belit-ni, “ our lady,” the probable origin of the Syriac title of
the goddess who loved Tammuz, namely Baltin.^® The Baby-
lonian title “ our lady,” for the sister, wife, and lover of Tam-
muz and Adonis was, therefore, current among West Semitic
peoples in the periods preceding and following the rise of Chris-
tianity, and may have been transferred to the Virgin Mary as
“ Our Lady,” Madonna, precisely as B81, the Kvpios of late
Greek writers, may have provided the Greek Christian title
Kyrios Christos.^®
Christian and Arabic writers generally represent Tammuz
to have been a human being, who suffered death at the hands
of a king. There is direct evidence that Tammuz, always des-
ignated as a god in Sumerian, was originally a deified man.
This view might be defended by the fact that the earliest his-
torical reference to Tammuz mentions him as the fourth king
of the prehistoric dynasty of Erech and predecessor of Gilga-
mish. Although the name Dumu-zi does not otherwise occur
as a personal name, “ god-Dumu-zi ” is only the name of a
deified king, and it is difficult to deny the human origin of this
god. Here he is clearly a deified king, and apparently the
myth of a young king loved by the beautiful Innini or Ishtar,
and who died for the life of the earth, is the original idea which
gave rise to this cult. Also in West Semitic religion the kings
of cities suffered death at the hands of their people to satisfy
the powers of Hades and to ensure the return of life after the
season of drought and decay. Of this custom Eusebius writ-
ing on Semitic pagan customs says: “ It was the custom among
the ancients, in times of great calamity, in order to prevent the
ruin of all, for the rulers of the city or nation to sacrifice to
342
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
the avenging deities the most beloved of their children as an
atonement.” He then cites the example of Cronus, who was
believed to have been first a king and then deified, becoming
the Sun-god El of the Phoenicians j he sacrificed his son Anobret
when great dangers beset the land.^^
Now the name Tammuz is derived from dumu, “ son,” and
2/, which has three principal meanings j it may stand for zid,
“ faithful,” “ true or for zig, “ to go forth,” “ to rise up ”j
and also “ breath of life.” Tammuz may mean, therefore,
“ Faithful son,” or “ Risen son,” or “ Son of life.” The last
interpretation is most improbable, for no Accadian phrase mar
napishti, “ son of life,” is known. Moreover it is certain that
the original name was Dumuzida, and Marduk, in a passage
where he is identified with Tammuz, is described in Accadian as
the “ faithful son.” The text, which is a theological commen-
tary, states that there was wailing for the god Dumu-e-zi, that
is, “ Son of the temple Ezida,” in the month of Tammuz } lam-
entations in the month Tammuz, wailing for the god Lugaldu-
kug (Marduk),^® and wailing in the month Tebit for the god
Enmesharra. Here the god of flocks and vegetation is bewailed
in the fourth month (July) and the Sun-god, Enmesharra, or
Nergal, in the tenth month (January). The Sun-god at mid-
winter resided also in the Underworld. Another (omen) text
states that Tammuz departed to the lower world in the month
of Tammuz, and Nergal in the month Kislev (December).^®
Since the verb zid has also the meaning “ to come forth,” “ to
arise,” as a variant of the verb zig, it is also possible that dumu-
zid means “ sun who is risen,” referring to the resurrection of
Tammuz. A hymn of the midsummer wailings for this god
runs as follows:
“ She of the dawn, she of the dawn, daily with weeping is surfeited.
Sobbing goes the daughter of Kullab;
‘ O heavenly psalmist, lord of earth (Ninsubur),
O my holy psalmist, thou of the lapis lazuli sandals ( ? ),
My messenger, who turns my words to good account.^®
TAMMUZ AND ISHTAR
343
My herald who established my words.
Herald of counsel, man of woe.
O my exalted one, in thy resurrection, in thy resurrection,
O my exalted one, in thy rising to the bosom of the mother that bore
(thee).
To the bosom of thy mother, to the bosom of thy beloved rise.
O my exalted one. Who is like Shamash? Thou art like Shamash.
O my exalted one. Who is like Nannar? Thou art like Nannar.’ ”
Another Sumerian hymn describes the wailing of the mother
of Tammuz:
“ Because of thee she wanders far for thee.
O man, my Damu, my irrigator thou art.
Thy mother, lady of tears, wearies not.
The mother, queen who gives life to the afflicted, tarries not to repose.
In thy perdition, in thy resurrection, she calls thee with melodious
sighing.”
To which Tammuz replied:
“ In my vast chamber, in my land of misery,
A lord am I, in Aralu, where I am cast away,
A man am I, unto the far-away land I go.”
The hymn continues:
“ I weary with heart woe, where shall I rest?
O sing to the lyre, I weary with heart woe, where shall I rest? ”
On the whole it is probable that Dumuzi(d) meant originally
the “ faithful ” son, and that the myth of a beautiful young
god arose in prehistoric times when a king sacrificed his son
for the welfare of his people. The calamity which instigated
this sacrifice may have been some impending national disaster;
in Sumerian religion it was the death of a god who perished
annually at midsummer with the withering grass and drying
soil of the drought-afflicted Mesopotamian valley. One son of
a divinely appointed king had died for man, a perpetual atone-
ment and a sacrifice to the merciless powers of the Under-
world; a perpetual atonement in that he returned each year
344
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
with the returning rains and spring sun only to die again in the
torrid heat, when the flocks longed for water, and Tammuz
their shepherd departed again to the mournful sound of the
shepherd’s lute and the cries of weeping women.
The prehistoric king of Erech who is called the deified
Dumuzi has, in the dynastic list, the title “ fisherman whose
city was Habur.” Habur is one of the names of Eridu, city of
the Water-god Enki-Ea, and the liturgies of the midsummer
wailings repeatedly refer to Tammuz and Innini (Ishtar) as
the son and daughter of Ea of Eridu. An Accadian prayer to
Tammuz reads as follows:
“ O Dumuzi, lord, shepherd of Anu, the brilliant.
Spouse of Ishtar, the queen, first-born son of Nudimmud,
Sturdy one, leader without rival, eater of roasted bread, baked cakes
of the ashes,
Clothed with a cowl, bearing a wand, drinking water of a soiled (? )
leather pouch.
Builder of homes, lord of the cattle stalls, supreme one, and pre-
eminent art thou.”
“ The first born son ” of Nudimmud or Ea was Tammuz, and
so also was Marduk. There is reason to suppose that Ninurta,
son of Enlil, was also regarded as a dying god and connected
with the swine, as was Adonis of Gebal.^* The earliest known
title of Marduk was Asarij a connection between this title and
the Egyptian Osiris has long been suggested. Marduk’s sudden
appearance as Tammuz in the late period is, therefore, based
upon the early Sumerian theology of Eridu, where the only son
of the Water-god became the deity of irrigation, of flocks and
pastures, the final outcome of the cult originating in the worship
of the man Dumuzi of Habur. Marduk-Asari and Tammuz
were then only diversified names and aspects of the dying god,
and if Asari be Osiris it is extremely probable that the Egyptian
myth of Osiris and Isis was borrowed from Asari and Ishtar in
prehistoric times. In the late hymn cited above, the first line
refers to Tammuz as a star or constellation.
TAMMUZ AND ISHTAR
345
But the ancient belief that a king or a king’s son had died for
man and all living creatures could not be eradicated from this
myth even by the immortality conferred upon him by his sacri-
fice and his annual triumph over death. The kings of Ur and
Isin, after their deaths, all became dying gods, and appear in
the hymns of the wailings as titles of Tammuz. A long liturgy,
from which the following address to his sister, urging her to go
to the departed Tammuz, is taken, contains this passage:
“ Mayest thou go, thou shalt cause him to rejoice.
O valorous one, star of Heaven, go to greet him.
To cause Ububu to repose, mayest thou go, thou shalt cause him to
rejoice.
To cause Umunmufzida] to repose, etc.
To cause my Damu to repose, etc.
To cause Isirana to repose, etc.
To cause Igisub to repose, etc.”
These lines contain five divine titles of Tammuz. Umunmuzida
is identical with Ningishzida and only a dialectic form of that
more ancient title, “ Faithful lord of the tree,” which gave rise
to an independent deity. Adapa found Tammuz and Ningish-
zida at the gates of Heaven. Damu, apparently connected with
dumuy “ son,” is a very common title of Tammuz, and so is
Isir, which here has the suffix («)««, “ the heavenly.” Igisub
means “ he of the bright eyes.” This hymn then continues
with the names of the kings of Ur and Isin, each accorded the
title of a god:
“To the shepherd Ur-Nammu mayest thou go, thou shalt cause him
to rejoice.
To the man Dungi mayest thou go, thou shalt cause him to rejoice.
To the shepherd Bur-Sin, etc.
To the man Gimil-Sin, etc.
To the shepherd Ibi-Sin, etc.”
The liturgical formula into which the names of the five kings
of Ur are cast, “ shepherd ” alternating with “ man,” is begun
again when the liturgy reaches the names of the kings of Isin:
346 SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
“To the shepherd Ishbi-Girra mayest thou go, thou shalt cause him
to rejoice.
To the man Gimil-ili-shu, etc.
To the shepherd Idin-Dagan, etc.
To the shepherd Ishme-Dagan, etc.
To the shepherd Bur-Sin, etc.
To the shepherd Idin-Ishtar, etc.^^
To these lords of . . . mayest thou go, thou shalt cause them to
repose.”
Another liturgy has the following extracts:
“ My husband, he who sleeps.
The sturdy youth in the land of weeping.
The youth Umunmuzida, he who sleeps.
In the way of pain, on the road of the chariot,^®
Isir, the bright-eyed, he who sleeps,
O, in the way of the tomb, weep.
Lord Idin-Dagan sleeps.
The garden of itself restrains (its growth).
The city (weeps) for Ishme-Dagan who slumbers,
And the garden of itself restrains (its growth).
The city (weeps) for Lipit-Ishtar, who sleeps.
The city (weeps) for Ur-Ninurta, who sleeps.
The city (weeps) for Bur-Sin, who sleeps.
The sturdy youth in the land of weeping.”
-
In this passage the names of these kings of Isin have not even
the prefix of deity. They are not dead gods but men who were
identified with Tammuz. It is entirely clear, therefore, that
this great cult of a dying god, which was intensively practised
from prehistoric times by the Sumerians, adopted by the
Babylonians, Assyrians, Aramaeans, Phoenicians, Canaanites,
Hebrews, and Egyptians, is based upon the belief in a martyred
saint, who died and rose again, and became a god. There can
be no longer any doubt concerning the fact that the god of death
and resurrection of the great religions which preceded Christi-
anity was originally a man Dumu-zi, “ the faithful son.” In
the most archaic Sumerian inscriptions this title occurs in the
name of a man Ur-dumu-zi, “ Servant of Tammuz,” without
the title of a god.®^
TAMMUZ AND ISHTAR
347
For this reason Tammuz is addressed in the hymns as the
ilitti bitty “ offspring of the house,” he who descended in the
legitimate line of divinely appointed kings. The Gospel ac-
cording to St. Matthew begins with the “ Book of the genera-
tion of Jesus Christ,” in which his ancestry is recorded and
traced to Abraham. In this sense the name given to Dumuzi
was probably used. A passage from one of the liturgies sung
at the midsummer wailings runs as follows:
“ Offspring of the house, my ravished one,
I sit wailing for thee.
0 son of the goddess Etuda,®^ I sit wailing for thee.
1 sit wailing for thee.
0 strong one, god Ububu,®® I sit wailing for thee.
1 sit wailing for thee.
0 lord, god Umunmuzida, I sit wailing for thee.
1 sit wailing for thee.
0 strong one, my god Damu, I sit wailing for thee.
1 sit wailing for thee.
0 god Isir, god of the shining eyes, I sit wailing for thee.
1 sit wailing for thee.
My face with pigment I have beautified.
My . . . with cedar ointment I have beautified.
My back with the garment dukaddua I have adorned.
My head with a radiant crown I have adorned.
O thou child, let thy heart repose, thy soul repose.”
Here Innini his sister weeps for the departed Tammuz, as
the legitimate descendant of royal Sumerian lineage. In the
evolution of the myth and cult of Tammuz the human origin
of this deity is almost entirely suppressed. He and his sister
Innini become the children of the Water-god Enki of Eridu,
and one of the longest hymns of the Tammuz liturgies begins:
“ O lord, son of the great prince in Heaven and Earth, thou art mag-
nified.”
Both of these deities were assigned to the pantheon of the
Water-god because in Sumer the life of the earth depended so
essentially upon the rivers, their only permanent supply of
V 24
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
348
water. They are, at least in Sumer, essentially deities of irriga-
tion. In the midsummer lamentations his sister, who is also
described as his mother, his wife, and his lover, implores Tam-
muz to rise again from “ the river.” For he was supposed to
have been cast upon the Euphrates, and to have sunk beneath
its waters in sign of the failing summer stream. A passage from
the Tammuz liturgies reads:
“ From the river, from the river arise, rejoice.
O what for a child? From the river arise, rejoice.
O strong one, from the river arise, rejoice.
O illustrious one, from the river arise, rejoice.
O my lord, from the river arise, rejoice.
O Damn, from the river arise, rejoice.”
A similar passage occurs in another liturgy:
“ O thou with woe overfull, O shepherd.
From the river arise, be appeased.
O what for a child? From the river arise, be appeased.
O Damu, from the river arise, be appeased.
Thou priest of lustration, from the river arise, be appeased.
O Isir, from the river arise, be appeased.”
These lines are spoken by his sister Innini who then describes
to him how she has adorned herself for his return from the
lower world.
“ ‘ My side is the cedar, my breast the cypress.
O offspring of the house, my ... is the . . . cedar,
Yea the cedar and the pine.
The dark produce of Dilmun.
My face with pigment I have beautified.
My head with a radiant crown I have adorned.
My . . . with cedar ointment I have beautified.
My back with the garment dukaddua I have adorned.
O what for a child is mine? How long sleepeth he?
The sturdy one who sorrows, how long sleepeth he?
Damu who sorrows, how long sleepeth he?
Priest of lustration, who sorrows, how long sleepeth he?
O what for a child ? In the garlic he sleeps, in the garlic he was cast
away.
TAMMUZ AND ISHTAR
349
The strong one, my Damn, in the garlic sleeps, in the garlic he was
cast away.
In the willows he sleeps, with woe cries he is overfilled.’
To her child in the plains of Heaven she hastened.
In the plains of Heaven, in the plains of Earth she hastened.
In the plains of Earth he kept watch.
Like a herdsman he kept watch over the places of the fat cattle,
Like a shepherd he kept watch over the places of the fat sheep.
Woe and wailings for the seized away.”
The lost Tammuz had been a shepherd of the sheep and the
herdsman of the cattle, and now he perished with flowers and
grass j in their withered leaves the Sumerians recognized the
dead body of Tammuz. Ewe and her lamb languished, she-
goat and her kid famished.
“ I the strong one go to the conflict, the way of no return,”
said Tammuz in one of the liturgies, and the wailing men and
women replied:
“ Woe, O man, heroic Ninazu.
Woe, O man, my man, my Damu.
Woe, O man, the child Ningishzida.
Woe, O man, god Lamga, lord of the net.
Woe, O man, prince, lord of adoration.
Woe, O man, Isir, of the shining eyes.
Woe, O man, my heavenly singer.
Woe, O man, Ama-ushumgalanna.
Woe, O man, brother of the mother, the goddess Geshtinanna.
He is gone, is gone, to the bosom of the earth.
His (cup of sorrow) is overfull in the land of the dead.
With sighing for him on the day of his fall.
In the month of no peace, in his (appointed time) of the year.
On the journey that brings men to extremities.
With lament for Damu the lord
Is the hero (gone) to the far-away land unseen.
Woe for the springing verdure delayed, woe for the leafing plant
which is restrained.”
The same liturgy tells how Tammuz in his infancy lay in a
submerged boat, referring to his being cast as an infant upon
the river, where he sank beneath the waves. In his manhood
350
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
he was drowned at harvest time. Another liturgy compares
Tammuz with a tamarisk which has no water in the garden, and
with plants whose foliage withers in the fields. These pas-
sages reveal the origin of the Greek ceremony at the wailings
of Adonis. “ The gardens of Adonis,” “ were baskets or pots
filled with earth in which wheat, barley, lettuces, fennel, and
various kinds of flowers were sown and tended for eight days,
chiefly or exclusively by women. Fostered by the sun’s heat
the plants shot up rapidly, but having no root they withered as
rapidly away, and at the end of eight days were carried out with
images of the dead Adonis and flung with them into the sea
or into springs.”
A dialogue between Tammuz and Innini, in which the dying
god, who sleeps in Arallu, is identified with the Sun-god, bears
the title “A Meditation of Innini”:
“ His sister stood forth and lamented.
To the Sun-god her husband she uttered a tale of lament.
Innini, she who brings verdure in abundance.
O Innini the verdure I will restore to thee.
O brother the verdure, where is it taken?
Who has taken? who has taken?
The plants from me who has taken ?
My sister, that which is taken I restore to thee.
O Innini, that which is taken I restore to thee.
O brother, the crushed, where are they gone?
Who has garnered? who has garnered?
The plants from me who has garnered?
My sister, that which is garnered I restore to thee.
O Innini, that which is garnered I restore to thee.
O brother, the garnered, where is it transported?
Whom shall I embrace, whom shall I embrace?
Thee I would embrace, yea embrace.
Thee, O my husband, I would embrace.
Him that from the flood is risen I would embrace.
Him, whom the father in the holy chamber begat, I would em^
brace.
TAMMUZ AND ISHTAR
351
Return, O lord, provide the flood, O lord, provide the flood.
O lord, rejoice my heart.
The spade labours not, but the granaries shall be heaped.”
Tammuz was, therefore, intimately connected with the Sun-
god Shamash, more particularly with the type of Sun-god who
became lord of the dead, Nergal. One of the hymns in the
Tammuz wailings is actually addressed to Nergal,^® and, like
Nergal, Tammuz had also the title “ Lord of Arallu.” This
identification with the Sun-god was suggested by the fact that
both descended to the lower world. When the Sumerian myth
and cult of the dying god spread among the Western Semites it
was wholly natural that the principal city of sun worship in
Phoenicia became also the centre of the Tammuz cult. Gebal
or Byblos, the home of the Phoenician Sun-god El, accepted the
mystic cult of death and resurrection with enthusiasm. Aduni,
“ my lord,” became the exclusive title of Tammuz here where
the river which descended from the Lebanons ran yearly to the
sea dyed red with the blood of Adonis. Gebal became the
sacred city of West Semitic religion and bore the title “ Holy
Gebal.” As Erech, home of the goddess Innini-Ishtar, became
the centre of the Tammuz-Ishtar cult in Babylonia, so was
Gebal the centre of the Western cult. But this myth, and the
theological dogmas and mystic beliefs founded upon it, were of
universal appeal and found response in the souls of all men.
It is the greatest of all ancient myths and appealed to the poor
and humble, to the toilers and the distressed, more than all the
glamour of warlike gods who shook Heaven and Earth with
their Word and founded their abodes in Heaven and the Abyss.
CHAPTER XII
THE DEVILS, DEMONS, GOOD AND
EVIL SPIRITS
B elief in shadowy beings which infest the air and secret
places of earth is common to all religions, and is in none
more emphasized than among the primitive Semites/ The
Arabians said that there were forty troops of Jinn, and each
troop consisted of six hundred thousand Jinn. This word is
an abstract noun meaning “ the hidden.” The Jinn were said
to have inhabited the earth before man, and were created from
fire. Under their leader, Azazel or IblTs, they rebelled
against the gods, and angels drove them to the waste places of
the earth. They have the power to change their forms in the
twinkling of an eye, and rarely appear visible to man, although
animals can detect them. When the cock crows or the ass
brays they have seen a Jinn, The Jinn have animal forms,
and appear as snakes, dogs, cats, swine, and infest the waste
places of the desert. They roam by night and disappear at
dawn. Therefore the Arabs close every possible entrance of
their houses by night, and fear to travel in the darkness. The
Jinn ride abroad on animals, preferably on ostriches and foxes,
a legend which possibly explains the Babylonian representa-
tions of Marduk and the ostrich j see Fig. 86, where the ostrich
represents one of the dragons of Chaos in late Babylonian and
Assyrian mythology. Arabian mythology figures them as hor-
rible hybrid monsters, half wolf and half hyena. Figure 95
shews one of the Arabian Jinn, the ghoul, as drawn for the
famous explorer, C. M. Doughty, by a desert Arab, who swore
by Allah to have seen her. Her voice sounded like that of a
mother calling her children.
DEVILS, DEMONS, GOOD AND EVIL SPIRITS 353
Three monotheistic religions were born on Semitic soil, and
each of them retained and even increased the emphasis on this
belief in the existence of devils and evil spirits, Judaism, with
its monotheistic God Yaw, retained a host of demons, evil and
propitious. The Jewish treatises on magic to prevent the
wicked machinations of demons, and the multitude of bowls
with Aramaic, Mandaic, and Jewish charms, directed princi-
pally against the horrible
demoness Lilith, consti-
tute a great literature in
the history of Judaism in
all lands and in all peri-
ods to the present day,^
Christianity admitted the
existence of evil and good
spirits from the begin-
ning, and Jesus, its
Founder, recognized Sa-
tan and the demons as
evil spirits,® The Evan-
gelists Matthew, Mark,
and Luke give an account
of the temptation of Jesus
by Satan in the wilderness
immediately after His
baptism in the Jordan by John the Baptist, According to
Matthew and Luke the Devil (^diabolos) had power to confer
kingdoms upon Jesus, which he offered to do if He would
worship him, Jesus replied: “Get thee behind me, Satan,”
And so the Devil left Him and angels came to minister unto
Him,^ Satan and the demons form an important aspect of
Christian demonology in all periods of the Roman Catholic,
Eastern Greek, and Protestant Churches,®
Mohammed, the founder of Islam, likewise admitted the
existence of the hosts of Jinn and demons of pre-Islamic
354
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
Arabia,® and the subsequent history of that religion, which lays
special emphasis upon Allah as the one and only God, follows
much the same course in respect to demonology and morbid
magical expiatory rites ^ as Judaism and Christianity. In the
sacred book of Islam, the Koran {Quran), Mohammed writes
that Allah had created the Jinn of subtle fire before He created
man from clay. And when He ordered the angels to worship
man they all obeyed save Iblis, who was cursed “ until the day
of reckoning,” and became the lord of all the Satans. The
Mohammedan legend was derived from a post-christian Jew-
ish story told in “ The Books of Adam and Eve.” ® After Adam
was created. Yaw commanded Michael and all the angels to
worship God’s new creation j Satan refused, and He banished
Satan or the Devil with all his angels. Henceforth they lived
on earth. Belief in a personal monotheistic God failed to ban-
ish demonology from any of the monotheistic religions of man-
kind. It is, in fact, a debatable theory whether the demons,
good and evil, are not older than the gods themselves, and
magic has been claimed to be the forerunner of all the religions
and mythologies of civilized nations and races.
In this book I have divided the mythology of Semitic re-
ligions into two great groups — the eastern and northern my-
thology, almost exclusively dominated by Sumero-Babylonian
mythology, and the southern or Arabian mythology, where
alone the original mythological conceptions of Semitic peoples
were not suppressed or displaced by the overshadowing influ-
ence of the ancient religion of Sumer, Babylonia, and Assyria.
The demons and satyrs of the north and west Semitic races
were, therefore, largely borrowed from Babylonia, ultimately
from Sumer, as were their myths and many of their gods. Few
traces of truly Hebrew demonology survive in the Old Testa-
ment, although it is precisely this aspect of superstitious beliefs
which remains most radically immune from more spiritual influ-
ences among all races.
Sumerian mythology attributes the origin of demons to wan-
DEVILS, DEMONS, GOOD AND EVIL SPIRITS 355
dering souls of the dead, and Hebrew mythology preserves the
same superstition in its references to the Rephaim or giants who
inhabited Palestine before the Hebrew occupation. The legend
corresponds to the Islamic myth that the Jinn, under their
leader Iblis (borrowed from the Greek diabolosy Devil), oc-
cupied the earth before the creation of Adam. Four Philistine
giants who warred with David are described in 2 Sam^uel xxi.
15—22 as sons of the Rapha in Gath. One of them had six
fingers and six toes. The Israelites under Moses, arriving
in Moab east of the Dead Sea, were told of a legendary race
of giants, the Emim, “ many and tall like the Anaqim ”5 both
were accounted Rephaim in Canaanitish legend. Of the Am-
monites north of Moab they learned from Moses that afore-
time the Rephaim had also occupied that land and were known
as the Zamzummim there (Deuteronomy ii. 10-21). Chedor-
laomer smote the Rephaim at Ashteroth Qarnaim, and there
was a famous tale in early Hebrew history concerning Og, king
of Bashan, a land east of the Sea of Galilee. When the Israel-
ites invaded the region north of Moab, they came upon the leg-
endary troglodytes of prehistoric times. Og was the last of
the Rephaim, and his iron bed was nine cubits {circa fifteen
feet) long and four cubits wide (Deuteronomy iii. 3-1 1 j
Joshua xii. 4, xiii. 12, 30, 31).
The word Rephaim is identical with the Hebrew and Phoe-
nician word for souls of the dead who dwell in Sheol, and there
can be no doubt that they are fabulous giants or demons in
Semitic mythology, corresponding to the gigifn^ gidimy
“ ghost,” of Sumerian mythology, and the etimmu of Accadian
demonology. The Semitic verb from which Rapha, “ ghost,”
plural Rephaim, is derived means “ to sink into darkness,” and
is common in Accadian under the form rabu.
Another class of demon is referred to in post-exilic sections
of Isaiah (xiii. 21, xxxlv. 14), the Se‘irim or “Hairy ones,”
that is satyrs as goats. They are mentioned with the ostrich in
a prophecy against Babylon:
356
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
“ There shall the ostriches dwell,
And satyrs dance therein.”
The ostrich was associated with demons in both Arabian and
Babylonian mythology, and the post-exilic code of rituals for-
bade the Hebrews to offer sacrifices to these hairy satyrs as they
had done in ancient times (Leviticus xvii. 7)5 for even Reho-
boam, first king of Judah, had appointed priests for these satyrs.
A ceremony of expiation preserved in Leviticus (chap, xvi), ap-
parently a survival from primitive Semitic customs, consisted
in casting lots upon two goats {se^nirn) 5 the goat, thus chosen
for Yaw, became a sin offering j the one chosen for Azazel was
placed alive before Yaw that a ritual of atonement be made
over it and then it be sent away to Azazel into the desert. A
further note in this record says that the priest (Aaron) placed
both hands upon the live goat, confessing all the sins of the
people, which were thus placed upon the goat. An attendant
then led it away into the wilderness bearing all the sins of
Israel.
-
Azazel, to whom propitiation was thus made, is clearly a
primitive satyr of the flocks, the leader of the hairy race of
Jinns called §e‘irim, and a good demon whom later mythology
transformed into a devil. He corresponds to the Sumerian
genius Ninamaskug, “ Lord of the pure cattle-stall,” ® de-
scribed as the shepherd and psalmist of Enlil. In a similar
ritual, the mashhulduhhu in Babylonian magic, “ the goat
upon which sin was poured out ” was sacred to Ninamaskug.
This word {mashhulduhhu) is of Sumerian origin and ap-
parently meant a live goat consecrated by priests. A demon
could be expelled from a man by placing the head of the
“ scapegoat ” (so the ancient versions rendered Azazel) to the
head of the man. The poisonous tabu was cast into the goat’s
mouth and the demon departed into the goat.’“ The cere-
mony was performed at sunset, when the “ scapegoat ” was
placed next to the man’s body. The fillet which had been tied
to the goat’s head was then tied to the patient’s head.’^
DEVILS, DEMONS, GOOD AND EVIL SPIRITS 357
It may be assumed that Azazel was a primitive Semitic genius
of the flocks j in late Jewish mythology, chiefly preserved in the
Book of Enoch, he was transformed into one of the angels who
descended from Heaven and married the daughters of men.
He is usually described as the leader of these angels j they cor-
rupted the earth, and their offspring were giants. And so Yaw
caused Azazel to be bound and cast into a pit in the desert j for
according to Jewish tradition the “ scapegoat ” was sent to per-
ish in the desert. The myth that demons cohabit with women,
and female demons with men, is universal in Semitic folk-lore
and in Sumerian. Female demons are said to be “ the harlot,
mother womb that bears children,” and the ala (Sumerian)
demon was bisexual j a man is said to have impregnated him.^®
The Jinn of Arabian demonology are said to cohabit with hu-
man beings, and their offspring are also invisible spirits.^* Per-
sian demonology contains a legend of how the demon Azi rav-
ished two beautiful women, but there is no other reference to
this belief in Persian sources.^^
In Sumero-Babylonian mythology the devils were the off-
spring of Anu, the Heaven-god.
“ Cold, fever diminishing all things.
Evil devil whom Anu begat.
Namtaru, beloved son of Enlil, borne by Ereshkigal.
On high they have decimated, on earth they have laid misery.
They are the creation of Hell.
On high they roar, on earth they shriek.
Bitter poison sent by the gods are they.
Great storms which have been let loose from Heaven are they.
Owl( ? ) which cries in the city are they.
Begotten by Anu, children, offspring of the nether world are they.”
“ Giants seven times two are they.
All one begetting, created by the begetting of Anu, are they.
They are surging blasts of wind.
A wife they married not, children they begat not.
Child they know not.
Horses which grew up in the mountain are they.
They are wicked ones of Enki.
358
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
Throne-bearers of the gods are they.
To trouble the streets they stand in the ways.
They stalk before Nergal, strong hero of Enlil.”
The most terrible of all Sumerian demonesses, the Lamme,
Lamashtu in Babylonian, was the daughter of the Heaven-god.
The devils of Sumero-Babylonian mythology were, therefore,
sons of the Heaven-god,” corresponding to the “ sons of
Elohim ” in the Semitic myth preserved in the early Hebrew
source. Genesis vi. 1-4. The “ sons of Elbhim ” saw the daugh-
ters of men and took for themselves wives which they chose,
and so the Nephilim or giants were born, and the Gibborim, or
heroes of old, men of fame. These giants, which were believed
to have inhabited the earth in prehistoric times, were also
known as Rephaim, whom the Israelites claimed to have found
in Moab (Emim and Anaqim, p. 355) among the Ammonites,
and in Bashan, in Trans- Jordania. Likewise their spies found
Nephilim in southern Canaan, among whom were the “ sons
of Anaq,” identical with the fabulous Anaqim of the Deutero-
nomic account.
A class of demons in Hebrew mythology were the sedim^
singular sed, derived from Babylonia, where the seduy Su-
merian alady is by origin a bovine spirit, in sculpture usually
represented by colossal winged bulls. Fig. 96 shews one of
these sedu placed at the palace-gate of Ashurnazirpal. These
protecting spirits are invariably mentioned with the lamma or
lamassUy probably winged cows as seen in Fig. 97, or in any
case winged female animals. Asarhaddon boasted that he
placed sedus and lamassus at the right and left of his door-
way, “ which turn back the breast of the evil one, as was their
purpose, protecting the foot-way, bringing peace to the foot-
steps of the king their maker.” The representation of the sedu-
genius, as seen in Fig. 96, probably affords only a special design
of the various forms in which they presented themselves to the
vivid imagination of the Babylonians and Assyrians. This
winged bull is one of the good seduy and one passage states that
DEVILS, DEMONS, GOOD AND EVIL SPIRITS 359
the “good sedu” is a goat {Nies Collectioriy ii. 22, 140 and
177). There were also evil
“ Decimating Heaven and Earth, sMu decimating the land,
Sedu decimating the land, whose power is of Heaven,
Whose power is of Heaven, whose roving is in Heaven.
The galluy the goring ox, the mighty ghost.
Ghost which violates all houses.
Shameless gallu, seven are they.
They grind the land like meal,
They know not mercy.
Raging against the people.
Eaters of the flesh, causing blood to flow like rain, drinking the
arteries.
Once on a time, in the place of the forms of the gods.
36 o SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
Fig. 97. The Sumerian Lamassu
DEVILS, DEMONS, GOOD AND EVIL SPIRITS 361
In the house of the god of the holy chamber, of the goddess of flocks
and grain, they grew fat.
The galluy who are full of wickedness, are they.
Ceaselessly they eat blood.
Cause them to swear the curse, and may they not return outside or in-
side (the house).
May they be cursed by the life of Heaven and Earth.”
Here the sedu are identical with the seven devils, and are
explicitly described as ghosts who ravage the land in the shape
of bulls. They are described as evil and merciless, and asso-
ciated with ghosts from the grave. The ideogram employed
in writing sedu probably means “ strong one of the pit,” a
spirit whose abode is in Hell. The ideogram for “ bull ” has
also the value alad {= sedu^ and may be used besides as a
title of Nergal, lord of the dead. The good and evil sedu was,
therefore, a genius of the underworld, usually conceived of as
a bull and, like all other demons, connected with wander-
ing souls of the dead. These then were the mythical beings
of Canaanitish mythology. The writer of the song attributed
to Moses, but of a later age, Deuteronomy xxxii. 17, accused
the Hebrews of sacrificing to the sedim (devils) “ which are
no god.” The writer of Psalm cvi. 37 states that, in the old
paganism of Canaan, sons and daughters were sacrificed to the
sedim, from which the inference may be drawn that here also
the sedim were associated with Nergal, or with Malik (Mo-
loch) the terrible god of plague, fiery heat, and Inferno. Hu-
man sacrifies of expiation to this god have been discussed on
page 52, and the same sacrifices would naturally be made to
demons who served Nergal or Moloch. The sedim survived
in late Jewish mythology, and Baruch, writing in New Testa-
ment times, has these lines in his lamentation over Jerusalem:
“ I will call the Sirens from the sea.
And ye Liliths, come ye from the desert.
And ye Shedim and dragons (Tannim) from the forests.”^®
The Babylonian demon Lilu, Lillu, derived from Sumerian
lily “ wind,” “ wind-demon,” had the unenviable and baneful
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
362
role of a spirit of lasciviousness, enticing women in their sleep.
His counterpart, the demoness Lilitu, or Ardat Lilli, Ardat
Lili, “ Handmaid of Lilu,” exercised the same pernicious in-
fluence over men, and enjoys the unique distinction of having
handed down to our times the only Sumerian word which sur-
vives in the English language. The demon Lilu, and the
demonesses Lilitu and Ardat Lili, are named regularly among
the ordinary names of the Sumerian demons as Ullay kiskil Ullay
“ Maid of Ullay” and kiskil-uddakarruy “ Maid who seizes away
the light,” the last being only a late form of Lilith. The regu-
lar list of these devils in Babylonia is, “ Wicked Utukku, wicked
Alu, wicked ghost {etimmu)y wicked Gallu, wicked god, wicked
Spy (Rabisu) Lamashtu, Labasu, the Seizer (Ahhazu), Lilu,
Lilith, Maid of Lilu,” in all twelve demons, who cause disease,
pestilence, and death.®^
There is no special myth concerning either Lilu or Lilitu in
cuneiform texts but the activities of the group mentioned above
are defined in one text as follows:
“ He against whom the wicked Utukku hurled himself,
Whom in his bed the wicked Alu covered,
Whom the wicked ghost by night overwhelmed.
Whom the great Gallu assaulted.
Whose limbs the wicked god lacerated.
Whom Lamashtu possessed with a seizing hand,
Whom Labasu overwhelmed.
Whom the Seizer fastened upon.
Whom the Maid of Lilu chose.
The man, whom the Maid of Lilu pressed to her bosom.”
The omission of the Spy and Lilu in this list indicates their
inferior importance. Lilitu, the demoness of the wind who
seduced men by night, passed into Hebrew mythology and is
the most baneful and frequently mentioned of evil spirits
throughout the history of Judaism to the present day. She
figures largely in late Greek and in Christian demonology, and
forms the subject of many Christian myths. A post-exilic poem
DEVILS, DEMONS, GOOD AND EVIL SPIRITS 363
and prophecy on the destruction of nations has these lines on
the desolation of Edom:
“ Wild beasts shall meet jackals,
And satyr cry to its fellow.
Only there shall Lilith have rest,
And find for herself a place of repose.”
In later Jewish demonology Lilith was a hairy night-
demoness, and the Targum warned men not to sleep alone in
a house for fear of her. She also inherited in Judaism the char-
acter of the dreadful child-slaying Babylonian Lamashtu. To
this day there are oral Rumanian tales of how the wind-maids
smote a man on the way with disease of the eyes, and how they
were found and overcome by St. Michael j and tales of the
demoness Avezuha who sought to harm Mary the Mother of
Jesus before the birth of her divine son. A Hebrew legend in
the “ Mystery of the Lord ” says that Lilith was the first wife
of Adam, mother of all the Sheddim {sedus)^ and a child-
stealer. There is a Syriac tale of how the holy Mar Ebedishu
bound Lilith, and forced her to reveal all her names. She ap-
proaches no house where her names are written.^^
In Mandean mythology there were Liliths, Zahriel being
the name of the Lilith who watched over the beds of women in
travail in order to steal the child. In Rumanian Christian
mythology the Sumero-Accadian male demon Gallu becomes
the child-stealing Lilith, under the form Gelu. A Jewish
charm written on a bowl has the following legend: Elijah the
prophet met the wicked Lilith on the road and asked her where
she was going, calling her “ thou foul one, spirit of foulness.”
She confessed that she was seeking the house of a woman in
child-birth to suck the marrow of the child’s bones, to devour
his flesh. Elijah restrained her in the name of Y(aw), and
she appealed to him not to ban her in the name of Y(aw), God
of Israel. She told him that if they repeated her names, or if
she saw her names written, she and her whole band would have
no power over that place. She gave fifteen names, and Elijah
V — 25
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
364
adjured her by Y(aw), the holy figure 613, by Abraham, Isaac,
the holy tabernacle, the Seraphs, the wheels and holy beasts,
and the ten books of the Law, not to come near the woman and
child.^'*
The most commonly named demons of Sumerian mythology
are the Utukku limnu, who seizes a man’s shoulder; Alu
limnu, who attacks a man’s breast; Etimmu limnu, who at-
tacks the bowels; Gallu limnu, who attacks a man’s hand,^®
often associated with the Asakku, “ the robber,” who attacks
the head, and the wicked Namtaru, who attacks the throat.
The earliest mention of any of these demons in Sumerian is by
Gudea who claims to have expelled the u-dug-ga, the terrible,
from his city.^^ The same ruler speaks of the “ favourable
u-dugy* who went before him. Not until the end of Sumerian
civilization is found the peculiar ideographic writing for this
good and evil spirit. The ideogram begins with the sign for
the fraction 2/3, whereas the sign for ghost, gigimy “he of
darkness,” in Accadian etimmUy begins with the sign for 1/3.
Both words have a similar meaning, and designate spirits which
have ascended from the lower world. Gigim or etimmu is
the ordinary word for the souls of the departed, and passed
into the late Jewish vocabulary as ftmtd^ It is possible that the
ideograms mean “ one-third divine,” “ two-thirds divine.”
Offerings to etimmey or souls of the departed, were a common
custom in Sumerian, Babylonian, and Assyrian religion. Dis-
eases and troubles of all kinds are attributed to the “ Hand of
a ghost.” The following passage defines the activities of
the seven demons, a number to which the larger list of twelve
was ordinarily reduced, in harmony with the mythological
power attached to the number “ seven.”
“ The wicked Utukku who slays man alive on the plain.
The wicked Alu who covers (man) like a garment.
The wicked Etimmu, the wicked Gallu, who bind the body.
The Lamme (Lamashtu), the Lammea (Labasu), who cause disease
in the body.
The Lilu who wanders in the plain.
DEVILS, DEMONS, GOOD AND EVIL SPIRITS 365
They have come nigh unto a suffering man on the outside.
They have brought about a painful malady in his body.
The curse of evil has come into his body.
An evil goblin they have placed in his body.
An evil bane has come into his body.
Evil poison they have placed in his body.
An evil malediction has come into his parts.
Evil and trouble they have placed in his body.
Poison and taint have come into his body.
They have produced evil.
Evil being, evil face, evil mouth, evil tongue.
Sorcery, venom, slaver, wricked machinations.
Which are produced in the body of the sick man.
O woe for the sick man whom they cause to moan like a saharrat-
pot.”
They are described in this text as having ascended from the
house of Ekur, and as the messengers of the Earth-god, Enlil.
The priest of magic entered to expel them with the “ Utukku
{sedu^ of mercy ” on his right hand, the “ Lamassu of mercy ”
on his left hand. In this list the demon Alu can be identified
with Ailo, one of the names of Lilith in Jewish demonology.®^
The Gallu passed into Greek mythology as FeXXo), Gello,
and is said to have been mentioned by Sappho. According to
Greek writers she was an overfond mother who died before her
time, and she appears to children and those who die prema-
turely (from Suidas) j she is said to have been the image of the
vampire Empousa and a demoness who snatches away chil-
dren.®® The names of the Sumerian and Babylonian demons
were, therefore, known to the classical Greek writers, and
Gallu, originally a male demon, passed into Greek as a female
and was identified with the child-snatching Lamia of Sumerian
demonology. Alu and Gallu both appear as forms of Lilith
throughout Jewish and Christian demonology, due to the fact
that the Greek ending 6 is feminine, and that they had been
confounded with Lamia and Lilitu, with whom they are con-
stantly mentioned. Gallu has survived to the present day as
one of the names of the demoness Lilith, and occurs repeatedly
in Christian demonology of the Middle Ages as Gelou, Gilou.
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
366
One of these legends, written in Greek, says that St. Michael,
descending from Sinai, met Abyzu, demoness of all ills, causing
the milk of women to be cold, frightening children in sleep.
St. Michael forced her to reveal her forty names, the first of
which is Gilou.®®
The most dreaded of all Sumerian demons was Lamme, or
Lamashtu in Accadian, the female vampire who slew children,
drank the blood of men, and ate their flesh. This name passed
into Greek mythology as Lamia, derived from another name
of her, Lam-me-a.®^ Sappho made mention of her, and a
Scholiast on Theocritus wrote that Lamia was queen of the
Laestrygonians and the same as Gello, “ who, being unfor-
tunate in her own offspring, desired, as they departed, to slay
all those that remained.” Through her title Gello this terrible
creation of Sumerian superstition passed into the demonology
of Europe. She appears first in the texts of the First Baby-
lonian dynasty,®® and in a series of thirteen incantations, which
continued to be used as the standard of magic ritual against her
malevolent activity in Babylonia and Assyria.®®
Following the late Assyrian edition, which adds a ritual after
each incantation, this demoness is described as follows, in the
first incantation. She has seven names, Lamme, daughter of
Anu, sister of the gods of the streets; Sword which shatters the
head; She that kindles a fire (fever); She whose face is hor-
rible; Controller of the slayers of the hand of Irnina; Mayest
thou swear by the name of the great gods and with the birds of
Heaven fly away.®^ The seven devils are also called the seven
wicked Lamme (Lamashti) and the seven Lammea (Labasi),
wicked fevers; and an incantation to protect a woman in child-
birth against this dreadful child-snatching demoness describes
her as the “ seven witches,” who bind men and murder
maidens.®® This text was written on amulets in accordance with
the tradition that a demon would enter no house where he saw
his name written, a belief which is common to all magical prac-
tices to this day. Fig. 98, a stone plaque whose upper shoul-
-
DEVILS, DEMONS, GOOD AND EVIL SPIRITS 367
der is pierced by a cord-hole to suspend the amulet on a door or
on the breast, has the text with seven names of Lamashtu in-
scribed on the reverse. The obverse shews Lamme-Lamashtu,
the lion-headed demoness, holding a double-headed serpent in
each hand. A dog sucks at her right breast, a pig at her left
breast. The magician in the rituals made a clay image of her,
smote it with a sword, and buried it outside the wall. Here she
is represented with a sword driven into her skull, and the ma-
gician has provided her with raiment and food for her journey 5
he has sent her away to the mountains, the sea, and her dark
abode in Hell. On the left may be seen a roll of clothing, a
water-jar, a wine-jar standing in its support, a shoe, and a san-
dal. On the right is a centipede} between Lamashtu’s legs is
a scorpion, and before the ass’s head a grain sack} beside it a loaf
of bread. She rides off kneeling on the back of a galloping ass}
although the ass runs, it nevertheless sails in a boat, whose
prow ends in a serpent’s head, and the poop in a bull’s head.®®
A similar amulet with the same text is seen in Fig. 99, where
Lamashtu, seizing serpents, rides away on an ass in a boat. On
the left is one of the devils, who stands as her rear guard, and
a priest points her way to expulsion. On the collar of this amu-
let is the same scene as on the third register of Fig. 44, shew-
ing the priests dressed in the “ fish-robe,” symbol of the Water-
god, with two attendants. They perform the rituals for
expelling the demons from the person lying on the bed, here
apparently a woman in child-birth. On Fig. 44, the figure is
clearly that of a bearded man. The lower register of Fig. 44
also shews the expulsion of Lamashtu, kneeling upon an ass,
which gallops in a boat on the river. Her feet are those of a
bird of prey. A dog sucks at each breast, recalling the words
of the eighth incantation:
“ The name of Anu and Antu, of Enlil and Ninlil,
Of gate and entrances,
Of sword and seed-plough,
Of the ezil>u and his son, I cause thee to swear by,
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
If thou returnest to this house, comest hard upon the little one,
Sittest on the seat where he sits,
Liftest to thy lap the babe which I lift to my lap.
O Ishtar, hold back the mouth of thy dogs.
O Nana, hold back the mouth of thy whelps.
May the sleeper, who has lain down upon a bed not awake.
Until the sun sheds its rays of morn.”
Fig. 99. Expulsion of Lamashtu. Babylonian Amulet
Curiously enough Ishtar or Innini (Irnini) and Nana, names
of the virgin Mother-goddess, are frequently used for La-
mashtu. Even the great goddess of healing, Ninkarrak, is also
a demoness, and a man, distressed by being forced to appear
before the assembly by accusers, prayed:
“ O Ninkarrak, hold back thy whelps;
In the mouth of thy mighty dogs put a gag.”
Fig. 98. Lamashtu on her Journey with
Provisions
DEVILS, DEMONS, GOOD AND EVIL SPIRITS 369
The Greek demoness Hecate had also her dogs, and she too
was identified with the goddesses Selene, Artemis, and Per-
sephone. In the tenth incantation Lamashtu is described as
the daughter of Anu, who received her name from the great
gods 5 she is Innini, most eminent of queens, the slayer, the
offensive Asakku (a demon of disease), the mighty cyclone of
mankind. This incantation has been found on an amulet, which
shews Lamashtu with the head of a bird of prey. Here she has
a comb, spindle, and water-jar. Fig. 44 also shews the equip-
ment provided for her journey — a jar, a comb, a bundle of
garments, a sandal, and a shoe.*^ The third incantation began:
“ Angry, raging goddess, the furious, and she is a wolf, daugh-
ter of Anu.” She seizes old men, strong men, maidens, and
little ones, fastens herself upon limbs, binds the muscles, in-
flames the body.
The fifth incantation describes her as a pest of beasts of prey j
she infests rivers, highways, walls j befouls and shrivels the
trees} and drinks the blood of men. The magician must give
her comb, pectoral jewels, spinning rod, sandals, and water-
pouch for her thirst} and must fill her scrip with dainties. The
afflicted man prays:
“ Like a mule of the field ride away to thy hill.”
The seventh incantation speaks of a sail-boat made for her
to depart. The eighth incantation describes how she slew
infants} she cries to the women:
“ Bring me your sons, I will suckle them.
In the mouths of your daughters I will put my teat.”
t)f special interest for the character of Lamashtu as she was
borrowed by the Greeks under the Sumerian titles Lamia and
Gello is the twelfth incantation:
“ She has been made great, the daughter of Anu, suckler of the feeble
ones.
Her palms are a trap, her bosom . . .
A devourer, a howler, a foe, a robber.
370
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
A devastator, a plunderer, is the daughter of Anu.
She attacks the womb of the pregnant.
She snatches the babe from the nurses.
She suckles, carries off,^® and goes away.
Great are her weapons, her sinews are . . .
Her head is that of a lion, her teeth the teeth of an ass.
Her lips are a spray, pouring out vomit.
She descended every mountain.
She shrieks like a lion.
Howls like a mad dog.
From threshold to threshold she howls.”
Marduk saw her evil work and told his father Ea how
Lamashtu oppresses the feeble. Ea ordered Marduk to use his
incantation, to give her a comb, spindle, and oil-bag, and send
her on her way. The
ritual prescribes that
each of the thirteen in-
cantations be recited
over a part of the body,
beginning from the
head and ending with
the feet. The first in-
cantation was recited
over the patient’s head,
the second over the
neck, the third over the
right hand, the fourth
over the left hand, and
so on, ending with
right and left foot.
Two amulets with
similar representations of Lamashtu, her provisions for travel,
the figures of the seven devils and the demons in her train, carry
an incantation different from any of the thirteen on the standard
ritual. Fig. i OO shews one of these amulets j here again a sword
has been driven into her head. Before her stands one of her
Fig. 100. Seven Devils and Lamashtu.
Babylonian Amulet
DEVILS, DEMONS, GOOD AND EVIL SPIRITS 371
attendant demons, and in the right upper corner is the horrible
head of Pazuzu, “ Lord of the wind-demons.” The incanta-
tion describes Lamashtu as she who disturbs sleep and sends
nightmares, precisely as in the eighth incantation of the series
mentioned above (p. 369). This same incantation occurs on
two amulets which represent Lamashtu with serpents, standing
upon a crouching bull.^® On Fig. 44 the wind-demon is seen
behind Lamashtu in the fourth register, and the entire reverse
is occupied by a large image in deep bas-relief of this demon
Pazuzu, who peeps over the top, grinning at the calamities
which Lamia has brought upon mankind.
Fig. loi shews the four-winged demon
of the winds, a monster with half human,
half canine head, and wide grinning
mouth. The hands are those of a savage
wild animal, the legs terminate in talons
of a bird of prey, and are covered with
feathers. The monster has a scorpion
tail. Three similar figures of this demon
of the winds are known. They all have
a ring attached solidly to the top of the
head, and stand on a support, so that they
may be suspended or set in any appro-
priate place to defend the home against
his wicked attacks.®® A curious figurine of Pazuzu in crouching
position is also known, the body covered with scales, as is the
bas-relief figure on the back of Fig. 44.®^ Only one of these
has an inscription giving the name “ (god) Pazuzu, son of
(god) Hanpa, lord of the wicked wind-demons (/z 7 ^),” and it
mentions the west wind.
More often this wind-demon is represented either on bas-
reliefs with Lamashtu as on Figs. 44, 98, 99, or by the head
only in the round as seen in Fig. 102, which bears an inscrip-
tion: “Thou art mighty, high, mountain-infesting, controller
of all winds, raging, angry, who approachest in wrath, angry
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
372
wind, whose onslaught is terrible, thou commander of the
(four) regions, devastating the beautiful hills.” Inscriptions
on similar heads also describe this demon as a raging wind,
descending on river and desert, spreading abroad fever and
cold, smiting man and woman, and when it blows disease falls
upon the pale-faced people.®^ The inscription on one of them
names the demon as “ (god) Pazuzu, son of (god) Hanpa, lord
of the lilcy the wicked god.”
The demons are ordinarily referred to as seven in Sumerian
and Accadian inscriptions, and they are figured on bas-reliefs
as seven animal-headed mon-
sters. In the texts which describe
them, usually under the title the
wicked utukku,'* the number is
indefinite, and usually more than
seven. The list referred to
above (p. 362) has twelve. To
these may be added Namtaru,
Mamit, “ the curse,” and many
others. They are also said to be
seven times seven in number and
evil winds that rage, horses that
grew up in the mountain of the
lower world, throne-bearers of
Fig. 102. Head of Pazuzu
gal, god of Inferno. There is an obvious Inconsistency in the
Babylonian conception of the seven devils. The second register
of Fig. 44 shews them in this order with reference to the animal
nature of their heads — panther, lion, dog, sheep, wild ram,
bird of prey, serpent. On Fig. 99, they are antelope, serpent,
bird, fox, wolf, wild ram, panther. A similar amulet has the
seven devils as fox, sheep, antelope, bird, wild ram, serpent,
panther.
A Sumerian text describes them as follows:
‘‘ fate,” Asakku, “ the plague,”
DEVILS, DEMONS, GOOD AND EVIL SPIRITS 373
“ They are rushing storms, evil gods,
Merciless shedu who were created on the bulwark of Heaven.
They are makers of trouble.
They maintain wickedness, who daily enter for wickedness, who attack
to commit murder.
Among the seven, firstly there is the south wind.
The second is the great viper, whose wide open mouth [^slayeth] every
man.
The third is an angry panther, whose mouth knows no mercy.
The fourth is the terrible adder which . . .
The fifth is the raging lion which knows not how to retreat.
The sixth is an onrushing . . . which against god and king . . .
The seventh is the north wind, evil wind which wrathfuUy . . .
Seven are they, messengers of Anu the king.”
It is clear that the Sumerians and Babylonians believed these
evil spirits to belong to the divine order j they have no place
for dualism in their system. In late Judaism and in early
Christianity the belief in Satan, incarnation of all the demons
of a long past Semitic mythology as a being of independent
creation, according to modern scholars, is due entirely to Per-
sian Influence. When the author of the first Book of Enoch
attributed the cause of all evil in the world to the “ sons of
Elohim,” who married the daughters of men (see p. 357), and
described them as fallen angels, he introduced into the history
of Semitic mythology and theology a new principle. This
movement began in the second century b.c. The chief of the
demons, Belial, became the chief enemy of God in Jewish
Apocalyptic literature, and Satan was held to be lord of the
material world. All things worldly belong to him, and he is
interpreted by modern scholars to be of independent origin and
opposed to the deity of the spiritual world. It is beyond the
subject of this book to discuss the gradual growth and sudden
appearance of this supposed dualism in Judaism and Chris-
tianity. In a word, Semitic mythology now yields place to the-
ology in large measure. The ancient mythology of the Semitic
races had now run its course j it continued to exercise marked
influence upon the subsequent development of Judaism, Chris-
374
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
tianity, and Islam, particularly in demonology, under the new
and more exalted position which the demons and Satan had at-
tained by the introduction of the Persian dualistic principle.®®
It should be noted, however, that Satan as the enemy of God
and as the Anti-Christ in the new theology of Christianity is
not new. The demons of Babylonian mythology also oppose
“ god and king.” (See p. 373.) They are said to be the ene-
mies of all the gods, although the texts repeatedly state that
they were created by Anu, father of all the gods. For this
tolerance of the gods, their creation of evil beings, and their
permission to let them pursue their nefarious warfare against
man and beast, plain and hills, trees and plants, the Sumerians
and Babylonians had an explanation entirely consistent with
monism. The demons are the scourge of the gods, and no man
can suffer at their hands if he ensures himself properly by di-
vine protection. And when he is the victim of the demons, the
gods in their mercy provide their consecrated priests with di-
vine power to drive them back to their tenebrous abodes.
Finally a warning against the acceptance of the principle of
dualism in late Judaism and Christianity must be stated. Al-
though Persian dualism is almost universally admitted by his-
torians of Judaism and early Christianity, there are no passages
in Jewish literature or in the New Testament to confirm irre-
fragably the confidence with which Judaism and Christianity
have been condemned of dualism. In the final pages of this
book the modern results of scholarship on the last two centuries
before Christ, the New Testament period, and the succeeding
centuries of Talmudic literature, have been stated. They are
not the views of the writer of this book. Satan as the foe of
god, the Anti-Christ, and lord of the material world, is not
necessarily independent of “ God the Father ” of Christian
theology and creeds, or of the Jewish rabbinical writers. There
is no more inconsistency here than in Babylonian mythology.
NOTES
:
1
~nftr
NOTES
Chapter I
1. Langdon [d], i. 7. In the early inscriptions the word is A-ga-de,
but in later Babylonian the gentilic adjective is ak-ka-du-u.
2. On the dynasty of Accad, see CAHy i. 402-423.
3. See OECT ii. lo-ii.
4. See Langdon [h], pp. 1 71— 174.
5. See the NPr ““Dungi-sa-am-si, Genouillac, ii. 17, No. 728.
In this NPvy however, Samsi, “ my Sun,” is hardly anything more than
the word for “ Sun.” It is the earliest known phonetic writing of the
Semitic word.
6. In NPr Ummi-"'^§amsi (si), CT ii. plates 23, 28.
7. In NPra Samsu-ditana, Samsu-iluna, Samsu-erah, Bauer, p. 38.
8. For the South Arabian pantheon the following works should
be consulted: Nielsen [a], pp. 177— 250; W. Fell, “ Sudarabische
Studien,” ZMDG liv. 231—259 (1900); Margoliouth, Relations be-
tween Arabs and Israelites. A good map of Sabaea, Ma‘in, and Hadra-
mut will be found with F. Hommel’s account of “ Explorations in
Arabia,” pp. 693—793 of Hilprecht.
9. In Fig. 2 the sun is represented by a simple cross, based upon
the more usual four-pointed star. See also Delaporte , Plate 51, No.
10, and Langdon, JRAS, 1927, pp. 44-46. In early Babylonian sym-
bolism the sun is also represented by a disk. For Fig. 3, see Anzani,
Riv. Ital. Num.y xxxix. 22 (1926).
10. For a Sabaean inscription discovered at Warka, ancient Su-
merian Erech in Sumer, see Loftus, pp. 233—4. For the recently dis-
covered South Arabian inscriptions at Koweit, see GJ lix. 321—34.
Three inscriptions of this kind were excavated at Ur. See E. Burrows,
JRASy 1927, pp. 795 ff.
11. Nielsen [a], i. 214—218.
12. The ordinary Sumerian ideogram for Sin is en-zu, which,
like other ideograms, such as zu-ab = afsuy “ nether sea,” gal-
usuM = usumgalluy “ dragon,” was pronounced in inverse order
zu-en. This is proved by the orthography of Cappadocian tablets in
which NPra, which contain the name of Sin, have regularly Zu-in,
Su-en. See ZDMG Ixxiv. 218; ZA xxxviii. 244. In an early Acca-
dian inscription from Ur the word is written ““Zu-en, Gadd and Legrain,
No. 1 1 . All doubt concerning this reading is removed by the writing
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
378
of the name of the Assyrian month Arah-Su-en and variant Arah-’’“Sin,
Ebeling, KAJIy Nos. 57, 29; 32, 22. In a text dated ninth year of
Gimil-Sin of Ur, the NPr Ur-'*Si-na proves that the Sumerians and
Accadians pronounced this word Sin. See C. E. Keiser, YOS iv.
No. 39, 4. In an early Sumerian hymn the word is written zu-e-na,
A. Poebel, ZA xxxvii. 174.
13. Osiander, ZDMG xix. 238 (1865), 11 . 2-5. Here ‘Athtar is
called his father. Parallel passages have Ilmuqah for Sin, ibid.y p. 242.
The name Sin occurs on two monuments. See Nielsen, MV AG,
1909, P- 359 -
14. From Egyptian sources it is possible to argue that the Sinaitic
plateau was a centre of moon worship from early times. On the rock
inscriptions from Magharah, in the western part of the Sinaitic peninsula,
the Egyptian Moon-god Thoth is portrayed observing Cheops (fourth
dynasty, early in the third millennium) smiting the inhabitants of this
region, Gardiner and Peet, Plates 2, 3, No. 7. Again on a monument
of the fifth dynasty from Magharah, ibid.y Plate 6, No. 10, the god is
apparently figured, and he occurs there again with Hathor in the reign of
Amenemmes III, Plate 10, No. 23, early part of the second millennium.
There seems to be no explanation for this unless moon worship was con-
nected with this area from remote antiquity.
15. Son of Jeconiah, I Chron. hi. 18. See Cheyne, EBi col. 4453.
16. Genesis xiv. 2. The Greek has here Sennar, and the name is,
therefore, doubtful. But “ Sin (is) father ” is a good Semitic NPr.
See Jensen, ZA vii. 177, note i. See 2 Kings xxiii. 5, where the ordi-
nary Semitic word for “ moon,” jdreahy is used. Also Deut. xvii. 3,
Jeremiah viii. 2.
17. Job xxxi. 26, 27. The act of adoration referred to is that of
throwing a kiss to the statue of a deity, common in Sumer, Babylonia,
and Greece. See “ Gesture in Sumerian and Babylonian prayer,” JRAS,
I 9 I 9 > PP- 531 ff-
18. This is also the theory of Nielsen [a], p. 218. On the early
Arabian pantheon, see Wellhausen, Reste arabischen Heidentums ; Dus-
saud [a], in which the religion of the North Arabian inhabitants of the
Hauran, south of Damascus, is discussed. See Krehl, p. 45.
19. On the various theories concerning a deity as father of a clan,
see the discussion by Lagrange, pp. no— 118; Gray, pp. 253—255, who
admits totemism in the early period of Hebrew religion, arguing from
personal names taken from animals.
20. Muller and Rhodokanakis, i. 190; W. T. Pilter, PSBAy 1916,
P- 154-
21. On titles of god as father, uncle (ancestor), see Bauer, p. 61.
‘Amm-yada‘, Ab-yada‘, Yada‘-ab, and perhaps Hal-yada‘, “the uncle
knows,” are further examples of Himyaritic names. In Accadian of
NOTES 379
the Amoritic period, Yadah-ab, “ the father knows,” Yadah-elum, “ El
knows.”
22. See Chapter XI. The use of “ brother ” and “ sister ” for these
deities is derived from Sumerian. Cf. ERE ix. 171.
23. RA xiii. 8 (Scheil).
24. Sargonic period (2732 to 2549 B.C.).
25. For the early Accadian period see Ungnad [d], pp. 29—30.
-
26. For the Minaean inscriptions at al-‘ 01 a and the prolific inscrip-
tional material of the Lihyani or Thamudi of the sixth century B.c.
there, see D. H. Muller, “ Epigraphische Denkmaler aus Arabischen,”
DWAWy 1889. For the Safa inscriptions of the Hauran, see Dussaud
. The only Himyaritic names based on god as brother, known to
me, are Ah-nadab or Ahi-nadab, “ the brother is generous.” Cf.
Hebrew Ahi-nadab, Assyrian Ahi-nadbi, and Phoenician Ah-nadab,
Tallquist [a], p. 17, and Ahu-Karib, “the brother is gracious,” Piker,
PSBA, 1916, p. 156.
27. Tallquist [a], p. 16.
28. ibid. ypp. 17,305.
29. Syria, v. 135-157; Vincent, RB, 1925, pp. 1 80 IT. This tomb
inscription of Ahi-ram of Gebal is dated by Dussaud on the basis of
Egyptian antiquities found with it as early as the fourteenth century, but
the epigraphy is decisively against the early date. The Egyptian monu-
ments found with the sarcophagus of Ahiram afford no evidence for
the date of the sarcophagus, and the Phoenician inscription cut in the
wall of the tomb-shaft is also no evidence that it is contemporary with
the Egyptian remains. The best epigraphists whom I have consulted
also emphatically deny the early date.
30. The title ^ammu, ^am, in Semitic religion is not found in early
Accadian, and appears first in Babylonian with the Amoritic invasion.
See Bauer, p. 73.
31. Gray, p. 254, saw this difficulty. See p. 12, where a more
probable reason based on Enlil as brother of Aruru is discussed.
32. Ungnad [d], p. 86.
33. Judges i. 35.
34. In any case a bird.
35. Of Yaw in Deut. xxxii. 4, 18; in the VPr Pedah-zur, “the
ransom of Zur,” and in the name of a city in Judah, Beth-zur, “ House
of Zur”; of some Aramaic deity in Bar-zur, “Son of Zur,” Cooke,
No. 62, I. But see Gray, pp. 195—6. According to Piker, PSBA,
1916, p. 173, the word sor is employed in Himyaric as a title of a god,
Zor-‘addan.
36. Animal names in Sumerian do not exist. There such epithets as
“ dog,” “ calf,” in Sumerian mean “ servant ” or “ offspring.” See
ERE ix. 1 7 1.
V 26
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
380
37. See Dussaud, NAMS x. 616, for Dhi’b at Safa in the Hauran,
first century a.d. For the name in classical Arabic, see Margoliouth,
“ Names (Arabic),” ERE ix. 138. Cf. the Palmyrene (Aramaic)
name ‘Ugaitu, “ the little mountain goat.”
38. E. Littmann, “ Vorbericht der deutschen Aksum Expedition,”
ABAW, 1906, p. 9, 1 . 4; Nielsen, “ Die Athiopischen Gbtter,”
ZDMG Ixvi. 589-600.
39. According to Nielsen the Ethiopic Earth deity is the Sun-goddess
of South Arabia. An exact parallel to this exists in Sumerian, where
the Earth-god Enlil is often identified with Babbar-Shamash. See
Langdon, PBS x. 158, n. i, 308, n. 2.
40. Numbers xxi. 29.
41. Exodus iv. 22.
42. Deut. xxxii. 6.
43. Deut. V. 18.
44. Jeremiah xxxi. 9, 20. See above, p. 7, on the fatherhood of
god.
45. Heracles apxvy^T"<l^> Cooke, No. 36.
46. Ungnad, [c], p. 409.
47. So in Assyrian.
48. Noldeke, p. 103. For Hebrew names composed with ab,
“ father,” as title of Yaw, El, or some Canaanitish deity, see Gray,
pp. 22—34. For those containing ben, “son,” bath, “ daughter,” ibid.,
PP- 64-75- J- G. Frazer, Adonis, Attis, Osiris, p. 44, n. 4, misunder-
stands the Semitic structure of these names when he translates, for
example, Abi-yah by “ Father of Jehovah,” etc., and argues that human
kings married with the Mother-goddess and produced the heir to the
throne. These names are not construct formations, as Gray, p. 79,
proved. A name like Yo-ah cannot mean anything but “ Jo is brother.”
49. See Langdon [e], pp. 20—23.
50. ibid., p. 23. Hence a name like §es-kalla, “the brother is
strong,” may refer to Tammuz (see p. 8) or to Enlil. For names in
which ses clearly refers to Tammuz, see Chiera, PBS xi. 235—6.
5 1 . A title of the Mother-goddess. See for ama names, Chiera,
PBS xi. 241-2.
52. lipit qat ^^°'^Arurn mitharis nafisti. See Langdon, [e], p. 26,
n. 5.
53. Jensen, KB vi.^ 62, 9 = 58, 5.
54. Cf. Dammu-mu-al-lid, Tallquist [a], p. 254, s.v. “ Dammu.”
But Ungnad , p. 407, 36, questions the reading.
55. MiiXirra, Herodotus, I. 131. See Zimmern, KAT^ p. 423,
n. 7.
56. RESi. 18.2; hi. 15.90.
57. See Gray, p. 64, n. 2.
NOTES
381
58. Hubert Grimme, OLZ, 1912, p. 16, tries to explain these names
by transformation of a male deity into a female. He thinks that ‘Ashtar-
Kemosh means “ Kemosh as a female deity,” and I suppose logically he
would interpret Eshmun-'Ashtar by ‘Ashtar as a male deity. The Jews
of Elephantine in Egypt worshipped several deities of this type, ‘ Anat-
Yaw, ‘Anat-Bethel, Herem-Bethel, Ashim-Bethel, all of which are ap-
parently combinations of a female and male deity. See Cowley, pp.
xviii, xix. Combinations of male deities are common in Assyria; Asur-
Adad is specifically explained as a type of Asur who exercises the func-
tions of the Rain and Omen-god Adad, Rawlinson, iii. 66, obverse, iv.
35—37; Dagan-Asur, ibid.^ i. 14.
59. Dussaud , x. 41 1—745.
60. This spelling indicates rather the Arabic ildt with article al-ildty
as Brockelmann, i. 257, states.
61. Dussand, of. cit., p. 457, is clearly right in identifying Hat
of the North Arabians with Astarte. Nielsen , i. 253—265, ar-
gues that Hat in the Hauran is also the great Sun-goddess of South
Arabia.
62. So Fleischer, Wellhausen, Ndldeke, in Nielsen, ibid., p. 256.
63. Nielsen’s principal argument in favour of Hat as a Sun-goddess in
North Arabia of the Hauran is the design of the sun, a circle with rays,
which accompanies several rock inscriptions, as ZDMG xxx. 514, Tafel
I.e.; Dussaud . No. 307. On Vogiie, ibid.. No. 269, the sun is
represented by a plain cross in a circle. This is a common Babylonian
design for the Sun-god. See Langdon, JRASy 1927, p. 44. But the
North Arabian Hat, al-ilat, Allat, was identified with Athena, the War-
goddess, and hence is Ishtar as War-goddess, Langdon [h], p. 100 f.
For Allat = Athena, see the inscription on an altar found at Cordova,
Syria, v. 344, 'KB-qva ’AXXdfl, and Dussaud [a], p. 129. The Palmy-
rene NPr Wahab-ilat, “ Gift of Hat,” is rendered by the Greek Atheno-
doros, Clermont-Ganneau, RB, 1920, p. 392. Allat in Safaitic inscrip-
tions is also the planet Venus, a complete assimilation to the Babylonian
Ishtar.
64. Here written “^*Na-ba-ai-te, gentilic Na-ba-ai-ti-ai (Nabataean),
who are certainly the ancient Arabian people mentioned in Genesis and
Deutero-Isaiah, Nebajoth. In the Nabataean inscriptions they are called
N-b-t-u, pronounced Nabataei by Pliny in Latin; hence many scholars
deny the identity of the Assyrian and Hebrew name with the Naba-
taeans of Arabia Petraea. See Streck, p. 66, n. 4.
65. Hesychius, i. 533, s. v. Aovffdprjv; Dalman, p. 50; Hill ,
p. xxvi.
66. Briinnow and Domaszewski, i. 189.
67. In any case Strabo describes the Nabataeans as sun worshippers,
xvi. 4. 26.
382 SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
68. See Briinnow, op. cit., p. 191. Epiphanius identifies Chaabu
with Core.
69. Kazwmi Atar el-Bilad, cited by Briinnow, p. 188.
70. Vogiie, at Salhad, Nabataean Inscriptions, No. 8.
71. For the explanation of this baetyl as symbol of Dusares, see Hill
[a], p. xxvii.
72. Mordtmann, ZDMG xxix. loi.
73. ZDMG xxix. 99.
74. CT xxiv. 13, 1 . 39 and 25, 1 . 95.
75. Origen, contra Celsum, v. 37.
76. See Daremberg and Saglio, article “ Dusares,” by Lenormant,
and Cumont’s article “ Dusares ” in Pauly- Wissowa.
77. See the myth of the death and resurrection of Bel-Marduk.
78. Aion, personification in late Greek mysteries of “The Age,”
the period when a new era of happiness should replace the mortal age
of sorrow. See on the Alexandrian legend and cult, Reitzenstein, pp.
195—6, with literature.
79. See Jules Girard, “ Dionysia,” Dictionnaire des Antiquites,
p. 233. Herodotus, iii, 8, says that the Arabic name of Dionysus
was ‘Orotalt, an obscure word which probably ends with “ Alat.”
He is then the “ Orot ” of the goddess Alat, his mother. This is
apparently a corruption of Walad-alat, “ child of Alat.” On the
festival of Dionysus, called Anthesteria, and its Asiatic origin see also
Deubner.
80. Cumont, p. 98.
81. Hill , Plate 12, 11 . 19-22.
82. z^zW., Plate 19,11. 1-4.
83. Cumont, p. no, n. 5.
84. Tux’? TToXecos. See “ Tyche ” in Roscher and Daremberg-Saglio.
85. For Allat of Petra on coins see Hill , Plate v. 10, ii, 13,
14, 15-
86. Briinnow and Domaszewski, i. 225, 182, Fig. 212.
87. Cumont, p. no.
88. ibid.y Plate Ixxxii and p. 216.
89. Here always in Greek Narata.
90. Langdon [h], pp. 48—49, 53, n. 4. She is the sister of Tam-
muz, and particularly associated with rivers and flocks. She appears as
the wife of Nebo, hirat ‘’Muzibsa, RA xi. 97, 1 . 3; hirat '^Nabi, vs. i. 36,
i. 5.
91. mixs in inscriptions from the Hejra, Cooke, No. 79, 5; 80,
4; 86, 8. The word is here read as a feminine plural, after Wellhausen,
p. 24, but as a singular, Manuthu, by Cooke. Goldzieher, in Archaeo-
log. epigr. Mittheil. aus CEsterreich, vi. 109 (1882), also takes the word
as plural, from the Latin inscription in Aquileja, Manawat, with Melag-
NOTES 383
bel (= Melekbel), the Sun-god of Palmyra. See Langdon, “The
Semitic goddess of Fate, Fortuna-Tyche,” JRAS xxi. 9 (1930).
92. in NPr Ta‘bad-Manat, Littman, MV AG 1904, PL i. 34.
93. Wellhausen, ZDMG Ixxvi. 698; Fischer, ibid., Ixxvii. 120;
Dalman, p. 52.
94. Dusares and Manathu, CIS ii. 320 F.
95. A West Semitic goddess of Fate.
96. Isaiah Ixv. ii.
97. The verb m-n-w, m-n-j, is common to all Semitic languages,
and means “ to count,” “ to assign to,” “ to apportion,” “ to allot.”
The feminine form appears perhaps in me-nat E-mah, “ She who as-
signs fate”(?) in Emah, title of the Mother-goddess nunus-egi-me-a,
Rawlinson, ii. 59 A 39; L. W. King, Catalogue SufpL, No. 51, 10.
Here a title of ^Mahhelit ilani. The statement in Gesenius, Thesaurus,
addenda, p. 97b, that Meni is found on coins of the Persian period in the
NPr Abdmeni is false. The reading is Abrokomu. See Babelon,
p. Ixxx.
98. Langdon, “Hymn to Ishtar as the Belit of Nippur,” AKF, i.
21, 11 . 5—7. The same titles in the great theological list, CT xxiv.
41,11. 81—2. There Me-nu-an-nim, Me-nu-ul-lim.
99. A title of Ishtar as the “ spinning goddess ” is uttu, a Sumerian
word explained by minutu, “ fate.” The mythology of a goddess who
spins and cuts the thread of life belongs eventually to Sumerian religion,
and appears in Greece in the characters of the three Moirae. See Lang-
don, “ The Semitic Goddess of Fate,” JRAS, 1929.
100. See Wellhausen, pp. 25—29.
101. Zimmern [a], ii. 572-589.
102. Simat malki, Ebeling, KAR, p. 109, Rev. ii.
103. ^^°'*stmati.
104. '^^^*simdti is singular in Schroeder, KAV No. 42, col. ii. 1 . 25;
RA xiv. 171, col. ii. 1 . I; KAV No. 42, col. ii. 1 . 33; RA xiv. 71, col.
ii. 11 . 9—22. But plural, syn. Ishtarati, Thurean-Dangin [d], pp. 2—3.
For the singular cf. NPr Simti-ippessir, “ My fate is appeased,” RA ix.
56, No. 3.
105. R Arch ii. 229 (1903), iii. 252, n. 2 (1904).
106. “Lord of Revelry,” identified with Jupiter. See Cumont in
Pauly-Wissowa, sub voce.
107. R Arch ii. 29 (1903). A similar Latin inscription from this
temple in CIL iii. 159.
108. The name is also written ’Zeifuos on an inscription from near
Aleppo, Lidzbarski [a], ii. 323. Dussaud, R Arch, 1954, p. 257, re-
gards Seimios as a masculine form of Semia, and since Semi is daugh-
ter of Adad = Balmarcod, he takes Seimios to be the son of Adad.
There are in fact two Aramaean deities known as Apil-Adad and Marat-
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
384
Adad. See Tallquist , p. 227, and Rawlinson, in. 66, obv. iii. 38.
The Aramaic may have been Bar-Adad and Barat-Adad.
109. CRAIy 1902, p. 235; R Arch 387 (1902).
no. See Ronzevalle, R Arch ii. 29 ff. (1903). The last name is
a plural. Cf. ShTmati for Shimti above, and Ashtaroth, Anathoth
in OT.
111. 2 Kings xvii. 30. H Grimme, OLZ, 1912, p. 14. For the
form Ashima = Shima = Bab. Shimtu, cf. Abast for Bast, Cooke,
p. 69; Arsa = Rusa, p. 48.
1 1 2. See previous note.
1 13. She probably has a quiver with arrows slung from each
shoulder, as in designs of the martial Ishtar, Langdon [h], Plate i.
No. I.
1 14. The LXX renders his name by dainoiv. This deity’s gender
is fixed by NPr Gad-ram, Chabot, p. 929 (Phoenician); Gad-tob,
pp. 236, 1167 (Nabataean); Gadmelk (Hebrew).
1 1 5. Wellhausen, p. 59.
1 16. This title is of South Arabian origin, and a title of the Mother-
goddess Allat. She is the evening star in Safaitic inscriptions, Well-
hausen, p. 58; Dussaud [a], pp. 144 flF.; Littmann, p. 113.
1 17. For Allat as Venus see Dussaud [a], p. 131.
1 18. Wellhausen, p. 59.
119. Langdon [h],p. 181.
120. Zimmern, BSGW Ixviii. 26, 11 . 13-14.
1 2 1 . See ‘Anat, below.
122. Dussaud, R Arch, 1903, p. 128.
123. THttu, “nun,” “sacred woman,” describes Ishtar as patron-
ess of priestesses and harlots. Venus as evening star is called Ttib =
simtu, Vimtan, “twilight.” Te-li-ti ‘’Is-tar, (Craig, p. 67, 1 . 26) is
a variant of "^zib Tstar, Ebeling, KAR p. 144, 1 . 16. ^imtu, “ twilight,”
may be the same as Simtu, “ fate,” and Ishtar’s title, Shimti, “ Fate,”
may be derived from astrology, while the Semitic mythology of Ishtar as
Fortuna, Fata, may rest upon omens taken from her planet.
124. JRAS, 1926, pp. 18, 11 . 4-6, 36, II. 18-20.
125. ibid., pp. 32, 37 ff.
126. Jer. vii. 18.
127. Jer. xliv. 17.
128. In my opinion Hammurabi, Ammarabi, etc., is Amraphel, king
of Kingin (Kingir, Singir, Heb. Shinegar, Shinar, Gen. xiv. 9). For
attempts to disprove this, see Albright, JSOR x. 231 ff., where the im-
possible reading ‘Ammurawih is accepted. In a late Assyrian letter
the reading Am-mu-ra-pi lugal may be the true pronunciation of the
word as heard by the early Hebrew scribes. Lugal is the Sumerian
word for §arru, “ king,” but Ammurabi lugal occurs unnumbered times
NOTES
385
in cuneiform writing, and lugal may have been read lu, since the ordinary
word lii = ameluy “ free-man,” belu, “ lord,” is a variant of lugal, cf.
Lugal-an-da, Lu-an-da, Allotte de la Fuye, No. 13 1, v. i. Granted
that in this common phrase the title was pronounced lu, Amraphel is the
direct rendering of it. See Jirku , p. 57; Bauer, pp. 53 flF.
129. i.e., “remained not in her war chariot.” See Fig. ii.
130. Zimmern , p. 16, 14—20.
13 1. Fig. II shews the Bab. Ishtar in her war chariot. Astarte’s
chariot on coins of Syria and Phoenicia is taken from Bab. mythology.
See the coin of Sidon, Hill [a], Plate xxv, 1 1, above the quadriga of the
Sun-god.
132. Zimmern , p. 26, 21—28.
133. Scheil, RA XV. 175, 25-30.
134. ibid., p. 1 8 1.
135. Cf. AKF i. 23, 26, where Ishtar is called mufahhirat saltum.
136. Ishullanu, gardener in the service of Anu. Two gardeners of
Anu are the gods Igi-sig-sig (“bright-eyed”) and Ennunsilimma
(“guardian of peace”), CT xxiv, 3, 25 = 21, 59.
137. Text tal-la-li, which may be an error for hulali, after Jensen.
138. See Chapter VII.
139. For a representation of Gilgamish and Enkidu in combat with
the bull, which is faithful to the text of the epic, where Enkidu seizes the
bull by the tail, see Ward, No. 182.
140. For the astronomical meaning of this tale see Ungnad [e],
pp. 1 1— 13. According to him the back parts of the bull are still missing,
and this he explains from the mutilation described in the epic.
141. See Bauer, pp. 69, 73. Anatum is a title of the Western
Asratu, Astart, Pinches in Paul Haupt Festschrijt, p. 218. As-tar-tu,
i.e. Astarte, is described as a War-goddess in a cuneiform list of
Phoenician deities by Asarhaddon, K 3500, rev. ii. 18; RA xxvi. 191,
read AZ not IS.
142. See Erman and Ranke, p. 616, n. 3; Albright, AJSL xli.
82-3.
143. Especially at Gebal.
144. See Langdon [h], pp. 95 f.
145. Rowe, MJ xvi. 310.
146. So I Sam, xxxi. lo, but in i Chron. x. 10, Saul’s head was
placed in the temple of Dagon.
147. See W. R. Smith, pp. 219, 294.
148. See Koldewey, p. 57.
149. Andrae, pp. 34-38.
150. For the serpent as symbol of the Earth-goddess, see Langdon
[h],pp. 114-128.
1 5 1 . This seems to be their use in Babylonia and Assyria, as on the
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
386
seal, Menant, i. 163. The Canaanitish shrine in Fig. 15 does not quite
agree with this explanation.
152. Present feminine participle of -wapaKhirTOiv, “to peep out of
a window.”
153. See Herbig in OLZ, 1927, pp. 917-922, with Plate of
Cypriote dove houses and the goddess peering from a window. See
also Gressmann, ii. Abb. 523—4.
154. Kiltlt sa afatiy “ Kilili of windows,” ShurpUy hi. 74.
155. Ebeling, MVAGy 1918, part 2, pp. 22, 32 ff.
156. Craig, p. 57, 32.
157. CT xvii. 35, 73 = Ebeling, KAR 46, 7. The Sumerian has
here igi-laly “ she who peers out.”
158. BA hi. 238, 1 . 40 = Rawlinson, hi, Plate 66, obv. hi. 16, 17.
159. ShurfUy hi. 74—6.
160. ibid.y 1. 77.
16 1. Either aquatic bird or winged insect. Hunger, MVAGy 1909,
p. 281. Zimmern, OLZ, 1918, p. i, decides for kililty “crown,” on
account of the statement in Herodotus, i. 199; each year all Baby-
lonian women must give themselves once to a stranger for hire in the
temple of Aphrodite (Ishtar). Many sat in the sacred area of her
temple wearing a crown made from a cord.
162. Knudtzon, No. 23.
163. See also Koldewey, p. 272; Layard, p. 477; Peters, ii. 374—5.
164. For the various local types see Contenau [a].
165. Gen. xxxi. 19-34.
166. Gen. XXXV. 4.
167. I Sam. xix. 13.
168. Hosea hi. 4.
169. Chiera, PBS i. 89, 10-12.
170. Littmann, p. 77.
1 7 1. talimat ''^‘^Samas.
172. On Azizos and Monimos, see Dussaud, R Archy 1903, pp.
128-133.
173. Dussaud, p. 371.
174. See the Aramaic or West Semitic NPra in Assyria of the eighth
and seventh centuries B.c., A-ta-a-id-ri, At-ta-a-id-ri, “ Ata is my
help”; A-ta-su-ri, “Ata is my bulwark.” A coin from Hierapolis,
reign of Alexander the Great, has the head of the goddess on Obv. with
inscription 77 o^J/, “‘Ata,” Babelon, p. 45, No. 316, and pp. li, liii.
Figs. 14, 15. Among these Aramaic NPra from Harran, east of the
Euphrates, is found A-tar-id-ri. See Johns [a], p. 17.
175. On Fig. 21 this refers to the miniature shrine, apparently symbol
of the ark of the Deluge. It has been suggested that semeios here refers
to Semea, Simi.
NOTES 387
176. Hierapolis in North Syria is 1 10 miles east of the sea-coast, and
18 miles west of the Euphrates.
177. Lucian, de Dea Syria, §§ 12—13, 33, 48.
178. Saturnalia,
179. This is the view of numismatists. See Hill , p. xci.
180. Cook, i. 586.
18 1. Cooke, p. 52.
182. Cassite period, PBS x. 338, 1 . 23; First Dynasty, RA xiii. 1 1.
183. CT XXV. 16, 24-7.
184. CT XXV. 16, 22. Adad of the city Hallaba, MV AG, 1908,
p. 234, period eighth century b.c. According to most scholars Halman,
which occurs earlier (ninth century), is Aleppo.
185. MV AG, 1908, pp. 236, 6.
186. Ebeling, KAR 142, iii. 24.
-
187. "^ 13 ^ in Zakir Aramaic stele, Pognon, pp. 156—178; Dhorme,
RA viii. 98. The form Be-ir also occurs, Schroeder, KAV No. 72,
11. lO-ll; ii. 567, 1. 33.
188. Frank , pp. 30—32; Unger, in Ebert, Reallexicon der V or-
geschichte, iv. 2. 416. See Fig. 5 i, fourth register, symbol on left.
189. CT XV. 15.
190. Jensen, KB vi. 46-51.
191. matam la usnes, from nesu, “ to live.”
192. Cooke, p. 159, 11 . 2-3.
193. So is the name written correctly, Exod. xv. 2. Yahweh =
Adonai in the other verses is a later and usual form, rendered Jehovah
in the versions.
194. Numbers xxi. 14.
195. Josh. X. 13; 2 Sam. i. 18.
196. So RV on 2 Sam. i. 18, but “bow” stands alone here and is
probably the first word or title of a lost song.
197. Jashar, “ the just,” Accadian isaru is a title of Nergal in ‘^Ishar-
padda, OECT i. 30, No. 8; Weidner , ii. 17, 14.
198. Driver and Gray, p. 37, 11 . 2—3.
199. I Sam. ix. 17.
200. Harvard Excavations at Samaria. See Cowley, JRAS, 1920,
p. 182; Driver, ZATW, 1928, pp. 7-25; Harper, No. 633, rev. 3.
20 1 . There is no reason to suppose that there was an Israelitic dynasty
at Hamath in Northern Syria at this period.
202. So Winckler , p. 102, 1 . 33; p. 178, 1 . 53. Without deter-
minative for “ god,” p. 170, 1 . 8. A variant is I-lu-bi-’-di, 6, 23, i. 6.,
El of the Aramaic pantheon replaces Yaw, as in the Heb. Elyaqim was
changed to Yoyaqim, 2 Kings xxiii. 34.
203. Title of a deity.
204. Cowley reads fassim “ Ya’u ”; Ungnad [a], Jahu or Jaho.
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
388
205. Any attempt to derive the word from a triliteral root is mislead-
ing, for it is not the original name. Many take it to mean “ he who
causes to fall (fire from Heaven) ” ; see Eisler in OrientaVistische Studien
F. Hommel gewidmet, ii. 36. Margoliouth, pp. 20—21, believes that
the name was known in Arabia and pronounced Yah, Probably the
word Jehovah arose from Yaw, Yahv, to carry the vowels of Adonai,
and has no other meaning.
206. Gressmann, No. 363.
207. Cooke, p. 1158, 1 . 2; p. 173, 1 . 22.
208. VAB iv. 260, 11 . 33-5.
209. Cooke, p. 171, No. 62, I, 19; p. 180, No. 63, i.
210. Harper, No. 633, 7. Another interpretation by Schiffer ,
i. 27.
21 1. See for Anat-Yaw or Astarte-Yaw, etc., at Gaza, Babelon, viii.
6, and p. 48, Nos. 327-8.
212. Beer, “ Rescheph,” in Pauly-Wissowa and Vincent, “ Le
Ba’al Cananeen de Beisan,” RB, 1928, pp. 512-543, hold this view
definitely.
213. Torrey, JAOS xxix. 192, “Land of Reshep.”
214. Cooke, No. 30; Chabot, No. 1213.
215. PSBA, 1900, p. 271.
216. In the name "'’Sulmanu-asaridu = Shalmanassar.
217. Cooke, No. 7; Hoffmann, ZA xi. 246.
218. Schroeder, KAV, No. 63, 7.
219. Rost, Tiglathpileser, in. 73 , 1 . lO.
220. Gen. xiv. 18; Ps. Ixxvi. 3, Shal-em in Hebrew.
221. Langdon, in SO i. 97—100.
222. Knudtzon, p. 290, 16; 74, 31.
223. On coins of Aelia Capitolina (Jerusalem), second century,
A.D., the baetyl of the Sun-god, sometimes decorated by an eagle,
symbol of the sun, is drawn on a chariot with four horses. This chariot
symbol, etc., may be an importation from other Palestinian cities, or a
direct survival of the cult of El-Shalman there.
224. Cooke, p. 361, No. 5, and Plate xi.
225. Vincent, RB^ 1928, p. 531, n. 3, and Plate xxv.
226. See p, 30.
227. Langdon, Bab., p. 144, Plate ii.
228. Vincent, RB, 1928, pp. 514—532.
229. Cooke, No. I.
230. See Egyftian Mythology, p. lOl, in this Series, vol. xii.
231. Also in Arabia, see p. 3.
232. The style of the script and the use of the ideogram ERI-KI
before Si-du-ni are characteristic of the style at Sidon in this period.
233. Clercq, p. 386 bis, 386 ter, Plate xxxiii.
NOTES
389
234. Vincent, Plate xxv. 6; Gressman, No. 348.
235. Vincent, p. 530.
236. CIS i. 91, 93, 90, 89, 94 = Cooke, Nos. 25, 27, 24.
237. CIS i. 89.
238. Cooke, No. 30.
239. The vowels are entirely uncertain.
240. See Langdon, IRAS, 1921, p. 573; Zimmern, KAT^, P-478 ;
Macmillan, BA v. 583, 1 . ii, etc.
241. CT xxv. B 36, 30; XXXV. B 24.
242. So with Zimmern, after Jensen, KAT^, p. 415, n. 2. Cronus
of classical mythology, who was identified with El of the Phoenicians,
is also called umoris et frigoris deus, “ god of wet and cold.”
243. My opinion is that the word should be read Mukkil, “ the
devourer.”
244. The Israelites practised this sacrifice as late as the times of
Jeremiah. Cf. Jer. xxxii. 35; 2 Kings xxiii. lO.
245. So first Rowe, MI xix. 155.
246. Schroeder, KAV No. 63, col. ii. 1 . 37, and cf. No. 42, col. i,
1 . 32 = No. 43, col. i, 1 . 13.
247. Cooke, No. 10, 11 . 2—3; CIS i. 8; at Carthage, 250, 3.
248. In cuneiform, time of Asarhaddon, Winckler [a], ii. 12, 14,
has been read Mi-il-gi-su by Winckler, and Mi-il-kar-ti by Johns,
MV AG ^ 1908, p. 13. I collated this passage, RA xxvi. 191, 14. The
reading is Mi-il-ik-qarti, where the Phoenician word for “ city ” is
written with the Sumerian ideogram URU (alu), “city.”
249. At Shashmi near Tyre, Knudtzon, p. 203, 1 . 3; p. 123, 1 . 37.
250. ihtd., pp. 1324-5; p. 1563; Johns , p. 234, 4.
251. afx^poffu Trerpe, late Greek for ambrosiae fetrae.
252 [Sa] memroumos, who is also called in Greek Hypsuranius.
Ousoos is probably Esau, and the legend may be based on Jacob and
Esau. Ous 5 os, however, is commonly identified with the ancient name
of Tyre on the mainland, Uzu, Usu, Usu. See Knudtzon, p. 1247.
253. See Baudissin, p. 172.
254. Josephus, Ant.y viii. 5. 3.
255. Berard, BEFAR Ixvii. 254 ff.
256. In Cyprus, Babelon, Plate xix, 8, ll; xviii. 21 ; at Issus in
Cilicia, Plate iii. 17.
257. CIS i. 246.
258. JRAS Centennial volume, 1924, p. 69, 1 . 8. See also below,
p. 60.
259. ibid.f p. 104.
260. Baudissin, p. 285.
261. See Cooke, No. 10, 1 . 3, “ Messengers of Melk-Astarte and the
servants of Ba‘al Hamman,” from Ma‘sub, near Tyre.
390
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
262. CIS pp. 247, 1 . 5; 248, 1 . 4; 249, 1 . 4.
263. Sed-yathon son of Ger-Sed, Cooke, No. 31.
264. C /5 i. 236, 1. 5; 818, 1. 6.
265. Shamem, “Heavens,” and rum, “high,” for Ba'al Shamen-
rum (Canaanitish), “ High lord of the Heavens.”
266. Greek translation of lost Phoenician names.
267. See the god Kulla of Babylonia.
268. For this temple and chariot see Jahrbuch des kais. deutschen
Arch. Inst.y 1901, Plate v, and for the coin R Archy 1903, p. 368, n. 3.
269. See E. Meyer, “ Egalabal,” in Roscher.
270. See p. 44.
271. Babelon, p. 322, No. 2201.
272. Called J by critics; Gen. x. 8—12.
273. Apparently an error for Kullaba, after Jensen.
274. *^Pisangunuku (usually Nergal) is the name of Ninurta at Kul-
lab. So restore CT xxv. PL 14, 23.
275. The name has never been explained successfully.
276. King [a], p. 257, 9.
277. Tadmar occurs as early as the twelfth century.
278. Also in the Aramaic inscriptions the name Bel is often written
Bol at Palmyra.
279. Malak-Bel is the name peculiar to the tribe Banu Taimi. Dus-
saud, R Arch i. 206, n. 4 (1904).
280. Zeus Keraunios or Keraunos is the translation of Ba‘al-Shamin,
“ Lord of the Heavens,” which is certainly a title of the Thunder-god,
and not of Shamash, ZDMG xv. 617.
281. So Dussaud, RA i. 144 (1903).
282. Cf. King , p. 17, col. vi. 3; Langdon [f], p. 228, 43.
283. Berger, Clermont-Ganneau, Levy, Lidzbarski, Cooke.
284. This inferred by the title Sukkalluy and by his being son of Bel-
Marduk.
285. Levy, REJ xliii.
286. So Hoffmann, ZA xi. 247.
287. Winckler [a], ii. 12, 1 . 10 ; RA xxvi. 191. 1 . 10.
288. Lidzbarski , p. 240, as NPr.
289. Used as a APr, king of the Elamites, Tallquist [a], p. 183,
eighth century, b.c.
290. Qausgabri is the name of a king of Edom in the seventh cen-
tury, Tallquist [a], p. 184. The deity is surely Arabian, and found
only in Arabic NPrOy as Qais, Qus.
291. Assuming that malak is not a noun formation for “ king,” but
stands for mala'ky “ messenger,” the view accepted above, the NPr
Ba‘al-maluku at Arwad in Northern Phoenicia (Streck, ii. 20, 84, 92)
would be a case of vowel assimilation, malaku> maluku. The alterna-
NOTES 391
tive view that malak and maluk have the same meaning as malik must
be considered. See Zimmern, KAT^ pp. 471—2.
292. Waddington, No. 1875a, cf. Dussaud, R Arch i. 144 (1903).
293. Layard, MAIBL xx. part 2, Plates i, ii; Dussaud, R Arch i.
376 ff.
294. It is this side which has the Palmyrene inscription.
295. Beneath is the Latin inscription Soli sanctissimo^ etc.
296. Dussaud has undoubtedly given the correct interpretation of
this monument, loc. cit.
297. Layard, Plate iii.
298. Adad as son of Enlil, Langdon [g], p. 280, 1 . 15.
299. See Langdon JSOR v. 100.
300. In the treaty of Esarhaddon with the king of Tyre, Winckler
[a], ii. 12.
301. Euting, Berlin Academy, p. 671, No. 2 (1885).
302. Or “ lord of eternity.”
303. Cooke, p. 296, n. i.
304. Near Tyre, Cooke, No. 9.
305. CIS ii. 163, 176.
306. Cooke, No. 39.
307. Dussaud, Raffort in NAMS x. 173, 397, etc.
308. S. Lidzbarski [a], i. 243 ff.
309. KBo i. I, rev. 54; i. 2, rev. 30; 3, rev. 23.
310. bel same, KBo i. 2, rev. 18; i. i, rev. 40.
31 1. Cooke, No. 122.
312. See Cumont’s cautious article, “ Balsamin,” in Pauly- Wissowa.
313. Cowley, pp. 204 ff.
314. Conybeare, in Charles, ii. 725.
315. The insertion of h is explained by some scholars as due to
analogy with biliteral plurals with lengthened stem, Brockelmann, i.
455 -
316. Original tighir, RA xxii. 46, No. I, rev. I, 2.
317. Langdon, OECT vii. 5, No. 33.
318. RA xvi. 49 ff.
319. See p. 44.
320. Cooke, No. 61,1. 2; 62, 1 . 22; p. 165.
321. Nielsen, MV AG, 1916, p. 256; 1909, p. 367.
322. Called “Lord of Gebal ” on an Egyptian monument, where
he is represented as Aman (Sun-god) with the Lady of Gebal as Isis,
CRAI, 1921, p. 165.
323. Genesis xiv, 18-22. See p. 45.
324. If this word is based on a Phoenician plural for “ gods,” it must
be assumed that the triliteral form eloah belongs also to that Semitic
dialect. It is the regular Hebrew plural. Aramaic elhin.
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
392
325. Shaddai is peculiar to Hebrew and of unknown derivation.
LXX “ All mighty.” Shaddai in El-shaddai may be compared with
NPr Ilu-sadu-ni^ “ God is our mountain,” i.e. “ defence ” ; Sin-
sadu-ni, “ Sin is my mountain.” In Assyrian §adu-nadin-ahi (Johns
, p. 446), §adu stands for a deity, and Saddai, “My mountains,”
“ my defence,” would be a title of El, or any deity, borrowed from
Semitic nomenclature.
326. CT xxiv. 31, 11 . 74-5.
327. Craig, RT pp. 57, 1 . 21; 58, 1 . 24.
328. Thureau-Dangin [c], p. 67, 1 . 26.
329. On a bust of Osorkon I, Syria, vi. 109.
330. Hill [a], Phoenicia, p. 945 Cooke, p. 350.
331. Hill [a], p. 96.
332. ibid., p. 93; Babelon, p. 194.
333. Cooke, No. 3, I.
334. Paraphrase of the text, which has always Cronos not El. See
Cory, p. 15.
335. Meissner, Figs. 15, 16.
336. Contenau, Bab., ix; Tablettes de Kerkouk, p. 78, No. 128.
337. Zimmern, in Frank , p. 39, and Fig. 51.
338. Contenau, pp. 70-71.
339. Pss. xvii, 8, xxxvi. 7.
340. Ruth ii. 12. See Pss. Ivii. i, Ixi. 4.
341. apirt], Sanchounyathon, in Cory, p. lO.
342. Seen. 335.
343. De hide et Osiride, Chap, xii ff.
344. Seep. 58.
345. Hill [a], p. 96; Babelon, p. 1 94.
346. 2 Kings xvii. 31.
347. So Levy’s interpretation, R Arch iv. 387 (1904).
348. This phrase occurs only in the literature from Boghozkeui.
349. Cooke, No. 33, 1 . 6, dim Ba‘al Sidon, “ the god Ba‘al of
Sidon ”; p. 91, n. I, elim Is. In Assyria ilani, “gods,” for “god,” is
used, Harper, No. 301, 1 . 7.
350. KBo iv. 10, rev. 3; v. i, obv. 56.
351. Habiru in the mixed Mitanni Assyrian population of Arrapha
in the Cassite period had apparently the meaning “ wanderer,” “ immi-
grant ” ; for men and women with good Assyrian names had this title
then, and often sold themselves into slavery. See Chiera, JAOS xlvii.
44.
352. So Damascius and Philo.
353. i.e., a name for Eshmun, “the physician.”
354. Langdon [h], p. 34.
NOTES 393
356. NPr Eshmun-adon, Cooke, p. 55, 4; but Eshmun-adoni,
p. 60, I.
357. Cooke, p. 109.
358. Langdon [g], p. 324, H. 4-5.
359. So Damascius, see Baudissin, p. 339.
360. Frazer, Adorns, pp. 27 flF. Baudissin, pp. 345 ff., rejects the
theory that Adonis of Gebal and of Esmun are identical. I agree with
Barton and Dussaud on this vital question. The argument that Adonis
is never represented as a hunter and other special attributes of Adonis of
the Lebanons are not fundamental and are surely due to local pecu-
liarities.
361. Syria, viii. 120.
362. ib., iv. 185 fF. ; Monuments Plot, xxv. 248.
363. Mu-lu-mu, “ my lord,” or mu-lu-xu-ne, “ your lord,” Lang-
don [g], pp. 318, 1. 20; 320, 1. 8.
364. Baudissin, pp. 74 , 94 “ 97 , 359 -
365. Efistola, Ixviii. ad Paulinum.
366. This must be taken with reserve.
367. Driver, ZATW xlvi. 24, suggests that Yaw is an ejaculation,
which is probably right.
368. Baudissin, p. 333.
369. Babelon, Plate xxxii. 23. See also Hill [a], Plate Ixiii. 7 and
p. cxv.
370. Boissier, [a], p. 112, 8.
371. Langdon [h], pp, ii4ff.
372. MJ xvii. 299.
373. Numbers xxi. 4-10.
374. 2 Kings xviii. 4.
375. Legrain, PBS xv. 14; see CAH, i. 405.
376. S. Smith in Gadd-Legrain, i. No. 275.
377. nagtr ^Enlil, CT xxiv. 6, 1 . 22; 22, 1 . 120; RA xx. 98.
378. Thureau-Dangin [a], i. Nos. 1167, 1316.
379. For Semitic names in the period of Ur and Isin, see Legrain,
p. III.
380. e-ba-sa-(mil)-'^Da-gan (ki), Legrain, p. ill; Bab., viii. 70.
381. Scheil , face A 5, 8; 1 1, 15.
382. On names of this class, see Bauer, p. 72.
383. This Phoenician writing occurs once in late Assyrian, in the
NPr Arad-'^Da-gu-na, Harper, No. 357, rev. 5.
384. Literally “ house of the mountain,” place of ordeals in Arallu.
Schroeder , 42, i. 22-25.
385. ZA xxi. 248.
386. BA vi. p. 5, pp. 28, 34; RA iv. 85, 1 . 18; Thureau-Dangin
, p. 238.
394
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
387. Seep. 39.
388. Thureau-Dangin, RA xvi. 150.
389. Langdon, in Weidner’s Archivy i. 6, I. 28.
390. I Sam. iv. 5.
391. Oesterley in Charles, i. 106.
392. See p. 46.
393. Knudtzon, No. 1560.
394. G. F. Moore, “ Dagon,” in EBu
395. Hill [a], Plate i. i-io; ii. 30, 31 ; Babelon, Plate xxii. 1-6.
396. Hill [a], Plate cxliv. The “ fish-man ” type of deity is com-
mon on seals of the late Assyrian period, and represents Aquarius.
397. For this monument and its true meaning, see Gressmann,
ii. No. 525. This is a fish deity, as the three horns on the cowl prove,
and is a minor type of Enki, Ea, Oannes, the Water-god of Sumerian
mythology, Zimmern, XA xxxv. 153, n. 2. Menant, ii. 51—54, was
chiefly responsible for introducing Dagon as a Fish-god into current
accounts of religion.
398. For a study of this monument see Thureau-Dangin, RA xviii.
172 f.; Frank [a], pp. 5, 44 ff.
399. Woolley, JRASy 1926, p. 693 and Plate ix. No. l.
400. Some kind of ritualistic object.
401. Text in Ebeling, No. 298, obv. 15— 20.
402. Cory, p. 31.
403. See p. 56.
Chapter II
1. Langdon .
2. ibid.y Nos. 9, 29, 68, 97.
3. ibid.y No. 45.
4. ibid.y No. 68.
5. For early sign see PSBAy 1914, pp. 280— I.
6. Langdon [h], p. 120; Scheil, Recueil des travauxy xxxviii, lAou-
velles notesy No. 8, p. 5.
7. Langdon [h], p. 1 18.
8. muslahhu.
9. But once in Thureau-Dangin [e], p. 155, 1 . 16, never in
scholastic texts.
10. See JSOR V. 100.
11. Deimel, ii. 9—10.
1 2. See p. 65.
13. Langdon . Plates 2, No. 7; 9, No. 29; 8, No. 26; 7, No. 25;
30, No. 1 14.
NOTES
395
14. Rawlinson, ii. 59, A i. This cannot be explained away by sup-
posing that the scribe has introduced an eme-sal form, as Zimmern
argues, Berichten der Konig. Sack. Gesellschajt, Ixiii. 85.
15. See Langdon, Legend of EtanOy Aa, 1 . 27 and note.
16. Kugler, tbtd.y Erg'dnz.y p. 213; Weidner [c], p. 97.
17. Thureau-Dangin [c], p. 85, 1 . 30; p. 122, 1 . 15; p. 123,
1. 31.
18. Ebeling, KAR No. 307, obv. 33. For lowest Heaven as a plane
of the planets, see Langdon, Legend of EtanUy p. 46, note x.
19. Charles, ii. 304.
20. ibid.y ii. 432—442.
21. See L. Heuzey, RA v. 13 1. That great interpreter of sculpture
identified the god with overflowing vase with Ea, because of the seal,
ibid.y fig. 6, where the fish-ram and the fish-man support the figure of
the deity. The fish-ram (Capricorn) is undoubtedly Ea. Heuzey took
the fish-man for Oannes (Ea). Anu with overflowing vase stands
on the back of a dragon, DP i. 177, fig. 383. This is proved to be Anu
by RA xxi. 196, symbol No. 4, where Anu stands on the same monster.
Koldewey, p. 273, is of the same opinion.
22. The astronomical name of Aquarius ““'Gu-la, “ great star,” is
identical with the regular title of Anu, “ god Gu-la.” The swallow
star (Simmah), or Western Aquarius, belongs to the “ way of Anu.”
23. MJ xviii. 84—5.
24. Ebeling, KAR No. 196, rev. ii. 10—35.
25. Ishtar has this title often, Langdon , pp. 43, 95.
26. “ Calf at the teat.”
27. Ebeling, KAR No. 196, rev. i. 4—8.
28. Isaiah vi. 1—7; Ebeling, Archiv filr Gesch. der Mediziny xiv,
Heft 3, p. 66.
29. PBS X. 336, n. 5.
30. Ward, Nos. 129, 203.
31. Gudea, Cyl. A, ii, 20.
32. ibid.y 10, 2.
33. Ebeling, KAR No. 375, p. 319, 11 . 44-9.
34. PBS X. 283.
35. Psalm cxlvii. 15.
36. S. Holmes, in Charles, i. 565.
37. PBS X. 150, 284.
38. See Nbtscher, pp. 56—60.
39. Ebeling, KAR No. 375, obv. ii, 40-3 = G. Reisner, SBH
p. 130, 11. 32-5.
40. Texts by E. T. Harper, BA ii. 467—475; Rawlinson, iv. 14,
no. I ; CT XV. 43.
41. The fragments do not contain this part of the legend. There
V — 27
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
396
was a long episode concerning Lugalbanda, the nest of Zu, his wife,
and offspring in the Hashur mountains. See the Sumerian tablets,
PBS V. 16, 17.
42. On bas-reliefs of Maltai, north of Nineveh, are figures of seven
deities; the third represents Enlil standing on a winged lion with horns,
RA xxi. 187.
43. CT xvii. 42, 11 . 15—22; Thompson [a], ii. 145; Jensen, KB
vi.^ 2-3.
44. On Mummu, the word of Ea, see article “ Word ” in ERE xii.
749 ff-
45. Shurfu, iv. 70. In this role his title is Nudimmud, Nadimmud.
46. Dhorme [a], p. 96; for Ea as creator of man, ibid., p. 134, 1 . 27.
47. Weissbach, pp. 32-35.
48. JRAS, 1918, p. 437; Marduk, Son of Ea, is also the Mummu,
Langdon [a], p. 200, n. 5; cf. ZA xxxvii. 90, n. 3.
49. S. Holmes in Charles, i. 549. On the doctrine of Mummu see
1918, pp. 433-49.
50. i.e., water as the first principle.
51. King [e], i. 201.
-
52. The throne of Ea supports a tortoise in King . Plates i,
Ixiii, Ixxvi. In PI. Ixxxiii his symbol is identical with those of Anu and
Enlil. In DP ii. 90, 5, the symbol of Ea, fig. 50, is named mum
(mu) u suhurmasu. “ Mummu and skate-goat.”
53. Wife of Ea.
54. CT xvi. 2, 11 . 65—85.
55. “ Hymn of Eridu,” AJSL xxxix. 163.
56. See, however, the myth of Dilmun, pp. 190 ff.
57. E. Nassouhi, MAG iii. 23, 1 . 5; Langdon [a], p. 190, n. 3.
A scribe wrote to the king that a founder had cast fifty kuribu. Harper,
1194, 3 -
58. Note the title of the goddess Mah, Ninsikilla, Rawlinson, ii. 54,
no. 2, 7; King, Catalogue, Sufflement, No. 51, lO.
59. See Langdon [d], PI. 35, no. I, and pp. 73-5. Also Koldewey,
pp. 271—3, identified these figurines with Ninmah.
60. CT xvii. 42, 11 . I— 13.
61. Temple of Marduk in Babylon.
62. Title of Ea.
63. CT xiii. 35, 11 . 10-36, 21; Dhorme [a], pp. 84-7.
64. Sasuru.
65. CT XV. 49, rev. i (iv), 11 . 1-14; Dhorme [a], p. 138.
66. lullu or lilu is the Sumerian loan-word employed for “ man ” in
these myths, and is not used for “ man ” elsewhere. The word seems
to mean “ feeble one.”
67. Langdon, Paradis, pp. 36-9. This is Tablet iii of the myth.
NOTES
397
muma ilu awelum of the old version; Clay, Morgan iv, is Tablet ii.
The Assyrian version, CT xv. 49, is Tablet i of that edition.
68. 7 jA xvi. 178, 1. 20.
69. For the pictograph see Langdon , p. 15, No. 105.
70. For the Sumerian hymn of Nintur and her son Assirgi at Kesh,
see OECT i. 48—59; of Ninhursag and Lil at Kesh and Adah, Thureau-
Dangin, RA xix. 175-185; cf. Langdon [a], pp. 215 f.
71. RA xix. 175-185.
72. Thompson [c], p. 12, 11 . 20—35.
73. So restore, ibid., col. 5, 11 . 39, 40; col. 6, 11 . 16, 17; Plate 9,
col. 3, 1 . 48; from Plate il, 1 . 17, and Philadelphia Tablet, rev. iii,
11 . 29—30. Gilgamish, son of Ninsun, PI. 56, 57.
74. That this was the symbol of Ninurta as Zamama, the special
name for the War-god, is proved by the monument, DP i. 168, where
it is inscribed.
75. Written ^Mas^ King, PSBA, 1913, p. 76.
76. V. Scheil, in DP ii. 90, 11 . 20—22.
77. Scheil-Legrain, in DP xiv. 35. On Morgan, DP i. 168, the
pillar has no eagle, but the name Shuqamuna.
78. Lion ? ratherthan panther (cf. Thureau-Dangin, RA xvi. 137 )*
See King . Plates i, Ixxviii.
79. DP ii. 91, 1 . 24. See note 97 below.
80. Rawlinson, ii. 59, A 6—7. For umunesiga — see
Weissbach, Plate 13, 1 . 29, but as title of Nergal, E. Weidner, AKF
ii. 79, 1. 8.
81. Vase of Entemena, Heuzey, Catalogue des antiquttes chal-
deenesy No. 218. On the stele des vautours Ningirsu holds this em-
blem in his hand, over a cage filled with dead enemies, ihid.y no. lO.
82. Ward, No. 63. Location certain by the name of the god Shara.
83. Langdon , PI. 22, no. 16, and p. 83. The animals are not
asses, but stags or antelopes, as a new seal, in the Field Museum, from
Kish proves, Mackay, Part 2, Plate vi. No. 7.
84. Ward, p. 60.
85. A seal from Shittab in Kazallu, east of the Tigris, has an eagle
grasping two lions erect, heads, en jacey Menant, Catalogue de la Hayey
Plate I.
86. CT xxiv. 41, 65; XXV. 12, 3 and 19.
87. E. Pottier in DP xiii. 42, figs. 137-8; Plates 28, 31, 34, 35.
88. Hall and Woolley, Plate 6.
89. DP xiii, Plate 18.
90. Contenau . Nos. 84, 293, 314, 322; Ward, Nos. 864,
865.
91. Josephus, Antiq.y xvii.
92. Genesis i. 2, 3.
398 SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
93. For the eagle on coins of Jerusalem see p. 388, note 223, and
p. 117.
94. See Langdon [g], p. 19. On the eagle in late West Semitic
religion see R. Dussaud, “ L’aigle symbole du Dieu solaire,” R Arch. i.
134-143 (1903);
95. Wife of Ninurta,
96. i.e., the foreign lands.
97. See p. 1 15.
98. asakkuy a title of Ninurta, several times in this epic. See S. Gel-
ler, ATU p. 280, 1 . 5; p. 289, 1 . 5.
99. Somewhere in Tablets vi, viii. Geller, ATU i. 288. rev. 3—5.
100. Temple of Ninurta in Nippur.
10 1. For Ishtar as goddess of Fate who spins the cord of life, see
JRAS, 1930, p. 28. Here Bau “severs the cord,” surely parallel to
the Greek myth of Atropos who cuts the threads of life. But “ to sever
the cord ” here seems to be used by synecdoche for “ to determine fate.”
102. Langdon [g], p. 252, 1 . 13.
103. Here, as in other addresses to the stone in question, various
species of it are added.
104. Temple of Ningirsu at Lagash.
105. On the Parentalia or feast for the souls of the dead, see Essays
in Modem Theology^ dedicated to C. A. Briggs, pp. 141—161.
106. This is clear from the fragment, KAR No. 363.
107. The fragments of this series were edited by F. Hrozny, MV A Gy
1906, pp. 164—179; duplicates have since been found. A fragment of
the Sumerian original which contained the entire epic on one tablet is
in H. Radau, Sumerian Hymns and Prayers to nin-ib (= BE '29)',
No. 9. The obverse contains a few lines of Tablet i, obv. 20 ff., and
the reverse has a few lines from the top of Tablet iii, reverse. I agree
with Hrozny in placing K. 8531 and Rm. 126 in this series. The con-
tents seem to prove this, but he was wrong in including K. 38. See
below. A duplicate of K. 8531, or Tablet ii, is in Ebeling, KAR 12,
and KAR 18 restores some parts of Tablet iii.
108. CT xxiv. 7, 1 . 23; xxix. 47, K. 7145, 7; Rawlinson, ii. 59,
All. See also Langdon [a], p. 158, 1 . 55 and var. ga-s a-an-kar-
nun-na PBS x. 304, 1 . 4. The last passage would naturally be taken
to prove that this deity is a goddess, but female barbers are unknown,
and the gender seems to be masculine in the epic.
109. Gudea, Cyl. B, 7, 12-8, 9.
1 10. ibid., 13, 18-14, 7.
111. See B. Landsberger, ZA xxxvii. 93, n. 2, on S. Smith’s His-
torical Texts, p. 86, 1 . 21.
1 12. Cyl. A. 26, 24; Langdon [g], p. 86, 140.
1 13. See pp. 1 19—124. Hrozny, Ntnrag, pp. 12—15.
NOTES
399
1 14. CT XXV. 14, 11 . 17—22.
1 15. This apparently refers to the dragons of chaos, Zu, Mush-
rushshu, etc.
1 16. Langdon [g], pp. 251-5.
1 1 7. See F. Hommel, Bab.^ ii. 60.
1 1 8. Cyl. A. 25, 11 . 24-26.
1 19. Langdon , p. 48, 1 . 22 = [g], p. 76, 1 . i.
120. Cyl. A. 26, 1 . 6.
1 21. See pp. 1 18 and 128.
122. See Carnoy, Iranian Mythology, pp. 263 £F. (in this Series).
123. ibid., Plate 39.
124. See p. 128.
125. Cf. Langdon [g], p. 208, 1 . 5, with [a], p. 124, 1 . 120, and
p. 144, 1. 121.
126. Ward, pp. 167—248.
127. See pp. 1 13-4.
128. CT XXV. 13, 1 . 27. As husband of Gula (wife of Ninurta),
CT XXV. I, 1 . 23. But as son of Gula, Langdon [g], p. 156, 1 . 38.
129. Deimel, ii. Nos. 5, rev. iv. 3; 6 obv. iii. 5, with Nikilim-as-bar ;
No. I, iv. 5.
130. Rawlinson, ii. 60, A 24.
13 1. Langdon [g], p. 66, 11 . IO-13.
132. Clay, YOS i. 53, 1 . 170.
133. So Halevy, RS, xiii. 180; xix. 340. It cannot be argued that
En-nammasht is a hybrid of Sumerian and Semitic, for nammashtu
(PBS X. 214, Col. iii. l) is probably Sumerian. This explanation is im-
possible if the title anu-asat, var. of ^ nin-ib is right. Langdon in SO
(Helsingfors, 1925), i. 95-1 00.
134. See p. 60.
135. Knudtzon, p. 1573. Schroeder, OLZ, 1915, p. 295, en-
deavoured to read Beth- Lahama, and identify this city with Bethlehem,
south of Jerusalem. Dhorme, RB, 1908, p. 517, and 1909, p. 26,
reads Beth-Anat for both cities.
136. Knudtzon, ibid.. No. 84, 1 . 33.
137. Psalm Ixxiv. 14.
138. Isaiah xxvii. i.
139. Job ix. 13.
140. Isaiah li. 9.
14 1. ZA xxxiii. 129, 1 . 46. On the other hand the reading of the
more common name di-tar as Sa-kut is uncertain; more probable is
di-dar or di-kur.
142. Langdon [g], p. 199, 11 . 13-16 == p. 207, 11 . 14-21.
143. In the treaty of Asarhaddon with Balu of Tyre read As-tar-tu,
RA xxvi. 1 9 1, 1 . 19 (after my collation).
400
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
144. i.e., Enlil.
145. Name of the lower world.
146. King [c], No. 27; Lutz, PBS i. 2, No. 119.
147. The existing fragments are edited by Erich Ebeling, “ Der
Akkadische Mythus vom Pestgotte Era,” Berliner Beitrage zur Keil-
schrijtjorschung, ii. i . An earlier edition of the fragments of the Ashur-
banipal library, by E. J. Harper, BA ii. 425-437; P. Jensen, KB vi. l.
56-73-
148. Apparently synonym for Enlil or Marduk.
149. KAR No. 321, obv. 1-17 (restored by C. J. Weir, JRASy
1930, pp. 41—2) as far as rev. 6.
150. See p. 103 and Langdon, OECT ii. 4; Onnes the Annedotus.
15 I. See Zimmern, ZA xxxv. 1 5 I— 4; S. Smith, JRAS, 1926, pp.
695-701.
152. A dragon of chaos. This is the only reference to Nergal-Irra as
the protagonist of the gods in this famous myth. It proves his original
identity with his brother Ninurta.
153. Read ha-bi-nisy var. K. 2755, ha-bl-in-nu.
154. Supposed to be the Lebanons.
155. Refers perhaps to the exile of Kashtiliash, King of Babylon,
taken to Ashur by Tukulti-Ninurta.
156. C. F. Jean, RA xxi. 93-104.
157. Zimmern [d]. No. 54.
158. KAR No. 298, obv. 21—5; Zimmern [d]. Nos. 45, 46.
159. Craig, ii. 13. ^
160. Title of Arallu. See Langdon [a], p. 71, n. 16.
1 6 1. E. Ebeling in AKF i. 93.
162. See Bab.y ii. 144.
163. See JRASy 1928, 843-48.
164. So A. T. Clay, YOS i. Nos. 46, 50, 51; Dougherty, YOS vi.
226. No. 47 omits the hkpu on the twenty-eighth day, and on the four-
teenth adds a ceremony of the kettle-drum. No. 48, a month of thirty
days, has hitfu on the sixth and thirteenth, or a day earlier. No. 49 has
hitfu on the sixth, fourteenth, twenty-first, and twenty-seventh days.
C. E. Keiser, Nies Collectiony i. 167, has hitfu on the sixth, fourteenth,
twenty-first, and twenty-eighth, and a ceremony for the kettle-drum on
the seventh.
165. Weidner , pp. 32, 1 . 54; 52, 1 . 40; cf. p. 46, 1 . 46.
166. See Chwolsohn, ii. 22.
167. See Langdon [c], p. 99, n. 9.
168. All references to this epic are taken from Langdon [a].
169. CT 50, No. 47406, and BA v. 655.
170. See RA xxiv. 147-8.
171. For details and literature on the zagmuk of Marduk see Lang-
NOTES 401
don [a], pp. 20—32; S. A. Pallis, The Babylonian Akitu Festival^
Copenhagen, 1926.
172. King [d],ii. 87-91.
173. See also King , Plates 44, 53, 65, 76, 90. Ibtd.y Plate 34,
the symbol on the table appears to be a stone pillar.
174. RA xvi. 136, and Plate i.
175. Sir H. Rawlinson, xviii. The only certainty about Raw-
linson’s thesis is that the first stage was black.
176. See Thureau-Dangin [c], p. 141, 11 . 370—1.
177. See Kugler, pp. 6, 218. Cf. the title of Mercury = Nabu,
^gu-udy with gu-ud — fidnu sa samCy “ tablet of the Heavens.”
178. Charles, if. 443.
179. See R. Wiinsch, Antike Fluchttajelny p. 19, 1 . 42, and note.
For index of passages, C. Wessely, DWAW xxxvi. 172; Ixii. 52, 1 . 965*
180. Ebeling, KAR No. 227, rev. iii. 8-24.
18 1. See Knudtzon, pp. 968—75.
182. CT xvii. 42, 11 . 26 fF.
Chapter III
1. Attendants of Nergal. See p. 138.
2. The souls of men had not yet been permitted to enter Arallu.
3. i.e., the land of the dead.
4. Attributed to the pre-Sargonic period by L. Legrafn, MJ xix.
393. But see the account of its discovery by Hilprecht, p. 337.
5. About 6^ miles in ordinary Babylonian measurement.
6. Texts, transcription, and translation of this poem by S. Langdon,
The Legend of Etana and the Eagley Paris, 1931.
7. For variants of the Alexander myth, with critical examination
of the texts and literature, see Gabriel Millet, “ L’ Ascension d’ Alexan-
dre,” Syriay iv. (1923) 83—133, a work not yet completed.
Chapter IV
I. The Amarna tablet is published by O. Schroeder, V orderasiathche
SchnftdenkmdleTy xii. 194, and lastly edited by Knudtzon, No. 356.
Most recent translation by E. Ebeling in Gressmann, pp. 143—146,
which see for the Assyrian fragments. Transcription and translation
by P. Jensen, KB vi. i, 92-101 ; Dhorme [a], pp. 148—161. A discus-
sion of the texts and theology in Langdon [e], pp. 78— lOO. A new
copy of the Scheil text now in A. T. Clay, A Hebrew Deluge Story in
Cuneiforniy PI. iv. and Morgan Library y Vol. iv. No. 3.
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
402
2. ud-sar -num ^En-lil-loy S. Smith, Babylonian Historical Texts,
PL ix. 12; B. Landsberger and T. Bauer, in ZA xxxvii. 92.
3. ZA xvi. 170, 11 . 24—5, restored by PBS P, 1 13, 11 . 58-9.
4. Read suma lu-usckur, not mu-lu-mu, or, as corrected by all
editors, kul-lu-mu.
5. Zer ameluti, said of Adapa, Langdon [e], p. 96, 12.
6. See R. Koldewey, Die Temfel von Babylon und Borsiffa, Blatt
4, and pp. 29 and 68; Langdon [d], p. 91 and PL xlv; Gressmann,
Nos. 478 a, b.
7. See RA xiv. 194; Delegation en Perse, i. 168.
8. See Weidner [c], p. 94.
9. The theory was developed at length by Paul Toscane in DP, Vol.
xii, where he finds the serpent and the Tree of Life in the geometrical
designs of the early painted ware of Susa. Apparently Edmont Pottier,
who edited the early Susa pottery in Vol. xiii of the same series, disagrees
with Toscane and does not make any reference to his theory in the
preceding volume.
10. i.e., to the house of the Water-god, the Apsu.
11. Read KU (di-ib) = sabdtu, A. T. Clay, Miscellaneous Texts,
No. 53, 1 . 132; with phonetic prefixes is-sa-KU-at. In the preceding
line, restore a-ma-ta da-mi-iq-ta.
12. King . Pis. xliii; xlviii; Ixvi; Ixxxi; xix; RA xvi. PL ii;
I Raw. PL 70.
13. ibid.. Pis. Ixxvii, xci; DP i. PL xiv; vi. PL 9. See this type
with inscription, ‘^Gu-la, on a Susa boundary stone, Hinke [a], p. 105;
RA xiv. 194.
14. ZA xxxvi. 21 1.
15. Ebeling, No. 7 1, obv. 3— 6.
16. In the original document the name Eve (Hawwa) did not
occur.
17. A citation from one of these rituals on p. 276. See also T. H.
Meek, BA x. 1—5.
18. So Paul Haupt, ZA xxx. 66, and R. C. Thompson, Assyrian
Herbal, p. 46, but Thompson retracts this identification, p. 262, n. 2.
19. Harper, No. 771, 1—7.
20. Stele from Seripul, Gressmann, No. 254. On the botanical
identification see Boissier, Melanges ddarcheologie orientale, Geneva,
1930, P- 7 -
21. It may be referred to in the early document. Genesis xiii. lo, as
the “ Garden of Yaw,” mentioned also by Post-exilic Isaiah li. 3.
22. Ezekiel xxviii. 12—19.
NOTES
403
Chapter V
1. See Shimtu, p. 21.
2. See RA xxii. 32.
3. In this discussion Tibir is used wherever the text indicates this
reading. Tibir is probably the original of Tubal- (Cain), Genesis
iv. 22.
4. The verb employed here corresponds to the Accadian banuy used
of Enid’s creating the first patrons of the arts from clay. See F. H.
Weissbach, Babylonische Mhcelleriy No. 12.
5. Title of Tammuz.
6. To emphasize this statement the scribe of a small Tablet, dupli-
cate of lines 21—41, has written it also on the edge of the Tablet, unless
he had omitted it in the text and wished to indicate its insertion in this
manner. See Langdon, BE xxxi. No. 15.
7. The first part of this poem from Nippur is published by G. A.
Barton, Miscellaneous Babylonian Inscriftionsy No. 8, and Pis. xxxvi—
xxxvii, and in Langdon [e], Pis. vii— viii, with transcription and transla-
tion, pp. 135—148. E. Chiera has discovered that this is only part of
a longer poem, written on a large four (or six? ) column Tablet, and
he has also found new duplicates and identified two fragments already
published by S. Langdon and H. Radau as part of the same composition.
See Edward Chiera, Sumerian Religious TextSy Upland, Pa. (1924),
No. 25, and pp. 26—32.
8. OECT i. 39-42.
9. The text and English edition by the writer in BBS x. part i,
and later corrected French edition in Langdon [e]. Interpretations
have been given by many other scholars and the literature on this poem
is great. It has been collected by E. F. Weidner [d]. Nos. 984—1012.
10. This name means “the pure queen,” and is applied to various
goddesses. Here it probably refers to the wife of Nabu, or of Nesu, or to
Gula-Bau, wife of Ninurta, also called Nesu, or LisT. In line 1 1 of
this column Ninsikilla, or Eressikilla, stands for Damkina, wife of Enki.
11. e-gu-kar-ra. Cf. E. Chiera, BBS viii. No. 169, col. ii. 1 . 7*
Ehe quay of Eridu is mentioned in AJSL xxxix. 166, 1 . 2.
12. Read e-suhur-e = bit sahuru.
13. For Shamash in the lower world, see CT xvi. PI. 46, 1 . 195.
14. See pp. 190-3.
15. Morris Jastrow, G. A. Barton, P. Maurus Witzel. I am con-
vinced that my interpretation was wrong here, and chiefly by the similar
Accadian text edited by P. Dhorme, RA vii. 18, col. ii. 2, and by the
Sumerian myth edited by myself in RA xix. 67—77. especially
Eannatum a-sag-ga su-dug-ga ^Ningirsu-ka-day “ E. whose seed was
404
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
poured into the womb by Ningirsu,” Stela of the Vultures y obverse v.
1-3, Thureau-Dangin [e], p. 10. Also Gudea’s birth in natural man-
ner by the goddess Gatumdug, in Gudea, Cylinder A, 3, 8, is another
example of this myth.
16. Compare the revelation of Enki to Damkina concerning Ibik-
Ishtar, “ the creation of Enki,” Z/f xxxi. 92, 11 . 8—10.
17. On us .. . ziy see us-sigy siky AJSL xxxix. 166, 1 . 5; JRAS
1925, p. 494,1. 23.
18. Enlil issued the same order when he lay with Ninlil, RA xix.
73, 11. 32-3.
19. Epithet of Enki’s wife.
20. lal = wasaru; see Langdon [a], p, 80, n. I.
21. Cf. RA xix. 74, 1 . 43, and PBS x. 192, 1 . 7.
22. Identified with the poppy by some scholars.
23. gts-mal is not the sign for weapon {lita^ in the period of this
text.
24. RA xix. 76.
Chapter VI
1. The evidence has been popularly presented by Harold Peake,
The Floody London, 1930, pp. 95—112. See also Illustrated London
NewSy 1930, Feb. 8, pp. 206-7.
2. See Langdon, OECT ii. 9, n. 5.
3. British Museum, K. 4874, 1 . 13.
4. See OECT ii. 8, n. 3.
5. Berossus, as preserved by Eusebius. See Cory, pp. 26-9.
6. See the article “ Puranas,” by F. E. Pargiter in ERE x. 447—
55, and OECT ii. 26—7.
7. See OECT ii. 2—3.
8. See p. 38.
9. The original text was published by A. Poebel, PBS v. No. 1,
with translation, PBS iv. 9—70. Translation by E. Ebeling, in Gress-
mann, p. 198, and by Ungnad [f], p. I2i.
10. See S. Langdon, Babylonian Wisdoniy pp. 88—9; E. Ebeling,
KeilinschAjt-Texte Religibsen Inhalts , No. III.
11. In any case mountains in the far west, and not mons Masius in
Armenia. Hardly to be connected with Masis in the Alexander Legend,
E. A. Budge, The History of Alexander the Greaty p. 168, 1 . lOI. The
following passages are taken from the Epic of Gilgamish, Tablet IX.
1 2. End of Tablet IX, col. ii.
13. Read probably ul inamdin-su \^ana amart] qa-ab-sa arkat-suy
after col. v. 34.
14. Bruno Meissner, Mitteilungen der V order asiatischen Gesellschajty
1902, No. I. Thompson [e], p. 43.
NOTES
405
15. A. \Jngna.A.,Gilgamesch Epos, p. 27. Also Zi-du-ri, J. Fried-
rich, in ZA xxxix. 22, 1 . 9.
-
16. The passage is first addressed to Gilgamish by Siduri, Tablet X,
col. i, end entirely lost; by Ursanapi, X, col. iii. 2—7, where most of the
lines are preserved in fragmentary condition; by Utnapishtim, end of X,
col. iv, entirely lost. A fragment, 34193, Thompson [d], PI. 42
belongs to one of these three interviews and is longer than the one be-
tween Ursanapi and Gilgamish. Following Thompson, ibid., p. 56, I
place it with the interview between Siduri and Gilgamish if there is
space for it at the end of Tablet X, col. i.
17. a-dur-ma mu-ta ap-la-ah a-raf-pu-ud sir a. Restored from
Tablet X, col. iii. 25; v. 17; ii. 7, a-du-ur?
18. See Langdon [e], pp. 210—2.
19. C. F. Fossey, Journal Asiatique, 1922, pp. 27—9, thinks that it
is an expression for “sailors.” From the passages in which it occurs
su-ut ahne must refer to attendants of Ursanapi, and persons who were
hostile to Gilgamish. See Tablet X, col. ii. 35, where they are referred
to as as \tu\-ti?-, also col. ii. 38, and note 23.
20. Either a translation or an epithet of su-ut abne.
21. See p. 212.
22. The Assyrian version, which gives two successive addresses of
Ursanapi, X, col. ii. 39—50; iii. 1—7, has interpolated the second ad-
dress from the Siduri episode. Also Gilgamish’s reply, iii. 8—31, is con-
sequently interpolated.
23. i.e., the su-ut abne. See also p. 213.
24. About one hundred feet.
25. Probably a kind of ship.
26. qablu, mrdXe., = sibbu, RA vi. 131, AO 3555, rev. 14; cf.
Ebeling, KAR No. 168, rev. ii. 12.
27. karu — karu, and u-sak-\sid elippa\\'\. Cf. Ebeling, KAR
No. 196, rev. ii. 58.
28. See pp. 211 (Siduri); 214 (Ursanapi).
29. See pp. 212 (to Siduri); 214 (to Ursanapi).
30. lullu-amelu e-dil; see Langdon [c], p. 95 n. 3; [e] p. 36, 1 . 9.
31. The text first published by Paul Haupt, Das Babylonische Nim-
rodefos, and by Thompson [d], Plates 34-43.
32. On the Sargon and Nur-Dagan myth see CAR i. 406; E. F.
Weidner, Der Zug Sargons von Akkad nach Kleinasien, Boghazkoi-
studien. Heft 6, pp. 57—99.
33. The lines of the Flood myth are numbered after the text in
Thompson [d]. Plates 44-54.
34. A parallel text, H. V. Hilprecht, Earliest Version of the Flood
Story, p. 48, 1 . 9 has, “ With a strong covering cover it.”
35. The sar is 3600, and pitch is regularly measured by the gur or
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
406
about fifty-two gallons. The scribe does not say what measure is meant.
If the gur is intended, the amount would be 1,123,200 gallons!
36. East of the Tigris, near the Lower Zab river and in the latitude
of the Assyrian capital Ashur.
37. See pp. 139-40.
38. ammakt, “ Instead of,” is proved by RA xviii. 167, 11 . 21 flF.
39. V. Scheil, RA xxiii. 42, rev. 3—5.
40. Aelian. Nat. Animal.^ vi. 51 5 G. Kaibel, Comicorum Graecorum
FragmentOy p. 1 50, fragment 9 of Dinolochus. References and trans-
lation by J. U. Powell.
41. Mr. Powell, who called my attention to all these passages in
Greek authors, gave me a literal translation of Nicander, Theriacuy 343—
358; he cites also A. C. Pearson, Sophocles^ Fragments y ii. 31 if. I
have given only a shortened account, taken from Powell’s translation.
42. A fragment of an old Babylonian version from Nippur, by H. V.
Hilprecht; see note 34; another from an Assyrian version, Paul Haupt,
Das Babylomsche Nimrod EfoSy p. 131. For literature see Gressmann,
pp. 199-200.
43. Seep. 37.
44. There is general agreement in assigning the following verses of
Genesis to the old Yawistic account. Minor details are omitted here.
Chapter vi. 5-8 vii. 1-5 -j- 12 + 17*’ + 22-3 viii. 6-13 -f- 20-
22. For details see J. Skinner, GenestSy pp. 150—158; G. R. Driver,
Genesisy^ pp. 65— 108.
45. If this statement be correct, then Genesis vii. 7— lO must be
from the hand of a redactor, but based on the so-called P source. These
verses are entirely omitted in my discussion. Verse 10 if taken from
P would prove that this source also contained the period of seven days
between the warning and the coming of the Flood.
46. See p. 204.
47. See p. 134.
48. The meaning “ rainbow ” assigned to antiranna and marratu by
many scholars is false.
Chapter VII •
1. This was my view, OECT ii. 12, n. 3.
2. They are all from Nippur, and three of them are discussed in
PBS X. 124—5. duplicate of my text, ibid.y No. 5, is published by
Chiera, No. 38. Chiera has also found another text, ibid.y No. 39,
which is similar to my text, BE xxxi. No. 55, and proves that also
H. Radau, Miscellaneous Sumenan TextSy No. 12, belongs to this epic.
It is now clear that the Sumerian original was an extensive composition.
NOTES
407
3. See BE xxxi. No. 55, 11 . 6—7, and Chiera, ibid.y No. 39, 11 . 2—3.
For seals which shew Gilgamish slaying a winged monster, see Dela-
porte , PI. 8, T. 51; T. 74.
4. See p. 102.
5. For Tammuz with Gilgamish, see PBS x. part 2, No. 16, rev. ii.
14-15; RA xiii, 1 13 III, 2.
6. P. Haupt, Das Babylonische NimrodefoSy No. 53 and E. Ebeling,
KAR No. 227, obv. ii, 7 fl.
7. See C. F. Fossey, Bab. v. 16, 1 . 145; Ebeling, KAR No. 434, 1 . 5.
8. Langdon , p. 20.
9. See Weidner [c], p. 86 and Ebeling, KAR No. 227, obv. ii. 46.
10. See PBS X. 178, n. 2.
11. Deimel, ii. No. 69, viii. 12.
12. See p. 192.
13. A seal of the same period from Kish, JRAS 1930, PI. xi. No. 2.
14. See p. 29.
15. See Landsberger, i. 325.
16. Poetical phrase for “ Erech of the wide public squares.”
17. This is now clear from R. C. Thompson’s new edition of the
Epic, see ibid.y p. 9, n. 6. For the mythological character of this ancient
goddess, see S. Langdon, BE xxxi. 14, n. I.
18. S. Langdon, PBS x. 212, 11 . 17—23.
19. ibid.y 11. 24-36,
20. Genesis xxxii. 25—33.
21. V. Scheil, in RA xiii. 6.
22. Hosea xii. 4—5.
23. See Delaporte [a]. No. 25 1; Ward [a]. No. 461. On Dela-
porte, [c], PI. 70, No. il, Gilgamish, here represented with horned
headdress, seizes Enkidu by the tail. A curious seal, J. Menant, Cata-
logue des Cylindres Orientaux ... de la Hayey PL i. No. 5, may rep-
resent at least two different scenes of this episode. Here Enkidu has no
bull parts, but the tail is preserved on the central scene.
24. M. Jastrow and A. T. Clay, An Old Babylonian Version of the
Gilgamish Eficy col. iii.
25. Jastrow-Clay, ibid.y 11 . 249—275.
26. At this point I follow an order differing from Thompson [d].
Pis. 14—19. I take K. 8586 and S. 1040 to belong to Tablet IV, and
S. 2132 -f" K. 3588 to belong to Tablet V.
27. KUB iv. No. 12. Copy by E. F. Weidner. Translations by
A. Ungnad, E. Ebeling, and R. C. Thompson. For literature, see
Thompson [d], p. 79.
28. If K. 8586 is Tablet IV, obv. ii, and S. 1040, obv. iii, there is a
gap in the text of nearly one hundred lines, until the narrative can be
followed toward the end of rev. ii. = K. 8591, PI. 15 in Thompson [d].
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
408
29. The order of the narrative here depends upon the assumption
that S. 2132 and K. 3588 belong to the fifth tablet.
30. Edited by J. Friedrich, ZA xxix, 6-15. The following account
and translations depend entirely upon this edition.
31. See p. 248.
32. See Combabus in Index.
33. E. Ebeling, KAR No. 57, rev. i 18; T. G. Pinches, PSBA
1909, p. 62, 1 . 21; KAR No. 357, 1 . 39.
34. Sidney Smith, Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology (Liver-
pool), xi. No. 3.
35. See C. F. Fossey, Bab. v. 8, 1 . 74; 54, 1 . 55; 139, 1 . 25.
36. Sidney Smith, JRAS, 1926, p. 440. On Humbaba see also
F. Thureau-Dangin, RA xxii. 23—6.
37. See p. 37.
38. So in R. C. Thompson’s new arrangement of the lines.
39. J. Friedrich, ZA xxxix. 16—21.
40. Read i-nus^ not i-ful.
41. Incorporated into Gilgamish’s replies to Siduri, Ursanapi, and
Utnapishtim. See p. 212.
42. See p. 259, 11 . 39-48.
43. K. 8281, in Thompson [d], PI. 33, left side. Possible con-
tinuation, after a break, of K. 8564, col. iii, followed by K. 8564, right
side = col. iv?
44. See pp. 209-27.
45. See pp. 209—10.
46. That is to steady one end of the bow on the ground, the attitude
of an archer in shooting with arrows.
47. See E. Ebeling, KAR No. 92, rev. 21.
48. A. Ungnad, Gtlgamtsch-Efos und Odyssee, p. 3I; article
“ Kalypso ” in Pauly and Wissowa, signed [Lamer] .
49. P. Jensen, Das Gilgamos-Efos, Erster Band, Die Ursprilnge
der Alt-Testamentlichen Patriarchen, Profheten und Bejreten Sagen
und der N eu-Testamentlichen J esu-SageUy Strassburg, 1906; Zweiter
Band, Die Israelitischen Gilgamish-Sagen in der Weltliteratury mit
Ergdnzungshefty worin unter anderm vier Kapitel uber die Paulus-SagCy
Marburg, 1928. Heft i. pp. 1-1030; Heft ii. pp. 1-730.
Chapter VIII
I. Two editions are known, the early Babylonian, written in the
time of Ammizaduga, and the Assyrian edition of the seventh century.
Tablet II of the old Babylonian text was first published by V. Scheil,
Recueil de Travaux relatifs a la Philologie et d V Archeologie egyptiennes
NOTES
409
et assyriennes. xx. 5 5 ff . New copy by A. T. Clay, A Hebrew Deluge
Story, No. I. Tablet II. This tablet probably had three columns on
each side, like the edition of the Epic of Gilgamish. Tablet III of the old
edition is published by Langdon [e], PI. x. Tablet I of the Assyrian ver-
sion is published in CT xv. PI. 49. There is no complete critical edition
of these fragments. CT xv. 49 is edited by P. Jensen, KB vi. 274—287,
and old version. Tablet II, ibid., 288-291. Dhorme [a], pp. 128-139;
1 20-1 25. A. T. Clay, ibid., pp. 58—69.
2. References to the columns follow CT xv. 49 (here).
3. That is, looked enviously at the weighing scales, as they pur-
chased food.
4. It is not possible to regard Bu. 91—5—9, 269 in Langdon [e],
PI. X as part of Clay, ibid.. No. I. If this were so then the account of
Mami’s creation of man would come before the story of the Flood is
finished, in the old edition.
5. Form of Atarhasis in the old Accadian texts.
6. Text D. T. 42, in P. Haupt, Nimrod Efos, p. 131. Literature
in P. Jensen, KB vi. p. 254; Dhorme [a], p. 126.
7. See p. 1 12.
Chapter IX
1. See Fig. 55 and Otto Weber. Altonentalische Siegelbilder,
pp. 85-6.
2. See the design of Hydra on a late astronomical tablet from
Warka. E. F. Weidner, AOF iv. PI. v. No. 2. The resemblance to
the customary style of drawing this monster is unmistakable. It occurs
much earlier on a monument of Merodachbaladan, King, L. W. ,
PI. xlii.
3. The excavations at Babylon yielded almost no engraved seals.
See Koldewey, p. 262. One of these represents Marduk with four
wings, and holding two (natural) lions by their hind legs.
4. See also Delaporte [c], PI. 86, Nos. 13—14; W. H. Ward,
Cylinders in the J. Pierfont Morgan Collection, No. 152.
5. Delaporte [a]. No. 333; Weber, ibid.. Nos. 307, 308; Dela-
porte [c], PI. 87, Nos. 4, 7—9.
6. Weber, ibid.. Nos. 301, 302, 303, 304, 305; W. H. Ward,
Cylinders in the J. Pierfont Morgan Collection, Nos. 150, 155.
7. Delaporte [c], PI. 86, No. 18; PI. 87, No. 2.
8. Assyrian Sculptures, Kleinmann, Pis. 83—4. Ward, p. 197.
9. See also Ward, Nos. 583-585; Delaporte [c], PI. 86, No. 17;
[a], 321; 331-
10. As for example, Delaporte [a], 318.
410
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
11. J. Menant, Cylindres Onentaux de la Haye, No. 32.
12. Delaporte [c], PI. 89, No. 17.
13. Delaporte [a], 319.
14. RA vi. 95; stela of Gudea. W. H. Ward, ibid.y No. 368 d.
15. See Langdon [h], 118, n. 7.
16. E. Unger in Reallexicon der V orgeschichte, viii. Tafel 63A,
and A. Jeremias, Handbuch der Altorientalischen Geisteskultury
p. 351. See Unger, ibid., p. 213.
17. It is probable that CT xvi. 19, 21 should be read ug-ga =
\^la-^ab-bu.
18. Probable meaning of lines 19-22 in S. Geller, ATU i. 278.
19. See AJSL xlii. 1 16, 1 . 22; I2I, 1 . lO; 122, 1 . 9.
20. The text of the Labbu myth is published by L. W. King, CT
XV. Pis. 33-4. Edited by P. Jensen, KB vi. 44-7; F. Hrozny, Mythen
von dem Gotte Ninrag, pp. 106—114; E. Ebeling, in Gressmann,
pp. 138-9, with other literature by H. Zimmern, L. W. King, and
A. Ungnad.
21. The literature on this epic is great, but only two editions take
account of the complete material, E. Ebeling, Das Babylonische Welt-
schdfjungslied (1921) and Langdon [a] (1923). A new transla-
tion by Ebeling, in Gressmann, pp. 108-129. New fragments of Tab-
lets I and VI were published in Langdon (1927), pp. 88-101.
22. Langdon , p. 28.
23. CT xvii. 42, 15—25, written lahmi.
24. A new variant, Thompson [d], PI. 29, Rm. 504, has “god
Ea,” for “ he ”; but Langdon , 90, 68, has “ and that one uttered a
cry of pain,” referring to Apsu.
25. See p. 68.
26. See p. 282.
27. F. Thureau-Dangin, RA xvi. 144-156.
28. JRAS 1925, p. 493, 11 . 14-15.
29. See pp. 133-4.
30. There is no word ruqqu in Accadian meaning “ to make secure,”
suggesting an idea of solidity as the root meaning, and if my reading
of line 139 of Tablet IV of the epic, mas-ku “skin,” is right, the
Hebrew word must correspond to it, conveying the meaning of some-
thing spread out or hammered out thin. There is an Accadian word
ruqqu meaning “ copper bowl.”
31. For a new proof that Libra was the “house” of Saturn, see
JRAS, 1925, PI. ii. 1 . 32. On the whole subject see Langdon [a],
pp. 149-151-
32. See Langdon [a], pp. 152-3, on the theories of Weidner, Kug-
ler, Lindl, and Fotheringham.
33. The theory has been elaborately defended by A. Jeremias, and
NOTES
411
his colleague Hugo Winckler, who is now dead. See A. Jeremias,
Handbuch der Altonentalischen Gehteskultur^ p. 25. This writer
attributes the origin of these ideas to the Sumerians, which is a risky
statement. The philosophical theory that the reality of all things is the
conceptions of them, first conceived by the gods, is Sumerian, but
whether they held the late Babylonian theories, that things on earth
also exist in Heaven as their prototypes, is not proved.
34. F. Thureau-Dangin [c], p. 136, 1 . 274.
35. See note 2.
36. See Kugler, Erganzungeriy p. 221; A. Jeremias, ibid.y 227.
37. Weidner [c], p. 70, 12.
38. The astral explanation of the seal was made by Th. Dom-
bart, JSOR xiv. i— 10. Cf. AOF v. 225.
39. Line 1 15 of Tablet VI has Ligiry as CT xxv. 34 II 12; xxiv.
27, 27.
40. CT xiii. 35-38. Editions by Jensen, Dhorme, King, Zimmern,
Ungnad, cited by E. Ebeling, in Gressmann, p. 130. Small duplicate
by Zimmern, in ZA xxviii. 10 1. The Accadian (Neo-Babylonian) text
is provided with a Sumerian translation.
41. E. Ebeling, KAR No. 4; edited by Ebeling, ZDMG Ixx.
532 flF., and Langdon [e], pp. 40—57. Translated by Ebeling, in
Gressmann, pp. 134—6.
42. See pp. 190-3.
43. Genesis ii. 4'"— 25.
44. The text containing the directions for the ceremonies of the
Akitu or Zagmuk festival at Babylon is edited by E. Thureau-Dangin
, pp. 127—146. It is discussed in Langdon [a], pp. 20—28. The
ritual and commentaries on the mystery plays form the subject of a large
volume by S. A. PaUis, The Babylonian Akitu Festivaly Copenhagen,
1926.
45. For the evidence, see Langdon [a], 27; Museum Journaly
1923, p. 275, 1 . 76; CT xxxvii. pi. 10, 1 . 9.
46. Read ifr'tk. See E. F. Weidner, Handbuchy p. 76; CT xxxiii.
pi. 8,1. 32.
47. See p. 140.
48. The Ashur fragments are published by E. Ebeling, KAR Nos.
143; 219; 307. The Ninevite fragments are published in Langdon
[a], pp. 212—13; to K. 9138, K. 6330 has now been joined, and a new
fragment, K. 6359, has been identified by Mr. Gadd. See JRASy
1930, Oct. Number.
49. See p. 52.
412
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
Chapter X
1. In PSBAy 1916, pp. 55-7, I identified one tablet (A. Poebel,
PBS V. 23) of this series which contains that part of the myth where
Ishtar descends through the first three gates. I did not then discover
that my own text, BE xxxi. No. 33, belongs to this series and probably
contains the entire story in four columns. Chiera, in his Sumenan
Religious Texts, vol. i, republished my text, Constantinople Nippur
Collection, No. 368, with the aid of duplicates in Philadelphia, Nos.
13908, 13932 and 12638 + 12702 + 12752. A tablet in Philadel-
phia, 9800, joins my text, BE xxxi. No. 33, and completes it. None
of this new material is published by Chiera, who gives only a new copy
of my text as No. 53 of his Sumerian Religious Texts. See ibid., pp.
37—9. The end of the legend is contained in A. Poebel, PBS v. No. 22,
of which there is an unpublished duplicate at Yale, No. 4621. All of
this new material discovered by Professor Chiera is still inaccessible and
consequently the information contained in this chapter must be con-
sidered inadequate.
2. See Langdon [h], p. 26. The passage under discussion is
nam-en mu-um-sub, BE xxxi. No. 34, 1 . 6.
3. An obscure passage. Tammuz is referred to. Cf. Ningishzida
( = Tammuz) the gussallu of the lower world, iv. Raw. 21'*' A 16.
4. See PSBA, 1916, pp. 55-7.
?. Here Chiera, i. No. 53 , rev. i. 1—4 = BE xxxi. 33, rev. i. i.
6. A. Poebel, PBS, No. 22.
7. The text is published by L. W. King, CT xv. Pis. 45—48, and
a duplicate by Ebeling, KAR, No. I. There are many translations,
the most recent being that by E. Ebeling, in Gressmann, pp. 206—210,
where the literature is given. An English translation will be found in
R. W. Rogers, Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament, pp. I2I—
13 1. The annotated editions are by P. Jensen and P. Dhorme.
8. See pp. 259, 265-6.
9. CT xvii. PI. 37, 1-6.
10. The poet explains the meaning of this line in lines 32—3 below.
11. The same influence was attributed to Aphrodite in Greek my-
thology. P. Dhorme [a], p. 334, note 77, compares a passage in the
Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, 11 . 72-4, which reads (referring to wild
animals which followed Aphrodite), “she seeing them rejoiced in her
heart and sent desire into their breasts; and they all lay down two by
two in shadowy dells.” Text by T. W. Allen and E. E. Sykes ( 1904).
12. Variant, “ I decree thee a fate not to be forgotten. Lo I decree
thee a fate not to be forgotten forever.”
13. Poebel, PBS v. 22, lines 14-15, has, “When Innini from the
lower world ascended, her ransom she gave.”
14. Bab. vi. 199-215.
NOTES
413
Chapter XI
1. Ezekiel’s vision in chapter viii is dated in the Massoretic text in
591 B.C., on the fifth day of the sixth month, that is Elul, August—
September. The Septuagint has the fifth month, or Ab, July— August.
But this is no evidence for the date of the Tammuz wailings. See
Baudissin, p. 109.
2. See Langdon [a], p. 43, 1 . 43, “the blood of the body”; “he
was slain,” p. 43, 1. 47; “he was seized,” p. 45, 1. 51; “they caused
him to be felled,” p. 47, 1. 62.
3. Langdon [g], p. 308, 11 . 5—12; p. 274, 1 . I ; F. Hauft Anni-
versary Volumcy p. 17 1, 1 . 7, p. 173, 1 . 15. For suduy suda = katiluy
“slayer,” see CT xix. 17, B 18.
4. See RA xii. 42.
5. The best article on St. George, which includes the discovery of
his tomb by the English army in 1917, is by H. Leclercq, “ Georges
(Saint),” Dtctionaire d^Archeologie Chrettenne. None of the articles
on St. George make any reference to the numerous Arabic sources con-
cerning the St. George legends.
-
6. Von Gutschmidt in ZDMG xv. 64, on Ibn Wahshijja’s work
on N abataean A griculture.
7. Mas‘udi tenth century a.d. See Von Gutschmidt, ibid.
8. In Book iii of the Annals y edited by J. de Goeje. A French
translation from the Persian translation will be found in H. Zottenberg,
Chronique de Abu Djafar Tabariy ii. 54—66. See also the article on
“ Djirdjis,” in Dictionary of Islam.
9. See A. Chwolson, liber Tammuz und die Menschen V erehrungy
pp. 50-56.
10. Baudissin, p. 74, after H. Pognon, Inscnftions Semitiques.
11. From Pseudo-Mileto, third century a.d., ed. Cureton. See also
E. Renan, Memoires de VInstituty xxiii. part 2, pp. 319 ff., and Bau-
dissin, p. 74.
12. Never with divine prefix in Cuneiform texts, which excludes the
reading of the name on a seal ^X-a-du-ni as ^A-du-ni-AMy as argued
by G. Dossin, RA xxvii. 92.
13. See S. Langdon, RA xxvii. 24, and the title used for a deity at
Nerib near Harran in the Cassite period, ihid.y p. 88.
14. See p. 322.
15. In the Syriac work, “Treasure Cave,” edited by C. Bezold,
Die Schatzhohle syrish und deutschy Leipzig, 1883—88, p. 37. See
also Baudissin, p. 116.
16. On this whole subject of the influence of the Tammuz-Ishtar cult
upon the origins of Christianity, see H. Zimmern, Belti fBHtijoy
Beletja) einey zun'dchst Sfrachlichey Studie %ur V orgeschichte der Ma-
donnakultSy Paul Haupt Anniversary Volume, pp. 281-292.
4 H
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
17. Eusebius, quoting Philo of Byblus, Book i. chap. lO.
18. Here undoubtedly Marduk, XA vi. 243, 1 . 35, as in Langdon
[a], p. 202, 1 . 83, and A. Boissier, Choix de Textes, p. 84, 1 . 13.
19. CT xxviii, PL 44, K. 717, 11 , 4 and 9. Read probably ana
iruti inissi.
20. mu-dam- \mt-ik amati-iad\ , P. Haupt, A kkadische und Sumerische
KeUschrijitexte, No. l"],!. I.
21. Langdon . No. 143.
22. Langdon, PBS x. 287—8.
23. E. Ebeling, KAR No. 357, 11 . 33-37 and MV AG, 1918, 2, p. 9.
24. See p. 132.
25. See p. 322.
26. The text has ^Ur-LU. In any case the first king of the last
dynasty of Ur is intended.
27. Idin-Ishtar is the name of some unknown ruler, probably of the
city where the liturgy was written.
28. H. de Genouillac, Textes Sumenens ReligieuXy AO 5374,
11. 191-209.
29. This is a poetic description of the land of the dead. The
“ chariot ” probably refers to the chariots found in the tombs of early
Sumerian kings at Kish and Ur. These were placed beside the dead
in the belief that the kings would be able to use them in Aralu.
30. Extracts from H. Zimmern, Sumerische KultUeder, No. 26,
rev. ii-iii.
31. Deimel, iii. No. I, obv. i. 1 . 2; rev. ii. 1 . 5.
32. Identical with ^A-tu-ud, and ^ A-tu-tu{r') , sister of Lillu, a title
of Tammuz, RA xix. 178, 1 . 1 1 ; 181, n. 2. Probably for ^NlN(e)-
tud, the Mother-goddess, who is both mother and sister of Tammuz.
33. Or better Usudsud, “ the far away.” See Van, TC xv. PI. 9,
1. 65.
34. H, de Genouillac, TC xv. PI. x. 11 . 77-92.
35. H. de Genouillac, TC xv. PI. 12, 11 . 118—123.
36. CT XV. 26, 22—27, 24 with variant, ibid.y 30, obv. I to rev. 25.
A similar passage in TC xv, PI. 12, 11 . 1 18—140.
37. Text in Rawlinson, iv. PI. 30, No. 2, with duplicate in G.
Reisner, Sumerisch-Babylomsche HymneUy No, 37.
38. J. G. Frazer, Adonis Attis and Osiris y p. 194.
39. Selections from Langdon , pp. 99-103.
40. CT XV. PI. 14 and see Langdon [g], pp. 272-5.
NOTES
415
Chapter XII
1. General works on this subject to be consulted are W. R. Smith,
Religion of the Semites^ London, 1901; R. C. Thompson, Semitic
Magic, London, 1908; Edmond Doutte, Magie et religion dam
V A jrique du nord, Algiers, 1908.
2. See the article “ Demons and Spirits (Jewish) ” in ERE by
H. Loewe, and J. A. Montgomery, Aramaic Incantation texts jrom
Niffur, Philadelphia 1913, especially Montgomery’s references to the
literature, p. 74, n. 35.
3. See Luke xi. 14—20,
4. Matthew iv. I— ll; Mark i. 12-13; Luke iv. 1-13.
5. See Charles Singer, From Magic to Science, London, 1928.
6. Wellhausen, pp. 148—159.
7. For charms and talismans used in Islamic religion against the
demons, see H. A. Winckler, Siegel und Charaktere in der Muhamme-
danischen Zauberei, Heft vii. of Beihefte of Der Islam, Berlin, 1930.
D. S. Margoliouth, Arabic Documents jrom the Monneret Collection,
Islamica, iv. 249—271.
8. Edited by L. S. A. Wells in Charles, ii. 137.
9. SeeLangdon [g],p. 154536-
10. “The Scape-goat in Babylonian Religion,” S. Langdon in Ex-
pository Times, xxiv. 9—15.
11. CT xvi. 35, 30—4, restored from Collection of J. B. Nies, ii.
No. 22, 115-8.
12. CT xvi. 10, 21-4 =12, 51-2,
13. CT xvi. 27, 18.
14. Thompson [e], pp. 68—76; S. Lane-Poole, Arabian Society in
the Middle Ages, pp. 35—6.
15. Yast ix. 34 in W. Max Miiller’s Sacred Books of the East, xxiii.
61—2 (translated by J. Darmesteter). W. Bousset’s statement in Die
Religion des Judentums im N. T. Zeitalter (Berlin, 1902), p. 464, re-
garding a myth of the union of daevas and drujas is both philologically
and materially false.
16. CT xvi. 1 2 1, 1-23.
17. ibid., 15, iv. 60-v. 17.
18. CT xvi. 14 B 8—38.
19. KAR No. 88, Frag. 5, 2.
20. Charles, ii. 485.
21. P. Haupt, ASKT 90, 60-63; xvii. PI. 34, 15-20; Raw-
linson, iv. PI. 29, B 23-30; CT xvi. PI. 31, 97-99; CT xvi. PI, 5,
195-197. The list, KAR 227, rev. Ill, 34-6 omits the gallu and
wicked god. Often the lists contain only the first five, CT xvi. PI. i.
SEMITIC MYTHOLOGY
416
12; PL 14, Col. Ill, 27; RawHnson, v. PL 50, ii. 17-19; CT xvi. 17,
K, 4947 -j- K. 4988.
22. Rawlinson, v. PL 50, A, 41—62.
23. Isaiah xxxiv. 14.
24. M. Gaster, “Two Thousand Years of Charm against a Child
Stealing Witch,” Folk-LorCy xi. 129—62. See also Montgomery,
of. cit.y pp. 262—3.
25 - J. A. Montgomery, Aramaic Incantation TextSy No. 42. See
M. Schwab, PSBA xii. 300 ff. On Lilu, in Jewish mythology repre-
sented by Asmodeus, and Lilith, see Thompson [e], pp. 65—80.
S. Langdon, Babyloniacay iv. 187—191.
26. Rawlinson, iv. PL 29, No. 2.
27. Gudea statue B. hi. 15; Cylinder B ii. 9.
28. F. Perles in Babyloniacay vi. 235.
29. R. C. Thompson, JRAS (1929), pp. 801—823.
30. CTxvi. PL I, 28-Pl. 2, 56.
31. M. Gaster, Folk-LorCy xi. 129; J. Montgomery, of. cit.y No.
42, 1. 10.
32. See Hesychius under FeXXw; Stephanus, Thesaurus graecae
Linguae; Zenobius, hi. 3.
33. Fritz Pradel, Griechische Gebetey Religions geschichtliche V er-
suchey hi. Heft 3 (1907), pp. 23 and 91. On Gello of the Christian
Greek demonology see C. du F. Du Cange, Glossarium ad Scriftores
mediae et infimae Graecitatisy sub FeXXaj. L. Allacci, De Temflis
Graecorum (1645), PP* Ii6f.
34. The reading Lamastu formerly read Labartu was established
by ^La-ma-as-tumy Ungnad, in ZA xxxvi. 108, and by a Bodleian Tab-
let with NPr La-ma-za-tum-KI y Var. La-mas -tum-K I. The Su-
merian reading Lam-me usually read Dim-me may be defended by, (a)
la-am-ma = lamassUy the animal genius; (b) the phonetic change d ~> I
(very common) ; and (c) the Greek Lamkay which seems to have been
borrowed along with Gello.
35. PB 5 i^. No. 1 13, duplicate of Rawlinson, iv. Pis. 56 and 58.
36. The Assyrian edition of these thirteen incantations is edited by
D. W. Myhrman, ZA xvi. 154—200. The third tablet of the series
containing the rituals has not been recovered in the early edition, but
the colophon of the Tablet of the early editions (see note 35) of the
thirteen incantations states that the series is incomplete. It clearly con-
tained the matter preserved in Rawlinson, iv. PL 55 = Myhrman, pp.
184-195*
37. Duplicates are RA xviii. 198; F. Weissbach, Bab. Miscelleny
p. 42. A duplicate of incantation five is Ebeling, KARy 239, Cols,
i— ii.
38. CT xvii. PL 13, 21 ff.; RA xviii. 165, 11 . 16-24.
NOTES
417
39. From the Berlin Museum, VA 3477, published by Friedrich
Delitzsch, Beiblatt zum Jahrbuch des Kbnigl.-Preusz. Kunstsammlung,
1908, p. 75; also in 1921, by F, Thureau-Dangin, RA xviii. PI. I,
No. 3, with description by L. Delaporte, p. 179, No. vi.
40. Ebeling, KAR No. 71, 11 . 5—6.
41. ZA xvi. 178, 11 . 6— 1 1 ; P. Haupt, ASKT p. 94, 11 . 59-68; on
an amulet, RA xviii. 195. In this text sumundu = katilu, “slayer.”
42. For a description of Fig. 44 by L. Delaporte, see RA xviii.
172-4*
43. Read ezzit samrat ( = UL) namurrat u Pi-i barbaraty etc., IV
Raw. PI. 55 rev. I = RA xviii. 166, 1 . 13; PBS. i^. 113, 1 . I2; ZA
xvi. 156, 1. 39.
44. ZA xvi. 174, 11 . 25-52; ci RA xviii. 13-29.
45 * mudammelaty from emeluy to suckle, Hebrew ^-w-l. See ntmily
Langdon [a], p. 40, 1 . 33.
46. nasdsu — nasu?
47. ZA xvi. 180, 11 . 29-43 ;PR 5 i^. rev. 11 . 15-27.
48. Translation by F. Thureau-Dangin, RA xviii. 197, restored
from Ebeling, KAR No. 76, 1—8 T No. 88, p. 156, below, 14 ff.
49. A. H. Sayce, The Babylonian and Oriental Recordy iii. 17F
Text in Frank [a], p. 88, with corrections by Zimmern, OLZ 1917,
pp. 102—5; f'* Layard, Culte de Venus (Paris, 1837—49), PI. xvii,
and AKF iii. 56.
50. The three other winged figures of Pazuzu in the round, are one
in the Louvre, Frank [a], p. 80, described in RA xviii. 189, with in-
scription, p. 1 90; one in the British Museum, L. W. King, Babylonian
Religiony London (1899), p. 43; another in the Louvre, Thureau-
Dangin, RA xviii. 19 1. See also JRAS 1926, PI. xi. No. 7, from Ur.
51. RA xviii. 192.
52. Frank [a], p. 82, note; p. 83 note. The two heads are pub-
lished by King, ibid.y p. 189 and Thompson [a], i. PI. ii. 91875.
53. C. Frank. RA vii. 24. Text li-li-HI! A complete list of heads
of Pazuzu, in RA xviii. 192—3.
54. RA xviii. PI. i. No. I. On the Constantinople amulet,
Frank [a], PI. iii, there are only six devils — panther, dog, bird, lion,
serpent, ram.
55. CT xvi. 19, 11 . 1-28.
56. See W. Bousset, Die Religion des Judentums im neutestament-
lichen Zeitalter (Berlin, 1903), pp. 326—336.
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