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These
souls were not so securely isolated from humanity that the
inhabitants
of the world were not at times tempted to rejoin them before
their
last hour had come. Just as Gilgames had dared of old the
dangers
of the desert and the ocean in order to discover the island of
Khasisadra,
so Etana darted through the air in order to ascend to the
sky
of Anu, to become incorporated while still living in the choir of
the
blessed. The legend gives an account of his friendship with the
eagle
of Shamash, and of the many favours he had obtained from and
rendered
to the bird. It happened at last, that his wife could not bring
forth
the son which lay in her womb; the hero, addressing himself to
the
eagle, asked from her the plant which alleviates the birth-pangs
of
women and facilitates their delivery. This was only to be found,
however,
in the heaven of Anu, and how could any one run the risk of
mounting
so high, without being destroyed on the way by the anger of the
gods?
The eagle takes pity upon the sorrow of his comrade, and resolves
to
attempt the enterprise with him. "'Friend,' she says, 'banish the
cloud
from thy face! Come, and I will carry thee to the heaven of the
god
Anu. Place thy breast against my breast--place thy two hands upon
the
pinions of my wings--place thy side against my side.' He places
his
breast
against the breast of the eagle, he places his two hands upon the
pinions
of the wings, he places his side against her side;--he adjusts
himself
firmly, and his weight was great." The Chaldæan artists have
more
than once represented the departure of the hero. They exhibit him
closely
attached to the body of his ally, and holding her in a strong
embrace.
A first flight has already lifted them above the earth, and the
shepherds
scattered over the country are stupefied at the unaccustomed
sight:
one announces the prodigy to another, while their dogs seated at
their
feet extend their muzzles as if in the act of howling with
terror.
"For
the space of a double hour the eagle bore him--then the eagle
spake
to
him, to him Etana: 'Behold, my friend, the earth what it is;
regard
the
sea which the ocean contains! See, the earth is no more than a
mountain,
and the sea is no more than a lake.' The space of a second
double
hour she bore him, then the eagle spake to him, to him Etana:
'Behold,
my friend, the earth what it is; the sea appears as the girdle
of
the earth! 'The space of a third double hour she bore him, then
the
eagle
spake to him, to him Etana: 'See, my friend, the earth, what it
is:--the
sea is no more than the rivulet made by a gardener.'"
[Illustration:
233.jpg ETANA CARRIED TO HEAVEN BY AN EAGLE.]
Drawn
by Faucher-Gudin, from a Chaldæan intaglio.
"They
at length arrive at the heaven of Anu, and rest there for a
moment.
Etana sees around him nothing but empty space--no living thing
within
it--not even a bird: he is struck with terror, but the eagle
reassures
him, and tells him to proceed on his way to the heaven of
Ishtar.
"'Come, my friend, let me bear thee to Ishtar,--and I will place
thee
near Ishtar, the lady,--and at the feet of Ishtar, the lady, thou
shalt
throw thyself.--Place thy side against my side, place thy hands
on
the pinions of my wings.' The space of a double hour she bore
him:
'Friend,
behold the earth what it is.--The face of the earth stretches
out
quite flat--and the sea is no greater than a mere.' The space of
a
second double hour she bore him: 'Friend, behold the earth what
it
is,--the
earth is no more than a square plot in a garden, and the great
sea
is not greater than a puddle of water.'" At the third hour Etana
lost
courage, and cried, "Stop!" and the eagle immediately descended
again;
but, Etana's strength being exhausted, he let go his hold, and
was
dashed to pieces on the ground.
The
eagle escaped unhurt this time, but she soon suffered a more
painful
death
than that of Etana. She was at war with the serpent, though the
records
which we as yet possess do not vouchsafe the reason, when she
discovered
in the roots of a tree the nest in which her enemy concealed
its
brood. She immediately proposed to her young ones to pounce down
upon
the growing snakes; one of her eaglets, wiser than the rest,
reminded
her that they were under the protection of Shamash, the great
righter
of wrongs, and cautioned her against any transgression of the
divine
laws. The old eagle felt herself wiser than her son, and rebuked
him
after the manner of wise mothers: she carried away the serpent's
young,
and gave them as food to her own brood. The hissing serpent
crawled
as far as Shamash, crying for vengeance: "The evil she has done
me,
Shamash--behold it! Come to my help, Shamash! thy net is as wide
as
the
earth--thy snares reach to the distant mountain--who can escape
thy
net?--The criminal Zu, Zu who was the first to act wickedly, did
he
escape
it?" Shamash refused to interfere personally, but he pointed out
to
the serpent an artifice by which he might satisfy his vengeance
as
securely
as if Shamash himself had accomplished it. "Set out upon the
way,
ascend the mountain,--and conceal thyself in a dead bull;--make
an
incision in his inside--tear open his belly,--take up thy
abode--establish
thyself in his belly. All the birds of the air will
pounce
upon it....--and the eagle herself will come with them, ignorant
that
thou art within it;--she will wish to possess herself of the
flesh,
she will come swiftly--she will think of nothing but the entrails
within.
As soon as she begins to attack the inside, seize her by her
wings,
beat down her wings, the pinions of her wings and her claws, tear
her
and throw her into a ravine of the mountain, that she may die
there
a
death of hunger and thirst."
The
serpent did as Shamash advised, and the birds of the air began to
flock
round the carcase in which she was hidden. The eagle came with
the
rest,
and at first kept aloof, looking for what should happen. When she
saw
that the birds flew away unharmed all fear left her. In vain did
the
wise
eaglet warn her of the danger that was lurking within the prey;
she
mocked
at him and his predictions, dug her beak into the carrion, and
the
serpent leaping out seized her by the wing. Then "the eagle her
mouth
opened, and spake unto the snake, 'Have mercy upon me, and
according
to thy pleasure a gift I will lavish upon thee!' The snake
opened
her mouth and spake unto the eagle, 'Did I release thee, Shamash
would
take part against me; and the doom would fall upon me, which now
I
fulfil upon thee.' She tore out her wings, her feathers, her
pinions;
she
tore her to pieces, she threw her into a cleft, and there she died
a
death
of hunger and of thirst."
The
gods allowed no living being to penetrate with impunity into
their
empire:
he who was desirous of ascending thither, however brave he might
be,
could do so only by death. The mass of humanity had no
pretensions
to
mount so high. Their religion gave them the choice between a
perpetual
abode in the tomb, or confinement in the prison of Allât; if
at
times they strove to escape from these alternatives, and to
picture
otherwise
their condition in the world beyond, their ideas as to the
other
life continued to remain vague, and never approached the minute
precision
of the Egyptian conception. The cares of the present life were
too
absorbing to allow them leisure to speculate upon the conditions
of
a
future existence.
[Illustration:
230.jpg Endplate]
CHAPTER
III--CHALDÆAN CIVILIZATION
_CHALDÆAN
CIVILIZATION--ROYALTY--THE CONSTITUTION OF THE FAMILY AND ITS
PROPERTY--CHALMAN
COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY._
_The
kings not gods, but the vicegerents of the gods: their sacerdotal
character--The
queens and the women of the royal family: the sons and
the
order of succession to the throne--The royal palaces: description
of
the palace of Gudea at Lagash, the façades, the zigurât, the
private
apartments,
the furniture, the external decoration--Costume of the
men
and women: the employees of the palace and the method of royal
administration;
the military and the great lords._
_The
scribe and the clay books.--Cuneiform writing: its hieroglyphic
origin;
the Protean character of the sounds which may be assigned to the
ideograms,
grammatical tablets, and dictionaries--Their contracts, and
their
numerous copies of them: the finger-nail mark, the seal._
_The
constitution of the family: the position held by the
wife--Marriage,
the contract, the religious ceremonies--Divorce:
the
rights of wealthy women; woman and marriage among the lower
classes--Adopted
children, their position in the family; ordinary
motives
for adoption--Slaves, their condition, their enfranchisement._
_The
Chaldæan towns: the aspect and distribution of the houses,
domestic
life--The
family patrimony: division of the inheritance--Lending
on
usury, the rate of interest, commercial intercourse by land and
sea--Trade
corporations: brick-making, industrial implements in stone
and
metal, goldsmiths, engravers of cylinders, weavers; the state of
the
working
classes._
_Farming
and cultivation of the ground: landmarks, slaves,
and
agricultural labourers--Scenes of pastoral life: fishing,
hunting--Archaic
literature; positive sciences: arithmetic and geometry,
astronomy
and astrology, the science of foretelling the future--The
physician;
magic and its influence on neighbouring countries._
[Illustration:
239.jpg CHAPTER III.]
Drawn
by Boudier, from the sketch by Loftus. The initial
vignette,
which is by Faucher-Gudin, represents a royal
figure
kneeling and holding a large nail in both hands. The
nail
serves to keep the figure fixed firmly in the earth. It
is
a reproduction of the bronze figurine in the Louvre,
already
published by Heuzey-Sakzeo, _Découvertes en
Chaldée_,
pl. 28, No. 4.
CHAPTER
III--CHALDÆAN CIVILIZATION
_Royalty--The
constitution of the family and its property--Chaldæan
commerce
and industry_.
The
Chaldæan kings, unlike their contemporaries the Pharaohs, rarely
put
forward any pretensions to divinity. They contented themselves
with
occupying
an intermediate position between their subjects and the gods,
and
for the purpose of mediation they believed themselves to be
endowed
with
powers not possessed by ordinary mortals. They sometimes
designated
themselves
the sons of Ea, or of Nînsun, or some other deity, but
this
involved no belief in a divine parentage, and was merely pious
hyperbole:
they entertained no illusions with regard to any descent from
a
god or even from one of his doubles, but they desired to be
recognized
as
his vicegerents here below, as his prophets, his well-beloved,
his
pastors, elected by him to rule his human flocks, or as priests
devotedly
attached to his service. While, however, the ordinary priest
chose
for himself a single master to whom he devoted himself, the
priest-king
exercised universal sacerdotal functions and claimed to be
pontiff
of all the national religions. His choice naturally was directed
by
preference to the patrons of his city, those who had raised his
ancestors
from the dust, and had exalted him to the supreme rank, but
there
were other divinities who claimed their share of his homage
and
expected of him a devotion suited to their importance. If he had
attempted
to carry out these duties personally in detail, he would have
had
to spend his whole life at the foot of the altar; even when he
had
delegated
as many of them as he could to the regular clergy, there still
remained
sufficient to occupy a large part of his time. Every month,
every
day, brought its inevitable round of sacrifices, prayers, and
processions.
On the 1st of the second Elul, the King of Babylon had to
present
a gazelle without blemish to Sin; he then made an offering of
his
own choosing to Shamash, and cut the throats of his victims
before
the god. These ceremonies were repeated on the 2nd without any
alteration,
but from the 3rd to the 12th they took place during the
night,
before the statues of Merodach and Ishtar, in turn with those
of
Nebo and Tashmit, of Mullil and Ninlil, of Eamman and of
Zirbanit;
sometimes
at the rising of a particular constellation--as, for instance,
that
of the Great Bear, or that of the sons of Ishtar; sometimes at
the
moment
when the moon "raised above the earth her luminous crown." On
such
a
date a penitential psalm or a litany was to be recited; at
another
time
it was forbidden to eat of meat either cooked or smoked, to
change
the
body-linen, to wear white garments, to drink medicine, to
sacrifice,
to
put forth an edict, or to drive out in a chariot. Not only at
Babylon,
but everywhere else, obedience to the religious rites weighed
heavily
on the local princes; at Uru, at Lagash, at Nipur, and in
the
ruling cities of Upper and Lower Chaldæa. The king, as soon as he
succeeded
to the throne, repaired to the temple to receive his solemn
investiture,
which differed in form according to the gods he worshipped:
at
Babylon, he addressed himself to the statue of Bel-Merodach in
the
first
days of the month Nisan which followed his accession, and he
"took
him
by the hands" to do homage to him. From thenceforth, he
officiated
for
Merodach here below, and the scrupulously minute devotions, which
daily
occupied hours of his time, were so many acts of allegiance which
his
fealty as a vassal constrained him to perform to his suzerain.
They
were,
in fact, analogous to the daily audiences demanded of a great
lord
by his steward, for the purpose of rendering his accounts and of
informing
him of current business: any interruption not justified by a
matter
of supreme importance would be liable to be interpreted as a want
of
respect or as revealing an inclination to rebel. By neglecting
the
slightest
ceremonial detail the king would arouse the suspicions of
the
gods, and excite their anger against himself and his subjects:
the
people
had, therefore, a direct interest in his careful fulfilment of
the
priestly functions, and his piety was not the least of his
virtues
in
their eyes. All other virtues--bravery, equity, justice--depended
on
it,
and were only valuable from the divine aid which piety obtained
for
them.
The gods and heroes of the earliest ages had taken upon
themselves
the
task of protecting the faithful from all their enemies, whether
men
or
beasts. If a lion decimated their flocks, or a urus of gigantic
size
devastated
their crops, it was the king's duty to follow the example
of
his fabulous predecessors and to set out and overcome them. The
enterprise
demanded all the more courage and supernatural help, since
these
beasts were believed to be no mere ordinary animals, but were
looked
on as instruments of divine wrath the cause of which was often
unknown,
and whoever assailed these monsters, provoked not only them but
the
god who instiga
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