Myths of Babylonia and Assyria 12

Myths of Babylonia and Assyria 12

The vengeful destroyer of Lagash was Lugal-zaggisi, Patesi of Umma, a

masterful figure in early Sumerian history. We gather from the tablet

of the unknown scribe, who regarded him as a sinner against the god

Nin-Girsu, that his city goddess was named Nidaba. He appears also to

have been a worshipper of Enlil of Nippur, to whose influence he

credited his military successes. But Enlil was not his highest god, he

was the interceder who carried the prayers of Lugal-zaggisi to the

beloved father, Anu, god of the sky. No doubt Nin-Girsu represented a

school of theology which was associated with unpleasant memories in

Umma. The sacking and burning of the temples of Lagash suggests as

much.

 

Having broken the power of Lagash, Lugal-zaggisi directed his

attention to the rival city of Kish, where Semitic influence was

predominating. When Nanizak, the last monarch of the line of the

famous Queen Azag-Bau, had sat upon the throne for but three years, he

perished by the sword of the Umma conqueror. Nippur likewise came

under his sway, and he also subdued the southern cities.

 

Lugal-zaggisi chose for his capital ancient Erech, the city of Anu,

and of his daughter, the goddess Nana, who afterwards was identified

with Ishtar. Anu's spouse was Anatu, and the pair subsequently became

abstract deities, like Anshar and Kishar, their parents, who figure in

the Babylonian Creation story. Nana was worshipped as the goddess of

vegetation, and her relation to Anu was similar to that of Belit-sheri

to Ea at Eridu. Anu and Ea were originally identical, but it would

appear that the one was differentiated as the god of the waters above

the heaven and the other as god of the waters beneath the earth, both

being forms of Anshar. Elsewhere the chief god of the spring sun or

the moon, the lover of the goddess, became pre-eminent, displacing the

elder god, like Nin-Girsu at Lagash. At Sippar the sun god, Babbar,

whose Semitic name was Shamash, was exalted as the chief deity, while

the moon god remained supreme at Ur. This specializing process, which

was due to local theorizing and the influence of alien settlers, has

been dealt with in a previous chapter.

 

In referring to himself as the favoured ruler of various city deities,

Lugal-zaggisi appears as a ruler of all Sumeria. How far his empire

extended it is impossible to determine with certainty. He appears to

have overrun Akkad, and even penetrated to the Syrian coast, for in

one inscription it is stated that he "made straight his path from the

Lower Sea (the Persian Gulf) over the Euphrates and Tigris to the

Upper Sea (the Mediterranean)". The allegiance of certain states,

however, depended on the strength of the central power. One of his

successors found it necessary to attack Kish, which was ever waiting

for an opportunity to regain its independence.

 

According to the Chronicle of Kish, the next ruler of Sumer and Akkad

after Lugal-zaggisi was the famous Sargon I. It would appear that he

was an adventurer or usurper, and that he owed his throne indirectly

to Lugal-zaggisi, who had dethroned the ruler of Akkad. Later

traditions, which have been partly confirmed by contemporary

inscriptions, agree that Sargon was of humble birth. In the previous

chapter reference was made to the Tammuz-like myth attached to his

memory. His mother was a vestal virgin dedicated to the sun god,

Shamash, and his father an unknown stranger from the mountains--a

suggestion of immediate Semitic affinities. Perhaps Sargon owed his

rise to power to the assistance received by bands of settlers from the

land of the Amorites, which Lugal-zaggisi had invaded.

 

According to the legend, Sargon's birth was concealed. He was placed

in a vessel which was committed to the river. Brought up by a

commoner, he lived in obscurity until the Semitic goddess, Ishtar,

gave him her aid.

 

A similar myth was attached in India to the memory of Karna, the

Hector of that great Sanskrit epic the _Mahabharata_. Kama's mother,

the Princess Pritha, who afterwards became a queen, was loved by the

sun god, Surya. When in secret she gave birth to her son she placed

him in an ark of wickerwork, which was set adrift on a stream.

Ultimately it reached the Ganges, and it was borne by that river to

the country of Anga, where the child was rescued by a woman and

afterwards reared by her and her husband, a charioteer. In time Karna

became a great warrior, and was crowned King of Anga by the Kaurava

warriors.[147]

 

Before he became king, Sargon of Akkad, the Sharrukin of the texts,

was, according to tradition, a gardener and watchman attached to the

temple of the war god Zamama of Kish. This deity was subsequently

identified with Merodach, son of Ea; Ninip, son of Enlil; and

Nin-Girsu of Lagash. He was therefore one of the many developed forms

of Tammuz--a solar, corn, and military deity, and an interceder for

mankind. The goddess of Kish appears to have been a form of Bau, as is

testified by the name of Queen Azag-Bau, the legendary founder of the

city.

 

Unfortunately our knowledge of Sargon's reign is of meagre character.

It is undoubted that he was a distinguished general and able ruler. He

built up an empire which included Sumer and Akkad, and also Amurru,

"the western land", or "land of the Amorites". The Elamites gave him

an opportunity to extend his conquests eastward. They appear to have

attacked Opis, but he drove them back, and on more than one occasion

penetrated their country, over the western part of which, known as

Anshan, he ultimately imposed his rule. Thither went many Semitic

settlers who had absorbed the culture of Sumeria.

 

During Sargon's reign Akkad attained to a splendour which surpassed

that of Babylon. In an omen text the monarch is lauded as the "highly

exalted one without a peer". Tradition relates that when he was an old

man all the Babylonian states rose in revolt against him and besieged

Akkad. But the old warrior led forth his army against the combined

forces and achieved a shattering victory.

 

Manishtusu, who succeeded Sargon I, had similarly to subdue a great

confederacy of thirty-two city states, and must therefore have been a

distinguished general. But he is best known as the monarch who

purchased several large estates adjoining subject cities, his aim

having been probably to settle on these Semitic allies who would be

less liable to rebel against him than the workers they displaced. For

the latter, however, he found employment elsewhere. These

transactions, which were recorded on a monument subsequently carried

off with other spoils by the Elamites and discovered at Susa, show

that at this early period (about 2600 B.C.) even a conquering monarch

considered it advisable to observe existing land laws. Urumush,[148]

the next ruler, also achieved successes in Elam and elsewhere, but his

life was cut short by a palace revolution.

 

The prominent figure of Naram Sin, a later king of Akkad, bulks

largely in history and tradition. According to the Chronicle of Kish,

he was a son of Sargon. Whether he was or not, it is certain that he

inherited the military and administrative genius of that famous

ex-gardener. The arts flourished during his reign. One of the

memorable products of the period was an exquisitely sculptured

monument celebrating one of Naram Sin's victories, which was

discovered at Susa. It is one of the most wonderful examples of

Babylonian stone work which has come to light.

 

A successful campaign had been waged against a mountain people. The

stele shows the warrior king leading his army up a steep incline and

round the base of a great peak surmounted by stars. His enemies flee

in confusion before him. One lies on the ground clutching a spear

which has penetrated his throat, two are falling over a cliff, while

others apparently sue for mercy. Trees have been depicted to show that

part of the conquered territory is wooded. Naram Sin is armed with

battleaxe and bow, and his helmet is decorated with horns. The whole

composition is spirited and finely grouped; and the military bearing

of the disciplined troops contrasts sharply with the despairing

attitudes of the fleeing remnants of the defending army.

 

During this period the Semitized mountaineers to the north-east of

Babylonia became the most aggressive opponents of the city states. The

two most prominent were the Gutium, or men of Kutu, and the Lulubu.

Naram Sin's great empire included the whole of Sumer and Akkad, Amurru

and northern Palestine, and part of Elam, and the district to the

north. He also penetrated Arabia, probably by way of the Persian Gulf,

and caused diorite to be quarried there. One of his steles, which is

now in the Imperial Ottoman Museum at Constantinople, depicts him as a

fully bearded man with Semitic characteristics. During his lifetime he

was deified--a clear indication of the introduction of foreign ideas,

for the Sumerians were not worshippers of kings and ancestors.

 

Naram Sin was the last great king of his line. Soon after his death

the power of Akkad went to pieces, and the Sumerian city of Erech

again became the centre of empire. Its triumph, however, was

shortlived. After a quarter of a century had elapsed, Akkad and Sumer

were overswept by the fierce Gutium from the north-eastern mountains.

They sacked and burned many cities, including Babylon, where the

memory of the horrors perpetrated by these invaders endured until the

Grecian Age. An obscure period, like the Egyptian Hyksos Age, ensued,

but it was of comparatively brief duration.

 

When the mists cleared away, the city Lagash once more came to the

front, having evidently successfully withstood the onslaughts of the

Gutium, but it never recovered the place of eminence it occupied under

the brilliant Ur-Nina dynasty. It is manifest that it must have

enjoyed under the various overlords, during the interval, a

considerable degree of independence, for its individuality remained

unimpaired. Of all its energetic and capable patesis, the most

celebrated was Gudea, who reigned sometime before 2400 B.C. In

contrast to the Semitic Naram Sin, he was beardless and pronouncedly

Sumerian in aspect. His favoured deity, the city god Nin-Girsu, again

became prominent, having triumphed over his jealous rivals after

remaining in obscurity for three or four centuries. Trade flourished,

and the arts were fostered. Gudea had himself depicted, in one of the

most characteristic sculptures of his age, as an architect, seated

reverently with folded hands with a temple plan lying on his knees,

and his head uplifted as if watching the builders engaged in

materializing the dream of his life. The temple in which his interests

were centred was erected in honour of Nin-Girsu. Its ruins suggest

that it was of elaborate structure and great beauty. Like Solomon in

later days, Gudea procured material for his temple from many distant

parts--cedar from Lebanon, marble from Amurru, diorite from Arabia,

copper from Elam, and so forth. Apparently the King of Lagash was

strong enough or wealthy enough to command respect over a wide area.

 

Another city which also rose into prominence, amidst the shattered

Sumerian states, was Ur, the centre of moon worship. After Gudea's

death, its kings exercised sway over Lagash and Nippur, and, farther

south, over Erech and Larsa as well. This dynasty endured for nearly a

hundred and twenty years, during which Ur flourished like Thebes in

Egypt. Its monarchs styled themselves as "Kings of the Four Regions".

The worship of Nannar (Sin) became officially recognized at Nippur,

the seat of Enlil, during the reign of King Dungi of Ur; while at

Erech, the high priest of Anu, the sky god, became the high priest of

the moon god. Apparently matriarchal ideas, associated with lunar

worship, again came into prominence, for the king appointed two of his

daughters to be rulers of conquered states in Elam and Syria. In the

latter half of his reign, Dungi, the conqueror, was installed as high

priest at Eridu. It would thus appear that there was a renascence of

early Sumerian religious ideas. Ea, the god of the deep, had long been

overshadowed, but a few years before Dungi's death a temple was

erected to him at Nippur, where he was worshipped as Dagan. Until the

very close of his reign, which lasted for fifty-eight years, this

great monarch of tireless activity waged wars of conquest, built

temples and palaces, and developed the natural resources of Sumer and

Akkad. Among his many reforms was the introduction of standards of

weights, which received divine sanction from the moon god, who, as in

Egypt, was the measurer and regulator of human transactions and human

life.

 

To this age also belongs many of the Sumerian business and legal

records, which were ultimately carried off to Susa, where they have

been recovered by French excavators.

 

About half a century after Dungi's death the Dynasty of Ur came to an

end, its last king having been captured by an Elamite force.

 

At some time subsequent to this period, Abraham migrated from Ur to

the northern city of Harran, where the moon god was also the chief

city deity--the Baal, or "lord". It is believed by certain

Egyptologists that Abraham sojourned in Egypt during its Twelfth

Dynasty, which, according to the Berlin system of minimum dating,

extended from about 2000 B.C. till 1780 B.C. The Hebrew patriarch may

therefore have been a contemporary of Hammurabi's, who is identified

with Amraphel, king of Shinar (Sumer) in the Bible.[149]

 

But after the decline of Ur's ascendancy, and long before Babylon's

great monarch came to the throne, the centre of power in Sumeria was

shifted to Isin, where sixteen kings flourished for two and a quarter

centuries. Among the royal names, recognition was given to Ea and

Dagan, Sin, Enlil, and Ishtar, indicating that Sumerian religion in

its Semitized form was receiving general recognition. The sun god was

identical with Ninip and Nin-Girsu, a god of fertility, harvest, and

war, but now more fully developed and resembling Babbar, "the shining

one", the solar deity of Akkadian Sippar, whose Semitic name was

Shamash. As Shamash was ultimately developed as the god of justice and

righteousness, it would appear that his ascendancy occurred during the

period when well-governed communities systematized their religious

beliefs to reflect social conditions.

 

The first great monarch of the Isin dynasty was Ishbi-Urra, who

reigned for thirty-two years. Like his successors, he called himself

"King of Sumer and Akkad", and it appears that his sway extended to

the city of Sippar, where solar worship prevailed. Traces of him have

also been found at Eridu, Ur, Erech, and Nippur, so that he must have

given recognition to Ea, Sin, Anu, and Enlil. In this period the early

national pantheon may have taken shape, Bel Enlil being the chief

deity. Enlil was afterwards displaced by Merodach of Babylon.

 

Before 2200 B.C. there occurred a break in the supremacy of Isin.

Gungunu, King of Ur, combined with Larsa, whose sun temple he

restored, and declared himself ruler of Sumer and Akkad. But Isin

again gathered strength under Ur-Ninip, who was not related to his

predecessor. Perhaps he came from Nippur, where the god Ninip was

worshipped as the son of Bel Enlil.

 

According to a Babylonian document, a royal grandson of Ur-Ninip's,

having no direct heir, selected as his successor his gardener,

Enlil-bani. He placed the crown on the head of this obscure

individual, abdicated in his favour, and then died a mysterious death

within his palace.

 

It is highly probable that Enlil-bani, whose name signifies "Enlil is

my creator", was a usurper like Sargon of Akkad, and he may have

similarly circulated a myth regarding his miraculous origin to justify

his sudden rise to power. The truth appears to be that he came to the

throne as the leader of a palace revolution at a time of great unrest.

But he was not allowed to remain in undisputed possession. A rival

named Sin-ikisha, evidently a moon worshipper and perhaps connected

with Ur, displaced the usurper, and proclaimed himself king. After a

brief reign of six months he was overthrown, however, by Enlil-bani,

who piously credited his triumph over his enemy to the chief god of

Nippur, whose name he bore. Although he took steps to secure his

position by strengthening the fortifications of Isin, and reigned for

about a quarter of a century, he was not succeeded by his heir, if he

had one. King Zambia, who was no relation, followed him, but his reign

lasted for only three years. The names of the next two kings are

unknown. Then came Sin-magir, who was succeeded by Damik-ilishu, the

last King of Isin.

 

Towards the close of Damik-ilishu's reign of twenty-four years he came

under the suzerainty of Larsa, whose ruler was Rim Sin. Then Isin was

captured by Sin-muballit, King of Babylon, the father of the great

Hammurabi. Rim Sin was an Elamite.

 

Afterwards the old order of things passed away. Babylon became the

metropolis, the names of Sumer and Akkad dropped out of use, and the

whole country between the rivers was called Babylonia.[150] The

various systems of law which obtained in the different states were

then codified by Hammurabi, who appointed governors in all the cities

which came under his sway to displace the patesis and kings. A new

national pantheon of representative character was also formed, over

which Merodach (Marduk), the city god of Babylon, presided. How this

younger deity was supposed to rise to power is related in the

Babylonian legend of Creation, which is dealt with in the next

chapter.[151] In framing this myth from the fragments of older myths,

divine sanction was given to the supremacy achieved by Merodach's

city. The allegiance of future generations was thus secured, not only

by the strong arm of the law, but also by the combined influence of

the reorganized priesthoods at the various centres of administration.

 

An interesting problem, which should be referred to here, arises in

connection with the sculptured representations of deities before and

after the rise of Akkad as a great Power. It is found, although the

Sumerians shaved their scalps and faces at the dawn of the historical

age, that they worshipped gods who had long hair and also beards,

which were sometimes square and sometimes pointed.

 

At what period the Sumerian deities were given human shape it is

impossible to determine. As has been shown (Chapters II and III) all

the chief gods and goddesses had animal forms and composite monster

forms before they became anthropomorphic deities. Ea had evidently a

fish shape ere he was clad in the skin of a fish, as an Egyptian god

was simply a bull before he was depicted in human shape wearing a

bull's skin. The archaic Sumerian animal and composite monster gods of

animistic and totemic origin survived after the anthropomorphic period

as mythical figures, which were used for decorative or magical

purposes and as symbols. A form of divine headdress was a cap enclosed

in horns, between which appeared the soaring lion-headed eagle, which

symbolized Nin-Girsu. This god had also lion and antelope forms, which

probably figured in lost myths--perhaps they were like the animals

loved by Ishtar and referred to in the Gilgamesh epic. Similarly the

winged bull was associated with the moon god Nannar, or Sin, of Ur,

who was "a horned steer". On various cylinder seals appear groups of

composite monsters and rearing wild beasts, which were evidently

representations of gods and demons in conflict.

 

Suggestive data for comparative study is afforded in this connection

by ancient Egypt. Sokar, the primitive Memphite deity, retained until

the end his animal and composite monster forms. Other gods were

depicted with human bodies and the heads of birds, serpents, and

crocodiles, thus forming links between the archaic demoniac and the

later anthropomorphic deities. A Sumerian example is the deified

Ea-bani, who, like Pan, has the legs and hoofs of a goat.

 

The earliest representations of Sumerian humanized deities appear on

reliefs from Tello, the site of Lagash. These examples of archaic

gods, however, are not bearded in Semitic fashion. On the contrary,

their lips and cheeks are shaved, while an exaggerated chin tuft is

retained. The explanation suggested is that the Sumerians gave their

deities human shape before they themselves were clean shaven, and that

the retention of the characteristic facial hair growth of the

Mediterranean Race is another example of the conservatism of the

religious instinct. In Egypt the clean-shaven Pharaohs, who

represented gods, wore false chin-tuft beards; even Queen Hatshepsut

considered it necessary to assume a beard on state occasions.

Ptah-Osiris retained his archaic beard until the Ptolemaic period.

 

It seems highly probable that in similarly depicting their gods with

beards, the early Sumerians were not influenced by the practices of

any alien people or peoples. Not until the period of Gudea, the Patesi

of Lagash, did they give their gods heavy moustaches, side whiskers,

and flowing beards of Semitic type. It may be, however, that by then

they had completely forgotten the significance of an ancient custom.

Possibly, too, the sculptors of Lagash were working under the

influence of the Akkadian school of art, which had produced the

exquisite stele of victory for Naram-Sin, and consequently adopted the

conventional Semitic treatment of bearded figures. At any rate, they

were more likely to study and follow the artistic triumphs of Akkad

than the crude productions of the archaic period. Besides, they lived

in an age when Semitic kings were deified and the Semitic overlords

had attained to great distinction and influence.

 

The Semitic folks were not so highly thought of in the early Sumerian

period. It is not likely that the agricultural people regarded as

models of gods the plunderers who descended from the hills, and, after

achieving successes, returned home with their spoils. More probably

they regarded them as "foreign devils". Other Semites, however, who

came as traders, bringing wood, stone, and especially copper, and

formed communities in cities, may well have influenced Sumerian

religious thought. The god Ramman, for instance, who was given

recognition all through Babylonia, was a god of hill folks as far

north as Asia Minor and throughout Syria. He may have been introduced

by settlers who adopted Sumerian habits of life and shaved scalp and

face. But although the old cities could never have existed in a

complete state of isolation from the outer world, it is unlikely that

their inhabitants modelled their deities on those worshipped by groups

of aliens. A severe strain is imposed on our credulity if we are

expected to believe that it was due to the teachings and example of

uncultured nomads that the highly civilized Sumerians developed their

gods from composite monsters to anthropomorphic deities. Such a

supposition, at any rate, is not supported by the evidence of Ancient Egypt.