Myths of Babylonia and Assyria 6

Myths of Babylonia and Assyria 6

Like the giant Alban, the eponymous ancestor of a people who invaded

prehistoric Britain, Ea-bani appears to have represented in Babylonian

folk legends a certain type of foreign settlers in the land. No doubt

the city dwellers, who were impressed by the prowess of the hairy and

powerful warriors, were also ready to acknowledge the greatness of

their war gods, and to admit them into the pantheon. The fusion of

beliefs which followed must have stimulated thought and been

productive of speculative ideas. "Nowhere", remarks Professor Jastrow,

"does a high form of culture arise without the commingling of diverse

ethnic elements."

 

We must also take into account the influence exercised by leaders of

thought like En-we-dur-an-ki, the famous high priest of Sippar, whose

piety did much to increase the reputation of the cult of Shamesh, the

sun god. The teachings and example of Buddha, for instance,

revolutionized Brahmanic religion in India.

 

A mythology was an attempt to solve the riddle of the Universe, and to

adjust the relations of mankind with the various forces represented by

the deities. The priests systematized existing folk beliefs and

established an official religion. To secure the prosperity of the

State, it was considered necessary to render homage unto whom homage

was due at various seasons and under various circumstances.

 

The religious attitude of a particular community, therefore, must have

been largely dependent on its needs and experiences. The food supply

was a first consideration. At Eridu, as we have seen, it was assured

by devotion to Ea and obedience to his commands as an instructor.

Elsewhere it might happen, however, that Ea's gifts were restricted or

withheld by an obstructing force--the raging storm god, or the

parching, pestilence-bringing deity of the sun. It was necessary,

therefore, for the people to win the favour of the god or goddess who

seemed most powerful, and was accordingly considered to be the

greatest in a particular district. A rain god presided over the

destinies of one community, and a god of disease and death over

another; a third exalted the war god, no doubt because raids were

frequent and the city owed its strength and prosperity to its battles

and conquests. The reputation won by a particular god throughout

Babylonia would depend greatly on the achievements of his worshippers

and the progress of the city civilization over which he presided.

Bel-Enlil's fame as a war deity was probably due to the political

supremacy of his city of Nippur; and there was probably good reason

for attributing to the sun god a pronounced administrative and legal

character; he may have controlled the destinies of exceedingly well

organized communities in which law and order and authority were held

in high esteem.

 

In accounting for the rise of distinctive and rival city deities, we

should also consider the influence of divergent conceptions regarding

the origin of life in mingled communities. Each foreign element in a

community had its own intellectual life and immemorial tribal

traditions, which reflected ancient habits of life and perpetuated the

doctrines of eponymous ancestors. Among the agricultural classes, the

folk religion which entered so intimately into their customs and

labours must have remained essentially Babylonish in character. In

cities, however, where official religions were formulated, foreign

ideas were more apt to be imposed, especially when embraced by

influential teachers. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that in

Babylonia, as in Egypt, there were differences of opinion regarding

the origin of life and the particular natural element which

represented the vital principle.

 

One section of the people, who were represented by the worshippers of

Ea, appear to have believed that the essence of life was contained in

water. The god of Eridu was the source of the "water of life". He

fertilized parched and sunburnt wastes through rivers and irrigating

canals, and conferred upon man the sustaining "food of life". When

life came to an end--

 

Food of death will be offered thee...

Water of death will be offered thee...

 

Offerings of water and food were made to the dead so that the ghosts

might be nourished and prevented from troubling the living. Even the

gods required water and food; they were immortal because they had

drunk ambrosia and eaten from the plant of life. When the goddess

Ishtar was in the Underworld, the land of the dead, the servant of Ea

exclaimed--

 

"Hail! lady, may the well give me of its waters, so that I may

drink."

 

The goddess of the dead commanded her servant to "sprinkle the lady

Ishtar with the water of life and bid her depart". The sacred water

might also be found at a confluence of rivers. Ea bade his son,

Merodach, to "draw water from the mouth of two streams", and "on this

water to put his pure spell".

 

The worship of rivers and wells which prevailed in many countries was

connected with the belief that the principle of life was in moisture.

In India, water was vitalized by the intoxicating juice of the Soma

plant, which inspired priests to utter prophecies and filled their

hearts with religious fervour. Drinking customs had originally a

religious significance. It was believed in India that the sap of

plants was influenced by the moon, the source of vitalizing moisture

and the hiding-place of the mead of the gods. The Teutonic gods also

drank this mead, and poets were inspired by it. Similar beliefs

obtained among various peoples. Moon and water worship were therefore

closely associated; the blood of animals and the sap of plants were

vitalized by the water of life and under control of the moon.

 

The body moisture of gods and demons had vitalizing properties. When

the Indian creator, Prajápati, wept at the beginning, "that (the

tears) which fell into the water became the air. That which he wiped

away, upwards, became the sky."[50] The ancient Egyptians believed

that all men were born from the eyes of Horus except negroes, who came

from other parts of his body.[51] The creative tears of Ra, the sun

god, fell as shining rays upon the earth. When this god grew old

saliva dripped from his mouth, and Isis mixed the vitalizing moisture

with dust, and thus made the serpent which bit and paralysed the great

solar deity.[52]

 

Other Egyptian deities, including Osiris and Isis, wept creative

tears. Those which fell from the eyes of the evil gods produced

poisonous plants and various baneful animals. Orion, the Greek giant,

sprang from the body moisture of deities. The weeping ceremonies in

connection with agricultural rites were no doubt believed to be of

magical potency; they encouraged the god to weep creative tears.

 

Ea, the god of the deep, was also "lord of life" (Enti), "king of the

river" (Lugal-ida), and god of creation (Nudimmud). His aid was

invoked by means of magical formulae. As the "great magician of the

gods" he uttered charms himself, and was the patron of all magicians.

One spell runs as follows:

 

I am the sorcerer priest of Ea...

To revive the ... sick man

The great lord Ea hath sent me;

He hath added his pure spell to mine,

He hath added his pure voice to mine,

He hath added his pure spittle to mine.

 

_R.C. Thompson's Translation._

 

Saliva, like tears, had creative and therefore curative qualities; it

also expelled and injured demons and brought good luck. Spitting

ceremonies are referred to in the religious literature of Ancient

Egypt. When the Eye of Ra was blinded by Set, Thoth spat in it to

restore vision. The sun god Tum, who was linked with Ra as Ra-Tum,

spat on the ground, and his saliva became the gods Shu and Tefnut. In

the Underworld the devil serpent Apep was spat upon to curse it, as

was also its waxen image which the priests fashioned.[53]

 

Several African tribes spit to make compacts, declare friendship, and

to curse.

 

Park, the explorer, refers in his _Travels_ to his carriers spitting

on a flat stone to ensure a good journey. Arabian holy men and

descendants of Mohammed spit to cure diseases. Mohammed spat in the

mouth of his grandson Hasen soon after birth. Theocritus, Sophocles,

and Plutarch testify to the ancient Grecian customs of spitting to

cure and to curse, and also to bless when children were named. Pliny

has expressed belief in the efficacy of the fasting spittle for curing

disease, and referred to the custom of spitting to avert witchcraft.

In England, Scotland, and Ireland spitting customs are not yet

obsolete. North of England boys used to talk of "spitting their sauls"

(souls). When the Newcastle colliers held their earliest strikes they

made compacts by spitting on a stone. There are still "spitting

stones" in the north of Scotland. When bargains are made in rural

districts, hands are spat upon before they are shaken. The first money

taken each day by fishwives and other dealers is spat upon to ensure

increased drawings. Brand, who refers to various spitting customs,

quotes _Scot's Discovery of Witchcraft_ regarding the saliva cure for

king's evil, which is still, by the way, practised in the Hebrides.

Like Pliny, Scot recommended ceremonial spitting as a charm against

witchcraft.[54] In China spitting to expel demons is a common

practice. We still call a hasty person a "spitfire", and a calumniator

a "spit-poison".

 

The life principle in trees, &c., as we have seen, was believed to

have been derived from the tears of deities. In India sap was called

the "blood of trees", and references to "bleeding trees" are still

widespread and common. "Among the ancients", wrote Professor Robertson

Smith, "blood is generally conceived as the principle or vehicle of

life, and so the account often given of sacred waters is that the

blood of the deity flows in them. Thus as Milton writes:

 

Smooth Adonis from his native rock

Ran purple to the sea, supposed with blood

Of Thammuz yearly wounded.

 

_Paradise Lost_, i, 450.

 

The ruddy colour which the swollen river derived from the soil at a

certain season was ascribed to the blood of the god, who received his

death wound in Lebanon at that time of the year, and lay buried beside

the sacred source."[55]

 

In Babylonia the river was regarded as the source of the life blood

and the seat of the soul. No doubt this theory was based on the fact

that the human liver contains about a sixth of the blood in the body,

the largest proportion required by any single organ. Jeremiah makes

"Mother Jerusalem" exclaim: "My liver is poured upon the earth for the

destruction of the daughter of my people", meaning that her life is

spent with grief.

 

Inspiration was derived by drinking blood as well as by drinking

intoxicating liquors--the mead of the gods. Indian magicians who drink

the blood of the goat sacrificed to the goddess Kali, are believed to

be temporarily possessed by her spirit, and thus enabled to

prophesy.[56] Malayan exorcists still expel demons while they suck the

blood from a decapitated fowl.[57]

 

Similar customs were prevalent in Ancient Greece. A woman who drank

the blood of a sacrificed lamb or bull uttered prophetic sayings.[58]

 

But while most Babylonians appear to have believed that the life

principle was in blood, some were apparently of opinion that it was in

breath--the air of life. A man died when he ceased to breathe; his

spirit, therefore, it was argued, was identical with the

atmosphere--the moving wind--and was accordingly derived from the

atmospheric or wind god. When, in the Gilgamesh epic, the hero invokes

the dead Ea-bani, the ghost rises up like a "breath of wind". A

Babylonian charm runs:

 

The gods which seize on men

Came forth from the grave;

The evil wind gusts

Have come forth from the grave,

To demand payment of rites and the pouring out of libations

They have come forth from the grave;

All that is evil in their hosts, like a whirlwind,

Hath come forth from the grave.[59]

 

The Hebrew "nephesh ruach" and "neshamah" (in Arabic "ruh" and "nefs")

pass from meaning "breath" to "spirit".[60] In Egypt the god Khnumu

was "Kneph" in his character as an atmospheric deity. The ascendancy

of storm and wind gods in some Babylonian cities may have been due to

the belief that they were the source of the "air of life". It is

possible that this conception was popularized by the Semites.

Inspiration was perhaps derived from these deities by burning incense,

which, if we follow evidence obtained elsewhere, induced a prophetic

trance. The gods were also invoked by incense. In the Flood legend the

Babylonian Noah burned incense. "The gods smelled a sweet savour and

gathered like flies over the sacrificer." In Egypt devotees who

inhaled the breath of the Apis bull were enabled to prophesy.

 

In addition to water and atmospheric deities Babylonia had also its

fire gods, Girru, Gish Bar, Gibil, and Nusku. Their origin is obscure.

It is doubtful if their worshippers, like those of the Indian Agni,

believed that fire, the "vital spark", was the principle of life which

was manifested by bodily heat. The Aryan fire worshippers cremated

their dead so that the spirits might be transferred by fire to

Paradise. This practice, however, did not obtain among the fire

worshippers of Persia, nor, as was once believed, in Sumer or Akkad

either. Fire was, however, used in Babylonia for magical purposes. It

destroyed demons, and put to flight the spirits of disease. Possibly

the fire-purification ceremonies resembled those which were practised

by the Canaanites, and are referred to in the Bible. Ahaz "made his

son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the

heathen".[61] Ezekiel declared that "when ye offer your gifts, when ye

make your sons to pass through the fire, ye pollute yourselves with

all your idols".[62] In _Leviticus_ it is laid down: "Thou shalt not

let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Moloch".[63] It may be

that in Babylonia the fire-cleansing ceremony resembled that which

obtained at Beltane (May Day) in Scotland, Germany, and other

countries. Human sacrifices might also have been offered up as burnt

offerings. Abraham, who came from the Sumerian city of Ur, was

prepared to sacrifice Isaac, Sarah's first-born. The fire gods of

Babylonia never achieved the ascendancy of the Indian Agni; they

appear to have resembled him mainly in so far as he was connected with

the sun. Nusku, like Agni, was also the "messenger of the gods". When

Merodach or Babylon was exalted as chief god of the pantheon his

messages were carried to Ea by Nusku. He may have therefore symbolized

the sun rays, for Merodach had solar attributes. It is possible that

the belief obtained among even the water worshippers of Eridu that the

sun and moon, which rose from the primordial deep, had their origin in

the everlasting fire in Ea's domain at the bottom of the sea. In the

Indian god Varuna's ocean home an "Asura fire" (demon fire) burned

constantly; it was "bound and confined", but could not be

extinguished. Fed by water, this fire, it was believed, would burst

forth at the last day and consume the universe.[64] A similar belief

can be traced in Teutonic mythology. The Babylonian incantation cult

appealed to many gods, but "the most important share in the rites",

says Jastrow, "are taken by fire and water--suggesting, therefore,

that the god of water--more particularly Ea--and the god of fire ...

are the chief deities on which the ritual itself hinges". In some

temples there was a _bit rimki_, a "house of washing", and a _bit

nuri_, a "house of light".[65]

 

It is possible, of course, that fire was regarded as the vital

principle by some city cults, which were influenced by imported ideas.

If so, the belief never became prevalent. The most enduring influence

in Babylonian religion was the early Sumerian; and as Sumerian modes

of thought were the outcome of habits of life necessitated by the

character of the country, they were bound, sooner or later, to leave a

deep impress on the minds of foreign peoples who settled in the Garden

of Western Asia. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that

imported deities assumed Babylonian characteristics, and were

identified or associated with Babylonian gods in the later imperial

pantheon.

 

Moon worship appears to have been as ancient as water worship, with

which, as we have seen, it was closely associated. It was widely

prevalent throughout Babylonia. The chief seat of the lunar deity,

Nannar or Sin, was the ancient city of Ur, from which Abraham migrated

to Harran, where the "Baal" (the lord) was also a moon god. Ur was

situated in Sumer, in the south, between the west bank of the

Euphrates and the low hills bordering the Arabian desert, and not far

distant from sea-washed Eridu. No doubt, like that city, it had its

origin at an exceedingly remote period. At any rate, the excavations

conducted there have afforded proof that it flourished in the

prehistoric period.

 

As in Arabia, Egypt, and throughout ancient Europe and elsewhere, the

moon god of Sumeria was regarded as the "friend of man". He controlled

nature as a fertilizing agency; he caused grass, trees, and crops to

grow; he increased flocks and herds, and gave human offspring. At Ur

he was exalted above Ea as "the lord and prince of the gods, supreme

in heaven, the Father of all"; he was also called "great Anu", an

indication that Anu, the sky god, had at one time a lunar character.

The moon god was believed to be the father of the sun god: he was the

"great steer with mighty horns and perfect limbs".

 

His name Sin is believed to be a corruption of "Zu-ena", which

signifies "knowledge lord".[66] Like the lunar Osiris of Egypt, he was

apparently an instructor of mankind; the moon measured time and

controlled the seasons; seeds were sown at a certain phase of the

moon, and crops were ripened by the harvest moon. The mountains of

Sinai and the desert of Sin are called after this deity.

 

As Nannar, which Jastrow considers to be a variation of "Narnar", the

"light producer", the moon god scattered darkness and reduced the

terrors of night. His spirit inhabited the lunar stone, so that moon

and stone worship were closely associated; it also entered trees and

crops, so that moon worship linked with earth worship, as both linked

with water worship.

 

The consort of Nannar was Nin-Uruwa, "the lady of Ur", who was also

called Nin-gala. She links with Ishtar as Nin, as Isis of Egypt linked

with other mother deities. The twin children of the moon were Mashu

and Mashtu, a brother and sister, like the lunar girl and boy of

Teutonic mythology immortalized in nursery rhymes as Jack and Jill.

 

Sun worship was of great antiquity in Babylonia, but appears to have

been seasonal in its earliest phases. No doubt the sky god Anu had his

solar as well as his lunar attributes, which he shared with Ea. The

spring sun was personified as Tammuz, the youthful shepherd, who was

loved by the earth goddess Ishtar and her rival Eresh-ki-gal, goddess

of death, the Babylonian Persephone. During the winter Tammuz dwelt in

Hades, and at the beginning of spring Ishtar descended to search for

him among the shades.[67] But the burning summer sun was symbolized as

a destroyer, a slayer of men, and therefore a war god. As Ninip or

Nirig, the son of Enlil, who was made in the likeness of Anu, he waged

war against the earth spirits, and was furiously hostile towards the

deities of alien peoples, as befitted a god of battle. Even his father

feared him, and when he was advancing towards Nippur, sent out Nusku,

messenger of the gods, to soothe the raging deity with soft words.

Ninip was symbolized as a wild bull, was connected with stone worship,

like the Indian destroying god Shiva, and was similarly a deity of

Fate. He had much in common with Nin-Girsu, a god of Lagash, who was

in turn regarded as a form of Tammuz.

 

Nergal, another solar deity, brought disease and pestilence, and,

according to Jensen, all misfortunes due to excessive heat. He was the

king of death, husband of Eresh-ki-gal, queen of Hades. As a war god

he thirsted for human blood, and was depicted as a mighty lion. He was

the chief deity of the city of Cuthah, which, Jastrow suggests, was

situated beside a burial place of great repute, like the Egyptian

Abydos.

 

The two great cities of the sun in ancient Babylonia were the Akkadian

Sippar and the Sumerian Larsa. In these the sun god, Shamash or

Babbar, was the patron deity. He was a god of Destiny, the lord of the

living and the dead, and was exalted as the great Judge, the lawgiver,

who upheld justice; he was the enemy of wrong, he loved righteousness

and hated sin, he inspired his worshippers with rectitude and punished

evildoers. The sun god also illumined the world, and his rays

penetrated every quarter: he saw all things, and read the thoughts of

men; nothing could be concealed from Shamash. One of his names was

Mitra, like the god who was linked with Varuna in the Indian

_Rigveda_. These twin deities, Mitra and Varuna, measured out the span

of human life. They were the source of all heavenly gifts: they

regulated sun and moon, the winds and waters, and the seasons.[68]

 

These did the gods establish in royal power over themselves, because

they were wise and the children of wisdom, and because they excelled

in power.--_Prof. Arnold's trans. of Rigvedic Hymn_.

 

Mitra and Varuna were protectors of hearth and home, and they

chastised sinners. "In a striking passage of the _Mahabharata_" says

Professor Moulton, "one in which Indian thought comes nearest to the

conception of conscience, a kingly wrongdoer is reminded that the sun

sees secret sin."[69]

 

In Persian mythology Mitra, as Mithra, is the patron of Truth, and

"the Mediator" between heaven and earth[70]. This god was also

worshipped by the military aristocracy of Mitanni, which held sway for

a period over Assyria. In Roman times the worship of Mithra spread

into Europe from Persia. Mithraic sculptures depict the deity as a

corn god slaying the harvest bull; on one of the monuments "cornstalks

instead of blood are seen issuing from the wound inflicted with the

knife".[71] The Assyrian word "metru" signifies rain[70]. As a sky god

Mitra may have been associated, like Varuna, with the waters above the

firmament. Rain would therefore be gifted by him as a fertilizing deity.

In the Babylonian Flood legend it is the sun god Shamash who "appointed

the time" when the heavens were to "rain destruction" in the night, and

commanded Pir-napishtim, "Enter into the midst of thy ship and shut thy

door". The solar deity thus appears as a form of Anu, god of the sky and

upper atmosphere, who controls the seasons and the various forces of

nature. Other rival chiefs of city pantheons, whether lunar,

atmospheric, earth, or water deities, were similarly regarded as the

supreme deities who ruled the Universe, and decreed when man should

receive benefits or suffer from their acts of vengeance.

 

It is possible that the close resemblances between Mithra and Mitra of

the Aryan-speaking peoples of India and the Iranian plateau, and the

sun god of the Babylonians--the Semitic Shamash, the Sumerian

Utu--were due to early contact and cultural influence through the

medium of Elam. As a solar and corn god, the Persian Mithra links with

Tammuz, as a sky and atmospheric deity with Anu, and as a god of

truth, righteousness, and law with Shamash. We seem to trace in the

sublime Vedic hymns addressed by the Indian Aryans to Mitra and Varuna

the impress of Babylonian religious thought:

 

Whate'er exists within this earth, and all within the sky,