babylonian religion and mythology (1899)
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BOOKS ONEGYPT AND CHALD/EA.ByE.
a.
WALLIS BUDGE,the British
M.A., Litt.D., D.Lit.,
Keeper of the Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities in
Museum,
ANDL.
W. KING,the British
M.A.,
Assistant in the iJepartment of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities in
Museum.Gil.
CrownVol.Vol.I.
8vo, 3s.
net each.
Egyptian
Religion
:
Egyptian
Ideas
of
the
Future Life.
l!y E. A.
Wallis Budge.
II. Egyptian Magic.III.
Vol.
Vol. IV.Vol.V.
Vols. VI.,
By E. A. Wallis Budge. Egyptian Language Easy Lessons in Egyptian Hieroglyphics. By E. A. Wallis Budge. Babylonian Religion Baliylonian Religion and Mythology. By L. W. King. Assyrian Language Easy Lessons in Cuneiform Inscriptions. By L. W. King, M.A. VII., VIII. The Book of the Dead. An English: : :
Translation of the Theban Recension, with Supplementary Chapters, Hymns, etc., and nearly 400 Vignettes which do not appear in the larger edition published in 1897. By E. A. Wallis
Budge,
Litt.D.
Vols. IX., X., XL, XII., XIIL, XIV., XV.,
XVL A History
of Egypt, from the Neolithic Period to the Death of Cleopatra VII. (b.c. 30). By E. A. Wallis Budge. Profusely illustrated.
London
:
KEGAN PAUL, TKENCH, TRUBNER &
CO.,
LtS
Vol. IV.
BABYLONIAN RELIGION AND
MYTHOLOGY
PUBLISHERS' NOTE.
In the year 1894 Dr. Wallis Badge prepared for Messrs. KegaoPaul, Trench, Triibner
&
Co., Ltd.,
an elementary work on the
Egyptian language, entitled " First Steps in Egyptian," and two yearslater the
companion volume,
"An
Egyptian Beading Book," withit,
transliterations of all the texts printed in
and a
full
vocabulary.to satisfy
The
success of these works proved that theyfelt
had helped
a want longsimilar
by students of the Egyptian language, and as aof the languages written in
want existed among students
the cuneiform character, Mr. L.prepared, on the
W.
King, of the British Museum,
same
lines as tbe
two books mentioned above,
an
elementarj'^
work on the Assyrian and Babylonian languageswhich appearedthein 1898.
("First Steps in Assyrian"),
These
works, however, dealt
mainly withit
philological
branch of
Egyptology and Assyriology, andallowed to explain
was impossible
in the space
much
that needed
explanation in the other
branches of these subjects
thatetc.,
is
to say, matters relating to the
archaeology, history, religion,
of the EgyjDtians, Assyrians, and
Babylonians.
In answer to the numerous requests which haveseries of sliort,
been made, a
popular handbooks, on the most
important branches of Egyptology and Assyriology has been prepared, andlargerit is
hoped that these
will serve as introductions to the
works on these subjects.
The
present
is
the fourth volume
of the series, and the succeeding volumes will be published at shortintervals,
and
at
moderate
prices.
3BooI?s
on
QWt
ant) Cbal6a;a
BABYLONIAN RELIGIONAND
MYTHOLOGY
L^
W' KING,BRITISH
M.A.,MUSEUM
F.S.A.
ASSISTANT IN THE UKPARTilENT OF EGYPTIAN AND ASSYRIAN ANTIQUITIES,
WITH TWELVE ILLUSTRATIONS
SECOND /impression
LONDONKEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER &1903CO.,
LtP
PATERNOSTER HOUSE, CHARING CROSS ROAD
\
lAS- A?.
PRINTED BV
WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,
LONDON AND BECCLES.
IThe rights of translation and oj reproduction are
reserved.)
^^..^v,- i:r^^ri7
:
PREFACE.Thein
object of the present
work
is
to offer to the reader
a
handy form an account
of the
principal facts
concerning Babylonian religion and mythology.
This
account
is
based upon the cuneiform inscriptions whichlast
have been excavated in IMesopotamia during thefifty-five
years,
and,
as far
as
possible, the Semitic
peoples of the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates have
been made to reveal their religious beliefs and superstitions
by means of
their
own
writings.
Although
so
much
has been done in recent years to explain their
religious literature,
no
finality in the
matter must be
expected for some time to come, certainly not as longas
any important
religious text remains unpublished.
The fragmentary nature of the available material aloneis
a great obstacle to the construction of any consecutive
narrative,
and
to the correct
grouping of
facts,
while
the renderings of rare Sumerian words and complex
ideograms
in
some
cases
offer
almost
insuperable
VIdifficulties.
PREFACE.Moreover, the variations in the translationsscholars proclaim thefinal
made by English and Germandifficulty of the subject,
and no systematic and
description of the religion of Babylonia and Assyriais
at present possible.
In the preparation of this
little
book the works of the most trustworthy writers on thesubject have been diligently consulted, and the translations of cuneiform texts given in the following pages
have been specially prepared
for the purpose.
Every
endeavour has also been made to incorporate the resultsobtained from recently discovered texts, to which inall
important cases references are given.
From
the facts
here
printed
it
is
clear that the
Babylonians and Assyrians
believed
in
a series of
nature gods, and that they had no conception of theexistenceof one
supreme and almighty God.
The
worship of their gods was tinctured with magic, and
many
of their prayers
and formulae which they recited
during the performance of their religious ceremonies
can be regarded asincantations.
little else
than
spells,little
charms, and
Although
little
by
a higher idea
of the majesty of certain gods was developed, and
although the Babylonian's conception of a man's duty
towards them and towards his neighbour eventually
became of a comparatively high moral
character, he
never succeeded in freeing himself from a belief in the
PREFACE.power of magic, sorcery and witchcraft.
Vll
He
attached
great importance to the performance of burial cere-
monies, imagining that his arrival in the next world
depended absolutely upon them; but the
life
which
he believed the soul would lead after death in theunderworld seems to have been of a peculiarly joylesscharacter.
Owingto discuss
to
want of space no attempt has been made
from a comparative point of view the legends
of the
cosmogony and the deluge written in cuneiform,
and only the most obvious parallels between partsof
them andIt
certain
chapters of Genesis have beento treat the subject ex-
drawn.
was unnecessaryitis
haustively, as
now
generally admitted by scholars
that
the writers
of the
Pentateuch drew upon the
traditions of Babylonia for a
number
of the statements
made
in the early chapters of Genesis.this opportunity of
I take
expressing
my
indebt-
edness to
the
works of Delitzsch, Jensen, Gunkel,Jastrow,
Zimmern,
Jeremias,
and
others,
and
of
thanking Dr. Wallis Budgepreparation of the work.
for his great help in the
L.London,October 1th, 1899.
W. KING.
CONTENTS.CHAPTERI.
PAOE..,
The Gods of BabylonHeaven, Earth, and Hell
...
...
1
II.
...
...
27...
III.
The Legends of CreationThe Story of the DelugeTales of Gods and Heroes
...
...
53121
IV.
...
...
V.VI.
...
...
...
146
The Duty of Man to
his
God and to
his
Neighbour
200
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.CHAPIKP.I.
PAGE
The
Moo>'-Gor)...
...
...
...
...
1519
The Sux-GodII.
...
...
...
The Eastern Door of Heaven The Godsof the
...
...
3239
Ukderworld
...
...
III.
The Fight between Marduk and TiImatScene beside a Sacred Tree... ...
75, 102
113...
IV.
A
Babylonian Shit
...
...
...
131
V.
GlLGAMESH and Ea-BANI
...
...
...
1G2.
Crossing the Waters of Death
...
170 152
The Goddess IshtarThe South- West WindVI.
...
...
...
...
...
...
igg
A
Babylonian Deiion
...
...
...
203
BABYLONIAN RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY.CHAPTERI.
THE GODS OF BABYLON.It was at one time the fashion with
many
scholars to
regard the civilization of the Babylonians as of a purely
Semitic origin
;
and more than one writer on the
religion of that country has
moulded
his
work on the
fundamental thesis that the Semitic Babylonians andthey alone were the originators of the complicated
system of religious practise and belief which we knowexisted from a very early period
upon the banks
of the
Euphrates.
Eecent excavations in Babylonia, however,
have proved one fact with absolute certaintybefore
thatand
the
Semites
ever
reached Babylonia a non-
Semitic race
occupied the country, tilled the land,cattle,
tended herds of
built
cities,
dug
canals,
advanced to a state of considerableBAB. BEL.
civilization.
But
B
2
THE ANCIENT SUMERIANS.^
there are indications that even this race, the Sumerians
as they are called, were not the first possessors of the
land.
It is probable that they themselves
were
settlers
like the Semites of a later time,
and that they reached
the fertile valley of the rivers from some mountainous
home
in
the northern half of Central Asia.
"Who
occupied the country before the Sumerians came
we
cannot say, for of the aboriginal inhabitants of the land
we knowof
nothing.
The
first
inhabitants of Babyloniathe Sumeriansof;
whom we have definite knowledge arevastlyincreased.
and during recent years our knowledgebeen
them hasof
In
any treatment
the
religious
beliefs
of
the
Semitic
Babylonians,
the
existence of the Sumerians cannot be ignored, for they
profoundly influenced the faith of the Semitic invadersbefore whose onslaught their empirebeliefs offell.
The
religious
the Babylonians
cannot be rightly underis
stood unless at the outset this foreign influencerecognized.
duly
To what date weto say,
are to assign
the
beginning of
Sumerian influence in Babylonia
it is
quite impossible
though such a date as six or seven thousand yearsis
before Christ
not an extravagant estimate for the foun^
dation of the earliest religious centres
in the country.
The'
decline of the political
power of the Sumerians, onancient
The SumeriaDS take their name from "Shumeru," an name for Southern Babylonia.^
E.f].,
Nippur, Ur, Shirpurla,
etc.
INFLUENCE OF SUMERIAN BELIEFS.the other hand,
3
may
be assigned approximately to theB.C.
period which lies between
2500 and
B.C.
2300.
At
the latter date Babylon had been raised to a positionof pre-eminence
among
the cities of the land, and the
Semitic population in the country had gained a complete ascendancy over their ancient rivals,
whom
they
gradually absorbed
;
from this time onwards the city of
Babylon maintained her position and never ceased tobe the capital of the country to which in later timesshe gave her name.
But
in spite of the early date to
which we must put back the beginnings of Babyloniancivilization, itis
only
much
later period that
among the remains of a very we find adequate materials forIt is true that
the study of the Babylonian religion.
during the long course of the history of that country
and of Assyria we get occasional glimpses of thereligious beliefs
and legends, which were current at
dif-
ferent periods, from the historicaltions of kings
and votive inscripit is
and governors.is
But
only at quitefall of
a late date, that
to say a
few years before thefull
Nt leveh, that we gain a comparativelyof Babylonian mythology and belief.
knowledge
The great
religious
works of the Babylonians are
knownan
to us
from documents which do not date fromthan the seventh centuryB.C.
earlier period
In the
palaces that were unearthed at Kuyunjik, the site of
Nineveh, there
were
found,
scattered
through
the
mounds
of earth, thousands of clay tablets written in
4
THE SCRIBES OF ASSYRIA.manycases with colostate-
the Assyrian character, and in
phons bearing the name of Ashur-bani-pal and the
ment that he had caused themlibrary.B.C.
to be included in hisB.C.
This monarch reigned from
669
to
about
625, and, though one of the last kings to occupy
the Assyrian throne, he
made strenuousthe
efforts to pre-
serve the ancient literature of Babylonia and Assyria.
^His scribes visited
specially
ancient cities and
.temples in the south, andpositions of all classes
made
copies of literary comthere.
which they found
These
they collected and arranged in his palace at Nineveh,
and
it is
from them that the greater part of our knowis
ledge of Babylonian mythology and religion
derived.
Though theonly,it is
tablets date
from the seventh century
possible that the texts inscribedperiod,
upon them
had their origin in a very remote twoor
and a detailedIf, for
study of them proves that such was the case.instance,
more copies
of a text are found to differ
greatly in detail from one another,
we
naturally assume
that a considerable period has elapsed for such variations to have crept into the text.
Besides
this,
the im-
perfect condition of
many
of the originals from
which
the scribes
made
their copies, the noteslists
and colophons
they added to the texts, and the
and commentaries
they compiled to explain them, prove the antiquity oftheliterature
they studied.thereligious
Such evidenceliterature
is
con-
clusive
that
the Assyrians
have
left
us was not of their
own
production, but was
THEIR COriES OF EARLY TEXTS.their
5
inheritance from
an
earlier
time.
While theturn
Babylonians in their religious beliefs were profoundlyinfluenced
by
the
Sumerians, they
in
their
exercised an even greater influence on the Assyrians.
The
latter people, at first
but a handful of colonistsfaith of their,
from Babylonia, took with them the
mother country, and, though they subsequently gainedtheir independence,
and
after
many
centuries of conflict
held the elder branch of their race in subjection, their
system oftions,
religion,
with but few changes and modificato
was
Babylonian
the
core.
Hence
their
religiousfor the
works and writings may be used as material
study of the Babylonian religion.
When weof Babylon,
examine
these
Assyrian
tablets,
and
attempt to gain from them a knowledge of the gods
bewildering
we find they present us with a truly number of deities. The Babylonians andfor our
Assyrians were a conservative people, and the priestlyclass, to
whose labours we are indebted
knownoa
ledge
of
the Babylonian religion, faithfully collectedall
and chronicled
local
traditions
an'd
beliefs,
matter whence they came.living thing,
Their religion was
still
and they had not
lost belief in the existence
or the power of the gods, but they studied their nationaltraditions to
some extent fromand
their literary side
;
and
they sought to classify and arrange into some systemthe numerous
sometimes conflicting traditionsat different
which had arisen and obtained currency
6
LISTS OF
THE GODS.The
periods in quite different parts of the country.largest
tablet
that
has been recovered from Ashur-
bani-pal's library, for instance, is inscribed with a list
of the
names of the gods and
their titles.
The
tablet
when complete must have measured some 11 x 16inchesof;
it
was inscribed on each
side with six
columnsoverline
minute writing, every
column
containing
one hundred andgiving the
fifty lines,
and nearly everyThisis
name
of a separate deity.^
only one
out ofof the
manyerods.
tablets inscribed with lists of the
names
and the existence of these documentsliterature of the period
serves to
show that in theto find theits
we
must expect
Babylonian religion in a fully
advanced state of
development.
Were wecataloguesit
entirely
dependent on
such
lists
and
would be hard
to gather a
very consistent
or very intelligible
notion of what the Babylonianis
gods were like
;
but fortunately this
not the case.
Numbers
of
hymns andtitles
prayers have been recovered,
which, by the
and attributes therein ascribed to
the gods, enable us to trace their relationships to one
another and their respective rank and power.
Stories
and legends of the gods havefrom theseit is
also
been preserved, and
possible to construct a fairly complete
sketch of Babylonian mythology. Moreover, the names ofthe gods frequently figure in the historical inscriptions
TheI.,
tablet
is
exhibited in the British ^luseum, Nineveh Gallery,
Case
No.
4.
;
OTHER SOURCES OF INFORMATION.of Babylonian and Assyrian
/
kings, not only of this
late period, but also in those of rulers
who occupied
the throne duringhistory.
many
earlier periods of the country's
The
victories gained overto the help
enemies were ascribed
by each rulergods,
vouchsafed him by his
ownw^e
and from the names of those he mentions
learnhis
what gods were held
in special reverence during
reign.
The kings
of
Babylon,
too,
were great
builders and delighted to constructto restore the old ones
new temples andfallen into decay.
which had
Fromgain
the records
of their
building
operations,
and
from the votive tablets deposited in the temples,
we
much
information regarding the worship of the
deities in
whose honour they were made.
Another
source of information, especially for the early Sumerianperiod, are the lists of temple revenues
and accounts
while the very names of private persons preserved inbusiness documents of various dates, containing as so
many
of
them do the names
of gods, serve to indicate
roughly the
changes which the principal gods exIt is of course
perienced in the popular estimation.to be regretted
that
we do not
possess copies of the
great religious and
mythological works of the Baby-
lonians during the earlier periods of their history, from
which
it
would be possible
to trace
with absolute cer-
tainty the course of their religious development.
The
numerous
indirect sources of information referred to,
however, enable us to control and classify the religious
8
DESCRIPTION OF THE GODS.and Babylonian empires.to gain a
literature of the later Assyrian
By
these
means
it
is
possibleof
knowledge
frombelief,
native
sources
Babylonian mythology and
and
to
supplement the scanty references to the
religion of the country
which are found
in the
Old
Testament and in the works of the
classical writers.
The gods
of the Babylonians, in the forms
under
which they were worshipped during theperiods,
later historicaldefinite
were conceived as beings with verypersonalities.
and
characteristic
All the great gods,
whileas
wielding
superhuman
powers, were regarded
endowed with human forms, and, though theyvisible,
were not
except in dreams and visions, to their
worshippers, eachcharacterto
was thought
to
possess a definite
and
to
have a body and features peculiarlike unto
himself.
Not only were they
men
in
body, but in thought and feeling they were also very
human.andlike
Like
men
they were born into the
world,
men
they loved and fought, and even died.in fact,
The Babylonians,
had a very material concep-
tion of the higher powers.
They had noof a different
belief in a
supreme and abstract deitynature to themselves;
mould andall
and though they ascribed
power and might
to
many
of the greater gods they
worshipped, they pictured these beings as swayed by
humanother.
passions,
and
as acting in
dependence on eachtales
About
their gods they
composed strange
and legends, in which we read how some of them
THEIR NATURE AND ORIGIN.performed acts of bravery and valour,played cunning and treachery, andexhibited fear and greed.their
9
how others dishow others againmen,magical;
It is true that, unlike
power
was
unlimited,
they wielded
weapons, and uttered spells and words of powerfor all
but
that they were fashioned
in
human mould;
the separation
between the Babylonian and his god
was not
in nature but in degree.
In following the doings of the gods and in noting theattributes ascribed to them,
we
are naturally confrontedto the
by the problem as
to
what suggested
Babylonian
his precise differentiation in their characters.
Was?
it
merely fancy or arbitrary invention on his part
We
need not appeal to the comparative study of religion to
answer the question in the negative,
for the characters
of the gods themselves betray their origin.personifications of natural forces;
They
are
in other words, the
gods and
many
of the stories told concerning
them
are
the best explanation the Babylonian could give, after
many centuries
of observation, of the forces
and changes
he saw at work around him in the natural world.
He;
saw the sun pass daily overhead, he observed thephases of thefelt
moon and
the motions of the stars;
he
the
wind and feared the tempest
but he had noof natural
notion that these things were the resultlaws.
In company with other primitive peoples he
explained them as the work of beings very like himself.
He
thought of nature as animated
throughout
by
lO
THE GREATER GODS.
numberless beings, some hostile and some favourableto
mankind, in accordance with the treatment he had
experienced from them.
From
the greater powers and
forces in nature he deduced the existence of the greater
gods,
and in many of the legends and myths he told
concerning them
we may
see his naive explanation of
the working of the universe.
He
did not speak in
allegory or symbol, but believed his stories literally,
and mouldedBabylonian
his life in accordance with their teaching.religion, therefore, inits
general aspect
may
be regarded as a worship of nature, and the gods
themselvesvarious
may
be classified as the personifications of
natural powers.difficulty
But hereDuring
at
the outset
we
meet with a
which has not yet been quiteits
satisfactorily explained.
early history the
country was not a corporate whole under one administration,
but the greatto It
cities,
with the land immediately
adjacentstates.
them, formed a number of independentafter
was only
many
centuries of separate
existence, or of temporary coalition, that a
permanentseparatetrace the
fusion
was
brouglit
about
between these
kingdoms.existence of
Back
in this
dim past we cangreat
manywe
of the
Babylonian gods of
later times, and, as in later times, so still
more
at this
early period,
find their worship
was not equally
prevalent throughout the country, but the cult of eachdeity
was specialized and centred
in separate
cities.
Enlil, the
god of the earth, for instance, was worshipped
THEIR LOCAL DISTRIBUTION.in the earliest period at
II
Nippur; Ea, the god of the;
deep, at Eridu
;
Nannar, the Moor -god, at Ur
Utu,
the Sun-god, at Larsa, and so on.
Fowof
taken in the
aggregate, the worship of all these deities presents a
consistent
picture
of
the worship
nature in
its
different parts,
and
for the later periods such a pictureto the general char-
no doubt accurately correspondsacterof
the national religion.
But
in
the earliest
period the great cities of the land were not parts of asingle
kingdom
;
and
it is
not quite clear
distribution of the great natural gods
how this local among a numberit is
of originally independent cities can be explained.
In seeking a solution ofto realize thefact
this
problem
necessary
that
the religious system of the periodof
Babylonians was the product of a longgradual development.
The consistent scheme
of nature
worship practised by the later Babylonians was notreceived by
them
in a complete
and finished form from
their remote ancestors
and predecessors in the land.
At
this
remote period we
may assume
that
its
state
was a very simple and a very primitivehorizon of these early peoples embraced
one.little
Themore
than the walls of the
cities in
which they dwelt, and
each city was content to worship and do battle for the
honour of
its
local
god
;
the fortune of the god
was
bound up with thatgradual
of the city,
and the downfall of thecity.
god followed close on the ruin of the
"With thecities
amalgamation of these separate
into
12
GROWTH OF THE
CITY-GOD.local
larger states, an adjustment between the
gods
was necessary.
In any such coalition the god of the
predominant city would naturally take precedence overthose of the conquered or dependent cities with which
he became associated.
It is conceivable that in this
way
the relationships between some of the gods of the
Babylonians arose.process
Evenlocal
so, it is difficult to
trace the
by which a
city -god
became associatedandto decide
with one of the great powers of nature,
whether his aspect as a god of a special departmentof
the universe wasbeginning,or
inherent
into
his
nature
from
the
was
due
some
subsequent
development.
Such questions present a number of
attractive ]3i"oblems,
manyis
of
which
will doubtless be
solved as more material relating to the earliest periodof Babylonianhistory
published.it,
Meanwhile, in
whatever way wedifferent cities
may
explain
the local worship in
of Babylonia of
many
of the greater
natural gods
is
one of the most striking characteristics
of the Babylonian system.
In giving a sketch of the principal gods of Babyloniait
will be expedient to confine ourselves in the
main
to the periods ofrise of the city of
Babylonian history subsequent to the
Babylon
to power,
which was followed
by the consolidationcountry into a singlepossible to
of the separate portions of thestate.
It
would
of course beearliest
push our enquiry back into the
period
when
the Sumerian was in possession of the
3
SUMERIAN AND SEMITICcountry aud theunfelt.isstill
DEITIES.
1
influence
of
the
Semite was
still
Although the study of the Sumeriauinits
deities
infancy,
it
would be possible
to give
their
names
as found
in
the early inscriptions from
Niffer,
Mukayyar and
Tell Loh, and, with the help oflists
the later explanatoryin
of the Assyrians, to trace
some measure
their adoption
and the modification
of their names, attributes, etc.,
by the Babylonians.^of the
But
to follow such a plan within the limitslittle
present volume would result incatalogue of names and equations,still
many
more than a of which are
matters of conjecture.
It will be better therefore
to treat only of those great Semitic deities
who
figure
so prominently into their
Babylonian mythology, and
to refer
Sumerian prototypes only in
so far as they
illustrate their later characters.
Even during
the
Semitic period
the
Babylonian
company of the gods underwent considerable changes. The assimilation of the Sumerian deities was not asudden process, and the meeting of the two systemsdid not produce uniform results throughout the country.
Moreover, in the later as in the earlier periods, everycitycity
had
its
own
local god, to
whose service the whole
was
devoted, and around whose temple local tradilocal
tions
and
myths gathered and
flourished.
Thethe
prominence which any one such local tradition attainedin the Babylonian system was in proportion to*
See the names and attributes of the various deities collected by Jastrow in his Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, pj). 51 ff.
14political positionit
ANU, BEL, AND EA.and influence of thecity in
which
arose.
It is not a
matter of surprise, therefore, that
we comepositions
across varying traditions with regard to the
and relationships of some of the
gods.
But
with the gradual unification of the country
manymaking
such variant traditions were harmonized and explained
by the priesthood.full
It is thus possible, while
allowance for the influence of local beliefs and of
political changes, to give a brief sketch of the
companyand
of the.
Babylonian gods which will harmonize with
their position
and character in the great
religious
mythological and legendary works of the nation.
At
the head of the
company
of the gods
may be
set the g'veat triad of deities
Anu, Bel and Ea, whose
spheres of influence together embraced the entire universe.
Anu was
the god of heaven, Bel the god of
the earth angl of mankind, and
of water beneath the earth.
Ea the god of At a very earlydeities
the abyssperiod in
Sumerian history we find these threeinclose
mentionedtheir
connection
with
each
other
under(Bel),
Sumerian
names
Euki
(Ea).
Anna (Anu), Enlil Lugalzaggisi, who caused theof
and
inscription
to be written in
which
their
names
occur,
was one of
the earliest Sumerian rulers of whose reignevidence, and
we have
we can
thus trace back the existence
of this great triad of gods to the very beginning ofhistory.
During the
later
periods the connection of
these deities with each other, as the three great gods
,
SIN,
SHAMASH, AND RAMMAN.unshaken.
17
of the universe, remained of thetriad
Each memberThus
had
his
own
centre of worship.
Ami, though he had temples in other parts of thecountry, was
paid peculiar reverence in
Uruk, theis
Babylonian name of the city of Erech, which
menbeen
tioned as one of the oldest cities of Babylonia in thetable of nations in Genesis.^
The god
Bel, as has
already stated, was identified by thethe
Semites with
Sumerian deity
Eulil,
whose worship in E-kur,
his temple in the city of Nippur,
was the oldest
local
cult of which
we have evidence
in the archaic inscrip-
tions that have yet been recovered.
The worship
of
the third
member
of the triad, Ea, originated in Eridu,
the southernmost of the great cities of Babylonia, thesite
of which,
now marked byfifty
the the
moundmouth
of
Abu
Shahren, stands
miles fromthe
of the
Slmtt el-Arab, but which in
earliest
period of
Babylonian history, before the formation of the presentdelta,
must have stood on the shore of the Persianthese
Gulf.
After
threeset a
deities
with
their
world-wide
dominion may be
second
triad, consisting of the
two great gods of
light.
Sin and Shamash, and theSin, the
god of the atmosphere, Eamman.identified alsoship, the
Moon-god,
with Nannak, had two centres of wor-
temple E-gish-shir-gal in Ur, and the temple
E-khul-khul in Kharran, of which the former was the
more
ancient.
In
Ur'
the worship of theGenesisx. 10.
Moon-godC
BAB. KEL.
l8
POSITION OF THE SUN-GOD.
was celebrated from remote antiquity, and in influence and splendourhis cult appears to
have eclipsed that
of Shamash, the Sun-god,in the cities of Sippar
whose ^yorship was centredof E-babbara, " the brighttradition
and Larsa, in two great temples
each of which bore thehouse."
nameone
According
to
Shamash was
regarded as the son of the Moon-god, and this subordination of Sun-worship to the cult of the
Moon
is
an
interesting peculiarity of early Babylonian religion.
At
a later period,
when
the system of mythology was more
fully developed, the
Sun-god attained a position of
greater prominence.of heaven decision to
He was
then regarded as the judgeit
and
earth,
and in the legends
was his
which appeal was made
in cases of
wrong
and
injustice.
The
god-
Eammau,
while particularly
associated with thunder and lightning,
was
in general
the god of the atmosphere and controlled the clouds,
the mist and
the rain.
He waswho
held
in
especial
reverence by the Assyrian kings
loved to compare
the advance of their forces in battle to the onslaughtof the Storm-god.
The most prominent deity in the company of the Babylonian gods was Marduk, who, as the local godof Babylon, naturally claimed the highest respect from
the
men
of his
own
city.
The extensionBabylon
of his influence
was a
result of the rise of
to the position ofit is
the capital city in a united empire, andfact
to this
we may
trace
his
identification
with the
old
MARDUK AXDmanywhich
XABU.
21
Babylonian deity Bel, whose worship had flourishedfor so
centuries at Xippur,
and the prominentlegend
part
he
plays
in
Babylonian
and
mythology.
From
the days of
Marduk never
lost this
Khammurabi pnward position of supremacy amongoriginal
the other gods.
Traces of his
subordinate
character at the time
when Babylon was
still
unknown
may
be seen in the fact that he was never regardedoldest of the gods, nor as
as the
endowed from the;
beginning with his later attributesas having
he was conceivedhis
won
his
power and supremacy by
own
valour and by the services he rendered both to gods andjto
^mankind.
In intimate association with Marduk
mayand
be mentioned Xabu, the god of Borsippa, a cityis
which
marked to-day by the mound
of Birs Nimriid,^
which, built a little to the south-west of
Babylonits
on the opposite bank of the Euphrates, was inperiodlittle
later
more than
a suburb of the capital.
To
this fact
we may
trace the close connection of N'abu
with Marduk, whose son and minister he was supposedto
have been.
E-zida, his
temple in Borsippa, was
closely associated with E-sagil, IMarduk's great shrine
in Babylon,
and these two sanctuaries were the most
famous in the country.
Another prominent deity was Xeegal, whose temple,E-shidlam, in the city ofKtitil,
or Cuthah,
was onecity of
' place situated about two hours' ride from the Hilhih.
a
modern
22of the
NERGAL, NINIB, AND NUSKU.oldest
and largest sanctuaries
in
Northern
Babylonia.
In general character Nergal was the godits
of battle, and, no doubt fromof pestilence also;instill
destructive
nature,
another capacity he was
regarded as the god of the dead.^
The connection
of
Nergal with the city of Cuthah was never severedthroughout thelongperiod of
Babylonian history.
Dungi, one of the
earliest
kings of the city of Ur,
records the building or restoration of his shrine in thatcity,
and more than two thousand years
later,
among
the Babylonians
whom
Sargon sent to colonize Samaria,of Cuth, or Cuthah,
we
read of certain
mento
who made
an image of Nergal,^
whom
they trusted to preserve
them from theland.
lions tliat
roamed through the devastatedlater times closely associated
A
god who was inis
with
]S[er>a;al
Ninib.
The reading of
his
name
is
conjectural,
and
his original character is also a matter
of some uncertainty, but under the Assyrian kings hispersonality was more clearly indicated.
By them heit
was regarded wastheirto Nergal
as a
god of battle and the chase, and
and Ninib that they ascribed the
gift of
mighty weapons.
The Fire-god, Nusku, maythe more important deities,
also be mentionedin
among
view of the prominent position he occupies in the
magical works of the Babylonians.
The Babylonian goddesses, with one exception, arenot
very imposing'
figures,
nor are their characters^
See below,
p. 37.
2 Kings svii. 30.
BABYLONIAN GODDESSES.very sharply defined or differentiated.
23
Their position
corresponded to some extent with the inferior positionof
womenin
in Babylonia.
It has already
been remarked
that the Babylonian
conceived his gods to be veryfeelings,
humandrawnto
their
form and
and
it
was but
natural that his picture of their wives should have beenafter the
same model.
Their principal functions
in fact were to receive the favours of their lords and
become the mothers of a younger generation of gods.
In several instances we
may
trace their
position of
dependence in the very names by which they were
known.wife
Thus Anatu, the wife
of
Anu, and Belit, the
of Bel, in
name
as
well as nature are merely
female counterparts of the male deities with
whom
they are associated.
Damkina, the wife of Ea, wasto
a slightly more important personage to judge from the
numerous hymns addresseda fact that
her in the later period,
maywife,
perhaps be explained as arising from
her position as the mother of Marduk.
Tsaepanitum,account awaybe saidof
Marduk'sfrom
however, was ofthe
little
her partner, and
same
may
Tashmetu theof
wife of Nabu,
Ningal
the wife of the
Moon-god, Ai the wife of the Sun-god, Shala the wife
Eamman, GuLAInfact,little
the wife of Ninib, and
Laz the wife
of Xergal.
the goddesses of Babylonia exercised
but
independent power, and, both in the ritual
of worship and in the
myths and
stories told
about thepart.
gods, they play a very unimportant
and subordinate
24Thererule,is
THE GODDESS ISHTAR.one very striking exception to this generalThis deity in her
namely the goddess Ishtae.whichwere,
own personinfluencegoddesses.
appears to have absorbed the power andat
times,
ascribed
to
other
She was identified
with
the
Sumerian
goddess Ninni,
and in the Assyrian inscriptions she;
becomes the wife of the national god Ashuralso referred to as " Belit,"i.e.,
she
was
" the
Lady," and in this
character she assumed the titles and prerogatives of the
wife of Bel.
In course of time the name
" Ishtar "
was
employed
as a generic term for goddess.
In Babylonianames,
moreover, she was
known by twotitle
different local
which represented two quitecharacters.
distinct
and
separate
Under the
Anunitu she was worand underthis aspect she
shipped as the goddess of battle at Agade and also at thecity called Sippar of
Anunitu
;
was regarded
as the daughter of Sin the
Moon-god and
of Ningal his wife.
At
the great temple of E-ana at
Freeh, on the other hand, she was worshipped as the
goddess of love and identified with
Nana
;
and
in this
character she was regarded as the daughter of
Ann
and Anatu.with
It
was in her gentler character
as the
goddess of love that she became connected in legend
Dumuzi
or
Tammuz,
her
lover
who
died
in
early youth,
and
for the sake of
whose recovery sheShe was servedher
descended to the realm of the dead.at
Erech by numerous priestesses attached to
worship, and
the rites practised at her shrine, a later
THE GODS IN HEAVEN.formof
2$
which
is
described
by Herodotus,^
were
performed in her honour as the goddess of love.
By
the Assyrians she was chiefly revered as the goddessof battleat;
she had two famous shrines in Assyria, oneat Arbela,
Nineveh and oneSuch are the
and
at
both she was
worshipped in her warlike character.characteristics of the principal gods of
the Bal^ylonians during the greater part of their history,
and the sketch here given, though drawn from theligious
re-
and
historical literature, is not inconsistent
with
the attributes assigned to
them
in the astrologicalidentification
and
astronomical inscriptions.planets
The
of the
with some of the greater gods was probablynor primitive development, but
neither a very early
one which took place after the Babylonian company ofthe gods had been definitely formed.
When the worship
of a host of local gods had given place to an organized
system of nature worship, and when the growth oflegend and
myth
necessitated a belief in the constantit
intercourse of the gods with one another,
was not^
unnatural for the Babylonians to assume that the gods
dwelt together in some special place, thatheaven.
is
to say in
From
the
earliest times the
sun and moon
were regarded as the symbols of the gods Shamash
and Singreat
respectively,
and the movements of the twobelieved to
luminaries
were
be directed
by
them.
At
a later period the'
movements
of the planets
Book
I.,
chap. 199.
26
SPIRITSto
AND DEMONS.way
were also thoughtthey were, andidentification of
be directed by gods whose symbolsis
it
probable that in this
tlie
Marduk with
Jupiter, of Ishtar with
Venus, of Ninib with Saturn, of Nergal with Mars
and of
iSTabu
with Mercury took place.^
The membersreferred to
of the great triad of deities,as standing at the
who have been
head of the company of the gods, were;
not omitted from this processferred to heaven
Bel and Ea were trans-
and placed side by side with Anu, and
the three henceforth divided the heavens between them.
In the above sketch we have only enumerated theildni rahuti, or " great gods " of the Babylonians,
and
it
must not be forgotten
that subordinate to
them stood a Of these lesserthe Igigt,
host of lesser gods as well as countless demons and spiritspossessing various powers and influences.spirits the
two
classes
most frequently met with in the
religious inscriptions are the
Anunnaki and
the " Spiiits of the Earth " and the " Spirits of Heaven,"respectively.
Each
class
is
generally mentioned in
connection with the other, and they are described ascarrying out the will of the great gods.literature the
In the magicalspirits
number
of
demons and ghosts andis
which were
hostile to
mankindit
very numerous, and toto
escape their evil influence
was necessary
invoke
the assistance of magic and to employ powerful spells; bythese
means the help and protectionto deliver a
of the great godstheir baneful
might be obtainedacts.'
man from
See Jeasen, Die KomioloQie der Hahylonier, pp. 131
ff.
(
^1
)
CHAPTEE
II.
HEAVEN, EAETH, AND HELL.
The
conception formed by the Babylonians with regard
to the
shape and nature of the earth on which they lived,ideas they held respecting the structure of the
and the
heavens, and the expectation which they entertained of
one day dwelling in some region beyond the grave, canonly be gathered fromallusionsliterature.
various
stray referencesof
andtheir
scattered
throughout the remains
We
possess no treatise on these subjectspriest,
from the pen of a Babylonianto tracefor ourselves
and we havebeliefs
and piece together the
of the Babylonians on all these questions from pas-
sages in their historical and religious writings.
That
the ancient Babylonians
concerned themselves withto show, and,
such problems therealthough they have
is
ample evidencebehindit
left
them
no
detailed
description of the universe,
is
possible
by a careful
study of the texts to obtain a fairly complete ideaof
the
world
as
they pictured
it.
To understandconcerning the
many
of the legends
and
stories toldit is
Babylonian gods and heroes
necessary to consider
28
SHAPE OF THE EARTH.;
heaven, earth, and hell from their standpoint
it
will
be well, therefore, to trace their views concerning theseregions before passing to the
myths and legends that arethe earthtold con-
translated or referred to in the following chapters.
With regard to the formation and shape of we find a very interesting passage in a legendcerning the old Babylonian hero Etana.
The Eagle was
a friend of Etana, and on one occasion this bird offeredto carryoffer,
him np
to heaven.
Etana accepted the Eagle's
and, clinging with his hands to the Eagle's pinions,
he was carried np from the earth.
As they
rose to-
gether into the higher regions, the Eagle told
Etana to
look at the earth which grew smaller and smaller as
they ascendedflight,
;
three times at different points of histo look
he told him
down, and each time the Eagle
spoke he compared the earth to some fresh object.After an interval of two hours the Eagle said,""
Look,
my
friend, at the appearance of the earth.
Behold,
" the sea, at its side is the" the earth
House
of
Wisdom.^ Look how
resembles a mountain, the sea has turned intoAfter carrying Etana up for twosaid,t"
" [a pool of] water."
more hours the Eagle"appearance of the
Look,seais
my
friend, at tlie
earth.
The
a girdle round the
" earth." After ascending for a further space of
two hours
the Eagle
exclaimed, " The;
sea has
changed into a
" gardener's channel "'
and
at a still higher point of their
I.e.,
the dwcUing-pluce of En, the Lord of Wisdom,
who dwelt
iu
the deep.
POSITION OF THE SEA.flight the earth
29
had shrunk
to the size of a flower-bed.
From
these passages
weAt
see
that
the writer of the
legend imagined the earth to be like a mountain around
which flowed
tlie sea.
the
first
stopping place Etanalike a
and the Eagle were so high that the sea lookedLater the sea had become so small thatgirdlelittle
pool of water, in the middle of which the earth rose.it
looked like a
round the
earth,
and
at length it appeared very
larger than a "gardener's water-channel"
made
for irrigation purposes.
The
belief that the earth
was hemispherical
in shape,
resembling a mountain with gently sloping sides, was
common amongpassages.
the Babylonians as
we know from" like a
other
According to Diodorus Siculus,said^
the Baby-
lonians
that
tlie
earth
was
boat and
" hollow."
The boat used on the
Tigris
and Euphrates,
and representations of which frequently occur on the monuments, had no keel and was circular in shape.^
Such a boat turned upside down would give a veryaccurate picture of the Babylonian notion of the shapeof the earth, the base of whicli the sea encircled as a'
A GreekBk.
liistorian,
boru iuVogel,
Sicilj',
wlio lived in thetlie
first
century
before Christ, and wrote a history of2 ^
world in forty books.
II., ch. 31, ed.
vol.
i.,
p. 222.
Babylonians and Assyrians are also described by Herodotus (Bk. I., chap. 194), who says that they were circular like a shield, their ribs being formed by willow branches and covered externally witli skins, while no distinction was made betweenthe head and the stern.
The
boats used by the
At the present day similar vessels built of branches and skins, over which bitumen is smeared, are used at Baghdad. (See Layard, Nineveh and its Eemains, vol. ii. p. 3S1.)
30,
THE DOME OF HEAVEN.man.
girdle encircles a
To a dweller on the
plains of
Mesopotamia the earth might well seem to be a mountain-the centre of
which was formed by the high mountain;
ranges of Kurdistan.
while the Persian Gulf and the
Indian Ocean which were on the south-east of Babylonia,
and the Eed Sea and the Mediterranean lying to
the south-west and west respectively, doubtless led tothe belief that the ocean surrounded the world.
At somea
distance above the earth was stretched out
the heaven, a solid
dome
or covering in the form of
hollow hemisphere, very
muchi.e.,
like the
earth
in
shape.
Both earth and heaven rested upon a greatthe Deep.of heavenIt is not
body of water called Apsij,quite certainported, that
howis
the solidit is
dome
was supit
to say,
not "clear whether
was
supported by the earth, or was held up, independentlyof the earth, by the waters.
According to one view
the edge of the earth was turned up and formed aroundit
a solid wall like a steep range of hills upon which
the
dome
of heaven
rested;
and in the hollow bethis outer wall
tween the mountain of the earth andof hills
the
sea
collected in the form of a
narrow
stream.
This conception coincides with some of theit
phrases in the legend of Etana, but against
may
be urged the fact that the sea
is
frequently identified
with Apsii or the primeval Deep upon which the earthrested.
But
if
the edges of the earth supported the
dome
of heaven, all
communication between the sea
1
THE HEAVENLYand Apsii would be cutfore that theoff.
BODIES.
3
It is
more probable there-
earth did not support the heaven, and
that the foundations of the heavens, like those of theearth, rested
on Apsu.
In the beginning, before the
creation of the world, nothing existed except the water
wherein dwelt monsters.
According to a version of
the creation story, however, the god Bel or
Marduk
formed the heavens and the earth out of the body ofa great female monster that dwelt in the
Deep whichand from
he had
slain.
Splitting her
body into two halves, he
fashioned from one half thethe other the earth.^
dome
of heaven,
Above the domewater,
of heaven ocean,
was another mass ofsolid
a heavenly
which theits
dome ofit
heaven supported and kept in
place,
so that
might not break through and flood the
earth.
On
the
under side of the dome the stars had their courses
and the Moon-god his path.
In the dome, moreover,
were two gates, one in the east and the other in thewest, for the use of
Shamash, the Sun-god, who everyto the other across the world.
day journeyed from one
Coming from behind
the
dome
of heaven, he passed
through the eastern gate, and, stepping out upon the
Mountain of the Sunrise
at the
edge of the world,
he began his journey across the sky.
In the evening
he came to the Mountain of the Sunset, and, stepping
upon
it,
he passed through the western gate of heaven
See below,
p. 55.
32
THE PATH OF THE SUN-GOD.According
and disappeared from the sight of meu.to one tradition he
made
his daily journey across thefiery horses.is
sky in a
chariot,
which was drawn by twojourney onis
In representations on cylinder-seals, however, hegenerally
shown makingillustration
his
foot.
In the
accompanying
Shamash
seen appearing
Sliamasli, the Sun-pod, comin
city, gods,
and men,
I.e,
"
Cf. Jereinias,
from about B.C. 4000 to B.C. 2300. Iziubar-Nimvod, Leipzig, 1891.
THE SIEGE OF ERECH.and""
I49the text reads
beasts, are confused:
and
terrified
;
as follows
She asses [tread down] then* young,
Cows
[turn upon] then' calves.
" ""
Men cry aloud like beasts, And maidens mourn like doves,The gods of strong-walled Erech
" " ""
Are changed The Are changed
to
flies,
and buzz about theErech
streets.
spirits of strong-walled
to serpents,
and glide into holes
(?).
For three years the enemy besieged Erech,the doors
"And "And
were barred, and the bolts were
shot,
Ishtar did not raise her head against the foe."
Wewe
have no mention of Gilgamesh upon these frag-
ments of the First Tablet, but, as on the Second Tabletfind the inhabitants of
Erech groaning under
his
rule, it is
not improbable that the foe mentioned as
besieging Erech was led by Gilgamesh, and that they
succeeded in capturing the
city.
Another view
is
that
Gilgamesh came forward and delivered Erech from herenemies, and in return for his services was electedruler of the city.
By
whichever of these means heis
obtained his throne in Erech, therehis rule soon
no doubt thatall
became unpopular,
for
he forced
the
young menoff
of
the city into his service and carried
the maidens to his court.
The
elders complained.
saying
:
150
THE TYRANNY OF GILGAMESII.
" Gilgamesli hath not left the son to his father,
"NorThey
the maid
to the
liero,
nor the wife to her
husband."therefore cried to the goddess
Aruru against thekeep him
tyranny of Gilgamesh, complaining that he acted in thisdespoticin check.plaint,
manner because he had no
rival to
Day and
night the people raised their com-
and the gods of heaven heard them and had
compassion upon them.
And
the gods also cried aloud
to Aruru, bidding her create a being, equal to Gilga-
mesh
in strength,
who might
fight
with him and limit
his power.
mesh,^ soto their
They urged that as she had created Gilgashe must now create his rival. Aruru listenedto
words and proceeded
plan and to create a
being
who
should be capable of opposing Gilgamesh.referring to the creation of this being,:
The passage
who
was named Ea-bani, reads as follows " Upon hearing these words (i.e., the words"" "
of the gods)
Aruru conceived a manShe brokeground.
of
Anu ^
in her mind.
Aruru washed her hands,off a piece of clay,
she cast
it
on the
"
Thus she created Ea-bani, the
hero."
Ea-bani, however, was not wholly'
human
in form.
It will
tion story, the
be remembered that according to one version of the Creagoddess Aruru, iu company with Marduk, is credited;
with the creation of mankind see above, p. 90. " In this phrase " I.e., a divine man, a demi-god. a general name for " god."
Auu "
is
used as
THE CREATION OF EA-BAXI.Fromlegs his picture
151
upon cylinder-seals we know that hehis
had the head, and body, and arms of a man, butwere those of a beast.of Ea-bani is given in the
The following description:
poem
" The whole of his body was [covered] with hair,""
He was
clothed with long hair like ahis hair
woman.like that of
The quality of
was luxuriant,
the Corn-god.""
He knew [not] the land and the inhabitants thereof, He was clothed with garments as the god of thefield.
With the gazelles he ate herbs, " With the beasts he slaked his thirst, "With the creatures of the water his heart A new personage now comes on the scene"
rejoiced."
and, fromit
the abruptness
with which he
is
introduced,
is
evident that he has already been described in someprevious portion of the
poem
that
is
wanting.
This
new personageto
is
Tsaidu, "the hunter,"
who
appears
have been sent into the mountains by Gilgamesh
in order to capture Ea-bani,
The gods no doubtto
in
due time would have brought Ea-banibattle
Erech
to
do
with Gilgamesh, and the object of Gilgamesh
in sending Tsaidu to capture Ea-baniforestall
was"
clearly to
their
intention.
"
The hunter
accordinglyfor
went out into the mountains and lay in waitEa-bani.
For three days Tsaidu watched Ea-bani asthou'>-ht
he went down to the stream to drink, but he
152
TSAIDU,
THE HUNTER.
he was too strong to overcome in single combat.therefore returned to
He
Erech and told Gilsfamesh of thehe described his own terror atall
monster's
strength;
beholding him, and added that he destroyedtraps
the
which had beenrangeth over
set for him, saying
:
"He*'
[all]
the mountains,
" Eegnlarly with the beasts [he feedeth],
Regularly his feet [areplace.
set]
towards the drinking-
"""
But
I
was
afraid, I could
not approach him.
He He "He"
hath
filled
up the
pit
which
I digged,
hath destroyed the nets which I [spread], hath caused the cattle and the beasts of thefield to
escape fromlet
my
hands,
And
he doth not
me make war (uponto
them)."
Gilgamesh was not discouraged by Tsaidu's want ofsuccess,
and he revealed
him
a device by which hefor
might capture Ea-bani, who had proved too cunningthe ordinary snares of the hunter, saying" Go,:
my
Tsaidu, and take
"And whenplace,
the beasts come
Ukhat with thee. down to the drinkins:anddisclose her
"
Then
let her tear off her clothing
nakedness." (Ea-bani) shall see her,
and he
shall
draw nigh
unto her,"
And
the cattle, which grew
up on
his field, shall
forsake him."
XJkhat,
1
THE PLOT TO CAPTURE EA-BANI.
53
whom
Tsaidu was told to take with him, was
one of the sacredIshtar and were
women who werethecity
in the service of
attached to the ancient temple ofof
that goddess
in
Erech.
The
narrative
continues"
:
Tsaidu departed, and took with him the
woman
Ukhat."
They took the
straight road,
"
And onplace.
the third day they reached the appointed
"
Then Tsaidu and the woman placed themselveshiding,
in
"
For one day,
for
two days, they lurked by the
drinking-place.
" "With the beasts (Ea-bani) slaked his "
thirst,
With the creatures of the waters " Then Ea-bani (approached)..
his heart rejoiced.,
.
"
With the gazelles he ate herbs, " With the beasts he slaked his thirst, "With the creatures of the water his heartnear,:
rejoiced."
As Ea-bani came"
Ukhat caughtgirdle,
sight of him,
and Tsaidu exclaimedThatis he,
Ukhat, loosen thy
"Uncover thy nakedness that he may receive thyfavours,
""
Be not
faint-hearted, lay hold
upon
his soul.
He
"
shall see thee, and shall draw nigh unto thee. Open thy garment, and he shall lie in thine arms.
154""
EA-BANI TEMPTED BY UKHAT.Give him pleasure after the manner of women.
His
cattle,
which grew up in
his field, shall forsake
him,"
While he holdeth thee
in the embraces of love."
Ukhat didlines
as Tsaidu bade her,
and the
plot
was
attended with success, as:
we may see from
the following
"Ukhat loosened her garment, she uncovered hernakedness,"
She was not faint-hearted, and she laid hold uponhis soul.
"""
She opened her garment, and he lay in her arms. She gave him pleasureafter the
manner
of
women,
And he
held her in the embraces of love.
"
For six days and six nights Ea-bani drew nigh andtarried with Ukhat.
" After" "'
he had
satisfied
himself with her abundance,cattle.
HeHis
turned his attention to hisgazelles lay,
and looked
at Ea-bani,
The beasts
of the field turnedterrified, hisstill,
away from him.stiff,
" Ea-bani"
was
body grew
His knees stood
as his cattle departed."
Ea-bani, however, did not attempt to pursueto induce
them
or
them
to return to him.
Eecovering from his
dismay he turned once moreside
to the
companion
at his
and
"
He
returned to love, he sat at the feet of the
woman,
:
HIS LOVE FOR""*'
THE ^YOMAN.
155
And he gazed up into her face, And as the woman spake he listened. And the woman said unto Ea-bani'
"
Thou
art of great stature,
Ea-bani, and art hke
unto a god."" "
Why then dostCome,let
thou
lie
with the beasts of the
field
?
me
bring thee to strong-walled Erech,of
To the bright house, the dwellingIshtar,
Anu andperfect
"To the"
palace
of Gilgamesh,
who
is
in
strength,
And
who, like a mountain-bull, wieldeth power
over men.'
"She spake unto him and he hearkened unto herword," " ""
In the wisdom of his heart he wished for aEa-bani spake unto the'
friend.
Come
then,
woman Ukhat, lead me away,:
To the bright and holy dwelling of
Anu andis
Ishtar,
"
To the palacestrength,
of
Gilgamesh,
who
perfect
in
"And whoTheis
over men.'
like [a "
mountain-bull wieldeth power]
text of the
poem which
follows
is
broken, and
it
only with difficulty that the thread of the narrative
can be made out.
Ea-bani had heard so
much
of theto
might of Gilgamesh from Ukhat that he desiredhis friendship;
wintest
but,
it
appears, he
first
wished to
156
GILGAMESH AND EA-BANI.himin battle.It
the hero's strength, and to join with
was with
this object that he set out
with Ukhat for the
city of Erech,
and they happened
to arrive there during
the celebration of a festival.
Ea-bani, however, had ato
dream
in
which
he
was warned
refrain
fromtoldthat,
attempting to do battle with Gilgamesh.that Gilgameshas
He washe,
was more powerful thanrest,
and
by day and by night he did not
he could not
hope to take him unawares.
He was
also told in hisof
dream that Gilgamesh was belovedEa, had given
Shamash, the
Sun-god, and that the three great gods, Anu, Bel, and
wisdom unto him.also
Meanwhile Gilgamesh
had a dream, and he wasit.
troubled because he could not interpretfore
He
there-
went
to his
mother Aruru and enquired of her
the meaning of his vision.vision the stars of heavenhis
He
told her that in hisfall
seemed to
upon him, andfore-
mother seems to have interpreted the dream as
telling the
coming of Ea-bani, andfriends witli Ea-bani.
also to
have advised
him
to
make
Gilgamesh and Ea-bani did not enter into combat,
and the Third Tablet of the
series
tells
howfirst
they
becameremain,
friends.it
Erom
the fragments of the text whichgive
appears that Ea-bani did not at
heed
toit
the
warning vouchsafed him in
his dream,
and
was only
after the personal intervention of the
Sun-god that he gave up the desire
to
do battle with
Gilgamesh, and consented to treat him henceforth as
EXPEDITION AGAINST KHUMBABA.his comrade.
1
5/
In order to induce Ea-bani to remain
at Erecli, Sliamash conferred
on him royal rank, and
he promised him that he should recline on a greatcouch while the princes of the earth kissed hisfeet,
and that the people of Erech should proclaimsubmission unto him.god,
their
Ea-bani listened to the Sun-
and consented
to
remain in Erech as the friend
of Gilgamesh.
The next
section of the
poem
is
also
incomplete,
but enough of the text remains to enable us toout the story, which
make^
concernsagainst
an expedition underan Elamite despot
taken by both heroes
named Khumbaba.tion
The preparations
for the expedi-
and the battle with Khumbaba are described uponBefore
the Fourth and Fifth Tablets of the series.
setting out for the castle of Khumbaba, Ea-bani prayedto the Sun-god,
and Gilgamesh recounted
to his friend to him, in
a favourable
dream which had been sentto a
which he beheld the dead body of Khumbaba.due time the two heroes cametrees, inbuilt.
In
wood
of cedar
the middle of whichfeared
Khumbaba'sbyall
castle
was
Khumbaba was
who dwelt near
him, for his roaring was like the storm, and any man,
who wasperished.
rash enough to enter into his cedar wood,
The two
heroes, however,
undismayed by
the reports of their enemy's power, pressed forward'
The
xa-.maj were,
people of Elam, which was situated to the east of Mcsopofrom an early period, in coustant conflict with Babylonia.
158
;
THE SLAYING OF KHUMBABA.They entered the wood, but weregrewtherein,
on their journey.
amazed"
at the great size of the trees that
and in the words of the poem
They stood
still,
and marvelled at the wood,
"
They gazed
at the height of the cedars,at the entrance of the
"
They gazedand
wood,to
"The"
place where
Khumbaba was wontlaid out,
walk
set his foot.
The road had beenmade."
and the path was well
After describing the beauty of the greatest of thecedars,
which possessed a pleasant and delightful shadesmell, the tablet breaksoff.
and a sweet
How
the
heroes penetrated to the castle, and in what manner
they succeeded in slaying Khumbaba,
we do not knowis clear
but that they were successful in the fightthe last line of the tablet.
from
Half
this line is preserved
and reads
" the
head of Khumbaba," from which we
may
perhaps infer that Gilgamesh and Ea-bani, after
slaying the tyrant, cut off his head from his body.
Hitherto the heroes
had only met with
success.
Enjoying the favour of the Sun-god, they had succeeded in slaying a powerful
enemy
of their city,
and
they now returned to Erech elated with Erom this time forward, however, theirso happy,
their victory.lot
was not
and the Sixth Tablet gives the reason of
their misfortunes, for it narrates
how Gilgamesh
in-
curred the wrath of the powerful goddess Ishtar.
The
ishtar's passion for gilgamesii.tablet opens with
159
an account of how, on his returnbattle,
from Erech, Gilgamesh removed the stains of
and clothed himself inwords":
his royal robes, in the following
[He cleansed][He removed][He took
his weapons,
he polished his weapons,
" "
his
armour from upon him,garments, he clothed him-
off] his soiled
self in clean raiment.
"
He donned
[his robes
of]
honour, he bound
on
his diadem,"
Gilgamesh worediadem."
his
crown,
he
bound
on
his
The
sight of the hero thus arrayed on his return
from battle kindled with lovethe goddess Ishtar. the
him the heart of The poem tells how she beheldfor
comeliness of Gilgamesh, and:
addressed him in
these words""
Come, Gilgamesh, be thou
myme
spouse.as a gift,
Bestow thy strength uponthou shalt be
"And
my
husband, and I will be
thy wife." I will set"
thee in a chariot of lapis lamli and gold,of gold
With wheels madediamonds,
and horns made of
""
And mightyThouof cedars.
.
.
.
steeds shalt thou yoke to
it.
shalt enter our house with the sweet scent
"
When
thou enterest our house.
l60"
;
GILGAMESH REPULSES ISHTAR.[The great and] the mighty shall kiss thyrulers,feet.
"Kings, and
and princes
shall
bow down
before thee,
"And
from mountain and plain shall they bringunto thee as tribute."in addition
gifts
The goddess promisedbe swift, and that his
that
his
flocks
should bear twins, that the horses ofcattle
Ms
chariot should
should be unrivalled.
But Gilgamesh refused her proffered love, remembering the fate of those who had already enjoyed it, and thusupbraided her with her treachery" """:
On Tammuz,ThouThou
the spouse of thy youth,
didst lay affliction every year.didst love the brilliant AUalu-bird,didst smite
But thou
him and breakcries,'
his
wing
;
"" "
He
stands in the woods, and
my
wing.'
Thou
didst also love a lion, perfect in strength,for him.
Seven by seven didst thou dig snares
"
Thou Thou
didst also love a horse, pre-eminent in battle
" Bridle, spur," "
and whip didst thou lay upon him,to gallop for
didst
make him
seven
Icaslm,
Trouble and sweating didst thou force him to bear,
"""
And on his motherThou
Silili
thou didst lay
affliction.
didst also love a shepherd of the flock,for thee the libation;
Who continually poured outAndBut thoudidst smite him,
(?),
""
daily slaughtered kids for thee
and didst change him
into a leopard,
THE BULL FROM HEAVEN."So"
l6l
that hishis
And
own sheep- boy hunted him, own hounds tore him to pieces."fate of a
Gilgamesh also recounted the sadin the service loved. of
gardenershe had
Anu,
Ishtar's father,
whomgifts
Every day he brought her costly;
and made
bright the dish from which she atetired of
but when she grew
him she changed him
into a cripple, so that
henceforth he could not rise from his bed.
Gilgameshme,tliou
ended his taunts with the words," wouldst love me," [afflict me]."
"As
for
and
like unto
them thou wouldst
When Ishtar heard thisupinto heaven,
she was enraged and she went
where she sought out her father Anu,
and her mother Anatu, and complained that Gilgamesh
had scorned
her.
Anu
attempted to soothe her, but she
demanded vengeance upon Gilgamesh, and asked Anuto create a
monstroushero.
bull,
named Ahi, which shouldto
destroy
the
Anu
yielded
his
imperious
daughter and created the bull in accordance with herwish.
The account
of the battle between the bullis
and
the
two heroes Ea-bani and Gilgamesh,
very in-
complete, but the struggle seems to have been long andfierce,
and towards the end of the account we read thattail so
Ea-bani seized the bull by the
that Gilgamesh
was no doubt enabledsword.
to
slay the monster with hisillustration,
In the accompanying
we
see Gil-
gamesh and Ea-bani each engaged inbull.
conflict
with a
The picture may possibly be based upon some
BAB, EEL.
M
;
l62
THE FIGHT WITH THE BULL.Annsent
variant form of the legend, according to which
two divine bulls against Gilgamesh and hisPerhapsof theit is
friend.
simpler, however, to regard
it
as a picturefor
two heroes on a hunting expedition,
on
other cylinder-seals they are frequently represented asstruggling with several bulls and lions at the same time.It willlir
be noticed that in the centre of the picture
is
a
tree
growing upon what appears-5..
to be a pile of stones.
'\
-
'yPPIJTi^PWI^tlP^IM .rj^^]j[--/
JEa-baui and Gilgamesh in conflict with two bulls.British
(From a
cylinder-seal in the
Museum, No.
89,308.)
The small halfare
circles,
however, which look like stones,of mountains;
conventional
representations
the
engraver intended to convey the impression that thefight
with the bulls took place in a well- wooded and
mountainous country.
The poem next describes the wrath of Ishtardeath of the bull as follows":
at the
Then Ishtar went up onErech
to the wall of strong-walled
"
She mounted to the top and she uttered a curse,(saying),
EA-BANI TAUNTS ISHTAR."'
163
Cursed be Gilgamesh, who has provokedanger,
me
to
*'
And
has slain the bull from heaven.'
"
When Ea-bani heard these " He tore out the entrails (?)"
words of Ishtar,of the bull,
And he'
cast
them before
her, (crying),
"
As
for thee, I will
conquer thee,
"And
I will
do to thee even as I have done to
him.'"
Thus Ea-bani drew down upon himself the wrath ofIshtar.
Then Ishtar assembled the three grades ofattached to her service and theythe death of the bull.
priestesses
made lamentation overvalue, for they
The horns of the bull were of greatmeasures ofhis victory,
were exceedingly large and each of them held sixoil.
Gilgamesh, therefore, in gratitude for
dedicated
them
to
the Sun-god,
who
is
described in this passage of the
poem under
the local
namewith
of Lugal-Marada, that is "
King of Marad," MaradGilgamesh
being a city in Babylonia.
After dedicating the horns
much ceremony
at the altar of the god,
and
his attendants
washed
their
hands in the Euphratestheir arrival they rode
and then
set out for Erech.
Oncity,
through the streets of thetogether to gaze
and the people gatheredas
upon them
they passed.to
The
princesses of the city also
came out
meet Gilgamesh,
and he
cried out unto them, saying
1
64"
EA-BANl'S DEATH.
"""
Who is glorious among heroes Who is mighty among men?
?
GilgameshGilgamesh
isis
glorious
among
heroes,
mighty among men."
In this manner he passed through Erech and enteredinto his palace.
There he prepared a banquet at which
he entertained his friends in honour of his victory overthe great bull.
After the banquet the guests reclined
upon
their couches
and
slept.
During Ea-bani's sleep
he saw a vision, and when he awoke in the morning he
drew nigh
to
Gilgamesh and began
to tell
him
of the
things which he had seen.
The Seventh Tablet begins with Ea-bani's accountof his dream, but so
few fragments of the text of
thisit
and the following tablet have beenis
preserved that
not possible to follow the course of the narrative at
this point.
All we
know
for certain is that Ea-bani's
death occurs at the end of the Eighth Tablet.
He
seems to have received a wound in
battle,foe,
but in
what manner andsay.is
at the
hands of what
we cannot
All that
we canlaid
gather from the mutilated text
that he
was
low upon his bed with the sicknesshis
which resulted fromlay sick,side,
wound.
For twelve days heto his bed-
and having summoned Gilgamesh
and having told him the manner in which he
had received his wound, he died.conjectureIshtar,
We maybrought
reasonably
that
his
death was
about
by
whose anger he had aroused.
Gilgamesh himself
THE GRIEF OF GILGAMESH.escaped from death, but
!
"
165
we
find
he had been smitten
with a sore sickness, which no doubt was also due tothe anger of thescorned.
great goddess
whose love he had
The Ninth Tablet opens with the lament of Gilga-
mesh
for the
death of his friend, and with his resolveancestor, Tsit-napishtim,to escape a similar fate.
to seek out his
who mightThetablet
perhaps help himbegins as follows:
"For
his friend Ea-bani
" Gilgamesh
weptLet
bitterly
and he lay stretched out
upon the ground.""**
(He
cried)
:
'
me
not die like Ea-bani
Grief hath entered intoI fear death,
my
body, and
and I
lie
stretched out
upon the
ground."
To
(test)
the power of Tsit-napishtim, son of Ubara-
Tutu," I will set out,
and I will not
tarry
by the way.'
Gilgamesh describes his journey thus :"
To a mountain gorge
I
came by
night,
"Lions I beheld, and I was" I raised"
terrified.
my
head and I prayed
to the
Moon-god,
to the [chief] of the gods came my cry, [And he hearkened and] showed favour unto me." From what remains of the text it appears that Gil"
And
gamesh had a dream
in
which the Moon-god shewedsafely pass over the
him the way by which he might
;
;
1
66
THE MOUNTAIN OF THE SUNSET.Gilgamesh succeeded in crossing thefirst
mountcains.
mountain range whicli
barred his path, and he next
cameis
to a still greater
mountain named Mashu, that
to say, the
Mountain of the Sunset.:
The poem
continues as follows"
Then he cameTheportals;
to the
Mountainare
of
Mashu,daily
"
of
which
guarded
[by
monsters]" Their"
backs mount up to the rampart of heaven,
And
their fore parts reach
down beneathand
Arallu.
" Scorpion- men
guard the gate (of Mashu)it is
"They
strike terror [into men],
death to
behold them,
"Their sj^lendour
is
great, for it
overwhelms the
mountains
"From""
sunrise to sunset they guard the Sun.
Gilgamesh beheld them,his face
And "AndOne
grew dark with fear and
terror,
the wildness of their aspect robbed
him
of
his senses."
of the Scorpion-men then caught sight of Gil-
gamesh, and, turning to his wife, told her that the
body of the man they saw approaching resembled thatof a god.
His wife replied that Gilgamesh was partly
divine and partly human.told
The
Scorpion-man thenout on his long
her
how Gilgamesh had
set
journey in accordance with the will of the gods, and
he described the steep mountains which he had already
THE REGION OF THICK DARKNESS.crossed.1
67
Gilgamesb, seeing that the monster regardedfriendly eyes, recovered from his fright, andof the purpose of his journey, namely, to gohis
him withtoldto
him
Tsit-napishtim;
ancestor,
who
stood
inlife
the
assembly of the gods, and had the power overdeath.
and
The Scorpion-man replied by describing theand dangers which he would encounterif
difficulties
he persisted in his purpose of traversing the Mountainof
Mashu, adding that
for
twelve hasbu, that
is,
for a
space of twenty-four hours, he would have to
passdis-
through thick darkness.couraged.request,
But Gilgamesh was not
The Scorpion-man,
therefore, yielded to hislet
and opened the gate of the mountain and
him through.For twenty-four hours Gilgamesh marched onwards,"
and the darkness was thick and there was noat the
light."
But
end of
this long
and dreadful journey heand the
came out once morefirst
into the light of the sun,
thing he beheld was a beautiful and wonderful
tree.
The poem' describes the:
tree
in the following
words
" Precious s