The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations Part 25

BABYLONIA AND a.s.sYRIA.

"The Babylonians were from the first a nation of star gazers.... The cuneiform character which denotes a G.o.d is the picture of a star" (Sayce _op. cit._). "The Babylonian and a.s.syrian-name for Ursa Minor was Kakkabu; the Hebrew, Kokhabh; and the Euphratean, Kochab, which means, '_the_ star _present_,' a t.i.tle which reminds us of its former supreme importance as the pole-star.... In various Babylonian tablets we meet a star-G.o.d called Imina-bi=the seven-fold one."(91) Although Mr. Brown has reached no definite conclusion as to the ident.i.ty of this star-G.o.d, I venture to maintain that the original "seven-fold one" could have been no other than Ursa Major and that this and "the ever-present star" are identical with what the Chinese termed "the Imperial Ruler of Heaven" and the "Seven Regulators." The following pa.s.sages furnish ample evidence of the suggestive influence that "the seven-fold one" exerted upon the minds of the ancient Babylonian star-gazers.

"The inst.i.tution of the sabbath went back to the Sumerian days of Chaldea-the name itself is Babylonian" (Sayce, _op. cit._). "The seventh month (=Sept.-Oct.) in Akkadian is named Tul-ku=the holy altar.... The seventh month of Tasritutisri was also connected with the building of the tower of Babel, said to have been the special work of the 'King of the Holy Mound,' Sar-tuli-elli, and its erection placed in the seventh month at the autumnal equinox. It was a zikkuratu with seven steps, a circ.u.mstance connected with planetary [? stellar] symbolism. This style of building is reduplicated in the oldest Egyptian pyramids, _e. g._ the pyramid of Sakkarah, which had seven steps like the Babylonian towers.

This circ.u.mstance, one amongst many such, supplies a most interesting ill.u.s.tration of the fact that the Egyptian civilization was mainly Euphratean in origin" (Robert Brown, _op. cit._).

The following facts contained in Prof. Morris Jastrow's admirable hand book on the "Religion of Babylonia and a.s.syria," further establish the pervading influence of the number seven. "The two most famous zikkurats of seven stages were those in Babylon and Borsippa, opposite Babylon. The latter bears the significant name E-ur-imin-an-ki, _i. e._, 'the house of seven divisions of heaven and earth.' Two much older towers than those of Babylon and Borsippa bear names in which 'seven' is introduced. One of these is the zikkurat to Nin-girsu at Lagash, which Gudea describes as 'the house of seven divisions of the world,' the other the tower at Uruk, which bore the name 'house of seven zones.' The reference in both cases is, as Jensen has shown, to the seven concentric zones into which the earth was divided by the Babylonians."

In a standard German book of reference (Spamer's Ill.u.s.trierte Weltgeschichte I Theil, Alterthum, I Theil, s. 371), I find the statement that the zikkurat of the temple I-zidda at Borsippa, was called "the temple of the seven lights of heaven and earth," which seem to have been symbolized also by the seven-branched candlestick of the Hebrews.

Considering that other sacred symbols which were employed in Solomon's temple are believed by Professor Jastrow to be "imitations of Babylonian models," it seems justifiable to endeavor to trace to the same source the origin of the Hebrew "seven-branched candlestick," to which I shall revert later on. Prof. Morris Jastrow offers the suggestion that the name "seven directions of heaven and earth" may point to a conception of seven zones dividing the heavens as well as the earth, and states that the "seven divisions" and "seven zones" are merely terms equivalent to universe. He explains that the seven directions were interpreted by the Babylonian theologians as a reference to the seven great celestial bodies, the sun and moon, Ishtar, Marduk, Ninib, Nergal and Nabu. To each of these one story was supposed to be dedicated and the tower thus became a cosmological symbol. Moreover, from Herodotus' description of the seven concentric walls of Ecbatana, in which each wall was distinguished by a certain color, the conclusion has been drawn that the same colors-white, black, scarlet, blue, orange, silver and gold-were employed by the Babylonians for the stages of their towers.

Professor Jastrow draws attention to the fact that the division of the earth into seven zones is a "conception that we encounter in India and Persia, and that survives in the seven 'climates' into which the world was divided by Greek and Arabic geographers. It seems clear that this interpretation of the number seven is older than the one that identified each story with one of the planets. Both interpretations have a scholastic aspect, however, and the very fact that there are two interpretations justifies the suspicion that neither furnishes the _real_ explanation why the number seven was chosen ... it is because seven was popularly sacred that the world was divided into seven zones and that the planets were fixed at seven, not _vice versa_" (p. 620).

The preceding statements lead to the conclusion that, among a.s.syriologists there is no current, generally-accepted view as to the origin of the "sacred seven" of the Babylonians. The following details concerning the zikkurat and the sanctuaries of Babylon will be found to furnish evidence that their builders were imbued with the identical primitive set of ideas or seven-fold division of the cosmos that is now so familiar to the reader and is traceable to the observation of Polaris and Septentriones.

The astronomical a.s.sociation and cosmological symbolism of the zikkurat become more and more evident when all evidence concerning it is carefully sifted. According to the cosmogony of the Babylonians the earth was pictured as a huge mountain. Khar-sag-gal-kurkura=the mountain of all lands, is a designation for the earth. E-kur=mountain house, another name for the earth, became one of the names for temple and, by extension, for the sacred precinct which enclosed the zikkurat and sacred edifices.(92)

A plural formed of the word E-kur,=Ekurrati, was used for divinities, and this a.s.sociation of the word mountain with the name for a G.o.d is particularly interesting when it is also remembered that the cuneiform character for G.o.d is a star and that therefore either a mountain, or a star, signified a G.o.d in Babylonian and a.s.syrian inscriptions. Bel, the supreme star G.o.d of the Babylonians, whose name literally signifies merely "lord or king," and under the form Ah-baal became current throughout Asia Minor, was, as Professor Jastrow states (_op. cit._ p. 435), actually identified with the polar star, and sometimes addressed as the "great mountain."(93)

The famous temple, the E-kur of Babylonian history, is described by Herodotus, Strabo and other pagan authorities, as consisting of seven stories and being surmounted by a sanctuary which was under the charge of a virgin priestess and contained a couch (resting-place) for the G.o.d.(94) It is amply demonstrated, moreover, that the central zikkurat was regarded as the permanent resting and dwelling place of _the_ lord or G.o.d, par excellence, and in this connection it is significant that among the names of sanctuaries enumerated by Professor Jastrow there occur such as "the true or fixed house," the house of the established seat, the sacred dwelling, the permanent dwelling, etc.

The Babylonian ideas connected with the supreme G.o.d and his temple are, moreover, sufficiently apparent in the prayers to Marduk, from which I extract the following detached pa.s.sages: "Marduk, king of heaven and earth.... Look favorably upon the city, _O lord of rest_!... May the G.o.ds of heaven and earth speak to thee _O lord of rest_!... A resting-place for the lord of E-sagila is thy house, E-sagila, the house of thy sovereignty, is thy house...."

The sanctuary surmounting the zikkurat, is also termed "the high place par excellence, or the lofty house, the high edifice, the tower of the great dwelling, the great palace, the house of the glorious mountain [or G.o.d]

the house of him who gives the sceptre of the world; also the house of light, the house of great splendor, the house without rival, the gate of widespread splendor, the light of Shamash, the heart of Shamash, the life of the world."

The idea that the "mountain house" or "high place" was the consecrated centre where the union of heaven and earth took place, is apparent from the following names: "the house of heavenly construction, the heavenly house, the house reaching to heaven, the point of heaven and earth, the link of heaven and earth, the foundation stone of heaven and earth."

"Complementing," as Professor Jastrow says, "the cosmological a.s.sociations that have been noted in connection with the zikkurat," we find the inner room or sanctuary of the Babylonian and a.s.syrian temple named Papakhu, from the verb pakhu=to close. It was also known as the parakhu, from paraku=to shut off, to lock. "Gudea describes the papakhu as 'the dark chamber.' Professor Jastrow states that it was regarded as an imitation of a cosmical 'sacred chamber,' and from his book we learn that it was employed as an a.s.sembly room, or council chamber by the priesthood. It was indeed termed 'the a.s.sembly room' the 'place of fates,' 'the court of the world,' 'the house of oracle,' also as the 'sacred room where the G.o.ds a.s.sembled in solemn council' and 'the chamber of fates' where the chief G.o.d sits on New Year's day and decides the fate of mankind for the ensuing year" (Jastrow, _op. cit._ p. 423).

The Babylonian and a.s.syrian kings were the living representatives of the chief G.o.d and Professor Jastrow states that "it was into the papakhu that the priests retired when they desired to obtain an oracle direct from the G.o.d.... It is particularly interesting to collate the statements 'that the New Year's day was the occasion of a symbolical marriage between a G.o.d and G.o.ddess,' and that 'the New Year's festival came to be the season most appropriate for approaching the oracular chamber.' " It thus appears that the papakhu was the sacred and secret chamber where the ancient kings and their councillors united to confer upon the government of the nation and decreed the irrevocable laws which decided the fate of individuals.

"The 'decision of fates' is, in Babylonian theology, one of the chief functions of the G.o.ds. It const.i.tutes the mainspring of their power. To decide fates is to control the arrangement of the universe-to establish order." The "tablets of fate" are repeatedly mentioned in the a.s.syrian epics where it is described how one G.o.d addressing another, "gives him the tablets of fate, hangs them on his breast and dismisses him," with the words: "thy command be invincible, thy order authoritative" (Jastrow, pp.

420 and 424). It is evident that these words were supposed to convey the power to establish order and issue irrevocable laws.

The temple of Shamash (who, like Marduk, was evidently identical with Bel), situated in Babylon, was termed "the house of the universal judge,"

and it is extremely interesting to find this "G.o.d"(95) represented on a stone tablet found at Sippar, as seated on a low throne in the sanctuary or papakkhu, of the temple El-bab-bara, while in front of him on an altar rests what Professor Jastrow describes as "a wheel with radiant spokes."

A fine ill.u.s.tration of this tablet which bears an inscription by the king Nabupaliddin (879-855 B.C.) being published in Spamer's standard work already cited, I have been able to note the interesting fact that the "wheel with radiant spokes" exhibits four pointed rays, directed outwards and forming a cruciform figure, which, by the way, it is interesting to compare with the Mexican Calendar stone and its four rays. Each of the s.p.a.ces between these pointed rays is filled by a group of wavy lines which appears to simulate some fluid flowing from the centre, which is formed by a series of concentric circles. The quadruplicate peculiar part.i.tion of the disk a.s.sumes special importance when it is realized that, in the niche above the head of Shamash, a miniature production of the _disk recurs between the familiar conventional images of the moon and a disk containing eight rays or spokes_. According to Dr. Felix von Luschan (Mitth. aus der vorderasiat. Abth. der Kgl. Museen, Heft XI, p. 24), the inscription opens with the invocation to "ilu Sin, ilu Shamash u ilu Ishtar," a fact of double interest, because Ishtar is termed the "twin-sister of Shamash" in an a.s.syrian hymn, and because the inscription obviously identifies the moon as the symbol of Sin, the four-spoked wheel as that of Shamash and the eight-spoked wheel as that of Ishtar. As the king, in his inscriptions expressly states that he has restored on the tablet the image of Shamash according to an ancient model, for the guidance of future artists, it is evident that departures from the original cult of Shamash had taken place in his time and that he was making an attempt to reestablish it. The extreme antiquity of the cult of Shamash may, indeed, be inferred from the fact that about B.C. 1850, the king, Shamsi-ramann, bore the G.o.d's name as a divine t.i.tle. About B.C. 1350, moreover, a temple was built to Shamash in Ashur.

I shall treat, further on, of the evidences showing that the cult of Polaris gradually became a secret one known to the initiated only, while popular wors.h.i.+p was directed to the sun, moon, and morning and evening stars, etc. Meanwhile the following pa.s.sages from Professor Jastrow's hand-book will elucidate the Babylonian a.s.syrian cult of the Four Quarters.

"The zikkurat was quadrangular in shape. The orientation of the four corners towards the four cardinal points was approximate. Inasmuch as the rulers of Babylon from a very early period call themselves 'king of the four regions,' it has been supposed that the quadrangular shape was chosen designedly."... "The t.i.tle 'king of the four regions' was an old one that pertained to the kings of Agade.... The city of Arbela, at one time the seat of the cult of Ishtar, was named 'the four-G.o.d city.' " This name is particularly interesting when it is remembered that the Babylonian and a.s.syrian word for G.o.d and mountain was identical and that this ident.i.ty may account for the Chinese employment of the term "four mountains," to express also the four provinces and their chiefs. Professor Jastrow informs us, in a note, that the name Arbela is, more precisely, Arba-ilu, signifying "city of the four-fold divinity" or "four-G.o.d" city and invites comparison to the Palestinian form Kiryath-arba, "four-city." He suggests that this name may perhaps likewise signify a city of four G.o.ds, but adds that it has commonly been explained as meaning four roads or four quarters (_op. cit._ 203).

The ancient pagan authorities inform us that the ancient city of Babylon was laid out in the form of a perfect square, the sides of which were oriented to the cardinal points. A ma.s.sive wall enclosed the entire city and the river Euphrates divided it into halves, united by a bridge, each half being again subdivided by the main street leading to the bridge. A series of streets ran parallel to the river through the city and were crossed at right angles by others, the result being that 625 blocks or squares of building were thus formed.

There is positive evidence that the capital city of Lagash or s.h.i.+r-pur-la was divided into four sections, the separate names of which were Girsu, Uru-alaga, Nina and Gish-Galla or Erim, the reading of the latter name being doubtful. The circ.u.mstance that each of these quarters had its "divinity" and was ruled by its earthly representative, explains the term "four-G.o.d city" or "four city" found a.s.sociated with other capitals of Babylonia.

The existence of a central ruler who exercised supreme authority over the four quarters of the capital, and by extension over the "four provinces"

is amply proven by the t.i.tle of the Babylonian kings, _i. e._, the "king of the four regions." An interesting oracle, addressed to king Esar-Haddon is found to contain the statement that "Ashur has given him the four ends of the earth" (Jastrow, _op. cit._ 345).

Evidence that while the capital and entire state consisted of four quarters, the whole was also divided theoretically and practically into halves, is furnished by the significant fact that, from remote antiquity, the rulers of Babylonia also bore the t.i.tle of "lord of Akkad and Sumer"=North and South, this term being, like that of "Four Regions," a general designation for the whole of Babylonia and the first being obviously a.n.a.logous to the Egyptian royal t.i.tle: "King of upper and lower Egypt."

I can but briefly indicate here some facts which prove that this ancient Babylonian centre of civilization underwent precisely the same evolution as that I have traced in America and India.

a.s.syriologists agree in stating that, at the beginning of Babylonian history, about 4,000 B.C., Akkad and Sumer, or North and South Babylonia, already existed and were inhabited by two distinct races of people: the non-Semitic Sumerians and the Semitic Akkadians or later Babylonians. In later times we find the region embraced by the Euphrates and Tigris inhabited by descendants of both races and forming the Babylonian empire in the south, the a.s.syrian empire to the northeast, while in the northwestern part of Mesopotamia, was the seat of various empires that were alternately the rivals and subjects of either Babylonia or a.s.syria (Jastrow, _op. cit._ 26).

Three distinct and rival cults are indeed found a.s.sociated with these three centres of government, and when examined by the light of our knowledge of a parallel process of evolution elsewhere, their origin can be traced back to elementary pole-star heaven and earth wors.h.i.+p, and what is termed the establishment of the districts of Anu, Bel and Ea. That at one period these separate cults peacefully existed alongside of each other is indicated by the joint wors.h.i.+p of pairs and triads of divinities who were personifications of central powers, of the upper and of the lower regions. In order to demonstrate this statement I shall briefly cite some references to such divinities from Professor Jastrow's hand-book, taking them in the order in which they are enumerated in the famous Babylonian version of the creation of the world, contained in the fragment known as the "Creation epic" which begins thus:

"There was a time where Above, the heaven, was not named. Below, the earth, bore no name. Apsu was there from the first, the source of both (_i. e._, heaven and earth). And raging Tiamat, the mother of both (_i.

e._, heaven and earth)." Apsu and Tiamat are synonymous and are personifications of the watery deep or abyss. "Apsu represents the male and Tiamat the female principle of the primaeval universe ... the embrace of Apsu and Tiamat became a symbol of 's.e.xual' union."

Tiamat was popularly pictured as a huge serpent-like monster, a fact of utmost interest when connected with the name Nakkash, _i. e._, crooked serpent, bestowed upon the constellation Draconis which contained the pole-star of 2170 B.C. Abstaining from comment I merely establish here the interesting point that in ancient Babylonia the serpent is found distinctly a.s.sociated with Polaris as well as with the dual creative principle. The divine pairs Lakhmu and Lakhamu and Anshar and Kishar were then created. By an arbitrary division of his name into An and shar, the deity becomes the "one that embraces all that is above." The element An is the same that we have in Anu and is the ideographic form for "high" and "heaven." Ki is the ideographic form for earth and the natural consort to an all-embracing upper power is a power that "embraces all that is below."

It is interesting thus to ascertain that on another tablet by the side of these personifications of heaven and earth are enumerated a series of names which certainly appear to be merely variations on the names or t.i.tles of the divine pairs. Lakhumu and Lakhamu occur on the list, and Anshar and Kishar recur as Anshar-gal, "great totality of what is on high," and Kishar-gal, "great totality of what is below." Then there are En-shar and Nin-shar, "lord and mistress" and a "Father-Mother of Anu,"

t.i.tles which furnish an interesting comparison with the list printed on page 42 of this investigation.

Pagan authorities, cited by Professor Jastrow, relate that the first result of the union of Apsu and Tiamat was the production of "strange monsters, human beings with wings, beings with two heads, male and female, hybrid formations, half man, half animal, with horns of rams and horses'

hoofs, bulls with human faces, dogs with four-fold bodies ending in fish tails." Seen in the light of the present investigation these accounts and the sculptured images of such monstrosities, many of which have been preserved to the present day, may be accounted for in a very simple and natural manner. It is obvious that, once the Babylonian theologians had definitely adopted the theory and creed that the universe had been created by the union of the Above and Below, Male and Female principle, Heaven and Earth, or Upper and Lower Firmament, the production of allegorical images personifying or symbolizing this union would inevitably follow in course of time. The somewhat nave but expressive combination of the form of a quadruped or serpent with that of a bird, and the adoption of winged bulls, lions and serpents, would have seemed a most appropriate rendering of the current idea of the dual, creative power, which might also be conveyed by two heads, or two horns. From Professor Jastrow's description of the case of a single monster, with four bodies and with attributes of the elements earth and water, we learn that not only the union of heaven and earth but also of earth and water was at times the task imposed upon the native artists by the fancy and imagination of minds dwelling upon the subject of the creative first cause. Postponing further discussion of the Babylonian and a.s.syrian symbolism of the Middle, Above and Below and Four Quarters or the "seven directions of Heaven and Earth," I shall now direct attention to the most famous triad of Babylonian cosmology which figures at the end of the Creation epic. It consisted of Anu, Ea and Bel(96) and obviously personified the Above and Below and the link or central meeting place of these, the earth named Esharra, "the house of fertility" or E-kur "the mountain house." We learn from Professor Jastrow's handbook that whereas Bel=the polar star (the secret G.o.d) and Nibir=the planet Jupiter (the later popular personification of Bel) were a.s.sociated with the North, Ea was identified with the South (p. 435). Elsewhere we are told that Anu was identified with the North, Bel with the equator and Ea with the South (p. 460), a fact to which I shall again recur in treating of the territorial divisions of the state, which corresponded to the three divisions of the universe, the Above, Middle and Below.

The following detached statements concerning Babylonian divinities drawn from Professor Jastrow's handbook, show with what activity the fundamental set of ideas was developed by the native theologians and philosophers.

Bel-arduk became the chief G.o.d of Babylon, the t.i.tle "Belu-rabu" _i. e._, "great lord," becoming identified with Marduk. As such he is termed "the king of heaven and earth" and the "lord of the four regions." His dwelling was on the sacred "mountain-house," the zikkurat, and is represented "with a crown with high horns, a symbol of dual rulers.h.i.+p. As the supreme ruler, life and death are in his hands and he guides the decrees of the deities of the Above and Below." "The first part of the name Marduk is also used to designate the 'young bullock,' and it is possible that the G.o.d was pictured in this way." It should be remembered here, however, that on page 89 Professor Jastrow tells us how Nannar=the one who furnishes light=the moon, was invoked as "the powerful bull of Anu," _i. e._, heaven. In this connection it is interesting to learn that in Canaan, Astarte, the G.o.ddess of night, was also wors.h.i.+pped under the form of a cow, and that in Phnicia she was sometimes figured with horns, symbolizing the moon. In a.s.syria, four horns, denoting four-fold rulers.h.i.+p, usually encircle the high conical cap of sovereignty, which also crowns the human heads of the winged bulls. It may be permissible to point out here what an appropriate and expressive embodiment of symbolism the winged bull appears to be; the form of the quadruped, combined with wings, clearly symbolizes a union of the Above and Below; the control over both being expressed by the human head which completes the allegorical figure. The high cap, with which the head was crowned, exhibits the form of a mound, and combined or partly encircled by two or sometimes four horns, obviously symbolizes dual or quadruple rulers.h.i.+p. It thus appears evident that the winged bull of a.s.syria expressed, almost as clearly as the seven-staged towers of Babylon, the "seven directions of heaven and earth," and was as appropriate an allegorical image of a.s.sur the G.o.d, as of a.s.sur the state, and of the royal power which conferred upon the supreme lords of Babylonia and a.s.syria the t.i.tles: "lord of the holy mound," "lord of Akkad and Sumer," and "lord of the four regions."

The idea that some of the a.s.syrian kings actually embodied seven-fold power, or ruled the "seven divisions," is further conveyed by curious groups of seven symbols, accompanied by the numeral seven, expressed by seven dots, which occur above their portraits on tablets which will be described further on. Whilst a.n.a.lyzing the royal t.i.tles and insignia represented on the stelae of a.s.syrian kings, I shall likewise show how these complete the foregoing evidence and indicate that in Babylonia and a.s.syria, the seven-fold division was applied not only to the Cosmos, but to the territory of the State, to its social organization, to its calendar; and that the seven-storied zikkurat, the winged bulls, etc., and indeed, the seven-branched candlestick, were apparently designed as expressive of the general seven-fold scheme of organization.

Let us now examine some data which shed light upon the various and curious phases of evolution undergone by the growing and diverging cults of Heaven and Earth in Babylonia and a.s.syria. Going back to the dawn of astronomy in Babylonia let us note some facts which show that, as elsewhere, in remotest antiquity the periodical disappearance and reappearance of the Pleiades produced a deep impression upon the primitive star-gazers. These phenomena marked natural divisions of the year and the constellation appeared to belong alternately to the visible or upper world and to the invisible or lower region. A recognition that the Pleaid was _the_ constellation at that remote period when Taurus led the year, may be established by the common Euphratean name by which it is said to have been designated: Kakkab-mul=_the_ constellation or star. The Akkadian and a.s.syrian names which had probably also originally designated Polaris signified that it and the Hyades were the foundation stars or constellations. In the Ptolemy star charts, the Pleiades are designated by the name Ki mah (see Robert Brown, _op. cit._ p. 57). While it appears that whereas the Pleiades long exerted its influence and, with Polaris and the circ.u.mpolar constellations, regulated and marked the primitive year, its cult was gradually superseded by that of morning and evening stars and of the sun and moon which became the emblems of the rapidly developing divergent cults of the diurnal and nocturnal heavens, of light and darkness, of the Above and Below.(97)

In connection with the cult of the Pleiades I draw attention to R. G.

Haliburton's interesting investigations on this particular subject, and to his publication in the Proceedings of the A. A. A. S. 1895, on "Dwarf survivals and traditions as to pigmy races," which contains the following statements: "We find that the Atlas dwarfs and the Nanos predict the future by watching the reflection of the 'Seven Stars' in a bowl. The famous cup of Nestor, supposed to have been a divining cup, had two groups of Pleiades on its handle...." On examining the archaic designs engraved in the centre of the fine collection of Phnician and a.s.syrian bronze bowls, which were found in the S. E. Palace, Nimroud, and are exhibited at the British Museum, I recently ascertained that they appear to be mostly variations on the theme of the centre and four or seven-fold division, some exhibiting a marked quadruplicate division, others a seven-pointed star surrounded by seven smaller stars. In one case a face is repeated four times, in opposite positions, on the central design which is surrounded by four large and four lesser conventionally drawn mountains.

The head-dress with lappets which encloses each face recalls the familiar Egyptian form, and on two bowls images of scarabs are engraved. On one of these the beetle is drawn in such a way that its four legs, two of which turn upwards and two downwards, suggest the form of a swastika.

The peculiarities of these designs and the knowledge that star-wors.h.i.+p prevailed in a.s.syria and Phnicia suggest the inference that the Nimroud Palace bowls were employed for the observation of the positions of certain stars which marked the seasons and regulated the calendar, by means of which the priest-kings controlled the working of the system of state.

Doubtlessly the constellations originally and princ.i.p.ally observed besides Polaris were the three great "seven-fold ones," _i. e._ the Ursa Major which marked the Four Quarters; the Pleiades which pertained to the Above and Below and marked the division of the year into halves, and Orion which also may well have appeared to be a composite image of the sacred, equal Four, and the central triad composed of the Above, Middle and Below.

It is interesting to note that in the Euphratean and other myths the antagonism between sun and moon, etc., coincides with traditions of actual warfare between their earthly representatives and that it is the record of a combat between the followers of light and of darkness that seems to have been thus preserved. The Babylonian Creation epic teaches us that, in remotest antiquity, the a.s.sociation of light and life with the male, and darkness and death with the female principle had become current. A mighty war takes place between the female serpent Tiamat, a.s.sociated with evil, and the male G.o.d Marduk, the champion of the G.o.ds of the upper realm, which ends in her overthrow. It was then that Marduk "established the districts or cities of Anu, Bel and Ea," identified with the North, Middle and South. It is remarkable that this mythical establishment of three cities exactly coincides with the conclusions reached by recent investigators as to the existence during centuries, of three rival states, _i. e._ Babylonia in the south and a.s.syria in the northeast, who, during centuries, were in continual warfare with each other and with a third disintegrated power inhabiting the northwest which was alternately rival or va.s.sal. This condition of affairs, and the facts enumerated in Professor Jastrow's handbook, chapter II, are precisely what would naturally develop from the formation and adoption of three distinct cults and their ultimate separate establishment in as many centres of government. The following data will suffice to reveal some of the curious results obtained by the logical working out of certain a.s.sociations of ideas and these results are the more interesting and intelligible because they are a.n.a.logous to those I have traced elsewhere.

One point deserves special note: directly opposite views, not only as to the relative supremacy of the Middle, Above and Below, but also as to the relation of the s.e.xes to the upper and lower worlds, seem to have been held at different times and in different places; and this particular division of opinion appears to have given rise to endless dissension, strife and warfare, to the separation of sectarians from the main state and the foundation of numberless minor centres of government on the old plan, but with fresh forms of cult embodying a new artificial combination of ideas.

The s.h.i.+fting of supremacy from one "G.o.d" to another explains moreover the transference of the t.i.tle "Bel"=Lord, or Chief of G.o.ds, from the personification of one region to another. "In remotest antiquity we find En-lil designated as the 'lord of the lower world' and bearing the t.i.tle Bel. En-lil represents the unification of the various forces whose seat or sphere of action is among the inhabited parts of the globe, both on the surface and beneath, for the term 'lower world' is here used in contrast to the upper or heavenly world.... As 'lord of the lower world,' En-lil is contrasted to a G.o.d, Anu, who presides over heavenly bodies. The age of Sargon (3800 B.C.), in whose inscriptions En-lil already occurs, is one of considerable culture and there can, therefore, be no objection against the a.s.sumption that at this early period a theological system should have been evolved which gave rise to beliefs in great powers whose dominion embraces the 'upper' and 'lower' worlds" (Jastrow, _op. cit._ pp. 52-55).

A consort, Nin-lil, a "mistress of the lower world," was a.s.signed to En-lil and was known also as Belit, the feminine form of Bel, _i. e._ the lady _par excellence_. She too had her temple at Nippur, the age of which goes back, at least, to the first dynasty of Ur. She was also known as Nin-khar-sag, the "lady of the high or great mountain," as the "mother of the G.o.ds." The a.s.signment by Sargon, of the northern gates of his palace to Bel, who lays foundations, and Belit, who brings fertility, affords evidence that the G.o.ddess was the feminine form of Polaris. In a.s.syria, Belit appears, either as the wife of Bel, as the consort of Ashur, as the consort of Ea, or simply as a designation for Ishtar, _i. e._ "the G.o.ddess," the "mistress of countries, or of mountains," in which connection it is interesting to note that the ideographs for country and mountain are identical in a.s.syrian.

If the attributes of the G.o.ddesses of the Babylonian and a.s.syrian pantheon be carefully examined, they will be found to a.s.sociate the female principle with fertility, abundance and with water, the source of plant life. Two divergent views appear to have influenced the artificial formation of personifications of the female principle in nature. According to one the G.o.ddess is termed the "lady of the deep, the mistress of the place where the fish dwell" (Sarpanitam-erua) and in other cases is linked to the lower firmament to subterraneous regions, to darkness, death, destructiveness and hence to evil, thus representing the complement to the male personification of the upper realm of daylight and the preservative and beneficent life-giving principles. The other tendency, which almost appears as a reaction or protest against the previous view, led to the ultimate adoption of an ideal G.o.ddess of the nocturnal heaven, who was "bountiful, offspring-producing, silvery bright" and was in one instance addressed as "the lady of s.h.i.+ning waters," of "purification" and of "incantations." In the period of Hammurabi, devotion went so far as to cause the G.o.ddess Gula, termed the "bride of the earth," to be invoked as the "creator of mankind," the "great physician" and "life-giver" and "the one who leads the dead to a new life" (Jastrow, _op. cit._ p. 175).

As an interesting outcome of an adjustment of both trains of thought stands Ishtar-Belit=the lady _par excellence_ and consequently, the feminine personification of Polaris, the supreme G.o.ddess whom Tiglath-pileser termed "the first among the G.o.ds." She is the mild and gracious mother of creation, "loves the king and his priesthood," but is also the mighty commanding G.o.ddess of war who clothes herself in fiery flame, appears as a violent destroyer and sends down streams of fire upon her enemies. "The distinguis.h.i.+ng position of both the Babylonian and a.s.syrian Ishtar is her independent position. Though at times brought into close contact with Ashur she is not regarded as the mere consort to any G.o.d-no mere reflection of a male deity, but ruling in her own right on a perfect par with the great G.o.ds of the pantheon. She is coequal in rank and splendor with Ashur. Her name becomes synonymous for G.o.ddess as Marduk becomes the synonym for G.o.d. The female deities, both foreign and native, came to be regarded as so many forms of Ishtar."

A curious fact connected with Ishtar, which proves that she had developed from an original divinity, conceived as dual or bi-s.e.xual, is that among Semites Ishtar appears both as a male and female deity. This seems to show that at a certain stage of thought Ishtar was also a centralization of attributes, a fact which undoubtedly explains the supreme position accorded to this divinity at one time as the feminine form of Polaris. The most striking ill.u.s.tration of this supremacy is furnished by the famous bas-relief figured by Layard ("Ninive and its remains" I, 238), which represents Ishtar, the mother-G.o.ddess, the female form of a.s.sur, as seated on a throne which is borne on the back of a lion in the procession formed by the seven chief divinities of the a.s.syrian pantheon, six of whom are figured as bearded men standing on different animals. On the fine stela of Esarhaddon, discovered by Dr. von Luschan at Sendschirli, the G.o.ddess, accompanied in this case by three standing G.o.ds, is likewise represented as seated on a throne holding a large ring or circle in her left hand.

The fact that the "All-mother, the female creator of mankind," is represented as the only occupant of the throne, reveals a distinct phase in the evolution of the Babylonian state religion, which curiously concurs with the supremacy of female sovereignty at Babylon, at the period of its greatest power under Semiramis. It may be safely a.s.sumed that it was at this time, when the queen represented the G.o.ddess, that the cult of the female principle of nature reached its highest development.