Myths of Babylonia and Assyria Part 4

As has been indicated, a mythological system must have been strongly influenced by city politics. To hold a community in sway, it was necessary to recognize officially the various G.o.ds wors.h.i.+pped by different sections, so as to secure the constant allegiance of all cla.s.ses to their rulers. Alien deities were therefore a.s.sociated with local and tribal deities, those of the nomads with those of the agriculturists, those of the unlettered folks with those of the learned people. Reference has been made to the introduction of strange deities by conquerors. But these were not always imposed upon a community by violent means. Indications are not awanting that the wors.h.i.+ppers of alien G.o.ds were sometimes welcomed and encouraged to settle in certain states. When they came as military allies to a.s.sist a city folk against a fierce enemy, they were naturally much admired and praised, honoured by the women and the bards, and rewarded by the rulers.

In the epic of Gilgamesh, the Babylonian Hercules, we meet with Ea-bani, a Goliath of the wilds, who is entreated to come to the aid of the besieged city of Erech when it seemed that its deities were unable to help the people against their enemies.

The G.o.ds of walled-round Erech To flies had turned and buzzed in the streets; The winged bulls of walled-round Erech Were turned to mice and departed through the holes.

Ea-bani was attracted to Erech by the gift of a fair woman for wife.

The poet who lauded him no doubt mirrored public opinion. We can see the slim, shaven Sumerians gazing with wonder and admiration on their rough heroic ally.

All his body was covered with hair, His locks were like a woman's, Thick as corn grew his abundant hair.

He was a stranger to the people and in that land.

Clad in a garment like Gira, the G.o.d, He had eaten gra.s.s with the gazelles, He had drunk water with savage beasts.

His delight was to be among water dwellers.

Like the giant Alban, the eponymous ancestor of a people who invaded prehistoric Britain, Ea-bani appears to have represented in Babylonian folk legends a certain type of foreign settlers in the land. No doubt the city dwellers, who were impressed by the prowess of the hairy and powerful warriors, were also ready to acknowledge the greatness of their war G.o.ds, and to admit them into the pantheon. The fusion of beliefs which followed must have stimulated thought and been productive of speculative ideas. "Nowhere", remarks Professor Jastrow, "does a high form of culture arise without the commingling of diverse ethnic elements."

We must also take into account the influence exercised by leaders of thought like En-we-dur-an-ki, the famous high priest of Sippar, whose piety did much to increase the reputation of the cult of Shamesh, the sun G.o.d. The teachings and example of Buddha, for instance, revolutionized Brahmanic religion in India.

A mythology was an attempt to solve the riddle of the Universe, and to adjust the relations of mankind with the various forces represented by the deities. The priests systematized existing folk beliefs and established an official religion. To secure the prosperity of the State, it was considered necessary to render homage unto whom homage was due at various seasons and under various circ.u.mstances.

The religious att.i.tude of a particular community, therefore, must have been largely dependent on its needs and experiences. The food supply was a first consideration. At Eridu, as we have seen, it was a.s.sured by devotion to Ea and obedience to his commands as an instructor.

Elsewhere it might happen, however, that Ea's gifts were restricted or withheld by an obstructing force--the raging storm G.o.d, or the parching, pestilence-bringing deity of the sun. It was necessary, therefore, for the people to win the favour of the G.o.d or G.o.ddess who seemed most powerful, and was accordingly considered to be the greatest in a particular district. A rain G.o.d presided over the destinies of one community, and a G.o.d of disease and death over another; a third exalted the war G.o.d, no doubt because raids were frequent and the city owed its strength and prosperity to its battles and conquests. The reputation won by a particular G.o.d throughout Babylonia would depend greatly on the achievements of his wors.h.i.+ppers and the progress of the city civilization over which he presided.

Bel-Enlil's fame as a war deity was probably due to the political supremacy of his city of Nippur; and there was probably good reason for attributing to the sun G.o.d a p.r.o.nounced administrative and legal character; he may have controlled the destinies of exceedingly well organized communities in which law and order and authority were held in high esteem.

In accounting for the rise of distinctive and rival city deities, we should also consider the influence of divergent conceptions regarding the origin of life in mingled communities. Each foreign element in a community had its own intellectual life and immemorial tribal traditions, which reflected ancient habits of life and perpetuated the doctrines of eponymous ancestors. Among the agricultural cla.s.ses, the folk religion which entered so intimately into their customs and labours must have remained essentially Babylonish in character. In cities, however, where official religions were formulated, foreign ideas were more apt to be imposed, especially when embraced by influential teachers. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that in Babylonia, as in Egypt, there were differences of opinion regarding the origin of life and the particular natural element which represented the vital principle.

One section of the people, who were represented by the wors.h.i.+ppers of Ea, appear to have believed that the essence of life was contained in water. The G.o.d of Eridu was the source of the "water of life". He fertilized parched and sunburnt wastes through rivers and irrigating ca.n.a.ls, and conferred upon man the sustaining "food of life". When life came to an end--

Food of death will be offered thee...

Water of death will be offered thee...

Offerings of water and food were made to the dead so that the ghosts might be nourished and prevented from troubling the living. Even the G.o.ds required water and food; they were immortal because they had drunk ambrosia and eaten from the plant of life. When the G.o.ddess Ishtar was in the Underworld, the land of the dead, the servant of Ea exclaimed--

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

The G.o.ddess of the dead commanded her servant to "sprinkle the lady Ishtar with the water of life and bid her depart". The sacred water might also be found at a confluence of rivers. Ea bade his son, Merodach, to "draw water from the mouth of two streams", and "on this water to put his pure spell".

The wors.h.i.+p of rivers and wells which prevailed in many countries was connected with the belief that the principle of life was in moisture.

In India, water was vitalized by the intoxicating juice of the Soma plant, which inspired priests to utter prophecies and filled their hearts with religious fervour. Drinking customs had originally a religious significance. It was believed in India that the sap of plants was influenced by the moon, the source of vitalizing moisture and the hiding-place of the mead of the G.o.ds. The Teutonic G.o.ds also drank this mead, and poets were inspired by it. Similar beliefs obtained among various peoples. Moon and water wors.h.i.+p were therefore closely a.s.sociated; the blood of animals and the sap of plants were vitalized by the water of life and under control of the moon.

The body moisture of G.o.ds and demons had vitalizing properties. When the Indian creator, Praj.a.pati, wept at the beginning, "that (the tears) which fell into the water became the air. That which he wiped away, upwards, became the sky."[50] The ancient Egyptians believed that all men were born from the eyes of Horus except negroes, who came from other parts of his body.[51] The creative tears of Ra, the sun G.o.d, fell as s.h.i.+ning rays upon the earth. When this G.o.d grew old saliva dripped from his mouth, and Isis mixed the vitalizing moisture with dust, and thus made the serpent which bit and paralysed the great solar deity.[52]

Other Egyptian deities, including Osiris and Isis, wept creative tears. Those which fell from the eyes of the evil G.o.ds produced poisonous plants and various baneful animals. Orion, the Greek giant, sprang from the body moisture of deities. The weeping ceremonies in connection with agricultural rites were no doubt believed to be of magical potency; they encouraged the G.o.d to weep creative tears.

Ea, the G.o.d of the deep, was also "lord of life" (Enti), "king of the river" (Lugal-ida), and G.o.d of creation (Nudimmud). His aid was invoked by means of magical formulae. As the "great magician of the G.o.ds" he uttered charms himself, and was the patron of all magicians.

One spell runs as follows:

I am the sorcerer priest of Ea...

To revive the ... sick man The great lord Ea hath sent me; He hath added his pure spell to mine, He hath added his pure voice to mine, He hath added his pure spittle to mine.

_R.C. Thompson's Translation._

Saliva, like tears, had creative and therefore curative qualities; it also expelled and injured demons and brought good luck. Spitting ceremonies are referred to in the religious literature of Ancient Egypt. When the Eye of Ra was blinded by Set, Thoth spat in it to restore vision. The sun G.o.d Tum, who was linked with Ra as Ra-Tum, spat on the ground, and his saliva became the G.o.ds Shu and Tefnut. In the Underworld the devil serpent Apep was spat upon to curse it, as was also its waxen image which the priests fas.h.i.+oned.[53]

Several African tribes spit to make compacts, declare friends.h.i.+p, and to curse.

Park, the explorer, refers in his _Travels_ to his carriers spitting on a flat stone to ensure a good journey. Arabian holy men and descendants of Mohammed spit to cure diseases. Mohammed spat in the mouth of his grandson Hasen soon after birth. Theocritus, Sophocles, and Plutarch testify to the ancient Grecian customs of spitting to cure and to curse, and also to bless when children were named. Pliny has expressed belief in the efficacy of the fasting spittle for curing disease, and referred to the custom of spitting to avert witchcraft.

In England, Scotland, and Ireland spitting customs are not yet obsolete. North of England boys used to talk of "spitting their sauls"

(souls). When the Newcastle colliers held their earliest strikes they made compacts by spitting on a stone. There are still "spitting stones" in the north of Scotland. When bargains are made in rural districts, hands are spat upon before they are shaken. The first money taken each day by fishwives and other dealers is spat upon to ensure increased drawings. Brand, who refers to various spitting customs, quotes _Scot's Discovery of Witchcraft_ regarding the saliva cure for king's evil, which is still, by the way, practised in the Hebrides.

Like Pliny, Scot recommended ceremonial spitting as a charm against witchcraft.[54] In China spitting to expel demons is a common practice. We still call a hasty person a "spitfire", and a calumniator a "spit-poison".

The life principle in trees, &c., as we have seen, was believed to have been derived from the tears of deities. In India sap was called the "blood of trees", and references to "bleeding trees" are still widespread and common. "Among the ancients", wrote Professor Robertson Smith, "blood is generally conceived as the principle or vehicle of life, and so the account often given of sacred waters is that the blood of the deity flows in them. Thus as Milton writes:

Smooth Adonis from his native rock Ran purple to the sea, supposed with blood Of Thammuz yearly wounded.

_Paradise Lost_, i, 450.

The ruddy colour which the swollen river derived from the soil at a certain season was ascribed to the blood of the G.o.d, who received his death wound in Lebanon at that time of the year, and lay buried beside the sacred source."[55]

In Babylonia the river was regarded as the source of the life blood and the seat of the soul. No doubt this theory was based on the fact that the human liver contains about a sixth of the blood in the body, the largest proportion required by any single organ. Jeremiah makes "Mother Jerusalem" exclaim: "My liver is poured upon the earth for the destruction of the daughter of my people", meaning that her life is spent with grief.

Inspiration was derived by drinking blood as well as by drinking intoxicating liquors--the mead of the G.o.ds. Indian magicians who drink the blood of the goat sacrificed to the G.o.ddess Kali, are believed to be temporarily possessed by her spirit, and thus enabled to prophesy.[56] Malayan exorcists still expel demons while they suck the blood from a decapitated fowl.[57]

Similar customs were prevalent in Ancient Greece. A woman who drank the blood of a sacrificed lamb or bull uttered prophetic sayings.[58]

But while most Babylonians appear to have believed that the life principle was in blood, some were apparently of opinion that it was in breath--the air of life. A man died when he ceased to breathe; his spirit, therefore, it was argued, was identical with the atmosphere--the moving wind--and was accordingly derived from the atmospheric or wind G.o.d. When, in the Gilgamesh epic, the hero invokes the dead Ea-bani, the ghost rises up like a "breath of wind". A Babylonian charm runs:

The G.o.ds which seize on men Came forth from the grave; The evil wind gusts Have come forth from the grave, To demand payment of rites and the pouring out of libations They have come forth from the grave; All that is evil in their hosts, like a whirlwind, Hath come forth from the grave.[59]

The Hebrew "nephesh ruach" and "neshamah" (in Arabic "ruh" and "nefs") pa.s.s from meaning "breath" to "spirit".[60] In Egypt the G.o.d Khnumu was "Kneph" in his character as an atmospheric deity. The ascendancy of storm and wind G.o.ds in some Babylonian cities may have been due to the belief that they were the source of the "air of life". It is possible that this conception was popularized by the Semites.

Inspiration was perhaps derived from these deities by burning incense, which, if we follow evidence obtained elsewhere, induced a prophetic trance. The G.o.ds were also invoked by incense. In the Flood legend the Babylonian Noah burned incense. "The G.o.ds smelled a sweet savour and gathered like flies over the sacrificer." In Egypt devotees who inhaled the breath of the Apis bull were enabled to prophesy.

In addition to water and atmospheric deities Babylonia had also its fire G.o.ds, Girru, Gish Bar, Gibil, and Nusku. Their origin is obscure.

It is doubtful if their wors.h.i.+ppers, like those of the Indian Agni, believed that fire, the "vital spark", was the principle of life which was manifested by bodily heat. The Aryan fire wors.h.i.+ppers cremated their dead so that the spirits might be transferred by fire to Paradise. This practice, however, did not obtain among the fire wors.h.i.+ppers of Persia, nor, as was once believed, in Sumer or Akkad either. Fire was, however, used in Babylonia for magical purposes. It destroyed demons, and put to flight the spirits of disease. Possibly the fire-purification ceremonies resembled those which were practised by the Canaanites, and are referred to in the Bible. Ahaz "made his son to pa.s.s through the fire, according to the abominations of the heathen".[61] Ezekiel declared that "when ye offer your gifts, when ye make your sons to pa.s.s through the fire, ye pollute yourselves with all your idols".[62] In _Leviticus_ it is laid down: "Thou shalt not let any of thy seed pa.s.s through the fire to Moloch".[63] It may be that in Babylonia the fire-cleansing ceremony resembled that which obtained at Beltane (May Day) in Scotland, Germany, and other countries. Human sacrifices might also have been offered up as burnt offerings. Abraham, who came from the Sumerian city of Ur, was prepared to sacrifice Isaac, Sarah's first-born. The fire G.o.ds of Babylonia never achieved the ascendancy of the Indian Agni; they appear to have resembled him mainly in so far as he was connected with the sun. Nusku, like Agni, was also the "messenger of the G.o.ds". When Merodach or Babylon was exalted as chief G.o.d of the pantheon his messages were carried to Ea by Nusku. He may have therefore symbolized the sun rays, for Merodach had solar attributes. It is possible that the belief obtained among even the water wors.h.i.+ppers of Eridu that the sun and moon, which rose from the primordial deep, had their origin in the everlasting fire in Ea's domain at the bottom of the sea. In the Indian G.o.d Varuna's ocean home an "Asura fire" (demon fire) burned constantly; it was "bound and confined", but could not be extinguished. Fed by water, this fire, it was believed, would burst forth at the last day and consume the universe.[64] A similar belief can be traced in Teutonic mythology. The Babylonian incantation cult appealed to many G.o.ds, but "the most important share in the rites", says Jastrow, "are taken by fire and water--suggesting, therefore, that the G.o.d of water--more particularly Ea--and the G.o.d of fire ...

are the chief deities on which the ritual itself hinges". In some temples there was a _bit rimki_, a "house of was.h.i.+ng", and a _bit nuri_, a "house of light".[65]

It is possible, of course, that fire was regarded as the vital principle by some city cults, which were influenced by imported ideas.

If so, the belief never became prevalent. The most enduring influence in Babylonian religion was the early Sumerian; and as Sumerian modes of thought were the outcome of habits of life necessitated by the character of the country, they were bound, sooner or later, to leave a deep impress on the minds of foreign peoples who settled in the Garden of Western Asia. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that imported deities a.s.sumed Babylonian characteristics, and were identified or a.s.sociated with Babylonian G.o.ds in the later imperial pantheon.

Moon wors.h.i.+p appears to have been as ancient as water wors.h.i.+p, with which, as we have seen, it was closely a.s.sociated. It was widely prevalent throughout Babylonia. The chief seat of the lunar deity, Nannar or Sin, was the ancient city of Ur, from which Abraham migrated to Harran, where the "Baal" (the lord) was also a moon G.o.d. Ur was situated in Sumer, in the south, between the west bank of the Euphrates and the low hills bordering the Arabian desert, and not far distant from sea-washed Eridu. No doubt, like that city, it had its origin at an exceedingly remote period. At any rate, the excavations conducted there have afforded proof that it flourished in the prehistoric period.

As in Arabia, Egypt, and throughout ancient Europe and elsewhere, the moon G.o.d of Sumeria was regarded as the "friend of man". He controlled nature as a fertilizing agency; he caused gra.s.s, trees, and crops to grow; he increased flocks and herds, and gave human offspring. At Ur he was exalted above Ea as "the lord and prince of the G.o.ds, supreme in heaven, the Father of all"; he was also called "great Anu", an indication that Anu, the sky G.o.d, had at one time a lunar character.

The moon G.o.d was believed to be the father of the sun G.o.d: he was the "great steer with mighty horns and perfect limbs".

His name Sin is believed to be a corruption of "Zu-ena", which signifies "knowledge lord".[66] Like the lunar Osiris of Egypt, he was apparently an instructor of mankind; the moon measured time and controlled the seasons; seeds were sown at a certain phase of the moon, and crops were ripened by the harvest moon. The mountains of Sinai and the desert of Sin are called after this deity.

As Nannar, which Jastrow considers to be a variation of "Narnar", the "light producer", the moon G.o.d scattered darkness and reduced the terrors of night. His spirit inhabited the lunar stone, so that moon and stone wors.h.i.+p were closely a.s.sociated; it also entered trees and crops, so that moon wors.h.i.+p linked with earth wors.h.i.+p, as both linked with water wors.h.i.+p.

The consort of Nannar was Nin-Uruwa, "the lady of Ur", who was also called Nin-gala. She links with Ishtar as Nin, as Isis of Egypt linked with other mother deities. The twin children of the moon were Mashu and Mashtu, a brother and sister, like the lunar girl and boy of Teutonic mythology immortalized in nursery rhymes as Jack and Jill.