Chapter I: The Early Traditions of the Creation (2)

The reason of the writing of the version already translated and in part commented upon is not difficult to find—it was to give an account of the origin of the world and the gods whom they worshipped. The reason of the writing of the bilingual story of the Creation, however, is not so easy to decide, the account there given being the introduction to one of those bilingual incantations for purification, in which, however, by the mutilation of the tablet, the connecting-link is unfortunately lost. But whatever the reason of its being prefixed to this incantation, the value and importance of the version presented by this new document is incontestable, not only for the legend itself, but also for the linguistic material which a bilingual text nearly always offers.

The following is a translation of this document—

“Incantation: The glorious house, the house of the gods, in a
glorious place had not been made,
A plant had not grown up, a tree had not been created,
A brick had not been laid, a beam had not been shaped,
A house had not been built, a city had not been constructed,
A city had not been made, no community had been established,
Niffer had not been built, Ê-kura had not been constructed,
Erech had not been built, Ê-ana had not been constructed,
The Abyss had not been made, Êridu had not been constructed,
(As for) the glorious house, the house of the gods, its seat had
not been made—
The whole of the lands were sea.
When within the sea there was a stream,
In that day Eridu was made, Ê-sagila was constructed—
Ê-sagila, which the god Lugal-du-azaga founded within the Abyss.
Babylon he built, Ê-sagila was completed.
He made the gods (and) the Anunnaki together,
The glorious city, the seat of the joy of their hearts, supremely
he proclaimed.
Merodach bound together a foundation before the waters,
He made dust, and poured (it) out beside the foundation,
That the gods might sit in a pleasant place.
He made mankind—
Aruru made the seed of mankind with him.
He made the beasts of the field and the living creatures of the
desert,
He made the Tigris and the Euphrates, and set (them) in (their)
place—
Well proclaimed he their name.
Grass, the marsh-plant, the reed and the forest, he made,
He made the verdure of the plain,
The lands, the marsh, the thicket also,
The wild cow (and) her young the steer; the ewe (and) her
young—the sheep of the fold,
Plantations and forests also.
The goat and the wild goat multiplied for him (?).
Lord Merodach on the sea-shore made a bank,
... (which) at first he made not,
... he caused to be.
(He caused the plant to be brought forth), he made the tree,
(Everything?) he made in (its) place.
(He laid the brick), he made the beams,
(He constructed the house), he built the city,
(He built the city), the community exercised power,
(He built the city Niffer), he built Ê-kura, the temple,
(He built the city Erech, he built Ê-a)na, the temple,”

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Here the obverse breaks off, and the end of the bilingual story of the Creation-story is lost. How many more lines were devoted to it we do not know, nor do we know how the incantation proper, which followed it, and to which it formed the introduction, began. Where the text (about half-way down on the reverse) again becomes legible, it reads as follows—

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

“Thy supreme messenger, Pap-sukal, the wise one, counsellor of the
gods.
Nin-aḫa-kudu, daughter of Aa,
May she make thee glorious with a glorious lustration (?),
May she make thee pure with pure fire,
With the glorious pure fountain of the abyss purify thou thy
pathway,
By the incantation of Merodach, king of the universe of heaven and
earth,
May the abundance of the land enter into thy midst,
May thy command be fulfilled for ever.
O Ê-zida, seat supreme, the beloved of Anu and Ištar art thou,
Mayest thou shine like heaven; mayest thou be glorious like the
earth; mayest thou shine like the midst of heaven;
May the malevolent curse dwell outside of thee.
Incantation making (the purification of the temple).
Incantation: The star ... the long chariot of the heavens.”

The last line but one is apparently the title, and is followed by the first line of the next tablet. From this we see that this text belonged to a series of at least two tablets, and that the tablet following the above had an introduction of an astronomical or astrological nature.

It will be noticed that this text not only contains an account of the creation of gods and men, and flora and fauna, but also of the great and renowned sites and shrines of the country where it originated. It is in this respect that it bears a likeness to the fragmentary portions of the intermediate tablets of the Semitic Babylonian story of the Creation, or Bêl and the Dragon, and this slight agreement may be held to justify, in some measure, its introduction here. The bilingual version, however, differs very much in style from that in Semitic only, and seems to lack the poetical form which characterizes the latter. This, indeed, was to be expected, for poetical form in a translation which follows the original closely is an impossibility, though the poetry of words and ideas which it contains naturally remains. It is not unlikely that the original Sumerian text is in poetical form, as is suggested by the cesura, and the recurring words.

In the bilingual account of the Creation one seems to get a glimpse of the pride that the ancient Babylonians felt in the ancient and renowned cities of their country. The writer’s conception of the wasteness and voidness of the earth in the beginning seems to have been that the ancient cities Babel, Niffer, Erech and Eridu had not yet come into existence. For him, those sites were as much creations as the vegetation and animal life of the earth. Being, for him, sacred sites, they must have had a sacred, a divine foundation, and he therefore attributes their origin to the greatest of the gods, Merodach, who built them, brick, and beam, and house, himself. Their renowned temples, too, had their origin at the hands of the Divine Architect of the Universe.

A few words are necessary in elucidation of what follows the line, “When within the sea there was a stream.” “In that day,” it says, “Êridu was made, Ê-sagila was constructed—Ê-sagila which the god Lugal-du-azaga founded within the Abyss. Babylon he built, Ê-sagila was completed.” The connection of Ê-sagila, “the temple of the lofty head,” which was within the Abyss, with Êridu, shows, with little or no doubt, that the Êridu there referred to was not the earthly city of that name, but a city conceived as lying also “within the Abyss.” This Êridu, as we shall see farther on, was the “blessed city,” or Paradise, wherein was the tree of life, and which was watered by the twin stream of the Tigris and the Euphrates.

But there was another Ê-sagila than that founded by the god Lugal-du-azaga within the Abyss, namely the Ê-sagila at Babylon, and it is this fane that is spoken of in the phrase following that mentioning the temple so called within the Abyss. To the Babylonian, therefore, the capital of the country was, in that respect, a counterpart of the divine city that he regarded as the abode of bliss, where dwelt Nammu, the river-god, and the sun-god Dumuzi-Abzu, or “Tammuz of the Abyss.” Like Sippar too, Babylon was situated in what was called the plain, the _edina_, of which Babylonia mainly consisted, and which is apparently the original of the Garden of Eden.

The present text differs from that of the longer (Semitic) story of the Creation, in that it makes Merodach to be the creator of the gods, as well as of mankind, and all living things. This, of course, implies that it was composed at a comparatively late date, when the god Merodach had become fully recognized as the chief divinity, and the fact that Aa was his father had been lost sight of, and practically forgotten. The goddess Aruru is apparently introduced into the narrative out of consideration for the city Sippar-Aruru, of which she was patron. In another text she is called “Lady of the gods of Sippar and Aruru.” There is also a goddess (perhaps identical with her) called Gala-aruru, “Great Aruru,” or “the great one (of) Aruru,” who is explained as “Ištar the star,” on the tablet K. 2109.

After the account of the creation of the beasts of the field, the Tigris and the Euphrates, vegetation, lands, marshes, thickets, plantations and forests, which are named, to all appearance, without any attempt at any kind of order, “The lord Merodach” is represented as creating those things which, at first, he had not made, namely, the great and ancient shrines in whose antiquity and glorious memories the Babylonian—and the Assyrian too—took such delight. The list, however, is a short one, and it is to be supposed that, in the lines that are broken away, further cities of the kingdom of Babylon were mentioned. That this was the case is implied by the reverse, which deals mainly—perhaps exclusively—with the great shrine of Borsippa called Ê-zida, and identified by many with the Tower of Babel. How it was brought in, however, we have no means of finding out, and must wait patiently for the completion of the text that will, in all probability, ultimately be discovered.

The reverse has only the end of the text, which, as far as it is preserved, is in the form of an “incantation of Êridu,” and mentions “the glorious fountain of the Abyss,” which to was to “purify” or “make glorious” the pathway of the personified fane referred to. As it was the god Merodach, “the merciful one,” “he who raises the dead to life,” “the lord of the glorious incantation,” who was regarded by the Babylonians as revealing to mankind the “incantation of Êridu,” which he, in his turn, obtained from his father Aa, we may see in this final part of the legend not only a glorification of the chief deity of the Babylonians, but also a further testimony of the fact that the composition must belong to the comparatively late period in the history of Babylonian religion, when the worship of Merodach had taken the place of that of his father Aa.

Of course, it must not be supposed that the longer account of the Creation was told so shortly as the bilingual narrative that we have introduced here to supply the missing parts of the longer version. Everything was probably recounted at much greater length, and in confirmation of this there is the testimony of the small fragment of the longer account, translated on p. 28. This simply contains the announcement that Merodach had made cunning plans, and decided to create man from his own blood, and [to form?] his bones, but there must have been, in the long gap which then ensues, a detailed account of the actual creation of the human race, probably with some reference to the formation of animals. One cannot base much upon this mutilated fragment, but, as the first translator has pointed out, the object in creating man was seemingly to ensure the performance of the service (or worship) of the gods, and the building of their shrines, prayer and sacrifice, with the fear of God, being duties from which there was no escape.

In the last tablet of the series—that recording the praises of Merodach and his fifty new names,—there are a few points that are worthy of examination. In the first place, the arrangement of the first part is noteworthy. The principal name that was given to him seems not to have been Merodach, as one would expect from the popularity of the name in later days, but Tutu, which occurs in the margin, at the head of six of the sections, and was probably prefixed to at least three more. This name Tutu is evidently an Akkadian reduplicate word, from the root _tu_, “to beget,” and corresponds with the explanation of the word given by the list of Babylonian gods, K. 2107; _muâllid îlāni, mûddiš îlāni_, “begetter of the gods, renewer of the gods”—a name probably given to him on account of his identification with his father, Aa, for, according to the legend, Merodach was rather the youngest than the oldest of the gods, who are even called, as will be remembered, “his fathers.” In the lost portion at the beginning of the final tablet he was also called, according to the tablet here quoted, Gugu = _muttakkil îlāni_, “nourisher of the gods”; Mumu = _mušpiš îlāni_, “increaser (?) of the gods”; Dugan = _banî kala îlāni_, “maker of all the gods”; Dudu = _muttarrû îlāni_, “saviour (?) of the gods”; Šar-azaga = _ša šipat-su êllit_, “he whose incantation is glorious”; and Mu-azaga = _ša tû-šu êllit_, “he whose charm is glorious” (cf. p. 31, l. 33). After this we have Ša-zu or Ša-sud = _mûdê libbi īlāni_ or _libbi rûḳu_, “he who knoweth the heart of the gods,” or “the remote of heart” (p. 31, l. 35); Zi-uḳenna = _napšat napḫar îlāni_, “the life of the whole of the gods” (p. 30, l. 15); Zi-si = _nasiḫ šabuti_, “he who bringeth about silence” (p. 31, l. 41); Suḫ-kur = _muballû aabi_, “annihilator of the enemy” (p. 31, l. 43); and other names meaning _muballû napḫar aabi, nasiḫ raggi_, “annihilator of the whole of the enemy, rooter out of evil,” _nasiḫ napḫar raggi_, “rooter out of the whole of the evil,” _êšû raggi_, “troubler of the evil (ones),” and _êšû napḫar raggi_, “troubler of the whole of the evil (ones).” All these last names were probably enumerated on the lost part of the tablet between where the obverse breaks off and the reverse resumes the narrative, and the whole of the fifty names conferred upon him, which were enumerated in their old Akkadian forms and translated into Semitic Babylonian in this final tablet of the Creation, were evidently repeated in the form of a list of gods, on the tablet in tabular form from which the above renderings are taken.

Hailed then as the vanquisher of Kirbiš-Tiamtu, the great Dragon of Chaos, he is called by the name of Nibiru, “the ferry,” a name of the planet Jupiter as the traverser of the heavens (one of the points of contact between Babylonian and Greek mythology), the stars of which he was regarded as directing, and keeping (lit. pasturing) like sheep. (Gods and stars may here be regarded as convertible terms.) His future is then spoken of, and “father Bêl” gives him his own name, “lord of the world.” Rejoicing in the honours showered on his son, and not to be outdone in generosity, Aa decrees that henceforth Merodach shall be like him, and that he shall be called Aa, possessing all his commands, and all his pronouncements—_i.e._ all the wisdom which he, as god of deep wisdom, possessed. Thus was Merodach endowed with all the names, and all the attributes, of the gods of the Babylonians—“the fifty renowned names of the great gods.”

This was, to all intents and purposes, symbolic of a great struggle, in early days, between polytheism and monotheism—for the masses the former, for the more learned and thoughtful the latter. Of this we shall have further proof farther on, when discussing the name of Merodach. For the present be it simply noted, that this is not the only text identifying Merodach with the other gods.

The reference to the creation of mankind in line 29 of the obverse (p. 31) is noteworthy, notwithstanding that the translation of one of the words—and that a very important one—is very doubtful. Apparently man was created to the despite of the rebellious gods, but there is also just the possibility that there exists here an idiomatic phrase meaning “in their room.” If the latter be the true rendering, this part of the legend would be in striking accord with Bishop Avitus of Vienne, with the old English poet Caedmon, and with Milton in his _Paradise Lost_. In connection with this, too, the statement in the reverse, lines 113 and 114, where “man’s remote ages” is referred to, naturally leads one to ask, Have we here traces of a belief that, in ages to come (“in lateness of days”), Merodach was to return and live among men into the remote future? The return of a divinity or a hero of much-cherished memory is such a usual thing among popular beliefs, that this may well have been the case likewise among the Babylonians.

The comparison of the two accounts of the Creation—that of the Hebrews and that of the Babylonians, that have been presented to the reader—will probably have brought prominently before him the fact, that the Babylonian account, notwithstanding all that has been said to the contrary, differs so much from the Biblical account, that they are, to all intents and purposes, two distinct narratives. That there are certain ideas in common, cannot be denied, but most of them are ideas that are inseparable from two accounts of the same event, notwithstanding that they have been composed from two totally different standpoints. In writing an account of the Creation, statements as to what are the things created must of necessity be inserted. There is, therefore, no proof of a connection between two accounts of the Creation in the fact that they both speak of the formation of dry land, or because they both state that plants, animals, and man were created. Connection may be inferred from such statements that the waters were the first abode of life, or that an expansion was created dividing the waters above from those below. With reference to such points of contact as these just mentioned, however, the question naturally arises, Are these points of similarity sufficient to justify the belief that two so widely divergent accounts as those of the Bible and of the Babylonian tablets have one and the same origin? In the mind of the present writer there seems to be but one answer, and that is, that the two accounts are practically distinct, and are the production of people having entirely different ideas upon the subject, though they may have influenced each other in regard to certain points, such as the two mentioned above. For the rest, the fact that there is—

No direct statement of the creation of the heavens and the earth;

No systematic division of the things created into groups and
classes, such as is found in Genesis;

NO REFERENCE TO THE DAYS OF CREATION;

No appearance of the Deity as the first and only cause of the
existence of things—

must be held as a sufficient series of prime reasons why the Babylonian and the Hebrew versions of the Creation-story must have had different origins.

As additional arguments may also be quoted the polytheism of the Babylonian account; the fact that it appears to be merely the setting to the legend of Bêl and the Dragon, and that, as such, it is simply the glorification of Merodach, the patron divinity of the Babylonians, over the other gods of the Assyro-Babylonian Pantheon.

Sidelights:—Merodach.

To judge from the inscriptions of the Babylonians and Assyrians, one would say that there were not upon the earth more pious nations than they. They went constantly in fear of their gods, and rendered to them the glory for everything that they succeeded in bringing to a successful conclusion. Prayer, supplication, and self-debasement before their gods seem to have been their delight.

“The time for the worship of the gods was my heart’s delight,
The time of the offering to Ištar was profit and riches,”

sings Ludlul the sage, and one of a list of sayings is to the following effect—

“When thou seest the profit of the fear of God,
Thou wilt praise God, thou wilt bless the king.”

Many a penitential psalm and hymn of praise exists to testify to the piety of the ancient nations of Assyria and Babylonia. Moreover, this piety was, to all appearance, practical, calling forth not only self-denying offerings and sacrifices, but also, as we shall see farther on, lofty ideas and expressions of the highest religious feeling.

And the Babylonians were evidently proud of their religion. Whatever its defects, the more enlightened—the scribes and those who could read—seem to have felt that there was something in it that gave it the very highest place. And they were right—there was in this gross polytheism of theirs a thing of high merit, and that was, the character of the chief of their gods, Merodach.

We see something of the reverence of the Babylonians and Assyrians for their gods in almost all of their historical inscriptions, and there is hardly a single communication of the nature of a letter that does not call down blessings from them upon the person to whom it is addressed. In many a hymn and pious expression they show in what honour they held them, and their desire not to offend them, even involuntarily, is visible in numerous inscriptions that have been found.

“My god, who art displeased, receive (?) my (prayer?),
My goddess, who art wroth, accept (my supplication)—
Accept my supplication, and let thy mind be at rest.
My lord, gracious and merciful, (let thy mind be at rest).
Make easy (O my goddess) the day that is directed for death,
My god, (grant that I be?) free (?).
My goddess, have regard for me, and receive my supplication.
Let my sins be separated, and let my misdeeds be forgotten—
Let the ban be loosened, let the fetter fall.
Let the seven winds carry away my sighing.
Let me tear asunder my evil, and let a bird carry it aloft to the
sky.
Let a fish carry off my trouble, and let the stream bear it away.
Let the beasts of the field take (it) away from me.
Let the flowing waters of the stream cleanse me.
Make me bright as a chain of gold—
Let me be precious in thy eyes as a diamond ring!
Blot out my evil, preserve my life.
Let me guard thy court, and stand in thy sanctuary (?).
Make me to pass away from my evil state, let me be preserved with
thee!
Send to me, and let me see a propitious dream—
Let the dream that I shall see be propitious—let the dream that I
shall see be true,
Turn the dream that I shall see to a favour,
Let Mašara (?), the god of dreams, rest by my head,
Make me to enter into Ê-sagila, the temple of the gods, the house
of life.
Deliver me, for his favour, into the gracious hands of the
merciful Merodach,
Let me be subject to thy greatness, let me glorify thy divinity;
Let the people of my city praise thy might!”

Here the text breaks off, but sufficient of it remains to show of what the devotion of the Babylonians and Assyrians to their gods consisted, and what their beliefs really were. For some reason or other, the writer recognizes that the divinity whom he worships is displeased with him, and apparently comes to the conclusion that the consort of the god is displeased also. He therefore prays and humbles himself before them, asking that his misdeeds may be forgotten, and that he may be separated from his sins, by which he feels himself to be bound and fettered. He imagines to himself that the seven winds, or a little bird, or a fish, or a beast of the field, or the waters of a stream, may carry his sin away, and that the flowing waters of the river may cleanse him from his sin, making him pure in the eyes of his god as a chain of gold, and precious to him as the most precious thing that he can think of, namely, a diamond ring (upon such material and worldly similes did the thoughts of the Babylonians run). He wishes his life (or his soul—the word in the original is _napišti_, which Zimmern translates _Seele_) to be saved, to pass away from his evil state, and to dwell with his god, from whom he begs for a sign in the form of a propitious dream, a dream that shall come true, showing that he is in reality once more in the favour of his god, who, he hopes, will deliver him into the gracious hands of the merciful Merodach, that he and all his city may praise his great divinity.

Fragment though it be, in its beginning, development, and climax, it is, to all intents and purposes, perfect, and a worthy specimen of compositions of this class.

It is noteworthy that the suppliant almost re-echoes the words of the Psalmist in those passages where he speaks of his guarding the court of the temple of his god and dwelling in his temple (Ê-sagila, the renowned temple at Babylon), wherein, along with other deities, the god Merodach was worshipped—the merciful one, into whose gracious hands he wished to be delivered. The prayer that his sin might be carried away by a bird, or a fish, etc., brings up before the mind’s eye the picture of the scapegoat, fleeing, laden with the sins of the pious Israelite, into the desert to Azazel.

To all appearance, the worshipper, in the above extract, desires to be delivered by the god whom he worships into the hands of the god Merodach. This is a point that is worthy of notice, for it seems to show that the Babylonians, at least in later times, regarded the other deities in the light of mediators with the chief of the Babylonian Pantheon. As manifestations of him, they all formed part of his being, and through them the suppliant found a channel to reconciliation and forgiveness of his sins.

In this there seems to be somewhat of a parallel to the Egyptian belief in the soul, at death, being united with Osiris. The annihilation of self, however, did not, in all probability, recommend itself to the Babylonian mind any more than it must have done to the mind of the Assyrian. To all appearance, the preservation of one’s individuality, in the abodes of bliss after death, was with them an essential to the reality of that life beyond the grave. If we adopt here Zimmern’s translation of _napišti_ by “soul,” the necessity of interpreting the above passage in the way here indicated seems to be rendered all the greater.

The Creation legend shows us how the god Merodach was regarded by the Babylonians as having attained his high position among the “gods his fathers,” and the reverence that they had for this deity is not only testified to by that legend, but also by the many documents of a religious nature that exist. This being the case, it is only natural to suppose, that he would be worshipped both under the name of Merodach, his usual appellation, and also under any or all of the other names that were attributed to him by the Babylonians as having been conferred upon him by the gods at the time of his elevation to the position of their chief.

Not only, therefore, was he called Marduk (Amaruduk, “the brightness of day”), the Hebrew Merodach, but he bore also the names of Asaru or Asari, identified by the Rev. C. J. Ball and Prof. Hommel with the Egyptian Osiris—a name that would tend to confirm what is stated above concerning the possible connection between the Egyptian and Babylonian beliefs in the immortality of the soul. This name Asaru was compounded with various other (explanatory) epithets, making the fuller names Asari-lu-duga (probably “Asari, he who is good”), Asari-lu-duga-namsuba (“Asari, he who is good, the charm”), Asari-lu-duga-namtî (“Asari, he who is good, the life”), Asari-alima (“Asari, the prince”), Asari-alima-nuna (“Asari, the prince, the mighty one”), etc., all showing the estimation in which he was held, and testifying to the sacredness of the first component, which, as already remarked, has been identified with the name of Osiris, the chief divinity of the Egyptians. Among his other names are (besides those quoted from the last tablet of the story of the Creation and the explanatory list that bears upon it) some of apparently foreign origin, among them being Amaru (? short for Amar-uduk) and Sal-ila, the latter having a decidedly western Semitic look.(2) As “the warrior,” he seems to have borne the name of Gušur (? “the strong”); another of his Akkadian appellations was Gudibir, and as “lord” of all the world he was called Bêl, the equivalent of the Baal of the Phœnicians and the Beel of the Aramæans. In astronomy his name was given to several stars, and he was identified with the planet Jupiter, thus making him the counterpart of the Greek and Latin Zeus or Jove.

As has been said above, Merodach was the god that was regarded by the Babylonians and Assyrians as he who went about doing good on behalf of mankind. If he saw a man in affliction—suffering, for instance, from any malady—he would go and ask his father Aa, he who knew all things, and who had promised to impart all his knowledge to his royal son, what the man must do to be cured of the disease or relieved of the demon which troubled him. The following will give some idea of what the inscriptions detailing these charms and incantations, which the god was supposed to obtain from his father, were like—

“Incantation: The sickness of the head hath darted forth from the
desert, and rushed like the wind.
Like lightning it flasheth, above and below it smiteth,
The impious man(3) like a reed it cutteth down, and
His nerves like a tendril it severeth.
(Upon him) for whom the goddess Ištar hath no care, and whose
flesh is in anguish,
Like a star of heaven it (the sickness) flasheth down, like a
night-flood it cometh.
Adversity is set against the trembling man, and threateneth him
like a lion—
It hath stricken that man, and
The man rusheth about like one who is mad—
Like one whose heart is smitten he goeth to and fro,
Like one thrown into the fire he burneth,
Like the wild ass that runneth (?), his eyes are filled with
cloud,
Being alive, he eateth, yet is he bound up with death.
The disease,(4) which is like a violent wind, nobody knoweth its
path—
Its completed time, and its connection nobody knoweth.”

(Here come abbreviations of the set phrases stating that the god Merodach perceived the man who was suffering, and went to ask his father Aa, dwelling in the Abyss, how the man was to be healed of the sickness that afflicted him. In the texts that give the wanting parts, Aa is represented as asking his son Merodach what it was that he did not know, and in what he could still instruct him. What he (Aa) knows, that Merodach shall also know. He then tells Merodach to go and work the charm.)

“The ḫaltigilla plant groweth alone in the desert
Like the sun-god entering his house, cover its head with a
garment, and
Cover the ḫaltigilla plant, and enclose some meal, and
In the desert, before the rising sun
Root it out from its place, and
Take its root, and
Take the skin of a young goat, and
Bind up the head of the sick man, and

May a gust (?) of wind carry it (the disease) away, and may it not
return to its place.
O spirit of heaven, exorcise; spirit of earth, exorcise.”

The numerous incantations of this class, in which the god Merodach is represented as playing the part of benefactor to the sick and afflicted among mankind, and interesting himself in their welfare, are exceedingly numerous, and cover a great variety of maladies and misfortunes. No wonder, therefore, that the Babylonians looked upon the god, their own god, with eyes of affection, and worship, and reverence. Indeed, it is doubtful whether the Hebrews themselves, the most God-fearing nation of their time, looked upon the God of their fathers with as much affection, or reverence, as did the Babylonians regard the god Merodach. They show it not only in the inscriptions of the class quoted above, but also in numerous other texts. All the kings of Babylonia, and not a few of those of Assyria, with one consent pay him homage, and testify to their devotion. The names of princes and common people, too, often bear witness to the veneration that they felt for this, the chief of their gods. “Merodach is lord of the gods,” “Merodach is master of the word,” “With Merodach is life,” “The dear one of the gods is Merodach,” “Merodach is our king,” “(My, his, our) trust is Merodach,” “Be gracious to me, O Merodach,” “Direct me, O Merodach,” “Merodach protects,” “Merodach has given a brother” (Marduk-nadin-aḫi, the name of one of Nebuchadrezzar’s sons), “A judge is Merodach,” etc., etc., are some of the names compounded with that of this popular divinity. Merodach was not so much in use, as the component part of a name, as the god of wisdom, Nebo, but it is not by any means improbable that this is due to the reverence in which he was held, which must, at times, have led the more devout to avoid the pronunciation of his name any more than was necessary, though, if that was the case, it never reached the point of an utter prohibition against its utterance, such as caused the pronunciation of the Hebrew Yahwah to become entirely lost even to the most learned for many hundred years. Those, therefore, who wished to avoid the profanation, by too frequent utterance, of this holy name, could easily do so by substituting the name of some other deity, for, as we have seen above, the names of all the gods could be applied to him, and the doctrine of their identification with him only grew in strength—we know not under what influence—as time went on, until Marduk or Merodach became synonymous with the word _îlu_, “God,” and is even used as such in a list where the various gods are enumerated as his manifestations. The portion of the tablet in question containing these advanced ideas is as follows—

81-11-3, 111.

“... is Merodach of planting.
Lugal-a-ki- ... is Merodach of the water-spring.
Ninip is Merodach of the garden (?).
Nergal is Merodach of war.
Zagaga is Merodach of battle.
Bêl is Merodach of lordship and dominion.
Nebo is Merodach of wealth (or trading).
Sin is Merodach the illuminator of the night.
Šamaš is Merodach of truth (or righteousness).
Rimmon is Merodach of rain.
Tišḫu is Merodach of handicraft.
Sig is Merodach of....
Suqamuna is Merodach of the (irrigation-) reservoir.”

As this tablet is not complete, there is every probability that the god Merodach was identified, on the lost portion, with at least as many deities as appear on the part that time has preserved to us.

This identification of deities with each other would seem to have been a far from uncommon thing in the ancient East during those heathen times. A large number of deities of the Babylonian Pantheon are identified, in the Assyrian proper names, with a very interesting divinity whose name appears as Aa, and which may possibly turn out to be only one of the many forms that are met with of the god Ya’u or Jah, who was not only worshipped by the Hebrews, but also by the Assyrians, Babylonians, Hittites, and other nations of the East in ancient times. Prof. Hommel, the well-known Assyriologist and Professor of Semitic languages at Munich, suggests that this god Yâ is another form of the name of Ea, which is possible, but any assimilation of the two divinities is probably best explained upon the supposition that the people of the East in ancient times identified them with each other in consequence of the likeness between the two names.

In any case, the identification of a large number of the gods—perhaps all of them—with a deity whose name is represented by the group Aa, is quite certain. Thus we have Aššur-Aa, Ninip-Aa, Bel-Aa, Nergal-Aa, Šamaš-Aa, Nusku-Aa, Sin-Aa, etc., and it is probable that the list might be greatly extended. Not only, however, have we a large number of deities identified with Aa, but a certain number of them are also identified with the deity known as Ya, Ya’u, or Au, the Jah of the Hebrews. Among these may be cited Bêl-Yau, “Bel is Jah,” Nabû-Yâ’, “Nebo is Jah,” Aḫi-Yau, “Aḫi is Jah,” a name that would seem to confirm the opinion which Fuerst held, that _aḫi_ was, in this connection, a word for “god,” or a god. In Ya-Dagunu, “Jah is Dagon,” we have the elements reversed, showing a wish to identify Jah with Dagon, rather than Dagon with Jah, whilst another interesting name, Au-Aa, shows an identification of Jah with Aa, two names which have every appearance of being etymologically connected.

There is then but little doubt that we have in these names an indication of an attempt at what may be regarded as concentration—a desire and tendency towards monotheism. When this began, and what the real opinions of the more thoughtful upon the subject of the unity or the plurality of the deity may have been, we have at present no means of finding out. There can be no doubt, however, that it sprang from more than one cause—the desire not to offend either heavenly or earthly powers by seeming to favour one divinity more than another, the difficulty of dividing and apportioning the domain in nature of every divinity, the wish to identify the divine patrons of the various nationalities with a view to understanding what they really were, and describing their nature for either religious or political purposes—all these things, and probably others, would tend to counteract not only polytheistic bigotry, but also the exclusive appropriation by one tribe or people of any particular divinity, who was their own special helper against their enemies, and to whose particular protection they defiantly laid claim. When in conflict or in dispute with another, there is no doubt that the man bearing the name of Šamaš-nûri, for instance, would be met with the fierce taunt, “The Sun-god is not more thy light than he is mine,” and, as an answer to Yâ-abî-ni, “Jah is our father too, and more so than he is yours,” would at once spring to the lips of any Jew with whom the bearer of the name may have had a dispute.

For the thoughtful, God was one, and all the various gods of the heathen were but His manifestations, misconceived and misunderstood by the ignorant and thoughtless, but, rightly regarded, full of deep significance. The Jews in later times had, in all probability, no tendency to polytheism, yet it is certain that they had but little objection to bearing heathen names, and of all the examples that might be adduced, there is probably not one that is more noteworthy than Mordecai, or Mardecai, the worshipper of Merodach as typical of the God beside whom there was none other, of whom, as we have seen,—and that from a Babylonian tablet,—all the other deities of the Babylonian Pantheon were but manifestations.

The God Aa, Ae, Or Ea.

As the primitive deity of the Babylonian Pantheon, and as apparently closely identified with the well-known deity Jah, who was worshipped by a large section of the Semitic nations, and whose name is one of the words for “god” in the Assyro-Babylonian language, the god Ea, Ae, or Aa, deserves notice here not only on account of his being the creator of all the gods, but also on account of his fatherhood to Merodach, who, in Babylonian mythology, was conceived as supplanting him—not by any unfair means, but by the right of being the fittest to exercise power and dominion over the world, the universe, and even over “the gods his fathers.”

Assyriologists early recognized the attributes of the god whose name they then read Hea. They saw that he was regarded by the ancient Babylonians and Assyrians as the god of streams, rivers, seas, and the watery abyss of the under-world—the waters under the earth. Of the god Ae or Ea all sorts of wonderful stories were told by the Babylonians, who attributed to him, as the god of wisdom and knowledge, the origin of the civilization which they enjoyed. His name, as god of deep wisdom, was Nin-igi-azaga, “the lord of the bright eye,” a name which would seem to show that the Akkadians (the names of most of the deities of the Assyro-Babylonian Pantheon are written in Akkadian) associated, as we also do at the present day, intelligence with brightness of the eyes, or, more correctly, with alertness of appearance.

But this god had many other names than those mentioned above. He was En-ki, “lord of the world”; Amma-ana-ki, “lord of heaven and earth”; Engur, “god of the Abyss”; Nudimmud, “god of creation”; Nadimmud, “god of everything”; Nun-ura, “god of the potter”; Nin-agal, “god of the smith”; Dunga, “god of the singer” (?); Nin-bubu, “god of the sailor”; Kuski-banda, “god of goldsmiths”;—in fact, he seems to have been the god of arts and crafts in general. He was also called Ellila-banda, “the powerful lord”; En-uru and Nin-uru, “the protecting lord”; Lugal-ida, “king of the river”; Lugal, En, Nuna, and Dara-abzu, “king,” “lord,” “prince,” and “ruler of the abyss”; Dara-dim, Dara-nuna, and Dara-banda, honorific titles as “creator,” “princely ruler,” and “powerful ruler”; Alima-nuna, Alima-banda, and Alima-šum-ki, “princely lord,” “powerful lord,” and “lord disposer of the earth.” He bore also besides these a large number of names, among which may be cited, as an example of his many-sidedness, the following—

Šaršara, apparently “the overwhelmer,” probably as lord of the sea
and its teeming myriads.
En-tî, “lord of life.”
Gana-si, probably “the enclosure full (of life).”
Nam-zida, “righteousness.”
Idima (Akk.) or Naqbu (Bab.), “the deep.”
Sa-kalama, “ruler of the land.”
Šanabaku and Šanabi, the god “40.”

That the sea was the abode of the god of knowledge seems to have been the belief of the Babylonians from the earliest times. According to Berosus, whose record has been preserved by Apollodoros, Abydenus, and Alexander Polyhistor, there appeared more than once, from the Erythræan Sea (the Persian Gulf), “the Musaros Oannes, the Annedotos,” a creature half man and half fish, probably conceived in shape of the deity answering to this description found on certain Babylonian cylinder-seals, in a sculpture with representations of marine monsters, now preserved in the Louvre, and in the divine figures in the shape of a man clothed with a fish’s skin, preserved in the form of clay statuettes and large sculptures (bas-reliefs) in the British Museum. Abydenus apparently understands Berosus differently, for he makes Annedotos and Oannes to be different personages. All those who have quoted Berosus, however, agree in the main point, that these beings, half man and half fish, came out of the sea to teach mankind. There is hardly any doubt that in some of these cases the deity that is intended is the god whose name is now read Ae or Ea, who was called Aos by Damascius. After the appearance of the fourth Annedotos, there came another person, also from the Erythræan Sea, named Odakon, having, like the former, the same complicated form, between a man and a fish. To these names Abydenus, still quoting Berosus, adds those of four more “double-shaped personages” named Euedocos, Eneugamos, Eneuboulos, and Anementos. These last came forth in the reign of Daos (probably Dumuzi (Duwuzi) or Tammuz) the shepherd, of Pantibiblon (Sippar or Sippara), who reigned for the space of ten sari (360,000 years)! “After these things was Anodaphos, in the time of Euedoreschos.”

Besides his son Merodach, who, in Babylonian mythology, became “king of the gods,”—like Jupiter, in the place of his father—Ae or Ea was regarded as having six other sons, Dumu-zi-abzu, “Tammuz of the abyss”; Ki-gulla, “the destroyer of the world”; Nira (meaning doubtful); Bara, “the revealer” (?); Bara-gula, “the great revealer (?)”; and Burnunta-sā, “the broad of ear.” One daughter is attributed to him, her name being Ḫi-dimme-azaga, “the glorious spirit’s offspring,” called, in one of the incantations (W.A.I. iv., 2nd ed., col. ii., line 54), “the daughter of the abyss.” He had also two bull-like guardians (probably those composite creatures, winged bulls with human heads, representations of which guarded the approaches to the Assyrian palaces), one seemingly named Duga, “the good,” and the other Dub-ga, apparently meaning “he who causes (the bolt) to be raised,” giving the suppliant access to the palace of his lord. To all appearance, the gates giving access to his domain were guarded by eight porters, the names of most of whom are unfortunately broken away on the tablet that gives these details, but one of them seems to have borne the name of Eniw-ḫengala, “the bespeaker of fertility,” whilst another was named Igi-ḫen(?)gala, “the eye of fertility,” and the third had a name beginning, like that of the first, with the element Eniw, a circumstance which would lead one to ask whether this may not be the element Eneu found in the names of the two creatures Eneugamos and Eneuboulos, mentioned by Berosus.

His consort was called Damkina, “the lady of the earth,” the Dauké of Damascius, or Dam-gala-nuna, “the great princely lady.” She likewise had two bull-like attendants, A-eru and E-a-eru, of whom but little or nothing is known.

The tablet already quoted (W.A.I. iv., pl. 1, col. ii., ll. 36-39) names Engur (the deep) as being the mother of Ae or Ea, and attributes to him another daughter, Nina, with whom the name of Nineveh is apparently connected.

Down in the Abyss, in the city called Eridu, “the good city,” there dwelt Ae, with all his court. Sitting on his throne, he waited for the time when his son Merodach, the good of heart, came to ask him for those health-bringing incantations for the benefit of mankind. Sometimes, seemingly, instead of Merodach, his sixth son Burnunsia (Burnunta-sā), “the broad of ear,” would perform this office. Ae was always ready to help with his counsels, and no one whose case Merodach forwarded was spurned by the King of the Abyss.

Here, too, dwelt “Tammuz of the Abyss,” one of Ae’s sons, but whether this was the well-known Tammuz who was the husband of the goddess Ishtar, is uncertain. Judging from the legends of the Babylonians, Ishtar’s husband descended, not to the abode of the lord of the deep, but to the realms of the Babylonian Persephone, the consort of Nergal, in Hades, “the land of no return,” whither Ishtar once descended in search of him. Concerning the Babylonian paradise, where Ae dwelt, see the following chapter.

The second month of the Babylonian year, Iyyar, corresponding to April—May, was dedicated to Ae as lord of mankind, though in this the records contradict each other, for the Creation-stories of the Babylonians attribute the creation of mankind to Merodach, who has, therefore, the best right to be regarded as their lord.

Anšar And Kišar (pp. 16, 17, 20, etc.).

Anšar, “host of heaven,” and Kišar, “host of earth,” are, it will be remembered, given in the Semitic Babylonian account of the Creation as the names of the powers that succeeded Laḫmu and Laḫamu, according to Damascius, the second progeny of the sea and the deep (Tiamtu and Apsū). The Greek forms, Assoros and Kisaré, imply that Damascius understood the former to be masculine and the latter feminine, though there is no hint of gender in the wedge-written records. That the Babylonians regarded them as being of different genders, however, is conceivable enough. The Greek form of the first, Assoros, moreover, implies that, in course of time, the _n_ of Anšar became assimilated with the _š_ (as was usual in Semitic Babylonian), and on account of this, the etymology that connects Anšar with the name of the Assyrian national god Aššur, is not without justification, though whether it be preferable to that of Delitzsch which makes Aššur to be really Ašur, and connects it with _ašaru_, meaning “holy,” is doubtful. In favour of Delitzsch, however, is the fact that the Assyrians would more probably have given their chief divinity the name of “the Holy one” than that of one of the links in the chain of divinities which culminated in the rise of the god Merodach to the highest place in the kingdom of heaven.

The question naturally arises: Who were these deities, “the host of heaven” and “the host of earth”? and this is a question to which we do not get a very complete answer from the inscriptions. According to the explanatory lists of gods (as distinct from the mythological texts proper) Kišar is explained as the “host of heaven and earth” and also as Anu and Antum, in other words, as the male and female personifications of the heavens. Strange to say, this is just the explanation given in the inscriptions of the names Laḫmu and Laḫamu, for though they are not “the host of heaven and earth,” they are the same, according to the lists of gods, as the deities Anu and his consort Antum. This probably arises from the worship of Anu, the god of the heavens, and his consort, at some period preceding that of the worship of Merodach, or even that of his father Aa or Ea, whose cult, as we have seen, was in early times abandoned for that of the patron god of the city of Babylon. Concerning this portion of the legend of the Creation, however, much more light is required.

Besides the simple form Kišar, there occurs in the lists of gods also Kišaragala, which is likewise explained as a manifestation of Anu and Antum, and described moreover as “Anu, who is the host (_kiššat_) of heaven and earth.” In addition to Anšar and Kišar, the deities Enšara and Ninšara are mentioned. These names are apparently to be translated “lord of the host” and “lady of the host” respectively, and are doubtless both closely connected with, or the same as, the Anšar and Kišar of the Babylonian story of the Creation, in close connection with which they are, in fact, mentioned. En-kišara is given, in W.A.I., III., pl. 68, as one of the three _mu-gala_ (apparently “great names”) of Anu, the god of the heavens. Another Nin-šara (the second element written with a different character) is given as the equivalent of both Antum and Ištar, the latter being the well-known goddess of love and war, Venus.

Tiamat.

Tiamat is the common transcription of a name generally and more correctly read as Tiamtu. The meaning of this word is “the sea,” and its later and more decayed pronunciation is _tâmtu_ or _tâmdu_, the feminine _t_ having changed into _d_ after the nasal _m_, a phenomenon that also meets us in other words having a nasal before the dental. As this word is the Tauthé of the Greek writer Damascius, it is clear that in his time the _m_ was pronounced as _w_ (this peculiarity is common to the Semitic Babylonian and Akkadian languages, and finds its converse illustration in the provincialism of _mir_ for _wir_, “we,” in German), though the decayed word _tâmtu_ evidently kept its labial unchanged, for it is difficult to imagine _w_ changing _t_ into _d_, unless it were pronounced in a way to which wee are not accustomed. We have here, then, an example of a differentiation by which one and the same word, by a change of pronunciation, forms two “vocables,” the one used as a proper noun and the other—a more decayed form—as a common one.

Tiamtu (from the above it may be supposed that the real pronunciation was as indicated by the Greek form, namely, Tiauthu), meaning originally “the sea,” became then the personification of the watery deep as the producer of teeming animal life such as we find in the waters everywhere. Dominating and covering at first the whole earth, it was she who was the first producer of living things, but when the land appeared, and creatures of higher organization and intelligence began, under the fostering care of the higher divinities, to make their appearance, she saw, so the Babylonians seem to have thought, that with the advent of man, whom the gods purposed forming, her power and importance would, in a short time, disappear, and rebellion on her part was the result. How, in the Babylonian legends, this conflict ended, the reader of the foregoing pages knows, and after her downfall and destruction or subjugation, she retained her productive power under the immediate control and direction of the gods under whose dominion she had fallen.

Tiamtu is represented in the Old Testament by _tehôm_, which occurs in Gen. i. 2, where both the Authorised and Revised Versions translate “the deep.” The Hebrew form of the word, however, is not quite the same, the Assyrian feminine ending being absent.