Chapter XX: Part II: The Religion of the Babylonians (10)

121 The so-called Hathor head with the horns of a cow is already found
on the slate plaque of Kom el-Aḥmar, which is either of the time of
the First Dynasty or pre-Menic (_Zeits. f. Aegypt. Spr._ xxxvi. pl.
xii.). A head of similar type is engraved under the name of Pepi
II., discovered at Koptos (Petrie, _Koptos_, pl. v. 7).

122 Horus and Hathor, that is to say, Baal and Ashtoreth, were,
according to the Egyptians, the deities of Mafket, the Sinaitic
Peninsula.

123 It must be remembered that in Egypt the place occupied by the
morning star in the astronomy and myths of other peoples was taken
by Sirius on account of its importance for the rising of the Nile.
And Sirius was identified with Isis.

_ 124 Recueil de Travaux_, xx. p. 62. Dr. Scheil further points out that
the sacred bark of Bau, with whom Istar is identified, was called
“the ship of the holy cow.” At Dendera also, Isis, in her bark as
goddess of the star Sirius, becomes Hathor under the form of a cow.

125 Professor Wiedemann has suggested that the name of Men-tu or Mon-tu
is connected with that of A-mon. It is, however, more reasonable to
associate it with that of the Mentiu or Semitic nomads of the
Sinaitic Peninsula.

126 Hence the ram-headed sphinxes that lined the roads leading to the
temple of Karnak. The flesh of the ram was tabooed at Thebes, an
indication that the animal was originally a totem (cf. Herod. ii.
42).

127 A stela of Antef IV., found by M. Legrain in 1900, shows that Khonsu
was preceded by Ptaḥ as the third member of the trinity. See above,
p. 90.

128 So Lauth, _Aus Aegypten’s Vorzeit_, p. 61; Brugsch, _Dictionnaire
géographique_, pp. 61, 62; Maspero, _The Dawn of Civilisation_, p.
180. The evidence, however, is not quite clear.

129 The bronze figures of the ibis found at Tel el-Baqlîya, on the east
bank of the Damietta branch of the Nile, opposite Abusir or Busiris,
have shown that it is the site of the capital of the Hermopolite
nome.

130 At Beḥbêt near Mansûra.

131 This, at least, is how the name is usually written. But on an early
seal-cylinder which I have published in the _Proc. SBA._, Feb. 1898,
No. 2, where we read, “The city of the ram, the city which is called
Dad,” the name is written _D-d_, and on a libation-table of the
Sixth Dynasty from El-Kab we find _Dad-d-u_ (Quibell, _El-Kab_, pl.
iv. 1). The earlier pronunciation of the name as found in the
Pyramid texts is Zaddu or Zadu.

132 As early as the age of the Pyramid texts the column Dad had come to
be explained as a picture of the spine, or rather spinal column
(_zad_), of Osiris, which was supposed to be preserved at Daddu or
Pi-Asar-neb-Daddu or Abusir. See _Unas_ 7.

133 Not unfrequently a rich Egyptian who was buried at Saqqâra had a
cenotaph at Abydos. I believe that the fashion had been set by the
founder of the united monarchy himself, and that besides the tomb of
Menes at Negada there was also a cenotaph of the king at Abydos. At
all events clay impressions of his Ka-name Aḥa have been found there
in the Omm el-Ga’ab.

134 The title borne by Osiris at Abydos was Khent-amentit, “the ruler of
the west.” There is no need of turning the title into a separate god
who was afterwards identified with Osiris: he was as much Osiris as
was Neb-Daddu, “the lord of Daddu.” Professor Maspero says with
truth that “Khent-amentit was the dead Anher, a sun which had set in
the west” (_Études de Mythologie et d’Archéologie égyptiennes_, ii.
p. 24)—or rather, perhaps, a sun that was setting in the west, as
his domain was the necropolis of Omm el-Ga’ab, immediately eastward
of the western boundary of hills. When “Osiris of Daddu” is
distinguished from “Khent-Amentit of Abydos,” as on a stela of the
Eleventh Dynasty (Daressy in the _Recueil de Travaux_, xiv. p. 23),
this is only in accordance with the Egyptian habit of transforming a
divine epithet into a separate deity.

135 Already in the Pyramid texts Horus is said to have assisted in the
burial of Osiris, who goes to the plains of Alu with “the great gods
that proceed from On” (_Pepi_ ii. 864-872); and we have perhaps a
reminiscence of the spread of the Osirian cult to the south and the
identification of Osiris with Akhem, the mummified Horus of Nekhen,
in _Pepi_ ii. 849, where we read: “Seb installs by his rites Osiris
as god, to whom the watchers in Pe make offering, and the watchers
in Nekhen venerate him” (Maspero in the _Recueil de Travaux_, xii.
p. 168). Pe and Nekhen were the capitals of the two pre-Menic
kingdoms of Northern and Southern Egypt, and on a stela from Nekhen
(Kom el-Aḥmar) in the Cairo Museum, “Horus of Nekhen” is identified
with Osiris (_Recueil de Travaux_, xiv. p. 22, No. xx.). In the
inscriptions of the Pyramid of Pepi II., lines 864-5, it is said
that Isis and Nebhât wept for Osiris at Pe along with “the souls of
Pe.” Pe with its temple of the younger Horus, and Dep with its
temple of Uazit the goddess of the north, together formed the city
called Buto by the Greeks.

136 So in the Pyramid texts (_e.g._ _Teta_ 171, 172).

137 The origin of the name of Set had already been forgotten in the age
of the Pyramid texts, where it is explained by the determinative
_set_, “a stone.”

138 When the hieroglyphic name of the Busirite nome was first invented,
Osiris was still the living “lord of Daddu” rather than the
mummified patron of its necropolis, since it represents him as a
living Pharaoh with the title of _ânz_ or “chieftain.”

_ 139 Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archæology_, xii. 8, pp.
401-402.

140 The origin of the name of Osiris had been forgotten by the Egyptians
long before the age of the Pyramid texts, where we find (_Unas_ 229)
the grammatical goddess User-t invented to explain Osiris, as if the
latter were the adjective _user_, “strong”! M. Grébaut long ago
expressed his belief that Osiris was of foreign origin (_Recueil de
Travaux_, i. p. 120).

141 Nebo or Nabium (Nabu), “the prophet,” was the interpreter of the
will of Merodach, just as Merodach was the interpreter of the will
of Ea.

142 The constellation of Osiris was called “the soul of Osiris,” and
Professor Maspero notes that the Pyramid texts place his kingdom
near the Great Bear (_Études de Mythologie et d’Archéologie_, ii. p.
20). Isis became Sirius, and Horus the morning star.

_ 143 The Ancient Egyptian Doctrine of Immortality_, p. 48.

144 Renouf’s translation of the 125th chapter of the Book of the Dead
(_Papyrus of Ani_) is as follows:—“I am not a doer of what is wrong.
I am not a plunderer. I am not a robber. I am not a slayer of men. I
do not stint the measure of corn. I am not a niggard. I do not
desire the property of the gods. I am not a teller of lies. I am not
a monopoliser of food. I am no extortioner. I am not unchaste. I am
not the cause of others’ tears. I am not a dissembler. I am not a
doer of violence. I am not a domineering character. I do not pillage
cultivated land. I am not an eavesdropper. I am not a chatterer. I
do not dismiss a case through self-interest. I am not unchaste with
women or men. I am not obscene. I am not an exciter of alarms. I am
not hot in speech. I do not turn a deaf ear to the words of
righteousness. I am not foul-mouthed. I am not a striker. I am not a
quarreller. I do not revoke my words. I do not multiply clamour in
reply to words. I am not evil-minded or a doer of evil. I am not a
reviler of the king. I put no obstruction on (the use of the Nile)
water. I am not a bawler. I am not a reviler of the god. I am not
fraudulent. I am not sparing in offerings to the gods. I do not
deprive the dead of the funeral cakes. I take not away the cakes of
the child, or profane the god of my locality. I do not kill sacred
animals.”

145 Wiedemann, _Die Religion der alten Aegypter_, pp. 132, 133; and
Maspero, _Dawn of Civilisation_, pp. 188-190.

146 Maspero, _Dawn of Civilisation_, p. 190.

147 Maspero, _Dawn of Civilisation_, p. 191.

148 So on a stela translated by Professor Maspero (_Recueil de Travaux_,
iv. p. 128) the deceased says: “Never has one said of me, What is
that he hath done? I have not injured, I have not committed evil;
none has suffered through my fault, the lie has never entered into
me since I was born, but I have always done that which was true in
the sight of the lord of the two worlds. I have been united in heart
to the god; I have walked in the good paths of justice, love, and
all the virtues. Ah, let my soul live ... for behold I am come to
this land, O souls, to be with you in the tomb, I am become one of
you who detest sin.”

149 Clem. Alex. _Strom._ vi. p. 260, ed. Sylb. See Lepsius, _Einleitung
zur Chronologie der Aegypter_, pp. 45, 46. The remains ascribed to
Hermes Trismegistos, including the Dialogue called _Pœmandres_, have
been translated into English by J. D. Chambers (1882). The Dialogue
is already quoted by Justin Martyr (_Exhort. ad Græcos_, xxxviii.).

150 The extraordinary care with which the sacred texts were handed down
through long periods of time is illustrated by certain of the
Pyramid texts, which are reproduced word for word down to the close
of the Egyptian monarchy. Thus passages at the beginning of the
inscriptions in the Pyramid of Unas are repeated in the Ritual of
Abydos, and another portion of the same text is found on a stela of
the Thirteenth Dynasty, as well as in one of the courts of the
temple of queen Hatshepsu at Dêr el-Bâhari, where, as Professor
Maspero remarks, “we have three identical versions of different
epochs and localities.” The invocations against serpents (_Unas_
300-339) recur in the tomb of Bak-n-ren-ef of the Twenty-sixth
Dynasty. See Maspero, _Recueil de Travaux_, iii. pp. 182, 195, 220.
The fact gives us confidence in the statements of the Egyptian
scribes, that such and such chapters of the Book of the Dead had
been “found” or written in the reigns of certain early kings.

151 There is much to be said for the view of Professor Piehl, that we
have in it an amalgamation of the rituals and formulæ of the various
chief sanctuaries of Egypt, which have been thrown side by side
without any attempt at arrangement or harmony. One of such rituals
would be that mentioned on the sarcophagus of Nes-Shu-Tefnut, where
we read of “the sacred writings of Horus in the city of Huren” in
the Busirite nome (_Recueil de Travaux_, vi. p. 134). On the
sarcophagus of Beb, discovered by Professor Petrie at Dendera, and
belonging to the period between the Sixth and the Eleventh
Dynasties, we have not only “early versions” of parts of the Book of
the Dead, but also chapters which do not occur in the standard text
(Petrie, _Dendereh_, 1898, pp. 56-58).

152 We even read in them of Ra being “purified in the fields of Alu”
(_Unas_ 411).

153 Maspero, _Études de Mythologie et d’Archéologie égyptiennes_, pp.
367-370.

154 Various interpretations have been given of the phrase _per m hru_. I
have adopted that which seems to me most consonant with both grammar
and logical probability.

155 The inscribed scarab does not seem to be older than the age of the
Eleventh Dynasty, when it began to take the place of the cylinder as
a seal. At all events there is no authentic record of the discovery
of one in any tomb of an earlier date, and the scarabs with the
names of Neb-ka-ra, Khufu, and other early kings, were for the most
part made in the time of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty. It is possible,
however, that some at least of the scarabs which bear the name of
Ra-n-ka of the Eighth Dynasty are contemporaneous with the Pharaoh
whose name is written upon them. If so, they are the oldest
inscribed scarabs with which we are acquainted. Uninscribed scarabs,
however, go back to the prehistoric age. The use of the scarab as an
amulet is already referred to in the Pyramid texts. And Dr. Reisner
has discovered green porcelain beetles in the prehistoric graves of
Negadiyâ, along with other green porcelain amulets, such as turtles,
etc.

156 As is also the case in the Pyramid texts.

157 Maspero, _Études de Mythologie et d’Archéologie_, p. 369.

158 Maspero, “La Pyramide de Pepi 1er” in _Recueil de Travaux_, vii. pp.
161, 162. In the Babylonian Epic of Gilgames the place of Nu-Urru is
taken by Ur-Ninnu.

159 The Book of the Dead has been analysed by Maspero, _Études de
Mythologie et d’Archéologie égyptiennes_, i. pp. 325-387.

160 Translated by P. J. de Horrack.

161 For a translation and analysis of the Book of Am Duat, see Maspero,
_Études de Mythologie et d’Archéologie égyptiennes_ ii. pp. 1-163.

_ 162 Revue égyptologique_, i. 4, ii. 3 (1880, 1881), where an account of
the demotic story is given by E. Révillout.

163 Scheil, “Tombeaux thébains” in _Mémoires de la Mission archéologique
française du Caire_, v. 4, pl. 4.

164 So in the Pyramid texts (_Unas_ 170) reference is made to “the
_baqt_,” or “ben-nut tree which is in On.” The tree is the _Moringa
aptera Gærtner_, from the fruit of which the myrobalanum oil was
extracted (Joret, _Les Plantes dans l’Antiquité et au Moyen Age_, i.
pp. 133, 134).

_ 165 Ancient Egyptians_, iii. p. 349. The _bennu_ is described as “the
soul of Osiris.”

_ 166 Études de Mythologie et d’Archéologie_, ii. p. 395 sqq.

167 The influence of the State religion is visible in the picture, as
the cow has the solar disc between its horns, and the cobra is
crowned not only with horns, but also with the solar disc. Behind
the cobra is the leafy branch of a tree. There is no reason for
supposing with Wiedemann (_Muséon_, 1884) that the monument is
Ethiopian: what is decipherable in the inscription is purely
Egyptian. Professor Wiedemann calls the animal on the left a ram,
but my drawing made it a cow. At the feet of the cow, which has a
garland round the neck, are two vases.

168 See the very interesting study of Maspero on “La Déesse Miritskro et
ses guérisons miraculeuses” in _Études de Mythologie et
d’Archéologie_, ii. pp. 402-419; _Recueil de Travaux_, ii. p. 109
sqq.

169 The Belmore collection of Egyptian antiquities contains several
stelæ which commemorate the popular worship of the serpent; see
_Belmore Collection_, pls. 7, 8, and 12. In one of them the uræus
has the human head of the official deity; in another it stands on
the top of a shrine; but on one (given in pl. 7) the worshipper is
kneeling before a coluber of great length, which has none of the
attributes of the State gods, and whose numerous coils remind us of
Apophis.

170 Herodotos, i. 78.

171 Sayce, “Serpent Worship in Ancient and Modern Egypt,” in the
_Contemporary Review_, Oct. 1893.

_ 172 Voyage du Sieur Paul Lucas, fait en mdccxiv etc., par Ordre de
Louis XIV._, ii. pp. 83-86.

_ 173 Voyage d’Égypte et de Nubie_, nouv. édit. par L. Langlés, ii. pp.
64-69.

174 See my article on “Serpent Worship in Ancient and Modern Egypt,” in
the _Contemporary Review_, Oct. 1893. On a rock called Hagar
el-Ghorâb, a few miles north of Assuan, I have found _graffiti_ of
the age of the Twelfth Dynasty, which show that a chapel of “the
living serpent” stood on the spot; and a native informed me that the
rock is still haunted by a monstrous serpent, “as long as an oar and
as thick as a man,” which appears at night and destroys, with the
fire that blazes from its eyes, whoever is unfortunate enough to
fall in its way. See _Recueil de Travaux_, xvi. p. 174.

175 In the _Verhandlungen der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin_,
1889, No. 7.

176 The legend was first published by Pleyte and Rossi, “Les Papyrus
hiératiques de Turin,” pls. 31, 77, 131-8. It was translated by
Lefébure in the _Zeitschrift für Aegyptische Sprache_, 1883, pp.
27-33.

177 The shrine of Horus, whom the legend here identifies with the son of
Osiris, was called Mesen at Edfu. The winged solar disc, which seems
to have originated there, is called sometimes “the lord of the city
of Beḥudet,” sometimes “the lord of the city of Mesen.” Beḥudet was
formerly read Hud, and it is possible that this was really the
pronunciation of the name in later days. At all events it seems to
be the origin of the modern Edfu, which, of course, has nothing to
do with the verb _deb_, “to pierce.”

178 “The City of the Twins” seems to be the same as Ḥa-Zaui, “the House
of the Twins,” which Dümichen identifies with the Greek Khnubis,
close to Esna. An inscription at Esna says that it was also termed
Pa-Saḥura, “the House of Saḥura” (of the Fifth Dynasty), a name
which Dümichen finds in that of the modern village of Sahera, south
of Esna. On a prehistoric slate found at Abydos the name of the city
appears to be indicated by the figures of two twins inside the
cartouche of a town (de Morgan, _Recherches sur les Origines de
l’Égypte_, i. pl. iii., first register).

179 Naville, _Mythe d’Horus_, pls. 12-18; Brugsch, _Abhandlungen der
Götting. gelehrt. Akademie_, xiv.

180 Griffith, “Minor Explorations,” in the _Seventh Memoir of the Egypt
Exploration Fund_ (1890), pp. 71-73; Maspero, _Dawn of
Civilisation_, pp. 169-171.

181 Cf. the 155th chapter of the Book of the Dead: “These words must be
spoken over a gilded _dad_, which is made from the heart of a
sycamore and hung round the neck of the dead. Then shall he pass
through the gates of the other world.” When this chapter was
written, however, the real origin of the _dad_—a row of four
columns—had been forgotten, and it was imagined to represent the
backbone of Osiris. We are transported by it into the full bloom of
religious symbolism.

182 Erman, _Life in Ancient Egypt_, Eng. tr., p. 273.

183 See Maspero, _Études de Mythologie et d’Archéologie égyptiennes_, i.
pp. 82-89.

184 See above, p. 90.

_ 185 Records of the Past_, first series, ii.

186 See Cudworth’s translation of Iamblichus.

187 Maspero, “La Pyramide du Roi Ounas,” in the _Recueil de Travaux_,
iv. pp. 59-61.

188 Elsewhere in the Pyramid texts the Akhimu-seku or planets of the
northern hemisphere are identified with the gods (_Unas_ 218-220);
Unas himself rises as a star (_Unas_ 391); Sirius is the sister of
Pepi (_Pepi_ 172); while the Khû or luminous spirits are identified
with the planets (_Teta_ 289). We hear of the “fields of the stars”
(_Unas_ 419), of the morning star in the fields of Alu (_Pepi_ 80),
and of Akhimt, the grammatically-formed wife of Akhim “planet,” who
is associated with “Babî, the lord of night” (_Unas_ 645, 646). One
of the constellations frequently mentioned in the Pyramid texts is
“the Bull of heaven,” which was also an important constellation in
early Babylonian astronomy, where the name formed part of an
astronomical system; in _Unas_ 421 the “Bull of heaven” is called
the _An_ or “column” of Heliopolis. We hear also of “the fresh water
of the stars” (_Unas_ 210). With the latter may be compared the
goddess Qebḥu, or “Fresh Water,” the daughter of Anubis, the
primitive god of the dead, who poured forth the liquid from four
vases (_Pepi_ 393). With the name of the goddess the symbol of the
Antæopolite nome of Upper Egypt is associated.

189 In the _Proc. SBA._ xv. p. 233.

190 Or rather, perhaps, was the Osiris of primeval Egypt.

191 Lepsius, _Chronologie der Aegypter_, pp. 78, 79. See Brugsch, _Die
Aegyptologie_, ii. pp. 339-342.

192 Hommel, _Ausland_, 1892, p. 102; Ginzel, _Beiträge zur alten
Geschichte_, i. pp. 12-15. Diodorus (ii. 30) states that the
“councillor gods” were only thirty in number; but the list of
planetary stations discovered by Hommel in _WAI._ v. 46, shows that
the text must be corrected into thirty-six. Indeed, Diodorus himself
adds that every ten days there was a change of constellation, so
that in a year of 360 days there must have been thirty-six
constellations in all.

193 The Egyptian _za_ is the Semitic _ẓi_, “ship,” from which it seems
to have been borrowed.

194 Maspero, “La Pyramide du Roi Pepi 1er” in _Recueil de Travaux_,
viii. p. 103.

195 For instance, in the Rhind Papyrus: Wiedemann, “Ein altägyptischer
Weltschöpfungsmythus,” in the _Urquell_, new ser., ii. p. 64,
“Heaven was not, earth was not, the good and evil serpents did not
exist.”

196 See above, p. 86.

197 The serpent with the seven necks (_Unas_ 630, _Teta_ 305) is the
Babylonian “serpent with the seven heads,” and points to Babylonia,
where alone seven was a sacred number. Other coincidences between
Egyptian and Babylonian mythology that may be noted are “the tree of
life” (_khet n ânkh_) which grew in Alu, and was given by the stars
to the dead that they might live for ever (_Pepi_ 431); and the
“great house,” the Babylonian _ê-gal_, which is several times
referred to in the Pyramid texts.

198 Thus in the Pyramid texts (_Unas_ 518) Unas is described as “eating”
the crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt.

_ 199 Études de Mythologie et d’Archéologie égyptiennes_, ii. pp. 446,
447.

200 Golénischeff, in the _Recueil de Travaux_, xv. pp. 88, 89. The
passage is found in Papyrus 1116 of the Hermitage at St. Petersburg.
The words “son of man” are a literal translation of the original
_si-n-sa_.

201 For the scenes accompanying the text, see Gayet, “Le Temple de
Louxor,” in the _Mémoires de la Mission archéologique française au
Caire_, xv. 1, pl. lxxi., where, however, the copy of the
inscriptions is very incorrect. My translation is made from a copy
of my own. The whole inscription is as follows: “Said by Amon-Ra,
etc.: He (the god) has incarnated himself in the royal person of
this husband, Thothmes IV., etc.; he found her lying in her beauty;
he stood beside her as a god. She has fed upon sweet odours
emanating from his majesty. He has gone to her that he may be a
father through her. He caused her to behold him in his divine form
when he had gone upon her that she might bear a child at the sight
of his beauty. His lovableness penetrated her flesh, filling it with
the odour of all his perfumes of Punt.

“Said by Mut-em-ua before the majesty of this august god Amon, etc.,
the twofold divinity: How great is thy twofold will, how [glorious
thy] designs in making thy heart repose upon me! Thy dew is upon all
my flesh in ... This royal god has done all that is pleasing to him
with her.

“Said by Amon before her majesty: Amon-hotep is the name of the son
which is in thy womb. This child shall grow up according to the
words which proceed out of thy mouth. He shall exercise sovereignty
and righteousness in this land unto its very end. My soul is in him:
he shall wear the twofold crown of royalty, ruling the two lands
like the sun for ever.”

202 Also written Telloḥ, on the assumption that the second syllable
represents _loḥ_, “a tablet.” But the native pronunciation is Tello.

203 The palace is represented by the mound called El-Qasr, the temple by
that called Tell ’Amrân ibn ’Ali.

204 The name of Khammu-rabi or Ammu-rabi is written Ammu-rapi in Harper,
_Letters_, iii. p. 257, No. 255 (K 552), as was first noticed by Dr.
Pinches (see the _Proc. of the Society of Biblical Archæology_, May
1901, p. 191); Dr. Lindl suggests that the final -_l_ of the Hebrew
form is derived from the title _ilu_, “god,” so often given to the
king. Professor Hommel further points out that the character _be_
with which the final syllable of the royal name is sometimes written
also had the value of _pil_.

205 Eridû is a Semitised abbreviation of the Sumerian Eri-dugga, “good
city.”

206 Years ago I pointed out that _uru_ was one of the words which (along
with what it signified) was borrowed by the Semites from their
Sumerian neighbours or predecessors (_Transactions of Society of
Biblical Archæology_, i. 2, pp. 304, 305).

207 Literally, “the lord of the ghost(s),” “the ghost-lord.” The name
has been so misunderstood and misinterpreted, that it is necessary
to enter into some details in regard to it, though the facts ought
to be known even to the beginner in Assyriology. The Sumerian
_lilla_ or _lil_ meant a “ghost,” “spirit,” or “spook,” and was
borrowed by the Semites under the form of _lilû_, from which the
feminine _lilîtu_ was formed in order to represent the female _lil_
whom the Sumerians called _kiel lilla_, “handmaid of (the male)
_lil_.” _Lilîtu_ is the Hebrew _Lîlîth_ (Isa. xxxiv. 14). In the
lexical tablets the _lil_ is explained as “a breath of wind”
(_saru_), or more exactly as a _zaqiqu_, or “dust-cloud” (not, of
course, “a fog,” as it has sometimes been translated, in defiance
alike of common sense and of modern Arab beliefs). When the spirit
of Ea-bani rose from the ground, it naturally took the form of a
“dust-cloud”; at other times, when the spirits appeared in the air,
they revealed their presence by a draught of cold “wind.”

208 See Pinches, “Certain Inscriptions and Records referring to
Babylonia and Elam,” in the _Journal of the Victoria Institute_,
xxix. p. 44: “between the mouths of the rivers on both sides.”

209 It is significant that although the antediluvian kings enumerated by
Berossos must have belonged to Eridu, as is shown by their
connection with the Oannes-gods who rose from the Persian Gulf, they
are not kings of Eridu, but of Pantibibla and Larankha (which seems
to have been the Surippak of the cuneiform texts).

210 Thureau-Dangin, in the _Revue Sémitique_.

211 Heuzey, “Sceaux inédits des rois d’Agadé,” in the _Revue
d’Assyriologie_, iv. 1, pp. 1-12.

212 It is to this adoption by the god that the phrase met with in early
Sumerian texts—“the king (or the man) the son of his god”—probably
refers, though it may possibly have eventually come to be synonymous
with “pious man.” Professor Hommel compares Hebrew names like
Ben-Ammi, “the son of (the god) Ammi.”

213 A. H. 83-1-18, 1866, _Rev._ v., published by Pinches in the
_Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archæology_, xviii. 8
(1896), and explained by him, p. 255. I should myself prefer to
render Par-Eṡu “the land of the offspring of the god Eṡu” (or Esau).

214 See my Hibbert Lectures, p. 107, note.

215 This at least was the ease in the time of Gudea, to whom we owe all
the more important theological references found in the Tello texts.

216 Thus we have the phrase “to swear by the _Zi_ of the king” (see
Delitzsch, _Assyrisches Handwörterbuch_, s.v. _nisu_). The Zi
included the _ekim_ or specific ghost, whose prominence belongs
rather to post-Sumerian days than to the early ages of Babylonian
history.

217 King, _Babylonian Religion_, p. 46.

_ 218 WAI._ ii. 36. 54, 56. 33-38.

219 See my Hibbert Lectures on _Babylonian Religion_, p. 375. A common
phrase is “the Zi (Assyr. _nis_) of the great gods” (Delitzsch,
_Assyrisches Handwörterbuch_, s.v. _nisu_). In the incantation text,
_WAI._ iv. 1, 2, the gods of later times are still _Zi_s. A
translation of part of the text will be given in a future chapter.
For the possibility that the Zi and the Lil originally had much the
same meaning, the one being used at Eridu and the other at Nippur,
see the next lecture.

220 Scheil in _Recueil de Travaux_, xxii. p. 38.

221 See Sm. 1981. 3, where the _edinna_ or “desert” is called the home
of the _lilla_.

222 Uda-kára.

223 By assimilation En-lil became El-lil. The name is literally
“ghost-lord,” where the singular _lil_ represents a class. Hence
En-lil is “lord of the ghosts” in general, conceived of as “the
devil” is often conceived of in Christian literature, or as Hades
sometimes meant all the denizens of the underworld in Greek.
Dialectic forms of the name are Mul-lil and U-lil.

224 Under Semitic influence these “tablets of destiny” lost their
primitive signification, and became, like the Urim and Thummim of
the Old Testament, simply a means of predicting the future.

225 At Eridu the Zi seems to have taken the place occupied by the Lil at
Nippur; at all events, just as En-lil was the chief Lil or Lilla at
Nippur, so Ea seems to have been the chief Zi at Eridu. On this see
the next lecture.

_ 226 Zaqiqu_ is of course a “cloud of dust,” not “a wind,” as some
scholars have translated it. A wind does not rise up out of the
earth, but comes from the air or sky. In _WAI._ v. 6, vi. 64, the
meaning of _zaqiqi_ can be “dust” and nothing else: _ilâni-su
istarâti-su amnâ ana zakiki_, “its gods and goddesses I reduced to
dust.”

_ 227 WAI._ v. 61, vi. 54, 55, where we must read _kibira_.

228 Professor Hommel has shown that among the Arabian and Western
Semites (the Canaanites excepted) the original Baal was rather the
moon-god than the sun-god. The supremacy of the sun-god belongs to
Semitic Babylonia (_Aufsätze und Abhandlungen_, ii. pp. 149-165).

229 With this phrase, which is so frequent in the Babylonian texts,
Hommel compares names like Ben-Ammi, “the son of (the god) Ammi.”

230 Thureau-Dangin in the _Recueil de Travaux_, xix. p. 186.

231 Quoted by King, _Babylonian Religion_, p. 49.

232 By assimilation En-lil became El-lil (and Ul-lil) in one of the
Sumerian dialects (_WAI._ v. 37. 21). Hence the Illinos (for which
Illillos must be read) of Damascius.

233 Aṡari-galu-dugga. We owe the interpretation of the name to the
insight and learning of Fr. Lenormant, from whose untimely death the
investigation of Babylonian religion has suffered grievously.

234 Is it possible that the original difference between the Zi and the
Lil was that the one term was used at Eridu the other at Nippur, the
meaning being pretty much the same in both cases? Unfortunately we
have no materials at present for answering the question.

_ 235 WAI._ ii. 55. 43, 58. 57; iii. 67. 156.

236 Her assignment as a wife to the sun-god of Kis or to Nin-ip of
Nippur belongs to a later period; see my Hibbert Lectures, p. 263.

237 Originally, however, she had been merely a spirit in the form of a
heifer; _WAI._ ii. 62. 45, where “the ship of Bau” is called “the
ship of the holy cow.” The name is doubtless Sumerian, and it seems
to be the origin of the Baau of Phœnician cosmology, which asserted
that the first men, Æôn and Protogonos, were born of “the wind
Kolpia and his wife Baau, which is interpreted Night” (Eusebius,
_Prœpar. Evang._ i. 10). Baau is probably the Hebrew _Bohu_.

238 See my Hibbert Lectures, pp. 262, 374, 375. Ê-kur, “the house of the
earth,” was the name of the temple of En-lil at Nippur. It was the
abode of the “lord of the spirits” of the earth and the underworld.

239 She is called “the handmaid of the spirit of E-kura” (_WAI._ ii. 54.
18). The “spirit of E-kura” is En-lil, whose temple E-kura was, and
consequently the title identifies her with the _kiel lilla_ or
“handmaid of the Lil,” who eventually became the Lilith of Jewish
folk-lore.

240 Hence in the hymn which describes the oraculur tree of Eridu (_WAI._
v. 15) the “couch” of Ea is called “the bed of Zi-Kum” in “the
central place of the earth.”

241 See my Hibbert Lectures on the _Religion of the Ancient
Babylonians_, pp. 374, 375.

242 Similarly, as I first indicated in my Hibbert Lectures (p. 132), the
first two antediluvian kings of Babylonia given by Berossos do not
belong to the original list, but have been prefixed to it when
Babylon became the leading city of the country, and it was
accordingly necessary to make it the capital of the kingdom from the
very beginning of time. It is worth notice that, just as the first
two antediluvian Babylonian kings are a later addition to the
original list, so the first two antediluvian patriarchs in the Book
of Genesis seem to have been added to the original eight. Adam and
Enos are synonyms like Cainan and Cain, for whom Seth, the Sutu or
Bedâwin (Num. xxiv. 17), was substituted. In the Babylonian list,
Amelon or Amilu, “man,” corresponds with Enos, just as Ammenon
(Ummanu, “the craftsman”) corresponds with Cainan or Cain, “the
smith.” For both the Babylonian and the Hebrew, man in the abstract
was followed immediately by civilised man.

243 The Igigi are represented ideographically by v+ii (the ideograph of
plurality). Perhaps, therefore, they were originally the spirits of
the five planets duplicated according to their appearance in the
evening and morning. If the opinion of Pognon (_L’Inscription de
Bavian_, i. p. 25) could be sustained that the original ideograph
was really vii and not v+ii, we should have a better explanation of
them as the seven planets which, in Chaldæan astronomy, included the
sun and moon. The meaning of the name is unknown. Guyard’s
supposition, that it is derived from the Assyrian _agâgu_, “to be
angry” (not “to be strong,” as he imagined), is devoid of
probability. In K 2100, col. iv., it is also written Igâgâ, and
explained by _isartum_, “justice,” or “straight direction.” In
_WAI._ ii. 35. 37, the NUN-GAL (pronounced _Kisagal_) is called the
_Rîbu_ which Jensen would connect with the Hebrew Rahab.

244 The divine “lord” of a place or territory, such as is met with in a
South Arabian or Phœnician inscription, is totally different from
the lord of the ghost-world at Nippur. The one was master of a
definite territory on the surface of the earth, the other was a
spirit ruling over other spirits in an underground world. The two
conceptions have nothing in common with one another.

245 The evidence that has since come to light shows that I was wrong in
my Hibbert Lectures (pp. 110, 193) in supposing that the origin of
the triad was purely Sumerian. It was really due to the fusion of
the Sumerian and Semitic elements in the official Babylonian
religion. Possibly the astronomical triad of the sun, moon, and
evening star may have suggested the artificial grouping of the gods
of the three great seats of religious culture, but that was all. The
origin of the triad must be sought in geography, or rather in the
fact that Ana, En-lil, and Ea represented the three chief
sanctuaries and centres of religious influence in Babylonia. I have
already pointed out (_Hibbert Lectures_, p. 192) that from the fact
that Ana is the first of the triad we may infer that the whole
doctrine originated in the theological school of Erech. Erech, in
fact, was the meeting-place of the Semite and Sumerian, where the
Semitic influence first found itself supreme. The Baal of historical
Semitic religion was a sky-god, despite Robertson Smith’s ingenious
philological attempts to find a terrestrial source for him.

246 Cf. Hommel, _Aufsätze und Abhandlungen_, ii. pp. 149-165. Hommel has
proved, with the help of the Minæan inscriptions, that primitive
Semitic religion consisted of moon and star worship, the moon-god
Athtar and an “angel” god standing at the head of the pantheon,
while the sun-goddess was attached to them as daughter or wife. The
supreme Baal of the Western Semites was thus originally the
moon-god, a fact that throws light on his cult at Ur and Harran,
which lay outside Babylonia proper, and were inhabited by a large
West Semitic population.

_ 247 Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, p. 74.

248 The name of the Edomite king Â-rammu in the time of Sennacherib
shows that the name and worship of  had been carried to the West.
Compare also the name of Ehud (Judg. iii. 15). Â seems to have been
a title signifying “the father,” the actual Sumerian name of the
deity being Sirrigam (see my Hibbert Lectures, p. 178).

249 For the absorption by Hadad of the Sumerian god of the air, Meri or
Mermer, the divine patron of the city of Muru, my Hibbert Lectures,
p. 202 sqq., may be consulted. Gubára, “the lady of the plain,” was
apparently originally the wife of Meri; when Meri passed into Hadad,
Gubára necessarily became the wife of the latter, “the lord of the
mountain,” as he was called. As Hadad was already provided with a
wife, Sala, the next step was to identify Sala and Gubára. Properly
speaking, Gubára represented the Canaanitish goddess Ashêrah,
Asirtum in Babylonian: see Reisner, “Sumerisch-babylonische Hymnen
nach Thontafeln griechischer Zeit,” in the _Mittheilungen aus den
orientalischen Sammlungen zu Berlin_, x. p. 139, where the Sumerian
_Martue mulu kharsagga-ga Gubarra gasan gu-edin_ is translated
_Amurru bel sadî Asratum belit tseri_, “the Amorite god (Hadad), the
lord of the mountain; Asratum (Ashêrah), the lady of the plain.”

250 The triad of Athtar, the moon-god and the “angel-messenger,” which
Hommel has shown to be presupposed in the South Arabian
inscriptions, was due to the influence of Babylonian culture. This
is made clear by the Babylonian name of the moon-god, Sin, in the
inscriptions of Hadhramaut, and of Aubây, _i.e._ Nebo, in those of
Katabân. On the other hand, the addition of the sun-goddess to the
triad is purely Semitic.

_ 251 East India House Inscription_, i. 52-ii. 5.

_ 252 East India House Inscription_, ix. 45-x. 5.

253 The solar character of Merodach was first pointed out by myself
(_Trans. SBA._ (1873) ii. p. 246), and the proofs of it were given
in my Hibbert Lectures, p. 100 sqq. The Sumerian poem in which the
creation is ascribed to Ea makes Ê-Saggil originally the name of the
temple of Ea at Eridu, from whence it must have been transferred to
Babylon when Ea was supplanted by Merodach. From the list of
Babylonian kings in which their names are explained, we may perhaps
infer that the proper title of the temple at Babylon was E(s)-Guzi.
Guzi had the same meaning in Sumerian as Ê-Saggil, “the house of the
high head” (_WAI._ ii. 30. 4, 26. 58).

254 Compare _Ati_, “prince,” the title of Osiris.

255 This was first pointed out by Ball, _Proceedings of the Society of
Biblical Archæology_, xii. 8, pp. 401, 402.

256 We may compare the statement in a hymn (_WAI._ v. 50. i. 5) that the
sun-god “rises from the Du-azagga, the place of destinies,” where
the Assyrian translation has “mountain of destinies.” The Du-azagga
was on the horizon of Ea’s domain, the deep.

257 More commonly written Ṡumu.

258 Abil-Sin, “the son of the moon-god,” the god of the city of Ur, to
which the preceding dynasty had belonged.

259 Though Zi is used here in its Semitic sense of “life” in the
abstract, the position given to it as the first of the divine names
and qualities bestowed on Merodach is significant. Before he can be
identified with any of the gods of the official pantheon, he must
become a Zi or “spirit,” or more strictly “_the_ spirit” of heaven.
Similarly the divine essence of Ea is still called his Zi or
“spirit,” a survival from a time when Ea was not yet a god.

260 It is probable that the word “wind” here, though its original sense
was obscured or forgotten, goes back to an age when it signified the
_lil_ of which in the lexical tablets it is given as an equivalent.

261 It must also be remembered that the attentions lavished by Nabonidos
upon the older sanctuaries of Babylonia outside the walls of Babylon
belonged to the earlier part of his reign.

_ 262 WAI._ ii. 54, No. 4; iii. 69, No. 1. In ii. 54, No. 3, the cosmic
deities are made “the mother(s) and father(s) of Anu” instead of
being identified with him. But the identification is doubtless
really due to the fact that _ana_ meant “god” as well as “Anu.”

_ 263 Journal of the Victoria Institute_, xxviii. 8-10.

264 Thus the god Tispak (the Susinak of Susa, K 92691, _Rev._ ii. 35) is
identified with Istar in _WAI._ 35. 18, comp. ii. 57. 35; and
Iskhara, another name of Istar, is called a male deity with a wife,
Almanâti (_Strassmaier_, 3901). Professor Barton notices (_Journal
of American Oriental Society_, 21, pp. 186-188) that an inscription
of Lugal-khaṡṡi, an early king of Kis, is dedicated to “the king
Nana and the lady Nana.”

_ 265 WAI._ iii. 53. 30-9.

266 I can suggest no better etymology for the word Anunna than that
proposed in my Hibbert Lectures, p. 182. It is supported by K 2100,
col. iv., where the Sumerian pronunciation of Anunna-ki is given as
Enu-kki, “the lord of the earth.” When the “spirits of the earth”
came to be distinguished from “the angels” or “spirits” of the air,
the form Anunna-ki or Anunna-ge, “the spirit of the earth” or “lower
world,” became more usual than the simple Anunna. The latter is used
of the Igigi or “angels” in K 4629, _Rev._, and of the Anunna-ki in
_WAI._ iv. 1, 2, col. iv. 3.

267 Hoffmann remarks in regard to the Aramaic inscriptions of Zenjirli
(_Zeitschrift für Assyriologie_, xi. p. 253): “The most interesting
fact is that even the theological Hadad-stela makes no mention of a
female goddess.”

268 The origin and nature of Tammuz have been investigated in my Hibbert
Lectures, pp. 220-245, and need not be repeated here. He was
primarily a Zi or spirit worshipped at Eridu, where he was known as
“the Son of the Spirit of the Deep,” _i.e._ Ea. He was, in fact, the
primitive sun-god of Eridu, though his character underwent strange
transformations in the course of his identification with Nin-girṡu
(Inguriṡa) and other gods. But Tammuz was a sun-god who spent half
his annual life in the underworld, or, according to another view, as
fellow-warder with Nin-gis-zida of the gates of heaven. Hence he
pastures his cattle in the fields beyond the river Khubur, the
ocean-stream that encircles the earth, on the road to the land of
the dead (Craig, _Religious Texts_, i. p. 17). On the other hand, he
was also said to dwell in the midst of the cosmic temple of Ea at
Eridu, between the Tigris and Euphrates (_WAI._ iv. 15. 58-59). It
is possible, though not yet proved, that in Tammuz two deities have
been combined together, the sun-god and the vegetation of the spring
which the young sun of the year brings into existence. However this
may be, in Tammuz and Nin-gis-zida I see the Babylonian prototypes
of the two pillars Jachin and Boaz erected by Solomon in front of
the temple (1 Kings vii. 21). Nin-gis-zida means “the lord of the
upright post” (_bil itsi kêni_ in Semitic Babylonian), and thus
corresponds with Jachin.

269 Thureau-Dangin in the _Recueil de Travaux relatifs à la Philologie
et à l’Archéologie égyptiennes et assyriennes_, xix. pp. 185-187.

270 Published and translated by me in the _Transactions of the Society
of Biblical Archæology_, v. (1877) p. 441, where I pointed out for
the first time that the early Babylonian kings were deified.

271 Scheil in the _Recueil de Travaux_, xviii. p. 71, xxi. p. 27.

272 See Brünnow, _Classified List_, No. 8883.

_ 273 WAI._ ii. 55. 27, iv. 25. 40. _Dara_, Semitic _turakhu_, is shown
to be “an antelope” by the figure of an antelope, ending in a fish,
which is stated to represent Ea on a boundary-stone from Susa
published in de Morgan’s _Délégation en Perse_, vol. i., and
explained by Scheil in the _Recueil de Travaux_, xxiii. pp. 96, 97.
The figure is accompanied by the symbol of Ea, a weapon which
terminates in the head of a ram.

_ 274 WAI._ iii. 68. 12-14. See my Hibbert Lectures, p. 286. For “the
cow” Bau, see above, p. 148. Nergal or Allamu was originally the
gazelle (Brünnow, _Classified List_, Nos. 1906, 1907).

_ 275 WAI._ ii. 18. 57, 55. 69, iv. 3. 25.

276 Thus the monkey is associated with Nu-gidda, “the dwarf,” who in his
turn accompanies the moon-god.

277 The last line of this hymn (_WAI._ iv. 15. 52 sqq.), of which I have
given a translation in my Hibbert Lectures, p. 238, has been
discovered by Dr. Pinches, and published by him in the _Journal of
Transactions of the Victoria Institute_, xxix. p. 44.

278 In Reisner, “Sumerisch-babylonische Hymnen nach Thontafeln
griechischer Zeit,” in the _Mittheilungen aus den orientalischen
Sammlungen_, x. p. 135, 25-32, and p. 139, 151-158, we read, “the
great gods are 50; the gods of destiny are 7; the Anunnaki of heaven
are 300; the Anunnaki of earth are 600.”

279 Hence he is called by Nebuchadrezzar _pakid kissat samê u irtsitim_,
“marshaller of the hosts of heaven and earth” (_WAI._ i. 51. 13).

280 For the Anunna-ki and Igigi, see above, p. 344.

281 The solar character of Nin-ip was first pointed out by myself in the
_Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archæology_, ii. (1873) p.
246, and again in my Hibbert Lectures, pp. 152, 153. He was probably
called Bêr in Assyrian, but the Cilician Nineps shows that he was
also known by his Sumerian title of Nin-ip. See my paper in the
_Proc. SBA._ xx. 7, pp. 261, 262.

282 The ideograph denotes the _keffîya_, corresponding both to the veil
and to the turban. In its earliest pictorial form it represents a
veil covering both the head and face, and leaving only the hair at
the back of the head visible. It was usually termed _uras_, a word
borrowed by Semitic Babylonian under the form of _urasu_, which in
its turn created the verb _arâsu_, “to veil,” and the word _aristu_,
“a cloak.” The _keffîya_ was also known in Sumerian as _mutra_,
Semitic _mutru_, from which the Greek μίτρα was borrowed. The
_mitra_ properly signified the Oriental turban; but as no such
head-dress was worn by the Greeks, it is already used by Homer for
the girdle of the waist. Besides the value of _uras_, the ideograph
also had the value of _dara_ (in Assyrian _nibittu_ and _iṡkhu_, “a
veil”). It is possible that the actual pronunciation of the name
Nin-ip was In-dar.

_ 283 WAI._ ii. 57. 39.

284 Gwydion induced Pryderi by stratagem to give some of them to him,
and so carried them from Dyved to North Wales; Rhys, Hibbert
Lectures on _Celtic Heathendom_, pp. 242-244.

285 Cf. _WAI._ ii. 19. 49_b_, “the spirits of the earth I made grope
like swine in the hollows.”

286 See, for example, _WAI._ ii. 54. 3 _Obv._ 4-14, 4. 37-45.

287 There is no reason for holding that the temple of Ê-Zida rebuilt by
Khammurabi at Borsippa, was any other than the old Ê-Zida which was
dedicated to Nebo.

288 For names like Sippar-sadî, Sippar-saduni, Upê-semi, and Upê-natsir,
see Pinches, _Revue de l’Histoire des Religions_, xliii. p. 277.

289 Support may be found for this etymology in the common title of Assur
as “the good god,” which is written ideographically _an-dugga_. But
even if the Assyrians believed that this was the proper
signification of the name of their god, it does not follow that they
were right; and since the characters representing the title could be
read AN-SAR, it is possibly only a play on the supposed connection
of the name with the Sumerian Ansar. The latter appears as Assoros
in Damascius. Perhaps Assur (originally Asur) is merely _asurru_, “a
wall.”

290 Glaser, _Skizze der Geschichte Arabiens_ (1889), pp. 64-74.

291 Du-azagga. As the “holy mound” was the home of Ea, it follows that
it was originally part of the Persian Gulf; on the other hand, the
name given to it implies that it resembled a mountain lifting itself
up into the sky. The sun rose from it (_WAI._ v. 50. 5_a_); hence it
must have been the eastern horizon, which, to an inhabitant of
Eridu, would have been the horizon of the sea, that ascended towards
the heavens like a great mound. A model was made of it, which became
the _parakku_ or mercy-seat of Ea in his temple at Eridu. When Eridu
and its god were supplanted by Babylon and Bel-Merodach, the
Du-azagga was transferred to the latter city and became “the seat of
the oracles” in the shrine of Bel-Merodach, “whereon,” according to
Nebuchadrezzar, “at the festival of Zagmuku, at the beginning of the
year, on the 8th and 11th days, the king of the gods of heaven and
earth, Bel, the god, seats himself, while the gods of heaven and
earth reverently regard him, standing before him with bowed heads.”
When Nebo became the minister of Merodach, he too was addressed as
“the god of the holy mound” (_WAI._ ii. 54. 71), and one of “the
three great names of Anu” was said to be “the king who comes forth
from the holy mound,” another of the names being “the creator of the
heavenly hosts” (_WAI._ iii. 68. 19, 20). Even Istar, or rather
Iskhara, is called “the goddess of the holy mound” (_WAI._ iii. 68.
27). It may be added that a lexical tablet makes the “holy mound” a
synonym of the deep (_WAI._ v. 41, No. 1).

_ 292 WAI._ ii. 58. 57. His Sumerian title as the divine potter was
Nunurra, which is explained as “god of the pot,” or more literally
“lord of the pot” (Brünnow, _Classified List_, 5895). See Scheil,
_Recueil de Travaux_, xx. p. 125.

293 El-lil, it should be noted, was called “the great mountain”
(Kur-gal, Sadu-rabu in Semitic), and the name of his temple was
Ê-kur, “the house of the mountain.” It is probable that the belief
in the Kharsag-kurkurra, or “mountain of the world,” on which the
gods lived, originated at Nippur. From Isa. xiv. 13 we gather that
it was placed in the north. Nin-lil, the wife of En-lil, is called
Nin-kharsag, “the lady of the mountain,” by Samsu-iluna, who
describes her as “the mother who created me” (_Brit. Mus._, pl. 199,
1. 41).

294 These are the creatures described by Berossos as sprung from the
bosom of Tiamât—winged men, with four or two faces, or with the feet
of horses and goats; human-headed bulls; dog-headed horses, and the
like—which were depicted on the walls of the temple of Bel-Merodach,
the successor of Bel of Nippur (Syncell. p. 29; Euseb. _Chron.
Armen._ p. 10, ed. Mai).

295 A variant fragment of the legend, as was first recognised by myself
in the _Proc. SBA._ xx. pp. 187-189, was published by Dr. Scheil
from an early Babylonian tablet in the _Recueil de Travaux_, xx. pp.
66, 67.

296 An indication may, however, be found in the statement that the
Lillum or “Lil” was the “mother-father” of En-lil (_WAI._ iv. 27.
5), and the further reference to the Zi or “spirit” who was the
“mother-father” of En-lil and Nin-lil (_WAI._ iv. 1. Col. ii.
25-28). The genderless Sumerian knew of no distinction of sex; the
creative principle was at once female and male. It will be noticed
that the female element takes precedence of the male in
contradistinction to Semitic ideas.

297 These two lines are an interpolation.

298 These three lines have been interpolated.

299 The name of Merodach has been substituted for that of Ea.

300 A play on the name of Eri-dugga, “the good city.”

301 Probably an interpolation.

302 Originally Ea.

303 These two lines do not belong to the original poem.

304 For Tammuz and Nin-gis-zida, see above, p. 350, note. It may be
added that in the Maqlû collection of incantation texts,
Nin-gis-zida seems to be regarded as a goddess and the consort of
Nusku, the fire-god. Nin, in Sumerian, more often signified “lady”
than “lord.” It is possible that at Eridu she was held to be the
wife of Tammuz.

305 Perhaps Hommel is right in translating “palm.”

306 Cp. Gen. iii. 8.

307 Zikum or Nammu, the abyss, who is called the mother of Ea. Nammu is
given as the Sumerian name or title of Zikum in _Cuneiform Texts_,
xii. p. 26, 1. 20.

308 See my Hibbert Lectures, p. 238, and Pinches, _Journal of the
Victoria Institute_, xxix. p. 44.

_ 309 WAI._ iv. 15, Col. ii. 5, 6.

310 So in _WAI._ iv. 25. 49, _an-sar ki-sar_ is translated “the hosts of
heaven and earth.” In _WAI._ v. 43. 27, the Sumerian “the divine
scribe, the creator of the hosts of earth,” is paraphrased by the
Semitic translator _Nabû pakid kissat samê u irtsiti_, “Nebo, the
captain of the hosts of heaven and earth.” For the Semite, the god
he worshipped was lord of the hosts of heaven as well as of the
spirits of the earth.