Chapter IV: Part 4

[17] For further details see Dr. Alfred Jeremias, who publishes the text of the passages here quoted and offers a literal German translation with editorial notes and other explanations. The conception of the document as set forth in the quoted passages is based upon the interpolation of Dr. Jeremias, which he justifies in his critical notes. Dr. Jeremias’s interpretation of the concluding words is justified by another cuneiform tablet which while relating a conjuration of the dead begins with the same description of Sheol as does the legend of Istar’s descent to Hell.

[18] The ancient poem of Istar’s descent to Hades has been cast into poetic form by Edward Gilchrist. See _The Monist_, April, 1912. (Vol. XXII, pp. 259-267.)

[19] The passages in brackets are mutilated in the original and the words are suggested by the context or sometimes by parallel passages.

[20] Perhaps the dress of wings is an expression of the belief that the soul is winged, found also in Egypt, where the soul of man is compared to a human-headed hawk, in which form it is at liberty to visit other places.

[21] Why the goddess Allatu proposes to weep is not quite clear. Perhaps it is a promise to have all the funeral rituals with their wailings and lamentations properly attended to for the sake of preventing further attempts at having the dead reclaimed.

[22] The goddess Allatu.

[23] _Uddusunâmir_ means “his light will illumine.” The significance of this being does not seem to be clear. Perhaps he is a mere puppet, an automaton to bear the curse of Allatu without suffering harm.

[24] The name of the great gods is the most powerful means of conjuration, and Ea alone, the god of unfathomable wisdom, seems to have command of it. The Babylonian origin of the Talmudic and cabalistic belief in the power of the mysterious name is fully established.

[25] The same gestures of grief are recorded in Jeremiah xxxi. 19 for the Hebrews, in Odyssey XXXI, 198 for the Greeks. In a similar way, we read of Ea in another document, “when he heard this he bit his lip” (cf. A. S. K. T., LXXXVI, 24).

[26] The context does not reveal why the Anunnaki, the seven evil spirits of Sheol, should be placed upon the golden throne.

[27] The significance of Belili’s breaking a precious utensil in the ritual of lamentation is not clear.

[28] From Woermann’s _Geschichte der Kunst_.

[29] For further details with regard to this relief see the author’s _The Bride of Christ_, p. 8.

[30] See the author’s article. “The Fish as a Mystic Symbol in China and Japan,” _The Open Court_, July, 1911.

[31] _Val_ means “the battle-field”; the name _Valkyrie_ designates “the one who chooses,” viz., the maiden of Odin who selects heroes for _Valhall_, the great hall of the god of battles. The root _Val_ is still preserved in the modern German word _Wahlstatt_, “place of battle.”

[32] See the author’s _Soul of Man_, pp. 399ff.

[33] Pronounce _Russakósh_. The name refers to the part he will play in the story; it means both “a ball of mercury,” and “a treasure of taste, wit, literary sentiments or flavors,” a sort of walking encyclopedia. The King’s companion is a salient figure in Hindu drama: he is a sort of Sancho Panza, minus the vulgarity and the humor.

[34] “A tree with orange-colored fragrant blossoms.”

[35] The Hindu Vulcan, sometimes, as here, used for the Creator, _dhatri_ = Plato’s δεμιοῡργος. Sanskrit literature is the key to Plato; much of his philosophy is only the moonlike reflection of Hindu mythology.

[36] Hindu poets see a resemblance between rows of bees and eye-glances.

[37] The Indian cuckoo. The crane is a by-word for inward villainy and sanctimonious exterior.

[38] The _chakrawáka_, or Brahmany drake, is fabled to pass the night sorrowing for the absence of his mate and she for him.

[39] בֵּיתאֵל

[40] Terra-cotta in Berlin Museum (Roscher, _Lex._, I, col. 407).

[41] See Pausanias 2, 10, 4.

[42] Cf. Roscher, _Lex._, I. cols. 411-412, and Preller. _Gr. M._, I, p. 383.

[43] See Roscher, _Lex._, I, col. 406, and _Monuments grecs_, Pl. 1.

[44] From Dr. William Ellery Leonard’s translation.