61, Professor Maspero gives “cake” as the original sense of _Ka_,
which, however, he explains as “a cake of earth,” and hence
“substance.”
25 Maspero, _Dawn of Civilisation_, p. 114. The Ka, however, is here
identified with the Khu, and it is questionable whether the passages
referred to in the Pyramid texts really embody old ideas which are
to be interpreted literally, or whether they are not rather to be
taken metaphorically.
26 Maspero, _Comptes rendus du Congrés provincial des Orientalistes à
Lyon_, 1878, pp. 235-263; Renouf, _Transactions of the Society of
Biblical Archæology_ (1879), vi. pp. 494-508.
27 This particular bird was chosen because its name was similar in
sound to that of the Khu. For the same reason the plover (_ba_)
denoted the Ba or soul. On objects found by de Morgan in the tomb of
Menes at Negada, the “soul” is represented by an ostrich.
28 See Chassinat, _Recueil_, xix. p. 23 sqq.
29 From the fifteenth to the eleventh century B.C., it was fashionable
to substitute for the bird a beetle with a ram’s head, the phonetic
value of the hieroglyph of ram being _ba_, and that of the beetle
_kheper_, “to become.”
30 Hermes Trismeg., _Pœmandres_, ed. Parthey, chs. i. and x.
_ 31 Études de Mythologie_, i. p. 166.
_ 32 De Abst._ iv. 10.
33 Cf. also Plutarch, _De Esu carnium Or._ ii. p. 996, and _Sept.
Sapient. Conviv._ p. 159 B.
34 The four vases were dedicated to the man-headed Amset (or Smet), the
jackal-headed Dua-mut-ef, the ape-headed Hâpi, and the hawk-headed
Qebḥ-sonu-f, who are identified with the planets in the Pyramid
texts (Maspero, “Pyramide du roi Ounas” in the _Recueil de Travaux_,
iii. p. 205).
35 See the Book of the Dead, chs. xxvi. and sqq.
36 It is still a moot question whether any scarabs go back to the age
of the Old Empire. Personally, I am inclined to agree with Prof.
Flinders Petrie in thinking that they do so.
37 Or, according to Renouf’s translation: “Pleasant unto us, pleasant
unto the listener, is the joy of the weighing of the words.”
38 Three grains of the natron of the city of Nekheb had to be used,
while only two grains of that of the north were required (Maspero,
“Pyramide du roi Ounas” in the _Recueil de Travaux_, iii. p. 182).
The Horus of Nekhen, opposite El-Kab, was represented by a mummified
hawk (_akhem_).
39 De Morgan, _Recherches sur les Origines de l’Égypte_, ii. pl. iii.
line 2.
_ 40 Zeitschrift für Aegyptische Sprache_, xxxvi. pls. xii. and xiii.;
Quibell, _Hierakonpolis_, pt. i. pl. xxix.
41 Professor Maspero, however, proposes to see in them a symbol of the
king of Upper Egypt destroying a hostile city.
_ 42 Recueil de Travaux_, xxi. pp. 116, 117. Dr. Naville points out that
on the Palermo Stela the festival of the Shesh-Hor, with the
determinative of a sacred bark, occurs repeatedly in that part of
the inscription which relates to the festivals of the kings of the
first two dynasties. Professor Petrie has found the same festival
mentioned on two ivory tablets from the tomb of a king of the First
Dynasty at Abydos (Petrie, _The Royal Tombs of the First Dynasty_,
pt, i. pl. xvii.); and it may be added that in the Pyramid texts
(_Pepi_ 670; _Recueil de Travaux_, viii. p. 105) the Mât or Mâdit
bark of the sun-god is identified with the bark of the Shesh-Hor,
while the Semkett or bark in which the sun-god voyages at night
becomes a bark in which the place of the hawk is taken by a picture
of the ben or tomb of Osiris—here identified with that of Akhem the
mummified hawk, which forms part of the symbol for the Thinite nome.
Elsewhere it is the Semkett or day-bark of the sun which is
identified with the festival of the Shesh-Hor (_Recueil de Travaux_,
iii. p. 205).
43 On the _mesnitiu_ or “blacksmiths” of Horus, see Maspero, _Études de
Mythologie_, ii. p. 313 and sqq. The _Mesnit_ or “Forge” was the
name given to the passage opening into the shrine of the temple of
Edfu.
44 Quibell, _Hierakonpolis_, pt. i. pl. ii.
45 See de Rougé, _Recherches sur les Monuments qu’on peut attribuer aux
six premières dynasties_, pp. 44, 45.
46 Mr. Quibell found a large bronze hawk with a head of solid gold and
eyes of obsidian along with two bronze figures of Pepi, in the
foundation of the temple of Nekhen (Kom el-Aḥmar); see Quibell,
_Hierakonpolis_, pt. i. pl. xlii. Hor-nubi, “the golden Horus,” was
the god of the Antæopolite nome.
47 The 1st (Ombite) and 2nd (Apollinopolite) nomes, the 3rd nome
(originally) with its capital Nekhen, the nomes of the “Eastern and
Western Horus” (Tuphium and Asphynis), Qus “the city of Horus the
elder,” the 5th (Coptite) nome, the 6th nome of Dendera in so far as
Hathor was daughter and husband of Horus, the 10th (Antæopolite) and
12th (Hierakopolite) nomes, and finally the 15th, 18th, and 20th
(Herakleopolite) nomes. In the Delta also Horus was god of the 3rd,
5th, 7th, 8th, 11th, 19th, 25th, 27th, and 30th nomes, of which the
7th and 8th were close to the Asiatic frontier.
48 When this emblem was first invented we do not know; it probably goes
back to the præ-Menic period, like the composite animals on the
early monuments of Nekhen and Abydos. Its first dateable occurrence
is on a boulder of granite in the island of Elephantinê above the
name and figure of Unas of the Fifth Dynasty. It is also engraved
above the double figure of an Old Empire king on a great isolated
rock near El-Kab, which is probably of the same date. The tablet on
which it is engraved faces south-east.
49 Hor-merti, “Horus of the two eyes,” was worshipped at Shedennu in
the Pharbæthite nome of the Delta. Grébaut’s view, that the two eyes
originally represented the light, seems to me too abstract a
conception for an early period (_Recueil de Travaux_, pp. 72-87,
112-131). In the Pyramid texts (_Rec._ iv. p. 42), mention is made
of Horus with “the blue eyes.”
50 Cf. Sayce, _TSBA._, Nov. 1898. In one case the name of the god is
written _Kha-ar_. In _WAI._ ii. 55. 36, Khur-galzu, “Horus, thou art
great!” is given as the name of a Sumerian goddess.
51 Nin-ip was identified with the planet Saturn, like “Horus the bull.”
52 It was then that the two obelisks were erected in front of the
temple by Usertesen I., which caused it to be known as Hât-Benbeni,
“the house of the two obelisks.”
53 The members of the Ennead of Heliopolis or On are named in the
Pyramid texts (_Pepi_ ii. 666) Tum, Shu, Tefnut, Seb, Nut, Osiris,
Isis, Set, and Nebhât.
54 See his _Études de Mythologie et d’Archéologie égyptiennes_, ii. p.
337 sqq.
55 Similarly, on early Babylonian seal-cylinders the leaves of the
folding doors through which the sun-god comes forth at daybreak are
surmounted by lions. See the illustration in King, _Babylonian
Religion and Mythologie_, p. 32. (The genuineness of this cylinder
has been questioned without good reason.)
56 The wife occasionally provided for Asshur by the scribes was a mere
grammatical abstraction, like Tumt, the feminine of Tum, whose name
is now and then met with in late Egyptian texts.
57 One of the old formulæ embedded in the Pyramid texts (_Teta_ 86)
reads like a passage from a Sumerian hymn: “Hail to thee, great deep
(_ageb_), moulder of the gods, creator of men.” It belongs to
Babylonia rather than to Egypt, where the “great deep” could have
been a matter only of tradition.
58 See Petrie, _Medum_, p. 30.
59 The existence of other cities of the name in Upper Egypt, “On of the
south,” now Erment, and On, now Dendera, shows that it must go back
to the earliest epoch of Pharaonic Egypt. I believe that it is the
Sumerian _unu_, “city,” and that the column which represented it
hieroglyphically denoted “a foundation” or “settlement.”
60 It will be shown in a future lecture that Osiris was the mummified
Anher. One is tempted to ask whether Ptaḥ is not similarly the
mummified Tum?
_ 61 Études de Mythologie et d’Archéologie égyptiennes_, ii. p. 270 sqq.
62 This has been proved by a stela of Antef IV. of the Eleventh
Dynasty, discovered by M. Legrain in 1900, in the temple of Ptaḥ.
Khonsu was a mere epithet of the moon-god, meaning “wanderer.” In a
later age Khonsu was himself superseded by Mentu.
63 For the architectural plan of the temple, see Erman, _Life in
Ancient Egypt_, Eng. tr., p. 287.
64 Erman, _Life in Ancient Egypt_, Eng. tr., p. 262.
65 Another strophe of the Hymn to Aten, as translated by Professor
Breasted (_De Hymnis in Solem sub rege Amenophide __IV.__
conceptis_, p. 47), is equally explicit: “Thou hast created the
earth according to thy pleasure, when thou wast alone, both all men
and the cattle great and small; all who walk upon the earth, those
on high who fly with wings; the foreign lands of Syria (_Khar_) and
Cush as well as the land of Egypt; each in its place thou
appointest, thou providest them with all that they need; each has
his granary, his stores of grain are counted. Diverse are the
languages of men, more different than their shape is the colour of
their skin, (for) thou hast distinguished the nations of the world
(one from the other).” In the succeeding strophe the monotheism of
the worshipper of Aten, in whose eyes even the sacred Nile was the
creature of the one true God, appears in striking contrast to the
ordinary polytheism of Egypt (Breasted, _l.c._ p. 53): “Thou
createst the Nile in the other world, thou bringest it at thy
pleasure to give life to mankind; for thou hast made them for
thyself, O lord of them all who art ever with them, O lord of all
the earth who risest for them, O sun of day (the mighty one in?) the
remotest lands, thou givest them their life, thou sendest forth the
Nile in heaven, that it may descend for them; it raises its waves
mountain high like the sea, it waters the fields of their cities.
How glorious are thy counsels! O lord of eternity, thou art a Nile
in heaven for foreign men and cattle throughout all the earth! They
walk on their feet, (and) the Nile cometh to Egypt from the other
world.”
66 Diod. Sic. i. 83.
67 Except in the case of Osiris at Abydos; Petrie, _The Royal Tombs of
the First Dynasty_, pt. i. pl. xv. 16; comp. also at Kom el-Aḥmar,
_Hierakonpolis_, pt. i. pl. xxvi. B, though here it seems to be the
Pharaoh who is represented.
68 Quibell in the _Zeitschrift für Aegyptische Sprache_, xxxvi. pls.
xii., xiii.; _Hierakonpolis_, pt. i. pl. xxix.
69 On a stela in the Wadi Maghara, in the Sinaitic Peninsula, Sahu-Ra
of the Fifth Dynasty, divided into two figures, one with the crown
of Lower Egypt the other with that of Upper Egypt, is standing
before a standard on which are the two emblems of Southern and
Northern Egypt, Set and Horus. Set is represented by his usual
animal, but Horus by an uræus serpent and the same symbol as that on
the plaque (de Morgan, _Recherches sur les Origines de l’Égypte_, i.
p. 233). As we learn from the legend of Seb recounted at At-Nebes
(Saft el-Henna), the two relics preserved there were the uræus and
lock of hair of Ra. The lock of hair has practically the same form
as the symbol we are considering here, and long before the legend
had been concocted, Ra and Horus had been identified together (see
Griffith, _Antiquities of Tell el-Yahudiyeh, Seventh Memoir of the
Egypt Exploration Fund_, pl. xxiii.).
70 De Morgan, _Recherches sur les Origines de l’Égypte_, ii. pls. ii.
and iii.; Sayce in the _Proceedings of the Society of Biblical
Archæology_, Feb. 1898. It will be noticed that Thoth is represented
by the ibis and not by the ape.
71 De Morgan, _Recherches sur les Origines de l’Égypte_, p. 93.
72 For late examples of the worship of animals like the cat, ram,
swallow, or goose, as animals and not as incarnations of an official
god, see Maspero, _Études de Mythologie et d’Archéologie
égyptiennes_, ii. p. 395 sqq. The rarity of them is due to their
representing private and domestic cults not recognised by the
religion of the State. “The worship of the swallow, cat, and goose,
which had commenced as the pure and simple adoration of these
creatures in themselves, always remained so for the multitude. We
must not forget that Orientals regard beasts somewhat differently
from ourselves. They ascribe to them a language, a knowledge of the
future, an extreme acuteness of the senses which allows them to
perceive objects and beings invisible to man. It was not, indeed,
all Egypt that worshipped in the beast the beast itself; but a
considerable part of it which belonged almost entirely to the same
social condition, and represented pretty much the same moral and
intellectual ideas.”
73 See Wiedemann, _Die Religion der alten Aegypten_, pp. 108, 109.
74 Late inscriptions call Bakh or Bakis “the living soul of Ra,” but
this was when Mentu and Ra had been identified together. Stelæ of
the Roman period, however, from Erment represent the sacred bull
without any solar emblem, while by the side of it stands a
hawk-headed crocodile crowned with the orb of the sun. It is
possible that the latter may be connected with the hawk-headed
crocodile, with the orb of the sun on its head and an uræus serpent
at the end of its tail, which in Greek _graffiti_ at Philæ is called
Ptiris.
75 Nicolaus Damascen., _Fr._ 128, ed. Müller.
76 De Rougé, _Monnaies de nomes_, p. 46.
77 Griffith (_Proc. of Society of Biblical Archæology_, xxi. p. 278)
has recently proposed to see in Deḥuti a derivative from the name of
the nome Deḥut, like Anzti, the title of Osiris at Busiris, from the
name of the nome Anzet. But this is “putting the cart before the
horse.” It was not the nomes that were birds or men, but the deities
worshipped in them. Anz (perhaps from the Semitic _’az_, “the strong
one”) meant “king,” and represented the human Osiris.
78 Plutarch, _De Iside et Osiride_, ed. Leemans, lxxii. p. 126.
_ 79 Zeitschrift für Aegyptische Sprache_ (1880) p. 50.
_ 80 Rev. Archéologique_, xxxiv. p. 291. On the seal-cylinder they are
accompanied by the lion-headed eagle of primitive Babylonian art.
The Egyptian figures are given in the _Zeitschrift für Aegyptische
Sprache_, xxxvi. pl. xii.
_ 81 Ep. ad Cor._ 25.
82 See also Herodotos, ii. 73; Pliny, _N. H._ x. 2; Tertullian, _De
Resurr._ 13.
83 De Morgan, _Recherches sur les Origines de l’Égypte_, ii. p. 165.
84 Sayce, _Proc. SBA._, Feb. 1898, No. 8. On a monument discovered at
Sân (Petrie, _Tanis_, pt. ii. pl. x. 170), we read of “Horus in the
_bennu_ as a black bull,” “Horus in the _bennu_ as a horned bull.”
The cemetery of Tanis was called “the city of the phœnix” (_bennu_).
At Edfu it is said that the phœnix (_bennu_) “comes forth from the
holy heart” of Osiris.
85 On a stela in the Louvre a certain Psamtik, son of Uza-Hor, calls
himself prophet of Khufu, Khaf-Ra, and Dadef-Ra, as well as of
Tanen, Isis, and Harmakhis.
86 The versification is Canon Rawnsley’s, _Notes for the Nile_, pp.
188, 189. Professor Erman’s literal translation is as follows (_Life
in Ancient Egypt_, Eng. tr., pp. 386, 387)—
“I heard the words of Imhotep and Har-dad-ef,
Who both speak thus in their sayings:
‘Behold the dwellings of those men, their walls fall down,
Their place is no more,
They are as though they had never existed.’
No one comes from thence to tell us what is become of them,
Who tells us how it goes with them, who nerves our hearts,
Until you yourselves approach the place whither they are gone.
With joyful heart forget not to glorify thyself
And follow thy heart’s desire, so long as thou livest.
Put myrrh on thy head, clothe thyself in fine linen,
Anointing thyself with the marvellous things of God.
Adorn thyself as beautifully as thou canst,
And let not thy heart be discouraged.
Follow thy heart’s desire and thy pleasures
As long as thou livest on earth.
Follow thy heart’s desire and thy pleasures
Till there comes to thee the day of mourning.
Yet he, whose heart is at rest, hears not their complaint,
And he who lies in the tomb understands not their mourning.
With beaming face keep holiday to-day,
And rest not therein.
For none carries his goods away with him,
Yea, none returns again, who has journeyed thither.”
87 Brugsch’s translation (_Die Aegyptologie_, i. p. 163).
88 Hibbert Lectures on the _Religion of Ancient Egypt_ (1879), pp.
93-100.
89 Brugsch, _Die Aegyptologie_, p. 167.
90 See _Beni-Hasan_, pt. iii. (_Archæological Survey of Egypt_), pl. v.
fig. 75.
91 The double-headed axe is carved repeatedly on the walls of the
“palace of Minos,” discovered by Dr. A. J. Evans at Knossos, and
seems to have been the divine symbol which was believed to protect
the building from injury. On the coins of Tarsus the sun-god Sandan
carries an axe.
92 See above, p. 83.
_ 93 De Isid._ 12.
94 As Thoth writes the name of the king upon the sacred sycamore in
order to ensure him everlasting life, so the name of Ea is written
upon the core of the sacred cedar-tree (_WAI._ iv. 15, _Rev._
10-13); Sayce, Hibbert Lectures on the _Religion of the Ancient
Babylonians_, p. 240.
_ 95 Études de Mythologie et d’Archéologie égyptiennes_, ii. pp.
381-385.
96 This is Brugsch’s translation (_Religion und Mythologie der alten
Aegypter_, p. 123 sqq.); but the meaning of the last name is
doubtful, and the first is rather “time” than “eternity.”
97 See Maspero, _Études de Mythologie et d’Archéologie_, ii. pp. 257
sqq. and 375 sqq. In an inscription discovered by Professor Petrie
in the tombs of the first two dynasties at Abydos, Thoth is
represented as a seated ape (_The Royal Tombs of Abydos_, pt. i. pl.
xvii. 26). On the other hand, on the broken Abydos slate figured in
de Morgan, _Recherches sur les Origines de l’Égypte_, pl. ii., which
is probably prehistoric, Thoth appears as an ibis.
_ 98 Recherches sur les Origines de l’Égypte_, p. 65.
99 Maspero, _Études de Mythologie et d’Archéologie_, p. 429 sqq.
100 The same cap is worn by the god who sits behind a scorpion-man on a
stone containing a grant of land by the Babylonian king
Nebuchadrezzar I. (B.C. 1100). The stone was found at Abu-Habba, and
is now in the British Museum (_WAI._ v. 57).
101 Maspero (_Dawn of Civilisation_, p. 157) reproduces a picture in the
temple of Luxor representing Khnum moulding Amon-hotep III. and his
_Ka_ on a potter’s table.
102 See Scheil, _Recueil de Travaux_, xx. p. 124 sqq.
103 The _khnum_ or “pot” is often used to express the name of Khnum in
the hieroglyphics. It reminds us of the vase on early Babylonian
seal-cylinders from the two sides of which flow the rivers Tigris
and Euphrates, and which is often held in the hands of the water-god
Ea. The design is reproduced with modifications on early Syrian
cylinders, and the name of the zodiacal sign Aquarius shows to what
an antiquity it must reach back. The primitive Egyptians believed
that the Nile issued from a grotto to which the _qerti_ or “two
gulfs” of the Cataract gave access (Maspero, _Dawn of Civilisation_,
pp. 19, 38, 39), and Khnum was the god of the Cataract. Perhaps the
classical representation of the Tiber and other rivers holding urns
from which a stream of water flows is derived from Egypt.
104 Men-nofer (Memphis), “the good place,” is the equivalent of the name
of the ancient seaport of Babylonia, Eridu, the Sumerian Eri-duga or
“good city.” Ea, the culture-god and creator, was the god of Eridu.
In the Deluge tablet (l. 9) Ea says that he had not “opened (_patû_)
the oracle of the great gods.” It is hardly worth while to mention
that the antiquity of Memphis has been disputed by some
philologists.
105 Ptaḥ is stated in the Book of the Dead to have been the original
author of the ceremony which he first performed on the dead gods.
106 This is Maspero’s view (_Études de Mythologie et d’Archéologie_, ii.
pp. 21, 22). Wiedemann (_Religion der alten Aegypter_, p. 75) makes
Sokaris a sun-god; but his solar attributes belong to the time when
he was identified with Ra of Heliopolis.
107 It was only when the sun-god had absorbed the other deities that
they became the children of Ra.
_ 108 Recueil de Travaux_, xix. pp. 50, 54.
109 To “come in peace” is still a common expression in Egyptian Arabic,
and means “to return safely.” The name seems to be taken from the
office of Im-hotep, which was to conduct the dead safely back to a
second life.
110 Nofer-Tum and Im-hotep had human forms like their father. The first
is a man with a lotus flower on the head, the second a youth with a
papyrus roll on the knee.
111 There was a difference only in the vowel of the first syllable.
112 The Nile-gods, representing the Nile and the canals, are depicted as
stout men with large breasts, crowned with flowers, and wearing only
the narrow girdle of prehistoric Egypt. The human form agrees well
with the fact that the Nile was first engineered, and so made a
source of life for Egypt, by the Pharaonic Egyptians. Babylonia was
the country, it must be remembered, where river engineering and
irrigation were originally developed.
113 “Hymn to the Nile,” translated by P. Guieysse, _Records of the
Past_, new series, iii. p. 46 sqq. The hymn was composed by Anna or
Annana in the time of Meneptah II.
114 Brugsch, _Religion und Mythologie_, pp. 3, 248, 348.
115 Her name is already mentioned in the Pyramid texts, and in _Pepi_
ii. 131 she is described as the eye of Horus and “the opener of the
paths,” the ordinary title of Anubis as god of the dead.
116 In the Speos Artermidos near Beni-Hassan, where a large cemetery of
mummified cats has been found, she is called Pakht, an older form of
Bast.
117 On a slab discovered by Professor Petrie at Koptos, Usertesen I. of
the Twelfth Dynasty already appears standing before a cat-headed
goddess who is called “Bast, the lady of Shel.” Shel is perhaps
Ashel at Karnak, where the temple of Mut stood, in which so many
figures of Bast or Sekhet have been found (Petrie, _Koptos_, pl. x.
2). The name of Bast also occurs in the Pyramid texts (_Pepi_ 290);
but here it is an epithet of Uazit, the goddess of Dep or Buto, once
the capital of the kingdom of Northern Egypt, who is contrasted with
the goddess of Nekheb.
118 Naville, _Bubastis_ (_Egypt Exploration Fund_), i. pp. 44, 47, 48.
119 Horus Ahi. The meaning of Ahi, the local title assigned to Horus the
younger, is doubtful.
120 Thus at Dendera we read: “Ancestral mother of the gods, thou unitest
thyself with thy father Ra in thy festal chamber.”
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.
311 It is possible that the Hebrew Urim and Thummim were really
connected with the Babylonian “tablets of destiny.” The latter were
fastened “on the breast,” according to the Epic of the Creation,
like the Urim and Thummim of the Israelitish high priest. In _WAI._
iv. 18, No. 3, Ea describes a sort of magical breastplate, made of
gold, which was to be set with precious stones and fastened to the
breast. Nine stones are named, which seem to have been carved into
figures of the gods, like Egyptian amulets, since they are said to
be “the flesh of the gods.” Professor Zimmern even suggests
(_Beiträge zur Kenntniss der babylonischen Religion_, p. 91) that
Urim is to be identified with the Assyrian _urtu_, a synonym of
_tertu_ (_tôrâh_), “instruction” or “law.”
312 Compare the “ladder” of Jacob (Gen. xxviii. 12). A similar staircase
or ladder is represented on the conical or egg-shaped stone which
symbolised the moon-god of Harran (_e.g._ Lajard, _Culte de Mithra_,
54, 4).
_ 313 En-me_, literally, “lord of the voice,” appears to have been
pronounced _ên_ in Sumerian, since the Semitic _ênu_ was borrowed
from it. The word has the same root as _ên_, “an incantation,” and
the _ênu_ denoted the priest who “recited” the incantatory ritual.
He may thus be compared with the Egyptian _kher-heb_. There was an
_ênu_ or “chanter of Istar,” whose technical name was _ukurrim_, and
another of Ea, “the holy father,” who was called the _sennu_. The
incantatory formulæ, it must be remembered, relate for the most part
to Ea and Istar. Another class of the _ênu_ was called _sailu_, “the
magian,” in Assyrian (literally, “the questioner” of the spirits who
may have practised ventriloquism); in Sumerian the name may be read
_ên-lil_, “the chanter of the _lil_.”
314 I can still see no better etymology for _dimmer_, _dingir_, “god,”
than the one I proposed in my Hibbert Lectures (p. 143), viz. _dim_,
“to create” or “make.” From the same root we have _dim_ or _dimma_,
“offspring” (_WAI._ v. 29. 71), which illustrates the antithesis
between the Sumerian who regarded generation as an act of creation,
and the Semite who regarded creation as an act of generation. In
_WAI._ ii. 47. 29, _dim_ takes the place of _dumu_, “son.” _Dimme_
and _dimmea_ show that in _dimmer_ the final consonant is a suffix.
_ 315 WAI._ ii. 55. 27, iv. 25. 40. I have retained here the ordinary
rendering of “gazelle” for the Assyrian _ditanu_, though it is more
probable that its Sumerian equivalent _elim_ (perhaps the Heb.
_âyîl_) means “ram.” At all events _elim_ is given as _kuṡarikku_ or
“ram” in Sc. 315. But there is a difficulty about the god to whom
the name was originally applied. In _WAI._ ii. 55. 31-33, “the
princely _elim_,” “the mighty _elim_,” and “the earth-creating
_elim_” are given as names of Ea; whereas in _WAI._ v. 21. 11,
_elim_ is a synonym of the god Aṡari, and in Sc. 312 it is the
equivalent of El-lil. As “the ship” or ark of Ea was “the ship of
the antelope of the deep,” Ea must have been the antelope
(_turakhu_) rather than the ram or gazelle; and I believe,
therefore, that the transference of what was properly the name of
El-lil to Asari and Ea was due to the confusion that grew up between
El-lil after his transformation into the Semitic Bel and Asari after
his transformation into the Semitic Bel-Merodach. The ideograph
which denotes _elim_ represents a quadruped, sometimes with an eye,
sometimes with the ideograph of sheep, attached to it.
_ 316 WAI._ v. 52, Col. iv. 8.
317 Perhaps, however, the “divine seven” was descended from the seven
gods who were sons of En-me-sarra, according to _WAI._ iv. 23, No.
1. En-me-sarra means “the incantation-priest of the (heavenly)
hosts” (_ênu sa kissati_), and his “sons” therefore remind us of Job
xxxviii. 7. It will not be forgotten that Philo Byblius made “the
seven sons of Sydyk, the Kabeiri, with their eighth brother
Asklêpios (Ashmûn),” the first writers of history (Euseb. _Prœp.
evang._ i. 10).
318 It has been edited and translated by Tallqvist, _Die Assyrische
Beschwörungsserie Maqlû_ (1894), who calculates that it contained
1550 lines, or more than 9000 words.
319 The whole work is in the metrical form characteristic of Semitic
Babylonian. It has been edited by Zimmern, _Beiträge zur Kenntniss
der babylonischen Religion; Die Beschwörungstafeln Shurpu_ (1896).
320 Isa. viii. 19. The beginning, for instance, of the second book of
the Maqlû collection had to be recited in a whisper before a wax
image.
321 As the title of the latter work is sometimes written UD-MA AN EN-LIL
as well as UD AN EN-LIL, the real translation may be “when
(_enu-ma_) Bel,” rather than “Illumination (_namaru_) of Bel,” these
having been the opening words of the first tablet. Since, however,
it was translated into Greek by Berossos as a work of “Bel” (Seneca,
_Quæst. Nat._ iii. 29), the name assigned to it in the text is on
the whole to be preferred.
_ 322 WAI._ iv. 19, No. 2.
_ 323 WAI._ iv. 28, No. 1.
324 Literally, “the prophetdom” or “college of prophets” (_isipputi_).
_ 325 WAI._ v. 4. 86-91.
_ 326 Terêti_, the Heb. _thôrâh_. The laws which the gods have to obey
are meant.
327 Gilgames seems to mean “great father,” from _gilga_, “father,” and
_mes_, _i.e._ _mas_, “great.”
_ 328 Hist. Anim._ xii. 21. Sokkaros, king of Babylonia, fearing that his
daughter’s son would dethrone and slay him, imprisoned her in a
tower. Gilgamos, however, was born to her. By his grandfather’s
orders he was thrown from the tower, but saved by an eagle, which
caught him upon its wings. Philologically it is possible to identify
Sokkaros and Akris-ios.
329 Hilprecht, _The Babylonian Expedition of the University of
Pennsylvania_, i. 15. 26; Hommel in the _Proc. SBA._ xvi. pp. 13-15.
The inscription is as follows: “The deified Abil-ili(?), father of
the army of Erech, the son of Bel-semea, has restored the walls of
Erech, which were built in old times by the deified Gilgames.”
330 Professor Haupt, however, to whom we owe the “editio princeps” of
the Epic of Gilgames, believes that the description of the siege of
Erech does not belong to the Epic at all. He finds the beginning of
it in the fragment K 2756 c, generally assigned to the third book of
the poem. See his article on “The Beginning of the Babylonian Nimrod
Epic” in the “Johns Hopkins Semitic Papers” (_Journal of the
American Oriental Society_, xxii. 1 (1901)).
331 As Berossos has told us what was the pronunciation of the name of
the hero of the Chaldean Deluge, the disputes of modern
Assyriologists as to whether it was Pir-napistim or the like are but
labour lost. The true analysis of the name Xisuthros is still
unknown, though it is possible, but not probable, that George Smith
was right in seeing in it a metathesis of the title Adra-khasis
applied to several of the early Babylonian heroes. Adra-khasis means
“the very clever,” reminding us of “Mohammed the clever” in modern
Egyptian folk-lore.
_ 332 ´Samtu_, Heb. _shohem_ (Gen. ii. 12).
333 So Hommel, who is probably right in seeing in the word the name of
Saba in Southern Arabia.
334 Zimmern, indeed, has suggested that this latter text belongs to the
legend of Atarpi, which, however, has unfortunately come down to us
in so mutilated a condition that no certain interpretation of it is
possible. The discoverer of the tablet is more probably right in
connecting it with the story of the Flood.
335 Who here takes the place of Aruru.
336 The words “I will no longer dwell in your city, and turn my face
toward the ground of En-lil,” imply that Surippak was not far from
Nippur.
337 The mountain of Nizir was in the country called Lulubi or Luluwi by
the Assyrians, Lulu in the Vannic inscriptions. In the bilingual
inscription of Topzawa, Lulu is made the equivalent of the Assyrian
Urardhu, the Hebrew Ararat.
338 See my _Early History of the Hebrews_, p. 122 sqq.
_ 339 Loc. cit._, p. 126.
_ 340 Schöpfung und Chaos in Urzeit und Endzeit_ (1895).
341 It should be noticed that, as the voyage of Xisuthros lasted for a
Babylonian week of seven nights, so the voyage of Deukalion lasted
for a Greek week of nine days. Ogyges is but a local variant of
Deukalion.
342 See Meissner, _Alexander und Gilgamos_ (1894).
343 See my Hibbert Lectures, pp. 360-363, where the various passages
relating to the Babylonian Olympos are quoted.
344 The land of Arallu or Hades.
345 This, however, is rather the “holy mound” of waters, in which Ea had
his home, than the inland mountain of En-lil.
_ 346 Ur_ is the Sumerian word for “zone.” It is translated by _arâru_,
“to bind”; _etsêdu_, “to bind the sheaves” for harvest; and
_khamâmu_, “to bind” or “fix” laws.
347 From Mr. Smith’s words it is difficult to determine whether the
gates were in the first or second court, or whether (as seems the
more probable) the tablet intended us to understand that the gates
belonged to both courts.
348 The first stage was 300 feet square and 110 feet high, while the
topmost was 80 feet long by 70 broad and 50 high.
349 For the shewbread, see Zimmern, _Beiträge zur Kenntniss der
babylonischen Religion_, pp. 94, 95; and Haupt, “Babylonian Elements
in the Levitic Ritual,” p. 59 (_Journal of Biblical Literature_,
1900). Sometimes six dozen cakes were laid before the god, sometimes
three dozen, more often only one dozen, as among the Israelites. The
shewbread is called _akal pani_, which is the exact equivalent of
the Hebrew _lekhem happânîm_; and Professor Haupt has pointed out
that it was required to be unleavened (_mutqu_).
350 Cp. Gen. xi. 5.
351 The Sumerian _du_ has, of course, nothing to do with the Semitic
Babylonian _dû_, “a chapel” (unless, indeed, the latter is borrowed
from the Sumerian word). It is properly the equivalent of _tilu_, “a
mound” or “hill”; but as the _tilu_ or _tel_ was generally
inhabited, it came further to acquire the signification of _subtu_,
“a dwelling-place.”
_ 352 WAI._ v. 50. i. 5; 41. 1, _Rev._ 18.
353 See above, p. 374, note 1.
_ 354 Samassumukin_, ii. pp. 47-51. Nebuchadrezzar calls the Du-azagga,
“the place of the oracles of the Ubsu-ginna, the mercy-seat of
destinies, which on the festival of the New Year (Zag-muku), on the
eighth and eleventh days,” Bel announces before the assembled gods.
Jensen (_Kosmologie der Babylonier_, pp. 239-242) first pointed out
that the Ubsu-ginna was “the assembly-place” of the gods, which was
located in or upon Ê-kur, “the Mountain of the World” (_WAI._ iv.
63. 17.). It thus corresponds with “the mount of the Assembly” of
Isa. xiv. 13, and illustrates the combination of the theology of
Eridu with that of Nippur.
_ 355 WAI._ iv. 23, No. 1, translated in my Hibbert Lectures, p. 495.
356 De Sarzec, _Découvertes en Chaldée_, pp. 216, 217.
357 The _sangu_ was called _êbar_ in Sumerian, with which the name of
Eber in Gen. xi. 15 may possibly be compared.
358 Not “astrologers,” as has sometimes been supposed. _Kalû_ is
borrowed from the Sumerian _kal_, as _makhkhû_ is from _makh_. At
their head was the _abba-kalla_, _aba-kul_, or _ab-gal_, a word
which under the first form is used as a proper name in early
Babylonian texts. Assyrian colonists carried it to Kappadokia, and
Strabo accordingly tells us that the high priest of Komana was
called Abaklês. A Hellenised form of the title, Bakêlos, is given by
Hesychius, who renders it by “the grandee” and “the gallos-priest”
(see my note in the _Proc. SBA._ xxiii. p. 106). _Abgal_ is stated
to be the equivalent not only of the borrowed Assyrian _abkallu_,
but also of _bil terti_, “master of the law”; _khassu_ and _imqu_,
“the learned one” (like the Arabic _’alim_); and _mar ummani_, “the
craftsman” or “professional” (_WAI._ v. 13. 37-42). The relation of
_kalû_ to _gallu_ (Sumerian _kal_ and _galla_), “a servant,” is not
yet clear, though it must be remembered that the _gallos_ was the
“servant” of Kybelê. On the use of _kal_, “servant” in the Sumerian
texts, see Reisner, _Tempelurkunden aus Telloh_, pp. 20, 21.
359 So in a text quoted in my Hibbert Lectures, p. 81, “like Bel on the
mercy-seat of the destinies the prophecy shall be uttered, this
shall be said: ‘Bel has come forth, the king has looked after me.’ ”
A special class of “prophets” bore the name of _masmas_ (whence
_masmasu_ in Assyrian), which is translated _mullilu_, “the praiser”
of the gods (Heb. _hillêl_).
360 See my Hibbert Lectures, p. 79.
361 Ê-kua and Mâ-Kua, _bit-assaputi_ and _elip-assaputi_ in Semitic.
Jastrow mistranslates “dwelling-house” instead of “oracle” or
“prophecy”; the true meaning of the word was already discovered by
Oppert in the early days of cuneiform decipherment.
362 The _sabrû_ was distinct from the _barû_, whose name seems to have a
more general signification, and Professor Haupt is probably right in
regarding it as the _shaphel_ form of the latter. He gives _barû_,
however, too wide a meaning when he makes it denote a “diviner” of
every kind and sort. It is true that magic was taken under the ægis
of Babylonian theology, and that just as the _asipi_ or “prophets”
might be made to include the “enchanters” and “pronouncers” of
spells, so the _bari_ might include those who sought to divine the
future by examining the entrails of victims or by means of a cup
(cp. Gen. xliv. 5). But, properly speaking, the _barû_, like the
_sabrû_, “revealed” the future by means of dreams. Haupt’s
correction of _baddîm_ into _bârîm_, “diviners,” in Isa. xliv. 25
and Jer. l. 36, is brilliant (_Babylonian Elements in the Levitic
Ritual_, p. 57). The Sumerian equivalent of _barû_ is KHAL (or more
correctly _âkhal_); that of _sabrû_, PA-AL, where PA means “the
official.”
363 Thureau-Dangin, “Tablettes chaldéennes inédites,” in the _Revue
d’Assyriologie_, iv. 3, pl. xiii. 40, _Obv._
364 So too was a person of illegitimate birth, as has been pointed out
by Haupt (_Journal of Biblical Literature_ (1900), p. 57).
365 J. D. Price in the _Journal of the American Oriental Society_, xxi.
2, pp. 1-22. In the hemerology published in _WAI._ iv. 32, the
animal mentioned in col. 1, line 3, is not a gazelle, as I have
supposed in my Hibbert Lectures, p. 70, but a “goat” (Sumerian
_sikku_, Assyrian _sapparu_).
366 There is no question here of a scape-goat or anything similar. The
word “offspring” is _uritsu_, which is the regular equivalent of Bir
“suboles.” The addition of the words _sa amiluti_, “of mankind,”
confines it in this case to man. Already, in 1875, in my _Elementary
Assyrian Grammar_ (p. 123), I pointed out that it was connected with
the Arabic warats, which I see (like many other things of the same
sort) has recently been announced as a new discovery. The verb
_ittadin_, by the way, is an Iphteal, not a Niphal, and therefore
cannot be translated as a passive.
367 De Sarzec, _Découvertes en Chaldée_, iv. 1, pl. 4 _bis_. This was in
the time of king E-anna-du. A bas-relief of the time of Entemena on
the same plate, 5 _bis_ (_3b_), represents what may also be a human
sacrifice, one naked captive lying on the ground already slain,
while another is being led to execution.
368 References are given in Jastrow, _Religion of Babylonia and
Assyria_, p. 666.
369 The tithe was paid on the 5th of Ab; on the 16th of Tammuz, nineteen
days earlier, Gobryas had entered Babylon with the soldiers of
Cyrus.
370 A more comprehensive term was _ginû_, “the fixed offering,” which
included not only the daily sacrifices, but all other stated
sacrifices as well.
371 See my Hibbert Lectures, p. 72, note 2.
_ 372 WAI._ i. 65, ii. 19-21; 54. iii. 48-50. See Trumbull, _The
Threshold Covenant_, pp. 110, 116.
373 Cp. Lev. v. 7, 11.
374 Haupt, _Babylonian Elements in the Levitic Ritual_, pp. 60, 61.
375 Zimmern, _Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Babylonischen Religion_, p.
127.
_ 376 L.c._, p. 88, note 2.
377 On the early Babylonian calendar, see Radau, _Early Babylonian
History_, pp. 287-307.
378 The real reading of the god’s name is unknown. He was identified
with Nin-ip (_WAI._ ii. 57. 68), the sun of the south (_WAI._ ii.
57. 51), and therefore the midday sun—not the morning sun, as has
recently been maintained. Nin-ip was the messenger or “angel” of
El-lil of Nippur, and consequently Bil-’si is further identified
with “the moon of Nippur” (_WAI._ 57. 56), the angel of the lord of
the ghost-world being more properly the moon than the sun. When
Bel-Merodach of Babylon usurped the functions of El-lil, Bel-’si
naturally became Nebo, “the power of strength” (_WAI._ v. 43. 37),
who stood in the same relation to Merodach that Nin-ip did to
El-lil. Bil-’si was also the seventh of the _tikpi_-stars (_WAI._
ii. 49. 10-13, iii. 50-52).
379 Amiaud’s translation in _Records of the Past_, new ser., ii. pp. 83,
84.
380 Athenæus, _Deipnosophist_, 14.
381 The most obvious derivation of the Hebrew Purim is that which I have
proposed in the _Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archæology_,
xix. 7, pp. 280, 281, little as it may suit certain fashionable
hypotheses. On the Black Obelisk (175), Shalmaneser says: “For the
second time the Pûr-festival of Assur and Hadad I celebrated”; and a
deed of sale (Rm. 2. 19) is dated in the eponymy of Bel-danan, B.C.
734, “in the year of his Pûr-office” (_ina sanê puri-su_). Pur,
which is interpreted “a lot,” has naturally no connection with the
Assyrian _bur_, which is stated to mean “a stone.” That we must read
_bur_ and not _pur_, is shown by the variant spelling _ba-ar_ (Sa 5.
iv. 10).
_ 382 WAI._ ii. 32. 16. The reading of Delitzsch and myself has been
called in question, the tablet having apparently been damaged since
we examined it, but all doubts have now been set at rest by K 93037,
_Obv._ 24 (published in _Cuneiform Texts_, xii. 6), where _sabattum_
is the equivalent of a Sumerian “_the_ day” _par excellence_.
Babylonia was the home of astronomy and of the sacredness of the
number seven, due to the fact that there were seven planets, so that
a seventh-day Sabbath was natural there.
383 Compare the Rabbinical phrase, “soiling the hands,” applied to the
inspired books of Scripture.
384 A translation of the whole text is given in my Hibbert Lectures, pp.
70-76. With the last prohibition, compare Isa. lviii. 13, “not
speaking thine own words” on the Sabbath-day.
385 Jastrow, _The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, pp. 322, 323.
_ 386 Ædipus Judaicus_ (London, 1811).
387 So in the second book of the _Surpu_ series (_WAI._ iv. 59, Col. ii.
106, Col. iv. 7-9, translated in my Hibbert Lectures, pp. 508, 509);
_WAI._ iii. 66. _a_ 9, 13.
_ 388 Aufsätze und Abhandlungen_, ii. pp. 149-165.
389 See my Hibbert Lectures, pp. 177, 178.
_ 390 Expository Times_, ix. (1898) p. 522; March 1900, p. 270.
391 P. 316.
_ 392 WAI._ i. 51. 1, 13.
393 Pronounced Ên-sarra, Ênu-sa-kissati in Semitic.
394 See the translation of the hymn in my Hibbert Lectures, p. 301. The
text has been commented on by Fr. Martin, _Textes réligieux
assyriens et babyloniens_, pp. 77-80.
395 The god of the “great mountain,” see above, pp. 376, 452.
396 Zimmern, _Die Beschwörungstafeln Shurpu_, p. 3 sqq.
397 We may notice that it is the people, and not the king, who will
suffer for the misdeeds of the latter; cp. 2 Sam. xxiv. 17, and
Horace, _Ep._ i. 12, 20: “quicquid delirant reges, plec tuntur
Achivi.”
_ 398 WAI._ iv. 55. The inscription was first translated by George Smith,
_Assyrian Discoveries_ (1875), pp. 409-411, and by myself in the
_Records of the Past_, first ser., vii. (1876), pp. 119-122. Mr.
King has recently given the first part of the text in his
_Babylonian Religion_, pp. 217, 218.
399 Hommel suggests that _silân_, “the hollow place underneath the
earth,” is derived from _sa’ûlânu_, “sheol” (_Aufsätze_ und
_Abhandlungen_, iii. p. 347).
_ 400 Babylonian Religion and Mythology_, p. 83. See George Smith,
_Chaldæan Account of Genesis_, pp. 78-80 (II. 10-13, 16-23).
401 K 255, _Obv._ i. 19, _Ablu dannu mutir gimilli Bili abi-su_, “the
mighty son, the avenger of Bel his father.”
_ 402 Textes religieux assyriens et babyloniens_, p. xvi.
403 Martin, _l.c._, p. 14.
404 H. Gunkel, _Schöpfung und Chaos in Urzeit und Endzeit_ (1895).