a mother "in Bethlehem and in all the coasts thereof," a command which
sent Mary, the mother of the infant Jesus, into exile with her newborn
Son, whose coming into the world was destined to open a new volume, as
the narrative passes from Hebrew to Christian womanhood.
Among the Semitic peoples it is not usual, certainly in strictly
historic times, to find women holding the first place in the seat of
government. Semiramis in the prehistoric period of Assyria is a
noteworthy exception to the general custom; and queens sometimes ruled
among the Arabians, and "the Queen of Sheba" in southern Arabia became
famous. But the common Semitic conception that the king was son and
special representative of the deity made it more difficult for women to
hold the sceptre. Among the Hebrews there is no instance of a woman
being legally recognized as queen. Deborah, before the days of the
kingdom, "judged Israel" by virtue of her prophetic character and her
ability as a woman of affairs, and Athaliah was enabled to usurp the
throne through the murder and banishment of male heirs to the crown. In
speaking of her reign it was said that she was the only woman who ever
reigned over Israel. There is, however, one other woman who held the
Jewish sceptre. After the bloody struggle led by the Maccabees, the Jews
at length obtained their liberty from the yoke of the Seleucid kings.
Israel then enjoyed about a century of independence. During this period
there arose one woman who for nine years ruled the nation. This was
Alexandra, the widow of Alexander Janneus, whose unhappy reign came to
an end by strong drink, B. C. 78. The conception of the government as a
pure theocracy where the king reigned as representative of Jehovah
himself rendered it impossible for women to be recognized as lawful
sovereigns. The second Psalm, which seems to be a sort of coronation
ode, written at the time of the incoming of a new king, expresses the
relationship between Jehovah and the earthly ruler:
"The Lord said unto me, Thou art my Son,
This day have I begotten thee."
Even wives of the Kings of Israel, as a rule, are not called queens,
though Jezebel,--the Phoenician wife of Ahab,--king of the Ten Tribes,
is a notable exception. This may be accounted for, however, by the fact
that she was not an Israelite and worshipper of Jehovah, but a devotee
of Ashtoreth, the queen divinity of Phoenicia; and withal she was a far
stronger, more aggressive personality than her inefficient husband. It
is of interest to observe also that Jezebel is called queen only in
connection with her sons. The idea of queen-mother is far more common
among the Hebrews than that of queen-wife. Mothers of kings were given
especial honor. King Solomon takes his seat upon his throne and sends,
not for his wife to sit by his side, but for Bathsheba, his mother,
whose adjacent throne is set at the king's right hand. Asa, in his
religious reforms, removed his mother from being queen because she had
set up an image or sacred pillar in honor of Baal worship. Jeremiah the
prophet called upon the King of Israel and his queen-mother--who seems
to have been most active in opposing the prophet's proposed policy in
submitting to the Babylonians without a struggle--to humble themselves,
because their crowns were even then toppling from their heads. Thus the
semi-royal character of the mothers of the kings is evident. This will
account, at least in part, for the wording of the chronicles of the
kings of Israel and Judah, for this is the set formula: "And A----slept
with his fathers, and B----, his son, reigned in his stead. And his
mother's name was M----. And he did that which was right (or evil) in
the sight of the Lord."
Thus is the importance of the queen-mother constantly emphasized in
the Hebrew records.
V
THE BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN WOMEN
Archaeology here puts on her apron, takes her pick and spade in hand to
help us uncover the story of the woman of Babylonia and Assyria. Skulls,
jewels, cylinders, tablets, monuments, mural decorations must be brought
to light after their long sleep beneath the surface of the ground. As
alive from the dead these come forth to tell, at least in broken story,
of those women who helped to make the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates
among the most noteworthy spots upon the face of the Eastern world.
What we may know concerning the women of this early Assyro-Babylonian
civilization may be derived in part from the Greek annalists who taught
the world to write history, but chiefly from the discoveries in modern
excavations. And even with these sources at our command, we shall find
that many things which we would like to know about Assyrian and
Babylonian women are still obscure.
The Sumer-Accadian question shall not disturb us here. That there was a
non-Semitic people living in the region of the Euphrates and the Tigris,
and that they developed a civilization from which the Babylonian and
Assyrians later borrowed, seems clearly established. What the Sumerian
and Accadian women left to their Semitic sisters who came at length into
the ancient heritage, it would now be impossible to say with any degree
of certainty.
The ancient mythology and the epic poems of these people contain many
female characters, which may throw some light upon woman's place in
their civilization. A people's mythology is the dim daguerreotype of
their childhood thinking. Fortunately for us, the last fifty years have
brought to light a whole series of epic poems from early Babylonian
life, some of them in fragmentary form, others more or less well
preserved. In nearly all these the feminine character has its place.
It will be remembered that in the Hebrew account of the creation no
female divinity plays a part. In the kindred Semitic accounts from
Babylonia and Assyria, however, Tihamat, or Mummu Tohamat, becomes the
primeval mother of all things. She was chaos--corresponding to the
Hebrew _Tehom_, or "abyss." And thus, from the womb of dark chaos, with
the ocean as father, came the divinity, the sun, moon and stars, earth,
man, everything. But, strangely enough, after the birth of the first
gods from chaos, a strife arose between them and their mother Tihamat.
It is, however, the old story of light's struggle with darkness. Anu
would decide the dispute, but Tihamat declares that the war must go on.
Marduk, the god of light, becomes the special champion of the forces
arrayed against primeval darkness, and Tihamat is vanquished and cut
asunder. From one part he makes the firmament of the heaven, to which
the gods of the heavenly lights, sun, moon, and stars, are assigned, and
from the other half he fashions the earth.
So, also, in the story of the Deluge, the Babylonian Noah, called
Sit-Napishti, takes his wife with him into the ark; and when the floods
subside and the ship rests, stranded upon the land, Ishtar, the goddess
of the rainbow, greatly rejoices as she smells the sweet incense that
arises from the grateful altar of Sit-Napishti. The god Bel is persuaded
never again to destroy the earth with a flood, and so takes Sit-Napishti
and his faithful wife by the hand, blesses them, and at length
translates them to paradise.
One of the most prominent heroines of early Babylonian epic is Ishtar.
Indeed, there are many variant stories concerning her. Ishtar's descent
into Hades is, in fact, one of the most important legends of Oriental
mythology. She is the goddess of love, corresponding to the Canaanite
and Phoenician divinities Ashtoreth and Astarte. She is the Aphrodite,
the Venus of classic myth. Earlier she did not hold power over men's
minds. She was a goddess of war, and the earlier warriors honored her as
their patroness. It was Esarhaddon who enlarged the honors paid her; and
he is said once to have interrupted his scribe, while reading of two
important expeditions of arms, to send and fetch _The Descent of Ishtar
into Hades_.
This romantic story of adventure on the part of the goddess is well
set out in early Assyro-Babylonian literature. Tammuz, the young husband
of Ishtar, has been cut off by the boar's tusk (of winter). Ishtar
mourned incessantly for her lover, but in vain. She resolved to rescue
him if possible from the realm of shade, the kingdom of Allat, whence he
had gone; for, though god he was, he must keep company with all the rest
whom death claimed. Only one method of restoring him to the realm of
life was possible. There was a spring which issued from under the
threshold of Allat's own palace. One who could bathe in and drink of
these wonderful waters would live again. But, alas! they were zealously
guarded; for a stone lay upon the fountain, and seven spirits of earth
watched with assiduous care lest some might drink and live. Of these
waters Ishtar resolved to go and fetch a draught. But no one, not even a
goddess, can descend into this Hades alive. So we read: "To the land
from whence no traveller returns, to the regions of darkness, Ishtar,
the daughter of Sin, has directed her spirit to the house of darkness,
the seat of the God Iskala, to the house which those who enter can never
leave, by the road over which no one travels a second time, to the house
the inhabitants of which never again see the light, the place where
there is no bread, but only dust, no food, but wind. No one can see the
light there, ... upon the gate and the lock on all sides the dust lies
thick." But Ishtar, in her quest of love, is nothing daunted by the
difficulties or the forbidding aspects of her task. She descends to the
gates of Allat's abode and knocks upon them, calling commandingly to the
doorkeeper to unlock the bolts: "Guardian of life's waters, open thy
doors, open thy doors that I may go in. If thou do not open thy gate and
let me in, I will sound the knocker, I will break the lock, I will
strike the threshold and break through the portal. I will raise the dead
to devour the living, the dead shall be more numerous than the living."
The porter goes and tells his mistress, Allat, of the imperious demand
of Ishtar. "O goddess, thy sister Ishtar has come in search of the
living water; she has shaken the strong bolts, she threatens to break
down the doors." Allat treats her with contempt, but finally commands
her messenger: "Go, then, O guardian, open the gates to her, but unrobe
her according to the ancient laws." Since men come naked into the world,
they must go out unclad, and the older custom among the Babylonians was
to bury the dead without clothing. Ishtar is stripped of her garments
and jewels, and at each successive gate more of her ornaments were
appropriated. First went her crown, for Allat alone was queen in that
gloomy realm; then her earrings, her jewelled necklace; then her veil,
her belt, her bracelets, and her anklets. When through the seventh gate
she passed, all her garments were taken away; and Allat commanded her
demon Namtar--the plague devil--to take her from the queen's presence
and strike her down with disease of every sort. Meanwhile, in the upper
world all are mourning because of her absence; for, as goddess of love
and procreation, all nature was perishing, and there was no renewal. All
the forces of the upper world, therefore, united to bring her back to
light; for the world would be depopulated and barren, if some means were
not found to restore her.
Here the supreme god Hea comes to the rescue, for he alone, as
controller of the universe, can violate the laws which he himself has
imposed thereon. Hea commands that Allat give life again to Ishtar by
the application of the water of life to her. She was informed that power
over the life of her consort Tammuz was given into her hands. The water
of life was poured upon him, he was anointed with precious perfumes and
clothed in purple. Thus "Nature revived with Tammuz: Ishtar had
conquered death."
That the Babylonian Hades was presided over by a queen; that the real
sceptre in the underworld was swayed by a woman is a matter of some
significance. In the old Norse mythology the goddess Hel, without a
husband, ruled in the abode of Hell, or the place of death. Among the
Greeks, Persephone divided with her husband, Pluto, the control of the
underworld. With the Babylonians it is the goddess Allat whose power
controls the realm of the dead; and even her scribe, contrary to what we
might expect, was also a woman, whose name was Belit-Iseri. Allat, the
mistress of death, is not represented as an attractive woman, but ill
shaped, with the wings and claws of a bird of prey. She goes to and fro
in her realm, exploring the river which flows from the world to her own
abode. A huge serpent is brandished in each hand, with which, as "an
animated sceptre," she strikes and poisons those against whom her enmity
is directed. The boat in which she navigates the dark river has a fierce
bird's beak upon its prow, and a bull's head upon its stern. Her power
is irresistible; and even the gods cannot invade her realm except they
die like men, and graciously acknowledge her supremacy over them. Just
as the dead eat and drink and sleep, so does Allat. Her daily portion,
as with other divinities, comes from the table of the gods, brought by
her faithful messenger, Namtar. Libations poured out in sacrifice by the
living also trickle down to her through the earth. Thus Allat lives and
reigns in the land from which no traveller returns, a kingdom into which
twice seven gates open to receive the dead; but none opens for their
release.
Professor Peter Jensen, of Marburg, Germany, has raised the question:
Why in the realm of the dead is the power of woman so important, and
even monarchical in character? He answers it by the very simple
explanation that just as the Hebrews personified their Sheol, and the
North Germanic nations their Hel, so the Assyrians and Babylonians
regarded their country of the dead as a person. And that since names of
places and lands are of feminine gender, in Assyrian thought as in the
Hebrew, the land of the dead was conceived of under the form of a woman.
Whether this be the true explanation or not, certain it is that the
female principle played an important part in the religious thinking of
the Assyro-Babylonian peoples.
It is not difficult, therefore, to perceive that women would hold an
important place in Babylonian and Assyrian religious life, and in the
Phoenician cult. When the goddess plays an important part in religion,
especially when the renovative and procreative powers of nature are
worshipped, woman will naturally find a place. While the Hebrews have
their prophetesses, the religion of Babylonia and Assyria has its
priestesses as well as prophetesses.
No account of the women of Assyria would seem complete without
reference to the legend of Semiramis and her wonderful exploits. And as
is the case with much of the history of the dawn of nations, we are
indebted to the Greeks for preserving for us the story of this
superlative queen. Ctesias, Diodorus, Herodotus, Strabo, and others tell
her story or mention her achievements. This remarkable woman was said to
be the daughter of Derceto, the goddess of reproductive nature and of a
youthful mortal with whom she had fallen in love. The babe was exposed
by its mother, but was found and cared for by a shepherd named Simmas.
Having developed into a very beautiful damsel, she won the hand of
Oannes, Governor of Syria. In the war against Bactria she so
distinguished herself for bravery, disguising herself as a soldier and
scaling the wall of the besieged capital, that the King Ninus, founder
of the city of Nineveh, took her to be his own queen. Soon Ninus died
and Semiramis became sole ruler of the realm. Unbounded ambition,
coupled with surpassing genius, caused her to undertake the labor of
eclipsing the glory of all her predecessors. She built cities, threw up
defences, conquered kings, and extended her territory in every
direction. She made the city of Babylon one of her capitals, fortifying
it with gigantic walls of sun-dried brick, cemented with asphalt. She
built wonderful bridges supported by huge pillars of stone. Diodorus
Siculus, quoting Ctesias, thus describes her work upon the walls of the
city of Babylon: "When the first part of the work was completed,
Semiramis fixed on the place where the Euphrates was narrowest, and
threw across it a bridge five stadia long. She contrived to build in the
bed of the stream pillars twelve feet apart, the stones of which were
joined with strong iron clamps, fixed into the mortises with melted
lead. The side of these pillars toward the run of the stream was built
at an angle, so as to divide the water and cause it to run smoothly past
and lessen the pressure against the massive pillars. On these pillars
were laid beams of cedar and cypress, with large trunks of palm trees,
so as to form a platform thirty feet wide. The queen then built at great
cost, on either bank of the river, a quay with a wall as broad as that
of the city and one hundred and sixty stadia long, that is, nearly
twenty miles. In front of each end of the bridge, she built a castle
flanked by towers, and surrounded by triple walls. Before the bricks
used in these buildings were baked, she modelled on them, figures of
animals of every kind, colored to represent living nature. Semiramis
then constructed another prodigious work: she had a huge basin, or
square reservoir, dug in some low ground. When it was finished the river
was directed into it, and she at once commenced building in the dry bed
of the river, a covered way leading from one castle to the other. This
work was completed in seven days, and the river was then allowed to
return to its bed, and Semiramis could then pass dry-shod under water
from one of her castles to the other. She placed at the two ends of the
tunnel, gates of bronze, said by Ctesias to be still in existence in the
time of the Persians. Lastly, she built in the midst of the city the
temple of the god Bel."
It will be seen from such a paragraph as this just quoted how Semiramis
anticipated much of the best work of engineering of modern times. The
mountains and valleys yielded to her daring when highways were to be
built for the extension of her power and her commerce. In Armenia,
Media, and all the regions around she exhibited her genius and prowess.
Even Egypt and Ethiopia fell before her. Only when she undertook to
carry her arms into far-off India did she meet with reverses.
Stabrobatis, King of India, with the aid of elephants, utterly routed
the army of the valiant queen, and she never again attempted an
expedition to the Far East. As an example of what Semiramis thought of
herself, we may quote the words attributed to her: "Nature gave me the
body of a woman, but my deeds have equalled those of the most valiant
men. I ruled the empire of Ninus, which reaches eastward to the river
Hinaman (the Indus), southward to the land of incense and myrrh (Arabia
Felix), northward to the Saces and Sogdians. Before me no Assyrian had
seen a sea; I have seen four that no one had approached, so far were
they distant. I compelled the rivers to run where I wished, and directed
them to the places where they were required. I made barren land fertile
by watering it with my rivers; I built impregnable fortresses; with iron
tools I made roads across impassable rocks; I opened roads for my
chariots, where the very wild beasts were unable to pass. In the midst
of these occupations, I have found time for pleasure and love!"
What are we to think of this story of the very wonderful lady of the
Orient of long ago? Did she ever live, move, and have her remarkable
being? It is needless to reply that the story is purely legendary, that
none of the modern excavations which have been so fruitful in character
have confirmed the story of Ctesias. On the contrary, the monuments have
as yet failed even to certify to the existence of such a woman. The fact
that her birth is given as from a goddess, that at her death she was
changed into a dove, and was thereafter herself worshipped as a goddess,
is some evidence of the unreliable character of the narrative. A queen
who bore the name of Sammuramat and lived between B.C. 812 and B.C. 783
has been discovered as a historical personage, a name that may possibly
have influenced that given the great prehistoric queen. But the
marvellous achievements attributed to Semiramis are discovered to be the
work of man through a long series of years, and that, too, highly
idealized in the numerous details.
That the imaginary queen, as the story goes, had a power over the minds
of the people is evident from the fact that many later achievements of
arms and of building were attributed to her. And yet, notwithstanding
the mythological character of the story of Semiramis, there is reflected
much truth concerning Assyro-Babylonian history in these legends. That
so great achievements should have been attributed to a woman is evidence
of a lack of that prejudice against woman which is discoverable among
many Oriental people. In the region of the Euphrates and the Tigris,
women had a noteworthy degree of independence, and in some respects a
recognized equality. The legend could have developed only in such an
atmosphere. The comparison of feminine and masculine virtues has been
made time out of mind; the following words from Plutarch are, in this
connection, of interest: "Neither can a man truly any better learn the
resemblance and difference between feminine and virile virtue than by
comparing together lives with lives, exploits with exploits, as the
product of some great art, duly considering whether the magnanimity of
Semiramis carries with it the same character and impression with that of
Sesostris, or the cunning of Tanaquil the same with that of King
Servius, or the discretion of Portia the same with that of Brutus, or
that of Pelopidas with that of Timoclea, regarding that quality of these
virtues wherein lie their chiefest point and force."
It is certain that if early Assyrian myth is to be consulted, the
Assyrians had no hesitancy in recognizing the possibility of real
greatness in woman's accomplishments and womanly genius.
While there are few queens of note among the prominent personages of
whom we read upon the monuments, and while the name of no woman occurs
in the Eponym Canon by which the chronology of the nation's life is
reckoned, yet the place of woman among the Assyrians and Babylonians was
one of greater privilege and honor than among most ancient nations.
Those unsurpassed walls that protected the great city of Babylon and the
hydraulic works which Cyrus, the conqueror of Babylon, was forced to
capture before the city fell into his hands are attributed by Herodotus
to a woman,--Queen Nitocris.
In the Code of Hammurabi, who was King of Babylon about B. C. 2250, the
most ancient of all known codes of law, woman fares well for so early a
period. One of these quaint laws reads: "If a woman hates her husband
and says, 'Thou shalt not have me,' they shall inquire into her
antecedents for her defects. If she has been a careful mistress and
without reproach, and her husband has been going about and greatly
belittling her, that woman has no blame. She shall receive her presents,
and shall go to her father's house." "If she has not been a careful
mistress, has gadded about, has neglected her house and belittled her
husband, they shall throw that woman into the water!" Under this code, a
man might sell his wife to pay his debts. For three years she might work
in the house of the purchaser; after which she was to be given her
freedom. Where the law of Moses says: "He that smiteth his father _or
his mother_ shall be surely put to death," Hammurabi's code enjoins:
"Who smites his father, loses the offending limb."