The reign of Khammurabi is a convenient point at which to observe
general changes in and later introductions to the pantheon of the
Babylonian gods. The political alterations in the kingdom were
reflected in the divine circle. Certain gods were relegated to the
cold shades of obscurity, whilst new deities were adopted and others,
hitherto regarded as negligible quantities, were exalted to the heights
of heavenly omnipotence. The worship of Merodach first came into
prominence in the days of Khammurabi. But his cult is so outstanding
and important that it has been deemed better to deal with it in a
separate and later chapter. Meanwhile we shall examine the nature of
some of the gods who sprang into importance at or about the era of
the great law-maker, and note changes which took place with regard to
others.
[Illustration: Nebo Son of Merodach, God of Wisdom, and the inventor of
writing.--Photo W. A. Mansell and Co.]
Nebo
The popularity of Nebo was brought about through his association with
Merodach. His chief seat of worship was at Borsippa, opposite to
Babylon, and when the latter city became the seat of the imperial power
the proximity of Borsippa greatly assisted the cult of Nebo. So close
did the association between the deities of the two cities become that
at length Nebo was regarded as the son of Merodach--a relationship
that often implies that the so-called descendant of the elder god is a
serious rival, or that his cult is nearly allied to the elder worship.
Nebo had acquired something of a reputation as a god of wisdom, and
probably this it was which permitted him to stand separately from
Merodach without becoming absorbed in the cult of the great deity of
Babylon. He was credited, like Ea, with the invention of writing, the
province of all 'wise' gods, and he presided over that department of
knowledge which interpreted the movements of the heavenly bodies. The
priests of Nebo were famous as astrologers, and with the bookish king
Assur-bani-pal, Nebo and his consort Tashmit were especial favourites
as the patrons of writing. By the time that the worship of Merodach
had become recognised at Babylon, the cult of Nebo at Borsippa was so
securely rooted that even the proximity of the greatest god in the land
failed to shake it.
Even after the Persian conquest the temple-school at Borsippa continued
to flourish. But although Nebo thus 'outlived' many of the greater
gods it is now almost impossible to trace his original significance
as a deity. Whether solar or aqueous in his nature--and the latter
appears more likely--he was during the period of Merodach's ascendancy
regarded as scribe of the gods, much as Thoth was the amanuensis of
the Egyptian otherworld--that is to say, he wrote at the dictation of
the higher deities. When the gods were assembled in the Chamber of
Fates in Merodach's temple at Babylon, he chronicled their speeches and
deliberations and put them on record. Indeed he himself had a shrine
in this temple of E-Sagila, or 'the lofty house,' which was known as
E-Zila, or 'the firm house.' Once during the New Year festival Nebo
was carried from Borsippa to Babylon to his father's temple, and in
compliment was escorted by Merodach part of the way back to his own
shrine in the lesser city. It is strange to see how closely the cults
of the two gods were interwoven. The Kings of Babylonia constantly
invoke them together, their names and those of their temples are found
in close proximity at every turn, and the symbols of the bow and the
stylus or pen, respectively typical of the father and the son, are
usually discovered in one and the same inscription. Even Merodach's
dragon, the symbol of his victory over the dark forces of chaos, is
assigned to Nebo!
Nebo as Grain-God
But Nebo seems to have had also an agricultural side to his character.
In many texts he is praised as the god "who opens up the subterranean
sources in order to irrigate the fields," and the withdrawal of his
favour is followed by famine and distress. This seems to favour the
idea of his watery nature. His name, 'the proclaimer,' does not assist
us much in fixing his mythological significance, unless it was assigned
to him in the _rôle_ of herald of the gods.
Tashmit
Nebo's consort was Tashmit. It is believed that Khammurabi,
unsuccessful in suppressing the cult of Nebo, succeeded with that of
his spouse. She seems to have been the same as a goddess Ealur who
became amalgamated with Zarpanitum, the wife of Merodach. The name may
mean, according to some, 'the hearer,' and to others a 'revelation,'
and in view of the character of her wise husband, was perhaps one of
the original designations of Merodach himself. Tashmit had therefore
but little individuality. None the less she possessed considerable
popularity. On a seal-impression dating somewhere between 3500-4500
B.C. there are outlined two figures, male and female, supposed to
represent Nebo and Tashmit. The former has a wide-open mouth and the
latter ears of extraordinary size. Both are holding wild animals by the
horns, and the representation is thought to be typical of the strength
or power of speech and silence.
Shamash and Khammurabi
We find that Khammurabi was very devoted to Shamash, the early type
of sun-god. His improvements and restorations at Sippar and Larsa
were extensive. The later Babylonian monarchs followed his example,
and one of them, Mili-Shikhu (_c._ 1450 B.C.) even placed Shamash
before Merodach in the pantheon! The early connexion between Merodach
and Shamash had probably much to do with the great popularity of the
latter. That this was the case, so far at least as Khammurabi was
concerned, is obvious from certain of his inscriptions, in which he
alludes in the same sentence to Merodach and Shamash and to their close
relationship. Khammurabi appears also to have been greatly attached
to the cult of a goddess Innana or Ninni ('lady' or 'great lady'),
who was evidently the consort of some male deity. He improved her
temple at Hallabi and speaks of her as placing the reins of power in
his hands. There was another goddess of the same name at Lagash whom
Gudea worshipped as 'mistress of the world,' but she does not seem to
have been the same as the Innana of Hallabi, near Sippar, as she was
a goddess of fertility and generation, of the 'mother goddess' type,
and there do not appear to be any grounds for the assertion that the
goddess of Hallabi can be equated with her.
Hadad
Ramman or Rimmon, identified with Hadad or Adad, is a deity of later
type and introduction. Indeed Ramman may be merely a variant or
subsidiary name, meaning as it does 'the thunderer,' quite a common
title for several types of deities. The worship of Hadad was widespread
in Syria and Palestine, and he was a god of storms or rains, whose
symbol was the thunderbolt or the lightning which he holds in his
grasp like a fiery sword. But he bears solar emblems upon his apparel,
and seems to wear a solar crown. He does not, however, appear to have
had any centre of worship in Babylonia, and was probably a god of the
Amorites, and becoming popular with the Babylonians, was later admitted
into their pantheon. At Asshur in Assyria he was worshipped along with
Anu, with whom he had a temple in common. This building, which was
excavated in 1908, contains two shrines having but the one entrance,
and the date of its foundation is referred so far back as B.C. 2400.
There can be little doubt that the partnership of Hadad with Anu was a
late one. Perhaps it was on Assyrian and not Babylonian soil that Hadad
first entered from the alien world.
[Illustration in text: HADAD OR RIMMON from _Religious Belief and
Practices in Babylonia and Assyria_, by Prof. Jastrow. (G. P. Putnam's
Sons.)]
In many of his characteristics Hadad closely resembled En-lil.
Like him he was designated 'the great mountain,' and seems to have
been conceived of as almost a counterpart of the older god. It is
peculiar that while in Assyria and Babylonia Hadad has many of the
characteristics of a sun-god, in his old home in Syria he possessed
those of a thunder-god who dwelt among the mountains of northern
Palestine and Syria and spoke in thunder and wielded the lightning. But
even in Assyria the stormy characteristics of Hadad are not altogether
obscured. Hadad's cult in Babylonia is probably not much older than the
days of Khammurabi, in whose time the first inscriptional mention of
him is made. His worship obtained a stronger hold in the times of the
Kassite dynasty, for we find many of its monarchs incorporating his
name with their own and altogether affording him a prominent place.
Hadad, Dáda, David, and Dido
In a curious and interesting passage in his _Hibbert Lectures_,[1]
Professor Sayce indicates resemblances between the name Hadad,
Dáda, the abbreviated form of the name of Abd-Hadad, who reigned at
Hierapolis in the fourth century, Queen Dido of Carthage, and that of
the Biblical David. Speaking of Hadad he says: "He was, as I have said,
the supreme Baal or Sun-god; whose worship extended southward from
Carchemish to Edom and Palestine. At Damascus he was adored under the
Assyrian name of Rimmon, and Zechariah (xii 11) alludes to the cult
of the compound Hadad-Rimmon in the close neighbourhood of the great
Canaanitish fortress of Megiddo. Coins bear the name of Abd-Hadad, 'the
servant of Hadad,' who reigned in the fourth century at Hierapolis,
the later successor of Carchemish, and, under the abbreviated form
of Dáda, Shalmaneser speaks of 'the god Dáda of Aleppo' (Khalman).
The abbreviated form was that current among the nations of the north;
in the south it was confounded with the Semite word which appears in
Assyrian as _dadu_, 'dear little child.' This is the word which we
have in Be-Dad or Ben-Dad, 'the son of Dad,' the father of the Edomite
Hadad; we have it also in the David of the Old Testament. David, or
Dod, as the word ought to be read, which is sometimes written Dodo with
the vocalic suffix of the nominative, is the masculine corresponding
to a Ph[oe]nician goddess whose name means 'the beloved one,' and who
was called Dido by the writers of Rome. Dido, in fact, was the consort
of the Sun-god, conceived as Tammuz, 'the beloved son,' and was the
presiding deity of Carthage, whom legend confounded with Elissa, the
foundress of the city. In the article I have alluded to above, I
expressed my conviction that the names of Dodo and David pointed to
a worship of the Sun-god, under the title of 'the beloved one,' in
southern Canaan as well as in Ph[oe]nicia. I had little idea at the
time how soon my belief would be verified. Within the last year, the
squeeze of the Moabite stone, now in the Louvre, has been subjected
to a thorough examination by the German Professors Socin and Smend,
with the result of correcting some of the received readings and of
filling up some of the lacunæ. One of the most important discoveries
that have been thus made is that the Israelites of the northern kingdom
worshipped a Dodo or Dod by the side of Yahveh, or rather that they
adored the supreme God under the name of Dodo as well as under that of
Yahveh. Mesha, the Moabite king, in describing the victories which his
god Chemosh had enabled him to gain over his Israelitish foes, tells us
that he had carried away from Atarath 'the _arel_ (or altar) of Dodo
and dragged it before Chemosh,' and from Nebo 'the _arels_ (or altars)
of Yahveh,' which he likewise 'dragged before Chemosh.' Here the
_arel_ or 'altar' of Dodo is placed in parallelism with the _arels_ of
Yahveh; and it is quite clear, therefore, that Dodo, like Yahveh, was
a name under which the deity was worshipped by the people of the land.
I have suggested that Dod or Dodo was an old title of the supreme God
in the Jebusite Jerusalem, and that hence Isaiah (v 1), when describing
Jerusalem as the tower of the vineyard the Lord had planted in Israel,
calls him Dôd-i, 'my beloved.' We can easily understand how a name of
the kind, with such a signification, should have been transferred by
popular affection from the Deity to the king of whom it is said that
'all Israel and Judah loved him' (I Sam. xviii 16)."
Ea in Later Times
Ea developed with the centuries, and about the epoch of Khammurabi
appears to have achieved a high standard of godhead, probably because
of the very considerable amount of theological moulding which he had
received. In the later Babylonian period we find him described as the
protagonist of mankind, the father of Merodach, and, along with Anu
and Bel, a member of a great triad. The priests of Babylon were the
sole mythographers of these days. This is in sharp contradistinction
to the mythographers of Greece, who were nearly always philosophers
and never priests. But they were mythographers in a secondary sense
only, for they merely rearranged, re-edited, or otherwise altered
already existing tales relating to the gods, usually with a view to the
exaltation of a certain deity or to enable his story to fit in with
those of other gods. It is only after a religion or mythological system
has enjoyed a vogue more or less extended that the relationship of the
gods towards one another becomes fixed.
The appointment of Merodach to the supreme position in the Babylonian
pantheon naturally necessitated a rearrangement so far as the
relationship of the other deities to him was concerned. This meant a
re-shaping of myth and tradition generally for the purpose of ensuring
consistency. The men fitted to accomplish such a task were to hand, for
the age of Khammurabi was fertile in writers, scholastic and legal,
who would be well equipped to carry out a change of the description
indicated. Ea had not in the past enjoyed any very exalted sphere. But
as the chief god of the important country in the neighbourhood of the
Persian Gulf, the most ancient home of Babylonian culture, Ea would
probably have exercised a great influence upon the antiquarian and
historic sense of a man like Khammurabi. As the god of wisdom he would
strongly appeal to a monarch whose whole career was marked by a love
of justice and by sagacity and insight. From a local god of Eridu, Ea
became a universal deity of wisdom and beneficence, the strong shield
of man, and his benefactor by the gifts of harvest and water. Civilized
and softer emotions must have begun to cluster around the cult of
this kindly god who, when the angered deities resolved to destroy
mankind, interceded for poor humanity and succeeded in preserving it
from the divine wrath. As a god of medicine, too, Ea is humane and
protective in character, and all the arts fall under his patronage. He
is the culture-god of Babylon _par excellence._ He might not transcend
Merodach, so he became his father. Thus did pagan theology succeed in
merging the cults of deities which might otherwise have been serious
rivals and mutually destructive.
Zu
Zu was a storm-god symbolized in the form of a bird. He may typify the
advancing storm-cloud, which would have seemed to those of old as if
hovering like a great bird above the land which it was about to strike.
The North-American Indians possess such a mythological conception
in the Thunder-bird, and it is probable that the great bird called
roc, so well known to readers of the _Arabian Nights_, was a similar
monster--perhaps the descendant of the Zu-bird. We remember how this
enormous creature descended upon the ship in which Sindbad sailed and
carried him off. Certain it is that we can trace the roc or rukh to the
Persian simurgh, which is again referable to a more ancient Persian
form, the amru or sinamru, the bird of immortality, and we may feel
sure that what is found in ancient Persian lore has some foundation in
Babylonian belief. The Zu-bird was evidently under the control of the
sun, and his attempt to break away from the solar authority is related
in the following legend.
The Legend of Zu
It is told of the god Zu that on one occasion ambition awaking in his
breast caused him to cast envious eyes on the power and sovereignty of
Bel, so that he determined to purloin the Tablets of Destiny, which
were the tangible symbols of Bel's greatness.
At this time, it may be recalled, the Tablets of Destiny had already an
interesting history behind them. We are told in the creation legend how
Apsu, the primeval, and Tiawath, chaos, the first parents of the gods,
afterward conceived a hatred for their offspring, and how Tiawath, with
her monster-brood of snakes and vipers, dragons and scorpion-men and
raging hounds, made war on the hosts of heaven. Her son Kingu she made
captain of her hideous army--
To march before the forces, to lead the host,
To give the battle-signal, to advance to the attack,
To direct the battle, to control the fight.
To him she gave the Tablets of Destiny, laying them on his breast with
the words: "Thy command shall not be without avail, and the word of
thy mouth shall be established." Through his possession of the divine
tablets Kingu received the power of Anu, and was able to decree the
fate of the gods. After several deities had refused the honour of
becoming champion of heaven, Merodach was chosen. He succeeded at
length in slaying Tiawath and destroying her evil host; and having
vanquished Kingu, her captain, he took from him the Tablets of Destiny,
which he sealed and laid on his own breast. It was this Merodach, or
Marduk, who afterward became identified with Bel.
Now Zu, in his greed for power and dominion, was eager to obtain the
potent symbols. He beheld the honour and majesty of Bel, and from
contemplation of these he turned to look upon the Tablets of Destiny,
saying within himself:
"Lo, I will possess the tablets of the gods, and all things shall be
subject unto me. The spirits of heaven shall bow before me, the oracles
of the gods shall be in my hands. I shall wear the crown, symbol of
sovereignty, and the robe, symbol of godhead, and then shall I rule
over all the hosts of heaven."
Thus inflamed, he sought the entrance to Bel's hall, where he awaited
the dawn of day. The text goes on:
Now when Bel was pouring out the clear water, (_i.e._ the
light of day?)
And his diadem was taken off and lay upon the throne,
(Zu) seized the Tablets of Destiny,
He took Bel's dominion, the power of giving commands.
Then Zu fled away and hid himself in his mountain.
Bel was greatly enraged at the theft, and all the gods with him. Anu,
lord of heaven, summoned about him his divine sons, and asked for a
champion to recover the tablets. But though the god Ramman was chosen,
and after him several other deities, they all refused to advance
against Zu.
The end of the legend is unfortunately missing, but from a passage in
another tale, the legend of Etana, we gather that it was the sun-god,
Shamash, who eventually stormed the mountain-stronghold of Zu, and with
his net succeeded in capturing the presumptuous deity.
This legend is of the Prometheus type, but whereas Prometheus (once a
bird-god) steals fire from heaven for the behoof of mankind, Zu steals
the Tablets of Destiny for his own. These must, of course, be regained
if the sovereignty of heaven is duly to continue, and to make the tale
circumstantial the sun-god is provided with a fowler's net with which
to capture the recalcitrant Zu-bird. Jastrow believes the myth to have
been manufactured for the purpose of showing how the tablets of power
were originally lost by the older Bel and gained by Merodach, but he
has discounted the reference in the Etana legend relating to their
recovery.
Bel
We find a good deal of confusion in later Babylonian religion as to
whether the name 'Bel' is intended to designate the old god of that
name or is merely a title for Merodach. Khammurabi certainly uses the
name occasionally when speaking of Merodach, but at other times he
quite as surely employs it for the older divinity, as for example when
he couples the name with Anu. One of the Kassite kings, too, speaks of
"Bel, the lord of lands," meaning the old Bel, to whom they often gave
preference over Merodach. They also preferred the old city of Nippur
and its temple to Babylon, and perhaps made an attempt at one time to
make Nippur the capital of their Empire.
[Illustration: Hall in Assyrian Palace (Restored). From a drawing made
on the spot by Sir Henry Layard.]
Some authorities appear to think it strange that Bel should have
existed at all as a deity after the elevation of Merodach to the
highest rank in the pantheon. It was his association with Anu and
Ea as one of a triad presiding over the heavens, the earth, and the
deep which kept him in power. Moreover, the very fact that he was a
member of such a triad proves that he was regarded as theologically
essential to the well-being of the Babylonian religion as a whole. The
manufacture or slow evolution of a trinity of this description is by
no means brought about through popular processes. It is, indeed, the
work of a school, of a college of priests. Strangely enough Khammurabi
seems to have associated Anu and Bel together, but to have entirely
omitted Ea from their companionship, and it has been thought that the
conception of a trinity was subsequent to his epoch. The god of earth
and the god of heaven typify respectively that which is above and that
which is below, and are reminiscent of the Father-sky and Mother-earth
of many primitive mythologies, and there is much to say for the theory
that Ea, god of the deep, although he had existed long prior to any
such grouping, was a later inclusion.
The Triad of Earth, Air, and Sea
The habit of invoking the great triad became almost a commonplace
in later Babylonia. They nearly always take precedence in religious
inscriptions, and we even find some monarchs stating that they hold
their regal authority by favour of the trinity. Whenever a powerful
curse has to be launched, one may be certain that the names of the gods
of the elements will figure in it.
Dawkina
Dawkina was the consort of Ea, and was occasionally invoked along with
him. She was a goddess of some antiquity, and, strangely enough for
the mate of a water-god, she appears to have originally been connected
in some manner with the earth. Therefore she was an elemental deity.
In later times her attributes appear to have been inherited by Ishtar.
According to some authorities Bel was the son of Ea and Dawkina, Bel
in this case meaning Merodach. We find her name frequently alluded to
in the Magical Texts, but her cult does not seem to have been very
widespread.
Anu
We have already alluded to Anu's position in the triad with Ea and Bel
in later Babylonian times. When he stands alone we find him taking
a more human guise than as the mere elemental god of earlier days.
He is frequently mentioned in the texts apart from Ea and Bel, and
is occasionally alluded to along with Ramman, the god of thunder and
storms, who of course would naturally stand in close relationship with
the sky. We also find him connected with Dagan of Biblical celebrity.
But in this case Dagan appears to be the equivalent of Bel.
There is also a host of lesser deities, the majority of whom are
no more than mere names. They do not seem to have achieved much
popularity, or if they did it was an evanescent one. The names of
some are indeed only mentioned once or twice, and so little is known
concerning them as almost to leave us entirely in the dark regarding
their natures or characteristics.
[1] Pp. 56 ff.