THE CHALDEANS.[2]
At that time the heaven above was unnamed,
In the earth beneath a name was unrecorded;
Chaos, too, was unopened around them.
By name the mother Tihamtu, [the Deep] was the begetter of them
all.
Their waters in one place were not embosomed, and
The fruitful herb was uncollected, the marsh-plant ungrown.
At that time the gods [stars] were not made to go; none of them
by name were recorded; order was not among them.
Then were made the great gods; and these Lakhmu and Lakhamu
caused to go; until they were grown they nurtured them.
The gods Assur and Kissar were made by their hands,
A length of days, a long time passed, and the gods Anu, Bel and
Hea were created; the gods Assur and Kissar begat them.
FROM THE CHALDEAN (CUNEIFORM) CREATION TABLETS.
In the Tigro-Euphrates Valley, or basin, as it is called, the
commencement of the history of man is placed.
“And it came to pass that as they journeyed from the east, they found
a plain in the land of Shinar: and they dwelt there.” Here was great
Babel built, and here occurred the confusion of tongues, and from here
the nations were scattered over all the world. After this scattering
to east, west and south, there was left a large body of people of
different nations, in Chaldea. The great monuments and inscriptions,
which are the only remaining books of early history, tell us of two
great nations called the Sumir and Accad. Of the descent of these
peoples, it can be said with certainty only that there were Hamites
among them. The Shemites are the founders of the Assyrian kingdom, the
Hamites of the Babylonian. These and some other scattered tribes of
other nations, were worshipers of the heavenly bodies, the sun, moon
and stars. Hence came the extraordinary development of astronomy in
these lands. Their strange and imperfect civilization had an immense
influence over a great part of Asia, for over 1500 years.
[Illustration: STAR WORSHIPERS.]
The peoples of Chaldea did not at first intermingle with each other,
but maintained a separate existence as tribes. Here was, however, the
first organized government of the world. “Cush begat Nimrod: he began
to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the
Lord: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod, the mighty hunter before
the Lord. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and
Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Out of that land went forth
Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the streets of the city, and Calah and
Resen, between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city.” Asshur
was of the Semitic race, while Nimrod was a Cushite. These two people
lived long together, and this explains how they came to have the same
language and civilization in spite of their being of different origin.
The four great cities mentioned above gave to their king, the title
“king of the four regions.” The founding of this great empire occurred
only a little later than the beginning of the great Egyptian kingdom.
We know almost nothing of the history of the Chaldean kings who
succeeded Nimrod, except that which a few traditions tell us.
THE GREAT CHALDEAN HISTORIAN.
Berosus was a Chaldean priest who lived in the days of Alexander
the Great. He was a very learned man. He translated the history
of Babylonia into the Greek language. His history commences with
the creation and is carried down to his own time. He drew from the
ancient records of Babylonia, from traditions of the people, and
from inscriptions on the monuments. We have already referred to the
traditions of the creation and deluge which he preserved. About 2400
B.C., according to Berosus, the Medes conquered Babylonia. Here for
the first time we meet with the name of Zoroaster, the founder of
Parseeism. The record of Berosus is very much valued because of the
ground which it covers. It is wonderfully in agreement with the Bible
record. At first his statements were questioned and disputed, but the
researches of modern scholars in many respects confirmed their complete
accuracy.
RUINED MONUMENTS.
The ruins of Chaldea have been as yet but imperfectly explored. The
great buildings and monuments have been buried beneath the ground for
hundreds of years, and the work of digging them out is a slow one. When
we remember that these cities and their buildings were among the first
ever erected, and that Nebuchadnezzar (or Nabukudur-ussur, as Berosus
calls him,) and his successors only repaired and added to these, we
can see the value of exhuming them. Stone is very rare in Chaldea,
and could be brought only at great expense from a distance. Hence all
the buildings of earlier ages were built of bricks. So we read of
the Tower of Babel, that “they had bricks for stone.” On each one of
these bricks was generally stamped the name of the king who erected the
building. The greater part of the early Chaldean inscriptions are found
on these bricks. Herodotus tells us that the Babylonians built with
these sun-dried bricks, and with here and there a layer of reed-matting
cemented with bitumen. The outsides of the buildings were covered
with burnt or kiln-dried bricks to keep out the rain. More elaborate
specimens of their pottery appear in articles for domestic uses, and
especially in their coffins.
[Illustration: BABYLONISH COFFIN AND LID OF GREEN GLAZED
POTTERY.]
The sacred buildings appear to have been often built in the form of
a pyramid, with steps or stages, forming a series of terraces, each
smaller than the one beneath it. This is the traditional style of
buildings of the Tower of Babel. The same tendency to build high sacred
buildings is seen in the pagodas of India, Burmah and China, in the
Mohammedan towers, like the Koutub Minar, and the spires of Christian
churches. The object at the first seems to have been the getting nearer
to the heavenly bodies, the object of their worship. On the upper
terrace, or platform, appears to have been built in most cases, a small
chapel, or square room, richly ornamented, containing an image of the
god of the temple.
Of ancient Babylonian sculptures but few are known to remain. Of these,
one is a small bronze figure of a goddess named Keodormabug, and a
broken statuette in alabaster of the god Nebo. But a number of small
cylinders of stone that were used as seals, and which are covered
with engravings or inscriptions, give us much information of early
Chaldean history. The Chaldeans were far advanced in astronomy and in
arithmetic, which is indispensable to a knowledge of astronomy.
A LIBRARY OF BRICK BOOKS.
The Chaldeans had eight sacred books, said to have been written by the
god Oannes. No copies of these original books remain. But some of their
sayings were copied into the books of later kings. All that remains
of the books of ancient Chaldea is that which had been transported to
Assyria, where it was found by Layard and later by Smith, in making
their excavations at Nineveh. He found in the ruins of the palace built
by King Asshurbanipal, in one of the halls, a library. “This curious
library consists entirely of flat, square tablets of baked clay, having
on each side a page of very small and closely written cuneiform cursive
letters, impressed on the clay while it was still moist. Each tablet
was numbered and formed a page of a book composed of a number of such
tablets, probably piled one on another in the library.” The greater
part of these tablets are now in England. This collection was intended
for a public library as we see from the following translation of some
of the tablets:
“Palace of Asshurbanipal, king of the world, king of Assyria, to whom
the god Nebo and the goddess Tashmit (goddess of wisdom), have given
ears to hear and eyes to see what is the foundation of government.
They have revealed to the kings, my predecessors, this cuneiform
writing, the manifestation of the god Nebo, the god of supreme
intelligence. I have written it upon tablets, I have signed it, I have
placed it in my palace for the instruction of my subjects.”
[Illustration: CUNEIFORM LETTERS.]
The cuneiform characters, as they are called, are made up of marks
shaped like arrow-heads or wedges. There were enormous difficulties in
the way of their interpretation. In Egypt the similar task of making
known the meaning of the hieroglyphics was performed in great part
by one man, Champollion, but in Assyria the work was done by many
scholars. Now the famous library is nearly all translated, as are the
inscriptions on the seals as well. Asshurbanipal lived about B.C. 650.
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.
The habits of life of any people both affect and are affected by
their religious belief. In heathen lands, both of the present and the
past, the daily home-life is interwoven with religious observances.
The Assyrians have been called “the Romans of the East.” They were
a fierce and warlike race. They were naturally a religious people,
and the worship of the gods held a very prominent place at least in
their public life. But, sad to say, their devotion to religion was
associated with such a degrading worship of many false gods, that
they were dragged down by it, instead of being exalted. They were
very intelligent. They were mainly agriculturists, though the arts
flourished. It seldom rained there except in winter, so they turned
the waters of the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers into channels, and
conveyed them through their fields.
[Illustration: ROBED STATUE.]
The priests and kings dressed in garments of woven stuffs dyed in
brilliant colors, and beautifully embroidered with symbolical figures,
animals, men, flowers and divine symbols. The costume of the Assyrians
consisted of a robe open at the side, often with a border of fringe,
and decorated with rich embroidery, hanging down to the feet, and
confined in the middle by a broad girdle. It precisely resembled the
djubeh of the Eastern people in the present day. The common people and
soldiers used a shorter tunic, reaching only to the knees, so as to
allow them to walk freely. The king, in his robes of ceremony, wore
over all a sort of long mantle or chasuble, thrown obliquely over one
shoulder and splendidly ornamented. This is also seen on the monuments
on the figures of the gods. A high conical tiara surmounted his head,
and in his hand he held a long sceptre or staff, nearly the height
of a man. The insignia of his rank were the same as those of Asiatic
monarchs in the present day, the parasol and large feathered fly-flaps
carried behind him by slaves.
The Assyrians wore their hair long and curled at the end, the beard
square and with rows of curls. They were fond of wearing great
quantities of jewelry, large ear-rings, finger-rings and bracelets.
Some of the soldiers wore a cuirass of small pieces of metal protecting
the body, and allowing the tunic to appear beneath it. These were
probably light infantry. Others wore long coats of mail reaching to the
feet, with a conical helmet to which was attached a sort of veil of
chain mail, falling down on the neck, and brought round to protect the
chin, such as are now worn by the Circassians.
THE RELIGION OF ASSYRIA.
The religion of Assyria and Babylonia was, in its essential principles
and in the general spirit of its conceptions, of the same character
of the religion of Egypt, and in general as all pagan religions.
When we penetrate beneath the surface which gross Polytheism has
acquired from popular superstition, and revert to its original and
higher conceptions, we shall find the whole based on the idea of
the unity of the Deity, the last relic of the primitive revelation,
disfigured indeed and all but lost in the monstrous ideas of Pantheism;
confounding the creature with the Creator; and transforming the Deity
into a god-world, whose manifestations are to be found in all the
phenomena of nature. Beneath this supreme and sole God, this great
All, in whom all things are lost and absorbed, are ranked in an
order of emanation corresponding to their importance, a whole race
of secondary deities who are emanations from His very substance, who
are mere personifications of His attributes and manifestations. The
differences between the various pagan religions is chiefly marked by
the differences between these secondary divine beings.
Thus, as we have already seen, the imagination of the Egyptians had
been especially struck by the various stages of the daily and yearly
course of the sun. In this they saw the most imposing manifestations
of the Deity, that which best revealed the laws of the government
of the world. In this they sought their divine personification. The
Chaldæo-Assyrians, especially devoted to astronomy, saw in the Astral,
and especially in the planetary system, a manifestation of the divine
being. They considered the stars as His true external manifestation,
and in their religious system made them the visible evidence of the
subordinate divine emanations from the substance of the infinite being,
whom they identified with the world, his work.
THE SUPREME GOD, ILU.
The supreme god, the first and sole principle from whom all other
deities were derived, was Ilu, whose name signifies God _par
excellence_. Their idea of him was too comprehensive, too vast,
to have any determined external form, or consequently to receive in
general the adoration of the people; and from this point of view there
is a certain analogy between Ilu and the Chronos of the Greeks, with
whom he was compared by the latter. In Chaldæa it does not seem that
any temple was ever specially dedicated to him; but at Nineveh and
generally throughout Assyria, he seems to have received the peculiarly
national name of Asshur (whence was derived the name of the country,
_Mat Asshur_), and this itself seems related to the Arian name of
the deity _Asura_. With this title he was great god of the land,
the especial protector of the Assyrians, he who gave victory to their
arms. The inscriptions designate him as “Master or Chief of the Gods.”
He it is, perhaps, who is to be recognized in the figure occasionally
found on the Assyrian monuments (but probably adopted in later times
by the Persians to represent their Ormuzd), representing a human bust,
wearing the royal tiara in the middle of a circle borne by two large
eagle wings, and with an eagle’s tail.
THE ASSYRIAN TRIAD.
Below Ilu, the universal and mysterious source of all, was placed a
triad, composed of his three first external and visible manifestations,
and occupying the summit of the hierarchy of gods in popular worship.
Anu, the Oannes of the Greek writers, was the lord of darkness; Bel,
the demiurgus, the organizer of the world; Ao, called also Bin, that
is, the divine “Son” _par excellence_, the divine light, the
intelligence penetrating, directing and vivifying the universe. These
three divine persons esteemed as equal in power and con-substantial,
were not held as of the same degree of emanation, but were regarded as
having, on the contrary, issued the one from the other--Ao from Oannes,
and Bel from Ao. Oannes, the “Lord of the Lower World, the Lord of
Darkness,” was represented on the monuments under the strange figure
of a man with an eagle’s tail, and for his head-dress an enormous
fish, whose open mouth rises over his head, while the body covers his
shoulders. It is under this form that, Berosus tells us, according
to Babylonian tradition, he floated on the surface of the waters of
Chaos. Bel, the “Father of the Gods,” was usually represented under an
entirely human form, attired as a king, wearing a tiara with bull’s
horns, the symbol of power. But this god took many other secondary
forms, the most important being Bel Dagon, a human bust springing from
the body of a fish. We do not know exactly the typical figure of Ao
or Bin, “the intelligent guide, the Lord of the visible world, the
Lord of knowledge, of glory and light.” The serpent seems to have been
his principal symbol; though some other sculptured figures seem to be
intended to represent Bin.
[Illustration: STATUE OF OANNES, THE KING.]
A second triad is produced with personages no longer vague and
indeterminate in character, like those of the first, but with a
clearly-defined sidereal aspect, each representing a known celestial
body, and especially those in which the Chaldæo-Assyrians saw the most
striking external manifestations of the deity; these were Shamash, the
sun; Sin, the moon god; and a new form of Ao or Bin, inferior to the
first, and representing him as god of the atmosphere or firmament. Thus
did they industriously multiply deities and representations of them.
THE GODS OF THE PLANETS.
Then come the gods of the five planets: Adar (Saturn), Merodach
(Jupiter), Nergal (Mars), Ishtar (Venus), and Nebo (Mercury). The
worship of Merodach, though not much cultivated at Nineveh, was of
primary importance at Babylon, where he was regarded as one of the
principal gods. He was a secondary form, another manifestation of Bel
in an inferior rank in the hierarchy; he was called “the ancient one
of the gods, the supreme judge, the master of the horoscope;” he was
represented as a man, erect and walking, and with a naked sword in his
hand. Adar, “the fire,” called also Samdan, “the powerful,” although
his planet had been called Saturn by the Greeks, was apparently the
Assyrian Hercules. His appellations are, “the terrible, the lord of
warriors, the strong one, the destroyer of his enemies, he who reduces
the disobedient, the exterminator of rebels,” and in other cases, “the
Son of the Zodiac.” On some monuments he is represented in company with
Merodach. In the same manner, he is represented in the magnificent
colossal figures in the Museum of the Louvre, and of the British
Museum, where he is seen as a god of terrible aspect, strangling in
his arms a lion that appears quite small in comparison with him. With
the surname of Malik (king), Adar Malik is mentioned in the Bible with
“Oannes the king” (Anu Malik) (2 Kings, xvii., 31,) as the principal
god of Sippara, where the inhabitants “burnt their children in the
fire” in honor of these exalted ones. In general these planetary gods
are only fire, secondary manifestations of the higher order. Such is
the connection between Nebo and Ao. Nebo also is distinguished as the
“supreme intelligence;” he is the god of prophetic inspiration and of
eloquence, and also the special guardian of royal prerogative, the
protector of kings and the prototype whom they reproduce on earth. Like
Bel, he has on the monuments an entirely human form with the tiara, and
the dress of a king; three pairs of horns, ranged one above the other,
decorate his tiara, and four large wings are often attached to his
shoulders; the sceptre also is one of his common attributes.
[Illustration: ADAR STRANGLING THE LION.]
THE GREAT GODDESS ISHTAR.
Ishtar reproduces among the planetary gods Anat and Bilit, the great
goddess of nature, the mother of all the gods and of all beings; she
is their active and martial form, for she is called “the Goddess of
Battles, the Queen of Victories, she who leads armies to the fight and
is the judge of warlike exploits;” but she has a double form uniting
two characters, one fierce and sanguinary, the other voluptuous, for
under the names of Zarpanit and Nana she presides over the reproduction
of beings, and over sensual pleasures; she is in this last character
always represented naked, always full face and with the two hands on
the chest. Moreover two Ishtars were always distinguished, that of
Arbela (called also Arbail), and that of Nineveh, who presided over the
two fortnights of the month. The plural name of this double Ishtar,
Ishtaroth, was the origin of the Phœnician Ashtaroth. Nergal, whose
image is very uncommon, stands on the legs of a cock, and carries a
sword in his hand. The application of the name of Mars to his star was
quite natural, for his titles in the inscriptions are “the great hero,
the king of fight, the master of battles, champion of the gods,” and
also “god of the chase.”
THE GENII OF ASSYRIA.
Such were the great gods of Nineveh and Babylon. Below them popular
superstition believed in an immense number of personifications of
inferior order, of lesser gods, or rather _genii_, whom it
would be waste of time to enumerate. We must, however, mention some
personages who are found on the monuments occupying an important
position in the Chaldæo-Assyrian pantheon, and who were evidently
other forms of the gods already named, but whose position has not as
yet been precisely determined. Such is Nisroch, called also Shalman,
who “presides over the course of human destiny,” and who is also the
protector of marriages; this is the god with an eagle’s head and large
wings, whose image is so common on the sculptures of the Assyrian
palaces. It was in the temple of this god at Nineveh, that Sennacherib
was assassinated by his sons. Possibly we ought to consider this god as
another form of Oannes.
[Illustration: ELEVATION OF PALACE OF SARGON AT KHORSABAD
AS RESTORED BY MR. FERGUSON.
Sargon’s greatest work as a builder consisted in building
Dur-Sargina, which is now represented by the Mound of
Khorsabad. It was a mile square, and on the north-west face
stood the palace platform, in shape like a T. On the outer
and northern portion of this platform he built his palace,
the halls and chambers of which were paneled with slabs of
alabaster, richly adorned with sculptures, and inscribed with
the titles, exploits and annals of his reign.]
The great gods are often all invoked one after the other at the
beginning of the solemn inscriptions of the kings of Assyria. Sargon
has given the names of eight of them on the gates of the city he
founded. “Shamash has conferred on me all I possess,” says he in an
inscription. “Bin gave me good fortune; I have named the great eastern
gates after Shamash and Bin. Bel Dagon laid the foundation of my city,
Bilit Taauth grinds like paint the elements of the world; I have named
the great southern grates after Bel Dagon and Bilit Taauth. Oannes
prospers the work of my hand, Ishtar leads armies to battle; I have
called the great western gates after Oannes and Ishtar. Nisroch Shalman
presides over marriages, the mistress of the gods presides over births;
I have dedicated the great northern gates to Nisroch and Bilit.”
Inscriptions of such and like general purport were sculptured on the
palace walls of many of the kings and also upon the bodies of the
winged bulls.
[Illustration: THE GREAT HUMAN-HEADED EAGLE-WINGED ASSYRIAN
BULL.]
WORSHIP OF THE GODS AT BABYLON.
The deity who was the principal object of worship at Babylon and at
Borsippa was Bel Merodach, with his wife, Bilit or Myletta, the great
nature-goddess, who assumed the-two opposite forms of Taauth and
Zarpanit, the one austere, the other voluptuous, like the two forms of
the Venus of classical mythology. Bilit had a magnificent temple in the
centre of Babylon, where most infamous customs were practiced. At Ur,
the god of the city, from the remote times of Ur-Hammu, was Sin, the
moon-god; at Sippara and Larsam, Shamash, the sun; at Erech and Nipur,
Bilit-Taauth, “Goddess of the Firmament.” The most shameful rites were
connected with the worship of Nana or Zarpanit, at Cutha.
The materialistic and profoundly immoral worship at Babylon, naturally
excited extreme horror in the worshipers of Jehovah, and provoked their
vehement invectives against the idols of Chaldæa. We quote the eloquent
words of Baruch, that portray so vividly an always materialistic,
and often obscene worship that was, in fact, no more than a constant
employment of popular superstition for the profit of the priests.
“Now ye shall see in Babylon gods of silver, and of gold, and of wood,
borne upon shoulders, which cause the nations to fear.... And taking
gold, as it were, for a virgin that loveth to go gay, they make crowns
for the heads of their gods. Sometimes also the priests convey from
their gods gold and silver, and bestow it upon themselves. Yea, they
will give thereof to the common harlots, and deck them as men with
garments, being gods of silver, and gods of gold and wood.... And he
that cannot put to death one that offendeth him holdeth a sceptre
(Nebo), as though he were a judge of the country. He (Bel Merodach)
hath also in his right hand a dagger and an axe, but cannot deliver
himself from war and thieves.... They light them candles, yea, more
than for themselves, whereof they cannot see one. They are as one of
the beams of the temple, yet they say their hearts are gnawed upon by
things creeping out of the earth; and when they eat them and their
clothes they feel it not.... As for the things that are sacrificed unto
them, their priests sell and abuse; in like manner their wives lay up
part thereof in salt; but unto the poor and impotent they give nothing
of it. ... The priests also take off their garments and clothe their
wives and children.... The women also with cords about them sitting in
the way burn bran for perfume.”
The most remarkable building in Babylon was the temple of Bel. It was
pyramidal in shape, having eight stages. The lowest stage was 200 yards
square. On the summit a golden statue of Bel, 40 feet high, stood in a
shrine. There were also two other golden statues and a golden table in
this shrine. At the bottom of the pyramid-temple stood a chapel with
a table and two images of gold within it. Two altars stood outside of
this chapel. A similar temple was at Borsippa near Babylon. It had
seven stages, each decorated in one of the seven primary colors. Like
all Chaldean temples, and like the Great Pyramid of Egypt, the four
corners of this exactly corresponded with the four cardinal points of
the compass.