ASSYRIAN RELIGION.
The Assyrians derived the greater part of their deities and religious
beliefs, like their literature and culture generally, from Babylonia.
The Babylonian gods were the gods of Assyria also. Most of them were of
Accadian or præ-Semitic origin, but the Semitic Babylonians, when they
appropriated the civilisation of the Accadians, modified them in
accordance with their own conceptions. The Accadians believed that every
object and phenomenon of nature had its _Zi_ or 'spirit,' some of them
beneficent, others hostile to man, like the objects and phenomena they
represented. Naturally, however, there were more malevolent than
beneficent spirits in the universe, and there was scarcely an action
which did not risk demoniac possession. Diseases were due to the
malevolence of these spirits, and could be cured only by the use of
certain charms and exorcisms. Exorcisms, in fact, gave those who
employed them power over the spirits; they could by means of them compel
the evil spirit to retire, and the beneficent spirit to approach. The
knowledge of such exorcisms was in the hands of the priests, so that
priest and magician were almost synonymous terms.
Among the multitude of spirits feared by the Accadians, there were some
which had been raised above the rest into the position of gods. Of
these, Anu, 'the sky;' Mul-ge, 'the earth;' and Ea, 'the deep,' were the
most conspicuous. At their side stood the 'spirits' of the heavenly
bodies—the Moon-god, the Sun-god, the evening star, and the other
planets. The Moon-god ranked before the Sun-god, as might indeed have
been expected to be the case among a nation of astronomers like the
Chaldeans.
When the Semitic Babylonians adopted the deities of their predecessors
and teachers, Anu and his compeers lost much of their elemental nature,
while the Sun-god Samas came to assume an important place. The religion
of the Babylonian Semites, in fact, was essentially solar; the Sun-god
was addressed as Bel or Baal, the supreme 'lord,' and adored under
various forms. He appeared to them, moreover, under two aspects,
sometimes as the kindly deity who gives life and light to all things,
sometimes as the scorching sun of summer who demanded the sacrifice of
the first-born to appease his wrath. Sometimes, again, he was worshipped
as the young and beautiful Tammuz, slain by the boar's tusk of winter;
whose death was lamented at the autumnal equinox, and who was invoked as
_adoni_ (_Adonis_) or 'master.'
Unlike the Accadians, who did not distinguish gender, the Semites
divided all nouns into masculines and feminines. By the side of the god,
consequently, stood the goddess. She was, however, but a pale
reflection of her male consort, created, so to speak, by the necessities
of grammar. She had no independent attributes of her own; Beltis, or
Bilat, the wife of Bel, was nothing more than the feminine complement of
the god. The Accadians had known of one great goddess, Istar, the
evening star; but Istar was an independent deity, with attributes as
strongly and individually marked as those of the gods. Among the
Semites, Istar became Ashtoreth, with the feminine suffix _th_, and
though in Babylonia the old legends and traditions prevented her from
losing altogether her primitive character, she tended more and more to
pass into the mere reflection of some male deity. Just as the gods could
be collectively spoken of as Baalim or 'lords,' all being regarded as so
many different forms of the Sun-god, the goddesses also were termed
Ashtaroth or 'Ashtoreths.'
We see, therefore, that in adopting the pantheon of Accad, the Semites
made three important changes. The Sun-god was assigned a leading place
in worship and belief; female deities were introduced, who were,
however, mere reflections of the gods; while the inferior deities of the
Accadians were classed among 'the 300 spirits of heaven' and 'the 600
spirits of earth,' only a few of the more prominent ones retaining their
old position. These latter may be grouped as follows:—
At the head of the divine hierarchy still stood the old triad of Anu,
Mul-ge, and Ea. Mul-ge's name, however, was changed to Bel, but since
Merodach was also known as Bel, he fell more and more into the
background, especially after the rise of Babylon, of which city Merodach
was the patron deity. At Nipur, now Niffer, alone, he continued to be
worshipped down into late times. His consort was Bilat, or Beltis, 'the
great lady,' who eventually came to be regarded as the wife of Merodach
rather than of 'the other Bel.' Like Anu and Ea, Bel was the offspring
of Sar and Kisar, the upper and lower firmaments.
Anu was the visible sky, but he also represented the invisible heaven,
which was supposed to extend above the visible one, and to be the abode
of the gods. The chief seat of his worship was Erech, where he was
regarded as the oldest of the gods, and the original creator of the
universe. But elsewhere, also, he was looked upon as the creator of the
visible world, and the father of the gods. By his side, in the Semitic
period, stood the goddess Anat, whose attributes were derived from his.
The worship of Anat spread from Babylonia to the Canaanites, as is shown
by the geographical names Beth Anath, 'the temple of Anat' (Josh. xix.
38; xv. 59), and Anathoth, the city of 'the goddesses Anat.' It was even
introduced into Egypt after the Asiatic wars of the eighteenth dynasty.
In the præ-Semitic days of Chaldea, a monotheistic school had
flourished, which resolved the various deities of the Accadian belief
into manifestations of the one supreme god, Anu; and old hymns exist in
which reference is made to 'the one god.' But this school never seems
to have numbered many adherents, and it eventually died out. Its
existence, however, reminds us of the fact that Abraham was born in 'Ur
of the Chaldees.'
Ea originally represented the ocean-stream or 'great deep,' which was
supposed to surround the earth like a serpent, and by which all rivers
and springs were fed. He was symbolised by the snake, and was held to be
the creator and benefactor of mankind. One of his most frequent titles
is 'lord of wisdom,' and the chief seat of his worship was at Eridu,
'the holy city,' near which was the sacred grove or 'garden,' the centre
of the world, where the tree of life and knowledge had its roots. It was
Ea who had given to mankind not only life, but all the arts and
appliances of culture also, and it was his help that the Babylonian
invoked when in trouble. He was emphatically the god of healing, who had
revealed medicines to mankind. As god of the great deep, he was often
figured as a man with the tail of a fish, and in this form was known to
the Greeks under the name of Oannes or 'Ea the fish.' Sometimes the skin
of a fish was suspended behind his back. Oannes, it was said, had in
early days ascended out of the Persian Gulf, and taught the first
inhabitants of Babylonia letters, science, and art, besides writing a
history of the origin of mankind and their different ways of life. His
wife was Dav-kina, 'the lady of the earth,' who presided over the lower
world.
Among the numerous offspring of Ea and Dav-kina, Merodach held the
foremost place. He was originally a form of the Sun-god, regarded under
his beneficent aspect, and was believed to be ever engaged in combating
the powers of evil, and in performing services for mankind. Hence he is
addressed as 'the redeemer of mankind,' 'the restorer to life,' and the
'raiser from the dead,' and a considerable number of the religious hymns
are dedicated to him. He was believed to be continually passing
backwards and forwards between the earth and the heaven where Ea dwelt,
informing Ea of the sufferings of men, and returning with Ea's
directions how to relieve them. One of the bas-reliefs from Nineveh, now
in the British Museum, represents him as pursuing with his curved sword
or thunderbolt the demon Tiamat, the personification of chaos and
anarchy, who is depicted with claws, tail, and horns. As we have already
seen, he was commonly addressed as Bel or 'lord,' and so came gradually
to supplant the older Bel or Mul-ge. Among the planets his star was
Jupiter. His wife was Zarpanit or Zirat-panitu, in whom some scholars
have seen the Succoth-benoth of 2 Kings xvii. 30.
The children of Merodach and Zarpanit were Nebo, 'the prophet,' and his
wife Tasmit, 'the hearer.' Nebo was the god of oratory and literature;
it was he who 'enlightened the eyes' to understand written characters,
while his wife 'enlarged the ears,' so that they could comprehend what
was read. The origin of the cuneiform system of writing was ascribed to
Nebo. To him was dedicated 'the temple of the Seven Lights of Heaven
and Earth,' at Borsippa, the suburb of Babylon, which is now known to
the Arabs as the Birs-i-Nimrûd, and his worship was carried as far as
Canaan, as we may gather from such names as the city of Nebo, in Judæa
(Ezra ii. 29), and Mount Nebo, in Moab (Deut. xxxii. 49). In Accadian he
had been called Dimsar, 'the tablet-writer,' and a temple was erected to
him in the island of Bahrein, in the Persian Gulf, where he was
worshipped under the name of Enzak. As a planetary deity, he was
identified with Mercury. He was often adored under the name of Nusku,
although Nusku had originally been a separate divinity, and the same,
perhaps, as the Nisroch of the Bible (2 Kings xix. 37).
The companion of Merodach was Rimmon, or rather Ramman, 'the thunderer.'
He represented the atmosphere, and was accordingly the god of rain and
storm, who was armed with the lightning and the thunderbolt. Sometimes
he was dreaded as 'the destroyer of crops,' 'the scatterer of the
harvest;' at other times prayers were made to him as 'the lord of
fecundity.' His worship extended into Syria, where Rimmon appears to
have been the supreme deity of Damascus, and where he was also known
under the name of Hadad or Dadda.
Two other elemental gods were Samas, the Sun-god, and Sin, the Moon-god.
Samas was the son of Sin, in accordance with the astronomical view of
the old Babylonians, which made the moon the measurer of time, and
regarded the day as the offspring of night. Samas, however, like Saul or
Savul, another deity of whom mention is made in the inscriptions, was
really but a form of Merodach, though in historical times the two
divinities were separated from one another, and received different
cults. Samas, again, was originally identical with Tammuz; but when
Tammuz came to denote only the sun of spring and summer, while the myth
that associated him with Istar laid firm hold of men's minds, Tammuz
assumed separate attributes, and an individual existence apart from
Samas.
Sin, the Moon-god, was termed Agu or Acu by the Accadians, and if the
name of Mount Sinai was derived from him, as is sometimes supposed, we
should have evidence that he was known and worshipped in Northern
Arabia. At all events he was one of the deities of Southern Arabia. Sin
was the patron-god of the city of Ur, and it was to him that the
Assyrian kings traced the formation of their kingdom. One of the most
famous of his temples was in the ancient city of Harran, where he was
symbolised by an upright cone of stone. As the emblem of the Sun-god was
the solar orb, the emblem of Sin was the crescent moon.
According to some of the legends of Babylonia, the daughter of the
Moon-god was the goddess Istar. Other legends, however, placed Istar
among the older gods, and made her the daughter of Anu, the sky. In
either case she was at the outset the goddess of the evening star, and
when it was discovered that the evening and morning stars were the same,
of the morning star also. As the evening star, she was known as Istar of
Erech, as the morning star, she was identified with Anunit or Anat, the
goddess of Accad. At times she was also regarded as androgynous, both
male and female.
Istar was the chief of the Accadian goddesses, and she retained her rank
even among the Semites, who, as we have seen, looked upon the goddess as
the mere consort and shadow of the god. But Istar continued to the last
a separate and independent divinity. She presided over love and war, as
well as over the chase. She was invoked as 'the queen of heaven,' 'the
queen of all the gods,' and there was often a tendency to merge in her
the other goddesses of the pantheon. Her principal temples were at
Erech, Nineveh, and Arbela, but altars were erected to her in almost
every place, and she was adored under as many forms and titles as she
possessed shrines. Her name and worship spread through the Semitic
world, in Southern Arabia, in Syria, in Moab, where she was identified
with the Sun-god, Chemosh, and in Canaan, where she was called
Ashtoreth, the Astartê of the Greeks. But the Greeks also knew her as
Aphroditê, the goddess whom they had borrowed from the Phœnicians of
Canaan, and we may discover her again in the Ephesian Artemis. The rites
performed in her temples made Istar or Ashtoreth the darkest blot in
Assyrian and Canaanitish religion, and excited the utmost horror and
indignation of the prophets of God. When the moon came to be conceived
as a female divinity, the pale reflection, as it were, of the sun,
Istar, the evening star, became also the goddess of the moon. Hence it
is that 'the queen of heaven' (Jer. xliv. 17) passed into Astartê 'with
crescent horns.'
One of the most popular of old Babylonian myths told how Istar had
wedded the young and beautiful Sun-god, Tammuz, 'the only-begotten,' and
had descended into Hades in search of him when he had been slain by the
boar's tusk of winter. A portion of a Babylonian poem has been preserved
to us, which describes her passage through the seven gates of the
underworld, where she left with the warden of each some one of her
adornments, until at last she reached the seat of the infernal goddess
Allat, stripped and bare. There she remained imprisoned until the gods,
wearied of the long absence of the goddess of love, created a hound
called 'the renewal of light,' who restored her to the upper world. The
myth clearly refers to the waning and waxing of the monthly moon, and
must therefore have originated when Istar had already become the goddess
of the moon. The myth entered deeply into the religious belief of the
worshippers of Istar. The Accadians called the month of August 'the
month of the errand of Istar,' while June was termed 'the month of
Tammuz' by the Semites. It was then that, as Milton writes, his
'annual wound in Lebanon allured
The Syrian damsels to lament his fate
In amorous ditties all a summer's day;
While smooth Adonis from his native rock
Ran purple to the sea, supposed with blood
Of Tammuz yearly wounded.'
But it was not only in Assyria and Phœnicia that the death of Tammuz was
lamented by the women year by year. The infection spread to Judah also,
and even in Jerusalem, within the precincts of the temple itself,
Ezekiel saw 'women weeping for Tammuz' (Ezek. viii. 14).
[Illustration: NERGAL.
(_From the original in the British Museum._)]
There are only two other Assyro-Babylonian deities who need be
mentioned, Nergal and Adar. Nergal was the presiding deity of Cuthah and
its vast necropolis.[3] He shared with Anu the privilege of
superintending the regions of the dead, and he was also a god of hunting
and war. His name, like those of Anu, Ea, and Istar, was of Accadian
origin. Adar, the son of Beltis, was one of those solar deities who were
formed by worshipping the Sun-god under some particular attribute. The
reading of his name is, unfortunately, not certain, and Adar is only its
most probable pronunciation. If it is correct, Adar will be the deity
meant in 2 Kings xvii. 31, where it is stated that the people of
Sepharvaim, or the two Sipparas, burnt their children in fire to
Adrammelech and Anammelech, that is to say, to 'King Adar' and 'King
Anu.'
[3] Confer 2 Kings xvii. 30.
Such were the principal divinities of Babylonia and Assyria. But the
Assyrians had another also, whom they exalted above all the rest. This
was Assur, the divine impersonation of the state and empire. It was
Assur who, according to the Assyrian kings, led them to victory, and the
cruelties they practised on the conquered were, they held, judgments
exercised against those who would not believe in him. Assur, in the form
of an archer, is sometimes represented on the monuments in the midst of
the winged solar disk, and above the head of the monarch, whom he
protects from his enemies.
The Assyrian, however, was not so pious or superstitious as his
Babylonian neighbour. The Babylonian lived in perpetual dread of the
evil spirits which thronged about him; almost every moment had its
religious ceremony, almost every action its religious complement. Not
only had the State ritual to be attended to; the unceasing attacks of
the demons could be warded off only by magical incantations and the
intervention of the sorcerer-priest. But the Assyrians were too much
occupied with wars and fighting to give all this heed to the
requirements of religion. It is significant that, whereas in Babylonia
we find the remains of scarcely any great buildings except temples, the
great buildings of Assyria were the royal palaces. The libraries, which
in Babylonia were stored in the temples, were deposited in Assyria in
the palace of the king.
Nevertheless, the greater part of the religious system of Babylonia had
been transported into Assyria. Along with the Babylonian deities had
come the Babylonian scriptures. These were divided into two great
collections or volumes. The first, and oldest, was a collection of
exorcisms and magical texts, by the use of which, it was believed, the
spirits of evil could be driven away, and the spirits of good induced to
visit the reciter. When, however, certain independent deities began to
emerge from among the multitudinous 'spirits' of the primitive Accadian
creed, hymns were composed in their honour, and these hymns were
eventually collected together, and, like the Rig-Veda of India, became a
second sacred book. After the Accadians had been supplanted by the
Semites, the Accadian language, in which the hymns were originally
written, was provided with a Semitic translation; but it was still
considered necessary to recite the exact words of the original, since
the words themselves were sacred, and any mistake in their pronunciation
would invalidate the religious service in which they were employed. Some
of the incantations embodied in the collection of exorcisms must have
been introduced into it subsequently to the compilation of the sacred
hymns, since the latter are found inserted in them. From this it would
appear that the older collection continued to receive additions for a
long while after the younger collection—that of the sacred hymns—had
been put together and invested with a sacred character. This could not
have been till after the beginning of the Semitic period, since there
are a few hymns which do not seem to have had any Accadian originals. If
we may compare the two collections with our own religious literature, we
may say that the collection of hymns corresponded more to our Bible,
that of exorcisms to our Prayer Book.
The Babylonians and Assyrians, however, possessed a liturgy which
answered far better to our conception of what a Prayer Book should be.
This contained services for particular days and hours, together with
rubrics for the direction of the priest. Thus we are told that 'in the
month Nisan, on the second day, two hours after nightfall, the priest
[of Bel at Babylon] must come and take of the waters of the river, must
enter into the presence of Bel, and change his dress; must put on a robe
in the presence of Bel, and say this prayer: "O my lord who in his
strength has no equal, O my lord, blessed sovereign, lord of the world,
speeding the peace of the great gods, the lord who in his might destroys
the strong, lord of kings, light of mankind, establisher of trust, O
Bel, thy sceptre is Babylon, thy crown is Borsippa, the wide heaven is
the dwelling-place of thy liver.... O lord of the world, light of the
spirits of heaven, utterer of blessings, who is there whose mouth
murmurs not of thy righteousness, or speaks not of thy glory, and
celebrates not thy dominion? O lord of the world, who dwellest in the
temple of the sun, reject not the hands that are raised to thee; be
merciful to thy city Babylon, to Beth-Saggil thy temple incline thy
face, grant the prayers of thy people the sons of Babylon."'
Part of the liturgy consisted of prayers addressed to the various
deities, and suited to various occasions. Here are examples of them: 'At
dawn and in the night prayer should be made to the throne-bearer, and
thus should it be said: "O throne-bearer, giver of prosperity, a
prayer!" After that, let prayer be made to Nusku, and thus let it be
said: "O Nusku, prince and king of the secrets of the great gods, a
prayer!" After that, let prayer be made to Adar, and thus let it be
said: "O Adar, mighty lord of the deep places of the springs, a prayer!"
After that let prayer be made to Gula (Beltis), and thus let it be said:
"O Gula, mother, begetter of the black-headed race (of Accadians), a
prayer!" After that, let prayer be made to Nin-lil, and thus let it be
said: "O Nin-lil, great goddess, wife of the divine prince of
sovereignty, a prayer!" After that, let prayer be made to Bel, and thus
let it be said: "O lord supreme, establisher of law, a prayer!" The
prayer (must be repeated) during the day at dawn, and in the night,
with face and mouth uplifted, during the middle watch. Water must be
poured out in libation day by day ... at dawn, on the beams of the
palace.'
One of the most curious of these petitions is a prayer after a bad
dream, of which a fragment only has been found. This reads as follows:
'May the lord set my prayer at rest, (may he remove) my heavy (sin). May
the lord (grant) a return of favour. By day direct unto death all that
disquiets me. O my goddess, be gracious unto me; when (wilt thou hear)
my prayer? May they pardon my sin, my wickedness, (and) my
transgression. May the exalted one deliver, may the holy one love. May
the seven winds carry away my groaning. May the worm lay it low, may the
bird bear it upwards to heaven. May a shoal of fish carry it away; may
the river bear it along. May the creeping thing of the field come unto
me; may the waters of the river as they flow cleanse me. Enlighten me
like a mask of gold. Food and drink before thee perpetually may I get.
Heap up the worm, take away his life. The steps of thy altar, thy many
ones, may I ascend. With the worm make me pass, and may I be kept with
thee. Make me to be fed, and may a favourable dream come. May the dream
I dream be favourable; may the dream I dream be fulfilled. May the dream
I dream turn to prosperity. May Makhir, the god of dreams, settle upon
my head. Let me enter Beth-Saggil, the palace of the gods, the temple of
the lord. Give me unto Merodach, the merciful, to prosperity, even unto
prospering hands. May thy entering (O Merodach) be exalted, may thy
divinity be glorious; may the men of thy city extol thy mighty deeds.'
Along with these prayers, the Assyrians possessed a collection of
penitential psalms, which were composed at a very remote period in
Southern Babylonia. The most perfect of those of which we have copies is
the following:—
My Lord is wroth in his heart: may he be appeased again.
May God be appeased again, for I knew not that I sinned.
May Istar, my mother, be appeased again, for I knew not
that I sinned,
God knoweth that I knew not: may he be appeased.
Istar, my mother, knoweth that I knew not: may she be
appeased.
May the heart of my God be appeased.
May God and Istar, my mother, be appeased.
May God cease from his anger.
May Istar, my mother, cease from her anger.
The transgression (I committed my God) knew.
[The next few lines are obliterated.]
The transgression (I committed, Istar, my mother, knew).
(My tears) I drink like the waters of the sea.
That which was forbidden by my God I ate without knowing.
That which was forbidden by Istar, my mother, I trampled
on without knowing.
O my Lord, my transgression is great, many are my sins.
O my God, my transgression is great, many are my sins.
O Istar, my mother, my transgression is great, many are my
sins.
O my God, who knowest that I knew not, my transgression is
great, many are my sins.
O Istar, my mother, who knowest that I knew not, my
transgression is great, many are my sins.
The transgression that I committed I knew not.
The sin that I sinned I knew not.
The forbidden thing did I eat.
The forbidden thing did I trample on.
My Lord, in the anger of his heart, has punished me.
God, in the strength of his heart, has taken me.
Istar, my mother, has seized upon me, and put me to grief.
God, who knoweth that I knew not, has afflicted me.
Istar, my mother, who knoweth that I knew not, has caused
darkness.
I prayed, and none takes my hand.
I wept, and none held my palm.
I cry aloud, but there is none that will hear me.
I am in darkness and hiding, I dare not look up.
To God I refer my distress, I utter my prayer.
The feet of Istar, my mother, I embrace.
To God, who knoweth that I knew not, my prayer I utter.
To Istar, my mother, who knoweth that I knew not, my
prayer I address.
[The next four lines are destroyed.]
How long, O God (shall I suffer)?
How long, O Istar, my mother (shall I be afflicted)?
How long, O God, who knoweth that I knew not (shall I
feel thy) strength?
How long, O Istar, my mother, who knoweth that I knew
not, shall thy heart (be angry)?
Thou writest the number (?) of mankind, and none knoweth
it.
Thou callest man by his name, and what does he know?
Whether he shall be afflicted, or whether he shall be
prosperous, there is no man that knoweth.
O my God, thou givest not rest to thy servant.
In the waters of the raging flood take his hand.
The sin he has sinned turn into good.
Let the wind carry away the transgression I have committed.
Destroy my manifold wickednesses like a garment.
O my God, seven times seven are my transgressions, my
transgressions are (ever) before me.
A rubric is attached to this verse, stating that it is to be repeated
ten times, and at the end of the whole psalm is the further rubric: 'For
the tearful supplication of the heart let the glorious name of every god
be invoked sixty-five times, and then the heart shall have peace.'
Reference is made in the psalm to the eating of forbidden foods, and we
have other indications that certain kinds of food, among which swine's
flesh may be mentioned, were not allowed to be consumed. On particular
days also fasts were observed, and special days of fasting and
humiliation were prescribed in times of public calamity. In the calendar
of the Egibi banking firm, the 2nd of Tammuz or June is entered as a day
of 'weeping.' The institution of the Sabbath, moreover, was known to
the Babylonians and Assyrians, though it was confounded with the feast
of the new moon, since it was kept, not every seven days, but on the
seventh, fourteenth, twenty-first, and twenty-eighth days of the lunar
month. On these days, we read in a sort of Saints' calendar for the
intercalary Elul: 'Flesh cooked on the fire may not be eaten, the
clothing of the body may not be changed, white garments may not be put
on, a sacrifice may not be offered, the king may not ride in his
chariot, nor speak in public, the augur may not mutter in a secret
place, medicine of the body may not be applied, nor may any curse be
uttered.' The very name of Sabattu or Sabbath was employed by the
Assyrians, and is defined as 'a day of rest for the heart,' while the
Accadian equivalent is explained to mean 'a day of completion of
labour.'
So far as we are at present acquainted with the peculiarities of the
Assyro-Babylonian temple, it offers many points of similarity to the
temple of Solomon at Jerusalem. Thus there were an outer and an inner
court and a shrine, to which the priests alone had access. In this was
an altar approached by steps, as well as an ark or coffer containing two
inscribed tablets of stone, such as were discovered by Mr. Rassam in the
temple of Balawât. In the outer court was a large basin, filled with
water, and called 'a sea,' which was used for ablutions and religious
ceremonies. At the entrance stood colossal figures of winged bulls,
termed 'cherubs,' which were imagined to prevent the ingress of evil
spirits. Similar figures guarded the approach to the royal palace, and
possibly to other houses as well. Some of them may now be seen in the
British Museum. Within, the temples were filled with images of gods,
great and small, which not only represented the deities whose names they
bore, but were believed to confer of themselves a special sanctity on
the place wherein they were placed. As among the Israelites, offerings
were of two kinds, sacrifices and meal offerings. The sacrifice
consisted of an animal, more usually a bullock, part of whose flesh was
burnt upon the altar, while the rest was handed over to the priests or
retained by the offerer. There is no trace of human sacrifices among the
Assyrians, which is the more singular, since we learn that human
sacrifice had been an Accadian institution. A passage in an old
astrological work indicates that the victims were burnt to death, like
the victims of Moloch; and an early Accadian fragment expressly states
that they were to be the children of those for whose sins they were
offered to the gods. The fragment is as follows: 'The son who lifts his
head among men, the son for his own life must (the father) give; the
head of the child for the head of the man must he give; the neck of the
child for the neck of the man must he give; the breast of the child for
the breast of the man must he give.' The idea of vicarious punishment is
here clearly indicated.
The future life to which the Babylonian had looked forward was dreary
enough. Hades, the land of the dead, was beneath the earth, a place of
darkness and gloom, from which 'none might return,' where the spirits of
the dead flitted like bats, with dust alone for their food. Here the
shadowy phantoms of the heroes of old time sat crowned, each upon his
throne, a belief to which allusion is made by the Hebrew prophet in his
prophecy of the coming overthrow of Babylon (Is. xiv. 9). In the midst
stood the palace of Allat, the queen of the underworld, where the waters
of life bubbled forth beside the golden throne of the spirits of earth,
restoring those who might drink of them to life and the upper air. The
entrance to this dreary abode of the departed lay beyond Datilla, the
river of death, at the mouth of the Euphrates, and it was here that the
hero Gisdhubar saw Xisuthros, the Chaldean Noah, after his translation
to the fields of the blessed. In later times, when the horizon of
geographical knowledge was widened, the entrance to the gloomy world of
Hades, and the earthly paradise that was above it, were alike removed to
other and more unknown regions. The conception of the after-life,
moreover, was made brighter, at all events, for the favoured few. An
Assyrian court-poet prays thus on behalf of his king: 'The land of the
silver sky, oil unceasing, the benefits of blessedness may he obtain
among the feasts of the gods, and a happy cycle among their light, even
life everlasting, and bliss; such is my prayer to the gods who dwell in
the land of Assur.' Even at a far earlier time we find the great
Chaldean epic of Gisdhubar concluding with a description of the
blissful lot of the spirit of Ea-bani: 'On a couch he reclines and pure
water he drinks. Him who is slain in battle thou seest and I see. His
father and his mother (support) his head, his wife addresses the corpse.
His friends in the fields are standing; thou seest (them) and I see. His
spoil on the ground is uncovered; of his spoil he hath no oversight,
(as) thou seest and I see. His tender orphans beg for bread; the food
that was stored in (his) tent is eaten.' Here the spirit of Ea-bani is
supposed to behold from his couch in heaven the deeds that take place on
the earth below.
Heaven itself had not always been 'the land of the silver sky' of later
Assyrian belief. The Babylonians once believed that the gods inhabited
the snow-clad peak of Rowandiz, 'the mountain of the world' and 'the
mountain of the East,' as it was also termed, which supported the starry
vault of heaven. It is to this old Babylonian belief that allusion is
made in Isaiah xiv. 13, 14, where the Babylonian monarch is represented
as saying in his heart: 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my
throne above the stars of God: I will sit also on the mount of the
assembly (of the gods)[4] in the extremities[5] of the north: I will
ascend above the heights of the clouds.'
[4] A. V. 'congregation.'
[5] A. V. 'sides.'
As in all old forms of heathen faith, religion and mythology were
inextricably mixed together. Myths were told of most of the gods.
Reference has already been made to the myth of Istar and Tammuz, the
prototype of the Greek legend of Aphroditê and Adonis. So, too, the
Greek story of the theft of fire by Prometheus has its parallel in the
Babylonian story of the god Zu, 'the divine storm-bird,' who stole the
lightning of Bel, the tablet whereon the knowledge of futurity is
written, and who was punished for his crime by the father of the gods.
In reading the legend of the plague-demon Lubara, whom Anu sends to
smite the evildoers in Babylon, Erech, and other places, we are reminded
of the avenging angel of God whom David saw standing with a drawn sword
over Jerusalem.
One of the most curious of the Babylonian myths was that which told how
the seven evil-spirits or storm-demons had once warred against the moon
and threatened to devour it. Samas and Istar fled from the lower sky,
and the Moon-god would have been blotted out from heaven had not Bel and
Ea sent Merodach in his 'glistening armour' to rescue him. The myth is
really a primitive attempt to explain a lunar eclipse, and finds its
illustration in the dragon of the Chinese, who is still popularly
believed by them to devour the sun or moon when an eclipse takes place.
The primæval victory of light and order over darkness and chaos, which
seems to be repeated whenever the sun bursts through a storm-cloud, was
similarly expressed in a mythical form. It was the victory of Merodach
over Tiamat,'the deep,' the personification of chaos and elemental
anarchy. The myth was embodied in a poem, the greater part of which has
been preserved to us. We are told how Merodach was armed by the gods
with bow and scimetar, how alone he faced and fought the dragon Tiamat,
driving the winds into her throat when she opened her mouth to swallow
him, and how, finally, he cut open her body, scattering in flight 'the
rebellious deities' who had stood at her side. Tiamat, or the watery
chaos, is usually represented with wings, claws, tail, and horns, but
she is also identified with 'the wicked serpent' of 'night and
darkness,' 'the monstrous serpent of seven heads,' 'which beats the
sea.'
The most interesting of the old myths and traditions of Babylonia are
those in which we can trace, more or less clearly, the lineaments of the
accounts of the creation of the world and the early history of man,
given us in the early chapters of Genesis. There was more than one
legend of the creation. In a text which came from the library of Cuthah,
it was described as taking place on evolutionary principles, the first
created beings being the brood of chaos, men with 'the bodies of birds'
and 'the faces of ravens,' who were succeeded by the more perfect forms
of the existing world. But the library of Assur-bani-pal also contained
an account of the creation, which bears a remarkable resemblance to that
in the first chapter of Genesis. Unfortunately, however, it seems to
have been of Assyrian and not Babylonian origin, and, therefore, not to
have been of early date. In this account the creation appears to be
described as having been accomplished in six days. It begins in these
words:
'At that time the heavens above named not a name, nor did the earth
below record one; yea, the ocean was their first creator, the flood of
the deep (Tiamat) was she who bore them all. Their waters were embosomed
in one place, and the clouds (?) were not collected, the plant was still
ungrown. At that time the gods had not issued forth, any one of them; by
no name were they recorded, no destiny (had they fixed). Then the
(great) gods were made; Lakhmu and Lakhamu issued forth the first. They
grew up.... Next were made the host of heaven and earth. The time was
long, (and then) the gods Anu, (Bel, and Ea were born of) the host of
heaven and earth.' The rest of the account is lost, and it is not until
we come to the fifth tablet of the series, which describes the
appointment of the heavenly bodies, that the narrative is again
preserved. Here we are told that the creator, who seems to have been Ea,
'made the stations of the great gods, even the stars, fixing the places
of the principal stars like ... He ordered the year, setting over it the
decans; yea, he established three stars for each of the twelve months.'
It will be remembered that, according to Genesis, the appointment of the
heavenly bodies to guide and govern the seasons was the work of the
fourth day, and since the work is described in the fifth tablet or book
of the Assyrian account, while the first tablet describes the condition
of the universe before the creation was begun, it becomes probable that
the Assyrians also knew that the work was performed on the fourth day.
The next tablet states that 'at that time the gods in their assembly
created (the living creatures). They made the mighty (animals). They
caused the living beings to come forth, the cattle of the field, the
beast of the field, and the creeping thing.' Unfortunately the rest of
the narrative is in too mutilated a condition for a translation to be
possible, and the part which describes the creation of man has not yet
been recovered among the ruins of the library of Nineveh.
The Chaldean account of the Deluge was discovered by Mr. George Smith,
and its close resemblance to the account in Genesis is well known. Those
who wish to see a translation of it, according to the latest researches,
will find one in the pages of 'Fresh Light from the Ancient Monuments.'
The account was introduced as an episode into the eleventh book of the
great Babylonian epic of Gisdhubar, and appears to be the amalgamation
of two older poems on the subject. The story of the Deluge, in fact, was
a favourite theme among the Babylonians, and we have fragments of at
least two other versions of it, neither of which, however, agree so
remarkably with the Biblical narrative as does the version discovered by
Mr. Smith. Apart from the profound difference caused by the polytheistic
character of the Chaldean account, and the monotheism of the Scriptural
narrative, it is only in details that the two accounts vary from one
another. Thus, the vessel in which Xisuthros, the Chaldean Noah, sails,
is a ship, guided by a steersman, and not an ark, and others besides
his own family are described as being admitted into it. So, too, the
period of time during which the flood was at its height is said to have
been seven days only, while, beside the raven and the dove, Xisuthros is
stated to have sent out a third bird, the swallow, in order to determine
how far the waters had subsided. The Chaldean ark rested, moreover, on
Rowandiz, the highest of the mountains of Eastern Kurdistan, and the
peak whereon Accadian mythology imagined the heavens to be supported,
and not on the northern or Armenian continuation of the range.
Babylonian tradition, too, had fused into one Noah and Enoch, Xisuthros
being represented as translated to the land of immortality immediately
after his descent from the ark and his sacrifice to the gods. It is
noticeable that the Chaldean account agrees with that of the Bible in
one remarkable respect, in which it differs from almost all the other
traditions of the Deluge found throughout the world. This is in its
ascribing the cause of the Deluge to the wickedness of mankind. It was
sent as a punishment for sin.
As might have been expected, the Babylonians and Assyrians knew of the
building of the Tower of Babel, and the dispersion of mankind. Men had
'turned against the father of all the gods,' under a leader the thoughts
of whose heart 'were evil.' At Babylon they began to erect 'a mound,' or
hill-like tower, but the winds destroyed it in the night, and Anu
'confounded great and small on the mound,' as well as their 'speech,'
and 'made strange their counsel.' All this was supposed to have taken
place at the time of the autumnal equinox, and it is possible that the
name of the rebel leader, which is lost, was Etána. At all events the
demi-god Etána played a conspicuous part in the early historical
mythology of Babylonia, like two other famous divine kings, Ner and Dun,
and a fragment describes him as having built a city of brick. However
this may be, Etána is the Babylonian Titan of Greek writers, who, with
Promêtheus and Ogygos, made war against the gods.
If we sum up the character of Assyrian religion, we shall find it
characterised by curious contrasts. On the one hand we shall find it
grossly polytheistic, believing in 'lords many and gods many,' and
admitting not only gods and demi-gods, and even deified men, but the
multitudinous spirits, 'the host of heaven and earth,' who were classed
together as the '300 spirits of heaven and the 600 spirits of earth.'
Some of these were beneficent, others hostile, to man. In addition to
this vast army of divine powers, the Assyrian offered worship also to
the heavenly bodies, and to the spirits of rivers and mountains. He even
set up stones or 'Beth-els,' so called because they were imagined to be
veritable 'houses of god,' wherein the godhead dwelt, and over these he
poured out libations of oil and wine. Yet, on the other hand, with all
this gross polytheism, there was a strong tendency to monotheism. The
supreme god, Assur, is often spoken of in language which at first sight
seems monotheistic: to him the Assyrian monarchs ascribe their
victories, and in his name they make war against the unbeliever. A
similar inconsistency prevailed in the character of Assyrian worship
itself. There was much in it which commands our admiration: the Assyrian
confessed his sins to his gods, he begged for their pardon and help, he
allowed nothing to interfere with what he conceived to be his religious
duties. With all this, his worship of Istar was stained with the foulest
excesses—excesses, too, indulged in, like those of the Phœnicians, in
the name and for the sake of religion.
Much of this inconsistency may be explained by the history of his
religious ideas. As we have seen, a large part of them was derived from
a non-Semitic population, the primitive inhabitants of Babylonia, under
whose influence the Semitic Babylonians had come at a time when they
still lacked nearly all the elements of culture. The result was a form
of creed in which the old Accadian faith was bodily taken over by an
alien race, but at the same time profoundly modified. It was Accadian
religion interpreted by the Semitic mind and belief. Baal-worship, which
saw the Sun-god everywhere under an infinite variety of manifestations,
waged a constant struggle with the conceptions of the borrowed creed,
but never overcame them altogether. The gods and spirits of the
Accadians remained to the last, although permeated and overlaid with the
worship of the Semitic Sun-god. As time went on, new religious elements
were introduced, and Assyro-Babylonian religion underwent new phases,
while in Assyria itself the deified state in the person of the god Assur
tended to absorb the religious cult and aspirations of the people. The
higher minds of the nation struggled now and again towards the
conception of one supreme God and of a purer form of faith, but the dead
weight of polytheistic beliefs and practices prevented them from ever
really reaching it. In the best examples of their religious literature
we constantly fall across expressions and ideas which show how wide was
the gulf that separated them from that kindred people of Israel to whom
the oracles of God were revealed.
[Illustration]
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