OF the great rulers in Mesopotamia, both Turanian and Semitic, who stand
out most distinctly in the records of this remote past, are the Turanian
prince, Gudea, about 4800 B. C., the great Sargon I and his son,
Naram-Sin, Semitic princes, both to whom the date 3800 B. C., is
accorded, and the Arabian prince, Khammuragas, or Hammurabi, the founder
of the city of Babylon and contemporary with Abraham. The date now given
for Sargon I, is 3800 B. C. Long before this date various families of
Semitic race had evidently made their appearance in the land; Phœnician
traders from the Persian Gulf, or nomadic tribes from the Arabian
borders, Semitic families, attracted hither by the rich fertility of the
Mesopotamian plains. These were Sabeans, perhaps, with a faint, far-off
remembrance of the One God, ruler and creator of the universe, but now
worshippers of the stars, the abodes of ministering spirits.
At this time in Sargon’s reign, long before the date accorded to Urea,
The Builder, in the new empire arising in Accad, we find the early
beginnings of the Assyrian people. There was as yet no Assyria or
Assyrians. The ancient Turanian capital of Accad was named Aushar or
Asshar, signifying “watered plain,” but this had not yet given its name
to the region or country.
Sargon’s new capital was Agane, or Agade of Accad, while Nineveh, “the
mighty” of the coming kingdom, was as yet but a collection of
fishermen’s huts on the swift-flowing Tigris.
As yet there was no kingdom of Babylonia, and no city of Babylon. This
region was situated in the northern portion of Sumir, south of Accad,
and was at first designated by the Turanian name, “Gar Dunyash,” or “Kar
Dunyash,” the “Garden of the god, Dunyash.”
The site of the future great capital was then called either by its more
ancient Turanian name, “Tin-Tir-ki,” signifying The Tree of Life, or its
later Accado-Sumerian name, “Ka-Dimmirra,” Gate of God. In later times
this name translated into Semitic was Babilu—Babylon—which finally
became the name of the whole of Sumir south to the Persian Gulf, as
Babylonia.
At the date of Sargon, of Accad, Sumir, or southern Mesopotamia, was
chiefly Turanian. The displacement of the Mongol peoples by the Semites
in this region had not at this time obtained. That fusion of races which
so distinctly distinguished the Babylonians of the later era from the
more purely Semitic Assyrians had scarcely begun.
The Babylonians, as a distinct people under this name, do not make their
appearance on the stage of history until over fourteen centuries later
than Sargon, in the time or a little earlier than Hammurabi, or
Khammuragas, about 2300 B. C., at the date accorded to Abraham.
It is probable that Semitic people had settled in this region long
previous to the reign of Sargon, but it was not until the period of
Hammurabi, who at first was simply king of Gar-Dunyash that the Semitic
element dominated in Babylonia.
This powerful prince, who became in time master of all southern
Mesopotamia, was the founder of the city of Babylon, from which the
country and people received the names Babylonia and Babylonians.
Returning to Sargon, we find in the Ninevite remains that in this
earlier time he had founded one of the most famous libraries of ancient
Mesopotamia. This was at his new city of Agane, or Agade. The literature
of this library was entirely based on that of ancient Sumir. It
consisted completely of translations of these older books into what we
may call Assyrian, or were copies of the older books in the old language
of Sumir.
This older language was to these Semitic Assyrians the language of the
learned, the classic tongue of the time, bearing the same relation to
the Assyrian as do Greek and Latin to modern literature. It was then
even more important to the Semitic student as it included all of
learning which in Mesopotamia had as yet obtained literary form.
These ancient texts were copied on clay tablets with translations from
the language of Sumir into Semitic, either between the lines or the text
in the old language in one column and the translation opposite.
For further aids to students, vocabularies were compiled, giving the
Accadian word and the Assyrian translation; also, syllabic forms, and it
is by these wonderful literary aids, especially wonderful when we
consider their antiquity, that scholars of to-day are able to read this
ancient Turanian speech as readily as the Semitic Assyrian language of
Sargon’s reign.
The systematic methods adopted in this library are also remarkable.
Doubtless Sargon’s librarians introduced ideas of their own in the
arrangement of this literature, but they had evidently adopted methods
long in use in the more ancient libraries of Erech, Larsa and other
cities of southern Mesopotamia. As instances of this literary
undertaking the great work on astronomy and astrology called “The
Observations of Bel,” which long ages after Berosius translated into
Greek, was by order of Sargon compiled for his library. It consisted of
seventy-two books, and a certain place in the library was set apart for
this. These tablets were arranged and numbered according to the subject.
A catalogue of these was also prepared, giving the number of the tablets
as arranged under the subjects.
Other literary documents from this collection are The Story of Creation,
in prose and verse; The Deluge Story, and Adventures of Izdubar, the
famous Nimrod of Hebrew tradition.
When the student wished for any special tablet or subject, he was
required by the librarian to consult the catalogue and to write down the
number of the book he wished for, when it would be given to him. The
librarian of to-day, to whom the same system and methods are so
familiar, can scarcely claim these as modern improvements, but may well
exclaim with the philosopher of old, “there is no new thing under the
sun.”
Another great work, prepared for the library of Sargon, of Agade, was a
theological collection in three books and two hundred tablets. This
consisted of magical texts and incantations from the primitive religion
of Turanian Chaldea, which still held power and influence as magic and
divination. It included also the literature of the later development of
the Sumerians into higher spiritual conceptions.
This literature of the later period comprised hymns of praise,
invocations to the gods, and penitential psalms which in spirit and form
bear a remarkable resemblance to the confessions of the later Hebrew
psalmist.
Perhaps we may trace in this a contact with Semitic thought and
influence long before the Semites appear as an established people in the
land.
There are two distinct periods in the religious development of the
Turanians of Chaldea, the era of Shamanism or demon worship, and later
Sabeanism, the deification of the planets and the stars or the benign
influence of nature.
As early as Gudea they had entered upon this later period of religious
development, and now, under the influence of Sargon occurred a blending
of these systems with Semitic conceptions which continued the
established religion of the Assyrians and Babylonians to the latest
times.
The latent tendencies of the Semitic mind seem to have been towards
monotheism. While this did not prevent their recognition of the gods of
the nations with whom they came in contact, and their frequent adoption
of these as objects of worship, this tendency is yet manifest.
With the later Assyrians, they united in the adoption of their national
deity, Asshur; with the Moabites, in Chemosh; with the Hebrews, in
Elohim, or Yahveh; and with them all, the Supreme One who united in
Himself the great attributes of all the gods, the Creator of all things,
the Arbiter of all human events.
The Turanian Chaldeans, on the other hand, were unreserved polytheists.
Their gods were as the sands of the sea for number. Each city, with its
surrounding locality, had its special god, and the greater the city the
greater the god, the more magnificent the temple dedicated to his
worship, and the more powerful its priesthood.
This was the case in the city of Ur, where Hurud, or Sin, the Moon God,
was the local divinity. There were other moon gods in other localities,
each worshipped in a special way, but the Moon God of Ur was greater
than all.
Thus it was with the worship of Ea, the god of the deep, the local god
of the more ancient city of Eridu; and again of Anu, the Sky God of
Erech.
This organization of the Chaldean Pantheon by Sargon was simply the
orderly arrangement of these into greater and lesser divinities, the
blending of these separate local cults into one general system.
At the head of this pantheon was placed the Semitic Illu, or El,
signifying God, and whose name is the root word of the Hebrew Elohim and
the Arabian Allah.
Next in order, was a triad of great gods, Turanian divinities,
consisting of Anu, the Sky God of Erech; Bel, or Mul-lil, the local god
of Nippur, the Lord of the lower world, and last in this triad, of Ea,
of Eridu, the god of the great waters, and creator of the Accadean race.
The position of these gods in this triad is explained by local
circumstances. At the time of this new arrangement of the Chaldean
deities Erech was a prominent city of southern Mesopotamia. It had a
richly endowed library, perhaps the greatest collection of literary
treasures at this time known in the ancient world. This was greatly
enlarged by Sargon, who, perhaps from motives of policy towards his
Chaldean subjects, thought it wisest not to enrich his library at Agane
at the expense of this the oldest of the libraries of southern
Mesopotamia.
It is also possible that some of the literary treasures obtained by him
in other decaying cities of this region may have been placed in the
library at Erech for the same reason, as it offered better opportunities
for the safe deposit of these ancient documents. At any rate, we find
that when Assur-bani-pal founded his great library at Nineveh many
centuries later, and the ancient cities of Chaldea were ransacked for
their literary treasures, it was at Erech that he reaped his richest
harvest.
As suggested, Erech was at the time of Sargon’s reformation of the gods
of Chaldea, a populous and wealthy city. It possessed a powerful
priesthood devoted to the service of Anu, the Sky God, the local god of
Erech, who, for these reasons, was placed first in the trinity of gods,
before the more ancient and sacred divinities of Turanian Chaldea.
Nippur, the second capital of Chaldea, was also at this time a wealthy
and populous city. Here was located a temple to Belus, the older Bel,
identical with Mul-lil, the Lord of the lower world, and as the local
god of Nippur, Bel became the second god in the trinity.
The most ancient and sacred of all the gods of ancient Chaldea, Ea, the
god of the great waters, the local divinity of Eridu, was not to be
ignored, and was thus placed in the trinity of great gods.
The triad thus formed represented the gods of the heavens, the lower
world, and the great waters. Below this was another triad, consisting of
Sin, the moon; Samas, the sun, and Vul, the atmosphere.
Then followed other gods, representing visible planets, and still below
these a host of lesser nature divinities. The transformation of some of
these gods under Semitic influences, and their gradual absorption of the
attributes of the older deities is a curious study in Chaldean
mythology.
It is of special interest as we find in these many familiar deities of
Syria, Palestine, Egypt and other countries, who had their origin in
ancient Chaldea.
A prominent instance of this is the rise of Bel-Merodach, the great
Baal, from a lesser to one of the greater gods, and whose cult extended
with the increase of Assyrian and Babylonian power. When Bel-Merodach
comes first distinctly in view it is as a local god of Babylon. With the
consolidation of all southern Mesopotamia into the Babylonian empire,
and the establishment of Babylon as its capital, the local god of this
city waxed great with the greatness and importance of his local abode.
This occurred under Hammurabi, or Khammuragas, the founder of the city
and the empire, about 2356 B. C.
The attributes of Bel-Merodach are various. He is the son of Ea, “The
first born of the gods,” “The benefactor of mankind,” “The mediator
between gods and men,” “The warrior god, who leads the forces of light.”
Like Nin-Girsu, the god of Gudea, he is the “Lord of the pure flame, who
conquers and puts to flight the spirits of darkness.” Finally assuming
the attributes of Samas, the Sun God, he appears as the solar deity of
Babylon.
Among the cuneiform documents in the British museum, there is a group of
fragments known as the Assyrian Epic of Creation. Portions of these were
first translated by the late George Smith, who directed attention to
their peculiar significance. Other fragments have since been found and
translated by Mr. Pinches, producing the epic nearly complete.
In its present form, the poem is probably of the later days of the
Assyrian empire. It bears within it, however, the embodiment of ancient
Babylonian legends of the origin of things, and is specially remarkable
in certain similarities to the Hebraic account of creation. A very great
and marked contrast between these two narratives is that in one case the
story of creation is told by a polytheist, as the effort of many gods;
in the other, by an uncompromising monotheist, who attributes the work
to a decree of one Supreme God.
The Assyrian version of that portion of the Hebrew narrative: “And the
Spirit of God moved upon the waters, and God said, ‘Let there be light,’
and there was light,” in the Chaldean epic is the office of
Bel-Merodach.
As he leads the forces of light against the powers of darkness he enters
into mortal combat with the great dragon, Tiamat, the goddess of chaos
and darkness. This contest all the great gods have refused to attempt.
In the conflict which ensues Merodach is victorious, vanquishing and
destroying the great dragon of chaos. Whereupon there was great
rejoicing among the great gods. Then:—
“They established for him the mercy seat of the mighty.”
“Before his fathers he seated himself for sovereignty.”
“O Merodach! thou art glorious among the great gods!”
“Since that day unchanged is thy command.”
And thus Bel-Merodach, the great son of Ea, was enthroned.
He never becomes the national god of Chaldea, as Asshur became to Syria.
Local influences were opposed to this. The local deities of other
important cities of southern Mesopotamia, more ancient and venerated,
maintained their hold upon the affections of their worshippers to the
last.
This was the case with Mul-lil, the local deity of Nippur, the second in
the triad of great gods, the older Bel, with whom Bel-Merodach is
sometimes confounded.
The Moon God was to the latest day the favored divinity of Ur of the
Chaldees, and so of the local deities of other Sumerian cities.
These divinities were many of them of great antiquity. They were
reverenced in their special localities as nowhere else. Thus the
indignation of the priesthoods of these local cults, and of the local
aristocracies, may well be imagined at the attempt of Nabonidus, the
latest king of Babylon, 555-538 B. C., to concentrate all these local
worships at the city of Babylon.
When they saw their gods taken from their ancient shrines and gathered
at Babylon in the great temple of Bel, as subordinate gods to magnify
the worship of Bel, their resentment ripened into secret intrigue
against their king, which resulted in the banishment of Nabonidus from
his kingdom, the occupation of the throne by Cyrus, and finally the
overthrow of the Babylonian empire.
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[Illustration: HIEROGLYPHIC SIGNS AND THEIR EQUIVALENTS]
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