THE AGE OF SEMIRAMIS
Queen Sammu-rammat the original of Semiramis--"Mother-right" among
"Mother Worshippers"--Sammu-rammat compared to Queen Tiy--Popularity
of Goddess Cults--Temple Worship and Domestic Worship--Babylonian
Cultural Influence in Assyria--Ethical Tendency in Shamash
Worship--The Nebo Religious Revolt--Aton Revolt in Egypt--The Royal
Assyrian Library--Fish Goddess of Babylonia in Assyria--The
Semiramis and Shakuntala Stories--The Mock King and Queen--Dove
Goddesses of Assyria, Phoenicia, and Cyprus--Ishtar's Dove Form--St.
Valentine's Day beliefs--Sacred Doves of Cretans, Hittites, and
Egyptians--Pigeon Lore in Great Britain and Ireland--Deities
associated with various Animals--The Totemic Theory--Common Element
in Ancient Goddess Cults--Influence of Agricultural Beliefs--Nebo a
form of Ea--His Spouse Tashmit a Love Goddess and
Interceder--Traditions of Famous Mother Deities--Adad-nirari IV the
"Saviour" of Israel--Expansion of the Urartian Empire--Its Famous
Kings--Decline and Fall of Assyria's Middle Empire Dynasty.
One of the most interesting figures in Mesopotamian history came into
prominence during the Assyrian Middle Empire period. This was the
famous Sammu-rammat, the Babylonian wife of an Assyrian ruler. Like
Sargon of Akkad, Alexander the Great, and Dietrich von Bern, she made,
by reason of her achievements and influence, a deep impression on the
popular imagination, and as these monarchs became identified in
tradition with gods of war and fertility, she had attached to her
memory the myths associated with the mother goddess of love and battle
who presided over the destinies of mankind. In her character as the
legendary Semiramis of Greek literature, the Assyrian queen was
reputed to have been the daughter of Derceto, the dove and fish
goddess of Askalon, and to have departed from earth in bird form.
It is not quite certain whether Sammu-rammat was the wife of
Shamshi-Adad VII or of his son, Adad-nirari IV. Before the former
monarch reduced Babylonia to the status of an Assyrian province, he
had signed a treaty of peace with its king, and it is suggested that
it was confirmed by a matrimonial alliance. This treaty was repudiated
by King Bau-akh-iddina, who was transported with his palace treasures
to Assyria.
As Sammu-rammat was evidently a royal princess of Babylonia, it seems
probable that her marriage was arranged with purpose to legitimatize
the succession of the Assyrian overlords to the Babylonian throne. The
principle of "mother right" was ever popular in those countries where
the worship of the Great Mother was perpetuated if not in official at
any rate in domestic religion. Not a few Egyptian Pharaohs reigned as
husbands or as sons of royal ladies. Succession by the female line was
also observed among the Hittites. When Hattusil II gave his daughter
in marriage to Putakhi, king of the Amorites, he inserted a clause in
the treaty of alliance "to the effect that the sovereignty over the
Amorite should belong to the son and descendants of his daughter for
evermore".[464]
As queen or queen-mother, Sammu-rammat occupied as prominent a
position in Assyria as did Queen Tiy of Egypt during the lifetime of
her husband, Amenhotep III, and the early part of the reign of her
son, Amenhotep IV (Akhenaton). The Tell-el-Amarna letters testify to
Tiy's influence in the Egyptian "Foreign Office", and we know that at
home she was joint ruler with her husband and took part with him in
public ceremonials. During their reign a temple was erected to the
mother goddess Mut, and beside it was formed a great lake on which
sailed the "barque of Aton" in connection with mysterious religious
ceremonials. After Akhenaton's religious revolt was inaugurated, the
worship of Mut was discontinued and Tiy went into retirement. In
Akhenaton's time the vulture symbol of the goddess Mut did not appear
above the sculptured figures of royalty.
What connection the god Aton had with Mut during the period of the Tiy
regime remains obscure. There is no evidence that Aton was first
exalted as the son of the Great Mother goddess, although this is not
improbable.
Queen Sammu-rammat of Assyria, like Tiy of Egypt, is associated with
social and religious innovations. She was the first, and, indeed, the
only Assyrian royal lady, to be referred to on equal terms with her
royal husband in official inscriptions. In a dedication to the god
Nebo, that deity is reputed to be the protector of "the life of
Adad-nirari, king of the land of Ashur, his lord, and the life of
Sammu-rammat, she of the palace, his lady".[465]
During the reign of Adad-nirari IV the Assyrian Court radiated
Babylonian culture and traditions. The king not only recorded his
descent from the first Shalmaneser, but also claimed to be a
descendant of Bel-kap-kapu, an earlier, but, to us, unknown,
Babylonian monarch than "Sulili", i.e. Sumu-la-ilu, the
great-great-grandfather of Hammurabi. Bel-kap-kapu was reputed to have
been an overlord of Assyria.
Apparently Adad-nirari desired to be regarded as the legitimate heir
to the thrones of Assyria and Babylonia. His claim upon the latter
country must have had a substantial basis. It is not too much to
assume that he was a son of a princess of its ancient royal family.
Sammurammat may therefore have been his mother. She could have been
called his "wife" in the mythological sense, the king having become
"husband of his mother". If such was the case, the royal pair probably
posed as the high priest and high priestess of the ancient goddess
cult--the incarnations of the Great Mother and the son who displaced
his sire.
The worship of the Great Mother was the popular religion of the
indigenous peoples of western Asia, including parts of Asia Minor,
Egypt, and southern and western Europe. It appears to have been
closely associated with agricultural rites practised among
representative communities of the Mediterranean race. In Babylonia and
Assyria the peoples of the goddess cult fused with the peoples of the
god cult, but the prominence maintained by Ishtar, who absorbed many
of the old mother deities, testifies to the persistence of immemorial
habits of thought and antique religious ceremonials among the
descendants of the earliest settlers in the Tigro-Euphrates valley.
Merodach's spouse Zerpanituᵐ was not a shadowy deity but a goddess who
exercised as much influence as her divine husband. As Aruru she took
part with him in the creation of mankind. In Asia Minor the mother
goddess was overshadowed by the father god during the period of Hatti
predominance, but her worship was revived after the early people along
the coast and in the agricultural valleys were freed from the yoke of
the father-god worshippers.
It must be recognized, in this connection, that an official religion
was not always a full reflection of popular beliefs. In all the great
civilizations of antiquity it was invariably a compromise between the
beliefs of the military aristocracy and the masses of mingled peoples
over whom they held sway. Temple worship had therefore a political
aspect; it was intended, among other things, to strengthen the
position of the ruling classes. But ancient deities could still be
worshipped, and were worshipped, in homes and fields, in groves and on
mountain tops, as the case might be. Jeremiah has testified to the
persistence of the folk practices in connection with the worship of
the mother goddess among the inhabitants of Palestine. Sacrificial
fires were lit and cakes were baked and offered to the "Queen of
Heaven" in the streets of Jerusalem and other cities. In Babylonia and
Egypt domestic religious practices were never completely supplanted by
temple ceremonies in which rulers took a prominent part. It was always
possible, therefore, for usurpers to make popular appeal by reviving
ancient and persistent forms of worship. As we have seen, Jehu of
Israel, after stamping out Phoenician Baal worship, secured a strong
following by giving official recognition to the cult of the golden
calf.
It is not possible to set forth in detail, or with intimate knowledge,
the various innovations which Sammu-rammat introduced, or with which
she was credited, during the reigns of Adad-nirari IV (810-782 B.C.)
and his father. No discovery has been made of documents like the
Tell-el-Amarna "letters", which would shed light on the social and
political life of this interesting period. But evidence is not
awanting that Assyria was being suffused with Babylonian culture.
Royal inscriptions record the triumphs of the army, but suppress the
details of barbarities such as those which sully the annals of
Ashur-natsir-pal, who had boys and girls burned on pyres and the
heroes of small nations flayed alive. An ethical tendency becomes
apparent in the exaltation of the Babylonian Shamash as an abstract
deity who loved law and order, inspired the king with wisdom and
ordained the destinies of mankind. He is invoked on equal terms with
Ashur.
The prominence given to Nebo, the god of Borsippa, during the reign of
Adad-nirari IV is highly significant. He appears in his later
character as a god of culture and wisdom, the patron of scribes and
artists, and the wise counsellor of the deities. He symbolized the
intellectual life of the southern kingdom, which was more closely
associated with religious ethics than that of war-loving Assyria.
A great temple was erected to Nebo at Kalkhi, and four statues of him
were placed within it, two of which are now in the British Museum. On
one of these was cut the inscription, from which we have quoted,
lauding the exalted and wise deity and invoking him to protect
Adad-nirari and the lady of the palace, Sammu-rammat, and closing with
the exhortation, "Whoso cometh in after time, let him trust in Nebo
and trust in no other god".
The priests of Ashur in the city of Asshur must have been as deeply
stirred by this religious revolt at Kalkhi as were the priests of Amon
when Akhenaton turned his back on Thebes and the national god to
worship Aton in his new capital at Tell-el-Amarna.
It would appear that this sudden stream of Babylonian culture had
begun to flow into Assyria as early as the reign of Shalmaneser III,
and it may be that it was on account of that monarch's pro-Babylonian
tendencies that his nobles and priests revolted against him.
Shalmaneser established at Kalkhi a royal library which was stocked
with the literature of the southern kingdom. During the reign of
Adad-nirari IV this collection was greatly increased, and subsequent
additions were made to it by his successors, and especially
Ashur-nirari IV, the last monarch of the Middle Empire. The
inscriptions of Shamshi-Adad, son of Shalmaneser III, have literary
qualities which distinguish them from those of his predecessors, and
may be accounted for by the influence exercised by Babylonian scholars
who migrated northward.
To the reign of Adad-nirari belongs also that important compilation
the "Synchronistic History of Assyria and Babylonia", which deals with
the relations of the two kingdoms and refers to contemporary events
and rulers.
The legends of Semiramis indicate that Sammu-rammat was associated
like Queen Tiy with the revival of mother worship. As we have said,
she went down to tradition as the daughter of the fish goddess,
Derceto. Pliny identified that deity with Atargatis of
Hierapolis.[466]
In Babylonia the fish goddess was Nina, a developed form of Damkina,
spouse of Ea of Eridu. In the inscription on the Nebo statue, that god
is referred to as the "son of Nudimmud" (Ea). Nina was the goddess who
gave her name to Nineveh, and it is possible that Nebo may have been
regarded as her son during the Semiramis period.
The story of Semiramis's birth is evidently of great antiquity. It
seems to survive throughout Europe in the nursery tale of the "Babes
in the Wood". A striking Indian parallel is afforded by the legend of
Shakuntala, which may be first referred to for the purpose of
comparative study. Shakuntala was the daughter of the rishi,
Viswamitra, and Menaka, the Apsara (celestial fairy). Menaka gave
birth to her child beside the sacred river Malini. "And she cast the
new-born infant on the bank of that river and went away. And beholding
the newborn infant lying in that forest destitute of human beings but
abounding with lions and tigers, a number of vultures sat around to
protect it from harm." A sage discovered the child and adopted her.
"Because", he said, "she was surrounded by _Shakuntas_ (birds),
therefore hath she been named by me _Shakuntala_ (bird
protected)."[467]
Semiramis was similarly deserted at birth by her Celestial mother. She
was protected by doves, and her Assyrian name, Sammu-rammat, is
believed to be derived from "Summat"--"dove", and to signify "the dove
goddess loveth her". Simmas, the chief of royal shepherds, found the
child and adopted her. She was of great beauty like Shakuntala, the
maiden of "perfect symmetry", "sweet smiles", and "faultless
features", with whom King Dushyanta fell in love and married in
Gandharva fashion.[468]
Semiramis became the wife of Onnes, governor of Nineveh, and one of
the generals of its alleged founder, King Ninus. She accompanied her
husband to Bactria on a military campaign, and is said to have
instructed the king how that city should be taken. Ninus fell in love
with Semiramis, and Onnes, who refused to give her up, went and hanged
himself. The fair courtesan then became the wife of the king.
The story proceeds that Semiramis exercised so great an influence over
the impressionable King Ninus, that she persuaded him to proclaim her
Queen of Assyria for five days. She then ascended the throne decked in
royal robes. On the first day she gave a great banquet, and on the
second thrust Ninus into prison, or had him put to death. In this
manner she secured the empire for herself. She reigned for over forty
years.
Professor Frazer inclines to the view that the legend is a
reminiscence of the custom of appointing a mock king and queen to whom
the kingdom was yielded up for five days. Semiramis played the part of
the mother goddess, and the priestly king died a violent death in the
character of her divine lover. "The mounds of Semiramis which were
pointed out all over Western Asia were said to have been the graves of
her lovers whom she buried alive.... This tradition is one of the
surest indications of the identity of the mythical Semiramis with the
Babylonian goddess Ishtar or Astarte."[469] As we have seen, Ishtar
and other mother goddesses had many lovers whom they deserted like La
Belle Dame sans Merci (pp. 174-175).
As Queen of Assyria, Semiramis was said to have cut roads through
mountainous districts and erected many buildings. According to one
version of the legend she founded the city of Babylon. Herodotus,
however, says in this connection: "Semiramis held the throne for five
generations before the later princess (Nitocris).... She raised
certain embankments, well worthy of inspection, in the plain near
Babylon, to control the river (Euphrates), which, till then, used to
overflow and flood the whole country round about."[470] Lucian, who
associates the famous queen with "mighty works in Asia", states that
she was reputed by some to be the builder of the ancient temple of
Aphrodite in the Libanus, although others credited it to Cinyras, or
Deukalion.[471] Several Median places bear her name, and according to
ancient Armenian tradition she was the founder of Van, which was
formerly called "Shamiramagerd". Strabo tells that unidentified
mountains in Western Asia were named after Semiramis.[472] Indeed,
many of the great works in the Tigro-Euphrates valley, not excepting
the famous inscription of Darius, were credited to the legendary queen
of Babylonia and Assyria.[473] She was the rival in tradition of the
famous Sesostris of Egypt as a ruler, builder, and conqueror.
All the military expeditions of Semiramis were attended with success,
except her invasion of India. She was supposed to have been defeated
in the Punjab. After suffering this disaster she died, or abdicated
the throne in favour of her son Ninyas. The most archaic form of the
legend appears to be that she was turned into a dove and took flight
to heaven in that form. After her death she was worshipped as a dove
goddess like "Our Lady of Trees and Doves" in Cyprus, whose shrine at
old Paphos was founded, Herodotus says, by Phoenician colonists from
Askalon.[474] Fish and doves were sacred to Derceto (Attar),[475] who
had a mermaid form. "I have beheld", says Lucian, "the image of
Derceto in Phoenicia. A marvellous spectacle it is. One half is a
woman, but the part which extends from thighs to feet terminates with
the tail of a fish."[476]
Derceto was supposed to have been a woman who threw herself in despair
into a lake. After death she was adored as a goddess and her
worshippers abstained from eating fish, except sacrificially. A golden
image of a fish was suspended in her temple. Atargatis, who was
identical with Derceto, was reputed in another form of the legend to
have been born of an egg which the sacred fishes found in the
Euphrates and thrust ashore (p. 28). The Greek Aphrodite was born of
the froth of the sea and floated in a sea-shell. According to Hesiod,
The wafting waves
First bore her to Cythera the divine:
To wave-encircled Cyprus came she then,
And forth emerged, a goddess, in the charms
Of awful beauty. Where her delicate feet
Had pressed the sands, green herbage flowering sprang.
Her Aphrodite gods and mortals name,
The foam-born goddess; and her name is known
As Cytherea with the blooming wreath,
For that she touched Cythera's flowery coast;
And Cypris, for that on the Cyprian shore
She rose, amid the multitude of waves. _Elton's translation_.
The animals sacred to Aphrodite included the sparrow, the dove, the
swan, the swallow, and the wryneck.[477] She presided over the month
of April, and the myrtle, rose, poppy, and apple were sacred to her.
Some writers connect Semiramis, in her character as a dove goddess,
with Media and the old Persian mother goddess Anaitis, and regard as
arbitrary her identification with the fish goddess Derceto or
Atargatis. The dove was certainly not a popular bird in the religious
art of Babylonia and Assyria, but in one of the hymns translated by
Professor Pinches Ishtar says, "Like a lonely dove I rest". In another
the worshipper tries to touch Ishtar's heart by crying, "Like the dove
I moan". A Sumerian psalmist makes a goddess (Gula, who presided over
Larak, a part of Isin) lament over the city after it was captured by
the enemy:
My temple E-aste, temple of Larak,
Larak the city which Bel Enlil gave,
Beneath are turned to strangeness, above are turned to
strangeness,
With wailings on the lyre my dwelling-place is surrendered to the
stranger,
_The dove cots they wickedly seized, the doves they entrapped_....
The ravens he (Enlil) caused to fly.[478]
Apparently there were temple and household doves in Babylonia. The
Egyptians had their household dovecots in ancient as in modern times.
Lane makes reference to the large pigeon houses in many villages. They
are of archaic pattern, "with the walls slightly inclining inwards
(like many of the ancient Egyptian buildings)", and are "constructed
upon the roofs of the huts with crude brick, pottery, and mud.... Each
pair of pigeons occupies a separate (earthen) pot."[479] It may be
that the dove bulked more prominently in domestic than in official
religion, and had a special seasonal significance. Ishtar appears to
have had a dove form. In the Gilgamesh epic she is said to have loved
the "brilliant Allalu bird" (the "bright-coloured wood pigeon",
according to Sayce), and to have afterwards wounded it by breaking its
wings.[480] She also loved the lion and the horse, and must therefore
have assumed the forms of these animals. The goddess Bau, "she whose
city is destroyed", laments in a Sumerian psalm:
Like a dove to its dwelling-place, how long to my dwelling-place
will they pursue me,
To my sanctuary ... the sacred place they pursue me....
My resting place, the brick walls of my city Isin, thou art
destroyed;
My sanctuary, shrine of my temple Galmah, thou art destroyed.
_Langdon's translation._
Here the goddess appears to be identified with the doves which rest on
the walls and make their nests in the shrine. The Sumerian poets did
not adorn their poems with meaningless picturesque imagery; their
images were stern facts; they had a magical or religious significance
like the imagery of magical incantations; the worshipper invoked the
deity by naming his or her various attributes, forms, &c.
Of special interest are the references in Sumerian psalms to the
ravens as well as the doves of goddesses. Throughout Asia and Europe
ravens are birds of ill omen. In Scotland there still linger curious
folk beliefs regarding the appearance of ravens and doves after death.
Michael Scott, the great magician, when on his deathbed told his
friends to place his body on a hillock. "Three ravens and three doves
would be seen flying towards it. If the ravens were first the body was
to be burned, but if the doves were first it was to receive Christian
burial. The ravens were foremost, but in their hurry flew beyond their
mark. So the devil, who had long been preparing a bed for Michael, was
disappointed."[481]
In Indian mythology Purusha, the chaos giant, first divided himself.
"Hence were husband and wife produced." This couple then assumed
various animal forms and thus "created every living pair whatsoever
down to the ants".[482] Goddesses and fairies in the folk tales of
many countries sometimes assume bird forms. The "Fates" appear to
Damayanti in the Nala story as swans which carry love messages.[483]
According to Aryo-Indian belief, birds were "blessed with fecundity".
The Babylonian Etana eagle and the Egyptian vulture, as has been
indicated, were deities of fertility. Throughout Europe birds, which
were "Fates", mated, according to popular belief, on St. Valentine's
Day in February, when lots were drawn for wives by rural folks.
Another form of the old custom is referred to by the poet Gay:--
Last Valentine, the day when birds of kind
Their paramours with mutual chirpings find,
I early rose....
Thee first I spied, and the first swain we see,
In spite of fortune, shall our true love be.
The dove appears to have been a sacred bird in various areas occupied
by tribes of the Mediterranean race. Models of a shrine found in two
royal graves at Mycenae are surmounted by a pair of doves, suggesting
twin goddesses like Isis and Nepthys of Egypt and Ishtar and
Belitsheri of Babylonia. Doves and snakes were associated with the
mother goddess of Crete, "typifying", according to one view, "her
connection with air and earth. Although her character was distinctly
beneficent and pacific, yet as Lady of the Wild Creatures she had a
more fearful aspect, one that was often depicted on carved gems, where
lions are her companions."[484] Discussing the attributes and symbols
of this mother goddess, Professor Burrows says: "As the serpent,
coming from the crevices of the earth, shows the possession of the
tree or pillar from the underworld, so the dove, with which this
goddess is also associated, shows its possession from the world of the
sky".[485] Professor Robertson Smith has demonstrated that the dove
was of great sanctity among the Semites.[486] It figures in Hittite
sculptures and was probably connected with the goddess cult in Asia
Minor. Although Egypt had no dove goddess, the bird was addressed by
lovers--
I hear thy voice, O turtle dove--
The dawn is all aglow--
Weary am I with love, with love,
Oh, whither shall I go?[487]
Pigeons, as indicated, are in Egypt still regarded as sacred birds,
and a few years ago British soldiers created a riot by shooting them.
Doves were connected with the ancient Greek oracle at Dodona. In many
countries the dove is closely associated with love, and also
symbolizes innocence, gentleness, and holiness.
The pigeon was anciently, it would appear, a sacred bird in these
islands, and Brand has recorded curious folk beliefs connected with
it. In some districts the idea prevailed that no person could die on a
bed which contained pigeon feathers: "If anybody be sick and lye a
dying, if they lye upon pigeon feathers they will be languishing and
never die, but be in pain and torment," wrote a correspondent. A
similar superstition about the feathers of different varieties of wild
fowl[488] obtained in other districts. Brand traced this interesting
traditional belief in Yorkshire, Lancashire, Derbyshire, and some of
the Welsh and Irish counties.[489] It still lingers in parts of the
Scottish Highlands. In the old ballad of "The Bloody Gardener" the
white dove appears to a young man as the soul of his lady love who was
murdered by his mother. He first saw the bird perched on his breast
and then "sitting on a myrtle tree".[490]
The dove was not only a symbol of Semiramis, but also of her mother
Derceto, the Phoenician fish goddess. The connection between bird and
fish may have been given an astral significance. In "Poor Robin's
Almanack" for 1757 a St. Valentine rhyme begins:--
This month bright Phoebus enters Pisces,
The maids will have good store of kisses,
For always when the sun comes there,
Valentine's day is drawing near,
And both the men and maids incline
To choose them each a Valentine.
As we have seen, the example was set by the mating birds. The
"Almanack" poet no doubt versified an old astrological belief: when
the spring sun entered the sign of the Fishes, the love goddess in
bird form returned to earth.
Advocates of the Totemic theory, on the other hand, may hold that the
association of doves with snake goddesses and fish goddesses of
fertility was due to the fusion of tribes who had various animal
totems. "The Pelew Islanders believed", says Professor Frazer, "that
the souls of their forefathers lived in certain species of animals,
which accordingly they held sacred and would not injure. For this
reason one man would not kill snakes, another would not harm pigeons,
and so on; but everyone was quite ready to kill and eat the sacred
animals of his neighbours."[491] That the Egyptians had similar
customs is suggested by what Herodotus tells us regarding their sacred
animals: "Those who live near Thebes and the lake Moeris hold the
crocodile in religious veneration.... Those who live in or near
Elephantine, so far from considering these beasts as sacred, make them
an article of food.... The hippopotamus is esteemed sacred in the
district of Papremis, but in no other part of Egypt.... They roast and
boil ... birds and fishes ... excepting those which are preserved for
sacred purposes."[492] Totemic animals controlled the destinies of
tribes and families. "Grose tells us", says Brand, "that, besides
general notices of death, many families have particular warnings or
notices: some by the appearance of a bird, and others by the figure of
a tall woman, dressed all in white.... Pennant says that many of the
great families in Scotland had their demon or genius, who gave them
monitions of future events."[493] Members of tribes which venerated
the pigeon therefore invoked it like the Egyptian love poet and drew
omens from its notes, or saw one appearing as the soul of the dead
like the lover in the ballad of "The Bloody Gardener". They refrained
also from killing the pigeon except sacrificially, and suffered
agonies on a deathbed which contained pigeon feathers, the "taboo"
having been broken.
Some such explanation is necessary to account for the specialization
of certain goddesses as fish, snake, cat, or bird deities. Aphrodite,
who like Ishtar absorbed the attributes of several goddesses of
fertility and fate, had attached to her the various animal symbols
which were prominent in districts or among tribes brought into close
contact, while the poppy, rose, myrtle, &c., which were used as love
charms, or for making love potions, were also consecrated to her.
Anthropomorphic deities were decorated with the symbols and flowers of
folk religion.
From the comparative evidence accumulated here, it will be seen that
the theory of the mythical Semiramis's Median or Persian origin is
somewhat narrow. It is possible that the dove was venerated in Cyprus,
as it certainly was in Crete, long centuries before Assyrian and
Babylonian influence filtered westward through Phoenician and Hittite
channels. In another connection Sir Arthur Evans shows that the
resemblance between Cretan and early Semitic beliefs "points rather to
some remote common element, the nature of which is at present obscure,
than to any definite borrowing by one side or another".[494]
From the evidence afforded by the Semiramis legends and the
inscriptions of the latter half of the Assyrian Middle Empire period,
it may be inferred that a renascence of "mother worship" was favoured
by the social and political changes which were taking place. In the
first place the influence of Babylon must have been strongly felt in
this connection. The fact that Adadnirari found it necessary to win
the support of the Babylonians by proclaiming his descent from one of
their ancient royal families, suggests that he was not only concerned
about the attitude assumed by the scholars of the southern kingdom,
but also that of the masses of old Sumerian and Akkadian stocks who
continued to bake cakes to the Queen of Heaven so as to ensure good
harvests. In the second place it is not improbable that even in
Assyria the introduction of Nebo and his spouse made widespread
appeal. That country had become largely peopled by an alien
population; many of these aliens came from districts where "mother
worship" prevailed, and had no traditional respect for Ashur, while
they regarded with hostility the military aristocracy who conquered
and ruled in the name of that dreaded deity. Perhaps, too, the
influence of the Aramaeans, who in Babylonia wrecked the temples of
the sun god, tended to revive the ancient religion of the
Mediterranean race. Jehu's religious revolt in Israel, which
established once again the cult of Ashtoreth, occurred after he came
under the sway of Damascus, and may have not been unconnected with the
political ascendancy elsewhere of the goddess cult.
Nebo, whom Adad-nirari exalted at Kalkhi, was more than a local god of
Borsippa. "The most satisfactory view", says Jastrow, "is to regard
him as a counterpart of Ea. Like Ea, he is the embodiment and source
of wisdom.... The study of the heavens formed part of the wisdom which
is traced back to Nebo, and the temple school at Borsippa became one
of the chief centres for the astrological, and, subsequently, for the
astronomical lore of Babylonia.... Like Nebo, Ea is also associated
with the irrigation of the fields and with their consequent fertility.
A hymn praises him as the one who fills the canals and the dikes, who
protects the fields and brings the crops to maturity." Nebo links with
Merodach (Marduk), who is sometimes referred to as his father. Jastrow
assumes that the close partnership between Nebo and Merodach "had as a
consequence a transfer of some of the father Marduk's attributes as a
solar deity to Nebo,[495] his son, just as Ea passed his traits on to
his son, Marduk".[496]
As the "recorder" or "scribe" among the gods, Nebo resembles the
Egyptian god Thoth, who links with Khonsu, the lunar and spring sun
god of love and fertility, and with Osiris. In Borsippa he had, like
Merodach in Babylon, pronounced Tammuz traits. Nebo, in fact, appears
to be the Tammuz of the new age, the son of the ancient goddess, who
became "Husband of his Mother". If Nebo had no connection with Great
Mother worship, it is unlikely that his statue would have borne an
inscription referring to King Adad-nirari and Queen Sammu-rammat on
equal terms. The Assyrian spouse of Nebo was called Tashmit. This
"goddess of supplication and love" had a lunar significance. A prayer
addressed to her in association with Nannar (Sin) and Ishtar,
proceeds:
In the evil of the eclipse of the moon which ... has taken place,
In the evil of the powers, of the portents, evil and not good,
which are in my palace and my land,
(I) have turned towards thee!...
Before Nabu (Nebo) thy spouse, thy lord, the prince, the
first-born of E-sagila, intercede for me!
May he hearken to my cry at the word of thy mouth; may he remove
my sighing, may he learn my supplication!
Damkina is similarly addressed in another prayer:
O Damkina, mighty queen of all the gods,
O wife of Ea, valiant art thou,
O Ir-nina, mighty queen of all the gods ...
Thou that dwellest in the Abyss, O lady of heaven and earth!...
In the evil of the eclipse of the moon, etc.
Bau is also prayed in a similar connection as "mighty lady that
dwellest in the bright heavens", i.e. "Queen of heaven".[497]
Tashmit, whose name signifies "Obedience", according to Jastrow, or
"Hearing", according to Sayce, carried the prayers of worshippers to
Nebo, her spouse. As Isis interceded with Osiris, she interceded with
Nebo, on behalf of mankind. But this did not signify that she was the
least influential of the divine pair. A goddess played many parts: she
was at once mother, daughter, and wife of the god; the servant of one
god or the "mighty queen of all the gods". The Great Mother was, as
has been indicated, regarded as the eternal and undecaying one; the
gods passed away, son succeeding father; she alone remained. Thus,
too, did Semiramis survive in the popular memory, as the queen-goddess
of widespread legends, after kings and gods had been forgotten. To her
was ascribed all the mighty works of other days in the lands where the
indigenous peoples first worshipped the Great Mother as Damkina, Nina,
Bau, Ishtar, or Tashmit, because the goddess was anciently believed to
be the First Cause, the creatrix, the mighty one who invested the
ruling god with the powers he possessed--the god who held sway because
he was her husband, as did Nergal as the husband of Eresh-ki-gal,
queen of Hades.
The multiplication of well-defined goddesses was partly due to the
tendency to symbolize the attributes of the Great Mother, and partly
due to the development of the great "Lady" in a particular district
where she reflected local phenomena and where the political influence
achieved by her worshippers emphasized her greatness. Legends
regarding a famous goddess were in time attached to other goddesses,
and in Aphrodite and Derceto we appear to have mother deities who
absorbed the traditions of more than one local "lady" of river and
plain, forest and mountain. Semiramis, on the other hand, survived as
a link between the old world and the new, between the country from
which emanated the stream of ancient culture and the regions which
received it. As the high priestess of the cult, she became identified
with the goddess whose bird name she bore, as Gilgamesh and Etana
became identified with the primitive culture-hero or patriarch of the
ancient Sumerians, and Sargon became identified with Tammuz. No doubt
the fame of Semiramis was specially emphasized because of her close
association, as Queen Sammu-rammat, with the religious innovations
which disturbed the land of the god Ashur during the Middle Empire
period.
Adad-nirari IV, the son or husband of Sammu-rammat, was a vigorous and
successful campaigner. He was the Assyrian king who became the
"saviour" of Israel. Although it is not possible to give a detailed
account of his various expeditions, we find from the list of these
which survives in the Eponym Chronicle that he included in the
Assyrian Empire a larger extent of territory than any of his
predecessors. In the north-east he overcame the Median and other
tribes, and acquired a large portion of the Iranian plateau; he
compelled Edom to pay tribute, and established his hold in Babylonia
by restricting the power of the Chaldaeans in Sealand. In the north he
swayed--at least, so he claimed--the wide domains of the Nairi people.
He also confirmed his supremacy over the Hittites.
The Aramaean state of Damascus, which had withstood the attack of the
great Shalmaneser and afterwards oppressed, as we have seen, the
kingdoms of Israel and Judah, was completely overpowered by
Adad-nirari. The old king, Hazael, died when Assyria's power was being
strengthened and increased along his frontiers. He was succeeded by
his son Mari, who is believed to be identical with the Biblical
Ben-Hadad III.[498]
Shortly after this new monarch came to the throne, Adad-nirari IV led
a great army against him. The Syrian ruler appears to have been taken
by surprise; probably his kingdom was suffering from the three defeats
which had been previously administered by the revolting
Israelites.[499] At any rate Mari was unable to gather together an
army of allies to resist the Assyrian advance, and took refuge behind
the walls of Damascus. This strongly fortified city was closely
invested, and Mari had at length to submit and acknowledge Adad-nirari
as his overlord. The price of peace included 23,000 talents of silver,
20 of gold, 3000 of copper, and 5000 of iron, as well as ivory
ornaments and furniture, embroidered materials, and other goods "to a
countless amount". Thus "the Lord gave Israel a saviour, so that they
went out from under the hand of the Syrians: and the children of
Israel dwelt in their tents, as beforetime". This significant
reference to the conquest of Damascus by the Assyrian king is followed
by another which throws light on the religious phenomena of the
period: "Nevertheless they departed not from the sins of the house of
Jeroboam, who made Israel sin, but walked therein: and there remained
the grove also in Samaria".[500] Ashtoreth and her golden calf
continued to be venerated, and doves were sacrificed to the local
Adonis.
It is not certain whether Adad-nirari penetrated farther than
Damascus. Possibly all the states which owed allegiance to the king of
that city became at once the willing vassals of Assyria, their
protector. The tribute received by Adad-nirari from Tyre, Sidon, the
land of Omri (Israel), Edom, and Palastu (Philistia) may have been
gifted as a formal acknowledgment of his suzerainty and with purpose
to bring them directly under Assyrian control, so that Damascus might
be prevented from taking vengeance against them.
Meagre details survive regarding the reign of the next king,
Shalmaneser IV (781-772 B.C). These are, however, supplemented by the
Urartian inscriptions. Although Adad-nirari boasted that he had
subdued the kingdom of Urartu in the north, he appears to have done no
more than limit its southern expansion for a time.
The Urarti were, like the Mitanni, a military aristocracy[501] who
welded together by conquest the tribes of the eastern and northern
Highlands which several Assyrian monarchs included in their Empire.
They acquired the elements of Assyrian culture, and used the Assyrian
script for their own language. Their god was named Khaldis, and they
called their nation Khaldia. During the reign of Ashur-natsir-pal
their area of control was confined to the banks of the river Araxes,
but it was gradually extended under a succession of vigorous kings
towards the south-west until they became supreme round the shores of
Lake Van. Three of their early kings were Lutipris, Sharduris I, and
Arame.
During the reign of Shamshi-Adad the Assyrians came into conflict with
the Urarti, who were governed at the time by "Ushpina of Nairi"
(Ishpuinis, son of Sharduris II). The Urartian kingdom had extended
rapidly and bordered on Assyrian territory. To the west were the
tribes known as the Mannai, the northern enemies of the Medes, a
people of Indo-European speech.
When Adad-nirari IV waged war against the Urarti, their king was
Menuas, the son of Ishpuinis. Menuas was a great war-lord, and was
able to measure his strength against Assyria on equal terms. He had
nearly doubled by conquest the area controlled by his predecessors.
Adad-nirari endeavoured to drive his rival northward, but all along
the Assyrian frontier from the Euphrates to the Lower Zab, Menuas
forced the outposts of Adad-nirari to retreat southward. The
Assyrians, in short, were unable to hold their own.
Having extended his kingdom towards the south, Menuas invaded Hittite
territory, subdued Malatia and compelled its king to pay tribute. He
also conquered the Mannai and other tribes. Towards the north and
north-west he added a considerable area to his kingdom, which became
as large as Assyria.
Menuas's capital was the city of Turushpa or Dhuspas (Van), which was
called Khaldinas[502] after the national god. For a century it was the
seat of Urartian administration. The buildings erected there by Menuas
and his successors became associated in after-time with the traditions
of Semiramis, who, as Queen Sammu-rammat of Assyria, was a
contemporary of the great Urartian conqueror. Similarly a sculptured
representation of the Hittite god was referred to by Herodotus as a
memorial of the Egyptian king Sesostris.
The strongest fortification at Dhuspas was the citadel, which was
erected on a rocky promontory jutting into Lake Van. A small garrison
could there resist a prolonged siege. The water supply of the city was
assured by the construction of subterranean aqueducts. Menuas erected
a magnificent palace, which rivalled that of the Assyrian monarch at
Kalkhi, and furnished it with the rich booty brought back from
victorious campaigns. He was a lover of trees and planted many, and he
laid out gardens which bloomed with brilliant Asian flowers. The
palace commanded a noble prospect of hill and valley scenery on the
south-western shore of beautiful Lake Van.
Menuas was succeeded by his son Argistis, who ascended the throne
during the lifetime of Adad-nirari of Assyria. During the early part
of his reign he conducted military expeditions to the north beyond the
river Araxes. He afterwards came into conflict with Assyria, and
acquired more territory on its northern frontier. He also subdued the
Mannai, who had risen in revolt.
For three years (781-778 B.C.) the general of Shalmaneser IV waged war
constantly with Urartu, and again in 776 B.C. and 774 B.C. attempts
were made to prevent the southern expansion of that Power. On more
than one occasion the Assyrians were defeated and compelled to
retreat.
Assyria suffered serious loss of prestige on account of its inability
to hold in check its northern rival. Damascus rose in revolt and had
to be subdued, and northern Syria was greatly disturbed. Hadrach was
visited in the last year of the king's reign.
Ashur-dan III (771-763 B.C.) occupied the Assyrian throne during a
period of great unrest. He was unable to attack Urartu. His army had
to operate instead on his eastern and southern frontiers. A great
plague broke out in 765 B.C., the year in which Hadrach had again to
be dealt with. On June 15, 763 B.C., there was a total eclipse of the
sun, and that dread event was followed by a revolt at Asshur which was
no doubt of priestly origin. The king's son Adad-nirari was involved
in it, but it is not certain whether or not he displaced his father
for a time. In 758 B.C. Ashur-dan again showed signs of activity by
endeavouring to suppress the revolts which during the period of civil
war had broken out in Syria.
Adad-nirari V came to the throne in 763 B.C. He had to deal with
revolts in Asshur in other cities. Indeed for the greater part of his
reign he seems to have been kept fully engaged endeavouring to
establish his authority within the Assyrian borders. The Syrian
provinces regained their independence.
During the first four years of his successor Ashurnirari IV (753-746
B.C.) the army never left Assyria. Namri was visited in 749-748 B.C.,
but it is not certain whether he fought against the Urartians, or the
Aramaeans who had become active during this period of Assyrian
decline. In 746 B.C. a revolt broke out in the city of Kalkhi and the
king had to leave it. Soon afterwards he died--perhaps he was
assassinated--and none of his sons came to the throne. A year
previously Nabu-natsir, known to the Greeks as Nabonassar, was crowned
king of Babylonia.
Ashur-nirari IV appears to have been a monarch of somewhat like
character to the famous Akhenaton of Egypt--an idealist for whom war
had no attractions. He kept his army at home while his foreign
possessions rose in revolt one after another. Apparently he had dreams
of guarding Assyria against attack by means of treaties of peace. He
arranged one with a Mesopotamian king, Mati-ilu of Agusi, who pledged
himself not to go to war without the consent of his Assyrian overlord,
and it is possible that there were other documents of like character
which have not survived to us. During his leisure hours the king
engaged himself in studious pursuits and made additions to the royal
library. In the end his disappointed soldiers found a worthy leader in
one of its generals who seized the throne and assumed the royal name
of Tiglath-pileser.
Ashur-nirari IV was the last king of the Middle Empire of Assyria. He
may have been a man of high character and refinement and worthy of our
esteem, although an unsuitable ruler for a predatory State.