THE RELIGIOUS LITERATURE OF BABYLONIA.
The pantheon of a religion presents us with the external phases of the
religion in question. In order to penetrate further towards the core of
the religion, and to see it at its best, the religious thought as
manifested in the national literature constitutes our most valuable
guide. The beginnings of Babylonian literature are enveloped in
obscurity. We have seen that we are justified in passing beyond the
period of Hammurabi[339] for these beginnings, but exactly when and
precisely how the literary spirit first manifested itself in Babylonia
will probably remain for a long time, if not for always, a matter of
conjecture. The great political and religious centers of Babylonia, such
as Ur, Sippar, Agade, Eridu, Nippur, Uruk, perhaps also Lagash, and
later on Babylon, formed the foci of literary activity, as they were the
starting-points of commercial enterprise. This intimate connection of
religion with literature left its impress upon all branches into which
the Babylonian literature was in the course of time differentiated. In a
certain sense all the literature of Babylonia is religious. Even the
legal formulas, as embodied in the so-called contract tablets, have a
religious tinge. The priests being the scribes, a contract of any kind
between two or more parties was a religious compact. The oath which
accompanied the compact involved an invocation of the gods. The decree
of the judges in a disputed suit was confirmed by an appeal to the gods.
The terms in which the parties bound themselves consisted largely of
religious phrases, and finally the dating of the tablet often contained
a reference to some religious festival or to some event of religious
import--such as the building of a sanctuary. Science, so far as it
existed in Babylonia, never loosened the leading-strings that bound it
to the prevailing religious thought. The observation of the stars was
carried on under the belief of the supposed influence exerted by the
heavenly bodies upon the fate of man; and surprising as we find the
development of astronomical calculations and forecasts to be,
mathematics does not pass beyond the limits of astrology. Medicine was
likewise the concern of the priests. Disease was a divine infliction
supposed to be due to the direct presence in the body, or to the hidden
influence, of some pernicious spirit. The cure was effected by the
exorcising of the troublesome spirit through prescribed formulas of
supposed power, accompanied by symbolical acts. There is indeed no
branch of human knowledge which so persistently retains its connection
with religious beliefs among all peoples of antiquity as the one which
to-day is regarded as resting solely upon a materialistic basis. As a
consequence the Babylonians, although they made some progress in
medicinal methods, and more especially in medical diagnosis, never
dissociated medicinal remedies from the appeal to the gods. The recital
of formulas was supposed to secure by their magic force the
effectiveness of the medical potions that were offered to the sufferer.
As for the historical texts, the preceding chapters have illustrated how
full they are of religious allusions, how at every turn we meet with the
influence exerted by the priests as the composers of these texts. Almost
all occurrences are given a religious coloring. That these texts furnish
us with such valuable material, and such a quantity of it, is indeed to
be traced directly to the fact that the historical literature is also
the direct production of the religious leaders and guides of the people,
acting at the command of rulers, who were desirous of emphasizing their
dependence upon the gods of the country, and who made this dependence
the basis of the authority they exerted.
Such being the general aspect of Babylonian literature, it is not always
possible to draw a sharp line separating religious productions from such
as may properly be termed secular. For example, the zodiacal system of
the Babylonians, which we shall have occasion to discuss, although
presenting a scientific aspect, is in reality an outcome of the
religious thought; and so at other points it is necessary to pass over
into the region of secular thought for illustrations of the religious
beliefs. Bearing this in mind, we may set up a fivefold division of the
religious literature of the Babylonians in the stricter sense: (1) the
magical texts, (2) the hymns and prayers, (3) omens and forecasts, (4)
the cosmology, (5) epics and legends. It will be apparent that the first
three divisions represent a practical part of the literature, while the
two latter are of a more purely literary character. The magical texts,
as well as the hymns and prayers and omens, we can well imagine were
produced as circumstances called them forth, and one can also understand
how they should, at an early age, have been committed to writing. The
incantations serving the practical purpose already referred to of
securing a control over the spirit, it will be readily seen that such as
had demonstrated their effectiveness would become popular. The desire
would arise to preserve them for future generations. With that natural
tendency of loose custom to become fixed law, these incantations would
come to be permanently associated with certain temples. Rituals would
thus arise. The incantation would be committed to writing so that one
generation of priests might be certain of furnishing orthodox
instruction to the other; and, once written, they would form part of the
temple archives, finding a place in these archives by the side of the
contract tablets, for which the sacred edifices of the country also
served as depositories. The large quantity of incantation texts that
have been found in Ashurbanabal's library,[340] as well as the
variations and contrasts they present when compared with one another,
are probably due to the various sources whence the scribes of the king,
who were sent to the libraries of the south, collected their material.
It is only reasonable to suppose that each great temple acquired in the
course of time a ritual of its own, which, while perhaps not differing
in any essential points from that introduced in another place, yet
deviated from it sufficiently to impart to it a character of its own. In
the case of some of the texts that have been preserved, it is still
possible to determine through certain traits that they exhibit in what
religious center they were produced. With considerable more guarantee of
accuracy can this be done in the case of the hymns and prayers.
Addressed as the latter were to certain deities, it stands to reason
that they were written for use in the temples sacred to those deities,
or, if not to be used, at least composed in honor of certain sanctuaries
that contained the images of the deities thus exalted. Again, in the
historical inscriptions of the Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian periods,
prayers are introduced, and we are as a general thing expressly told on
what occasion they were composed and in what sanctuary they were
uttered. We may therefore conclude that those which have been preserved
independently also served a practical purpose, and were written, not
merely for certain occasions, but for certain places. The practical
purpose served by texts containing omens and forecasts derived from the
observation of the planets and stars, from monstrosities--human and
animal--from strange occurrences, accidents, and the like, is too
obvious to require demonstration. But while duly emphasizing the
practical purpose that gave rise to the incantation texts, the hymns,
the prayers and omens, we must be careful not to press this point too
far. The rituals of the various temples once being fixed, the impulse to
literary composition would still go on in an age marked by intellectual
activity. The practical purpose would be followed by the pure love of
composition. The attachment to certain sanctuaries or certain deities
would inspire earnest and gifted priests to further efforts.
Accordingly, while we cannot be certain that among the actual remains of
magical texts and hymns we may not have specimens that belong to this
class, there is no reason to question that such must have been produced.
The guarantee for this hypothesis is furnished by the compositions that
reflect the cosmological beliefs, the epics and legends that form the
second half of the religious productions of Babylonia.
Speculation regarding the origin of the universe belongs to an early
period in the development of culture. There are few people, however
primitive their culture, who are not attracted by the spirit of
curiosity to seek for some solution of the mysteries which they daily
witness; but the systematization of these speculations does not take
place until a body of men arises among a people capable of giving to the
popular fancies a logical sequence, or the approach at least to a
rational interpretation. This process, which resulted in producing in
Babylonia compositions that unfold a system of creation, is one of long
duration. It proceeds under the influence of the intellectual movements
that manifest themselves from time to time with the attendant result
that, as the conceptions become more definite and more elaborate, they
reflect more accurately the aspirations of the various generations
engaged in bringing these conceptions to their final form. When finally
these beliefs and speculations are committed to writing, it is done in
part for the purpose of assuring them a greater degree of permanence,
and in part to establish more definitely the doctrines developed in the
schools--to define, as it were, the norm of theological and
philosophical thought.
In examining, therefore, the cosmological speculations of the
Babylonians as they appear in the literary productions, we must
carefully distinguish between those portions which are the productions
of popular fancy, and therefore old, and those parts which give evidence
of having been worked out in the schools. In a general way, also, we
must distinguish between the contents and the form given to the
speculations in question. We shall see in due time that a certain amount
of historical tradition, however dimmed, has entered into the views
evolved in Babylonia regarding the origin of things, inasmuch as the
science of origins included for the Babylonians the beginning, not
merely of gods, men, animals, and plants, but also of cities and of
civilization in general. Still more pronounced is the historical spirit
in the case of the epics and legends that here, as everywhere else, grew
to even larger proportions, and were modified even after they were
finally committed to writing. The great heroes of the past do not perish
from the memory of a people, nor does the recollection of great events
entirely pass away. In proportion as the traditions of the past become
dimmed, the more easily do they lend themselves to a blending with
popular myths regarding the phenomena of nature. To this material
popularly produced, a literary shape would be given through the same
medium that remodeled the popular cosmological speculations. The task
would have a more purely literary aspect than that of systematizing the
current views regarding the origin and order of things, since it would
be free from any doctrinal tendency. The chief motive that would prompt
the _literati_ to thus collect the stories of favorite heroes and the
traditions and the legends of the past would be--in addition, perhaps,
to the pure pleasure of composition--the desire to preserve the stories
for future generations, while a minor factor that may have entered into
consideration would be the pedagogical one of adding to the material for
study that might engage the attention and thoughts of the young
aspirants to sacred and secular lore. While the ultimate aim of learning
in Babylonia remained for all times a practical one, namely, the ability
to act as a scribe or to serve in the cult, to render judicial decisions
or to observe the movements of the stars, to interpret the signs of
nature and the like, it was inevitable that through the intellectual
activity thus evoked there would arise a spirit of a love of learning
for learning's sake, and at all events a fondness for literary pursuits
independent of any purely practical purposes served by such pursuits.
In this way we may account for the rise of the several divisions of the
religious literature of Babylonia. Before turning to a detailed
exposition of each of these divisions, it only remains to emphasize the
minor part taken in all these literary labors by the Assyrians. The
traditions embodied in the cosmological productions, the epics and
legends of Babylonia, are no doubt as much the property of the Assyrians
as of their southern cousins, just as the conceptions underlying the
incantation texts and the hymns and prayers and omens, though produced
in the south, are on the whole identical with those current in the
north. Whatever differences we have discovered between the phases of the
Babylonian-Assyrian religion, as manifested in the north and in the
south, are not of a character to affect the questions and views involved
in the religious literature. The stamp given to the literary products in
this field, taken as a whole, is distinctly Babylonian. It is the spirit
of the south that breathes through almost all the religious texts that
have as yet been discovered. Only in some of the prayers and oracles and
omens that are inserted in the historical inscriptions of Assyrian
kings, or have been transmitted independently, do we recognize the work
of Assyrian _literati_, imbued with a spirit peculiar to Assyria.
Perhaps, too, in the final shape given to the tales connected with the
creation of the gods and of men we may detect an Assyrian influence on
Babylonian thought, some concession made at a period of Assyrian
supremacy to certain religious conceptions peculiar to the north. But
such influences are of an indirect character, and we may accept the
statement of Ashurbanabal as literally true that the literature
collected by him is a copy of what was found in the great literary
archives of the south--and not only found, but produced there. In
imitation of the example set by the south, schools were of a certainty
established in Nineveh, Arbela, and elsewhere for the education of
priests, scribes, and judges; but we have no evidence to show that they
ever developed to the point of becoming intellectually independent of
Babylonian _models_, except perhaps in minor particulars that need not
enter into our calculations. This relationship between the intellectual
life of Babylonia and Assyria finds its illustration and proof, not
merely in the religious literature, but in the religious art and cult
which, as we shall see, like the literature, bear the distinct impress
of their southern origin, though modified in passing from the south to
the north.
FOOTNOTES:
[339] See above, pp. 72, 114, 133 _seq._
[340] See pp. 12-14.