THE ZODIACAL SYSTEM OF THE BABYLONIANS.
Planets, Stars, and Calendar.
It will be appropriate at this point, to give a brief account of the
astronomical system as developed by the Babylonian scholars. The system
forms a part of the Babylonian cosmology. The 'creation' narratives we
have been considering are based upon the system, and the omen literature
is full of allusions to it. Moreover, the understanding of some of the
purely religious doctrines of the Babylonians is dependent upon a proper
conception of the curious astrological speculations which from Babylonia
made their way to the Greeks, and have left their traces in the
astronomy of the present time.
The stars were regarded by the Babylonians as pictorial designs on the
heavens. A conception of this kind is the outcome of popular fancy, and
has its parallel among other nations of antiquity. We pass beyond the
popular stage, however, when we find the stars described as the 'writing
of heaven.'[808] Such a term is the product of the schools, and finds a
ready explanation if we remember that the cuneiform script, like other
scripts, was in its first stages pictorial. The Babylonian scholars not
only knew this, but so well did they know it that writing continued to
be regarded by them as picture drawing. The characters used by them were
'likenesses'[809] long after they had passed beyond the stage when they
bore any resemblance to the pictures they originally represented. The
expression 'writing of heaven' was, therefore, equivalent to 'picture of
heaven.' The heavens themselves being regarded as a fixed vault, it
followed that the movements observed there were caused by the stars
changing their position; and the regular characters of these movements
within certain periods led to speaking of the movements of the heavenly
bodies as their 'courses.' It was furthermore apparent, even to a
superficial observer, that some of the stars seemed fixed to their
places, while others moved about. A distinction was thus drawn between
wandering stars or planets and fixed stars. Groups of stars, the single
members of which appeared in a constant relationship to one another,
were distinguished partly by natural observation and partly as a
convenient means of obtaining a general view of the starry canopy. It
was such a group that more particularly justified the view which
regarded the stars as pictorial designs. A line drawn so as to connect
the stars of the group turned out to be a design of some sort. On omen
tablets, geometrical figures are often found[810] and interpreted as
omens, and it is plausible to suppose that the outlines presented by the
stars of a group first suggested the idea of attaching significance to
combinations of lines and curves. To connect these outlines with the
pictures that formed the starting-point for the development of the
script was again a perfectly natural procedure, although a scholastic
one. The investigations of Delitzsch have shown that the more than four
hundred cuneiform characters in use can be reduced to a comparatively
small number of 'outlines' of pictures--to about forty-five. The
subjects of these 'outlines' are all familiar ones,--sun, moon, stars,
mountain, man, the parts of the human body, animals, plants, and
utensils.[811] Association of ideas led to giving to the outlines
presented by the groups of stars, a similar interpretation. The factor
of imagination, of course, entered into play, but it is also likely that
the comparison of these heavenly figures with the pictures of the script
was the controlling factor that led to identifying a certain group of
stars with a bull, another with a scorpion, a third with a ram, a fourth
with a fish, still another with a pig, and more the like. That animals
were chosen was due to the influence of animistic theories, and the
rather fantastic shape of the animals distinguished led to further
speculations. So, eleven constellations, that is to say, the entire
zodiac with the exception of the bull--the sign of Marduk--were
identified with the eleven monsters forming the host of Tiamat. The
passage in the Marduk-Tiamat myth[812] which speaks of the capture of
these monsters through Marduk appears to have suggested this
identification, which, fanciful though it is, has a scholastic rather
than a popular aspect. Jensen (to whom, together with Epping and
Strassmaier,[813] most of our knowledge of this subject is due) has
shown[814] that of the twelve constellations in our modern zodiac, the
greater number are identical with those distinguished by the
Babylonians; and while it is probable that two or three of our
constellations are of occidental origin, the zodiacal system as a whole
is the product of the Babylonian schools of astronomy. From Babylonia
the system made its way to the west and through western, more
particularly through Greek, influence back again to India and the
distant east. The number of constellations distinguished by the
Babylonian astronomers has not yet been definitely ascertained. They
certainly recognized more than twelve. Further investigations may show
that they knew of most of the forty-eight constellations enumerated by
Ptolemy.
The general regularity of the courses taken by the sun, moon, and
planets made it a comparatively simple matter to map out the limits
within which these bodies moved. These limits impressed the Babylonians,
as we have seen, with the thought of the eternal and unchangeable laws
under which the planets stood. The laws regulating terrestrial
phenomena, did not appear to be so rigid. There were symptoms of
caprice, so that the order of the earth has the appearance of being an
afterthought, suggested by the absolute order prevailing in the heavens.
Comets, meteors, and eclipses alone seemed to interrupt this absolute
order. As science advanced, it was found that even eclipses fell within
the province of law. The course of astronomical science was thus clearly
marked out--the determination of these laws.
The path taken by the sun served as a guide and as a means of
comparison. Anu being both the chief god of heaven and the
personification of heaven,[815] the sun's ecliptic became known as the
'way of Anu.' The division of this ecliptic into certain sections,
determined by the constellations within the belt of the ecliptic, was
the next step. The course of the moon and planets was determined with
reference to the sun's ecliptic, and gradually a zodiacal system was
evolved, the perfection of which is best exemplified by the fact that so
much of the astronomical language of the present time is the same as
that used by the ancient astronomers of the Euphrates Valley.
The sun and moon being regarded as deities, under the influence of
primitive animistic ideas,[816] the stars would also come to be looked
upon as divine. The ideograph designating a 'star' and which is prefixed
as a determinative to the names of stars, consists of the sign for god
repeated three times;[817] and in the case of those stars which are
identified with particular deities, the simple determinative for god is
employed. To regard the stars in general as gods is a consequence of
animistic notions; but the further steps in the process which led to
connecting the planets and certain other stars with particular deities
who originally had nothing to do with the stars, fall within the
province of scholastic theory.
As the jurisdiction of gods originally worshipped in a limited district
increased, a difficulty naturally arose among the more advanced minds as
to the exact place where the deity dwelt. This difficulty would be
accentuated in the case of a god like Marduk becoming the chief god of
the whole Babylonian Empire. His ardent worshippers would certainly not
content themselves with the notion that a single edifice, even though it
be his great temple at Babylon, could contain him. Again, the
development of a pantheon, systematized, and in which the various gods
worshipped in Babylonia came to occupy fixed relationships to one
another, would lead to the view of putting all the gods in one place.
The sun and moon being in the heavens, the most natural place to assign
to the gods as a dwelling-place was in the region where Shamash and Sin
(as every one could see for himself) had their seats. The doctrine thus
arose that the great gods dwell in the 'heaven of Anu.' A doctrine of
this kind would be intelligible to the general populace, but it is
doubtful whether a belief which involved the establishment of a direct
connection between the most prominent stars--the planets with the chief
gods--ever enjoyed popular favor in Babylonia. The association is marked
by an artificiality and a certain arbitrariness that stamps it not only
as the product of theological schools, but as a thought that would
remain confined to a limited circle of the population. Jensen
suggests[818] that the planets may at one time have been merely regarded
as standing under the influence of the great gods, and that a planet
from being regarded as the star _controlled_ by Marduk, became
identified with Marduk. It seems more plausible that the association
should have been direct. Even though the Babylonians may not have had
any knowledge of the relative mass of the planets, in some way Jupiter
must have appeared to them as the largest of the planets, and for this
reason was identified with the head of the Babylonian pantheon, Marduk.
In the creation epic, as we have seen, Jupiter-Marduk, under the name of
Nibir, is represented as exercising a control over all the stars.
Mythological associations appear to have played a part in identifying
the planet Venus with the goddess Ishtar. A widely spread nature
myth,[819] symbolizing the change of seasons, represents Ishtar, the
personification of fertility, the great mother of all that manifests
life, as proceeding to the region of darkness and remaining there for
some time. The disappearance of the planet Venus at certain seasons, as
morning star to reappear as evening star, suggested the identification
of this planet with Ishtar. From these two examples we may conclude that
the process which resulted in the identification of Saturn with Ninib,
Mars with Nergal, Mercury with Nabu rested similarly on an association
of ideas, derived from certain conceptions held of the gods involved. In
regard to Ninib and Nergal it is of some importance to bear in mind
that, like Marduk, they are at their origin solar deities, Ninib
representing in the perfected theological system the morning sun, Marduk
the sun of the early spring, and Nergal the mid-day sun and summer
solstice.[820] The position of the planets Saturn and Mars, accordingly,
with reference to the sun at certain periods of the year, may well have
been a factor in the association of ideas involved.
The position of the sun, as the general overseer of the planets, led to
the application of an interesting metaphor to express the relationship
between the sun and the planets. Just as the human chiefs or kings were
called 'shepherds,'--a metaphor suggested, no doubt, by agricultural
life,--so the planets were commonly known as 'sheep' or, as Jensen
suggests,[821] 'wandering sheep,' and it is rather curious that
Mars-Nergal should have been designated as the 'sheep'[822] _par
excellence_. The 'service' in which the planets stood to the sun is
exemplified by another term applied to them, which designates them as
the mediators carrying out the orders of their superior.
Lastly, it may be noted that each planet receives a variety of names and
epithets in the astronomical texts,--a circumstance that points to the
composite character of the developed planetary system of the
Babylonians. Some of these names are of so distinctive a character as to
justify the conclusion that they arose in the different centers where
astronomical schools existed.
The process involved in the development of the system is thus
complicated by factors introducing views originally confined to certain
districts, and it becomes doubtful whether we will ever be able to trace
all the steps involved in the process.
Corresponding to the unique position occupied by the superior triad Anu,
Bel, and Ea in the theological system, a special place was assigned to
them in the astronomical system. Anu is the pole star of the ecliptic,
Bel the pole star of the equator, while Ea in the southern heavens was
identified, according to Jensen,[823] with a star in the constellation
Argo. Anu, Bel, and Ea represented the three most prominent fixed stars,
but by the side of these a large number of other stars were
distinguished and many of them identified with some deity. For some of
these stars the modern equivalents have been ascertained through recent
researches;[824] others still remain to be determined.
The astronomical science of the Babylonians thus resolves itself into
these natural divisions:
(1) the constellations, especially those of the zodiac,
(2) the five great planets,
(3) the fixed stars, Anu, Bel, and Ea,
(4) miscellaneous stars, and
(5) the sun and moon.
The rivalry between the two great luminaries ends in a superior rank
being accorded to the sun. Natural and indeed inevitable as this
conclusion was, the scientific theory in the Euphrates Valley was
presumably influenced to some extent by the circumstance that the head
of the pantheon was a solar deity. We have seen that the tradition of
this original character of Marduk survived in the popular mind.
Of the sun but little need be said here. As represented in the creation
story, he was freer in his movements than any of the planets. He passed
across the heavens daily as an overseer to see that everything was
maintained in good order. As in Greek mythology, the sun was represented
as riding in a chariot drawn by horses.[825] Scientific speculation
advanced but little upon these popular fancies. The course that the sun
took on the ecliptic was determined, and the ecliptic itself served as
the guide for determining the position and movements of the stars. Under
the growing influence of the Marduk cult and of such deities as Ninib,
Nergal, and Nabu, associated with Marduk mythologically or politically,
the old moon worship lost much of its prestige; but in astronomical
science, the former independent rank of the moon is still in large
measure preserved. In the enumeration of the planets the moon is
mentioned first.[826] The moon is not a 'sheep' belonging to the flock
of Shamash. The importance of the moon in the regulation of the calendar
saved her from this fate. The beginning of the calendrical system,
indeed, may well have been of popular origin. Ihering[827] is of the
opinion that agricultural occupations made the marking off of time a
popular necessity, and this view is borne out by the early epithets of
the months among the Babylonians,[828] which, as among the Hebrews, are
connected with agriculture and the life of the agriculturist. The later
names also bear traces of the same train of thoughts. Leaving aside
details into which it is needless to enter here, the part of the
calendar which touches upon the religion of the Babylonians is the
sacred character given to the months by making each one devoted to some
god or gods. In this association there may be observed the same curious
mixture of several factors that controlled the identification of the
planets with the gods. The theory underlying the pantheon and certain
mythological conceptions are two of the factors that can be clearly seen
at work. The triad Anu, Bel, and Ea are accorded the first rank.[829]
The first month, Nisan, is sacred to Anu and Bel.
The second, Iyar, is sacred to Ea as the "lord of humanity."
Then follows Sin to whom, as the first-born of Bel,[830] the third
month, Siwan, is devoted.
The four succeeding months are parceled out among deities closely
connected with one another,--Ninib, Nin-gishzida, Ishtar, and Shamash.
Of these, Ninib and Nin-gishzida are solar deities. Ninib, as the
morning sun, symbolizes the approach of the summer season, while
Nin-gishzida, another solar deity,[831] represents an advance in this
season. To them, therefore, the fourth and fifth months, Tammuz (or
Du'zu) and Ab respectively, are sacred. Ishtar is the goddess of
fertility, and the sixth month, which represents the culmination of the
summer season, is accordingly devoted to her. As the last of the group
comes Shamash himself, to whom the seventh month, Tishri (or Tashritum),
is sacred. Marduk and Nergal come next, the eighth month,
Marcheshwan,[832] being sacred to the former, the ninth Kislev to the
great warrior Nergal. The factors here involved are not clear, nor do we
know why the tenth month is sacred to Papsukal--perhaps here used as an
epithet of Nabu--to Anu, and to Ishtar. The eleventh month, the height
of the rainy season and known as the "month of the course of
rainstorms," is appropriately made sacred to Ramman, 'the god of
storms.' The last month, Adar, falling within the rainy season is
presided over by the seven evil spirits. Lastly, an interesting trace of
Assyrian influence is to be seen in devoting to Ashur, "the father of
the gods," the intercalated month, the second Adar. This introduction of
Ashur points to the late addition of this intercalated month, and makes
it probable also that the intercalation is the work of astronomers
standing under Assyrian authority. A second intercalated month is Elul
the second. This month is sacred to Anu and Bel, just like Nisan, the
first month. The list, therefore, begins anew with the intercalated
month. Such a procedure is natural, and one is inclined to conclude that
the intercalated Elul is of Babylonian origin and older than the
intercalated Adar.
It does not appear that the female consorts of the gods shared in the
honors thus bestowed upon the male deities. Variations from the list as
given also occur. So Ashurbanabal calls the seventh month, Elul, the
month of 'the king of gods Ashur,'[833] while Sargon[834] assigns the
fourth month to the 'servant of Gibil,' the fire-god, by which
Nin-gishzida is meant, and the third month he calls the month of "the
god of brick structures."[835]
In fact, the assigning of the months to the gods appears to partake more
or less of an arbitrary character. Absolute uniformity probably did not
prevail throughout Babylonia until a comparatively late period. Nor does
it appear that any popular significance was attached to the sacred
character thus given to the months. It was the work of the schools, as
are most of the features involved in the elaboration of the calendar.
In somewhat closer touch with popular notions and popular observances
were the names of the months. Confining ourselves to the later
names,--the forms in which they were transmitted during the period of
the Babylonian exile to the Jews,[836]--we find that the first month
which, as we shall see, was marked by sacred observances in the temples
of Marduk and Nabu at Babylon and Borsippa was designated
ideographically as 'the month of the sanctuary,' the third as the period
of 'brick-making,' the fifth as the 'fiery' month, the sixth as the
month of the 'mission of Ishtar'--a reference to the goddess' descent
into the region of darkness. Designations like 'taking (_i.e._,
scattering) seed' for the fourth month, 'copious fertility' for the
ninth month, 'grain-cutting' period for the twelfth, and 'opening of
dams'[837] for the eighth contain distinct references to agriculture.
The name 'destructive rain' for the eleventh month is suggested by
climatic conditions. Still obscure is the designation of the seventh
month as the month of the 'resplendent mound,'[838] and so also is the
designation of the second month.[839]
The calendar is thus shown to be the product of the same general order
of religious ideas that we have detected in the zodiacal and planetary
systems. Its growth must have been gradual, for its composite character
is one of its most striking features. The task was no easy one to bring
the lunar year into proper conjunction with the solar year, and there
are grounds for believing that prior to the division of the year into
twelve parts, there was a year of ten months corresponding to a simpler,
perhaps a decimal, system, which appears to have preceded the elaborate
sexagesimal system.[840]
However this may be, the point of importance for our purposes is to
detect the extension of religious ideas into the domain of science, and,
on the other hand, to note the reaction of scientific theories on the
development of religious thought. The cosmology of the Babylonians
results from the continued play of these two factors. Hence the strange
mixture of popular notions and fancies with comparatively advanced
theological speculations and still more advanced scientific theories
that is found in the cosmological system. Even mysticism is given a
scientific aspect in Babylonia. The identification of the gods with the
stars arises, as we have seen, from a scientific impulse, and it is a
scientific spirit again that leads to the introduction of the gods into
the mathematics of the day.[841] A number is assigned to each of the
chief gods. And, though such a procedure has its natural outcome in
Cabbalistic tendencies, we can still discern in the ideas that lead to
this association of numbers with gods, influences at work that emanated
from the astronomical schools. Thus the moon-god Sin is identified with
the number thirty, suggested by the days of the ordinary month. Ishtar,
the daughter of Sin, is number fifteen, the half of thirty. The unit in
the sexagesimal--the number sixty--is assigned to Anu, the chief of the
triad, while the other two members, Bel and Ea, follow as fifty and
forty respectively. The dependence of this species of identification
upon the calendrical system is made manifest by the inferior rank given
to the sun, which receives the number twenty, the decimal next to that
assigned to Sin, while Ramman, the third member of the second
triad,[842] is identified with ten.[843] Absolute consistency in this
process is, of course, as little to be expected as in other
semi-mystical aspects of the science of the Babylonians; nor is it
necessary for our purposes to enter upon the further consequences
resulting from this combination of gods with numbers. The association of
ideas involved in the combination furnishes another and rather striking
illustration of the close contact between science and religion in the
remarkable culture of the Euphrates Valley.
There was no conflict between science and religion in ancient Babylonia.
Each reacted on the other, but the two factors were at all times closely
united in perfect harmony,--a harmony so perfect, indeed, as to be
impressive despite its _naivete_.
FOOTNOTES:
[808] _E.g._, IR. 52, no. 3, col. ii. l. 2; IIR. 38, 27b.
[809] The Greek name for the letters of the alphabet--_symbolon_,
_i.e._, a "likeness"--illustrates the same view of the pictorial origin
of writing.
[810] For illustrations, see Lenomant, _Magie und Wahrsagekunst der
Chaldaer_, pp. 520-523.
[811] See the summary on pp. 198, 199, of Delitzsch, _Ursprung der
Keilschriftzeichen._
[812] See p. 436.
[813] Epping and Strassmaier, _Astronomisches aus Babylon_ (Freiburg,
1889).
[814] _Kosmologie_, pp. 57-95. See especially the summary, pp. 82-84.
[815] See p. 89.
[816] See p. 48.
[817] On this ideograph, see Jensen, _Kosmologie_ pp. 43, 44.
[818] _Kosmologie_, p. 134.
[819] See the following chapter on "The Gilgamesh Epic," and chapter
xxv, "The Views of the Babylonians and Assyrians of the Life after
Death."
[820] Jensen, _ib._ p. 140. See above, p. 67.
[821] _bibbu._
[822] _Ib._ p. 99.
[823] _Ib._ p. 27.
[824] See especially Jensen's _Kosmologie_, pp. 46-57 and 144-160.
[825] Jensen, _ib._ pp. 108, 109.
[826] The constant order is moon, sun, Marduk, Ishtar, Ninib, Nergal,
Nabu. _E.g._, IIR. 48, 48-34a-b.
[827] _Vorgeschichte der Indo-Europaer_, pp. 151 _seq._
[828] On the older and later names of the Babylonians, see Meissner,
_Zeitschrift fuer die Kunde des Morgenlandes_, v. 180, 181, and on the
general subject of the Babylonian months, Muss-Arnolt's valuable
articles in the _Journal of Biblical Literature_, xi. 72-94 and 160-176.
[829] IVR. pl. 33.
[830] En-lil.
[831] See above, p. 99.
[832] Lit., 'Arakh-shamnu,' _i.e._, month eight.
[833] Rassam, Cylinder, col. lii. l. 32.
[834] Cylinder, Inscription l. 61.
[835] _Ib._ l. 58,--a rather curious title of Sin.
[836] The Talmud preserves the tradition of the Babylonian origin of the
Hebrew calendar (_Ierusalem Talmud Rosh-Hashshana_, l. 1).
[837] For the irrigation of the fields.
[838] In some way indicative of its sacred character. It is to be noted
that this month--Tishri--is the festival month among the Hebrews and
originally also among the Arabs. The 'mound' is a reference to the
temples which were erected on natural or artificial eminences.
[839] The latter is described by a series of ideographs, "herd" and "to
prosper." Is there perhaps a reference to cows giving birth to calves in
this month, the early spring? For another, but improbable, explanation,
see _Babylonian and Oriental Record_, iv. 37.
[840] Lehmann (_Actes du 8^eme Congres Internationel des Orientalists_,
Leiden, 1891, i. 169, note) admits the probability of an earlier and
more natural system.
[841] Lotz, _Quaestiones de Historia Sabbati_, pp. 27-29.
[842] Sin, Shamash, and Ramman. See pp. 108, 163.
[843] See for other combinations Lotz _ib._, and compare, _e.g._, VR.
36, where the number ten is associated with a large number of
gods,--Anu, Anatum, Bel, Ishtar, etc.