indication. They only tell of a great deluge which took place under the
last of that fabulous line of ten kings which is said to have begun
259,000 years after the apparition of the divine Man-Fish, Oannes, and
to have reigned in the aggregate a period of 432,000 years. The
description has always excited great interest from its extraordinary
resemblance to that given by the Bible. Berosus tells how XISUTHROS, the
last of the ten fabulous kings, had a dream in which the deity announced
to him that on a certain day all men should perish in a deluge of
waters, and ordered him to take all the sacred writings and bury them at
Sippar, the City of the Sun, then to build a ship, provide it with ample
stores of food and drink and enter it with his family and his dearest
friends, also animals, both birds and quadrupeds of every kind.
Xisuthros did as he had been bidden. When the flood began to abate, on
the third day after the rain had ceased to fall, he sent out some birds,
to see whether they would find any land, but the birds, having found
neither food nor place to rest upon, returned to the ship. A few days
later, Xisuthros once more sent the birds out; but they again came back
to him, this time with muddy feet. On being sent out a third time, they
did not return at all. Xisuthros then knew that the land was uncovered;
made an opening in the roof of the ship and saw that it was stranded on
the top of a mountain. He came out of the ship with his wife, daughter
and pilot, built an altar and sacrificed to the gods, after which he
disappeared together with these. When his companions came out to seek
him they did not see him, but a voice from heaven informed them that he
had been translated among the gods to live forever, as a reward for his
piety and righteousness. The voice went on to command the survivors to
return to Babylonia, unearth the sacred writings and make them known to
men. They obeyed and, moreover, built many cities and restored Babylon.
6. However interesting this account, it was received at second-hand and
therefore felt to need confirmation and ampler development. Besides which,
as it stood, it lacked all indication that could throw light on the
important question which of the two traditions--that reproduced by Berosus
or the Biblical one--was to be considered as the oldest. Here again it was
George Smith who had the good fortune to discover the original narrative
(in 1872), while engaged in sifting and sorting the tablet-fragments at
the British Museum. This is how it happened:[BC]--"Smith found one-half of
a whitish-yellow clay tablet, which, to all appearance, had been divided
on each face into three columns. In the third column of the obverse or
front side he read the words: 'On the mount Nizir the ship stood still.
Then I took a dove and let her fly. The dove flew hither and thither, but
finding no resting-place, returned to the ship.' Smith at once knew that
he had discovered a fragment of the cuneiform narrative of the Deluge.
With indefatigable perseverance he set to work to search the thousands of
Assyrian tablet-fragments heaped up in the British Museum, for more
pieces. His efforts were crowned with success. He did not indeed find a
piece completing the half of the tablet first discovered, but he found
instead fragments of two more copies of the narrative, which completed the
text in the most felicitous manner and supplied several very important
variations of it. One of these duplicates, which has been pieced out of
sixteen little bits (see illustration on p. 262), bore the usual
inscription at the bottom: 'The property of Asshurbanipal, King of hosts,
King of the land of Asshur,' and contained the information that the
Deluge-narrative was the eleventh tablet of a series, several fragments of
which, Smith had already come across. With infinite pains he put all these
fragments together and found that the story of the Deluge was only an
incident in a great Heroic Epic, a poem written in twelve books, making in
all about three thousand lines, which celebrated the deeds of an ancient
king of Erech."
7. Each book or chapter naturally occupied a separate tablet. All are by
no means equally well preserved. Some parts, indeed, are missing, while
several are so mutilated as to cause serious gaps and breaks in the
narrative, and the first tablet has not yet been found at all. Yet, with
all these drawbacks it is quite possible to build up a very intelligible
outline of the whole story, while the eleventh tablet, owing to various
fortunate additions that came to light from time to time, has been
restored almost completely.
8. The epic carries us back to the time when Erech was the capital of
Shumir, and when the land was under the dominion of the Elamite
conquerors, not passive or content, but striving manfully for
deliverance. We may imagine the struggle to have been shared and headed
by the native kings, whose memory would be gratefully treasured by later
generations, and whose exploits would naturally become the theme of
household tradition and poets' recitations. So much for the bare
historical groundwork of the poem. It is easily to be distinguished from
the rich by-play of fiction and wonderful adventure gradually woven into
it from the ample fund of national myths and legends, which have
gathered around the name of one hero-king, GISDHUBAR or IZDUBAR,[BD]
said to be a native of the ancient city of MARAD and a direct descendant
of the last antediluvian king HÂSISADRA, the same whom Berosus calls
Xisuthros.
9. It is unfortunate that the first tablet and the top part of the
second are missing, for thus we lose the opening of the poem, which
would probably give us valuable historical indications. What there is of
the second tablet shows the city of Erech groaning under the tyranny of
the Elamite conquerors. Erech had been governed by the divine Dumuzi,
the husband of the goddess Ishtar. He had met an untimely and tragic
death, and been succeeded by Ishtar, who had not been able, however, to
make a stand against the foreign invaders, or, as the text picturesquely
expresses it, "to hold up her head against the foe." Izdubar, as yet
known to fame only as a powerful and indefatigable huntsman, then dwelt
at Erech, where he had a singular dream. It seemed to him that the stars
of heaven fell down and struck him on the back in their fall, while over
him stood a terrible being, with fierce, threatening countenance and
claws like a lion's, the sight of whom paralyzed him with fear.
10. Deeply impressed with this dream, which appeared to him to portend
strange things, Izdubar sent forth to all the most famous seers and wise
men, promising the most princely rewards to whoever would interpret it
for him: he should be ennobled with his family; he should take the high
seat of honor at the royal feasts; he should be clothed in jewels and
gold; he should have seven beautiful wives and enjoy every kind of
distinction. But there was none found of wisdom equal to the task of
reading the vision. At length he heard of a wonderful sage, named
ÊABÂNI, far-famed for "his wisdom in all things and his knowledge of all
that is either visible or concealed," but who dwelt apart from mankind,
in a distant wilderness, in a cave, amidst the beasts of the forest.
"With the gazelles he ate his food at night, with the beasts of
the field he associated in the daytime, with the living things
of the waters his heart rejoiced."
This strange being is always represented on the Babylonian cylinders as
a Man-Bull, with horns on his head and a bull's feet and tail. He was
not easily accessible, nor to be persuaded to come to Erech, even
though the Sun-god, Shamash, himself "opened his lips and spoke to him
from heaven," making great promises on Izdubar's behalf:--
"They shall clothe thee in royal robes, they shall make thee
great; and Izdubar shall become thy friend, and he shall place
thee in a luxurious seat at his left hand; the kings of the
earth shall kiss thy feet; he shall enrich thee and make the
men of Erech keep silence before thee."
The hermit was proof against ambition and refused to leave his
wilderness. Then a follower of Izdubar, ZAIDU, the huntsman, was sent to
bring him; but he returned alone and reported that, when he had
approached the seer's cave, he had been seized with fear and had not
entered it, but had crawled back, climbing the steep bank on his hands
and feet.
[Illustration: 75.--IZDUBAR AND THE LION (BAS-RELIEF FROM KHORSABAD).
(Smith's "Chaldea.")]
11. At last Izdubar bethought him to send out Ishtar's handmaidens,
SHAMHATU ("Grace") and HARIMTU ("Persuasion"), and they started for the
wilderness under the escort of Zaidu. Shamhatu was the first to approach
the hermit, but he heeded her little; he turned to her companion, and
sat down at her feet; and when Harimtu ("Persuasion") spoke, bending her
face towards him, he listened and was attentive. And she said to him:
"Famous art thou, Êabâni, even like a god; why then associate
with the wild things of the desert? Thy place is in the midst
of Erech, the great city, in the temple, the seat of Anu and
Ishtar, in the palace of Izdubar, the man of might, who towers
amidst the leaders as a bull." "She spoke to him, and before
her words the wisdom of his heart fled and vanished."
He answered:
"I will go to Erech, to the temple, the seat of Anu and Ishtar,
to the palace of Izdubar, the man of might, who towers amidst
the leaders as a bull. I will meet him and see his might. But I
shall bring to Erech a lion--let Izdubar destroy him if he can.
He is bred in the wilderness and of great strength."
[Illustration: 76.--IZDUBAR AND THE LION. (British Museum.)]
So Zaidu and the two women went back to Erech, and Êabâni went with
them, leading his lion. The chiefs of the city received him with great
honors and gave a splendid entertainment in sign of rejoicing.
12. It is evidently on this occasion that Izdubar conquers the seer's
esteem by fighting and killing the lion, after which the hero and the
sage enter into a solemn covenant of friendship. But the third tablet,
which contains this part of the story, is so much mutilated as to leave
much of the substance to conjecture, while all the details, and the
interpretation of the dream which is probably given, are lost. The same
is unfortunately the case with the fourth and fifth tablets, from which
we can only gather that Izdubar and Êabâni, who have become inseparable,
start on an expedition against the Elamite tyrant, KHUMBABA, who holds
his court in a gloomy forest of cedars and cypresses, enter his palace,
fall upon him unawares and kill him, leaving his body to be torn and
devoured by the birds of prey, after which exploit Izdubar, as his
friend had predicted to him, is proclaimed king in Erech. The sixth
tablet is far better preserved, and gives us one of the most interesting
incidents almost complete.
13. After Izdubar's victory, his glory and power were great, and the
goddess Ishtar looked on him with favor and wished for his love.
"Izdubar," she said, "be my husband and I will be thy wife:
pledge thy troth to me. Thou shalt drive a chariot of gold and
precious stones, thy days shall be marked with conquests;
kings, princes and lords shall be subject to thee and kiss thy
feet; they shall bring thee tribute from mountain and valley,
thy herds and flocks shall multiply doubly, thy mules shall be
fleet, and thy oxen strong under the yoke. Thou shalt have no
rival."
But Izdubar, in his pride, rejected the love of the goddess; he insulted
her and taunted her with having loved Dumuzi and others before him.
Great was the wrath of Ishtar; she ascended to heaven and stood before
her father Anu:
"My father, Izdubar has insulted me. Izdubar scorns my beauty
and spurns my love."
[Illustration: 77.--IZDUBAR AND ÊABÂNI FIGHT THE BULL OF
ISHTAR.--IZDUBAR FIGHTS ÊABÂNI'S LION (BABYLONIAN CYLINDER). (Smith's
"Chaldea.")]
She demanded satisfaction, and Anu, at her request, created a monstrous
bull, which he sent against the city of Erech. But Izdubar and his
friend went out to fight the bull, and killed him. Êabâni took hold of
his tail and horns, and Izdubar gave him his deathblow. They drew the
heart out of his body and offered it to Shamash. Then Ishtar ascended
the wall of the city, and standing there cursed Izdubar. She gathered
her handmaidens around her and they raised loud lamentations over the
death of the divine bull. But Izdubar called together his people and
bade them lift up the body and carry it to the altar of Shamash and lay
it before the god. Then they washed their hands in the Euphrates and
returned to the city, where they made a feast of rejoicing and revelled
deep into the night, while in the streets a proclamation to the people
of Erech was called out, which began with the triumphant words:
"Who is skilled among leaders? Who is great among men? Izdubar
is skilled among leaders; Izdubar is great among men."
[Illustration: 78.--IZDUBAR AND ÊABÂNI (BABYLONIAN CYLINDER). (Perrot
and Chipiez.)]
14. But the vengeance of the offended goddess was not to be so easily
defeated. It now fell on the hero in a more direct and personal way.
Ishtar's mother, the goddess Anatu, smote Êabâni with sudden death and
Izdubar with a dire disease, a sort of leprosy, it would appear.
Mourning for his friend, deprived of strength and tortured with
intolerable pains, he saw visions and dreams which oppressed and
terrified him, and there was now no wise, familiar voice to soothe and
counsel him. At length he decided to consult his ancestor, Hâsisadra,
who dwelt far away, "at the mouth of the rivers," and was immortal, and
to ask of him how he might find healing and strength. He started on his
way alone and came to a strange country, where he met gigantic,
monstrous beings, half men, half scorpions: their feet were below the
earth, while their heads touched the gates of heaven; they were the
warders of the sun and kept their watch over its rising and setting.
They said one to another: "Who is this that comes to us with the mark of
the divine wrath on his body?" Izdubar made his person and errand known
to them; then they gave him directions how to reach the land of the
blessed at the mouth of the rivers, but warned him that the way was long
and full of hardships. He set out again and crossed a vast tract of
country, where there was nothing but sand, not one cultivated field; and
he walked on and on, never looking behind him, until he came to a
beautiful grove by the seaside, where the trees bore fruits of emerald
and other precious stones; this grove was guarded by two beautiful
maidens, SIDURI and SABITU, but they looked with mistrust on the
stranger with the mark of the gods on his body, and closed their
dwelling against him.
[Illustration: 79.--SCORPION-MEN. (Smith's "Chaldea.")]
15. And now Izdubar stood by the shore of the Waters of Death, which are
wide and deep, and separate the land of the living from that of the
blessed and immortal dead. Here he encountered the ferryman URUBÊL; to
him he opened his heart and spoke of the friend whom he had loved and
lost, and Urubêl took him into his ship. For one month and fifteen days
they sailed on the Waters of Death, until they reached that distant land
by the mouth of the rivers, where Izdubar at length met his renowned
ancestor face to face, and, even while he prayed for his advice and
assistance, a very natural feeling of curiosity prompted him to ask "how
he came to be translated alive into the assembly of the gods."
Hâsisadra, with great complaisance, answered his descendant's question
and gave him a full account of the Deluge and his own share in that
event, after which he informed him in what way he could be freed from
the curse laid on him by the gods. Then turning to the ferryman:
"Urubêl, the man whom thou hast brought hither, behold, disease
has covered his body, sickness has destroyed the strength of
his limbs. Take him with thee, Urubêl, and purify him in the
waters, that his disease may be changed into beauty, that he
may throw off his sickness and the waters carry it away, that
health may cover his skin, and the hair of his head be restored
and descend in flowing locks down to his garment, that he may
go his way and return to his own country."
[Illustration: 80.--STONE OBJECT FOUND AT ABU-HABBA (SIPPAR) BY MR. H.
RASSAM, SHOWING, AMONG OTHER MYTHICAL DESIGNS, SHAMASH AND HIS WARDER,
THE SCORPION-MAN.]
16. When all had been done according to Hâsisadra's instruction,
Izdubar, restored to health and vigor, took leave of his ancestor, and
entering the ship once more was carried back to the shore of the living
by the friendly Urubêl, who accompanied him all the way to Erech. But as
they approached the city tears flowed down the hero's face and his heart
was heavy within him for his lost friend, and he once more raised his
voice in lamentation for him:
"Thou takest no part in the noble feast; to the assembly they
call thee not; thou liftest not the bow from the ground; what
is hit by the bow is not for thee; thy hand grasps not the
club and strikes not the prey, nor stretches thy foeman dead on
the earth. The wife thou lovest thou kissest not; the wife thou
hatest thou strikest not. The child thou lovest thou kissest
not; the child thou hatest thou strikest not. The might of the
earth has swallowed thee. O Darkness, Darkness, Mother
Darkness! thou enfoldest him like a mantle; like a deep well
thou enclosest him!"
Thus Izdubar mourned for his friend, and went into the temple of Bel,
and ceased not from lamenting and crying to the gods, till Êa mercifully
inclined to his prayer and sent his son Meridug to bring Êabâni's spirit
out of the dark world of shades into the land of the blessed, there to
live forever among the heroes of old, reclining on luxurious couches and
drinking the pure water of eternal springs. The poem ends with a vivid
description of a warrior's funeral:
"I see him who has been slain in battle. His father and mother
hold his head; his wife weeps over him; his friends stand
around; his prey lies on the ground uncovered and unheeded. The
vanquished captives follow; the food provided in the tents is
consumed."
17. The incident of the Deluge, which has been merely mentioned above,
not to interrupt the narrative by its disproportionate length, (the
eleventh tablet being the best preserved of all), is too important not
to be given in full.[BE]
"I will tell thee, Izdubar, how I was saved from the flood,"
begins Hâsisadra, in answer to his descendant's question, "also
will I impart to thee the decree of the great gods. Thou
knowest Surippak, the city that is by the Euphrates. This city
was already very ancient when the gods were moved in their
hearts to ordain a great deluge, all of them, their father
Anu, their councillor the warlike Bel, their throne-bearer
Ninîb, their leader Ennugi. The lord of inscrutable wisdom, the
god Êa, was with them and imparted to me their decision.
'Listen,' he said, 'and attend! Man of Surippak, son of
Ubaratutu,[BF] go out of thy house and build thee a ship. They
are willed to destroy the seed of life; but thou preserve it
and bring into the ship seed of every kind of life. The ship
which thou shalt build let it be ... in length, and ... in
width and height,[BG] and cover it also with a deck.' When I
heard this I spoke to Êa, my lord: 'If I construct the ship as
thou biddest me, O lord, the people and their elders will laugh
at me.' But Êa opened his lips once more and spoke to me his
servant: 'Men have rebelled against me, and I will do judgment
on them, high and low. But do thou close the door of the ship
when the time comes and I tell thee of it. Then enter the ship
and bring into it thy store of grain, all thy property, thy
family, thy men-servants and thy women-servants, and also thy
next of kin. The cattle of the fields, the wild beasts of the
fields, I shall send to thee myself, that they may be safe
behind thy door.'--Then I built the ship and provided it with
stores of food and drink; I divided the interior into ...
compartments.[BG] I saw to the chinks and filled them; I poured
bitumen over its outer side and over its inner side. All that I
possessed I brought together and stowed it in the ship; all
that I had of gold, of silver, of the seed of life of every
kind; all my men-servants and my women-servants, the cattle of
the field, the wild beasts of the field, and also my nearest
friends. Then, when Shamash brought round the appointed time, a
voice spoke to me:--'This evening the heavens will rain
destruction, wherefore go thou into the ship and close thy
door. The appointed time has come,' spoke the voice, 'this
evening the heavens will rain destruction.' And greatly I
feared the sunset of that day, the day on which I was to begin
my voyage. I was sore afraid. Yet I entered into the ship and
closed the door behind me, to shut off the ship. And I confided
the great ship to the pilot, with all its freight.--Then a
great black cloud rises from the depths of the heavens, and
Ramân thunders in the midst of it, while Nebo and Nergal
encounter each other, and the Throne-bearers walk over
mountains and vales. The mighty god of Pestilence lets loose
the whirlwinds; Ninîb unceasingly makes the canals to
overflow; the Anunnaki bring up floods from the depths of the
earth, which quakes at their violence. Ramân's mass of waters
rises even to heaven; light is changed into darkness. Confusion
and devastation fills the earth. Brother looks not after
brother, men have no thought for one another. In the heavens
the very gods are afraid; they seek a refuge in the highest
heaven of Anu; as a dog in its lair, the gods crouch by the
railing of heaven. Ishtar cries aloud with sorrow: 'Behold, all
is turned into mud, as I foretold to the gods! I prophesied
this disaster and the extermination of my creatures--men. But I
do not give them birth that they may fill the sea like the
brood of fishes.' Then the gods wept with her and sat lamenting
on one spot. For six days and seven nights wind, flood and
storm reigned supreme; but at dawn of the seventh day the
tempest decreased, the waters, which had battled like a mighty
host, abated their violence; the sea retired, and storm and
flood both ceased. I steered about the sea, lamenting that the
homesteads of men were changed into mud. The corpses drifted
about like logs. I opened a port-hole, and when the light of
day fell on my face I shivered and sat down and wept. I steered
over the countries which now were a terrible sea. Then a piece
of land rose out of the waters. The ship steered towards the
land Nizir. The mountain of the land Nizir held fast the ship
and did not let it go. Thus it was on the first and on the
second day, on the third and the fourth, also on the fifth and
sixth days. At dawn of the seventh day I took out a dove and
sent it forth. The dove went forth to and fro, but found no
resting-place and returned. Then I took out a swallow and sent
it forth. The swallow went forth, to and fro, but found no
resting-place and returned. Then I took out a raven and sent it
forth. The raven went forth, and when it saw that the waters
had abated, it came near again, cautiously wading through the
water, but did not return. Then I let out all the animals, to
the four winds of heaven, and offered a sacrifice. I raised an
altar on the highest summit of the mountain, placed the sacred
vessels on it seven by seven, and spread reeds, cedar-wood and
sweet herbs under them. The gods smelled a savor; the gods
smelled a sweet savor; like flies they swarmed around the
sacrifice. And when the goddess Ishtar came, she spread out on
high the great bows of her father Anu:--'By the necklace of my
neck,' she said, 'I shall be mindful of these days, never shall
I lose the memory of them! May all the gods come to the altar;
Bel alone shall not come, for that he controlled not his wrath,
and brought on the deluge, and gave up my men to destruction.'
When after that Bel came nigh and saw the ship, he was
perplexed, and his heart was filled with anger against the gods
and against the spirits of Heaven:--'Not a soul shall escape,'
he cried; 'not one man shall come alive out of destruction!'
Then the god Ninîb opened his lips and spoke, addressing the
warlike Bel:--'Who but Êa can have done this? Êa knew, and
informed him of everything.' Then Êa opened his lips and spoke,
addressing the warlike Bel:--'Thou art the mighty leader of the
gods: but why hast thou acted thus recklessly and brought on
this deluge? Let the sinner suffer for his sin and the
evil-doer for his misdeeds; but to this man be gracious that he
may not be destroyed, and incline towards him favorably, that
he may be preserved. And instead of bringing on another deluge,
let lions and hyenas come and take from the number of men; send
a famine to unpeople the earth; let the god of Pestilence lay
men low. I have not imparted to Hâsisadra the decision of the
great gods: I only sent him a dream, and he understood the
warning.'--Then Bel came to his senses. He entered the ship,
took hold of my hand and lifted me up; he also lifted up my
wife and laid her hand in mine. Then he turned towards us,
stood between us and spoke this blessing on us:--'Until now
Hâsisadra was only human: but now he shall be raised to be
equal with the gods, together with his wife. He shall dwell in
the distant land, by the mouth of the rivers.' Then they took
me and translated me to the distant land by the mouth of the
rivers."
18. Such is the great Chaldean Epic, the discovery of which produced so
profound a sensation, not to say excitement, not only among special
scholars, but in the reading world generally, while the full importance
of it in the history of human culture cannot yet be realized at this
early stage of our historical studies, but will appear more and more
clearly as their course takes us to later nations and other lands. We
will here linger over the poem only long enough to justify and explain
the name given to it in the title of this chapter, of "Mythical Epos."