BABYLONIAN MYTHOLOGY.
Greek accounts.—Mythology local in
origin.—Antiquity.—Conquests.—Colonies.—Three great gods.—Twelve
great gods.—Angels.—Spirits.—Anu.—Anatu.—Rimmon.—Istar.—Equivalent
to Venus.—Hea.—Oannes.—Merodach.—Bel or Zeus.—Zirat-banit, Succoth
Benoth.—Bel.—Sin the moon god.—Ninip.—Samas.—Nergal.—Anunit.—Table of
gods.
In their accounts of the Creation and of the early history of the human
race the Babylonian divinities figure very prominently, but it is often
difficult to identify the deities mentioned by the Greek authors,
because the phonetic reading of many of the names of the Babylonian
gods is still very obscure, and the classical writers frequently
replace them by the deities of their own mythology, whom they imagined
to correspond with the Babylonian names.
In this chapter it is proposed to give a general account only of
certain parts of the Babylonian mythology, in order to show the
relationship between the deities and their titles and work.
Babylonian mythology was local in origin; each of the gods had a
particular city which was the special seat of his worship, and it is
probable that the idea of weaving the gods into a system, in which each
should have his part to play, did not arise until after the Semitic
occupation of the country. The antiquity of this systematized mythology
may, however, be seen from the fact, that two thousand years before
the Christian era it was already completed, and its deities definitely
connected into a system which remained with little change down to the
close of the kingdom.
In early times the gods were worshipped only at their original cities
or seats, the various cities or settlements being independent of
each other; but it was natural as wars arose, and some cities gained
conquests over others, and kings gradually united the country into
monarchies, that the conquerors should impose their gods upon the
conquered. Thus arose the system of different ranks or grades among
the gods. Colonies, again, were sent out at times, and the colonies,
as they considered themselves sons of the cities they started from,
also considered their gods to be sons of the gods of the mother cities.
Political changes in early times led to the rise and fall of various
towns and consequently of their deities, and gave rise to numerous
myths relating to the different personages in the mythology. In some
remote age there appear to have been three great cities in the country,
Erech, Eridu, and Nipur, and their divinities Anu, Hea, and Bel were
considered the “great gods” of the country. Subsequent changes led to
the decline of these states, but their deities still retained their
position to the end of the Babylonian system.
These three leading deities formed members of a circle of twelve gods,
also called “great.” These gods and their titles are given as:
1. Anu, meaning “the sky” in Accadian, king of angels and spirits, lord
of the city of Erech.
2. Bel, Elum or Mul in Accadian, lord of the lower world, father of the
gods, creator, lord of the city of Nipur.
3. Hea, “god of the house of water,” maker of fate, lord of the deep,
god of wisdom and knowledge, lord of the city of Eridu.
4. Sin, the Moon-god, Acu or Agu in Accadian, lord of crowns, maker of
brightness, lord of the city of Ur.
5. Merodach, “the glory of the Sun,” just prince of the gods, lord of
birth, lord of the city of Babylon.
6. Rimmon, the Air-god, Mirmir in Accadian, the strong god, lord of
canals and atmosphere, lord of the city of Muru.
7. Samas, the Sun-god, Utuci in Accadian, judge of heaven and earth,
director of all, lord of the cities of Larsa and Sippara.
8. Ninip, warrior of the gods, destroyer of the wicked, lord of the
city of Nipur.
9. Nergal, “illuminator of the great city” (Hades), giant king of war,
lord of the city of Cutha.
10. Nusku, holder of the golden sceptre, the lofty god.
11. Belat, wife of Bel, mother of the great gods, lady of the city of
Nipur.
12. Istar, Gingir in Accadian, eldest of heaven and earth, raising the
face of warriors.
Below these deities there was a large body of gods forming the bulk of
the pantheon, and below these were arranged the Igigi, or 300 angels
of heaven, and the Anunnaki, or 600 angels of earth. Below these again
came various classes of spirits or genii called Sedu, Vadukku, Ekimu,
Gallu, and others; some of these were evil, some good.
The relationship of the various principal gods and their names, titles
and offices will appear from the following remarks.
At the head of the Babylonian mythology stands a deity who was
sometimes identified with the heavens, sometimes considered as the
ruler and god of heaven. This deity is named Anu, his sign is the
simple star, the symbol of divinity, and at other times the Maltese
cross. In the philosophic theology of a later age, Anu represents
abstract divinity, and he appears as an original principle, perhaps as
the original principle of nature. He represents the universe as the
upper and lower regions, and when these were divided the upper region
or heaven was called Anu, while the lower region or earth was called
Anatu; Anatu being the female principle or wife of Anu. Anu is termed
the old god, and the god of the whole of heaven and earth; one of the
manifestations of Anu was under the two forms Lakhmu and Lakhamu,
which probably correspond to the Greek forms Dache and Dachus, see p.
44.[7] These forms are said to have sprung out of the original chaos,
and they are followed by the two forms Sar and Kisar (the Kissare and
Assorus of the Greeks). Sar means the upper hosts or expanse, Kisar the
lower hosts or expanse; these are also forms or manifestations of Anu
and his wife. Anu is further called lord of the old city, and bears the
name of Alalu. His titles generally indicate height, antiquity, purity,
divinity, and he may be taken as the general type of divinity. Anu was
originally worshipped at the city of Erech, which was called the city
of Anu and Anatu, and the great temple there was called the “house of
Anu,” or the “house of heaven.”
Anatu, the wife or consort of Anu, is generally only a female form of
Anu, but is sometimes contrasted with him; thus, when Anu represents
height and heaven, Anatu represents depth and earth; she is also the
lady of darkness, the mother of the god Hea, the mother of heaven and
earth, the female fish-god, and is often identified with Istar or
Venus. Anatu, however, had no existence in Accadian mythology. She is
the product of the imagination of the Semites, whose grammar drew a
distinction between the masculine and feminine genders.
Anu and Anatu had a numerous family; among their sons are numbered
Lugal-edin, “the king of the desert,” Latarak, Ab-gula, Kusu, and the
air-god, whose name was Ramman or Rimmon, in Accadian Mirmir. Rimmon
is god of the region of the atmosphere, or space between the heaven
and earth, he is the god of rain, of storms and whirlwind, of thunder
and lightning, of floods and watercourses. He was in high esteem in
Syria and Arabia, where he bore the name of Dadda; in Armenia he was
called Teiseba. Rimmon is always considered an active deity, and was
extensively worshipped.
Another important god, a son of Anu, was the god of fire, whose name
was Gibil in Accadian. The fire-god takes an active part in the
numerous mythological tablets and legends, and is considered to be the
most potent deity in relation to witchcraft and spells generally.
The most important of the daughters of Anu was named Istar; she was in
some respects the equivalent of the classical Venus. Her worship was
at first subordinate to that of Anu, and as she was goddess of love,
while Anu was god of heaven, it is probable that the first intention in
the mythology was only to represent love as heaven-born; but in time
a more sensual view prevailed, and the worship of Istar became one of
the darkest features in Babylonian mythology. As the worship of this
goddess increased in favour, it gradually superseded that of Anu, until
in time his temple, the house of heaven, came to be regarded as the
temple of Venus.
The planet Venus, as the evening star, was identified with Istar of
Erech, while the morning star was Anunit, goddess of Agané.
Istar, however, was worshipped under a great variety of forms. Each
city, each state, had its own special Istar and its own special
worship of her. In the syncretic age of Babylonian theology, these
various forms and modes of worship were amalgamated together, and
epithets of the goddess which were originally peculiar to particular
localities, were applied to the single goddess of the state religion.
Thus, according to the legends of one part of Babylonia, Istar was
the daughter of the Moon-god, according to those of another part of
the country she was the daughter of Anu. Hence in the mythology of a
later period she appears sometimes as the daughter of the one deity,
sometimes as the daughter of the other.
A companion deity with Anu is Hea, who is god, of the sea and of Hades,
in fact of all the lower regions. In some of his attributes he answers
to the Kronos of the Greeks, in others to their Poseidon. Hea is called
god of the lower region, he is lord of the sea or abyss; he is also
lord of generation and of all human beings and bears the titles: lord
of wisdom, of mines and treasures; of gifts, of music, of fishermen
and sailors, and of Hades or hell. It has been supposed that the
serpent was one of his emblems, and that he was the Oannes of Berosus;
but these conjectures have not yet been proved. The wife of Hea was
Davkina, the Davke of Damascius, who is the goddess of the lower
regions, the consort of the deep; and their principal son was Maruduk
or Merodach, the Bel of later times.
Merodach, god of Babylon, appears in all the earlier inscriptions
as the agent of his father Hea; he goes about the world collecting
information, and receives commissions from his father to set right
all that appears wrong. He is called the redeemer of mankind, the
restorer to life, and the raiser from the dead. He is an active agent
in creation, but is always subordinate to his father Hea. In later
times, after Babylon had been made the capital, Merodach, who was
god of that city, was raised to the head of the Pantheon. Merodach
afterwards came to be identified with the classical Jupiter, but the
name Bel, “the lord,” was only given to him in times subsequent to the
rise of Babylon, when the worship of the older Bel, the Accadian Elum,
was falling into decay. The wife of Merodach was Zirat-panit, perhaps
the Succoth Benoth of the Bible. Besides Merodach, Hea had a numerous
progeny, his sons being principally river-gods.
Nebo, the god of knowledge and literature, who was worshipped at the
neighbouring city of Borsippa, was a favourite deity in later times, as
was also his consort Tasmit “the Hearer.” Nebo, whose name signifies
“the prophet,” was called Timkhir in Accadian, and had his temple
in the island of Dilvun, called “the island of the gods” by the
Accadians, now Bahrein. Here he was worshipped under the name of Enzak.
A third great god was united with Anu and Hea, named Enu, Mul, and Elum
in Accadian, and Bel in Semitic Babylonian; he was the original Bel
of the Babylonian mythology, and was lord of the surface of the earth
and the affairs of men. Elum was lord of the city of Nipur, and in the
Semitic period had a consort named Belat or Beltis. He was held to be
the most active of the gods in the general affairs of mankind, and was
so generally worshipped in early times that he came to be regarded as
the national divinity, and his temple at the city of Nipur was regarded
as the type of all others. The extensive worship of Bel, and the high
honour in which he was held, seem to point to a time when his city,
Nipur, was the metropolis of the country.
Belat, or Beltis, the wife of Bel, is a famous deity celebrated in all
ages, but as the title Belat only signified “lady,” or “goddess,” it
was a common one for many goddesses, and the notices of Beltis probably
refer to several different personages.
Bel had, like the other gods, a numerous family; his eldest son was
the moon-god, called Agu or Acu in Accadian, in later times generally
termed Sin. Sin was presiding deity of the city of Ur, and early
assumed an important place in the mythology. The moon-god figures
prominently in some early legends, and during the time when the city of
Ur was capital of the country his worship became very widely-spread
and popular throughout the country.
Ninip, god of hunting and war, was another celebrated son of Bel; he
was worshipped with his father at Nipur. Ninip was also much worshipped
in Assyria as well as Babylonia, his character as presiding genius of
war and the chase making him a favourite deity with the warlike kings
of Assyria. Originally he was a form of the sun-god.
Sin the moon-god had a son Samas, the sun-god. Samas is an active
deity in some of the Izdubar legends and fables, but he is generally
subordinate to Sin. In the Babylonian system the moon takes precedence
of the sun, as befitted a nation of astronomers, and the Samas of Larsa
was probably considered a different deity from Samas of Sippara.
Among the other deities of the Babylonians may be counted Nergal, god
of Cutha, who like Ninip, presided over hunting and war, and Anunit,
the goddess of one of the quarters of Sippara, and of the city of Agané.
The following table will exhibit the relationship of the principal
deities as it had been drawn up by the native writers on the
cosmogony; but it must be noted that it belongs to a late age of
syncretic philosophy, when the scholars of Assur-bani-pal’s court
were endeavouring to resolve the old deities of Accad into mere
abstractions, and so explain the myths which described the creation of
the world.
Tamtu or Tiamtu Absu (Apason?)
(the sea). (the deep).
│ │
└——————————————————————————┬————————————————————————┘
│
Mummu
(chaos).
│
┌————————————————————————┴——————————————————————┐
│ │
Lakhmu Lakhamu
│ │
├————————————————————————————————————————————————-┴————┐
│ │
Kisar (Kissare) Sar (Assorus)
(lower expanse). (upper expanse).
│ │
├————————————————┬——————————————┬————————————————-┴——┐
│ │ │ │
Anu Anatu Elum, or Bel. Beltis.
(heaven). │ (earth).
│ │ │
┌-┴————————————-┬——┴————————-┬————┴————————————————————┐
│ │ │ │
Rimmon Gibil Hea (Saturn) Istar (Venus).
(atmosphere). (fire-god). (the deep).
Hea (Saturn). Davkina (Davke). Elum. Beltis.
│ │ │ │
└——┬——————————————-┘ ┌——————-┴——————————-┴——┐
│ │ │
Merodach. Zirat-panit. Sin. Ningal. Ninip.
│ │ │ │
┌————┴——————————┴——-┐ ┌——┴———————┴———┐
│ │ │ │
Nebo. Tasmit. Samas. Istar.
FOOTNOTES:
[7] Though Lakhmu properly represented Anu or Anatu, he sometimes takes
the place of the Solar hero Ninip as husband of Gula, “the great”
goddess.