FRAGMENTS OF MISCELLANEOUS TEXTS.
Atarpi.—Punishment of world.—Riddle of wise man.—Nature and
universal presence of air.—Sinuri.—Divining by fracture of reed.—The
foundling.—Tower of Babel.—Obscurity of legend.—Not noticed by
Berosus.—Fragmentary tablet.—Destruction of Tower.—Dispersion.—Site of
the Tower.—Meaning of Babel.—Chedor-laomer.—The destruction of Sodom
and Gomorrah.
A number of stories of a similar character to those of Genesis, though
not directly connected with the latter, have been included in this
chapter, together with two fragments which probably relate, the one to
the Tower of Babel, the other to the destruction of the cities of the
Plain. The first and principal text is the story of Atarpi, or Atarpi
nisu, “Atarpi the man.” This story is on a tablet in six columns, and
there is only one copy of it. It is terribly mutilated, very little
being preserved except Column III., but there are numerous repetitions
throughout the text. The inscription has originally been a long one,
probably extending to about 400 lines of writing, and the text differs
from the generality of these inscriptions, being very obscure and
difficult. In consequence of this and other reasons, only an outline of
most of the story is given here.
We are first told of a quarrel between a mother named Zibanit and her
daughter, and that the mother shuts the door of the house, and turns
her daughter adrift, the words of the original being “the mother to
the daughter opens not her door.” The doings of a man named Zamu have
some connection with the affair, his “descending into the street on
getting” something being mentioned immediately before the expulsion of
the daughter; and at the close we are told of Atarpi, sometimes called
Atarpi-nisu, or Atarpi the “man” who had his couch beside the river
of the north, and was pious to the gods, but took no notice of these
things. When the story next opens, we find the god Bel calling together
an assembly of the gods his sons, and relating to them that he is angry
at the sin of the world, stating also that he will bring down upon it
disease, tempest, distress, madness, burning and sickness. This is
followed by the statement that these things came to pass, and Atarpi
then invoked his god Hea to remove these evils. For a whole year, it
would seem, he interceded for the people, and at last Hea answered, and
announced his resolve to destroy the people. After this the story reads:
1. (Hea called) his assembly (by the river) of the north; he said to
the gods his sons:
2. ...... I made them
3. .... shall not stretch until before he turns.
4. Their famine I observe,
5. their shame the woman takes not;
6. I will look to judge the people?
7. in their stomach let famine dwell,
8. above let Rimmon drink up his rain,
9. let him drink up below, let not the flood be carried in the canals,
10. let it remove from the field its inundations,
11. let the corn-god give over increase, let blackness overspread the
corn,
12. let the plowed fields bring forth thorns,
13. let the growth of their fruit perish, let food not come forth from
it, let bread not be produced,
14. let distress also be spread over the people,
15. may favour be shut up, and good not be given.
—–———–———–———–———–———–———–———–———–———–———–—
16. He looked also to judge the people,
17. in their stomach dwelt famine,
18. above Rimmon drank up his rain,
19. he drank it up below, the flood was not carried in the canals,
20. it removed from the field its inundations,
21. the corn-god gave over increase, blackness spread over the corn,
22. the plowed fields brought forth thorns, the growth of their fruit
perished,
23. food came not forth from it, bread was not produced,
24. distress was spread over the people,
25. favour was shut up, good was not given.
—–———–———–———–———–———–———–———–———–———–———–—
This will serve to show the style of the tablet. The instrument of
punishment was apparently famine from want of rain.
Here the story is again lost, and where it recommences Hea is making a
speech, directing another person to cut something into portions, and
place seven on each side, and then to build brickwork round them. After
this comes a single fragment, the connection of which with the former
part is obscure.
1. Seated was the goddess ....
2. to her face also he gave ....
—–———–———–———–———–———–———–———–———–———–———–—
3. Anu opened his mouth and speaks; he said to (Nusku);
4. Nusku open thy gate; thy weapons (take)
5. in the assembly of the great gods when ....
6. their speech? ....
7. Anu sent m ....
8. your king sent ....
At present no satisfactory story can be made out of the detached
fragments of this tablet, but it evidently belongs to the mythical
portion of Babylonian history, and it is impossible not to compare
the unsuccessful intercession of the righteous man Atarpi with the
pleadings of Abraham on behalf of the cities of the plain.
The next text is a single fragment, K 2407, belonging to a curious
story of a wise man who puts a riddle to the gods.
K 2407.
(Many lines lost.)
1. The clothing of the god ....
2. What in the house is (fixed) ....
3. What in the secret place is ....
4. what is in the foundation of the house ....
5. what on the floor of the house is fixed, what ...
6. what the lower part ....
7. what by the sides of the house goes down ....
8. what in the ditch of the house broad _nigitstsi_ ....
9. what roars like a bull, what brays like an ass,
10. what flutters like a sail, what bleats like a sheep,
11. what barks like a dog,
12. what growls like a bear,
13. what into the fundament of a man enters, what into the fundament of
a woman enters.
14. Then Lugal-girra (Nergal) heard the wise word the son of the people
15. asked, and all the gods he urged (to solve it):
16. Let your solution be produced, that I may bring back your answer.
After this there is a mutilated passage containing the names, titles,
and actions of the gods who consider the riddle. It is evident that it
is air or wind which the wise man means in his riddle, for this is
everywhere, and in its sounds imitates the cries of animals.
Next we have another single fragment about a person named Sinuri, who
uses a divining rod to ascertain the meaning of a dream.
1. Sinuri with the cut reed pondered ....
2. with his right hand he broke it, and Sinuri speaks and thus says:
3. Now the plant of Nusku, the shrub? of Samas art thou.
4. Judge, thou judgest (_or_ divinest), divine concerning this dream,
5. which in the evening, at midnight, or in the morning,
6. has come, which thou knowest, but I do not know.
7. If it be good may its good not be lost to me,
8. if it be evil may its evil not happen to me.
There are some more obscure and broken lines, but no indication as to
the story to which it belongs.
A specimen of early Babylonian folklore may fitly be added here. It is
a bilingual fragment which treats of a foundling who was picked up in
the streets and finally became a great scholar. Unfortunately both the
beginning and the end of the story are wanting.
1. He who father and mother had not,
2. who his father (and) his mother knew not,
3. in the gutter (was) his going, in the street (his) entering.
4. From the mouth of the dogs one took him,
5. from the mouth of the ravens one put him away.
6. In the presence of the soothsayer the .... of his mouth one took.
7. The sole of his feet with the seal the soothsayer has marked.
8. To a nurse he gave him.
9. To his nurse for three years, corn, a cradle (?)
10. (and) clothing he guaranteed.
11. Then and ever he hid from him how he was taken (from the streets).
12. His rearer he rooted out (?).
13. The ..... of the milk of mankind he gave him, and
14. as his own son he made him.
15. As his own son he inscribed him.
16. A knowledge of writing he made him possess.
17. For his education (he cared).
One of the most obscure incidents in the Book of Genesis is undoubtedly
the building of the Tower of Babel. So far as we can judge from the
fragments of his copyists, there was no reference to it in the work
of Berosus, and early writers had to quote from writers of more than
doubtful authority in order to confirm it.
[Illustration: MEN ENGAGED IN BUILDING COLUMNS; FROM BABYLONIAN
CYLINDER.]
There is also no representation on any of the Babylonian gems which can
with any certainty be described as belonging to this story. Mr. Smith,
however, picked out three from a series of these carvings which he
thought might be distorted representations of the event. In these and
some others of the same character, figures have their hands on tall
piles, as if erecting them; and there is a god always represented near
in much the same attitude. There is no proper proportion between the
supposed structure and the men, and no stress can consequently be laid
on the representations. The Babylonian origin of the story is, however,
self-evident. According to Genesis, mankind after the flood travelled
from the east, that is from Kharsak-kurra, “the mountain of the East,”
now Elwend, where the Accadians believed the ark to have rested, to
the plain of Shinar or Sumir. Both Alexander Polyhistor and Abydenus
state that the building of the Tower of Babel was known to Babylonian
history, Babel, in fact, being the native form of the name which the
Greeks changed into Babylon. The legend of Etana given in the last
chapter seems to imply that the Tower was supposed to have been built
under the superintendence of this mythical hero. However that may be, a
fragment of the native story of its construction was discovered by Mr.
Smith, and though shockingly mutilated, is sufficient to show what the
Babylonians themselves believed on the matter.
It is evident from the wording of the fragment that it was preceded
by at least one tablet, describing the sin of the people in building
the tower. The fragment preserved belongs to a tablet containing from
four to six columns of writing, of which portions of four remain. The
principal part is the beginning of Column I.
COLUMN I.
1. .... them the father ....
2. the thought of his heart was evil,
3. .... he the father of all the gods had repudiated;
4. the thought of his heart was evil,
5. .... of Babylon he hastens to the submission (?),
6. [small] and great he confounded (on) the mound.
7. .... of Babylon he hastens to the submission,
8. [small] and great he confounded (on) the mound.
9. Their walls all the day he founded;
10. for their destruction (punishment) in the night
11. .... he did not leave a remainder.
12. In his anger also (his) secret counsel he pours out:
13. [to] confound (their) speeches he set his face.
14. He gave the command, he made strange their counsel
15. .... the going he inspected it.
16. .... he took (selected) a shrine.
There is a small fragment of Column II., but the connection with Column
I. is not apparent.
COLUMN II.
1. Sar-tuli-elli (the king of the illustrious mound, _i.e._ Anu)
destroys (_or_ punishes).
2. In front had Anu lifted up ....
3. to Bel-esir his father ....
4. Since his heart also ....
5. who carried the command ....
6. In those days also ....
7. he lifted him up ....
8. The goddess Dav-kina ....
9. My son I rise and ....
10. his number (?) ....
11. he did not ....
There is a third portion on the same tablet belonging to a column on
the other side, either the third or the fifth.
REVERSE COLUMN III. OR V.
1. In ....
2. they blew and ....
3. for future times ....
4. The god of no government went ....
5. He said, like heaven and earth ....
6. his path they went ....
7. fiercely they fronted his presence ....
8. He saw them and the earth ....
9. Since a stop they did not (make) ....
10. of the gods ....
11. the gods they revolted against ....
12. offspring ....
13. They weep hot tears for Babylon;
14. bitterly they wept (for Babylon);
15. their heart also ....
These fragments are so remarkable that it is most unfortunate we have
not the remainder of the tablet.
In the first part we have the anger of Bel, the father of the gods, at
the sin of those who were building the walls of Babylon and the mound
of tower or palace. This mound is termed “the illustrious,” and the god
Anu who destroyed the builders is accordingly called _Sar-tuli-elli_,
“the king of the illustrious mound.” Since the Accadian name of the
month Tisri, our October, was “the month of the illustrious mound,” it
would appear that the construction of it was believed to have taken
place at the time of the autumnal equinox. The builders were punished
by the deity, and the walls that had been set up in the day were
destroyed at night. Prof. Delitzsch has drawn attention to a possible
reference to this legend in an Accadian hymn in which the poet says
to Merodach, “found during the day, destroy during the night.” It is
plain from the first lines that the whole attempt was directed against
the gods; in fact, that like the giants and Titans in Greek mythology,
whose assault on Zeus is probably but an echo of the old Babylonian
tale, conveyed to Greece through the hands of the Phœnicians, the
builders of the Tower of Babylon intended to scale the sky. They were,
however, confounded on the mound, as well as their speech (_tammasle_).
It is interesting to find the very same word signifying “to confound”
used in the Babylonian as in the Hebrew account, namely _bâlal_, or
rather _bâlâh_. We may also notice that the Hebrew writer once (Gen.
xi. 7.) adopts the polytheistic language of the Accadian scribe; the
Lord being made to say “Let _us_ go down, and there confound their
language.”
[Illustration: VIEW OF THE BIRS NIMRUD, THE SUPPOSED SITE OF THE TOWER
OF BABEL.]
The last column shows that the winds finally destroyed the impious work
of the Babylonians. This fully accords with the legend reported by
Alexander Polyhistor. For a time Babylon was given over to the god of
lawlessness; but at last the gods repented of the evil they had done,
and order was once more restored. The shrine mentioned in the sixteenth
line of the first column may receive some light from the fact that the
Accadian name of Nisan or March was “the month of the upright altar,”
or “of the altar of Bel,” and that Nisan corresponded with the vernal
equinox just as Tisri did with the autumnal equinox.
[Illustration: VIEW OF THE BABIL MOUND AT BABYLON, THE SITE OF THE
TEMPLE OF BEL.]
The etymology of the name of Babel from _balbel_, “to confound,”
suggested in Genesis is one of those “popular etymologies” or plays
on words of which the Old Testament writers are so fond. Thus, for
instance, the name of Joseph is connected first with _’âsaph_ “to
take away,” and then with _yâsaph_ “to add” (Gen. xxx. 23, 24.), and
the name of the Moabite city Dibon is changed into Dimon by Isaiah
(xv. 9) to indicate that its “waters shall be full of blood,” Hebrew
_dâm_. Babel is the Assyrian _Bab-ili_ “the gate of God” (or, as it
is occasionally written in the plural, _Bab-ili_ “Gate of the gods”),
which was the Semitic translation of the old Accadian name of the town
Ca-dimirra with the same meaning. This is not the only instance in
which the original Accadian names of Babylonian cities were literally
translated into Semitic Babylonian after the Semitic conquest of
the country. It is possible that the name had some reference to the
building of the Tower. Babylon was first made a capital by Khammuragas,
the leader of the Cossæan dynasty, a position which it never
afterwards lost; but the first antediluvian king of Chaldea, Alorus,
according to Barosus, was a native of the place.
[Illustration: TOWER IN STAGES, FROM AN ASSYRIAN BAS-RELIEF.]
The actual site of the Tower of Babel, beyond the mere fact that it
was somewhere in Babylon, has not yet been settled. It is generally
considered to be represented by the great pile of Birs Nimrud, which
stood in Borsippa, the suburb of Babylon, and was dedicated to Nebo
and called “the Temple of the Seven Lights” or planets. This ruin has
been examined by Sir Henry Rawlinson; details of his operations here
are given in the “Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,” vol. xviii.,
and Rawlinson’s “Ancient Monarchies,” p. 544. Sir Henry discovered
by excavation that the tower consisted of seven stages of brickwork
on an earthen platform, each stage being of a different colour. This
is explained by the fact that it was devoted to the seven planets.
The height of the earthen platform was not ascertained, but the first
stage, which was an exact square, was 272 feet each way, and 26 feet
high, the bricks being blackened with bitumen; this stage is supposed
to have been dedicated to the planet Saturn. The second stage was a
square of 230 feet, 26 feet high, faced with orange-coloured bricks;
supposed to have been dedicated to Jupiter. The third stage, 188 feet
square, and 26 feet high, faced with red bricks, was probably dedicated
to Mars. The fourth stage, 146 feet square, and 15 feet high, was
probably dedicated to the Sun, and is thought by Sir H. Rawlinson to
have been originally plated with gold. The fifth stage is supposed to
have been 104, the sixth 62, and the seventh 20 feet square, but the
top was too ruinous to decide these measurements. These stages were
probably dedicated to Venus, Mercury, and the Moon. Each stage of the
building was not set in the centre of the stage on which it rested,
but was placed 30 feet from the front, and 12 feet from the back. The
ruin at present rises 154 feet above the level of the plain, and is the
most imposing pile in the whole country. According to Nebuchadnezzar
it had been built to the height of 42 cubits by “a former king,” who
however had not completed its summit, and it had long been in a ruinous
condition when Nebuchadnezzar undertook to restore and finish it. Prof.
Schrader imagines that the long period during which it had remained
an unfinished ruin caused the growth of the legend which saw in it
a monument of the overthrow of human presumption, the diversity of
languages in Babylonia being sufficient to account for the localization
of the confusion of tongues in the country.
Sir Henry Rawlinson now proposes to place the Tower or _tul ellu_ at
the ruins now called Amrán, within the city of Babylon itself. Here
he thinks were the temple of Anu, on the site of the ruined Tower, a
chapel dedicated to Nebo, an altar of Merodach, the royal palace (now
represented by the mound of the Kasr), and the hanging gardens, all
enclosed by a common wall. The quarter of Babylon thus enclosed he
would identify with the Calneh of the Bible, principally on the ground
that the Septuagint rendering of Isaiah x. 9 is, “Have I not taken the
region above Babylon and Chalanne where the tower was built?”
A third site has been claimed for the Tower on the Babil or Mujellibeh
mound on the north side of Babylon. This represents the famous temple
of Belus or Bel, whose great festival marked the beginning of the year
and the vernal equinox. But there is no evidence to support this third
opinion.
In the Babylonian and Assyrian sculptures there are occasionally
representations of towers similar in style to the supposed Tower of
Babel; one of these is given on the stone of Merodach Baladan I.,
opposite p. 236 of Mr. Smith’s “Assyrian Discoveries;” another occurs
on the sculptures at Nineveh, representing the city of Babylon; this
tower, however, cannot represent the Borsippa pile, since it consists
of only five stages.
Besides the Tower of Babel, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by
fire from heaven may also have been known to the Accadians. We learn
from Genesis xiv. that the cities of the plain were among the conquests
of Chedor-laomer and his allies, and there is some reason for thinking
that the history of Chedor-laomer’s campaign may have been derived
from the Babylonian state archives. At all events Amraphel or Amarpel,
the king of Sumir, is mentioned first, although Chedor-laomer was the
paramount sovereign and the leader of the expedition. The expedition
must have taken place during the period when, as we learn from the
inscriptions, Babylonia was subject to the monarchs of Elam, though
subordinate princes were ruling over the states into which it was
divided at the time. Though the name of Chedor-laomer has not been
found, Laomer or Lagamar appears as an Elamite god, and several of
the Elamite kings bore names compounded with Kudur “a servant,” as
Kudur-Nankhunte, “the servant of the god Nankhunte,” Kudur-Mabug,
“the servant of Mabug,” and the like. Arioch, king of Ellasar, which
probably stands for al Larsa, “the city of Larsa,” has the same name
as Eri-Acu (“the servant of the moon-god”), the son of the Elamite
monarch Kudur-Mabug, who reigned over Larsa during his father’s
lifetime, and was eventually overthrown by the Cossæan conqueror
Khammuragas.
The text which perhaps relates to the destruction of the guilty cities
is a bilingual one, much mutilated, and runs as follows:—
1. An overthrow came from the midst of the deep (the waters above the
firmament).
2. The fated punishment from the midst of heaven descended.
3. A storm like a plummet the earth (overwhelmed).
4. Towards the four winds the destroying flood like fire burnt.
5. The inhabitants of the city it had caused to be tormented; their
bodies it consumed.
6. In city and country it spread death, and the flames as they rose
overthrew.
7. Freeman and slave were equal, and the high places it filled.
8. In heaven and earth like a thunderstorm it had rained; a prey it
made.
9. To a place of refuge the gods hastened, and in a throng collected.
10. Its mighty (onset) they fled from, and like a garment it concealed
(the guilty).
11. They (feared), and death (overtook them).
12. (Their) feet and hands (it embraced).
13. ..........
14. Their body it consumed.
15. ..... as for the city, its foundations it defiled.
16. .... with (glory?) and breadth his mouth he filled.
17. This man the voice (of the thunder) called; the thunderbolt
descended;
18. during the day it flashed; grievously (it fell).
Here the fragment breaks off. It is possible that the person referred
to in line 17 was the pious man who like Lot escaped the destruction
that befell his neighbours.
[Illustration: IZDUBAR STRANGLING A LION. FROM KHORSABAD SCULPTURE.]