THE POETRY AND MYTHOLOGY OF THE TABLETS.
PRIMITIVE MYTHOLOGY—ANŪ—SEVEN EVIL SPIRITS—ACCADIAN POEM—ASSUR—HEA—NIN-
CI-GAL—SIN, THE MOON GOD—HEA-BANI—NERGAL—MERODACH—NEBO—NINIP—
CHEMOSH—INCANTATIONS TO FIRE AND WATER—IM—BAAL—TAMMUZ-ISHTAR—ISHTAR
OF ARBELA—ISHTAR OF ERECH—LEGEND OF ISHTAR AND IZDŪBAR-ISHTAR, QUEEN
OF LOVE AND BEAUTY—THE DESCENT OF ISHTAR.
The East was the home of poetry and the land of mythology before the
hundred gates of Palmyra were swung upon their massive hinges, or the
crown of her beautiful queen had been set with its moonlight pearls. A
land which was rich with jewels and radiant with flowers, held in her
background a mythology so primitive that it appears to have been the
mother of them all. Tablet and palace walls have alike been questioned
concerning these early myths, and behind the dust of the centuries, in
the legends that lie beneath them, we find stories of gods like Indra,
the storm-king of the Hindūs, and Jove of Olympus—like Odin and Thor of
the Northmen. Even the gigantic symbols that guarded the portals of
ancient hall and palace are replete with wonder, for their strange wings
have sheltered the very beginnings of mythology. Chaldea’s cosmogonies
comprehend the ideas of the Greek and Norseman—nay, even the wildest
dreams of Hindū and Persian are apparently drawn from this common
source.[63]
The intelligent study of Persian literature compels an examination of
the early myths and legends where her poetry and romance found their
sources—compels the study not only of the inscriptions of Persian kings,
but of the tablets which have brought down to us the idols of a
primitive people. Therefore, it is the province of this chapter to give
a brief yet comprehensive outline of the principal deities and legends
which seem to form the basis not only of Persian mythology, but of the
luxuriant growth of myth and fable which has permeated India, Greece,
and Rome, as well as Northern Europe.
A Chaldean legend of the creation is found upon a clay tablet which
contains a description of the struggle between the evil powers of
darkness and chaos, and the bright powers of light and order. This is
doubtless the origin of the struggle between good and evil—the unceasing
contest between Ormazd and Ahriman which forms the key-note of Persian
thought so fully illustrated in the Avesta.
There are two contradictory tablets of the creation. The one coming from
the library at Cutha and the other from the royal library at Nineveh.
This latter consists of seven tablets, as the creation is described as
consisting of seven successive acts. It presents a curious similarity to
the account of the creation long before recorded in Genesis, the word
Tīamat which is used to represent chaos seems to be the same as the
biblical word _tehom_, the deep. A radical difference, however, is found
in the fact that in the Assyrian story, Tīamat has become a mythological
personage—the dragon mother of a chaotic brood. The legend in its
present form is assigned by Prof. Sayce to about the time of Assur-bani-
pal.[64] The oldest tablets are those which are written in the primitive
Accadian tongue, and many of these have been found in the library of
Assur-bani-pal,[65] having evidently been copied from the earlier text
and supplied with interlinear translations in the Assyrian tongue.
The Assyrians counted no less than three hundred spirits of heaven and
six hundred spirits of earth, all of which (as well as the rest of their
mythology) appears to have been borrowed from the primitive population
of that country. Indeed it would appear that ancient Babylonia was the
birthplace of that common mythology[66] which in various forms afterward
became the heritage of so many nations.
Elaborate and costly temples were built for these deities of an
idolatrous people, and when the image of a god was brought into his
newly built temple there were festivals and processions, and wild
rejoicing among the worshippers.
The principal gods mentioned in these early tablets may be briefly
sketched as follows:
ANŪ.
The sky god and ruler of the highest heaven, whose messengers are evil
spirits. The Canaanite town of Beth-anath, mentioned in Joshua,[67] was
named for Anat, the wife of Anū.
SEVEN EVIL SPIRITS.
These messengers of Anū are elsewhere described as the seven storm-
clouds, or the winds, and their leader seems to have been the dragon
Tīamat[68] (the deep), who was defeated by Bel-Merodach in the war of
the gods. The tablets have preserved an Accadian poem on this subject,
the author of which is represented as living in the Babylonian city of
Eridu,[69] where his horizon was bounded by the mountains of Susiani,
and the battle of the elements raging around their summit suggested to
his poet-mind the warring of evil spirits.
It was these seven storm-spirits who were represented as attacking the
moon when it was eclipsed, a description of which is given in an
Accadian poem[70] translated by Prof. Talbot. Here they are regarded as
the allies of the incubus, or nightmare, which is supposed to attack the
moon.
ACCADIAN POEM ON THE SEVEN EVIL SPIRITS.
“O, Fire-god! those seven, how were they born? how grew they up?
Those seven in the mountain of the sunset were born.
Those seven in the mountain of the sunrise grew up.
In the hollows of the earth have they their dwelling;
On the high places of the earth are they proclaimed.
Among the gods their couch they have not;
Their name in heaven and earth exists not.
Seven are they; in the mountain of the sunset do they rise;
Seven are they; in the mountain of the sunrise do they set.
Let the Fire-god seize upon the incubus;
Those baleful seven may he remove, and their bodies may he bind.
Order and kindness know they not,
Prayer and supplication hear they not.
Unto Hea they are hostile;
Disturbing the lily in the torrents are they.
Baleful are they, baleful are they,
Seven are they, seven are they.”
“They are the dark storms of heaven which unto fire unite themselves;
They are the destructive tempests which, on a fine day, sudden darkness
cause;
With storms and meteors they rush,
Their rage ignites the thunderbolts of Im,
From the right hand of the thunder they dart forth.
They are seven, these evil spirits, and death they fear not;
They are seven, these evil spirits, who rush like a hurricane,
And fall like fire-brands on the earth.”[71]
Here we have more than a suggestion of the origin of some of the early
songs of the Vedas, for these seven storm-spirits are represented by the
Marūts of the Hindūs—“the shakers of the earth”—who dash through the
heavens in chariots drawn by dappled deer. In this primitive mythology
we find also
ASSUR.
The “god of judges” was the especial patron of Assyria, and afterward
made to express the power of the later Assyrian empire by becoming
“father of the gods” and the head of the pantheon.
The Assyrian kings claimed that their power was derived from this deity,
and in one of the inscriptions it is said that
“The universal king,[72] king of Assyria, the king whom Assur,
King of the spirits of heaven, appointed with a kingdom,
Without rival has filled his hand.
From the great sea of the rising of the sun
To the great sea of the setting of the sun
His hand conquered and has subdued in all entirety.”
In the inscriptions of Shalmanesar II, all honor is also ascribed to
this god; he is invoked as “Assur, the great lord, the king of all the
great gods.”
And it is said: “By the command of Assur, the great lord, my lord,
I approached the mountain of Shitamrat—
The mountain I stormed.
Akhuni trusted to the multitude of his troops and came forth to meet me;
He drew up in battle array.
I launched among them the weapons of Assur, my lord;
I utterly defeated them.
I cut off the heads of his soldiers and dyed the mountains with the
blood of his fighting men.
Many of his troops flung themselves against the rocks of the
mountains.”[73]
On his return, the victorious king purified his weapons in the sea, and
sacrificed victims to his gods. He erected a statue of himself,
overlooking the sea, and inscribed it with the glory of Assur.
HEA.
Hea[74] was the god of chaos or the deep; he was “the king of the abyss
who determines destinies.”
In later times he was also called “the god of the waters,” and from him
some of the attributes of Neptune may have been derived. It was said
that Chaos was his wife.
NIN-CI-GAL.
In later mythology Nin-ci-gal, instead of Chaos, was the wife of Hea—she
was the “lady of the mighty country” and “queen of the dead.” This
goddess may have been the prototype of Proserpine, who was carried away
by Pluto in his golden chariot to be the “queen of hades.”
SIN.
This name signifies brightness, and the moon-god was the father of
Ishtar. Nannaru, “the brilliant one,” was one of his titles.
A golden tablet[75] found in the “timmin,” or cornerstone of a palace or
temple at Khorsabed, contains an account of the splendid temples which
King Sargon II built in a town near Nineveh (Dur Sārkin) and dedicated
to Hea, Sin (the moon-god), Chemosh (the sun-god), and Ninip, the god of
forces. The king’s inscription[76] states that “I constructed palaces
covered with skins, sandal wood, ebony, cedar, tamarisk, pine, cypress,
and wood of pistachio tree.” Among the gods presented on the tablets we
find also
HEA-BANI.
This god was the companion of Izdūbar, and on account of the peculiar
circumstances attending his death was shut out of heaven. He is
represented as a satyr, with the legs, head, and tail of an ox. This
figure occurs very frequently on the gems, and may always be recognized
by these characteristics. He is doubtless the original of Mendes, the
goat-formed god of Egypt, and also of Pan, the goat-footed god of the
Arcadian herdsman with his pipe of seven reeds. Hea-bani is represented
as dwelling in a remote place three days’ journey from Erech, and it was
said that he lived in a cave and associated with the cattle and the
creeping things of the field.
NERGAL,
the patron deity of Cutha, is identified with Nerra, the god of
pestilence, and also with Ner, the mythical monarch of Babylonia, who it
was claimed reigned before the flood. He was “the god of bows and arms.”
The cuneiform inscriptions show that the Lion-god, under the name of
Nergal[77] was worshipped at Kuti or Cutha, where an elaborate temple
was built in his honor, and an Assyrian copy of an old Babylonian text
belonging to the library of Cutha, speaks of “the memorial stone which I
wrote for thee, for the worship of Nergal which I left for thee.”
According to Dr. Oppert, Nergal represented the planet Mars, hence the
Grecian god of war, “raging round the field,” appears to have been
merely a perpetuation of this early deity.
BEL MERODACH,
or Marduk, whose temple, according to the inscription, was built by
Nebuchadnezzar, with its costly woods, “its silver and molten gold, and
precious stones” and “sea-clay” (amber), “with its seats of splendid
gold, with lapis-lazuli and alabaster blocks,” which are still found in
the ruins of Babylon. And the king made the great festival Lilmuku, when
the image of Merodach[78] was brought into the temple.[79] The
inscription also speaks[80] of the temple as receiving “within itself
the abundant tribute of the kings of nations, and of all peoples.”[81]
NEBO.
From this god the name of Nebuchadnezzar was derived, and he was the
favorite deity of that king. He was the eldest son of Merodach, and was
“the bestower of thrones in heaven and earth.” In a ten-column
inscription of Nebuchadnezzar, which is engraved upon black basalt, and
now forms part of the India House Collection, the king speaks of
building a temple in Babylon “to Nebo of lofty intelligence, who hath
bestowed on me the scepter of justice to preside over all peoples.” He
says, “The pine portico of the shrine of Nebo, with gold I caused to
cover,”[82] etc. Nebo[83] or Nabo and Merodach are both used as the
component parts of the names of certain kings of Babylon.
NINIP,
“the son of the zenith,” and “the lord of strong actions,” finds an echo
in Grecian mythology as Hercūles, who received his sword from Mercury,
his bow from Apollo, his golden breastplate from Vulcan, his horses from
Neptune, and his robe from Minerva, the goddess of wisdom.
Hercūles, who appears in Persian mythology as Mithras, the unconquered
sun, is traced back to his Phœnician origin in the line of Baal.
Therefore, the Persian Mithras represents Chemosh and Tammuz, both of
whom are sun-gods as well as the “god of forces,” for the sun is the
most powerful influence in the planetary world. The mysteries of Mithras
were celebrated with much pomp and splendor on the revival of the
Persian religion under the Sassanidæ. The word appears in many ancient
Persian names.
DAGON.
The Assyrian Dagon was usually associated with Anū, the sky-god, and the
worship of both was carried as far west as Canaan.[84] He is spoken of
in the tablets as “Dagon, the hero of the great gods, the beloved of thy
heart, the prince, the favorite of Bel,” etc. The name is a word of
Accadian origin, meaning “exalted.”
MOLECH.
Of Molech little is said in the tablets, except that “he took the
children,”[85] but a curious fragment of an old Accadian hymn indicates
that the children of these highlanders were offered, as burnt offerings,
in very early times; and hence, says Prof. Sayce, “the bloody sacrifices
offered to Molech were no Semitic invention, but handed on to them, with
so much else, by the Turānian population of Chaldea.”[86] The Mosaic law
was especially severe upon this “abomination” of human sacrifices, the
death penalty being ordered for every such offence.[87]
CHEMOSH.
This sun-god was worshipped as the Supreme, and in his honor, his early
worshippers sang praises, offered sacrifices and performed incantations.
The success of Mesha, king of Moab, in his revolt against the king of
Israel, was commemorated by the erection of the celebrated Moabite
stone[88] whereon was recorded the inscription ascribing his victory to
Chemosh, his favorite deity. The principal title of Chemosh[89] was
“Judge of heaven and earth,” but he afterward held a less important
position in the Chaldaic-Babylonian pantheon, which was adopted by the
Assyrians, and was considered inferior to Sin, the moon-god, who was
sometimes said to be his father. There are several tablets bearing
magical incantations and songs to the sun-god.
But the hideous idols that occupied the palatial temples of Chemosh at
Larsam, in Southern Chaldea, and at Sippara, in the north of Babylonia,
became more refined in the poetry of the Vedas, and he appeared in the
mythology of the Hindūs as Sūrya, the god of day, who rode across the
heavens in a car of flame drawn by milk-white horses.
INCANTATIONS TO FIRE AND WATER
There are also Assyrian incantations to fire and water, which represent
the imagery of the primitive Babylonians, and these inscriptions also
suggest a possible foundation for the hymns of the Ṛig-veda. There is a
great similarity of style between the literature of the tablets and the
early hymns of the Hindūs. The tablets speak of “An incantation to the
waters pure, the waters of the Euphrates—the water in which the abyss
firmly is established, the noble mouth of Hea shines upon them.
Waters they are shining (clear), waters they are bright. The god of the
river puts him (the enchanter) to flight,” etc. In the incantation to
fire, there are also many eloquent passages: “The Fire-god—the prince
which is in the lofty country—the warrior, son of the abyss—the god of
fire with thy holy fires—in the house of darkness, light thou art
establishing.
Of Bronze and lead, the mixer of them thou (art). Of silver and gold,
the blesser of them thou (art).”[90] This Fire-god of the Accadians was
represented by the Hindū Agni, from whose body issued seven streams of
glory, and by Loki, whose burning breath is poured from the throbbing
mountains of the Northmen.
IM.
In this pantheon of mythology, as defined by the tablets, Im was the god
of the sky, sometimes called Rimmon, the god of lightning and storms, of
rain and thunder. He is represented among the Hindūs as Indra, who
furiously drives his tawny steeds to the battle of the elements. With
the Greek and Latins he was personated by Zeus and Jupiter, “the cloud-
compelling Jove,” while among the Northmen he wears the form of Thor,
whose frown is the gathering of the storm-clouds, and whose angry voice
echoes in the thunder-bolt.
BAAL,
or Bel (plural Baalim), was also an important character, and indeed,
according to Dr. Oppert, all of the Phœnician gods were included
under the general name of Baal,[91] and human sacrifices were often made
upon their blood-stained altars. He had a magnificent temple in Tyre,
which was founded by Hiram, where he had symbolic pillars, one of gold
and one of smaragdus. An inscription[92] on the sarcophagus of
Esmunazar, king of the two Sidons, claims that he, too, built a temple
to Ashtaroth, and “placed there the images of Ashtaroth,” and also “the
temple of Baal-Sidon, and the temple of Astarte, who bears the name of
this Baal;” that is, the temple of Baal and the temple of Astarte, or
Ashtaroth, at Sidon.
The grossest sensuality characterized some forms of the worship of Baal
and Ashtaroth. Indeed, it can only be compared to the unmentionable
rites which two thousand years later pertained to the worship of Kṛishṇa
and Śiva.
In the inscription of Tiglath Pilesar I, Baal is called “the King of
Constellations,” and the fact that he was thus worshipped is a peculiar
explanation of the frequent condemnation in the book of Kings of the
worship of “the host of Heaven,” which is repeatedly spoken of in
connection with the altars of Baal.[93]
TAMMUZ.
This is another form of the sun-god, who is represented as being slain
by the boar’s tusk of winter. June is the month of Tammuz, and his
festival began with the cutting of the sacred fir tree in which the god
had hidden himself. A tablet in the British Museum states that the
sacred dark fir tree which grew in the city of Eridu, was the couch of
the mother goddess.[94] The sacred tree having been cut and carried into
the idol-temple, there came the search for Tammuz, when the devotees ran
wildly about weeping and wailing for the lost one,[95] and cutting
themselves with knives. His wife, Ishtar, descended to the lower world
to search for him, and the tablets furnish another poem which seems to
celebrate a temple similar to that recorded by Maimonides, in which the
Babylonian gods gathered around the image of the sun-god, to lament his
death. The statue of Tammuz was placed on a bier and followed by bands
of mourners, crying and singing a funeral dirge. He is also called Dūzi,
“the son.” Tammuz is the proper Syriac name for Adonis of the Greeks.
ISHTAR.
This goddess, who is sometimes called Astarte, was the most important
female deity of this early pantheon. The Persian form of the word is
Astara. In Phœnician it is Ashtaroth,[96] and according to Dr. Oppert
all the Phœnician goddesses were included under this general name.
Another form of the name afterward appeared in Greek mythology as
Asteria, and it was applied to the beautiful goddess who fled from the
suit of Jove, and, flinging herself down from heaven into the sea,
became the island afterward named Delos.
The farther back we go in the world’s history the nearer we approach to
the original idea of monotheism, and originally there was only one
goddess, Ishtar or Ashtaroth, personifying both love and war, but two
such opposite characteristics could not long remain the leading
attributes of the same deity, and hence after a time, there were
mentioned three goddesses bearing the same name.
ISHTAR OF ARBELA
was the goddess of war, the “Lady of Battles.” She was the daughter of
Anū, whose messengers were the seven evil spirits, and the favorite
goddess of King Assur-bani-pal, who claims that he received his bow from
her, though he declares in his inscriptions that he worshipped also Bel
or Baal, and Nebo; he frequently implores the protection of Ishtar.
“Oh, thou, goddess of goddesses, terrible in battle, goddess in war,
queen of the gods! Teūman, king of Elam, he gathered his army and
prepared for war; he urges his fighting men to go to Assyria. Oh, thou,
archer of the gods, like a weight, in the midst of the battle, throw him
down and crush him.”[97] Ishtar of Arbela afterward became the Bellona
of the Latins, and the Enyo of the Greeks. Under the name of Anatis, or
Anāhid, she was worshipped in Armenia, and also in Cappadocia, where she
had a splendid temple, served by a college of priests, and more than six
thousand temple servants. Her image, according to Pliny,[98] was of
solid gold, and her high priest was second only to the king himself.
Strabo calls this goddess Enyo, and Berosus considers that she is
identical with Venus. The inscriptions of Artaxerxes, discovered at
Susa, call her Anāhid, which was the Persian name of the planet Venus.
The characteristics of Venus, the queen of beauty, may seem somewhat at
variance with Ishtar of Arbela, the goddess of war, but it will be
remembered that the Greeks of Cythera, one of the Ionian islands,
worshipped an armed Venus, and from this island she took the name of
Cythera; the fable that she rose from the sea probably means that her
worship was introduced into the island by a maritime people, doubtless
the Phœnicians.
ISHTAR OF ERECH,
the daughter of Anū and Annatu, is another form of this popular goddess,
and one of the Assyrian tablets refers to the dedication of horses at
the temple of Bit-ili at Erech, where the king of Elam dedicated white
horses with silver saddles to Ishtar, the tutelar divinity of Erech.
In the sixth tablet of the Izdūbar series, we find an Ishtar whose
characteristics are so different from either the goddess of love or the
goddess of war, that we are constrained to believe that it must refer to
Ishtar of Erech. She here appears as the queen of witchcraft, resembling
the Hecate of the Greeks in her funereal abode. Indeed, Hecate was
fabled to be the daughter of Asteria, which is merely the Greek form of
the name Ishtar, and Pausanius[99] mentions an Astrateia whose worship
was brought to Greece from the East.
LEGEND OF ISHTAR AND IZDŪBAR.
COLUMN I.
“1. He had thrown off his tattered garments,
2. his pack of goods he had lain down from his back.
3. (he had flung off) his rags of poverty and clothed himself in
dress of honor.
4. (With a royal robe) he covered himself,
5. and he bound a diadem on his brow.
6. Then Ishtar the queen lifted up her eyes to the throne of
Izdūbar—
7. Kiss me, Izdūbar! she said, for I will marry thee!
8. Let us live together, I and thou, in one place;
9. thou shalt be my husband, and I will be thy wife.
10. Thou shalt ride in a chariot of lapis-lazuli,[100]
11. whose wheels are golden and its pole resplendent.
12. Shining bracelets shalt thou wear every day.
13. By our house the cedar trees in green vigor shall grow,
14. and when thou shall enter it
15. (suppliant) crowds shall kiss thy feet!
16. Kings, Lords, and Princes shall bow down before thee!
17. The tribute of hills and plains they shall bring to thee as
offerings,
18. thy flocks and thy herds shall all bear twins,
19. thy race of mules shall be magnificent,
20. thy triumphs in the chariot race shall be proclaimed without
ceasing,
21. and among the chiefs thou shalt never have an equal.
22. (Then Izdūbar) opened his mouth and spake,
23. (and said) to Ishtar the queen:
24. (Lady! full well) I know thee by experience.
25. Sad and funereal (is thy dwelling place),
26. sickness and famine surround thy path,
27. (false and) treacherous is thy crown of divinity.
28. Poor and worthless is thy crown of royalty
29. (Yes! I have said it) I know thee by experience.
COLUMN II.
1. Wailings thou didst make
2. for Tarzi thy husband,
3. (and yet) year after year with thy cups thou didst poison him.
4. Thou hadst a favorite and beautiful eagle,
5. thou didst strike him (with thy wand) and didst break his wings;
6. then he stood fast in the forest (only) fluttering his wings.
7. Thou hadst a favorite lion full of vigor,
8. thou didst pull out his teeth, seven at a time.
9. Thou hadst a favorite horse, renowned in war,
10. he drank a draught and with fever thou didst poison him!
11. Twice seven hours without ceasing
12. with burning fever and thirst thou didst poison him.
13. His mother, the goddess Silili, with thy cups thou didst poison.
14. Thou didst love the king of the land
15. whom continually thou didst render ill with thy drugs,
16. though every day he offered libations and sacrifices.
17. Thou didst strike him (with thy wand) and didst change him into a
leopard.
18. The people of his own city drove him from it,
19. and his own dogs bit him to pieces!
20. Thou didst love a workman,[101] a rude man of no instruction,
21. who constantly received his daily wages from thee,
22. and every day made bright thy vessels.
23. In thy pot a savory mess thou didst boil for him,
24. saying, Come, my servant and eat with us on the feast day
25. and give thy judgment on the goodness of our pot-herbs.
26. The workman replied to thee,
27. Why dost thou desire to destroy me?
28. Thou art not cooking! I will not eat!
29. For I should eat food bad and accursed,
30. and the thousand unclean things thou hast poisoned it with.
31. Thou didst hear that answer (and wert enraged),
32. Thou didst strike him (with thy wand) and didst change him into a
pillar,
33. and didst place him in the midst of the desert!
34. I have not yet said a crowd of things! many more I have not
added.
35. Lady! thou wouldst love me as thou hast done the others.
36. Ishtar this speech listened to,
37. and Ishtar was enraged and flew up to heaven.
38. Ishtar came into the presence of Anū her father,
39. and into the presence of Annatu, her mother, she came.
40. Oh, my father, Izdūbar has cast insults upon me.”[102]
The student of comparative mythology will recognize in the above legend
the original idea of much of the classic lore of Greece. Izdūbar’s
return, and the throwing off of his disguise, suggest the adventures of
Ulysses as related by Homer, and his return to Ithaca as a beggar.
“Next came Ulysses lowly at the door,
A figure despicable, old and poor;
In squalid vests with many a gaping rent,
Propped on a staff and trembling as he went.”
_Odyssey, Book xvii._
The character of Ishtar as presented in this tablet is apparently a
prototype not only of Hecate, but also of Medea, whose chariot was drawn
by winged serpents, and the cauldron or pot, which Ishtar filled with
her magic herbs, suggests the statement of Ovid that Medea on one
occasion spent no less than nine days and nights in collecting herbs for
her cauldron.[103] The character of Ishtar may also have suggested that
of Circe, who
“Mixed the potion, fraudulent of soul,
The poison mantled in a golden bowl,”
and she loved Ulysses as Ishtar loved Izdūbar, even though she had
transformed all of his companions into swine.
In column II of the tablet under consideration, we find the story of the
king whom Ishtar changed into a leopard, “and his own dogs bit him to
pieces.” No one can doubt that we see here the original of the Greek
fable of Actæon, the hero who offended the goddess Diana, when she
revenged herself by changing him into a deer, and his dogs no longer
knowing their master, fell upon him and tore him to pieces.[104] The
classic authors of Greece and Rome, however, attribute the fate of
Actæon to the vengeance of the strong and graceful Diana, whom he
offended by allowing his eyes to rest upon her rich beauty, while the
tablet ascribes the fate of the king to the wanton cruelty of Ishtar.
Diana is sometimes identified with Hecate, the daughter of Asteria or
Ishtar, and she retains the characteristics of her mother by appearing
as the goddess of the moon. Her temple at Ephesus, with its hundred and
twenty-seven columns of Parian marble, was one of the “Seven Wonders of
the World,” but the hideous idol within it was roughly carved of wood,
not as a beautiful huntress, but as an Egyptian monster, whose deformity
was hidden by a curtain.[105]
The same Diana, however, in the hands of Grecian poets, becomes the
strong and beautiful goddess of the chase, followed by her train of
nymphs in pursuit of flying deer with golden horns.
Assyrian literature has evidently furnished the basis of several stories
which are found in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, besides that of Pyramus and
Thisbe, which, as he expressly states, is a tale of Babylon.
ISHTAR, THE QUEEN OF LOVE AND BEAUTY.
Ishtar of Nineveh, who is identified with Beltis, the wife of Baal,
became the goddess of love, “the divine queen” or “divine lady” of
Kidmūri, which was the name of her temple at Nineveh. She was the
daughter of Sin, the moon-god; indeed, she is sometimes represented as
the full moon, for which reason she is called the goddess Fifteen in
Assyria, because the month consisting of thirty days, the moon was full
on the fifteenth. She is the prototype of Freyja, the weeping goddess of
love among the Northmen, and the Aphrodite of the Greeks—the beautiful
nymph who sprang from the soft foam of the sea, and was received in a
land of flowers, by the gold-filleted Seasons, who clothed her in
garments immortal. Her chariot was drawn by milk-white swans, and her
garlands were of rose and myrtle.
Ishtar of Nineveh appears as the imperious queen of love and beauty, and
was undoubtedly the original of the Latin Venus. Indeed, Anthon says,
“There is none of the Olympians of whom the foreign origin is so
probable as this goddess, and she is generally regarded as being the
same with the Astarte (Ashtaroth) of the Phœnicians.”[106] We find
upon the tablets a beautiful legend concerning her visit to Hades. She
went in search of her husband Tammuz, as Orpheus was afterward
represented as going to recover his wife, when the music from his golden
shell stopped the wheel of Ixion, and made Tantalus forget his thirst.
So also Hermöd, the son of Odin, in the mythology of the Northmen rode
to Hel upon the fleet-footed Sleipnir in order to rescue his brother
Balder.
It was doubtless through the Phœnicians that this legend reached the
Greeks, and was there reproduced in a form almost identical with the
fable of the tablets. Adonis, the sun-god, who was the hero, was killed
by the tusk of a wild boar, even as Tammuz, the sun-god of Assyria, was
slain by the boar’s tusk of winter. Venus, the queen of love and beauty,
was inconsolable at his loss, and at last obtained from Proserpina, the
queen of hades, permission for Adonis to spend every alternate six
months with her upon the earth, while the rest of the time should be
passed in hades. Thus also the Osiris of the Egyptians was supposed to
be dead or absent forty days in each year, during which time the people
lamented his loss, as the Syrians did that of Tammuz, as the Greeks did
that of Adonis, and as also the Northmen mourned for Frey.
Ishtar is represented as going down to the regions of darkness wearing
rings and jewels, with a diadem and girdle set with precious stones, and
this fact would seem to indicate that the ancient city, which afterward
came under the rule of Persian kings, was the home of the idea that
whatever was buried with the dead would go with them to the other shore.
Hence India, for ages, burned the favorite wives, with the dead bodies
of her rajas, while other tribes placed living women in the graves of
their chiefs, and our own Indians provide dogs and weapons for the use
of their braves when they reach the “happy hunting grounds.” We give the
following legend complete, as it is found upon the tablets:
THE DESCENT OF ISHTAR.
COLUMN I.
“1. To the land of Hades, the region of her desire,
2. Ishtar, daughter of the moon-god Sin, turned her mind.
3. And the daughter of Sin fixed her mind (to go there).
4. To the house where all meet, the dwelling of the god Irkalla,
5. to the house men enter but cannot depart from,
6. to the road men go but cannot return,
7. the abode of darkness and famine,
8. where the earth is their food; their nourishment clay;
9. light is not seen; in darkness they dwell;
10. ghosts like birds flutter their wings there,
11. on the door and gate-posts the dust lies undisturbed.
12. When Ishtar arrived at the gate of Hades,
13. to the keeper of the gate she spake:
14. Oh keeper of the entrance! open thy gate!
15. Open thy gate! I say again that I may enter.
16. If thou openest not thy gate and I enter not,
17. I will assault the door; I will break down the gate,
18. I will attack the entrance, I will split open the portals,
19. I will raise the dead to be the devourers of the living!
20. Upon the living the dead shall prey.
21. Then the porter opened his mouth and spake
22. and said to the great Ishtar,
23. Stay, Lady! do not shake down the door.
24. I will go and tell this to Queen Nin-ci-gal.
25. The porter entered and said to Nin-ci-gal
26. These curses thy sister Ishtar (utters)
27. blaspheming thee with great curses.
28. When Nin-ci-gal heard this
29. she grew pale like a flower that is cut off,
30. she trembled like the stem of a reed.
31. I will cure her of her rage, she said, I will cure her fury,
32. these curses will I repay her.
33. Light up consuming flames, light up blazing straw.
34. Let her groan with the husbands who deserted their wives.
35. Let her groan with the wives who from their husband’s sides
departed.
36. Let her groan with the youths who led dishonored lives.
37. Go, porter, open the gate for her,
38. but strip her, like others at other times.
39. The porter went and opened the gate.
40. Enter, Lady of Tiggaba[107] city. It is permitted.
41. The Sovereign of Hades will come to meet thee.
42. The first gate admitted her, and stopped her; there was taken off
the great crown from her head.
43. Keeper! do not take off from me the great crown from my head.
44. Enter, Lady! for the queen of the land demands her jewels.
45. The second gate admitted her and stopped her; there were taken
off the earrings of her ears.
46. Keeper! do not take off from me the earrings of my ears.
47. Enter, Lady! for the queen of the land demands her jewels.
48. The third gate admitted her and stopped her; there were taken off
the precious stones from
her head.
49. Keeper! do not take off from me the precious stones from my head.
50. Enter, Lady! for the queen of the land demands her jewels.
51. The fourth gate admitted her and stopped her; there were taken
off the small lovely gems from her forehead.
52. Keeper! do not take off from me the small lovely gems from my
forehead
53. Enter, Lady! for the queen of the land demands her jewels.
54. The fifth gate admitted her and stopped her; there was taken off
the emerald girdle of her waist.
55. Keeper! do not take off from me the emerald girdle from my waist.
56. Enter, Lady! for the queen of the land demands her jewels.
57. The sixth gate admitted her and stopped her; there was taken off
the golden rings of her hands and feet.
58. Keeper! do not take off from me the golden rings of my hands and
feet.
59. Enter, Lady! for the queen of the land demands her jewels.
60. The seventh gate admitted her and stopped her; there was taken
off the last garment from her body.
61. Keeper! do not take off from me the last garment from my body.
62. Enter, Lady! for the queen of the land demands her jewels.
63. After that mother Ishtar had descended into Hades.
64. Nin-ci-gal saw her and derided her to her face.
65. Ishtar lost her reason and heaped curses upon her.
66. Nin-ci-gal opened her mouth and spake
67. to Namtar, her messenger, a command she gave:
68. Go, Namtar
69. Bring her out for punishment.[108]
COLUMN II.
1. The divine messenger of the gods lacerated his face[109] before
them.
2. He tore his vest (or vestments). Words he spake rapidly;
3. the Sun approached, he joined the Moon, his father.[110]
4. Weeping, they spake thus to Hea the king:
5. Ishtar descended into the earth and she did not rise again.
(Here follow a few lines which are unworthy of repetition, as they very
coarsely describe the pitiable condition of the world when forsaken by
the goddess of love.)
11. Then the god Hea in the depth of his mind laid a plan;
12. he formed for her escape a figure of a man of clay.
13. Go to save her, Phantom! present thyself at the portal of Hades:
14. the seven gates of Hades will open before thee;
15. Nin-ci-gal will see thee and will come to thee.
16. When her mind shall be grown calm and her anger shall be worn off
17. name her with the names of the great gods!
18. Prepare thy frauds! On deceitful tricks fix thy mind!
19. The chiefest deceitful trick! Bring forth fishes of the waters
out of an empty vessel.
20. This thing will astonish Nin-ci-gal,
21. Then to Ishtar she will restore her clothing.
22. A great reward for these things shall not fail.
23. Go save her, Phantom! and the great assembly of the people shall
crown thee!
24. Meats the first in the city shall be thy food.
25. Wine the most delicious in the city shall be thy drink.
26. A royal palace shall be thy dwelling.
27. A throne of state shall be thy seat.
28. Magician and conjurer shall kiss the hem of thy garment.
29. Nin-ci-gal opened her mouth and spake
30. to Namtar her messenger, a command she gave:
31. Go Namtar! clothe the Temple of Justice!
32. Adorn the images and the altars.
33. Bring out Anunnaka.[111] Seat him on a golden throne.
34. Pour out for Ishtar the waters of life and let her depart from my
dominions.
35. Namtar went; and clothed the Temple of Justice;
36. he adorned the images and the altars;
37. he brought out Anunnaka; on a golden throne he seated him;
38. he poured out for Ishtar the waters of life.
39. Then the first gate let her forth, and restored to her the first
garment of her body.
40. The second gate let her forth and restored to her the diamonds of
her hands and feet.
41. The third gate let her forth and restored to her the emerald
girdle of her waist.
42. The fourth gate let her forth and restored to her the small
lovely gems of her forehead.
43. The fifth gate let her forth and restored to her the precious
stones of her head.
44. The sixth gate let her forth and restored to her the earrings of
her ears.
45. The seventh gate let her forth and restored to her the crown of
her head.”[112]
Surely here is poetry—the haughty queen of love and beauty imperiously
demands an entrance into the land of shadows that she may recover her
beloved. She threatens to break down the very gates of hades and raise
the dead to devour the living if her wish is refused. She shrinks at no
sacrifice which her love-lighted mission may cost. A great crown is
taken from her head, but she stays not. Her jewels and precious stones—
her girdle of priceless gems—is taken from her, and still she presses
forward in quest of her love.
But when at last the seven gates of hades have closed upon her luxurious
form, the world misses her joyous presence—the splendor is stolen from
Beauty’s eyes—the crimson touch of life has faded from her lips—the
doves and sun-birds no longer chant their love songs in the crowns of
the palm trees, and the sorrowing night bird trills the plaintive tale
to the closed and weeping roses. Nay, even the sky seems to forget to
light up the couch of the dying sun with draperies of crimson and gold,
and all the world is shrouded in darkness and cold despair. But Hea, in
his ocean home, hears the wail of the gods who mourn the absence of
Ishtar, and he comes to the rescue. The seven gates of hades swing again
upon their hinges, and with crowns and jewels and girdle restored, the
imperial goddess comes forth to resume her sway amid the flowers of a
love-lighted earth.
-----
Footnote 63:
The Chaldean mythology represented by the worship of Baal and
Ashtaroth appears to have been an organized system demanding the
erection of a temple to Merodach, as early as the seventeenth century
B.C., while the earliest songs of the Vedas are ascribed to the period
between 1500 to 1000 B.C. and the greater portion of Hindu mythology
appears only in much later works.
Footnote 64:
Sayce, Rec. of P., Vol. I, pp. 123-130.
Footnote 65:
Assur-bani-pal, king of Assyria, who reigned from 668 to 625 B.C.
Footnote 66:
Hindu Literature, Chaps. ii and iii.
Footnote 67:
Joshua xix, 38.
Footnote 68:
There is an Assyrian bas-relief now in the British Museum which
represents Tīamat with horns and claws, tail and wings.
Footnote 69:
Eridu—the Rata of Ptolemy, was near the junction of the Euphrates and
Tigris, on the Arabian side of the river. It was one of the oldest
cities of Chaldea.
Footnote 70:
Cun. Ins. West Asia, Vol. IV, plate 15. Records of the Past.
Footnote 71:
This is one of the numerous bilingual texts, written in the original
Accadian, with an interlinear Assyrian translation, which have been
brought from the library of Assur-bani-pal at Nineveh.
Footnote 72:
Rimmon-Nirari III. Records of Past, Vol. IV, p. 88.
Footnote 73:
Ins. of Shalmanesar II. Records of P., Vol. IV, p. 66.
Footnote 74:
It is thought that the worship of Hea or Ea may have been a corruption
of the worship of the God of Abraham, as Ea is another form of El, and
the early followers of Ea were evidently monotheists.
Mr. Hormuzd Rassam, the eminent archæologist, who is a native of
Assyria, claims that the early Assyrians worshipped the true God, but
under peculiar names and attributes, and that instead of practicing
the revolting sacrifices which were made by other gentile nations
“they imitated the sacrifices of the Jewish rites.” He bases his proof
largely upon his discovery of the bronze gate of Shalmanesar II, with
its sculptured presentation of the sacrifice of rams and bullocks, and
he says that “the same king, Shalmanesar, took tribute from Jehu, king
of Israel, as an act of homage.”
Trans. Vic. Ins., Vol. XIII, pp. 190 and 214, also Vol. XXV, pp. 121.
Footnote 75:
This tablet is almost three inches long and two inches wide. It weighs
about three drams (Troy). The inscription was translated by Dr.
Oppert.
Footnote 76:
These inscriptions contain an account of a lunar eclipse mentioned by
Ptolemy, which took place March 19th, 721 B.C. Sargon II probably
ascended the throne about the year 722 B.C.
Footnote 77:
The fact that the “men of Cuth” worshipped Nergal is confirmed by 2
Kings xvii, 30.
Footnote 78:
An allusion to the destruction of the image of Merodach is found in
Jeremiah: “Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in
pieces. Her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces.”
(Jeremiah 1, 2.)
Footnote 79:
4th Col., lines 1-6.
Footnote 80:
Col. 10.
Footnote 81:
This portion of Nebuchadnezzar’s inscription is confirmed by the
following statement in the book of Daniel: “And the Lord gave the King
of Judah into his (Nebuchadnezzar’s) hand with part of the vessels of
the house of God, which he carried into the land of Shinar to the
house of his god.“ (Daniel i, 2.)
Footnote 82:
Col. 3. lines 43-45.
Footnote 83:
Nebo is alluded to as one of the heathen gods in Isaiah xlvi, 1, and
kindred passages.
Footnote 84:
Compare Judges xvi, 23; also 1 Samuel v.
Footnote 85:
Tablets of Tel-El-Armana, “Dispatches from Palestine in the century
before the Exodus,” Rec. of P. Vol. I, p. 64.
Footnote 86:
Babylonian Literature, p. 64.
Footnote 87:
Compare Lev. xx, 2; Deut. xii, 31, and kindred passages.
Footnote 88:
The Moabite stone was about three feet and nine inches long, two feet
and four inches in breadth and fourteen inches thick. The inscription
contained many incidents concerning the wars of King Mesha with
Israel; see also 2 Kings, 3d chap. The literature connected with this
stone is very great, no less than forty-nine Orientalists having
written in various languages upon this fascinating theme, and although
many of these productions are merely papers or brochures, there are at
least eight different volumes upon this subject.
The characters are Phœnician, and form a link between those of the
Baal-Lebanon inscription of the tenth century B.C. and those of the
Siloam text.
Footnote 89:
Chemosh, who is called “the abomination of the Moabites,” is alluded
to in Numb. xxi, 29; also Jer. xlviii, 7, and various other passages.
Footnote 90:
Tablet K 4902 of the British Museum Collection, translated by Ernest
A. Budge.
Footnote 91:
“They have builded also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons
with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal,” etc. (Jeremiah xix. 5. See
also many kindred passages.)
Footnote 92:
This inscription was translated by Dr. Oppert, and Esmunazar is
supposed to have lived in the fourth century B.C.
Footnote 93:
2 Kings xvii. 16, and kindred passages.
Footnote 94:
Western Asia Inscriptions, Vol. IV. p. 32.
Footnote 95:
The prophet Ezekiel speaks of the fact that “there sat women weeping
for Tammuz,” as even a “greater abomination” than burning incense to
idols. (See Ezekiel viii, 13-14.)
Footnote 96:
The worship of Ashtaroth, which represented the grossest
licentiousness and demanded human sacrifices, is strongly condemned in
Judges ii, 12-13, and many other passages.
Footnote 97:
Annals of Assur-bani-pal, Cylinder B, Column 5.
Footnote 98:
Pliny, Nat. Hist., Vol. II, p. 619.
Footnote 99:
Pausanius, III, 25.
Footnote 100:
Literally “blue stone;” it was a brilliant dark blue.
Footnote 101:
The eagle, the lion, the horse, the king and the workman are supposed
to represent the numerous bridegrooms of this treacherous goddess.
Footnote 102:
Inscriptions Western Asia, Vol. IV, p. 48, published by the British
Museum, and translated by H. Fox Talbot, F.R. S.
Footnote 103:
Ovid’s Metamorphoses, VII, 234.
Footnote 104:
The great celebrity of this fable is well illustrated by the fact that
Ovid in his Metamorphoses (III, 206), has preserved the individual
names of all the dogs, thirty-five in number.
Footnote 105:
“Ye men of Ephesus, what man is there that knoweth not how that the
city of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the great goddess Diana, and
of the image which fell down from Jupiter?” (Acts xix, 35.) This
question of the town clerk is strangely illustrated by an inscription
found by Chandler near the aqueduct at Ephesus, which states that “It
is notorious that not only among the Ephesians, but also everywhere
among the Greek nations, temples are consecrated to her,” etc.
Footnote 106:
Anthon’s Class. Dict.
Footnote 107:
A principal seat of Ishtar’s worship.
Footnote 108:
The end of this line, and all the remaining lines of Column I, are
lost, but some mutilated fragments indicate that Namtar is commanded
to afflict Ishtar with dire diseases of the eyes, the feet, the heart,
the head, etc.
Footnote 109:
A sign of violent grief in the East, forbidden in Deut. xiv, 1; also
Lev. xix, 28.
Footnote 110:
Nabonidus says in his inscription (Col. II, 17) Oh, sun, protect this
temple, together with the moon, thy father.
Footnote 111:
A genius often mentioned, who here acts the part of a judge,
pronouncing the absolution of Ishtar.
Footnote 112:
Tablet K, 162, British Museum, translated by H. Fox Talbot, F.R. S.
Records of the Past, Vol. I, 1st Series.