Mesopotamian Myths and Epics

Analecta Gorgiana

144

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Mesopotamian Myths and Epics

Religion of Babylonia and Assyria

Robert William Rogers

1
gorgias press
2009
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 LECTURE V
THE MYTHS AND EPICS

THE gods of the Babylonians are known to

us not only in the great hymns of praise which
were sung to their mighty names, or in incanta-
tions wherein they were besought to drive out
evil demons and restore the boon of good health;
they are known even more in that immense
mythology, of which we already possess so
much that several lectures ought to be given
to it. Moving as some of the hymns surely are,
they nevertheless have little of the human in-
terest which belongs to the story. All the
world loves the story-teller, and these stories
in which gods and demons and men walk and
talk together possess even to this day a fascina-
tion all their own. We cannot, indeed, use
them as sources for the reconstruction of the
theological system, for they have all been sub-
ject to change, the story itself running away
from the speculations among which it took its
rise. We cannot distinguish the part that is
original from that which the author or his
school added to it. The old ideas may still be
in hiding beneath the literary color, or they
may all have been explained away by the
mediating tendencies of a later age.
185

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186 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA

But however useless as sources of theology,

there can be no doubt of their interest to all
students of religion, and especially to all stu-
dents of the Old Testament, for it is easy to
see that some of them, at least, have flowed
over their natural boundaries and found new
channels amid the kindred people of Israel.
For the most part the Babylonian poems of
mythical character have a god or hero about
whom the little story revolves; when this cen-
tral figure is surrounded by other gods or
heroes whose deeds or adventures move around
him, or interweave with his, the poem has be-
come an epic.
Many of the short stories and some of the
larger epics have come down to us, but they
apparently form only a small portion of the
great literature that once existed. A cata-
logue of such works was found in the library
of Ashurbanipal, on which we find the titles
of several which have been recovered in mod-
ern times, such as, "The Story of Gilgames,"
"The Story of Etana," "The Story of the Fox,"
"The Story of the Ox and of the Horse," the
royal legend of "Sargon the powerful king," all
of which are more or less known to us. But in
the same list we read of "The powerful Bull,"
"When the Euphrates arose," "Adapa came to
[Nippur?]," "When Marduk in Sumer and
Akkad," none of which have come down to us
even in fragments.

[2]
 THE MYTHS AND EPICS 187

The largest part of the myths and epics

which have been preserved for us came from
the library of Ashurbanipal, and the originals
from which they were copied have not yet
been found. There is always the hope that
they may yet be recovered when the numerous
city mounds in Babylonia are excavated. It
would be interesting to have the originals for
comparison, in order to see how far they may
have been changed in the process of editing and
copying.
Among the Tell-el-Amarna tablets, about
1400 B.C., we have recovered portions of the
story of Nerigal and Ereshkigal1 and the chief
portions of the Adapa story. From the period
of the first Babylonian dynasty, about 2000
B.C., we have recovered portions of the Atrak-
hasis myth, the Gilgames epic, and the deluge
story. But all the epics and myths which be-
long to the Ashurbanipal library may, with
reasonable certainty, be traced back in their
origin to that same wonderful period of intel-
lectual and political development, distinguished
for us chiefly by the great name of Hammurabi.
1
T h e v e r y f r a g m e n t a r y t e x t is published b y Bezold a n d Budge, The
Tell-el-Amarna Tablets in the British Museum (London, 1892), p l a t e 17;
compare Bezold in Oriental Diplomacy, No. 82. Winckler a n d Abel, Der
Thontafelfund von el Amarna (Berlin, 1889, 1890), pp. 164ff.; c o m p a r e
K n u d t z o n , Beiträge zur Assyriologie, iv, pp. 130ff. I t is t r a n s l a t e d b y
Jensen, Keüinschriftliche Bibliothek, vi, 1, pp. 74fT. Compare also Zim-
mern, Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament, 3 t e Auf., p. 583f. I t
will a p p e a r again in a revised t r a n s l i t e r a t i o n and t r a n s l a t i o n b y K n u d t -
zon, Die El-Amarna Tafeln (Vorderasiatische Bibliothek) No. 357, b u t it
h a s not yet been published (Oct., 1908).

[3]
188 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA

And now how shall we choose from these rich

storehouses of myth and story, too numerous
to quote in full, too many even to tell in outline?
Let us begin with the story of Adapa: 1
He possessed intelligence
His command, like the command of Anu, stands for aye.
E a granted him also a wide ear 2 to reveal the destiny of
the land,
H e granted him wisdom, b u t he did not grant him eternal
life.

This semi-divine being Adapa, son of Ea, serves

in Ea's temple at Eridu, supplying the ritual
bread and water. One day, while fishing in the
sea, the south wind swept sharply upon him,
overturned his boat, and he fell into the sea,
the "house of the fishes." Angered by his mis-
fortune, he broke the wings of the south wind,
and for seven days it was unable to bring the
comfort of the sea coolness over the hot land.
And Anu said:
" W h y has the south wind for seven days not blown over
the land?"
His messenger Ilabrat answered him: "My lord,
Adapa, the son of Ea, h a t h broken the wing of
The south wind."
1
T h e chief portions, in a f r a g m e n t a r y condition, come f r o m t h e Tell-el-
A m a r n a collection. Jensen, Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek, vi, 1, pp. 92ff.;
see also in Vorwort, pp. xviif. Translation a n d also t h e original t e x t s in
Sclieil, Recueil, xx, pp. 4ff. Zimmern in Archiv für Religionswissenschaft,
ii, 165ff. Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament, 3 t e Auf., p. 520ff. Jere-
mias in Roscher, Lexicon, iii, 2357, a n d also in Das Alte Testament im
Lichte des alten Orients, 2te Auf., p. 168. Dhorme, Choix de Textes
Religieux Assyro-Bahyloniens, pp. 148ff.
2 " A wide e a r " is a f r e q u e n t m e t a p h o r for " u n d e r s t a n d i n g . "

[4]
 THE MYTHS AND EPICS 189

Then Anu ordered the culprit brought before

him, and before he departed to this ordeal Ea
gave him instructions. He is to go up to the
gatekeepers of heaven, Tammuz and Gish-zida,
clad in mourning garb to excite their sym-
pathy. When they ask why he is thus attired
he is to tell them that his mourning is for two
gods of earth who have disappeared (that is,
themselves), and then they will intercede for
him. Furthermore, he is cautioned not to eat
the food or drink the water that will be set
before him, for Ea fears that food and water of
death will be set before him to destroy him.
But exactly the opposite happened. Tammuz
and Gish-zida prevailed in pleading, and Anu
said:
"Bring for him food of life that he may eat it." They
brought him food of life, but he did not eat—They
brought him water of life, but he did not drink. They
brought him a garment; he put it on. They brought him
oil; he anointed himself with it.

Adapa had obeyed Ea literally, and by so

doing had missed the priceless boon of immor-
tality.
For us the beautiful myth is interesting as
showing how similar are certain ideas and
motives in the literatures of Israel and Baby-
lonia. There is, indeed, no relationship be-
tween the name Adapa and the name Adam,
as has been supposed by some, but Adapa
served as a type of mankind, as does Adam,

[5]
190 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA

and the "food of life" seems to belong to the

same category as the "tree of life" in Genesis.
In Babylonia there appears to have been a doc-
trine that man, though of divine origin, made
of Marduk's own bone and blood, nevertheless
did not share in the divine attribute of immor-
tality. Adam lost immortality because he de-
sired to become like God; Adapa, on the other
hand, was already endowed with knowledge and
wisdom, and failed of immortality not because
he was disobedient, like Adam, but because he
was obedient to Ea, his creator. The legend is
the Babylonian attempt to explain death;
Adapa did not secure immortality, and no
mortal has ever again had the opportunity to
attain it. Adam was banished from the garden
of Eden "lest he should put forth his hand, and
take of the tree of life, and eat, and live for-
ever," 1 while in the Babylonian myth Anu
really desired to confer immortality upon Adapa
because he thought it not fitting that he should
have the wisdom of the gods and yet fail of
their immortality. As Sayce has well said,
"Babylonian polytheism allowed the existence
of divided counsels among the gods; the mono-
theism of Israel made this impossible. There
was no second Jahweh to act in contradiction
to the first; Jahweh was at once the creator of
man and the God of heaven, and there was
none to dispute his will. There is no room for
1
Gen. 3. 22.

[6]
FIGURE X V . — T H E D E S C E N T OF I S H T A R TO HADES
Assyrian Clay T a b l e t in t h e B r i t i s h Museum
Size of t h e original, 9 1 b y 3 | i n c h e s
OBVERSE

[8]
 THE MYTHS AND EPICS 191

Anu in the book of Genesis; and as Ea, the

creator of Adapa, was unwilling that the man
he had created should become an immortal god,
so Jahweh, the creator of Adam, similarly
denied to him the food of immortal life."1
If the myth of Adapa is interesting in the
story itself, and also in its revelation of the
Babylonian ideas of the immortal life, the
story of Ishtar's descent into the abode of the
dead is still more illuminating as revealing the
popular ideas as well as the theological concep-
tions of the abode of the dead. The story is so
important in so many ways that we shall do
well to have it before us in translation instead
of in mere paraphrase2:
To the land of No-return, the earth
Ishtar, the daughter of Sin, directed her thought, 3
The daughter of Sin directed her thought,
To the house of darkness, Irkalla's dwelling place,
5 To the house from which he who enters never returns,
To the road whose path turns not back,
To the house where he who enters is deprived of
light,
Where dust is their sustenance, their food clay,
Light they see not, in darkness do they sit,

1 Sayce, The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia, p. 3SS.

2 The original text is in I V R., 2d edition, 31, and in Cuneifm-m Texts,
xv, pi. 45—18. A. Jeremias, in Roscher, Lexicon der Griechischen und
Römischen Mythologie, iii, 1, col. 25Sff.; also by the same, Hölle und
Paradies, Der Alte Orient, i, 3te Aufl. Jensen, Keilinschriftliche Bib-
liothek, vi, 1. pp. 80ff. Zimmern, Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testa-
ment, 3te Aufl., pp. 561fT. Dhorme, Choix de Textes Religieux Assyro-
Babyloniens, pp. 326fT.
' Literally, placed her ear.

[9]
192 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA

10 They are clothed like a bird, with wings as a covering,

Over door and bolt is spread the dust.
Ishtar, when she came to the door of land of No-
return,
Addressed the word to the porter of the door:
"O porter, open the door,
15 Open the door that I may enter.
If thou dost not open the door, and I enter not,
I will shatter the door, I will break the bolt,
I will shatter the threshold, I will tear down the
doors,
I will bring up the dead that they may eat and live,
20 The dead more numerous than the living shall return."
The porter opened his mouth and spake,
He spake to the great Ishtar:
"Patience, my lady, do not destroy,
I will go, I will announce thy name to my sovereign,
Ereshkigal."
25 The porter went within, he spake to Ereshkigal:
" I t is thy sister Ishtar
The enmity of the great houses of joy "
When Ereshkigal heard t h a t
As when one cuts down the tamarisk,
30 As when one breaks the reed . . . . she said:
"What does her heart wish of me? Why has her
wind borne her to me?
These waters have I with
For food I eat the clay, for drink will I drink . . . .
I will weep for the men who have left their wives,
35 I will weep for the women torn from their master's
bosom,
I will weep for the little children snatched away
before their day.
Go, porter, open the gate,
Do unto her according to the ancient custom."
The porter went and opened for her his gate:

[10]
 T H E MYTHS AND EPICS 193

40 "Enter, my lady, Cutha1 greets thee.

May the palace of the land of No-return be glad at
thy presence."

As she passes through the seven gates of this

lower world the various articles of her clothing
are taken away. At the first gate her crown is
removed, at the next her earrings, at the third
her necklace, then her breastplate, then her
studded girdle, at the sixth her hand and foot
ornaments, and at the seventh her loincloth, so
that she enters the presence of Ereshkigal quite
nude. There no mercy was shown her; she
was afflicted with sixty diseases, and was im-
prisoned like the ordinary dead. While thus in
bondage beneath, the world above fell into
hopeless disorder, neither cattle nor men pro-
duced offspring, and the fertility of the land
ceased.
REVERSE :
Pap-sukal, the messenger of the great gods, with
countenance downcast before Shamash,
Was clad in sackcloth, he wore a dark vestment.
Shamash came into the presence of Sin, his father,
weeping,
In the presence of Ea, the king, his tears ran down.
5 "Ishtar has gone down into the earth, and she has
not returned."

Ea created Asushunamir, and before him the

gates of Hades opened, he sprinkled Ishtar with
1 An important city of southern Babylonia, the seat of the worship of

Nergal, and hence a poetical designation of the lower world.

[11]
194 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA

the water of life, and then she returned to the

upper world, receiving at each gate upon her
return the objects of adornment which she had
left upon her entrance. It is a rather gloomy
future life that the poem reveals, but we shall
do well to heed the caution, already expressed,
that these myths are not to be taken as theo-
logical sources. The view of the abode of the
dead, as held by intelligent Babylonians, may
have been very different, even at the same time
that this interesting and beautiful poem was
most highly esteemed.
The greatest of all the stories of Babylonia is
the story of Gilgames,1 for in it the greatest of
the myths seem to pour into one great stream
of epic. It was written upon twelve big tablets
in the library of Ashurbanipal, which have un-
fortunately been much broken in the crash of
time. It was copied from older tablets, and,
like most of the best mythological literature,
goes back to the earliest dynasty of Babylon.
The first tablet introduces Gilgames as the
great hero with a number of mighty deeds to
1
T h e original t e x t of t h e Gilgames E p i c is published in H a u p t , Das
Babylonische Nimrod-Epos. C o m p a r e also Beiträge zur Assyriologie, i,
49ff., 97ff. See also I V R., 2d edition, 41-44. Jeremias, Izdubar-Nimrod,
eine altbabylonische Beschwörungslegende. Leipzig, 1891. Sauveplane,
Une Épopée babylonienne, in Revue des Religions, 1892, p p . 37ff. Jensen,
Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek, vi, 1, pp. 116ff. a n d 421ff. D h o r m e , Choix
de Textes Religieux Assyro-Bàbylonienne, p p . 182fï. O n t h e eleventh
t a b l e t t h e l i t e r a t u r e is e x t e n s i v e ; I m e n t i o n here only t h e following,
f r o m which t h e rest of t h e l i t e r a t u r e m a y b e s o u g h t o u t : Z i m m e r n in
Gunkel, Schöpfung und Chaos, pp. 423ff. ; Winckler, Keilinschriftliches
Textbuch zum Alten Testament, 2 t e Auf., pp. 84fif.

[12]
FIGURE XVI.—THE DESCENT OF ISHTAR TO HADES
REVERSE

[13]
 THE MYTHS AND EPICS 195

his honor. In Uruk he is the ruler, and im-

presses all the young men into the hard labor
of building the city walls. The whole city
complains, and their cries rise even unto the
heavenly gods, against their unpopular king.
They besought the goddess Aruru, who had
created Gilgames, to create a rival for him,
that he might draw the attention of the tyrant
to other things.
COLUMN I I :
When Aruru heard this, she made in her heart a man
after the likeness of Anu.
Aruru washed her hands, took a piece of clay, and
cast it on the ground.
35 Eabani she created, the hero, a lofty offspring, a
ruler of Ninib.
His whole body is covered with hair; he had long
hair on his head like a woman.
The hair of his head swept like the grain.
He knew not people and land. He was dressed in
garments like Gir. With the gazelles he ate
the herbs,
40 He quenched his thirst with the beasts,
With the beasts his heart rejoiced in the water.

In this free life among the beasts Eabani came

in conflict with a huntsman, who complained to
his father and then to Gilgames. On the advice
of these two the hunter took with him a maiden
whose charms enchained Eabani and induced
him to follow her to Uruk. There he met Gil-
games, and the first tablet concludes with the
beginning of friendship between them.

[15]
196 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA

The beginning of the second tablet is so badly

broken that fifty lines are wanting. From
some fragments we are able to make out that
Gilgames was unhappy because he could see
that Eabani was yearning for the wide field
and the friendly beasts, and was cursing the
harlot that had enticed him away from them.
But the sun god Shamash called to him out of
heaven that she had brought him only to good,
to divine food and royal drink and festival garb,
and to Gilgames who would give him the highest
place in Uruk by himself. Then a terrible
dream comes to Eabani, a dream which be-
tokens his own speedy death. The nether
world appears before him as a land of darkness
and gloom, as it did in the story of Ishtar which
we have just been reading. The tablet con-
cludes with an account of a journey which Gil-
games and Eabani are to undertake. In the
third tablet, which has also come down in a
badly broken condition, Gilgames seeks bless-
ings on the journey to the cedar mountain in
the east, where Khumbaba is the warder. In
the fourth tablet Khumbaba is described; and his
fearful voice so terrifies Eabani that Gilgames
must reassure him before he will take up the
journey again. In the fifth tablet we read
how Gilgames and Eabani came at last to the
great cedar mountain. There they stood, filled
with wonder at the high cedar tree of which
Khumbaba was the warder. The cedar moun-

[16]
 THE MYTHS AND EPICS 197
tain is the home of the gods, and above all of
Ishtar. There again did Eabani dream, and
Gilgames interpreted his dreams as of good
augury for their contest with Khumbaba. At
the end of the tablet their victory over the
keeper of the forest is told. In tablet six we
reach a climax in the story. Ishtar is overcome
with love for the hero, so strong in his beauty,
and appeals to him to become her husband.
He spurns her advances, and reminds her that
it had fared ill with her former husbands, who
were dead, and a like fate he fears for himself
if he should accept her offer of marriage. Ishtar
is filled with rage and chagrin, and mounting up
to heaven appears before Anu and Antum, be-
seeching the great god to create a heaven-bull
who shall destroy Gilgames. But the bull goes
down to destruction before the two heroes, and
Gilgames and Eabani return to Erech to be
received by the inhabitants in a burst of joyous
acclaim.
Who is beautiful among men?
Who is glorious among heroes?
Gilgames is beautiful among men,
Gilgames is glorious among heroes.

Gilgames makes a feast in his palace, but when

men lie down to sweet sleep Eabani again sees
a vision in his sleep. In the seventh tablet, of
which only a small portion remains, we hear of
a sore illness of Eabani, which is described
further in the eighth tablet, and then comes his

[17]
198 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA

death, and the terrible lament of Gilgames. In

the ninth tablet Gilgames laments his friend
and goes away into the wilderness, fearful lest
a similar fate befall himself, and anxious to find
his ancestor Ut-napishtim, who had long since
been carried away to the life beyond. The
journey lies over mountains, perhaps the Leb-
anon and Anti-Lebanon range, where scorpion-
men bar the way. At first the scorpion-man
advises against the mad enterprise, but at
length encourages him to go on. Over the
mountains he makes his way, and at length
comes out to a park of the gods, which seems
to have been situated on the side of the Medi-
terranean Sea on the Phoenician coast. There
he finds the goddess Siduri-Sabitu, seated upon
the throne of the sea, and threatens to break
down her barred doors if she does not admit
him. Once admitted, the goddess inquires why
he looks so distraught, and why he has wan-
dered so far. He tells her the story of Eabani's
great deeds, and of his death, and of how he,
fearing that he also would so die and never
rise again, had set out upon this journey. He
asks her the way to Ut-napishtim, and how he
could go. She warns him that the way thither
leads over the great sea of death, a journey that
none but Shamash, the sun god, may make;
but at last tells him of the sailor of Ut-napish-
tim, who may perhaps be induced to help him
over the sea thither. The sailor takes him on

[18]
[20]
 THE MYTHS AND EPICS 199

the journey, and after three days they surprise

Ut-napishtim, who asks the same questions as
Sabitu concerning his appearance and his
journey, which are answered by Gilgames with
the same account of Eabani. After this there
comes a most unfortunate break in the tablet,
and then its concluding lines. The eleventh
tablet begins with a continuation of the dia-
logue between Ut-napishtim and Gilgames, and
soon we are swept out into the great story of
the deluge:
Gilgames said to him, to Ut-napishtim, the far-away:
"I consider thee, O Ut-napishtim,
Thy appearance is not changed, thou art like me,
Thou art not different, thou art like me.
5 Thy heart is in perfect state, to make a combat,
Thou dost lie down upon thy side, and upon thy
back.
Tell me, how hast thou been exalted, and amid the
assembly of the gods hast found life?"
Ut-napishtim spoke to him, to Gilgames:
"I will reveal to thee, O Gilgames, the hidden word,
10 And the decision of the gods will I announce to thee."

And now beigns the story of the flood, noblest

and most beautiful of all the stories which this
gifted people have written:
Shurippak, a city which thou knowest,
Which lies on the bank of the Euphrates.
That city was very old, and the heart of the gods
Within it drove them to send a flood, the great gods;
15 There were their father Anu,
Their counselor the warrior Bel,

[21]
200 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA

Their messenger Ninib,

Their director Ennugi.
The lord of wisdom, Ea, counseled with them
20 And repeated their word to the reed-hut:
" 0 reed-hut, reed-hut, O wall, wall,
0 reed-hut, hearken, 0 wall, attend!"

These rather curious and difficult lines seem to

mean that the house of Ut-napishtim is ad-
dressed directly by the god Ea, and then the
man himself. This is an interesting variant
from the later statement in the same poem (see
line 196) that a dream was the means of com-
munication. Berosus also says that Kronos
appeared to him in sleep and revealed the
deluge. And now comes the direct address to
him:
"O man of Shurippak, son of Ubaratutu,
Pull down thy house, build a ship,
25 Leave thy possessions, take thought for thy life,
Thy property abandon, save thy life,
Bring living seed of every kind into the ship.
The ship that thou shalt build,
So shall be the measure of its dimensions,
30 Thus shall correspond its breadth and height,
Into the ocean let it fare."
1 understood it, and spake to Ea, my lord,
" , my lord, as thou hast commanded
I will observe, and will execute it.
35 But what shall I say to the city, the people and the
elders?"
Ea opened his mouth and spake,
He said unto me his servant,
"Thou shalt so say unto them,
'Because Bel hates me,

[22]
 THE MYTHS AND EPICS 201

40 No longer may I dwell in your city, nor remain on

Bel's earth.
Into the ocean must I fare, with Ea, my lord, to
dwell.' "
The god who is here represented as causing
the flood is the older Bel, whose name was E M ,
the god of Nippur; but the story as it has come
down to us is a later recension in which other
gods, notably Adad, who belongs to a later
theological development, have been introduced.
Professor Jastrow is clearly right in seeing the
evidences of two separate versions combined
into one. In one of these Shurippak was the
object of the god's anger, in the other the flood
was universal; in one probably Ellil alone
caused the flood, in the other a council of the
gods was called to decide the matter. The
latter part of the first tablet is badly broken,
and is also comparatively unimportant for the
main story. I begin the translation again with
the second tablet, which describes the building
of the ship:
120 cubits high were its sides,
140 cubits reached the edge of its roof,
60 I traced its hull, I designed it
I built it in six stories,
I divided it in seven parts.
Its interior I divided into nine parts.
I strengthened it within against the water.
65 I prepared a rudder, and laid down the tackle.
Three sars of bitumen I poured over the outside (?),
Three sars of bitumen I poured over the inside,

[23]
202 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA

Three sars of oil the stevedores brought up.

Besides a sar of oil which men use as a libation,
70 The shipbuilder used two sars of oil.
For the people I slaughtered a bullock,
I slew lambs daily.
Of must, beer, oil, and wine
I gave the people to drink like water from the river.
75 A festival I made, like the days of the feast of Aqitu. 1

81 With all that I had I filled it (the ship).

With all that I had of silver I filled it.
With all that I had of gold I filled it.
With all that I had of living things I filled it.
85 I brought up into the ship my family and household,
The cattle of the field, the beasts of the field, crafts-
men all of them I brought in.
A fixed time had Shamash appointed, (saying,)
"When the ruler of darkness sends a heavy rain,
Then enter into the ship and close the door."
90 The appointed time came near,
The rulers of the kukku in the evening sent heavy
rain.
The dawning of that day I feared,
I feared to behold that day.
I entered the ship and closed the door.
95 To the ship's master, to Puzur-Bel, the sailor,
I intrusted the building with its goods.
When the first flush of dawn appeared
There came up from the horizon a black cloud.
Adad thundered within it,
100 While Nabu and Marduk went before.
They go as messengers over mountain and valley.
Nergal bore away the anchor.
Ninib advances, the storm he makes to descend.
The Anunnaki lifted up their torches,
1
Aqitu, the New Year's Feast.

[24]
[25]
 THE MYTHS AND EPICS 203

105 With their brightness they light up the land.

Adad's storm reached unto heaven,
All light was turned unto darkness,
I t [flooded] the land like
the storm
110 Raged high, [the water climbed over] the mountains,
Like a besom of destruction they brought it upon men,
No man beheld his fellow,
No more were men recognized in heaven.
The gods feared the deluge,
115 They drew back, they climbed up to the heaven of
Anu.
The gods crouched like a dog, they cowered by the
wall.
Ishtar cried like a woman in travail,
The queen of the gods cried with a loud voice:
"The former race is turned to clay,
120 Since I commanded evil in the assembly of the gods.
When I commanded evil in the assembly of the gods,
For the destruction of my people I commanded a
combat.
That which I brought forth, where is it?
Like the spawn of fish it fills the sea."
125 The gods of the Anunnaki wept with her,
The gods sat bowed and weeping,
Covered were their lips.
Six days and nights
Blew the wind, the deluge and the tempest over-
whelmed the land.
130 When the seventh day drew nigh, the tempest ceased;
the deluge,
Which had fought like an army, ended.
Then rested the sea, the storm fell asleep, the flood
ceased.
I looked upon the sea, while I sent forth my wail.
All mankind was turned to clay.

[27]
204 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA

135 Like a swamp the field lay before me.1

I opened the window and the light fell upon my face,
I bowed, I sat down, I wept,
And over my face ran my tears.
I looked upon the world, all was sea.
140 After twelve days(?) 2 the land emerged.
To the land of Nisir the ship made its way,
The mount of Nisir held it fast, that it moved not.
One day, a second day did the mount of Nisir hold it.
A third day, a fourth day did the mount of Nisir
hold it.
145 A fifth day, a sixth day did the mount of Nisir hold it.
When the seventh day approached
I sent forth a dove and let her go.
The dove flew to and fro,
But there was no resting place and she returned.
150 I sent forth a swallow and let her go,
The swallow flew to and fro,
But there was no resting place and she returned.
I sent forth a raven and let her go,
The raven flew away, she saw the abatement of the
waters,
155 She drew near, she waded(?), she croaked, and came
not back.
Then I sent everything forth to the four quarters of
heaven, I offered sacrifice,
I made a libation upon the mountain's peak.

1
T h e line is a t present, a t least, hopelessly difficult a n d d o u b t f u l .
T h e t r a n s l a t i o n s offered diverge widely, of which t h e s e m a y serve a s
specimens:
Sowie das Tageslicht h e r a n g e k o m m e n war, b e t e t e ich. (Jensen.)
Wie uri b r e i t e t e sich a u s v o r m i r d a s Gefild. (Winckler, Jeremias.)
J u s q u ' a u x t o i t s a t t e i g n a i t le marais. (Dhorme.)
Like t h e s u r r o u n d i n g field h a d become t h e bed of t h e rivers. (Muss-
Arnolt.)
I n place of fields t h e r e lay before m e a s w a m p . (King.)
2
V e r y d o u b t f u l . M a n y solutions h a v e been proposed. T w e l v e double
hours(?) (Jeremias).

[28]
FIGURE X I X — T H E STORY OF T H E DELUGE
Assyrian Clay T a b l e t in t h e B r i t i s h M u s e u m
Size of t h e original, 51- b y 5[ inches
OBVERSE
A d u p l i c a t e of Figures X V I I a n d X V I I I

[29]
 THE MYTHS AND EPICS 205

By sevens I set out the sacrificial vessels,

Beneath them I heaped up reed and cedar wood and
myrtle.
160 The gods smelt the savor,
The gods smelt the sweet savor,
The gods gathered like flies over the sacrificer.
When at last the Lady of the gods drew near
She raised the rich jewels, which Anu, according to
her wish, had made.
165 "These days, by the jewels about my neck, I shall
not forget.
Upon these days shall I think, I shall never forget
them.1
Let the gods come to the offering,
But let Bel come not to the offering,
For he took not counsel, and sent the deluge,
170 And my people he gave to destruction."
When at last Bel drew near
He saw the ship; then was Bel wroth,
He was filled with anger against the gods of the
Igigi:
"Who then has escaped with life?
175 No man must live in the destruction!"
Then Ninib opened his mouth and spake,
He said to the warrior Bel:
"Who but Ea created things,
And Ea knoweth every matter."
180 Ea opened his mouth, and spake,
He spake to the warrior Bel:
"Thou spokesman among the gods, warrior Bel,
Because thou wert ill-advised, didst thou send a
flood.
On the sinner lay his sin,

i In the Genesis narrative it is the rainbow, which is to remind God of

his covenant that he should not destroy the earth again by a flood (Gen.
9. 8 - 1 7 ) . In the Babylonian story Ishtar's jewels fulfill this function.

[31]
 206 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA

185 On the transgressor lay his transgression.

Forbear, let not all be destroyed, let not the inno-
c e n t ^ ) be . . .
Why hast thou sent a deluge?
Had a lion come and mankind lessened!
Why hast thou sent a deluge?
190 Had a leopard come and mankind lessened!
Why hast thou sent a deluge?
Had a famine come and the land [destroyed!]
Why hast thou sent a deluge?
Had Nergal come and mankind [slain!]
195 I have not divulged the decision of the great gods.
I made Atrakhasis 1 see a dream, and so he heard the
god's decision."

This last passage contains a most interesting

indication of the differences between the gods
of the Babylonian pantheon. Here is Ea up-
braiding Bel for bringing on the flood. He
thinks that he might have punished sinners by
a lion, by a leopard, by a famine, and not have
brought such desolation upon the whole human
family. But for Ea's intervention even the
good Ut-napishtim might also have perished.
It was he alone who saved him by giving a
warning. Bel is moved by the reproof, as we
shall now see:

i Atrakhasis means " t h e very clever" (der Erzgescheite, Jeremias). I t

is here a sort of surname of Ut-napishtim. There are, however some
small texts, for example, British Museum DT, 42 (see Jeremias, Das Alte
Testament im IÄchte des Alten Orients, 2te Auf., p. 233; Winckler,
Keüin-chrijtliches Textbuch zum Alten Testaments, 2te Auf., pp. 94f.),
in which Atrakhasis is the only name of the deluge hero. Berosus calls
the Babylonian Noah, Xisuthros, which may be some sort of metathesis
of this Atrakhasis (so George Smith); but see Sayce, The Religions of
Ancient Egypt and Babylonia, p. 436, footnote 1.

[32]
FIGURE XX.—THE STORY OF T H E DELUGE
REVERSE
A duplicate of Figures X V I I and X V I I I

[33]
 THE MYTHS AND EPICS 207

When he came to reason,

Bel went up into the ship.
He took my hand, [and] brought me forth.
200 He brought forth my wife, and made her kneel at
my side,
He turned us toward each other, he stood between us,
he blessed us:
"Formerly Ut-napishtim was of mankind, but
Now let Ut-napishtim and his wife be like the gods,
even us,
L t Ut-napishtim dwell afar off at the mouth of the
rivers.
205 They took me and afar off, at the mouth of the rivers,
they made me to dwell."

Here at the very last comes the explanation

which Gilgames had asked, concerning the resi-
dence of Ut-napishtim. And the place which
is here indicated is not the mouth of the rivers
Euphrates and Tigris, nor the wider waters of
the Persian Gulf, but rather the far-distant
waters of the Mediterranean, or even the big
Atlantic outside the straits of Gibraltar; for
so may we then reconcile this eleventh tablet
with the story of the journey of Gilgames nar-
rated in the ninth tablet of the epic.
That some relationship exists between this
story and the biblical narrative of the flood
needs no argument to prove; it stands open be-
fore the eye and beyond dispute. Especially
noteworthy at even the first glance are the
sending out of the birds, the divine pleasure
over the sweet savor of the sacrifice, and the
divine assurance that there will be no recur-

[35]
208 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA

rence of the flood. The Genesis narrative is

compounded of two originally separate stories,
the one reaching its present form at the hands
of a Judean compiler in the ninth century
before Christ, and the other at the hands of a
priestly writer about the exilic period.1 The
Assyrian deluge story, itself also a compilation
stretching all the way from the period of Ham-
murabi to the age of Ashurbanipal, shows a
resemblance to the priestly document especially
in its account of the building of the ark, and
in its mention of the covenant; but to the Ju-
dean or prophetic story in the seven days, in
the sending out of the birds, and in the offering
of sacrifice.
But while there are great resemblances, there
are also great differences between these two
accounts. In the book of Genesis the flood is
sent from God as a punishment for the sins of
men, and it ceases when the divine compassion
is aroused, and God sets the bow in the heaven
as a pledge that he will never again destroy the
earth by water. On the Assyrian side the flood
i For the grounds of these general statements about t h e Genesis nar-
rative see Driver, The Book of Genesis, London, 1904, and compare also
his Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament, 6th edition, London,
1897. An excellent popular presentation of the argument is to be found
in Alfred Holborn, The Pentateuch in the Light of To-Day, being a simple
introduction to the Pentateuch on the lines of Higher Criticism. Edin-
burgh, 1902. In German, not translated into English, is a very admir-
able popular account, Adalbert Merx, Die Bücher Moses und Joshua.
Eine Einleitung für Laien. Tübingen, 1907. For the purpose of a com-
parison of the Genesis documents with the Babylonian story, Kent's
Student's Old Testament, vol. i, New York, 1904, would be useful. A
most valuable book.

[36]
 THE MYTHS AND EPICS 209

is caused by the capricious anger of Bel, and

the idea of the punishment for sin crops out
only as an incidental in the conversation be-
tween Ea and Bel at the end of the story. The
flood ceases because the other gods are terrified
and Ishtar intercedes for her own creation.
But there are even greater differences than
these, for on the one side is a crass polytheism
with the gods quarreling, cheating, deceiving
each other, cowering like dogs in a kennel,
fleeing in fear into the higher heaven, and
"gathering like flies over the sacrificer." On
the other side is the one God, alone taking
thought for the sins of men, a moral Being free
of all caprice but actuated by the great moral
idea of love.
What now is the relationship of these two
narratives? It seems to me quite clear that
the material of the Hebrew narrative goes back
undoubtedly to this Babylonian original. This
ancient story becomes in the hands of Hebrew
prophet and priest simply the vehicle for the
conveyance of a spiritual truth concerning an
ethical and moral God. In the Babylonian
story as the scribes of Ashurbanipal edited it
there was no motive but the preservation of an
interesting tale of early days, but the Old Testa-
ment has made it the medium for the carrying
forward of spiritual religion. The gulf that
stretches between these two is wide and deep.
And now we have passed in review the broad

[37]
210 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA

features of the religion of the Babylonian peo-

ple. We have seen their great pantheon in
outline, the great triad of gods that stands at
the head, Anu, Bel, and Ea, and the duads of
Anshar and Kishar and Lakhmu and Lakhamu
that lie behind them. We have passed in re-
view the gods of highest repute in a later day,
Sin and Shamash and Ishtar, and the great
city gods, Ashur and Marduk. We have come
to know something of the lesser deities that
run in a diminishing scale downward until only
demons, good and evil, are before us. We have
passed over the cosmologies and have seen how
these gifted peoples have thought of the wonder
of sky and earth and men and animals, and
from these we have gone on to matters of less
moving interest, to books of magic and incanta-
tions, and then upward again have passed by
splendid hymns into solemn psalms of peni-
tence and of prayer. Thence have we made
the great circuit round to the myths, glowing
sometimes with beauty and color, and then to
the great epics, at once the flower of Assyrian
poesy and the highest outreach of the Baby-
lonian religion in its effort to lift men to an
interest in things divine. We have come all
the way from a primitive animism to a highly
organized polytheism surrounded by great gar-
dens of theological speculation ending in a
hope for existence, a dark, dull existence, in-
deed, and not a vivid life after death, but still

[38]
 THE MYTHS AND EPICS 211

a hope better than the dread of extinction.

And now we must ask whether there is any
great organizing idea which will bring all this
religion and all this theology and all this specu-
lation into one great comprehensive system.
The answer to that question can only be
reached after a survey of a series of modern
speculations begun in ingenious suggestions,
and carried on with a power of combination
and a wealth of learning that are alike worthy
of respect and deserving of examination.
The theory that the whole religion of Baby-
lonia and Assyria, nay, practically the whole
of the serious thinking and writing of both
realms, rests down upon a Weltanschauung, a
great theory of the universe, owes its origin and
exposition at least in its chief form to Professor
Hugo Winckler, of the University of Berlin,
who in a series of volumes and in numerous
pamphlets1 has heaped suggestion upon sug-
gestion and then organized them all int.o one
1 Professor Winckler's contributions to exposition of this theory are

so numerous that it is scarcely possible to do more than indicate a few

of them. I hope that I have here cited a sufficient number to give to
arty searcher a fair idea of the whole theory:
Hugo Winckler, Geschichte Israels in Einzeldarstellungen. Theil ii. Die
Legende. Leipzig, 1900.—Die Weltanschauung des Alten Orients,
in Ex Oriente lux I, 1.—Himmels- und Weltenbild der Babylonier
als Grundlage der Weltanschauung und Mythologie aller Völker, in
Der Alte Orient, 3. Leipzig, ]902.—Die Keilinschriften und das Alte
Testament, 3te Auf., Theil i.—Die babylonische Geisteskultur in ihren
Beziehungen zur Kultureniudckelung der Menschheit (Wissenschaft
u. Bildung, H e f t 13). Leipzig, 1907.—Altorientalische Geschichtsauf-
fassung. Ex Oriente lux I I . Leipzig, 1906. "Astronomisch-
mythologisches," in Altorientalische Forschungen (1901-05). Ara-
bisch-Semitisch-Orientalisch (1901).

[39]
212 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA

grand whole. The views of Winckler have been

accepted by Dr. Alfred Jeremias, pastor of the
great Luther-Church in Leipzig, and a Privat-
Dozent in the University of Leipzig. They
have also found acceptance, at least in some of
the contentions, by Professor Heinrich Zim-
mern, of the University of Leipzig, and one
of the greatest of modern Assyriologists. The
theory owes very much of its growing importance
to Jeremias, whose important contributions to
the detailed study of the Babylonian religion
have won for him universal respect, while his
great powers of exposition have made him a
valuable helper in the work of popularizing the
new doctrine.1
The doctrine is complicated, and even those
who accept it in the main decline it in par-
ticular, and its exposition here is difficult. I
can do no more than to sketch it in outline in
the form which it takes in the writings especially
of Winckler and Jeremias.
According, then, to these scholars the Baby-
lonians conceived of the cosmos as divided
primarily into a heavenly and an earthly
world, each of which is further subdivided into
three parts. The heavenly world consists of

1
See especially Jeremias, Das Alte Testament im Lichte des alten Orients,
2te Auf., Leipzig, 1906, an able and extremely useful book to which I
have already made frequent reference. See further Jeremias, Baby-
lonisches im Neuen Testament. Leipzig, 1905. Im Kampfe um den
Alten Orient. 1907. Das Alter der babylonischen Astronomie. Leipzig,
1908.

[40]
 THE MYTHS AND EPICS 213

(a) the northern heaven, (b) the zodiac, and

(c) the heavenly ocean; while the earthly world
consists of (a) the heaven, that is, the air above
the earth, (b) the earth itself, and (c) the
waters beneath the earth. By the side of this
there exists also a simpler division of three into
the heaven, the earth, and the waters beneath
the earth. The visible heaven consists of a
solid firmament with two doors for the en-
trance and exit of the sun. Above this is the
great heaven, the abode of the gods. The
earth is a round plane, beneath it the waters
and the dark abode of the dead.
These great subdivisions are ruled by gods,
as I have already tried to show in the second
lecture—Anu in the heaven above, Bel in the
earth and air, and Ea in the waters beneath.
According to Winckler, Anu presides over the
upper heaven, and over the north pole of earth,
while Bel is lord of the zodiac and of the earth,
and Ea rules over the southern heaven, the
heavenly ocean, and the waters of earth and
the waters beneath.
More important than all these details is the
zodiac, the twelve heavenly figures which span
the heavens, and through which the moon
passes every month, the sun once a year, and
the five great planets that are visible to the
naked eye have their course. These moving
stars serve as the interpreters of the divine
will, while the fixed stars, so says Jeremias, are

[41]
214 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA

related thereto as the commentary written on

the margin of the book of revelation.1 The
rulers of the zodiac are Sin, Shamash, and Ish-
tar, and according to the law of correspondence
the divine power manifested in them is identical
with the power of Anu, Bel, and Ea. The zodiac
represents the world-cycle in the year, and also
in the world-year. Therefore each one of these
gods may represent the total divine power,
which reveals itself in the cycle. By the side
of these three, Sin, Shamash, and Ishtar, which
represent respectively the Moon, the Sun, and
Venus, there are ranged Marduk, which is
Jupiter; Nabu, Mercury, Ninib, Mars; and
Nergal, Saturn—these being the planets known
to the ancients.
Now, according to Winckler and his school,
upon these foundations the ancient priesthood
of Babylonia built a closely knit and carefully
thought-out world-system of an astral char-
acter, and this world-system forms the kernel
of the ancient Oriental conception of the
universe. This conception of the universe has
a double-sided principle of far-reaching con-
sequence. First, the heavenly world with its
three divisions corresponds exactly to the
earthly world with its three divisions. Herein
lies the great fundamental leading idea of the

i " D e r Tierkreis ist das Buch der O f f e n b a r u n g Gottes, die Erschein-

ungen des F i x s t e r n h i m m e l s sind gewissermassen der an d e n R a n d
geschriebene K o m m e n t a r . " — J e r e m i a s , op. cit., p. 45.

[42]
 THE MYTHS AND EPICS 215

entire system. Everything on earth corre-

sponds to its counterpart in heaven. In heaven
every god has a distinct district, a te/ievog, a
templum, beneath his sway, and in like manner
he has a corresponding district on earth in
which is his temple. Over this earthly district
there is a king, appointed by the god, and in
him the god is incarnated. Herein, according
to Winckler, is the explanation of the divisions
of territory found in the ancient Orient, and
the assignment to each of a separate Baal, or
god.
But as the lands correspond to heavenly en-
tities, so also do the cities, each of them repre-
senting a cosmic point, and each one of them
having its counterpart in heaven; there above
is the god of each city, who below on earth is
represented by his image in the temple, and
there above does he order and direct all that
happens below. From above also comes the
whole system of numeration. From the sidereal
and the astral-mythological changes there ac-
crue a large number of sacred or typical figures.
Indeed, according to Jeremias, "all numbers
are holy," 1 and if here and there certain num-
bers stand out above others, it is to be ex-
plained as the influence of some religious
calendar system. The fundamental numbers
are five and seven, which are the numbers of
the interpreters of the divine will in the heavens.
1
"Alle Zahlen sind heilig."—Jeremias, op. cit., p. 56.

[43]
216 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA

From these the sexagesimal system is derived,

for 5 + 7=12; 5x12=60.
So, in everything, there exists, according to
this theory, a harmony between heaven and
earth. Heaven is, in large and in small, a
mirror of earth. The macrocosm and the
microcosm display the same peculiarities; and
the same powers, each working in its own
sphere, bring forth the same cosmical harmony.
The other, or second side of the organizing
principle, is found in the great time divisions.
The course of the great stars gives the time
divisions of the calendar—day, year, world-
year, or world-era or world-period. This world-
era has its boundaries in the position of the
equinoctial point in the zodiac. A new world-
era begins whenever the sun on the spring
equinox enters a new sign in the zodiac. Ac-
cording to the theory the position of the sun
in the vernal equinox moves eastward from
year to year. In seventy-two years it moves
one day, and in about 2,200 years one month.
The period of 2,200 years forms, therefore, a
world-period. At the present day the sun at
the vernal equinox is in the sign of the Fish.
In the age before this it was in the sign of the
Ram. This era began in the eighth century
before Christ, at the beginning of the reign of
King Nabonassar (747 B.C.), who introduced a
new calendar. Before that period was the era
of the Bull. Each of these world-eras is ruled

[44]
 THE MYTHS AND EPICS 217

by some deity; thus, in the era of the Twins

(6000-4000 B.C.) ruled Sin, in the era of the
Bull (3000-1000 B.C.) Marduk was the ruler
of the world. From the seon of Sin come the
hymns of Sin, and from the Bull era come the
hymns addressed to Marduk, and in this same
era occurred the great political change by
which Babylon became the center of the world
and Marduk the chief of all the gods.
And now we are come to the crux of the
whole matter, to the one point toward which
this whole theory tends, to that issue which if
it be really true requires all our views of the
entire past history and religion and literature
of antiquity to be changed. Let me take
unusual precautions to state it with exactness
and with fairness to Professor Winckler, to
Dr. Jeremias, and to all who in part or whole
do hold with them.
Assuming all that I have just been stating
concerning earth and heaven to be true—that
the heavens are a mirror of earth; that the gods
reveal their will and purpose in the heavens,
and all the other principles and ideas therewith
connected which I have just passed in review—
then it follows that the heavens have become a
great book of reference in which may be dis-
cerned not only all that may hereafter come to
pass, but also all that has heretofore happened
among men. Everything which has happened
is only an earthly copy of a heavenly original,

[45]
218 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA

and there it is still writ above, and still there

to be read. All this was important enough for
practical everyday life in ancient times, but for
us who are trying to learn what actually has
happened among men in the far-distant past
it is of enormous moment. For, according to
Winckler, all the myths and all the legends of
the ancient world are hereby to be interpreted.
Nothing even in history, properly so called, is
to be understood otherwise. "An Oriental his-
tory without consideration of the world-era is
unthinkable. The stars rule the changes of the
times" (Jeremias).1 According to this view
astrology is the last word of science in an-
tiquity. There is no view of myth or legend
or history to be taken without it. But it
sweeps out far beyond Babylonia and Assyria.
All peoples of antiquity come within its scope.
Is there a mystery anywhere, this ancient
Oriental conception of the universe will ex-
plain it. Naturally enough, Israel is swept
within its province. Saul is the Moon, and
David is Marduk, and Solomon is Nabu. The
entire literature of Israel, all her history, all
her theology, all her thinking are, so this theory
would have it, but the outworking of the Baby-
lonian idea. Everything in Israel is Babylon,
and Babylon is everything. It is indeed a

1
"Eine orientalische Geschichtsdarstellung ohne Rechnung mit
Weltzeitaltern ist nicht denkbar. Die Gestirne regieren den Wechsel
der Zeiten."—Jeremias, op. cit., p. 69.

[46]
 THE MYTHS AND EPICS 219

momentous change in all our thinking which

is here proposed. Dr. Jeremias has no hesita-
tion in speaking of it as an "epoch-making
discovery, of far-reaching consequence for the
understanding of the Old Testament manner of
speech."
And now we must come to the testing of
these things. Are they true in whole or in
part? If they are true at all, in how far may
they be accepted as of consequence in making
up our view of the Old Testament literature
and religion?
Let us, then, begin by freely and gladly ad-
mitting the immense debt of Old Testament
literature to the great Babylonian world. There
is no secret about this, it lies open to the eye
of even the casual reader, and the Old Testa-
ment writers themselves freely and openly
admitted it. The first eleven chapters of Gene-
sis in their present form, as also in the original
documents into which modern critical research
has traced their origin, bear eloquent witness to
Babylonia as the old home of the Hebrew peo-
ple and of their collection of sacred stories.
But besides this there are scattered in many
other places evidences clear and indisputable
of the influence of Babylonian literature and
thinking upon the Hebrews. It were idle to
enumerate all these, or even to attempt to do
so in the limited space of this one lecture. The
few that I do mention will suggest others to

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220 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA

any thoughtful mind familiar with the splendid

words of the prophets, poets, lawgivers, and
wise men of Israel.
Heaven and earth are familiar enough in the
Old Testament, but we catch also an echo of
the threefold division in the command to make
"no graven image, nor any likeness of any
thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the
earth beneath, or that is in the water under the
earth." 1 In the heaven of heavens is God's
throne; while beneath the waters under the
earth is the dark abode of the dead, the Abad-
don or Hades. But in all these allusions to
heavens and earth I find no sign or sound of
any Babylonian theory of the universe. The
stars indeed find frequent mention, but only as
the works of Jahweh. "To whom then," says
the great exilic prophet, "To whom then will
ye liken me, that I should be equal to him?
saith the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high,
and see who hath created these, that bringeth
out their host by number; he calleth them all
by name; by the greatness of his might, and
for that he is strong in power, not one is lack-
ing."2 The star-worship did indeed penetrate
into Israel through the influence of the Canaan-
ites, whose cities in their very names bear
witness to this cult—Beth-shemesh, the house
of the sun; Ir-shemesh, the city of the sun—
1 Exod. 20. 4.
2 Isa. 40. 25, 26.

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 THE MYTHS AND EPICS 221

but all this was everywhere and always de-

nounced by the prophets as utterly inconsistent
with worship of Jahweh. Hear the ringing
words of Deuteronomy: "Take ye therefore good
heed unto yourselves, . . . lest thou lift up
thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest
the sun and the moon and the stars, even all
the host of heaven, thou be drawn away and
worship them, and serve them." 1 Nay, these
prophetic spirits hate the whole star cult with
a burning hate, and will put to death any who
are enticed by it.2 They sneer at the poor
dupes who have taken any thought of its im-
portance. "Let now the astrologers [literally,
the dividers of the heavens], the star-gazers,
the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and
save thee from the things that shall come upon
thee." 3 From the observation of the heavens
this prophet knows well enough that naught
may be learned of past or of future. All that
rests in Jahweh's hand, and it will not be de-
clared through the stars, which are merely his
creatures. According to the Winckler theory
the stars are the very center of the whole
theory, and from these few passages it must
be plain that in all these things Israel kept her
own course, diverging widely from the entire
astrological system which he has wrought out.

1 Deut. 4. 15, 19.

2 Deut. 17. 2ff.
3 Isa. 47. 13.

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222 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA

There is no need to deny that the poets of

Israel used Babylonian mythical and legendary
material as a means of poetical adornment,
somewhat as Milton used the richer mythical
materials of Greece and Rome; the only point
that I wish strongly to emphasize is that
Israel's religious literature affords absolutely no
proof of the existence in Israel's thinking of
any such theory of the universe as Winckler
has imagined.
But I must take one step further on this
delicate and difficult ground, and venture to
say that I am quite unable to accept Winckler's
theory that the Babylonians or the Assyrians
ever had in their own speculations any such
conception of the universe as he has so la-
boriously wrought out. This theory has every-
thing to commend it in the extraordinary in-
genuity with which it is conceived and the
splendid learning with which it is urged, but it
lacks altogether the one greatest of all needs,
and that is evidence. There is, indeed, evi-
dence enough for many of the single features
which Winckler has combined, but with all
good will and temper and with long searching
in Winckler's writings and in the original texts
I cannot find the evidence for the conception of
the universe which, according to the theory,
lies at the base of all Babylonian thinking and
writing. It is, I think, not unfair to say that
the theory continually plays fast and loose with

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 THE MYTHS AND EPICS 223

the religious facts as the actual texts reveal

them, and applies them now in one way and
now in another. It is likewise undeniable that
many of the astrological materials are quite
otherwise explained by Professor Jensen and
in still other ways by Professor Hommel, each
of whom has astrological theories of his own.
The strangest thing about the great system
seems to me to be the confidence with which
it is urged. The chief author and all who have
cooperated with him or expounded the theory
to wider circles seem not to realize that this
effort to unlock all doors with one key, to ex-
plain all mysteries with one theory, has been
repeatedly tried before and has always gone
down to failure. Perhaps the most striking of
these failures is the magnificent effort of
Charles François Dupuis. It all began with an
investigation of the origin of the Greek months.
From that he passed to a study of the constel-
lations, and thence to an attempt to locate the
origin of the zodiac. To him it seemed only
necessary to discover the land and the period
"in which the constellation of Capricorn must
have arisen with the sun on the day of the
summer solstice and the vernal equinox must
have occurred under Libra." After prolonged
investigation, carried out with prodigious learn-
ing and wonderful ingenuity, he arrived at the
conclusion that Upper Egypt was the land and
that a period of between fifteen and sixteen

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224 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA

thousand years before the present time was

the time when the signs of the zodiac originated.
His books on these subjects,1 with their beau-
tiful plates, are a melancholy example of
misdirected labor, and ought to serve to make
others less confident who follow in somewhat
similar lines. For Champollion showed readily
enough that the Egyptian use of the zodiac
dates only to the Greco-Roman period, and the
whole theory crumbled at once to pieces. But
before this had happened Dupuis had gone on
to use this principle, which he believed he had
discovered, to erect a tremendous system by
which he sought to explain the origin of all re-
ligions.2 The learning of the book is fairly
staggering. It excited at the time great and
bitter controversy, and then, without any par-
ticular disproof, its theories melted quietly
away like the morning mists and disappeared.
But men are slow to learn by such examples,
1
Dupuis, Mémoire sur l'Origine des Constellations et sur l'Explication
de la Fable par l'Astronomie. Quarto. Paris, 1781. Also Mémoire
Explicatif du Zodiaque Chronologique et Mythologique, O u v r a g e c o n t e n a n t
le Tableau comparatif des Maisons d e la L u n e chez les différens Peuples
de l'Orient, et celui des plus anciennes observations qui s ' y lient, d ' a p r è s
les Egyptiens, les Chinois, les Perses, les Arabes, les Chaldéens et les
Calendriers grecs. Q u a r t o . Paris, 1806. Containing a b e a u t i f u l copper-
p l a t e of t h e zodiac, showing its connections w i t h m a n y different peoples.
Let not t h e reader fail t o observe in t h e t i t l e of t h i s second work h o w
very wide was t h e sweep of D u p u i s ' s claim t o explain t h e problems of
ancient a s t r o n o m y a n d astrology. I t affords a m o s t curious parallel
to certain recent speculations.
2
Dupuis, Origine de tous les Cultes, ou Religion Universelle. Paris,
1794. Nouvelle edition, 10 vols., 1835-1836. A curious f r a g m e n t of it
was t r a n s l a t e d into English under t h e t i t l e Christianity a Form of the
Great Solar Myth, f r o m t h e F r e n c h of Dupuis. London, n. d.

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 THE MYTHS AND EPICS 225

and the failure of Dupuis did not prevent Pro-

fessor Friedrich Max Miiller and George Wil-
liam Cox1 from bringing out a new explication
of the so-called Solar Myth by which they hoped
to explain many mythological difficulties and
not a few of their origins. Of all this theory it
is now possible for Andrew Lang to say:
"Twenty years ago the philological theory of
the Solar Myth was preached as 'scientific' in
the books, primers, and lectures of popular
science. To-day its place knows it no more."2
I have discussed the Babylonian religion in
its broad outlines, and as one point after

1 George William Cox, The Mythology of Aryan Nations. London,

1874.
2 Andrew Lang, Homer and His Age, p. ix. London, 1906. This Solar
Myth theory in its day attempted to explain almost everything in a
number of realms. I t drew forth a most amusing answer, extremely
clever in its use of the terminology of the theory, by R . F . Littledale.
This was published anonymously (in Kottabos, Trinity College, Dublin,
1870, pp. 145ff. I t has been reprinted in R . Y . Tyrrell and E . Sullivan,
Echoes from Kottabos, London, 1906, pp. 279. I t was even translated into
German, Wer war Max Müller. Ein Beitrag zur vergleichenden Mythol-
ogie, Aus dem Englischen von K . Fr. Leipzig, n. d.). The eminent Hel-
lenist, Professor B . L. Gildersleeve, of Baltimore ( A m e r i c a n Journal of
Philology, 1906, vol. xxvii, p. 359; compare also ibid., 1908, vol. xxix,
p. 117), says of it: "Twenty-five years ago there would have been some
point in the ridicule of the sun-myth. Much true glory was gained by
an article in the Kottabos, which proved on Max Müller's principles that
Max Miiller himself was a solar myth; and there would have been a
certain relish in the application of the method to Eumaios, the divine
swineherd with his twelve months of sties and his three hundred and
sixty boars of days, but there is nothing more deplorable than the elabo-
rate interpretation of deceased jests; and it is hardly worth while to
resuscitate Paley's interpretation of the 'Odyssey' in order to vitalize a
joke." Perhaps one might dare to say that these new expositions of a
supposed Babylonian theory of the universe are no more secure than
the theories of Dupuis, Max Müller, and Cox, and that "like a wave
shall they pass and be passed."

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226 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA

another passed in review I have tried carefully

and accurately to show wherein the Hebrew
people had borrowed materials which were after-
ward used in their noble literature. I have not
wittingly passed over any single borrowing of
moment, which the researches of recent years
have made known to us. When all these are
added up and placed together they are small
in number and insignificant in size when com-
pared with all the length and breadth and
height of Israel's literature. Furthermore,
whatever was borrowed was stamped with
Israel's genius. The creation story, the flood
story, we have seen how these leaned upon Baby-
lonia for the mere stuff out of which a wholly
new fabric was woven. The word "sabbath" is
Babylonian indeed, but the great social and
religious institution which it represents in Israel
is not Babylonian, but distinctively Hebrew.
The divine name Jahweh appears among other
peoples, and passes in a long cycle over into
Babylonia, perhaps from some west Canaanite
stock. But the spiritual God who bears the
name in Israel is no Babylonian or Kenite deity.
The Babylonians during all their history, during
all their speculations,, never conceived a God
like unto him. He belongs to the Hebrews, and
no other people can take away from Israel this
glory, for the glory of Israel is Jahweh.
The gods of Babylonia are connected, in some
way that we can no longer determine, with

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 THE MYTHS AND EPICS 227

primitive animism or they are merely local

deities; the God of Israel is a God revealed in
history. He brought Israel out of Egypt. He
is continually made known to his people
through the prophets as a God revealed in
history.
The religion of Israel is not developed out of
Babylonian polytheism. Babylonian polythe-
ism existed as polytheism in the earliest periods
of which we have even the semblance of knowl-
edge, and it endured as polytheism unto the
end. The religion of Israel, on the other hand,
however humble some of its material origins
may be, moved steadily upward and onward till
the great monotheistic idea found universal ac-
ceptance in Israel. The religions of Moab and
Edom, of Philistia and Phoenicia, were sub-
ject to the same play of influences from Baby-
lonia and from Egypt, but naught came of it
all—no larger faith developed out of them. In
Israel alone ethical monotheism arose, spread
its wings, and took its flight over all the world.
The religion borrowed indeed material things. I
have said it again and again. But, as another
has said, the elephant which produced the ivory
dare not boast itself as the creator of the Athene
which the skill of Phidias had wrought out of
the dead matter. Whatever Israel took it
transformed.
What shall I say at last of all this, but sol-
emnly and earnestly to avow the conviction

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228 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA

that the origin of Israel's religion, the motive

power of its mighty and resistless progress, is
to be sought in a personal revelation of God in
history, and that this personal revelation looks
forward to the kingdom that was to be, when
Judaism had passed over her carefully guarded
body of truth to the Christianity which was
to be born within her portals. The explanation
of the religion of Israel is not to be sought in the
religion of Babylonia which lies behind, out-
worn and useless, but in the living Christianity
which stands before it.

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