6
that LORD OF THE NETHER\ØORLD also rela anc.
À furt b.y coe: Giv dou the the mu wol
Yet first draw near the lower halls of Dis I and through the lands ofdeep Avernus seek, for my son, a meeting with me. I am nor hin among sad Shades, in impious Tartarus; riat my home is in Elysium, among ent the gracious gatherings ofthe pious ones. to! Yirgil, Aeneid Y : 96 7-8' l
.. ass( oU SLEEP THÂT YoU MAY VAKE; YoU DIE THAT YOU MAY LIVE'' SAY THE PYRAMID TEXTS \ ^T I formulating the Egyptian hope of regeneration in "archaic. brevity."' As Peter Kingsley thc Th puts it as well in discussing ritual death and descent and immortalization and ascent in early M( Greek philosoph¡ "one dies to be reborn; one descends into the depths in order to ascend."3 Mr In the Golden Ass or Metamorphoses of Apuleius, for example, "the initiation of Lucius into the tio mysteries of Isis at Kenchreai involves a free-will death, a dying of the old life, and a rebirth no culminating in his emergence in the likeness of the sun god."4 In this state of free-will death, cio the candidare is confronted by invisible powers of the netherworld in the shape of good and be evil genii. He identifies himself with them, which is the best method of getting to know them to and gaining power over rhem.t The Egyptian New Kingdom royal funerary text known as the tht Amduat,for instance, conrains formulaic sentences that emphasize a familiaricy with the beings del in the netherworld for a safe nocturnal journey.d In ancient Mesopotamia, the netherworld is usually described as a gloomy land of the ln dead. It is referred to in texts as the land of no return , erset Lt tari.7 There are many clues lie in Mesopotamian literature, however, pointing toward the idea that the netherworld is a more no .o-pl.* domain. In addition to being a grim hell, it is also the locus of a different state of \ry( existence, possibly of a transcendental character. rh, The best restimony to the complexiry of the netherworld in ancient Mesopotamian culture Fu consists of written accounts of "dream visions" that describe encounters with residents and w( conditions of rhe netherworld. Two such accounts come from the Neo-Assyrian period, the bu dream vision of Enkidu related in the SBV of The Epic of Giþamesh (YLl ú5-zro) and the Pr [Jnd.erworld. Vision of an Assyrian Prince, both examined by Kvanvig in relation to "visions" in AD general, and more specifically as a background for DanielT. Kvanvig analyzes these two Passages rel iq h., chapter "Akkadian Dream Visions," with focus on each text under the subtitles "The yo Death-Dream of Enkidu" and "The Vision of the Nether \7orld" respectively.s It is meaningful
r90 LORD OF THE .NETHER'!(/'ORLD T9T
that a study that examines the Mesopotamian antediluvian tradition as thoroughly as Kvanvtg s also treats rhese two visions of the netherworld within the same broad context, because the relarion benveen these two domains of inquiry directly contributes to an understanding of ancient Mesopotamian metaphysics. My goal here is not to provide a literary analysis of these two passages buc rather to highlight further their importance in the formulation of an ancient Mesopotamian sense of a world beyond - not merely in the sense of an afterlife but also in the sense of a transcendental realm coexrensive with the physical world and the way this beyond is codified by the Assyrian scholars. Given that both of these texts stem from Neo-Assyrian culture, this understanding was no doubt one that was developed by the Assyrians in accordance with what they had inherited from rhe ancient Mesopotamian tradition. In contrast to the voluminous amount of speculation on the beyond in ancient Egypr, the ancient Mesopotamian civilization seems to have favored a muçh more laconic, almost minimalistic, style of recording such thoughts, which, no doubr, would have been supplemented and explicated by oralknowledge. If the Assyrian understanding of a netherworld was merely one of a grim and dark residence for the dead, wh¡ for instance, are benign personages such as Etana, Shakkan, and Gilgamesh himselfi as the judge in rhe afterlife, present in the netherworld according to sources in Sume- rian and Akkadian? The netherworld in ancient Mesopotamian texts is further governed by an entire divine personnel consisting of a queen, Ereshkigal; her husband, Nergal; an administra- ror, Pabilsag; a gatekeeper, Neti; and a scribe, Belet-seri.e In her wo¡k, The Image of the Netherworld in the Sumerian Sources, Dina Katz time and again IS asserrs that officials and offices existing in the Sumerian netherworld constitute a reflection of ey those of the state administration of the contemporary Sumerian and Babylonian city-state.'o 'Iy Throughout her work, Katz has the tendency to rationalize many of the mythical aspects of the D) Mesopotamian nerherworld through reference to the actual sociopolitical matters of ancient he Mesopotamia. Despite the important parallels between ancient Mesopotamian daily institu- th tions and the structure of the netherworld, the semantics of the netherworld can be thought h, nor to end there. The netherworld should be considered as more than a straightforward reflec- rd tion of the society and social institutions of ancient Mesopotamia, and due attention should m be placed on it as a medium through which knowledge of a restricted character is conveyed he ro the one who experiences it, as I have already argued. No doubt, in the relevant texts, all gs these notions are expressed in a stylized, formulaic, and cryptic mold that might have been deliberately meant to prevent their direct expression and dissemination. he The Neo-fusyrian texr known as the Undzrwoili Vision of an Assyrian Prince" is a case tes in point, for it may be thought to relate to a metaphysical domain of the sort oudined ear- rre lier. It describes the night vision of one Kumma, who may be Ashurbanipal, although this is of not certain.t" In the dream, for reasons that are not clear, the prince descends to the nether- world and acquires rhere a firsthand sight of some of its denizens, and the text i's as graphic in tr€ their descriprion as visual representations of Mischwesen in the Neo-Assyrian palace reliefs.'l rd Further, after viewing these denizens, the prince has a direct sight of the ruler of the nether- he world, rhe god Nergal, as he stands in his presence. Nergal is about to "kill" the prince,'a he but the godt intercessor asks the god to spare the prince's life. Nergal then admonishes the in prince ro acknowledge him: "Do not forget or neglect me! Then I will not pass a verdict of annihilarion on you. (Buc) on the command of Shamash, may distress, acts of violence and íes he rebellion together blow you down so that, by their oppressive clamour, sleep may not come to r t iul Yol,t, " r92
Nergal continues his speech with the mention of an enigmatic "corpse" of a "proud shep- herd," who is actually the princet father and who lies in the netherworld.'6 Nergal further srates that the body of this king is protected and his progeny is kept healthy by "Yabru, Hurn- ban, and Napruðu."17 One could here think of the Egyptian netherworld and how there exists in it a corpse with which the sun god Re unites every night, just as he unites with Osiris, again a king whose progeny is kept healthy by the divine world order.'8 This maintenance of the corpse could again be considered not unlike the maintenance of the Assyrian "sacred rree," which divine officials, the apkøllus, constantly keep fertile and alive. Nergal further indicates in his speech of epiphany that this dead king "scanned the plans (gið.hur.með) of the mainstay of the earth (8iÉusurafn'É íri mar-þas qaq-qø-riþi-i-tu)."'t
Kvanvig draws an apt parallel berween this statement and the way che aphallus are described I in the bilingual incantation rexr btt m¿seri: I
' Ov 'They are the seven brilliant apkallu's, pur,idu-frsh of the sea, for cor [sev]en apkallut "grown" in the river, who insure the correct functioning of the the plans of heaven and earth (usurat AN-e ùKl-tim).'o an( her Hence, Kvanvig writes: Hir knt The wisdom of the king has a nearly verbatim parallel in a bilingual text (Sumerian/ l Akkadian) which is published under the name The Etiological Myth of the'Seven Sages'. of¿ The text describes the activiry of the seven semi-divine apkallu's (sages) who lived in Sumer dec in primeval time.tt ... thr spl, We do not claim that the scribe of our textfUnderwor[dVision] has quoted from this actual gib tablet, but the similarities should show that rhe king in our text is "modelled" after the an( tradition about the sages. tior This is even more convincing since at least certain Assyrian kings were described as sages." ceL oft This merging of a theme pertaining to the sages and the antediluvian tradition with a dark fire image of the netherworld in the Underworld Vision seems to be in line with the confusion that existed in the Neo-Assyrian times between the Apsû and the netherworld. The confusion, Tht howeve¡ could not have existed without any semantic affinity between the two domains, and what we see in the (Jnderworld Vision is perhaps the role of the Assyrian netherworld in the transmission of a version, or equivalent, of antediluvian knowledge to what would correspond to a postdiluvian world order. Given the possible connections that I have drawn among concepts such as giö.hur, me, and antediluvian gnosis, one mey infer from the Und¿rworld Vision that this royal person- age depicted as a corpse in the netherworld is again the equivalent of a sacerdotal king who is now passive and one who exists in occultation, guarded by divine agents. Nergal admonishes As the prince to be mindful of this rrurh: "'\?ho(ever of you) may have closed his ear to speech, neI tasted the forbidden, trampled on the consecrated - the luminous splendour of his terrifring essÍ majesry will th¡ow you down instantl¡ until (you are but) wind! May this word be set like a div thorn in your heart! Go forth to the upper world until I think of you!' he said [to mç.1"'r en( LORD OF THE NETHERW'ORLD r93
)- The prince wakes up, and the whole experience has created a complete tumult in him: :r I woke up, and like a man who has let blood, who roams alone in a reed thicket, whom ì- a runner catches up with, so that his heart pounds, ts like a just matured young boar, who has mounted on his mate, and whose inwards inflate .n or so that he gives out wind from his mouth and backside, ìe he became inflamed with lamentation and called out, "\Øoe, my heart!" He flew into the road an arrow, scooped up into his mouth the dust from the street and square, continually es like letting out a terriÊed shriek, "\Øoe is me!" ìy He cried "\Vhy have you decreed this for me?, and in his pain he praised before the peoples of Assyria the mighty deeds of Nergal and Ereshkigal, who had come to the aid of the prince.'a
Owing to what he has learned from Nergal, and experienced in general, the prince is trans- formed. The simile of the just matured young boar mounting on his mate, perhaps evoking coming of age, is further indicative of this initiatic experience. The prince perhaps undergoes the most perilous step in mystical descent, the danger of annihilation, but is ultimately saved and rendered mo¡e powerful than his former state. Further, it is as if the prince were also subject here to the state of uidere Deum, Nergal's epiphany:" "I looked at him and my bones shivered! His grimly luminescent splendor overwhelmed me, I kissed the feet of his great divinity and knelt down."'6 It is noteworthy that Nergal's epiphany in the netherworld is accompanied by a luminescence of a fearful sort (melammuíu ezzuti).In one of his inscriptions, the Assyrian king, Esarhaddon, declares that when he was coronated as king, he was bestowqd the crown (açtò bV Anu, the throne (þussû) by Enlil, the weapons (þaþþÒ by Ninurta, and last but not least the "awesome splendor" (íalummøtu) by the very lord of the netherworld, Nergal.'z Although the most tan- gible regalia are bestowed on the king by hero or royal gods, the "splenclor" is the giÊt of Nergal, another indication of the complexity of the netherworld and its ruler, and a possible indica- tion that divine radiance or light might be as much at home in the netherworld as it is in the celestial domain. In fact, based on Old Babylonian and later sources, in addition to being a god of the netherwoild, Nergal was at the same time very much a god of light, radiance, and even rk fire.'8 )n A comparable awe-inspiring radiance also characterizes the scorpion beings of the SBV of lt, The Epic of Giþamesh who stand guard at the entrance to the Netherworld: rd he There were scorpion-men guarding its gate, rd whose terror Qtuluhtu) was dread and glance was death, whose radiance (melnmmu) was terrifring, enveloping the highlands - at both sunrise and sunset they guard the sun - Gilgameð saw them and covered his face with fear and dread; he collected his wits and drew nearer their presence.'e
As Cassin points our, the fearful radiance of these solar creatures need not be understood in negative terms.io According to Cassin, the meaning of the Akkadian word puhþu is not nec- essarily fear or rerror in the "hostile" sense of the word, since the word is rather an attribute of diviniry referring ro an awe-inspiring and superhuman manifestation of power.i' The experi- ence is challenging in many respects, because Gilgamesh also reacts by closing his eyes, but he r94 THE MyTHOLOcy OF KTNGSHTP rN NEO-A.SSYRIAN ART
ultimately survives this ordeal and approaches the scorpion beings. Cassin also draws arrenrion to the favorable as well as dangerous aspects of the puluþtu, which causes a mixture of fear and admiration in the one who experiences it.l' She further understands Gilgamesh's taking initia-
tive to approach the solar scorpion beings,,3 norwithsranding the glare they cause in him, as a sign of the herot qualities as an initiate, a resrimony for the divine blood that flows in his veins.34 There can thus be little doubt regarding the rranscendental capacity of the ancient Mesopotamian netherworld such as these texts reveal. In the (Jnderworld Vision, the prince can be taken to stand for the candidate, and when the time has come, he is snatched by invis- ible agents to another realm, where he is instructed in the mysteries and eventually sent back to the upper wodd in a transformed, albeit traumatized, srare.li As for the basic information that he acquires below, it is more or less the suppression of a king in possession of the "divine plan," gið.hur,'which may again be understood as gnosis. In the (Jnderworld Wsion as well, it is again the fusyrian scholars who are projecting their own spiritual sagas ro royal characters, serving, on the one hand, exoteric royal ideology with all its historical and political concerns, and, on the othe¡ their own purposes of preserving an internal dialogue regarding the myster- ies. Ashurbanipal's court must have been a particularly sophisticated milieu in this respecr, as the presence of the "library" also testifies. Not only were older venerable rexts preserved there (the FIGURE IJ( cumulative erudition of ancient Mesopotamian civilization), but'new texts, such as the nasirpal II coronation Hymn and the (Inderworld vision, were also composed there. The description of certain residents of the ne therworld encounte red by the Assyrian prince in head with the Underworld Vision parallel the representations of the ugallus on Sennacherib's and Ashurba- formula. I nipal's reliefs (Figs. 12,6o and 6r, and rz¡): "The Evil Spirit (utuhku lenmu) had a liont head, allusion tc (his) hand and feet wer€ those of Anzû."36 "Nedu, the porter of rhe Underworld, had a lion's theug. head, and human hands, his feet were those of a bird."37 In some of these descriptions, the Anzû too, acco¡ bird is clearly incorporated to the bodily formation of thcse denizens of the netherworld.rs The before his description of the utuþþu lemnuis particularly interesting in that the Anzû morphology is com- by "one m bined with that of a lion. Even though shown nor ro have been identified with the evil demon utuhhu, the lion-demon depicted on Sennacherib's and Ashurbanipal's reließ perfectly fits this description with a lion's head, human hands and legs, and the claws of a bird of prey as feet, as also noted by the editors of the State Archives of Assyria 3, in which represenrarions of the ugallus illustrate the text of the Underworld Vision.3e A lion-headed eagle figure that may be understood as the Anzû is a common element of Early Dynastic Mesopotamian iconograph¡ but such a figure does not tend to occur in later periods' Perhaps, the bird or bird-man figures that sometimes appear on Akkadian cylinder seals, if they actually depict Anzû, are among the final examples of the iconographic tradition that did depict Anzû.ao There are, howeve¡ relief panels from the enrrance ofAshurnasirpalt Temple of Ninurta at Nimrud on which appear a divine figure , possibly Ninurta, in combar with a monster idendfied as either Asakku or Anzû (Fig. r 3o).4' If the Ninurta Temple Mischwesen is indeed Anzrì, the Êgure again combines leonine and aquiline morphologies, quire in line wirh the morphology of the ugallu.In this resPect, as a matter of visual decorum in late Assyrian times, rather than direct rePresentations ofAnzû, certain indirect visual allusions, especially in forms that combine body parts of the lion and a bird of pre¡ may have been deemed more appropriate by the designers The Anzû- of the art for the representations of this mythological bird.a' Moreover, in the Early Dynastic and hence period, what may be considered to be representations of the Anzfi invariably combine a liont is mention LORD OF THE NETHER'ùøORLD 19,
I t
s s t :
( t t
s
FrcuRE r 1o: Relief panel depicting Ninurta chasing Anzû or Asakku from the Ninurta Têmple ofAshur- nasirpal II at Nimrud. London, British Museum, Nimrud Gallery Nos. z8-29. Photo: author.
I head with the body of a bird of pre¡ and the morphology of rhe ugallu also conforms to this formula. In sum, there may be on Neo-Assyrian relief sculpture a deliberate but implicit visual ', allusion to the Anzû through the depictions of the ugallu. s The ugallu as a member of Tamat's creatures is certainly at home in the netherworld. Anzû, I too, according to texts, is also affiliated with this realm. For instance, in Enkidu's dream-vision before his death in the SBV of Tlte Epic of Giþamesh,Enl
Y s The Anzû-like being here is ostensibly responsible for conveying Enkidu to the netherworld, c and hence an agenr thereof. A similar "one man," again designated in Akkadian as iítèn etlu,at s is mentioned in the (Jnderworld Vision as well, right before the prince's encounter with Nergal: :çfl
r96 THE MYTHOLOGY OF KINGSHIP IN NEO-ASSYRIAN ART 1
I "There was a man (iít¿n etlum), his body black as pitch, his face resembling that of Anzû; he was clad in red armour. In his left hand he carried a bow, in his right hand he wielded a dagge¡ b utbile he trampled on a snaþe with his lefiþot."+6 c
Kvanvig again aptly considers this element of "one man" as one that ties the tvvo accounts s of dream visions to one another: "The designation iít¿n etluwhich is used about the man has no parallels in other underworld texts, except the Vision of the Nether World. The parallels to this phrase are found in other dreams, which shows that the phrase belongs to the sryle in certain dream reports."+7 In her detailed analysis of the semantics of this phrase, Kvanvig points out the "standard" imagery of written accounts of dream visions in Mesopotamian literature in relation to the dream visions of Enkidu and the Assyrian prince:
1 On the literary level the language of the dream experiences has undergone a standardizarion. t The main figure of the vision is emphasized es "unique" (iíten) and most commonly desig- ll ndted as "a ygung man" (etlu). Since the favourable dreams are in clear majoriry it seems ( most likely that this standardiz¿tion has developed within this rype of dreams. The textual r. indications from the Death-Dream of Enkidu give support for this assumption. The desig- v nation etlu is then also transferred to unfavourable dreams as an extension of the Gattung- pattern. If this observetion is correct, the designation etlu originally corresponded to the b beaury of the dream figure: It was a young man at the peak of his physical development.as t
q But there are some indications that may support a connection beween ellu in the dreams t and the dead. This is certainly the case in the Death-Dream and in the Vision of the Nether \Øorld.ae F a
In light of the complex semantics of these two dream visions of the netherworld, one again c wonders whether the polarity favorable-unfavorable might do justice to the nature and conse- a quences of the experience related, especially in the case of rhe Underworld Vision. To draw t attention to the grim and unfavorable neture of both of these dream visions, those of the Assyrian prince and Enkidu, Kvanvig further highlights the involvement of the Anzrì bird in c their imagery: b a The dark face in che Death-Dream symbolized ill fortune, as does also the black colour gen- t erally in Akkadian texts. The first part of the description of the man which concerns his r bod¡ seems then to be formed on the basis of the Anzu-bird symbolism and the intention
to present the man as "a bringer of misfortune". In the context this means that the vision e of the man is frightening and powerful. The use of the Anzu-bird symbolism will in gen- r eral underline that the man is frightening and powerful. This symbolism is not necessarily I dependent upon the underworld framework which gives the context here. In several reports I from Assyrian kings we find Anzu-bird comparisons when they describe battles.to t r Even though Kvanvig's caution against a one-to-one connection between the netherworld t and the Anzû bird is well made, where I would separate myself from her thoughts is in seeing a all these dream visions as signs or omens of misfortune. Just as neither melammu nor puluþtu f is to be understood in the negative sense, and just as both are in fact attributes of divine man- ifestation inspiring awe and fear, the Anzfr image here, too, could be perceived in the same t capacity. Rather than a sign of its being an unfavorable portent or a "bringer of misfortune," a the intimidation caused by the Anzrì image may well be on account of its po\¡/er and unfamil- t iarity to the ordinary human experience. LORD OF THE NETHERWORLD r97
le As further support for this complexity of Enkidut dream vision, one cen nore a parallel :t, beween this episode and Gilgamesh's dream in Täblet I (246-1oo) of the SBV prefiguring the coming of Enkidu. In both instances, the dream image is "too strong" or "too much" for the
rtS subject of the dream. Gilgamesh describes his dream as follows:
as O mothe¡ the dream that I saw in rhe course of rhis night :ls - the stars of the heavens appeared before me, in like lumps of rock from the sky they kept falling towards me. .ts I picked one up but it was too much for me, in I kept trying ro roll it but I could not dislodge it.ir
The phrase "it was coo much for me" (da-an e-li-ia) in Gilgamesht dream is quite similar to the phrase "he was too strong for me" (ú-dan-ni-na-an-ni ia-d+"i) in Enkidut dream vision in reference to the "one man." Given that the meteor fallen from the sky is interpreted by Gilgamesh's mother Ninsun as a favorable sign prefiguring che coming of Enkidu,ir it would not be unreasonable to think that the strength of the 6gure who conveys Enkidu to the nether- world is of a related nature. In light of the similariry in tone between the two accounrs, it would be rather simplistic to polarize Gilgamesht dream and Enkidut vision of the netherworld along the favorable-unfavorable axis. rVhat again seems to be persistent in both Enkiduì dream vision and the [Jnderworld Vision of anAssyrian Prince, especially in light of Kvanvig's emphasis on rhe image of the young man that is attached to both "favorable" and "unfavorable" dreams, is the complex rhetoric that perhaps blends aspects of a grim netherworld with those of an intellectual speculation regarding a concePtion of the beyond. In the aforementioned two texts, rhis conceprion of the beyond can be thought of as deliberately using the image of a primarily dark and gloomy neche¡world e- and afterlife to neutralize, if not to veil, a deeper and codified speculation on rhe beyond among ,w the Assyrian scholars. ìe In viewing the so-called apotropaic figures represented in the Neo-Assyrian palace reliefs,
1n one is face to face with an array of morphologies used to depict antediluvian and netherwordly beings. These beings are seemingly dead, but in the mythopoeic imagination, they are alive and active in the cosmos in an invisible manner. Despite their proximity to evil and hubris, rhese beings may also be thought of as initiators - in other words as guides and agents of a metaphysical domain in the instruction of the candidare. Some of these figures are shown in art with daggers in their hands, such as the ugallu (Figs. 5 z, 6o-6r, and rz5), and somewith both daggers and axes, such as the trio thought to be a fragment from a representation of the Sibitti, the seven gods associated with the Pleiades (Fig. n7). Many of the denizens of the Egyptian netherworld are also depicted holding daggers in New Kingdom representations of the Books of the Afterlife.tl According to Egyptian funerary rexts, the central concern of which was an uninjured and unthreatened pass through the gates of the 1d netherworld, these menacing gate guardians "devour the souls and shadows of those destined rg to die."t4 Hence, one can also think of them as examiners, guarding the path for the potenrial tu adept and not allowing or destroying the inept, ensuring "rerrors for the uninvited and reception :l- for the select."5t te The iconographic presence of dagger-bearing demons in later Neo-Assyrian palaces may also be , thought of as a reference to an exclusive and challenging norion of initiation, admitting the l- adept and banishing the wicked and the inept. Although not represented on Assyrian reliefs, Nvo other gods, Lugal-irra and Meslamta-ea, both aspecrs or servanrs of the netherworld god r98 THE MYTHoLocY oF KINGSHIP IN NEo-ASSYRIAN ART
Nergal, are also depicted in Mesopotamian glyptic with raised axes.r6 They were thought to Insofar as stand guard at the entrance of the netherworld ready "to tear out the heart and compress the could also c< kidneys."rz rhis realm wi Rather than a destructive, the underlying idea behind the mission of these twins priori may and sdll, its also be their as initiators, the path against che inept. The scorpion beings function guarding the normal h an analogous nature. Their initial guarding the entrance to the netherworld are also of cyni- of the purpor be as a sign of their examining disposition directed cal attitude toward Gilgamesh may taken prevented frc the candidate seeks admission to the mysteries.tl Even though the SBV of the poem toward who itself. As alre describing this episode is Gilgamesh ultimately seems allowed to pass through the fragmentar¡ device for a getewey of the sun.te *.hich the an Finall¡ even the seven gods, the Sibitti, close associates of the god Erra (Nergal) may also The¡e are , be thought to fit into this group of beings that inspire awe and terror in,their beholder. Their Mesopotami: description in the Poem of Erra, for instance, is parallel to that of Humbaba and the Scor- netherworld pion Beings in Tlte Epic of Gtþamesh.6o Even though they are completely anthropomorphic in eat no grain "apotropaic" appearance, their presence on the Neo-Assyrian palace reliefs with daggers in an intercourse, r stance would further place them within the same milieu of the Mischwesen (Fig. n7). the husband One can again think of the depictions of these guardian figures as directly referencing the bride from hr initiated scholarly elite of ancient Mesopotamia in the latter's role as the guardians of the mys- only because teries. In a parallel instance, Thoth, the scribal god of ancient EWpt, is also present in the Interestingly Egyptian representations of the netherworld in both of his animal manifestations, the ibis and Tbe Epic of G the baboon, presiding over the weighing of the heart in the chamber ofjudgment of Osiris. The presence of Thoth points to the role and influence of the sage in the procedure ofjudgment in the Egyptian netherworld. The Assyrian netherworld is not without its antediluvian kings and its prìesthood either. In Enkidut dream vision of the netherworld, this realm is further described as follows:
On the House of Dust that I entered, I looked and (saw) the crowns stowed away: there sat [kings], the crowned heads who had ruled the land since days of yore, who used to serve roasted meat [at rhe] tables of Anu and Enlil, who used to serve baked (bread), to pour chilled water from skins.
1z the House of Dust that I entered, Just like the < there sat en priests and lngar priests, the ius primar there sat purification priests and lumahbu priests, there sat the gudapsû priests of the great gods, there sat Etana, there sat S"kk"rr, [rhere sat the] queen of the Netherworld, Ereðkigal. Before her was squatting [Bëled-sêri, the scribe of the Ne therworld, holding [a tablet] and reading aloud in her presence.6'
The purificatory and iniriatic functions of the netherworld may once again be thought to be clear from this passage. The crowned lheads] who ruled in the land since days of yore evokes the tradition of the antediluvian king-sages. The statement that they served the gods' tables could This shared be considered analogous to the Hesiodic understanding that the "humaniry" of the golden race to certain cult lived like and feasted among gods.6' to veil the spi LORD OF THE NETHERWORLD rgg
:o Insofar as the grim ideas attached to the Mesopotamian netherworld are concerned, one te could also consider the possibiliry of a rhetoric that deliberately draws a negative image of this realm without necessarily fully meaning it. In its grim aspects, the netherworld is gloomy ry and still, its food is dirt, its drink is filthy warer, irs inhabitants are covered with dust, and ls the normal human emotions - especially love, tenderness, and piry - are nor expresse d.6t Part i- of the purpose of this rhetoric may be further concealment, so thar the unqualified would be :d prevented from understanding the true meaning of certain literary texts and the netherworld fT itself. As already discussed, this rhetoric may be an artificial and highly laconic mnemonic le device for a more elaborate speculation on the ideas of the beyond and the afterlife about which the ancient Mesopotamian civilization is in general quiet. ;o There are other negative qualities attached to the netherworld and its residents in ancient 'ir Mesopotamian literature. For instance, the Sumerian poem describing Inanna's descent to the r- netherworld indicates that the demons of the netherworld "know no food, know no drink, in eat no grain o'ffering, drink no libation, accept no gifts, never enjoy the pleasure of sexual r" intercourse, never have any sweet children to kiss." Furthermore, they "tear the wife away from the husband during intercourse, carry off children from their fathers' knees, and remove the ìe bride from her marriage chamber."64 "sexual intercourse is especially hated by the demons not s- only because it is fun, but because it creates life which is the antithesis of the Netherworld."6t ìe Interestingly enough, some of Gilgamesht acts before the creation of Enkidu in the SBV of rd Tlte Epic of Gilgamesh may be considered comparable: ìe in The young man of Uruk are wrongfi,rlþ vexed, Gilgameð lets no son go free ro his father. By day and night he behaves with fierce arrog n r,66
he who is shepherd of Uruk-rhe-Sheepfold! [Gilgameð] lets no [claughter go free to her] morher6T
'[Powerful, pre-eminenc,] expert, [...,] [Gilgameð] lets [no] girl go free to lher bridz-groom.)' The warrior's daughter, the [young man's bride,] The goddesses were listening ro rheir complainr.68
Just like the demons, Gilgamesh is also a violator of marriages, albeit in the ritual conrexr of the ius primae noctist
For the king of Uruk-Main-Street, the "people's net" will be open for the one who has first pick. For Gilgameð, the king of Uruk-Main-Street, the "peoplet net" will be open for the one who has first pick. He will couple with rhe wife-ro-be: he first of all, the bridegroom afterwards. By be divinc consent ir is ordained: when his navel-cord was cur she was destined for him.6v he rld This shared negative rhetoric that pertains to beings of the netherworld on the one hand and .ce to certain culture heroes such as Gilgamesh on the other could again be understood as a device to veil the spiritual privileges of a scribal-sacerdotal elite, of whom Gilgamesh can be thought 200 THE MYTHOLOGY OF KINGSHIP IN NEO.ASSYRIAN ART
of as a paradigm.To The same negative screen exists in the visual realm as well, in the "demonic,, apPearance of the Mischwesen, which are usually thought to be apotropaic and prorecrive in mission. \Øithin this encoded system of signification perraining to rhe primordial cosmos, it is as if the former "masters" of cruth came to later times concealed as "monsters." Their location at doorways can be further justified by their as role initiators, and guardians of "acrs of passage ,,, as both the Egyptian and the Mesopotamian netherworld are thought to be compor.d àfg"å*"y, leading from section to section.
All this does not necessarily mean that the Neo-Ass yrian palacewas a serting for ceremonies of rühat initiation or rites of passage. marters here is rather the semantics of these notions visually evoked through art. This semantic is primarily addressed to the scholarly elite leading their lives and activities in the royal court, inasmuch as they possess the power of the written word as as 'well that of the image. The members of this circle surround themselves with the "hieroglyphs" of thii¡ ocherworldly or antediluvian realm to which they are heirs. In this manne¡ they create an internal dialogue, what they also do by means of texts. The variety of the mythical beings that populate Neo-Assyrian represenrarions, be they II aphallus or members of Tamat's arm¡ thus constitutes a selÊreferential notation for the pres- ever ence of this elite. these beings are not depicted 'üØhen full size on the reließ, they continue their desi existence in protomes and details such as the mu{¡uííus attached ro whetstones, or rhe þulallûs, are I mermen' floating amid Assyrian ships carrying logs of wood for consrruction. This rather nÌore shol indirect and at times playful mode of representation is perhaps some sorr of scribal graffiti, a Assy way for the scholarly elite to say "we are here.', eye. how here both beinr A ofth the c only main a I kin
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t- ic" in CONCLUSION TO PART III
as lat
as ays
rleS )ns rnB :en :he ret T HAVE ARGUED THAT A FAMILIARITY \øITH THE LITERARY TEXTS OF ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA rey I is crucial to understanding the semantic system embedded in the reließ. Like the images and es- events of the texts, this iconographic script also functions as a mnemonic device, evoking the .eir desired meanings only in the fully informed viewer. Just as some "mystical.mythological" texts US, are marked by the colophon "mudû mudâ liþallim h mudû. l¿ immør iþþiá DN (The initiate may )re show the initiate. The uninitiated may not see. Thboo of [such and such] god),"' aspecrs of Neo- [râ ,{ssyrian palace relief iconography traced in this study can also only be followed by rhe educated eye. Such iconography was clearly produced by the initiate þr the initiate. In other words, however literally some viewers may have "read" the overt content of the imagery discussed here, the producers of this iconography were mainly the audÈnce for its covert message.' In both art and texts, the selÊreferendal dimension of this rheroric is not conÊned ro the mythical beings of the Mesopotamian visual heritage. As we have seen, the king himselfi when understood as the perfect man or a special crearion of the gods, is also a self-referential concept onto which the scholars projected their own place in the cosmos and the structure of Assyrian royal ideology. The king as an individual was perhaps only partially included in the innermost intellectual life of the scholarly elite, whereas the latter maintained full power over spiritual authoriry which they often presented in the very guise of a king and his relationship to the divine. 6z THE MYTHOLOGY OF KINGSHIP IN NEO-ASSYRIAN ART
rrcunr 53. .A at Nineveh. I
Literary Mis 'Wesc FIGURE ¡2. Doorway guardian Êgures, an ugallu (left) and a "house God," jamb of door o, Room Mesopotam )OC(I, Southwest Pelece of Sennacherib at Nineveh. London, British Museum, ANE rr891z. Photo: primordial ^...L ^- a) THE MYTHOLOGY OF KINGSHIP IN NEO-ASSYRIAN ART
FICURN 62. F Palace of Ash
FrcuRE 6o. Doorway guardian Êgures from the door jambs of Room B, North Palace of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh. London, British Museum, ANE rr89t7. Photo: @ The Tiustees of rhe Bridsh Museum. scene from are also sho examined el As intim Herbivore") ogy ofthe a generally ca rendered in reliefs, lion, ing througl
to the arts , instance, dr artifacts of animals bu might help may have c In this resp lions and e which cert¿ As a mar never cons
ferent caser withvisiblr jambs of Room B, North Palace of Ashurbanipal at FrcuRE 6r. Doorway guardian figures From the door nor are cal London, British Museum, ANE r r89r8. Photo: author. Nineveh. theless, it the animal w I 178 THE MYTHOLOGY OF KINGSHIP IN NEO-ASSYRIAN ART I
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FIGUR.E (urma! I Londo:
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FrcuRE r2t. Penel depicting an ugallu with a raised dagger fiom Gallery XLIX Southwest Palace of Sennacherib at Nineveh. London, British Museum ANE rz48z6. Photo: author'
d raised daggers and maces (upper register);.lion-centaur FrcuRE rz6. chiastic øgallu pafts holding North Palace of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh' (urmaþlullû)(lo*.r r.girr.ri, ïr^"4 r,.rr,r""n.. á, RooîT, photo: The Tius¡ees of rhe British Museum' London, British Museu., ÁNp, rrggrz, @
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.s t- ry ls in zG lS' .ic 'es Court O, part of a group of seven. k¡own as rhe Sibita, FIGURE r z7' Slab showing three gods, perhaps llv Mì"t'm' ANE rz+9¡8' Photo: author' North palace of A.h"rb";;;i", Ñt".".rt. lå.táor,, Britii