BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME FROM THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF Henru W< Sage 1891 p...&.af..3...m / -z*//a/t.fi.. 3513-1 ' vjV 23 Juhft«JSWi r 2005 INTERLIBR^rj^g 3785 £, &C_f e Un ' Ver8i 'y Llbrary PJ 3785.L27 " Su b ,onian winiiiiiiwS!iiiMiii Y psalms 3 1924 026 807 028 I Cornell University f Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924026807028 SUMERIAN AND BABYLONIAN PSALMS BY STEPHEN LANGDON, Ph D, Reader in Assyriology and Comparative Semitic Philology, Oxford. PARIS LIBRAIRIE PAUL GEUTHNER 68, RUE MAZARINE LEIPZIG, I. C. HINRICIIS'SCHE BUCHHANDLUNG London; luzac & c» — new-york, g. e. stechert & c° l 9°9 C Paul GEUTHNER, 68, Rue Mazarine, Paris (6 ). AUTRES PUBLICATIONS DE L'AUTEUR :. < Lectures on Babylonia and Palestine, 200 pp. in-12, Paris, Geutbner, 1906 . ,.' 4 fc. Babyloniskand Palestine — Babylonian and Hebrew literature — manners trade commerce, temples and Social customs —• measures and weights — and and estates, letter writing — relogion of the Babylonians — Religion of the the Kouyunjik Hebrews to Jesus — Appendix : business documents' from Collection. La Syntaxe du verbe sumerien, 100 pp. in-8, Paris, fr. Geuthner, 1907. • . 6 Tirage a part des fiabyloniaca. l Building inscriptions of the Neo-BabyIonian empire, Paris, part I : Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar, in-8, ] ' fl Leroux, igo5. • ^ 7 - 50 | Sumerian loan-words in Babylonian, in-8, Paris", Geuthner, 1907. 2 fr., Tirage a part des Babyloniaca. List of proper names in the Annals of Asurbanipal, in-S, New Haven, 190/1.. ..... ... 1 fr. 25 Gabriel FERRAND Essai de phonetique comparee du Malais et des dialectes malgaches 1 vol. 35o pp. in-3, 1909. ....... 15 Fr. L'enquete de philologie comparee qu'a faite l'auteur lui a fourni des resultats tout a fait ipattendus. La comparaison des langues malayo-malga- lui , ches avec le Sanskrit a revile Xexistence d'un element Sanscrit dans tous les dialSctes malgaches sans exception aucune. De ce fait, la date de la migration malaise sort du vague des'conjectures : les Malais immigrds etant hindouises, n'ont pu quitter l'lndonesie qu'apres le commencement de notre ere. On. trouve ainsi par des etymologies certaines, des indications relativement precises sur leur type culturel et linguistique. Cette question sera plus amplement traitee dans un second volume, qui sera specialement consacre aux migrations SK&cessives des Malais, Arabes, Persans el a la pseudo-migra- tiori juive. SUMERIAN AND BABYLONIAN PSALMS SUMERIAN AND BABYLONIAN PSALMS B Y STEPHEN LANGDON, Ph.D., Reader in Assyriology and Comparative Semitic Philology, Oxford. PARIS LIBRAIRIE PAUL GEUTHNER G8, HUE MAZARINE LEIPZIG, I. C. HINRICHS'SCHE BUCHHAADLUNG LONDON, LUZAG & C° - NEW-YORK, G. E. STECHERT & O z-*skzt A^s & ^ °\ \ AU P. VINCENT SGHEIL MEMBRE DE L'INSTITUT PROFESSEUR D'ASSYRIOLOGIE A L'ECOLE DES HAUTES ETUDES, PARIS INTRODUCTION The material collected and edited in this book comprehends nearly all the temple liturgy of the official Babylonian and Assyrian religion yet published. By temple liturgy I mean services of public praise and penance. A sharp division must be made between public services and private services, a distinction which was observed by the Babylonians themselves. Beligious literature in Babylonia originated from two dis- tinct sources ; on the one hand the priest of incantation exercised the mystic rites of magic over afflicted persons in huts in the fields ; on [he other hand the psalmists had charge of the public services of the temples. In the earliest period the Sumerians who created the entire form of Babylonian religious literature, had only these two classes of sacred literature. The temple services were called er-sem-mas or psalms to the flute' ; the incantations, mystic sacramental formulae and prayers of the private rituals bore the title en*. 3 The priests or temple singers were named lagar, labar . As early as the period of Gudea distinct reference is made to the lagaru or kalu priests who play tiie, balaggu ovh&rpQy , and if the word lagal in another passage be really its earliest form, then Gudea himself tells us expli- i. Semitic Ugu ina halhallali, ZA, XVII 242. .2. Semitic siplu. 3. Semitic kalu; the latter form labar Br. 993 is found in the classical period, CT XV 2 3 obv. 6, cf. SBH G8, 5. For lagar sec, SBH 33, 36 « the inferior lagar ». Sec also Babyl. II, 112. The usual form of writing lagar is US-KU. In Raw. II 32 e 16 occurs lagar mahhu « the superior lagar », cf. SAI 3/158. 4. St. B 5, 3. ; VIII INTRODUCTION citly that he appointed these priests for the temple services'. Mention pre-Sargonic is made of a temple psalmist on a tablet at least 2 regulate [3ooo BC] Urukagina [circa 3 200 BC] made provisions to 3 1 for the temple service the salary of his temple singers . In a psalm the kalu's instrument is called the mesa, which with the halhallatu and the balaggu formed the principal instruments for temple music" Other instruments employed in temple music are the uppu and the lilissu*. Of these five instruments the names of four are Sumerian loan- words; halhallatu whose meaning Prof. Meissner has shown to be « reed flute », is Semitic. In Babyloniaca III i-3o, I attempted to prove that the asipu priests who had control of the rituals of magic of the fire and water cults had no part in the public services of the temples. Their sphere of activity seems to have been confined to the mysteries performed in huts in the fields. Yet we know that in every great religion the priests who con- trol the sacraments, who are directly commissioned with divine power over the unseen spirits, become the central factor, and it could not have been otherwise in Babylonia. Gudea says that he installed the 7 high priest in the temple along with the psalmist , and direct evidence exists to prove that this high priest was the asipu, called en in Sume- 8 rian . Countless documents boar the dale, « year when the high priest was elected ». There can be, then, no possible doubt but that the asipu priests held the highest position of influence in the Sumerian and Babylonian religion. That they performed mysteries, attended at least by incense, is evident from the fact that the niknakku, or incense stand, 1. Cyl. A 20, 21. II 1. For later periods, cf. ill 2. RTC 17 obv. 52, obv. 7; 292 obv. 7; 425 obv. 1 CT VI 3o a 1 3. VAB I, 5i X 22. l\. ASKT 120 rev. 17. The ideogram LID -\- me-en SA.I 668g has the Sumerian value men whence the loan-word man^ii. The mesi (inan^u) was made of leather or had leather in its composition, SBH 72 rev. 10, where the psalmists say, - In Ksa- gila the man^u sounds not, the balaggu sounds not ». 5. These three instruments are mentioned together, BA V 64 1, 11. 0. SeeBabyl. II 112, 118; BA V 6/»i, 9. 7. Cyl. A. 20, 21. 8. ZDMG 1908, hoi. INTRODUCTION was placed before the statues 1 of the gods . While it is impossible to define the spheres of activity of the aiipu and kahl priests, yet one fact remains clear, viz. that the psalmists (kalu) had full charge of the public services in so far as they were not connected with magic. To explain the origin and evolution of the religious literature these facts must be kept in mind.' The Mahlu and Surpu rituals of the fire cull, the great series of rituals against the seven demons of the water cull and all the endless incantations, are private rituals and probably not performed in the temples at all. The Sumerians classified the hymns for public service not according to content but according to the instrument used for the music. The three instruments which are known to have given their names to divisions of liturgy are the flute (halhallatu), the lyre (? balaggu), and the bag- pipe (? manzii, mesti). Students of this subject have failed to see thai the scribes themselves drew up a classification list of titles for the principal public services [Raw. IV 53]. In the first column one finds the titles of thirty-eight great penitential series, followed by eighteen titles 2 of series of a slightly different character . In column two one section gives the titles of psalms to Enlil to be sung to the lyre (balag- gu') ; the titles of four Istar psalms follow, which are also balaggu psalms. In this section the scribe's copy was so defective that he could not read the majority of the titles, and some titles among the Enlil balaggu hymns are missing. In one blank space the copyist says that 3 he could not read the title . Column three gives the titles of forty psalms to the flute (ersemmd), which were the earliest form of temple music. A list of private devotions called a lifting of the hand », follows. These were not accompanied by music and in the Sumerian period they were probably said by the worshipper in the temple chapel before the statue of a god. If a priest i. See my note on ujkttakku in PS14A rgoo, (in press). 2. ZiM.viEEPj, Tailing 210 states that the titles col. T. /|3-6o are those of series to Istar; yet in 1 1-/I1 there are at least two to female divinities matin-nu-nunu^-gim (1. n) and uru-gul-a-ge (1.