The Melammu Project

THE MELAMMU PROJECT http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/ ÐMesopotamian Precursors to the Stoic Concept of LogosÑ JACK N. LAWSON Published in Melammu Symposia 2: R. M. Whiting (ed.), Mythology and Mythologies. Methodological Approaches to Intercultural Influences. Proceedings of the Second Annual Symposium of the Assyrian and Babylonian Intellectual Heritage Project. Held in Paris, France, October 4-7, 1999 (Helsinki: The Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project 2001), pp. 68-91. Publisher: http://www.helsinki.fi/science/saa/ This article was downloaded from the website of the Melammu Project: http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/ The Melammu Project investigates the continuity, transformation and diffusion of Mesopotamian culture throughout the ancient world. A central objective of the project is to create an electronic database collecting the relevant textual, art-historical, archaeological, ethnographic and linguistic evidence, which is available on the website, alongside bibliographies of relevant themes. In addition, the project organizes symposia focusing on different aspects of cultural continuity and evolution in the ancient world. The Digital Library available at the website of the Melammu Project contains articles from the Melammu Symposia volumes, as well as related essays. All downloads at this website are freely available for personal, non-commercial use. Commercial use is strictly prohibited. For inquiries, please contact [email protected]. LAWSON M ESOPTAMIAN P RECURSORS TO THE STOIC C ONCEPT OF LOGOS JACK N. L AWSON Kent Mesopotamian Precursors to the Stoic Concept of Logos * Logos and the Near East n 1918 an article appeared by the As- deftly summarized all the literature to date syriologist Stephen Langdon tantalis- concerning the meaning of mummu in Ak- ingly entitled, “The Babylonian Con- kadian texts. 5 Since that time there has been I 1 ception of the Logos.” Although Langdon relative silence regarding a Mesopotamian was not the first Assyriologist to posit such origin for the concept of Logos. 6 a connection between Mesopotamian The problem with all the articles cited thought and Greek philosophy on precisely above is that the scholars attached too much the term ‘Logos,’ 2 he was the first to widen importance to the single term mummu – es- the discussion from philological to concep- pecially as used in Enuma Elish – to the tual grounds. The principal focus of his ar- exclusion of other terms and other texts. ticle was the meaning and usage of the Ak- Thus this paper seeks to open the discussion kadian term mummu , which Langdon took again, for certainly, although not attached to stand for “creative cosmic reason”: to one specific Akkadian term, the idea of a “Deny it to be metaphysical, refuse to creative principle existed in Mesopotamian define it as Logos or cosmic reason, never- thought well before its formulation as theless the Babylonians certainly did have Logos in Greek Stoic philosophy. Rather a fairly clear teaching along the lines which there was a complex of Akkadian terms we Europeans designate as metaphysical.” 3 which carried this sense of creative cosmic In 1920, W. F. Albright attacked Langdon’s reason, and for the most part, these terms thesis on the basis of philology, maintain- had to do with ‘speech/spoken utterance’ of ing that mummu is actually two distinct ho- the gods, which I shall discuss momentar- monyms derived from Sumerian umún , one ily. meaning ‘mill,’ ‘millstone,’ and the other At its earliest, Logos doctrine (“creative, meaning ‘lord,’ or ‘lady.’ 4 In 1948 Alexan- cosmic reason”) can be traced to Heraclitus der Heidel published an article in which he of Ephesus (late sixth/early fifth centuries * This article is dedicated to the memory of a wonderful lonische Mythen und Epen (Berlin, 1908); Böhl, teacher and irreplaceable friend, Dr. W. D. White. The “Mummu = Logos?” OLZ 19 (1916), 265-68. author wishes to acknowledge the kind assistance pro- 3 Langdon, 438. vided by Professors Shlomo Izre’el, Andrew George, and 4 W. F. Albright, “The Supposed Babylonian Derivation Graham Anderson, and to thank the British Academy for of the Logos” JBL 39 (1920), 143-51. their generosity in providing a grant to support my re- 5 Alexander Heidel, “The Meaning of MUMMU in Ak- search. Abbreviations in this article follow those found kadian Literature,” JNES VII (1948), 98-105. in the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary . 6 Since the time of Heidel’s article the CAD has at least 1 S. Langdon, “The Babylonian Conception of the partially vindicated Langdon’s assertions concerning Logos,” JRAS (1918), 433-49. mummu inasmuch as it is cited as a divine epithet car- 2 The earliest attempts to posit a Mesopotamian origin rying the meanings of ‘craftsman’ and ‘creator’ (M/2 s.v. for the concept of ‘creative cosmic reason’ or Logos were mummu A, 197. H. W. F. Saggs, in his The Greatness that undertaken by: J. Hehn, “Hymnen und Gebete an Mar- Was Babylon , understands mummu to connote something duk” BA , V, (1906), 279-400; P. Jensen, Assyrisch-baby- akin to “Creative Life-Force” (362). R.M. Whiting (ed.) MELAMMU S YMPOSIA II (Helsinki 2001) ISBN 951-45-9049-X 69 LAWSON M ESOPTAMIAN P RECURSORS TO THE STOIC C ONCEPT OF LOGOS BCE ). Ephesus is also the traditional site of probable (and the probability is supported John’s Gospel. It is in the prologue to the by sound tradition) that these older civiliza- Gospel of John (1:1-3) that we see the tions, through constant intellectual inter- exemplary confluence of Eastern Semitic course with the Ionians, influenced them thought with Western Greek philosophy. not only to adopt their technical discoveries Here the Hebraic tradition embodied in the and skills in surveying, navigation, and as- person of Jesus is given systematic treat- tronomy, but also to penetrate the deeper ment as Logos. These three verses are as problems to which the… Oriental myths of descriptive of Logos as any we could cite. 7 creation and divinity gave answers far dif- “In the beginning was the Word, and the ferent from those of the Greeks.” 10 Word was with God, and the Word was It is not, however, the purpose of this God. He was in the beginning with God; all work to establish the cross-cultural trans- things were made through him, and without mission of ideas from the ancient Near East him was not anything made that was made.” to Greece and its Mediterranean colonies. Heraclitus, like his older contemporary, Happily, this has been done in fine detail in Thales of Miletus, is reckoned to have had two major publications which have taken a contact with the Orient (Mesopotamia). 8 serious inventory of Near Eastern influence Regarding the latter, there are accounts by on Greek culture. The first to appear was Diogenes Laertius and Herodotus that Walter Burkert’s The Orientalizing Revol- Thales was of Phoenician descent. 9 Aetius ution : Near Eastern Influence on Greek and Proclus, in their writings concerning Culture in the Early Archaic Age (1992) the pre-Socratic philosophers, state that and more recently has appeared M. L. Thales practised philosophy in Egypt be- West’s The East Face of Helicon : West Asi- fore settling in Ionia. In fact, much of Ionia atic Elements in Greek Poetry and Myth was under Persian control and influence (1997). In the conclusion to this book, Bur- during Heraclitus’ lifetime. As to contact kert writes: between the ancient Near Eastern and Gre- cian cultures, over a half-century ago W. Culture is not a plant sprouting from its seeds in isolation; it is a continuous process Jaeger, in his impressive three-volume Pai- of learning guided by curiosity along with deia wrote: “Since…the Near Eastern coun- practical needs and interests. It grows espe- tries were neighbours of Ionia, it is highly cially through a willingness to learn from 7 Regarding just such cross-cultural transmission Walter ophers (Cambridge, 1995), 79. More important to our Burkert writes: “The historian… finds the clearest evi- area of research is Thales’ prediction of an eclipse in 585 dence of cultural diffusion precisely in correspondences BCE . Astronomical records in Mesopotamia date back to of details that seem most absurd and unnatural, and hence the seventeenth century BCE although they are only avail- likely to be arrived at independently” ( The Orientalizing able in first millennium copies. From the early 7th cen- Revolution : Near Eastern Influence on Greek Culture in tury BCE onwards Babylonian priests were able to make the Early Archaic Age (Cambridge, Mass., 1992), 51. accurate predictions of lunar eclipses. Although never 8 “The archaeological record suggests that intercourse able to predict solar eclipses, the Babylonian astrono- between Greece and the East was most intense between mers were able to tell when solar eclipses were possible. 1450 and 1200, not reaching a similar level again until Regarding this, Kirk et al. state: “It is overwhelmingly the eighth and seventh centuries. We may reasonably probable that Thales’ feat depended on his access to these suppose that those were also the two most significant Babylonian records” (82). Further, as regards Thales’ periods of ‘literary’ convergence.” M. L. West, The East cosmology – the fact that he conceived the earth to float Face of Helicon : West Asiatic Elements in Greek Poetry upon water – they posit an indebtedness to the ancient and Myth , (Oxford, 1997), 586. Near East as well (93). 9 So also M. L. West, The East Face of Helicon , 620. See 10 W. Jaeger, Paideia: The Ideals of Greek Culture , I also Kirk, Raven and Schofield, The Presocratic Philos- (New York, 1945), 155-56. 70 LAWSON M ESOPTAMIAN P RECURSORS TO THE STOIC C ONCEPT OF LOGOS what is “other,” what is strange and foreign thought. This is not to suggest that the cul- … The “miracle of Greece” is not merely the tures of the ancient Near East had any single result of a unique talent.

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