BABYLONIAN LITURGIES SUMERIAN TEXTS FROMI THE EARLY PERIOD AND FROM THE LIBRARY OF ASHUR1BANIPA.L, FOR THE MOST PART TRANSLITERATED AND TRANSLATED, WITH INTRODUCTION AND INDEX Y STEPHEN LANGDON SHILLITO READER OF' ASSYIIOLOGY, OXFOHIl WITH 75 'PLATES PARIS LIBRAIRIE PAUL GEUTHNER 13, RUE JACOB, 13 1913 INTRODUCTION Four years ago an attempt was made to translate and interpret the liturgies of the Babylonian religion'. Since that time the material at our disposal has been greatly augmented by the publication of hymns, liturgies and fragments of an epic from the ancient Sumerian library of Nippur 2. We are now fortunate enough to possess a few liturgical texts from Lagash of the classical Sumerian period 3. From the period of the first Babylonian dynasty, that is from the period following immediately upon the age from which the Nippur and Lagash material comes, we have a large collection of hymns and liturgies probably from Sippar and Babylon . An important text of this period containing a liturgy of the wailing for Tammuz has also been added to that part of our religious literature 5. The volume which is here presented to the public contains for the most part fragments of Sumerian liturgies copied for the libra ofAsuuranipal, none of whose originals in their final form antedate the Cassite period. In this collection 1. Sumerian and Babylonian Psalms (Paris, 1909). 2. RADAU, Miscellaneous Sumerian Texts in the HILPRECHT Anniversary Volume (1909). The same, Sumerian Hymns and Prayers to God Ninrib (1911), which were partly interpreted by RADAU in his Ninib the Determinerof Fates (1910). MYHRMAN, Babylonian Hymns and Prayers (1910). Fragment of a NippurianLiturgy, Babylo- niaca III241-249 and a fragment ibid., 79-80, a duplicate of RADAU, Mliscel. No. 6. 3. FRANQO1S THUREAU-DANGIN, Nouvelles Fouilles de Tello, Chapter IV, AO.4327, 4328,4329,4330,4331,4334,4336 and several small fragments, one with a library note, .... us-ri-su ba-ba-sa-e-sa, 4316. 4. ZIMMERN, Sumerische Kultlieder; Fragmentsd'Hymnes a Samas, Babyloniaca III 74-78 (v. ZIM. No. 73). 5. SCHEIL, Revue d'Assyriologie VIII 161-169, duplicate of ZIM. 2 1 1-11121. SCHEIL'S, text is of an earlier period than ZIM. no. 2 and probably belonged originally to the collection sold to the British Museum from some collection pillaged from Nippur and published in Cuneiform Texts XV 7-30. - VI - three texts probably come from the earlier excavations of Nippurl. I venture to assign those texts, which have found their way to the Royal Scottish Museum ', to the same source as those published by PROFEssoR ZIMMlERN. It is perhaps possible on the basis of the numerous texts and critical editions which we now possess to write a preliminary history of Babylonian public worship. In this department of their religious literature the Semites adhered, even more closely than in their services for private penance and magic rituals, to the ancient Sumerian literary forms and especially to the Sumerian lang'uage. In the awhole range of Sumero-Babylonian public worship extending from the era of Sargon of Akkad, (2800 BC. :) to the first century BC., we have no Semitic text which is known to have been chanted in the temples. Most of them have not even an interlinear Semitic translation.This custom of regularly supplying the temple liturgies with an interlinear version must have arisen after the period of the first Babylonian dynasty (2232- 1929), for none of the texts before or during this period show much tendency in this direction. Sporadic attempts of this kind are found in Nippur texts from the age of the Isin dynasty ", and we know from other sources that attempts were beingr made in that period to teach Sumerian by drawing up selections of standard texts supplied with a Semitic translation placed opposite on the right, not under the lile as in connected religious texts -. It is impossible to determine the exact period in which the scribes felt compelled to supply the liturgies with a version in the vernacular. Perhaps the Assyrian scribes who copied these texts in the Babylonian temples for use in Assyria, themselves took the initiative in this matter. We may not, however, be far from the truth in suggesting that the Babylonlans of the Cassite period first began editing their long liturgies with a Semitic interlinear version, and 1. Nos. 195-7. lymnns toNlergal (195)and Innini(196) anda longliturgy to Nintud of Kes (197). The prism No. 197 has been kept in the possession of a Constantinople dealer for twenty years. 2. Nos. 1-8ter; with the exception of No. 8, a fragment from the ,4sirbanipal library. 3. This is the accepted date, but Nabonidus places Sargon at 3800 BC., and this date is by no means disproved. In my discussion I accept provisionally the low dates for the early history of Sumer and Accad, but I am by no means convinced of their accuracy before the dynasty of Ur-Engur (2475 BC.). 4. An unpublished text in Constantinople has a long section in which the Semitic translation is inserted between the Sumerian lines in a hand so minute that decipher- ing is difficult. No space is reserved for the translation as in the late Assyrian texts. 5. MYHRMAN, op. cit. No. 11. But AO. 4332, NFT. p. 212 appears to be a real interlinear bilingual, certainly older than MYHRMIAN 11. - VI I we shall find reason to assume that about this time the great public services achieved their final form. In tracing the evolution of their public worship I shall assume the following approximate dates for the various periods; 1) Akkadian Sargonic Era 2900-2700. 2) Gudea 2650 followed by the dynasty of Gutium. 3) Dynasty of Ur 2475-2358. 4) Dynasty of Isin 2358-2133. 5) First Babylonian Dynasty 2232-1929. 6) Cassite Period 1763-1180. 7) Middle Period 1180-625. 8) Neo-Babylonian Empire 625- 539. Liturgical services originated among the Sumerians. Although we have no texts kalu of this kind from the pre-Sargonic period yet we meet here with the technical aalka= lW psalmist name for the ( psalmist ,, who always officiated at these services i. A passage in a royal inscription of the early period inclines us to infer that the psalmists (gala) were employed to chant at funerals 2 where they played upon a balag or lyre 3. The Sumerian word gala also denotes an ordinary attendant when 1. US-KU, Semitic kalu, v. SBP. VIII; DP. 132 VI 1, the grand kalu of Nina(ki); TSA. 2 rev. I 9, of Girsu; DP. 87 II 6, the little kalui. According to a syllabar, HROZNi, ZA. 19,368, the Sumerian for this ideogram is gala in which case the word is -connected with the word kal, loan-word Ialllu, malestebdant. Cf.:-la-ku .sl , I' thy mighty servant", VAB. IV 360,32. The pronunciation .ala is confirmed by K. 3228, cited by BEZOLD in ZA. 15,423, US-KU-mahZ == gal-ma-hu. The Semitic kali translates this and a large number of other Sumerian words for psalmist. The gala of Shirpula is distinguished from the gala dingira or " psalmist -of god ", VAB.I 52, 27 and 30. See GENOUILLAC TSA.LIX. But another fragment published by KING in ZA. 25,302 has [....]-ga-al; KIN; suggests gaggal. In any -case the Sumerian word gala represents an appocopated form. Cf. also ZA. 27,236. 2. VAB.I 50 X 22-30. 3. Gudea, St. B, V3. I am inclined to translate halag by "lyre ', owing to the shape of the ancient ideogram and the Amharic. bagana, lyre with ten strings; the -Syriacpelagga " drum ", appears to be derived from this word (See Sum. Grain. 20). HEUZEY in the Revue d'Assyriologie; 9, 88 ff. has shown that the drum and the lyre are the two most important musicaI instruments of primitive music and he has .given several has-reliefs showing the drum and the lyre carried in a procession by psalmists. In some mysterious way the names became confused and balag then came to mean drum or tambourine, the niost popular of all instruments. I am unable to determine the period in which this confusion arose; balag is proven to mean "lyre by the fact that its voice was said to be like a bull, SBH. 92 a 18, Gud. Cyl. 28,17, -and a bas-relief of a lyre has a bull upon its frame, RA. 9,89. - VIII - written with another ideogram I so that we infer that these temple singers were not consecrated priests, at least not in the early period. But the ideogram first employed to designate " psalmist " probably describes him as a man in the temple service who chants songs to appease the gods. In fact we shall find that public temple services originated from the desire to pacify the gods whose anger manifests itself in causing all human woes. In the evolution of these services certain mournful refrains recur, among them especially the words addressed to the gods, "how long until thy heart is at rest? " A particularly mournful litany to Enlil has the line, The psalmist speaks no more ' how long until thy heart'? " The psalmist is departed with sighings "' . And another passage describes in even more sad lines some national calamity: - Oh temple thy skilled singer 3 is not present, thy fate who decrees? The psalmist who knows the song is not present, thy fate on the drum he chants not. He that knows to twang the lyre is not present, thy fate he sings not" '. Although the lyre balaggu, is the most prominent of the psalmist's instruments yet the drum and tambourine are equally ancient -, and the flute, if not primitive, in any case is very ancient.