Myths & Legends of Babylonia & Assyria
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5SSS»?S^..--v.-;.- r. ' MMTHS DF ' , E^R.ML^NIA aMc^ /^SSMRIA D !fl| m ' '.•V M-j ". '-•;i>-'-./;VJ-l' LEWIS SPENGE l^/" PRINCETON. N.J. ^ Purchased by the Mary Cheves Dulles Fund. Di'viston "fiLlfcZO MYTHS &? LEGENDS OF BABYLONIA &f ASSYRIA Sacrificing to Bel Fr. Evelyn Paul MYTHS & LEGENDS OF BABYLONIA & ASSYRIA LEWIS SPENCE F.R.A.I. AUTHOR OF " THE MYTHS OF MEXICO AND PERU LIZATION OF ANCIENT MEXICO " " THE POPOL VUH OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS" "the myths " " MYTHS AND LEGENDS OF ANCIENT EGYPT ETC. WITH EIGHT PLATES IN COLOUR BY EVELYN PAUL AND THIRTY-TWO OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS NEW YORK FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY PUBLISHERS AT THB BALLANTTNE PliE.^S rrONTED BY SPOTTISVVOODE, KALLANTYNE AI-JP CO. LTD. COLCHESTER, LO^fDON AND ETON, ENaLA^'D PREFACE purpose of this book is to provide not THEonly a popular account of the religion and mythology of ancient Babylonia and Assyria, but to extract and present to the reader the treasures of romance latent in the subject, the peculiar richness of which has been recognized since the early days of archaeological effort in Chaldea. Unfortunately, with few exceptions, writers who have made the field a special study have rarely been able to triumph over the limitations which so often obtrude in works of scholarship and research. It is true that the pages of Rawlinson, Smith, Layard, and Sayce are enlivened at intervals with pictures of Assyrian splendour and Babylonian glory—gleams which escape as the curtains which veil the wondrous past are partially lifted—but such glimpses are only interludes in lengthy disquisitions which too often must be tedious for the general reader. It was such a consideration which prompted the preparation of this volume. Might not a book be written which should contain the pure gold of Babylonian romance freed from the darker ore of antiquarian research ? So far, so good. But gold in the pure state is notoriously unserviceable, and an alloy which renders it of greater utility may detract nothing from its brilliance. Romance or no romance, in these days it will not do to furnish stories of the gods without attempting some definition of their nature and origin. For more than ever before romance and knowledge are a necessary blend in the making of a satisfactory book on mythology. Nevertheless, it is anticipated that it will be to the modern reader who loves the romance of antiquity that 5 MYTHS OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA this book will especially appeal. It is claimed that the greater part of Chaldean romance clusters around the wonderful mythology and religion of that land ; it is therefore of these departments of Chaldean lore that this volume chiefly treats. But the history of Babylonia and Assyria has not been neglected. The great names in its records will be found to recur constantly in these pages, in most instances accom- panied by a tale or legend which will illuminate the circumstances of their careers and serve to retain these in the mind of the reader. Nor has the Biblical connexion with Chaldea been forgotten ; the reader will find as he proceeds frequent references to the pages of the most picturesque Book in the world. L. S. 1 CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA IN HISTORY AND LEGEND II II. BABYLONIAN COSMOGONY 70 III. EARLY BABYLONIAN RELIGION 88 IV. THE GILGAMESH EPIC 154 V^ V. THE LATER PANTHEON OF BABYLONIA 1 84 VI. THE GREAT GOD MERODACH AND HIS CULT 199 VII. THE PANTHEON OF ASSYRIA 203 VIII. BABYLONIAN STAR-WORSHIP 231 --"" IX. THE PRIESTHOOD, CULT, AND TEMPLES 239 X. THE MAGIC AND DEMONOLOGY OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 257 XL THE MYTHOLOGICAL MONSTERS AND ANIMALS OF CHALDEA 289 XII. TALES OF THE BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN KINGS 299 XIII. THE COMPARATIVE VALUE OF THE BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN RELIGIONS 313 XIV. MODERN EXCAVATION IN BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 339 XV. THE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS 377 GLOSSARY AND INDEX 38 A 3 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Sacrificing to Bel {Evelyn Paul) Frontispiece Assault on a City i6 Basalt Stele engraved with the Text of Ivhammurabi's Code of Laws 20 Sennacherib receiving Tribute 30 The Death of Sardanapalus (L. Chalon) 32 The Library of King Assur-bani-pal at Nineveh {Fernand L. Quesne) 36 Daniel interprets the Dream of Nebuchadrezzar {Evelyn Paul) 38 Grant of Privileges to Ritti-Marduk by Nebuchadrezzar I 40 Birs Nimrud, the Tower of Babel 48 The Murder of Setapo {Evelyn Paul) 58 The Seven Tablets of Creation 70 " Mighty was he to look upon " {Evelyn Paul) 76 Conflict between Merodach and Tiawath 80 Types of En-lil, the Chief God of Nippur, and of his Consort Nin-lil 94 Ishtar, as (i) Mother-goddess, (2) Goddess of War, (3) Goddess of Love 124 The Mother-goddess Ishtar {Evelyn Paul) 136 Assyrian Rock Sculpture 148 Assyrian Type of Gilgamesh 162 Ut-Napishtim makes Offering to the Gods {Allan Stewart) 176 Nebo 184 Hall in Assyrian Palace {Sir Henry Layard) 196 Tiglath-Pileser I directed by Ninib {Evelyn Paul) 216 9 MYTHS OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA PAGE Assur-nazir-pal attended by a Winged Mythological Being 222 Zikkurats of the Anu-Adad at Ashur 242 Stage-tower at Samarra 242 Excavated Ruins of the Temple of E-Sagila 250 Exorcising Demons of Disease 262 Clay Object resembling a Sheep's Liver 282 Eagle-headed Mythological Being 296 Capture of Sarrapanu by Tiglath-Pileser II {Evelyn Paul) 300 The Fatal Eclipse {M. Dovaston, R.B.A.) 306 Shalmaneser I pouring out the Dust of a Conquered City {Ambrose Dudley) 308 The Marriage Market {Edwin Long, R.A.) 310 A Royal Hunt 318 Elijah prevailing over the Priests of Baal {Evelyn Paul) 326 The ' Black Obelisk ' of Shalmaneser II 342 Outline of the Mounds at Nimrud {Sir Henry Layard) 346 The Palaces of Nimrud {James Ferguson) 348 Work of the Excavators in Babylon 354 Ruins of Babylon 366 The Hanging Gardens of Babylon {M. Dovaston, R.B.A .) 370 10 — CHAPTER I : BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA IN HISTORY AND LEGEND ^0 our fathers until well-nigh a century ago Babylon was no more than a mighty name T_ a gigantic skeleton whose ribs protruded here and there from the sands of Syria in colossal ruin of tower and temple. But now the grey shroud which hid from view the remains of the glow and glitter of her ancient splendour has to some extent been withdrawn, and through the labours of a band of scholars and explorers whose lives and work must be classed as among the most romantic passages in the history of human effort we are now enabled to view the wondrous panorama of human civilization as it evolved in the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates. The name ' Babylon ' carries with it the sound of a deep, mysterious spell, such a conjuration as might be uttered in the recesses of secret temples. It awakens a thousand echoes in the imagination. It holds a music richer than that of Egypt. Babylon, Babylon—the sonorous charm of the word is as a line from some great epic. It falls on the ear of the historian like distant thunder. Behind the grandeur of Rome and the beauty of Greece it looms as a great and thick darkness over which flash at intervals streams of uncertain light as half-forgotten kings and priests, conquerors and tyrants, demi- gods and mighty builders pass through the gloom from obscurity to obscurity—sometimes in the full glare of historical recognition, but more often in the half-light and partially relieved dusk of uncertainty. Other shapes, again, move like ghosts in complete II MYTHS OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA and utter darkness, and these are by far the most numerous of all. But the spirit of Babylon is no soft and alluring thing eloquent of Oriental wonders or charged with the delicious fascination of the East. Rather is it a thing stark and strong, informed with fate and epical in its intense recognition of destiny. In Babylonian history there are but two figures of moment—the soldier and the priest. We are dealing with a race austere and stern, a race of rigorous religious devotees and conquerors, the Romans of the East—but not an unimaginative race, for the Babylonians and Assyrians came of that stock which gave to the world its greatest religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Mohammedanism, a race not without the sense of mystery and science, for Babylon was the mother of astrology and magic, and established the beginnings of the study of the stars ; and, lastly, of commerce, for the first true financial operations and the first houses of exchange were founded in the shadows of her temples and palaces. The boundaries of the land where the races of Babylonia and Assyria evolved one of the most remarkable and original civilizations in the world's history are the two mighty rivers of Western Asia, the Tigris and Euphrates, Assyria being identical with the more northerly and mountainous portion, and Babylonia with the southerly part, which in- clined to be flat and marshy. Both tracts of country were inhabited by people of the same race, save that the Assyrians had acquired the characteristics of a population dwelling in a hilly country and had become to some extent intermingled with Hittite and Amorite elements. But both were branches 12 THE AKKADIANS of an ancient Semitic stock, the epoch of whose entrance into the land it is impossible to fix. In the oldest inscriptions discovered we find those Semitic immigrants at strife with the indigen- ous people of the country, the Akkadians, with whom they were subsequently to mingle and whose beliefs and magical and occult conceptions especi- ally they were afterward to incorporate with their own.