The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria Part 12

Alongside of wine, oil, wheat, sheep, etc., offered to Bau, Nin-gish-zida, and Shul-pa-uddu, the great kings and _patesis_ of the past are honored. More than this, sanctuaries sacred to these rulers are erected, and in other respects they are placed on a footing of equality with the great G.o.ds of the period. Pa.s.sing on to the lists and the legal doc.u.ments of the second period,[189] we may note that the G.o.ds in whose name the oath is taken are chiefly Marduk, Shamash,[190] a, Ramman, and Sin. Generally two or three are mentioned, and often the name of the reigning king is added to lend further solemnity to the oath. Other G.o.ds directly introduced are Nana, Ishtar, Nebo, Tashmitum, and Sarpanitum, after whom the years are at times designated, probably in consequence of some special honors accorded to the G.o.ds. The standing phrase is 'the year of the throne,' or simply 'the year' of such and such a deity.

Nin-mar appears in the days of Hammurabi as the daughter of Marduk.

Among G.o.ds appearing for the first time are Khusha[191], Nun-gal, and Zamama. Mentioned in connection with the gates of the temple where the judges held court, the a.s.sociation of Khusha with Marduk, Shamash, Sin, and Nin-mar points to a considerable degree of prominence enjoyed by this deity. Of his nature and origin, however, we know nothing. Nun-gal signifies the 'great chief.' His temple stood in Sippar,[192] and from this we may conclude that he was one of the minor G.o.ds of the place whose original significance becomes obscured by the side of the all-powerful patron of Sippar--the sun-G.o.d. A syllabary describes the G.o.d as a 'raging' deity, a description that suggests solar functions.

Nun-gal appears, therefore, to be the ideograph proper to a deity that symbolized, like Nergal, Ninib, and a, some phase of the sun. The disappearance of the G.o.d would thus be naturally accounted for, in view of the tendency that we have found characteristic of the religion, whereby powerful G.o.ds absorb the functions of weaker ones whose attributes resemble their own. But while the G.o.d disappears, the name survives. Nun-gal with the plural sign attached becomes a collective designation for a group of powerful demons.[193] In this survival and use of the name we have an interesting example of the manner in which, by a species of differentiation, local G.o.ds, unable to maintain themselves by the side of more powerful rivals, sink to the lower grade of demons, either beneficent or noxious. In this grade, too, distinctions are made, as will be pointed out at the proper place. There is a 'pantheon' of demons as well as of G.o.ds in the Babylonian theology.

Nun-gal accordingly recovers some of his lost dignity by becoming an exceptionally powerful demon--so powerful as to confer his name upon an entire cla.s.s. The G.o.d Zamama appears in connection with a date attached to a legal doc.u.ment of the days of Hammurabi. The building of a sanctuary in honor of this deity and his consort was of sufficient importance to make the year known by this event. Zamama is occasionally mentioned in the religious hymns. He belongs to the deities that form a kind of court around Marduk. From syllabaries, we learn that he was a form of the sun-G.o.d, worshipped in the city of Kish in northern Babylonia, and it also appears that he was identified at one period with Ninib. The temple to Zamama--perhaps only a shrine--stood in the city of Kish, which was remodeled by Hammurabi. The shrine, or temple, bore the significant name 'house of the warrior's glory.' The warrior is of course the G.o.d, and the name accordingly shows clearly the character of the G.o.d in whose honor the sanctuary was built. Elsewhere, he is explicitly called a 'G.o.d of battle.' a.s.sociated with Zamama of Kish was his consort, who, however, is merely termed again in a general way, 'Ninni,' _i.e._, 'the lady.' In the case of such a deity as Zamama, it is evident that the absence of the name in historical texts is accidental, and that we may expect to come across it with the increase of historical material. In the proper names, all of the prominent deities discussed in this and the previous chapters are found, though with some notable exceptions. Anu, _e.g._, is not met with as an element in proper names, but among those occurring may be mentioned Shamash, a, Ishtar, Ramman (also under the forms Im-me-ru and Mar-tu), Marduk, sometimes called Sag-ila after his temple in Babylon, Nabu, Ishum, Shala, Bau, Nin-ib, Nin-girsu, Sin, Bunene, Annuit, and Ea. Among G.o.ds appearing for the first time in connection with the names, it is sufficient to record a G.o.ddess Shubula, who from other sources[194] we know was the local patron of the city Shumdula, a G.o.ddess Bashtum,[195]

a G.o.ddess Mamu (a form of Gula), Am-na-na, Lugal-ki-mu-na, E-la-li (perhaps an epithet for the fire-G.o.d Gibil), Ul-mash-shi-tum, and a serpent G.o.d Sir. Most of these may be safely put down as of purely local origin and jurisdiction, and it is hardly likely that any of them embody an idea not already covered by those which we have discussed. From the lists of G.o.ds prepared by the Babylonian scholars, it is clear that the number of local deities whose names at least survived to a late period was exceedingly large, ranging in the thousands; and since, as seems likely, these lists were prepared (as so much of the lexicographical literature) on the basis of the temple lists and of the commercial and legal doc.u.ments, we may conclude that all, or at any rate most, of these deities were in use as elements in proper names, without, however, having much importance beyond this incorporation.

FOOTNOTES:

[183] The museums of Europe and America have secured a large proportion of these through purchase.

[184] The longer names consist of three elements: subject, verb, and object. The deity is generally the subject; _e.g._, Sinacherib=Sin-akhe-irba, _i.e._, may the G.o.d Sin increase the brothers.

But there are many variations. So the imperative of the verb is often used, and in that case, the deity is in the vocative case. Instead of three elements, there are frequently only two, a deity and a participle or an adjective; _e.g._, Sin-magir, _i.e._, Sin is favorable, or a person is called 'the son' or 'the servant' of a G.o.d. The name of the deity alone may also const.i.tute a proper name; and many names of course do not contain the mention of a deity at all, though such names are often abbreviations from longer ones in which some G.o.d was introduced.

[185] Jensen, _Kosmologie_, p. 458.

[186] Arnold, _Ancient Babylonian Temple Records_, p. 5, is of the opinion that Id-nik-mar-tu is also a designation of Ramman. His view is plausible, but it still remains to be proved.

[187] Scheil, "Le Culte de Gudea sous le II^e Dynastie d'Ur" (_Recueil des Travaux, etc._ xviii. 64-74). W. R. Arnold, _Ancient Babylonian Temple Records_ (New York, 1896). The Telloh tablets appear to be largely lists of offerings made to the temples at Lagash, and temple accounts. (See now Reisner, Tempelurkunden aus Telloh (Berlin, 1901).)

[188] See besides Scheil's article (above), Lehmann's note, _Zeits. fur a.s.syr._ x. 381.

[189] Our knowledge of the doc.u.ments of this period is due chiefly to Stra.s.smaier and Meissner.

[190] At times under rather curious forms, _e.g._, Shush-sha; Stra.s.smaier, Warka, no. 30, l. 21. The form Sha-ash-sha also occurs in nos. 43 and 105 (_cf._ Meissner's note, _Beitrage zum Altbabylonischen Privatrecht_, p. 156).

[191] Meissner, no. 42. Also in a proper name, Khusha-ilu, _i.e._, 'Khusha is G.o.d.'

[192] Meissner, nos. 40 and 118.

[193] See chapter xi.

[194] IIR. 60, 18a. Pinches (_Journal Victoria Inst.i.tute_, xxviii. 36 reads Shu-gid-la; Hommel, _ib._ 36, Shu-sil-la).

[195] For this deity, see a paper by the writer, "The Element _Bosheth_ in Hebrew Proper Names," in the _Journal of Bibl. Liter._ xiii. 20-30.

CHAPTER X.

THE MINOR G.o.dS IN THE PERIOD OF HAMMURABI.

Coming back now to the historical texts and placing the minor deities together that occur in the inscriptions of Hammurabi and his successors down through the restoration of native rulers on the throne of Babylonia, we obtain the following list: Zakar, Lugal-mit-tu (?), Nin-dim-su, Ba-kad, Pap-u, Belit-ekalli, Shumalia, Shukamuna, Gula, Shir, Shubu, Belit of Akkad, Malik, Bunene, Nin-igi-nangar-bu, Gushgin-banda, Nin-kurra, Nin-zadim. In view of the limited amount of historical material at our disposal for the second period of Babylonian history, the list of course does not permit us to form a definite notion of the total number of minor G.o.ds that were still occasionally invoked by the side of the great G.o.ds. By comparison, however, with the pantheon so far as ascertained of the first period, the conclusion is justified that with the systematization of cults and beliefs characteristic of the Hammurabi, a marked tendency appears towards a reduction of the pantheon, a weeding out of the numerous local cults, their absorption by the larger ones, and the relegation of the minor G.o.ds of only local significance to a place among the spirits and demons of the Babylonian religion. Brief statements of these minor G.o.ds will suffice to indicate their general character. Of most of the G.o.ds in this list there is but little we know as yet beyond the name. Some of them will occur again in the a.s.syrian and Neo-Babylonian historical texts, others in the hymns and incantations; some are only found in the period we are considering, though with the material constantly increasing we must beware of drawing any conclusions from the fact of a single mention. 'Zakar,' signifying, probably, 'heroic,' appears to have been worshipped in Nippur, where a wall known as the 'wall of Zakar' was built by Samsu-iluna. From the fact that this wall was sacred to Nin-khar-sag or Belit, we may, perhaps, be permitted to conclude that 'Zakar' stood in close relationship to Bel and Belit of Nippur,--possibly a son,--or, at all events, belonged to the inner circle of deities worshipped in the old city sacred to the great Bel.

Another wall in Nippur was dedicated by this Samsu-iluna to a G.o.d whose name is provisionally read by Winckler, Lugal-mit-tu.[196] Lugal, signifying 'king,' is an element that enters as an ideograph in the composition of the names of several deities. Thus we have Lugal-edinna, 'king of the field,' which is the equivalent of Nergal, and again for the same G.o.d, the combination Lugal-gira, which is, as Jensen[197] has shown, 'raging king,' and a t.i.tle of Nergal in his character as the G.o.d of pestilence and war. Nin-dim-su, Ba-kad, Pap-u, Belit-ekalli, Shumalia, and Shukamuna occur at the close of the inscription of Melishikhu, among the G.o.ds asked to curse the transgressors of the royal decree.[198] That some of these are Ca.s.site deities imported into Babylonia, and whose position in the pantheon was therefore of a temporary character, there seems little reason to question. Ba-kad may, and Shumalia quite certainly does, belong to this cla.s.s. As for Shukamuna, the fact that Agumkakrimi, who places his t.i.tle, 'king of Ca.s.site land,' before that of Akkad and Babylon, opens his inscription with the declaration that he is the glorious offspring of Shukamuna, fixes the character of this G.o.d beyond all doubt; and Delitzsch has shown[199] that this G.o.d was regarded by the Babylonian schoolmen as the equivalent of their own Nergal. Shukamuna, accordingly, was the Ca.s.site G.o.d of war, who, like Nergal, symbolized the mid-day sun,--that is, the raging and destructive power. Shumalia is the consort of Shukamuna[200], and is invoked as the 'lady of the shining mountains.' Nin-dim-su is a t.i.tle of Ea, as the patron of arts. Belit-ekalli--_i.e._, Belit of the palace--appears as the consort of Ninib, the epithet 'ekalli' being added to specify what Belit is meant, and to avoid confusion with the consort of Bel. At the same time it must be confessed that the precise force of the qualification of 'Belit of the palace' (or temple) escapes us. Ninib's consort, as we know from other sources, was Gula.[201] This name is in some way connected with an a.s.syrian stem signifying 'great,'

and it is at least worthy of note that the word for palace is written by a species of punning etymology with two signs, e=house and gallu=large.

The question suggests itself whether the t.i.tle 'Belit-ekalli' may not have its rise in a further desire to play upon the G.o.ddess's name, just as her t.i.tle Kallat-Eshara (bride of Eshara, or earth) rests upon such a play. Such plays on names are characteristic of the Semites, and indeed in a measure are common to all ancient nations, to whom the name always meant much more than to us. Every _nomen_, as const.i.tuting the essence of an object, was always and above all an _omen_. It is, therefore, plausible to suppose that t.i.tles of the G.o.ds should have been chosen in part under the influence of this idea.[202] A further suggestion that I would like to offer is that 'ekallu,' as temple or palace (lit., large house), may be one of the numerous names of the nether world. A parallel would be furnished by Ekur, which signifies both 'temple' and 'earth,'[203] and is also one of the names of the gathering-place of the dead. Gula, being the G.o.ddess of the nether world who restores the dead to life, would be appropriately called 'the lady of the nether world.'

One should like to know more of Pap-u (the phonetic reading unknown), who is called the offspring of Eshara, and 'the lord of the boundary.'

Eshara, as Jensen has shown,[204] is a poetical name for earth. The G.o.d Ninib, in his capacity as a G.o.d of agriculture, is called the 'product of Eshara.'[205] Pap-u, therefore, must be a G.o.d somewhat of the same character--a conclusion which is borne out by the description given of him as the protector of the boundary. He is probably one of the numerous forms of boundary G.o.ds that are met with among all nations. That we do not encounter more in Babylonia is due to the decided tendency that has been noted towards a centralization of power in a limited number of deities. Instead of G.o.ds of boundaries, we have numerous demons and spirits in the case of the developed Babylonian religion, into whose hands the care of preserving the rights of owners to their lands is entrusted. Symbols of these spirits--serpents, unicorns, scorpions, and the like--are added on the monuments which were placed at the boundaries, and on which the terms were specified that justified the land tenure. To this cla.s.s of monuments the name of 'Kudurru,' or 'boundary' stones, was given by the Babylonians themselves. The inscription on which the name of Pap-u occurs belongs to this cla.s.s; and he is invoked, as already said, along with many other G.o.ds--in fact, with the whole or a goodly portion of the pantheon. It would seem, therefore, that we have in Pap-u a special boundary G.o.d who has survived in that role from a more primitive period of Babylonian culture. He occupies a place usually a.s.signed to the powerful demons who are regarded as the real owners of the soil.[206]

Perhaps the most interesting of the minor deities during this second period is

Gula.

As has just been stated, she is the consort of Ninib. She is not mentioned in any of the inscriptions of this period till we come to the days of Nebuchadnezzar I., who invokes her as the bride of Eshara,--_i.e._, of the earth.[207] We also meet with her name in that of several individuals, Balatsu-Gula[208] and Arad-Gula,[209] and we have seen that she is also known as _Damu_ and _Mamu_, or _Meme_. We have a proof, therefore, of her cult being firmly established at an early period of Babylonian history. Her role is that of a 'life-giver,'

in the widest sense of the word. She is called the 'great physician,'

who both preserves the body in health and who removes sickness and disease by the 'touch of her hand.' Gula is the one who leads the dead to a new life. She shares this power, however, with her husband Ninib.

Her power can be exerted for evil as well as for good. She is appealed to, to strike the enemy with blindness; she can bring on the very diseases that she is able to heal, and such is the stress laid upon these qualities that she is even addressed as the 'creator of mankind.'

But although it is the 'second' birth of mankind over which she presides, she does not belong to the cla.s.s of deities whose concern is with the dead rather than the living. The Babylonians, as we shall have occasion to point out, early engaged in speculations regarding the life after death, and, as a result, there was developed a special pantheon for the nether world. Gula occupies a rather unique place intermediate, as it were, between the G.o.ds of the living and the G.o.ds of the dead.

Of the other deities occurring in the inscription of this same Nebuchadnezzar I. it is sufficient to note that two, Shir and Shubu, are enumerated among the G.o.ds of Bit-Khabban. They were, therefore, local deities of some towns that never rose to sufficient importance to insure their patrons a permanent place in the Babylonian pantheon. 'Belit of Akkad,' whom Nebuchadnezzar invokes, is none other than the great Belit, the consort of Bel. 'Akkad' is here used for Babylonia, and the qualification is added to distinguish her from other 'ladies,' as, _e.g._, 'Belit-ekalli,' who, we have seen, was Gula.

Malik and Bunene.

Upon reaching so late a period as the days of Nabubaliddin (_c._ 850 B.C.), it becomes doubtful whether we are justified in including the additional deities occurring in his inscription among the Babylonian pantheon of the second period. The occurrence of some of these G.o.ds in the religious literature is a presumption in favor of regarding them as ancient creations, rather than due to later influences. Certainly this appears to be the case with Malik and Bunene, who, with Shamash, form a triad that const.i.tutes the chief object of worship in the great temple E-babbara at Sippar, to whose restored cult Nabubaliddin devotes himself. Both names, moreover, occur as parts of proper names in the age of Hammurabi. Malik--_i.e._, ruler--is one of the names frequently a.s.signed to Shamash, just as the G.o.d's consort was known as Malkatu, but for all that Malik is not the same as Shamash. Accompanying the inscription of Nabubaliddin is a design[210] representing the sun-G.o.d seated in his shrine. Before him on a table rests a wheel, and attached to the wheel are cords held by two figures, who are evidently directing the course of the wheel. These two figures are Malik and Bunene, a species of attendants, therefore, on the sun-G.o.d, who drive the fiery chariot that symbolized the great orb. Bunene, through a.s.sociation with Malik, becomes the latter's consort, and it is interesting to observe the extent to which the tendency of the Babylonian religion to conceive the G.o.ds in pairs goes. Bunene is not the only instance of an originally male deity becoming through various circ.u.mstances the female consort to another. Originally, Malik may have been a name under which the sun-G.o.d was worshipped at some place, for the conception that makes him the chariot-driver to Shamash appears to be late. The absorption by the greater sun-cults (at Sippar and Larsa more particularly) of the lesser ones leads to the complete transfer of the names of minor sun-deities to the great Shamash, but in some instances the minor deities continue to lead a shadowy existence in some role of service to the greater ones.

Nin-igi-nangar-bu, Gushgin-banda, Nin-kurra, and Nin-zadim.

We have seen that Ea, among other powers a.s.signed to him, was regarded as the G.o.d of fine arts,--in the first instance as the G.o.d of the smithy, because of the antiquity and importance of the smith's art, and then of art in general, including especially the production of great statues. In accordance with this conception, Nabubaliddin declares that it was through the wisdom of Ea that he succeeded in manufacturing the great image of Shamash that was set up by him in the temple at Sippar.

But in the days of Nabubaliddin the arts had been differentiated into various branches, and this differentiation was expressed by a.s.signing to each branch some patron G.o.d who presided over that section. In this way, the old belief that art comes to men from the G.o.ds survived, while at the same time it entered upon new phases.[211] Accordingly, Nabubaliddin a.s.signs several deities who act the part of a.s.sistants to Ea. The names of these deities point to their functions. Nin-igi-nangar-bu is the 'lord who presides over metal-workers'; Gushgin-banda, 'brilliant chief,' is evidently the patron of those skilled in the working of the bright metals; Nin-kurra, 'lord of mountain,' the patron of those that quarried the stones; while Nin-zadim is the patron of sculpture. Ea stands above these as a general overseer, but the four cla.s.ses of laborers symbolized by G.o.ds indicate the manner of artistic construction in the advanced state of Babylonian art, and of the various distinct professions to which this art gave birth. In a certain sense, of course, these four G.o.ds a.s.sociated with Ea belong to the Babylonian pantheon, but not in the same sense in which Ea, for example, or the other G.o.ds discussed in this chapter, belong to it. They cannot even be said to be G.o.ds of a minor order--they are hardly anything more than personifications of certain phenomena that have their source in the human intellect. In giving to these personified powers the determinative indicative of deity, the Babylonian schoolmen were not conscious of expressing anything more than their belief in the divine origin of the power and skill exercised by man. To represent such power as a G.o.d was the only way in which the personification could at all be effected under the conditions presented by Babylonian beliefs. When, therefore, we meet with such G.o.ds as Nin-zadim, 'lord of sculpture,' it is much the same as when in the Old Testament we are told that Tubal-cain was the 'father'

of those that work in metals, and where similarly other arts are traced back to a single source. 'Father' in Oriental hyperbole signifies 'source, originator, possessor, or patron,' and, indeed, includes all these ideas. The Hebrew writer, rising to a higher level of belief, conceives the arts to have originated through some single personage endowed with divine powers;[212] the Babylonian, incapable as yet of making this distinction, ascribes both the origin and execution of the art directly to a G.o.d. In this way, new deities were apparently created even at an advanced stage of the Babylonian religion, but deities that differed totally from those that are characteristic of the earlier periods. The differentiation of the arts, and the a.s.signment of a patron to each branch, reflect the thoughts and the aspirations of a later age.

These views must have arisen under an impulse to artistic creation that was called forth by unusual circ.u.mstances, and I venture to think that this impulse is to be traced to the influence of the a.s.syrian rulers, whose greatest ambition, next to military glory, was to leave behind them artistic monuments of themselves that might unfold to later ages a tale of greatness and of power. Sculpture and works in metal were two arts that flourished in a special degree in the days when a.s.syria was approaching the zenith of her glory. Nabubaliddin's reign falls within this period; and we must, therefore, look from this time on for traces of a.s.syrian influence in the culture, the art, and also to some extent in the religious beliefs of the southern district of Mesopotamia.

FOOTNOTES:

[196] The text is defective at the point where the G.o.d's name is mentioned. See _Keils Bibl._ 3, 1, p. 133. King reads, Lugal-diri-tu-gab.

[197] _Kosmologie_, pp. 481 _seq._

[198] Belser, _Beitrage zur a.s.syr._ ii. 203, col. vi.

[199] _Kossaer_, pp. 25-27.

[200] Delitzsch, _Kossaer_, p. 33.

[201] See above, p. 105.

[202] Examples of punning etymologies on names of G.o.ds are frequent. See Jensen's discussion of Nergal for examples of various plays upon the name of the G.o.d. _Kosmologie_, pp. 185 _seq._

[203] Jensen, _Kosmologie_, pp. 185 _seq._ and p. 218.

[204] _Kosmologie_, p. 195.

[205] Rawlinson, i. 29, 16.