The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria Part 70

[1166] See Sara Y. Stevenson, "On Certain Symbols used in the Decoration of Some Potsherds from Daphne and Naukratis" (Philadelphia, 1892), p. 8.

[1167] See above, p. 83.

[1168] 'Eating' appears to be a metaphor for destruction in general.

[1169] The portals (?).

[1170] Jensen, _Kosmologie_, pp. 173 _seq_.

[1171] Here used as an epithet of the nether world. See above, p. 563.

[1172] Or 'palace.' The lower world, it will be recalled, is pictured as a house or a country. Here the two terms are combined. See Delitzsch, _a.s.syr. Worterbuch_, p. 341.

[1173] The phrases used are the ordinary terms of greeting. See, _e.g._, VR. 65, 17b.

[1174] Gibil-Nusku may be meant. See the hymn, p. 278. Pap-sukal is a t.i.tle of Nabu (p. 130), but also of other G.o.ds.

[1175] Lit., 'liver.'

[1176] For the translation of these lines see Jensen, _Kosmologie_, p.

233.

[1177] See above, p. 441.

[1178] So Jeremias' _Vorstellungen_, etc.; see p. 39. _Zikutu_ from the same stem means a 'drinking bowl.'

[1179] A biting of the lips is elsewhere introduced as a figure. See the author's monograph, "A Fragment of the Babylonian Dibbarra Epic," p. 14.

[1180] See Delitzsch, _a.s.syr. Worterbuch_, p. 341.

[1181] So far as the domestic animals are concerned, it is true that they throw off their young in the spring. The reference to a similar interruption in the case of mankind (see above, p. 571) may embody the recollection of a period when a regular pairing season and breeding time existed among mankind. See Westermarck, _The History of Human Marriage_, pp. 27 _seq._

[1182] Allatu.

[1183] _I.e._, of the dead person.

[1184] Ishtar.

[1185] See p. 475.

[1186] _Vorstellungen_, pp. 6-8.

[1187] Some instrument is mentioned.

[1188] IVR. 30, no. 3, obverse 23-35.

[1189] The word is explained by a gloss, 'Shamash has made him great.'

[1190] _I.e._, the month in which one dies.

[1191] See p. 175.

[1192] See pp. 505, 506.

[1193] _Vorstellungen_, p. 81.

[1194] Psalms, vi. 6.

[1195] _L'Enfer a.s.syrien_ (_Revue Archaeologique_, 1879, pp. 337-349).

See also Perrot and Chiplez, _History of Art in Chaldaea and a.s.syria_, I. 349 _seq._

[1196] Described by Sch.e.l.l in the _Recucil de Travaux_, etc., xx. nos. 1 and 2. Sch.e.l.l regards the Zurghul duplicate as older than the other.

[1197] Only four on the Zurghul duplicate.

[1198] For the interpretation of these symbols, see Luschan, _Ausgrabungen in Sendschirli_, pp. 17-27, and Scheil's article. On the Zurghul tablet there are eight symbols, while the other contains nine.

[1199] See pp. 263, 264. A text IVR. 5, col. i. compares each of the seven spirits to some animal. On the duplicate six demons are placed in the second division and the seventh in the third.

[1200] On the duplicate those two demons do not occur.

[1201] Sch.e.l.l thinks that the face is that of a dog.

[1202] On the Zurghul duplicate the horse is not pictured.

[1203] See p. 529.

[1204] This division is not marked in the duplicate from Zurghul.

[1205] Not occurring on the duplicate.

[1206] Scheil questions whether the divisions have this purpose. While perhaps not much stress is laid by the artist upon this symbolism, its existence can hardly be questioned. Note the five divisions of the universe in Smith's _Miscellaneous Texts_, p. 16. The water certainly represents the Apsu. Allatu rests upon the bark. We do not find among the Babylonians (as Scheil supposes) the view that the dead are conveyed across a sheet of water to the nether world. The dead are buried, and by virtue of this fact enter Aralu, which is in the earth. Egyptian influence is possible, but unlikely.

[1207] IVR. 26, no. 1.

[1208] _I.e._, the nether world.

[1209] IVR. 30, no. 1; obverse 5, 14.

[1210] See Jensen's valuable articles, "The Queen in the Babylonian Hades and her Consort," in the _Sunday School Times_, March 13 and 20, 1897. The text is published, Winckler and Abel, _Der Thontafelfund von El-Amarna,_ iii. 164, 165.

[1211] Written phonetically _e-ri-ish_. The word is entered as a synonym of _sharratum_, 'queen,' VR. 28, no. 2; obverse 31. This phonetic writing furnishes the reading for _Nin_ in Nin-Klgal.

[1212] See pp. 418, 419.

[1213] See p. 428.

[1214] See below, p. 588 _seq._